#development flight

[pepperjunkie]

Titan 2 Research & Development Flight - NASA Photo ID: PL-63-23768..

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

What a lovely family portrait👨🏻‍👨🏻‍👦🏻🖼️

Enhanced image of A-Yuan's first sword flight.

[snallyghaster]

Pictured above: an illustration of a soldier and a priest of the Light flight, wearing typical garb.

The soldier is a young but promising cadet, shown here with an impressive amount of battle plates for her age. Battle plates, often referred to simply as "plates", are plates of metal forged with a single symbol, each given to represent a certain act of valor in combat. As an individual rises through the ranks, their number of plates increases, visually signaling their place in the hierarchy. Many high-ranking individuals become so burdened with these plates that they cannot take flight, though dragons with such a high number of plates generally stay behind the front lines as strategists.

The priest is shown wearing a typical plain white robe, ornamented with gold jewelry. Among Light dragons and priests in particular, gold is considered sacred, as its yellow color and distinctive shine in the sunlight is said to glorify the Lightweaver, and priests are often gifted gold jewelry forged by nearby clans for their service. Light priests also ornament themselves with parchment inscribed with sentences and phrases favored by the individual priest, often taken from holy texts. Though this priest has chosen short phrases, some wear parchments with longer sentences or even entire passages written on them. Wearing these parchments is believed to spread knowledge and thus honor the Lightweaver, who values knowledge above all else.

(Transparent version under the cut.)

[elbiotipo]

Perhaps the worst game design choice in Skyrim is when you are told to go kill nameless bandits who you can't talk to and just exist as random enemies, and then when you're fighting one they yell "I yield" and you're okay, that's fair, I'm just here to get some random sword I don't actually want to kill you and after all, the game tips say that if they yell "I yield" you can sheathe your sword and they'll stop fighting

Then you find out that's COMPLETELY FALSE, the game does NOT allow you to do that, the nameless bandits like all enemies in the game are programmed to fight to the death, and that's what you do, you fight them to death, because they have no names no lives or anything, they are there to keep attacking you and fight to the death for a chest with 124 gold and boots with a bonus to enchantment.

Or what's worse, the game makes them yell "PLEASE NO MORE" or "I YIELD" JUST as you deliver the killing blow. It would be an interesting comment on violence in videogames if it wasn't just a fakeout because the nameless bandits aren't actually coded to do anything but to fight you to death.

Okay, that's a bunch of poor game design choices, not just one.

[carrotsofthepirabbean]

bttf au where they send Jennifer (criminally underused) to retrieve the sports almanac to avoid the tremendous problem of Marty accidentally meeting himself, which instead causes some tremendous other problems

[themissingmango]

💜🤍🩶🖤 | ace plane — last yrs is here ☺️

[ace-and-the-rpg-horrors]

i doubt that Arata's going to make any major appearances now, but i think it would be so funny if VBS starts travelling and he is made to supervise them, because Ken is busy and tells the kids, "sorry, i am not trusting you guys by yourselves abroad in a million years." so he calls up Arata, since he's travelled before (to America)

Arata is like "yeah, sure. how hard could it be?"

about everything that could go wrong goes wrong.

in the middle of the night, they were all meant to meet at WEG, from where Ken would drive them to the airport. all of them except Toya forgot at least one thing at home and had to go all the way back to retrieve it.

Arata ordered a cup of strong coffee while they all waited for An to come back after running up to her room for the sixteenth time.

at security, An, Akito and Arata seem to accidentally create a "whose jewellery can set off the metal detector more" competition. Toya is highly disappointed in Akito. and just before the trip, Emu had given Kohane a tiny little robot that has recorded messages from all of W x S, to remember them by while she's away!! so cute!!

it gets Kohane pulled away to be searched.

not even anything dodgy in it, it's just as if the machines could detect the Made In Rui Kamishiro's Room essence. Kohane was terrified. it took Arata, Akito and Toya to hold An back from fighting security and getting them all arrested. Rui woke up at home a few hours later to fifty missed calls from Akito, An and the airline.

Arata bought another coffee at duty free afterwards.

oh, and since i'm silly about my headcanon of Iori and Arata being twins, STANDOUT happens to be doing a world tour at the same time. Arata prayed he would not see his sister at the airport. he is not God's favourite. she sees him struggling with the kids and immediately takes the piss. he retorts that he hopes her plane crashes. nearly gets jumped by the other band members (minus Mio)

he needed two coffees to recover from that.

Kohane is super excited about taking as many photos as she can while in the airport, wanting to capture everything. Arata sees her struggling with holding the camera while dragging her suitcase and decides to be nice, offering to hold it. she accidentally calls him nii-san and he feels joy for the first time, thinking that maybe it's all worth it. which is very quickly dissolved when An takes him holding Kohane's bag as an invitation to drop her bag on him ("cheers, Arata!!"), followed by Akito. Toya tries to scold them and help carry all the things, though sheepishly finds that he does not have the strength to.

"why the fuck do i bother." ~ Arata Tono, 2024, on his fifth coffee.

Arata gets a call from Souma checking up on him and is so relieved that he's positively beaming (and maybe even tearing up) while he walks away to answer.

"ehhh, he hasn't smiled at us like that all night, even though we've been so good!!" ~ An. she and Akito tease the hell out of his relationship with Souma when he returns.

while waiting to board the plane, he has to deal with standing next to a bickering An and Akito, the sleepiness starting to really get to the both of them, making them more snappy. Toya is starting to really realise that flights involve... heights. and is staring into space while having a silent panic attack. Kohane unintentionally wanders off to go take more photos, nearly giving Arata a heart attack when he thinks he's lost her. or that might've just been the caffeine.

he is unable to buy another cup of coffee at this time.

the second Arata gets into his plane seat, he goes "do not talk to me" to all of them and immediately falls asleep. some poor flight attendant has to shake him awake to ask him to put his belt on because he'd forgotten. he starts sobbing right then and there.

he gets to order his now hourly coffee from that same flight attendant a bit later.

he tries to drift off once more, though is awoken again, this time by poor Toya in the middle seat digging his fingernails into both his and Akito's arms from fear, like a cat, while the plane takes off.

Arata downs some more coffee and reflects every one of his life's decisions while his arm is taken hostage.

An, who is much too peppy at this sort of hour, in Arata's opinion, reaches across the aisle every ten minutes to shake his free arm and ask "are we there yet??" so he makes Toya keep an eye on how many exact miles away they are and regularly report it to her, to both distract him from the height and satisfy An's curiosity.

when they arrive at their destination, VBS is ecstatic. Arata promptly goes to his room in the hotel and passes out for about twelve hours.

he gets offered coffee during breakfast and feels sick at the thought... before remembering that he's with this lot for a good few days and quickly accepts.

[bladehorror]

Didn't feel like putting any effort into art I want to look good so instead I drew my Percy fandragon. I hope one day she'll figure out where that Canadian dollar came from. Especially since Canada doesn't exist in Sornieth.

[gingermintpepper]

Writing Apollo-as-a-young-deity is fun because sometimes it involves completely making shit up based on the loose outline of a story told through old poems, prayers and plays and other times it involves researching the totally legit and well documented ancient art of studying sheep livers to make sure your statesmen don't accidentally piss off Jupiter.

In completely unrelated news, if anyone has any recommendations for books about bird augury, that'd be wonderful.

[farraday-yes]

Still thinking about my Burns AU for Pilot’s Final Flight ❤️

Imagine him in a constant loop of pain as he is in a constant state of healing and dying. Imagine if he spent every day of those 15 years in constant pain, unable to communicate with anyone.

Imagine him hugging his son after 15 years, the first human contact he’s had in ages, and erupting in pain as the Time Loop is no longer there to keep him alive. Imagine him not caring because that’s his son and he can take a little bit more pain for his sake.

Man I love angst <3

[strawberryeyescream]

oddly specific thing maybe but hyper-realistic puppets appeal to my uncanny valley and make me very uncomfortable. the only example I really have is that dog thing from never ending story I believe? Whatever it is it makes me feel unsafe to look at it and I don’t know why haha

[flightrising]

Today's Developer Update reviews our most recent batch of accessibility changes, quality of life updates, and previews some upcoming features (not yet released!) to pinglists.

[regulationhottie7905]

Catra is a complex character but once you realize that her morality centers around two things (first keeping herself safe and then keeping her loved ones happy, safe, and with her) pretty much everything she does makes sense

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 44

PREV

The flight up to New York is a pleasant one.

The time in the airport itself had been less pleasant. Matt, as it turns out, is a firm believer in arriving with just enough time to check a bag, get through security, and get to the gate. He had claimed up, down, left, and right that he had it down to a science.

No matter how many times Smith had wondered about the scientific rigor of this 'science' he still kept it to himself. There was no need for Smith to voice his uncertainty with this plan because Kevin well and truly had it covered.

"You're giving us only an hour to check bags, get through security, and get to our gate?!" Kevin demands.

"Kevin, if you wanted to be there earlier then you could have asked Andrew to give yo a ride." Matt says. "We'll be fine."

"You know what Neil and Andrew get like when they have a long roadtrip ahead of them." Kevin argues.

"All lovey-dovey?" Nicky asks as Aaron makes a gagging sound.

"No, well yes, but no they always stop and buy all of the worst food too." Kevin reminds. "I'm just concerned about us missing our flight! We have barely enough time!" Kevin huffs crossing his arms.

"You're wrong anyways." Aaron says idly as he continues to text with Katelyn.

"How am I wrong?!" Kevin demands.

"We also have to park within that hour that Matt has left us with." Aaron says looking up from his phone.

"Matt!" Kevin squawks.

"It'll be fine." Matt reassures for the 2nd time.

"We all have checked bags!" Kevin exclaims, "What if we miss our flight?!" he wails.

"It'll be fine!" Matt repeats.

"No it won't!" Kevin exclaims.

---

It was fine.

The only real delays they met were at security.

Smith prided himself on being efficient in the security line. He has his watch off, his phone and ID secured in a zipped jacket pocket, his backpack and electronics in separate trays, and his shoes ready to be slipped off.

So he was shamed to have been the cause of the first delay when the TSA agent wouldn't wave Smith through the metal detector since she didn't realize he was there. That had been a whole anxiety attack and a half as the line had formed up behind him all wondering what the hold-up was.

Finally she seemed to startle as she realized that Smith had been standing there waiting and waved him through.

The other delay was that Kevin got patted down after he had forgotten to empty his 'emergency' water bottle.

It was probably for the best that they didn't have to be in the airport for that long. Every announcement that it was very important to not leave your bag unattended made him worry that with every blink somehow someone had slipped a bomb into his backpack.

While it was on his back.

As he was running with the rest of his friends to their gate.

"It just had to be the gate on the other end of the terminal." Aaron huffs.

"It would have been 100% perfect if someone hadn't left their water bottle in their bag despite the, let me check, 3,820 signs that said remove all liquids from your carry-ons!" Matt says as they continues to run.

"I said I forgot!" Kevin yells back from his spot at the front of the pack. Smith was under the distinct impression that Kevin was keeping pace with them since he had seen the Striker move much faster on the court and during warm-ups.

"We could have forgiven that!" Nicky pants, "Why did you have to slam the whole thing to prove that it was 'just water'?" he asks.

"Because I wanted to prove I wasn't a national security threat!" Kevin says. "I'll be going to the Olympics in a couple years and I can't have that on my record." he continues as he rounds a corner.

"What record?!" Smith asks suddenly worried that there was a record.

"Smithy, there's no record Kevin's just an idiot. An idiot who got patted down, tested for explosives, and had his carry-on searched." Nicky huffs.

"You don't know that there's not a record! The record everything nowadays!" Kevin huffs and their gate is in sight.

"Kevin, just shut up!" Aaron exclaims as they reach the line for their flight.

"Wait why aren't any of you getting shitty with Smiths?!" Kevin asks.

"His delay was like a minute and more importantly NOT HIS FAULT!" Nicky defends.

"He should have just walked through!" Kevin argues.

"Oh it's fine if he gets a record but not you?!" Aaron asks.

"So there is a record?!" Smith asks again.

They reach the line and the largely empty area around their gate is more than enough evidence that this was the final boarding. Smith breathed a sigh of relief as he took his place in line behind Nicky.

"The lines pretty slow, I'm going to go get a water." Kevin says and before any of them can say anything he is off towards a busy looking Newsweek store.

"I cannot believe him." Aaron huffs.

"All that water he just drank and is about to drink? He has lost window seat privileges." Matt pants wiping sweat from his brow.

"Agreed." Nicky says.

Smith laughed between panting breaths. His stomach hurt a bit from the stress of running but it was fine.

They get on the plane without Kevin and head to their seats. Most of the overhead storage is taken up at this point but Smith slides his bag under the middle seat in front of him after Matt

In the end, Kevin barely made it onto the plane in time since he got caught up in deciding on water. "You're in my seat." Kevin says as the only man not yet seated.

"I am not about to spend this flight getting up every 2 minutes because you have to pee." Matt says, "Abby didn't used to need to take all those pitstops when we're on the bus." Matt adds.

"I hate the aisle, the cart could hit my legs." Kevin argues.

"Then you can sit in the middle if Smith's willing to move." Matt says.

"You can have the middle Kevin." Smith offers actually preferring the aisle seat since then he doesn't have to ask anyone to move for him.

"I hate the middle seat, there is no room." Kevin crosses his arms.

"Smith is like only 3 inches shorter than you and he's not complaining." Matt continues.

"It's an important 3 inches."

"I bet it is."

"Nicky, are you serious?"

"What?!"

"There is an uninvolved member of the public, right there."

"He's wearing headphones it's fine!"

---

It's fine.

Eventually Kevin takes the middle seat if for no other reason than Matt stubbornly pretends to go to sleep but absolutely does not want the aisle seat either.

Smith gives it up and ends up with his own preferred seat while Kevin pointedly takes both of the arm rests, as is his right. The plane ride progresses smoothly from there. Smith has always liked flying. There is always a sense that the second that he gets onto the plane and the door closes he has absolutely zero control over what happens afterwards.

That is a nice comfort.

He pays attention to the safety briefing, finds his nearest exit, and that he should secure the bag over his own face before securing it on Kevin's.

He puts his headphones on and tries not to think about the anxiety of meeting the 'girls'.

He has heard much about the 'girls'.

Allison Reynolds. Allison was someone who's legacy existed even outside of the team. Smith didn't know much about fashion but a Reynolds bet remained a solid practice within Palmetto. She was, undeniably, absolutely gorgeous and if Kevin was to be believed 'kind of a bitch'. Nicky had swatted his arm but had said that it was not entirely inaccurate but like 'in the best way'.

Dan Wilds. He met Dan. Dan was nice. Also, if Matt was to be believed, the best human to ever walk the planet earth. The reason the sun rose in the east and set in the west. The gravitational pull that held the universe together. If Andrew is to be believed, she's fine.

Renee Walker. Renee was the one who taught Andrew how to use knives. His friend has talked warmly of her, in the way that Andrew talks warmly about anyone which is mentioning them at all. She was the one that Smith was the most anxious about meeting.

Kevin turns his nose up at the ginger ale that Smith gets but he's allowed these now per his actual doctors orders.

1 hour left until arriving at JFK.

He hopes this ginger ale is enough to calm his stomach since he's still not allowed Pepto.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

NEXT

[starrstruckcanuck]

Can you believe there's still 3 days left until the trade deadline. I feel like it's been going on for a million years and that this is what I've been subjected to as my personal hell for the rest of eternity

[flourishing-fagopsis]

happy fat dragon friday the 13th! :)

i liked my app(s) for the tooth/riot piglets so much I ended up buying a dragon to make into a character that's sort of a combo edition of both... decided I really wanted to bring back godsblood since it works into Blackminster well!

From long before she began her search, Megaera knew her charge. She felt the pull of them across sands and seas, through tangled woods and open valleys. She sought him out ready to offer everything before she even knew him, forging herself into the perfect vessel, the dog to her master's gentle guidance. She prepared all the love in her twisted heart for the God she yearned for, and when at last she found them she HATED them.

Megaera is a necromancer, and a scholar as much as any plague dragon can be. raised on the battlefield, fighting for her life in the wasteland, she bears evidence of her past in the arm and leg prosthetics she wears. not something of her own design, their haphazard construction allows her to harness the GODSBLOOD she distills in The Abscess; its berserker-like and regenerative powers allow her to become ever the more terrifying fighter, capable of wielding a weapon many times the size of an ordinary sword or cleaver. A side effect of the drug fragments her teeth into an endlessly smaller repeating number of new ones, peeling out of the sides of her mouth like a twisted overgrown shark.

settled in the rotting body of a behemoth god, Megaera obeys the instructions of her charge, distilling deific blood and flesh into a viral strain and further into a drug. she will not go against him, but she despises what he's done to her dogma, dismissing her belief in him without a thought. where she feels she can get away with it, she studies what he has set her to do, determined to unlock the truth of last piece; in her mind the most important one. she long ago learned there exists somewhere in this world a possibility of GODHOOD, a power so immense that it can raise a mortal beyond their potential to something penultimate, and she has been fixated ever since.

Megaera is a listless, vicious soul inhabiting The Abscess. something haunts her, a reflection of herself that presents in dreams like funhouse mirrors, laughing at her. it makes her angrier, more vicious, more determined. she keeps puppets of old enemies and remnants of old battles, listless without the direction of a fight to keep them moving, and they unnerve those that enter her quarters or find them wandering The Abscess. her leanings are macabre; interests in taxidermy, strange non-magic medicines, and music that combines the screams of the tormented with clanging metal. her role as de-facto leader in The Abscess is never questioned, because unlike most who pass through the ribs of the great beast, she never leaves.