#does military intelligence know about this bus

[msboutofcontext]

[nataliesnews]

Women soldiers 20.11.2023

Please read the PDF about the surveillance soldiers at the bottom.

It is very hard getting news which keeps changing. After five days of walking up to Jerusalem.....I joined them at the entrance to the city....having been told that representatives of all the families would be allowed in to the meeting at the Knesset, many were refused and again there was selection.    They were told that there is not enough place!!

The problem with only 50 being returned......will 50 really be returned or a smaller number. What will happen to those left behind. What will happen to the young men? ? And if we make a cease fire of five days will it give Hamas the change to regroup and prepare another surprise for us. We so  unestimated them. 

Not all the families were allowed into the Knesset. May Ben Gvir and his friends rot in hell.....which is too good for them. Having stood today at the Knesset in pouring rain and winds, I had to hold on to a friend, not to lose my balance. There were only about 50 people.  It was raining and blowing so hard that when the bus stopped to let me off, the bus driver got out to help me down.  The sign outside the tent. Which has already risen in number.

Where are all my friends on the left who find reasons not to come and stand with us. And Ben Gvir, when the hostages are in danger, wants to hang terrorists. How many does he want us to hang...20, 30 a hundred? And not all the families were allowed in....how are they chosen....by photos if they took part in the demonstrations? If they put something on facebook? While the rubbish in the Knesset are calling for us to drop a bomb on Gaza....while rabbis preach that it is allowable to kill Arab babies because they will grow up to be terrorists.....which is just what their devotees have grown up to become? We will bring the world to a third world war. Together with Hamas. 338 Soldiers are dead. And the United Nations? It is allowable to rape a Jew. In all other countries they were there for the women even though they never helped anyone. 

Maybe this will make some people think. 

And another thing which makes the blood boil. With all the arguments about women being in the army....and the way that the higher echelons did not take notice of warning this too happened. And we women are sure that if they had been men, notice would have been taken. The young soldiers didn’t take this discovery lightly. Time and again, they told their commanders what they had witnessed. They were told by officers of every rank that their reports were meaningless. Some told the spotters that they didn’t understand what they were seeing – even when what they saw was very high-ranking Hamas officials briefing armed men meters from the fence. One high-ranking Israeli officer who visited Nahal Oz base this year was explicit: “I don't want to hear another word about this nonsense,” he said. “If you nudge me again about this, you will stand trial.” Pity we do not know his name. 

Please read the PDF below if you want to know how the military ignored the signs. It says something for our intelligence if one can call it that. 

And then of course we have the United Nations:    The Hamas sexual pogrom and the deafening silence of the world’s feminist movements    https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqmutqv6#autoplay?utm_source=ynetnews.com&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=mail&utm_term=bjqmutqv6&utm_content=Article%20Top

It’s just a bunch of women in powerful positions turning their backs on history    https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1kffyrnp?utm_source=ynetnews.com&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=mail&utm_term=h1kffyrnp&utm_content=Article%20Top

I am trying to calm down. I find myself breathing in and out as if I were climbing a mountain. The number of soldiers killed arrises with each broadcast.  I wanted to see what was happening in Gaza. Hot, the channel I am on, has suddenly turned off Al Jazeera. We are shown little of what is happening in Gaza ....everything is being done to cut us off from the truth. And anyone who opens the mouth is arrested. I just hope that Gershon Baskin will stay safe. Each time a friend tells me of a son in Gaza, of a relation who was killed...and I have friends who are already saying they are scared to demonstrate. I said the day would come. And this is what the government brought us to -  can you believe it...and it makes me think of what is happening in Gaza. We are told nothing of the families that are being wiped out there. We are shown nothing. I should  be able to find something on EL Jazeera on the net but have not been successful. 

I never though when we went to all sorts of digs that this day would come. Zaka 

Archaeologists sift through devastation to help families of Oct. 7 victims gain closure

For weeks, archaeologists have been searching the burned homes of the Gaza border communities, using methods honed for historical excavations to help try to identify modern remains

Most of the families were not allowed into the Knesset but this is what happened earlier and maybe that is the reason. No way that there is not enough place for them there.

Far-right MKs scream at hostages’ families in Knesset hearing on death penalty bill

Relatives of Israelis being held by Hamas in Gaza plead with Otzma Yehudit lawmakers not to advance legislation; MK Fogel: You're representing Hamas more than Israel

This is a very confused letter but so am I. I know I give a lot of links but it is easier than to take out bits and pieces to be read. 

[davidfosterwallaceandgromit]

Dean and Cas are both nightmare PTA parents, because their usual personality issues are switched. In this setting, dean is the one who causes problems on purpose (flirting with pta moms, homewrecking) and cas is the one who is like “i must control everything.” 

The slippery slope of shared involvement in this organization is that cas develops a vendetta against a rival mom named Helen, and takes dean, who is just having a fun time flirting with the moms & being a homewrecker, and recruits him to run interference and gather intelligence on her campaign for PTA presidency while CAS launches his OWN ruthless campaign for PTA presidency. 

Importantly, nobody knows the first thing about either of them,

because they are trying to live simultaneously in the smalltown settled-down world and also their world of incredible violence

Nobody knows what the angry trenchcoat dad’s deal is because they have never had a normal conversation with him 

but the moms speculate WILDLY about dean

and they hear weird things from their kids who know Jack

But in order for the scheme to work, none of these women know that Cas and Dean are associated with the same kid, never mind with each other.

So,

It’s been abt a year since Cas became an overly involved PTA parent and established himself as a rogue element in the Smith Center United School District, where Jack attends the high school and plays trumpet in the marching band. Cas is off on a hunt, asks Dean to go to the wednesday meeting for him. 

Dean goes, and is colossally bored

Until the coffee hour in the gym

Bc the PTA moms are VERY interested in this new hot dad 

Dean of course enjoys the attention and flirts back shamelessly

talks up his kid jack like “Oh yeah his mom is dead, it’s so sad :(” (because Dean is a terrible person) 

so normally, Jack just takes the bus or flies to school if he’s going to be late (bc he overslept after staying up late playing Portal 2, or just wanted to hang out for breakfast). But once Dean starts getting attention from the moms he can’t resist the drama and offers to drive Jack to smith center HS. 

Jack says yes of course

Dean waves ‘hello ladies’ to the carpool moms, roguish wink

this will backfire later on when one of them starts following him around town to figure out where the fuck he lives

Next PTA meeting rolls around, cas is heading out, and dean asks to go with. cas is like wtf?

Dean’s agenda is: 1. i love attention and flirting and destroying the nuclear family. and 2. if I piss off cas enough, he will make out with me IN the back seat of the Impala IN the school parking lot

so at the post-meeting coffee hour in the gym

Cas is late bc he’s discussing something w another parent

Dean is flirting with the moms again

and they are complaining about mr kline, the angry trench coat dad

cas comes back into the gym and sees what’s going on, gets jealous/territorial, drags dean out

after dean’s goal #2 has been achieved and he is fixing cas’s collar in the back seat of the impala, cas is like okay hilarious (not) but do not flirt with those women again. 

And dean’s like (fixing cas’s tie) dude, those women, the other moms, they do not like you. especially not helen, and she’s running for PTA president — and cas is like, wait hang on, she’s doing what? 

little does Dean know that helen is cas’s #1 PTA enemy, and if she wins, she will cut the music/theater budget in favor of increasing sports funding. cas cannot allow this to happen, but this is useful intel

So cas is like well....... what else did you find out? 

so begins the campaign of conspiracy and cahoots

the local moms fawn over dean every wednesday at the pta coffee hour and then on sunday at the church coffee hour they discuss him extensively

his cover story is that he’s a bartender at a place called doyle’s up in webber (40+ miles away, no one would ever drive out and check, right?). prevailing theory is that he’s ex-military 

[looking at Jack's soccer registration forms] "Their address is on Bromfield road. but there aren't any HOUSES on bromfield road"

after witnessing dean do some special ops shit, a new theory is born that he’s in witness protection

they also hear things through their kids cause 1. Jack is a bad liar and 2. He IS doing magic tricks to look cool for the other kids.

Dean’s cover story about the bar is a shield for reality, which is that he and cas run a hunter pub/diner, called rocky’s or the roadhouse 2.0 or w/e, but it’s in a weird secret off-the-beaten path location that no Lebanon/normal people should stumble upon

Because Dean—now that he is out and settled down and going to AA and living a stable life—now lies about new stuff. His child. His family. His normal human job. Just because. 

No one knows what the angry trenchcoat dad does or which kid is his bc no one has ever had a normal or personal conversation with him.

“What is he?” Accountant? Community college accounting professor? Realtor who only sells business parks? Lawyer for realtors? Is he in publishing? 

whatever it is that he does for work, it is causing him a LOT of job stress, that much we can tell. He is using this as an outlet for Something. We have concerns. 

Cas knows all of Jack’s teachers personally and has also menaced various administrators, but in the PTA meetings he is just sort of a nondirectional force of nature not associated with any specific child.

Jack is a band and theater kid of course. He plays trumpet in the marching band in the fall, and the colorguard girls love him. Additionally he is also in the crew for the musical, and he’s also a weird forensics kid (speech team). 

jack on the trumpet from a distant room in the bunker: doot. doot. doot. doot. doot. doot. 

Dean in the kitchen: 😐😐

Cas, putting a hand on dean's arm: we're being supportive

Sports subplot: Dean gives Jack a (relatively gentle) hard time about doing music and theater but not trying any sports. To gain dean’s approval Jack is trying out the soccer league this fall but it’s not really his thing. 

This is relevant shan’t elaborate.

Eventually Jack gets roped into the scheme, but he is not happy about it because he does not like lying.

Cas must destroy helen because of her anti-performing arts agenda but also because she was the first person to be rude to him at his first-ever PTA meeting, and bc the moms function on midwestern church lady politeness rules, they all exclude him together (sin of exclude the freak)

So Cas, in response, commits the Sin of Nemesis

(in his eyes she represents the threat of local (and more broadly, human) culture excluding Jack) 

bc Sin of Nemesis is Cas’s fatal flaw in this story that means when the stakes get higher he will Go Too Far (gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss); his numerous Sins of Jealousy are just a fun subplot

Once, one of the parents witnesses Cas doing some angel magic when he doesnt think anyone is looking. Like he spills something, tries to mop it up, then gives up and just snaps it. 

Later on in the election when things have gotten heated, someone else spots him using his super strength to move a large object (for sabotage purposes) and thinks they imagined it.

kathleen (friend of Helen) is suspicious of Dean’s whole deal, even more so after she and her husband actually end up stopping at the bar in Webber, and she casually tells the owner that she knows Dean, and the guy is like ? who? 

“you know? dean campbell? Tall, chiseled, dresses like a lumberjack?”

“ma'am, I don't know anyone by that description, and the only people allowed behind this bar are me and my wife”

kathleen already doesn’t like dean because publicly flirting every wednesday isn’t proper, and also he’s distracting helen from her campaign and also from her, like, there’s a little jealousy there

but when she tries to tell Helen, of course, helen brushes it off

Dean is running interference on the enemy campaign

By distracting Helen and the moms and being a homewrecker

but also by infiltrating / getting inside info about Helen’s plans

He keeps it above-board — he never meets outside of the pta meetings and never accepts invitations to drinks/sunday dinner (gotta go, night shift at the bar. etc) bc if he actually started going to knitting circle or the pyramid scheme container parties he would definitely get too deep into it and also blow their cover 

And where is Sam in all this you ask? He and Eileen live a 2hr drive away with their newly adopted child. Though they come down for sunday dinner once a week, the campaign is never mentioned by dean or cas. they know absolutely nothing about it. 

This all will culminate when Cas eventually wins (he will, of course, win, despite a near-miss when he almost goes too far with the schemes, gaslight gatekeep girlboss), with grand reveal, when cas is up on stage in the gym, giving his big acceptance speech, and finishes it with “and last of all, i would like to thank my husband... dean :)” The chaos is instant and complete.

[smokeybrand]

The Cape and The Cowl

A friend of mine posted a meme questioning who would win a fight between Doctor Doom and Batman. My gut reaction is to say it’s real bad for Bruce but, as i thought about it more and more, i kind of feel like its not so cut-and-dry. There is a lot of nuance that needs to be considered between the two characters rather than just a “smash the action figured together” scenario. Of course, there is the surface stuff like how would they interact generally? What would the catalyst be in order to incite said conflict? Why would Doom even see Bruce as a threat? If you think about it objectively, an all things are even, to Vic, Batman is just a crazy person losing his are on crime in a raggedy ass city. Victor von Doom is a the reagent of an entire country with a GDP that rivals some superpowers in the MCU. Like, the USA has diplomatic relations with a blip in Eastern Europe, because Doom has the military power to wreck he US in open aggression. Latveria will lose in a prolonged conflict, that’s just a question of resources, but that little country would absolutely inflict upon the US in a slow bleed. Imagine the War on Terror but with competent leadership and actual, discipline, military strategy. Why the f*ck would Doom care what the f*ck is going on out in Jersey? More than that. the similarities between the two characters is staggering.

We all know the origin of Batman. We’ve seen that sh*t how many times now? It’s like getting a new Spider-Man joint and having to watch Uncle Ben die all over again. It’s trite at this point but so essential to the character, we need a refresher every time Bats shows up onscreen. That trauma informs everything he is, as it would if you watched your parents gunned down in cold blood as a child, and then laid with their still warm corpses for however long until the police came. What a lot of people don’t know is the origin of Doctor Doom. Being a villain, Doom rarely gets his motivations explored outside of some megalomaniac Dr. No type f*ckery. However, Victor von Doom is a person. He started out life as a happy kid and learned to be Doctor Doom, just like Bruce learned to be Batman. Doom is actually a refugee. True, Doom was born an aristocrat, but Latveria was overthrown when he was still young so he was never able to be raised in that level of opulence. His mom was also murdered before he was ten years old. Just like Bruce, Doom experienced a horrific truth that would color his world perspective for the rest of his life. Doom would eventually find his way to the US as he was brilliant. Like, unheard of intelligent and it would be his exposure to the US lifestyle, after years of conflict and struggle, which would make him realize how easy life could be if someone just did what was necessary. And then Reed happened.

Reed Richards was, is, a fulcrum in Vic’s life. They have a relationship similar to Batman an Superman but the opposite. Whereas Batman values Clark’s perspective because it helps him keep perspective, Vic finds Reed to be absurd. He sees Reed for who e is and doesn’t understand why no one else can. Reed Richards is a reckless, excitable, short-sighted, glory-hog. He is. If you read the character with any semblance of realism, you’d see that. Ho many times has Sue comments on how she and the rest of his family, take a backseat to science? How many times has Reed, himself, sacrificed a relationship or to, in service to the solution of an equation? Doom saw all of that in college. Reed represents the structural issues of the world and it frustrates Vic to no end. In some continuities, the genesis of Vic going full Doom rest on an accident Reed commits because of that shortsightedness. It goes a long way to checking Reeds ego and he does become a better person for it, but it was at the cost of scarring Vic for life, both physically and mentally. Yet another example of the system, ruining Doom’s life.

Bruce, after his trauma, has kept a strong support system. First and foremost, since day one, he had Alfred. Doom had no one. Bruce then built a family, adopting all of the children and surrounding himself with love. Doom’s one true love died and was dragged down to hell. We know this because he punches out Mephisto whenever he can. Also, his mom is down there, too. Bruce eventually met Diana and Kal, becoming fast friends and life long confidants. Outside of Catwoman, I think Diana makes for the perfect romantic partner of Bruce and that is shown in several continuities. Reed just reinforced Doom’s disgust with the machinations of the world, eventually further degrading Doom’s tenuous hold of his ability to trust in others, by psychically maiming him. The negative impact Reed had on Doom’s life is f*cking profound, man. I’m not saying Doom should have taken it as far as he did, but it’s hard to argue against trying to kill a dude who had ruined years of your work, destroyed you reputation, and physically maimed you forever. That doesn’t seem wholly outrageous to me. I think it’s called justifiable homicide? The only reason Doom stopped trying to murder Reed is because Valeria was born. Valeria became the first person Doom felt real affection for, since the death of his wife. I think Morgan le Fay could be another, but that might have just been a time-space booty call. Valeria Richards and her relationship with he Uncle Doom, is what gave Vic the strength to be better. Bruce had that love his entire life, even immediately after his darkest day. Doom went decades without it.

Up until Valeria was born, all Doom had was his time spent as a destitute street rat, struggling to survive, to inform him about life and the world at large. That brazen cruelty for sure emotionally crippled him in a lot of ways, I'm not even going to start to defend his arrogance or superiority complex, but trauma does that. That's why i think Bats would eventually come around. They've both seen the absolute worst of the world and, in a lot of ways, go about righting those wrongs in the same way. If you pay attention, and the writer is worth their salt, you'd see that Latveria is an autocratic socialist paradise. Latverians are among the most literate, healthy, and happy people in the 616. Jobs are plentiful and crime is almost non-existent. Mans even cured cancer, which he made available to the world, if those people choose to make the trip to Latveria for treatment. The world of 616, at large, likes to paint Vic as this evil despot but, if you interview a laymen of Latveria, they’ll sing his praises. Most people forget that, before Doom returned for his birthright, Latveria was a whole ass occupied state. Think the relationship between Israel and Palestine. Latveria was basically falling into doorknobs for Symkaria and pretending that they weren’t in an abusive relationship. Doom showed up and changed all that. It was a bloody f*cking conflict, for sure, and i am certain Vic committed war crimes, but the end result was a free Latveria with a strong international presence. Doom is a hero to those people but a villain to other nations because of how he rose to power and, more importantly, how independent he made hi country from the world system. Doom did what was necessary to free his people, a march too far for Bruce and that’s why Gotham is the way that it is.

People who don’t know the character like to paint Vic as ego-maniacal villain, and that was valid when comics were just "hero smash bad guy", but we've grown beyond that. Every pop culture interpretation of Doom, outside of the comics, has him as this stoic, arrogant, asshole, dictator bu that’s just not an accurate portrayal of how Doom is in a modern capacity. Vic is definitely an autocrat but he’s no dictator. He can be cruel at times to specific individuals but he is generally benevolent to his people. He doesn’t portray himself as a strongman but he does let it be known he’ll nuke anyone or anything if it means furthering his overall goals which, currently, is the safety and security of Latveria. His country isn’t a police state and his people are free to do as they please but their is a line, just like everywhere else in the world. Doom just has a shorter one and enforces that with extreme prejudice. I’m not going to sit here and say everything is great in Latveria, it’s definitely not, but it ain’t so hot in 616 America either. How many Civil Wars have they had? What about that whole  tidbit with Hydra Cap? There is nuance and gray nowadays, areas that both Bats and Doom comfortably call home. Batman is, objectively, not a pure hero. He is, at best, a chivalric anti-hero and similarly, Doom is more of an anti-villain than the mustache twirling, boogeyman, mastermind pop media portrays him to be. Batman and Doom are basically the same person, with the same motivations, only Doom is willing to go much, much, further than Bruce; A difference in method you an attribute to their respective upbringings.

If Doom had the same support system as Bruce, he’d create miracles. We’ve seen glimpses of that throughout the years. Dooms last run culminated with him essentially obliterating an entire universe where he had the support necessary to build a proper utopia. Our Doom couldn’t fathom the choices made by this variant Doom because of how broken he is. If Bruce was alone in his formative years like Victor, he’d commit atrocities. We’ve seen glimpses of that over they years, too. There are various narratives that explore just such a tragic turn of events, explored in the Death Metal series of books. Dawnbreaker immediately comes to mind. Bruce and victor are the same side of the same coins. It's literally a crap shoot as to which side of the alignment chart either leans. And as if to inform my point further, we just recently had Joker War. That book went a long way to exposing the absolute necessity of raw force, in order to properly “save”Gotham. Joker was able to completely dismantle that entire city by attacking the machinery put in lace to make it run. He effectively proved that The Batman was part of the problem and would never be the solution because Bruce doesn’t go far enough. He puts out fires but never address the sparks which start those blazes. He doesn’t go far enough. He never will. His code won’t allow him to. But Doom can. Doom did. Honestly, if you really want to keep it real, what is Bruce's endgame? What does a healthy Gotham City look like? It looks a lot like f*cking Latveria.

So to answer this question outright, i don’t think they even fight. The way this hypothetical was set up had three rounds: the first being a standard donnybrook, the second being prep time, and the last being god mode. To be perfectly honest with you, it wouldn't make it past the first round. If i had to say, with pedestrian or normie level understanding of he characters, Doom sweeps all categories. For Round one, Doom’s armor trumps all of Batman’s gadgets. For Round Two, Doom has more resources at his fingertips for prep. For Round The God Emperor Doom exists. He created several realities and killed a few Beyonders. Batman sat in a chair which gave him access to all the wisdom in the multiverse, and realized there were three Jokers. Doom all the way. My informed opinion as someone who adores both these character more than most would have me think there wouldn’t even be a conflict to begin with. I think they’d investigate the inciting catalyst, meet in person with intent to attack if necessary, size each other up until one of them made the proposal to just talk, they'd converse, and the fight would end with both of them walking away from each other with begrudging respect. Doom would admire Bruce's will and Bruce would understand the necessity of Doom's position in the world because, if you can make it make sense, Bruce will usually agree. Batman, for all of his shortcomings, is not naive to the world. He’s seen the same darkness as Doom. Doom, for all of his pompous arrogance, understands the struggle to maintain faith in those around you, even if that noble aspiration is misplaced. Bruce is one bad day away from Doom and Doom is a decades worth of days from being Bruce. They mirror each other and i think they’d see that, taking each other as cautionary tales before becoming collaborators. I don’t see them ever really becoming friends but i don't think they’d ever be true enemies.

[busdriverwithagun]

The bus arrives at the front gates.

A woman in a green camouflage uniform walks up to the bus. She knocks on its door.

The window of the the limousine hologram is rolled down by guns holomatter avatar.

Identification please.

Oh right. Right right.

Gun pulls out a counterfeit ID card from his pocket.

The solider takes the card and inspects it. After checking both sides, she runs her hands over it to check for any marks.

She hands the ID card back to gun.

Go on through.

Gun flashes her a brief smile before rolling the holograms window up and driving into the base.

She looks over her shoulder as she drives away before sighing in relief.

Thank god everything survived that fall. Would’ve had to go in as a prisoner or some shit otherwise.

Oh, like you would complain. You would find it fun.

No I. Uh. Ahem. Oh would you look at that, we’re here!

Gun quickly seized the opportunity to escape arty’s comments by walking the holomatter avatar out of the bus.

A pale man in a lab coat walks out to greet gun. Gun glances at him before pulling a pair of glass out of their pocket and cleaning them off with a handkerchief.

Ah, Mr. Foirerm! Welcome, welcome! I hope your trip was…

The researcher looks at the surrounding desert.

Uh. Pleasant?

Gun looks at the glasses and puts them on after determining they are clean.

It certainly reminded me how lucky I am to have air conditioning.

Oh! Good, good good good. In that case!

The researcher gestures in towards the base.

Lead the way.

As gun enters the base, a line of text is written out on one of the panes of glass on the glasses.

‘Good’ has certainly taken another meaning lately.

‘Indeed it has’, gun thinks to herself.

These bus cryptids have been getting increasingly harder to deal with. Just this morning, two of them showed up, blew a hole in our wall, and left with three of our jets!

Your jets? I thought GBIs speciality was buses?

Oh, it is. We’ve had to… diversify to hold those damned cryptids at bay. A war is becoming more and more likely, and we don’t have much chance of winning it without a military. Unfortunately, we can’t make a military without diverting essential resources from our current operations. So, I decided to ally with an existing military! And what better one than the most powerful military on the planet?

The researcher wears a proud look on his face. An unearned one, gun thinks to herself.

‘The only think someone wearing a GBI logo can be praised for is defecting.’

So. I trust that’s been going well?

Oh, yes, absolutely! The military funding at our disposal combined with our research has yielded incredible results.

The researcher continues walking before stopping in front of a room with three metro buses.

These are the Crown Jewels of the cooperation between us and the US. They not only have advanced artificial intelligence driving them, but also the ability to shift forms. One moment, they’re a bus driving down the road. The next, a fighter jet taking off. These buses are going to make those cryptids regret the thought of crossing GBI.

My god! That’s. That’s incredible! A couple hundred of these things alone could make bus cryptids practically nonexistent!

The researcher raises his pointer in contradiction.

We only have the three, unfortunately. The… metals required to make them is not something we have large supplies of currently. It’s a very challenging resource to find, making mass production unattainable.

He goes around to the other side of the bus.

Still! Three of these things could still win us a war!

Oh, abosultely!

After glancing after the man in the coat, gun quickly turns one of their avatars fingers into a small drill. Once a hole in the hull of the bus is made, gun makes a hole on the side of the avatars arm appear so they can take out the small drone stored inside. After placing the drone in the hole, gun fills up the hole before walking around the bus to join the researcher.

Drone is active. Beginning scan now.

Gun speak in a whisper to arty.

Hold off on the scan until I leave the base. I don’t want to them connect the dots of me being here and the drone appearing.

Gun clears his throat to get the researchers attention.

So! Where we, exactly?

Oh, right right! My apologies, I was just admiring the hull. It feels like nothing more than typical steel! I can’t help but be proud of it in all honesty.

The researcher gestures towards the door.

Anyways! This way.

As gun followed him down the hallway, she makes the avatar sneeze to activate the X-ray function of the glasses.

Bless you.

Gun, under the guise of inspecting the minimalistic architecture, takes a quick look around. It takes practically no time whatsoever to find the closet computer.

Gun slows their pace. They bend over and clutch their stomach.

Ohhhh. This. Yea no this isn’t good.

Are you alright?

I’ve definitely been better. Where’s- ack. The bathroom?

On your left. It should be labeled clearly.

Gun walks to the bathroom, keeping his hand on his stomach the entire way. He checks the hallway, and sees that it’s empty. He then quietly runs to the security room.

Alright hands goes through the door aaaaaand…

The avatars arm goes through the door and unlocks it.

There we go! Ok, time for the fun part then.

Gun opens the door. A solider swivels in their chair and attempts to rise out of it. Said attempt is swiftly denied by a bullet to the head.

Gun enters the room and removes the corpse from the chair. She briefly glances at it and grimaces.

Hm. Deserved better than to be cannon fodder.

As gun sits down, he pulls a usb drive out of their shoulder. They plug it in, and begins his search for access to the base intranet. A couple minutes pass and he has still found nothing.

Gun, you need to go soon. The bathroom excuse will only hold up for so long.

Not before I find these schematics. I can’t let the higher ups at GBI get their hands on something like this.

Well, you’re not going to find them in the security room. Besides, the contamination alert will force him to leave his computer behind. You’ll have easy access at that point.

Alright. Fine. They can wait, I suppose.

Gun wipes the security logs from their break in to the base and gets up to leave. They put the corpse in the supply cabinet and walk through the door, closing it behind them.

After entering the hallway, gun continues to fake stomach pains. She keeps her hand on her stomach and hunches over a bit. Finally, she meets up with the researcher again.

You feeling better?

Not in the slightest. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to cut this four short.

Are you sure? I still haven’t sh-

Gun holds their hand up. They put their fist in front of their mouth and moves their head like their about to throw up.

Oh oh oh nevermind. We can reschedule. Do you want me to walk you out?

Gun nods.

They walk down the hallway.

So. How far along are these buses of yours?

Oh, I’ve only gotten some positive test results last week. Still checking to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

Does anyone else know about them?

No no, not yet. I don’t want to promise a weapon that I’m not sure is functional.

That’s a fair point.

They arrive at the entrance to the base.

Well, this was an exciting trip. A shame I didn’t get the full experience. Another time, hopefully.

Do have a safe trip!

Gun walks the avatar into the bus. Once on board, he shuts the avatar off.

Ok. Arty, just go ten miles out. I’ll make the alert from there.

Got it.

The bus drives away. After ten going 7 miles out, it drops the cloak.

God, they stood no chance! Didn’t even pat me down or walk me through a metal detector!

Gun laughs to themselves.

Oh, it’s been too long since I’ve infiltrated a building. Arty, do tell me when we get to the ten mile point will you?

Uh huh. Sure.

Ignoring vis tone, gun turns her attention to the symbol on the holomatter generator. It doesn’t resemble anything she’s ever seen. No, actually, it does remind her of… space, for whatever reason. Strange.

[piisuke]

Tell me about your Jujutsu Kaisen, Fire Force, amd Bungo Stray Dogs ocs, I dont care how long the explanation is

Oh dear lord

Okay so I'm entirely uncreative when it comes to names, so my jjk and ff names are similar, and because I haven't experimented with my bsd oc that much they're unnamed (I actually haven't thought about a bsd oc until now? Bc they're based off of books and idk books that much lmaooo)

1) Jujutsu Kaisen: Kaimu Kageyama

So Kaimu is a teenager that does not want to be involved with the shaman world at all whatsoever. They've been able to see curses since they were a child, however they don't come from a clan of shamans, so everyone they told just thought they were hallucinations. Because of this she was in and out of the hospital and eventually she just gave up telling people and just accepted they were there.

Sometime during their junior year they attend Satozakura highschool and become part of the band club, where they meet Junpei. They only meet Junpei bc once the movie appreciation club and the band club had to share a room. They never talked to Junpei, and all they knew is all the sudden he stopped coming to school, there was the big attack at the school (they just so happened to be absent that day) and all the sudden Junpei was dead.

Now all the sudden Kaimu is being haunted by Junpei. Now they both think it's because Junpei is a guardian angel and Junpei thinks he's been sent back to earth to find Yuji, but it's ACTUALLY because Kaimu has the ability to summon shamans that have passed on to the afterlife.

So this whole ordeal begins because now they have this broody goth boy following them around on TOP of the curses that's pestering them about this pink haired idiot they've never heard of. Finally they give in and end up stalking Yuji's instagram to find out where he is so that MAYBE Junpei will leave them alone. Chaos ensues and they end up at an occult shop Yuji frequented before eating Sukuna's finger.

Now once Kaimu gets there, they're forced to take a cursed Kusarigama they don't want. When they refuse to take it, the shop keeper, which is actually a high intelligence curse, attacks them and forces them to fight back.

This queues Nobara and Megumi to show up (idk why they're there tbh just pretend it's a good reason). The kids are trying to get the Kusarigama away from Kaimu, the curse is trying to get them to fight, and Kaimu has no idea who to trust. Finally they go to give the weapon to Nobara, when the whole damn thing starts to wrap itself around them and absorb into their skin. Once their body has literally absorbed the weapon, Kaimu becomes "possessed" similar to Yuji, although they can't control it at first and they go feral. They kill the curse instantly and move on to Nobara and Megumi until Yuji and Gojo show up on scene. Gojo uses his weird power thingy to knock Kai out and on with the story

Kaimu totally wakes up in the same room Yuji does btw

In the beginning, Kaimu doesn't want to be there. They run away every chance they get, only to be chased and successfully caught by Gojo. They really hate Gojo at first too, because he's so sarcastic and smug and seems to be laughing at their pain, when rlly he's just trying to keep them on his side bc with proper training they might just be the strongest student either technical college has ever seen. They do have a power like no other.

Finally Gojo gets through to Kai and they decide to stay. Instead of Gojo adding them as a fourth new year, however, he decides to have the first and second years teach them everything they may need to know. It's kinda urgent they learn everything they can because now they have a target on their back larger than Yuji ever did.

Maki teaches them more about the cursed weapon their body possesses, bc it's kinda only happened once before. They learn that the weapon, in a sense, controls their body. It reacts more to anger and agression (for example, Megumi punched Kai, and while it did make Kai angry, they didn't have control when their arm punched Megumi back twice as hard.) Maki teaches them how to use the weapon once they summon it out of their body as well.

Yuji is in charge of helping regulate Kai's emotions so the weapon can come out at will (when Junpei isn't distracting them; no one else can see Junpei bc Kai hasn't made a formal contract with him yet). Sadly Kai has to go through the same movie training as Yuji does and gets punched many, many times.

Nobara is only in charge of teaching Kaimu to imbue their cursed energy into curses through their Kusarigama, but is inadvertently teaching Kai to come out of their shell. She also assists Panda, who's only function is strength training.

Megumi and Inumaki get the most important jobs: actually teaching Kai about their technique, and sign language. Hear me out

Megumi and Kai's techniques are very similar, because they're both creating contracts with things they can summon that help them in battle. While Megumi uses hand puppets, Kai has to sign the shaman's name they want to summon. So really the first person Kai even interacts with st the school is Inumaki.

At some point Sukuna gets involved. The Tokyo trio gets badly injured in battle, and Kai has only known Sukuna for a little bit but knows for a fact that Sukuna will only heal Yuji and leave the rest to die, so they decide to make a deal with Sukuna: they'll do whatever he wants as long as he kills the curse and helps save the rest.

Sukuna agrees, and the only thing he asks is that Kai saves everyone themselves, and he gets to call them into his domain to chat whenever he's wants. He unbinds the last seal on the curse inhabiting their body and watches him take over. Sukuna uses the same Abraxis curse btw.

Kaimu is able to control curse better now, and Sukuna informs them it's actually their dad from a thousand years ago and they're actually a half curse. Sukuna is indifferent on which side they choose, but he informs them that they can also summon and create curses, which is why a lot of shamans want them dead as well as the curses.

The story low key becomes Kaimu having to fight against their dad persuading them to be evil, and Yuji's protag abilities to make them good.

It's a mess.

Also this Kaimu is non-binary considering transitioning, and everyone is very supportive of it. When Kai gets their uniform, they're very worried that Gojo is gonna give them a skirt like the other girls bc they're afab, but they're very happy to learn they get pants with a bad ass cloak and hood that stops just below their elbows. Kai also gets a choice as to which dorm they get to stay in and they choose the boys dorms, who accepts them with open arms.

2) Fire Force: Kaimu Kusakabe

Yeah okay we Shinra and Shō's cousin

So this isn't revealed until later on in the story, but when Kaimu was a child, her mom died in what was believed to be an infernalization, but was actually a cover up. This was Shinra's aunt. Kaimu never got to meet Shinra until later on when she seeks him out.

Now Shinra's grandma refused to take him in after his mom died bc of his ability and because she thought he was a murderer. Grandma Kusakabe takes Kaimu in begrudgingly because Kaimu was able to suppress the ability she developed and Burns uncovered her step father had set it up to look like an infernalization when in reality he was abusing her.

Grandma moved Kaimu out to the country, away from people. There she meets a little boy around her age because she's sitting at a bus stop and the other neighborhood kids are making fun of her. The boy shoos them off and tries to make friends with her, but it doesn't work out well. She reveals she's waiting for her dad to come back from the military on the bus like he used to when she was little, but she doesn't realize that he's been dead for months because no one told her.

After a few weeks pass she begins to trust the boy she still doesn't know the name of. He's sorta pushy about being friends with her without being too overbearing. She stops pushing him away when she's sitting at the bus stop snd it starts to rain. She was just gonna sit there and suffer until an umbrella appears over her. The boy explains that he saw on the news it was going to rain and he knew she would be there. After teasing him for knowing there would be two people but only one umbrella, she accepts his offer to walk her home. This is a hint. Take it.

The kids really bond when she takes him to a desert full if skelton's that they really aren't supposed to go to but go to anyway. The boy thinks they're creepy, but Kaimu talks about how cool they are. They find a skull and Kaimu decides to keep it. This is also a hint.

Grandma Kusakabe ends up passing away, leaving Kaimu alone. She ends up being dragged away to an orphanage, where she lives until she's eighteen. The boy finds out when he noticed she hadn't come to the bus stop for a while and finds the house deserted. He takes the skull, which is one of the only things left behind, to what appears to be a workshop. There's a montage of the boy growing old, making the skull into a face mask, dying his hair, getting tattoos, etc. It's Vulcan. It was always Vulcan.

The story actually starts with Kaimu being kicked out of the orphanage. She decides to go on a hunt for this famous Devil's foot that she's heard about for thr past ten years because her grandma always talked about how terrible he was. She was furious when she learned she was being put into an orphanage while she still had a living relative (she just did not understand he was only a year younger than her).

When she arrives at Company 8, she's actually kinda rude, but Ōbi admires her spunk and finds it "cute" because she looks as innocent as Iris with her small frame, but is rlly fucking vicious. She's trying really hard to explain she's related to Shirna (look!! Red eyes!!! Pointy teeth!!! We look alike!!!) And it's going very poorly.

While Viktor conducts a dna test, Kaimu tries to find literally any reason to stick around, and she decides, for the first time since she developed her ability, to use it in front of others.

Kaimu is only a second generation pyrokinetic. She has the ability to take a flame in her hand and mix it with any type of metal and smelt it to whatever she needs. It's not a very offensive technique so she's mostly used it for defense in the past, or making cool trinkets. Vulcan is actually the one who persuades Ōbi to let her stick around, bc he has an odd sense of familiarity with her and can't place why.

I haven't really thought of a story for her yet other than backstory, but I've experimented with having her get bitten by a bug and being turned infernal, only to get shot by Hinawa and... Turns back. Low and behold the first first generation with the ability to go infernal at will-

3) Bungou Stray Dogs: ???

Yeah I haven't actually thought of an oc for this one? But I have had ideas in the past of a girl who has the ability to make people fall asleep and stay asleep as long as she wants. The only downfall is for every hour they don't sleep, that's an hour she doesn't sleep. I'm not sure if I want her to be a former Mafia member or part of the association, but I know I want her to be tied in with Dazai some how because of his absolute cancel ability. Just him tapping her shoulder and her being able to instantly fall asleep sounds cute to me idk

Have fun reading this shit show

[plaguebeetle]

arcana modern au headcanons

mc

their aunt is still around because i said so

was in a car crash :-( 

suffers from severe retrograde amnesia as a result of traumatic brain injury, as well as a lot of other physical injuries

had to relearn how to read, write, speak, walk, everyday basic tasks felt impossible. thankfully asra was with them 25/7 

somehow after everything is still hope and joy incarnated 

has an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and crystals, maybe one day they’ll inherit the shop

their aunts folk remedies for migraines

makes friends everywhere they go.

got mugged and just said “but i don’t want to give it to you”

asra

we already know he’s a hippie

drives an ancient vw bus because “I can fit all my friends in it”. the inside is decorated with colorful blankets, lights, and other tacky objects

lovingly referred to as the shaggin’ wagon.

lowkey famous on every social media site he joins, but it does help with business at the shop

he works the counter at the shop, lives there most days of the week, and brings back ingredients whenever he goes to muriel's place

always getting into weird situations that make great stories later

brings faust everywhere. nothing is off limits

“this is my emotional support snake”

asra has never been known as a ‘timely’ or ‘organized person’, but when it comes to mc’s medicine schedule, he is NOT fucking around.

muriel

he and asra grew up together in foster care, and ran away in their teens to live in an abandoned house in the woods

muriel really deserves his own hgtv show after all the work he puts into the house to make it livable 

does random repair jobs and sells handmade furniture to earn a living.

chickens

goes to the library to research homesteading and makes his own edible garden

inanna is a stray dog he found that keeps following him

“muriel thats an actual wolf”

the most wholesome person in the world, even though he acts like he doesn't care

has nature documentaries on in the background

vegetarian vibes

maybe he was in the military, but he doesn't ever want to talk about it :-(

julian

he was rounding in his last year of medical school when mc was in the ICU

that's how he and asra met.. and you know the rest.. yikes

always getting attacked by this random crow every time he leaves home. it's very entertaining to watch.

when hes not working he's at this seedy karaoke bar. 

coffee shop knows his name and order, and the punchlines to all his jokes, but hey, he tips well.

lives with mazenlinka because “who could possibly afford rent in this damned city?”

chaotic energy. rowdy boy. nasty rowdy boy.

his practice is within walking distance of the shop. checks in on mc every now and then to see how his favorite patient is doing

“hey watch this” *does some freaky double jointed shit*

for living in the city he has a weirdly in depth knowledge about sailing

nadia

gonna go with the classic big business owner trope, a branch off of her parents company.

looks intimidating until she smiles and starts talking, then she’s one of the kindest, intelligent, and funny people you’ve ever met

has a wine fridge in her office

suffers from severe migraines, sometimes so bad it affects her memory, which is why she hired portia as a PA.

she doesn't like using the word assistant though, portia is her most trusted friend.

yes she married a sociopath on a drunken whim in las vegas. yes they divorced. no she doesn't want to talk about it.

sleepovers and gossip with asra every friday

didn’t know mc before the accident, but when asra told her she immediately contacted the hospital to pay for all their medical and physical therapy bills.

portia

funky little lesbian

has a picture of pepi in her wallet to show people who didn't ask

rents out an adorable little cottage not too far from work

“is there cat hair on my back?”

her garden looks like some pinterest bs it's amazing, not to mention she's always wearing something colorful 

proud sister of the worlds lamest brother 

simultaneously mom friend and just baby

has some great remedies to ease migraines after working with nadia, mc is absolutely thrilled when she shares them

uses :3 emoji

BEST gift giver hands down

lucio

“hey doc! wanna come hand out?! i got some n-” *sound of julian locking his car doors, pretending not to see him.*

goes to the gym and does one set then takes pictures and leaves

very loud sports car that drives.... like that

questionable morals, but he takes good care of his dogs, they're practically spoiled

business major frat boy

managed to start his own company and does extremely well.

his prosthetic gets professionally polished once a week.

doesn't understand why noddy blocked him on instagram

once when he was a kid a pig chased him in the petting zoo

[the-blind-assassin-12]

No one asked but...

ROUND TWO: READING AND NOTE TAKING 

** This sprang from a conversation with @malionnes regarding Logan Delos’ reading and note taking habits. And now here we are.** 

Logan Delos

Logan likes an immersive read. Absolutely nothing that he does is topical; he likes to dive in completely or else he doesn’t bother. Things like fiction vs. nonfiction, genre, length, etc. don’t matter as much as the depth of the subject matter. If it's fiction, he needs challenging plots, interwoven timelines, complex characters and well crafted dialogue. As a child he had a world class imagination, most likely due to his mother reading classic fairy tales like Grimm’s and Hans Christian Andersen to him and Juliet, and that sticks with him as an adult and is probably to blame for some of his more...adventurous behaviors. When it comes to nonfiction, he wants the facts but he doesn’t want them to be dry. He wants lusciously written true stories like The Hot Zone or Isaac’s Storm. Logan is very good at multitasking, so if he’s reading for pleasure he might listen to an audio book while working out or driving, but he needs to physically read words when it’s for something important.

When it comes to recording his thoughts about what he’s read, he’ll dictate them to his phone or tablet as he’s reading, or else type them up once he’s done with the chapter or passage. If he’s reading something in preparation for a meeting or presentation, he’ll even note the page number and exact line so that he can confidently cite things to support his argument. 

Billy Russo: 

Billy likes to read things he can relate to. We know he doesn’t shy away from flawed characters in fiction, but he prefers nonfiction. The Things They Carried and Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills are two that he’s read more than once. He’s also into a good biography or autobiography- usually about war heroes but occasionally about successful businessmen and famous athletes. Billy is especially good at tuning out background noise in favor of focus, meaning that he can read on his cot in an active war zone, or sitting on a crowded bus or subway train in the city with full comprehension… which was decidedly not always the case. Billy wouldn’t even entertain the idea of reading until he was in seventh grade and the US Marine Corp visited his school for an assembly, and they made quite the impression on him. He met a few of the soldiers and got to ask them questions, and he learned that certain high ranking positions in the military required more than will power, brute force and toughness- they required thought and cunning and intelligence. So in one year he went from being at a 5th grade level to a 9th grade level by voraciously reading everything he could get his hands on. 

Pre- TBI Billy had a memory like a steel trap, so note taking wasn’t entirely necessary. Even if he didn’t have excellent recall, leaving his thoughts in the margins for someone else to read without working to come up with on their own isn’t his style. If a particular line strikes him he might underscore it with a single black line pressed into the page, but never with any context as to what made the line stand out. 

Ryan Brenner: 

Ryan doesn’t have the luxury of carrying a whole library with him, but there is one book he always carries: Webster’s Dictionary. Ryan only got through middle school before heading out on his own, meaning that his formal education was stunted. But one of the more influential people he’s met while traveling was a professor named Jack who taught College Composition at a small University outside of Philadelphia. Ryan met Jack when he was about 20 and the two men were working as ranch hands for a few weeks out in Wyoming. Jack taught one semester a year and spent the rest of his time traveling the country, taking up odd jobs and writing about his travels. He showed Ryan that just because you’re not in school doesn’t mean that you should stop learning and thinking about the things that you experience. He recommended a few books that he knew would challenge Ryan, and gave him a copy of the dictionary, encouraging him to look up any word he came across that he didn’t know. “No shame in admitting you don’t know something, Brenner, only in pretending that you do.”

Since that summer, Ryan made it a point to always have a book with him, whether it’s one he borrows from a friend, picks up from a discount book table or from a little free library. He doesn’t always like everything that he picks up, but sometimes he stumbles on a new topic that interests him and will try to read a few books in a row on the same topic. Most recently he’s been into books on the construction of America’s bridges and tunnels. If there is something that he wants to remember, like a quote or a fact, he’ll dog ear the page until he can write whatever it is down in his notebook. So getting a book back from Ryan means that there will be little triangular creases at the tops of some of the pages, and even though he’ll try to flatten them back out before returning it you can still see where his fingers folded the page and you’ll know that something on it made him stop and think. 

Nick Tortano: 

Gonna make this quick: Nick doesn’t read. He can, he just doesn’t unless he has to (i.e. owner’s manuals and assembly instructions). But when it comes to entertainment? He’d rather watch the movie. And by “watch the movie”, he’d rather… well… you know. ;) 

Benjamin Greene: 

Benjamin is a true bibliophile. His to be read pile is taller than Big Ben, and not for lack of trying to whittle it down. He is one of those academics that will read something- a book or article or research paper- and then he’ll go on to read everything on the bibliography and recommended further reading pages. His curiosity is insatiable, but so is his creative side, so he generally reads two books at a time; one for work and one for fun, and he typically carries both so that he can choose what to read based on his mood or stress level. He enjoys finding quiet moments in busy places like parks, city centers, train stations etc, and sometimes he even listens to music while he reads, always pairing it with what he’s reading. If it’s academic research though, he prefers to be in a library. The leather and wood and the smell of all those pages and the sound of them turning help him focus.  

Benjamin enjoys sharing books with people. He loves when he can make a recommendation that fits, and he loves hearing other people’s thoughts about his favorite books. As such, he makes notes all over the margins, with underlines and asterisks and arrows to things that he noticed or that he wants the next reader to notice. Sometimes he’ll even jot down a question as food for thought for whoever he’s loaning the book to. If it's something he really thinks you’ll like, he’ll include a short note, usually on a post-it or taped to the inside front cover, explaining why the work made him think of you.

BONUS UNDER THE CUT!!! 

King Caspian: 

Don’t ask me how I know this but... King Caspian writes all of his notes on separate pieces of paper and tucks them securely between the pages so as not to ruin the book itself by writing in the margins or folding pages. He knows that knowledge is power, and he treats that power with respect. 

[eldritchrisingarchive]

ON THIS EPISODE OF THINGS NO ONE ASKED FOR : A CATEGORICAL SORTING OF ALLOF MY MUSES INTO THEIR POTENTIAL ROLES IN A GENERALIZED RPG SETTING PART ONE. aka what role would they play in a video game setting.

#1- 5  lex foster, col. amanda schaffer, charlotte mitchell, claudia york, deb murphy

no one asked for this but this but here we are. will i make this into a hatchetfield rpg type thing ? only time will tell. probably at least a timeline

storylines :  tgwdlm  *  post  canon  dlc  /  black  friday player type :  tank  /  dps  /  healer grey touched :  yes  /  no

ALEXANDRA  ‘ LEX ’  FOSTER

class :  shaman locations :  lakeside mall, lakeview trailer park, hatchetfield high first  encounter  (  black  friday  ) : an employee at toy zone, lex can be found lingering outside of toy zone prior to her shift. she cannot be recruited during the first encounter. she has a job to do. when the riots begin, lex can be saved from wiggly’s devotees and becomes a companion if the player agrees to search for hannah and ethan. if the player refuses after saving her, they will cross paths with her at later points in the game in which she is pursuing her own storyline where she is the protagonist, searching both for her sister and ethan, and a way to stop wiggly and his followers. the first of these remains her top priority. roles :  potential protagonist, companion  ( dps ) brief  description :  lex foster is primarily driven during the game by her drive to find her sister, she is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to surviving the game, and if not recruited, the game becomes significantly harder but not impossible to win. as dps goes, she is not the most effective in the game, but is often one of the most perceptive members of the party, and upon accessing her connection to the black and white, becomes invaluable as a guiding force for the party. strengths : strong sense of survival instinct and loyalty, hand to hand combat experience, aware of a number of routes unknown to the player if she isn’t in the party. weaknesses :  driven almost entirely by her pursuit of finding hannah and ethan, is not an experienced killer and is at times hesitant to make the final blow, in the event of ethan’s death if the player chooses to tell her she will be temporarily incapacitated by the news. interesting  facts : if lex is rescued during the beginning of the riots, she retains the box cutter, meaning linda does not have it later on. this does not save frank’s life, but it does result in linda using different threats if hannah is eventually caught by wiggly’s followers. if ethan dies and the protagonist keeps this information from her and she finds out lex will immediately leave the party and will be openly antagonistic to the player, to the point of impeding their progress whenever it does not impede her own.

COL. AMANDA SCHAFFER

class : paladin (  oath of the watchers ) location :  downtown first  encounter  (  tgwdlm dlc  ) : amanda is the woman in charge of the clivesdale civilian base, and has been immunized to the apotheosis by the government. she is not available as a constant companion, only for specific side missions. she takes her position quite seriously and is the deciding factor on whether someone is admitted into the civilian base, requiring at least three clean blood tests during a 48 hour isolation period. first  encounter  (  black  friday  ) :  amanda is boots on the ground reinforcements against wiggly’s followers during the hatchetfield riots. rather than being in the mall, she is roaming the downtown district, destroying dolls whenever possible and taking down violent rioters with lethal force as necessary, and restraining those able to be restrained. the current makeshift prison is the local animal shelter. they have been disarmed and are incapacitated. amanda can be found in near the animal shelter or hardware store if not recruited as a companion. roles :  npc or companion (  primary dps / secondary tank  ) brief  description :  amanda is loyal first and foremost to peip and the well being of the united states of america, receiving her orders directly from general john mcnamara and acting under his authority as he pursues a separate but equally important task regarding the leader of the free world. she can be recruited by the player if amanda truly believes the player capable of helping to defeat wiggly at the source. proving this requires the collection of five destroyed wiggly dolls to show devotion to the cause. strengths :  impervious to wiggly  (  peip training ), dislikes musicals, extensive military training, emergency medical training, immunized to the apotheosis weaknesses :   prioritization of her assigned task over the player, can be demanding, will not stray from her training, used to being in charge interesting  facts :   amanda’s radio is one of the most useful tools for retaining up to date information in both tgwdlm and black friday’s storylines, following the death of general john mcnamara late in the black friday storyline amanda is forcibly removed from the party as she is the de facto leader of peip and must return to headquarters but will authorize the player to use her firearm the most powerful gun in the game.

CHARLOTTE MITCHELL

class :  feral druid location :  ccrp technical, lakeside mall, willow park apartments first  encounter  (  tgwdlm  ) :  charlotte can be found hiding not far from the ccrp technical building, having lost the group she was with, and speaking with her triggers an escort mission automatically. she knows where the other survivors were heading and will take the most direct path to get there, and while this escort mission leads to a safehouse with a number of supplies, it is a notoriously difficult mission as it runs directly through downtown. first  encounter  (  black friday  ) :  charlotte is one of the first wiggly followers to be encountered, but is not the most devout. her minor fight is able to be averted with the pre-fight conversation. if averted, charlotte will flee the mall and may be found by the entrance of the willow park apartments. if not averted, when defeated, all potential benefits of her escort missions and fetch quests are lost. role :  npc with escort missions and fetch quests, potential minor antagonist. brief  description : strengths :  provides solid bonuses upon completion of quests, can turn into a large feral cat during escort missions to assist in fighting. weaknesses :  not the most intelligent, will run headfirst into danger, easily distracted by cats and love interesting  facts : items can be found in charlotte and sam’s apartment during her tgwdlm fetch quests that can be beneficial in interactions with sam and ted later in the game. they are not necessary to complete the game. if you agree to collect charlotte’s cats but instead choose to let them loose, you will later have to face charlotte in her druid form. it’s not an exceptionally difficult boss fight but can be annoying as it tends to occur at inconvenient times.

CLAUDIA YORK

class : seer location :  varies first  encounter :  claudia is only found by those who read the graffiti and notes scattered through the game. interactions can be unlocked approximately one-third of the way into the game in both storylines. roles : npc with lore heavy quest line brief  description : claudia can be a significant wealth of cryptic information on events both past and present, and if approached at different points throughout the game will provide answers and clues as to the strengths and weaknesses of enemies as well as clues of where to go next to continue the story. strengths :  visionary abilities, directly in tune with the black and white weaknesses :  incredibly cryptic, susceptible to sneak attacks interesting  facts :  if amanda has been recruited in the black friday storyline and is in the player’s party when speaking with claudia she can be gifted a radio that allows for communication with the player until amanda’s departure from the party, similarly an escort mission opens in tgwdlm dlc in which if you speak to amanda at the civilian base she will offer to join your party to escort claudia to the civilian base. if this mission is completed then claudia will supply messages to the party over schaffer’s radio from the base.

DEBORAH  ‘ DEB ’  MURPHY

class : monk ( way of mercy ) location : hatchetfield high, lakeside mall, downtown, the bus station first  encounter  (  tgwdlm ) :  deb can be found on their way to the bus station, checking their phone regularly for texts from their girlfriend. they cannot be recruited as a companion until meeting them for the second time, but they can give interesting first-hand information about the destruction of the starlight theatre the night before. first  encounter  (  black friday ) :  deb is in the downtown area, attempting to help those injured in the riots. they’ve managed to stockpile a small amount of medical supplies, and can be recruited through a fetch quest for supplies to help someone with more extensive wounds. roles :  npc, potential minor antagonist, potential companion  ( healer  ) brief  description : an artist and passionate person, deb is a somewhat unlikely survivor of both wiggly and the apotheosis, but there is hope for them yet if they are restrained rather than executed following the infected!alice boss fight. an option that is always presented to the player, but at times has dire consequences. if restrained, and not executed by peip, deb will revert to her human self within 36 hours provided that infected!alice was also restrained and not killed. strengths :  skilled healer, creative thinking, first-hand knowledge of the apotheosis from the night before. witness to early infections. weaknesses :  susceptible to the apotheosis, wants to help as many as they can even when it’s impractical, sometimes a bit too creative with their solutions interesting  facts :  if recruited before infected, deb can be a useful ally in the fight against infected!alice, when paired with bill despite their bickering they can help the real alice break through the infection proving for the first time in the game that someone can survive infection, when paired with elaine further backstory about both deb and elaine can be discovered but productivity decreases immensely as they distract each other and others with their constant bickering.

[neverwatchedonepiece]

648-649: "Making a Sortie! The Legendary Hero Usoland!" and "The Fierce Battle Coming to the End! Lucy vs Chinjao!"

*looks into the camera like in The Office*

The fight between Luffy and Don Chinjao is finally over! I think after what happened, Luffy might have found a new friend. Law also made a stressful phone call to The Krusty Krab Sunny and ordered delivery of one ship to Green Bit.

Zoro and Franky have teamed up with Sol at Resistance HQ in Flower Field, and if Usopp keeps perpetuating his fantastic bullshit, the entire Strawhat crew will be elevated to God status in the Tontatta tribe.

Slightly worried about Law and the Strawhats stuck on Sunny but I’m seventy percent certain they will pull through and won’t be captured by any Donquixote family affiliates. (The thirty percent left over remains a huge, nagging doubt.)

Luffy’s Tough Love Fight Therapy

The Colosseum showdown between Luffy and Don Chinjao picked up at the start of episode 649.

The action was fast and furious. Luffy pulled out all his quick moves: jet pistol, jet gatling, jet stamp gatling. All defended against by Chinjao. The crowd went wild. It was one of the greatest matches the Colosseum had ever seen! Some cheered for Lucy. Others cheered for Chinjao. The atmosphere was electric.

“You’re quite a fighter,” Don Chinjao said.

“Yeah, you’re strong too, as I thought,” Luffy answered. You know. Being honest as he is.

Don Chinjao totally overreacted. “WHAT U SAY? STRONG? U TRYIN TO INSULT MEH??”

Luffy was, quite rightly, bewildered. “Wtf, all I said was that you’re strong?”

Apparently, this was a grave insult to Don Chinjao. A huge kick in the ego. Chinjao had been much stronger before.

“I’m no better than a wolf without its fangs now. A skin-headed man without his drill. A brat like you can’t understand how miserable I feel living my life like this. I’m frustrated, disappointed and sad. But you can never understand.”

I laughed when Luffy yelled, “How can I understand? You keep messing with me without explaining anything!” (He’s just saying what we were all thinking, right?)

“You really want to know why I’ve become like this?”

“No, I’m not that interested.” (Lmao! We meet again, harsh Luffy.)

“Well, I’ll tell you before you die, since you insist.” 

Don Chinjao is one of those old dudes that is TELLING you that long and rambling story even though you have showed zero interest and have been glancing at your watch for the past half hour.

Suddenly, Luffy the Fight Therapist was unwilling and open for business.

According to Chinjao, Garp punched his head in thirty years ago. Literally. As in Don Chinjao once looked like Dan Akroyd from 90s sci-fi comedy, Coneheads. 

That was until his resplendent, pointy napper met Garp’s fist.

The whole flashback was hilariously weird. Turns out Chinjao’s drill-like bonce was the only means to access his remote family treasure vault under an ice sheet. Once Garp took away the key, Chinjao fell into a deep depression. Heartbroken, he retired from piracy, a lifeless shell, just idling away time.

That was kind of sad. I felt for Chinjao then. He’s like the model of the old, proud working man who suffers a physical injury, can no longer work and slips into anger and depression. Since Chinjao knows and values nothing but strength, wealth and power, he cannot and will not see another way forward. Unlike Luffy, Don Chinjao got his ass beat and never found the strength to crawl out of the gutter and retrain.

Instead, he decided to lay the blame for his misfortune squarely at Luffy’s feet.

Luffy, naturally, was outraged. “Wtf are you talking about? Grandpa and I are different people. Look, mate. I’m busy. I’m gonna win Ace’s fruit at any cost and become the Pirate King. I have no time to be your therapist.”

Then Chinjao made two Big Mistakes.

Wow, Chinjao has Really Specific Taste

Mistake #1?

Chinjao laughed off Luffy’s chances at becoming Pirate King. The reason was typical crotchety old man talk: “the media lionised you worst generation squirts and it emboldened you. But none of you are strong enough to sail across the sea *we* fought on. After Whitebeard’s death, I ain’t expecting much. The only guy who looks good is Blackbeard Teach.”

At the mere mention of Teach, Luffy’s eyes became two circles.

“If I had to pick one, it’s him. But anyway, if you’re only good enough to compete against me, just give up!”

Oh, Chinjao, I thought. Ohhhhhhhh, you just goofed. You goofed big time. You do not mention Teach in a positive light within Luffy’s earshot. You just do not. Teach was the asshole who captured Ace and handed him to the Marines. He shares Public Enemy Number One status with Akainu. Tell Luffy you believe Teach will become Pirate King and your fate is sealed.

Mistake #2?

Chinjao’s fighting style is kinda lame. People who spin during fights in shounen anime are always fodder (the one that sticks out is that spinning top guy in the HxH Heaven’s Arena arc.) This was not his mistake. It’s just a side thought.

The Teach comment pushed Luffy’s buttons. But what Chinjao said next was even worse.

“You’re not too bad but if a guy like Rayleigh chose a brat at this level as the flag bearer for this generation, he’s not as smart as he used to be. The Marines were smart when they squelched the most evil one of the lot: Ace. That man had demon’s blood in his veins. Do you think you can beat the Marine admirals, the Yonkou and surpass Roger? That’s impossible!”

Demon’s blood? Most evil one of the lot?

*cue Kill Bill red-mist music*

“Stop whining over one punch!” Luffy yelled, as he wound up a Thor Elephant Gun attack. “I can’t count how many times I got punched by Grandpa!”

When the attack connected and that spike popped back out of Chinjao’s head, I laughed like a drain. Luffy hit Chinjao so hard, he turned the clock back thirty years.

I’m sure Chinjao will be ecstatic. Take the L with good grace, mate. Your conehead is back! Go and wreak havoc on the high seas again. Recoup that treasure. The world is your oyster!

Up on the balcony, Bartolomeo still has not revealed his connection with Luffy. Cavendish is still throwing a strop. Bellamy is lurking in the shadows, clearly in two minds about his new assassination mission. And Burgess, thanks to Cavendish and his big mouth, knows that Luffy is Lucy.

Thanks, Cavendish.

(And Burgess really does walk around chortling and flexing all the time. He’s like an evil All Might.)

Thus the Legendary Heroes of Green Bit were Born

This cast reunion based on Usopp’s total bullshit was so much fun.

I loved Usopp and Robin’s expressions when the Tontatta took them to their airport. They were starry-eyed. And so they should’ve been. It was a miniature version of a proper, fully-equipped modern airport. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place had Duty Free, passport control and Starbucks concessions.

But it was not a holiday destination Usopp and Robin were flying out to. The entire airport had been overtaken by a military operation. Cub, the yellow bee squad leader, and Bian, the pink bee squad leader, reported for duty. Usopp picked up the bee planes and kept saying, “I wanna show this to Luffy.” (They are such good pals, it warms my heart.)

Unfortunately, Usopp and Robin were too big to travel by bee plane, so they had to take the local number 20 bus to Dressrosa. The buses were cute, vulpix-like foxes with huge, fluffy tails you can sink right into for a comfortable ride.

While they made their way through the tunnel, Master Roshi - the pervy little Tontatta chief - emerged from Robin’s cleavage. He bore dire warnings. “I should tell you because you will risk your lives for our cause.”

Usopp was thinking, “I ain’t gonna die for you but go on...”

“Doflamingo has been causing our tribe a lot of pain recently, but our connection with him goes way back before the last decade. Nine hundred years ago!”

Then the narrator interrupted and I was like, “So you’re just going to leave it there when I was about to get Doflamingo family history? I am not at all mad about this. No, sir. Not one bit.”

The action cut to Flower Field, where Franky and Sol descended a secret stairwell. Said stairwell led to the Resistance Army HQ! Some soldiers ran up to Sol and addressed him as “Captain”, so Sol is a Big Deal in the Resistance.

Franky was like, “Why are all these small people swarming me?”

Sol explained. The Tontatta people were called fairies in town, how they moved faster than the human eye could detect and how they were immensely strong. Franky put two and two together and realised one of them stole Zoro’s sword!

And guess who reached Flower Field before Franky? Before any of the other Strawhats!

That’s right. It’s our boy Zoro. (So proud he learned to follow directions.)

Zoro, hilariously, had made himself at home and was watching Luffy vs Chinjao on the big screen TV. He was absolutely fuming. Why hadn’t Luffy told him there was a fighting competition? THE BETRAYAL. Will he get over it? Probably.

He must’ve been distracted by the fight, as he completely forgot 

Then some intelligence scouts ran up. They had a report for Sol. “We already know what our enemies and Sugar are doing!” (Sugar? Who dat?) “And with the battle close at hand, some legendary heroes have appeared at Tontatta: Usoland and Robiland. They have brought with them Luffyland, Zoroland, Namiland, Sanland, Chopperland, Fraland and Boneland.”

Franky and Zoro exchanged a Look. They knew instantly Usopp was on the bullshit wagon again.

“Um, I think I’m Zoroland,” Zoro said. (Lmao, better get into character quick.)

“And I’m Fraland. Nice to meet you!” Franky added.

It was round about then that Zoro remembered that Nami, Chopper and Brook were in serious trouble back on Sunny. He now wants to skip the battle (he doesn’t yet know about) and rescue the other Strawhats.

I wonder how this will go? Wicka did say she would let Zoro go back to Sunny once he’d taken her back to Resistance HQ. But Leo and the others back on Green Bit were suspicious of Robin and Usopp escaping. Will they let Zoro go or will he have to fight the battle first? Hmmm... I’m fifty/fifty about this.

God damn it, Caesar

*curb your enthusiasm music kicks in*

Meanwhile, back on Green Bit, Law was under heavy bombardment. Fujitora took a step back in this episode and Doflamingo stole the limelight. The cool music from Enies Lobby (as I call it in my head. I have no idea what the real title is) played as Doflamingo pursued Law. 

As Doflamingo was about to land a finishing blow, Caesar shrieked, “OI, JOKER! Before you kill Law, I need you to take something back for me. Law took my heart and I don’t know what he’s gonna do with it!”

Doflamingo looked round like, “Wtf... are you talking about?” And while he was distracted, Law shambled his way out of trouble.

Doflamingo was furious. FFS, CAESAR. I bet he wanted to say that but couldn’t. Gotta keep your cash cow scientist happy..

Please send help. Our art teacher has locked us in class.

Unfortunately, Law didn’t have time for a breather. He had an urgent phone call to make.

While Nami, Chopper and Brook were brought up to speed on the Humans Turning Into Toys situation by Giolla, the ship’s DDM rang. Chopper hilariously ignored Giolla and answered the call (she was maaaaad).

It was Law. He said, “Is that Nami-san?”

To my disappointment, Chopper did not answer, “No, this is Patrick.”

“I don’t care what’s going on over there,” Law said. “Listen carefully. I need you to sail Sunny to Green Bit right now. I wanna leave Caesar with you guys. No time to explain. Bye!”

Okay, so I added in the “bye” part. Law abruptly hung up.

I like how he has faith that Nami, Chopper and Brook will be able to handle the situation, but their weapons have been rendered usless by Giolla’s Art Art Fruit power. I have no idea how they’re going to get out of this one (and I’m keen to see Oda’s creative solution).

The shitshow that is Law’s current existence continued once he hung up. Doflamingo is Doflamingo. He caught up with Law again near the end of episode 648. With that slasher smile, he shot Law with a string bullet and demanded to know who Law had called for help.

Doflamingo must be confident he has Law where he wants him because he spilled the beans on his diabolical plan to snare Luffy. “Give me back Caesar’s heart already. It’s so meaningless for you to keep hanging on here. Strawhat has already walked into the trap I set. He’s fighting in the gladiatorial contest at the Colosseum. Tough contenders from all over the world come to fight in it. Outlaws only. It’s a deadly competition. When someone loses, it’s a one way ticket to hell! He will never come out of the Colosseum alive! It’s the end of your alliance, Law. Just give up!”

I wonder if Law will use the heart as leverage. Maybe he’ll give up Caesar’s heart to escape, regroup and stop Doflamingo the old-fashioned way: with Tontatta military might. (Doflamingo better not kill him off...)

Don’t worry, Chinjao. Luffy will beat you until you feel better! :D

[rotzaprachim]

марсианка (KOS The Martian AU)

This started with me thinking SPACE PIRATE NIKOLAI, and then not wanting to have to google a bunch of Star Wars shit to write that AU, and then remembering Mark Watney Space Pirate, and then writing that convo out, and then this whole mess grew from that one scene, and it’s almost 2000 words. So: Space Pirate Zoya. 

I know nothing about space or space agencies. I apologise so much.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17714387 - AO3 link

----

He talks to her in Russian, over the coms. English is the main language of communication with Earth; it’s what she leaves her logs in, it’s what she got her climatology doctorate in even if, for the most elemental things, she looks out at the night sky and thinks, כוכב, kochav, before she hears the English. نجم, звезда, those come easily, too. And তারকা, she reminds herself. Najim, zvezda, tārakā. You play such games with your mind to keep from losing your grasp on earth, all the way up here.

Russian, though, it’s what her aunt spoke to her in, after she saved her life, in a tiny flat in a smoggy bloc of Petah Tikvah. The current pulls her home.

“Nazyalenskaya,” he drawls over the fritzy connection system, “I want to kill Rietveld.”

She quirks a smile at that; everyone has wanted to kill Rietveld. She would give a lot to want to kill Rietveld right now.

“I think you can spare him another day. If only for all the Van Halen tapes he left behind. And the ridiculous quantity of Indonesian rap.”

“I’m never going to forget about that.”

“Hmmmm, I’d be careful about talking, considering the number of romance novels I’ve found on the system, downloaded by one N. Lantsov.”

- 

“In the face of oblivion,” she tells the crew of the Терешко́ва, “the only course of action left is to science the shit out of this.”

-

How does it feel to be the dying goddess of your own planet?

Sometimes, that’s what she feels like, when she pulls water from Rocket fuel. No one around to hear her swear.

It may be on Mars, but growing potatoes in a literal field of shit pulls her from that revery, into some kind of ancestral, rain-soaked Russian field.

She wonders, absentmindedly and only half-jokingly, if she’s gonna be here long enough that attempting to distil some vodka for the pain would be worth it.

No. She’ll pull herself out of this on pure spite alone, if she has to. It’s gotten her out of other tough places. She’ll pull herself out of this mess, and above a dust clogged atmosphere to the sky above, and all the way home. She’ll buy a cheap- no, an expensive one, it’s what Earth owes her- an expensive bottle of wine from a corner store and uncork it with her eyes out to the sea and she’ll drink life down to the dregs.

I am not going to die here.

-

Look at the stars she tells herself, and try not to feel the fear.

The first English poem she memorised through to the end. Sarah Williams, the full version, not the one chopped to a fridge-magnet length quote. Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, -- I would know him when we meet. Considering that in its entirety it’s about a scientist comprehending his own imminent mortality, it is perhaps not the best choice of reading material. You may tell the German college that their honour comes too./But they must not waste repentance on the grizzled savant’s fate; Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

She was a girl, once, and she wanted to get away and leave her old life in flames behind her, and she did. She ran and ran and ran, past national borders and past agencies with long acronyms and past the fiery bounds of earth herself. She ran until, quite literally, she could go no further, until she was a woman in a duct-taped house in a place no thing can live, like some kind of mid 21st century Slavic witch.

-

           “Not only am I the best meterologist on earth, I’m the best fucking botanist on this planet. Best surgeon, best cook, best-” she isn’t one to lighten the mood, usually, but what else is there- “best lover.”

-

She points up, through the palm branches of the sukkah’s roof and to the night sky above.

“You can see Mars, right there? See, you can see me. It’s not that far away.”

Lada doesn’t seem convinced.

“You might not come back-”

“You think a few million kilometers is gonna stop me from getting back to my best research partner? Huh. Thought you knew me better than that.”

“A few million?”

“Closer than the nearest bus stop.”

“It’s gonna be years.”

“And so? I’ll expect you to be a proper scientist, when I get back. Or a proper poet, or painter, or chicken farmer.”

“But you’ll come back?”

“There’s nothing that can stop me.”

-

“Nazyalenskaya,” he asks, and in her name is the universe. “How are you?” is not the question to ask a lone crew member stranded literally on Mars. “We got a letter from your family. Gonna patch it through to you.”

“What do you suppose the requirements for building a sukkah on Mars are?”

Not that there’s much of a rule book for this kind of thing, but it’s something she thinks about. Humans, they look at the void and the unlivable planet, and they make it theirs. Genya’s calculations for the direction to face Mecca. The whole crew’s World Cup fervor. The solid week she and Rietveld spent in a subtle face off with the rest of the crew about using the big screen to keep up with Eurovision. The constant, unending, awkwardness of Ghafa and Rietveld, though both were far too professional to act on it.

-

“Red wire to the green and-”

“Lotta fucking duct tape, I know.”

Repairing the rover- that’s a lot of fun. She never really learned how to fix cars, back home. But it gives her something to do, something active, besides staring at potato plants.

She opens another one of her precious rovers for the parts. A weather probe. Says a silent prayer for the death of science.

It’s a long way to Schiaparelli crater. Zoya’s hated road trips for as long as she can remember, both in the environmentalist, fume-hating way, and also in the traffic-hating kind of way. So, she tells herself. Channel that spite into doing what scares you.

-

“Nazyalenskaya,” he says, “I’ve been thinking about the international implications of what you’re trying to do.”

“Mhmm” she says

“First off, I’d like to thank you for being possibly the most diplomatically complicated climatologist alive. Got Roscosmos, ISRO, and the ISA all breathing down my necks.”

“Good. Use it. Play ‘em against each other. This is either the biggest propaganda win or worst failure of their fucking lives.”

“The other thing is law on Mars. There’s an international treaty saying no country can claim anything that’s not on earth. By another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies. So, Mars is international waters.”

Treaties, red tape, diplomatic stuff- that was never her job. Her job was making sure that six other people could breathe in space. Maintaining, linking the systems of the Hab to be survivable.

The storms, though, that was why she was really there. Or at least, that’s what pulled her from earth. The kinds of weather this galaxy had, beyond the limits of earth.

(Once upon a time, Mars had a viable atmosphere. Once upon a time. She looks out at the orange hellscape and wonders: will this be us?)

And then a storm had been her death. She was just biding her time until it happened.

Pessimism. What else was left?

“So?”

“So, Nazyalenskaya, the Hab’s a tripartite effort. ESA, Roscosmos, CNSA. Non-military, but you know as well as I do there’s enough earth-based bitching about who owns it. The second you walk outside, though, you’re in international waters. Soon-”

“No-”

“Soon you’re gonna leave it for the Schiaparelli crater, and you’re gonna commandeer the Ares lV lander. No one on earth gave you explicit permission to do this, and they can’t until you’re back with us on Терешко́ва .”

She realises where this is going. “Fucking hell, Lantsov, not more with the-”

“So you’re going to be taking a craft into international waters without permission, which by definition makes you a pirate. “

Even she cracks a smile.

“DOCTOR ZOYA NAZYALENSKAYA, SPACE PIRATE!”

She can feel the excitement down the line.

“I better get an eye patch at the end of all this.”

“Nothing less for the best meteorologist on the planet.”

“A ship. Commandeered Spanish galleon.”

“Of course.”

“Crate full of gold bullion.”

“I promise you. I think the rest of the crew’s been planning their first meal back on earth for the last year.”

“Shut the fuck up. You’re not the ones living off potatoes and protein bars.” She’d found a few secreted-away bottles of kecap manis and a jar of sambal oelek in Rietveld’s luggage, which- completely against regulations for cargo by weight, but it’s inadvertently the best thing he’s ever done for her. At least when she eats her dwindling space rations, she can burn her fucking tongue off, due to Rietveld’s stubborn Dutch insistance to never listen to any rules, ever. 

“Yes, but. We’ve heard all the drafts of the epic-length poem Yul-Bataar’s written to herald you with on your return.”

“Almost makes me want to die alone on Mars.”

“Hush up. We’ve already had to watch your funeral once. I even wrote a speech.”

“I better get a recording of that when I get back,” she says. “You better have cried. You better have wept over the untimely demise of Earth’s best meteorologist.”

“You better believe it was a speech for the ages. Wait, i can find a draft and read it-”

“Save it. I want to savour my death, after I know I’m gonna live.”

“This is next level Slav gallows humour. How many people get to watch their own funerals?”

Zoya Nazyalenskaya does not giggle, but the thought of all those puffed-up world leaders saying things about her importance, her intelligence, her beauty. (Will men see anything else?)  Shedding a few tears about a brown, Jewish, Russo-Bengali meteorologist who’d they’d barely cared to listen to in her life, but here, dead, she’s the ultimate pawn in their games. . . .

It might make her laugh. Slightly.

           And then she thinks about Aunt Liliyana and Lada sitting shiva for her in that flat in Haifa. The first thing she’d bought with her earnings after the ESA had taken her on was a nicer flat for the two of them, in walking distance to the sea.

“Lantsov,” she says, although it feels like exposing some part of herself she doesn’t want to recognise. “Lantsov, keep talking. Please.”

“Of course. What about?” “The crew’s first meal. Back on earth. What is it?”

“Zenik said red-velvet waffles with, quote, “a fuckton of whipped cream. An entire can of whipped cream.” Andreyev like a good Moldovan says it’s gotta be sarmale, and I swore Rietveld lives off coffee and the destruction of his enemies but I know he’s got a thing for nasi goreng and. . ..”

-

This is a dumbass long-shot solution that will probably get them all killed.

It takes a certain kind of long-shot nihilistic self-destruction to enter the airless murder void in the first place, but this is. ..

“The only thing that might work.”

Bo nods and then glares at him to shut up.

The ship’s got a big whiteboard, and Bo’s hands move almost as fast as his mouth does as he sketches, scribbles, draws, talks. They’ve got a direct, illegal, verboten, unknown, lifesaving link through to the CNSA, and as Kuwei’s the only native Mandarin speaker aboard, he’s the main one doing the talking. He’s a chemist, though, - Ghafa’s the pilot, Zhabin’s the chief navigator, and it’s a controlled frenzy of different langauges and disciplines as the crew hashes out the most wild rescue plan in human history.

“How do we know-”

“He’s the best astrodynamacist alive. Also, my dad, but-”

He, Zhabin, Ghafa and Rietveld all independently run the calculations.

Да, Да, हाँ, Ja.

“Who’s ready to go against the explicit instructions of five space agencies to bring the best space pirate alive back home?”

It was never even a choice.

-

“Zoya,” he says, over the link. “We’ll get you home.”

[elizascharlesdanceblog]

Charles Dance: how common

Charles Dance: 'the audience feels cheated if you don't be honest about yourself'

Nigel Farndale12:15AM BST 28 Oct 2007

Army officers, worthy medicos, louche aristos, and now a donnish C.S. Lewis in 'Shadowlands' – when casting directors need 'a toff actor', Charles Dance is top of their list. It's all pretending, the secret plebeian tells Nigel Farndale, and he loves it. Portrait by Joss McKinley

Given that Charles Dance is an actor, it shouldn't come as a surprise that his manner off stage is quite actorly. Yet somehow it does. I suppose it is because he is often cast as the reserved, taciturn, patrician type, while, in person, he is tactile and garrulous. Sitting on a sofa in his dressing-room at the Wyndham's Theatre, London, he makes big theatrical, off-the-shoulder gestures, taps the wood of his dressing table – the superstitious actor – and leans forward to touch my knee occasionally, to emphasise a point. Moreover, he punctuates his anecdotes with 'darlings', 'sweethearts' and 'dears'.

Physically, he looks taller and more athletic than seems decent for a 61-year-old. He doesn't dress his age, either: his 6ft 3in frame looking rangy in faded jeans, T-shirt and heavy black boots. His hair may be thinning and becoming as pale as his skin, but his face is still strong boned, his hooded eyes still flinty. Intellectually, you suspect, there is not as much depth there as he likes to think there is, but he is friendly and engaging. Like many in his profession, he enjoys having a whinge about the actor's lot.

Don't get him on the subject of dressing-rooms, for example. He has just been touring the provinces before opening in the West End this week – 'the foreplay before the penetration,' he calls it, rather alarmingly – and the dressing-room he had in Cambridge was dark and subterranean. This one is windowless and has a fan whirring, but at least it is freshly decorated and all the light bulbs around the mirror are working. 'That's thanks to Madge,' he says. 'I was doing The Play What I Wrote here in 2002, just before Madonna did a show here and she paid for the dressing-rooms to be done up. But the funny thing was?…' he bounds up from the sofa and marches across the room to the shower area; here he describes two diagonal slashes with his arms, '…?they put crime scene tapes over the shower so no one else could use it before Madge.'

The play he did before that was Long Day's Journey into Night at the Lyric on Shaftesbury Avenue. 'In the dressing-room were little sachets of vermin poison. Pretty bloody awful. There was a mattress in there with a piece of fabric that looked like Monica Lewinsky's old dress on it. Half the lightbulbs had gone. I was there for 12½ weeks doing a play that was not a bundle of laughs, so I bought some ready-made curtains and a throw and some lightbulbs and insisted they had the room painted. They brought colour swatches of white, white or white – so I chose white.'

In his latest play, the first major revival of William Nicholson's award-winning Shadowlands, Dance plays C.S. Lewis. Although Nigel Hawthorne, on stage, and Anthony Hopkins, in the Oscar-nominated film version, are hard acts to follow in that role, Dance proves himself worthy. His struggle as the middle-aged Lewis to accept that he has fallen in love for the first time, only to lose his new wife to cancer, is mesmerising. 'It is about love in the presence of pain and suffering,' Dance says. 'C.S. Lewis believes pain is a tool. Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.'

Presumably getting in the right reflective mood beforehand, while sitting in a pleasant dressing-room, is crucial to this performance? 'Your mood can be affected by the state of your dressing-room, and by the day you have had, but hopefully that doesn't affect the performance.'

I ask whether he can relate to the religious aspects of the play: C.S. Lewis, the devout Christian, agonises over the faith that has let him down. 'Not at all. I am an agnostic. I'm not bothered about not knowing. Religion is at the core of the play, but we pretend. It's my job. If I'm playing a murderer I don't murder people.'

And the academic aspects, the donnish world of Oxford? 'I am not an intellectual. I am reasonably intelligent, but not intellectual.' I only ask because he often plays men who are in professions that others find inspiring: Army officers, doctors and so on. When he prepares for such roles, does he ever wonder whether, by comparison, being an actor in greasepaint is somehow not quite a proper job for a grown man? He seems affronted by this question and answers in a loud and indignant voice. 'Some might think it's a job for children, but it's not! We do work very hard!'

Slightly taken aback, I say that I didn't mean to sound rude. I reframe the question in terms of the Samuel Johnson quote about every man thinking meanly of himself for not being a soldier. 'I see; well, I like pretending to be all those things. I like pretending to be someone in the military, but whether I could do it I don't know. That's why I am an actor.'

I tell him I went to see his Coriolanus years ago, the ultimate role for an actor with martial aspirations. 'London or Stratford?' The Barbican. 'Good. I was reasonably happy with it by the time we reached the Barbican.' It was a powerful and memorable performance, I say. Perfect casting.

The irony, though, was that Coriolanus is the patrician who is condescending towards the plebeians, and Dance's background is plebeian. He is the son of Nell, a former parlour-maid.

Dance returns to his actors-are-just-pretending theme: 'I just pretend. I was able to observe the aristocracy at close quarters because my mother worked for them. She certainly worked for much posher people than we were. Housekeeping. One observed it and absorbed it. My mother married above her station. She came from the East End. I'm not sure what my father did, because he died from a perforated ulcer when I was four, but I think his family had been confectioners. And I think he had been an engineer. A little further up the social scale than my mother. He used to do the occasional music hall recitation.'

Despite this background, when Dance started out in acting a fellow actor noted that he was 'a toff actor' as opposed to 'a peasant actor'. 'It's because I have a patrician face,' Dance says. He does indeed. But it is also to do with his bearing. As an actor he has a commanding presence and a certain grace. He can convey emotions with the flicker of a muscle, with the slightest movement of the eye. Two of his more polished aristocratic roles are the Earl of Erroll in White Mischief and Lord Raymond Stockbridge in Gosford Park. When he was filming the latter he told the director, Robert Altman, that he was in the wrong place, upstairs with the toffs; he should be downstairs with the servants. Altman said: 'Not with that face, Charles.'

It might be that he learnt his patrician bearing from observing his step-father, Edward, a civil servant. He had been the lodger. He drank lots of tea and did the pools. 'A fairly solitary men who seemed to have no friends or family, but quite decent. He looked after my mother. She would say, "When your father died I had 10 bob left in the world, dear".'

His mother's wasn't a happy life. Nell nursed Edward through cancer and then died from a heart attack six months after he did, in 1984, the year The Jewel in the Crown was making her son's name. They used to row a lot, mother and son. 'Terrible emotional scenes. She was a very emotional woman.'

I ask if she was socially insecure. 'She came from the servant class, which was not the same thing as the working class. The servant class is right in the middle. I'm not sure I believe there is such a thing as a middle class: it is either working class on the way up or aristocracy on the way down. She also, of course, was a lifelong Tory voter, as most people from the servant class were; you can't possibly be governed by your equals. You have to be governed by your betters.'

His brother is 10 years older, a retired naval officer who lives in France. 'He had been a difficult adolescent and my mother thought joining the Navy would make a man of him. So she marched him off to the recruiting office when he was 15, a decision my mother regretted until the day she died. I remember sharing a bedroom with him before he left for the Navy and there were books of poetry around the place and he wasn't a bad draughtsman either. All that had to go. My mother learnt from her mistake and allowed me to indulge in poetry and the arts.'

Charles Dance had been studying graphic design and photography at Leicester Art School when he got the acting bug. Steve McQueen and Peter Finch had inspired him to become a screen actor, while 'Brian Rix dropping his trousers in a farce made me want to prance about on stage'. He abandoned his course in favour of acting lessons from two retired thespians, Leonard and Martin. They were gay, but quiet about it, as society demanded at the time.

What was he like at that age? 'When I was 19, I was long-haired, going on the Aldermaston march, shagging everything in sight. The march was more fun than anything. I'm not especially political.'

Was he narcissistic as a young man? 'Not really, not until way after my teens. Mid to late twenties, possibly. I look around now and see guys who are fantastic looking and then I look in the mirror and think this is a very odd face. It doesn't bear close scrutiny. Bags under the eyes, thinning hair, I don't see a handsome man when I look in the mirror. Never have done. It is not an easy face to photograph, which is tricky in a film career unless you are in the hands of an astute and clever director of photography. I wear clothes quite well and am reasonably fit and have a good body, but I don't think I am particularly handsome. When people first started describing me as being that, at the time of Jewel in the Crown, I was surprised, but then I learnt to embrace it, a little too fondly.'

At the time, he was described as the English Robert Redford. I suggest it must have given him confidence to be told he had matinee-idol looks, even if he couldn't see it himself. 'Confidence is something I have had to acquire. This profession is littered with people, who, by their nature, are more introvert that extrovert. I can have my flamboyant moments, but I am, by nature, an introvert. I acquired confidence by giving myself severe talkings-to from time to time. I found that aspect of Coriolanus – the opening scenes where he is confident, strutting, all "I'm f---ing wonderful, and powerful", harder to act than the more vulnerable moments later in the play when it emerges that he is a mummy's boy.'

He thinks that early on in his career he may sometimes have been cast because of his looks – but not any more. 'Now I am getting more interesting roles. Mr Tulkinghorn in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House, for example. Or Ralph Nickleby [in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby]. He is a complete s---. Evil, but interesting. Whereas there are only so many ways you can play a romantic leading man. You know you are there for a reason.'

He described himself earlier as 'shagging everything in sight'; just how successful was he with women? 'Not that successful. You know how it is when you are a young man: lots of groping most of the time, nothing serious.'

For 23 years he was married to Joanna, a sculptor. They have grown-up children: Oliver, who works in film, and Rebecca, who is in publishing. Then, in 2004, they divorced. Dance's name has been linked to one or two actresses and models since, but he nevertheless worries that he might end up alone. He prefers not to think about it. Indeed, he feels uncomfortable with this conversation, not least because his ex-wife was door-stepped by the press at the time of their divorce. 'I'd rather you avoided the subject,' he says, 'but I can't blame "the business" for the breakdown of my marriage. I don't want to talk about it. If I had a choice in the matter I would say "please don't go into all that", but if you want to insert something about it I can't stop you.'

I note that actors tend to be liberal by inclination, that this is partly to do with the bohemian life they lead: the touring, the intimacy with fellow cast members, the abandonment of self-consciousness. In Dance's case, that includes appearing nude. He has no qualms about it, as he demonstrated recently in the film Starter for Ten. He turned up on set for that scene already naked. When the wardrobe assistant offered to cover him up, he said: 'No need, darling'.

'Well, if you've done it once, after that it doesn't bother you,' he says now. 'To continue the painting analogy, painters have brushes and paints, we have this.' He sweeps his hands the length of his body. 'The audience feels cheated if you don't open up and be honest about yourself. I feel I have cheated myself if I don't go that far. Having stuff in reserve is to cheat.'

Similarly, he is not fussy about what he appears in, so long as the money is good. He has done a number of forgettable Miss Marple-type dramas on television and memorably wore fishnets and a red rubber micro-skirt for the Ali G movie. 'I'll do anything for money,' he says. 'People talk about choices. What choices? The choice is to work or not to work.'

I suppose he has an additional choice in that he can also write, produce and direct. Notably, he wrote, produced and directed Ladies in Lavender, a film about two sisters, played by Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, living on the Cornish coast, who take in a Polish stray just before the Second World War. 'There was a day when I was stupid enough to try to direct Judi. She came up with a line that was a bit sentimental for her and I knelt down and touched her knee and said: "Judi, it is a bit Celia Johnson-ish." And she said: "How dare you? And get your hand off my knee.".'

The film grossed more than $30million. 'But none of it found its way into my pocket. It all went to the f---ing distributors and sales agents. I see the returns. I get "0000" next to my name while they are coining it in. It was a bugger to get the financing together for that film. I had to ask Judi and Maggie to defer fees and they sweetly said "of course, darling", even though they knew deferment usually means deferred indefinitely.'

He slips on a black polo-neck and scoops up a packet of cigarettes from among the greasepaint pots. He is going to pop outside for a quick fag. As we walk through the theatre we talk about Shadowlands and its funereal themes. He says he would have loved to have gone to George Melly's funeral. 'He had a cardboard coffin which people wrote funny things on, like, 'You owe me 20 quid, George".'

As we stand outside the stage door, in the drizzle, I ask if he has thought about what form he would like his own funeral to take. 'God no,' he says, lighting a cigarette. 'Too busy trying to live, for f---'s sake.'

'Shadowlands' is at the Wyndham's Theatre, London W1, until 15 December; www.shadowlandstheplay.com, 0870 950 0925

source: telegraph

[berniesrevolution]

It must have been a moment of unspeakable shock, terror and pain. But it’s hard to know exactly what it was like at the moment last Thursday when a school bus packed with Yemeni schoolchildren — summer campers coming back from a picnic — was struck from the skies by a powerful bomb, because so few of these innocent kids survived to tell about it, and because those who did are mostly clinging to life, maimed or badly burned by the blast.

Instead, we can only gape at pictures of a twisted metal frame that hardly resembles the bus that was once filled with happy, singing children, or watch the widely circulated video of the aftermath of what happened in the market district of Saada in northern Yemen, in which a distraught, failing man raises the blue tarp of a pickup truck to reveal a tangle of young bodies as he lifts up the limp arm of one of the dead schoolkids.

At least 29 people — according to the International Committee of the Red Cross — and quite possibly 40 or 50, according to Yemeni estimates, were killed in the airstrike by jets in the Saudi-led coalition that’s been waging a brutal war against the Saudis’ next-door neighbor on the Arabian Peninsula for the last four years.

A spokesman for the Saudi coalition called it “a legitimate military operation” in its campaign against Houthi rebels that operate in northern Yemen — a claim that was scoffed at by most of the rest of the world, alarmed at the growing humanitarian crisis in the region.

“Does the world really need more innocent children’s lives to stop the cruel war on children in Yemen?” asked Geert Cappalaere, the regional director for the Middle East and Northern Africa of the aid group UNICEF. Many of the kids killed or wounded in the attack were carrying bright blue UNICEF school bags, now shredded and burned.

The merciless Saudi-led war in Yemen — which has not only claimed 13,500 lives but triggered a humanitarian crisis in which some 20 million Yemenis, out of a nation of just 29 million, are scrambling for food and other basic necessities and as many as 900,000 people are suffering from cholera — is what it is today because of help from the United States.

America offers the Saudis and its allies in the region the intelligence used to carry out the nonstop airstrikes and other military operations. The planes that conduct the bombing runs are refueled by American forces in the region. And many of the bombs that have been dropped on Yemen — including those that have struck hospitals and other civilian targets — were manufactured and supplied by the United States.

It’s very likely the bomb that obliterated the school bus last week was an American bomb; a Pentagon spokesman conceded that, because of the lengths to which U.S. forces go to avoid operational knowledge of the war for which we otherwise provide such critical support, it officially doesn’t know whether we supplied these particular munitions. “We may never know if the munition [used] was one that the U.S. sold to them,” Army Maj. Josh Jacques, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, told Vox — a classic case of American plausible deniability. But people on the ground in Yemen say they can link American-made bombs to Thursday’s airstrike and other attacks on innocent civilians.

(Continue Reading)

[newx-menfan]

Part Two: Surge in Kyle and Yost

In Part One, I talked about Noriko’s background of being homeless and immigrating to America, and how her behaviors tie into that experience.

In particular, in DeFilippis and Weir we see Noriko becoming close the New Mutants, particularly with David before entering into a relationship with him. This is probably the first time Noriko’s opened up to someone, after running away from home.

…And then M-Day happens…

Several mutants lose their abilities;including Prodigy, Wind Dancer, and her mentor Dani Moonstar.

As much as Surge hates her abilities and wearing the gauntlets to control her abilities, (something she has so far never been able to find control for at Xavier’s…) she isn’t one of the students depowered.

* As much as Surge is blamed for the nasty break up between her and David; in her defense, David DID send mixed signals.

David shortly after does apply to Harvard (you absolutely CANNOT blame him). It’s revealed to Noriko by Julian; leaving Noriko to question if David wants to leave and is only staying there for HER benefit. It also opens up insecurities around Noriko being a burden to David or that she’s holding him back; something I stated previously in Part One is an issue with Noriko.

There’s also probably the fear that David may eventually resent her for staying; in many ways, I think a big part of Noriko being attracted to David was his initial kindness to her. While I DO also think she liked him for his intelligence and matching dry humor; I think David being one of the few people to express concern for her also contributed to it. So she may lose the one person who showed her kindness…

Emma orders the depowered students and staff to leave the institute; effectively removing one of the two adults that was reliably there for Noriko.

The depowered students are put on a bus, that is bombed by the Purifiers, killing all on board.

While David WASN’T onboard- he could have very easily been… So on top of Noriko’s fears around losing David or holding him back; she is also now been reminded that David is very clearly at risk. This would probably create EVEN MORE GUILT, because she sees David’s choice to stay being because OF HER. So if David DIES- in Noriko’s mind it will be all her fault.

* Noriko is then chosen by Emma Frost to be leader for the X-Men-in training team; she is chosen after Julian disobeys Emma’s direct orders to take out X-23.

This…. Is pretty dang terrible, in my opinion. Emma is essentially putting teens in danger by choosing an inexperienced leader all because she’s having a temper fit over Julian refusing to unfairly target another student. While Emma DOES give more reasoning to her choice of Surge as leader later: that she knew Noriko would ‘protect them’, it’s still pretty awful…

As I stated in Part One- Noriko had ZERO INTEREST in ever leading the New Mutants. For someone who struggles to open up or connect to others; leadership is REALLY difficult. She has neither the pragmatic tactile planning David has, the social skills Sofia has, or the ability to read opponents and teammates and manipulate the situation accordingly that Julian has.

Surge’s strength relies on personal responsibility and her strength as an individual. At this period in time, she’s probably the WORST CHOICE as team leader; since this kind of situation RELYS on the X-Men being able to work together to survive and closing ranks.

Surge’s responsibility is a bit of a hinderance; because everything that goes wrong, she will take too much to heart. While Emma justifies her choice as Nori will protect them because of her responsibleness; while Noriko DOES DO just that, it becomes a serious detriment to her own mental health. Through this series and afterwards, we slowly see Noriko breaking down as more and more students die; caving under the impossible responsibility given to her…

There’s more than likely also guilt there for feeling like she’s taking Sofia’s place. Through the beginning of this book we watch as Wind Dancer is essentially pushed away from her friends and the school. Noriko loses a the majority of her friends in a single swoop; more than likely Surge feels like she’s contributing to Sofia being removed and forgotten…

Julian of course doesn’t take this well; but in Julian’s defense- he is objectively the most qualified of the remaining students. Being asked to follow someone who doesn’t really KNOW what their doing; after you essentially HAVE been trained for this is HARD to swallow.

Noriko’s way of handling people initially is lashing out or giving orders, which really ISN’T going to work with the majority of people on this team. While she does eventually learn to work with people’s personalities and skill sets, and how to unite this team; in the beginning…they are a mess. Half the team is turning to Julian for leadership, Julian is heavily supporting that situation, and Josh (really the only ally Noriko has on this team) is lashing out at everyone at this period of time. Laura has NO real social skills and while she has been trained to take orders no questions asked by the facility; she’s also been heavily trained for solo missions and limited to gaining any attachment towards anyone around her- so Laura’s not all that reliable a teammate either.

Even after Noriko kind of gets the team together- you still have people doing their own thing; the biggest example is ‘Mercury Falling’- Cessily and Laura go get coffee despite restrictions and without telling Surge. Then when Cessily is kidnapped, Hellion and Laura go to search for her without telling Surge. At this kind of time period, the WORST thing to have is people acting like individuals; this isn’t Noriko’s fault since A LOT of people on this team are individualistic but you need a team leader who will tackle this issue head on immediately. A great example for this is Social Identity in the Military: for the beginning individuality is stripped away to instead foster functionality, discipline, and uniformity. This is done because one wrong decision can put everyone in danger and because community is detriment to survival in extreme situations. Noriko, who is very individualistic herself and fights against uniformity-struggles to understand that. Similar to Wind Dancer; Noriko is at times also reliant on David’s more tactical based leadership. This can be a positive, in the fact that David’s decision making comes more from logic than emotions, with David usually better at detaching himself from him own emotions when making decisions (the only exception being Nori sacrificing herself to bring down Nimrod). This is a detriment, because Noriko is essentially stifling her from developing her own style of leadership. It also is perpetuating EVEN more reliance on her relationship with David and causing her more guilt around David staying at Xavier’s; this will eventually become a major problem during ‘The Quest for Magik’.

The moment that really ends up bonding this team together is the battle with Nimrod. It’s essentially the first time when everyone is in agreement to go to protect Forge. Noriko is forced to utilize everyone (Julian’s TK to get the plane out, David’s knowledge of the Mansion and to somewhat fly the plane, X-23’s healing factor, Mercury’s imperviousness towards electricity, ect…); and while rough around the edges, they succeed because everyone is watching the others backs.

it also marks Surge’s slow decline in her trust in Cyclops; someone we saw she could open up to in Academy X about her roommate problem and usage of her gauntlets. This will continue to deteriorate more and more through this series until Messiah Complex, where Surge is shown having zero trust in Cyclops as a leader or confidant.

There is mutiple studies that have shown groups who collectively experience trauma tend to form stronger social bonds and become more cohesive. In many ways, this is 100% part of the New X-Men’s story.

No matter how much Noriko and Julian hated each other- they weirdly become friends and heavily support one another after because of this experience. In many ways I’d argue Julian develops a respect towards Surge and her tackling leadership in a very extreme time; which is why Julian for the most part after accepts Noriko as leader and supports her decisions. A huge example of this is in X-Force vol. 3- when Julian funnels Noriko’s blast after being injected with the legacy virus, and both Julian and Noriko protecting Josh when he was injured.

after Cessily’s rescue; All the X-Kids minus Surge and Hellion are transported to Limbo. Just before we see Nori yelling at Julian; her fear that Laura or him could have died coming up. We see just how much leadership is starting to take a toll on Nori. That fear becomes worse when Trance informs her what happened.

Surge is also informed that David is dead; HER WORST FEAR. She ends up threatening O*N*E* troopers and using her electric abilities essentially as a defibrillator on Amanda Sefton to find a way to Limbo.

*It’s strange to me how people DON’T take ‘the Quest For Magik’ in account for Surge’s actions in her break up with David. Here you have someone who went under numerous trauma, even BEFORE M-Day; essentially COMING extremely close to losing the only person she is close to.

Surge ISN’T just reliant on him as a romantic partner either; she has also essentially made him co-leader and only confidant. While Julian weirdly becomes a little bit of an ally as well; it’s mainly David that Surge opens up to.

Prodigy is really Surge’s only friend on the team, since Josh has been going through his own trauma; while that again changes mid way as she become closer to Julian- it’s still David who she relies on.

While fighting her way through Limbo, we see Nori becoming emotional and increasingly more and more erratic.

Surge finds out what happened to David after escaping out of Limbo from X-23, who doesn’t have the social skills to know telling Noriko the nitty gritty details of David’s ALMOST death…probably isn’t a good idea… Keep in mind, David got his HEART ripped out, so hearing the details of that would be traumatic or triggering…

In Noriko’s mind this IS HER FAULT. David stayed because of HER, in her mind, despite being human and she subtly encouraged it for her own needs.

*Again from Part One, Noriko lashes out as a coping mechanism to avoid being hurt. Instead of having to down the road of eventually watching David horribly die: she chooses to hurt him so bad to get him to leave.

She does this by kissing Julian; someone who heavily bullied David and who David hates.

Noriko’s choice of Julian is also REALLY interesting, because in many ways Julian has slowly been replacing David as her co-leader/confidant. Essentially both her relationships with David and Julian are used as Noriko’s way to cope with the stress and responsibility, along with her own trauma. While she did choose Julian because she knew he was the person who’d hurt David THE MOST, it also seems like Noriko is replacing one reliant relationship for another.

It also opens the question if Noriko was ever attracted to Julian; which has been heavily debated by fans, and opens up an interesting interpretation of her appearance in Liu’s X-23 solo…

David starts to pack up before deciding to confront Surge; with Noriko continuing to insist she doesn’t love him and begging him to leave the institute. Julian then chooses that moment to go check on Noriko; leading to a physical altercation between him and David. It’s then revealed that David has decided to stay at the mansion and regained previous knowledge he lost with help from the Cuckoos.

Obviously, Noriko and David break up.

*During the Messiah Complex, we see Prodigy and Surge still in an awkward place; with David and her disagreeing over whether or not to go after the Purifiers.

We also see Noriko done with both Cyclops and Xavier’s leadership; essentially lashing out at the adults. Noriko is back to feeling like she cannot rely on the adults around her, similar to her father and when she first came to the institute.

The choice to go after the Purifiers ALSO goes badly, with Julian getting mortally wounded right in front of Surge because of HER push to go after the Purifiers. So besides David almost dying and their bad breakup, she now almost lost the person she’s somewhat using as David’s replacement as co-leader.

Unsurprisingly, Noriko isn’t doing well after the dissolution of the X-Men; which I will get into in Part Three…

While I fully agree Surge treated David badly; it’s understandable why she did what she did. For someone WHO already had issues getting close to people, limited coping mechanisms, and inability to emotionally open up; the build up of circumstances around David losing his abilities and then almost dying in a horrible way- it makes sense Noriko would lash out this way. Add the responsibility of leadership that Surge NEVER WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE, at the WORST POSSIBLE EVENT that has probably happened to the X-Men; and it’s kind of amazing Surge avoided having a breakdown sooner…

As for Surge’s leadership, which is oftentimes criticized; the important thing to remember is Noriko NEVER WANTED TO LEAD IN THE FIRST PLACE. Nor did she have as much training for it as the others. Emma essentially drops her in the role of leader, and then leaves her to sink or swim; providing her NO HELP. Noriko did the best she could despite not being a personality skilled for leadership and having her own trauma affecting her ability TO lead. Noriko learns through it, effectively becoming a decent leader at the end, despite taking everything that happens as her fault.

(Part Three will include all sources and go into Surge written under other writers- it will be released sometime next week: More than likely next Tuesday!…)

[marjaystuff]

Guest Review:  The Handler by M.P. Woodward

The Handler

John and Meredith Dale Book 1

M. P. Woodward

Berkley Pub

May 31st, 2022

The Handler by M. P. Woodward allows readers to gain knowledge of the intelligence world with a story all too real, delving into the return of the Cold War days. If readers are looking for a Vince Flynn like author that has the same action, characters to root for, and national security concerns, Woodward is the author to read.

“I have been a naval intelligence officer and like to keep up with what is happening in the world. In January 2020 on the airport TV was the coverage of a civilian Ukrainian airliner shot down by Iran. I started to think about how and why it happened. The people on that plane were largely Iranian students going back to school in Canada. I thought it could be a plot for a novel. I wanted to write a story with authenticity and realism. I worked with Special Forces who must know the smallest details.  Remember during the raid on OBL when the helicopter crashed.  It did so because the rehearsals during the mission had a chain linked fence.  But the actual fence was a masonry wall. People like John in this story must know does the door open in or out, are the hinges on the left or right side of the door.” 

In this debut story disgraced CIA operative John Dale is coaxed out of retirement by his ex-wife Meredith, the head of the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division.  John is asked to extract Iranian asset Cerberus, a scientist working on the Iranian nuclear program. The CIA mole has kept this terrorist nation from building a bomb through sabotage. But now the mole wants out and will only deal with his trusted former handler, Dale.  

“John believes in honor, duty, and commitment, but lacks the patience of working within large organizations. He would rather work alone to get the mission accomplished.  His heart is in the right place. He is frustrated with working within the system. He and I are landscape painters, a loner profession.  The cabin he lives in is like the one I have, up on a mountain. He can be charming and unpredictable.”

Both John, and his handler, Meredith, must work together to bring the scientist to safety. Together they face very dangerous obstacles including the CIA’s political hierarchy, Iran’s military, and Russian spies. There are Russian agents leading an SVR team anxious to take out John and Meredith, a lieutenant colonel with the Quds branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who wants Cerberus just as badly as the CIA, and Meredith’s corrupt supervisor, Rance.

“Meredith is the opposite of John. She accepts the rules and works within the organization. She also has a sense of honor, duty, and mission. She goes about doing things in different ways than John and becomes frustrated with him.  She can read people and at times is intense. Meredith is attracted to someone like John but has a hard time in making peace with his actions. She and John have a bond. On the other hand, Rance is fallible and cautious.  He is not decisive versus Meredith who thinks quickly. He does put his career first. He is arrogant, selfish, calculating, uncaring, and tries to throw Meredith and John under the bus. He thinks he can get away with things, which is his undoing.”

Woodward, a former naval intelligence officer, uses his experience to write a very believable story full of suspense and twists. There is plenty of drama, tension, and conflict. Readers will not want to put this book down.

[ofcloudsandstars]

7✨7

Today is a double day. I think I've spoken enough on my blog about what double days mean for me haha but I've realized my star chart and the transiting sun aligns with these days and I'm wondering how to feel about this! Like I look at the meanings of numbers from many areas in my path and the 7th house is my personal theme for cancer season since mine is ruled by cancer but the sun is also transiting that. Every double day the sun is transiting my natal house corresponding to that number. So it's not only 7/7 but the sun is transiting my 7th house as well.

7 is about wisdom, intuition, searching for the truth often alone. 7 in numerology or life path is about searching for truths no matter how uncomfortable they are for the sake of spiritual growth. It tends to be a lonely number. In tarot 7 is the number that represents the period of waiting for something or expecting an outcome even if it's not what you think it would be. It's anticipation yet also desire and desire to have your goals manifested. In the major arcana it's the chariot (also traditionally ruled by cancer) which is about pursuing your desires and overcoming obstacles through higher intellect. In the traditional tarot the chariot rider is wearing a starry crown representing their connection to "the heavens" aka their higher self. Like before it's a connection to truth, intellect and such but also intelligence that is higher and empathetic which is our inner voice and intuition. The chariot overcomes their obstacles because they listen to their wisdom and higher voice and use that as a guide. I've read that people with 7 life path numbers that are not spiritual aka don't have any connection to their inner voice or guided by their higher self often get cynical and nihilistic and might pursue 'truths' through aggressive escapism like drugs since that does break the veil between our structured world and society's aggressive influence on how we should perceive it.

You can wrap up all these symbolic meanings of 7 under wisdom. It's the seeker of real truth and listening to our own wisdom to achieve what we need.

Since I need a new job I need to channel the chariots energy and go for that. I think I'd be good luck to look into a field I'd really love instead of settling for something less cause it's stable. Also my seventh house has mars and Juno in it and I should do some magic to get laid cause y'all it's been 9 fucking months and I'm going nuts haha plus the sun in cancer activating these feelings in emotional cancer season with my single celibate ass is brewing up a storm in me so I gotta do something about it before I get reckless. I'll probably do something at 7:07 today! Since everything is running by military time here I think I'll post my job application at 16:07 since 16 makes 7 but also 16 reminds me of anticipation since 6 needs only 1 to become 7. At 7:07 which is 19:07 I will do a job spell for new beginnings since 1+9 is 10 which reduces to 1 but 10 is completion. Its like rebirth. At 16:16 I'm going to do a luck spell to get laid and that's the plan for the day haha.

I share these posts in case working with numerology inspires some of you! I think I'm like this since I'm a Capricorn rising I love working with the element of Time which is obviously ruled by Saturn so things like astrology, numerology, dates, hours, wheel of the year, moon cycles and sacred days are my thing. I've gotten so good with working with the element of time I have like a cute kind of magical 'power' of knowing when to leave, when to turn a corner and having like things wonderfully unfolding to my favor like the tube train just arriving, me just making the last bus, me just leaving a party before a fight breaks out, me arriving to a new place and getting a job cause they just have a new opening, me getting to a crosswalk and the light just turns green. Etc etc. I usually refer to it as being 'in sync' and sometimes I get out of sync usually caused by stress which makes me not listen to my inner voice out of panic but I gotta sit and do some quiet time meditation and do some tests like see how much time it takes for me to get the next train or use my intuition to pick the right path that gets me somewhere quicker to see if I'm in sync with time again.

I feel like I'm going on another long tangent far from the original purpose of this post 😂 but I like that about rising signs and witches. I feel like rising signs not only show you qualities you might grow into in life but also powers you acquire over time. I could talk about my other witch friends abilities and their rising signs but I think it's time for me to stop ;)

Have a lovely double day guys!

Evoke the power of 7! Listen to your inner voice!