#But the point is!! I can make and modify memories!! Excellent!!

[sysig]

Oh heck yeah

So y’know how how every Sim made as an adult starts out with the generic “Mystery Sim” as their teenage love?

(Which I mean. Is fine. Personally I’d prefer nothing but it’s not bad as such lol)

Well I finally dug around in the SimPE memory tab to see what I could mess with without - hopefully - breaking anything this time, and well :3

Hehe ♪

And as further proof that that wasn’t just him getting rejected after I put them on the lot (though “Very First Kiss” is only a teen option and I made them both as adults) -

I modified his very first memory to be meeting Dex!

I also gave him this very rare memory of being attracted to Dex for funsies hehe ♥

[sweetbeagaming]

How to install TS3 for the ✨chronically TS4✨

Getting back into TS3 posed a challenge for me as compared to TS4. It's a 10+ year old game and of course requires some extra TLC as compared to TS4. So I hope this guide will help y'all to get everything set up cleanly and smoothly! It took me three separate tries and if I can help the next person struggle less, then that's great. Happy simming!

You'll need a copy of TS3 and these resources:

The Sims 3 Performance & Bug Fix Guide 2023 by anime_boom

This lovely post from TS3 community extraordinaire @nectar-cellar

How Use CCMagic YouTube video by @florydaax

No Intro mod edited for 2023 (original by retired creator EllaCharmed) The original mod from Ella does not work for current patch 1.69. I fixed it in s3pe with the help of some commenters on MTS so that it does actually remove the intro. If the creator happens to see this and would like this modified version removed, let me know.

How to clear cache by Carl's Guide

Got everything pulled up? Great! You're ready to start.

1. Download a FRESHLY INSTALLED copy of TS3 to your computer. If you're able, I'd highly recommend having all the packs you're wanting to own already so you don't have to do all of this again. If you are redownloading the game for any reason (like me bc I was struggling lol), remove the existing TS3 folder in your documents and save it somewhere so you can keep all of your mods or worlds there. Back up any reshade stuff from the bin folder. Completely uninstall the game through the EA app/Steam. You may lose your saves and sims due to a change in script mods through this tutorial. This cannot be avoided, trust me I tried. But it's worth it for a smooth game.

2. Do a test launch so that the game generates a new TS3 Folder in your documents. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT INSTALL ANY SIMS 3 PACKS THROUGH THE LAUNCHER! NO WORLDS, NO CLOTHES, NO HAIR COLORS, NOTHING. This will be very important later on when you merge your CC using CCMagic. If you need worlds or other CC there are alternative ways to obtain them.

3. CLEAR THE GENERATED CACHE

4. If you use EA and open to test anywhere between steps (which you shouldn't really need to after step 1 of the Bug Fix Guide) or after playing at any point, open up task manager and ensure that you end the tasks "EA" and "EA Background Services" before continuing. It doesn't really use much memory but I noticed that it caused stutters if it's open when launching using your shiny brand new Smooth Patch. It will look like this:

5. Begin following the steps in the Performance & Bug Fix guide. The first thing you'll do is set up your mods folder. Follow those steps exactly as they are in the guide, except use the No Intro mod I linked above instead of the one you get in that folder if you actually want the intro removed.

6. Continue to FOLLOW ALL REQUIRED STEPS IN THE GUIDE UNTIL YOU'RE DONE. I mean it, all of them one by one. Heck, if you're open/able to do the bonus and optional ones, I'd suggest doing those too.

7. Once you've completed that, go check out nectar-cellar's excellent post for tips and a fix to make the smooth patch to compatible with Master Controller. I will not be providing an edited version of this as LazyDutchess who created the Smooth Patch is still active and I want to respect their work.

8. If you've made it this far, you're doing great sweetie. Do another test launch through the patcher and if everything runs correctly it means you've done everything RIGHT. You're ready to start playing or downloading mods if you want! If you do start downloading mods merging them will 100% be a must do if you want to maintain any sanity. You can use CCMagic to do so. I linked that handy lil video above!

Keep in mind script mods, overrides, patterns, and CC counters should NEVER be merged. Always check the creator's notes, yada yada. And always clean up your cache on a regular basis. Have fun y'all!

[critter-rarepair-reccs]

We are halfway through another week, my friends, and so we have yet another recc list for you! This week, we have twelve angsty fics! As always, you can find them below the cut and if you check any of them out, I encourage you to leave kudoes and comments to spread the rarepair love 💕

I Have Been A Fool For Lesser Things by A_Orbit (3,149 words, Teen) Pairing: Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast (Widobrave) Warnings: None

Trying to get a hotel room for the night leads to Caleb and Nott pretending to be married to each other. Fluff and angst.

Reccer Says: Amazing character voices!

Looking for a feeling that I can't remember by CatcherWrites (2,684 words, Teen) Pairing: Ashton Greymoore/Laudna Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Swearing, General Laudna and Ashton Trauma

Team Issylra are making camp by a river when Ashton and Laudna discuss how slow their hair grows. Angsty conversations ensue and they make a pact to cut each others hair.

Reccer Says: It's not too heavy of a fic but that doesn't take away from the tragic implications.

The Last Safe House in Rexxentrum by Operafloozy (13,266 words, Explicit) Pairing: Astrid Beck/Original Female Character Warnings: Unhappy Ending, Modify Memory, Discussion of Feeblemind

Five years before a group of misfits came together in Trostenwald, Astrid Beck asks a stranger to look into some potentially modified memories.

Reccer Says: It's a juicy and complicated look at how Astrid might have reacted to Bren's escape, from an outsider's point of view.

polishing the apple eris threw to shake the dead leaves down by grayintogreen (3,558 words, Teen) Pairing: Cree Deeproots/Lucien Tavelle Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Minor Character Death

A Locked Tomb fusion fic featuring Necromancer!Cree and Cavalier!Lucien and the horrifying implications of the Lyctor process.

Reccer Says: I enjoyed it!

though the scars remain by amateurwordbender (1,472 words, Teen) Pairing: Astrid Beck/Eadwulf Grieve (Blumenduo) Warnings: Implied/Referenced Torture

Astrid is punished for letting the Mighty Nein escape, and she and Eadwulf talk about it.

Reccer Says: So much juicy Blumentrio angst packed in one short fic! Several of the lines in this have stayed in my head since I first read it.

Victim of Convenience by se1ze (54,243 words, Explicit) Pairing: Kingsley Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Shadowidoking) Warnings: Sex While Sick

Essek has been bailing Kingsley out of legal trouble in Rosohna and letting him crash at his towers for some time and the pair have grown close. When Essek falls severely ill, Kingsley with him to look after him. Things escalate between them, which both are pleased about. There's just one complication, in the form of one Caleb Widogast, who Essek has recently begun a relationship with and who Kingsley has been hopelessly pining after for months. Things get messy.

Reccer Says: A wonderful combination of fun dynamics, messy relationship angst, sickfic goodness, and hot sex. Kingsley and Essek are such a good pair, I love their banter. The absolutely disastrous state of King and Caleb's relationship at the start is the fic is so heartaching, with the shadow of past Widomauk hanging over them. And the recently established Shadowgast compliments both of those duos so well!!! I adore the different complications that crop up along the way and the way they're all resolved in the end. Highly recommend! Also, the two previous entries in the series are excellent, though they're just Shadowgast on their own.

His Last Night by Twistmalchik (2,617 words, Explicit) Pairing: Thorn/Vax'ildan Warnings: None

Set during the events of Kith & Kin, Vax's first kiss with Thorn leads to his first time with him. All the while, the shadow of the Shademaster hangs over them.

Reccer Says: I adore Kith & Kin to no end and I loved Vax and Thorn's relationship. This is a fun expansion of what they were able to have together during the events of the book!

Time Will Tell by DEV0URMOUS (25,639 words, Mature) Pairing: Yussa Errenis/Original Male Character Warnings: None

Yussa invites Iskamyr, a long-time friend of his from the Dynasty, on a trip into the Happy Fun Ball with him. Both are oblivious to the other's long-standing feelings for them. Pining ensues.

Reccer Says: There is no fic that demonstrates the absurdity of wizards better than this. Two hundred years!!! These idiots pined over each other for two hundred years!!! Oh my god! It's great, it's so great. They're both 1200 years old (Yussa is a dragon and Iskamyr is consecuted) and they're still terrible at feelings. But also! A lot of it comes down to cultural misunderstandings, like Iska doesn't know until the fic ends that Yussa is a dragon and if he did, maybe he would've caught on to Yussa's affection sooner. But he didn't and it took the two of the forever and honestly I love that for them.

woven of (moon)light by viciousmollymaukery (2,315 words, Teen) Pairing: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Shadowidomauk) Warnings: References to severe injury

After his wizards Teleport into the middle of the Blooming Grove, nearly dead at the hands of an Aeorian creature, Molly has a lot of feelings about his partners and their mysterious city in the north. Luckily, he has a simple solution in mind.

Reccer Says: It's the perfect balance between sweet and angsty. I love Shadowidomauk so much and it's fun to see someone look at how the wizards Aeor expeditions might look in a world where they're dating Molly too! Also, Moonweaver cleric Molly is too damn perfect, I love it so much.

it's 3 am (I must be lonely) by Meridas (1,024 words, Teen) Pairing: Queerplatonic Mollymauk Tealeaf/Yasha Nydoorin Warnings: None

Yasha has a nightmare while out camping alone. She calls Molly in her panic and he comforts her.

Reccer Says: I love this series so much and this entry in particular has stuck with me since I first read it!! QPP circus kids are kind of everything to me and this is just such a perfect little snippet of them; they’re hurting but they love and take care of each other above anything.

I blame it on my own sick pride by MarsBar2019 (11,918 words, Explicit) Pairing: Fjord/Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast (Widofjolly) Warnings: Non-Consensual Voyeurism

Fjord overheard Molly and Caleb having sex one night and gets off on it. But paper thin inn walls work both ways, Molly and Caleb know Fjord heard them, and they take the opportunity to invite him into their bed.

Reccer Says: It’s very very hot and Fjord’s self-loathing (which is only amplified by him getting off on listening to the two of them) is such a fun complimentary pairing to the overall horniness of the fic.

I'll crawl home to him by BananasofThorns (20,262 words, Teen) Pairing: Queerplatonic Fjord/Caleb Widogast (Widofjord) Warnings: None

AU where Caleb and Fjord met a few years pre-nein. Now Fjord has been taken by the Iron Shepherds, and Caleb has to team up with the "Mighty Five" to have a chance to get him back.

Reccer Says: Looove that Iron Shepherds arc angst. Plus queerplatonic widofjord, and the *devotion,* like Caleb was willing to go in there after him *alone,* aaaaa

Thank you for joining us this week’s recc list! All the love to everyone who submitted a fic 💕 All enclosed recommendations were submitted by the community via our submissions form, which you can find here. All fic information is as it was provided by the reccer, so it may not be accurate to the author’s intent or the precise contents of the fic itself. Please assume good intent from all parties 💕

Submissions for next week’s list are already open! We’ll be featuring Spring. If you have any you’d like to highlight, you can send them in here. The week after that, the theme is Jester Rarepairs and the weeks after that we’re taking recommendations for Alternate Universes and Hurt/Comfort! Submissions for all of these themes are currently open.

If you want more rarepair fic, check out @cr-summer-wildflowers and their event collections on ao3! If you want some friendship after all this romance, take a look at @critter-genfic-events and their recc lists! And if you’re interested in everyone’s favorite wizards, you can’t go wrong with the lists at @aeor-is-for-reccing !

Thanks all and have a lovely day/night/timezone! 💕

[raziraphale]

I've learned not to trust my memory, so I wanted to make a note for myself of some things I enjoyed from the Neptune production of RAGAD before it all leaks out my ears. It's mostly for me but thought I'd post it here in case it's interesting to anyone else.

Note for people that aren't me: this is the only production of RAGAD I've seen live. I've seen the movie and the 2017 NTL recording as of writing this, for reference. So, forgive me if I gush about elements/choices that are common to RAGAD productions and not unique to this one lol. Also I was an English major but not a theatre guy outside some Shakespeare, so also bear with me if I'm lacking some specific terms.

Performances:

I feel like this almost goes without saying but Boyd and Monaghan are excellent as Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Their chemistry is great. There was an excellent rhythm to their dialogue together that was really fast-paced without feeling artificial (imo there is a certain point where performers talk so fast it can only feel fake. They were all believable enthusiam).

I particularly liked Monaghan's Rosencrantz! like there was just something so earnest about him. He had this character tic of chewing on his finger most of the time out of anxiety or inattention and that stuck out for me for some reason. It was endearing. Also the line "I wanted to make you happy" made the whole theatre let out a wounded animal noise.

Also Boyd's Guildenstern really did a good job of projecting an aura of "person trying really hard to appear in control but may also snap any moment". Control freak recognizing control freak o7

The Player (Michael Blake) was amazing. He had such huge stage presence that you really believed the character was a seasoned performer. I fully believe this man could successfully sell me snake oil with the power of his presence alone.

Personal note but I was jazzed to see Drew Douris-O'Hara as Alfred. I'm not a regular Neptune patron so I don't know how often he appears in their productions, but I have seen many a Shakespeare By The Sea show in my time so he's a very familiar face. Always a really fun presence.

I also feel like I have to mention Ophelia (Helen Belay) even though she obviously doesn't get much to do here. The actress really sold every small appearance though like my heart broke a little every time I saw her in anticipation for her off-stage fate. Less important but have you ever seen a woman so beautiful you started crying?

Costumes:

I really liked Ros and Guil's tattered suits. They looked like they were dragged behind a horse. These are the clothes of two guys that have been trapped in a play for like 50 years, truly.

They also had an inverted colour scheme (Ros had a blue suit with a green waistcoat, Guil had a green suit with blue waistcoat) that really emphasized the two-sides-of-the-same-coin/ yin & yang vibe. Also the colours weren't really shared by the rest of the cast much (they tended to be a bit more muted) so it made them stand out as separate from the rest of what was happening.

Also personal note but I was enchanted by Monaghan's slightly stupid-looking grown-out fauxhawk. He basically had a lesbian mullet haircut. That combined with his single dangly earring was a Look.

The Player's coat was gorgeous. It felt grand but also appropriately dated/worn. It wasn't fully a feather jacket, but it had a smattering of large feathers that got more dense as it went down. It kind of reminded me of a vulture, honestly, which I think is fitting, with him being an opportunist that loves some corpses.

Script:

Misc. Stage Stuff:

Unless I'm really mistaken, I think they cut/modified the few lines with some outdated racial terms (I have two specifically in mind, referring to Chinese and Inuit people). So unless I just somehow missed hearing those, that's nice.

Just a note to say that the line about who the English King is will depend on when they get to England got a huge laugh. Thank you to King Charles' cancer for making everything funnier

The lighting !!! It really did a lot to separate the scenes from Hamlet from the rest of it. The stage was dark for most of it, with cool lighting (like a blue darkness). For the Hamlet portions, though, the lights were suddenly bright and warm yellow. That combined with the differences in the performances gave a strong impression that the curtain had just suddenly risen on a more traditional production of Hamlet right in the middle of Ros and Guil just doing whatever.

I really liked how they used the two risers on wheels they had (not sure if that's the right word -- they were those three-tiered platforms I remember from doing choir in school. Kind of like bleachers). They looked like they belonged on an empty stage and also gave the actors something interesting to climb on. They were able to reposition them pretty easily with the wheels, which really worked for the portions on the boat tbh. They just pushed them together so that the lower tiers touched to create a half-pipe-shaped skeletal "boat". They could climb "above deck", or even go below while still being fully visible from whatever angle. The whole thing was spun around a lot during the pirate attack, which was fun.

The risers also separated the stage really well in the first two acts. For most of it, there was one on the left side facing the audience, for characters to sit on, and one on the right facing backwards and partially obscured by the curtain they had covering that side of the stage. The curtain was backlit, so you could see the silhouettes of anything behind it. At some points, you could actually see shadows of events in Hamlet happening in the background while Ros and Guil were doing their thing in the foreground. Unfortunately I didn't get the best look at them, bc I was sitting at far right of my row, so the far right of the stage was partially out of my sight line. Still a really cool effect!

They did turn the risers fully around to face the back during the players' performance of The Murder of Gonzago, with the curtain pulled across. You saw the shadow of the king standing up and storming out.

For the final scene, they did the expected thing, where Ros and Guil are alone in the dark, illuminated by a single narrow spotlight each. The spotlight goes out when each of them die and they disappear from view. The detail that made me insane though is that each time a spotlight went out, they played the sound of a flipped coin hitting the stage and the audience was so quiet it felt like a gunshot both times.

After all the deaths they had Rosencrantz and Guildenstern start from the opening scene again tossing coins for a bit before the final curtain. They did not escape the narrative 😔

Will add more if anything else comes to mind?

[phoenixradiant]

MCM?

(Meet the Character Monday)

Well I think it's Tuesday, but I've never let nominal ordinances of time stop me before, so without further ado...

Meet the Character Monday (on Tuesday): Farric, son of Hjodyr, called Poet:

"I've been cleaning up and need you to move all your stuff, or else I’m moving it in the general direction of the lit fireplace.”

Farric is the second of the sons of Hjodyr, and the resident creative of his hometown of Phanyr. Innately talented with words, he knows hundreds of stories and songs, and can improvise poems and insults on the fly.

Appearance:

Farric has his father's long golden hair and blue eyes, and his mother's kindly face and thin build. His unimposing stature is compounded by the fact that he hasn't done all that much physical labor. He's repeatedly expressed interest in helping his family out on the farm and in growing strong, but his mother and Cellic insist on doing things for him. Despite this, he does not seem especially frail, and is known around town for his feats of acrobatics as he flips out of trees to serenade passersby.

Relationships:

Farric was younger than Cellic was when their father disappeared after the howling, and if he's being honest, doesn't have many memories of him. Nonetheless, he insists that his father is alive and a good man, and that one day he will return and they can be a family again. Farric had an excellent relationship with his mother before her passing, though it was occasionally strained by her overbearingness. He wrote the requiem sung at her funeral, which was modified and resung for every victim of Winter's Curse.

Farric's relationships with his siblings are a bit more complicated. He gets along well with Cellic, but makes it clear that he doesn't think joining the Deathguard was the right choice for him. Cellic doesn't take that criticism very well, and so Farric is always searching for stories to illustrate his point more subtly. Ironically, he is equally resistant to Lettic's insistence that he is living in fear. Lettic has told him multiple times that seeking the aid of Maiph, King Faldarin, and their estranged grandfather is the only way to escape the cloud Farric carries with him everywhere he goes. Though they're very close, any time this topic comes up, they stop talking to each other for days.

Farric's attitude towards Maiph is, naturally, influenced by both of his brothers. His and Lettic's fights have made him naturally wary of her and what she knows, and her overbearing nature (reminiscent of his mother's) doesn't help that fact. Nonetheless, they get along well, and he enjoys her company, as she's much wittier than either Cellic or Lettic. His favorite place to tease her is her closeness with Cellic, a domain most people tend to avoid. He thinks they're cute together, and while he's an expert at avoiding clear statements, he talks circles around the both of them and brings their feelings to the forefront.

This is perhaps his greatest skill; he is a touchstone, revelatory of others' thoughts and feelings. Though he is far from omniscient, he always seems to have memorized a pertinent tale or parable, and he can get people to admit things to themselves they never would have otherwise. Everybody has something to gain by talking to him; even himself, for wise though he may be, he is a wise man in fear.

[thefalloutwiki]

There's a fair bit of mods and fixes for the retro Fallouts, and some are very impressive. But considering that the original source code is lost, how can modders make these amazing mods but can't decipher the source code? What makes a source code so important? The same thing, IIRC, happened to the original Red Dead Redemption as well, and why it isn't on PC.

I believe you're referring to our previous post about Fallout 2 Community Edition! Fallout 2 Community Edition is actually based on code from Fallout 2 Reference Edition, a reverse-engineering project that restores the Fallout 2's source code as close as possible, with all of its original imperfections and quirks.

As for how modders were able to create Classic Fallout mods before this, there's two projects that can be pointed out that might've helped with this:

One is called Falltergeist, which "is an attempt to rewrite entire game from scratch".

The other is called sfall, which utilize "memory/process injection to replace original functions with their fixed/modified counterparts".

As for why source code is important, there's the preservation aspect of it, the modding aspect and the documentation aspect. It's beneficial to preserve source code for the future, it's useful to have for people who want to make projects based on it, such as mods or even full games, and documenting can help people understand how a lot of things work and provide them with experience!

Alex Batalov, who's behind Community Edition and Reference Edition, did an excellent write up that I recommend checking out. He definitely explains things best:

[udantravel]

Tempo Traveller Hire From Delhi To Ajmer Pushkar

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Ajmer and Pushkar are two popular tourist destinations in the state of Rajasthan, India, known for their rich cultural and religious heritage. Here's a list of local sightseeing attractions in Ajmer and Pushkar:

Ajmer:

Ajmer Sharif Dargah: One of the most important pilgrimage sites for Muslims in India, the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti is a revered shrine.

Adhai Din Ka Jhopra: A historical mosque, it was originally a Sanskrit college and was later converted into a mosque by Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak.

Ana Sagar Lake: A scenic artificial lake commissioned by Anaji Chauhan, the grandfather of Prithvi Raj Chauhan.

Taragarh Fort: Also known as the Star Fort, it provides panoramic views of Ajmer and the surrounding areas.

Nasiyan Jain Temple: Famous for its unique architecture and intricate detailing, it's a prominent Jain temple.

Soni Ji Ki Nasiyan: Also known as the Red Temple, it is a beautiful Digambar Jain temple with stunning architecture and intricate detailing.

Pushkar:

Pushkar Lake: A sacred lake surrounded by ghats, it is believed that a dip in the lake during the Kartik Poornima is auspicious.

Brahma Temple: Dedicated to Lord Brahma, this temple is one of the very few temples in the world dedicated to Brahma.

Savitri Temple: Located on a hill, it offers a panoramic view of the Pushkar town and the surrounding desert.

Pushkar Camel Fair Ground: If you are visiting during the Pushkar Camel Fair, it's a unique experience to witness the vibrant atmosphere and cultural events.

Varaha Temple: Dedicated to Lord Varaha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, this temple is known for its architectural beauty.

Man Mahal: A beautiful palace built by Raja Man Singh I of Amber, now converted into a heritage hotel.

Remember to check the local customs and any specific guidelines related to religious sites before visiting. Enjoy your trip!

[diinferi]

LOCATION 

[NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK]

BACKGROUND

[EXPERIMENT] Either you willingly joined or were forced into it, you've undergone experimentation to enhance your mutant abilities and intensive training to hone them. Their goal was to turn you into a living weapon, and boy did they succeed. You're free now, but horrible memories will likely haunt you for the rest of your life.

PERKS

[EVERY TIME] Your pain tolerance is at the peak of what a human can achieve. Extreme amounts of pain can be overcome, allowing you to continue doing what needs to be done. Just be careful you don't accidentally ignore a mortal wound.

[WE'LL SHOW YOU OURS] You're naturally skilled at using any powers you have into melee combat, to the point where you can seamlessly integrate them into martial arts, or create a new martial art altogether that's based on powers.

[THE BEST I AM AT WHAT I DO] You know the most efficient way to kill things. You could kill a man with your little finger - even if it isn't super strong or razor sharp. This doesn't mean you'll automatically know how to kill something you've never seen before, but if you fight it for a few minutes, you're sure to find a dozen chinks it its armor.

[WOLVERINE MODE] You can grow a beard and grow it good. You can have a glorious full beard in a fraction of the time in would take a normal man. If you're a woman - or a man who doesn't understand the glories of facial hair -, you can grow knee-length hair easily, and it won't hinder you nearly as much as it rightfully should. Either way, both your hair and facial hair can easily be styled in nearly any way you want and will remain that way with very little effort on your part. As well, once your beard and or hair reaches its ideal length, its growth will slow to a crawl.

[STEALTHY] In your line of work, it pays to be sneaky, and you've never had any trouble earning pay.

POWERS

[ELEMENTAL POWER - ELECTRICITY] Choose Fire, Ice, or Electricity. You can now generate and manipulate the one you chose. You'll start out being able to throw around house-sized fireballs, freeze a small pond, or generate bolts of lightning powerful enough to instantly char a man to ash, and you'll only improve from there. Eventually you'll be able to transform into your element, becoming a mobile ice sculpture, a human torch knockoff, or a living lightning bolt.

[HEALING FACTOR] You heal real fast. In addition to normal healing being sped up, this also means you'll be in the prime of your life for centuries and you'll never need to worry about mundane diseases or - to a lesser extent - poisons. Pretty much the only way to completely kill you is to destroy nearly all of your body, destroy your whole brain, or decapitate you and move your head away from your body.

ITEMS

[COMBAT SUIT] A light-weight, highly durable, full-body suit capable of keeping your warm in cold weather and stopping low, caliber gunfire. In addition, it also adapts to work with your powers; shapeshifting with you, not melting when you burst into flame, etc. Can either be brightly-colored spandex or black leather.

[ADAMANTIUM] You have a store of liquid adamantium, the hardest substance in the world. Once solidified, it can't be melted again and is virtually impossible to damage. You have a little more than enough to recreate Wolverine's surgery and will receive more, equal to the original amount, each year.

[MOTORCYCLE] A nice bike. Not extraordinary or anything, but it's made really well, and will hardly ever break down without extraneous use. Easily modifiable and gets excelling mileage.

DRAWBACKS

[DUDEPEEL NO MORE] Originally, Wade Wilson was a mutant merc in the same group as Wolverine and was experimented on to become something only vaguely resembling the real Deadpool. Now, you'll instead be getting the one from the modern times that's a much more loyal and much less edgy portrayal. Hope you didn't need the fourth wall.

[MAKING WAVES] It seems your existence has not gone unnoticed. At least one powerful group has found you on their radar and is very interested in capturing you. Destroy them or evade them for long enough, and others are likely to take notice as well.

FUTURE

[MOVE ON]

[dragonmarquise]

Ooo, this is an excellent point you brought up!! For others wondering, generation loss is a real life phenomena with data, basically "loss of quality between subsequent copies or transcodes (i.e. converting a file into other formats) of data". Especially if the file is also modified in some way, such as an increase in file size due to more data being added. Memories are a form of data, so of course adding more memories to save means making the copying process slightly more unstable, thus increasing the risk of corrupted mind data. And with copies of human minds like in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, that is a lot of data being copied and added to!

It probably depends on what sources you look at, but I think the average human mind is estimated to be the equivalent of about 2 petabytes (PB) of data? Maybe 2.5 or even 3. Either way, it's a lot of data!! More data means more of a chance for something to go very wrong, imo.

For scale, 2 PB is about two-thousand terabytes (TB), or 2 million gigabytes (GB). I think specifically 2048 TB and 2,097,152 GB respectively, if I'm using the right conversion? Anyways, most people reading this know how big even just 1 to 5 GB can be, so of course you wouldn't be able to fit a human mind on an average home computer!

Also, the status of the storage medium itself has to be taken into account, not just the data! The physical hardware is going to also eventually degrade and thus the data it holds gets corrupted, which is what's called data degradation. So tying back to what I said about the back-up process perhaps being too expensive or resource-intensive for the average cyber-person to bother with: Part of that could mean making sure your storage media is regularly replaced or at least upgraded with new hardware components to make the copies as near perfect as possible.

And even then, we gotta make note of that "near" part, because it's either going to be very hard, very expensive, or both, to actually get it right enough for even semi-regular back-ups to be viable. Plus, I imagine it'd already be a pain for cyberheads and full-cyber people to make sure their own hardware components are in working order. Nevermind trying to keep track of a whole separate back-up server that might not work right!

So I'd say there's definitely a good chance for the DOT EXE leader to come back with at least some corrupted memories/data, if he even bothers with back-ups at all. Which would additionally not help the cueball member with handling the situation, oh nooo...

An Angsty Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Headcanon (also spoilers): Despite what the cueball DOT EXE member says in game before trying to recruit him*, the death of the crew's leader affected him a lot more than he would like to admit.

* = (at least from the impression I got, he sounded very... not-bothered by it)

More rambling under the cut!

For ease of reading, I'll refer to the DOT EXE leader and cueball member with my headcanon names for them: 8-ball and Cueball respectively.

So basically, Cueball not coping well with 8-ball's death during the main game is what leads him to leave DOT EXE and be willing to join up with BRC in the post game. Maybe even throw in some particularly-not-handling-this-well in the form of Cueball outright making fun of 8-ball's death ("What a noob to get wasted like that LOL"). Which leads to the other DOT EXE members getting understandably mad at him for it, thus kicking him out.

(I would like to think they all can still reconcile later, hopefully after Cueball gets a better handle on his feelings and apologizes to the others for not coping with it very well. But I digress.)

Additionally, this got me thinking, "Wait, what if 8-ball survived that after all??" And I would think, no, Cueball and probably the other DOT EXE members would still be traumatized by what happened, at least to some degree.

I like to think that "full-cyber" people like DOT EXE (and by extension, anyone with a cyberhead) do have the option to "back up" their minds. If you can copy a mind from a flesh head into a cyberhead, like you would copying a large file from one computer to another, then you can probably make back-ups of them too.

But this is either very expensive, a very long process, or otherwise just very prohibitive for the general public to handle on their own. Only the richest people (or otherwise those who have the resources to set up and maintain their own equipment and servers for the back-ups) would be able to afford to do so regularly, if at all. Heck, maybe most people wouldn't bother, sort of like a philosophical or spiritual "I cheated death once already, so I think the next time I wouldn't mind if it's permanent" kind of way.

So if 8-ball ends up restored from a backup and a rebuilt body, there's still the possibility he might be missing, say, a month's worth of memories. Maybe even more than that, depending on how vigilant DOT EXE is about backing themselves up in case of emergencies.

Who knows, maybe that kind of thing ends up bothering Cueball way more than he would have expected. So again, he's not handling it well, maybe even this time making fun of 8-ball over what happened to his face, and then getting kicked out of the crew shortly after.

(Again, I would still like to imagine they all get to talk it over and reconcile later at least.)

Not to mention, the way I personally see it, someone being brought back to life doesn't erase the trauma of seeing them die in the first place, yeah? At worst, Cueball starts seeing 8-ball almost like a undead monster or something. He can't get the image of 8-ball just after getting shot out of his head, which is kinda what I was going for with the pic above, tbh.

Angst bonus, 8-ball refers to Cueball as his bro in game. I'm going to intentionally choose to interpret that as them being actual brothers, not just a bro-as-in-friend kind of way. Maximum angst, you see. 😈

[maulusque]

Clone genetic enhancement ideas

So the clones were genetically enhanced, but i don’t really see any writers (in fanfic or in published stuff) really exploring what that MEANS beyond “clone very stronk”. Here are some ideas that would actually make clones significantly different from just a regular-ass human in peak condition. 

-enhanced senses: eyesight, hearing, etc. I’m talking eyes like a HAWK

-better reflexes

-quicker information processing

-can hear sounds of higher and lower frequency than standard humans

-can see light of a broader spectrum than human standard

-learn quicker, retain information and skills better (potential problem: if you learn something the WRONG way, that way might stick really well)

-photographic memory (really useful for memorizing layouts and maps)

-immunity to various diseases

-can tolerate a wider range of temperatures and environments

-increased stamina and strength baseline. Clones can just run full-tilt for hours and hours and be like “ah a nice stroll”. Over long distances, they can out-pace jedi in the same way that humans can out-pace horses.

-higher tolerance of certain poisons/toxins (clones can straight-up drink ethanol, and get maybe a little tipsy)

-bodies respond quickly to physical stress, and slowly to the absence of it (basically, this means that physical conditioning results in stronger muscles and a stronger cardiovascular system really quickly, and it takes MUCH longer for a clone to lose strength and conditioning due to not exercising than standard humans. Think how much valuable training time is saved if they only have to go on a run like, once a month in order to stay in shape)

-increased ability to function through intense pain and acute injuries. Basically, semi-disabling the pain system so it’s less distracting. Probably not good for the survival of the individual in many situations, but an advantage on the battlefield. 

-heal faster and better, with fewer long-term complications. Clones can dislocate their shoulders and NOT have the joint be permanently fucked up, because the Kaminoans re-designed the whole damn thing to suck WAY less.

-actually, unique internal anatomy. There’s probably a lot about the human body besides the shoulder joint that is actually just really stupid, and something no intelligent designer would actually build. So the Kaminoans can fix a lot of that stuff. Better knees, maybe. Stronger ribs. Maybe Cody punches droids not just because he’s a mad bastard, but also because his metatarsals are literally as strong as steel. 

-Hearing loss/hearing damage? No problem, your ear can regrow those little hair-thingies that help you hear. 

-Of course, it takes energy to maintain muscle mass, which is why human bodies lose it if we’re not using it. Clones need significantly more calories than standard humans. However, their digestive systems are enhanced to extract calories and nutrients from food much more efficiently, so food goes much farther. Potential weird side effect: maybe clones only have to poop like, once a week?

-You could probably extend that into increased ability to tolerate long periods without food/on low rations, despite the increased need for calories. 

-wouldn’t it be NEAT if the kaminoans somehow designed self-repairing DNA. This would mean that others couldn’t take a DNA sample from a clone and modify it to create their own clones (basically, it protects their product. It’s like DRM for clones). This ALSO means that clones couldn’t get cancer, and that they’d be immune to radiation poisoning. So a clone could just walk up to a sphere of uranium at critical mass and pick it up. Maybe with oven mitts on if it’s hot. (this would also make it harder for a rapid-aging cure to be developed, but uhhhh fanfic writers find a way)

- “bred for obedience” I think most of this would have to be accomplished through tightly-controlled messaging and cultural norms as the clones grow up- basically, enshrining obedience as a desirable and almost sacred trait, to be prized higher than anything else, including the lives of your brothers. In the same way that we hear stories of people sacrificing their lives to protect their loved ones, the clones would grow up hearing stories of soldiers sacrificing their brothers’ lives to obey an order from a superior. 

-SOME of the “obedience” thing could be engineered, though. Humans are already super social, but it would probably make sense for the clones to have an even greater need for social bonds. This would make for greater teamwork and coordination, and better unit cohesion, since the clones would be more inclined to prioritize friendship/agreeing with someone over winning an argument. It would also make it so they’d bond with their natural-born generals more easily, so they would obey them not just because they’re supposed to, but because they’d be much quicker to see them as a friend, and someone who’s trust they want to earn, someone they want to incorporate into their group and make happy.

-consequently, clones who find themselves alone do NOT do well. Isolation has a much more profoundly negative impact on clones than on regular humans.

-Originally, clones designed to operate alone or in small teams would not have the social enhancement- ARC troopers, spec-ops teams, etc. There wouldn’t be much of a noticeable difference in everyday interactions, but they’d also be vaguely weirded out by what they interpret as aggressive friendliness from their brothers, and their brothers would think they’re a bit shy and standoffish. 

-actually this social modification would make it MUCH harder for clones to kill people. REGULAR HUMANS are already super bad at killing people- i remember reading this article about how as soon as soldiers have to point their weapons at actual people, their aim gets mysteriously much shittier. Even when compared to situations that are exactly the same, except they’re not shooting at other humans. So reconcile this how you will, idk.

-I imagine a lot of these enhancements would be accomplished not through DNA, but through microorganisms. Retroviruses could explain the DNA resistant to modification, and the increased healing speed, and possibly some disease resistance (do i know anything about retroviruses other than a vague concept of what they are? no i do not. will that stop me? also no.) Their metabolism can be partially explained through specially engineered gut microbes.

-not sure how they’d go about making clones “resistant to any stress”, because you can’t exactly turn off the trauma response in the brain without breaking a bunch of other things. They could probably do a bit of fiddling to make clones more resistant to chemical imbalances, and therefore more depression-resistant. I think most of the “stress-resistance” would have to come through training. Either they train the clones to basically suppress everything, which might work alright in the short term. OR they actually have systems in place that help prevent the development of things like PTSD and help treat trauma. Meaning the clones are literally trained in self-care, positive self-talk, talking about their pain with their brothers, and having community rituals around things like death and grief. I don’t think that’s super likely because one thing that’s integral to those concepts is the concept of “i am a person and i have worth, and if i feel angry about something bad happening, that is ok and valid” and considering that a whole lot of bad things happen to the clones all the time and their childhood is a whole boatload of bad all happening at once, i don’t think the kaminoans would want the clones realizing “hey wait a minute i’m a person and i don’t deserve to be treated this way and it’s ok for me to be mad at you��. 

- the clones were supposedly engineered to be “less aggressive” but i think there was literally nothing more to that than a cover story for the control chip. The clones wouldn’t be raised with a lot of the aggressive western concept of masculinity, where anger is the default reaction to like, everything, and your personal pride is extremely important and also fragile (no offense lmao). So you wouldn’t have clones posturing and getting angry over perceived slights and fighting each other all the time, like everyone in-universe apparently expects to be the case. Anyway, why would you want your soldiers to be less aggressive? they’re literally supposed to fight and kill the enemy. You want them fully capable of getting angry, anger is the human response to fear and danger that lets us DO something about it. 

-obviously the biggest component in how they behave would be how they are raised, but that’s an entirely different post

-Specializations! I imagine that initially, the Kaminoans had different clones with different traits engineered specifically to fill certain roles. However, as the war went on, they struggled to keep up with demand and had to start shoving clones into whatever roles were needed (hence Fives and Echo becoming ARCs, despite not being engineered as ARC troopers). 

-Command clones would have better abilities in the executive function parts of the brain that deal with extrapolation, planning ahead, spatial reasoning, etc. They’d also have increased visual pattern recognition (like a pigeon)

-search-and-rescue troops would also have the pigeon pattern recognition abilities. The coast guard literally strapped pigeons to helicopters who would tap a button when they saw orange in the water, because they were better at spotting it than humans. Pigeons can detect cancer in microscope images of cells, because they’re that good at pattern recognition

-Pilots would have hella reflexes, excellent spatial awareness and spatial reasoning skills, much greater ability to process visual information, stronger hearts and blood vessels (to resist greater Gs of force), and they’d also be much shorter, to better fit into a cockpit. Which reminds me of Axe, that poor bastard from Ahsoka’s squadron over Ryloth who was almost eight feet tall. rip poor Axe, how did you even become a pilot, you long bastard.

-medics who can smell certain diseases. If you want to get a little bit out there, make the medics able to purr so they can sooth stressed-out patients. 

-infantry would have even greater endurance than everyone else, as well as greater tolerance for, and ability to, remain constantly on alert.

-ability to fall asleep at will? that would be super dope.

-maybe more efficient sleep, so to an adult clone, 4 hours of sleep is genuinely sufficient.

-concept: clones can sort of turn down their bodily functions- slow their digestion, heart, lungs, the whole nine yards- to last longer in adverse conditions. Sort of a half-hibernation (or quarter hibernation- they’d still be able to talk and think, but they’d feel very lethargic). They wouldn’t be able to function very well, but it would be great for things like enduring intense cold, periods without food, low-oxygen environments, and it would be especially useful if you were wounded and waiting for help, since you could slow your circulation, meaning it would take you a lot longer to bleed out. This state could be triggered by a combination of physical actions such as sitting or lying still, breathing slowly and deeply, and focusing on slowing the heart down (humans can actually slow down their hearts consciously if you practice at it, this is basically that, but turned up to like 1100).

-one thing that never made sense to me was the whole “we’re running out of jango fett’s DNA, all the new clones won’t be as good, and we have to stop ventress from stealing the original DNA” because like, can’t they just, get the EXACT SAME DNA from the clones?? you know, the exact genetic copies? With all the enhancements already done? But now my idea is that the kaminoans have engineered the clones so their DNA straight up can’t be copied. The clone’s own body can obviously replicate it, but if you take a sample and try to extract the DNA, it just self-destructs or something. This is to protect their intellectual property, but also means that they literally have to use a couple of Jango Fett’s actual human cells for every single clone they make (and the fact that they then have to do all the above enhancements to every single embryo helps explain why there’s so many small mutations, such as hair color and height). So they kinda shot themselves in the foot with that one. 

-of course since things like ADHD and autism have a strong genetic component, the kaminoans could theoretically engineer those out of the clones, but actually FUCK THAT so for whatever reason, that’s just not something they are able to do, and neurodivergent clones are absolutely a thing

[starfishlikestoread]

Our Blind Contributor - Alice King

I recently got a hold of a copy of the June 11th, 1887 edition of "The Girl's Own Paper", a British paper for women and girls published from 1880 to 1956.

There are a number of interesting articles in this issue, but the one that stood out to me the most was the autobiographical account of Alice King's life, a completely blind author, equestrian, and teacher from England.

(Click for better resolution. Image ID provided using Tumblr's image description system. Image sourced from https://www.victorianvoices.net/topics/people/disabled.shtml).

I am not exaggerating when I say this woman was awesome. As a disabled woman myself, this is the sort of person I wish we had learned about in school. Among other things, she could speak eight languages, published her first book at twenty, was an excellent horseback rider, learned knitting and macramé lace, ran a Bible Class with nearly 70 members, and modified her own typewriter and watch to suit her disability.

In this, as in everything throughout my life, the grand secret of my success has been unwearying, patient perseverance. I can confidently tell all those who are suffering under any physical disability, that if they will take this weapon—patient perseverance—in band, and use it resolutely to carve their road, they will succeed.

The full article is under the cut - it's long, but I highly recommend it.

The article, transcribed by me, so apologies if there are any errors:

"THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER [PRICE ONE PENNY. VOL. VILL-No. 389.] JUNE 11, 1887. OUR BLIND CONTRIBUTOR-ALICE KING. WRITTEN BY HERSELF.

THE few words that I am going to say in this paper about myself are intended to be partly a comfort to those who have dear relations and friends that have lost their sight, and who are sorrowing over what they deem an irremediable affliction for those they love, and partly as an encouragement for those who are themselves blind, or who are burdened with any other infirmity which seems to make hopeless their chance of getting forward in the race of life. If I can succeed in either of these points I shall indeed be happy and thankful.

I was not born blind, but my sight was always so very imperfect that it scarcely de served the name of sight at all. I could distinguish no object clearly, not even when of places placed close to my eyes, so that all my descriptions of places and scenery in my writings can in no way have originated from any dim, scattered memories of those early days. When I was about seven my little glimmer of sight became darkened entirely, and since then I have been completely blind. 

But though I am blind, it often gives me a sort of surprised feeling to hear myself talked of as such; I have such a keen, intense consciousness of knowing all about, and seeing, everyone and everything around me. When strangers speak to me for the first time, I at once create, from their voice, a distinct picture of what they are like. When I am driving or walking through a beautiful country, the sound of waving trees and murmuring water instantly brings me a vision of wondrous picturesqueness. When I enter a room I have never been in before, I quickly know all about its size and the way in which the furniture in it is placed by listening to such sounds as the closing of a door or window or the moving of a chair or sofa. Another thing which makes me never able to realise that I am blind is that I have always a brilliant light before my eyes, so that seem to myself continually wrapped round with a radiant cloud. Into this light I can call up at will any colour that I think of intently for a few moments, so that frequently I am gazing into a gorgeous red or green incandescent mass, that appears to be scintillating close to me and glowing like a living fire.

God in His love and mercy has also given me other abnormal faculties, which take the place of, and in some cases almost more than take the place of, sight. I can frequently tell when someone is in a distant part of the house by certain peculiarities, which my ear recognises, in their way of closing a door or performing some other insignificant but audible act. I have my especial manner of distinguishing my friends before they speak, when they enter the room, by the sound of their breathing or the fashion in which they move about. I can always tell when anyone is looking at me with peculiar feelings of interest, or affection, or dislike; I have a kind of indescribable burning sensation that pervades my whole frame. I can sometimes tell, when I am holding a person's hand, what is passing in their mind. This latter faculty has, under God, occasionally been of inestimable help to me in dealing with the working men and lads, of my work among whom I shall speak by-and-by. It increases in no small degree my influence over a man when he finds that I know of a wavering resolve for good or a secret thought of sin that is lurking in his heart.

I have also at times certain intuitions which make me able to foresee coming events. This power is, however, most capricious in its coming and going, and I have not myself the slightest control over it; I can never by my own will bring it to bear on any point that I wish; but it will often give me a prescient flash of light about some circumstance which is of comparatively little to me. I can give no account of its origin, and cannot define its exact way of working in my mind.

As a child I received no education especially suited and intended for the blind. I was entirely educated by my mother, a woman of great intellectual ability. She taught me much as other children are taught, except that she did her utmost to strengthen my memory by making me learn a great deal of poetry by heart. She gave me a correct knowledge of geography, which has remained with me all my life, without the help of any raised maps, such as are now used in blind schools, simply by making me describe in words the shape of each country, or island, or lake, and the position of each province with respect to another. I learned geography so thoroughly in this that in my schoolroom days I could have told any other girl how to draw a map of any country with the utmost accuracy.

I have learned seven languages through my ears—French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. I can hardly tell how I acquired them. I first learned the grammar by heart with my mother and sister, who were always, one or the other of them, my fellow-students, and then the faculty of understanding the different languages came with more or less facility. My practised, delicate sense of hearing has, no doubt, rendered me peculiarly quick in catching the pronunciation of foreign tongues, and this may have made the acquirement of them easier to me than it otherwise would have been.

As a child I was peculiarly bold and fearless; indeed, my blindness seemed to make me braver than others of my age. I grew to know any new house I was to with remarkable quickness, because I needed no light. I learned to ride on horseback, and was a bold horsewoman, sitting in my saddle with as much ease and confidence as if I was in an armchair. The roads over the hills of West Somerset, in the neighbourhood of Exmoor, where I was born, are such as would make most riders, however practised, feel very much more inclined to trust to their own legs than to those of their horse; yet up and down these steep ways, which are often nothing better than cataracts of rolling stones, I used to ride, feeling quite as happy as a young lady sauntering about on velvet turf in a sunny garden. I had a real affection for the animals on which I rode. Beautiful creatures they were, half-bred between horse and Exmoor pony, and endowed with wondrous intelligence. They fully returned my regard, and understood quite well that they had to take more care of me than of any other rider.

I can do work of many kinds with great case and much pleasure. My power of feeling lies chiefly in the forefinger and the thumb, the skin and muscles of which have been trained to great delicacy of touch. I can knit the finest silk, can do canvas-work, and have lately been acquiring skill in macramé lace. I have not learned these different sorts of work in a moment, but have gained my proficiency in them with incessant practice and resolute determination not to fail. In this, as in everything throughout my life, the grand secret of my success has been unwearying, patient perseverance. I can confidently tell all those who are suffering under any physical disability, that if they will take this weapon—patient perseverance—in band, and use it resolutely to carve their road, they will succeed.

My capacity for writing began to develop at a very early age, and broke out into little ripples of verse almost as soon as I could speak. It seemed to come naturally to me, like a song to a young thrush. My first appearance in print was in a volume of sacred poems entitled "The Lays of Palestine," which was brought out by my father, and in which were put two hymns written by me before I was twelve years old.

My first book, "Forest-Keep," was written when I was about twenty. I have been often asked how it is that, without ever having seen a tree or a green field, or looked into the face of man or woman or child, I can describe vividly scenery, or beauty of feature, or expression in a human countenance. I can only reply that every description I write tells exactly what I see with visionary eyes. The moment I try with real, earnest intensity of imagination and thought to get a distinct idea of anything I want to paint in words, I see the scene or the face clearly before me, and then I write down what I have seen. This process requires no great mental effort; it came naturally to me, quite uncalled for, the moment I began to write.

I have learned how write English fluently, partly through my parents, from my earliest days, reading out loud to me all the masterpieces of English literature. I have continued this practice of listening to well-written books all my life, and my ears have helped me in catching a good style of composition. When I was a child, my father, who at that period was translating into English verse the "Æneid" of Virgil, used to tell me the meaning of a Latin line or two in simple English words, and then bid me turn it into poetry. This mental exercise no doubt helped me in after years to find command of language easy.

In the first years of my literary career I always wrote with an amanuensis. She was generally a a girl from the village school, with a mind not too well instructed as to grammar and orthography. I used to have to write out every sentence first thoroughly in my head, getting up thus, perhaps, half a chapter by heart, and considering well how each paragraph sounded, and how any specially long words were spelt; then I act to work with my amanuensis to get it all on to paper; and laborious the task often was for both her and myself. Here again, however, patience and perseverance stood me in good steal.

At length came the, for me, happy days when that wonderful and beautiful machine, the type-writer, was brought to England from America. I resolved, the moment I heard of it, that I would learn it and make it useful in my literary work. I had two changes made in the machine to suit my blindness; one was having the letters, etc., carved upon the keys, the other was having every tenth degree marked at the top in a way that I could feel. Before, however, I could make carved letters useful to me, I had to learn what letters were like; this I did by feeling constantly round and round the letters upon the edge of a little tin plate. Yet with all the various helps which I devised to make the type-writer acquirable by me, it seemed to me, at first, that it would be simply a matter of impossibility that I could ever learn to write with it. I well recollect the heart-sinking with which I used to sit down at the machine: even when I had been labouring at it for four hours, till every muscle in my arms and shoulders ached, I got up feeling that I had made no way at all. Now I can write with the type-writer quicker than most people with the pen, and it is one of the blessings and comforts of my life. There is now no need for elaborate preparation beforehand when I write, for my thoughts flash in a moment from my brain on to the key-board.

The other great work of my life, which God has put it into my hands to do, besides my literary work, is that of teaching and influencing working men and boys. The parish of Cutcombe, where I was born, and where my father is clergyman, is a large, straggling, hill-country village, very much out of the world, and very old-fashioned, at the time of which I am writing, in all its ideas. The men and lads of the place had had few softening, up-lifting influences at work among them, and the evil spirit of drink was walking abroad in great power and strength through the midst of them, as it done throughout West Somerset. When I first opened my Bible class, almost all the men fought very shy of it and of me; they had never heard of such a thing as a lady busying herself about, and interesting herself in, working men and their belongings, and my first class had some four or five members, who seemed a little ashamed of what they were doing, even when they came in to take the word of God in their hands and hear about it. The prejudice against the Bible class, how ever, passed gradually away as Sunday after Sunday I persevered in it, and my numbers soon were doubled, while the Bible class began to be acknowledged as a power for good in the parish.

Now my Bible class counts some seventy members of all ages, from grandfathers of threescore years and ten, to bright lads just entering their teens; and everyone of these is, under God, more or less subject to my influence. The men will do more at my voice than at any voice in the world, and my blindness only seems one power the more to make them regard my womanhood with chivalrous reverence; it wakens up all the tender chords deep down under their rough exteriors. They will confess everything to me, and let me lead them almost anywhere. I keep up my influence over them by often having short private interviews with each man alone, besides meeting them at the Bible class.

The Bible class is not the only thing established for my working men and lads. I have started for them a reading-room, in which they have all kinds of papers, books, and games; a temperance refreshment room, and a brass band. I have also grounded in the village flourishing branches of the Church Temperance and Church Purity Societies. But yet more than for anything else that God has let me do among my men do I rejoice with thanksgiving over the Sabbath mornings, when the members of the Bible class come thronging up to the Table of the Lord.

My vast amount of work of different kinds makes it very necessary for me to economise my time, therefore nothing was more wanted by me than a watch, and I set about thinking how I could have one made that I could feel. Opposite each figure on the dial-plate I had a little knob placed; the hour-hand also had a tiny excrescence put upon it; the minute hand was made very thick, and screwed so high that it would pass over the knobs without catching, and thus I had a watch by which I could tell the time to a minute. I have described my watch thus minutely, that my plan may be useful to others with darkened or failing sight.

I am no proficient in music, but listening to it is one of my greatest pleasures; indeed, those with sight have probably no conception of what all sweet sounds, such as the melody of the wind, or the chime of the waves, are to those whose sense of hearing has been refined by blindness. I delight in walking through a picture gallery, and in having the pictures described to me. I take great interest in all natural history, and am never tired of tracing out with my fingers the delicate formation of a flower, or a leaf, or an insect's wing, if either of these is put into my hand.

Thus it will be seen that there are few things from which my blindness shuts me out; and that God's love, though it has closed for me one window, has opened for me many others."

(Here are the photos of the physical article, click for better resolution. Image ID provided using Tumblr's image description system.)

I also found a second article from 1885, from which I sourced the very first image. It's contents are virtually the same aside from some details, and you can read it here.

[kenkamishiro]

Lost in Translation: Choujin X chapter 1

Fun fact, I was planning to do fan translations for Choujin X with a scan group until it could get a simulpub release, though I didn’t expect it to get one from the very first chapter lol. I’m happy though since it means everyone can read it right away and it doesn’t mess up my schedule.

So instead I’ll be making comparison notes between the EN and JP text to supplement the official translation. I’m not doing this because the official TL is bad (I actually think it’s pretty solid and I hope it will maintain this quality) but because it’s inevitable for something to be lost in translation, and it’s nice to have that additional context for theory crafting and whatnot.

If you want to read it on Twitter instead, the original thread is here, but this is the proofread and way more detailed version 😄

This translation isn’t wrong, but there’s an emphasis on それ (which is TLed as ‘it’) that connotes a stronger, “other, that thing” feeling that isn’t present here. The general idea behind this sentence is: That [becoming a Choujin] resembles more of a disease [than a transformation].

Ely talks like a tomboy, she uses rougher speech patterns and the pronoun オラ (ora), a derivative of the masculine 'ore'. But it's a bit old-fashioned (eg. すまなんだ) which makes sense considering her upbringing with her grandfather on a farm. Hence her country bumpkin speech pattern in English.

Not sure if I should use Ellie or Ely? Ellie makes more sense based on the kana, but Ishida explicitly called her Ely so I might stick with Ely for now... (also istg that blond guy with the huge chin is a reference, I've seen him somewhere)

Tokio, I know your teacher is annoying, but it's rude to call her that lol. This is basically the oppai equivalent of paisen (senpai backwards, it’s slangier). Similar thing actually happened with Ely describing her dream hubby as Goldilocks instead of blond; ‘kinpatsu’ (blond hair) was inverted to become ‘patsukin’, hence the translation as Goldilocks.

Kurohara Tokio (黒原トキオ) and Higashi Azuma (東アヅマ). Kurohara is a common surname, means 'black fields'. Tokio is in katakana, so it’s hard to say what kanji it could be. 'Toki' could be 時 (time) or 外喜 (outside + delight). The 'o' can be the common male name suffix 男 (boy).

But when I think of Tokio, I think of TK's song called 'tokio'. You can read the translated lyrics here. If these lyrics end up being relevant to Tokio's character development I will eat my shoe lol.

Higashi means 'east'. Azuma (which can also be romanized as Aduma, it’s a softer ‘zu’ sound which is why Tokio called Azuma ‘Aju’ earlier in the chapter before correcting himself) is an archaic form of ‘east’. So...this guy is literally East East. The Choujin X equivalent of Moon Moon 😂

Someone also informed me that Higashi Azuma is a station in Tokyo, though the kana are slightly different (アヅマ／あづま vs. あずま). They effectively sound the same though nowadays, if I have to be honest. It’s like comparing the difference between 애 and 에 in Korean.

Tbh this is minor, but worth mentioning just cause it changes the meaning a bit. Tokio is saying something more like, “Why are we even talking about this [the roly-polies] again?”

I think I heard people talking about how the official TL doesn’t match the original text, but personally I really like how this was translated! Sis is using the expression  「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」, which literally means “boiling the dirt under someone’s fingernails and drinking it”. By taking the dirt/grime under the fingernails of someone that you admire, and boiling it and drinking it like a tea, you can become more like them.

But because idioms don’t tend to directly translate well between languages, translators often have to adapt it so that the meaning still remains the same. In English the closest idiom we have to this is “rubbing off on someone.” The “holding hands” bit was added to replace the physical aspect of “taking the dirt from someone’s fingernails” and also contribute to Sis’s sassy and very informal way of speaking.

So Sis is saying in JP (ignoring her personal speech style for now):

You should take the dirt from under [Azuma's] fingernails and boil it so you can be more like him.

And now in ENG it becomes:

You guys should hold hands or something, then maybe he’ll rub off on you.

It now sounds natural in English, still carries the same meaning as the original text, and also suits the character’s speech pattern.

Moving on, in that same panel the literal TL of Tokio’s dialogue is, “Policeman Azuma got dispatched again today,” emphasizing Azuma’s heroic deeds along with his family connections to the police. Another thing I want to note is that this is the second time Azuma has been called 偉い (erai) so far - noble, and now great guy. I’ll just dump the general English definition of 偉い from Jisho here so you get the general idea:

Great; excellent; admirable; remarkable; distinguished; important; celebrated; famous; eminent

But you can tell from how people describe Azuma as 偉い that others look up to him, think he’s a great person and Mr. Perfect. Always being placed on a pedestal by others. (What are the odds this will affect his mentality after the Choujin serum?)

The meaning is still pretty much the same, but I’ll offer a slightly different perspective. Sis mentions that if she were Tokio, she’d burst from the [Azuma] complex. (Clearly Tokio and Azuma's relationship is gonna crack at some point)

Tokio mentions an idiom about hawks (taka) before recalling his childhood memory about vultures. Vultures are called 'hagewashi', but in the chapter it mentions they can also be called 'hagetaka' (buzzard/condor, literally bald hawk).

The kids call him names like "Hagetaka Tokio" and "Hageo". But Hagetaka Tokio only really works in JP cause Hagetaka kinda mimics his last name (Buzzard Tokio doesn't give the same vibe). Same with Hageo. Hage-o = Bald-o = Baldy.

I also think Buzzard was chosen over another name for a vulture like Condor because Buzzard can pass off as an insult.

I would have translated this as, “I wanted to be a lion too...” but this is just personal preference.

A continuation of the 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」 expression Sis used earlier. Without the adapted idiom the exchange goes something like this:

Tokio: My sister said I should bring home the dirt from under your nails. Can I have some?

Azuma: ...huh? What for, that’s scary. No way.

Tokio: I have to boil it and drink it, apparently.

Azuma: Don’t even think about boiling or drinking it.

But since the 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」 expression was modified to make it sound natural in English, it means this conversation has to be modified too.

JP: My sister said I should bring home the dirt from under your nails. Can I have some?

EN: My sister says we should hold hands...so I can be more like you. What do you think?

The “dirt from under your nails” part got adapted to “holding hands”, hence how the 1st line from Tokio becomes, “My sister says we should hold hands...so I can be more like you.” “Can I have some?” makes no sense now in this context now, so it was changed to “What do you think?” as a question to Azuma to keep the similar conversation flow going.

JP: ...huh? What for, that’s scary. No way.

EN: Huh? What’re you talking about? No thanks.

Azuma’s next line is similar enough to the JP text except for the removal of “scary”. I think the reason it was most likely removed is because leaving it as it is could be constituted as homophobic (2 boys holding hands, absolutely nothing scary about it as bible thumpers would like people to believe).

JP: I have to boil it and drink it, apparently.

EN: She said to hold hands so you’ll rub off on me.

Tokio’s response to that is explaining what he meant by his proposal. In the original text he lays out the latter half of the idiom (he doesn’t even realize it’s an expression, poor boy), and in English he does something similar by going into why his sister said they should hold hands (so Azuma can rub off on Tokio).

JP: Don’t even think about boiling or drinking it.

EN: C’mon. That’s not how things work.

Azuma’s then rebuts Tokio’s proposal as ridiculous. In the original text he drops a typical straight man response (don’t do *insert whatever ridiculous thing the idiot suggested*). But since Tokio’s proposal in English isn’t as preposterous, his rebuttal is toned down in response by telling him not to take it literally.

Ultimately, even though a lot of this dialogue was changed, I still think it was successful in maintaining the original’s intent. Tokio takes his sister’s sarcastic suggestion literally and brings it up to Azuma, who dismisses it as silly. It would be nice if we could keep the expression as it was in Japanese, but in instances like this where it’s played off of in multiple lines, that’s easier said than done.

軟体 isn’t an actual word, it’s made up of the kanji soft + body. So kinda like Elastigirl, but Flexi was chosen instead. It doesn’t sound 100% right, but I don’t think I could come up with anything better.

Replacing the しい in 楽しい with the C plus that elongated pronunciation makes Johnny sound even more like a stereotypical Yankee, which is why he sounds like that in English 😂

Random but I found it interesting how Azuma called Johnny a youkai (妖怪) instead of something like bakemono (化け物) or obake (お化け) since they’re shapeshifting monsters.

Tokio is worried that if he doesn't do something right now, he's going to lose his friendship with Azuma. The sentence is fine as it is though.

Azuma’s line can also be worded as, "No hard feelings, okay?"

Bestial = 獣化 (juuka) = beast+change = beast transformation

That’s it from me, if you have questions about the TL feel free to send an ask or reply to this post, I promise I’ll check my inbox more often this time 😂

[slytherinnbitch]

Accident Part 2

Part 1 of Accident

Exactly 2 days and 17 hours after Malfoy had dissolved their marriage and left, Harry's memory came back. The impact of it was so bad that he was screaming his lungs out by the time a nurse came to check and she immediately called for Healer Malfoy-Potter.

Harry is on the verge on unconsciousness when Malfoy had finally came in, he gives him a vile looking potion and his vision blacks out.

When he woke up again, he was staring at the same white ceiling as always. His head is pounding, he scrunches his face slightly and looks to his left expecting his exasperated husband as always. He finds Hermione instead, with Ron on his other side.

"Where's Draco?" That's the first thing that comes out of his mouth. Hermione looks pained, so he turns to Ron and he has an almost identical expression. And then all of it crashes down on him.

The waking up, and seeing Draco and then oh god- and then taunting him and playing with all his weaknesses and everything that he had vowed to never do again. He had done exactly all that and so much more. Fucking piece of unworthy shit, that's what he is because Merlin he has fucked up so badly that it was surpassing all scales.

And he had asked for a divorce and...and Draco had readily accepted it, as he said....was his faith. And shit shit shit, Reg. What had he told Reg? He needs to grovel at Draco's feet, hopefully he would forgive Harry. And- he can't even think about it anymore.

He closes his eyes, hoping the mortifying feeling would go away. It doesn't. Not even one bit.

"Judging by your reaction, mate. I guess you remember all of it?" Ron asks tentatively, breaking his internal war.

"Yeah fuck."

"I still don't understand why he just did that, why did he listen to you and divorce you?" Hermione inquires because of course she doesn't understand.

"Because that's what he said he would do. He said it at the beginning of the relationship, he'll free me if I ever wanted him to, with no explanations whatsoever. I had told him, he shouldn't hold his breath over that." He smiles ruefully at the memory, Draco had shaked his head at that and kissed him. It had been an excellent day.

"Could either of you just call him? He is my Healer so he must be here, right?" He asks hopefully, something in their eyes tells him that he is very very wrong. They are excused from answering him when Zia enters. She is an assistant to Draco and under his wing, one of his best students.

"Hey Zia!" Harry greets her brightly, just because he is going through internal war doesn't mean he'll just give up his manners.

"Oh, hey Harry. So I conclude your memories are back?" Zia asks somewhat subdued, it's a weird thing on her. She is usually this bright and happy ray of sunshine, so he frowns.

"Yeah. Where's Draco?" he asks directly, she will probably give him a viable answer, but she looks distinctly uncomfortable so he feels the need to clarify, "You know, your boss, my husband and my healer?"

"Yea, yes. He um went home. Asked me to do the last check-up and then you're good to go."

"Did he say something else?" Harry asks because something tells him he is being withheld from information.

"He asked me to appoint you a new Healer because um he isn't going to handle your cases any longer. He was on this one because he was handling it before you asked for someone." Zia says and she looks heartbroken herself, what has he done!

"I'm so sorry, Harry. I tried to talk to him, he just went all cold and didn't listen to a word of mine. Just threatened to fire me and left." Zia continues and boy, his level of fucked knows no levels because Zia is crying now!

"No Zia, please don't cry. I'll... I'll talk to him, alright? Don't do anything just yet? I fucked up real bad this time, just let me leave and I'll try my best." Harry pleads and Zia hiccups softly. She checks his quickly with red eyes and deems him free to leave.

He is out of the doors within an hour with his best friends at his side.

"Mate, just know that we are here and you're more than welcome at ours if Draco kicks you out or anything yeah?" Ron assures him after he tells them that he is going home. Hermione just hugs him one last time before he apparates away, fervently hoping that Draco hasn't locked him out of the wards. The result of apparating inside while being locked out, especially of their customised wards aren't great.

Thankfully he hasn't, because Harry lands just fine on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place. The door opens on its own, recognising his magical signature.

Just as he closes the door, he hears the tiny footsteps of his baby boy and yeah there he is, sprinting towards him.

"Papaaaa," Reg cries out as he launches himself into his arms and it grounds him. It gives him peace and then enters Draco. He looks proper as always, no one would be able to tell that he is messed up. But no one is Harry Malfoy-Potter.

He notices the tiny, slightly out of place hair strands out of place. The clenched jaw as he tries to keep himself together and how he unconsciously keeps brushing his left arm.

"I missed you. Dada said he didn't know when you be back." Reg mumbles into his neck, it's mostly gibberish but Harry understands one and half year old pretty well, as he hugs him still, then he looks into his eyes with slight tears and says seriously, "Dada was so sad," and then he hugs him again.

He was gone for almost five days, it aches his heart how much he was missed by his little love and how much he is loved. He locks eyes with Draco then, who has the mask set in place properly again. He arches his eyebrow at Harry, a silent question that he can very well understand. He pleads back silently as well to keep it until they are alone. Draco gets it.

"I missed you too, my reggie-teggie. But guess what I won't be going anywhere now and we would have so much fun, won't we? We'll ride on the broom again all around the house while Dada goes to work, innit?" Harry asks and Reg beams at him, "And I'll try to make sure Dada isn't sad anymore, yeah?" And he nods enthusiastically.

"Alright, bed time now." Draco calls after an eternity passes with Harry listening to Reg bringing him up-to-date with everything that going on in his life. It seems very important.

He still isn't actually talking to Harry, not that he expected anything else.

"Can Papa read me a story?" Reg asks and Draco nods his head so he looks at Harry who does the same and then they go to Reg's room.

.

After he finishes the second story, he looks down beside him to find Reg fast asleep, he slowly and carefully gets out of his bed and tucks him in properly then starts towards the door.

After peering at his sleeping face, Harry closes the door and places a one-way muffiliato charm, so Reg can't hear them but they can still hear him. It would cancel out the minute Reg wakes up and Harry would get an alert. He and Draco had modified it themselves.

He roams around the house in order to find Draco, finally making way into their bedroom where he is sitting with his hands on his lap, waiting for Harry.

He stops breathing as he slowly enters the room. Draco doesn't object so he is fine. When he stops a feet away from Draco. He looks so frail like this, like he hasn't slept or eaten properly in days, he probably hasn't.

"Well, what is it Potter? I would like to sleep." Draco states, his voice ice cold and a slight shiver runs down Harry's spine as he remembers the last time he had been like this. It had been after Harry had gone on a date so many years back, before he came to his senses that is.

"Draco, please. Don't do this." Harry pleads and Draco's eyes flash dangerously.

"You mean I did this? Me, Potter? Me who has been unable to answer my kid why his other father has not come home except for that he is still sick and needs rest? Me who has been-" he stops abruptly and takes a deep, calming breath, "Anyways, my point is I didn't do a thing."

"Draco, you know I don't mean that. And- and I didn't mean any of the shit I said after waking up," Harry tries again, he knows it's futile somewhat but he can't just give up. "I should not have accused you like that. My last self was a number one arsehole."

"Yeah, he was." Draco agrees but he doesn't say anything else.

"I'm sorry that I didn't believe you or my friends or even my own self, I should have." Harry sighs and rubs his eyes under glasses.

Draco remains silent.

"Talk to me, dammit! Shout at me, scream, tell, punch, hex whatever you want to. Just- just don't keep so quiet, it's so much more hurting than the others, please Draco." he snaps after almost two minutes of complete silence.

"And what would you like me to tell you? That I forgive you and you're welcome back in my life? Is that what you think would happen when you came here?" Draco taunts and shit if he doesn't deserve it.

"Because that's not going to happen," Draco continues, he meets Draco's eyes with all his guilt and regret and he feels Draco's barriers snapping, "What to know why, Harry? I don't care because I'm going to tell you anyway." Draco says casually and Harry prepares himself for it.

"Because you fucking dissolved our marriage vows, you utter bastard! You just went and dissolved everything we had the moment you got to know that we were married! And how bloody dare you ask for my rings?" Draco shouts at him, he has tears in his eyes but he keeps on, "Do you know that mother noticed that the tapestry suddenly didn't have your name tied to mine? Just to Reg? She did and so did father. She told me so when I went to pick up Reg. Do you even want to what hell father told me? How he always knew I was wrong and how you would leave me one day and- and now I had a fucking child to my name all alone and he knew I would be a fuck up all along? Do you have any idea what that did to me? How difficult it was for me to keep a facade infront of Reg. Do you, Harry?" He looks at Harry, waiting for an answer.

"I don't..."

"Of course you don't. You have no bloody clue, and you know what you don't need to. You can fuck off whenever you want and I won't stop you. Who the fuck would I be, wasn't that what you said?" Draco rages on, then he says it again, it comes out utterly broken, "Who the fuck, indeed?" And then he sobs, openly, all masks gone.

Harry can't help but move forward and hug him tightly. He is crying himself as Draco tries to wretch himself free.

"Let me go, you prick. Utter prick, with no fucking-" Draco says against himself and Harry shushes him gently.

"Shh, darling. I'm here, I'm sorry but I'm here now, love." Draco struggles some more before he gives up and hugs Harry back tightly. He can't breathe but who needs that when they have Draco Malfoy-Potter in their arms.

When they finally pull apart, Draco's eyes are red and he is still hiccuping.

"I love you," Harry says softly as he caresses his cheek. Draco leans on his hand and mouths the words back.

"You are still not forgiven, just so you know." Draco says and Harry doesn't know what he shall do. He'll do anything, murder if he has to.

"How can I earn it?"

"Do something about our marriage and I'll think about it." Draco replies after a moment of thinking.

"Marry me, again? It's our anniversary in 12 days. We can do it then." Harry suggests, and a small smile seems to tug at Draco's lips.

"And whoever said that I'll marry you. That too for the second time. One time was enough, don't you think?" Draco teases, and he knows he did the right thing this once.

"A million times again, and it still won't be enough."

"Let's keep it to two, yeah?" Draco suggests as he draws Harry close.

"Promise." Harry says and seals it with a kiss. They are going to be okay, again, he thinks as he drowns himself in Draco's love.

Have at your happy ending, sad ending would have been nice but I value my life a little. Tagging @moramystery @cupofsquirrelfan @justthingsfromsarah because y'all specifically asked for a sequel. Altho this isn't all that angsty.

[nerdythebard]

#24: Aloy [Horizon Zero Dawn]

Welcome back, everybody!

This request was made by @kreenkrystal, who wanted to play the red-headed machine hunter in D&D. And I, of course, am here to provide. Hopefully, you'll enjoy this ride...

Next Time: We return briefly to the realm of the gods. Mama Bear of the Emerald Isle comes out to play!

So... what do we need for the machine hunter to shine?

The Wild Child: Aloy is a fantastic tracker, skilled huntress, and the master of stealth. We need to sneak, skulk, and disappear, all while treating our surroundings like our own pocket.

Big Brain Time: Aloy, in contrast to other tribe members, embraces technology and is quite good with it. Part of that is thanks to her sharing DNA with a prodigy scientist and also her trusty Focus. She's also a great crafter and tinker.

Proto-Super Soldier: While strength is not Aloy's main forte, her endurance and physical abilities are pretty above average.

---

Aloy is an almost perfect clone (about 99.4% DNA match) of a genius scientist. That for me speaks like a reason to make her a Variant Human. We get a +1 to two abilities of our choice (Dexterity and Intelligence), we learn one language of our choice and gain proficiency in one skill (Acrobatics). We also get to pick a feat: Observant further enhances our tracking abilities by giving us a +1 to either Wisdom or Intelligence, the ability to read lips, and a +5 bonus to our Perception and Investigation skills.

Aloy was exploring the wilderness since she was tiny, therefore we shall give her the Outlander background. We gain proficiency in Athletics and Survival, as well as proficiency with one musical instrument and one additional language. The Wanderer background feat gives us excellent memory for maps and geographical location, terrain layouts, settlements, etc. Sounds like a perfect choice for a tracker.

ABILITY SCORES

Dexterity is our main ability, it will represent our nimbleness and our fighting style. Constitution will be next, Aloy boasts a praiseworthy endurance, able to withstand many hits from large and powerful machines. Follow that with Intelligence, being a clone of a prodigy gives us some serious scientific mind.

Strength is next, Aloy exercises regularly and with high intensity, and is able to lift and wield heavy machine parts and endure their recoil. Wisdom will follow, Aloy was taught to act and judge wisely by both Rost and the High Matriarch. Finally, we'll dump Charisma - Aloy was an outcast from the very beginning and thus had little to no interaction with other people.

CLASS

That was honestly a difficult one. But I think I got the basics down:

Level 1 - Ranger: We start with some tracking abilities. Rangers (Revised) start with a d10 Hit Dice and [10 + Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points. We get proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, shields, as well as simple and martial weapons. For Aloy we could get a hide or a regular leather armour and definitely a bow (plus a spear). Our saving throws are Strength and Dexterity, and we get to choose three class skills; let's get Insight, Perception, and Stealth to our roster.

As a Ranger, we get to pick our Favoured Enemy. By the power of fantasy racism, we get to select one type of enemy (beasts, fey, humanoids, monstrosities, or undead) and become an expert on fighting them. We get a +2 bonus to damage rolls of weapon attacks against our chosen enemy type, and we get an advantage on skill checks related to tracking them (Survival) and recalling information about them (Intelligence).

We're also a Natural Explorer, which grants us several benefits, such as immunity from difficult terrain effects, or an advantage on Initiative rolls. If we're travelling with a group for at least one hour, we can find food more easily, the group cannot become lost (unless via magic), and we can learn the exact number of creatures we're tracking, including when they passed the area we're investigating.

Level 2 - Ranger: We get to pick a Fighting Style and for Aloy we gotta go with Archery, which gives us a +2 bonus to attack rolls made with ranged weapons.

D&D Rangers also gain access to Spellcasting. Wisdom is our casting ability, and we have a fixed number of spells we can learn. No cantrips and no rituals for us, but in Aloy's case magic takes the backseat. We're also going to pick spells that can be flavoured as technological upgrades as Rangers don't have access to the Modern Magic UA (feel free to negotiate with your DM, though). We start with two 1st-level spells:

Hunter's Mark is a Ranger staple. One creature within 90 feet of us is branded for 1 hour (concentration). Until the spell ends, it takes extra 1d6 damage from our weapon attacks, and we have an advantage on Perception and Survival checks related to tracking and locating it.

Alarm protects the 20-foot-cube area from unwanted intrusion. It lasts for 8 hours and we can designate a number of creature that do not trigger it. If an undesignated creature enters the area, we receive a sound cue in our minds or out loud.

Level 3 - Ranger: With Primeval Awareness we can establish a link with wildlife. We can understand and communicate simple ideas and emotions to a non-hostile beast, understand its needs, and find out if it's under a spell. After spending a minute meditating, we can also detect the presence of our Favoured Enemy within 5 miles of us.

We also get to pick our subclass, our Ranger Conclave. While there is no machine hunter or anything construct-related specifically in D&D, the re-flavoured Monster Slayer from Xanathar's Guide to Everything will do just fine. We start with Hunter's Sense, which lets us pick one creature within 60 feet and learn its weaknesses. We know if it has any resistances, immunities, and vulnerabilities, and what they are. Slayer's Prey lets us focus on one target within 60 feet of us and add extra 1d6 weapon damage on the first attack we deal each turn.

We also get two spells: one from the Ranger class and one from our subclass:

Protection from Evil and Good last for 10 minutes (concentration) and shields one target we touch (or ourselves) against aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead.

Cure Wounds is a simple yet effective healing spell that restores [1d8 + our spellcasting modifier] Hit Points to one creature we touch. It doesn't work on constructs or the undead.

Level 4 - Ranger: Time for our first Ability Score Improvement! Let's raise our Intelligence and Constitution by 1.

Level 5 - Artificer: This time, we shall focus a little more on the technological aspect of Aloy's character. Multiclassing into an Artificer gives us proficiencies with thieves' tools and tinker's tools, as well as some proficiencies we already have. We start with Magical Tinkering, which lets us imbue a spark of magic into a Tiny-sized object to grant it one of several properties: emit light, play a recorded message, make images appear on the surface, etc.

Artificers also get access to Spellcasting, with Intelligence as their casting ability and including the knowledge of ritual casting. If your DM introduced MagiTech or any sort of more advanced technology in their campaign, feel free to check out the Modern Magic UA for some tech-based spells (things like the On/Off cantrip or Remote Access would be pretty useful). For now, we get to pick two cantrips:

Guidance lasts for 1 minute (concentration). Before it ends, a targeted creature (or ourselves) can add a 1d4 to their next ability check. The spell then ends.

Mending lets us fix a tear of up to 1 foot in diameter. We can use it to mend a weapon, stitch together a torn-up document, fix clothing, etc. The cantrip can fix a magical item, but won't restore the magic into it.

Artificers have full access to their spell list, provided they have the spell slots for it. Each day, they can prepare [Intelligence modifier + half of Artificer level (rounded down)] spells. We start with two 1st-level spell slots:

Identify lets us learn about an object of our choice. If it's a magical item, we can learn what are its properties and spells that are put onto it. If it's a regular object, we may learn things like how old it is, what's it made of, etc

Jump triples the jump distance of any creature we touch (or ourselves) for 1 minute.

Longstrider increases the ground speed of any creature we touch (or ourselves) for 1 hour.

Level 6 - Artificer: Here, we unlock the Artificer's party trick - infusions. With Infuse Item, we get a list of modifications similar to the Warlock's invocations. Here, however, instead of spell improvements, we get modifications to our items. We start with four infusions:

Enhanced Defence grants us a +1 AC bonus to a suit of armour or a shield.

Mind Sharpener can be applied onto a suit of armour or a robe (feel free to ask your DM to make it into a Focus-like device). Whenever we fail a Constitution check to maintain concentration, we can use one out of four charges to succeed instead. The item regains 1d4 charges daily.

Replicate Magic Item: Goggles of Night gives us 60 feet of darkvision, which is useful since humans don't have that ability innately.

Replicate Magic Item: Bag of Holding is an adventurer's staple and a good nod to the game's near-limitless inventory box.

We can also pick another Artificer spell: Feather Fall can slow down the fall of us and up to five creatures within 60 feet of us. If we land before the spell ends (1 minute), we take no fall damage.

Level 7 - Artificer: With The Right Tool for the Job we are now never without equipment. If we have thieves' tools or artisan's tools in hand, we can create one set of any artisan's tools within 5 feet of us. The process lasts for 1 uninterrupted hour (which can be done during a short or long rest) and we can only create one tool kit at a time.

At this level, we can also pick our subclass - our Artificer Specialist. Now, originally I envisioned Aloy to be a Battle Smith, but when I saw this picture, there was no doubt in my mind. Sorry, Mr Stark. You would've been the first if anybody requested you.

With her talent in tinkering, Aloy is an Armourer. We gain proficiency with heavy armour and smith's tools. With our Arcane Armour, we now have a great source of protection. The armour cannot be removed from us against our will, it can be used as the Artificer's spellcasting focus, and it will replace missing limbs with enchanted metallic prosthetic. We can also customize it and pick the Armour Model. The Infiltrator model increases our ground speed by 5 feet, grants advantage on Stealth checks, and has a gem-like node that can be used as a ranged weapon to fire bolts that deal 1d6 lightning damage.

The Armourer also has its own spells, two of which are available to us from the start. These spells are always prepared for us and don't count against the number of spells we can prepare each day:

Magic Missile creates three darts of force that always hit the desired target, dealing [1d4 + 1] force damage.

Thunderwave releases a booming shockwave from our location. Each creature within a 15-foot cube from us must make a Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 thunder damage and be pushed 10 feet away from us (half damage and no push on a successful save).

Level 8 - Artificer: Time for another Ability Score Improvement. Let's raise our Constitution and Strength by 1 point each.

We can also get another Artificer spell: Faerie Fire outlines all objects in a 20-foot cube with colourful light. Creatures that fail a Dexterity saving throw also glow and cannot benefit from things such as invisibility. Any attack dealt against a glowing creature has an advantage for 1 minute (concentration).

Level 9 - Ranger: Coming back to the wilderness, we get the first Monster (or Machine) Slayer upgrade. Extra Attack allows us to attack twice instead of once during a single Attack action.

We also get a Ranger spell to choose: Find Traps lets us detect any trap within our line of sight. We can perceive the boundaries of spells such as Alarm and Glyph of Warding, as well as tripwires and mechanical traps. We cannot senses natural hazards, such as weak floors or hidden sinkholes.

Our Ranger subclass gives us one more spell: Zone of Truth creates a 15-foot-radius sphere centred on a point within 60 feet of us for 10 minutes. All creatures inside the sphere must make a Charisma saving throw or be forced to speak truthfully (or what they believe to be true) while within its boundaries. They are not forced to speak, however.

Level 10 - Ranger: Halfway through the build and we get Greater Favoured Enemy. Now, we can choose a more advanced type of foe to be better against. Here is where I suggest choosing constructs for Aloy. Our bonus against all our favoured enemies now increases to +4.

Level 11 - Ranger: We get another subclass upgrade. With Supernatural Defence we gain additional protection against the creatures we hunt. If the creature that is the target of our Slayer's Prey feature forces us into a saving throw (or if we use an ability check to escape a grapple), we add a 1d6 to our roll.

We also get another spell: Locate Object lets us name or describe an object and then detect that specific item within 1,000 feet of us. The spell lasts for 10 minutes (concentration).

Level 12 - Ranger: We become Fleet of Foot. This lets us use the Dash action as a bonus action.

We also get another ASI. Let's bump up our Dexterity by 2 points for better AC and better weapon attacks.

Level 13 - Ranger: We don't get any class-related features here, but we do unlock 3rd-level spells: Conjure Barrage uses a piece of ammo (or a thrown weapon) to create multiple copies of it that strike any target in a 15-foot cone who fails their Dexterity saving throw. It deals 3d8 damage (half on a successful save).

We also get one spell from our subclass: Magic Circle creates a 10-foot-radius, 20-foot-tall cylinder of magical energy, which protects everyone inside from one or more of the following creature type: celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead. The chosen types cannot willingly enter the circle (if using magic, they must succeed on a Constitution saving throw), attacks made against creatures inside the circle are made with disadvantage, and creatures inside the circle cannot be charmed or frightened. The Circle can be also cast in reverse, trapping the designated creatures inside.

Level 14 - Ranger: We get to Hide In Plain Sight. On our turn, we can sacrifice our movement to remain perfectly still when hiding. Any creature that attempts to find us take a -10 penalty to their Perception check. The effect ends when we decide to move or if we fall prone.

Level 15 - Ranger: Time for another subclass upgrade. Magic-User's Nemesis gives as some methods for fighting spellcasters. When we see a creature casting a spell or teleporting within 60 feet of us, we can force a Wisdom saving throw onto it. On a failed save, the spell doesn't take effect. We can't use this feature again until we finish a short or long rest.

We also get another spell: Protection from Energy grants the willing creature we touch (or ourselves) resistance to one of the following damage types (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder) for 1 hour (concentration).

Level 16 - Ranger: Time for another ASI. Let's cap our Dexterity to a maximum, by putting two points there.

Level 17 - Ranger: We unlock 4th-level spells at this level: Freedom of Movement makes a targeted creature (or ourselves) unaffected by difficult terrain and spells that reduce speed or prevent movement, such as Hold Person, Command: Halt, or Snare. The target can also sacrifice 5 feet of movement to escape any non-magical restraint and grapple.

Our subclass grants us another spell: Banishment sends a creature away from our current location. Depending on whether or not the creature is native to the plane of existence we currently reside at, the banishment might be permanent if uninterrupted for 1 minute (concentration).

Level 18 - Ranger: We learn how to Vanish. We can use the Hide action as a bonus action, and we can no longer be tracked by non-magical means, unless we choose to leave a trail.

Level 19 - Ranger: We get the final subclass upgrade: Slayer's Counter. If the target of our Slayer's Prey feature forces us to make a saving throw, we can instead make a ranged weapon attack against it. If we manage to hit the target, we automatically succeed on the saving throw.

We also get the final spell of the build: Locate Creature works in a similar manner to Locate Object, except now it can track a creature we name in a 1,000 feet radius. It cannot, however, locate beings altered by magic, such as via the Polymorph spell.

Level 20 - Ranger: Our capstone of the build is Ranger 16, which means it's ASI time. Let's make our Strength into an even number and put the remaining point in Charisma.

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And that is Aloy of the Nora Clan. Whew, I'm gonna be honest, that was DIFFICULT! Thank you, krystal, for the absolute challenge. Let's see what we came up with:

We have a pretty agile hunter, with some tech-savvy skills and a good option of ranged attacks. With infusions and the Infiltrator armour, our AC is around 17, we have a +5 to our Initiative, and 164 Hit Points on average.

Unfortunately, we had to neglect Wisdom and Charisma, two most popular saving throws. We got a little help from the Mind Sharpener infusion, but that might not prove enough against effects like charmed or frightened.

---

And that is it. I hope you guys enjoyed this build, and I'll see you in the next one. This one will come sooner, I promise!

- Nerdy out!

[alderaani]

hi, could you do 34 from the '50 ways to say i love you' with rex please? i love your writing with all my heart, have a nice day ❤️

Hello anon, thank you so much, I hope you are having the best day! This is a somewhat loose interpretation of your prompt, but I really hope you like it! It’s 1:30 on a work day where I am, so this is rough af and unbeta’d, but I had great fun writing it! 

“Mending an item of their clothing that was ripped” - from here

“Fives,” you hissed into your commlink. “What’s your status?”

The line crackled a little bit, like Fives had pulled his comm out of his sleeve. “This is Shriek-Hawk 1 to Squad Leader. Target is still in medical, I bribed Kix three bags of kavasa sweets to perform another concussion check.”

“Three? Fives, I told you I only have two!”

“Yeah, well, he told me to stick that up my shebs. I had to barter him down from five.”

You sighed and went to scrub a hand over your face before remembering the oil smeared across it. You were going to have to pull in a lot of favours to make this work. Like, so many. Maybe it was their upbringing on nutritional paste or just something inherent to Fett genes, but you hadn’t met a single trooper who didn’t have a raging sweet tooth. Trying to separate them from their contraband was about as easy as making a deal with a Sith.

“Hey don’t sweat it,” Echo said from the floor, tongue poking out just the tiniest bit as he fiddled with the inner wiring of the helmet wedged between his knees. “Risk still owes me big for that last mission on Cato Nemoidia. I can get us a bag for his royal highness and a bag to split, no problem.”

“Excellent, Shriek-Hawk 2. See? Nothin’ to worry about.”

Echo rolled his eyes. “Why do I gotta be Shriek-Hawk 2? I was decanted first.”

“Cause I’m takin’ point, di’kut. You nearly done over there? The Captain sounds like he’s gonna climb the walls.”

You scoffed at that. “That’s nothing new, he’s been halfway up ‘em for days.”

There had been an odd, hushed silence when Torrent had come back off the surface of Pijal, the weird kind that always meant someone important wasn’t coming back the same way they left. Your stomach had sunk when you’d seen a familiar blond head on a stretcher; Rex’s face had been pale, and he’d been so small and still. It had lasted for all of five minutes, of course. The second he’d woken up and gotten his bearings he’d been trying to persuade you to ‘break him out of the brig’. You’d threatened to sit on him. Gallingly, he’d been more upset about his ruined helmet than the fact that he’d nearly ruined his own head.

At first, you’d just been mad at him. But he’d looked so desperately disappointed when he’d seen the cracked and twisted remains of his old bucket, so lovingly modified, that despite your best efforts you’d been suckered. Again.

Gods, you were so pathetically gone on him. The biggest hit to your ego was that it was news to literally nobody except for General Skywalker, who wouldn’t have noticed a brick hitting him in the face unless it looked like Senator Amidala. It was one of the galaxy’s greatest mysteries, how he could be so damn good on a battlefield, but so damn oblivious. The only person more oblivious was the stupid object of your affections himself.

“Say, how did you even get these parts, anyway? I haven’t seen a Phase 1 bucket around here for months. Thought they’d all been recalled.”

You grunted, pushing up off the wall you’d been leaning on and dropping down next to Echo as he deftly screwed up the last wiring panel.

“The mechies are hoarders, trust me, you ever want a trip down memory lane you just go look in one of their footlockers.”

“You say that like you’re not one of ‘em.” Echo pointed out, putting down the screwdriver and flexing his fingers. He passed the helmet to you, finished now apart from the infamous visor that Rex had so painstakingly welded onto his last bucket himself. The new parts were all laid out carefully on your bench, freshly separated from the old Phase 1 shell and ready to go.

“Good job Shriek-Hawk 2,” you said, smoothing your hands admiringly over the sleek plastoid. Echo really did know his stuff. “And yeah, I’m just as bad. I actually had most of the parts already, was just the visor that was the problem. Did you know Rex is a bit of a celebrity these days? Makes these bad boys a bit of a commodity, Tirin bled me dry.”

Echo winced. “How bad?”

You sighed gustily and stood up to pop the bucket on the bench, connecting up your welding gear with a series of quick, familiar clicks. “Pretty awful. He cleared out my engine brew stash and I had to trade to nights for the next month.”

There was a sympathetic noise from over the comms. “Damn, you go to all this trouble to seduce the man and you won’t even get to reap the rewards.”

You made a mournful noise of agreement and flipped your face shield down, then paused just before you flicked the flame on.

“Hey Echo, you might wanna face the wall. The light can cause eye damage if you look it straight on.”

It was quick work to weld the old Phase 1 visor to the new helmet, the familiar form coming into being under your steady hands. All it was missing now was the paint, but you knew how important it was to the clones to do that bit themselves, and the whole of Torrent would want to touch up theirs together, to reassure themselves that Rex was really okay.

Just as you flicked the torch off, there was a crackle over the comm again and then Fives’ frantic voice.

“Shriek-Hawk 1 to Squad leader. The Starbird is landing, I repeat, the Starbird is –”

Fives let out a squeak, your only warning before Rex’s rumbling voice was turning you into jelly.

“- the kriff are you talking about, Fives?”

You grinned, putting the torch down and inspecting your handiwork. It was some of your best, if you did say so yourself, and in a mechanic’s language, it was practically a love letter. The seams were so neat you might as well have carved I am burning hot for you directly into the plastoid.

“Hey Captain! Come to the storage cupboard on the third floor. Me’n Echo have got a surprise for you.”

There was an uncertain pause before Rex said your name.

You rolled your eyes, then remembered he couldn’t see it. “Who else? Just come on. It’ll be good, promise.”

“Trust me Captain, you don’t wanna miss this one.”

There was another pause, before Rex said, wryly. “Your endorsement doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, Fives. But sure, I’ll bite, stay there.”

You looked at Echo, matching his blinding grin with one of your own. The look on his face was going to be beautiful. You both paced the small space together impatiently, tossing tools and little twists of metal into your open bag as you waited for Rex to arrive.

Finally there were voices outside, one eager, one bewildered. The storage cupboard door hissed open, and there Rex was, tall and whole and armoured and beautiful.

“Hey Rex, think fast!” You chucked the helmet at him, ignoring Echo’s shriek of distress.

Rex fumbled, caught it, then stared down at the new helmet in his hands. Over his shoulder, Fives beamed at you. The look of slow joy breaking over Rex’s face like a sunrise made all the bartering worth it.

“You okay, Captain?”

For the first time (but definitely not the last), you’d made him speechless.