#finger on the eject button etc etc etc

[oh-youknow]

if u think im not constantly thinking about

Volition -  I can't help you. I am totally useless. Everything I've said is lies. I want the exact same bad things you want. 

ur literally wrong . i am so sorry and so insane

[lenavis]

content warning: suicide

(i want to preface this by saying that none of this is representative of my current mindset and that i am in a much better place these days)

there are few pieces of media, if any, i've interacted with that have come close to addressing the topic of suicidal ideation more accurately than disco elysium.

it's a strange sort of state to occupy, because the truth is that more often than not it is incredibly mundane. there are fits, yes. there are times at which things seem nigh unbearable because you are trapped inside the ordeal of being you, existing as you, continuing as you-- and that is the worst part, truly. realizing that there is no escape from the purgatory of your own id. very much the embodiment of harry drunkenly screaming "I DON'T WANT TO BE THIS KIND OF ANIMAL ANYMORE" and bellowing like a "wounded boar" as he trashes his hotel room.

not "this type of person". "this type of animal". like recognizing your own sickness as a kind of genus and species that you have been condemned to. taxonomy is strict and absolute. you don't want to be this kind of animal anymore. and though you comprehend logically that you're not just an animal-- you're a human, and thus have the capacity to heal or regress or otherwise transmute yourself from the baseness you perceive in yourself-- it is often difficult to see yourself as anything other than a lashing, ugly beast that knows no divergent nature.

yes. there are moments of intense emotion. cinematic scenes in which you feel as though you can't control yourself and often find yourself alienating or terrifying the people closest to you. but the bulk of suicidal ideation is more a whisper than a shout.

it's just constantly there. harry opens the compartment in his ledger and finds the old postcard, and the words appear in his head casual as any passing thought: "fucking kill yourself asshole". he talks to someone-- anyone, really: you can muse to a pawn shop owner, who has no idea how to respond, that you probably should have killed yourself by now. you can tell a pair of four year old twins that suicide is in fact, ok, and that it's likely in your future. it's always so offhand. it's always wildly inappropriate, but when you get to a certain point, that begins to matter less and less.

there are thoughts that you can internalize in this game for point buffs and perks. some of them have drawbacks, like lowered logic, conceptualization, etc. the thoughts revolve around a variety of topics, including communism, cryptids, your ex wife, inexplicable feminist agendas, etc.

there is a thought called: finger on the eject button. here’s the text that pops up when you begin internalizing it:

Who doesn't toy with the thought of suicide sometimes? Or, like, most of the time? Okay, maybe some people don't – like the happy scientist girl named Marie, or Jean-Marc, the superstar whom everyone loves. But you -- when the going gets rough, it's nice to think about your little trap door out of here. Do it. Put your finger on the eject button, see how alive it makes you feel -- the freedom of finality. Think of how much they'll *miss* you.

and here's the text that pops up when you finish internalizing it:

Looks like you thought about how much they'll *miss* you and the freedom of finality for too long, and now you've decided to actually kill yourself. The train leaves the station every evening, 21:00. Make sure you have a gun and bullets. That's how macho servicemen do it. Also – turns out *Finger On The Eject Button* is pretty much your theme song. A headbanger from your teenage years and your wedding ballad. This is not the first time you're spinning the tape.

after you internalize this thought, you don't get any perks or cool features or detractors. instead, you are presented every night with a suicidal thought before you go to sleep.

the text for the thought and the ensuing consequence are so accurate to how it really feels that when i found this option i had to turn the game off for a little while. because it captures it painfully well. the element of spite and self-righteousness. the vague blueprints of how you might do it. the constant drumming of it in your head, persistent as raindrops on the roof of a car.

the terrifying comfort that when the going gets bad... you can just go.

it's possible to kill yourself in this game, if you hit a particular scenario and fail certain checks. you're given the option to put a gun in your mouth while standing in a cafeteria of incredulous onlookers, and when you do so it is an action completely formed by impulse. it's not prefaced by a long train of suicidal thoughts or any kind of prologue. just. there's an opportunity to bite the barrel. so you do it. you taste the tang of metal on your tongue and you hear the spring creak-- and you can pull the trigger. the game over screen pops up. congratulations. you finally did it. your reward is nothing.

i was in a bad state when i played disco elysium for the first time. playing it felt like smashing myself into a glass slide and slotting myself under a dissection scope. there i was, transparent as an amoeba with all its pulsing organelles visible and open to scrutiny. therein lie the mechanisms that i could not perceive as they ticked in myself.

[renmorris]

finger on the eject button seems to be marked with Suicide Is Painless in the code, which is a good fit.

the particular kind of suicidal despair you reach when you realize your body's only worth is to the to state (especially if it’s a tool of violence) and being trapped in a situation where the only way you can regain bodily autonomy is to take your life. is of course. extremely fucking relevant to Disco Elysium’s internal dialogues of poverty, living in an occupied nation, being disabled, and policing etc

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Hey so about SPD - I think I have complications from it still, my kid is like a year old. Do you have any advice on dealing with that?

Hi yes! It's funny because so much of my tumblr is Marvel fandom but I forget how some of my "indignities of gestating" posts break containment. Hi friend! Congrats on your one year old. What a sweet age!

So, to everyone who may read: when you make a whole baby inside your musculoskeletal system and especially if you eject it vaginally (well probably c-sections too I just don't know about them) it's not surprising that some of your body parts end up in the wrong place as a side effect. I do NOT UNDERSTAND why assessing for such issues is not standard. It makes me SO ANGRy. So yes I will now overshare about my experience.

You may want a chiropractor to realign your pelvis/hips/spine/etc post partum, I did this and I believe it helped. It may take 2-3 visits if things are really out of whack. If the chiro doesn't give you exercises to strengthen in addition to realignment, then I would get thee to a physical therapist next. Or do PT first if you have to choose.

Physical therapy, specifically strengthening your thighs, hips and pelvic floor I would guess, may help. You (everyone!) should find a PT that knows things about post partum bodies, which is not every physical therapist. I ended up going to a person who specialized in pelvic floor weakness after my first kid and then I had diastasis recti, which is when your ab muscles separate, as well as pelvic floor drama, after the second.

Both times I was able to find a PT with post partum experience by just calling the larger PT places in town and asking for that.

Fyi: Diastasis recti: (If you tense your ab muscles and push down right above or below your belly button, those muscles should not have a gap wider than a finger or so there, if they do that's diastasis recti and physical therapy will help). (Fwiw I didn't know I had DR but I went to the PT for crippling back pain figuring something was broken and hey! that's what it was. Fun story but my second kid was born 10 lbs and then doubled in size like immediately and oh my god. Sometimes I see one year olds that are the size my monster was at 3 months. I still remember trying to fit him in a newborn size diaper at the hospital and he just busted out of it. The nurses were so excited to weigh him when he was born because they had bets on if he would top 10 lb. When the midwife was checking my abdomen to feel his position while I was in labor, she said in alarm, "how tall are you??" i said "about 6 ft." And she said, "wow! Your baby is really huge!"

That entire human was IN MY BODY and yes, he left a trail of damage. (I love him)

My point is, most of my issues were fixed within 8 physical therapy visits. EIGHT. Miracle.

Pelvic floor: My pelvic floor muscles were so fucked over after baby #1, which I think can link with SPD, that I couldn't feel that I couldn't exercise them. This caused me a lot of issues.

So the PT hooked me up to a machine that let me see when I actually was or was not stimulating those muscles and then I was eventually strong enough to be able to do kegels and a bunch of other things. It was miraculous. I should find that woman and send her flowers as I am grateful for her help literally every time I sneeze or cough or walk up stairs (because I don't pee or have severe pain when I do those things.)

If you don't have access to physical therapy, then you might look up the SPD exercise of squeezing a can between your knees, which was my favorite. The Yoga pose bridge (with can between your knees) was also great.

As well as doing anything to gently strengthen your thighs, hips and core. Gentle yoga will help a lot, and probably not make anything worse, and well as squats and leg lifts.

Everything is all wibbly wobbly and timey wimey (wait that's the tardis) and a safe bet is slowly making things from your knees to your belly button stronger.

The safest bet is to have an actual professional diagnose what's happening. If you are really out of alignment, the muscle strengthening isn't going to help, and if your muscles are off balance (like when my pelvic floor muscles were so weak) strengthening around it can exascerbate the imbalance and increase back pain.

I really hate taking care of myself and doing maintenance but a lot of this is fixable with just a couple visits.

So please don't suffer another year without checking in with a professional. Because you deserve to have answers and live pain free. ❤️❤️❤️ Please feel free to comment/chat if you have questions.

[leviathan-ghoul]

Take to the Heavens

PROLOGUE: Lone Soldiers

DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT

hello all. this fic is purely for my venting, and is not well proofread. if there are any mistakes, DM me about them. this piece as a whole will feature heavy angst, death, etc. and because of my multiple warnings, I don’t want to hear comments about brutality. thank you.

also later on, it will feature some angsty romance and potentially lemon. this is a war fic, after all.

WARNINGS: angst, death, body horror, missing limbs, appendages, etc.

It was in Tern’s best interest to keep quiet. To keep his involvement with this person on the down-low as possible to avoid the potential consequences.

He was to have no distractions.

And he understood the nature of his Captain. His bloody, ruthless actions with no fear of hell for them. And oh, how Tern prayed that hell was real and waiting for him.

He lived in a county overtaken by a band of mercenaries. Every city inside featured its own few districts, each varying in its level of surveillance. They handed the government enough money to let them stay there and do whatever they wanted as long as they were responsive to orders. The rich moved out before their rule was set in stone, and others either stayed and were subject to it, or they ran. Though now, it was too late to escape.

There were hardly any standing fences outside the city, no walls to bar the people in. The only stationary force was their immortal fear.

Not that all the soldiers wanted this either. Tern, for one, was just as afraid to use his rifle as any civilian was to meet its barrel.

And with trembling hands, he took aim. He blinked back tears and dust in his eyes and squinted into the sight.

Father, forgive me.

He pressed the stock firmly into his shoulder and firmly gripped the handguard, being without his stand or a ledge to rest it on.

I tried not to do it.

With one final quick aim, he rested his finger over the trigger. This person was perfectly in posed for him, partway through dragging themself over a civilian’s wooden fence. He appeared to be stuck in that process.

Please, God…

His finger was poised over the trigger, too hesitant to pull it yet without one final prayer.

Grant me forgiveness… and for this innocent civilian.

His jaw tensed, and his body jolted with the impact of the gun as he yanked his finger back towards himself. He could see in the distance, the escapee dropping limp as a cloth doll, still slung awkwardly over the fence. The blood trailing down from his wound would stain the wood forever.

One man down, another traumatized. He counted on that the house’s resident had been watching the ordeal go down. Either way…

Tern took a deep breath and flicked his safety switch on before ejecting the magazine and turning his gaze to the cloudy sky. The forecast said rain, and he could smell it in the air.

Death clouded around him, and he felt as though he was trapped in a haze. His limbs fell slack as the illusion of those cold, dead hands pulled and prodded at his uniform. His vision became speckled with iridescent spots. The hands locked around his arms, caught on the fabric, and clung for their long lost lives at his throat. He couldn’t breathe.

In his slurred thoughts, he came to a realization. Maybe this was the end. Maybe this one murder was God having enough. He would soon be pulled down to the underworld to join his many fallen comrades. The flames of hell would swallow him whole for his crimes and his tormentors would look on. All this, for eternity. Forever. There was no escape. It would never end… it would never end…

The chirp of his radio returned feeling to his limbs, and he scrambled up to respond to the voice that would come through.

“Snow Hare to Tern, is your task completed? Over.”

Tern could barely make out what he said, with the breeze whistling in his ears and the static interference. He must have been pretty far away. Fumbling with the device, he found the buttons he needed.

“This is Tern,” he replied with a short pause afterwards, filled with an awkward “…um,” as he thought of just how to word it. “Affirmative.”

“Heard. Report back to Northeast; you have that physical scheduled.”

Oh, that’s right. How could he have forgotten? He quickly calculated how long it would take for him to get there from his location.

“I’m on my way now.”

“Heard. Over and out.”

And upon slinging the rifle over his shoulder, returning the magazine to its slot on his vest,

“Heard. Over and out.”

He clipped his radio back onto his vest, securing it. And after he slung his rifle over his shoulder, shoved the magazine back under its strap on his vest and adjusted his mask, he hopped off his perch and jogged off.

—

Meanwhile, a mechanic was finishing his training at the Porthaven camp. It was on the east coast of the country, on the edge of a lively city.

He was about to receive his certification and license, and today was the day he would be signed into the workforce of the military.

Leo Majewski, going on seventeen, would be the youngest of them.

As he finished his training, overwhelming senses flooded his chest. Paying little attention to his mentor overlooking his assigned task-- his test of sorts-- he was focused on the tingling swell that built up in his chest. Worry; any number of things could happen to him. He could hardly rule out being sent back for more training, or being deemed too capable and sent to the Iron Hills. But excitement just as well... he would work with the best of those in his profession. Where, in his opinion and humble view, he was meant to be.

"Good, very good." Gretch commented on the flawless engine that had been put together from scratch. That was certainly one hell of a final project. "I... think that's all I had to examine you on." The trainer strode over to the scribbled notes on his clipboard-- the papers which looked like they got caught in a jet turbine-- and skimmed them over. Muttering to himself, his gaze occasionally flicked up to the anxious Leo before him. The trainee shifted his weight awkwardly between feet and willed his hands to stay still.

"... No, I..." Gretch begrudgingly set the clipboard back down onto his work bench, where an array of tools, papers and miscellaneous trinkets threatened to avalanche onto the cracked concrete floor. "That was it, Leo. I got nothing else to feed you."

Before Leo could fully process it, he allowed himself to laugh slightly. It was a pathetic huff that signified how exhausted he had been after all this. How he'd been chewed up and spat out by this intensive training. How all his work had paid off. He felt as though he could collapse from relief.

And though Gretch didn't want to send this trainee out onto the field, this trainee that he had pulled numerous all-nighters with, whose determination was reckless and unmatched, who he just wanted to keep to build him up for a little while longer,

it was time to let him go.

"You're a good kid." Gretch reached over to ruffle his short hair, "I hope you know that." He paused to take in Leo's full excitement that boiled up inside him and threatened to spill over. "Just wait 'till you get your license and certification." Oh, he'd be over the moon.

Leo would never know just how gifted he was. Gretch only hoped that someone could help him realize it.

[ohthatstragic]

help

i have like a 5,000 word fic laying in my drafts but it's sort of the same as the other ones i've posted - that being where mav has feels for the reader, and reader has feels for him etc...

but it's about the reader being in a similar situation to goose, and mav freaks out, idk whether to post it or not cos of the pining plot i'm apparently addicted to writing about lmao

honestly i might just post it anyway, i haven't got any sad things on here.

DON'T JUDGE ME, i'm a sucker for the pining vibes :(

here is a snippet of it:

With a sharp inhale, you narrowed your eyes on the white container sat in front of you. "We're out of time, I'm dropping blind!" As you lined up the crosshair as close as you could on the target, your thumb pressed the red button upon the stick; a soft click emitting from it. Two missiles deployed from the bottom of your F-18 and they hit slightly to the right of the centre circle. "Shit, missed!" You growled in frustration. Immediately, your fisted hands went to grab a hold of the stick again and pulled it back, setting the jet to fly upwards. Your body sunk into the leather seat and it felt like your chest was on fire again from how hard you were fighting to breathe. Gravity pushed down on your lungs like a huge boulder. You could feel the whoosh of blood leaving your brain and travelling to your legs; your heart beat going ten to the dozen. A suffocated grunt emerged from your mouth as alarms suddenly started to sound from the inside. A jarring crunch rattled through the body of the jet as a bright red light flashed, showing 'Engine Failure'. "Shit!" You gasped, eyes going wide in panic. They darted across the front panel of the jet, the red glare of the glowing buttons reflecting on your visor. "Engine failure, engine failure," You repeated as your twitching fingers flew to flick a few select switches in an attempt to regain control. "Attempting to restart engines."

Your stomach hit your throat as the plane began to fall downwards, stuck in an uncontrollable spin. One hand gripped the stick in front and pulled back in an attempt to pull up, however, it didn't help. With the insane momentum and speed at which you were falling, it made your head begin to spin; your vision soon becoming victim to it as well. "Come on, baby, come on!" You screamed, petrified, the cold air beginning to scrape against your throat as you desperately fought to breathe.

"Y/C/S, eject, eject!" You heard Maverick shout in your ear through comms. Your mind went foggy as you stared at the oncoming twirling earth below you. "You're in a tailspin at a low altitude, it's unrecoverable! Eject!" He shouted again. Your breathing was ragged and wretched as you threw your hands on the handle beneath your pilot seat and tugged at it.

"It's not working, Mav!" You screamed through the radio. Your instantly eyes darted to the altitude needle, which was spinning round and round as you descended to the ground. The numbers were falling impossibly fast now, nearing three and a half thousand feet now. You were losing air, and fast.

"Keep trying! Pull it as hard as you can, you've got this!" Maverick desperately shouted, watching helplessly from afar. His mind began to scramble as waves of anxiety and panic flooded his body. Goose. "C'mon, Y/C/S!" He screamed and tried to blink away the flashbacks that began to trickle into his head, tears pricking his eyes. He couldn't lose someone else this way. And especially not you.

"Goose, I'm losing control, I'm losing control, I can't control it!" Maverick said quickly, his hands gripping onto the centre stick for dear life. "It won't recover, shit!" The environment surrounding the two was spinning, disorientating the two young pilots. From the momentum of the spin, Maverick was shoved against the wall of the cockpit, his hands pressed up against the window like a child at a candy shop.

"Mav, we're out of control! This shit- this is not good!" Goose grunted, the force of the fall crushing his lungs. Maverick's mind was spinning just like his jet.

"I can't reach the ejection handle, Goose, you gotta do it," Maverick shouted from in front. "Eject, eject, eject!" Goose did so, and then the unimaginable happened...

if you did like it, let me know and i'll consider posting it :) i'll clean it up a bit before i do

[merinnan]

DMBJ Ep 6

I’ve been a bit behind putting these up on Tumblr, so I’m afraid you’re about to get a dump of the remainder of Season 1, plus the first two eps of Explore with the Note! (not all in one post, of course - 1 ep per post as usual)

So! Episode 6!

The Xiaoge Rescue Count at the start of ep 6 stands at 9 for Wu Xie, 12 for the protagonists, 13 for everyone.

- And we start back with Chengcheng and High Jr. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS SUBPLOT, MAKE IT GO AWAY AND BRING BACK XIAOGE AND WU XIE. 

- Why is Chengcheng calling her kidnapper dage? I don't like her or trust her. She is annoying and shady

- Oh, good, now we are back to Wu Xie being a good boy 

- That is a lot of guns and explosives Sanshu has recovered

- I am annoyed at how they all seem to think that A-Ning needs to be shielded from everything unpleasant because she's a girl. She's a goddamn mercenary leader. I think she can take knowing these things - and it's better to let her know as it's found out so that she can adjust to the news properly, instead of springing it on her when it can't be concealed anymore, like what happened when the blood zombie showed up.

- On a completely different tangent, Wu Xie's neck dressing has stayed astonishingly clear for running around in a tomb, crawling through tight tunnels, falling off of ledges and being dramatically rescued, fighting bugs, and fainting all over floors.

- Wu Xie is so sweetly optimistic 

 - LOL, sure Pangzi, you're here for archeological study 

- ....Wu Xie, you are disturbingly knowledgeable about guns for a college student

- Now that I've read the first novel between having watched ep 5 and now, my mind is slightly reeling from how innocent and babie drama Wu Xie is compared to novel Wu Xie 

- Awww. Doesn't matter which Wu Xie it is, babie with gun always looks kinda adorable.

- Also, I appreciate Wu Xie's trigger discipline. So often shows have such terrible trigger discipline. 

- Oooh, it's like a carved thing on the dais that got his attention. I thought it was like a computer drive or something at first, because it looked kinda like that.

- OH NO, THE LIVING VINES ARE HERE AND SNEAKING UP ON THEM 

- ...and pushing the button made them retreat 

- ...phew? 

- I am still concerned 

- The music signifies that something creepy is coming 

- lol, babie. Looking so innocent even though He Knows What He Did

- I don't know what that sound is, but that's not a good sound 

- ...earthquake? That's a bad thing to happen when you're in the middle of an evil cave. 

- WU FAMILY, WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONES TRYING TO STAY ON YOUR FEET WITHOUT HOLDING ONTO ANYTHING?! 

- So fucking stubborn

- This is where Wu Xie gets it from, if Erbai is wondering 

- A-Ning is the smartest one, staying sitting down 

- The tree opens up like a fucking security vault and ejects a coffin. Because of course if fucking does. 

- Oooh, yeah, that's that shot from the opening credits 

- "I can't read any of this, but it says this is the guy we're looking for" 

- "His story recorded here is the same as what we know" WU XIE YOU JUST SAID YOU CAN'T READ IT

- Come on. Earlier in the show you said "yes I can read this" and read it. And in the novel, you puzzle it out from being able to read bits. This part, you flat out said he couldn't read it, and now are telling everyone what it says 

 - I love continuity, but dramas really don't

- The music now is similar enough to the Harry Potter music that I almost expect an owl to go flying past 

- The owner of a coffin wanting the coffin to be opened hundreds or thousands of years later seems like it should be something more worrying than how everyone is reacting

- I wanna know how Sanshu knows the coffin has been there for 3000 years. Wu Xie can't read the dates on it, and the Warring States Period was 1500 years ago, not 3000 

- JESUS CHRIST, SANSHU, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE SENSIBLE ONE!

- Why are you suggesting you open the chained shut coffin in order to see if there's somehow something alive (or alive-ish) in there? 

- Awwww! Wu Xie going "no, don't do that, Pokerface told us not to touch anything"

- Like. Not, "no uncle, that seems like a bad idea" 

- But "Xiaoge told us not to, and we should do what he says" 

- I have the feeling that if this Pangzi is agreeing with something, then you all should not be doing that thing. Because this version of Pangzi is an idiot

- HOW THE FUCK IS THE MOVING COFFIN GOING TO SECRETLY HAVE THE EXIT INSIDE IT, PANGZI 

- THAT MAKES THE LEAST SENSE OUT OF EVERYTHING SO FAR 

- Pan Zi's "WTF do you think you're doing" look

- This Pangzi is so bad 

- I even like Chengcheng better than him. And I wish they had taken her into the tomb and used her as bait. 

- I'm glad he's better in other adaptations. Like, I love the Pangzi in Chongqi. I am so glad that he was my intro to Pangzi, not this one

- DON'T MAKE THE BABIE SAD BY BEING DUMB

- A-Ning really should not be just standing there with her leg injury. I've had a muscle biopsy before where they took it from the thigh, which is a similar 'injury' to what she's got, and you do not get on your feet unless you absolutely have to for days afterwards.

- At least they have her limp when she's walking, and it's kinda sad that I'm glad they do that! 

- And Pan Zi should not be doing hard physical labour with a fucking gut wound

- But I think I'm more annoyed by A-Ning, because I have personal experience with her kind of injury so know first-hand what kind of pain she's causing herself by standing and walking 

- HUMAN BRAIN LOGIC GO

- Pangzi you fucking dick, just standing there watching. You should be pushing instead of Pan Zi 

- Hahahah, after all his shittalk and boasting, and he can't do it 

- Oh, there, finally

- I know that inside lid is supposed to be jade, but it looks so terribly fake. Oh my god. It's awful 

- It looks like a bad Photoshop of one of those Windows 98 default backgrounds

- I love the looks everyone gives Pangzi every time he slips up and talks about getting money from the stuff in the tomb 

- LOL, that's not a carving, that's a couple of translucent green plastic discs stuck on top of Windows Background Photoshop cover

- ...I'm kinda waiting for someone to suddenly shout BOO! really loudly while they're all carefully trying to listen for any sounds in the coffin

- They're almost at the end of the first novel in terms of plot, and there's still 4 and a half eps to go

- Wow, I think that's the first time I've seen Sanshu actually worried 

- lol, and now Pangzi says he believes him, rather than get his ear that close to the coffin himself 

- PANGZI DON'T STARTLE SOMEONE WHO HAS THEIR FINGER ON THE TRIGGER OF A GUN & DEFINITELY DON'T SMACK THE GUN

- Wu Xie has a lot of control to have not accidentally shot right then

- LOL, after all their declarations how they're archaeologists, not tomb robbers, & how they're here to protect cultural artefacts from robbers, etc - they go make references to the northern and southern schools of tomb raiding

- Just without actually saying exactly what the 'Southern School' being referred to actually is. 

- ....and now Pangzi jumps in front of the pointed gun as he grabs it. Do you have a fucking death wish, dude? 

 - And now we see the infamous bronze armour! Jade armour. Whatever

- You'd think they'd have learned to fucking take all of A-Ning's guns away from her after last time she held one of them at gunpoint 

- OMG, the face on the helmet is so fucking ridiculous, I can't - It's not even properly positioned over his face

- Aaaaah, Sanshu called him tianzhen  I'm so happy at being able to identify that word now it's ridiclous 

- That...that is not what peeled skin looks like 

- Pangzi comes right out and admits he's a tomb robber 

- And for the first time, no-one calls him on it

- Or correct him for calling them tomb robbers 

- Ah, there you are, Xiaoge. I was wondering how long it would take for you to be back 

- I see looking for people in a tomb requires no shirt XD

- Better shots of shirtless Xiaoge

- Like, same, Wu Xie. Same.

- Look, I have two braincells, and one is for Xiaoge and one is for pingxie

- YOU ACTING LIKE THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS, PANGZI

 - Oooh, this is a goood shot of the tattoo. And of who the tattoo is on

- I don't have a Xiaoge problem. It's the opposite of a problem.

- Seriously, Pangzi is so fucking lucky that Xiaoge didn't kill him a dozen times over during their first meetings here

- Also, now that Xiaoge has explained why he threw a knife at Pangzi, I believe it's time to update the Xiaoge Rescue Count to 9 for Wu Xie, 13 for the protagonists, 14 for everyone.

- Although maybe I should have also been keeping a People Eyerolling At Pangzi Count given how often it's been happening

- More Xiaoge pics, feat. emotions that are not 'worrying about Wu Xie'

- Also, did he throw the corpse off the platform after he broke it's neck, or did it yeet itself off somehow? 

- I mean, I too wanna know how Xiaoge knows all this stuff if this was all put here 3000 years ago

- I do love that Wu Xie is already about the only person who Xiaoge will actually look at instead of staring down or straight ahead

- LOL, Wu Xie won't even let Pangzi so much as touch this. 

- I honestly appreciate that Xiaoge appears to travel lightly enough that he doesn't have a spare shirt

- EVERYTHING makes Wu Xie better than everyone else (except Xiaoge), Pangzi

- lol, Sanshu, yes. You tell him. 

- Hahahah, and Wu Xie playing along with Sanshu, the little adorable shit 

 - THE LOOK ON HIS FACE 

- KJFDHKJDAFHFKASDJHFKJASDLHGFSKLJ 

- AND DON'T THINK I DON'T SEE THAT SMIRK, WU XIE 

- There is absolutely not enough of little shit!Wu Xie in S1

- Loooool, his little nod at Sanshu now that they got their way and made Pangzi promise to stfu for the time being 

- And that is the first time I've seen that style of carriage roll like a car 

- Those skull ballistae were a cool aesthetic, though

- THAT CARRIAGE WAS ROLLING LIKE A FUCKING CAR, HOW IS IT BACK UPRIGHT AND ROLLING ALONG THE GROUND TO THE CLIFF 

- HOW TF IS IT ROLLING ANYWHERE WITH A SMASHED WHEEL 

- HOW TF IS HE ABLE TO HOLD IT FOR EVEN A SECOND, ESPECIALLY WITH ONE HAND

- A thin as fuck flagpole is going to give you jack shit in terms of something to brace with when it comes to that much weight 

- THE SCRIPTWRITER OF THIS SCENE IS BAD AND SHOULD FEEL BAD 

- *cries in physics minor*

- I can suspend disbelief for aliens, zombies, everything about Xiaoge, logic holes, and plot pits. Apparently my line is a non-cultivator breaking the laws of physics. 

- Aaaah, here come the zombies 

- So this dude is not the zombie dude 

- He is the emperor, I think?

- OH MY GOD THAT GREENSCREEN IS JUST THE WORST 

- I thought the one on the river was bad. The one of her falling as he dives off the cliff to save her is actively painful 

- Oh, now it looks like we're gonna have a dumb love triangle in the flashback. Yay. *waves tiny flag*

- Bitch, be a bit more grateful. Yes, your ex-lover caught you as you were falling & did so by basically flying, but that's just standard wuxia defiance of physics. Your husband held a FUCKING CARRIAGE with ONE HAND for AT LEAST TWO WHOLE MINUTES to keep you alive before your ex finally showed up

- "Were you really frightened?" Your majesty, what kind of a stupid question is that? 

- The emperor's armour is really pretty, I gotta say 

- Uuuugh, this stupid love story hurts in a bad way 

- I'm just gonna fast forward through it 

- ...and there's the end of the episode.

- That love triangle is going to make me scream, I know it 

- But that does explain how they're going to pad out the episodes a bit more with how far through the plot they are already 

- None of them are even really that pretty to make up for the boring, trite, love triangle plot

- How do they expect to keep my attention through it if I don't even have eye candy?!?! 

- I will be seriously headdesking if this flashback goes on for more than the next ep! 

- Oh well, there we are. The end of ep 6

The Xiaoge Rescue Count at the end of ep 6 stands at 9 for Wu Xie, 13 for the protagonists, 14 for everyone. 

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Imot, the Symbol of Doom

True Neutral Psychopomp Usher of Inevitability, Mathematics, and Portents

Domains: Luck, Repose, Rune, Weather Subdomains*: Curse, Psychopomp, Legislation, Storms

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 9

Obedience: Spend an hour in a dark space barely large enough for you to fit and cast your thoughts out from your body. Benefit: Gain a +4 insight bonus on Perception checks to spot portents and traps; this expanded insight also allows you to disable magic traps as if you had the Rogue’s Trapfinding ability.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals. Anywhere!)

Pity you ended up in a desert for this adventure, eh? No, but finding a space ‘barely large enough for you to fit’ is likely going to be difficult if you’re not an urban environment. Most DMs will just wave their hand and say that there’s an outcropping of rocks or a hollowed out tree here or there that will allow you to complete your Obedience, but if you’re in hostile territory it may become more and more difficult to find a safe space for you to squeeze down into. I suppose you could technically carry or create your own by toting around a sack just barely you-sized, but then comes the awkwardness of getting into and out of the thing each day. Do you ask for help? Or do you trust that you’ll eventually escape? Many Obediences have an unspoken ‘eject button’ that lets you leap from the ritual and defend yourself if necessary and begin again later, but Imot’s Obedience leaves you terribly, terribly vulnerable.

Also, “cast your thoughts from your body” is a strange sentence to me. Is that just a fancy way of saying ‘meditate?’ Do you legitimately have to try and astral project? Is it ‘cast them out’ in a ‘wander elsewhere with your mind’ way, or an ‘empty your mind’ way? Hrm.

Well, anyway, that’s a REAL nice benefit, a whole head and shoulders above the usual fare of ‘on par with a feat.’ Perception checks are the most-rolled checks in the game, and keeping an eye out for traps is one of its most important functions. As for what ‘spotting portents’ entails, it’s annoying to have to detail this out, but portents are basically omens or warnings. The tide suddenly receding heralds a tidal wave, the skies above darkening signaling a terrible storm, a depressed wall plate signals a trap is set, claw marks in the door suggests its occupant is terrible and sharp... Things like that. It’s basically an excuse to have you spot tiny details that foretell incoming disasters, with is a delightful ability to have if the DM can play around with it. Why yes, you notice that merchants hands are backwards right away...

Oh, also, disabling magic traps is nice... But uh, best to leave that to the experts, unless you are the expert, since this ability doesn’t actually make you any better at dispelling or disarming them.

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons. 

Boon 1: The Coming Storm. Gain Doom 3/day, Scare 2/day, or Rain of Frogs 1/day.

Doom, despite having such an ominous name, is only level 1 and causes the target to become shaken. Powerful at low levels, but it falls off quickly and its nature as an emotion/mind-affecting effect make a painful number of monsters immune to it.

Scare is, perhaps, even more painfully outclassed than Doom, because it only affects creatures who have less than 6 HD. I find it amusing that Doom and Cause Fear are the same level, but Doom is infinitely better. Scare is a step up from Cause Fear, but not a HUGE step. It’s useful for cowing a legion of smaller foes into submission, but once you start hitting the mid/upper levels, you won’t really find many creatures worth using this power on that you couldn’t just deal with using a different spell.

And thus, we get to Rain of Frogs, one of the best spells in the entire game if only because causing a flood of amphibians to fall upon your foes is one of the best possible uses for magic in existence. Also, I linked to the spell’s page because I enjoyed how much and how little patience the authors of the website had and just conglomerated all the information you need to use the spell in one simple page. Nice of them! Anyway, with a range of Close comes the power to drop your poisonous frog storm directly into an enemy’s square, which is endlessly useful when dealing with casters or fleeing foes. I’d pick Rain of Frogs every single time, as the other two don’t even come close to comparing to its power or utility.

Followers of Imot always know that the Coming Storm is composed entirely of frogs.

Boon 2: Insight Into Disaster. You add your Wisdom modifier to Initiative checks and Reflex saves.

Alright YEAH! Initiative checks GO!!! I really hope you didn’t dump Wisdom, because people who didn’t get rewarded HARD. Moving first is perhaps the most important thing you can do in combat, letting you strike first, buff first, retreat first, etc etc etc. And you not only get that, but the added benefit of adding Wis to your Reflex saves as well. Casters typically have poor Reflex saves AND poor-to-middling Dexterity, and this solves both of those issues in one fell swoop.

Also, this is an untyped bonus, allowing it to stack with pretty much every other buff in the game. ...

... Alright, I think that covers it. Flat stat boosts are always boring to discuss, no matter HOW excited I am to see that you can potentially double your Initiative and Ref.

Boon 3: Call Down the Wrath. 1/day you can cast Extended Control Weather.

That’s altered weather patterns for 4d12x2 hours, by the by. Realistically, about 1 to 2 days of weather control (the average roll is 26, which doubles to 52), but if you’re especially lucky you can muck with up to four days of weather. Even a low roll sees 8 hours of climate change, a full adventuring day! With an area of 2 miles centered on you and the potential to have the spell last 2, 3, or 4 days, you can have the effect overlap itself and just have an eternal 2-mile bubble of whatever you want it to be. Become the very avatar of tumultuous climates as you stroll from place to place with dark clouds both heralding your arrival and shadowing your departure, or go in the opposite route and just give yourself a perpetual spring day!

It takes 10 minutes to cast this spell and 10 minutes to alter the weather in a meaningful way, so if you want to be DRAMATIC with it you need to time it exactly. Queue up a thunderstorm BEFORE strolling into the enemy evil leader’s base and demanding their cooperation and snapping your fingers to cause it should they fail to comply... Or, y’know, to celebrate the occasion should they actually comply. It’s a warning! A display!

It’s really easy to abuse this spell thanks to even the lowest possible roll still meaning you have 8 hours to muck about with an enormous patch of weather. Need to sneak somewhere? Create thick fog, torrential rain, or snowstorms to hide your movement. Need to clear out an enemy camp? Terrible heat or cold could make them move. Need to halt an enemy army? Bring down catastrophic hail or a tornado to rip through them. You can’t directly control where the tornado will travel or how the hail will fall, so make sure you’re protected from your own actions! And know that your allies and friends aren’t spared from you Calling Down the Wrath, but luckily being a Proctor demands skill in Abjuration anyway, so assure everyone possesses shields and wards!

Or, you know, march your lonesome self into enemy territory. That’s an option, too!

I really, really love this reward because Control Weather is one of my lower-key favorite spells. It’s one of the few that actually makes you feel like a God, which everyone knows is what magic is all about! Too bad Imot is one of the Ushers that leans more towards the Evil side of the Neutral spectrum.

Side note: Since using a spell-like ability isn’t technically ‘casting’ a spell, Druids don’t get the bonus of doubling the already-doubled duration or the 3-mile radius.

You can read more about it here.

[dearophelia]

gonna set your flag on fire - chapter 2

Thirty years after the war, things are as close to normal as they’ll get. Garrus is the turian councilor and Olivia runs Galactic Affairs, helping the galaxy rebuild. They’ve happily settled into the life they’ve built. Their kids are grown, and out living their own lives.But something goes wrong on Nora’s latest mission. Very wrong. 

chapter 02: we were born to break the doors down 

In which we meet the team. (read on AO3)

Major thanks to everyone who liked, commented, reblogged, etc., the first chapter of this! I’m really excited people are interested in reading about Nora. Additional gratitude to my cheerleaders @nightingaleseeking and @tarysande

A quick note: Alle is pronounced “Allie"

2214 - 23 years later

“Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit SHIT.”

“Use your words, Torrini,” Nora says, crouched behind a boulder. Her supply pylon whirs and drops an arc grenade. She snaps it onto her bandolier.

“Bad guys. Lots of guns. Chasing me. Fuck!” His voice pitches upward as he draws out the curse to three syllables.

“You did volunteer to play bait,” Micah reminds him. He sets his Black Widow on the boulder in front of him and peers through the scope. He looks at Nora on the opposite side of the creek, shakes his head, and sits down again.

“Not! Helping!” Carlos shouts, followed by a rapid bang of Mattock fire.

Movement catches Nora’s eye; she looks down by her feet, and instantly regrets it. An orange and black spider the size of her hand crawls up out of the grass onto her boulder. It starts to turn grey, camouflaging itself against the rock. Nora shudders and swallows back a gag: her armor these days is black with an orange stripe down the arm.

There’s a tiny splash, and she looks over at Micah.

“You okay?” he says off comms.

She grimaces and pushes stray pieces of hair out of her face. Her braid was intact this morning, and then she stepped out of the tent. “We need to get off this planet.” It’s not the worst place they’ve ever been, not even in the top ten, but it’s hot and humid and she’s covered in itchy mosquito bites. And it has large spiders that can camouflage themselves.

Something crawls up her neck and she slaps at it. She looks down at her gloved fingers: nothing. She rubs at her neck just to make sure, and brushes away any other sweat that’s about to drip. At least the mission’s been pretty simple.

A biotic boom thunders through the entire valley. The echo’s barely faded before another explosion follows, and then another, coming closer.

“About time Carter got here,” Micah says, shifting his weight so he can pop out of cover as soon as he’s needed. He collapses his Black Widow and exchanges it for his Typhoon.

Nora taps her omnitool, activating the external comm link and bringing their escape route into the conversation. “They’re on their way back, Starkhov. Get ready for extract.” She takes her sunglasses off the top of her head and slides them onto her face.

“On it. Approaching now, three minutes out.”

After her pylon drops a final grenade, she collapses it and attaches the small disc to her armor. This is her last pylon and she can’t afford to leave it anywhere, not until she makes it back to Tereshkova and can pick up the resupply package waiting for her.

The spider, not quite the right shade of grey to blend in perfectly, changes its mind and crawls back into the grass. She scoots as far to the other end of the boulder as she can and still stay in cover. Her boot splashes in the shallow creek and slides a little on an algae-covered rock. She holds her balance and glares down at the grass where she last saw the spider. It’s probably green now, and she’ll never find it again. Good. It can stay here.

The gunfire takes on a louder and sharper edge as the valley narrows and curves down with the river. Nora scopes into her teammates with her Valiant: Alle’s caught up with Carlos, and he’s setting off her annihilation field nearly as much as she is. Despite the force of near-constant biotic explosions, the raiders chasing them aren’t slowed by much. Alle yells to Carlos, and he turns around just in time to smash his omnishield into a raider. Carlos has the upper body strength of a raging bull and the guy goes flying, only to catch the edge of Alle’s biotic explosion and sail through the air like a ragdoll.

“Cover fire would not go unappreciated!” Alle shouts.

Nora and Micah both open fire. Nora ejects a spent thermal clip with one hand and flicks the pin out of a grenade with the other. “Fire in the hole!” she warns. Alle and Carlos sprint as hard as they can, and Nora hurls the grenade into the crowd behind them. It hits the ground with an angry electric crackle that shocks and stuns everyone within its range, giving her teammates half a moment to breathe.

Engines rumble overhead as Lucy flies into the valley. She sets the shuttle down, keeping it hovering for easier take off, a hundred yards behind Nora. The hatch opens and a combat drone flies out, speeding down the valley toward the stunned raiders.

Nora holsters her Valiant, exchanging it for her Locust, and shifts so she’s squatting. She throws another grenade, and so does Micah. As soon as the other two run past her boulder, she pushes off, sprinting for the shuttle with Micah right behind her. Lucy has the shuttle moving half a second after Micah has both feet in the shuttle, and takes off.

Micah hits the door control, silencing the wind and birds and gunfire of pissed off raiders outside.

Nora pushes her sunglasses up into her hair. “Did you get it?”

Breathing hard, Alle nods and pushes back her hood, then slips off her backpack. She unzips the main pouch and withdraws a small metal box. “One copy of classified Alliance ship schematics. It didn’t look like they’d transmitted them yet or made copies, but I uploaded Julian's obliteration virus to their server and any contacts from the last month. And destroyed their uplink for good measure.”

Carlos pops open a refrigerated storage compartment in the side of the shuttle. He tosses a bottle of water to each of the other three before unscrewing the cap on one for himself. “I am not playing bait next time,” he says, breathless, once he’s drained half the bottle.

Micah braces a large hand on the top of the shuttle. “You volunteered,” he says again.

“I am just saying,” he says. “I am not bait again.”

Nora opens her omnitool and sends off a quick message to Vega – mission a success, on our way back now – and takes a seat next to Alle. “I’ll be bait next time,” she says to silence the argument, and watches the valley grow smaller and smaller as they fly away.

***

Nora drops into a crouch behind a pile of tires. “This is ridiculous,” she mutters.

Alle nods in agreement from her spot behind a box a few feet away. “Not what I thought day one would look like.” She lifts up just a little to look over the box, and a bullet whizzes past. She ducks down again. “Two bogies, at eleven and three.”

A shot cracks across the field, followed immediately by a loud and emphatic “goddammit!” Both their omnitools light up – Chen, I. eliminated by Rabinowitz, M.

“Make that one bogey,” Alle says, swatting at a grasshopper jumping around in the tall weeds by her feet.

Nora slides the barrel of her Valiant through a tire and surveys the space in front of them. “Eleven o’clock’s still there; I think it’s one of the vanguards.” The red outline in her scope blinks out of existence, only to reappear fifty feet farther away next to another red outline. “No, it’s definitely one of the vanguards.” She waits, but the two outlines don’t move to attack each other. “Looks like they’ve just teamed up with someone.” She scans around the rest of the area in her range. “And we have someone else at two.”

“More like one-thirty,” a new voice says.

Nora spins on the balls of her feet and has her Locust withdrawn and aimed before she’s fully turned around. An impossibly-tall person in deep red armor stands in front of her, assault rifle pointed at her. A quick glance at Alle confirms her friend had the same thought process. She squints at him in the bright afternoon sun. “I rounded up.”

He taps a button and his helmet visor fades, revealing a dark-skinned man with a bright, kind smile. “Mind if I join up with you? You two look like you know what you’re doing.” He lowers his gun.

“We try,” Alle says, lowering her own gun. “Pick a spot.”

“I’m Micah Rabinowitz,” he says, setting up behind a broken Mako between them.

Nora quickly checks the group’s stats - she doesn’t know what Vega’s up to with this exercise, but she does know she doesn’t want to team up with someone who just got a lucky shot. No one gets into ICT based on lucky shots, but still. Some recruits are bound to be better than others.

Micah’s second on the scoreboard, ahead of both her and Alle, although, she notices with a slight spark of joy, she is beating him in headshots. “Nora Vakarian,” she says, holstering her Locust again. “That’s Alexandra Carter.”

Alle looks over at him. “Call me Alle or I will find a box to stand on and punch you in the face.”

Micah smiles. “Roger that.” He looks back at Nora. “Do we have a plan?”

Two biotic booms echo across the field, and their omnitools buzz in unison – Kennedy, C. eliminated by Deckard, O.; Starkhov, L. eliminated by Deckard, O.

“We hadn’t gotten much further than ‘die last,’” Nora admits. Her visor suddenly blares a low-shield warning. “What the hell?” She yanks her Valiant back from the tires and rapidly scopes in on the open area behind them. It’s a kill zone, and they’d assumed no one would be dumb enough to try to cross it in order to flank them. First Micah, and now this; she’s beginning to rethink that logic. Her scope catches someone crouched behind a low bush. “Alle can you deal with the asshole that stole my shields? Seven o’clock.”

With a twist of her hand, Alle pulls an annihilation field around her. “Gladly.” She glances up over the box, then dashes away from it, toward the bush.

Nora settles back in, covering one half of the courtyard. “What brings you to ICT, Rabinowitz?”

“A slight difficulty following mainstream protocol,” he says, a smile evident in his voice.

She glances over and watches him switch out his assault rifle for a sniper rifle. “As in ‘I don’t follow orders well’ or ‘I follow orders, just not how my CO intended’?”

“Second one.”

Smiling, Nora turns back to her rifle. Someone teleports straight into her scope and she takes the shot. Their glowing outline flickers out and, with a visibly-irritated sigh, she pulls off her helmet, nods in Nora’s general direction, and strolls off the field. Rahiri, I., eliminated by Vakarian, N.

“Okay, before you say anything,” Alle says.

Nora looks over her shoulder to see Alle crouched down behind her box again, with another new person beside her. She’d wondered why she hadn’t seen anything in the elimination feed yet. She gestures for Alle to continue.

“He made some very convincing points about us possibly needing a tech specialist.”

Whoever he is, he’s not wrong. And Vega never specified this was a battle royale to the last person standing – he just told them to gear up with target rounds and get the hell out of the shuttles. Three is better than two, but four’s even better. “And he is?”

“Carlos Torrini,” he says. “You got room for a fourth?”

Nora looks at him, and then glances around the pile of tires. She’d been eyeing an empty prefab structure about a hundred yards away, but the closest door is locked. All her decryption programs require direct physical access, and there is absolutely no cover by the door. “Sure. If you can get us into that building,” she points.

Carlos breaks into a wide, crooked grin and opens his omnitool. “Give me ninety seconds.”

***

Debriefed and showered, Nora walks out of the bathroom barefoot and rubs a towel at her hair. Three days of slogging through riverbed and muck made for an unfortunate olfactory experience when they all shed their armor in the locker room. Now, in her quarters, finally clean and in civilian clothing, she’s not quite so tired as she was when she got off the shuttle.

“Tell me you didn’t take all the hot water,” Alle says as she walks into the steamy bathroom.

“There’s still plenty,” she assures at her friend. She drapes the towel over the back of a chair and sits cross-legged on her bunk to check her messages.

Five from Quentus, all of which are memes and only two of which she understands. One from Nico, a funny bird video along with an update that he and his boyfriend have decided to move in together.

Twelve from various teammates, and those can wait until the morning. She sends all social media updates directly to spam and adds a to do list reminder to fix her spam filter.

Two article links from her dad, one titled Boom Tomorrow: Increasing the Effective Range of Hand Grenades from the very-classified Council Defense Research Department she’s finally credentialed enough to know about, and the other a hilariously-scathing review of the new Blasto movie with a suggestion that they go see it the next time she’s on the Citadel (he’ll buy the popcorn). And one message from her mom, just checking in.

She checks the time – 8:45pm on the Citadel, not a bad time to call her parents.

A message pops up: a meeting invite from Vega:

TO: ‘N3 Squad Leaders - Vega’ [Deckard, Ophelia; Vakarian, Nora; Wu, Jonah]

SUBJECT: Mission Briefing

LOCATION: Tereshkova Station, ICT Briefing Room

TIME: 1930, Sunday

DESCRIPTION: Next mission briefing. Deck, bring a notebook this time.

She sends it to her calendar, closes her email and dials a vidcall through to home.

***

The vidcall rings, a happy little tune they’ve set for Nora, and Olivia slides across the hardwood floor in her socks, nearly careening into the wall, as she rushes across the apartment to answer. When she got home today, she’d set her omnitool in her office, closed the door behind it, and silenced all but the main comm unit so she could have a few uninterrupted hours of non-crisis time. With Garrus at a Council meeting, Nora off on a mission, and Quentus drinking his disappointment this weekend (and Nico dealing with him), she hadn’t anticipated that anyone might call home, or that she’d have to race down and across the entire apartment to answer. She taps accept just before it goes to the mailbox.

Nora flickers into view. From her surroundings, Olivia gathers she’s on a ship, one of the small personnel transports the Alliance uses these days. She looks a little tired, but Olivia can’t see any injuries, at least from her shoulders up. Getting hurt in ICT is inevitable, she knows this better than anyone in their family, and she always prefers when Nora’s post-mission calls don’t come from the ship infirmary.

“Hey, kid,” she says.

“Hi, Mom.” Nora’s shoulders settle and the tension in her jaw disappears.

“How are you?” Olivia watches as Nora visibly relaxes. Though she doubts Nora remembers those days alone at all, abandonment still lingers around the edges of her subconscious, even over twenty years later.

“Good. I can’t tell you about it, but the mission went well.”

Olivia smiles proudly. If she remembers the pacing right, Nora’s well on her way to N4 by the end of the year. James and Abby emphasize cooperation over solo missions whenever possible, and she has no doubt Nora’s N4 won’t be nearly as much of a mess as hers was. “That’s good to hear. Any idea when you’ll be back this way?”

“No clue. We’re headed back to Tereshkova; it looks like Vega’s got another op lined up.” Nora plays with her dog tags, sliding them back and forth on the chain as she talks. “That’s part of why I called, actually. Dad said something about going to see the new Blasto, but I don’t know that I’ll be back before it’s been booed out of theaters.” She scrunches up her nose in half a pout. “Is he home?”

Olivia shakes her head. “I’ll let him know you called. He’s in a meeting – they’re voting on new Spectres tonight.”

Her eyes widen in excitement. “Did Quentus make the final cut?”

“Not this time,” she exhales sadly. Her heart aches for her eldest son: he’s wanted to be a Spectre since he first heard about them, even more so when he found out she used to be one. But Quentus is an unstoppable force when he wants something badly enough, and Olivia knows he’ll try again. And again. As many times as he needs. As soon as he wakes up in Nico’s guest room, having slept off the hangover, he’ll be planning.

Nora sighs. “Poor guy. I’ll give him a call tomorrow.”

“You might want to wait until the afternoon. There was something about triple-filtered black label scotch.” Some things are better not to even ask about.

A door opens to Nora’s right and she turns to talk quietly to a person just off screen. She turns back. “I have to go. We’re gonna go raid the mess for food and then Alle has some hanar soap opera,” she makes a confused face and shrugs, “she’s dragging me into.”

Olivia laughs. “Tell Alle I said hi.” A muffled hi Olivia! comes from somewhere offscreen. “And if that upcoming mission of yours happens to have a stop on the Citadel…”

“Believe me, I’ll be coming over for dinner.” Nora grins. “Love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too.”

***

“Admiral, she's a child,” Olivia argues. “You cannot keep her locked up and isolated for her entire life.”

Hackett sighs. “I don’t disagree with you, Shepard. But she has unknown Cerberus technology inside of her. It’s dangerous, and we don't know what it does. And until we do, Alliance brass isn't comfortable letting her live among the general population.”

Olivia squares her shoulders and stares him down across his desk. “All your top scientists confirmed the chip is deactivated. It’s not emitting any signal, it shows no sign of energy or power whatsoever.” She holds up her hand when he opens his mouth to argue. “I’m not saying that it isn’t dangerous, or that she’ll never pose a threat. I’m saying that right now, she’s a scared little girl who wants nothing more than a hug.”

She pauses for half a moment before continuing. She hates what she’s about to say, but she and Garrus talked at length about how she was going to make their case; appealing to the Alliance’s sensitivity and maternal instinct alone was never going to work. “Keeping her locked up as a lab experiment is only going to breed resentment. If the chip does become a problem later and you’ve kept her in a cage, she’s going to be far more dangerous than if you’ve let her be a kid.” If you’ve let her be loved. “The chip’s off for now,” she continues. “Garrus and I are willing and able, and happy, to take her in. And you know you can trust us.”

He sighs again, heavier this time, and scrubs a hand over his face as he leans back in his chair. “You two aren’t exactly out of the spotlight. What happens when some Cerberus agent sees news footage of your family and recognizes her?”

Olivia grinds her back teeth. They’ve been trying to get the press to leave them to their privacy, but she’s even higher-profile now than she was during the war, and Garrus is the sixth-ranking turian in the galaxy. Though the bodyguards Wrex provides help, it’s still an exercise in frustration at times. “She’s three,” she says. “She was born on that station. Everyone on it is dead. Her biological parents are both dead. There’s likely not anyone to recognize her.”

Holding up his hands in defeat, Hackett gives in. “I will bring it up with the others,” he says. “But,” he softens his voice, and she knows that it’s now Steven talking to Olivia, not Admiral Hackett talking to Captain Shepard, “are you going to be able to give her up to us if something does happen?”

She squares her shoulders, looks him right in the eye, and lies. “Yes.”

***

Nora drops into her seat at the large wooden briefing table opposite Deck. They docked at Tereshkova this morning, and she’s spent most of the day shopping for a new visor. Everywhere she tried had the one she wants on backorder; she’ll have to talk to the Alliance’s Ariake rep and maybe flaunt her last name to pull some strings. She pokes her straw through the lid of her iced tea lemonade, swirls the ice around, and takes a sip. It’s absolute heaven, especially after a week of drinking only water and bad Alliance-manufactured coffee. She sniffs the air and squints at the foil-covered package in Deck’s hand. “When did they get a falafel place?”

Deck shrugs, chewing a bite of her pita. “Okay,” she says when Jonah walks in, “I have been coming here for five years and have never found the McDonald’s. Rahiri drew me a damn map last time, and I still couldn’t find it.”

Jonah smirks as he takes a seat two chairs down from Nora. He opens his takeout bag and offers Deck first dibs on his fries. “It’s on the Section 4 docks, around the corner from the quarian fortuneteller. Who, by the way,” he takes his fries back before Deck can eat them all, “is still convinced I died two years ago.”

“Hold up,” Nora says. “You paid fifty credits to a guy – who you already knew was going to tell you that you were dead – to tell you that you were dead? Which you are very clearly not?” She tears a piece off her soft pretzel and pops it into her mouth. While the pretzel is totally delicious, she’ll need to get actual dinner after the briefing before they all land in a bar.

“Yeah, man,” Deck stretches over the table and snags another fry. “If you’re giving money away, I’ll take it.”

“He’s a very sad man who never succeeded in his pilgrimage, but he won’t take a handout. So I pay him fifty credits, he throws some rocks on the table, tells me I’m dead, and he gets to eat dinner tonight that isn’t protein paste.” He moves his fries out of reach and back to safety.

Deck leans back and kicks her feet up onto the chair next to her. “You are so nice,” she points a stolen fry at him, “it’s disgusting.”

Nora catches Jonah’s eye and smiles. She always gives a few credit chits to the kids who hang out on the docks, and they both know Deck does the same in the salarian districts where she buys her snacks. The war ended over thirty years ago, before any of them were born, but scars are everywhere.

The doors swish open and Commander Vega enters. “I’m stealing you from leave; don’t get up,” Vega says when the three lieutenants move to stand. He takes up his position near the head of the table, and stares at Jonah’s food. “Alright,” he sighs, “I live here. Where is the McDonald’s?”

“Section 4 docks, by the quarian fortune teller, apparently,” Deck says. “But I think he’s full of shit.”

“There’s a station directory,” Jonah says flatly.

Biting back a laugh, Nora keeps quiet on the issue: she’s only ever found the McDonald’s by accident, and never anywhere near the Section 4 docks. She jabs her straw at the ice and takes another sip.

Vega blinks at his soldiers, shakes his head, and then kills the lights. He activates the display at the center of the table, and a blue holographic galaxy map flickers into existence. “We’ve got two missions: reaper cults and Cerberus. Any preference what we talk about first?”

“Is there a third option?” Deck asks around a mouthful of falafel.

“Nope.”

“Reaper cults,” Nora says, when neither of the others says anything.

“Right,” Vega says, and taps at the control panel on the wall. “We’ve got reports from both Omega and the quarians of suspicious activity coming and going from the Skepsis relay.” He focuses in on the Sigurd’s Cradle cluster.

The map zooms in past the cluster and to a star system. “It was enough for the quarians to send scouts. They tracked a ship to Psi Tophet, where they found evidence of reaper cult activity. Normally, we’d just keep an eye on it and leave it alone: they’ve largely faded to the edges of the galaxy and keep to themselves.”

Though Deck’s still lounging back in her chair with her feet kicked up on the seat next to her, Nora sees the tension taking hold in her shoulders. Her hand shakes as she sets her sandwich down. They all have their ghosts.

“But?” Deck prompts, voice tight and flat.

“But, twelve cargo ships have gone missing in the last eight months after departing Omega.”

“Things go missing around Omega all the time,” Jonah points out. “Why is this weird?”

Vega taps the panel, and flight paths overlay the galaxy map. “Because all their trajectories required a relay jump at Skepsis, and they were all carrying relatively large hauls of eezo.”

Jonah lifts his eyebrows. “That’s worth investigating.”

“Alliance brass thought so, too. Deck, I know this is an uncomfortable topic for you, but you have firsthand knowledge –”

“Not willingly,” she mutters.

“– of how these cults work. You’d be able to notice things the rest of your squad won’t. I’d like you leading this one.”

Nora watches as Deck takes a deep breath and shoves the tension away when she exhales. It’s impressive. She wishes she was that quick at calming herself whenever Cerberus is up on the monitors.

“Sure,” she says, cracking her neck.

“You’ll take Kennedy, Hayes, and Starkhov. This is recon only. I don’t want you engaging. Hopefully it’s nothing.”

“Twelve missing eezo cargo ships, and reaper cults near the Leviathan homeworld,” Nora says. “I think we can hope it’s nothing all we want.”

Deck points at her, agreeing. “If this is supposed to be recon only, can I have Rahiri instead? Kennedy is not good at stealth.”

Vega shakes his head. “No, Rahiri’s on a mission with Chen.”

The three lieutenants look at each other, and then back to Vega.

“You can’t just leave that there, sir,” Deck says. “Irene and Isaac have been at each other’s throats since the day they met. What the hell do you have them doing together?”

“A classified op, for which both their skills were uniquely suited.”

A moment of silence, and then a collective nod of comprehension. “Assassination,” they say in unison.

Vega clears his throat before any of them can ask for details he can’t give. “You’ll head to Haignere Station, where you’ll meet up with an Omega scout ship that’s establishing a listening station in the Pylos Nebula. They’ll take you to Psi Tophet, at which point you’ll leave in an FTL shuttle and proceed on your own.”

“And we trust Aria T’Loak to follow through with this?” Jonah asks, one eyebrow raised high. He crumples up the foil his burger came in and drops it into the grease-spotted paper bag.

“It’s her eezo shipments that’ve gone missing,” Vega says. “She has a vested interest in this. It’s financial, but no less legit.” He looks at Deck and tosses her an OSD. “Operation Anubis leaves in three days.”

Deck catches the drive, and nods. “Understood.”

“Now,” Vega says, changing the display, “Cerberus.”

Nora swallows, her mouth suddenly dry. If she even still has the memory, it’s dim and buried deep. But she knows what happened, and that alone is enough to conjure up images of a station full of the dead, and a tiny scared toddler tucked up underneath a desk amidst the carnage.

“The galactic intelligence community has assumed for a while that Cerberus is under new, consolidated leadership, but other than an increase in organized attacks, we haven’t found any real proof. However, the Alliance has come across some new information.”

Though the chip hasn’t shown even the slightest hint of energy since it was deactivated, and though she’s taken anatomy courses that taught her it’s impossible, some days she swears she can feel it buzzing in her head. She takes another bite to try to settle her nerves, but her pretzel’s cold now.

“How?” Jonah asks.

“Shadow Broker,” Vega says.

Nora presses her lips together to hold back a smile, despite her mood. She doubts even the highest of Alliance Command knows who Vega’s wife really is. She’s used Liara’s intel herself on a handful of missions, and even once spent a few days on a Broker base hiding out from pirates. Her team keeps pestering her how she knows the Shadow Broker well enough to have access to a base, but she’s gotten very good at shrugging silently. So has Vega.

“The Broker’s intel referenced several Cerberus bases. Scouts checked it out – all abandoned, but information on a server led us to a planet in the Faia system of the Ismar Frontier.” He taps on the interface and the map zooms to the other side of the galaxy, highlighting the second planet. A little label pops up, Zorya.

Deck’s chair squeaks as she sits up to stare at the map. “That is the ass-end of nowhere.”

“That’s probably why they chose it,” Jonah says.

Vega nods. “Zorya used to be Blue Suns headquarters, but the Reapers wiped everyone out. Galactic Affairs rated the system destroyed and abandoned, so it never got any rebuilding attention. Based on the apparent age of the base, we assume Cerberus moved in a few years after the Aquila relay went back online,” he says. “It’s a mid-level research facility, but it’s active, and therefore the best lead we have to find their actual headquarters.”

He zooms in on the planet, focusing on a compound deep in the jungle. “We have blueprints, and their guard rotations and main door access codes as of two weeks ago. Your job is to infiltrate the compound, grab whatever data you find, and then blow it. Captured Cerberus agents are a perk if you can, but thirty years underground probably hasn’t eased their paranoia.”

Nora takes a slow, quiet, deep breath. And then another. Good air in, bad air out. After three, she’s settled enough that she can focus on participating in the briefing. She wipes her clammy palms against her thighs.

Jonah taps on the glass panel built into the table, activating the interface. He calls up data on Zorya. “It rains 98% of the time on that part of the planet, and the only intel we have on plants and wildlife is from the vorcha. Which obviously makes it reliable.” He looks up. “Apparently there are mutated pyjaks and something with very long thorns.”

“We’ve been worse places,” Nora shrugs, calling up her own interface.

Sighing, Jonah shakes his head. “We need to stop saying that.”

“Well,” Deck says, sliding her straw up and down through the lid so it squeaks, “we have.”

“As long as those things with long thorns aren’t trying to digest Torrini, I think we’re okay,” Nora says. The tightness in her shoulders starts to relax as she has something concrete to focus on.

Vega clears his throat. “Even though all of Chimera’s going on this, I’m putting Wu in charge. Vakarian, you’ll be second.” He lifts an eyebrow ever so slightly, a silent inquiry for them to speak now on the matter of command or forever hold their peace.

Normally, she’d argue. Chimera’s her team, and has been from the very beginning. But they’re going into an active Cerberus facility – not just a small cell, an actual fully-functional base – and she probably has no business going on this mission in the first place, even less business leading it. 2IC is fine by her. She nods.

“We’re dubbing this one Operation Grigori. You leave for Haliat-Gemini in four days. You’ll pick up one of our new stealth FTL shuttles from the shipyard, a turian stealth cruiser will take you to the Ismar Frontier, and you’re on your own from there. I want an infiltration plan before you leave.” He tosses Jonah an OSD. “Here’s all the intel.”

“Yes, sir,” Jonah says. He fumbles the catch and has to duck under the table to pick it up. Deck rolls her eyes while Nora bites back a smile.

“Alright, dismissed,” Vega turns the lights back on. “Go have fun.”

The three of them stand, salute, collect their trash, and head toward the door.

“Vakarian, hold up.”

“I’ll meet you there,” she tells Deck and Jonah, and turns around. “Yes, sir?”

He waits until the others are gone and the door’s closed. “Drop the sir.”

She nods. Vega’s her commanding officer, but he’s also known her since she was a kid. Though most of the time they’re Lieutenant Vakarian and Commander Vega, sometimes they need to talk as Nora and James. As weird as it is for her to be ordered to jump out of a dropship six miles aboveground by someone who used to braid her hair, she bets it’s even weirder for him. “What’s up?”

He looks at the display, still showing the Cerberus compound, and then back at her, brow furrowed in concern. “You okay with this one?”

Nora watches the blue hologram slowly spin, giving a full aerial view. “Yes,” she says, more confidently than she feels. Her previous Cerberus missions have always been at a temporary location or a base they stole from someone else - never on their own ground. The chip itches. Not for the first time, she wants to claw inside of her skull and rip it out.

“You sure? I can swap you with Kennedy. Deck won’t mind.”

She studies the map. They’ll need a significant amount of stealth to even get into the facility, and once inside it’s all tight corridors and blind corners. What the team needs is a sniper and non-concussive grenades, not a claustrophobic vanguard. “Yeah,” she says quietly, “I’m sure.” She looks back at him and offers him a smile. “Thanks, though.”

“And you’re good seconding?”

She lets out a short, sharp laugh. “Please put Jonah in charge.”

He holds her gaze for half a moment longer, and then nods. “Alright, sobrina. Eezo job takes off in three days, if you change your mind.”

“Got it, boss.”

“Have a drink for me. I’m here all night doing paperwork,” he sighs. “And stop having Torrini as bait, would you? Command’s starting to wonder a few things.”

Nora grins, and it’s bigger, more genuine than the one she gave him just a minute before. “I’ve already heard it from him. He’s off bait duty for the foreseeable future, don’t worry.”

He waves her out the door. “Enjoy leave.”

She offers him a casual salute. “See you in a few days.”

[burnpygmalion]

ive been thinking abt buying a gun i think i would find it comforting to actually have the option should i choose. finger on the eject button etc. im like the guy from fault in our stars its a metaphor you keep it nearby but you dont actually use it

[droneseco]

The Best Portable Retro Gaming Console for Under $100: Evercade

Evercade Starter Pack

8.00 / 10

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It looks good, feels good, and the curated games collections are good. Evercade evokes a bygone era of gaming in a way that simply shouldn't work in an age of digital downloads and streaming.

Key Features

HDMI-out

Retro gaming cartridges

Comfortable design

Save states

Specifications

Screen Dimensions: 4.3-inch

Storage: Cartridges

Portable: Yes

Battery: 2000mAh

Multiplayer Support: No

Connectivity: Mini HDMI, micro-USB

Brand: Evercade

Pros

Charges fast

Reliable controls

Cons

No console-to-console multiplayer

HDMI-out feels like an afterthought

Buy This Product

Evercade Starter Pack amazon

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Retro gaming consoles and classic system revivals are gaining in popularity. I've tried a bunch of retro gaming systems over past few years, from revived Commodore 64s to a Raspberry Pi Zero-powered Gameboy. They're all good, but have specific flaws---so how does the Evercade measure up?

If you're looking for a device that will play classic games from well-known publishers, and is small enough to fit in your pocket, consider the Evercade. Boasting a striking design, sharp display, responsive controls, and HDMI out, it's available with a choice of over 120 games at the time of writing.

What Is an Evercade?

Manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment, the Evercade is a handheld retro games console built to a high standard.

At first glance it could easily be an old handheld LCD gaming device from the 1980s, a period from which the console clearly takes many of its design cues. But there is far more to this device than looking the part.

Evercade isn't just a console---it's a platform, too. A range of games are available, packaged in groups by publisher name, around 10 to a cartridge. This differs depending on the generation of game, however, as older games require less storage space.

For example, the Atari cartridges feature double this amount, as the games were designed for systems almost 40 years ago. Conversely, the Interplay Collection 1 has just six 16-bit era games.

Game progress can be saved to the Evercade, too, giving you the advantage of being able to complete classic arcade titles in your own time, rather than sweating it out all in one go.

In the Evercade Box

Two Evercade options are available: The Starter Pack, and the Premium Pack. These are identical in terms of hardware but vary in the number of games included. While the Premium Pack features three cartridges (each holding multiple titles, more on that later), the Starter Pack has one.

In the box, you'll find the Evercade itself, a USB charge cable, and a cartridge box. Charging the Evercade first is recommended, but you'll need to provide your own wall charger with a suitable USB port.

Also included is a Quick Start Guide which will walk you through the basic setup and cover most troubleshooting issues.

The Evercade Console in Detail

Picking up the Evercade for the first time, you'll notice how comfortable it feels to hold. Its curved rear corners fit into the palms of your hands; the notch along the bottom makes a comfortable home for your pinkies.

Featuring a classic white and red livery, the console sports a 4.3-inch LCD. To the left of this is a responsive Sega-style D-pad, menu button, and speaker; on the right, ABXY buttons, select and start functions, and another speaker.

The top of the Evercade has left and right shoulder/trigger buttons, a power switch, and mini-HDMI output. Are the shoulder buttons oversensitive? Probably, but with a modicum of care it's easy enough to avoid touching them.

At the bottom, there's the volume control, audio out for headphones, and the micro-USB charging port.

Around the back of the console is the cartridge port. There is no eject feature, so you need to be careful inserting and removing carts to avoid damage.

Evercade Console Device Specification

Weighing 214g (cartridges weight around 15g) and measuring 182x82x21mm the Evercade features a 4.3-inch LCD display at 480x272 pixel resolution.

A 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 CPU is the system's workhorse, while the OS is Linux, which you won't see. The only user interface you'll see is the game carousel and menu system (more on that below). Evercade is designed to play games released on the Atari 2600, 7800, and Lynx, the NES, SNES, Gameboy Advance (GBA), and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

Powering the console is a 2,000-mAh rechargeable battery, which apparently cannot be replaced. This should not be completely discharged or left on charge for more than 12 hours. HDMI video output is 720p, and beyond this and the micro-USB port, there are no connectivity options.

Insert Cartridge, Play Games

Unsurprisingly, most Evercade titles are classics from Atari, Dataeast, Namco, etc. Many big-name arcade and console games from the 80s are available. Too many are available to list here, but if you opt for the Evercade Premium Pack you can expect:

Atari Volume 1: Centipede, Adventure, Alien Brigade, Asteroids, Missile Command, Crystal Castles, Food Fight, Desert Falcon, Motor Psycho, Canyon Bomber, Gravitar, Double Dunk, Ninja Golf, Steeplechase, Night Driver, Tempest, Video Pinpall, Aquaventure, Yars' Return, and Swordquest.

Interplay Volume 1: Clay Fighter, Earthworm Jim, Battle Chess, Boogerman, Incantation, and Titan.

Dataeast Volume 1: Bad Dudes, Burger Time, Midnight Resistance, Side Pocket, Karate Champ, Joe & Mac 2 Lost in the Tropics, Fighter's History, Two Crude Dudes, Magical Drop II, and Burnin' Rubber.

Each of these cartridges has a Volume 2 set for launch in late 2020 or early 2021. These are joined by other bundles, games released initially on the Atari Lynx, Jaleco systems, plus games from the Oliver Twins, Piko, Technos, Mega Cat, and even a collection of Worms titles.

The Evercade Starter pack, meanwhile, features just a single cartridge. Our review pack shipped with the Namco Museum Collection 1, with Galaxian, Pac-Man, Xevious, Mappy, Dig Dug, Star Luster, Battle Cars, Metal Marines, Libble Rabble, Quad Challenge, and Mappy Kids.

However, some newer titles are also available. For example, the Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood Dual Game Cartridge features retro-styled games released in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

Earlier, I mentioned cartridge cases. Evercade is so keen to deliver the retro experience that all games are released on physical media, in clamshell packaging, complete with instruction manuals, and artwork. If you've embraced the vinyl revival, you'll understand this---if not, buy an Evercade and spend a few minutes of tactile interaction with the game packaging. Digital downloads are not welcome here.

Retro Gaming on the Evercade

Playing a game is a simple case of inserting a cartridge (with the console on or off) then using the D-pad to scroll through the options. When you find a game you like select A to launch it, then use the -Select and Start buttons to start playing. Instructions for each game are found in the cartridge's accompanying booklet.

Game progress can be stored on the Evercade. The Menu button launches a set of options in-game, allowing you to Save State or Load State. There is also a Setting option to change the screen ratio, as well as options to Quit or Return to Game.

Evercade settings are also available from the game selection carousel, again by pressing Menu. Here, ratio, brightness, and audio settings can be adjusted. Audio volume can be adjusted using the buttons on the bottom of the Evercade; to disable sound completely, use the Menu screen.

Playing Games With Evercade

As with any gaming system, you don't quite know what you've got until the system boots up, the game loads, and you start to play.

What becomes quickly apparent is that these games are not running in a standard multi-purpose emulator. They're running as close to perfect as it is possible to get. All those hours spent playing games in an emulator and ignoring the obvious flaws will be forgotten after five minutes on an Evercade.

With a mini HDMI cable or adapter, the Evercade connects to a standard HDTV. The results are good, the 720p is clean and crisp, although the port isn't perhaps sturdy enough to handle a knock heavy enough to disconnect from the TV.

Evercade: Old Games, Modern Device

It looks good, feels good, and the curated games collections are good. Evercade evokes a bygone era of gaming in a way that simply shouldn't work in an age of digital downloads and streaming.

Not everything is perfect; some games are home system conversions rather than arcade originals; the Evercade is prone to collecting finger grease; playing on a TV requires a long cable with no support for an additional controller. There's a lack of multiplayer, too, and charging takes a while with micro-USB rather than the more modern USB-C.

But overall, the titles illustrate the depth of support for the Evercade from games publishers. But most importantly, the games play perfectly on the console. Forget glitching, stuttering performance, or inadequate, ill-thought-out controls. Sound is perfect, the environment is stable; everything is optimized for the perfect retro gaming experience---and it shows.

The Best Portable Retro Gaming Console for Under $100: Evercade published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

[abangtech]

Logitech’s high-end MX Keys and MX Master 3 get makeovers for Macs

Logitech launched Mac versions of its popular MX Keys and MX Master 3 on Tuesday, giving the pro keyboard and mouse a space gray makeover and adding some Apple-specific tweaks.

Most of the changes seem totally awesome for the “Mac purists” Logitech is targeting with these high-end accessories. One change might not be so welcome, though, depending on your experience with Bluetooth peripherals.

The company also released a new Mac-oriented version of its smaller K380 keyboard in white and pink color options.

Over the years, Logitech has built a solid rep by consistently producing outstanding mice and keyboards. The original MX Keys and MX Master 3, launched last September, raised the bar when it comes to speed and performance. The mouse’s super-slick MagSpeed scroll wheel and the keyboard’s smart backlighting are the marquee features. And with Logitech’s free Options software, users can customize the mouse’s multiple buttons for each app they use, offering maximum flexibility and utility.

While those high-end products totally work with Macs, they weren’t built for Macs. The updates launched today are.

MX Keys for Mac

MX Keys for Mac looks gorgeous in space gray (and the keys are in the right spots). Photo: Logitech

The changes are most obvious on the MX Keys for Mac. Logitech mimicked the layout of Apple’s Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. That means the function key is where it belongs, and there’s an eject key like God intended for all those handy shortcuts.

The idea, Logitech says, was to let Mac power users avoid a learning curve and utilize their muscle memory for common key combos.

“We want them to feel at ease and start being productive as quickly as they can, with their favorite layout,” said Logitech product manager Olivia Hildebrand in a briefing about the new products.

Beautiful, smart backlighting

Just like the regular version, MX Keys for Mac boasts smart backlighting. Built-in sensors adjust the backlight to the ambient light in the room. Even cooler, proximity sensors turn on the backlight as your hands approach the keyboard.

Its comfortable keys, with shallow finger indents, sit in a very solid metal frame that doesn’t slide around the top of your desk. It charges via USB-C, and a small red LED indicates when the battery needs recharged.

Like many Logitech keyboards, the MX Keys for Mac lets you connect to three different devices and switch between them simply by tapping a key. That makes it ideal for working with an iPad, an iPhone or another Mac adjacent to your main Mac. (It’s also compatible with Logitech’s Flow software, which offers “cross-computer control and file sharing.” Since I only have one computer, I’ve never had the chance to use it.)

This new Mac keyboard also comes with one of Logitech’s handy unifying receivers. These tiny USB-A dongles allow up to six Logitech peripherals to connect to a single computer without Bluetooth, and they work quite reliably. Obviously, if you’re using a recent MacBook with nothing but USB-C hubs, you’ll need some sort of dongle or hub to use a unifying receiver. But they work much better, in my experience, than a Bluetooth connection.

Hands on with MX Keys for Mac

I tested the MX Keys for Mac for several days using a Bluetooth connection and using the unifying receiver. I definitely preferred using the latter. Yes, it requires a hub to add the tiny USB-A receiver. That’s not as elegant or handy as using Bluetooth. However, when using Bluetooth with the keyboard, occasional flakiness ensued — extra spaces appeared between words, I experienced slight lag at times, etc. A reboot fixed it, but it was still annoying.

Here’s one huge caveat about my initial testing of these devices. This isn’t the first time I’ve had Bluetooth problems with my 2016 MacBook Pro. Even Apple’s own peripherals act up from time to time when connected via Bluetooth. So this might be my MacBook’s problem rather than Logitech’s.

Ultimately, no matter how I connected the MX Keys for Mac, I liked the feel of the keyboard itself. And the adaptive backlighting looks brilliant. When using the unifying receiver, it proved flawless. Note: You need to be running macOS Catalina — Logitech says the keyboard doesn’t work with older software.

The bottom line is that if you like a classic-style Mac extended keyboard, and you’ve got a port for the USB-A receiver, the MX Keys for Mac is an undeniable winner. Your mileage may vary if you use it with Bluetooth, but that’s Bluetooth for you.

MX Keys for Mac comes in space gray. It retails for $99.99 and begins shipping later this month.

MX Master 3 for Mac

The MX Master 3 for Mac looks snappy in space gray, too. But it doesn’t come with a dongle. Photo: Logitech

The changes to the MX Master 3 for Mac are less obvious than for the keyboard — and one won’t necessarily sit well with Bluetooth haters. The new Mac model costs the same as the regular version, but doesn’t include a unifying receiver.

The turbocharged mouse’s chassis looks the same as the regular MX Master 3 (aside from the space gray accents, which aren’t that different). Like its predecessor, it also packs the superb electromagnetic MagSpeed scroll wheel that shifts on the fly from ratcheting precision to overwhelming speed.

Its ergonomic design makes it comfortable in my hand (although lefties need not apply). And its Darkfield 4,000 dpi sensor tracks extremely well on almost any surface. It, too, charges via an included USB-C to USB-C cable, and Logitech says it lasts up to 70 days.

All in all, it’s probably too much mouse for me. It offers so many advanced features, and so many programmable buttons, that it exceeds the needs of a word jockey like me. It’s nice knowing you can set the thumb wheel to do one thing in Excel and another in Photoshop, for instance, thanks to the Options software. For some people it’s going to be overkill. I guess if you need it, you know it. For the rest of us, it’s just a comfortable, super-capable mouse.

No unifying receiver

For me, the biggest difference between the original MX Master 3 and the new model is that the Mac version does not come with a unifying receiver. It’s a somewhat surprising omission that might give some potential users pause. (I secretly hoped Logitech would release a USB-C unifying receiver along with the Mac versions of the MX hardware.)

Hildebrand, the Logitech product manager, said the company worked extensively to fine-tune the Bluetooth setup for these products but would not share specifics. She said most users prefer Bluetooth because they don’t want to sacrifice a USB-C port on their Macs.

However, she admitted that some people run into Bluetooth problems. Typically those can be ameliorated by rebooting your Mac, deleting old Bluetooth devices you no longer use, or even changing your physical environment. (Bluetooth interference is definitely a thing.)

Hands on with MX Master 3 for Mac

In my admittedly brief hands-on time with the MX Master 3 for Mac, I experienced an erratic cursor when connected via Bluetooth. Sometimes it got squirrelly and made it nearly impossible to click where I wanted. I’m really not sure why. I’m certainly one of those people with too many Bluetooth devices paired to my Mac, so maybe that’s it. (I’ve also been experiencing problems with Logitech’s Options software, but that’s another story. Maybe my Mac is just cursed.)

The funny thing is, the MX Master 3 for Mac works with a unifying receiver — there’s just not one in the package. When I used it with the unifying receiver, I experienced none of the jumpiness that plagued my Bluetooth experiences.

Bluetooth problems aside, it’s an excellent mouse. But for me — a person with a history of Bluetooth snafus — it’s a little tough to swallow that the MX Master 3 for Mac costs the same as its predecessor but doesn’t come with that dainty little dongle.

Maybe I’ll dive into the Mac’s hidden Bluetooth debug menu, nuke all my settings, and see if that helps. More than likely, I’ll just keeping using the unifying receiver that came with the original MX Master 3. It’s less work, and I have a funny feeling it will prove more reliable anyway.

The MX Master 3 for Mac comes in space gray. It retails for $99.99 and begins shipping later this month.

K380 for Mac Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard

The K380 for Mac gets rearranged keys (and comes in two cute colors). Photo: Logitech

As mentioned, Logitech also rolled out a new K380 for Mac keyboard today. Like its big brother the MX Keys for Mac, this petite keyboard also packs a layout tweaked to be more Mac-like. The function key is moved and it’s got an eject key, too.

Like the normal K380, it connects to up to three different devices through Bluetooth only. It’s an extremely reliable keyboard, great for use with a Mac or iPad. It lacks a number pad, so it’s perfect for people who don’t do a lot of 10-key entry and prefer a smaller setup. Many people find a smaller keyboard to be more ergonomic, since it allows a mouse or trackpad to sit closer to their body’s center mass. The small K380 also proves quite packable, so it’s great for taking on the road. For me, it makes for a much more comfortable setup than using my MacBook’s built-in keyboard.

The K380 for Mac comes in off-white and rose. The keyboard works with Macs running macOS 10.15 or later, iPhones running iOS 13 or later, and iPads running iPadOS 13.1 or later. It retails for $39.99 and begins shipping later this month.

Source

The post Logitech’s high-end MX Keys and MX Master 3 get makeovers for Macs appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/logitechs-high-end-mx-keys-and-mx-master-3-get-makeovers-for-macs/

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/moto-g8-plus-review/

Moto G8 Plus Review

Motorola’s Moto G series smartphones have long been popular in the budget segment. After launching a slew of new One series models, such as the Motorola One Macro and Motorola One Action (Review) over the past few months, Motorola has now updated its Moto G series, with the new Moto G8 Plus now on sale in India. Available in just one configuration, the main focus of the Moto G8 Plus is its cameras and Dolby-backed stereo speakers.

The latter isn’t a feature we typically find in the sub-Rs. 15,000 segment, which could make the Moto G8 Plus an interesting option for some people. At its retail price of Rs. 13,999, this Motorola smartphone contends directly with the Realme 5 Pro (Review) and the Samsung Galaxy M30s (Review). Even the Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review) is available around the same price bracket.

So, does the Moto G8 Plus have enough features and performance to make it a worthy alternative? Let’s take a look.

Moto G8 Plus design

The Moto G8 Plus is reminiscent of the Motorola One Macro (Review) in terms of its exterior design, especially the arrangement of the camera sensors at the back. The polycarbonate body in the Cosmic Blue colour trim looks nice, and also has a little purplish highlight depending on how you hold this phone against the light. There’s also a Crystal Pink option. The back does look a bit like glass and is quite resilient to scratches and scuffs, but if you want to be careful, you can opt to use the bundled silicone case.

This phone isn’t too heavy but it’s on the thicker side at 9.09mm. The sides are glossy, and can get a little slippery at times. The textured power button has good tactile feedback and so does the volume rocker, but the latter is placed a little too high. The tray on the left can accept two Nano-SIM cards, and the second slot can accept a microSD card (up to 512GB) in lieu of a SIM. We would have liked a dedicated microSD card slot instead of a hybrid one.

The Moto G8 Plus has a glossy back, which attracts fingerprints pretty easily

The Moto G8 Plus has a headphone jack on the top and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. The earpiece and the bottom speaker work in tandem to create a stereo effect. Motorola has used a 6.3-inch LTPS IPS display with Panda glass for scratch protection. The resolution is full-HD+ (1080×2280) and the aspect ratio is 19:9, which Motorola calls a Max Vision display. The panel produces vivid and punchy colours, brightness is good enough for outdoor use, and viewing angles are decently wide. You also get some basic colour adjustments in the Settings menu.

The bezels around the display aren’t too slim but they’re not too intrusive either. There’s a waterdrop notch on the top, which houses the selfie camera. The G8 Plus also features Moto Display, which is an ambient display mode so you can see missed notifications, the battery level, the time, etc on the lockscreen.

The rear cameras protrude a little, creating a bit of imbalance on an otherwise flat surface. The fingerprint sensor has a Moto logo on it and is quite dependable in terms of its performance. You can also use face unlock, which works well as long as there’s enough light around. In the box, you get a case, a 15W Turbo Charger, a SIM eject tool, and a Type-C cable.

The Moto G8 Plus features a bright and vivid IPS display

Moto G8 Plus specifications and software

The Moto G8 Plus runs on the Snapdragon 665 SoC, which we’ve seen in phones such as the Realme 5 (Review), Xiaomi Mi A3 (Review), and Redmi Note 8 (Review). There’s only one version of this phone available, which has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You also get dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, dual 4G VoLTE, NFC, support for three satellite navigation systems, FM radio, and the usual suite of sensors including a compass and a gyroscope.

Motorola also claims that the Moto G8 Plus is water resistant, even though it doesn’t have any official IP rating. It’s said to be able to withstand light splashes of water or light rain, but isn’t waterproof, so you should avoid submerging it in any liquid.

The Moto G8 Plus supports fast charging

The software is quite lean and is very close to stock Android. There isn’t any bloatware and the default apps don’t spam you with unnecessary notifications or ads, unlike some other custom Android skins. The Moto G8 Plus ships with Android 9 Pie, and our unit had the September 2019 security patch. Digital Wellbeing and the standard Android gestures are present, in addition to some from Motorola. The Moto app lets you select Moto Actions and set up the Moto Display. Moto Actions are shortcuts and gestures for quickly turning on the camera and torch, taking a quick screenshot, and many other things.

There’s also the Dolby Audio app, which helps boost the volume and quality of sound through the speakers, wired and wireless headphones. Some Google apps such as Slides, News, and Sheets are preinstalled but not many others.

Moto G8 Plus performance and battery life

With day-to-day usage, the Moto G8 Plus managed to cope quite well. We were able to multitask quite effortlessly; it was easy to find what we wanted thanks to the near-stock Android UI and we didn’t face any heating issues. It is a bit difficult to reach the upper end of the tall display, but thankfully there are plenty of gestures to help. For instance, you can swipe down on the fingerprint sensor to pull down the notification shade, or perform a simple on-screen gesture by swiping your finger diagonally to either of the bottom corners, to shrink the contents of the screen. The ability to wave your palm over the phone to wake up the display is also very convenient. You can even take a peek at your notifications by holding down its icon on the lockscreen.

Moto G8 Plus Benchmark numbers were pretty decent too. In AnTuTu, we got a score of 170,004 points while the T-Rex test in GFXbench returned 34fps. The framerate in the latter test was a little low since the full-HD resolution taxes this processor. The same is reflected when playing heavy 3D games such as PUBG Mobile. It defaulted to the ‘Low’ graphics preset, which didn’t look very good, but at least gameplay wasn’t affected too much. The phone got a little warm when gaming, but not to an alarming extent.

The Moto G8 Plus features an action camera, similar to the Motorola One Action

The speakers on the Moto G8 Plus sounded excellent, thanks to Dolby Audio. The earpiece got just as loud as the bottom-firing speaker, which created a good stereo effect. You can leave the Dolby setting at ‘Auto’ or manually tinker with the bass, mids, and vocals depending on your style of listening. This effect works when playing audio through the speakers as well as wired and even wireless headsets. This added to the bright and punchy colours of the display made for an enjoyable multimedia experience.

The Moto G8 Plus supports Motorola’s 15W Turbo Charging feature. You even get a little logo in the clock widget which tells you when the phone is charging quickly. The phone can also be fast-charged using any standard Quick Charge 3.0 charger. In our battery loop test, the Moto G8 Plus ran for 14 hours and 10 minutes, which is a good show.

With normal usage, which involved playing games, using the camera, and surfing the Internet, we easily sailed past a day and into the next. With more frugal usage, we were averaging about a day and a half. With the bundled Turbo Charger, we were able to charge the Moto G8 Plus battery from zero to 36 percent in half an hour; up to 70 percent in an hour, and fully in about two hours. These aren’t particularly good times, but still a lot better than having no fast charging at all.

Moto G8 Plus cameras

The Moto G8 Plus has three sensors at the back — a 48-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture; a 16-megapixel wide-angle camera specially for GoPro-style videos; and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. The phone also has a laser autofocus module and an LED flash. The camera app is easy to master, thanks to a simple layout. Besides the main shooting modes, you can access a separate menu of additional modes such as Portrait, Panorama, and Night Vision, plus some fun modes like Spot Colour and Cutout.

In daylight, the primary camera captured good-looking landscapes and close-ups. It handled HDR well, balancing the exposure of light and dark areas nicely. Colours were vivid but not overly boosted, and details were good. This phone saves 12-megapixel oversampled photos by default and there’s no option to shoot at the full 48-megapixel resolution. In Manual mode, you can capture RAW files too.

Landscape shot with HDR from the Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

Close-up shot from the Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

Low-light shot from the Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

Shot using Night Vision mode from Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

Close-up shots looked good, with plenty of detail, vivid colours, and very good sharpness. In low light, close-ups still looked decent with little to no noise. Landscape shots on the other hand had muddy details in low-light, and blacks in the shadow regions were crushed easily.

Night Vision own the Moto G8 Plus did make a noticeable difference. Colours were punchier and bright areas were metered better, but details didn’t really improve much. As long you don’t zoom into a photo too much, results will look pleasing. However, it’s not foolproof and there were instances when Night Vision ended up making photos worse than the standard mode. Also, it takes a while before you can see the final result, as the phone processes it in the background after you’ve taken a shot.

The depth sensor did a good job of detecting edges around our subject and blurring backgrounds. The blur effect can be adjusted before and after a shot has been taken. Lighting effects can also be added for drama.

Shot using Portrait mode from the Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

Low-light selfie shot from the Moto G8 Plus (tap for full-sized image)

The 16-megapixel action camera can only be used for shooting videos and not stills, which is a little disappointing. Considering how pretty much every manufacturer is slapping wide-angle cameras onto their phones now, it’s a shame we can’t use it for photos on the Moto G8 Plus. The wide-angle camera can be accessed through a little toggle near the shutter button when in video mode. The phone needs to be held vertically in order to record landscape video, just like on the Motorola One Action. We found this to be very convenient when we were moving about quickly.

Videos taken with the wide-angle action camera on the Moto G8 Plus are stabilised at 1080p 30fps, but not at 60fps. In daylight, video quality was good and the electronic stabilisation worked decently well, albeit with mild jerkiness when we made any sudden movements. Video quality was a lot weaker in low light, with noticeable grain and softer details.

Switching to the primary camera, you can set the resolution all the way up to 4K at 30fps, but without stabilisation. Here, colours looked wildly exaggerated depending on the subject being shot. Videos are electronically stabilised at 1080p 30fps, and footage looked good, with better colour reproduction. In low light, the quality dropped and we noticed focus hunting when shooting landscapes.

The 25-megapixel selfie camera on the Moto G8 Plus has an f/2 aperture and you can set it to capture selfies at that full resolution or oversampled to 6 megapixels. We didn’t find any discernible difference between the two resolutions, so it’s worth saving storage space with the lower resolution. Selfies looked decent in the daytime, with good colours and details. You can enable Face Beauty mode, which smoothened skin textures.

In low light, image quality was generally below average. Details were weak, there was visible noise, and skin tones looked off. You do get a lot of shooting modes for the selfie camera, such as Spot Colour, Group Selfie, Portrait, and even slow-motion video.

Verdict

All things considered, the Moto G8 Plus manages to pack in a decent set of features, with its strengths being the lean Android experience, very good stereo speakers, solid battery life, a crisp display, and above-average camera quality when shooting in daylight. Compared to Motorola’s One series models such as the One Macro (Review), One Action (Review), and One Vision (Review), which all hover within the same price range, we’d pick the G8 Plus for its better display and slightly faster SoC.

Compared to the competition including the Realme 5 Pro (Review) and the Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review), the Moto G8 Plus falls a bit short. The processor isn’t the most powerful, especially for this screen resolution, which shows when it comes to playing heavy games. Most of the competition at around this price offer more powerful processors for this reason. The cameras on the G8 Plus aren’t the most versatile either, since you can’t shoot wide-angle stills, and the low-light performance of all the cameras was underwhelming.

The Moto G8 Plus isn’t the best all-rounder, but if stock Android, a good display, and stereo speakers are high on your priority list, you might find it worth your while.

[hypnokinkwithmrdream]

Class Notes:Max Workshop: Hypnosis, Mental Bondage and Rope 10/17/2015

Posted To Fetlife 10/21/2015

Max’s Workshop: Hypnosis, Mental Bondage and Rope

ZanyM and I presented this for Max’s Bondage Lessons: http://www.bondagelessons.com/content/2015/10/17/me…

The class was predominantly demonstration based. The discussion itself was too bring up ideas of connection and how easy it was for active bondage players to understand both how a scene might be developed and how it hypnosis could be useful in playing with partners in the midst of other scenes. Throughout I reiterated some safety suggestions about how my partner would always be able to move and come out of trance if they needed to, and showed how making the experience fun was motivational for the unconscious to fulfill the suggestions effect.

Demos

Control Room: Tension Dial

The induction involves a twist on relaxation oriented inductions in which we take advantage of nervous energy and people’s easier time being able to become tense then relax. We first establish the existence of a control room, which is created in the mind of the subject. It is always identified as their control room so they have some sense of controlling it as well. The suggestion is made that there is a dial/gauge for tension/relaxation and then we ask what level of tension the subject is at and then modify it to prove they can control it. At this point we increase the scale, establish the existence of a release button and anchor the release of tension to a deeper trance. The subject can press the button any time they want which either indicates they are no longer enjoying the tension or that they need an eject button from pain.

My first demo partner responded in some interesting ways, so I think it is worthwhile to discuss this in detail. The demo is intended to show how increase of tension and then a sudden drop can create two different bondage opportunities. The first is simply the opportunity of creating such extreme tension in the body that the subject feels unable to move. For some people this has lead to a very impressive catalepsy, but the partner I worked with found that as we began to raise the dial higher and higher there was no real additional peak. I gave the suggestion that there would be a button that he could use to let go of the tension. I actually felt he was much better at being loose and relaxed than tense so he may have been less suited for this particular induction, but an interesting effect was made once he went into trance fully, in which I placed his hands on his knees. The suggestion was that the hands and feet would feel as if they were really where they wanted to be. When asked to move there was more motion than I often see, but it was slow, as if sticky. My partner reported that it was like a magnet. This included when asked to stand up. He was successful but sort of like walking in molasses. I eventually released him from it and we ensured that he was clear of effect.

Eyeball Bondage

Using the idea of eye fixation and increasing the effect to become bondage seems obvious in retrospect. This is a form of bondage that can’t be done any other way. It can be used to attach someone to something or move them around with their eyes. In extreme cases it can be very dramatic. The suggestion is simply that the subject focus on the tips of two fingers, and then imagine that there are strings/threads/wires etc attached. Then after testing the fixation the gesture of reeling in the wires is made and the subject feels pulled by it.

One of the attendees had been catching my attention with excellent eye contact, so I asked her if she would like to volunteer. I then used an eye fixation where she would feel as if her eyes were connected to my fingers by threads. While this was not as effective as if I had previously tranced her, it worked well and demonstrated the ability to use a this suggestion as it’s own induction. She seemed to enjoy it and reported that just following the instructions dropped her into hypnosis.

Enthusiastic Bondage Device

The method I use relies on a concept of emotional bondage. We use the sense of desire or importance to create a strong compulsion to hold onto something. Everyone has something that is important to them, so it is relatively straightforward to evoke that feeling, and then associate it to a person or thing. Usually I start with holding hands and progress from there. Our partner for this responded quite intensely. I also suggested that with the trigger phrase of ‘Let Go’ she would let go of whatever it was she had been focused on, while still desiring it. She held my hand firmly and also was made to let go. At this point I demonstrated the virtue of this approach for the purpose of bondage, but of course my hand being captured in hers was also self bondage. However I redirected her to ZanyM who she hugged immediately. I told ZanyM that my hand was important, however our partner holding on to her, and my advantage of height made it a good demonstration of using this sort of thing in play. ZanyM was then focused on the organizers boots, while being essentially tackled by our demo partner. Having the two essentially crawling together to get to the boot, was a good sign of bondage in effect. Later it was discussed that the sense of being unable to get what one wanted (through let go) was emotionally challenging. This suggests some possibility that a subject might experience some emotional distress that may not be desired so I will probably modify the lesson accordingly to ensure that it is clearly connected to the sense of fun.

Reverse Crop

ZanyM initiated a scene that was discussed about a crop (or bat as it is formally known.) She adapted the concept of importance to the feeling of wanting the crop to touch her in a certain place. Removing it made her want it more. There was no actual impact, just placement. At one point I asked to try something, and enhanced the feeling, and then quickly removed the crop causing an outburst as if she had been hurt. This began to make our partner cry at some point and we completed the demonstration, showing how the same idea could be used for emotional sadism as well as a variation of impact play. Suspension Rope Scene ZanyM will probably have more notes for this part of the class than I, but in my experience, our partner responded to the combination of rope and hypnosis exceptionally well. ZanyM began tying on the ground with a low suspension ring, rather than the more typical standing style of partial suspension. This was a judgement she made based on her own body and her partners. I mostly stood a few feet away and began discussing the rope, the sense of gravity, and explored different directions, qualities, and the like. It is hard to encapsulate this in a description.

Kinesthetic

Since we had a few minutes left and not too many questions, I demonstrated a kinesthetic/touch based trance as well as some rope based trance that was not really requiring any technical proficiency. The kinesthetic hypnosis demo involves a technique where I stand behind my partner lightly touching her on the top of the shoulder. Eventually she begins to move based on very light pressure more as a signal. I swayed as well so that we were in sync, although at times I ensured she was not merely anticipating my motion, by switching direction. Eventually I needed to stabilize her and she leaned back into me. She reported later that even that slight lean reassured her that I was there to catch her, and we discussed both the nonverbal communication, and the effectiveness for loud places, for play when it is quiet, and for working with someone who might be distracted by visual or verbal inductions.

Summary

There wasn’t really any goal of creating practice time or exercises. I think it might be possible with an advanced class to add practice time. I know people want more hands on but I worry about how accessible it is for folks who aren’t yet comfortable with initiating trance. Worth considering anyway.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/asus-rog-phone-2-review/

Asus ROG Phone 2 Review

A ‘gaming’ smartphone might seem like a very exciting proposition for enthusiasts, but how can a manufacturer get the average smartphone buyer to feel the same way? Asus launched the first ROG Phone (Review) last year, and while it was a good product, the high price of nearly Rs. 70,000 at the time meant that you really needed to be a die-hard gaming addict to even consider it over an iPhone, Google Pixel, or Samsung Galaxy device. That’s exactly what Asus wants to change with the ROG Phone 2.

While Asus has taken its time to launch this phone in India, we have seen other companies try to break into this niche segment throughout this year. We now have the Black Shark 2 (Review) which has a pressure-sensitive display, and the Nubia Red Magic 3 (Review), which boasts of an internal cooling fan, to consider as alternatives as gaming smartphones. However, Asus hasn’t left any stone unturned for its follow-up, packing it with pretty much every feature one could think of. The icing on the cake is definitely the price. The ROG Phone 2 starts at Rs. 37,999 in India, which is great not only for gaming enthusiasts but also for anyone who’s looking for a powerful flagship on a budget.

So, should you be considering the Asus ROG Phone 2 over, say, the new OnePlus 7T (Review) at the same price? And if you aren’t a gamer, does the ROG Phone 2 still make sense? Let’s find out.

Asus ROG Phone 2 design

The Asus ROG Phone 2 continues to sport an industrial look, just like the first version, but it’s a bit more tame this time around. The exposed air vent at the back is smaller and more discreet; the orange highlights for the stereo speakers on the front look more subtle; and the darker finish makes it look even more stealthy. There’s still no mistaking this for an ordinary smartphone though, especially when that ROG logo on the back lights up.

The size ROG Phone 2 is both bigger and heavier than its predecessor, making it one of the heaviest phones we’ve held in a while. It’s very thick at 9.48mm and weighs a whopping 240g. The weight isn’t a big issue when using it in the landscape orientation with both hands, but normal one-handed usage gets fatiguing quickly.

Asus has swapped the rear capacitive fingerprint sensor for an in-display one. Authentication works well but we found that we had to rest our finger there a little longer than usual before this works. It’s not as quick as some of the other in-display sensors we’ve used, like the one on the OnePlus 7T (Review). Face recognition is a lot quicker and works at odd angles too. The power and volume buttons are placed low on the right side of the phone and have good feedback.

The in-display fingerprint sensor on the Asus ROG Phone 2 isn’t the fastest but success rate is good

The left side has an additional USB Type-C port, along with a custom port beside it for accessories. This Type-C port supports USB 3.1 (Gen2) standard, along with video output upto 4K resolution and Quick Charge 4.0, and it can be used for charging when you’re gaming in landscape mode. The Type-C port at the bottom supports USB 3.0 speed and also supports fast charging. The 3.5mm headphone socket is placed on the extreme right at the bottom, so wired headphones won’t get in the way when you’re gaming.

The 6.59-inch AMOLED display has a full-HD+ resolution but what’s impressive is that it has a 120Hz refresh rate. It also supports 10-bit HDR and is claimed to be colour accurate with a Delta E average of less than 1. The max brightness is 600nits and there’s Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for protection. The display has thick bezels on the top and bottom, but it doesn’t make the phone look ugly. The earpiece and the bottom speaker are forward-facing, for a better stereo effect. The dual Nano-SIM tray is placed on the left side, but there’s no slot for expanding storage.

The ROG Phone 2 also features the second version of Asus’s AirTrigger system, or shoulder buttons on the right side. Asus says the algorithm has been reworked, so you can now rest your fingers on them without activating them. There’s a new dual vibration system present too. The phone also uses a 3D vapour chamber system for cooling. According to Asus, a total of four Wi-Fi antennas and microphones have been placed at strategic points around the phone, which should provide optimal signal performance no matter how you hold it.

The Aero Case comes bundled in the box of both variants

The base model of the ROG Phone 2, which we have, ships with an 18W charger, Type-C cable, SIM eject tool, and the Aero Case. The latter is more of a bumper case, as only the top and bottom portions have good plastic reinforcements while the rest of the body has large cutouts for the rear vent and logo. Asus says that this case was designed so that you can use the AeroActive Cooler without taking it off. This cooler is an optional accessory but if you buy the 512GB variant, it comes bundled. The top-end version, which costs a whopping Rs. 59,999, also gets you a 30W charger in the box.

You can also get other accessories for the ROG Phone 2, with prices ranging from Rs. 1,999 all the way up to Rs. 19,999.

Asus ROG Phone 2 specifications and software

According to Asus, the ROG Phone 2 has been built using some of the best components available in the market, including a special speed-binned Snapdragon 855+ SoC, LPDDR4X RAM, and UFS 3.0 storage. The phone is available in two RAM and storage variants — one with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (Rs. 37,999) and the other with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (Rs. 59,999). There’s a big jump going to the higher-end variant, and even with the extra accessories, that price seems way too high.

You also get dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, NFC, FM radio, the usual variety of sensors, satellite navigation systems, and USB-OTG. The ROG Phone 2 supports high-resolution audio through the 3.5mm headphone jack, with the ability to decode 192kHz/24-bit files. However, this phone does miss some flagship-level features such as an IP rating for water resistance and wireless charging.

The Asus ROG Phone 2 has a vent on the back for air circulation

Just like the first ROG phone, Asus has put a lot of work into the software this time around too. You get Android 9 Pie with the August security patch and a custom skin. For the ROG Phone 2, you can choose a more vanilla Android theme during the setup process, instead of the default ROG theme. The latter does look cool and you have a choice between a dark and light version of it. Plus, when you enable X Mode, which is Asus’s performance mode, the wallpaper and highlights around the icons get aggressive red accents. If you’re not a fan of this, there’s always the classic theme to fall back upon.

The ROG UI can be swapped for a stock Android look, in case it’s not your thing

In terms of installed apps, there isn’t much bloatware. There’s an Asus Data Transfer app for moving data from your old phone to the ROG Phone 2, and the Armoury Crate app, which is where you configure lighting effects for the logo; monitor the temperatures of the CPU and GPU; set the force level for the AirTriggers, etc. Android 9’s Digital Wellbeing suite is also present.

There’s more customisation to be had in the phone’s Settings app. AudioWizard lets you choose different sound presets. There’s an ‘Outdoor’ mode which boosts volume by sacrificing a bit of sound quality. You can manually choose between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz refresh rates for the screen, but you can’t switch between these dynamically based on the activity being performed.

Display colours can be tweaked; there’s an always-on display mode; and you can choose what icons you want in the status bar. The latter feature is very handy as you can have icons for things like NFC, X Mode, the refresh rate, etc, in the status bar so you can see what’s enabled without having to check the toggles in the notification shade.

The Asus ROG Phone 2’s special features are highly customisable

The ‘Advanced’ menu in the Settings app has a tonne more options to tweak. Mobile Manager lets you clear RAM, manage data usage, and scan for viruses, and Game Genie is a very useful toolbar which can be accessed from within a game for configuring the AirTriggers, live streaming on YouTube, Twitch, etc. There are various touch and motion gestures, screen recording, and a one-handed mode. The AirTriggers menu lets you add ‘squeeze’ gestures for the bottom trigger, which can launch an action or an app with a short or a long squeeze.

Asus ROG Phone 2 performance and battery life

The ROG Phone 2’s mammoth size and weight are a little hard to get used to. As we mentioned before, it’s not a problem when you’re holding the phone with two hands for gaming, but for most other use cases, it gets fatiguing very quickly. However, if you’re someone who doesn’t mind large, heavy phones then you’ll probably like it. The glass back is a little slippery but the bundled case makes it easier to hold this phone with one hand. The addition of a notification LED near the earpiece is a nice touch.

As you’d expect, the ROG Phone 2 is also a beast of a performer. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through apps and gameplay (in supported games) incredibly fun and fluid. 90Hz offers a pleasing experience too, if you want to save a bit of power, but battery life isn’t really a concern here, which we’ll talk about in a bit. Apps load quickly and multitasking is handled very well. Of course, the main draw of this phone is gaming, and this is hands-down one of the best devices — if not the best one — for that.

The two Air Triggers have good vibration feedback and the sensitivity can be adjusted

We ran a mix of heavy games such as PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends, along with simpler ones including Rayman Adventures and Mario Kart, all of which ran flawlessly. Even on the 8GB RAM version of this phone, we were able to switch between any of these games quite effortlessly.

Now keep in mind that the back of the phone gets quite warm when gaming, especially a few spots near the side-mounted Type-C port which get very hot. We recommend playing with the bundled case, as you don’t feel the heat as much and it offers better grip. The heat could possibly be better controlled with the AeroCooler II accessory, but that will cost extra and we didn’t have one with us to test.

We didn’t feel the need to use X Mode most of the time, other than a couple of instances in PUBG when the framerate began to get mildly choppy. X Mode prevents throttling of the CPU and also doesn’t let the speed drop below 1.3GHz. Keep in mind that this will also drain the battery faster, so we’d suggest not using it unless you absolutely need to.

Game Genie also lets you enable an overlay in games to keep an eye on the framerate, system temperature, and CPU and GPU usage in real-time. Through Armoury Crate, you can set a customised profile for each game. For instance, Rayman Adventures supports 120Hz refresh rate, so you can have the display switch to it when playing the game and go back to a lower refresh rate for regular use.

The Asus ROG Phone 2’s Armoury Crate app lets you tweak the settings for every game

Just like with the original ROG Phone, we found the AirTriggers to be immensely helpful in games such as PUBG Mobile. The vibration effect, when they are triggered, is instantaneous and you can now rest your fingers on them and simply apply pressure when you actually need to activate them. This reduces fatigue in your index fingers, since you don’t have to keep them hovering in mid-air. If you’re going to be doing this, then it’s best to increase the amount of pressure required to activate the triggers, to prevent accidental activation.

Other than gaming performance, the display and speakers are two other highlights of this phone. HDR videos look great — the brightness is automatically boosted when HDR content is detected, and it drops back to the level it was at before when you close the video. The speakers get really loud and sound quality is good. The stereo sound is evenly distributed across both channels, with decent bass and a good soundstage. When using Outdoor Mode, the sound quality is terrible as it simply cuts the bass and boosts the treble, making everything tinny and shrill.

Battery life is equally impressive, and not just because of the massive capacity. In our battery loop test, the 6000mAh battery lasted for around 11 hours and 48 minutes with the screen set to 120Hz, and 14hours and 13 minutes at 60Hz. These numbers might not look particularly impressive compared to those of other phones which have run for over 20 hours with smaller batteries, but the ROG Phone 2 exceeded our expectations in real-world usage.

Even with the screen running at 120Hz and a lot of camera, gaming, and social usage, we still managed to easily go past one full day on a single charge. When playing heavy 3D games non-stop for two hours, with X Mode on most of the time and the refresh rate set to 90Hz, the battery level dropped by around 27 percent, leaving us with plenty of juice left for another two full days of standby time.

The stereo speakers on the Asus ROG Phone 2 get really loud and quality is good

The ROG Phone 2 supports multiple fast charging standards — Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0/3.0 and USB Power Delivery 3.0. With the bundled 18W charger, we were able to charge the battery up to 52 percent in an hour and it took about two hours to charge it completely. This might seem a little slower than the competition but keep in mind that this is also a much bigger battery than what most others offer in this price range. With the optional 30W charger (Rs. 1,999), the charging should be much quicker.

Asus ROG Phone 2 cameras

The rear sensors on the ROG Phone 2 are the same as those on the Asus 6Z (Review). This phone is missing the laser autofocus sensor, but everything else seems to be identical. The ROG Phone 2 also gets a 24-megapixel front camera with an f/2.0 aperture, since it lacks the motorised rear camera of the 6Z. The main 48-megapixel camera uses the Sony IMX586 sensor, with an f/1.79 aperture and PDAF, but no optical stabilisation. The second camera uses a wide-angle lens with a 13-megapixel sensor.

The camera app is quite feature-rich, offering plenty of shooting modes such as Motion Tracking, Pro, and Night, among the usual others. A toggle within the viewfinder lets you switch between the regular and wide-angle lens. The latter can be used to shoot video, but you can’t switch between cameras while recording.

Shot using the primary camera on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap to see full-sized image)

Shot using the wide-angle camera on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Close-up shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Shot using Portrait mode on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

In daylight, the ROG Phone 2’s primary camera was quite capable and manged good details and colours. HDR images looked vivid and striking, with good exposure and white balance. The wide-angle camera captured slightly weaker details but HDR was handled well and landscapes looked good, with little to no barrel distortion. Close-ups looked good too, with sufficient details and good colours. The camera app lets you adjust the level of background blur in Portrait shots, but edge detection wasn’t always too accurate.

Low-light landscape shots captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 were a bit grainy, but using Night mode helped. Details were still a little weak and the resulting images were oversharpened to bit too much.

Close-up low light shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Regular low light shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Shot using ‘Night’ mode on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

The selfie camera captured fairly detailed selfies during the day, with good skin tones, but we noticed some minor artefacting in the background, and the edges of our face could have been sharper. The screen flash is quite effective in low light, providing good illumination. Portrait mode with the front camera is present but the final output looks a little artificial.

Asus ROG Phone 2 selfie test (tap for full-sized image)

The quality of video shot in daylight was also quite impressive. Electronic stabilisation worked very well, even at 4K resolution, and details and colours were represented well. Selfie videos were also stabilised, and the quality was equally good. The phone faltered a bit in low light, as video was a little grainy and the electronic stabilisation caused mild distortion when we moved about.

Verdict

The Asus ROG Phone 2 is a solid piece of hardware and is definitely the most polished and impressive gaming phone we’ve seen so far. It lacks some features such as waterproofing and wireless charging, but at Rs. 37,999, those things aren’t big deal breakers. The higher-end version feels too expensive at nearly Rs. 60,000 even with the massive bump in storage and the bundled accessories. A price of around Rs. 50,000 would have been more accessible.

The OnePlus 7T (Review) is one of the main competitors for the base variant of the ROG Phone 2. It’s a solid offering running Android 10, and it has a good set of cameras as well as a fast 90Hz display. If you’re not a fan of the weight of the ROG Phone 2, the OnePlus 7T would be a good alternative.

However, if you’re looking for a beast of a phone, then the Asus ROG Phone 2 is one of the best out there and is priced starting at under Rs. 40,000. Even if you aren’t a gamer, the vivid display and stereo speakers make this an excellent multimedia device, if you can put up with the bulk.

[hypnokinkwithmrdream]

Class Notes:Max Workshop: Hypnosis, Mental Bondage and Rope 10/17/2015

Max’s Workshop: Hypnosis, Mental Bondage and Rope

ZanyM and I presented this for Max’s Bondage Lessons: http://www.bondagelessons.com/content/2015/10/17/me…

The class was predominantly demonstration based. The discussion itself was too bring up ideas of connection and how easy it was for active bondage players to understand both how a scene might be developed and how it hypnosis could be useful in playing with partners in the midst of other scenes. Throughout I reiterated some safety suggestions about how my partner would always be able to move and come out of trance if they needed to, and showed how making the experience fun was motivational for the unconscious to fulfill the suggestions effect.

Demos

Control Room: Tension Dial

The induction involves a twist on relaxation oriented inductions in which we take advantage of nervous energy and people’s easier time being able to become tense then relax. We first establish the existence of a control room, which is created in the mind of the subject. It is always identified as their control room so they have some sense of controlling it as well. The suggestion is made that there is a dial/gauge for tension/relaxation and then we ask what level of tension the subject is at and then modify it to prove they can control it. At this point we increase the scale, establish the existence of a release button and anchor the release of tension to a deeper trance. The subject can press the button any time they want which either indicates they are no longer enjoying the tension or that they need an eject button from pain.

My first demo partner responded in some interesting ways, so I think it is worthwhile to discuss this in detail. The demo is intended to show how increase of tension and then a sudden drop can create two different bondage opportunities. The first is simply the opportunity of creating such extreme tension in the body that the subject feels unable to move. For some people this has lead to a very impressive catalepsy, but the partner I worked with found that as we began to raise the dial higher and higher there was no real additional peak. I gave the suggestion that there would be a button that he could use to let go of the tension. I actually felt he was much better at being loose and relaxed than tense so he may have been less suited for this particular induction, but an interesting effect was made once he went into trance fully, in which I placed his hands on his knees. The suggestion was that the hands and feet would feel as if they were really where they wanted to be. When asked to move there was more motion than I often see, but it was slow, as if sticky. My partner reported that it was like a magnet. This included when asked to stand up. He was successful but sort of like walking in molasses. I eventually released him from it and we ensured that he was clear of effect.

Eyeball Bondage

Using the idea of eye fixation and increasing the effect to become bondage seems obvious in retrospect. This is a form of bondage that can’t be done any other way. It can be used to attach someone to something or move them around with their eyes. In extreme cases it can be very dramatic. The suggestion is simply that the subject focus on the tips of two fingers, and then imagine that there are strings/threads/wires etc attached. Then after testing the fixation the gesture of reeling in the wires is made and the subject feels pulled by it.

One of the attendees had been catching my attention with excellent eye contact, so I asked her if she would like to volunteer. I then used an eye fixation where she would feel as if her eyes were connected to my fingers by threads. While this was not as effective as if I had previously tranced her, it worked well and demonstrated the ability to use a this suggestion as it’s own induction. She seemed to enjoy it and reported that just following the instructions dropped her into hypnosis.

Enthusiastic Bondage Device

The method I use relies on a concept of emotional bondage. We use the sense of desire or importance to create a strong compulsion to hold onto something. Everyone has something that is important to them, so it is relatively straightforward to evoke that feeling, and then associate it to a person or thing. Usually I start with holding hands and progress from there. Our partner for this responded quite intensely. I also suggested that with the trigger phrase of ‘Let Go’ she would let go of whatever it was she had been focused on, while still desiring it. She held my hand firmly and also was made to let go. At this point I demonstrated the virtue of this approach for the purpose of bondage, but of course my hand being captured in hers was also self bondage. However I redirected her to ZanyM who she hugged immediately. I told ZanyM that my hand was important, however our partner holding on to her, and my advantage of height made it a good demonstration of using this sort of thing in play. ZanyM was then focused on the organizers boots, while being essentially tackled by our demo partner. Having the two essentially crawling together to get to the boot, was a good sign of bondage in effect. Later it was discussed that the sense of being unable to get what one wanted (through let go) was emotionally challenging. This suggests some possibility that a subject might experience some emotional distress that may not be desired so I will probably modify the lesson accordingly to ensure that it is clearly connected to the sense of fun.

Reverse Crop

ZanyM initiated a scene that was discussed about a crop (or bat as it is formally known.) She adapted the concept of importance to the feeling of wanting the crop to touch her in a certain place. Removing it made her want it more. There was no actual impact, just placement. At one point I asked to try something, and enhanced the feeling, and then quickly removed the crop causing an outburst as if she had been hurt. This began to make our partner cry at some point and we completed the demonstration, showing how the same idea could be used for emotional sadism as well as a variation of impact play. Suspension Rope Scene ZanyM will probably have more notes for this part of the class than I, but in my experience, our partner responded to the combination of rope and hypnosis exceptionally well. ZanyM began tying on the ground with a low suspension ring, rather than the more typical standing style of partial suspension. This was a judgement she made based on her own body and her partners. I mostly stood a few feet away and began discussing the rope, the sense of gravity, and explored different directions, qualities, and the like. It is hard to encapsulate this in a description.

Kinesthetic

Since we had a few minutes left and not too many questions, I demonstrated a kinesthetic/touch based trance as well as some rope based trance that was not really requiring any technical proficiency. The kinesthetic hypnosis demo involves a technique where I stand behind my partner lightly touching her on the top of the shoulder. Eventually she begins to move based on very light pressure more as a signal. I swayed as well so that we were in sync, although at times I ensured she was not merely anticipating my motion, by switching direction. Eventually I needed to stabilize her and she leaned back into me. She reported later that even that slight lean reassured her that I was there to catch her, and we discussed both the nonverbal communication, and the effectiveness for loud places, for play when it is quiet, and for working with someone who might be distracted by visual or verbal inductions.

Summary

There wasn’t really any goal of creating practice time or exercises. I think it might be possible with an advanced class to add practice time. I know people want more hands on but I worry about how accessible it is for folks who aren’t yet comfortable with initiating trance. Worth considering anyway.