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baelpenrose · 6 days ago

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Project Praetorian 59: Arrival pt 5

The fighting for Philidelphia continues. The final step in securing the hard fought victory starts coming together.

@canyouhearthelight helped beta read and encourage me through this. TW for guns and gore.

Casey

She was blasting her way up the boulevard, falling into a cycle: fire, rack the pump, duck, do it again. She tried to ignore the stench of burning Croaks, the rising concrete dust, the reek of ozone from the plasma discharge. There had been horror when it started, but the burning buildings and the ruins of human bodies - some far, far too small - had taken that away. Now there was rage, satisfaction, and heart-pounding terror as she fought, ducked, and swept the flames she was starting from side to side with gestures, moving the heat around and igniting the air in the streets to continue her campaign of area denial.

She kept grinding her way forward. Supposedly, not far from here, there was the command post that she was supposed to hit with Vergil, Jonathan, and Jared. Mia was running in to support, and she abruptly saw the orange-purple flash of a mortar blast that indicated that they were getting artillery support.

Finally.

A Spike took aim at her, slamming itself against a concrete barrier as it did so. The aliens didn’t seem to have much of a grasp of cover, overall, probably because their weapons limited how helpful it could be, but they were definitely figuring it out, and she was already diving for something to hide behind. She cranked off a blast of buckshot to make the monster duck, then flared the fire already burning behind the alien’s position, made it jump away, instinctively.

…Which exposed it to a second blast that took it out at the knees. Her shotgun was empty, but she could switch to pistol and execute the wounded alien before it reacted to take her with it.

Mia’s voice chirped in her ears. “Coming up your seven.”

Casey didn’t glance around - she was busy reloading. “Where’s Frost?”

“White boy is coming from the east.”

“10-4.”

Jared was more focused, and supposedly there was a landed command ship or beacon of some kind landed where they were, and he was going to be more suited to destroying it. She just had to get him close.

“Storm - we’re starting the approach. Can you get Skyflower over here?”

“Sending her over, I’ll head over with her and Boombox.”

Casey broke cover, lungs burning from inhaling the smoke. She slammed against broken concrete and peered around the corner. She yanked a grenade off her belt, ripped the pin free, and threw it into the midst of the aliens she could see. “Whatever you’re going to do, Mark, do it fast.”

Another chunk of concrete was blown off the building and she whipped around, chambered another fireball shell, and torched a wave of Croaks rushing up. Deep breaths. Then she rushed, pushing towards the command post.

“Seraph, what’s happening?” Jared’s voice on her comms.

“Coming up. Got pinned for a second. What’s your position?”

“Same. I had a squad of troopers with me. Had - I’m down to one fire team. Spikes are a bitch. Where’s Titan?”

“Got tangled fighting an alien special unit. He’s catching up. Storm is coming with Skyflower.”

“Got it. I’m almost to the command point - have visual. Big shuttle, actually, and a beacon. Give me a few more blasts - every time you do they send more grunts your way - and out of ours.”

Casey blinked. “Using me as bait?”

“Frankly, you can handle mobs better than I can - especially if Titan is with you. And I can destroy structures in a way you just can’t. They’ve already put something down here. I need to get to it.”

Casey took a breath, then pushed herself out of cover and torched another group of Croaks she could already see picking its way over the rubble.

If this is what it took to end the battle faster and make the enemy retreat, fine. She’d work with Jared and give him his opening.

But of course she had to play crowd control while the bastard could basically move heat around to just crumble shit with thermal contraction and expansion. Asshole.

Jonathan was already coming up - armor half-broken, massive machine gun in hand, and with his usual entrenchment tool abandoned in favor of a massive hammer now slung across his back.

“Titan. Let’s go! Apparently there’s a bunch of aliens between here and the command post we have to cut our way through! Frost is already almost there!”

Jonathan was already letting off a long burst at targets too far off for her to engage.

In the distance, she heard Vergil’s rifle crack.

Alright. Final throw.

Jared

Stay low. He’d wanted glory, but no. This was the actual job. Get to the command beacon and destroy it. He fired three times - saw a Spike drop. “Deadeye, I’m gonna need you to pay close attention at this next part. We’re starting our final approach.”

Vergil answered. “Got it, Frost.”

The troopers with him were clearly afraid, even if they were hiding it well, advancing because they knew that defeat would leave nowhere to run. He threw himself flat as another Spike - this one with some kind of decorative flanges on the armor they wore, probably an officer - began flailing the area with plasma. Another trooper blew apart, a second dropped, wounded and screaming from the burns, and the third managed to drop the alien with a few shots to the chest. Not for the first time, Jared wondered what the point of the armor was - it didn’t do shit against bullets, obviously. He wondered, offhand, if it protected from energy weapons. They seemed to be comfortable enough firing a little closer than he would have with a captured plasma weapon if he couldn’t control where the heat went, but Casey could still amp the heat high enough to kill - though now that he thought about it, she did seem to have to push harder on Spikes than she did on Croaks, which weren’t armored…hm.

He shook his head. Focus. The wounded man was screaming, even as the unharmed man began grabbing him and applying some kind of sprayed antiseptic. “I’ll drag him off for medical. You’re on your own, Praetorian.”

Jared looked at him, nodded, and turned back towards the objective. Maybe normal guys weren’t cut out for this war. He crawled closer as the screaming got further away. The rattling of machine gun fire got closer, and he saw the massive, curved wings of the alien shuttle looming over him. The awful structure of the beacon was there too - angular, purple and teal metals, strange lights. He lined up his sights and started potting the aliens - there were only a handful. He only had to move so far. It took a moment before they noticed where he was - where the fire was coming from.

A plasma blast caught him - not directly, thank God, in fact, he was only at the outer edge, just bad enough burned that he’d need a little help later. He frantically started reloading - he’d run dry - and realized it might be too late. The alien knew where he was.

Then the alien spun halfway around, arm torn from the shoulder, blaster shooting into the air, helplessly. Jared ran forward and shot it in the head before it could pull a secondary. “Thanks, Deadeye.”

He picked up an alien blaster, then looked at the massive command beacon. “Storm. I’m in position. Destroying command beacon now.”

“Damn. That was fast. I’m closing in. Take down the beacon - Titan and Seraph are closing the gap, they’re going to help you secure the shuttle. Everyone else is coming in close. The soldiers are moving into the city, and the SAM systems are going to try to deal with the troop shuttles. We’re going to actually take the shuttle up and see if we can do something about that massive carrier.”

Jared blinked. Damn. Fuck everything he’d ever thought. That was a plan worthy of a Praetorian.

He picked up the blaster and blazed at the beacon. It didn’t heat much, even with him focusing the heat in. Whatever the material was, it was another data point in favor of his theory that yeah, Ascendancy metallurgy was meant to be thermally resistant. But it wasn’t designed with Praetorians in mind. He pulled the heat that he was pushing in, moving it out, chilling the metal, and he saw the lights slow - then shoved the heat back in, more plasma blasts. Pulled the heat out - saw the air shimmering with heat around it, even as he watched Casey and Jonathan rush up and start blasting away at somethign trying to come up - as though the Ascendency was going to try to retake the command post.

Then after another round of heating, freezing, and reheating - this time with the extra heat from Casey’s blasts - the command beacon shattered with a scream of tortured metal.

Then he looked up and saw something swooping down. The dropship. Their dropship. Mark stepped out, looking calm - calm for a man who’d almost had a cardiac arrest while knocking the alien shields offline less than four hours ago, anyway. Micah was stepping out as well, supported by Shiloh. Kimmy was leaning back in the dropship, looking emaciated - and Molly was looking grim, ready to fight. Xavier was with them as well, angry, ready to fight.

Echo was there. “Okay. They locked me out of their comm net after I scrambled their ground-to-orbit - what you just did pretty much fucked their ability to talk to each other on the ground. And…based on the fact that that got dropped from orbit, and what I got from the net before I was locked out, I’m pretty sure that was also a navigational beacon to help bigger carrier groups make sure they’re navigating drop shuttles to the same place even with Earth’s magnetic fields. At some point we’ll have a way to weaponize that. I want to finish collating data, but…target those, everywhere we see them.”

Jared nodded. “Okay. And the shuttle? Any chance we can get something on it?”

Mark shook his head. “I asked for a tactical nuke already. I was told no. I appealed and Col. Melbourne was apparently told that not only does Imperator not have nuclear release, but that quote, ‘the mere fact that you are asking on behalf of a genetically modified teenager makes it dubious that you ever will.’ Remind me to have the Sec Def assassinated later, by the way.”

Jared almost choked. “So…”

Mark thought about it. “I’d almost say fall back, but…”

Casey started shouting. “No. They’ll keep pumping troops into the city. Eventually they’ll get their guns back online, and I don’t know if Echo can stop it again. We have to do something about that carrier.”

Mark looked around. “Okay. Fine. I have a thought if someone said that. High chance of death. Does everyone agree that we need to go for the carrier?”

There was a long pause. Casey raised her hand for attacking the carrier. Jared didn’t know Mark’s plan, and for a moment, he could hear his cousin’s voice in his head, urging him not to trust an unspoken plan cooked up by a Jew…

His hand was already in the air.

Xavier’s hand was up. Jonathan’s. Molly’s. “Deadeye. I’m not in range but I’ll get there to join if you need me.”

Shiloh signed the affirmative. Jonathan nodded. So did Mia. Micah. Then Kimmy. Echo. “Skyflower. I’m in.”

Mark sighed. “Okay. Then here’s the plan. We will split into two commands. One will take the shuttle up and sabotage the carrier, then return aboard the shuttle with Skyflower flying it. The other command will remain on earth and handle the aliens who make it down.”

He paused for a moment. “Frost, Titan, Mia, sweep the shuttle and capture it. Kill everything aboard. I’ll keep the comms open while I lay out the rest of the plan so you can hear.”

Jared saluted and rushed into the shuttle. He saw a handful of Croaks that Mia beat him to gunning down. He saw a Spike that Jonathan grabbed and tore the arms off in a welter of dark gore, then twisted the head off with a series of sickening cracks. Echo was talking, clear in the comms. “Can Skyflower even fly the shuttle?”

“Point. Backup. You handle the autopilot. At a guess there’s some kind of method for a return-to-carrier. Fuck, we shouldn’t have destroyed that beacon, I’d bet that’s what allows any autopilot to set down…Well, hang on.”

Amaryllis broke in and Jared grinned. “Nah. I’ll manage. Cipher just needs to map language onto the interface and jury rig the auxiliary systems, and I can get us up there.”

Jared snapped a few shots at Croaks, dropped a Spike - then saw a group of birdlike aliens. Ones he hadn’t seen. Still, Mark’s orders had been clear.

He raised his rifle and executed the remaining aliens, which jumped from the controls and tried to run. Tried to get clear and maybe take flight. He’d been briefed about this. Fliers. Right. None escaped.

Mark came over the comms, clearly sounding like he was making a decision. “Are you cer…doesn’t matter. I like it better than I liked my backup for if you couldn’t, which was hoping the autopilot was good enough, HALO dropping out of it with no parachutes and hoping you could catch them with the dropship if it wasn’t.”

Jared was forced to ponder the possibility that the calm, rational demeanor Mark gave off masked an utter madman.

As they exited the shuttle, he called out. “Guys! Ship clear! Cipher and Skyflower clear to come aboard!”

No chance to turn back now. Amaryllis was going to have to get them onto the carrier. And they were going to hope they were able to break it.

“Another wave of aliens inbound. Praetorians, need backup. Additional conventional forces arriving to secure the city.”

#original fiction #writeblr #writers on tumblr #Project Praetorian #traumatized characters #found family #my writing #science fiction #sci fi #original sci fi #tw guns #tw gore

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dusty-art · 1 year ago

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it's been a month since the end of artfight. I went around asking for permission to post the drawings I did, but I only got permission to post one of them. so it's their oc + some of the friend ocs I did for my first ever artfight:

Maggie (gensuta)

Icarus (melwave)

Kana and Evvie (@starafire)

Ladybird (MonsterGirlEve)

Olaryn Skyflower (@artofhaileyd)

#digital art #my art #artfight

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huanyukang · 1 year ago

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Blog 7 sources and significance

An analysis of props and scene design in "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (2018)"

This 87 episode TV series tells the tragic love story between Ru Yi and Emperor Qianlong, and the fog of history creates infinite imagination for creators. Although the stories of Emperor Qianlong and Empress Ruyi in the Tv seires are mostly fabricated, art originates from life, and the plot design in the play conforms to the logic of character development and artistic reality (Yang and Chen, 2019). More than a dozen palace scenes were designed at a cost of billions of yuan, providing the audience with a unique experience.

Exquisite design of hairstyle and props (1) The meaning of flowers: In ancient China, flowers were used to describe beautiful women, and they also represented the image of women are gentle and beautiful. The two main types of flowers that appear in this TV drama are plum and skyflower. Red plums represent the elegant character of Ruyi. The green plum potted plant gifted by Emperor Qianlong to Ruyi, which looked like a withered branch after the two split, bloomed again after Emperor Qianlong's longing for Ruyi and his tragic passing. In addition, there are mostly scenes with snow, and there are many blooming sky flowers in these scenes, which symbolize the character of Ruyi's forbearance.

screenshoot of Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (2018)

(2) The change in Ruyi's hairstyle design symbolizes her different levels The character design in this TV drama is also very beautiful, especially the hairstyle design of the protagonist Ru Yi. From the beginning of the first episode, Ru Yi's hairstyle was a long braid with very few decorations on her head. She only had a little peach blossom decoration, because at this time, Ru Yi was only in her twenties, and the makeup artist, through exquisite skills and handling of Ru Yi's hairstyle, made the actor in her 40s change from a visual appearance to a 20-year-old. After living in the palace for a few years, Ruyi's status also improved, so her hairstyle became more complicated. At this time, she no longer had the long braid style she used to have, but instead wore the exclusive "Qi tou" hairstyle of the imperial concubines on her head, and she wore decorative items such as jade butterflies, glass flowers, etc., all of which were made using traditional Chinese craftsmanship. Finally, when Ruyi became the queen, she wore a decoration called "Dianzi", which was like a hat. This unique hat was decorated with many phoenix shaped decorations, which also reflected her noble status. So Ruyi can also witness her growth from her hairstyle design.

screenshoot of Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (2018)

youtube

RUYI ( ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE ) Youtube (2019). Available at:https://youtu.be/UszCzxcZ5Kwsi=_bP4ePDOStgKK4ko(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

2.Unique ideas and renovations in architectural space Ruyi is a pure and kind character in this TV drama, as she only pursues love with Emperor Qianlong and does not consider intrigues, which also leads to her tragedy. Although the plot setting of the drama is plain, the content is not vulgar and contains certain thoughts of Buddhism and Taoism. The philosophical thinking of emptiness and nothingness reflected in the plot setting is different from the simple and rough way of "tooth for tooth, eye for eye" in most palace fighting TV dramas (Xu, 2020). So the most complex and exquisite palace in this plot is the Yikun Palace, where the protagonist is like Yi. However, in history, the Yikun Palace in the Forbidden City of Beijing was not as complex and exquisite as in TV dramas. Firstly, in order to shape the image of the protagonist, the design of the Yikun Palace in TV dramas has doubled its area based on the historical prototype of the Yikun Palace. The entire palace, under the treatment of the TV drama's color scheme, is dark blue, representing the sinister and unfathomable nature of the palace, It also implies the final tragic love of Ruyi. Secondly, in order to demonstrate the identity of Empress Ruyi, the director designed a large white peacock woodblock behind Ruyi's throne, and the white peacock also represents the phoenix, symbolizing the majesty of the empress. Distinctively, there are many potted orchids placed in the Yikun Palace, and the entire palace design revolves around the theme of bamboo. For example, bamboo is carved and decorated on the screens in the main hall and on the curtains in the side halls. Bamboo represents noble character, which also symbolizes the protagonist Ruyi's adherence to pure love and kind and noble character in the dark palace.

In short, in this TV drama, the protagonist's props and scenes related to Ruyi are based on reference to the art history of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, and many innovative designs are made, which are worth appreciating by the audience

Reference:

Yang , J & Chen, W. (2019). Analysis of the artistic characteristics of the TV drama Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace. Audio-visual (04),93-94.doi:10.19395/j.cnki.1674-246x. 2019.04. 050. (Accessed: 16 February 2024)

Xu,W. (2020). Aesthetic analysis of the TV series Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace. New film and play (01),216-219.Available at:https://www.cnki.net (Accessed: 16 February 2024)

RUYI ( ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE ) Youtube(2019) . Available at:https://youtu.be/UszCzxcZ5Kwsi=_bP4ePDOStgKK4ko(Accessed: 16 February 2024)

#sources and significance #Youtube

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bipedalseal · 1 year ago

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gonna attend the skyflower festival!! im so excited

#fox curio’s floating bookshop #ttrpgs #this is in a game not real life btw #mine #i missed the festival on thawsweek so im rlly excited

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wealthytoad · 4 months ago

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[I don't think they're on Tumblr] niko noises and skyflower being silly

#art #skyflower #niko noises #drawing #fanart #art work #skyflower fanart #niko noises fanart #furry fanart #furry art #silly little guy #silly art

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lil-vaalroc-bard · 9 days ago

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(Concord sleeps for two hours.)

(They dream about the crew being in a house, and it's a rainy day outside.)

(Mossy seems to be Mossy, as they're out in the rain enjoying the water...)

(The Poppets, Pearl, and Tilly seem to be playing a game together...)

(Oak and Tick are having a conversation...)

(And Miriam is sleeping.)

(Meanwhile, Concord and Scar are cuddling each other, wrapped in a warm and fluffy blanket.)

(Two small bugs are dancing in Concord's vision.)

(And then, a story goes through their head.)

A cicada lands on a tree, and starts to sing a melody for the world.

♪What a lovely day!♪ ♪For the world to play!♪ ♪And sing along, and tap to the song,♪ ♪That's not all I have to say!♪

♪People would never believe♪ ♪How beautiful this world can be♪ ♪Though I do think, as I do wink,♪ ♪As I'm standing on this tree!♪

♪What a lovely day!♪ ♪For the world to play!♪ ♪For kids and pets, as the stage sets,♪ ♪And that's all I have to say!♪

While the cicada is singing, they don't notice a large owl fly over to them, and listen to them sing.

The owl is a gentleman. There's countless scars across the owl's body, but the owl remains kind through it all.

"Hello, Lovebug."

The cicada knew the owl all too well.

People thought an interspecies romance like this to be impossible, but the cicada and the owl just can't stop being together.

"Hello, my dear Skyflower! I was simply singing on this tree..."

"I see, I see."

"Do you wish to join me, Skyflower?"

The owl is usually happy to sing with the cicada, but the poor owl seemed down about something.

"...Something on your mind, dear Skyflower?"

"Oh... I'm sorry, Lovebug... but I'm just worried about your limited time here..."

"Why? I'll be simply going underground, Skyflower!"

"I know... but I'm worried that I won't be able to join you..."

"Oh Skyflower... Nobody said you couldn't join me underground. You just need to make sure that you're prepared to. You need to take as much stuff as you can!"

"Oh... I suppose that can be done."

The owl smiles.

"Thank you, my Lovebug."

"You're welcome, my Skyflower."

And so, the owl was able to live with the cicada for a long, long, long time underground.

They cared for each other for the longest time. They looked out for each other, and they sang songs together until the end of time.

But as the years went by, the cicada's voice grew weak, and they could not sing as well as they used to.

...But the owl didn't care. He still cared for the cicada, and made sure that the cicada knew that he still loved them.

But the cicada couldn't thank him.

Their voice was already gone. They lied in the owls wings, with no melody left to sing.

And the two of them stayed there, until the end.

(Concord wakes up, trilling happily.)

#wanderblog

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