#fire for stealth

[xenonsdoodles]

dimitri crisis: the weird guy you've been slowly developing a crush on lately is also trans but you have no idea how to say "hey me too" so time to be normal about it

[shadesofmauve]

Alliance Normandy SR2 redesign: Deck 1

The Alliance refitted Deck 1 for an Admiral, but they were working from the original Cerberus SR2 layout, which is decadent even for the shiniest of top brass. The Illusive Man is absolutely a believer in the Great Man theory of history, and the belief that a Capital-L Alpha-human Leader both requires and deserves luxury. From his point of view, this is the bare minimum. Why is there a fish tank on the stealth frigate? Because the Illusive Man decreed it thus. Then he went back to snorting space-blow off the ass of an asari hooker.

(During the refit, Anderson performed some interesting conversational and logistical gymnastics to keep the giant bed and the fish tank, without seeming like he was personally invested in a big comfy bed and a fish tank).

General note: I drew bulkheads one foot thick throughout. It matches the game's thick walls, makes the plans legible when zoomed out, and allows plenty of space for wiring, plumbing, life support, etc. The ladders and central elevator access every deck of the ship, and the elevator has doors both fore and aft.

Redesign/refinement

The loft is more refined than redesigned. The head is pushed out to use the empty space around elevator, and I added a tiny private cabin for two admiral's aides. (On Rhi Shepard's Normandy these were never completed, which she is deeply thankful for; fraternization is hard enough as it is).

The hull outline comes in and clips the ladders. This is a limitation of plan-view; that is actually the hull outline at the top of the space, where it's narrowest. The ladders aren't hanging outside the ship, they just have slightly less head-room (still not a problem, even for a turian).

Inside the cabin, the L desk is rotated 90 degrees, because no N7 in the world wants to sit with their back to the door. This also makes it more comfortable to have working meetings with subordinates. The extended wing of the folds and can be stowed out of the way under the rest. Pushing the head out into the corridor also means better visibility and more usable pace here.

To the left of the door, a small stowable table is a space for more casual conversations or private meals. It's also a place for more formal meals; with the L of the desk folded away, the small table can actually extend to seat eight, allowing the admiral to wine-and-dine visiting dignitaries or senior staff.

Rhi Shepard refers aloud to her model ship collection, but in her heart they're toy ships. The lack of fish is absolutely NOT because of her horrible track record with previous fish; it's because using the stealth systems means accumulating a lot of heat, and water is an excellent auxiliary place to store heat. It may not seem like much next to the ship's massive built-in heat-sinks, but every little bit helps, and with an estimated 4' height, that is a 485 gallon fish tank*.

*Thank you Aquarium Volume Calculator, which is also how I learned that aquarium stocking sizes are given in "inches of fish." This tank can hold about 598 inches of fish. A marvel.

The seating area is basically unchanged, except that admirals rate their own coffee maker. I also added a frosted translucent panel dividing the living/entertaining area from the sleeping area, because sometimes you want to entertain guests without feeling that all focus is on the sybaritic splendor of your bed. The panel also displays media (from either direction).

Normandy redesign posts

Intro

Loft

Command

Crew

Engineering

Hangar

[doomstonee]

Oh hey it’s Stealth Elf and her adoptive dad

[igotsnothing]

Summer 🍃 -19-

Beginning/Previous/Next

Laura is first mentioned here.

[theoutcastrogue]

"Fireball is a stealth spell if all witnesses are inside the blast radius."

[x] @wearesorcerer

[chipfunk-art]

i am defo not the first person to do this but. wof x mlp fim

i wanna do more fleshed out drawings of these with cutie marks but this was just a fun little aggie sesh with my sister helping me design them!

more details in the tags for funsies

[disasterbihawkeye]

I can’t get into headcanons/aus/whatever where the men of mash are transmasc without there being at least some realism and part of that is like, knowing the history of what gender affirming stuff was available/done at the time but the big thing is that there’s got to be some abject terror there. They’ve got to be feeling the effect of being stealth in a context where whether or not they’re found to be trans is extremely high stakes.

[jaypgartifacts]

making up guys part 3

[froginninjago]

So I was watching ninjago (surprising, I know) and call me an idiot but i just noticed this.

As a kid, I always wondered why the ninja were so colorful. Like, how is this guy dressed in pure white supposed to hide in the middle of the night? And don't get me started on red, which blends in just about nowhere.

It just hit me: What if they weren't MEANT to hide everywhere?

They're meant to blend in with their elements.

Kai, Jay, and Cole don't blend in with the snow. But they aren't meant to.

Zane, Kai, and Jay don't blend in with caves. But they aren't meant to

Cole, Zane, and Kai don't blend in with the sky. But they aren't meant to.

Jay, Cole, and Zane don't blend in with lava or fire. But they aren't meant to.

[meadowlarkx]

we are lady parts fans are you out there.... i'm sailing a tiny momtaz/saira ship

[system-architect]

sorry hi last reblog has me thinking about how i havent played in awhile. i haven't been a fan of the recent updates they're far too 'content production'-y for me. but i just want to express i think many of the best moments in gw2 story have been when the writing is utter camp slop that the writers were clearly extremely emotionally invested in, completely regardless of their production timeframes or budget. my opinion basically is guild wars 2 is better when it's worse

[goldenblu]

ohhh my gosh that whole mask sanji idea has me REELING. sanji gains emotions the hard way but he's constantly questioning if it's real or not, if it's still an act, if it has ever been an act, who is his loyalty to now, to his country or his crew? which family? and maybe stealth black has been a mask as well, maybe that cruel, apathetic assassin is a product of pretending for the vinsmokes- so is there anything left of him that is not hollow desire to play for affection?

even if there isn't. the strawhats will love every part of him they find. maybe it will be hard at first, maybe they will feel betrayed and lost and angry. but he is nakama, and a mask is still a product of skin and bone. he has always been capable of being sanji.

like no pressure to continue on this idea in fic form but my god, if you have any more thoughts on this or anything like it i would pay to see them <3 it's so beautiful

YOU. YOU GET IT.

asdksfja;lksjf sanji realizes that he’s come to see the strawhats as something more than a target, a tool to use and then cast away.

(he doesn’t dare to think the word family because that would be a betrayal of his real family, wouldn’t it? it would be an admission of his failure, and he refuses to be a failure.)

it’s all part of the act, he tells himself. it doesn’t mean anything. it won’t last.

but it doesn’t change the fact that he remembers all the strawhats’ favorite foods, that he knows how tell when chopper needs a little hot chocolate pick-me-up, that fighting back to back with zoro feels in sync and familiar in a way that it shouldn’t. all of these useless pieces of information and instincts that he shouldn’t have but does anyway.

so sanji panics—and isn’t that a new experience for him, panicking. every time the strawhats look at him, they see someone who doesn’t actually exist, shouldn’t exist. it makes him feel some emotion that he’s never felt before and can’t identify. it’s terrible; he can’t stand to be this person he’s not for any longer.

maybe he’s the one to reveal his true identity and goal to the strawhats. because he knows he’s in too deep; he needs to cut these ties himself and finish the mission he should have finished long ago.

or maybe it’s not up to him at all, maybe judge sends one of his brothers to find him because he’s taking too long. ichiji or whoever shows up on the sunny, gets a laugh out of sanji trying to play house on a boat, and then announces that sanji doesn’t need to pretend anymore, it’s time to deal the finishing blow and return home with whatever information he’s acquired.

however it happens, sanji does the whole “my name is vinsmoke sanji” speech from wci except it’s real this time, and that’s how the truth comes out. which is fine, it doesn’t matter what the strawhats think of him. it’s better this way, it’s better that they know where sanji’s true loyalties lie: with germa.

(right? this has always been an indisputable fact. so why does he feel so conflicted about it now?)

i don’t know how the plot would play out from here but later, when push comes to shove, sanji realizes at the very last minute that all he’s doing is exchanging one mask for another. he can’t go back to how things were before—his father won’t like that one of his perfect sons is compromised with such weaknesses, but more than that, sanji doesn’t want to be the emotionless third prince of germa anymore.

(the thought he won’t allow himself to think: maybe he never did.)

he never realized before that it was possible to have the freedom to choose, but he does now. so he pulls an uno reverse card and instead of betraying the strawhats, he betrays the only life he’s ever known and saves the strawhats instead, very publicly turning his back on the vinsmokes. the details of how exactly this happens escape me but let’s assume he’s successful in telling germa to fuck off. (for now, at least. i imagine this doesn’t last since judge would be unimaginably angry and go after him, but that’s a problem for later sanji.)

regardless, when it’s all said and done, sanji doesn’t expect the strawhats to allow him back onto the crew. he’s not a good person, he’s deceived and killed hundreds of people in cold blood. he lied to them, betrayed them, pretended to be someone he’s not. the strawhats know that now. by all rights, they should want to kill him. most people would. sanji would.

but they don’t. sanji doesn’t know what they see in him, but whatever it is, it’s enough for luffy accept him even after everything he’s done. admittedly, the rest of the crew still has their reservations; it’s clear enough that they’re hurt and angry and wary of him.

you broke our trust, nami tells him.

i know. sanji hesitates, and then says, i’m sorry.

it’s new to him, this feeling of guilt eating away at him, and he almost stumbles over the words. he’s never had to apologize before, not genuinely. stealth black doesn’t apologize. stealth black doesn’t feel regret.

but he’s not stealth black anymore. he’s someone else. he doesn’t know who, exactly, but he does know who he wants to be. black leg sanji, the man who only existed on this ship for these past few weeks/months, the man who was capable of caring and being cared for—sanji wants that to be real.

luffy’s giving you a chance to rebuild it, nami says. so don’t waste it.

it’s hard, at first. sanji has never not had to play a role before so now he’s confronted with the question: what parts of him are the result of the persona he puts on and what parts are truly sanji? he’s worn a mask in some form or another for so long—certain things are so ingrained in him that he can’t tell the difference anymore.

the next time he cooks dinner, he wonders: is this desire to feed his the crew real, or is it a leftover habit from black leg sanji? the next time he kills someone for going after the strawhats, he wonders: this ruthless capacity for violence, does that come from himself or from vinsmoke sanji?

but maybe it doesn’t matter where it came from because he can make it his. because nothing can take away the fact that for the first time, sanji is doing what he wants to do and not just what he’s told to do.

he says as much to luffy, who smiles and responds, i always knew you could do it.

and over time, the strawhats begin to trust him again. usopp stops being quite so nervous around him. nami starts working on her maps in the galley again, and this time sanji doesn’t have to lie when she asks him questions about the islands he’s been to. zoro tells him that he’d better not hold back during their spars, so sanji stops trying to hide it and lets his sharp edges stay sharp and dangerous and deadly. chopper learns the truth about sanji’s physical enhancements but it doesn’t stop him from worrying over him anyway, which makes sanji’s chest feel warm for some reason.

(and that’s a whole other thing—now sanj has to figure out how the fuck he’s supposed to deal with having emotions because holy shit do you people feel this way all the time?? it’s so much, it’s overwhelming.

he keeps having to ask: what is this feeling or that feeling or that feeling?? and everyone teaches him: fear. sadness. happiness. all things that sanji once thought were impossible for him to feel.)

he still struggles to balance kindness and cruelty sometimes—though he’s capable of feeling compassion now, it’s mainly only ever for the strawhats, and he’s still merciless to anyone he considers an enemy. in any case, his crew is there to support him, to help him figure out: who is he in the absence of everything that’s defined the last nineteen years of his life?

the answer? the cook of the strawhat pirates, sanji. just sanji. that’s who he is and who he’ll always be.

[ervikirvi]

so I see you are a recovering WOF fandomer.

…thoughts on how the last book went?

I felt like I was reading a very poor fanfic about what happened to a side character who went on their own little journey while the main characters followed the main plotline.

I see the reason why Tui said she shortened the number of Dragonets of Destiny: because seven were too hard for her to write. That's probably why they were all split up for most of the book.

I want to know what all transpired when Sundew and Lynx went to go rescue Moon

I did not like that Wasp's fate was the same as Scarlets, I felt like Tui was running out of ideas

A minor nitpick of mine is that you can only turn yourself visible if you can see the dragon (looking in their general direction??) to turn them visible again. They did not follow that rule in the books. The best canon answer I could come up with is that Snowfall just lied to them so they'd stay together

Freedom saying that if she could grow up, she wanted to be like Snowfall caught me very off-guard lmao

Dare I say, with the team being split up and all, the POVs should've changed throughout the book so that things didn't just happen because the book said they happened. I feel like it would've been better to read if it was formatted like Darkstalker's book. Even though it would be a strange switch-up from how the main books are formatted, it just would make more sense for that book in particular

I found the explanation for The Scorching to be very boring, but I do have a soft spot for them stealing eggs, hatching them, and turning them into war machines. I found that very interesting and I would love to know more about them coming up with new ways to train and keep the dragons contained.

I love that the older "tribes" are just merged together depending on where they are

I wish that what happened to the scavengers after they killed Queen Oasis was a scorching 2.0

I wish Wasp had more significance in the story because of her potential. They should've killed her off because of her crimes against literally everyone. Could've been an amazing scene while Sundew and Lynx were trying to free Moon, with Lynx being against it and Sundew being for it, while Moon is the mediator who is obviously leaning towards Lynx's side.

I felt like Pineapple was just implemented into the story to give Jambu a lover for half-assed LGBT representation. I wish he was in the story during The Hidden Kingdom or at least mentioned. Especially when Jambu goes with The Dragonets to the Ice Kingdom, Pineapple's concern about Jambu going and maybe trying to talk him out of it or going with him as support. I wish we got to see him and Jambu actually interacting instead of just being in a memory. I wish Tui had done something with him instead of throwing him in last minute. (I know that Tui didn't make him into existence until book 14 but still, give us something) [If Pineapple and Jambu don't interact in Arc 4, we riot]

I wish Luna using her normal silk to cut the vine was more impactful for the reader

Luna needs therapy, but then again they all do

Sort of disappointed that Luna didn't adopt Dusky, but she's also a dragonet so I understand why, more like an older sister and younger brother dynamic

THE SECRET STEALTH TEAM GETTING DRUGGED AND GETTING HIGH AND POSSESSED ON THE BOE AND BY WASP SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE RELEVANCE

How many dragons have died trying to reach Pantala? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the book say that dragons were coming over pretty much all the time? And that Luna is struggling to keep up with her tapestry? You'd come over from the Kingdom of Sand or the Ice Kingdom, which are pretty extreme. Then you have to come over using a very scarce trail of islands. [Wait, if Clearsight left around the Night Kingdom and The Kingdom of Sand, how did the Pantalans end up in the Ice Kingdom?? That's wayyyyy up North] And not only that, I'd imagine hurricanes would be a problem? Considering that Clearsight almost died in one?

Any mentions of Snowfall made me extremely happy because she was my hyper-fixation since 2021, who Kinger and Queenie replaced last October. So that memory of them just playing kept me fed until The Guide to The Dragon World came out

[dndtreasury]

Cloak of Smoke & Cinder by Griffon's Saddlebag

[psych-is-the-name]

i just learned that Avatar: Autumn Twilight is considered lost media? there's only 2 images and no videos of the game, and it's so weird to me because I vividly remember playing through the entire game multiple times as a kid, and it just... doesnt exist now. with almost no proof that it was even there to begin with

[love-killed-the-superstar]

with tlr2 issue 3 dropping in a couple days, im curious what everyone thinks moja and uno's abilities will be