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capthenpc · 2 years ago

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There's always a little more innocence left to lose

During the Steam Winter Sale this past year, I purchased the Arcane publisher bundle that included all of the Dishonored games. I hadn't played the first game in many years so I thought this would be a great opportunity to jump back in and relive those memories that I held so dear. At the time of purchase I also never dove into the DLC for the first game OR played the sequel and following standalone DLC so this was something that I was very excited to do all back-to-back.

These are my thoughts. (there will be spoilers)

Dishonored + DLC: I've played through Dishonored multiple times before on Xbox360 so I'll keep this bit short since playing it again on PC didn't change any of my initial thoughts. It's one of those games that I've held very high on my all-time list since it came out a decade ago. It's the perfect blend of gothic horror and steampunk without it being over the top or basic in its execution. The stealth elements are still some of the best I've seen to date, and how chaos affects the story and gameplay were just as interesting today as they were years ago. For this playthrough I chose High Chaos and it was so incredibly fun.

After I finished the main story I moved onto the DLC for the first time and let me tell you..it was some of the most interesting concepts I've seen in a game. The DLC takes place during the events of the mainline story, but from the POV of Daud, one of the previous antagonists. The whole thing feels like you're a mob boss in charge of this giant network of underground assassins that carry out jobs for people. Every detail is incredible right down to how you can pay your soldiers to do certain things to make the levels easier. I especially love the exploration of Daud and Billie's relationship. My headcanon is that they were forbidden lovers, which to me makes that ending so much more impactful. After playing through the second DLC involving Delilah I wish the mainline story had more to do with the witches. It was such a nice change of pace fighting spiritual beings that could actually put up a fight instead of just guards with swords.

Dishonored 2: Right off the bat it's tone is immediately dark and gloomy. I had somehow missed all spoilers for this game because I didn't think it was possible to even play as Corvo until 4 hours into the game. I'm thankful for that, though because I would choose to play as Emily every time over Corvo. No offense. Something else I didn't expect was Delilah making a return as the main antagonist, claiming to be Emily's aunt - her mother's half-sister. Corvo is frozen and you're quickly launched into a high-stakes escape mission from your own home.

It's apparent throughout the game that the dev team had a lot more resources and time to work on the fine-tuning of the environments because multiple times during this first playthrough I've stopped to admire them. There's so much life in these levels, both indoor and out. The NPC's roaming around doing jobs and talking to each other, the accessible interiors of apartment buildings and local shops that you can explore that all feel different and lived-in, the different regions blocked off for certain factions each with their own personalities and motives.. It's all designed with so much care.

There's a level that has these giant wind turbines that supply the surrounding city with power and before they wind up there's a deep screech that's reminiscent of the War of the Worlds alien tripods that genuinely scared me the first time I heard it. Once they're spinning, wind storms coat the area making it hard to see. It's so cool seeing it all happen in real-time and watching how NPC's react to it. It all adds to the world building and makes you feel like you're actually existing in this world.

At this point in the game, I've put in about 8-9 hours and got to a part of the story where things take a bit of a turn. I enter a vault to find a destroyed mansion in complete shambles - most of it inaccessible due to structural damage or blocked off by hives.(yes, there are a lot of bugs). You make your way through the rubble and have an encounter with the Outsider who gives you a time piece and basically says "have fun!" before leaving. You've now been given a tool to TIME TRAVEL!

Now, when I tell you this section was one of the most fun and interesting I've experienced in a video game EVER.. I could not believe it was real. It's done in such a faithful and artistic way. It's not just a gimmick thrown in there, it's actually so cool and makes sense given the lore and what's possible in the universe.

In present-day you're in the destroyed mansion having to deal with structural damage, bugs and witch-zombies...and in the past you're dealing with armed guards and having to navigate around mansion crew. Balancing the two simultaneously was both challenging and so thrilling. It's made even better that you can view the other side with the time piece the Outsider gave you. Flipping open the lens shows you a LIVE view of your surroundings in the other world so you can see if it's safe to jump back or forward. How I didn't get spoiled for this section is beyond me. I could talk about A Crack in the Slab for hours, but let's continue onward..

The next level that caught my eye was the Conservatory, where the witches are heavily present. It's the first level in the game that I genuinely felt a sense of horror, in a good way. I love that each level is an entirely new and different region with its own set of enemies. It's such a stark difference between D1 and D2. I didn't feel like there was any enemy variety in D1 at all and it suffered because of it. Also want to note that the clockwork soldiers are absolutely terrifying. Easy to take down, but....terrifying.

The remaining few levels stay pretty consistent in terms of overall depth and feel. Since I chose High Chaos again for this playthrough this is where you start to really see those decisions come back to bite you. The whole vibe of the world becomes more dark and less-forgiving. The dialog with NPC's is a lot gloomier and people start to bark back at you when you approach, insinuating that they disagree with your methods. I remember wishing there were more consequences in D1 for High Chaos, but I digress. The last mission before the big end fight you discover that Meagan, the woman helping you the entire time is actually Billie, the woman who shadowed Daud in the D1 DLC. I thought that was an incredible twist, especially because she helped Daud assassinate Emily's mother(the then Empress..) in the first game. The entire game you're like "who is this woman? How did they lose their arm and eye? What's their story?" and then they throw that at you. It's so well done and really adds to the gravity of it all.. She disappears before your descent to Dunwall where you confront Delilah on the throne.

This last level felt like a graduation ceremony. Walking through the streets of Dunwall as the woman I'd become, after all the death and carnage I'd created..it was eerie, yet deserving. Bodies everywhere, some hanging beside the streets as trophies. Before entering the castle I found an Overseer that was still alive and before I left them they said quite possibly the sickest/most poetic burn I've heard in a long time: "At death's door I smell the corruption of the Void upon you. A heretic against a heretic. Laughable. The world is doomed." Onward to the castle..

I didn't realize it at first, but when you travel up the winding road to the main entrance you actually return to the exact spot where the beginning of D1 was, the gazebo. There, sitting where the Empress stood is a grave in her honor. I love this little detail because it further-exemplifies the theme of this Grand Return..closing the story where it all started. A great way to end this amazing story before a battle to the death ensues.

The fight against Delilah itself was a little challenging to me and a key component to the fight was hidden behind a certain wording that I didn't immediately understand, resulting in me getting frustrated. I also jumped the gun and placed an item too early while also getting hit during the following mini cutscene so I softlocked myself. It's unfortunate that this last bit of the game was probably the least exciting and broken part of it all.. A sour way to go out, but expected for a video game boss fight to be honest. The game as a whole left me feeling extremely happy and legitimately in awe that I'd gone this long without ever touching it. With how much I loved Dishonored when it came out a decade ago this should have been a day 1 purchase for me, but like all things there're multiple factors. I'm putting this game down knowing that I'll play it again and again for years to come and I'm so excited to see what other ways I can play. I may do a full-stealth playthrough next as Corvo. We'll see!

Death of the Outsider Standalone DLC: With how Dishonored 2 ended, I was glad to see Billie got their own standalone story. I was even more glad to see that this DLC was essentially just a reskin of D2 - same as the way the DLC was for D1. Jumping in right after the last game was the best way to do it as it just felt like the same game entirely. I've been sort of struggling to come up with the words for how I feel about this DLC for a few reasons, the biggest being that it's not really grabbing my attention as much as the last two games. It's felt like a very limited version of D2 and I think had I started off with powers or with a more-engaging story to follow I'd have been better off. That's not to say during the 4 hours I've put in so far that I've not been enjoying myself, either! I just feel like in the first few hours I haven't felt as immersed into the story as I maybe hoped I would. I do appreciate how right from the jump they mention that Billie had a queer lover named Deirdre. It's actually mentioned multiple times in the first few missions and I just think that's incredible. I also appreciate how once again we're playing as a new character so obviously the moveset/abilities had to change. You go from playing as Corvo, then Daud, then Emily and now finally Billie - ALL of them play and feel different. Moving on to the levels and gameplay, I got to a part where you're in this little district called Cyria after getting your powers for the first time and basically told to have at it! I love the design of it; it's vertical and has lots of interiors to explore. My favorite thing, however, was the bounty board in the black market shop. I can't recall whether or not D2 had a similar mechanic, but if it did I never explored it. I was ecstatic to find new ways of going about fulfilling jobs (and getting paid!). It's one of the reasons I love the Hitman series so much. Give me a target and a specific way they have to perish and I'll spend 3 hours creating a route. I hope if Arcane ever plan on making another installment in the series they'll adopt Hitman's contracts system. The next mission was a huge bank heist that takes place in Cyria, but with heightened security surrounding the area. Getting into the bank was mostly no trouble, especially because the game gives you multiple interesting ways in. I chose the method of dropping a sedative gas through the vents that knocked everyone out inside. There were still clockwork soldiers roaming around and electrical security equipment all over the place that made it difficult tho. This mission was probably my favorite so far in this DLC. We're nearing the end with the final two levels, one of them being a return to the Conservatory from D2. It was really cool to be back here as the first time I was here I really enjoyed it. This time, however the place is crawling with Overseers instead of witches and it acts like more of a stealth mission than the one before. Once we got what we needed from the Conservatory we headed to the last mission in the game, the Quarry where the entrance to the Void is located. This was the first time in the game where I sort of just said "fuck it" and bulldozed my way through, killing everyone and anything that moved. At this point in the playthrough I'll admit I was getting kind of tired so I wanted to finish it as quickly as I could. I know this affected my rating because when I reached the Outsider in the end I was only given one choice; Kill him. The ending area in the Void could have been a little more exciting and I feel like it was a little rushed and wasn't given the amount of care the rest of the DLC got. I still absolutely loved the environment - as soon as I got inside and saw the whale floating above I had this huge smile on my face. I do hope in possible future installments we see more from the other 3 people touched by the Outsider's mark, maybe set before his death. I wouldn't mind going back a bit to when Corvo was in his prime.

Final Thoughts: So that's it. The story wrapped up nicely in the end, although I don't really know where it could go from here considering the Outsider was basically the one giving out the powers to people and with him gone...there's no one else. I'm sure that's the reason we haven't gotten another installment since.. Nonetheless I'm extremely happy with the whole experience. I'm glad I finally played these games after thinking about it for so long. I can thankfully still say that Dishonored is one of the best games I've ever played and now I can say the sequel is right up there with it, especially with levels like A Crack in the Slab. All-in-all, this was a stellar game series and I can't recommend it enough. Honestly one of the best gaming experiences I've had in many years. I will refrain from giving it a rating as I don't have a solid/consistent system in-place for that. It's great tho. Play Dishonored.

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albatris · 1 year ago

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Thanks! Wolves Gone Wild was my attempt to see how society would act when faced with a dysfunctional world and an enviroment that worked against them, and how the people would adapt. Basically it explores greed ( heavy theme ) and the human nature which will try to take advantage of anything it can.

Despite that, the world is very beautiful! The sky of Level 3 is made of lapis lazulis as Level four which are mostly caves and mines towers over it, and despite the harsh enviroment in 5, the Aurora Borealis is so prominent and breath-taking it's considered a god by the citizens.

About the Stairs!

Each Stair is a few kilometres long.

Stair from 1 to 2 is a wooden ladder but it is under a field of Geysers which might blow up at any point with boiling water<3 Also because the steam the stair is crumpling away and is unstable.

From 2 to 3 it’s a metallic ladder which generally isn’t that bad but Level 2 is known for storms and heavy seas, so if there’s an uncounted storm the water rises up so high you can drown or you can be hit by lightning.

From 3 to 4, the stair is very complicated since each step is sort of like a scale? The steps are extremely unstable and each step has two sides, one that you step one and the other side you need to be carrying weights with you and carefully place the appropriate weight on each step.

From 4 to 5 ( I think this is the worst one ) the stair is basically a tunnel underground like the ones you find in caves that are extremely tight ( you can barely fit and move your body ) that has some dead ends.

From 5 to 6 the stair is a flimsy rope ladder. There is a strong wind region- if you’re not careful enough you’ll fall to your death.

And lastly from 6 to 7, there are steps carved on a huge tree that lead upwards.

Sorry for the rumbling!

Ooh, this is so cool! Thank you for sharing!!

I adore that detail about the Aurora Borealis being considered a god, that's such a neat concept... I'd love to see it! I am making travel plans to visit your WIP c:

I'm obsessed with these stairs, it must take a person with nerves of steel to navigate them...! I think the tunnel would be such a terrifying experience, but the one with the weights would be so difficult... do people have to go through specific training to learn how to travel the stairs?

Also no need to apologise for rambling, I love rambles! :D

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askroahmmythril · 2 years ago

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The Durgon and Monster Catching Games

So recently, I had someone ask me about other monster catching / raising type games that I’ve played aside from Pokémon, and my thoughts on them. I got to thinking about that, so here’s a bit more detail on the subject.

Category 1 - The Baseline

Pokémon - So this is obviously the biggest monster catching series I got into. When the original games released in the US, I actually didn’t take major notice of them. What first got me interested was a comic adaptation of the first few episodes of the anime that was featured in Nintendo Power. I started looking more into it, really liked the various Pokémon designs and names, and decided to try it out, and was instantly hooked. I’ve thus been a fan since the original days of Red and Blue. That’s not to say it’s a perfect series, I certainly have my issues with it here and there, and miss the days of being able to import ALL my trained up Pokémon into the new games, but I still tend to enjoy the games for what new species they offer. I... will say though that Scarlet and Violet definitely showed they need to take a bit more of a development cycle between games... I sincerely hope they continue to patch and improve the game, here’s hoping. Still fun, but you can definitely tell there was rushing and crunch involved. (I do say this while working on breeding my third Paldean team, so obviously I AM enjoying my time with the games)

Category 2 - Other Series I Have Played

Siralim - I’ve only played one game in this series, Siralim Ultimate, however I greatly enjoy it. I’ve put a lot of time into the game on Steam. If memory serves, a few of my friends were into the game, I want to say Kit, Ark, and Chompie were all playing it on and off. I enjoy working with Kit to try experimenting with “gym leader” teams of a single family of creatures to see how their skills can interact. I don’t know too much about earlier games in the series, I think Kit tried Siralim 3, but said Ultimate was more user friendly.

Monster Sanctuary - I never really got too far into this one. It’s one I want to give more of a chance at some point, but I’ve been pretty occupied with other games. It seems like an interesting concept though, a Monster Catching game that works as sort of a Metroidvania platformer? Honestly a cool concept.

Dragon Warrior Monsters - Or is it Dragon Quest? I always get confused. Is that just a regional thing? Anyway, I did mostly enjoy the first two games (I never had access to the later ones). Mostly though I tended to just see how many types of Slimes I could raise. I remember not liking a few things though, the rather limited number of monsters you could keep, the fact that they left if you bred them, and that you were limited to four character names. Also while I get that it was supposed to be “your view” in battle, as well as just being how the early Dragon Warrior games were, it felt kind of lacking that you never actually got to see your own monsters fight.

Yo-Kai Watch - This is another one that hit some notes from Pokémon that I like. I liked the various creature designs and names. This game also hits a major point I want to make here : it’s NOT a Pokémon ripoff, as a lot of people seem to think. It definitely does its own thing, it has a very unique type of battle flow. It’s a game that’s not afraid to experiment, as I think I’ve been told the battle system even tends to change between games. I will say though that I tended to not really feel too in control during fights, and catching new Yo-Kai could be a bit annoying as you only got to even TRY to lure one Yo-Kai per battle to your side, and you only got one attempt to do so. Still overall, quite enjoyable. Though the whole Shadowside thing was... quite the tonal shift that I didn’t care for. Which I think I recall hearing that they toned it down / lessened the focus on it?

Robopon - Oh man, anyone remember this one? How far did the series even go, I honestly forget? I played one of them, and... my playthrough did not go well, haha. I kind of just ended up with this one cell phone based robot and got stuck in an area with stuff way beyond my level, an encounter rate that put any Zubat cave to shame, and no real way to survive, haha. It was another of those though where I did like the monster designs overall.

Coromon - This is another one I didn’t get too far into, but for a more direct reason : a major power level issue. Enemy levels went up very fast to a point where you were stuck grinding in each area for what felt like way too long to me. A friend of mine who was also playing the game, Lucy, stuck with it longer than I did, and it sounded like the problem doesn’t really get better as the game progresses... Monster designs were kind of hit and miss for me, but overall I did like them.

Touhou Puppet Dance Performance - Pretty much this is solidly just Pokémon with a coat of Touhou paint. Pretty solidly enjoyable, I liked it. The fact that you can basically pick whatever puppet you want as your starter was a fun choice as well. I think my only sticking point was it was kind of a hassle to get the game up and running since it required language support that my computer really did not enjoy having to use, haha.

Category 3 - Other Series I Know But Haven’t Played

Nexomon - Kit played this one, so most of my knowledge of this one comes from him, and just images I’ve seen. The monster designs themselves look really nice to me. From what Kit’s told me though, the game does have a bit of an issue with movepool starvation. Creatures only seem to get moves of their own type and normal moves, and that’s about it, not much in the way of coverage. Still the monsters themselves at least look nice.

Temtem - I’ve had a few friends that have played this one and... sadly it sounds like an exercise in frustration. Though again, what I’ve seen of the monster designs look good. I really want that water platypus to be an actual Pokémon... I forget what ALL the details are that make the game frustrating, but a big one I remember is breeding mechanics. Each monster has a randomized and hidden stat that determines how many TIMES it’s allowed to breed. So it sounds pretty limiting and the way it’s done just sounds like it’s purely there for frustration’s sake. It seems like one of those things where it takes a common complaint of “Pokémon is too easy” and veers too far in the other direction.

World of Final Fantasy - I at least THINK that’s what it was called? This one, Neo was largely into. From his description, I wouldn’t be adverse to trying this one out, but it’s one of those “priorities when it comes to buying things” issues I suppose.

Digimon - I never really got into Digimon. The monster designs admittedly don’t really do it for me, and the naming convention of everything being “somethingmon” feels kind of boring to me (I’m aware there’s probably some level of irony that I love classic Mega Man and most of the bosses are “Something Man.”). Naturally, nothing against anyone that DOES enjoy the series, it just never really caught on with me personally.

Category 4 - The Odd One Out

Monster Rancher - I’ve never actually played a main series Monster Rancher game. I DID however play one of the spinoff games... though I don’t really remember all that much about it. Just that it was a card-based game on the GBC I think it was? From what I know of the mainline series, the overall concept is an interesting one that sadly is kinda lost to time because CDs these days. However, from what I’ve seen of the game itself, I’m not sure how much control you really have in battle? Also I know one of the mechanics of the game is your monsters actually do age and die, which... kind of a turnoff for me admittedly.

That’s all I can really think of at the moment as far as my experience with various Monster Catching games. I feel like I MAY have missed one or two that I just don’t remember as clearly, and I’m sure there’s a ton of them out there that I don’t actually know of, haha. For now, time to go back to working on my third Paldean team because guess who’s having sleep problems~

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the-sunlit-earth · 3 years ago

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Your Morrowind graphics look sooo beautiful! Do you have a list of the mods you used? I'd really appreciate it if you could share it!

Sure! I'd be happy to share my setup =)

My modlist is cobbled together from various modding guides, suggestions by friends who've played Morrowind, and my own personal preferences as I've played and come across things I felt like changing (like the pond scum lol!).

I tried to leave out most mods that had zero to do with Graphics/changes you can see in the world, and I also tried to keep my descriptions short, though if you were only asking for a simple load order then I apologize, oops!

The Engine

MGE XE (this is absolutely vital for those distant views/awesome light and water shaders and other features!)

Morrowind Code Patch (needed for bump/reflection maps to look right!)

Meshes/Textures/Overhauls

Morrowind Optimization Patch (improves performance/fixes some mesh errors!)

Patch for Purists (squashes so many bugs while avoiding unnecessary changes!)

Intelligent Textures (full AI upscaled/hand-edited texture pack of the game, excellent as a base if you plan to add on more targeted replacers later!)

Enhanced Water Shader for MGE XE--OR--Krokantor's Enhanced Water Shader Updated: (depends on which version of MGE XE you're using; if 0.13.0 you'll want the Updated version, and if earlier you need the older one. 3 shades of water to choose from; improved caustics, foam, ripples, underwater effects; and no more weird immersion-breaking moment when you would previously tilt the camera just beneath the surface and it would suddenly be perfectly clear. Absolutely gorgeous water!)

Animation Compilation-Hand to Hand Improved Without Almalexia Spellcasting (idk if this counts, but it does fix the Visual of that weird vanilla running animation!)

Better Bodies and Westly's Pluginless Replacer (a friend told me to get Robert's bodies, but BB is also very good and seems to be the most widely used + many mods need it, like Julan!)

Pluginless Khajiit Head pack (prettier kitties!)

Improved Argonians (better looking lizard-friends!)

Children of Morrowind (adds realism by having kids running around your towns!)

Julan, Ashlander Companion [v3.0 at bottom of this page] (ok not a graphics mod, but will add much immersion to your game, so I will shill for him anyway!)

Vibrant Morrowind 3.0/4.0 (this one I actually don't have installed yet, but I love the way Vivec looks in the screenshots!)

abot Water Life (adds aquatic creatures/things like algae and coral to make Morrowind's waters more alive!)

Vurt's Corals (found on Vurt's Groundcover page; adds gorgeous corals and new water plants!)

Vurt's Ashlands Overhaul (can choose between gnarly trees or vanilla-style!)

Vurt's Groundcover (gorgeous animated grass and vegetation that differs for each region!)

Vurt's Solstheim Tree Replacer II (more realistic trees and snowy pines!)

Vurt's Bitter Coast Trees II (5 additional unique trees!)

Vurt's Bitter Coast Trees II Remastered (mesh fixes/optimizations for the trees!)

Vurt's Leafy West Gash II (more trees, and optional rope bridge texture!)

Vurt's Ascadian Isles Tree Replacer II (v10a recommended for better-sized trees without clipping issues; TREES!!)

Articus Bush Replacer for Vurt AI Trees II (new model for bush tree + bark retexture!)

Vurt's Grazeland Trees II (really cool palms and Baobab trees!)

Vurt's Mournhold Trees II (beautiful animated cherry blossom trees!)

I Lava Good Mesh Replacer (better lava mesh, has no flickering with effects like steam!)

Remiros' Minor Retextures - Mist (much nicer spooky mist in Ancestral Tombs!)

Unto Dust (adds atmospheric floating dust motes, kinda like in Skyrim barrows!)

Graphic Herbalism MWSE (improved meshes and Oblivion-style harvesting!)

Glow in the Dahrk (windows transition to glowing versions at night!)

Ashfall (super awesome and very configurable Camping/Survival/Cooking/Needs mod!)

Watch the Skies (dynamic weathers/weather changes inside/randomized clouds etc!)

Seasonal Weather of Vvardenfell (weather changes throughout the year!)

Taddeus' Foods of Tamriel (adds Ashfall compatible foods and ovens for baking!)

More Wells (add-on for Ashfall/more immersive since access to water is pretty important!)

Diverse Blood (because not everything should bleed Red when you poke it with a spear!)

Lived Towns - Seyda Neen (adds more containers/clutter to make it feel more lived-in!)

Better Waterfalls (adds splash effects/water spray, better running water texture!)

Waterfalls Tweaks (resized water splash to blend better!)

Dunmer Lanterns Replacer (smoother/more-detailed-yet-optimized lanterns + paper lanterns!)

Telvanni Lighthouse Tel Vos (fits in perfectly with Azura's Coast region!)

Telvanni Lighthouse Tel Branora (very atmospheric, works well with surroundings!)

Palace of Vehk (Vivec's Palace feels lived-in instead of sad and empty!)

Ships of the Imperial Navy (immersive addition to Imperial waterfront areas!)

Striderports (gives caravaners some shelter and comfort while standing there all day!)

Illuminated Palace of Vivec (decorates palace steps + shrines with devotion candles and flowers left by followers!)

Scum Retexture - Alternative 2 (better looking pond scum in Bitter Coast region!)

Full Dwemer Retexture (I went with Only Armor/Robots/Weapons; nice high quality retex!)

Blighted Animals Retextured (I chose Darknut's 1024; blighted animals have their own sickly textures now!

Vivec Expansion 3.1 Tweaked Reworked (adds a hostel/many wooden walkways to Vivec on the water!)

Atmospheric Plazas (Vivec's plazas now have weather/sunlight! Be sure to use MCP's Rain fix to keep it from pouring as if there's no roof!)

Gemini's Realistic Snowflakes (more organic texture with more depth!)

Severa Magia DB fix (makes hideout actually appropriate to Dark Brotherhood!)

Starfire's NPC Additions (more populated towns and settlements!)

Hold It (adds items for NPCs to hold and carry, based on their class; very immersive!)

Suran-The Pearl of the Ascadian Isles (I went with White Suran Complete package; stunning retexture that also adds docks/waterfront!)

Atmospheric Delights (a more fitting mood inside the House of Earthly Delights!)

Guars Replacer-Aendemika of Vvardenfell (pluginless makeover for our scaly friends!)

Silt Strider by Nwahs and Mushrooms Team (great new model+textures for these cool bug-buses!)

Skar Face (giant crab manor in Ald-ruhn gets claws and legs!)

Armor/Clothing

Redoran Founders Armor (Redoran councilors stand out in this cool set!)

Morag Tong Polished (bug fixes/Armor Replacer/restored cut content for the faction!)

Rubber's Weapons Pack (several unique weapons/shields get distinct models!)

Yet Another Guard Diversity (generic copypasta guards now have variation!)

Better Silver Armor (adds missing pieces of silver armor to make full set!)

Royal Guard Better Armor (pluginless armor replacer for the Royal Guards!)

RR Mod Series Better Silt Strider Armor (cooler bug men in your Ashlander camps!)

Armored Robes NPC Compilation (some Ordinators/Mabrigash/others will wear distinct robes of their station!)

Full Dragonscale Armor Set v1.3a (adds the missing pieces to make the set complete!)

Mage Robes (robes for every magic school, many MG members will wear their respective ones!)

Quorn Resource Integration (lore-friendly armor/creatures added to leveled lists to be encountered in game!)

Better Clothes (non-segmented clothing replacer to fit Better Bodies!)

More Better Clothes (additional shirts that were missed in the first one!)

Better Clothes Complete (fixes many problems and 1st person clipping issues for BC!)

Better Clothes Retextured (high-res retextures for nearly all base game clothes!)

Hirez Better Clothes (3 shirts retextured in high quality!)

Better Morrowind Armor (BB compatible armor replacer!)

Dark Brotherhood Armor Replacer (changes DB armor to look more like concept art!)

Bonemold Armor Replacer (much nicer-looking Bonemold armor!)

Westly's Fine Clothiers of Tamriel (very high quality clothes that you will see many NPCs wearing too!)

Orcish Retexture v1.2 (beautifully done armor retexture!)

Daedric Lord Armor (much improved Daedric set, very fierce!)

Ebony Mail Replacer (awesome new model+tex that changes it to actual chainmail!)

I use Wrye Mash to install my mods, though I think a lot of people use MO2. Haaa, now that I've made this list I have the strong urge to just run around Morrowind taking even more screenshots =)

#morrowind #mods #my mod list #answered #my posts

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seijch · 4 years ago

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ANNOUNCEMENT: NOT A HELLO, BUT NOT A GOODBYE EITHER

omg hi ... im like . ashamed to come back after saying brief hiatus in october and then disappearing off the face of the earth til FEBRUARY but under the cut i will be explaining myself and the following, if youre interested (and a tl;dr at the very bottom if you don’t wanna scroll thru this obnoxiously long post):

the reason(s) i was gone for so long

what i was doing during that time (its just a personal account yall can scroll past this idrc)

the status of those um . halloween requests

the future of this account

i. so . Hiatus .

i know. i know . i probably mentioned it when i made the announcement post, but my mental health likes to go on one of those rides. yknow the ones where you go like up rlly fast then down maybe and then up then DOWN .... its like that. i needed a break and every time i wanted to come back or thought about it, something would happen and i would get stuck in my own head.

a big reason for getting stuck in my head was (and i hate to admit this ... i hate to admit that i have Insecurities On The Internet) my feelings of inadequacy regarding my writing. i love to plot fics, i love concepts and characters and making little headcanons but i dont ... know if i love writing rn. and i thought for the longest time that like . whatever ill just push thru it its fine ill be fine but it kinda wasnt lmao you can kinda see it in my halloween reqs and what become of them when i get to that but i began to feel like nothing i had put out or would put out would hold up prose wise (and normally i dont feel like this im much more “idc its my life im living it” but thats not a rant for tumblr LMAO). i still feel like that -- like im better as a reader than a writer. but . You Know :-)

tl;dr: mental state go brrrrr

ii. anywhere here’s wonderwall

when i left, i was in a steadily decreasing mental and emotional state, made worse by a situation at work that really was a case of petty jealousy on my end and rlly isnt very consequential now despite how much pain and resentment it gave me when it Was a problem so i wont get into it. the tl;dr of november and december was me using work as an crutch and distraction -- i know my job, i do it well, it helped me not think about my responsibilities and obligations and inadequacies. of course, as the holiday season grew busier n busier i was scheduled so often that i moved 88 or so miles (according to my apple watch, which i ONLY wear at work since im never anywhere else outside my house) and fell into a cycle of showering n sleeping at my house before going back the next day. (theres definitely something to be said abt capitalism and “grind culture” here but once again its not the time or place snsjkdfds)

at the turn of the new year, i happened to remember a birthday card i hadnt filed away for safekeeping from a friend of mine that id been horribly out of touch with til that point. i started crying because i realized how out of touch id been in general up until that point. the month of january was great for me: i was focused, happy, and in a much better place than i had been before. the end of it brought me down focus wise and im hoping that enough time away from my distractions will refocus me bc i ... need it LMAO and though ive burned out from that level of productivity and gotten distracted again im ... trying to stay positive which i think is the most i can do 😁👍🏼

media wise, i got real into stardew valley (but burned out bc i played it extensively as a way to wind down after work), the pokemon platinum romhack renegade platinum (still havent finished it bc of school n i played it w the intent to see if i could nuzlocke it ... bitch its so hard but its so fun bc of it), briefly assassins creed: odyssey (im one of those ppl who completes an entire region before i move to the next so you can tell i burned out of that one + wouldnt have the time to properly devote to it even if i didnt), got back into genshin impact after pulling for xiao (after not touching it for like . months), and danganronpa. yes . danganronpa 😐 i Know. i stopped playing it after the second trial of the first game bc i was so hurt by the outcome and picked it up in late january only to get sucked in (thank god i had the foresight to buy the second and third games during the steam winter sale). rn im at the start of chapter 4 if anyone wants to come in my asks and um . talk to me abt danganronpa

tl;dr: I’m Into Danganronpa Now

iii. you realize halloween was three months ago right

i mentioned this in the first section, but i love to plot things. every request is plotted or at least has a solid foundation. i had fun detailing what concept i wanted to go with considering what i was given, and there were some bangers i might touch up in the future. but heres whats going to happen to the requests themselves:

there are two finished requests. one will be posted tomorrow and the other will be touched up (just bc i finished it doesnt mean its good 🧍‍♂️) and scheduled for next saturday. as for the ones i never got around to ...

i will not be finishing those requests. i hate to be That Person, but i feel like we all expected this 🧍‍♂️ what i will do is post all of my notes for each request in batches -- requests that have an @ to go with them will be mentioned in the post proper, but anon asks will be pictured. (there are some asks that came from blogs who are now deactivated but i wrote down all the prompts and remember most of those askers so ill cross that bridge when i get there) there will most likely be an excerpt or two simply bc i think i mightve written a few plot points or interactions in the form of bullet points. i rlly am sorry about doing this but i remember looking at my notion doc with all the prompts and feeling ... like i wasnt measuring up n it wasnt just to myself or to some intangible concept of “other” id constructed but it was instead to those who requested n actually WANTED to see and hear and read my writing and i ...... im gonna admit thats another big reason i avoided this site.

regardless, youll definitely get what i have (and likely more than just my bullet points and illegible handwriting).

tl;dr: im sorry. what i have in terms of plot, concept, and interaction for every request will be posted, but i cant say ill ever complete them and mean it.

iv. so what now?

well i mean . im not entirely sure how sold i am on haikyuu in the content creation department (as a creator n to a lesser extent, as a consumer). as mentioned previously, its no longer my primary focus. it doesnt mean im not into haikyuu anymore; i have a lot of love for those boys but i cant rlly say im even caught up w recent fandom activity and also havent even finished s4 pt2 LMAO thats on my to do list

and despite all that, i still want to share my plots n concepts and snippets and maybe even fics. it wont happen anytime soon. it might not even happen. but i mean . its better than me saying i wont write ever again shjdkfs but either way ill probably use this blog as a personal blog w the occasional ask game for dialogue prompts (those are always so fun i love making up aus to fit like . the most mundane prompts)

as for my works (past and any potential future), ive opened an ao3 acc here n ill be editing n possibly expanding on my old works to post there. tumblr, to me, is The x reader hub, but i figure more x reader fics on ao3 is never a bad thing.

ill be deleting/posting drafted posts to the queue since they were all meant to be queued anyway as well as (sorry again 🧍‍♂️) deleting or answering asks in the inbox. (moots if you get a notif from me saying i rbed your post from months ago ... mind your business) im very hard to get ahold of and its ... a problem. expect an overhaul of the nav n shit to reflect my new direction n also because i feel like i cant tell if my passion for carrd is shared by the majority HSDKLFS maybe its better to read my info in a normal post ykwim .......

and of course . if youve read all this n decided im no longer worth the follow, i sure as hell cant stop you. thank you for wanting to, at some point, hear what i have to say -- it means more than you think.

tl;dr: writing will be edited and reposted to ao3, this blog will be a personal blog with a hint of writing (sometimes)

the tl;dr to end all tl;drs:

im back! i wont be as active as i used to due to a lessened interest in haikyuu in general, but i have an ao3 acc now where all my past work will be edited, possibly expanded, and reposted. any future work will also find itself there. my halloween requests will be posted in batches as incomplete concepts, plots, and snippets of scenes; i wont be promising to finish any of them.

there are still fic concepts im attached to and want to finish, but i cant promise any more writing on my end. this blog will be a personal blog with maybe writing, not a writing blog with my personal thoughts all over it.

regardless if you stick around or not, its been crazy sexy cool (equal emphasis) being on haikyuu tumblr even tho i wasnt around for long ... even tho its not my main focus anymore, im still excited to see what the future might hold 🤝

love, ari 💌

#did i have an announcement tag #announcement #also regarding work hsjkdfsd the company i work for didnt give my location the opening for the full time position i wanted #my managers all agree id be promoted if we had it but we dont so i . hee .#anyway um i hope everyones doing well #some of my moots changed urls while i was away and now i have no idea who anyone is #its like when you see your familys friends and theyre like omg youre so big now! i remember when you were a baby and youre like 🧍‍♂️#and you have to play along bc apparently they remember you hskdfsd #im not very funny in this post but i figured id rather be honest considering my lengthy absence #consider this my comeback stage

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evolutionsvoid · 4 years ago

Photo

The Forgebill is a large vibrant bird that is found in tropical climates, primarily in coastal habitats. Its territory stretches through beaches, shorelines, tide pools and estuaries, wherever there is seawater to be found. Though found in the domain of seabirds and other majestic ocean fliers, the Forgebill is flightless. Instead of wings, its forelimbs have stretched out into elongated legs, using them to walk upon all fours. Its fingers have turned to hooked talons, creating fearsome obsidian scythes. Instead of flight, it chooses to patrol the shoreline and wade through the shallows, all in the pursuit of food. While they stand tall, they possess long flexible necks that gives them a wide range of movement. They can reach down to grab food from the sand, stretch upwards to pluck high up fruits or even bend all the way around so that they can groom the hard to reach areas! At the end of this serpentine neck is a large blade-like beak and a hefty casque. While these structures are pretty to look at, they are more than mere decoration! There is a reason these birds are called Forgebills! While other helmeted bird species may use their casques for beefing up their calls or for protection in battle, this structure in the Forgebills is quite unique. Instead of it being hollow or made of solid keratin, the casque is actually filled with specialized organs. It is believed these organs are heavily modified muscles, altered so that they may create powerful shocks! It isn't fully understood yet, but these structures can release the element of lightening! It isn't nearly as flashy or powerful as a lightening bolt, but the amount a single organ can create is impressive! Now imagine dozens of these all packed inside of this bird's casque! The power of a thunderstorm, worn upon their heads like a hat! Though I speak of lightening and shocks, the Forgebill does not wield this power in such a fashion. They do not stun prey like Stormtails do, instead they use it in a truly bizarre way! When the casque is activated and its organs start pumping out this energy, it directs all of it towards its beak. The striped bill of the bird has a rather unique composition, containing a high amount of metallic materials. Veins and coils of this substance is spread throughout their entire bill, and this is where the energy is directed. With all that power flowing through this special metal, the beak begins to heat up! Within moments of activating its casque, the beak of the Forgebill will become glowing hot, like a sword straight from the forge! The temperatures this beak can achieve is astounding, and also quite dangerous! Like a flaming blade, the Forgebill can swing this searing weapon around and use it to cleave through its true target: Clams! Indeed the blazing billed bird uses this impressive weapon for hunting, but it isn't going around cleaving herbivores in two. Instead, the searing beak is meant to tackle hard shells, mainly those found on clams, mussels, oysters and even fruit! Before it fires up its special organs, it uses its claws and beak to dig up buried clams or pluck coconuts from trees. With the tough morsel held in its beak, the Forgebill will turn on its casque and heat things up! Within seconds, the beak will be hot enough to slice through that shell like a hot knife through butter! The Forgebill will flick back its head, open its mouth and then slam it shut, cleaving the stubborn critter in half! After that, the meaty morsels can be eaten, and the steaming shells will be tossed aside. For larger creatures that cannot be held in its mouth, the Forgebill will heat up its beak and then whip its head around, wielding the burning blade like an actual weapon! With the strike of a skilled swordsman, the Forgebill will slice off a chunk of the shelled opponent, leaving an opening that its beak can reach into so that it can retrieve the tasty meat inside. While it does eat meat, the Forgebill rarely goes after anything faster than your average mollusk. Clams, snails and other slow armored creatures is all they really prey upon. They aren't all that fast themselves, so giving chase is out of the question. Especially when your face is a super heated knife! And you thought running with scissors was bad!

The burning beak of the Forgebill is what makes them famous, but many often get the wrong impression of its ability. Mention it to anyone, and most folk get the idea that these birds use these weapons constantly, performing impressive duels and slicing all that stand before them. In truth, this ability is used quite sparingly, as it is quite costly! The amount of energy it takes to fuel such a weapon is staggering, so they cannot just do it with reckless abandon! That is why it is only used for mere seconds while eating, as it is burned so that they may obtain hard-to-eat food that others cannot crack. The other issue is that Forgebills are not fireproof! That hot beak can slice through flesh and bone with ease, and that includes their own! If one is not careful, they can easily injure themselves. With that, Forgebills use the upmost caution when wielding their beaks. While it is heated, you will notice the birds taking a special stance. Their heads will be jutted forward and upward, aimed far from the body. They will barely move in this state, refusing to walk or run while the weapon is heated. While active, the Forgebill will use special organs that run down its back to vent off excess heat. These exposed pipes move hot air and blood, forcing it outwards so it doesn't fry itself from the inside! After it has sliced through all the food they want, the beak will be dunked into the sea to cool it off. This is a habit of theirs, as they will dip their bills in water every time they wish to preen their feathers, groom or interact with others. It is all for safety, as they don't wish to burn themselves or their partners. Since I mentioned their "partners," I figure I should dash this hope right off the bat: no, Forgebills don't use their heated beaks to duel others during mating season. Cripes, imagine the mortality rate of that! The species wouldn't be doing so hot (ha!) if they kept lopping each other's heads off when it came time to breed! No, these giants instead stick to song and call, using their voice to bring in females. If an opposing male gets too close, then they may square off and try to scare the competition away. Beaks may clatter and a fight may break out, but they don't use their heated blades in this instance. The time when this heat-producing system is used during the breeding season is when the females wish to warm their eggs! When nested, they will rest upon their eggs and tuck their heads into their bodies. With careful control over their output, they will heat their bills slightly to create extra warmth during the cold nights. During this time, males will go out to collect food, bringing it back to females. Once the chicks hatch, the duty will switch back and forth between mom and dad. With such a magnificent weapon and rather gorgeous looks, it should be no surprise that Forgebills are quite famous in the regions they frequent. Their plumes are collected for decoration and adornment, while their special beaks are prized as both trophies and weapons. Though the casques do not work when dead, and the beaks themselves do not produce this energy, skilled magic users have found ways to channel their own powers into these structures. This makes these bills quite popular in the realm of mages, and even for those in the Underworld! I have heard that demons are quite fascinated with these creatures, and pay well to get a hold of these special beaks. Unfortunately, this means that this species faces heavy hunting and poaching, as folk know that there is good money to be made. Faced with dwindling populations, some regions have placed protections on the species, which is good! But that often doesn't stop poachers, which is bad. Thankfully, in my case, I found that some well aimed rocks and a hefty walking stick does wonders when driving those jerks off! I just hope that others can succeed in protecting these incredible species, as their brilliance deserves to be shared with all generations. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian ------------------------------------------------- This birdie comes from an idea Xhodocto385 gave me a loooooooong time ago. It was a toucan-like beast that used a super-heated beak to slice and dice! It took me quite a long time to figure out a design and how one would pull off such a thing, but I think it payed off in the end. This bird is more hornbill than toucan, as the anatomy worked perfectly for this concept. Hope you enjoy!

#bird #hornbill #avian #monster #creature #art #drawing

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deviant3lover · 5 years ago

Text

Personal Headcanons for the Trio

On a rare spark of inspiration, I’ve decided to compile my list of headcanons for the Trio for you all to look at if you’re interested. :)

I tried my best to make them rooted in canon so that they may be plausible while still allowing me to indulge. ;)

Putting this under Read More because boy, it is long.

Metal Bat/Badd

- From my asks to @atinychai, Badd likes traditionally masculine things because it makes him feel empowered and keeps most people away. He shows almost all the traits: being into sports, working out, being fierce and intimidating… all except for being attracted to women. (Came as a real shock to him too: his team often found girls cute but Badd couldn’t help but notice that some guys were pretty hot and nobody pointed it out. Doubly so because he loves the thought of being married one day and none of the ladies appealed to him.)

- Very straightforward thinker, but unlike Genos, he isn’t completely tactless or over the top with it. His thought process focuses on what needs to be done, what is needed to do it, and to do it ASAP. Considerations are taken into account, such as what would happen if he doesn’t do it right or in a certain way. This is especially good for him since he’s a busy guy even by S-Class standards, but it does leave him vulnerable to not thinking through long term plans that well.

- The most empathetic and physically affectionate of the three. He keeps his tough look on him in public and in private, but he’s one of the first people to offer to hug it out if you’re breaking down.

(Obviously where no one can see it: that’s embarrassing on you and would attract too much unwanted attention to him, so he makes sure there’s no one watching. If there is, he’ll clap you on the shoulder, look you in the eye, and offer some advice and encouragement.)

Young boys and teenagers look up to him, and they usually feel better about crying into his shirt when Badd tells them how hard it was to stop himself from bursting into tears at his first loss in a match, or when he was trying to keep quiet for Zenko’s sake at her recital.

- Continuing on that note, he keeps a nice relationship with some of his sporty fans. Not anything too intensive, but he’ll keep track of the boys who come to him asking him what he was like on his baseball team, what to do if there’s infighting in their group, which ones are worried about their baseball matches and he gives them a proud congrats if they win, or a consolation + inspiration to do better next time if they lost.

- When he’s not blinded by anger, Badd’s surprisingly pretty adept at being a social expert. His experiences of being on the baseball team + hanging out with problem students like him has given Badd a pretty good perspective on both the popular kids and the hated, loner kids, as well as what they’re going through. As a result, he’s usually well received by them. Feels a little embarrassed and uncomfortable around smart kids though, especially when they explain something that sounds a little complicated to him.

- Back in his younger days prior to all the responsibilities piled on top of him, Badd was a pretty good leader for his baseball team. He checked in regularly with his team mates, their equipment, their training regimens, and their upcoming opponents. He helped some of his team mates with confidence issues, and made sure to keep in check with how they’re doing to prevent in-team fighting. All-star baseball team in their region for sure. :3

- In the future, I imagine that Badd might take up some boxing after taking a hint from all the times monsters knocked his bat out of his hands away from him. Lost his weapon? He’ll use his fists until he can get it back again, and he’ll use them well. Turns out loves the sport, but baseball will always have a special place in his heart.

- He empathizes easily with people experiencing stress; he goes through that daily with everything he has to take care of- but he’s more clueless with issues such as mental illness. Badd’s a little insensitive about it, sometimes suggesting things to take care of it which don’t work, but he’s trying his best to understand what someone is going through and knows enough to know that it isn’t something that can’t be solved by blowing off steam or cutting off some bad things in your life. Gets pissed off if someone dismisses it as ‘something that’s all in their head’ or ‘they’re crazy’ and will confront them. Forcing apologies out of the offender isn’t out of the question. Might want to stop him before he gets too pissed off.

- Like you’d expect, he’s a pretty big fan of sports, but in a more casual way. He likes hearing about his favorite athletes, training regimens, and certain meals/diets that helped stars to build up/maintain their strength and skill, but doesn’t obsessively get himself involved in the subject. On a more sentimental note, Badd finds some solace with famous athletes because they had to work hard to get where they needed to be, and on top of that, have to deal with the pressures that come with their popularity; whether they like it or not.

- Despite not having much time to cultivate attention to honing his skill and interest in cooking, he loves Gordon Ramsay. Seeing him rip entitled, spoiled people apart with words alone and gently encouraging + teaching kids has him placed high on Badd’s list of celebrities that he respects.

- Badd is a Closeted Romantic and a Family Man. Always found it touching where in some old action/thriller films, the male married lead thinks about his wife and kids back home and tells himself that he shouldn’t die, powering through the pain/adversity to get back to them. At some point it shifted to him liking some intense drama/action movie focusing on romance where the couple race against time to get to each other before it’s too late. The idea that someone you love and treat as an equal might actually be gone forever really gets him, and if done right, he’ll cry.

- Cannot, for the love of him, focus well on books. He’s literate, but he always wants to get to the most important stuff, often skimming over details that might be important later on. This is also evident in how he writes, explaining something simply and to the point, which makes him pretty good at teaching kids basic, simplified concepts, but not so good at constructing incredibly thought out and nuanced writing. Books and audio books just aren’t immersive to him. Consequently, English is one of his worst subjects in school, and he often has to rely on online notes and essay examples to help him out.

- Extending on that, I imagine him to be a kinaesthetic/visual learner. He was born with amazing dynamic vision after all. (Under ‘Fighting Style: Keen Perception.’)

- Loves American action movies, but they’ll have to be really well made for him to remember a specific one. If you asked him about his favorite action scenes, he’ll describe it, but more often than not, he won’t remember the movie’s name unless you gave him some clues.

- (Inspired by this fanfic.) His mother died in a monster attack just moments after giving birth to Zenko. Badd used to love and respect his father, but her death lead to him spiraling down to alcohol abuse and neglect due to his grief, leading to his broken pedestal status in his son’s eyes. Badd’s still bitter over it when he thinks about it, saying that his ‘old man nursed his bottle like it was his new kid’ instead of being there for him and Zenko. Caught between poor grades in school, a rough home life, and a baby sister he didn’t know how to take care of, Badd had to convince himself that he needed to be twice the man his father is, and ever was, to get through the worst of what life had to throw at him.

- No matter how hard he tries, he still loves his father, and wants to see him endeavor to become better again. But the combined grief of seeing him crumble and give up on himself, the bitterness over his dad failing to be there for him when he needed it the most, and the anger over how seemingly self-absorbed he was in with his booze and watching the static on the TV when Badd was struggling to cope, makes him force the thought of reconciling out of his mind. Badd forces himself to be outwardly angry over what happened to avoid the conflicted feelings he has over the man he used to see as his hero.

- That being said, if you know what his father used to mean to him, you’ll see subtle signs that while Badd can’t forgive, he had never forgotten him. His father was a big sports fan too, and taught him how to properly hit a baseball. If you knew what he taught and looked closely when Badd fights or does some swings, you’ll see that the tips and tricks that he taught his son has never left him.

- Wanted to get a dog because he thought they were cool, but realized he wouldn’t have enough time for it. Begrudgingly got a cat for him and Zenko after she picked one out. He expected it to be the widespread stereotype for cats: cold, mean, and ruins your stuff… and then he saw how lovable and sweet it was and fell in love. That cat is Tama.

- Hates horror films because some of them remind him of the fact that monsters can manifest for the stupidest reasons, anywhere, anytime. It gets him worked up and restless because anything can happen, and the fact that some monsters in the past had tried to target Zenko to lure him out doesn’t make him feel any better.

- When he’s sick/injured, he sleeps. A lot. A very heavy sleeper; expect snores and heavy eyelids. Seriously, this guy is practically stuck in either Stage 4 NREM or REM sleep until severe injuries heal quite a bit, and germs making him sick are killed off.

- Does not take kindly to anyone calling him weak or stupid. Despite getting angry easily, he’s very resilient (emotionally and mentally.) He knows from experience that if he can’t resolve it quickly, it’s best to put it on the backburner until the opportunity arrives where he can, and does his best to blow off steam in the meantime. He’s not that smart academically and he knows it, but it’s still a berserk button you should stay away from because while he’ll never admit it, it hurts him to know that despite forcing himself to attend school so that he can build a future for himself and Zenko outside of hero work, he’s still failing at getting the grades he needs.

- Expanding on that, he’s smart, but it’s more akin to Saitama’s words of wisdom than eloquent, polished reasoning and beliefs; straightforward and inspiring in a simple way that leaves no room for misinterpretation.

- Don’t let him play video games. Especially rage inducing ones like Cuphead. He will crush the controller and wonder why his character isn’t responding mid-game. The keys on the keyboard are smashed in. There are cracks on the area around the buttons. There’s a Wii remote sticking out of a wall after a frustrating defeat and the wrist strap wasn’t securely fastened.

Garou

- He likes athletic wear better than punk styles. They’re easier to put on and move in, whilst the leather from some punk clothes heats up too much/gets too stiff for his liking.

- Hates being restrained. Sometimes, on a very, very rare occasion, it can be interpreted as him being scared of the idea since he lashes out pretty angrily at it. Garou had been held down and beaten up by bullies twice, pinned against a tree and choked by Genos before escaping his blast by the skin of his teeth, and then was implied to be chained up and tortured/punished for his insolence against the MA in their torture room. He’s strong enough to escape most bindings, but he will be on edge if he feels like he can’t get out of them. If you play your cards right, his attack patterns will lack their usual cunning and be more animalistic.

- He’ll eat almost any kind of food except for sweets. It’s too sugary for him, leads to a crash later on, isn’t sustainable, and it doesn’t offer much nutritional value to him either, so he steers clear of them if he can help it. The odd exception are energy drinks. The sugary taste isn’t something he exactly likes, but Garou loves the immediate rush that kicks in soon after drinking them; the slight burn on his tongue from carbonated drinks such as coca cola is a plus.

- Loves the thrill of the challenge of almost any sort. The excitement comes from giving it his all and not knowing for sure how things will turn out; if he won, that’s another trophy to him. If he lost, he relishes in a milestone he has to beat and loves the idea that there’s still room for improvement. Winning or losing too much tends to be boring for him, and he’ll abandon it if he sees no way to rectify it.

- When he’s sick or injured, he’s a restless sleeper; it’s hard for him to get the proper hours that he needs. He drifts in and out of sleeping and waking, usually sleeping a few hours at best before waking up for 10 minutes and falling back to sleep. Being attacked while vulnerable, in places with little means of defense or shelter is a pretty good plan for monsters/bigshots who want his head and he knows it. One of the places he can sleep more peacefully at is Bang’s Dojo, but he hasn’t been back there for some time now.

- Tsundere. Not necessarily the blushy ‘I-it’s not like I like you, b-baka!!’ sort of way, but he’s a more subdued tsundere. He’ll come off as mean spirited at times, but the most reliable way of knowing he loves and cares about his loved ones is when they’re being threatened; he’ll rough up the threat so they won’t get any funny ideas in the future.

- Is Russian-French, with some (suspected) Norwegian in there. Is generally a European mutt who takes a keen interest in Asian culture, especially those that developed sick martial arts and/or those who have interesting, complex histories; however, Garou isn’t as interested in wars and political intrigue as he is in weird, clever, and hilarious events and hijinks that sound too surreal to be true… like Zhao Yun's army being outnumbered by the enemy, retreating, and him choosing to make their fortress look empty so that his enemies get suspicious, thinking that it was an ambush and withdrawing... before launching an attack on them, killing off his enemy's army by inciting chaos. (E.g. Some of them got trampled, others fell into a river and drowned.) He won.

- Continuing off of that, he generally regards European history with distaste due to how... unkind, some of them are.

- (God, I love @the-goddessfighter‘s headcanons for Garou’s parents, so honestly? I’m all for this being 100% canon. Murata or ONE, make it happen. In my eyes, this is as good as you possibly can get with Garou’s backstory.)

Check out her tumblr for her OC’s for Garou’s parents! (Although I do headcanon Toru as a more neglectful father who didn’t care much for Garou, if at all. He didn’t sugarcoat his words to him nor try to comfort his son.)

- Prefers black/white/grey/neutral colors for his clothes, if only to avoid people saying that the colors clash and that he looks like a fashion disaster.

- It’s an unconscious move on his part, and while he usually has impeccable control over his power, sometimes his fingers feel like they’re jabbing you when he’s distracted. Especially when he grabs or hugs you. Sometimes, there are some small bruises where they’ve dug in a little forcefully. When he’s feeling affectionate or sentimental and you’re his lover, he traces over your skin, and it’s a contrasting mix between the calloused, rough textures from the fingers, and smooth, fluid movements that slide like water. It’s a distinct Garou feature, and whether you love it or hate it depends on your tastes.

Genos/Demon Cyborg

- Doesn’t care too much about his popularity, but acknowledges the work that his fans put in when it comes to promoting his work and what little information he shares that others will pick up on. E.g. He doesn’t like to be bothered when he’s busy/with that bald guy, but otherwise is OK with signing a few autographs and shaking hands, he avoids certain obnoxious fangirls, he hates it when there’s a group and they crowd him, etc.

- Despite appreciating this info circulating so that some fans are more mindful about how they interact with him, he’s one of the hardest heroes to connect with due to how cold, closed off, busy, and/or socially awkward he may be. Not that many of his fans mind, as it feeds into the mysterious ‘Cyborg Prince’ fantasy that’s popular in his fan base.

- Thinks that Nice Guys/GirlsTM and people who use ‘I’m an Alpha, those betas/omegas can suck it’ are pathetic. At best. He thinks that they’re compensating for something instead of actually trying to improve themselves: for the latter, the added weight of using a disproved scientific theory makes him lose respect for them even more.

- He has a certain amount of fondness for fauna and flora. Prior to meeting Saitama, he’s had to travel long distances in search of the Mad Cyborg, and more often than not, company is fleeting, leaving him alone most of the time. Flowers by the side of the path, blue skies, the sound of chirping birds, or even some berries with rainwater droplets on them are familiar, nice sights that put him at ease. Some of his notebooks outside of taking notes on Saitama have hand drawn illustrations and notes on some plants he’s encountered, as well as their various uses.

- Conversely, barren cities will put him on high alert. Buildings act as great hiding spots, and Genos isn’t a stranger to being ambushed by monsters and criminals alike. (His eyes can be a great asset in these situations; scanning for threats and movements can give him a heads up on how dangerous the area is.)

- His sense of humor is pretty dark, if not outright sadistic at times; especially towards the people he hates. Otherwise, he likes making (mostly. Key word is mostly) harmless jabs and teases at those he loves because he finds it funny when the other person gets riled up/flustered. His tone and expressions don’t change (most of the time) when he makes them though, making it hard for others to know whether or not he’s joking until he clarifies on the matter.

- Hates those who spread misinformation about medicine, or demonizes scientists. He cares about keeping the public safe, and admires/respects science for everything it’s discovered for the sake of humanity: people such as those are a direct attack on both.

- Though on the outside he takes even the most inconsequential things seriously, to the point where he’s gullible and too honest to lie, he keeps his more solemn thoughts to himself and ingrains them at the back of his mind so that he’ll never forget them. His notebooks don’t hint at them even existing. The only way you’ll ever get to hear them is when you directly attack something he holds very dear to him (beliefs, values, aspirations) so that he may fiercely (and furiously) defend them. He berated Saitama for seemingly making a joke at his expense, but he was somewhat more lenient since he knew that Saitama wielded the power he needed. He won’t be nearly as nice if you’re not someone he likes or respects, so it’s a sure-fire way to get onto his blacklist.

- Is German-Japanese. German father, Japanese mother, though a lot of people mistake him for being fully German thanks to his looks. He understands some parts of the language, but isn’t fluent in speaking it. Japanese he’s fully fluent in, and English is getting to that point as well.

- He doesn’t usually use pet names if he gets a lover, but if he’s fallen in love hard, they get sort of ridiculous and a little cheesy. ‘My beloved’ and ‘darling’ are the most modest ones, but you’ll have to stop him from going after extremely specific and loving nicknames because they blur the line between being hilarious and embarrassing.

- Awesome at stake outs, and often keeps a first aid kit handy in his temporary bases (in the case of civilian injury) alongside a repair kit for himself. Genos is incredibly well prepared just from the equipment he has inside them, but unlike other matters (such as learning how to fold clothes efficiently and going taking it far too seriously), Genos shows pretty good judgment in how he sets them up. He doesn’t take more than what’s needed, and prepares some emergency supplies just in case there’s a new development and he needs to stay a bit longer. He’s learned from experience that taking too many things for them makes it harder for him to clear his tracks, and in return, the enemy (or enemies) that he’s been keeping an eye on might catch onto the fact that they’re being watched, making it harder for him to discover new information.

Shared Traits & Other Bits

- The no-brainer: you will get intimidated into fleeing if you mess with them. Things may get physical if you target their family/loved ones. Injuries vary depending on level of apologetic attitude, how much of a threat you pose, how far you’ve pushed things, etc. Best case scenario is that you flee the scene with no injuries, but scared out of your mind.

- Badd and Genos use the same nickname for their lover: ‘Darling.’ Although Badd will say it as ‘Darlin’’ instead. Other than that, their nicknames are fairly different, with Badd going for things such as ‘sweet cheeks,’ ‘babe,’ and ‘sweetheart.’

- Both Genos and Garou have the tendency to mess with people for their own amusement. Garou comes in the form of taunting and goading, whilst Genos likes to make underhanded comments and jokes that will infuriate you.

- Genos and Garou like books. Genos however, is more introverted and will share his knowledge more thoroughly when prompted by someone who needs it. Garou being Garou, you wouldn’t even know he was into reading until he offhandedly mentions a bit of knowledge from a book he read. Odds are you won’t have time to ask him if he knows how to do x because he would have already gotten up to do it before you can open your mouth. This occurrence is far more common in emergencies.

- Genos doesn’t take any visible joy in fighting. He sees monsters as a threat to society that must be eliminated quickly and effectively. Badd used to enjoy throwing himself into battles and coming out of them victorious, but thanks to time and HA’s obligations, he sees monsters as destructive assholes getting in his way and creating more work for him when he’d rather come home to catch up on other things on the forefront of his mind. Garou loves fighting, the challenge- but it has diminished by a notable amount after his webcomic arc as he’s reflecting on what he needs and wants to do now. Despite this, he usually keeps his eye out for any interesting challenges, if only to distract himself.

- Slightly digressing from the Trio: Zenko shares the burden of taking on responsibilities with Badd, though he doesn’t know they exist. She’s aware of the fact that her brother isn’t living a normal teenage life and is bothered by the fact that he can’t act like his own age most of the time, making her want to be headstrong, capable, and independent soon so he doesn’t have to worry about her. At the same time, she knows that there aren’t many heroes his age that he can get along with, so she tries to fill in that hole by spending time with him while finding heroes she likes, and hopefully her brother will like- the reason being is that hopefully, Badd will make friends with them, and she can meet her idol often! It’s part of the reason why she was so insistent in having him obtain AM’s signature.

- Genos can sing, but sometimes struggles with singing with enough emotion in his lyrics. Garou can sing pretty well, (and sings almost every Disney villain song like a champ) but he’d be resistant to others goading him into it. He’s pretty uncomfortable at the notion that he’d have to sing in front of people. Badd can… sing, but he’s best at singing the lullabies he sung to a baby Zenko- songs that get him into it can have him be really, really into it; to the point where it’s almost embarrassing to watch. He’s pretty good at rap/singing more sentimental pieces such as this:

youtube

#opm #genos #badd #metal bat #garou #shitty teen squad #hellion trio #zenko #headcanons

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the-bard-writes · 4 years ago

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Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! What inspires your world building? Tell us something cool about the worldbuilding you've done so far

Thank you for the ask!!

My world-building is inspired a lot by two things: My love of philosophical exploration, and my vision of a new and different world.

In all of my worlds, there’s some kind of something that isn’t true in our world that I flip around. In Anua, the big thing is creationism and religious literalism. Basically, what if there was, in fact, a single, intelligent, divine entity that very literally shaped the entire universe and verifiably, empirically exists as part of material reality? What if there was, indeed, a genuine holy text where the historical record validates again and again that it was dictated to a human by an envoy of that divinity? What if there’s no question of authenticity, no metaphor involved? What does that look like? How does religious heterodoxy emerge? How do we interpret a text that we know is divine, but can’t ask for clarification on? Those bits, among many others, are informed by my studies of and hopeful conversion to Judaism (itself an inspiration of mine! Though one I handle with caution and respect)

On a more fun, self-indulgent note, what happens when that holy text includes things like a crucial religious figure who is explicitly a lesbian? Or a holy man who was blessed with Sainthood because he delivered mail? Or passage that’s basically a manual on how to ritualistically and mystically undergo gender transition?

You can see how that connects to the other inspiration, the whole ‘better world’ vision.

My world-building isn’t meant to be utopian, of course, but I wholesale reject the idea of taking our usual, run-of-the-mill bigotry, and baking it into my own creations. There’s other ways of creating interesting societal and cultural conflict. None of my characters face issues for being queer, though their queerness may create issues in other ways, such as not being able or willing to produce heirs--which itself is a non-bigoted issue in Anua! Adoption is accepted but adopted children are, in most legal systems, considered less legitimate than blood-related children. There’s not a place to touch on that in Wings of Steam really, but it’s a background social issue.

And my worlds always offer up one way of envisioning what I want to see in the world. The Stretch is an anarchic region of space; but most people living there engage in mutual aid, taking care of each other, spending their time making stuff out of the love of making it and the need of others to have those things. The Dusters are a completely decentralized volunteer militia that keeps the place safe from pirates and bandits! There’s no central government, no enforced hierarchy, and life there isn’t always good, but it’s also not bad.

In that way I’m inspired by Ursula K LeGuin. She’s a hero of mine and a big inspiration even if I haven’t sat down and read most of her many, many works.

So that’s my two big inspirations! I like exploring big “what-ifs” and I like creating something that’s better than what we’ve got right now, in the hopes of inspiring people to also imagine other ways for the world to work.

As for examples... I think I’ve kind of gone and listed a couple so far ^^; But as an additional tidbit, I’ve been thinking about government in Anua, and decided that Asov, a nation in southwest Zephyria and one of the Old Kingdoms, has a nominal royal family with no political power or publicly-funded salary, but serves a cultural role as keepers of the realm, responsible (nominally) for preserving the history and traditions of the Asovi peoples; the actual governance is handled by local and regional courts that are democratically elected among the local cities and tribes, which handle disputes on a case-by-case basis. The details I’m not sure on yet! But I liked the concept of a kind of decentralized democratic kritarchy so I’m fleshing it out.

#worldbuilding wednesday #writeblr #setting: anua #setting: the stretch

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myrakhannyu · 5 years ago

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WEEK 1 - 2

Syllabus

Research on Water Contamination and ways to prevent it. Research Materials - Get in touch with Foli.

Progress:

Spoke to Foli and there are two priorities:

Temporary and/or Permanent covering for the well to prevent contamination and pollution.

Collection of rainwater for future use.

The idea that we discussed was to create a funnel through which water can be collected in a cistern. Foli initially preferred Aluminium and bamboo in the making of the funnel but after research on materials I came to realise how Aluminium might not be the safest way to transport water and pose a health risk.

Week 3- Week 4

Research on additional materials.

Progress:

Researched a number of techniques that are used to filter water without electricity or expensive filtration systems.

Number of options found:

Bamboo Charcoal - this is created through heating bamboo and creating a charcoal of the plant, which when placed in water is able to absorb most of the bacteria in the water. This is extremely helpful and sustainable for a place like NDOR eco village.

Second option was the inside gel of a cactus plant which can be put inside the contaminated water and once boiled is able to absorb most of the bacteria. The only problem with this is you need cactus plants for this and they are not natives to the region.

Last method I thought would be a good match for the village was clay pots. Clay pots have perforations of about 0.2 ml in them so once water is poured in them, it slowly starts to leak from the bottom. The water that leakes is clean from almost any bacteria and is healthy and drinkable for infants and adults.

I have decided to do a combination of both points 1 and 3. I will create a funnel which will be attached to an underground cistern. In the underground cistern I will place bamboo charcoal to first put the water through initial filtration.

Secondly, whatever water is extracted from the cistern for drinking use will go through pots into a plastic/or any other material container they have present.

Polycarbonate corrugated roofing - Foli needs me to use.

Week 5 - Week 7

Collect water and start testing.

Method:

Bamboo charcoal, you’ve heard of it, you’ve heard of the great things it can do. But really, does it work? I think so. I’m not 100% sure, but I allowed several people to try my “bamboo water” and tea brewed with it alongside normal Chicago tap water and the results were positive. I have no scientific evidence, and I don’t need any – I like it, it tastes good, and I’m going to use it — and that’s enough for me (want technical? read this).

If you are interested in making bamboo charcoal, Pyro Energen has put together this pretty neat guide to making your own at home, with bamboo chopsticks at that!: http://www.pyroenergen.com/articles/how-to-make-bamboo-charcoal.htm

The idea behind bamboo charcoal, and any charcoal for that matter is the fact that it is extremely porous and will absorb impurities in water. It really isn’t “filtering” water if you set a stick in the water, in order to filter the water, the water must pass through granulated charcoal or some other medium (this is how Brita filters work).

Once you have obtained bamboo charcoal, follow these steps:

Sterilize the bamboo charcoal by boiling it for 10 minutes in water.

Allow the charcoal to dry for 24 hours.

Soak it in your tea water for 24 hours, then use the water to brew tea.

After about a month or so, reboil the charcoal, dry it, then use it again.

How Foli can do this on his own:

How to Make Bamboo Charcoal in a Simple Way

This time, a small part of the bamboo branch will be used instead for charcoal making.

Materials to prepare:

Few sticks of dried bamboo branch

Aluminum foil

Spirit (alcohol) lamp

Bamboo charcoal procedures:

Wrap the small bamboo branches with aluminum foil as seen below.

Probably, wrap the bamboo several times with aluminum foil to seal and protect it (air intact).

You can use an ice pick to make a tiny hole to the wrapped aluminum foil, to prevent it from bursting when the trapped air in it is expanded by the heat.

Bamboo Charcoal

Place a wire mesh on top of the spirit lamp and position the aluminum-wrapped bamboo on top of it.

Light up the lamp, this is done to dry the bamboo inside the foil. White smoke will come out from the tiny hole, and will turn to yellow. This might produce an unpleasant smell, so you will need to open your windows or do it outdoors.

Bamboo Charcoal

When the color of aluminum foil turns yellow, it means the job is done. The yellowish color is caused by the bamboo tar. Do not open the aluminum foil until it's cooled. Heat can break the charcoal easily.

Another Simple Way in Making Bamboo Charcoal

Bamboo Charcoal 1

Prepare an aluminum foil and a few bamboo sticks (I used bamboo chopsticks).

Bamboo Charcoal 2

Bamboo sticks, aluminum foil, wire mesh, and stove are the only thing you need.

Bamboo Charcoal 3

Wrap the bamboo sticks with aluminum foil. Make sure the wrapping has no holes.

Bamboo Charcoal 4

At the end of the wrapping, make a small hole. This is to let the accumulated gas to escape and not to blast.

Bamboo Charcoal 5

Place the wire mesh on the gas stove. Place the bamboo sticks on top of it.

Bamboo Charcoal 6

First, put up a small and weak flame. Soon, white steam-like gases will come out. Increase the flame after few minutes (steam will turn bluish). If it turns into a whitish smoke, then turn off the gas stove.

Bamboo Charcoal 7

Sink the aluminum foil into a water basin for few minutes.

Bamboo Charcoal 8

Now, open the aluminum foil and you'll see hard bamboo charcoals.

Hard and good charcoals do not make your hands dirty black.

Soft charcoals are caused by oxygen present during processing. These are poor charcoals and we can't use them for our purposes.

Another Procedure in Making Bamboo Charcoal

Bamboo carbonization can be divided into four stages according to temperature and products situation in a kiln.

First stage drying: the temperature is below 120°C and the speed of carbonization is slow. Heat is used to evaporate the water in bamboo, and the chemical composition of the bamboo is still intact.

Second stage precarbonization: the temperature is in the range of 120°C to 260°C and there is a distinct chemical reaction in bamboo. The unstable chemical compounds begin to decompose and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are released.

Third stage carbonization: the temperature is in the range of 260°C to 450°C, and the bamboo is decomposed into liquid and gas products. Liquid products contain much acetic acid, methanol and bamboo tar. Flammable methane and ethylene in gas products are increasing while carbon dioxide production is reduced.

Fourth stage calcinations (refining stage): the temperature is over 450°C. The bamboo becomes charcoal by providing a mass of heat, emitting the volatile substances and to enhance nonvolatile carbon. Based on the temperature in this stage, the bamboo charcoal can be divided into three groups (low-temperature, middle-temperature and high-temperature charcoal). The quality and properties of bamboo charcoal differs with different temperatures during the refining stage.

Lastly the bamboo is left to cool down and depending on the weather; this process may take from five to eight days in big volume.

During the above process, you can extract alcohol, tar, vinegar, medicinal liquid (water form), and many other products. Products from bamboo charcoal have countless uses - from skin diseases, allergies, influenza, heart diseases, stomachaches, insecticides, pesticides, germicides, bactericides, deodorants, disinfectants, gardening, cosmetics, cooking, washing, and hundreds of others.

Start small prototype - testing

Week 8

Necessary changes / revisions

Week 9 - Week 10

Start Filteration Research

Week 11 and 12

Make initial prototype

Week 13

Texting prototype / water testing

Week 14

Revisions/feedback

Project Assessment and next steps:

As with any project, the best way to test the success of your design and to ensure it works is through physically visiting the actual site, so my hope is to get the opportunity to actually go visit and test out the design on site and make necessary changes if required. Through the feedback that Foli provides I would like to continue to finesse the design till it works flawlessly for their system. I would also hope to continue to expand on the LifeStraw concept ,if it works for the Ndor Eco-Village and create bigger products that last longer for families in need of drinkable water.

Research on Water Contamination and ways to prevent it. Research Materials - Get in touch with Foli.

Progress:

Spoke to Foli and there are two priorities:

Temporary and/or Permanent covering for the well to prevent contamination and pollution.

Collection of rainwater for future use.

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microshiner · 5 years ago

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The problem with owning a van

At 1 PM on Sunday afternoon, I am sitting alone at a four-top table in the middle of a large buffet room. Soccer is on the TV in front of me and soccer is also on the TV behind me. I don’t know who is playing, or what the score is. I don’t have my glasses on, so I can barely see the screen. The room is fairly packed and full of conversation, although not in English, so despite all the activity I sit alone with my thoughts. I have three plates of food. What I would consider to be the main plate, the one I have been digging into the most fervently, is a mixture of lo mein noodles, sweet and sour something or other, wontons, french fries, onion rings, chicken nuggets, garlic bread, steamed mussels, and ice cold jumbo shrimp. I also have a large plate of salad. The third plate is a pool of sauce, mostly ketchup.

As cliché as this might sound, I am not in Vegas, and unfortunately, not hungover. But I am running on no sleep and walking with a severe limp, having trekked a good sixty or so miles back and forth across a festival site over the previous few days carrying everything from amplifiers to old wooden tables to dollies of Red Bull and Blue Moon.

Such is life in the summer months - full of festivals and constant events, keeping the bills paid while slowly draining the sanity. For many of them, I am fortunate enough to be on the press side of things, where my main responsibilities are observing the action and conducting a couple interviews along the way while keeping a steady stream of booze flowing in, because I heard a rumor once that alcohol helps prevent your ears from being damaged by loud music. It acts as a protective layer between the blasting speakers and your ear drum. I’ve got to look out for my health in these situations.

If I remember correctly, the guy that told me that felt it necessary to scream it at me from right in front of the stage as he was plugging his right ear with an index finger and holding a can of Coors Light in the other hand.

I was far from the media this weekend, though. More like a grunt laborer. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I did manage to score a couple vouchers for the food trucks. In the end, it was probably worth a few days of schlepping gear in and out of a Ford Econoline.

That’s the problem with owning a van. People are always wanting you to use it. I could make a monthly payment if I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to come up with an impromptu lie like, ‘Oh, yeah man, I won’t be able to help you move today because my van is actually missing the engine right now. Must have gotten stolen overnight or something. Sorry.’

One can only be so much of a workhorse. Two, however, can be just as good as four or five, as I learned last week from a band called You Knew Me When at Jagged Mountain Brewery in Denver. I was finishing off a long work day with a pint and had the chance to talk to the group before they took the stage (in this case, the corner of the tasting room) for a happy hour set and get the lowdown on how they make a living booking tours based around breweries and distilleries and what their music is all about. This two-piece has the sound and style of a full band, and then some.

The husband and wife duo of Cie (pronounced ‘See’) and Karisa Hoover hail from Nashville, the home of country, but they wanted to do something a little different. Cie comes from a heavy metal background, Karisa is about as close to the definition of an indie girl as you can find, and while their sound is certainly far closer to indie than metal, good metal to me wears its heart on its sleeve the way punk became known for, and with a glance at Cie’s lyric sheets, you will find plenty of heart.

Their live performances are full of that same heart. Heart, and booze. You Knew Me When traverses the region hitting primarily breweries and distilleries, sharing their craft music with hordes of craft guzzlers night after night and doing a fair amount of ‘sampling’ along the way. “We have a limit of two drinks before we play,” Karisa says. “I’m drinking kombucha right now so that I can adhere to that rule.” I think back to the time I’ve spent on the road and wonder why the hell I never of thought of that. So many sloppy performances could have been marginalized.

The two met while attending Belmont University in Nashville, Cie learning up on PR and marketing and Karisa studying music education. Together with their musical prowess, and following a wedding and several years together, they felt they had the necessary skill set to uproot from the shackles of everyday life and become a full-time touring band. The two did not start playing music together right away, but over time began to feel that their artistic juices could create one heck of a punch.

“I think it was really the creative drive,” Cie says. They decided, after putting together the band, to take a one year sabbatical from work and see what they could make happen musically.

“Three years later, here we are,” says Karisa with a laugh.

Traveling with only two people, both Cie and Karisa hold multiple instrumental duties. Cie sings, plays guitar, and handles foot percussion, while Karisa holds down the piano, ukulele, glockenspiel, cymbals and, oh yeah, does some singing herself. “When we started touring, we decided to just do the touring thing with just the two of us, so it was like, how can we create more of a cool sound with just the two people so that’s when we added the kick drum and she added some cymbals. We added stuff to fill out the sound as a duo.”

You Knew Me When is approaching their 100th brewery, quite an accomplishment. I haven’t even drank at that many breweries, let alone gigged. I just met these guys, but I am proud of them. They also have quite a few distilleries under their belt, with WildRye Distilling out of Bozeman, Montana being their favorite (also noted is Willie’s Distillery in Ennis,. Apparently, I need to visit Big Sky Country). They are doing it, and since I have no two drink rule on this particular night, I stop by State-38 Distilling on the way home to celebrate the band’s accomplishments.

To be honest, I have never tried locally made tequila here in Colorado, and I’ve been meaning to check these guys out for a while. Owner and Master Distiller Sean Smiley has built a solid reputation for his products- they are one of the few I’ve actually seen in the small, corner liquor store down the street from my house. Their tasting room boasts a wood-paneled bar and similar flooring, giving it a rustic finish that feels very Colorado appropriate.

“We’re a 100% agave distillery,” says lead distiller JT Tewinkle. They distill tequilas, obviously, but also a Blanco Agave Spirit and an agave-based vodka and a gin, both the world’s only. Add to that list North America’s only one-year aged Anejo and you’ve got yourself one of the most impressive menus in the country, let alone the 38th state which they call home.

It was during the aging process for the Anejo that Sean and JT came up with the concept and plans for their agave-based vodka and gin. “We started off with the Blanco and the Reposado, and then we were literally sitting on our heels for a year for the Anejo, so we had to start looking at other things we could do,” Tewinkle says. “There’s two rules with vodka - it has to be distilled at 190 proof or better, and it has to be filtered. So basically that means you can make vodka out of shoe leather if you (follow the rules).”

This is apparently the case with a lot of the mass-produced vodkas you see on the shelves at liquor stores and bars - when you read ‘distilled seven times,’ it often means that they started with garbage ingredients and had to distill it that many times just to get to 190 proof, meaning their bragging of a high number of distilling cycles is little more than a bad marketing ploy. “It’s a trick of the vodka industry,” Tewinkle informs me.

He and Smiley have known each other for twenty years. Smiley started the distillery and hired JT as his lead distiller almost immediately, confident in his knowledge of tequila and experience in the bar industry. “I’ve been a tequila guy my entire sixteen year career, so it was a very easy segue to learn how to make it. Plus, I have a chemical engineering background from college, so that didn’t hurt.”

I am lead into the distilling area behind the tasting room and poured a sample of the Reposado straight from the barrel. Their agave is 100% organic, right out of Jalisco, Mexico. All products are distilled and bottled in-house from agave to glass by the two themselves.

“I love distilling,” Tewinkle says. Smiley does as well, as I gathered from email correspondence, and it shows in their product line. I have yet to taste anything near what they are doing with their agave liquors. Back in the tasting room, I familiarize myself with a few more of their products. Not a bad cap to what has been a good day - nothing like a little craft agave to restore your sanity.

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earaercircular · 3 years ago

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'The ban on washing cars with tap water was just a foretaste'

Pieter Loose stood on the highest Alpine peaks, built a bamboo village in Brazil and took part in the World Rafting Championships in Bosnia. Now he shows off his water technology company Ekopak on the Brussels stock exchange. “Let us also try to become world champions in water recycling.”

Pieter Loose pulls his leg as he receives us. A muscle tear in the calf, the result of an hour of padel. These will be difficult weeks for the man in his thirties, without sports. "I'm a bit hyperkinetic. I need sports to recharge.'” He usually does that on the mountain bike. He covers 10,000 kilometres every year, with tours in Patagonia, Africa, Greece, the Dolomites. And sometimes rides of 5,000 altimeters per day. Suffering. “But for me this is pure holiday: crawling on my bike in the morning and just follow the GPS.”

Loose talks rather quietly and monotonously. Yet he is brimming with enthusiasm. "I've always had a big mouth and I've always been ambitious. But I never dared to think that my company would ever be listed on the stock exchange.” At the end of March, his water treatment company Ekopak[1], supported by main shareholder Marc Coucke, raised 50 million euros and it is now worth about 240 million euros. It is the temporary highlight in Loose's course. With Ekopak, he surfs along with water recycling technology on the realization that we are depleting our water reserves.

He paid "a few millions" for Ekopak. “It was a small, local company at the time, with a lot of knowledge. I put more ambition into it. The ball is rolling now. My dreams become reality. That gives me power.”

The company has been building container installations for many years to produce ultrapure water for chemical, pharmaceutical, textile and food companies, among others. “Compare it to a descaler for the city water in your home, to protect your taps. But we go much further." “For customers who produce high-pressure steam, the entire Mendeleev table has to be removed, otherwise those elements will affect the steam boilers,” explains Loose. “Every customer requires a different degree of purity. For cooling water, water to clean machines, water for chemical processes.”

While until recently Ekopak treated groundwater and drinking water, today - after thorough research - it starts from waste water at the companies themselves. “A technical challenge, but future-proof,” says Loose. In addition, he launched the WAAS (Water-as-a-Service) concept, whereby Ekopak not only builds installations, but also finances and operates them and invoices the customer per drop of water. This should result in unprecedented revenue and profit growth in the coming years. “We have turned a sustainable product into a sustainable business model.”

What is the driving force behind Ekopak's growth?

Loose: "Long ago, investments were made in a network to provide everyone with clean drinking water. Industrial companies have joined the same network. That was the most obvious solution. But the situation has become completely out of balance: factories today use billions of liters of drinking water per hour. This used water is subsequently treated in a biological water treatment plant to be discharged into streams and rivers. It flows to the sea and you lose it. Consequently we have to install desalination plants at the sea side that consume a lot of energy to pump the water inland again. That is not future-proof, and companies are increasingly interested in that.”

How serious are companies about this?

Loose: “Twenty years ago you had Greenpeace with a slogan like 'better a hole in my T-shirt than a hole in the ozone layer”. But that's where it stopped. Now a tipping point has been reached. Companies set themselves concrete targets for energy, CO2 and water use. This is important to attract investors, subsidies and staff. The dominoes are falling, and that's a good thing. Climate change is real.” “The water supply is under pressure. Companies are not only afraid of a blackout, but also of a blue out. We've already had a foretaste of bans on using tap water to wash cars and fill swimming pools, and bans for farmers on pumping water from streams and rivers in certain regions. Water has a value like oil. We never thought about that. But the awareness that there are limits is growing at a rapid pace. We feel that. We keeps us occupied.”

How bad is the water scarcity in Flanders?

Loose: "Very. There is plenty of rain, but because it is a densely populated and paved area, the rain disappears into the sewers instead of seeping into the ground. Moreover, we have an economy with water-intensive sectors: food, textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals. In the OECD ranking, we are at the very bottom for the amount of water available per person, behind southern countries such as Spain and Italy. That also offers opportunities. We are forced to find a solution: Belgium will educate the world when it comes to rational use of water. That creates companies like Ekopak. We also intend to score internationally with that knowledge.”

Is the industry the main culprit?

Loose: "I'm not saying that. There is also agriculture. And in families at home, only 10 percent of drinking water is used for drinking. We still flush our toilets en masse with drinking water instead of rainwater. But our focus is on industry, which uses a quarter of drinking water in the northern region of Belgium. If we could reduce that, we are taking a big step forward.”

What is the role of politics in the water problem?

Loose: “Everyone is aware of the issues. The Blue Deal of Flanders[2] proving it. Money is earmarked for buffer basins and more wet nature, or for reductions in leakage losses, and so on. Mandatory water audits are introduced at companies and linked to environmental and expansion permits and subsidies. It is being examined whether companies can inject any surplus of recycled drinking water into the network against payment. It wouldn't surprise me either that there will be a limit on applications for which you can use drinking water or groundwater in industry, comparable to measures for your swimming pool.”

How important is the IPO in the growth plan?

Loose: 'It is crucial to roll out the Water-as-a-Service strategy. We will not only build the small water factories at the customers' premises, but will also operate and pre-finance them. This requires money: from 100,000 to 10 million euros per installation, depending on the flow rate and quality. We invoice per drop for a period of ten years or longer. We decrease the customer’s worries. And while tap water is becoming more and more expensive, our price is 20 to 40 percent lower. We therefore also strengthen their competitiveness. That makes companies bend in our direction more quickly. In this way we can tackle the water problem at an accelerated pace.” “The IPO also generates more than just money. It gives you more body when negotiating long-term contracts with multinationals. We are now approaching them as a listed company, no longer as 'that SME from Tielt with a skilled CEO'.'

Do you already have customers for that new concept?

Loose: “Eight projects are up and running, among others at the chemical companies Eastman[3], the copper film producer Circuitfoil[4] in Luxembourg and the vegetable processor Darta[5]. An installation has been started up at the pharmaceutical company Takeda[6] in Lessines to reuse 600 million litres of waste water. That's the equivalent of 18,000 people's water use, which means all of Lessen. We actually connect an entire city to the water network in one go. I also see many small and good initiatives, such as trucks collecting construction site water. But what we realize is of a different order. We are going fast, and sustainability knows no bounds. We also go abroad. Takeda wants to roll out our technology in its factories worldwide.”

You have now lost control of Ekopak. Is that difficult?

Loose: "The opportunity we now have to move forward gives me more satisfaction than the idea of being one hundred percent owner of a small company from which you are not getting the most out of it."

Source

JAN DE SCHAMPHELAERE, Ekopak-topman Pieter Loose: 'Het verbod om auto's te wassen met leidingwater was slechts een voorsmaakje' in: De Tijd, 24-07-2021,

https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/technologie/ekopak-topman-pieter-loose-het-verbod-om-auto-s-te-wassen-met-leidingwater-was-slechts-een-voorsmaakje/10321369.html

[1] https://ekopak.be/en/sustainability/ [2] With the Blue Deal, the Government of Flanders is increasing its efforts in the fight against water scarcity and drought. With this deal, it wants to tackle the drought problem in a structural way, with an increased deployment of resources and the correct instruments, with the involvement of industry and farmers as part of the solution and with a clear exemplary role for the Flemish regional and other governments in Belgium. The Flemish Decree on Integrated Water Policy is officially approved in July 2003 (Belgium Law Gazette, 14.11.03). This decree is the juridical implementation of the European Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive in Flemish law. https://www.integraalwaterbeleid.be/en [3] Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company's innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive and diverse company, Eastman employs approximately 14,500 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2020 revenues of approximately $8.5 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The chemical company has 2 plants in the Ghent harbor in Belgium. https://www.eastman.com/pages/home.aspx. [4] Circuitfoil develops; Produces and markets high-quality copper foil, while constantly ensuring a safe and healthy environment in its plants, processes and products. rom its corporate headquarters in Luxembourg, Europe, the company distributes and markets its large range of products through a wide network of service centers and sales companies to customers worldwide. https://www.circuitfoil.com/company/profile/ [5] d’Arta is a Belgian family company founded in 1988 that has grown into a global player in the development, processing and commercialisation of fresh frozen products such as vegetables, fruits, herbs and ready-made (side) dishes. It employs more than 900 people and export our products to more than 100 countries. https://www.darta.com/en [6] Takeda is one of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in Belgium. Takeda’s presence in Belgium is reinforced by its global manufacturing site in Lessines. This Takeda site has over 18,000 m² of building surface and operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. It is a flexible plant for purification and a packaging center for immunology and hematology products, covering a total geographical span of over 80 countries worldwide. In total, more than 1000 professionals work for Takeda in Belgium, making us a top 5 employer in the pharmaceutical industry. https://www.takeda.com/en-be/who-we-are/contact-us/

#circular economy #water recycling #water management

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ellie-mnop · 6 years ago

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Hey! Sorry if this is bothering you or anything but I was wondering how you are learning? And if it’s online do you mind linking me to some?🙏🏻

Hi! I’m using several different tools and methods and resources to learn! I’m not sure whether you mean for Portuguese in particular or if you are looking for stuff that can be applied to other languages you’re trying to learn, so I’ll give you everything I have!

Grammar/Guided Practice:

Duolingo: This is the first thing I started using. Most people have heard of it already. It teaches grammatical concepts along with vocabulary and stuff, in a sequence made up of various themes, and the “Clubs” feature provides more open ended questions to practice writing skills. It doesn’t provide much in the way of explanations of new concepts, but every sentence has a comments section where you can ask questions and look at explanations other users have written. It doesn’t have speaking practice for Portuguese, although I think I have heard that it does for other languages, or used to, or something. https://www.duolingo.com/

LingoDeer: This is one I just started using and I’m really enjoying it. It works in a way that’s similar to Duolingo, although it provides more actual explanations of things instead of hoping for you to figure it out yourself, which is nice. It also has speaking exercises, which you record and play back to compare your pronunciation to an official example, which I find really helpful. It was designed with Asian languages in mind, and the website hasn’t been updated to point out that they very recently added betas of some other languages, but don’t worry, Portuguese is available. The activities are more interesting than those on Duolingo, but the sentences are less so, and there are no comments sections. https://www.lingodeer.com/

VerbSquirt: I installed this app because I needed more practice with verb conjugations than Duolingo was giving me. You choose the category and tense you want to practice, and it gives you some verbs, and you conjugate them as fast as you can from a multiple-choice list. You get more points for going faster. I don’t usually like or do well with games that rely on going as fast as you can, but I’m okay with this one because nothing bad happens if you don’t get a high score. It also teaches you the meanings of the verbs you’re working with, so it’s an alright way to get a little extra vocabulary too. The paid version is the same but with more words available. I think it’s based on European Portuguese (it includes conjugations for “tu” and its icon resembles Portugual’s flag) but I haven’t been confused by it even though the rest of the resources I’m using are Brazilian. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.jandaya.vrbsqrtenptfree&hl=en_US

Conjuga-me: This one is not an app for practicing anything, but I’m putting it in this category anyway because it’s still grammar. You put in a verb, and it shows you all of the conjugations in all of the tenses, and emphasizes, through text color, which forms are irregular or use special spelling rules. It helps, if you’re not sure about a conjugation you need and want to look it up. http://www.conjuga-me.net/

Explanations and Information:

Transparent Portuguese and Street Smart Brazil: These are two different websites, but I’m listing them together because they way I use them is very similar. They are blogs with interesting articles about various aspects of the language, such as grammar concepts, the usage of certain words, regional variations, or cultural concepts. They also have various resources to practice. For example, Transparent regularly posts articles to listen to and read, and sometimes posts songs with explanations of the lyrics, and Street Smart Brazil does articles with links to things, like movies in Portuguese on Netflix. Transparent has a Word of the Day every day, too, which is neat, and Street Smart has a YouTube channel. https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/ and https://streetsmartbrazil.com/blog/

I also sometimes use explanations of things on YouTube, but I mostly find those individually, I can’t think of any channels to recommend or anything.

Vocabulary and Dictionaries:

Reverso Context: This is a very helpful resource to look up words, because when it gives you a word, it also gives you a whole bunch of examples of that word used in various sentences. That way, you can see if the word has the connotation you want, what prepositions are used with it, and so on. http://context.reverso.net/translation/

Wiktionary: This one can be a little unwieldy to use, because all of the pages have so much information, but it’s very helpful. The lists of translations that are on the page of any given English word specify which definition they are translating, so that if a word has multiple meanings, you can find the one you want, and it has pronunciations in audio and IPA. (I can’t read IPA, but it’s helpful in finding out more about a particular sound I’m having trouble with.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page

Wikipedia: Specifically, the menu on the top or side of any Wikipedia article that allows you to view the version of an article in any language it has been written in. The title will be translated too, and so you can find out what that concept is called in the language you select. This is helpful for finding translations of titles or multi-word terms that might not be translated word-for-word, like “data storage” or “The Land Before Time”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

TinyCards: This has all of the vocabulary lists from DuoLingo, if you’re looking for a way to practice the vocabulary you learn from there. It’s just a flashcard app, but it’s a pretty nice one, I like it. https://tinycards.duolingo.com/en

Talking To Native Speakers:

HelloTalk: Initially, when I had questions about what I was learning, I asked my friend Sofia, because she is a native speaker and offered to help and stuff. Unfortunately, I cannot send you a link to install her. However, the next thing I did to find more people to talk to was install a language exchange app, where the point of it is to talk to people who already speak the language you are trying to learn, and who are trying to learn a language you already speak. There are many such apps, and I mostly just installed HelloTalk because it was the first one I heard about, but I like it a lot. I have met several lovely people there, and it’s easy to find people to talk to – I actually get more messages than I can answer. https://www.hellotalk.com/

Media And Content To Practice With:

Radiooooo: Useful for finding songs to listen to. I use it by choosing a country that speaks Portuguese, and a decade with a style I enjoy. Then, when it gives me a song I really like, I screenshot the title and artist so that I can find it again to add to a playlist or use other ways. Doesn’t work on Firefox. http://radiooooo.com/

Letras.com: A lyrics website, useful in conjunction with Radiooooo or with any other method of finding songs. Looking at the lyrics while listening to the songs helps with focusing on the words, and with building reading and listening skills together. https://www.letras.com/

Turma da Mônica: Comics are a nice way to practice reading, because the pictures help with figuring out what’s going on and confirming your understanding of what they text says. These comics are pretty cool and cute, and there are a lot of them. The ones at the link are free online on the official website, and there are also many that have been published in print if you can get those somehow. http://turmadamonica.uol.com.br/quadrinhos/

Games: I went through and checked the menus of the games on my phone and the store pages of the ones in my Steam library, to find out which ones I could play in Portuguese, and I recommend doing that, to find choices that correspond to your taste in games. Some of the ones I found include Battle for Wesnoth (a partial translation, you have to edit your preferences file to get it), Bridge Constructor, Game Dev Tycoon, Knights of Pen and Paper (this one was developed in Brazil, actually), Stardew Valley, Terraria, and on the phone Galaga Wars, and My Tamagotchi Forever. I haven’t tested all of them yet.

YouTube: I don’t have an overarching method or anything of finding YouTube videos to practice with, I just put in search terms that sound interesting in Portuguese. I’ve watched news clips, interviews, sing-along videos of kids’ songs, videos about Pokemon, videos where kids try different foods, all sorts of things. I don’t understand most of what I watch yet, but I repeat the videos however many times I need to try to catch what I can.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but this is most of what I use and do.

#langblr #portuguese #answered #blackvaldesjackson

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writesandramblings · 6 years ago

Text

The Captain’s Secret - p.96

“Nowhere and Everywhere”

A/N: This concludes the events of episode 13, "What's Past is Prologue." I swear on my life we're almost done. Five chapters remain.

For the record, I think the difference in cranial size makes the show concept referenced in this chapter one of the least credulous "twists" in TV history because brain matter. Where did it go. Was it compressed? How did that not show up on a scan? It's brain matter! How do you not end up with a drooling mess when you compress or remove brain matter? Surely there's a difference in the neurological structures between species that shows up on a brain scan... /rant

Full Chapter List Part 1 - Objects in Motion << 95 - Maybe I’m Amazed 97 - Facing the Music >>

Lalana found Groves asleep in the front of the lab, his head resting on his basketball, a line of drool trailing down onto the metal surface of Mischkelovitz's desk. She considered waking him, updating him as to the status of things in the other room, but she decided to sit in Mischkelovitz's chair and watch him sleep instead. Dreaming fascinated her. It was not an action lului had the capacity to do. She wondered what thoughts were running through Groves' head. Many times she had watched her Gabriel Lorca sleep, and sometimes, when he woke, he even remembered what he had been dreaming and described it when she asked.

Eventually Groves stirred, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth as he sat up. "Hey," he said in greeting. "You want some tea?"

The delicate aroma of the pu-erh tantalized the surface of her cells as it brewed. It really was no different to any other foodstuff from her perspective, but the hot temperature was reason enough for her to enjoy the experience of drinking it. "Perhaps you could bring Gabriel a cup."

"Nuh uh, I'm not brewing this for him."

"It is a shame you two do not get along. You are so alike."

Groves snorted. "You realize that's an insult."

"Not to me it is not."

He poured out Lalana's cup first, piping hot, and then his own, which he left sitting on the table to cool. She dipped her tongue into the scalding hot liquid, absorbing the mixture of tea particles and water. She could have, if she wanted, strained out the particles of tea from the water, or the reverse.

Groves leaned over his cup and breathed into it, letting the steam wash over his face. "So," he said, settling down into his chair. "They kick you out, too, or have you finally had enough of all the bullshit?"

Lalana tapped her fingers and let her tail drift back and forth like a stalk of wheat in the wind. "I will never have enough of it for as long as I live."

"That's a long time."

Her tongue clicked. "Yes, it is!"

They sat in silence, sipping tea. Groves noticed Lalana's padd on the workbench. Just prior to Lorca and O'Malley's arrival, Lalana had come out from her quarters with the padd saying she had noticed something unusual. "What was that thing you wanted to show me earlier?"

"Oh! There was a glitch in Brig Chess." Lalana pressed her tail against the padd, turning it on, but the program did not load. It stalled out on a "no connection available" screen. Brig Chess resided in the central computer core, which they were presently cut off from.

"Probably just wear and tear on your padd," said Groves. The fault had to lie in the hardware because Brig Chess was a perfectly coded program. "If you wanna play a game, maybe we can, I dunno, use some of Melly's junk as chess pieces?" There were plenty of bits and bobs around, the scattered remnants of Mischkelovitz's many forays into cloak detection research.

"I would rather not, I am still recovering from helping Gabriel and I do not feel up to a game. It is very taxing, redirecting internal resources to affected cellular regions."

Groves hummed in disinterest, unsympathetic to the lului's self-inflicted plight, and looked over at the door to Lalana's quarters. "She about done in there?"

"Emellia has finished with the surgery and is now working with the spores in the wall. That is why I left. It was too bright to look at the spores directly. Like a halo of supernovas."

"What's she doing?"

"Something involving particle charge. She became very excited about it after we watched the message from her future self."

The veil of disinterest lifted. Groves sat straight up and spilled a small quantity of tea onto his leg in the process, wiping at the liquid hot spot with his hand to distract from the faintly scalding sensation as he abandoned his cup. "We have the message?"

"Yes. Gabriel has it. If you like, I am sure they would let you see the message, too."

Groves considered that. "Eh." He shrugged. There were still forty hours left on Mischkelovitz's protocol and whatever tea party was going on in the next room was not one he had an interest in joining. Not while he had a perfectly good cup to finish out here. "In a bit. We got plenty of time to kill!"

Lalana's eyes glinted mischievously as she asked, "Will this be first- or second-degree murder?"

"Neither. I'll represent us. Guaranteed acquittal."

Lalana clicked her tongue and rolled back on her haunches, recalling a conversation with the original Lorca. "I doubt they have a murder sentence long enough to be truly punitive to me."

"Yeah, but you've got money! They could always go after damages. Take your ship, for example."

The clicking ceased and Lalana gripped the back of Mischkelovitz's chair and curled her tail around it. "I am very much looking forward to being back on my ship." Saru's shipwide announcement regarding the possibility of jumping back on the wave of the mycelial reactor's destruction had given everyone something to look forward to. There were still particles of the other Gabriel Lorca present in the dusty corners of the Gabriella. "Though, it will mean that Gabriel becomes no one again. Do you know, Emellia said the message was about saving Gabriel the whole time? Apparently, the words 'I can't save anyone' were a reference to Captain Nemo."

Squinting thoughtfully, Groves said, "Huh, yeah. In qoryan, that'd be 'no one can be saved.' And, well, nemo est supra leges! Geez, now that's got a double meaning, too. Wait. Why's he Captain Nemo?" Groves jabbed his thumb towards Lalana's door.

"Because Gabriel's favorite book is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, he is a captain, and in our universe, he is also no one."

If Groves had still been holding his cup, he would have dropped it. His jaw went slack.

Lalana watched the spreading despair on Groves' face. "What is wrong, John?"

"We're..." He worked it over in his head again to be sure. Allan thought the timeline had corrected itself and expected Lorca to die. If history said Lorca lived, this whole timeline would become a manifest paradox. "We're the remnant. Oh, god. It's us." He covered his mouth with his hand. The only thing keeping them extant was the null time bubble.

Lalana pressed her knuckles together. "I do not think that is the case." Allan might have been lying when he said the message was the remnant, but Lalana was looking at this from the perspective of a lului, which told her something very different.

"Unless!" snapped Groves, jerking his finger into the air. "History stays the same." His every word was punctuated with determined intensity. He dropped his gaze away from Lalana, ruminating a moment, then grabbed the padd from the table and opened Brig Chess.

The main chess program remained inaccessible, but Groves didn't need the main program. He just needed the initialization skin on the padd. He began to program a series of commands to automatically trigger once the padd's connection to the central database was restored.

"What are you doing?" asked Lalana, leaning forward and peering over the top of the padd. From her perspective, Groves was programming upside-down, but she had no difficulty reading the letters on the screen at this angle, even if she did not understand what all the numbers and symbols meant.

"Everything must go," declared Groves. "Anything that'd clue a historian into what's going on. All the footage in the lab since we got here, all the footage in the hallway... Too obvious. I'll wipe it all. Just make it look like a... power surge. Burn up all the security footage and backups since our last data transmit."

This suited Lalana just fine because it proved the thing she had been suspecting for a while now: once the deed was done, it was done. They had been past the point of no return from the moment she encountered the Triton. None of them could see the bigger picture in the moment, but they were all pieces who had been moved into place by someone who could. Someone with a very long perspective indeed.

The issue of the security feeds was now solved, but not the source of the problem. Groves put the padd down. "Listen. I have to tell you something. You're not gonna like it. That man in there? He is a threat to our entire existence. If we don't get rid of him, and someone finds out he's not dead?" Groves brought both his hands up and imitated an explosion. "Poof! We vanish in a paradox. He can't be alive."

"Then I will make sure he is dead," said Lalana.

Groves blinked. He had expected at least some pushback to his latest time travel murder proposal. "So, how do you wanna do it? Phaser or some sort of injection... Vent the atmosphere?" He shuddered at the thought and realized if they were going to do this, he was not going to be the one to pull the trigger.

Lalana clicked her tongue. "There is no need. We have a perfectly good dead body just outside."

Einar Larsson. She was proposing they pass off Larsson as Lorca. "You don't understand. If he's walking around—"

"I understand perfectly. My mission is clear. I must make sure history believes Gabriel Lorca is dead. I know I can do this because I have already done it. If I had not, we would not be having this conversation."

It was partly true. Time was a flat circle, nonlinear, all points happening at once, except right now, they were in a bubble that was not permitting information to escape. Once the bubble popped, either Lalana was right, or they were all dead. No, not dead. Nonexistent.

Groves had questioned the value of existence for most of his life. A few times, the answers had been force-fed him by O'Malley and others who found existence worthwhile and insisted he fall into line with their values. He acquiesced not because he agreed, but because he wanted them to be right and to figure out whatever it was everyone else saw in life that made it so worthwhile and meaningful. Thirty-seven years of enduring futility. Now that he found himself suddenly confronted by the end of all the futility—potentially forever—he did not want it to end. He wasn't even sure why, just that he desperately wanted to stay alive and keep existing. Maybe just to prove he could.

There was one big problem with Lalana's idea, emphasis on the big. Larsson's size was unmistakable. "No one's gonna believe Einar is Lorca."

"They will when I am done with his body."

"Oh, god," said Groves, covering his mouth again, this time to fight the liquid bile rising at the horror of her suggestion. Blood drained from his skin, turning him an ashy brown. "He's your best friend!"

"He is," said Lalana. "He was dying, John. At least this way his death has served a purpose."

It was perfect lului logic Groves still struggled with it. "You used him," he said in a small voice.

"I did, but because we loved each other, he was happy to be used. It was of benefit to us both."

Groves shook his head. Was that what love was supposed to be? He realized he didn't know. He still wanted no part of this, but if this was the price of preserving reality, then he had to pay it. The alternative was unthinkable in a wholly literal and terrifying sense.

Out of nowhere, the computer said, "Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen..."

Groves startled. "Computer!"

"I think it is time," said Lalana, hopping down from Mischkelovitz's chair and pushing it aside to access the passage into the wall. "I will go and fetch Gabriel's hair dye. Please inform him of what we must do and bring Einar's body inside." She ducked into the wall and disappeared as the countdown ended.

The prospect of dragging Larsson inside was daunting. Groves grimaced and went to the interior door to ask for help.

The scene that awaited him was not what he expected. Lorca, alert and propped upright, and Mischkelovitz collapsed into a twisted lump in his arms. O'Malley slumped on the floor next to the coffee table. Cables running from the couch to the wall and an exposed wall panel revealing tubes filled with the remnants of what had to be Prototaxites stellaviatori spores, but they were green instead of blue.

Even stranger, Lorca looked relieved to see Groves. "Get Melly to sickbay," he ordered.

"Don't call her—"

"Now!" barked Lorca, gasping at the resulting pain.

Groves lifted Mischkelovitz up as easily as a paper butterfly, his eyes widening at the sensation of dead weight in his arms.

The comms sounded. "Bridge to O'Malley. What's your status?"

"Don't answer," hissed Groves to Lorca, then shouted, "Can't talk! Call back later. Groves out." The comm cut off and he started towards the door. "You say anything to anyone and we're all dead! Got it?" He did not wait for a response and went tearing out of the room.

Lorca sat there, mildly amused by Groves' outburst. This was not ideal, but once he cleared everything up with Saru, Discovery would realize helping Lorca was its best chance at surviving in this universe. They would rally Lorca's supporters and cement control of the Charon. Then he could get back to what was really important: executing Georgiou. Burnham was going to feel like a total idiot once she heard the truth about the emperor. Let her, he decided. She needed to know there were consequences for betraying him.

A minute later, Groves was back. "What the hell! She has a heartbeat, but..." He shook his head back and forth in denial. Zero neural activity.

"Mally," prompted Lorca.

Groves grumbled in qoryan—it sounded to Lorca like swearing—but managed. O'Malley was not much bigger than his sister.

The lights suddenly shifted and the computer calmly intoned, "Black alert, black alert."

"Shit," said Groves.

"Stamets?" asked Lorca, because last he knew, Discovery was incapable of performing any spore jumps owing to the incapacitation of its mycelial-modified navigator.

Groves ignored Lorca as he headed towards the door. "Computer! Override all Lab 26 operational protocols to my voiceprint only. Authorization Game..."

The door slid shut. Lorca stared a moment, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, then slid his legs down from the couch to the floor. "Lorca to bridge." No response. "Computer, status report." Nothing. Lorca got up from the couch, fighting the reeling sensation in his head, and used the coffee table as support to reach the door. He hit the controls. Nothing again.

Discovery shuddered under an impact and Lorca half-slid, half-fell to the floor. He was trapped, just like the little girl in Mischkelovitz's story.

The command to access the system override turned out to be a sequence of attempted moves on the Brig Chess practice game screen. Petrellovitz found the sequence buried in the middle of the program's code and intentionally mislabeled. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, commit, cancel. She executed the code through the program's interface and just like that, she was into Discovery's data.

The first thing she looked for was important information. The most highly-guarded files, the secrets coded for the captain's eyes only, and anything that had high levels of encryption. There were plenty of files about the spore drive to parse. Petrellovitz skimmed past them. She hardly needed instruction on how to conduct mycelial transports.

There was a file about her neighbor in the brig that made for some interesting reading. Normally Petrellovitz had little regard for the medical sciences, steeped as they were in interpersonal interaction, but this one represented a real threat to the Terran Empire. Aliens capable of disguising themselves as humans well enough to fool medical sensors. Disgusting.

Also potentially useful. Petrellovitz did a mental reassessment of the Klingon woman, willing to admit L'Rell was a scientist worthy of some begrudging respect for her accomplishments in this area.

She also accessed her own personnel log. It took a moment to locate because her counterpart's surname was "Mischkelovitz," but her given name was still "Emellia." When Petrellovitz opened the file, she found her own face looking back at her, entirely unblemished, and could not help but stare in dead-eyed wonder. Stranger still, this "Mischkelovitz" had been married—to "Milosz Mischkelovitz," who could only be Milosz Mieszała.

Petrellovitz's memories of Milosz were of a depraved, perverse, cruel boy who had given her all her early scars. They had been bitter rivals up until the moment of Milosz's death. She missed him sometimes. Hating him had been the highlight of her childhood.

Petrellovitz's foray into the "what ifs" of her counterpart's life was interrupted by the sensation of Discovery dropping out of warp and firing its weapons. She switched to the bridge log and read through the action. It was a little dry absent the sharp tones of command under pressure; the computer rendered every line with only the most basic punctuation.

[OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: Sir, incoming emergency transport. [CMD] CDR SARU: Is it Burnham? [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: No. It's the colonel, and... The containment field is still up. [CMD] CDR SARU: Mr. Bryce, find out O'Malley's status. [COMM] LTJG BRYCE: Yes, sir. Bridge to Transporter Room 1. [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: Sir. Burnham did it. The containment field is down. [CMD] CDR SARU: Get her back, now. [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: I can't get a lock, captain. I'm working on it. [CMD] CDR SARU: Work faster. Mr. Rhys, torpedo status. [TACT] LT RHYS: Armed and ready to launch. [COMM] LTJG BRYCE: Copy. Bridge to O'Malley. What's your status? [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: Detecting a comm signal. I've got her. [CMD] CDR SARU: Get her out of there now. [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: She's onboard. [CMD] CDR SARU: Black alert! [ENG] CDR AIRIAM: Aye, captain. [OPS] LTJG OWOSEKUN: The Terran ship is targeting us, sir. [CMD] CDR SARU: It's now or never, Lt. Detmer. [NAV] LT DETMER: Aye, captain. [TACT] LT RHYS: Locked on, captain. [CMD] CDR SARU: Fire all three. [TACT] LT RHYS: Aye, sir. [CMD] CDR SARU: Warp speed, now. [NAV] LT DETMER: Yes, sir.

There was a tremendous shudder as Discovery was racked by a series of concussive bursts. Not weapons fire, waves of energy from an explosion. The whole ship shuddered and shook.

Then the spore drive engaged. Petrellovitz felt the hairs on her arm stand up. She had never experienced mycelial transport firsthand, Georgiou had captured her before she had the chance, and she was thrilled to finally have the chance. She switched over to the data stream from the engineering lab. The power and possibility of a fully-functional ship with a spore drive.

She realized immediately this was no normal jump. The data was incredible. They were sustaining travel through the mycelial network. That meant two things to Petrellovitz: first, that their target was not anywhere near their starting point, and second, that they were not going to end up where they intended.

Then it was over. Petrellovitz checked the scans just to be sure and found her suspicions entirely confirmed.

They were back in the universe of Discovery's origin.

Petrellovitz scowled at the tiny brig control screen. This was a significant setback. While Lorca could pass as the alternate version of himself and move freely through this universe, she could not.

Unless Lorca was onto something with all that nonsense about fate. The guard walked by to check they had both survived the trip and Petrellovitz glared at him, then resumed pretending to play chess. The guard resumed his post by the door. She opened a comm line.

"Don't look up. I'm in the other cell. We're not supposed to be talking."

The answer was slow to come, hesitant. "Who are you?"

"My name is Petra. I'm a captive of these humans, same as you are, but not the same, because I've taken control of their computer core. Do you understand what that means?"

"Yes."

"I've noticed you speak English well. I had a question for you. Your work creating infiltration agents, Ash Tyler, could you do the same to me? Can you re-skin me?"

Across the brig, L'Rell twisted slightly in her bunk, turning her head to look at the woman in the other cell. Petrellovitz was staring intently at her cell's computer panel, apparently engaged in some sort of human game. L'Rell had seen the game in her own brig controls, but she did not know how to play and no inclination to learn. "You want me to turn you into someone? Who?"

Petrellovitz smiled at her fake display. "Myself."

L'Rell sighed and settled back down. The weapons fire and black alert had roused her from her sleep and now she was being prevented from returning to it. "You do not understand. In order to re-skin you, I need another person to use as a material. Then there are the bones and muscles. They must be resized..." That had taken a very long time to sort out with Voq, especially owing to the difference in cranial size between humans and Klingons.

"I understand perfectly. How long would it take if the template possessed the exact same physical dimensions and characteristics as the person being reskinned? If you only had to change the surface and the surface already matched perfectly in every dimension."

This was a curious question. "A day, with the right tools."

"What about just the tissue on the skull and hands?"

The questions were getting stranger. "A few hours," offered L'Rell.

"Do they have what you need in sickbay?"

L'Rell thought back to her time there, when she had released Ash Tyler from his torment and turned him into whatever he was now. "Yes, they do. But why would I help you?"

"Because we have something in common. The people on this ship are our enemy."

This was not the first time L'Rell had been part of a deal to work alongside a human out of mutual self-interest. She had done the same with Cornwell aboard the Sarcophagus. That arrangement had been sufficient for L'Rell to escape Kol but it had not played out as expected. Instead of being transferred to a secure holding facility, L'Rell had been left to languish in Discovery's brig, a forgotten token of a war that seemed suddenly unimportant to Discovery.

There was no reason to expect this would not turn out similarly, but equally, sitting in this cell was an embarrassing, dishonorable circumstance with no clear end in sight.

L'Rell said slowly, "It would be very painful."

"Sounds fun," said Petrellovitz, keying in new commands through the master override hidden within the Brig Chess program. "Let's take a field trip."

Materializing with Georgiou in Discovery's transporter room, Burnham looked for some sign of Lorca but all she saw was a pool of blood smeared across the transporter pad. The computer announced a black alert. "Where is he," Burnham demanded of the transporter technician as she stepped down from the transporter.

The curly-haired cadet looked at her haplessly. "Lab 26."

Any further investigation was cut short as Discovery shuddered under an impact. Georgiou stepped down from the transporter pad, hands tight on her phaser rifle, her eyes scanning as if she could spot her prey though Discovery's walls.

"Burnham to Lab 26."

"Unable to comply. Lab 26 is under a command lockdown."

There was a smaller series of shudders—Discovery firing torpedoes—and then the whole ship shook as it initiated a jump to warp ahead of the resulting explosion.

The shaking intensified as the familiar shift of the mycelial drive kicked in. "It's our spore drive," Burnham explained to Georgiou, but this was unlike any previous spore jumps. The shaking did not stop and the vibration of moisture particles in the air continued far longer than was normal. All they could do was hold on and wait.

Discovery dropped back out into normal space. The air around them stilled. Glancing between Burnham and the fearsome Emperor Philippa Georgiou, the transporter technician offered an update: "There was an emergency transport from Lab 26 to the medbay." Emergency medical transports bypassed the transporter pad, but he had seen the transport in his logs.

Burnham turned to Georgiou and held out a hand for her weapon. "You can't keep that on this ship," she advised.

Georgiou handed it over with a sneer. "I don't need it," she proclaimed. "I will make sure he is dead with my own two hands."

For the first time, Burnham felt a slight tinge of concern about the woman she had rescued, but the idea of leaving Georgiou to die on the Charon was too much to bear. The face was cold and hard and angry almost beyond the point of recognition, but when Burnham looked at the emperor, she still saw her old captain and she would not be responsible for Georgiou's death again. This seemed the only way to be rid of the guilt.

Saru's voice came over the comm. "Burnham, what is your status?"

"Cuts and bruises. Nothing serious," said Burnham. "And Lorca?"

There was a pause—a small one, just long enough for Burnham to realize Saru was receiving new information. "Lorca?"

"He beamed over with O'Malley," said Burnham.

(On the bridge, Saru looked at Owosekun, who shook her head. She had tried to say the name in the moment but had been too shocked herself.)

"He was wounded. He'll be in the medbay," Burnham stated. "The emperor and I are headed there now."

This time, there was no hesitation at the new information. Saru said smoothly, "I will meet you there."

Lorca was sitting on the ground next to the coffee table, violently throwing the implements of Mischkelovitz's trade at the wall, when the door finally opened. He grabbed the nearest tool, a spanner, and lifted it to throw at Groves' smug face only to freeze in place, not that it mattered. His throw would have been too high. Lorca's face twisted into a question.

"Voice modulator," said Lalana, disturbingly in Groves' voice. She removed the device from the translator around her neck and her usual voice returned. "How are you?"

"Better now that you're here," offered Lorca, liberally smearing on the charm. The confinement had given him time to strategize. "I know a lot's happened, but we can fix this. My people listen to me. They'll back down if I tell 'em. Tell Saru I'm prepared to negotiate, we don't have to be enemies. I want Discovery to get home as much as its crew does. Just not with Michael. I need her. Hell, you can stay too, if you want."

"We are already home," said Lalana, settling down next to his knee.

All the levity fell away. So many times Lalana had said something that seemed to be figurative and it turned out to be literal. There had to be a reason the spore jump had taken far longer than it should have, but Lorca figured it had something to do with compensating for Stamets. Surely she was not saying that... But he knew she was. He stared at her in horror.

Lalana flicked her tail across Lorca's hair at his obvious distress. It only annoyed him further. "I am sorry, I know this is not what you wanted, but it is not as bad as it seems."

Lorca closed his eyes and exhaled. Starfleet was going to lock him up in a hole so dark, it would make this confinement look like an amusement park. When he opened his eyes, it was with an expression of determined annoyance. "How do you figure that?" he seethed. "You gonna help me escape?"

"If need be, but I do not think I will have to. You have committed no crime."

"Really?" said Lorca crossly. "Killin' the other me and taking his place? That's not a crime?"

"I believe they can be convinced to forgive you for taking his place, and they will never know you killed him. Life is a story we tell each other. I told them a story of you. And I am a very good liar, Gabriel."

Except O'Malley had asked the question point-blank on the Charon. The cat was already out of the bag. "I think they're gonna figure it out," said Lorca. Probably as soon as O'Malley woke up. "We need a plan."

"I have a plan. I told them how scared you were to lose Discovery, so now they will understand and help you."

He could scarcely believe his ears. "Why would you say that!" he howled, ignoring the pain.

Lalana's head twisted. "Because it was true. I needed that truth to convince everyone of the lie."

Lorca stared at her. "No wonder Saru fired on the Charon! You emasculated me."

"Gender is not a lului concept," noted Lalana, clicking her tongue lightly.

Lorca grimaced, not meaning it literally, but as usual, literal was what he had gotten. "You know that's not what I meant," he scowled, filled with revulsion and contempt. "You told them I was weak."

"That is the difference between our universes, Gabriel. In your universe, a weakness is something to be pounced upon and taken advantage of. Here a weakness can be something else. It can be something for which people have compassion. Now they will help you."

At what cost, he wondered. This was a disaster. He pressed his hands against his head, fingers digging into his scalp.

"The important thing is, they now know what I know. They know you are a good man and that you have a good heart. A heart that includes me."

He remembered the fortune he had cracked open when he first took command of Discovery. Then, as now, he did not believe its contents. "You have got to be kidding me!"

"I promise I am not. For as long as you live, my cells will be in your cardial tissue," Lalana assured him. "I had to put them there to keep you alive."

Petrellovitz, he realized. She was here on Discovery. Petrellovitz had gotten him through the universes the first time and could do so again. He had to find her, get some spores, recreate the experiment, get back, rally his people and convene a meeting with Sarek. Sarek was on his way to the Charon right now, would probably arrive within the hour. Not enough time to set up a return transport, but Lorca would arrive a day or two late, make a dramatic entrance, proclaim some tactical advantage had been gained by this course of action, act as if the whole thing was intentional. In fact, this was an opportunity to negotiate terms with the Federation for every alien not of use to the Empire to be deported to this universe and bring back confirmation of the deal. With a bit of bluster, Georgiou would be cowed back into submission and executed. He had already proven she was weak.

This was salvageable. Lorca could fix it, put the puzzle back together, make it even better this time.

The sound of the door interrupted Lorca's plotting. It was Groves. He dove towards Lorca, grabbed him by the shirt, and shook him as he sprayed spittle and shouted in Lorca's face, "What the hell did you do to her!"

Lorca could feel the rip in his chest begin to tear again. A heady wave of pain swept over him. "Get off me," he said through gritted teeth, half-twisting away.

"Yes," said Lalana, wrapping her tail around Groves' neck. "Put him down, John, or I will deprive your brain of oxygen."

The threat was not idle. Groves could feel the surface of his skin being prodded by a thousand tiny little tendrils. He released Lorca and retreated a few steps. "So help me, I'll kill him myself! You killed her!"

Sneering, Lorca pulled his shirt back into place. "I didn't do anything."

This was enough of a clue for Lalana to realize Mischkelovitz's absence was not because she was watching over an unconscious O'Malley off in the medical bay. "What is he talking about, Gabriel? Where is Emellia?"

Lorca explained, more or less, what Mischkelovitz had said she was doing. Groves watched the message for himself. When it was over, he snatched the holodisc from the air and threw it across the room.

"That is the most asinine thing I've ever heard!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, apoplectic with rage. He sat down on the floor and put his head in his hands. How could Mischkelovitz be so stupid.

Because it was a pattern. Mischkelovitz saw patterns in everything. She was easily swept away by them, obsessed with them to a fault. She really, truly thought the universe was configured like a jigsaw puzzle and that everything fit together one way and if she could just figure out all the pieces...

Groves knew the truth. There was no pattern. Oh, there were some patterns, like physics and math, but not on the level of significance where Mischkelovitz saw them. Patterns on this level were just the human brain trying to make sense of the random coincidences of the universe.

She had fried her brain for nothing, chasing a remnant that did not exist.

As the rebel forces neared the Charon's position, an alarm sounded. "We are detecting weapons fire at our target coordinates."

"Do we have a visual?" asked Sarek. He was standing beside the captain's chair on the bridge of the Vulcan-Klingon-Andorian cruiser currently serving as the rebel command ship. Voq was seated in the captain's chair itself.

An image appeared of a small but unmistakable ship silhouetted against the massive glowing orb of the Charon's mycelial reactor: Discovery, barreling down towards the reactor in an apparent suicide run.

"Turn us around," said Sarek.

The helmsman complied, but Voq bristled with dismay. "Is that for you to decide?" Voq asked.

"Perhaps not," said Sarek as the Charon exploded in front of their eyes, "but it seemed only prudent."

The shockwave produced by the ship was massive, on a scale unlike anything. Cheers erupted from the non-Vulcans present. Lorca might have been in control of the Charon, but the ship was a symbol of Terran superiority, and every non-Terran had reason to enjoy seeing it destroyed, even the Vulcans.

Sarek watched the shockwave dispassionately. "It would appear we have gotten more than we bargained for," he intoned. "I suspect this means our deal with Lorca is no more."

"This is a victory!" said Voq.

"It is," agreed Sarek, and signaled the two Vulcan guards standing at the bridge doors with a wave of his hand. At once, their weapons were firing, cutting down every Klingon and Andorian on the bridge.

Voq was splayed out on the ground, gasping as he stared up at Sarek. "You... Why? You have betrayed us."

"No," said Sarek, taking the phaser the guard offered and pointing it down at Voq. "I've done what was necessary for my son." He pulled the trigger and ended Voq's life.

Sarek did not need Lorca or Michael. Waiting in the wings were other, more Vulcan-friendly Terran factions who could see the difference between Vulcans and the other, more grotesque humanoids. As he opened a channel to the rest of the fleet, the pattern of death was repeated across every ship and the Vulcans took control.

"The fall of the Charon," said Sarek, "is the rise of Vulcan."

Part 97

#Star Trek Discovery #fanfic #fanfiction #Captain Lorca #Commander Saru #Gabriel Lorca #Mirror Lorca #michael burnham #Emperor Georgiou #Mirror Sarek

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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The science behind 'the breath of a wok,' an essential ingredient in the perfect bowl of fried rice (CNN) — Chef Kwok Keung Tung tosses the wok with one hand, using the other to stir with a metal spatula. Both hands occupied, he uses his knee to nudge the gas stove’s lever up and down to control the fire fan, sporadically engulfing a third of the wok in flames. It takes only three minutes for the lump of white rice to transform into the bowl of golden fried rice he places on the serving counter. “This is what you’re looking for — wok hei (the breath of wok),” Danny Yip, co-founder of Hong Kong restaurant The Chairman, tells CNN Travel. “Wok is the essence of Chinese cooking in South China. And Cantonese chefs are the master of fire and wok.” Wok hei: An invisible but essential ingredient in Cantonese cooking. Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN If anyone’s an authority on the subject of wok hei, it’s Yip. For those who grew up in a Cantonese family, it’s almost impossible to go to a Chinese restaurant without hearing someone — usually older — comment “gau wok hei” (enough wok hei) or “ng gau wok hei” (not enough wok hei) when establishing a benchmark of how authentic a Chinese restaurant actually is. Hei (also Romanized as “hay”) is the Cantonese word for “chi,” meaning energy flow. It was once a hard-to-explain and largely ethereal concept mostly popular in the South China region. In other parts of China or Asia, even though they used woks, they didn’t focus on wok hei. It wasn’t until the legendary American Chinese food writer Grace Young coined it poetically as “the breath of a wok” in her book “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing” in the 1990s that the concept of wok hei was introduced officially to international audiences. “Wok hei is not simply hot food; it’s that elusive seared taste that only lasts for a minute or two,” Young wrote. In other words, it’s a combination of that steaming aroma you breathe in and the almost-burning sensation on your tongue that somehow enhances the flavors of the dish. How a wok works In recent years, an increasing number of food writers and scientists have been modernizing Chinese cooking while looking deeper into its origins, including wok hei. After realizing how little scientific research has been done on Chinese cuisine, Hung-tang Ko, doctoral student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, co-published a research paper titled “The physics of tossing fried rice” with David Hu — a scientist most famous for his studies on fire ants and an Ig Nobel Prize-winning investigation into why wombats have cube-shaped poop. “Wok hei and the Maillard reaction require high heat. The commercial Chinese stoves have a mind-blowing amount of heat coming out of them,” explains Ko, who spent months studying how and why chefs toss fried rice with a wok, while also simulating rice trajectories. The Maillard reaction is a chemical interaction that occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars in food placed under high heat. It causes foods to brown and releases aroma and flavors. But why does it have to be cooked in high heat and in such a hurry? “That’s how to extract the maximum wok hei in the shortest amount of time. So the aroma you unlocked from the Maillard reaction won’t escape,” explains The Chairman’s Yip. Hence, an important component of wok hei — apart from the fire and the actual wok — is the chef’s tossing skill. The right way to toss a wok Tossing a wok is a skill that takes time to develop. A young chef at The Chairman spends more than a year practicing on the wok by cooking staff meals before he or she is allowed to stir fry a dish for customers. “Why don’t other chefs use a wok? It’s heavy and the fire can be intimidating and hard to control — now you know why none of the Chinese chefs have any arm hair left,” says Yip, only half-jokingly. Why won’t stirring suffice? In the case of fried rice, every time it leaves the hot wok surface it cools down and avoids getting burnt, as demonstrated in the above video. “Tossing the wok allows better mixing, which is essential when you have super high heat. Stirring under high heat will likely lead to burning,” says Ko. During Ko’s research, he discovered that chefs often pivot their woks using the edge of the stove — instead of lifting the entire wok away from the stove — to save energy and increase speed. Two motions happen simultaneously with each toss: “Back and forth pushing and pulling”, and “tilting and rotating the wok back and forth” in a see-saw motion. So what makes the round-bottomed and highly conductive wok such a unique piece of cooking equipment? “Potentially, other utensils would work, too. But you just need to mix at amazing speeds to make sure that the heat is going into your ingredients uniformly,” explains Ko. On average, the chefs in the study tossed their wok at a speed of 2.7 times per second. This is also why many Chinese chefs suffer from muscle injuries. One of the goals of Ko’s study was to see if it’s possible to create a robot that could help chefs toss their wok to reduce the physical strain on their limbs. Ko thinks his published research can potentially be applied in other parts of life. “Can you imagine a laundry drying machine that uses the wok tossing mechanics to toss clothes? My gut feeling is that it will be more efficient — and funnier,” says Ko. How to make perfect fried rice Kwok Keung Tung has been a chef at The Chairman since its opening in 2009. Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN Fried rice was brought into the spotlight in July, thanks to a viral YouTube video titled “Uncle Roger DISGUSTED by this Egg Fried Rice Video.” In the clip, “Uncle Roger,” a character created by UK-based Malaysian stand-up comedian Nigel Ng, reacts to a BBC video on how to cook egg fried rice. He points out everything done wrong in the original egg fried rice video, a response that has gathered more than 17 million views so far. Among the major offenses in the original video? Watery rice. It’s an issue that sits close to the hearts of Hong Kong’s chefs. “Fried rice and fried beef noodles are the two dishes often used to judge the wok hei of a restaurant,” says Yip. “It is difficult to get each piece of rice or noodle slightly toasted and mixed evenly with the rest of the ingredients without burning it.” Ko agrees. “Fried rice is a very symbolic cuisine,” he says. “It is surprisingly hard to make perfect fried rice although it looks really simple. The general principle is to keep it hot — by avoiding putting in watery content that cools the materials down — and mix a lot to prevent sticking and burning.” Ko suggests using rice that’s been cooked the night before. “It goes back to the high heat argument. When you put (dried leftover rice) in the wok, the moisture will be minimal … that prevents cooling the wok down or the rice from sticking together,” explains the scientist. The Chairman, however, does things a bit differently. “We know most people use leftover rice as it’s drier. We don’t as we want to keep the inside of the rice moist and retain the most aroma. The trick is to use eggs,” says Yip. Kwok, the chef, demonstrates. He first quickly fries the finely chopped ingredients in the wok, drying them before setting them aside. Then he pours in the oil, egg mixture and rice separately. “Egg dries faster than rice. The chef has to act fast and mix all the ingredients. See, you don’t even see the egg anymore,” says Yip, hurrying this writer to take a bite before the aroma escapes. It’s true. The slightly toasted and steaming rice is dry on the surface and each grain is perfectly coated in golden yellow — you don’t see the egg anymore. Each bite of the fried rice is still steaming and packed with flavors. “Taste that?” asks Yip. “This is wok hei.” This story originally published in October 2020 and was updated on March 30, 2021. Source link Orbem News #bowl #breath #Essential #fried #ingredient #perfect #Rice #Science #wok

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