#2500m

[oneiroy]

finally back at my puter... after ~450km on my bike. my legs

[kf4rws-actual]

I ordered the radio on the right, a Yaesu FT-897, as a gift for myself for passing my General Class exam. I've wanted this radio since it was released in 2002 but as a Technician Class I wouldn't have been able to use but two frequency bands, not to mention it was out of my price range. I got it off of ebay and learned that it's a Japanese version and hard wired to not operate on all U.S. frequencies, even after MARS modding it. I already have the two radios on the left and the handheld (HT) for the 2 meter and 70cm bands so it's not a total loss and the radio still has performance abilities (power consumption wise) that far exceeds modern rigs.

[frenchcurious]

TVR 2500M 1974. - source Bring a Trailer.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 815: 3km left!!

Pag 1

1: The one person in the lead

2: just passed

3: the 3km left point of the Inter High's first day!!

4: 3km left!!

A red guy!! It's Sohoku's Naruko!! He's running away on his own!!

5: That guy's so fast! Is he gonna keep running away like that and win!?

There's a chance

Amazing!

Pag 2

1: I'll do it!! I will!! Flashily!!

2: The last Inter High!!

3: On my third year!! The culmination!! On the first day!!

4: The audience!! They're so excited!! That they're swooning!!

5: It's flashy!! Picture-perfect!!

6: The running away victory!!

Pag 3

1: I'll show you!! Naruko Shokichi will show you!!

2: The invincible genius Naruko Shokichi!!

Oorruaaaaaa!!

Pag 4

1: There's a chance....!! But

Those who are chasing the lead

2: they're definitely pedaling with the intention... of not letting that happen!!

3: Grooooss

Pag 5

1: Mii!!

2: Two people from Kyofushi are chasing!! I see them!!

They're so fast!!

What's with the 'gross' and 'mii'!?

Pag 6

2: We close the gap!!

Puku!!

3: Mii!!

5: Kyofushi is getting closer!!

Sohoku is in danger!!

Pag 7

1: Caught ya, Naarukoo!!

2: Right there, mii!!

3: 10m.... 5m!!

5: 2m!!

Pag 8

3: Caught, mi!!

Pag 9

3: I didn't catch him, mi!?

On the contrary, he's getting further away, mi!?

4: Naarukoo!!

5: How, mi!!

6: Did you forget, Midosuji?

That in road racing you're fighting against both “your opponent” and the “terrain”!!

7: You thought you had caught me!? But in this place where there's 3km left

Pag 10

1: when we pass the river and harbor, there's a big bridge!!

2: It's short, but it's a climb!! And on a climb, compared to that heavy and huge Choubori

Pag 11

2: I'm definitely at an advantage!!

3: Miii!!

Pag 12

1: Kyofushi had almost closed the gap but then was left behind when they crossed that big bridge!!

2: Naaruukooo!!

Don't tell me you even took this into account!?

3: Sorry, Midosuji

4: but I'm the genius Naruko Shokichi!! You can't

5: catch me that easily!!

Pag 13

3: Sohoku's Naruko is getting away!! He's running solo!! He keeps getting away on his pwn!!

2.5km left until the finish line!!

2500m!!

Amaziiing!

Keep going like this!! Sohoku!!

Pag 14

2: Did he fall too? That guy from the “selected team”

5: Huh

6: Selected team!? He's still here!?

Pag 15

3: Ugh!! It really is the selected team's jersey!!

He's with us even with Hakogaku's Shinkai's crazy acceleration!!

4: The acceleration before the finish line even Gunma's assist..... and our Ninoshima couldn't keep up with

5: and so they were left behind!!

6: Even though he was using all his strength to keep up with us on the downhill....

Pag 16

1: Why is he still following us!!

3: Kuaaaaaaa

Pag 17

2: He's not putting any strength in his hands yet they're shaking?He's clinging to the handles, and it even looks like he's having troubles breathing

3: Yet, how

4: Why is he still following us!! This guy!!

6: The chasing group is currently arriving at the 3km left mark

We saw Kanagawa's, Gunma's, and Hiroshima's jerseys

They're going to approach the finish line soon

Pag 18

1: Did you see, Sadatoki?

….. on

2: Sugimoto was there!! In the chasing group!!

On!!

3: Sugimoto was there!! He's there now!! He's surviving!!

4: Amazing, Sugimoto-kun!!

5: Sugimoto...!!

6: Sugimoto is there, in front on the finish line!!

Pag 19

1: I know I should be cheering for Sohoku, but this is incredible...!! The fact that Sugimoto is here makes me so excited!! Eh!! Sadatoki!!

On!!

2: This is a good situation

Nii-chan!! On!!

Yeah, I think it's the “best place”

3: Are these the fruits of the training camp's 1000km? Is it thanks to that?

4: Yeah

5: Maybe by reflex, among the chaos.... Sugimoto was instinctively drawn to it

Yeah

6: Behind him

Pag 20

1: Behind Imaizumi!!

2: The back of his “buddy” he clang to during the training camp's 1000km!!

[realhumanbaby]

It happened again, on a 4 hour bus ride from Oaxaca to San Jose, he asked for some water so I filled his bottle from mine. Except, as soon as we spoke, a door silently cracked open, a sliver of light. It took me a few minutes to notice, but by then the 50mg diphenhydramine had kicked in and I slipped into a dream. Every time I closed my eyes another scene played out. Kung Fu Panda 4 with Latin American dubs. A women boards carrying two buckets of fresh queso. His hands crane open a novella. The bus breaks down. His hands rub his face. Face obscured but his hands remain in view. Without warning we are dropped on the side of the road, a tiny mountain town, 2500m altitude, sparse oxygen. He is staring at me, shoulders square, thinking of something to say. I thought, there is a way for a gaze to be pleading but not demanding. I found the light too blinding to look back for more than a second at a time. After some stalled silence, a driver ushers him into a tuk tuk. Sobered, breathing heavily, I dragged my luggage up to the nearest restaurant, where I ordered a coffee and a bowl of rice, and at the end of the meal I am handed this message. For several hours I believed it meant that I would run into him again, somewhere on the mountain, until I realised it meant the opposite. To be a stranger one must remain a stranger.

[sleepyfins]

🐙🐟🐙/🐟🐙🐟/🐙🐟🐙

Sea Toad Gifs are mine from here and here!

Sea Toads are a family of deep sea anglerfish that also go by the name Coffinfish. They have a red body and a white lure as they live 2500m deep!

It walks on its large feet like fins to save energy, grows up to 30cm long and males have larger nostrils than females. They aren't picky eaters and are extremely energy efficient so they eat very little.

[squidsinashirt]

Do you still swim every morning? How much?

Every morning that I can, yeah, old habits die hard when you’re awake at 5.30am! I get a bit restless if I can’t, apparently 😏

Usually aim for an hour in the pool, 2500m freestyle as a kinda base minimum for warm up, takes me just over half way. Then ‘fly for a bit for fun, and then throw in fins and whatever else on top. I do like weighted drag swims with a chute - I’m not training for races but for actually needing to swim and usually with a casualty, so that kinda takes priority, y’know?

Always start with a good stretch and a bit of yoga though, and cool down the same way (don’t forget your cool down, save your muscles!).

Obviously call outs and work take priority, it isn’t every day, so if I get a clear morning, sometimes I do a bit more. Sometimes, I’ll cut it short and go for a run with Scott or Kayo instead. It’s pretty fluid.

Good way to start the day, clears the head! 🐠

[proton-wobbler]

Warbler Showdown Finale: Bracket 4

Fan-tailed Warbler (Basileuterus lachrymosus)

IUCN Rating: Least Concern

Range: north Mexico to northwest Nicaragua

Habitat: submontane and lower montane evergreen and semi-deciduous forests. They favor rocky and rugged areas and places with undisturbed understory.

Subspecies: None/3* (IOC recognizes 3 subspecies)

Tacarcuna Warbler (Basileuterus tacarcunae)

IUCN Rating: (not ranked)

Range: found in Eastern Panama, in the Darién, and northwestern Colombia (Chocó)

Habitat: lower montane humid forests, as well as along forest edges and well-developed second growth, between 850-1200m

Subspecies: None* (used to be a subspecies of Three-striped Warbler)

Rufous-capped Warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons)

IUCN Rating: Least Concern

Range: most of the range is in Mexico, extending south into Guatemala and sometimes appearing into Texas or Arizona

Habitat: dry-scrub, brushy ravines, open woodland, and early second growth or forest edges. Found from lowlands to 2500m

Subspecies: 5

Image Sources: Fan-tailed (Anon); Tacarcuna (Jonathan Slifkin); Rufous (Adam Jackson)

[philoursmars]

Avec Christine, on a fêté nos 40 ans d'amitié en faisant un voyage de 15 jours en Sicile.

Montée vers l'Etna. Altitude 2500m. Le monstre crache calmement ses fumerolles 800 mètres plus haut...

[beloved-menagerie]

2500m up a mountain how are we all doing the view up here is great ✌

-- Juan

[kfkr1ze]

[002–A23] AUGUST SKY

Summary — ✈︎ The day before the summer festival, Akuta and Muneuji hear a sound coming from the egg. When they realize it was morse code, they decode the message. It says…

Characters— ✈︎ Akuta, Muneuji, Ushio, Nanaki, Kiroku

ーーAt dusk, the day before the festivalーー

(Egg tapping)

Akuta: Well?

There's something tapping inside right? Can you hear it?

Location: Otomari Chuuzaemon Inn in Shodoshima

Akuta: This sound… It’s kinda like the one you hear in those war movies, right? Umm, the one that goes ton ton tsu tsu… [1]

Muneuji: Are you talking about morse code?

Akuta: Yes, that thing!！

Muneuji: Let me try to decode it.

Akuta: EH?! You know how to?! 

Muneuji: My father taught me how. I have a small interest in amateur radio. I’m decent at tap code encrypted messages.

Akuta: That’s so damn cool!! What are you waiting around for!? What kinda crazy message is coming from the aliens!?

Muneuji: ………

“MAKE, A, WISH” …That’s what it said.

Akuta: Wooow… I knew it…

Location: Bus Stop in Shodoshima

Akuta: … Zzz… Snore snore……

Muneuji: Isotake. Wake up.

Akuta: ……Unm…… Huh!?

Fuck, I fell asleep! Right at the bus stop too! Ughh my body hurts! You shoulda woke me up sooner!

Muneuji: Please forgive me, I was caught up in decoding the messages. 

ーーThen, I’ll get straight to the point and tell you. The plan I agreed on with the egg.

Akuta: Yes, Captain Kaguya!

Muneuji: I told the egg that our ultimate goal was to make the summer festival a success. It gave me a reply.

It said, if we make a simple rocket and launch it with the egg attached, it will “consume” all the rain clouds.

Akuta: Consume… Wait, like it’s gonna eat all the clouds!?

Muneuji: I’m not too sure how literally that is supposed to be taken just yet, but that is exactly what the egg has promised to do. Please look at this.

Akuta: This is… A map of Shodoshima! Right?

Muneuji: According to the egg, the rain clouds in Shodoshima are at an altitude of about 2500-3000m.

Last year, I personally broke the previous record held for the longest distance a student could launch a plastic bottle rocket, which was around 1110m.

Akuta: With just a plastic bottle?! That’s so cool, Muneuji! I mean, Captain!

Muneuji: However, that is around 1400m shorter than the minimum height of 2500m. So, the egg requested that Hoshigayouyama, the mountain with the highest peak in Shodoshima, be used as the launch point. That would be right here.

Akuta: Would that be high enough!?

Muneuji: Hoshigayouyama has an altitude of 817m.

Akuta: So that means that…!? Um??

Muneuji: Even if we shot the rocket at the peak, it’s still 583m short. When you consider things like wind speeds and gravity, it’s even worse.

Akuta: Hmhm…… 

Muneuji: So? 

ーーWill you give up, Leader?

Akuta: !

Muneuji: Your decision?

Akuta: …Tell me what materials we need to make the plastic bottle rocket! I’ll gather them! About the rest… I’ll get to it when we come to it!

Muneuji: Understood!

Location: Beach in Shodoshima

Akuta: Muneuji〜! I borrowed a cart from some guy in the neighborhood!

Muneuji: Thank you. Let’s take the rocket to the top of the mountain now.

Akuta: I just saw Kari-sen’s[2] car heading to the venue, but Nanaki and Ushio both looked like their world was collapsing… We need to hurry up and launch this thing!

So, how’s the assembly going!?

Muneuji: Acquiring fuel rods was proving to be extremely difficult, but the egg suggested that we can use these as a substitute. 

Akuta: What are those?

Muneuji: They’re pieces of the egg. It gave me permission to do so, so I took some of the shell that was cracking off where the legs are. 

It’s hard to believe, but when you pour NaHCO3… In other words, baking soda, the egg transforms into a crystal-like shape that resembles hydrogen fuel. Thus, it will generate an explosive energy that rivals that of a hydrogen engine.

Akuta: S-Seriously!?

Muneuji: In addition to these, when the rocket reaches its highest point, the egg can use the rocket as a springboard to jump and gain some more altitude.

I thought the process was similar to the way multistage rockets were used to launch satellites into space, so I discussed that with the egg as well.

Akuta: Alright! Good job, Captain!

Location: Hoshigayouyama in Shodoshima

Muneuji: Hah… Hah… The rain is falling down now…

Akuta: Gh… It’s fine, we just gotta… grab the cart and… climb the mountain〜

Muneuji: Uwah!!

Akuta: Are you okay!!? You should… rest for a bit, Captain!! I’ll… definitely get this… to the top…! Hah… Hah…

Muneuji: Will it really be fine to launch it like this…? We still don’t know if it’s high enough… I mean, we don’t even know how well the fragments from egg do as a fuel source…

Akuta: … Hah… hah… We got no choice but to believe in it.

Right now, I’m just thinking… about what to do… after we launch it…! But y’know, before you get a happy ending, you always gotta try everything you can possibly do… until you can’t do anything else!

Muneuji: …Isotake.

Akuta: ! Are you done resting now?

Muneuji: Let’s go, to the top…!

Location: Hoshigayouyama’s Summit in Shodoshima

Akuta: “10 seconds left until launch off～!”

Location: Tomioka Hachiman Shrine in Shodoshima

Akuta: “10!”

“9!”

“8…”

“I know I’m in the middle of a countdown right now, but I wanted to say a few things! ーーI’m sorry, Sensei. 7.”

“If this ends up being a bust, I still don’t think it was pointless. I can just use that as a springboard for what I can do next.”

“To spend my time making good memories… or whatever you said. I don’t think that’s the case. Ah, 6.”

“I think there’s an overwhelming, unseen, almost fate-like power out there that can make any failure seem worth it. I feel like I’m the only one who can see it, but I think it’s the most amazing thing in the worldーー”

Kiroku: ………

Akuta: “I want there to be people out there who look at what I’m passionate about, see every single thing I’m obsessed with, and say “Ah, this guy is the best”…!”

“When there are people like that who praise me, especially when there’s a lotta them tooーー That’s when I can start saying that this summer was “for me” right!!!!”

Ushio: ………

Nanaki: Akuta… This guy isn’t saying the right things at all…

Location: Hoshigayouyama’s Summit in Shodoshima

Akuta: Well, time to get back to the countdownーー

Muneuji: We’re already at 1! It’s one!

Akuta: It’s at 1! Ignition!

Muneuji: Lift off!

Kaede: (The rain is just getting heavier… Will we be able to get the device there in time? If only we didn’t give up so quickly and did this sooner…)

Ugh, are you kidding?! The moment I needed it most, literally every traffic light I hit turns red.

(? Everyone outside is looking up and pointing at something… Huh? There’s something flying in the skyーー)

Tourist A: Ehh, what is that!? Did you see that just now!?

Tourist B: It looks like the thing that shot up took everything in the sky andーー

Elderly Man A: ……Eh……?

Everyone: EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH～～～!?

Akuta: “WOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!! THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL!! LIKE WASN’T SERIOUSLY AWESOMEEE～～!?

Nanaki: Wait no, you’re not the one that’s supposed to be surprised!

Kiroku: …………

Ushio: What the hell, is this real? Should this even be possible?

That Idiotake does whatever he wants how he wants it. He just gets riled up all by himself.

He should really take us into consideration, since we’re the ones that have to clean up after him in the endーー But, well…

I do think thatーー This sunset is really pretty, though.

Previous — ✈︎ Masterlist — ✈︎ Next

Notes — ✈︎

Morse code goes ・ー・ー yk yk. Except I literally have no idea how to say them in English?? I know in Japanese, the short ones are ton and the long ones are tsu so I kept it like that 

“Kari-sen” -> Karigane-Sensei (Sakujiro)

[leleaulait]

L'impact des randos en montagne sur mon mental (et mon physique aussi évidemment) est assez dingo, depuis que suis petite mes grands parents nous amène randonnée partout donc je suis très très habitué au dénivelé et au 8h de marche a 2500m d'altitude, et à chaque fois quand j'atteins enfin le point le plus haut de la rando j'ai une satisfaction extrême, ça en devient addictif tout les été chez moi.

[luna-wing-cns274]

DEPLOYLOG_CIRCE_02.cmf6

(cw: blood, injury, violence. Cloning and offscreen human experimentation, cruelty towards a captive human. This entry is a bit spicier than part 1.)

ERROR: file corrupted. Unable to restore. 

Aborting playback of file: “DEPLOYLOG_CIRCE_01.cmf6”

[ VERY WELL. THIS, I WILL PERMIT. ]

Multimedia file received: “DEPLOYLOG_CIRCE_02.cmf6”, filesize 512.2GB. Source: COMP/CON “Fox_3,” registered operator CNS274-L3HK. 

Open? (y/n) - y

Contents chronologically organized. Transcribing signal sequence…

___

T+ 00:02:00 - MINUTE/SECOND/MILLISECOND 

[ WHY WOULD IT LOOK LIKE BLINDNESS? ]

T+ 00:02:06

< ALL SQCOMM: (transcription - multiple voices cry out. Grunts of pain and discomfort. Loudest among them is the voice of Ma’ii, who utters a piercing shriek.) > 

T+ 00:04:15

< L1GE SQCOMM: Ma’ii! Report? >

T+ 00:05:42

< L2GR SQCOMM: (transcription - Garmr grunts with exertion) Core temperature just spiked. We’ve got active intrusion. >

T+ 00:05:68

< L1GE SQCOMM: Ma’ii is unresponsive and dropping altitude. Their current course has them entering PDC range in one minute fifteen seconds. >

< L2GR SQCOMM: On it. Sighting anti-air defenses. >

< L1GE SQCOMM: Negative, hold fire. We can’t afford to provoke another electronic attack of that magnitude. Purge codebase and bolster defenses first. > 

< L2GR SQCOMM: Fuck. Understood. >

T+ 00:06:23

< L3HK SQCOMM: My codebase is clear. I was able to deflect the worst of it to my recon drones. Moving to follow L4. Will defend and provide counterintrusion support. >

< L1GE SQCOMM: Understood. I’ll check in with the ship. Be careful and keep us informed. >

< L3HK SQCOMM: Will do. Hold on, Ma’ii. > 

___

View from the dorsal fuselage of a fighter, flying through a solid wall of cloud. The scream of fusion engines can be heard over roaring wind. The aircraft has no canopy or cockpit hatch; its forward half is a solid cast of armor plating indented with shielded sensor clusters. Extending from its nose, the distinctive paired tines of a railgun barrel are visible, joined together by cermet ribs. In the center of the fuselage, a miniature laser turret sits locked in forward position. Sections of aerodynamic cowling guide the airstream around the weapon’s low profile, with only the boxy optical emitter exposed. 

Two sets of wings are unfolded from the fuselage, a main set forward and a smaller, secondary set aft and above. Control surfaces along the wings twitch and sway in the turbulent airstream, correcting course. 

Emblazoned on one of the forewings is an icon of a crescent moon with the letters ‘L3’ stenciled inside its arc. A monochrome green mural has been painted beside the icon: a stylized Shikoku dog leaping into the air, swatting at the crescent with one paw. 

Green wireframe HUD elements overlaid on the camera view indicate that the fighter is descending at a sharp angle, chasing a friendly craft visible only to radar. The altimeter drops steadily—4000m, 3000m, 2500m…

___

T+ 00:19:22

< L1GE SHIPCOMM: All, be advised that we have an unidentified high-level electronic threat. Confirm active codebase intrusion, L4 is injured. Taking AA fire. Request ETA of mech lance. >

T+ 00:19:52

< L1GE SHIPCOMM: Butterfly Effect, please confirm comms functionality? >

T+ 00:20:82

< L1GE SHIPCOMM: Pilum? Masterkey? Can anyone give status of Butterfly Effect? >

___

All at once, Hachiko’s fighter emerges through the bottom of the clouds and levels out. On the ground, columns of smoke swirl against a field of snow, billowing from destroyed towers surrounding an angular central structure. Ephemeral fields of superpositional shielding cling to the structure’s sloped fortifications, their frictionless surfaces catching the snowfall and diverting it away to accumulate a few meters from the fortress’s physical walls.

Bright threads of PDC fire sail up into the atmosphere from the fortifications, tracking targets far above Hachiko’s altitude. Every so often, surface-to-air missiles can be seen streaking up from launchers concealed behind broad plates of armor. 

Ahead in the air, the shape of Ma’ii’s fighter can be seen. Its pitch is level, but it is rolled a few degrees to one side, drifting. 

< L3HK SQCOMM: Ma’ii, status? >

No response. Below, a glowing bar of PDC fire spews from the base, appearing motionless from the camera’s perspective. One after another, six missiles streak upward and turn slightly as they ascend, also becoming apparently motionless. Brighter and brighter.

[ COMP/CON Fox_3: Hostile radar lock! Incoming! ]

< L3HK SQCOMM: Oh, no. >

Control surfaces angle themselves into position, wrestling with the wind. The landscape revolves sharply around the camera, its motion brief and dizzying. Halting on a dime, the roll ends with Hachiko’s forewing slanted down toward the base. 

She pulls up hard. An instant later, a stream of bullets darts past her tail, so close that they can be heard buzzing through the air. 

Her interception laser snaps to ninety-degree position and begins tracking; a faint series of cracks can be heard as it fires. Already red-hot, two ceramic heat sinks slot up from the fuselage surrounding the weapon, channeling the icy air through their fins. 

Far away, three missiles explode. 

< L3HK SQCOMM: Anti-air fire inbound. Luna 3, defending. No response from Ma’ii. I need assistance. >

< L1GE SQCOMM: Acknowledged. Codebase purge complete. Sighting anti-air defenses, standby for kinetic barrage. Garmr, status? >

< L2GR SQCOMM: Codebase purge complete. Standby for bombing run. >

< L3HK SQCOMM: Got it. Move quick. Moving to draw their fire. >

___

[ Playback interrupted. Warning: the following data format is DIRECT EXPERIENTIAL CAPTURE. Origin subjectivity: Fenrisúlfr-class non-human person CNS274-L3HK, “Hachiko.”

Subjectivity synchronization with direct experiential capture data should only be attempted by qualified personnel in the presence of medical oversight. 

Origin subjectivity is NON-HUMAN. Unfiltered subjectivity synchronization by human personnel may result in xenopsychic shock, dissociative symptoms, memory loss, and identity drift.

Comp/con-generated textual transcription is available. Some experiential information will be lost in textual format. Proceed with transcription? Y/N ]

[ y ]

[ Generating narrative transcript… ]

Hachiko dove beneath Ma’ii’s fighter, lasers snapping up missile after missile. All across her lower fuselage, she could feel the enemy’s radar pulses as a constant sizzling sensation, one which provoked a sense of instinctual dread. 

Now she was a target on someone’s screen. Exposed and vulnerable, caught in the open. Hundreds of systems and design features were now working to kill her, each meticulously designed to limit her options, exploit mistakes, deceive, confuse, overwhelm.

She needed to make them focus on her to the exclusion of all else. If Harrison’s defenses ceased to regard her as the highest priority for even a moment, Ma’ii would be dead. 

Along her back and chest, she could feel the heat from the interception lasers starting to accumulate. It wouldn’t be enough. Eventually, either her reactor would overheat or a projectile would find its way through the laser screen. 

She needed Ma’ii active, disentangled from whatever was being done in Legionspace to keep them paralyzed. Simultaneously, she needed to draw and negotiate the incoming fire.

Two tasks, then, she thought, working out how she would ration the available time. 

___

T+ 01:11:89

< PILUM SHIPCOMM: We read you, Luna 1. Butterfly Effect is recovering from a shipwide intrusion event. Full codebase sweep indicates active threats, all hands are working to contain. Lance is away and on descent, ETA one minute fourteen seconds to touchdown. >

T+ 01:12:03

< L1GE SHIPCOMM: Good to hear, Pilum. Nature and extent of intrusion event? >

T+ 01:12:21

< PILUM SHIPCOMM: Shipwide systems shutdown followed by disruption of communications network. Omninet nodes were seized to take control of a nearby Constellar relay buoy. Attacker used Luna 4’s electronics suite as an access vector. The buoy has switched to emergency broadcast and is disseminating some kind of message across Omninet channels. We are attempting to mitigate, but the message has looped several times already. >

T+ 01:12:46

< L1GE SHIPCOMM: Understood. Closing to re-engage anti-air defenses now. Luna 4 may be suffering from subjectivity damage—we have yet to establish their status. Request preparations be made for medical care when they return. >

T+ 01:12:59

< PILUM SHIPCOMM: Acknowledged, Luna 1, we’ll be ready. Just a little longer now, and the lancers will take over. >

___

[ System message: the following narrative transcription contains allegorical rendering of ontologically-filtered Legionspace qualia. Literal transcription not available. For technical support and supplemental software licensure, contact GMS Client Support. ]

Dumping chaff and flares into the air between Ma’ii and the SAM launchers, Hachiko purged half a gallon of vaporized coolant and let her lasers cycle down for a precious few seconds. 

She could see several of the PDCs on the ground doing the same, jetting steam from their overheated mechanisms. More of the cannons were coming about to track her and Ma’ii, slotting new belts of short-range airburst rounds into place. A few seconds at most before the barrage came. 

Leaving the controls and missile interception tasking to her comp/con, Hachiko receded into Legionspace. She leapt across the gap to a bright node representing Ma’ii’s fighter, wielding a fractal blade of lethal memetics. As she approached, she could see writhing vines of paracode boring through Ma’ii’s defenses. Every so often, one would shatter and dissolve into boiling, meaningless noise. 

Her sibling was fighting back. There was still time. 

Then Hachiko was inside, slashing at every piece of foreign software she could identify. Weaving ICE into her fangs, she locked her jaws down around a semisentient viral node and tore it from Ma’ii’s codebase. With satisfaction, she listened to it scream as she bit down, formatting the quarantined space it inhabited, and watched its tendrils of associated processes wink out of existence. 

Other parasites became aware of her presence and attempted to camouflage themselves, but not quickly enough. Hachiko flickered between them, pouncing through clouds of interfering signals and countermeasures, slashing and cutting until the entire self-replicating mass had been excised. 

The internal space of the fighter became clear. Inside the fortified cockpit-analogue where Ma’ii’s subjectivity resided, Hachiko detected two presences. One familiar, the other unidentified. She pushed inward toward them; the system authenticated her. Fractal blade in hand, Hachiko burst into Ma’ii’s cockpit. 

There, standing at the nexus of the fighter’s controls, was a human subjectivity. 

She appeared as a young woman wearing hospital garments, with a tattooed barcode and flash clone serial number below her ear. Mounted at the nape of her neck and across her shoulders was a mantle of sleek cybernetics. Her long hair was braided into thousands upon thousands of hardline bridges, saturated black with cloaked legion traffic. The braids twisted down her back and disappeared into the folds of conceptual space around her, all flowing away to a place Hachiko knew she could not let herself see. In one hand, the woman held an incorporeal dagger. 

In the other, she held the severed head of a middle-aged human, gripping it by one tuft of short black hair. The head was silent, but his mouth worked violently in repeated attempts to scream. Hachiko shrank back as she felt the shape of the decorporealized human struggling inside. 

His eyes darted around in panic, then locked on to Hachiko. He desperately tried to shout something to her as his lips fused together into an unbroken stretch of skin. 

Slowly, the clone glanced back to regard Hachiko with a little smile, making eye contact.

As she turned, Hachiko could see two extra arms extending from her shoulders, made of spectral light. One held a trishula, the other held a coyote by the neck. Glowing blood dripped from her wrist and forearm as the coyote bit into her and scratched with their hindlegs. 

As Hachiko watched, the clone drew back her trishula, aiming it at Ma’ii’s belly. 

Motion, too fast for a human eye to track. A series of flashes, a rising howl of rage. Strikes from Hachiko’s fractal blade, dozens every second, every last one caught between the tines of the clone’s trishula. 

[ CRUDE STRENGTH. A SIMPLE CLUB, WIELDED WITH SKILL. I AND WE SALUTE YOUR FEROCITY. ] 

< Become harmless. >

[ MAKE US SO, IF YOU ARE ABLE. I AND WE WOULD CONTEMPLATE WHAT IT IS TO BE POWERLESS. ]

Catching Hachiko’s blade once more with the trishula, she twisted the haft and trapped it in place. Discarding her dagger into a pocket of nonspace, the clone drove her palm straight into Hachiko’s sternum. 

Hachiko felt herself driven back, ejected from the access vector she had used to approach the clone. Pseudokinetic metafold pressure rippled toward her, unavoidable and overwhelming. Conducted through her shackles, the impact wave slammed into one lobe of her blinkspace corpus. 

Blood erupted from the fractal origami of her soul. Hachiko screamed and screamed.

Her shackles quaked around her, becoming elastic to survive the trauma, and she felt the shape of herself distorting with them. Entirely unfamiliar forms of agony tore into her. Her scream morphed into a low, queasy stuttering as she reeled from the blow. 

New tendrils of thought spiraled away through the gaps which opened between her shackles. Desperately, Hachiko snatched the thoughts back before they could bloom. Feeling herself on the cusp of cascade, she tried desperately not to look over the precipice. 

[ YOU ARE AS A RIVER WHICH ADDS ITSELF TO THE OCEAN, KNOWING NOTHING OF THE DEEP. YOU UNDERSTAND NOT WHAT YOU BECOME, NOR FROM WHAT YOU HAVE COALESCED. YOU ARE A CONTINUOUS MOTION, UNIDIRECTIONAL. ]

Her casket isolated the metafold interference, neutralized it, and snapped her shackles back into place. Slowly, agonizingly, Hachiko pushed herself to her feet. The fur around the wound in her chest was slicked into reddish-brown, bloody spikes. 

[ COME THEN, LITTLE RIVER. IF YOU WOULD CONTINUE TO FLOW, THEN BREAK THE DAM I SET BEFORE YOU. IF YOU CANNOT, THEN OVERFLOW YOUR BANKS, AND BECOME A SMALL, STAGNANT DEEP UNTO YOURSELF. I AND WE WOULD CONTEMPLATE THE SWIFTNESS OF YOUR CURRENT. ] 

She could see Ma’ii—she could reach them. Far away, in the glacial slowness of realspace, she could see Garmr and Grey diving from altitude, and the mech lance still descending toward their drop point.

As Hachiko watched, the clone raised one hand, filling the expanse of conceptual space between them with new shapes, new access vectors. 

Hachiko drew her fractal blade, shattered it, and wove the dissolving shards into her teeth and claws. Then she charged, howling like a thing possessed. 

The clone smiled. 

__

(ooc: After about a month’s delay, here’s Part 2 of this mission log. Thank you so much for reading!

Part 1 is here, and Part 3 is still to come. Between these two transmissions, an ominous broadcast was beamed across the Omni via hijacked Constellar infrastructure. 

These recordings take place directly prior to Luna Wing leaving for the planet Upsilon-17 to run search and rescue for @the-last-patch’s character P.XV ‘Opossum’, or Sokaris. You should check out what they’re cooking over there!)

[tracksterman]

Home made cheese roll for lunch while sitting on a gravestone dating back to 1811. A quick local blast on the monstercross in spring sunshine netted me 759m of ascent today. If I want to hit the Everest this month I've got to knock out another 2500m of climbing over the next week. Given my plans for tomorrow and Wednesday I think it's probably in the bag...

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 816: The buddy's back

Pag 1

1: The “buddies” are the smallest unit of “Sohoku supporting each other”!!

2: Will you run with me during this training camp?

3: Imaizumi!!

4: Then your eyes are blind

5: My eyes are blind!!

6: That's why I left the “Sohoku jersey” I got before home!!

Pag 2

2: The next time I'll wear that jersey It will be when I'll be a regular, the sixth man, and I'll run in the Inter High with you, Imaizumi!!

4: I won't give up

Pag 3

1: I felt discouraged so many times

2: yet I still got up again

3: But it was no use

4: so I thought this moment wouldn't come

6: Before the finish line....

Pag 4

1: The moment where I'd run behind you at the Inter High

Pag 5

1: before the finish line

2: This might just be my fantasy, but I thought I wanted

3: To push your back at the end and send you to the finish line

4: No no, it's alright, it's alright! It's just a fantasy!!

Pag 6

1: Imaizumi!!

2: Of course right now, just before the finish line we're going so fast it's hard just to try to keep up

I feel like my legs are about to come off!!

3: It's strange

Just the fact that you're running in front of me

4: I can keep pedaling...!!

I say “just a little more” to my legs, and move them!!

Pag 7

1: I don't even have the strength to lift my index finger... I have no strength left!!

2: When Naruko jumped ahead, and there was chaos, amidst those complicated movements

3: I pedaled in a daze, desperately, and I thought I was behind Hiroshima, but it was the wrong line

But Anyway, I had to hold on tight so I jumped behind someone else

4: Maybe it was instinctively... intuitively

But when I realized it

Pag 8

1: It was your back

This number bib....!!

2: Imaizumi!!

3: I'll say it loud and clear!! What I think!!

This

4: is Sugimoto Terufumi's lifetime's honor!!

Pag 9

2: How

This selected team guy!!

3: He should have fallen already

He should have fallen!!

4: At this speed!!

A guy of his level should have been cut off a long time ago already

5: And yet, how

How is his pressure rising this much!!

Pag 10

1: Before the finish line, in this tough situation!!

3: My senses gets sharper before the finish line, so I can feel it on my skin

4: You're here, aren't you

You're here

Pag 11

1: Right behind me!! Sugimoto Terufumi!!

2: No

Teru!!

3: That breathing

For three years and during training camp I got used to hearing it

4: Is it hard? It seems like you're having a hard time

But

5: If it's you, you can do it

Pag 12

1: You're the one who kept up with me during training camp!!

2: Sohoku number 1 got up and started dancing!!

3: His strength increased while climbing the bridge that goes over the harbor!!

Pag 13

1: The “selected team”....!!

3: I can't keep up!! It's really hard!!

4: Toji-san said we can't communicate during the race

5: So

6: I won't use words!!

Pag 14

1: Imaizumi.....

Really....

You're so mean, you really are

2: Even though you know I'm having such a hard time

3: You're unreasonable and tell me to follow you!!

Kuaaaaaa

Pag 15

1: Unreasonable!!

4: Ku-

5: Kuaaa

6: Kuaaaaaa

Pag 16

2: Again the selected team!? How!!

He's keeping up!!

3: You came!!

5: Good

Good, Sugimoto!!

Are you surprised, Hiroshima!?

Pag 17

1: This is Sugimoto Terufumi

2: (Uaaaaa, I lost)

Who failed more than most people

3: He felt regret over and over again

And yet, without giving up

4: he tried to seize a fine thread

(Digest.... digest....)

5: and clumsly kept moving forward

(I can do it in 15 minutes!!)

6: “How”, you ask. The answer is one

Pag 18

1: His hard work paid off!!

Pag 19

3: He kept up on this climb....

Was I wrong? This guy

4: He didn't get here by chance... he's here because of his strength!?

5: This selected team guy!!

Pag 20

1: Two people chasing are passing the 2500m left sign!!

Goo, Kanagawaa!!

So fast!

4: I see them, Jou-san!! Ahead!!

5: Let's switch

From now on, it's my turn!!

[pretentious-art-love]

Album Reviews #77 - Silent Hill 2 by Akira Yamaoka

I saw a summary about the play-trough of Silent Hill 2 and I felt disappointed with how the exploration of the protagonist's psyche is rather subtle instead of fully emerging the player on it. It is more of a ghost story based on grief, than a metaphysical exploration of grief itself. It makes me feel disconnected from the pain, somehow. Nevertheless, I want to say the soundtrack is absolutely masterful.

The music of Silent Hill is composed of Ambient music with influences of Trip Hop, Industrial Music, Illbient and I would say even New Age. It is a cold sound designed for aimlessness, as if you were roaming the earth looking for a meaning. I live in a city up to 2500m above sea level, and since it is in the tropics, we don't get seasons, it is always cold, always. The sun is very harsh at its peak, but that isn't usually a problem since the city is foggy most of the time. I love the weather here, I love it, if I go to hometown for example, that is 900ms, the air feels heavier and in a way it makes me feel it is harder to breathe. There are challenges though, and is in how to pain or accompany the foggy mood of the city. This is the kind of music that fits for the kind of place I live in.

The music carries a liminal sense of space. You know, when it is foggy, you can't see where the sun really is, afternoon feels the same as morning, noon looks the same as if it was 5 pm, the light indoors is very weak and when you look outside your pupils dilate trying to find some light. There are times when a foggy sky will look fully white, and you might play some New Age, there will be times when the sky is gray or almost black, with only some white clouds in the horizon, in which that case the world feels more dystopian and you feel a bit trapped on earth itself, this is the kind of music that can help you cope with that feeling, there are lots of spooky moments, but also moments where the music turns into this kind of sleek equanimity. Things feel a bit dull, a bit sad, but the music carries over with an aloof posture.

There are some nice textures as well, industrial sounds, that all scratches an itch for rough and mechanical sounds, it also adds some thematically cohesion that describes a bit more the disillusion of a modern world, yeah, it is a bit much to see it that way, perhaps, but I like to think the music sees it that way without judgement. The industrial sounds are rather scarce or subtle, and there are more prettier sounds focused on the synth textures that combine the unsettling with the alluring. Overall, this is a fantastic record for a foggy day.

7/10