#a complete anomaly in our system

[deathworlders-of-e24]

We finally did it. We slipped the surly bonds of Earth to step among the stars. It took over two decades of research, billions of dollars of taxpayers money, and almost every country on the planet working in tandem, but after the International Space Coalition was founded it was almost effortless.

Faster than Light travel was accomplished almost on accident. Just the right ratios of radioactive material and an ‘ever so slight’ gravitational anomaly generator was all it took. To keep the population safe from any possible drawbacks, the first launch of the FTL drive, or Warp, was conducted at Tranquility Base on the moon. Either that was minimum safe distance or there wasn’t any, so it was decided to just roll the dice. The Angel was built there, the ship that would go further than any before it. The drive was set for Alpha Centauri, the big red button was pressed, and off they went, 300 crew members, going faster than anyone else in the history of mankind.

After 4 months, 319 ‘people’ came back. The extra 19 individuals wore special thermal suits to keep their body temperatures stable, and each had scaled skin with varying hues of greens and grays, with elongated prehensile tails. Their eyes were almost solid black, save for some red around the edges. Their hands were like a chameleon’s with only 3 fingers each. If it hadn’t been for a heads up from the Angel’s captain, the first words out of the welcoming party mouth would’ve been “they’re lizards!” Honestly the only thing they had in common with us was that they were bipedal.

Apparently the people of the ‘Alpha System’ as we called it, the Quintins, were just as surprised to see us as we were them. 2 ambassadors, 7 scientists, 10 military escorts, and a partridge in a pear tree came with them back to Earth. They just had to see it, after hearing stories of home from the crew aboard The Angel. They had to see how a world so full of dangers, from predators to the sheer deadly climates, could have allowed such a species as humans to exist let alone thrive and advance far enough to get off the ground.

The surprises didn’t stop there either, as if finding out WE ARE NOT ALONE wasn’t a big enough shock to the human race. The Quintins weren’t the only species out there, they were in fact only one people in a collective, a Grand Assembly of Intelligent Lifeforms (it sounded longer in Quin tongue but they brought auto translators) or The GAIL, and the Human race was immediately eligible for probational membership. Developing the WARP capabilities was what sealed it. Faster than Light travel was the first prerequisite for joining the GAIL. The second was a planetary inspection, and since the Quintins were our first contact, who better? It was time to meet the neighbors for the human race.

That was 50 years ago. Now the Human Race were full fledged members of The GAIL, and the International Space Coalition was renamed into simply the Terran Academy, putting out graduates of every field imaginable. We had an entire fleet of WARP enabled ships, spreading human explorers into the depths of space.

The only problem these days were the rumors. 50 years of interaction with alien species had made one thing clear to the rest of the universe at large:

Their planet is completely unstable

Their bodies are unimaginably fragile while simultaneously unbreakable

They claim not to have a hive mind but nobody believes that for a second

They seem to ‘pack bond’ outside their own species

They’ll eat anything (maybe even you)

The Humans make no sense

THE HUMANS ARE DEATHWORLDERS!

AND HERE THEY COME!

(This will be an account of various humans and their travels through the known universe. Earth, also known as E24, is a terrifying deathworld. This should be fun)

[astarion-dekarios]

I did a live transcription of the Dragon Age: the Veilguard dev Q&A session today.

UPDATE/EDIT: I made a second pass of this and cleaned it up into a full/complete transcript.

Q: If you could belong to any of the main factions, which would you choose? 

Corinne: Listen Katie, you say softball but this is hard. I'm gonna cheat and I’m gonna give you two. So for fashion, the Antivan Crows all day long. their threads, you're gonna love it. For vibes though, the ones that capture my vibe, Mournwatch. Gimme those necromancers.

John: Those are good answers. I have one for fashion and for just general faction that I’d like to be a part of. Veil jumpers - who doesn't like a nice walk in the forest, you know, even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies, but uh, yeah.

Matt: For me it’s definitely the Lords of Fortune. I’ve had a chance to try out a bunch of them, and I think I’ve finally settled on them, and I think it’s just because pirate barbarian is just such a great combination of elements. Treasure hunting, plus beaches and palm trees and all that stuff, it’s a really good mix, so that’s kind of my default.

Q: I’ve seen a lot of talk about only having two companions in your party instead of three for this game. What is the reasoning this and will we get the same companion conversations and banter as seen in the previous Dragon Age Games?? 

Corinne: Such a good question. Thank you to whoever submitted this one. I'll start and then turn it over to John Epler. As you saw in the gameplay reveal, this is a much more intimate experience. We pulled the camera in. For those that aren't aware, the reason why is we want you to feel like you actually are in this world, like you’re walking these the city streets of Minrathous, you’re looking up at the buildings all around you. You're a part of this place. It's much more intimate, and we believe as the narrative unfolds that this creates a lot more immersion. Now how this relates to the companions is in doing this, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found that having two companions allows them more visibility and presence. We've talked about the incredible depth and focus we’ve put on fleshing out these companions, they're very fully realized, so here you really get to see them more clearly, you get to see them shine. When you see Lace Harding jump into the air and release a volley of arrows, you can only get that because of this more intimate view. So I love the spotlight that’s been put on them. But I think in addition to the banter, one of the things people are wondering about is, ok but what about gameplay. Again, this has come about from our testing, working with the internal team and also our lovely our council of players. We just found that in the combat system, when you're planning your strategies, two felt like the right number to manage. Keep in mind, Rook has a lot of different types of actions: abilities, individual attacks that are more fleshed out than ever before. Timing and positioning matter a lot, so this really felt like the right balance. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. And I will also say that I engage with the companions, I actively control what they're doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games. But John, I’ll toss it over to you for the banter.

John: So banter, honestly I don't think you could stop the writers from writing banters. I will say for myself, it's one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories, little arcs between the characters, and Veilguard is no different. Banter is still absolutely a core part of it. We've got global banter, you know the general stuff that you get in all spaces, as well as mission specific stuff. But yeah. It's definitely still a big thing, if anything it's the most we've ever done for pairings of companions. Beyond that, we’ve also made sure—and I mean, I’ve been on Dragon Age for a while, and I know there’s been an issue, you know, things like, “well, I don’t wanna miss this banter.” So we've even added stuff like interruptable and resumable banter as well, just to make sure that—because again, it’s a core part of the experience. Everyone loves hearing these companions talk to each other. Everyone loves hearing these little stories and relationships develop over the course of the game, and as mentioned before, companions are the heart of this experience. So we still have it, if anything like I said, you could not stop the writers from doing it, even if you tried.

Corinne: Well John, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field, do I get less interaction? Like do I get a scene with my companions interacting with a broader group more often? And the way you'll gather them around the kitchen table, there's just so many of those moments where they're all interacting with each other. Those are some of my favorite parts.

John: Yeah, and that’s a good callout, because I think the other side of it is, we aren’t talking too much about your home, but we also wanna make sure that they feel like they have relationships and a life outside of just the times you take a certain pair of companions out on the field, so we made sure that they have interactions there as well.

Q: How customizable is the backstory of Rook? Will we get to determine their past in the character creator?

John: Absolutely. So Rook has six different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each  one is tied to one of the major factions in the Veilguard, and each one sets out who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. While that sets up the broad events, as you go through the game and have conversations either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you – what was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook, because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them a background in the world but letting you decide what that means and what that says about you is also a big part of it. And again, there are six different factions in this game. Two which anyone who’s played Dragon Age for a while would remember, you’ve got the Gray Wardens and Antivan Crows. We also have, in addition to them, four new ones because we’re in Northern Thedas. We’ve got the Veil Jumpers, Mournwatch, Shadow Dragons, and Lords of Fortune. A lot of different options, a lot of different backgrounds, and a lot of opportunities to define who your Rook was and who they are now.

Q: Will crafting return and has it been improved since Inquisition?

Corinne: Will crafting return? You can absolutely improve and customize your gear, yes. That is a big part of RPG progression, so yes you can improve and customize it. I will say though, it's different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory so I'm gonna be a little cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that that will be an important part of the narrative.

Q: Can we kiss or romance Manfred the skeleton? 

John: I would say, not that skeleton, but we're not saying no skeletons.

Q: What were some of the development considerations that you had to take into account to ensure this game flows & functions with prior games & dragon age keep, if keep is being utilized? 

Corinne: We did an interview with IGN that goes into some of the details there. To summarize, we have taken a different approach on how you import your decisions this time around. It's now fully integrated into the character creator and serves a dual purpose, to be honest. It’s not called this in game, but I playfully think of it as "last time on dragon age". When I talk about its dual purpose, it's been 10 years since the last dragon age game release, so it serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing you to remake those decisions that are critical to you. The thing I love about it is it's very highly visual, it uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic, so it's actually a very visual and playful experience as you go through it. It is very much important to us that it's built into the client, though. You can play this game entirely offline, no connection, you don’t have to link to your EA accounts. That's been a really big request, so the refresher plus make those decisions in client, I think we're all pretty happy about that. I don't wanna spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import. Y'all don't want the spoilers. But it's been a really interesting creative intersection for us. Because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure. You're in northern thedas, these locations you've literally never been to before, so that affects what will matter and what we’re not using this time around as far as decisions. But obviously there’s some very very clear connections to existing characters. It’s no secret that the Inquisitor, our dear Inky, is gonna show up, so that's a factor.

Q: Will this next game be an open world game or is it just confined to Tevinter? 

John: Yeah, so you are in northern Thedas, but the game only begins in Minrathous. It doesn't stay there. I think one of the most exciting things for me, and again, I don’t wanna get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to and work with the art team, the narrative, the design team to build out these locations we've talked about, places that character have referred to as where they’ve come from, places that characters obviously in previous games have hailed from, has been absolutely exciting. So you do start in Tevinter, you do start in Minrathous, but again that’s not the entire game by any stretch.

Corinne: And the first half of it is, is it an open world game? We've gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated, intense narratives. So this is a hand crafted experience, it's mission based. Now these locations can open up, you can go back, solve mysteries, do some really great side content - not fetch quests, not grind quests, some really great side content. But I wanna be clear, it's a really curated, hand crafted experience.

John: Just to bounce off of that very quickly, the most important thing for us and what Corinne was saying about hand crafted, obviously we’ve talked about how characters, story, narrative are critical to us, and this has allowed us to build those experiences in a way that emphasized that really well while still tying it into the story threads and story beats.

Q: Will the companions have unique specializations like DA2 or the same as player?

Corinne: I think the best way for me to describe this is that yes, our companions will have abilities that are truly unique to them, but also the companions do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue, and warrior. For instance, you might be surprised to hear, because she has a bow, but Bellara is in fact a mage, and I love that. Some of the abilities, the bulk of the abilities of the companions, are based on their own unique personalities. Neve is the only mage that is an ice mage, so you get distinct abilities for her. But because she's a mage, she does have access to abilities that all mages share, like Time Slow. We really like the balance there. It’s a good mix of representing their archetype, their class, and also their distinct specialization or personality or whatever you wanna call it.

John: Yeah actually, I would say the word personality is a great one, because all of these characters exist, have a story, have a history of how they became who they were, and part of that was finding that intersection between narrative and gameplay and making sure that again, we serve the needs of gameplay, but also allow these characters to exist as their own people, not just in conversation but out of conversations as well.

Corinne: I would also say that as part of that core mage kit, healing spells are there. So if your mages, you wanna make ‘em a healer, yeah.

Q: Will the Veilguard have tactical combat still? 

Corinne: Yes. Combat gets quite tactical. Obviously this is an evolution of the combat system. I talked about immersion, wanting to put you in the world like you’re actually living and existing in it, but it is very tactical and I will say we have a robust difficulty system. The tactics are increasingly important the higher difficulty that you go. So if you’re showing up for a highly tactical experience, I would crank that difficulty in particular. But I wanna make sure I’m super clear in my answer. You saw the gameplay reveal. Our pause time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets in and out of combat, there’s a reason for that. As the game progresses, you didn’t see this in that opening hour of the game, but it will display strategic information on the enemies, so what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses, their enhancements, what are they resistant to, so your type of abilities, leaning into elemental gameplay matters a lot.

I would also say, this is a long answer because it’s such a great question, tactical decision making also takes the form, I would say this is front and center, of coordinating your ability usage between Rook and your companions to create synergies and or really devastating, we call them detonation combos. So let me give you a couple of examples, because it can be really hard to visualize, so hopefully this helps. One of the tactics that I personally enjoy in my own builds, I just recently played as a veil ranger, I love it, it’s one of my favorites. if I'm fighting fade touched enemies in Artlathan, I like to use Bellara's galvanized tear to pull enemies together, it’s like a gravity well. You then Slow Time with Neve – Slow Time affects the world around you, but it does not affect you, so you clump them up, you slow time -- and then with Rook I come in and do a devastating AOE or damage over time spell or ability. And it’s even better if it's a lightning based ability, because the fade touched in Arlathan are vulnerable to that. So there’s so many layers of coordination and strategies and tactics. We did talk about the devastating detonation combos, that's one of my favorite features, because that’s when you’re really leaning into explicit teamwork between your companions and Rook or the companions together. When I build out my team and I'm going into a mission, I try to ensure that I have at least a couple possible synergies, detonation combo synergies, between my team. It might be between Harding and Neve, Neve and me, or both. So here, I'd go into battle, pause time, open the ability wheel, get information on the enemy – and the wheel will actually tell you that there is a synergy combo, you  might have seen a screenshot that says “combo available” – it will remind you of synergies between companions, you can queue both of those abilities up at the same time, close out of the pause time menu, they’ll both execute, both abilities will happen. Then the detonation AOE happens, applies debuffs to all the enemies in a radius of it. It's so satisfying. I can’t wait for yall to see it, but the interesting thing is that too is a tactical choice. I’m choosing to use my companions to do that, and that means I’m not using them to heal me, or to give me that defense bonus, or to knock an enemy off a ledge, so it’s about the opportunity costs. I could spend the rest of the session talking about this, apologies for being long winded, but this is one of my favorite parts of the game.

Q: Can you choose rook's pronouns? If yes, is being non-binary an option? How detailed is the character creator?

Corinne: Well yeah you can select your pronouns. Absolutely. You can actually select your pronouns and your gender, because those are related concepts, but they’re not actually the exact same thing. Yeah, you can be non-binary, we have he/him, she/her, they/them. Yes. Emphatic yes. How detailed is the character creator? Oh my goodness, yall. Very. I don't wanna give away too much just yet but it's very very deep. It has been revealed, it’s out there in a couple articles about the focus on hair, the focus on skin tones that are done respectfully, full body customization, hell yeah, we love to see it. But we’re gonna come back, we’re gonna show you a lot more on character creator, but we wanna make sure we have the time and space to do that.

Q: Will there be a photo mode in game? 

Corinne: That is something we’re actively looking into, we know there’s a ton of interest, so stay tuned on that one, but we are very much looking into it.

John: I can add too, that is a feature that we like, we like the idea of, and it’s not just player facing, but internally it’s a really helpful thing to have that as we’re building things out, so we’ll let you know.

Corinne: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We are as geeked on that possibility as you all are.

Q: A lot of people were asking about abilities. Are we going to be limited in how many abilities we can pick from the wheel?

Corinne: Ability wheel does have a capacity. You have to choose which three abilities you wanna bring for Rook, which three for  a companion, and which three for another companion. What I like about this is there is kind of an emergent gameplay depending on who you and your companions are coming into a mission with. Now the reason for that is it actually creates a really interesting balance between strategizing, having to do that strategy about your combat kit before the mission, and then the tactical decisions once you're in the field deciding what to do. I want to clear one thing up, while there are three ability slots for Rook, there's so much more than that - other actions that you can perform directly from the wheel like you’ll have an ultimate ability associated with your class or your specialization, so there’s variants there. There’s a type of items you can get that function like abilities, they’re typically like buffs and enhancements, in the form of runes, so you’ll control that for Rook and/or the team from the wheel. You may have also seen that you can direct which targets your companions can focus on, but what you might not know is that a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing with your companions. When you issue those commands, that too will proc depending on the gear they have equipped, really interesting and strategic effects. They can be more ability like, more like proc’d effects, there’s just so much from the wheel that once you get in and see everything working together, becomes more and more apparent.

Q: Will fireball and cone of cold be back as spells in Dragon Age: the Veilguard? 

Corinne: All these combat questions, really good. Fireball and Cone of Cold aren't specifically back, however their successors are, frost nova and meteor. These serve the exact same combat role and function as those other abilities. I would also say it gives them quite the glow up. Meteor in particular, so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well placed meteor. It’s wonderful

Q: What accessibility features are available? Arachnophobia mode? Mod support? 

Corinne: Oh my goodness, arachnophobia. I am wicked afraid of spiders too. My partner always laughs at me, I’m just terrified of them. That said, that's one we're going to save for a little bit closer to launch before we’ll go into full details about accessibility features. But I do wanna assure you we have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic, so that you can play the game in a way that really works for you. I'm excited to share that with you when the time is right.

Q: How long is the time skip from Inquisition to the Veilguard? 

John: Anyone who's paid attention to Dragon Age, and I can say as somebody who’s been on Dragon Age since Origins, timelines are always a little iffy. They change and they morph over development as we see how longs things are taking, but for Veilguard we were actually pretty consistent from the start that it's been about 10 years since trespasser, as you may or may not have noticed, Varric's become a bit of a silver fox. I’ve seen a lot of comments about that on social media. Yeah, 10 years. Solas's ritual has taken time to set up and you’re kinda coming in at the end of that hunt.

Q: Is Solas still bald? 

Matt: Yeah. I mean if you’ve watched the gameplay thing, we can all confirm that Solas is still bald, Solas is still Solas. I really like how Solas has turned out this time around. I will say, here’s a comment on this specific question that’s gonna sound like a non-sequitor, but once you get a chance to play a little bit more, maybe you’ll – In Thedas, ancient elves go bald when they are millenia old, so Solas wasn't always bald. So if you end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different. Now that said, I’m sure some of you are wondering what happened to Solas’s wig from Tevinter Nights. I’m sure he still has it somewhere, so��� It’s his most important possession.

Corinne: Some pride there, huh.

Q: Will we be able to change companions appearances and outfits or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age 2? 

Matt: Dragon Age 2 was, we loved how the followers turned out in that, but it was sad given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one basic outfit. We really tried to make some space for them this time around. They have iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can find for them, some are just cool but then there are some  that are tied to directly to their narrative and just kind of what’s happening in their life.

Q: Will we be seeing or visiting Kal’Sharok? 

Matt: What’s been really cool, so in previous games, we’ve kind of alluded to this before, it was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places you were not going, and so you could just bring in some props, some characters, a piece of art, things like that. Even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at and we’d just add drips and bits and pieces, so that stuff was really fun. In the Veilguard we’re actually getting to visit a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for real, so you do actually run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we’ve revealed. But this also means that we're not completely filling out the map, and that there are new things we can start hinting at and we can start drip feeding. It’s kinda fun, I’d say for what we can show of Kal’Sharok and other locations, there’s more to do.

Q: Will the dialogue wheel/options be similar to Inquisition and Andromeda in the sense that it's more tone based?

John: We have a number of different types of wheels in our game. All the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle, anyone who’s played a dragon age game and remembers what they look like. In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, we have tone wheels which are roleplaying your character picking consistent tone. We also have emotion wheels where you can pick specific emotional reactions, and choice wheels which are, I don’t have a strong emotional or tone tie here, but I do want to make a choice based on what I do. Investigate’s obviously return as well. We want players to understand as much as possible what it is they are going to be picking, we want the choice to be clear even if one of the best things about consequence is making sure that’s not entirely clear.

Q: How extensive are Rook’s dialogue decision trees? 

John: Huge. Again, it’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying, but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. Again it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure we also react to decisions you’ve made. So for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you'll have a different perspective on events than someone who’s not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options, sometimes that’s going to be entirely new dialogue trees, as well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so again, making sure the game feels like it notices what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue wheel and dialogue trees in this game.

Q: All companions romanceable by all player characters regardless of race and gender? 

Corinne: Yeah, yeah. We have talked about this in some of the interviews, I’ve seen a few articles about it, so I'd recommend everyone check out those articles, but let me just give you a quick interview. Each of the seven companions has full romance arcs and they are romanceable by all genders. Absolutely. But something that’s really important to us on the team, and so I just wanna make sure and double down on, that doesn't mean playersexual. If anyone’s unaware of what we mean by that, it doesn’t mean they conform or twist their identities to who you the player are. They won’t suddenly have a preference for men or women based on what you’re playing. Instead they have their own fully fleshed out identities. They are true and authentic to that. So in this game they are all pansexuals, they all have histories and romances, sometimes you’ll hear about preferences and things of that nature. And what I really love is if you don’t pursue a romance with them, they’ll actually build their own romances with each other. So in one of the interviews I talked about Lace Harding and Taash getting together. I give that example because it’s one of my favorites. I’m gonna put a question back to the community though. I’ve heard we’re going with Laash for that ship name? You tell me what is that ship name?

Q: What are the markings on the faces of the elven warden and veil hopper?

John: So there’s quite a few, I think more than we’ve done before, tattoos from various cultures. We're bringing the vallaslin back of course but there's a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into these new regions. Each area has its own kind of visual language for that. We are bringing the vallaslin back and a couple characters have them, but we've customized them a bit. They’re a bit more specific to their personality.

Q: What are you as a developer most proud of and excited for players to experience? 

Corinne: I suspect for most of us, myself included, it's the depths and authenticity of the companions journey along with on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side. That authenticity is just so good, they all feel like my dear friends. But I have to say, the closest runner up for me has to be the character creator. Has to be. That character creator, the makeup options, the range of sliders... I'm a Qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair. Character creator has to be my very close runner up.

Matt: As far as what I can say I’m most proud of on this one, I can speak for the art team, we worked incredible hard to make the story more visible than ever. Games are a visual medium, but sometimes it's easier to do things in text format or written in a codex somewhere or alluded to off screen, but we really leaned into trying to make sure that every design, prop, character, environment, that the effects we’re choosing, all these choices were putting the story on screen so you can see it unfold, and I think having worked on all the dragon age games, I'd say Veilguard represents one of the best attempts at that we’ve made yet.

John: I’m gonna cheat and kind of combine both Corinne’s and Matt’s answers. Honestly the companions for me are the absolute highlight. Just being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways. These are the deepest companion arcs we've ever done, not just on Dragon Age but in BioWare in general. Each companion has their own story arc you can go through, decisions you can make. They really do take center stage. As you play through them, you see the care and love that the team has put into each and every one. I mean, there’s moments in each arc that make you cry, make you angry, make you excited, and the way they integrate into the story as a whole for me is something that’s been really fun. Finding ways to bring these characters together, ways to bring this story, this narrative, of you know, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, has been absolutely exciting and thrilling. And again, you see the team's love in every single piece of it. As for what I’m most excited, Dragon Age has been part of my career and part of my life for literally the last decade and a half, I’ve worked on it since Origins, and there's something about the Veilguard that feels an amazing mix of novelty and familiarity, it’s like coming home in a way that I feel is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players, but there’s also so much here that’s just new and exciting for people, new players and old players alike. Going to parts of the world, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world and series and expand on it and build on it in ways that I’ve just been, honestly an absolute thrill, the best part of my career, and I’ve been in games for 17 years now and this has been the absolute highlight for me, so that’s what I’m excited about.

Corinne: I just wanna yes and that. I so completely agree with you. There’ve been times in companion arcs where even knowing what's going to happen, we work on the game, with some of these decisions, I've had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh, and go “oh my god, what am I gonna do here?” The depth of them is wonderful. I do wanna put this out there, when we talk about as a developer what we are most proud of, can we just give a big shout out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their hearts into this. Anyone from BioWare who’s listening in, thank you so much. Y’all are just the best.

Q: Why does Varric have dark hair now? 

Matt: He's been adventuring for a while now. His hair is more gray, but he's been in very dark scenes so far, so we’ll see him in some more contexts.

Q: Will the Inquisitor be appearing in the flesh or are we just choosing their major DAI decisions?

Corinne: Yes they will. The Inky does appear. We've know how attached y’all are to the Inquisitor, we’ve seen the love for your OC. Yes, the Inquisitor shows up. We'd already confirmed that a few places, so let me just say you can also customize them and it includes some of our new customization options. Yeah they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.

John: And I think beyond that, the story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor obviously are tied together as much as any story, so it would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They’re gonna be a part of this story.

Q: Will there be any planned DLCs and transmog armor? 

Corinne: Right now our focus is entirely on the quality of the game, it's so important at this stage for us to be all in, all attention on finishing this game and delivering on the quality and the promise of it. So that's all I can really say on it, we're 100% focused on this being the most complete game we can make it. I wanna emphasize, there's not gonna be any microtransactions or battle passes, you don't have to connect online. Our focus is making this the most complete single player we possibly can. Now this was kind of a twofer question. Will there be transmog? Hell yeah. I’m the kind of player that believes fashion is the real endgames. Yeah there’s a transmog system, absolutely. It’s sick.

Q: Will any of the characters be asexual? 

Corinne: Such a good question. So, look I'm gonna be really forthcoming with yall and a little bit vulnerable, I'm ace. I'm a gray ace, I don't mind sharing that, I’m kind of public with it. I will say though that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. We look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess is this the right time. This time it wasn't. What I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum on there, I would love to represent an ace relationship sometime in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best. And I do see some questions, what do we mean by ace? Asexuality. We often refer to it as the ace spectrum.

Q: Can mage Rook do blood magic? Will blood magic be a skill tree separate from regular magic?

Corinne: OK, this gets a bit spoilery, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna wanna be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits, and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic. Gonna go off script just a little bit because I’ve seen “just tell us about the specializations”. I’m not gonna tell you the deets, but there is a necromancer one. There is an elemental one, and there is one that’s actually more of like a combat mage. It’s my favorite.

Q: Can we name the griffon? We also have a griffon emoji in this Discord server.

John: Excellent. So, someone in your party, again, spoilers, may have already named the baby griffon, but don’t worry, Assan is a very good boy.

Corinne: All these griffon emojis, y’all are killing me.

Q: Will we have a camp/home/headquarters that we’ll be able to customize?

Matt: Well this time around, in Inquisition you had Skyhold. In this case you have a headquarters called the Lighthouse. More to be seen on that, but narratively it serves kind of a different purpose, but also the same purpose. As far as customization goes, there are elements of it that change over time and some things you can adjust. I don’t know how much we’re really going into that at the moment. One thing I like about it is that it definitely does start to feel very much like home over time.

Q: We need to know, does pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? 

Matt: I’ll take it as a chance just to geek out about worldbuilding. Again, the Veilguard for us is a really kind of dream opportunity to go to places we've only ever heard reference to or we’ve seen in set. In going through the world building process, and trying to build these things out not just as neat things from the IP, but also as, if you’ve read about this stuff, you've got your own version in your head, you’ve imagined what it might be like and you're probably hoping for something spectacular, and our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer or any artist can really do justice to, so you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. That can be everything as big as architecture and landscape and biomes and ecosystems, but it does get into things like art and culture and costume design, and also food. This time around that was one of the many things we did look into to try to catch the character and feel of a place to make it feel believable and lived in. So that’s my really long answer for yeah, I'm sure at least one place does have pasta.

Q: Are we getting a mabari?

Matt: Ooh, that’s a good question. I will say you’re spending most of the game in the north of Thedas. Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing up there, so in this particular instance, no, you will not get a mabari, sadly.

Q: Can we pet the griffon? 

John: You, I’m really sorry to have to be the one to tell you—Nah, I’m kidding, yes you can. It's not even just petting the griffon, I've actually hugged the griffon, so that feels like even there a step up.

Matt: There’s lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon.

Corinne: Can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in the Lighthouse hanging out? And hey, y’all, this was so important to the team, too. Like this is the team’s like, just huge support for this feature, so props to them.

Q: Will we get to see any of the character creator before the game releases?

Corinne: Yes. Yes you will. You've probably seen we are laying out a roadmap for what we're gonna show and when we’re gonna talk about it. You will see it  as we get a little closer to launch.

Q: Will we be able to play as a qunari dwarf elf or human? 

Corinne: hell yeah you will. All 4. And all 4 have that full body customization. I already talked a little bit about, I’ve always loved the qunari, I will say in Dragon Age: Inquisition it was hard to get a good looking qunari hairstyle. So yes you can play as them, you can customize them, the horn options are rad, the hair options are rad. And also related to this, your lineage gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options. So that’s really one aspect of choosing your lineage as well.

John: So actually just to bounce off that, earlier questions about backgrouds. Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific callouts to, for example, if it’s a Mournwatch, Mournwatch being from Nevarra and mages, if you play as a dwarf, obviously your experiences in that faction is going to be different from, say, a human or an elf, so there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations and, with the intention of giving each lineage a little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.

Q: Where is barkspawn and is he ok?

John: Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden. Don’t worry, he’s fine. You may ask yourself, “but John, it’s been so long.” To which I say, Mabari live exactly as long as they need to.

Q: Will Rook have a set of default name?

John: Yeah, so Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also there's a name generator that can give you a selection of first names, obviously if you wanted to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well. If you’re somebody who maybe has a little more difficulty coming up with a name, so for example you name every single character Bob because that’s the only name you can think of, we also give that opportunity for that generation.

Q: When will the voice acting cast be announced? 

John: We worked with a lot of very talented actors on this one. I am super excited to talk about the voice acting cast, we’ll be talking about it more over the summer, we’re not quite ready to announce names yet.

Same answer for collectors editions and preorders, and required PC specs.

Q: Any special musical guests? Tavern songs? 

Corinne: Yeah there are tavern songs and a huge credit to the audio team and performance teams, because they’re pretty great. There’s one at a little tavern in Minrathous called the Swan, and the song you hear there might just be my favorite of the tavern songs.

Q: DA2's main theme brought back motifs from DAO main theme. Can we expect DAV to recall more or less of that original thematic material than inquisition? 

John: We are not quite ready to talk about music yet in specifics. But in broad strokes I can say that the process for us is always the same. Working with the composer, figuring out themes, figuring out what kinds of elements we want to keep, tying specific elements to maybe specific characters, it's very in depth process and a very collaborative process. We have some fantastic audio people on our team that have done some fantastic work, that have done an amazing job working with composers and with the team as a whole to make sure that again, we said earlier about cohesiveness, making sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the experience.

Q: When writing the overall story of this game, what themes did you want to have as the prominent focus? 

John: Again, it’s interesting. When writing these games, and this has been true on every Dragon Age I’ve been a part of, what you start with and where you end up aren't always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing a theme, you realize actually it’s more interesting if you attack it from this angle, or maybe it ends up twisted a little bit. I will say for Dragon Age: the Veilguard, from the beginning one of the biggest themes has been regret. How regret shapes people’s lives, how they deal with their regrets, how maybe people move past regrets. Each of the characters and the story as a whole have elements of these. We wanted to have that thematic, that cohesiveness to the game’s story and the game’s writing.

Q: Can you play a dwarf and does the world react to your race and backstory?

John: Yes, you can play as a dwarf. Yes, the world does react to your race and backstory. And again you’ll have unique dialogues or unique conversations based on that backstory as well as that race.

Corinne: And to give you a little nugget here because I saw it scrolling through real quickly, you have beards. So when I think of dwarves, I think about glorious, fantastic beards. Hell yeah we do.

John: Yeah I can say, as somebody who plays a lot of games, the character creator—I don’t know what magic they did, but the beards, they feel like a beard should feel like, it’s great, they look awesome.

Q: Will our heroes and companions leave us if we go against their wishes? 

Corinne: Do y’all just love pain? Do you want us to make you cry? Um... if you go against their wishes and make decisions they don't like, I will tell you, you can piss them off, they might not agree with you, and they will take some time away. That said this is the biggest threat to Thedas we've ever seen, so they will always be willing to defend Thedas, but yeah you can piss them off and they’ll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah they will, UNLESS…

John: No spoilers, Corinne. No spoilers.

Corinne: Alright, alright. But they want it!

Q: Did any songs, books, movies, or anything inspire character writing? 

John: Art is always a synthesis of your own experiences both in the real world but also the art you consume, the art you pay attention. I don't think that any characters have a direct reference or inspiration, but yeah, they're all inspired by the things we do both in the real world and in the media we consume. And you’re gonna see elements of characters that yeah. The things that we’ve enjoyed show up in these characters. For me it comes down to, writing can be a deeply personal experience, so even if you don't intend for it to be the case, parts of you will show up in the characters. I think that’s true for all the characters in the Veilguard. Sometimes it's exploring things about yourself that you may like or may not like, and sometimes exploring things about characters you like or don't like. So that’s my longwinded way of saying yes, it’s impossible to not have that happen when you’re creating art, but I don’t think there’s one where you can say, “oh this is this character, this is this character.”

Q: What was the thinking process behind making Harding a companion this time around? 

John: When we released Inquisition, it was impossible not to see the love that people had for our murderous girl next door dwarf. She has always been a fan favorite obviously. But I think beyond that, it's something that Harding's writer wanted to explore, there was more of a story to tell there and more perspective. And beyond that Harding also has a strong connection to Solas, to Varric, and the events of the last 10 years. So I wouldn’t say it’s always been but I’d say Harding’s probably one of the first ones we settled on as like yes, this is a character we want, and the writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her, so it just made sense.

Matt: You know, actually, to piggy back on that, that’s something I hadn’t even thought about that much and it’s not a huge part of her character, but she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into who he was.

John: Yeah that’s exactly—that’s a great way of looking at it, too, it also provides you with a little bit of perspective, for players who’ve been around for previous Dragon Age games, but also for new ones, who was Solas? What kind of character was he? Yeah it’s a great, using characters to provide windows into the world is honestly one of my favorite things.

Matt: And when I say was, I just mean in Inquisition.

John: Yes, that’s exactly, yes. Thank you for correcting that.

Q: What approach are you taking to quest and world design in the Veilguard?

John: I think for us it just comes down to relevance and narrative heft. We wanna make sure that each quest provides either a perspective on the world, a perspective on the characters, or it feels immediately and obviously relevant to what you’re doing here. You’re here to save the world. At the end of the day, one of the things that we heard loud and clear was the feedback about how relevant, or in our case not relevant, previous quests have felt, so for Veilguard, we really wanted all quests to feel like something somebody faced with the end of the world would believe was necessary and important. So again, there’s quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that same feeling of, this is the kind of thing that the Veilguard would do. This is the kind of thing that my hero would do. Especially faced with the end of the world.

Corinne: That’s really good, John. That’s so right. I would just again double down on how hand crafted all the quests are. Whether you’re doing the main story or you’re journeying with your companions or you’re out exploring and you encounter a mystery, everything's hand crafted, intentional, we spend a lot of time listening to what yall said, and of course everyone has slightly different tastes, but you're not gonna be gathering shards in the Hinterlands. Everything is built with intention and they’re lovingly handcrafting the experience.

Q: Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices? 

John: So I don’t wanna get too much into spoilers here, but I will say that locations can fundamentally change based on decisions you make. Some of the parts of the world that you go to, you can have, the choices you make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop.

Q: Will we be able to control companions in combat?

Corinne: If Rook gets KO'd, the player character gets knocked out, this time around it is time to reload your save, or better yet, the companions have really interesting progression. You can spec them out to be able to revive you, but that’s if you’ve invested in their progression and what they can do. And that said, I mentioned this earlier but I personally spend more time in the nature of this combat system when everything comes together, interacting and directing the companions than I have in any of the other games. So like that’s interactivity between them. Once you play it you’ll see just how engaged the scene is.

Q: Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter? 

John: I actually spent a little bit of time trying to figure out if I wanted to answer this question in iambic pentameter, and then I very quickly gave up. Massive kudos to Patrick who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It's the same Solas you know and love or hate depending on who you are. The same writer. So I think this is, the answer is yeah, it's Solas.

Q: Will our decision of who was left in the fade be important? 

John: While that decision does not show up—not for the Veilguard, now that said, that doesn’t mean that’s not a decision that won’t ever be important in the future. Not for this one.

Matt: I’m glad to hear you say that, John, because one of my favorite stories was Bob getting stuck in the web in Reboot.

John: That’s a deep cut! The sound of my childhood.

Q: Will we have mounts again? 

Matt: No, mounts were, they addressed a need in Inquisition that we don't have in Veilguard, and you’ll see why when you get to play.

Q: How is the side quest design? Will they be mostly story based or will there be a lot of radiant and quests for power like in Inquisition? 

John: We talked about this a bit earlier, but they are all hand crafted and story focused. The narrative, the companions, not just the companions but the characters and the world as a whole, are so much at the core of the Veilguard that anything other than handcrafting quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building.

Corinne: And maybe we can clarify as well, because with power was such a devisive mechanic in Inquisition, there’s no mechanic like that that blocks your progression until you fill a bar. That’s just not a thing in this. You have the autonomy to engage in these quests as you like, there’s no grind out gates before you can progress.

John: That’s right. Again we want to make sure that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible.

Q: Will there be a similar system to war table? 

Corinne: We haven't talked much about the player's base, the Lighthouse, and we're gonna save that, but what I will say is that the Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, it has its own unique purposes and functions this time. So that's an area that we'll leave for you when we talk more about the Lighthouse and when you have a chance to hop in, you’ll be able to see what those unique purposes are.

Q: If there is dual wield for warriors, is it dex or str? 

Corinne: So we did wanna bring dual wielding back. It is part of the rogue kit this time, warriors are really focused on mighty two handed weapons, I can’t wait until you see, when you swing those weapons there's a real heft to it, and then of course sword and shield. So we’re leaving the dual wielding to the rogues, but you can see, the amount of hits you can get in in rapid succession dual wielding as a rogue is really satisfying.  

Q: What have been some of the challenges and advantages of working on a single game for so many years? 

John: That is a fantastic question. I have often joked, and I don’t know how much of a joke it is, that when this game is out and I suddenly don't have to keep all these pieces of game and lore and story and everything straight in my head, I'm suddenly gonna be able to speak Latin or something because there’s gonna be a ton of brain power freed up. But for me it’s just, the thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing the game we're building is the right one. Knowing that the pieces are coming together, and knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games, and how excited people are going to be when they get to see the fantastic work the team has been doing. I’ve been on this project since the start, and even today I see things on a daily basis that I’m like holy smokes I can't believe what the team is doing, I can’t believe how good this looks. It's a huge game and I don't see every piece every day, so I get pleasantly surprised on a daily basis. Sometimes if I’m having a particularly long day, I'll spend about an hour late at night just watching cutscenes come in, watching the work coming together, and just sitting back and being like, holy smokes, I can’t wait for someone who hasn’t seen this every day as I have, to see this and just be blown away by the work.

Corinne: It's been very real, hasn’t it? I will just say speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone's working so hard and putting so much passion, so much of themselves into it. This is a franchise they truly love and seeing your support cheering us on has meant a lot to them. So let me just say thank you to all of you.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🤔💥Can Gallifreyans get headaches?

Gallifreyans are pretty boss, but that doesn't mean they're immune to some of the annoying parts of being a sentient lifeform—like headaches. Although rare and tied to specific causes, they can still experience them. Here's when:

After Being Hit with a Stun Gun: Neural overload from stasers or stun guns causes headaches as the system recalibrates.

"Ice Cream" Headache with No Clear Cause: Time Lords sometimes report brain freeze sensations without a cause, possibly from neural misfires or slight temporal shifts.

Head Trauma: Injuries, especially to the time lobe, can trigger headaches or worse.

Awry Regenerations: Regeneration rewires the brain, often leading to disorientation, confusion, and severe headaches, especially after rough regenerations.

Changes in Magnetic Fields: Gallifreyans' sensitivity to space magnetic shifts can disrupt neural patterns, causing headaches.

Time Phenomena That Feels 'Not Right': Exposure to unstable time anomalies or paradoxes leads to temporal headaches.

Using the Respiratory Bypass: Extended use can deprive the brain of oxygen, leading to a dull, throbbing headache afterwards.

Mind Probe Aftereffects: Mind probes strain the brain, leading to lingering headaches as the brain recovers.

Gallifreyan Biology for Tuesday by GIL

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →���Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired😴

[hoedamn-eron]

sports day

It's your daughter's sports day at school, and Jake decides to take part in the "dad race".

Warnings: Inaccurate depictions of DID (only knowledge from the show and some light research). Dad!Jake Lockley. Fluffy. Proofread. Edited on the phone app so apologies for any layout errors, I will fix when I have a computer. Word count: 1,791 F!Reader, no use of Y/N.

This was loosely inspired by my partner's attempt at the dad race at our son's sports day.

When you told the system you were pregnant, it had thrown your worlds off balance. 

You expected it, obviously, since you hadn’t actually planned to get pregnant, but as Steven had said, ‘these things happen, don’t they love?’ 

After talking it through with all of them and going through your options, you had decided that you were ready, that you were stable enough in your job and the bigger flat you’d all moved into that you could extend your family. 

What you hadn’t expected was Marc and Jake to disappear from your life completely afterwards. 

You understood, really, but it still hurt. Steven tried to be there for you as much as he could, being as enthusiastic enough for the four of you, but you couldn’t help but miss Marc and Jake. You didn’t feel whole without all of you together, experiencing the family you were about to make. 

Things changed at your 20-week mark, where at your anomaly scan, about to find out the gender of your baby, you turn to look at Steven excitedly, only to find Marc staring at the screen, his eyes watery as he gripped your hand tightly. You gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as you find out you were having a baby girl, and you looked over to see him silently crying as he stared at the screen. You didn’t interrupt him, letting him have his moment with his daughter. 

It was on the way home from your appointment, where Marc was still staring at the ultrasound in his hands, where he apologised for disappearing. 

“I didn’t know how to handle it…so I ran,” Marc muttered to you as you climbed into your car. 

“It’s okay, Marc,” you whispered, afraid to be any louder in the comfort of your car. 

He was already shaking your head at you. “No, it wasn’t. I got scared, it wasn’t in our plans – “ 

“Marc, it’s okay,” you say again, cupping his cheek with your hand, your thumb stroking at his cheek gently. “You’re here now, that’s what matters.” 

You talk about it all night with him back at your flat, listening as Marc spilled his feelings and fears to you, barely able to look at you whilst doing so. You held his hands through his talking, grounding him and letting him get his feelings out to you. It was Marc that went to bed with you that night. 

After that, Marc, and Steven both fronted as much as they could equally to help out with the pregnancy. You appreciated it really, but you ended up crying to Marc one night about Jake, who you hadn’t seen in months. He let you cry into his shoulder, spilling your own fears and how empty you feel, and how bad you feel because of that, because him and Steven have been wonderful, and you didn’t want to sound ungrateful. 

“You’re not ungrateful, baby,” said Marc. “Jake’s just…Jake’s just dealing with it. He’ll come around.” 

You were afraid you didn’t believe him, and you were sure Marc didn’t even believe himself either. 

However, you were proven wrong a few months later. You were reaching the end of your pregnancy when you see Jake again. You walk into the kitchen, ready to get your daily craving of those vanilla biscuits (that Steven tries and fails to hide from everyone), and you find Jake staring intently at the ultrasound photos that Steven had lovingly stuck to the fridge. 

You don’t say anything, trying to be as quiet as possible as you move around the kitchen, treating him like a skittish deer. 

“Marc said it was a girl,” Jake said, almost sounding too loud in the quiet kitchen. 

You hesitate before turning to look at him and answering. “Yeah. We’re struggling for a name.” 

Jake was silent for a moment before answering, “I like Sienna.” 

You felt your heart swell in your chest before nodding, tears in your eyes. “That’s a lovely name, Jake.” 

You went into labour late one Winter evening. It was a long and tiring process, but you managed to get through it with the help of your boys; all three of them. Sienna Dalilah Spector was born with a set of lungs on her, weighing a chunky eight pounds and ten ounces, with all three of her fathers immediately wrapped around her finger. 

And it hadn’t changed since in the five and a half years since. 

So much so, that Jake was crazily cheering for Sienna as she ran in her egg and spoon race. She was coming second to last, which was fine, because she probably just wanted the sticker at the end of it, for participation. Her dark curly hair was up in the ponytail you’d placed it in that morning, albeit looking a little more flyaway than it had when she left to go to school with Jake. 

“Well done, Sienna!” you called as she crossed the finishing line, already skipping over to her teacher to get her sticker. 

“She’s getting more confident, huh?” Jake asked you, his eyes watching his daughter like a hawk, his overprotective habits evidently dying hard. 

You nod, smiling as Sienna ran back to the starting line. She’d had a tough start to the year, moving up from nursery into Reception in a different school and not knowing anyone, and she’d had some behavioural issues at the beginning, but she settled in eventually, with some extra support from the school and you, and her dads. Now she had a small group of friends, who she would talk your ear off about whenever she got in from school, about what games they played, what lessons they learned, and what they got up to the night before when they weren’t at school. You were so proud of how far she’d come, as were Steven, Marc, and Jake. 

After a few more races, the teachers announced a break for the children for a drink, before doing the parent’s racing. 

You grinned at you look at Jake. “Gonna do it?” 

Jake scoffed. “Obviously. Gotta make my princesa proud.” 

Not a few seconds later, Jake’s legs were surrounded by an overexcited five-year-old. “Daddy! Are you gonna run?” 

Jake laughed as he picked up Sienna, placing her on his forearm. “Yeah, I am.” 

Sienna didn’t fully understand her fathers’ condition, she just knew that sometimes Jake was Marc, or Marc was Steven, or Steven was sometimes Jake, but sometimes he was also Marc. She didn’t have a favourite; she had a different relationship with each alter, and sometimes she liked having tea parties with Marc, but she also liked visiting the museums with Steven. Her favourite thing to do with Jake was to just drive around in the car and listen to music, singing at the top of their voices. You weren’t privy to their concerts; it was ‘their thing’ Jake had teased you. 

“Are you going to get stickers like me?” Sienna asked, pointing to the collection she had on her too big PE shirt. 

“I’m gonna try,” said Jake. “You gonna cheer for me? The loudest?” 

Sienna nodded. “Yeah!” 

“Gonna beat all the other dads?” 

You give him a swat on the arm as Sienna cheered. “Yeah!” 

“All right, I’ll try my best,” Jake said, before putting Sienna down at her teacher called the children back and asking for the fathers to make their way to the starting line. “I’ll see you later, princesa.” 

Sienna, without another look at her parents, ran away to join her class at the starting line. You look at Jake. “Go easy on the other dads,” you said, grinning. “Not everyone here is super powered avatar for an Egyptian God.” 

Jake snorted, giving you a light shove as you laughed at him. “I’ll try.” 

He wasn’t going to try at all. 

As Jake walked away, joining the other fathers at the starting line, you grab your phone, because you were absolutely not missing this moment (that you would definitely be showing to Marc and Steven later); Jake Lockley, the last to accept your pregnancy, who was scared shitless about becoming a dad, was willingly running a race for his daughter. You can see him grinning at Sienna before giving her a thumbs up before getting in place, preparing to run. 

You giggle as you press record on your phone, filming Jake raring to go, that competitive look on his face, the one he gets when Marc is winding him up and dares him to do something (probably) stupid. You giggle, before cheering, “Go Jake!” before adding, “It’s for the kids!” 

You see him subtly smirking, obviously hearing you, the underlining message of take it easy hanging in the air. 

Sienna’s teacher clapped her hands to gain everyone’s attention, before calling, “On your marks…get set…GO!” 

You immediately start cheering with the other parents as the dads run from the starting line. You’re surprised to actually find Jake holding back a bit, giving the other dads a chance. You giggle as you followed him with your phone, seeing that he was aiming for third place. You cheer and whoop along with the other parents, and just when the dads were approaching the finishing line, Jake sped up, making it look effortless, before crossing the finishing line in first place. You’d never seen the boys in action as Moon Knight (it was something they tried hard to hide from you), so seeing Jake running like it was no problem at all took your breath away. 

You didn’t realise how fast they could actually run. 

Trying to hide your shock at Jake’s speed, you roll your eyes as Jake spotted you, before you finish the video on Jake getting his first-place sticker on his chest. He looked for Sienna before pointing to his sticker, Sienna giving him a thumbs up. Jake practically sauntered over to you as you shook your head at him. “You’re a sore winner.” 

“Baby,” said Jake, teasingly. 

“Couldn’t even hold back at a kids event,” you say, mockingly. “Big macho man, just had to win the dad race.” 

“Gotta show ‘em how it’s done,” Jake said, grinning. He was so proud of himself, and you knew he was doing it to annoy you. 

“Burro,” you mutter to him, and he gasps in mock shock, his hand on his chest as if you wounded him. 

“Nena,” he said. “You kiss our daughter with that mouth?” 

You give him a light punch on the arm, chuckling as Sienna’s teacher calls for the mum race to start. 

Jake raises his eyebrows at you with a grin but you’re already shaking your head. “No.” 

“Why?” he asks. “I had to do it.” 

“Because I won’t win,” you say, grinning. 

Jake snorted a laugh. “Sore loser.”

• Burro - jackass • Nena - chick/general term of endearment

[infinitewarden]

The Vex, the Black Garden, and Mercury's Conversion. (Alt Title: I am going insane)

There's always something going on with the Vex in the background and I can't believe I didn't pay closer attention to it when these weird single-celled organisms have always been right up my alley right there beside Osiris.

Anyways. What's been on my mind lately is Brass Gardeners from the Inspiral lorebook (dropped from Root of Nightmares.) I was so caught up in the interesting implications and continuation of Unveiling that it completely flew under the radar for me.

Now what I want to focus on is these key aspects from this lore entry:

Garden state: neutral garden&&gardeners==root&&branch==leaf&&flower //intrinsic, inextricable, inescapable

And

anomaly One = leaf|invasive; Garden state: active (gardeners attend)

And

anomaly Zero = infinite|witness; archive data retrieved. Zero = infinite|witness == (a seed was planted here.) Recorded referent: "Black|Heart" Zero : seed :: One : DANGER [SIMULATION BREAKING. VISIBILITY NARROW. FRACTALS DISINTEGRATING.] anomaly Zero, absent. anomaly One, DANGER remaining. Garden state: acting (gardeners in unison)

And

//There is a majestic thorn. The anomaly is gone. The garden is peaceful. //It is known|seen|predicted that a primary function of irresolvable|irrecoverable presences is to trample. Flowers growing / damage repairing / threat unresolved Function called: escalation. Iteration. Function: winnow. Function: simplify. Function: flatten. //The first defense is offense.

Now I'm no expert at coding. But I know a little bit about logic algorithms, especially ones that are presented here. (This is an if-then type of algorithm. These kinds of logic equations are also used in Philosophy which I know much more about.)

The gist of this entry is that, from what I can glean, the Traveler visited the Vex once, and while the Vex considered it invasive they were not actively hostile. An indeterminate amount of time passed, presumably up until the Collapse (our time), and the Witness visited the Garden these Vex have created. (It very well could be that the Black Garden was not the Black Garden until the introduction of the Witness.) It left them a "seed" (or... a code...) that would become the Black Heart.

Or, as we now know, a failed attempt at recreating the Veil.

After this introduction is when the Vex became actively hostile. They did not stay gardeners, the Sol Divisive became winnowers only when the Witness introduced the concept. Which is an incredibly fascinating implication.

So what does this mean?

Well I have a couple theories. Remember this is just speculation, it's not canon.

So we know the Vex have been in our system for... a while. Ever since the Ishtar Collective and Clovis Bray decided to be stupid about them. But this idea of total conversion didn't seem to be the end-all state. I mean the Ishtar Academy was still intact despite some Vex conversion. It doesn't seem like Europa's conversion went very far either.

So why did they go into a frenzy with Mercury during the Collapse? Why did the Vex make Mercury their simulation engine for a Vex end-state? If they wanted to they could've made any of the thousands of planets they inhabit into a simulation engine to the degree of Mercury's but there's no evidence they did. Why target Io? Or Nessus? Why only planets the Light has touched?

Well... The answer is a little complicated. We don't know, really, how the Vex began to terraform Nessus and Io, but we do know how they got to Mercury.

So, let's remember this line:

anomaly One = leaf|invasive; Garden state: active (gardeners attend)

Now, let's look at how the Vex were introduced to Mercury in Trials and Tribulations (for the sake of clarity I will be cutting out the Witness lines save for one vital line):

It was a garden world. The phrase, uttered in confidence. The expanse above, a cup—rimmed in gamma-ink radiance—dammed against the Mercurian sky at the Kármán line. Against the howl of star-wind, the black fell open. Within the rip convulsed and excreted coils of shimmering life. Probing, clattering tendrils slithered down to make landfall. Chrome-hooked appendages stretched for miles through sun-soaked atmosphere. They bored into the marigold sands. From the great temporal chasms flowed an ocean of radiolarian fluid. Across the horizon the scene was resonant and multiplicative. Each injection site fostered a new lineage in stone and steel and fluid. The new age in sub-routine and observation. They would foster the seeds of a generation in time. From the sites bubbled pools that murmured chaotic, and wrung the Traveler's Light from Mercury. The Light coalesced within the pools. The planet transformed into a machine of prediction. The arms retracted, and returned to temporal hovels, suspended just above Mercury's influence. With them rose the spires. From the core, threads of iron fused reinforcement into the spires and brought them high. A surface driven flat by eons of solar erosion had risen. A million open mouths curled plated tongues in completion. Across the world grew a terrible consciousness that yearned to find its progenitor. The hulking vessels pulsed with light. The pools and spires pulsed dull tones in recognition, and the black sealed once more, restoring the sol-dominated sky |awaiting an angular shadow|. Illumination left the spires, and the Light was erased.

Okay, this one is a big one and might be a little difficult to grasp, but the gist of it is that a portal ("the black") opened and implanted the first Vex seeds into Mercury all while draining the Light. This portal was created by a Pyramid. This happened during the collapse.

The Vex were artificially implanted onto Mercury by the Witness for the purpose of creating a prediction engine. And not only that but they were meant to wait for the Witness's return.

Which they responded to in the last chapter of Trials and Tribulations:

Vance stood in the old Lighthouse, frantically assembling the Infinite Simulacrum: a machine formed from bits of simulation seeds and connective Vex architecture to mimic a pocket forest. Textured notes and schematics derived from Osirian lore guided his hand. He heard stories from passing Guardians of increasingly frequent coronal mass ejections. Vast bursts of charged particles whipped into space and furled around a gravitational monster buried from sight and sense in the roar of the star-wind. Passage to Mercury had become more dangerous for the uninitiated. These unnatural motions were heralds of speculation, and he had read the signs. He knew the prophecies by heart and mind and intention. Ruin. Something new |and so very old| emerged, brother to a shriveling star: An angular |hungering patient yawning deep| shadow reached across Mercury. Uncounted |known| spires fell under its grasp |with uniform relief|. Dulcet tones brought low under lightless breadth and the weight of dark |salvation| hummed beneath the shadow. Their echoes spilled out |awakened| and flowed over crumbling spires |in conversation|. One singular spec of illumination blinked into being, |an end| seen by none, and then |many| spread as the shadow did. The old Lighthouse |spire's collective| beamed |rose| and flared as shadow overtook it |to meet the underbelly|. Vance |the implement| could hear |their inspired voices| weeping, not with tears, but in the |voracious| low |ceremonial| hum he had come to associate with death. He closed his eyes |and saw what was to come|. This day had many names. None would suffice.

We know now that memory and consciousness is linked to the darkness, and in turn links to simulations. Is that why they made a prediction engine? Were the Vex on Mercury meant to help the Witness expedite the path to the final shape? Were they left in limbo because of Savathun's betrayal? Osiris saw what the Witness's final shape would result in within the Infinite Forest, was this the end goal the Vex were meant to look for? Was the Witness using the Vex as herbicides on Mercury,

I don't know what's going on with the Vex or the Black Garden or Mercury and its implications are driving me fucking insane. I don't even know what I'm getting at here anymore I just need you to understand that there is Something Here and I Can't Fucking Touch It. I started off trying to find meaning behind the change in the Vex if they changed at all but the rabbit hole just kept getting deeper.

Do the vex not understand Paracausality because the Traveler and the Veil were once one? I mean I made up this whole apple metaphor about how if you knew everything about an apple but then suddenly the apple was split into two separate things and the apple simply did not even exist as a concept anymore wouldn't you be just as confused? Also they say the Vex need to Veil in order to finally understand Paracausality. Is that why they don't? Because they only knew the two when they were one?

Does anyone hear me. What the fuck is happening. What's going on. What is the purpose of the Lighthouses. Why did the Witness plant the Vex there. Why did the Witness call Calus specifically to the Mercury anomaly. What's so important about Vance and the Tones for Osiris's memories of them to have possibly been removed!? (ANOTHER POST TO BE MADE.) Why was Sister Faora mentioned? WHAT DOES IT MEAN. I'm losing my train of thought there's just So Much Here.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH THE VEX AND MERCURY

[intersex-support]

Hello! I have a question: Would it be okay for me to describe myself as questioning intersex if I suspect I may have an intersex condition but haven't been able to see anyone about it?

I was assigned female at birth, but I've experienced a lot of anomalies since I began puberty, such as very inconsistent periods (around 2-3 a year, which are always very short), proper visible hair above my lips (along with beard hair, but it's a lot thinner and much harder to notice), and external body changes such as widening hips never occurred. A lot of "female" clothes don't fit correctly, and I've always had much better luck with anything from the men's department. I can't wear a dress without constantly getting misgendered, and misgendering is something I've dealt with all my life honestly (much worse when I was still in school, but I still encounter it).

I've never known what could cause it, although I'm aware I have some medical history when I was an infant (although I don't really know what for). This is something I've wanted to find out more about, but my (cishet male) doctor has never taken me seriously, dismissing all my concerns. I'm hopefully moving GPs soon, but the waiting list there is long and I don't know when I'll see someone considering it's not urgent. So, is it okay for me to describe myself as questioning intersex and interact with the community in the meanwhile?

Hi anon!

This is just my personal opinion--other intersex people might disagree and are allowed to disagree.

I personally think it's okay for people who are questioning being intersex to say that they're questioning intersex/suspecting being intersex /on the intersex diagnosis journey etc etc etc. However, I do think that people who are questioning intersex should be sure that they are being considerate in intersex community spaces, being honest and not misrepresenting themself, and being careful not to talk over people or overstep boundaries.

I think it's really important to there to be places that people who are questioning intersex to find accurate information, and to get support on navigating a very complicated and biased medical system. And in truth, there is just so few information and resources out there that if questioning intersex people want that type of advice, information, and support, of course they're going to come to intersex community spaces and look there! And I feel pretty strongly that part of intersex justice is figuring out ways to get medical power into the hands of intersex people--part of that comes from giving our communities the tools they need to discover that they might be intersex. So that's why I think it's important for there to be spaces welcoming of intersex people, and why I think it's okay for people to express that they're questioning.

That being said, I also understand why there are other intersex people who don't always want every space to be one that's completely open. I think it's important for questioning people not to speak over other intersex people, not to position themself as an authority in subjects that they're just starting to learn about, not overtake all conversations to be about questioning or the diagnosis process, and not overstep peoples specific boundaries in terms of joining specific groups, such as ones that are specifically for people who've survived IGM if they haven't experienced that. (all real examples of things i've seen.) In general, I think most intersex people will be really welcoming to questioning people as long as you're just honest about what you're experiences and show up as your authentic self, rather than trying to mislead people or represent something that isn't true about your experience.

So long story short, I think it's totally okay as long as you're considerate when interacting in intersex spaces! Feel free to check out more of the resources on this page for information to help you on your questioning process, and good luck!

[jennyyy007]

RAT 💉 pt. 1

Regeneration

Cw: lab whump, male whumpee, male whumper, multiple whumpers, multiple whumpees, experiments, violence, cruel whumper, defiant whumpee, obedient whumpee, body modification

Felt like starting another story!! Hope you guys enjoy! Whoever wants to be on the taglist for this or any other stories, feel free to dm me!!

———————————————————————

“No- w-wait please”

The boy squirms as he’s put down on the stretcher, his legs and arms tightly strapped down on it.

The people surrounding him are dressed in white lab coats, their faces covered with masks. He can’t make out their faces, if they touched him before or if they didn’t.

A camera is moved over him, recording whatever test they’re performing now. Oliver tries his best to move his face out of the way, not wanting to be recorded.

Another doctor enters the room, washing his hands before putting on some gloves before immediately stepping over to the stretcher. Looking down at the boy.

He can’t tell any of the other doctors apart… but he knows this one… those bright blue eyes, that scar on his face and that disgusting burn marks over his left eye, making him half blind.

“Let it be known that today’s test is the regrowth of flesh. We already took notice how he heals extremely fast… much faster than a normal body. Today we’re going to see to what extent that healing factor goes to. If it’s just a boosted immune system or a full regeneration.”

In reality, Oliver is an anomaly. A freak of nature… He’s immortal. He didn’t know until just recently either. But that car crash… that was supposed to kill him. He’s supposed to be dead. He had 57 broken bones. He was bleeding out. But he survived… his parents didn’t… his sister didn’t… but he survived. His body completely regenerated in an hour. And that skill… that special ability… doomed the rest of his life.

Doctor. Rowan Pierce…. That’s what it says on the little name tag on his lab coat.

The man grabs a small Skalpell.

“Doctor Wells, if you would please begin the tape as well as injecting the anticoagulant into his arm”

Oliver starts to squirm a little. He doesn’t like the needles… he hates them… they hurt him.

The other doctor walks over to another table before picking up a syringe, pushing a bit of the liquid out to get rid of any air before he flicks it, quickly injecting the boys arm with the anticoagulant.

Oliver makes a soft whimper as he starts to cry, he doesn’t want this… none of the tests are performed when he’s unconscious. He’s always completely aware and able to feel what’s going on.

It only takes a second to inject the liquid into him before Pierce picks up a scalpel and a black marker, gently grabbing the boys arm to not already cause any damage before he stats to draw tiny black lines on his upper arm and finn knows that that is definitely not a good sign…

“We will now remove our patients arm to see if it will regenerate or not. Let it be known that if any problems occur, his arm will be frozen and sewed back on later.”

Oliver starts to squirm more and more, terrified of what he’s about to endure.

“N-no please-“

The doctor doesn’t show any hesitation before he pushes the needle into Olivers skin, digging through the flesh before he starts to cut, through his skin…his flesh.. his muscle… and lastly his bone.

The boy has been screaming, begging and sobbing for the past few minutes but nothing helped, they only put a muffle on him to shut him up.

Right after the arm was removed, Doctor. Pierce picks it up and carries it over to a long freezer box, laying it inside before he slowly steps back to the stretcher, his footsteps filling the room as the other doctors are quiet, waiting for any results.

Oliver just whines, closing his eyes as he leans his head back. They took his arm… they took his fucking ar-

“Movement. Get the camera closer I spot movement in the flesh.”

Another doctor rushes to get the camera a bit closer before oliver lets out a loud scream under his muffle. Shaking his head.

In not even three minutes, his arm was completely regenerated. The bone, the flesh.. everything having grown back to its original state, missing all of the scars the doctors have given him.

The doctor quickly walks back to the freezer, picking up Olivers old arm before he holds it next to his freshly regenerated one.

“Incredible… if we manage to extract that gene- we might be able to solve world hunger! We can create the most powerful soldiers!”

Pierce says cheerfully as a few doctors write some notes down.

“This is a grate success indeed. Cut the tape and bring 187 back to his cell.”

A doctor pulls the camera away from the boy before a few nurses start to untie him.

Picking him up and pushing him to a soldier who immediately points his gun at the frightened thing. Motioning him to walk.

But Oliver turns around to look at the doctor who’s already looking through some of the notes.

“W-wait can I have something to eat? Please-“

The man doesn’t even look up, only taking off his mask for fresher air.

“Your nutriloaf is waiting in your room.”

He says blankly before Oliver shakes his head as he’s trembling. He got so skinny it’s disgusting. His whole body scarred up, only wearing some white boxers.

“I-I don’t want that please- It’s- d-disgusting”

The boy says as the soldier grabs him by his shoulder.

“Well it’s all you’ll get since all of our nutritious foods are pumped into the more obedient subjects! Which is weird considering they’re the aggressive ones!”

A tear runs down the boys cheek as he glares at the monster of a man around two meters in front of him.

He doesn’t hesitate before he pulls away from the soldier grasp, unable to hold the boy back since everything happens so suddenly.

He picks up a scalpel before he jumps the doctor, tackling him down before getting on top of him. Oliver looks at the man with an expression of rage before he stabs the scalpel into the mans already blind eye.

“I hate you! I-I hate all of you! If I could I’d f-fucking kill-“

Another soldier quickly grips a pistol before stepping behind Oliver, raising the gun to his head slowly, making sure not to accidentally hit the doctor before…

Bang.

———————————————————————

@a-living-canvas @watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees

[isolaradiale]

"If you do not descend into the depths you will never find the truth. Nor will you find the treasures within..." (Some explorer maybe idk Ofiuco made it up)

"Rise and shine. A new day of adventure awaits." Every piece of technology in the city that could broadcast sound and / or images whirred to life at exactly midnight, surely awakening any "early to bed, early to risers" long before they wanted to wake up. The voice was familiar in its monotone, but it didn't carry the robotic hollowness that it once had. That was because it was the voice of Ofiuco, who had recently undergone some changes to become one of the Stars herself.

She waited a minute before proceeding, giving the watchers and listeners ample time to wake up first. "I apologize for waking you, but as it seems to be the standard of the Stars to make these announcements at this unpleasant hour, I am expected to do the same. I take no joy from having to do so..."

For those watching on a screen, the android holding her hand out to the side with her palm flat could be seen, upon which a screenshot seemed to rest. A screenshot that was undeniably of the hole in the city's centre, but something was different. It was lit up! "As you can see, an anomaly has opened in the city's centre. I have deployed my remote version to investigate, but to no avail. A lift has been set up to take you down to the bottom."

The images that floated above her hand changes as she described different things. It lingered on an image of the older version of Ofiuco hastily putting a lift together though, before the image changed to one of a large, glowing gate at the bottom of a huge pit. The bottom of the hole that no one was allowed to see.

"I am unable to send my remote body through that gate. And as my scans have confirmed, the world on the other side of that gate is unstable. Uncharted. Every time someone enters it, its design and layout are different. We need you to do the charting for us. I understand that we're... I'm asking a lot, but you will be rewarded for your efforts. Please." The broadcast ended, but something didn't feel quite right.

Why did Ofiuco seem so concerned?

OVERVIEW

Welcome to our newest event, DOWN YOU GO! Inspired by dungeon crawler and roguelike games, it will have your character (either by themselves or with a party) exploring a variety of environment in pursuit of answers and treasures. But mostly treasures. Here are all of the features of this event:

four unique biomes to explore

each biome has its own mechanics and circumstances

a random buff / debuff system

a grand prize to be received at random once you've reached a certain word count with your event threads

abilities unlocked while within a biome, though difficulty scales accordingly

BIOMES

Each biome is unique and features different gimmicks, enemies, and a different challenge to overcome. Outside of the descriptions provided below, you have complete control over how the biome's size and how it looks, as well what is inside of it (such as things like poisonous swamps or lava pools). The challenged you encounter and how you overcome them are also up to you!

FANTASY A biome inspired by fantasy. A series of caverns and open forest clearings that are rife for exploring. You are liable to find standard fantasy fare here in terms of monsters, so everything from goblins to dragons is on the table. This is also the biome most populated with monsters in general, and will be the most combat focused. The stronger the characters that enter this biome are, the more dangerous and ravenous the monsters will be, and they will not be so easily killed even by overpowered abilities.

SPACE A biome inspired by space horror. The setting is an abandoned space station deep in the depths of the void. You must navigate the halls of the space station while being pursued by a murderous alien creature that will not stop until your whole party is dead, while navigating the risks of using abilities in a place where destroying one window could kill everyone. Feel free to customize the alien however you'd like provided it isn't just a licensed alien from an existing property! Just make sure it's a suitable challenge, because the alien cannot be killed. It will pursue you until you reach the control room where the treasure can be found.

SEA A biome inspired by pirates and ocean-related myths. Completely submerged within the depths of the ocean, this biome's gimmick is that your character has been adapted into a new form to thrive. They have become a merfolk, obtaining fish traits to help them move about the dark, underwater caves. They are rife with undersea monsters that can take advantage of their speed and experience vs your character who is still adjusting to their new underwater abilities. You're free to customize your character however so that they can function underwater!

JUNGLE A biome inspired by old adventure movies. While monsters are scarce, the caves and open jungle are plagued with numerous traps that seek to immobilize your character, if not kill them outright. It's also extremely hot and humid. For the sake of fairness, any mobility related abilities will be disabled in this biome, as well as any that provide invulnerability. Be as inventive as you want with the traps! Now is your chance to be chased by a giant boulder!

COMBAT SPECIFICS

Every character will be returned their abilities and weapons for the event while within a biome, but remember difficulty should be scaled according to how powerful the characters exploring are so that characters cannot steamroll it. While most of them are caves and tunnels, they're still extremely spacious for fights, barring the space station considering its unique threat. The corridors there are much tighter.

For characters that have no powers, the Fantasia system will be active and they can access their Fantasia forms while within the biomes. For those of you who weren't around during the Fantasia War event, you can still make a form for your character! You just need to pick one of the races from this post, and your character can then use any of these spells!

BUFF / DEBUFF SYSTEM

Within each biome a series of chests can be found (aesthetically reflecting the biome's theme). When opened, this chest provides a buff or debuff to the entire party. We've put together a wheel here where you can roll for what that buff or debuff might affect them. Of course this isn't something we can control, so if you just want to pick one for narrative purposes that's also fine! We just wanted to include the option. The list of buffs / debuffs you can receive can be found below:

ATK + / ATK- An increase or decrease to the strength of all of the characters.

SPD+ / SPD- An increase or decrease to the speed of all of the characters.

INVINCIBILITY All characters are invincible to damage and knockback for five minutes.

HEAL ALL All characters in the party have their health restored to full.

POISONOUS FOG A poisonous fog amasses within the biome that slowly drains the health of all party members and obscures the surroundings. Can be cleansed with the right abilities.

GRAVITY+ / GRAVITY- Gravity increases or decreases slightly, altering the ease of movement. (If in the sea biome, reroll)

FORTITUDE Every party member is shrouded with a barrier that can negate all damage from the next attack received.

DIVINE INTERVENTION Revives a fallen party member with the group. (If no one is fallen, reroll)

WELL RESTED Everyone's energy levels are restored. It's easier to forge ahead!

OFIUCLONE SWARM Summons a swarm of ten Ofiuclones during your next enemy encounter to aid in battle.

TRANSMOGRIFICATION Everyone in the party is changed into a random animal for ten minutes.

GOOD VIBES During the next enemy encounter, everyone's overall stats are increased. You feel like you can take on anything!

GRAND PRIZE

You're only required to make a single event post or drabble to be eligible for event participation, but we are also offering a grand prize to everyone who reaches 1000 words* across all of their event threads. This prize is random, and for each person that reaches this point we will be spinning a prize wheel to determine what you receive! Every character can only receive this prize once, but if you do not like your initial prize you get one reroll. You can also exchange your prize in for a Star amount equivalent to its retail price and put the money towards an item or items you do want!

The included prizes are as follows, all taken from our Galaxy marketplace:

shielden ring

companion star

polymorph star

cosmogills

starcycle

mysterious blueprints

1000 stars

*You do not need 1000 words before the event ends. So long as the threads are started before the event period concludes, you can cash in for this prize whenever you hit that milestone. In the case that a thread partner drops in the meantime, you can continue the thread in a new thread or drabble with that person separated provided you link back to the original in the first post. We will not be awarding prizes until the event period has ended.

EVENT FAQ

WHAT HAPPENS IF A CHARACTER DIES WITHIN THE BIOME? Accidents happen! Your character will simply respawn at the beginning and will be able to catch up with the others by trekking through the explored areas already. This may be more difficult in some biomes than others.

HOW ARE ENEMIES BALANCED WHEN CHARACTERS OF VARYING POWERS ARE IN THE SAME PARTY? Every group of enemies will have at least one foe that is equivalent in strength to your strongest member and will aggro to them. Unless your weaker members aggro the monster themselves, in which case? Good luck! If your strongest character has abilities that are considered "gamebreaking" like the ability to alter reality and so forth, this enemy will be immune to those abilities.

WHAT ABOUT THE ALIEN MONSTER IN THE SPACE BIOME? It cannot be hurt or killed even by your strongest party member. Run!

CAN WE USE A FANTASIA FORM IF OUR CHARACTER HAS ABILITIES OF THEIR OWN? In the case that those abilities would not help them in a combat situation, then yes!

ARE OUR CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO CHANGE THEIR FANTASIA FORMS? Sure thing! That information is stored in the Intraverse, so they could go in and change in whenever they like so long as it remains within the limitations of the Fantasia System.

CAN WE USE ABILITIES THAT WOULD "CHEAT" THE SYSTEM? LIKE BEING ABLE TO JUST TELEPORT TO THE END? Abilities that would otherwise break the spirit of the event are disabled even if your character has everything unlocked otherwise for the sake of fairness.

DO WE NEED TO RANDOMIZE THE BUFFS / DEBUFFS FROM THE CHESTS? As mentioned, you don't need to, but we hope you will as a fun mechanic! It isn't like there's a way for us to check if you actually did it randomly, and your threads are your own.

DO WE NEED TO CLAIM THE PRIZE TO GET PARTICIPATION? Nope! That prize is just a little something extra if you choose to shoot for it. Participation requirements are normal. And remember, you don't need to claim the prize by the event's end. You can finish it whenever so long as the thread is started before the event concludes at the end of the day on February 10th.

[gretchensinister]

Daily Fic Highlight: New, Improved, Guaranteed Quality

There was no kudos email today, so that means I get to highlight whatever I want. I choose this:

New, Improved, Guaranteed Quality is somewhat of an oddity for me. I started writing it to indulge two kinks that, at the time I started writing, I had seen a lot of complaints about, but I found hot. These were 1) an experienced person teaching a completely inexperienced person about sex in a hands-on manner, and 2) characters who each have a cock and a cunt.

The thing is, though, I couldn't resist figuring out why this was happening. And then I realized my main character actually had a lot of problems. And I wanted to make things turn out okay for them. So it ended up being a slightly-alternate-world sci-fi novel about hating your job and dealing with a capitalist system that really really really wants owning people to be a normal thing.

And also there's a lot of sex.

86,184 words, E, Other (human/human, it's just that this is a one-gender world and everyone has the same genital functionality)

If it was the 70's I'd be taking this weirdo manuscript into my local science fiction bookstore, talking to like 3 people, getting it published on cheapass paper, and then 40 years later I'd be a household name and writing the introductions to prestigious annual anthologies. But these days it's Ao3.

Sample:

Sandy was with a Pitch, their tasks were clear, and were shortly going to be intensely pleasurable. Worrying about constructs had to be left for people whose livelihoods didn’t rely on them. Worrying about this particular construct—that was also something that had to be pushed aside. But Sandy couldn’t help but feel glad that this Pitch hadn’t interrupted their woolgathering with any questions, or, stars above, a comment or observation. That kind of independence would absolutely have to be noted as an anomaly if it developed so early.

[banavalope]

after drawing this, i took long enough trying to draw the second half of it i ended up just taking an entire three steps back to consider a lot of larger details. I now have more details than I know what to do with, so I’m just going to call it Starlore and say its a worldbuilding project at this point.

Worldbuilding is more enjoyable for me than writing a plot with some good legs, and I’m embracing that.

Text in image under the following cut for those who would prefer that.

Starlore: a worldbuilding exercise on the existential horros of creativity by me, Banavalope :) Amadeus, Betty, Ace, and Luz are a species of cosmic star beings best described as anthropomorphic personifications. Their home is called Astropa, which is not so much a planet as it is a cumulative of their nearly-endless realm, the Upside.

Despite the name, there is no way to quantify where in non-euclidean space Upside sits relative to Otherside and the Blanket*. Stars - known for having an exaggerated sense of self-importance - feel confident they’ve got it right.

Inherently, stars have an infinite amount of potential, but some facts can be held as true of the whole species: 1.) They are all sexless.** 2.) All stars have wings.*** 3.) “Unexplainable encounters” could be explained if stars admitted to making mistakes. * Three parts to a complete universe completely unrelated to our own - with the exception of a few copied answers, as to be expected. ** Unless they really want to make the effort, of which many do for any reason at all. *** Having wings is the leading cause of common misconceptions for any species. Often assumed to be an indication of the ability to fly, when they are just as easily an identification of the tendency to fall.

Astropa - the birthplace of ideas Anyone native to the Blanket would find the culture of stars incredibly stressful and incomprehensibly complex, were they to learn about it. This would be a correct observation, as stars seem to think they work well under pressure and go about scheduling it into their day.

An eternity spent in this kind of environment have made stars the only species known to effectively harness the most renewable source of energy across the universe: Validation.

In the ancient times of the Starmakers, validation was manufactured by fulfilling miracles blanketside. This was soon found by Timekeepers to be toxic on the environment, necessitating the regulation of wish granting* through the glory duty system**.

Modern day stars now mass produce validation locally and by natural means to meet high demand.

* Giving stars a whole lot less to feel superior over their peers about, ** and at the expense of longer lines at the Department of Miraculous Verisimilitude.

Elemental Anomalies Lucy’s hair reflects their current state of emotion. It maintains a sunny baseline, but has the widest range of expression compared to their siblings.

Ace breathes fire, losing control over it only when he’s incredibly frustrated. Holding it in makes him smoke.

Betty effects the air around her in a reliably straightforward way, under usual circumstances. In circumstances subjectively unusual, any adjective of air is possible.

Amadeus changes color to reflect the intense moods of others, rather than himself. Unfortunately, as everyone has unique colors they feel in, its not particularly helpful.

A variety of advanced technology can be found on Astropa. Holo’s are a versatile piece, commonly used to translate language when stars are blanketside.

Side Facts Some stars find them useful to have on all the time; Amadeus will use his to display closed captions for anyone not versed in sign language if his hearing aid* is out.

It isn’t necessary for stars to eat - or sleep, for that matter - but they do out of enjoyment.

* Which is not often.

Timekeepers A separate classification of anthropomorphic personification to stars are Timekeepers. They reside on a plane outside of spacetime, unimpressively called Timekeeping Affairs HQ.

The main office is reachable by taking the Timeline out of Astropa; there’s only one, and you can’t miss it.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Now I'm just outing myself, but with proto time lords like River Song, since they have a triple helix and therefore inherited the essential gallifreyan traits, does her biology follow the 'principles' of gallifreyan biology? So physical age progression, healing, ect.

What is the biology of proto/partial-Time Lords?

It's interesting when you get to proto-Time Lords/partial-Time Lords because you really can't blanket them, as they all seem to have their own talents and limits.

🔬 Variability in Traits

Proto/Partial-Time Lords don't seem to fit neatly into any one archetype. River's "proto-siblings" aren't so well known, but what's clear is that each proto-Time Lord has two hearts and a unique number of regenerations, setting them apart from both full-Time Lords and each other.

However, we know River Song has quite a range of Gallifreyan talents, like an acute sense of smell, respiratory bypass, and the ability to sense temporal anomalies, etc., but she doesn't appear to have absolutely everything.

Then, on a slightly different path, we've got the partial-Time Lords, like Jenny, who displays certain Gallifreyan traits like two hearts and enhanced physical abilities, but she appears to lack some basic Gallifreyan characteristics (as far as we know at the moment).

🎭Biological and Cultural Identity

While proto/partial-Time Lords do inherit crucial Gallifreyan biological traits, they lack the cultural and academic upbringing that typically defines a Time Lord, and, by definition, they can't be Time Lords. It's probably more accurate to call them proto-Gallifreyans, but y'know, take it up with Professor Moffat after class.

🏫So ...

So, while proto/partial-Time Lords conform to certain aspects of Gallifreyan biology, results appear to vary. Proto-Time Lords are all different from each other, with each individual displaying a unique range of inherited traits. Something seems to stop them from being entirely Gallifreyan, but then what do you expect from a biological flatpack Gallifreyan? 😅

Related:

Could a human become a Time Lord?: Quick look at how a human could become a Time Lord.

Do other species have two hearts?: List of other species that have binary vascular systems.

What would a Human/Gallifreyan child be like?: Developmental expectations of a hybrid.

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 066 - Jealousy and Envy

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 Episode 15 - Harbinger

We're continuing down the main plot today, but first another Neuropressure scene, Except it's not with T'Pol, this one is with one of the Military women, and they kissed. A bit out of nowhere, but okay.

Enterprise is heading towards Azati Prime, and apparently the Military Major wants to put the Enterprise's security officers through some drills, and Malcolm is reluctant, and now he's being difficult with scheduling those sessions. It's been a while since we've seen this kind of friction between the Security team and the Military guys, but I'm glad it's getting some more focus.

Meanwhile, the ship comes across a strange pod inside a heavy anomaly field. They try to take it aboard using the grappler, but the rescue attempt just engulfs the ship in the anomaly. We get out of that quickly though, which gives us time to focus on what this pod is.

The crew open it and finds some sort of Alien wired into it, who is apparently going through some sort of cellular decay. The alien wants to go back to his pod and refuses to answer any of the crews questions.

Throughout the episode, we're treated to a few training sessions between Enterprise's officers and the military people. In the first one, a simple sparring session, it's clear that T'Pol is getting more than a bit jealous of how friendly Trip is with the Corporal. Malcolm is also getting a bit tetchy over the session, and it looks like him and the major are definitely turning this into a dick measuring contest. Men...

The Second training session, later on in the episode, we're treated to some target practice with the rifles. Of course, just an excuse for the Major to show off.

I'm loving that this is episode is focussing on the relationships between the crew. We've been due one of these for a while because the whole Expanse Xindi plot has taken up so much of our time. This would also be the first time we've got any focus on any of the Military people, I didn't even note down any of their names until this episode. The Neuropressure scene between T'Pol and Corporal Cole was hilarious, and because she's T'Pol and represses all her emotions, she's going to completely pretend that she isn't jealous at all.

When Trip and T'Pol finally get a scene together and talk through it, initially T'Pol is completely on the defensive about it, but then she brings up what Sim told her a few episode ago and, then Trip starts getting Jealous. It's honestly really cute. I'm glad this seems to be the direction the show is committing to. It has tried to set up Archer and T'Pol a few times, even as recently as Twilight this season, but Trip has so much better chemistry with her. I am really invested in their relationship. And their kiss (and beyond) in this scene episode felt really well earned.

This anomaly field, according to T'Pol is equidistant to 5 of the spheres, and also the Pod is made out of the same alloy as the spheres. Which makes Archer want to question the Alien. It would appear that the Alien was a prisoner from a "Trans-dimensional realm", whatever he means by that, and was offered freedom in exchange for whatever the Pod was trying to do. The Alien starts fighting it way through enterprise though, knocking out Phlox, and starts taking out Enterprise's systems. He reveals he's working for the Xindi then poofs out of existence.

The ultimate culmination of Malcolm and Hayes little pissing contest being a literal fist fight followed by them being forced to work together to take down the alien was also great. And From Archer's speech chewing them out, they did a number on eachother, and I'm glad they seem to be on friendly terms

I really enjoyed this one. I wish more episodes had this kind of crew interaction focus. Very good episode.

[desultory-novice]

MariPav Omake Ficlet - “...With Lingering Side Effects”

@driftwoodmfb drew the result(s) of what would happen if you fused MariPav's Marx and Magolor together and for some reason my mind went right to the classic "matter transporter accident" trope. 

So, I wrote a little script bit exploring that very thing...!! (It’s mostly fluffy with a side of thoughtful!)

---

<On the ship>

Magolor: "Muahaha... Now THIS is interesting...!"

Marx: "What?"

Magolor: "Did you know, Marx, that the Lor actually has a matter transportation function...for people!"

Marx: "Like a teleportation spell?" "I don't see what the big deal is. I can use teleportation magic. Doesn’t require an Ancient artifact.”

Magolor: "How wonderful for you. Have you considered others for once in your life?" "Now, what's interesting about this is that it's not listed among any of the ship's main systems. It's buried deep within the code. I'm not sure I would have discovered it had I not had to make so many custom routines to speed up data processing to deal with the extreme workload I'm putting on the ship given its power supply. Isn't life is full of little miracles?!"

Marx: "Mags...? Did you stop to consider this function might be hidden because they never got all the bugs figured out?"

Magolor: "We'll find out. As I'm testing it right now!"

Marx: "...Heh! Good luck not getting turned inside out!"

Magolor: "Same to you. Heh heh heh."

Marx: "...Huh?"

Magolor: "I'm teleporting us both! Simultaneously. For safety's sake."

Marx: "S-Safet--?! Hey, hey, hey! Hold up, you mad scient---!"

---

<BWEEM to just outside the volcano>

???: "...iiiiiist.......?"

???: "Huh. We didn't end up trapped inside a rock like I feared we would. But of course, I trusted myself the entire time. No I didn't? I thought that was insane. How long have I been living on this crazy planet that I've taken to experimenting with poor, innocent, positively-fascinating-though-often-annoying creatures like myself to... Hmm?? Why am I...both of us...?!"

Margolox: "Wha--ooh, hey, this is...fascinating!"

Margolox: "Also, I have...legs again. Except I've always had legs. Not...always...? Mostly, then. Mostly...?? Well, hmm, I'll just have to agree to disagree on this with myself, won't I? No, it's the hands are new. Are they really? Completely new? In this form? Yes, didn’t I explain that to myself? Interesting. Then I'd love to know what's different about them. Though I already know, don't I...? I know...so much... Two lifetimes worth..."

Margolox: "There are so many memories now. Conflicting ones. And ones that feel...frighteningly similar. And memories I don't want to touch. Are those MY memories that I'm afraid to revisit...or do I want to avoid them because they are MINE and I'm the one looking at them, not myself? Is it because I'm me and not me that I'm afraid to let myself get any closer to me? But...if I'd know that I was so much like me, maybe...I wouldn't have to be afraid to let myself in a little..."

---

<BWEEM to back inside the ship>

Marx: "...GAH!!!!'

Magolor: "...Ah..."

Marx: "What the hell, Mags?!" "...Huh? We're ourselves again?!"

Magolor: "...Yes. What, did you think I HADN'T planned for the possibility of this orphaned routine accidentally scrambling our data together and fusing us into an amalgamate being? (We have entertainment programs on Halcandra. I know my sci-fi tropes!)" "I set several failsafes and some very generous rollback code to restore us to our original physiological patterns after a set period of time if any of the expected anomalies occurred."

Marx: "Maybe you’re a genius after all? Doesn't make you any less of a mad scientist though!"

Magolor: "You like the fact that I play fast and loose with my morals."

Marx: "Who said I do?"

Magolor: "...Your mind."

Marx: "...!!!"

Magolor: "Though I need to correct you on your assumptions. It's not purely thrill-seeking on my part. My choices are born from necessity--"

Marx: "I know. I...saw...the the stuff you had to go through..."

Magolor: "...Mm......"

Marx: "It messes with your head to have other people's thoughts in there, I know..."

Magolor: "Yes... And yet...as galling as the invasion of privacy was..."

Both: " "..." "

Both: ((..I found it strangely comforting...))

Magolor: "W-well...I say we break on repairs for the day!" "The one thing I hadn't planned for was the, err, let's call it a mental toll. I may need some time...to sort through things a little."

Marx: "Same."

Magolor: "...Marx?"

Marx: "Yeah, Mags...?"

Magolor: "..." "Nothing."

<They head off in opposite directions>

Both: (( ...It was maybe the first time I didn't feel so alone...))

Both: (( ...now that feeling's gone...and all that's left is emptiness...))

<Later>

Marx: (My legs...hurt. My back too. Like I could never get comfortable. It hurt the whole time we were fused together. Magolor can’t be in that much pain constantly...can he...?)

Magolor: (Marx’s mind... It was so crowded with-...I don’t even know WHAT that was... But I don’t understand how he can concentrate on anything when his brain is always screaming...)

[gh0stbled]

𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝… 【 yuyu kitamura //. non-binary //. she, they 】 Welcome, MAXIMONA "MAXIE" SOLSTICE COSMO ZERO MATSUMOTO THE V. You have successfully been loaded into The Hub. According to our records, you are TWENTY-FOUR and have held citizenship for THIRTEEN YEARS in the barrier city, Neo California. Your key attributes have been identified as INNOCENT and MISCHEVIOUS. Please confirm your CHAOTIC GOOD to proceed. Our data indicates that you are currently employed with NANO ZILLAS as a NET RUNNER ( CODE NAME: CipherCat ) //. POKER DEALER at INFERNO CASINO. For your safety and security, it is crucial that all background information is accurate. Further analysis of our archives highlights your alignment with at least a screen flooding with neon Neko cats, their pixelated paws playfully swiping through your files as they multiply in vibrant colors, dancing in chaotic loops until, with a sudden glitch, they freeze. The screen flickers, then goes black—leaving only the haunting trace of their mischief behind; Endlessly humming twisted lullabies, their strange tunes drift like whispers—familiar, yet unknown, leaving listeners lost in a melody only they can follow and //. or CHICKEN BONE BY YOKO KANNO. ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Verification 100% complete. Please adhere to all local regulations and laws during your stay. We trust that your time here will be both fulfilling and safe. 

CHAPTER I: I like, you like, he likes, she likes chicken bone.

You are a young woman, always outcast for being "different." From the earliest days, your mind seemed to hum with the efficiency of a machine. Numbers, codes, complexities that baffled others unraveled before you in mere seconds. The adults marveled, yet the other children? They looked at you as though you were an anomaly, something strange and untouchable. So, you grew up alone—isolated by brilliance, abandoned in your own silent world. But there was one person who never saw you as strange: your father. He loved every quirk, every spark in your mind. He taught you to be yourself, to sing your joy into the wind, to smile in the face of a broken world. “Focus on what makes you happy,” he’d say, “what matters to you.” His words were your anchor, his love your compass. And then, one day, he was gone. Without warning, just a note saying he’d come back for you someday. That day never came. Your heart broke, the world turned cold, and you were left behind—discovered by a neighbor after surviving on your own for over a month. Placed into the system, you became a shadow in a world that had forgotten you. But even then, your spirit didn’t dim. You were bubbly, bright, full of life despite the grief pulling at your edges. You clung to the gift your father left you—your little worn cat backpack—and moved through the doors they sent you through, one foster home after another. You were cute, full of questions, always smiling—too much, it seemed. Too noisy, too inquisitive, too happy. You didn’t understand why they couldn’t love you for who you were. But the families grew weary, sending you back, again and again. Others kept you, not for love but for the money you brought them, working you to the bone with barely enough food to survive. Sometimes, you’d act out intentionally, desperate to escape, hoping they'd send you back to the system instead of keeping you in their cold, empty homes. And in the gaps between the chaos, you found solace in something no one could take from you—technology. Your brain, always a marvel, craved understanding. You devoured everything you could find about electronics, coding, the secrets hidden in the web’s depths. You became a master at it, slipping into the digital world like it was your true home. Hacking became your escape, your obsession, and eventually, your power. The outdated computers in group homes couldn’t contain you—you stayed on them for days, your fingers flying across the keys, your mind lighting up with every breakthrough. You found community in the darkest corners of the web. For the first time, you weren’t alone. There were others like you—people who understood the thrill of unraveling secrets, of exposing the monsters lurking in the shadows, of protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves. In this digital realm, you finally had a voice, and you used it to amplify others. It didn’t matter what traumas you carried, what the world had done to you. You had found your purpose. And no one could take that away.

ACT II. Dreamin', dreamin' dreamin' of this chicken bone. Crazy, crazy, crazy 'bout a chicken bone.

With time, your journey as a netrunner became more than just a whispered rumor in dark corners; it transformed into a symphony of risks and revelations. What began as a natural gift—a knack for slicing through the complexities of code and algorithms—soon evolved into a way of life. You weren’t just playing in the digital shadows anymore; you were navigating the veins of the Net itself, slipping through its hidden currents, gaining deeper insight into a world that most couldn’t even comprehend. You sought the places no one else would go, the abandoned nodes, the forgotten servers buried beneath layers of old data. You’d disappear for hours, sometimes days, searching for that perfect entry point, where you could jack in and steal your way through the Net like a ghost, unseen and untouchable. The gigs you took on were reckless, the kind that seasoned runners wouldn’t dare approach. But you? You thrived on the risk, on the pulse of danger that came with every job. It wasn’t about the money or the reputation; it was about testing your limits, pushing yourself further, until the Net felt like an extension of your own mind. And even though some jobs went south, every failure was a lesson, sharpening your skills, honing your instincts. Then came 2138, the year that would change everything. You managed the impossible: hacking into the impenetrable fortress of Ichibangase-Eisher in Japan. It wasn’t just any facility—it was the heart of their most closely guarded secrets. Inside those encrypted walls, you uncovered files detailing the creation of SOLDIER, a process so brutal, so twisted, it sent chills down your spine. These weren’t just experiments; they were atrocities, turning human lives into weapons, stripping away their humanity piece by piece. And you, Maxie, had those secrets at your fingertips. For a moment, the world felt like it was in your grasp. But with power comes peril. At nineteen, your netrunner alias had become known in places you’d rather remain invisible. The Neo Los Angeles Government was watching you now. When you breached the Gestalt Bureau datafort using their own Neo Los Angeles base as a proxy, it was a declaration, a signal flare that drew their gaze directly to you. The chase that followed was relentless—government netrunners hunting you through the endless maze of the Net, their signals closing in on you like wolves on a trail. It was a race against time, your mind moving faster than your fingers, breaking through firewalls, evading traces. But just as they were about to flatline you, you severed the connection, slipping away with barely a breath to spare. They mapped your signal, but you remained one step ahead—alive, but forever marked. That narrow escape wasn’t the end, though—it was the beginning. Your reckless audacity caught the eye of the Nano-Zillas, a group whispered about with equal parts fear and reverence in the underground. They were the elite, the best of the best, and they had been watching you. It wasn’t long before they made contact, offering you something you hadn’t had in a long time—a place where you truly belonged. For the first time, you weren’t just a solitary figure hiding behind a screen. You were part of something larger. Among the Nano-Zillas, you found not only safety but camaraderie, a crew that shared your passion for unraveling the darkest secrets of the Net and megacorporations, a family who accepted you for the brilliant, defiant hacker you had become. Here, you weren’t just surviving. You were thriving. You’d carved out a home, not just in the digital landscape but in the real world, amongst the few who understood you. The journey wasn’t over—there would always be more secrets to uncover, more dangers to face—but for the first time, you knew you wouldn’t be facing them alone. The Netrunner you had become was no longer just a shadow in the dark; you were a force, a legend in the making, and the world was starting to take notice.

CHAPTER III. Happy, happy, happy with a chicken bone. From the bottom of my heart the chicken bone.

With the Nano-Zillas at your side, you were given everything you needed to sharpen your edge and refine your craft. The tools at your disposal weren’t just digital anymore—they became part of you. Your body, once flesh and bone, was enhanced with stolen tech, liberated from the very corporations you swore to dismantle. The modifications were gifts from your comrades, sourced from Gestalt Bureau’s prized Tier 6 technology, the kind reserved for their most elite netrunners. Now, you were no longer just a hacker, no longer tethered to external systems. A sleek port inserted into the back of your head turned you into a walking, breathing netrunning station, capable of diving into the Net whenever and wherever you needed. Being a Nano-Zilla meant more than just hacking for the thrill—it was about a mission, a purpose that burned brighter than any code you ever cracked. You weren’t just taking down targets for sport; you were dismantling systems built on greed, oppression, and cruelty. Those who profited from the pain of others, who manipulated lives for their gain—they were the ones in your crosshairs. And though your methods were as unconventional as the mind that crafted them, you quickly proved yourself among your peers. You didn’t think like everyone else—your approach was a riddle, a puzzle few could follow, but the results spoke for themselves. Under their guidance, you grew, and with time, responsibility found its way into your hands. Respect followed soon after, as the crew saw not just a hacker in you, but a leader in the making. Yet, despite the missions, despite the battles you fought in the digital and physical realms, there was always a deeper mission humming in the back of your mind—a search that had begun long before you’d ever heard the word “netrunner.” Finding your father, the man who vanished from your life with nothing but a note and a promise he never kept. For nearly four years, you hunted through the farthest reaches of the Net, tracing whispers, leads, and rumors that always dissolved before you could grasp them. No matter how many dead ends you reached, you never gave up. You couldn’t. The search for him was woven into your soul as deeply as the Net itself. Through it all, you remained a ray of sunshine, an anomaly of joy in a world too often dulled by shadows. You created your own tunes, whimsical melodies that danced in your head while your fingers danced across the keys. You spoke in riddles that no one else seemed to understand, and you loved that. A smile was your constant companion, even when the world tried to dim your light. You saw through things others couldn’t, always finding the cracks where the truth lay hidden. You are more than CipherCat, more than just a name whispered through the digital corridors of the Net. You are Maximona Solstice Cosmo Zero Matumoto the V, a being made of oddities and contradictions, and you have decided to remain exactly as you are. In a world that tried to mold you into something else, you stayed true to yourself—a riddle wrapped in code, a spark that refused to fade, a soul too bright to be contained. And in that truth, you found your power. You didn’t just accept the peculiarities that made you—you embraced them, wore them proudly, knowing that they were the very things that set you free. Even now, with all you've been through, you remain true to the bright child your father loved. Despite the betrayals and harshness of life, you’ve never let them steal your light. You've always been a survivor. Not just of the physical world, but of the digital one—where you’ve carved out a place for yourself, not just as a hacker, but as someone who matters.

I'd love to go just like a chicken bone, I'm really moved by the chicken bone, The more you eat, the more you'll be the chicken bone. I left my head over the chicken bone.

[droctaviolovecraft]

Fixed link to the MOTHRA Institute site:

Current number of anomalies: 536 ANMs

Also check DZtheNerd, an supporter of the project:

Anyone can make and send their own anomalies on the site's email: mothrainstitution@gmail.com (or in other places, like my DM). I also need to post a new guide about the project.

I would like to publicize this project to make it better known to various more people.

Although the project website is in Portuguese, I think y'all can use the translator here.

Our main objective is to reach 1000 anomalies. I will post some of them here over time.

I plan to update the entire site and all anomalies.

Also update my OC. Yeah, this project has a lot of these things.

---

**Submission of Anomalies and Tales to the MOTHRA Institution**

Welcome to the MOTHRA Institution submission page! If you have discovered an anomaly or created an intriguing tale related to our universe, we are interested in hearing about both. Here’s how you can submit your contributions to us:

**Anomaly Submission:**

If you have encountered a strange, inexplicable, or unusual phenomenon, we would like to know more about it. Complement it with a form containing information about the anomaly. You may either create your own form, or another researcher from the institution can handle it. You can provide extra details depending on how you'd like it to be reviewed. The more information you provide, the better we can assess and respond to the anomaly.

It's important to include your researcher name, as this gives credit to the creator of the anomaly and complements MOTHRA's employee records.

**Tale Submission:**

If you are a talented and creative writer who enjoys exploring the unknown through fiction, we encourage you to share your tales with us. We accept tales of science fiction, horror, fantasy, or any genre related to anomalies, mysteries, enigmas, and the MOTHRA universe.

All stories are canonical and occur within the universe.

**Submission Instructions:**

Please send your submissions to the following email address: mothrainstitution@gmail.com

When submitting your anomaly or tale, include your name (or pseudonym, if preferred), contact information, and any additional details you deem relevant.

MOTHRA Institution uses a tiered danger level system to classify the anomalies it captures and studies. These levels help determine the threat each anomaly poses to both the institution and the world at large. The system ranges from harmless anomalies that assist in operations to entities capable of causing mass destruction or even extinction events.

The MOTHRA Institution uses a tiered system of danger levels to classify the anomalies it captures and studies. These levels help determine the threat each anomaly poses both to the institution and the world at large. The system ranges from harmless anomalies that assist in operations to entities capable of mass destruction or even extinction-level events.

### Danger Levels

**Helfer 🔵**

- **Description**: These anomalies are completely harmless and, in most cases, useful for the operations of the MOTHRA Institution. They possess unique abilities or characteristics that enhance research, security, or field missions.

- **Threat Level**: None

- **Containment**: Minimal or none. They are often allowed to operate freely within the institution.

- **Examples**: ANM-003, 018, and 031

---

**Neutralized ✖️**

- **Description**: These anomalies once posed a threat but have been neutralized or pacified. Although they are no longer dangerous, they are still studied to understand their previous capabilities.

- **Threat Level**: None/minimal

- **Containment**: Low-level security measures, mainly for observation.

- **Examples**: ANM-055

---

**Sikur 🟢**

- **Description**: Sikur-level anomalies present a light threat. They have abilities that may be disruptive or dangerous but can be easily contained with basic security measures.

- **Threat Level**: Low

- **Containment**: Medium security. Containment cells are reinforced but not of high priority.

- **Examples**: ANM-164, 166, and 177

---

**Median 🟡**

- **Description**: Median-level anomalies are unpredictable and represent a moderate threat. They display properties that, although controllable, can cause significant damage if not contained.

- **Threat Level**: Medium

- **Containment**: High-security confinement, with regular monitoring by specialized personnel.

- **Examples**: ANM-005, 006, and 007

---

**Kali 🟠**

- **Description**: Named after the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali-level anomalies are extremely dangerous. They possess abilities that can cause large-scale damage, but their actions are often deliberate or intentional, making them somewhat more manageable.

- **Threat Level**: High

- **Containment**: Maximum security with multi-layered defenses. Specialized teams handle these anomalies.

- **Examples**: ANM-174, 186, and 191

---

**Darlig 🔴**

- **Description**: Derived from the Norwegian word for "bad," Darlig-level anomalies are chaotic and difficult to control. They act unpredictably and have immense destructive potential. When provoked, they can wreak havoc on large populations.

- **Threat Level**: Severe

- **Containment**: Extreme containment protocols with redundant security measures. Any interaction requires permission from high-level authorities.

- **Examples**: ANM-096, 162, 171-X, 172

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**Nightmare 💀**

- **Description**: Nightmare-level anomalies are traumatic. They induce extreme fear and chaos, often affecting not just individuals but entire communities or cities. They have a psychological component to their threat.

- **Threat Level**: Catastrophic

- **Containment**: Constant monitoring with dedicated personnel to prevent psychological and emotional manipulation. Specialized containment units handle mental and emotional attacks.

- **Examples**: ANM-004, 103-P, 224, 537, 480

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**Apocalypse ☠️**

- **Description**: Anomalies at this level have the potential to cause disasters on a global or universal scale, capable of even destroying planets. Their abilities can wipe out entire ecosystems, populations, or nations. They are often ancient or divine in nature, with powers that can trigger end-of-world scenarios.

- **Threat Level**: Global/universal

- **Containment**: State-of-the-art containment systems, often designed specifically for each anomaly. Constant surveillance by the institution's highest authorities. Generally impossible to fully contain.

- **Examples**: ANM-061, 243, 390, 063

---

**Affektiv 💜**

ANM-100, a dragon in heat.

Below is the description of the file used for anomalies:

ANM №:

*The anomaly's unique identification number within the MOTHRA Institution.*

Identification:

*The name or designation given to the anomaly, either by the researcher or based on observed characteristics.*

Danger Level:

*The anomaly's threat level, based on the danger classification used by the MOTHRA Institution.* Contained or not: ⭕️/❌️

*Indicates whether the anomaly is currently contained (⭕️) or out of control/uncontained (❌️).*

Lead Researcher:

*The name of the lead researcher responsible for studying and monitoring the anomaly.*

Anomaly Type:

*The classification of the anomaly, such as physical, psychic, biological, energetic, dimensional, etc.*

**Evaluation and Response:**

Our team of specialists will carefully evaluate all submissions received. Due to the volume of submissions, it may take some time to provide a response if we are still alive. We ask for your patience during this process. If your anomaly or tale is selected for further review, we will contact you for more information.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Sentinel-2C operators complete final rehearsals

A quiet atmosphere pervades ESOC's Main Control Room. The operations team is in the process of placing a satellite into orbit. We are one minute away from passing over one ground station and the tension is rising as we eagerly wait to receive the first telemetry from the satellite.

Then, suddenly, an alarm is triggered, the light changes color and crackling sounds can be heard. A fire has broken out in the room. The evacuation is ordered. The control room must be abandoned, and the satellite operations relocated to an adjoining room.

This was just a simulation of what could happen during a satellite's first and most critical moments in space. To ensure a smooth start to operations, the control team must consider every possible scenario, whether it happens in space or on the ground—such as a fire alarm.

This summer, as the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite approaches, the control team located at ESOC, ESA's operations center in Germany, has been performing a crucial phase of the launch preparation, reviewing and revising the satellite's and ground segment's plans and procedures to guarantee the success of the mission.

This "team of teams" effort involved more than 40 engineers and scientists—working on the ground segment, flight dynamics, software and networks—all ready to assume control of the satellite following lift off.

After weeks and weeks of simulations, the team has completed this phase and is now fully prepared for the launch and deployment of the European Commission's latest Earth observation mission, to be lifted into orbit by a Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 4 September at 03:50 CEST.

"This is not the first Sentinel mission we operate here at ESOC. Our experience has helped us standardize our approach so that we are able to test ourselves on the widest range of anomalies while still facing the most challenging situations," says Franco Marchese, Flight Operations Director for Sentinel-2C.

"One of our main challenges has been the knowledge transfer to the partially new team, as the previous models of Sentinel-2 were launched more than seven years ago," says Pete Collins, Deputy Flight Operations Director for Sentinel-2C.

"Our team has been flying Sentinel satellites and performing routine operations, including the A and B models of Sentinel-2, but putting a spacecraft into orbit is always a complex phase with its own unique challenges. We have prepared very well and have achieved this in a relatively short time."

'Like throwing monsters at the operators'

From a room in the basement, the true conductors of the simulation campaign, the simulation officers lead by aerospace engineer Gustavo Bardo Carvalho, are running the show and they always have more than one string to their bow.

"The role of this exercise is to test the team's capabilities to detect problems, adapt their timeline and, more generally, adapt to the scenario under stress and time pressure," explains Gustavo. "It feels like setting up a role-playing game. We confront the team with 'monsters'—in this case, anomalies of minor or major magnitude—and let them come up with solutions, think outside the box, have creative ideas, and learn from their mistakes."

From the simulations room, where flight data is simulated and fed to the control room, Gustavo and his team have been challenging the Sentinel-2C control team with an exhaustive list of issues to solve, from errors injected in the data, to the loss of ground stations, absence of team members (simulated sickness), and instrument and transmission failures.

Some are common and anticipated, others require the mission control team to brainstorm and exercise the communication between many multidisciplinary teams, such as the flight control team, industry partners, flight dynamics, the ESA space debris office, mission control system software and the ground stations.

"We made sure to not necessarily give a clear solution. Just like in real life, sometimes the best response is just to try to avoid the worst consequences, and we always remind them that reality can be much nastier than any simulation we may invent."

Some exceptional scenarios were also included to force the team to adapt without their usual equipment and deviate totally from the nominal timeline, such as space debris hazards, disruptions resulting from the solar wind or the evacuation of the control room.

"Recently, we simulated a space debris collision alert which required the team to make the satellite ready to engage in a collision avoidance maneuver. This meant skipping the usual steps and commissioning the satellite as early as possible."

On top of testing their technical knowledge, the simulation campaign plays a role in building the team.

"There are many events that can harm the team spirit: from people being sick to managers being rude or non-cooperative. We tried to simulate these moments to test the nerves of the team and make them more resilient."

Dress rehearsal

Lastly, teams at ESOC worked with the joint ESA, Arianespace and industry launch team in Kourou to complete the comprehensive final simulation of the countdown and launch sequence.

During the rehearsal, the mission control team received live signals from the satellite via an umbilical connection that will be disconnected shortly before launch. With this last step completed, the mission control team is now ready to launch the satellite.