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allgirlsareprincesses · 5 years ago

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A Saga in Ruins: How the sets reflect the empty nostalgia of the Sequel Trilogy

To the great surprise of many fans, the Skywalker Saga ended in the ruins of the Lars moisture farm on Tatooine. Perhaps this was intended to be circular, to be a coming home of sorts, but it was an odd choice for many reasons. Why would the youthful heroine find herself in an old, empty home to which she had no real connection, instead of on a verdant green world that she had so clearly craved earlier in her journey? Wouldn’t a place full of life be more fitting for a young woman starting a hopeful new chapter?

Of course, the dirty little secret is that there is nothing hopeful about the end of the Skywalker Saga. In fact, if we look across the Sequel Trilogy, we can see the theme of destruction, aging, death, and decay in many of the settings. Notably, the only sets that look truly new are the interiors of the First Order ships, and the rich luxury world of Canto Bight, but these sleek structures actually contain a moral rot.

It was appropriate for the Prequel Trilogy to be filled with shiny new sets as the Republic and Jedi were at the height of their power. The beauty was intentional, both so that we would appreciate the civilization that would be lost with the ascension of the Dark Side, and so that we would see it as the deceptive shell hiding the moral destruction within. In the Original Trilogy, the sets have an older, worn appearance, but are rarely what could be termed “ruins.” Given that the Sequel Trilogy takes place 30 years later when the galaxy has presumably been rebuilding since the Galactic Civil War, why then are SO many of the events set in ruins, or in places that become ruins?

Ruins in The Force Awakens

The first movie of this final trilogy started on Jakku, a ruin of a world home to the destroyed imperial fleet that made a last stand at the end of the Galactic Civil War. In the first scene of the film, new ruins are created when First Order troops destroy a village. Not long after, Poe and Finn crash-land into the desert, the ruin of their TIE fighter swallowed up by the sand. Later, we meet Rey, a lonely scavenger who is picking at the guts of a downed Imperial Star Destroyer. The shots in this sequence emphasize the scale of these ruins, along with the utter emptiness of the desert. Next, we see Rey in a little trading outpost cobbled together from disparate parts. She gazes dolefully at an elderly woman working the same task that she is, clearly seeing in the aged woman her own barren and lonely future. Finally, she travels to her own home, which turns out to be a collapsed AT-AT Imperial Walker. In an endearing but somewhat macabre moment, Rey dons the helmet of a Rebel X-Wing pilot. In a parallel scene, Kylo Ren is seen talking to the charred helmet of Darth Vader, beseeching his grandfather to speak to him. It’s nostalgia, yes, but for a past that is ruined, destroyed, and dead.

She next escapes Jakku in the Millenium Falcon, which might not be considered a ruin since it still (barely) flies, but it has clearly seen better days. Rey heaves the decrepit freighter through yet more bones of downed starships, finally escaping Jakku only for the Falcon to malfunction again. Han and Chewie, elderly yet vigorous as ever, join Rey and Finn and they all travel to Takodana, where Maz Kanata lives in a castle. From there, they witness the destruction of the Hosnian system, and then the First Order arrives and completely destroys Maz’s castle, creating yet another pile of rubble. The group next travels to D’Qar, a Resistance base nested in an old Rebel Alliance base from the Galactic Civil War three decades prior. Again, everything is old, aging, and recycled; nothing is new.

Starkiller Base is shiny and new, but it is also a tool of destruction, and before long it too collapses into space debris like Alderaan and Hosnian Prime. Meanwhile, we learn that the Skywalker-Solo family itself is in ruins, with Han and Leia split up, their son Ben fallen to the Dark Side, Luke missing in exile, and Han soon killed by his own son. Rey then travels to Ahch-To, where stand the ruins of the first Jedi Temple, to find the aging and bitter Luke Skywalker.

Ruins in The Last Jedi

On Ahch-To, Rey comes to find that the Jedi religion itself is in ruins, with their ancient texts abandoned and their one avatar, Luke, having cut himself off from the Force itself. In the course of her stay, she shoots a hole through the wall of her hut, slices through a large rock on the island, and emerges from the ruin of a hut that Luke explodes when he finds her with Ben Solo. Though Ahch-To is teeming with life, death is equally present, with Luke chatting with Force Ghost Yoda and watching the Jedi tree burn.

Further, Luke is a ruin of his former self, his moral certainty destroyed by regret. In the series of flashbacks to his last encounter with Ben, we see the hut collapsing, Luke rising from the rubble later, and his training temple in flames. Luke’s legacy, his relationship with his nephew, and now the physical manifestation of both is in ruins, as well. Even his X-Wing, once a symbol of his daring, sits submerged in water, presumably unusable and possibly scavenged already for parts.

On the Supremacy, the shattering of the Skywalker legacy is made visible in the breaking of Anakin’s lightsaber in the destroyed throne room. The ship itself lies in ruins after the battles that have raged across the ship and Admiral Holdo’s brave sacrifice, and even Ben and Rey’s fledgling relationship has been shattered by the end of the sequence.

Meanwhile, after the destruction of their fleet, the Resistance escapes to Crait, to yet another old Rebel Alliance base in the hope of escaping the First Order. Their speeders are so decrepit that Poe manages to punch a hole through one with just his foot, and the remaining forces are decimated before he makes the decision to pull back. With their massive laser cannon, the First Order punches a hole through the blast door to the base, effectively destroying it and rendering it unusable as a defensive position. By the end of the Crait sequence, the Resistance, their fleet, their base, and the central relationship of the movie between Rey and Ben are all in ruins.

Though destruction and ruins abound in The Last Jedi, the framing is notably different from the other two films because the purpose of all this imagery is to show hope for the future springing from the rubble. Rey states this theme explicitly when she’s meditating for Luke on Ahch-To, saying she sees “death and decay that feeds new life.” The breaking of Kylo Ren’s mask and the legacy lightsaber are intended not as endings but as steps in the cycle of rebirth and renewal. Luke manages to shed his broken shell and become the young hero he once was, later achieving transcendence as he passes whole into the Force. Despite the massive wound dealt on Crait, the salt cleanses and covers the carnage, suggesting rebirth with womb-like imagery. Ruins in The Last Jedi tend to serve less as nostalgic settings and more as visual symbols of brokenness that must and will be healed.

Ruins in The Rise of Skywalker

As the final film of the sequel trilogy opens, we see Kylo Ren fighting a group of cultists, whom the TROS Visual Dictionary tells us are Vader loyalists. Leaked images from the art book and cut scenes suggest that this scene actually takes place in the shadow of Vader’s castle, also now a ruin in the absence of its dark master. Using the Sith wayfinder, Kylo flies to the Dark Side planet of Exogol, entering what appears to be an ancient temple of the ruined Sith culture. There he finds the resurrected but still deathlike Palpatine, who is clearly such a ruin of his former self that he must be kept alive by machinery and dark arts.

In returning to the forested, hidden Resistance base, Finn and Poe nearly destroy the Falcon yet again, with the old ship catching fire as she lands among a small collection of similarly ancient ships that appear to be in questionable flight condition. While running her Jedi training course, Rey uses the same pilot’s helmet and training remotes that Luke used over 30 years earlier to practice her skills, and cuts down a number of trees in the process, leaving a path of destruction in her wake. Not only does the continued use of old, OT-era objects confound logic, but the wanton destruction of the natural world seems at odds with the Jedi philosophy’s reverence of the life which creates the Force.

Rey’s vision leads her to the barren desert world of Pasaana, where she meets the now-elderly Lando Calrissian, then finds the wreck of the ship that pursued her family when they were fleeing the resurrected Emperor. In the ruin of Ochi’s ship, Rey finds D-0, a broken and abandoned droid who yet again mirrors all the broken and abandoned characters (literally, ALL of them) in the Sequel Trilogy. When Kylo Ren appears, Rey first destroys his TIE Whisper, then when he crawls from the wreckage, the two have a Force tug-of-war over a transport ship which ends in Rey destroying it, as well. Of course, it later turns out that Chewbacca was not aboard that transport, thus continuing the pattern in this film of laying waste to the new planets, ships, and characters that were created for the sequels, while those from the original trilogy are miraculously preserved.

The gang next travels to Kijimi, where they apparently need to destroy C3-P0′s memories in order to unlock his ability to translate an ancient Sith language. As with Chewie, this is merely a temporary “death,” and Threepio’s memories are restored later. Kijimi, unfortunately, is not so lucky, and it is rather unceremoniously blown up, like Alderaan and Hosnian Prime. It seems that even with their allies, the Resistance heroes leave nothing but destruction in their wake.

Rey and friends next land on another moon of Endor, and the poor Falcon takes another beating. While her friends work yet again to repair the old ship, Rey escapes alone to the most imposing ruins of the entire film, collapsed shell of the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. Calling back to not only Luke’s ordeal there, but also Rey’s own origins scavenging in the carcasses of Imperial Starships, the partially-submerged battle station serves as the backdrop for still more violence and destruction. When Ben Solo arrives, Rey engages him in another duel, which ends with Leia dead and Ben mortally wounded. Though Rey heals Ben, she next flees to Ahch-To, abandoning him and taking his TIE Whisper with her.

On Ahch-To, Rey burns the TIE, standing before the flaming ruins and attempting to throw her lightsaber into the fire. Luke stops her, then leads her to an abandoned hut to find Leia’s lightsaber, a remnant of her aborted Jedi training. Lastly, Luke raises his X-Wing from the water, offering it to Rey inexplicably space-worthy and no worse for the wear having been underwater for the better part of a decade and being at least 35 years old.

Finally, all the characters converge on Exogol, where they continue to engage in as much destruction as possible, including the apparent annihilation of an entire Sith civilization who lived on the planet as part of Palpatine’s Final Order. Ben Solo also arrives on the planet to help Rey (in another OT-era fighter that is miraculously space-worthy and moreover made it across the galaxy WITHOUT A HYPERDRIVE), but Palpatine sucks the power from him and then throws him painfully down a chasm, leaving his body broken. The climactic sequence ends with thousands dead, ships destroyed, and even Rey dead (or something) on the ground. Ben drags his broken body up and across the wreckage of the arena, and dies after resurrecting her, thus ending the Skywalker line.

After a celebratory hug with her friends, Rey flies the Falcon to Tatooine, to the literal ruins of the Lars Homestead. This is the place we last saw belching smoke as Owen and Beru’s charred remains splayed grotesquely across the scene of Luke’s destroyed childhood. Recalling again Rey’s beginning scraping a meager and lonely existence from battle wreckage, she slides down a sand dune on a loose piece of debris, and precociously explores the place. Finally, she buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers (further cementing this place as a graveyard since Shmi is also buried here along with the Lars), and declares herself to be a Skywalker, the heir to these ruins.

Nostalgia as Love of a Dead or Imaginary Past

So, what does it all mean? If the Sequel Trilogy relies on ruins as a setting more than the other two trilogies, why does that matter? Isn’t it just paying homage to all the stories that led to the saga’s conclusion? Doesn’t it simply tie everything together?

Most critics and fans agree that the Sequel Trilogy relies heavily on nostalgia. In particular, JJ Abrams is often criticized for using nostalgia to such a degree that many of his films are direct copies of the stories they’re referencing: Super 8 is a mash-up of films like E.T. and Stand By Me, Star Trek: Into Darkness is a copy of The Wrath of Khan, The Force Awakens is nearly identical to Episode IV: A New Hope, and so on. Nostalgia is defined as:

“A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”

Most of Abrams’ movies succeed in creating this feeling because they rely on a shared cultural childhood memory. We fondly remember iconic moments from the films we loved as children, so seeing those moments again creates a feeling of remembered happiness. These movies encourage the viewer to recall how they felt the first time they saw certain images by repeating those images.

The first problem with this approach is that nostalgia is for the audience, not for the characters. The believability of the characters’ actions suffers when they are forced to act out scenes from a story that is not their own, from lives and perspectives that are not theirs. The audience might love seeing a lightsaber battle because that’s quintessential Star Wars, but if the two (or more) characters have no logical reason to fight other than as a spectacle for the audience, then the scene will lack any emotional depth. Likewise, a character revering someone whom they either barely knew or openly loathed makes no sense. In the case of settings or props, characters must respond to them in a way that is believable based on their actual history (or lack thereof) with the place or object. If the main characters of a story function only as a sort of modern Greek chorus, mirroring the nostalgic reactions of the omniscient audience, then they fail to be characters at all and become the most reductive versions of a self-insert.

This video explains the problem well, from 7:09 to 10:58 (the whole video is good but fair warning that not all of his takes align with what I believe about Star Wars, especially as regards Kylo Ren/Ben Solo):

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Another problem with this reliance on nostalgia is that in order to speak to a shared childhood experience, everyone in the audience must have had similar childhoods, or at least belong to the same generation so that they all fondly remember the same things. This is necessarily exclusive, as different generations have vastly different collective experiences and memories. The members of the audience who were children at the time of the Original Trilogy’s release or shortly after grew up in a very different world than those who were children during the release of the Prequel Trilogy, or from the generation living through childhood now. Some things that older generations remember fondly carry uncomfortable or even traumatic associations for younger generations, so something intended to be nostalgic will not impact all audiences in the same way.

The legacy saber is a great example of this: an older Original Trilogy fan might be delighted to see Luke’s inaugural lightsaber from the very first Star Wars film being passed on to the new generation, but a younger fan who grew up with the Prequels might see it as a tainted symbol of Anakin’s fall to the dark side and a weapon stained with the blood of innocent younglings. A family sword meant to press the nostalgia button in The Force Awakens instead invokes a feeling of dread and horror in fans with different associations. While Rian Johnson mentions deliberately referencing the Prequels in his creation of The Last Jedi, JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio make no secret of the fact that they don’t acknowledge those films, and it shows.

Lastly, Star Wars has always been a story of youth, of coming of age, growing up, and becoming one’s own person. Luke’s story in the Original Trilogy was about him learning who he was independently of his father and mentors. He is merely a boy, young and defiant, and through his own mistakes he learns how the elder generation was wrong, resolves to do better, and thereby redeems them. Anakin’s story was similar, except that he was unable in his youth to learn the right lessons from the failures of his mentors, his defiance taking a more destructive form. In contrast to both of them, Rey learns.... that all her mentors and parental figures were right all along. In the end, she defies no one, discovers no new and better way, and ultimately brings nothing new and different to the galaxy. She brings no peace or renewal, adopting a legacy of death and destruction to cap a life that has featured only the old, dead, and destroyed.

This is where Disney and Abrams tip their hand and the true philosophy underpinning the Sequel Trilogy is revealed: in an effort to appeal to the nostalgia of older Star Wars fans, they fail to tell a story of youth and instead offer an orgy of death-worship and aesthetic decay. Rather than having the Star Wars conclude with Star Peace, the final trilogy seems to say “Weren’t those wars great? Don’t you miss them? Don’t you want to be reminded of all those wars?”

In her book The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym defines the term a little differently than the dictionary:

"Nostalgia (from nostos - return home, and algia - longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but is also a romance with one's fantasy."

Boym points out that memory is often faulty, and that fond recollection is often a reaction to current despair. If things are bad now, it is natural for us to imagine a more comforting past, as with popular references to “the good old days.” In fact, another translation of the root algos is “pain,” thereby associating the return home with pain. Is it pain that prompts our longing to return home? Pain that creates the fond memory of home in the first place? Perhaps home itself is a source of pain, and so our minds construct an imaginary home that is better than the reality. In any case, it is typical that our rose-colored glasses distort the truth of what we long for, so the danger of nostalgia is a disassociation from truth.

One of those truths that we might deny in our fantasies is the ephemeral nature of human life and experience. All things age, decay, and ultimately cease to be. They may be evergreen in memory, but in a contiguous timeline like the Skywalker Saga, every location, object, or person must inevitably show the passage of time. Thus it is that the youthful heroes of the Original Trilogy become wizened and less vital when they reappear in the Sequels, that old ships break, and symbols of better times shatter and burn. As Boym states, however, the nostalgic lives in denial:

“The nostalgic desires to obliterate history and turn it into a private or collective mythology, to revisit time like space, refusing to surrender to the irreversibility of time that plagues the human condition.”

Nostalgia cannot hide the steady march of time, which is why most stories look to the future and the creation of the new. Not so the Sequel Trilogy. At no point in the story does there appear to be a goal outside of “defeating the latest bad guys, who are identical to the old bad guys.” There’s no vision of the future toward which the characters are striving, neither on a galactic level (achieving peace) nor a personal level (starting a new family on a vibrant living planet). As such, with nothing to look forward to, the story can only look backward, trapped in nostalgia for a past that appears worse the closer you look at it.

This is why the Sequels are filled with characters, objects, and places from the Original Trilogy that are revered in spite of their violent and even traumatic pasts, not to mention visible signs of age. Ultimately a story that has nothing new to say or offer, only weak attempts to recreate a half-remembered childhood feeling of an aging generation, can ONLY logically end in a graveyard. Viewed in this light, it makes sense that the young protagonist builds her life around fond memories that for her are only imaginary, surrounded by the visible evidence of death and decay to which nostalgia blinds her.

If this is all the fan in the audience is looking for, a faded echo of their favorite memory, then perhaps that is enough. But for those who do not share the reassuring memory, or those who look forward to the future and how things might change for the better, the ending of the Skywalker Saga offers only knowledge that all things fade and die. Without the lens of nostalgia, the Sequel Trilogy is merely an empty tale of death.

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hyoubusqueenofespers-moved · 5 years ago

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Lethal Lovers (A Kyousuke Hyoubu x Azusa Hyoubu Fanfic )

A short self ship fanfic featuring Kyousuke Hyoubu from Zettai Karen Children and Azusa Hyoubu aka Shadow Angel. This is also my very first Shadow Angel fanfic I’ve written. I hope you enjoy it!

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Summary: During a business meeting, Hyoubu and Azusa are conducting deals with an associate. However, they’re intentions aren’t that of forming a deal with business, but instead; dealing with an enemy set on attacking them. However, the enemy appears to be two ruthless espers who are dead set on killing them both. It’s up to Hyoubu and Azusa to fight them off before the powerful duo becomes prey of assassination.

Trigger Warning: Gun Mention, Blood/Injuries, and Heavy Violence

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Espers, a species of mankind who are capable of using psychic powers, also what is popularly known as ESP. Many people across the world are capable of using these special abilities, however, only very few espers are Level 4 through 7. Despite their outstanding abilities, many espers are still heavily discriminated against by humans who viewed them as monsters for their superhuman abilities. Most businesses primarily focus on humans as their top priority and their have been countermeasures made in order to regulate the abilities of espers by creature devices that weaken their abilities or negated them completely. Espers are easily targeted by organizations who intend to use them for foul means as ESP seems to be a lucrative business to dive into for many crime syndicates across the world.

This is where the all esper organization, P.A.N.D.R.A, comes in, lead by the charismatic yet potent world renowned esper criminal, Kyousuke Hyoubu. Despite their criminal activities, they view espers as top priority as they don’t mind using ESP to put a stop to those who harm their species of people and can the group easily described as freedom fighters, who intend to overturn the oppression some espers face, willingly to commit unlawful and violent actions to do so.

Today is one of those days. Hyoubu, a young looking man with white hair who wore a common design of a Japanese school uniform, appears to be handling business in a fairly large building which appeared to be hosted in a dimly lit looking room with a large collection of pricey watches on a shelf and old fashioned paintings on the wall. Accompanying Hyoubu in the room appeared to be a older man, appearing older than Hyoubu himself, and Hyoubu’s trusty advisor and his very dear husband, Azusa, a slim man shorter than Hyoubu with dark skin and long black hair and red eyes. He also sports a black suit and black half face fox mask on the side of his face. In his left hand, Azusa held onto a black briefcase. The two of them appeared to be conducting some sort of activity with the older businessman, Hyoubu doesn’t mind conducting business with people who are espers with similar viewpoints. However, this isn’t really what the duo of P.A.N.D.R.A are truly here for.

Black Phantom, P.A.N.D.R.A’s business rival, are making their presence known across Japan in the world of lucrative yet illegal ESP business, one of them being the use of ESP for assassination. By brainwashing espers to remove the personalities and will of the individual, these espers made the perfect killing machine for people such as Black Phantom themselves. However, Hyoubu as well as Azusa wouldn’t take kindly to this as both happened to be targets of assassination for Black Phantom. Black Phantom gotten hold of two espers who were sent to deal with the esper duo. Luckily, Hyoubu was prepared for them having to fight and even deliberately brought themselves plus his advisor to take them on.

In the current moment, Hyoubu listened to what his associate had to say. During the middle of conversation, Hyoubu communicated to Azusa with sign language, telling Azusa to be prepared for an esper going to shoot him, watching the couple from afar using clairvoyance. Hyoubu’s incredible powers could even let him sense espers from a long range, likely due to him being a high level, being of the Level 7 variety who are said to be the strongest espers. Hyoubu is a truly unique esper in his own right, hosting more abilities than even that of a typical Level 7 esper, is able to use his powers to prevent him from aging keeping his youthful appearance despite being the age of an elderly person, and could sometimes bypass devices that should nullify his powers. He used his ability to sense espers, noticing that an esper with a sniper rifle had its locked and loaded for Hyoubu himself.

“Thank you for having this business meeting with me, Mr.Hyoubu. Same goes for your advisor. Hopefully, this deal shall go further into the future.” The older man said to them, before he suddenly collapsed to the ground, revealing itself to be a well designed android. Hyoubu got up from his seat and along with Azusa, headed towards the middle of the room. “Get ready Azusa!” Hyoubu warned him with a strong sense of composure. Suddenly, a bullet flies towards Hyoubu, breaking the glass. As the bullet soars for Hyoubu, it instead takes a different target, one that the gunslinger wasn’t trying to target for, Azusa. He takes the bullet meant for Hyoubu and when it made impact, a large pool of blood escaped his body, causing Hyoubu to show a sign of sorrow. Azusa appeared to look with a sorrowful and panicked expression who believe death was going to take him away from the man he loved.

However, they weren’t going to go done with ease like that. After the bullet aimed for Azusa, the collapsing man looked towards his husband and boss with a smug smirk. Hyoubu looked at Azusa with a confident smile. As Azusa collapses; he appeared to dissolve into black shadowy mist that showcased that Azusa was truly an illusion that he created using hypnosis. “You’re not good enough for this!” Hyoubu mocking the gunslinging esper with a smug tone from afar. Suddenly, another esper made its presence known by teleporting to the area. This time, one with an electrifying bo staff. They charged at Hyoubu with their bo staff, attempting to bring in a powerful thrust to his chest. However, Azusa teleported using a shroud of darkness as a catalyst in order to in front of the propelling bo staff, blocking it with his parasol. The gunslinger from before made his face known to Hyoubu, teleporting into the room and attempting to surprise Hyoubu with throwing dagger. Hyoubu used his psychokinesis to stop the dagger aiming for him and crushed the knife with powerful telekinetic force, making the dagger essentially unusable.

Hyoubu teleports himself and Azusa to safe range where they didn’t make themselves too close to the enemy. Hyoubu and Azusa looked at them. Like he usually does to friend and foe, Azusa performs a formal bow to them, wanting to show himself being rather gentlemanly. Azusa appeared to look very formal with his outfit he wore, resembling that of a old fashioned commonly associated with vampires. He even had a top hat to give off that vibe as well. These must have to be the Black Phantom espers.” Hyoubu glared at both of them, looking rather disappointed that they have to fight an esper, especially one that no longer has their self in tact with them being a shell of their former self. The esper with the bo staff was very tall while the esper with the knives was short, even shorter than Azusa himself, who’s considerably short himself. The espers looked at Hyoubu and Azusa with cold stoic eyes, who had no other thought process than killing them. Azusa showed a grieving expression as well, having to fight an esper when their overall goal is to rescue and improve the well-being of espers even with both of them being criminals. Due to the espers’ brainwashing being strong for even Hyoubu making it even impossible for him to break and having to deal with the fact if Hyoubu tried to attempt to break the brainwashing, Hyoubu would get attacked by one of them, they had no choice but to truly kill them both. Luckily, Hyoubu already made arrangements with P.A.N.D.R.A once the fight is over.

Hyoubu wipes the disappointing look on his face, replacing with one of a smug grin. Azusa himself replaces his sad expression with a sinister smirk. Despite Azusa’s gentlemanly demeanor, he radiates a very smug and sinister side to him when he does. The two assassins we’re about to fight Hyoubu and Azusa. This would seem like a piece of cake for them. However, Hyoubu and Azusa weren’t just any esper combatants. The couple were known to be a force to be reckoned with as they easily used their teamwork abilities and fighting ability to easily crush their opponents, having dealt and severely beaten their foes this way. Along with this, they are the most powerful duo in all of P.A.N.D.R.A and both of them being known as “The Most Dangerous Esper Crime Duo In The Underworld”. Though, Hyoubu ended up making a team name for the both of them, Shadow Angel. They truly did spark intimidate in their enemies with their abilities. Not only their powers showcases how dangerous they can truly be, Hyoubu and Azusa truly show a deep bond for another which was considerably remarkable, especially when it comes to a group of renowned criminals like themselves and happen to show great enthusiasm towards each other, as not only a powerful team, but also when not committing crimes or fighting together.

Hyoubu looks at Azusa with a confident smile. “Are you ready My Dearest? Lets make sure they won’t land a scratch on us.” Hyoubu told Azusa with a prideful tone, yet wasn’t afraid to remind himself as well as Azusa how much he loved Azusa and calling him cute nicknames, even during situations that require fighting. Hyoubu only shown himself to call Azusa by romantic nicknames. They both looked at each other with a strong sense of trust in both of their abilities. ”Of course. I’m not letting you fight alone in this one, Angel.” Azusa told him looks at his lover with a playful and lovingly smile at Hyoubu’s adoring remarks. Like with Hyoubu, Azusa had cute nicknames for Hyoubu that only he would say to him. Hyoubu looked back at his opponent with a strong sense of confidence. Azusa radiates a suave yet sinister and confident demeanor, as an aura of darkness coats his thigh high boots and parasol. Hyoubu chuckled. “Let’s see if you two have what it takes to defeat Shadow Angel!” Hyoubu taunted the two esper assassins with a mocking tone. Both formations glared with menace in their eyes as the tension of the what’s going to happen next rises. The couple were ready to be lethal and menacing to their foe.

The esper with the bo staff didn’t take lightly to Hyoubu’s taunt and teleported towards Hyoubu, who makes an attempt to jab their bo staff charged with electricity at Hyoubu’s chest. It was quickly blocked by Azusa’s parasol, infused with darkness. The bo staff esper looked surprised as they watched Azusa look smugly at him and Hyoubu backs up, moving himself back away by flying using psychokinesis, placing himself on the ground after doing so. Hyoubu hides his left hand behind his back, lightly charging electricity around it. The bo staffer released their weapon from Azusa’s grip, making their move again, performing several whirling back spins, uppercuts, and spins with their bo staff only for Azusa to dodge all their attempts at damage moving backwards; performing a combination of aerial cartwheels, butterfly kicks, and butterfly twists in order to escape swiftly and elegantly while the man still effectively held his parasol in his right hand. Once Azusa got closer to Hyoubu, Azusa gracefully finished his movements and raises the hood to his parasol to block when the staffer jabs the hood of the parasol. However, Azusa once again dissolved into black mist making his foe fall for another illusion. Being caught within Hyoubu’s range, he aims extremely powerful force of electricity at the staffer, surging through their body causing them to scream and collapse to the ground. The knife wielding esper sees this an opportunity to attack Hyoubu from the side. Combusting the knives with pyrokinesis, three fiery knives head towards Hyoubu only for him to stop them with psychokinesis and crush them as if it was crumbling paper. Azusa appears again using his umbrageous teleportation, this time surprising the knife esper performs a drop kick yet rolled around in time and quickly gets up. However, Azusa refused to let their enemy escape easily. He goes in the offensive side, performing an 180 kick to his neck, hitting him with which made the man cough up blood. Azusa follows up with by twirling around to for an opening, as Azusa performs a powerful blow to their face, using the handle of parasol in order to so. Azusa sends jabbed the esper with enough force to be sent back and lose balance. Regaining their focus, Azusa teleports away in darkness and Hyoubu uses psychokinesis to send the person flying throughout room with the power of Hyoubu’s potent telekinetic force. It was only the beginning of the fight and the assassins were showcasing themselves to be struggling against the other pair. Looking from afar, it seemed that Hyoubu’s telekinetic powers combine with Azusa’s soaring kicks left the knife esper no chance of them getting up and appeared to be dead. The staffer struggling with their injuries. The rumors that Black Phantom of Hyoubu and Azusa being a powerful duo were no lie. Their synchronized movements, their powers, their formation, their anticipation, and the fact that they trusted each other in battle truly made them effective against the two. Even though the other espers, tried to recreate the same formation, it was nothing compared to the power of Shadow Angel.

During their fight, both Hyoubu and Azusa kept their composure and even looked at their enemy with a wicked smirked. Hyoubu chuckled lowly. “Are you sure you want to continue this? You haven’t even landed a scratch on either of us.” Hyoubu comments smugly yet carries a sense of mischief to his tone, boasting about their power as a duo. Hyoubu held Azusa’s hand for a quick second. The struggling enemy with the bo staff made his way up. They appear to fumble and wobble for a second. Hyoubu lets go of Azusa’s hand in preparation. “Shall we teach them a lesson, Azusa?” He spoke with eagerness. “Truly. I’ll be en garde.” Azusa replied.

The bo staff teleports to Azusa to aim with a corkscrew kick and aim bo his staff again at him. When they attempted to injure him again, Hyoubu teleports Azusa switching places with him. Luckily for Hyoubu, he shuts down their attempts by stopping their movements with psychokinesis and sends him away but this time; Hyoubu shows his combative skills as well as when the staffer was about to attack again, Hyoubu forcefully parries his weapon from his hands with a kick, leaving the staffer vulnerable to his follow up knifehand. Even when the staffer attempted to punch Hyoubu, Hyoubu catches his arm effortlessly following up with Hyoubu infusing his arms with flames; flicks the side of his arm into his opponent’s chest bringing him to his knee. Hyoubu teleports once again, switching places with Azusa as he effortlessly finishes off the foe with a front aerial that made them collapse to the ground.

Azusa returns to Hyoubu, bowing politely at him, looking at him with a sense of accomplishment. “You did well Azusa.” Hyoubu praised as he looked joyful. Hyoubu places his hand on the side of Azusa’s face. They appeared rather intimate and affectionate at one other. Azusa smiled adoringly at the affection Hyoubu gave him. Suddenly, Hyoubu notices the staffer trying to move once again. “Azusa.” Hyoubu signals at Azusa, pointing at the staffer. “You think they would learn by now Hun? Azusa comments. Hyoubu chuckled. “I would believe so too. They really are a stubborn one.” Hyoubu said mischievously. Since the staffer didn’t risk wanting to face the lethality of them both, instead, releases electricity from his hands and surges through the ground; causing it to raise, reaching the couple. “Well damn.” Hyoubu comments as they both get injured by the bolts of electricity, increasing its power to make sure that the target was dead.

The target saw that the couple collapsed, sighing with relief that they took them out. They picked up their bo staff, ready to return to Black Phantom despite their injuries. Hyoubu laughs wickedly. “You really are naive, aren’t you?” The injured Hyoubu asked rhetorically with a tone of slyness and sarcasm, he smugly smirked. The staffer looked confused but the illusionary hypnosis wore off on both of them, with Hyoubu’s illusion warped away while Azusa’s dissolved into mist. The staffer looked in shock as Hyoubu surprises them from behind. Hyoubu jabs his hand into forcefully into esper’s chest, piercing them with blunt force. “Now, you can properly rest.” Hyoubu spoke as he releases his hand from them. This time the opponent was done for as once the esper collapsed, they didn’t make a move. Hyoubu shook the blood off his hands. Azusa arrives in the room, teleporting from shrouds of darkness.

Hyoubu smiles warmly at Azusa as bows to him politely and formally. “You did very well.” Hyoubu complimented. Azusa looks at him with a loving and playful grin. Both decide to take a moment to sit down, using their powers like that did exert their energy quite a bit. Azusa rests his head on Hyoubu’s shoulder. “This is the power of Black Phantom? How disappointing. It’s bad that they use espers like we are some sort of circus animal.” Azusa commented. “It’s truly more disappointing that if their presence continues to flow, it’ll be hard for us to rescue the espers. They might’ve not been the strongest but I believe more will end up coming after us. Black Phantom is not only our business rival but also the enemy of espers as a whole.” Hyoubu replied. Azusa checks his cell phone, seeing that P.A.N.D.R.A isn’t that far from their current location, being only two minutes away currently. He shows this to Hyoubu. “They’ll be here in two minutes.” Azusa looked at Hyoubu with a warm smile, thinking about P.A.N.D.R.A, they felt like a real family to them both even with their criminal history. Hyoubu smiles silently and took it upon himself to kiss his shorter husband’s cheek. Azusa flustered for a second before smiling happily. As they wait for P.A.N.D.R.A to arrive, both of them looked off into the distance watching their surroundings, as they think about how much accomplished today.

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megaman2 · 2 years ago

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I still like to check the tags on my blog sometimes to look at various things, would suck to lose that I guess but it's clear this site is a shell of its former self and the constant ads make mobile unusable sadly the internet is dying and there's nothing we can do about it I guess

oh so that's why everyone is freaking out about tumblr shutting down

will never forget this lol

"Tumblr was purchased from Verizon for $3 million dollars in 2019. Verizon had acquired Tumblr from their acquisition of Yahoo, which had purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion dollars years earlier."

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settle-down-frohike · 7 years ago

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Late to the game as always!! My submission for @xfpornbattle . I was given an unsexy prompt by @contrivedcoincidences6, my episode being Excelsis Dei, and I’ll be honest, it was *extremely* hard to feel anything resembling smutty after watching it, but I think that was the point. ;) But! I was able to pull prompts 195(dominant Scully) and 38 (Mulder watched Scully have one-night stands for years before making his move) and try to make something work. I do strongly advise re-watching it before you read if, like me, you haven’t in a while.

My eternal gratitude to @lepus-arcticus for going easy on me and making my first beta experience lovely and pain free! <3 If you see any spelling or grammar mistakes at this point it’s from my latest hurried edit and no reflection on her skills at all. And thank you to Idris Elba, for being, well, Idris Elba. ;) Tagging @today-in-fic

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Shrinking Violet

R: NC-17

“I don’t know how to explain it, but it has something to do with those pills.”

An unsubstantiated solution to the substantiated crime. That was her report in a nutshell.

Thanks, Mulder.

She’s spent the last 5 hours turning that crude statement into an official report, and to say she is tired is an understatement. To make matters worse, Mulder seems to be finding any excuse to stay in the office with her. She understands the fact that he was technically her superior, but she doesn’t literally need supervision, for Christ’s sake. He just keeps hovering around her, just outside of her periphery, like a dog circling a dinner table. Rummaging through cabinets, flipping through files, making much ado about absolutely nothing. It’s incredibly annoying, but at this point she doesn’t have the energy to analyze or address it.

She’s been in the same clothes for close to 18 hours now, and just wants her shower and her bed, in that order. She packs her briefcase and watches from the corner of her eye to see if he does the same. He doesn’t even look up. It isn’t until she is halfway out of the door that he even bothers to speak.

“Hey Scully?”

She turns, her escape thwarted, and regards him with a blank expression, save one raised brow.

“S’good work. This case I mean....I’m glad you pushed it.”

An unexpected wave of rage paralyzes her senses, and for a moment, a rehearsed tirade about his premature dismissal of their victim’s case and its similarities to her own experience plays out in her mind. How it could have so easily been her pleading for someone to validate what her body knows, but what no one can prove-all of the physical evidence that would hold up in a court of law having been erased, her chance at justice stolen, along with a good bit of faith in the system she works for. It lodges in her throat that she’s disappointed in him, maybe for the first time.

She can still hear herself pleading with him to continue to pursue this case, and the memory makes her cringe. Her abduction has her unwillingly humbled, punished for the company she’s chosen to keep, and she hates it. If she’s being punished, she’d might as well commit a crime befitting. Ahab once grounded her for a month after she came in smelling of cigarettes she hadn’t smoked. It’d felt righteous then, on the roof at 3am, choking on an entire pack of her mother’s Virginia Slims. Bad decisions might as damned well be her own.

She doesn’t know herself anymore. The body in the mirror at home is softer than it used to be, it slouches with memories of invasion and abuse. This body betrays her. It keeps secrets now. It’s frustrating to feel patronized by one’s own mind. She appreciates the work keeping her busy, and she hoped coming back as quickly as possible would be the first step in feeling whole again. But she’s not anywhere close to restored. Her edges feel tattered and stitched poorly together, and though her reflection may not show it, she’s a Raggedy-Ann version of her former self. She wants her body back, her memories back, and her autonomy back.

To let him know these things would show weakness. So instead, she smiles tightly at the floor and mumbles some platitude about teamwork or partnership and slips out. If she makes it to the garage fast enough, he won’t have time to wrap up this charade, gather his own things, and follow her home. Again. She’d rather him pull the big brother act when he thinks she’s not looking.

----------------------------------------------------

At the third stop light before the freeway, a Holiday Inn sign reads, “$1 MRGRTAS” and the rebel in her smiles. He won’t follow her in here, and if he does, she’ll hopefully be drunk enough to say what’s on her mind. She’s not ready to be at home alone with those thoughts just yet.

Two hours later, she’s four deep and enjoying her umpteenth cigarette with relish, her nose is pleasantly numb, and her thoughts about her partner are turning maudlin. He’s trying, she reckons. She knows he cares deeply for her. He likes to keep her close, like a lucky rabbit’s foot or some other talisman, rattling around in his pocket with the loose change, carelessly cherished. She remembers a time, not so long ago when she’d been starry-eyed and school-girl smitten with her new partner, with his unexpected good looks and unreachable genius. And for a time, they’d sparked against each other like flint meeting a match. For a time, it’d felt like maybe he’d felt something too. Her disappearance has exposed weakness in them both, she supposes. Her need to push against support instead of leaning into it, and his inability to offer any outright, for fear of not deserving the trust. This thought feels like something resembling forgiveness, and, her anger having dissipated, she’s thinking seriously about paying her tab and calling a taxi. At that moment, an impossibly rich baritone asks if the seat next to her is taken.

The accent is British, and his suit is expensive. He fits in here about as well as she does. He orders Glenlivet, neat. The tequila has her feeling loose limbed and mischievous, so after a few moments of quiet companionship, she slips off her jacket to reveal the pale blue silk shell underneath, just to see what might happen. Her newer, larger breasts stretch against the fine fabric, and if the sensation is unfamiliar and discomfiting, his side glance is not. She swallows any lingering traces of self doubt down with a swish of salt and cheap mix. The game is afoot, and the rush of adrenaline to her brain at her prowess is euphoric. She wants more of this kind of puissance, achieved cheaply, but effective nonetheless.

“You’re not singing tonight?” He nods towards the empty stage, floating lights and karaoke machine at the corner of the bar, unused, thankfully.

“Not tonight,” she smiles into her plastic tumbler, “too much competition.” His resulting chuckle is deep and dizzying.

Afoot, indeed.

She turns her head and is met with a very handsome smile with a face to match, basset-hound eyes and skin the color of strong espresso. His beard is well kept, and only serves to highlight his strong jawline, and sumptuous mouth. The closely tailored suit is doing nothing to hide the brutish build underneath. But he carries it with such elegance. He is fist-bitingly sexy. His handshake is gentle and warm, his name is Miles. There’s a bewitching hint of grey at his temples, and she is suddenly swooning, and damning everything all to hell.

She can’t honestly believe she hears herself ask if he is here alone, but the words come from someone that sounds a lot like her. He nods, and says he’s there ‘on conference’, the way that well-to-do Brits must put it, and the rest of his associates are at the Four Seasons.

“I’m set to give a lecture come morning, and tonight... I just needed a bit of breathing room.”

“Pressures at work?” She asks. He nods and releases a puff of smoke from one of her borrowed cigarettes.

“Comes with the terri’try, I suppose. I’m the head of my department at university. I’m expected to have allll the answers,” he cracks, with a wide sweep of his arm.

She chuffs. “That’s interesting. Lately I feel like I have no answers, only questions. But I think I understand.”

Their eyes meet again, and the air around them is suddenly charged. Not sexual, really, but a kind of understanding, a kinship being formed, and she’s now more drawn to him than ever. She feels brazenly without filter.

“Do men like you, with answers, I mean, does that power ever become a burden?”

“It absolutely does. Yes.”

She surveys the room, nodding. “Well I can assure you, Miles. Being without them can weigh on you just as well.”

He’s watching her still, even as she refuses to return his gaze.

“Can I help?”

That catches her attention. His eyes are crinkled with scrutiny, but something else, something familiar radiates behind the humor. Ah, yes. She recognizes it now. Need. Naked and thinly veiled behind his offer.

“Yes,” she answers, with a Mona Lisa smile, “yes, I think maybe you can.” He gracefully signals the barkeep, and she stands to gather her jacket and purse.

-------------------------------------------------

She shivers visibly as he closes the door to his room, and she chalks it up to the ancient overactive air conditioner by the window and not her nerves. Like the gentlemen she expects him to be, though, he adjusts the setting before relieving himself of his own jacket, and walks to stand before her. But God he is striking, and mysterious and reserved in a way that intimidates and in turn, arouses her. And something about the scent of the cheap furnishings and the last traces of his expensive cologne is intoxicating in an illicit, tawdry sort of way. This feels like an affair. This stranger’s body she’s been inhabiting for the last few months now is behaving like the old Dana would, unmercifully enraptured by an older, powerful man.

“Tell me what I can do,” he says gently, and she’s swept up on a wave of supremecy.

“Take off your clothes,” she orders, softly but firmly, as she begins to relieve herself of her own, “and get on your knees.” His eyes flash brightly and he obeys, an eager supplicant. The slightest sway of her pelvis toward his mouth is all the command he needs, and his tongue snakes between her thighs, smoothly traces her outer folds, seeking entrance. She presses her hand to the back of his head and he growls into her in response. She can see him growing long and thick and hard between his legs, purely on the taste of her. Her voice is husky with want, and the air is saturated with pheromones.

“Make me come.”

And he does. Using long, deft fingers and a dexterous tongue he suckles and strokes with perfect pressure, an even rhythm, until the one leg she has thrown over his broad back becomes two, and she’s lying back on the bed, watching herself thrash and moan from far, far above her body, this dark god of a man at her mercy.

He laps at her gently, bringing her down from orgasm with incredible tenderness. His beard is soaked and glistening when he looks up, and she decides she’s not done with him yet.

“Lie on the bed, now.”

He rises wordlessly, licks his lips, and nods. When he settles, fully prostrate, she rises and stands next to the bed, admiring his form. Every inch of him is perfection. She wants to bite at his pebbled nipples, suckle at his mouth, capture the straining tendons at his neck between her teeth. He’s visibly, if willfully, tortured, and true power is not without mercy.

If she were to straddle and face him, it would feel too intimate. Neither want connection, they want distraction. She wants to use him and he wants to be used. So she turns back and watches herself sink down, slowly, onto his dusky length in the dresser mirror. The woman before her is dominant, formidable, and she’s aching to come again. Her fingers slide down between her breasts, over her mons and past her clitoris, fully engorged, stiff and eager. She finds their bodies’ joining, finds where he enters and his slick girth spreads her open, impaling her as she rises and falls. Her slick, shining fingers reach her mouth and taste their sex, rich and biting. He’s watching her reflection with wide, worshipful eyes. Dipping lower, her fingernails graze the tender underside of his sack, and the muscles in his legs rippling in anticipation, like a thoroughbred at the gate. He thrusts unconsciously and groans helplessly, “God!” and the succubus in her takes over. She growls, “Don’t you dare fucking move,” and starts to work herself ruthlessly, grinding him down and deep against her cervix, the sensation acute and exquisitely painful, over and over again. Her eyes never leave her reflection, even as she is open-mouthed and howling, her second orgasm consuming her like a brushfire. His own climax registers somewhere in the distance.

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Her legs are trembling with exertion, an unnamed emotion bubbling it’s way to the surface. She collapses forward, sobbing, as a pair of warm, strong arms envelope her from behind.

“You are incredible,” he whispers, breathless, “a goddess. Now come here.” His commanding tone is softened by English r’s. The fight in her has gone, but he takes no advantage. He tucks her next to him under the thin comforter and tells her sternly, “Give yourself time to heal, girl. You have all the power you seek. Wield it as you wish. You have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself.” The last thing she thinks is how, in this moment, she does feel very much like a girl, newborn and guiltless and so very, very afraid again of what she does not know. What her mind won’t let her remember. For now though, she lets his warmth and his brawn shield her against the demons that beckon.

Come morning, on the pillow next to her, a vibrant, freshly picked violet is all that remains of him.

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A disheveled man sits in a parked car across the street from the Holiday Inn, two days worth of stubble coating his cheeks, eyes red-rimmed and shifty. His body shakes, the indignant fury he felt previously now exhausted into fumes of guilt as he watches her come through the sliding doors, out to her car, and follows it as it drives away. She’s safe at least. She’s alive. He doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this up.

#myfic #msr fic #xf prompt battle #xfiles s2 #fic prompts #excelsis dei #drabbles #idris elba

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eddygould · 8 years ago

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Fallout Hawaii

This idea came into my head 2 years ago (in 2015, with the release of Fallout 4), and now I have returned to it. I have chosen the Fallout: New Vegas endings and factions scheme, because Fallout 4 was too casual in this plan, not having the freedom of choice at all. However, I left family vicissitudes as the main concept of the plot, according to the canons of Bethesda.

THE PLOT:

Events of the game occur in 2242 (during the events of Fallout 2), on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Thomas, the father of the player, is the Overseer of the Vault 4 and the Head Consul of the Aloha State, a sovereign self-proclaimed republic. One of his sons, Vincent (and also the brother of the player) is a brilliant scientist and engineer who has done a lot for the Vault. One day, Vincent leaves the Vault and mysteriously disappears along with a team of other researchers. Father sends his second son (or a daughter), the player (also called the Arbiter), to find him. When the player goes to the surface for the first time, they are free to go anywhere and do whatever they want, including joining one of the organizations fighting for control over the island. In fact, the player’s brother was kidnapped by the Enclave, rather its special department, sent to an expedition to Hawaiian Islands. Led by a liberal Commander Joshua Harrelson, the Enclave secretly studies the island of Oahu and decides to seize it for its own purposes. To do this, they kidnap Vincent and recruit him, but the faction also becomes interested in the player when the protagonist meets them for the first time. Meanwhile, the Chosen One from F2 destroys the Enclave Oil Rig, and the Hawaiian Enclave becomes a fully independent organization. After their meeting, the player can choose any faction for further walkthrough and ending. Depending on the player’s choice, life on the island will be changed forever.

FACTIONS:

ALOHA STATE (New Aloha City and Vault 4): the inhabitants of the Vault 4 who came to the surface and founded New Aloha City. At the beginning of the game, they are going to cover the whole island, uniting all the tribes under the auspices of the state, taxing them and eliminate competitors. The faction is governed by Thomas who combines the post of the Vault Overseer and the Head Consul of the state, which is not very popular with some residents of the city. Many people consider this a remnant of the past and plan to elect their own president.

ORDER OF THE SHINE (Makakilo Base): the original residents of a secret military bunker with its own experimental program. After spending many years in isolation and raising a conservative society based on worshiping firearms, these people have created an aggressive organization, wanting to take control of the island. In their opinion, goal of the faction is a revival of an old American society. Ben Gardner aka Captain Shrapnel is their cruel leader.

SUNCHILDREN (Oma-Oma Village): a group of dwellers from the Vault 4, led by Linda, the player’s mother. After her disappointment in Thomas and people in general, they left the Vault and founded their own village, raising a "green" society with veneration of biotechnologies and negation of nuclear energy. Linda and her allies are about to finish their bioreactor and remove other organizations from the island. Despite seeming primitive, organization is equipped with powerful biological weapons and has achieved a great success in the field of selection.

CRIMSON PENNANT (Dead Dragon): the Chinese war prisoners and communists who were mutated into Ghouls and Supermutants. Their goal is to create a toxic bomb with special virus that can mutate all the people into superghouls, a species of supermutants, possessing absolute immunity to radiation, incredible strength, and increased mental abilities, the obedient zombies with communist views. Together they plan to seize the island and build communism, excluding racial prejudice. Their leader and head ideologist is Xun Chang, a Chinese Ghoul who placed himself in the mechanical shell of a Sentry Bot.

THE ENCLAVE (Golf Land and The Hook): a branch of the main organization that was sent to the expedition to Hawaiian Islands. The main base of the branch is located on the big island of Hawaii. It is ruled by a liberal Commander Joshua Harrelson who is highly concerned in factions’ technologies and goals. Joshua did not share the views of the main organization and believed that "irradiated" people and even some mutants are necessary for the revival of civilization. After the destruction of the Oil Rig, he declares himself as the new leader of the Enclave and takes the situation into his own hands.

MAIN LOCATIONS:

Locations, serving as bases of main factions.

VAULT 4 and NEW ALOHA CITY. It was created in 2060s as a part of the Vault project. The main purpose of the experiment was propaganda and its impact on people and society. Vault 4 was connected by an underground tunnel with the Vault A. One day, a group of the soldiers had intervened in peaceful life of the Vault and killed all dissents, capturing the main computer. They wanted to arrange their own regime based on ethnic hate, cult of weapons, and slavery. However, some people quickly gathered a secret revolutionary community and uncovered the conspiracy. They took situation in their hands and saved the Vault, setting up a propaganda program of a "bright American future" and collapsing the tunnel. Eventually, after many years, when the doors of the Vault have been opened, people came on the surface and grew a new American society, founding New Aloha City.

DEAD DRAGON. A concentration camp for the Chinese and communists. It was built in 2068, after the massive Chinese attack on Hawaii in 2067. Dead Dragon is located in the north-west of the island, in the mountains. Right after the bombs fell, all prisoners and scientists have become ghouls and supermutants. A Chinese general Xun Chang took the situation under his control, gathered massive group of the Chinese, and devastated all the Americans in the camp. He managed to assemble a new organization and inspire the mutants with the ideas of communism. That is how the Crimson Pennant was founded.

OMA-OMA VILLAGE. A settlement founded by Linda and other dwellers of the Vault 4 when they did not want to put up with the technologies of the current world.

MAKAKILO BASE aka the VAULT A. Technically, it is a Vault, though it does not belong to the main experimental program. It was built by Vault-Tec Corporation and connected by a tunnel with the Vault 4, although the work was supervised by military, which caused a lot of controversy in its time. The Vault was created especially for soldiers, and the experiment involved a constant army lifestyle with strict rules and punishments. This project was led by a couple of generals who later invaded the Vault 4, but were defeated and nearly unleashed a full-scale war in the bunker. After this incident, rules became even stricter, and the life of ordinary soldiers began to resemble hell. Eventually, after many years, all the inhabitants have turned into cruel maniacs obsessed with war and weapons aesthetics, brought up on the conservative army foundations.

GOLF LAND. This once working golf course hides the secret base of the Enclave on Oahu.

THE HOOK. Main base of the Enclave branch that is located on the big island of Hawaii.

QUEST LOCATIONS:

Other locations, playing a role in each faction’s story quest.

BLOT CITY. Formerly called Honolulu, but now it is a big city-junkyard that lies in ruins and is under control of several Raider bands: Tiki Heads, Wild Surfers, and Nuka-Sharks, each of which is constantly at war with each other because of territories and supplies. It is also a home for many Hawaiian ghouls.

PEARL HARBOR. A former port and a military base that was destroyed by a direct hit of an atomic missile. A massive half-crater and a radioactive bay are the only things that remained from this place.

FALCON BASE. One of many military bases in the past and a partially flooded bunker in the present. The base is controlled by an AI that puts experiments on ghouls, forcing them to play its "game". There are still many military robots on the lower levels, waiting for their activation.

LUA-PELE. A small village, the home of a closed society named Oiaio (referred as the Cult of Volcano by other islanders). They worship the volcano and consider the island as the center of the universe. The Cult's task is to awake the Volcano God that someday will save the Cult by giving them a new form of existence.

ATOM EDEN. One of the oldest attraction parks, founded in the 20th century by General Atomics International as a big advertising campaign of nuclear energetics. The park had been rebuilt and updated many times until the Great War. In fact, it is a secret military base and a bomb storage. To this day, there is an unused nuclear warhead in the warehouse under the park.

LEONARDO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. The headquarters of General Atomics International on Oahu, served as the main source of energy that fed the Atom Eden and other enterprises. However, the bombs turned it into a radioactive waste, killing all life around.

DLC IDEAS:

THE ZOOKEEPER — The player discovers a secret base specialized in the experiments on animals after a mutated Deathclaw escapes from a cave nearby. Protagonist will get acquainted with the numerous results of experiments and other abominations created for military purposes. After completing the main quest and solving the problem of a highly intelligent Deathclaw-chameleon who wanted to revive the base, the player will be able to tame animals and modify them, donning special armor and weapons, even installing cybernetic elements to subordinate the unique and dangerous fauna of Oahu.

THE PEARL OF HAWAII — The faction will ask the player to create a radiation-resistant submarine for an expedition to the radioactive bay of Pearl Harbor. The protagonist will be sent into the cloister of the strongest underwater mutants, as well as to the graveyard of old technologies in order to uncover all the secrets of one of the most important military bases of pre-war America.

TERRA DISTANTE — The player's faction makes an expedition to one of the distant Hawaiian islands, practically unaffected by the Great War. The player will meet the brutal island fauna and will be involved in the conflict between two tribes, which needs to be resolved. Will the hero colonize the island, sacrificing the interests of the aborigines, or leave them alone?

MAIN QUEST AND ENDINGS:

The chain of the main quest is conditionally divided into acts, just like in New Vegas.

Act 1: The search for Vincent — The player finds their brother and learns about the Enclave.

Act 2: points 1,2 — The player performs the first chain of factional quests related to the neutralization of competitors.

Act 3: point 3 — The player performs the essential tasks, strengthening the influence of their faction on the island.

Act 4: points 4,5 — The player performs the second chain of factional quests and completes the game.

ESSENTIAL TASKS THAT ARE NOT DEPENDENT ON FACTION AKA ACT 3:

Falcon Base Expedition (Activate the army of robots / Destroy the base). In case of activation, robots will help player's faction in further quests. If the player plays for Sunchildren, robots must be destroyed.

Fate of Volcano Cult (Destroy / Recruit / Infect [Crimson Pennant]).

Seizure of Blot City and the fate of the Raiders (Force to leave / Subordinate / Destroy / Infect [Crimson Pennant]). In case of subordination / infestation, raiders will help Player's faction in further quests, and give various supplies.

Atom Eden (Seize the park and find a warhead). The last essential quest that launches the 4th act.

ALOHA STATE:

Sunchildren. Put an atomic accelerator on the reactor that will irradiate the settlement and thereby kill Linda. Eliminate unwanted inhabitants and agents to improve Thomas' reputation.

Crimson Pennant. Destroy the base and stop the infection.

Act 3.

The Order. Repulse an attack, Make the way to the base and seize the secret developments of Power Armor.

Enclave. Save / Kill Thomas, Kill / Persuade Vincent to help, Blow up the bomb, Escape from the base. Vincent can help the player to blow up the bomb, but the player must kill their father before their eyes. In the end, Vincent will launch the process of self-destruction and give the protagonist the keys of the vertibird site. Joshua will appear and kill Vincent, giving an order to shoot at the protagonist. The player can also kill their brother, free Thomas, and blow up the bomb themselves, breaking through the crowds of Enclave soldiers or acting secretly.

★ Aloha State achieves a dominant position on the island, uniting all tribes and creating a fully independent state.

Thomas' tyranny continues, and the player will become its successor after the death of the father. However, the future of all the Hawaiian islands depends only on the protagonist and their past relationship with Thomas.

The Player becomes the president of Aloha State, and in the future they will try to wash the disgrace of their father.

SUNCHILDREN:

Crimson Pennant. Destroy the base and stop the infection.

Aloha State. Secretly kill Thomas, replacing him with a special agent.

Act 3.

The Order. Repulse an attack, Make the way to the base, and destroy the secret developments of Power Armor.

The Enclave. Save / Kill Linda, Kill / Persuade Vincent to help, Blow up the bomb, Escape from the base. Under the mother’s influence, the player can lure their brother to their side (or kill him). However, if the player kills Linda, he will not be able to recruit Vincent.

★ The island is thriving. People have completely got rid of nuclear energy and turned Oahu into a majestic green place. Harmony with the nature has increased life expectancy and also reduced the levels of violence.

After Linda’s death, the player will become a new ruler of the island and soon will colonize all the Hawaiian islands.

After Linda’s death, the player and Vincent will begin to struggle for power, and this conflict will divide the island into two independent states, which will fall over each other for many years.

Killing their own mother and taking the reins in their hands, the protagonist through trial and error will achieve prosperity on Oahu. Anyway, the player is unlikely to see a colonization of the Hawaiian islands, and the future will no longer depend on them.

THE ORDER:

Sunchildren. Kill Linda by blowing up the reactor.

Crimson Pennant. Destroy the base and stop the infection.

Act 3.

Aloha State. Kill Thomas and seize the Vault, setting a new order there.

The Enclave. Save / Kill Captain Shrapnel, Kill Vincent, Blow up the bomb, Escape from the base. If the player saves the Captain, he will call for reinforcements in order to distract the Enclave soldiers, blow up the bomb and escape with the player. Otherwise, the player will have to do everything by themselves.

★ All the forces of the island will be transferred to the possession of one of the most powerful military organizations that will obviously be interested in new lands and exploration of the mainland. The Order will do everything possible to revive a great American society.

The player becomes one of the highest generals, keeping an eye on their home.

Straightening out with the Captain Shrapnel, the protagonist themselves becomes a cruel ruler. Obeying a whole island, the player will stop at nothing in order to grab more land and resources in the future.

CRIMSON PENNANT:

Sunchildren. Kill Linda, Test the experimental serum, turning everyone into Ghouls.

Aloha State. Kill Thomas, Infect all the residents.

Act 3.

The Order. Repulse an attack, Make the way to the base and destroy the secret developments of Power Armor.

The Enclave. Save Chang, Load his mind into the supercomputer of the base and infect everyone. The player must eliminate Vincent and load Chang's consciousness into the main computer. The virus from the bomb will infect everyone, including the player. Accelerated growth will kill the Enclave soldiers in Power Armor, and Chang will be able to control the whole base.

★ After its victory and the proclamation of communism, Crimson Pennant will sow the regime on all the Hawaiian islands, and then on North America, and even Asia.

Influence of the faction will grow, as the player becomes the commander of the first mass attack on the California coast.

THE ENCLAVE:

Sunchildren. Kill Linda by blowing up the reactor.

Aloha State. Secretly kill Thomas, replacing him with a special agent.

Act 3.

Crimson Pennant. Destroy the base and stop the infection.

The Order. Repulse a massive attack, Make the way to the base, and destroy the secret developments of Power Armor. The Enclave breaks through with the battle and completely destroys the Order, successfully capturing the island. However, after the victory, Joshua Harrelson demonstratively kills Vincent because he considers him useless, compared to the player. The protagonist can kill Joshua or leave him alive.

★ The remains of the Enclave become one of the most powerful organizations in the post-nuclear world and later will grow into a huge island state, as well as trying to reborn the human civilization.

The player becomes an Enclave general. Nevertheless, over the years the organization's policy will become more rigid, and Joshua Harrelson gradually will abandon his liberal views, turning the Enclave into a totalitarian faction.

Having avenged their brother and ready to act, the player takes the reins of government into their own hands. With all the might they will try to restore the human civilization for good.

ENDING STRUCTURE:

Fate of the player and their family.

The faction ending, fates of other factions and the island at all.

Fates of the Falcon Base, Oiaio, Blot City, Raiders, and others.

Minor details: the fates of the companions and various settlements.

Whatever the ending is and whatever the player’s choice was, only one thing is clear: War never changes.

#fallout #fallout hawaii #game ideas

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bwccu · 6 years ago

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Loopholes That Are Used By Rich People To Avoid Paying Taxes That You Can Use Too

The rich are rich because they know how to manage their money. You can learn a lot from their efforts and these loopholes should be taken note of if you wish to avoid paying taxes legally.

Remember that in old age the personal allowance still continues.

Instead of one individual holding most of their income during retirement, at a 40 per cent rate perhaps, it makes more sense to ensure that their finances are arranged in such a way that this income is shared as much as possible.

That can be accomplished through building up your partner’s state pension, and/or making pension payments in order to build a retirement account up Those contributions are taxed at the payer’s marginal rate, and the fund may not be accessed before age 55.

Also, payments may be made every year of up to £3,600 irrespective of earnings level. So you might as well pension all children who are assisting with the business as well.

Shell Companies

This is a kind of company that exists on paper only, which allows the individual who is using it to funnel money through it to avoid paying taxes. This kind of corporation typically does have a legal existence but offers few if any actual services or products.

One of the classic ways that these companies are used is to buy and sell through them. That means the owner is not required to report the international operations that the shell company conducts and can avoid paying taxes on its profits. Various other forms of shady business are conducted through using a shell company, including selling brand goods from supermarkets without the value of its main brand being impacted.

Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate, recently got into trouble over claims that he had been evading claims by the government on his finances, with one of these accusations being that his income had been channeled into a shell company located in Bermuda, which is a tax haven. His party’s belief that the government should remain out of the affairs of private citizens definitely seems to be shared by him.

Equity Swaps

This is another shady method that is used for tax evasion purposes. It is basically an official agreement that enables two parties, for example, two rich companies or people who have an interest in lowering their taxes) to exchange the loss and gain of a group of assets without ownership actually being transferred.

Generally, one of the swaps is pegged to the LIBOR or another fixed rate, meaning that a fixed return can be expected by the participants either at several predetermined points or in one payment.

The exchange of value allows the participants to avoid having transactions costs, in local taxes that are tied to certain locations in some cases. That is a sneaky way to earn bonuses for people wanting to avoid having to pay high taxes in specific places while still reaping the benefits associated with owning assets in a different area.

Watch your money – can you hold onto it tax-free?

If you happen to be a higher rate taxpayer, then the pitifully low-interest rate offered by the bank will be eroded even more. Use any surplus funds, gifts, and cash Isas in your partner’s name if she or he is a lower taxpayer, after using their tax free ISA first.

Not everybody will want to do this, particularly if funds may be needed for their business since you would be relying on your partner to agree to gift back the funds to you.

Do not exceed an of more than £100,000

For each £2 of income that is over £100,000, £1 of personal allowance will be lost. By £118,880 you will lose £9,440 in tax-free income.

Then this will be taxed at 20 percent, with the £18,880 that is over the £100,000 being taxed at a 40 per cent rate, which means that your marginal tax rate on this part of your income is 60%.

Along with the ideas provided above, you also can top up your pension. Although currently, the maximum annual allowance is £50,000, unused annual allowances can be used going back a total of three tax years in order to increase that amount. Your personal allowance can also be preserved by gift aid payments being made.

Claim your expenses

The cost of operating your business can be offset against income in order to lower your taxable profit.

You cannot deduct personal or non-business costs so if a room in your house is used as an office for over 25 hours per month, then the simplified flat tax scheme might be easier than to have to show which of your costs are actually business expenses as opposed to personal expenses.

Insure yourself

Not having an income is one way of avoiding having to pay tax. A majority of people view that as a very drastic solution to paying taxes and seek to avoid that becoming a reality for them.

However, the self-employed are quite vulnerable to times of unemployment and are not paid if they become sick and are not able to work.

Insuring yourself is the solution to this, in addition to any other key individuals you employ who help to ensure your business’s sustainability, against that risk. There is no tax relief for the premiums, but any payments that are made are tax-free. Another essential product to obtain is life cover.

Maximise all of your tax allowances

The capital gains tax is often the forgotten tax allowance. Each individual has a capital gains tax allowance every year that may be reached before any gain is taxed. That amount was

£10,900 for the 2013/14 financial year.

Therefore, theoretically, if you manage all of your financial matters properly, you can plan on a future where both you and your partner are able to receive £20,340 (in today’;s terms) every year tax-free (£10,900 from CGT and £9,440 from your income tax personal allowance).

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roberttbertton · 7 years ago

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The Ford Motor Company now owns one of Detroit’s iconic buildings in the Michigan Central Station. The monumental building looms over Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. It’s long been a symbol of Detroit’s decay, and now it could become the symbol of Detroit’s revival, and Ford’s along with it. The building is set to become the anchor of Ford’s 1.2 million-square-foot campus in the Detroit neighborhood.

The Michigan Central Station will house more than just Ford employees, though. The auto company says it will be a mixed-use facility with facilities for up to 5,000 office workers and space for shops, restaurants and maybe even residential housing.

Ford has a substantial undertaking before employees and businesses move into the building. The Michigan Central Station is nearly literally a shell of its former self.

The station was built in 1913 by the same firm responsible for New York’s Grand Central Terminal. In its day, the 21-story building stood proudly with marble floors under an arched 65-foot ceiling. It was the tallest train station in the world when its colossal bronze doors first opened to the public.

Since its closure in the ’80s the building sat empty, eventually losing nearly everything to looters and nature. The windows disappeared, graffiti covers much of the brickwork, and the ornamental ceiling is crumbling. Barbed-wire fence eventually encircled the structure, attempting to keep people out. But they don’t. The lure of the station is too strong.

DETROIT, MI – JUNE 19: An artist spray paints a canvas at the historic, 105-year old Michigan Central train station prior to a Ford Motor Company press conference to formally announce their plans to renovate the building and turn it and Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood into a hub for Ford’s auto technology on June 19, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The project is expected to be completed by 2022 and will be the workplace for approximately 2500 Ford employees. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Detroit, The Mobility City

The Michigan Central Station is set to be the center of a large Ford campus centered around forward-looking automotive technology research and design. Ford sees 2,500 employees occupying the buildings by 2022. The focus is on the future of mobility including electric and autonomous vehicles, and everything from connected vehicles to roads and parking.

Ford held a large event today announcing its intentions for the campus and Michigan Central Station. CEO Jim Hackett points to the advancing revolution where, as he says, artificial intelligence and big data that will be even more disruptive than the industrial revolution.

“What Rouge was to Ford in the industrial age, Corktown can be for Ford in the information age,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett said in a released statement. “It will be the proving ground where Ford and our partners design and test the services and solutions for the way people are going to live and get around tomorrow, creating a Southeast Michigan mobility corridor that spans west from Dearborn to Ann Arbor, and east to Detroit.”

The plan calls for Ford to occupy at least three buildings in the area as part of a mobility corridor Ford intends to build spanning Detroit to Ann Arbor to Ford’s home in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford says it will redesign its Dearborn campus alongside Corktown campus.

Hackett was clear on this point: The plans for the Corktown campus will not compete or replace Ford’s Dearborn campus. He stressed that it’s part of the same system.

“It’s actually one whole system,” Hackett said. “In fact, if anything it guarantees the future of Dearborn. Our Dearborn redesign [and] our Corktown revitalization are just steps in the strategy to keep moving forward.”

Ford largely operates outside the city of Detroit. The company’s headquarters, main development operations and Ford River Rouge Complex are located in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. This move into Corktown is more than symbolic; it’s significant.

The big three automakers, along with countless automotive suppliers located in Michigan, are increasingly fighting with Silicon Valley for talent. Rightfully so, prospective employees are looking for employers that can offer a compelling work/life balance, with that, comes the place of employment. I’ve been through Ford’s Dearborn’s facilities. From an outsider’s perspective, some of these facilities feel like an aging office complex that could crush your soul at any moment.

Silicon Valley offers engineering talent a unique opportunity previously largely unavailable for such jobs. It’s likely why GM let its self-driving startup, Cruise, continue to operate in the Bay Area.

Moving engineering teams into a Corktown campus will place these employees in the middle of a historic city on the upswing. By the time Ford moves employees into the facility by 2022, Corktown should be packed with upstart restaurants, bars and shops, ready to take the money of Ford engineers.

From Trains to Self-Driving Cars

The Detroit News explains how the deal unfolded. Along the way, the structure was inspected and deemed sound enough for redevelopment. Apparently since concrete encases the steel girders, the structure of the building has fared better than its ornamental adornments.

The station was in a state of decay before the last Amtrak train left the station in 1988 and was never an overwhelming success on its own. The station is located outside of the downtown core and relied on Detroit’s trolleys to bring riders to the station. The station also lacked a large parking facility, which became problematic after the rise of the automobile caused the trolley system to age and shut down.

The station’s interior is stunning even in its decayed state. The general waiting room reminds of a Roman bathhouse with soaring arched ceilings covered in Guastavino tile that speak to Detroit’s glorious past. Light pours through the tall windows and glass ceiling. Pillars are throughout the lobby. The arches continue in a lovely arcade that once housed shops and service stalls.

Space for 500 offices occupied the floors above the station, though the top floor of the station remained unfinished and unused through the building’s history.

The station lacked windows for years and nature did its best to reclaim the station. Water damage is visible everywhere. Tiles are falling off the arches, revealing the terra cotta backing. Stagnant water is found throughout the lower levels.

Historic Detroit states ridership peaked following World War 1 with 200 trains leaving the station daily but started to dwindle quickly in the 1950s. Amtrak took over the station from the bankrupt Penn Central in 1971, the year it was founded. The corporation spent $1 million updating the station but couldn’t save it, and the last train departed the station in 1988 heading to Chicago.

The year Amtrak unveiled the updated station, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This designation didn’t increase riders, but it did save the building from being demolished after Amtrak moved out.

Since its closure, the building has traded hands several times with each owner unveiling grand plans for the building: a casino and hotel, a rail yard, an international trade center, even a police station.

The Moroun family purchased the building in 1992 and left it untouched until just a few years ago when it started landscaping the park in front of the station. The family then installed windows throughout the building. It’s unclear if this was to prepare the building for sale or other purposes.

The station sits just blocks from the former Tiger Stadium that was built in 1911 and torn down in 2008. It’s a mostly residential neighborhood, sitting just outside the downtown area. Corktown has yet to see the redevelopment boom found elsewhere in Detroit.

Though not ideal when the Michigan Central Station was built, its location is likely what brought Ford to the table. The area has easy access to major highways and is just far enough away from downtown Detroit to mostly avoid the traffic congestion. Real estate opportunities seem ample, too.

Amazon turned down Detroit

Last year Detroit enlisted the help of real estate mogul Dan Gilbert to help win Amazon’s bid for a second headquarters. It didn’t work out. The city of Detroit and State of Michigan reportedly offered Amazon a massive tax incentive but Amazon didn’t take the bait. The deal would have changed Detroit, but not necessarily for the better. Had Amazon picked Detroit, the city would have had to adjust physically and mentally to handle the supposed increase of 30,000 workers within the city limit.

Ford seems like a good fit for today’s Detroit. The company is restoring an eyesore and essentially extending the border of the downtown area. Instead of adding tens of thousands of workers like Amazon would, Ford is adding thousands of workers. The streets will get a bit more crowded, but not overwhelmed.

The area lacks a lot of the infrastructure needed for an Amazon-sized workforce. Public transportation is limited to a couple of short lines, and some suburban leaders are fighting their expansion. Parking is hard to come by and there’s a housing crunch in the downtown core. The roads are a mess and traffic congestion is getting worse. Ford’s campus, located outside the downtown areas, should avoid some of those challenges — besides the terrible roads.

This deal puts Ford back in Detroit 22 years after it sold the Renaissance Center to General Motors. Even though it’s early, Ford’s return to Detroit could prove to be as pivotal to Detroit’s future as when Dan Gilbert moved Quicken Loans downtown in 2010. Gilbert largely kickstarted Detroit’s revitalization by filling unused office space with Quicken Loans employees, but also buying up blocks of the city and convincing retailers and corporations to move downtown. It worked, and downtown Detroit in 2018 is a much different place than it was in 2008.

Questions still remain about the purchase of the Michigan Central Station. How much did Ford purchase the building for and what sort of tax incentives were offered to the auto maker and Moroun family? Will I ever be able to get a table at Slow’s BBQ again?

Source TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2JOdH4J

Ford is betting big on Detroit – BerTTon The Ford Motor Company now owns one of Detroit’s iconic buildings in the Michigan Central Station. The monumental building looms over Detroit’s oldest neighborhood.

#AI #news #tech #TechCrunch #technologies

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warexzjlaqfjrg-blog · 8 years ago

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Tips On How To Maintain A Good Garden

In addition to the food gardening can provide for our table, it adds beauty to our world. Gardening is something that is shared by all cultures and all time periods. It is something that is taken up by people from all walks of life. While there are many consistent rules inherent in this hobby, there is also room for variation. These tips will provide a brief look at both. You need to be realistic about what your garden can and can't produce. No matter how tempting a particular vegetable may be, if it's not suitable for your climate, it's not going to grow well. You'll get more out of your garden if you focus on plants that are right for your area. If you want something fun to do that will benefit you in the kitchen, try growing some herbs in your window. Some herbs may not take kindly to this, but many will! In this way you have some herbs always fresh and handy, and they add a nice touch to the house. Recycle your coffee grounds and use them to acidify the soil for all of your acid loving plants. Plants that like an acidic soil include roses, tomatoes, cyclamen, violets, gardenias, begonias and hibiscus. Apply the grounds approximately one quarter inch thick for the best results. If you don't care for coffee, leftover tea will produce the same results. Use compost that is homemade and free. Making a habit of using leaves, pulled plants and other organic bits, will create a rich and nutritious compost for the garden that is free and organic. Additionally, if an enclosed composter is utilized, kitchen scraps and garbage can be thrown in a mix for an excellent compost that is free also. Diversify the types of plants you grow in your garden. If you only grow one type of plant in your garden and it gets infected with a disease, your whole garden could be wiped out. Also, if you are only growing tomato plants, remember that just 14 tomato plants can yield a year's supply of tomatoes for two people. Used tea and coffee grounds make good soil enrichers. Both coffee and tea grounds are great additions when you need to raise the acidity of your soil. If your soil is pH balanced, adding the tea and coffee is good, as flowers such as rhododendrons and azaleas, and fruits such as blueberry, appreciate soil that is on the acidic side. You can work the grounds into the soil before you plant your garden, or sprinkle a little around existing plants once a week or so. Using a garden box to grow your vegetables is water efficient. Certain vegetables do not need a lot of root depth to grow. Plant these types of vegetables in a large planter box. When you water all the water will go directly to the roots of the plants. Grasses and trees will not have the chance to rob the vegetables of water. Give your garden a boost with instant color. If your garden is looking a little dull, a quick trip to your local nursery will do the trick. There, you will find colorful annuals and perennials in full flower, waiting to be planted into the ground, a window box or a hanging basket. This is especially handy if you are entertaining, and you need to brighten up the yard, or if you are trying to sell your house. Spots of color help to make a home look inviting and cheery. Make sure to protect your hands when working in your yard. Dirt and chemicals can be very harsh on your skin. However, the solution to this problem is very easy: gardening gloves. Gloves range from cheaper cottons (that wear easily) to more durable leather (which are more expensive). Look around your local garden supply center to find a pair of gloves that you feel comfortable working with to save your hands. Make a point to get rid of slugs as soon as you see them. Slugs will continue eating your plants until your garden is just a shell of its former self. There are a variety of chemical and organic methods that you can try; find something that works for you and protect your plants! When growing organic plants, you should move your containers to a bright area immediately upon sprouting. This is because the seedlings need a minimum of 12 hours of light per day in order to properly grow. You can use a greenhouse, a sunny area, or a couple of fluorescent lights. A great tip for getting the most out of your organic garden is to use soaker hoses. These hoses can be left on for several hours on low pressure, which will save you time from having to stand with a regular hose or filling up a watering can. This will give you time to work in another area of your garden. Recycling wood saves money and adds a unique touch to your garden. Use scrap wood to build small garden fences or support structures for plants. Sources include broken tables, chairs, or unused trim pieces from past home improvement projects. Paint the wood to add color and interest to your garden plot. Discourage deer in your garden. Deer love chewing on vegetables, roses, fruit trees, juniper, and holly. They can decimate a garden in a single day if given the chance! While people tend to favor an electric fence to discourage deer, there are certain things you can do that don't involve unnecessary pain. Fill bags with human or dog hair, dried blood meal, or fish heads. Attach to the perimeter of your property, or to specific plants that could be eaten. Alternatively, make a spray of two egg yolks mixed with one quart of water and spray fruit trees liberally. For some reason, this seems to work! Now you are much more prepared when it comes to organic gardening. You thought that you were ready before, well look at you, now! Hopefully, the tips that were provided gave you some advice that will help you get started with your organic gardening adventures so that you can begin growing like a pro!

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extraupdate-blog · 8 years ago

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Clean Your Computer Efficiently With a Registry Cleaner

New Post has been published on https://extraupdate.com/clean-your-computer-efficiently-with-a-registry-cleaner/

Clean Your Computer Efficiently With a Registry Cleaner

You have to take proper care of your pc as a great deal as you’re taking suitable care of your different treasured possessions. A pc is just like your footwear, bed, and another asset that want to be cleaned regularly. We also can examine laptop to a sink. When the sink has gathered dust, the water might also have a hard time to head down. The function of the sink has been affected due to the dirt that blocked the pipe. Same with the pc. Without our knowing, the laptop additionally mounts up the dust. The dust of the laptop is typically the files which might be saved at the computer for an extended time. When these documents, increase it slows down the performance of your pc.

It is essential that your laptop must undergo everyday test up and cleanse to make sure it’s precise functioning. The reg. Purifier will assist you to effectively clean your computer. It can be purchased within the net at a given quantity. Others will provide you free scanning in your Windows registry earlier than you purchase the registry cleaner so you will understand how many documents are needed to be eliminated from your laptop. On the opposite hand, there are also some registry cleaners which are absolutely free of charge. You can freely download this reg. Cleaners from the internet.

So what’s a registry cleaner? How can a reg? Does cleaner clean your computer? A registry cleaner is a laptop software program you may add to be part of your device. The characteristic of this registry cleaner is to repair or get rid of the unneeded documents out of your computer so that the device will stay smooth and practical. These files are stored within the computer database called Windows registry. When the unwanted files increase in its length on the Windows registry, it has a brilliant effect on the performance of the pc. Therefore, you need to ease your system to convey returned the efficient use of your laptop.

A reg. The cleanser is the software that assists you to in cleaning your pc correctly. They search for the files on your pc and stumble on those which are out of date and are now not needed. The registry cleaner will provide you suggestions concerning on what to do about those documents. The unwanted documents may be left alone, repaired, or eliminated from the gadget. The removal of unused files conducted by the registry purifier can make contributions in the bringing lower back of your PC’s true performance.

The most vital use of reg. Purifier within the computer gadget is that it is able to detect documents that are hidden on the Windows registry. You can do computer cleansing thru guide technique, yet, the hassle is you’ll no longer be able to easy the ones hidden documents. Through the usage of reg. Purifier, it’s far viable as a way to look for the ones hidden files that may harm your device.

The registry purifier is truly of large help in cleansing the laptop to keep its appropriate characteristic. Protect your computer from any damages as early as this time. What are you waiting for? Install a new registry cleaner now earlier than it’s too overdue!

Are you one of these people who are indignant due to the fact their computer systems are functioning like a turtle? Do you constantly experience the gradual performance of your computer mainly whilst you start it up? Do you need your computer to start up fast and feature efficaciously? Do you ask your self the query, “how do I speed up my laptop?” If your answer to all of those questions is yes, then you definitely are at the proper music of locating the ways to resolve your wearisome problems. There are a variety of methods to speed up your computer. Some might visit a restore keep simply to restore their troubles and restore their computers to their former performance and pace. However, those humans will spend loads of money and coins just to repair their computers’ problems. What they do now not realize is that they can virtually accelerate their computer systems without shelling off a variety of greenbacks. If you inquire from me how I accelerate my pc, I will let you know that I just deploy a great anti-virus software and a reputable registry cleaner.

Installing an anti-virus program will help you eliminate all the viruses that save you your laptop from functioning nicely. Consequently, it’s going to assist you to come across all potential software and applications in order to bring damage on your laptop’s device. Having an anti-virus software interior your laptop is like having a protection against undesirable programs so that it will manage your pc without your information and permission. Another manner that we could me speed up my computer is with the aid of installing a reputable and smooth-to-use registry purifier. This friendly software is the solution to all of your issues. It is as it will assist you to eliminate all of your useless facts, unused files, and redundant software settings.

A lot of computer issues, including pc freezes, laptop crashes, blue displays, and gradual performance are delivered about with the aid of congestion in your home windows registry. This approach which you need to delete undesirable documents and out of date information internal your registry so that your computer could breathe well and go returned to its premiere performance. Consequently, putting in this friendly program in your pc is like playing a friendly friend inside the everyday maintenance and clean up of your laptop. These are some friendly methods with a purpose too clearly help you in speeding up your computer.

How Do I Fix A Slow Computer That Freezes And Has System Errors?

Is your personal computer lethargic and no longer functioning accurately? Are you presently indignant as your software program does no longer begin hastily? Are you currently thinking a way to assist make my very own computer faster without making an investment in a logo-new one? Countless domestic laptop customers are having the same problem and plenty of women and men seemed to a remarkable on line registry cleaner to shield it from a failure and growth the personal pc velocity.

Simple Personal Computer Troubleshooting Guidelines

As time is going on all and sundry’s computer slows down up, this occurs because of numerous various factors. By the usage of a private computer troubleshooting tactics will help to slim down the problems to guard it towards a crash and additionally help make the precise non-public computer quicker. Men and girls have indicated that ninety-two % of the time it appears to have practically not anything regarding random access memory in addition to difficult disk drive area.

Step one to come across the problem is a good way to effectively experiment the unique personal pc concerning trojans and also spyware and adware, of the route, if there is truely no irregularities the next segment is to defrag the unique tough disk force. To shield a home computer from a system crash a few sort of registry purifier diagnostic experiment can be vital.

Your Windows Program Registry Cleaner Repair – How Does This Protect Against A Crash And System Failure?

The unique registry manages the operations regarding your home windows packages and additionally keeps it operating correctly. If the registry has were given entries which can be each tainted or possibly never uninstalled appropriately, while this occurs the home computer becomes volatile. Any time this takes location the non-public pc will in all likelihood sluggish and flip unresponsive and definitely will in some unspecified time in the future crash.

To repair the system problem and make the non-public computer faster a suitable registry diagnostic test is important to discover every one of the affected and additionally orphan entries. The precise registry purifier pc software program can take a look at the house computer and show the consequences to signify just what entries are already destroyed, corrupted, orphaned and also produce issues.

The Way To Increase Your Personal Computer Efficiency And Guard It Against A Crash

Following your completed scans the particular registry cleaner can take away almost all destroyed, tainted and additionally error producing entries securely that could reduce crashes, freezing all of with the intention to help make the private pc swifter and additionally improve the capability.

Lots of the award prevailing and additionally reliable organizations allow males and females to gather a free of fee registry cleanser software program. This type of completely unfastened launch won’t have many capabilities made viable, the point is to allow humans to undergo and additionally analyze the utility to find out just how notably powerful it may be and utilize the major alternatives to fix your non-public pc from deadly crashes and additionally enhance the velocity. One different top characteristic of the registry cleanser can even further enhance the talent of your house computer and additionally shield it in the end from issues, problems and additionally lock-ups.

Considering that the registry continuously becomes tainted as time passes a registry cleaner is critical to defending in opposition to loss of data, fatal crashes, freezing also to preserve computer device stability. The full launch lets in, in reality, all alternatives making an allowance for whole protection and also peace of mind.

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