#bombs. flamethrower. all create fire of some sort

[premamelody]

thinking of how older flowey would combine plant and fire magic into his bullet attacks without setting his plant magic on fire every milisecond.

wait but he'd do that in purpose tho too

imagine

vine attack, but on fire

pellets that are mini meteors or large ones if clustered

wait

the flamethrower is back

for his neutral he pulls out a flamethrower-

[toastedjeans]

i wanted to draw these but it would probably take forever and im having an art crisis again so.. DOP characters and their attacks/abilities described as best as i can!

Peppino - electricity

- summons lightning from the skies or out of his hands, or forms an electrical ball in his hands to throw - surrounds his whole body with electricity (basically like the combo aura) that hurts the opponent when touching him or when he runs into them - for defense purposes, he forms a barrier either in front of him like a wall, or around him like a force field that acts as a shield and can still cause harm (kinda a little bit like his taunt i guess?) - can electrify the ground as well (especially good when the floor is wet or when fighting in water)

Gustavo - nature

- makes tree roots or thorny vines shoot out of the ground to either just attack or wrap around the opponent to hold them in place - shoots sharp sticks and leaves to slash at the enemy - summons rain to make Peppino's lightning attacks more accurate and more powerful - he can also shoot plant spores out of his hands to temporarily stun the enemy, make them sleepy or sluggish, or to disorient them - summons vines that either slap the opponent or that can be used to make traps (ie to make them trip over)

Brick doesn't have magic abilities so she mostly just tackles and bites when she has to.

Pepperman - water, paint, oil, acid, etc

- summons a big wave to wash opponents away - can create a vortex to trap enemies - shoots water droplets in the air, then freezes and shoots them at enemies - can also summon liquid wings to dodge attacks (like Lapis in SU) - sometimes he covers others in oil so they slip around on the floor and have a hard time attacking - makes enemies stick to the ground or wall with glue or paint - shoots acid that burns opponents - most things above can be done with any liquid he chooses, even blood, but he mostly uses paint, water, or his paint water if he was in the middle of painting

Vigilante - fire

- shoots fireballs (like in Mario) or a beam of fire (like a flamethrower) from his hands - covers himself in fire and launches himself at enemies, sort of like Peppino does but with fire instead - can temporarily heat up the ground (like when the sun heats up the ground in summer) - could also just heat up his surroundings so water isn't as effective (it would vaporize extremely quickly), but that would hurt himself as well. after all, he isn't fire resistant, only his boots and gloves are. - possibly also shoots small fireballs that explode on impact - can use his powers to light up the way during nightly expeditions or in dark caves, or when a bonfire is needed. Noise also sometimes asks him to light his cigarettes for him.

Noise - explosion and sound

- emits high frequency sounds to incapacitate enemies for a bit - can also emit a low frequency hum that can make others dizzy. some can be very affected by this, others not so much or even not at all - when hiding, he creates sound based illusions to disorient opponents (basically his voice comes from more than one direction) - explodes things with his mind - can summon hidden landmines - generates a smoke bomb where he stands to quickly get away or hide, then attacks from his hiding place - pounces at enemies to bite or scratch them, then jumps away from them, using an explosion to launch them and himself away

Noisette - poison

- summons spikes from the ground that pierce the enemies, which might make them queasy. since it's magic based it doesn't create deep wounds, it's more like being pricked by a rose thorn or a sewing needle - can shoot blobs of concentrated poison energy that may stick to opponents to slow them down - like pepperman, she can shoot acidic liquid that burns when touched or hit by - can summon noxious gas that again makes enemies queasy and in some cases unable to attack (it's not deadly unless she is really, really angry) - her attacks sometimes deal damage over a longer time (like the poison status effect in pokemon), and either has to be healed with potions, or some people can get over it by themselves - side effect of having poison magic is that all the food she makes (or potions she brews), automatically become inedible. she has no control over this (not because she's weak or anything, it just happens). only few are immune to her poison and can thus also eat her food

Doise - rock

- can make a barrier or temporary shelter out of stones - shoots sharp rocks to damage or cut enemies - summons magnetic rocks that crush anything between them - can make a boulder roll over someone - can trap and hold someone between a few huge rocks - makes traps out of rocks, or just makes enemies trip over by having a rock appear right in front of their feet - sometimes just throws a rock without magic because why not - uses his dagger mostly for gathering materials like firewood, or when he's trapped somewhere. or, well... his arms...

Peddito

- only shows himself in Doise's nightmares, where he tries to choke him to death, which then shows in the real world as well (would look like Doise is being strangled by nothing/an invisible force) - didn't have magic at all before he died, so he relied more on Doise's abilities when they used to be a team

Fake Peppino - shapeshifting

- takes on all abilities of the person he shifts into - immune to poison, no matter which form he takes on - can only shift into other forms he knows or has seen, doesn't know his original form or if he even has one (don't ask him about this he WILL have an existential crisis)

Maurice

- does not have any magic abilities and is secretly super pissed about it - usually just punches his enemies, sometimes uses his knife to threaten them - his mace is mostly for intimidation purposes, he doesn't know how to use it properly

Mr Stick

- also doesn't use magic, but he is an inventor - he channeled his inner grudge against not having magic into building all of his things - dodges attacks with his mechanical wings and hides behind his husband

Burton - ground

- can create small earthquakes - can make the ground unable to be altered (electrified, on fire, muddy, etc) - creates sandstorms to make it harder for others to see or attack him - summons quicksand to trap enemies - mostly uses his magic to keep enemies away from him and rarely attacks, acts more like a mediator - would have to team up with others to use magma or mud to attack

Gerome - rock/water

- mostly has the same abilities as Doise and Pepperman, but unlike PM, he only uses water magic instead of different liquids - can also use a powerful water jet to attack (you know those things that use high pressure water to cut through things? yeah. that) - makes the floor slippery a lot - forms rocks around his body for defense purposes

John - rock/ground

- mostly has the same abilities as Doise and Burton, but much stronger - summons more rocks to strengthen his body, like Gerome - forms rocks over his hands for stronger and harder punches - unlike Doise, he can also summon sharp crystals to attack, or sometimes to distract (this is mostly just a nice side effect) - can summon magma or mud, even without teaming up with other people who use fire or water magic

Pizzahead

- normally doesn't have magic abilities, only gains them by trapping John and absorbing his power - like Stick, he is something like an inventor, used to build all sorts of machines - once John is trapped, he can use every type of elemental magic but he will not have a lot of control over any of it - can dodge or counter any magical attack, this makes him basically immune to all magic - his only weakness in this state are physical, non magic based attacks

Pizzaface

- since he's built by Pizzahead, he doesn't have magic abilities either - being a robot, he is physically very strong, but very susceptible to electricity - can fly via robotic wings he can fold into his body, hidden underneath his cape - can also stretch his limbs out really far, and can then wrap them around someone to keep them from attacking or from running away

i think that's it for now. i might make a second part for team up attacks or if i can think of anything else

[marshmallowprotection]

Your thoughts on Saeyoung creating a robot similar to Meowy, but for his sibling in law? I am a bit of a tech nerd, and his love for creating all these cute weird little robots always made me giddy. I'd love nothing else than to have an adorable robo-kitty (or robo-bird, since I am a bird lover!) following me wherever I go! And maybe spit out fire, too. But, Saeran will scold us for that. Really, Saeran would be the rational one between the three of us, 'cause I'm all for the weirdness!

Hmm. Saeyoung wouldn't discriminate. He wants to take care of his family, and you're a part of his family now, and that means he's going to do everything in his power to make sure you have everything you need to be happy. You make his brother happy, and that’s all he’s ever wanted for his brother. He’s always dreamed of a life for Saeran that's everything he’s ever dreamed of. As long as his brother can smile and walk down a street without any trace of fear to show for it, that’s a life well-lived. 

Since you did go after his brother and do all sorts of things that put your life at risk, he would assume you were accident-prone from the start. That justifies his need to create something to keep you safe and amused. Don't think he won't do the same for his baby brother, because he definitely will, but you deserve something nice as well. It depends on what animal you like, because God knows he could very easily craft animal!

Now, he would love to add all kinds of wacky features, but Saeran would probably tell him to hold back on a flamethrower. You might get him to compromise with a confetti cannon or a flashlight. Those could equally stun somebody in a situation where they had no idea that could happen, and depending on how small your favorite animal is, it would be that much funnier if they had a lot of firepower for the attack.

If it could be helpful in more than one situation, Saeran would be okay with that.

He wants you to have fun and bond with his brother, though, so he might be willing to let some of those things slide. It's nice to see you laughing with his brother, because just as much as it means a lot to Saeyoung to see you with Saeran, it means the same in the opposite. Just don't blow up the garage, okay? There's been way too much in the way of bombs lately.  

In your case, get ready to see a little bird land on your shoulder at the next charity party.

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

stop holding back, talk about your oc

Anon you're playing a dangerous game telling me to talk about any of my ocs but especially ocs for the fandoms I'm currently obsessing over

So because most tf2 ocs are mostly just self inserts that don't play around with the whole joke of their characters designs (totally valid and I also do it), I wanted to play in the space and make someone that i could reasonably see ending up in tf2 in a different world, hence my anti violence hippy who somehow ended up as a merc using chemical weapons to kill people! Everything about this character is at its core an attempt at being funny that is probably only funny to me lol. The rest is under the read more cause it got long

Anyways meet the chemist! I imagine he's functionally sort of a cross between demoman and pyro, one weapon being a sort of delayed fire trap similar to demos stickybombs but instead of bombs they're aerosol gas weapon canisters that create a sort of poison cloud that gives damage if you run through it that adds up the longer you stay in a cloud. His second weapon is basically a recolor of pyros flamethrower except chemical/acid spray instead of fire, it has a certain time it gives damage for similar to afterburn. I haven't figured out what his meele weapon is yet, but I imagine he does have a two person taunt where he puts a flower in their gun

Backstory wise it's basically what I said before, he was just a weird hippy hitchhiking around, making and doing drugs, and getting suckered into newage spiritual cults. He found he was pretty skilled with a chemistry set and started playing around making highly illegal chemical weapons for fun and probably used them at some anti violence protests he was at, which eventually got him scouted by miss pauling to avoid legal charges by moving down to New Mexico and putting his skills to use. He thought he was being pulled into a new cult and just went along with it and was honestly pleasantly surprised to find out it wasnt another cult. Nice change of pace :)

Personality wise he's pretty chill. Susceptible to suggestion and 100% believes in aliens but isn't so into the whole new age stuff that it's apparent until you get to know him and he mentions off hand that he was abducted by aliens and told the secrets of the universe one night. Firmly against the idea that aliens built the pyramids or had any real role in human civilization until roswell because the aliens told him so. I imagine he talks like Bill and Ted. This is critical he may be anti violence but he has absolutely no moral problems about fucking people up and even killing them. His problem was doing it as a job but he was totally cool beating up assholes for free. He had a bit of a clash with his new job at first, but when told he could do his damn job or leave in a body bag he got over it pretty quick

When it comes to the other mercs, there's plenty of opportunity for chaos as always. I imagine he gets along well enough with engi and demo, talking about engineering and chemistry needed in all their jobs and just hanging out. I imagine a sort of running gag with scout where scout complains about his lack of game to chemist and chemist, who is a freak and a weirdo and looks like a wet rat, regales him with some story that somehow ends with him getting laid despite all odds and scout being angry/jeleous/confused/come on?? This guy?? About it. Spy hates him cause he's gross and weird and all to touchy Feely and constantly tries to get the group to be emotionally open. Smokes with sniper in the woods. Honestly kind of creeped out by medic I don't have a reason I just feel it in my bones it took a while for them to warm up to eachother. Running joke were soldier calls him a hippy and he just shrugs and agrees and makes soldier even madder

Anyways I'm not happy with my design for him yet but have this first draft design that I do like but doesn't feel like it fits the aesthetic of tf2 enough for me, the half visible emblem is based on chemical hazard information symbols and will also probably get reworked at some point

[scribeofred]

Hi! I was just wondering what advice you would give to first time writers.

Hi there!

Depending on time of day, mood, and what I’ve been editing and/or reading recently, my answer to this sort of question changes. Today, I’ve gone full prose, and I’m not sure how strictly helpful this is going to be, but hopefully you’ll be able to glean something useful!

That said.

One of the most important things—if not the most important thing—a new writer can do is WRITE. Just write. Fiction? Absolutely. Nonfiction? Sure, why not. Poetry? If you’re so inclined! Song lyrics? You’re a more brilliant writer than I. Essays? Analyses? Any series of words that comes to mind? Yes, yes, and yes.

Write. Experiment. Break any rules you’re currently aware of and a whole ton you don’t even know exist. Play with language. Get comfortable with using enormous words, tiny words, strong words, weak words; feel the rhythm of language and of different sentence constructions. Hone your ear, really listen to how words sound, look at their appearances, hold the shapes of them in your mouth, let them sit heavy in your gut and flutter the tips of your fingers. (If you really attune yourself to the English language, there should be no such thing as a synonym because no two words mean exactly the same thing.)

Mess about with storytelling. Write as many different kinds of characters and situations as you can. Become aware of what parts of writing you find superbly easy and what parts you want to torch with a flamethrower. Push yourself. Write raw, write real, write those things that scare you, don’t be afraid of doing this writing thing wrong. Not yet (maybe not ever). Don’t don’t don’t DON’T let yourself become paralyzed by all the writing advice out there, all the rules, all the dos and don’ts, all the this-is-how-real-writers-do-it. (Related: I am currently reading a book on writing that I think is excellent—except for the author’s approach to organic plotting. I hate the method he champions. It doesn’t mesh with my style at all. But the rest of the information in the book is A+ and I can’t discount all of it just because that writer and I have different drafting methodologies.) On that note, if anything I say doesn’t jive with your style, ignore it! There’s nothing wrong with cherry-picking writing advice, especially when it’s come from an informal setting like this.

Don’t immediately seek out feedback or editing or publication. It’s so tempting to do that—getting feedback can be addictive, I know—but you need to discover what works for you first and foremost, what makes you excited to write, what causes your unique words to bubble up like a spring. Your early writing might suck. In fact, it almost certainly will suck. I can’t read anything I wrote more than eight years ago because it’s just too cringy. And that’s okay! Every word you put down is a new stepping-stone, and one day you’re going to look back and realize that while many of those stones are shrouded in the fog of time, they’re still there—they still carried you to where you are now—and there are more ahead of you as long as you keep laying words down.

Enjoy yourself! Have fun! Those first two or so years of writing are pure magic, a budding infatuation with all the possibilities that are available to you via this new world of your own creation. Go mad with power. Get drunk on language.

If you really want to, begin learning about the craft of storytelling, about the rules of grammar, about writing in general. Don’t let any of that learning shove you into a box and tape you inside. The best writers break the rules somewhere, somehow—you just need to determine what rules you want to flout and why, and you won’t know that until you actually begin writing for yourself. (If you want a couple of excellent books that aren’t prescriptive, I highly recommend Spellbinding Sentences by Barbara Baig and Mastering the Craft of Writing by Stephen Wilbers.)

Don’t pressure yourself into finishing everything. Don’t feel guilty about not finishing every project you begin. Words aren’t wasted, and sometimes you might only write down a few sentences of a story before getting swept up in the heady elation of a new idea. That’s okay! Similarly, do occasionally finish projects. If you need to set the bar really low, that’s fine. Write a story in exactly 100 words. Exactly 200 words. Exactly 500 words. 1,500 words. Learn how to feel the weight of an idea—and learn your own tendencies. Some writers naturally come up with novels; others naturally come up with short stories. Novel ideas and short story ideas are not the same thing. Play around and discover the differences. Build the habit of finishing projects, though. Not all projects, but some. Revel in the accomplishment—you have completed a story! That’s wild, not every writer can say that! Treat yourself to something delicious or that ultraglittery bath bomb you’ve been eyeing or a pair of snuggly socks or anything. Just make it good, make it a proper reward.

Test out the method of highly structured plotting; then, for the next story, abandon yourself to the whims of your imagination. You’ll probably land somewhere in the middle—most writers do—but you’ll never know unless you try. Discover what you hate about writing, those things that make you want to flip your laptop or phone through the window; circumvent what issues you can, and learn how to mitigate the others. Alternately, force yourself to write something you absolutely hate—if you can do that without letting it crush your spark. Nurture that little flame, feed it tantalizing ideas and engaging characters and the most beautiful words you can find until it’s a roaring fire that cannot be quenched. Discover what you do love to write—and write it!

The world needs your words, your unique voice, your particular storytelling flair. Put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, thumbs to screen—and write. Anything. Everything. Pure nonsense, your deepest fears and grievances, gossamer words so fragile they dissolve in the eddying breeze, the very truest sentence you know how to write. Don’t lie. Don’t pretend to write as someone you aren’t. Spend time mimicking other writers’ styles, sampling their voices like you’d sample an enormous buffet laid out before you, but don’t stay there. Carve out your own hobbit hole where you’re comfortable, where things are familiar and nourishing, where you’re at home. Occasionally bust down those walls, rearrange the furniture, write literary cubism one day, purple prose the next, stark, bleak, bone-dry reality the day after. Writing is a long, long, long journey, it takes a lifetime to master, so spend those early days and years playing. Delight in the process of creation. Delight in reaching your goals.

Create. Have fun. Don’t take yourself too seriously, and don’t open yourself up to criticism or spark-snuffing feedback too soon. Writing is an intensely personal thing, and you need to get comfortable with it before you can put it on display for the world. Keep laying words down, one stone after another, even when you know you’re not writing as well as you want to be or think you can. Developing your skills takes time—be aware that you’re going to need months, probably even years, before you’re going to have a solid grasp on your own writing tendencies. Work on building that foundation for yourself so you can keep reaching higher, farther, to more fantastical and amazing places.

Give yourself time; don’t expect yourself to be perfect immediately. Be gracious with yourself as you build your skills. Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Stay spongy; always be ready to learn. And—most important—have fun and don’t ever give up!

[vixlenxe]

Teostra | テオ・テスカトル | (Teo Tesukatoru)

Flame King Dragon | 炎王龍

Teostra is a male Elder Dragon with leonine features & a fiery coloration. It has a grand mane, large fangs, & a pair of horns that curve backward. Its wings are covered in fur, & its tail ends in a clump of such fur. It is the male counterpart to Lunastra.

Lunastra | ナナ・テスカトリ | (Nana Tesukatori)

Flame Queen Dragon | 炎妃龍

Lunastra is a female Elder Dragon with leonine features & a cool coloration. She has a prominent mane, large fangs, & a distinct crest that resembles a sort of crown. Her wings are covered in fur. She is the female counterpart to Teostra.

Lunastra, & her partner Teostra, are unique monsters because they actually use their Flame organ to produce a fire breathing effect, rather than just a beam or a fireball like most other fire using creatures. They has some basic physical attacks such as charges, bites, tail swipes, claw swipes and dive bombs. But the real danger comes from their mastery of fire. They are capable of breathing out large flamethrower-like streams of fire, and generating an aura of flame around itself which will burn away at those who get too close. Teostra possess mass quantities of explosive powder made from his own scales, with just a gnash of his teeth he can create sparks and trigger explosions in mass, he can even cover himself in the powder to help spread it more easily, or ignite it all at once for a massive explosive fittingly known as the Supernova.

Lunastra, however, spreads blue powder across the ground which ignites when it comes in contact with fire, creating a blue flame that slowly damages whoever stands in it, and slowly drains the health of anyone near them who doesn't have protection against the heat. She often uses her wings to spread this powder, which creates a strong wind that immobilizes hunters for a moment. When a fire attack comes in contact with the blue flames, it will deal damage and create more strong wind. Lunastra can also create a massive heat wave that will quickly drain the health of anyone in it's range, it creates blue fire nearly everywhere within it's range, and it creates wind pressure to make it difficult for any hunter caught within it to escape. 

The two Elder Dragons can also preform a joint attack, which is Teostra’s Supernova & Lunastra’s Heat Wave going off at the same time, with Teostra being able to fire off his Supernova a twice, once at the beginning of the Heat Wave & then again at the end of it. The results of this joint attack are said to be on a cataclysmic scale.

Teostra & Lunastra are known for their foul tempers. Territorial & quick to anger, as such, the guild is always keeping check of their moods to avoid them causing any problems when they are angered. Near by volcanoes are said to erupted when they’re mood turns sour, & heat waves follow them wherever they go. Despite they’re moodiness, they are also quite loving creatures, if only to each other. Often seen sleeping beside each other in their dens, cleaning each other’s wounds after battle & even bringing each other gifts of freshly killed food & large molten rocks for them to lay upon. When a Teostra & Lunastra decide to become mates, it is said they are bonded to each other for all their lives. When one of them enters a fight, the other is said to join the battle soon after, no matter how far away they are from each other, the other will also come & will fight to the death to protect their mate. Many believe them to be the living embodiments of 'The Red String of Fate’, or otherwise called ‘The Heart’s Vein’.

Known to living on the volcanic island, The Sun’s Throne, they do not allow anyone near they’re territory. The Hunter’s Guild has well documented these creatures. It was said that, the majesty & might of these two Elder Dragons served as inspiration for the S(uper)-Class Hunter, Maxie, to become a hunter, so much so, she even name her own faction of hunters, The Eternal Inferno, after these legendary monsters.

[fume-knight-of-shovelry]

Inaccuracies

For @northwindpersonal

“…Angela, are you honestly asking for my opinion on this? Of all things?”

Doctor Ziegler winced. It wasn’t like Genji to react to her requests with such incredulity, but she supposed that the entire situation was so ridiculous that she couldn’t blame him.

What had begun as a brief glance at a game’s name and cover from the corner of her eye while visiting Hana had become something that Angela had never expected would go as far as it had. Now, she was here in front of their television, her boyfriend was exasperated, and there was no going back.

“Yes, Genji, I’m perfectly serious. I would greatly appreciate it if you were able to help me evaluate the authenticity of what I am about to show you.”

Genji quirked his eyebrow beneath his helmet: he always tilted his head to the right when his left eyebrow rose. He could survive without the helmet covering his face, and could remove parts of his armor safely, but he’d grown so used to his cybernetic body parts that he was usually more comfortable staying in his suit than going through the effort to remove it.

“Honestly, Angela,” Genji wrung his hands, the exoskeleton clicking slightly as the joints of his elbow bent, “I understand where you are coming from, I really do, but I think you already know how I will react.”

“Please, Genji? I know it is not important, but I would still appreciate your input, given your experience with the subject matter,” she pleaded, brow furrowed and lip slightly pouted.

He sighed, metal pectorals rising and falling as he breathed with a small rattling sound from where the material pressed against his skin. He could never resist that begging expression, even if she didn’t realize she was doing it.

“I suppose it’s not too much to ask, Angela. And you’re correct: I have some familiarity with the source material.”

Angela let out a tiny squeal of delight, narrowing her eyes and clapping her hands together once. Genji was suddenly aware of his heartbeat echoing in his ears, pounding along with the pulses of heat across his face.

He was glad she couldn’t see him blushing.

“Danke, liebling! I promise it won’t take too much of your time.”

Angela turned, and Genji was grateful for the chance to let go of the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. She bopped the power button on the console below the television, snatching up the controller with her other hand as she did so. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it before, but he realized that this was one of the newer console models that boasted “Infinite backwards compatibility”, which was a fancy way of saying that they played games that ran out of distribution before Reinhardt was born.

The legal jargon and development credits faded in and out of existence, and Doctor Ziegler rapidly mashed the start button as the game’s title screen appeared from the blackness.

----------------------------

“I would like to know who decreed that ninja possess magical powers. I feel as though I received the short end of the stick, in a manner of speaking, since I’m unable to manipulate ice.”

Doctor Ziegler stifled a giggle. She’d only just begun her first demonstration, and Genji was already pointing out flaws in the video game’s character design.

“Well, you have your dragon spirit, right? Isn’t that a sort of magic?”

Genji shrugged, one hand coming off of the plastic held in his grip. His fingers were articulate enough that holding the controller wasn’t much different than when he had his original hands, but this was the first time he’d tried holding such a device since receiving his silver-and-green suit.

Angela reached over and interlaced her fingers with his, and Genji lost his train of thought. Her hand was soft, and the warmth lacing through her digits seemed a stark contrast to his cold, unfeeling metal.

“I don’t believe it’s magic. My mastery over the dragon is…something I do not fully understand myself. It simply happens when I need it, and does not appear when I do not. I suppose it is not unlike a reflex,” the ninja mused, tapping the controller against the plate covering his mouth, “The only ones who might be able to help me better understand this are dead, by my-”

Genji cut himself off. He didn’t like thinking about those years; his rage, his frustration, his potential for violence. Genji was still dangerous, but he was more stable where he was now, and he knew Angela was happy that he was in a better place. Being where he was now was the reason they were able to be together like this. Angela didn’t deserve to have to revisit the past like that, on such a lighthearted occasion.

He took a breath, and Angela squeezed his hand. I know. But that was then. This is now. We are now, her grip seemed to say.

He started again. “And his outfit. It covers the face and masks the identity, yes, but everything else about it…the blue and the black, and the exposed arms? It stands out in a crowd. That is the exact opposite of what a ninja is supposed to do.”

Angela smiled, and her golden hair framed her face such that the sun appeared to be shining down on her from behind, creating a halo around the outline of her head. Genji tightened his hold on her hand, as if he could hold on to the image. His angel, lovingly gazing down at him, reaching out for the connection. Both for his sake, and so that she could move on from what she had left behind, what she had lost and kept losing over and over for decades and had now found again, in a different form.

A family.

Then he realized that the wall light directly behind her was creating the effect, and the fantasy faded as Angela began to speak.

“And I suppose that there are a great many silver-and-green mechanical men for you to blend in with?”

“Angela, if they’ve seen me, it is because I wish them to.”

She rolled her eyes and released his hand, but the gesture communicated no malice. Angela knew that Genji could get a bit defensive about how he presented himself to others, but a little good-natured teasing had helped him acclimate in the past, and it could now as well. It helped that she knew he wasn’t exaggerating: more than a few times, Genji had let himself in through their open window rather than use the door that he had a key for, but the neighbors swore that they never saw anyone climbing the walls outside their apartment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And what about this one?”

“No. That is not even how one uses a kunai.” Genji’s voice was firm and brooked no argument. Angela would have wondered if she’d offended him if she wasn’t familiar with the tone his voice took when he was truly angry.

She hadn’t heard that in years, and she knew he hadn’t either. Genji had turned the page to enter a new chapter in his life, and she was forever grateful that he’d chosen to share that with her, for moments like this, when Angela knew he was at ease.

“And he is too loud. What is the point of being a ninja if you announce your every move? I understand the intimidation factor of shrieking ‘Get over here!’ when pulling an enemy to you, but in such a situation I imagine that they are already terrified. If they are not, then shouting alerts their allies to your position.”

“I recall that you yell, at the top of your lungs, the moment that you are preparing to strike with your dragon spirit. What is it you say again? ‘Ryūjin no ken wo kurae‘?”

Genji nodded, and Angela could tell that he was smiling under his helmet. A tiny spot of pride swelled in her chest. She’d been practicing her Japanese, just like how he’d been practicing his German.

His lessons hadn’t been going nearly as well, but she appreciated the effort.

“Well done. Yes, I do make noise when channeling the dragon into my odachi, but at that point, stealth is no longer an option.”

“I suppose you have me there. And would you prefer this one’s fire, or the other one’s ice?”

Her boyfriend paused. His brain was not cybernetic, but Angela supposed that the idea of “gears turning in Genji’s head” fit him more than most.

“Neither. Both leave obvious damage and have readily available countermeasures. I would choose poison, as it is less traceable and more difficult to mitigate.”

“Well, then, I suppose you won’t be happy with who employs poison in this game.”

Genji winced. “No, I would not. I admire reptiles, but not to that extent.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This discussion is over.”

“Genji, it is fiction. Some artistic liberties are to be expected.”

“I understand that, but the inaccuracies here are too great to ignore! As a cyber ninja dude myself, I believe I am an authority on what elements constitute an actual cyber ninja! And this…Triborg has none of them!“

Angela blinked. Genji was standing up, gesticulating wildly, and she was briefly concerned that he might lose his grip on the controller and watch it go flying into their television. From what Reinhardt said, this had been a very real problem in his parents’ time.

“Flamethrowers? Buzzsaws? Missiles, rockets, and bombs? Where was I when these became standard equipment for ninja?”

Genji fell back onto the couch, breathing heavily, the filter for his voice having crowded out his regular speech pattern from his raised volume.

He paused. A thought seemed to occur to him, and he tilted his head at Angela. She knew he was raising his eyebrows at her.

“Angela, I cannot believe that this did not occur to me earlier, but…this game series is notorious for being one of the most explicitly violent in the industry. Why exactly did you take an interest in this game?”

Angela chewed her lower lip, a nervous habit Genji had caught onto early in their relationship. Clearly, she hadn’t been looking forward to this moment. For his part, Genji was flabbergasted that he hadn’t been thinking of this earlier. Perhaps anticipating the game’s poor depiction of ninja had distracted him from the very real question of “Why is my pacifist girlfriend playing the gorniest video game ever developed?”

“I…briefly glanced at it when visiting Hana several weeks ago. I did some research and discovered that the game contains something referred to as ‘X-Ray moves’, which purport to demonstrate the internal damage done by certain attacks.”

Doctor Ziegler couldn’t make eye contact with her boyfriend. Her cheeks had started to redden: the shame of going into the details of her guilty pleasure was palpable to Genji as she rubbed her forearm, and he extended a hand and placed it on the light blue fabric covering her shoulder to reassure her.

“Well, I got curious. Human anatomy obviously has not changed in the last half-decade, but I was wondering if changes in medical protocol might have led to a different-looking representation of internal trauma.”

“And?” Genji squeezed her shoulder lightly, feeling her pulse echo through his fingers.

“Well, the damage is certainly representative of what would occur if these attacks were performed on actual humans. The primary difference is that these humans get back up from them. Shattered skulls and ruptured brains are ignored completely! And I am not even addressing the lethality of ‘basic’ moves, such as the effect of point-blank contact with rockets the size of those employed by Triborg or even the force of the punches to the sternum used by many, many characters.”

“Let me guess: instant death?”

Angela nodded, turning back towards Genji. Her features relaxed, and she placed a hand over his on her shoulder and sighed.

“To put it mildly, though in the latter case there might be exceptions. But now, I am ‘into’ this game. I suppose, now that you’ve been reminded that it exists…”

“...That I might I play it with you? Of course, Angela. This small time spent on it with you has already proven to be very enjoyable.”

Angela laughed and leaned in to rest her forehead against Genji’s, and he returned the favor. When he didn’t feel like removing his mask, this was their equivalent of a quick kiss. She enjoyed the uniqueness: it felt like a private gesture that held real meaning for the two of them, and the two of them alone. One that could be done in public, but still have some secret significance.

“Angela?”

“Yes, Genji?”

“I am not going to play as one of the ninja.”

“I did not expect anything different, Genji.”

[assortedacademics]

Greek fire is a term that anybody who has an interest in medieval history is aware of. First used in 678 CE, it routed an entire Arab fleet, delivered only by a tiny Eastern Roman Empire flotilla. Its existence is commonly credited as the reason the empire lasted so long, and they used it to win battles for over seven centuries. The perfect ancient weapon, one so infamous that the most common response to it was to flee or, if that was impossible, pray. However, its destructive powers are not the only reason why it is so infamous to this day. Its recipe was such a closely guarded secret that it was never written down -- and so it was lost to time and memory.

What was in it? Historians can only theorize. Even people who managed to capture samples, as rarely as that happened, were unable to fully recreate it. All we can rely on are historical records in which fear and speculation are rampant. Was it truly as effective and fearsome as ancient people believed it to be?

In order to get a better idea of what exactly was necessary for “liquid flames” that could not be put out by water, I talked to our resident Chemistry teacher, Ms. Parameswaran. She told me that three things are necessary for a combustion reaction (fire): a fuel source, typically a hydrocarbon; oxygen; and something to ignite it, like heat or a spark. Flames cannot burn when the fuel is separated from oxygen, something commonly accomplished by submerging it in water or smothering it.

However, neither of those things, according to record, could stop Greek fire. The only things that could extinguish it were vinegar, sand, and oddly enough, urine. It actually burnt hotter when it came into contact with water, to the point that some sources claim that water actually ignited it. Ms. Parameswaran and I theorized that it might not have been just a combustion reaction, but an exothermic reaction, as well. Exothermic reactions create heat without flames, and there are plenty of things that react when they come into contact with water. Quicklime is often thought to be a key ingredient of Greek fire, and I agree with those assessments for one crucial reason: quicklime becomes very hot when it touches water. A person submerged in the ocean would certainly get chemical burns from quicklime, even if they were not truly on fire. This may be why people believed that the flames could burn underwater -- how else would the sailors burn, if not from fire?

After this, I figured that I had to go more in-depth. I visited the Southeast Library, where the librarian at the information desk told me how to access a bunch of online databases full of ebooks, articles, and other sources, all of which had been vetted. She recommended a couple of different databases, some for simple research, and some specifically meant to help researchers craft an argument by providing opposing viewpoints on the topics they offer information on.

I found that a few other commonly agreed-upon ingredients were naphtha (a form of petroleum), sulphur, and resin. Naphtha and sulphur would easily form the flames once ignited, and sulphur fires move extremely quickly, which was another property of Greek fire. Another interesting effect sulphur fire has is that it produces sulphur dioxide, a gas that produces sulphuric acid when it comes into contact with water -- including the moisture in your lungs. Even after submerging themselves in the sea, enemy sailors would still be burning, inside and out. The resin was likely used to thicken the mixture and make it sticky -- thus why Greek fire stuck to everything it touched; and once it touched something, almost nothing would be able to put it out. Additionally, if you’re familiar with outdoor survival tips, you’ll also know that pine resin is known as “nature’s fire starter.” It catches and spreads very quickly, which is one of the reasons why forest fires happen so easily and are so important to prevent.

After researching its possible components, it is very easy to see why Greek fire is sometimes called “the first modern chemical weapon.” In later years, the Eastern Romans managed to put it into grenades and even flamethrowers. Both modern weapons, as well as napalm, were inspired by their technology and ingenuity. Greek fire was a shaping factor in the history of the world -- had Constantinople fallen to the Arabs in the 600s, they could have conquered most or all of Western Europe, which had few governments strong enough or armies large enough to combat them. History could have looked very different, were it not for a Syrian refugee and architect named Kallinikos, who created the ancient world’s equivalent of the atomic bomb. His invention is the reason why the world is the way it is today. I’ll let you decide whether or not that’s a good thing.

Bibliography

Alchin, Linda. “Greek Fire.” Medieval Life and Times, www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-weapons/greek-fire.htm.

All That Is Interesting on December 12, 2017. “Greek Fire: One of History's Best-Kept Military Secrets.” All That Is Interesting, 12 Dec. 2017, all-that-is-interesting.com/greek-fire.

All That Is Interesting on December 12, 2017. “Greek Fire: One of History's Best-Kept Military Secrets.” All That Is Interesting, 12 Dec. 2017, all-that-is-interesting.com/greek-fire.

Cartwright, Mark. “Greek Fire.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Nov. 2017, www.ancient.eu/Greek_Fire/.

Gilbert, Steven. “Greek Fire.” Toxipedia, Atlassian Confluence and Zen Foundation, 30 May 2014, www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Greek Fire.

Knight, Judson, and Judy Galens. Middle Ages Reference Library. Vol. 1, Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library, go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=7&docId=GALE%7CCX3426200014&docType=Topic overview&sort=RELEVANCE&contentSegment=&prodId=GVRL&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3426200014&searchId=R1&userGroupName=dclib_main&inPS=true.

Network, Warfare History, et al. “Greek Fire: The Byzantine Empire's Secret Weapon the Ancient World Feared.” The National Interest, The Center for the National Interest, 2 June 2017, nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/greek-fire-the-byzantine-empires-secret-weapon-the-ancient-20955.

Potenza, Alessandra. “This blue sulfur hellfire in Wyoming is mesmerizing - and toxic.” The Verge, Vox Media, 10 July 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15947592/sulfur-mound-fire-video-worland-wyoming.

[falconedreams]

Dystopian Singaporean Avengers

Okay the origins of the “team” weren’t as varied as the Avengers and we were originally established more for governmental purposes than any notion of justice and heroism, but this is the most illustrative yet succinct title I can think of, so just roll with it.

Last night I dreamt that the Singaporean government somehow thought that BNHA and Avengers and X-Men were reality instead of fiction, and they got super paranoid, like Japan and America and England have their own superhero teams?? We can’t lag behind! And so embarked on a project to create their own superhero team. By way of a human augmentation project.

I wasn’t one of the subjects, but I ended up on the team anyway, because I was a naturally born mutant. I could produce flame all over my body, like Endeavour (or Johnny Storm, for you Western media audiences). It wasn’t like an X-Men thing, where mutants were like, a minority, but still a visible minority, where there are politics about them and all. I was a one-off occurrence (or so I thought). I wasn’t really hiding it out of fear or anything, it was just like a.....well, setting things on fire is generally not very useful in daily life, so I just never bothered to bring it up. But yeah, I ended up on the team because one day I was too lazy to look for and set up the bunsen burners in the lab, and decided to sterilise the metal loops for spreading bacteria with my own flames, and my colleague spotted me, freaked out, reported me to my superiors, who also freaked out, and reported me to the government, who swooped down and scooped me out of the lab in the middle of the workday (or more accurately, bundled me into the back of a limo). 

I was taken to the project facility, where I met the rest of the team. It was quite a large team, actually, so I don’t remember everyone. Then they brought in the “trainer”, who was my friend LY. It was quite a surprise. In this universe she was an eminent physics professor teaching at Oxford, who had made quite a few newsworthy breakthroughs, so I hadn’t really expected to see her back in Singapore, much less on this project. But apparently it turns out that no matter how earth-shattering one’s discoveries and formulae are, theoretical physics is still not anything anyone was really willing to shell out big bucks for, so her department was in trouble, and the SG government had lured her back with the promise of fat grants if she’d just work with them for a while on this project. 

She taught all of us how to use our powers, which was really quite impressive, considering that she didn’t have any of them. She figured out how each of us ought to use our powers just by analysis alone, and somehow actually managed to effectively communicate it to us. She taught the guy with wings how to fly utilising lift and drag and aerodynamics, how the guy with Uraraka-style anti-gravity ought to be treating his “flight” more like swimming, how I should be using convection currents and propulsion to “fly”. There was also a guy with Scott-style laser eyebeams, whom she did one better than Beast, and made him a pair of glasses with toggle-able lenses, that could alter the lasers for different effects, like X-rays, UV, polarised light, straight-up-combat-blasting, etc. This part of the dream was pretty great. I was spending time with my friend, getting to learn how to use my awesome powers in ways I never even thought about, free food and boarding, and a pretty good paycheck. Life was good.

But my brain being what it is, refuses to let me have purely enjoyable dreams, and insists on fucking it up somehow. There was some genetic testing going on to figure out exactly what produced “successful” mutations, because their augmentation process was still pretty hit-and-miss, and they were sequencing LY as a control, and that’s when they realised that - oops, no, she actually wasn’t a normal human being. She was also a naturally born mutant, just that her powers weren’t outwardly obvious. She had an IQ of 190 and a videographic memory. And that’s where the trouble began. Because we were from the same class in the same high school, the government brains were thinking; “That’s pretty small odds! There’s probably actually more naturally born mutants than previously thought!” And so began the Great Recruitment Drive. They’d track down people with the ‘mutant factor’ by various means (sequencing blood from expired donations/pre-employment/enrollment screenings, etc) and then we’d be sent to recruit the mutants in question into the team. Some people cheerfully jumped at the call, but others were more reluctant. My law classmate WJ was actually one of those who refused the offer. In yet another great betrayal by my brain, he had the powers I would’ve loved to have. (He could breathe underwater and was immune to decompression sickness, so he could dive as deep and as long as he liked without gear). They wanted to recruit him to spy on enemy subs and look for underwater bombs. But he refused, because in his opinion, he earns quite enough for his standard of living as a lawyer, and even if the government was offering more it wasn’t worth the risk of being exposed to sharks and giant squid and other predators on the daily. 

And so because of refusals like that the government became more coercive in their recruitment methods. If monetary enticements didn’t work, they’d make it so that their targets had no other choice. If a target had destructive powers, they’d leak videos on social media that cast them as a danger, making society turn against them, and making them desperate. WJ managed to escape this, because his powers were very passive, but there was a girl in high school with super strength who was forced into the team that way. And then whenever they found mutant children, they were made to live in the facility full time. No normal schooling, just training for 10 hours a day and maybe the occasional desultory normal curriculum lessons rushed through and glossed over. They didn’t want the kids growing up with any sort of other useful skill that they could use to seek regular employment; keep them dependent on the government forever.

Naturally, me and LY and a bunch of people on the team greatly disagreed with this. But the vast majority of the original volunteers for the project were the very - hard party-line people, the kind of people who accused us of being ungrateful for disobeying the government after they’d spent so much money on us, and fully subscribe to the “it is everyone’s duty to serve the country, no matter the personal sacrifice; if you were born with these powers it’s your duty to serve, just like if you are born with a penis you have to serve NS” kind of mentality. So those of us who disagreed defected, ran away, and tried to raise awareness within the public as to what was going on.

Of course, this immediately triggered a massive backlash from the government. We had a little TV in our hideout which we used to watch the news, and oh my god the smear campaigns. -_- They’d released training footage to make us look as Dangerous as Possible, like me immolating a room full of dummies, the guy with wings blowing down a tower of bricks, etc, and kept reiterating that we were Dangerous Criminals, and that Anyone with Information should Immediately Report us. The only one without a giant smear campaign on them was LY, probably because, we theorised, the government wanted her to be taken alive and in secret, as much as possible. After all, flamethrowers and bombs and submersibles exist (and have no minds of their own for that matter), but intelligent people are more difficult to replicate. Like even the best computers are only as good as the people who programmed them, and all that. Also, her husband was a high-ranking government official, not a mutant but still quite smart and capable and therefore valuable, and they would want to keep him loyal if they could, and take her alive.

Our little rebellion unfortunately didn’t last very long. Because, for all that we have superpowers, the government has the police and the military and machine guns, and the one person who managed to get invulnerability from the augmentation project was firmly on the government’s team. I think it was maybe 3 days after we’d made our break from the government, that we were peacefully sleeping, and then in the middle of the night our door was kicked down, and before I was even fully awake I took roughly 3 magazines worth of bullets to the chest and stomach. I don’t know what happened to anyone else. I didn’t even really have time to register that I was dying before I died. I just remember feeling startled, and then the force of the bullets, like being punched really hard, but there wasn’t any pain, before I blacked out. 

Too bad there weren’t any drunk guys to do a Permets-Tu xD