#it's all brute force and offensive attacks for us

[taamlok]

literally just occurred to me that some people always have a mage in the party for healing

[megamuscle885-blog]

Worm as a MMORPG

Twelve classes split into three categories;

Defensive: Brute, Breaker, Mover, Stranger

Offensive: Striker, Shaker, Blaster, Changer

Support: Tinker, Thinker, Trump, Master

Forgive me if I misuse some terms it's like 2am and going to bed early wasn't helpful.

Brute is pretty obvious, it's a Tank who tanks with their face. Facetank. They get a high health pool or damage reduction or a natural regeneration. They most overtly take damage and make it smaller damage somehow. The same is true for how they do damage, they get ways to take small damage and make it big.

Breakers with their forms let them have at least two health pools and they usually switch between them to allow the other pool to heal, and gain abilities to mitigate damage and control the pace of the fights. I think the term is off-tank?

Movers are like a dodge tank, like matadors. They bait out the enemy's attack and then get out of the way somehow. They can semi-DPS but it means they have to stop getting out of the way of attacks to deal real damage rather than chip damage, so they can't afford to pull too much aggro.

Strangers are aggro masters, doing sabotage to draw heat away from the frontline, joining the frontline to pile on flanking damage, roaming the backline to counter-Stranger and protect the supports. Roaming tanks that need to know pretty much all the other classes to be effective. TF2's spy and scout rolled into one.

Strikers are straightforward damage dealers. They get in close and get to slap you with something useful. A lot of their gameplay is getting close and staying close. In PvP it's the world's most interesting game of tag, with strikers able to move people out of position just by approaching, but runs the risks of being focused down, same reason people don't focus Tanks in PvP unless forced to. Strikers usually take advantage of the Trigger system - which I'll explain later - to give them the edge needed to get in close.

Shakers are more like facilitators of damage rather than outright damage dealers themselves, but rarely you get someone who's got the right power to do something destructive. It's more about removing cover and opening up firing lines, flushing out the supports, cutting the tanks off from their teammates, and preventing the same from happening to your own team. Pure Shakers have an incredibly high skill ceiling and exceptional game knowledge and might drop damage altogether, becoming a semi-Support. They can tell when pushes are coming, when the supports have a Stranger causing sabotage or a Striker diving into the backline. If a Brute hasn't taken charge of a party, or a Master isn't co-ordinating the team, Shakers step up to control the flow of the battlefield by controlling the battlefield itself.

Blasters are the same as Strikers, but focus on range and keeping themselves at range. Think a critical hit/damage build. They're the reason the Shakers control the battlefield, the reason Brutes can limit the amount of damage they take in a single attack to a certain level, the reason Strangers have to leave the frontline. They're also the ones most responsible for laying on damage in the PvE. You can't just set them up in a sniper's nest and leave them to pick off mobs, cuz of aggro, but so long as they do move between shots they usually get to set up, take a shot, and leave while the tanks wrangle the mobs back into place. You can usually tell if a boss fight is going well or not based on how much DPS the Blaster is putting out. If everyone else does their job, the Blaster will be able to put out the damage. If the Blaster is constantly having to move or blast mobs, someone isn't doing their 'job', and Blasters can be toxic and get an ego as a result.

Changers adapt to both the battlefield and their opponents as rapidly as possible. They're a wildcard dps, a duelist DPS, in PvP they need to be as unpredictable as possible, in PvE they need to know who and what they're going up against. They play very similar to Strikers and Breakers too, only they don't get a second (or more) health pool and they don't get the more potent I Win buttons that a Striker can get to crowd control a fight. They jump in, switch up their damage types or movesets, down their target and jump back out. They're a multitool and have toolsets to help them dismantle just about any of the other classes in a 1v1, but like the Stranger they need to know the capabilities and powers of who they're fighting to cinch the win. Hotly debated in the community because there's so many opinions about builds that Changers often feel like they've built wrong, leading to a lot of hate from their team and a lot of enemies feeling they have cheat builds

The supports are all playing a resource minigame built into their classes.

Tinkers probably have the highest build variety in the game. Even including some of the limitations their specializations put on them, they can still pretty much do any of the other classes. Exceptionally high skill ceiling and floor as a result; if they want to pretend to be a Brute, Thinker or Blaster, they have to know the role. Half of the main gameplay loop for a Tinker is spent out of combat, in the PvE and resource gathering mechanics. The more time you spend grinding materials, the more materials you have to build tech. Eventually though, you hit a cap on how much innovation you can do and you have to take that tech into fights to both test the new tech and also gain new data to turn into new tech. You get materials and data from both PvE and PvP, but PvE turns out more reliable common materials and PvP turns out more reliable common data, with the rarer stuff flipped. Rare materials as a result of battlefield damage or pieces of costume blasted off in PvP, rare data as a result of exploration and boss battles. The class is a bit harsh to new players who don't have the same time and effort the older Tinkers have to put into their equipment and do experimentation, which is a valid critique of the system and Tinkers are probably the most patched, nerfed and buffed class of them all, something that probably won't change until the main mechanic of the class is reworked.

Thinkers are very similar to Tinkers, except that they don't need to deal with materials and solely focus on data gained in PvE/PvP. Over the course of the fight and using as many points of data gathering as they can, they build up something like inspiration points, which they can throw out to teammates for damage boosts or damage reduction. At the start of PvP battles, nobody knows anything about the enemy team, and the Thinkers have to model the enemy in real time, revealing the fog of war and shutting down strategies while trying to advance their own. Tattletale figuring out Clockblocker and Aegis switched costumes is a pretty good example of denying the enemy strategy. Thinkers do get a lot of abilities to protect themselves, and sometimes you'll get frontline combat thinkers who can fight and communicate the capabilities of the enemy team more directly, by getting into fights with them and figuring out a way to survive long enough or disengage to pass the info along. But at the end of the day, they're usually not dangerous or tough enough to stand up to most other classes. The purest thinkers are truly game changing though, capable of ruining the enemy team's strategy long before they get to employ it. Of course, just because you've revealed the enemy team's plans and capabilities doesn't mean they're not still on the battlefield, so they still need to be fought. Thinkers are directly tied into battlefield objectives. Gain access to the security room to give your thinker eyes and ears on the foyer the enemy team is busting into. Move to capture the high ground so your Thinker has a vantage point. Capture an enemy team member so your Thinker has someone to interrogate.

Trumps are all about powers. They boost powers, they sap powers, they develop new powers. A good trump is always looking for anyone flagging in a fight and anywhere they can plug up gaps. They're almost always the main healer too, jumping in and using their power over powers to switch things up so their team is taking less damage, or recovering from it, and forcing the enemy team to back off or chase them down to stop the effects. There's good interplay with the other classes too, like getting the Thinker to tell them info on the enemy's powers to make a nullifying dive worth it. Bad trumps can seriously fuck up their own team's powers if they don't know what they're doing, which means that every time a Trump is on the team they are heavily interrogated as to their abilities and how they alter powers. If you've ever been screamed at for playing Mercy or Medic 'wrong' you're dipping your toe into a Trump's daily routine. Their powers come with resources and charges attached. Drain or nullify a power and you increase your own. Or three wishes and you can spend them on any power you want. Touch and imbue someone with damage negation, or superspeed, or regeneration, but you can't do too many charges at once.

Masters are the most flexible supports depending on what they master. They're split between three main roles based on the source of their minions, which is their resource minigame. Summoners pull minions from the battlefield, which makes them great in both PvE and PvP, because they can hardly be disarmed, but their minions are usually otherwise mundane and don't usually have high damage or health numbers. Bugs, for example. Which means they have to get pretty creative, huh? Controllers directly attack the enemy team, or sometimes puppet their own team members to grant them effects. A controller might take a bunch of Brutes as minions and become a Brute tank themselves, splitting the damage between them instead of getting damaged himself. Similarly, Controllers can just snatch an enemy teammate to turn against their own team, usually functioning like a Stranger, with the enemy team not knowing until it's too late, or until a Thinker spots the sabotage. Creators generate minions from themselves or sometimes the environment. Where Summoners get lots of mundane minions, Creators usually get a potent single or handful of minions with high stats or abilities of their own. An indestructible minion that lays waste to the enemy team until a Thinker can figure out where the Master is. A wave of custom minions built out of a biomatter resource the Master needs to manage.

Next up is the Trigger system.

When you create your character and their power, you can choose to mix up two or three power categories, with a thinning of points if you decide to go diverse, or you can keep the points in a single category and go for a pure class role. You can single trigger or double trigger, the latter makes your power more potent, even if you spread across two classes, but locks you into that class. Single triggers can later go for the second trigger and get a whole new tint on their original power, often choosing to add on the capabilities of another class, but they don't get outright buffs the way a double trigger usually does.

I don't know how to do grab bags as a fun mechanic. I think I'll stop here, it's been an hour. A few more things? I've never played City of Heroes but I heard it was fun.

The game is called Parahumans Online. Might be a fun no powers AU where Taylor is an up and coming Master Summoner and falls in with the Undersiders, a new villain guild.

[soappbar]

INTRODUCING MY AGESWAP MUKAI DESIGN!!!! she is my pride and joy be nice to her @ me/give credit if you draw her I WANT TO SEE HER PLEASEEEE a LOT more info. basically rambling under cut vv

okay. so you know how she controls her wood dolls. I thought it would be cool to kind of upgrade her powers (since she's older and stuff) to be generally puppet-ing themed, hence the whole circus ringmaster getup. I'm imagining that she basically transfers energy, like some sort of powerline or something. She can transfer her own energy stringless, and uses it to make an army of dolls which replace the guards in the 7th division. On the offensive, she can control the output of other's powers via her strings. She can make them do things out of their control, or relocate the energy entirely. She can't steal it for herself though I need to make her Not overpowered but I would fully support if she chose to become a mary sue Because she's basically without any esper powers at most times (dolls) she needs a way to actually attack while powerless! She isn't exactly built to be brute-force violent, so she instead uses momentum. I'm imagining it to be like Spiderman but with strings and a lott more acrobatically. She basically just flings herself and uses the force to hit harder. Of course her puppet army is also there to back her up at all times! ---- PERSONALITY THINGS. i need to write about this or I might go insane. as if i haven't already. there's still more to read. She's the tired mom of the 7th division because you know as ageswap goes all of the adults are now bratty children and all of the children now have to deal with babysitting like 20 people. At least in Mukai's case. She can never get a second of peace without one of them breaking a doll and she has one singular shitty ford taurus (I don't. I wouldn't expect this to be commonly used in Japan like at all but it does come in the perfect mint color ever so I can't resist) that she has to pass around to the teenagers and just HOPE and PRAY they don't crash it so all the younger kids can get picked up from school and make it to their evil terrorism daycare on time. She loves her technically not daughter Tsuchiya to death and is the obvious favorite out of the bunch. She really does care for all of the kids but evil organization is evil so she trains them to become strong espers to take over the world or somethingmaybe. thank you for listening. please enjoy

[taki-yaki]

Prompt: Tav that knows absolutely 0 offensive spells and skills, like she only knows buffs or healing spells. I don’t know what class she’d be, or if she’d be an ordinary civilian, but I don’t know if she’d be the leader. I’d like to think she’d jump at the chance to create an alliance with Astarion once his vampirism is revealed.

I think the closest for a zero-offensive Tav would probably be a life cleric of sorts who just has support spells and nothing else. So spells such as bless, Healing word or cure wounds, shield of faith etc.

Astarion x Pacifist Tav

You were never the fighter sort of Cleric. Seeing yourself as a travelling cleric, healing those in need, instead of fighting in dungeons. Mainly making a small profit by offering ceremony rituals or simple blessings whether they pay you in the end or not, it’s all out of the kindness of your heart. 

Even if along the road, a bandit chose to target you only, you would attempt to paralyze or slow their attack, whether it was a hold-person spell or a blindness. Anything to stop you from using physical brute force.

Despite all of your talent, you question how it came to be that the others within your group saw you fit to lead and find a cure for the tadpole in your skulls. Despite your protests of not being the frontline fighter type. However, Astarion offers a solution to your predicament, he’ll keep you safe from harm as long as you do the same for him. 

In exchange, he sees you as the perfect person to kill his old master. Besides what else is a vampire lord's weakness than the radiant glow of a cleric, even if you can’t fight with offensive spells, you could perhaps summon an orb of light on par with the power of the sun that will burn him to a crisp.

From what you recalled of vampires during your monastery education, they told you to avoid them as they were nothing but bloodthirsty creatures of the night, hungering for the lives they lost upon their conversions. But Astarion looked different to what they spoke, as if he needed your help, just like those you’ve helped on your travels.

During your fights, you would stay far from the clash of swords, healing and supporting from afar. Ready to heal him whenever he gets hurt, even if it was a small scratch. 

Of course, Astarion would tease you over your fussing with him, but deep down he does enjoy the comfort you provide for him that he thought he would never receive after centuries of torment.

At times he does offer to teach you how to fight offensively with a simple blade, but after continually somehow making the blade slip out of your grasp and hesitate to even land a simple swipe upon a training dummy, he relents choosing not to pull you out of your natural comfort zone.

Whilst traversing through the shadow-cursed lands, when the warmth of the sun is out of his reach due to the chilling touch of the shadow curse. You summon small orbs of daylight, emitting the familiar glow of the sun for him to feel the familiar warmth of the sun once again.

[gioxy3ron]

Welcome to the Mario Yugiverse, where instead of fighting the Koopalings, Bowser Jr and Bowser, you duel them! The real question is, which Deck Archetype would they use?

I had this idea at 5 am don’t ask me why…

Let’s start things with Larry! His Deck would be: Metalfoes

Larry in mainline games isn’t really described as an unique personality, while in the Mario & Luigi games, all we know is that he loves tennis and uses his fire as tennis balls, that’s why he would use a FIRE based deck.

Metalfoes are a Pendulum/Fusion Archetype based on destroying other cards you control to set cards, set the pendulum scale etc…

Why it fits him? In NSMB games other than jumping and using magic, he has no other powers, Metalfoes have also Normal Monsters with the Pendulum effect, to make us think that they have an hidden power (like Larry in RPG games would have). Also some Fusion monsters like Orichalc” have the piercing damage effect, like Larry would inflict to the bros when he uses his Tennis Racket

Roy, the toughest of the gang would use:

Ancient Gear

Roy is a tough one, both in terms of personality and aspect! He uses brute force and bullet bills to attack, that’s why he would use Ancient Gears; high offensive machines that can negate every opponent strategy and defenses crushing the enemies under their feet.

The playful and joyous Lemmy, the Deck for him would be either Performapal and Performage

Come on, Lemmy uses circus balls as attacks and has a playful personality so both of these circus based Archetypes are perfect for him! I have nothing else to say

The Deck Wendy would be Shaddoll for sure

and not only because there is a card with her name on it, but because this Fusion based Archetype represents beauty, manipulation and control, a bit like Wendy

The Psychopath Iggy! The Deck he would use is Invoked

Iggy would gladly use the opponent’s monster to summon dimensional monsters, also Mechaba can resemble the way how Iggy rides the Chain Chomps in Paper Mario Color Splash

For Morton, a Deck he can use would be Triamid

A desert based deck full of field spells would be fitting for him, since in games like NSMBU and Paper Mario Color Splash, he uses his hammer to hit pokeys (desert creatures as bullets)

Ludwig, the elder of the Koopalings would use the Abyss Actor Deck

Abyss Actors represents elegance and vanity, like Ludwig, that cares about his look a lot. And with the Pendulum and Link Summons, he can revive his monsters over and over again, like Ludwig can do with his illusion magic

Bowser Jr, the prince of the Koopas would use Armed Dragon

Little monsters that can evolve and become a powerful one is something that can represent Bowser Jr, his will to become great just like his dad.

Also, it has a Dark Version like Bowser Jr has in Wonder, so a totally fitting deck for him ;)

Last but not least, we have the king himself, Bowser and what not better deck for him than the Monarch one

Yes, who needs the Extra Deck when there are already poweful monsters on your main deck, exactly what Bowser would think! When the perfect set of cards is there, nothing can stop them!

And that’s all! Thanks for listening to my TED talk

[ewingstan]

I've been thinking about how Worm differs from Ward in it's approach to action, and I'm realizing that my dissatisfaction with the latter isn't just "the powers got more complicated." Its that action scenes are being used in completely different ways for completely different ends in each text, but are being paced the same way.

In Worm, each fight was a scenario where a problem was set out that seemed unbeatable given what the protagonists had at their disposal. The satisfaction of the fight was seeing the problem being "solved" through clever and unexpected use of the protagonists abilities. We get this time and time again:

The Undersiders plan for dealing with a few wards at the bank heist, and they get the full team plus the Dallon sisters—how will they make it out of a fight we know they're not prepared for? Time to change things up and go on the offensive!

The villains unexpectedly run into Lung during the ABB crackdown, and we've seen how much trouble he gave Taylor last time. How can she fight someone who seemingly no-sells all her powers? Time to get creative with how she uses her bugs!

Taylor's great at attacking an enemy's weak spots, but now someone with no weak points is on her doorstep. How can she fight off not just one of the feared Slaughterhouse Nine, but the one seemingly most built to no-sell her abilities?

Butcher needs to be dealt with, but she's incredibly powerful and anyone who kills her ends up inhereting a host of problems. How do we deal with her and her team? Hey, who left this emotion-manipulator-in-a-face-worse-than-death lying around for us to use?

It's like watching a puzzle being solved. Here's a clearly defined problem, here's how it's especially hard for Taylor because of her limitations, here's how she uses her powers and surroundings in clever ways to come out on top. It also means that basically every fight advances Taylor's character in some way—for it to be convincing, the audience needs to clearly believe in the limitation, which since we're in Taylor's head so much usually means she needs to belive in the limitation. So when we see her overcome this limitation, we're seeing how we (and she) were wrong about her. We learn that Taylor's willing to take insane risks and be agressive in the bank heist, we learn she can take advantage of other parahuman's powers in brutal ways during the Lung fight, we learn how she can use bugs in fully unnatural ways and inspire people to help her in her fight with Mannequin, we learn that she's thriving in the scarred state of Brockton Bay to the extent of utilizing its spankin-new suicide zone to deal with enemies, etc. This is part of why I never had much of a problem with the all-battles-no-breaks pacing that characterizes so much of Worm: it was never just battles! Every fight advanced Taylor's character an incredible amount!

This is a pretty common genre of action, but it requires a few things: namely, a thorough understanding of an enemies abilities. Its only fun to see a character outsmart a powerset if we understand the powerset. And we need to see the way an enemy is a problem for a character's apparent limitations if we want to appreciate how they're overcome. There's a reason why JJBA villains spend so much time monologuing about their stands, or why Sanderson spends so much time establishing exactly how each magic system works. If an enemies powers were vague and unknowable, then deafeating them wouldn't seem clever and limitation-overcoming, it would seem lucky or brute-force. So, Worm has Taylor teamed up with miss-can-explain-everyone's-deal and has her go up against villains famous enough for their powerset to be common knowledge.

But Ward isn't built for this type of clever power-munchining in its action. It's less Jojo's and more Berzerk, with its protagonist defeating her enemies though indomitable power and horrific force rather than cool tactics. Furthermore, Ward is interested in exploring the fog of war and how it affects violent engagements. Victoria is constantly thrown into situations where she has little idea of her enemies powersets, and defeats them without having ever fully grasped their intricacies. And part of this is because the powers in Ward are too complicated to be wholly "got" through simple demonstration, but also because she isn't approaching each fight with the goal of countering the enemy's specific schtick. She's trained to have specific tactics against different broad types, and doesn't typically analyze her opponent past the point of categorizing them as a breaker or a changer. And it makes sense! That style of engagement is gonna be common for anyone who doesn't have a Tattletale! (Kenzie is not a Tattletale. Her specific brand of all-seeing doesn't extend to being able to quickly give the lowdown on a powerset. It does extend to giving a full view of a battlefield and enemy positions, which helps facilitate the more "military engagement" mode for narrating action that Ward adopts). And unlike Taylor's useless-at-first-brush yet endlessly adaptable powerset, Victoria's powers are a blunt hammer that is very good at giving every enemy the nail treatment. Her action scenes are like watching a kaleidescope being smashed to pieces; we're constantly watching someone plunge into a bizzare sitation and smash their way out of it without really understanding what "it" was.

And to be clear I think this low-information style of action can lead to really cool moments. All we get about Mama Mathers for a while is "she can see you when you think about her" and "this is enough to keep the whole compound in line," so the reader's left to speculate on the actual extent of her abilities. And so when she starts driving people into violent spasming fits all of a sudden during the Fallen raid, its shocking and intense! You really get the sense that existing in the world of Parahumans means being subject to countless horrible and unknowable dangers you can't plan around, and when it works, it rocks!

But it also means that when fight scenes can only go on for so long before they start to drag. There's less satisfaction to seeing an enemy defeated without the puzzle component, and there's less character narrative being advanced in each fight outside of "what is Victoria willing to fight for/against" or "how much is Victoria willing to treat this enemy like a nail." Ward needs breaks in its action in a way Worm didn't, and when fights go on for the same length as they did in Worm it feels like Wildbow's using pacing that worked in one area without realizing how it could only work in that area. It might also be why I appreciate the quieter moments of inter-team banter and therapy sessions Ward is full of (besides those moments being, on the whole, really goddamn good).

[pandorasagents]

[   josh hutcherson,  homosexual,  male  +  he/him,  force fields   ]  dean kade  is  a  chaotic good  agent  of  pandora  selected  for  their  being the son of two rich investors  and  underwent  the  top-secret  mutation  process.  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  twenty-five  year  old  originally  from  newport beach, california  is  deceased  or  missing.  however,  in  atlantis,  they  are  now  known  as  fortis  of  pride  after  developing  the  ability  to  can create, manipulate, and weaponize force fields psionic energy.  the  agent  has  been  with  pandora  for  two years  and  is  trusted  for  being  confident  &  determined,  but  once  reprimanded  for  being  cocky  &  immature. 

Fortis: The Fortress in Motion

🔹 Name: Dean Kade 🔹 Codename: Fortis 🔹 Age: 21 🔹 Faceclaim: Josh Hutcherson

⚔ Weapons & Combat Style: Dean fights using high-durability reinforced shields and gauntlets, enhancing his natural strength with kinetic momentum. His style revolves around bulldozing enemy lines with forcefields for protection, pinning foes down with sheer strength, and controlling the battlefield by creating barriers and kinetic zones to protect his team or isolate targets. He is a walking fortress — tough, aggressive, and impossible to ignore. He also can also launch his forefields in orb forms to injure others.

🌿 Abilities & Skills:

Expert Skills

Battlefield Endurance

Brute Force

Athletics

Proficient Skills

Close Combat Mastery

Pain Tolerance

Persuasion

Seduction

Persuasion

Substandard Skills

Engineering

Marksmanship

Power: Dean can create, manipulate, and weaponize force fields. They are visible energy barriers that can block physical and energy-based attacks, create pressure domes to trap enemies, and even be shaped into battering rams or floating shields. His power is all about defense and offense at once — overwhelming enemies while protecting allies.

🧐 Personality: Cocky, bold, and stubborn to a fault, Dean has the energy of someone who’s been told he’s “special” his whole life and absolutely believes it. He thrives off attention and admiration, eager to prove he’s the strongest and most indispensable on the field. Though he can come off as bratty, entitled, and dismissive of authority he doesn’t respect, Dean has a raw determination underneath all the attitude. He doesn't easily admit fault, but when the stakes are real, he’ll throw himself in harm’s way for his team without a second thought. Loyalty isn’t given lightly — but when it is, it’s unbreakable.

💀 Backstory:

Dean Kade grew up with the world handed to him on a silver platter. The only child of two high-profile tech investors who had sunk millions into Project P.A.N.D.O.R.A.'s early development, Dean was treated like an inevitable future asset. His parents saw the project as not only a means to control humanity’s future but also a way to secure their legacy — through their son. Whether he liked it or not, Dean was destined for something bigger, something important.

Spoiled and shielded from the harsher realities of life, Dean coasted through his childhood with an unshakable sense of invincibility. Tutors, trainers, and private schools were handpicked to toughen him up, to make sure when the time came, he'd be ready. Still, discipline wasn't his strong suit; Dean preferred cutting corners, showing off, and living for the moment rather than planning for the future. He had talent — real talent — but his arrogance often made him reckless.

When his powers first emerged during a controlled P.A.N.D.O.R.A. evaluation, it was a messy, violent event. Terrified, Dean instinctively lashed out, creating a forcefield so powerful it shattered most of the testing facility. To the P.A.N.D.O.R.A. higher-ups, this was perfect — raw, destructive power waiting to be molded. Thanks to his parents' influence (and their deep pockets), Dean was fast-tracked into the Pride division, skipping many of the more grueling selection phases.

Thrown into an environment where expectations were sky-high, Dean struggled. His upbringing hadn’t prepared him for the brutal teamwork, hierarchy, and consequences of real missions. His forcefields could block a tank shell — but they couldn’t shield him from reality. Failure stung, especially when it was public, and for the first time in his life, Dean realized strength wasn’t just about raw power. It was about control, patience, sacrifice — traits he had never needed before.

Now, Dean is slowly fighting to earn the place everyone assumed he'd be handed. The cocky bravado is still there, but deeper down, he's starting to understand something: in a world where gods are made, not born, even the Golden Boy has to bleed for his crown.

[alquido]

jojolands chapter 25 is here!!!!!

god i've missed this. SBR anime and TSKR are great and all, but jojolands is really what i'm here for

it's a pretty short chapter, still good though. probably because the TSKR chapter took up more of araki's time than usual

spoilers under the cut for my thoughts:

i did not expect paco to be the first person to show dark determination in part 9. but him bringing it out for meryl mei's kidnapping is a sign of just how much he values her, and that he's about to show no mercy to ningbo and laem (as opposed to the mercy he granted charming man back then).

compare that to usagi's reaction. he clearly has the same kind of closeness with meryl, but he doesn't have that same emotional resilience. he has a more lighthearted personality and hasn't been in the crime game as long as the rest of the team. it's clear he wants to keep going and will lock in eventually, though he may be panicking and sobbing until then. now that usagi's armed with a gun and may have to directly hurt (or even kill) another person, this might be a massive turning point for him.

also, paco looks genuinely worried about usagi in the bottom-left panel. we know from last chapter that deep under the gruff exterior, paco's a softie. he makes it clear to usagi that this is the point of no return. even gives him an easy out, reassuring him that there'll be no hard feelings.

laem chabang's whole nematode glasses thing looks creepy as hell, especially when they stack up lmao. i still don't know if this is her stand or they're just pets (like mrs robinson from sbr). it's being used as a lie detector of sorts, being so sensitive that she can practically extract any info she wants just by asking the right questions.

laem and ningbo make a pretty balanced team. laem is the talkative and cunning one who leads the investigation, while ningbo is very straightforward and provides the brute force. this shows in their stands: ningbo has the first humanoid stand in the part and has a direct offensive ability.

somehow, even on the ground, in handcuffs with three fingers blown off, and having her entire operation exposed, meryl mei still manages to assert her dominance and turn the intimidation on laem. we don't even know if she's a stand user. either she's keeping it lowkey, or she's genuinely just one of the coolest non-stand users in a while.

the contrast between laem and ningbo shows more, where laem hesitates when she realizes that meryl mei is not lying about the 50 billion. it's a reminder that these agents are in this for their own benefit, not out of loyalty to howler (like when bobby jean planned on taking the lava rock for himself). but ningbo seems to be the more honest type. he brushes it off and pushes the mission forward before laem can think of turning tail.

also the two panels of lulu are funny as hell. she does not give a shit about anything, just vibing in the basement with her jojo child proportions. she's even right next to the banker who's barely holding on to life. massive contrast between her and the rest of the cast having the tensest moments of their lives.

i hope that she continues to have a role in the story and becomes the obligatory child in a jojo part. for a jojo kid, she has an extremely powerful stand and her relationship with the main group is very different from usual.

and of course, the end with paco vs ningbo about to start. paco pulls his classic trick of hustling up to the ceiling for a sneak attack. fun to see another part after sbr where guns are in common use, because the stands aren't powerful enough to invalidate them.

but i was genuinely tweaking when i saw that was the end of the chapter. it was so short especially after a 2-month hiatus, the fight barely started at all, we don't even have new stand names??? it's still a good chapter, i'm just hungry for more

[lovemikewheeler]

Stranger Things Pokémon Teams Part 2: Mike Wheeler (LONG POST)

Hello hello!! I’m really exited to share this team with you guys since I put a lot of thought into each member of his main party :) but before I start I wanna give a quick shoutout to this Tumblr user that reblogged my post and pointed out a detail I didn’t notice before

Vileplumes petals looking like the demogorgon’s mouth makes it so much better and I really appreciate blitzer91 pointing this detail out, which makes that pick so much better in my opinion :D and the poison atmosphere point is also really clever as well! Thank you for giving me a different perspective I really appreciate it!!

So when thinking of Mike Wheelers team, I pictured him to have a lot of Pokemon who have brute-force attacks (not all of them) but I can imagine he has a reckless fighting style compared to the rest of his friend group. Not to say he wouldn’t be clever at times, but he would use high-stakes moves for high-rewards in battle.

BACKGROUND:

For some quick background on my Stranger Things Pokemon AU (which I’m currently writing the first chapter for) the core 4 are all grown up and once went on a Pokemon journey as children together. In modern day, Dustin is the professors assistant (Professor Clark), Lucas is the electric type gym-leader for Hawkins, Will is an artist who does Pokemon Contests, and Mike is a former member of the Elite-four. He resined his position to go back home and help his family one year ago, and lost the spark for Pokemon battles in the process.

He rediscovers his love for battling after having a “friendly” competition with his friend Lucas (which turns competitive quickly) and he gets the idea for the core 4 to go one one last journey before they are officially adults. The whole party disagrees with this at first, however once Mike was able to convince Will to come with him, the rest of the party followed. If you’re wondering, YES, this fanfic will have byler on the side =] and double YES, they will have a lot of tension (in a cute/romantic way) during the adventure, they recruit Jane and Max during their journey.

First Pokémon:

Aegislash was introduced in the Kalos region (I don’t particularly care for gen 6 but that’s beside the point) but if I didn’t use this Pokemon it would have been a huge missed opportunity. He’s literally a paladin in DND, he holds a shield in Will’s drawing, this couldn’t be any more on the nose. This would be the first Pokémon he would send out, setting the tone for the fight and how he leads the party with heart, he leads the party with his shield. So he send out Aegislash to lead his Pokémon.

Aegislash is a steel/ghost type

Move set: a closer look:

Sword Dance: sharply increases the Pokémon’s attack stats, by two stages. He would use this at the beginning of the battle to set the tone, he would prioritize raising Aegislash’s attack stats since they are much lower than its defense stats. Again, his aggressive and offensive play-style

Iron Head: a steel-type attack move that has a 30% chance of the opponent flinching, would be his second move, hoping to flinch his opponent to get a one-up on them

Shadow Claw: Mike as a trainer definitely prioritizes his attacks more than any of his other stats, with training each of his Pokémon to have high attack, Aegislash would know shadow claw because he not only acknowledges that he needs a ghost-type move to balance his team, but shadow claw is a physical attack move, benefiting to his strength

Iron Defense: after so many Pokémon battles, Mike realized brute-force will not win him every match. He more so uses defensive moves such as iron defense as a safety net. Iron defense sharply raises the Pokémon’s defense by two stages

Second Pokémon:

Now I have a kinda funny story on how I feel like Mike and Golduck meet. When he was young, at the beginning of his journey, he ran into a Psyduck that wouldn’t leave him alone, at first he thought it was annoying, but he eventually started to like the Psyduck and took it in as his own Pokémon. Now it is evolved and Mike and Golduck are pals for life (and yes, Golduck is never kept in the Pokeball lol) I just feel like it’s his luck that he would find a Psyduck that would be obsessed with him and would follow him around.

Golduck is a water type

Hydro Pump: high-risk water move (his exact play style) and the high reward is instantly killing his target because of how overpowered his team is (those poor kids who had to fight him when he was in the Elite four) just imagine “die you piece of shit!” “Mike you’re fighting a child…”

Psychic: powerful psychic type move could also lower their special defense if lucky, but has a base power of 90 which is really strong

Whirlpool: takes damage from the target overtime and traps them in a whirlpool. Takes health from them every turn.

Ice Punch: does Mike have much strategy? No, not really. However he can make some smart decisions. He has an ice-type move just in case someone chooses to use a grass-type against his Golduck. Also has a 10% chance of freezing the target

Third Pokémon:

There is no doubt Mike doesn’t love using Luxray in battle, it has an exceptional attack stat and it’s also blue and yellow *cough cough* blue and yellow… *cough* byler colors… *cough cough* I’m sorry I couldn’t help it the joke was there so I had to. According to many Pokédex entries, Luxray is capable of spotting hidden prey and can see through solid objects. This reminds me of how Mike never looses sight of what’s important to him, even if he messes up or screws up somehow he always runs back apologizing to a certain someone… I wonder who that could be. Also it has the vibes of season 4 Mike when he dressed inspired by Eddie.

Also also… Luxrays shiny form is yellow, it’s yellow. I could make more byler jokes but I won’t, it writes itself

Luxray is an electric type

Move set: a closer look

Wild Charge: his “big” move that also damages his Pokemon with a recoil. Has a 90 base power

Crunch: he needed more variety other than just electric-type moves. So I thought crunch would be a solid addition

Volt Switch: used to attack then Luxray switches out with another Pokémon, would work to Mikes advantage since Luxray has high speed.

Electric Terrain: makes electric-type moves stronger for 5 turns, which makes his wild charge stronger

Fourth Pokémon:

Krookodile is just a Pokémon I just feel like he would use. Krookodile, like Luxray, has an extremely high attack stat that can be used well offensively. It is often described as a “very violent Pokémon” in many Pokédex entries. Also it’s wearing shades and it reminded me of when Mike wore shades to California.

Krookodile is a ground/dark type

Move set: a closer look:

Earthquake: deals a lot of damage, doubles when the target is underground.

Dig: Digs underground the first turn, and attacks the second

Crunch: has a 20% chance of lowering the targets defense, base power of 80

Sandstorm: creates a Sandstorm for 5 turns, slowly chips away at the targets heath (only exceptions are rock, ground, and steel types and some specific Pokémon abilities)

Fifth Pokémon:

Lucario is one of my favorite Pokémon so I may be bias :,) but they are said to be extremely loyal and can read people’s aura and how they feel. Mike is a loyal friend who cares for others, especially the ones closest to him. According to Pokémon Shield: “Only Trainers who have justice in their hearts can earn this Pokémon’s trust”

Lucario is a fighting/steel type

Move set: a closer look

Close Combat: powerful move, however decreases Lucario’s defense and special defense by one stage every time it is used

Aura Sphere: deals damage and ignores accuracy, so it always lands (unless the target is using fly or dig, or something like that)

Sword Dance: I already explained this move above so I won’t torment you guys by explaining it again :,)

Metero Mash: steel type move that deals damage, and has a 20% chance of raising Lucario’s attack stat

Sixth Pokémon:

Charzard is a fitting match for him for a couple reasons. Firstly, he’s a dragon which is a reference to Mike being a dungeon master in DND. Plus he’s a dragon, like the dragon in Wills painting, where he was the heart. He is the last Pokémon Mike sends out, because he is the backbone of his team.

Charzard is a fire/flying type

Move set: a closer look:

Flare Blitz: another high risk move that deals a lot of damage, however has a horrible recoil for Charzard. Charzard looses 1/3 of whatever damage he does to the target

Flamethrower: Will destroy most Pokémon with 1 or two uses of this move, and has a chance of burning the target

Air Slash: deals damage to the target, has a 30% chance of confusing the opponent as well

Thunder Punch: to protect itself from water-type Pokémon, also with a chance of paralyzing the opponent

BONUS: Their Pokeballs :D

Poke ball: standard ball

Dusk ball: used to catch Pokemon in caves or dark places

Great ball: higher performance than the standard ball, most likely caught closer to the beginning of his journey

Quick ball: has the highest rate of catching if used in the first move

Ultra ball: highest success rate poke ball

Since when he was an elite four member, he specialized in ground/rock type Pokémon, he also has a Tyranitar, Garchomp, and a Aggron that he sometimes switches into his party

Thank u for reading!! :D if you were unable to tell, I love Pokemon and I’m a nerd

next is Lucas !!

[tohwitchesduels]

LOSERS BATTLE OF WITCHES DUELS - Battle 63: Bria vs Edric Blight

Disclaimer: This is not a popularity contest or which character you prefer, in this tournament, you decide who is stronger/better/smarter/etc. opponent.

information for both opponents under the cut to those who don't know what they can do in their battle:

Bria:

Bria specializes in construction magic without any signs of being interested in other tracks, especially considering she considers them "inferior".

Bria is an absolutely skilled witch who prefers brute strength and talent over anything. She isn't, however, easy to fool or intimidate. She's daring and adventurous and ambitious. She can also be two-faced and deceitful by appearing nice and fair only to drop the facade when she has the high ground or no interest in playing nice. She may, however, struggle from PTSD caused by Gus, so while she's not easy to intimidate, she could potentially end up being triggered by events considered "supernatural" or near Gus or if she feels like losing her powers.

Palismen are not allowed in this fight.

Bria is losing it as she loses her position in the rankings. She's now extra determined to preserve it, so she hopes that at least the twin brother of her previous opponents won't defeat her. She literally cannot let this happen as her pride is at stake.

Bria's tool in this tournament, independent of whether or not other competitors also possess it, is her sword. She can utilise it in combat or to cut through things standing in her way, like bushes.

Bria may or may not have galdorstones with her to enhance her magic.

Rock Spike - Bria can create a rock spike that can be used for offensive purposes. It is also proven to be quite destructive, as seen in TTLGR.

Rock Pillar - Bria can create rock pillars of various lengths and sizes. She's also capable of creating pillars within the pillars she created. Said ability could be used if Bria needs a high ground, for defensive purposes to block attacks, potential transport, or even offensive purposes.

Earth Capture - Bria can encase her opponents on Earth as she demonstrated in TTLGR when she restrained a Slitherbeast. The move could be considered a finishing blow unless Bria's opponent has enough brute force (and by that, I mean a lot, stronger than Slitherbeast) to burst through her trap. However, she will usually utilise said ability if she assumes her opponent can't fight back.

Link to more of Bria's capabilities here

Edric Blight

While it is confirmed that Edric possesses a palisman (either moth or butterfly, it was never specified) since we never saw it in the show and we have no idea how proficient Edric is with it, I shall not include this in the tournament, and anyone who fights him will also not have their palismen to even the chances

One of the tools Edric can use during his battles independently of whether or not his opponent also possesses any is fireworks. That's right: Edric brings fireworks to the battlefield and can use them offensively. Due to how illegal and unstable they are and how Edric landed in the healing coven multiple times due to them, they're noted to be particularly destructive and unpredictable meaning any outcome can be achieved (either they hurt only Edric, they hurt his opponent or both or neither - the rule of random applies here so do whatever you want with it).

Edric Blight is pretty chaotic and airheaded but can also be clever and sneaky. He can focus on both offense and deception. Granted, at times, he tends to not think things through and can make rash decisions that can and will blow up in his face. He specializes in Potions, Illusion, and Beast-Keeping magic, making him a pretty strong and skilled all-rounder, even if he can be pretty impulsive.

Restraining Magic - Edric is capable of creating a lasso made out of light that can be used to restrain his enemies. We saw it when he tried this with Slitherbeast. However, Edric can also enhance any lasso or tie to specifically bind a particular target he has in mind as of Reaching Out, meaning it can be very difficult, even for stronger opponents, to break away from his bonds.

Explosive Potions - Edric is capable of brewing potions that explode upon shattering and thus can be used offensively but also as a distraction and defense (the best defense is offense and the best offense is defense, after all). Edric can throw multiple potions at once or in a row. He will usually have multiple at hand.

Transformation Potion - Edric improvised and created a potion that can alter the appearance of the drinker. Edric has the recipe and antidote (plenty of ice packs) at hand to either use this potion or on himself to transform into a stronger and "draconic" version of themselves (demonstrated on Warden Wrath, though aside from his appearance and enhanced abilities, he didn't seem to display new ones). The potion allows the user to gain immense strength, sharp claws, spikes, and horns, and is much bigger in size, however, it comes at the expense of rational thinking, turning the user into a wild animal. So Edric either transforms and hopes and prays he can quiet down his instincts enough to apply ice packs on himself, or he uses it to confuse his enemies and hope they won't hurt him too much. After the potion's effects get canceled, the user gets nauseous and is incapable of further fighting. He will usually only have a few at hand, though.

Truth Potion - Edric brewed those before battle with enough patience to not mess them up so he could use them safely. Their capacity on the battlefield usually extends to tricking the enemy into either drinking them or inhaling them and making them confess their weaknesses out loud. He will usually have a few at hand, though.

Snow Magic - when training with Amity, he did display that he can use snow to his advantage, though he only used it to sink Amity into the ground, which would be only possible if the area's ground was always snow, but for that, I have a different spell in mind. Edric can create simple snow blasts with it or use it to immobilise his opponents by creating enough snow around them to bury them in it.

Sinking Magic - Edric is capable of making the ground sink beneath the feet of his opponents if they're distracted enough. He demonstrated it when training with Amity, and I'm making it a full-blown ability that can be hard to counter but not impossible if the opponent can dig through any surface. Be it snow or ground (though probably not metals, considering how solid and refined they are).

Telekinesis - Edric displays an ability to move objects with ease. He can, in fact, lift his opponents and move them through great distances just fine, granted it works best on distracted opponents. He can also use this ability to throw projectiles of various sizes (though the biggest one probably won't be bigger than your average person who can be tall).

Illusion Casting - Edric is capable of casting any illusion of any object or even a living being. Said illusions can interact with the real world just fine (so he can, for example, create ammo as Amity threw at him "Hex me" papers he created himself and knocked him out with it). His illusions normally are fragile, but with his beast magic, he can strengthen them to make it harder to dispel them.

Illusion Clone - Edric is capable of creating a clone of anyone he desires, granted it's usually one clone at a time, as proven in EGF when he created a clone of Eda. The clone could potentially mimic the abilities of the people they took shape from, but it's more than often just an illusion. They could also take upon the personality of anyone they were cloned from.

Trap Illusions - Edric can create illusions that can transform into barriers upon contact with them. This can restrain his opponents while still allowing Edric to be able to touch and affect them (like Venetian mirror)

Camouflage - Now I'm not sure whether or not Edric can cast it on his own or if it requires a team effort, but in LR once Bump made a stand against the EC, all the other students would appear after the illusion of camouflage was dispelled, so I'll allow all illusion casters that were part of this to be capable to at least hide out of sight temporarily, so Edric now can use this ability to stay hidden for short time during the battle.

Bat Companion - now Edric may not possess a palisman, but he can use his pet bat during battles, sending it out to attack his opponents or distract them with it. To what extent the bat will listen is, however, limited, though enough for the bat to not attack Edric.

Beast Luring - this was more or less proven in Reaching Ou how easier it was to lure out beasts. Edric needed to use his beast-keeping magic so he could bring back any beast to the battlefield with his knowledge. However, said beasts will probably not listen to Edric at all.

Link to more of Edric's capabilities here

Return to Masterpost

[themolluscasometimes]

(if you havent seen dmeon slayer s3 or read the mange this has spoilers)

okay no but look-

who tf. gave genya a sword an told him to go to final selection

It's stated that Genya calmed down and mellowed out after getting Gyomei to train him. ALSO he got mega buff between when we see him at final selection and when he see him next like yeah he obviously had a growth spurt but the point is he went from scrawny to brawny. He was also a giant asshole at final selection so like. Genya 100% only got trained by gyomei after passing final selection.

Which MEANS either someone ELSE sent a kid that cant use breathing to final selection with a sword OR he got himself there. I dont believe anyone wouldve willingly sent him given how important breathing is to the demon slayer corp

also. The only trainers we really see are hashira or former hashira. Im SO convinced there are other that we don't see given that not every water breather couldve been taught by Urokodaki but it still makes sense that these teachers are retired professional demon slayers that lived long enough to be no longer in active service even if they aren't hashira

which leaves us with options:

OPTION 1:

genya tried to learn breathing from a cultivator/some other demon slayer, failed, stole a nichirin sword and probably shook the poor sod down to get info on the when and where for final selection

OPTION 1a

When the person who tried to teach breathing to Genya refused to continue after finding out he cant Breathe Right, said teacher was too strong for genya to really do anything about it (see: they're teaching him and it seems likely that the teachers of demon slayer tend to be upper ranked at least) Genya fucked off and assaulted some weak random demon slayer to steal a sword from and get info

Or, you know, something along these lines because he had to get a nichirin sword and infomraiton from somewhere, and Im doubtful it was willingly given to him since he like. cant fucking breathe.

HOWEVER

when we see him at the end of final selection, he's like. mega obsessed with the sword thing. like. super. like yes these are special swords but here's the thing everyone there already has one of the special swords, just not one of their own.

It kinda maybe implies that Genya. Doesnt have a special sword. So.

OPTION TWO:

Genya has been roughing it with a regular ass sword for seven days and given that he can't Breathe his primary form of defense would've been step one: cut the demons arm off. step two: monch. step three: beat the demon to within an inch of its life with demon enhanced brute strength until he can get away or force it die in the sun.

In which case Genya was not likely to be doing much direct demon slaying during those seven days.

(even if he HAD a nichirin sword theres no guarantee that without breathing he wouldve been strong enough or skilful enough to use it to kill all the demons he ran across but given how obsessed and intense he is with getting his hands on a nichirin blade and how much not one single person would want him to go to final selection, i honestly think he had just some random sword. It would explain why he's so desperate to get one, other than being generally unhinged. Anyway-)

While everyone else was roughing it, surviving and slaying demons in the night, Genyas experience of the final selection exam was somewhere between a survival challenge and an all you can eat buffet, with not a lot of demon slaying involved.

can u imagine being part of his cohort and running across some dude that needs you to cut off this demons head thats missing a suspicious amount of its body bc he doesnt have a nichirin sword for some fucking reason. also he has really, really, fucked up eyeballs.

can you imagine watching one of your fellow exam participants use a sword only to defend himslef bc its a functionally useless offense only to attack by eating the fucking demons.

can you imagine seeing him at one point, looking a certain way bc hes been eating a demon and then seeing him again later looking human. or looking like a different demon. or both.

can u imagine struggling to feed yourself during these seven days and this man is having a straight up feast. and also couldnt be assed to show up with a sword for demonslaying to the exam for fucking demon slaying

[yuurei20]

Riddle Info Compilation part 12: Unique Magic and Violence

Riddle’s unique magic, “Off with your head”, allows him to temporarily seal away the magic of other mages.

Cater explains, “To a mage, losing the ability to use magic is about as painful as losing your head completely.”

Leona is the only character we’ve seen capable of deflecting Riddle’s unique magic, though even he becomes collared when Jack breaks his concentration (As he overblots, however, he breaks free, which we have never seen anyone else do.)

Riddle experiences the sensation of wearing one of his own collars during Book 6 when Idia forces him and the others to wear chokers that possess similar, magic-smothering capabilities.

Idia says that Riddle “busts out spells like he’s in hyperdrive. And his magic pool is way beyond other mages his age. He must’ve had special training from a super young age…and that artificially increased his pool. It’s the only possible explanation for these numbers. His strength is from hard work rather than being some kind of prodigy if you ask me.”

(Later on in Book 6, Riddle shares a similar suspicion with Azul. When Azul calls him a prodigy he responds, "I wouldn't say that...I can't be certain if I had any special talent to begin with.")

Ortho says, “He also had a tendency to elevate his output and brute-force his magic during moments of indecision.

Idia says that Riddle can get away with such an inefficient tactic because of the sheer amount of power he has, and that Riddle’s mental state is heavily impacted by external factors. “He’s got magic muscle in spades, but he’s fragile physically and mentally. High offense, paper-thin defense…”

Riddle is extremely strong, securing the Housewarden position in Heartslabyul before the end of his first week of school. Riddle shuts down Ace and Deuce instantly in a duel and Crowley explains, “The better you are at accurately visualizing your magic’s effects, the stronger and more precise it will be.”

We see several examples of Riddle jumping to violence at the slightest opportunity, actively trying to attack campus visitors during Halloween despite Trey, Ace and other members of his dorm begging him to restrain himself.

Riddle also compromises the efforts of the final team during Phantom Bride by becoming insulted when a ghost tells him he is too short for the princess and setting him on fire.

Riddle is also quick to attack ghosts during Spectral Soiree, setting the surrounding area on fire multiple times.

Riddle says, “When someone gets violent with me, my response will always be the same…I’ll hit them right back!”

To Sebek’s confusion Riddle agrees with Ace and Leona about fighting Malleus during Spectral Soiree, saying that “The Queen of Hearts would never back down before a foe, no matter who they were! I behead ALL rule breakers, without exception!”

When the ruse of the event is revealed, Riddle confesses that he attacked the ghosts unprovoked as he thought that fighting was the only way to get the other students back to normal. (An exasperated Lilia responds, “I thought you youngins were tech savvy enough to know you can’t just smack stuff to fix it!”)

[darkmaga-returns]

Brief summary from a Russian source:

Americans think the Russian army is not fighting like gentlemen. WSJ writes that the Russian military is "blazing a trail in Ukraine, combining the brute force of the Red Army with modern technology." The Russian way of warfare, according to the newspaper, is based on drones that detect targets and "the power of bombs and artillery that pave the way for infantry to seize territory." "Each element of the attack supports the others, happening simultaneously or in waves. This can create a snowball effect, forcing the Ukrainians to retreat," the article says.

Hold on to that first bolded line, it will come into play later.

Firstly, as a statement of methodology WSJ claims to have “[spoken] with Ukrainian and Russian soldiers as well as military analysts to form a picture of how it works.”

They begin by stating a lot of obvious points—Russia has hundreds of recon drones all over the front at any given time, and they use them to pinpoint massive bombing strikes on Ukrainian positions from Su-34s and the like:

[heartfulselkie]

20 years late to the directors cut ask game but:

Ladybug gritted her teeth, opting to ignore Chloe's taunt entirely. She was instead completely focused on trying to free her arm from Chat Blanc's bite. He'd already set his jaw, blood pooling around his mouth and chin. Like a predator that had captured its prey, Chat wasn't going to let go easily. His claws scraped against the metal of her armour with an awful rasp as he tried to force her back further, to use his own weight to pin her into the dirt. But if Chat was going to be brutally stubborn, then Ladybug could be too.

With as much brute force as she could muster, she forced her trapped hand further into his bite. Her action must have surprised him. He snarled and gnashed his teeth while Ladybug continued to shove her hand against his mouth and jaw. Her blood was spilling down his lips, with each huffing, growling breath from his flared nostrils splattering more red droplets between them. Ladybug gritted her teeth, enduring the searing pain as she refused to let up.

And then Chat Blanc started to gag. But he still refused to release his bite.

It seemed he would sooner suffocate than risk her escape.

[Ask Game]

So.... You ever seen those attack dogs? The ones that will lunge at a person, bite into the person's arm and lock their jaw there on command? And hold until their owner/master/trainer tells them to release?

That's Chat Blanc. He's been conditioned to attack. Hawk Moth's main target for that was of course Ladybug, and reiterated it time and time again in "training".

But Hawk Moth was also very cautious about what he did with Chat Blanc. He could have told Chat to hunt Ladybug down, but he didn't. Because he didn't train Chat as his hunting dog cat. Chat was trained to fight and destroy.

We see a glimpse here of Chat's fighting style. It's reckless and animalistic. Protecting himself just doesn't fit into it. It doesn't matter how much he bleeds as long as he gets his teeth and claws dug in and holds them there. He's a snap trap. As soon as anyone is close enough he will latch on, he will keep fighting, and not release until he's either broken to pieces - or the one who set him pulls his release.

On the other hand, Ladybug is more coordinated. She is traditionally trained in swordsmanship and fights with a shield at her side. She is adaptive, switching between offensive and defensive depending on the situation (very different from Chat's all or nothing approach).

Ladybug is also (narrow-mindedly) fearless though. She can't resist a challenge if she believes it's within her ability. And she's stubborn. Especially in the public eye.

Fighting is a bit of a performance for her, because she has to meet the expectations of others. She's not necessarily fighting at someone's command or control, but she is held to a role and standard she doesn't dare break.

Ladybug doesn't realise it, but there are a lot of similarities between her and Chat beneath the surface. It's why she meets him head on and isn't scared away by his all-in attack. Instead she's thrilled by it because this is someone else who is giving their all.

Ladybug's just developed her skill into that of a protector, while Chat Blanc's skill has been formed into that of a weapon. A sword and a shield.

[fromtheempress]

Fish Fridays feature: The Darkscale Naga, the Nazj'vel digsite, and the two battles for Darkshore

(The Darkscale appear in two battlefronts in Darkshore: one is the battle against the Twilights' hammer "Masters' Glaive" cult during the Cataclysm expansion, and the other is the Alliances' battle versus the Horde for control of Darkshore in Battle for Azeroth expansion. I will be covering both here.)

The Darkscale naga first appear at the site of a Night Elven archaeological digsite near the Twilight Shore in Darkshore, the Nazj'vel digsite. In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the hero is sent to slay the naga guarding the digsite and obtain the "Horn of the Ancients", an ancient artifact the naga are trying to give to their queen, Azshara. The questline starts with Malfurion Stormrage giving you the "Mounting the Offensive" quest and ends with the druid Balren of the Claw giving you the quest "Ashes in Ashenvale". If the hero slays all four Darkscale naga Priestesses surrounding the Horn of the Ancients, Queen Azshara herself will appear.

A Hearthstone illustration depicting the "Horn of the Ancients", an artifact Malfurion Stormrage and the hero use to defeat the Avatar of Soggoth in the battle for Darkshore in the Cataclysm expansion. (image source: Wowpedia).

The questline culminates in the killing of the Avatar of Soggoth and, having thwarted the Darkscale nagas' schemes, the hero is sent to deal with Garrosh Hellscreams' invasion into Ashenvale.

During the Battle for Azeroth expansion, however, the Darkscale re-appear. During the climactic battle for Darkshore between the Horde and the Alliance, the Darkscale themselves invade the Twilight Shore, ending up in Ameth'Aran and taking prisoners in both sides of the Alliance/Horde conflict. Finally, led by the Lady Janira, they overtake the Ruins of Lornesta, depending on which faction takes control of the area--when the Horde take control, the Darkscale keep the ruins, but when the Alliance takes control, the Allied soldiers keep the ruins.

The Darkscale naga hold the ruins of Lornesta. This was not always the case during Battle for Azeroth--the Alliance sometimes take control, ousting the Naga from the area. (Source: Wowpedia)

It should be noted that around the time of Battle for Azeroth a cave opens up in the area containing Azerite, namely the Lornesta Mine. It would stand to reason, therefore, that the naga were looking to farm the precious metal for their own nefarious ends.

The Darkscale Naga are listed as follows:

Named

 Asithra Diresong

 Warlord Wrathspine

 Lady Janira

 Commander Ral'esh

 Stonebinder Ssra'vess

 Scalefiend

Unnamed

 Darkscale Assassin

 Darkscale Brute

 Darkscale Dig-Slave

 Darkscale Looter

 Darkscale Myrmidon

 Darkscale Priestess

 Darkscale Raider

 Darkscale Scout

 Darkscale Siren

 Darkscale Taskmaster

 Darkscale Tidecaller

 Darkscale Healer (Source:Wowpedia)

Fun Facts and Speculation:

During the third invasion of the Burning Legion, Darkscale naga also appear in the Tomb of Sargeras with a Naga Brute named Harjatan, of whom it is said Queen Azshara is quite fond.

Three Darkscale naga who were not present after the PTR were:

Darkscale Spear-Slave

Darkscale Ritualist

Darkscale Supplicant

Lady Darkscale and the naga who attacked Kul'Tiras forces after the Third War (in Warcraft 3) may also be part of this tribe.

“Fish Fridays” is a look into the various Naga personalities that populate the waters of  Azeroth and Draenor,to give our worthy readers a greater sense of the Naga world and the creatures Vashj often interacts with.

Lore sources, photos and links are all from Wowwiki, Wowpedia, and Wikipedia.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Zones of resistance

At a glance, it might seem as if a tension is arising here. Whilst insurrectional methods attack power, perhaps autonomous zones attempt instead to slip away, seeking inner peace in a world defined by catastrophe. This is exactly the idea you get with Hakim Bey, whose autonomous zones are defined by their insistence on disbanding rather than risk confronting the state. It goes without saying that leaving Leviathan to it as it decimates the planet isn’t an option for most of us; thankfully, though, such defeatism isn’t an inherent feature of autonomous zones altogether. On the contrary, these experiments, aside from offering essential places of immediate refuge, are just as indispensable for going on the offensive.

Opening up an autonomous space sets a rallying point for comrades to find each other, share resources, and combine projects, all of which is vital for launching the attack. Rather than dispersing ourselves amidst the social terrain, there’s much to be said for focusing our efforts within strategic locations, thereby increasing our chances of having a tangible impact. It’s no coincidence that the Italian anarchist movement of the 1970s and ‘80s was defined not only by its formulation of the insurrectionary tendency, but also by its vast network of squatted social centres. Moreover, the anarchist movements of Chile and Greece – amongst the strongest worldwide at the moment – are distinctly grounded in certain rebellious neighbourhoods. The Exarcheia quarter of Athens is itself something of an autonomous zone; it’s a no-go area for the police, and in general maintains an atmosphere of intolerance towards the projects of state and capital. The ongoing emphasis on insurrection in Athens would be unthinkable without it, and the same can be said of Villa Francia in Santiago. Especially once a resistance movement really starts to pick up the pace, it soon becomes clear that its ambitions can only advance as far as its material base supports. Here we can think of the separatist movements in Ireland, Kurdistan, and the Basque Country as important examples.

No less, the mere existence of an autonomous zone is enough to do real damage to the state, relinquishing its control over a territory. Yet this will only be the case insofar as its inhabitants refuse to seek permission in the process of seceding. The prospect of legalising a commune warrants utmost caution: the price of avoiding physical confrontation here is not, as with Bey’s zones, invisibility, but instead indistinctiveness from the system as a whole. Whether temporary or permanent, what makes a zone autonomous is the fact it escapes the authority of the state – that is, refuses to recognise its servants or laws. Strictly speaking, inhabiting such a zone isn’t a matter of committing crime, which implies breaking laws to which you’re ultimately subject, but instead of extricating yourself from the legal framework altogether. The offer of legalisation might sound like a victory, but this is only one of power’s most cynical tactics: a few minor concessions will be granted, but these are ultimately a small price to pay for subsuming our lives back into the economy, transferring real struggle into something symbolic.

During the early ‘80s, for instance, the squatting movement in Berlin was one of the strongest in the world; yet the spearhead of the state’s repressive campaign wasn’t brute force, but instead integration. Many squats were invited to become legal – to submit to the rule of law and market – which split their interests from the rest of the movement. That deprived any more combative projects of the solidarity needed to successfully resist evictions, and they soon found themselves getting picked off one by one. Had none of the squats decided to legalise, however, the state may well have been forced to capitulate in the face of such an uncompromising movement.

With this in mind, an obvious worry arises: it might seem ridiculous to take a stand against the might of the modern nation state, particularly in a more or less symmetrical conflict. But the picture isn’t quite that simple. In much of the Global North, at least, the liberal paradigm compels the state to play by certain rules when repressing dissent, and that offers us a fair degree of leeway. The repressive forces always prefer to engage with riot police rather than the army, “nonlethal” methods rather than just going in and killing everyone. That owes not, of course, to any heightened sense of benevolence on the part of our dear rulers, but instead to their need to destroy otherness in a way that avoids exacerbating social tensions even more. You might say that, following the death of God, the state is on its last legs; rather than clinging to the pretence of enacting the divine will, it has reinvented itself in secular form, claiming instead to represent the will of the people. This leaves power forever at pains to maintain a democratic veneer, with which it attempts to conceal its ugliest, most volatile of secrets: the fact that liberalism is just another form of authoritarianism. It would indeed be a damning realisation that, beyond being expected to play out the most miserable of lives, even those attempting to peacefully defect will forever be sought out and crushed, dragged by their hair back into the embrace of this cage-society. Any successful autonomous zone damages the territorial integrity of the state, which is why it would never be tolerated willingly; when met with fierce resistance, however, a regime might well be forced to hold back, facing a greater risk of destabilisation by committing the violence necessary for an eviction.

This is no fairytale: in 2016, one French government minister admitted that, for fear of a localised civil war breaking out, there would be no new attempt to evict the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Which just goes to show, rather than whining about the contradictions inherent in liberal democracy, we could instead be taking advantage. Either we’ll make the most of the state’s softened capacities to strike, or else provoke it into revealing its true nature. In both scenarios, there’s something to be gained.

Having said that, not everyone wants to live behind a barricade forever – something important to consider. It’s a funny thing that possibly the single biggest factor killing participation in the struggle isn’t repression, but parenthood. Either that, or at least the need to find a bit of safety or stability, which everyone needs once in a while. These issues need to be addressed if we’re going to extend the possibility of autonomous living beyond the easy grasp of those in their twenties. It’s often forgotten that, besides increasing our capacities as militants, revolutionising the struggle means broadening out meaningful involvement in ways that allow much greater numbers to participate. The case for illegality, whilst indispensable, cannot dictate a uniform approach: as always, a diversity of tactics is necessary to surge forward. The essential ingredient is merely that legal and illegal projects maintain strong ties with one another, thereby providing communes on the front-line with the support needed to go further, all the while maximising the level of involvement achieved by safer options.

To return to the main point, the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes should be visited one last time. In April 2018, the Macron regime committed 2,500 gendarmes, backed up by tanks and drones, to its latest attempt to crush this unruly project. That was a striking thing, because the plans to build an airport there had already been abandoned, yet this time the invading force was more than twice as large as during Operation Cesar – the attempt that failed during 2012. Apparently this chapter of the ZAD had been deemed all the more dangerous in the lack of a single-issue to limit its scope. The failure of a flagship project is, no doubt, a headache for any government; something immensely worse, however, is a practical method – indefinitely reproducible – for destituting its rule altogether. Zadification proceeds as such: occupy a locale with potential; promote material self-sufficiency; defend like hell if attacked; reoccupy if evicted. The ZAD shouldn’t be idealised, as if it offers some pristine utopia. But what cannot be denied is something quite simple, something that makes all the difference: it works… Contrary to popular wisdom, there’s nothing inevitable about the system of death. Defection is always possible! And such a window of opportunity is something any state must set out to mercilessly destroy, lest it risk its very foundations – both material and ideological – being seriously undermined. As of yet, though, our enemy has surely failed: whilst the mother-ZAD is, after almost a full decade of flagrant autonomy, nowadays mired in the drab business of legalisation, as many as fifteen additional ZADs have sprung up around France since the first was established.

It was previously said that we might no longer know what a revolution would look like, and this problem continues to define our era. Given an age in which power has no centre, there’s reason to quit holding out on that coveted grand soirée in which the world is remade in a day or two. Perhaps revolution is less a definitive event, and more an ongoing process – something with obvious peaks and troughs, for sure, yet without a clear beginning or end. By promoting the multiplication and expansion of autonomous zones, we’re granted a tangible means of furthering that process, and also of measuring our success. In order to make anarchy viable on a large scale, we need to start off more modestly, immediately infusing the terrain with practical, accessible alternatives to Leviathan. Only by living autonomously now do we develop the skills, experiences, and affinity necessary to proceed further. Waiting only teaches waiting; in living one learns to live.

There can be no distinction between construction and destruction here: by ceding a territory from the state, you’re going on the offensive. Every autonomous zone undermines the normality of total control, revealing the state for the military occupation it really is. Fighting communes tear holes in the social fabric, eking out further space in which we can finally breathe, inviting the rest of the population to take a stand. In particular, it’s difficult to imagine the possibility of larger autonomous zones – autonomous regions – as being possible except off the back of insurrection. The moment of upheaval temporarily dislodges power’s grip on a region; the construction of autonomous lifeways within it makes the rupture permanent. Starting off more modestly, and becoming as ambitious as the situation allows, there might well come a day – a day we surely still know in our hearts – in which the insurrections and revolutions have become indistinguishable.