#just three hydrogen bombs

[chloesimaginationthings]

I love the SBR universe JoJos

[sugar-grigri]

Yes, see Swordman announces that certainly the other "hybrids" including Reze are alive, but his presence raises more questions than it answers. Even if I'd like to see the way this chapter is cut, i.e. in three parts, already an element of answer. 

The first part was a little confusing and contradictory, with the new bodyguard Fumiko, appointed by Yoshida to watch over and "protect Denji". But what really stands out for me is the line "you're the one and only Chainsaw Man!". 

It's an answer that's already important, as it fits into a context in which Denji is increasingly stripped of his own identity as CSM, whether because of this impostor who represents the church, the church itself, the fans or the detractors. I had already analyzed the fact that CSM had become a collective essence rather than an individual identity. So to tell Denji YOU are Chainsaw Man is to give him back the link he has with himself. 

But this line would be interesting in another context, and here we're getting into pure theory and personal speculation. To explain, let's break the chapter down into three parts. First, Denji and his relationship with Chainsaw Man, as we've just seen. Then, Asa, who is beginning to come to terms (positively) with her own popularity as the new heroine. And finally, Swordman, who appears at the end of the chapter and introduces himself as such. 

My theory came from a single question: why did you present the chapter in this way? Why the ellipsis with Asa? Then continue with Swordman? I mean, Fujimoto did decide to bring these three elements together in a single chapter, so they must necessarily have some as-yet ungraspable narrative link. 

I've been thinking about it, and there's a lot of mystery surrounding the "hybrids". We don't even know what they're called, since their names have been erased by Pochita, according to Makima. Which means that they represent a very special concept that Fujimoto intends to exploit. A concept surely more complicated than a human fused with a demon. 

I've been thinking about this, and two main theories come to mind when I put together what little we know about them. Hybrids are immortal, or more precisely, they can be resurrected as long as they are given enough blood. There's something vampiric about that. Vampire in the sense that they're human-looking demons who need blood, literally. Another theory is more contextual, and that's the one I'm going to bring out today. 

Have you noticed that all hybrid demons represent weapons, machines. Never a fear of a broad concept like the demons of the apocalypse, or of an animal like Beam, or stemming from natural reflexes like the fear of blood and the fear of falling? 

My theory is that they are deeply artificial demons. This was more or less confirmed with Reze, who was a laboratory rat for the USSR, or Katanaman, who became what he is thanks to Akane Sawatari. What's more, hybrids are always more or less connected with the state, Reze with Russia, Quanxi with China, or Denji, whose public hunters are trying to get their hands on him. 

I can't speculate any further, but the only thing I'm sure of is that "hybrids" have something to do with the evolution of the world. And when I mean "evolution of the world", I mean technological evolution, particularly of weapons. 

Which brings me to my theory about chapter 138. There was always something I found unexploited about Chainsaw Man. Exploiting the relationship between mankind and demons, but in a different era, in the past. 

When we return to the chapter, Denji and Chainsaw Man represent the heroes of the present, who threaten to be eclipsed by a new heroine, Asa, associated with the demon of war. Yoru would represent the future, which is why for me she refers so much to nuclear weapons, which remain the most advanced and dangerous weapon at the moment (along with hydrogen bombs, but you get the idea). Swordman, on the other hand, may represent the past, a hero from the past. I mean, people in the past weren't afraid of chainsaws or bombs, they were afraid of swords and crossbows. 

Imagine how old immortal beings could be, representing traditional, ancient weapons? I think it's Quanxi aka the first devil hunter, or Swordman.  

With this context, what Swordman says resonates even more, doesn't it? Who knows better the feeling of being forgotten than a hero of the past like Swordman? Hybrids are doomed to feel this sense of obsolescence. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Swordman knows anything about this. He may have a few points from his past still fresh in his mind, but having been brainwashed by Makima, his memories are surely muddled. The fact remains that this link with the past and technological evolutions: hybrid demons are still those who have a direct relationship with the state and governments.

An important point, given that the Japanese government is the main antagonist in this story.

[gabriel-the-messenger]

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

Please play this game I am begging on my knees

Whats not to like:

1

Big robots fighting with oversized weapons

2

A lovely photo mode for all the screenshots you would ever need

3

Endless mech costumisation

4

Endless LOGO and DECAL constumisation

(This logo took about 3 hours of my day but I regret absolutely nothing)

5

Not one. Not two. But THREE great stories (with NG+ and NG++)

6

"621, the Balam Corporation wants you to burn down this orphenage for a handful of COAM. It's just a job, all of it. Stay focused on the job 621"

7

Handler Walter my beloved🥰

(He's actually just a disembodied voice in the game, credits to u/Count15 on Reddit for the fanart)

Also, shoutout to the lady in my head that calls me Studmuffin (love you Ayre)

8

Coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb (i.e : if you're gonna commit war crimes and/or throw away your humanity, do it in style)

9

(this one is just for you @zealfruity, if you're anyone else you can scroll past this one)

You can make a Transformer!

(This one is by iiiveliii on TikTok. I haven't found any great Starscreams, meaning YOU should be the first!)

10

If you're not @zealfruity, welcome back! So, for my last and final point:

THE MUSIC

If you weren't already enamoured by the visuals of this game, wait t'ill you hear its soundtrack.

These are two examples I cherry-picked from my favorites, but there's nothing more atmospheric than fighting giant robots while having these bangers in the background.

CLOSING REMARKS

AC6: Fires of Rubicon is an amazing game. It takes about 50-60 hours to complete (including NG+ and NG++), but I've sank more than 100+ hours into it as of writing this post. It offers an experience unlike any other, letting you not only build and costumize your massive war machine to your heart's content, experimenting with many different playstyles, but also let's you experience an amazing story with many hidden facades (in true FromSoftware style (did I mention this was a FromSoft game? Dark Souls FromSoft?)) and fight interesting and varied bosses.

Be warned, I have struggled on quite a few bosses, and even the tutorial boss is considered a "filter". However, when you do beat these ennemies, you feel a rush unlike any other.

I've spent all this time writing this and yet I haven't even talked about PvP, and thats because my enjoyment of it varies extremely depending on who I'm fighting. Some people run builds based around the meta (which I personnally find a bit boring, but if that's your vibe then go all out), but I find the truly entertaining matches to be players who aren't afraid to experiment, bringing unconventionnal weapons or builds and trying out interesting strategies. Some also throw all of that out of the window, and I've had quite a few matches end up with me and them simply throwing our weapons out and punching each other to death.

All around, I obviously could not recommend this game more. It's a good 9.5/10 for me, with my only criticism is that I wish there were more long-range and ballistic weapons (I'm a sucker for the sound of bullets ricocheing).

[dapper-lil-arts]

So, what are your favorite MLP ships? I don't know if you've already been asked this before, but meh

less about being asked, more about me posting them nonstop lmao;

#1 Sunlight - (Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle) Number one and two are interchangable due to my mood, because theyre both incredible, and easily fit on a "favorite ships of all time" list i could make for myself. Sunset and Twilight shipping is to me in general all about potential. And if im talking endgame, the show would have ended so, so much better, if there were two lesbians inheriting the night and day. These two are it, with flying colors. Going from rivals to friends to close friends to lovers that would do anything for eachother, to ruling the world in a golden age together, my goodness, this ship is like the chef's choice at a menu. I also may have written a large fanfic of how i would write an entire season of the show with Sunset on it, heheheheheh. Also worth stating, i concider Sunset x Scitwi To be on the same level, if not being the same ship, even if Scitwi is a diffrent character, if someone loves Twilight Sparkle, they would love her in all her versions. #2 Rarijack - (Rarity and Applejack) Did i say sunlight is the chef's choice at a menu? Rarijack is the whole fucking menu. What more can be said about the legend of how the most beautiful Unicorn and the strongest Earth Pony fell in love? The City girl x Country girl vibes are incredibly strong, the opposites attract is at it's PEAK, and both of these girls can easily concider themselves the luckiest women in the world for having the other. It was the first couple i shipped on the show when i watched passively, 'cause i instantly noticed their potential, and c'mon how couldn't anybody. They're the hydrogen bomb of mlp ships, and they could easily sustain an entire season on their back if it was about their love story, which is, painfully, not canon, like any of these ships. Also i'm literaly writing a fic that takes Shrek 1 and makes it about Rarijack and it's as dumbly amazing as it sounds #3 Startrix - (Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon) Honestly this one is easy to ship because it's just endlessly funny. The biggest fail girl that almost destroyed the world falls for the only girl thats a bigger loser than her, and that is endlessly entertaining; specialy because compared to trixie, Starlight is the baddest bitch lmao, and they would hype eachother so much. (insert that post of loser ass gf being hyped up by other cool gf) And there's just an appeal to two unhinged women finding eachother and making eachother... better? worse? I think theyre both at their best when traveling together. #4 Flutterdash - (Fluttershy and Rainbow dash) Fun fact, i didn't ship this until i wrote "the return of midnight sparkle" i just had to write scenes with certain themes, and i realised it would be helpful to further the themes and plot and character development of the protagonist if Rainbow and Fluttershy were macking on eachother. And it grew on me! Daredevil girl and shy girl lift eachother up and improve eachother. Honorable mention: That one ship with with Cadance, Shining armor, and Chrysalis; because it is honestly funny as fuck; no matter how you spin it, be it cadance and chrysalis mack on eachother and shining tolerates it, or the Princess and the Queen have a silent rivalry as they try to be with their himbo, or even if the three of them gross together. it's always funny. (queue chrysalis with the "im not the stepdad im the dad that stepped up" shirt while playing with flurryheart)

[balanceoflightanddark]

Restless Souls: the Origins of the Most Evil Godzilla

It's no secret to anyone that Godzilla has run almost the entire morality spectrum in terms of morality in his 60+ career. He's gone from being an allegory for the hydrogen bomb to a destructive force of nature to a defender of the earth and back again, sometimes within the same film. It is to be expected for a series that's been around for so long with various creators having their own interpretations and view of the character, and how societal norms have changed over the years.

In this regard, the version seen in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (or GMK for short) is...unique.

This particular version of the king of the monsters is widely considered to be the most malevolent he's ever been. Granted, he's no stranger to being a bad guy and causing catastrophic amounts of death and destruction. But this incarnation is especially monstrous. There's a number of times where he almost seems to smile or sneer at the terrified civilians he's killing, whereas most versions are just rage incarnate. Even his design looks wrong, with those milky white blank eyes making him appear more like a ghoulish harbinger of death as opposed to any actual animal.

Well...there's an in-universe reason for why this particular Godzilla is so destructive than normal.

Hirotoshi Isayama: “This animal contains the restless souls of the countless people who perished during the terrible battles that took place during the Pacific conflict.”

Yuri Tachibana: “Their souls? In Godzilla?”

Hirotoshi Isayama: “In Godzilla, the souls of all those people have combined to bring life to the monster. Believe me, I have tried to warn people but they refused to listen. They think I'm mad.”

Yuri Tachibana: “But tell me, why does Godzilla keep attacking Japan? Why does it want to destroy us?”

Hirotoshi Isayama: “Because the Japanese people want to forget what happened... They have deemed it preferable to forget the pain and agony they inflicted on all those people!”

(Copied from Wikizilla)

To sum up, this version of Godzilla is explicitly said to be supernatural in origin. He's effectively the amalgamation of millions of souls that were killed in the Pacific and Chinese theaters that were unable to rest in death possessing the corpse of the original Godzilla that was killed in the first movie. And when you have that much undiluted hate and malice in one giant undead monster, you have a recipe for a particularly malevolent entity.

Interestingly enough, Japanese folklore does tell of a similar entity which might have inspired the creators.

According to Yokai.com, the Gashadokuro is a particularly terrifying yokai. The amalgamation of the souls of fallen soldiers who were denied proper burials, the Gashadokuro is a gigantic skeletal monstrosity formed by the bones and skulls of the deceased and animated by an unearthly hatred for the living that denied them their rest. Nearly unstoppable due to its size and strength, the Gashadokuro was a nightmarish being who's whole existence was to wreck havoc and death upon the world.

Given how spiritual beliefs and legends play in the narrative of GMK, Godzilla does have an uncanny resemblance to the Gashadokuro. Him going out of his way to kill civilians and innocents lines up perfectly with the Gashadokuro's hatred for mortals. Even his design looks less like a living animal and more like a corpse, with dead blank eyes, bony spines, and a bloated stomach full of decomposing gasses. And ultimately, he was almost unstoppable in the film, killing off three monsters awakened to defeat him and the majority of the JSDF. All of which lines up with the legend.

Which is what makes this version of Godzilla so destructive and malevolent. All that rage and hate of the restless dead created this monstrosity who's only purpose was to hurt and kill. Effectively, he's less a living being, and more an unrelenting engine of death and hate.

[davidpincher]

i posted last week about how i went to watch oppenheimer as part of barbenheimer & then ended up writing a 900 word essay about it. three people asked to see the essay so here it is:

a three hour anxiety attack

i watched oppenheimer; had dinner, watched barbie and then showered. i cant stop thinking about this movie. the thing about christopher nolan movies is that there’s always a part of them that makes me remember why i love movies, a part of me that is reminded of their power in the way that they make me feel things. most succinctly, yes, this movie is a three hour anxiety attack because i spent the entirety of the movie anxious, knowing little about this film other than that an atomic bomb is going to be made and dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki.

while i was much too dumb to understand the timeline of events, christopher nolan still makes such a foreign experience feel personal and familiar. relatable even, even though the times have changed. people have always been people, flawed and trusting and selfish. there’s the case of the spy, a jewish man, much like oppenheimer, that oppenheimer initially trusts out of community in hard times. you can understand oppenheimer’s devotion to the war, as someone so personally affected by it. there’s something personal, in the orchestration of the betrayal by robert downey jr (i cannot remember his characters name, truly, he was not that memorable), and how oppenheimer goes from respected to blacklisted. people are petty and cruel. i don’t think i’ve ever seen a movie with a sex scene that i found added to the plot of characters, but there is something so powerful in jean’s death being the only one explicitly shown on screen: humans are selfish and will be our own demise because we, more often than not, cannot find the empathy to care for people who we don’t know. it’s the trolley problem - the death of a lover or the death of hundreds of thousands, or even, the very end of the world.

there’s one line of dialogue that hasn’t left my mind since i finished watching this movie, almost ten hours ago now. it’s the moment in which they’re discussing what cities to bomb, and one character goes ‘not kyoto. there’s too much culture. plus my wife and i honeymooned there’ or something of the sort. it’s the kind of moment that shocked me, how the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians were held in the hands of a guy making decisions based on his honeymoon. it’s the most memorable example of the question ‘who had the right to power’, regarding people’s lives, that consumes this movie. who has the right to create and use a weapon of mass destruction? another that i think of, is the scene with truman. i think that christopher nolan has portrayed a president more accurately than any other piece of media in the past: the president is not just some boss man, he is a guy appointed to look over entire fields he could not possibly understand the weight of, not even if he tried. truman’s depiction in this movie - as does everyone’s, honestly - feels so real because every single person has flaws. everyone here is so deeply flawed and insufferable, even oppenheimer, who likely is only slightly better because he’s aware of it all.

in high school, i was forced to spend two entire years studying world war two and the cold war from every perspective - japan, germany, italy, the united states, the soviet union, china, france and england. so of course, the questions of the ethics and necessity of the dropping of the atomic bomb came up, and there are so many discussions to be had within that. and yet, there wasn’t enough in this film. maybe this is a good thing, given that would require the opinions and analysis of the work of many historians that would likely derail the vision of nolan’s film, it would’ve meant a lot to the little nerd in me specifically.

oppenheimer opposes the hydrogen bomb because if the united states has one; the soviet union, their enemies at the time, would be forced to make one too. on a side note, another moment in this film that made my gut wrench was when this claim is denied on the belief that russia does not have the resources, or knowledge to compete with the united states. and god what a fucking blessing and curse is hindsight, as underestimating russia and the soviet union during a war is just as relevant today. this makes an interesting biopic to me because everyone knows about the atomic bomb. everyone knows about chernobyl and nuclear power. in fact, in the very basic level science classes i took, the world nuclear power became synonymous with chernobyl. bad things happen, and we know it, and this movie helps to warn us a bit about it.

enough on the history nerd stuff i truly did forget how much of my life i spent studying history, even if i only stopped just over a year ago. the sound design of this movie was fucking insane. every piece of audio, the line delivery, everything, made me feel so much (besides rdj - i get what people say about people having faces that know what iphones are) the shots were fucking masterful and despite being a three hour film, there was not a single moment (beyond the sex scenes mayhaps) that i felt dragged on for longer than they needed to. once again, just to end this off, god i fucking loved the sound of this movie, the build up, the anxiety, everything. while i most certainly have not seen enough christopher nolan to say definitively that this is his best work, i can most certainly see why people would say it is so.

[sakitenmaenjoyer]

wxs and arm wrestling part one: nene

tsukasa vs nene- hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby. tsukasa will express surprise at her strength while she struggles to get his arm to budge 💀 the worst part is that he's genuine, he didn't expect to put effort in LMAO. he boasts 'even with more training, ofc u cant beat me 😏', then proceeds to prolong the match by keeping his arm still. she gets so miffed and tries even harder LMAO. she doesn't win though bc tsukasa gets tired and ends it faster than she can process. he brags at the end despite doing nothing

emu vs nene - hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby part 2. emu cheerily confirms that nene did get stronger, and there's only a brief struggle before she pins nene's arm down. she's very encouraging that she hopes nene gets big and buff!!!

rui vs nene- hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby part 3. nene feels like she's pushing against steel. she gets to look as he leans his annoyingly smug face on his other hand, barely breaking out a sweat. he's a mix of emu's genuine encouraging words and tsukasa's irritating lack of response. he wins after she goes 'just end it 😒'

nene's like 'idk what you guys expected....' and sits off to the side. she finds that she enjoys watching the other three arm wrestle rather than doing it herself

[aloesarchives]

Kengan Omega Thoughts

I finally caught up with Kengan Omega now and I... Um, What?

*Spoilers for the lastest chapter!*

I know I shouldn't be rooting for him because he's supposed to be a villain but for all things under the fucking sun he's hot. Look at him, he's pretty for being over like a hundred years old or some thing like that. Fucking aging like mf wine, jesus christ.

Mukaku dying is good because while he did care to some extent, he was overall terrible person. It's funny how he could've done something if he actually never gave up when dark Niko defected to the worm if he still trained our Niko and try to stop the worm. But his flaw of giving up when he knew he lost probably got him to where he was. Plus his motives to kill and get rid of the worm wasn't for virtue or the greater good, it was to get revenge on the connector for murdering his clan which resulted in him having people die because he instigated them.

It sort of falls under the theme of conviction, tenacity, and motive that Kengan has. People with strong convictions and wholeheartedly believing in their motives to fight gives them power and strength in matches and training.

Just something I noticed when reading the "save Ryuki from the inside" arc in the manga. (which I left of from)

If this chapter came out early 2022 or 3 years ago, I would be frothing at the mouth right now seeing Joji and Waka interact. I'm happy that it's canon that the two of them actually know each other. Dude, even Waka knows Joji is a troublemaker, lol. Though I'm out of my Joji and Wakatsuki phase, I still love them dearly. Especially Joji, the man is funny, empty-headed, nonchalant. I personally want to thank Sandrovich for including Joji more in Omega and making him as comic relief. He so himbo-coded, I love it.

Ugh, I love them so much! They have come a long way since the beginning of Omega. I'm so happy for them. Ohma, Ryuki, and Koga, nice development and growth.

I'm sorry, but this fucking panel had me cackling. I know it's meant to be serious and all but it reminds me all too much of this picture below:

Dude, you know it's serious when four of the most powerful people are in an absolute state of shock. The Worm and the Death Dealers don't play around. But I kinda wish they didn't make Shen be this over powered because we don't know who's gonna beat him. I mean, they already stated that Lolong, Agito, nor Raian could defeat him. Hell, we don't know what happened to Ohma since he witness that even the fangs of Metsudo are no match for him. I mean, it'll probably go down to more of Koga fighting him if anything but he'll get his butt handed to him. I wouldn't be surprised if Ryuki fights Shen because it's hinted that there are more then one connector since Mukaku put two and two after realizing that Ohma looked more like Ryuki then with Shen. I think it would be fun to hear that Ohma is a clone of Ryuki and Ryuki is a connector but was sealed away in one of those tube thingys in like the movies. That could explain why he doesn't remember much of his past besides training with Mukaku unlike Ohma who was remembers being a child in the inside.

So we know that Ohma is definitely a clone. Unsure if he's a clone of Ryuki and unsure if Ryuki is a connector himself. I guess we'll wait and see because it seems like the Omega is getting close to the end, like 75% done.

Nogi really is playing with fire and a hydrogen bomb. I understand and like his spirit. But Idemitsu makes a good point about all of this. I also liked how his reaction of shock is different from Yamashita, Nogi, and Katahara. Obviously it's shock but more of like "What the fuck? What the hell just happened?" versus the three's reaction being "Oh my fucking God, how did this fucking happened? What are we up against?" Idemitsu was aware of the worm and of its existence but only recently interacted with them. Whereas Nogi and Yamashita know what they are up against and how dangerous they are to the entire world. Katahara, on top of the two, has even experienced the Worm and even seen their atrocities as he had came across a Gu ritual where he ended up meeting Agito as he was the only survivor.

I just wanna see how this all goes down and what will happen to Ohma and Ryuki.

[skyland2703]

Javelia visits the Dino Charge dimension for one reason or another, and they end up followed back home by a baby Stegouros. They keep it as a pet and name it Waffles. Chaos ensues.

(Art by @alphynix)

OH MY FLUFFING GOD—

“I know we caused an inter-dimensional anomaly, last time, but by any chance… did the two of you cause an inter-dimensional anomaly this time??” Javi had not expected to hear this sentence, this early in the morning. The inter-dimensional jet lag had still not dissipated, and here were two guys, suited in green and black spandex, breaking into their bedroom.

Javi rubbed his eyes, sitting up in bed, and then gestured towards where his girlfriend lay sleeping, beside him, and then turned back to the two guys, the black spandex one of whom had spoken, he signalled them to shush, with a finger on the lips.

The guy in the green spandex leaned closer, and whispered, urgently, in Javi’s ear, “dude. We need to talk.” And there was something so threatening in his voice that Javi immediately got out of bed, pulled on his fluffy puppy-dog slippers, and walked out of the room with the other two guys, still in his boxers and as they reached the living room, Javi found a hoodie and pulled it on. (Unnecessary detail.)

“What happened” he asked, rubbing his eyes again, trying to ward off sleep, and then gestures towards the kitchen, “do you mind if we make coffee while we talk?” He yawned, “and please suit down. Nobody’s gonna attack you here.”

That made sense, the two rangers suited down, and Javi found himself blinking at a very amused Chase and an equally annoyed Riley. Javi grinned at them, “hey guys! Want coffee or tea or green tea or cocoa?” He offered.

“I’d take coco—“ Chase was punched in the stomach by Riley, before he could complete his statement, “not the time, hotshot.” He murmured under his breath and then looked at Javi, “Javi, I appreciate you getting up this early in the morning, and offering us beverages, but this is important…” Javi looked at him curiously, and comically, Chase echoed the exact same expression, despite knowing exactly what Riley was about to say.

“Did you and Amelia… by any chance… steal a baby Stegouros from the dinosaur museum when you guys popped in to drop us home?”

Javi raised his eyebrows, “we… didn’t steal a dinosaur…”

“SEE? I told you Riles! They wouldn’t do that!! The mama Stegouros must be here for some other reason!” Chase was quick to jump to Javi’s rescue, and Javi saw Riley rolling his eyes in a very ‘i love you, Chase, but I can’t deal with this right now.’, an expression Javi was very familiar with, because he got it once in every two days from Amelia.

“Mama stego— WHAT!?”

Riley pulled up his Dino com, and showed it to Javi— in the middle of the night, a giant dinosaur was rampaging through the city like Godzilla. It was a Buzzblast report— and Javi realised him and Amelia, actual Buzzblast journalists, AND Power Rangers, had slept through the entire thing, with their phones on airplane mode, and probably wouldn’t have found out about it until after midday, if

“They don’t have the dinosaur, Riles, let’s go—“

“Wait, wait—“ Javi stopped the two rangers, “i didn’t say we don’t have the dinosaur, i said we didn’t steal the dinosaur. Waffles is right here!”

Both Chase and Riley, as if on cue, asked, “Waffles?”

“Yes! The stegou—“ Javi beamed, then gestured them to come with him, finger on his lips, to tell them to not make any noise. The three boys tiptoed back into the bedroom where Amelia was sleeping peacefully. Javi pointed to where he had been lying, and it took a bit of straining of eyes when finally the Dino charge rangers finally saw it. The tiny baby stegouros, sleeping peacefully in Javi and Amelia’s bed, cuddled up close with Amelia.

Riley was about to burst like a hydrogen bomb, and Chase and Javi realised it just seconds before it happened, giving the two black rangers time enough to drag the distressed green ranger out of the room before he screamed and woke both the dinosaur and the girl up.

They were out into the common hallway of the apartment complex, near the elevator, when Javi and Chase released him, and he let out a scream that would probably not only wake up Amelia and Waffles, but the entire neighbourhood in a three mile radius.

“ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS?! DINOSAURS ARE ENDANGERED!! ITS A FEDERAL CRIME, ITS A FELONY TO STEAL AND HARBOUR A DINOSAUR IN AN ARTIFICIAL ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT THE REQUIRED CLEARAN—“ Chase’s hand was over Riley’s mouth again, smothering the remainder of the rant, while Javi tried hard to not laugh, because he knew Riley would puff up like a pufferfish, and might even start crying in angry tears— something Chase had told him happened when the anger got out of control.

“In our defence…. The lil fella just followed us home through the portal”. Javi looked like a mischievous kid, trying to prove his innocence, with his arms tied behind his back, his feet rubbing the carpet under them, “he spooked us when we closed the door of the apartment earlier, today— we decided to keep it as a pet. Waffles is a nice name, no?” He asked, positively beaming.

“I like Waffles!” Chase chuckled, while Riley tried to say something, but wasn’t allowed to, with the two boys still holding their hands over his face before he actually woke up the entire neighbourhood, “I’d have probably named him Pancakes!”

“Waffles was Amelia’s idea. I wanted to name him Marshmallow.”

“Waffles has a sister! Maybe we can call her Marshmallow, no Riles?” Chase made the fatal mistake of letting go of Riley’s mouth, and the green ranger screamed again, “IF YOU TWO DUMBASSES ARE DONE DISCUSSING FOOD NAMES, THERE IS A VERY ANGRY MAMA STEGOUROS ROAMING YOUR CITY, JAVIER, LOOKING FOR HER BABY. WE NEED THE STEGOUROS BACK!” Riley’s face was absolutely red, and Chase leaned in, and gently pressed a kiss to his cheek, immediately deflating more than half of the anger out like he was an angy balloon.

“Relax, Riles, baby,” he hummed, and Javi watched in amusement, as the kiss and the little chant worked like magic, and Riley calmed down.

“What I’m trying to say, is that we need the dinosaur back so we can save all of our asses.” He said, finally.

“You wanna take waffles away?” Javi made puppy dog eyes at the couple, and Chase almost melted, before Riley said, “yes.”

“Amelia’s gonna be mad…” Javi said, in the same tone, and Riley raised his arms, “we can get her a cat, or something. This is more important—“

“What is more important?” A feminine voice echoed from behind them, and the three boys turned around to find the red ranger standing in the doorway of their apartment, still in her bedclothes, the little dinosaur wrapped up in her arms like a little baby. She looked annoyed— and none of the boys knew they could deal with the wrath of Amelia Jones…

“Err—“

We’re gonna pretend this is in the aftermath of @gayferret420 ‘s Chiley landing up in Dino fury universe AU. Javelia went back to drop them off, and this all… happened…

[usafphantom2]

Growing up at Beale Air Force Base, CA there were black projects and then there were Deep black…. projects …I’m just finding out about many of them now.

“The goal is simple, but the problem is titanic. Get photos of the top-secret Red Chinese hydrogen bomb tests near the Mongolian border deep inside Asia, then get them back, without being detected “ to do this, they needed a MD 21. Which is a cousin of the SR 71.

In the Back Lot of the Pima Air & Space Museum You Can Discover History.

1547 Hrs. December 20, 2009. In the Back Storage Yard of the Pima Air & Space Museum Outside Tucson, Arizona.

Most of what is lying around in the dusty expanse of the aircraft graveyards around Tucson, Arizona is readily identifiable

But there… What is that strange, manta-ray shaped, dusty black thing lying at an angle just on the other side of that fence? It may be an old airfield wind vane or radar test model. But it also may be…

I quickly locate a spot where the entire fence line opens up. I skirt the fence and in a couple minutes running around the sandy airplane corpses I’m inside. There, sitting right in front of me on its decrepit transport cart and dusted with windblown sand, abandoned in the Sonoran Desert, is one of Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich’s most ambitious classified projects from the fabled Lockheed Skunk Works….

I just found the CIA’s ultra-secret Mach 3.3+ D-21 long-range reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was so weird, so ambitious, so unlikely it remains one of the most improbable concepts in the history of the often-bizarre world of ultra-secret “black” aviation projects. And now it lies discarded in the desert. The story behind it is so bizarre it is difficult to believe, but it is true.

July 30, 1966: Flight Level 920 (92,000 ft.), Mach 3.25, Above Point Mugu Naval Air Missile Test Center, Off Oxnard, California. The MD-21 takes off.

Only another M-21 is fast enough and can fly high enough to photograph this, the most classified of national security tests. Traveling faster than a rifle bullet at 91,000 feet, near inner-space altitude, one of the most ambitious and bizarre contraptions in the history of mankind is about to be tested.

Tagboard” is its codename. Because of the catastrophic May, 1960 shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers’ Lockheed U-2 high altitude spy plane over the Soviet Union the CIA and is in desperate need of another way to spy on the rising threat of communist nuclear tests. Even worse, the other “Red Menace”, the Chinese, are testing massive hydrogen bombs in a remote location of the Gobi Desert near the Mongolian/Chinese border. It would be easier to observe the tests if the Chinese did them on the moon. Flat, triangular, black, featureless except for its odd plan form as viewed from above, like a demon’s cloak, it has a sharply pointed nose recessed into a forward-facing orifice. That’s it. No canopy, no cockpit, no weapons. Nothing attached to the outside. Even more so than a rifle bullet its shape is smooth and simple. This is the ultra-secret D-21 drone. The D-21 is truly a “drone”, not a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). Its flight plan is programmed into a guidance system. It is launched from a mothership launch aircraft at speed and altitude. It flies a predetermined spy mission from 17 miles above the ground and flashes over at three times the speed of sound. It photographs massive swaths of land with incredible detail and resolution. And because of its remarkably stealthy shape, no one will ever know it was there

Despite a successful launch the D-21 drone was lost. In the middle of 1972, after four attempts at overflying Red China with the D-21 drone and four mission failures, the program was cancelled. It was imaginative. It was innovative. It was ingenious. But it was impossible.

So ended one of the most ambitious and outrageous espionage projects in history.

Written by Tom Demerly

Posted Linda Sheffield Miller *disclaimer I did not write this I am paraphrasing.

@Habubrats71 via X

[all-seeing-ifer]

Saying this with full awareness that this is so, so low down on the ranking of Bad Things About Angel Season 4, and tbh if the season as a whole was good this wouldn't even be an actual grievance it would probably just be another silly buffyverse plot hole that we can point and giggle at. But I've been trying to figure out the actual chronology of the season (for fic reasons) and I think this is actually going to be my cause of death.

Like ok. Generally speaking the narrative of the Buffyverse shows is told roughly in real time, with each episode taking place around the episode's real life air date. Even the more heavily serialised season 7 of Buffy (THIS IS A SURPRISE TOOL THAT WILL HELP US LATER) roughly follows this kind of timeline. It has enough direct references to the passage of time, such as the start of the school year, christmas etc. for us to plot that out. Even when it gets more serialised in the second half, it still feels like there's plenty of dead space in between episodes where they're just training the potentials, trying to make a plan to fight the First, and so on.

Then we have Angel season 4. Now, we know that "Deep Down" takes place three months after "Tomorrow", which assuming that "Tomorrow" is set somewhere around its May airdate, puts "Deep Down" in around August/September 2002. We also know that "Home" takes place at the same time as "End of Days"/"Chosen", which take place in around May 2003. Meaning that season 4 takes place over the course of about nine months.

HOWEVAR. In "Players" Gunn states that everything from "Apocalypse, Now-ish" up until that episode (which is about half the season) has happened over the course of "a couple of weeks". Which raises the question, where the fuck did the rest of the time go? The most obvious solution would probably be to say that Jasmine was just in charge of LA for way longer than the month it took for those episodes to air, but nope! "Orpheus" has to happen between the Buffy episodes "Lies My Parents Told Me" and "Dirty Girls" on account of Willow's cameo, and "Dirty Girls" really marks the point in season 7 where the one-to-one real-world/in-show timeline breaks down (as it often does towards the end of a season) and everything from that point onwards seems to happen over the course of about a week tops.

And saying that the first six episodes of season 4 are just spread out over a longer period of time also only gets you so far, because all the episodes from "House Always Wins" to "Apocalypse, Now-ish" follow pretty directly on from each other. Which means the only way to make it make sense is if either a) the first three episodes of season 4 are spread out over like. six months. or b) "Tomorrow" actually happens way later than its real life airdate, which I guess is possible - I don't think there's any in-show evidence that is has to happen around the same time as the Dark Willow arc - but does mean that now the whole season 3 timeline is a bit fucked up.

And to be clear I probably wouldn't care about this at all if it weren't for the fact that the Buffyverse timeline is normally extremely one-to-one and extremely easy to follow, and then Angel season 4 is like a fucking hydrogen bomb just destroying the whole thing

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Ruby: The main four factions of Fallout 4 are all garbage!

Ruby: The Minute Men? Militaristically the weakest when you start, being literally One Guy, and the group of survivors that are sticking around him! Then you save One Little settlement of TWO PEOPLE, and ALL of a sudden he thinks you're hot shit. And y'know what? They can become arguably the strongest faction in the game. They get Artillery, you can build robots, and they get access to the Mechanist Facility, which one could feasibly just Reprogram the robots idea of 'Safety', but Bethesda are cowards, and same could be said of Nuka-World, but like. Whatever, even without that, you can build the Minutemen up anyway!

Ruby: The problem is that it's UP TO YOU!

Ruby: YOU'RE THE ONLY THING BETWEEN THEM AND OBLIVION!

Ruby: And their also just 'Generally Good Guys' with nothing more than 'I wanna Help People' as a motive, but I suppose I'm one to talk, but for all those settlements to just agree? Kinda lame.

She drinks a glass of water, before taking a deep breathe.

Ruby: Now, the Railroad? Ignoring the very blatant and very poor - I can't Even call it a Ripoff! It straight up is just taking directly from the actual, historical underground railroad! But ignoring that major, somewhat probably racist copying of an important part of history, They just suck.

Ruby: Tunnel-Visioned on, yes a noble cause, but wholly uncaring about the after effects of their actions on those they save, or making the Commonwealth better so they can really give the synths a new life, BUT NO!

Ruby: They sit in their little hovel, preaching about freeing slaves, but not helping anyone around them, and as such making themselves weaker. Now I get that they need to be stealthy, but they are just so bad in terms of effectiveness, and you know, changing their keys and Signs, and passwords, that they aren't good at the whole espionage thing!

Ruby: They don't even operate in cells! A big part of resisting something is being able to survive despite a section missing! Like splitting an army to force the enemy to fight on two fronts! But they maintain a generic centralized power structure, Severely Weakening their ability to recuperate from any losses of leaders!

Ruby Groans, pinching her nose, preparing for another rant.

Ruby: The Brotherhood, I refuse to waste much breathe on. They are just a racist, selfish military force, effectively the goddamn Imperium of Man from Warhammer, but like, way lamer.

Ruby: They live in a goddamn Zeppelin -

Ruby: and it is a Zeppelin due to the rigid structure that maintains its shape-

Ruby: filled with Hydrogen. I suppose large supplies of helium would probably be hard to come by in post apocalypse, but, bearing in mind I'm not a particle physicist, when you have FUSION TECHNOLOGY, Could you possibly fuse Helium into Hydrogen? Maybe try something like that? or possibly not keep your Elder in a ticking time bomb? If a storm rolls in, and some grounding equipment fails, KABLOOEY! DEAD! GONE!

Ruby takes another sip of water

Ruby: Honestly the biggest fault of those three was the fact they decided to blow up the Institute, instead of using it's teleportation tech, it's computer and medical resources, or even just taking fresh clothes?

Ruby: *Sigh*

Ruby: Which leads into the worst of the factions.

Ruby: The Institute. The Cowardly, Self-Centered, Hypocritical, Ham-Fisted, Hot-Headed Institute.

Ruby: The first attempt at communication and working with the Commonwealth fell through, so they kill whoever, they want to take over the commonwealth so they start replacing people with high-quality synths, they're supposed to be smart, but can hardly work together, They rely heavily on using force to communicate with the outside, while relying upon outside resources to stay alive.

Ruby: And the worst part?

Ruby: They constantly Contradict themselves.

Ruby: The Institute wants to be "Mankind: Redefined" But when the very human Synths begin to show humanity, they kill those synths.

Ruby: The creation made with the express purpose to be a better mankind, is often destoyed, because they show signs of humanity.

Ruby: So that's mostly what's wrong with the Fallout 4 base game Factions.

Weiss, Tied to a chair and Crying: Please! I Just wanted to play a Dress-Up game in the computer!

Ruby: NOW THE DLC FACTIONS-

[septusuki]

Hitori Gotoh didn't want to lie; she was dreading this more than usual. 'Dread' was not an uncommon sensation to the indoorsy little worm that 'Bocchi' had so unreluctantly become. In fact, the poor girl dreaded just about most things, from going outside to groceries.

However, to say that she wasn't looking forwards to one of the few things that could dredge her out of bed - a bi-monthly reunion of Kessoku Band - that was near ludicrous. Bocchi had blossomed from an introverted maggot to a still mostly introverted tsuchinoko, thanks to the other three member's sometimes overbearing influence. Like a time-capsule chrysalis, the grumply little catterpillar called Bocchi had become something that even she could be markedly proud of. Thanks to them. Thanks to Kita, really. But--

"Good morni--ing!" Bocchi couldn't not recognize that angelic tone. Ikuyo Kita, the very same red-headed goddess that'd taken it upon herself to transmute Bocchi into her current self. Ikuyo Kita; smiling, glowing, gleaming, and obese.

"Didn't wait too long, Hitori-chan?" With the force of a thousand hydrogen bombs, Kita flummoxed down into the same booth as Bocchi, immediately taking up twice as much butt-space as her, as pushing the table so far away that Bocchi could hardly reach the meagre milkshake she'd managed to order. "Phew, it's getting hot out there, huh?" Wiping some sweat from her brow, Kita leaned back, her flab rolls only engulfing more and more of the helpless cushion.

Bocchi couldn't not stare. Not now that Kita was right infront of her. Wearing an ill-fitting, sweat-swaddled t-shirt, it was hard to not look at Kita, considering how much space the cow-blob took up.

"Mm--Mhm." Bocchi just nodded her head in agreement, not having actually registered the question. It was hardly March, even if months meant little to nothing to her. As usual, Bocchi was just enthralled by the sheer mass of Kita-chan; for the last two years, she'd watched the shapely girl bulge, balloon and no doubt blossom into a still-trendy college fatass.

Twice every month, three girls would cram themselves in around her at whichever restaurant Kita's appetite was in the mood for. Talking of their memories of Kessoku Band, they all avoided talking about the hippo-sized elephant in the room, lest they step on something sore - and soft. This was what Bocchi had been dreading. The moment, that was already oh-so guaranteed to arrive, that she'd been prematurely regretting since she'd accepted the invite. The instant that it became obvious. That it became too hard to not admit.

"Oof...! I've gotten a bit fatter, haven't I, Hitori-chan?"

[vexillavixvisa]

Bikini Atoll

Ralik Chain, Marshall Islands

Although appearing bizarre and ugly at first, the flag of Bikini Atoll makes a sad reflection on the history of the island and its people, with glimmers of local traditions and culture trying to bleed through an immovable American façade.

Bikini Atoll's entrance into darkness came less than a century ago, when American nuclear scientists sought an adequate place for testing atomic bombs, ending up at the Marshallese reefs. Unaware of the true devastation to come, the Bikinian leader agreed to pass the island to the U.S. Army, being exiled to other islands with inadequate food sources. After the detonation of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb in 1954, the islands became a wasteland, still uninhabitable to this day.

The flag is a defaced American flag, with 23 stars in its canton to mirror the number of islands belonging to the atoll. The three black stars in the north fly pay homage to the three islands obliterated during the nuclear testing; the two other black stars symbolise the islands to which the Bikinians were relocated, symbolically distanced from the canton's stars to reflect both the islands' far-off location from Bikini Atoll and the large gap in quality of life. The phrase below the canton translates to 'Everything is in the hands of God', the Bikinian leader's response to America's request.

This flag is not just that of a desolate contaminated atoll, but a banner under which every displaced Bikinian rallies angrily against the United States - reminder to them that they owe an extortionate debt.

[actual-lea]

TELL US ABOUT THE THERMONUCLEAR BOMBS LEA (& tag them appropriately please)

God okay I don't even know where to begin I just

I'm gonna ramble a lot about how these bombs work and none of it is going to be very informative probably unless you also want to check out the damn Thermonuclear Weapons wikipedia page at the same time, and even then it's fun to remember that all of this is mostly only how thermonuclear bombs are theorized to work, since the actual designs are obviously all super classified info

Also going to ramble specifically about how the bomb is presented in Lost, so spoilers also abound:

Okay well fun fact, a thermonuclear aka hydrogen aka fusion bomb (which is different than like. a "regular" atomic/nuclear/fission bomb) contains a regular atomic bomb inside it - there are two "stages" to a hydrogen bomb, of which the regular-ass atomic bomb is only the first (fission) stage and is basically only there in order to facilitate the secondary (fusion) stage, which is where most of the power actually comes from (and then from that there's more fission that happens, which might actually be where most of the power actually comes from? idk this is all top of my head I don't have the wiki article open right now lol)

That was something that really kind of blew my mind to learn. Like. The idea of an atomic bomb in most people's minds is (for good reason!) this huge city-flattening thing of indescribable destructive power, and that thing very quickly became irrelevant as anything but the activation for the actual bomb bomb, which is so so so many more times destructive than either of the bombs that were actually used in 1945.

I actually just recently re-skimmed over the wiki article about Tsar Bomba, the biggest EVER thermonuclear test explosion (which was in 1961 iirc, somewhere in Russia/the Soviet Union), which iirc is theorized by some people to have actually been a three-stage design rather than two-stage*, and fucking. The seismic wave created by this explosion circled the entire globe three fucking times over even though it was detonated in the fucking air

*because of the way that the two stages work, it's theoretically possible to just keep adding more and more of the "secondary" type device ad infinitum, but it becomes pretty impractical pretty quickly since (I think?) they'd need to keep getting bigger and with just a two stage weapon you're definitely already in like the 20 tons realm at minimum already, so it's kind of silly to keep adding more and more to it especially when the amount of explosive yield you're getting is already way more than enough than you could ever really need anyway

ANYWAY

None of that is really relevant to what I was ACTUALLY trying to learn about in the first place, which is like. How in the good goddamn the bomb in Lost is supposed to have worked.

(Really the thing I was trying to initially figure out more than anything is what the fuck would the stuff leaking from the casing of the bomb even have been and the jury's still out on that one tbh)

SO okay. Season 5 finale of Lost, we have Sayid and Jack and Eloise and Richard all going to get the bomb to do the thing with the incident. According to Sayid according to Daniel's journal, his plan was to remove the "plutonium core" of the bomb rather than trying to move the whole damn thing.

Incidentally, I have a copy of the Lost Encyclopedia, and like half the reason for buying it in the first place was because I saw online that there were more pictures of Dan's journal/the disassembly instructions for the bomb in it (which I did get this damn thing in like November 2020 so that should tell you how long I've been looking into this stuff lmao)

(a picture of a spread from the Lost Encyclopedia showing several images of pages from Daniel's journal)

So, okay - there are 2 spreads (4 pages) worth of detailed disassembly instructions, over on the right side of the image - idk if any of that is even readable in the image but to summarize: the first pages (bottom right) are the ones we actually see for like half a second in the episode:

(an image from 5x16 of Sayid's hands holding Daniel's journal open to those same disassembly instructions)

According to these instructions, what we are actually removing in the episode and carrying around and dropping in the Swan hole, is the "plutonium primary device from the secondary payload", which. Is not really a thing? The "primary" device in a hydrogen bomb IS the atomic bomb, which is a whole separate thing from the "secondary" device. There is a plutonium "spark plug" cylinder inside the secondary, which I assume is probably what this would be referring to, HOWEVER the second part of the instructions (top right of the Encyclopedia image above) have a drawing of this device, which apparently includes "slow explosive lense", which is absolutely not a thing that would be in the secondary. The explosive lenses in a hydrogen bomb would only be found around the primary, most likely in a spherical shape that creates a series of synchronized explosions to compress a spherical plutonium (or perhaps enriched uranium, but most likely plutonium) "pit" in the center, squeezing it enough to cause it to go supercritical which is what causes the explosion. Then, the heat/radiation caused by this explosion is enough to (in a matter of like microseconds - this is also why the inside of the casing is made specifically to hold together long enough for the reaction to actually happen, because otherwise the explosion would blow everything apart before it reached its full potential yield or whatever) then compress the secondary device, a cylindrical casing (called a tamper) most probably made of un-enriched/depleted uranium (I think? it wouldn't be dangerously radioactive to the touch, which is why Sayid handling the damn thing with only a pair of gloves in the episode is actually probably plenty of precaution) with a rod of plutonium inside it and also some tritium/deuterium (isotopes of hydrogen, which is the "hydrogen" part of the hydrogen bomb) is there.

So basically, the radiation/heat/neutrons of the first explosion of the primary compress/ablate the casing of the secondary, and the neutrons react with the tritium and deuterium from the outside while the neutrons from the fission reaction of the plutonium "spark plug" that's getting compressed inside the secondary react with the tritium and deuterium from the inside, and all of this causes a bunch of fusion reactions, which also release MORE neutrons, which then cause some more fission of the uranium casing that surrounds the whole enchilada, and this is how big big big explosion happen.

All that to say - there aren't any explosives present in the secondary. Taking out the "plutonium core" wouldn't leave you with a detonate-able bomb, it would just leave you with a chunk of plutonium and no way to compress it into supercriticality.

Even so, it does seem like the writers did a non-zero amount of research, because I kind of see what we did here? Basically fudged the primary and secondary together in order to make it so that we can take just a piece of the bomb and still have it be detonate-able. So, we've invented for the convenience of the plot a plutonium core that is surrounded by explosives (in a cylindrical shape, which probably wouldn't really work but the plot demands that it does), which is in essence...just an atomic bomb. Not "in itself a thermonuclear weapon" like Sayid says, but definitely enough to cause a big boom**, which I guess is the goal here. I would presume that the actual cylinder (picture below) itself is meant to be a (depleted) uranium casing, with explosive lenses inside it (that the wires are connected to) encasing the cylinder of plutonium inside.

(an image from the Lost Encyclopedia of the "Jughead Bomb" entry, which includes a close-up of the cylindrical device that Jack drops into the Swan hole in 5x17)

**Incidentally, one of the pages in the first Encyclopedia image above mentions "four kilotons" as the theoretical yield of the plutonium core, which I guess might maybe be accurate if we're just treating this thing like a regular ass atomic bomb at this point? It's clearly a very small amount of plutonium that we're working with - for reference, the "Fat Man" atomic bomb (the Nagasaki one) apparently had 6.19 kg of plutonium in it, which is a little over 13 and a half pounds, and of that only about 1 kg actually fissioned, giving a yield of somewhere between 19-23 kilotons. If we're working with...idk, maybe half a kg of plutonium? A little over a pound? And only 1/6 of it was to actually fission upon detonation, then yeah, that yield could probably get pretty close to 4 kilotons.

Even so even so, the idea of rigging the bomb to detonate on impact would maybe maybe work, but only if there was a way to guarantee that the impact would cause the "explosive lenses" (that we're gonna pretend are there) to explode, in sync. This is something that's ordinarily accomplished by an electrical signal sent simultaneously to all of the outer shell of explosives at once - judging from the wires that are all along the cylinder thing, I would presume that's what we're going with in the episode as well. The notes on the second part of the instructions mention "spring loaded detonation switches" but I don't really know what the fuck that means. My best guess is that it's set up like a Wile E Coyote TNT handle switch thing - mayhaps there's a spring loaded thing at the top of the cylinder (right side of the image above, where the tape is) that completes the circuit either when squeezed down or when un-squeezed (I'm leaning towards that, given the tape?) and that's how it would perhaps be able to explode on impact, if that knocked the thing loose enough to complete the circuit.

In which case, hitting it with a rock on the side of the thing would definitely not do anything.

My way to make it make more sense (perhaps in a future fanfic, who can say) would be if rather than there being any kind of explosives in the device itself, if it's instead the pressure/heat generated by the electromagnetic field of the Swan's "electromagnetic pocket" that somehow compresses the device, to the point that the plutonium inside can reach supercriticality and go boom.

But of course, that's not as dramatic or exciting as hitting it with a rock eight times.

Incidentally incidentally, shooting the thing with a gun would also not make it explode (much in the same way that shooting a gas can with a gun would not cause an explosion), but damaging the wires in any way that would cause a short or anything like that could render it unable to detonate and/or cause an explosion that just sort of spits out plutonium chunks everywhere (dirty bomb), so you still don't really want to bring it into the middle of a gunfight if you can help it JACK

[materassassino]

HII! hi. I have seen it three times, and I still don't really understand the meaning of the hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby meme (or context?? If there is any??)

Like, is it satire? Or serious? Does that have an effect on whatever poll is spoken of when it's referenced? I just saw you mention it and thought. finally. someone I can ask.

Lol, ok, so... I believe it originally came from like "what's louder, hydrogen bomb or a coughing baby?" with the implication they're both equally loud because babies cough really loudly, for some reason? Little smokers, all of them. But along the way it's developed into a phrase for one thing in a comparison being exponentially overpowered compared to the other, like in a poll. The hydrogen bomb being the exponentially overpowered thing, obviously, and the coughing baby being its sickly rival.

I'm probably missing some context, but that's how people use it now.