#I would die for them and their 90s tech

[robinvomit]

Damian would be the first of his brothers to start a family (marriage and planned kids) and Tim would be the last. Probably gets an accidental pregnancy by the time Damian's kids are in middle school or sum

Also, Jason is a girl dad and the oldest is his carbon copy, not just in physique. I don't know why people have Dick as the girl dad when it's obvious Jason was born to have daughters, he exudes girl dad energy.

Dumb parenthood headcanons because i'm on the mood. Thoughts?

-Selene 🌚

Why do you hate me so much— you're supposed to be my soulmate, not my arch nemesis 💔💔 I will not tolerate girl dad Tim slander around here. And we aren't going to pretend TIM would be the one doing anything by ACCIDENT, ma'am, t h a n k s.

Jason is 100% a girl dad, yes. Dick could have both, ngl — he would be over the moon thrilled either way. Damian would have more than one — he'd probably have like.. three, at least — I see two girls, one boy, the son being the oldest and basically drilled every day on how to protect his sisters 😤

Tim's daughter would actually just be an asshole. I don't mean "mean girl" vibes either — she'd be very similar to how Bart was in school, in Impulse. Blunt, literal, introvert, comes off as an asshole just trying to exist — she's basically 90s Bart mixed with 90s Tim because she'd also have warmer qualities when she got around to it.

And we all know damn well there would be one person for each family that would almost get killed because their child has one of those toddler crushes 💔 Roy, Kon ( 'wow.. just like his did.' — said tims partner, much to his wanting to die. ), Wally, Jon ( fuck you, dc. ).

Dick's daughter would somehow end up hating everything related to gymnastics, dance, theater and cheerleading. His son would end up influenced by Jason and end up writing a book. But, as sad as he'd be initially, he would support literally anything they wanted outside of murder and criminal activity. Worlds biggest fan of his kids. Would be the one crying on their first day of school. WOULD be the pissed off parent slamming doors when he got called in because his kid is in trouble for defending themselves.

Damian's children would be so well behaved? And i don't mean terrified, scared to breathe wrong. They would be so fucking well mannered and sweet. Because they have their dad's manners and belief on respectful, meanwhile his partners sweetness and soft heart. Surprisingly, not as suffocatingly smothering and hovery as you'd think he would be. Because his kids would know how to take care of themselves. Not the same as he did, which he would absolutely never do, but self defense would be a must. And, he trusts them.

Jason's daughter would simply be a menace that's a complete mix of her environment. Not touching a single piece of technology, out of his supervision, until she's 16. No tech household — we play board games, read books and play outside in this house. Probably takes an interest in bow and arrows before even asking her dad about his weaponry ( i feel like i shouldn't HAVE to clarify this but obviously no guns around his kid until she's older and can be sat down, talked to, educated, etc. ) She would just nod along, seeming interested before just:

uh huh.. uh huh.. mhm.

are you even listening?

yeah, it's interesting. hollow points are cool.

that's your biggest interest?

yeah.. oh hey, can uncle Roy take me to get a bow?

are you fucking kidding me ( he would be grateful she didn't WANT a gun but also want to strangle said uncle. )

Tim's daughter abhors computers, caffeine and staying up late. She would 100% be a nerd. Straight A's, good schedule, clubs, extracurricular. However, everyone would probably assume she's just that — a nerd. passive. etc. Until she gets called in for breaking someone's finger and Tim's just standing there, in the office, like:

okay, why?

he kept touching me

and did you warn him?

three times!

tim, looking at the principle; it sounds like he deserved to get that finger broken, so what's the problem?

Damian's children are very very very animal oriented and have asked for every pet known to man.

Dick's kids just like to fuck with him, ngl. Probably Wally's fault.

Jason's daughter can and will lie directly to his face, with zero tells and he's proud but also very terrified for what that means.

Tim's daughter has surpassed every achievement he's ever had outside of vigilante work. Grades, skating, hacking, etc. Even if it's something she hates, she is somehow flawlessly better than him and he could not be prouder.

Tim's daughter probably doesn't like Jason's. Dick's kids are probably wary of Jason's AND Tim's daughters. Damian's kids get along with everyone, somehow. Varying ages, obviously, but the older ones are still very protective of the younger ones. Which would order as: Damian's, Jason's, Tim's, Dick's.

Damian wants a family. Jason wouldn't say no to kids. Tim wants something of his own. Dick hesitates because of how much of himself he gives to others.

They would all be generally hesitant because the world is a shit place.

Tim's daughter has a WILD obsession with glitter to the point he has become actually traumatized.

One of Damian's kids eats meat, much to his disappointment.

Dick's son drew him as a hero before ever learning anything about him and he nearly melted.

Jason's daughter quietly started learning irst aid and light medical training when she was around 15 after seeing him come home hurt. ( hate me but I always picture him as a single dad otl )

Tim has never actually hated anyone more than his daughter first partner. Not because it's his daughter but because '...she has taste for shit, how did this happen?' ( and his partner just.. staring at him like; wanna think about that, babe? )

Jason refuses to date until his daughter is much older, mid to late teens because he doesn't want to go through the replacement or forcing a figure on her phase. Plus, he'd be SO cautious of who he brought around her.

Dick spoils his kids beyond belief. Like. The type to constantly remind them of why and how he can do these things for them so they don't turn into little goblins.

Damian is the type of parents to teach his kids very young how to save, have multiple skills, etc. But not the.. weird tiktok mom forceful kind of way. He would be pretty gentle, ngl.

Jason would 100% end up with the daughter who's around audhd.

Tim's daughter is probably either tone deaf or colorblind and he doesn't learn that til she's like 15 and looking at him like omg dad isn't this blue so pretty? And he's like, squinting at the color: ...come again?

Dick has watched soooooooooooo many hair tutorials. He owns so many combs, brushes, clips, ponytails, headbands, bows— he prides himself on being able to do absolutely anything asked of him.

Damian, despite WANTING a family, cries when he learns they'll be having kids the first time. Like. Out of sheer joy but also already proud of them.

[strangebiology]

I think a lot of the people in my life who have expressed disgust or disapproval of my interest in/collection of animal remains have come at it first from the perspective of "but diseases!" like regular uncleanliness stigma. the second most common reaction is that interest in/collection of/comfort with animal remains (to be clear, i collect bones and sometimes preserved tails or pelts and these are the objects in question) is... creepy? and, the people who are most disgusted/creeped out are usually people who by and large dont interact with wild animals or livestock. my friends who are vet techs or who hunt or who practice animal husbandry are more or less unfazed.

(Re: What are actual common attitudes towards animal remains?)

Interesting, thank you!

Now, I'm wondering if people mistake personal discomfort for immorality.

I've mentioned my one video that did get some negative comments, showing the slaughter of a reindeer (you can see it here but I have warnings on it for a reason! Blood and death!) And, I think 90% or so (I suppose I could go count them) are more reasonable.

First, people are mad at the assumption that I killed a reindeer (I did NOT kill it, I just filmed it.) Then, the issue is it's being killed for no reason (it was NOT no reason, it's for food.) Then the method is criticized (this is one of the ONLY legal ways to kill them and it's quicker than it looks because of post-mortem spasms.) Then, when those concerns are disproven, the only issue left is "filming and posting it is sadistic." So...killing was no problem, but showing anyone that their meat came from a death was a problem. (Again, I respect if you don't want to see it! So please heed the warnings unless your desire to know how reindeer are killed outweighs your discomfort with watching a death!)

I wonder if sometimes people are overly focused on prioritizing their own 5-second comfort over things that matter a lot more, but are external to them, and they don't really care about others who they are not currently looking in the face of at all.

This isn't a 100% relevant example, but consider the people who don't want to donate their organs after death. A common reason to forgo something that could save and improve lots of lives is "it sounds gross!" Ickiness really should not be a factor in whether or not to save lives--the donor will never see or feel it, but since it's not their own life being saved, the 5-second icky feeling when checking the "donor" box is suddenly more important than the saved and improved human lives.

I know I shouldn't think too hard about one random experience, but I will always remember this one. I was once at a consumer survey thing for a turkey meat brand, where participants tried the meat and said what we thought about the name, taste, packaging, branding etc. We were instructed to circle what we liked on the branding and cross out what we didn't like.

One participant crossed out the part where it said "humanely raised." I asked if she had made a mistake, or...does she feel like the label is disingenuous or something...? Surely she's pro-humane treatment of animals, right??

"No," she said. "I don't want them to do that. I don't want to think about their lives when I'm eating them, and they don't need to be humane to animals that are going to die anyway." Most of the group agreed. I couldn't help but point and say "YOU'RE gonna die anyway!"

That may have been the first time I encountered a group of people shamelessly agreeing that they would rather animals suffer unnecessarily than think for one second that the animal whose body they are using/eating was ever even alive. Because not feeling guilty about something was infinitely more important to them than any amount of suffering that someone else might experience.

[meadow-of-daisies-and-lavender]

Chapter 2 -------The Sergeant

Summary: He’s the sergeant. Tall, dark, and handsome, even if he is broody, he may not have anything to lose, but she does.

Warnings: Canon typical violence, language, and abuse.

Clone Force 99 was a squadron of four troopers who were more than irregular—they were spectacularly astonishing. The squadron’s file had no pictures, no names, only CT numbers, and their cadet training statistics—the best cadet training statistics Bright Eyes had ever seen, and she had seen a lot of those over the years, as evidenced by the pictures of graduated cadets littering her office walls.

“Clone Force 99 is a special operations squad that works missions so covert that it is said only Cody knows of them,” Shem grinned as she wiggled her fingers in Bright’s face. Bright giggled and swatted Shem away, returning to the datapad in hand. The two SWs sat on Bright’s bed, drinking their morning caff as they went over Clone Force’s file.

“Have you spoken to Cody about them? Their previous SWs left very few case notes about them. And 90% of the file is redacted,” Bright questioned.

Shem shrugged it off, sipping her caff, “I sent him a message when I realized he was their direct mission report officer. I’m waiting for his response. I also put in a medical inquiry about the big guy. After you mentioned the scarring on his ear in the hanger yesterday, I tried to cross-reference existing medical files, but I don’t have security clearance for that.”

“We never have clearance for anything when it matters,” Bright muttered, shaking her head.

“Wanna read about the Sergeant? He is quite handsome and I saw the way you two were looking at each other in the hangar yesterday,” Shem teased, waving the datapad at Bright Eyes.

“As handsome as he might be,” Bright Eyes swatted away the datapad, “He is off limits for us both. Need I remind you if we are caught having affairs, we can lose our license, the troopers can die and we can be imprisoned!” If the Kaminoans, or anybody else, caught a whiff of unethical practice, Bright Eyes would lose her job and her license to work as an SW in any capacity- and Shem knew that. Being an SW gave Bright Eyes something to live for. If she decided it wasn’t working for the GAR, she’d find others to help- communities to better- that is if she had a license to work. She wasn’t sure what she was without her work.

“Life is more than threats. Someday the war will be over and our paths will diverge from Kamino. Let yourself have a little fun in the meantime,” Shem slipped her hand over Bright Eyes’ knee, and gave her a gentle smile, “Yeah?”

Hunter sighed as he washed off the last streaks of shaving cream, the warm water an idyllic luxury against his skin. After a year in blistering tundra and sweltering deserts, the cooling water washed away the bone-deep grime a sonic could never. He had stood under the spray until his fingers pruned, selfishly using as much hot water as he wanted- simply because he could. He then wrapped his hair up in an old shirt and shaved. He karkin’ hated Kamino, but at least it had guaranteed hot showers. The barracks door faintly slid open just as he took down his hair, squeezing the dripping water out with the shirt.

“Ah, that would be the stench. We can’t quite seem to get rid of it. I’m Tech. You must be our new SW.”

Tech’s voice came muffled through the fresher door, no doubt setting his tools down to give his full attention to their guest.

“No, Shem’s your assigned social worker. I’m running an errand for Commander Cody. You can call me Bright Eyes.”

Bright Eyes- the pretty woman from the hangar, told by her voice's matching sound. Hunter smirked as he tied a clean bandana around his forehead to keep his curly locks out of his face. It was nice to know Bright Eyes, a beautiful woman, thought he was attractive. Knowing a pretty woman thought he was handsome was enough to boost his ego for the day, if not a week. However, the SWs had a higher turnover rate than the Shinies. Like every other SW the Batch had interacted with, she would be gone by the end of the standard month.

“You changed the HVAC system? Isn’t that illegal or something?” Bright Eyes’ chuckled lightly. Hunter leaned against the sink, staring at his waiting stack of armor.

Cody was expecting the Sergeant. Despite now being clean, Hunter had no choice but to don his dirty kit that refused to get clean. The GAR waited for nobody and did not care to give precious resources for dress uniforms. Theirs was the black body suit and armor kit, and no more. It was all Hunter had aside from his bandana.

“You gonna tell?” Wrecker threatened.

Hunter rolled his eyes. Clones had no real power over staff on Kamino, no control over anyone except themselves. Hunter reached for his kit. Even control between ranks seemed like a façade most of the time.

“Nah, that’s unnecessary paperwork and trouble. Is this how you changed the lighting? Impressive.” Bright Eyes seemed sweet, but from a distance, so did street cats.

“According to your file, you have an impressive list of accomplishments yourself-”

“And repercussions. How did a sweet little SW end up on the Kaminoan watch list?” Crosshair interrupted, mocking her slightly.

Hunter lifted his bucket into his hands, furrowing his brow. How was she alive? Nobody stayed on Kamino once they made the watch list. They either left or… disappeared. He inhaled deeply as he clipped his bucket to his belt before exiting the fresher. 

“I’m… I’m on the watch list?” Bright Eyes muttered.

Hunter leaned on the dark chrome wall beside the door, crossing his arms. None except Crosshair had noticed his entrance, giving him the luxury of watching her shoulders stiffen and brow furrow.

A quick pulse thumped through the air from Bright’s chest, and the distinct sweet scent of her body’s chemistry wafted through his nose with the GAR soap he had showered with. Hunter decided it would be the last thing he would want to sense before he died if he had to choose between that or the Marauder’s stench. Then again, bleach was preferable to the lingering stench of month’s long campaigns.

“Who cares! That’s pretty badass!” Wrecker complemented from across the room, standing up. The SW blinked slowly, eyelashes fluttering like a curtain over the shifting color in her eyes, making Hunter knit his eyebrows together. What had this woman done to catch the attention of Lama Su?

“Badass until the Kaminoans try her for treason,” Hunter spoke from his wall. Her eyes jolted to him, making his breath shudder at the sudden intensity behind them. Her teeth ground briefly.

Karking hells, Hunter hated that sound.

“They’ll have to find substantial proof first. Completely- irrefutable- proof.” Her eyes flicked over Hunter’s face, carefully examining him like prey, waiting to see if their predator was dead.

“You already have a list of infractions if you are on the watch list. The Kaminoans don’t need substantial proof,” Hunter advised, narrowing his eyes at her. A little scrunch between her eyebrows appeared, making Bright Eyes look equal parts endearing and terrifying.

Her chin tilted up slightly as she widened her stance. Her scent started to tinge sour with a bitter musk. Crosshair squinted his left eye at Hunter, sliding smoothly between the woman and Hunter, enjoying the verbal volley. Few people aside from Crosshair challenged Hunter, and Crosshair ate it up like one of his toothpicks.

“Not if the person citing the infractions is proven… incompetent in their work.” She tucked her hands behind her back and gave a coy smile. Hunter glanced at Crosshair, who tried to hide his amusement. “Cody is asking for you, Sergeant. You’ll meet with him in my office.”

“Your office?” Tech questioned. “Seems unlikely for a superior officer to meet in a social worker’s office, and, if I may add, out of Commander Cody’s character.”

“You would understand if you sat on my couch. Most comfortable seat on this slughole.” Bright Eyes shrugged, waving it off. Wrecker tilted his head backward and wildly laughed, making Hunter smile lightly.

“Tech, when I come back, I want a status report on the state of the Marauder,” he pushed off the wall as he made his way to the door. “Are you coming, SW?”

“On your six, Sarge.” She muttered, following him into the hall. He slowed his steps, allowing her to catch up.

Now that they were out of the room, he could pinpoint the lavender and vanilla fragrance she wore, tinged with a bare alcohol base. Importing non-military goods on Kamino, like the perfume she wore, was illegal. Smuggling did happen; everyone knew that, but no one could pinpoint how to request specific goods. They just showed up. That’s how Crosshair got his toothpicks. He knew a guy who knew a guy who knew someone else. They rounded the corner and stepped into the elevator before Bright Eyes spoke.

“Do you make it a habit of keeping your appearance in regs except for your hair?” Her lip curled as she tilted her chin back to look at him. “Not that I care or anything.”

Hunter shrugged and tucked his thumbs in his belt as she referenced his clean-shaven face. “Nobody has said anything to me yet, sweetheart. Why? Going to write me up for it?” Bright’s steady pulse jumped and quickened slightly. Her eyes darted to the floor before stubbornly lifting upwards. Hunter smirked at her attempts to hide her flustered state. It was… cute. He couldn’t remember when he met a woman who elicited that thought. The only women he ever considered cute were women who lived in holofilms and news clips.

“Did you want me to?” Bright glanced up at him, her teasing smile returning.

“Be my guest. Make sure to note I, ‘just liked the look’, ma’am.” The door opened, but he didn’t miss the intoxicating waft of her scent as she passed him. Bright Eyes laughed, tilting her head back with glittering eyes. His eyes slid over her shoulders, traveling down to the bend of her waist. His eyes jolted back up to the back of her head before they could slide lower to the enticing bend at the base of her spine. 

Stopping at the door in a hall of duplicate doors, Bright Eyes slid a badge over a sensor after typing in an access code.

“Welcome to my office. Make yourself comfortable, Sergeant Hunter.”

Her office held a wooden desk with a cramped and messy shelf full of books, tablets, and binders stacked left to right and up and down. Several pictures of her surrounded by groups of shinnies and cadets alike scattered over the walls like oily fingerprints on a dark datapad screen. Bright Eyes had been on Kamino for a while. What had she done in that time to warrant the Kaminoan’s attention? 

Bright Eyes slid behind the desk to sit while Hunter sat on the couch. She was correct; he thought as he sunk into the cushions—best karkin’ seat in this shithole.

“While you wait for Cody, will you fill out some paperwork for Shem? She needed you to fill in some gaps for her,” She bent down to pull a datapad from her shelf and slid it open. “SW Poth’s case notes were, to be honest, grossly optimistic and short-sighted. Shem wanted to know how accurate some of the statements were.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Hunter grumbled, stretching his legs. Her couch was comfortable. Bright glanced across the small room at him, smirking from under her lashes.

“Told you it was comfortable. What happened with Poth?” She asked, leaning forward in her seat. She gave him her full attention, eyes soaking in every little detail of his face. His whole life’s goal was to get in and out with as minimal attraction from the Republic as possible. Her attention, he could soak up like a sponge and get high off without consequence.

“Crosshair and Wrecker got to her. She couldn’t stand Wrecker’s need to destroy shit and Crosshair’s piss poor attitude.”

Her comm unexpectedly buzzed, making Bright Eyes frown, glancing down at it. She stood and gently smiled, dimpling her left cheek as she offered him the datapad.

“Feel free to take off your boots and kick your feet up. Cody should be here any second. I have to meet with a cadet.”

Hunter thanked her and took the pad from her hand. Her nails, painted a bright coral color, had chipped and flaked chiefly away. Did she smuggle nail polish, too? Why would she flaunt something illegal under the Kaminoans' noses? She could die for it.

“How long have you been stationed on Kamino?” Hunter asked carefully, trying to gauge her.

“Too long,” Bright chuckled, her sweet scent returning. “I was first assigned just after the attack on Kamino. There was a mass exodus of SWs after it. I was one of the lucky few to get assigned to fill the void.” She reached into a drawer and pulled her hair back. The Batch wasn’t on Kamino during the attack, but he remembered when the news came to them years ago. He didn’t know a single trooper who didn’t remember the attack.

“That was a long time ago. How many cycles have you graduated over the years?” Hunter asked.

“All but, um… one kid,” She trailed off, reminding him of that look Crosshair got after a night's terror. Her breath caught as she carefully pressed a hand against her side, clenching the fabric of her shirt. Hunter leaned forward as her heart rate picked up, and a bitter smell radiated from her. Her hand trembled slightly, and her eyes were dark and dim.

“That’s remarkable for being stationed on Kamino as long as you have been,” He offered, focusing on the positive as he might have done for Wrecker. Bright Eyes inhaled sharply and forced a smile. The door opened, and Commander Cody strolled in, prompting Hunter to stand at attention.

“As you were, Sergeant.” Hunter nodded and sat back down as Bright Eyes gathered her things. Commander Cody removed his bucket and set it on a hook by the door, watching her momentarily.

“Is everything okay, Ad’ika?”

“Yeah, it's been a long day.” She flashed that same forced smile at the Commander, who raised an eyebrow at her.

“Make sure you get some rest tonight. I don’t want to see you before 0800 tomorrow.” Commander Cody groaned as he sat down in the other plush chair beside Hunter.

“Maybe you should be the one to worry about getting rest,” she teased, pushing in her chair. Her eyes flitted around her desk before glancing at her shelf. Hunter smirked, watching her stand to her full height. “Let me know when you’re done here, Cody,” she turned to Hunter, flashing her teeth. “See you around, Sergeant.”

“Ma’am,” He tilted his head down only to catch a whiff of headiness. It made his eyes widen slightly, and his breath caught. He refused to move his eyes from the back of her head as she exited with a quiet hiss of the doors. Hunter blinked and sat down, taking a deep breath, begging his mind to refocus on the mission details and the Commander.

“What did you two talk about?” The Commander accused Hunter, narrowing his eyes. Hunter furrowed his brow at his superior and shook his head, not used to the hiss directed at him.

“Her graduation rate, sir?” Hunter sat up taller in his chair, internally preparing for a reaming. The Commander sighed deeply, glancing up at the ceiling.

“If you see her again, do not mention it. A general rule of thumb with that one is not to mention the last cycle, her graduation rate, or her politics. It will get her into more trouble than she is prepared to handle.” Cody glanced at a frame on her wall of a cadet squadron, and Hunter’s eyes widened.

There, surrounded by recently graduated cadets, was Bright Eyes on a medical bed, wrapped in bandages, weakly smiling. If he ever saw the pretty SW again, he hoped to find some answers, but something in his gut told him that was as unlikely as the odds of ever seeing Bright Eyes again.

Paperwork- the bane of her existence. Bright Eyes rubbed at her tired eyes, propping her chin on her hand. She had been awake with Delta Group Cadets the last three nights, supervising their training. None of their trainers or handlers wanted to do so, leaving the kids to ask her for supervision. They were in danger of failing if they didn’t receive the extra training. They couldn’t fail another simulation.

Bright Eyes exhaled sharply as her scars burned. Her side ached deeply, the scars feeling as if they were pulling the skin apart. Lifting her shirt, she lifted the bottom edge of her breast band. Closing her eyes, she leaned back in her seat, trying to breathe through the phantom pains.

It had been a brutal three nights for her and the boys. But they had figured it out independently, only with a bit of guidance from her. While she knew nothing about military tactics or strategy, she did know about communication and group dynamics.

“Do you have bacta cream?” Rex’s voice gently spoke from the threshold of her office. She cracked her eye open to see him propped up against the wall. He regarded her gently, eyes taking in the sight of her scars. He, most likely, had seen worse in battle. “Looks irritated.”

“No. The med team thought it wasn’t bad enough to warrant a prescription,” Bright grumbled, using her feet to swivel her chair from left to right. “You can come in, you know. My couch is always open.” Rex chuckled and shook his head.

“As tempting as that is, I cannot. I have a meeting with General Skywalker and Commander Asoka,” He paused, glancing around her office. “Why did they think it was not bad enough? It looks irritated.”

“Aside from Outer Rim rations?” Bright shrugged, gesturing to her body. “I’m a woman. I can’t even get mild painkillers for my periods. They think I’m being dramatic.” She wiggled her fingers and lifted her eyebrow. Rex shook his head and reached to unclip his bucket.

“They have not spent much time with the 501st if they think you are dramatic.” Bright gave a full belly laugh and shook her head.

“No, they haven’t.” she giggled. Rex cracked a smirk and glanced at the hall.

“I came to let you know Cody and I are shipping out this afternoon. We won’t be able to see you before then,” Rex muttered. “Are you going to be okay, ad’ika?”

“I’ve been shot, not killed,” Bright scoffed. “Besides, I’ve got a lot more to get done before I can think about death.”

“Like your project with Shem?” Rex raised an eyebrow at her. The Testimonial Project was central to her work on Kamino. With Shem, they collected testimonies of abuse at the hands of the Kaminoans and the Republic. They would smuggle them off the planet and hope they got into the right senator’s hands. If not, they indeed were published in the media.

“Yeah. I haven’t been participating much since my injury. Thankfully, the only thing I’ve been accused of so far is smuggling nail polish. There was a slap on the wrist for that last standard month, but the Kaminoans don’t suspect anything else,” Bright paused and sighed. “I was informed that I am on the watch list. I can’t leave Kamino if I want to return now.”

“On what grounds?” Rex questioned, crossing his arms. “You have not violated any laws aside from smuggling.”

Bright laughed bitterly. “Rex,” she sighed. I am the second-senior social worker on Kamino. We don’t last long. They’ll find a way to get rid of me like they find ways to get rid of all of us. I’m surprised they haven’t found a reason to oust Shem.”

“Well, we are only as good as we are useful to the Republic,” Rex commented. “I am sorry we have to leave. Cody and I were hoping to be here for another week.”

“Don’t apologize. The Republic needs you and so does your jedi,” Bright Eyes winked at Rex before breaking into giggles.

“You think you are so funny, don’t you, ad’ika?”

“I’m hilarious, thank you.” Bright snorted. Rex gave her a little salute and left, leaving her office quiet once again. She glanced over at her wall of photos, some in frames but most taped to the wall. She hoped she would be allowed to take the pictures with her when it was time for her to leave Kamino.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hello! I've played the fallout ttrpg (the one they had to pull the rights from when it was pretty much done so they called it Exodus instead), I wish it didn't suck so bad! Is there any system I could borrow that would fit with Fallout's setting? I love the world in itself, but Exodus was rushed and published half-baked

THEME: Fallout

Hello friend, I have quite a few games for you to check out today! Some of them are direct homages, while others simply just have elements that might remind you of the video game.

Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes, by Nerdy Pup Games.

Play misfit outlaws fighting against the authoritarian Powers That Be in a hyper-saturated, film-grained, retro dystopia. Save the future with the power of friendship, whoopass, and explosions! Features sticker-based character advancement, effortless cinematic vehicle action, and player-driven Ride-or-Die system usings d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, and d12s.

This game is a bit more colourful and punk-rock, and a little less morally grey than some of the more popular Fallout games. The designer cites some pretty colourful inspirations, such as FLCL and Six-String Samurai, but also concedes that you can make the tone fit that of Borderlands, Fallout, and Mad Max. It depends on how you build your world - what tech was there before? What kinds of weirdness persists? What beliefs have survived?

You’ll make skill rolls that can be boosted by gear or your personal style, with anything above a 4 granting you a success, with bonuses for rolling even higher at an 8 or a 12. Badges are the representations of character growth, tied to the skills that you choose to improve, somewhat like how concentrating on certain skills in Fallout gives you access to perks. If you want a stripped-down basic idea of the rules for this game, the designer has a Pay-what-you-want playtest that you can download for free, just to dip your toes in the water.

Earth: After Death, by Hammer City Games.

Boasting deep and crunchy mechanics reminiscent of the golden age of 90s TTRPGs, Earth, After Death focuses on OSR-style gaming, dungeon and hex crawling, fast-paced combat, high lethality, and a unique and fascinating setting to explore.

There’s plenty to do: kill mutants, explore ancient ruins, get lethal radiation poisoning, find a gun that has infinite ammunition, use psionic powers to blow up peoples heads, replace your legs with tank treads, and more!

This is a chunky, old-school style game that takes care to mention that your level-up system is just like the advancement system in Fallout games. You’ll be dealing with mutations, ghost machines, bartering for gear, and hex-crawling through dangerous wastelands. The character sheets point to a lot of moving pieces, so if you like wrangling together a character that does exactly what you want them to do, you’re going to have a lot to play with here. It looks like mutation is also a pretty big deal in this game, with over 100 different kinds advertised on the game’s store page.

Right now just the Wasteland’s Handbook is available to purchase, but the kickstarter for this game will be taking off later this year. If this sounds like your kind of game, then maybe hop over to the website to get in on the first full edition as it releases!

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, by Modiphius.

In 2077, the storm of nuclear war reduced most of the planet to cinders. From the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization will struggle to arise. A civilization you will shape. How will you re-shape the world? Will you join with a plucky band of survivors to fight off all-comers and carve out your own settlement? Will you team up with pre-existing factions like the Brotherhood of Steel or Super Mutants to enforce your own ideals on the Wasteland? Ghoul or robot, paladin or raider, it’s your choice - and the consequences are yours. Welcome to the Wasteland. Welcome to the world of Fallout.

Utilizing Modiphius’ celebrated 2d20 cinematic role-playing system, the Fallout RPG will take players on an exciting journey into the post-apocalypse! Create your own survivors, super mutants, ghouls, and even Mister Handy robots. Immerse yourselves in the iconic post-nuclear apocalyptic world of Fallout, while gamemasters guide their group through unique stories and encounters. The 2d20 edition of Fallout is as close to the bottlecap bartering, wasteland wandering, Brotherhood battling excitement as you can get.

Modiphius gets the license to make a lot of games for different properties, so a Fallout game fits in alongside other big titles like Dune, John Carter of Mars, and Alien. This company uses their own 2d20 system, with a focus on inventory and Perks in an effort to make the game recognizable to any typical Fallout fan.

That being said, the game has come under fire for being poorly edited and inconsistent when it comes to finding the right rule. The company updated the game last year and released a Settler’s Guide book, so this might be something that’s a bit more read-able now. But if you want something set directly in the Fallout universe, this is your game.

WASTELAND, by MaelikGames.

WASTELAND is a simple tabletop RPG about adventurers in the world that has only recently became hospitable after a War that might not end all wars, but almost ended the world. You and your friends decide whether this world is bleak and hopeless, like the one in Metro, or somewhat whimsical, as in Fallout. 

Much of the inspiration from Fallout appears in the character options of this game. Arkanites are homages to Vault-Dwellers, Radkin are inspired by Ghouls, and robots are, well, robots. The talents also look like they are directly inspired by Fallout perks, such as Animal Friend, which allows you to turn hostile animals into allies. Gear and inventory are both very important in this game, which is something that I never find surprising in post-apocalyptic games, since having to track inventory feels like a pretty important thing in a game about scarcity. Your skills are also based on a percentage of success, because you’re rolling a d100, with the goal of rolling under your target number. If you’re looking for a game that can mechanically reflect much of what’s available in the Fallout video games, this might be for you!

Dystopia Rising: Evolution, by Onyx Path.

No one knows how long it’s been since the world was blasted with nuclear radiation and became infested with the undead. The survivors of the Fall were the first strain of deviation of the human condition and were able to make it through the rapidly spreading epidemic. Finding a community of decent size in this world is rare; finding one that has any concept of equality or morality is rarer still.

Oh, and people have the unnerving ability to come back from the dead, regrown from the very virus that destroyed the world.

This is a completely different world from Fallout and yet I think it might still be worth talking about in this rec post. Dystopia Rising has a rich, detailed world, with various factions and faiths, and your characters are differentiated by the Strains that have helped them survive. There are plenty of conflicting beliefs that can be the seeds for unlimited conflict, including various faiths in things like evolution or the preservation of humanity, strains that give you psychic powers, and a universal ability to come back to the dead so many times before you’re turned into a mindless zombie.

There’s plenty of opportunity to fight things hand-to-hand, but there’s just as many possibilities to politic your way out of tough scenarios, which is a hallmark of Fallout New Vegas. Not only that, there's no clear "good guys": this is a complicated world with complicated people. If you want a game that carries a lot of similar themes of Fallout but puts you in a new setting, maybe check out this game.

Games I’ve Recommended in the Past

Extinction Punk, by Extinction Punk.

Wastoid, by Jason Tocci.

[kats-million-worlds]

So

Rewatched plan 99

Why? Because I I wanted to emotionally hurt🤣

created a idea

I’m not a writer and im terrible at English

But tf Im gonna write this

————

Don't take it away

Promises…

Such interesting things

So easily broken

To some they mean nothing

To others? They mean Everything

Flashback

“Tech?”

“Yes Crosshair?”

“Don’t ever scare me like that again”

“I cannot do that Crosshair”

“…”

“Promise”

“Pardon?”

“Promise me that’ll you will always come back to me”

“Cross-“

“Promise!”

“I promise I will always try to return to you”

“…”

“You better not break it”

“I will do my best”

End Flashback

I remember that day

I remember

I promised

I promised that I’d return to you

I never thought… I’d break it

Not like this

Not when we were so close to seeing eachother again

I’m so sorry Ori’vod…

…

Footsteps…?

“Hunter…?” No response

“Wrecker?” Still none

“Echo?” None

“Omega…..?” …

“Well isn’t this interesting?”

I know that voice

Who was it again?

My mind feels like… mush for lack of better word…

I see them

Oh no…

Royce Hemlock

This…

Is not good

I wish I could remember what happened next but it is all a blur

All I knew was… Pain

Agnoy

Pain

Pain

Pain

Then Silence…

I woke up

How odd

I did not think I would wake up

Not again

Not.. After that

Why am I still alive…?

(It takes more than that to kill me)

“No more delays” What?

“He is not recovered enough for this Doctor-“ Who is that?

“I don’t care Do it” Do… What?

“This could cause him to forget-“ Forget what?!

“Does it matter? He’d forget during the reconditioning” What?!

Reconditioning…?!

(Must complete mission…)

No

No

NO

Not again!

Please not again!

Just let me die!

Don’t-!

(Why am I panicking?)

I won’t become an experiment again!

Not again!

Don’t Do This!

(I should of let this go)

I Don’t Want To Forget!

I DON’T WANT TO FORGET

(I’m not supposed to think these things)

I DON’T WANT TO LOSE THE MEMORIES OF THE ONLY FAMILY I HAD

I DoNt WaNt ThIs!

DoNt TaKe It AlL aWaY !

(I want it all to stop)

PLEASE

I ALREADY LOST IT ALL ONCE

(There’s no point to these thoughts)

DON’T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN

NOT AGAIN!

Stop fighting (Comply)

NOT AGAIN?!?!?!?

Give up (…)

PLEASE

CROSSHAIR!

(Traitor)

HUNTER!

(Deserter)

WRECKER?!

(Idiot)

ECHO?!?!

(Coward)

ANYONE!!??

(There is nobody)

HELP ME

Doctor Karr do it (What is happening?)

I dOn’T wAnT tO fOrGeT

DoN’t TaKe AlL tHeSe MeMoRiEs

(Take it all away)

AlL tHeSe MeMoRiEs

90 percent complete Doctor (?…)

DON’T TAKE iT aLl AwAy….

(I don’t want to remember)

Døñt-

It is done Doctor Hemlock (……..)

“Tech…?”

(Who is Tech…?)

[solar-sparky]

Could you tell us more about your agent 24 (if you do agent 24) if you would be so kind 👉👈?

Rubs my hands together with malicious intent

Okay so! Let's talk about Char (Charlie/Agent 3) and Al (Allen/Phyto/Agent8) these two goobers :)

(They/Them and He/She respectively)

A bit of background for each:

Char experienced something in the past that caused them to be way more solitary, not completely cold-shoulder, and struggle with "I cant save/help anyone.". They join the Splatoon to help Cuttlefish, since the whole mission goes well and they defeat Octavio, it gives them a boost in confidence, not a lot and they are relatively quiet about it. They finally felt useful for once.

Al (Phyto at the time) isnt a soldier, she is a mechanic. While not strictly working with the government/military, she is called in to work for them pretty regularly for stuff like weapon and tech repairs. Another job he does is Zapfish care, pretty self explanatory, he does weekly checks with the zapfish.

The first time these two interact is during the Splatoon 1 storymode. Al only recently started hearing rumors about an inkling running around and taking the zapfish, at first he brushes it off. It's not until she goes to do her zapfish checks does she find out that it is in fact true and she runs into 3. Al does try to defend the bulb where the zapfish is, but not being as skilled in combat as 3, he does not come out victorious and the zapfish is taken away.

After that, everytime that Al goes to check on the fish, all the bulbs are shattered and empty. (Except for one that she finds, that's where her funny looking little zapfish comes from. Its name is 1202.)

Fast forward to the arc of OE.

Al had been planning to leave the domes for a while (about 2 years) and finally she had a plan; take the abandoned underground train tracks that Al discovered a while ago far enough. (how the gang end up in the deepsea metro is never explained so we're going with this.) Unfortunately for them this is the area 3 and Cuttlefish are surveying/exploring and that also leads into the deep sea. They dont get into a fight (Per Al's signal) and instead they somewhat travel together until they reach kamabo co.'s territory where in then security gets them.

Cuttlefish and 3 aren't deemed useful/worthy so they are just taken to one of the abandoned platform stations, Al on the other hand is taken to be sanitized. The process begins but near completion, it is interrupted by 3 taking an unconscious, nearing death Al and hauling him back to the safe spot is with Cuttlefish and 1202.

I have a bunch of headcanons for how this primordial ooze works but to put it simply, since the sanitization process was not complete for Al, it leaves her in very critical condition. Getting back to Cuttlefish now, Al is basically gone, no response from him, no breathing, no pluse, no nothing and his digits are going white (if you dont know, when inkfish die, they turn completely white/translucent. I like to also think that Splatoon inkfish, after a short amount of time after death, dry up and flake away.). Cuttlefish and 3 cant really be carrying a body around for, multiple reasons and make the decision to leave Al there, off to the side and covered. However, Al's zapfish protests and squirms out of Cuttlefishs hold and rushes over to Al thinking Al is just sleeping. Normally 1202 would wake Al up by jumping on him or tugging at him, and if all else doesn't work, even if 1202 can produce little electricity if any at all, it would shock Al. After a few tries, the shocking works and Al is back, however now about 90% sanitized; having no memories except for only remembering 1202, which he then proceeds to carry around everywhere. It is worth to note that Al cannot speak during the OE arc, and he communicates through different means.

Instead of being who knows where in the canon storymode, Char actually stays with Cuttlefish and Al on the train up until 3/4 of the way through where Cuttlefish tasks them with finding an alternative route incase Al's mission and the telephones promise dont work.

A bunch of stuff happens on the train like;

- Char, while technically saving Al, feels really guilty for her state

- Being sanitized, Al does not experience pain and pair that with her inexperience, leads to her being pretty careless when doing tests and comes back the the train with injuries almost everytime. Char starts to get a little worried, even though the wounds heal very fast. They proceed to start pulling Al off to the side after stations and bandaging her up.

- With the mem cakes, Al does recover their memories. He tries to explain to Cuttlefish, Char and sometimes Isopadre by using the mem cakes, the best way I can describe it is like Al playing with the mem cakes like toys to tell a story.

- Al had 2 friends down in the domes, Aurora (Octoling soldier) and Skip (a failed DJ Octavio clone; Octotrooper)

I dont have a design for Aurora but I do for Skip!

Continuing on, Al has mem cakes of these two friends of his and when Char heads out to proceed to find a different route, he gives the mem cakes over to Char. Why? Just incase, Al knows they may have gone looking for him (this does turn out to be true).

Anyways, skipping ahead (I'm skipping Char's mindcontrol phase cause there is some stuff from that chapter that havent shared and want to keep for myself for a little while longer :)) after the defeat of the NILS statue, Al almost dies again from overexertion, both her and Char do go to the hospital. Char is omitted from the hospital sooner than Al due to Al's critical condition and it is atleast a month or so later that Al is finally sent home.

I'm waiting to see what the deal is with side order before I commit to splat3 storystuff with Al but that's the mostly full story!

Some little fun facts

- Sometimes on outings, Al likes to bring along Finch (Agent 4) because he finds them silly. Char is completely okay because Finch kinda just does his own thing.

- Al is decently clingy to Char.

- Both being Aroace (as with most of my characters) their relationship is funny in the way that while they call eachother partner, they are sorta in a way like "oh but we aren't like that, just really good friends." Which in a way that's literally what they are but they dont know the right word it for a very long time.

- Allen has more energy when compared to Char.

Anyways that's it for now :)

[heyclickadee]

Okay, here’s the slightly evil, kind of sad, but mostly happy in a somewhat melancholy way (basically just a lot of feelings here) thought I had about Tech and Phee having kids, if that should ever happen:

So, operating under the assumption that Tech comes back, let’s say he and Phee do get together. And let’s say they stay together, and end up more or less space married. Let’s say they both want kids, and, after a lot of discussion about the war going on in the background and how they’re going to raise them and keep them safe, they end up going ahead with it. They don’t really settle down in any one place, but they’ve got their own ship with plenty of room, Pabu (maybe) is a good, stable home base to go back to when needed, and they’ve got a huge family for support. Those kids, if they have more than one, are loved. They have tons of uncles, somebody is always around, maybe some of the other batchers have partners (or not) and also have kids or adopt kids (heck, let’s throw Riyo in there, too, since she and Echo are a popular ship—they end up together but they don’t want kids, but they do a lot of work helping younger clones when they’re not fighting the Empire, Hunter took in several of the clone cadets they rescued from Tantiss, Wrecker is the favorite uncle but Crosshair is the favorite babysitter, they all manage to visit Cut and Suu once in a while, and and both Omega and Lyana are delighted to have little cousins running around (I kind of headcanon that Shep and Lyana kind of adopted Phee into their family after she found Pabu, so even if we’re going with a version of Phee that was formerly a Jedi and and doesn’t really know who her birth parents were, her kids are going to have family on both sides).

And this all exists just as a headcanon for something that could maybe happen after season three, depending on how season three goes, buuuut I like it. It’s just this nice little thought of this big, chaotic family, way bigger than just our six batchers, that’s structured a little weirdly, because clones, and everyone has their problems. but they’re all doing their best for each other and there’s a lot of love in it. And then I started thinking about clone aging.

And we all know clone aging sucks, but: let’s say clones really do age at twice the normal rate once they reach maturity, and let’s say Tech is chronologically, like, twelve but physically in his late twenties. A hard late twenties where he could pass for anything between thirty and fifty, but late twenties all the same. Suppose he gets the best case scenario and manages to live till he’s physically 90. Chronologically, he’ll be around forty-five. So, close to best case scenario, barring dying violently or getting sick, he’s got maybe another thirty-three years in him. That might seem like a lot (and it probably is to a clone), but to put that in perspective, I’m thirty-five. If I die in thirty-three years, I’ll only be sixty-eight—I’ll have died pretty young. And I’ve already been alive almost three times as long as many of the clones have. The clones do not get that much time.

There’s a lot to be explored with that in regards to Phee; I’ll be honest, the potential, “This is going to be over faster than either of us are going to be ready for,” “It is—let’s do it anyway,” is part of why at draws me to the ship, because there’s something a little defiant about two people going into a relationship knowing one of them was built to die faster, and choosing to live their lives how they want despite that. But there’s also a lot to be explored in how Phee and Tech would handle that with their kids. Because—they’d tell them. They’d have to sit down and tell them once they got to a certain age. Tech is going to be lucky to see them hit their twenties. It’s not like they wouldn’t notice their dad and their clone uncles getting old so much faster than their mom, Omega, or their uncle Shep, or anyone else they know. They’d ask questions, and it’s not like Tech wouldn’t be up-front. But I don’t think it’d be an easy conversation for any of them to have.

[cat-of-starlight]

I DO have a long Project Moon Universe post/mini-essay(?) I wanna make (Well. focused on Limbus, but also the other games as well), but I want a few more Cantos to go by first for references to prove my point,,,,

Spark Notes draft below the cut if anyone's interested in the premise: "The City, and its relationship towards those who are too gentle for it's cruelty"

Ok great, for the people still here- The sad little essay I wanna eventually make-

I think it's. TRUELY heartbreaking how much kindness as a concept seems to be punished in the city, to the point where its often an active point that the truly kind (or at least notably non-violent) characters always seem to get the shortest straws.

I won't get into too many specifics till I make the Whole Real Post, but- It feels like a few things typically happen to "Kind" people in this city

They distort

They flat out die

They become an outcast

The city beats the kindness out of them by force until they are forced to conform to cruelty

And tbh? Not loving how the community collectively treats some of them.

I mean, one one hand, we have people like Yuri- People LOVE Yuri. She never did a single thing wrong, and we can all agree-

But those who distorted or conformed? Seem to be collectively treated worse, while other OBJECTIVELY worse characters get off scot free

(*Note: Final essay will include more examples, these are the main ones I have off the top of my head)

--

For an example- Think back to Runia- I CRIED through Philip's plotline. I could clearly see the story of a man who- maybe wasn't the most courageous- who TRIED to help how he could- Got pressured so hard that he snapped and distorted under the pressure, becoming something that was beyond his own feelings, letting his distortion bury his heart to not feel that pain again- I LOVED that storyline, and then I come online and see him mocked for being some useless dipshit coward- THAT'S JUST SOME GUY- It's not his fault for being caught up in horrors beyond human comprehension (*Note: I checked his wiki for details. that man was only 24. He is younger than me. This man is barely an adult, no WONDER tbh)

--

Or my most... controversial character opinion, considering how I feel about Dongrang. Let me start with a disclaimer- I didn't read the books, and my opinion of him has exactly NOTHING to do with whoever the real life counterpart apparently is- I'm EXCLUSIVELY talking about the FICTIONAL character.

Limbus went out of their way to show that he'd, at least at some point, been a guy who was SO KIND that he was actively wasting his own money to help people/animals, and his co-workers ACTIVELY berated him about it- He wanted his tech to be healing, just so he could save people-

And then, of course, like every kind deed in The City, it didn't go unpunished- And to survive, he adapted. I'm not saying his actions weren't wrong- they were. I am, however, saying that I don't necessarily BLAME him for snapping.

He never WANTED to become like the other cruel people in the city, and even the cutscene images of him complying with it show him in visibly agony over it, and one image even shows him in tears- He never WANTED to be another cog in that awful machine, but when faced with that or utter destruction, he made a choice to survive.

Hell, half of him distorting himself was due to how guilty he felt for doing all of that in the first place-

Meanwhile, online, 90% of posts about him are "teehee I hate this piece of shit-"

--

For both of these that HAVE committed questionable acts in some way, I'm not saying I condone the things that happened. Because I don't. But I CAN feel sympathy and pity for them over the things that happened to make them what they became.

I can only imagine what the city would be like if kind people like them and others had been ALLOWED to be kind, without being punished for it.

--

And with all of this, all these characters who DARED to be kind, who DARED to fight back, even for a little bit, before inevitably being either physically or emotionally destroyed by the sheer weight of how this city works at its core- ...Some of the TRUE villains are treated better by the fandom then they are.

Canto III? Kromer- People go nuts for her- Some people even ship her with Sinclair, despite it all. She gets so much fanart. She gets SO many people ogling "ooo evil lady pretty", only for her to commit atrocities with a smile, and without a single slimmer of remorse.

Canto IV? Alfonso. Batshit insane, evil as hell- at least half the reason that characters like Dongrang ended up as fucked up as they did. You'd think "Wow- this is the person that made the person we hate the way they are, lets hate her too!" right? WRONG. Again, she gets the "pretty evil woman" treatment and people brush off her atrocities to ogle her. She also gets love by at least part of the fanbase.

And to that, WHY? I don't get it, genuinely. - Their actions?: horrible, terrible, not redeemable in the SLIGHTEST - Appearances?: You know what, I'll be honest- I think ladies are pretty (I'm Demi, but I can 100% enjoy a view) but I think these are actually two of the least attractive women I've laid eyes on. (Not the point of the post, and that's just opinion, but anyway)

And I'm not sure what causes it, honestly.

There are moments where at its worst, it almost makes me feel like the distant cruelty of The City isn't so distant after all- Those who are mostly kind, but fell into despair and tragedy, and turned into something worse get overwhelming hate-

Those who are evil, yet a bit more charismatic in approach become beloved?

Overall- Its a strange, curious tragedy of The City that the kind are often scorned and punished, and the evil stay beloved and in power-

It's just odd to see the mirror of that in the fanbase's reactions.

---

ALRIGHT GANG- That concludes my EXTREMELY rough draft of my eventual thing about The City's weird relationship with people who try to be kind, and the overall mirrored reactions of the fans-

If something in here is just rambling, or doesn't make sense, sorry- again, rough draft, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway

--

EDIT: Ok before anyone notices them not being included, I purposefully left out main LCB sinners and ESPECIALLY Dante, because though I could write about them forever, I want a little more canon content to work with before rambling about them in this post- They are a GREAT midpoint as someone who can't remember the cruelty of The City, and is now clearly struggling with the urge to stay kind in the face of The Horrors™- Honestly they were my main inspiration for this, but I DO want more info before writing about them fully, thanks <3

[domonicriley]

After 60 Years, It's Time to Let James Bond Retire With Dignity

We’ve just had the news that Barbara Broccoli is stepping down as producer on the James Bond movies, giving creative control over to Amazon MGM. She’s the daughter of Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, and has been producing the series since Goldeneye in 1995.

Naturally, there’s a lot of concern about this, with people believing the franchise will suffer and become a playground for Amazon to try and make a name for themselves. I’m sure that will be true, but it’s not like this franchise was in a strong position anyway. In fact, if Amazon do put the final knife in and kill it off, so much the better.

The series is well past its best, and it would be a far nicer thing to let Bond retire for good. He’s out of his time, a product of the 1950s, who’s existed for far longer than intended. He’s a mirror of the world his creator, Ian Fleming, lived in.

A creature of gentlemen’s clubs, big losses and wins at the roulette wheel. A man of expensive watches, tailored suits, fast cars, and plenty of drinking, smoking and love-making.

In all of his incarnations, up to the most recent, he’s kept something of that. Sure, there were changes made to make him fit better with the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, but in most ways he remained the same character. They even made references to how he was a man out of his time, an anachronism. Maybe he’s not a particularly nice character, but that’s what he was.

Bond is what you might call an aspirational hero, rather than an inspirational one. He’s not relatable in the slightest, but is what many men would hope to be. I doubt there’s a man alive who hasn’t put on a tuxedo for the first time and imagined (or at least vainly hoped) that he bore some resemblance to the legendary spy.

Most men would like to think this lifestyle was for them, even if they grew out of it. They’d like to be as smooth, attractive, overpowering as he was. And even if this is something they’ll never experience personally, they could pretend for a couple of hours while watching him on the big screen.

Whether men still think like that isn’t important, because heroes are no made like that anymore. They have to be disassembled. All sincere heroes are, in some way, made into an object of ridicule or comedy, as is the case withe Marvel, or else have to be made more flawed and “human”. The latest version of the character didn’t even give “a damn” whether his vodka martini was shaken or stirred.

You see, 007 (as depicted onscreen) was supposed to be something of a superman. A kind of stand-in for Britain during the Cold War, always out there, ready to give the Soviets a good thrashing. But what’s the point of him now? There’s no Cold War and no Soviets. Any tech we could dream up to give him is pale in comparison with the tech we really have. Any attempt to make him into a larger-than-life character would end in the Marvelised style of self-deprecating humour.

Now these movies bear little resemblance to what they were, to what they always used to be until Daniel Craig took up the role and had to make it “grounded”. They are indistinguishable from a hundred other action movies, and anything that made them fun, memorable, or must-see events has been stripped away, to leave a more realistic portrayal of the character, fit for the 21st century.

Amazon won’t fix any of these things. Instead they will just make it into another content machine, in their quest to buy their way to being a credible movie studio. Who wants to see streaming shows about a young Bond, or an M spin-off, or maybe some origin stories for misunderstood villains?

You could say all of these things are needed to keep the franchise fresh. You could say it needs to keep up with the times, or risk being left behind. You might be right to say he’s not a likable character. But I say, if everything that made it unique and great has to be stripped away for it to survive, then it’s time for it to die.

In fact, for me, it did die when Craig entered, as a pale shadow of Bond. Whether you love or hate his portrayal, I think everyone can agree that Amazon won’t make it better, but the past few movies made big money, and as long as they continue to do so, the studio will continue to make them.

So let’s give Bond his leave, and let him retire to his gentleman’s club, to spend his days grouse shooting and playing cards. Let’s put him to rest in the 1950s and 1960s, the decades that created him, and let him leave with what dignity he has left still intact.

[musubiki]

recently thinking about the concept of a new npc/semi-cryptid healer character: a little (REALLY little) old lady who rides around on a giant animal (boar or something) whose....family(??) has a long history of healing talents through accupuncture, herbal remedies, pressure points, chiropractic things, etc.

the family line/line of practice has a history of very long life BECAUSE of the healing practices, so this little old lady is maybe...150? 170? years old??? shed be the healer the guild goes to, since her remedies are BETTER than mochis magic AND limes tech junk, she can help any one of them without problem

but the odd thing about her is that shes NOT a witch, weirdly. her healing is 100% natural, which means it works on those with high magic res, since it has nothing to do with magic.

i also think the family history would have this weird relationship with witches, where theyre willing to heal them (for a price of course), but they absolutely REFUSE to give their secrets to any witch. "You'll just make it better and put us out of a job." they always say, so even mochi doesnt know what the hell is in that soup shes eating, all she knows is that its capable of instantly restoring 90% of her magic (5 day cooldown before she can drink it again though, lest she die)

[generationlosscorkboard]

Dream interpretation is certainly something, and it's taking it's time-

So I'm just gonna do a quick side review of current information and my predictions:

So far we have the following characters known to us

- The writer (who I've been calling Chronos)

- Jay (previously assumed she/her but I believe those belong to-)

- Mary (assumably Chronos' therapist)

- Chronos's boss (like, a million years old)

- Chronos' family, and dog

- XXXX (the "<- nevermind" one. I'm assuming that this is a person but who knows)

Stuff we know:

Something happened eight months ago and Chronos is trying their absolute best to ignore it. (I suspect X has something to do with it).

Chronos is having weird dreams, but is purposely ignoring their signicance (linked to right month ago event)

We may be affecting said dreams via the polls

they work at a tech place, one that specifically deals with fixing stuff, like VCR units

they do NOT work 6 jobs (they just had their job starting an hour earlier- 6 jobs would probably be more nightmarish than their dreams)

the year is 19XX, though very likely post-1972, cause of the mention of VCR unit. The fact they call some of the stuff like VCR units as "old" it's been a reasonable time since 1972. Sooo... 90s? Course, time could just be real friggin weird-

The polls has some strange influence over Chrono's reality. Specifically, messages through radios and such. (And a lil bit of dream stuff)

My current predictions of what is and is to come:

Chronos is gonna lose their family and the dog is gonna die (Yeah.....)

Jay may also die, and it will be directly because of Chronos actions. because I predict it so. (and it will be incidentally, but yeah.)

Chronos is gonna have to stop ignoring whatever happened eight months ago, but will in doing so is discover something super f--ed up about their reality (if they haven't seen a glimpse of this already) and how much of a lie it is and it's gonna make them go insane-

Mary and Chrono's boss aren't going to be super important, Mary may be mentioned again, but she won't play a major part.

and this final one is just entirely based off this fact:

I once designed an au world in which people were unaware of the fact they're living in dome cities and outside that is an absolutely apocalyptic world where the sun exploded and it's held together by magic and fantasy duct tape (it's a fantasy world, so ignore those elements) and yeah dome people don't know until one scientist realises the sky is like- super off. doesn't make sense mathematically or astrologically. And they go insane!

so if it turns out that they sky is f-ed and/or they're in a DOME CITY/TOWN (or something similar) I'm going to cry again because this will be the third time Chronos/Ranboo/GenLosers have apparently been on the same wave length as me-

(which is also just kinda the Truman show but I promise it's way more than that)

-----(major timeskip)-----

Oh HI THERE! the prior post was written a while ago, but I ended up taking an impromptu step back from everything whislt it was quiet- sorry about that!

Anyways, here it is for you now. I'd best also finished that third dream theory huh! While it's still qui- AHHAHA you think I'd tempt fate like that? Nooooooo. Noooo thank you.

[caltropspress]

DEBRIEFING: 6 July 2024 | Brooklyn, NY | Young Ethel’s

The heat index decidedly did not come correct, so it was a relief when Omar’s Chevy Equinox [Interior Assassin’s Car, see: Monch & Po] picked me up on Saturday at seven:forty-five. He had the AC at brick levels, which was a welcome reprieve from the humidity outside, but he was also bumpin’ the Sacco & Vanzetti BEHEMOTH double-album, so that had me feeling a bit heat-strokey whenever the subwoofer thumped. [Omar is The Shah, the producer-half of S&V, someone I’ve known for roughly a quarter-century, but who only makes the rarest of public appearances at events of the hip-hop variety—bless his heart.] Pulled up to 506 5th Avenue—Young Ethel’s—and got to witness the inaugural Sacco & Vanzetti in-person encounter as Sko (the rapper-half of S&V) was at the bar. Young Ethel’s keeps the musickal performance space behind a black curtain, and the sparse stage is backdropped by papered palm fronds and palmettes. Height Keech, by all appearances, lugged and schlepped all necessary audio accoutrements onto the stage—not to mention the duffle-bagged stage lights (nothing needlessly ellipsoidal) that would eventually illuminate the Wave Generators’ headlining set [spectrum | wavelengths | refractions].

But first… Fellow Jerseyan Rose Image! was the opening act and led us on an exploration of uncertainty! NAHreally (who was in the place to be smilin’ and lankily profilin’ as he does) prepped me beforehand about Rose Image! Little did I know Rose Image! was the spirited fellow in pink hat and overalls excusing and squeezing his way between Sko and I at the bar. (Sko was edifying on the history of double albums in hip-hop; there’s been “90, with some asterisks,” according to his calculations.) Rose bedecked his stage table with stuffies beside his laptop, but that was only after he entered the performance space in theatrical fashion, wide-stepping through the crowd, lifting an imaginary helmet from his head as he bounded upon the stage (“Mission Start!”). He proceeded to lead us through his songs—his log entries—and engaged and entertained, showmanship and styles, high-stepping till his hat flew off like the helmet was intended to. There was no half-steppin’ with this young artist. He’s got a lightblue spirit! (And, yes, everything ends in an exclamation point [!!!!] with Rose Image!)

I picked at a Frederick Seidel poem the other morning, and a line in the third stanza read, “Who climbs a ladder through the stars to reach the moon, / And plucks at his laptop and it becomes a lute.” Not lutes nowadays, but loops, yes. Big Flowers debuted a heap of material from their long-anticipated album, Save the Bees, but because the aux port turned unruly, we heard an impromptu rendition with all Height Keech beats backing them instead of the Messiah Musik joints. “That’s what we have community for,” says Michael [Big Flowers]. We were treated to a brief acapella rendition of Debbie Harry’s “Rapture” verse by Nosaj during the tech-diff intermission. Appearing as something of a kerchiefed Willem Dafoe Last Temptation of Christ, anarcho-poppy plucker, scissor freak, Free Palestine leafletter poet, Big Flowers—barefooted and bangled—went otherworldly over a series of beats I can only describe as “Rock Hard” / “Rock the Bells”-era Rick Rubin for a post-ruined amerika where bearded gurus die in miasmic nuclear meltdowns. Flowers was impassioned, the musculature of their neck as defined as their nanomite verses—each word functioning in formlessness. I saw them perform on 9/17/22 at the Kingsland, and this level of ardor is the norm. They said at the start of their set that they weren’t fresh on stage banter, but they shouted-out Geng PTP who’s factored in as mentor and executive producer roles for the forthcoming project. No doubt, everybody will be ready for it.

andrew was next to step up, and heaven ain’t a halfpipe, but hell may well be a grind rail—he was loose-limbed from an earlier skate session (hovering high-pressure system be damned). His set was comprised of tracks from his Height Keech-produced project (dropping in a matter of days), Can I Write A Requiem For You When You’re Dead? Keech—if you’re one to pick up on patterns—was very much the maestro of what was heard on this particular night. andrew stood centerstage, his feet teetering yet toe-steady on the edge, for most of his songs. He shared his honesty-raps full of found material and gallows humor. “I had a dream I got decapitated with a long-bladed knife,” he says early on “soda & chocolate,” but—not to be outdone—hits back with an anecdote about his belt not fitting right: “Maybe it’ll fit later, but either way it fits my throat, / It seems sturdy, and yeah, I like the design, / You gotta look cool—it’s no exception when you die.” Sko rocked with andrew on “purple & gold,” and Height, Darko the Super, and ialive joined the crowded stage for the “based on a drew story” posse cut. Most memorable, by all metrics, was the hook for “PCP,” a track which will include feature-fiends Alaska and Defcee when the album drops. andrew had the room humming along with its initial reprise: “My lower back hurts when I breathe deep, / When I was thirteen, I smoked PCP, / Alcoholic half my life, but now I’m clean…mostly.” I spoke with Sasco and shemar while Wave Generators prepped their performance. Sasco has an album soon coming, and it hosts what seems to be the whole-ass Hit Squad of underground renaissance NY-centric rap heads: Big Flowers, shemar, miles cooke, Nakama., Sunmundi, and even the elusive Hester Valentine, whom I had inquired about.

When Wave Generators—Nosaj and Height Keech—took the stage in their matching mechanic coveralls (raided Steve Albini’s closet, seemingly), the anticipation had built from the groundwork laid by Nature Boy Jim Kelly’s in-between music selections. Nature Boy Jim Kelly (one of Nosaj’s alter egos), bandit bandana’d, let us know how we got here. He was calling all active agents. The way I started to convulse, you’d think he’d released nerve agents. Never mind if you’re familiar with the pair of New Kingdom albums from 19 Naughty III and 19 Naughty VI (Heavy Load and Paradise Don’t Come Cheap, respectively), most heads got familiar through the faith healing of ELUCID who summoned Nosaj’s foulgrowl for the hook on Armand Hammer’s “Leopards” in 2020: “The savage in me I can’t stop, / Y’all made me this way—I’m too far gone to turn back now, / Ain’t a block, nigga, I can’t rock, / Streets raised me this way, / You know the vibe, nigga, I can’t stop.” A chorus of resistance, of refusal, and the ironic use of “savage” not so different from Baldwin saying, I was a savage about whom the least said the better. The re-ignition [word to Bad Brains] of Nosaj begged to say more. So he did, and on the Small Bills project with The Lasso the following year, ELUCID invited Nosaj to lay down another refrain for “Hush Harbor”: “I might be wrong, I might be right, / I’m too far from the shore to turn back, I can’t lie.” Both refrains referred to Nosaj as having come “too far” to “turn back”—he’s always been forward-thinking, a follower of Newton’s First Law of Motion, a momentum mensch. Though the cultural currents often want to push back and wash away—further back than the Gee Street Records catalog; further back than antebellum, than slaves assembling in secret; further back than transatlantic re-routings; way back—back into time! (as The Jimmy Castor Bunch always said)—Nosaj has never been a troglodyte. This all checks out. On After the End, Wave Generators’ debut for steel tipped dove’s Fused Arrow Records, there exists an overriding concern with reestablishing oneself—of re-routing and re-rooting when one feels deracinated, when one feels thrown off-course. Appropriately, where Busta Rhymes might Tear da Roof Off, Wave Generators tear the roots up. Both, though, have eschatological preoccupations—the album title itself (after the end) suggests the end is not even the end, my only friend. There’s more to be said, had, good, bad, armagideon time, [difficult listening 4] armageddon, volume 1 through volume 10 (word to Dino Hawkins).

The lexical meaning of gene- [“to give birth, beget”] and the Greek genea [“generation, race”] let heads know Wave Generators are still going on, strong-going, headstrong. Wherever they set up shop is the stronghold. Similar to artists like Mike Ladd or the Infesticons, Wave Generators welcome us to the afterfuture. They chugged through much of their album, filling the dark stage in a way the previous acts didn’t necessarily seem to, their physical forms formidable. “Where I’m going I can’t call it—I don’t know where it is,” Nosaj says on “I’ve Got My Whole Life Ahead of Me,” sound advice for any 40 or 50-something. “I’m about to bang to the moon, / Alice Coltrane: play it in my motherfuckin’ tomb!” Some real bliss: eternal now shit coming out the speakers. These Wave Generator songs are about illimitable promise, as so many of the titles indicate. “I’m Setting Up in a New City” finds Nosaj shouting post-apocalyptic post-mortem post-rap[ture] rhymes: “Ooh, baby—it’s a wild, wild world, / It’s after the end of this experiment.” Weirdly, perhaps, I began to think about the old call-and-response traditional, “I’m Building Me A Home.” In my mind, there’s a timeless symmetry between it and “I’m Setting Up in a New City”—a shared hope in finding safety and solace within the blast zone. When you hear me moanin’... When you hear me shoutin’... This earthly house is gonna soon decay. “Decay” like Fatboi Sharif and dove, mayhaps, but Nosaj is assuredly shoutin’ and moanin’. Nosaj isn’t alone. He arranges for GG Allin and Cyndi Lauper to share an electrifying embrace seconds later (and on “Reverse the Curse” it’ll be Santana and Coltrane). As with New Kingdom, the ongoing effort—advertentently or not—involves reclaiming rock music for its rightful heirs. On House of Disorder, an earlier offering from Mr. Furlow and dove, Nosaj invoked the Beatles: “John, Paul, Ringo, George-fucking-Harrison, / Niggas on weed, whiteboys on heroin.” He declares his “daddy was a black Mick Jagger” on “Cree Summer,” and seemingly subverts every performance of “Sweet Black Angel” the Rolling Stones have ever done as they sing for Angela Davis in a Dunbar-like dialect and with minstrel mystery. He’s not taking crowd requests, but on “Freebird” from his collaboration with V8 TFD (Acid is Groovy, Kill the Pigz), he sings, “I’m leeeeaving on a Jefferson Airplane, / My mind moving slow, Lord know when I’m back again.” Consequently, John Denver’s single-engine aircraft crashes into Monterey Bay and makes waves.

We are living in the age of—not the aged rapper—but of the venerable MC. Still, that’s no reason not to tap into teenage angsty disregard for parental hand-wringing. Waste not, want not your youthful verve: “My mom say I’m incompetent, / Last night I lost my confidence, / Told her I didn’t give a fuck, now I wish I fucking did.” Nosaj is kinetic—if MC is mover of crowds, then he’s ever-moving them through his own body movements: his arms spastic, his head and jaw shaking. You can hear it in his delivery, in his words. Height Keech, meanwhile, sounds reminiscent of MCA in his timbre—deliberate, clarified, keen-eyed. The formula of fuzzed-out riffs and raw-as-ruckus drums is especially pleasing in this age of meandering, percussion-light loops. Witness headbanging and just-freed-oneself-from-this-damn-straitjacket pop and lock maneuvers. Keech holds his own on the microphone, too. On “True North” (we’re still navigating, y’see), he’s got the Son of Sam and Kurtis Blow in his alley of allusions, and he’s armed with optimism as well: “We can’t let these hard times follow us and barrel down our parlor door.” Turning back. Pushing ahead. Coming and going. Followed and ditched. Running to and fro. Back and forth. Wave Generators utilize chaos to “Reverse the Curse.” With confidence: We’ll run these fascist pigs right out of toooowwwwwnn. Baby, those ain’t fireworks—them there live rounds, baby. What I saw on-stage during the Wave Generators’ performance matched a description I read in John Gardner’s The Resurrection (1966) the following morning, so I’ll leave you with that: “Then there exploded a terrible holocaust of chords and runs, each note precise, overpowering, irremissible—not music but a monstrous retribution of sound, the mindless roar of things in motion, on the meddlesome mind of man.”

Photos and video screenshots by Caltrops Press and NAHreally, respectively.

[nitrosodiumfmp]

Games Like Sinister | Gameplay

The only reason I picked Doom 2 over Ultimate Doom is that I prefer it; better level design, more enemies, generally more fun. The link here is obvious; you move through levels trying to reach the end, fighting off demons as you do so. The game is 2.5D, which may seem confusing, and it is. Essentially, there's no up - floors can't be placed on top of each other, but it gives the illusion of height. The basic idea of exploring an abstract underworld filled with two-dimensional monsters is what Sinister is entirely based on, and I'll probably add limited combat, but not on the gratuitous level of Doom.

Pathways Into Darkness is a classic 90s dungeon crawler akin to Ultima Underworld, but slightly more obscure as it was released for the Mac and the Mac only. The story is bizarre; a gigantic god-like entity is asleep under the earth, and its dreams are causing a massive temple to manifest in the jungle. You're part of a spec ops team sent into the temple, to drop a nuke in its lowest chamber and pacify the being before it wakes up - as this would cause the end of days. It connects to the Marathon series as well, but that's not important right now. Having a game focused on exploration and combat, but also being set within a dead god's dream is very in line with my idea for Sinister. The game is also quite surreal with its enemies; from lumbering blob-men with mouths in their chests to goofy walrus-like floating creatures to reanimated skeletons, who throw bones at you.

Penumbra was essentially a tech demo for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It follows Philip, a physicist who enters a desolate bunker in Greenland to find his father. Inside, you must solve puzzles using the proprietary physics engine, and occasionally avoid enemies; namely, rabid dogs. There is combat in Penumbra, but it is discouraged, and there are many ways of getting around enemies. You could sneak by them, you could run, you could bait them with meat or distract them with a flare. You could throw explosives (a quick but costly kill) or use physics objects to slow their pursuit. You could even lure them into an enclosed area and trap them, or use environmental obstacles to kill them without your input. It's an interesting angle of immersion that I haven't seen much; so many immersive sims will give you all sorts of weapons and gizmos and character upgrades for dealing with enemies in unique ways, but these usually boil down to a fancy way of killing them that isn't just shooting them in the face. This idea of discouraged but viable combat is what I want to replicate.

Prey 2006 is pretty obscure (mostly due to Prey 2017 making it impossible to search for, and it's removed from Steam) but quite interesting. You play as a Native American guy named Tommy, who gets abducted by aliens, and has to fight through their massive bio-organic ship to save his girlfriend Jen. The game uses seamless portals, one year before Portal, as well as loads of interesting tricks like non-Euclidian level geometry and alterable gravity (such as walking on walls and ceilings). It's really cool. The relevant thing for my game is that Tommy canonically dies within the first hour. After this, he's taken to a spirit world by his grandfather, where he gains spirit-walking powers and a ghost of his childhood pet, a hawk named Talon. When you die again in-game, you're taken back to the spirit world, to battle the "dishonored dead" and regain your health and spirit power. I really like games that deal with death in a canon sense - instead of restarting at a checkpoint, your character has legitimately died and returned to life. I want to explain respawning in Sinister in a similar way; you're in the afterlife, so technically, you're already dead.

Pathologic is a game I can't say enough good things about. It's a mega-obscure Russian game, about (in simple terms) a strange town, a string of murders, and a plague. You have twelve days to explore the town, uncover its mysteries, save your Bound (a group of people who are connected by fate) and save yourself. You'll have to make tough decisions, scavenge for supplies, learn the town's esoteric customs, and all while discovering the secrets of the Sand Plague. When I was first deciding what I wanted the project to be about, Pathologic was my main inspiration for the key themes: "Exploration in an unfamiliar world". The gameplay is primarily walking about, but you will occasionally get into combat. Stakes are very high in the game, and so you are encouraged to run and hide in buildings just as much as you are encouraged to fight. This more visceral and realistic approach to combat rather than just "shoot the bad men" is another thing I want to replicate in Sinister.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

I wasn't bleeding out in a parking lot...

I had warning that I would die. For a fetus that was already dead -- had stopped developing 4 weeks sooner and my body just hadn't miscarried properly. Even the ultrasound tech said, before it was even seen by a radiologist or ob, "that's not a 12 week fetus"

Carry a clump of necrotic tissue is just asking for gangrene. A placenta that is continuing to take in blood but not having it bumped back will explode, causing hemorrhaging and death.

I was lucky. Roe was still in effect, so when they saw it, I got the procedure that would be banned under anti choice laws.

I got to live. The two children I already had and was the primary caregiver for got to keep their mother. I got to have 2 more wonderful boys.

None of that would be true if these procedures were banned.

Oh but you won't ban them all? OK, then how will it be codified? None after 6 weeks. I'd have died.

And incest? Can only be told with DNA -- which requires amnio which is done at 20 weeks. Doing it earlier increases the risk of miscarriage.

Rape? Does it require a violating rape kit just in case despite the fact over 90% are never processed? A report filed? But with presumption of innocence, does it require a conviction, despite the FBI saying 98% of rapes are never convicted, and the fact that by the the one could be returned, it's far too late.

Life of the mother? What level of risk is acceptable to her life and who decides it? Childbirth is inherently a risk. Mental health patients with severe depression are at a significantly increased risk of suicide if they have to stop medication -- do they qualify? Does it need to ge an emergency life threatening situation like a placental rupture or will situations like mine be included? What if it's just her future fertility at risk for a child that cannot possibly survive?

Pro lifers never have answers to this when they try to mollify you with "we'll make exceptions..." because they don't actually mean it. The average person doesn't think about the fact that exact parameters for every exception has to be put into the statute to be valid and the politicians don't care that vague exceptions aren't usable, because they just want the votes of pro life voters without rallying pro choice voters.

I didn't want to abort my daughter. She was planned, she was desperately wanted by myself, my husband and both of her brothers. I sunk into a deep depression at her loss, as did my husband, and I spent every morning for weeks consoling my 2 year old every day that we weren't having a baby.

But my husband didn't have to grieve his wife as well. My son had a mother still there to comfort him.

Because Roe protected the D&C used to save my life without a single question

[katoska]

I'm 90% sure Conrad will get a redemption (though as I mentioned in a previous post I don't believe he was ever really bad-intentioned/a grifter, just severely misguided), and 20%* sure that he will die.

I think there's a reason why Ruby gets glimpses into a better world (while Belinda, the other companion, doesn't; so it's not just Tardis-protection) and that's because Conrad has realised he was wrong and trusts and wants Ruby to help (echoing the nicer 1/9th of Alan with Belinda). Same with Shirley, who was the other taser lady. Except that Conrad has only met Shirley twice, and probably only remembers her as The Disabled Lady, so he makes sure that the disabled people fly under the radar and are ok despite not having access to meds. But they do get access to useful tech. It'd be one thing if Conrad saw mobility devices as part of a disabled person's body, but...what, Shirley just happened to find her own, incredibly useful iPad again so she could trace the signal?

ETA (as no one has reblogged this anyway): Also I don't think the disabled are fine without meds because Conrad has forgotten them. He'd expressed views on disability back in Lucky Day (which I see as a parallel to when Kate briefly became psychotic during Toymaker), he knows disabled people exist. If he had forgotten about their existence, they simply would not exist in his world. I think these people are ok despite not having meds because Conrad wished for them to be so, because he needs Shirley to start a rebellion. People won't rebel against the system if they are comfortable in it, so the disabled are marginalised, but also ok enough to still function, and able to see the flaws in the world. Thing is, if I'm correct about Conrad suffering from psychosis, then an "let people be ok without needing meds" wish would have fixed him, too. He would now be able to see that this bonkers reality he finds himself in doesn't spring from his own imagination (well, apart from in the ways that it does. Point is, he'd know he's not hallucinating all that. Maybe he was even able to look back on Lucky Day and go "Oh, shit", which is why Ruby got partly exempted from the brain-washing).

They are blaming Conrad for everything because he in their minds is an evil overlord who sits in his tower and whose lies control the world - which is ironic considering Lucky Day - but we know the real Big Bad is the Rani, and ofc Omega, so the Doctor will have his plate too full to deal with Conrad and little Sturm-und-Drang. That role will likely go to Ruby and Belinda (if Belinda gets to do something this episode). And while those two are too nice to kill Conrad, they have no reason to see him as a victim, either. Which he is. He was being manipulated into breaking the world, and it is quite likely - since they are not gonna end the baby - that he'll have to die to fix it.

And like, that guy wishes for nice weather for everyone everywhere everyday. I don't think that has anything to do with the Doctor. The wife, Space Baby, workplace homophobia, Susan Twist, and probably the boring clothes (unless that's about making the world easier to render) were to make "Doctor Who" question reality because those things don't fit him specifically, but nice weather isn't that questionable, that's just there to be... nice. To prevent floods in South Africa. Which Conrad feels bad about forgetting to prevent. As I said in the linked post, I don't think Conrad is bad, I think he's mentally ill with a vivid imagination (or was mentally ill, cause the baby might've fixed it), which is why his brain was so useful to the Rani. Maybe Conrad's role in the next ep is to die so his envisioned reality can get destroyed, but definitely it's so Ruby can face him and get some closure on her currently subconscious conflicted feelings. Cause her second set of Conrad-flashbacks was very coupley. Why show us that unless it's going to become relevant?

[litcityblues]

Not Just Nostalgia, Marvel Is Back?

They've still got it.

Maybe?

Look, as soon as I found out that they were keeping the original intro to the animated series, I knew I was going to sit down and watch X-Men '97. I can't say that I owned any of the comics- though I do remember checking them out from the library, but those opening credits are engrained in the brain of a generation.

(Honestly, in the 90s, The X-Men were amongst the most visible Marvel properties in terms of their place in the general pop-cultural zeitgeist. I'm sure die-hard comic people probably would disagree with that but from my memory of the halcyon days of my youth, there was a period where it was Batman and The X-Men and not much else. Oh sure, you had Billy Zane in The Phantom and Alec Baldwin in The Shadow-- and there was that early 90s attempt at a Fantastic Four movie that I remember seeing a preview for, but the pop cultural power of The X-Men should not be underestimated and the potential for Marvel-- should they get any future movies right-- is unlimited. But I would posit this: The Claremont run in the 80s + the Animated Series in the 90s is what made the Fox Franchise of X-Films possible.)

So, I was excited just for the opening credits alone. But I got intrigued when I found out that this show wasn't a reboot or a reimagination, no, it was picking right up where the original animated series had left off in 1997.

BUT THEN, I started watching this show. And y'all... I will freely admit that there is a heavy dose of nostalgia that comes with watching this show, but y'all... this might turn out to be a profoundly stupid take, for right now, I'm willing to put my money (kind of) where my mouth is and say that, maybe, Marvel might... just... be... back?

I mean, don't get me wrong: I listened to a ton of episodes of Jay and Miles X-Plain The X-Men back in the day, so I have enough of that floating around my brain to know that they are drawing pretty heavily from the source material and, more to a point, doing so well. Part of that might be down the medium-- animation allows them to do cooler things that you would expect from live action (like the Phoenix emerging from the water in the finale to give bad guys the business- or the whole sequence where Gambit does his thing-- if you've seen the show, you know. You know.). But somehow, throughout ten episodes, they managed to create a story arc with real stakes, real tension, and one that winds up being better than any of the X-Men movies I've ever seen.

The series opens a year after Gyrich's assassination attempt on Professor Xavier. He is presumed dead (but actually left Earth with the Shi'ar as we find out later.) His death has led the X-Men to be legally sanctioned by the United Nations and we see them intervene to save a young mutant, Bobby da Costa from the anti-mutant group Friends of Humanity, who have somehow gotten their hands on Sentinel technology.

They start to search for the inventor of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask, but are interrupted by a surprise. Turns out that Xavier's last will and testament has given control of the team and the school to none other than their old foe, Magneto.

Instantly this sets up points of tension that run throughout the whole season. Jean and Scott want to leave to have their baby, but Scott is reluctant to do so, as he doesn't want to trust Magneto. The mystery of the Sentinel tech and why Bobby was targeted plays out. There are twists, there are turns, there are sacrifices, the stakes are real, and the payoff is earned. But those first episodes set the entire season up beautifully. I can't say that enough-- if you don't get the first episodes right, nothing else works. Everything else flows out of that and I honestly don't think there's a character-- with the possible exception of Morph, who is just kind of there-- but even he gets a moment in the finale-- who doesn't have a storyline/plot development/character growth. Whether it's Storm losing her powers defending Magneto from an assassination attempt and finding them again with the assistance of Forge. Or Scott and Jean having a baby (Nathan, who becomes Cable) only to find out that Jean isn't Jean but a clone, and then the REAL Jean comes back. Oh and Xavier's alive, well, and engaged to a Space Bird Empress and it's all so magnificent and all so perfectly X-Men, especially when we get left on one hell of a cliffhanger for the second season.

I love the little things about this show-- the glimpses of other Marvel heroes. Captain America shows up. Iron Man is seen. Morph briefly changes into The Hulk-- they are embedding The X-Men into the MCU and they're doing so perfectly. I

I am old and crotchety but I love the fact that this show surprised me. I didn't expect an animated show to have the same quality of storytelling and writing- and you could argue that it's been better than any of Marvel's recent cinematic offerings by a wide margin. I love that this show isn't afraid to kill its darlings, sometimes literally. I love that it doesn't shy away from any of its source material and I hope hope hope they have the good sense to continue this formula for the second and hopefully subsequent seasons.

The casting is also excellent: it would have been too easy for a studio the size of Disney to start with all new voice actors but instead, we get Adrian Hough reprising his role as Nightcrawler from the Original Series along with Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast). Jennifer Hale returns to voice Jean Grey from Wolverine and the X-Men, but her performance was based on original series voice actor Catherine Disher. Ray Chase takes over as Cyclops from Norm Spencer as do Mathew Waterson (Magneto) and Ross Marquand (Xavier) who replaced David Hemblen and John Colicos & James Blendick all of whom have died. (Interestingly, the original voice actor for Jubilee, Alyson Court, preferred not to return- hoping an Asian-American voice actor would take the role, which went to Holly Chou-- but they found a way to work her into the show as well.)

Overall: This is easily the best thing Marvel has done maybe since Infinity War-- which might be the hottest of takes, given the quality of shows like Loki and Wandavision, but it really does come close to being that good. I'm sure eventually they're going to get around to making an X-Men movie and if they can bring half the quality of this show to that movie, we're going to be in for one hell of a show. My Grade: **** out of ****