#4x implied?

[therandomcreechur]

the-the-the-thetehtethehehtttthhhhhh- *explodes*

uh yeah I tried lineless art for once :0

no text ver. under cut (lowkey kinda pathetic and boring af)

[mipexch]

i love animating these little freaks

[askterisk-asterisk]

Hush Fourie! Says you who drew urself kissing X!!

Oh, so that's what was under that scribble!

QUIET YOU! IT WAS NOT A KISS!

[p4rty4nim4l]

TW: BLOOD

/

/

/

among us

[quartzitess]

Two in a swimsuit!! And some other side doodles of me conceptualizing four and x’s designs 4 funsies!!!!

[scalpelsister]

i start intensive outpatient therapy on tuesday and i could not be more upset lmao. i know its going to be good for me overall but i cant think of something i want to do less than that sjshdhdh. ALSO it runs all the way up until my birthday with my birthday being my last day (unless i get discharged early) which is just.... no good.

[recycledraccoon]

Twitch Streamer Mary Ann Skuttle AU

She almost exclusively plays video games, tho sometimes she reviews the quality and cuteness of plushies. Sometimes she updates people on her quokki pet's level or how her personal AC Island looks, or her longest running Stardew Farm. (Maru IS her favorite Stardew marriageable NPC because it reminds her of her "loser boyfriend".)

Sometimes she gets her friends to play games with her on stream, or they're just in the background hanging out. Once when a game comes out that Mary Ann is legit excited for (in her own way) everyone gathers in a little watch party in the background with snacks as they settle in for the Marathon stream about to happen.

If she misses some streams she probably tosses out a simple update about her and her friends being on a quest or something similar that she implies is kinda lame. Her watchers KNOW she's an adventurer but there is never any elaboration.

They also know she has a boyfriend but known VERY little about him.

Loser Boyfriend™️ Confirmed Facts

1. Loser

2. His quokki pets gameplay is trash

3. Also an adventurer ig

4. Plays drums sometimes

5. They officially met when she curb-stomped his ass at a sports tryouts and he got mad. (No elaboration)

6. He made her a switch capable of running ROMhacks and mods.

7. Half-orc. The only times they have ever seen him is once or twice when he wordlessly hands her a mango soda from off screen. They have an entire emote of his hand with the soda bottle they spam sometimes. (#bottleboi)

Which is to say when Gorgug shows up in the background of the stream one day, cause Mary Ann rearranged or was streaming from somewhere else temporarily, people start freaking out.

Mary Ann notices but only comments "yeah, that's my loser boyfriend. Don't worry about it."

THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE MARY ANN!!!

THAT'S GORGUG THISTLESPRING, FAMOUS 4X WORLD SAVING RENOWN ADVENTURER BEFORE HE EVEN FINISHED HIGHSCHOOL, THE FIRST EVER BARBIFICER IN THE WORLD, AND GODDAMN FAMOUS ROCK STAR.

YOU CALL HIM YOUR LOSER BOYFRIEND?????

"His quokki pets gameplay is trash."

MA'AM-

[deoidesign]

How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist

Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.

Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!

This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)

So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.

I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.

I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.

Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.

Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!

This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.

But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)

I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.

My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!

Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!

panels that look like this in scroll format...

can look like this in print!

because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!

Enjoy!

Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!

[toh-aus-coven]

Philip's Story is an Adoption Story... Here's Why That Matters

A few disclaimers before we dive in...

Binary thinking is discouraged here; adoption and its themes are complicated and nuanced. Multiple truths can exist.

This is one perspective and this analysis comes from being in community with adopted/orphan people, research, and misc experience

"Adoption adjacent" includes adoptees/orphans/foster kids (these three groups often overlap in various ways that will be elaborated on)

Please engage with this post in good faith. I know non-adoptees can experience things listed in this post however, there is a different context that underlies the experience of those adopted/adjacent. And of course, I'm not trying to make generalizations either... It's just that the narrative is more complicated than a lot of people want to admit.

Sound good? Let's proceed. THIS POST IS GOING TO BE A BIT LONG!

At the core of Belos/Philip's story is an 'adoption' story. And it's all because of this particular line:

I know what you're thinking "But isn't being an orphan different from being adopted?" Yes, and within the media in particular, adoptee and orphan stories overlap heavily-- in fact, it's almost a circle (although due to his background and his time-period, he'd probably be taken in by someone given the boys' age of their arrival). It’s about the experience of parental separation which is what connects adoptee and adjacent people. So while Philip is not adopted, he is adoptee adjacent and that still matters. Concerning media and the way adopted/orphaned characters are portrayed, it's often presented in a very binary manner. Most people's knowledge of the subject comes from other people's perception of it rather than adopted/orphaned people themselves. And to a degree that makes sense... These stories are often ABOUT [adoptees/adjacent people ] without INCLUDING them. Adoption themes are incredibly pervasive throughout literature, TV/movies, video games, and other media. It's not inherently wrong to have an adoption-related storyline, plot, or character but most people don't do it in a way that is humanizing and avoids common pitfalls within the storytelling.

There's a quick impulse to call Philip 'evil' and 'irredeemable' without actually understanding his character... and when you view him through an 'adoptee-centered' lens his behavior makes a lot of sense. The fact the show treats this specific fact about the character as a plot device rather than something that could be explored is a tiny bit insulting. They only mention it in the exposition which kind of implies that this detail is meant to explain Philip's deep attachment to his brother. Which yes, it does and TOH leaves us hanging -- or actually they just tell us that this man is evil and call it a day.

Which leads me into one of the biggest pitfalls that the show uses for Philip-- he's framed as just evil. The trope of good/bad adoptee/adjacent character is a pretty common see -- even within the same piece of media. If we're going to use TOH we can look at King's character -- King, a young main protagonist who is the last living son of a god. King is young, cute, 'exceptional', has special abilities, etc (there are issues with King's portrayal as well but this post isn't about him). This is an issue because adoptees/adjacent people are more than a reductive good/bad label. Same with concepts such as 'gratitude' -- being grateful or not grateful when the real answer can be a lot more complex than that. It's a binary question that can be a complicated answer. We're the picture-perfect heroes or the irredeemable villains-- nothing in-between.

Taking this into consideration, when we look at Philip you start to see someone who's not 'evil'; you begin to see a man who is coping with separation trauma and abandonment issues. This is unfortunate to hear but research tells us that adoptees are 4x more at risk to 'self-exit', 2x at risk to have substance abuse issues, and generally more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders (obviously every individual is different but when talking about adoption many people tend to ignore these types of statistics in favor of more 'positive' ones). 'Negative' aspects that many adoptees/adjacent people experience or try to talk about are often dismissed or worse, they are gaslighted. When you look at Philip and his characterization you see these behaviors in a different light such as:

His attachment/abandonment issues (Caleb, this one doesn't need any elaboration; EDIT- gonna elaborate anyways lol). To be honest Philip shows a lot of symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. The hallmark of the disorder is a fear of abandonment — and BPD often stems from childhood trauma. Interestingly enough it’s not uncommon for adoptees (in particular women; there is a misogynistic component to this but i digress) to get a BPD diagnosis. And given that the show portrays Philip in a very stigmatizing way… you can see why this isn’t great…

Difficulty regulating his emotions ('the curse' seems to come out when he's emotionally escalated)

'Substance' use (the palismen; he seems physically reliant on them and they don't benefit him in any way besides sustaining his life. also, he looks like he's huffing something when he consumes one Side note: Some people think that Philip deserved to 'be cursed' (which is a side effect[?] of the consumption) since he “cursed himself”... super not great for adoptees/adjacent people we’re already a misunderstood group of people and it's not uncommon to get insulted or blamed when trying to have a nuanced discussion or share experiences.

His sense of self seems unstable... Most of his identity hinges on his brother, not himself (ex. being a witch hunter, the use of the gravesfield coat of arms for the emperor's sigil, the coat he wears, his name-- Philip Wittebane, etc)

There's a bunch of emotional stuff I would have to guess would be true but they'd more fall under theory or headcanon

It's not that he is 'evil' he is in pain and he is blamed for that. Obviously, he doesn't make productive choices and he does bear responsibility for the harm he caused and he is a creation of his environment. He had to hate to survive. This is where 'this and' can come into play... For many adoptees, we have feelings of not belonging -- even more so for transracial adoptees (those adopted/fostered into homes of a different race than their own). Many transracial adoptees are raised in environments that are racially / ethnically homogeneous (from their own race) so it can be harder to 'fit in' and it can also cause someone to have a complex relationship with their racial/ethnic background when one is essentially assimilated into a community that they stick out of.

edit: In mainstream society being adopted or 'orphans' is deemed to be a shameful thing, used as a comedy device, or through very rosed colored glasses... and there's a problem to highlight here: because adoptee/adjacent are often seen as source material for STORIES we often view their experiences through the lens of A STORY rather than someone's lived experience. It is easier to view a particular thing as a story for entertainment when for someone else it is reality. While Philip is a fictional character many aspects of his behavior are very real and deserve understanding and empathy for real adoptees/adjacent people. We deserve to be more than stories with black-and-white roles and deserve to be seen in color. As full complex people.

Here are some resources if you're interested in learning more about adoptee-centered adoption perspectives:

https://adoptionmosaic.com/resources

https://sidebysideproject.com/11-short-films

http://adopteereading.com/overview/

https://harlows-monkey.com/

https://adopteeconsciousness.com/

this tedtalk is good too: https://youtu.be/jL4lnvQ1wVU?si=HpYASjvvOXnY2faX

Edit: https://youtu.be/Rz3ME8K_zW4?si=CpEQarRbe8VAUqAR (this documentary just came out and you may hear a certain basilisk/gem featured!)

[inqilabi]

I have gotten a lot of questions in the past about how I identify whether a man watches porn aside from directly asking him. And I'm not sure that I ever got around to listing it. And the further I get away from being in a state where I have to find this about a man, the more I forget. It's fresher in my mind when I'm actually assessing a man for this.

Here's some off the top of my head

1) how they look at you. I think every woman kind of intuitively knows this feeling. You will feel sexualized. There could be an error rate here, if you are a woman who has some internalized misogyny and likes being sexualized, and perhaps you might perceive this as "he's really into me" as opposed to, I felt violated with eyes.

There was one date where a man looked me up and down. I felt grossed out by it. Later on, I did ask him if he watched porn and he said he watched it 4x a week.

Another date, I had worn a knit sweater on the first date. He didn't seem to check me out initially when we walked towards each other and seemed to be respectful with his eyes. But on one of the later dates, we were discussing something and he told me/koked that "I knew what I was doing wearing a knit sweater to the first date". Implying that I was trying to get and draw attention (as my breasts looked big). it was the most basic ugly knit sweater. I wore it because I was comfortable. And it gave me an indication that he probably watches p*** cos only in porn, do you have basic regular clothing being sexualized

2) on that note. If men mention something around certain clothing items, they watch porn. You can't sexualize a neutral object like clothing (unless it's lingerie) without watching porn. So things like pencil skirts. A certain type of hair like straight or curly.. porn thing

3) this one I assess for the most. I ask if they have thought about me sexually. Like early on into the dating process. Around when you have your first kiss which for me is like date 3 or so. But at a point when things are just getting less formal and slightly spicy.

And I ask what they thought about. I also want to know at some point whether they have helped themselves to the thought of me. And I'm a firm believer that a person should not think of you sexually UNLESS you have indicated something to that effect. You have flirted with sexual innuendos. You have been explicit or implicit with sexual innuendos. They shouldn't just see your pictures and have gotten to know you a little bit, and be thinking about you sexually.

A sexual thought should occur in the context of actual explicit sexual play of some sort. Otherwise, they're objectifying you and that is something that happens with a pornified mindset.

(I don't know if my thought process in the last one here makes sense but this is something that I firmly believe in)

[devourable]

pls i need to know what the perfect date night would look like for abraham and the delinquents. could be separate for them or a group date~ if you tell me i promise not to bite them anymore 😫

- mazzy 💕

you can bite the delinquents so long as yoou don't mind 4x the bites back 👀 abe,, not so much. i'll do them separately AND together for you 😌

implied nsfw for some of these! the delinquents' and the church boy : date night edition ✨

the delinquent's ideal date 🩶

tbh all of them would try to take you out to commit a crime together,, but like. romantically lol. but if trespassing abandoned properties to eat a candlelit dinner comprised of stolen goods isn't your thing, here's the alternatives!

aaron would watch have a movie marathon with you in his car. he'd set up his laptop and put on whatever you'd wanna see — he's an expert at pirating just about anything lol. he'd either seat you in his lap or you'd lay down together in his backseat, have various snacks scattered throughout the car, and as many blankets and pillows you could want to make yourself comfortable.

don't be surprised when he starts getting antsy halfway through, though — you can expect him to start slithering his hands under your clothes a few hours in, idly nipping at your skin and pulling you a bit closer as he asks if you're alright with giving the movies a break. god bless you if you say yes, because you won't be getting out of that car anytime soon 💕

judas would try harder to impress you. he'd probably take you to a decent restaurant (not quite fancy, but definitely a cut above most), urge you to order whatever you want, and probably have a grand time just watching you enjoy yourself, occasionally asking you questions, taking the time to learn more about you and the things you like — both to strengthen his relationship with you and to have more to work with in the future. his dates are simple, but would change slightly with every one (you mention liking animals? off to the zoo you went! needed a few things? you'd spend the rest of the day at the mall. things like that). unlike aaron, he probably wouldn't make any moves on you — especially not out in public — but if you made a move on him, he wouldn't have any issue finishing up your date at his place!

mattias is partial to things like arcades (he knows all the cheat codes, hacks, and how to break the machines a lil for prizes!), and he'll happily show you all his favorite ones! he'd love winning you tons of prizes to take home and would take the fall after inevitably getting kicked out after the owners discover his serial cheating ways. after that, he'd probably wanna do a picnic somewhere. less of a stereotypical cutesy one with the red and white blanket and cute basket filled with pretty food, moreso one where his jacket would be used as a blanket and the food would be a bunch of snacks from the local 7-11. but he's trying his best, and that's what matters! and you'd still have a great time chatting the night away, stargazing with him and cuddling up in the grass together.

he'd definitely try to initiate something, but the ball's in your court — whether or not something happens is up to you 😌

dominic would definitely try to woo you via impressing you with his family wealth lol. expect to be taken to upscale restaurants, fancy hotels, boat rides, whatever he can get away with bringing you to. if you're easily overwhelmed and don't enjoy the stuffy rich folk activities, he'd take you back to his place and you'd figure something out there. if you didn't get a chance to eat, he'd probably want to cook with you — either teach you to cook if you don't know how, or you could whip something up together if you do. you'd be surprised at how domestic he enjoys being in spite of the front he puts up most of the time, and he seems to glow when he's given the chance to really take care of you.

all together, the boys would probably take you out to go to some sort of fun group activity together. think like an escape room, bowling, indoor amusement parks, fun things with lots of interactive parts that allow them to be in close proximity to you. there'd be a lil bit of everything from everyone involved — judas and mattias would rival a little bit to see who could get the most done or win you the most prizes, aaron would be a bit idle and offer you a place to relax if you got overwhelmed, and dom would be off getting you snacks, drinks, and whatever prize mattie and jude failed to win you. though group outings would be a bit on the rarer side, they'd do their best to make it up to you!

the church boy's ideal date 🤎

abraham would assume his first date would be something at the church — maybe a dance? private bible study? couple prayer session? but he'd be afraid that none of that's good enough for you when you actually start dating. so instead of subjecting you to his religious love language, he'd take you to something a bit less on the nose. something with similar energy but not nearly as oppressive ; think a library or museum date. somewhere nice and quiet where he can enjoy your presence with little distraction or expectations. he'd softly but constantly ask you if you were enjoying yourself, if you liked his choice of venue, if he was good enough, if you liked him,— he'd seek reassurance for a lot of your time spent together, but his sheer desire to please you would be incredibly endearing. he'd make up for it unintentionally by being as attentive to your needs as he could be.

[sheepkebby]

I had a dream about Stardew Valley's massive new update.

ConcernedApe made it very clear that the player should restart the game from the beginning in order to experience all the joy and wonders of the new update. That part is true! He said something along those lines irl. That's about as realistic as my dream got, though.

It started on a basic farm, but it looked a lot different than how the default farm usually looked. It was clear something was very wrong. The atmosphere was darker and the map was desaturated. Scattered around the map were these huge (And I'm talking 4x the size of the player) farm animals. These massive beasts had different sprites than the regular farm animals. They weren't your stereotypical hyper-realistic-blood-eyes creepypasta game sprites, but they were just offputting enough to unnerve me.

Artistic rendition.

I think the implication was that if you did specific tasks for them they'd give you a special reward and leave your farm (good riddance), but I never got to figure out what those special quests were.

Leaving the farm, Pelican Town was supposedly GONE in its entirety. The world was mostly barren. In place of the town was this old run-down motel or something.

Suddenly the game shifted into this first-person 3D-styled horror game. An NPC with a gun started stalking the player character through this motel, supposedly to kill them, and the player had to decide whether to kill this guy in self-defence or attempt being a pacifist and escaping. It was heavily implied that committing murder leads you to a bad ending, while keeping your hands clean leads you to a good ending. I never got to see either of these endings or how many opportunities you got to take somebody else's life.

That's about all I remember, it was a short nap so it was a short dream.

Though. One important detail I neglected to mention through all of this; the contents of this supposed Stardew update were revealed to me through a Jerma stream.

A jerma stream that I was watching IN MY DREAM.

Jerma's face cam was in the corner of my dream the entire time, calmly reacting to cursed 3D Stardew Valley with guns and murder and giant farm animals with soulless stares.

So yeah, real excited for the 1.6 update. Let's go.

[undeniablycandycane]

Had a dream where these "creators" of natm were trying to stop people from shipping jedtavius and it was to the point where me and a bunch of fans were going on a mission to prevent them from stopping the shipping of jedtavius altogether (via abusing copyright and being homophobic) and we ended up having to hide in this huge barn/warehouse like 4x the size of a normal barn. (Side note a few of us lived on land he owned including myself?) One of the guys was coming so we hid behind tractors, hay bales, machines, fences, etc and the guy named Mitch found a few of us and we ended up making this silly excuse that implied we were his children/under his care or something because we were just like "we need more sustenance! Our snacks do not have enough juice and liquid content" so he was like "ugh fine" so like four of us tagged along in his truck and went to the dollar store to buy bottled tea and bug juice and gummies and ice cream and I remember being at the store picking up a bunch of stuff taking advantage of free snack and then I woke up

[flimsy-roost]

it took me about a quarter of a century to understand that sometimes the conversation itself is an expression of friendship or camaraderie, and that the actual content doesn't always matter for a lot of people.

I remain blissfully unaware of other intended uses for conversations while they're being applied, like I understand in theory what power plays are, but I rarely recognize them when they're being attempted in front of me.

this leaves me invulnerable to most socially derived psychic damage. as a nerf, I'm 4x weak to sonic damage. if you can't make me feel bad through subtly implied hierarchies just scream in my face real loud that usually works

[p4rty4nim4l]

meme I made to cope with something

[pigeonwhumps]

Earth Security memorandum

Operation Badger masterlist

Everything taglist: @painful-pooch @i-eat-worlds @a-funeral-romance @rainydaywhump

Randowhump's Birthday Whump Event prompt 3: living weapon

Just a lil late. This is more scene setting than actual whump, I think, but anyway.

Adding this to its own masterlist bc there's two parts to it and it bothers me adding it to the unconnected whump masterlist (or whatever I called it) when it's clearly not that but idk how much I'll write for it. Just as an fyi, for once. I'm enjoying this though, I'll write more at some point.

In the year 2037, Earth is invaded by the Stex. 14 years later, superpowers start appearing in teenagers, and are apparently humanity's best defence against the aliens. What is Earth Security to do but train these people up as weapons?

679 words

CWs: implied minor whump, dehumanisation, referring to people as assets, living weapons, multiple whumpees, death sentence

Earth Security memorandum

Re: Trial of Operation Badger

Date: 11/06/2075

Since the invasion of the Stex in the year 2039, new methods of defence have been required. Attacks remain ongoing, and Earth security remains diligent and proactive in developing new counters to them. By far the most successful are the adrayntus powers.

22 years ago, it was discovered that unheard-of powers were emerging in seemingly ordinary teenagers. Initial research revealed that they had developed from high levels of exposure in utero to adrayntine, an element regularly used by the Stex. These powers were split into three categories:

Ad-traduki: Stex language translation

Ad-mensoj: Stex telepathy and behaviour prediction

Ad-mekanika: Stex mechanical expertise

(See file XTR-3L for more information on the adrayntus powers)

It was proposed that these people could prove useful assets in mankind's fight against the enemy, and a 20 year trial was implemented to study this. A summary of the trial, results and immediate recommendations are below (see file XTR-5P for a more detailed report and file XTR-5O for raw statistics).

Adrayntus powers start to develop in all genders in the early stages of puberty, usually between the ages of 10-14. Once they reveal themselves, the potential asset is offered training and employment to assist with the war effort. Legal guardians of the intended asset are persuaded via various methods (see file XTR-4P for examples) to allow this – rates of acceptance of our training by legal guardians are at 98%.

Assets are boarded at specialist institutions (see file XTR-4R) for ongoing education and training. They study Esperanto, mathematics, human and Stex-related sciences, develop their own powers, undergo basic military and intelligence training, and are trained on how to survive encounters with and capture by the Stex. See file XTR-4X for example curriculums.

Upon arrival and during their first few months at one of our centres, the assets are divided into teams. Each consists of one tradukinto (ad-traduki), one mensoleganto (ad-mensoj), and one mekanikisto (ad-mekanika), plus one non-powered asset of around the same age, recruited from suitable candidates (see file XTR-6A for detail on suitable candidates and recruitment processes). One handler is allocated per team, to be seconded from regular military service.

Upon reaching legal majority, the asset signs a contract of their own to allow for their continuing training and more advanced employment. They transfer to the adult subdivision of their respective department division and continue to assist the war effort for as long as they are willing and able.

Recruitment of adrayntus-powered assets has been ongoing throughout the trial period, and numbers have been sustainable. The core group of twelve original assets recruited during the first year of the trial developed extremely well during their training, and were divided early on into four working teams. Out of these, two are still active. The third has been disbanded due to casualties, its remaining members continuing to be active in R&D, and the last ordered for pulping following desertion. Efforts to ensure continued loyalty have been stepped up and within the trial period there has been a desertion rate of 1.2% of recruits. During the trial, 501 adrayntus-powered assets and 167 non-powered assets were recruited globally, organised into 167 teams. There has been a loss of 37% of recruits due to Stex activity, and 15% during training.

Despite the extra cost of training adrayntus-powered assets, teams including them are up to 71% more effective than conventional soldiers in combating the Stex, and they appear to boost the effectiveness of the non-powered asset on their team as well. The trial has been very effective, and it is strongly recommended that the use of adrayntus-powered assets is continued by Earth security.

Signed:

Astrid Sjögren

Astrid Sjögren, Head of Operation Badger, Earth Security

-----

Earth Security evaluation

Re: Earth Security Memorandum Re: Trial of Operation Badger

Date: 12/08/2075

After considering this memorandum and associated files and evidence, we concur with the conclusions made above. This is a formal confirmation allowing the continuation of the training and use of adrayntus-powered assets. Operation Badger is to continue until further notice.

Signed:

Arthur Carver

Arthur Carver, Chief of Operations, Earth Security