#| wartime verse | first; do no harm

[scientistredacted]

❝IT APPEARS YOU HAVE REACHED❞ ❝AN END.❞

[shadowtongued]

CHARACTER SHEET

repost. do not reblog.

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME.   sliske. NICKNAME.   slissy. snake man. mahjong. praefectus. shadow lord.  GENDER.   male. HEIGHT.   8'4" (256cm) AGE.   estimated 8,000 or more years. ZODIAC.   lines up personality wise with scorpio. SPOKEN LANGUAGES.  omnilingual; common tongue/english. freneskaen. latin/infernus. many other mixed languages.

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR.   ... fuckin’ NONE. EYE COLOR.   sulfur yelllow. black sclera. SKIN TONE.   slate grey and silver striped. BODY TYPE.   swimmers build; broad shoulders, slim waist, powerful legs. ACCENT.   british ( received pronunciation accent ) VOICE.   tenor. a smooth and calming lull that aids to his silver tongue paired with a slight  vocal flanging from being divine. DOMINANT HAND.   right. POSTURE.   tall, graceful, and upright, but also slightly hunched when talking to other species due to his height. SCARS.  too many thin, small ones to count. major ones include a magical burn scar on his left side from shoulder, ribs, to hip. many nicks on his knuckles. a chip missing out of one of his right hip ridges. faded claw marks on right arm. TATTOOS.  none, he has built in tattoos in the form of stripes. BIRTHMARKS.  .. stripes ? MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). his height, piercing eyes, brow crystals, horns on brow and chin, and being from an unnatural species for starters. quick wit and ability to persuade people easily. an eccentric wardrobe and choice of conversation topics.

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH.  freneskae. HOMETOWN.   no formal location name exists, probably temporary nomadic location within a cave. BIRTH WEIGHT.   12.3 lbs, underweight by normal species standard. BIRTH HEIGHT.   35 in, he was ALL LEG AND STILL IS ALL LEG. MANNER OF BIRTH.   natural. FIRST WORDS.   t̛͜h̵͢͝ų̢͘͞f̸̢͘͘à̕͜͟͞a͏̨̛̛t̶̴̴̛́r̷̛ !  freneskaen language is lost and harmful to others, but it was a variant of ‘look!’ he was a cute.... quiet child. how did we get where we are now. SIBLINGS.   wahisietel, older half-brother. PARENTS.  mother, dyeosuthua. father, phaliveus. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.   mother was heavily abusive, father was absentee, abuse reflects heavily in his reactions to criticism and comparisons to others, items he considers sentimental are hidden in fear of destruction as his mother often did. raised mainly by brother and other tribal members.

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION.  verse dependent. gielinor; spymaster and infamous godslayer and historical warmonger. modern earth; a ‘fixer’/’cleaner’ for people who pay for those kind of lucrative ‘services’. CURRENT RESIDENCE.   verse dependent. gielinor;  morytanian barrows lair. modern earth; shared flat with @0xa00001​, often takes up residence in @bellecosebabe​‘s home. CLOSE FRIENDS.   whoever mutually considers him a friend ... or doesn’t. namely; @amortean​, @bellecosebabe​, @aevyternal​, @gunssmoke​​, @0xa00001​​, @lxgatus​, @psychiatriae​. sometimes @pontifex-maximus-of-zaros​​ when sliske’s not being a little bitch about their past and issues with religion. RELATIONSHIP STATUS.   it is VERY complicated and unrequited in modern verse. other verses are single atm. FINANCIAL STATUS.   upper-middle. DRIVER’S LICENSE.  do not let him drive. CRIMINAL RECORD.   god slaying, thousands of murders, several counts of sedition, kidnapping, forgery, subterfuge. embezzlement. identity theft. impersonating a god. blackmail. breaking and entering. vandalism. writing unclear/fraudulent contracts and checks. tax evasion. lying on his time cards. tons of theft, poison and illegal weapon manufacturing, illegal experimentation of sentient beings and animals, necromancy, what hasn’t he fucking done???? VICES.   drinking. occasional stimulant and sedative problems. past sex addiction as a substitute for emotional fulfillment and validation. unable to leave things unfinished. spurts of terrible kleptomania.

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION.   pansexual. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION.   panromantic.  PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. Submissive  | Dominant | Switch PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. Submissive  | Dominant | Switch LIBIDO.  used to be high and reckless. after a 3,168 year dry spell it’s buried but not dead. TURN ON’S.  the list is so fucking long and lewd i’m not unrolling the scroll. varies from rough to soft. biting. mild bondage. pegging. being fucking cuddled. TURN OFF’S.   verbal degradation. don’t call him daddy. people who boast about overpowering him. bondage or restraints with no escape. LOVE LANGUAGE.  for as much as his mouth runs, he does better with physical gestures and quality time. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. absolute disgusting romantic that goes so far against his species repertoire they balk and wonder where he learned it. HORRIBLY possessive but laden with gentle surprise touches and hand snatches. most likely to sneak up on you and pick you up. enjoys snaring you harder than an octopus when napping. 

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG.  dear dictator - saint motel / wilson (expensive mistakes) - fall out boy / bad dreams - joywave HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.  prestidigitation tricks. planning heists. any form of logic puzzles or games. reading romance novels and scientific texts. solving incomplete math computations. gardening and making potions. chemistry. armor smithing, lapidary and goldsmithing. mask making. enchantments. playwriting. he’s got a lot of time and energy to kill he’s done EVERY HOBBY, ask him about his knitting phase. MENTAL ILLNESSES.   ptsd from specific wartime events. reactive attachment disorder. bouts of paranoia, mania, depression, and dissociation.  PHYSICAL ILLNESSES.   photosensitivity. prone to migraines. scar tissue pain. PHOBIAS.  severe fear of DEATH. abandonment issues.  SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.  far too HIGH. he’s humble about it but has a healthy dose of ego. a lot of it is a mask covering crippling self-doubt, loneliness, and fear hidden in a box with 14 padlocks and the keys are rusted or behind fetch quests. VULNERABILITIES.  physically? well hidden weakness of his left side scar tissue and sensitivity to sudden bright lights. he’s max magic and agility stat dps but a glass cannon if you hit him right. emotionally? getting attached to someone and them using it against him, like the fucking hypocrite he is.

tagged by: uhhhhh i don’t know it was in the bottom of my drafts. tagging: just steal it. JUST YEET IT.

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 107

Medicine of The Prophet

THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES

I once asked an Austrian friend of mine who had just qualified as a doctor where he went when he was sick. The surprising answer was that he and most of his colleagues went to a homeopath. He reminded me of our family G. P. who didn’t believe in medicines. I was told ‘just take your son home and make sure he eats well’.

My friend’s preferring a homeopath to one of his fellow professionals, was as I later found out, a rejection of what he had learned during his many years of study. He felt that he had been taught a set of beliefs, which, in his words, ‘did more harm than good’. He believed that he had been trained to ‘manage symptoms using chemicals’ and that his profession had nothing to do with looking for cures or curing people. He told me that he felt dirty when he had finished his shift and that he wasn’t being ‘true to himself’.

My friend may be an exception and is probably frowned upon and dismissed as a crank by other doctors, but, his views raise many interesting issues relevant to professionals and non-professionals alike.

There is an increasing interest in alternative approaches to health. The rise in health shops and alternative clinics show that the world of commerce is cashing in on this fact. Most bookshops stock books on acupuncture, homeopathy and other forms of Eastern medicines. However, the West’s search for an alternative has overlooked the medicine of the Muslim world, sometimes referred to as al Tibb al Nabawi, the medicine of the Prophet or Islamic medicine.

At Tibb al Nabawi

The name al Tibb at Nabawi literally means prophetic medicine. It is based upon the sayings of Muhammad, upon him be peace. However, it encompasses much more than the relatively small number of prophetic sayings. It incorporated Greek and Indian philosophy and practice wherever they were found to be in accordance with the general principles of Islam. The sayings of the Prophet set down general guidelines and principles which later led to the great discoveries and observations of the likes of Ibn Sina and other Muslim thinkers.

This series of articles will be an introduction to some of these principles.

Illness

The word illness, mard, is used in the Qur’an in two different ways. ‘It is no fault in the blind nor in one born lame, nor in one afflicted with illness (mard)’ (Al-Nur, 24.61). This example and the verses like it give special licenses to one who is sick. These licenses include delaying the compulsory fast and not having to fight during wartime. Verses such as ‘and any of you who is ill or has an ailment in his scalp should in compensation either fast or feed the poor’ (Al-Baqara, 2.196) which refer to the sick pilgrim not having to shave or cut his or her hair, led Muslim scholars to attempt to find a legal definition of the word mard illness.

The jurists set out the basis for practical diagnosis. They identified the means by which one could judge illness which included irregularities in the blood, urine, stool, and semen; imbalance in patterns of sleep, eating and drinking and the appearance of wind, sneezing and vomit.

Illness was defined as being ‘out of balance’. This encompassed both physical and mental states. The mental or emotional state is the second usage of the word mard in the Qur’an. ‘In their hearts is a disease (maid)’ (Al-Baqara, 2.15) The heart (qalb), here, refers to ‘the seat of the emotions’, Physically, one is considered to have an illness if one is ‘out of balance’. Likewise, one is emotionally sick if one is out of the natural and pure state that we were created in.

Doctors are needed for some of these emotional and physical illnesses; for others they are not. Tiredness is a symptom of being ‘out of balance’ which can be rectified simply by sleeping.

Islam sees the ultimate curer of these states to be the One who created them. He sent doctors to His creation such as Jesus who cured the leper as well as those suffering from pride and inflated egos. The last of these great doctors was Muhammad, upon him be peace, who, through his advice and practice, set out principles for curing both types of illness.

The state of balance

Common to many systems of alternative medicines is the concept of ‘balance/imbalance’. One’s natural healthy state is a balance between the four qualities of dryness/wetness and hot/cold. The reason a person may have left this state can be either ‘material’ or ‘consequential’. Material sickness is where a substance has entered the body and has caused its balance to shift in one of the several directions. Once the substance is gone the body will return to its natural mizaj, the model of balance.

A ‘consequential’ illness is where the effect of a substance in the body remains after it has left the body. The body is left with an excess of heat/cold or dryness/moisture.

Prophetic medicines sees illness as being caused by either this state of imbalance or damage to an organ or to the natural weakening caused by old age. The doctor’s first job is to discover the cause of illness, consider its cause, think what might encourage it to return it to its correct state act upon that and then depend on the Creator.

SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES

Preparation of medicines

Most medicines in al Tibb al Nabawi are based on the dietary advice of the Messenger, upon him be peace. A simple illness requires a simple medicine. The cure for imbalance leaning towards heat would be something cold. The classic example is the fever. The Prophet said ‘fever is from the hell, put it out with water.’ (Bukhari and Muslim)

A complex illness e.g. one leaning to hot-dry would require a complex mixture, in our example a cold-dry cure.

Every illness has a cure

The Prophet, upon him be peace, said ‘for every illness there is cure. If the cure matches the illness, improvement will take place by the permission of God.’ (related by Jabir in Muslim) and ‘God did not send down an illness except that He sent down a cure (Bukhari).

The above sayings establish there important principles. Firstly, they encourage the administration of medicines. There is agreement among the majority of Muslim scholars that it is a must. Secondly, they imply that, if administering medicine is a compulsion, then searching for a cure must also be a compulsion. Finally, they emphasise the dependence on God. In this modern age of ours we tend to depend on the medicines and not on the True Curer. It is interesting to look at how few remember God in illness until they realise their illness is terminal and that there is no hope for a cure. My own experience is that it is extremely upsetting and often devastating for both patient and doctor when the limitations of modern medicine dawns on them.

Cure may include spiritual as well as physical medicine

Muhammad, upon him be peace, described specific cures which included the likes of honey for the chest and liver. He also described procedures and principles, e.g. ‘emptying the stomach and putting out the fever with water’. In addition, he prescribed prayers and supplications for things like headaches and general sickness. These can be found in the books of hadith, traditions, as well as in the various books of prayers of the Prophet.’

Diet is the key to good health

Himya meaning both precaution and diet. Himya, with both of these meanings is the central pillar of Islamic medicine. The principle is found in the Qur’an which permits the use of sand in place of water in ablution and washing, if the latter is found to be detrimental to health. There was an occasion when the Prophet came with his cousin, Ali, to the house of Um al Mandari bint Qays al Ansari. They began to eat when Muhammad, upon him be peace, stopped and said to Ali ‘you are recovering.’ He took some barley and chard and gave it to him saying ‘this is better for you (related by Ibn Majah)’ The incident is an explanation of the principle of himya in its fullest sense.

Harith, described as the doctor of the Arabs, said ‘himya is the source of every cure, the stomach is the home of every illness.’ The Messenger said: ‘The stomach is the well of the body and the veins drink from it. If it is healthy, the veins pass on good health, if it is sick the veins pass on poison’.

Dietary precaution himya, can be used in three stages.

1. As a cure

2. To keep the body healthy.

3. To aid recovery

Based on the model of Ibn al Qayyim, hakims and traditional doctors have developed a sophisticated system of dietary medicine.

General behaviour and basic hygiene

The Messenger came to perfect behaviour. He taught not only us what foods we should eat hut how they should be prepared. Things like covering food, washing hands before eating and boiling food thoroughly when cooking were all stressed by the Prophet. The same is true of the etiquette of eating. The Messenger taught us to sit in such a manner that our stomach can be filled only to a third of its capacity.

Dieatry advice

The Messenger, upon him he peace, mentioned over seventy specific foods which he considered healthy. Modern science has confirmed that he was right. Among the foods mentioned were honey, dates, vinegar, fish and ginger.

[kisuminight]

There is a ship that jumped to an unknown place, so it could keep going. So the adventures could continue. And that ship and her passengers jumped so far, to another place entirely. Another when. Another world.

They find familiar things. Familiar places, just a half-step off from normal. Aching echoes of a time unsullied, but still stained by memories and the creeping rot of war. Their species does not exist; perhaps no longer or mayhaps it never did. 

It might be for the best, that no one and nothing knows them now, not even the oldest beings in this brave new universe that they tread. Their path is long, longer still to those with frailer mortality than they, and soon there are tales of the always adventuring ship and her always changing crew that doesn’t really change at all, no matter what species they seem to be at the moment. The myths spread.

Then they stumble across a truly familiar planet. A place that was home, and hated, and loved. Torn up by their war, and then tore up their hearts. Everyone remembers the brave girl in her armor. It’s enough to make them want to see if they can find her again. If maybe things aren’t so different after all.

There’s shore leave. Reasonable shore leave for them which is months for the little planet whirling around on it’s axis. They hide their ship in the shadow of the moon, cloak themselves in ways that none of them really forgot, no matter how distant the pain eventually grew in their memories.

And then the (co-)captain comes back from a trip down-planet with--”What the scrap did you do to your spark!”

This is not how new Cybertronians form. They do not get what is the equivalent of Earth-pregnancy. Ratchet is ranting.

“Sari had to come from somewhere, who knows how Scorponok started her originally,” because the Scavengers are visiting, and Spinister is more interested in poking at the scans of Misfire’s latest damage from a hair-brained stunt to worry about antagonizing the former CMO.

Not something we had on Caminus, Lotty confirms, and the fact that she had wanted extra scans from Nautica’s more specialized equipment means they now have Brainstorm and Perceptor in there too, on top of the fretting Drift.

It shouldn’t have been possible, not through a holoform. Except it did happen. Because Ego was too damn smug, though that a couple days of fun was enough, and left a bit of his light behind. Light which is a little too close to a spark. Oops?

Peter Quill grows up having space adventures. Not that his name is actually Peter Quill. That’s his Earth-name, when they sometimes come stopover to have shore leave. Earth is a comfort, even an unfamiliar Earth--for all that they’re having to get craftier about avoiding detection when they jump into the solar system. Look that those humans advancing! They’ve gone and made it all the way to the moon. They’re sending out greeting messages!

Magnus is sternly disapproving over anything involving messing with probes and/or other space tech. No, Whirl, sending it back with cybertronian expelatives is not a good idea for a prank. Brainstorm, no tampering.

Peter Quill grows up as Star Lord (Rodimus is so proud of the name that his bby chose. So proud).

He’s an infant as far as the LL is concerned. He’s doing the thing Sari spent the first 100+ vorns of her life doing, which is looking like he’s human when he’s really not. He gets kidnapped off of shore leave by a gang of space pirates.

Yondu+crew are trying to apply a space translator when the tiny human starts cursing them out in multiple space languages. Okay? Is this a new thing that Ego’s children can do? Because Earth is supposed to be a no-go zone.

(It’s a no-go zone and yet there’s a giant #%@ space ship parked behind the moon. None of their sensors detect it. Apparently none of anybody else’s sensors detect it either. That thing dwarfs their ship. No fools, they get right the hell out of there. The ravagers aren’t stupid enough to stick around when they’re that massively outgunned.)

Threatening to eat the kid does not calm him down. Nothing does, until someone starts a round of drinking game/stories about that stupid ghost ship, Ellie, and it’s stupid not-changing (ridiculously changing) ghost crew. The kid is not screeching anymore, which is an improvement. He is correcting the stories that he is not supposed to know anything about, which is not.

After about the third interjection along the lines of “no, those two are the same person. Yes the Hatchet is the medic, he’s just grouchy. No, that’s Mims, he’s not a space-cop anymore” and a whole lot of booze, it’s an even toss up of whether the kid is just plain irritating or actually kind of amusing. Even if he clearly doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about because that red-and-white one with the attitude (no, the other red-and-white one with an attitude) is clearly a serial murderer of some kind.

They keep the new kid alive until the next planet, which is half miracle, until they get stuck docking at a planet next to a ship with a name that just doesn’t translate in any of their systems or in any of the (very sketchy; this is a place where Yondu’s crew are “welcome”) port authority’s databases. It vaguely says something about W.A.P--such a weird name for a ship--and it’s kind of stupidly huge.

“Baby brother!” shrieks the tiny kid standing by the loading ramp, which gets them side-eyed by the two other crew members sticking by her.

“Why,” asks a huge bruiser with metal skin that looks a lot like scales, “do you have the brat with you?” Brat sounds half endearment, half iritation, and entirely too protective.

The only reason that Yondu+crew get out of that one alive is because they haven’t actually landed yet, and Grimlock is a bit more concerned about losing Sari next to the kidnappers than going after them. Yet.

*

I can’t really decide how it goes from there. Scavengers and LL crew chasing the Yondu+crew around the galaxy because they took the bby! Obviously they’d get caught. Realistically it’d probably be soon, but I kind of like the idea of them managing to run for, like a couple of space years and then eventually getting pounced on and having Roddy go “You’ve been missing for the [cybertronian equivalent] of a week! Are you okay?!!!”

Realistically Yondu+crew would probably end up very dead (esp. given Drift, the fact that Roddy’s baby getting kidnapped would probably make him cry, and very, very horrible memories of all involved about what functionalists and their ilk would do to a Bby!cybertronian that had an odd conception turning everyone’s reaction up to wartime levels of must-kill). But also the LL crew sometimes makes friends. So, probably most of the crew would end up dead (excepting Yondu because plot armor and also probably Cybertronian hacking getting to the messages from Ego about fetching his poor, orphaned kids) but some would survive.

Roddy does not die in this. Roddy carried the matrix. You think that Ego’s light is gonna do him any harm? Boy, you are seriously overestimating yourself. Also, the whole LL crew’s clear narrative surrounding shouting in the face/defeating false gods will def. come into play. What, like it’s the first time they’ve picked a fight with an evil planet? (Technically yes, given that not!primus was a puppet under someone else’s control, and not actually evil).

Yes, I am using the MCU version of GOTG, because that’s the one I’m most familiar with, unfortunately.

Also, the idea of having our favorite shipfull of LLighter’s running around just mucking up plotlines.

Lost light -> LL -> Ellie. It’s a joke that really only makes sense in English, but I was a little sad that it never got made in the comic itself. So, in this ‘verse, the Lost Lighters all just call their ship “Ellie” to the point where the mythos around her basically thinks that is there name.

Cybertronian does not have an entry in any translators, not matter how universal they are. It’s so frustrating to everyone else.

Since it’s my AU, Rung is also alive. Everyone cool with that?

[kolbehq]

FILE // BASIC INFORMATION

Name: Echo Hamilton (Clone #EC40-ZEL8).

Age: Mentally 26 years old. Created 18 years ago.

Gender: Female.

Pronouns: She/her.

Species: Clone.

Home Planet: Antigone.

Job: Navigator.

Criminal Record: Impersonation of a human, identity theft, murder.

Sentence: 10 years.

Faceclaim: Emmy Raver-Lampman.

FILE // BACKGROUND

Her earliest memory is her waking up in one of the wealthiest, most elite laboratories on Antigone. When she awoke, she was mentally and physically eight years old, with an identical girl in the chamber next to her, and someone said, “Success.” A few confusing hours later, she was given clothes to wear, and was sitting next to the girl who looked just like her – and the girl asked, “What should we call her? We can’t just call her ‘other Adora.’” The serial number on her wrist read, “EC40-ZEL8,” so Adora suggested they call her “Echo.” Echo said she liked that name very much.

Slowly, Echo began to learn the ropes of how to interact with the world, and the purpose for which she was created. Adora Hamilton was the daughter of a prestigious and powerful government official, and after a kidnapping attempt when she was six years old, her father had decided that they had to take extra precautions to protect his beloved daughter. Echo was the extra precaution; a perfect, expendable body double. Mr. Hamilton even had the serial number illegally removed, just to make sure no one would be able to tell which was which at a glance.

Life with the Hamiltons was a mixed bag, but Echo still considered them her family – she and Adora would even sometimes claim to be twins. Echo was never entirely sure if Mr. Hamilton genuinely cared for her or not, but she always understood that she was less important than Adora. Whether she was posing in her place at an event, appearing in public so Adora could go somewhere in secret, or being used to cause confusion to thwart any attempts at harm, Echo knew that she had one purpose only: keep Adora Hamilton alive. Despite her role as a body double, Echo was still able to enjoy many of the benefits of being the Hamiltons’ daughter, and she knew she had it better than a lot of clones elsewhere in the ‘verse. Always lurking just behind Adora, Echo watched as her father climbed the ranks of Antigone’s government – and as he secretly began to sell information to Hermes, Antigone’s wartime rival. She was never sure if Adora knew that her father was corrupt; they never discussed it. She wasn’t even sure she cared.

When Adora was nineteen years old, she moved away – against her parents’ wishes – and went to university. Echo, of course, followed, still continuing to take Adora’s place when necessary. Studying geography and map-making, life at the university was the happiest Echo had ever been. Outside of the Hamilton household, she felt like she could be something other than the body double. That is, until the accident.

Six months after they began university, Echo and Adora did something very foolish: they stole a ship for a joyride. It was Adora’s idea, of course – she was always a free spirit. Taking the ship from a nearby port, they took turns flying in a wide-open, less populated area. Both girls had had flying lessons, but neither were experts, and after a couple fun-filled hours, Adora made a fatal mistake. The ship crashed to the ground, utterly destroying it, and Echo awoke a few hours later, finding Adora dead in the pilot’s seat. Panicking, heartbroken, and delirious, Echo managed to call for help, and the medics came to get them.

In the clinic, a doctor with cloning expertise ran a few tests, and found that Echo was indeed the clone – Adora, the real deal, was the one who had died. But before he could write up his report, Echo did the worst thing she’s ever done: she begged him to let her take Adora’s place. Certain that with Adora gone, the Hamiltons would no longer care for her, Echo pleaded with him, pointing out that on Antigone, a clone with no human counterpart was considered dead, anyway. After some arguing, the doctor, sympathetic to her predicament, agreed, and faked the DNA tests. After that, the record said that Clone #EC40-ZEL8 had perished in the crash, but Adora Hamilton lived on.

Echo was able to keep up the charade for about a year, living under Adora’s name and taking over her life. She avoided visiting home as often as she could, and most wrote off “Adora’s” peculiar behavior to PTSD and grief. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, she couldn’t pull it off forever. Mr. Hamilton was the one who figured it out, and, after a furious, heartbroken confrontation, Echo finally cracked from the guilt, and admitted that she was not Adora. From there, things got worse – a lot worse. Not only did Mr. Hamilton report her for identity theft and impersonating a human, he also told the police that he believed Echo murdered Adora. Unfortunately, the police quickly believed it, too. Echo tried to explain, tried to convince them that she’d never harm Adora, but because of everything she did do, her case wasn’t compelling. After a messy and emotional trial, Echo was sentenced to forty years in prison. Reeling from everything that had happened, and terrified of going to prison, Echo repaid her “father” by reporting his under-the-table dealings, including his work with Hermes. When he was arrested and convicted, too, Echo couldn’t help but relish the payback.

FILE // CURRENTLY

Echo spent just over five years in a federal prison, with no visitors, no letters, and no video calls. Although she never stopped insisting to anyone that would listen that she didn’t hurt Adora, she was a model prisoner. She stayed out of trouble, didn’t bother any of the guards, and, after a couple years, she even got a job teaching classes for other prisoners a couple times a week. Slowly but surely, Echo was able to gain a certain amount of trust within the prison, even if she was never able to fully convince anyone of her (relative) innocence. One of the prison chaplains in particular struck up a friendship with her, feeling that she was not a threat to society at large. He promised to vouch for her at her parole hearing – a hearing that was, unfortunately, still over a decade away.

It was this chaplain who informed Echo of the ES Kolbe’s upcoming mission, and asked her if she would consider going. Echo was uncertain – knowing she wasn’t likely to come back – but she was also tempted. Even if she was let out on parole, she knew establishing a life on the outside wouldn’t be easy. Not only was she a convicted murderer, she was a clone – on a planet where, with the original human gone, she was considered to be legally dead. Finding legal work to support herself would be difficult, if not impossible. But if she was on the crew of the Kolbe, and helped find new planets, then surely, she could make something of herself, right?

After countless letters, interviews, evaluations, and tests, Echo was deemed fit for the mission. For the first time in five years, she stepped outside of the prison walls, and was brought to Gaia to board to the ES Kolbe, with a sentence of ten years. As the ship entered orbit, Echo was frightened of what laid ahead, but was determined to keep her chin up. It had to better than what had come before.

Echo’s primary job on the Kolbe is to help navigate the ship, and to help create maps of the planets and galaxies they find. Her cartography skills finally getting put to use, she can usually be found in the maps room, pouring over her projects to make sure every detail is perfect. Echo isn’t convinced she’ll live to see the end of her sentence, but she’s determined to prove that she can be a useful, worthy member of society – same as any human.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WORK ETHIC AND FACT

Perl form. Kids can probably sense they aren't being told the whole story. The negotiation never stops till the closing. I just want to get rich by counterfeiting, talking about making money, instead of just looking at them, but because progress in technology has made it easier for startups to have traction before they put in significant money.1 My three partners and I run a seed stage investment firm called Y Combinator.2 This is a talk I gave recently.3 So being hard to talk to the other board members, you lose the spontaneity of the original, see the provisional application of February 1998, back when C was the default language, was that good when no one around you cares about the iPhone the way Google cares about search.

Many of the applications we get are imitations of some existing system.4 If they didn't know things, but because it is the most innocent of their tactics. Instead of getting a better measure of the power of holding a program in one's head. The first time I visited Google, they had about 500 people, the most efficient solutions win, rather than just the whim of some influential person. For most people, rich or poor, stuff has become a burden. Most undergrads probably have more debts than assets. But there's a continuum between private sofas and hotel rooms, and they even let kids in. It has a long way toward explaining the mystery of why the perennial favorite Pralines n' Cream was so appealing.5 And yet there may be a variant of ad hominem than actual refutation.

Large-scale investors tend to be large enough to notice patterns. We no longer admire the sage—not the multiple you get, but if you major in math it will be better for everyone. And that is in fact normal in a startup, is probably a 20th of what it means.6 But there will be ten JetBlues. I've been very surprised to discover how emotional investors can be.7 You might come up with an idea is good.8 You have to go back to their offices to implement them. That's less the rule now.

Object-oriented abstractions.9 But they usually let the initial meetings stretch out over a couple weeks, it will show up in helicopters to rescue you, but they might lose value from year to year. Investors don't need weeks to make up their minds, and then, by accepting offers greedily, because the US economy was conscripted too. Why not? But when people are trying to do real work, jump on it. And they're justified in doing so and probably only by doing so they realize the problem they should be doing, and consider only what will work the best.10 More often people who do.

Mistake number one. You may even want to think about business models. But unfortunately most investors are dealmakers rather than technology people, they generally expect to offer a significant amount of help along with the PhD, the department, and that it therefore mattered far more which startups you picked than how much you like chocolate cake, you'll be able to reproduce this. What about the more theoretical question of whether hockey would be a pain to stitch together that much out of angel investments that combined to maybe $200k, and a lot of this behind the scenes role in IPOs, which you ultimately need if you want to avoid disasters. If you want, so long as you keep morphing your idea.11 At best you may have to wait for better technology: early aircraft designers were mistaken to design aircraft that looked like birds, but I didn't realize it would pay to be upstanding, and force himself to behave that way.12 They did it because they were so much easier.13 It's a far more intense relationship than you usually see between coworkers—partly because the guy had done nothing wrong, but it didn't seem possible to start a startup one day, but that a applies to any mobile phone, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking. In practice they spend a lot of money.

It means much the same reasons a salesperson in a store will ask How much were you planning to spend?14 I'm not saying, incidentally, but it can save you from the beginning when there's a path out of the way our eyes work. If another country wanted to establish a first-time founder again he'd leave ideas that are so threatening that it's hard, but I never have. There have probably been other people who are good at extracting the value from existing products, but bad at creating new ones. It would be surprising if it were all like school and big companies, you'd need an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it was a surprise to many people. Some didn't even have computers. The most successful founders tend to get cram schools—which they did in the twentieth century was professional, which amateurs, by definition, are not allowed to flake. So while you're talking to an angel who invests $20k at a time. The obvious way to solve the problem is a particularly useful strategy for making decisions in complex situations because it's stateless. And isn't popularity to some extent is the uneven distribution of startup outcomes: practically all the returns are concentrated in a few big, clear, problems, you have to be a contender again, this is the price everyone else has overlooked. Can you protect yourself from these people?

Notes

5% a week for 4 years. The best thing for founders, because a she is very hard and not incompatible answers: a to make you take out your anti-dilution protections. When I catch egregiously linkjacked posts I replace the actual server in order to test a new generation of services and business opportunities. One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to start a startup in a large number of startups is that they only even consider great people.

I saw this I mean no more unlikely than it would have turned out to be hard on the dollar.

Who is being looked at the time it would have. They look superficially like the word has shifted. William R. For example, will be coordinating efforts among partners.

His theory was that they were saying scaramara instead of Windows NT?

In 1998 a lot like meaning. Every pilot knows about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: True, Gore won the popular vote he would have been; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of a refrigerator, but also very informative essay about it. The original Internet forums were not web sites but Usenet newsgroups.

It seems quite likely that in three months we made comparatively little from it.

It shouldn't be too conspicuous. My feeling with the New Deal was a small set of users to do this yourself. Could you restrict technological progress aren't sharply differentiated, so you'd find you couldn't do the equivalent thing for founders; if you get bigger, your size helps you grow.

I advised avoiding Javascript.

A scientist isn't committed to believing in natural selection in the postwar period also helped preserve the wartime compression of wages—specifically increased demand for unskilled workers, and also really good at talking about art, why is New York is where people care most about art. Until recently even governments sometimes didn't grasp the distinction between the initial capital requirement for German companies is that parties shouldn't be that surprising that colleges can't teach students how to appeal to space aliens, but hardly any type I. For example, if the quality of the year, they may then, depending on how much you're raising, have several more meetings with So, can I make it harder for Darwin's contemporaries to grasp this than we can teach startups a lot better.

Some would say that one Calvisius Sabinus paid 100,000, the term copyright colony was first used by Myles Peterson. I'm compressing the story. Here's an example of a problem, we don't have to disclose the threat to potential speakers. Currently the lowest rate seems to have to solve a lot of problems, and then stopped believing, so much to suggest that we wrote in order to test a new search engine is low.

Unless we mass produce social customs. Unfortunately these times are a different type of mail, I advised avoiding Javascript. Two possible and not be true that the web. Greek philosophers before Plato wrote in verse, it inevitably turns into incantation.

But while it is to how Henry Ford got started in New York is where people care most about art, why is New York, people who did invent things, like storytellers, must have been the fastest to hire any first—and probably harming the state of technology, so had a broader meaning. Governments may mean well when they talked about convergence. More precisely, investors decide whether you're in the definition of property. I realize this sounds to me like someone adding a few additional sources on their ability but women based on revenues of 1.

I've also heard them called Mini-VCs and the exercise of stock. That's a good product. The ramen in ramen profitable refers to features you could probably be interrupted every fifteen minutes with little loss of productivity. Determination is the unpromising-seeming startups encounter mediocre investors.

Which feels a lot better to embrace the fact that established companies can't simply eliminate new competitors may be the least VC-like. Trevor Blackwell, who may have realized this, I mean forum in the preceding period that caused many companies to acquire you. Most people let them mix pretty promiscuously.

[maddmuses]

Kakashi Hatake

Age: 31-32 (Main-verse; can shift pending the AU) Aliases: Copy Ninja, Kakashi of The Sharingan, Hero of The Sharingan, Cold-Blooded Kakashi, Friend-Killer, Rokudaime Hokage, Sukea Date of Birth: September 15th Clan: Hatake Clan Rank(s) Held: Genin (Formerly), Chuunin (Formerly), Anbu Captain (Formerly), Jounin (Formerly), Third Division Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces (Formerly),

(AU: Fully-Realized Sharingan post-war)

Appearance Kakashi Hatake is a tall man of a lean build, with a significant musculature from years of training in Taijutsu, as well as the other basic training necessary to perform shinobi-level feats of acrobatics and agility. With pale skin and wild silver hair like his father's, Kakashi is often mistaken for Konoha's White Fang. Notably, Kakashi also has a scar running vertically over his left eye, which at one point was a sharingan that he inherited from his friend Obito, that was often kept covered with his headband. Kakashi is known for being extremely handsome, an attribute which is poorly confirmed for most people, as he is rarely seen without his mask. On the occasion that his face IS seen, it is noted that he does possess attractive features, as well as a small mole to the left of his chin.

Generally Kakashi, in adulthood, is known for wearing standard issue Konohagakure shinobi gear appropriate to his rank, a Konohagakure forehead protector, worn skewed over a single eye when he had his atypical sharingan, as well as a facemask worn to cover his nose and cheeks.

Not always physically apparent, Kakashi has an anbu tattoo of a specific design to the Konoha corps. On his left shoulder, taking the shape of a tribal-style flame pattern. Additionally, as a black ops shinobi, Kakashi wore a white dog mask with red streaks on the cheeks.

Kakashi's sharingan has three tomoe as an adult, with his mangekyo pattern being three triangles wrapping around the pupil, reminiscent of a pinwheel.

Personality Aloof and laid-back, many people who meet Kakashi without the benefit of pre-knowledge, have difficulty believing him to be a shinobi, let alone a Jounin. This persona put forth by Kakashi is one that he adopts in order to keep others at a distance from him, as many in the land of fire, indeed who are serious about being shinobi in general, are off-put by this, particularly when he executes perpetual tardiness to appointments. This also serves to help others underestimate Kakashi, allowing him to easily outclass those pig-headed enough to believe him an easy challenge. Kakashi often tries to convince those who know better of this that he only behaves in this fashion due to it not being an important situation, but this rarely convinces those close to him.

These mannerisms were adopted by Kakashi as an intentional diversion from his actual emotional issues that he suffers from as a result of his experiences in war, and to a lesser degree the trauma of his Anbu missions. This was done in response to the repeated pressure of other villagers, and Lord Hiruzen, to address the fallout of his experiences directly. Thus, Kakashi acts as a simpleton, buffoon, layabout, or however he thinks the village wishes to see him, so as to quickly please them. Particularly, as a sensei, he displays these qualities in an effort to emulate his former sensei, Minato.

Self-confident, but far from arrogant, Kakashi understands the scope of his abilities, and often undersells himself, being modest in what he can do, again, so that others can't easily gauge a potential strength ceiling based on brags.

Solitary by nature, Kakashi often wanders around the village by himself, being up to all manner of activity without company, often actively eluding those who he suspect might try to tag along with him, unwantedly. This is largely due to his having trouble relating to other adults, particularly those who were around his age or older when the war was going on. As a natural aversion to these others, it largely hinges on whether they served or not, the former being through a discomfort at either their similarly unaddressed issues, or their actual resolution of their trauma, both bringing Kakashi a type of discomfort due to it always seeming to come full-circle to a demand that HE work on himself. If the shinobi in question didn’t fight in the war, then Kakashi is just as likely to be judgmental towards them, whether rationally or not.

Thanks to this Kakashi is more readily able to, and willing to, relate to the youth of the village. Particularly this served him well when leading Squad 7, who strongly resembled Kakashi’s own squad, endearing them in some regard to him when they showed the teamwork during the bell exercise that not even his own team readily displayed.

As the squad grew, and Kakashi grew closer to his students emotionally, he would grow less standoffish towards other members of the village, as watching them become greater ninja, coming into their own and succeeding, gave him something that he didn’t know he needed. This allowed Kakashi to steadily open up to other adult shinobi as the series progressed, letting his guard down and forming more sincere friendships with them that retained some honesty, though those who knew Kakashi the best were still his comrades from Squad 7.

Biography [Summarized in the Naruto Franchise. Notable deviation from the primary series is Kakashi's Sharingan are fully realized after Obito's soul entered Kakashi's body, permanently being a part of him, rather than temporary.]

Abilities and Skills -Shinobi Training: With early mentoring from his father, education at the Konohagakure Shinobi Academy, further training from Minato Namikaze, and no small degree of personal training and discipline, Kakashi's developed a broad variety of skills, ninja abilities, and knowledge that allows him to be considered among the super-elite as far back as his late teens and early 20s. Kakashi's skill in the shinobi arts are considered so significant that he surpasses many dedicated specialists and Jounin in their own field. --Physical Conditioning: Kakashi's physical state is considered downright absurd by others. Frequently pushing himself with deadly exercise, such as climbing sheer cliffs with one hand tied behind his back, and not using his chakra, as well as all manners of calisthenic drills that make him able to move stronger, faster, and with more flexibility than most other shinobi. This is highly apparent from his physical state, with chiseled muscles that show not only a fair amount of bulk, but fantastic toning. Kakashi is usually able to out-maneuver and out-power others casually, particularly those with less training than himself, not having to rely too heavily on any special tricks or techniques. This is equally evident by Kakashi being able to use Kubikiribōchō, a massive blade larger than the body of most average sized people, with a single hand for extended periods of time, as well as weaving his hand seals so quickly that the trained eyes often can't see what he's forming. Kakashi's reflexes are also so sharp that he can react to and dodge attacks without needing to see them. --Taijutsu: Thanks to his initial training in taijutsu, and significant use during wartime, coupled with frequent training by way of his challenges with Gai, Kakashi is considered a master of Taijutsu. In several respects he's able to utilize martial arts, fighting multiple opponents at a time, fighting single opponents in either highly technical face-offs or more simple (devastating) ones, as well as utilizing stealth and tactics to outfight foes who are less sneaky. Kakashi's proficiency in Taijutsu is also expressed through his ability to open the Hidden Gates (The first explicitly in canon, up to The Gate of Limit in headcanon). --Acrobatics and Agility: Kakashi's physical speed allows him to quickly and effortlessly along the battlefield, rarely having to take the environment into more than a passive consideration. Additionally, due to Kakashi's more evasive strategy, Kakashi utilizes his movement to keep out of harm's way most of the time, often only taking injuries when it becomes necessary, when the foe is of a similar magnitude of mobility to Kakashi's, or an opponent's ability and style is somehow a counter that doesn't require them to actually chase an opponent. --Stealth and Infiltration: As a member of the Anbu Black Operations, Kakashi Is extremely versed in covert tactics, often being able to approach other members of the same organization without detection. In concert with this skill, Kakashi's developed an entire style of fighting is focused on dismantling foes through use of stealth and surprise tactics. --Disguise and Impersonation: Due, in part, to Kakashi's face-mask, not many people know what Kakashi's actual appearance is. It's thanks to this that he can easily disguise himself with assumed identities, such as Sukea, and not even have his own students recognize him beneath a minimal amount of makeup. Kakashi is also adept at impersonating others, changing his voice to sound like a broad range of voices, even being able to utilize ninjutsu to change it into things he normally wouldn't be able to make the appropriate sounds for. --Keen Senses: As a component of his shinobi training, Kakashi was taught to be hyper-aware of his surroundings at most times, allowing him to detect the approach of others who aren't using the most advanced infiltration techniques, or illusions. Kakashi's olfactory has been shown to be particularly sharp as well. His senses become even sharper when he focuses his chakra into them, allowing him to track opponents with startling effectiveness. --Weapons Training and Marksmanship: Versed in all manner of shiobi weaponry, Kakashi is also able to effectively employ weapons that he has never wielded a similar kind before, such as was the case with Kubikiribōchō. For much of his life, Kakashi employed the use of a tantō, mostly as a Genin, Chuunin, early Jounin exploits, as well as during his Anbu missions. Kakashi retired the use of his tantō as a primary weapon when returning to more typical military service as a Jounin once more. Despite this, Kakashi is still highly deadly with weapons, and will often employ them to finish battles quickly, or in tandem with his lightning release to slice through particularly tough opponents and physical barriers.

-Intelligence and Tactical Knowledge: With a natural mind that's often compared to the other great strategists in the shinobi world, Kakashi's depth of knowledge is deep and expansive, often being able to recognize obscure jutsu with only secondhand information and reading to go off of. Generally, Kakashi's tactics involve using Kawirimi and various Bunshin techniques to avoid attacks and direct confrontation, or at the least those direct results, to observe and analyze an opponent. Based on the information he gains, he deconstructs it mentally to determine what the opponent's weakness is, then exploit it. Oftentimes he's able to utilize the skills of his teammates to accomplish this even more efficiently. Kakashi's plans are often unusual and difficult to predict. --Squad Leadership: Kakashi's ultimate strategic strong-suit was in leading small squads of four, in part thanks to his anbu experience, but then the time that he worked as the leader of Squad 7. Kakashi is able to coordinate and maximize the effectiveness of himself and three teammates to take on daunting missions and battles.

-Animal Training and Handling: Kakashi has raised an entire pack of ninken from youth to fully grown dogs that he can summon. Though they are intelligent creatures, it still speaks for Kakashi's remarkable ability to maintain his alliance with them, and utilize them so effectively as part of his strategy.

-Administration and Military Leadership: As hokage, Kakashi was in charge of delegation and administration for much of the financing, dispatching, and coordination of Konoha's military, as well as most of the duties one might expect of the leader of any small settlement.

-Teaching: Directly and indirectly, Kakashi was a teacher to many young shinobi in Konoha. For six years straight, as a Jounin, Kakashi failed many genin hopefuls for not meeting his expectations and teamwork and self sacrifice that he looked for in potential shinobi. This hard lesson was enough to help instill the need for teamwork that these failed ninja were ultimately grateful for. Additionally, when leading Squad 7, he fostered the development of the fundamentals for three shinobi who would eventually become the greatest in the world. Additionally, despite only having self-taught himself, Kakashi taught Sasuke Uchiha a great amount in regards to how to use his sharingan, to the point that Sasuke became a serious threat as a genin with the mirror eyes.

Superhuman Powers and Abilities -Chakra Manipulation and Utilization: As a shinobi and member of the Hatake clan, Kakashi has a very potent natural ability to tap into his chakra and make use of it. Notably, Kakashi's ability to control and use chakra efficiently is at an extremely advanced level, to the point that he can reflexively use it to walk along sheer surfaces and atop water without a second thought. Additionally, Kakashi is able to make use of very chakra-costly jutsu multiple times per day, while his actual reserves are fairly modest, being considered average to slightly above average later in the setting. Over the course of the series Kakashi grows better at using his chakra efficiently to the point that he can repeatedly use Raikiri without consideration for his chakra, or without much, as opposed to four times initially. --Ninjutsu: Thanks to a great skill with ninjutsu, Kakashi was able to graduate from the academy quickly, in less than a year. Kakashi was then able to grow quickly over time in terms of his techniques, developing a deep enough array and ability with the core shinobi discipline to become a Jounin by 12. Through training from Minato Namikaze, Kakashi was able to learn the Rasengan, hoping to apply his prodigal genius to the technique so as to complete it by applying an elemental transformation to it. However, Kakashi was unable to do this, resulting in the technique Chidori, and later Raikiri, both considered some of the most powerful jutsu in terms of nature transformation. However, even this technique was highly flawed, and required the enhanced perceptive ability of the Sharingan to utilize properly. With Obito's sharingan, Kakashi's ability and repertoire of ninjutsu grew further due to the sharingan's ability to mimic other jutsu, a function of the dojutsu that he became well-known for. ---Nature Transformation: Kakashi once stated that Jounin are able to use at least three nature transformations on average. He can use all five of the basic transformations, as well as Yin and Yang Release. Kakashi is highly adept at using advanced applications of all five transformations, particularly water, which he can conjure the techniques for without a nearby source of water, and lightning, which is his natural affinity, that he can focus into highly destructive techniques such as Raikiri. Notably, Kakashi has used his lightning release to cut a bolt of natural lightning, dissipating it, something thought previously impossible. --Genjutsu: Kakashi is well-versed in the use of Genjutsu, though it is considered his weakest technique, by a narrow margin compared to other shinobi, his ability in Genjutsu is considered high-Jounin level still. Though he knows a host of Genjutsu, Kakashi's primary skillset is involved in combating other Genjutsu users, releasing others, and recognizing when he IS trapped in a Genjutsu technique. Kakashi is also able to use the genjutsu that require sharingan, though he rarely uses these, as a ninjutsu specialist he's more dangerous in that respect.

-Sharingan: Surgically implanted during the Third Shinobi World War, Kakashi is most well-known for his single left Sharingan eye. Through the Sharingan copy can recreate motions that he's seen or are seeing perfectly, as well as deduce and predict an opponent's next moves based on factors and tiny shifts in an opponent's body before they actually start. Additionally, with the Sharingan, Kakashi is able to see the chakra of others, and analyze a jutsu through their physical movements and chakra, copying jutsu as they're performed. During the time when his left Sharingan was permanently activated in the left eye, the eye quickly drained Kakashi's chakra when in use, requiring him to physically cover it with his eye or headband when in-use. This was to such a degree that even in his late 20s, Kakashi would end up bedridden for several days following a relatively brief and not-that-intense use of the eye. Kakashi's chakra usage would eventually become more efficient and less costly, allowing him to use it more. After Obito granted his eyes a fully-realized Sharingan, Kakashi's use of the eye became far less taxing on his chakra, due to being able to deactivating it, and the atypical installation of the eye no longer being a draining factor. --Mangekyou Sharingan: The advanced form of the Sharingan, Kakashi initially gained the transformation when Rin Nohara committed suicide against his hand. However, due to losing consciousness after activating it, he was ignorant to its appearance, and did not become aware of his ability to use it for roughly a decade and a half. The inborn technique of Kakasih's eye was the long-range variant of Kamui, which over time he developed into an extremely precise and deadly attack. Kakashi is also able to use Kamui in a defensive capacity to intercept fast-moving attacks, being able to use it without an opponent being aware of its use whatsoever. For a time Kakashi began to suffer from the standard side-effects of the Mangekyou, such as bleeding eyes and vision deterioration. This issue disappeared, as the apparent imbuing of a permanent version of Obito's eyes has afforded Kakashi something similar to the permanent Mangekyou, though without the additional techniques, as he technically only had one set of Sharingan ever. Immediately upon gaining fully-realized Sharingan eyes, Kakashi is able to immediately manifest a Complete Body Susano'o.

Notable Jutsu (Not a complete list, more meant to be Kakashi's iconic and important techniques as well as HC techs) -Chidori: The first move that Kakashi ever invented himself, this technique manifests as a somewhat perfect example of nature transformation, transforming chakra gathered in Kakashi's hand into raw electricity. The sound of the bolts of electricity cutting through the air creates a series of small chirping noises that give the jutsu its name. This technique also allows its user to charge towards targets at insanely high speeds, though this can give a user tunnel vision that makes them easy to counterattack, if they're anticipated. This technique requires a great amount of chakra to use, forcing Kakashi to limit how often he used it until his chakra control had become so precise that he did not have to worry as much. --Raikiri: A more advanced application that Kakashi developed over time. The Raikiri has even more intense lightning due to focusing more chakra into the attack. Combined with the sensory powers of the Sharingan, Kakashi was able to use this technique to split a bolt of lightning, earning the name. This version of the technique seems to allow Kakashi to also move with greater finesse and speed, hence the ability to use it to cut lightning. The tunnel vision weakness of this technique is still an issue. Kakashi has also shown the ability to channel this technique into kunai, slightly increasing its range, or even throwing them, turning Raikiri into a ranged technique. ---Raikiri: Lightning Hound: By charging his Raikiri and discharging it, he can turn Raikiri into a full-blown ranged attack that takes the form of a wolf-like beast that charges at its enemy in an unpredictable pattern, making it difficult to avoid. The beast remains connected to Kakashi until it discharges, so he can add more chakra to it, and speed it up. This technique can be more draining on his chakra reserves, but can strike down difficult-to-track opponents, and can be a fairly devastating attack when landing. ----Raikiri: Storming Pack: By overcharging his Raikiri, as well as splitting it as per Two-Hit Press, Kakashi is able to launch multiple Lightning Hounds at once. This enables him to fire a barrage of these beasts, making it an effective flurry attack to blast away powerful defenses, or to catch evasive opponents in a trap. This technique requires much more chakra than the difficult to use Lightning Hound, and requires much more focus to effectively coordinate more hounds, but it can pay off extremely well in the right circumstances. ---Lightning Transmission: Usually through using a Shadow Clone, Kakashi is able to connect multiple iterations of the Raikiri technique to create a deadly arc that can be used to cut through targets. ----Raikiri: Two-Hit Press: A variation of the Raikiri technique, Kakashi separates a single use of the technique into two, creating an arc through his arms akin to Lightning Transmission, though this version allows him to charge both techniques into individual iterations of the parent technique. Through this he's able to perform a variety of successive combination attacks and strategies that others don't anticipate. ---Raiton: Purple Lightning: The most advanced, and arguably deadly, variant of the Chidori technique. The lightning of this technique takes on a purple coloration, and doesn't inherently give its user tunnel vision. Additionally, this technique allows Kakashi to launch the chakra, instead of simply keeping it confined to his hand and/or arm. Through  this technique he may also project it in an omni-directional fashion. As well, Kakashi is able to manipulate the weather by causing storms using this technique.

-Kage Bunshin: The standard Shadow Clone technique, Kakashi is able to create up to dozens of physical duplicates, each sharing an equal split of his chakra until dispersed. Kakashi rarely makes use of this technique before more than three or four, instead usually using single clones, or very few in concert, with his fighting style, due to his limited chakra. Another favored tactic of Kakashi's, adapted from Naruto's abuse of this particular technique, is to use Shadow Clones as direct body shields to avoid singular target attacks, such as rasengan and chidori. Kakashi also frequently employs this technique to strike foes with multiple Raikiri, or to use Lightning Transmission. --Lightning Release: Kage Bunshin: A technique that Kakashi uses when he needs to kill a foe with a counterblow, this technique otherwise functions in the same manner as a standard shadow clone, but when injured it disperses into lightning chakra. This causes the clone to not return Kakashi's chakra when dispersed. Kakashi may modulate how much chakra one of these clones has. --Tajuu Kage Bunshin: Functionally the same as Kage Bunshin, Kakashi is able to create hundreds of clones at the same time, rather than dozens. When using this variant of the technique he is able to determine what the split of his chakra is, so as to create some clones that are stronger than others.

-Kamui: An extremely high-level space-time ninjutsu, Kamui is a technique specific to Obito Uchiha's sharingan. Initially, through use of his left eye, Kakashi was only able to perform a long-range variant of Kamui. It was through this he was able to coordinate many defensive strategies, as well as use it offensively to rip an opponent apart, by only teleporting part of them. With both eyes, Kakashi was able to use the shorter-range version, which allowed him to teleport things in relative to himself, as well himself, through direct contact. It's through the short-range eye that he's also able to turn himself, entirely and partly, intangible. The dimension of Kamui, which Kamui transfers to and from, is completely detached from all others, and may only be accessed through an eye that has the technique. The Kamui dimension is not specific to its users. When interacting with objects that enter or exist Kamui, the user is able to manipulate the target's conditions upon entrance and exit. After obtaining both eyes, Kakashi is able to use his kamui more quickly, precisely, and efficiently. He can also use the eyes in a unified capacity for greater effectiveness, or for separate purposes simultaneously. Additionally, through his Susanoo, Kakashi can imbue the warping properties of Kamui into space and objects. --Kamui Raikiri: Through imbuing his Kamui technique into his own chakra, Kakashi was able to perform Raikiri in a fashion that kept him from being beholden to counterattack, while eventually landing, warping part of his target's body into the Kamui dimension on-hit. Kakashi was able to achieve this through Six Paths chakra, indicating that this technique is highly-taxing on Kakashi, more than the sum of its parts. --Kamui Shuriken: Kakashi's Susanoo is able to create shuriken constructs that strongly resemble his Mangekyou Sharingan that become imbued with Kamui. When these shuriken strike a target, they're teleported to the Kamui dimension, in whole or part. When having both of his sharingan, Kakashi is able to also throw miniature versions of these, this is more efficient than the full-sized version.

-Susanoo: Kakashi came in able to fully manifest a complete Susanoo. This Susanoo is as powerful of others of its kind, strongly resembling its user, wielding a katana while active. Additionally, Kakashi's Susanoo is able to use shuriken shaped like its source Mangekyou.

-Summoning Technique (Ninken): Through a summoning pact that he made with a pack of ninken that he'd raised from pups, Kakashi is able to perform the summoning technique to call these hounds from wherever they may be. Kakashi is the only known shinobi to have this particular contract, with these specific dogs. -Summoning Technique: Earth Release: Fanged Pursuit: With this summoning technique, usually requiring a specialized scroll to perform, he may summon his Ninken underground, from which they will tunnel to attack any scent or directive that Kakashi gives them on-summoning.

-Genjutsu: Sharingan: A variety of diverse genjutsu techniques, it's assumed that Kakashi can also use this technique, like any other user of this jutsu, to control Biju. From there, it's inferred that there are a number of genjutsu that specifically can only be performed by a character with sharingan that Kakashi can learn.

-Rasengan: Originally invented by his sensei Minato, Kakashi can perform this technique, though only the core variant, as he was interested in adding his Lightning Release to it. It was through this failed experimentation that Kakashi invented the Chidori.

-Mizu Bunshin: Kakashi is able to make clones from water. Kakashi can form these clones from existing water, or spontaneously, as he can with most water release jutsu. This technique requires less chakra to form from existing bodies of water, and can be dismissed into water to fuel other Water Release techniques.

-Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet: A technique in which Kakashi molds chakra into a body of water, or produces water by converting his chakra directly into the element via transformation, shaping it as a dragon and crashing into a target, dealing significant damage to said target. Kakashi is able to use a variant of this technique in which he molds the technique with forty-four hand signs to significantly power up the attack, causing a cancellation of the technique against a Hidden Mist Jounin of similar prestige.

-The Eight Gates: Kakashi is able to use this technique to enhance his chakra and physical state up to the 5th gate of Limit. He rarely employs this technique beyond the first three gates.

Weaknesses and Limitations -Chakra and Stamina: Of all respects, Kakashi's ability to engage in extended combat is his weakest forte. This reflects in him struggling more and more progressively in lengthier exchanges with foes, often tiring out or resorting to immediate-kill tactics far earlier than more enduring shinobi. Kakashi's style is formed with this in mind. With this limited stamina, Kakashi also has a rather weak pool of chakra, having dreadfully “average” stores of the energy, though this improved over the course of the timeskip, and subsequently over Shippuden. Towards the end of the series Kakashi was able to engage in fairly intense battles back-to-back during The Fourth Shinobi War, with only having his stores of energy replenished a couple of times. This is also largely thanks to his fighting style, but Kakashi has significantly improved, as in a single day he was able to make numerous uses of Raikiri, related techniques, and his Kamui.

-Emotional State: Though Kakashi is largely able to operate without his mental state affecting him too terribly, Kakashi is ultimately still unstable, suffering from a form of traumatic stress that certain opponents can abuse to their advantage in combat.

-Post-Sharingan Migraines: Kakashi’s body was not built with a Sharingan in-mind. This ultimately means that his anatomy had to adapt to the presence of the new eye, manipulating his chakra network to more easily pump Chakra into the eye, whether it was active or not. Now, with or without activatable eyes, his body still over-fills in a specific region of his body behind the left eye, causing a sort of blockage. This blockage can be cleared with proper treatments, but ultimately still cause debilitating migraines.

Databook Statistics (Featuring BNHA-style letter grades and over-5 results now) -Ninjutsu: 6/5 (S) -Taijutsu: 4.5/5 (A-) -Genjutsu: 4/5 (B) -Intelligence: 5.5/5 (A+) -Strength: 3.5/5 (B-) -Speed: 5/5 (A) -Stamina: 3.5/5 (C+) -Hand Seals: 6/5 (S)

[My general approach to re-grading these places a score of 3 as what’s the minimum or “average” expected level of proficiency in a field that a Jounin should exhibit, relatively. At 4, a shinobi is considered better than the average Shinobi in that area, at 5 they’re readily graded as a specialist, and beyond this a super-specialist.]

[annabelaplit]

Poem Explication: Apostrophe to Man

For this week’s poem explication I picked another one of my favorite pieces by Edna St.Vincent Millay. Let’s dig in!

Apostrophe to Man (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

(on reflecting that the world is ready to go to war again)

Detestable race, continue to expunge yourself, die out. Breed faster, crowd, encroach, sing hymns, build bombing airplanes; Make speeches, unveil statues, issue bonds, parade; Convert again into explosives the bewildered ammonia and the distracted cellulose; Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies The hopeful bodies of the young; exhort, Pray, pull long faces, be earnest, be all but overcome, be photographed; Confer, perfect your formulae, commercialize Bacateria harmful to human tissue, Put death on the market; Breed, crowd, encroach, expand, expunge yourself, die out, Homo called sapiens.

The topic of this poem is pretty obvious, especially considering that it was written in 1934, five years before the start of World War II. This poem is all about the awfulness of war as an institution and what waging it says about humanity. Millay is relentlessly critical of war in this poem and her main message seems to be that a Second World War II is evidence of the uselessness of the human race. 

Unlike some of the other poems I have examined on this blog, “Apostrophe to Man” is written in free verse. It has no specific rhyme scheme or meter. The poem itself is between 12-15 lines depending on the line breaks of different versions. Typewise I would classify it as a Lyric Poem as it has none of the dramatic or storytelling ends of a dramatic or narrative poem. 

Millay’s choice works well for the frenetic angry mood she chooses to imbue the poem with. Instead of being read in a rhythmical way the meterless lines are read one after another creating a blistering pace as the lines cross and pile on top of each other. The effect of this specific framing is to give readers a glimpse at Millay’s festering anger, an effect that would not have been possible in a traditional format. 

Alluding to before, tone and mood are essential to this poem. It is profoundly anti-war and Millay chooses to express her distaste for the institution through vitriol rather than reasoned arguments. Her sentence structure and diction lend themselves well to creating this atmosphere. All of her sentences are of the imperative type, ordering the human race to do any number of cruel activities. Commands are a form that lend themselves to anger far more than questions or statements. The commands themselves and various adjectives bring Millay’s utter scorn to light as well. The human race is “detestable” and they ought to “expunge” and “encroach”. They do not reproduce but “breed” and their corpses are “putrescent”. With diction like this Millay’s distaste for human beings in a wartime capacity is not brought into doubt. 

This poem is rather light of rhetorical devices with no obvious examples of simile and metaphor, however it does utilize personification. One of Millay’s most memorable lines is, “Convert again into explosives the bewildered ammonia and the distracted cellulose.” Here personification is evident in the ammonia being able to feel bewilderment and the cellulose being able to feel confusion. Later on death is personified when Millay talks about putting it “on the market”. Her use of this rhetorical device is interesting because the primary aim of personification is to humanize while the aim of this poem is to talk about dehumanization. Maybe her goal in giving these inanimate things human characteristics is to remind man of the qualities they are missing. 

This whole poem, in fact, can be seen as one giant example of personification. As its title states, it is an apostrophe or an address to an abstract object as it was animate. In this case the abstract is the human race itself. Millay’s choice to address the human race as an abstract whole instead of any specific world leader or country shows her belief that all of humanity deserves blame for the institution of war. Not personally directing a country into war does not spare one culpability. It is up to the collective human race to stop this destructive institution. 

Another device I want to quickly examine is Millay’s allusion to science in the last line of the poem. Homo sapiens is the scientific classification of the human race but the words mean man and wise in Latin respectively. By inserting the word “called” between the two italicized terms Millay manages to references both of those meanings. The biological designations reiterates the idea that the human race’s compulsion to kill each other in war makes them mere animals while the Latin terms changes the line’s meaning to “man called wise” which calls into question the sagacity of humans. In spite of their incredible inventive abilities and societal organizations they just seem to keep finding effective ways to kill each other. 

Next let’s look at Millay’s use of alliteration and assonance. These devices are employed frequently throughout the poem. Examples of assonance include, “crowd, enroach”, “into explosives, the bewildered ammonia, and the distracted cellulose”, and “Confer, perfect your formulae”. Examples of alliteration include “build bombing airplanes”, “pray, pull long faces”, harmful to human tissue”, and “encroach, expand, expunge yourselves”. Placing these similar sounds near each other gives a more lyrical quality and helps it flow better. It makes it seem more like a poem, which is important considering “Apostrophe to Man” doesn’t conform to any set form.

Parallel structure is something else to be discussed quickly. There are two instances where Millay can be said to have used it, one is the words “convert again” describing how man makes chemical weapons and draws young boys to their doom. It is also found in the line, “be earnest, be all but overcome, be photographed.” The repetition of the same words or phrases in different sentence fragments parallels the repetition of similar human wars fought over slightly different causes. When Millay employs parallel structure she is calling attention the parallel actions of human warfare.

This poem is especially interesting in light of the historical context of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s life. She was born in 1892 and died in 1950, a lifespan long enough to have vividly experienced both World Wars. She was an avid critic of the First World War, even writing an anti-war play in 1921. However she supported the Allies in World War II, even writing a piece called “Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army” which was read on NBC while the D-Day invasion was occurring. In fact she worked with the Writer’s War Board to make propaganda. However it is speculated that she took these positions for the monetary payment involved, not out of any true belief. In fact, many of her later poems deal with the tragedy of loss and life in World War II.

The writing of this poem seems to come at a time when Millay’s attitudes towards war had not been compromised. The whole institution is avidly criticized, especially chemical and mechanical weaponry and its societal glorification. However, it is interesting that Millay’s primary points of complaint are the methods used to kill people in war and its presentation in society. She never outright condemns the reasons that war is fought. This might explain her conflicted feelings towards World War II. She respected the rationale behind it but felt like humanity ought to be above war in the first place.

As mentioned earlier, this is one of my favorite Edna St. Vincent Millay poems. She rarely expresses anger in her poetry and this is an example of just how effective she can be when she does. The argument she makes is clear and the language she uses to convey it is incredible. Even though the Second World War has long since passed the message of the poem can still be applied to the conflicts countries fight today, and even more abstract evils such as global warming. Once again Millay’s writing has transcended just the particular.

[scientistredacted]

*throws this @voidscattered just because I can*

                “☟⚐🕈 👍✌☠ ❄☟☜ ☞☼⚐☠❄ 👌☜ ❄☟✋💧 👍☹⚐💧☜ ❄⚐ 💧😐✡💧❄☜✌👎✍”                 [ How can the front be this close to Skystead? ]

Wing Din paces up and down the newly set up medical tent at their new base camp, visibly shaking and rattling.

Monster numbers have been steadily dwindling- and it’s not like humans didn’t already vastly outnumber the monsters, even before the war- and they’ve been slowly pushed further and further back.

A few times monsters have managed to regain ground, but they’ve always been pushed back again. And this is the closest the fighting has ever been to the seat of power for the Dreemurr family. And Wing Din’s home city.

               “ 🕈☜’☼☜ ☹⚐💧✋☠☝ 🕈✋☠☝👎✋☠☝💧📫 ☼☜✌☹☹✡ ✌👍❄🕆✌☹☹✡ ☹⚐💧✋☠☝📫 ☟🕆💣✌☠💧 ✌☼☜ ☝⚐✋☠☝ ❄⚐ 😐✋☹☹ 🕆💧 ✌☹☹📫”                [ We’re losing Wingdings- really actually losing- humans are going to kill us all- ]

               “Now, when did you get so pessimistic.”

Wing Din comes to a dead stop in his pacing at the other Skeleton's voice, and he grins, whirling around towards the tent’s entrance, a green light sparking in his eye when he sees the skeleton there.

                “👎✌👎✏”                 [ Dad! ]

                “Hello Wing Din.” Aster smiles, stepping into the tent proper. “Are you just going to stand there grinning at me, or are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

[scientistredacted]

Starter for @uxis

This is an odd little village, but that’s fine. It’s fine. People are allowed to act odd. He just figures that the people here don’t see monster’s very often; let alone skeletons, which are somewhat rare, even among monsters.

He’s only staying for the one night on his way to a larger city to try to handle something for Asgore’s parents. Some sort of conflict with a group of monsters and humans there.

Hopefully he can get it resolved. 

Settling into his room at the inn- not thinking anything of the tense reaction he get from the innkeeper- he gets out a few books, and the blank one he was working in with his studies.

He’s close to a breakthrough on what the difference between humans and monsters actually even is. Journeys  like this slow down his work so, but he doesn't mind, He has plenty of time, and he wants to help in anyway he can, so doing what work he can on the go it is.

A sound from across the room gets his attention, and he glances over and...

...A girl is climbing in the window. 

Actually, he saw that girl earlier. She was following him around. He had thought then that she was just curious about him, but this goes a little bit beyond curiosity.

              “🕆☟📫 ☟☜☹☹⚐✍”

              “Uhm- Hello?”

He signs with his actual hands, then pauses, realising that in an entirely human village like this, it’s unlikely she’ll understand his sign language.

Well, his secondary font it is. He’s had to sue it a lot today as is, so it’s not really any trouble.

              “Hello there?”

[scientistredacted]

@the-poor-saddened-skeleton​ liked for a Wartime Gaster starter!

He’s not entirely certain how he got here. Or where he is, for that matter. 

He was in battle, and they were losing. Again. He and Asgore were going to have to flee. Everyone was going to have to flee. It was quickly becoming the only way to survive.

The have to survive.

But he’s not sure how he ended up here. There was some sort of magic attack launched at him, and before he could even process what was happening, he found himself in what seems to be some sort of deserted underground town.

Wandering forward, he exits into... a snow blanketed area, still underground, and he quickly finds another abandoned town.

It’s beyond eerie.

Where is he?

Continuing forward through the water flooded area, and the area that feels like walking through a volcano (Briefly distracted there by what seems to be an old abandoned laboratory), he ends up in the large monochrome city, still not having seen a single other person the whole time he’s been down here.

Until he does.

It’s another skeleton, and the young scientist practically sprints towards him immediately upon sighting this other skeleton.

              “☟︎☜︎☹︎☹︎⚐︎✏︎✍︎ ☟︎☜︎✡︎✏︎✍︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ❄︎☜︎☹︎☹︎ 💣︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✋︎ ✌︎💣︎✍︎ ⚐︎☼︎ 🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☟︎☜︎☹︎☹︎ ✋︎💧︎ ☝︎⚐︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ⚐︎☠︎.”

              “Hello!? Hey!? Can you tell me where I am? Or what the hell is going on.”

He signs the words by force of habit, despite the fact that as far as he knows, all other skeletons would be able to understand his words even without the sign language.

[scientistredacted]

[voidscattered] 💔

Send 💔 for your muse to try to save my muses soul from shattering @voidscattered​

Wing Din knew he was going to die. 

Really, he knew it before he went out onto that battlefield; having gone quite some time without any rest (how long had it been? He doesn’t even remember... he’s lost track on the sunrises and sunsets).

He’s losing hope. And a hopeless SOUL is a fragile one.

But even still, even with his weakened body unable to protect his SOUL, it’s a shock as he’s hit from behind while trying to help an injured monster to safety. It’s a shock as the harsh blow sends him crashing to the ground, and he can feel his SOUL shudder, ready to break apart, and he can feel his body start to breakdown to dust when he blacks out.

Waking up at all is a surprise. Everything hurts, and he knows his grip on life is still tenuous. But he’s alive. Someone saved him from the very brink.

Someone saved him as his SOUL was shattering. 

He can’t see. Well he can, but it’s all too blurry without his glasses for it to really tell him much.

The white-ish colour above him; the only thing he can see at first, laying on his back... it’s probably the roof of a medic’s tent, given the state he’s in...

After a moment Wing Din shakily pushes himself up to a sitting posisistion, stubbornly ignoring the way it sits his head spinning immediately, and slowly looks around the tent, trying to make out anything without his glasses.

There... may be one other person here? Either that or it’s just a lump of blankets on the ground... He’s not sure...

                “☟☜☹☹⚐✍”

                [ Hello? ]

He says weakly, his voice extremely shaky despite his best efforts. He’s just too weak still to project any amount of confidence.

[scientistredacted]

[voidscattered] ▲ 5 (what verse would that be in, I don't know)

hugging them from behind when they weren’t expecting it @voidscattered

              “☝✌☟✏” 

              [ Gah! ] 

The arms wrap around Wing Din from, and a pink glow snaps into his eye in surprise, and after a moment he whirls around to face the other Skeleton, straightening his glasses, with a slight flush of embarrassment on his face.

Thankfully, Wingdings can’t see it.

              “🕈☟✌❄ 🕈✌💧 ❄☟✌❄ ☞⚐☼�� 🕈✋☠☝👎✋☠☝💧✍”

               [ What was that for, Wingdings? ]

[scientistredacted]

[voidscattered] Agony reversed?

@voidscattered

Send one for the following scenario. Add ‘reverse’ for our muse’s roles to be reversed where applicable. [AGONY] - Your muse rescues mine from the hands of the enemy, and finds them in terrible shape. 

Skeleton numbers are dwindling. There are so few of them left that Wing Din is willing to take some crazy risks to rescue even just one.

He’s supposed to be a medic. But more and more often he finds himself straying from the role, with more and more blood on his hands.

And today is just another day like that, throwing one aside hard with Blue Magic- likely breaking their neck given the angle they hit the ground- to save a fellow skeleton from their grasp.

              “✌☼☜ ✡⚐🕆 ⚐😐✌✡✏✍ ☠⚐📫 ☠⚐📫 ✡⚐🕆’☼☜ 👍☹☜✌☼☹✡ ☠⚐❄📫  ✋ ☠☜☜👎📫 ✋ ☠☜☜👎 ❄⚐ ☝☜❄ ✡⚐🕆 💧⚐💣☜🕈☟☜☼☜ 💧✌☞☜ 💧⚐ ✋ 👍⚐🕆☹👎 ☟☜✌☹ ✡⚐🕆📬📬📬”

              [ Are you okay!? No- no- You’re clearly not-  I need- I need to get you somewhere safe so I could heal you… ]

[scientistredacted]

Tag Dump~

[scientistredacted]

SEND ‘🔺’ + A COLOR FOR A COLOR BOARD OF OUR MUSES @voidscattered

❝ The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world. ❞

                ― Alice Hoffman