#level 50 is just an absurd level to need to get to. you end the game at like level 20 usually-

[oh-meow-swirls]

batshit insane statement but part of harrisville's theme sounds kinda like part of uhhhhh. one fantasy life song. i don't remember which part but it has fantasy life vibes. they probably had the same composers honestly sfdlkfjlksfjkfkjsf-

[callioclops]

Going through Tumblr's Community Guidelines to find out which one all the transfems are apparently breaking

So let's just be clear, we all know that transfem blogs are being taken down for criticising Tumblr staff. I wouldn't be surprised if mine goes down for making this. But I think it would be good if we just go through what is and isn't allowed and find where they might be trying to find a loophole if they even bother to give a reason.

The only way I could see this ever being relevant to the transfem ban wave is if they made pro-Palestine posts which Staff chose to unfavourable misinterpret as pro-Hamas, which I wouldn't be surpised by but it's a separate point I think

Ironically, transfems are getting banned for doing the exact thing it suggests here. We're addressing our concerns directly with staff. We're speaking up, we're raising awareness, and yet we're banned for explicitly following the advice given in the Community Guidelines. Nevertheless I expect a few of them have been banned on this exact point. Now, if any of the critiques had been levelled at the staff specifically based on any of the qualities listed then yes, that would be valid, but I've yet to see that, and even if I did see that I have no doubt that they'd be banned faster than the 50 TERFs and Nazis that commited the exact same violation against them for weeks on end.

I'm including this one for the sake of completion but I don't think I need to talk about it. Obviously no one is violating this for critiquing staff and I think it would be absurd for them to try and claim it.

A similar thing here, although more likely than the former if a "KYS" gets thrown in out of an understandable amount of anger or frustration. Again however, I haven't personally seen this from any criticisms.

We know transfems have been banned on this point. It's been explicitly stated and the evidence given has been none, or tenuous at best. They can and will book you on this point for any reason it seems. We shouldn't have to be scared to share our photos to highlight our experiences as trans women. There is no reason why our faces should be considered inappropriate.

To my knowledge the only time this has come up is Hammer Car, and we all know how absurd that is. To be banned over a looney tunes threat shows the person pulling the trigger has been waiting for a reason.

The following is a long string of completely irrelevant guidelines that I'm including to make sure I haven't missed anything, feel free to skip over these.

And now we're back to one last thing that has a chance of being levied agaisnt us:

Staff, I want to make this perfectly clear to you: Critique is not harassment. Protest is not harassment. Your job is to run a website that is welcoming to people of all gender identities, races, ages (within your own limit of when people can make an account of course), etc. When you're getting so many complaints about this, that should be an indicator for you to consider whether something is being done wrong. And it may not be you that's doing it, but when the company you work for is allowing this rampant prejudice to be carried out, you have a duty to do something about it. Make a statement denouncing the actions of the company. If you're in a position to do so, strike. Protest. If you agree with us that what's happening is wrong, then stand with us. And if you don't see anything wrong with the silencing of disparaging opinions from an oppressed minority, keep at it I suppose. You won't get all of us.

And finally a couple more completely irrelevant guidelines for this topic.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

James Holts Family Makes & Sells Rosé by u/AM_Rike

James Holt’s Family Makes & Sells Rosé It has been puzzling as to why Meghan suddenly dropped her jam launch plans to “randomly” launch her own rosé. It made no sense since it takes many years to develop a wine and build up a following. Unless you are using your tax free charity to pay some oaf $225K-$300K a year (depending on bonus amount) to do close to no work whatsoever, and that staffer’s family owns a winery. Archewell writes a handful of checks each year and gets a few photo ops. They have no actual original charity services or activities, so no need for high level execs. James also has enough free time to also work for the Invictus Games. So his total pay package could be closer to $500K. The Holt family rosé is low end, retailing at £50 for 6 bottles, making the wholesale cost quite affordable. James’ brother Thomas has been in the wine-making business since 2014. Is it possible that James’ brother will simply sell shipping containers of unlabeled rosè to California where, like her jam, Meghan merely slaps her ARO label on them? This could account for James’ absurd (and illegal) pay package for a charity with virtually no employees on staff. Just James, a female co-CEO and likely one Admin. If this is what‘s happening, that gives more fodder to the IRS should Archewell, Inc be audited. congrats to the citizen journalist on X who found this post link: https://ift.tt/vtpNFhH author: AM_Rike submitted: July 11, 2024 at 12:04AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[siriuslysatorusimping]

Another Level: Installment Masterlist

Series Summary:

“You’re a Zenin.” More like an unwanted mistake. Which, funny enough, had actually been the first words she ever heard her father say to her. - Kurisaki Rinko was born an unwanted bastard child to the Zenin clan, having since grown into an unwanted bastard adult. Her stubborn refusal to be discarded resulted in a display of strength that many would call (they had, many times to her face, in fact) an unhinged lack of self-preservation. But lucky for her, that unhinged display caught the attention of a particular blue-eyed menace who happens to be more fun to rile up than anyone she’s ever met. - A collection of snapshots into Rinko’s life getting under Gojo’s skin and both of them enjoying every moment of it. - Gojo can be surprisingly soft sometimes* - They both really need a hug, so why don’t they just hug each other *Originally posted on AO3 💕

Main Another Level Masterlist

Links below the cut 💕

1) Make a God Bleed

2) Teasing and Techniques - Part 1 | Part 2

3) Let Me Know You

4) Semi-Grade

5) Seeing Double

6) I Say "Sayonara"

7) Fight Like You Mean It - Part 1 | Part 2

8) New Memories

9) Hollow Echoes - Part 1 | Part 2 | (Author Discussion)

10) Strength in Numbers

11) Let's Get Lost

12) Double-Edged Words

13) Winter Lullaby

14) Innate Issues - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

15) Interrupted Evening

16) No Goodwill Here

17) Show Your Hand - Part 1 | Part 2 | (Author Discussion)

18) Oversight

19) Deadly Promise

20) Silence Louder than Words | (Author Discussion)

21) One the Eve of Death

22) No Matter How Sad the Ending

23) Let's Call It 'Hope'

24) In the Absurd Silence

25) Dangerous Allies - Part 1 | Part 2

26) The Weight of Failure

27) More than Anyone

28) Fragmented Hope

29) Echoes in the Void

30) Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart

31) (Please) Prove Me Wrong - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | (Author Discussion)

32) Life Goes On

33) Blood is Thicker

34) Ties that Bind

35) Back At It Again

36) Make Me Whole

37) Living Memories

38) Echoes of Hope

39) Trust and Traditions

40) Cruel Fate

41) Fight Until the End - Part 1: Where Do I Begin? | Part 2: What's Your Color? | Part 3: Outmatched | Part 4: Unwanted | Part 5: Fractured Multiplication

42) Anything But Boring

43) Fragmented Reality

44) Divided Reflections

45) Follow My Lead

46) Let the Games Begin - Part 1 | Part 2

47) Split Bluff - Part 1 | Part 2 | (Author Discussion)

48) Fragile Strength

49) Where Shall We Go Tomorrow?

50) Something Important

51) Horizon of Chaos - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

52) Shattered Existence

53) All That I Am Is Yours

Ongoing Epilogue: From Now Until Forever

1) Forever Starts Now

2) Dreams of Gold

3) I Want Forever

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Neo Champion Nate

Who wants to bet that someone on Reddit will argue that actually this proves Nate is the real protagonist of BW2, because this Shiny Haxorus is only obtained when you complete your Pokedex, which could only be done if he did all the stuff with the legendary Pokemon. Who wants to bet me? I already won by the way.

General Overview Nate finally gets his alt, and all of his pent up fury at the world is released, in the form of a black Haxorus that is out for blood.  Usually I try to be somewhat thorough in my rundown of a pair's talents, but I'm going to cut to the chase on this one.  240% sync damage on grid, his new Circle effect can give up to 40% bonus move and sync damage depending on Unovan count, Field EX Role for a multiplicative 50% bonus.  Effectively, 420% sync damage.  By himself.  For free.  All conditionals are absurdly easy to apply.  This is all you need to know about Nate to justify his existence.

But wait, there's more!  Nate has a ton of interesting traits, including an AoE buddy move that unfortunately doesn't get no-penalty effect, but is 300BP and therefore a second nuke.  He also has the new Circle effect, which is basically a second Master Passive, but it works for sync too.  Nate, by himself on an all-Unova team, is +90% physical damage dealt, and -45% physical damage taken.  Like.  Free.  For completely free.  He always crits, caps attack on first trainer move, and gets that Buddy move back every time the team uses sync.  All of this around a very proficient rate of boosting PMUN for himself.  His role is take first sync, AoE explode sides, then fire off a compressed Buddy move with sync strength, and with a rotation or Circle -> sync -> Buddy and a full Unova team, gets 200% bonus damage on said Buddy move. There are sync nukes with less power than that.

So what are the flaws?  Well...he's Nemona. You know how Nemona operates on burst damage, then has nothing once used up? NC Nate is the same. You sync, you Buddy move, then you wait for someone to sync. Scale Shot is atrocious damage. And with Circles being 2MP and an impermanent field effect, this starts to cut into damage. Nate isn't built for the long haul that way. He needs partners. And outside of Iris and C!Iris? His only Dragon-type partner is BT Leon (or BP Zinnia if you want to be cute). Every other dragon is special. And it's rare that you want two different offensive types in a match. Not that he can't make it happen for off-typing, but you get the idea. His ideal partners aren't plentiful. But in truth? I kinda like these flaws. Every pair has to have some kind of limitation, and this feels more aligned to interesting teambuilding than other top meta pairs. Like, because of the limitations in play? If he isn't ending the fight after his Buddy move, his partner is picking up some slack. And Unova-specific boosts with Dragon Zone means base Iris is contributing. And that's just great. I love when a really good pair drops and actually brings up the lower tier with it.

EX, Role, and Move Level? Nate is a fascinating case.  Move Level is, I think, justifiable at 1/5, if you're going for more supportive effects.  You know.  Like I would.  But you'd still want the EX and Role, because Field role is huge for his potential support.  It's what ratchets Iris up to absurd levels of power.  Obviously, 3/5 is when Nate goes off the rails and becomes a killing machine.

Team 1: NC Nate, C!Iris, Hilbert Nate and Iris are the obvious pair, as both contribute bonkers Dragon-type damage to the team.  C!Iris has the added benefit of being an offensive debuffer, giving Nate the defensive backbone to keep trucking.  Iris' main problem is her own setup.  She relies on Atk/crit support, and for Unova, there's...really only one option.  Hilbert.  Hilbert is nigh-required for a full Unova team, due to C!Iris' needs.  You could just ignore that, though.  Bring whoever you want and let Iris serve as debuffer/flinch bot.  Not like Nate will need the help.

Team 2: NC Nate, Iris, H!Caitlin Now, if you are insane like me, this is at least worth discussing.  Base Iris can make use of all of Nate's effects, making her a surprisingly fun choice for a 1/5 Nate.  H!Caitlin supplies all the Atk/Spd the team needs, as well as some defensive backbone, and full Unova privileges.

Team 3: NC Nate, SS N, H!Caitlin Okay, now let's talk some bullshit.  Off-type is a possibility for Nate, given the raw damage output he can provide.  One really, really fun option is SS N.  SS N operates on a two-turn rotation of attacks, and relies on hitting a denial on sides to succeed.  Off-type, this is incredibly hard without a lot of support.  Support in the form of +90% move damage with potential PMUN stacks.  H!Caitlin is chosen for defensive backbone, speed control, and the last bit of Atk that N needs.  Also just because she is optimal.

Team 4: NC Nate, Colress, S!Hilda/Lenora "I don't care about any of that nerd shit!  This is Nate's time to shine, I want him to do maximum damage!"  Colress, you're up bro.  -6 Def by first sync, GG EZ.  You can throw in Summer Hilda if you want super good defensive bulk and Topsy Turvy, or you can throw in Lenora for added Leer and some team healing.  Either or.

Final Thoughts Nate is one of those Strikers who embodies the damage type he was born into.  His sync is immaculate.  The added effects of the new Circle, the Master passive, and the Zone are all tremendous, and would serve him well regardless of his raw power.  When combined, the man is a menace.  I can think of little to fault Nate with, in truth.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to go through some more small things quickly because I'm getting behind.

Will You Snail?

More fun and interesting than I expected. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into beyond it being cheap and having tons of positive reviews, but it turned out to be a precision platformer where you play as a snail (and can wear another smaller snail as a hat), and it's about the fear of AI literally taking over the world and whether reality is really real. Also the AI is an asshole and spontaneously spawns bullshit spikes and lasers and stuff exactly where it thinks you're about to go so you have to contend with that in addition to just making it through each room.

I had a good enough time to finish the story and get somewhere north of 50% completion, but I don't really see myself doing the optional stuff like beating everything on the highest difficulty. The auto-difficulty kept me somewhere in the 2-3 range out of 4 95% of the time with very rare spikes to 4, and with me getting worse at stuff like this over time as my reactions get slightly slower, my vision gets worse, and my brain just gets generally weird, I don't really see a point in pushing myself harder just to frustrate myself.

Lara Croft GO

It only took me forever to get around to this one, which I probably would've forgotten about if someone didn't gift me a copy a few days ago. Basically you, uh, raid tombs. Big surprise, I know, but this time it's a turn-based puzzle game. I liked the puzzles enough and different mechanics they introduced enough to finish it because some of them were reasonably clever/satisfying, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with the extra ones after the credits roll. Toward the end after I got the hang of it I tended to finish levels without having to retry more than a couple times, but just knowing I'd have to start over entirely for every mistake or misclick makes it less enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure it's my second favorite Tomb Raider game now, and one of only two I've ever finished. The other was the 2013 reboot, which I thought was great. I tried the sequel to that and didn't really like all the changes they made to the formula because they all made it less fun for me, and I always thought the pre-reboot ones were just bad. To be fair I heard the later ones did get better and I never tried any of those, but the PS1 era games were anti-fun for me.

I'LL KILL HER

More of a digital comic book than anything, like a visual novel with an extreme emphasis on the visual part and no decision making. The art style was enough to get my interest to try it, and that's probably the main thing it has going for it. The story is...fine? Not super deep or original and feels like it maybe has some translation or non-native English issues sometimes, but it all fits together well enough in the end I guess. All of the content warnings for this one for stuff like abuse and domestic violence and suicide.

Cris Tales

Somehow this is the only one of these that I gave up on before finishing it. A lot of stuff in it is absolutely gorgeous (go watch the animated intro, seriously), and I was getting into the setting and some of the themes it was hinting at, and the time shifting mechanics are pretty neat both for exploration and combat, but I just don't really enjoy playing the game very much.

Society has advanced beyond the need for random encounters, but Cris Tales has not. Good thing it has irritatingly long load times for each one, at least on the Switch, and it has to do it again going back from the battle screen to the main overworld. And I really am not into how the combat encounters are balanced. Even basic trash enemies a few hours into the game can do absurd amounts of damage, like 40+ when your characters barely have over 100 hp. You can reduce that with timed button presses like Paper Mario/Mario RPG games, but the animations while pretty are really bad at conveying the actual correct timing for stuff.

Basically I like most things about the game except for actually playing it. Well, it's fine in towns I guess, but there's too much other stuff I'm not into for that to make up for it. Oh, and the voice acting isn't terrible or anything, but it's definitely worse than most things I've played this year with voice acting and didn't really do it for me. Also it has the most basic and obvious bug that I'm mildly surprised I've never seen in anything else: it counts the entire time the game is suspended while the Switch is asleep toward your play time. I apparently spent 60 hours on the game, when really it was about 3.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2749: Dialga-GX (Ultra Prism)

Dialga-GX was one of the stranger Pokemon-GX out there in that it was completely unimpressive outside of the GX attack. The main attacks were either weak or not something you wanted to use a 2-Prize Pokemon for. That GX attack, though... With Metal acceleration in the right spot, you could basically have a second turn in a row. That was fitting for Dialga’s lore, but also rather absurd. Actually getting to use it was also absurd, which made it interesting but also something of a question mark, as it could land anywhere when it came to viability.

180 HP was a standard number for a Basic Pokemon-GX. It was yet another Pokemon that held up reasonably well in the time before Tag Teams, though Rayquaza-GX and boosted Fighting-types (or a few Malamar partners, sometimes) could still get to that level. The Tag Teams could typically find ways to 180 without too much problem, however. The Fairy Weakness mattered more in that Tag Team era due to Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, and was otherwise only a very occasional problem. Dialga-GX also needed 3 Energy to retreat, and this was a spot where you’d badly want switching cards to let something else use the second attack after Dialga used the first on that double turn.

Overclock required a Metal Energy and let you draw cards until you had 6 in your hand. This was not typically something you wanted to use, as it left Dialga-GX open to take damage and Pokemon that gave up multiple Prizes needed to avoid that sort of thing in most cases.

Shred was just 80 damage for a Metal and 2 Colorless Energy, and it wasn’t affected by any effects on the opponent’s Active Pokemon. It was enough along with the GX attack here to KO a decent number of things, but was rather weak in any other scenario. There were plenty of attacks that did 30-50 more than this, and eventually even higher than that.

Timeless GX was the one reason to use Dialga-GX. Yes, 150 damage did seem low for the absurd cost of 3 Metal and 2 Colorless Energy, and you would need to pair this with Magnezone to have a chance. The thing here was that it let you take a second turn after the one you used the attack in, though you did skip anything done between turns. This was truly absurd, giving a second attack, Energy attachment, Supporter, and everything else. You only got one chance at it, of course, and you definitely wanted a good attacker for the rest of the game. When timed right, it could be devastating, especially if 150 was enough to take out a Pokemon and open up a chance for Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX to get a huge hit in on another.

Dialga-GX was the type of Pokemon you’d put a copy of in 1 specific deck. The second turn was an incredible effect, with the obvious issue of that being the only GX attack for the game and the need to commit 5 Energy to a Pokemon that did something once was a ton of investment. Magnezone decks were on the lower end of the competitive scene, mostly in the BKT-On format, with the concept only getting a few notable results in tournaments. It was likely the best Metal had in that time in the game, and despite being a Dragon-type Dialga-GX fit in well there. It was well worth considering if wanting to use Metal as a type.

[lighteffexor]

My short Sonic Superstars take after having fully-cleared the game (well, it was short when I first wrote that sentence):

These bosses are definitely some of the worst in the classic series. Having 30-second long downtime in-between chances to damage the bosses doesn't make the boss hard, it just makes them tedious and overstay their welcome, ESPECIALLY in Trip's campaign.

In particular, the three final bosses (Eggman, Fang, and Dark Dragon) all take about seven minutes MINIMUM, assuming you take every opportunity to attack them. That is absurd. Especially with Fang and Dark Dragon who have instant-kill moves with Fang having, what, two of them (three if you count the head slam making pits)?

The one exception is the Press Factory Act 2 boss. That one's pretty good and he can stay.

Let's look at another game. Sonic Rush had bosses like this where you had to wait around for a chance to hit them, and those bosses all suck. Now take those bosses and put them in the actual stage instead of their own act. Makes me never want to replay these stages again. Which sucks, because these stages are pretty good.

The good news is that Time Attack only contains the stage and cuts out the boss fights. Makes the stages so much more enjoyable. The problem is that you can't use the emerald powers. I never really used them, so it's not that big of a deal for me? Still, it's something.

In short, I think Superstars has B+ level design, but the bosses drag them down to, like, a C- on repeat playthroughs. I just don't want to do these endurance rounds again. Once is enough. Especial Dark Dragon. Never touching that thing again.

---

Actually, you know what? Let's talk about Dark Dragon specifically. It's the Super Sonic boss, so you have your 50-ring timer. It's a free-movement kind of fight like Egg Reverie and you also have the dash attack that costs rings. Sounds fine on paper, since Egg Reverie was pretty good.

Well, he's a Superstars boss, so he has lots of downtime between attacks and you can't always hit him. So he's wasting not just your physical time in the real world, but also your rings. Rings are also nowhere near as plentiful as Egg Reverie, so you'll be lucky to get a ring count over 50.

He also has two phases with each I think taking 8 hits to beat.

Phase 1 has a meteor move that you need to kind of be lucky to have an opportunity to hit with since the meteors you can hit him with can be off-screen in a random direction with no indication on what side it'll fall since its indicator is the blue light it'll fall in.

He also has a blue crystal move that just wastes time since you're Super Sonic and don't get damaged.

He also has a move where he slowly moves across the screen multiple times that just wastes time since you're Super Sonic and don't get damaged.

He also has a sidescrolling black hole attack that has an instant kill mechanic if you don't dash out fast enough. You can kind of influence where they'll be, but I wouldn't count on it. This is the only other time you can hit him in phase 1, and it'll be the only way you can damage him in the later parts of the phase.

Then there's phase 2. No ring refresh, so you're keeping what you have.

It has one attack where he swipes at you, kind of like Time Eater, but you can damage his hand after the swipe ends. A use for the dash, I guess? It's not reliable at all to hit, and I usually do it on accident when trying to gather rings.

Then there's a move where he sends a wave of energy at the screen with a blind spot you need to fly to to not not get damaged since you're Super Sonic. It's faster than the other two non-damagable moves in phase 1, so it's not TOO bad?

Then there's the sidescrolling attack which is a fireball he lines up to shoot at you. It's easier than the black hole attack in phase 1 which confuses me, but I won't complain. Feels like an attack something like Egg Salamander or 3DS Time Eater would use.

Then there's the final segment which has a new mechanic where you need to time a homing attack by lining up a shrinking reticle. It's awful and, from my experience, hardly works. Then he uses a laser move you need to dodge for an amount of time. 10 seconds or so? Then you line up one more reticle to finish the fight.

That final segment doesn't give you floating rings and the only ones you can get are from your friends who periodically fly across the screen, so you'd better hope you have enough when this part starts. Awful final boss, never doing it again.

Or maybe it was some higher-than-60fps bullshit going on since I was having so many problems last night, but after capping the framerate to 60 this morning after learning the game doesn't play with higher framerates, I beat it first try, so who knows, maybe fps affects more to the fight than the reticle bullshit seemingly is.

---

Overall, if I never have to touch the bosses again, Superstars is up there with the better games in the series. Around CD and 1 with the other A-tier games for me, probably. With them, though? Ugh, I'm not sure. Low-B, maybe high C? The bosses really drag the game down.

[chicago-geniza]

ok truly deactivating Twitter until I move because the line is autistic people lack theory of mind or ability to imagine experiences other than our own (I know this is not true in practice, I am being sarcastic), but I think as a consequence of the character limit? I have observed a discursive habit where people really backed in to a corner by Circumstances OR using those backed into a corner by Circumstances as a rhetorical checkers piece--not always clear which, because it's presented as a broadly observable phenomenon, a generalization rather than a first-person narrative, empirical and authoritative--anyway. The tl;dr of this post is like. There are Two Prongs of Disability & Work Discourse. One says: You need to rest! Don't let capitalism dictate the terms of your life, relinquish productivity imperatives, embrace radical UNproductivity or you'll make yourself even sicker! Also: [insert isolation & public life Discourse] The other says: We can't draw a false dichotomy between disability and work, many disabled people are workers and the fact that they need to work to survive makes them more disabled, when that section of Disability Twitter talks about isolating forever and grocery delivery and working from home it's unrealistic for many of us who remain uninsured and marginalized and at the intersection of other identities that prevent us from being able to prioritize our health in the absence of state-level mitigation measures re: Covid, and it's also clear that discourse is dominated by those with access to other support, whether from family or a second income from a partner, etc.

All of these things are true, but these Factions end up Yelling at each other like they're on opposing Sides of the Class War, I guess?

Me, screaming: People die every day because they physically cannot work OR because they try to get work in desperation but nobody will hire them / they keep losing jobs due to hiring and employment discrimination. You need an address to get a job. Many jobs require, if not a vehicle, at least a driver's license even if the job itself is accessible by public transit and has nothing to do with driving, and you can't allege hiring discrimination on those grounds even if it's patently absurd, just like the "must be able to lift 50 lbs for a call center job" requirement is. If you actually cannot work or live with family and you are disabled under those conditions you become homeless--couchsurfing homeless if you're lucky--but then try getting a job without a fixed address. You freelance and do odd jobs under the table and beg online. Ask me how I know!!!!!!! Stop arguing online about who has more Privilege and organize, the government is trying to kill us!!!!!!

[300iqprower]

Hypothetical Rank Ups No. 43&44: Morgan

[D i s c l a i m e r : I was GONNA do this way later but they keep giving her freakin rate-ups and I wanna put my idea out before they do their inevitable official rank up for her even if it’s almost certainly going to just be a standard NP rank up. But anyways Morgan is actually a fine unit as is and doesn't need these, it’s just she’s gotten a reputation for being extremely underwhelming because she is one of the only post-Olympus EX SSRs to not feature absurd levels powercreep. So this isn’t to ‘fix’ her, she has a 50% charisma and a 50% battery with an NP that’s supereffective against the most common attribute. She’s fine. But she’s seriously lacking in flavor with all her effects being things anyone else might have just with better numbers.

That’s why I’m giving her these two rank ups, so she has that uniqueness that makes her moveset feel like a proper Lostbelt King’s. As much as I rightfully complain about the powercreep, it pisses me off they did Morgan like this as an LBK, and if I can’t fix the balance I can at least fix the flavor. So without further ado:]

Protection of the Lake C -> Lady of the Lake C-

Increase NP Gauge for an ally. Increase NP Gain for all allies (3 turns). Inflict Magic Seal [unit’s next Skill or NP activation will have no effect; cannot be removed by cleanse effects] to a single enemy (1 time). (2 times at skill level 6.)

Hey ya know how despite Fate Morgan literally being Nimue/Vivian herself, Castoria has a higher rank of Protection of the Lake? Yeah that’s shit so let’s give Morgan a proper Lady of the Lake skill that has all that and more. It remains a low rank and in fact goes from C to C- because, since Morgan isn’t truly the legend Nimue and the Morgan identity is in full control, it ends up diluted. It has its own version of a Seal though, one that is to Seal what Enforcement Defense is to Evade. Based on the same magic used to seal away Merlin, this skill inflicts a seal equivalent of Buff Block. Where Buff Block prevents incoming buffs, this prevents outgoing buffs and even outgoing NPs. Were this skill in its true form, it would be far more long lasting, but as is it’s at most 2 charges on a single enemy. To give an example, normally if you have 3 enemies and a Merlin is among them, if Merlin has Buff Block on him, then when he casts Illusion, all enemies except for him will still get Invincible and all allies will still get crit damage down. If he has Magic Seal placed on him though, the skill has no effect, period. All of its outgoing effects are preventing meaning Merlin’s allies wont get buffed and his enemies wont get debuffed from that skill use. And if he were to try and NP with a charge on him, it would be a complete waste of an NP and his gauge would go back to zero rather than staying in place like a typical NP Seal effect. In practice this means that if your team is meant to stall, it might be more in your interest to not use her battery+NP gain and instead double your opponent’s charge time with the battery and NP gain being a powerful bonus. It can also of course be the other way around during quests against enemies that have a select few powerful buffs that throw wrenches into things, boosting NP and pre-emptively shutting those down. Lastly because it cannot be cleansed the only way for the ai to deal with it is to walk right into the trap, much like how they can do nothing against Enforcement Defense except let you tank their hits.

From the End of the World A -> EX-

Apply Guts to self (1 time, 4 turns).^ Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (3 turns). Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns). Apply buff to self (4 turns): -Decrease ATK for all enemies each turn (1 turn).^ -Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies each turn (1 turn).^ Gain Critical Stars. Gain defensive Class Affinity advantage against [Knight] and [Cavalry] classes. (5 turns).

And now the main course. This was actually the only rank up I intended at first but then I realized not only does Morgan’s second skill being a copy paste fucking suck, it was that: a copy paste. For some reason i was just under the assumption her version was AOE, probably because ya know...Lady of the Lake, she literally hands out blessings. But no. Unlike Castoria, Morgan has no AOE battery even though that’d be the perfect fcking parallel of Morgan’s lesser battery being AOE and Castoria’s greater battery being the AOE one and like I said the flavor lining up. So that’s why I gave her that previous one as well. In exchange, I removed the cooldown reduction I had intended on this skill as well as any increase to the guts HP, the crit buff, or the star bomb. 

What did I keep? Well obviously I had to increase the duration of her Guts. 3 turns is just too few, especially given the new stall effects she’s gonna get. I also have the scaling and the duration of her gimmicky debuff increased, being an additional turn with an additional 5-10% scaling in exchange for making up for the fact it could be resisted more easily. Lastly is the big one, and the effect that was the only reason I even started on giving such a well off servant a rank up: Turning Morgan into a Ruler. Sort of. I mean, effectively the same since she’s already taking double damage from avengers, so she just doesn’t get full advantage against Moon Cancer. (Laugh while you can BB, you have plenty of other servants to worry about.) But honestly that just makes it better since the point isnt to be pro-ruler, it’s to be anti-knight and cavalry. I’ve been told that in LB6 at least there’s a proper reason for Morgan to be Berserker rather than Ruler like her initial lostbelt self or a Caster like her PHH self, but that just gives that much better a reason to give it to convey we’re dealing with a Lostbelt King here. According to her materials, this is the skill that splits her from her PHH self, someone who fought and kicked and scraped her way to the top, and succeeded. She made it, she lived to see the end of everything. In that sense, she is fundamentally different from PHH Morgan...at a cost. PHH Morgan was still a caster because she is anything but impartial, actively seeking power for herself. When Morgan was initially summoned in a lostbelt, she lost that side of her, becoming something separate from a sense of good or evil, and becoming a ruler as a result. This is the Berserker Morgan who, through their connection to Ritsuka, has rediscovered a fragment of that self, even if only enough for a temporary shift. This is the Morgan who reaches the end of the world, and remembers to look back when she gets there.

[knickynoo]

“Back to the Future”: Thoughts, commentary, and general ramblings on the (bonkers) novel by George Gipe. Pt 6

Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

- After figuring out the inner workings of the DeLorean, Doc looks through the suitcase his future self had packed. (This is actually a deleted scene from the movie that I'm glad was cut) And anyway, Doc is surprised to find that all the clothes are cotton, but...hmm, Doc, maybe that's because you have an allergy to synthetic fabrics?? Perhaps that's why all the clothes in the suitcase are cotton?? Just a theory.

He does also say that he assumed everyone would be wearing paper garments in the future, so I guess that's why he's surprised.

- OKAY, okay. So, I LOVE this part. When Doc runs off in a panic after discovering they'll need 1.21 gigawatts to power the flux capacitor, the novel makes a point of mentioning that the room he runs into is his painting room. And instead of going straight to his picture of Thomas Edison, Doc starts frantically painting, "like a malfunctioning windmill".

Marty hurries in after him all, what are you doing?? and Doc explains that he always paints when he can't figure out a problem. And I can't tell you how quickly I've become attached to a Doc who, along with being so science-minded, is also very artistically inclined. The idea of Doc having a dedicated room to do his painting and using it as an outlet to work out complicated problems is such an enjoyable thought to have floating around in my noggin.

Also, ALSO. This:

Along with this whole exchange being really funny and sweet, I just can't get over Marty being like, Slap some green on there, Doc, and Doc immediately calming down at the sight of it smeared all over the canvas. This should've been in the movie.

- Book Doc is in the habit of calling Marty "my boy" which is such an endearing term that I also wish would've been in the movie. I believe Doc in the Telltale video game/IDW comic also does this with Marty at least once.

- Onto the next gem (because these 2 chapters just seem to be full of them). Please enjoy this conversation that's spurred on by Doc asking if Marty had interacted with anyone else during the day. Gotta include another picture because me summarizing it simply wouldn't do it justice.

It's just. I laughed out loud, people. Marty sarcastically mouths off, Doc scolds him and then proceeds to pose an absurd scenario that ends with Marty having hypothetically killed someone. All because of fifty cents. And I can see this scene playing out. I can so clearly picture Marty going all pale and wide-eyed and being like, "I'm a MURDERER" over some ridiculous, made-up story Doc's just told.

- In terms of all the 50's clothes Marty acquires, I've tended to be partial to the headcanon of Marty tagging along with Doc to pick out things he liked. Realistically, though, I figured Doc likely did the shopping solo--not wanting Marty to be out and interacting with people unnecessarily, which is the case in the novel. Doc just gets his sizes and runs out on a shopping spree. And you know what? I also like the concept of Doc being the one to pick the outfits. Given Doc's own, um, eccentric taste in clothing (Hawaiian shirts and that shirt with the random, jumbled up letters) he picks out some nice clothes for his new young friend. Very hip. Very cool. Good job, Doc.

- Marty loves the clothes but is very against putting the Vaseline hair tonic in his hair on account of he's suspicious of the ingredients and is afraid it'll give him cancer. Doc assures him it's a required part of blending in and that's it's very fashionable and cool. Marty is like, "Well, then how come you don't use it?", to which Doc's reply is, "It's also very flammable." And I am obsessed with the fact that Doc's answer is that he can't wear it in his hair because it's FLAMMABLE and the implication that he knows he will, at some point, set himself on fire, so better to reduce his level of combustability.

And I'm reminded of that picture I see floating around every so often of the deleted scene where Marty is combing his hair--which he does here in the book right after the above banter. Makes me sad that we potentially could've had the above conversation about the hair gel, but it was stolen from us. :((

Alrighty, that's all for now. More nonsense to come.

[only-johnny-deppp]

“Whatever I’ve gone through, I’ve gone through. But, ultimately, this particular arena of my life has been so absurd...” 

 Johnny Depp’s NEW INTERVIEW!

Last saturday, August 14, The UK Times, released a new interview with Johnny for the Sunday Times section. It was realized sometime earlier this month, in London, probably on the same day he and Andrew Levitas were recording for the Q&A for the “Minamata” release in UK. This is Johnny’s first interview since the UK trials in London last year, and released three years after Johnny’s major interview for the British GQ Magazine. Here Johnny and Andrew Levitas speaks about “Minamata”, his future as actor and a thing or two about his personal life, although he cannot talk about the court case.

For those who couldn’t read yet, here is the FULL interview:  Enjoy.

***

“I’M BEING BOYCOTTED BY HOLLYWOOD”

Johnny Depp has a new film out this week. In the opening scene his character, the real-life photographer W Eugene Smith, says, “I’m done. I’m tired. My body is older than I am. I’m always in goddam pain. I can’t trust my f***ing dick any more. Constantly in a foul mood. Even the drugs bore me.”

I ask Depp if Smith’s despair resonated with him. Depp stops. Rocks back and forth. “That’s interesting,” he replies with painful hesitation.

“I didn’t approach playing Smith in that way… Although you bring your toolbox to work and use what is available. Having experienced...” He stops again. Depp takes any questions that might refer to his calamitous libel case last year slowly, in a mumbly, croaking drawl. “A surreal five years…”

In the film Smith needs to revive his reputation. In real life Depp’s task is even more daunting. Thanks to the judgment, everyone can call him a “wife-beater”. Now he must convince a Hollywood still convulsed by #MeToo that he’s not toxic — and that any attempt to rebuild his career is a risk worth taking. This is Depp’s first interview since the case.

We are speaking over Zoom, Depp in his London home, in front of a gold-framed painting. The 58-year-old is wearing a lot of clothes. Earrings. Floppy hat. Sunglasses. Bandana. Scarf. Checked shirt over a T-shirt with an indiscernible slogan. If you saw him on the Tube*, you might think he was off to work at the London Dungeon*, to play most of the characters.

PS. For those who are not familiar with British words: * Tube = British slang for London Underground, the subway trains. * London Dungeon = is a walk-through experience that recreates scenes from London's scary history in a mixture of live actors, special effects and rides.

Depp resumes, talking in broken sentences about the new film, Minamata, in which Smith, via Life magazine, exposes the brutal mercury poisoning of Japanese villagers in the early 1970s.

“How do we do this?” he asks rhetorically, meaning how to speak about the elephant in the Zoom. “Well, there’s no way one can’t recognise the absurdity of the mathematics.” He grins. “If you know what I mean?” No. “Absurdity of media mathematics.” He talks in riddles. “Whatever I’ve gone through, I’ve gone through. But, ultimately, this particular arena of my life has been so absurd...”

He trails off again. He is holding a big brown roll-up of some sort. “What the people in Minamata dealt with? People who suffered with Covid? A lot of people lost lives. Children sick...Ill. Ultimately, in answer to your question? Yeah, you use what you’ve got. But what I’ve been through? That’s like getting scratched by a kitten. Comparatively.”

Last July, I went to the High Court in London to watch Depp on another screen — a video from the socially distanced court where the Hollywood star was losing a libel action against The Sun after it called him a “wife-beater”. It was the grottiest showbiz trial of the century. There were photos of the actor passed out in a foetal slump, socks on show. One lengthy exchange involved faeces. Another urination, inside or outside a house, after a violent night with his ex-wife Amber Heard.

This had all been going on for a while. In 2016 Heard applied for a temporary restraining order against him. The couple had long endured a narcotic, booze-filled, childish relationship, but that does not matter — 12 incidents levelled against Depp were proved, said the judge, and abuse is abuse, regardless of how badly they both behaved. Depp wanted to appeal, but the court said no. Next April in the US he has a $50 million defamation case against Heard relating to an opinion piece she wrote about being the victim of domestic abuse. It may be his last roll of the dice.

In the 1990s Depp was a sensitive heart-throb. Cooler than DiCaprio, edgier than Pitt. In this past year he has been stripped of his status and dignity. On day three of the trial Sasha Wass QC, representing The Sun, asked Depp about daubing a penis on a painting. He could not remember. “That would be quite a big thing, painting a penis on a picture?”  Wass asked. “Quite a big thing?” Depp asked.

It was a well-delivered line, but Depp was on show. Performing. Now he is more timid, less lucid. His people say he cannot talk about the court case given the looming US trial, yet it hangs over everything. The director of Minamata, Andrew Levitas, is also on our call — as a pub trivia aside, Levitas is married to the Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins.

The two men clearly get on. “With regards to journalism, it was important for us to put across in the film the power of truth,” Levitas says. Depp nods. “The responsibility of journalists to look after citizens of the world. [Our film] coincided with the moment important publications had to put Raquel Welch on a cover to get enough eyeballs to sell enough ads in order to put something meaningful inside. A result of that is clickbait — it’s destroying the purpose of journalism,” Levitas continues.

“You said it beautifully,” says Depp, one of the world’s most pinned-up men, who built a career on magazine covers. “I couldn’t say it better than that.”

Last month Levitas wrote to MGM, which bought Minamata for the US market but decided not to release it. He accused MGM of being concerned that “the personal issues of an actor in the film could reflect negatively upon them”. Then the letter got really strong. Levitas accused MGM of failing in its “moral obligation” to release the film and said it needed to explain to the victims “why you think an actor’s personal life is more important than their dead children”. He then attached Smith’s photos of ghastly deformities that shocked the world 50 years ago.

“It’s important that the movie gets seen and supported,” Levitas says. “And if I get an inkling it’s not going to be, it’s my responsibility to say so. Where it goes from there? I don’t know. But we have responsibility to these victims . . .”

You can see why he’s passionate. The film is good. MGM bought the film because it is good. Depp is good too. He disappears into the role, far from his more recent pantomime parts. It’s being released worldwide, just not in the actor’s homeland.

Depp, who also produced the film, interrupts. “We looked these people in the eyeballs and promised we would not be exploitative. That the film would be respectful. I believe that we’ve kept our end of the bargain, but those who came in later should also maintain theirs.”

“Some films touch people,” he adds. “And this affects those in Minamata and people who experience similar things. And for anything…” He pauses, as he does. “For Hollywood’s boycott of, erm, me? One man, one actor in an unpleasant and messy situation, over the last number of years?” He trails off. “But, you know, I’m moving towards where I need to go to make all that…” Again, he trails off. “To bring things to light.”

The fact, as I think Depp knows, is that for his career, the court that matters is not one of law, but public opinion. On social media, where a lot of minds are made up, Depp’s good reputation will always outweigh the bad, thanks to his frequently blinkered fans.

Outside the High Court, as Heard arrived, I saw Natasha, 30, yell: “Get hit by a truck, Amber!” She is extreme, but the persistent way his fans demand that others think their idol is a saint shows a career revival will happen. After all, most filmgoers do not follow his private life at all. To them, he is Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands. To them, he is a star — and a star can take an awful lot of heat before it burns out.

“They have always been my employers,” Depp says of his fans. “They are all our employers. They buy tickets, merchandise. They made all of those studios rich, but they forgot that a long time ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m proud of these people, because of what they are trying to say, which is the truth. The truth they’re trying to get out since it doesn’t in more mainstream publications. It’s a long road that sometimes gets clunky. Sometimes just plain stupid. But they stayed on the ride with me and it’s for them I will fight. Always, to the end. Whatever it may be.”

Depp will talk like this for ever — about his “truth”. Minamata is the last film Depp has listed on the industry site IMDb, where actors usually have half a dozen in development. So, yes, fans of the actor can see Depp in a new role now — it is a return, but is it a relaunch? The film was finished in 2019, way before last year’s court case. Is that it? His last film? He thinks and looks off to his bookshelves, at biographies of Betjeman and Olivier.

“Er...no,” he says, eventually. “No. No. Actually, I look forward to the next few films I make to be my first films, in a way. Because once you’ve...Well, look. The way they wrote it in The Wizard of Oz is that when you see behind the curtain, it’s not him. When you see behind the curtain, there’s a whole lot of motherf***ers squished into one spot. All praying that you don’t look at them. And notice them.”

I would ask him to explain, but I am not sure he is an explainer. Watch this space, I guess, but he is already taking a first step back. After we speak, it is announced Depp is getting the coveted Donostia award at the San Sebastian Film Festival next month. Some people are just too famous to fail.

~ Interview by Jonathan Dean, in London, for The Times UK (released on August 14, 2021)

[mrsparknamjoon]

01. the linchpin | reliability • kth

index | next

pairing: taehyung x reader word count: 1.900 genre: drama, light angst rating: pg-13 warnings: cursing au: ceo/office trope: enemies to friends to lovers tags: ceo!taehyung, office!au, best friend!yoongi, unresolved emotional tension, mutual pining, slow burn crosspost: ao3

summary: a predictable mistake in buying shares becomes the perfect opportunity for taehyung to show everybody in the company no one is above his rules. what he didn’t know was that his plan would backfire making him question what the real meaning of trust is

A/N: this story began as a drabble bc i love dramatic scenes, whether in movies, television or books. confrontation is always one of my favorite things about them so i decided to try to write one for the first time ever. clearly i still have a lot to learn but i hope you like it!

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Another meeting, another group of incompetent people that I can't believe I hired. Sitting at the end of a long wood table, I scrolled through my phone reading a few emails while all the shareholders took their positions. It was absurd that I had to call a meeting on Friday night because of a predictable and, quite frankly, stupid mistake but here we were.

“Mr. Kim, we're ready” my secretary said discreetly as she handed me a folder filled with documents.

“Thank you” I replied as I got up from the chair and started spreading the papers on the table in front of me.

“Good evening! First, I would like to thank you all for coming on such short notice. The reason for this emergency meeting is to talk about the purchase of a few Min Industries shares” I paused and gazed into the eyes of everyone present. Some of them were curious, tired, others frightened and one in particular very angry.

“I believe all of you realized that ever since it happened our company has started to fall into devaluation, thanks to someone’s stupid and hasty decision” I continued while looking at the documents before me. “I don't want an explanation about what happened or why it happened, just how we are going to solve it” I turned and faced my main suspect, “Today”

“Mr. Kim, if I may, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that there is nothing legally wrong with the purchase” said Lee Sung, one of our oldest and most efficient lawyers. Still, it was a matter of principle for me and everyone knew that.

“I understand, Mr. Lee, but this is not what I'm worried about” I began calmly walking around the table while elaborating my thoughts, “You see... although Min Industries doesn’t compete directly with us they have affiliates who do. Therefore…”

“Therefore it’s smart to buy the shares precisely because it gives us more control over the affiliates” said Y/N, interrupting me.

I couldn't help the smirking that escaped my lips. Y/N took the bait and it was all I needed. From the beginning, I knew she was the one leading the expansion project and everything was going well until she put my credibility with Min Yoon Gi in check.

Yoon Gi and I are old friends, practically brothers, but our families have a particular rivalry that has lasted for almost 50 years. It is nothing that explicit or dramatic. An outsider wouldn't see the animosity, for example. I see it as a truce, however, it's still a delicate matter for our parents and grandparents. When we both took over the businesses, we agreed that we would not repeat their mistakes and promised to interfere as little as possible in each other's company. If it was strictly necessary, we would have to talk before any steps were taken. That was the deal and that is why I was furious at Y/N's audacity to make a decision like this one. She was aware of our family's situation even if not exactly about what I had promised my friend.

“Are you serious, miss Y/LN?”

“Why would I be kidding?” she replied looking confused, twisting the pen between her fingers like she was bored.

“I have no idea, but to call that a smart decision, one that immediately impacts my company's profit, not to mention my personal reputation, seems like a joke. And a bad one to say the least” I said, staring at her intensely as I approached her chair.

The atmosphere got heavy and I couldn't care less. I was right and everyone knew it. Y/N took a risk, as she is paid to do, but the risk was not worth it and she needed to take responsibility for it. If it was anyone else I would have already fired without even calling a meeting. Luckily, she's a key part of the company and one of the shareholders as well so I decided to scold her in front of others to send a subtle warning that nothing goes unnoticed by me and that measures will always be taken, regardless of the level of the hierarchy. This is my way to send a warning because I don't do threats.

Y/N gulped and shifted in her chair, visibly uncomfortable with my proximity.

“So I'm going to ask you again, miss Y/N: are you serious?” I crossed my arms and tilted my head to the side, watching her try very hard not to lose her composure. I had known Y/N for a long time and she always managed to be as cold as me, yet on occasions where her professionalism was questioned her replies used to be impulsive.

“Mr. Kim, I'll be frank” she started, standing up and walking towards the pulpit next to the projection screen. “It was indeed a risk on my part to put Vante Enterprises ahead of such a high-profile acquisition and, for the embarrassment caused, I sincerely apologize”

“Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?” I asked, sitting on the chair that she left vacant.

“But"

“See?” I turned to Seo Nu sitting on my left. He laughed politely because I laughed first. Deep down he didn't think it was funny and just wanted to suck up to me. Clever.

“But I still believe that in the long run, we’ll reap great results… excellent results, in fact! Here's a chart” Y/N pointed at the screen in front of us and began to confidently defend her decision, clearly and calmly, completely different from the Y/N of a minute ago who I thought would lose her temper.

* * * * * * *

The meeting room broke out in applause as soon as Y/N finished presenting a chain of detailed information regarding the shares, and although I was surprised by the level of research she prepared, I was unable to hide my dissatisfaction as CEO by confirming that Y/N still didn't understand the problem.

“Could you guys excuse us?” I looked at Y/N and then at the other shareholders. Since the person responsible presented herself there was no need to keep putting on a show, right? I got up, buttoned my jacket, and returned to my original spot on the table to organize the papers I had left lying there.

While arranging them all in a pile, the room emptied and Y/N approached.

“You love to exaggerate things, don't you?” she snarled looking me up and down.

“You love to ignore the rules and interfere with what doesn't concern you, don't you?” I fired back mimicking her attitude.

Y/N stopped for a moment and studied my expression. For a split second, I could feel a question in the air as if she wanted to know if that's what I actually thought of her — a nosy and unprofessional person who ignored her superiors on purpose. I didn’t. She looked hurt. Still, her voice gave no indication that my response had affected her.

“I love my work! It's great and you pay me well” she said, taking the papers from my hand. “Oh, what do we have here?”

“Don't be childish, give me the papers Y/N” I motioned my hands and closed my eyes feeling exhausted.

“What are these projections? How come I have never seen them before?” Y/N's voice came out louder than before depicting a mixture of shock and disbelief. “There is no actual proof that these companies are connected, it doesn't make sense” she walked back to the pulpit, eyes glued to the documents to compare the numbers and references with the slides she had spent hours preparing.

“Y/N give me the papers, that information is above you” I demanded in a firm tone. “Besides, my intention with today's meeting was to get you to find a solution to your own mess but even that you weren't able to”

“How can I solve it if I don't have all the information, Tae Hyung?” Y/N lowered the papers she was gripping so tightly in front of her face and I could see red, teary eyes along with the angry tone in her voice. She hadn't called me Tae Hyung since college and that felt like a blow in my stomach.

“If I had known that the companies were connected I would have thought twice before buying the shares... I…” Y/N's voice failed but she cleared her throat and continued “...this is your fault!”

“Mine?” I asked dumbfounded.

“You left me in the dark and I made an important decision without having all the information” she pushed the papers onto my chest and started pulling the projector's wires angrily, “This is not what I call trust”

“Seriously? Are we going to talk about trust? Bit ironic, don’t you think?” I started chasing her around the room while she collected her belongings and threw them into a big purse.

Y/N snorted like what I just said was absurd.

“You know very well the situation between my family and Yoon Gi's. I always made it clear that we don't do business with them and yet you went there and did it” I placed my hand on top of her purse, preventing her from continuing what she was doing. “Where is my trust in you now?” I questioned her almost in a pleading tone.

Y/N pulled the purse off the table in one swift motion and I almost lost my balance.

“You know what? You're right. I was wrong” she said, looking defeated. “I shouldn't have shown interest in shares that involved Yoon Gi's company, but you definitely shouldn't have hidden these documents from me either” she continued taking a few steps back, slowly moving away from me. “And that's where you fucked up. You're still obsessed with secrets and rules, keeping everyone who tries to help you away"

“Wait a minute” I interjected. This was unfair, it was not like that.

“I'm not done talking” she gazed at me very seriously and I had no choice but to stop and listen. “I know that we have differing opinions on many things and I have teased you too much in the past 10 years with my analysis and requirements, but I never... I say never... would do anything that would harm the company”

“I know” I whispered, feeling kind of dumb for blurting it all out like that.

“It doesn't look like it” she placed the purse on her shoulder. “For me, you're trying to find a reason to get me out of here”

My jaw dropped in shock. Y/N had no idea how much I valued her work, and at this very moment, I didn't know what to say first. An apology? An explanation? A plea? I could have said anything, but I didn't. Not even a fucking sound. My mouth remained open as my thoughts flew through my mind at a frightening speed, making it look like I was confirming her impression.

“I’m gonna save you the trouble. I quit”

Y/N gave me what looked like a small bow or maybe a quick nod as if to excuse herself and then left the room without another word, leaving me leaning against the table without understanding what had just happened, finding myself, for the first time in a long time, completely alone.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 ❤ 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝗸! 𝗶 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ revised version: 09.25.2021

[whetstonefires]

Since you like the Hellboy...*perks up* Can I ask what you like about it? Does this need to be part of the ask game, if so, smash it in there. But opinions! I would love!

Ooh! Hm. This is actually surprisingly hard to articulate.

I’ve been ‘into’ Hellboy for like. Half my damn life now, and while I could have gone on at length about all the things about it I found fun as a teenager it was at its core very much a ‘this makes me Feel Happy’ thing. And now that glow is less intense but it’s bolstered by that habitual sort of attachment you feel to like. Family members.

Let’s see how far I can break this down lol.

I have never been able to much like most of the BPRD tie-in type materials and I was not at all pleased with the films, so to an extent I think I can say confidently part of what I like is the way Hellboy is situated in a superhero-comic-adjacent space while being very much coordinated by one overarching creative sensibility--like, other people were brought in to work on Hellboy a lot over the course of the run, but Mignola always had a unifying voice and even when I don’t actually agree with his taste or values that level of artistic...intentionality? Judgment? Presence? Something like that. Gives the work a sense of...integrity? Maybe just unity.

Anyway makes it feel less plastic than comics often do. This is a corporate product of course but it’s also just Mike Mignola hanging out doing whatever he thinks would be cool. Drawing rocks and monsters because that’s what he wants to draw. I like that.

Some of the higher-quality webcomics you get nowadays, when they don’t take themselves too terribly seriously but aren’t outright comedic, can land similarly in terms of voice, but even just fifteen years ago webcomics weren’t really at that point yet as a medium, and even now most are still amateurish as well as amateur. Which is fine, but different.

To get slightly less meta, I love the collection of genres that are smeared together for Hellboy--we’ve got a lot of detective noir stuff cut together with cosmic horror and like...the genre where people research folklore and then mostly punch it. Does that have a name? And then there are a bunch of other influences stirred in, sometimes for only a single issue, sometimes more.

Mignola managed to be significantly less offensive than average about the way he adapted world folklore into his weird groddy kitchen-sink fantasy system, which is pretty funny because he doesn’t come across as being careful about it at all. Not that I think there was no effort made, but also he just used research as a basis for narrative much more often than he started with a story premise and stretched the creature to fit, which by default gave him less scope for dickery.

Also I think the only god he ever fights is Hecate and she’s handled from a 19th-century-occultist angle rather than a Classical angle.

Also Hellboy fights Nazis and cyborg gorillas as well as like. Baba Yaga and vampires. The balance of schlock and gonzo nonsense to pathos and sensitive emotional bits is usually about where I like it.

The episodic format is really well used. It lets the storytelling style lean heavily on the late-19th-through-mid-20th-century short story genres that it borrows a lot from, and which honestly has always worked better for comics than end-to-end long-arc serialization. I like how the anachronic order of many sections of the series allowed for a lot of ‘building outward from the middle.’

Also it means the story can stay true to its roots and kill off a lot of characters in gothic excess without constantly sloughing main cast or having to do fakeouts.

...I can’t believe that since Hellboy isn’t really emotionally involved with the issue of his birth parents except inasmuch as it explains the world-ending stone hand, the single angstiest part of his backstory is technically when he went on a drinking binge road trip around Mexico in his teens and made friends with vampire-fighting luchador triplets but then the youngest one whom he was closest to was kidnapped by the vampires and Hellboy had to kill his best friend, and this is all established in a random side story that pushes the intentional genre absurdism to its breaking point and is equal parts comedic and grotesque.

(The second angstiest is probably the bit in volume 1 when he finds his dad murdered by frogs.)

I also just love characters who wear trench coats and are actually really clever and knowledgeable and kind but tend to resort, in extremity, to just hitting problems really hard. Okay? I like that. That’s a fave.

Hellboy’s whole character design is very strong, a bunch of dramatic broad-strokes decisions that contrast interestingly against one another, and then a lot of subtler elements layered in crosswise.

The way his relationship to the narrative ‘occult-fighting antichrist figure’ could be really straightforward, but keeps stepping a little sideways off the usual shape of the tropes in a way that creates depth.

He’s a giant red demon guy who stopped aging in the 50s; he’s never going to be able to be ‘normal’ or pretend he isn’t what he is--but also he’s a dude with a government job and probably a Social Security Number who goes and interviews people about the situation and says ‘I’m Agent Hellboy’ and gets called ‘Mr. Boy’ and is just this guy who knows his shit and can take a beating.

(This was one of the major things I hated in the first movie, that they decided to make him this weird secret cryptid whose dad keeps him locked in a vault when he’s not fighting.)

The way the identity thing is never reduced to comfortable binaries with him except by enemies trying to psych him out is just really satisfying. He fights monsters not because he hates them or himself but because he was recruited into this career young and he’s really good at it, and he feels good about helping people who are being victimized.

When something occult isn’t hurting anybody he’s down to chill, and if it turns out they secretly are after all he’s always so tired and disappointed, and if they really aren’t then he has a new friend. Whom he may never see again or may hit up for a game of cards next time he’s in town.

(I also like how he combines ‘being pretty private’ ‘being very casually friendly’ and ‘being an asshole who makes a lot of enemies’; it’s not that unusual a combo for his type of main character but it’s one I enjoy.)

When he breaks off his own horns as part of his rejection of being Anung Un Rama it’s not ‘choosing humanity’ or w/e it’s choosing not to be used for this. His name is Hellboy, which is an objectively awful name but it was given to him by people he loved and who chose him, not the people who made him or brought him to this world to be used, and he chooses it.

And that has weight. That has force enough behind it to carry a world.

Just in general in spite of all the identity stuff he gets swamped with he’s really good at self-knowledge and letting other people’s ideas of who and what he’s supposed to be just wash over him. As the story goes on and shit gets weirder his sense of identity gets shaken, but he never quite loses that anchor in the knowledge that he is the ultimate arbiter of his own identity.

His exasperation on being told via stabbing that he doesn’t get to be King of England even if he is the first male descendant of King Arthur since Mordred is so funny. Why is this a thing, says Hellboy. Why am I finding out like this. Why do I always find out this shit like this. Why would anyone think I wanted to be King of England. I already punched so many skeletons about not wanting to be King of Witches.

He’s got so much righteous anger that comes out when people are treated as disposable, or as less for being not human or less human or superpowered, and of course it’s founded in his own experiences and his own fight for respect but it’s not about him. It’s about the person who’s suffering now.

One time his combat one-liner before shooting something started with ‘The Torch of Liberty said I was the worst shot he ever tried to train’ that’s so funny! I love that!

He’s my boy okay.

[praphit]

F9: What does Absurdity even mean anymore?

Due to COVID, I thought that my last movie theater experience was going to be "Bad Boys For Life". I'm happy to say that if I died today, I would be telling souls in Heaven that "F9" was the last movie I saw on the big screen (I'm sure that films are big talking points in the after life).

There weren't too many people there:

There was a woman coughing in the corner; I barely looked at her. I imagined that COVID was mugging her, and I didn't want to be a witness, and so have COVID come after me next. I'm vaxxed, but still I was thinking of ways to distract COVID, so I could enjoy the film. There was an old couple sitting up front (like REALLY OLD... sitting UP FRONT... Ha! that's awesome). Awesome or not, I was going to point them out if COVID came after me. There were two obese kids sitting a few rows behind me that I could also point out, as well as my friend that I was sitting next to... what?? Look, they would ALL want me to escape, so I could bring my "F9" review to the people!

WHAT??!

Let's not talk about my survival skills, let's talk some Vin & the Fam - that's why we're here!

It took a while for me to remember what was going on:

Dom (Vin), Letty (M. Rod), and their... kid? Oh, right, they have a kid, and they moved on to start a new life together. 

Didn't the real mom die or something?? Idk. You've got the British lady from "GOT" still hanging out with Luda and Tyrese. 

(they so crazy)

"Hobbs and Shaw" are still gone 

(making their own money, cuz bleep family!). 

Brian (Paul Walker's character - rip) is apparently, now everyone's babysitter. So, if anyone in this gang, who could die on any of these missions, ever have kids, they can just send them off to Nanny Brian's. 

There's a dude named Mr. Nobody who sometimes sends the gang on secret spy missions.

Oh, and people in the gang keep coming back from the dead. Boom! We're caught up with this absurdity. That's actually what I asked for when I got to the movies 

"Give me one ticket for Absurdity please."

In this batch of the absurd, we find out that Dom has a brother, and he's John Cena (Jakob). 

Charlize Theron is back! That must have been the worst bet that she has ever lost. I consider her to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors we've got, but movies like these ain't helping that case.

And who's idea was it to give her that haircut? - part of the bet she lost, I suppose. 

It was reported that the gang goes into space (at least two of them do). 

Annnnd the X-Men Jet is back! 

(it really does look like that - Wolverine included)

Seriously, after the X-Men's last two movies (which were turrrible), I was expecting them to crossover for a fresh start. Why not?? They're a spy team now, that goes to space! - nothing should be off the table.

They're looking for two halves of some... war sphere?? If put back together with some key... idk... John Cena rules the world.

Remember when Vin and the gang were all about street racing, money, survival, and brown booty? - those were simpler times!

But, why discuss the plot? Seriously, why? None of it makes any sense. From Dom and Letty living like Amish people (which is an ending worse than death for action heroes) 

to their convoluted explanation for bringing the latest person back from the dead (which reminds me of a married couple, when the husband or wife get caught watching porn, and try to explain that it was just a pop-up that came out of nowhere. The other spouse gulps their glass of wine and plows forward - that was me with this - gulping my soda (with a lil Henny) saying "whatever guys, let's please just move on".

and  what's going on with the two brother's is a thin thread at best. AND the villain's motivation...  

But, it's foolish to get into that., and take points off. I LOVE THESE MOVIES, but it ain't for the story. Let's grade "F9" by its own standards:

Racing, Action, and Family (they graduated from booty to family):

Racing

They've done the racing in a small city thing before, but this time it's with magnets! - SUPER MAGNETS!

YES!

I loved this! Cars are getting sucked into magnets. They're using them to make people fly away and explode. Which btw, they did my man Francis Ngannou wrong (an mma fighter). There's a fight scene with a giant white dude on top of a speeding vehicle. That giant white dude could have and should have been the role for Francis, instead he's just here to say high, and then blow up. As much as I loved these scenes, they were too quick in some areas. I think if they had slowed some of the magnet stuff down a bit, we could appreciate more what's happening.

Action

M.Rod is legit. 

She needs her own franchise. The only action star I enjoyed more than her was Vin, and that's really due to the absurdity of one scene. Do y'all remember the "Civil War" scene when Captain America has one hand on a building and another pulling back a helicopter?? 

It's the same level of strength needed for what Vin does in some underground chambers. You can see a bit of it in the trailer. He pulls the whole place down, and then, just like in "Civil War", he ends up in the water (but unconscious). Oh, and he does this after beating up like 50 people at once. Ha! I love it! Then, how he is rescued (cuz c'mon, he can't die) is splendidly preposterous, and I mean that is a complimentary way. That scene is perfection.

The only action that bothers me comes from Dom's sister (mia). 

She just doesn't sell being a fighter, but whatever. No disrespect... she’s beautiful, but... her hair might weigh more than the rest of her body.

Apparently, the highest trained fighters (agents) in the world (who have GUNS) never trained for a unskilled, unprepared, 110 lb woman in her 40's with a frying pan.

Family & Corona

Tyrese and Luda are always funny, but their act is growing a bit thin. It actually felt like an act this time around. I think it's time to add another black man in the mix; perhaps one who's older than they are... TRACY MORGAN?

Throw an OG in there and it'll freshen things up again. I do like though how Tyrese is starting to suspect that they might be immortals. I think they should test that theory out in the next movie; maybe have Tyrese break the fourth wall, kinda like Deadpool, as he realizes this is just a dumbass movie.

Dom and Letty's kid... terrible. I'm sorry! This is a bias of mine, but kids normally suck at acting. This one is no exception. Just get an older actor to play the young kid. I'm thinking Ryan Reynolds would have been a good choice.

You may be saying "that's absurd!" - I'm glad that y'all can still tell what that word means, cuz I can't.

The rest of the chemistry family magic is great!

Oh, and Cardi is here, but... barely (for like 30 seconds, if that). 

No rapping, no wapping, no cursing... kind of a waste of Cardi B, if you ask me.

John Cena aka Jakob with a K!

Meh. JC def has charisma, just not in this movie. He doesn't stand out at all. You know?? - The Rock, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, etc all have a presence about them in this franchise. Cena?! what happened, buddy?

There are certain music artists whom you'd think would have a great personality based off their music and how they dress. But, then you meet them, and you realize that they're just normal bozos like you and I (only rich and famous). And normal bozos like you and I, AT TIMES can be boring. You gotta have some flair if you're not going to have personality. Give my man some pink glittery highlights, a face tat, some vampire teeth, and maybe a chainsaw for his left arm or something.

Grade: Good action. The absurdities were funny. I was entertained! Production was great! BUT it's getting tired, my friends. It's the same formula that I've mentioned and then, like always, they're grilling and drinking Corona's in the sun. After nine movies (with at least two more on the way)... I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually not absurd enough. Wait... I seriously can't believe I just said that.

I need to say that again to know it's real.

This movie wasn't absurd.. enough? ENOUGH. IT WASN'T! They're going to need to step it up for the next two.

They were in space, but not for long. They raced for the most part in regular cars (regular for them). . You only brought ONE person back from the dead??! C'mon! We can do better.

I'm giving it an entertaining C+

I like that we saw different younger Dom's (during flashbacks) through time. I think that the next type of vehicle they bust out should be a DeLorean.

Y'all feel me?? TIME TRAVEL, baby! 

Vin and the gang race through time! They can have Tracy Morgan. They'll each have a younger version (or older) of themselves join the group. Cardi B will actually do something this time - maybe turn into a car! 

And maybe Cable shows up as they tie it to Marvel.

Think bigger, Vin!

[vespertine-legacy]

Spirit of Vengeance Walkthrough

Welcome to my (hot-mess) attempt at a walkthrough of the Spirit of Vengeance flashpoint.

This walkthrough will mostly pertain to Story Mode difficulty, as I have yet to run Veteran or Master mode (hoping to get some guildmates to run it with me once they’ve gotten through the story content), but my expectation is that they’re mostly just harder mobs and no kolto stations in Master.

Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead for the 6.2 flashpoint.

If you do Solo-Story mode (the Cinematic Story version where you have the default companion, thankfully now set at influence level 25 instead of 1), you’ll notice that this default companion is ranged. That’s probably a hint as to the type of companion you might want to bring with you on the other difficulty levels. It seems that, as the name implies, you cannot bring group members into solo-story mode, so hopefully in that mode, you won’t encounter too many bugs or issues. Story mode has been stealth patched some to not be too terrible, but lots of players are still having difficulty and running into glitches.

One of the biggest themes of this flashpoint is that there are a lot of mobs. It’s been compared to an uprising, but there are bigger breaks between mobs. Though it is really easy to get the 75, 150, and 300 kills achievements for Varad, Dar’manda, and Ash’ad.

You start out on the Champion’s Glory, and when you run down the hallway, you run right into a Varad mob. You can stick along the right-hand-side wall to not immediately trigger them if you want. In Varad mobs, Bloodsworn are healers, Beskaryc are standard silvers, Hulks are standard golds with a decently nasty knockback, and Hounds are their puppies (you’ve seen them before in Mandalorian Raiders). Nothing much to watch out for with them. There’s one Bloodsworn in the first mob in the room who likes to glitch and be stuck up on a pillar where you can’t target him and can only reach him with AOEs.

Before you leave the first room, there is a Relic for the Relic Hunter achievements here. On one of the tables in the north east corner, you’ll find the Heirloom Varad Warstaff. However, it may be glitchy, and it may not show up. I took my Jedi Knight and my Trooper into the room four times each and it never showed up, but my Bounty Hunter got it on the first try. (The Relics will not be visible in my screenshots since I’ve already collected them, but I’d like to give an idea of location).

Continuing down the hallway, you’ll encounter some more mobs, and you’ll see your first kolto station. You’ll probably use these in at least one of the boss fights.

After fighting a biggish mob in the final room, you’ll see a big blue console to disable the first boarding tether. Before clicking it, make note of the three kolto stations around the room, since you may end up needing at least one of them. Disabling the tether summons the first boss, Gorga Brak. He has almost 3 million health, which is maybe a little absurd, but he’s not really thaaaaaaat bad, you’re just in for a long, boring fight. He does Full Auto, Flame Sweep, and Fire Bomb. Remember when I said you might want a ranged companion? Don’t quote me on this, but I think he’s less likely to put the Fire Bomb on a ranged companion. Also I thought for a while that Fire Bomb couldn’t be interrupted, but then I was able to interrupt one of them, so I’m not sure anymore. Maybe you can only interrupt it if it’s targeting you? You can interrupt Flame Sweet and Full Auto, both of which are kind of annoying. Anyway, depending on your dps output, [Spongebob Narrator voice] Several Minutes Later, you will kill Gorga Brak. On to the next ship by clicking a panel by one of the boarding pods in the next room.

Now you’re on the Dar’manda ship, the Fortune’s Folly, and everything is on fire. Fire bad. As soon as you move, a mob runs in. At least the Dar’manda have the decency for the healers to be labeled “medics.” Commit war crimes and kill the medics first. Next on your kill list should be specialists because they throw some grenades and Fire Bombs and shit that are just annoying.

In the room with the big holes in the floor, just stick to the right-hand-side in order to do the least jumping and potential falling. Turn off sprint if you’re worried. Your companion may just leap to their death because companions Be Like That sometimes, but there’s a platform at the end with a med droid where you can re-summon them. There is a lore item on the south side of the room before you go across, a little datapad.

After crossing the Gaps of Doom, you’ll start seeing yellow NPC nametags for War Profiteers and Dancers. Try not to kill any of them, because if you manage not to, you’ll get an achievement (alternatively, try to kill all of them, maybe there’s an achievement for killing all of the innocent [read, “innocent”] bystanders on the Dar’manda ship). You’ll have to be carefully with AOEs and DOTs, because my pyrotech’s scorch jumped to a LOT of yellows…

The next room has a lot of enemies and a lot of yellows, so depending on how much you want the Mercy achievement, be careful. On your way out of the room, be sure to grab the Flask of Aged Kri’gee from the floor beside one of the benches by the door on the east side for the Dar’manda Relic.

When you get to the Officer’s Quarters, you can pick up the Bonus Mission. If you go into the little side rooms, on the south, there are some biggish mobs there, but there are also two blue crates to click by some of the beds which have keys in them, which gives you the bonus mission Goldie’s Locks. This is for the bonus mission to fight Goldie, a Rancor the Dar’manda are transporting. You might as well pick it up, because even if you don’t pick up the keys, getting too close to Goldie’s cage starts the fight with her, and she’ll be able to kill you but you won’t be able to damage her (features, amiright?).

The room with the second boarding tether has a largish mob and Goldie. Depending on your class, your companion, and your armor rating, you may end up needing one of the kolto stations in the room, but if you do, be very careful that you don’t run close to Goldie’s cage, or you will engage the fight with her, which you’ll have to /stuck out of most likely because her cage door will still be closed and you won’t be able to open it to fight her, but she’ll still be able to kill the shit out of you.

The fight with Goldie is relatively simple. She’s like most of the other Rancor fights--think of the Rancor in the Battle of Rishi or Karagga’s Palace if you’re familiar with either of those. She does an alley attack that you can step out of, but a conal attack that whoever she is targeting has to just eat because it can’t be interrupted, so just point it away from the group (it’s a knockback, but it’s not awful. Her slam isn’t as bad as Bonethrasher’s slam. If you’re on a more mobile dps class, she’ll be a piece of cake. If you have to stand still to do your dps, you may get a little annoyed by her, but it’s not too bad (sorry, snipers and slingers).

There’s also a datapad with lore in the room with Goldie:

On to your next boss fight! Bask Sunn got stealth-nerfed some, but is still a little glitchy (can apparently punch you off the ship entirely according to one report?). Most people’s tactic is to kill his adds first, then take him out. I’ll say though, on my pyrotech, I just put a scorch on each of the four adds, then kicked his ass in about seven seconds, then took out the adds (and on my lightning sorc, I also just focused the boss, doing some AOE damage to the adds, but mostly just burning Bask). So, it’s really up to you. The adds don’t do a whole lot of damage, but they’re annoying, and while they did lower the damage Bask Sunn can do, he can still knock your health down a lot, so I found it easier to just Burn Him (literally, in the case of my PT). My PT was being healed by a level 1 influence Shae Vizla and my sorc was being healed by a level 50 influence Ginx, and both had a great time with just burning the boss, but your mileage may vary on this fight.

For a good time, there are a ton of places you can stand on the bridge and be in the Skybox as I like to call it and just look out into space. When you’re done goofing off, click the panel to go to the Ash’ad ship.

Welcome to the Seeker’s Vigil. In the Ash’ad mobs that greet you, Lorekeepers are healers, and Seekers have an attack called “Surge” with a box that looks like it ought to be a knockback, but either I killed them too quick or it doesn’t actually do shit, so those are your priority targets. Maybe on Veteran and Master step out of it, just in case.

In the “Archives” level of the Seeker’s Vigil, straight west from the door you come out of, there’s a bench with a little toy tauntaun Lore Item on it.

There’s some mobs in the middle of the room that aren’t too bad. Then, if you have a self-yeet to enemy target (Warrior/Knight Force Charge/Force Leap; Powertech/Vanguard Jet Charge/Storm; Assassin/Shadow Phantom Stride/Shadow Stride, but those may be unreliable just because they sometimes like to mess with you when you’re changing elevation; Operative/Scoundrel Holotraverse/Trick Move, similarly may not work since you’ll be changing elevation) you can go upstairs to the Lorekeepers. You can’t get around the debris on the ramp to get up there, you have to yeet up to them (or if you’re in a group and someone else can yeet to them, and then you’ve got a Yeet to Friend, or someone’s got a yoink, etc.), but there’s some cool stuff to look at up there. There isn’t anything to collect that I could find, but just neat stuff to look at.

Next up is The Trap. Don’t run willy nilly into this room. There are lore objects on either side of the room, but there are also two Annoying Snipers on the other end of the room who will engage with you as soon as you run in. You can’t hurt them and you can’t yeet to them, so don’t bother. There are plenty of things you can take cover behind, so run over to the lore objects and click them while you’re not being sniped. The snipe interrupts the “cast” on collecting the lore, so time your click carefully, or prepare to be annoyed. Then, run into the trap, because like I said, you can’t fight the snipers. I’ve placed markers of where the floor will fall. Depending on your graphics settings, it’s pretty obvious when the floor is going to fall out from under you, but just in case. It’s also approximately the edge of where the snipers would be in range of most attacks if your attacks would actually work.

If the fall hurts you too much, you can run up the ramp and hide behind some shipping crates for a bit to get out of range of the tentacles for a moment.

The Ash’ad Relic, the Ajak Genealogical Datacron, is in the boss room of this ship. It’s on a crate behind the boss (south east end of the boss, behind the tether controls). It’s pretty easy to miss, so don’t forget to grab it before you leave. You can run over and grab it before engaging the boss if you keep to the edge of the room.

Troya Ajak is a pretty easy fight. Songbird’s Volley knocks you back when it goes off. Pick Off (which I definitely read as “fuck off” while it was casting) blows you up a little when it goes off. I don’t even know if either of these are interruptable, because this was a pretty straightforward “get the boss’s HP to zero before they get your HP to zero” fight.

All righty. Almost done! Now you get some mobs that are mixed groups of all the clans you’ve fought so far. Remember the healers are: Varad Bloodsworn, Dar’manda Medics, and Ash’ad Lorekeepers, so if you see them, they need to go first. The ones that do special ouchie attacks are Dar’manda Specialists and Ash’ad Sharpshooters (honestly the Varad suck and we’ve known this since Mandalorian Raiders; you tried, gold star for effort). The rest of them, just kill them when you can. On to the boss!

Heta Kol will come down and fight you for a little while, then she’ll get buttmad and fly off while some adds come to the door. If you’re ranged, go ahead and stay on the platform to take them out. If you’re melee try to draw them into the room. Some have said that what resets her health when she comes back down is you leaving the room to fight the adds (but the adds like to run back into the hallway, and if you don’t have ranged attacks or a taunt, you might have to chase them; now might be a good time for your saber throws, your grenades, whatever your longest-range attack is).

The second wave of attacks does bring down Sharpshooters (aka snipers) on the platform, so if you’re focusing on the hallway adds and getting confused as to why your HP is still dropping, try turning around, because there may still be someone sniping you. Her move “Lockdown” can be interrupted, and if you don’t interrupt it, you’ll be dropping red circles from it that you want to stay out of. She throws grenades at someone in the last phase, and it seems to be whoever is closest to her (hello, ranged companion!), and it doesn’t seem like you can cleanse them off (or maybe you can, but then you need to, you know, get out of the circle it drops, and companions are too dumb to do that).

Overall, not a terrible flashpoint, just a little on the long side, and a lot to take in. I’m still excited to try it on the harder difficulty modes, and to find all of the hidden achievements, which there seem to be several spots for.