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sun-spice · 6 months

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After all the events of the past day: being hijacked, the inexplicable crash, and absolutely everything to do with this 'Ben', Jango was at his wits' end. While the adult jetti was a good actor, his ad was not.

"I know you are hiding something from me." He demanded, breaking the tense silence that had smothered the cockpit. "Where are we? What planet was that?" A wiser man would probably shut up and not shoot the rescue, but Jango was not about to play ignorant to the glaring red flags for potentially a tenday stuck aboard this ship.

(Jango POV on Sithspawn!Obi-Wan drabble with some headcanons below.)

The preteen to Jango's left tensed with a scowl, he opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by his baji.

"Set. Please go to your bunk." He said with a jett'la mildness.

His ad whirled on him. "Master!" Jango stifled a twitch at that address.

"Please." 'Ben' repeated. Something unspoken passed between them, before 'Set' relented, storming out of the compartment with an angry huff to poorly conceal his nervousness.

Once the door to the cockpit closed, 'Ben' turned and gave Jango a stony look that made his hackles raise further. It was only the presence of the jett'ad--the padawan--outside, and Jango's own precarious transport situation that stayed his blaster.

"Bac aliik, gar haat'mando'ad, ni tion'serim?" The jetti demanded.

Jango startled, narrowing his eyes at the sudden switch from Basic. "Gar jorhaa mando'a." He growled. Where was a jetti that spoke his language and recognised his symbol during his last encounters with the jettise, he thought bitterly.

The jetti ignored his statement and continued in his oddly accented Mando'a. "I have heard that True Mandalorians have honour, so I will be true with you." Kalevala, an uncommon accent nowadays, but with hints of his foreign Coruscanti and... a slight Keldabe twang? "If you tell anyone of the coordinates of that planet, it will not end well for you."

"You're threatening me." Jango laid out bluntly. Ballsy of this jetti.

"I am stating a fact. It won't just be me that follows after you, in the case that happens". He spoke fluently but with the occasional phrasing that sounded off to a native speaker like Jango. He idly wondered how long he had been studying, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

"What was that planet?" He demanded once again.

The jetti pursed his lips and sighed through his nose. He was reluctant, but he already seemed to know that he could not get around this. "We're in the condemned space of the former Sith Empire right now. That planet is called Stewjon, but you might know of it as Halasar."

Jango stilled. Condemned Space was a relatively small region consisting mostly of abandoned Sith planets and their neighbourhoods. While the original no-fly-zones around death-traps like Moraband and Ziost weren't enforced anymore, not for centuries, they were still known to be treacherous. As the seat of the dar'jettise Empire's abominations, the entire area was an old minefield of traps, dark magics, scorged lands, and even bioweapons: pathogens and monsters alike. After the fall of the Empire and the Sith Space Exodus, the hyperspace beacons had been destroyed, and many debris and obstacles had been scattered to order to essentially baracade the region from the rest of known space. Of course that didn't stop the clandestine, the arrogant, and the desperate from attempting to navigate it using old starmaps, but everyone knew that one risked simply disappearing, and becoming yet another cautionary tale.

There was a reason that the dar'jettise were still infamous even a millennium after their extinction, those ancient demagolkase truly scorched everywhere they once walked.

While Condemned Space was a well-documented no-one's-land, Halasar was a myth. An ancient Sith outpost full of old labs and cursed ruins, absolutely infested by sithspawn abominations left to reproduce unchecked. It was clearly a myth, because if it had existed, it would have been glassed long ago.

Jango thought of the grass and the lichen of the mystery planet, the fresh rain, and laughed. He would buy that they were near, or possibly somewhere within Condemned Space, given the large patches of devastation and scarring on the various continents when viewed from orbit. But the jetti trying to sell him that the planet was Halasar? How gullible did he believe Jango to be? He would be offended, if the whole lie wasn't so ridiculous.

The jetti smiled ruefully, called out on his banthashit. "You don't believe me." Jango snorted and gave him an incredulous stare through his visor. 'Ben' must have sensed it through his force, because he had the gall to look ever so slightly amused. "Very well."

And then his form distorted.

Jango was emptying blaster charges on battle-hardened instinct before his rational mind could catch up, but it was useless. Pale pink Human skin hardened into deep crimson-brown chitin. Legs cracked and reformed, and creature's body elongated and sharpened. Spines, tail, teeth, claws. Were those mandables?!

His eyes roamed, cataloguing the threats the creature posed. He needed to get out of this enclosed space to have a fighting chance, and to preserve the ship's controls from damage. But outside the cockpit he potentially had a stubborn jett'ad to manhandle out of harm's way. Osik.

Jango was about to launch at the thing with a vibroblade before the creature held up a long fingered hand and an unseen force froze him in place.

Peace. No harm. Jango reeled. "Stay out of my kriffing head!"

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the creature collapsed in on itself, process reversing until the pale Human jetti stood before him once more. Jango strained against the magics, carefully regulating his breathing. A Clawdite? No, Clawdites weren't capable of such transformation.

His brain already had the answer for him, planted by the jetti's words. The insectoid exoskeleton and mandables, the mammalian teeth and tail, the crown of warped montrals, the long horns, (the jewellery? His brain whispered). The jetti had just mutated into a sithspawn and back again. Me'sik'ven.

The jetti(?) still looked amused. "While there are many wild rumours about my species, our shapeshifting abilities are, ironically, understated." He spoke again, still in Jango's native tongue. "I will let you go and explain if you agree not to stab me. I still wish to be narudar, if you are amenable."

"Fine." He gritted out, and the pressure slowly eased. He didn't sheave his blade, but gestured for Ben to continue.

Ben's face turned grim. "Stewjon is my homeplanet. During the time of Empire, the Sith used it as a base for their organic engineering. Their favourite subjects were the people they enslaved, and when the population became smaller, they stole from further to bolster it. Those people were my ancestors."

He let his words soak in before he continued. "The Sith enslaved both our bodies and our minds. To the point where we are remembered as monsters born from the corpses of sapient people. The perfect predator of ambush to invade and suppress worlds, able to change shape and hide within their prey.

However, the Sith are no longer, and those that the galaxy remember as sithspawn were able to fade into obscurity, to choose again, to heal, to be people again.

I don't wish to harm you, but I cannot let you endanger their security. I need your vow, haat, ijaat, haa'it, that you will not share this information."

Jango shook off the heaviness of his shoulders as the adrenaline come-down started to hit. He wasn't faced with a beast, he realised with some resignation, but a person with something, someone, to protect. Was the ad the same as him?

Fighting now seemed even less of an option. This day was so kriffed. "If my knowing this is so dangerous to your people, why am still alive?"

Ben hummed. "Honestly? The only reason I brought you with us is because the Force whispered so."

Mando'a sentences:

"Bac aliik, gar haat'mando'ad, ni tion'serim?" That symbol, you're a True Mandalorian, am I right?"

"Gar jorhaa mando'a." You speak Mando'a.

Vocabulary:

aliik - symbol (usually of allegiance)

ad - child

baji - teacher

dar'jettise - Sith plu.

demagolkase (plural of demagolka) - someone who commits atrocities, a real-life monster, a war criminal. From the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mandalorian psyche.

jetti - Jedi sing.

jettise - Jedi plu.

jett'la - Jedi adj. (e.g. "How very Jedi of you.")

jett'ad - Jedi child

haat, ijaat, haa'it - truth, honour, vision. Words said to seal a solemn pact.

me'sik'ven - what the shit

narudar - temporary allies

Hi! Thank you for reading all the way to the end of the post. This wee thing snuck up on me at midnight last night and I shockingly managed to finish it. I'm not a writer so this won't be going anyway, sorry! But if anyone wants to expand on it in any way, you have blanket permission and my eternal love and delight. Also I purposely wrote Obi-Wan less eloquently in this because he's speaking in Mando'a for most of it. If some of the phrasing was weird to you that's on purpose, because it's weird to Jango too. Obi-Wan is very good as Mando'a but not totally fluent/native.

Some worldbuilding rambling:

In this AU in my brain I've based Sithspawn!Stewjoni off of xenomorphs in the sense that that's how the galaxy views them. I do also love the idea of eusocial societies in worldbuilding. I tried to see if anyone had done anything for Geonosian worldbuilding but no dice :( In my headcanon Stewjoni don't actually have parasitic reproduction (if anyone does parasitic!Stewjoni though I would be excited and impressed) like people think they do, but they are eusocial apex predators who could theoretically reproduce quickly enough to be an invasive species. Of course they don't do that, because they collectively have a very long generational trauma around bodily and reproductive autonomy, and would never force a fertile member of the colony to bear children.

Obi-Wan in this was given to the Jedi by his colony (small at around a hundred members, and from a temperate island because I'm Scottish and must have some space-Scotland in this) because he was a strong enough force-sensitive that he was being negatively affected by the lingering darkness of the planet's Force presence, and his shapeshifting was enough that he was able to pass as non-Stewjoni (Human in his case). How does this work? Anything is possible with the Force is my excuse.

The Stewjoni have maintained an amicable relationship with the Jedi after the Order helped them get back on their feet once they were freed, and this is common practice. However, some force-sensitive Stewjoni children are not able to pass and thus are not able to spend extended periods off-planet around other sapients. The Jedi aid them where they can but they often become sickly in some way.

The disabled and elderly are usually well supported by their colonies and Stewjon's medical infrastructure. Some disabilities are widespread due to the Sith fucking up their bodies so much. No one even remembers what their ancestors were like before the Sith. Were they insectoid? Mammalian? Carnivores? Omnivores? A colony of another known species? There are some theories but that information has long been lost.

Stewjoni colonies in this can range from under a hundred to thousands. Megacolonies of hundreds of thousands to millions like the capital tend to be made up of lots of smaller colonies. Stewjoni!Scotland in this is has a few hundred different colonies. There are other regions with different biomes and different cultures as well. Stewjoni Jedi aren't numerous or structured enough to truly be a colony within themselves, but many consider their Jedi temple or Corps to be their colony. They are often also still considered 'outmembers' of their birth colony, and part of their regional culture and of course greater Stewjoni culture, but of course how connected they are varies between the individual person.

Body modifications of various forms are popular. Jewellery and decorations are also more common for everyone than not.

Anakin in my mind is also considered an outmember of Obi-Wan's birth colony as Obi-Wan's apprentice because that sparks joy. There's a generation of the colony around his age (around 10-ish kids) who essentially adopt him when Obi-Wan takes him to visit for the first time. They're absolutely smug and excited to have the cool Human Jedi kid as a sibling/cousin and laud it over everyone else. Obi-Wan's generation (the Wan generation) are less than impressed. Anakin may not have a crèche clan but he does have a bunch of Stewjoni kids who will holocall him on an encrypted line regularly to bug him for news and anecdotes about the rest of the galaxy.

Anyway that's all my rambling for now. I welcome comments and tags if anyone wants to throw stuff at the wall with me :)

#star wars #star wars prequels #sithspawn!stewjoni #sithspawn stewjoni #obi-wan kenobi #jango fett #anakin skywalker #spice rambles

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drmaqazi · 8 months

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JEWISH TERRORISM & GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN OCCUPIED HOLY LAND SINCE 1948, AND CONTINUING BY KILLING OF HELPLESS & INNOCENT CHILDREN, WOMEN, AND OLD PEOPLE UNDER THE EYES OF IMPOTENT WORLD LEADERS, GOD FORBID AMEN.

January 11, 2016, Israeli Author to Le Monde: ‘We Live Under an Apartheid Regime’

by Shlomo Papirblat, Haartez, 1/11/2016

January 17, 2016, Israeli settlers scrawl hate graffiti on Jerusalem church, Ma’an News Agency, 1/17/2016

“…the doors of the Dormition Abbey church were vandalized with threats scrawled in Hebrew that read: ‘Kill the Christians, the enemy of Israel’ and ‘The revenge is coming very soon,’ as well as ‘Send Christians to hell.’…In 2014, a suspected Israeli extremist lit a prayer book on fire in the abbey, in what police at the time said was a suspected arson attack just hours after Pope Francis held mass at a nearby Christian holy spot during a visit to the area.

“A year before that, Israeli extremists spray-painted ‘Jesus is a monkey’ in Hebrew outside the church, and ‘Havat Maon,’ the name of an illegal Israeli settler outpost that had been dismantled by the Israeli government just days before the attack, Israeli daily Haaretz reported at the time.

“In 2012, suspected extremists spray-painted ‘Jesus, son of a bitch,’ in Hebrew, with the words ‘price tag,’ a term used by Israeli extremists to mark nationalist-motivated hate crimes.

“Abu Nassar said in the past that the extremists responsible for the attacks were not prosecuted by the Israeli government in a ‘serious way.’

Dormition Abbey dates back to the 5th century, and is thought to be the place where the Virgin Mary died.

February 17, 2016, IDF soldiers electrocute blindfolded Palestinian for fun, laugh while filming (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

February 24, 2016, ‘Cruel, inhuman and degrading:’ Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees exposed by NGOs

March 24, 2016, B'Tselem volunteer Imad Abu Shamsiyeh documented Elor Azaria, a soldier, murdering Abd al-Fatah a-Sharif, a Palestinian who had carried out a knife attack and was lying wounded on the road after soldiers had shot him.

see also: https://twitter.com/Robert_Martin72/status/977853085757276160

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com,

March 28, 2016, Israeli Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef preaches that Gentiles have no place in “Israel” except as servants who observe the rabbis’ Noachide Laws.

“According to Jewish law, it’s forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noachide laws.”

“Who will be the servers? Who will be our assistants? Therefore, we leave them here in the land.”

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Says non-Jews Forbidden From Living in the Land of Israel, Haaretz, March 28, 2016

Chief rabbi: Non-Jews shouldn’t be allowed to live in Israel, Times of Israel, March 28, 2016

April 11, 2016, Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) destroyed 523 Palestinian homes and civilian structures in the West Bank since the start of 2016

May 22, 2016, New Israeli death penalty would apply to non-Jews only: Likud sourc

but is actually consistent with an old law from the Torah, Sanhedrin 57a:

July 12, 2016, IDF's chief rabbi-to-be Eyal Karim permits raping women in wartime

The rabbi gave a more shocking answer on the same site when asked if soldiers were permitted to rape women during war. Karim replied that, as part of maintaining fitness for the army and the soldiers' morale during fighting, it is permitted to “breach” the walls of modesty and “satisfy the evil inclination by lying with attractive Gentile women against their will, out of consideration for the difficulties faced by the soldiers and for overall success.

August 4, 2016, Israeli Border Police Bully 8-year old Palestinian Girl and “Confiscate” (steal) Her Bicycl

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com,

December 12, 2016, Lawyer of Israelis who beat to death black non-Jew for talking to white Jewesses claims they were trying to help him (use Google Translate) http://bit.ly/2hbrPDu

December 22, 2016, Israeli soldiers sentenced to three months

community service for killing unarmed Palestinian teen

“Two IDF soldiers shot Palestinian teenage Samir Awad from behind eight times in January 2013, killing him. Nearly four years and a string of investigative failures later, it looks unlikely that either of the accused will go to jail.”

December 27, 2016, Israeli forces killed 31 Palestinian youths in the occupied West Bank in 2016

“2016 has been deadliest year of the past decade for West Bank children, according to Defense for Children International–Palestine. In the past year Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCIP, says, ‘Intentional lethal force now appears to be routinely used by Israeli forces, even in unjustified situations, with no accountability, putting more and more children at risk.’”

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overthetopmountsllcnv · 2 years

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Fun things to do near Las Vegas, NV

Introduction

Las Vegas is a great place to visit, but it's not the only fun thing to do in Nevada! If you're looking for some places to explore outside of Sin City, here are three unique locations:

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam, on the border between Arizona and Nevada, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression. The damn impounds Lake Mead for flood control and water supply for Nevada, Arizona, and southern California. It can be seen from Las Vegas when you go to Hoover Dam by tour bus or helicopter ride or visit it by bike ride if you want to get extra experience!

Grand Canyon National Park

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile. The Grand Canyon is part of what used to be called "Desert View" on old maps, but today simply means "the area around Grand Canyon".

The most popular way to see it is via helicopter tour or mule ride or via one of three South Rim trails: Hermit Trail (6.9 miles), Bright Angel Trail (8 miles) and South Kaibab Trail (7 miles).

Charleston Preservation

Commission The Charleston Preservation Commission is a state agency established in 1966 by the South Carolina Legislature. Its mission is to "protect historic buildings and neighborhoods, promote historic preservation planning and education." Charleston is a historic city and the county seat of Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It lies on the Ashley River in the Lowcountry region of the state. The city lies just south of where the Cooper River meets the Ashley River to form Charleston Harbor on the Atlantic Ocean. Center The Charleston Preservation Center is a nonprofit, membership-supported organization that provides education and advocacy to the community in order to preserve its historic built environment. The center houses a large collection of books related to architecture, urban design, and preservation, as well as a variety of materials documenting the history of Charleston’s neighborhoods and buildings.

Charleston

Charleston is a city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, located on the Atlantic coast at the center of Charleston County. It is the county seat of Charleston County and a principal city in the Charleston-North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city proper had an estimated population of 132,769 in 2018. It is the county seat of Charleston County and the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city lies just north of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina’s coastline and has an estimated population of 134,309 within the city limits.

It is South Carolina's oldest and largest city because it was founded first as a colonial outpost in 1670 by English settlers led by Sir John Yeamans before they moved to Charles Towne (renamed Charleston) in 1680, where they continued to live until 1922 when it became part of Columbia's county seat.

Takeaway:

The takeaway is the main point of the article. It should be a single sentence, and it should state what you learned from reading it.

If you can't think of anything, here are some ideas:

I've never thought about doing my own grocery shopping before!

I never knew there were so many things to do in Las Vegas! It looks like it might live up to its name after all!

It's good to know there are places nearby where we could spend a day or two if we get bored with Vegas itself.

TV Mounting Service Las Vegas

If you want to install a TV mount, we can help with that! We also provide small appliance installation and even custom cabinetry if you need it. Over The Top Mounts LLC has some great ideas for things to do in Las Vegas. I never knew there were so many things to do! It looks like it might live up to its name after all! I'm glad we know about this place now because we'll have something else to do if we get bored with the casinos! I never knew there were so many things to do! It looks like it might live up to its name after all! I'm glad we know about this place now because we'll have something else to do if we get bored with the casinos!

Over The Top Mounts LLC

901 Woodbridge Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89108

(702)-884-2748

#tv wall mount installation #tv mounting #tv mounting service #tv mounting service las vegas #tv installation #home theater installation #tv wall mounting service

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (August 4/2021) - Unhealthy Competition

Ranboo and Wilbur visit Las Nevadas to talk with Quackity about their new business. They discover that Quackity’s hired a new employee for the competing restaurant.

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VOD LINKS:

Wilbur Soot

Tubbo

Captain Puffy

Michaelmcchill

Foolish

---

- Wilbur and Ranboo are in the Ranvan making burgers. They try them, and Wilbur says it’s the best burger he’s ever had, but they have to do even better

Wilbur: “We’re taking down an entire nation just out of this burger van, you know -- sorry, competing! Peacefully, with an entire nation, just out of this burger van.”

- Wilbur notices that Ranboo’s taken a side. Ranboo looked back after Wilbur’s talks about L’manburg, and he realized that he’s been involved in things, but he hasn’t really done anything

- Wilbur tells Ranboo he doesn’t have to build something to matter. It’s cool that he’s taking this direction, but he shouldn’t have to blow up walls just to make something

- Wilbur notices that Quackity is online and wants to see the fruits of their labor

- The two go into Las Nevadas with Quackity’s horse and Wilbur tries to get Quackity’s attention, spamming so much he gets kicked from the server. Quackity is nowhere to be seen

- Wilbur asks Ranboo a bit about the cookie outpost

- Quackity finally comes walking down the road to see them. Quackity tells them that’s not his horse

- Wilbur announces he’s been building a burger van. Quackity is amused that this is what he’s been doing all this time

- They give Quackity a burger to try. He’s not hungry

- Wilbur brings up Quackity’s restaurant and Quackity leads them over to show them. Wilbur and Ranboo left Quackity a bit of a gift. Quackity thanks them for the destruction, because he realized the non-tinted glass wasn’t as good. He even installed a fishtank full of salmon!

- Quackity even hired some new help!

Tubbo!

- This is his new job. Quackity and Tubbo had a little talk, and he found that Tubbo has aspirations in life and wanted to offer him a good job in Las Nevadas. He’s not just an employee -- he’s managing the restaurant, also making NFT Tubburgers!

- Tubbo sees it as healthy competition, good for the consumer. This is like L’manburg all over again, with Tubbo and Quackity leading together

May the best burgers win.

- Wilbur is allowed in Las Nevadas to try the burgers anytime he likes. After all, what kind of person would Quackity be if he didn’t allow someone into his country?

- Wilbur and Ranboo return to the van to talk with each other

Wilbur: “I feel alive, Ranboo! I feel alive! Someone’s looking at me and -- and talking to me! I’m alive, I’m alive! This is great!”

- Ranboo is still getting used to the competition. Wilbur doesn’t get why Ranboo would mind going up against Quackity and Tubbo

- Ranboo shows him over to the strip club with his secret hole in the floor. Wilbur suggests they build a tunnel underground, do some espionage

Wilbur: “We’re the good guys here, you know, we’re--”

Ranboo: “You sure?”

Wilbur: “Yeah, I mean, we haven’t done anything wrong, you know. We’re the good guys, and Quackity’s done a few things wrong.”

- They go back outside. In case of an emergency, when they’re head-to-head with Tubbo and Quackity, Wilbur needs to know they can save the innocent people in the city like Tubbo and Fundy

- Wilbur discusses a plan with Ranboo to rig the underground of the city with TNT connected up to a button. In most cases, it would never see the light of day

- Wilbur leaves Ranboo to the TNT

- Tubbo and Quackity talk in the restaurant. Quackity thinks Tubbo is the best choice of employee for the place, and Tubbo needed a new purpose

- Quackity doesn’t want to ruin the moment, but they have to discuss their brief conflict. They go over to the outpost

- Quackity asks what it was really for. Tubbo just wanted to see what everyone was up to. Quackity feels a little uneasy about it still

- Quackity suggests they integrate this land as a part of Las Nevadas. Tubbo is onboard with the idea, and Quackity wants to make it official with a document

- They go up to the top of the Needle to review the contract:

---

TUBBO COOKIE OUTPOST PROPERTY IS NOW PART OF LAS NEVADAS LAND AND IS UNDER ITS RULES AND CONSTITUION.

COORDS:

[TO BE INSERTED]

Signed: - Tubbo_

---

- Tubbo’s been missing L’manburg now that it’s the time of its anniversary, and he admires what Quackity’s done here

- Tubbo wants to scope out Wilbur and Ranboo’s burger shop alone. He leaves Quackity at the Needle

- Tubbo arrives at the Ranvan and Ranboo is there. Tubbo asks him why he trusts Wilbur. Ranboo doesn’t trust trust him yet

- Ranboo thinks that in thirteen years, Wilbur must have changed, and if he can redeem himself, Ranboo can be there to see it

- Tubbo understands, but he doesn’t want to put his life in Wilbur’s hands again. Ranboo asks if he’s okay with all this, and he says he is

- Foolish logs on

- Tubbo noticed that Ranboo hasn’t told Wilbur about the marriage. Ranboo heard enough about Wilbur of thirteen years ago using things against people, and so he doesn’t trust him enough yet to tell him. Ranboo avoids eye contact while they talk

- Ranboo asks how Tubbo managed to bury the hatchet with Quackity over the Festival. Tubbo thinks he was going to die that day no matter what happened anyway

- They talked a lot about L’manburg. L’manburg was amazing, and Ranboo’s only heard about the bad bits. They came to an agreement about the cookie outpost

- Ranboo learns that Tubbo gave up the cookie outpost to become property of Las Nevadas. Tubbo insists it’s not like that and he still owns it

- Ranboo changes the subject and goes to throw stale bread into the river. He tells Tubbo he’ll talk to him later and says goodbye

- Tubbo walks away on his own. Now he’ll come up with some good burger recipes

- He runs right into Quackity. Tubbo is late for work at the burger shop

- Quackity starts ranting

Quackity: “When Wilbur sees this, because I know he’s gonna be fuckin’ like, spying around, when Wilbur sees this shit? He’s gonna freak out, he’s gonna finally realize--”

Tubbo: “--Why do you care so much about what Wilbur's doing?”

Quackity: “--He’s an idiot, he’s an idiot for doing whatever it is he decided to do!”

- Quackity builds a Tubburger sign out front for the restaurant

- They go inside and Quackity wants Tubbo to try Wilbur’s burgers

- They do need competition at the end of the day. Tubbo meets Quackity in the kitchen to discuss his three-step program. They can use smokers to make smoked burgers. They need better grain supplies

- Quackity shows Tubbo the farms. They also need to clean the kitchen of gunk. Quackity had a friend living there for a while

- They return to the kitchen to come up with more burger names

- One of the salmon dies. They go silent for a moment, then Quackity eats it raw

- Tubbo shows Quackity the book on the lectern. Quackity is annoyed by it, assuming that it was written by Wilbur

- They mention the explosion. They’re going to be bigger and better, and they won’t resort to sabotage

- Quackity’s going to go up to his office for his lunch break, count his money, and then he’ll come back down and tell everyone to help with the farms

- Quackity leaves with stomach issues from the fish as Sam logs on

- Tubbo goes back to the kitchen to come up with recipes, happy to have a job

- Puffy goes back to the main area to work on the Pokemon center and discovers Foolish’s bamboo prank, cleaning it up

- She then works on building the Pokemon center

- Michael logs on for a birthday stream!

- Foolish logs on as well, aiming to expand the Las Nevadas highways some more

- Foolish meets up with Michael and drops him some Netherite ingots as a birthday present

- Foolish returns to Las Nevadas. He’s been thinking about how Quackity told him not to break Dream out, but he’s pondering coming up with something prepared as a backup anyways, as it’s always good to have other plans

- He keeps working on the highways

---

Upcoming Events:

- Wilbur’s 9 planned streams

- Egg Finale Stream [maybe soon...maybe...]

- Tales From the SMP: “Space Race”

- Ponk’s prequel stream

- Ponk’s current-day lore with Sam

- Puffy’s Lore Cast

- Sapnap’s lore

- Dream’s lore video

- Quackity’s casino opening

- Captain Puffy’s lore stream

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long post #long posts

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nightingaelic · 3 years

Note

I was reading your "Fallout 4 companions meet Arcade Gannon" reacts when I had an idea. FO4 companions reaction to visiting the Mojave Wasteland with the Sole Survivor.

"She was Boston, I was Vegas

She was Crêpes Suzette, I was pie

She was lectures, I was movies, but I loved her."

- Frank Sinatra, 1981, "I Loved Her"

Cait: "I've never been much of a gambler, but where there's gambling, there's usually a good time to be had."

While Cait finds the casinos of the Strip a little too ritzy for her liking, she rather enjoys the smaller, satellite venues: The Atomic Wrangler in Freeside, the Vikki and Vance casino in Primm, even the saloons in Goodsprings and the Mojave Outpost (the latter of which being where she foolishly engages in a drinking contest with Cass and happily gets her ass kicked). Her greatest enjoyment, however, comes upon discovery of the Thorn in Westside, with its arranged bouts between wasteland critters and the opportunity to go a round yourself if you're feeling lucky. Instead of the trapped horror she felt when the Combat Zone was taken over by raiders and she was forced to fight, Cait revels in the glory she reaps when choosing to face off against a fire gecko, a night stalker or a cazador with her trusty baseball bat. By the time the visit is over, she and Red Lucy have grown close, and the Thorn's mistress is going around openly calling Cait "my hunter."

Codsworth: "Ah, Las Vegas! Why, I can recall when you considered a quick getaway to this paradise just before young master Shaun's arrival. It appears we aren't too late, after all."

Codsworth is somewhat comforted by the lack of overt nuclear devastation in New Vegas, but that feeling wears off as soon as the first set of thugs in Freeside tries to corner him and the sole survivor and take their caps. Once the would-be muggers are laid out on the ground, Codsworth abandons his rose-colored glasses and puts his quippy, dismayed personality back on. Still, he loves the Strip, particularly the Ultra-Luxe with its refined guests, decor and hygienic practices, but he quickly sours on their hoity-toity attitudes. Instead, Codsworth turns to the presence of the NCR as a sign that civilization is creeping back into the wasteland. He's also tickled pink by the Kings and the Chairmen, but not the mobster-esque Omertas: They remind him too much of the pre-war mob activity in good old Boston.

Curie: "Excusez-moi, but what is that structure there? The tallest one, with the blinking lights."

Curie is thrilled to be out in the desert, observing the local populace and documenting their survival techniques, social structures and power struggles. She's fascinated with the area's history, and drags the sole survivor along to seek out the Mojave's most (in)famous individuals to record their stories for her research into post-war civilization. This lands her in quite a few questionable situations, but her general attitude of perseverance and wide-eyed wonder about the world open a lot of doors for her. She makes a lot of friends at the Old Mormon Fort among the Followers of the Apocalypse, though most of them assume her frustration about her own "biological reactions to extreme living conditions" is just her complaining about the heat like everyone else. Arcade's pretty sure she's a robot, though he's too polite to ask about it outright.

Danse: "We're close now, to the birthplace of the Brotherhood of Steel. This is an honor I never thought I'd experience."

Though it's boiling hot inside his power armor under the desert sun, Paladin Danse is overjoyed that he's accompanying the sole survivor on this journey into the cradle of the ideology that he's devoted to. He's heard about the Mojave from Brotherhood of Steel veterans, those who traveled with Elder Lyons when they initially came to the Capital Wasteland and those who accompanied Elder Maxson when he was just a Squire, and he keeps spouting off random trivia about the area. Any run-ins with disillusioned Scribe Veronica might leave him a bit put out, but it's overall a fun trip for him through a part of the continent that's a little less smashed to rubble than the rest of the world. He especially enjoys visiting the NCR and Brotherhood military outposts, if only to offer critiques and suggestions to any soldiers that give him the time of day.

Deacon: "Sheesh, visiting the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter, am I right?"

Deacon has been here before. Well, he doesn't actually say he's been here before, but he keeps dropping hints to the sole survivor that he's somehow on a return trip. He knows the legends of the Sierra Madre and the Blue Star treasures offhand, he has a whole conversation with the Securitrons guarding the Strip about what happened to Robert House, he even knows how to competently play Caravan. Every time the sole survivor asks him about how he knows so much, though, Deacon just grins and keeps chugging his Sunset Sarsaparilla. Obviously no one recognizes him by face, but he does have a setting-appropriate wardrobe along that includes NCR bandoleer armor, a coat-tailed tuxedo, top hat and White Glove Society mask, and a black leather jacket to go with his pompadour wig.

Dogmeat: [curiously sniffs everything]

Dogmeat can't figure out why this place is so dang dry, but he's on his best behavior for the sole survivor as they make their way over the dusty roads of the Mojave. He politely greets each other traveler on the roads, who keep asking his companion where they got "a non-cyber cyberdog." For the most part though, the trip is pretty in line with everywhere Dogmeat goes: Big rodents, big bugs, tired people and plenty of ruins to explore. Dogmeat's one outstanding adventure comes in the form of an attempted kidnapping by some of the Kings, who think their leader needs a new dog after Rex hit the road with some fool. The King doesn't take kindly to this, and graciously has the dog returned to his friend.

Hancock: "Oh, man, how does anyone live out here? I'm drying out, I feel like a radroach husk."

Hancock is having the time of his life in the Mojave, apart from constantly complaining about how he prefers the Commonwealth's weather. He's chummy with everyone, but especially with the ghouls he encounters. He buys Raul a bunch of drinks and asks him about his past, he suggests future career paths and hobbies for Calamity, and he is absolutely enchanted with Beatrix the dominatrix. He's also rowdy enough to attract the ire of nearly every casino in New Vegas: The White Glove Society seethes when the sole survivor points out that his Revolutionary War outfit technically meets the dress code, the Omertas howl when he starts encouraging the strippers and sex workers to band together and take over the casino, and the Vault 21 dwellers keep asking if he's liable to turn feral. The Chairmen, however, treat him as something of a novelty and gift him with a seersucker suit to go with his jaunty personality.

MacCready: "You know, I played cards with a guy from out here once. He tried to teach me a game called... what was it, Candyman? Kilogram?"

MacCready has the barest smattering of knowledge about the Mojave Wasteland, and he keeps injecting it into conversations no matter how inaccurate it is. He's fascinated with the sole survivor's recollections of what Vegas was like before the Great War, and his expectations are sky-high by the time they arrive on the city's outskirts. Those expectations are absolutely met once inside the Strip, even if the sole survivor's are let down. MacCready is just tickled by the existence of a city that is solely dedicated to parting you from your caps, and he settles into each new business for the express purpose of people-watching. He only tries gambling once, and immediately quits after he loses all of his pocket change.

Valentine: "Good old Las Vegas. Somehow, I'm not surprised it's still got a reputation as 'Sin City,' even this long after the bombs."

The Nick Valentine of old never visited Las Vegas, but he certainly knew about it well enough for the Nick Valentine of today to draw on those impressions. He's extra-wary about the city as a result, an attitude not helped by the many people staring at him because of his detective getup, jagged edges and golden eyes. Some people are polite enough to walk up and ask what he is: Others offer to buy him off the sole survivor directly, much to Nick's chagrin. When James Garret offers him a thousand caps for "one night of his services," Nick puts his foot down and starts glaring at everyone who so much as walks up to him and the sole survivor during their trip. The exceptions to this rule are Veronica, who is extremely polite and non-invasive with her questioning; Arcade, who is too polite to even mention Nick's synthetic state; and Raul, who finds the whole thing hilarious but admits that his ghoul status has landed him in some similar situations.

Piper: "I've heard plenty of stories about this place, and if even a quarter of them are true, I ought to get a good travel piece out of just about anyone we pass on the street."

Piper's on a mission to track down the history of New Vegas, which, like Curie, sends her on a path toward its biggest political figures. Aside from them, she's particularly interested in the services of the Mojave, like the Gun Runners, the Crimson Caravan Company, and especially the Mojave Express. Piper gets along swell with just about everyone, and she basks in the widespread acceptance that she lacks back home due to her chosen profession. She desperately tries to get Johnson Nash to ship a case of Sunset Sarsaparilla cross-continent for her, but he gently turns her down and tells her that the only courier he knows crazy enough to undertake a trip to the Commonwealth is too busy nowadays.

Preston: "They're not too friendly to outsiders here, or so I'm told, but there are always good folks to be found if you know where to look."

Preston, true to form, offers help to every little settlement he and the sole survivor come through on their journey, which delays their path to Vegas quite a bit. He makes a beeline for the Old Mormon Fort as soon as he hears the Followers of the Apocalypse have a base there, though, and spends most of his visit picking the brain of its leaders about the best ways to aid those in need in the wasteland. He and Arcade get into some spirited debates about the pros and cons of having a civil service force focused on military matters versus civilian matters, and the Minutemen leader leaves the Mojave with a lot of new ideas to carry home to the Commonwealth.

Strong: "Strong not looking for 'good time,' puny human. Strong looking for thing that make super mutants stronger."

Strong hates New Vegas, but that's nothing unexpected. The sole survivor tries to limit their time in the city and take him around the desert to locales where super mutants are more likely to be found, which brings them to Jacobstown. Surprise surprise, Strong hates Jacobstown - at first. Little by little, through talking with Lily, the other nightkin, and Marcus, Strong starts to realize that the super mutants of the town are doing exactly what he values and sharing their resources among each other for the good of the community, just minus the usual violence associated with super mutants. He struggles with this alternative way of life for a bit, but eventually comes to accept that to be a super mutant, you don't have to constantly attack those around you to show off your strength.

X6-88: "Be careful. The Institute's records about this area indicate high levels of theft, murder, and unsavory characters. It would be best to keep our guard up."

Like Nick, X6-88 greets everyone in the Mojave with open suspicion, and can hardly be convinced to leave the sole survivor's side for their entire journey. His dedication to this task leads those around him to joke about him being "a human Securitron," which the sole survivor finds amusing: X6-88 does not. Still, the ability to hire and maintain a professional-looking bodyguard while visiting New Vegas doesn't go unnoticed, and most people assume that means the sole survivor has a lot of money to spend or be separated from by force. Criminals are more likely to be ruthless, hell-bent on stealing the loads of caps the sole survivor surely has tucked away. Business owners, on the other hand, are more polite to the pair on their travels, giving them better service and goods that ingratiate X6-88 a bit more to the common people aboveground.

BONUS!

Ada: "Jackson brought us out here once, when Zoe decided she wanted to try acquiring a Securitron. The leader of the Strip turned us down."

While Deacon is playing coy about his experience in the Mojave, Ada is completely open about hers. She hasn't been to the Strip, the dam, or any of the Mojave's "fun" destinations, but she remembers the Crimson Caravan Company headquarters, the 188 trading post, and many of the small towns along the way. Her fondest memories are of scavenging around the ruins of the REPCONN test site, the Aerotech Office Park and HELIOS One. She also recalls that her caravan friends came to visit primarily to find a Securitron to take apart and repurpose, but won't say exactly what happened when they tried to do so, other than warn the sole survivor "not to invite the wrath of the House."

Gage: "Now this is a town that knows how to run a successful racket. We need to find out who's in charge, see if they can give us some tips."

Porter Gage walks right up the steps of the Lucky 38 as soon as he finds out that someone inside is running the Strip, and demands that the Securitrons let him in to "talk to the boss." The robots aren't impressed, of course, and toss him out straightaway. Gage, not one to be discouraged easily, tries to find information among the nearby raider gangs instead: Fiends, Vipers, Jackals or Great Khans, he's not too picky. The current state of the raiders in the Mojave quickly informs him that they're failing one by one against the power of New Vegas, and he renews his efforts to find the recipient of the endless streams of caps. Thwarted at every turn, he and the sole survivor retire to Gomorrah, where they bemoan their bad luck while the courier sits a few seats down from them, listening in and smirking.

Longfellow: "Just point me to the nearest saloon. If I can't cool down, I'll try to forget I'm hot."

Longfellow parks himself at the nearest watering hole and does his best to avoid the scorching Mojave heat. The Maine-born grandpa is pretty miserable during the daytime hours unless he's sitting in front of a fan with a cold beer, swapping stories about Far Harbor critters with the bar regulars. At night he's a bit more open to adventuring with the sole survivor, when the desert cools down and he can see the sights by moonlight. Although he's not a fan of the hustle and bustle of the Strip, most of the large casinos there have air conditioning thanks to the Lucky 38, so he claims a table in the back and glares at anyone who disturbs him and his drink. He gets along with most of the New Vegas crowd though, if they agree to pick up the tab.

Maxson: "We came this way, when the Elders sent me to the East Coast. I wonder if the chapter here is still persevering."

Elder Maxson is surprisingly reluctant to visit the two things that the sole survivor would've thought he'd be interested to see in the Mojave: The Strip, or the Hidden Valley bunker. If pressed, he'll admit that he's not the type to cut loose and gamble, drink or participate in general debauchery as a result of his upbringing and position of authority, but neither is he keen to drop in on the dying Western chapters of his order and become stifled by protocol and ass-kissing. He prefers to wander the desert itself, seeking solitude among the cacti and under the stars. Given the chance, he'd probably nip off to Quarry Junction and anonymously solve the NCR's deathclaw problem, if it hasn't already been taken care of. He refuses to wear his uniform for the entire trip.

Desdemona: "The Mojave probably wouldn't know what to make of our mission, which is how you know it's a good place to hide. I wonder if any of our rescued synths made it out this far."

This is by far the most relaxed the sole survivor has ever seen Desdemona, and why wouldn't it be? She's so far removed from her usual sphere that she drops her usual, tight-knit demeanor and embraces loosening up. She's still not talking openly about the Railroad's operations, but she is more likely to answer questions both personal and professional. Like Deacon, she knows a bit about the Mojave, but not so much that she can blend in completely. Instead, she embraces being a tourist and does all the usual things that go with it: Visiting the Strip, the Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters, the Thorn, and especially Hoover Dam. When she's looking out over Lake Mead, with the sun getting caught in her hair as it sets on her left, she almost looks happy.

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enkelimagnus · 4 years

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A Castle in the Forest

Percy x Vex’ahlia, Chapter 1, 3966 words

A Modern AU, in which Vex is a park ranger taking over the Alabaster Sierras post, and finds much more than she bargained for

Read on AO3

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On her first day at the Alabaster Sierras’ National Park, Vex’ahlia finds an injured cub.

She’s looking through the reserves that Regae, the last ranger, left behind when she hears whining and groaning, mournful and low, right outside of her new home. The cabin stands in a small clearing in the forest there, almost disappearing into the moss-covered stone of a stone spike.

The noise is heart-breaking, but it doesn’t stop her from grabbing her bow and her quiver, taking one of her white-fletched tranquilizing arrows in hand before she steps out, notching it into the bow, ready to do her duty. She wishes she had more time, more preparation, and a better lay of the land than the one she got from studying her maps in the motel rooms she slept in while on the road.

The door creaks as she opens it. There is a hard, ragged huff from an injured animal. She will need to grease the door hinges, she can’t have them making that much noise all the time.

Her sharp eyes catch the light reflecting on dark fur the second she looks out of the cabin. The animal is partially hidden behind some bushes, but it’s not moving a lot. It’s crying, looking around, seemingly hurt. As it turns, Vex catches a dark stain on the fur. Probably blood.

She needs to shoot it, shoot well and right so she can take care of it. Hopefully, a Cure Wounds will be enough.

Now that she’s away from the creaking door, her steps are much quieter. She moves forward with slow grace, her body used to the exercise of trying to get to an injured animal. She’s seen many, too many. People are violent and cruel to defenseless animals. She was hoping to have a couple days before she had to deal with one here…

She stops moving once she has a clear shot towards the tiny, maybe two months old bear cub. There is a crossbow bolt in its shoulder, and the poor creature is obviously in pain. There is no mother to be seen, and Vex’ahlia will need to scout the surrounding wounds for its corpse. She draws back the string and shoots.

She’s an excellent shot. The white arrow impacts, sticking into the fur of the cub, but not piercing the skin. At most, it’ll get a bruise from this. She sees the crackle of the magic effect around the white fletching and the whines and cries of distress slowly quiet.

Once she’s sure the bear isn’t moving anymore, she stands from her crouched spot and walks towards it.

She was right, it’s barely a couple of months old, small and fuzzy and probably incredibly adorable when awake and alright. She reaches down to examine him. There’s the crossbow bolt she previously saw. It’s not too deep in, and she assesses a Cure Wounds and a couple of healing potions mixed with its food for a couple of days should be enough to get this taken care of.

Her planned run to the nearest town, Whitestone, has just gotten much more urgent. The previous ranger left some things, but very few, and she definitely does not have enough to feed both her and the bear cub for the next couple of days.

Without much trouble, she picks up the animal, pulls it into her arms and walks back towards a small enclosed space next to the cabin, with an awning that allows for cover from the elements. It’s a rather standard feature of a lot of Ranger cabins, and she knows it’s where she can house the sleeping animal.

She sets him down there.

The inside of the cabin is still messy from her getting there and the healing kit hidden under the bed is outdated, so she grabs her own emergency kit from her backpack and goes back to the still sleeping animal. Now the hard part.

Vex takes her own arrow out of the fur first. The enchantment is still working on the cub, and taking it off won’t undo anything. She needs it out of the way to extract the crossbow bolt correctly. Her Cure Wounds is definitely not high enough to repair anything she messes up by being sloppy.

“Don’t worry, darling,” she whispers at the sleeping cub. She’s more talking to herself than to it at this point.

She focuses. She does the best she can really, but it’s definitely not the best work she’s ever done. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers, and casts Cure Wounds twice. She examines it more, but it seems her work was good enough to close the wound. She’ll have to keep an eye on it though.

She sighs heavily and cleans up the fur and the area again, just in case. The sleep effect will last for a few hours more, enough that she probably has time to drive into town and then come back. And of course, before that, she needs to find the mother. She hopes it’s already dead, deep down.

She can’t leave the animal free though, even tranquilized. She needs to keep an eye on him. There’s probably some crates around, she thinks, trying to remember if she saw something useful there. She rummages through everything, finding a very chipped Alabaster Sierras National Park mug, some old instant coffee that rolled under the bed next to the healing kit and…

A foldable dark blue crate, probably originally made for a small wolf or a fox but that will fit the cub perfectly. She puts some blankets and soft padding on the bottom of it and goes back outside, where the animal is still asleep and quiet. She gently puts it in, arranging the blanket so it’s comfortable. She tucks it under the table in the secluded care area.

She pulls her bow back to herself and gets ready for the worst part of her work. There are times when the only thing to do is to kill, and she cannot stand it, but she’s used so much of her strength on the cub that she fears she won’t be able to heal the mother, if it is even doable.

She notches another tranquilizing arrow, and starts walking.

Tracking the path of the injured cub isn’t hard. He was awkward and heavy, putting blood on leaves and shoving his way through the vegetation, leaving marks of his passage behind him. It’s a little heart-breaking.

It takes her a few minutes of walking, her bow ready to shoot before she sees it. The body of the mother.

There’s blood everywhere over the fur, crossbow bolts sticking out of the body. Vex stops and pauses. She watches and listens for anything, for a breath, for a groan, for anything.

Nothing.

The silence is deafening and the bear is dead. There’s no saving this one. A part of her wants to kill those who did that, and she’ll keep an eye on people with crossbows. She has one of the bolts back at the cabin, and she’ll commit it to memory, make sure she can recognize the killers.

She exhales. Mechanically, she tucks the arrow back into her quiver and starts walking home.

The cub, now officially orphaned, is still asleep in the small crate when she comes back. She’ll need supplies to care for him, he doesn’t look old enough for solid food. She’ll need so many things. Her grocery list lengthens in her mind as she tours the cabin to see what she already has.

She manages to haul the crate onto the passenger seat of her pick-up truck, tethering it securely with some extra belts she added there a long time ago for this exact purpose.

She has bags, her purse and everything she needs already in the truck, so she closes the door and hops into the driver seat of the truck.

It’s seen things, that truck, she’d gotten it second-hand and worn-in a few years ago when she started out. It’s hers now, with its bumper stickers and its muddy tire guards. She had it repainted in a dark blue-green color, more fitting for the forest.

Vex leaves her newfound home, setting the GPS on her phone. She doesn’t know the tracks of roads well yet, and the Rangers have a special app that tracks forest tracks and little mud paths as well as highways. It has saved her ass quite a number of times.

She sets the destination for Whitestone and gets going. With every bump of the road as her truck bounces around, she checks on the sleeping cub, hoping it won’t wake up. She’s taken her quiver and bow with her of course, and she still has some tranquilizing arrows, but she doesn’t want to use them right now, she’ll need them later.

The Alabaster Sierras are a wild sort of place, with legends upon legends baked into its name. So much that any sort of documentation you can find on both the park and the area is littered with myths. It’s enough to discourage many people, especially when Regae, the last person to man the outpost, died there under mysterious circumstances. No one volunteered to take their place. So Vex did.

She had been desperate to get away from Shademurk Forest, anyway. If she was already leaving, she might as well hide away in one of the Northernmost parts of the continent, the spike of land that bit into the Shearing channel. The inhabitants of Whitestone have a rather misanthropic reputation, which is absolutely to her liking. The fewer nosy assholes wandering the forest paths, the better.

It’s not that she dislikes hikers. She just really dislikes the mess they leave behind. Broken branches and trash and sometimes injured animals. People could be cruel in how they interact with nature and it lights an anger in her heart. Vax says it’s her projecting her own issues onto the parks, and he says it in that voice he uses when he gets serious, when his cutting remarks are softened by his concern. She hates agreeing with that voice.

She’s so far away from him, once again, and she kind of hates it. No, she absolutely hates it. He’s her twin, her other half, and she hates knowing he’s probably still hanging around in Syngorn committing burglary on their father’s shitty friends. Maybe she should call him and ask him to come and stay here.

She shakes away the thought. The cabin is too small, and there’s no reason for him to come here. He’s relatively happy working in Syngorn with his gang of misfits, she doesn’t need to pull him away from his life. She already made that mistake once in Shademurk Forest, and she’s not going to do it again.

It takes her about thirty minutes to drive carefully down to Whitestone.

The treeline stops abruptly as Vex drives out of the forest into farmlands. Her eyes trace the vegetation to check for the telltale signs of abuse but enough of it bleeds into the fields to show a healthy respect for the wild. The area is protected though, so as long as those lines are not changed without permission, she doesn’t have to worry about excessive deforestation.

That’s the thing with parks. They’re protected. It allows for her to worry less about some aspects of the small city’s presence there.

She drives onto a road made of something that isn’t dirt and stops thinking as much about the animal by her side. There’s a light jam at the Western Gate of the city, but nothing that irritates her more than normal.

She parks in a big, mostly empty, lot and leaves her windows cracked open for the cub still inside.

The town has wooden buildings, most of them one-level. She seems to be not far from the center square where an enormous tree stands; she can see it bows over the rooftops of the buildings. The roads are a little quiet and empty, with occasional trucks passing-by similar to hers.

Vex grabs supplies for twelve gold at the general store and one gold’s worth of ammo at the weaponry. People don’t seem to pay much attention to her. It makes sense, she’s new in town and they’re used to hikers and people on holiday; a new face isn’t ground-breaking.

The cub is still sleeping like an angel when she finishes loading most of the supplies in the truck. She still has one more stop however.

Late afternoon sunlight is bathing the streets in orange when Vex pushes open the door of the Alcove. It’s a plain little building made of dark wood, with an old metallic sign jingling about over the door. As she walks in, a bell rings, shoved by the door.

The inside is small, a little cramped, with a little too much dust. It’s less well-kept than the ones she’s frequented in Syngorn or that one she’s visited on the way here when she’d driven through Westrunn. She knows better than to judge however. As long as she can haggle down some prices, she’s all good with whatever the shop looks like.

She’s not the only client here. In front of the register is a tall half-elven person with long red hair and skin that is quite well-tanned. There’s a circlet around their forehead, with antlers sprouting from it and vines wrapped around the headband. They’ve got a worn backpack on their shoulders, and they’re talking animatedly with the person on the other side of the counter.

“-made this one last month and he tried to improve on his previous design. He’s expecting a little more from that one though, if you don’t mind?” The redhead asks, looking absolutely sweet and unsure.

Vex positions herself in parallel to the redhead, eyes on an ornate piece of clockwork. She isn't trying to figure out what it is, she’s only looking at it so she doesn’t stare at the two others while she listens in on their conversation.

The store employee sighs a little. There’s a light noise of metal scraping against wood.

“I’ll see what I can do, Keyleth, but times are hard right now. He’ll understand, I think,” they say. Their voice is heavy and wary.

“I… I’ll explain,” the redhead - Keyleth - replies. “But… he’s trying to keep Cass afloat too, and it’s getting hard. They’re still not giving her the money.”

Maybe she shouldn’t be listening to this conversation. That Keyleth person seems genuinely sad and Vex starts feeling a little bad for them, and whoever they’re talking about. It sounds like legal trouble as well as financial, and Gods she really is being a nosy asshole, isn’t she?

She turns her attention back on the clockwork on the shelf. It’s a miniature clock that ticks slowly with passing of time. It’s pretty, delicate, with little etched markings in the metal for the minutes. She reaches out for it.

“Please, don’t!” The shopkeeper calls out right as she’s about to touch it and she turns towards them.

The one called Keyleth is looking at her with wide green eyes. There’s a smattering of freckles over their face.

“Is it fragile?” Vex asks curiously.

“It’s a weapon,” Keyleth replies, cutting off the shopkeeper. “You shouldn’t touch it without knowing what it does. Creator’s request.”

Vex raises an eyebrow and takes a couple of steps towards the register. “Are you the creator?”

The wooden top of the desk has two more of the clockwork machines on them, one that looks like a watch and another like a wind-up toy.

Keyleth laughs, a bright but kinda snorty sort of laugh that is immediately endearing. “Oh, no! I’m way too clumsy to make stuff like this!” They smile. “I’m a friend of the creator.”

“He makes them and then sends her to sell them to me at high price,” the shopkeeper grumbles, but they don’t seem to be mad at the redhead or her creator friend.

Vex eyes the redhead a little closer. Her ears are pointier than a human but not as elongated as an elf. She’s a fellow othlir , and she’s wearing sturdy hiking shoes under her flowy green-colored ensemble.

“I’m Keyleth of the Air Ashari,” she holds out her hand, not knowing Vex has been listening in. “Nice to meet you.”

Vex shakes the offered hand. “Vex’ahlia. I’m the new ranger for the Alabaster Sierras park. There to keep a good eye on the hikers and the area.” Her tone is firm. If Keyleth is smart, she’ll get that Vex won’t allow anything to slide. Maybe Regae did, or maybe he didn’t. Either way, Vex means business.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Keyleth grins. “Should I hope to see you around when I’m out there?”

Vex winces. “Probably not. I tend to appear when people fuck up.”

“Well, she’s a druid, so you shouldn’t worry much about her disrespecting nature,” the shopkeeper chuckles. “I’m Simon Whisk, by the way. Owner of the Alcove.”

Keyleth points at the staff resting against the register which appears to be both a walking stick and a druidic focus. Vex relaxes a little.

“Well I’m glad, that’s one less person I have to worry about,” she chuckles. “Nice to meet you, Mr Whisk.”

They seem to be nice people, even if Vex has many questions about the creator, about the weapons. Whitestone just got marginally more interesting.

“Can I help you in any way, Vex’ahlia?” Whisk asks after a moment of quite awkward silence.

Vex nods, smiling a little. “Oh, yes, yes. Do you have any tranquilizing arrows or blow gun needles?”

“Let me check,” the shopkeeper turns around and pushes through the curtain that leads to the backroom, leaving Vex alone with Keyleth.

The redhead is moving a little, shifting from one foot to the other, seemingly trying to find something to say. Her boots have a little bit of dried mud on them, the end of her staff as well. She seems like she just came back from a hike. Vex decides to put her out of her lack of conversation-induced misery.

“What trail were you on?” She asks, motioning towards the backpack.

“Oh,” Keyleth smiles. “The one on the west side of the castle? It snakes around the bottom of the platform the castle is on.”

That’s not a trail. At least not one that’s on Vex’ map. She takes note of that, of the fact she’s going to have to work the trail, make it safe and write it into the maps and softwares of the area.

“Do you take it often?”

Keyleth shrugs. “Every time I’m in town. That’s about… once a month?”

So it’s her favorite too. “How many people do you see there usually? Is it well used?”

“Oh, not really,” the woman shrugs again. “It’s pretty forgotten, I think. Only me and a couple of friends know it.”

That’s good news, as far as Vex is concerned. It makes working it less urgent. She still puts it on her to-do list for the next few days. She needs a good lay of the land if she wants to do her job correctly. She’s already understaffed enough for the size of the park.

“Thanks for letting me know,” Vex smiles professionally, her mind already working. She really needs to go. The druid is sweet but she needs to check on the cub again, and then she really wants to call Vax.

Simon Whisk comes back at about that moment with a small box of what seems to be blowgun needles.

“No arrows, but there’s these. They’re one gold, for ten of them,” he points out. Vex pays in coin and thanks both of them.

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” she nods. “I’ll be around for more purchases later.”

“Pleasure,” the man nods.

Keyleth waves lightly with her right hand and Vex walks away.

She shoves open the door, her purchases under her arms. The sun has almost disappeared behind the buildings and she needs to drive home fast. She doesn’t really want to try through unknown forest paths in the middle of the night, even if she has darkvision.

Vex straps the boxes and crates she got in the back of her pick-up truck so they won’t fly off while she drives. She puts her bow down in between the passenger seat and the dash, and looks down into the plastic crate.

The cub is asleep still, knocked out. He’s curled up on himself, fluffy brown fur rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing. Eyes closed and little claws tucked into the blanket. Vex melts.

Poor baby, all alone in this world now. She’s going to need to be his mother for a while and she wishes she didn’t have to. She’ll do the absolute best she can though. He deserves that, if anything.

Vex slides into the driver seat and starts the drive back to the cabin, back home. No. She’s not there yet, not ready to call it home. It’ll come though, it always does. She needs a moment, and a phone call with her brother.

She sets the GPS to the fastest route and it guides her out of the Eastern gate this time, driving in between the city and the cemetery. Right as she engages herself into the surrounding motorway, traffic slows down into a jam. Vex huffs, putting on the heating. She doesn’t turn on the radio, despite how she wants some noise to fill the silence. She doesn’t want to wake the cub up until she’s ready to care for him.

Her eyes slide over the cars in front of her, a lot of trucks and a couple of slicker cars, probably from the richest inhabitants of the city. Her teenage home of Syngorn was filled with these and only these, dark and smoked-out, driving around assholes who pretended to be better than everyone else.

She looks away from the cars that bring back memories. Two structures tower at the Southern and Northern sides of the cemetery and she’s currently stuck by the southern one to go back to the cabin.

It’s a tall stone edifice with stained glass windows. It’s a rather common feature of temples of Pelor; these ones were ten feet tall and the usual design of the sun was half-hidden behind a gigantic beautiful tree. In front of beautifully-carved double doors stand two figures. Vex probably shouldn’t stare at them; she does it anyway.

The one standing in the arched opening of the doors is tall, with salt and pepper hair. From afar, Vex can’t exactly make out the features of their face. They’re wearing a cream, gold and red robe with a gold sash around the waist. She assumes they’re a priest of this temple.

The other one is shorter, slighter and wearing much darker clothes; a dark blue woolen coat and dark brown thigh-high boots are as much as Vex can make out from her car. Their hair is brown, but streaked in an interesting way with white: a few strands at the temples.

The two of them seem deep in conversation, the blue-wearing one clutching at their coat. Just as Vex tries to focus to see their lips and try to read their conversation, a loud honking noise makes her almost jump out of her seat.

The cars in front of her have moved and her lack of following irritates those stuck behind.

Vex rolls her eyes and gets back to driving home. As she makes her way from motorway to road to mud, mist falls over the forest, slipping through the trees and making it a little harder to get to the cabin safely. It blurs the lines of the trunks. A shiver runs down her spine.

#perc'ahlia #percy de rolo #vex'ahlia #fic #mine #critical role #vox machina

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newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Monday, August 16, 2021

U.S. Air Force veteran comforts children plagued by gun violence (Reuters) Like many cities across the United States, Washington has seen a spike in shooting-related deaths during the pandemic. Homicides were up 19% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. This month’s data shows that the city has already clocked more cases than at the same time last year. “It’s like a war zone. It’s like being in the military,” Jawanna Hardy said. Frustrated by the senseless loss of life, Hardy, an Air Force veteran and now a 34-year-old high school English teacher, launched ‘Guns Down Friday,’ an outreach program to support neighborhoods plagued by gun violence—including the one she has lived in since childhood. She has raised money for shooting victims’ gravestones, advocated for more streetlights, and trained people how to treat bullet wounds themselves. She drives her van—adorned with photos of young gun violence victims—through the streets to greet youngsters. On a recent Friday, she arrived with water balloons. “Put your guns down and pick your water balloons up!” Hardy cried through a megaphone as children outside an apartment complex in southeast Washington laughed and scrambled to drench one another. She knows her Friday night street parties will not stop gun violence but hopes they can at least provide children a brief respite from the constant fear in which many live.

Haitians scramble to rescue survivors from ruins of major quake (Reuters) Haitians labored overnight to pick through shattered buildings in search of friends and relatives trapped in the rubble after a devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean country on Saturday, killing 1,297 people and injuring at least 5,700 more. The 7.2 magnitude quake flattened hundreds of homes in the impoverished country, which is still clawing its way back from another major temblor here 11 years ago, and has been without a head of state since the assassination of its president last month. Churches, hotels, hospitals and schools were badly damaged or destroyed, while the walls of a prison were rent open by the violent shudders that convulsed Haiti. Access to the worst-hit areas was complicated by a deterioration in law and order that has left key access roads in parts of Haiti in the hands of gangs, although unconfirmed reports on social media suggested they would let aid pass.

Want to stay long term in France? First come the classes on how to be French. (Washington Post) In France, la vie en rose comes wrapped in red tape. Foreigners hoping to stay here long term must sign an “integration contract” and agree to uphold French values. The contract requires four days of civic education, yet what’s taught is more akin to a government crash course in how to be French. There are discussions about Marianne—the symbolic embodiment of the French Republic—and about classical culinary dishes, such as duck confit and escargot. France 101 covers both the cultural (how to visit museums) as well as the practical (how to navigate the national health-care system). The classes, plus language lessons for anyone whose fluency doesn’t measure up, help determine whether an applicant gets a multiyear visa. Every year, an average of 100,000 people take the courses, in cities across the country. The contemporary agreement explicitly states that receiving an extended residency visa is conditional on abiding by its terms, a key one being deference to French values. After an applicant signs the document, the language test is administered and 24 hours of classes scheduled.

Taliban sweep into Afghan capital after government collapses (AP) The Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital Sunday after the government collapsed and the embattled president joined an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country. Heavily armed Taliban fighters fanned out across the capital, and several entered Kabul’s abandoned presidential palace. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.” Kabul was gripped by panic. Helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents, and the American flag was lowered. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Fearful that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights, Afghans rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor—who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital—remained in parks and open spaces throughout the city. Many people watched in disbelief as helicopters landed in the U.S. Embassy compound to take diplomats to a new outpost at the airport. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected comparisons to the U.S. pullout from Vietnam.

From hubris to humiliation: America’s warrior class contends with the abject failure of its Afghanistan project (Washington Post) Twenty years ago, when the twin towers and the Pentagon were still smoldering, there was a sense among America’s warrior and diplomatic class that history was starting anew for the people of Afghanistan and much of the Muslim world. “For you and us, history starts today,” then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told his Pakistani counterparts. Earlier this month, as the Taliban raced across Afghanistan, retired Lt. Col. Jason Dempsey, a two-time veteran of the war, stumbled across Armitage’s words. To Dempsey, the sentiment was “the most American thing I’ve ever heard” and emblematic of the hubris and ignorance that he and so many others brought to the losing war. “We assumed the rest of the world saw us as we saw ourselves,” he said. “And we believed that we could shape the world in our image using our guns and our money.” Both assumptions ignored Afghan culture, politics and history. Both, he said, were tragically wrong. Michèle Flournoy, one of the architects of President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan in 2010, said, “In retrospect, the United States and its allies got it really wrong from the very beginning. The bar was set based on our democratic ideals, not on what was sustainable or workable in an Afghan context.” Flournoy acknowledged in hindsight that the mistake was compounded across Republican and Democratic administrations, which continued with almost equal fervor to pursue goals that ran counter to decades—if not centuries—of the Afghan experience.

Afghanistan’s collapse leaves allies questioning U.S. resolve on other fronts (Washington Post) The Taliban's stunningly swift advances across Afghanistan have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of U.S. foreign policy promises and drawing harsh criticisms even from some of the United States' closest allies. And many around the world are wondering whether they could rely on the United States to fulfill long-standing security commitments stretching from Europe to East Asia. "Whatever happened to 'America is back'?" said Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Defense Committee in the British Parliament. "People are bewildered that after two decades of this big, high-tech power intervening, they are withdrawing and effectively handing the country back to the people we went in to defeat," Ellwood said. "This is the irony. How can you say America is back when we're being defeated by an insurgency armed with no more than [rocket-propelled grenades], land mines and AK-47s?" As much as its military capabilities, the United States' decades-old role as a defender of democracies and freedoms is again in jeopardy, said Rory Stewart, who was Britain's minister for international development in the Conservative government of Theresa May. "The Western democracy that seemed to be the inspiration for the world, the beacon for the world, is turning its back," Stewart said. Rivals of the United States also have expressed dismay. Among them is China, which fears that the ascent of an extremist Islamist government on its western border will foster unrest in the adjoining province of Xinjiang, where Beijing has waged sweeping crackdowns on the Uyghur population that have been denounced by the West. The United States' Arab allies, which have long counted on the U.S. military to come to their aid in the event of an attack by Iran, also have faced questions over whether they will be able to rely on the United States.

Torrential rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide (Reuters) Torrential rain lashed much of Japan on Sunday, flooding roads and buildings in the western part of the country, while three people were feared dead after a landslide in central Nagano prefecture. Large parts of Japan, particularly the southernmost main island of Kyushu, have seen record levels of rainfall, causing rivers to overflow and triggering landslides. While the rain had stopped in much of Kyushu as of Sunday morning, Tokyo and other parts of the country were pounded by the downpour. Japan “will continue to face conditions in which a large-scale disaster could occur at anytime, anywhere,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a ministerial meeting on Sunday. He called on local municipalities and relevant organisations to cooperate and act with speed on rescue missions and aid.

More military personnel deployed to enforce Sydney Covid restrictions as entire state locks down (CNN) Additional Australian military personnel will be deployed to enforce tighter Covid-19 restrictions in the greater Sydney area next week, authorities announced Saturday, as the entire state of New South Wales (NSW) prepares to go under lockdown. Stay at home orders will be applied across the country’s most populous state, with people only permitted to leave home to shop for essentials, receive medical care, outdoor exercise with one other person, and work if residents cannot work from home. Schooling will also be moved back online. Sydney, the capital of NSW, has been under lockdown measures for more than seven weeks now, and they will likely be extended further; they were set to end on August 28 but the state government has indicated restrictions will remain through September.

Fuel explosion in Lebanon kills 28, wounding dozens (AP) A warehouse where fuel was illegally stored exploded in northern Lebanon early Sunday, killing at least 28 people and injuring 79 more in the latest tragedy to hit the Mediterranean country in the throes of a devastating economic and political crisis. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion near the border with Syria. Fuel smuggling operations have been ongoing for months. The Lebanese Red Cross said a fuel tanker exploded and its teams recovered 28 bodies from the site in the border village of Tleil. In a statement, it said it evacuated 79 people who were injured or suffered burns in the blast. Hours after the blast, Lebanese Red Cross members were still searching the area for more victims as Lebanese soldiers cordoned the area.

'Once the best in the Middle East,' Beirut hospital pleads for fuel as it faces shutdown (The Week) A once-famed Beirut hospital is now pleading for international aid to avoid running out of essential resources. The American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon, is making an urgent appeal to the United Nations and its specialized agencies, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Children's Fund, to supply the hospital with fuel before it's forced to shut down by Monday. Lebanon is mired in an economic and political crisis, and the nationwide fuel shortage is currently the most dire consequence. That's perhaps most clearly reflected in the plight of AUBMC, which said 40 adults and 15 children living on respirators would die immediately and many other patients will be at great risk if the shutdown is not avoided. The medical center said it's been rationing fuel and electricity for weeks, but is running out of both. Liz Sly, The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief, notes that the American University hospital "was once the best" in the entire Middle East region; the announcement shows that the country is "truly heading to disaster," she writes.

#headlines #news

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sunny-hopewell · 4 years

Text

#2 - Helena Stinchcomb

posted by sunny hopewell on sept. 12th, 20XX

DISCLAIMER: Please note that, just by reading this, you may succumb to the very phenomenon described here. My hope is that the next people or intelligent life who read this are either themselves resilient to it, or that enough time has passed that the sheer weight of this knowledge no longer causes such a heavy impact on the reader.

This is an attempt to record the phenomenon, once referred to colloquially as “ghosting,” that has resulted in a mass decrease in the Earth’s human population. More specifically, the latest estimate (prior to the disappearance of professionals who had counted) was that only 0.002% of human life remains.

In this series of accounts, I document interviews with remaining survivors of this phenomenon. For more details on the nature of the phenomenon itself, please click here. Otherwise or afterwards, read on at your own risk.

I encountered a woman by the name of Helena Stinchcomb when I saw the fourth floor of a large office building entirely lit up. Thinking perhaps it may have been an outpost containing multiple survivors, both my mission and my curiosity led me to that floor.

I rang the fully-functional doorbell at the back entrance of the first floor. I would consider breaking in only if I received no response, but just shy of a minute later, the very articulate voice of a young woman spoke, asking how she may help me. I explained that I was hoping to ask some questions relating to her take on recent events, but expressed that I understood if she declined to speak— multiple people had already done so for me at this point. You would understand my pleasant surprise when I heard the door bolt unlock, and I was invited in. The woman told me to come on in, explaining she would need to allow me to the fourth floor with her own badge, so she would meet me just inside shortly.

The office lobby seemed unremarkable, aside from its emptiness. The lights seemed to come on as soon as I walked in— likely on a motion-sensor.

It wasn’t long before a young, dark-haired lady emerged from a door that seemed to conceal a concrete staircase. She smiled at me as though I was a visitor to her office, urging me in with an energy that was both friendly and professional. She wore a dark, pin-stripe pantsuit, and her thin, black wireframe glasses only added to her aesthetic.

She showed me upstairs, thanking me for my patience. She explained she was in a meeting until just a few minutes ago, and that the speaker system that allowed me to speak with her outside was across the office. Of course, I asked her how many people were stationed on that floor. To my own disbelief, she estimated nearly 30 folks were in-office that day.

At this time, we entered the fourth floor’s reception area, which appeared entirely empty. She waved to the empty reception desk on her left briefly, not ceasing her conversation with me about the work they did there. She explained that she worked for a newer kind of advertising firm— when in the 2020’s, social media and technology users realized the extent to which their information was being used without their consent, such firms opened up, acting as a middleman between web users and advertisers who wanted their attention. In essence, she explained, users would come to these firms seeking to sell their web usage data to these advertisers, and the firms would act as representatives for these individuals to advertisers, who they often partnered with for competitive pricing.

As she finished explaining this, we entered her office. She asked me to wait just a moment while she typed away— a quick message, she said, to one of her part-time work-study students, asking if she could bring the two of us some bottled water and cookies. As she finally closed her laptop, she thanked me once again for my patience and gave me her full attention. The transcript of our interview is as follows:

SH: So, tell me about yourself. What’s your name?

HS: My name is Helena Stinchcomb. I serve in senior leadership here at The People’s Information firm.

SH: It’s very nice to meet you. How has the Ghosting Phenomenon impacted you?

HS: Do you mean personally, or professionally?

SH: Oh, uh— both, provided you’re up to speaking to them.

HS: Sure, I’ll start with personally, since that’s less complex. A few people close to my circles apparently ghosted, but I’ve yet to have anyone in my innermost circles ghost, themselves.

SH: That’s fantastically fortunate, given the numbers.

HS: [laughs] Yeah, I guess you could say that. It’s hard to trust the numbers anymore, though.

SH: How do these people in your circles spend their time?

HS: [hesitating] I— you know, I’ve been so absorbed in my work lately, I really should reach out to them and ask instead of answering that at this time.

SH: Sure thing, thank you for that. Let’s talk about work, then. How has the Ghosting Phenomenon impacted workflow?

HS: Honestly, it’s mostly the same. Lots of people are hiding out in their homes, and are trying to work less at times like this. This, as you can imagine, drives their web usage way up. We’ve since fortified our model for online communications with clients so they never have to meet us in-person. This is the perfect recipe for helping them earn some money just by using the internet.

SH: Have you, personally, been able to reap any benefits as a result of your strong model’s success?

HS: Well, I’m in the process of giving everyone else in this office a sizable raise to recognize our efforts.

SH: That’s fantastic. You must be very proud of your team.

HS: Thank you, I am.

SH: How many folks did you say are in-office, today?

HS: Hmm, I’d say probably just under 30.

SH: All holed up in their office, I take it?

HS: Some of them are a little concerned with ghosting and are isolating there, yes, but not all of them.

SH: What of the others? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else here yet, today.

HS: [briefly hesitating] I haven’t seen many, but our receptionist Patricia waved to us just in the door. You must have just missed her.

SH: Ah, I see— my mistake. Maybe I’ll catch her once we’ve finished up here and apologize for that.

HS: I think you’d love her— she’s always smiling. Very sweet woman.

SH: So, enough about business— what do you do when you’re not working?

HS: [laughs] Sleeping? We keep pretty busy here, so I work long days, six days a week.

SH: So you just hang loose on your one day off?

HS: Typically, yes. I have three little ones at home— Jack is six, Joseph is seven, and Elena is twelve. They keep me busy in other ways. I’m thankful to my partner for sticking around at home to watch them.

SH: A stay at home parent, then?

HS: Yes, and I’m grateful that she is so willing and capable.

SH: I’m sure she’s lucky to have you, too.

HS: Thank you. [smiles] I like to think so.

SH: If I may ask— [I was cut off by the sudden manifestation of bottled water and small bags of chips on the desk between me and Helena]

HS: [looking at an empty space adjacent to her desk] Ah, thank you, Patricia! Sunny, I’d like for you to meet our receptionist.

SH: [Greeting the empty space] Hello, it’s so nice to meet you. Sorry I missed your hello, earlier.

HS: [After a momentary silence in the room, smiles and chuckles] That’s excellent, Patricia. Thanks so much for bringing this by!

(As if some invisible entity had left the room, Helena’s attention returned to the interview.)

HS: Sorry, what were you saying?

SH: No worries. I was going to ask if you could speak on your perspective of the Ghosting Phenomenon more specifically.

HS: [letting out a deep sigh] I think local leadership has been excellent, given the circumstances of it all. I know it’s still a touchy topic for some people, but I’m still certain that there have been massive exaggerations about the impact of the Ghost Phenomenon on society. Am I saying it’s fake? No. I’m saying it was being used as a ham-fisted tool for social control.

SH: I see... Yes, I can see that causing a mass panic surrounding the phenomenon is usable as a strategic power-move.

HS: I’m so glad you agree. I feel like people are going crazy over a phenomenon that has long since passed.

SH: When was the last time you heard news of a ghosting?

HS: [pausing to think] It’s been a pretty long time… Probably nearing two years, now?

SH: Two years…

HS: I could be a little bit off, but probably by no more than a couple of months. It came and went like that. [snaps her finger]

SH: Ah, I see. Well, before I wrap this interview up, is there anything else you’d like to say to my readers?

HS: Don’t believe everything you hear. Trusting people can be too easy. It takes discipline to distinguish delusion from reality.

SH: Thank you so much. Readers out there, be sure to check out The People’s Information Firm if you’d like to make a little extra cash by just browsing the web.

At the conclusion of this interview, Patricia and I exchanged a few formalities before she showed me back down to the door at my request.

Just to make things absolutely clear: There was not a soul in Helena’s office space apart from the two of us. She spoke to thin air when a Ghost had evidently brought us those snacks— likely in response to the message she had sent out earlier. As stated in my previous post, the general work completed by ghosted individuals in their pre-phenomenon lives remained mostly unchanged. I recall reading about bosses who would send emails to their ghosted employees with assignments, only for the assignments to be completed somewhat quickly. These bosses would scarcely receive reply, but if they ever did, it was in the form of an incoherent, word-vomit sort of email, much like many of the messages you might see online today.

Helena seems to have survived this phenomenon by deluding herself into believing all of these people never vanished. Although nothing could be farther from the truth, I couldn’t bring myself to try and question that reality of hers during our interview. Should I have succeeded in casting doubt on the coping mechanism she had developed, she would have likely ghosted shortly thereafter. My hope is that she continues to live happily as such, blissfully unaware of the empty society in which she lives.

‘Til next time,

- sunny hopewell

----

tags: #ghosting #hope #humanity #nonfiction #bliss #lifegoeson

#hope #humanity #nonfiction #horror #life goes on #ghosting #sunny-hopewell #the empty society

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biot08 · 4 years

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REBOOT

An Introductory Document for a possible roleplaying system for the Guardians. Length warning. This might not make a lot of sense if you’re not part of the community I’m posting it for.

Welcome to the Guardians!

Welcome, recruit! You have either chosen, or been chosen, to join our organization as the as one of the guardians of the metaverse. Many of you will have been assigned here by some other organization as part of provisions spelled out in our UN charter. Others of you are volunteers, having learned about the metaverse, and given the choice between turning your back or lending a helping hand, have decided to become one of us. Some of you are citizens of the metaverse, now members of our team. Regardless of your motivations or what brought you here now, you are now part of the Guardian team. We are happy to have you onboard, and hopefully this document will help you orient yourself quickly.

Before we can explain our mission, however, perhaps it is best to explain what it is that caused us to be formed.

JAUNT

The metaverse goes by many names. Jauntspace, imagination space, the multiverse, the collective consciousness. In all cases, they are all referring to the same place. The place, outside of our reality, where the many worlds of human imagination exist.

Imagine if you will, a roleplaying game that you are participating in. The shared mental space you and your fellow players are imagining? It not only can often feel real to you and your board, but in a sense, it is real - there is a projection of it that exists out in imagination space. We can travel there, using a Jaunt device, and explore these places, not just in our minds, but in person. The Jaunt device allows us to 'take a jaunt', temporarily transitioning a person out into Jaunt space, and allowing them to travel to the many worlds, which we call Systems. Once there, we can interact with these worlds in person. A Guardian very well may visit a Dungeons and Dragons campaign world in one week, and then find themselves in a seedy nightclub in Shadowrun the next. From the anime hijinks of Big Eyes Small Mouth to the technofuturism of Eclipse Phase, the many Systems are open to us for travel.

You will find the details of how all of this works later in this very document, but for now, you know enough to bring us to a discussion about our overall mission.

MISSION

External organizations have many different views of our mission. Most governments view us as a police or military force, patrolling Jaunt space for abnormalities and enforcing a certain level of normalcy. Scientists, both scientific and natural, view us primarily as explorers, mapping out both the limits and implications of Jauntspace. Those System denizens who are aware of us have a varied and mixed view of us. Some of them see us as peacemakers and forces of good, others as tyrants. Many creatives view us a necessary burden, helping maintain intellectual properties in much the same way a writer may establish their canon or a lawyer may sue for rights to a character. And at least one detractor has described us as 'little more than busybody wanna-be cosmic janitors'.

None of these views are wholly right, but none of them are wholly wrong - not even the snide comment about janitors. Ever since the discovery of Jaunt, we have learned much about the metaverse out there, and its affects on reality - and the affects of reality on it. Our job is to watch it, learn from it, and try to establish stability where we can, as well as prevent abuses of the ability to traverse Systems.

We view ourselves as defenders of the metaverse, and an integral part of exploring the shared human experience.

LOCATION

The Guardian HQ is the Guardian Outpost in California, United State of Aerica, Earth Prime, taking up a portion of land previously allocated to the Vandenberg Airforce Base Launch Command. The campus hosts a number of different facilities and has many services available. The Outpost main is the location of quarters for our various personnel, as well as lounges for rest and recuperation. Food is available in the lounges, or can be provided directly in living quarters, though we also boast a shared cafeteria capable of meeting a wide array of dietary requirements. Due to the nature of our mission and the availability and quality of our living space, most Guardians elect to live on campus.

Outside of staff support buildings, we also have a number of buildings to meet various mission needs. Some of our buildings are dedicated to duplicating common System environments, the most popular of which is the biodome containing the large and expansive gardens. Some Guardians spend their time working here, a few live here, but all are welcome to enjoy the environment provided by the gardens, full of both local and exotic System plants.

The vehicle pool consists of a garage, a hanger, and an uncovered outdoor lot. We also have a marina that provides us with access to the waterfront. Other facilities available include a medical ward, the research and development department, and various briefing and study rooms. The Jaunt facility and its power plant are located on the far end of a tunnel a short distance away from the central campus area. Metaspacial Cartography is a large facility where we map and monitor Jauntspace from, and it has its own building, also at the end of a tunnel a short distance away from central campus.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

So what exactly does it mean for you, now that you're a Guardian?

Hopefully you were assigned a mentor and given a room assignment upon arrival to the campus. If not, then you can either speak to the Guardian on duty in reception, or, if you are confident in your ability to orient yourself, you can ask the Outpost AI, RollBot.exe, for help. To speak with RollBot.exe, simply say her name, and she will appear momentarily in your vicinity. You can think of RollBot.exe as an artificially intelligent hologram. She can answer questions, show you around, and otherwise help you on your early days in the Outpost.

For your first few days in the Outpost, not much is expected of you. You should have been assigned a duty section, and given instructions on who you'll be reporting to. Your early days will consist of performing duty section activities, typically cleaning and food service, as well as simple monitoring duties designed to get you up to speed on the nature of Jauntspace. You will also be given guidance on what to study, though hopefully this guide will get you up to speed fairly quickly.

Once you are fully oriented and feel capable, you may be asked to perform missions. Do not worry if you do not understand some of the terms that you will be reading shortly, as they will be explained later. Guardian missions frequently involve travelling out into Jauntspace, and less frequently will require activity here on Earth around the world. A mission will generally begin with a mission briefing, in which the Guardian in charge of the mission may ask for you directly, or put out a general call for volunteers. The the briefing, the Guardian in Charge (GIC) will give out the parameters of the mission, objectives intended to be met, and known risks. Missions into Jaunt are many and varied. Most of our missions are to Systems, and run the gamut from artifact retrieval, to investigating a disturbance, to intelligence gathering operations. Less frequently the mission will be to Jaunt itself, usually in an effort to explore and map the imagination space, track events in Jaunt space, and perform basic scientific observation.

Once the mission briefing is complete, you will be issued or asked to retrieve any equipment you may need that is pertinent to the mission. If the mission is to a System, you will be given a Conversion Matrix, or CM, to help stabilise you to the System's physics rule set. Once you and your team are prepared, you will report to the Jaunt facility. The Jaunt device is contained in a room. You simply stand on the Jaunt platform, and the technician on duty will then proceed to send you and your team on their Jaunt.

Most Guardians find Jaunting disorienting. A Jaunt begins with transitioning you into Jaunt space, an experience that is described differently by different people, and which we will explain more about later. You will spend a short period of time transiting through Jaunt; it is recommended that you simply relax and allow the Jaunt to occur. Most of imagination space appears to be a large nebulous space, with shifting colors, generally appearing as gold with a faint translucent oil-slick effect flowing through and around it. Off in the 'distance' you should be able to see other Systems, which will take on various apperances. Some appear as opaque spheres, others as small versions of their realities that you can see from the outside, and others as floating islands, distant Neverlands waiting to be explored.

As you approach a System, you will feel a slight gravity to it, both physical and mental, tugging you towards it. At the system boundary, you will generally feel a moment of disorientation, and will find yourself in the system. Your CM at this point will do what it can to adapt you to the local system physics. What happens now will vary greatly depending on the System and your mission. During your mission, you should be in constant wireless communication with the Outpost, though some systems make this more difficult than others. Once you have achieved your mission objectives, or have otherwise decided to terminate the mission, you will inform the Outpost, and they will Jaunt you back home.

Once you are back at the Outpost, you are expected to turn in your equipment. Generally at this point there will be a debrief. Afterwards, however, you will be free to return to your other duties or day to day life.

CLOSING

Anyway, that is basically what it is like to be a Guardian, and what it is we do. The rest of this document contains appendices that contain technical data you will hopefully find helpful in your duties as a Guardian. Again, welcome aboard, and good luck!

APPENDIX A: BACKGROUND

JAUNTSPACE

Jauntspace, the metaverse, the multiverse, imagination space, the collective consciousness, all are describing the same thing - the space that our imagination exists in. It is best to think of it perhaps as a realm of reality that exists in parallel with ours, influencing and being influenced by the consciousness of every intelligence that we know of. Jauntspace is the connecting area between Systems, surrounding them and flowing around and through them. Most people experience it as a vast area of a golden hue, with gentle translucent threads of other colors weaving through it. It is a three dimensional space that we can travel through, generally with the help of a Jaunt device. It feels a little thicker than normal air. Systems appear dotted throughout the landscape of Jauntspace, and they take on many forms. Some appear as hazy illusions, others as solid spheres, and others as an island floating on indistinct clouds. In all cases, whether visible or not, there is a System boundary that seperates the world of a System from Jauntspace.

Jauntspace is frequently also called imagination space, but this is a bit of a misnomer, as imagination space is only the aree of Jauntspace where our mission is most focused. In reality, Jauntspace is better thought of as a metaverse of all collective consiousness. It is only a pseudo three dimensional space - in reality, it does not map to real space at all, nor is its dimensionality fixed. Indeed, distances between places in Jauntspace seem to depend more on their conceptual distance, rather than on any idea of physical distance. For example, two Systems based on Science Fiction will tend to be rather close to each other, while a System based on a children's cartoon about small taking animals in a modern human setting will tend to be quite far from a System based on a medieval fantasy epic. In addition, while we primarily deal with Systems - areas of shared imagination - other concepts and experiences are also found in Jauntspace. If one imagines navigating between systems as movement along the usual three axis we are familiar with in the real world, then it is possible to move 'deeper' or 'shallower' in Jauntspace as well. Moving deeper into Jauntspace means moving out of imagination space and closer to emotional space. These areas are more primal and nature, and tend to not have Systems as such. Also, the color of Jauntspace begins to shift as one moves into the emotional strata. Moving 'shallower' in Jauntspace takes one away from the imagination space of the Systems, and into higher conceptual areas of human cognition. Here exists more abstract shared ideas, such as language and mathematics. When moving into these areas, Jauntspace colors become encreasingly desaturated, tending towards grays and whites.

Jauntspace is not infinite, no more than the whole of human experience is infinite. While it is countless, in the sense that humans will continue to come up with new ideas, it is not endless, and as such Jauntspace does have boundaries. Generally while traversing imagination space, the traveller who is freely moving in Jauntspace will eventually find themselves looping back around as one genre leads to another leads to another and eventually back around again. If one moves too far deep into the emotional territory, they will eventually encounter the deep fear spectrum, beyond which lies the Boundary. If one moves up, towards the more abstract conceptual areas, one will eventually reach the Pale, where ideas become so abstract that they start to lose meaning.

It is worth noting here as an aside that Jauntspace is not, generally, safe. Even in the bands of imagination space where we spend most of our time, Jauntspace has a feedback effect on anything in it. Objects or people who spend too much time out in Jauntspace will, without some sort of stabilising influence, start to lose integrity as the whims and flows of Jauntspace being to intermingle with their being. Imagine it being as if, by moving into Jauntspace, you become a collection of thoughts in the shared human consciousness. While this is not quite accurate, the conclusion that we can draw from the analogy is reasonably so. You can become part of the thoughts of mankind, losing yourself in the proces; or become forgotton, parts of you falling away to become fuel for for future thoughts and ideas. The Jaunt device (which we will explain in its own section) provides shielding from these effects, but if you for some reason become stranded in Jaunt space, it is imperative that you focus, and attempt to make your way to a System. Travelling through Jaunt unaided is said to be many things by many people; some describe it as 'swimming with your mind', others feel it is more like 'walking with your thoughts in a stiff breeze'. Whatever the case, it is possible, with some focus, to 'steer' yourself in Jauntspace, and make your way to a conceptual space you find familiar. Generally this is done by trying to visualise a System you are familiar with, and focusing on that to the exclusion of all else. In much the same way Jauntspace influences you, you can influnce it, and generally, focusing in this matter will bring you to a System boundary, where you can transition to a safer locale until another Guardian team can be sent out to retrieve you.

In so far as Jauntspace is not safe in general, there are more and less safe areas in it. The emotional spectrum is particulary unsafe. As more instinctual and fundamental than imagination space, it does not afford the same flexibility that imagination space does; its negative effects tend to take place far faster. In addition, the same as the rest of Jauntspace, you influence it and it influences you. However, your influence on it is far less, and its influence on you is far greater, making focus difficult. In addition, this influence will tend to be emotional in nature corresponding to the emotional band you are in, leading you to unwarranted feelings of joy, anger, disgust, and near the Boundary, at the lowest layer, fear. Fortunately, so long as you realise these feelings are unnatural, you will tend to be pushed out of the emotional spectrum and back into imagination space. However, if your 'true' emotional state aligns with that of one of the emotional bands, it is possible to lose yourself there forever. Mental discipline, focus, and willpower are necessary pre-requisites for nearing the emotional bands.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Pale is likewise unsafe. The Pale is just beyond the high concept area, and it is where ideas start to come apart and cease to be real. It appears as a grey coronal mist, cold vapour, evaporating into the Void. It is not only the unravelling of emotional space, but the very undoing of ideas, linguistics, history, math. In short, if one goes far enough, fundamental concepts begin to disappear. It is the boundary of ideas floating into nothingness. If Fear marks the Boundary of the emotional spectrum, then math marks where the Pale becomes the Void - when mathematics begins to stop working and numbers cease to have meaning, that is the edge of the Pale. Any further, and you will become unmade. Much as traversing the emotional spectrum causes feelings to be induced in the traveller, travelling the Pale causes a person to begin to forget not just themselves, but what they are and what they have learned. Early memories are often the first to be lost, as well as inconsequential details of life. However, in severe cases, language breaks down, short term memory ceases to work, and even the idea of self can be lost. If you find yourself in the Pale, it is recommended you focus, not on yourself and your memories, but on an act of creation that you can perform yourself. Guardians trained for Pale traversel are usually trained in poetry, beatboxing, and improv. Simple recitation of already memorised facts is insufficient, and in fact, will backfire under the influence of the Pale. It is specifically the act of creation that helps keep a Guardian safe enough to return to normal imagination space.

In addition to the concerns already noted, Jauntspace itself is not a smooth uniform area. Ideas and concepts shift and swirl around, causing current and eddies, and sudden shifts in the cultural zeitgeist are though to correllate to Jaunt storms. Reinforcing this idea is the fact that as information density on the real world's internet has gone up, Jauntspace has become more difficult to navigate, and storms and other anomalies more frequent.

However, all this aside, Guardian activities generally do not coincide with high risk Jaunt interaction. The Jaunt device has come a long way, and does a lot to ensure the safety of Guardians while transiting to and from the Primary.

JAUNT DEVICES

It is worthwhile here to speak about Jaunt devices now. The Jaunt device is the invention that enables the Guardians to do the job that they do. Largely, there are two types of Jaunt devices. The Jaunt Transciever, and the Jaunt Relays. The Jaunt Transciever exists inside of the Outpost, and has its own room. The room consists of the Jaunt control console, and the Jaunt pads. Use of the Jaunt Trasciever requires an operator - the Observer.

When it is time to Jaunt someone, the person who wishes to be Jaunted stands on on of the designated Jaunt pads. The operator will then enter the coordinates (or provide a vector) to the system, and transition the person into Jaunt space. From the outside, it will appear as though the person on the Jaunt pad has simply faded from existence in a pale wash of golden sparkles. What happens from the perspective of the person being Jaunted varies from the start; some people describe a bright flash, others say that they see nothing but darkness fading. In either case, the effect only lasts for a few seconds of momentary disorientation, and then the person will find themselves in Jauntspace, just outside of the Primary system.

If the operator has not provided them with a destination or guidance, the person will float in Jauntspace, and begin to drift, as though driven by currents. Their trajectory may be modified by their current mental state or focus; official guidance is to focus hard on a specific system, and attempt to make your way there.

However, normally, the operator will continue to Observe the people or objects that have been Jaunted. The Jaunt Transciever provides the power, and the operator provides guidance. Through the act of Observation, the operator helps guide people and objects to their destination. The operator's Observation and the Jaunt Transciever also help shield people and objects from some of the negative effects that can occur due to staying in Jaunt too long.

In short, the Jaunt Transciever transitions a person into Jauntspace, and provides them with initial momentum to get them to their destination.

The Observer can be thought to be like a person watching television and imagining what is happening on the screen to be 'real'. Since Jauntspace is the imagination space of all known intelligent life, and the Systems in it figments of the imagination, then what the Observer helps do is imagine the Jauntee's 'realness' in imagination space. This role is not strictly necessary; a person in Jauntspace is Aware of themself, and so can be said to be Observing themself. However, doing so against the inexplorable tide of Jaunt energies is very tiring, and an untrained person can rapidly find themselves lost or disoriented in Jauntspace. Left out there long enough, they can become less 'real', and eventually be degraded into nothingness in Jaunt. An external trained Observer helps resist these effects, and in addition can help steer a person to a System by focusing on imagining the person making their way there.

Jaunt Relays are simpler devices compared to Jaunt Transcievers, requiring less power, and not needing an Observer. However, they are less useful. A Jaunt Relay can help the Jaunt Transciever 'lock on' to a specific location to ease the Jaunt Proces. The Jaunt Relay will exhibit a 'pull' on any Jaunts directed to it from a Jaunt Transciever, making Jaunts safer and a little bit faster. Used by itself, a Jaunt Relay can transition a person or object into Jaunt Space, however, they can do nothing further than that.

A common question is whether it is possible to use the Jaunt to travel from one place on Prime Earth (or one place in the Primary System) to another. The short answer is no. Entering the Primary System is particularly difficult, and attempting to force a person to appear in a specific place in the Primary has resulted in few successes and many accidents. The slightly longer answer is yes, with caveats. One Jaunt Transciever can transition you out to Jaunt, and a different one can bring you back into the Primary. And with a particularly talented Observer, and with a large allocation of power to the Jaunt Transciever, it is possible to Jaunt a person to somewhere specific on Earth. This has not often been done successfully, however, and has resulted in the unmaking of people, the death of Observers, and the destruction of the Jaunt Transciever from feedback. Other incidents include 'slingshotting' the subject being Jaunted into deep Jauntspace, and another event became what is now called the 'Spaghetti Incident'.

We no longer try to Jaunt someone to specific locations in the Primary System. Check out a vehicle from the motor pool, or if you are in a hurry and have clearance, request access to the transporter.

SYSTEMS

Systems are locations in Jauntspace that can be visited. It is best to perhaps think of them as self-contained universes, with their own rules and physics that only applies inside of the System. When viewed from Jauntspace, Systems can take on many and varied apperances, ranging from misty opaque orbs, to islands floating in a cloud, to wavery mirage-like visions. In all cases, however, there is a dividing line between the System and Jauntspace. Where this line is may not be obvious, but when this threshold is crossed, the person encountering it will switch from one space to the other.

What happens when entering a system varies as much as their appearance from outside does, but is almost always accompanied by a brief moment of disorientation as the mind of the person entering the System reorients itself to the System paradigms.

Entering a System is simple in the general, but complex in the specifics. Generally, you will appear somewhere safely in the System. Where will vary from System to System. Sometimes, the Observer operating the Jaunt device will be able to steer the subject to a specific location in the System. Other times, however, you will be forced to start at the System's 'start point'. For Dungeons and Dragons Systems, for example, it is common for newcomers to appear in a specific tavern in the setting, or for Shadowrun, at a specific night club.

Once you are in a System, the System's rules apply. If you do not have a Conversion Matrix (described below), typically you will fall to the System's physics, albeit unpredictably. Most of the time we see people just appear as themselves in a System, with any equipment they have that is not part of the System becoming inert. For example, if you enter a typical Dungeons and Dragons system with a modern weapon, such a machine gun, you will appear in system with the gun - but the gun will be just a useless gun-shaped collection of parts.

Some Systems are flexible, and their reality will adjust to accomodate you; others are not, and you may find yourself unable to access resources, become transformed by the System, or be unable to interact with the System, instead existing within it as a ghost, able to observe but not interact or be interacted with. In severe cases, the System will reject you, and you will find yourself back out in Jauntspace. Very rarely, the System will unmake you.

To help with the exploration of Systems and with keeping Guardians safe, all Guardians travelling to a System are issued a Conversion Matrix.

CONVERSION MATRIXES

Note the pluralisation is intentional here, as we are talking about a device known as a Conversion Matrix, and are not talking about an actual matrix.

The Conversion Matrixes are devices that are named because they help convert a person or object fron the matrix of one rule set to the matrix of another.

Each System, including the Primary System where Earth Prime exists, has its own set of physics, or rules. Some rule sets are reasonably compatible with each other; others, less so. The purpose of the Conversion Matrix is to help bridge the gap between rule sets. It does this by keeping track of the rules it is encountering, and trying to find closest-equivalent matches to rules that are compatible with the person or object it is attached to. This is not a precise system, and often, the user of a Conversion Matrix will need to make adjustments to it on the fly. In addition, not every rule set has been encountered. More frequently encountered rule sets have more entries in the Conversion Matrixes matrix, and so will be more easily adapted.

Taking our previous example with bringing a machine gun to a Dungeons and Dragons system, in order to preserve the ability to use the gun, the Conversion Matrix will attempt to adapt the gun to something useful, such as a crossbow. Since the machine gun is, conceptually, a weapon, it may also be possible to adjust the machine gun to be, say, a sword. This example shows us two things - that items can be changed by a Conversion Matrix to fit a world, and also that conceptual distance matters. Shifting a gun to a sword in this case is possible. Shifting a gun to be a battering ram would be more difficult, and more prone to error or malfunction. Trying to shift a gun to a squirrel would almost certainly be too much, and the Conversion Matrix will, upon detecting a potential problem, either avoid or reject the shift.

The Conversion Matrix is also capable of shunting parts of a person or object into nearby Jauntspace to be re-established upon exiting a system. The easiest way to think about this is that the Conversion Matrix can serve as a bag of holding, placing objects in another dimension until you are able to retrieve them upon leaving the system. This analogy is not completely accurate, however, as the Conversion Matrix can also shunt concepts this way as well. For example, if you are a spellcaster, and you enter a System that is not capable of supporting your spellcasting ability, the Conversion Matrix can 'hide' your ability from the System, preventing you from using it - but also preventing the System from harming or rejecting you for having the ability.

The Conversion Matrix has three frequently used settings, described as such:

NATURALIZATION: The Conversion Matrix will shift you to be a naturalised, normal part of the Setting. For example, if you are an android from a science fiction setting travelling to a medieval fantasy setting, the Conversion Matrix will try to shift you to a golem, and will attempt to establish a reasonable baseline of functionality for you.

ADAPTATION: This is a more aggressive version of the Naturalization setting. While in Naturalization, the Conversion Matrix attempts to meet a lowest common denominator, the Adaptation setting will try to convert as many of your capabilities over as possible. To take the previous example, while in Naturalization mode our hypothetical android may become a simple golem, in Adaptation mode the Conversion Matrix may attempt to preserve some abilities the android has, such as perfect memory, faster reflexes, or enhanced durability. If the android has exotic abilities, it may try to convert those as well. For example, if the android was capable of shooting plasma bolts, the Conversion Matrix may attempt to see if our golem can know the Fireball spell.

TRANSMOGRIFICATION: This is riskier than either of the above options, but gives the Guardians more flexibility in approaching missions, and can result in a better 'fit' to a given System. In Transmogrification mode, the Conversion Matrix throws out almost everything originally about the person it is attached too, keeping only core mental abilities, and creates an entirely new person in a System for that person to 'be'. Again using the android example, perhaps they may choose to be a human archer.

There is another setting that is typically reserved only for those with the appropriate security clearance.

OVERRIDE: In the override setting, instead of attempting to adapt a person or object to a System, the Conversion Matrix will attempt to force the system to accept the person or object by overriding local physics and rules. This is frequently very high risk, and may require a huge amount of power, an Observer to help, or other not easily met conditions. While this is in common use in the Primary for the use of Area Conversion Matrixes for various purposes, its usage in System worlds is more risky.

Note that while the Conversion Matrix is an extremely flexible and powerful device, it does have limitations. Frequently, there will be limits on what actions it can perform in a given System, and it may or may not work, and frequently only works partially. Also, while the Conversion Matrix can grant a person abilities they may not otherwise have, it does not grant them the skills. It will attempt to map skills they already have to skills needed to perform new or different abilities, but this will often fall far short of expectations. In particular, we would like to advise Guardians to avoid the temptation to travel to a Dungeons and Dragons system, make themselves a high level wizard, and attempt the Wish spell.

Another function the Conversion Matrix provides is that of a Death Recall functionality. The Conversion Matrix is constantly sampling, comparing, and adjusting rules. As part of this, it also looks out for any indication that its operator is about to undergo an event that will result in the death of the person. In such cases, the Conversion Matrix will perform a core dump, attempting to shove the person back into Jauntspace and towards the Primary System. This functionality should not be relied upon. It frequently is only partially successful, and injuries sustained in Jauntspace or in Systems are sustained for real.

THE PRIMARY

Earth Prime exists in what we call the Primary System. It is what we know as reality, where we work, where we live, and where we play. Early theories on Jauntspace posited that our reality was merely another system, however, special properties of the Primary lead us to believe that it may be the basis for all other realities. For one, traversing the threshold between Jauntspace and the Primary is more difficult than traversing the threshold on other systems. It is believed that this wall between the Primary and Jauntspace is at least partly responsible for why discovering Jauntspace did not occur until relatively recently in history. In addition, the Primary tends not to unmake or unravel objects brought into it - it instead renders them inert rather rapidly unless they are stabilised somehow. People from other Systems also tend to fade quickly in the Primary, with the exception of those who are Aware, who show an intersting long-lasting passive stability while in the Primary. It is theorised that this is because Aware minds automatically self-Observe in the Primary.

Also, while we refer to it as the Primary System, the Primary itself does not appear to be visible in Jauntspace.

AWARENESS

Generally speaking, the people you meet in the Systems are not Aware. That is to say, they do not know about Jauntspace, the Systems, or the Primary. It is questionable whether or not they are fully sentient. However, there are rare exceptions to this, and we refer to those exceptions as being Aware. An Aware character is not just one that says they know of the metaverse (and in fact, many Systems have thier own concept of a multiverse or equivalent), but one that, somehow, has gained the necessary reflective self-awareness to know they are a real being after a fashion. Like any discussion on sentience and consciousness, a fair amount of the discussion possible here is rooted in deep philosophical questions we do not have the answer to yet. From a practical perspective, however, we know the following about an Aware character: they exhibit true consciousness, and they can exist in the Primary for an extended period of time without fading away.

Awareness is a difficult matter. It is not simply a question of intellect; there is record of a tribble exhibiting awareness. Nor is it a question of will. A number of factors seem to increase the chance of a character becoming Aware. Interaction with other Aware beings or Primary humans is one. Being exposed to the Primary in some way is another. Long running systems with rich and detailed histories have a tendency to produce an Aware character during their lifetime, with an increased chance when they reach the end of their lifetime. The mechanism here is not well understood.

In any situation, at least part of the mission of the Guardians is to try to avoid inducing Awareness into System peoples, as this frequently correlates highly with System instability (though not always; it is estimated that some 80% of the Spocks encountered have been Aware, and almost universally, their presence and actions lend a stabilising affect to their Systems. To date, they have been very good about not spreading Awareness).

An interesting quirk of Awareness is that it is frequently an exception to the rule about the difficulty of crossing the threshold from Jauntspace into the Primary. The most common result of a person arriving in the Primary unintended is as part of their Awareness event. It is theorised that this is because part of becoming Aware is reinforcing the feedback loop that exists between reality and imagination space. As the character awakens to Awareness, they briefly touch on the nature of their reality, and in turn, Observe themselves as being part of it, seperate from what they were before. This event is frequently traumatic in nature, with one character describing it as 'suddenly staring into an abyss, and realising it is not infinite, just recursive in a way that both did and did not include me'. However, after the initial Awareness event has passed, generally speaking the Aware character finds transitioning to the Primary no easier or harder than any other person.

APPENDIX B: NO BUT REALLY WHY

If you've read this far, you probably have more questions than answers. We don't have all the answers, but there is one question in particular that we want to stop and consider.

Why?

Why travel to Jauntspace at all? Before the Jaunt Incursion accident, after all, the Primary System was completely seperated from other systems. Clearly there is no need to travel to other Systems, and in fact, perhaps it would be better off, both for humanity and the Systems residents, if we left well enough alone. And for that matter, what of the ethical questions involved. Prince Hamlet in the play of the same name is merely a figure, but elevate him to Awareness, and suddenly he is a real tragedy. Why risk spreading Awareness? And for that matter, what right do we have to meddle in such wide-reaching affairs as the imagination of all humanity, even if for the purported purpose of stability?

The answer is straightforward. Because we must. Before the Jaunt Incursion accident, humanity was seperated from the forces of our imagination, content to only visit them in our minds and in our stories. However, there has always been a relationship between us and our stories. Our stories get shared, and become larger than us. We hear the stories, and become changed by them, and make our own stories, thus changing them. The relationship is not clearly that simply of creator and created, it is symbiotic.

What has changed is that parts of that relationship have now become explicit, rather than implicit. And we must change along with the situation. There is real feedback effects between the Systems and Primary.

And we are not sure the relationship is what we think it is.

There is a popular philosophical question regarding mathematics. It asks, was mathematics invented or discovered? Another way of thinking about it, is did mathematics exist before humans thought to codify it, learn about it, and expand it? In the case of Systems and imagination space, the question spills out from there. It may seem obvious that it is us that create stories, but is that the truth? Or are our minds simply attuned to Jauntspace, and as the swirls and eddies and chaos of Jauntspace occasionally gives rise to order, we find it? Perhaps it is both. Sometimes we invent an idea, and it forms in Jauntspace, building and growing as more and more people invest though into it. Or perhaps it is only a nudge from a small eddy in Jauntspace, and we catch a hold of it and nurture it. Observation in this area has been inconsistent. Sometimes we can monitor a System, both from the real world (say, during a game) and also simultaneously from the point of view of being in the System, and we can watch when actions occur and things change. Sometimes it seems the Primary goes first. Sometimes, the System. Sometimes it seems they both go first, each point of view insisting the other is wrong. We can draw no conclusions.

But despite that, the question can still be asked, why bother? We can identify Jauntspace and its many myriad wonders, and decide to stay away, to let it nurture itself as it has for all of history. Unfortunately, again, we must point to the many incidents that have happened since the Jaunt Incursion indicating that this is no longer an option for us. The Tragedy of GJ-298 showed us the damage we can do to Jauntspace, and what that means for us. The Aurora Incident shows what the Systems are capable of doing even in the Primary. Pandora's Box has been opened, and we now must tend to the consequences.

Why do we do this? We do this to protect both ourselves and the Systems.

And perhaps along the way, learn something about ourselves, and the collective shared human experience.

OOC:NAQ

Out of universe non-asked questions. Non-asked because I just posted this thing, nobody's had a chance to ask me a question yet, let alone do so frequently.

Q) What's the purpose of all this, then? A) The original Gaming Guardians was a great place to roleplay, but the comic it was based on played fast and loose with conventions, and the roleplay followed suit. Some ideas were not well formed, and others were frequently confusing. I was hoping to make a document to serve as the basis of the Guardians reboot in lieu of relying on a webcomic that has been long defunct and is difficult to access today. Along the way, I was hoping to firm up some ideas, introduce some others, and overall make something that is more self-consistent and hopefully also easier for newcomers, if we get any, to understand. I recognise that this is a lot wordy for the latter purpose, and plan on making a shorter more succint summary later. Also, before making the short summary, I was hoping to get feedback on this, the complicated version. Shed what people don't like, keep what people do, add some things people want to see. If we can get the long wordy version done right, that'll make it easier to make a shorter, punchier, more accurate version.

Q) Observers weren't in the original GG. What the hell? A) I liked the idea, and felt it played well into some of the concepts I was trying to bandy about in reworking Jauntspace a bit. Also, one of the problems with Jaunt devices is that they are technological in nature. Generally, unless they are very large or very expensive to make, technological devices are easy to duplicate. I wanted to try to put in some ideas that would resist unnecessary proliferation. Basically, with the Jaunt device, a possible question is, why aren't there so many of these that they become impossible to police? One in every system, one in every household? While this could be handled by either ignoring the problem or simply handwaving a solution, I felt that having the Jaunt Device require a person in the loop would help forward the idea that no, we can't just spread these around everywhere.

Q) What is beyond the Pale or the Boundary? A) Death, probably. Or maybe enlightenment? But I'd bank on death.

Q) What's with the Primary? A) Good question. I was not sure how to handle it. On the one hand, it seems like it should have a privileged position as to why it was important and not just another System. Other ideas I had were that it -was- just another System, but one that was, somehow, as a system, its own Observer. We could also just possibly treat it as a System and consider no further attention on it. Some other ideas I had about the Primary is that it would tend to be corossive to System objects and people unless they were Aware or stabilised; this was to help cut down on possible System object proliferation in the Primary. What would happen to society if introduced to magic wands and warp drives could be an interesting story, but not one we've normally examined, and I decided to put some effort into make such things difficult.

Q) What's with the long philosophical diatribe in the last section? A) I wanted to provide an out for people who look at the Guardians and reasonably ask the question, so if you write a tragedy that generates a System, and even one of the inhabitants of that System become aware, are you evil? I wanted to provide a way for the answer to be no. I made it ambiguous, though, because maybe some people want to interact with that. Another part of that section was to try to definitely answer the question of why bother interacting with Jauntspace at all? Hopefully I provided a satisfying answer.

Q) What about aliens, can we interact with their imagination space? A) I didn't cover this in this document, as that seemed to be just way too much for what is supposed to be an introductory pamphlet handed to new Guardians (and it's already way too much, no need to @ me). Anyway, Jauntspace is the Primary/Humanity's imagination space. Alien minds would presumably have their own, especially since there's no reason to assume thier intelligence would look similar at all to ours. Alien Jauntspaces exist somewhere beyond the Pale, and have their own Boundaries based on the evolution of minds in their worlds.

Short version, Jauntspace is not a shortcut to faster-than-light communication with other species. And a game where we try for first contact in our reality is a very different game that what we've got.

Q) Will this tie in with the original Gaming Guardians? A) Names and concepts, sure. Timeline? Not as written at this juncture, no. I am of the opinion a fresh reboot would be better, for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. Also, since the original roleplay was, after all, based on a webcomic that none of us own, I have made some minor effort to file off the serial numbers, so to speak. If everyone's okay with it, I'd like to go all-in and completely sand off the serial numbers, put on a new one, and slap a different coat of paint on it. Name changes, mostly.

Q) What'd you miss? A) I really wanted to talk more about how mixing systems is dangerous, and the consequences of doing things like trying to fast heal in a system you weren't injured in. And also how a System would probably reject you if you tried to get back too fast from a Death Recall that you managed to, somehow, not get too badly mangled by. I had concepts here for how to make these ideas have real heft to them in the setting. For the Death Recall, the idea is that interaction with the System is a two-way street; you are interacting with it as much as it is interacting with you. Trying to jump back in too fast when the System thinks you're 'dead' is very risky. For the healing thing, similar warning to what I put in the Conversion Matrix section; mixing systems too much is complicated, and possibly very risky.

Q) What do you want out of us? A) If you're reading this and have read this far, you have my sincere thanks. I'd like feedback, both on editing and content. This is a rough draft, and it has been some time since I've done writing that wasn't documentation for programs. Also, I am not trying to dictate what a Guardians reboot should be; I am just creating a single idea for what it might be. I'd like very much if we could reach a reasonable consensus, and go from there.

#202008-05 #Guardians

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phinnsyreads · 5 years

Audio

Mr. Parker.

Don't look so surprised, you have to have known this day was going to come eventually. One of your fellow boarders was kind enough to let me in. They won't be disturbing us, so please, sit down.

Let me make sure I have the right Jackson Parker.

55 years old. Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Multiple tours in Vietnam. Sentenced to death row for killing his wife’s lover. Date of execution May 19, 1979. Now a professional waiter at one of New York City's finest bistros. And…anyone ever tell you you look like Ernie Hudson? You know, the black Ghostbuster. Maybe I'm just thinking of him because the sequel's coming out in a couple of weeks. Whatever, forget it.

One thing they don't have in your file is your unshakable faith. You believe, in a way that so few others do, that everything happens for a reason.

I might feel the same way if I was one of the rare D-classes who have escaped termination. I have to say, you certainly earned this little life you've made for yourself here.

I saw the footage and the pictures from after the…event. I don't know if you ever had it fully explained to you what happened there. We learned that the creature you decommissioned was responsive to the beliefs of its viewers. One of our guys must have got it into his head that the thing was going to kill everybody. And because he thought that, it did.

Until it got to you, of course.

I know your exit survey was a little while ago, so to refresh your memory, the way you phrased it had to do with "falling back on your faith." You showed, in the face of this blood-drenched monstrosity, unwavering belief that you would make it out of there alive. And because you believed, it was true.

Listen…I'm sorry about what happened to you.

We used to be so callous. Hell, it was to the point of being stupid.

There may — or may not — be a thing that'll kill you if you blink in the same room as it. So far as we can tell, this thing also shits all over the place. Almost every time we sent some guys in to clean up its mess — snap! Their life's over, just like that. Only just built a robot that can do the cleaning a couple of years ago. It sickens me to think about all the men who never came out of that room, all because we didn't think of them as human. Just a letter and numbers.

But what we need you for, it can't be done by a machine. Look, I've been thinking about this a lot lately…there's something remarkable about the human heart. Don't you agree? No matter how much we want to give up or say "no" to life, the heart still beats. That's all it knows how to do. It keeps on beating: "yes-yes, yes-yes." It's admirable, something so resolute in its work.

And I know how you work, Mr. Parker. You know I'm here for a reason. And I think you know you're meant to do something that will save a lot of lives. If you do this for us — if you do this for me — we'll do everything in our power to make sure you get whatever you want for the rest of your days.

I think I can tell what that expression means.

Let me know when you're ready to go, D-14134.

---------

Item #: SCP-1983

Object Class: Keter (Presumed Neutralized)

Special Containment Procedures: Outpost 54 has been built on the land surrounding SCP-1983 and disguised as a chemical plant. The "plant" building serves as barracks for MTF Chi-13 ("Choir Boys"). All entry points into Outpost 54 are to be guarded at all times. Personnel will review Document 1983-12, which details the cover story to be given to any civilians expressing curiosity.

All MTF personnel must profess strong religious beliefs, per Chi-13 protocols. All ammunition stocked must have a silver or silver-tipped projectile. A 24-hour watch is to be maintained on the front door of SCP-1983-1. Guards are to engage any instances of SCP-1983-2 on sight. No personnel is to approach within five meters of SCP-1983-1 outside of scheduled testing protocol.

UPDATE: Following the Event 1983-23, a stand-down of Outpost 54 has been authorized. A skeleton crew will remain to monitor SCP-1983 for any further activity. Arms intended for use against instances of SCP-1983-2 are to be maintained at Outpost 54 armory.

Description: SCP-1983-1 is a one-story farmhouse in ███████ County, Wyoming. It was abandoned in 1968 after a series of ritual murders, allegedly performed by a "Satanic" cult. Please see capture logs for SCP-████ for further details.

The front door of SCP-1983-1, when opened, appears to contain a spatial anomaly. Neither matter nor light has been observed to exit the doorway, save for instances of SCP-1983-2 (though the anomaly is exothermic).

SCP-1983-1 is accessible through other entrances, including windows, the back door, and entrances cut into the back of SCP-1983-1. However, the front room does not appear to exist inside of SCP-1983-1. Doors that should lead to the front room instead lead to other doors inside the building. Measurements of the inside and outside of SCP-1983-1 are inconsistent. Holes cut through the interior walls of SCP-1983-1 that should lead to the front room lead instead to the outside walls around the front of SCP-1983-1, but stop three meters on either side of the doorway. Attempts to drill into the front room of SCP-1983-1 from the outside have led to the exposure of smaller portions of the anomaly, though instances of SCP-1983-2 have not been observed to exit them. Further attempts to breach the wall have been forbidden by O5-03, due to the possibility of allowing increased potential for instances of SCP-1983-2 to appear.

SCP-1983-2 are bipedal creatures approximately 1.8 meters tall. They are vaguely humanoid, and entirely black in color. They are highly aggressive and will engage any human on sight. When an instance of SCP-1983-2 comes into contact with a human, they extend an upper limb into the human's chest cavity, without any apparent damage to skin or tissues. Through unknown means, they then extract the heart, killing the human. Once it has acquired a human heart, the instance of SCP-1983-2 will return to SCP-1983-1.

Silver munitions fired while offering prayer is the only known method of killing SCP-1983-2. The precise form of the prayer or religion of the supplicant does not appear to matter, so long as the prayer is sincere. Once killed, the bodies of SCP-1983-2 appear to "disintegrate," leaving a small layer of sulfur.

SCP-1983 was discovered after a series of mysterious deaths in the vicinity of ███████ County. Foundation investigators encountered instances of SCP-1983-2 and were able to trace them back to SCP-1983-1.

Addendum 1: A team from MTF Chi-13 was sent through the front doorway to attempt to investigate the anomaly. They did not return. However, shortly after they entered, the front door appeared, closing in the frame. No further manifestations of SCP-1983-2 appeared.

Addendum 2: A second assault team entered SCP-1983-1 to determine the fate of the first assault team. They did not return. The door did not close. Shortly after new manifestations of SCP-1983-2 appeared, Agent Morris entered the doorway, which closed shortly after.

Addendum 3: On May 23, 1989, D-14134 was given a closed circuit camera tethered to a monitor by a 25-meter cord. He was instructed to examine as much of the area as he could, and then attempt to return. Once through the doorway, feed from the camera was interrupted. The cord was pulled taut, and then snapped.

Several hours afterward, the anomaly in SCP-1983-1 disappeared. Inside, the desiccated remains of several agents were discovered, as well as Document 1983-15, an informal SCP report written by an agent within the anomaly. It appears as follows:

Item #: Pending

Object Class: Keter. God help you.

Special Containment Procedures: You're going to die, you poor dumb fuck.

This isn't a threat. I'm Agent Barclay. I'm in the middle of this goddamned thing, and I'm telling you, if you're here? You're going to die. I'm probably already dead.

So that's out of the way. Let's get to the containment procedures. There's really only one. Close the goddamned door. You aren't going to get back through there. You've probably already tried. But we know they can get out, if they try hard enough. That's how we found this fucking place. Hopefully, you've already done that. I know we did, once we gave up on getting out through there. If you didn't, then you go straight back and get that door closed. That is your only priority right now. You're going to die anyway. Might as well do some good before you're gone.

Description: So, here's a story, tell me if you've heard it before. The Foundation gets reports of trouble in Bumfuck, USA. Cattle and wildlife are dying mysteriously. Some people turn up missing. When a body shows up, autopsy finds the heart missing. Not cut out, not torn out, just gone. Empty space in the middle of the chest.

They find some sort of pitch-black things floating around. Some brain at the Foundation has seen something like them before, figures out how to kill them. Silver bullets, and pray to God as you fire. Literally. For some reason, that makes it work. Doesn't matter which God, but you damn well better mean it.

I can't, anymore. Not after seeing the nest.

Anyway, Foundation figures out where it's all coming from. Some house in the middle of Bumfuck. No one's lived there in years, not since yadda yadda, murder, cult, rituals, bullshit. The main thing is, these things keep appearing out of the front door. A team goes in, and they never come back out. But then again, neither do the monsters. A sane person would say, Good enough, keep an eye on it, kill anything that moves. But this is the Foundation.

You're a tough agent from MTF-Whatever-the-fuck. Maybe Sequere Nos, maybe Choir Boys, like me. You go bust down the door and run inside, and that's it. You're fucked.

The living room was bad enough. That's where they got O'Brien. They reached in, and suddenly he keeled over, and one of them took off with his heart in its… claws, I guess?

They're less distinct here. You probably noticed that. They're like shadows. Stay away from the light. I know that sounds stupid, but think about it. In the light, shadows are stronger. They have edges. When it's dark, they're indistinct. They can hardly touch you, and they don't see very well. I think they see by your shadow. I don't know. I'm just pulling at straws here, I'll be honest.

You've probably tried going back out the door, but if you haven't, don't. It leads to some place even worse. There aren't any monsters, but… Jones went too far from the house, and I swear to God, he started to melt. Things started popping out of him, and… All you need to know is he didn't make it back. That's when we closed the door.

So, we started moving through the house. We kept to the light at first, before we wised up. Three of us gone that way. But we got a pretty good picture of our surroundings.

This place? It's big. It's not just the farmhouse. It's like… It's like they stole bits and pieces of a lot of places, and stuck them all together. There's some bits that look like an apartment, some that look like a shopping mall, and even what I swear is a closet from my old high school. Same patterns on the tiles and everything.

There's also bits that are made out of… stuff. It's black, like the shadow-things, and it's mostly in the well-lit places. If the lights go out, you can stick your hand through. I don't recommend it. That's how we lost Torres. Something grabbed him, pulled him through. The hole wasn't big enough for his head, but he still went through, eventually.

So, stay away from the light places, but watch your step when it's dark.

Of course, there's no way out. We figured that out too. Any door you find, it either just leads to another room in this nuthouse, or it leads out there, and it's pretty obvious we can't live there. So it's wait until you starve to death or one of those things gets you. Great bunch of choices, huh?

There's one thing you can do. I couldn't go through with it, but maybe you can. It won't help you live, I don't think, but it's… I think it's important. I'm pretty sure someone's going to have to, or these things are going to get out eventually.

This place is stolen from lots of places. So I'm thinking there have to be other doors. We've closed all the ones we've found, but what if they get opened again? And the Foundation doesn't find them in time? Hell, they don't even know about closing the doors. I'm just hoping they figure out that if someone goes in, the things might stop getting out. And that's assuming everyone's smart enough to close the door after they come in.

So, I think I figured out a way to stop these things. It's the nest.

I only saw it once, for a few minutes. We followed one of the bastards after they got Denning's heart. It took it into a room that I guess is in the middle of this whole place. It's all black stuff, and they've dragged in every kind of light they could find, I guess. Lamps, flashlights, candles, you name it. Some of them were carrying more in as we watched. Anyway, at the middle, there's a big pile of hearts. Just tossed in a heap, and torn open, every one. They threw Denning's heart on the pile, and it started to beat, and then pulse, and then thrash around. Then it tore open, and one of those things pulled itself out. It shook itself, started to grow and then went right to work. The gross thing is that, torn apart as they were, the hearts kept beating. I swear I felt a twinge in my own chest.

There were shadows in the place. I don't mean the monsters, I mean real shadows, of people. Only there was no one there to cast them. They were coming from the hearts. A new one appeared at the same time as the hatching monster, and started trying to pull away, but it couldn't.

That was when I ran. I couldn't take it, you understand? I wasn't trained for this kind of shit. I heard the others behind me. I don't know if they were trying to stop me, or if the bastards had spotted us, but we got separated. I found a nice, dark closet, and I've been hiding in here ever since. I've been writing by penlight. I turn it off whenever I hear one of them getting close. It's worked, so far.

I can't go any further. I've got a few shots left in my gun, but I can't pray anymore, not and mean it. Not after I saw the nest. But you, if you've found this, you've got to be an agent too. Maybe you're stronger than I was. If you can, go in and destroy the nest. Destroy every last heart. If you do, maybe it'll kill them. It's the only thing I can think of. You'll probably die doing it, but you're dead anyway. So what's it matter to you how it happens?

Me, I'm going to try and get this report back to the living room, which I hope is where you found it. Then I'm going to make sure they can't use my heart to make another one of those things.

Good luck. Morituri te salutant.

SCP-1983 is presumed to have been neutralized by D-14134, who was posthumously awarded the Foundation Star (one of only two awarded to Class-D Personnel). Due to information contained in Document 1983-15, it is believed that the anomaly was not localized, as previously believed, and renewed resources have gone into attempting to locate similar incidents.

===

[“Mr. Parker” is an SCP Tale by Erazm.]

[The voice of the agent was provided by @phinnsy.] [The voice of Agent Barclay was provided by @lapis-liberalis.]

===

[Enjoy the podcast? Consider supporting us on Patreon! Patrons get access to bonus Joke episodes, outtakes, and can even request episodes on specific SCP objects.]

#phinnsy #scp foundation #reading #voiceover #storytelling #podcast #sci-fi #horror #urban legend #folklore #fiction #scp 1983 #mr parker #scp tale #halloween

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drmaqazi · 8 months

Text

JEWISH TERRORISM & GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN THE OCCUPIED HOLY LAND SINCE 1948, AND CONTINUING WITH THE KILLING OF HELPLE & INNOCENT, CHILDREN & OLD PEOPLE UNDER THE EYES OF IMPOTENT WORLD LEADERS, GOD FORBID, AMEN.

January 11, 2016, Israeli Author to Le Monde: ‘We Live Under an Apartheid Regime’

by Shlomo Papirblat, Haartez, 1/11/2016

January 17, 2016, Israeli settlers scrawl hate graffiti on Jerusalem church, Ma’an News Agency, 1/17/2016

“In 2012, suspected extremists spray-painted ‘Jesus, son of a bitch,’ in Hebrew, with the words ‘price tag,’ a term used by Israeli extremists to mark nationalist-motivated hate crimes.

“Abu Nassar said in the past that the extremists responsible for the attacks were not prosecuted by the Israeli government in a ‘serious way.’

Dormition Abbey dates back to the 5th century, and is thought to be the place where the Virgin Mary died.

”

February 17, 2016, IDF soldiers electrocute blindfolded Palestinian for fun, laugh while filming (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

February 24, 2016, ‘Cruel, inhuman and degrading:’ Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees exposed by NGOs

see also: https://twitter.com/Robert.../status/977853085757276160

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com,

March 28, 2016, Israeli Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef preaches that Gentiles have no place in “Israel” except as servants who observe the rabbis’ Noachide Laws.

“According to Jewish law, it’s forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noachide laws.”

“Who will be the servers? Who will be our assistants? Therefore, we leave them here in the land.”

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Says non-Jews Forbidden From Living in the Land of Israel, Haaretz, March 28, 2016

Chief rabbi: Non-Jews shouldn’t be allowed to live in Israel, Times of Israel, March 28, 2016

April 11, 2016, Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) destroyed 523 Palestinian homes and civilian structures in the West Bank since the start of 2016

May 22, 2016, New Israeli death penalty would apply to non-Jews only: Likud source

but is actually consistent with an old law from the Torah, Sanhedrin 57a:

July 12, 2016, IDF's chief rabbi-to-be Eyal Karim permits raping women in wartime

August 4, 2016, Israeli Border Police Bully 8-year old Palestinian Girl and “Confiscate” (steal) Her Bicycle

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com,

December 12, 2016, Lawyer of Israelis who beat to death black non-Jew for talking to white Jewesses claims they were trying to help him (use Google Translate) http://bit.ly/2hbrPDu

December 22, 2016, Israeli soldiers sentenced to three months

community service for killing unarmed Palestinian teen

December 27, 2016, Israeli forces killed 31 Palestinian youths in the occupied West Bank in 2016

0 notes

itsnicolechu · 5 years

Text

.: Modules 3 and 4 :.

Note: This blog includes photos but I also have a vlog! It will be uploaded on YouTube and I will leave the URL below. It could be more helpful to watch the vlog to understand more about my barangay! If you can, read the blog on your desktop!

Busy as a first-year accountancy student, whose schedule extends from Monday to Saturday, I’ve always been diligent in going home every Saturday afternoon and coming back on Sunday night. Yes, I live in a dorm, and my permanent home is in Barangay Rosario, Rodriguez, Rizal.

It takes at least 1.5 hours to go back, and it gets extremely difficult to find a PUV during rush hour. So, I need to be patient in finding one and make the most out of my limited time at home.

I remembered that I still had two modules to pass and that my time is running out. Thank goodness that my brother was supportive and scheduled an appointment for me to interview a barangay official!

So on November 29, I rushed to my home to print the guide questions and prepared for a bit, and after an hour, at 4 PM, my brother accompanied me to the barangay hall. It was a walking distance from my house, but since I have limited time to interview (since the hall closes at 5 PM), my brother and I rode the motorcycle.

The barangay hall

When I arrived at the barangay hall, miss Ana Victoria Angeles, in charge of Preparedness under the BDRRMC, was there to be interviewed. Although hesitant if she’ll be able to answer my questions, I assured her that she will be fine. In reality, I was also hesitant at first, but she proved me wrong. She was extremely helpful and informative.

Ms. Angeles in the barangay hall

Me with Ms. Angeles

But hey, before I start with the interview, let’s have some facts about my barangay!

Map of Barangay Rosario

Barangay Rosario is one of the eleven barangays in Rodriguez, Rizal. It is also close to the municipal hall, church, and plaza. It is a small barangay in comparison to other barangays in the municipality however it is home for the low lands of Sitio Libis.

Sitio Libis was one of the severely affected areas in Rizal, or probably the whole Philippines when the typhoon Ondoy struck in 2009. It was somehow near our house and I remember seeing from the news where the place is flooded up to the roofs of the houses. My cousin and his own family live there so it’s natural that we know what happened to their belongings after the typhoon.

In connection to floods, the hazards that are usual in barangay Rosario is really typhoon and its effect, flooding. Barangay Rosario is also adjacent to Marikina River, so whenever there’s rain, people from Sitio Libis already lookout for the overflowing of the river. This could possibly be classified as a storm surge.

And with that said, I can, with confidence, say that Barangay Rosario is vulnerable especially in Sitio Libis. The flood hazard map in red shows that most of the barangay is in high danger when it comes to flood.

Flood hazard map

Ms. Angeles told me that the people in Sitio Libis are especially vulnerable because their houses are made of light materials and wood. I’ve seen Sitio Libis before and from what I remember, there are only a few decent houses there, and most of the houses I’ve seen are not even painted. The very street is bumpy on its own and I always see a lot of children playing outside their homes.

Now that I’ve come back to Sitio Libis from my community walk, the houses still look the same--unfinished and made of light materials. Fences are made of bamboo and some houses are covered by yero instead of anything more durable like cement or blocks.

Houses that are either unfinished or made from light materials

Aside from the many children I’ve seen, I’ve also seen elderly people. From what Ms. Angeles said, they are the first priority to evacuate when there’s a flood. There are also the disabled, and they are also part of the priority.

A kind senior citizen who allowed me to interview him (watch the vlog for the interview)

However, during our interview, Ms. Angeles assured me that they attend seminars and make plans before they try and simulate the situation where there are other organizations who observe how they fare in the simulation. They also give out contingency plan (which includes information such as community risk profile, household risk profile, and evacuation household plan) and go-bags to the families in the barangay while they were also given equipment to be used in times of floods or other disasters. All the help were from non-government organizations and Ms. Angeles says that that’s one proof that the barangay still needs help. The barangay is not necessarily not improving since the barangay officials try to help the community. Recently, they placed garbage bins for segregation in different areas in the barangay. I remember walking home and seeing one of them, but after some weeks it disappeared (remember that I go home every weekend!).

Household Preparedness Plan that was distributed by the BDRRMC

The go-bag which includes a flashlight and whistle

The waste management bins as documented by the BDRRMC before distributing them

Let me elaborate on one of the barangay’s disaster preparation which I mentioned in the first part of the previous paragraph. Ms. Angeles shared with me that they held a simultaneous flood drill in July 2019 wherein they first attended a seminar and then the organization that observed them first taught them and then gave the BDRRMC scenarios which the team should think of a solution for every scenario. For example, what will they do when there’s a flood? So when the actual simulation happened, the organization observed the preparedness of the barangay. How they will evacuate and how they will give warnings were some of the things that were observed. The BDRRMC gave out first, second, and third warnings and used color-coded flags. So when there was sudden flooding that happened, the BDRRM knew what they had to do--they gave warnings and hit the siren and people were alerted.

The simultaneous flood drill as documented by the BDRRMC

The siren as documented by the BDRRMC

The siren at Libis Court as I have found it

Ms. Angeles also shared with me some of their projects. She said they were making early warning signs for evacuation. The signs were in English but it also had Filipino translations. I tried finding them during the community walk, however, I didn’t have the chance to go around the barangay properly when I had the walk. (My sister who was accompanying me had to go home because a friend of my Mom was there to give her things to be brought back to the US) Still, she showed me how it looked like but I was unable to take a picture of the printed tarpaulin version.

Flood Early Warning Signs that will be printed as bigger signs

She also showed me their equipment such as stretcher, buoy, lifesaver jackets, medical kits, etc.

BDRRM equipment

As part of BDRRM, Ms. Angeles said that they know how to give first aid. They know very well where people will be placed during the evacuation, as well as their supplies/food/donations/rations. The school (Eulogio Rodriguez Elementary School) becomes the main evacuation center and the rooms have designations.

Eulogio Rodriguez Elementary School

However, Ms. Angeles says that some become stubborn and do not go back to their houses once the flood goes down because of the donations. However, they make sure that the area where the evacuees live is safe before they make them go back to their houses. They also help them as much as they can.

When I went to Libis Court, there were people stationed at the barangay outpost and they helped us go near the river. On the way there, trashes were everywhere in the field, and there were signs of burning trashes, which contributes to global warming. (see vlog if possible)

From the small part of barangay Rosario that I have visited, I’ve seen a lot of hazardous practices such as non-segregation of garbage. Even when there’s a garbage bin, there are still trashes not so far from it. Also, I’ve mentioned in the previous paragraph that there were signs of burning trashes in Sitio Libis and it’s also a very bad habit considering it contributes to global warming and climate change, two things that affect everyone. There was even a sign in Sitio Libis that says that it is prohibited to burn solid waste, yet it was not followed even when there’s a fine. Another hazardous practice is the scaffolding and construction materials that are very near the sidewalks. Some cement blocks are even occupying a part of the street which may contribute to traffic especially when it’s a school day. All of these lead to the vulnerability of the barangay. In my opinion, I think all these happen in the barangay because perhaps they’re not uneducated about it, but maybe misguided instead, or maybe there is a lack of repetition of information that could lead to non-retention of how people should behave. The local government or the barangay could probably use some frequent reminders to people by visiting the places at least once a week for around two months, and then come back again after a long time and see if things have changed. It could also help if the barangay officers encouraged the people more and ask the people themselves why they behave that way. Communication is key, in my opinion.

Trashes dumped near the waste management bins

Despite having waste bins, people do not segregate

Despite being prohibited, people still burn their trash

The scaffoldings looking dangerous and the construction materials occupying space in the street

Meanwhile, the safest and best practices I’ve seen are probably from those who really segregate their trashes in the waste management bins. It was only recently “introduced” to the barangay so props to those who made effort in segregating their wastes. However, if practiced continuously, these practices will prove useful to the whole community. Everyone will be disciplined even without the guidance of the officials. That in itself is a huge help to mother nature, as people nowadays only cause nature to deteriorate. For the good of all the people in the world, and as one of the countrymen who are immediately affected by climate change, the change must start within us.

People making use of the waste management bins placed in front of the school

As I’ve said, the change must start within us. The Philippines is very prone to suffering from the effects of disasters. The very location of the Philippines, a Southeast Asian country surrounded by bodies of water makes it very susceptible to flooding and storm surge. The Philippines is also part of the Pacific Ring of Fire meaning there are a lot of volcanoes in the country and the fault lines are dangerously situated here as well. As a developing country, we, the citizens have the responsibility to change our behavior and the government has a responsibility to educate and help us as much as possible to “lessen” if not avoid the effects of disasters.

But how should we address these issues? First, I think we have to be united with our goals. Our goals must be clear. We must have short and long term goals and key indicators to tell if we’re achieving those goals or making progress with them. Poverty is one of the reasons why many areas in the Philippines are vulnerable, but I think the answer here is proper guidance. With the help of the government and non-government organizations, every barangay will develop and learn how they can de independent, solve issues on their own, and look out for each other. The participatory approach is a helpful way to engage with the people and encourage them more to be proponents and not just beneficiaries of any program. If every barangay will be able to do that, then the country as a whole will be able as well. A country must be composed of individuals who pursue the same goal in order to develop.

Now, how can I, who is still a student, be able to help? On a small scale, I can start by going to social media and posting for awareness on what we should do when disasters strike. I can also start by telling my family and relatives who live near me how we will be prepared if there is an unforeseen disaster. Also, I can share this blog with the barangay officers so they know at least one point of view from their constituents. At the very least, I think I can do all these. Might as well prepare a good go-bag while I can and keep food that won’t get spoiled for a long time. As a citizen, I should also participate in topics like this more often. I think it would be fun and educational to converse with other students of my age from other barangays and hear their opinions as well. Maybe we could get something out of that and do a project about it.

With all that I have said, here are some of the things I have noticed during my kwentuhan and community walk:

Good points:

- The barangay is small so it is easier to navigate inside the barangay

- When there’s a flood, it is easier to evacuate to somewhere near like the school or the court/plaza.

- There is a loud siren used to warn the people if they need to evacuate.

- There is a business continuity plan where businesses near the barangay are in agreement with the barangay to help them in times of need

- The municipal hall is close to the barangay so it could be advantageous when the barangay needs help, the municipal hall will be able to help immediately.

Bad points:

- The barangay hall is a bit far from those in Sitio Libis who might really need help the most. However, there are barangay outposts and the people I’ve seen so far are genuinely concerned with their fellows.

- The people are not exactly disciplined. The waste management bins that were placed in some areas have been missing already. Even when there are trash bins, people dump their trashes elsewhere.

- There was only a dike as protection from flooding. The dike is also an indication if evacuation must be done.

- The barangay is not sustainable in itself in times of need. While there are businesses who promised to help in times of need, the budget of the barangay is small because the barangay is small. So even if the barangay is suddenly hit by a strong storm, the current budget for BDRRM might not be sufficient.

I have also observed with my own eyes that there is a huge difference with the way of living in Sitio Libis (down the Barangay Rosario) than compared to my neighbors (upper, safer part of the barangay). The path itself is bumpy and uneven, while the sewer is very open and a bit shallow considering that flooding happens during strong storms.

These are so far my reflection for my barangay. Thanks for reading! I hope my reflection becomes useful.

URL to the vlog: https://youtu.be/XnhSneKtoNs

I’ll announce if it has finished uploading!

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sergeant-morozov · 5 years

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Outpost (Metro OCs)

The reich outpost seemed quiet, the lamps on the soldiers' helmets were the only things Nika could see in the dark. Night was falling down quickly over the destroyed scenery and it made the red sniper hurry with his plan, his plan was to get some critical information from the outpost and return with documents and anything that could help fight the reich in the tunnels and on the surface. Nika sneaked around the fences to find any weak points which could give him a "backdoor" entry, as he got closer to the front gate of the tall wire fence a light shined his eyes and he heard yelling from the other side. As the bullets started flying the sniper ran for cover and soon the outpost was rattled like a hornet's nest, soldiers running across the yard. The electricity on the fence was turned off and the main gate got opened, soon the outside of the gated area was also flooded with alerted enemies. Nika saw his only opportunity to get in and he jumped against the fence then quickly climbed to the other side, landing into a bush. A soldier heard the sticks crackling and came running towards the bush, Nika however stayed still and waited for the soldier to notice him. After the slight touch of the soldier's glove the sniper grabbed the soldier and pulled him into the bush before strangling him unconscious. Nika teared off the uniform and wore it on top of his own clothing, he even hid his sniper rifle and took the soldier's gun. He then joined the hunt for the intruder and stayed with a random small group of soldiers who took him as one of them immediately.

Then everyone started calming down and continuing their patrols and such but the undercover sniper started his spying mission by walking in to report some false information so that he could get close to the possible documents and maybe even eavesdrop some calls between the outpost generals. As he was walking in the broken apartment ruin's hallway he walked past a heavy gunner who immediately stopped walking after Nika passed him, the sniper didn't think much of it but the gunner however continued to tailgate him slowly with some distance. The sniper heard someone yelling about the "false intruder alarm" and got closer to the doorway, he started acting as if he was guarding the doorway while trying his best to catch anything important from the yelling. "Guten abend, kamerad." Nika could hear a fake friendly voice right next to him and snapped to look towards the person next to him, a heavy gunner with his hands behind his lower back and a shotgun pipe pointing up behind his shoulder. "What?" Nika looked confused which only got the reich gunner to cross his arms over his chest. "You don't know German?" The gunner's smug voice got Nika to get annoyed of the taller man. "No, don't you have a round to make?" Nika growled at the gunner who then harshly put his hand on the sniper's shoulder. "Why are you just standing there like a donkey? Shouldn't YOU be patrolling near the fence, hm?" The gunner's low voice got Nika to fear that his cover was about to blow, he pushed the gunner's hand off of his shoulder and chuckled nervously; "Hahhah- Yeeah, but I got commanded here after the alert. My friend is in there to report the- uh- thing." But the enemy wasn't having that and grabbed Nika by the vest before dragging him away from the headquarters. The sniper tried to resist but it was useless, he couldn't straight up struggle because it would attract more eyes onto him and therefore more questions and suspicion.

"You really should reconsider your job.." The gunner said under his low breath and shoved the sniper into a small office with nothing else in it than a desk and few bookshelves. Nika tripped on his legs and fell to the floor, the door was closed and lightly barricaded with a small rotten couch which the heavy gunner pushed in front of the door. The sniper got up from the floor and rushed over to the gunner but before he could even say anything he received a nasty punch to his face which got his nose bleeding. "What the fuck comrade?! I'm one of you!" Nika yelled while still trying to maintain his cover but the gunner took his shotgun from his back and pointed it at the sniper. "Comrade? Fucking commie.." The gunner walked slowly towards the sniper who's cover was by now definitely exposed, Nika started taking steps back to keep a safe distance to the heavily armored enemy until his lower back hit the edge of the office table in the middle of the room. "You really don't know how well I know the faces in here? I work here every other day!" The gunner tried to hit Nika to the head with the butt of the gun but the sniper dodged it in time and the gunner dented the table. Nika moved closer to the bookshelves and waited for the enemy to get closer to him, the sniper saw some books that he could use to hit the enemy. "Well that sucks, a boring life for a dumb bitch like you who can't keep his nose out from other people's businesses." Nika intentionally tried to annoy the enemy but the gunner stayed cool, the sniper slyly grabbed a book but before he could even lift it, the gunner shoulder charged at him and almost squished him against the shelves, it got him to lose all air and cough his lungs out while dropping to his knees. "Pathetic rat, you're nothing but bad luck!" The gunner kicked the sniper down to his side and with a quick stomp he got the sniper's thumb dislocated and his wrist injured.

Nika tried his hardest to not whine or yelp from the pain, it would only make the outpost fire up again and get himself executed. Then he noticed the window with few boards blocking it, with quick observation he could easily tell that the boards weren't well nailed to the frames and probably had started to rot from the radiated and acidic rain. He got up from the floor but was held back by the gunner who then slammed the sniper against the damaged bookshelf. "You ruined my opportunity to get payed better! Oh, I'll remember that forever- all the mocking I got when walking back to the station with no computer!" The gunner took a hold of the sniper's throat and began to tighten his grip around the communist's neck, Nika was gasping for air and clawing the gunner's forearms. He even tried to kick the gunner but his armor plates took most of the impact, rendering the kicks also useless- it was as if he couldn't do anything to the enemy. In the midst of his panic Nika spotted three throwing knives on the gunner's waist belt and with his uninjured arm he snatched one knife and struck it straight into the gunner's right forearm. The gunner let go of the sniper to rip off the knife but while doing so Nika had slipped away and was tearing off the boards from the window frame. One board came off and made an opening big enough for Nika to crawl through but once getting his upper body outside, he got pulled back in by the angered gunner. Now Nika could feel the same knife he stabbed the gunner with against his Adam's apple and the gunner wrapping his other arm around his stomach to keep him close. "You're not leaving this time." The gunner's whisper near Nika's ear was enough to freeze the sniper on spot. "Conrad- was it? Heh. We could sort things out right?" Nika's voice was getting shaky by every passing second but Conrad wasn't going to let him go. "No, you're staying here with me."

The sniper had another "brilliant" idea but he had to act fast in order for it to work. "I still have my cyanide pills, bitch. I'll just pop them when you're not looking." Nika hissed back and Conrad was fast to take his knife off of the sniper's throat and turn his face towards his own. "Give them to me." Conrad held Nika's head up by pulling the hair on the back of the sniper's head but his gas mask's goggles were soon splattered with blood as the sniper spit the blood that had bled down to his lips and mouth. "You little bitch!" Conrad landed his last hit onto the side of the communist's face and while wiping off the blood, Nika made his escape through the window. He ran through the shadows to retrieve his belongings from the bush and just as he got to the bush, the alarms went off again. He quickly threw the rifle over his shoulder with one arm and barely climbed the fence and ran towards the nearest sewer or tunnel entry. He gained nothing but injuries from his spying attempt.

#metro oc #oc stuff #I love a fighting scene.. but I can't write them good enough :)))#It's passable so eh it's okay

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factsonthingsthatdontexist · 6 years

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The Arks

The Arks were massive starships created by the Union of Earth, Martian Free Colonies, and the Outer Sol Outposts at the end of the Golden Age of Sol, having finished construction between 2497 and 2499. Even in the present time of human civilization, the Arks are the greatest feats of engineering ever achieved by the human race, as none of each of the current interstellar nations have come close to replicating anything close to them, in terms of sheer scale.

Three arks were built, each capable of holding hundreds of thousands of humans at a time and suspending each of them in cryogenic stasis for upward of a thousand years, though that number is merely an approximation. They were each piloted remotely by an artificial intelligence calling themselves Diane, Parrish, and Hafizah. Maintenance drones took care of keeping the arks in working order as well as cleaning the halls and military drones were placed in storage, set to be activated in the event that the ark found a planet capable of harboring human life.

Despite being humanity’s best hope at survival from The Infestation on Earth, the arks were not given any predetermined coordinates and were designed to last ‘almost indefinitely’ in the event that the AI pilots, for any reason, were unable to find a habitable world in the thousand year time frame that the hibernation bays would be operational.

Arks

The Mahayana—The first ark ship that entered development made with the intent of harboring the ruling elite of the Union of Earth, Free Colonies, Venus Space Stations, and Outer Sol Outposts. Both, government officials and corporate leaders, were reserved spots in the Mahayana. Later, leading scientists and their families were reserved spots. Hafizah is the AI integrated in the systems of the ark and is the only one of the ark AIs still in use by modern humans.

The Theravada—The second ark ship built and piloted by the AI calling itself Diane. The Theravada suffered several power fluctuations during its journey and has had Diane’s mainframe completely removed since arriving in The Viridis Cluster.

The Vajrayana—The last ark ship and the most ineffective one. With a faulty power regulator, power shortages occurred frequently. Prone to problems, of the three arks, The Vajrayana is the only one not in operation after arriving in The Viridis Cluster. It was piloted by Parrish.

Technology

The arks were the most advanced star ships developed by humanity and each of them shared similar designs. It was intended that the occupants would spend the first few years outside of the hibernation pods to get acclimated to life on board the arks. Mixed with the idea that the arks may either be repurposed into colonies or stay in a planet’s orbit, the arks were built with central hubs; massive park-like centers containing residences, offices, shops, restaurants and many recreational facilities. These central hubs were capable of detaching from the arks in massive modules and would serve as the building blocks for the first human colonies on alien worlds.

Because humanity was not an interstellar civilization, the engines and thrusters may be considered archaic by the modern human nations. Each ark is outfitted with experimental Le Guin-Drives, which were extremely inefficient in terms of fuel output and power consumption, leading to many system failures in many parts of each ark respectively.

With artificial intelligence technology having been used extensively in human society during the Sol Golden Age, it was decided that it would be used to pilot the arks once all occupants were placed within cryogenic stasis. Each ark held servers dedicated to housing the AI mainframe, each of which being almost direct copies of one another and programmed with the directive of protecting human life.

Despite being carbon copies, each AI developed their personalities differently. The Mahayana’s AI called itself Hafizah and was found to be curious about the humans it would be escorting to a new world, finding joy in interactions with the science divisions on board during the Mahayana’s construction. The Vajrayana’s AI, Parrish, was vigilant and mindful of its duties, taking pride in its role as humanity’s savior and allegedly having envisioned its destiny of watching the first human civilizations rise up on a new world. The Theravada’s AI simply called itself Diane and was arguably the most robotic of the three. It held little regard for its own ‘emotions’ and held its prime programming above all else.

Despite what many may think about the arks, they were not all built equally. The Mahayana was built with the most state-of-the-art hibernation modules that would not only cryogenically suspend its occupants, but also allow them access to a connected virtual world where they could spend the duration of their journey to their destination. Because it was built first and was the primary focus of the human race in Sol, The Mahayana was almost completely flawless and did not suffer as many power shortages as its sister arks and those it did suffer from were rectified with ease.

The Vajrayana was the most shoddily built of the three arks, suffering from numerous power shortages as a result from the hastily put together Hyperion Power Generators. Because the ship suffered greatly from fluctuating power, many of the ark’s modules were powered down in order to conserve energy and eventually one of the hibernation bays was powered down, resulting in the deaths of nearly 15,000 human colonists.

History

The Infestation

In the wake of The Infestation rapidly spreading at an alarming rate within the Kazakh Steppes, the Union of Earth determined that quarantining the area was simply not enough. The local wildlife had become infected by the fungus and soon had been carriers of the spores through the wild. The Infestation slowly consumed everything in the wilderness turning dead material into twisted puppets of what they once were. U.E. military tried extensively to eradicate the Infestation, via high ordinance explosives and chemical weapons, but yielded no results.

U.E. scientists determined that the growth of The Infestation would snowball rapidly if it were unable to be contained or destroyed. Signs had shown that each life form consumed by the fungus had not only acted and performed normally, but they showed signs of slightly higher intelligence. Human soldiers who attempted to eradicate the growths were attacked by infected wildlife and those consumed by the fungus not only produced spores, but were able to operate normally, showing enhanced motor functions.

By 2434, the nation of Kazakhstan had been completely consumed by The Infestation. It was determined that Earth was no longer safe and mass evacuations in neighboring countries saw a massive influx of refugees on the Martian Free Colonies and the Outer Sol Outposts. Scientists proposed the idea of creating the arks, in the event that the Infestation ever got in control of the whole planet and managed to learn how to use spacecrafts.

The Union of Earth approved of the project and construction of the first ark, dubbed The Mahayana, began immediately in 2436 in orbit of Neptune. Initially, the construction project was classified and hidden from the public eye.

The Sol Dark Age

There are almost no records of the time between 2436 and 2499, but a number of assumptions can be made between the time frame. This is commonly referred to by modern humans as The Sol Dark Age, a term coined by The Velutarian Star Duchies.

It can be assumed from several terminal entries by Alexander Stinekirk, the Director of Bioscience of the Omnigenics Corporation, on the Theravada that its construction was the result of mounting public unrest on Earth as the Infestation grew exponentially and the discovery of The Mahayana’s construction in Neptune’s orbit. Some time in the 2450s, The Infestation had slowed down its rapid expansion on Earth after orbital satellites unloaded nuclear payloads in an attempt to kill Infestation ‘Control Nodes’. It was thought that some of the organic constructs produced by The Infestation functioned as a kind of ‘brain’ or ‘operation centers’ that directed consumed life forms.

The Chrysa Corporation holds historical documents dating back to 2479 that hold names of corporations, that no longer exist in modern human societies, and their devotion of massive amounts of resources to build each of the arks. On top of allocating resources to finish construction of the arks, anyone employed to assist in the construction of the arks were allegedly granted spots, alongside their families.

By the 2480s, The Infestation regrew its destroyed organic tissue and once again began to expand. By this point, anyone who was left on the planet was likely doomed to be consumed by the biomass as the U.E. had all but collapsed and the governments on Mars, The Moon, in the space stations above Venus, and in the Outer Worlds refused to devote their ships to evacuate the rest of Earth’s populations in fear that it would allow the Infestation to spread off the planet.

Construction of the arks were completed in the late 2490s and early 2500s. There are numerous recorded terminal entries by the hundreds of thousands of occupants in the Theravada and Mahayana after they had all embarked and left the Sol System. Many described worries for friends and family who were not chosen to be occupants on the arks. Startlingly, there are terminal entries that suggest The Infestation managed to achieve space flight and gave chase to the arks as they began to leave the Sol System. However, there are also records of rouge squadrons hoping to board the arks, so the reports of The Infestation achieving space flight may have been nothing more than paranoid hysterics.

Interstellar Space and Arrival in The Viridis Cluster

When the arks entered interstellar space, the human occupants entered cryogenic hibernation and were not set to awaken until the ark’s respective AIs found a habitable world or in the event that the time spent in hibernation passed a thousand years, as the pods were not expected to run without malfunctions afterward.

It is not known when or why the Arks separated from each other in the middle of their journeys, but the resulting destinations are even more curious to modern historians. It is thought that the AIs of each ark sought out a habitable world and would attempt to contact one another if one had found a suitable planet for humanity.

Interestingly enough, AI archives aboard the Mahayana report electromagnetic disturbances and total loss of control of the ship in 2755 before regaining it in 2757. It’s not known what caused this interference and loss of control, but many assume that that was the reason for the Mahayana arriving in the Viridis Cluster.

Some time in 2892, several occupants within The Theravada were awakened for unknown reasons. Among the awakened occupants were Katherine Stinekirk, Sindri Hartvigson, and Anvik Kestrel—three of the most notable figures associated with the birth of the idea of The Terran Interstellar Union—among several other occupants. In 2894, Diane was deactivated and the awakened occupants of The Theravada were left to pilot the ship manually.

By 2914, The Theravada entered The Viridis Cluster and, by 2936, entered orbit of the world of Jardin. While in orbit, Katherine Stinekirk launched several scouting drones to survey the world for the next 5 months before deeming it habitable and awakening the humans on board. When the ark’s central modules landed on the planet, the main control module was left in orbit to transmit a signal out to the other arks, in hopes of coming into contact with the other human survivors.

Unknown to The Theravada, The Mahayana arrived in the outer rim of the Viridis Cluster in 2876, set off course from its original destination. Hafizah discovered several lush worlds and deemed them capable of harboring life. Following protocol, it launched several scouting drones from orbit of the world that would later be known as Velutaria. By June, 2877, humans landed on the world and established themselves.

The Vajrayana, however, fared worse than its sister arks. With systems failing in multiple regions of the ship, Parrish found itself desperate. With more than 15,000 deaths due to power losses in the hibernation bays, Parrish cut off power to the central engines and allowed itself to drift forward for the rest of its journey, hoping any nearby scans would find habitable worlds.

It is unknown how The Vajrayana ended up in The Viridis Cluster as well as when exactly it found itself there. Parrish has long since powered down, never fulfilling its goal of seeing the humans under its protection emerge from their hibernation and populating a brave new world. The Vajrayana managed to slow down significantly enough to survive a crash landing on the world of Azura Prime. It’s not known how the occupants managed to survive or when they emerged from their cryogenics pods, but when they did, they were met with a hostile alpine wilderness.

Legacy

The arks, naturally, are held in high esteem for saving the human race and allowing them new beginnings in The Viridis Cluster. The Theravada’s control module has since been retrofitted into a museum in orbit of the Terran Interstellar Union’s capital world of Novus Terra. Artifacts and technology are put on display, as well as access to copies of terminal entries made by the crew of human colonists who once lived on board The Theravada. Those in The T.I.U. value remembering the past and hold idealistic dreams of returning to the Sol System and exterminating The Infestation.

The Mahayana’s control module remains completely functional, retrofitted and upgraded with modern technology. The Velutarian Star Duchies often use The Mahayana as a holy relic of the past where many scholars and pious pilgrims visit. It is believed that The Mahayana is under direct control of the Velutarian ‘God’ Frea and when it enters systems within Star Duchy space it is seen as a blessing and marks good fortune for the system .

Even the Vajraya Compact, who knew of only the hollowed shell of The Vajrayana had taken to naming themselves after the ship that saved them from extinction. The capital city of Soteria is made from the remains of The Vajrayana and later generations of the Vajraya erected statues in honor the one named Parrish, who is often credited with the salvation of the Vajraya people and gave them the building blocks of Vajrayan society.

Each ark contained records of human history, modern science and mathematics, and blueprints for machinery of all kinds in hopes that the survivors of humanity would be able to use them to continue progressing the human race. Despite this, The Terran Interstellar Union is the only faction able to make use of the archived information, making them one of the most advanced human interstellar nations. Their education programs attempts to make use of as much information from the archives as possible.

The Velutarian Star Duchies, however, were only able to make use of the technological archives as the records of human history had been wiped when the ship was disrupted by an electromagnetic disturbance. Because of this, several generations of Velutarian humans suffered from a lack of appropriate governance until they united under the banner of an empire who’s Emperor and Empress were able to hear the words of the Frea, the Velutarian people’s deity. Since then, the Velutarians have begun to progress culturally and have begun to make more innovations technologically.

The Vajraya suffered the worst, because of the Vajrayana’s crash landing on Azura Prime. Currently, their knowledge and technology comes from a research agreement with the Terran Interstellar Federation, who has helped propel the Vajraya’s technology by nearly 700 years.

#scifi #fiction #writing #writeblr #wikia #facts #not really #book ill never write #science fiction #cool stuff #pupupu #Viridis

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sscamanderr · 7 years

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Red //Richard Winters x reader

Fem!Reader

Y/L/N = your last name.

Super long and self indulgent blabber, but enjoy it anyway. I’m way too late to this fandom.

Summary: Corporal Y/L/N is a translator for the U.S. army and is sent to Winters’ platoon for their mission to capture prisoners by Colonel Sink. Secret heart-eyes all the way of course.

The all-terrain military vehicle bounced with every little pebble it passed over. You sat in the back seat and held your pack between your feet, having to spread your legs like a man in order to sit comfortably. You’d gotten so used to lounging around as such that you thought you would never sit like a lady again. Another transport vehicle was not far behind, carrying in some replacement men to the battalion. Next to you sat a Lieutenant Jones; a clean-shaven young man with even less combat experience than yourself. Colonel Sink sat directly in front of you, his ears turning pink from the brisk wind that battered the car head-on.

“How are you faring, Corporal?” He asked suddenly, not bothering to turn his head to look directly at you. He instead found your gaze in the side mirror.

“Faring just fine, sir.” You raised your voice to answer over a burst of wind.

“And you, Lieutenant?” Sink asked. Jones replied the same.

“We should be arriving around fifteen-hundred hours. Do you have any remaining questions about your objectives, Lieutenant? Corporal?”

“None, sir.” You and Jones chorused.

“I know you’re competent, the both of you, but I must ask that you make your way directly to headquarters once you’re dropped off in Haguenau. There is no time to waste.”

“Of course, Colonel.” You smiled a little to yourself.

“There should be an escort waiting--Ah, here we are.” The colonel pointed in a short gesture towards a town now fully in view over the horizon. You could already hear the rumbling of tanks and motorcycles, and smell the smoke in the aftermath of bombings. You placed your cap on your head, adjusting the Intelligence insignia pinned on the brim. The vehicle slowed to a stop and the Colonel climbed out and opened the side door. You stepped out before Jones and hopped to the ground. You hefted your supplies onto your shoulders and saluted your superior officer.

“Good luck, Lieutenant Jones and Corporal Y/L/N. This mission is of vital importance to the army of the United States. Should your exploits be fruitful, consider yourself in our greatest debts.”

“Thank you very much, sir. Hopefully we will be seeing the end of this war very soon.” You tell him; this earns you a pleased nod from the colonel. Jones stood stiff-backed until Colonel Sink is out of view. You had began walking into the outpost, but turned around when you realized you were alone.

“Lieutenant,” You said, and Jones swiftly joined your side.

“So much for an escort, eh, Corporal?” Jones’ eyes drag over the men starting to notice your presence. You shrugged and joined in the columns of replacement, waving Jones after you. He raised an eyebrow at you questioningly.

“If they know where to go, it’s good enough for me, sir.” You answered.

Lieutenant Jones and yourself weaved through the crowd, past a line of men waiting for showers, until you reached a building that had many officers entering and exiting.

“Must be it.” Jones commented. Jones entered the building with you in tow. It was clear the building was heavily fired upon like the rest of the town, for the furniture was overturned and half the windows were blown out. Both you and the lieutenant were greeted by a man lying on a couch, wrapped in a blanket, and looking rather miserable. He sat up as soon as he glanced at the Lieutenant markings on Jones’ helmet, but looked more surprised when he saw you standing beside him. The other few men in the room stood at attention.

“This the company C. P. for Easy?” You asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” The man on the couch said. You and Jones spared a quick glance, mutually relieved to have found your way.

“As you were,” Jones told the men, and they relaxed. “Lieutenant Jones seeking Captain Speirs, and Corporal Y/L/N seeking Captain Winters.”

“Speirs should be on his way, can’t say for Winters. Uh, why don’t you have a seat,”

You let your bag fall on the ground next to the couch, and you made yourself comfortable. Jones sat slowly as if expecting the captain you were looking to walk in any second. The man on the couch, who after you inquired said his name was Lipton, offered you both coffee. Jones refused, but you had to get your hands on a hot mug. You waited a short time, making conversation with Lipton and another man named Webster.

“Captain Speirs, sir,” Lipton suddenly stopped in the middle of your conversation, once more sitting up straight to address his commanding officer. You and Jones stood at attention. The man’s eyes were set on Lipton; they barely made a pass over you or Jones. “This is Lieutenant Jones, and Corp--”

The captain had no time for introductions. He ordered Lipton to find somewhere else to lay around and that was that. You raised your eyebrow at him, but quickly rested your expression when another captain entered the room. He stood out more than anyone else. Easily he was taller than the others and on top of that had bright red hair.

“Listen up,” The man started, glancing at the floor for a quick second. “Regiment wants a patrol for prisoners.”

This must be Winters. Sink had placed him in charge of the battalion and he was the one you were to report to once you arrived. Winters directed that 15 men were to be chosen for the patrol and started to compile a list of names with Captain Speirs. You waited patiently for Winters to finish, but you found your attention drawn to an approaching officer; Nixon was the name stitched into his jacket.

“Who are you?” Nixon asked, looking only at Jones. Of two things you noticed, Jones’ discomfort at the lack of formality and professionalism was the first. The second was that none of the men were particularly concerned that a lone woman stood in the room. You didn’t mind. Nixon hounded Jones with questions of his enlistment, graduation, and the works, finally dismissing Jones with an amused chuckle and a warning to ‘not get hurt’. You decided you liked him instantly.

“Sir, Corporal Y/L/N,” You spoke up finally, catching Nixon’s attention. His expression brightened a little, his interest piqued. “I have orders from Colonel Sink to accompany the men on this patrol.”

“Hold that thought, Corporal,” Nixon called Winters over, interrupting his exchange with Jones, who made a disappointed face at you as if you had caused the interruption. You held your arm in salute and Winters nodded in recognition. “Captain, this is the translator Colonel Sink mentioned in his memo a few days ago.”

Winters blinked once, but gave a small smile. “You’re here to help out with the interrogations,” He said.

“Yes, sir. Along with any collecting documents that may be of use-- letters and reports and what-not-- to get us across the river.” You add. Winters nodded to himself again.

“Speirs, talk to you in an hour?” Winters peered over his shoulder to confirm with the other captain before turning and walking out to exit. “Corporal, follow me.”

Captain Nixon had been waiting outside for Winters and yourself, joining on the other side of Winters. “You speak German pretty well, then?” He asked.

“Fluently, and with a perfect accent, sir.” You replied. Nixon raised his chin, impressed.

“Some of our men speak German as well and could be translator for this mission, but the colonel recommended you personally. What’d you do to earn that honor?” Nixon asked, a ghost of sarcasm lacing his words.

“Well, sir, I can speak and write in all languages relevant to the war, sir. Chinese, Japanese, French, and German. Italian too, but I just can’t get the accent right.”

Nixon gave a low whistle. Winters raised his eyebrows, turning his head to look directly at you. “How’d you learn all those languages at such a perfect place in our history?” Nixon asked.

You cracked a smile. “The key is to have a lot of free time, and a lot of favors owed to you at the local bookstore.” Winters and Nixon both chuckled at that.

“Colonel Sink noted that you would need a work area, so I arranged a desk at the officers’ headquarters. Not a lot of room, and you’ll be sharing with a few others including myself.” Winters informed.

“Any space is appreciated, sir.” You inclined your chin a little when Winters met your eye. He broke the eye contact rather deliberately, but you thought it nothing strange. Nixon cleared his throat and snuck behind Winters to place himself at your side now as the three of you walked.

“I couldn’t help but notice that Jones seemed a little resentful towards you. Any reason?”

“Besides that he outranks me as Lieutenant but I have the favor of the colonel? None I can think of, sir.” You smirked, but it fell again as you continued. “Truth is, sir, I applied for Lieutenant Jones’ position. I have more combat experience than he does, having been on the beach after D-Day and part of a squad during the first mission to Japan. It just wasn’t seen fit for me to have the rank because I’m not, er, perfect at following orders-- Sorry, sir, I’m spewing on and you probably have more important things to think about.”

“It’s not a bother, Corporal, really.” Winters said.

“Not perfect at following orders, you say?” Nixon continued. You tried to hide your embarrassment by pursing your lips together.

“I am not much of a follower, to be completely honest, sir,” You told him, lowering your voice. “I’m naturally a leader and I get a little ahead of myself. But you have to learn to follow if you ever want to lead.”

“Well put,” Winters stated. You were still embarrassed by how this first impression was turning out but you gave a little smile. Winters, yourself, and Nixon walked through a building whose doors were missing after being blown away by explosives. It was an apothecary at one point; it said so in faded lettering on the front window that was still miraculously intact. Men saluted the captains as they walked by and did not bother to hide their fascination by you being with them.

“Here we are, Corporal.” Winters allowed you to step into a tiny room that had three desks all huddled into a rectangle to fit in the room together. You placed the gear you didn’t need on one of the chairs and slung your rifle over your back. “Is it satisfactory for your needs?”

“Eh, I could work with it, sir.” You said in a serious tone, but Nixon’s grin made your facade falter and your own grin spread across your face.

“Glad you’ll be joining us, Y/L/N.” Nixon said, reaching his hand out to shake yours.

“Glad to be here and help end this war if I can, sir.” You met his hand between you and shook it. Winters did the same after you release Nixon’s hand and you smiled. Winters visibly swallowed and retracted his hand.

The three of you departed from the small room and back into the side street. A man rounded the corner and stopped when he spotted all of you. Captain Speirs, you recalled. He joined wordlessly, until Winters introduced him to you. He was short with you, clearly an intimidation tactic, but you decided you liked him possibly as quick as you decided you liked Nixon.

“There will be a briefing at seventeen-hundred. Back at C. P.. Until then, Corporal Y/L/N, you’re dismissed.”

“If I may have a last request, sir?” You straighten to stand at attention.

“What would that be?” Winters furrowed his brow.

“Lieutenant Jones will likely ask to join this patrol. He’s got no experience but he’s a good soldier with an even better mind as a tactician. I’m in no position to do so, but I believe I should ask you to give him a chance to prove himself.”

Nixon and Speirs both glanced at Winters from the corners of their eyes. Winters studied your face and nodded once. “I will consider it, Corporal.”

“Thank you, sir.” You salute him. When he salutes back, you depart from the men in favor of returning to C. P..

“Winters’ll give him a little hell just for you, Corporal!” Nixon called before you were out of earshot. You shoot him a grin over your shoulder, which Nixon met gladly.

Unbeknownst to you, Winters watched your retreating figure until you were out of his sight. Nixon clapped his friend on the back, earning a small jump and half-hearted glare from the captain.

“I hope she gets stuck with us for a while. She’s a perfect fit.” Nixon said. Winters raised an eyebrow at him.

“She doesn’t seem clueless,” Speirs chimed in with the closest thing to a compliment he could probably be capable of giving. Winters cleared his throat purposefully and crossed his arms, but did not add anything. Nixon bit his lip to stop a smile, the cheeky bastard, before dismissing himself.

“Oh, Winters?”

“What is it, Nix?” Winters sighed.

“Your face was as red as your hair since the minute you saw her.” He said, then turned his back. Winters couldn’t stop his eyes from widening. If possible, his face went even redder than before.

@kokomobunny thank you for the inspiration for this long ass thing. hope you enjoy !!

#richard winters #richard winters x reader #richard winters imagine #bob imagine #band of brothers #band of brothers imagine #ronald speirs #lewis nixon #major richard winters #captain richard winters

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