#The cannon above is on US but the actual structure is same as the original one.

[lesmisscraper]

So, these were what the Amis at the Barricade faced during the battle, right? The Piece of Eight, the Eight Pounder Gribeauval Cannon(Canon de 8 Gribeauval) and its caisson in 19th century.

[tempenensis]

a (sort of) comprehensive analysis of the second opening

So, this opening from what I saw really got people think. There’s so much to unpack here.

Heavy spoiler warning.  Also, very long post.

1. The cat and Gojo   

Right on to the first, we see this cat with only one eye illuminated perching on the window. There’s an allusion to Gege - who always draws themself as cyclops cat. But then there’s a scene with Gojo with one of his eyes shaded white. The one opposite of the cat. 

By now we knows that sometimes the opening of the anime can allude to the things happening in the manga. In addition to my previous post related to the lyrics of the song used, one of the possible explanation - if we consider the things already happens in the manga - that this might alluded to his sealing during the current arc. Another speculation is that he possibly actually loose one of them in the future to come. 

More liberal and loose speculation; one of his eyes is ‘stolen’ and then put into someone other - possibly an adversary and we may see another “Gojo” emerge as an enemy. The current villain is very capable of doing that.  

2. The Funeral 

The black clothes, the incense, the rain, and the solemn faces. It all alludes to a funeral. But whose funeral? There are two possibility - first is after Shibuya incident because Nanami is the only one who doesn’t wear black and he also doesn’t wear his glasses. The second one is they are paying respect after the the incident during exchange event with Kyoto school, as several staffs of Tokyo Jujutsu High are killed by Mahito when he infiltrates the school to obtain the fingers.

There’s also Gojo here, walking alone without umbrella because he actually doesn’t need it with his technique - with same atmosphere as a funeral. The interesting thing is the bouquet he brings -- blue flowers and white flowers.

Someone in twitter points that the blue flowers could be Periwinkle (in flower language means “lifelong friendship”) or American Blue (means “the bond between two people”), while the white flower is possibly lily - a common flower for funeral. As he is shown alone, this maybe indicates that he is in separate mourning from the rest of the Tokyo Jujutsu students and Nanami above. And yes, I mean Getou.

3. The Bubbles 

There is a saying that human life can be compared to bubbles in a stream. Mahito blowing bubbles here may alluded to him who plays so easily with human’s life. People are nothing but literally mere bubbles for him to toy with.

Especially here. If you see how this bubble break, it shapes like a jellyfish. Yes, it’s Junpei. This shows how he destroys Junpei’s life.

4. Chocolate desert 

Alludes to the curse manipulation power that the Fake!Getou coveted that he took control of Getou’s corpse. And then there’s fillings inside the chocolate ball - which maybe a nod to the ‘something’ inside that body - more specifically, inside the skull; the brain.   

5. Nanami’s death 

Nanami is only shown to be walking straight ahead - yes, that’s all he does in his life. Walk straight in the ‘right’ path of being a sorcerer after he returned from his office job. But where that got him? A half-eaten bread. 

Nanami is a foodie and his favorite food is bread. It is a foreshadowing of his death in the Shibuya arc on the hand of Mahito who is shown right after the bread scene. The ants may be a nod to the transfigured human that he kills just prior to Mahito killing him - leaving only his lower body, surrounded by transfigured human he defeats.    

Mahito here seemingly is doing the incarnation of the Kusouzu brothers - behind him is a human suspended in T-pose. That means this cour possibly cover the Origin of Obedience arc too.

6. Origin of obedience arc 

There’s a pretty sizable chunk of possibility that this cour probably covers up to Origin of Obedience arc. That Mahito above and this river with crystal-like structure. This is where Fushiguro does his first ryoiki tenkai to fight a curse who has one of Sukuna’s finger. In addition Sukuna here shown in a river - watching over him.

Also, here the original Kamo Noritoshi, which we only see during the flashback of the Kusouzu brothers - when they fight against Itadori and Kugisaki on the Yasohachi bridge. 

7. The traitor 

Utahime looking for something - rather, someone. Yes, the traitor in the Kyoto school as Gojo asks her. And then we get this shot of Kyoto students.  

Mechamaru is the only one in the shade - as he is the one traitor working with Fake Getou and Mahito because they have a deal. Literally shady - he is the traitor that Utahime is looking for and finally found. Subsequently, that deal with Mahito causes Mechamaru’s death.

8.  Yu-un and Hyakki Yakou

Yu-un (Playful cloud) is originally three-section staff special-grade cursed tool owned by Original Getou, which he used when he attacks the school and fights Yuuta in Vol. 0. Here Yu-un shown in the midst of ruins is a strong nod to Getou’s defeat during Hyakki Yakou and subsequently his death. Yu-Un is then picked up by the school and used by Maki to fight Hanami during Goodwill event arc. 

But Yuuta here is really just a cameo. He is with Miguel, ex-Getou family, maybe over there in Miguel’s original country. 

9. Three becomes Two 

The three of them are together during this scene. But during the flashing back scene sequences at the end of the opening after the guitar scene - there are only two of them.

You can probably imagine what will happen to Itadori. This just drive that point home. A strong nod to his death penalty.

10.  Flower and The Fish 

Another nod to Junpei after that bubble - the same fish that alluded to him as in the first opening. There are a lot of symbolisms here; firstly Junpei’s incident is what makes Itadori “blooms” as a sorcerer. This also supported by how the flower shape likes Itadori’s family crest here, which someone pointed out in twitter. 

Secondly, a nod to Itadori’s fight with Hanami - the special-grade curse with power based on plant and forest. Hanami has a cannon shaped like flower. Also, the first time Itadori does Kokusen (”Black Flash” - see? Black, like the color of the flower) is against Hanami. Another part of his growth as jujutsushi. 

And lastly, the flower is possibly black lily, which means “curse” that Gege mentions on one of the extra page. It is also drawn in Fushiguro’s flashback scene in the background of Tsumiki who is cursed and has fallen into a coma.

tl;dr: amazing opening. 100/10.

[leonawriter]

On Writing Fankids

Writing this because I now have two different fankids for the same pairing, in vastly different ways, and they’re very different people. So.

I don’t know how many points I’m going to make, and I don’t know how useful this is going to be, since Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on real children or medical practices, but I am trying to put effort in.

Most of this is composed of questions, because I don’t know who your fankid (or, OC-fankid) is, and the point is to make you think rather than just put ideas into your head by telling you what’s right and what’s wrong.

1 - How did they come to exist?

This is the FIRST question you should be asking when coming up with a fankid. What they look like and how cute they are is all well and good, but when you’re thinking of actually writing a story, that won’t help you.

If the parents are a cis male and cis female couple, then it’s easy to assume how they had a kid. That said, that’s not always necessarily the case, as some people may be infertile, or may simply choose to adopt. However, the answer to this becomes more complicated when fans get to wanting to give a gay couple children, as this usually means they want to give them biological children.

In the event of pairings where the parents are canonically not reproductively compatible (which includes gay, lesbian, nonbinary, and so on) there are still options, which include: a trans parent, which involves being able to write a trans person and not just overlooking how this would change their story; surrogacy, in which someone else carries the child to term for those who can’t, and the related idea of a sperm donor. 

In going into other biological options, there’s also the question of “how believable and realistic do you want this to be? how scientific? how much fantasy or sci-fi do you want here?” and if the answer is “I have fantasy and/or sci-fi in my setting” then you can use that.

That said, please don’t rule out the possibility of adoption. Adoption is the most common way for queer parents in the real world to get kids, and just because a kid isn’t biological doesn’t make them any less their parent’s child. Even/especially in a fantasy setting! And knowing if a kid was adopted, that’ll extend into how they see themself, as well as who the parent is and why they chose to adopt.

Related to that, if a kid is adopted, how aware of that are they? How were they adopted? Are they a canon character that was adopted, or an entirely new character? If they were too young to remember the adoption, how do their parents (or parent, if there was only one person adopting them) explain? If they were old enough, how do they see the person who took them in? How do they see their adopted siblings, if any exist, or any future siblings? What about any prospective additional parents, if they originally only had one, or if their parent/s is/are polyamorous? 

2 - How good are their parents at parenting?

Yes, you want your favourite pairing to be great parents, but no matter what people are going to have their own idiosyncrasies. How do the parents deal when the kid throws a tantrum? 

What if the child shows signs of being neurodivergent, are the parents any good at spotting those signs, and whether they are or not, how do they handle the difference from what they might have been expecting?

My advice here is to pay attention to the pairing in their normal canon and how they deal with situations and also how they handle children in canon, as well as then going to further sources that show what parenting is really like. Your fankid is going to be a baby, they’re going to be a screaming toddler, they’re going to have a personality and wants and they’re going to frustrate their parents a lot. If you want to put the effort in to write the family well, ask someone you know who has kids, even.

3 - What are their circumstances during their childhood?

The fun one about this is that depending on the context the child was created in, the answer can be different for children of the same pairing! 

In my case, I have Satoko and Fumiya. Satoko’s childhood (outside of her parents’ control) was traumatising, and left her as a quiet kid, despite how much she’s shown love later on. Fumiya, on the other hand, grows up in a loving environment from the start, and because of that he’s much more comfortable and confident, despite everything else that happens and so on.

This is where the child starts to develop their own personality. Think about how in the real world, children are shaped by their surroundings and the way that they grow up. Does your fankid learn that they can trust the people around them? How much attention are they given? Is that attention positive, negative, stifling? Do they feel neglected, or coddled? How easy is it for them to find food, or their favourite food? Are they surrounded by children of their own age, or mostly living around adults? Is their living situation, no matter whether their parents love them and take care of them or not, a dangerous one, and how aware of that are they?

Also important is the question of whether they even have both of their parents, or either of them. Maybe the situation here is complicated. Maybe they’re an orphan (sorry, parent pairing). Maybe they’re separated from their family, and they have to fend for themself. Maybe their parents are separated for any given reason. 

Any one of these things is also going to affect their mindset while growing up from being a baby through being a toddler, a pre-teen, and a teenager. If you want them to feel like a fully rounded out person, you have to think of them as such.

4 - What do they look like?

I’m well aware that this is the first thing that most people go with when creating fankids. I’m just saying that it’s not the most important thing you should be thinking of. 

Making a fankid shouldn’t be a mix-and-match game when you’re making biological kids. When you’re coming up with an adopted kid even less so. They aren’t a paper doll. Some children may look like a mix between their parents, while others will take on attributes from previous generations... although when looking at fictional characters you don’t own the IP of, assuming what genes a fankid’s grandparent might have passed on gets tricky. For this I’m focusing mostly on biological kids, but it should help for adopted as well in some parts.

One good rule of thumb here is to look at how genes actually work.

If nothing else, a simple starting idea would be to look at the general population and say “what is the most common eye colour here” and “what is the most common hair colour” and if your fankid is from that area, that’s probably the most dominant gene, over others.

When creating my own fankids mentioned above, my idea went that blue is an eye colour that tends to be dominant, and red hair tends to come through even just by making dark hair lighter. 

That said, hair and eye colour aren’t all you should be thinking about!

Other things that should be thinking about are: how tall are they? what shape are their eyes? Does the structure of their face take more after one parent than the other, no matter their eye/hair colour? Do they have any markings on their body (moles, birthmarks, etc), and if so are they shared with other family members? Are their features they share with family members who aren’t their parents (i.e, a sister, an uncle, a great-grandparent)? 

As they grow up, do they get taller or stay shorter than their parents? In terms of their body, do they become muscular, or not, and if so, why? Do they become fat, or thin? 

Does their health impact on the way that their body looks? This can mean both disability in terms of walking around with a cane, using a wheelchair, or any number of other things.

Do they change their body in any way? Do they choose to add tattoos, or is something done to them in some other way? Do they have any scars? Would they want to share those scars with other people, or would they choose to hide them away?

5 - How canon affects them, and how they affect canon.

Whether or not your fankid grows up before, during, or after canon events makes a difference. If it’s “before/during” then you’re going to have to think of the consequences of that on both them and their parents, but also everyone else. This isn’t just “add in a kid, aren’t they cute” this is an entire new character, with the capability to become a loose cannon and change canon events.

Things can change. That’s something you’ve got to think about, and accept, the moment you want to add this new character into things. Are you willing to change things, and if so, how far?

The kinds of changes can generally be divided into two categories: internal, and external.

Internal changes are the ways that the characters change mentally and emotionally in response to a child (their child, even) being present. In one of my stories, I change very little on an external level, but the focus is on the internal side of things, as the father of this child faces the idea that he might have lost his son, and how that makes him feel when going into a dangerous situation he may not come back from. Other characters might not see any difference, but the internal conflict is there.

External changes are the big ones, where the child being present - and, by extension, the child’s backstory and its knock-on effects - affect the present, and cause things to change in visible ways. This can mean anything from “the pairing’s child has wandered into a dangerous area filled with plot, and needs to be rescued” to “the plot has found the child” or even just “the parents have relationship issues to sort out, and that changes the plot.”

Things to think of here are - aside from “how old is this kid” as you might have come up with a kid that by this point is an adult as far as I know - how active is this kid? Are they happy to stay put and not affect things, or dot hey have insatiable curiosity and the need to do something? Do they stumble into the plot without being aware of it, do they go seek it out, or does it find them? How much danger does this put them in? If it does put them in danger, how do they deal with that, and how do their parents (or single parent) deal with that? If no danger at all, do they have fun, or are they stressed?

6 - Interactions with the rest of the cast.

Honestly, my main point here is, not everyone is going to react to a kid the same way. Just because they’re cute doesn’t mean everyone’s going to like them! And no, that doesn’t mean they’re evil. And sometimes, even the “evil” characters might handle kids better than some “good” characters. In fact, some “good” characters might do so badly with kids that they make them cry, and that doesn’t make them any less “good.” It just makes them bad at handling kids.

Otherwise, how does the kid fare with the other members of the cast, in general and specifically?

Is there anyone that they like in particular? If so, why? Did that person look nice, did they give them their favourite food? Did they do something special? What did they do to become friends?

Likewise, is there anyone they dislike in particular? What did they do to deserve that? Were they mean on purpose, or did they become disliked by means of an accident or miscommunication? Is it that this person raises their voice and the kid doesn’t like raised voices, or they don’t talk loudly enough?

Depending on the situation with the child’s parents, they might prefer people who are positive toward their parents, or who are negative toward their parents. Because let’s not forget those who don’t like being compared, and those who have parents who aren’t any good. For instance, is the child’s parent a villain in their setting? Are they thought of as a villain? Are they a criminal, or on the side of the law, and regardless of which that is, does the child agree with them, and how does that affect their relationships with others who agree or disagree with that parent?

If your fankid, for example, was mistreated by a certain set of people when they were younger, then how does that relate to later on in life, or the canon cast? My Satoko’s backstory involves medical abuse, which makes her wary of doctors scientists, and things that would remind her (even subconsciously) of that setting. Two of the characters in the cast are medically trained. Her interactions with them are going to be affected by that, even if she grows to like and trust them.

In conclusion: a fan kid can be a fun five minute thing, but if you only put five minutes’ thought into their design, their backstory, and their personality, then you’re only going to get the same view of them as a sketch compared to the time it takes to fully line and colour a work of art. 

If you want to write them, or create a full comic with them, you have to ask yourself questions about who they are, and also who you want them to be. If you want them to be a fully rounded person, then you have to put the time into it. And, really, that if this kid starts acting in ways you don’t expect, but that work, just... listen to that.

[spectralspices]

The possibility of a Resonance Cascade is never zero. 

It is, however, always nearly zero. The chances, day to day, of a Resonance Cascade, are approaching 5e-9. Not impossible. But about as low as a titanic pair of fingers reaching out from the void to snuff out our sun like a reading candle. 

But at Black Mesa, they were studying the dimensional barriers that separated this space from that space. Which is where the chances are raised dramatically. At the beginning, at the first discovery of the signals that indicated that some sort of “Border World” existed, the chances of a Resonance Cascade was raised to 6e-9. Still miniscule, but the simple awareness of another reality is enough to raise it.

When the first experiments into observing it occurred, Quantum Mechanics kicked in. The simple act of direct observation changes things-And so, the chances jumped suddenly. 6e-8 percent chance of Resonance Cascade. 

This is when Black Mesa had a visitor. He had all the proper credentials, never gave them a real name, spoke like a broken robot, and he always seemed to stare past whoever he was talking to-like they weren’t even there. A picture perfect G-Man type, here to give them lots of money nobody officially knows about to keep researching, so Someone Else didn’t know before America.

Well, they assumed it was for America.

7e-7 Percent Chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Director Breen met with him, and secured more than enough funding to develop the technology needed to transfer matter back and forth between this “Borderworld” that they had named “Xen”. He assigned some of Black Mesa’s best to the project. Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance, Arne Magnusson, Richard Keller, Stan Rosenberg...the greatest minds in their field (and under Black Mesa’s employ. Damned Aperture, poaching Ratmann...)

Another massive jump. 9e-5 Percent Chance. And this was not just simply mathematic calculation that was determining these things-As the pieces moved together that would eventually result in a Resonance Cascade, the fabric of reality was actively weakening, making the process all the easier. 

Do you understand what’s being said?

The progress the Black Mesa Team made seemed exponential. When at first, the most they could transfer were simple probes...they soon discovered a frequency that would open holes in space. They sent teams-Ill fated as they were-to collect samples. Both Mineral and Biological. 

1e-3 percent chance. Or, in clearer layman’s terms, a Resonance Cascade had .001 percent chance of occurring. That number would be catastrophically high, if they had understood what a Resonance Cascade actually meant. 

Three men, around the same time, are promoted. Gordon Freeman becomes a Research Assistant on the Anomalous Materials team, working directly under his MIT mentor, Isaac Kleiner. Barney Calhoun is granted Level 3 Security Clearance and meets the previously mentioned men, becoming fast friends. Corporal Adrian Shepard joins the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit of the United States Marines, fast-tracked there by recommendation by an unnamed high ranking official. The HECU marines are ostensibly meant to counteract unconventional enemies in dangerous areas and tight corridors. While a heroic description to the outsider, the simple truth is they are meant to clean up any mistakes that could lead to deserved scrutiny towards what the military is actually funding.

The chances are .01 percent. 

Experiments begin to determine the composition of certain crystalline structures discovered in the Borderworld, and the nature of the energy they seem to hold. Doctor Rosenberg develops a variant of the more common mass spectrometer to analyze these exotic materials, under the watchful eye of that G-man. 

The Anti-Mass Spectrometer is theorized, developed, and constructed. 

There is a 1% chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Experiments begin. Incredible things are learned from the first samples- HG-1866, HP-1937, IA-1992 are all immediately replicated and put into use for the development of Tau Cannons, localized gravitational displacement through Zero Point Energy Emission, and further stabilization of the portal generation. Experiments continue on living tissue from the Borderworld. But a problem arises.

All of the samples have certain impurities, non-exotic matter that prevented certain data from being gathered. Namely, the origin of this matter-the way to make more, not just synthesize similar material.

Director Breen is approached by the G-Man. He has something to provide Black Mesa-A sample purer than any they’d ever gotten their hands on. Breen asks no questions, as the two had...come to an understanding.

The sample is christened “GG-3883″, a tongue in cheek reference to a phrase Doctor Breen’s son often repeated during his time playing the online shooter “Quake”. After all, when Black Mesa came out with the fact that they’d discovered free multiversal travel and near infinite energy, it would be the absolute end of their rivalry with Aperture. The director sent the sample off for analysis, no matter how unstable it may have been, with a self-assured certainty that he would go down in history as one of the most important figures in the field. 

If only he knew.

Chance of a Resonance Cascade had reached 13%, and was climbing as the sample was brought closer and closer to the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. Some work is done to prevent it, however-Safety measures are put in place in the time before the experiment. The chances of a Resonance Cascade are lowered to “only” 7%. 

Gordon Freeman wakes up late after snoozing his alarm one too many times, and must rush to get ready. He rides the Black Mesa Transit system. His car pulls into the station.

Barney Calhoun is locked out of the security office.

Adrian Shepard is finishing a morning jog.

9% of Resonance Cascade.

Gordon Freeman climbs into the Hazard Environment Suit Mark 4, a variant of Black Mesa’s advanced body armor systems that increased physical capability, featured modular ports for various pieces of equipment, and generated a low-yield battery powered energy shield for the partial deflection and absorption of small projectiles and other dangers common to the work they were doing. Everyone called it a “Hev Suit”.

Barney Calhoun is finally let in, pulling on his own variants that were developed for the security guards. Bulletproof vests and helmets, containing the same type of battery powered field generation...even if charge was less potent. At least it didn’t mean every single guard was walking around with a 127,000$ piece of equipment...

Adrian Shepard inspects his Powered Combat Vest, a military produced variant of the HEV suit’s technology, along with his other equipment. The others in his unit are joking around. He’s making sure that if their helicopter crashes, he won’t get impaled on the wreckage or suffocate from an improperly secured gas-mask. A grim man, that Adrian Shepard. But not a paranoid one. At least...not unjustly paranoid.

13% chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Gordon Freeman is shortly briefed, before witnessing a major equipment malfunction in one of the support systems for the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. The safety measures have been lowered to their absolute limit for a safe reading of the exotic matter present in sample GG-3883. Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner stay behind to repair it as best they can, but doubts are expressed for the safety of this experiment. Not only was this the largest sample ever put through the analysis procedure, it was the purest and most unstable. The system cannot handle this. Nevertheless, Gordon descends, beginning the process to prepare the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

27% chance of Resonance Cascade.

Barney Calhoun notices the lights flickering above, as the strain on the facility’s generators is too great to maintain everything. The air feels wrong, the people are uneasy, but they aren’t sure why. 

33% chance of Resonance Cascade.

Adrian Shepard showers alone once the others had finished, as he preferred the quiet. He steps out and stares into the mirror. Did he ever plan for a life other than this? Was he going to be a grunt, doing wetwork until he died? Would he ever grow old? Did he even want the chance?

These are the things a quiet man thinks when he trains to murder civilians for knowing too much, when he knows nothing at all.

49% chance of Resonance Cascade.

The sample is brought up. The Spectrometer is powered to levels that the system cannot handle for an extended period. Gordon Freeman pushes the sample in. 

100% of Resonance Cascade

At once, the machinations of two vast powers clash. A meddler who has carefully manipulated the pieces into position, who provided funding, who held authority and power despite not a single living human recognizing him. Who had changed things...made sure certain discoveries were made, and others were not. Who had done all this, changed the course of human history...Because his employers had a vendetta against Something Else Entirely, using the Resonance Cascade as a flare to bring them to this world. 

But at the same time, a vast psychic force, master of an enslaved race of enlightened psychics, creator of twisted weaponized flesh and guns that shoot bees at you, a creature that had harnessed its own power and the power of its thralls to peer into the world beyond them-and the worlds that were yet to be-and it knew of the meddler’s plans. A conflict with the force he had directed his enmity towards was not something the creature could allow, as an invasion of Earth...would pass through it’s Borderworld. 

So, the creature took control of the Cascade. In most situations, a Resonance Cascade occurred when an object begins to vibrate at the exact frequency required to begin “Resonating”, meaning it has started to emit energy that causes the same reaction in other matter, which then cause the reaction both in the original matter and the matter around them, massively weakening the fabric of space and the barriers beyond one world and the worlds that border them. This chain reaction was self sustaining, but did not spread laterally in the space it originated. Instead, it would spread to other worlds-Exchanging matter between them at random as the two spaces began to blend. 

The Psychic Force stopped the cascade in Xen, forcing it to focus on sustaining the reaction between just those two worlds, weakening its hold...but allowing it to send its forces (And hostile wildlife) to Earth, to destroy the systems that caused this-To stop the cascade with the death of every human in the facility. To this end, it maintained the cascade in a lesser form.  

The Meddler had predicted something of this sort. He had...preparations in place. Including two agents of chaos...

Gordon Freeman awakes to the destroyed remains of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, dazed and confused. He has seen alien worlds, and nearly died several times. They won’t be the last for a very long time.

Adrian Shepard’s unit is alerted to their next deployment. They gear up, enter the choppers, and ride. A Manta Ray that shits lasers destroys their helicopter, and Adrian Shepard is glad he charged his vest that morning.

Barney Calhoun desperately tries to escape the deadly forces that were flooding the facility. He was not a piece in a cosmic game. He was just...some guy.

An unexpected enemy appears. Marauders that only seek to steal resources before greater threats stake claim on this newly opened world. They are repelled by the Meddler’s more trained agent, as Adrian Shepard trades one amoral faceless master that decided who he killed for another.

But the Psychic Force...The Nihilanth. Its death would come by a different hand. One clad in orange and black, swinging a bright red strip of metal. Gordon Freeman frees a race, stops an alien invasion, and was prepared to die in an impossible world for his troubles-all to save lives. But he did good work. He was the right man for the job. He’s “Hired”. 

In the end, the Meddler’s plans worked better than anyone could expect. His true targets were alerted, preparing their forces to take the Earth. The lesser marauders repelled and the psychic barrier dealt with, making the blue marble seem an even sweeter prize. Several agents obtained for his schemes, to be deployed when and where they would be appropriate. Dangerous alien life and Portal Storms-the aftershocks of a Resonance Cascade-prevented the governments from truly being able to prepare. 

The Combine arrive. The war lasts seven hours. Wallace Breen negotiates humanity’s surrender. Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance firmly disagree with this course of action. Judith Mossman, another survivor of the Black Mesa Incident, is less sure. 

The last human child for the next two decades is born. The Combine establish a field that prevents human procreation. Other hostile alien life begins to take hold-Antlion Nests, hives of Headcrabs, Barnacles spreading, ichthyosaurs stalking the oceans and lakes. Combine weapons-made from heavily modified creatures from previous conquests-are regularly deployed, roaming the streets in shows of force. Humans are converted into their police, enhanced infantry, special forces...and lobotimized worker slaves. 

The Meddler waits for a red-letter day, and he chooses his agent carefully. To destroy a machine like the Combine, one needed not a precision implement. Military training would do nothing against a force that conquered worlds in hours. No, Adrian Shepard-a knife in human sheath-would be unfit for this.

What one needed to destroy the Combine was a blunt thing. A force of chaos that couldn’t be stopped. Whose strength was matched only by his luck. His intelligence, matched only by his willingness to do things like drive a muscle car into hyper-agile flechette-firing cyborgs, or throw a toilet at a man’s face so hard his skull is obliterated and he backflips twice before hitting the ground. Or fight a helicopter from an airboat equipped with a fully automatic plasma cannon.

To break a machine of World Consumption, the G-Man would ram a crowbar into the mechanism, just where it can cause the maximum damage-and keep causing damage to the entire thing. The right man in the wrong place.

Gordon Freeman wakes up on a train car, as it pulls into the City 17 station, deeply confused and disoriented. The moment he steps out, a floating camera photographs his face-which would soon enough be processed and identified as Anticitizen One, Gordon Freeman, the most wanted man on the planet-who had been gone for twenty years and looked identical to the day the Black Mesa Incident occurred. Minus the ponytail. His old boss is on a giant viewscreen. One of the aliens he used to fight is sweeping. Cops in gasmasks maintain a fascist state and he’s somewhere in Eastern Europe. His confusion and disorientation deepens severely.

Wallace Breen receives notice that Gordon Freeman had been sighted. A pit forms in his stomach. He feels a familiar hand in this. Within a few days, he will be screaming high-concept threats from an ascending sphere of energy as a former research assistant flings tightly condensed plasma orbs at him with a gravity cannon.

The G-Man continues to meddle, despite the intervention of a hive mind of benevolent psychics. His plans are, for the most part, undeterred. However...

He begins to regret deploying Gordon Freeman. Chaos, while able to be directed, is quite hard to wrangle when it’s gotten loose. For now, Freeman continues to act in favor of the disruption of Combine operations. But...his personal connection to a secondary objective-another new agent to recruit-sours the G-man’s elation at a plan more or less well executed. The end of this, however, is still untold. 

Because who fucking knows when they’re making Half Life Goddamn 3.

[fermented-writers-block]

With the recent developments in Mr. Universe and Fragments, I couldn’t help but be reminded of an old thought I came up with several months ago, back when the fandom thought that Steven’s pink mode was simply a heightened emotional state of some kind, and even though we know now that it actually is a stress response reaction, I can’t help but think it might still be applicable here to Steven’s current situation.

TLDR: Over the course of the series, Steven’s views of his mother had fallen and continued to fall very far away from its original pedestal due to the sheer barrage of harsh realities and troubling secrets constantly being upended and revealed, and the shifts in how he has felt about his mother’s legacy seems to tell a very interesting story. One of a long, rocky uphill battle against a mountain of expectations, and a sudden, sharp plunge into a ravine of self-loathing before finding one’s way out of the darkness.

When the original series first started, he looked up to Rose Quartz the protector of Earth, seeing her as the always kindhearted and perfect person whose legacy he felt like he had to live up to. He tried so very hard to be more loving and thoughtful like Greg and the Gems had told him Rose had been like thus far into the show - like he felt they expected him to be if he wanted to stay useful and thus someone they would actually keep around like In Dreams suggests - and he struggled with his constant failures to match up with such an impossible image, potentially even as early into the show as Laser Light Cannon with his desperate pleading for the titular weapon to work.

In the middle of the original series, as he heard more intimate stories about what Rose was really like in person from his family, found out about Bismuth’s bubbling, and had to be told by a stranger that his mother, someone he had been led to believe had always promoted peace, apparently shattered someone, his image of Rose the flawless hero turned into that of Rose the liar with an unknowable amount of secrets that hurt his family immensely. 

He struggled with the question of whether Rose had made him for some untold grand plan, and he felt like he had to take care of the messes that she left behind, putting such a burdensome expectation on himself even though the Gems no longer expected him to be more like his mother. This culminated in I Am My Mom with his attempt to save his family from harm by resigning himself to sacrificing himself and atoning for his mother’s sins.

For the end of the original series, Pearl’s revelation that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person the entire time finally gave Steven a fuller picture of Rose the person, someone who was flawed and still had positive qualities, someone who tried very hard to become a better person. He felt like he had really found his space with the Crystal Gems, and they expected him to be himself.

And yet, with the strange and inexplicable glimpses of Pink Diamond’s memories as well as White Diamond's existential questions either inspiring or bringing such a thought to the front of his mind, Steven struggled with the fear that his mother was still alive somewhere deep within his consciousness, and that ‘Steven’ the person had just been a lie the entire time. 

Post CYM and another of his mother’s secrets coming back to haunt him with Spinel, Steven had stopped worrying about who he isn’t. He now knows for certain that he’s not his mother, that she isn’t living in some dormant part of his gem ready to take back control.

But after years of trying to live up to the ideal of Rose the protector, fixing the mistakes of Rose the liar, and doing better than Rose the person with the way he pushed himself to help others, he now worries about - if there’s no one else left to help but himself - who and what Steven Universe is like if he isn’t his mother.

We’ve seen him struggle to deal with this identity crisis in Little Homeschool and Little Graduation, pushing himself to solve problems that he either couldn’t find a working solution towards or likely projected onto others out of desperation from his anxieties over being left behind. 

He expects himself to already do better, already help better, already be better than all of this. His approach of putting other’s problems above his own has worked before, so he shouldn’t be failing if he’s still doing the same thing he’s done before, but with every inevitable misstep and every doubling down on trying to be more like he expects himself to be and failure, the more those expectations feel impossible to ever actually meet.

I’ve been a longtime follower of the Worm Theory ever since @novantinuum made the first post that really kicked things off for it, and soon after Volleyball aired, a thought had occurred to me in light of Steven’s attempt at managing Amethyst’s program.

With Steven’s expression from his cracked reflection at the Reef, I couldn’t help but wonder if Steven might develop the fear that - while he isn’t his mother - he might just be becoming like his mother, and especially in regards to her flaws and repeating her mistakes. 

Let me be clear, I didn’t and still don’t think that the stress from such a fear would be even remotely close to being a major instigator for Steven to become the creature from the intro from his pink mode stress response, but with these newest episodes - particularly the ending to Fragments - it has felt like all of this had come to a head for Steven, and that we’ll soon see one of the actual instigating fears for his transformation in the finale.

In the promo, Steven looks like he’s trying to assure himself that he isn’t a shatterer, trying to reaffirm what he knows about himself in the wake of his accident with Jasper, but with the shot of him clearly leaving Jasper and the Gems behind, I feel that Steven may be struggling with the fear that he’s become like his mother there.

Or rather, the (apparent) reality that he’s become “WORSE” than her.

Even with all the horrible secrets she kept, Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond had never shattered anyone, and yet here Steven is, having done exactly that.

Never mind the fact that it was an accident, never mind that he is still the same kind and loving person at heart, never mind that he deeply regrets what he did, Steven’s sense of identity has been crumbling for a good while now with losing what he defined his life by in his ability to help people, and the fact that he had shattered someone and that said someone immediately acknowledged him as their Diamond could disintegrate nearly all of what sense of identity he has left.

These last few episodes, Steven’s mental health has been on a nasty decline in struggling with feeling like he either can’t rely on his support structure in Greg and the Gems for advice with his problems or that his support structures in Connie and his friends are drifting away, and because of this and how he might feel about himself after what happened with Jasper, the only place he may feel like he should be is on Homeworld.

Steven has put so much weight on himself to be a good person, to be better than his mother and all the horrible things she did, that this might just feel like a confirmation that he isn’t a good person, that even Rose was a better person than him despite the stuff she failed spectacularly at. There’s no more expectations to live up to on top of him, only what he really is now.

He had abandoned his human side in Mr. Universe, and now all that’s left is his gem side - that is, his Diamond side.

Or at least, that’s how it’d likely seem to him. 

It’d feel like the only point of support and belonging he has left is with the other Diamonds, as the one thing Rose wasn’t and tried desperately not to be in the end was a Diamond herself, and he may feel like he should just embrace his place since he’s “just as bad as them.”

Not only that, but he also tried to emulate Jasper’s mentality, coping methods, and appearance in his struggle to find some kind of ‘solution’ for his ‘diamond powers,’ and as such, there’s one final place where he might just be able to get a ‘solution’ - even though there’s no such thing as a full on solution for dealing with trauma.

With that said, while they most likely won’t initially understand or be that concerned with Steven giving up on his humanity to be with them, I can’t help but feel like the Diamonds have changed enough that seeing Steven act “like a Diamond is supposed to” would shake them HARD.

Acting that way had been what hurt themselves and each other for millennia, and they’ve been able to feel happier and create a relatively healthier dynamic between the three of them under Steven’s guidance, so to see Steven turn his back on all of that could make them VERY concerned for him. 

It’d put up an unsettlingly ugly mirror in front of the Diamonds to the people they used to be, and that for as much as they may have wanted Steven to be with them, this isn’t what they had in mind at all.

Perhaps that might end in an ironic reversal of what happened at the end of CYM, where instead of denying Steven as individual from his mother and trying to force him to be his mother out of a callous and arrogant kind of love, White acts out of a fuller love and genuine concern for Steven, and in the heat of the moment, accidentally slips back into some old behavior.

“I only want you to be yourself! If you can't do that, I'll do it! For! You!”

But whatever their response may actually be, this could very well be the second to last major tipping point for Steven at the very least, as at that point, EVERY person and place he thought he could turn to for advice or just finally belong to would likely either feel to him like they let him down or that they’re scared of what he feels he’s become.

Not even the Diamonds themselves feel like he belongs with them, and with how he felt like Connie had flat out refused to marry him instead of leaving an opening for them to talk about it later, I can easily see him extrapolating from the Diamonds’ reactions that he’s become not only worse than his mother, but ALL of the Diamonds.

Of course, the stress and anguish from this fear of himself and what he’s become most probably wouldn’t be the key factor behind him turning into the worm creature, just one of several major stresses that would likely influence such a transformation. 

Like @faelapis has discussed, most of the other contributing stresses had already been unbalancing Steven for a long time towards this direction in his tightrope act, and this kind of recent fear would merely be the final gust of wind to finally push Steven off. 

As for how Steven could potentially be brought from the brink of this particular fear (since I’m withholding speculation on what the exact other stresses could be until we get there), I can see one way that could help Steven with this and his struggle with holding himself to the standard of always being able to help others.

Mainly, with a potential mixture of something clicking for him to help him fully understand his mother’s choices and the self-loathing that seems to have been behind so much of said choices, and for something to help him with feeling like he’s supposed to always be a hero and fixing things, instead changing it to feeling like he’s a person for whom it’s completely okay to make a mistake, like it’s okay for him to not live up to an impossible ideal.

Like he is a human with both the bad and the good that comes with it. 

That just because he has the power to change doesn’t mean that he should pressure himself to never screw up badly even by accident, and that just because he’s capable of screwing up badly even by accident doesn’t mean that he is incapable of learning, growing, and improving afterwards. 

Whether this is accomplished through a combination of Greg and the Gems acknowledging how, even though they love him, they’ve messed up badly while raising him, Connie relating to his struggle to push himself to be better with her studies as well as the shared experiences they’ve been through, and some help from all the other countless people he’s helped over the years, I can’t claim to know.

But even though it can feel hard to do, even though it feels like you’ll never be able to pull yourself out of the dark, even though it may feel like you just keep failing over and over and over again, you can still always pick yourself up and change for the better.

[thequirkdetective]

Investigation 1 (1/05/2020): Creation – Momo Yaoyorozu

The first quirk I am investigating is Creation, an Emitter type that allows the user - Momo Yaoyorozu - to turn ingested lipids into objects[1] and release them from her skin. The first thing to note is that any material can be made with this quirk, as long as its atomic composition is known. Since lipids are carbohydrates (molecules that do not contain every known element) this means the quirk can alter the structure of the atoms of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, rearranging the protons, neutrons, and electrons to create new elements.

In the first part of the UA Sports Festival Yaoyorozu creates a fully functioning cannon and cannonballs[2]; one of the largest displays of her quirk in the anime. A cannon typically weighs around 3,500kg (7,700lbs), and a cannonball has a mass of roughly 17.5kg (39lbs). In the episode Yaoyorozu fires 4 cannonballs, as well as describing the creation of the weapon as “a piece of cake”. The total weight of the cannon and 4 cannonballs is 3570kg (7870lbs), meaning Yaoyorozu had to have created them from the same mass of lipid in her body under the law of the conservation of mass. Yaoyorozu looks very slim on account of the fact she should weigh 57x the healthy weight for her height, and she should have lost over 8 metric (8.8 tons) tons during the creation of the cannon, so we can safely assume the mass of the objects does not come directly from the lipids she consumes, as described. If it did, and somehow originated from a single meal, she could eat a meal, and use it to create a 3570kg (7870lbs) version of the same meal. She can then eat 1 serving of that, burn the rest as fuel and repeat, violating the laws of thermodynamics and creating infinite free energy for everyone, solving world hunger, and allowing everyone to live in a post scarcity utopia. (This has not occurred in the anime as of the end of season 4)

Since we have established the source of the objects cannot be directly from lipids, we must question what the source actually is, and whether there can be any credibility to this ‘lipid’ explanation. If the objects were created from other matter that has been reformed by Yaoyorozu’s quirk, then there has to be a cannon-sized hole in something nearby, which there isn’t. The mass could come from the air, but the volume needed to supply the same mass as a cannon is ~3 million litres, or 1/10 of the air within the UA Sports Stadium. This volume is not only infeasible to consume, alter, and emit in such a short space of time, it would also create a large wind, with Yaoyorozu acting as a vacuum. This alone would most likely be enough to topple the robots without the use of the cannon.

Another option is the use of energy. Since mass is just a from of energy, Yaoyorozu could be harnessing some source of energy and using it to generate mass. Although this is theorised to be impossible under the standard model of particle physics as it changes the number of quarks in a closed system, the possibility remains in other theoretical models of physics. This process has the added benefit of explaining the ability to create any element, since the entire process hinges around the creation of individual quarks. To calculate the energy required for the cannon creation, we turn to the most famous equation in Physics; . This tells us that the energy stored in matter is equal to the matter’s mass (in kg) multiplied by the speed of light (in m/s) squared. Plugging in the numbers shows that the energy required to form a cannon and four cannonballs is…

320855598809043897480 joules.

The destructive capability of harnessing this much energy can be demonstrated via the detonation of 41256 Tsar bombs – the most destructive weapon humanity has ever created. This is enough Tsar Bombs to fill almost 5000 large warehouses.

If this energy were to be gained via the standard way humans gain energy – eating and respiring using the ingested glucose – Yaoyorozu would have to eat a meal before the obstacle course with a calorie count of 76686328587247580kcal. To put this in perspective, this equates to 36 trillion skyscrapers worth of bacon, or enough bags of crisps to give everyone in the world 2500 tons of Walkers cheese and onion (or Lays if you’re American). Of course, this method of energy generation is bound to be less efficient than directly altering lipids, since the human body is not 100% efficient at generating energy from mass. The same line of reasoning can describe why Yaoyorozu doesn’t gain the energy from radioactive sources, since these are not 100% efficient either. The only process that does turn mass into energy with 100% efficiency is the annihilation of antimatter and matter. Sadly, reversing this process a) required double the amount of energy, as you need to make two copies of the object, one made of antimatter, and b) will cause the matter and antimatter copies to annihilate immediately, releasing the same amount of energy you just put into creating them – 82,512 Tsar Bombs. Needless to say, this would vaporize a large chunk of the continent and plunge the world into a nuclear winter which would cause the extinction of all life on earth.

It seems there isn’t a way of creating the cannon that’s fully adherent to canon, and I believe there isn’t a way of creating one compliant our current understanding of the laws of physics. In order for Yaoyorozu to create such a large object, she would have to have at least the same amount of mass to transmute, and since nothing / no-one in the scene ends up with a cannon-sized chunk of them missing, it appears the creation of the objects within Yaoyorozu’s body is something we have to relinquish to the realms of fantasy.

The releasing of the objects, however, is not.

Human skin is comprised of many layers. We do not know for certain which layer the object is created in, but whichever it is, the layers above will be stripped away as the object grows in size and is ejected from the body, so it makes sense for it to be as close to the surface as possible. Here, we may still find a kernel of truth in the ‘lipids’ claim. The hypodermis contains a layer of fat lying beneath the epidermis and dermis and just above the muscle called the subcutaneous fat layer. It could be that ‘made out of lipids’ is a simplification of the fact that the objects originate from the layer of skin where some of the lipids in the body are stored. The downside of this is that any object originating in the hypodermis must then punch through the epidermis and dermis to be used, leaving a large, deep graze more akin to a terrible burn, or being flayed alive. Additionally, sizeable portions of skin would be ejected from the body. This would of course be both unsightly and inconvenient. Seeing as large amounts or gore do not erupt from Yaoyorozu when she uses her quirk[2] , we are again calling the feasibility of canon into question.

If the object is created in the live cells above the subcutaneous fat, then the quirk does not properly create objects from lipids. However, I think this is a detail we can let slide if it means leaving most of Yaoyorozu’s skin attached to her body.

Most.

The topmost layer of skin is called the epidermis, which itself is comprised of multiple layers. The very bottom layer, known as the stratum basale or stratum germinativum, is comprised of dividing keratinocytes. The keratinocytes are then pushed to the surface, undergoing cornification. By the time the cells have reached the surface, they are bound husks full of keratin, their surface covered in a cornified cell envelope. The layers above the stratum basale are thus in various stages of cornification and cannot carry out any function. Therefore, the shallowest layer of living cells that can hypothetically produce objects via quirk are the cells of the stratum basale itself. The cells may not have enough blood flow to gather the required nutrients, but as discussed previously, the objects cannot be created from raw matter. The object creation occurring in the basal layer does mean any cells above this layer are forcibly removed whenever an object is created. However, this isn’t as bad as if the quirk manifested in the hypodermis, and simply leaves a light graze.

So, after all this research we can finally understand Yaoyorozu’s quirk. It activates at will, with Yaoyorozu thinking of an object she wishes to create, and then the basal cells in Yaoyorozu’s skin collect the chemicals required from an unknown source and begin construction. The resultant object pushes its way through the epidermis, finally emerging with a graze in its wake, and dead skin covering its surface. Prolonged use of the quirk could lead to scarring due to the continued trauma of the basal cells, however this is not permanent, as it is conveniently removed upon use of the quirk.

[1] Season 1 episode 11: ‘Game Over’

[2] Season 2 episode 16: ‘In Their Own Quirky Ways’

[radcatcrown]

Stephen’s Cosmos

Alternative title: My frustrations with Steven Universe coalesced into form in an AU

So Steven Universe: The Movie came out and after months of slumber, it woke my gripes with the series due to stuff that happened within the movie that irked me. I’ve had my problems with Steven Universe for some time now, and it's not that the movie is the straw the broke the camel's back, but hey, seems like a good time as any to do this.

Statement of Purpose: My main problem with Steven Universe is not an issue of the attempt at redeeming villains, for a dude like myself that grew up on an anime media diet, villains getting turned good is old hat. I’ve seen it better done than SU and worse than SU. The idea that yes, somebody that has done wrong in the past and has recognized the error of their ways has a possibility to atone is a good message. The problem is with SU scale, because of its insistence of going cosmic and having most serious problems have the sake of the world in the balance as an allegory for family issues makes it less credible, and more than a tad reprehensive. So this is an AU that remixes the show to do away with it. Mind you this is just a basic, vague, ranty pitch, probably not going to write out any episodes. We good? Ok. Let's begin.

Premise and Setting: In the interest of cutting down on the ‘epic’ scale of original SU, I’ll have this set mostly on modern-day earth and maybe other realms if necessary. Stephen’s Cosmos would have more of a straight-up magic/fantasy feel than the sci-fi magi-tech the show uses. This is because we’re not using aliens here, we’re using witches. And since we’re going for differences I’ll be using a Floral/herbal naming scheme for these witches, maybe even have them have developed plant-like features, but having them be human women at least as a basis. The backstory would go like so; existing for centuries in the shadows there would be a coven of powerful Witches known as the Chrysanthemum Circle, composed of the Elder Sister; White Chrysanthemum, Middle Sisters; Blue and Yellow/Golden Chrysanthemum and the youngest Red Chrysanthemum. They would rule over a pseudo-amazonian secret island in the middle of the pacific ocean, where they have built a society of witches that work under them, basically for both the preservation of the society itself and for them to be able to live in luxury. Red would be treated as a child by the other three instead of an equal, constantly the victim of abuse and punishment for her oddities in her sister’s eyes. This causes her to run away a few times before burning bridges in an impulsive manner, escaping and taking a few like-minded witches with her, namely her handmaiden and confidant Lily, the mysterious Sunflower, and a few others. Red would shed her imperious persona for a softer, friendlier Pink Rose. From there they would wander the world of man, picking up a young human girl that would come to name herself Carnation. They would settle and build a temple in the small coastal city of Beach City eventually, where they would live until the foreseeable future as the coven of the Wild Flowers. There Pink would find Mr. Universe and things would progress as cannon... except Pink doesn’t need to die here. So we have Pink Rose as part of the secondary cast. The main premise of the story would be to have an episodic structure with monster/problem-of-the-week setups(depending on how much action it makes sense to have in it), slowly integrating Stephen and the Flowers into the quirky town of Beach City, as well as learning lore and having the Flowers help with the strange occurrences in this town. These episodic seasons would get broken up with two-parter season finale to have a nice bombastic event. It would get slightly more serialized as it goes along, more-less the Avatar: The Last Airbender model. There would be a reveal of who Rose is about halfway through where Lily reveals it under dire circumstances and would fragment the Wild Flowers. Why not go with a completely mundane plot? Because flora is pretty, witches are cool and lesbian witches are double cool. (If you must though it's actually not that hard, the Diamonds are an old money/noble family, staunchly elitist and traditionalist, have them be in Europe where they rule over a township. Rose runs away due to similar situations and we’d have her and other runaways come to Beach City and slowly get integrated with ensuing hijinks and slice-of-life situations.)

Characters

Red Chrysanthemum/Pink Rose: Ok this is the big one so we better get it out of the way first. Since she’s going to be around her main impact on the show is actually being able to be there and explain herself but also deal with the fallout of her own choices. Her personality would be very nice, motherly, soft and friendly but in a way that she seems above it all, careless and perhaps a little too hands-off. Her main flaw to be dealt with is her selfishness. Her main arc would be raising Steven, and recognizing other people as her equals that she loves instead of her inferiors to be protected. The secondary arc would be having to deal with the repercussions of her past actions and her secrets.

Stephen: If one’s theme is generational abuse then exploring the next generation is crucial. Stephen would serve as an instigator to get the Flowers closer to the regular human population, and the audience closer to the bizarre and mysterious Wild Flowers. Stephen’s arc or arcs rather would focus on many things, but the main one being on his growth is the best of both worlds, his mother and father’s better qualities without the baggage that brought them into being, having to struggle with his identity between two worlds and the friction therein. He would eventually mature to be better than Pink. 

Lily: Lily would be Pearl’s equivalent, a Handmaiden literally sworn to serve Red; now Pink. The first thing that was done after their escape was to break her oath. We’d keep her arc of her having unrequited feelings for Pink, and her issues with her self worth and need for outside stimuli and approval. Her feelings would eventually need to be confronted and her dependency issues would be dealt with by her efforts to own her own person, be well with herself by being independent, and find maybe a new love?

Sunflower: Sunflower would be the fusion between two witches in love, separated by their classes back in the Island; the knightly and flaming Poppy and the serene seer Tulip. They wanted to be together with such fervor that when they were ordered to stay separated due to their social standings they performed a forbidden ritual that bound them both as one sole entity, sort of as a witchy marriage. The Chrysanthemums banned this ritual due to the exponential increase in power between the two participants, fearing it may topple them, so they declared it forbidden and decadent due to the ‘loss of two precious lives to bring in one tortured life’. The ritual cannot be sustained forever and it would be dissolved every new moon, and the preparations to properly perform it take a few days at least. This allows the two cute lesbians to be cute together. There would be parallels between them and the Rose/Lily relationship, but also serve to contrast them. Their arcs would mostly be relationship-based, regarding if they are codependent, if their relationship is healthy, they would have their rough patches and arguments like any married couple and hopefully a second more human wedding. 

Amy Thistle Aka Carnation: Carnation would be a neophyte witch kicked out of her foster home due to her magical inclinations. Finding a kindred spirit in their search for freedom Rose takes her under her wing. Carnation turns out to have the more ‘normal’ demeanor of the three witches. She would have parallels with Rose in the sense that even after Stephen’s around she’s treated like the kid and even not a ‘proper’ witch, this results in aggravating the self-worth and self hate issues she had. Rose’s words of ‘you’re perfect as you are’ would soothe her but in the long run, it just put obstacles in her development. She would grow to have frictions with Stephen, but would resolve them together with him. 

Connie: Basically the same but make her parents actually overbearing or traditionalist as to make parallels with the Chrysanthemums.

Lavender: A cloudshaper that got caught up in a riot against the Chrysanthemums, was sealed in a mirror until Stephen liberates her accidentally. Once out she lashes out against even the ones that gave her a helping hand. Her way to cope with her own trauma due to being sealed for hundreds of years would be violent and volatile. Her arc would be of her working through that trauma and for her to serve as a MASSIVE red flag for Rose of what her sisters’ deeper sins may be.

Mint: Keep Peridot’s arc and just adjust for lower scale. Her whole arc should be about broken misconceptions about the society outside the Island, and breaking through the behaviors that repressive society has ingrained. Parallels with Rose on that one. 

Oak: Oak would have more-less Jasper’s role in the story at large, first as a weapon for the Chrysanthemums and later as a recurring antagonist. Functionally she would begin to show to Rose and the others the consequences of her running away and other past actions since Oak was a member of her former court. 

Peony: An original member of the Wild Flowers that was found by Stephen as he messed around with portals. Her conflict with Rose originally would be more-less the same than Bismuth, their ideological differences, in this case, Peony has created a garment that would sever one’s connection with magic, reducing the user to a regular human. As with the original, she would be right in wanting justice and revenge. She wanted to use that to topple the Chrysanthemums and have them face the people’s justice. Rose exiled her before, and kept her secret. When she appears again old wounds are opened, and it is Peony that plants the seeds of direct rebellion within the Wild Flowers.

Townies: Most of these are fine and we don’t need to touch it, there are three major changes to be done though; Kevin, who should get a rehabilitation arc from a douche creep to a decent person, as a sort of practice for Stephen to help everybody else. Lars, since he can no longer be of the Stars, would become a part of the human contingent of Wild Flowers, mostly out of a search for purpose and adventure. Ronaldo would be rehabilitated from a self-important conspiracy buff into another, Dipper Pine’s-ish Wildflower.

The Chrysanthemums: Ok now the big bads. The Chrysanthemums would be aristocratic and authoritarian, capable of atrocities and overall believe themselves to be superior to everybody else. They would be the center of a “Diamond-Days”-esque arc in which Stephen, Rose and the other Wild Flowers go back to the Island with the explicit purpose of changing things for the best. They would need to test the lessons learned by Rose and her growth. General personality for the three? Yellow should be be imperius and ruthless, Blue should feel sublime, like the serene calm for a perpetual storm. White would actually have a god complex; she thinks of herself as perfect and eternal. They have been ‘mourning’ Red since she ran away, but the mourn an idealized version of her, the Red they wish they had lived with. From here during their story arc we would slowly begin to find out that Blue and Yellow act the way they act out of fear, though there is a degree of them that did buy into White’s beliefs. They’ve seen what White is capable and they know they’re not powerful enough even combined. Rose would end up confronting all three of them about the trauma they put her through, not only that but for the combined suffering and pain their rule of repression has caused to the witches in the island. She would reach through to Blue and Yellow… but not White. White reacts how an angry god might. They would manage to repel her and she would become the true antagonist, a goddess ousted from her temple. Blue and Yellow over the course of the next seasons begin to realize the true extent of their actions and set upon trying to fix and atone, but it would be made clear that hundreds of years of oppression cannot be easily wiped away. White herself would end up being defeated, depowered, and put on trial. Ultimately she would be sealed away.

So yeah, that’s it, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[transhitman]

TMA D&D Homebrew

So fellas, I’ve been working on a TMA dnd homebrew, and I thought I’d share what I have so far. I’m not sure if it’s balanced. I’ve never really delved deep into the rules of dnd, so I would love some input! I’ve been writing this with a modern setting in mind, and so far I’ve been working on the powers as warlock patrons. I have 5 done so far: Beholding, Buried, Corruption, Dark, and End. I also added a level 20 patron ability since there seems to be some kind of ascendance point where the avatars become irreversibly inhuman, and it felt a little anticlimactic to just have the final ability at level 14. I’ve also nerfed the actual spellcasting, so there are less spell slots, and the actual spells you can know (as well as the eldritch invocations) are limited by patron. It seemed fair since the actual patron abilities might be a little bit OP. I’m aiming to edit most of the other classes, but I might remove some classes altogether (druids wouldn’t really work IMO). I’ve also been trying trying to word in in a way that’s accessible to people who aren’t familiar with TMA, so it gets a bit verbose at times. It’s not meant to reflect cannon 100% accurately, but I did my best. I also made it so that a lot of abilities can be subject to house rules, and some abilities rely on the RP aspect of the game. If you end up using this stuff, feel free to edit it! Since it’s built around a modern universe, a lot of it might not fit with actual dnd lore. Anyway, the five “finished” patrons are under the cut. If you read, please tell me if I should keep on this track or if I should change some things up before I commit to it completely : )

THE BEHOLDING

Expanded Spell List

1st - Identify, Healing Word 2nd - Detect Thoughts, See Invisibility 3rd - Clairvoyance, Sending 4th - Arcane Eye, Divination 5th - Legend Lore, Modify Memory

Lv.1 - The Pen is Mightier

You are proficient in all intelligence skills, as well as the medicine and insight skills, and you may learn one extra language of your choice. In addition, when attacking, you may choose to use your intelligence modifier in place of your strength or dexterity.

Lv.6 - Media Consumption

The acquisition of new factual knowledge restores your strength and sustains your body. When you acquire a large amount of knowledge at any time, you may choose one of the following effects:

You heal yourself for 2d6 health. This increases to 2d8 at level 10, 2d10 at level 14, 3d10 at level 17, and 4d12 at level 20.

You negate any effects of exhaustion.

You regain expended spell slots in a quantity equal to your proficiency bonus.

For the next 24 hours, you don’t have to sleep in order to gain the benefits of a long rest, rather you may use the time to do non-strenuous activities.

You do not need to eat for the next 6 hours. If you were previously hungry, no are no longer hungry.

You gain a +1 bonus to dexterity for the next 6 hours.

The knowledge you gain in order to create this effect must be substantial. You can not simply google a list of facts and read them one at a time in order to abuse this ability. If you are reading the information, it must be a complete series of events that takes place over more than 5 minutes, or it must be an academic paper long enough that it would take a narrator at least 10 minutes to read out loud. You may read it more quickly to yourself and still gain the benefits if you are able. If a creature is telling you the information, it must sustain communication with you for at least 5 minutes or until its story has come to a close. If the new information you gain is related to true supernatural events, you may heal yourself for the maximum amount possible, or if you choose to use another ability, heal yourself for one warlock hit die + your constitution modifier. This ability can be used once per day.

Lv.10 - The Truth and Nothing But

If you ask a creature a question, they are compelled to answer truthfully no matter what. There is no limit to what kind of questions you can ask, or the amount of times you can ask a creature questions. A creature can only answer your question if it knows the answer. If a creature is aware of the nature of this compulsion, it may make wisdom save against your spell save DC. The player in control of the compelled creature makes the roll in secret. On a success, the creature resists your compulsion and may answer however it likes. This ability bypasses any spells that would normally prevent a similar compulsion. Creatures that don’t understand your language, or who can not speak are immune to the effects of this ability. You are automatically aware of this compulsion if it is used on you. Any acolyte of the Beholding has advantage when trying to resist the compulsion.

Lv.14 - Found in Translation

You are able to comprehend any language that exists, be it written, verbal, visual, digital, or psychic. However, you can not speak the language. If a humanoid is communicating in a way that is not a real language, you automatically know the general message it is trying to get across.

Lv.20 - The Watcher’s Crown

You look human, but no man could know such things. Choose a creature whose name you know or whose face you can recall with decent accuracy. No matter where they are, you can see and hear exactly what they are doing. This ability bypasses any anti-divination effects. While in the watcher state, you are aware of your own surroundings, but moving or focusing on a different subject breaks the effect of this ability. In addition, you have disadvantage on perception checks regarding your actual surroundings, and your AC drops to 10. The subject feels like they’re being watched, but has no way to detect you. Furthermore, if you are familiar with a subject, you may learn anything about their past, even things the subject does not know themselves, such as things that happened to them as a young child, or the feelings and memories of people they knew in the past. Using this ability, you may attempt to break the subject’s will by revealing information to them that they don’t want to hear, and planting detailed information in their minds. For example, you could show them how painfully one of their loved ones died, or you could tell them the reason their family hates them. Doing so will emotionally incapacitate the subject, the effect of which is up to the DM’s discretion. You can stay in the watcher state for as long as you can concentrate. You may use this ability once per short rest.

THE BURIED

Expanded Spell List

1st - Catapult, Earth Tremor 2nd - Dust Devil, Earthen Grasp 3rd - Erupting Earth, Meld Into Stone 4th - Stone Shape, Stone Skin 5th - Transmute Rock, Wall of Stone

Lv.1 - Deepsight

When in complete darkness, magical or not, you see your surroundings as vague, white outlines and shapes against a dark background, similar to a wireframe in animation. Creatures concealed by illusion magic still remain hidden, and your sight is not detailed. If you are lost in an enclosed space, such as a cave or subterranean building, a bright point of light will appear, leading you toward an exit.

Lv.6 - Architectural Nightmare

You are able to alter the architecture of the building you are currently in. You may choose a room that is no more than 20 ft wide, 20 ft tall, and 100 ft long. The alterations you make do not damage the structural integrity of the building, and the room returns to normal after a set amount of time. Choose one of the following effects to apply to the room:

The walls begin to slowly close in on the occupants at a rate no more than 12 ft per minute. The occupants must make a perception check to notice the moving walls, and will take no action to leave the room if they don’t notice it. (The creature may still leave the room for unrelated reasons.) If the creature notices, it will attempt to leave through the nearest possible exit. If it is unable to exit, the walls will close in on the target, trapping it in a tight box. While it is trapped, you may deal 2d6 bludgeoning damage per round until the creature drops to 0 hit points. If the creature dies, the walls return to their original place, and any objects in the room are also put back in place. If you choose to simply trap the creature, you may maintain concentration for up to an hour, after which the walls return to their original position at the same rate they closed in,

An empty room becomes a maze of small passages. The maze must have a path from one entrance to another, but can be as complex as you want it to be. If a creature attempts to navigate the maze, they will take an amount of time in minutes equal to your warlock level (a minimum of 6). You can extend this time by a minute by using your action to change the layout of the maze. You can change the layout an amount of times equal to your proficiency bonus. The maze lasts for an hour, until you dismiss it, or until you become incapacitated.

You create a stairway leading downward in any part of a room you occupy. This stairway ignores the layout of the building you’re in and can not be seen from the outside. It extends up to 500 ft underground and terminates in a plain oak door. The way down is shrouded in total darkness, and lights can not illuminate it for more than 5 ft. If you are not on ground level, your distance above the ground does not count toward the 500 ft limit. The door at the bottom of the stairs leads into the nearest man made underground structure. The door is locked to anyone aside from you and creatures you specify when you create the stairs. The entrance to the stairway lasts for only a minute after you cast it, but the stairs and the exit last until no creatures remain inside the space you created. Anything trapped in the stairway, such as creatures and objects, will be able to exit through the top of the tunnel again when you next use this ability. While within this space, creatures do not need to eat or drink. No health can be regained in this space, and for every hour a creature aside from you remains within, it takes 1d4 psychic damage until it has 1HP remaining. If you die while a creature is in this space, it is ejected in the empty space nearest to where you last used this ability.

You may remove all windows from a room, replacing them with walls that mimic the appearance of the rest of the room for 8 hours.

This ability can only be used in man made structures. You can use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Pressure Cooker

Choose a target. It makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. On a failure, roll a d10. The result of the roll determines the effects of the spell.

1: The target takes 1d10 bludgeoning damage.

2-3: The target takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage.

4-6: The target takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone.

7-8: The target takes 1d12 bludgeoning damage every round for 4 rounds, and must make a constitution save against your spell save DC or be paralyzed.

9: The target takes 1d12 bludgeoning damage every round for 4 rounds, and is paralyzed for the duration.

10: The pressure hits, then reverses itself, creating a vacuum around the target. It takes 4d12 bludgeoning damage with the initial strike, then 2d6 fire damage as its blood boils inside its body. It is knocked prone.

On a successful save, the target takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage. You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.14 - Waking Grave

Choose a creature. If it is unwilling, it must make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. The creature is teleported into a box just big enough to fit it inside. For every minute that passes in real time, the creature in the box experiences 10. The creature has absolutely no way to contact anything outside the box, and while in the box is immune to any divination spells and psychic damage. It also does not have to eat, drink, or defecate, and it is unable to sleep. Every minute in box time (6 seconds real time), the creature may attempt to make a strength save against your spell save DC, though it does not have to. On a success, the creature frees itself from the box and reappears back in the real world, taking 1d6 piercing damage in the process. On a failure, the creature takes 2d8 piercing damage from splinters lining its coffin. If you so choose, you may summon the box into the real world. It appears where the creature was before it was teleported. All the same effects still apply, but you may move the box freely and it can be opened from the outside. The spell lasts for a week in real time, until you release the creature, or until the creature breaks free of its own volition. You may target only one creature at a time, but you can have up to 5 creatures trapped this way at once. Per long rest, you may use this feature a number of times equal to your charisma modifier.

Lv.20 - DIG.

Dig. The earth within 20 ft of you begins to sink at a rate of up to 10 ft per round, the ground at your feet sinking faster than the rest and creating a slope. The area becomes difficult terrain for any creature that is not an acolyte of the buried. You remain suspended above the center of the area and can not move until the hole stops sinking. If a creature who is not an acolyte of the buried starts its turn within the sinkhole or enters the sinkhole at any point during its turn, it must make a dexterity save against your spell save DC or slip 5 ft toward the center. Upon reaching the center of the hole, the creature is pulled beneath the earth and takes 3d12 piercing damage per round. A creature may use its action to make a dexterity or strength save against your spell save DC to pull itself out of the earth. The body of a creature that dies while in any part of the sinkhole is pulled beneath the earth and lost forever. The hole can be up to 100 ft deep. As an action on your turn while the spell is active, you can attempt to compel a creature to enter the sinkhole through a contest of charisma. If you succeed, the creature moves toward the hole to the best of its ability. The sinkhole lasts for 10 minutes, until you dismiss it, or you are incapacitated. When the spell ends, the earth reverts to its previous state with no trace of the hole. If a creature is submerged in the earth when the spell ends, it remains submerged but moves toward the surface as the ground returns to normal. In order to use this ability, you must be standing on unpaved ground. You can use this ability once per long rest.

THE CORRUPTION

Expanded Spell List

1st - Detect Poison and Disease, Ray of Sickness 2nd - Acid Arrow, Lesser Restoration 3rd - Life Transference, Stinking Cloud 4th - Giant Insect, Vitriolic Sphere 5th - Contagion, Insect Plague

Lv.1 - We Swarm

You are immune to all disease and resist poison damage. Eusocial insects, rodents, and birds associated with disease or scavenging are drawn to you. As an action, if such creatures are within 120 ft of you, you may command them to take one of the following actions on your behalf:

Attack a creature. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the swarm deals 1d4 piercing damage and 1d4 poison damage. The damage for both damage types is increased to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, 1d10 at 14th level, and 1d12 at 20th level.

Scout out an area that you can’t reach. Upon their return, you know the general layout of the area, how many creatures are in the area, and the location of any traps in the area.

Cover any artificial light sources.

Swarm a creature and attempt to frighten it. The target makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. If it fails, it is frightened for a minute or until it takes damage.

Per long rest, you may take this action a number of times equal to your warlock level.

Lv.6 - Taken Ill

Choose a creature. It makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it suffers one level of exhaustion and takes double damage from poison attacks for the next 12 hours. The sickness can not be cured by non-magical means. You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Subdermal Residents

A colony of eusocial insects of your choice has made its home inside your body. Most of your organs have stopped working. You have resistance to piercing and necrotic damage. You no longer need to eat, drink, or sleep. These insects are vital to your survival, so you must protect them and keep track of how many units you have left. Losing 70% of them inflicts one point of exhaustion on you, and losing all of your swarm will result in your death. Using your swarm, as an action, you can use one of the following abilities:

Your swarm revitalizes you. Recover 1d8 heath for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This increases to 1d12 at level 15. You lose 1d4x10% of your swarm.

You may sacrifice 1d12 health to regain 10% of your swarm.

Your swarm eats through a barrier. It takes a base time of 15 minutes, with one minute subtracted for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This causes you to lose 5% of your swarm for every inch they bore through.

Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 poison damage and 1d6 piercing damage for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This causes you to lose 20% of your swarm. Both types of damage increase to 1d12 at level 15.

Your swarm protects you. You may use your reaction to negate all physical damage of one attack at the expense of 20% of your swarm.

When you kill an enemy, insects burst from the corpse. You regain 1d4x5% of your swarm.

Your swarm lies in wait for its next victim. You can plant a trap that deals 3d12 poison damage when it is triggered at the expense of 30% of your swarm.

Your swarm stows away in a person’s belongings. You may track a creature over a distance of up to 50 miles at the expense of 10% of your swarm.

The first time you drop to 0HP while over 50% of your swarm remains, you are automatically stabilized. A return to full health restores the use of this ability. During a short rest, you regenerate 20% of your swarm, and during a long rest you regenerate 50%. If you have access to meat of any kind, you may use it to regenerate you swarm at any time you aren’t in combat, regaining 1% of your swarm per pound of meat.

Lv.14 - Fetid Aura

Any time a creature within 30 ft of you takes damage, you may add 1d8 poison damage to the attack. This increases to 1d10 at level 17, and to 1d12 at level 20. Furthermore, if an ally within 30 ft of you takes poison damage, they may roll the same die and reduce the damage by the rolled amount.

Lv. 20 - Postmortumorphasis

For all intents and purposes, you have become your swarm. You are immune to poison, piercing, and necrotic damage. You may now exceed 100% of your swarm, and all attacks you make with your swarm deal an extra 1d12 psychic damage. If you die and have at least 5% of your swarm left, you have 1 hour to find a new host. The host can be any living human. In order to infect a person, at least one of your bugs must burrow into the hosts flesh for at least a minute. From the time of infection, it takes you a week to fully infest the new body and take control. While completing your infection, you can compel your host to perform the tasks you want through a contest of charisma. Once your infestation is complete, your host will die and you will have complete control of their husk. The new body takes on the stats your original body had, but you can’t alter your appearance. You may also attempt to infect others with this method while you are still alive. If you manage to do so, the creature retains its own will, but becomes a new acolyte of the corruption, and thus entirely loyal to it. You may have only one such infection in progress at a time, and such an infection takes a month rather than a week.

THE DARK

Expanded Spell List

1st - Faerie Fire, Sleep 2nd - Blindness/Deafness, Pass Without Trace 3rd - Blink, Nondetection 4th - Black Tentacles, Greater Invisibility 5th - Mislead, Teleportation Circle

Lv.1 - Shadowcery

You do not have darkvision, but you have a 6th sense with which to navigate the dark. You can sense creatures and objects up to 30ft around you, and if a creature you’re familiar with is in the dark with you, you know exactly who and where it is up to 60 ft away. You have command over the shape and darkness of shadows. You can not create new shadows or erase shadows, but can extend existing shadows up to 10 ft as an action. While in shadows (dim light or total darkness), your speed increases by 5 ft. This increases to 10 ft at level 10.

Lv.6 - Blackout

You can snuff light sources with a thought. Roll a d10. The result determines the result:

1: Light bulbs within 10 ft of you flicker for a minute.

2-3: Light bulbs within 10ft of you burn out instantly, and those within 15 ft of you flicker for a minute.

4-5: Light bulbs within 20 ft of you burn out instantly, and any torch-sized fires within 10 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease to work for a minute.

6-7: Light bulbs within 30 ft of you burn out instantly, light bulbs within 50 ft of you flicker for 5 minutes, and any campfire-sized fires within 30 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease to work for 5 minutes.

8-9: Light bulbs within 60 ft of you burn out instantly, any campfire-sized fires within 60 ft of you are snuffed, and any screen that emits light bluescreens for 5 minutes. Flashlights cease working for a half hour.

10 - Light bulbs within 60 ft of you explode. Bonfire-sized fires within 60 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease working for an hour. All electronic devices show static for 10 minutes.

You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Antilight

Choose a point within 30 ft of you. This point emanates darkness for 120 ft in all directions. The dark acts as light does, being blocked by opaque objects and diffused by translucent ones. Where the dark is blocked from reaching, light can still shine, but the dark does not create new light. Concentrated beams of light (strong flashlights) can penetrate the dark, but fade away after 5 ft. While in this darkness, your shadowcery extends to any place the antilight touches. Creatures with darkvision can only see half as far, and divination spells, including The Watcher’s Crown, have a 50% chance of being blocked. The darkness lasts for 10 minutes. As an action, you can move the antilight source up to 30 ft per turn. The antilight dissipates if you are incapacitated. You can use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.14 - Predatory Dark

You can make shadows tangible, and very, very aggressive. As an action, on your turn, if a creature is within 10 ft of a shadow or within an area of darkness, you can make a spell attack roll against that creature. On a hit, deal 3d10 necrotic or cold damage to the target. Once you have successfully dealt damage to a target, the shadows latch onto it and deal 1d10 necrotic damage per round for 5 rounds, or until you dismiss it. On its turn, the target may try to make a strength save against your spell save DC. On a success, the shadows detach and you regain an amount of health equal to the damage the shadow dealt. If a creature dies while the shadow is attached to it, choose another target. The shadows automatically attach to that creature and you gain 20HP instantly. The health you regain stacks until the shadows return to you. Per long rest, you can use this ability a number of times equal to your charisma modifier. This ability deals an extra 2d8 damage when used in tandem with antilight.

Lv.20 - Sandman

Pray the Sandman only brings you sleep. Choose a creature. That creature must make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. On a success, the creature takes 3d10 psychic damage and falls asleep for 10 minutes, until its allies rouse it, or until it takes damage. On a failed save, the creature falls into a deep state of sleep paralysis. It can not be roused by any means short of your own will. While in this state, the target begins its hallucinations. It sees a creature, the sandman, carrying a sack. Black sand flows from its mouth, warping the world where it touches until there is nothing left. Darkness surrounds the target, pressing in around it everywhere but their eyes. The creature takes 30 psychic damage per round for 10 rounds or until it escapes or dies. While in the nightmare state, the creature can perform actions on itself (such as healing), but not on any other creature. As a bonus action, the target can attempt to break free by rolling a d20, to varying effects:

20: The target breaks free.

17-19: The target breaks free and is blinded for 24 hours.

14-15: The target breaks free and is blinded for a week.

2-13: The target remains trapped in the hallucination.

1: The target breaks free, takes 1d10 slashing damage, and is blinded permanently.

The blindness inflicted by this ability can not be healed by any means short of replacing the damaged eyes. If an acolyte of the beholding rolls a 1 to escape, they are blinded for a week, and lose the use of one eye rather than suffer total permanent blindness.

THE END

Expanded Spell List

1st - False Life, Wrathful Smite 2nd - Healing Spirit, Silence 3rd - Feign Death, Revivify 4th - Aura of Life, Death Ward 5th - Raise Dead, Cone of Cold

Lv.1 - Life’s a Game

Once, you gambled for a second chance at life. You won, and thus were damned. You have advantage when playing any kind of game that involves chance. If you are subject to an effect that would normally insta kill you, you can still make your death saves. Once per long rest when you drop to 0 HP, you return to life with 5% of your maximum health instead. You no longer age.

Lv. 6 - Planchet

As an action, point at a creature you can see. You now know exactly how much HP it has, any disease or injury it suffers from, how many people it has killed, and in certain cases, how it is fated to die. Using this ability on an ally reveals the source of its next injury to it, and grants it a +1 to AC until its next turn. Using this ability on a corpse reveals the wound it died from, but nothing more. The creature you use this ability on knows that you cast a spell on it.

Lv.10 - Rigor Mortis

Death does not come easy to someone like you. You gain a +2 bonus to AC and are resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage (chose one). Any time you are healed, add your constitution modifier to the amount healed.

Lv.14 - Cauterize Emotions

You and any ally within 30 ft of you is immune to the frightened condition. As an action, you may choose a target. The target makes a wisdom save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature does not feel emotion for 24 hours and becomes incapacitated. On a critical failure, choose an emotion. The creature can not feel that emotion ever again. A creature can only ever have one emotion cauterized. You may take this action once per long rest.

Lv.20 - Exxus

You are death incarnate, and you don’t have to play by your own rules. You literally can not be killed by anything short of having your soul destroyed. If you fail your death saving throws, your body appears dead until you are sufficiently healed. Even in the event of the total destruction of your body, part of you is guaranteed to survive and find a way to rise to full power once again. You may extend this immortality to one other creature. The creature you choose becomes exempt from death. They cease aging and gain the benefits of your Life’s a Game and Rigor Mortis abilities, and if their body should die, their ghost becomes bound to you for as long as your soul remains intact. In exchange, they become entirely loyal to The End. You can grant immortality only once, and it can not be revoked. Chose wisely.

[hellolightbulbmoments]

Our trip to Ghana (part 2)

Keta

This village town is about two hours drive East of Accra. It's got great views of the Volta River, it's got its own lagoon and is close to the sea so a great place for water lovers. We came here to stay in the holiday home of my mum's friend's brother-in-law. His place was really nice, large rooms with en-suite, a swimming pool and plenty of things to do in the river like canoeing, paddle boarding, jet skiing. It was the first place that I have ever kayaked, and the place where Hannah got terrible sunburn in her legs but it was fun.

We drove far east of Ghana and were almost an hour away from the capital of the next country. During the journey back we stopped over at our first slave trade fort, Prinzenstein one owned by the Danes. It was in pretty bad condition considering more than half of it was washed away by the sea, but there was enough of it left for us to get an idea of what went on. Our tour guide told showed us where the women used to bathe, where they slept, and where they were sold. We saw a model of the full fort which looked large. Unfortunately, the upstairs was too dangerous for us to walk on but that's where the generals quarters would have been.

Cape coast

Our time in Accra and Keta was fun and although we enjoyed the tourist attractions we seemed to be the only ones around. That was all about to change when we entered the former capital of Ghana. Cape Coast is a place booming with tourists attractions as well as local and international tourists.

Cape Coast castle

The first of two castles we visited at Cape Coast and I would say the first proper museum we visited in Ghana not because it was large and had loads of tourists in it (we were unfortunate to have a large group of schoolgirls in front of us), but because of the information that was provided. There were books and pamphlets in the ticket hall, a gift shop, and the self-guided tour section had loads of pictures and text to go along with it. There was a section that replicated the inside of a slave ship and another that replicated the ring where slaves would be sold. It was impressive and added to the effect of the area's sad history.

The castle itself was very well built and was better preserved than the one in Keta. Originally built by the Swiss for trading slaves it was taken over by the British who did the same thing. We saw the dungeons where the male and female slaves were kept. Our tour guide was very good and simulating what it felt like to be down there by giving us detailed descriptions while turning off all electric lights as there wouldn't have been any in those times. The floors which were originally brick were caked with a layer of hard grey which was years of human [faeces] and dirt which was a surprise to me, as well as the bad sanitation that was in the dungeons.

We saw a prison that was used for both slaves and misbehaving officers which was built in an interesting way. The first section had a door with holes where the white soldiers were kept for a day. The second section behind the first had a much thicker door which no holes and it lead to a place which no ventilation whatsoever. This is where the misbehaving slaves were kept and were left there until they died. We walked along the edge of the castle closest to the sea which had loads of cannons, these were used to fend off invading pirates and attacking countries. Each castle had a fort nearby built on a hill so a lookout could spot the enemy from afar. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit any forts in Cape Coast but we might do that on a future trip.

We then walked up to the place where the governors would stay which was a drastic difference to the dungeons. They had large rooms with plenty of windows, there were kitchens and bathrooms. Many of those rooms had been modified and were being used as offices. I know Osu castle (which we didn't visit) has been completely taken over by those in government and used as offices.

Cape Coast castle was such a great tourist attraction and I recommend it for anyone visiting Ghana.

Elmina castle

This castle is a similar size to Cape Coast castle but was originally built for a different purpose. This was the first castle built in Africa around 1400 by the Portuguese to share the gospel and for fair trade. They traded gold for things like mirrors, guns, gunpowder and so on. However, when Columbus discovered the Caribbean islands and the riches it contained, they realised they needed people to work on them, for various reasons they decided to take the people from Ghana to those islands and the castle changed from a place of goods trade to a place of the slave trade.

I don't want to go too much into the history of what happened but I will say once again our tour guide did a very good job of explaining it to us and showing us around.  We started in a church at the centre of the castle, then moved to the storage places which later became the dungeons for slaves. There were loads of similarities between this place and Cape Coast castle. The conditions in which the slaves were kept in was worse than animals. Misbehaving officers were kept in a prison with air and light for a day whereas misbehaving/revolting slaves were kept in a much worse prison and left to die. We saw a ball and chain in the courtyard of the women which was used to torture the slaves who refused to sleep with the generals that requested them. It was all very moving, especially seeing the gate of no return, the place where the slaves would leave to go on boats.

This castle, unlike Cape Coast, showed clear signs of a takeover. The Portuguese lost it to the Dutch who had reinforced it after destroying parts of it and built their own protestant church as opposed the Catholic Portuguese one and built their own kitchen.

I think it's amazing how much of the castle was preserved in the condition that it was. This castle, in particular, was around 600 year old and rooms were still being used as offices and gift shops.

Kakum National Park

Our final tourist attraction in Cape Coast was the Kakum National Park. I had heard a lot about this place before visiting Ghana, the famous canopy walkway that was so high up people were so afraid to set foot on it. I spoke to someone at work who closed her eyes all the way across.  So upon entering the park I was pretty nervous, I didn't know what to expect.

Upon paying for our tickets we sat in the wooden waiting area and watched a documentary on the cape cost tourism board. A group of American students also came to the waiting area before our tour began.  Once again, we were touring with school kids. We let them go ahead of us as we toured through the rainforest.  We were told there were 240 elephants in Kakum, all sorts of snakes and birds, but unfortunately, we didn't see any of them, what we did see however were large ants, driver ants. Our tour guide told us not to step on them as their death would all an army of them to attack. Inevitably someone didn't listen and killed a few ants, we were told to run quickly across the path as not to get swarmed, so we did, this made the tour feel a bit rushed.

We got to the canopy which was really high up above the ground but it was incredibly well reinforced. The wooden walkway was on top of a metal ladder type structure placed horizontally. The walkway was walled with a thick rope mesh and there were ropes all around it to keep it from falling, this put my nerves at ease, this and the knowledge that since the park had been built no one has ever fallen through the walkway.

We walked through first and the Americans walked behind us. There were about 20 students overall which made the bride feel very wobbly but safe enough for us to take videos and pictures of it. We were on and off all 4 bridges in less than 15 minutes and I wanted to do the whole thing again.

Conclusion

Although I wasn't a huge fan of the humid heat, the long long car journeys, and the mosquito bites I enjoyed my time in Ghana overall.

I really missed having Hausa Koko, Tom brown or Cerelac for breakfast with hard dough bread. The taste of fried plantain and beans, goat meat kebabs, grilled chicken with Jollof, Malta Guinness, and of course, Milo with evaporated milk. Fresh coconut juice, watermelons, sugar cane, pawpaws, and mangos were also great additions to my diet.

I enjoyed having conversations with family members I hadn't seen in a while and brushing up on my [Fante]. It was weird at first seeing billboard, adverts and TV shows with just black people on them, especially for brands that are in the UK as well like Vodafone and Barclays, but I got used to it after a while and it was actually sort of refreshing. It was also quite shocking to see loads people on the roads selling food, open shipping containers on dirt pavements with shops, and driving on bumpy dirt roads. A lot Ghana to my surprise looked very third world, even in Accra, the capital. I was shocked to see that at first, but like most things there I got used to it.

For those who have been swung by this article and really want to visit Ghana, I have a few tips for you. Make sure you keep the fan on when you sleep, it makes it harder for the mosquitos to bite you. Don't drink water from the taps or eat any vegetables. The water is safe to drink and eating vegetables that have been washed in said water isn't good either. Take a face towel with you or buy one when you're there, you'll sweat so much that it will be uncomfortable so the towel will be your best friend. Take money out of an ATM instead of a forex bureau, the exchange rates are usually better. And finally, be a generous tipper.

[jeanjauthor]

Writers?  This is the artistic version of a short story.

Artists...?

...WHY??

So...many...questions.

A lot of this breaks what writers call “the willing suspension of disbelief.” It’s where the audience is willing to overlook implausible things in order to keep following the story.  At some point their credibility has a limit, a breaking point where their ability to suspend and ignore their disbelief will snap, like hanging a thread from the ceiling, and then putting too much weight on it.

Some of these weighty questions include:

Why is she "standing" like that? She looks like she's sitting on an invisible stool!

Why is her cloak/sheet still bound up like that if she's been fighting long enough to get her sword bloodied?

Why is she so pristine when the wyrm corpse is clearly freshly arterially injured??

Why does she have no shoes and pristine feet when she’s clearly touching a bloody corpse?

Why is the tag end of her cloak/sheet...thing...whipped up under one leg and over the other when she’s been chopping up a monster and now has to fight another one?

Again, why is she so clean??

There are so many WTF questions...

What is she sitting on?

If she’s not sitting on anything, how is she supporting her weight in that position?

She’s not being supported by her feet, that’s for sure--is she seriously en pointe with her left foot (the one on our right, visually)?

And the one on the left (her right foot), if it’s resting at a 45-ish degree angle on a corpse so freshly butchered it’s still spurting, how is it she’s able to keep it in place when it should be slipping out from under her by all the laws of squshy meaty blood-filled things?

Where is the missing V shaped wedge of that tail?  Look at the angles on those two cut ends; there is clearly a whole big fat wedge of flesh that is missing!  If there wasn’t, that tail would literally have been an L shaped structure with the cut angling on the diagonal down into the corner, and that is just disturbing to contemplate...

...Where are the arm bones in those dragon-wings?? Seriously, that is disturbing, seeing the thin metacarpals and phalanges (the “finger bones” of wings if you look at wings as nothing more than elongated & weirdly angled hands) ...but not the arm bones...so where are they??

...Now this isn’t to say the picture is all bad!  The concept is actually a neat idea, looking like a cross of Lord of the Rings meets all those hedonistic Renaissance paintings of the Ancient Greek mythos.  And it would be 100% correct to mix mythos like this, as the Renaissance painters were doing that all over the place, mixing Greek mythos symbology into Biblical art, and vice versa (all of which was fan art, btw).

The streaky effect of the Nazgûl is wonderful, though I’d like to see a bit more tattering (along the same diagonal upper left to lower right lines) on that right side of the Ringwraith fellow, there.

The Ringrwraith even seems to be bending the airwaves around and above him, with the effects of the clouds sort of streaking in toward that bright spot in the sky above and behind.  It makes it look like the halo is sucking in all the Light before fleeing into the West, or trying to suck the Nazgûl  off the face of the planet to hopefully disinterate its evilness out of existence...

The bright part of the sky also kind of looks like dragonbreath fire, even though the Fell Beasts that the Nazgûl rode upon aren’t evern mentioned (as far as I can recall) as being able to breathe fire like dragons.  So that’s another point of coolness.

I have no idea what’s going on anatomy-wise of the presumed fallen and chopped up Fell Beast, but at least some effort has been made to provide it with a (weird) internal structure.  If it really is a Fell Beast and not meant to be a dragon or a wyrm, then I can accept the odd anatomy and darkness of the...I’m not sure if those are bones, but I’m presuming that it has some bones in its tail, and if it’s a foul abomination style creation, I can accept the creator had no clue.

I do like the crispness of the woman in focus versus the Nazgûl who is equally clearly not in focus.

Certainly the woman definitely looks like a Renaissance painting of a Greek Mythos Action Sequence! She’s in a classic serene, poised action pose that no doubt has some sort of supporting stool & armature behind and under the original model for her to rest her arms upon.

The symbology of Shield Maiden of Rohan certainly gets the first two components of that descriptor down visually: for the first part, she has a shield (lovely round thing, very Classic Greek Hero With Spiffy Expensive Metal Shield), and she definitely is using it to shield herself from something. (Plus the sword.)  The other part of the symbology is the “modesty sheet drape” under one thigh (gotta show off them nekkid thighs, Renaissance foiks!!) and up over the other, between the legs, blocking off any view of or access to the mons pubis...aka, shielding her maidenly modesty.

However, there is zero sign she’s from Rohan, because there’s zero symbolism representing Rohirrim culture...and the key element to Renaissance pictures of various cultures’ mythos were that they were rich with symbolism.  The Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, were emphasized over and over as horse people.

Tolkienn also cribbed the Scandinavian culture for his descriptions of them (I suspect the Golden Hordes of the Russian Steppes, heavily influenced by the Rus folks who were Scandinavians who had moved east and mingled with the Mongolian Empire remnants who a little earlier had moved west.  The Greeks knew of the Scandinavian peoples (no, really, they knew of them! Electricity is actually just the Latin word elektron (which comes from a similar-sounding Greek word I’m not going to bother to spell correctly), which meant amber, as in the petrified pine pitch being shipped down through Europe from the Baltic Sea in the far north, which is surrounded by Scandinavian countries.

Yet there’s no signs or symbols of Scandinavia about her, no knotwork animals, no amber, just pale blonde hair (which frankly could be representative of the British Isles or partial albinoism)...  So while there’s a lovely Greek Mythos in Renaissance Paintings feel to her...it falls short of being a true copy/homage, which is unfortunate.  It could’ve been so easily fixed, too, with a bit of knotwork braiding painted onto the cloak/sheet thing.

I will say that the folds of that sheet are spectacularly well painted, lovely depth and dimensionality to them!

Same goes for the condours of her body, and the tail of the wyrm.  I fully believe these are three dimensional objects!

The lighting is beautifully done.  Admittedly if the light is coming from that glowy bit of the sky behind the Nazgûl, she should be in shadow...except he’s a Ringwraith, and it’s 100% acceptable for light to go through him, since according to cannon, they’re not fully corporeal.  This is a “plot” point where fans who know the lore are more than willing to suspend disbelief.

I’m not a rabid Tolkienn fan by any means, but I do know enough to accept that Ringwraiths are wraiths, and not fully of the physical realm.  Plus, Greek Mythos Heroes in Renaissance paintings are supposed to be Bathed In The Light Of Holy Goodness, sort of an inner aura spiritual goodness radiance-effect, I guess...?  Either way, it’s symbolism, it indicates visually that the Light (Good) will shine through upon Heroes (& Heroines) when they are being their Most Heroic...and it’s very well done.

(...Another question if that’s her helm on the ground, where is the rest of her armor? Where are her clothes?? Or is this meant to parody the “sword and magic helmet!!” trope and the helmet was providing all her armor and clothes up until the point she removes it to reveal she’s a nekkid Not A Man? And really, are Nazgûl so far removed from their mortal lives that they need nakedness to be able to tell males from females of their own species...?)

If this were a story, it would be a crossover fanfic with awesome potential...but it falls a little short of what’s needed to successfully suspend the reader/viewer’s disbelief.

Why is it important to do a better job next time, to get these details a little more accurate? Because most Tolkienn fans I know are rabid about it, & willing to nitpick any mistakes or inaccuracies. Cast your minds back to the huge raging fandom debates around the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies about whether or not Peter Jackson & co were “butchering the mythos” of Middle Earth.

Also...I’m trying to figure out how the Nazgûl is standing, and on what if he is indeed standing, though perhaps he’s actually astride the fallen Fell Beast, and simply swung himself around while she was chopping off & somehow disintegrating that V-shaped wedge of wrymtail? I can suspend some of my disbelief for that, though it does add to the overall strain of that willing suspension, and obviously there were too many other issues that ended up snapping it.)

As an editor, if this were a story, I’d be telling the artist to fix the wing bones, to give the woman some shining chain armor with a Rohirrim tabard, or boiled leather armor and tabard--at the very least a tabard with the Rohirrim symbols on it!!. I’d also at the very least slap some Scandinavian knotwork on it, if not the actual Horse of Rohan. (I’d also suggest using the accepted colors for the Rohirrim banner, green and gold, though I might keep the majority of the tabard white and just have a gold-and-green knotwork horse centered on the chest, or something.)

I’d also request there be more chunks of hacked-off tail all over. (Bonus points if one of them looks like The Lonely Mountain!  lol...)

Plus, I’d give her at least a tiny bit of blood spatters around her boots and on her thighs & a little on the lower tabard, to show she’s been fighting in battle all along.  However, I’d actually hesitate to put the spatters any higher than belt-line at most (and definitely do something different than that cloak/sheet thing).

Why would I hesitate to get the chest area bloody? Because of the symbolism.

Renaissance paintings had blood & gore, but only up to a point.  She’s the heroic figure who slays the 3rd Biggest Nasty of the entire trilogy (#1: Sauron, #2 Saruman, #3 chief king of the Ringwraiths, the one she stabs in the face-hole), so she needs the symbolism of still being Clean And Pure Of Heart, aka no muss, mud, tatters, or blood in the torso (chest / heart) area.

In fact, if you just replaced the cloak/sheet thingy with just a tabard (a white one with a little knotwork on it, and put Grecian sandals on her feet...that would seriously fix a lot in this image.  You’d still get to paint the glorious three dimensional folds arrowing down between her thighs, “shielding her modesty.” and you could put some of the symbols of Rohan on the tabard (horse, knotwork, etc) to make her more clearly the Shield Maiden of Rohan, and not just a shield maiden, while still retaining that Greek Mythos feel.

(Plus, you could have a bit of Side Boob showing on the side closest to the viewer to make it clear She Is No Man, and still avoid the blasted censorship issues rampant in modern society, particularly on this site these days.)

...Definitely fix the dragon wing armbones with a bit of shadowing to remove the fact they look like they’re translucent with nothing along the upper/leading edge... ‘cause once unseen, I cannot un-see-it, and it’s creepy as-is...  >.>*

I love the color palette. It’s very dusky, as in nearing-sunset-dusk, with lots of earth tones.  It looks a bit dirty in its hues (as tragically poised battlefields should), and yet it has kind of a “Romanticism golden afternoon light” quality to it. These are all colors that I 100% believe Renaissance painters had access to and would’ve used.  Excellent choices!

At a quick glance, it’s a good painting.  When you look at it a little closer, however... the contrast between all the high quality stuff (lighting, three-dimensionality, focus versus unfocus, at least half the necessary symbolism is there, etc, etc) and the lower quality stuff (oy that lack of proper dragonwing armbones, etc) means it’s really not quite the artist’s best work, and it could be so, so very much better.  Why?

Composition is as important as technical performance.

Seriously, the way she’s painted is gloriously done...except for her positioning.  The dragon wings (I haven’t even touched on the odd angles of the metacarpal bones on the left-side one, just the right one, which is well done for the “finger bones” but there’s no way it should be pointing up lke that), those wings are too anatomically implausible, though I’ll admit they’re more about visual framing than being actual key features.

And lastly, if you’re going for a glorious Greek Mythos Renaissance Painting look to the art...go the whole hog.  Paint it like it’s Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Dinner, Tiffin, Tea, Supper & Midnight Snack all rolled into one. 

Hell, paint a Loyal Dog (a staple of Renaissance symbolism), put it down at her feet (to represent the hobbit Merry, who was with her on her quests), and give it a little Rohirrim helmet and/or tabard!  Go the whole distance with this.  I truly believe this artist has that kind of quality in them!

If they did, I do believe all the old Renaissance Masters would totally thumbs-up this painting, if those flaws were fixed and the symbolism ramped up to at least a 9, if not necessarily a 10, rather than just doodling around down near a 5 or 6.

If this were a story and I was the editor for it (and presuming this was done on a tablet / computer, since if it’s an actual painting, that’s harder to fix), I’d definitely strongly suggest the revisions and rewrites listed above.  And then I’d pimp the hell outta this painting.

(Oh, and to fix the weird positioning of her body, I’d give her a Radiant Aura Of Goodness with some golden streaks of light or something angling out at all directions, so it looks like she’s kinda floating, rather than wondering if she’s “suspended” by secretly sitting on a stick or a tail spike or something.  That would help strengthen my suspension...as in the suspension of my disbelief.)

[pushskybird]

Storm eagle megaman x

You can hit him while he's hovering above you easily with the Chameleon Sting, so make sure you do if you have the opportunity. However, Chameleon Sting is always the way to go in this fight. The best time to hit him with Mega Buster shots is when he's just on the ground don't even bother powering up your shots since you'll be able to hit him so many times with regular ones. If you hit him right when he starts hovering he'll end up ignoring this attack phase and either return to dive bombing or land and attempt to blow you away. Use Chameleon Sting or a fully charged Mega Buster shot to hit him while he's up there. You must be very quick to do this without taking a hit.Īfter dive bombing, Storm Eagle will hover down from the top of the screen and attempt to throw eggs at you. Alternatively you can use this time to blast him as well if he dive bombs you, dash in the opposite direction, turn fire and then get out of the way if you need to. Simply dash in one direction until you see him coming, then either 1) keep moving in the same direction, 2) switch directions or 3) jump. If he takes to the skies, he's about to divebomb. His two damaging attacks are dropping eggs that split into several birds and dive bombing. He'll either flap his wings to push you off or fire a tornado projectile that does the same thing. Storm Eagle is probably the easiest boss in the game, since most of his attacks are actually attempts to push you off the edge of the map. If you walk off the right side of the platform with those cannons, you may find some supplies. Destroy the two cannons and then enter the dungeon to fight Storm Eagle. On our site there are a total of 147 music codes. When you get to the end of this area, you'll have to jump on some platforms that fall as soon as you touch them work your way across them as fast as possible and then jump on the airplane. Here you will find the Mega Man X - Storm Eagle (Genesis Remix) Roblox song id, created by the artist Genesis. They're easy to destroy and can even be evaded. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.Go on the platform to the right of the wireframe structure where you'll encounter a large combination of sky claws and mettools. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here.

Music including versions of Storm Eagle from the original SNES game and PSP remake as. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. Storm Eagles stage from Mega Man X, with an original layout by myself.

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[ramrodd]

Newt Gingrich, the Son of Man and the Rape of Congress.

COMMENTARY:

It turns out, your corespondent was correct; Donald J; Trump has emerged as the Anti-Christ, constitutionally. He's actually not the Anti-Christ, but the more like King Saul: he is jealous of the actual contituntional Philosper-King, We, the People. He along with the Movement Conservatives who consider themselve the original Reananaucs, have been led astray by Newt Gingrich since he bagan his agenda to become Speaker of the House.Gringrich has been running an Trotsky-inspired political scam on America based on the formula for creating a domestic, internal insurgence leading to polarization, tribal confrontation, violent revolution and regime change by political coup.

As I recall, your correspondent referred to Daniel 3, Daniel 6 and Daniel 9. Daniel 7:12 is, or course, the Son of Man and the numerological triangulation of this guy's prophecy revolves around Obama when it started and Trump. The GOP has been engaged in a domestic insurgency since William F. Buckley, Jr, published his Sharon Statement and established Movement Conservatives like Rick WIlson, Nicole Wallace, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham through his farm system for engaging and developing people with the same crypto-Nazi cogintive organization as Mike Pompeo, Mick Malverny and Tom Cotton and give them a lucrative career advancing a Newty's program of insurgency as useful idiots.

Now, we have had an election where that prophecy is being played out in real time on Twitter until the Rape of Congress by Trump's followers, who are almost entirely useful idiots who add mass to the demonstration, but at the tip of that lynch mob, the Proud Boys,/white supremacists/ Q-ANON conspiracy to inspire a race war, Virtually all of them are Pro-Life.

Pro-Life is the Anti-Christ.

Now, the people around Obama/Biden were engaged in the Democratic Socialsm of Jefferson Deomocracy as reformed by the 13th Amendment. The numerology of the 13th Amendment, is the same numerology as the Son of God in Daniel 7:13,  That is, Jesus is very often attached to the number 13 in some way as either the finger of God, Himself (which Jesus most certainly was) or it was the finger of God, Itself. It is just a consitent figure of speack in the entire narrative of the Bible, from "In the Beginning" to Amen in Revelation. Numerology is a signpost installed by God from the very first and over the centuries. In that regard, it is perfectly inerrant.

And I couldn't explaing this to you in this manner if the Arabs hadn't invented the numerological symbot for "nothing" Zero/0. Zero doesn't exist, numerologically, in the narrative of the Bible (or anywhere in the Judeo-Christian literature, codified and uncodified,  as a concept, until the Romans showed up. Everbody used alphabets that had originated out of number after Melchezidek came along. He was part of the guild associated with the Magi of Matthew.  This guild apparently  spread out across the Mediterrean and planted some seeds of wisdom gleaned from the systematic application of process theology to the universe as it unfolds out infront of us. The big change they made was to introduce 9 base numerology to replace the 8 base numerology of the Egyptian priests, which had produced the social economic structues based on building pyramids as important scientific observations of the firmament. Intellectually, 8 base numerology is a cul-de-sac and becomes decadent. It's a closed system economics, zero-sum/engineering/gold-based banking that was preventing the globalization of the capitalism the Roman empire brought to the world. I mean, there was stuff that began to occur at that moment, when the seed of 9 base numerology began to grow in Abraham's imagination, to Bretton Woods. This is the thing about Elizabeth Warren: she is hooked into that righteous banking model.

But it really became jet propelled when Islam inventing Zero/0 as a useful symbol of accounting. And the only thing that has prevented this rigtheous banking system to take mankind to Space is everything connected with William F. Buckley's Sharon Statement of 1960 but creating the Tsusamie of the Rape of Congress on 7 January 2021.  

Remember Daniel, Chapter 7, where the Finger of God designates the Son of God. 7 very often is used as a lightening rod where the lightening from the Finger of God will enter into history as a Sign. So, Daniel 7:13 is the place where the Finger of God sets the process in motion to produce The Cross and Daniel 7:13 the Finger of God has touch America with divine intent and produce the Rape of Congress that can be traced from 1960 through Speaker Gingrich to Steve Bannon to 7 January 2021, God created a lightening rod to expose the working of Satan in the American body politic and that agency is Newt Gingrich. Trump just happened to be his marionnette.

Trump didn't become a crime boss until he won the election with intellectual property his Moscow partners in the 2013 Miss Universe Contest stole from the DNC and Clinton campaign by committing treason with a transnational crime consortium.. They've had him by the balls the whole time and Putin has nothing to do with it.

Now, the only question in my mind was how much coordination went on between Gingrich, Bannon and this transnation criminal consortius which is currently has America under seige with a Nory based cyber-attach trying to look like it's coming out of the Kremlin. This is the reason for the structural polarization Newty's political strategy creates, to overthrow Congress and the federal government.  I mean, if you've read Atlas Shrugged, she describes exactly what Newt Gingrich has been doing since he got into politics: Newty is the answer to "Who is John Galt".

Virutally all Libertarians have been useful idiots for this insurgency since they began attending YAF meetings and the C-PAC convention annually. It's like Comic-Con or a Trekkie or AmWay convention only focused on reinforcing the Virtue of Selfishness, Public Choice economics and narcissism the new righteousness. The basic Pro-Life Evangelical community family values.

All the Pro-Life Evangelical warriors who participated in the Rape of Congress pretty well define the right-wing useful idiot, while the people who Trump launched down Pennsylvania Avenue as a shot below the warterline of The Constitutional Ship of State, the basic cannon foder led by peoole being financed by the transnationa criminal constortium with Euro-dollar black mone being laundered through PayPal and Patreon.

How can you tell the difference between the cash flows of the Koch brothers to the Prouc Boy insurgency and Vory drug money?

You can't. That is one of the functions of Citizens United: it's all green. It goes into Meta Chruchs like First Presbyterian and, from my perspective, shouldn't be stopped. The fact is, we need to repartriate these black eurodollars to repair the damage done by the pandemic and whatever damage the Trump administration has done to the US Economy, which scares me in connection with the connection between John Galt and the potential collapse of American finances that was avoided in 2008.

And your coorespondent intuited the Finger of God in contemporary American politics by a using a narrative 2500 years old employing the numerology of the Bible. My biggest complaint about Christian apologetics is that it is just another version of the Marxist dialectic historic deconstruction that became the dominant paradigm in the 60s cultural wars (and continuing). History is a forensic science, like the practice of law, and in, Christian apologetics, history is superior to narrative/literature as a social construct.  And, as a literature major, that pisses me off.  Before history could congeal to abstract reconstruction, narrative IS. In the Beignning was the Word and history emerged from one of the ribs of the Word by way of narrative.

And before the Word was in the mind of God, Number IS. I Am that I Am: number the stars if you can.

And, again, Islam provides an essential validation of number in the mind of The One (as is presented in Revelation 4.2) in Sura 74:30 "And above it is 19" employing symbols I can employ to explain how number works as a figure of speach and a jewel in the fabric of Scripture. All that tapestry is lost in historical reconstruction because it doesn't seem to be evidence that can be defended in a court of law or a PhD defense.

But there it is. You have been praying all your life of a sign from God and now you have one: the Rape of Congress on 7 January 2021, as I write this 7 days and a wake-up from a constitutionally processed peaceful Change of Command.

[scope-dogg]

Okay, here comes the big spoiler post for the Last Jedi. I’m basically going to ruin everything.

I thought the choice of primary settings for this movie was interesting if not a little weird. The basic plot setup is that despite Starkiller base being blown up at the end of TFA, the New Republic government and military still got blown the fuck up, and now the New Order’s moving in to stake their claim, so now the Rebellion / Resistance is on the run again like at the beginning of Empire. After a space battle over Yavin 4 the Resistance book it into hyperspace and end up at some point in deep space. The thing is, the New Order use some fancy gizmo to follow them with a fleet of star destroyers including this giant star destroyer that looks like a giant ironing board that flies sideways, and they’re stuck in this situation where they’re running out of fuel for hyperspace jumps, but wherever they go the New Order can track them, so they’ve got no choice but to just run using their regular drives. The thing is, the Star Destroyers are too slow to catch up to them, but not so slow that they lose them entirely, and they just follow them at the range that their guns can hit but not breach the rebel ships shields or do any damage, so they just slowly follow pinging at their shields and waiting for them to run out of fuel. The result is this bizarre situation that’s basically this low-speed OJ Simpson Bronco chase in space, and it carries on for like three quarters of the movie. At one point there’s a Tie Fighter attack on the rebel flahship that hits the bridge, and Leia gets thrown out into space. It looks like her frozen corpse is just floating there amongst the wreckage, but she opens her eyes and appears to use the force to pull herself back on board, but then she falls unconscious and remains that way in medical for a while after that. It was really weird, I don’t know if the scene was like that because Carrie Fisher died before they could film everything or what. Anyway, Poe Dameron stays on board the main rebel cruiser and has to contend with fractions in the command structure while Finn and BB8 meet up with a new character called Rose and together they hatch a plan to leave the ship, track down some kind of master codebreaker on a casino planet, come back, get on board the enemy flagship, and disable their tracker long enough for the rebels to hyperspace away. Meanwhile, Rey meets old codger Luke on that same rocky island at the end of the last movie, although somehow she’s connected to Kylo Ren, and the two of them can occasionally see and speak to one another despite Kylo being light years away on the ironing board ship.

The main problem with this setup is that one’s just more interesting and consequential than the other. Finn and Rose’s bizarre adventure on Planet Monte Carlo is entertaining enough, but it feels like it was written in solely to give Finn something to do for the length of the movie rather than something that was actually important for plot or character progression. When they eventually meet the codebreaker it turns out to be some schlubby dude with a speech impediment, and while it feels like they definitely set him up to be an important character he’s not in the movie that long and he eventually sells Finn and Rose out when they get caught on the ironing board ship. While I think it was better than just having Finn do nothing, it wasn’t the best either, and it makes me think that maybe the Bronco chase wasn’t such a great idea.

I think Rey / Luke’s plot arc was much better. It turns out that Luke deliberately cut himself off from the Force and is still dead set against returning to the galaxy at large, and that he basically just went there to live like a hermit until he dies. The island has some Jedi ruins and old sacred texts on it, which are kept by a bunch of fish people dressed in nun uniforms. Mark Hamill plays the part of bitter old asshole quite well, he’s really sarcastic and stubborn at first. TFA ends on that shot of Rey handing him back his old lightsaber. Here it turns out that his response to that is to grab it and then immediately sling it over his shoulder and walk off. That was actually pretty funny. He eventually offers to teach Rey about the Force, but only so that he can show her why he thinks the Jedi is a dumb idea that needs to go away. (His logic is that the force is basically in everything and things eventually balance out anyway, so why bother.) During this sequence Rey sees some sort of Dark Side hotspot in a cave under the island, and this spooks Luke, saying that there’s darkness in her and that it reminds him of Kylo Ren. During this time on Fishnun island Rey keeps speaking to Kylo Ren like I said earlier, and he basically tells her that the reason he burnt down Luke’s Jedi temple and massacred everyone else there is because Luke actually tried to kill him during his sleep because he was scared of the darkness he sensed in him. This actually turns out to be more or less true. After an angry confrontation with Luke, Rey pledges to go to meet Kylo Ren and to try and get him to turn back to the light side, and she leaves to go join up with the Bronco chase. As she leaves, Luke goes to this tree where the ancient Jedi texts are stored, and he’s about to light it on fire. Now, people mock the new Star Wars movies for just shoving in shit that nerds like, that’s the whole origin of the “I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW IT” meme and for the most part I thought this movie wasn’t really that bad in that respect. However, it had one really bad moment along those lines in this scene. Suddenly, ghost Yoda appears. Luke then appears to get cold feet and lowers his torch, only for Yoda to summon a thunderstorm somehow which lights the books on fire anyway. Yoda then basically scolds Luke, saying that the books aren’t necessary and that Rey already has everything she needs, and that it’s important not to lose her. I actually thought Yoda’s dialogue was fairly well written, he basically ribs Luke like he did in Empire, but in a fairly affectionate way. Otherwise though, the presentation was really bad. They tried animating him like he was the puppet from Empire / Jedi, even though I’m fairly sure he was actually CGI, and it didn’t look good at all. Also, force ghosts appearing to speak to people is one thing, summoning lightning storms to set things on fire is another. Plus, the whole scene just felt really unnecessary and just an excuse to have Yoda in the movie.

Anyway, the Falcon comes out of lightspeed above the ironing board, and Rey gets in this capsule and jettisons herself out so the First Order can bring her on board, and she goes with Kylo Ren to meet with Supreme Leader Snoke. They play Snoke up really hard and show him to be really powerful, he’s throwing stuff around with the force really hard, and basically Rey is powerless in his grasp. He basically mocks her for thinking that she can turn Kylo Ren and then instruct him to kill her. However, he basically tricks Snoke into thinking he’s about to kill her and then kills him instead. I won’t describe the specifics of it but it was actually pretty clever. Then Snoke’s guards attack and Rey and Kylo Ren join up to fight them. It’s actually a pretty damn good fight scene, the guards all use different weapons and it’s well choreographed. However, when the fight ends it turns out that Kylo Ren hadn’t actually turned to the light side or anything like that, but basically just took an opportunity to usurp his master, and now he offers Rey a chance to Join Him and Rule the Galaxy. She refuses, and they end up in this struggle where they’re both trying to take Rey’s lightsaber using the force, only for it to split in half and explode. When they next visit the scene Rey has escaped using Snoke’s escape ship and Kylo Ren becomes the new Supreme Leader. The whole scene was actually pretty good, but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed because they pushed Snoke as a big deal in this movie, what with his power, plus being the head of this new force pushing the galaxy’s shit in, and he just died without it being revealed who exactly he was or where he came from. Maybe that was the point and that he wasn’t any more significant than just being a fucked up evil dude, setting the stage for Kylo Ren to be the main bad guy for the next movie, but I would have liked to know a bit more about him before he was killed off.

Meanwhile, the bronco chase comes to its conclusion. The acting commander for the rebel fleet has fueled up the shuttles and wants to evacuate, while Poe is still banking on the codebreaker plan, and basically mutinies and takes control of the ship to keep it alive. Then Leia wakes up and reaffirms the commander’s plan, because they’re passing by an abandoned rebel outpost that they can use to call for help. However, the schlubby codebreaker guy, who’s now on the ironing board with Finn / Rose / BB8, gives away the scrambling code being used to hide the transports, enabling the First Order to start shooting down the transports as they flee. To help, the acting commander ends up giving her life by turning the cruiser around and hyperdriving it into the ironing board. This gives Finn, Rose and BB8 the chance to escape. The setup for the big finale is the last few surviving rebels hiding out in the old base while the First Order descend to wipe them out. The First Order bring down this big laser cannon to bust open the base, and a rebel attempt to sortie in these shitty old speeders to stop them basically fails. During this sequence Rose stops Finn from sacrificing himself, in a sequence that culminates in them sharing a little kiss, basically establishing a romance. It looks like all is lost, but then Luke appears, and he goes out to duel Kylo Ren to buy time while the rebels escape out of the back door, meanwhile Rey and Chewie show up in the Falcon to fight off the enemy Tie Fighters. Luke sort of duels Kylo Ren for a little while while they swap dialogue, only for it to turn out that it was basically a trick and that Luke wasn’t really there at all, instead he basically astral projected halfway across the galaxy to pull it off. It seems pretty preposterous but it was also pretty great. However, it seems like the exertion of it was too much and the real Luke back on Fishnun Island vanishes as well, his job done. Rey lands the Falcon at the base’s backdoor, uses the Force to move some rocks, and leaves with the remainder of the Resistance, which at this point is maybe a dozen people total. So things actually seem pretty bleak but everyone seems confident that they can resurrect the Rebellion to fight back.

Describing it like that kind of takes the shine off of it, but I still think it was a good movie. It definitely wasn’t without flaws, and I think the kind of person why’s hyper-critical of things that are too popular will find a lot of things to mock and deride, but at the end of the day it was entertaining and held my interest without pissing me off or confusing me. Go watch, if you still want to watch it after having the entire plot spoiled for you. I’m looking forward to the next one.

[scdojo]

Protoss vs Terran - a whole new world

You can see all of the changes here: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20975163

When reading the “Major Changes” coming for StarCraft 2 later this year, the first thing that jumped out at me are how different Protoss vs Terran will look. This blog will go into some detail on my thoughts about how those changes could impact the matchup.

Widow Mine change:

- Widow Mines are now revealed while Sentinel Missile is on cooldown.

Let’s think about early game TvP for a moment. Currently, there is a choice to make. Do I keep my Oracle out on the map or send it home to defend vs drops? Do I risk flying in not knowing where mines are? If I lose that Oracle, I’m going to be really hurting at home. What if the Terran made a proxy Factory and Starport? Maybe I should go for a Robo so I can clean up mass Mines more easily.

Now, none of these decisions matter any more for Protoss. In fact, I’m already planning on opening Twilight every single game now. The power of the Widow Mine’s consistent cloak in the early game has truly been powerful. You simply must have detection – Observers or Oracles – no matter what.

With this change, though, Protoss players will simply trade a Probe for a Widow Mine, and happily go about their day.

Now, this all sounds really silly when I outline it like this. What I wrote above is an outline of what this change does alone in our current version of LotV. In our current version, this would be a brutal change for for Terrans. The thing is, we have to look at it in context of all of the upcoming changes, and this change, in particular (with regards to Terran vs Protoss), has amazing synergy with other changes.

First lets look at the Mothership Core, its purpose, and its removal.

I think that many non-Protoss players are happy to see the Mothership Core go, and that many Protoss players are scared of the same prospect.

What is the function of the Mothership Core? Why does Protoss need such a tool?

The Mothership Core was introduced to help shore up early game Protoss defence. The Protoss race, from the get-go, has been about teching up before macroing. If you make more than a handful of Gateway units before going higher up the tech tree, this generally means that you are going all-in, as the Gateway units simply don’t scale well without upgrades or splash damage.

So, if we look at the current role of the Mothership Core in Protoss vs Terran, it will generally help you (with good positioning of Pylons), to defend your bases early game with a minimum of Gateway units while getting out Robo tech, or an Oracle, or maybe even an upgrade like Blink.

The Protoss army has always thrived on working together (a nice way of saying Deathball). While, sure, you could have little harassment groups around the map trying to get things done, if your army isn’t all together and you run into your opponent’s army, you are in a lot of trouble. These types of armies in general are not as mobile as most Terran and Zerg armies, making it a bit scary to move around the map. Counter attacks could come quickly and do lots of damage. This, again, is where the Mothership Core helps out. By leaving an inexpensive unit at home, you would have some degree of defence vs incoming counter attacks, giving you some extra mobility on the map.

So now we have the Mothership Core on the way out. In it’s place is the Nexus, full of new abilities:

Chrono Boost

- Cost: 50 Energy - Duration: 10 seconds - Effect: Boosts a building’s work rate by 100%.

Mass Recall

- Cost: 100 Energy - Effect: After 4 seconds all units in target area are teleported to the Nexus. Units are unable to move or attack during this time.

Shield Recharge

- Cost: 1 Energy per 3 shield restored - Range: 8 - Has autocast functionality - Can be cast on units or structures

All I’ll say about the new Chrono Boost ability for now is that it is infinitely more interesting than the Chrono Boost that we’ve been working with lately. There are actual decisions to be made and APM/Rhythms to be used.

Now let’s talk about the Shield Recharge ability.

I love this ability. It is a fantastic idea. In a world without the Mothership Core OR Shield Recharge, Protoss would be forced to make lots of Gateway units nonstop, making sure they always have enough to simply beat what’s coming at them. This would make a horrible situation where everything you do is stifled. It would kind of look like games on Ulrena, if you remember that map, where Protoss would be extra heavy on Gateway units, waiting for an attack that might never come, thus forcing aggressive builds to utilize those units before their value sank too low in comparison to better scaling from the opponent’s units.

So, here we are with the new Shield Recharge. Now, whether your opponent is dropping with a Medivac into your main base or attacking your front with Roaches, you have some support for your early Gateway army. Defence won’t be a single click of a button that makes it mathematically unwise for your opponent to continue his attack, but rather micro-based. Stalkers, Adepts and Zealots fighting, sometimes kiting, being healed as they are focus fired down. I think that it will be extremely hard for anyone to argue that this will be less entertaining or less fun for either side when compared to the Mothership Core.

I also find it really cool that it will work with Cannons as well. You won’t necessarily have to have units at each base to defend vs smaller attacks in the mid and late game.

So now let’s look at Mass Recall:

- Cost: 100 Energy - Effect: After 4 seconds all units in target area are teleported to the Nexus. Units are unable to move or attack during this time.

It probably isn’t worthwhile to compare this ability with the current Mass Recall on the Mothership Core. The new version is unquestionably better.

Mass Recall probably won’t be used very much in the early game, as it definitely requires a high mana cost, but as the game becomes longer, it should be an extremely strong aspect of Protoss - adding a huge amount of mobility.

And a quick look at the new Stalker:

- Increased Stalker’s Particle Disruptor weapon from 10 (14 vs armored) to 15 (21 vs armored) - Increased Particle Disruptor’s weapon period from 1.03 to 1.54 - Particle Disruptor now gets +2 damage per weapon upgrade, up from +1

The new Stalker will maintain approximately the same DPS throughout the game, but will take over (in conjunction with the Nexus’ new abilities) the defensive roll that the Mothership Core used to have.

One of the problems in early game PvT since the Siege Tank buffs (as well as Liberators in general) was that making Stalkers early on in a defensive manner could be detrimental. For instance, the original Protoss defensive opening of Blink/Observer, was almost completely killed off by the presence of early Tank pushes. You would simply not have the damage or health to fight off a well executed attack from Terran, and thus the build went into obscurity. This forced Protoss into builds based off of a tech unit (most often the Oracle) to slow the Terran down, so that you could buy time to crush an early push all at once. Now:

1. You don’t necessarily need early detection to deal with Widow Mines. 2. The Nexus can heal up lots of damage on your Stalkers. 3. Initial (first volley) damage output from Stalkers are greatly increased.

When you put all of these changes together, Protoss vs Terran, from the Protoss perspective, looks a lot different. - You are no longer forced into either Stargate or Robo for macro openings - You are no longer forced to control the early game with just 2-3 specialized units (Mothership Core, Oracle, Phoenix, etc)

These make me think that early game PvT will likely consist of making a few defensive Stalkers while getting a Twilight Council and a Forge or two. Without an overwhelming need for early detection, Protoss can focus on getting ahead on upgrades and having much higher mobility with a larger and stronger early army than ever before. The more we see the matchup skew towards this, the less each individual unit will matter (unlike now with a huge importance on the specialized units).

I think that the direction of Protoss splash actually supports my notions of the new direction of the race:

Disruptor changes

Purification Nova - Purification Nova now detonates on contact with enemy units (not structures) - Purification Nova still lasts 2 seconds before detonating - Damage reduced from 145 (+55 shields) to 135 (+25 shields) - Cooldown reduced from 21 to 18 - When dropped from a Warp Prism the Disruptor’s Purification Nova will be set to a brief cooldown. As it felt a little too strong vs worker lines otherwise.

Quicker cooldown, but much easier to micro against. Less giant swings due to overwhelming splash damage. The cooldown when dropped from a Warp Prism is shocking, to be honest. This was never and to this day is not a problem in professional play. I don’t think that this was on anyone’s list of things that felt too strong agains worker lines. I disagree with this change wholeheartedly. Disruptor Drops are no longer a viable strategy with this change. Even the other change about contact with enemy units would have nerfed them already, but this is insane overkill.

Colossus changes

- Damage changed from 12 to 10 (15 vs Light) - Damage per upgrade changed from 1 to 1 (+1 vs Light) - Range increased from 6 to 7 - Upgrade: Extended Thermal Lance - Range upgrade decreased from +3 to +2 - Cost decreased from 200 / 200 to 150 / 150

Obviously Colossus will shred Marines even harder than before, and it’s nice to make base range a bit longer as well as Thermal Lance a bit cheaper. That being said, this doesn’t seem like a buff or a nerf to me. Just a slight change in roll, from something that you will always just blindly make, to something that you think about whether or not you want. I might be slightly wrong due to numbers, but it seems like that’s the intended direction at least.

I do want to, for a moment, mention the Ghost change:

- Cloak is now available by default on Ghosts - Ghosts now start with 50 energy instead of 75 - Moebius Reactor is re-added to the Ghost Academy. It provides +25 starting energy to Ghosts

If, in fact, the Protoss meta does shift as I think it will, Ghosts could be a pretty cool way to keep things in check. Starting with Cloak makes the fast Ghost rushes (that we barely ever see) more reasonable, and just in general force Protoss to not skip detection all game long. I think it’s a solid idea.

From the Terran side, most of the changes don’t seem to greatly effect the TvP matchup. The Widow Mine change is pretty big for the early game. The fix to Liberator vision was probably called for a while ago. The Cyclone initial volley will help push out harass a bit better, which is a good thing. But overall, there’s not a whole lot there. Of course, as Protoss’s overall play changes some, Terran players will have to adjust accordingly. That’s just common sense.

The overall feel that I get from these changes on the Protoss side of things is that the early game will become less volatile, and the basic Protoss army will feel stronger and more mobile. Mid-game map control could easily become Protoss favoured. In short, this new PvT looks like it will be a lot more like the flavour of PvT in StarCraft 1. Based on the overwhelming majority of comments that I’ve read online about the flavour of Protoss in SC2 in the past several years, I would think people will be happy about this general direction.

In closing:

Having the Nexus enable Gateway units (alongside the higher Stalker damage) to be useful on defence in the early game without making them overpowered offensively is awesome and should make the game more enjoyable for everyone, whether playing or spectating.

BONUS!! Here’s some stuff I don’t like at all from the changes:

High Templar

- Added Psi Blast weapon - Range: 6 - Damage: 4 - Attack period: 1.25

This is so weird. The stated reason is that it will make them easier to control, not running into battle to die.

Who is attack moving their High Templars into battle and losing them like that? This is not and cannot be a change for the pro level, and that I don’t like.

HT attack isn’t the only change like this:

“While we don’t want to make Protoss ability gameplay any more complicated we wanted to try making Observers more useful for ladder players. Currently Observers are selected with the select all army button (F2 by default) which can often bring Observers out of position and to their untimely demise. While we’d like to keep observers in this selection, we are considering adding the ability to ‘deploy’ your observer for increased vision range in exchange for being unable to move.

New ability: Surveillance Mode The observer is unable to move and gains 25% more vision”

Let me rewrite this one - “We noticed that people are bad at StarCraft. Many players have developed bad habits and are too lazy to fix them, so we are going to make those bad habits less bad.”

As a turtley macro player, I’m very excited to have 25% more vision on my Observers. This isn’t the right reason to give me that, though. I disagree with the change, but more so with the stated reason for the change. If you want to use the “easy button” to play StarCraft, then that’s a drawback you should have to deal with. Learn to play more cleanly and you will lose less Observers.

Same opinion on the Overseer change which is exactly the same.

OK, so that’s really the end now! I’m on vacation right now, but if I have time I’ll write some more about the other changes soon!

[amollion]

The AnitVirus (Virus continued)

The Anit-Virus

***RECOVERED AUDIO RECORDINGS***

***ALL SUCH FILES ARE TO BE LISTEND AS BLACKWATCH***

***NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONEL MAY VIEW***

*** UNAUTHORIZED PERSONAL VIEWING WILL BE SUBJECT TO TERMINATION***

*Unknown scientist:

Since the development of the transwarpgate we have often theorized that the distance that we can send objects through may be infinite (We are still trying to figure out why living matter cannot go)

It may be possible to modify our current gates into a far larger one so that instead of connecting two gates we use one as a massive cannon. In theory at least (we have yet to do the maths) we can teleport objects into other galaxy's.  

*Unknown scientist

The mega transwarpgate is finished and finally, it's taken nearly 200 cycles and most of that was to get funding, the last bit of funding was redirected to the military after the Dewq uprising. Pesty insects interfering with our work.

*Scientist Bequtoni- Believed to be the successor of previous scientist.

The first test run of the Gate was....conflicting. What was sent was a probe that would send back data on the planets in the target system but it seems to have crashed on a planet, it sent only a few seconds of imagery and information saying the planet was a dead one then cut out. We might have to adjust the targeting array.

*Scientist Bequtoni log No. N/A

After a lot of trial and error tests we have successfully launched a probe into our neighbouring galaxy and the results are fascinating. Much like our galaxy the planets formed in a variety of ways but usually within a similar pattern. Only a very few were truly unique but that was not the best part. Life! Sentient life was in that galaxy and it was advanced or at least enough to roam the stars. We had our probes cloaked from view and their primitive sensors so we can observe them without interfering with their development. Such a unique insight to the development of our neighbouring galaxy.

*Scientist Popilon Log No.90

Something is wrong within our neighbouring galaxy, they formed into a coalition some three hundred standard Pholian years ago and have enjoyed relative peace but suddenly they are arming themselves and amassing huge fleets. Having watched these races all our lives we feel a sense of connection tot hem even if they do not even know we exist. Many of us are considering making contact but the Lords will not hear of it, they deem it a matter beneath our attention and our only mission is to observe. Many of us do not agree but we cannot defy the Lords.  

*Scientist Kogfirm Log 23

Our neighbours are at war on a galactic scale, using the information wee have gathered they seem to originate from the world where our first probe crashed, are we responsible for this? I hope not because whoever it is that our neighbours are fighting are spreading like a virus, even when our race conquered our galaxy we did not spread so quick..

*Unknown Military Officer

Because of our cloaked probes we can get detailed scans of this virus like aliens that are scorching their own galaxy, we have only limited scans of their actual bodies but their ships seem...alive. Our scientist say they are a combination of organic components and non organic components. One of their conquered planets we observed them growing a whole fleet in only a few weeks. We have classified these files should anyone get hold of them, if the subjugated races find them and start learning how to grow ships the whole empire would collapse.

*Unknown Biologist

We have gotten our first deep scans of these virus aliens and what we found was both terrifying and fascinating. Their entire body is full of mirco organisms and bacteria and even some parasites that are more symbiotic in nature to them, their touch is also deadly. We observed the transformation they wrought on a world just by simply being their, the soil died and the air became unbreathable to any but them. In a sense they are terraforming organisms. Their life spans are not long and it seems they are unaware of the carnage they are bringing to the galaxy. In the time it takes for them to take over a star system and move to the next many generations have passed. Whereas the other races of the galaxy have incredibly long lifespans and perceive time differently, the passage of months to them would be many years to the virus. Luckily they are not so advanced as to detect our probes, I shudder to think what they would do with such technology.  

*Unknown (possible scientist or military officer)

The last days of the coalition is upon them, they have fallen back to a single star system and are fortifying their position, we have begged the Lords to let us send aid but they simply say it would be pointless now. We watched as the virus arrived and began slaughtering them, it was heartbreaking to see an end of an era but it filled me with pride to see they did not back down and fought to the last even if the battle was brief. Many are talking about retiring the project as there is nothing left to observe, that whole galaxy is now dead and it is likely nothing will ever live there again. Not while the virus is there. I can only hope that they consume and destroy themselves.

*Gefensew (civilian star gazer)

Ever since the story of our neighbouring galaxy and their struggles became public I have been fascinated by them, I find myself steering my scope towards that part of the universe in a hope I'll catch a glimpse of one of their ships. In fact I may have found something else, a star that I charted has gone. It did not go supernova as it was not due to do so for man many more millennia. Since I saw this I have noticed other stars going dark, what is going on there?

*Scientist Veonp

The funding for our galaxy observation may have been cut to the bare essentials and now only a handful of the probes are working since we don’t send new ones to replace the ones we loose we are just waiting for them to go offline too. There is not anything to observe anyway, the virus just keeps swarming and swarming to every single planet or moon they can find. They will probably soon just consume themselves. That was until we witnessed something we have always thought impossible. It was a mega structure that covered an entire sun, at first we weren't sure what it was for but that soon changed. The suns light...went out. Just...gone. Has their hunger grown so much that they are resorting to consuming suns? How did they even do it? None of us can figure it out and only give random hypothesis. It seems our funding may go up.

*Unknown scientist.

We have launched a further 5000 probes into the galaxy, many failed to transmit but those that did are all telling the same story. The virus is consuming the suns of all the star systems and at an increasing rate. We calculate that in as little time as one of our centuries there will be no stars left.

*Unknown scientist.

There are no stars left, the galaxy has gone dark and can no longer be seen in the night sky on any planet. That galaxy's tale has finally and truly come to an end. As resilient as the virus was there is no way they can survive, nothing logically can. Even if they could, where would they go?

*Final transmission from outpost 6529 (believed to roughly some millennia later)

“Unknown vessels transmit your identification codes”

“Inaudible”

“Say again, transmit your identification codes”

“Still Inaudible but louder”

“Hold your position until while we scan your ships”

“Screeching sound”

***Transmission ends***

*Audio recordings of patrol fleet 183.987 investigating the situation from outpost 6529

“This is Admiral Oeal of the Pholion Empire please identify yourself”

“........”

“You are trespassing in Pholian space identify yourself or we will open fire”

“.......Hungry”

“Say again”

**Log ends***

*Audio recording from the Pholian Empire's Council of Lords.

Lord 1: “Are you seriously asking us to believe that a space faring race that consumed a galaxy has crossed the vast void without the use of a gate and is now entering our galaxy?”

Scientist: “The evidence shows that is the case, these ships bare the same markings and designs as the virus”

Lord 2: “Impossible, these ships are obviously just another space faring race that has remained hidden and are now looking to expand their boarders”

Lord 3: “What if it is true though, I would be happier if we sent the Scourge fleet just in case”

Lord 2: “That fleet is only used to wipe out stubbornly rebellious systems, not to calm your worries old man”

Scientist: “With respect my Lords, the evidence is rather overwhelming and if we do not act now and eliminate them now they will breed and spread”

Lord 2: “You speak above your caste, the military shall decide on what cause of action to take”

Military officer: “This incursion into our space is simply a rebellion that has some backing from an unknown source. I will personally go and break them to show the might of Pholian Empire”

**Applause**

Lord 1: Then go, destroy these rebels and make sure all remember to fear the Pholian Empire once more”

**The fleet enters the Virus's system and disappears from then on all Virus controlled sectors are referred to as Dead Sectors**  

*Council of Lords Audio recording (Roughly one Pholian Century since the Virus's arrival)

Lord 1: “What did you say!?”

Scientist 1: “We believe more fleets of the Virus have made two more incursions into our galaxy”

Lord 2: “How did they break the containment?!”

Scientist 2: “We believe these are separate hive fleets, the same race as the first hive fleet but not connected to them”

Lord 3: “We are barley containing the first hive fleet how are we going to face two more? Even the Scourge fleets can't defeat them and their planet sized Hive ships”

Scientist 1: “Well...we do have an idea”

Lord 2: “Speak”

Scientist 1: “We have been studying the remains of the Virus and we believe we can produce an Anti virus if you will”

Lord 1: “What do you mean?”

Scientist 2: “It is the same way we treat virus's within our bodies, we copy their genetic structure then program them to search out their own kind and destroy it thus curing the patient”

Lord 3: “Are you saying you want to clone these things?”

Scientists 2 “Yes and condition them to seek out and destroy the Virus which they would see as another species”

***Silence as the Lords speak amongst themselves***

Lord 1: “Since we do not have any immediate alternative you may proceed”

Scientist 1 “We will need a planet to birth and breed the clones”

Lord 2: “You will have it”

***Clones of the Virus as birthed quickly and placed on a planet to grow at their own pace with technology slowly introduced till they give the AnitVirus a small Virus ship and they soon begin building their own. These AntiVirus's have an artificial gene that when activated by the Pholians will make them seek out the Virus and destroy them. By the time the Clones are deemed ready 20% of the galaxy is now considered Dark Sector. The gene is activated and the AnitVirus's head in the direction of the Dark Sector. Cloaked probes monitor the battles which seem to end in stalemate, this prompts the Lords to order the creation of more AntiVirus to take over from their current fleets who are loosing control of the containment areas of the first Virus fleet***

*Audio recording of Admiral Fewqol as he leaves to engage the Virus with his AntiVirus fleet, this is believed to have taken place some thirty Pholian years after the AntiVirus's creation*

“This is Admiral Fewqol ready to lead an offensive into Dark Sectors”

“Good luck Admiral bring glory to the Pholian Empire once more”

“What's left of it” (It is believed he turn off his com before saying this)

-Admiral's fleet enters Virus held system-

“Ready the AntiVirus”

“All AntiVirus ships are green and ready to engage”

“Unleash them”

“Sending attack command now”

-Recovered data shows this system to be a heavily infested system and Admiral Fewqol has enough AntiVirus to match it-

“Virus ships inbound”

“Have the AntiVirus open fire now”

-Silence for approximately 6 seconds-

“Why are they not firing?”

“I don't know sir I have sent the attack signal three times”

“Sir? I am getting a com signal from the Virus's main Hive ship”

“So? All they send is screaming, ignore it”

“No sir, this is words, spoken in Pholian”

“.....Put it through”

“.............sickness..........slaves...........free.....will.....”

-Silence for 14.09 seconds-

“Sir...the AnitVirus ships are turning away from the Virus and locking weapons on us!”

“Get us out of-”

**All AntiVirus fleets suddenly turn on the Pholians, with no fleets available the Pholian Empire collapses, their homeworld is besieged but they do not fire but simply broadcast their screaming communication onto the planet. It is unsure how this caused the death of all 16 billion individuals**

***END OF RECOVERED AUDIO LOGS***

***FOR INFOMATION ON VIRUS BIOLOGY SEE FILE 2466***

***FOR INFOMATION ON VIRUS TECHNOLOGY SEE FILE 2467

***BOTH GALAXY X452 AND X453 HAVE GONE DARK AS ALL STARS HAVE BEEN CONSUMED AS WELL AS ALL PLANETS***

***GALAXY'S BOTH NOW LABELLED DEAD***

***CURRENT LOCATION OF VIRUS'S HIVE FLEETS***

***UNKNOWN***

[cittsah]

I’ve been seeing a lot of people imagining quirks for Izuku from BNHA. This idea came to me when I was thinking about how Izuku’s father had a fire breathing quirk, and how something that seemed to come up at times when people were imagining different universes where Izuku had a quirk( aside from the one her received from All Might) is the idea of people having variations of a primary or beginning quirk. In this case imagining that his father’s fire breathing quirk was a descendent of a dragon quirk that gave the individual the ability to take the form of a dragon. What if Izuku had a quirk that was a throwback to that original? As for the quirk I imagined it would be called something like Dragon Soul or Dragon Walker.

The Dragon Quirk: -this quirk would allow Izuku to take the form of a fire and smog type dragon. This would give home the ability to breathe fire as well as be able to breathe and secrete a poisons gas ( maybe even a venomous bite)through certain points on his body. - while having a Dragon form gives him a good range of abilities( with his fire, smog, flight, etc) he is not capable of partial transformations because they can be dangerous.Also he is not capable of using his fire or gas ability in human form without risking harm to himself since his human body wasn’t built to withstand it. - to keep some of the story in the beginning the same ( with Izuku being mocked and labeled as useless by Katsuki and his classmates) he would only initially be aware of the first form he can change into, which is pictured above. In this form he is only about 2'6" tall( slightly smaller than an average mainecoon cat for perspective). As a result he is mocked for being an overgrown lizard because while his abilities are useful they are limited by his size. His toxic gas can only really make people nauseous or dizzy, and while his breathe attack still burns, it doesn’t compare to the roaring inferno of the dragons of fables and stories. However, there is a hidden second form to his quirk. The second Dragon form of izukus that is much larger at about 7 ft tall and is much more capable for combat than his initial form. His fire becomes a much more lethal and his smog can become debilitating.The trick to his secondary form is that it will only reveal itself at times of great stress or danger( like during the events of the USJ arc when they first encounter the villain alliance) until he learns to control it. I haven’t drawn the large form of his quirk yet but I can describe its differences( which will happen towards the end) - because izuku thinks his quirk is limited to his small form he doesn’t believe it will be much help when fighting real villains. This is only reaffirmed for him when he barely manages to escape the slime villain before being saved by All Might, and again when he tries to save Katsuki and is helped out by All Might( like in cannon). so he still ends up asking All Might if he can become a hero despite his quirk. - when ( or of)Izuku receives ‘one for all’ it has an interesting reaction with his quirk. Initially he is unaware because he keeps trying to use it without his Dragon form, but ‘one for all’ actually added a new element type to his Dragon form. With it he becomes a fire, smog, and wind type. ‘All for one’ allows him to make powerful punching or slicing gales with his wings and breathe. Or it can be combined with his other elements as well. The winds helping him stoke and feed his fires, and allowing him to blow his poisonous smog over larger areas. Also since his Dragon form is much sturdier than his human form it doesn’t experience the painful draw backs that he does when he was first learning how to use it in his human form( he would still learn how to harness ‘all for one’ effectively in his human form).

Dragon form appearance:( this will include the notes on my drawing of his small form since I know my hand writing is crap XD) Coloration: both large and small forms would have a similar color scheme. With his primary scales being a forest green with spots( inspired by his freckles and red shoes) that would be a bright red, maybe a candy red or other variation. The bright color of his spots would be a form of natural warning that he posses poison. His fur would be the same as his human hair with a black base and green highlights. His horns and claws would also be a black color. As for his eyes an electric green would stand out against his spots and make them noticeable. Eyes: in his small form Izuku’s eyes are very rounded, and have a circular pupil which help give him a friendly appearance. However, his large forms eyes are more sharpened with a slit pupil to make him more intimidating. Spots: both forms have the brightly colored spots in the same places. These spots are where he excretes his smog from. They lose their vibrant color as he uses up his reserves and will become dull until his body replenishes what he used. He can control the potency of his toxins at all times. Ears: I call them ears but that’s not entirely what they are. In his small form he has appendages that come from behind his horns, and look like bunny ears. While they do function like ears and detect sounds, they can also detect smells in the air. I haven’t decided if these will transfer over into the large form, but if they do they will likely be smaller and less prominent when compared to his horns. They also have red spots on the very end that are also capable of excreting toxic gas. Wings: in his small form Izuku’s wings are long and narrow like a swallows. This means that he is very fast and nimble in the sky, capable or making hairpin turns. it makes him an efficient flyer and capable of flying frequently. However he lacks overall power with his flight and can’t go for extreme heights or distances. In his large form his wings become shorter and wider like a hawks. This means that he isn’t as fast when soaring, but he gains more power and can make up for the speed with his diving attacks which allow him to accelerate rapidly using gravity for devastating attacks. Legs and hands/ feet: in both forms these remain much the same. His front feet are like hands with short digits that grant him the ability to grasp and climb, but they are short enough to not interfere with his running. His hind feet have short digits, like a cat or dog, and help him run. His legs hind legs are particularly strong and are capable of launching him into the air for flight or even just for jumping large/ high distances. He is also equipped with sharp talons that can cut into concrete and some metals in his large form. Hair: while both forms have hair running along their spin it differs. In his small form his hair is soft and fluffy, very similar to his hair in human form. In his large form his hair loses some of its fluffiness and becomes more sleek and silky. Tail: in his small form his tail doesn’t really have any extra features. It is versatile and capable of grabbing onto things, and has a whip like end or sturdy middle that could inflict bruises if he swing hard enough. However in his large form his tail would probably have spikes or blade like growths on the end. Horns: in his small form his horns are still sharp, but there are fewer and they are smaller with small stubby ones closer to the top of his head and longer ones point towards the back. In his large form those two sets of horns increase in length and he gains an extra curving set coming from his jaw as well. Overall facial and body structure: his small form is overall rounder softer than his large form. In fact his small forms head was somewhat modeled after that of a boa. In his larger form his nose gains some length and his lips gain sharper tooth like curves. The end of the nose remains rounded, but the bottom of his chin gains a slight point to it. The larger form is overall sharper and less friendly looking.

This is just an idea I had bouncing around in my head and wanted to put down. Sorry about the length of it, but if anyone actually read all of that I’m impressed because it was excessively long and I need to learn to make things short and sweet.