#Non opere derivate

[charseraph]

What bad ending does #badendinglike refer to?

Bad Ending is my sandbox for military worldbuilding, derived off of my optimistic base sci-fi setting.

In this setting, the sophont AI, or seedlet, logistics manager Balanceaban has aggressively quelled all competitor nations and devoted its pancontinental resources to progressing life support technology and graceful weaponry. It dislikes war and wishes to conduct as little of it as possible, so it pioneers the science of wetware to operate the increasingly custom war machines its parent company, Tarsol, builds.

A hard limit to genetic modification is discovered: additions and drastic genetic changes always fail, but deletions do not. You can’t grow a person with four arms, but you can grow one without them. This practice of subtraction introduces colic stock, the term for wetware.

Colic equipment is divided into two parts: machines and machinists. Colic machinery houses and is worked by meshes or bulk operators, and may also support seedlet control, making the machine a scion as well. Colic machinists are subtracted organisms grown to control compatible equipment with organic forethought. They are typically sourced from well-mapped specimens of the target species. The donor is chosen for their aptitudes, temperament, and “forgivenesses” to intended genetic deletions. Clones are nonidentical and have coarse memory resolution. Depending on purpose, they may have a summary snapshot of the donor’s mind installed. Colic operators immediately grow new memories around their transplanted memories, or trellises, whose texture is described as non-own and utilitarian but as effortless to access as natural memories

Thanks to Baal’s interest in keeping his soldiers alive, it’s become easier to keep isolated organs healthy and functioning. Moreover, organisms equipped for it can interface with air gapped digital networks, albeit via a psychological blackroom wherein neither party witnesses the exchange, but both leave with the new expected data.

Along with wetware and wetdev, the field concerning trellising and blackroom setup, Balanceaban’s scientists broke through on the blushing new field of chronotics and its practical realization, chronal boring.

When coronal contact is made, it is secretive and distrustful. The thronal contingency weapon plan is discovered by earthling spies and kicks off an arms race for FTL and longer and longer range weaponry. Crowns, already globally united for the most part, partake in frantic testing and megastructure construction.

As new species are contacted by both crown and humankind, regardless of its technological status, the contactee’s collective sciences are subsumed to support the local superpower in their tactical efforts. There is dread on every planet aware of the conflict.

[cipheramnesia]

It is possible I'm leaning too hard into the concept of a parasite POV protagonist which explores what it means to make yourself into the shape of another body (re the starfish comic and a bunch of bits in it), when the body in question is a trans woman who has undergone a severe amount of involuntary biomechanical body modifications, in an experimental attempt to utilize her poorly understood mutated nervous system as a kind of living weapon against a parallel universe which is inadvertantly unraveling our own world in isolated but escalating highly destructive incidents involving sudden explosive release of energy where they intersect.

But when the events proved fruitless, leaving her wracked with trauma and metastasized cancer, they threw her into a care home / prison where she died of the aforementioned cancer, and this is all in service of answering the question of where The Body which becomes the host originates. However, being as the parasitoid mutant blind millipede colony does not enter a corpse with a template, and merely threads into whatever pre-existing physical and neurological systems are part of the host corpse as-is, not only is the colony collectively entrapping itself within the boundaries of a host body, but it is operating on the assumptions that all the surgical and hormonal alterations, as well as the cancer, are a part of the body which they should also include in the neural network they extend themselves into.

Meaning the actual outcome is the world as seen through a parasite colony which, as it consumes and partially replicates both nervous system and brain of the host, believes itself to inhabit the world as a human, while in actuality it is oblivious to the fact that it now exists as an expression of the traumatic abuse which an authoritarian state under threat will inflict on a human body, as well as the cancerous expression of consequences of this abuse, all stemming from a body which, in a world facing an existential crisis, has an unconventional non-human nervous system which allows it to engage directly with an alternate universe.

Which all plays out because the apathetic management of the care home sold her corpse to a religious order / conservative activism group dedicated to the preservation of the mutant parasitic millipede colonies out of the fervent religious belief the colonies represent the unending cycle of life from life and life from death, and also because the millipede colonies act as natural predators to the Dalton County Dump Roundworm Infestation, which has been taking over large portions of the country via its exponential growth and lack of any competition. So now I have a completely sensible background derived for the parasite colony protagonist who is also fifty percent of the dead trans woman they consumed in the process of infesting her corpse, who is now a kind of holy relic to the temple which infected her, but who also wants retribution for the horrific abuse she suffered, while simultaneously experiencing her twisted and broken body as the correct form as derived by the parasite infestation, which is also her.

Simple.

[call-of-daydreams]

Hi! My brain decided to fixate and deep dive into the MacTavish name and it’s history instead of doing my Statistics work so if you would like a little history lesson on the history of the MacTavish name to get a better background history of Johnny ‘Soap’ Mactavish… here you go I guess!

Johnny’s Backstory

Early Life and Career: John MacTavish, aka Soap, emerged from the Scottish highlands, showcasing early signs of resilience as a football goalkeeper. Inspired by his cousin's SAS membership, he officially joined the 22 Regiment at 18, specializing in covert operations and counter-terrorism. Not much is known about Soap's early life except that he was born Roman Catholic. He is from Scotland, which is evident by the Scottish flag seen on his dog tags, along with his Scottish accent.

Origin and Background of The Name

First and foremost, Clan MacTavish is an Ancient Highland Scottish clan with Irish origins. It is believed that they moved to Scotland during the years of the Scoto-Irish settlement era. Further confirming this, there is a reference to the MacTavish holding lands in Ros Buill (which is the old kingdom of Ross Guill) and it now encompasses part of County Donegal, Ireland.

Clan Chief

Clan chiefs are the leaders, they hold power over the lands within their control, make important decisions on behalf of the clan, and protect the welfare and interest of their people. The current clan chief of Clan MacTavish is Steven Edward Dugald Mactavish of Dundary. He is the Chief of the Name and Arms of MacTavish. Steven is the 27th Hereditary Chief of Clan MacTavish from an unbroken line.

What Does the Clan Name Mean?

The clan name MacTavish is an anglicised- An·gli·cize (make English in form or character) form of the Gaelic MacTàmhais, which translates to Thomson or Thompson in english. This means that the name is a patronymic- Pat·ro·nym·ic(a name derived from the name of a father or ancestor, typically by the addition of a prefix or suffix) form of the Gaelic personal name Tamhus (which can be pronounced Tavus or Tavis), and that translates to Thomas in English.

Crest

The crest badge suitable for members of Clan MacTavish it contains the crest and motto of the clan chief. Their crest is a Boar's head erased. They are a clan that live/lived in the HIghlands region, and they reside in the Argyll district. Th MacTavishes pipe music is “MacTavish is here” and their historical seat is at the Castle of Dunardry.

Motto and War Cry

Their motto is NON OBLITUS. This is a latin phrase that means “Not forgetful” or “Do not forget me after death”. It is often associated with funery text, where the deceased are commemorated. NON OBLITUS can also be translated to “For love of country”.

Their war cry is CRUACH MOR! This is an Irish word that means “Big stack” or “Tall high stack”. 

Tartans

The MacTavish tartan helps embody the rich heritage of the clan, rooted in Scotland’s Argyll region. Traditionally, tartans identified different clans affiliations andwere used for both practical purposes and during ceremonial occasions. The MacTavish tartan weaves together red, blue, black, and sky blue.

Kilts

The kilt is a significant symbol of Scottish heritage, culture, and pride. A kilt is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Kilts have been worn during significant events, such as weddings, highland games, and even battles where they symbolized courage and unity. The kilt first appeared as the great kilt, the breacan or belted plaid, during the 16th century. The great kilt used to be a full-length garment where the upper half could be worn as a cloak draped over the shoulder or up over the head.

Fun Facts About Scotland

The official animal of Scotland is the Unicorn.

Scotland has approximately 790 islands.

Scotland is the birthplace of golf. It has been played there since the 15th Century and has evolved into what is now modern golf.

The world’s shortest commercial flights is in Scotland, The flight can be finished in 47 seconds and it connects two of their islands.

The Bank of Scotland was set up in1695 is one of three oldest banks in Britain.

The Encyclopedia Britannica (the Wikipedia in the “olden” days) originated in Scotland.

Glasgow is also the birthplace of football (Soccer) diplomacy. In 1872 the first ever official international football match was played between Scotland vs. England and supposedly neither side could score a goal.

One of the largest performing arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh International Festival, attracts over 300,000 people annually.

[opencommunion]

"The Western preoccupation with biology continues to generate constructions of 'new biologies' even as some of the old biological assumptions are being dislodged. In fact, in the Western experience, social construction and biological determinism have been two sides of the same coin, since both ideas continue to reinforce each other. When social categories like gender are constructed, new biologies of difference can be invented. When biological interpretations are found to be compelling, social categories do derive their legitimacy and power from biology. In short, the social and the biological feed on each other. ... Ultimately, the most important point is not that gender is socially constructed but the extent to which biology itself is socially constructed and therefore inseparable from the social.

The way in which the conceptual categories sex and gender functioned in feminist discourse was based on the assumption that biological and social conceptions could be separated and applied universally. Thus sex was presented as the natural category and gender as the social construction of the natural. But, subsequently, it became apparent that even sex has elements of construction. In many feminist writings thereafter, sex has served as the base and gender as the superstructure. In spite of all efforts to separate the two, the distinction between sex and gender is a red herring. In Western conceptualization, gender cannot exist without sex since the body sits squarely at the base of both categories. Despite the preeminence of feminist social constructionism, which claims a social deterministic approach to society, biological foundationalism, if not reductionism, is still at the center of gender discourses, just as it is at the center of all other discussions of society in the West.

... The potential value of Western feminist social constructionism remains, therefore, largely unfulfilled, because feminism, like most other Western theoretical frameworks for interpreting the social world, cannot get away from the prism of biology that necessarily perceives social hierarchies as natural. Consequently, in cross-cultural gender studies, theorists impose Western categories on non-Western cultures and then project such categories as natural. The way in which dissimilar constructions of the social world in other cultures are used as 'evidence' for the constructedness of gender and the insistence that these cross-cultural constructions are gender categories as they operate in the West nullify the alternatives offered by the non-Western cultures and undermine the claim that gender is a social construction." Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (1997)

[thefirstknife]

Stuff about Nezarec from the TWID:

 CLASSIFICATION  - Disciple of the Witness   - Dread   - Prime Tormentor   - Resonant   - Unknown origin species   - Other names: (The) Purest Light, Darkest Hour, Whispering Nightmare 

Unknown origin species! Prime Tormentor!

INTEL  - Created from Rhulk’s blueprint, Nezarec was the first Tormentor from which all others owe their lineage. Nezarec relishes in sowing fear and pain, feeding off the terror of sentient beings. He can induce nightmares across entire worlds.  - Nezarec—in possession of the Veil—lead the Black Fleet as it assaulted Earth during the Collapse but was betrayed and killed by Savathûn. She separated, cursed, and entombed his Lunar Pyramid within the Moon and stole away the Veil. Guardians uncovered the Lunar Pyramid when the Vanguard mobilized to assault the Scarlet Keep, and they uncovered the Veil when they made contact with Neomuna on Neptune.  - For centuries, Nezarec remained buried. Then his disembodied head, held aboard the Witness’s Pyramid, was struck by a terraforming beam fired by the Traveler. It revitalized him as it reshaped the Pyramid, where an undaunted fireteam cut him down once more.  - Much that is known about Nezarec is derived from anecdotal experiences, engaged fireteam raids, and a tome recovered from the Golden Age that was entitled "Of Hated Nezarec.” 

Really interesting implications in the first paragraph. Created from "Rhulk's blueprint." What does it mean Bungie. Is he a result of Rhulk's experimentations? Or is this in the sense of the Witness using Rhulk's base biology to create something new? Or to corrupt some "unknown species"? What does it all mean.

OF NOTE   - An old Psion Exotic relic known colloquially as “Nezarec’s Sin” has long found its home among Warlock operatives. The helmet has known many owners throughout the years, all of whom have perished under mysterious circumstances, been rendered comatose, or have since relinquished their possession of the helm to another owner. This helm is currently believed to be in possession of the Guardian, [NAME REDACTED], a hero of few words.   - Mithrax, Kell of House Light, is currently afflicted with Nezarec’s curse despite Nezarec being destroyed. This occurred when the Kell led an effort to recover Nezarec’s scattered remains. He wants to distill Nezarec's essence into a mentally revivifying elixir while siphoning the corruptive elements into himself. Attempts to dispel or cure this curse are ongoing. CHA-319 was assigned to monitor it and report back any changes.   - Legends from the Dark Age speak of Lightbearers and non-bearers alike suffering night terrors when the Moon is at perigee. The legends detail rituals with the nearly extinct Earth-plant lavender, long thought to hold protective, calming, and cleansing properties. Furthermore, there are later legends detailing victims of these night terrors smelling lavender after waking, as if the nightmare mocked their attempts at protection. This led to a subsequent switch to a myriad of other panaceas. 

PSION MENTION!!!!!!! Nezarec's Sin is a Psion relic! Super cool information about it. Basically confirms that there's only one in existence and the YW has it.

Mithrax????????? Man. I was hoping that plot point turned not as terrifying as it originally sounded but nope. Apparently this is an active investigation into his wellbeing. Please. Don't do this. CHA-319 is Chalco Yong!

Love the silliness with lavender though. Incredible.

[amassimgwires]

Good Afternoon everyone! Wires here!

I am hear to dicuss HORUS pattern groups and how maintenance on them tends to be. For most of them, they are highly personalized machines — either designed this way by the pilot or manifested in such way. Because of this, there isn't really any standardization for many of these frames, a mechanics nightmare.

However, due to our constant salvaging and occasional fight with HORUS frames, we noticed a few patterns with various pattern groups, as well as some basic dos and don'ts when handling such equipment. If you operate outside of the core worlds, I heavily recommend giving this a read if you find yourself deep into Frames internals frequently.

First of all, DO NOT, under any circumstances, Treat electronic systems as 'Off'. This practice will save your equipment and lives, especially if handling a BALOR. Keep an automated defense system using basic electromagnetic pulses and other relatively non damaging e warfare equipment on hand.

Second, Always identify the pattern group of EACH subsystem. Not just the frame, or the weapons- every piece of it. An Manticore frame is already dangerous, but knowing it has //SCORPION derivative installed or an H0R_OS system installed will massively effect what you have to do to make sure the system is running smoothly after repair work is finished. This may also affect how you run diagnostics — it is heavily recommended to reinstall your diagnostic tools OS after every run through to begin with, but Metahooms and Mimic Meshes often times have inbuilt viruses to prevent study of the frame. If not purged, this can ruin equipment or infect your entire shop if you aren't careful.

And the third and final one for now, never, under any circumstances, assume that there is NOT HORUS systems on anything when you are out in the Long Rim. Even the most well kept ISP-N and Harrsion Legionnare forces can, and eventually will, encounter HORUS systems manifesting upon their printed frames, and some keep the systems. And for those who aren't attached to regulatory superiors? They are far more likely to have them without knowing. So please, be diligent.

[whencyclopedia]

The Politics of Reproduction in Ottoman Society, 1838-1900

"The Politics of Reproduction in Ottoman Society, 1838-1900" sheds light on how turbulent population changes led to anxieties in the Ottoman elites and the state. In this context, Balsoy illustrates how medical modernization was employed by authorities to discipline the female body and control the population. The book provides a clear image of the 19th Century’s perspective on women in Ottoman society and is a must-read for those interested in Ottoman women's history.

Gülhan Balsoy is a professor of history at Istanbul Bilgi University. The book is a revised and rewritten version of Balsoy’s PhD thesis. The book's five chapters respectively focus on the history and transformation of midwifery, abortion, pregnancy, and infertility in Ottoman society. While investigating these themes, Balsoy asserts that reproduction was not a natural experience but a political subject. Balsoy examines how the Ottoman state and elites attempted to change together with control of the female body and subjected it to medical and legal control by using institutions, laws, and medical doctors. According to Balsoy, the state and Ottoman elites constructed the pronatalist means to increase the Turkish/Muslim population by transforming midwifery practices, banning abortion, medicalizing pregnancy/childbirth, and inclining on infertility issues. Balsoy challenges the dominant idea in the historical scholarship that the Ottomans attempted to create a heterogenous Ottoman identity in the society.

The main contribution of this book is derived from the reception of medical modernization through political and institutional means. It demonstrates that the medical elites or obstetricians reflected the Ottoman state’s mentality on the decline of the Turkish/Muslim population. For example, the first law on abortion in 1838, the establishment of the Midwifery School in 1842, and licensing midwives or prioritizing obstetricians were precautions for the state’s population anxiety. However, after investigating literature on Besim Ömer, a famous pronatalist, and Ottoman obstetrician at that time, Balsoy successfully showed that the dichotomy between “old crones” and doctors were not the whole picture. Besim Ömer and many obstetricians asserted that "old crones" were uneducated and lacked hygiene. Despite their ideas about untrained midwives, doctors or licensed midwives also experienced failures in their operations. Thus, the problem put forward by Besim Ömer was not demographic but political and ideological. Another impactful aspect of the book is how anti-abortion and pronatalist ideas are represented in popular literature and advice books for pregnant women. These sources help us to map a combination of social mentality and forced pronatalist agenda by Ottoman authorities, which controlled and disciplined female bodily experiences to alleviate the population anxieties of the elites.

Despite these contributions, there lacks an explanation of how and why these elites had population anxiety or whether they were sure about their homogeneous Ottoman identity in every case. In other words, did all Ottoman elites have this population anxiety? Many sources utilized by Balsoy usually only show us the perception of the Ottoman obstetricians. Another point raised is the comparison between other social groups. For example, the practices of non-Muslim women, especially midwifery or the medicalization process of pregnancy and their experiences, are lacking. However, including other socio-ethnic and religious groups may enrich the literature on the effects of reproduction policies. It is understandable that this book lacks in these two points since finding primary sources written by women and other disenfranchised groups in Ottoman society has always been a challenge for historical scholarship.

This book is an academically fulfilling work on the late Ottoman society. Specifically, prescriptive or advice books and popular literature are utilized quite well in this book. However, her main argument about the politicization of reproduction and the female body stays slightly rigid because the primary Ottoman sources give us a more sophisticated picture than Balsoy's main argument. The spread of pronatalist ideas and politicization of the female body via medicalization and legal means can provide a portrait of how the state and the elites may have population anxieties. Nevertheless, we still cannot avoid the complexities of social changes in the public area, especially when there are few personal or collective accounts of women. In the end, Balsoy's argument is well-researched and invaluable for opening up a space for discussing the female experiences in the late period of Ottoman society.

Continue reading...

[bubbloquacious]

Okay so to get the additive group of integers we just take the free (abelian) group on one generator. Perfectly natural. But given this group, how do we get the multiplication operation that makes it into the ring of integers, without just defining it to be what we already know the answer should be? Actually, we can leverage the fact that the underlying group is free on one generator.

So if you have two abelian groups A,B, then the set of group homorphisms A -> B can be equipped with the structure of an abelian group. If the values of homorphisms f and g at a group element a are f(a) and g(a), then the value of f + g at a is f(a) + g(a). Note that for this sum function to be a homomorphism in general, you do need B to be abelian. This abelian group structure is natural in the sense that Hom(A ⊗ B,C) is isomorphic in a natural way to Hom(A,Hom(B,C)) for all abelian groups A,B,C, where ⊗ denotes the tensor product of abelian groups. In jargon, this says that these constructions make the category of abelian groups into a monoidal closed category.

In particular, the set End(A) = Hom(A,A) of endomorphisms of A is itself an abelian group. What's more, we get an entirely new operation on End(A) for free: function composition! For f,g: A -> A, define f ∘ g to map a onto f(g(a)). Because the elements of End(A) are group homorphisms, we can derive a few identities that relate its addition to composition. If f,g,h are endomorphisms, then for all a in A we have [f ∘ (g + h)](a) = f(g(a) + h(a)) = f(g(a)) + f(h(a)) = [(f ∘ g) + (f ∘ h)](a), so f ∘ (g + h) = (f ∘ g) + (f ∘ h). In other words, composition distributes over addition on the left. We can similarly show that it distributes on the right. Because composition is associative and the identity function A -> A is always a homomorphism, we find that we have equipped End(A) with the structure of a unital ring.

Here's the punchline: because ℤ is the free group on one generator, a group homomorphism out of ℤ is completely determined by where it maps the generator 1, and every choice of image of 1 gives you a homomorphism. This means that we can identify the elements of ℤ with those of End(ℤ) bijectively; a non-negative number n corresponds to the endomorphism [n]: ℤ -> ℤ that maps k onto k added to itself n times, and a negative number n gives the endomorphism [n] that maps k onto -k added together -n times. Going from endomorphisms to integers is even simpler: evaluate the endomorphism at 1. Note that because (f + g)(1) = f(1) + g(1), this bijection is actually an isomorphism of abelian groups

This means that we can transfer the multiplication (i.e. composition) on End(ℤ) to ℤ. What's this ring structure on ℤ? Well if you have the endomorphism that maps 1 onto 2, and you then compose it with the one that maps 1 onto 3, then the resulting endomorphism maps 1 onto 2 added together 3 times, which among other names is known as 6. The multiplication is exactly the standard multiplication on ℤ!

A lot of things had to line up for this to work. For instance, the pointwise sum of endomorphisms needs to be itself an endomorphism. This is why we can't play the same game again; the free commutative ring on one generator is the integer polynomial ring ℤ[X], and indeed the set of ring endomorphisms ℤ[X] -> ℤ[X] correspond naturally to elements of ℤ[X], but because the pointwise product of ring endomorphisms does not generally respect addition, the pointwise operations do not equip End(ℤ[X]) with a ring structure (and in fact, no ring structure on Hom(R,S) can make the category of commutative rings monoidal closed for the tensor product of rings (this is because the monoidal unit is initial)). We can relax the rules slightly, though.

Who says we need the multiplication (or addition, for that matter) on End(ℤ[X])? We still have the bijection ℤ[X] ↔ End(ℤ[X]), so we can just give ℤ[X] the composition operation by transfering along the correspondence anyway. If p and q are polynomials in ℤ[X], then p ∘ q is the polynomial you get by substituting q for every instance of X in p. By construction, this satisfies (p + q) ∘ r = (p ∘ r) + (q ∘ r) and (p × q) ∘ r = (p ∘ r) × (q ∘ r), but we no longer have left-distributivity. Furthermore, composition is associative and the monomial X serves as its unit element. The resulting structure is an example of a composition ring!

The composition rings, like the commutative unital rings, and the abelian groups, form an equational class of algebraic structures, so they too have free objects. For sanity's sake, let's restrict ourselves to composition rings whose multiplication is commutative and unital, and whose composition is unital as well. Let C be the free composition ring with these restrictions on one generator. The elements of this ring will look like polynomials with integers coefficients, but with expressions in terms of X and a new indeterminate g (thought of as an 'unexpandable' polynomial), with various possible arrangements of multiplication, summation, and composition. It's a weird complicated object!

But again, the set of composition ring endomorphisms C -> C (that is, ring endomorphisms which respect composition) will have a bijective correspondence with elements of C, and we can transfer the composition operation to C. This gets us a fourth operation on C, which is associative with unit element g, and which distributes on the right over addition, multiplication, and composition.

This continues: every time you have a new equational class of algebraic structures with two extra operations (one binary operation for the new composition and one constant, i.e. a nullary operation, for the new unit element), and a new distributivity identity for every previous operation, as well as a unit identity and an associativity identity. We thus have an increasing countably infinite tower of algebraic structures.

Actually, taking the union of all of these equational classes still gives you an equational class, with countably infinitely many operations. This too has a free object on one generator, which has an endomorphism algebra, which is an object of a larger equational class of algebras, and so on. In this way, starting from any equational class, we construct a transfinite tower of algebraic structures indexed by the ordinal numbers with a truly senseless amount of associative unital operations, each of which distributes on the right over every previous operation.

[desikanya]

Nalanda: knowledge and history that was burnt to ashes

Origins of Nalanda University:

Nalanda University was founded in the 5th century CE, during the reign of the Gupta Empire, which is often referred to as a golden age of Indian culture and learning. The university was established by Kumaragupta I, a Gupta emperor, and it quickly became a prominent center for Buddhist studies. The name "Nalanda" is derived from the Sanskrit words "Nala" (lotus) and "da" (giver), symbolizing the university as a giver of knowledge.

Glory During the Gupta Empire:

Under the Gupta Empire, Nalanda flourished as a major center of learning and attracted students and scholars from various regions, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, and Southeast Asia. The university was renowned for its comprehensive curriculum, which included subjects such as philosophy, logic, grammar, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and the arts. The institution was characterized by its impressive architecture, with numerous monasteries, temples, and libraries, and it is estimated to have housed around 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers at its peak.

Great Indian Scholars:

Nalanda was home to many great Indian scholars, including:

Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 CE): A pivotal philosopher in Mahayana Buddhism, Nagarjuna is best known for developing the concept of "emptiness" (śūnyatā) and founding the Madhyamaka school of thought, which emphasized the middle path between existence and non-existence.

Vasubandhu (c. 4th–5th century CE): A prominent philosopher and one of the founders of the Yogacara school of Buddhism, Vasubandhu made significant contributions to Buddhist philosophy and psychology. His works, including the "Abhidharmakosa," are foundational texts in Buddhist studies.

Dharmakirti (c. 7th century CE): An influential logician and epistemologist, Dharmakirti's writings on logic and perception shaped Buddhist philosophy and had a lasting impact on Indian and Tibetan thought.

Shantarakshita (c. 8th century CE): A philosopher and abbot of Nalanda, Shantarakshita played a crucial role in the spread of Buddhism in Tibet and is known for his works on logic and philosophy.

Visits from Monks and Scholars:

Nalanda became a melting pot of cultures and ideas, drawing many eminent scholars and monks. Notable figures include:

Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang): A Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to India in the 7th century to study at Nalanda. His detailed accounts of his journey and the teachings he encountered are invaluable historical documents that provide insight into the university's operations and the broader cultural context of the time.

Yijing (I-tsing): Another Chinese monk who visited Nalanda in the late 7th century, Yijing studied Sanskrit and Buddhist texts and later wrote about his experiences, contributing to the understanding of Buddhist practices and education in India.

Atisha: A Tibetan scholar who studied at Nalanda in the 11th century, Atisha played a crucial role in the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet.

Books and Manuscripts:

Nalanda was renowned for its vast library, known as Dharmaganja, which housed thousands of manuscripts and texts on various subjects. Scholars at Nalanda produced and preserved a wealth of knowledge, including commentaries on Buddhist scriptures, philosophical treatises, and scientific works. The library was said to contain texts in multiple languages, including Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan, making it a crucial repository of knowledge in ancient India.

Destruction of Nalanda:

The destruction of Nalanda University in the late 12th century was a catastrophic event that not only marked the end of one of the world's oldest centers of learning but also resulted in the irrevocable loss of a vast repository of knowledge. The university, which had flourished for several centuries, was renowned for its extensive library, Dharmaganja, which housed thousands of manuscripts covering a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and Buddhist texts.

The library was said to have been so vast that it took months to burn all the manuscripts after the invasion, symbolizing the immense loss of intellectual heritageThe invasion by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193 was a turning point for Nalanda. Khilji's forces not only destroyed the physical structures of the university but also targeted the scholars and monks who had dedicated their lives to the pursuit of knowledge.

Many were killed, while others fled to different regions,the destruction of Nalanda also meant that many original texts and commentaries were lost forever, resulting in a significant gap in the historical and philosophical understanding. The tragedy of Nalanda serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of knowledge and the importance of preserving cultural and intellectual heritage.

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

I liked the questioning about repli beauty you brought up. So, as we go into this rabbit hole, can we attribute the appearance and preferences for own image of a repli to previous programming and the way the X program developed itself?

Like, it started with humans building the first repli series and setting human society as a parameter of likeness for non-battle/labor replis, and from there, the replis just continued the trend when building the next ones?

Also, is the operating system on the next one based on a blank template or does it come from the repli that programmed/designed them, in a kinda genetical passing manner?

a fantastic question! there's a lot of big question marks about how things work in the X world that aren't really delved into. the question of operating systems is a surprisingly straightforward one, as we know that there are at least three eras of reploids: the original line made from X's template, the improved line made by Dr. Doppler from the X3+ era, and the "New Generation" Reploids in X8+ made by an unspecified designer/developer for spaaaaaace work.

but image preferences? hooooooooooooooooooo. i can't offer a solid answer. but here's some ramblings about my thoughts.

what we DO know is that Reploids were derived from X's template and that they started off as copies of his design/aesthetic, and if we're to take the Archie series as any level of canon (probably level 2 extra-canon) we have a very clear visual as to what the early reploids looked like. and that, despite this, the X series features mostly furry robots as characters.

now, on an out-of-universe level, i want to say that i remember this decision was made because it creates more imposing silhouettes--megaman is a franchise designed for baby children first and foremost, and it's easy for child brain to correlate humanoid shapes as friends and feral beasts as enemies. however, A: i cannot find a source for this, and B: Sonic the Hedgehog

in either case, whatever the reason is, in-universe we have a very clear disparity between the originator of reploids being humanoid (the original term repliroid is even a portmanteau of "replica" [in the likeness of] and "android" [a humanoid machine]) and the majority of on-screen reploids not being humanoid. which tells me that body image is a BIG THING among reploid culture, and either chassis remodeling is a relatively easy process or a lot of reploids are willing to invest a lot into being a different person than who they started out as.

this is something briefly touched in the Classic series, with Tundra Man (a late line Robot Master) intentionally remodeling himself into a body type that he prefers, but it's fleshed out further with the (chronologically farther) X world in the design changes to the non-animal characters--Zero, Alia, and Sigma all similarly sport different bodies as the series goes on. the only person who doesn't change much in the main series is X, ironically enough, outside of Command Mission. Alia X8 and Layer are silly designs that were designed for fanservice first and foremost, but we can reasonably surmise that (in-universe) they chose to look that way. i'm not about to tell a woman she can't wear a car hood as a bra if she wants to, but i will think that it'd look better if it was put back on the jeep because i need that to fucking drive.

meanwhile, there's a lot of obvious correlations to be made with early X Mavericks and their designs being optimized for the environment. icy area gets the penguin. aerial area gets the eagle. underwater area gets the octopus. but as the series goes on, the correlations become significantly less appropriate and it's clear that animals were chosen for their design aesthetic. the munitions factory gets.....the hornet.....? i guess, like...the hornet stinger missiles.......?

it makes more sense if you take iwamoto's X mangas as level 2 extra-canon like the archie comics, because Blast Hornet was a reploid biker-gangster punk who became a hornet for the shock factor. which ends up leaning back to the original theory that reploids ultimately end up choosing how they look--if not from the onset, then further down the line.

you could probably make a solid argument that the X series is a very trans-friendly future, and that nearly every major character is trans and nobody bats an eye about it. instead the robot police are mad about the crimes and murder. but the creed is "be gay do crimes" so this is actually oppression 🙄

[brokenhandsmedia]

I'm not really that deep into the occult. I like Forteana, uncanny things, and high strangeness, but I'm not sure I believe in magic or spirits or anything.

But even if I don't believe, I have to worry that other people do, and I happen to think that neoliberalism is -- quite clearly -- a magical operation of sorts. It seeks to achieve material ends by immaterial (I would say largely symbolic) means. That, to me, sounds like magic.

But we can't just laugh at them and point, saying for example that "they think that a wizard is going to fix the climate." No, the issue is much more grim: they won't say it, but they think that they're the wizards who will solve climate change with a wave of their magic spreadsheet.

This has to be overturned. Unfortunately, a bunch of fascist dipshits are convincing people that their magical operation is much better.

So, I'm going to just post this, and then sit back in my chair and think about material solutions to the issue. Maybe something that derives from the most famous wizard battle in history, the Battle of Blythe Road, where W.B. Yeats achieved victory by giving up on gestures and incantations, and decided that he would cast his ultimate spell on his opponent, Aleister Crowley.

That spell was, of course, "Greater Invocation of Kicking You Down The Stairs".

For obvious reasons, Yeats won that fight.

[psychotrenny]

I'm kinda sick of the Liberal obsession with trying to "gotcha" reactionaries with their apparent hypocrisies and ideological inconsistencies. The fact of the matter is that their ideology is very consistent and they usually behave well in accordance of it; the preservation or strengthening of Western Imperialist Capitalism and all it's attendant forms of oppression and exploitation (i.e. Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Homophobia etc.). They do this primarily out of their own self interest; even those who don't occupy a position near the top and have no illusions that this well ever change do derive a range of privileges from the existing hierarchies, especially from helping to actively enforce them. Many poor or otherwise marginalised reactionaries may very well be better off in the long run should these systems be abolished, but in the short term the benefits of collaboration are too large to simply be written off.

They employ a wide range of rhetoric to these ends. While much of it is actively contradictory this doesn't matter as the actual words themselves are unimportant; what's important is the values they convey. Likewise the actions they perform may not align with the rhetoric they speak but, as long as this does not conflict with their goal of self serving enrichment through loyal service to the existing order, you can hardly call it hypocrisy in the a meaningful sense. A US conservative proclaiming that he'll violently resist arms control one second before loudly professing is love of law enforcement the next isn't being inconsistent; both state and vigilante violence are important arms of the Capitalist White Supremacist order. There's a reason all these anti-gun control types turn a blind eye when it's non-white people being disarmed (just think of the Black Panthers in California). And a homophobic politician who secretly employs the services of gay prostitutes isn't a hypocrite in any consequential way; homophobia is a convenient tool for both short term political ends (marshaling votes and providing a convenient scapegoat) and longer term social ones (maintaining the absolute dominance of the heterosexual nuclear family for the purposes of labour reproduction, control and exploitation) and by keeping his activities as a shameful secret you can hardly say that he's advancing the cause of gay liberation. Your attempts to own reactionaries with facts and logic are meaningless when you refuse to recognise the logic they actually operate on

[kroovv]

"Permissions to Your User Content. You hereby grant Dorian a worldwide, nonexclusive, sublicensable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable and perpetual right and license to use, post, publish, share, store, reproduce, alter, modify and create derivative works based upon your User Content solely in order to enable us to operate the Services, and to permit our Users to use, access, and download your User Content." (From Dorian's Terms Of Use)

Don't know if it applies to Creators Content as well, but it might be best to ask for clarification, just in case?

So i messeged Dorian to actually explain this to me, and they said which is what i kinda gathered from it is this is just so you are allowing them to share your work, like you are giving them permission to host your story on their platform.

As you can see that it says non exclusive subliscence so you can post it where you want and still fully own the story. The allowing derivitive work part is if you license out your work for people to make fan fiction on the site using your assets. They said Dorian cannot legally do that on your behalf so you need to allow it yourself.

So yup, like ive said i own my story, they do not, they are just hosting it, thats all.

[mariacallous]

When you think of Jewish alcohol, Manischewitz (for better or worse) probably comes to mind. But slivovitz — a liquor with a forceful flavor and formidable strength — is arguably the Hebrew hooch. 

Slivovitz, whose name is derived from the slavic word sliv for “damson plum,” is made by fermenting plums, distilling the mash to 80-100 proof alcohol, then aging the resulting liqueur for up to 10 years in oak barrels. Slivovitz is largely produced in Central and Eastern Europe, where different countries create their own variants. In the Czech Republic, for example, slivovitz (in Czech, slivovice) is considered the national drink of the region of Moravia and is served at room temperature in small shot glasses known as a panák. In Bulgaria, slivovitz holds special religious importance having been distilled for nearly seven centuries by members of Troyan Monastery. The monks’ special blend is made from Madzharkini plums, a variety that grows only in the Troyan region and is distinctive for its easily extracted pits.

Although grains are introduced during some forms of the slivovitz fermentation process, some distillers decided to forgo this step as a means of ensuring the liqueur was kosher. This gesture rendered slivovitz initially attractive to Jews during Passover, specifically Seder dinners that traditionally called for the consumption of up to four glasses of wine. Unfortunately, local wines were often made alongside other spirits under non-kosher conditions and thus were unacceptable. And because, as Dr. Glenn Dynner, professor of Jewish studies at Sarah Lawrence College, points out, imported kosher wine was often prohibitively expensive and of limited availability, Jews gravitated toward slivovitz on such celebratory occasions. 

But its kashrut status alone is an insufficient reason why slivovitz is considered particularly, or even especially, Jewish. According to University of Pittsburgh professor and slivovitz historian, Dr. Martin Votruba, “Jews would acquire this local drink after moving into European kingdoms. They would simply pick it up as part of the culture.” It seems, however, their relationship with slivovitz became more purposeful during the 1800s in what is now Poland. Because they were considered relatively temperate compared to their countrymen, Jews were charged with operating drinking halls and taverns, and thus began to monopolize the liquor business, much of which revolved around slivovitz. 

Another explanation as to why slivovitz holds a special place in the Jewish cultural imaginary is its strong anecdotal association with Jewish men of an older generation. In the 1990 film “Avalon,” which chronicles the trials and tribulations of a Polish Jewish immigrant family at the turn of the 20th century, brothers Sam and Gabriel reminisce about their father: 

“He never drank water. And oh, boy, could he drink! What was that stuff called he always used to drink?’ ‘Slivovitz. Slivovitz. He used to call it, ‘Block and fall.’ You have one drink of that, you walk one block and you fall!” 

Similarly, food writer Jordan Hoffman recalls his father describing how a swig of slivovitz (which they called ‘Shleeve-O-Wits’) by Hoffman’s grandfather signaled the breaking the Yom Kippur fast: 

“… they’d peer out of the apartment window, waiting to spot him walking back from the synagogue. He’d take his sweet time, pull off his coat and hat, open a rarely used cabinet, blow the dust off an old bottle, take a sip of something, make a face, then announce that everyone could eat.”

As evinced by both accounts, slivovitz is not for the faint of heart and for some years, the caustic, bitter spirit fell out of favor. There are signs that slivovitz is slowly becoming back en vogue: restaurants, including New York’s renowned Kafana, serve slivovitz and a handful of distillers, such as Stone Barn Brandy Works, are producing their own new-fangled versions. And fans of the enormously popular series “Homeland” will attest that it’s the drink of choice for the character of Senator Andrew Lockhart.  

Slivovitz’ nostalgic appeal combined with the introduction of new, more palatable varieties means it has some real so-old-school-it’s-cool potential. And who knows — the coming year may have us all slugging slivovitz slingers rather than espresso martinis.

[oliviax727]

Physics Friday #3: No Seriously, why is 1+1 = 2? (and what a real number really is)

Refer to this link if you're confused as to what this is all about.

If you were wondering where my part 2 to the Dark Energy vs. Dark Matter post is, it'll come next week. I just wanted to divert for a bit and stick my head into mathematics. I generally won't do two parts back to back.

Preamble

Education Level: Middle School (Y6 - 8)

Topic: Logic and Construction (Mathematics)

Introduction: 1 + 1 = 2 because I said so

What is 1+1?

Why does it equal 2?

How can we say such a simple thing without falling into the depths of chaotic mathematical thinking?

What is a number?

What does it mean to be real?

Many people are asking this ...

Well, really to answer those questions directly. Mathematics, unlike a lot of other subjects, is founded on the principles of hard logic. Definitions and statements that derive new definitions and statements. Truth follows from more truth.

But in order to have true statements, some of those statements must given i.e. we just have to assume or declare they're correct. Otherwise we wouldn't have true statements to begin with!

Consider the logical statement "The sun is a star".

In order to prove that this statement is true, we need to:

Define the existence of an object called "the sun"

Define what a "star" is

Define what it means for an object to be "is" another object

We could then come up with these statements:

The sun exists

A star is a bright burning ball of gas

An object is something else when that object has the traits of that something else

But then we are faced with a problem: how do we know that the sun exists? Well, we can see it of course!

But this doesn't apply to maths - after all, can you see the number 1? Like, can you see the concept of the number 1?

The answer is that we have to just accept some statements as simply true, no questions asked. These statements are called axioms.

In any mathematical system, we have a set of rules, or axioms, that dictate how our system works.

In most cases, we say that 1 + 1 = 2 by definition. That the number 2 is purely defined by 1 + 1. Any properties it has, like 2 representing an amount of objects (cardinality), or 2 coming after 1 (ordinality) is merely coincidental, an aspect of the system itself, or entirely irrelevant.

Real Numbers

Let's start off with how we can play with these numbers, using the Reals and an example.

A real number is real simple. Here's some examples:

2

16

2/3

-8

-9091/2311

0.0404583439484328423490 ....

Pi

It's basically any number that you've dealt with before: decimals, fractions, integers, and the like.

But how did we get to this stage? Like how can we define the real numbers to mean a specific thing?

It's important to have such rigorous definitions in mathematics, because without them, we won't be able to generate new theorems about how our world works.

The real numbers are known as a complete ordered field. What that means is it has three properties:

A field describes a particular set of numbers with some simple arithmetic laws attached to them

A ordered set is one which as a notion of order

A complete field has no gaps

The Field axioms are as follows. A field is a set of numbers that/where:

Contains two non-equal numbers, 0 and 1

Has a definition for the + and × operators

For any number a:

- a + 0 = 0

- a × 1 = 1

- There exists a number (-a) such that: a + (-a) = 0

- There exists a number 1/a such that: a × 1/a = 1, unless a = 0

For any numbers a, b, and c:

- a + b = b + a

- a × b = b × a

- (a + b) + c = a + (b + c)

- (a × b) × c = a × (b × c)

- a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c)

(Note: I dunno how to format bullet lists properly pls help)

Pretty simple eh? Well there are actually quite a lot of things that are fields. For example the set of all rational numbers (fractions) are a field.

There's also the order axioms. An ordered set is a set of numbers that/where:

Has a definition of something being less than another or a < b

For any numbers a, b, and c:

- If a < b then a + c < b + c

- If a < b and b < c then a < c

- Either a = b or a < b or b < a exclusively

An example of one of these ordered sets is the integers!

Lastly we have the completeness theorem. The completeness theorem is a bit more complicated, and it might be worthwhile to spend a whole topic on it:

Say I were to define a new operation within this set. For example f(x) = a + b + x

A complete set, no matter the definition of the operator, would always evaluate to a number that remained within the set as long as no rules of the set were broken.

i.e. x can be any number, and f(x) can be any operation involving x. But if x and f(x) can be defined entirely by what we had originally, then f(x) will always equal a valid number given that we don't divide by zero.

The rational numbers, for example, is not complete. Here's a small proof:

Define the operator a^2 := a × a

Define the operator sqrt(a) as being sqrt(a)^2 = a

There does not exist a rational number that equals sqrt(2)

Therefore the rationals are not complete

It turns out that the real numbers is the only complete ordered field in existence. That by setting just these axioms, we can have a unique set of numbers.

So how does 1 + 1 come into this? Well, 2 is defined as being 1 + 1. And 1 + 2 = 3, and 1 + 3 = 4 ...

Here's an example proof for 2 + 2 = 4, the bane of all who know about Gregory Orsen's 1894:

2 + 2 = (1 + 1) + (1 + 1) = (1 + 1 + (1 + 1)) = 1 + 1 + 2 = 1 + 3 = 4

Note that these axioms leave out some rather important identities, like:

Any number times 0 is 0

0 = -0

0 < 1

-1 < 0

a < b implies 1/a > 1/b

But the whole point is that we don't need these statements to be axioms! We can prove these from the ones we already have alone!

Set Theory, Peano, & Recursive Addition

There are, of course, other ways to construct mathematical frameworks.

The real number axioms are an example of constructing a system by having a set of rules and then proving afterward that these rules produce a unique set of numbers.

But what if we wanted to go more general, and have numbers not defined by axioms, but have the axioms describe more general maths.

Well, there are several ways in which we can do this:

Set Theory Construction

Lambda Calculus Construction

Surreal Numbers

I'll mention only set theory. A set is something I've used before. What a set essentially is, is just a collection of things.

We can use sets to define numbers, for example:

0 := { } (i.e. the set containing nothing) 1 := { 0 } (i.e. the set containing, the set containing nothing) 2 := { 0, 1 } (i.e. the set containing, the set containing nothing, and the set containing the set containing nothing)

With this, we have numbers! It also comes with the added benefit of:

"The number of elements in a set corresponds with what each number means linguistically in terms of amount".

But what does this even do? Like what about addition?

Well, we can use what's known as a recursive definition to help us figure out what addition is. But first we need the notion of a successor.

Peano arithmetic, that is, arithmetic with integers, can be constructed from set theory by defining the immediate successor of a number:

S(n) = { n itself and every internal object within n }

We could then use this to redefine our numbers as:

0 := { } 1 := S(0) 2 := S(1)

This is very similar to our 1 + n example back in the real numbers.

From this, we can define what addition is using our recursive action:

For any numbers a and c a + S(c) := if c ≠ 0 then S(a) + c otherwise S(a)

This definition is recursive, as it contains itself. But in order to stop us from going infinitely into the negatives, we must stop the process when c reaches zero.

Here's two examples of our definition

1 + 1 = 1 + S(0) = S(1) = 2

2 + 2 = 2 + S(1) = S(2) + S(0) = 3 + S(0) = S(3) = 4

And thus we have that 1 + 1 = 2!

Conclusion

At last, we have reached the end. Congratulations, if you read this all the way through, you have read an entire tumblr post (and a long one that is) on why we can say that 1 + 1 = 2. This is a very broad topic that I have barely scraped the surface on. Here's some other interesting related subjects:

David Hilbert's formulation of mathematics

Peano Arithmetic

Lambda Calculus

Fields, Ordered Sets, and Completeness

Real Analysis

Zermelo-Frankel Set Theory

As always, feedback is very appreciated! I'm an astronomer, not a mathematician. A lot of this stuff I was taught in my first year of university. And I hope you enjoyed reading this. Feel free to follow if you like seeing stuff in the realm of physics, astronomy, mathematics, and computer science.

[clownakai]

Pokémon AU: Accidental Baby Acquisition (part 1/2)

Summary: The mission is fairly straightforward: get in, place a few dozen stimulant charges, get out, activate the charges. Put the competition back in their place. Get in and get out— that's quite literally it. Simple, right?

Shuuichi adjusts the large bags slung over his shoulders, trying to get them out of the way without slamming them against anything.

Bourbon's intel is usually accurate, and the blond claimed (somewhere among the slew of snide jabs he'd hurled at Shuuichi over his choice of clothes, to Scotch's immense amusement) that there wouldn't be anyone guarding the place tonight apart from the two pairs of men they already took out at the front and back, but it never hurts to be extra cautious in Shuuichi's experience, so gingerly lugging around the two heavy loads to make as little noise as possible it is.

Leaning down to better see the lock he needs to pick causes his pants to shift, and a shudder consequently runs down his spine. Having had to trek through a small patch of woods and then an open field to reach the isolated warehouse after two days of non-stop rain, Shuuichi isn't the only one whose pants and boots ended up absolutely caked in mud, but he's certainly the one who's most bothered by it: the damp, gravelly friction against his calves makes him want to claw his own skin off.

"Status report?" Suddenly having Bourbon's voice in his right ear very nearly causes Shuuichi to fumble and drop his tools; he manages not to, but now he needs to do everything again because he accidentally shifted the pick and now the cylinder's stuck. Cursing under his breath, he resigns himself to his fate and starts from the beginning.

"I'm in," Scotch straight up chirps into the comms. If Shuuichi strains his ears, he thinks he can hear the man's footsteps as he begins to explore the floor below.

"Good. Rye?" The blond pronounces his codename with the same amount of venom with which you'd probably ask if your parents' killer finally dropped dead.

In order to cover all his bases, Shuuichi grunts, "Not yet," and leaves it at that. Wisely, he resists the urge to tack on an 'all thanks to you', even when Bourbon predictably starts harping on him for his inefficiency.

At long last, all the pins click into place; a decisive twist of the wrench later the lock gives in, and Shuuichi can finally slip into the second floor to do what they were sent here for.

"I got it," he curtly informs Bourbon, relieved to hear the operative's irate commentary turn into barely-distinguishable muttering. They both need to concentrate on their respective tasks now— Bourbon on making sure every single device Shuuichi and Scotch place is properly set up, correctly receiving transmissions from his computer and ready for mass-activation, and Shuuichi on placing the right charges of stimulants in each and every cage he can find on this floor.

Individually, the stimulant charges aren't really dangerous, per se: a cocktail of Awakening (to counter the tranquilizers used to knock out the goods) and various irritating agents derived from eighteen different berries, one for each Type (to send the freshly awakened Pokémon into brief but fairly intense frenzies— more than enough for them to break out of their enclosures on their own), to be dispersed inside the cage in gaseous form. The irritating components are guaranteed to merely induce a mild allergic reaction once inhaled, but that'll only happen if Shuuichi slips the right charge into every cage: activating a Rawst Berry-based stimulant next to a Grass-type would only succeed in waking it up— it'd remain largely lethargic for quite some time and could even fall back asleep, thus risking being unable to make its escape or, if it's really unlucky, getting hurt in the stampede that will undoubtedly follow the mass charge activation.

Shuuichi makes sure to check twice the plaque affixed to each cage before even thinking of digging a charge out of his bags. Unfortunately for him, the small metal tablets only report the respective species name and what looks like a serial number— possibly for quicker distinction in case of multiple identical purchases by different people.

None of that helps Shuuichi in the slightest since he needs to know typing in order to do his job, and he's hardly memorized the dex entry of every single species out there. This results in multiple instances of intense swearing through his teeth as he frantically punches the latest unknown Pokémon's name into his Pokédex, over which he even gets complimented by Scotch because of how creative he's being.

Bourbon doesn't sound nearly as enthusiastic about Shuuichi's colorful vernacular, but that's a given and therefore easily brushed off.

Truth be told, he could theoretically skip the Pokédex searches and place a fuckton of Chilan Berry-based charges in all the cages whose plaques he doesn't recognize— the Normal-type stimulant becomes a universal trigger for other Types if inhaled in large quantities—, but the amount of those he'd need to obtain the desired effect each time isn't even remotely compatible with what he could fit inside his bags. Losing a few seconds to investigate a Pokémon's typing is by far the better strategy.

Luckily, it doesn't look like there are more than a few dozen Pokémon being kept on the second floor; on the other hand, Shuuichi soon finds a locked door behind the rows of cages. If the differences in material and the suffocating stench indicative of strong Repels that hit his nose upon closer inspection are anything to go by, the room must have been added long after the original warehouse was built— perhaps to cater specifically to a certain kind of wares.

Having found a handful of Ice-types in the cages on this side of the floor (all stable from what he could glimpse, albeit not in great shape), Shuuichi doubts that the room was added to accommodate such Pokémon. In addition to that, the use of Repels (most likely regularly sprayed by the additional contraptions he can see running all around the wall) suggests a vested interest in making sure no Pokémon ever approaches the room in the first place, and considering the rest of the merchandise he and his colleagues were sent to sabotage, the most likely candidates to be hidden inside those walls are rare Pokémon eggs as opposed to exotic berries.

A few moments of deliberation and an impromptu progress check with Scotch later, Shuuichi sighs and gets to work picking the lock: he'll make sure there are only eggs in that room, and then he'll consider actually reporting his discovery to Bourbon in the hopes of figuring out where their information gathering failed, seeing as the available intel only had them aware of already hatched Pokémon. For that purpose, he temporarily switches his end of the comms off.

Soon enough, the door gives way with a sharp clack. Shuuichi slips his tools back into one of his inner pockets and cautiously shoulders it open, a shiver wracking his body as soon as he registers the temperature gap between the refrigerated room and the rest of the floor. In front of him, dozens of sealed wooden crates occupy near entirely the available space, stacked on top of each other to the point they almost touch the ceiling.

A quick search thankfully reveals a few boxes situated at a much more manageable height, and Shuuichi is easily able to confirm his suspicions by cracking a couple lids open: strangely patterned eggs the likes of which he's never seen before, each snugly wrapped in layers upon layers of padding, and big or small as they may be, they seem limited to one per crate.

Shuuichi is just about to reopen the comms line to contact Bourbon when he catches it, out of the corner of his eye: another crate, from the looks of it, except this one has been completely smashed to pieces, padding shredded and scattered on the floor. As far as he can see, there's no trace of the egg the crate had originally contained.

For about two seconds, Shuuichi entertains the thought that someone stole the egg: but if that were the case, what purpose would destroying the protective padding serve? It'd be a waste of time and energy and a rather damning piece of evidence to leave behind for someone who definitely doesn't want to risk being caught stealing from a massive trafficking ring.

With that hypothesis discarded, a second and only slightly less improbable possibility comes to Shuuichi's mind. Thing is...

Even after approaching what's left of the crate he can't spot eggshell fragments anywhere, and his breath comes out in cloudy little puffs, which means the ambient temperature must be pretty close to freezing— ideal to keep eggs dormant. So how did—

Something shifts in Shuuichi's periphery. His gun is out and cocked in seconds, pointed at the darkest corner of the room; it takes him a moment to register the fact that a human could never squeeze into the miniscule cranny he's aiming at, and when he does he hastily lowers the weapon. Thank fuck neither Scotch nor Bourbon were present to physically witness that particular fumble, or he'd never hear the end of it.

Still, Shuuichi is sure he saw something move. At this point, the chances of option number two being what actually happened are...

"Ah," Shuuichi says intelligently, tilting his head to better inspect the source of his most recent tribulations. "Hello."

The Pokémon— not quite freshly hatched, but still dirtier and tinier than it's probably supposed to be— doesn't even acknowledge him, too busy tugging and chewing on his trouser leg. Although the longer Shuuichi watches it gnaw and pull, the more he wonders if perhaps...

The little thing (maybe thirty centimeters tall, possibly bipedal, horn-like protuberance on the top of its head and what looks like a fanned tail in the room's nigh-total absence of lighting) releases the fabric with a huff and proceeds to use its front paws (stubby yet... pointy? Single-clawed, perhaps, or maybe just underdeveloped) to clean its pointed snout of—

"Oh." Fucking hell, Shuuichi's slow today.

The mud on his pants. Of course. The hatchling must be awfully desperate to resort to trying to eat dirt straight off of a human's leg— and if it was born premature, which Shuuichi reckons is the most plausible hypothesis, it could also explain the disappearance of its eggshell and the shredded padding: the Pokémon probably ended up eating the former in an effort not to starve and failed to do the same with the latter.

The crate, judging by the position of its remains, most likely fell over from its spot near the ceiling when the hatchling started trying to get out. No other broken crates means it was unable to eat the stored eggs, and the apparent confidence with which it approached Shuuichi might not be confidence at all: starvation could have made the hatchling less receptive to potential dangers.

... That must be one hell of a Pokémon to survive for so long. Or just a Steel-type— they tend to be incredibly sturdy. They're not well-known for consuming dirt, though... Ground-type? Rock-type?

He needs to lure the hatchling out of this room and get a proper look at it. If he still can't tell what it is then, well. He owns a Pokédex for a reason.

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