#i think there was like a whole voting situation where it was collectively decided upon

[bookwyrminspiration]

?? why do we call it rue[DACTED] when it could be jant (jean pant)

[automatonknight]

decided i’ll occupy myself with translating a polish SCP tale today so here you go :]

here is the original one  (keep in mind i’m only translating this, it’s not my own tale)

 Second Chance

That day i came to work a bit ealier than usual. I got myself a cup of coffee from a drinks machine and shambled in the direction of my office, where I would check my list of tasks. I sat down in an uncomfortable chair and started up my computer. After a while the screen lit up and the device started to load the operating system. In the meantime i tried to cool down my drink. I took a sip. Hm, still hot. I put the cup down and entered my password. A few boxes with information about today’s schedule showed up on the screen, including one talking about an experiment i was supposed be in charge of. Today is probably going to be pretty peaceful.

I couldn’t be more mistaken. Everything happened so fast. First the alarms blared, next came a warning about an approaching XK class scenario. There was nothing to think about, I knew what i needed to do. I was very lucky to be chosen to supervise SCP-RP-825. My mind was already set when the site started to fall apart. Before anybody could stop me i bursted into the containment cell.

-C’mere, we’re getting out of here. I warned them about this.-I said, grasping the object.

-Stop where you stand! Put the object down immediately!-I heard a harsh voice coming from behind the door. I need to be quick, they could start shooting any moment. I started up the device and set a random value and lightly waved at my would-be killers. A few of tchem got into the cell and fired, but the bullets hit wall and didn’t do me any harm. A mere few seconds later the site was blown off the face of earth. There was something enormous and destructive coming, luckily, it was none of my conern anymore. I was already outside of this reality. From what i knew from studying SCP-RP-825, during the journey, it’s users were thrown into a void-like space in between dimesions. I wasn’t any different. Everything around me went quiet, it was dark too. I was expecting this, but my body still shivered nervously. It’s pretty funny how darkness affects us.

Interestingly, while in the void, the user can see themselves perfectly. Almost as if they’re emitting light. Unfortunately, I never found out why it happens. I shook my head and sighted quietly. Even in a horrbile situation like this i never stop speculating. According to the clock situated on my left wrist I was here for about two minutes so far. I was starting to get a little concerned that I’m going to be stuck here forever, but soon my vision started to catch first glimpses of color. I exhaled and focused on making out the objects forming around me.

-I hope this world isn’t full of huge lizards or some other bullshit.-I mumbled, looking down at the SCP I was holding.- I would need to get out really qui…-Before i could finish my sentence, the device „cracked” and the display shut off.-…fuck.

A moment after the swear left my mouth, i heard a quiet „chk” of a rifle. I heard a voice behind me

-Who are you? Got your ID?- The command was loud and clear. I raised my arms slowly and looked around. I was in a room strangely similar to a canteen located in Site 17. I glanced over the walls and suprised faces of the witnesses of my sudden appearance until I saw a familiar logo on a labcoat of one of the men.

-Are you fucking kidding me…-I let go off SCP-RP-825. It shattered upon contact with the sterile, shiny floor.

-I swear I’m not a member of the Chaos Insurgency!- I raised my voice slightly, I grew more desperate after realising, that if i won’t convince at least this one person I’m not a threat, I won’t be alive for much longer.

-And I would like to believe you, but you don’t have any evidence to back up your statements, that’s the problem.-The man sat in front of me took a sip from a mug decorated with „Best researcher in the world”. He was wearing a labcoat similar to mine.  I raised my eyebrow.

-You look like our scientists. I hope you make less mistakes than us, though.-The other guy leaned in, resting his chin on his hands, before speaking up.

-Listen, this sounds too improbable. If I wasn’t at the canteen, the guards would kill you without a second thought after hearing a story like this. Honestyly, I should send you to be terminated, but I don’t think that would help solve the situation. -He sighted.-Start over, but try to be less..chaotic this time. It’s your last chance.-I nodded, trying to collect my thoughts.

-So…my name is Krzysztof Rasiewicz and I’m a scientist working at one of the branches of the SCP Foundation, the one located in the Republic of Poland.

-Located in Poland?

-Why would one country have two, separate branches? Is this how things work in your dimension.

-No. A Polish branch is a Polish branch. Wait a second…The Republic of Poland exists in your reality? You mean Poland and Lithuania connected with a personal union?

-I mean..it existed.-I murmured.-The whole dimension is probably doomed, but I won’t be able to find out for sure. SCP-RP-825 was destroyed. As to The Republic of Poland, it was Lithuania, Hungary and Poland connected together. I wouldn’t call it a supercountry, but Russia and the USA had to keep us in mind.

-Hold up, let’s say i believe you.-He scratched his nose.-If you really were an employee of the SCP Foundation, you should remember at least some of the objects they had contained. Would you list some? And besides that, what was your clearance level?-I leaned back in the chair and took my ID out of one of my pockets. I placed it on the desk. I gestured towards it, inviting the other man to take a look. He did take a good, long look at it. -Doctor Krzysztof Rasiewicz, clearance level four, Site 17…it looks legitimate. What about the objects? I hesitated for a moment, but I realized i have pretty much nothing left to lose. I started to describe the first SCP tak came into my mind. The longer I was talking, the more suprised the other researcher looked.

-…we discovered that if one person wore both of the bracelets and clapped, something totally different would happen. If there’s only one user, telepathy is impossible, it’s logical. So, if one person wears both object A and object B, SCP-RP-145 teleports them to a long room with numbered lockers…

-Stop!-The man cut me off slamming his palm on the table.-The thing you’re describing takes subjects to the exact same place as one of our objects. We checked all of the lockers, only one of them is empty. The Chaos Insurgency probably has none of those artifacts. It’s a serious situation, so we’ll do this: if you’re not lying, you can help us avoid doing the same mistakes, that the colleaugues from your dimension did. I’ll inform the higher-ups. I’ll also apply a submission and the Polish O5 Council will sort things out by voting. For now, we’ll keep you in a cell, just to be safe. Any questions?-I realized there’s nothing more I can do so I just slowly shook my head. -Alright, see you around. Hopefully.

POLISH BRANCH OF THE SCP FOUNDATION

DR. KRZYSZTOF RASIEWICZ

LEVEL 1 SECURITY CLEARANCE

STATION 10

This is the text I saw on my new ID. The Polish Foundation branch employed me, despite many negative votes. Apparently, one vote saved me from termination. One. Is it true? I have no idea.

But I know I won’t repeat any mistakes from the past.

[shallowtm]

hi everyone ! i wasn’t a part of this last time but i’m so glad it’s back so i can experience roleplaying in this lovely group ! there’s a bit about felicity under the cut (may have got a bit carried away) !

(   sienna  miller  &  jennifer  aniston   )   bopping  along to  2010  kickstarts  by  example  is  felicity  alderidge  ,  the   thirty  nine  year  old  cis  woman  thrown  back  to  their   accountancy  days  with  none  of  her  memories  .  voted  most  likely  to  become  a  real  housewife  ,  fliss  was  known  for  being   genuine  &  naive  ,  go  figures  you’d  always  find  them   burning  pizza  ,  but  grew  up  to  be  humorous  &  defensive  .   ✎   elle  ,  22  ,  she/her  ,  gmt  .

the first person that comes to mind when the alderidge family is mentioned is her mother, celeste alderidge. the  woman did it all whilst being a single parent in london. she worked  hard for her daughter and sure enough, the both of them found themselves  in to rich part of london leading a very luxurious lifestyle.

it  wasn’t always like that. felicity’s mother worked hard and her childhood was far from typical as far as her experiences went. her mother was determined to extend her business in vegan cosmetics to the world all whilst raising her child. it was strange to see the woman prosper without a man at that time but they looked up to her and it made  sure that fliss always had a role model.

as money was tight at first, fliss started out as a model for her mother’s products. yes, it was scandalous to put a child in the magazines wearing makeup that she shouldn’t have been but the girl was compliant and wanted to pay her mother back for everything she had done for her. she had never been bitter towards it or made a fuss over it.  the talk did launch the brand into the spotlight and whilst others would let the negativity end the brand, celeste alderidge didn’t.

multiple opportunities came for fliss after that; she started modelling as a child and her mother used the money to expand the product line as well as into pitches to make sure that they were to get some sales. fliss participated in london fashion week and all the other’s seemed to follow that.

as the girl was so busy, felicity never found herself at a school (hello, homeschool), and this caused her to lead a very sheltered life and some would say she’s still like this. she’s missed  out on the normal experiences whilst being on these amazing adventures  and she can never get those opportunities back. all the opportunities in  her life were because of her mother; without her, they would have never  happened and she knows that.

as she grew  up, felicity did fall back on her good looks and charm. despite being  the daughter of celeste (whose name was now actually trade marked at  this point), the woman taught her manners. some said that her mother was  training her to be in pageants by some of the things that came out of  her mouth but it was really down to her naivety; she just didn’t know what was going on around her or the troubles that others were facing...

as she has lead a luxurious life of privilege since she can remember,  fliss has grown to accept certain standards, not only with others  but of herself. she has always found herself in high pressure environments, one would think that she would be used to them by now but she is one to crumble easily. however, luckily for her, her mother was always there to tidy up her mistakes but nothing was ever free in that  respect.

after she stopped modelling in her late twenties, her mother invited her to be the coo of CELESTE cosmetics in their los angeles hq and with nothing else going for her, she gratefully accepted.

it’s not fliss’s fault that she hasn’t had to work for anything, she has been handed things but she has always been thankful and worked her hardest. she does lack certain skills but is very easy to talk to when she isn’t panicked. when she finds herself in a high pressured environment, she does find herself flapping and she gets very, very  flustered. she just wants to do well, especially for her mother but the more she panics, the worse the situation gets...

she is easy to get along with but her naivety was very frustrating when she was reaching 40 in college. she’s definitely a type b personality that needs  to be protected and guided.

she’s wasn’t as close to her mother anymore and it definitely showed in the company. celeste had started to do pitches and hold meetings without her, fliss was just been left with the basic things and others below her have slowly  stepped in to take over her duties. she did notice it but decided to give her mother the benefit of the doubt, boy, was that the wrong choice.

a rumour started circulating around the company that felicity had been given an  ultimatum; she either proved herself or she was going to be let go. her mother knows that she doesn’t do well in pressured situations and she started to panic about her life. she took it upon herself to go to college, knowing full well that she probably wouldn’t meet the woman’s high expectations and she’d have to go solo.

she had been invested in the company since she was six years old, it’s been her mother’s goal and everything she did was to make sure that she got there; there was never any room for her goals and now it’s scaring her to think that she has no  aspirations in life, doesn’t have a relationship and doesn’t know where to start with it all. fliss has always been a people pleaser,  especially when it came to her mother and now she realises that she’s completely lost if her mother shuts her out.

gwendolyn’s  a really loyal friend to have and her naivety has protected her purity  and genuine nature over the years. however, it’s left her unable to  stand up for herself so rather than fighting, she will just apologise  and try to overcompensate. her self-esteem is at an all time low and she  doesn’t really know what to do with it.

in amidst her mother’s warning, the woman made sure that she was evicted out of her manhattan apartment and she . she’s very clueless and can’t cook but she’s trying to learn.

some quick facts about her in 2010, 2010 timeline ideas:

she worked as the coo of lancaster cosmetics but if your character uses the products, they would be under the name of CELESTE

as stated, she was a people-pleaser so she did everything she could to help your muse and make them happy, even if it meant getting herself into trouble.

although her mother set impossible standards to follow, she was even harsher on herself and this just made her mess up more as she panicked.

some of her colleagues referred to her as either ‘princess peach’ or ‘the  stepford wife’ as she was always smiling and always seemed to brush things under the carpet; she was scared of getting serious so made jokes when she felt vulnerable. still, she was a great laugh at a party so it wasn’t not bad. all joking aside, it’s clear that her colleagues didn’t respect her.

in all honestly, she was expecting to be handed the company a couple of years ago as there was a rumour going  round that celeste was going to retire but that never happened. again, it fitted into the idea of her being entitled. just because it’s her mother’s company didn’t mean she’s the best person to run it,  unfortunately...

she collected stationery items, in particular notebooks and rubbers

after graduation:

since graduating, life didn’t go how it wanted her to go. she worked hard thinking that her mother would finally promote her in the company but that didn’t happen. it was a strange relationship, the mother / daughter one now gone placed by boss / disgruntled employee. however, fliss felt like she couldn’t do anything about it; she had put so much effort into it for all these years and wasn’t about to give up.

a few years after, she did find herself engaged (to a millionnaire because elitist standards ) but it wasn’t because she was in love, it was a distraction more than anything. she wanted to be wanted and rushed into the whole thing. he had two children from his previous marriage so that was also a strange dynamic for her. however, she tried her best to be agreeable as possible.

after being named the most likely to become a real housewife after graduating, that came true, on the west coast. she joined in season 4 and it’s still running now.

it was hard having her divorce on the show, as well as them showing the relationship she had with her mother. viewers could see that she was in it for the opportunities. despite majoring in accountancy, her mother still didn’t trust her to handle the books, or promote her.

she does have a heart of gold but more often than not on the show, she comes across as very defensive so fights escalate rather quickly with her. she’s always been emotional, now she shows it in a different way, one that seems to come more from anger.

fliss doesn’t like the surface friendships she has on the show. whenever she has so much as opened up to someone, another has always fed it back to the group. they’re all guilty of gossiping but when it’s constantly turned on her and her so-called behaviour (of partying too much and still acting like she’s in her twenties), people start to get vicious with it.

she doesn’t feel like anything has really changed for her and she has still to take the leap and cut her mother out. however, that’s a scary thing for her.

extras:

she considers herself as pansexual/demi-romantic as she falls in love with people, not anything else but she’s only had a few serious relationship.

due to her upbringing, she can come across as entitled as she just expects things and doesn’t even realise she’s doing it.

she really does believe that everything can be sorted with a cup of tea and a charity benefit gala, yes, she’s that bitch.

[thejoshscogin]

In most tragic events, both global and regional, I typically like to do my part to assist or help, while remaining in the background. Whether it is donating money, protesting, physically building houses, traveling out to give food and water to people, or any other potential aid I am able to contribute...these are done as “under the radar” as possible. Because, I am not usually a fan of the “look at me“ spotlight mentality, while the issues of the world should be getting the spotlight.

Now, I understand it is 2020 and “If you didn’t Gram it, it didn’t happen!“ but as a very private-introvert with a very strong moral compass, I personally don’t need the verification from social media to affirm my actions. Or, to put it more correctly, I don’t need the verification of social media to stroke an ego. In short, social media can often (but not always) take advantage of the “Never let a good crisis go to waste“ dogma. It can feel more about gaining “LIKES” and followers and a general “look at what I did“ pat-on-the-back, than focusing on the real issue at hand.

With all of that being said, this time it feels different. I’m still contributing in areas that I’m able, but the overwhelming morality of making it clear where I stand, outweighs the morality of not seeking vanity/self-aggrandizement. Obviously I’m still NOT here for vanity/self-aggrandizement but keeping in the background doesn’t feel like the correct path to take on this particular event dealing with race and humanity. So let me be clear.

The short version goes like this…

- I support Black Lives Matter! (duh)

- I support peaceful protests of civilians.

- I don’t support the violent looting and destruction of properties, but I understand them. I’ll speak more on that later.

- I don’t support the riots brought on by the police.

- I don’t support any authoritarian/dictator/tyrant in office that tries to hinder or remove our freedom of speech.

The long version goes like this…

I love America, or to put it more correctly, I love the potential of America. I have been fortunate enough to travel around the world many, many times (sweet brag Josh 😑) and there are so many wonderful places on this planet I would love to live but I always return home, to America.

We are not perfect (duh, no country is) and the harsh truth is that we will probably never fully end racism. I reckon there will always be idiots who hate other humans for something as pointless as skin color or as trivial as “Your pants are too tight.” or (insert any other juvenile scenario) but as Americans, if we feel like those idiots have become the people in power (police, leaders, presidents etc etc.) we have the right to freedom of speech. We have the right to voice our feelings against authority, and make a change. We have the right to protest.

Now let me be very clear, I am a full believer in peace! I believe that hate breeds more hate. I believe that violence breeds more violence. So, when these protests turn into looting and destruction of properties, it can feel like those people have lost the focus of the original task at hand. However, I also understand that when the pendulum has been so far on one side for so long, it is only natural for it to swing to the other side with brute force. Also, when the (very) peaceful protests of people like Colin Kaepernick are ignored, and in many ways punished, I can fully understand why stronger actions are felt justified and needed.

As Americans, we have the right to raise our voice when we see something needs to be corrected. So, when the peaceful, “indoor voice”, of the calm and collected Kaepernick doesn’t reach the ears of the giants in power ...or to put it more correctly, when it reaches the ears of the giants in power and yet, is completely ignored... it is only a matter of time before America feels like only a scream will suffice.

We must not forget that Kaepernick originally sat on the bench during the national anthem. It was only later that he decided it would be MORE respectful if he joined his team mates on the field and simply took a knee. I don’t know how he could have protested in a more peaceful (and respectful) way. That was like 4 or maybe 5 years ago, and yet, here we are. He tried. He gave peace a chance. Yet, here we are.

The cyclical tragedy of what happened to George Floyd is a real shame to the American powers that be. If only real measures and actions would’ve been taken from the lessons that should have been learned from Breonna Taylor or Freddie Gray or Eric Garner or Michael Brown or any of these people below (to name a few) with very similar scenarios.

Now I don’t even claim to know how to instantly fix these problems, but there are a few basic things that sure seem like it would have at least helped. First of all, people should have been fired! I’m not just talking about the individuals directly dealing with the deaths, they should be in jail, but I’m talking about any and all police officers who had a history of racism or known violent tendencies, they should have been fired, all across the nation. Secondly, real actions should have been taken after these events. I understand that eventually things like body cameras etc. came into affect but what’s the point, if it’s okay to just turn them off whenever they feel like it, with no repercussions in doing so.

Side Note: Hey cops, if you feel the need to turn your cameras off, then you are doing something wrong. If you feel the need to cover up your badge in anyway, then you are doing something wrong. If you feel the need to force other people with cameras to leave the scene, then you are doing something wrong. And there should be deep and drastic consequences for any cops doing any of the above mentioned. Also, to be clear, I am not necessarily anti-cop (in theory). I know a few cops and in fact, I feel like some of our other issues of today’s police force might have been sorted or at least minimized if, a long time ago, we would have paid cops a whole lot more money. But that’s a topic for another time and not on social media. End of side note:

1991 is the first scenario I can personally remember of police brutality of an unarmed black man that became very publicized. If only dramatic measures would have been taken from the lessons that should have been learned from way back when Rodney King was in the spotlight. Imagine what nearly 30 years of progress would look like today if we would have started it back then. Our situation now, would be very different and I could assume many lives would have been spared and generally just an overall quality-of-life would be better. Shame on the powers that be, that nearly 30 years later we are still watching, shot for shot, the exact same movie unfold again and again. It blows my mind that we are still dealing with the vastness of this issue.

So where do we go from here? What are some productive steps towards ending police brutality on black people? Well, unfortunately, the quickest and most sustainable solutions would have to come from the top. If the police chiefs of the nation would fire all of the racist idiots, there would be an instant and obvious difference in the right direction. I have more thoughts on that but, assuming there is no Chief of police reading this, I’ll save you the time...

As civilians, there are still things that can be done to assist the steps to getting us further towards the right direction. Since the majority of the people reading this are most likely NOT the closed-minded-racists who are the problems, the solutions can seem less direct but every step (big or small) in the correct direction adds up.

In the short term, I think the most direct thing you can do is to donate money or protest if you are able. If you are someone in power then you should fire all the racist idiots. I’m not just talking about the police force. If you are an employer of any sort, you should remove the bad apples and do your best to never hire them in the first place.

In the long term I think the best actions are to vote! Or, to put it more correctly, study up on politicians, know where they stand on topics that are important to you, and then VOTE! Please, for the love of America, don’t JUST VOTE without the due diligence. Vote big, like the presidential candidates etc. Vote small, like local jurisdictions and authorities etc. Lastly, I think it is very important to mix and mingle with folks outside of your top 8. It will do you good, it will do our country good. As I mentioned before, if you are reading this then you’re likely already fairly open minded but just remember, it can be a subtle and steady danger to ONLY communicate with the same inner sanctum of people that believe the exact same intricacies as you do. Communicate with lots of people, with lots of backgrounds. Diversify, and remember, communication is a dialogue not a monologue.

There are so many other things that can be done. These are just the first few that popped in my head.

Last thing and then I’m out. I do believe we will come out on the other side of this better than when we went in. The death of George Floyd is a tragedy and it is compounded by all of the previous tragedies that took place before him, regardless if they got publicity or not. But, look around, we are not sitting idly by.

When we all share the same voice and sing the same song, the mountains can be moved.

I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a country where every human felt safe, respected and appreciated. I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a nation where we celebrated all of our extensive differences. I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a land where the police were there to protect and the police were there serve. And I would love to, in my lifetime, have all humans feel truly equal. Change is coming. Or, to put it more correctly, change is upon us.

Sincerely,

Josh Scogin

“Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin' “

-Bob Dylan

[llantano]

Turning Leaves, 18. Speculation

Viki was at home with Charlie when the doorbell rang. Charlie had been hoping for the phone to ring and did not like that someone was at the door. “Well, now, who could that be?” “I’ll get it,” Viki insisted, concerned. Charlie waited, hovering near the telephone until he saw Bo and Nora enter the foyer.  “Any news?” he asked before he even offered a hello.

“We just wanted to stop by and check in,” Bo offered as an encouraging apology. “You know that if I hear anything before you do, you’ll be the first person I call.” Nora hugged Viki.  “Clint wanted to be here but he’s caught in a meeting at B.E. right now. He’ll call later.” “How is Matthew?” Viki ushered them to the couch. “Oh, you know … still as Buchanan as ever,” was Nora’s only explanation. “Are you two sure you’re alright? Working from home today?” “Yes, we thought a quiet setting seemed more productive. We’re fine,” Viki assured. Bo wasn’t certain. “It’s just we know you both have a lot on your mind right now, with the election and everything….” “To be honest, Bo,” Viki admitted, “the election is the least of my concerns right now.” Nora wondered with a smirk, “You mean Dorian is the least of your concerns right now?” “That too,” Viki agreed. “Although she would prefer otherwise.” “I don’t know, Viki.”  Nora shook her head.  “You know she’s been waiting for a perfect opportunity to hold her head up and strike.” She mimicked the movement of a snake with her hand and arm. “Well, then, let her,” Viki insisted. “It won’t do her public image any favors.” Charlie was helpless. He glanced at the phone and Bo caught him doing it. “See, the thing is,” Bo offered, “that while she may be the least of your worries right now – and rightly so, rightly so,” he nodded, “she is also the one you can deal with.” “What are you getting at, Bo?” Charlie wondered. “The interim mayor is pretty much in a holding position until we get a new mayor in town hall. This is about the first time in years we’ve been able to do our jobs at the station without someone from the mayor’s office running interference. At the end of this election, I’m going to have a new boss, and it just remains to be seen what might happen in a situation like the one we’re facing right now, with Jared.” Viki looked over at Charlie while he nodded his understanding.  “Well, to be fair,” she offered, “I have to give Dorian some credit. I don’t think either one of us would interfere in an investigation like this one.” “Ah, the key words,” Nora insisted. “'Like this one.’” There was an awkward silence between the four as they each wondered over their own thoughts on the matter. Bo spoke up again. “By the way, Viki – this is relevant to your interests. The hotline got an anonymous tip this morning … from someone who was insisting that we should investigate the current hospital chief of staff because they said he has or had close personal ties with the former mayor.” Nora nodded with a funny all-knowing grin. “Well, isn’t that convenient?” Charlie wondered. “That’s true though,” Viki agreed. “In fact, now that I think about it, I’m surprised he managed to slip under all of our radars for so long, considering that prescriptions were a large part of the drug operation.” “So this is a concern to you?” Bo asked with genuine interest. “In fact, yes,” Viki nodded. She looked at Nora’s expression. “Why?” “I listened to the call,” Bo admitted. “The anonymous caller had a very familiar voice.” Viki slapped the top of her leg. “I knew it! I knew she was doing this. I was just telling Charlie -- the chief of staff position is why she even got involved in Lowell’s campaign to start with.” “Because he was on the board?” Bo asked. “Yes, and he wouldn’t vote for her becoming chief of staff due to his ties with the current one … which I’m sure involved campaign contributions … and since we’re on the subject, perhaps even drugs?” They shared a collective sigh. Viki paused. “Again, to be fair, that is exactly why I decided to run for mayor as well.” “Because Dorian was supporting him?” Nora blinked. “Oh, goodness no,” Viki shook her head. “In fact, we didn’t even find out she was his campaign manager until after the decision was made. But she did help me realize that someone had to at least try to defeat Lowell.” “And she was the first to defend him. That’s rich.” Bo smirked. “But to her credit, she did get him to resign.” “And how did she get him to do that?” Charlie wondered. “Well, you know what?” Bo offered. “To me, that doesn’t matter as much as the end result. We’re finally going to have a new mayor.” He smiled at Viki. “And I’m able to do my job.  Lowell’s behind bars….” “…And Dorian’s a lesbian,” Nora grinned with glee as Viki rolled her eyes.  “Speaking of … does David still wander in here from time to time?” “Oh, yes he does,” Viki assured her. “Often. Usually on a mission.” “A Dorian-commissioned mission?” Nora smirked. “Well, you know as well as I do that there is no way this lesbian thing is even - by the widest stretch of the imagination - genuine,” Nora stated. “And yet,” Viki observed, “There really is no way to prove that or even insist upon it without aggravating the gay community – which, by the way, I still have somewhat solid support from.” “The reason I ask about David,” Nora elaborated, “… Does he still have feelings for her?” Viki smirked. “David’s sentimentality only goes so far as his libido, and yet, Dorian and David will always share a connection I don’t even want to start to contemplate.” Bo nodded agreement. “It’s sort-of tragic, you know?” Nora considered. “She divorced him – despite the fact that he was a Buchanan – presumably to be with Ray Montez. You remember how crazy she got after he left town.” “How could I forget?” Viki half-shuddered, and half-smirked. “And that happened right before all of this mayor interest came up.” “Then David comes back to town and gets caught up in this lesbian farce. She demotes him to make Amelia her campaign manager. You know this all has to be making him crazy.” Bo was a bit uncomfortable with the conversation. “I’m sure it is.” Viki was curious. “Where are you going with this, Nora?” “Well, I mean … maybe you can’t prove Dorian isn’t a lesbian right now….” “…But David can,” Viki knew. “... And he listens to you, and good ol’ Pa here,” Nora nudged Bo’s arm as she teased him. “I can’t believe you’ve had this ace up your sleeve this whole time and it hasn’t occurred to you to use it.” “Well, no offense to you, Nora, but I like to think I’m a bit bigger than that. Dorian plays in the mud and taunts me to get in with her, but I’d rather stand outside the ring and watch her make a ridiculous mess of herself for no reason. Case in point -- the LGLA.” “On the other hand,” Bo thought it out for them with startling reality, “While I would never presume that Viki doesn’t have a leg up in this election, we have Dorian on the other side with a pretty fair shot to be our next mayor – and under what we all assume to be a false pretense. You wouldn’t exactly have to get in the mud for her to look dirty all on her own.” “You’re encouraging this, Bo?” Viki gasped. “I’m just saying … there would be nothing dishonest about reminding David and Dorian of their deep-seated feelings for each other.” “I take it you’re not voting for Dorian then?” Charlie asked Bo, half-joking, and they all shared a chuckle over it. “Well, you’re right,” Viki acquiesced. “There would be nothing dishonest about it.  I just can’t help feeling a bit guilty at the thought that Dorian can be so easily manipulated.  For goodness sakes, she had a fit over The Banner publishing an article about Jared.” “What does that have to do with anything?” Bo asked. “It’s a … conflict of interests,” Charlie explained. “She was spouting some nonsense about media bias.” Nora snapped her fingers. “And that’s why she wanted to remain anonymous on the tip hotline.” Charlie couldn’t help his own observations. “I just wish someone had a tip about Jared.” “It’ll happen soon,” Bo assured him. “This whole chain of events has unraveled so fast….” Charlie nodded.  They sat in respectful silence for a moment. Viki changed the subject, hoping to ease Charlie’s mind again.  “You remember what Dorian said at her initial press conference?” “You mean when she hijacked the mic after Bo’s press conference?” Charlie clarified. Viki smirked. “She said, ‘I will never betray your trust … and I will always uphold your faith in American democracy.’ The sad thing is that she meant every word of that at the time.” “And then the LGLA knocked on your door instead of hers,” Charlie observed. Viki looked to Bo. She knew he understood what she was getting at. He nodded and muttered, “Easily manipulated.” “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Viki asked him. “Do you want to lock the election?” Bo answered. “I have a confession,” Nora smirked. She leaned forward as they looked at her. “I ordered a couple of wedding pictures I will never hang on my wall. I keep them tucked away just to remind myself of what an ass Dorian made of herself that day.” Viki was stunned. “You ordered wedding pictures of Dorian?” “Granted, at the time it was not cool,” Nora clarified, motioning with one hand, “But now when I look back I’m a little amused by it. First of all, she did it to herself. Second, imagine if she knew I had those pictures.” Bo was calm as he asked, “You weren’t thinking of feeding those pictures to the press?” Nora straightened her face into innocence and looked to each of them in turn. Her tone revealed that she was not sincere when she told them, “The thought hadn’t even occurred to me.” Viki couldn’t help but grin in amusement. Nora was entertaining. She elected to not respond one way or the other on the matter of the wedding pictures. Bo changed the subject again. “You know there’s something I never did get about that Ray Montez guy.”  He met the curious gazes of those around him. “He was in prison, he tried to take Langston from Dorian. I mean, Dorian was mad enough at the guy she was ready to do away with him even when she knew Clint was behind his coming here, and in a way, she could have even blamed him for her losing B.E. back to the family. Dorian married David just to get the Buchanan name back – you remember?” Nora and Viki shared a look. “How could we forget?” “You know – at least at the time – that was one of Dorian’s top priorities. She even went Buddhist over the whole thing.” “Yeah. Right,” Viki smirked. “But then,” Bo elaborated, “She’s going out on a date with Ray Montez? And after he leaves, does she get back with David? No. What the heck happened?” “She realized she was a lesbian,” Nora joked. “I don’t know,” Viki offered, “But if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years as far as Dorian is concerned, it is that if it doesn’t make sense, she’s probably up to something.” Viki looked over at Charlie, who seemed as concerned about what Dorian was up to as he did about Jared. That was wrong. She winked at him as she laced her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. Bo nodded. “Well, we have more important things to figure out than Dorian’s machinations at the moment. And we will,” he promised Charlie. Viki looked at Nora. She thought of asking her to leave the wedding pictures alone but decided to keep her attention on Charlie for the moment.

[dgcatanisiri]

I said I’d hoped to get this out by the end of the month. FINALLY, the next installment of my series of Hypothetical DLCs. 

Welcome to DG’s Listing of Wish These DLC Existed, where I theorize, speculate, and just kinda generally throw ideas at the wall about DLCs for games I love that never happened and never will happen, but damn, I’d like to see them anyway. 

Because I have ideas, I can’t get them made as mods, I don’t have time to make them into fic, and they’re never going to happen anyway, so why not put them up in a public place? After all, they’re tie ins to games I have no control over anyway, so it’s not like I’ll ever make money off of them anyway. And, as I’m not bound by any hardware limitations in terms of crafting ideas, or production cycles dictating when the game’s endpoint is, these can and do go on a great deal longer than the standard lifespan of a game.

A review of the format: There will be a name for the DLC, a brief synopsis, a reference to when this hypothetical DLC would become available/if and when it becomes unavailable, and then an expansion/write up of the ideas going in to them. Some ideas will have more expansion than others, because I’ve just plainly put more thought into them - in a lot of cases, I wrote them down just on the basis of ‘this idea seems pretty cool,’ and then gave them more context later on.

Feedback is welcome! Like an idea? Don’t like an idea? I welcome conversation and interaction on these ideas. Keep it civil, remember that these are just one person’s ideas, we can discuss them. Perhaps you’ll even help inspire a part two for these write ups! Because I do reserve the right to come up with more ideas in the future - these are the ideas that I’ve had to this point, but the whole reason this series exists is because I come up with new ideas for old stories.

With the KOTOR games both dealt with, we move on to the next category of the BioWare franchises, Mass Effect. This one took a while, considering the much more open-ended aspect of choices within the Mass Effect universe. And ME2′s edition is going to take a good long while as well, considering... Well, I’ll explain that when I get there. 

Anyway. Given the way that Mass Effect carries decisions forward, there is an additional category for the ideas within these editions, where there’s a brief summary of the way they will impact future games - granted, most of these are ME2 letters and ME3 war assets, but it’s still worth making a note of.

Also, given the context of ME1′s rather open-ended structure, where there aren’t really any serious plot breaks or boundaries that prevent advancement too soon, aside from Virmire and Ilos not being unlocked until events in the plot, assume that, unless otherwise noted, these DLCs are all available at any point after Shepard is made a Spectre and given command of the Normandy, and, obviously, must be played before Ilos. 

To business!

First Contact

As a Spectre and Alliance officer, Commander Shepard is called in when an Alliance team goes missing after reporting they had made contact with a new alien species. The Normandy is assigned to recover the team and establish peaceful relations if at all possible – yet there is a mystery here, one that the natives are not happy to welcome meddling in...

So, yeah, the basic idea here is simply that, with the whole Reaper thing, we don’t really get to see much of the more basic ideas of space exploration – big plot trounces little ideas. And first contact is as basic a concept for a scifi series as you can get. In my book, that’s the advantage of DLC in this series, to go for the smaller scale stories.

So let’s go into detail. We’re going to need a character to act as the exposition fairy – I vote that, at least in the briefing, this is coming from Pressley, so we can offer him a little more characterization and involvement (let’s honestly consider “Pressley gives a briefing that offers him more characterization, involvement, and general utilization” a thing for all of these, since he really doesn’t get a lot of usage in ME1, which is probably why he’s not really replaced on the Normandy after this game, and take this opportunity to give his character some expansion so that his death can mean a little more when ME2’s prologue goes down). He’s giving the baseline facts about why the Normandy is going in and handling this situation.

Obviously, the First Contact team has gone out of contact, and the Normandy is tasked to discover what has happened to them and make the best of the situation they end up in. I’m not locking this to after recruiting Liara, but I do picture her, Kaidan, and Ashley getting some fair use in any and all of these (a few in particular – we’ll get there when we get there), both because of their role as love interests and because of their general attitudes and thematic roles – Liara’s the wide-eyed idealist (considering her romanticizing of the protheans – any culture that refers to themselves as an “empire” is not going to be a peaceful collection of philosophers and scientists), Ashley’s the reasoned cynic, and Kaidan is something of the balance between them – cautious optimism and ready for if/when things go to shit.

The arrival finds Shepard and company on our new world (location to be decided – given Citadel rules on activating dormant Relays, it’s probably best that this is a planet within an already existing cluster, and we probably ought to put it somewhere within the boundaries of Alliance space, what with them taking lead on this first contact). The locals seem welcoming and friendly, but there’s a clear air of uncertainty – are they a threat, where’s the Alliance contact team, why are they acting like they know something that Shepard and crew don’t?

I know, we’re running the risk of retreading the ground of Feros and the thorian here, but, one, honestly, I like Feros, so I’m okay with revisiting it as a concept at least, two, it’s not like BioWare doesn’t recycle their own plots all the time anyway, even granting that they usually don’t do it within the same game, and three, I see it ending in a different place, so we’re going with this.

Anyway, investigation, suspicion, blah, blah, blah... I swear, the fun would be in the investigation, the building mystery, so I’m skipping over the work for the sake of a summary. The end result is that of course the natives killed the team, but the reason is because this is a group of descendants of a prothean subject race. They’d engaged in a revolt, adapted/stolen a colony ship, and flew off into the black, and done this right around the time of the initial stages of the Reaper invasion of the prothean empire – the protheans had bigger fish to fry (or be fried by, depending on how you use the metaphor), and given how proud the protheans are, I can see them covering this up in the name of saving face, both of which allowed these people to escape the notice of the Reapers – systematic destruction or not, finding one lone ship in the depths of space isn’t “needle in a haystack,” it’s “needle in the midwest.” It’d have been one thing if they’d found a planet to establish themselves on right away, but they dove into the black without a clear destination – also use this to emphasize WHY most Council explorations tend to stick to familiar clusters with an established Mass Relay nearby, that space is vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big.

As a detail for this race, I’m gonna include one of my headcanons for the protheans, since, hey, my DLC idea – while the protheans developed their technology around the Mass Relays and such, as the Reapers intended, the tech of their own design, without the influence of external powers, would have more of an organic bent to it, that they were more inclined to “grow” their tech than build it. Like they accepted the Mass Effect as a foundation for their tech, the Citadel as a base, but they weren’t all that happy about it, just never quite getting their own designs really match the designs of “inusannon” technology in effectiveness. So in response, this species turned towards cybernetics (maybe they’re members of the zha’til, to connect them having this knowledge with the tidbits Javik offers in ME3? *shrug* I’ll use them as the name for this species for simplicity’s sake, because that’s less awkward than no name at all, but I’m not married to it being them), to not just give them an edge against the protheans when they came after them, but also to serve as a taunt towards them, a statement of “you fear technology, so we’re going to become the personification of your boogeymen.”

So the survival of these zha’til has been their hidden nature, and they have developed into a pure xenophobic society – no aliens are accepted among them, and, with the appearance of Shepard’s team, they are fully of the belief that there will be those who come after. They can recognize that the appearance of outsiders once means it will happen again. And they will be ready – Shepard’s crew is a boon for them, allowing them access to biologies of not just humans, but asari, turian, krogan, and quarian. They’d prepared for the damage the protheans could do upon finding their retreat, spent fifty thousand years becoming something the protheans would have to fear. Of course, Shepard’s gonna have to ruin it. I can see them trying the ‘we’ll erase the coordinates, put up a warning buoy, ensure no one comes here’ argument, but that’s not flying with these guys, since organic nature tends towards curiosity, and just blanking the system would leave a mystery, one that organics would want to solve, and a warning buoy can malfunction or be ignored – they want total isolation, and, even if the odds are like one in trillions, that’s too high for them, so they’d sooner be the only life in the galaxy.

I’m thinking the solution is in their reliance on their tech, having attained this symbiosis with it that they all are implanted – tech can be hacked, it can malfunction, it can be a vulnerability as much as an asset. Going way back to the start of the involvement of Kaidan, Liara, and Ashley, here’s them all getting to voice their solution, with Ashley going the straightforward route of “they’re a threat, they’ll keep being a threat, they don’t want to change and stop being a threat, I don’t want to commit genocide, but I also want to defend the Alliance, and those options look mutually exclusive right now,” Liara is all “think of what they could offer us, their history is invaluable, they were contemporaries of the protheans, what might they know, and even if we have the ability to wipe out an entire species, that’s an action that can never be undone,” and Kaidan is the middle ground of “the leaders and people we’ve spoken to made a threat, but we can’t call the entire population of this planet genocidal maniacs, surely there must be something we can do to find a reasonable solution.”

It basically comes down to Shepard getting to hack the tech, and then faced with the decision – a) wiping them out by way of effectively setting all their implants to electrify themselves – they’ve shown themselves to be a threat, they have violent intentions towards other life in the galaxy, and nothing indicates that there is any dissent among their population, especially if their implants can allow for like planetary consensus or something, b) shutting down the tech, their greatest threat, as a way to keep most of them alive, but reducing their civilization to like Bronze Age – the Citadel races would certainly be willing to help the zha’til recover, but it’s not like they’d be happy to accept it, or c) use this as the way to force them to come to the table and negotiate in good faith, under the threat of destruction as a result of them using this weapon, give them a chance, with the downside being that they have done nothing to indicate that they deserve this chance, or that the second they develop a workaround, they’ll be back to threatening all alien life.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from the head of a Council-approved research team, investigating the planet, with or without inhabitants.

ME3: Assuming the zha’til survive, a representative is on the Citadel, offering their aid. If they were reduced, they are a significantly smaller War Asset.

Investigations

The Citadel’s Wards house people from across the galaxy, and murder is a common occurrence. When the murder victim is a prominent Alliance politician, however, one whose controversial opinions made him a target for non-humans, the Alliance can only trust one person to investigate on the Citadel – the first human Spectre, Commander Shepard. 

Honestly, the Citadel could absolutely support its own game. Just the pieces we get of it from the trilogy and the Citadel DLC tease a massive station that probably has a population higher than some planets. So there’s A LOT to do here (indeed, looking over my notes for this, I have at least one DLC focused entirely on events on the Citadel in each game, and all of them can utilize entirely new areas, so...). And, really, who doesn’t enjoy an old-fashioned ‘whodunnit’ murder mystery?

Obviously, we have more than just the basic mystery happening here, or else we’d just have a standard sidequest, not a full DLC length story. I feel like this needs to go in depth on corruption within Citadel politics – poke around my blog, you’ll find I’m HIGHLY critical of the Council’s handling of the Saren matter, where they appoint a C-Sec officer with a reputation for not playing by the rules as the only investigator of the Eden Prime incident, give him roughly a day to look in to things, (Shepard’s out about sixteen hours, according to Doctor Chakwas, they arrive at the Citadel, get summoned to the Council, and encounter Garrus, at which point the trial is about to start, with no indication that more than hours at most have passed) and then TELL him that his investigation is over, Saren is allowed access to the files of the man he is accused of killing, an eye witness report of Saren’s murder of Nihlus is completely dismissed, while the data file Tali extracts from a geth, which Anderson says upon hearing that he’s never heard of this happening (to say nothing of the quarians’ status among the Citadel races) is deemed “irrefutable evidence”... There’s A LOT that is at best questionable about how the Council handles things. And that’s just sticking with the first game.

So I’d like to pull back some of the veil on Citadel politics, and use that to explore the human-alien friction. Due to Shepard’s rising profile throughout the series, we kinda lose a lot of the big level details of this, and it’s one of those things I like about the Mass Effect universe circa the first game – humanity ISN’T the big kahuna, they’re the latest arrivals, and the rest of the galaxy thinks they’re a bunch of jerks trying to take what they haven’t earned.

Hence where we start – our victim is an Alliance politician, someone who’s got one of those jobs that makes them friends and enemies of the same people. Obviously, this means that there are a lot of people on the Citadel (and outside the Citadel) who would easily be picked up as suspects – again, we’re going an investigative route, to help show off Shepard as a tactician, to show off their brains as well as their brawn.

This is going to lead us first to explore more of the Citadel Tower, the place where the Council and other assorted political figures meet. Udina probably plays a part in things, considering he IS the ambassador at this point, so he’ll probably be talking to Shepard about matters along the way, something of our regular check-in point (plus good to offer him some more characterization and expand him somewhat).

Obviously, with a murder mystery, we investigate through the location, taking us through the Tower and into its deeper structure, to the point that Shepard ends up in the Tower’s basement (or whatever we call the lowest level). Down here, the discovery is that there’s (what else) a conspiracy. Humanity is moving too fast – they’ve only been here for about thirty years and they already have an embassy, are angling for a spot on the Council, how long until they replace all the races who were here first on the Council, make the Citadel humans only?

I feel like we could also get some retroactive elements of Cerberus’s human supremacy in play here, suggest that our victim was being manipulated by them and used to advance their agenda – not just to foreshadow how Cerberus gains prominence in the next game, but also to show that even well-intentioned people are preyed upon by Cerberus’s actions (hello Paragon Shepard). Cerberus didn’t mind using him for their objectives, even if he’s not some pro-human bigot.

Speaking of, let’s tie in Terra Firma a little more into this – they seemed to have some influence in the first game, then drop off the face of the earth, so yeah, let’s throw them in somehow. Like I see that as part of our concluding decision, where the replacement political figure is one of their people, so they seem like the “obvious suspect” red herring – I think by this point we’ve established with these that one of my priorities is worldbuilding, and, again, Terra Firma dropped off the face of the series when it seemed to have developing prominence in the first game.

Anyway, back to the plot. Obviously, Shepard has to do something about this conspiracy. The problem is, of course, while extreme, they represent a dominant view among the Citadel races. And it’s one that has validity to it, humans are demanding more power than any other race in the Citadel’s history (this cycle, anyway, who knows about the previous ones?), and to these races, they are seen as aggressive in that pursuit.

Here’s the thing, and I’ve gone over this in my critiques of the Council before – humans are aggressive about getting more representation because of a handful of things. Number one, humans are out to advance, we recognize that we learn best from making mistakes, while the Citadel races seem to abide by a code of “none shall advance faster than the slowest.” That no advancement is made until all are “capable” of benefiting from it in certain ways, despite how we have the example of multiple species not even being able to compete on a level playing field with races like the asari, the salarians, or the turians – the volus are a client race of the turians, despite having been a part of the galactic community longer. It’s why we see the relative stagnation – the asari discovered the Citadel two thousand years ago, and yet so much of it is still a mystery.

Number two, humans are aggressive because the Citadel races were aggressive to them first. The First Contact War started because Citadel law is that no one shall activate dormant Mass Relays. Thing is, humanity opened Relay-314 at a time that they’d never even heard of the Citadel and its government. So the turians who opened fire first? They were holding humanity to the standards and rules and laws of a governmental body that they didn’t even know existed until the shooting started.

That the turians enforce this law so rigidly, and that the asari and salarians don’t seem to understand how much the asshole it makes them, is the honest source of a lot of the tension between the races in the game.

Like, I vehemently disagree with the racist attitudes of the Terra Firma asshole we meet, but he’s not wrong in pointing out that if you see a kid playing with a matchbook, you take the matches away, but you don’t shoot them for good measure. The turians started the conflict, and you can tell that the Citadel races never acknowledge their responsibility in this – it’s all “humans are so aggressive” without any understanding of why a species whose introduction to the greater galaxy came at a cost of life and involved acts of violence inflicted on them, literally on the basis of information that by definition, they could not have, just MIGHT hold a grudge.

...So, uh, bringing this back around to the topic at hand... This is where we get to the central conflict. Our Terra Firma assholes who are all “Earth first!” have a valid point that the Council and the Citadel races mistreat humanity, and wrap it up in condescending bullshit, so the fact that they’re looking to take some kind of action to do something about this is understandable, even if they’re doing it wrong. The opposition is the conspiracy folks, the ones who murdered the outspoken human, all in the name of protecting their people from perceived human aggression.

And yes, it really does all come down to something that simple, as both sides are right and both sides are wrong, and now someone has to clean up the mess their hostilities have created. I do want this to really come down to something so simple and, on paper, easy to resolve, because when this kind of thing happens in our world, it’s frequently just as on paper simple, but, because of the emotions involved and the personal grudges accumulated, no one is able to take that step back and try to make amends (not saying that as a value judgement, just a fact – sometimes it is appropriate to address the personal grudges, sometimes you need let them go for the greater good).

There’s an interconnectedness to the Citadel races in the course of the series, and this is one of the ways to showcase that, by displaying that both of these peoples need each other in the course of the continuation of this cycle’s civilizations. So Shepard’s ultimate decision is about making a decision, and the hard work is in making them both recognize and acknowledge that they are both wrong – pulling this off right, meaning Shepard found all the ways to make good in-roads with both factions so they’ll listen when they make a big persuasive speech, we have the legitimate grievances acknowledged and at least on course to be redressed (one of the galactic news reports can, if the Alliance fleet is sacrificed to save the Destiny Ascension, say that the turians are considering reparations – maybe with this option, this happens regardless). Pulling it off wrong, Shepard has to side with one faction or the other, leaving tension and hostility remaining unresolved, impacting future relations.

Post Game Followups: 

ME2: Emails from the sided faction, talking about their political advancement.

ME3: Impact on Citadel politics, affecting the attitude of the populace in the Citadel Defense Force

Old Wounds

Shanxi was the site of the First Contact War. Since then, the human colonists have resisted alien interference and involvement on their world. But things become complicated when a turian effort at reparations ends up as a hostage situation. Naturally, the Alliance has one person they want to send in to help smooth things over – Commander Shepard.

An Ashley focus mission, we’re giving her the spotlight here – consider this something of a proto-loyalty mission, since the game itself didn’t have these. Because Shanxi is a place that means a lot to her and her family, so we’re going to say that she is on this mission. That obviously also limits this to a pre-Virmire position in the plot, because she may not make it off of that planet.

Shanxi is talked about, but it’s never even given a flyby in the games proper, and so we head there. And, especially with the context of the last entry in this list, I feel like there should be some effort to acknowledge that there should be reparations to humanity – like I said there, the turians discovered humans on Shanxi and decided to openly attack them, hold them to laws and rules that they had no way of knowing existed, and then decide that humans are the aggressive ones because of how they respond? Yeah, that’s bullshit.

So we have a situation where a group of turians have this realization and are trying to convince the people of Shanxi of their good intentions. Shanxi is, understandably, reluctant to believe it. Shepard is going in to smooth things over, try and ease the tensions that are inevitably flaring up, and Ashley is, ultimately, conflicted about how to feel about this whole matter – this is Shanxi, Williams are not exactly welcome here. But there is still a feeling of responsibility here all the same, because her family impacted this world and now she’s here to help try to build a bridge. The “hostage situation” of the synopsis will actually take place during the course of events – before that happens, we get a chance to explore Shanxi, learn about the history there.

This seems like a point to bring it up: Ashley’s grandfather surrendering Shanxi, in the name of preventing a massacre, and being branded a traitor for it makes little sense to me. Of course, I get that surrendering looks bad, if you’re only looking at the act, and not the motivation. People were losing their lives, he acted to protect them. The Alliance military being unforgiving assholes is not unbelievable, but the general public going along with it, refusing to have his name cleared, even decades later, is.

So we’re going to have to dig into the reasons for this. People on Shanxi will resent the Williams for the surrender – they wanted to fight to the bitter end, and they passed this along to their kids. The “death before dishonor” crowd think it would have been better to have fought to the last – sent a stronger message to the Citadel about the wrongness of that whole “shoot first, ask questions later, blame the victim for everything” approach. They’re the ones who lead the charge against Williams’ actions, saying he was weak for surrendering to the turians. Meanwhile others are aware that he saved lives.

If anything, this makes things difficult for Ashley. As much as she lives under the specter of her family, she is not quite sure about what life would be like if he’s cleared – even knowing that things would be better, her family not getting shit details and crap assignments, it means getting a new perspective on the future that she never expected and needs to process that.

Core plot is still the hostage situation, one that Shepard ends up being involved in. The hostage takers are a group demanding more for the turians in terms of reparations – they can’t bring back the dead, of course, but the turians aren’t giving enough in their eyes. I don’t know, let’s say that it’s coming across as a perfunctory kind of apology, the “We’re sorry you feel we disrespected you” kind of reaction, which... Yeah, I totally see the turians doing that and the humans calling bullshit.

I mean, yeah, you want more to it than just “we’re angry” and such, because that’s a pretty straightforward mission, but the idea here is as much for exploring Ashley’s character and development over just an outright mission story. This is about her, and we’re going to explore her through this as much as the plot, so the plot can get away with being fairly limited in scope or scale, because this is about the character.

And this means that Ashley needs to have the big moment of resolving the crisis, rather than Shepard. Like, RPG, we’ll say Shepard gets the option to decide who gets that moment, but let’s be real, to culminate her arc in this DLC, it should be her. Bookend the portrayal of her grandfather with her – depending on how Shepard’s interacted with her, with how much digging they did into the history of the place, how they’ve interacted with the people, and it leads to Ashley (or Shepard) being able to talk down the hostage takers, defuse the situation, resolve things peacefully. If they can’t, violence ensues.

Resolution-wise, we’d be looking at the turians being upset and nearly starting conflict all over again because “you humans are too damn aggressive,” “the turians aren’t negotiating in good faith and wish they’d blasted humanity back to the stone age,” blah blah blah. Variation is in how the situation was resolved – peaceful resolution leads to the agreement to try this again later, let hostilities die down a little before trying to fix these long-standing grudges, violent is that the turians walk away, the human diplomats basically going “well, we’ll try this again at some point, hopefully.” And, for Ashley, she’s resolved some of her family’s old ghosts – best case scenario, she’s given Shanxi a different memory of the Williams clan, and can walk away with a tangible note on her record that, regardless of how anyone else might try to creatively reinterpret her record, says that her contribution saved lives.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from diplomatic representative about the advancement of the talks over the previous two years.

ME3: If peacefully resolved, a joint human-turian task force is a war asset.

Ascension

The Ascension Project is a home for human biotics. Rumors reach Captain Anderson that there is a biotic extremist group attempting to subvert the teaching and draw them towards pro-human interests, and he asks Commander Shepard to investigate what could be a threat to the human-Citadel alliance.

We had Ashley’s loyalty mission, here’s Kaidan’s. The advancement of human biotics was a running thread through the background of ME1, but sort of fell by the wayside as the series expanded its scope in successive games, so this is a chance to explore that further. And we’re going to do so in part by building on the mission in game that involves Chairman Burns, the Alliance Parliament member who is taken captive by L2 biotics seeking reparations.

Obviously, we see Grissom Academy, the site of the Ascension Project, in ME3, but hey, for one, I like the idea that (retroactively, anyway) this means that Shepard is returning there in the course of the third game, and for two, it’s entirely reasonable to make the Academy large enough to house areas that we just didn’t see in the course of the mission there. Plus we’re seeing it (at least to start) in less of a state of chaos as exists in ME3.

Again, we’re starting lowkey. The idea here is more infiltration first – if extremists are trying to coopt kids’ education, odds are sending in soldiers is gonna tip them off quick and easy. So instead this is going to be framed as an “Alliance biotic recruitment” kind of thing – “The Alliance wants you!” and all that sort. That’s the cover as Shepard’s team heads in. The name of the game here is stealth, that we’re not here to set off alarms, just to ensure that there’s no attempt at subversion of the Alliance’s goals of peaceful coexistence with the Citadel races.

As a sidenote, both this and the Ashley DLC are basically me engaging in retroactively applied stories to further justify why it is that Kaidan and Ashley get the Spectre wings come ME3 – as it is, that kinda feels more like a bone being thrown to humanity in the name of appeasing them with Earth captured by the Reapers, as well as Udina wanting a loyal bodyguard, as opposed to something that their skill and ability has earned them the position. I want some exploration of the skill that justifies them getting that position.

So, yeah, we see the Ascension Project in its glory, causing a bit of a stir of memories for Kaidan, aware that this is more like what he should have experienced at BAaT. He’s glad that there are biotics who are getting to learn about their abilities in a safe environment that isn’t going to treat them like trash – whether or not that’s the military boot camp way, these are kids who have been, by a quirk of fate and chance, given these incredible powers without their consent, they deserve sympathy and understanding regarding their lives abruptly turned upside down, not demands that they show the same level of skill as people who train through their lives to be weapons.

Another investigation story, as we look in on the various teachers, learning more about what the state of affairs with regards to biotics are – if Mass Effect Andromeda is going to say that Cora felt outcasted and isolated because of her biotics, lets at least make this have a tangible feeling of what the actual culture and society she left behind is dealing with, considering that this is something that I’ve seen EVERYONE side-eying at best with her. At least offer it some grounding in the universe so it’s not just her, in effect, whining that she felt alone when we have characters like Kaidan, who killed someone with his biotics as a teenager, and Jack, who was tortured from infancy in an attempt to build a better biotic.

Anyway. The idea is to see more about what the biotics go through, and to better explain what biotics even are to the uninitiated (re: the audience). Biotics are just an accepted part of the universe in the games as is, but these are still a relatively recent thing for humanity, and we don’t really know how people are handling it.

Honestly, I’m kinda inclined to fully lean into a “biotics = homosexuality” metaphor. Like, personal stuff here, that’s one of the things that really... bothers me about the way Cora is handled in Andromeda, that she has this very queercoded story in terms of her self-acceptance, to the point of at one point, in reference to her biotics, saying “what if someone had told me ‘that’s okay’?” about herself. And that’s a line that defines queer narratives, but it is coming out of this cis-straight person’s mouth. So yeah, I’m gonna fix that how I can, since canonically, Kaidan is a bisexual man, and he gets the focus here, and we’re gonna take advantage of this. I may have issues with how BioWare handles their not-straight characters, but since they’re not actually making this, I’m gonna take full advantage.

Oh, right. Plot. Something, something... We get to the overall plot. Of course, we can sway a few people over – these biotic extremists are looking for belonging and acceptance above all. We see things like Major Kyle’s biotic cult, biotics are looking for something that gives them a place, beyond just the military stuff – what happens to the biotic who is a pacifist, where do they fit in when the only place that really seems to accept biotics is the Alliance military? Yeah, sure, these extremists would be testing the idea of “pacifism,” but it’s still the general concept we’re going with.

Like with the above Ashley story, it comes down to Kaidan getting the option to take the lead on this. You know how in the situation in the base game with Chairman Burns, Kaidan will interject about being an L2, like those extremists? Last time I played through, I kinda felt like he should have been more in the lead on that mission, that it should have been his answer to Garrus and Doctor Saleon, or Wrex and the family armor, something like that. So we’re going to have a similar situation here. Like with Ashley above, his ability to talk down the leader of this group depends on how well the player investigated – find the details, talk to the right people, that sort of detective stuff (because I like there being more to gaining experience in games that just combat).

That’s especially meaningful because this particular pro-human person, the one leading these biotic extremists? He worked at BAaT, was one of the people supposedly tasked with watching the situations with the turian biotics who had been brought on. He knew Kaidan. Kaidan knew him. In some ways, because of what happened with Kaidan, that’s why he was inspired to this – letting aliens teach biotics to these children, dictate those terms, WAS abuse, and, in his mind, humans can’t let their children be so violently abused by aliens again.

Kaidan says he dealt with his past in the game proper. But this is still an echo of it, someone who he once knew, worse, someone who cites what happened to him as reason for what he’s doing. Which is why it’s important for Kaidan that he be the one to resolve this. As ever, it can be resolved with words or violence, yay Paragon/Renegade system. For Kaidan, though, it’s just important to see this through and make sure that he has this dealt with.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from a class of biotics saved.

ME3: Student saved during the Grissom Academy mission is among the students encountered here, their presence gives a boost to the biotic students war asset

Ruins of Preita

An asari colony world has discovered a prothean archive that could rival those on Mars. Due to the concerns of the Reapers, Commander Shepard and crew go to investigate – and find an empty world, the archaeology team missing. Finding the missing team leads into a world lost to the galaxy for over fifty thousand years – and a threat even the protheans locked away!

So, now we have a Liara loyalty mission story. If you’ve paid any serious attention to my blog over the years, you’re probably having a laugh at my expense here – I’m always complaining about an overfocus on Liara, and yet here I am, adding to her content specifically. Hey, I’m at least playing fair and giving her time alongside Ashley and Kaidan. Hell, that’s why I’m doing this. I gave them time in the sun, and it’s fair that I give her the same.

But yes, I want to explore Liara’s character through the lens of her as an archaeologist, which basically gets a little lip service in the games proper, but ultimately means nothing. She is supposed to be an expert on the protheans and an archaeologist of renown, and yet that gets dumped as her actual profession in ME2, so that she can “be a very good information broker,” which... Not to dismiss her in what is meant to be a focus mission for her, but that ends up being told, rather than shown. Let’s let her play to her strengths.

This is a mission about her getting to flex that muscle. She learns about this archive – actually, thinking about it, let’s say that this was a dig that she had the chance to go on instead of the Therum dig, and chose it instead in the name of it being more isolated (more on that later). With the latest report she’s read about it, she thinks it’ll be an assist to Commander Shepard – if nothing else, the fact that Saren was interested in Eden Prime’s prothean beacon means that a new prothean archive might well be a lure for him, and he might well show up, or have Benezia or one of her agents go there in his stead. It could lead them to Saren, is what she’s using as her justification for telling Shepard to go and check this out.

Obviously it won’t, because game mechanics, but it’s a solid enough reason to get us where we’re going, which is an asari planet. Here’s where we get a chance to see Liara in her element AND see this pushback against her theories. It bugs the hell out of me that Liara says that her theory of the cycle of extinction is dismissed by other asari because of her youth – by framing that dismissal of her peers with having to do purely with her age, it says that in the two thousand years since the asari discovered the Citadel, to say nothing of anything that might have been included in the prothean archive in the Temple of Athame, NO ONE ELSE has put forward the idea of the cycles. That Liara is the first to put those pieces together. In more than two thousand years. And, as things turn out, she is 100% correct about there being a constant cycle of civilization and extinction.

My suspension of disbelief breaks at that. That she and she alone has developed this theory – this theory that is absolutely fact – in two thousand years. Bare minimum, I would have said that she was part of a fringe collection of scientists who just don’t have the evidential support to justify this being the mainstream view. But it’s the canon we have to work with, so, fine. But this disagreement when it comes to theories on the extinction of the protheans would be another point of why Liara didn’t go on this excursion, that these other researchers are those who do not share her beliefs, and, as she believes, that would mean they would shun her.

But it’s important that these researchers not just be strawmen – they may have held opposing views to Liara, that doesn’t mean they would dislike her. In point of fact, one of them has to have considered herself a friend to Liara, for reasons I’ll get in to in a bit. But these are going to be people who are all for the most part entirely likeable and reasonable. They just don’t agree with Liara’s stance.

Or at least, the records and logs they’ve left behind make them entirely likable and appear reasonable. Because, of course the research team is missing when Shepard and team arrive – like research teams in these scenarios are ever able to avoid going missing and being presumed dead.

This sparks a conflict with Liara – she’s glad that they’re able to try and find them, maybe even rescue them, but she’s also guilty because she should have been on this expedition, should have been with them. Liara’s got a tendency to put things on her own shoulders (see her reaction after Thessia, assuming you don’t have Javik/don’t take the interrupt to get them to an accord). Hell, ideally, this would be something done after Noveria and her mother’s death to explore that some – I hate how by the time you try to speak with her about it, she’s already pulling that “I choose to remember Benezia as she was” thing, seeming to either be accepting or repressing what happened, when what happened is that, regardless of the why, her mother is dead, and Shepard pulled the trigger.

So yeah, while this is a mission available at any point after doing Therum, in my mind, it’s best to take this after Noveria for the ability for Liara to lash out at Shepard for not being able to rescue her mother, how do they think that they can save these people, one among them a friend of hers, look at that, it’s another situation where Shepard is going to fail to rescue someone who mattered to her!

That is her breaking point, where she can’t bottle this all up anymore. That, for the sake of the mission, for “the greater good,” she’s bottled up her feelings and anger and resentment and fear, and yet, here and now, she can’t help it, she has to address it. She knows it’s unfair to Shepard – she heard about indoctrination, understands that it was something horrible for Benezia, that Benezia accepted no alternative to death, but people she cares about keep getting caught in the line of fire, all in the name of what, exactly? “The greater good”? “The ends justifying the means”? Chance and circumstance?

Hell, include some elements tying her closer to Ashley and Kaidan at this point – it connects the crew together more for when the Virmire decision hits, considering that this game only has banter in the Citadel elevators, which, given fast travel, is heavily skippable, and competes with news reports. There needs to be more development of the character interactions, so let’s do some character interaction here, if nothing else. (And maybe also include a post-Virmire conversation with her about how SHE feels about the loss of Ashley/Kaidan, yes I’m moving out of the scope of this DLC idea, but it’s good for characterization, dammit!)

Investigation happens, records and logs do the ‘ominous mood building’ thing... The end result is that what happened was that this planet once housed a prothean lab. A bio-engineering lab. They were creating something that (stated ambiguously, since Shepard won’t know about the Reapers properly yet at this point in the timeline) was meant to fight the Reapers, be something that could stand against them and protect the protheans. But by the time that it was done, the war was all but over, the protheans having lost. The protheans never got the chance to let it loose, pulling up stakes from the facility before the Reapers hit it. But as time wore away the tech, this thing they created has gotten loose on its own after a few thousand years. This thing is like the rachni on Noveria, having been grown in isolation – there was nothing else on this planet, it was literally the only kind of life around, even before getting to it being engineered as a weapon above all else. It’s too mad to save, must be put down.

Easier said than done, of course. The archaeological team are contained inside of it (I’m thinking held in some kind of crystal-like stasis pods on its back), and is drawing on them for life, sort of in the same way that Malak used the Jedi captives on the Star Forge in KOTOR, where it taps into them and heals itself based on their life force. So the Paragon/Renegade choice in here revolves around how much effort Shepard’s going to put in to saving the captives. Freeing them before they get used as batteries, probably with Liara using her biotics to rescue those who they manage to get loose (meaning she’s unable to act as support in combat because she’s busy focusing her biotics), or just killing them first – with Liara distracted and unable to provide support, that justifies the Renegade stance, because it’s one less source of firepower against the thing as it tries to either kill them or add them to its collection.

That’s important because that aforementioned friend of hers is going to be rescued either way the player chooses – Liara will insist on getting her out alive, even if Shepard foregoes saving the others. Regardless of the player choice, Liara’s friend survives, and, once the creature is dead, she’ll respond to how Shepard chose to resolve the situation, if she’s the sole survivor or if Shepard made an effort to rescue everyone. She’s grateful for her survival either way, but she’s angry about the failure to save the others if they were abandoned.

For Liara, though, the ultimate result is seeing something of the protheans being knocked off their pedestal – regardless of the reason (which, yes, we know to be extinction by Reapers), they abandoned this creature, left it to be consumed by madness. The point here is seeing Liara have a moment where she grows up – she has to acknowledge the protheans she pictured for the last century were flawed (Partially because it bothers me the way she speaks of the protheans with such rose-colored glasses even by ME3, when she says “it’s clear they prized knowledge, growth, and cooperation with the rest of the galaxy,” even before Javik sends that image crashing – a species who form an empire, whose legacy is memorialized as an empire, is not going to be first and foremost wise scholars). She’s realizing that whatever the reasons were for creating this, whatever caused them to leave it behind, they still did this to an innocent being that they were responsible for. It’s something of her “loss of innocence” moment, considering that Benezia’s death currently doesn’t really provide that (though, again, we ARE also addressing that... Details.)

Her friend is also going to get a few moments with Liara, talking about the archaeology team, and commenting about how Liara’s development has gone. This is a moment for Liara, to really help give her a character arc in the game proper – considering that she can be left on Therum until right before Ilos, she kinda doesn’t have much of one as it is. Also, this gives a chance for Liara to exist outside of Shepard’s world, considering how she bubbles herself into it as the trilogy progresses. This is someone who’s only really in Liara’s orbit, not Shepard’s, and it gives her a little more grounding and existence outside of Shepard.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from Liara’s friend, commenting about how she handled Shepard’s death, expressing concern for her losing direction

ME3: The creature’s remains have been examined, providing a War Asset, if the archaeologists were saved, they provide an additional boost, Liara’s friend has a cameo on the Citadel after Thessia

Incursion

An Alliance space station on the fringe of the Terminus system abruptly goes silent. As the Normandy’s stealth systems can get there without letting any invaders know, as well as Commander Shepard’s skill, Captain Anderson sends them to check on the station. The batarians specifically have been known to be in the area, but there remains the possibility that this is something worse...

Okay, out of the loyalty mission structure and direct character work, back to isolated stories in the setting. So, the frontier of space? I say this as a lover of scifi from a young age: It is TERRIFYING. You are on the edge of all that’s known, and any number of things, things you could never conceive of because they are so outside of your frame of reference, could show up and kill you. A flimsy barrier of glass (or transparent aluminum or whatever material they make those big honking windows out of) is all that separates you from a suffocating death.

Yeah, we’re doing a psychological horror story here. I suppose technically AGAIN, considering the stuff around the disappeared archaeologists in the above DLC idea, but that was as much about Liara as the atmosphere. This is pure paranoia and suspicion.

The inspiration I’m going with here is KOTOR 2’s opening on the Peragus mine. Something happened here, and the people are all dead or missing – a handful of corpses, but, yet again, we’ve got logs to find, and they’ll include people who we can’t identify among the dead. Because that gives motivation to stick around and solve things, rather than just blow the place to hell.

The first guess is that there’s a batarian slave raid happening here. There are indications that the Alliance officers here were thinking this at first, that this was some raid in progress – sure, it wasn’t open violence, but maybe they were softening things up, trying to get on board, lower defenses, and then let the slave ships show up and take everyone left. That’s what their last attempt at an outgoing message suggested, it’s what Shepard and company show up expecting.

But that wasn’t the case. The investigation continues through the station, with Shepard searching for signs of anyone still alive. And as they proceed through the station, there’s something that seems to keep just passing out of view. Something else is here with them.

Again, I’m skimping on the exposition here, just because the investigation is the important part, and that’s hard to develop without a layout of the station itself in front of me, and what and how the narrative has to adapt to the environment, but also because this is a very atmospheric style story, where the focus is in the build up, the mystery, the way to get to the big reveal of just what it is that happened here. In a story like this, the tension in this is built with how many times you think you’re going to have an encounter with “the monster” before you actually do.

This particular “monster,” as it turns out, is some kind of energy creature, something that came to the station from the unknown depths of space, drawn by the station’s power core emissions. All indications are that this is simply some space-born lifeform that evolved naturally, and isn’t like some Reaper weapon or anti-Reaper weapon. Just some non-sapient lifeform, drawn in by the power core (maybe it had been specially modified, to further explain why this station and why now), and ending up killing the inhabitants of it.

The thing about this is that I’m going to emphasize here is that I DON’T want this as some kind of creation of the Reapers or their servants OR something that was cooked up to combat them. This thing is entirely independent of anything to do with Reapers. One of the things that I appreciated with ME1 over the later games was the “lived in” nature of the galaxy, where there were a handful of things shown and revealed in the course of the story that just spoke to there being life and civilization wandering through the galaxy for countless millennia. Life is pretty persistent when given the chance, and there’s surely life that exists in the depths of space that is so completely alien to our understanding that we might not even recognize it as such. This creature is one such example of life but not as we know it.

Obviously, there’s a straight up Paragon/Renegade choice of killing or sparing the creature, finding some way to lure it off and away from the station. I’m also inclined for a neutral option of trying to humanely capture it – it’s a creature unlike anything they know, it could show them so many things about the greater universe in the examination – but I’m not sure I feel like there’s enough room in the series for that kind of variation, given the limitations – this IS meant to be DLC, you know? Or at least, hypothetical DLC. Either way, though, the end result is that there is a boss battle, Shepard having to either kill it or weaken it, the station is cleared of the threat and the Alliance gets to have the station back, with talk of it being repurposed into some kind of early warning system regarding threats from outside Alliance/Citadel space (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Emails from the new station commander, referring to the reopening of the station and the fate of the creature

ME3: Station as a war asset, exo-biologists as a war asset, how they examine space-faring life in the galaxy and if they can be adapted in some way to resist the Reapers

Evolution

A mercenary contacts the Normandy, claiming to have information regarding Saren. Following this lead, however, proves to open a separate can of worms, as the mercenary reveals their connections to a cult of people who view synthetics as the next step in organic evolution, and, knowing of Saren’s ties to the geth, seek to stop Shepard – or convert them.

So the idea here is to give more attention to something that seemed to be a running plot thread during ME1 and ME2 – machine cultists. The ExoGeni survey team on Trebin got huskified by an unknown artifact, and in ME2, there’s the mine on Aequitas. Yes, technically that hasn’t happened yet, shush. But we observe this in action in the games proper, and no one ever actually acknowledges it beyond the simple immediate reaction.

So what we have here is a merc, trying to contact Shepard, claiming they have info on Saren. No one really believes it – if Saren’s working with geth, he would have no need for the liability of organic agents. Yet they also can’t really ignore the idea either because Saren is why they’re out here (I really intend to take advantage of the idea that the whole party cast comes back for these with a full on mission briefing/discussion to kick this off – sounds like some fun opportunities for character dynamics with them debating the validity of this claim).

The result of going in takes Shepard and team to a planet where, initial impression, something is OFF about this place. It’s a prefab colony in early colonization, and something about how the people act just doesn’t seem right. They seem to be in an almost trance-like state that no one can snap them out of, a fact that immediately puts everyone on edge.

The merc is here (let’s say he’s a turian), and keeps things frustratingly vague until the arrival of a leader of the colony. The kicker with him being that he appears partially huskified (sorta like the Cerberus goon on Mars that Ashley/Kaidan find). Yet he still seems to be able to act seemingly independently. Of course, someone this obviously not-right has made himself a target, but all the people in the colony, including the merc, are all on his side.

Shepard can try to fight out of this, but they’re overwhelmed – there IS an entire colony of people, and there’s still the possibility of getting them free, Shepard has a responsibility to not shoot civilians (no matter what trigger-happy Renegades might think), and the team at least is willing to take that stand.

The explanation is that this is a group of wanna-call-themselves “next phase of organic evolution,” people who believe that they are the future. That’s what got their attention about Saren and Shepard, knowing about how he is working with the geth (it was an open session of the Council when they got made Spectre, after all). They look to Shepard as a potential threat.

When we encounter Machine Cultists in the game proper, they’re too far gone to really give any explanation. The comics seemed to draw on this – in Mass Effect Evolution, Saren’s brother uncovered one on Palaven, the Illusive Man was involved, Saren had to nuke from orbit the location of this device and his brother with it. We’re kinda going into the same territory with this, but, you know, Shepard gets to save the day.

So the merc shows up, trying to explain, offer the sales pitch (i.e.: the carrot), try to convince Shepard that their leader has the right idea, that this is a true joining of organic and synthetic, and that it will avert the “coming apocalypse” (just in case the whole ‘Reaper artifact’ element wasn’t certain for anyone playing). Then the cult leader shows up to offer the threat (i.e.: the stick), the warning that whatever Shepard expects to do, they will not be able to succeed.

For pacing reasons, I think of this as a pre-Virmire thing, so there’s not a direct awareness on Shepard’s part that just being around a Reaper artifact is a cause for Indoctrination, leading to a period of wondering how this happened and assuming it comes from direct interface – this is as much an explanation for why, if the implication is that the cult leader got to interface with a prothean beacon of some kind (actually Reaper, in the same manner as the vision that Object Rho offers in Arrival), they don’t have Shepard try to interact with this one, that they’re afraid of Shepard becoming like these people.

Anyway, jailbreak sequence! Because we can do better than just running a game of Simon in order to get Shepard out of their cell. Shepard finagles a way out of the cell block and to the colony’s science lab (it’s a frontier world, they need a science lab just to stay aware of all the new things they discover here). Among the things there is the record of what happened here, and specifically the existence of the artifact. Leads to a simple solution – blow up the artifact, and see what that does.

Of course, the artifact is guarded in the heart of the colony’s main site. We meet up with the merc again, who’s seeming a little uncomfortable – the indoctrination hasn’t completely taken root in him, and so there’s some question of maybe he can be reached. Paragon/Renegade here about dealing with him – kill him or spare him. That sparing will come back in a short while

Because now there’s the colony leader – the cult leader, effectively, at this point – to deal with. He’s angry about the damage Shepard has done to everything, ranting about plans to bring the glory of evolution to the galaxy. Yeah, he’s round the bend, the device effectively having melted his mind (okay, yeah, I’m getting flashes of Kenson here, but hey, same tech, so it’s not ripping off, it’s continuity!)

After dealing with him, the plan is to blow the artifact sky high. Here’s where the merc comes back into play – he says he’s too far gone, and wants to be the one to push the button on this thing, die with it. It’s his way of having a good death after this. Another Paragon/Renegade choice about his fate before blowing the thing sky high – the colony, unfortunately can’t be saved, anyone not killed getting there dies when the device is blown.

There’s an after action briefing, too, where, because, again, the idea here is that this is pre-Virmire, the crew really discuss the horrors of what “these Reaper machines” can do, and what if they’re not some geth red herring or something.

Basically, my idea here is that this is adding to the atmosphere and mystique of the Reapers, in a way that, with the game proper focused on the concept of advancing the plot, doesn’t get a chance. This is a more traditional feature of building up the menace, by showing the insidious nature of things, having the Reapers’ subtle side at play – we see references of Indoctrination, but we don’t really get the horrors outside of some talk – sure, there are the salarians who are in the Virmire facility, and Benezia’s talk, but it’s all second hand. This is a case where we see the effects spread across the entire colony, which, given resources in the game, is all of a planet we get to encounter, and Shepard and company are the only ones who aren’t, and that can go to the paranoia, where the people surrounding them all are giving off the vibes of being a threat, but they’re not doing anything. What can I say, I am a sucker for a good atmospheric story.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email about the aftermath of the colony’s destruction, and the research done on the corpses on the effects of Indoctrination

ME3: War asset surrounding Indoctrination research, preliminary anti-Indoctrination tech being introduced around the Catalyst facility, if the merc sacrificed himself, his family offers a boost to turian military morale on the basis of how one of their own resisted (pointedly ignoring Saren)

Relativity

The Mass Relays are the ancient devices that allow faster than light travel throughout the galaxy. The Charon Relay specifically was one that opened the way for humanity to join the races of the Citadel. This only makes a sudden distress call from the Relay all the more urgent, and Admiral Hackett believe that of everyone in the Alliance, Commander Shepard is right for the job.

So the Mass Relays are these massive facilities that are a key point throughout the entire trilogy. Why, exactly, do we never see one up close aside from transition screens? We should totally get to explore one! Like, I realize that it’s never explicitly said if there’s any kind of command station, or if “guarding a Mass Relay” was a ship-based action or if there was actual, physical contact with one, but I’m saying that something of the size of the Relays, even if much of it is a solid object, you maintain SOME sort of command structure within it in order to monitor and examine things. Even if the Reapers have some kind of robotic drones or Keeper analogues running around, doing standard maintenance, I cannot be convinced that there is not SOME areas of the actual Mass Relay that house facilities for organic life to work in. Especially considering the design having the light sources along the hull that we traditionally associate with acting as windows on starships and space stations.

So yeah, this is an adventure taking us into the workings of a Mass Relay proper. The general idea is that there’s a distress call from the Charon Relay, which is something that really worries the Alliance – lose the Charon Relay, humanity loses their connection to the galaxy at large. And the Alliance doesn’t want the Citadel to know about this, at least not right away – if something is impacting how the Relays function, the Council is going to demand getting involved, and the Alliance DEFINITELY doesn’t want to give the non-human races a free pass into humanity’s home system, so they’re calling on Shepard.

Also part of the novelty of this is that I kinda want to have the chance to explore what it’s like for those who are not exploring the stars in this setting – the Mass Relay’s crew is alive and intact and interactable. This isn’t one of the many cases of showing up too late to be able to properly save people (I’m looking mostly at ME2 on this count, even before we add in the above and below of my own creation).

Head of the team on the Relay is an engineer, not a soldier (pulling a name out of hat for them in the name of simplicity in this write up... Let’s go with Sarah Manning, just because my Orphan Black DVDs happen to be right next to me as I’m writing this and it offers as good as a placeholder as any – feel free to picture Tatiana Maslany as this character if you so choose, though, by the rules of this series, in an ideal world, this would have been DLC produced for ME1 in 2007, so this character would probably be at least a decade, probably more, older than she would have been at the time, oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed...). She’s not just concerned about the Council finding out – not that she’s a Terra Firma type, just that she has Earth related pride and considers the Charon Relay humanity’s, and, on a personal level, HERS, given her responsibility for it – but also the lives on board. She wants to protect and preserve as many lives as she can.

The interior of the facility is a mix of reasonably sensical designs, in the areas meant for humanoid habitation, and something far more Eldritch abomination-y when we start moving out of those areas. And, you know, we pretty much HAVE to move out of them as time goes on, since that’s like half of the fun of this concept.

But we start in the more familiar areas, where everything seems normal. Except the people are missing (yes, I know I’m relying on this concept a lot, but it’s good as an in universe mystery and out of universe programming so that the game doesn’t have to account for like a dozen NPCs to fill space). In this instance, the distress signal itself indicates that the Relay’s station commander had ordered their people to a designated safe zone within the Relay’s structure, which is where Shepard will need to head to uncover things. Sarah’s staying in the control area, trying to ensure that nothing else goes wrong.

At some point in the midst of this, I do want the question of if the Relay will be/has to be destroyed to come up, better establish the idea that will come up in Arrival of the destruction of Relay in the game proper.

The exploration takes Shepard into the Eldritch-y areas, which, sadly, because I am a wordsmith and not a picture kind of person, I can really only describe as messing with perception and going all Escher in the design. Basically, the idea is to present the interior and heart of the Relays as being these massively complex and complicated machines that function on a level not really human (or, in the case of the non-human races in the game besides the Reapers, human adjacent). Because, first of all, this is faster than light travel, which means this is this is this franchise’s handwave for how anything happens on multiple planets and is dealt with in (in-universe) real time, and second, Sovereign talked about a level of existence beyond our own and such. This leans into that kind of concept – yeah, sure, we may have the Reapers be shown as effectively fundamentally understandable, but let’s at least justify the hype a little, huh?

The big idea here is that we’re kinda throwing back to the puzzle style of play that you used to see in computer games in like the nineties. That’s why perspective is going to be a part of this. Basically, the engineers on the Relay found something that tripped the security systems, sort of “unhinging” standard reality around them, getting them lost in the various extra layers (dimensions?) that the Relay works in.

I don’t really know if I see any kind of real boss or major decision here, because this is basically about the gimmick over anything else – Mass Effect isn’t a bad place for a gimmicky throwback, right? Maybe... Ah, something’s clicking here for me – the guy responsible for all of this happening in the first place. He was trying to access an archive – he initially thought it was prothean, but he’s been able to realize that this is much older. He wants to get this information, and is the last one we rescue. The issue is that it’s going to be a choice – rescue this guy and lose the archive, or save the archive and he dies. Like, I’m thinking that there’s some kind of rip or maybe a miniature black hole that’s sucking in the both of them and Shepard can only save one. That’s a solid Paragon/Renegade choice, especially since I could see arguments for both.

Anyway, once the crew’s all rescued and the choice made, Manning gets back to Shepard and says that this is about to get slapped with a security clearance so high she’d “probably have to kill [herself] just for remembering [she has] it” (because yes, I want that as an actual quote), and recommends that they get off the Relay before any superior officers show up to rake them over the coals for their involvement – Shepard’s a busy person, doesn’t need to get bogged down in the red tape that’s sure to come.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from Manning regarding the Relay’s subsequent stability

ME3: Manning’s team as a war asset/the archive being tapped for Crucible data and information on the Reapers (mutually exclusive – the team will have disbanded after the loss of the one member if the archive was recovered)

Planet of Peace

An attempt at colonizing a planet, with the aid of all Council races, in an effort at fostering galactic peace, sounded great on paper. The diplomats jumped on the opportunity. The reality has been... less than stellar. Considering the first human Spectre a bridge between races, the Council asks Commander Shepard to try and help smooth over relations.

Frankly, while I understand the focus on the threat of the Reapers, honestly, this seems like a legitimate issue that would be an instant demand for the first human Spectre. And, given the tension and hostility between the races (even beyond humanity against everyone else), it seems like a natural fit, in all honesty. Because it does seem like all the canonical colony worlds always start as one species attempting to tame a single world, rather than taking advantage of the unifying effort of the galactic community.

At the forefront of this colony is the retired human ambassador to the Council, Ambassador Goyle (Anderson mentions her when talking about his candidacy for the Spectres and we see her in the first of Alec Ryder’s memories, now we get to make her a character we get to interact with). This was her passion project specifically, thinking that all races had something that they could offer one another and need to come together.

Basically, she’s underscoring what I like to think of as a core concept of the series, being stronger together than separately.

But, of course, there are tensions. I mean, not even just because we wouldn’t have a plot without it. She is concerned that there might be some extremists getting involved – aren’t there always? When things are tense, some idiot’s always going to come along, see the stacks of dynamite, and decide to light a match. She is specifically asking that Shepard come to help resolve some issues, using their symbolism. Her request is fully aware of this being an exercise in flag waving, but it’s an important bit of flag waving – doing this here can make the galactic community a more stable place.

Bringing back in the element of having the cast back for these, I want to include quite a bit of companion content in this one, including something like how Dragon Age 2’s Mark of the Assassin DLC had a short companion quest for everyone. On a planet that’s a melting pot of the various races that make up the Citadel species, there’s going to be something for everyone here somehow. I don’t know what specifically right now – these write ups focus on the main plot, not the sidequests. But these are things that are there.

As for what is happening on the planet, on the small scale, there’s your standard culture clash brushfires, things that seem small and petty, but have accumulated for the people involved because they’re in such close proximity. But there is a strong Terra Firma presence as well, the “Earth for humans!” type, in addition to similar groups among the traditional Citadel races – this is still only a handful of decades past humanity’s entry, and as we’ve discussed before, the arrival of humanity has made things much more chaotic than they were before, and there’s more than a little resentment among the non-human races for humanity’s attitude and approach to things coming across almost as if they’re demanding more, without anyone Citadel side acknowledging that First Contact was a shit show of THEIR making (scroll back up and see Investigations for more on that...)

But the larger scale conflict is a group out to make sure that this planet fails in its mission and goal, drive a wedge between factions. I’m thinking of going the Star Trek VI route on this, that this group is an ironic banding of humans and non-humans, determined to see peace fall apart at the cost of allying with their supposed enemies, and using “look at how easily they turned on their own to stop this!” as a justification for their own hypocrisy.

Going with the Star Trek VI reference, this group is gearing up for an assassination attempt on Ambassador Goyle herself, believing that stopping her will stop the advancement of this idea. Now, Commander Shepard HAS to save her, we’re not doing the question of “can they stop it in time?” but, for all those pro-humanity xenophobic “Cerberus was right all along!” types, the response of Shepard will be to either name the conspirators and why or utilize their designated fall guy.

BUT WAIT! That’s not the end of this one. See, we’re also going to get an aftermath – the results of this will impact how the population react, and there’s a second story mission that requires a plot progression to access.

Returning to this planet (I feel like it would get some ambitious name like “Hope” or something, but I think it’s kinda provincial for the planet to carry a human name, so...), things are even tenser than before. We get to actively see how the fallout is impacting things, with people drawing lines based on the earlier assassination attempt. This is a lot like how the turian weapons merchant on the Citadel in ME2 will respond differently based on how Shepard resolved ME1 – side with one faction in the first part, their supporters approve of you and their opposites are angry with you, and vice versa.

Goyle appreciates Shepard’s return, because she’s seeing the place beginning to collapse. She’s feeling ready to throw in the towel because of how poorly things are going. Still, until the place closes its doors, she’s going to stand up and act like the leader she’s here to be. Shepard saved her life, she’s going to commit it to preserving this colony. But she wants Shepard’s help all the same, because they can leverage that heroism to helping put things here right.

Of course, here’s where we get to the big finale choice – are you going to strengthen this colony or break it? And sure, it seems straightforward on the idea of what’s good and what’s bad, but here’s the thing that the overall narrative develops through investigation – the Alliance and the Citadel need to allocate their resources. Part of the reason that the sanctioned colonies tend to be dominated by one species or another is a matter of need – when you have a primarily human/asari population, you’ll have to import in resources for turians, things like that – even if they’re trying to grow them on their own, they probably need to import like soil for nutrients and such.

And that not only gets costly, that can divert resources that are more greatly in need. In the long term, this could tie up resources that are needed elsewhere. In the short term, if trying to make these disparate races and cultures work together and play nice is taking up this much time and effort, isn’t it possible, isn’t it plausible, that there are better things to be doing with those resources?

So, do we try and heal the divide and potentially tie up resources in what has been an uphill climb from the start, and right before the Reaper War begins (for all you forward thinkers reading this), or do we cut our losses and focus on making these types of cross-species initiatives at a later point in time? That’s the Paragon/Renegade choice here.

The resolution comes and Ambassador Goyle will be either thankful for the effort or resigned that her great initiative isn’t going forward. Regardless of Shepard’s actions, she’s thankful that they at least made an attempt – she isn’t going to see them as failing if they opted to cut the losses, but herself.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter either from Ambassador Goyle, reporting on the colony, or a news service announcement of her having further withdrawn from the public eye after the colony’s failure.

ME3: For Paragon choice, there’s a decrease in dextro-food reserves, given the colony’s need, but an increase in interspecies morale, with efforts to incorporate multi-species crews underway, and vice versa for the Renegade

Daedalus Station

A space station on the fringe of Citadel space sends out a distress call. When the Normandy arrives, however, no one there claims responsibility for it. Yet the station is in a spiral, a path that will, slowly but steadily, lead the station directly into a sun. Commander Shepard attempts to save everyone aboard from the inevitable death, and discover why they seem unfazed at the idea.

Okay, let’s just acknowledge first, yes, I’m aware that the synopsis sounds not just like a rip off of the first mission of Leviathan but also “Incursion” above. I’m aware. Look, the synopsis is a short brief, not the full details, okay? Strictly speaking, it’s more in line with the events of Leviathan, certainly, but I want to at least acknowledge that I’m aware that there are similarities. Okay, they’re there, LET’S MOVE ON.

Anyway. Distress call, brings in the Normandy. Station is obviously in a death spiral. The moment that Shepard and company board the station, everyone is going about their routine. Obviously, something’s a touch screwy about this set up. Another investigation must ensue.

Of course, as we’ve established, details of the investigations are not where my expansions really shine – it’s easy to stretch out a discovery of this sort, with development A leading to clue B and making revelation C... Yadda, yadda. I’m about the what of these things, not the how.

The ultimate thing about this is twofold. Part one is that this is basically going to be an introduction to the concept of Indoctrination – someone discovered a Reaper artifact, and is trying to adapt it to their benefit. Because frankly, the idea that someone wouldn’t try and take Indoctrination for themselves... Yeah, let’s be real here. Someone WOULD.

Obviously, since we’re still in game one and the Reapers are still mostly a mystery at this point in time, there’s the question of what this is. But, hey, it’s still something that should have happened, and this is the time when there’s the most mystery and least immediate “oh shit, this will horribly backfire if we don’t just straight up blow this up now” reactions.

So, our villain. They’re gonna spiral into insanity (thematic mirroring – as the station enters the death spiral, they spiral into madness), so we’re not going to push too much on making them seem sympathetic, in the traditional sense. Honestly, in writing this, I’m kinda getting parallels to your average dangerous incel aspiring mass shooter, so we’re gonna go with that, someone who perceived themselves as more isolated and alone than they were – the investigation will have us find private journals from other crew pre-artifact that mention him, usually in the fashion of ‘he doesn’t talk much, but doesn’t seem that bad’ kind of messages. Meanwhile, his own talk about the others has a more downcast approach, that he knows they’re not interested in hearing about him, etc. etc.

You know, this is the kind of person who, upon getting the ability to manipulate minds is basically doing it in an effort to bolster his own self-esteem, turning people who were once a little sharp with him one time into his whipping boys, and making himself the king of this little hill.

The problem of his plan? The mental degradation. The last of those to fall under his sway sent out the automated distress beacon, and knew that there was a danger in this guy leaving – but they also couldn’t be sure that their efforts would be successful. It’s a case of the distress beacon being a double-edged sword – can their rescuers save them, stop this guy, or will they fall under his sway as well? But there’s no other solution. They set the collision course (and yes, I’m aware that this is happening on a space station, hey, the pilot episode of DS9 showed that the station could travel through maneuvering thrusters and such – the idea is that they wanted to find a way to destroy the station), and then destroyed the controls so it couldn’t be undone, and disabled the alerts so that the station wouldn’t alert anyone, setting it up to make it that the station’s sensors all seem to send the green light to the rest of the station – the false data would hopefully prevent the station crew from noticing.

Yes, of course I want there to be an apocalyptic log, why would I deny that BioWare staple?

Another thing that I want to do here is kinda retroactively at least make it a part of the universe that Shepard is resistant to the efforts of Reaper Indoctrination. The idea I’m going with is that some of the scrambling of Shepard’s brain (which, sidenote, I also want to take some time in this and call out the fact that it’s a PLOT POINT that Shepard’s brain gets messed with repeatedly throughout this game and no one thinks that might actually be a questionable matter – if a key point of this DLC is “dude, you’re messing with people’s minds, that’s rather unambiguously Not A Good Thing To Do,” then it’s an elephant in the room to not bring up that this is what’s happening with Shepard) has made them more resistant to these effects, though that probably means justifying this as having a watered down effect so that the companions are feeling the tug to fall under our villain’s thrall.

That’s basically where I picture the boss battle going, that Shepard has to fight against one of their companions, who has been compelled to be this guy’s defender against them. I’d say both companions, but that might be a little much, in particular on lower difficulties. So I’m going to say that Shepard can knock out one of their companions before they fall under the sway of the big bad’s influence, but the other escapes. I feel like there could be ways to offset the difficulties of this by way of like finding objects that counteract the signal or whatever, but the idea is Shepard versus companion. While it obviously has to end non-lethally, I feel like this is the kind of thing that is morbidly fascinating to see in just about everyone’s book. I’d also figure that it would depend on a handful of variables that make them resist more or less (because the game should reward investigation, right?)

When that’s completed (I figure it ends with Shepard destroying the controller artifact), it’s time to deal with the station about to be caught in the sun – the station’s going to be locked in a death spiral, but the people of the station can now evacuate. Which leaves the person responsible. On the Paragon side, Shepard is not judge, jury, and executioner, this guy should be given a fair trial. On the Renegade side, he’s a dick who took over people’s minds with no remorse on the matter. Whatever decision Shepard goes with, the station’s population will abide by – they probably want him dead anyway, right?

Aftermath does come into play, with a conversation with the companion Shepard fought against, because, especially if they’re a romance, that’s gotta mess with their heads. Also some general discussion of the artifact itself – obviously, while I expect a variation in the event this is played after Virmire, my idea of this is that it happens some time before it, so things like Wrex and Ashley/Kaidan’s deaths (or possible death) are variation options, this is basically something that I feel can influence matters – if Shepard and Wrex have already fought, for example, I feel like that would earn them enough influence come Virmire for Wrex to stand down there, it’s got parallels/foreshadowing... That kind of emotional work.

Also there’s some consideration about that artifact – once a technology exists, putting that genie back in the bottle is nigh impossible, so now it’s known that you can use this tech to control minds, someone’s sure to try and take advantage of this tech somewhere down the line – Shepard and company will discuss what kind of precautions can and should be taken about these kinds of developments in the future (hint hint, Cerberus/Illusive Man, hint hint).

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Letter from a station survivor, variation on the matter of how the responsible party was dealt with.

ME3: Efforts have been undertaken to block Indoctrination tech, based on the information that Shepard gathered on the station.

Fleet Crisis

With the concerns of Saren and the geth rising, Admirals Hackett and Anderson want to get a chance to upgrade the defenses at the heart of the Alliance. Arcturus Station, home to the Alliance government, is housing a defense meeting, and Commander Shepard is being recalled to speak at it. The Alliance may be facing another crisis, however...

(Two plot planets completed)

We have very little actual Alliance elements involved in the game, did you ever notice that? Like, there’s Admiral Anderson and Admiral Hackett, and we get the inspection tour thing from Admiral Mikhailovich, but other than that, we really are not given much about the Alliance proper. So the idea here for us to go to Arcturus Station and actually encounter the Alliance government proper. We only ever properly encounter the Citadel Council, not the government that technically, Shepard is under the authority of. The closest we ever come is the (rather useless) Defense Committee at the start of ME3.

So yeah, we’re going to the home of the Alliance proper, and seeing the Fifth Fleet – like my first time playing the game, I had no real concept of the Fifth Fleet until it shows up at the endgame. I kinda would like more foreshadowing, more textual acknowledgement of the fleet that is the reason why we end the game as we do. Like, we get to do a fleet flyby in the process, allowing us to see the size of the fleet and talk about what makes the human fleets different from those of the other races. Although the Citadel races do have their bullshit reasons for distrusting humanity, the fact that humanity has this massive force is a reasonable excuse for the behavior.

I also see this as a very different style DLC. As it is, we got one DLC that was basically a shooting gallery, so here, we’re in the opposite direction, where combat is taking almost a total backseat to dialogue – I mean you have a dialogue system like Mass Effect, where every line gets voiced, you would think that would imply that there’s a lot of faith in the writing, wouldn’t you think? And, the whole beauty of DLC in general usually is the fact that everything’s option – if you’re really all shooty-shooty bang-bang, you don’t HAVE to do this. But the whole series paints Shepard as this inspirational figure, and their oratory skills should be on full display as much as their ability to fire a gun.

I’m also kinda anti-“going to Alliance vessels and the in universe equivalent of the House/Senate halls/White House combined and freely shoot up the place,” just on principle.

Anyway, here we are, visiting the heart of Alliance space. We honestly really should have more of an idea of what humanity has accomplished in the universe. Arcturus Station, the home of Alliance government. This is a big deal for the crew, of course – it’s getting invited to speak at the Senate in Washington DC. For the various non-humans, it’s a big deal as well.

Now, of course, in the heart of Alliance government, the involvement of a bunch of non-humans is going to be considered questionable at best. I won’t go straight to “you can’t use any companions other that Ashley and Kaidan,” but there is going to be more of a sense of observation from the other Alliance officers and officials when the non-humans are in the party.

The first thing to note about this is that Shepard’s position as Spectre has made them a combination of being a political tool for humanity’s better advancement, but (as evidenced by Mikhailovich’s ranting) some are concerned that Shepard may be – intentionally or not – turned into a pure Council flunky and only doing the work that they approve, regardless of acting in humanity’s benefit.

That’s part of the reason Shepard’s even here – their position is getting humanity’s foot in the door with the Spectres, but this is creating a conflict in various corners, wondering about where their allegiance will be if pressed. Admiral Hackett is, of course, speaking in Shepard’s favor, but just because they have the approval of Hackett and Anderson, there’s still concern among the brass.

This is going to start out seeming very low-key – we’re in the heart of Alliance territory, who would be foolish enough to come along and mess with anyone or anything here, right? So a lot of initial tone-setting, discussion and debate – the first half is a debate sequence, with Paragon/Renegade points abound as Shepard discusses with the various Alliance officials what they’re doing as a Spectre. That culminates in Shepard’s oratory really getting to stretch as they approach the seat of governing for the Alliance, and all those earlier discussions start to add up to how their performance is among the bigwigs – if you talked up human dominance in the one-on-ones, then talk peaceful coexistence, for example, you get called on it.

After Shepard’s speech is over, that’s where we start to see the real fractures starting to take place. We’re not quite at ‘military coup’ levels (let’s leave SOME plot elements for the later games, huh?), but there’s clear dissatisfaction, that Shepard’s words have only fanned flames for – regardless of the way their speech went down, there are some among the fleet, admirals and other high ranking officers who were involved in the First Contact War and just don’t like how the Alliance is handling things.

It’s not a coup, but it is, in effect, breaking away from the Alliance to set up an independent nation, separate from both the Alliance and the Citadel. It’s still in its earliest stages, of course, but it’s easy to see how it might well turn hostile to both – it’s got several military figures from the Alliance leaving, meaning a vulnerable gap for the Alliance military, and it’s got lingering hostility for the Citadel races (turians in particular, but let’s also not forget that the asari, the famed diplomats of the Citadel, seem to have never picked up on the fact that the human resentment towards aliens comes from the fact that an alien government came along and tried to impose their rules on an unaligned species as humanity’s introduction to the greater galaxy – they are complicit here).

Shepard’s task becomes trying to prevent this offshoot from happening. These are orders being cut by President Shastri himself (let’s make this major Alliance figure a presence we actually feel in the series, huh?), with Hackett’s blessing – meaning if things devolve into a shoot out (which will be possible), Shepard will not be held liable for the deaths of several Alliance military figures, that the record will show that they were acting in the interests of the Alliance in response to an imminent threat of potential armed conflict, even a human civil war. No one wants it to come to that, but it’s also going to be one of the most likely outcomes in the minds of those involved – even if Shepard weren’t a Spectre, if someone of their rank and stature on the galactic stage gets involved, it’s because diplomacy isn’t working.

So there’s another segment of trying to sway the people involved. Shepard will have the choice of approached armed or unarmed (like I said, I dislike the idea of a shootout, but I feel like Shepard’s in a position both to be legally entitled to wear weapons in this situation AND uncomfortable going in without any weaponry), which will feed into the metric of how well their argument is received. Because it’s a mechanic so good, we’re using it twice! (Okay, really, it’s because “dialogue” is the gimmick of this idea, but shush.)

Anyway, the various ‘points’ accumulate to the ultimate confrontation with the heads of this group planning this splintering. Shepard’s arguments are going to be along the line of (to summarize) “you’ll only weaken the Alliance, that can’t be your goal,” “if you have problems, work within in the systems and listen to both sides of things,” “put this aside or else,” or “I support your efforts, but this isn’t the time.” Yes, I’m going with four paths for this, the dialogue wheel does offer that, and I want Paragon/Renegade options for each of these. Like you basically pick a path at the start and argue from that position. Depending on the “points” accumulated through dialogue (and probably a handful of sidequests) in the lead to this debate), it will come to either a peaceful resolution or Shepard pulling out their gun on a handful of high-ranking Alliance officers, ready and able to pull the trigger.

While shooting them isn’t an ideal solution, it can bring the others back into line. It’s just going to cause resentment within the Alliance itself – threat or no, these were respected figures among the Alliance. Meanwhile, folding them back in is an ideal solution, but it still means the resentment lingers, because Shepard’s only delayed the boiling over, not prevented it. There’s still tension in the Alliance because this was about issues that can’t be solved with a few words, especially when this was about the involvement and actions of the Citadel. Shepard might be a Spectre, but whether or not they’ve affirmed themselves as giving the Alliance its due, they’re now wrapped up in those politics.

The curveball in things is that last one, Shepard suggesting that they should wait on this issue. I think it’s a valid possibility among the various permutations of the decision point, to have Shepard support them, especially given that ME1’s Renegade Shepard could be a pro-human asshole, but, considering that this is DLC, and particularly DLC that, by my self-imposed rule, cannot change the base game’s story (because if I could do that, I might as well be rewriting all the games in this instead of just created additional content, and this is all hypothetical to begin with), we can’t introduce some new faction into the galaxy, especially an optional one. So the idea here is that Shepard is supporting it, but saying that they can’t make this A Thing right now.

There is an aftermath discussion with President Shastri as well, discussing implications for the future. I also figure that the companions should have a lot to offer in both the aftermath and the core interactions – again, I see Ashley and Kaidan as greatly recommended for this story, and the Alliance officers should have a lot to add, including conversations in the midst of the crisis.

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Email from Shastri as an update of the tension in the Alliance – it’s also something that should be impacted by the decision of the Council at the end of ME1

ME3: Tensions between Alliance and Council forces are impacted by the outcome – if they were swayed by persuasion to rejoin the Alliance, there’s actually a bump in assets, as well as the Alliance bigwigs being a tactical resource, while there’s a decrease in cooperation if the bad blood was fostered.

The Clean Up

The Battle of the Citadel is over, but even if the geth and Sovereign have been defeated, there is a lot left for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy to do. Investigating the damage done to the Citadel leads to a possible lead on the Reapers. In the wake of the battle, Commander Shepard and company set out to chase it down...

(Post-Game)

So, as I said in the KOTOR editions, we’re adding a Post-Game to ME1 (since this is all hypothetical to begin with, so we’re going to make that alteration to the mechanics), pretty much solely because I want to do some development of the aftermath of the game, as well as do some retroactive set up for Mass Effect 2. Because I don’t think there was a lot of emotional wrap up to the characters at the time. I will grant that we’ve got an awkward period of time between the games here, but, hey, we’ve got enough wiggle room I think to lead in to the opening of ME2

Basically, we can start in what’s basically the immediate aftermath – Shepard’s now out of their recovery, is looking to get back in the game. But, with the Council either still reacting to the events of the Battle of the Citadel or still needing to be reassembled, there’s really not any particular indication of what to be doing. This is some mood setting, looking at the rebuilding effort, how the Citadel was impacted and seeing the response of people to the attack – some are still shaken, mourning their loved ones lost in the attack, hoping for the lost to be found safe, and all that sort. Others are angry about the attack, and the ultimate approach to it seems to basically be blaming everyone, and Shepard in particular since they’re there, for the failure to protect those on the Citadel – and yes, we absolutely get to call out this bullshit for what it is, because Shepard tried, but the Citadel itself is something of a complacency trap, and even if the politics weren’t a distraction, the fact that the Citadel itself remains aloof is an actual problem

Anderson speaks with Shepard, regarding the geth that are still out there in the Traverse, and the need to deal with them before they put more human colonies in danger. The bigwigs are already trying to downplay the Reapers – Anderson basically tells Shepard that they need to go out, find proof of something that ties back to the Reapers or the Council will likely turn around and make this all about the geth and call it over (uh, yeah, Shepard, about that...).

The lead involved is going to be heading out to the border of geth space, which is also the line of what used to be quarian territory. This is convenient for Tali, who wants to return to the flotilla now that Saren has been dealt with. There’s a trading outpost that will be out there that will give her the opportunity to get a ride back to the Migrant Fleet (because, despite a couple of references, I have never believed that Tali lingered too long on the Normandy – either she has to get her data on the geth back to them, or she has to discover an alternative). Because part of this is also going to be the “characters splitting apart” stuff as set up for ME2. Tali’s going to assist through this branch of the mission, but she will want to come back here before the Normandy returns to Citadel space proper.

The trading outpost is Omega-esque, something of “the poor man’s Omega,” again, setting that up for ME2 (we’re doing a lot of world-building patches here, okay?) The citizens here don’t care about the Alliance and they’re not all that concerned about Spectres, either. This is not a friendly place and will not just accept the appearance of anyone with the supposed authority that Shepard is representing.

This is kind of an introduction to ME2’s merc gangs – ME1 seems to play the systems of the Terminus to have their own government, species not represented among the Citadel races, and just this general atmosphere of the Terminus being more developed than it ends up being when we actually go there (which, yeah, that’s how writing and developing and world-building goes, but we’re here to smooth things over). I’m leaning towards not having the big three on Omega be all that represented here, considering that, lawless border or not, this is not really a place where they care enough to expand their influence. But they should at least be mentioned and referenced as the big dogs of the pack, that the gangs that jockey for power here want to take them on. Probably some poaching of members (through recruitment or snipers) from those gangs that make their numbers never get to where they might pose a threat.

Anyway. What needs to be done here is find out where Saren discovered Sovereign – that’s the idea we’re going with in trying to track down evidence of the Reapers. Sovereign had to be hiding out somewhere, you don’t just stumble across something like that. Considering this is one of the last places you’d expect to be able to find a Spectre, especially a Spectre who is one of the Council’s top operatives, it’s a decent enough starting point for us as the audience – we’ll say that there are records that Saren was out here shortly before the Eden Prime mission and such, explaining why we’re starting here.

Garrus is also going to have a realization about the merc gangs, about the horrible things they’re inflicting on the people who are living here, and being infuriated at the injustice allowed to happen – the effective attitude of the officials here are basically ‘look, unless the merc gangs come after us, we don’t care.’ This is going to dig under his skin (plates... you know what I mean), lead him to why he ultimately breaks with C-Sec, despite Shepard being able to lead him to a better understanding of the rules and regs – he understands the need for them, but sees them being used and abused to allows these injustices to continue, that it becomes a personal mission to see ‘justice’ and ‘law’ be synonymous.

As for the plot, yes, we’re getting there. This does, of course, lead to a shoot-out with a major gang force here, some people who are indoctrinated spies (because, hey, we’re looking for evidence of Reapers). They were left behind as part of Saren’s contingency plans, meant to stop anyone hunting for him – it’s just that the investigation that Shepard went on in the base game didn’t send them here. Even with Saren and Sovereign dead, they’re still here, still indoctrinated – a reminder that this is a permanent thing, a devastating thing, because there’s no way to take the Reaper compulsion away. But this leads to learning about a place that Saren ventured to from here, a place wracked with dangerous phenomenon. The only way to get there is with a crack pilot – which, fortunately, Normandy has.

There’s a brief pause from plot for some further expansion with the others – Wrex has been contemplating the krogan, given what went down on Virmire. His people are dying out, maybe not in the way we traditionally think of it, but still in practice. What is there for the krogan but to be used and abused by the Sarens of the universe, so long as all they care about is getting offworld and fighting and dying, usually being pit against one another as the proxies for stupid, pointless conflicts. It’s not right, and it’s beginning to eat at him.

And then there’s Ashley/Kaidan. Given the events of Virmire, both of them are thinking about the family that was left behind – Ashley’s sisters lost one of their central figures, Kaidan’s family lost their only son. They both are trying to write a letter of condolence to their counterpart’s loved ones (and specifically asking Shepard about the one they should be writing), trying to figure how they can make it better that they were saved at the other’s expense. It’s a complicated matter, and I want to just explore, even retroactively, how these two were friends, were close, potentially (if Shepard shuts down a romance with both of them) starting to come together. Just a bit that not only reestablishes the friendship and emphasizes that the fallen character is not forgotten, plus giving more context to how they’ll say that they and Shepard got through the other’s death together in ME3

This is a point for some romance content, which, I realize I have yet to bring up Liara’s character bit for this – don’t worry, it’s coming. But we do pause for some smoochies.

Anyway. The Normandy arrives in the hazardous area and we get a team meeting – remember how back in the first of these outlines, I brought up wanting to give more for Pressley? I haven’t directly mentioned him much since, but here’s a place to feature him, in the same way that the landing on Ilos does, showing him having a greater involvement in the strategy and such. Team Shepard needs to figure out if there even is a place to investigate within this area. There are sensor ghosts that might be something that they could land on and investigate, though it’s too small for a Mako mission (I may love that tank, but I feel like its final ride being the trip through the Ilos Relay is poetic and I’m not going to mess with that). Joker gets his moment of putting the Normandy through her paces (which is also going to add to the pain of her loss in ME2’s prologue, that she could pull this off, but couldn’t out-fly the Collector ship).

They detect something with a similar energy signature to the prothean beacons on an asteroid large enough to land on, which makes it reasonable for Liara to go with – take the prothean expert to a place that could hold more information on the protheans. She’s nervous because of the confirmation of the Reapers has just made things really real for her – this is facing the same thing that destroyed the protheans, and how can they stand against them, given the protheans’ advanced nature?

Let’s also take a moment and, given the indoctrinated nature of the mercs who attacked back on the outpost, to have some follow-up for Benezia’s death – I may only be speaking for myself, but it has NEVER sat right that Liara’s response to that is to simply go “I choose to remember Benezia as she was,” given that Shepard was, regardless of their reluctance, responsible for the actual bullet that ended her mother’s life. She’s struggling – could the mercs have been saved? Could her mother? Could what they find below offer a way to have saved them, and, if so, would Saren have had it, could he have freed her mother before her death? Did she have to die? Why did her mother have to die? Cue Shepard offering their support for her emotional struggle.

And yes, for Liaramancers, this is where they get their smoochies.

As for what they find... Geth. Plenty of (heretic – though Shepard doesn’t yet know this) geth. They are crawling all over the facility, it’s a firefight all the way to the central database, and, as our big final boss, we deal with a geth augmented with some of Sovereign’s tech, meant to be a Reaper upgrade for the geth. Obviously, this is not going to make it into the geth consensus (heretic or true), and this is effectively the only existing prototype.

The result of this is that they do find an archival interface, the same kind that allowed the communication with Sovereign on Virmire. Unfortunately, it can provide nothing – without Sovereign connected to it, it’s got minimal functionality – something might be recovered, with some time and effort. But the facility is about to move into the areas of this area of space that will fry any systems that get close to it – Sovereign probably had this place selected in the name of being a place where anyone who might stumble upon its hiding place would decide to move on because it’s suicide to remain in the area.

The only choice is to return to the Normandy, without any additional evidence. There are indications of geth vessels having moved out of the area and into other sectors, which could give them something to go on for further investigations. But, with this stage of the mission being a bust, Shepard is going to have the Normandy return to the earlier outpost in the name of allowing all ashore who are going ashore – Tali, Garrus, and Wrex, specifically, but also any other Normandy crew willing to stand down for the time being. Investigating this further is a strictly volunteer mission. This will, of course, lead us to ME2’s prologue...

Post Game Followups:

ME2: Mentions of Shepard’s activities on the outpost while on Omega, a letter from a scientist, passed on by Anderson, about further studies made on indoctrination being done on the sly, considering the lack of approval from the Council.

ME3: Further research has been done on indoctrination, now publicly, and makes for a scientific war asset, the remnants of the merc gang that were indoctrinated have reformed and reassembled as a roving band of resistance fighters against the Reapers.

Miscellaneous 

Bisexual Ashley, Bisexual Kaidan, proper close outs to other romances, romances require proper flirts to start, additional conversations for all characters

Look, no one in space is heterosexual, okay? I don’t make the rule, I just enforce it. Actually, considering the context of these, I DO make the rules, and “no one in space is heterosexual” is one of them, so deal with it. Kaidan is canonically bisexual as of ME3, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t be canonically bisexual in ME1. And we’ll throw Ashley in for good measure, because why not? And we definitely – DEFINITELY – need to do something about the romance mechanic that seems to assume “I would like to get to know you better” means “you, me, my cabin, the way to Ilos, yes/yes?” There needs to be explicit markers for closing out a romance WITHOUT locking you out of conversations with the character in question (particularly considering that now, all of this game’s romances can be options in a given playthrough). And yeah, I think there could stand to be a few extra conversations with the characters, that focus on the characters proper – for most of the crew, they basically end up acting as glorified Wikipedia entries on their species, or, in Kaidan’s case, the plight of human biotics. Let’s give them some more personalized material that lets them tell Shepard something about themselves (and offer Shepard something similar, as character development for the both of them).

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Open Revolution: the vital struggle of open vs closed, free vs unfree

Rufus Pollock’s new book The Open Revolution: rewriting the rules of the information age, reimagines ownership in a digital age and its implications from the power of tech monopolies to control how we think and vote , to unaffordable medicines, to growing inequality. Get the book and find out more at openrevolution.net.

Today, in a digital age, who owns information controls the future, and we face a fundamental choice between Open and Closed. In an Open world we would make information shared by all, freely available for everyone to use. In a Closed world information is exclusively “owned” and controlled, its attendant power and wealth more and more concentrated, with widespread damaging effects on our economies, our freedoms, our culture and even our health.

In an Open world all of us would be enriched by the freedom to use, enjoy and build upon everything from statistics and research to newspaper stories and books, from software and films to music and medical formulae. In an Open world we would pay innovators and creators more and more fairly, using market-driven remuneration rights in place of intellectual property monopoly rights.

However, our present Closed world is one of extraordinary concentrations of power and wealth. A world where innovation is held back and distorted by the dead hand of monopoly; freedom is threatened by manipulation, exclusion and exploitation; and each click you make, every step you take, they'll be watching you.

As they have improved, digital technologies have taken on ever more of the tasks that humans used to do, from manufacturing cars to scheduling appointments. And in the next few decades “AI” (artificial intelligence) may well be not only driving our cars for us but drafting legal contracts and performing surgery. On the face of it, we have much to gain if machines can spare us tedious or routine tasks, and perform them with greater accuracy.

The danger, though, is that robots run on information -- software, data algorithms -- and at present the “ownership” of this sort of information is very unequal. And because it is protected by our Closed system of intellectual property rights, it is becoming ever more so thanks to costless copying and platform effects. With the overwhelming and ever-growing importance of information technology in the modern world, the balance of wealth and power is tipping further and further towards an exclusive club. But by choosing Openness we can make sure the future works for everyone not just the 1%.

Already, the world's principal industry is the production and management of information. And control and the wealth of those processes is dangerously concentrated, and is becoming more so. The five richest companies on the globe are all infotech-based, and they themselves exhibit some of the most unequal ownership structures in the world, with tiny groups of founders and investors owning a great proportion of their equity.

At its most extreme, the current situation threatens the norms of a free society. Free enterprise and free markets are disintegrating in the face of international monopolies, free choice means little when there is only one to choose between, and even our political freedom and freedom of thought are threatened by powers that have the capacity to shape how we think and act. We should all be concerned by this, and the evidence from recent scandals such as Cambridge Analytica show that these concerns are increasingly shared.

Yet if we were to open up to everyone all the information that is being produced -- the software that now runs the world, all the riches and the Closed materials, the world's literature and art and algorithms -- then we could democratise the infotech revolution.

The opportunity and the danger are both great. Choosing optimism and Openness is one of the most important policy opportunities of the 21st century. It is a chance to transform our societies, to create a future beyond the politics of capitalism and socialism, combining the enterprise of the former with the latter's ideal of fairness: a genuine chance to build a better world for everybody. And the entire, unprecedented opportunity is based on one unique characteristic of our extraordinary new digital technology: cost-free copying.

Physical things have an unfortunate limitation: they can be used for only one thing at a time. A bicycle is a bicycle, and if I am riding it to work, you cannot be riding it to the shops at the same time. Physical things, as economists say, are “rival” in use. This fact is so obvious that we barely notice it, but it is of profound importance. It means the world of physical goods is one of scarcity: all too often there is not enough to go round.

Most societies in the world today have systems of private property based upon this physical fact of single-use. We make the social control of physical things exclusive because that aligns with the fact of exclusive use. If you own a house you decide who lives in it, and the law is built upon the realities of the world's limited and rival physical resources.

On the whole, this has worked well up to now -- usually much better than other systems that have been tried. Because our way of thinking has physical property at its heart, we have sought to include information in the same category, where it doesn't belong, under the banner of “intellectual property”. In truth, information is fundamentally different. Its unusual and essential characteristic is its boundlessness, its non-rivalry, its capacity to replicate. When you share a joke with friends around a dinner-table they each have their own “copy”. As such, information is not like and should not be treated like tangible property.

Digital technology takes this property of information to another level. Once digitized -- whether it is a photograph, an app or a symphony -- information can be copied as often as we want and shared with anyone at practically no cost. Unlike physical things information can be reproduced miraculously to meet demand, making it different from the entire traditional basis of our economy. In this changed world, we need changed rules. Exclusive property rights made sense for physical property because of their scarce and rival nature: with one user, one owner. But digital information is different and its abundant and non-rival nature means it needn't be exclusive, it can be Open.

Moreover, we already have Open-compatible methods to pay innovators which we can build on. Just look at Spotify. You pay one fixed fee and have the entire library at your disposal. We need to systematize this approach, replacing current intellectual property monopoly rights with Remuneration Rights. Instead of a patent or copyright monopoly, creators would instead obtain a "remuneration right" which would entitle them to payment from a central government fund according to the value of their contribution – based on how much their drugs improved health, for example, or how many times their song was played. Under this model we'd all pay once and in return it would be unlimited access for all. And we can use traditional market mechanisms driven by demand to allocate all or part of the money collected.

Welcome to the Open Revolution.

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/13/digital-is-different.html

[liodensim]

Friday Update! Don't Forget About Black Friday!

Don't forget we have a Black Friday - Cyber Monday weekend sale!

LINK TO THE NEWS POST with details

Community-Oriented Update

Hey there guys, we've decided it's time for new staff applications! You can apply as a Moderator or a Helper: Moderator Application - LINK Helper Application - LINK

Moderation Changes

We've noticed there's a culture of members going to different mods to try and get different answers, so we're trying to avoid that. We think the Modbox should be the center of any issues and questions to staff. We urge you to use that instead of PMing our staff. Because of that, we are giving our staff the ability to turn your PMs into tickets and handle you via Modbox in this new, awesome way that will also give you notifications. To avoid PMing mods too much though, we have removed the Staff Online list, and just keep the overall list which also emphasizes on using the Modbox rather than PMing staff members. From now on, moderation will be done via a unified moderator account. All current moderators will still have their paws, but when they're claiming tickets or issuing warnings, you will just see that a moderator is handling you. Changes are as follows: - Reminders in Chat will be turned into notifications rather than Mod posts - Reminders in Forums will be turned into notifications rather than Mod posts - Tickets in Modbox will be handled by a "Moderator" Tickets have been improved: - Claiming and resolving tickets will have individual date stamps. - Once a ticket has been solved, if you have any followup to the ticket for any reason, after 24 hours have passed there will be a button on the ticket that will allow you to make a new one which auto-links to the resolved ticket for reference. We hope this new system will allow players to be sure they're talking to the Moderator Team. We always consult each other and stay in touch as much as possible. We are individuals, but we work together and want to be sure you're always receiving a response from the whole team. EDIT: To calm down some players, administration can ALWAYS see which moderator is handling which player, ticket and so on. Mods can see it too. If you ever feel you have been wronged in the ticket, you can always link it when approaching admins <3

As Europeans, we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving, but as it's that time of year for the majority of our members, we'd like to say that we're extremely thankful for all of our amazing members. We wouldn't be where we are without you. Here's some awesome things we want to share that we collected on the 20th of November:

This is a collective statistic of top 10 nationalities of Lioden players :D

This is a monthly graph showing a comparison in active users between 2016 and 2017 within the same time frame!

Here's more actual data on same day of 2016 and 2017 - amazing! We've had a growth in active members of about 60% on last year!! We are so truly touched and we love you all <3

The ToS quiz turned out to be a little intrusive, so we decided to move it to Chat and Forums only, meaning that it will pop up only when new players access the social parts of Lioden; otherwise, they can rollover and experience the game first without any prompts :D Alongside this, we had it pointed out to us that a clause in our Terms of Service doesn't feel fair - a section that states that we do not have to issue a notice when the Terms are amended. Given that every update we make to the Terms comes automatically with a notification in the news, we have decided to amend this clause to better reflect our practices. ToS Update: The Terms of Service are subject to change at any time and Lioden will issue a notice of changes in the in-game news. If you do not agree with the Terms of Service, you must cease using the site immediately. By continuing to access Lioden you automatically agree to these Terms of Service, so we would recommend that you read them frequently to make sure you are aware of any changes. One more thing: Additionally, our new policy has removed the "Fine" option from the moderator tools, and we will no longer be issuing fines across accounts as a form of punishment. Steps will still be taken to withdraw additional currency if it was gained via an exploit or otherwise, but genuine currency will be left alone. We feel that it is no longer appropriate to issue in-game fines for poor behavior. Users may still be warned, temporarily suspended or banned if falling foul of the Terms of Service. All instances of fining have been removed from the Terms to reflect this. EDIT: Any new changes in ToS will display with dark red font.

Shad has updated avatar tags in Misc. and November! We also added tags from Berenos and Cryztal! Thanks for suggestions :D Something we updated a few days ago but we want to explain the bug fix: * Discarding items in stacks was making them stuck in a void - they have been mass dumped into Giving Tree upon fixing on the 21st, and discarding stacks will now work properly.

Raffle Lioness

Congrats Hyperactive one (#127534)! You have won the last raffle lady! New lady with the Wilge River BG is up for impressing in Special Lioness area in Explore or in NEWS section under News Post List!

Polls and Dev Notes

Ooo Primal Smilus and Felis were head to head but Smilus looks to be your favourite Primal varation! Poor standard Primal, all forgotten. I love you, standard Primal. LINK - Fun poll today! Which base of the ones we listed is your favourite? Yeah yeah, I know you will all vote Cinnabar. Right?

We'd like to bring your attention to the current situation regarding Net Neutrality. We normally wouldn't get involved with politics, and we ask for members to please try to remain politically neutral in the comments, but we feel this is important. Net Neutrality is a vital part of the internet and it has the potential to be completely wiped out in a few weeks unless citizens actively fight against the changes the FCC are proposing. This could mean that small businesses like Lioden are forced to pay fees to make sure their members are able to access their websites with good internet speeds, or alternatively internet companies might start charging additional fees to connect to certain websites. To learn more about Net Neutrality, and to find out who to contact about this, please visit BattleForTheNet.com. This is primarily happening in the US, but it could affect the whole world as the internet is a wonderful place that connects us globally and we don't want to let go of that ❤️

[revolutionary-pirate]

Tell us about the connection between Sons of Liberty and the navy please!

Gladly, anon!! (Sorry this took so long, some unexpected circumstances came up that occupied my time for a few days and I also had a lot of information and context to cover in order to complete this ask. It’s probably more information than necessary, but I got excited [it’s long so I put it in a read more]. Also, I didn’t source as I went like I usually do and didn’t want to go back through and individually source all of my points so I dumped all my sources at the end. A lot of the information is tangled and it’s kinda a bitch when you have to source each part of the sentence with something different and I just took a final and didn’t want to do it. So anyway, Here you go:  )Congress was very hesitant about creating a Continental Navy, thinking it complete and utter madness to do so. Britain had the greatest Navy in the world and the Colonies had not a ship to call their own because the colonies had been completely reliant on the British Navy until then. John Adams was the loudest supporter of the creation of a navy in Congress, fighting hard to convince them all of how able the colonists were to undergo such a herculean task and how vital any sort of maritime effort would be to the defense of the Colonies, but Congress wasn’t having any of it. They did not think that there was even a slim chance that it would do the colonies any good in any way shape or form and would only serve to deepen a conflict with Britain that they weren’t ready to commit to yet. The people had no such qualms.

The very first, official, naval battle of the American Revolution began on June 11, 1775, almost two months after the first shot had been fired at Lexington and just days before the formation of the Continental Army. Since Lexington, the British had become completely pinned down in Boston with very limited supplies and a heavy reliance on merchants at sea in order to survive the Patriot’s Seige of Boston. As more troops were set to arrive in the city, General Thomas Gage and Vice Admiral Samuel Graves knew that they had to build more barracks for their soldiers and that, in order to do that, they needed lumber. Gage and Graves turned to a Loyalist, Boston merchant by the name of Ichabod Jones and tasked him with sailing to Machias, Massachusettes (now Maine) in order to acquire lumber from them in exchange for flour, pork, salt, and other supplies.Machias was an isolated, frontier settlement that was almost entirely dependent upon trading its lumber and firewood to Boston for supplies necessary to their survival. When the Continental Congress resolved that no one trade their lumber with Boston because it would aid the besieged British Army, Machias was crippled. They were eventually forced to petition the Massachusetts Congress in May for relief when their population was facing potential starvation because they hardly had three week’s supply of food left in storage. Gage and Graves felt that they could take advantage of this situation by sending in Jones.

On June 2, 1775, Jones arrived in Machias with his two ships, the Unity and the Polly. Jones had held frequent business in Machias for the last ten years and even owned a house there because he did dealings there so often. As a result, Jones was well aware that there were Patriots in Machias that would not take kindly to his visit nor to his mission because tensions had been running high ever since Lexington. Concerns about Patriot interference with the mission from all along the Massachusetts coast were great enough that Graves was informed that “some of the inhabitants of the Eastern parts of this Province have threatened to intercept and destroy the Vessels of Mr. Ichabod Jones … ” Graves acknowledged the fear but did not cancel the trip because acquiring the lumber was very important for the British Army. Instead, Graves arranged an escort for Jones in the form of the H.M.S. Margaretta, captained by James Moore. When Jones arrived at Machias with his armed escort, it had only served to fuel tensions amongst the colonists who were suspicious of Jones’ intentions for seeking business with them. 

On June 3rd, Jones, in an effort to curb tensions and ensure the carrying out of the trade deal, distributed a petition amongst the citizens asking for their support in “carrying Lumber to Boston, & to protect him and his property, at all events” in exchange for the town’s much-needed provisions he’d brought aboard the Unity to trade. Jones did not, however, receive a satisfactory amount of signatures to content him, so he called upon his nephew, Stephen Jones, who was an influential resident of Machias, to arrange a meeting with the citizens of the town on June 6th in order to vote on the matter. At this meeting, Jones claimed that the only way that he could get Vice Admiral Graves to permit him to leave Boston with provisions for Machias was if he’d promised him that he’d return with a cargo full of lumber and that Graves had sent the Margaretta with him in order to ensure that he fulfilled his part of the bargain. Much of the citizens, with little reason to doubt him, voted in favor of the proposition because they were in dire need of those supplies, because they were nervous about the fact that the Margaretta was within firing range of the town and might attack them if they said no, and because it was only conjectured that the lumber requested was for supplying the British Army. The townspeople had no way of knowing at the time if it was true or not, but a minority group of citizens wasn’t buying “Jones’s Scheme” and voted no.After the vote, Jones brought his two sloops, the Unity and the Polly, to the wharf and began unloading and distributing the supplies to the citizens. Jones, however, made a grave mistake when he refused to grant supplies to everyone who had voted in opposition to him because among them were Benjamin Foster, leader of the Local Militia, and Jeremiah O’Brien, one of the village leaders, both of whom were also leading members of the local chapter of the Sons of Liberty. Jones wanted to avoid conflict, but, instead, his pride had been a spark. Another spark came at the expense of Captain Moore of the Margaretta. There was a liberty pole, or, rather, liberty tree in this case, that had been erected by O’Brien and his brothers after a unanimous vote from the townspeople to do so immediately after learning of what had transpired at Lexington and Concord back in April. The liberty tree was Machias’ pledge and declaration to the world that they were dedicated to resisting the British Empire’s tyranny and that they would sacrifice their lives in defense of their colony. Machias’ liberty tree was made from the trunk of the tallest tree that the O’Brien family could find and it stood in one of the highest points of the town, overlooking the river, and was one of the most conspicuous sights in the village. Moore, anchored in that river, was incredibly irritated by the sight of it. In The Liberty Pole, a Tale of Machias, it was written that:

Observing the Liberty Pole, Captain Moore landed, and demanded of a group who had collected around the landing-place, who had erected it. “That pole, sir,” Answered John O’Brien [one of Jeremiah’s brothers], “was erected by the unanimous approval of the people of Machias.”

“Well, sir,” rejoined the officer, “with or without their approval, it is my duty to declare it must come down.”“Must come down!” repeated O’Brien, with some warmth; “those words are very easily spoken, my friend. You will find, I apprehend, that it is easier to make than it will be to enforce a demand of this kind.”“What! Am I to understand that resistance will be made? Will the people of Machias dare to disregard an order, not originating with me, gentlemen, but with the government whose officer I am?”“The People of Machias,” replied O’Brien, “will dare do anything in maintenance of their principles and rights.”“It is useless to bandy words,” rejoined the officer, a little nettled at the determined spirit manifested around him; “My orders are peremptory and must be obeyed. That Liberty Pole must be taken down, or it will be my painful duty to fire upon the town.”

Stephen Jones, Ichabod Jones’ nephew, intervened and convinced Moore not to follow through with his threat and said that if he could arrange another town vote they might vote in favor of taking it down. A meeting was called, and it was voted that the pole remain. Captain Moore, fearful that he might lose the respect of his crew should his threat go unexecuted, decided to pick a day upon which they would fire at the town. Jeremiah O’Brien, Foster, and others began to secretly formulate a plan of defense in the event that an attack actually comes and sent word to the surrounding villages and areas calling for aid. Stephen stepped in again and said that the townspeople hadn’t all come to the meeting and that a second meeting should take place so that all of the citizens would have the opportunity to express their vote. It was voted almost unanimously by the whole town that the pole remain where it had been erected until it rotted. Moore retaliated with another threat to burn the village to the ground for their insolence in one hour if that pole still remained and had to be, once again, restrained from carrying it out when Stephen called to have a third meeting take place on June 12th while also reminding Moore that Vice Admiral Graves had told the Captain not to provoke the townspeople, but it was far too late for that.According to The Life of Captain Jeremiah O’Brien, Benjamin Foster and a group of his militiamen met two miles south of town on the Saturday afternoon of June 10th to concoct a two-pronged plan to seize both Ichabod, Stephen, Moore, and the other officer of the Margaretta while they were attending church the next afternoon and to then seize the British ships in the bay. They sent a few men to the home of the O’Briens to get their thoughts on the plan. The father, Morris O’Brien, tried to dissuade Foster and his party from carrying out their plan because Machias relied completely on the sea for survival, they were very far away from any sort of help, and carrying out their plan would no doubt bring about the immediate destruction of their village. Foster would not be dissuaded and Jeremiah O’Brien with his five younger brothers (Gideon, John, William, Dennis, and Joseph), despite their father’s concern, all decided to join forces with Foster, Jeremiah taking charge of the plan alongside him.At around 10 o’clock the next morning, a group of men gathered together once more for a secret meeting where they discussed the agreement by the surrounding villages to provide aid and the full plan in detail with everyone: seize the officers of the Margaretta and Jones while they were at church then capture the British Vessels, hopefully avoiding any and all bloodshed in the process. Opinions of the plan were divided, many not sure that the plan was feasible and what attacking the British might mean in the grand scheme of things. Foster reminded them all that they were already at war with Britain, that blood had already been shed at Lexington and Concord, and that the sooner they joined in the war efforts the better. This convinced many of them, but some voices were still a little hesitant about a plan that sounded so dangerous. Foster then boldly stepped forward, crossed the brook by which they were meeting, and said “Let all who are willing to strike for Freedom, follow me. Those who are in favor of British tyranny, and think it right to send lumber to Boston wherewith to build barracks for our oppressors, may stay where they are.” Jeremiah was right on Foster’s heels and was followed quickly by his brothers, then soon the entire party was crossing after them in unanimous support of the plan. They had just made their own Declaration of War, deciding to fight the British on their own terms.They split into two groups, one would attend the church service and, at the signal of a whistle, seize the targets. Another party would surround the meeting house and, in the event that any of their targets escape the building, be there to prevent their further escape and capture them outside. As the plan was moving into action and everyone was taking their positions outside, the pastor’s slave glanced out the window and spotted a small group of men crossing the river on log rafts with muskets in hand and thought they might be British soldiers. He cried out and then leaped out a window, booking it for the forest, and throwing the congregation into turmoil in the process. Moore and Jones both quickly realized what was happening and escaped from the meeting house before the people in position within the congregation could catch them, Moore leaping through a window and gunning for his ship while followed by his officer and Jones sprinting for the woods into which he’d vanish for a couple days. Moore and his man reached the landing and the two of them clamored into a boat sent from the Margaretta and began rowing back to the ship, followed to the shore closely by several pursuers. Jones’ nephew, Stephen, was not so lucky and was successfully captured by the villagers and held prisoner.Moore, upon returning to the Margaretta, weighed anchor and fired a few shots over the town as a threat to anyone considering pursuit and then moved down river a short way. The people, more determined than before, followed in all manner of small boats and canoes, firing upon the retreating ship with their muskets for several minutes. Moore dropped anchor again and sent word to the citizens that if Ichabod Jones or either of the sloops, the Unity or the Polly, were harmed, then he would burn the village to the ground. The message only served to further rally the citizens of Machias and it’s leaders against him. The whole town decided then and there that Jones was not going to be returning to Boston with the lumber and the Margaretta was going to be theirs. A group of Foster and O’Brien’s men, armed with muskets, were dispatched to where the Margaretta had anchored itself and began to open fire upon her from their elevated position, demanding that the British “Strike to the Sons of Liberty!” The British ship was unable to fire back at them because the guns of the ship could not be angled high enough to reach them. The citizens once more commanded that Moore “Strike to the Sons of Liberty or Die” to which Moore replied that he was “not yet ready” and gunfire resumed. This went on for about fifteen minutes before Moore was forced to retreat from the shore, the main boom snapping in the harsh winds and crippling the ship’s maneuverability in the process. Moore sailed his ship out of range and the gunfire petered out, the townspeople dispersing as night began to fall. That night, a group of men set out in canoes and small boats, attempting to board the Margaretta but were ultimately repelled.The next morning, on the 12th, Moore began to plan his escape to the sea, an eye on the shore to monitor the town’s movements. Jeremiah O’Brien, all his brothers, and around thirty men armed with muskets, knives, pistols, axes, pitchforks or whatever sharp weapons they could get their hands on, commandeered the Unity, which had been brought to the wharf by his second youngest Brother, Dennis, and three other young men. They then built a breastwork upon the deck with the lumber that had been loaded on the ship so far and then loaded it up with supplies to prepare it for battle before setting a course for the Margaretta. Seeing all of this through his spyglass, Moore cut the Margaretta from a ship in the harbour he had latched onto and plundered for supplies and then weighed anchor, starting down the river and towards the bay where he’d take another ship in order to replace his broken main boom and to seize the captain of the ship to act as a pilot for his. Foster, in the meantime, unable to take the Polly because it had been stripped of its sails and rigging, commandeered a sloop from a nearby village of Falmouth called the Falmouth Packet with twenty men and sailed to meet O’Brien and the Unity. Unfortunately, however, The Falmouth Packet ran aground in the morning’s low tide and they were unable to dislodge the ship, meaning they were stuck until the mid-day tide rolled back in. He sent a messenger ahead to O’Brien to inform him of what had happened and when the news reached the Unity, the men on board determined that they would seize the Margaretta without them and set a determined course for the British schooner once more. The Unity was the fastest of the three ships that had come into the Machias harbor with Jones and was quickly gaining water on the fleeing Margaretta. It was at this time that the citizens suddenly realized they didn’t have a captain. They had set out to sea on an impulse to take on a Britsh Warship and hadn’t even considered how they were going to go about it. By unanimous vote, they elected Jeremiah O’Brien to be their captain. The first thing O’Brien did as captain was to offer the chance to any person on board having second thoughts to go back ashore. Three men took him up on that and were given a small boat in which they could row back to the village. Captain O’Brien then turned back to the rest of the men and reportedly said: “Now, my brave fellows, having got rid of those white livered cowards, our first business will be to get along side of the schooner yonder; and the first man who boards her shall be entitled to the palm of honor.” Captain Moore, seeing the Unity gaining on him, cut all of the small boats trailing from their stern loose into the bay, but the Unity was still gaining on him fast despite Moore’s hour-long headstart. Captain Moore, now convinced that he was going to be overtaken, shouted back to the Unity “Sloop ahoy! keep off or I’ll fire!” Captain O’Brien, not at all deterred, called back, “In America’s name I demand your surrender!” Moore threatened again to fire upon the Unity and one of the other men onboard the sloop shouted back “Fire away and be damned!” And so Moore opened fire on the Unity with his canons.In the first volley, one of the men on board the Unity was killed and another wounded. Another man stepped up in the dead man’s place and took aim, killing the Margaretta’s helmsmen with a bullet through the skull. This shot drove everyone on board the Margaretta off the quarterdeck and into hiding as a volley of musket fire from the Unity rained down upon them. Without a helmsman to steer the Margaretta, the ship shifted in its course and the two ships collided. The bowsprit of the Unity tore the mainsail of the Margaretta and tangled the two ships together momentarily. In that moment Jeremiah’s brother, John, leaped from the bowsprit of the Unity and onto the Margaretta before the two ships parted, leaving him alone on the deck of the enemy ship. John was fired upon by seven British sailors but was unharmed, then the British charged at him with their bayonets and he dived overboard amid another volley of musket fire and swam back to the Unity where he was promptly helped back aboard to face Jeremiah, who shook his brother’s hand and told him that he won the palm of honor as promised but that he should get back in position and be ready to properly board the enemy ship, damn it.With his brother back on board, Captain O’Brien ordered that the Unity be brought alongside the Margaretta and the two ships lashed together with grappling hooks. Twenty armed men from the Unity were appointed to board the Margaretta and the two opposing crews began to engage in hand to hand combat at the railings, struggling to gain the upper hand one way or the other. Moore climbed onto the railing of his quarterdeck and brandished his sword, encouraging his men, but the fight was not going in his favor. Moore ordered that the hand grenades be brought up and he immediately began to lob them at the Unity. Upon recognizing that Captain O’Brien was undoubtedly their leader, he decided that killing him would probably demoralize the Americans and started lobbing several directly at him. O’Brien, probably by sheer luck, was unharmed by any of these attempts. Two bullets were buried into Moore’s chest by a sharpshooting moose-hunter on the Unity and Moore fell to the deck, mortally wounded. O’Brien, seeing this, called out to his men “To your feet, lads! The schooner is ours! Follow me! Board!” and everyone mobilized, following their captain over the railings and onto the Margaretta where they began to engage the British in direct hand-to-hand combat. The second in command of the Margaretta fled below deck as the Americans poured onto their ship and the British, realizing they no longer had anyone to lead them and that the Americans were winning the fight, surrendered. The whole battle had lasted for an hour and Captain Jeremiah O’Brien gained the honor of securing the first American victory of the Revolutionary War as the British flag and the captain’s sword were both surrendered to him. All in all, four British sailors, including Moore who died from his wounds within the next two days, and three Machias citizens were killed in the fighting as well as the Captain that Moore and forced to serve him that day. Some eight or nine citizens were wounded in all. The Americans took the British sailors captive and then repaired their ships before returning to Machias that afternoon to great celebrations on all sides for their victory. Ichabod Jones would emerge from the woods two days after the fighting and would be captured as well. The people of Machias then had to ask themselves “What now?” because they hadn’t thought that far ahead yet and had no idea what to do with their prisoners and the looming threat of British retaliation upon their small town. They began to fortify their town, outfitted a number of ships for a new career in authorized Privateering, and received supplies from the Massachusettes Congress. On June 26th, 1775 the Massachusetts Congress resolved that O’Brien and Foster be allowed to keep the three ships and all of their cargo that they had taken and that they be authorized to improve the ships and use them as they see appropriate for the defense of their colony.The Unity was outfitted with the arms of the Margaretta and was renamed the Machias Liberty and remained under O’Brien’s command. It became the first armed cruiser employed in the American Revolution. Following the Battle of Machias, increasingly more and more local ships and shipowners throughout the colonies began to take on the role of a quasi-navy. All of this began to support John Adams’ argument to Congress that the colonists would and could take on the Royal Navy themselves under the right circumstances and succeed because of how ferociously the colonists believed in the cause of their war.O’Brien and Foster captured two more British ships sent to punish O’Brien for taking the Margaretta and added them to their growing fleet exactly one month later on July 12th, 1775. On July 18th, the Continental Congress finally resolved that each colony should be allowed to be responsible for protecting its own coast. Both Foster and O’Brien were then sent to address the Massachusets Congress and met George Washington, who had just recently assumed command of the army, along the way and were invited to dine with him before moving on. The Massachusetts Congress greeted them both warmly upon their arrival and celebrated the news of their latest prizes. O’Brien was then appointed Captain of the Marine of the Massachusetts Colony and charged with defending the Massachusettes Coast and intercepting supply vessels coming in to support the British Army.Rhode Island became the first state to establish an actual Navy in August 1775, and began to petition Congress about the formation of a Continental Navy in October, but did not convince the Continental Congress to do so. George Washington also began to form his own makeshift Navy in August-September, tasking his aide-de-camp, Joseph Reed, with organizing efforts to snag unescorted British Merchant ships alongside shipowner/soldier, John Glover, and Shipping Businessman/future Aide, Stephen Moylan. The three of them outfitted several ships and created what’s known today as “Washington’s Navy” that successfully privateered along the coast.The final push to creating a Continental Navy would come soon after with a letter from John Barry, who would later become the first commissioned officer of the Continental Navy, that stated two English Brigs were sailing towards Quebec with Ammunition for the Canadian forces. A committee consisting of John Adams, Silas Deane, and John Langdon was formed to come up with a solution. They quickly proposed the formation of a group of ships to intercept them. Congress was not thrilled. They still did not think it entirely doable and was convinced that forming a navy would corrupt the morals of their sailors. Adams assured them that the benefits outweighed their concerns and on October 13, 1775, the Continental Navy, consisting of ten ships, was ordered to be formed. While waiting for the warships to be built, Washington’s Navy would succeed in taking one of the two unarmed Brigs mentioned by Barry that were sailing for Canada, acquiring enough arms and ammunition to supply 2,000 men.And to think, it all began when a small village so far north it was practically in Canada and had only heard rumors that war had begun, looked at the British and decided “Not today” then proceeded to successfully capture three Royal Navy ships out on the water and began to convince everyone that, you know what? Maybe we can do this.Sources: 1. Life of Captain Jeremiah O’Brien by Andrew M. Sherman2. The Liberty Pole, a Tale of Machias3. Rebels Under Sail by William Fowler Jr.4. The Struggle for Sea Power by Sam Willis5. John Adams by David McCullough6. The Village of Machias Confronts The Royal Navy by Michael Cecere7. The First Naval Battle of The American Revolution 8. George Washington’s Indispensable Men by Arthur C. Lefkowitz

[thejoshscogin]

In most tragic events, both global and regional, I typically like to do my part to assist or help, while remaining in the background. Whether it is donating money, protesting, physically building houses, traveling out to give food and water to people, or any other potential aid I am able to contribute...these are done as “under the radar” as possible. Because, I am not usually a fan of the “look at me“ spotlight mentality, while the issues of the world should be getting the spotlight.

Now, I understand it is 2020 and “If you didn’t Gram it, it didn’t happen!“ but as a very private-introvert with a very strong moral compass, I personally don’t need the verification from social media to affirm my actions. Or, to put it more correctly, I don’t need the verification of social media to stroke an ego. In short, social media can often (but not always) take advantage of the “Never let a good crisis go to waste“ dogma. It can feel more about gaining “LIKES” and followers and a general “look at what I did“ pat-on-the-back, than focusing on the real issue at hand.

With all of that being said, this time it feels different. I’m still contributing in areas that I’m able, but the overwhelming morality of making it clear where I stand, outweighs the morality of not seeking vanity/self-aggrandizement. Obviously I’m still NOT here for vanity/self-aggrandizement but keeping in the background doesn’t feel like the correct path to take on this particular event dealing with race and humanity. So let me be clear.

The short version goes like this…

- I support Black Lives Matter! (duh)

- I support peaceful protests of civilians.

- I don’t support the violent looting and destruction of properties, but I understand them. I’ll speak more on that later.

- I don’t support the riots brought on by the police.

- I don’t support any authoritarian/dictator/tyrant in office that tries to hinder or remove our freedom of speech.

The long version goes like this…

I love America, or to put it more correctly, I love the potential of America. I have been fortunate enough to travel around the world many, many times (sweet brag Josh 😑) and there are so many wonderful places on this planet I would love to live but I always return home, to America.

We are not perfect (duh, no country is) and the harsh truth is that we will probably never fully end racism. I reckon there will always be idiots who hate other humans for something as pointless as skin color or as trivial as “Your pants are too tight.” or (insert any other juvenile scenario) but as Americans, if we feel like those idiots have become the people in power (police, leaders, presidents etc etc.) we have the right to freedom of speech. We have the right to voice our feelings against authority, and make a change. We have the right to protest.

Now let me be very clear, I am a full believer in peace! I believe that hate breeds more hate. I believe that violence breeds more violence. So, when these protests turn into looting and destruction of properties, it can feel like those people have lost the focus of the original task at hand. However, I also understand that when the pendulum has been so far on one side for so long, it is only natural for it to swing to the other side with brute force. Also, when the (very) peaceful protests of people like Colin Kaepernick are ignored, and in many ways punished, I can fully understand why stronger actions are felt justified and needed.

As Americans, we have the right to raise our voice when we see something needs to be corrected. So, when the peaceful, “indoor voice”, of the calm and collected Kaepernick doesn’t reach the ears of the giants in power ...or to put it more correctly, when it reaches the ears of the giants in power and yet, is completely ignored... it is only a matter of time before America feels like only a scream will suffice.

We must not forget that Kaepernick originally sat on the bench during the national anthem. It was only later that he decided it would be MORE respectful if he joined his team mates on the field and simply took a knee. I don’t know how he could have protested in a more peaceful (and respectful) way. That was like 4 or maybe 5 years ago, and yet, here we are. He tried. He gave peace a chance. Yet, here we are.

The cyclical tragedy of what happened to George Floyd is a real shame to the American powers that be. If only real measures and actions would’ve been taken from the lessons that should have been learned from Breonna Taylor or Freddie Gray or Eric Garner or Michael Brown or any of these people below (to name a few) with very similar scenarios.

Now I don’t even claim to know how to instantly fix these problems, but there are a few basic things that sure seem like it would have at least helped. First of all, people should have been fired! Not just those directly dealing with the deaths but any and all police officers who had a history of racism or known violent tendencies, they should have been fired, all across the nation. Secondly, real actions should have been taken after these events. I understand that eventually things like body cameras etc. came into affect but what’s the point, if it’s okay to just turn them off whenever they feel like it, with no repercussions in doing so.

Side Note: Hey cops, if you feel the need to turn your cameras off, then you are doing something wrong. If you feel the need to cover up your badge in anyway, then you are doing something wrong. If you feel the need to force other people with cameras to leave the scene, then you are doing something wrong. And there should be deep and drastic consequences for any cops doing any of the above mentioned. Also, to be clear, I am not necessarily anti-cop (in theory). I know a few cops and in fact, I feel like some of our other issues of today’s police force might have been sorted or at least minimized if, a long time ago, we would have paid cops a whole lot more money. But that’s a topic for another time and not on social media. End of side note:

1991 is the first scenario I can personally remember of police brutality of an unarmed black man that became very publicized. If only dramatic measures would have been taken from the lessons that should have been learned from way back when Rodney King was in the spotlight. Imagine what nearly 30 years of progress would look like today if we would have started it back then. Our situation now, would be very different and I could assume many lives would have been spared and generally just an overall quality-of-life would be better. Shame on the powers that be, that nearly 30 years later we are still watching, shot for shot, the exact same movie unfold again and again. It blows my mind that we are still dealing with the vastness of this issue.

So where do we go from here? What are some productive steps towards ending police brutality on black people? Well, unfortunately, the quickest and most sustainable solutions would have to come from the top. If the police chiefs of the nation would fire all of the racist idiots, there would be an instant and obvious difference in the right direction. I have more thoughts on that but, assuming there is no Chief of police reading this, I’ll save you the time...

As civilians, there are still things that can be done to assist the steps to getting us further towards the right direction. Since the majority of the people reading this are most likely NOT the closed-minded-racists who are the problems, the solutions can seem less direct but every step (big or small) in the correct direction adds up.

In the short term, I think the most direct thing you can do is to donate money or protest if you are able. If you are someone in power then you should fire all the racist idiots. I’m not just talking about the police force. If you are an employer of any sort, you should remove the bad apples and do your best to never hire them in the first place.

In the long term I think the best actions are to vote! Or, to put it more correctly, study up on politicians, know where they stand on topics that are important to you, and then VOTE! Please, for the love of America, don’t JUST VOTE without the due diligence. Vote big, like the presidential candidates etc. Vote small, like local jurisdictions and authorities etc. Lastly, I think it is very important to mix and mingle with folks outside of your top 8. It will do you good, it will do our country good. As I mentioned before, if you are reading this then you’re likely already fairly open minded but just remember, it can be a subtle and steady danger to ONLY communicate with the same inner sanctum of people that believe the exact same intricacies as you do. Communicate with lots of people, with lots of backgrounds. Diversify, and remember, communication is a dialogue not a monologue.

There are so many other things that can be done. These are just the first few that popped in my head.

Last thing and then I’m out. I do believe we will come out on the other side of this better than when we went in. The death of George Floyd is a tragedy and it is compounded by all of the previous tragedies that took place before him, regardless if they got publicity or not. But, look around, we are not sitting idly by.

When we all share the same voice and sing the same song, the mountains can be moved.

I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a country where every human felt safe, respected and appreciated. I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a nation where we celebrated all of our extensive differences. I would love to, in my lifetime, live in a land where the police were there to protect and the police were there serve. And I would love to, in my lifetime, have all humans feel truly equal. Change is coming. Or, to put it more correctly, change is upon us.

Sincerely,

Josh Scogin

“Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin' “

-Bob Dylan

[beaniebaby]

The Big Story- A Donald Drumpf and Sean Spicer fanfiction

This fic is honestly a piece of shit, but my friends love it so who the fuck cares?

When you find the one that you love, you never want to let them go until you have to. But if you find that love that you never want to let go and they never want to leave, it’s like Heaven on Earth. A lot of people don’t find it, but Donald Drumpf did. But who was his love? Of course it was the most loyal person that he knew: Sean Spicer, his press secretary.

Sean sighed as he exited the press room. It was another hard time for this man. No one was listening to him and a reporter had the audacity to roll her eyes at him when he spouted facts that are not the ones that her website covers: alternative facts! The blond attempted to walk down the White House hallway, but stopped when he saw his lover. Sean was going to say ‘hello’ until he saw that Melania Drumpf was accompanying her husband for the first time in weeks. He simply looked at the floor as he walked past the Drumpf and the First Lady.

Donald looked behind him as his press secretary walked past. It made him sad that their relationship had to stay a secret, but it was for the Drumpf brand! Surely Sean understood. Noticing the reporters coming out of the room, Donald tried to hold Melania’s hand but she swatted it away. Seanipoo would never that, the Don thought. Sean would be glad to hold the hand of a man like me!

  Donald looked around his bedroom as he waited for his blond companion. He never spent much time in his room; his time was mostly spent in the Oval Office having late night talks with his veep Mike Pence and Sean Spicer. God, he loved that short stocky man. He couldn’t wait until it was the right time to tell the world. It wasn’t right to keep their love a secret.

Sean walked into the room and smiled lovingly. “It’s so great to see you, Donny! We haven’t talked all day. Things have been hard for me recently so I’ve only been focusing on the things that make me sad. Not the thing that makes me happy: you.”

  “Excuses, excuses. Do you know that they’re saying about me out there?!” He didn’t mean to, but the Don yelled at the only good thing in his life. “They are saying that I am not a friend to the LGBT community! I am a part of the LGBT community! How can I be against it?!”

  Sean gulped and attempted to look him in the eye. “Donald, you don’t kno-”

  “I know everything, Sean! I think that’s the problem!” The orange man sighed and gave his boyfriend a glare. “They’re breathing down my neck about Russia! Yes, Putin was my sugardaddy once! That’s why I don’t want to show my tax returns… I’m ashamed of that past life of mine, Sean. You’re supposed to be fixing this!”

  “Donny, I-I’ve been trying. Trust me, I have. But p-please stop yelling.”

  Donald gulped and looked down at the ground. He assessed the situation and noticed that his behavior was wild. “I’m sorry, Seanipoo. I-I’ll try to calm down. You’re right… How about we go get some ice cream and talk the night away?”

  “Of course, babe.”

Melania was looking for her husband. She wanted some taxpayer money to pay her “government” Uber driver. He’ll be in his room. It’s, like, ten at night, she thought. When she reached his door, she heard two men talking but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Assuming that she didn’t need to knock (she’s the president’s wife, that’s why!), she went right ahead and opened the door. She gasped at what she saw: Donald Drumpf was holding a diet coke in his left hand while holding his press secretary’s head in the other. They were kissing so sweetly on Donald’s couch that she decided to make it known that she accepts it:

  “Good for you two.”

  Donald and Sean immediately separated. The diet coke fell down to the floor and spilled everywhere. It made the floor stickier than the couple’s Saturday nights.

  Sean stood up and bowed while apologizing over and over again. The Don was instead looking at his wife, daring her to say something negative.

The once immigrant grinned widely and flipped her hair. “I am happy for you two. I am glad that Donald has found happiness in you, Sean. Stop saying sorry.”

  “Don’t tell anyone or I will do to you what I did to Comey,” the Don threatened.

  Melania walked up to Sean, patted his shoulder, and sat next to the prez. “I don’t think you should hide this for the world for any longer… I think people will accept you more if they see the real you...not this...facade that you put on for white votes.”

  “...Do you really think so…?”

  “I know so.”

Sean breathed in a deep breath before adjusting his love’s tie. “Are you sure that you want to do this?”

  “I’m more concerned about you right now. You seem really nervous.”

“You know that the press and I don’t have a good history.” He stopped adjusting the Presidick’s tie and looked him in the eye. “What if they think this is fake news? What if they don’t believe our love?”

  The Don grabbed Sean’s hands in his own and kissed his forehead sweetly. “Who cares what they think? What they say will not make our relationship less valid.”

  The short and stocky man gasped. “Don, that is so unlike you! You always let the press get to you.”

  “When it comes to you, nothing can get to me. I know that you will protect me from the Fake News’s blows. I love that about you.”

  Then, Donald kissed his partner so passionately that the press secretary forgot where he was and how to breathe. (Here comes a classic fanfiction trope that I fucking love so much) Their tongues fought for dominance while Sean moved his hands to the back of his boss’s neck and the Boss moved his small hands(?) to Sean’s waist. They kissed for what seemed like forever, but it was only a few seconds.

  “Doncer!” Melania, the couple’s only ally, walked from the Press Room into the hallway adjacent to it. “They’re ready for you.”

  “Doncer?” The prez asked. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It’s your ship name.”

  Sean groaned. “Do you really support us or are you just fetishizing our relationship?”

  The now ex-first-wife stood her ground and cleared a way for them to enter the Press Room. “I really support you two. Honestly.”

   Donald Drumpf stood in front of the podium and looked upon the eager audience of reporters. His eyes briefly glanced at the site of CNN reporters. They should thank me, he thought. If it wasn’t for me, the staff wouldn’t have let them in here. Goddamn fake news.

Sean Spicer walked in behind his lover and kept his head down. You may be showing weakness right now, he thought. But at least they can’t see the tears of anxiety.

  “Hello.” The orange being smiled his usual smile. “I want to thank you all for being here.” He laughed inside when the reporters looked at each other and whispered ‘is he being sincere right now?’ “I asked you guys to be here because I’ve got something important to tell you all.” He waited a few seconds for dramatic effect, which is what he’s good at. “It’s not about the health care plan. It’s more important than that.” Collective gasps fueled his fire. “Melania and I have gotten a divorce.” More collective gasps. They were too engrossed in his words to blurt out questions. “And I am seeing someone else. Any questions?” Dozens of reporters asked questions all at once.

  Sean pulled the president (sigh) away from podium and decided to speak into the mic. He sucked it up and decided that his anxiety wouldn’t stop him from doing what his heart wanted. “I’m sorry. All of your questions aren’t as important as what I’m about to ask next.” Collective gasps again. He turned to his Donny and smiled lovingly:

  “Donald J. Drumpf. You are my best friend, my rock, my love, my everything.” The whole room was so silent that you could just hear Drumpf’s approval rating hit rock bottom. “I know that you fake the real you in front of cameras, but I love you anyway. I can’t imagine a life without you by my side.” The blond went down on one knee and looked into his boyfriend’s teary eyes. “Will you marry me?” He pulled out a KFC chicken ring.

  The Don was in shock. Was this really happening?  Was this real life? There he was, staring at his loving and devoted boyfriend who was on one knee. The answer to his question was immediate. Don nodded and took the ring on his finger. Sean grinned ear to ear and stood up. He went to the podium and laughed happily:

  “He said yes!”

  CHEERS ERUPTED. YADA YADA YADA. THEY WERE ACCEPTED AND THE DON BECAME THE MOST PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT EVER. HIS APPROVAL RATING WAS THROUGH THE ROOF. THE END.

Some of my friends don’t know that I’m tagging them. :)

@aspiring-awesomeness @toad-bitch @harperjanestark

[scrawnydutchman]

When Should a Franchise be Revived?

So as the common fan of film and television has more then likely noticed by now, reboots, remakes and revisions are everywhere. Pandering towards our collective nostalgia has proven to be far more profitable and less risky then creating a whole new original classic for our mass consumption. The people have voted with their wallets on what they’d like to see, and now EVERYBODY is doing it. Cartoon Network rebooted Powerpuff Girls and will continue to bring back Ben 10. We’ve seen reboots of Fantastic Four and other superhero properties in recent years thanks to the everlasting boom of Marvel comics popularity. Power Rangers, Smurfs and other nostalgic franchises of old are coming back. Even the animation powerhouses of Disney and Pixar, who can earn a profit simply by slapping their name on a film, have decided it was more worthwhile to continuously remind everyone of how great and ambitious they used to be . . . . rather then continue to be great and ambitious.

Yeah, as anybody who has read an article I wrote previously about the Beauty and the Beast remake in particular and just knows me in general will have figured out by now that I am HIGHLY opposed to this phenomenon. I think it’s a discouragement of mold changing ideas, it tells our future generation that the great idea they had for a new movie or show will be supported by absolutely no one, and it generally makes our culture come to a grinding halt. It’s especially ironic because these franchises we want to come back so badly are so great in the first place BECAUSE they challenged our sensibilities when they first came out, rather then pandered to them. They redefined what could be expected from our entertainment, they changed the way we look at a medium, they made all encompassing shifts in our culture. Remaking Beauty and the Beast doesn’t shift our culture, or at least it doesn’t shift us forward. It just holds us back. We could have put that same money into creating a new spectacular film that was so jaw droppingly amazing it RIVALED the original Beauty and the Beast in it’s majesty, instead of just trying to live up to it. Now, I have to come clean; I have not seen the new Beauty and the Beast so upon seeing it my mind could VERY much change upon a viewing, but I’m personally really self conscious about putting my hard earned money towards a mentality I greatly oppose, and truthfully at this point I might go in with a bias of “ready to hate it” where I don’t go in expecting a movie, I go in being like “okay . . impress me”, which for any art completely changes your outlook. When I see it, if I see it, I’ll have to take time to change my mindset in the name of being fair. On the other hand the whole movies marketing strategy is “remember the first movie?” so I’ll likely know exactly what to expect.

All of that said, bringing back a franchise is not ALWAYS bad, in fact sometimes I too get incredibly hyped about the news of one returning. There are certain exceptions of the rules, and I’m here to create a distinction between when you SHOULD bring a franchise back, and when you should just leave good enough alone.

1. It should be something that didn’t have a satisfying conclusion

One of my absolute favorite shows growing up was Teen Titans. Action packed, suspenseful, heartwarming, sometimes scary, hilarious and overall dripping with charm, this show was a clever blend of western animation and anime tropes brought together to make a really thrilling colorful ride with the unforgettable main case of Robin, Beast Boy (my favorite as a kid), Cyborg, Raven and the lovely adorable Starfire (who is my new favorite after rewatching this great series). As wonderful as this show was, it has an infamously unsatisfying conclusion. Without giving too much away to people yet to see this show, basically a major character from a previous story arc comes back without remembering who they were, one of our main heroes tries to help them but then has to leave them to continue crimefighting. And that’s it. That’s all we got. No answers to why this character came back, no answers as to what this means for the team, nothing about why their memory is lost. The show just ended without warning. If this show came back and kept telling amazing stories featuring our favorite motley crew of teenage superheroes and had an entire arc about how this character came back, you bet your ass I’d watch it. I WANT ANSWERS DAMMIT. Besides, part of the ingeniousness of the Superhero genre is that it’s so broad and limitless you can tell an infinite amount of stories with it. It just lends itself to being an ongoing franchise. Which leads to my next point.

And before anyone brings it up, yes, I’m aware of Teen Titans Go. I just try my best to forget about it.

2. You have a premise with potential for more stories. 

Coming up with a timeless premise is a difficult task. How do you come up with a plotline that’s timelessly epic or intriguing and is easily accessible to fans from every generation? Well, more often then not the answer is to make your premise as simple as possible, and to play towards themes everybody can relate to. One Piece is a great example, being one of the longest going franchises EVER and being SO successful it beat Spider-Man for the number 3 spot of best selling comic book franchise of all time (and at the rate it’s going it’s not unlikely it will beat Batman and Superman in the next few years). That’s because the premise is very easy to understand: Guy wants to become king of the pirates, to do so he must find the thing everybody is looking for, hijinks ensues and he meets a bunch of new friends along the way. With a premise as broad as this you can go ANYWHERE with it, and as a result this series has some of the most expansive lore out there where even the smallest character has the most intriguing arc. They’re always going to new islands, they’re always finding new bad guys to beat up, they’re always overcoming new bizarre challenges, and because the story essentially ends when our main lead finds his treasure, which could be at anytime, it can be as long as it wants. It also means if it were ever to end randomly without Luffy finding the One Piece it wouldn’t be out of place to just bring it back a few years later.

3. The franchise has potential not fully realized

Now, after the recent success of the new Beauty and the Beast in the box office you’ve probably heard that Disney has a SHIT TON of remakes in the works for the near future. They’re basically remaking everything, regardless of how much sense it makes. Barf. But that said, there are a FEW Disney remake examples I wouldn’t mind seeing tbh. The biggest one for me is Treasure Planet, reason being that it was a passion project by originators of the Disney Renaissance John Musker and Ron Clements, that was held back since it’s inception (thanks Katzenburg) and once it FINALLY got released it essentially bombed in the low point of Disneys popularity at the time. Now it sits alongside it’s brother Atlantis: The Lost Empire as the nostalgic Disney films fans get to at the END of their marathon, if even that. It’s a shame because this really is a neat idea. Treasure Island in space with a steampunk vibe really lends itself towards incredible and imaginative visuals (even if this movie has sort of a weird style of not quite mesh between historical and futuristic). I’d like to see a live action remake of this because the first movie doesn’t get the respect it deserves, especially for being the passion project that it is (poor Musker and Clements) and live action CGI has potential for bringing this premise to life in a way that was limited for it’s time due to this idea being held back for years. Plus I’d like to see this movie fix the problems the old one had (and when I say fix, I mean ACTUALLY MAKE BETTER, not just address knitpicky bullshit like so many people who think they’re smarter then a 90s movie when they actually just demonstrate that they completely miss the point. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ISN’T ABOUT STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. okay, rant over). I for one would just blend the two styles a little closer together so it looks more like a steampunk mesh and less like .  . . regular pirate ships with rockets taped on. Also, get rid of the robot. Just cut him out entirely.

So yeah, those are the 3 reasons I think would make bringing a franchise back acceptable. If your franchise had an unsatisfying conclusion, has potential for more stories and perhaps was incredibly limited upon it’s initial release, I see no reason not to talk about it again. And if you can hit all 3 of them then man, at that point you have a DUTY to bring it back.

Now those of you who saw the top picture was probably wondering when the hell I was going to mention the new season of Samurai Jack. Well rest assured, I saw it. And it. Is. AMAZING!!!!!! Seriously, this is some of the most spectacular stuff I have ever seen in an animated series. You are doing yourself a disservice if you are not watching Samurai Jack right now. But incidentally, the franchise itself just so happens to fit all 3 of the criteria I mentioned. The Samurai Jack series DID have an unsatisfying conclusion; we never saw Jack return to the past. The simple yet ingenious premise of Samurai Warrior gets flung into bad past by arch enemy and has to get back to the past to undo the damage done by him lends itself a LOT to endless possibilities for storytelling. It’s beautifully broad and in a futuristic setting, so you can put Jack in any situation you want. A western? go ahead. A fairy tale? Absolutely. Scotland? Why not? An Alice in Wonderland homage? You bet your ass! Sometimes the premises just write themselves. And finally, this new season is the vision of Genndy Tartakovsky fully realized. It’s no longer held back by censorship towards children or a constraint in budget. It has complete permission to go all out. The scenery is more beautiful then ever before, the action is awe inspired, the suspense is intoxicating, the new use of gore is artistic beyond all hell, and it maintains everything great about the old series and improves upon them. THIS IS HOW YOU BRING A SERIES BACK.

Now, compare that to Beauty and the Beast. The original is also an awe inspired risk taking and breathtaking work of art that really challenges the conventions we used to know and love. But the facts are: it had a satisfying conclusion, there were no more stories to tell (despite the efforts of the terrible direct to DVD sequels) and it was it’s own potential fully realized. The remake has nothing to offer but nostalgia for a movie you can watch any time if you wanted and the promise that it will fix what was never broken. Beyond that, all it’s got is songs we’ve already heard, a cast of talented people, granted, but would frankly be better off putting their talent to a fresh idea that needs the exposure more, and cgi that’s nothing new from what we see every year.

BUT ALL OF THAT SAID . . . there is one factor that breaks all the previously stated rules and warrants the existence of a product no matter where it’s basis comes from . . . honest to God quality. If a movie is genuinely entertaining or enchanting or funny, for any reason at all, then it’s done it’s core job and that’s that. So maybe I will be pleasantly surprised by this new Beauty and the Beast, it’s totally plausible. I’ve heard friends of mine say it’s BETTER then the original . . . I can’t help but remain skeptical and a little pessimistic at the whole idea, but fun is fun so, if you enjoyed it, don’t let me stop you from doing so.

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: July 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of July 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

To the surprise of nobody the first cabinet of Boris Johnson is a chamber of horrors, with pro-death penalty twerp Priti Patel being appointed Home Secretary, berk who didn’t appear to realise the UK was an island Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary, the Grime reaper to all benefits claimants Esther McVey as Housing & Communities Secretary, leaker of sensitive information Gavin Williamson as Education Secretary, while Jacob Rees Mogg decided that correcting his underlings’ grammar was more important than anything else - and he also just so happens to have appointed the campaign director of the Leave campaign Dominic Cummings as his senior advisor, and by complete coincidence the data-mining ads started appearing on Facebook almost immediately after Cummings’ appointment

To the surprise of nobody, the second The Nigel Farage Ego Project MEPs set foot inside the EU Parliament they made complete twunts of themselves by turning their backs on a band playing Ode to Joy in “protest” of the EU anthem, which only served to give people reason to ask if they were going to protest by refusing their EU-funded salaries, while others were risking a Godwin’s Law violation by pointing out that A Certain German Political Party did the exact same thing at the Reichstag in 1926

Of course, on an individual level those same Faragist MEPs were capable of making twunts of themselves, be it David Bull howling about having to travel to Strasbourg to do the job he was elected to do while also complaining about having to catch four trains being an example of EU inefficiency…when his route involved two trains to get from Ipswich to King’s Cross for the Eurostar yet once in Paris he needed one change to get to Strasbourg yet apparently it was Strasbourg that was inaccessible and not Ipswich, while Ann Widdecombe dusted off the old Leaver tropes early by comparing the EU to slave owners while expecting to be taken seriously by anyone other than the most indoctrinated of Arron Banks’ cronies

A week or so later it was Robert Rowland taking his turn in the spotlight/sitting in the corner wearing a dunce cap saying that the UK should set up a 200 mile exclusion zone around the country and task the Royal Navy with sinking any EU-based fishing vessels, which manages to be a declaration of war, a tremendous waste of resources, and a painful inability to figure out that technically he;s advocating the Royal Navy sinking any riverboat in Paris or Amsterdam due to those cities being 200 miles from the UK

Of course don’t think I didn’t notice the Lib Dem MEPs walking around in their “Bollocks to Britait” t-shirts when they showed up, once again pretending the Lib Dems could in any way win a Parliamentary vote with their eight MPs while also hoping nobody asks what would happen if their new leader was a Hard Leaver

Milkshake enthusiast Tommy Robinson had a genius defence at the High Court: he didn’t know that him filming people entering court when there were reporting restrictions was a violation of his previous court order, even though a.) He said while livestreaming it he could get in trouble and b.) That means his defence was that he wasn’t listening when being sentenced in court the previous time he was arrested for doing the exact same thing

Arbiter of whether two legs are bad or better Tony Hall warned that the world is facing an assault on truth...the day after the BBC’s Panorama ran an episode about antisemitism in the Labour party where the evidence it provided was a heavily doctored e-mail from Seamus Milne and testimony from Louise Withers Green about an interview with Jackie Walker...that is ever so slightly tainted by the fact that Walker claims to have never met her - and a few days before an edition of Victoria Derbyshire featured David Collier’s loyal lieutenant Tracy Ann Oberman being allowed to give the usual bilge from Collier’s set without anyone to offer an opposing viewpoint nor any kind of challenge from Derbyshire herself

It would seem the selective amnesia of the years 2010-15 that blights most Lib Dem supporters has affected those behind the Amber Alert Twitter feed, judging by how they are so invested in spamming Twitter with accusations that a vote for Labour at a general election is a vote for Farage - somehow forgetting that a vote for the Liberal Democrats at the 2010 general election was an actual vote for the Tories as the Lib Dems ushered them into power, or that more recently the Lib Dems were caught forming a pact with Tory and UKIP councillors in Bolton to force out the incumbent Labour council

Then again, considering that the main actions Jo Swinson took upon being elected Lib Dem leader was to try and shut down all criticism of her voting record as “misogyny” and rapidly followed that with an outright lie stating that Jeremy Corbyn was on holiday for two weeks during the EU referendum period (and when admitting the lie she tried to turn it into another attack on Corbyn) she continued the Lib Dems’ bizarre determination to be the most untrustworthy party in Britain at a time where Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are party leaders - but when questions about her voting record continued, she then claimed it was a “personal attack” to quote something that is freely available to the public

Swinson wasn’t the only one rewriting history, as Dominic Raab claimed he had warned people about the dangers of No Deal...apart from the fact there’s plentiful evidence of him doing the exact opposite for the past three years, or to put another way a myriad of reasons to call him a liar

According to Nick Timothy it's all the fault of those belligerent Irish who don’t know their place that the Irish backstop is a major issue for any No Deal Britait plans...and definitely not the Tory party, who he was writing policy for assuming they’d be compliant towards their English lords and masters so there was no reason to plan anything in advance, let alone consider the obvious issue itt would cause

Disney announcing Halle Bailey as Ariel for the pointless live action Little Mermaid film drew a response from the triggered little manbabies that bypassed predictable and went full-on cliche, because apparently only Caucasian redheads could ever play a mermaid…even though Hans Christian Andersen didn’t specify what colour her hair was, but apparently that’s not important right now

As if milkshake enthusiast Tommy Robinson hadn’t made himself look dunderheaded enough, he then had a complete irony bypass by pleading for asylum to the US while also claiming that he was maybe a couple of days away from being sentenced to death - or, to put it another way, after years of ranting about migrants and asylum seekers he wanted to run away from a country that doesn’t have the death penalty to one that does in order to avoid a prison sentence...which he can’t even run away to as he’s banned from entering the country due to being busted for trying to enter the country on a stolen passport

It says a lot that Geert Wilders not only swallowed Robinson’s version of events whole, but parroted his belief that the UK is becoming like North Korea...which is plentiful evidence that Wilders didn’t do the slightest bit of research before mouthing off

There’s a reason why nobody has ever accused Nigel Farage of understanding irony, and that reason became abundantly clear when his response to Ursula von der Leyen winning the vote to become President of the European Commission by 54% to 46% by saying it was no clear mandate...after three years of saying a 51.8% to 48.2% vote is a mandate that should be obeyed or be branded a traitor

On the subject of accusing people who don't agree with you of treason, Tory councillor Roger Patterson tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn should be executed for treason and that Corbyn’s supporters should be exterminated

This is not to be mistaken for Dan Hodges posting the usual “something something MOMENTUM ARE THE TRUE EXTREMISTS some thing something” drivel on Twitter

As if the visual of Boris Johnson brandishing a kipper during a speech didn’t make him look like he’d forgotten he is supposed to be a politician and not a Monty Python tribute act, the fact he was mouthing off about the packaging that the EU forces upon the poor unfortunate kipper-producers of the Isle of Man was ever so slightly undone by the fact that the Isle of man is not in the EU, so the packaging is forced upon them by the United Kingdom

Once again crawling out from a particularly dense rock was Priti Patel and her latest totalitarian message to keep the plebs in line, namely how the new government should prevent the general public from being able to take legal action against the government

According to Sarah Champion she voted against Theresa May’s Britait deal as it didn’t offer enough protections, but we should absolutely have No Deal because even though that has no protections whatsoever the UK has to leave the EU because of reasons and, when challenged, compared the whole situation to a game of poker.  Sadly, not one word of what I just typed was embellished...

It was predictably depressing that the sexless edgelords of the internet responded to the murder of Bianca Devins and the subsequent posting of photos of her mutilated corpse to 4chan was to say that she deserved it and were content to concoct any reason they could think of to say this was the case, just as it was predictably depressing that the clout-chasing knobheads of the internet were posting the photos to show off that, yes, they can use screengrab...just like everybody else

In a similar vein, it surprised absolutely nobody that Tory tribalists responded to Boris Johnson dropping the investigation into Mark Field assaulting somebody with sentiments such as “she wasnt (sic) assaulted, she certainly deserved to be”

It apparently didn’t occur to Ian Austin that, if he wants to portray himself as somebody taking a stand against racism and extremism, there’s better papers to write columns for than The Sun...

It was obviously a slow month for Rachel Riley throwing accusations of antisemitism around like a burglar throws bricks through shop windows, as the best she could manage was comparing a brass band playing Hava Nagila at the Durham Miners Gala to somebody screening Black Panther at a Klan rally

Remember how Theresa May said she would support the LGBT community on her way out of office?  Apparently she didn’t, given she didn’t bother to show up for the vote on allowing same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland

Congratulations to Jacob Rees Mogg for demonstrating the combined desperation and delusion of the Hard Leave mob by using England’s victory in the Cricket World Cup to say how it “proves” the UK will be better after Britait...while ignoring the team had an Australian coach, Irish captain, as well as players from South Afirca, New Zealand and Barbados, making him sound as clueless as David Vance did when making equally tone deaf comments about the Champions League final

Can somebody tell Lewis Goodall to let it go?  His banging on about how Labour are the only British party not to have a female leader (which ignores the fact Harriet Harman was interim leader of the party in 2010 and 2015, which is worth mentioning as he cites Catherine Blaiklock’s time in charge of The Nigel Farage Ego Project as evidence of TNFEP having a female leader, but inevitably degenerated into the predictable “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY WON’T THEY LET JESS PHILLIPS LEAD THE PARTY??????????????” whinge we’ve heard from the centrist echo chamber for too often for the past two years

Somebody at Glumberland thought the best way to announce their game Ooblets would be an Epic Games Store exclusive would be to do so with a blog that opened by being exceptionally condescending to anyone who would read it before considering maybe explaining the valid reasons why they made this choice...and then went back to sounding like it was written by a complete arsewit by saying that people should be more outraged by climate change or human rights abuses than their game deciding to be an Epic Games Store exclusive, which for some strange reason led to a teeny tiny amount of backlash against the developer...

Bloody hell, did Nike really not think that putting the Betsy Ross flag on their trainers might not be a good look?  Because guess what?  It wasn’t a good look

You would think it would be hard for G2A to make themselves look even worse by the widely-known issue that their service is regularly used by scammers to the point where indie game devs actively encourage people to pirate their games rather than buy keys from G2A’s storefront, yet G2A responded first with a bizarre statement where they attempted to clear their name by...saying something about Amazon, eBay and Google ads without actually stating there was any oversight or fraud prevention, and if that didn’t make them look inept enough they were also caught out trying to bribe journalists for favourable press coverage

Just when you think WWE fanboys couldn’t get more obnoxious in their insecurities about AEW, they start howling from the rooftops because they booked Sonny Kiss vs Peter Avalon on the pre-show for Fight for the Fallen because...I legitimately have no idea, since those same obnoxious fanboys were saying AEW needed members of the roster with character yet the second two of them were booked together on the pre-show it was like Hulk Hogan poking Kevin Nash in the chest in the main event of an episode of WCW Nitro all over again 

As per usual Manchester United fans are quick to point accusing fingers when anyone fouls one of their players, in this case Moussa Sissoko trampling on Daniel James in a pre-season friendly...yet are even quicker to make excuses for when their own players commit nasty challenges, such as Andreas Pereira going for Harry Kane’s ankle with a studs-up challenge in the same game

Oh joy, it’s the annual return of the lunatic fringe of Spurs supporters and this time they have two hashtags, with PackPoch joining the usual LevyOut one - which in no way makes them look like entitled wankers who think that, as a transfer takes minutes in Football Manager, that is obviously how they happen in real life 

So not only did Paddy Power plaster their logo across Huddersfield Town’s kit in an absolute monstrosity that made the club a laughing stock, but a few days later they admitted it was some kind of publicity stunt...which made the club a laughing stock for a second time

And finally, as per usual, we have Donald Trump and his belief that airports existed in the 18th century, which is somehow the fault of the teleprompter not working and not him being so dense that he couldn’t think for himself about airports not existing in the 18th century - although for some reason he isn’t telling his Slovenian-born wife to use one of those airports to go back where she came from, but he does say that about any US-born congresswoman who disagrees with him while also happening to not be white

[nomanicsdak]

New Post has been published on http://manicdak.com/?p=2341

TO ATHENS BY WAY OF PANDORA'S COVE

Let’s Get A Party Started!

How Do I Recruit Bears?

Sure, I’ll go to Athens, but I’m going to take the round about way doing it, so I can clear some more areas! A quiet shipwreck, bandit camp, cool. Nothing exciting or too challenging. Hah! I do come upon a fishing village, which I think is going to be a chill place, but it is filled with huntresses that attack me as soon as I step foot on their beach. Like, serious, I wasn’t intending on fighting you guys, but here we go I guess. I want to make peace with the huntresses, they are bad ass and are one with the bears! There is literally nothing to be gained aside from XPs by fighting them, but alas, they are attacking me anyway.  Later on there are more huntresses that I don’t want to fight, but I have treasure chest to raid and ancient tablets to find, so I can unlock the secrets of this damn spear for my future relative? Is that even necessary for the memory machine to work these days? I mean, it’s portable now. I don’t know. TBH I barely pay attention to the current times portion of the game. The Pirate one was the first version of Assassin’s Creed I ever played, so you can imagine my great confusion with having to deal with the hacking computers and the reading boring emails portion of the game.

Anyway, I find another gruesome scene at some different cult’s HQ on top of a mountain. The God of War worshipers. I free a dude, and learn nothing about the cult that wants to kill me. I’m getting bored with grinding now, so I guess I will do a quest. I pick one about the Daughter’s of Artemis, head towards it, and discover it is the one where I have to kill legendary animals. Apparently I did initiate that quest, but I still haven’t killed the pig so Daphnae hasn’t given me further instructions to hunt for the rest of the creatures yet even though I already snagged the stag.

Loving the idea of bacon more and more every passing moment

Several levels later and I still can’t kill the thing, but I do get to the part where it summons five regular sized boars to attack me at the same time. There are boars flying, and I’m dying, so it’s time to run away again.

Seriously, forget it, I’m going to Athens. Let’s go to the ship, back to Herotodus, who is my guide on this journey. Apparently we are not docking in Athens, we’re going in the back way because my ship is directed to this cove where there is no dock. 

Welcome to Athens, home of the fighting Llama Birds

Actually, there seems to be no purpose to avoiding the docks, because we just walk right up to the leadership who are out and about orating to the masses. Perikles is giving a speech and some dude named Kleon is rousing the people against Sparta. Oh, Ok, they’re word fighting now. Perikles is the sensible one, or at least the one that doesn’t want to fight everybody?? I know he’s an historical figure and possibly terrible though, so I’m going to proceed with caution. He might help me by giving me an invite to his Symposium pretending to be a servant. First, he gives me side quests to prove myself, as you do. I am reminded that my entire goal in this Odyssey is to find my mom and learn about my dubious ancestry. I must admit, I was so intent on raiding camps and collecting shark bounties that I forgot what I was even looking for. 

Oh, well. To the quests!

First Metiochos is late for a very important date. Obvious, he is dead or in a cage somewhere.

Second, Phidias the famous sculptor awaiting trial for impiety. I’m fairly sure I saw this guy is on my culty list though.

And a vote on Ostracism. I’m supposed to help decide who stays and who goes apparently? But I’m too much of an outsider to just go to the symposium, yet this I can decide?  Sure thing, Pickles. 

Oh, No!

OK, To Metiochos. His quest is called a venomous encounter, so he’s dead by snakes, cornered by snakes, or caged by a group of bandits called the serpents. Onward! 

Well, two out of three; he is corned by snakes and tied up by thugs! I save him from the vipers, but obviously, I will have to go on a quest for the thugs now. They are apparently poor fishermen and followers of Kleon. I inspect their house and find more snakes and a note. Metiochos is a corrupt politician who is oppressing the poor and they are working on the plans of a higher up. I let them go and give an inspiring speech about improving their neighborhood and ignoring politicians as if it’s that easy, but whatever. I’m off to see what the snake dealer has to say. Is there another higher up baddie? Is it Kleon? Are the politicians the real bad guys after all? Maybe, Maybe, and Yes. Let’s go!

The Snake Dealer has no option for diplomacy, so I guess we’re just going to end him right here, and as it turns out he is the top guy. Huh. I was fulling expecting this to lead back to the big K himself.

Now for the sculptor. Perikles want’s me to help him escape. He’s not a culty guy that I have to kill after all.  He’s just the key to finding them! They are trying to kill him too. I mean…hopefully he’s not lying. I get to ask about his specific relationship with Perikles, and he says they are the bestest of friends. Okay. Also, Kleon is trying to set him up for theft along with the impiety he’s already on trial for. We are heading to another island to meet sculptor’s friend who I 100% do not trust. When we get there, it turns out that indeed, he is trustworthy as advertised and he gives me some deets on the cultist who wants sculptor dude dead. Alright! Sculptor man wasn’t the bad guy after all. Nice. I didn’t want to kill him.

~Pause for sleep!~

Okay, now we get to decide who’s getting exiled. I have to go to another island to do this. WHY??? Oh, wait, no, it is not on another island. I am on another island. I forgot I was dropping that dude off to hide out from those culty douches. I’m back in Athens now, and it turns out Perikles wants me to rig the ostracism. I’m not deciding anything, I’m just stuffing the ballot box. That makes a whole lot more sense. Let’s hear it for the cradle of democracy!  We’ll see if I get a choice in this.

I don’t. Let’s see who I’ve doomed.

Dust in the wind, Dude.

I’m not quite sure what happened, but the guy I meet back at the ostracism isn’t the same guy that instructed me to rig the vote? Or is it?? I don’t even remember. In any case, the guy I meet is none other than So-Crates himself, best known for helping Bill and Ted on their Excellent Adventure.

Well, the vote’s are in, and we get reassured that they have all been counted despite evidence of vote tampering. Now, this close personal friend of Sokrates and Perikles has to go. Wait, wait…so, the vote was or wasn’t fixed? I’m so confused. Sokrates is giving me a guilt trip though. Ugh. Go philosophize somewhere else, my dude. I’m going back to Pickles to see what the deal is.

But first I help a townsfolk deliver a flower to a doctor, who is not nearly as cute as my country doctor. At least I get some easy drachmae, and Whooosh. Level Up! Good detour, self. Should I head to Perikles, or should I see what mayhem Kleon is up to? 

Kleon it is!

OK, he’s just trying to overthrow the government.

…or not.

He wants me to hassle some Spartans to bump up morale. I guess I can take him up on it since I’m probably going to be doing that anyway. I mean, on the one hand, I don’t trust his squinty ass, but on the other he’s not hiring me to straight up murder Pickles, sooo…

Ok, manual save. Let’s put hassling the Spartans on the menu.

But first, I have a symposium to attend to!

Whaaaat?

OMG, PHOIBE is there???? What? Not dead of the plague? Yes, it is Phoibe, and not a case of reusing the same model for all children in the game. Turns out she saved her money, stowed away, and came to Athens before she could perish. Alexios can’t believe she’s here either. She’s working for someone named Aspasia, who I feel like I should know, but I don’t.

Phoibe is clearly done with me.

Anyways, Pheoibe is here to make sure I’m in the proper fancy robes and check my weapons at the door. I have options here to not change, but I’ll do it. Even though such things are always suspicious. I will probably need a dagger at some point. Alexios is 100% echoing my feelings about this as soon as I’m typing them! I feel vindicated.

Anyway, Herodotus is here and giving me the deets about this schmooze fest. I guess this new squishy non-armor was a good choice for rubbing elbows. He tells me about all the dudes here. I won’t tell you all about these argumentative playwrights now though. I learn that Alexios doesn’t like Sokrates at all, and Perikles isn’t even at his own shin-dig. UGH.

Before I can get any more introductions, I am accosted by a shirtless drunk dude, who is kind of shameless and amazing. Like, everybody else is chatting and drinking and this fella just rolls on up in his undies like it’s nothing. Haha, what is happening? He’s reciting some love poem or something at me before he wanders away.

Now Herodotus goes to find Pickles, and I’m left alone to my own devices. My first side quest is to find and talk to shirtless drunk guy. I’m not sure how much information I’m going to get out of him. 

Oh, great. Turns out he’s behind a closed door. With moaning and goat noises. This guy’s name is Alkibiades, I’m pretty sure it’s exactly what it sounds like and he is not attempting to lift heavy furniture for comedic effect back there, but I pound on the door and demand to be let in anyway. Yep. Indeed, this is some kind of orgy situation happening (the goat likes to watch???) He asks if I’m here to join them. He’s also super into Sokrates for some reason. (Sokrates is not there for the record)

Stop Flirting with me, Ace, I’m Trying to Find my Mom!

Well, I have agreed to get him some oil in exchange for info, but in the kitchen I’ve bumped into this playwright guy who was arguing with some other playwright named Euripides earlier and I’m supposed to care about this? No. I am just getting oil for the horny dude. Time is of the essence! I think this guy’s drunk too. Sophokles is his name. He want’s me to get Eurpides drunk, so he too can become a public embarrassment. Everybody at this party is drunk! Except for me. Alas.  What has Pickles gotten me into?   Symposium does sound far more elegant than this drunken frat party I am at.

Okay, well, now that Alkibiades has his oil and is pumped up about his orgy (that he still is trying to convince Alexios to join. I do have the option to say yes, but I’m going to stick with the find mom plan. I mean, not gonna lie, I like his style. He seems way more fun that those bickering playwrights, but I am on a quest!) Anyway, Alkibiades, does seem less drunk somehow and thinks my mom might be on Korinth with the hetarae. He is surprisingly helpful even though Alexios isn’t particularly pleased by this info.

Now we’re off to get some playwrights drunk and see if they’re as helpful as shirtless guy. I have already fucked up this quest and got the wrong wine from the kitchen staff. Let’s see how it goes. 

I propose a drinking competition. I really don’t like these dudes. They’re kind of A-holes, treating me like a nameless servant here to pour them wine. I am pouring them wine and possibly posing a servant, though not much has been made of that since I first met Perikles.  I realize this special robe may in fact be servants attire.  That’s not the point. Eurpides gives me some info to track down. I wasn’t paying attention, so I will check it out in the quest menu later. I wonder what would have happened if I’d picked the right wine? Perhaps Sophokles would have given me the info instead?

Ok, back to Sokrates for some philosophical discussions.

We’re discussing the art of war. Lol, Alexios is not getting it. We should have stuck with the orgy dude. Just in time to save me from this conversation, the mythical Aspasia who I feel like I should know makes her appearance. Turns out, I don’t know her after all. She gives me some contacts to talk to in the places the other guys told me to go, and also another contact—a woman called Xenia!

Now let’s see what Perikles has to say.

He’s just up on the second floor moping and doesn’t want to join his own party for a speech. Like, he’s very sober. I’m not sure anybody down there is going to remember anything he has to say anyway. While we’re up here, we’re going to find out what the heck was up with all those errands:

I saved the sculptor because he’s a bro. That’s it. Perikles thinks he was delusional, but a good pal that deserved a hand.

And the Ostracized guy? He got sent away because Perikles wanted to protect him.

And Metiochos just got snaked through no machinations of Perikles. That was all on some rando dudes who were into Kleon.

Well, Perikles himself was less than helpful, but at least I have some leads.

On the way out Pheoibe tells me some rumors about the plague back home, so now I have a quest to go check that out. I tell her it’s not our fault that we’ve doomed our whole island, but yeah. Totally my fault!

I tell her I’m going off to Korinth. Since Alkibiades is the first person I talked to, that shall be the first place I’ll go!  I’m going to put off handling this plague situation for as long as possible, that’s for sure!

A Horse Sculpture

Phobos Takes A Dip

Fight, Fight, Fight!

Why is this merchant in a cave?

Bull Man

Cows!

This Little Piggy went to Market

Enjoys Long Rides on the Beach

Ship Graveyard

In Athens, Eagle Bears You

Look At This Guy’s Snake

Crane

Sailing

Billowing

Sea Goat

Even the Statues have Had Enough

Studious Children

[shell313-blog]

Caelic

Eva looked out the window, gazing desperately at the town she would soon have to put out of her mind. She felt regret, a deep penetrating regret that pierced through every layer of her soul. Why did she believe so much in a lie? How could she have believed in a smooth talker with shiny hair? She looked down at her hands. They were clean…at least they appeared to be squeaky clean. She knew better than that. She knew they bore the blood and tears of millions. She didn’t have to wield the weapon, all she had to do was vote. She never would’ve imagined how costly that opinion would be. She tried not to blame herself, there was a whole country responsible for this. After all, her one vote meant nothing, or did it? “Alright Eva…listen to me, I have to go.” Her husband, Arvin, a high ranking officer in one of the most notorious armies in human history, had a small knapsack slung over his right shoulder. Eva was trying to hold back the tears. German women must be strong…no, that’s something he would’ve said…the greatest liar, the most profound manipulator, Adolf Hitler. “I know.” She clasped her hands together and sighed deeply. “I…can’t go with you, Arvin.” “I know, Eva. I don’t expect you to come with me in this. I knew what was happening, I never told you. You are not responsible for these things, not as I am. It is not fair that you should have to run. You, my dear, have done nothing wrong.” Eva threw her arms around her husband and sobbed into his chest. “Oh, Arvin…I wish this didn’t have to happen. I wish we could just hold each other, and this whole world would disappear. I want all of it to disappear…the Fatherland, the Fuhrer, all of it…I want to go back to the way things were.” Arvin caressed her back gently. “You and the rest of the world.” “Why? How? How could you have done all those things?” “I believed him too, Eva.” That wasn’t all of it, though. Yes, initially he did believe in the Fatherland, and the almighty Fuhrer that promised to restore Germany’s pride and purity. In the end, the murder, the torture, it possessed him. He found a darkness inside of him. This darkness enjoyed doing these things. It made him feel as though he were a God. He controlled the pain and suffering of so many. He could make their suffering end, or he could make it unbearable. What immense power he had. Killing innocent people, even the children, never bothered him. Even the time he ripped a Jewish woman’s infant son from her arms and broke the baby’s neck right in front of his mother…not even then did it bother him. He slept peacefully. It wasn’t until they were all caught, and the world they had created came crashing down around them, that he felt the repercussions. Even as he held his wife, and knew he would spend the rest of his life in hiding, he didn’t feel bad about what he had done. He was upset because he’d been caught. He knew this, and did not feel there was anything wrong with him, for it either. The truth is, for a short time in his life, he had the power to say whether people lived or died, and how it happened. He thought of these things he had done with a sense of accomplishment. He didn’t mind leaving his wife behind either. He could always find another, maybe a better one. People were expendable. He could only really count on himself. He had a few contacts that would help him out of town, but then he was on his own. Arvin found himself running through the woods. It was ironic to him. Those people he killed and tortured, some of them had done this very thing. They were trying to escape their fate, they were trying to hide from it. They weren’t successful, at least most of them weren’t. It made him wonder if his attempt was in vain. Was there a God? Was this God’s punishment? This made him wonder, and fear the possibility that there was also a hell, because this would be his destination. He knew that. Again, he wasn’t at all regretful of the things he had done, it was the fact he’d spend eternity suffering. A part of him believed he could even escape that. After a few hours of travel, he grew weary and decided to rest a bit. He sat down on a rock and pulled a canteen from his bag. The water was now lukewarm and made him queasy. He heard rustling behind him. Had they found him so quickly? They had bigger fish to fry, after all. “Please…do not be afraid, I am a friend.” Arvin heard a soft voice behind him. He pulled a dagger from a sheath he kept inside his boot. The voice laughed. “Oh please…put your little knife away. It is not necessary.” “Show yourself, then.” Arvin tightened his grip on the hilt. A woman appeared before him. She was the most beautiful woman Arvin had ever laid eyes upon. Her hair had all the colors of a sunset, and it even warmed the air around her. Her eyes were a soft shade of violet. There no imperfections in her face. Her lips were soft like rose petals. She was wearing a floral dress, and even had a cerulean hibiscus flower tucked behind her ear. Everything in her appearance was sheer perfection. Arvin could not even speak. The woman laughed, and the sound of her laughter was like listening to Beethoven. This was Arvin’s favorite composer. “I’m sorry if we got off to a bad start.” She moved closer to him. She didn’t even seem to have normal movement, she was like watching a swan. “I would like to help you, Arvin. I know who you are.” “How?” This was all he could say. “Does that really matter to you?” “I don’t know.” “What really matters to you right now, Arvin?” “Getting out of here to a safe place. Not being found.” “That’s what matters most to me, also.” “You can help me?” “Of course, I can.” She laughed again, playing the sweetest song he had ever heard. “Will you let me?” “What do I have to do, nothing is without it’s price.” She laughed again. “No, it isn’t. I will require a favor of you, but I have none to ask of you at this time.” “So, you will help me now, but I owe you later?” She laughed. “Does that sound fair?” This definitely did sound fair to Arvin. He could always deny it later on, if he were unable to deliver, or unwilling. He would’ve already gotten what he wanted out of it anyway. Women can never outsmart men. They don’t even understand how to make a decent bargain, one that leaves them with the advantage, anyway. This woman clearly lacked shrewdness. “I don’t know…” One rule, never accept eagerly. Always seem hesitant, especially at the first offer. “What would seem fair to you? I really want to help you.” “What might the favor be?” She laughed. “I do not need anything right now. I may need something later on, or I may not.” He was laughing inside. She may never even ask anything of him. This was too good to be true. “Yes, I will accept your offer.” “You please me.” “No, you are the one that pleases me.” She laughed again. “Alright then, it’s a deal.” The woman helped Arvin escape to America. She even gave him money to start a nice life. He ended up living in a Midwestern town, in a modest house with a decent job. It was low profile and perfect for someone in hiding. He changed his name. He called himself Alvin Lancaster. He even worked on shedding his German accent. He was somewhat successful. A hint of it still remained in his speech, but only the most skilled in phonetics would notice. No one ever asked, so he never divulged any information. He even found himself a wife. She was the daughter of department store manager. Her name was Alice. Everything was perfect. Everything had become so perfect, he forgot about the mysterious woman in the woods, and his debt to her. One night, Arvin sat outside, in his lush backyard, with his vibrant little garden and reflected on his peaceful new life. “How is everything, Arvin? Is it how you wanted it?” The voice was familiar. There she was again, only this time, she was wearing a pastel pink evening gown, speckled with sequins. Her wispy hair hung freely about her waist.  She wore diamond earrings, and light pink lipstick. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “I didn’t think you would come back…” He took a sip of his beer. She laughed, that same beautiful laugh. “Of course I’m back. You owe me a favor. I have done well for you, Arvin. Look around, your lovely wife, this comfortable home, and most importantly your freedom. Don’t you think I should be paid for this?” “That was the deal. I just wasn’t sure if you would collect.” “Wouldn’t you? I did do some work here…do not forget that.” “I still don’t understand it, I didn’t then, and I certainly don’t now…” The woman sat beside Arvin in a patio chair. “Of course you do not understand. Would you like to? Is it important to you, now?” He shrugged. “I would like to know, I don’t know that it’s necessarily important.” “Very well, then. I suppose an explanation would help this situation along. I am the devil, Arvin.” Arvin laughed. “You can’t be, you’re beautiful! You’re a woman.” She laughed again. “Where does it say that the devil is not beautiful? You read too many fairy tales.” “Everything I’ve ever read says that the devil is not beautiful.” “Oh, really? What makes you think everything you have read is accurate? After all, everything you have read, or heard from other people that have read material pertaining to the devil, is written by man. Is it not?” “Who else would write it?” “Precisely, so why would you believe these things are fact?” She laughed. “You humans are so delightful. You believe that everything you have ever collectively thought of, everything that has been recorded, and anything you can ever imagine is the be all, end all. It is charming at times, and at others it’s dreadfully obnoxious.” “So you’re the devil?” “Yes.” “So the devil is a woman?” “No.” “You look like a woman.” “I am merely appearing to you in your perception of beauty. That is how I appear to any creature. Whatever they perceive to the most beautiful, that is how they will see me.” “So what do you actually look like?” “I don’t have a definitive form. I was not created that way. I was created to be the most beautiful, and that would all depend on the beholder.” “So, you are a man?” “I am neither.” “You must have a gender.” “Why? Because it’s necessary in order to be human? I am not human.” “No, you’re not, are you…well, then, what do you want, my soul?” The devil laughed. “No, it’s not worth it to me. Your soul is quite small, and pathetic, really. To give you an analogy that you would understand, you are the child that holds the magnifying glass over a helpless insect watching it burn from the sun’s rays. You think you have power over things just because you were placed in a situation by chance. You are a pitiful creature. Your soul is worthless.” “I don’t understand…you have a problem with what I have done?” “That really doesn’t matter. You are so insignificant to me, I don’t even feel to judge you or your actions. Do you judge that child with the magnifying glass? Or do you just turn and walk away? There is nothing about you that interests me, Arvin.” “Well, then why did you want to help me?” “I saw an opportunity.” “You lied to me…” “No, I did not. You didn’t ask me the right questions. In fact, I really don’t recall you asking me any questions. You did not hesitate to allow a stranger to assist you. You did not even care to know who that stranger was. Simply, because you did not care why you were being aided. You just wanted to save yourself. Well, I did that. Now, you must repay the favor.” “Alright. What do you want?” “I need a child. You will have a child with your wife, however it will be my seed.” “No…” “You can’t refuse. This is the favor.” “How do you know she is not pregnant, now? We have been trying to conceive.” The devil laughed. “Simple…you are sterile. I have seen to that.” “You can’t do that…I wanted a son of my blood.” “What did you want more, Arvin? Your freedom? Or a son? Those were your choices. At the time, you didn’t care to know who I was. You just wanted out. Well, you’re free now. Tonight, it will not actually be you copulating with your wife, it will be me. She will conceive tonight and bear my child. You will raise that child.” “What if I kill myself? Then you can’t do this…” “You won’t be able to…I will not allow that. You will do this, you have no choice. You did have a choice, Arvin. You made that choice already, and this is it.” Arvin’s wife did become pregnant. She gave birth to a son. Arvin was not even allowed to name the child, this was something the devil did. He named the child Caelic.

[chimponpurpose]

Kyle Empringham, The Starfish Canada: Environmentalism is often a doom and gloom situation that we face and a lot of people are feeling inspired to do something but also feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Traditionally, the stereotypical environmentalist falls into one of two archetypes: the scientist collecting samples on the side of a mountain, and the hippie protester chained to a tree. Kyle Empringham knows that young environmentalists in the 21st century are a lot harder to categorize. Seven years ago he cofounded The Starfish Canada, a nationwide effort to recognize, connect, and unite young environmentalists of all kinds across the country. Since then, the organization has worked with people in a broad range of disciplines and interests, from sustainability fundraisers to solar technology designers. In an era of political change and significant challenges to environmental health, it’s important that young people have a voice and Kyle is doing his best to give them a megaphone. We talked to Kyle about activism, growing up, and the environmental conversation.

On foundation: The Starfish Canada was founded in 2010 as a university class project. A friend and I were working on biodiversity and conservation and environmental things. We knew we wanted a way to explain some of our concepts across different disciplines and different fields. We decided to create a website and see how we could bring different university disciplines together. Now it's seven years later and we're doing a lot more than that.

On communication: We've expanded to really focus on how we can help youth who are doing really great environmental work talk to other people about that work. We put the focus on youth who have great ideas and sometimes just need a little assistance in order to find the best path forward to communicate it or to get people on board.

For example, fossil fuel divestment is one of the biggest topics and people are really trying to advocate and push for their universities to divest in from fossil fuels. A lot of them get good traction but have a hard time trying to figure out how to communicate to their peers. So a lot of our work has been about trying to help them mobilize the people around them. Fossil fuel divestment may make sense to an environmentalist but it's not going to make sense to maybe an economist. So how do we bring everyone into the conversation and have good conversations about what you're trying to get to?

On the Top 25: Our biggest flagship program is Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25. Every year we celebrate 25 people really making positive change across the country who are doing great environmental work in whatever capacity that might be. Sometimes it’s a climate change activist,  sometimes it's people doing conservation work in their local communities, sometimes it's people even asking for larger political change across the federal or provincial system. It's really fun and interesting to bring all these people together. It's allowed us to figure out who some of the top environmentalists in Canada really are. And who really has momentum and traction behind them. And then through that to be able to connect them and other people together so that it's not just local communities doing little pockets of work here and there but these great youth who are doing great work are able to connect with each other and hear from each other and learn from each other, so that they can take that lesson and apply it to their own community.

On activism: We're registered as a federal non-profit. But we haven't registered as a charity for the reason that we want to be able to support these youth who are doing things that are a little more partisan.

On funding: Our funding is mostly grass roots. And we try to be really intentional about the way we get our funding. It's always a difficult balance between the philosophy of where you get your money from and simply needing money to get work done. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of a big funder that can give hundreds of thousands of dollars to do something that doesn't necessarily meet up with the community values of the project.

On success: Environmentalism is often a doom and gloom situation that we face and a lot of people are feeling inspired to do something but also feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders. Being able to say “you're doing a really good job, keep it up,” I think it kind of lifts the work that these young environmentalists are doing to a whole different place and let's them know that there's people behind them wanting them to succeed.

On politics: What I’ve seen from the environmental movement and especially young folks it's certainly a sense of being disenfranchised because it's one man, sitting at a desk, wiping away a lot of the work that's been done over the past eight years. Canada's response to that has been certainly a lot of optimism. Trudeau thanking Trump for the work that he's been doing and welcoming him with open arms. I understand the political nature of Trudeau doing that and thanking Trump and saying we have common values but I think that if you listen to young folks especially, they'll tell you that we don't have common values with the Americans in the same way that I think Trudeau is trying to convey. The environmentalists who I know aren't folks who are going to sit idly by and let Trudeau get away with some of the things he's been saying or potentially acting upon. Especially with how it's looking down south.

On working nationally: A lot of our projects span from coast to coast to coast and because of that sometimes it's hard to understand the expansiveness of the whole project. We have people in Vancouver and Halifax working together in a way they hadn't imagined before. That part has been really interesting to see and we know that we are doing work that not a lot of other groups are doing and we're doing it in a really intentional way so I think that provides certain opportunities for different kinds of conversations to be happening and we're excited about that.

On growing up: I was a very suburban kid. I was outside on the street playing street hockey but yeah not very environmental growing up. When I look back there were certainly things that my mom did but they weren't for environmental reasons. The concept of reducing, reusing, recycling was something embedded within my family. It was definitely something that as I grew up I understood that it was actually an environmental ethic that was almost unintentional that was instilled in me. Both my mom and my dad had four other brothers and sisters. My dad grew up on a farm as well. There's a bit of ethic there that gets instilled without calling it environmentalism. Even when I talk to my parents about this sort of stuff, you can see the wheels are turning in their heads like "I didn't really look at it that way but this is kind of what I've been thinking my whole life".

On conversation: My parents have voted conservative for a long period of time. In the 2015 election there were moments when we would talk about it. I grew up in a family that said you don't talk about who you vote for. But I got more politically involved so I forced the conversation. We were talking about what I'm valuing in my vote and who I wanted to see leading this country. I ended up saying that their vote is really about me. I didn't mean it in a selfish way, but if I'm your kid, don't you want to see someone who is going to help me throughout my life as well? And that was something that resonated with them. Deeper discussions and meeting people where they're at and talking to them on a values level is really the part that drives people to understand where those cognitive dissonances are and how they can maybe work to do something a little bit different.

You can check out what Kyle is working on at The Starfish Canada and nominate a young environmentalist in your community for the next Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25.