#its obvious normal weapons don't work

[review-anon]

We need to find a way to cut through that mist!

Yeah we need to get rid of this mist or else Akane is gonna be in serious trouble!

*As the mist rolls in closer to Class 77-B Peko starts swinging her sword in an attempt to keep it back* You will not harm Fuyuhiko or my friends!

*But as Peko does this the wind she is generating from the swing causes the mist to recall slightly*

Huh?

Did your swing just cause the mist to back away?

*Peko tries to stab at the mist but nothing happens. She repeats the same swinging motion as before and it makes the mist retreat slightly*

Now that is interesting...what is going on here?

[sayruq]

Here's more of what's been happening on the ground. (Once again I'm not an expert in war).

Palestinian fighters are still waging war on the state of Israel

It is clear that Hamas and other groups have access to anti aircraft weaponry and long range missiles, partly from looting Israeli bases but partly from (and this is unconfirmed) from the Russia-Ukraine war. It's not unexpected for weapons to end up smuggled into other countries during a war.

On the other hand, Israel went from swearing it would invade Gaza on the ground to doing just about anything but that

It's understandable why Israel would hesitate even with its 300,000 strong army

IDF is made up of mostly conscripted soldiers who normally act as civilians once they've served their 2.5 year mandatory conscription. Not only that, IDF acts more like a police force than an army. Its soldiers simply don't have the training or mentality to fight militia groups in their home turf.

America itself doubts its capabilities no matter how it words it. This is a country that has yet to win against a guerilla army so it has experience when it comes to this

Edit:

Edit 2: above Hamas states the obvious

In my previous post I highlighted how disorganised the Israel military was in response to Operation Flood Al Aqsa.

This hasn't changed in the days. Israel is behaving more like a cornered animal lashing out than the so called 'strongest army in the Middle East.'

It has been dropping bombs on Syria, Lebanon and Egypt aimlessly, more out of anger than calculated strategy

Its efforts to pushing back against the Palestinian militia isn't going well either

in addition to naked, barbaric cruelty towards Gaza because it is not producing results elsewhere

The tweet below is important as Russia is an Israeli ally. The Israeli right wing has been very favourable towards Putin, even willing to disagree with the US and EU policies on Russia. However Israel repeatedly bombing Syria is quickly souring Russia on the country. While Putin doesn't want to go against Israel at this point, he has become increasingly critical of the country in the past couple of days.

Saudi went from making a half-hearted 'both sides need to stop statements to cutting ties with Israel (ties Israel and America have worked very hard to form) to outrightly condemning Israel's treatment of the people of Gaza.

Naturally, with all of this happening, Israel has responded, not with ceasing the bombardment of Gaza, but by killing and assaulting journalists covering the genocide.

so that it could committ war crimes without it being documented and seen by the world. War crimes such as announcing that they'd bomb a hospital in Gaza and giving doctors and nurses just hours to evacuate their patients.

This, btw, is part of the reason they cut electricity so that Palestinians can't post their own genocide on social media. Israel brutality is costing them allies but they have no intention of stopping.

Despite all of this, there has been a great deal of support for Palestinians globally

In short, this war is not going the way Israel thought it would. They didn't crush Hamas and the other Palestinian military groups immediately after the battle of Re'im. In fact, they're still struggling against those groups right now. They've been humiliated in front of the world after being revealed to be paper tigers and as such, they're going after Palestinian civilians in increasingly horrific ways.

The Palestinian resistance is still optimistic and they're still carrying out their plan. There's still hope for a future without apartheid.

[thevoicefromanotherworld]

"COME CLOSER, DARLING"

In honor to TLOU 2X01 being released, I wrote this fic with Joel 😉

I hope you like it! 🖤☝😌

WARNING: EXPLICIT SMUT UNDER THE CUT

Anyone who knew Joel knew that going out on patrol wasn't one of his favorite things to do.

Normally, it was Ellie who did it with Tommy and the others, but that day he had plans with Dina, so he asked her to please take his place, just for that day.

Joel agreed because what else could he say to her? It wasn't like he had anything else to do anyway, so he mounted his horse and, after informing Maria of his departure, began his expedition.

He rode for several hours, never straying too far from where he had started.

Suddenly, the horse reared up, and Joel stroked its mane tenderly before looking up at the grassy road in front of him.

"What's up, girl?" he asked the animal in a low voice. "What did you see?"

The animal couldn't answer him, but when it heard a scream coming from about 20 meters away, it was all the answer it needed.

Joel spurred his horse in that direction, hiding behind a thick mass of branches and vines.

He ducked between the cars to hide and walked to the source of the screams.

He peered over one of the vehicles, observing the scene unfolding in front of him.

A girl ran desperately, while several runners chased her. Joel watched as she tried to reload the pistol in her hands, failing miserably due to nerves.

If he didn't do something, the infected would kill her. Joel had seen enough people die.

He didn't want the same thing to happen to you, so he sprang into action.

He emerged from his hiding place, his shotgun drawn, and whistled to draw them toward him.

"Hey, you guys!" he shouted, causing the runners to whip their heads around, momentarily forgetting about you. "Come and get me!"

You watched in horror as the ten infected ran toward the unknown man, who pulled the trigger of his weapon every time one of them approached, instantly blowing their heads off.

Within seconds, a trail of corpses surrounded him.

He took a few deep breaths before focusing on you. His gaze was kind and compassionate.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking around, checking that everything was clear for the moment.

"It could be worse," you replied. "If you hadn't shown up… I would have…"

"But I showed up," he stopped you gently. "I'm here," he repeated. "I'm going to take you somewhere safe."

"How do I know I can trust you?" you questioned. He held your gaze steadily.

"You can't," he decreed, gesturing to where he had hidden the horse. "Are you coming or are you staying?"

You weighed your options until you ended up choosing the most obvious.

You wrapped your arms around his waist to keep from falling.

He couldn't help but revel in the delicate, gentle touch of your hands and the way you rested your head on his back to nap every now and then.

You arrived in the city as the sun was setting over the horizon, at which point, after he introduced you to Maria, he took you to his house where you would spend the night.

"I hope you don't mind sleeping here for a while," he said, positioning the house a little. "We're working on a construction plan to build more houses before summer arrives," he explained. "This will give us more space in case more refugees arrive."

"Are there still people out there?" you asked, astonished. "Flesh-and-blood people, not infected?"

"Yes, they still exist," he nodded, sitting in the armchair opposite you. "I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth."

"I see," you murmured. You remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "Thanks for saving my life."

"It's part of the job," he replied casually. "What's your name?"

"Y/N," you murmured. He nodded.

"That's a beautiful name," he smiled. "I'm Joel."

"Nice to meet you, Joel," you whispered, bringing your hand to your side in a wince.

Joel's face twisted in concern.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, when I was trying to get an infected person off me…"

"Did he bite you?" Joel asked, fearful. I didn't want to have to kill you now that he was starting to like you.

"I was going to say, he pushed me against one of the cars," you said, partially lifting your shirt to reveal your abdomen, where there was a shallow cut. "… with the bad luck that one of them had a broken rearview mirror." You ended up wincing as you readjusted yourself in the chair. "I don't know if I have any glass stuck under my skin."

"Don't move, I'll get the first aid kit," Joel said, quickly getting up to get the things he needed to treat you.

When he came back, you lifted your shirt, and he put on his glasses to get a better look at your wound.

They fit very well, which made you blush when you realized you were staring at him too much.

"It's not deep, but I have to stitch it up so it doesn't get infected." He looked up at you as he grabbed a needle and thread. "It won't hurt, I promise."

"I'm not… very needle fanatic—you swallowed nervously. He gently fixed his brown eyes on yours.

“Squeeze my arm.”

“What?”

“If it hurts, you can squeeze my arm. I won’t complain,” he offered. You nodded slowly. “Ready?”

“I think so.” You took a deep breath and held it as he began to stitch you up.

You dug your nails into his shoulder a couple of times, but he didn’t seem to notice, as he continued treating you as if nothing had happened.

Then he pulled away and took off his glasses, simultaneously cutting the remaining thread.

"There you go," he announced as he disinfected the needle. "You did very well," he smiled, making you blush violently.

"Thanks," you whispered. "But the credit goes to you. You're the one who cured me."

"It's no big deal. I've stitched up other people before," he said, beginning to gather things. "After a while, you get used to it."

"Sure," you murmured as he disappeared to leave the first-aid kit in the bathroom.

When he came back, he did so with an oversized sweatshirt and pants that were more tailored to your size.

"I thought you'd want to change," he said, handing you your clothes. "You can also take a shower if you want; we have hot water."

"A shower would be nice," you agreed, making him smile. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome, kiddo" he murmured as you disappeared into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, you came out wearing the clothes Joel had lent you.

He looked up from the book he was reading to look at you. He felt his breath catch in his throat as he did so.

"What's wrong?" you asked, seeing him looking at you.

"Nothing, it's just that my sweatshirt fits you like a dress," he laughed, looking you up and down. "It suits you better than it does me."

"It's very warm," you said, putting your hands in your bags. "Aren't you cold?" He pointed at the fireplace beside him. "Of course, I didn't realize." You smiled, sitting back down in the chair you'd been in before.

"I didn't want you to catch a cold," he confessed after a few moments of silence. "So I gave you the warmest sweatshirt I had."

"That's… very kind of you, Joel," you whispered. He held your gaze firmly.

"Have anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?" he blurted out suddenly, making your eyes widen.

"I think th-if they had told me, I'd remember." You swallowed hard. "Why do you ask?"

"You're welcome, I'm just pointing out a fact," he murmured. "Even though I can't see you well from this distance, the lines on your face tell me my statement is true." He smiled at how your breath hitched at his words, patting his knees lightly. "Come closer, darling," he asked. "My eyes aren't what they used to be, you know? And I want to see you properly."

Slowly, you sat on his lap. His eyes scanned your face before a smile spread across his lips.

"Just like I was saying," he whispered, lowering his gaze to your mouth. "Perfect," he added more to himself than to you.

"Joel…"

"Y/N," he mimicked you. "Can I kiss you?"

You nodded, and instantly, he placed his lips against yours with need, your fingers tangling in his gray locks.

He shifted you onto his lap, resting his hands on your hips so you were straddling him as he continued kissing you.

Now his lips were on your neck, his trimmed beard tickling your pulse point.

He held your face in his hands, deepening the kiss, making you gasp against him.

"I have rough hands," he commented when he broke away for a moment. "I guess it's from holding the horse's reins, wielding weapons, chopping wood, and all the rest of it."

"Never mind, Joel, I…" You pressed your lips into a thin line, embarrassed. "I like it."

"I see," he murmured, giving an amused smile. "My girl likes my big, rough hands, right?" he asked, and you nodded slowly. "Because that's what you are, you know, right?"

"What?" you asked, not knowing what he meant

“You’re mine,” he said, kissing you again. “MY girl,” he repeated, taking off his shirt and you doing the same with the pants he had lent you. “Spread your legs, baby,” he ordered kindly. “Spread your legs and look at me while you do it,” he whispered, and you did. “Oh, that’s it,” he celebrated, smiling. “Fuck yes, that’s perfect, good girl,” he praised, making you gasp at the name. “I need to taste you,” he growled. “I want to feel your orgasm when you cum on my tongue,” he whispered. “But first, I must ask you if this is what you want.”

“Yes,” you nodded firmly.

“I want you to forget absolutely everything tonight,” he began. “About your life, about the people you’ve lost, and about those who are still out there,” he whispered. “I want your mind to be focused only on me, on us, on this moment, and on the pleasure I’m going to give you.”

You felt like you were going to faint when his tongue slipped between your folds, finding your clit. It didn't take long for you to come; a couple of licks and two tugs with his teeth, and you were a trembling mess in his arms.

You caught your breath for a moment, and then you kneel down and return the favor.

Then he stopped being gentle, held you by the hips, and sat you on his bed, inserting himself inside you in one swift thrust.

He lightly covered your mouth with the palm of his hand.

"This is what you wanted, right, precious?" he growled, thrusting against you. "Did you want your savior to fuck you like you deserve?"

"Yes!" you whimpered. "Please, Joel, I need…"

"I know, baby, cum for me."

After that, he took you in his arms, and just before you fell asleep, you heard him say:

"I'm glad Ellie asked me to go on patrol instead of her"

[jbk405]

I very much enjoy Mass Effect 3, but there's no denying that it plays pretty fast and loose with the worldbuilding and continuity established in the first two games in order to set up its main plot.

The idea of a Lost Superweapon that is passed down from cycle to cycle is in direct contradiction to the original establishment that there is almost no information passed between the cycles. In the first game Liara is an archaeologist who hasn't even heard of the Reapers despite 50 years of study. Not even as a conspiracy theory that she has dismissed due to lack of evidence. The complete lack of surviving knowledge from the preceding cycle is its own clue that Something Else Is Going On. The idea that the Mars Archives include detailed data on how to build the Crucible makes no sense if nobody else in the galaxy even found a single scribbled note "Giant machines from before time killed us!"

Plus the Reaper invasion during the Prothean cycle started at the Citadel, as it did in all prior cycles, which cut off all communication and contact between different sections of the Prothean empire through control of the Mass Relays. Each small section could only communicate and travel to areas within normal FTL range. The idea that Protheans in the Local Cluster (Earth), the Exodus Cluster (Eden Prime), and the Athena Nebula (Thessia) could all have current information and data about the project is laughable.

The original message in the beacon on Eden Prime that we discover in the first game was sent by the Protheans from Ilos after the Reapers had completed their harvest of the Prothean civilization, reactivated the Mass Relays, and returned to dark space. It was a last-ditch effort to contact somebody -- anybody -- who had survived the slaughter, and was sent out when there were no Reapers still here to interfere. There was no active galaxy-wide Prothean defense or plan during the war itself.

What I think they should have done in ME3 was excise the idea of the Crucible as a Pre-Prothean device completely, and had it be a modern-day invention.

Based on recent breakthroughs in dark energy research, the Citadel Council has already begun work on a theoretical dark energy manipulator. It's intended for...I dunno, faster FTL travel through areas that don't have Mass Relays. Whatever. But it works with fundamental energy sources, and at previously-unheard-of power levels. Since the writers decided to ignore the dark energy foreshadowing from ME2 as the source of the Reaper cycles, they could use it for this.

Once the the Reapers invade at the start of ME3, the Council desperately tries to turn any science research already underway into a new weapon against the Reapers. This dark energy device is just one of a dozen projects all running concurrently, since they don't know what's going to work.

Our initial missions are running around trying to get them all up and running, gathering resources and defending against sabotage. One by one the other projects are either destroyed by the Reapers (or maybe Cerberus), or are abandoned by the Council once it's obvious that it won't be effective. The situation gets more and more desperate as the options dwindle.

Eventually, the idea comes to hook up this dark energy device to the Citadel, since we know that it is the control system for the Mass Relay network. And this device, which at full power may be enough to destroy a Reaper, now has the magical ability to deliver that energy across the whole galaxy at once.

"But if it is so easy that we can think it up, why wouldn't any previous cycle have managed to defeat the Reapers on their own?"

We have the advantage of the warnings from the original beacon on Eden Prime, and the delay to the start of the invasion courtesy of the Protheans from Ilos. The simple fact that we have any knowledge of the Reapers is more than the preceding cycles ever had. The Reapers were also prevented from decapitating the galactic civilization all at once by invading the Citadel first. Starting at the edge of the galaxy and spreading out from there gives us time, and prevents them from locking down the Mass Relays to isolate every different cluster.

This can still be credited as a Pan-Cycle victory, since without the extra time and advantages we got from the Protheans we would have died like all preceding cycles. But it doesn't magically give us a ready-made solution in defiance of all previous games.

[bwat5-blog]

Response To Comments On Grey War Crime Post #2

**spoilers for arcane**

Got another full and non-aggressive or disrespectful response on this that was worth answering properly! So thank you to @deliciousdeanfriendeagle-blog for taking the time. I'm answering here because responding in those comments is insanity.

"I don't find people who enact martial law and go on a rampage for revenge to be likeable"-- I'll give you the revenge bit if lacking a tad bit of nuance but I'll remind you the elite of Piltover agreed to Martial Law while they were busy eating out of Ambessa's hand before Caitlyn was ever involved.

"I dont agree which you (probably obvious) on "its not chemical gas because we havent seen serious immediate affects""

So what I think you are misunderstanding is that I never questioned the Form The Grey takes only the classification it would fall under in the real world if it existed in reality. RCA's and Chemical weapons are not classified differently because of a difference in primary from, but in their intent, use, and effects primarily. This is why an RCA is classified as a chemical weapon if used outside of the bounds of that protected status.

Regarding your statement on disregarding my classification because we have not seen immediate effects: I suppose all I can say is that I'm working with the content we are given and the literature of the resources I made use of whereas you are speculating. I can't really argue against speculation. The moment we see a shred of proof that the people who were exposed short term are suffering consequences I'll be happy to admit as much.

3. I dabble in science and the first thing I noticed is the color. Sometimes its bright green sometimes its more muddy (could be individual quality) and the symptoms for exposure are the EXACT same.... In league of legends (the game which the lore is based on) Zaun is supposed to be bright green to show the toxic air pollution and while it may not be an immediate death sentence now (adaption? Immunity?) (I linked the zaun quote to this because it seems that is the link you are making I think. For clarity and fairness they were not immediately together in post so I may have misread):

So we have long since diverted from strict LOL lore. and from I gather you are implying that because the symptoms seem to be the same and the lore is that the toxicity has made Zaun glow green in such a way it quite severe? I also understand that green gas normally indicated the presence of Chlorine which i understand is a comparison you are making we are getting to.

4. Comparing Chlorine Gas VS The Grey:

So I do see that Chlorine Gas is normally yellow-green under normal conditions. I do have a few points of contention:

While Chlorine Gas itself is not flammable it can react with many common chemicals which would make the use of it in any sort of combat situation highly questionable as we see done.

I'll give you the short term symptoms are all a solid match:

Burning eyes blurred vision

Irritated skin

Irritated mucous membranes: eyes/nose/throat

coughing/shortness of breath/wheezing

All just for example

3. "Lung health usually returns to normal within 7 to 14 days"-- from short term exposure to Chlorine. We see repeated examples of people recovering much much faster.

Reference serious exposure: I.E Caitlyn and Steb, Heenot, Chem Baron soldiers we later see attending the rally-

"At very high levels of exposure, death occurs in minutes to hours from respiratory failure, hypoxaemia, hypovolaemia, acute respiratory obstruction, alveolar destruction or a combination of these. Acute pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary vascular congestion, and burns of the upper and proximal lower airways contribute. Hypoxia and hypotension indicate a poor prognosis, as does development of pulmonary oedema within four hours of exposure.

In survivors, resolution commences within 48 hours."

We don't ever see anything close to this level of problem from anything Caitlyn is doing. Or from several characters fully immersed and exposed for longer than a few moments.

And while as you said it is possible just like Chlorine people may have latent problems we can speculate certainly but there is no basis in it unfortunately.

4. "tear gas is usually (meaning in america) an aerosol or powder like substance and doesn't actually move like gas"

So while it is true that tear gas is not technically considered a true gas and more often as you said power or aerosol, tear gas is not the exclusive example of an RCA. Merely the most prevalent.

Creator: LEAH MILLIS | Credit: REUTERS

Not to mention we need to remember that The Grey is being pushed and propelled by a ventilation system.

5. Your TLDR: "The grey cant be RCA due to RCA not being actual gases and would not be able to fill a ventilation system and is probably (meaning most likely) just Chlorine gas which is considered a chemical weapon due to side effects and reaction of civilians"

The classification of gas does not make the difference between RCA and Chemical Weapon. An RCA can in fact be a gas. Chemical Weapons Convention Article 2.7 defines an RCA as "any chemical not listed in a schedule, which can produce rapidly in humans sensory irritation or disabling physical effects which disappear within a short time following termination of exposure"

"Convention expressly prohibits the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare”. Article 1.5-- None of your points were regarding my defining Caitlyn's actions as warfare or not so I'm assuming we are on the same page

"Convention permits use of toxic chemicals for “Law enforcement including domestic riot control purposes”. Article 2.9(d)"-- Same as above

2. Being that its state as a gas or otherwise is not a factor in its definition as an RCA that alone I cannot consider as a factor. But as to the comparison to Chlorine Gas, the short term exposure symptoms are indeed similar to The Grey. But except for the images of the people who grew up in the Undercity surrounded by it we are given no evidence of anyone suffering such extreme problems from long term exposure. Additionally, as sources seem to indicate that short term exposure can normally take 1-2 weeks for recovery and people seem to be functioning normally on average within minutes of removing themselves from it, I cannot agree with that assessment either. While Chlorine Gas does carry a risk of latent symptoms and The Grey may as well, we cannot address that without total speculation.

[stiwnty]

Theory time :) Victim's kingdom

10 hours before AvA 11 cuz yeah

I've always wondered how someone like victim ended up with Rocket corp. I mean, we still don't know how he escaped death but I am for sure that once he did, his life was anything but normal.

We as humans, get an introduction to society and how it works. We learn as we grow that there's an economy, that there's people around us, that there's education and fabrics and companies.... But victim didn't, we don't know how much time he stayed dead, but probably it was more than enough time to impact in his knowledge and learning once he revived.

Victim was launched into the world without a guidance, without a family, without anything. Hell I could even say he didn't even know there was a thing to get or something else than nothing... He knew NOTHING

This is one of the reasons I like the farmer! victim theory a lot. Because it could explain how victim learnt about the world around him, that means that there would be a guidance for him... But yet, I still can't understand how he ended up with Rocket corp.

----

Limited creations

Animator vs Animation is a series about creation, animations fighting their creators and more. And for that fight to happen there needs to be a tool to connect both the animator's world and the animation's one. It isn't just the cursor but the cursor's capacities, and Agent shows that very well:

He has a tool bar that I relate to the Adobe Animate one. But I've realized that even with all of that he doesn't have a pencil nor a "free-hand" tool. Just straight shapes and lines... It's like the capacity to create but with a limit. A creation with a limit in its existence... Also looks so... machine made

All of the workers at Rocket (Agent too) are all made from these straight lines. And even if there weren't that many in AvA 9, it was showed a lot more in AvA 10. Because almost all of them were built like that.

I like to think this as a fact of how they were created (you'll see what I mean right after), they are creations but their creator had a limit of his capacity. They are alive but they don't have that freedom in their movements in comparison with Second's creations... A limited creation.

----

Victim's creation

I've seen that a lot of people relate Alan's stick figures with creation and destruction. Second being creation, Dark and Chosen destruction. And I kinda think victim is part of the creators because since his begining he has found ways to create and invent new methods of survival. He used the clones, he used a brush as a bow, he drew a lot of weapons and could almost defeat the animator just as the victim he was and is.

Yet, he still created something. And I see the fact that he used the brush very interesting because I thought: If these two tools work similar why can Second animate but victim cant.

The obvious answer is because of the lack of powers. And while that is true. I think that this capacity of creation of victim exists and could also create life but in a very limited way.

In victim's office we get a look at the brush tool and to an odd looking plant, almost as if it was drawn. Almost as if it was created by someone.

I don't know how outernet plants work, but let me tell you that I am more than sure that THAT plant was drawn by victim, maybe thanks to the brush tool. Victim can create, and even if his creation is different and cant bring things up to life (because that plant could just be a lifeless drawing of a plant that doesn't grow) he can bring things into existence just as he did with the brush tool first back in AvA 1.

----

Probably by now you know what I'm about to say. But I'll do it anyway.... Victim created Rocket corp literally.

All from its workers, Agent to the plant and to EVERYTHING. His company literally builds machines and studies Adobe tools related to creation and to the creator (animator).

Maybe victim's creation is weaker than Second's but he has one. And as I said, I see straight lines as a limited creation and it could mean that... These straight lines could not only mean this but I was thinking more of this:

As I said earlier, I see really really unlikely that someone who was launched into the world naked could build an empire all by himself, not only because he doesn't understant the world (because he could have learnt to understand it) but also because of where he cames and who he is. Who would listen to a random Hollowhead? And also, how would victim build such an empire in so little time, because victim died in 2006 and 18 years is just a little of time to do so much

So, without anyone who would listen to him, victim decided to create his listeners and his kingdom all by his own. If victim wanted to create this, he would need to be efficient and its so much easier to build something out of straight lines than free-drawn ones, this if we use machines, machines victim sells at the Corp. He could have used machines to build it all and to draw each one of them. And as he didn't have that kind of power of creation, he used the little one he had GREATLY enough to build it all...

Now, more stickmans:

-----

I MADE UP THIS PROMISE, HELL YEAH I DID ITTTT YESSSSSS.

IVE HAD THIS IS MY MIND FOR SOOO LONG BUT I COULD FIND THE TIME. And this is an old theory, but it was ssoooo bad written before, pleassse do well little post, do wellll

[nocturnesmoon]

I have thoughts spurring around in my head like feral cats chasing a bouncy ball, and I'm making it everyone's problem.

What if we take the world of star wars, and smash you and the 141 into it.

There are so many different combinations and turns this could take, but what I'm thinking about is the 141, ex-military turned smugglers, and you a Jedi in hiding after order 66.

The clone wars have finally come to its brutal end, and the empire has taken over the known galaxy. The Jedi have been portrayed as traitors and have been promptly executed, and the rest forced into hiding.

It looks bleak for anyone still holding onto the hope of the republic, anyone not willing to adapt to the new world gets destroyed right along with the old.

The 141 being forcefully retired, not that they minded at this point they knew it was a losing fight. With their options limited, and not keen to do the empire's bidding, or anyone's bidding ever again, they chose the obvious choice, to run.

It wasn't the ideal outcome, but with a timer on their lives, and conflicted opinions, Price took charge of the group. He knew that right now survival was the only thing that mattered, that his men would still live to see another day.

The year of acclimating to their new life was rough, they were used to sticking together but they also normally had more direction than this. Being wanted in any area governed by the empire limited a lot of work options for them.

It quite honestly didn't take long before Price resorted to less moral means, it was how their career as smugglers started.

With Gaz's excellent piloting skills, Soap's weaponry and science knowledge, Ghost's brute strength and intimating demeanor, and Price's own smooth tongue and connections, it was the most optimal choice.

And much to the their own surprise, they're pretty damn good at it.

They make good money smuggling a lot of different things across the galaxy, food, weapons, illegal goods. They take almost any job they can get in the start; they don't have time to be picky just yet, they need the credits more than good morals.

Their wanted status is likely to never get alleviated, but they combat it by never settling in one place too long. They prioritize the credits they have and get a ship big enough for both their job and to house the four of them. They're already used to being close, while this is a step further it's nothing any one of them has anything against.

They all agreed that they would stay together, they started this together and they'll end it together.

A few years in they have gotten quite the reputation for themselves, at least among other known smugglers and wanted criminals. They get bigger job opportunities, higher pay, more risk.

The bond they forge between each other is something none of them could explain, but they embrace its qualities, it's comfort and pleasure.

Some things are better to just leave unexplained and enjoy while they last. The only thing they have is each other, and they've grown quite content with that.

That was until something unexpected crash landed into their lives.

Docked at some lesser-known planet in system of farmers, they had originally planned to stop there for a few days to stock up on supplies and look for less likely work opportunities. Farmers sometimes had some strange inquiries they were quite content spending massive amounts of the little credits they have.

It was a peaceful little community, none the wiser to the person hiding amongst them. You, a Jedi who somehow survived the purge of order 66, posing as mechanic. Outside of your Jedi teachings, you had clear proficiency in anything creating and fixing.

It had been the perfect cover during the last year, who would suspect that the innocent mechanic trying to get by would harbor such a grave secret. That the kind person living in the rundown house, would be so full of survivors’ guilt that it was nothing short of a miracle they were still going.

It had roughly been 2 years since order 66, 2 years since you had survived and fled, 2 years on the run from the empire and the usual calm feeling of the force now gone.

Images still fresh on your brain despite the time, of your master, of your friends, those you'd considered your family dying from blasters that once aided them.

Every time you reached out through the force it was now hollow, the echo going into your brain and body, reminding you of the terrifying fact that you were truly alone.

You had no idea why you survived out of everyone, not even a fully trained Jedi, a mere Padawan with few accomplishments to their name. You shouldn't have survived that, someone better should be here in your place, yet no matter how much you think those thoughts, you can't change the reality.

The small farmer planet had been a good hiding spot for quite a while, you even dared to make a few friends during your stay. Despite it being less of a good idea you still kept your blade, the kyber crystal within being the only thing giving you comfort in your grief. Though you hadn't expected to ever need it again, especially not this soon.

Never had you expected that the empire would set their sights here, nor had you expected your methods of hiding had actually been that horrible. It didn't take them longer than a few days ‘til the people you thought friends practically turned you in.

You couldn't find it in your heart to blame them, the empire had very convincing methods, yet it still meant you were forced into a run for your life.

When the 141 had set their sights on this planet they hadn't expected the empire to already be here when they arrived. Price had insisted that the planet was still free, and he was right, a week ago.

They remained inconspicuous, did their shopping, and didn't snoop around too long. There was no need to get the empire hot on their tails once again.

When Ghost and Gaz went into the market, they intended on staying out of trouble, and technically they weren't the ones roped into it.

When they first spotted you, running from a few storm troopers, lightsaber blade raised, they nearly didn't believe their own eyes. All the Jedi were supposed to be dead, yet here you were, a sight to behold.

Nothing about their next actions were ruled by logic, if you ask them later about what they were thinking they couldn't tell you, because the only thing that was a priority now was to help you.

Perhaps it was some sort of obligation, maybe a sliver of hope for something better, or maybe it was just something about you that tugged at them, making them want to protect and help you.

Backed into a cornered alley, almost having lost your pursuers you felt the new threat loom behind you. A technique that was familiar in ways you couldn't explain, and too fast for you to register and counter. You were knocked out cold, and the next time you woke you were on a spaceship in space.

To say that Price was furious with the two was an understatement, they had more or less kidnapped someone unprompted. While Soap found the situation hilarious, he also had a feeling there was way more to this, and a possible danger they could've avoided.

When you wake it's Price that greets you, making sure to establish himself to not be a threat to you, so you didn't do anything drastic. You were on edge, understandably so, but he managed to explain the situation while also avoiding the main topic at hand.

You knew it would come up, he was toying with your lightsaber in his hands while you talked, and no matter how much you stared it down you didn't dare lunge for it yet. The dreaded question, and the answer that people had such varying reactions to.

"You're Jedi?"

You had expected something else when you confirmed to him what you were, what you've been since you could remember. A part of you had expected them to be bounty hunters, ready to turn you over to the empire at a moment’s notice. The reward on your head would be great, you imagine, yet that's not what he does.

He reminisces instead, telling you of a Jedi he once knew, of how he and his men had fought alongside a few of them on special occasions. Never had you imagine that this is where you would end up, in the metaphorical arms of people who could care maybe just a little.

He gave you an offer, they could drop you off at whatever location you requested, or they could work a sort of partnership.

You don't know what to make of it at first. They seem genuine, but people have ratted you out for less. You don't have a lot of options, going somewhere else and trying to find another inconspicuous farming planet wasn't the most viable choice, but neither was bunking with them. Who knew what kind of people they were.

Your chances were not the best, and unfortunately you had a sneaking suspicion they knew that. Whether their intentions were noble or just pity, you decided to take the risk and stay. If it all came crashing down, you'd still have your training, it had gotten you this far, it could get you further.

The first few days you stayed with them was tense, they were all in agreement on keeping you, there was nothing hostile about it, but it was still tense. It was partially your own doing, you walked on eggshells around them, never letting any of them behind you, etc. etc.

They understood to an extent, the way they met you wasn't exactly on the best of terms, it was natural for you to be cautious. So, they let you have your space, they don't pressure you into anything but do try to coax you into a more comfortable environment with them.

The crack starts to form when you see them all gathered in the main area of the ship, laughing, talking, playing a game you're unfamiliar with. Soap is the first to notice you staring, with a big grin on his face he invites you to join them. Hesitant but interested you approach.

Price explains the rules to you, and you get to watch for a round or two before you join in on your own. They go easy on you but you're a quick learner, and it doesn't take long before you become quite vicious in your play.

It becomes a common thing, almost nightly that they all gather to spend time together. The bond between each other grows fast, and it's not long before you start feeling like this is exactly where you're meant to be.

Settling in with them becomes easier and easier, as if they had always waited for another person to welcome in with them. To fill a missing part, they didn't know they needed.

While keeping the secret of what you are is the topmost priority, you end up helping them out on jobs. Due to your training you're very adaptable, able to fill any position where something was missing.

You were an excellent mechanic when the ship was down, and with Gaz's magic touch it halved the time it usually took to repair.

Soap had a really fun time explaining a bunch of different things about weaponry and the science behind it. There had been a lot of different questions you had in the clone wars that was left unanswered, you could finally have someone enthusiastic that could explain them to you.

A lot of long rides were spent like that, of you asking him questions and then more questions because the math he talked about in the first question was confusing.

Even though you were just a Padawan back then, you still had made your fair share of connections during the clone wars. People that you and your old master had come across, and old friends outside of the Jedi order.

Price found it very useful, and though most of the connections you had were friendship and not business, it could still be used as such. A few of them he even helped rekindle, you've been grateful for that ever since.

Though the Jedi order is no more you still try to keep up with your training. You have no guidance any longer, nothing new to look at, but you can maintain what you know.

The others are happy to help you with it as well, they know it's important to you and a part of them have always found it fascinating how you train.

Occasionally you'd have them all surround you in a circle, setting their blasters to stun and randomly shooting at you. It helped sharpening your senses, helped you rely on the force to guide your hand, and to deflect more accurately.

You'd do a lot of training with Ghost that wasn't necessarily Jedi training. While you did a lot of mental training on your own, the physical part was something Ghost had a lot of enjoyment in helping you with.

Sparring, running, lifting, anything he could think of that would help you, he did, and it quickly became thing for you two to train together.

It wasn't anything you had expected with them, not in a million years would you have imagined ending up here. It was a thing you couldn't predict, but neither was order 66.

Nobody you knew had been able to foresee the collapse of the Jedi order. Some things were just left up to chance, and currently here with the 141, you liked your odds.

I just finished reading the book project hail mary, and not too long ago i reread the Ahsoka book. So safe to say i've been in a bit of a space mood, still am.

And what better way to utilize that, than combine my hyperfixation on the 141 and my special interest star wars hehe.

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

what is your skull cavern strat? i feel like i spend way too long in there to ever really get enough loot (i’ve already done the related quests i just wanna get perfection already 😭😭)

okay im gonna try to sum it up in key points so its easy 2 follow.

you need to go on highest luck days only.

you need your axe to be upgraded, at MINIMUM, gold. but you shouldnt be using it often though but if you do need to use it - it needs to be fast.

you need to bring bombs and you need to bring a good weapon. if you dont have the galaxy sword, spend the 25k gold and get the lava katana from the adventurers guild

YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO BRING FOOD. i think this is obvious but not just food, drinks too. goldstar cheese or salads from gus are preferred.

your main stats are +luck and +speed. you can only have one food buff active at a time, but you can get buffs from drinks. my combo is the spicy eel (available at dessert trader in exchange for rubies) and a triple shot espresso (takes three coffees to make) but you can do things like a lucky lunch, a pumpkin soup, a ginger ale etc

personally though i think spicy eel and triple espresso work best and they're pretty easy to get up to this point in the game.

you need to get there as EARLY as you possible can. im talking you need to forfeit your day plans and drop everything to go do a run. the desert trader has warp totems for calico desert in exchange for omnigeodes, buy them BEFORE your plan to run- they are always available.

(you'll also want a warp totem for the farm so you can pass out closer to home. you could pass out in there but the former is easier for me lol)

as for strat itself - the key thing in the skull caverns is that you're trying to get as far down as you can possibly go.

now, there are some ways to do this to circumvent having to find shafts and holes to jump in. specifically - people make sheds of crystalarium with jades to trade for staircases at the desert trader. but this takes sooooo much fucking set up lmao so i dont often bother with it. if you want to get down quickly in one go, its a good method but it takes a long time to get up and running.

but you can get pretty far down if you just focus on getting down as far as possible. don't clear floors unless you're really really low already. if there's a spot with a shit ton of ore thats easy to blow up, then you can stop and do it then but for the most part time is money.

it seems counterintuitive but you will accumulate a lot of stuff simply breaking rocks with bombs and picking them up while you get down. it is not like the normal mines so its best to just ignore any ore that would take up a lot of time.

so the strat is place a bomb, find a ladder or shaft, jump in and repeat. stop to get easy ore but focus on going down. always take shafts over ladders and make sure to heal up because you do take fall damage.

also if you're struggling to find a ladder, try killing mobs. it is much, much more lucrative to do it in skull caverns and the drops are extremely good depending on the monster.

also keep in mind that time runs about 25 percent slower in the caverns compared to a normal day so try not to stress too much.

its pretty easy to have a good run if you just keep all of this in mind. the hardest thing imo is getting bombs

personally i don't like buying them so i usually just craft them but if you buy them it gets costly fast. you can always replenish your reserve for ore but money can be tricky. thats just me.

ANYWAYS. GOOD LUCK 🫡🫡

[theanalyzerguy]

Project 2025 is a plan to, in the words of project Director Paul Dans, "...march into office and bring a new army of aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the Deep State".It is organized by the Heritage Foundation, to "muzzle woke propaganda at every level of government", "gut the administrative state" (HUD, FEMA, DOJ, DHS, the Federal Reserve, CDC, FDA, EPA, etc.) and concentrate power into the hands of the President (Leeja Miller, in a video that is linked below, goes into detail on how this would work).Their claim is that "Only through the implementation of specific action plans at each agency will the next conservative presidential Administration be successful".The plan includes a [180 Day Playbook](https://www.project2025.org/playbook/), described as "...a comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency."

The plan is "the conservative movement's unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025".Project 2025 promises to "rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left" and to "unite the conservative movement and the American people against elite rule and woke culture warriors".Project 2025 lists problems with America such as:* The breakdown of the family* Immigration* The "totalitarian cult known today as The Great Awokening"* The erosion of constitutional accountability in Washington* Children suffering the "toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries"* An "overseas, totalitarian Communist dictatorship" that is "not a strategic partner or fair competitor" and is "engaged in a strategic, cultural and economic Cold War against America's interests, values and people"* "Low-income communities" that are "drowning in addiction and government dependence"* "America's elites have betrayed the American People"* The left using climate change "to scare the American public into accepting their ineffective, liberty crushing regulations"They believe that "These are problems not of technocratic efficiency, but of national sovereignty and constitutional governance. We solve them not by trimming and reshaping the leaves, but by ripping out the trees -- root and branch."

Their broad goals are to:1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life, and protect our children2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people3. Defend our nation's sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely - what our constitution calls "the Blessings of Liberty"Dans states that "The long march of Cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before".Project 2025 is, in my words, a distinctly terrifying and highly detailed roadmap for:* Installing a Chriso-fascist oligarchy* Rolling back civil and human rights* Removing bodily autonomy from women and transgender individuals* The systematic eradication of minorities and other vulnerable groupsI don't use the words "systematic eradication" lightly or with hyperbole.

They obviously don't come right out and say it, but they state that:* Pornography should be outlawed* The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned* Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders* Telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shutteredThe real problem with the above, apart from the obvious, is that they label the existence of LGBTQIA+ people as "inherently pornographic". They say that pornography is “manifested today through the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology".They say that the fix "starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity ('SOGI'), diversity, equity and inclusion ('DEI'), gender, gender equality, gender awareness, gender sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists".They also state that "The president should direct agencies to rescind regulations interpreting sex discrimination provisions as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, sex characteristics, etc."

They want to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family" which would remove protections for same-sex marriage.Leeja Miller helpfully points out that the above language does not simply include transgender individuals, it includes cis women as well. I'd argue that removing the DEI language also allows them to target anyone that isn't a white, cis, heterosexual, evangelical (or other approved flavor of Christianity) male.Some other points of note:* They want to eliminate the Department of Education* They want to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory* They want to bring back the practice of impounding funds

**References*** A direct link to a PDF copy of the project's Policy Agenda, aka their "Mandate for Leadership": [https://thf\_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025\_MandateForLeadership\_FULL.pdf](https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf), this can be found on the Policy page of the Project 2025 website.* A video from Leeja Miller: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3UvaC5m7o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3UvaC5m7o)* An NPR article focusing on the climate policy aspect: [https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change](https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change)* A UC Berkeley write up: [https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/](https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/)* An article from the NECC Observer: [http://observer.necc.mass.edu/blog/2023/11/20/the-danger-of-project-2025/](http://observer.necc.mass.edu/blog/2023/11/20/the-danger-of-project-2025/)* An article from PBS: [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conservatives-aim-to-restructure-u-s-government-and-replace-it-with-trumps-vision](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conservatives-aim-to-restructure-u-s-government-and-replace-it-with-trumps-vision)

[itsbasil]

Okay I guess we're talking about one of my many alphabet team blorbos today

Rain

Rain (serial no. 62-09-32905)

she/her

At the size Alphabet Team and its parent PMC has reached, it helps to have a Spartan on board who excels at being more than just a weapon. Rain is a decisive, selfless, and dedicated leader, brought on board Alphabet Team as an external hire for her well-known leadership skills and mastery of small-team tactics. She's part of the "glue" Nyotatu-Lanhu is betting on to hold Alphabet Team together, turning them from a messy gang of rowdy corporate supersoldiers into a cohesive, hyper-competent titan of a team.

More than anything, Rain is defined by a tremendous sense of responsibility for those who choose to trust her. No matter the teammate, no matter the cost to herself, she takes it upon herself to get everyone out the other side in one piece. She's often the first to stand up for her teammates and the last one to back down; she wants her teammates to do their best, and she's well aware of how infectious her confidence can be.

Rain's status as a near-archetypal leader figure gives some people the idea that being a stoic, steely-eyed weapon is a full-time job she never clocks out of, so it's a surprise to many regular personnel just how much she likes to smile. Being among the more pragmatic and composed members of Alphabet Team doesn't stop Rain from being an affectionate ball of charisma around her friends; those close to her know to expect little shoulder punches and endearingly bad jokes from her when she's in a good mood, and the team's jokesters know she has enough sarcasm and dry wit to go toe to toe with any of them. As seriously as she takes being a leader, letting her hair down a little is something she will still allow herself when she can. It's the least she can do to take the edge off.

On the flip side, she takes her self-assigned responsibilities very seriously, and can come across as a hardass to the rest of Alphabet Team when they take what she sees as unnecessary risks. Her teammates don't seem to mind this, though; the more she does it, the more it's obvious she does it because she cares about them, and that care clearly runs a lot deeper than Rain is comfortable letting on. Like most other corporate Spartans, Rain has a hard time keeping her emotions under wraps, and even with her helmet on it's hard for her to hide what she's feeling.

Uncommonly among corporate Spartans, Rain's sense of duty to keep those around her safe extends to baseline humans; it doesn't matter if she's leading a fireteam of fellow Spartans or ordinary personnel, she remains just as selfless and supportive a teammate as ever. This has earned her a glowing reputation among the PMCs she's worked with, with Nyotatu-Lanhu's SPECWAR division adopting her as their unofficial mascot.

This popularity has always been a double-edged sword for Rain: she's deeply appreciative of the trust regular personnel place in her over other Spartans she sees as equally capable, but being surrounded by them quickly reminds her that she's just that– a Spartan– and is terribly out of her depth as anything other than a tactical asset to ordinary people. Her sociability falls apart in "normal" social situations, and she often ends up slipping away to return to her team.

As terrific a leader as Rain is, however, the things that earned her that reputation are the things that worry her teammates the most. Keeping others safe, shouldering burdens others can't, these are what Rain is for, what she's always been for, it is what and who she is, and she cannot fathom being anything else. Every injured teammate, every KIA report, every dead friend and fireteam in her past twists the knife in her heart a little deeper, each one a failure she knows she could have prevented if she just pushed herself harder.

It eats at her. It weighs on her. The foundations have been cracking for a while now, but she can't allow herself to fail again, not with people she's starting to really care about. She needs to make sure everyone is safe. She'll make sure everyone lives, she'll make sure everyone gets to go home.

Even if it ends up killing her.

[amaiguri]

City-States in my World

So, I someone post something like "We need more fucked up fantasy city states that both trade and get in trade wars and share culture but also don't" and I was gonna reblog it and then Tumblr ATE MY POST. Dear OP whose name I didn't catch, this is one's for you:

I have fucked up city-states!

Let's do a highlight reel by region...

THE NORTH

The North is a region of perpetual cold twilight -- as it is UNDER an entire other continent. This other continent is so high up that weather systems form under it normally. It has:

Nouveau Thuille: A city known for being the heart of the old empire that used to cover all of the north. While the Nobles who rule it claim to hold the throne for the return of their Emperor (who is magically asleep or something), they are all absolutely here for themselves. They're lowkey isolationist because Mages are unregulated in Nouveau Thuille. This causes a lot of illegal experimentation and a lot of danger.

Saegeneime: This city is on the Northern shoreline and is run by Mages. (Called Sages. Endonyms, amirite?) You'd think this make them friends with Thuille -- BUT all their Mages are carefully marked and have strict rules about what they can and cannot do with their magic. Magic children are taken from their families even.

Everyone else in the North: While many communities end up going to Saegeneime in winter, they return to the mountains in the summers. This means there are LOTS of pockets of subcultures and communities through the North, though they're less developed in my work atm.

THE SOUTH

Now here's the deal: The South is trying to take over the North. But while they're a giant empire today, they didn't used to be because:

Telethens: The Isle of Telethens was occupied during an ice age and then isolated for thousands of years. However, in the face of annihilation by the Kivihk Empire some 400 years, they answered with some of the greatest magical weapons ever developed. And after defending their home, the next obvious step was to conquer the Kivihk Empire before they got conquered...

Kivihkya: Aptly named as the heart of the "barbaric" Kivihk Empire, they were rudely and brutally conquered and its citizens made prisoner in their own home. In reply, the desperate civilians began to their repressed Demonic heritage and to Mages using blood magic. The problem with blood magic is the... uh... blood. It's not exactly acquired in a consensual manner. And this drew the ire of...

Ririkya: A city run by Witches (which is just another word for Mages). These Witches are the kinds of earthy spiritualists who prioritize helping and healing others -- and carefully weed out and re-educate bad actors. And naturally, a city where all the Mages are focused on healing and education are mad at a city where the Mages are taking the non-Mages blood.

But the reason this Southern Empire kinda works is because it isn't headed by one person -- it is a representative Democracy that prioritizes the needs of the Community. It's led to free public transportation, free healthcare, and free housing options in every major city -- which, as you can imagine, is popular. But unfortunately, they also think this makes them the best people in the world. And so, they plan to take it over.

The North, notably, would like to be left alone.

And thus, the city-states are fighting.

[athena-gundampla]

RG 1/144 Celestial Being Prototype Mobile Suit GNT-0000 "Gundam 00 Qan[T]"

The RG Qan[T] has had my eye for a while now. I picked this up at a black friday sale to go along with my RG Exia.

The Qan[T] is a much newer kit than the Exia. While it still uses the old RG pre-built inner frame, which is just as floppy at the hips as the others I've worked with, it also incorporates a lot of normally built sections like newer RGs, giving it a stiffer set of knees and arms, necessary to balance the large, heavy, weapon pieces.

Like other RGs, there's perfect color correction out of the box, including some subtle two-toning with slightly grey and white panels, as well as lighter and darker blue accent panels. The end effect looks a lot better than the larger difference between Exia's grey and white paneling.

RG Qan[T] comes with several hand options, like most RGs - two closed fists, two open fists, and two articulated hands, which I just got rid of as these old articulated RG hands are really brittle and loose, and don't really facilitate posing. Oddly, there's only a single left-handed open hand option, rather than one for each arm.

The kit comes with a series of really pretty trans-green parts to create the GN sword V, which, like the 00 Gundam's sword, can switch between rifle and sword mode by rotating the blade horizontally and tilting the handle and guard. The guard connects to the upper part of the forearm, rather than a shield on the side like with Exia.

There's also a series of 6 GN Sword Bits, also in trans-green and solid blue. Small attachments flip out of the Zaku II-style pauldron shield (GN Shield) and clip into the bits, which can flare out to be posed in a firing mode.

Handles fold out from each of the bits to allow them to be wielded as individual daggers as well.

The sword bits can also join with the GN Sword V to form either the Buster Sword or Buster Rifle. There's a clever bit of engineering here that lets them all clip to the sword blade securely without needing obvious attachment points. There's also an added stand for the Buster Rifle mode to help support everything.

You can also remove the GN drive from the back of the kit. A little latch opens up and you twist the sub-assembly out, revealing the main quantum GM drive. The other of the pair is hidden within the GN Shield.

The kit has some great, super flexible articulation. As is common for RGs, certain panels shift as you flex and extend the joints. The raised sections on the forearms limit flexion at the elbow, but the legs are really well designed and can bend all the way back.

You can also rotate the support arm of the GN Shield back behind the main body, allowing for the Quantum Burst pose.

Unfortunately, the design of the neck and a panel at the back of the head make it impossible to freely turn the head side to side, greatly limiting posing. I'm really disappointed at this, although oversights like this were common in this era of RGs.

Overall, I had fun with this kit. I really like the inclusion of the extra green GN conduits on the arms and legs - they reflect light in a way that makes them appear to glow, and the dark trans-green isn't so dark that it obscures the foil sticker detail underneath. The decal stickers also aren't too onerous or over the top, which is another common RG complaint.

I definitely think the RG is worth the price, although the best of the 00 Gundam series suits are probably the MG kits, as these allow for proper lighting inside the GN units. I think the kit I've wanted the most is of course the PG Exia, with its elaborate lighting system out of the box. One day maybe...

[therobotmonster]

Proposal: M.A.S.K. (Monstrous Anomaly Strategic Kontrol)

Both M.A.S.K. and Inhumanoids are essentially dead in the water, with little chance of straight up reboots saving either of them. MASK is always going to be redundant for the company that owns both Transformers and G.I.Joe, and Inhumanoids was always an act of hubris.

Buuuuut...

Sometimes when a lifeform can't survive on its own, mutualism is the way to go. So we mash the two concepts together.

Earth Force was always a bunch of jerks with goofy looking suits. All of the nostalgia for Inhumanoids is on the monsters. MASK had the theme of disguise and hidden super-tech that never really made sense in a world where they operated openly.

But if MASK is a sort of kid-friendly S.C.P. Foundation or M.I.B. group, tasked with capturing and covering up supernatural threats to mankind, then your problems solve each other.

Inhumanoids, mutores, and other monsters crop up to wreck havoc, and undercover MASK-agents arrive, defeat the horror de-jour, and provide a reasonable cover-story. They wear the weird tech-masks both for their weapons and vehicle-interface (not from the OG series but seriously, its obvious) and because they're literally hiding their faces and protecting their cover identities. The vehicles disguise as normal civilian rides so people don't see caravans of tanks going to shoot Metlar in the face.

VENOM still exists as a rival faction that seeks out these kinds of weird happenings to sell them to highest bidder, but are a sometimes-baddie, rather than the every-week clash.

Toy wise, the play pattern is a basic large-and-small. Human heroes have converting vehicles and masks, monsters come in various sizes, with a matching pop-out or surprise gimmick for most to mirror the play pattern. This actually works with most of the non-huge Inhumanoids concepts from the old days too.

Sole exception is the Inhumanoids heavies, who are largely rotocast big-format figs that can sell at a lower price point.

[lonestardust]

The funniest thing is that both of those mentions of sleeping in together were before/during a conversation about having kids.

Anyway, I love your takes on justice and the closure it brings, because I've definately seen some things that annoyed me. Some people just skate over the trauma Carlos has after hearing his father being shot in the doorway of his childhood home and in front of his mother. Like that's something that he should just get over and then he'll be happy. And yeah I love TK and I wouldn't know what to do in the situation that they're in either, there's no side to pick or better option to choose here (not that it matters because it's obvious that they're adopting Jonah) but TK definitely could have been more sympathetic. I think the fact that they're definitely getting Jonah makes me more sympathetic towards Carlos, because I know TK will get what he wants here. And I've seen a lot of people saying that Carlos has been putting work first for a year and a half but actually, it was 1 year (if even that because we don't know what happened immediately after the wedding), then they went to counselling, and then they made it obvious that Carlos was putting in a LOT of effort to be more present. In fact, it was explicitly stated on screen.

Sorry for the rant, just sometimes it pisses me off that people think forgive and forget is the only way to go. And Gabriel's murder was about corruption in the police force or whatever, was Carlos just supposed to let that go???

I swear I love TK so much, and really my issue isn't with him here, it's with the people defending the way he went about it the adoption thing by saying that he had every right to act that way because Carlos should have gotten over his trauma by now.

yeah i think that's a parallel here haha also rip to dreams of sleeping in after having a kid

I was actually gathering up my thoughts about it in a post, how it's often dismissed, who carlos is as an individual, his values, his views etc and thus who he is in all of this. which I'm so curious to see how involved the rangers are in murdering Gabriel, how carlos could come full circle to "how could I've been so wrong" but as in the major realization of "I was right about them from the start. I wasn't stuck on my own, i got played and was left alone" (ugh let me see him in full force taking down these motherfuckers with his bare hands!!!!!)

that's my problem with this storyline actually. i don't expect neat reactions during calamities but alsooo the lack of grace from TK was way out of line for it's at a time where it feels like an imperative approach from him about something he has to act on its compelling urgency immediately despite knowing that carlos (no matter how much he'll be shown to have agency in this later) is not ready and especially now. especially in the call scene after. it's like he doesn't recognise carlos, weaponizing what he's going through against him and then going head to head about it.

and maybe that's just my opinion but a lot of this feels like it's on the storytelling this season. (which I understand the shortcomings of a short season etc but) the over reliance on telling and filling the gaps instead of showing did shoot the story in the foot for a storyline that needed more cohesive pattern and concrete evidence to carry itself. like i can't clearly track the after and before results of carlos' effort of being more present because his on screen absence-presence ratio feels normal in terms of having a third party naturally consuming time and effort beyond work and other cases. but we're also being told in the therapy that carlos isn't in fact present as he should be but again we see carlos' absence being about falling asleep during sex after giving TK a thoughtful candlelit dinner, or spending lunch break together but losing himself in his own train of thoughts regarding a case, which isn't borderline. I just wanted to see more clarity here instead of feeling like TK is compromising on how carlos shouldn't be working on the case at all even though that's not the case and TK is so supportive.

that's also why the birthday stuff felt more disjointed because we see carlos giving his all here for TK. and I imagine a scene where it shows carlos excusing himself to take a case related/work call before the guests arrive and TK being alone in the last minute adjustments, would've balanced out things more. but no we've TK's concerns and exasperation over what carlos is doing for the case more than we've see his support, we've seen carlos' presence more than we've seen the absence that we're told happens very often. the choice of narration isn't really presenting a cogent case.

[sburbian-sage]

Hey so I've been very carefully fucking around with sburb's coding using some weird and complicated methods do basically scan items to allow me to view their base code and whatnot (trying to figure out a way on my own to edit code but it isn't going very well)

But like have you ever heard of AH? This dude is referenced everywhere for basically everything from sprite pendants to weapons

Whoever they are their awful at shit because sburb has some of the worst spaghetti code ive ever seen

I scanned a rock and breaking it down its code was basically 'if rock - stay rock unless funny' 'TODO, AH please add more rocks'

Who is this guy? Have you heard anything?this is only my second session so im new to the replayer-net

I feel like doing any amount of code editing is begging for the game to detect YOU as a virus and then delete you. Or even looking at the code in any prodding manner. But who am I to judge people for their hobbies.

As for who AH is, I have no clue who they are *in particular*, but contextually they're obviously a programmer who helped work on SBURB (or else they refer to themselves in the third person). "AH" could be an abbreviated online handle (like how you might abbreviate skepticArbiter as SA), or someone's real life initials, human or troll. If it's initials, then AH along with their collaborators are more likely than not deceased. If it's a handle, they could be a replayer, potentially still alive.

You're probably slapping your cheeks and saying "THIS IS HUGE, do you mean SBURB was actually made by humans or trolls", and I'm going to deflate your head a little. SBURB was made by Skaia, or whatever cosmic forces govern Skaia. In most worlds, a session will begin once history has reached a state of widespread industrialization, by which point a company by the name of "Skaianet" with blatantly obvious ties to the game will have situated themselves, so they can release the game to this universe's coplayers. There are circumstances where Skaianet may not exist, however, in which case the universe will force SBURB to come into existence, one way or another. Maybe a hidden catacomb under Bethesda HQ gets discovered, and the runes can be translated into a type of code which produces SBURB, which Bethesda sells. Or one of the players is responsible for SBURB's creation, plagued by persistent yet vividly detailed dreams which compel them to code the game from scratch, after which they will have forgotten the dreams or how they accomplished this feat, leaving behind an impenetrable black box of their own creation.

And before you start going off about "version drift", these altered circumstances would reasonably introduce several windows through which alterations to the base SBURB code can be implemented. However, seeing as how the genesis of SBURB is supernatural in nature, it just so happens to create a compatible and recognizable version of SBURB, warts and all. If you were responsible for creating SBURB in one of your sessions and kicked yourself for not fixing the door or whatever, you were most likely in a fugue state throughout the entire process. So don't beat yourself up about it.

So in all likelihood, this "AH" was just whoever got saddled with the unfortunate duty of coding SBURB in a world with unusual circumstances that couldn't accommodate a conventional Skaianet. Or if Skaianet did exist in your world, they're a normal human who stumbled ass-backwards into the situation and got reprimanded by, I assume, Skaia itself. Poor sap.

[slopofaarix]

Star Trek: Dragon

posting all my Dragon lore here because why not

The Dragon is a gigantic, sentient, space-faring organism. Her species seem to have evolved alongside a humanoid one supposed to be her crew, whom she depends on for maintenance and survival, and who benefit from her being a badass faster-than-light home among the stars. Unfortunately for her, some [random cosmic event, insert technobabble here] has transported her to the Alpha Quadrant with no crew, and next to no memory of who she is or where she comes from. Adrift and with nobody to care for her, she begins to ail quickly…. Fortunately for her, another event brings her in contact with the USS Venture, a galaxy class starfleet ship. Unfortunately, this event also destroys the Venture, and only a few random crew members and civilians manage to survive by boarding the Dragon. The good news is that they're bonded to her as her new crew, awaking her from her coma—yay!

There’s a downside, though. Once the bond is established, her crew can only be away from her for a week or two before they will start to die. It’s enough for the Starfleet personnel to continue a lot of their work—after all, it’s not like they’re cut off from civilisation—they can communicate just fine with the outside world. They can even go and visit their families. Even so, this situation is less than ideal. Starfleet doesn’t want its officers and these civilians trapped inside this big weird alien, and it won’t risk assigning any additional guys to this ship for obvious reasons. The Dragon herself knows that it’s wrong to hold on to her current crew indefinitely, so it’s her—and their—mission to find out more about her, and to get her home, wherever that may be. Hopefully her people (and crew-species) know some way to reverse the bond.

FTL-capable, though it’s nothing like conventional warp technology. Totally different technology, as it’s all biologically/psionically based. It seems to be a lot faster, yet also a lot harder to set precise courses for. She often ends up in places her pilots are thinking about/dreaming of instead of whatever heading they try to input.

Yes, they keep ending up at Risa. Yes they tried putting asexual species in the pilot's chair, to no avail. It's a "don't think about elephants" dilemma.

About 300 meters long from bow to stern, making her a bit smaller than the USS Voyager. As the series continues, and she takes on more crew (normally by accident), she grows alongside their numbers 

About 50 crew to start—who are an even mix of starfleet and civvies. It’s actually pretty comfy in there, she’s not a military vessel. Of course, she has a bridge and an engineering section and even weapons. But there’s a park and an arboretum and a little food garden in there too… really, it wouldn’t be such a bad place to settle down.

Starfleet are running the show here… or trying. The crew is small, and her maintenance requirements are pretty high, which means there are a lot of civilians getting field commissions here. Know your way around a plasma manifold? Congrats, here’s your yellow uniform.

There’s nobody on this ship above the rank of commander. Everyone is just doing their best.

Agreed to have some Starfleet technology grafted into her to help her Starfleet personnel interface with her better and also afford them a few more familiar creature comforts—namely holodecks and transporters. Some things work nicely. Other things, like replicators, do not. But don’t worry :) she has the crew’s nutritional needs sorted :)

She excretes a nutritionally-complete-for-your-species paste in your favorite flavour. From her many, many teats. From which you must suckle.

She is capable of replicating anything a standard replicator can (and more!), but it will be produced within an ooze-covered amniotic sac. You can have a raktajino, cup and all, but you’ll just have to wait a sec and then cut it out of an oozy veiny sac.

Starfleet rations have never seemed so appealing! 

She is predominantly solar powered, and supplements her diet with nebula dust and random space debris.

The Bond ™ seems to be a combination of nanites and psychic tethering. The Dragon can intuit the needs of her crew and make sure they are healthy and comfortable, but without her continued influence, the nanites degrade and you’ll eventually go into neural shock. Starfleet are *trying* to find a way to remove the bond safely, to no avail.

She will chat to you, especially if you're lonely. She's great at moral support, and is always there to listen :)

Her internals a a strange mix of organic and inorganic. It's not gory in there, rather, there is a lot of bioluminescence and clean geometry which just... happens to strangely bonelike. At least, that's true for most parts of the ship. Engineering is a different story. And the Jeffrey's tubes? Well, they move you via peristalsis.

All of this occurs 15 years after the conclusion of DS9, in an alternate timeline which ignores every piece of star trek media produced after Voyager (since I have not watched them <3)

Notable staff include:

Captain Noe (actual rank: Cmdr.), a hardass Vaadwaur--actually a spy, but has to keep up the ruse now and is not very happy about it (it's a long story.)

Dr. Kem Valir (CMO), a Bajoran non-believer who's convinced he can save everyone in the universe and that joining Starfleet was the best way to do this.

Lt. Kem Olan (science), a Bajoran-raised Cardassian, adoptive brother of Valir. A social outcast, and very effeminate by cardassian standards. Would follow Valir into hell, or at least Starfleet.

Lt. (j.g.) Ryn (engineer) (provisional officer), an outcast Klingon who just happened to be aboard the Venture after they found him dead in the water in the most ramshackle ship imaginable (it crumbled to debris the moment it lost his magic touch).

Ens. White (helmsman) (extremely provisional provisional officer), a ferengi-human hybrid. Served previously as a helmsman on a small starfleet ship before being stripped of rank for doing a little hustling on the side. Was being moved to a penal colony before the Dragon encounter.

Lt Cdr T'Sue (tactical), a ferengi-vulcan hybrid (don't ask) brought into this world for convoluted political reasons and kept in it by a shitload of cybernetic augments. Same father as White (don't ask). Had a temporary post on the Venture so she could see her bro one last time while also not having to take time off work.

Miles Obrien is also there to continue manning the transporters, since his suffering can never end (he’s divorced in our universe)

We've also overhauled the species lore quite a bit, since the theater of the mind has an infinite special effects budget--though we aim to enhance the existing lore rather than contradict any of it. I'll list our alien biology headcanons here.