#i provided one and strawb provided the other

[thecreaturecodex]

Ranna

"Slaadi" © Wizards of the Coast, by Sam Wood

[New Year, New Monsters! I am feeling much less burnt out than I was for the back half of 2023, and have built up a small backlog of new writing. I'm going to keep monsters I post to 2/week for now, to give myself time to go through said backlog in case the burnout rears up again when I'm back to work.

So for my first trick, is a monster NPC I actually wrote back in like September, but didn't post. Consider her an epilogue to the whole "Monster Girl Summer" thing. Ranna is @strawberry-crocodile's character, and fits with some of my other monstrous NPCs. She's Doctor Shiny's main minion, and their relationship serves as sort of a nasty counterpart to Gigi and Priscilla's. Of course, if you just want to use the stat block as a particularly burly slaad enforcer type, that works just as well as Ranna's baroque and macabre backstory.]

Ranna CR 18 CE Aberration This blue, frog-like humanoid has a triangular fanged snout, warty skin and enormous claws growing from the backs of their hands. A red gemstone is embedded in their skull, right between the eyes.

Marina Rhynne was an alchemy student at Endirion School in Absalom, prone to anxiety and to thinking with her stomach. She caught the eye of Doctor Agatha Shiny, who used the pretext of a dinner invitation and offer of a graduate program to abduct her and implant her with an alchemically treated red slaad egg. Doctor Shiny succeeded in one of her goals, which was to cause memories to be passed from the host to the parasite, but failed in that the resultant blue slaad did not maintain the intelligence of her progenitor. The resultant slaad, named Ranna, could recall her previous life in a hazy, dream-like way, but the predominant personality trait that was carried over was hunger.

Ranna is now Doctor Shiny’s Number One Minion, her assassin, procurer and lover. If Doctor Shiny needs someone eliminated or an unusual creature captured and brought to her, Ranna is the one to do it. She usually tracks her targets as an unassuming humanoid until she can set up an ambush and remove her greater hat of disguise. Ranna fights with her natural weapons almost exclusively, although she does occasionally toy with targets by battering them with heavy objects hurled by telekinesis. Although she is lapdog-loyal to Doctor Shiny and always follows her instructions for her specified victims, Ranna enjoys collateral damage, which usually involves biting bystanders. She views any red slaadi that are created through chaos phagethe way a proud parent views their children, and is happy to hear of any death and destruction they create.

Ranna’s personality is playful in a cruel way. She sees her progenitor, Marina Rhinne, as a pathetic figure, and has an air of contempt towards academic pursuits in general. She still appears as Rhynne when abroad in Absalom, and is the terror of Endirion School’s faculty, staff and students as Doctor Shiny’s personal assistant. Ranna is happy to play the bad guy so that Doctor Shiny can maintain her impeccable public reputation, and takes matters into her own claws if anyone gets too close to the truth about Doctor Shiny’s goals and activities. Ranna tends to dispose of the evidence of her murders by eating the corpses of her victims. She is also an excellent chef. Doctor Shiny does not eat food that Ranna prepares unless she is very sure of where the meat came from.

Ranna  CR 18 XP 153,600 Blue slaad slayer 9 (cutthroat) CE Large aberration (chaotic, slaadi) Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +19

Defense AC 33, touch 20, flat-footed 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +1 dodge, +9 natural, +4 armor, +2 deflection) hp 303 (11d8+9d10+200); fast healing 6 Fort +22, Ref +20, Will +15 Immune mind reading, sonic; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 19

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee +3 bite +32 (2d6+16 plus disease), 2 +3 claws +32 (2d6+16/19-20x3) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks augmented critical, opportune target, rend (2 claws, 2d6+22), sneak attack +3d6, stab and grab, studied target (swift or move action, +2) Spell-like Abilities CL 8th, concentration +11 3/day—hold person (DC 15), passwall, telekinesis (DC 18) 1/day—chaos hammer (DC 17)

Statistics Str 36, Dex 26, Con 30, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16 Base Atk +17; CMB +31 (+33 bull rush); CMD 52 Feats Alertness,Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Natural Attack (bite), Intimidating Prowess, Killing Flourish, Power Attack Skills Acrobatics +20 (+24 in urban environments), Bluff +16, Climb +20, Disable Device +25, Disguise +16, Intimidate +34, Linguistics +4, Perception +19 (+23 vs. traps), Profession (chef) +14, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +21, Survival +15 Languages Common, Slaadi SQ legendary, slayer talents (surprise attack, trapfinding [trap sense +3], stalker, street stalker (Acrobatics) Gear manual of gainful exercise +4 (expended), manual of quickness of action +2 (expended), manual of bodily health +4 (expended), belt of physical perfection +4, bloodstained gloves, greater hat of disguise, soulbound eye, amulet of mighty fists +3, bracers of armor +4, boots of teleportation, cloak of resistance +3, ring of mind shielding, ring of protection +2, potion of fly (x2), potion of displacement, potion of haste, potion of lesser restoration (x2), potion of cure light wounds (x4), masterwork cooking tools, 150 gp

Special Abilities Augmented Critical (Ex) A blue slaad’s claws deal x3 damage on a successful critical hit. Disease (Su) Chaos phage; bite—injury; save Fort DC 25; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d6 Con damage and 1d6 Cha damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature that is reduced to 0 Con or Cha by chaos phage is immediately transformed into a red slaad. This transformation can only be reversed by a miracle or wish. A Small or Medium humanoid with levels in an arcane spellcasting class instead transforms into a green slaad. The save DC is Constitution based. Legendary (Ex) Ranna’s statistics are built with 25 point buy, and she has the equipment of an 18th level PC. These advantages increase her CR by +1. Opportune Target (Ex) If Ranna can act in the surprise round, she can study a foe as a free action and select them as her studied target. Stab and Grab (Ex) As a swift action, Ranna can attempt a steal combat maneuver against a dead or unconscious foe, or against a studied target that she has successfully confirmed a critical hit against. A dead or unconscious opponent takes a -10 penalty against this maneuver. Street Stalker (Ex) Ranna adds ½ her slayer level to Acrobatics checks made in urban environments.

[history-and-arts]

Waterloo 2022

On thursday 16th june I travelled to Waterloo to take part in the Waterloo battle. I played the part of a fusiler soldier in the 85é regiment with the original banner flying from our part of the French bivac. On the first day we just spent the time building up the camp and setting everything in place, the temperatures were comfortable enough to go and explore the battlefield and its numerous monuments.

Most of the reenactors arrived on friday so the camp, which started from just a few tents, grew into a proper large camp. There were three camps in total: The French bivac, us, we stayed over in the vineyard behind Napoleon’s last headquarters. The allies camp was located at Hougemont farm and the civilian camp just beside the Lion of Waterloo. On friday we had our first military drills, we were also woken up every morning at 7:00 with the trumpet blowing the reveille. Life in bivac consists of drills, cleaning weapons, making cartouches, and of course camping without any modern equipment or electricity. Our regiment slept in tents, the picture with the tent and shako was mine. One regiment from Germany went full hardcore and slept on the ground on just a strawbed underneath the stars but the weather was incredibly hot so that might have been a good idea after all. 

During the friday evening I did get a bit drunk with a group of Italians, I am myself from the Netherlands. We wandered to the spot where Napoleon’s tent was located and we saw him chatting with a few of his marshalls accompanied with his mameluk bodyguard. We all cheered: Vive l’Empereur! as loudly as we could which drew his attention to us as he greeted us. I felt bold enough to ask for a selfie with the emperor which he was happy to do so when I got my picture and a hug even, all the marshalls wanted to be on the photo with him as well. Napoleon was played by the wonderful Max Schneider who is just an exact clone of the real Napoleon, same height, same eye colour, same hair and the exact same behaviour and mannerisms, he was perfect in character for the entire event. I pretty much got drunk that night just celebrating with people from all over Europe until 4:00 in the morning so I didn’t get any sleep at all.

On Saterday we knew it was going to be very hot, 35 degrees in the full sun with barely any shadow in the French bivac, the allies had more fortune since they had a lot of trees providing shadow. The military drills were pushed forward in the morning because of the heat so I was standing in full uniform at 10:00 in the morning to drill, our regiment was attached to three other regiments with one commanding officer, Leclerc, we did some weapon drills and planned our movements for the battle later this day. The battle itself was set for the evening because it was simply too hot during the midday. The original plan was to march the 7km to the battlefield in full uniform but due to the heat, the staff of the event hired tour buses with airco to take us to the battlefield, just imagine the sight of several tour busses full with fully armed Napoleonic soldiers and weapons, it was a very weird sight as we were escorted by the Belgian police to the battlefield. 

The battle itself was incredible and very tiresome as it was still over 30 degrees celcius. We marched onto the field and took our position as Napoleon rode past us giving us a speech, we all raised our muskets and yelled vive l’empereur! as he went past us, the atmosphere I felt then was just absolutely amazing. The French artillery fired the first canon shots opening the battle which lasted about 2 hours. Of course we all know how the battle ended but near the end of the battle, Napoleon returned trying to motivate us to fight even harder. One of the British canon shots went a little bit wrong and part of the cartouche landed right in front of the public stands in the grass which caused a lot of dirt to kick up while the audience screamed. At the end of the battle all of the French infantry we formed a giant square while Napoleon rode around us giving us one final speech, we cheered and screamed while we once again took on the English. Unfortunately we eventually all had to retreat and thus the battle ended. The Belgian police was there proving us with water as well since the temperatures were still scorching.

We arrived back at our bivac at 22:30 but most of us were so tired from the heat, the barely amount of sleep of the previous two nights and the knowledge that we had to march to battle once more at 07:00 in the morning so we slept a little earlier. Fortunately, the winds changed so the temperature dropped to just 14 degrees but this sudden drop caused most of us to wake up shivering in our tents at 3:00 in the night. On sunday morning we marched towards the battlefield which was much more managable thanks to lower temperatures and played the battle again. This time our regiment acted as voltigeurs so we could play as light infantry. We spread out on the right flank trying to outflank the British 95th rifles, we bayonet charged them which was a lot of fun. The second battle also lasted 2 hours and believe me, after 4 hours of battle and several more of drilling, you can barely feel your muscles anymore. 

After the battle we went back to our bivac again and with normal temperatures I decided to explore a few museums there, while being in uniform I gained entrance to all the places for free and I was asked a lot by the visitors if they could take a photograph of me, I found that quite humbling. I visited Napoleon’s last headquarters building, the table where he sat at planning the battle and his field bed. Bought some souvenirs for myself and my mother and drank some fine Waterloo beer. At the end of the day we slowly packed our stuff and went on our way home but not before I stopped at the battlefield and plucked some of the growing corn as a memorial since I marched and fought on the same ground where my 4th great grandfather fought during the actual battle of Waterloo. It was bizare to imagine that around 50,000 people died on the exact spot where I was walking. It was an unforgettable experience and I am already looking forward to next year. 

The only downside, I can’t get these French marches out of my head, we sang  chanson de l'Oignon at least over 100 times while marching... 

 Au pas camarades, au pas camarades, Au pas, au pas, au pas,

[blueinkie]

Can y’all give some more attention to Mustard cookie, please

Quick note: I’m not shitting on anyone here for not writing/drawing mustard content, I honestly don’t really care that much

Another note after writing: this starts hella serious and then it has a sudden mood change. Be ready for that lol don’t take this too seriously

Okay so I’m back to rambling about my head canons and what not.

There’s some potential with Mustard’s character and I want to express my thoughts on that or whatever.

She’s obviously a teenager( I personally feel she’s like 17-18 years old) and a somewhat rebellious one but also kind of responsible too. This responsibility that she has steams from Wasabi and her tendencies to make a “monster of the week” adventure for her to clean up. She’s a mad scientist after all lol

But you can take just that and make some hella good content out of it. For example, how mustard feels a lot of resentment towards her grandmother due to the messes she causes. She feels more like the parent than Wasabi is, and ( for a long time) felt the need to grow up or act more mature to make up for Wasabi’s immaturity and thoughtlessness. See that would be a pretty cool story ngl

Adding on to the whole needing to grow up, Wasabi could also be neglectful. Not in a traditional way ( I mean this as in not providing the basic necessities a child needs, I worded it wrong aaahh-) but in an emotional and physical way. She’s too busy working on mad sciencey shit to really pay attention to mustard, not that she doesn’t love her, she just feels that mustard is capable enough on her own and that science is more important. But it’s been like that for as long as Mustard could remember( tho she remembers it really starting to take some type of emotional pain on her at age 10).

This would add some context to the graffiti stuff she does( oh yeah hc that she is making her own motorcycle with kiwi cookie’s help) and how it’s kind of like a cry out for attention. Of course it isn’t always, sometimes she does graffiti for activist reasons with gumball since the patriarchy sucks ass.

Oh yeah also, why isn’t their more strawberry x mustard content. I’m sorry to any gingerbrave x strawberry or gingerbright x strawberry shippers but 1. Those two ships are literally the same thing, one is just gay

2. It’s boring as hell. No flavor at all! None! No shame to you tho, I don’t care what you ship just don’t make it weird ( looking at you proshippers)

Like we have a goth girl and a gamer girl guys. That would be soooo cute. (Hc strawb to be around 16-17) I also feel mustard would definitely get strawb out of her comfort zone and in a good way. She would probably have her join in on her and gumball’s wacky scheme/adventures they have after school/ on the weekends.

I am, however, okay with pumpkin pie x strawberry shippers tho ( if they head canon pump as a child/teen) her status as a child/teen cookie or an adult is weird tho.

Mustard x gumball is trash lol. That’s literally a lesbian and a gay man yall. Gumball x Soda for life. Okay but in all seriousness I could see but like no. They were those two obviously gay kids in high school that pretended to date each other that one time for prom since they thought it would be funny. They’re more like siblings than anything and butter pretzel is their adoptive parent ( yes they adopted them, after the butter affair event thing).

Butter pretzel probably gives them adult advice ( since again, they’re both in their last year of high school and both want to go to college) like paying taxing/bills, how to save money, which art school to go to ( mostly for gumball there tho, mustard would probably just go to a community college) and how to roll a blunt. (Very educational, sadly they already knew how :( )

Mustard and Gumball probably called either butter pretzel or cheese cake mom at least once. Actually it was probably both of them.

Okay I’m done.

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Mick Ronson who Died: April 29, 1993, London, England

Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as one of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musician who recorded five studio albums with Bowie followed by four with Ian Hunter, and also worked as a sideman in touring bands with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan.

Ronson and Bowie also produced Lou Reed's Transformer with Ronson playing lead guitar and piano and writing string arrangements, and brought mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side".

Ronson also recorded five solo studio albums, the most popular being Slaughter on 10th Avenue, which reached No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart. He played with various bands after his time with Bowie. A classically trained musician, Ronson was known for his melodic approach to guitar playing. He was named the 64th-greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2003 and 41st in 2012 by the same magazine.

Early in 1970, John Cambridge came back to Hull in search of Ronson, intent upon recruiting him for a new David Bowie backing band called The Hype. He found Ronson marking out a rugby pitch, one of his duties as a Parks Department gardener for Hull City Council. Having failed in his earlier attempts in London, Ronson was reluctant, but eventually agreed to accompany Cambridge to a meeting with Bowie. Two days later, on 5 February, Ronson made his debut with Bowie on John Peel's national BBC Radio 1 show.

The Hype played their first gig at The Roundhouse on 22 February with a line-up that included Bowie, Ronson, Cambridge, and producer/bassist Tony Visconti. The group dressed up in superhero costumes, with Bowie as Rainbowman, Visconti as Hypeman, Ronson as Gangsterman, and Cambridge as Cowboyman. Also on the bill that day were Bachdenkel, The Groundhogs and Caravan. The following day they performed at the Streatham Arms in London under the pseudonym of 'Harry The Butcher'. They also performed on 28 February at the Basildon Arts Lab experimental music club at the Basildon Arts Centre in Essex, billed as 'David Bowie's New Electric Band'. Also on the bill were High Tide, Overson and Iron Butterfly. Strawbs were due to perform but were replaced by Bowie's New Electric Band. John Cambridge left in March, again replaced by Woody Woodmansey. In April 1970, Ronson, Woodmansey, and Visconti started recording Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World album.

During the sessions for The Man Who Sold the World, the trio of Ronson, Visconti, and Woodmansey – still under The Hype moniker – signed to Vertigo Records. The group recruited Benny Marshall from The Rats as vocalist, and entered the studio to record an album. By the time a single appeared, The Hype had been renamed Ronno. "4th Hour of My Sleep" was released on Vertigo to an indifferent reception in January 1971. The song was written by Tucker Zimmerman. The B-side was a Ronson/Marshall composition called "Powers of Darkness". The Ronno album was never completed.

Bowie's backing ensemble, which now included Trevor Bolder, who had replaced Visconti on bass guitar, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, were used in the recording of Hunky Dory. The departure of Visconti also meant that Ronson, with Bowie, took over the arrangements, while Ken Scott co-produced with Bowie. Hunky Dory featured Ronson's string arrangements on several tracks, including "Life On Mars?".

It was this band, minus Wakeman, that became known as The Spiders from Mars from the title of the next Bowie album. Again, Ronson was a key part of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, providing string arrangements and various instrumentation, as well as playing lead guitar. Ronson and Bowie achieved some popularity over the concerts promoting this album, when Bowie would simulate fellatio on Ronson's guitar as he played. Ronson's guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians. In 1972 Ronson provided a strings-and-brass arrangement for the song "Sea Diver" on the Bowie-produced All the Young Dudes album for Mott the Hoople. Ronson co-produced Lou Reed's album Transformer with Bowie, playing lead guitar and piano on the songs "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love". Again with Bowie, he re-recorded and produced the track "The Man Who Sold the World" for Lulu, released as a single in the UK, and played on a few tracks on the Dana Gillespie album Weren't Born a Man. Ronson appeared on the 1972 country rock album Bustin' Out by Pure Prairie League, where he undertook string ensemble arrangements. Ronson recorded "Angel #9" for his second solo LP Play Don't Worry), and string arrangements on "Boulder Skies" and "Call Me, Tell Me" .

His guitar work was next heard on Bowie's Aladdin Sane and 1973 covers album Pin Ups. However, he was absent from the subsequent Diamond Dogs album. In September 1983 he was a special guest at the Toronto leg of the Serious Moonlight Tour, playing lead guitar during the performance of "The Jean Genie". He had only been asked to play the day before.

Bowie said in a 1994 interview that "Mick was the perfect foil for the Ziggy character. He was very much a salt-of-the-earth type, the blunt northerner with a defiantly masculine personality, so that what you got was the old-fashioned Yin and Yang thing. As a rock duo, I thought we were every bit as good as Mick and Keith or Axl and Slash. Ziggy and Mick were the personification of that rock n roll dualism.

After leaving Bowie's entourage after the "Farewell Concert" in 1973, Ronson released three solo albums. His solo debut Slaughter on 10th Avenue, featured a version of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender", as well as Ronson's most famous solo track, "Only After Dark". In addition, his sister, Margaret (Maggi) Ronson, provided the backing vocals for the set. Between this and the 1975 follow-up, Ronson had a short-lived stint with Mott the Hoople.

He then became a long-time collaborator with Mott's former leader Ian Hunter, commencing with the album Ian Hunter and featuring the UK Singles Chart No. 14 hit "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", including a spell touring as the Hunter Ronson Band. In 1980, the live album Welcome to the Club was released, including a couple of Ronson contributions, although it also contained a few studio-based tracks – one of which was a Hunter/Ronson composition. In 1974, Ronson secured the No. 2 spot from a reader's poll in Creem magazine as the best guitarist that year (with Jimmy Page taking first place), and Eric Clapton in third place after Ronson.

Ronson contributed guitar to the title track of the 1976 David Cassidy release Getting It in the Street. On 11 February 1977 the single "Billy Porter" (b/w "Seven Days") was released on RCA Victor Records, but did not chart. Roger Daltrey employed Ronson's guitar on his 1977 solo release One of the Boys. In 1979, Ronson and Hunter produced and played on the Ellen Foley debut album, Night Out, with "We Belong to the Night" and the hit single "What's a Matter Baby".

He also played guitar on Roger C Reale’s “Reptiles in Motion” album recorded in 1979 and only released in 2019 after the master tapes were acquired from the family of the original rights owners. The label Big Sound, based in Connecticut, had gone bust and the album remained unreleased for forty years.

In 1982, Ronson worked with John Mellencamp on his American Fool album, and in particular the song "Jack & Diane". Both "Jack & Diane" and American Fool topped their respective US Billboard charts.

In 1990, Ronson again collaborated with Hunter on the album YUI Orta, this time getting joint credit, as "Hunter/Ronson". One of the backing singers on the album was Carola Westerlund. While in Sweden Ronson wrote and produced three new songs with Estelle Millburne and Westerlund as EC2: "I'm So Sorry"/"Kiss Me" (1990), then a second single as ECII: "Passion" with a B-side cover of J. Kilette and K. Brown's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles".

In 1993, he again appeared on a Bowie album, Black Tie White Noise, playing on the track "I Feel Free", originally recorded by Cream. Ronson and Bowie had already covered this track live 20 years earlier, whilst touring as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. He also played lead guitar on the Morrissey-penned "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday".

His second and third solo albums were Play Don't Worry in 1975, and Heaven and Hull in 1994. The latter set was only partly completed at the time of Ronson's death, and was released posthumously. Artists involved with the album included Bowie, John Mellencamp, Joe Elliott, Ian Hunter, Chrissie Hynde, and Martin Chambers.

Besides Bowie and Hunter, Ronson went on to work as a musician, songwriter and record producer with many other acts. He did not restrict his influence behind the recording desk to just established acts. His production work appears on albums by more obscure artists, such as Payolas, Phil Rambow and Los Illegals, The Mundanes and Italian band Moda. Ronson produced The Visible Targets, a Seattle, Washington-based group, on their 1983 five track EP, "Autistic Savant". In 1985 he produced and played on the four song EP "Stillwell Avenue" with the NYC based band XDAVIS.

Ronson was also a member of Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Revue" live band, and can be seen both on and off-stage in the film of the tour. He made a connection with Roger McGuinn during this time, which led to his producing and contributing guitar and arrangements to McGuinn's 1976 solo album Cardiff Rose.

In 1982, he participated on lead guitar in a short-lived band with Hilly Michaels on drums and Les Fradkin on bass guitar. One of their recordings from this group, "Spare Change", appeared on the Fradkin's 2006 album, Goin' Back. In 1987, Ronson made an appearance on a record by The Toll. Ronson played lead on the band's song, "Stand in Winter", from the album The Price of Progression.

In 1991, Ronson produced the Swedish cult band The Leather Nun's album, Nun Permanent, adding backing vocals and guitar overdubs on several tracks. At the end of the production, during a short visit to his sister in London, Ronson was diagnosed with cancer. In 1992 he produced Morrissey's album, Your Arsenal. The same year, Ronson's final high-profile live performance was his appearance at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. He played on "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie and Hunter; and "Heroes" with Bowie. Ronson's final recorded session was as a guest on the 1993 Wildhearts album Earth vs the Wildhearts, where he played the guitar solo on the song "My Baby is a Headfuck". Liner notes for the Earth vs The Wildhearts album give credit to Mick Ronson for guitar on the track "My Baby Is A Headfuck" and the "album is dedicated to Mick Ronson".

Ronson died of liver cancer on April 29, 1993 at age 46.

[awkwardness-in-its-purest-form]

@strawberryrosewood Here's my personal take on what you said! I wanted to make something like this for a while now but the inspiration only hit me just yesterday morning

More info below the cut :D

Name: [REDACTED] "Strawb" Rosewood

Species: Cyborg

[The idea I had for this was that "haha what if Strawb was a robot that got taken over by a plant", but something about it didn't sit right with me, so I changed the "robot" part to "cyborg", and the plant bit only took over his blaster

(He also has strawberry leef hair tie, pink leather high-heeled boots and his dress(?) was changed to a shirt and skirt because. idk. cosmetics)]

//

The blaster is Strawb's main weapon, and he uses it in most of his fights, and it is far more effective than his fistfighting skills

The red light on his blaster shows whether or not the blaster is on (he can turn it on and off at will, an out always turns off when he's asleep).

The bar represents but much ammo he currently has stored in his system. Currently, the maximum amount of ammo it can hold is 500, however, there are plans to increase the ammo limit to 1,000 (progress has been slow though).

His ammo and his energy levels are closely tied. By eating, sleeping and really anything that gives him energy, he regains ammo. He also regains energy when spending long amounts of time in the sunlight. When he uses ammo, he also grows immensely tired. It's speculated that the reason these things happen is due to the strawberry in his system, but that theory has never been tested.

He can also transform his blaster into a normal hand

//

Because of the strawberry vines taking over his blaster, its usual abilities were replaced by two special abilities

Ability 1: Seed Firing

This ability allows Strawb to fire seed-like explosives from his blaster. He uses this ability far more often than the second, as it is very easy to provide quick and easy damage to a target

These seeds come in three different variants: small, large and latch

Small Seeds

Ammo Consumption: 1

Recharge Time: 5 seconds (between volleys)

Small seeds are the only kind of seed that can be fired in volleys (groups of 10), but are fairly ineffective unless aimed directly at their target. Blasts can be dangerous but aren't fatal.

Large Seeds

Ammo Consumption: 10

Recharge Time: 15 seconds

Large seeds cause big explosions that deal massive damage to both their target and the surrounding area. Blasts, even when not aimed at their target, can be fatal.

Latch Seeds

Ammo Consumption: 5

Recharge Time: 1 minute

Latch seeds attach themselves to their target until detonated by Strawb. Blasts are highly dangerous and can be fatal, but often aren't.

Healing Seeds

Ammo Consumption: 15

Recharge Time: 1 minute

Healing seeds can be used to either reenergize their target or heal the target's physical wounds. Blasts are never fatal.

Other important things:

All seeds release pollen upon impact, which is most often used to blind enemies or give them allergic reactions

It's important that Strawb doesn't try to surpass the recharge time. Doing so could potentially lead to an explosion inside Strawb's blaster

The healing variants can heal both Strawb and the enemy, so Strawb has to be very careful when aiming them

All types of seeds, with the exception of the latch seed, explode on impact

Ability 2: Vine Tangle

Vines

Ammo Consumption: 250

Recharge Time: 0

Vine Tangle, as its name suggests, allows Strawb to create and control vines, which he can then use to trap his enemies. He doesn't use this ability very often, but when he does, it's either his opening or finishing move

Other important things:

This ability can only be used when Strawb is pointing is blaster directly at the ground, making it easy to predict and easy to counter.

Due to their high ammo consumption, they can only be used twice per battle (assuming Strawb doesn't use Seed Firing at all)

Vines stay active for 5 minutes before dying and disappearing from the field. Vines that are killed/cut off from their stem also vanish.

Only one set of vines can be active at once. If another set is activated which one is already in use, the vines will choke each other and die, causing both to vanish

These vines can have one of many different properties, however which one they have is completely random. They're also pretty rare, with the most common one having only a 25% chance of taking effect.

Some of the effects include:

Putting enemies to sleep

Making enemies dizzy

Draining other people's energy

Absorbing energy from the ground

Blinding enemies

//

That's all the important stuff, I might add more stuff in reblogs if I remember it though ^^

[thedaywebuiltthefort-blog]

Sweatember Week One

I’d like to start this post off by saying that this is actually the second time I have written this.

The first time was pre-day eight Sweatember gym session and it was, to be frank, a load of total bull. I realised post gym session that what I had written was what I thought people would want to hear – namely that things were going great and I hadn’t encountered a single problem.

However I want to be honest about everything that we do both for this list and for ourselves. So with that in mind, welcome to my experience so far of ‘Sweatember’ – a 30 day challenge in which I have to work out every day with the added target of hitting 100 miles before the end of the month.

About an hour ago I was sitting on the bike in the gym, pouring sweat like it’s raining down on the handlebars and asking myself why in the heckin heck I am doing this. My hair is plastered to the back of my neck. The other gym users around me are keeping a wary distance which I can’t judge them for being as how I smell like a dog’s arse. I don’t wear make up to go to the gym but what little residual face was left has now melted like a wax work in a blast furnace.

I don’t actually care about any of that. However, as I sit there pedalling my little legs off I start thinking that it’s very likely that nobody actually considers this to be a challenge or in any way difficult. Nobody is going to read a blog post about a random bird from the Midlands sitting on a bike or flailing about a treadmill every day for a month. If you are reading this, hats off to you and thanks for proving me wrong.

I think this about almost everything we do and almost everything on the list. If I run a mile I worry that someone else has run five and therefore my efforts are rendered null and pointless. If I run ten miles someone else has run a marathon.

Having done this for eight days straight now, I would say to anyone thinking that it’s a piece of piddle to actually try doing it themselves. Granted, there are a lot of people who could wipe the floor with me, but on the other hand there are a lot of people who would be surprised at just how difficult it is to motivate yourself to get out every single day without fail. No breaks. No days off. No excuses.

The first few days actually did go great. I felt energised. I felt refreshed. I even wore a crop top in the gym for the first time in my entire life and didn’t panic about it. I don’t love the fact that the loose skin on my belly resembles a spaniel’s ear when I do push ups, but overall I felt the pros outweighed the cons. I’ve been well over average most days which put me ahead of the game for the rest of the month.

By day five the muscles in my legs were starting to develop a mind of their own. I’ve been so caught up in strength and core training, building muscle mass and toning that my cardio has gone by the wayside for about three months now. What with the amount of cardio I’ve been put in over the week, my arm muscles (which had been starting to resemble actual limbs with actual muscles) have reverted back to their former twig like status.

Day six came and went, and at this point I started to feel really tired. It was a push to get the miles in for the last two days of the week both in terms of physical tiredness and the mental and emotional pressures of those two days.

My normal healthy diet went out of the window on day seven – pictorial evidence supplied below for your viewing pleasure. I haven’t seen a salad in nine days. Carbohydrates are my only friends now. Before my gym session tonight I shovelled so much pasta into my face that you could have backed it up in a dumper truck and just tipped it into my gob. I keep telling myself that Haribo Strawbs don’t actually count as a fruit (although they blatantly should).

So it's come to this.....

I’ve spent more time than I’d like to spend this week running up and down to hospitals, between shifts and different people in my capacity as support/bag carrier/company giver, taking care of business and generally attempting to make myself as useful as possible in whatever simple way I can.

I can tell you now, spending five hours in a hospital waiting room does not inspire the motivation to go for a couple of miles worth of track run, especially if it’s raining, which it was.

It does however put a lot of things into a new perspective for you.

The entire time I’ve been doing this I have always held on to the steadfast belief that everything in life is relative – pain, success, challenges, fights, victories- whatever you have, do, win, achieve, there will always be someone who is two steps in front of you and someone who is two steps behind you.

I’ve had my challenges to meet and my demons to conquer in the past and no doubt I will have more to deal with in the future. One of these days I intend on writing a post about my experiences with PTSD and PND, but that’s a long story for another day. This is about the here and now, who I am now and who I hope to become over the course of this blog. It’s about the little challenges and the little victories; no matter how big or small they might seem to others.

Running/cycling 100 miles in a month might be a piece of cake for some people and well done to you if you are one of them, but it isn’t to other people. Whatever challenges you choose to take up and for whatever reason, do them because you never thought you could, not because other people have done them or better.

I have 22 days left of Sweatember and I know I’m not going to enjoy all of them, but I am going to enjoy the little rush I get at the end when I realise that it’s over and I can move on to whatever comes next. I’m going to enjoy raising money for Cancer Research (link provided) and I’m going to enjoy boring people to tears with my endless up dates.

Mostly I’m going to enjoy the bit when I get to day 30 and I can say to myself ‘well done me, I didn’t quit, even when I thought I probably should.’

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/holly-takes-on-sweatember-7?utm_medium=email&utm_source=mcmp&utm_campaign=18DFE6a&utm_content=18DFE6a001&utm_team=FPSWEATEMBER_IN_18DFE6a_Kickoff&urn=567612154

Here’s a breakdown of my daily mileage so far –

5.79 miles, 1.8 miles, 6.92 miles, 4.15 miles, 1.5 miles, 1.5 miles, 5.22 miles – total 26.88 miles

Holly

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