#cause it's super heavily based on his design obviously

[carbonatedjem]

I wanted a new icon and also to draw myself in a cute outfit I could never wear in real life (Because it doesn't exist). Probably gonna just make this my tumblr icon since while I don't know if I'd call myself a purely danganronpa focused artist it's basically all i've been posting the past few months on tumblr specifically asdkfhsdkfsldj, (Mostly cause a lot of my other work probably doesn't mesh with my current audience on Tumblr. i dunno how many of you wanna see fictional characters beat the shit out of eachother?) So like, boom, tumblr icon lol

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi. I’m sending this anonymously but if tumblr glitches and it isn’t anonymous please don’t post this because I’m absolutely completely entirely mortified.

I’m 20 FtM. About a year and a half ago, when I moved out and started at college, I discovered fandom, and began to get really into reading fics on AO3. My parents had heavily restricted my internet access growing up, and as new adult I began to discovered the barrage of content online.

Soon enough, I was spending about an hour or two every night reading smut fics. I never thought anything of it, because, well, it’s just words, it’s not *actually* porn, right?

Recently I did start watching some explicit videos but tried to limit myself to only once or twice a month because the shame I felt as well as the strange dissatisfaction just wasn’t worth it.

After doing some research, I found a study that said that watching porn for more than an hour a week was unhealthy. I thought, yeah, okay, fair enough.

Then I realised: does my fanfiction reading count as pornography?

I kept thinking to myself that because it was text it didn’t count, but —does it? Is that the reason that lately I’ve been feeling strangely dissatisfied and empty after reading/watching? Will I feel like this when I eventually have sex?? (still a virgin, mainly for dysphoria reasons)

I found all this stuff online that says porn addictions can screw you over for life, that you can’t find sexual satisfaction with a partner.

Should I cut back?

I don’t normally masturbate while consuming porn. I feel too ashamed. I normally just sit there and read/watch.

Am I a porn addict?????? Should I quit reading smut? Help.

If you can’t tell, I wasn’t raised in a very sex positive environment and I feel very ashamed. I don’t really know who to talk to and I just feel very guilty so I’m resorting to an anonymous ask on Tumblr.

If you read this, thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it.

— Jason

hi Jason,

I don't think you're a porn addict. I think you're probably just an anxious 20 year old from a pretty restrictive background and now that you have a little more freedom you're kind of nervous about it, which is very normal.

I want to be super clear: written porn is porn. porn is any sexually explicit material designed to titillate; it's existed since WAY before the moving picture existed and it will exist long after the internet has crumbled to dust. people like porn! and it's okay to like porn. the text-based stuff is particularly high on the list of porn that's pretty unambiguously fine, morally-speaking, because you never have to worry that the performer you're watching has had their video stolen by pornhub or that, god forbid, anyone onscreen isn't a willing participant, but I want to be super clear that liking sexually explicit photos or videos of real people is also 100% fine.

obviously I have no idea what study you read, but I'd be cautious about any study being boiled down to such black and white, attention-grabbing headlines. you can interpret a study to mean virtually anything if you want to, and there are a lot of interest groups with a vested interest in demonizing porn. if reading smutty fan fic makes you happy and isn't interfering with the rest of your life, you should do that.

unfortunately it sounds like it's not making you happy lately, dissatisfied and empty feelings. in the kindest way possible, I don't think much of that is being caused by the porn itself. it sounds like it's coming from your gnawing worry that you're a porn addict. maybe it's best to take a little step away from porn and smutty fic for a while, if only until you feel able to engage with it without feeling bad.

also, speaking of porn addiction: that's a very dubious condition, and one that's not scientifically or medically recognized. to be certain, people can develop a reliance on porn that disrupts their daily function and can wreak havoc on their lives, but that's true of anything that causes your brain to spit out happy chemicals. anything that become a maladaptive coping mechanism, including and especially things that are fine and even necessary in small doses. sleeping, exercising, and going shopping are all things that can be life-ruining if done to harmful excess, but that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong if you like to sleep in, go for runs, or browse your favorite online stores every once in a while.

if reading smut isn't causing you to skip out on your more important obligations, fail to take care of yourself, or bringing on bankruptcy, I think you're probably alright. the biggest danger I see here is you beating yourself over the head with your own anxiety about this, which may be a sign that it's a good idea to take a step back for entirely different reasons than you were worried about.

[robynrocksforbrains]

AU concept:

If anyone wants to use this as inspiration for drawing, a comic, a fic, literally anything, feel free to. Take creative liberty wherever you want, but tag me so I can see it because I'm insane about it :)

It's a platonic madwheeler speedster AU. Set in the DCU.

Lots of madwheeler siblingism, Mike is an idiot and Max is an instigator. They get their powers because Mike is doing something stupid involving electricity and Max is enabling him at the time of the particle accelerator explosion. Because they're at the same place at the same time, they end up being affected in the same way, and therefore both become speedsters.

So here's the general stuff:

Max is Zoomer (kind of a given) (not to be confused with Zoom), her suit is red with green accents, her lightning is white

Mike is Zipper (Zip for short) (credit to @piper-yipee for the name), his suit is blue with yellow accents, his lightning is green (yes this is entirely for byler reasons)

(I know that lightning colors have different causes in DC canon, but for this AU that is not the case, I'm just choosing lighting colors based on what I want. Cope.)

Zipper and Zoomer I mean COME ON IT'S PERFECT

Established lumax

Slow burn byler because I said so

Once they discover they have powers they go a little crazy about it and Mike immediately wants to be a superhero while Max tries to stay levelheaded about it and reason with Mike that he doesn't know the first thing about being a superhero. Mike ultimately concedes that he doesn't know the first thing about being a superhero and he shouldn't just jump into something like that.

Something happens, whether it be an accident or a crime doesn't really matter, but Mike and Max are there when it happens. Even though they decided that neither of them were gonna jump into anything, they can't stand by and let people get hurt when they know they could do something about it. So they save the day.

After that they decide that they wanna use their powers for good but that they need to be smart about it

They decide to tell Dustin about their powers. He's a super smart science guy and he makes suits for them and has the time of his life learning about the speed force

They decide that they are NOT telling Lucas and Will (they're gonna find out eventually though)

Other stuff:

Will, El, and Lucas are also metahumans, but their powers manifest at a later date.

Will: dimensional awareness (like Vibe), erebokinesis (the power to generate or manipulate darkness or shadows), heliokinesis (the power to bend and control sunlight)

El: I don't have a specific preference, but anything similar to her canon powers would be interesting

Lucas: I also don't have a specific preference for him, I just think there's not nearly enough superhero Lucas content and I need more. Maybe vibrokinesis?

Willel siblings obviously

Once Will learns about Mike and Max's superhero activities, he insists on helping Dustin design better suits for them, because although they may be functional they could look so much better and Will is an artist so

The superhero squad is called The Party because obviously

That's all I got for now, I think, I'll probably edit this post as I think of more stuff. HOWEVER! I do know how Will learns about his powers and Mike being Zipper. This is heavily based on how Cisco discovers his powers in CWs The Flash.

So, Will ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time while Zip and Zoomer are fighting some villain. Mike isn't fast enough and he isn't able to save him, Will dies. (They're very much in love at this point but neither of them has confessed). Mike obviously loses it. He's holding Will in his arms and the only thing running through his mind is some theory Dustin had about the speed force and time travel. He doesn't even think about it he just starts running. He ends up two days in the past and manages to prevent Will's death. He intends to take this to his grave, no one knows. Not even Max or Dustin. But then Will starts having flashbacks to the timeline where he died. He keeps reliving his death, and every time he sees Zipper, mask off, so really he sees Mike, begging him to just hold on. And maybe even telling Will that he loves him. And Will feels like he's going crazy. One day he can't take it anymore and he tells Mike about it, and Mike ends up coming clean about everything because he's tired of lying to Will. Will doesn't really know how to feel about it, he tells Mike he needs some space to process it. He's not mad at Mike, he's just really confused and overwhelmed and he feels slightly betrayed because Mike kept his whole superhero life from him for as long as he did. Obviously they work things out in the end and Will joins the superhero squad.

That's all for now folks

[the-bafflement-of-scotland-yard]

I love that fic you write recently so much I am jumping up and down

I cant wait to hear more about Greg's side of the story but also I kinda wanna know how either of them got into the military in the first place :0 (and maybe also what they're fighting for)

🥺🥺🥺🖤🖤🖤😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 oh my god I love you so much thank youuuuuuuu ;-;

Greg will be featured heavily in the next chapter, and then from chapter 3 onwards Elias will appear, which will be super fun considering he’s a military musician and I happen to know things about military music so I can throw so much shade lmaoooo

I’m basing this fic heavily on my own experience/knowledge, but I’m not setting it in any existing country cause that gives me a little more freedom, which means that the war they’re going to isn’t an existing war either. They’re going overseas to aid an allied country in the fight against a rebel organisation, so I guess I’m taking inspiration from the wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam and Korea, and in a sense also WW2.

Oki so I’m basing the military heavily on the Dutch military, cause that’s obviously what I know best, which means it’s a small professional organisation that only takes on the best (this takes place in the 80s and technically we did have civil serve time back then, but they wouldn’t send those people on actual missions, that’s what the professionals are for). Greg is a simple case of little brain, lots of brawn, likes to fight and be physical but studying isn’t for him so after high school he went straight to the military academy. Started as a simple soldier, worked his way up to sergeant because he does well in missions, he has a natural charisma that gives him some leadership capabilities (as long as he doesn’t have to actually think too much) and he performs remarkably well under pressure and the stress of going into wars.

C.B. is, obviously, a little more intelligent, so he would take a higher level of high school education. I imagine he’s been interested in fighters all his life, going to air shows, reading magazines and books, designing fighters, and after high school he tested for and successfully got into the officer’s academy to become a pilot. His sharp wit, calculating mind and apparent lack of fear quickly got him promoted up to major. He is very passionate about flying.

Thanks for your interest, hope you’re gonna like the next chapters too!!! 🖤🖤🖤

[moonlightserenadeeznutz]

Warlocks Are Attacking: Full muggle timeline.

(Hello internet, welllllcome to film theory!)

This is a detailed timeline of the headcanon I made about James Sirius Potter being in a band, specifically the tl during which the band pretended to be a lost 80s band in the muggle world, explained in this post (which I recommend reading first otherwise you may be quite confused).

This is honestly a super random thing I wrote when I was bored, but I ended up getting super invested in it so guess what, you guys are subjected to it as well now!

Written in the style of a YouTube video, I’ve heavily based the discography of Warlocks are Attacking on the band I Don’t Know How But They Found Me.

Enjoy!

~ On April 17th 2025, a piano cover of The Scientist by Coldplay was released on the YouTube channel JSHarkness04. A completely ordinary- if not low quality- video where the person behind the camera is neither seen nor heard.

More covers are uploaded over the coming months in the same style, and really the channel gains no special interest or notoriety. A few edit videos are uploaded, the usual crack stuff, and a few more covers.

On January 23rd 2026, a vlog is released showing the YouTuber moving into his new house. We finally hear and see the person behind the camera, a British dude around early twenties whose name is revealed to be Alex, and his girlfriend. Again, there’s nothing out of the ordinary in this video, and it’s only a few minutes long.

A few more piano covers are uploaded, as well as another edit video, and then...

This is where it starts.

On May 3rd 2026, a video is uploaded entitled “Warlocks are Attacking”. In it, Alex talks about how he was clearing out the attic of his new home when he came across some old cassette tapes. All the tapes had writing on them, all different, except for the phrase “Warlocks are Attacking”. Judging by the labels, it appeared to be the name of a band, while the rest of the writing could be taken as song titles: Bleed Magic, Do It All The Time, Nobody Likes the Opening Band, etc. Alex said he had listened to some of the tapes, and confirmed that they were songs correlating with the titles. Alex said he’d never heard of the songs before, nor could he find any trace of the band’s existence online, but that some of the tapes had been dated 1986.

This video didn’t really have a conclusion, but only two days after it was uploaded, another video- only a minute long- was uploaded entitled “New Channel”, where Alex explains that he would be setting up a new YouTube channel to showcase the songs he’d found on the tapes, and hopefully be able to find out who the band was.

On May 25th, two videos on Alex’s new channel, given the name “Warlocks are Attacking” were uploaded. The first one was 30 seconds long entitled “Introduction”, which was nothing more than a man’s voice introducing the band. It didn’t cause much suspicion, especially since the record label that the band was apparently signed to was called “None You Jerk”, obviously a fake label. So the introduction could most likely just be a joke made by the band and recorded.

The second video was a simple lyric video for the song “Nobody Likes the Opening Band”. And in the description he explained the story again of how he found the tapes, and asked if anyone knew the song, or the band.

More songs were uploaded, Choke, Bleed Magic, Absinthe etc. And soon the channel started to grow, both from people who genuinely enjoyed the music, and people who were intrigued as to whether or not this really was a lost 80s band, or whether the entire thing was fake.

Theories started circulating, and people started to try and find hidden messages. They started with the username of the original channel JSHarkness04 but search J Harkness, or even JS Harkness, and the only real result you get is Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who. So it seemed that the only thing that the username implied was that the YouTuber was perhaps a Doctor Who fan.

People searched for hidden meanings in the piano covers, the moving house vlog, even the random edits. But no one came up with anything. So eventually people started to give up and accepted the fact that the whole thing was real, and the songs really were from old cassette tapes found in some guy’s attic.

That being said, there were a select few people who just weren’t convinced. Mainly because of the fact that the songs were good. They weren’t experimental pieces from a band trying to find its sound. They had their sound. They knew what they were doing. So how come no one had ever heard of them? Did they really never play these songs to anyone? Not even for an underground gig?

Well, that’s the thing. There’s no saying they didn’t. If you heard a song forty years ago at some random gig, would you remember? And even so, a number of things could have happened that would have stopped the band from ever having their songs released. Maybe they broke up, maybe they couldn’t find anyone who wanted to pick up their songs, maybe they died was one theory someone had.

Point is, the quality and consistency of the songs was really the only evidence that this whole thing was fake, and even that evidence was sketchy.

But then, on November 7th 2026, an altogether different video was uploaded titled “Comfortably Numb- Pink Floyd (cover by Warlocks are Attacking) (found footage!)”

In the description of this video, Alex claims that he found some video tapes in the attic that had been hidden away. A few had been recorded over, but he was able to find a few complete videos of the band.

In this video, we see three band members in what looks like a garage jamming out a cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. And people went crazy. Not only did we finally see what the band members looked like, but we also found out their names. The video, which was dated 1983, had credits edited to the beginning, easily done in the 80s so there was no implication that it wasn’t legit.

Anyway, the credits show that the singer in the video is called Noah Mori, the keyboardist is called Lyra Thomas, and the drummer is called James Potter.

People took apart this video piece by piece, trying to find evidence of either the band being new, or some connection to the YouTuber. Maybe something in the garage was from a time after 1983, maybe the 70s Doctor Who poster in the corner had something to do with JSHarkness04. But all in all, once again, there really was nothing to suggest that it wasn’t real.

However, one thing that was noticed was that, when comparing the singing voice of Noah to the singing voice in the other songs released, they sound completely different.

So despite everything, no one could say for sure who the band members were. We didn’t know if the drummer and the keyboardist were the same, nor did we know who the new singer was. We didn’t even know if they had more than three band members by the time 1986 rolled around, or even if some of the original members had left. All we knew was that the singer had been switched, either with a new singer who wasn’t in the video, or with James Potter, since he was the only other guy in the video.

After the video was released, not much else happened, except the occasional release of another song, which were combed by theorisers looking for evidence that the songs couldn’t have been written and recorded in the 80s but once again came up short.

By this point, the band had grown a real cult following, increased even further when the songs were put on Spotify by Alex.

On March 18th 2027, another video was released, titled “Choke- Live Performance” and showed footage of an actual gig where the band was playing their song, filmed on an old camcorder by someone in the audience, completely unprofessionally as the camera would bob down every so often. Once again no evidence was found of it being faked. However, it did open new possibilities: the band had played gigs. Which means that someone must have seen them play. Not only that but it confirmed that the singer had been switched to James Potter, while the drummer was now Noah, and Lyra was still the keyboardist.

People went onto various sites trying to find anyone who may have been present at a gig in the 80s to see the band live, but no one came forward.

Well, a few people did. But the only evidence they could give was their word, so no one knew whether or not to believe them, which means no one could for definite write off the gig as being fake.

The next stir in the band’s fanbase came with a video simply entitled “???”, a one minute video, with the same voice as the introduction, talking about indoctrination:

Indoctrination program, designation "CVM51-D". Congratulations, you have been selected. You are special. Only the very best and brightest are considered for placement in our patented Temporal Arts program. We invite you to follow along, as we work together to decode and exploit the secrets of time and space for our benefit. Each volunteer pairing will be assigned a chaperone. Our white shadows will oversee your progress. Be sure that our company's interests maintain the highest priority throughout your journey. Please enjoy your experience, and remember: Time is on our side.

Predictably, people were very excited to analyse the text, and while it could still be taken as just a joke by the band, and therefore still no evidence of the band being new, it was an odd thing for the band to do if their songs were never released. A waste of time in a way, especially after already doing it once with the introduction. The voice also wasn’t familiar, though some say that it sounded a little like Noah when compared with the Pink Floyd cover, but putting on an American accent and edited to sound like something out of a PSA.

Another song was released entitled “Need You Here” and then came an actual music video. Or at least, an attempt at a music video.

It was for the song: “Nobody Likes the Opening Band” and in the video we see James singing on a stage, with Lyra playing the piano in a corner and Noah entering onto the stage to play the accompanying tambourine. It’s clearly a music video rather than footage from a show, considering the rather humorous moments that it involves, but executed with complete seriousness.

It also cuts out at the end and shows footage from some kids show which, according to Alex in the description, was called Bagpuss, and was aired in the UK from February 12th 1974 to May 7th of the same year, indicating that the music video had perhaps accidentally been taped over.

(Badly edited example I made of the end of the mv).

While the music video itself didn’t cause too much of a stir, the kids show at the end did, as people claimed that if the show had aired in 1974, and the band hadn’t established itself until at least 1983, how had they managed to accidentally tape over the video with the tv show? People thought it was deliberate, and therefore a sign that the band wasn’t real. Others claimed Alex had done it himself as a joke.

Looking back in the coming months, people saw this video as the start of the band slowly revealing itself to be not what it first seemed. But more evidence didn’t come for a while.

After the release of the song “Mad IQs”, another music video was released, and this one seemed much more professional, as if the band was really trying to make a proper video. It was still filmed in the 80s camcorder style, and it was still very simplistic, and possibly low-budget, again implying that this was a band doing everything themselves.

Released on the 23rd December 2027, the video was a cover of “Merry Christmas Everybody” and once again had the rather quirky vibe of the Opening Band video, where James is unsmilingly singing the song while Noah sits next to him... playing dead? And Lyra comes in halfway through and begins decorating the lifeless Noah with Christmas lights. So at least, if nothing, we know the band has a sense of humour.

An acoustic cover was released of Choke, then a few more songs. And then another music video which so far was the most professional out of all of the ones released. The song was called “Social Climb” and for the video, they actually had a set: a very fancy mansion. We don’t know whether they rented the mansion out, if they borrowed it from a friend, or if one of them even lived there, but by this point they had seemingly become determined to be a real band, which is why the whole idea of them having no recognition whatsoever was odd.

But it was the next video that caused much more of stir, and was the real proper beginning of the band revealing their true identity.

On the 12th September 2027, another cover video was released of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, though was much more in the same style as the Comfortably Numb cover, suggesting that this video was made quite soon after. It was still filmed in the same garage, though with a little more editing, and James was now the singer, and Noah the drummer.

Once again it had credits, but this time they were a little different:

Songwriter/drummer: N. H. Mori Keyboardist: L. A. Thomas  Singer/guitarist: J. S. Potter

Doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary, right? Well, that’s what most people thought too, but others were adamant that the initials were a sign, because if you notice, James Potter: J S Potter.

People were convinced that the initials JS were linked to the username JSHarkness04, and even brought up the 70s poster of Doctor Who seen in the first footage video as evidence that the username was something to do with James, and therefore showing that the entire thing was contrived.

Some people accepted this, but a lot of people were still sceptical. After all, it could easily just be a coincidence.

Another song was released, and then one more music video on November 16th.

This one was the most different- and the most professional of all the music videos on the channel, for the song “Do It All The Time”.

According to the description, it was sent to Alex by “an anonymous donor” saying that it had once been aired as an educational video in their school, around the year 1987/88.

And while the video could have been created in the 80s, it’s format is much more satirical than anything. The description could easily have said that it was another- and much better- attempt from the band at creating a music video, but instead the description gave an explanation that seemed... off. Not because the uploader had grown cocky, but because the band was finally making its transition from being surrounded in theory to being simply aesthetically satirical.

That being said, it still wasn’t concrete evidence.

There wasn’t another video until December 23rd. Another Christmas one, this time for a song called “Oh Noel” with James sitting alone in front of a decorated fireplace and singing.

Another subtle reference to the band’s identity was revealed with the lyric “I met you in December ’93”, obviously quite a few years after the band was supposedly around.

The next music video was for “Modern Day Cain”, and this is where the band’s identity properly moved away from the convincing 80s set up. The music video had a similar vibe to “Do It All The Time”, though the content was different. In this case, the video was mock footage from a TV show, which, according to the description was called ‘Superstar Showcase’, aired in 1989.

No such TV show ever existed, which was rather obvious by the footage, as once again it was very satirical.

So by now, only the most stubborn of fans were still convinced that the band was really from the 80s.

But no one was really disappointed. The band had executed their persona well. They had maintained the belief that they were a lost band for over two years, and revealed themselves so subtly that people hardly noticed.

The entire act was wrapped up on April 17th 2028, exactly three years after the first video was uploaded on JSHarkness04′s channel, with the release of a cover of “Debra” by Beck. A song released in 1999.

I should mention by this point that the channel JSHarkness04 had been uploading relatively consistently the entire time, most likely for the extra realism to the act. But once the act had been dropped, the channel went dormant.

Since then, the band has been releasing new songs here and there, and they still keep up the 80s persona, but now that they don’t have to be so careful, they’ve been able to have more freedom over what they post. An official music video for “Choke” was released, with the description:

“Pop Time Live was a short-lived music television program that aired briefly in Eastern Europe in the early 1980s. The show, and its producers, had hoped to capitalize on the then popular ‘Italo Disco’ movement, but audiences found its lack of authenticity objectionable. Labeled ‘NOT FOR BROADCAST,’ it is believed that this particular Warlocks performance never made it to air due to the band’s refusal to properly pantomime to their own song.”

Again, no such show existed. So now it was clear that the band was now a fully satirical 80s persona, and eventually they made live appearances, and even interviews, where people were finally able to find out exactly who they were, and that the band had actually been formed in 2021, and their plan to pretend to be an 80s band had first been made up by Noah who filmed one of their performances when they were first starting out (and James was still the drummer, Noah the lead singer) with the idea already in mind. And Alex was a friend of the group who had agreed to play along, but that the Warlocks’ YouTube channel wasn’t run by him, but by all three members of the group.

And as of now, that really covers the entire timeline of Warlocks are Attacking.

~ But heeey. That’s juust a theory. A film theory. Aaand cut.

[thefrenchyavenger]

You meet for the first time (part 1)

Tony:

You were on your way to meet Fury when he sent you a text, asking you to meet him in his office instead. You sighed, what could you have done … again ?! You knocked on the door and once inside, you saw Fury but also the well-known Iron Man. After seeing you, Tony started smiling. You read his body language and sighed … You had to leave and quickly, it felt like you’d been ambushed. 

« Director Fury ? »

« Ah ! Come on in Agent l/n. I suppose you already know mister Stark ? »

« Only by reputation » You said, noticing that Tony kept watching you. 

« I want you to give him a tour of the base, if, as you said you know of his reputation, you understand his need to be chaperoned »

« No one else is available ? I am not exactly a babysitter for billionaires » 

Your only wish was to be in your bed, watching TV and eating Ice-cream. Fury gave you the « Do what I said ! » look. You prevented another sighed, put your best poker-face on before asking Tony to follow you :

« Of course Sir » You answered. 

You started walking in silence, only talking when necessary, Tony right next to you  :

« So what ? That’s all I get ? The silent treatment ? No introduction ? You already know me but I don’t know a thing about you, that’s quite unfair don’t you think ? » 

« Fury had already introduced me and according to the alert I received few days ago, you’ve tried to ‘read’ my file … the confidential one, so …  »

« Okay I admit it, I am curious but I keep thinking that ‘agent’ isn’t your name » 

« y/n »

« Sorry  ? »

« My name is y/n » You repeated «  Well, you’ve got your tour, I am off now mister Stark. »

« Call me Tony »

« Not a chance »

« Will see » Smiled Tony. 

« Don’t count on it »

Clint :

You were in laboratory, thinking about a new armor for the agents, something more resistant which could possibly heal light wounds. You were trying to draw the prototype on your 3D desk when someone knocked on your door. You were surprised by who it was  :

« Agent Barton ?! Is everything okay ? »

« Hum yes » Said Clint, shyly.

« Come in, sit down » 

Clint sat down in front of you, he couldn’t explain why, but he felt intimidated. He put his bow on your desk :

« Is there something wrong with it ? »

« Oh no ! » Said Clint quickly « I  wanted to know if it was possible to improve it even more, some new options or whatever ! It is perfect but … I have some ideas and I wanted to know if it was possible to … » 

« You know, agent Barton … »

« Clint »

« Okay Clint, you know, technically it’s not up to me, I invent and create the first models, but then it’s up to my team to improve everything. I created, I give orders and authorized the alterations, that’s all »

« Yes I know that, but you created it, not with a 3D  printer, with your hands, my bow is your baby. You created it just … »

« For you ? I know. Fury asked me to. I spent 3 months on the design. »

« If it’s really a bother I can ask someone else »

« Oh no way ! You’re right. My minions are not going to touch this bow ! Over my dead body ! Thank you for reminding of the energy and time I spent on it » You smiled « I need to finish this first, but come back tomorrow, we’ll see what we can do. 

« Thank you ! Thank you so much ! »

« By the way, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you ! »

« Same. I’m glad to finally meet the person who created all the weapons that saved me ! » 

« My pleasure. See you tomorrow then »

« Good ! » Said Clint, his heart pounding in his chest. 

Steve :

You were patiently waiting for the quinjet to land. You’d been notified that were a few wounded agents on Captain America’s team. You were quite anxious, you were about to meet Captain America ! The quinjet finally landed and some of the agents went directly to the medical bay after noticing you. You were know to be uncompromising about health and wounds. Everyone knew what you did to Fury. You were a legend. You saw Captain America trying to avoid you. Oh not today Satan !

« Captain ? »

Steve turned and froze when he saw you. He wanted to talk to you but couldn’t utter a word. His thoughts were a mess. 

« Examination room … now ! » You ordered, using your ‘doctor’ voice. 

« I assure you ma'am that … »

« Captain » You cut « From what I can see despite being a super soldier you need stitches. I only want to help you. So don’t be a child and follow me »

« Yes ma’am » He smiled. 

You had such a strong personality and he absolutely loved it ! He loved that you weren’t impressed by him. You both entered your office and asked him to sit down while you got your tools.

« nice to meet by the way, it could have been better but … »

« Indeed.  Please don’t move, I’m almost done »

« Already ?! »

« Only the best for Captain America »

« Call me Steve, please »

« Only if you call me y/n »

« Good for me »

« What happened to you ? »

« The building fell, with me inside »

« You know you could have been badly hurt »

« People were in danger »

You finished quickly, you removed your gloves and turned toward Steve, a smile on your lips :

« Done. Be careful for a few hours »

« Thank you. I hope we’ll meet again » 

« Well, if buildings keep falling on you that should be arrange. But, I won’t be there next week. I have to follow a team » 

« Doctors have missions ?! » He asked, worried about you already. 

« Yes, especially with teams of new agents »

« Be careful »

« Don’t worry about me, Fury will have my head if something happened to me »

You asked him not to worry about you… How was he supposed to do that ?! 

Thor :

« Why do you exist ?! What are you ?! Answer me !! » You yelled « What’s wrong with you ?! Don’t you like me ?! I don’t want to hut you, I swear ! Just tell me what you are !! »

« My lady ? Is everything all right ? » asked a voice behind you.

You quickly turned around, startled by the interruption. You couldn’t utter a word when you saw who was the intruder ! It was Thor !

« I apologize, did I startled you ? »

« Heu … yeah.Well, it’s a bit awkward »

« What are you working on ? » asked the God.

« Few days ago, a team came back with an unknown artefact. My job is to find out what it is, what’s its use . But this bloody thing doesn’t want to cooperate ! »

« go easy on it » Advised Thor, brushing your hand with his (deliberately). 

You felt the blood rushing to your cheeks. Disturbed, you followed Thor’s advice and the artefact went on, triggering a shield. Overjoyed, you flung your arms around Thor’s neck before kissing him on the cheek :

« Thank you ! Thank you, thank you, thank you !!! »

« That’s all you, I did nothing » Smiled Thor, happy to have you in his arms.

Suddenly you understood what you did and took a step back :

« Sorry, I was a little to overjoyed » 

« Feel free to do it whenever you want ! » Said Thor, but feeling your discomfort he changed the subject «  Can I ask you what is your … ‘job’ ? »

« Oh ! I’m an archeologist. I’m in charge of the artefacts the teams found during their missions. I boss people around » 

« So you are essential ? »

« I wouldn’t say that, you don’t need an archeologist when someone wants to destroy your planet »

« Don’t. I think you are wonderful, so is your … activity »

« Thank you, but I need to go. I have to run some tests on that thing. I hope I’ll see you again »

« You will » Promised Thor.

Loki :

A new crisis was threatening the SHIELD, again. One of the agent, apparently had the capacity to change his body, his face but no-one knew, until now. So now, everyone was avoiding him or was insulting him. Which wasn’t good AT ALL !  The agent lost his cool and became a threat. Loki was watching the scene with clenched teeth. He knew what rejection could do to someone. The situation changed when you arrived. You got the agent to calm down. Loki couldn’t hear what you said but he was still impressed nonetheless. 

You asked your assistant to take the agent to your office before walking to Loki :

« Well done » He said.

« Not thank to you » You answered coldly, which surprised the God.

« I am Loki, I am from Asg… »

« I know who you are » You cut « I know where you come as I know you could have prevented what happened. Several agent have been severely injured and you just sat and watched. »

Loki kept looking at you with a smile, he loved your fired. There was something about you that was incredibly attractive.

« And you are ? »

« Not interested thank you » 

« Really ? You meet a god and have no questions to ask ? »

« Not to a self-centered god, sorry, buy yourself a conscious and maybe I will ask you if being an ass-hole is  hereditary, otherwise you’ll be a lost cause » 

« I don’t have a perfect family and … »

« Shut it ! Do I look I care ? Let me help you, the answer is no » You said, leaving the god dumbfound. 

Who were you ?! Your first-meeting could have been better but Loki wasn’t going to complain. He loved women with some fire in them. 

Bucky :

Meeting the winter-soldier in these circumstances was not on your to-do list. Steve and you had been on the run, trying to find Barnes before someone else did. You and Steve were the only people capable to help him. And you did found him, to be more precise,you were pointing your gun at him :

« You are quite difficult to find » 

Obviously, no answers from. What were you expecting ? Steve told you that his brain was a mess and that you shouldn’t expect too much from him. The Winter-Soldier was silently studying you, at least that was what you thought. You told Steve through the radio that you found him. 

« Good ! Be careful, people heavily armed are coming from the south » Answered Steve. 

Suddenly, men broke into the place and started shooting at you and Bucky. You were about to take a bullet when Bucky stood in front of you, shielding you with his metal arm. For once, he was happy to have this arm, just this once. You were in the middle of the fight when Bucky finally spoke :

« What’s your name ? »

« Seriously ? You’re speaking now ?! Like, right now ?! » 

You took a quick glance at Bucky and saw that you words had hurt him, pushing back into the « winter-soldier mode ». You were feeling guilty and you didn’t like it a bit ! So, to prevent him from shutting himself even more, you decided to answer :

« y/n, and I come in peace » You said, cracking a joke to break the tension. At least, you hoped it would work.

« Delighted » He said, giving you the smile you only saw on old pictures.

« Same. I don’t want to be heartless or anything but I think we should go … right now ! Steve is waiting for us at the meeting point ! »

« How do you want to go ? We could use the roof but you’ll need to jump and … » Said Bucky, worried. 

« Fine for me !! »

« Are you sure that … »

« I’ve been working with Steve long enough to say that jumping from roof to roof is as easy as to do a 42km run ! » 

« I see » Smiled Bucky before following you in the stairs.

You were more interesting than he thought, and he absolutely loved it. 

[differentfromtoday]

oh my god dimitri what happened? crackpot theorizing

this is based upon nothing but my own crazy ideas, the cHuRCh bAd theory, dimitri’s timeskip look, and some already released info. 

i just need to write this out so i can laugh at myself after the game comes out and i’m super wrong lol

so dimitri right? boy what happened? okay so obviously some shit goes down in the holy kingdom of faerghus over the timeskip. now we know that one of the early game enemies is ashe’s dad rebelling against the church of seiros. since faerghus is a “holy kingdom”, they obviously have ties with seiros. now what i think will happen is ashe’s dad’s rebellion will most likely be stopped by us. i think this defeat will only fire up the detractors even more; people will see ashe’s father as a martyr and the rebellion will grow even stronger. now i can see this going a few ways with dimitri: 

1. somehow, dimitri looks into his family and the church as realizes the corruption. he’s devastated. he decides to betray his family, join the rebellion, and eventually becomes their leader. shit happens, he loses an eye battling his family/the church, and then meets with the others after five years.

 now you may be wondering why the hell i think that. i guess the one reason is dimitri’s timeskip look. in my opinion, dimitri in no way looks like a prince of a holy kingdom. he looks more like a rogue. the long messy hair and black clothing does not scream prince to me. compared to both edelgard and claude’s clothing, he looks completely different; both edelgard and claude’s timeskip looks heavily lean into their kingdoms’ colors, red and yellow respectively. dimitri barely has any blue in his design, just some detailing on his armor and his cape. if he were a prince of faerghus, wouldn’t be more decked out in blue like the other two lords are decked out in their colors? still he does have some blue detailing, but i have a theory for that too. like i said, i think he leads the rebellion against the faerghus and the church. their plan is to restore faerghus to the kingdom it was before the church’s corruption. so i think the rebels view dimitri as their leader, but also their future king. like he’s the “true king” or whatever of faerghus and plan to name him king if the rebellion is successful.

also in the new trailer, dimitri says something along the line of “we must stop this endless cycle of the powerful trampling the weak”. to me, that doesn’t sound like something a prince would say. because wouldn’t the powerful be his own family? why would he be against his own family trampling the weak? one of our early game missions is to stop a rebellion. isn’t that the powerful using their power to stop a weaker detractor to maintain the status quo? i don’t think someone who is loyal to their family would say that. now you could say he’s saying that about the church, but then again, he’s a prince of the holy kingdom of faerghus. presumably, his family has ties with the church. so if he were to see the wrongs of the church, wouldn’t he in some way be betraying his own family? in my opinion, yes, thus rebel leader dimitri.

2. okay i could also see this going as the rebellion basically caused faerghus to cannibalize itself. again ashe’s dad become a martyr and inspires other people to rebel. there are many small rebellions around faerghus and eventually the kingdom breaks into factions. dimitri’s family loses a lot of power and is no longer the lords of faerghus. we see dimitri after his house has lost a lot of their power. with this one, i don’t know exactly how the church would fit into it. or dimitri’s quote. idk it’s less thought out tbh.

3. i could also see leaning to evil church, evil kingdom of faerghus, and evil dimitri. the rebellion is quelled, people are unhappy, the kingdom fights and eliminates the unhappy people. the kingdom becomes more corrupt, dimitri isn’t against it, and become an evil prince. now i can’t see that happening because then the quote doesn’t make sense, but idk it could happen ??

obviously i’m most convinced about the first one. maybe it could sorta be like a conquest thing where dimitri realizes his own family is corrupted as has to deal with the consequences of that. idk i’m crazy

of course, all my theories hinge on the cHUrch BaD theory. if the church were to not be evil, i honestly have no idea what happened our boy dimitri lmao

[justavengeit]

burn the whole house down - brokemachineverse, futurefic, fighting depression by deliberately provoking your teammates

"Boss," FRIDAY says, "your favorite soldier of mass destruction is testing the integrity of the couch again."

"Again?" Tony says automatically, glancing up. It's a bit weird, being back home and having FRIDAY use the exact same screen she always has to show him live footage of Bucky's actions in the base.  It used to be about feeling safe. If he always knew where Bucky was at and what he was doing, then Tony felt like he could come up out of the rooms he normally kept on lockdown and at least show his face around, for what good it would do. It's not really Bucky he's hiding from anymore.

To Romanova's credit, she hasn't tried hacking pass his security the way she might have a few years ago because it makes super spies nervous not to have total control of their environment. He's aware that it's considered a concession.

Tony just thinks she's not going to be able to hack pass his systems anymore. Not employing the tightest security and the most complication encryption has always been a gesture of trust coming from him.

But well, Tony's an old dog that can learn endless new tricks.

It's weird, though, after everything, to look up and be in the same situation as he was months ago. Back when tension was his constant companion, given - well. Everything. An unstable super soldier wandering the halls, moping on his own between therapy sessions and having severe breaks from reality. If Tony fell back into his old habits of locking himself into the basement of the Compound this easily, he shouldn't be surprised that Bucky is back to ghosting his old halls and rooms and -

Yes, laying face down on the couch the way he used to only when Rogers and Romanova tried to get him to come socialize with the rest of the rogues. Tony hasn't ever properly asked why Bucky doesn't seem to trust Rogers anymore. He just knows that the two of them arrived into his hands that way and ruined all his plans to tie Bucky up with a bow and toss him at Rogers to keep the jackass pacified.

Tony hated the sight of this before he cared about what went through Bucky's head beyond what it meant for his own safety. Now he pretty much knows and downright despises what it means.

Sighing with irritation, he gets up from the stool, flipping his tools off but leaving everything where it is. It's not very likely he'll come back and pick everything back up, but he doesn't want to take the time to put everything away, either. He's not like Howard, he doesn't particularly care about keeping his work space orderly. Maybe exactly because Howard was like that.

Tony had designed the Compound to house much more than just the teams that currently inhabited it. It had been like a secondary SHIELD base - less creepily like an anthill or an iceberg, but... always meant to have a large staff. Now it mostly goes unused. It's a bit like housing himself and four or five friends in the entirety of Stark Tower. It's honestly a waste of space.

A younger Tony would have found a way to glory in the sheer indulgence. Now Tony just feels tired and irritable about it, about the lack of efficiency - it's a monument to his stupidity. Naivety.

On the other hand, it gives Bucky plenty of room to roam around without getting claustrophobic about it, and unless someone puts out the effort to find him, they're unlikely to accidentally stumble across him, no matter what lobby or lounge area he claims at the time. It's hard to be completely disgusted with it when it serves a good cause.

"Alright, scooch up, buttercup," Tony says as he comes in the door. Bucky gives a little jolt, peeling his face off the cushions to twist around and blink at Tony.

The kind of lost, not-all-there cast to his face makes Tony's stomach twist unpleasantly. "What," he says blankly.

It's not like it's unreasonable for Bucky to be struggling with depression and anxiety, given everything he's been through ever. Not for even a second did Tony expect that the shift in their relationship would change that - he's been through it himself, he knows better. He knows that Bucky will use him as a reason to continue battling his symptoms as best as he can, but just having Tony isn't going to fix them.

Tony snatches one of the throw pillows off the end of the couch as Bucky shifts up onto his knees. He drops himself into the end that Bucky's vacated and takes a second to arrange himself while Bucky rubs the numbness out of his face with the heel of his hand.

Once Tony is satisfied with how he's settled in and will be able to easily do work on his Stark Pad, he puts the pillow in his lap and then says, "Okay, come here."

Bucky looks at him dubiously, still blinking heavily. "Tony," he says, "what are you doing?"

"What does it look like, princess?" Tony demands. "Look, come on. You're making FRIDAY sad. I can't just let you demoralize my AI. I'm trying get some work done and I can't do that if FRIDAY is distracted."

The slightly skeptical look that's settled in on his face suggests that he's not fooled at all, which good. It's not like it's one of Tony's good excuses. It's barely an excuse at all. "You sure you're okay with that?" he  asks.

Tony levels the most fake scathing look in his repertoire at Bucky, as if he hadn't already considered all possible outcomes for this. It's a break in their holding pattern, sure - ever since getting back to the present, the two of them haven't exactly gone out of their way to make their change in relationship known. FRIDAY knows, but FRIDAY has eyes and ears everywhere and neither of them are exactly shy when they're alone, but - well. A public longue is hardly either of their bedrooms or Tony's lab.

When the look doesn't garner him what he wants immediately - Bucky just raises a skeptical eyebrow - Tony sighs noisily.

"I'm not exactly in any hurry to start any fights over it," he admits, because he knows that what he and Bucky have built between them will only intensify the tensions between them and Rogers and therefore the entire team, "but there are some things which are more important than keeping the peace."

"You like having secrets," Bucky points out shrewdly.

"Yeah, okay, I do," he admits, because true. True. He likes having things just to himself. So little of himself actually gets to belong to him, and who he loves isn't anyone else's business. But. "People tend to object to being secrets."

Some of the weary exhaustion seems to let up a little bit, around the corners of Bucky's eyes and mouth. A little bit of tension goes out of his shoulders. "I'm not asking you for that," he says.

Tony shifts uncomfortably, glancing away. "No," he allows, because Bucky's made absolutely no hints that direction. "Which is probably a good thing, or I'd probably be an asshole about it. Still."

"You'd try to be an asshole about it," Bucky says, watching him. Tony would do more than try, but he understands that Bucky means that it wouldn't take much for him to renege on it. It's kind of fucked up that Bucky of all people believes in him that much.

Stirring, Bucky edges forward onto his knees. He still looks worn and exhausted, but his eyes are sharp enough. "Does this mean I get to touch you in public now?" he asks, ignoring the reflexive arched brow Tony gives him. "Kiss you in front of Rhodes and everyone else?"

"Well, if you wanted to start the next superhero skirmish, sure," Tony says flatly. The heat in his ears and neck suggests that he's flushing like a dumbass. "God knows it's getting boring around here without someone trying to kill me."

Bucky studies him narrowly, but it doesn't take him half as long as it did once to read him. "None of 'em are that good," he says confidently, unfolding and settling in along the couch to drop his head onto the pillow on Tony's lap. Instead of laying on his stomach like earlier, he curls on his side toward the back of the couch, looking up at Tony with sharp pale eyes. "I wouldn't let 'em get that close anyway."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony says, stomach swooping pleasantly, like turning a particularly difficult but beautiful turn in the armor; as much as he likes playing hero, having someone play hero at him is. Nice. "You're the biggest, meanest son of a bitch on the team, William Sugar." After only a moment's hesitation, he reaches out and tucks the loose hair in Bucky's face behind his ear.

Bucky's eyes flutter shut beneath his fingers. It would almost be sweet if it weren't Bucky, sprawled along the couch and on his lap like an oversized, slightly murderous feral cat, only a little less threatening than usual because he's exhausted from fighting his demons and apparently spoiling for a physical outlet.

At least he hadn't determined that Tony was an appropriate target. Tony isn't sure how he would have reacted if he'd been greeted with an argument. He smooths his thumb over the sharp edge of Bucky's cheekbone, still on display and gaunt even a month after returning. But then, super soldiers seemed to struggle to put on any body fat at all.

Tony sighs. "Yeah, alright," he agrees, reaching further back to stroke his hand over Bucky's crazy, mixed up head. "Obviously my inclination is not to invite comment on my personal decisions, but keeping secrets has a way of complicating matters, so whenever you feel like it is fine."

Bucky slits his eyes open, which does very little to detract from the whole feral cat thing he has going on. He frowns up at Tony. "It shouldn't be just 'fine,'" he says.

Rolling his eyes, Tony says, "They're not my friends so I don't actually care. FRIDAY knows, and I told Rhodey - although not in so many words, of course, I'm not suicidal. And if FRIDAY knows then she tattled to Pepper because she always tattles -"

"Hey," FRIDAY protests mildly.

He ignores her. He knows what her priorities are, and her opinions on just how his support network works. Mostly that it doesn't unless she makes it. She's not exactly incorrect.

"They're going to find out one way or another," Tony says. He might be a bit sullen about it. "Better for it to be on our terms than by accident."

"Damage control," Bucky identifies. His eyes shut for a long moment, his breaths far too slow, and a pang goes through Tony. He continues to pet Bucky's head for lack of something more helpful to do. It's not like he has control of their circumstances, or the fact that - as Rhodey had told him - they'd both known it was a terrible decision and ended up making it anyway.

Terrible for whom, though? That's the question that Tony has been wondering for a while now. Because it seems to be working just fine for the two of them, and it really shouldn't matter how little anyone else likes it.

"Yeah, well, there are a lot of ways to do damage control," he points out after a moment. Brightening slightly, he says, "I could hire a girl to climb out of a cake and sing a show tune about it if you want. It technically fits the bill."

He pauses, but there's no laugh or smile for that one. Tony hadn't really expected it given that Bucky's pleasures are small and quickly done with and don't tend to be over quips and jokes.

Tony doesn't allow this to stop him, contemplating it further. "Actually, I like it. My vote goes to the girl in the cake. If we're lucky, they'll be too busy being angry about how the message is delivered to really think about the message itself."

"Could," Bucky agrees, "or we could just say it to their faces and if they have something they want to say about it, they're already within arm's reach."

"Well. That's a kind of logic I can't really find fault with, other than, you know, that it also places you in their arm's reach, and besides that: they have more ranged fighters," Tony points out a bit skeptically. Usually starting pointless fights is more Rogers' thing, but Tony can hardly expect there to have been absolutely no bleedover now that he knows just how close those two had been.

The learning murder machine curled up next to him shifts into something like a restless stretch, eyes glittering behind his lashes. "Doesn't matter. I can take them."

Tony has perhaps not adjusted for the addition of himself to the entire equation. To be fair, before this they were in the past where people had very little reason to hate Tony, and Tony had dismissed Bucky's protectiveness as the two of them working as a team to get home.

"Alright," Tony says, threading his fingers into the hair at the nape of Bucky's neck; it's second nature to avoid tugging, testing the tension at the top of his neck. "While I'm… flattered that you want to fight the entire Avengers team on my - our - behalf, I have to wonder where exactly this is coming from."

"Tony," he says dryly, "you know I do better when I got something to do, and you just gave me permission to rub us in their faces."

He adjusts for that. Yeah, the Sergeant had always seemed better off when he was able to run around after his Captain. Yeah, Bucky had seemed to be the most stable when he was able to involve himself in whatever it was Tony was up to at the time. Yeah, since they got back, Tony had holed himself up in his lab and Bucky was left at loose ends, attending therapy that was really only maintaining the status quo instead of actively changing something.

Tony sets the tablet on the couch arm so that he can rub his hand over his face. He can't be expected to predict everything, but sometimes the more obvious things scrape by and it's an aggravation. Of course Bucky does better when he has something to do. Anyone would. Tony had worked obsessively on his armors, when he was doing poorly.

"So," he says, lowering his hand and looking down at Bucky, who looks still looks tired and drawn, but now with the addition of a banked fire in his eyes, content as he seems to be to continue laying on Tony. "We're going to fight the entire Avengers team."

"Only the ones dumb enough to start something," Bucky corrects with a pleased cast to his face.

"So the entire team," Tony says with a sigh, and finally gets his laugh.

[thisdaynews]

Psychological militants Launched 500 Attacks on MNJTF, Killed 2,368 Soldiers Using State Weapons - Report

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/psychological-militants-launched-500-attacks-on-mnjtf-killed-2368-soldiers-using-state-weapons-report/

Psychological militants Launched 500 Attacks on MNJTF, Killed 2,368 Soldiers Using State Weapons - Report

An examination paper ready for the European Peace Facility (EPF), an European Union venture for harmony support activities across the globe, has uncovered that psychological oppressor gatherings, Boko Haram and the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP), had dispatched 500 assaults on army installations and developments of the Multi-public Joint Task Force (MNJTF) somewhere in the range of 2015 and 2020.

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The paper introduced by a Researcher and Director, S4 Initiative (Safeguarding Security Sector Stockpiles) situated in Borex, Switzerland, Mr Eric Berman, named: “The Management of Lethal Materiel in Conflict Settings: Existing Challenges and Opportunities for the European Peace Facility”, said deadly weapons including little and light arms seized from the army installations during assaults by psychological oppressors, supported the 12-year uprising in Nigeria and the Lake Chad district.

While the report refered to debasement and decreased assurance as being to a great extent answerable for loss of gear, the Defense Headquarters (DHQ) has anyway said the Armed Forces of Nigeria were winning the conflict against insurrection in every one of the performance centers of tasks, including the North East and the North West areas sof the country.

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Safeguard Spokesman, Maj. Gen. Olufemi Sawyerr, said the way that large number of extremists were giving up with their families and setting out their arms, meant that administration was winning the conflict against insurrection, adding that the demonstration of give up wasalso an indication of triumph for the country.

Yet, the examination paper asserted that somewhere in the range of 2015 and 2020, about 2,368 “formally dressed faculty fatalities were recorded”, focusing additionally that the agitators dispatched 500 assaults on MNJTF bases inside a six-year time span, where no less than 2,368 military staff were killed.

A breakdown of the figure showed that Nigeria recorded 1,952 fatalities while Chad recorded 217; Niger, 132 and Cameroon 67.

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Further, the figures showed that Nigeria lost 134 staff in 2015, 157 out of 2016, 171 of every 2017, 425 out of 2018, 642 out of 2019 and 423 out of 2020. The report said Chad recorded deficiency of one fighter in 2015, four out of 2016, nine of every 2017, zero out of 2018, 34 out of 2019 and 169 out of 2020.

Niger, nonetheless, recorded 14, 2015; 57, 2016; zero, 2017; 19, 2019; 22, 2019 and 20, 2020. Cameroon recorded the passing of 36 faculty in 2015, nine, in 2016, one of every 2017, zero out of 2018, 21 out of 2019 and zero out of 2020.

Yearly sums inside the period under audit showed that the four troop-contributing part countries – Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon – lost 185 staff in 2015, 227 of every 2016, 181, 2017; 444, 2018, 719, 2019 and 612 out of 2020.

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“Official information concerning assaults on security area work force is hard to acquire, yet reports propose that in excess of 2,000 formally dressed security area faculty have passed on in the contention.

“However disturbing as these numbers may be, they probably under-gauge the genuine scale and extent of the misfortunes caused concerning the security faculty of the four Lake Chad Basin nations.

“A commemoration to fallen friends since 2013 at the base camp of the Nigerian military’s activities in Northeast Nigeria had in 2018 recorded the names of in excess of 1,300 officers engraved on it,” it said.

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An expected 600 fighters lost their lives in assaults by Boko Haram and kicked the bucket inside a multi month time span in 2018 alone,” the report expressed, refering to explore specialists.

In excess of 100 Cameroonian officers lost their lives in assaults by Boko Haram in 2014 and 2015, even as three separate assaults on police focuses in N’Djamena in June 2015, brought about a larger number of than 100 setbacks, including many passings, a considerable lot of whom were individuals from the police.

The report additionally point by point reasons why weapons are lost to guerillas.

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“The deficiency of materiel as an immediate result of these assaults is considerable. A firearm truck, fitted with an automatic rifle will oftentimes move a few tins of connected cartridges totalling many rounds of ammo. In some cases considerable amounts of weaponry kept at the base as stores can be taken from military positions the extremists had themselves assaulted.

“At the point when a base is invaded, team served weaponry, for example, assault rifles, mortars and towed big guns” are trucked away, “yet, a ton of that materiel is in sufficient condition to be useful to the aggressors,” it said.

Unexpected claimed gear got through seizure from local security powers probably overshadows materiel really take a look at focuses, forward working bases, “Super Camps” and area central command,” it said.

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The exploration paper additionally refered to as purposes behind the deficiency of staff and materiel, “inadequate quality and amount of both deadly and non-deadly materiel for the security area” and ammo, just as “tanks just shooting twice, shielded faculty transporters running for 10 to 15 from boots to tanks”, and has gathered some of officers’ complaints about lacking body protection minutes prior to overheating, automatic weapons sticking, and mortar shells neglecting to explode.

“These long-standing issue sums up the extent of the issue in Nigeria, “running concerns are not founded on narrative records. They are foundational”, it said, refering to explore specialists, “A comparative circumstance influenced Cameroonian security powers’ initial endeavors against Boko Haram.”

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Berman, likewise refering to explore works, said, “Defilement goes far to clarifying why hardware is inadequate. It is endemic inside Nigerian culture to verifiably blame the military for deliberately drawing out the contention for their own closures and current President Muhammadu Buhari, recognized this, promising to counter it as a focal part against dug in debasement inside the military, going from blackmail at designated spots of his first official mission in 2015.

“Be that as it may, the test confronting the nation is gigantic and progress has been slow and lopsided. Impropriety inside the guard area is in no way, shape or form restricted to Nigeria. It is an issue all through a significant part of the world, incorporating somewhere else in the sub-locale,” it clarified.

The report additionally tracked down that the territorial reaction to the “Boko Haram” struggle highlighted both the requirement for EU support—for instance through the arrangement of deadly materiel and preparing by means of European Peace Facility (EPF) and the evaluation of dangers inborn in any sort of commitment.

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“The degrees of loss of formally dressed work force and deadly materiel from state reserves in the Lake Chad district are amazingly high. In six years (somewhere in the range of 2015 and 2020) a few fold the number of formally dressed staff serving in and close by the Multinational Joint Task Force were killed because of ‘vindictive demonstrations’ than those, who have served in UN peacekeeping activities over a range of over 70 years.

“Announcing recommends that Boko Haram groups have held onto Contingent-claimed Equipment (COE) that incorporates a wide-scope of substantial weapon frameworks. A portion of the heavily clad vehicles and towed big guns lost to Boko Haram started from EU part states. The amount of little arms and light weapons—large numbers of which additionally were made in the EU—is extraordinary to the point that it has supported the rebellion for longer than 10 years,” Berman said.

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The report, in this way, suggested EU’s further commitment with the African Union (AU) and the ECOWAS in resolving issues raised by the report.

These regardless, Maj. Gen Sawyerr, the safeguard representative, who was not happy with the report, disclosed to THISDAY that the Armed Forces of Nigeria were winning the conflict against revolt and outfitted banditry.

“We are winning the conflict in the North East and North West and the fear based oppressors are giving up in enormous numbers. Can any anyone explain why it is since we are obviously winning the conflict that such report is coming up to drag us back. We are winning the conflict and a huge number of them are giving up with their families. What else are we saying?” he questioned.

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MNJTF’s Director of Public Communication, Col Muhammed Dole, was at this point to react to inquiries regarding the report charged for show today as at the hour of filling this report.

[dramaclover]

TVB King & Queen Speculations 2020

This year has got to be the saddest year yet. There is NO NOISE. Like usually we get like a couple of dramas where we can guess the winner from. This year not really. They can barely hype up any actresses on the female side cause it’s so weak. I feel like it was a dumb mistake on TVB for choosing to not air Shadows of Justice & Chinatown or even Armed Reaction 5. Everyone got nominated this year and the females side is even more saturated. For males there’s a total of 24 nominations while for females there’s only 18. And to make it even more sad 3 of the female nominees is from a sitcom! Mandy Lam is supporting at most in that drama, she’s not even part of the main core family. The fact TVB added in Mandy, & Koni Lui shows how desperate they were. (That doesn’t mean they suck at acting but cause TVB has no plans on promoting them & only added them in to fill the ballots). I don’t even really know where to begin? There isn’t a real popular candidate. I’m only naming the ones that I think might have the chance on winning & ones I like in general.

If we’re gonna talk about popular characters Angel Chiang as Shui Jie is a standout. Willie Wai as Ah Fan was loudly applauded. Samantha Ko was praised as Chong Ming Lai. Brian Tse scared the audience as Parker. Yoyo Chen was really likeable as Sabrina. And I think that’s about it. I really like how it’s mostly supporting actors & actresses that are largely praised. It shows that they outperformed the leading actors & actresses. But out of this batch who will actually walk away with an award?

TVB KING

Raymond Lam. It would be overdue for him to finally win. I’ve always liked his role of Bao Seed fun to get along with & loyal. But his reduced screentime to promote Owen Cheung was a setback for his character. His character also didn’t get real development and his backstory was quite meaningless with a secret son. His character matured for sure but the storyline went nowhere. His son never finds out he is the real father & he basically hates him. His first love passes away & honestly he never got closure for it. He didn’t get to see her last moments before she died. I guess him winning would depend on if he comes to the award show or not. He has the biggest chance winning this year with good acting & a big fan base to vote for him. But also if he wins it would be because he was snubbed before like Mandy Wong. Him winning would be making up for past years where he should’ve won. The media strangely isn’t hyping him up to win this year.

Lau Dan. For his sitcom role in Come Home Love: Lo and Behold. If he were to win it wouldn’t be controversial, so he would be TVBs safe bet in winning. I know I poked fun out of Mandy & Koni for being nominated but it’s different with him. He’s been acting for a way longer time, has a great relationship with TVB & at this point audiences favourite grandpa. Awarding him would be out of gratitude for his loyalty. But performance and character wise he is pretty generic. Will TVB actually award him? I would consider him a dark horse in winning.

Vincent Wong has left TVB and the role he is nominated for is Legal Mavericks 2, which didn’t do well in Hong Kong. Vincent already won for this role back in 2017, so chances of him winning again is low. He should’ve been nominated for his role Al Cappucino. His acting there was more memorable especially the way he portrayed his method acting. I still remember the nervousness I got when he seemingly turned evil. Judging by how he didn’t appear at all in the TVB Anniversary, sort of shows his standing in TVB. At least Nancy Wu was featured in a pre- recorded game but Vincent none. He has the acting chops and honestly doesn’t need another award to prove how good of an actor he is.

Shaun Tam. Brutally Young was an amazing watch and I’m sad that the ratings were average, despite it being such a thrilling show. He was also in Forensic Heroes 4 but he was literally a block of wood there. So I’m glad he wasn’t nominated for that drama. Obviously TVB has huge plans for him to win Best Actor. But it’s not gonna be for this year. He still needs improvement in emoting more and I’m looking forward to his dramas in 2021.

Willie Wai. I already know he isn’t gonna win. But I felt like writing him in this because honestly he was highly praised when The Witness was airing. His acting there was amazing and it was a great portrayal that a lot of people including me are rooting for him to win. But his chances are super low. He was only in this drama cause they couldn’t find someone else to partner with Him Law. I feel like it would be such a huge win if TVB decides to award it to him. But I’d be honestly happy if Raymond or Lau Dan won instead as well. I hope TVB will give him more big roles.

Owen Cheung, I loved his role as Ko Ban in Al Cappucino, so good for TVB for nominating him in that role instead. But he’s still not well liked by audiences (sorta me included). I like Ko Ban but all the other roles he was in like, in Airport Strikers & Line Walker 3, he was either annoying or just not likeable in general. I am more critical on him but mostly cause the way TVB is promoting him bothers me. And I don’t like how he keeps getting “hot guy” roles when he’s not suited for them. Comedy is where he should stay. TVB is heavily promoting him, so are they gonna bite the bullet and award him with Favourite Character award similar to how Sisley Choi won in 2017? But there was a huge backlash so do they really wanna go through that again? Well either way we will be seeing more of him in general.

TVB QUEEN

Katy Kung was hyped up before and during the airing of Death by Zero. But that failed as despite her amazing transformation, the character itself wasn’t that great. And even though she’s considered one of the main leads she didn’t have that much screentime compared to the others. Her character in Hong Kong Love Story is more likeable but unfortunately, though her acting was great. The character itself was nothing special. She might win Best Actress in Malaysia. As she is very popular there and it could be a way of TVB paving the way for her to win in the future. Like with Ali Lee when she won Best Actress as Never Wong at the Starhub Awards in 2017. Some people say she can’t win cause she was nominated in Death By Zero where’s she not the leading lady... I guess these people forgot that Natalie Tong won in 2017 with My Unfair Lady where she played Cherry the designated second lead LOL!

Samantha Ko, is also talked about. She had 4 dramas that aired this year. Her leading dramas were Operation C9 and On-lie Game. I personally don’t think she’s leading in OLG since Hera Chan clearly had more screentime. And obviously that drama was used to promote Hera and she’s just the camouflage. But anyways. Out of the dramas she’s in her most popular role would be Chong Ming Lai from Al Cappucino which she was great in. She was super well liked but unfortunately cause TVB decided to air her dramas back to back people got tired of her. I believe if the last drama that aired was her role in AC there would’ve been a higher chance of her winning. Now people have just forgotten her performance there and only focused on OC9 which was filmed 2 years ago. I think she’s gonna make it into the top 5, but I don’t think she’s gonna win. Her chances also seem slim next year, as she has less dramas and no leading roles. I can only hope TVB continues to promote her as she has potential.

Mandy Wong has the highest chance of winning this year. And she always gives out great performances but I find that recently she’s been losing steam. As in she doesn’t have as much passion as she once did. I don’t know if it’s cause TVB is overworking her but it’s a pity. But honestly all the characters she played this year were so bland. Like she doesn’t have much to work with. And that’s not her fault. She doesn’t pick the roles, they were given to her. I bet 100% if she had played a likeable role people would vote for her to be TVB Queen. But that’s not the case. She’s one of the better actress out of the batches here. Too bad her roles are repetitive and if she wins this year it wouldn’t be considered a hard earned win. It would be more of a makeup award for not winning with Threesome in 2018.

Priscilla Wong. She has made some good improvements in acting since we last saw her. Her crying scenes are better now. And even though her performance in Life and Death was a wonderful surprise. I feel like it’s still not really enough for her to win this year. She still hasn’t portrayed a memorable character yet. Ratman did not do well ratings wise and her screentime was pretty small in Line Walker 3. I wouldn’t mind her winning though as the selection this year is pretty small. And so far no huge competition. And despite what people say TVB has always treated her well. And if she doesn’t win this year it will purely be because she doesn’t have a stand-out character. But if she were to win it would be out of gratitude for the years she stayed at TVB.

Sisley Choi. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Miss Hong Kong make such a vast improvement. I kid you not she was literally one of the most hated actresses at TVB at one point. Her acting was so raw and terrible. She had no voice control and all around bad. I didn’t have high hopes for her. But she proved me wrong. She worked hard, learned to control the tone of her voice. Attended TVB acting class and now she’s building a good fan base. She made a 180 degree turn and I’m proud of her. Ah Dou wasn’t that great of a character in Line Walker 3. So she would have to rely on Legal Mavericks 2 which is unfortunately not doing well ratings wise. I feel like she would be a dark horse in winning. Just like how she won in Favourite Character 2017. But if she does win it will definitely be controversial. Din Jeh for LM2 is likeable but at the same time not popular enough for her to win. There’s a reason why she got such a huge backlash when she won in 2017. Maybe this year will be different?

Selena Lee. At first I didn’t want to put her in the running since she won an award last year & she has left TVB. Her last drama was Forensic Heroes 4 but that aired in February and a lot of people have forgotten about it. Her acting there were largely praised and her character was well liked. She was able to fluently speak medical jargon in both Chinese & English very well. But it wasn’t until she was nominated for the Asian TV Awards that her name got thrown in the mix. So now she has a real chance of winning again. There’s a renewed interest in her and TVB might want to award her so they can stake the claim of her being the first Asian Tv Winner as a TVB actress. (She might not even win there but TVB likes the idea of it) Shes also back at TVB filming Barrack O’Karma 2. Her acting has always been great and I can’t find any negatives about her. I think if she wins she wouldn’t draw as much criticisms compared to the other ones nominated for sure though.

Other Thoughts

I have seen some comments made online about how Mandy and Selena are “passed” their prime and that they don’t deserve to win anymore. That they should “focus” on the new generations cause it’s not “fair” to award the older ones when the younger ones are better. Okay. First of all the younger ones you’re talking about DOES NOT have a representative role yet. At most I guess Sisley Choi for Din Jeh from Legal Mavericks 2 but I don’t count that. She may have won Favourite Actress but it was only due to TVB politics & nothing to do with leaving a memorable impression with the audience. In fact she was heavily criticized for her performance when it was airing. It was controversial for a reason in 2017. Mandy is known for Kwan Yee So from L’escargot & Evie Fong from Threesome. Selena Lee is known for Michelle Chang from Blood and Water & Alex/Coco from Barrack O’Karma. They all have well known works. Kwan Yee So is still talked about today. And Selena literally garnered awards and huge nominations from her works. You’re really gonna compare them to these new actresses that have yet to portray a well known role? Not to mention Sisley and Priscilla has an upper hand in being pushed up by executives. They were given more chances in the sense of being involved in more grand productions and landing leading roles faster. So I think it’s more unfair that you want to shove them aside cause “if they didn’t win then, they shouldn’t win now”. Them not winning TVB Queen yet doesn’t mean they’re not good enough. It just means they had tough competition. Also do they not realize they weren’t given huge opportunities compared to the other batch. Mandy didn’t get a leading role until 2017. She wasn’t promoted right away and actually had to work from supporting up. Selena was always put into low budget dramas. No one imagined that Barrack O’Karma would turn into such a big hit. If TVB had known, heck no would they have given it to Selena. She only got the lead in FH4 cause TVB wanted her to sign a new contract with them after her popularity rose. I also want to point out the hate is towards the females and not the males. Cause for some reason male actors get a free pass in this?

Have they not noticed that TVB has not always given an award based on “performance” of the year? Cause they do it randomly. Do you really think Kenneth Ma deserved to win last year? Natalie Tong in 2017? Joe Ma in 2018? Nancy Wu in 2015? Ali Lee in 2018? Dayo Wong in 2013? These are all examples of them winning not cause of them having the best role but because of gratitude and cause they deserved it for other performances but they’re winning now instead. If Mandy were to win this year it would be because of her previous good performance. And frankly from the actresses list above Mandy and Selena would be the only ones that are actually deserving. They might not have a huge fan base compared to the others but they have given solid performances before. I would also put Priscilla third as she does have higher potential.

I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t write people off just cause you think the newer one deserves it more. Honestly the awards aren’t even as prestigious as it used to be. Everyone is literally taking turns on winning. No one said anything when Kenneth or Joe won despite the fact their role wasn’t anything special. People were literally saying “finally he won” & “it was a long overdue win” & “about time he won”. Yet just the idea of Mandy maybe winning this year has caused people to get pissed cause she didn’t have the best performance? It’s unfair and wrong to be so critical for the female side but not the males. If you’re gonna shit on Mandy for her potential win, you should also be shitting on Raymond or Lau Dan for it too. I don’t mind them winning cause they’re both good actors that just wasn’t given a role that had enough material to garner a huge win this year. But their past performances show they have what it takes. Thankfully these criticisms towards Mandy are mainly from the international audience and not Hong Kong locals. It’s actually outrageous to me how much hate Mandy gets just cause they think Sisley or Priscilla should get it instead. For Mandy if she wins it’s cause it’s rigged, for the male side if Raymond wins it’s long overdue? Why is that same energy not put towards the male side? So haters, if Mandy does win remember to also write about how much you hate [insert male actor name here] for winning too as there wasn’t a huge standout performance from that side either this year. End of rant.

[goron-king-darunia]

Tagged (by vague gesture of “if you wanna do it, TAG!”) by @biophilie like, 2 years ago, so I’m finally doing it. Rules: Choose any three fandoms and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better.

My Three Fandoms: Legend of Zelda, Tales of Symphonia DotNW, and One Piece since those 3 have taken up big chunks of my attention over the years. Would do Darkwood since it’s a current interest but since there are so few characters, it would make the meme here harder so... Darkwood will have to wait.

The first character you loved: LoZ: I was a slut for Link as a kid, TBF I liked most protagonists, but I liked Link a LOT. DotNW: I actually liked Ratatosk a lot at first because he was cool and mysterious and tough! My first impulse was really liking Richter’s design but the first character I loved/really liked based on gameplay and actual characterization was Ratatosk. One Piece: I really liked Red Haired Shanks and was sad when he didn’t really show up again for a LONG time.

The character you never expected to love so much: Loz: There’s a few so I’m gonna cheat a bit. In OoT and MM, Ruto and Skull Kid were just kind of characters that existed but I didn’t like much. Didn’t actively dislike them but didn’t really bother taking an interest in them. But I like them a lot more now, especially with how they’re characterized in “non-canon” material like the Manga and Hyrule Warriors. The only other character I can recall from the game series that I was surprised that I liked was Peatrice from Skyward Sword. At first it was just like “Oh, yeah, she’s just the girl who stores your items, whatever. She’s neat I guess.” But then she started changing. She got more cheerful when Link came around more and showed an interest in him and when she asked if he liked her I just couldn’t say no! And then she just became so obnoxiously bubbly and happy about it and I LOVED THAT SO MUCH. Unironically I ship Peatrice and SS Link because, like, Link and Zelda are great friends but they don’t interact much since Link has to try to save her and Zelda has goddess things to worry about. Peatrice is just always there and unlike Zelda who already has a good rapport with Link at the start of the game, you get to SEE Peatrice warming up to him and I am SO soft for that! SO SOFT! Actually, one more also from SS. Groose. He’s an obnoxious, selfish, gloating bastard man, but by the end of the game with all the changes he went through, he totally grew on me as a cool dude. Especially with how he and Impa got along.  DotNW: Slight cheat here too since the character didn’t debut in the game but... Colette. I honestly didn’t like her that much in Symphonia. I just kind of viewed her as an object that motivated Lloyd for a while and the impetus for everything happening in the game and it wasn’t until the end of Symphonia that I really started thinking of her as more than just a ditz that Lloyd happens to like. I’m not really sure when it happened but I started really appreciating her after DotNW, and not really because of anything she did. I guess I just eventually noticed a lot of her finer points and all the ways she contributed and how her kindness is actually super refreshing and hopeful and how soft that is considering what she’d gone through. See also my next point on Nami because hooo boy I was kind of a shitlord kid and needed to get through some things... One Piece: Nami. I HAAAATED her when I was young. Partially because of internalized sexism (probably shit I learned from sexist media, my dad, and just the lack of trust I had for any girl that wasn’t my friend because of massive bullying as a kid, but I digress.) and partially because one of the biggest parts of Nami’s arc early on was her utter betrayal of the crew. Like, we find out WHY later, and obviously I TOTALLY get where she was coming from now and all but as a kid that was just UNCALLED FOR. I also HEAVILY viewed her as the “no fun allowed” type that was actively impeding my new fave, Luffy, from having all the fun he could want because that shit costs money and the money is HERS. As a broke Millenial, I now 10000000% get where Nami is coming from and her financial responsibility is honestly hella impressive because she absolutely DOES NOT withhold the treasure from the rest of the crew, she fucking BUDGETS it. In general, I tended to dislike a lot of leading females for being catty or killjoys or a lot of other things when honestly, they were just being completely normal humans. Glad I grew out of that shit because while Nami still isn’t my fave, she’s fucking amazing.

The character you relate to the most: Loz: It’s changed over the years. I relate to Ruto a lot more now because yo, I would also just fuck off into the gut of my people’s patron Deity if my dad was being a pain and trying to marry me off (okay, so this is Manga exclusive, sue me) and 10/10 would give a precious family heirloom to a cute boy that rescued me. But more than that, IDK, she’s just... a lil’ spoiled but in a cute way, a lil’ tomboyish, but overall, for a Princess, she’s just kind of doing her thing, she’s responsible when it matters. But for OoT, y’all KNOW Darunia is my patronus because DAYUM. Chunky but strong (I’m a wuss but shut up), Grumpy butt but cares about his people, actually totes a fun dude when he’s not stressed about a food crisis, says “fuck you” directly to a fucking evil asshole despite the consequences, treats a fucking 11 year old kid like a full human being (I do not agree with leveraging a kid to fucking fight a dragon but... Link could handle it so...) names his own kid after Link because why the fuck not, befriends anyone that does him a favor and treats them like family. Dude’s just got chill old man vibes and I dig that shit. 10/10 relate to just being a fat dude that is grumpy but also wants to befriend everyone. HOWEVER, I think my top tier relatable character is Midna from Twilight Princess because that bitch is just me. Cursed to be a hot bitch trapped in a cute chunky body (I am working on myself. XD) 10/10 spoiled and bitchy as fuck, cheeky lil’ asshole who’s actually very sweet, think’s Link is dumb but also cute, cares about her world but ALSO cares about Link’s world, a lil’ selfish but also HELLA selfless because she cared more about Link and Zelda than her own life and cared more about her people than her own safety because she just fucking WENT TO FIX THAT SHIT when Zant started causing trouble, even though she didn’t have to. She’s everything I am or aspire to be. 10/10 one of the best Zelda characters. DotNW: Hard to say. I identify a lot with aspects of Richter, Aster, and Emil. I don’t have a lot of self confidence and am a bit of a shy bean, lil’ grumpy, but also a complete goober and an idealist, 10/10 would walk into hell for someone I love without thinking twice and would make deals with demons to try to save someone I care about because I am a dumbass. I love the DotNW boys because the DotNW boys are me. One Piece: Chopper. I just really fucking vibe with the whole “nobody likes me EXCEPT HOLY SHIT SOME PEOPLE SOMEHOW LIKE ME, WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT?” thing he has going on, as well as the whole glutton for praise but telling people to shut up when they praise me thing he has. I for real wanted to be a doctor when I was younger BECAUSE of Chopper. I’m just a weird little bean that doesn’t fit in anywhere very well while also being a slut for praise and wanting to take care of others and help them because other people have cared for me. Low key also vibe with Usopp because dude absolutely gels with kids, is a huge fucking wuss but deals with it anyway, will literally fight someone over petty shit and then come back and fight side by side with his bud’s again.

The character you’d slap: LoZ: Mmmmm. Hard to say. Like, obvs the villains but IDK who else I’d really want to slap? Does it count if I want to slap Anjuu/the Cucco Lady but, like... gentle and on the butt and in a sexy way? IDK, man. I’d feel bad but maybe Slap Mido? He looks like a kid so I’d feel REALLY bad for it, but aren’t Kokiri literally just kids forever? Asshole could be 100 years old, man... Either way he’s kinda a brat. 10/10 would slap early-game Groose from Skyward Sword also, but I’d feel bad about it because he ends up being a decen guy later. Also would slap Ghirahim for being both sexy and evil. DotNW: Alice for deciding that “never being weak again” means treating everyone else like garbage, even though I 1000% get where she’s coming from. Richter for being a fucking dumbass and not asking for help and deciding that demons were a good option and manipulating a child older dude with a magic core was a great idea even though I would do the exact same thing in his shoes. Ratatosk for being a murderous prick and starting the whole thing even though I absolutely understand where he’s coming from and I would also probably accidentally smite someone if I was a fucking spirit and in a shit mood because the only thing I really cared about was fucking ripped away from me. Honestly, mostly just me slapping people that remind me of me for doing exactly what I would do. Sensible me slapping actual me because actual me is a fucking dumbass emotional bitch with violent tendencies. One Piece: The fucking villains, obviously, Dr. Hililuck/Hiriluck for being a fucking bastard in the manga, holy shit was he an asshole! And also FUCKING SANJI. Jesus fuck, I am not over the pervy shit he does, what a creep.

Three favourite characters (in order of preference): LoZ: This is gonna be REAL hard because I love a lot of characters so... Midna, Link, and Darunia? It’s hard man. I love a lot of characters SO MUCH and it’s really hard to pick faves! DotNW: Richter, Emil, Aster. Emil and Aster share the same level of favoritism, but Richter is my number one. One Piece: Chopper, Zoro, Luffy. I used to like Luffy way more than I do now, but he’s still a fucking dork and I still like him tons.

A character you liked at first but don’t anymore: LoZ: I can’t really think of any, but I guess the character I waffle on a bit is Malon. Sometimes she’s like “Heck yeah! FAVE!” and sometimes I’m like “Eh, she exists...” IDK, I really like most of the characters. DotNW: I used to like Zelos a lot, but not anymore. Yeah this is kinda cheating since he ALSO didn’t debut in DotNW, but he’s in it so... TBF I like him in DotNW BETTER than in the first Symphonia, but not as much as I used to like him overall. One Piece: Fucking Sanji. I used to like him before the creepy factor set in. What really hit home for me was the Thriller Bark arc where he outright says he wanted the power of invisibility to creep on girls. Fucking nasty. The womanizing thing was just a quirk before that. I don’t think I’m ever gonna be over it. So gross and creepy now knowing he actively thought about creeping on girls using a special power. I know guys say this is a common thing and just how dudes are but no. That’s fucking sick. It’s one thing to say “yeah, I want to oggle women because tiddies are sexy” or whatever. It’s another thing to say “I WANT TO SPY ON WOMEN WITHOUT THEM KNOWING SO I CAN SEE TIDDY.” and it’s a third thing to say that IN A WORLD WHERE IT IS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO BE INVISIBLE that you WOULD USE THAT POWER TO STARE AT WOMEN WITHOUT THEM KNOWING.

Three otps: LoZ: Link and basically everyone, but let’s narrow that. Link and Zelda is a classic, Link and Ruto is a guilty pleasure, Link and Peatrice is the underdog ship that I dig a lot. DotNW: Every combo of Richter, Emil, and Aster, enough said. One Piece: Luffy and food because he’s Ace, just let him fucking eat. Zoro and whoever he ends up liking. Tashigi maybe. Chopper and Milky.

Tagging: Anyone that wants to do it~

[fullysowerewolf]

Random Sonic Forces headcanons

Cream, Vanilla, and Gemerl are part of the Resistance, they just weren’t shown onscreen. Cream and Vanilla are medics in the army, so they stay off the frontlines. Vanilla especially forbid Cream from fighting on the battlefield. Gemerl is one of the troops, he just was fighting offscreen with Espio.

Blaze was caught up in her own dimension shenanigans along with Marine and that’s why she wasn’t in Forces. 

The Resistance didn’t track down and use the Chaos Emeralds due to how long it would take to find them as well as not having enough resources to spare in finding them. Besides that only 5 people total in the world are capable of even accessing their powers and only one of them (Silver) was physically and mentally capable of fighting and using them. (Sonic being captured/presumed dead, Knuckles currently being commander, Tails in the middle of a breakdown, Shadow appearing to be on the side of the enemy.) Plus trying to locate them might have drawn the attention of Eggman, who has more resources and manpower to track them down and they didn’t want to give Eggman another advantage besides the Phantom Ruby. 

Sonic was in charge of a team of troops named the “Swifts” or “Sonic’s Swifts” made of the fastest and agile in the army who got their name by making quick, smash and grab moves and tactics. He’s sorta a father/big brother figure to them. 

Angel Island is one of the Resistance's headquarters and best defended locations. Many refugees were taking shelter there during the war. It was a last resort location to retreat to should Eggman crush all of the other bases. 

 Sonic’s torture consisted of copious amounts of waterboarding and electrical torture, besides just being left in a cramped cell alone, for months on end.

Silver was the second in command of the Resistance. 

GUN was heavily demolished in the time skip after Sonic’s capture. They were caught off guard and did try to preemptively stop Eggman afterwards, but failed. The few remnants left work in tandem with the Resistance, with Rouge (and later Shadow) as their liaison. 

The Resistance has both humans and anthros in its ranks.

Fang the Sniper was hired by Eggman during the war to be his go-to assassin, paid handsomely to shoot down any high ranking Resistance members.

Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear were helpers of the Resistance. Bean even became their main expert on explosives and munitions. 

The Babylon Rogues semi-worked for the Resistance as couriers/scouts, using their Extreme Gear, to dodge, evade, and briskly deliver information back to base. They didn’t like Eggman taking over the world and obviously didn’t want to become robot slaves in his empire, but they weren’t super patriotic about the Resistance and were mostly in it for themselves. 

The ships the Resistance uses were actually stolen from Eggman’s fleet and repainted. 

Infinite’s real name is Zero. 

The Battle Kukku Empire fought against Eggman for awhile before being forced to surrender. The Great Battle Kukku XV arranged a pact of surrender with the doctor and agreed to supply his soldiers and forces to fight in the Empire in exchange for not being robotomized and keeping their free will. Speedy worked secretly as a mole for the Resistance, smuggling information to them during this time, hoping his onetime rival Tails would receive it and help free his people and country.

There were other robot designs used in the war, we just didn’t see them.

Metal Sonic was actually involved in the war, the times we saw him just happened to be the illusion copies.  

All of the Deadly Six are dead. Chaos is also still “dead”, having ascended to the afterlife with Tikal at the end of SA1. 

 Honey the Cat worked with Amy in communications trying to give hope to the world’s and Resistance’s discouraged masses. Together they created “Radio Free Rose”, the voice of the Resistance for anyone to tune into for survival advice and directions to the nearest Resistance refugee camps. 

Witchcart and her minions, Bearenger, Focke, and Carrotia were in Eggman’s Empire as part of his Egg Fleet. 

Eggman and Infinite’s final plan for the destruction for the Resistance was called “Operation Sunny Side Down”. 

Eggman’s army had humans and anthros besides the illusion copies.

Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel were Resistance members, both fighting on the frontline as well as providing aid to the many camps for refugees fleeing Eggman occupation. 

Many wisps joined the Resistance freely to provide their power to the Wsipons, but some were forcibly captured and extracted of energy to give ammo to the wispons. Some Wisps were even forcibly corrupted into Void Wisps to produce the requisite energy for the Void wispon. A dark secret many higher ups in the Resistance try to ignore or hide out of shame. 

There are other Wispons besides Burst, Lightning, Cube, Void, Hover, White, Drill, and Asteroid. We just don’t see them since the other Resistance members are using them. 

There was an offscreen fight between Sonic and Infinite where Infinite pulled out his sword (called the “Forever Edge”) and attacked Sonic with it in a sword fight to the death. Sonic barely manages to survive it and escape using his sword fighting skills he gained from the Arthurian legends. . 

All of the other species in the concept art were involved in the war, including the dragons. We just didn’t play as them. 

The Avatar (or at least Buddy/Gadget) was born and raised in Sunset Heights/”the City”. 

Eggman Nega is the ruler of the world in the far future, Ivo Robotnik having made a dynasty of the Robotnik family line. This is one of the reasons why Silver travels back in time. 

Shadow is now pretty widely hated and has bad publicity in the world due to the copies of him being seen causing havoc in the world for 6 months. 

The Post-Forces section:

The war for the planet would go down in history as either the “Egg War”, or the “Phantom War” .The battle that finally took down Infinite and Eggman in the Eggman Empire Fortress outside the Imperial Tower is called “The Battle of Mortar Canyon” 

There is a manhunt for Eggman and Infinite after the war which every government in the world is a part of. Though they’re probably hiding out in a remote cave somewhere in Shamar, or at least Eggman is. 

Besides going out to see the world as per usual, Sonic also left to search out and help rebuild other settlements across the globe. Part of this is an attempt to keep his mind preoccupied and off the crushing sense of guilt for all of this happening in the first place from not being able to stop Eggman and Infinite the first time as well as serving as an escape from his mental traumas from the war/his time as a POW. 

Therapy. Lots and lots of therapy happens for those involved in the war. Sonic tries to ignore his mental trauma and hide his issues from the rest but they know better and basically drag him kicking and screaming to group talks among themselves on how to deal with everything they’ve seen and faced and how to deal with them in a healthy way to start healing. He eventually appreciates them doing this and how much they care about his physical and mental health although he never outright tells them so. 

The field of robotics takes a huge blow in reception to the public due to what Eggman did and many now choose different fields of study and research while the people in the field are now looked at with suspicion towards them and their creations.  

The top brass of the Resistance receive medals of honor after the war, along with several soldiers who went above and beyond the call of duty. 

[blessuswithblogs]

Top Ten Videocons of Twenty Seventeen, More or Less

2017 has, by all accounts, been a fantastic year for Video Games. Unfortunately for me, it has been a not so fantastic year in Having Money. So while in a perfect world my now annual game of the year list would have been a terribly contested and dramatic affair of cutting games I thought were good but just didn't make it, in actuality, I had to scramble and cheat a little to just find 10 games to slot in and talk about. I did at least manage to find them. Mostly.

10. Destiny 2

Destiny is a franchise with a troubled history, which feels weird to say about something that came out in late 2014. Nevertheless, Destiny 2's shooty looty gameplay loop finds its way on to my list. The story is tepid and the characters, with a few exceptions, are scarcely worthy of memory, but the visuals are good and the core mechanics of shooting and using abilities are a solid foundation to build upon in the inevitable flurry of DLC packages and expacs. It's all quite reminiscent of Borderlands, except without the unmistakable caustic ooze of Randy Pitchford's involvement. That in and of itself is praiseworthy.

9. Gravity Rush 2/Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Okay so I maybe didn't actually play this one myself. I usually try to exclude stuff that I watched and enjoyed but in this case I was sitting on the couch with other people playing it so that's basically the same thing as playing it myself right? I think I held the controller for a little bit. Anyway this game is super weird and charming and a little nauseating in parts because you sort of go flying off into the stratosphere randomly? But the aesthetic and Mood the game goes for is very unique and fun, it even has its own cute little made up language I mistook for French at first until I heard some Japanese and Spanish sounding words in there as well. The main characters Kat and Raven are dating I think? They're happy and alive girlfriends. Raven is a little broody I guess but they're definitely not the Sad, Dead Lesbians I have grown to detest. Raven is not Velvet. Just reminding myself. Tropical Freeze is just really good and while it maybe came out like years ago I only got to play it very recently on my friend's Wii U. The music is super good fuck you Jeff Gerstmann I will fucking fight you and your shitty opinions about video games you god damned grumpy old man.

8. The Surge

My Thoughts on the Surge are well documented on this very website. It's flawed and frustrating in a lot of ways, nonsensical in others, and the story never quite commits to its original conceit which is a real shame. All that said, I respect the game for what it was unabashedly trying to do: be Dark Souls but with cyborg powerloaders and robots. Like, you gotta live your bliss, right? Lords of the Fallen was utterly miserable and the improvements that The Surge demonstrates gives me cause for optimism in future games from the developer. Anything that gives me cause for optimism in 2017 has to be worth something. That said, the inevitable The Surge 2 is probably going to be kind of by the numbers and unnecessary but that's just how you make games in the 21st century.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

To begin with, BotW would be much higher on this list if I had not only come into owning it and a Switch yesterday. It is by all counts extremely good, an open world game that's actually pleasant and charming and has meritorious mechanics outside of Todd Howard style "you can go fuck that mountain" nonsense. I mean don't get me wrong you can fuck plenty of mountains in this game. Link is fucking Spider-man in this game, the only surfaces he can't mysteriously latch on to are inside the puzzle shrines so you can't just cheese them. Weapon degradation is maybe a little excessive? I feel sort of like Bayonetta in the first cutscene where she keeps yelling "Guns!" when she runs out of ammo except I'm yelling "shitty wooden sticks!" when the one I'm using breaks into a million tiny pieces. I understand the reasoning behind it, I do. It establishes a certain rhythm to the game of exploring, fighting, stocking up on shitty wooden sticks, and repeating. When you find like, an actual sword or spear it feels like an occasion to celebrate, and the whole thing demands that you use a variety of different weapons and weapon-like objects. I'm not nearly far in enough to give an honest, comprehensive picture of the game. I just really like what I've played so far so I'm just compromising by putting BotW relatively low on the list.

6. Cuphead

It's Cuphead! Everybody knows Cuphead by now. It's gorgeous, the soundtrack is great if somewhat lacking in variety, King Dice is really cool but has extremely unfortunate racial undertones, the game is pretty hard (not that hard?) and Cala Maria is a babe. It's a singular game that is extremely worthwhile and hopefully paves the way for future games in a similar style of aping specific styles and eras of animation. I really want a game that goes hard on the 1950s Looney Tunes aesthetic where you just drop anvils on people forever. Cuphead isn't perfect, as a lot of the game's difficulty and length comes from bad checkpointing. It's a necessary evil, because if the game did not blatantly disrespect your time in a lot of the later fights, the game would be like, two hours long. I'm not a proponent of the "git gud" philosophy but I can't help but feel like I really want to say that to the various bad-at-games journos who got bent out of shape about Cuphead being hard. This is your damn job. You can suck it up for one game, especially when it's really very good and unique like Cuphead. Also my mom came in while I was playing it and thought I was watching a popeye cartoon so that was kind of cute I guess.

5. Civilization 6 (CHEATING AGAIN)

YEAH I KNOW THIS GAME CAME OUT LAST YEAR AND IM A HUGE IDIOT FUCKER but hear me out Civ6 is really fucking good because of the fact that Wonders take up physical space on the map and districting does the same thing. Like just this single mechanical change basically doubles the amount of thought and planning you need to put into playing the game even on low difficulties to optimize your output and production. Like it's a civilization game so there's not really anything too groundbreaking here but I fucking adore this game. Really looking forward to Rise and Fall, which will be early 2018. With the initial release being late 2016 I feel like this is like, an honorary 2017 game. Don't @ me.

4. Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is another game I wrote about previously on the blog, but unlike The Surge I had basically nothing but good things to say about it. Hollow Knight has gorgeous hand drawn graphics and environments not entirely unlike Cuphead, but obviously goes for a much more reserved mood. Hollow Knight is a rock solid Metroidvania game with strong aesthetic and musical chops to back it up, as well as some Dark Souls-esque flourishes to give the game a bit of bite and a haunting narrative arc. A fantastic indie game and I can't wait to see what Team Cherry does next. I need to get around to doing the Halloween DLC, come to think of it. Did you know Zote actually has as many precepts as he says he does? I listened to them all. Some of them aren't too bad.

3. Nioh

Geralt the Witcher's moonlighting adventure as a samurai came out quite early in 2017, but remains one of the best games of the year due to its complex and rewarding combat system, beautiful Warring Kingdoms era Japanese architecture inspirations, fun mythological monster designs, and genuinely well done historical fiction backdrop. Coming into it, I fully expected "Dark Souls except the bosses are like Tengus and Nues and shit", but that description does the game a pretty big disservice. It's much more than that, both from a narrative standpoint, which is a fantastically tinged retelling of the Warring Kingdoms period, and from a gameplay one. The combat in Nioh is much more technical than in Dark Souls, with more pretensions of a combo based character action game than the deliberate, heavily customizable experience of the Souls games. Nioh is still quite hard and has the whole death-recovery mechanic, but it makes sense diegetically due to Guardian Spirit system and remains distinct. There are times when it tries to have the best of both worlds and just kind of ends up feeling like it doesn't do a good job at either, but for the most part, Nioh is tremendously fun, and at times infuriatingly difficult, especially in some of the post game optional battles that pit you against multiple bosses at once. Also, finding Kodamas is extremely rewarding because they are so damn cute. I love them. Find them at all costs.

2. Nier: Automata

Nier: Automata, Yoko Taro's latest brainchild, is, well, what it is. It's a hauntingly weird story about what it means to be human, and if that definition is really even adequate. It's a game with a lot to say, which is why I regard it so highly. The core gameplay is fun and serviceable, which is much more than I can say for its predecessor, the first Nier, which was memorable and affecting but played kind of like butts. 2B's android adventures are much more fluid and stylish, and you have a surprising amount of customization options available (though some arguably make the game a little too easy at points, like regenerating health) and there's enough variety in the little Machine Life form enemies (and the big ones, too) that fighting never felt like a chore to me. Of course, others have disagreed, but I think that the tedium really only sets in when you play as 9S, who has a much reduced arsenal of fighting moves in favor of his hacking skills. I liked the little shmup minigames that hacking entailed, so even 9S's story never felt too dull in the actual mechanical execution of it. People tend to have a misunderstanding of how the game works, that you need to complete it 4 times to get the whole experience, but that's not actually true. The 4 endings separate the game into acts more than anything. While 9S's story has a lot of overlap with 2B's story, endings C and D are just entirely new content where you play as A2, who has some tricks of her own distinct from 2B and 9S. It's not perfect, but it's not like you have to play the same game 4 times. It's a very story focused game, so much so that I would say experiencing the narrative is the main draw, but it has the decency to also be varied and fun to play. I love the parts where you get in the transforming flying robot and shoot the dudes. Especially the big dude. You know the one.

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

The latest Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Stormblood, is super good. I wrote a bit about it earlier, and how it has improved upon Heavensward in almost all respects. Stormblood is a superlative MMO expac, with well designed and amazingly presented raids, dungeons, and trials. It's full of "holy shit that's dope" moments, like when you get into a blade struggle against the primal Susano's gigantic Ame-no-Murakumo in an active time event or storm the fortress city of Ala Mhigo. Ultimately, though, what really makes me evaluate Stormblood as my game of the year is how surprisingly thoughtful it is. FFXIV has, since the relaunch of 2.0, been a game that has not shied away from complexity in its narrative conflicts. The juxtaposition of the mythically strong Warrior of Light and the surprisingly mundane issues even she cannot seem to fix has always been the game's most interesting element to me, and as you spearhead revolutions against the Garlean Empire in two different countries, you learn a lot about how imperial colonialism has made things too complicated to be fixed simply driving out the oppressors. You do, eventually, of course, but the story is quick to remind you that this is only the beginning, and a lot of key issues remain unsolved, both in the newly liberated provinces and back at home. Also the Dark Knight questline from 60-70 is basically the best the game has to offer. It feels to me like that Dark Knight is the unofficial Job of Stormblood, despite the promo material and opening movie having you believe it to be about Monks. Monks, as usual, are boring. The themes explored in the Dark Knight questline, about regret, about shades of gray, about self-destruction, all align perfectly with some of the subtler narrative arcs of the main story. It's just really good and I love it. I still really want to write a piece about it on its own. I probably will soon. But for now, I name Stormblood my game of the year, for reminding us that we are still heroes. That we are still good people.

[teentitansrpgarchive]

Speedy App

Canon Character Application Form

Roleplayer’s name: Fe

Age: 20

Gender: Gal

Predicted average weekly activity level: I should be able to meet the requirements of all characters, but occasionally, if my schedule is particularly busy I will have to prioritize replies based on who’s needed most. In those cases, I will make sure I do at least one reply per character that week. I am almost always online if anyone needs me ooc. I’m a student, so occasionally if I have some crazy amount of assignments I may have to take a short hiatus.

Time zone: Eastern

Anything else you want us to know?:

iM SO HYPE

—

Character’s superhero/villain name: Speedy, may change in the future

Character’s civilian name: Roy Harper

Alignment: Superhero. He can walk the line of antihero if pushed hard enough.

Affiliated with: Formerly Titans East. Speedy now considers himself to have ‘graduated’ the Titans, and has pursued a more solo career.

Age: 18, almost 19

Physical characteristics: Speedy is tall, with a slew of red hair carefully styled on his head, which he heavily prides himself in. He’s rather fit, with muscles particularly evident in his arms due to being a skilled archer. He’s known for his condescending smirk, and chiseled jaw.

Personality traits: Roy is, well, a bit of an asshole, but he generally means well. He fights for what is right, on a broad scale (he’ll happily take down criminals, for example), but his remarks can border on offensive (or sexist), and he’s not always the brightest. He usually doesn’t mean to, but his words can unknowingly cause harm. It may take a bit of correcting from his friends for him to change his bad habits. He is a bit selfish, and tends to think highly of himself. Roy is in the process of finding himself, and is not always as upbeat as he once was. He can be hot-headed, rather stubborn, and moody at times. He also can be immature, although he would never consider himself as such.

Having reached adulthood, he thinks he is much more mature than any of the Titans who are still ‘children’ (he even thinks he is more of an adult than the Titans that are his age). He likes to poke fun at his friends, and often has a witty or sarcastic zinger ready. He however, does not always take criticism in return too well. He also likes to make jokes, usually at the expense of others. Roy is a big flirt, and always has his eyes out for beautiful women (and the occasional guy). In that department, he does not always respect women as much as he ought to, and this gets him into trouble.

Special abilities: Speedy is an excellent archer that can easily hit most targets. In addition, he is fairly tech-savy, and has designed a multitude of trick-arrows. And does either beautiful hair or seduction skills count?

Character history:

Roy Harper’s father was a ranger in a forest that bordered Navajo reservation lands and was killed in a forest fire, leaving 3 year old Roy orphaned. A medicine man of the name Brave Bow took Roy in after the young boy wandered onto the reservation lands. Brave Bow trained Roy to be a superb archer and was Roy’s caretaker until his death 5 years later. Then, Roy was adopted by Oliver Queen and became the Green Arrow’s sidekick under the name Speedy. At age 13, Roy helped found the original Teen Titans with Dick, Wally, Garth, and Donna, but they were too young to lead their own team and it disbanded fairly quickly.

For a while, he returned to his role of Green Arrow’s sidekick until Roy decided to part ways with his mentor to become a solo hero (not unlike a few other teen superheroes at that time). Teen Titans East was later formed with Speedy as a core member when he was 16. Speedy remained a member of the team for over 2 years, but towards the end began continuously clashing with Bumblebee, the team’s leader.

Roy had different ideas for the team, and being told what to do frustrated him; it reminded him of his times as Green Arrow’s sidekick. Speedy not only had disagreements with Bumblebee, but he started to feel that the Titans were child’s play compared to other super heroes, and decided to become a solo-hero not associated from the Titans. He has turned in his communicator, but in the age of technology he can usually be contacted if needed. He remains in close touch with Aqualad, and Robin particularly. He has had some interactions with the Justice League, but they are not interested in adding him to their team. Roy now pursues criminals on his own, but sometimes assists the Titans if he’s around or needed. He has also contacted the Titans on occasion for assistance with a mission.

He goes wherever the wind takes him, and has currently found himself in Jump City. While obviously this is an area with Titans, Roy had noticed an increased amount of crime in the city and has come to help out. Roy additionally feels more comfortable with interacting with Titans West than his own former team of Titans East, and often visits the Tower. He is especially fond of some of the newer inhabitants of the Tower, which has been an extra incentive for visiting.

Place of residence: A little bit of everywhere, but right now Jump City. Lately can often be found bumming on the couch at Titans West Tower.

Other:

In-character writing sample :

Roy rolled his eyes under his mask at the villains remarks, and responded to him by launching an explosive trick-arrow at the man. Roy was becoming particularly irritated now, and wanted to put an end to this exchange. It seemed like villains these days were coming up with even worse one-liners than ever before. Sometimes, Speedy didn’t mind a bit of a playful back-and-forth with a criminal (especially if they were a pretty lady), but there had to be decent enough material to actually work with. And the evil-doers in Jump just weren’t up to the comedic standards that Roy was used to. It was just another thing that made Roy feel like he didn’t quite belong on the West Coast.

The man laughed; the plain-looking arrow had hit a few feet to the right of him, and he evidently assumed that Speedy had missed. 3… 2… 1… The small explosion hit, knocking the masked man over, and now Roy was the one chuckling. Being a newer face in town, many of the local goons genuinely did not understand that there was more than meets the eye with his arrows.

The villain coughed from the smoke, and shot his own weapon at Speedy. Roy quickly dodged, but he felt a breeze ruffle his hair.

“Hey, watch it!” he accused as he flung an ice-arrow at the man. The criminal tried to scurry away, but the arrow almost immediately caused ice to travel up his body, quite literally freezing him in his place. “That’s what happens to people who fuck with my hair. You’re headed to jail now, bud.”

Other questions:

Why are you interested in joining TTRPG? More specifically, why do you want to roleplay this character?

I’ve played Speedy for two different groups, and I adore playing such an annoying jerk of a character. He’s a lot of fun, and has such great interactions with other characters. I’m looking forward to portraying a version of his character that draws from a later issue of the TTGO comics, as well as other DCU media: a Speedy that feels as if he has out-grown the Titans, and wants to do his own thing. However, Speedy will find that it’s a lot harder to cut ties than he’d imagined, and will get dragged into much of the same shenanigans as before, except with a different perspective. 

If your character is not part of a Titans team:

In what ways do you foresee your character interacting with the Titans and other characters? Speedy has parted ways with Titans East (and the Titans as a whole) not too long ago, so he will try to avoid his old team and distance himself from the Titans label itself. However, most of his bad blood was specifically with Titans East, so he is comfortable enough interacting with the other Titans on occasion. He still considers many of them his friends, and generally has no problem helping with something if he’s around. He is currently staying in Jump City, where there has been an increase of crime, so there is ample opportunity to interact with Titans West and anyone else in the area. Sometimes he directly collabs with Titans West, and other times he simply shows up at the same mission by coincidence.

However, his attitude has shifted a bit now that he has gone solo, and he is not always the most enjoyable to be working with. He often thinks he has the best way to go about missions, and will try to lead when it is not his place to do so, so there may be some butting of heads.

Depending on how the main plot evolves, Speedy could potentially rejoin the Titans in the future.

Do you have any ideas regarding how your character will be introduced to any of the other characters or what characters they will frequently be interacting with?

I think it will just be known to most other characters that Speedy is just sort-of hanging around Jump City, and that he’s gone solo, so they won’t be surprised if he ends up tagging along on missions or just showing up at Titans Tower. I’m sure some of the characters will gladly give him shit about how he’s solo, yet still hanging around, though. I think that Speedy will end up interacting a lot with Titans West, at least until we get a bigger cast of characters. As soon as we get more characters, I’d like to have him branch out to develop closer relationships with them, especially with ones he hadn’t really interacted with in canon.

I’d also like to see him take on villains by himself, or even hanging around some villains (hello Kitten).

I look forward to him interacting with Ravager for sure, since they’re both such interesting characters. I would also like him to have some interactions with Terra (or clone!Terra) as soon as she gets more established into Titans West. I’m not sure how that will work since I play both of those characters, but I’ll make it work. I’m not above roleplaying with myself.

I’m hoping we get a Cheshire, because I would love to have spicy, dramatic interactions between those two. I’m also not opposed to having some crack-ish ships like KittenxSpeedy either >.>

[zenosanalytic]

DS9: Tribunal to Prophet Motive

Overall S2 wasn’t really that much better than S1, though it did have a handful of eps that were genuinely “good” television. S3’s also spotty but slightly better. One S3 trend I don’t like is the SUPER heavy-handed selling of Kira/Odo from basically the first ep on, and how it comes entirely out of nowhere. Also, Keiko is royally and consistently shafted and ignored, which is frustrating as hell. They FINALLY give her something to do, and not only is it presented as a “gift” from her husband(which, Ick! Like she’s not following the going’s on in her own damn profession???), they use it to effectively write her off the show! Ridiculous >:(

Tribunal: Bad. What’s the point of doing a courtroom ep that isn’t a courtroom ep? Sure, I can understand the theoretical appeal of the irony of a trial episode about a show trial, but you really need to embrace the absurdity of the concept for it to work and they didn’t. Also, the Cardassians are one-note(like all the non-human species in ST), and their one-note is “Order”, so Cardassian law, even if entirely show-trials in practice, really ought to be procedurally meticulous. An ep about Odo, skilled in these procedures from his time as a Cardassian security chief, out bureaucrating a culture of military bureaucrats to stall for time while the DS9 crew finds dirt to blackmail the Cardassians with would have been great and probably darkly funny; this was just dull. Also, there’s no way the Fed would stand for a Starfleet officer being snatched out of a Fed shuttle in Fed space like that, smuggling weapons or no, or believe for one second the Cardassian claim weapons were on the shuttle in the first place, given their past experiences. This would have caused a major diplomatic incident, and the Fed embassy corps on Cardassia Prime would have been all over O’Brien like ants on a summer picnic.

The Jem’Hadar: Fun and Good. Trying to do something simple and succeeds. Quark’s rant to Sisko about Ferengi history is obvsl convenient writing rather than fact -in TNG they’re aggressive, needlessly violent cruel pirates who, I’m pretty sure, are explicitly slavers as well- but it SHOULD be right. They’d be more interesting as a culture built around a capitalism that never saw any profit in compulsion. Historically, while slavery pre-dated capitalism in Earthican societies, slavery as we think about it -dehumanization, brutality, murderous forced labor- has nigh-universally been associated with capitalism, and quite frequently with commerce(Greek, Roman, and American slavery were all basically built around ag production for commercial markets[though slave-artisans based in cities was a significant part of the Greek and Roman systems as well]). That internal contradiction, attached to a larger ethical distaste for direct, personal violence(and valorization of tattling that’d go along with the instinctive distress-cry DS9 gives to Ferengi), while still being the profit-driven thieves and schemers they are, would have been Compelling.

The Search is… OK. I mean, as television it’s fine. The plot doesn’t make any damn sense though. The Dominion makes it clear they don’t want the Fed entering their territory and the Fed’s response is… to infiltrate deep into their territory to find the Homeworld of their leaders and confront them with the only warship in the Fed fleet? This move is basically designed to start a war. Also, they seem to forget that they’ve had Odo come to the Gamma Quadrant before, so his whole “I feel drawn to this nebula” deal seems out of left-field. Also Also, they should have used The Defiant to add the Romulan liaison as a regular cast member, instead of bringing on Eddington and doing nothing with him. Having Sisko, who has had an excellent relationship with Odo until now, suddenly giving this speech about how he doesn’t like that Odo isn’t “a team player” is pretty ridiculous as well(and out of character. Sisko’s not a team player. His WHOLE CREW is made up of square pegs just like himself). Also Also Also, a Romulan security officer who spends a season or two building up relationships with the maincast, sashaying around being arrogant and cynical in Romulan kimonos during her off-time, gradually developing Maquis sympathies, becomes Sisko’s evil!Valjean and remains so until nearly the end of the series would have been a genuinely surprising character-arc requiring consistently good writing to sell, and kind of explain why, in later eps, the Romulans wouldn’t require one of their own to protect and operate the cloak. Or hey! Maybe her becoming a Maquis could begin as a plot to foment rebellion in the Fed, that’d be neat.

Equilibrium: Meh

Second Skin: Good in some parts, but that the journals would be what starts cracking Kira up isn’t believable and it just isn’t mindfucky enough. Also, Kira’s warmth towards her fake dad at the end of the ep didn’t feel earned. Maybe if they’d had her bond with him over having lost family in the Occupation.

The Abandoned: pretty offensively essentialist, really. Especially given the plotline later in the series(iirc) about a Jem’Hadar trying to break his people’s addiction to ketracel-White, which kinda undermines this eps whole “the Jem’Hadar have no will of their own and are genetically programmed soldiers that it’s useless to reason with” line.

Civil Defense: good. It remains unbelievable to me, though, that Starfleet wouldn’t have done a complete refit of the whole station the minute the Cardassians left, especially given the Star Trek obsession with hard-wired, analog computing.

Meridian: a noxious pile of garbage all round. The subplot is skeezy, but at least it’s in-character, well-written, and believable which the main plot certainly is not. I kinda wish that, if they were going to include such a scummy sub-plot in the ep, they’d at least made it a bit interesting by subverting expectations. At the end, have Tiron be at first taken aback, and then surprisingly pleased with Kira’s modifications to the program. He walks out, “deeply satisfied” with the program and pays 20% extra for it, compliments Quark on his “creativity” as a holodesigner with a slightly amorous look, Quark is clueless and confused yet pleased, Kira and Odo are absolutely mortified. Then maybe leave it around as a Chekov’s Gun; Quark makes a secret copy(of course), offering it to only his best customers, it leads to a small but noticeable increase in custom, then someday in a later season he checks it out and is Horrified to find he’s unknowingly made himself one of the most popular porn-performers in the sector :|

Defiant: fine as it is, except there should have been a bit about HOW the Maquis found out about the Defiant and knew about its cloak. This would be a good time to introduce the long-arc of the Romulan officer’s Maquis sympathies/attempts to use her position on DS9 to co-opt the Maquis and undermine the Federation.

Fascination: dumb and really Skeezy, Ferrell’s is the only entertaining performance in the ep, but, again, the smooch-directing of this series is uncommonly good. Also: Miles is not just a bad dad, but also a bad husband. Also Also: Bajor’s only 3 hours away in a runabout or shuttle for Frak’s sake? You can’t be bothered to go visit her?? People in Texas regularly make three hour drives every DAY.

Past Tense: One of my favorite eps of the series; heavily Nostalgic for me. Having now read To Say Nothing of the Dog, however, I do wish ST writers treated Time and Causality as more robust and stubborn than they tend to.

Life Support: The inevitable killing off of a past love-interest to free Kira up for Kirdo. Bareil was bland and boring anyway, even if his performances in S3 were much improved. Why the heck is the Kai negotiating treaties??? That the Kai and Vedeks plays a direct, institutional role in Bajoran politics needed to be established before jumping into a plotline about the Kai negotiating a secret peace pact with Cardassia. The subplot with Jake and Nog, which reduces the question of female personhood to a “cultural issue” in the context of Nog’s misogyny ruining Jake’s chances with a girl who never appears again(iirc), is repulsive in about a half-dozen ways.

Heart of Stone: Ho-hum. The Nog in Starfleet storyline is good, but they should have built up to it in previous eps. Wesley spends pretty much all his time before acceptance doing science experiments and apprenticing in various departments on Enterprise to build up his resume just to qualify to take the exams; having Nog accomplish the same task with a letter of rec is kinda |:T Also: wouldn’t Sisko have pointed out that, in the Fed and Starfleet, Nog’s “gift” would be interpreted as an attempted bribe and get him immediately arrested? Seems like an important cultural rule to point out to a Ferengi |:T |:T

Destiny: Good. Ulani and Gilora are obviously lesbians and I won’t hear another word on the matter u_u

Prophet Motive: Fun and Good, though the “evolved” talk re: social constructs and cultural modes was annoying.

Why are S3′s subplots so much better done than it’s main ones? I imagine the discipline of having limited time to complete them in has something to do with it. Some other observations:

A-plot B-plot structure is entirely standard in S2 and S3, probably because it’s an obvious way to include such a large cast, but then all the plots revolve around the same handful of characters, so the opportunity is wasted.

It’d have been nice if every species was given the same variety of clothing the Ferengi get to have. Having Caradassians wear mil uniforms IN THEIR OWN HOMES, and when they are scientists, is absurd.

DS9 continues the Trek tradition of having a real nebulous and unexplained relationship with money.

DS9 really needed more women writers and head-writers on staff. Why are male writers so bad at this???

I really need to get in the habit of taking notes while I watch so I can give more detailed reactions later -__-

[pokemaniacal]

Litten, Torracat and Incineroar

I have a little personal conjecture about how Incineroar was designed.

Game Freak deeply, sincerely, earnestly didn’t mean to make a fourth Fire/Fighting starter Pokémon.  They were just going to sit down and come up with some unique, entertaining and vaguely Hawaiian-inspired Fire-type.  But then Incineroar just rose up, unbidden, out of the primal mists of Game Freak’s collective id, embedded himself in their tortured psyches, and refused to leave.  Aware that they were making another Fire/Fighting starter Pokémon, but horrified by their inability to stop, they desperately called on Yveltal for help, and the vicious and cunning death god answered their prayers by corrupting Incineroar into a brutal Dark-type.

I mean, obviously some of that is speculative, but I think the general outline is close.

Litten, Torracat and Incineroar are our Alolan Fire-type starter Pokémon line.  As Fire-type cat Pokémon they are a little in danger of being a sequel to generation VI’s Litleo and Pyroar, but fortunately their final stage, Incineroar, takes a very different direction.  Litten is a kitten whose oily fur is highly flammable, causing him to hawk up flaming hairballs.  That’s… a bit of a weird fighting style, but at least an elegant way of bringing the Fire element to a cat Pokémon, so we’ll call it a win.  Likewise, instead of shedding hair all over the place, Litten just sets all his fur on fire and burns it up in seconds (something I occasionally wish my cat could do).  Litten’s notoriously withdrawn and standoffish nature is appropriately cattish as well, and possibly meant to anticipate his eventual evolution into a Dark-type.  That progresses to a highly aggressive, but simultaneously petulant, attitude in Torracat (again, not unlike a bad-tempered housecat…).  Torracat’s most distinctive physical feature is the little fiery bell at his throat, actually his fire-producing organ, which makes a ringing sound when Torracat uses his powers.  Presumably this mimics the bells that cat owners sometimes give their pets to warn off prey, which I suppose constitutes another interesting way of manifesting Torracat’s Fire type.  It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t go anywhere, though; Incineroar loses the bell for a flaming navel and fiery belt.  I would have liked it if Torracat’s bell somehow manifested in Incineroar’s wrestler design as the bell that rings between rounds of a wrestling match; it seems like a really good opportunity to unify the design that was missed.  There are a lot of cat Pokémon now (Meowth in two regional forms, Skitty, Shinx, Glameow, Purrloin, Litleo, Espurr…) and to be honest Litten and Torracat don’t do enough on their own to convince me that we needed another, but it’s Incineroar who was tasked with taking this design in a new direction.  So let’s talk about that.

Incineroar has the species designation “the Heel Pokémon,” which makes pretty clear that we’re dealing with the evil counterpart to Hawlucha – a Pokémon based on a villainous persona from the world of professional wrestling.  Incineroar comes from a similar masked wrestler tradition to Hawlucha, where a mask is supposed to give you a whole new identity to fight under, and you fight for the honour of that identity (often a totemic animal).  Incineroar, as a villainous version of this idea, is not only a jerk, but ostentatiously a jerk, specifically going out of his way to be destructive and chaotic, just as a heel is supposed to.  I’ve seen people specifically locate Incineroar’s inspiration with one Japanese wrestler in particular – or rather, one masked persona, used by five wrestlers over the years: Tiger Mask.  And at first I was sceptical, but the deeper I go down this particular rabbit hole the more I think he probably is iconic enough in Japanese pop culture to actually be referenced by a Pokémon design (besides, according to the WWE website “it would be difficult to overstate [his] influence,” and I try not to question heavily-muscled men in capes and speedos).  The only problem is that Tiger Mask is emphatically not a heel.  The wrestling persona was originally inspired by a 1968 manga, where the character was a Japanese wrestler who had played heel in the United States and turned “face” when he returned home, but the real-world Tiger Mask has always been a heroic character, as have his anime adaptations (because of course there is a Tiger Mask anime; there was even a reboot last year).  There is a corresponding heel character called the Black Tiger, who has a red-and-black colour scheme in the anime, but he doesn’t seem to be as well known, and also the wrestler was arrested for drug smuggling back in 2012 (this is the kind of trivia I just know now; SEND HELP).  Anyway, if you were going to create a Pokémon that paid homage to the Tiger Mask mythos, why go for the derivative villain rather than the iconic hero?  Something about it doesn’t quite ring true – and kinda brings me back to my (only partly tongue-in-cheek) introduction.

I had a whole debate with Jim the Editor over what Incineroar’s type should be, because his feeling is that it doesn’t make sense for this Pokémon not to be a Fighting-type, that Incineroar’s Dark-type traits are secondary to – dependent on – his Fighting-type traits; as a heel wrestler, he can’t be a villain without first being a martial artist.  He’s typed wrong, and this is a blemish on the design.  My counterargument was that the concept of a heel involves an element of theatricality that you could say makes them primarily villains and only secondarily fighters (i.e. pro wrestling is fake; fite me irl).  I’m also inherently disposed to liking this line of reasoning because I have a pre-existing idea that one of the characteristic traits of Fighting Pokémon is that they are supposed to be honourable, so it actually makes a great deal of sense for an ostentatiously villainous Pokémon like Incineroar to be specifically excluded from the type.  Having said that, “Fighting = Honour” isn’t exactly an obvious inference from any official source, and doesn’t fit all Fighting Pokémon (i.e. f#&%ing Primeape), so if you don’t particularly buy into my personal brand of nonsense, Fire/Fighting is arguably a better fit than Fire/Dark for Incineroar – probably because they started from “wrestler” and then looked for ways to justify a type other than Fire/Fighting, rather than actually starting from an idea that was demonstrably Fire/Dark.  Jim the Editor’s suggestion for such an idea, to be submitted here to the court of public opinion, was to have Incineroar be a sort of arsonist/con artist, starting fires outside to draw attention and lure people out of their homes while gangs of Litten and Torracat plunder all their stuff (Incineroar could easily pull off a sort of circus strongman or ringmaster look that would be appropriate to this concept with only minor physical changes).  Litten in this scheme could then be street performers and pickpockets, which gives them a more interesting identity too.  Feel free to heap scorn on this idea in the comments, lest Jim get a swelled head.  That’s enough on the design and flavour side, though; I should get on with how Incineroar works.

Incineroar is a physical tank in the tradition of Ursaring or Machamp: you’re slow and can’t avoid hits, but in theory you can survive them long enough to hit back.  This is an odd thing for a Fire Pokémon to be, and arguably the only pre-generation VII Pokémon who can even do it are Emboar and Arcanine (no, Magcargo and Torkoal, you do not count), so we’re in a field with little competition.  His hidden ability is Intimidate, which would be a wonderful thing for a Pokémon like this to have (or, well, almost any Pokémon to have; a free attack debuff every time you switch in is just really good), but alas, for the moment this is not to be, so we’ll have to make do with the generic Fire-type starter ability, Blaze.  Incineroar has a really solid selection of attacks; in addition to his Dark-type signature moves, he gets Flare Blitz, Earthquake and Cross Chop, all powerful attacks that threaten an excellent variety of types.  Outrage is interesting, but probably not recommended; Dragon attacks have great neutral type coverage, but that’s not one of Incineroar’s flaws anyway, and they hit almost nothing super-effectively (not to mention that being locked into Outrage can stop being fun abruptly).  For some reason, Incineroar can learn Leech Life, which Sun and Moon buffed into a surprisingly solid attack, and honestly, health drain is probably quite a good thing for a Pokémon with Incineroar’s stat profile to have.  Alternatively, U-Turn is also on offer as a source of Bug-type damage and tactical flexibility; it does less damage, but Incineroar isn’t short of power moves anyway, and being able to tank an attack for the Pokémon you’re switching in is a decent use of Incineroar’s bulk.  Swords Dance is there too, to send his attack stat into the stratosphere, but bear in mind that Incineroar is just not fast enough to sweep anything.  It really hurts in general that he’s so slow, and that Fire/Dark is not a great defensive combination: Fire attacks are great; being weak to Rock, Water and Ground is decidedly not, and Dark adds a nasty Fighting weakness to boot.

If you are inclined to buck Fire Pokémon stereotypes and push the defensive, tanky side of Incineroar, there are some support options that he can take for that, although it is maybe a bit of a waste of his excellent physical attack stat.  Will’o’Wisp is nice because burns cripple physical attackers, and doubly nice if we can eventually get Intimidate on him.  Taunt can stop support Pokémon from messing with you, but again, his poor speed hurts; you ideally want Taunt on a fast Pokémon that can actually anticipate and counter a support move, not just shut them down after the fact.  Bulk Up might be interesting, especially in combination with Will’o’Wisp or Leech Life; Incineroar is already far from a pushover defensively, so if your opponent seems to be missing special attackers that can easily take him out, there might be some merit to going all in on buffs.  Body Slam is nicely thematic, and being able to paralyse opponents is good for Incineroar and probably for the rest of your team too; it’s just unfortunate that Normal attacks are terrible.  In an entirely different vein, you could try to turn him into a sort of bastardised surprise physical sweeper by speeding him up with Flame Charge.  It’s no Agility, and the move itself is so weak that you do pretty much have to pack a second Fire attack (there’s no room for, say, Swords Dance), but if you play your hand close to your chest you might be able to confuse someone to death in the late game.  Finally, Incineroar does get Nasty Plot, with a passable selection of special attacks (Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Overheat with Dark Pulse and Focus Blast), but unlike Decidueye his base special attack score is average at best, so the very most I would suggest is putting Overheat on a physical attacker set to maybe surprise a physical wall (bonus points if you make a Z-move out of it).

Because Incineroar is a pro wrestler, and pro wrestlers have a love for signature moves that goes beyond all logic and common sense, he has not one, but two: Darkest Lariat and Throat Chop.  Of these, Darkest Lariat is the one you generally want.  It’s actually one of the strongest Dark-type attacks in the game, though I should stress that this isn’t saying much, since Dark has no really high-powered attacks.  Darkest Lariat helpfully ignores defence and evasion bonuses, and until recently I might have written that off as mostly useful for screwing with the AI, since defence and evasion buffs aren’t common in competitive games.  Specifically in doubles, though, Darkest Lariat does have the peculiar advantage of beating the living $#!t out of the infamous Infinite Defence Palossand (of course, Palossand also has Ground attacks to blow up Incineroar, but it’s something).  The other signature move is Throat Chop, and this is much more niche.  It’s slightly less powerful than Darkest Lariat, and has the unusual effect of disabling the target’s sonic attacks by striking them in the windpipe.  There aren’t a lot of powerful or common sound moves, so Throat Chop is mostly useful against a few Normal-type special attackers, like Exploud and Pyroar, who use Hyper Voice as a major source of damage.  However, I do find it really amusing that Throat Chop can quite badly screw over Incineroar’s Water-type counterpart, Primarina, by disabling her Sparkling Aria.  In practice you still wouldn’t choose to take that fight as Incineroar, because Primarina might just have a different Water attack, but it’s interesting that the designers built in this little reversal of the standard Grass-Fire-Water starter dynamic.  As far as I can tell, Decidueye doesn’t have any similar thematic advantage over Incineroar, nor Primarina over Decidueye.

I’m not as convinced by Litten, Torracat and Incineroar overall as I am by Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye.  They have the same sudden, fairly radical shift to a different sort of design at the third stage that I noticed in Dartrix, but it doesn’t quite fit as well – there isn’t really anything tiger-like about Incineroar (tigers being famously ambush hunters), probably because he’s tiger-via-masked-wrestler, but then again, Hawlucha’s the same thing, and her human and animal inspirations do slot together a bit better because of the focus of lucha libre on “aerial” moves.  And… well, to be honest, the whole “slow physical bruiser” thing just hasn’t been a great game plan for most Pokémon who’ve tried it in the past; Emboar has never been especially prominent, and Incineroar is trying to do something fairly similar.  I mean, there’s nothing I think is especially poorly done here, but not a lot that excites me.  I’m calling this one a solid meh-out-of-ten.