#and more towards 'space military simulation' instead

[rapidreptile]

star citizen is always like "here's our newest ship: the BEST, most FIERCE fighter ever. $300 (real money)" while power creeping out their last "best, fiercest fighter ever" that was $280.

[echthr0s]

for adrian: desire & midnight. for nuadha: hate & monster. :)

[NOT-SO-NICE OC ASKS]

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

This style of question tends to irk me and I think it's because it is especially revealing of the artifice of Being A Character. A [Main] Character must have a singular motivation, a driving force that propels them through The Narrative -- that, in fact, forms the entire structure of said Narrative. Yes, yes, fine and good, however, the fact that "defeat the Reapers" is largely the Motivation that must carry Adrian forward through the Story that is our interpretation of his life, it isn't "what he wants more than anything", because nothing is (it's just a thing that really needs doing -- so, more like an obligation/duty than an intrinsic motivation). He does not have a Life Goal, he has whatever is in front of him, whatever small desires knit together to create the appearance of cohesion (wanting to get off Earth, wanting to be someone of rank so he didn't have to take orders, wanting closeness with various individuals, wanting to see the Citadel... all these little desires drive him forward just as surely as a big desire would).

If a reporter asked him this (and one of them most likely has), he'd say something flippant like "to be featured on the cover of Fornax and then spend a nice long shoreleave in the company of nine of its hottest stars", which, to be fair, could potentially speak volumes about what Adrian wants out of life.

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

What keeps Adrian up at night is: his chronic insomnia, his body going haywire because he keeps making it do shit it shouldn't be able to do, and Reaper visions. Also, his various boudoir companions. Obviously.

He also takes immediately to the timey-wimey nature of space and doesn't really know how to keep a schedule, despite the fact that the military employs strict regiments to circumvent that very likelihood. Sure, the Normandy simulates circadian cycles just fine, but he stopped being able to adhere to them long ago. He sleeps when he gets to the point where he can't not sleep, and he's awake the rest of the time. No matter what "time" the ship says it is.

More to the "fears and anxieties" spirit of the question, he is ever-anxious about his ability to perform the duties expected of him, his increasing strangeness and the future it foretells, whether all his friends and lovers will die (and whether it will be because of something he's done), you know, the usual.

hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred?

Herself, mainly, for a long time. Ioannu is separated from her vessel for years (thanks to Bhaal's gambit, of course) and Nuadha is left alone with all her strangeness, all the things that make her both covetable and repulsive to the average person. This persists through the fracturing of his identity, and makes it hard for the newly-freed Ioannu to reach him. (Which is why Ioannu has to deputise a couple of well-placed companions to help, instead.)

When the fog clears, new hatreds arise. For Bhaal, of course, but also for various people who hurt her over time. This hatred sometimes extends to regular joes in Baldur's Gate, people who are like the people who hurt her, and sometimes she has trouble remembering that this person in front of her is not the same person that hurt her, they've just triggered that memory in her and reopened that wound. There are... definitely a couple of relapses into old murder habits, especially before his final rejection of Bhaal's taint, but over time he learns to use less felonious outlets for this misplaced rage.

monster: Is your OC monstrous in any way? Is there something that makes them monstrous? Are they aware of their own monstrosity? Do they accept it or reject it?

I mean, she's my OC, ain't she? :p

Nuadha's particular strain of monstrousness is manifold and intersects in some weird ways -- she is a tiefling, she is a god-vessel (mother-god), and she is god-touched (different god*). There is no getting around it, there is no hiding it, Nuadha's strangeness is as glaringly obvious as a Daylight spell. People who remember well the Times of Troubles are either less perturbed or more perturbed by her than the average youngster, depending on how that era affected them and their general feelings about quasi-deities and the like, but everyone has a reaction either way. Being perceived with such strong responses all the time (even on the occasion that those responses happen to be more favourable) is very exhausting and stressful, as I'm sure any of us can imagine.

She tries to reject it by accepting Bhaal's touch, but all that does is make it so people only have one reaction to her -- fear. It seems easier. She knows what she is now -- something horrible, something that is meant to bring destruction. This is easier. She can do this. Right...?

*there's a heresy about Ioannu and Bhaal being two offshoots of the same, larger entity, but most people who are aware of both gods assume they're more like a Selûne/Shar kind of deal. who is right? wrong kind of question

[dianapocalypse]

so I’m having a very interesting (for me) mass effect legendary edition playthru and i wanna talk about it even tho no one but me will be interested so UNDER THE CUT WE GO!

this probably isn’t interesting to anyone but me but I wanted to write it down for posterity lol

so this time around, I spent a LONG TIME staring at the character creator, not even making anything. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make my ‘main’ Shepard, play Jane just for the new model in ME1, or make a new Shep entirely. and if I did the last one, did I want to play differently this time??

i ended up making a shepard that was PRETTY similar to my main one. they’re both vanguards (didn’t want to learn a new kit bc my ability to hold a controller is pretty limited these days), both earthborn, same haircut but different overall appearances. this time I went war hero instead of sole survivor, since I’ve played those sidequests so many times at this point. I hit start and named her Kieran, not really knowing what I was going for with this shep and expecting I’d mostly make the same choices, romance garrus, etc

so the first few hours of the game I played p much like I always do. more paragon options than usual, but I attribute that more to me changing than character choices. I also started picking the middle options I always ignore just to see what they are. grabbed Liara, did bring down the sky, nothing new or unusual until I start talking to garrus.

is it just me, or does garrus.... kinda hit different in 2021? don’t get me wrong, still one of my favorite fictonal characters of all time, but also... garrus is a loose canon police officer who thinks regulations that, presumably, are in place to protect peoples’ rights, should be ignored for what he deems is the greater good. while we as players know garrus’s morals are in the right place, uh... if I met someone like that in real life I’d expect them to be a complete jackass. im also american so that contributes to my ill feelings towards police officers, and c-sec in the games is generally portrayed as being a much less awful organization than the american police state, but I’ve definitely gone from always supporting Garrus when he thinks a fucker needs to die to being like... garrus rules are there for a reason, people have RIGHTS

and then like. kieran shepard is earthborn, she was in gangs. she... probably doesn’t like cops either? my last shep was, too, but tbh I didn’t think about it all that much. for the first time I’m playing a shepard that does not trust garrus and that’s WILD.

so then I’m doing sidequests on the citadel, and earthborns get a gang member from their past who tries to blackmail shep into busting one of their members out of prison. for the first time ever, I actually didn’t have the paragon or renegade points necessary to resolve the situation in a ‘good’ way for me. I got to the end of it, and my only options were to bribe him to leave me alone, or shoot him.

i’ll say in my defense, I thought shoot him would be more ‘shoot him in the leg to show him i meant business’, but shep straight up killed him, and I was like, woah. I’m gonna have to figure out how to make THAT work with this character arc!

and the turian cop who he wants you to talk to, he’s right there, and says “wow, I guess maybe the first human spectre will get things done!’ or something, indicating like. that was the Right Thing To Do by his standards. just kill a dude in public for threatening blackmail.

so in role playing games, i try to justify decisions my characters make, even if it’s a decision that I didn’t make on purpose--it’s more fun for me to try to gather these disparate character choices and cohere them into a character than to try to get it ‘right’ for the character i’m playing, if that makes sense. so here, even tho I was definitely not intending to kill that dude, I wanted to find a way to make it work for Kieran Shepard. and it’s kinda ended up shaping the whole way I’m playing her, and it’s cool and interesting bc this is a shepard unlike any I’ve played before! i’m always so focused on min/maxing my character, especially their paragon/renegade points to get the ‘best’ outcomes, that ive never been faced with something like that.

so I think this is where I’ve landed:

Kieran Shepard grows up on the streets, she does not trust authority. all she has is her crew, and herself, more importantly. she does some bad shit, she gets into trouble, she’s strong-headed and stubborn. later in life, she gets recruited to the alliance military. frankly, I think she keeps a lot of the same attitude and distrust of authority, but this is a paycheck, and I think since the Tenth Street Reds are getting really human supremacist and xenophobic, she gets out and needs to go Somewhere that her past won’t follow her--space. off earth.

mostly she’s a shithead at first. gets into trouble with the brass all the time. but she’s got a really good head for tactics. she knows how to think like a merc gang, she thinks of strategies in simulations that higher ups wouldn’t ever consider. think like. star trek 2009 captain kirk basically lmao.

and then anderson gets a hold of her. for the first time in her life, she has like, a Parental Figure, someone who knows she can do better and expects her to. and she FLOURISHES. suddenly she’s got motivation, she’s straightening up. she’s positioned on elysium and the skyllian blitz starts, and one thing she knows how to do, something she’s always been good at, it surviving, and rallying people around her to fight, not roll over and die. her skills from her life as a gangster marry with her skills as a soldier and she rallies the colonists to beat back the invasion. with her STREET SMARTS!

now she’s a war hero, and she’s starting to feel the impostor syndrome set in. she gets a medal, she gets accolades, promotions--she’s just a scrappy former criminal and she doesn’t deserve this. she doesn’t deserve any of it, or anderson’s regard. she starts spending her time trying to be The Perfect Soldier to make up for her past. for the first time, it’s a point of embarrassment to her, not a point of pride. it’s public record, sure, but she needs her entire existence to refute it. she needs to be Commander Shepard now, she needs to be The First Human Spectre, she needs to be PERFECT.

and then Finch shows up, and he’s threatening her, he wants to drag her back into the Life and he’ll blackmail her if she doesn’t comply. she knows if she bribes him he’ll be back in a month for more, he’ll never stop. so she panics. she shoots this guy, kills him in cold blood, in public. old habits die hard. and the cop practically CONGRATULATES her for it.

kieran, now, is in full blown panic mode about Who She Is. she is very much not a fan of the ‘law and order’ of C-Sec, but she’s also not a fan of the spectres and how they operate, but now she’s becoming the thing she as a teen would have hated the most. and she’s being congratulated for it. can she be trusted with this kind of responsibility?? can anyone???

anyway that’s the last thing I did but I think... honestly? the only character that could help her sort out these feelings? is kaidan alenko.

so. i think this is it. this is the playthru i finally romance kaidan.

[glapplebloom]

The Four Episode Crossover Event between Teen Titans Go and the DC Superhero Girls!

So the concept is both teams got a free vacation to the Space House and decide to wing it. As they get their rooms, Karen (aka Bumblebee) doesn’t like her room because it looks like an evil cryo-chamber is leaking. And she was right because the alien that she thought she saw in there escaped and is in the house. So Babs thinks this is a good time for her to face her fears while trying to prove she’s the best detective compared to Robin.

On an aside, you think with the Superhero Girls I would consider Supergirl or Jessica Cruz my favorites since one is the Rainbow Dash equivalent and the other is a Green Lantern. But Bumblebee is my favorite of the group. She has the attributes I like in Fluttershy but added love of technology, shipping, and stuff you know are bad but just can’t help but enjoy. A kindred spirit if you will. Anyway it ends with her beating Starro who just wanted to vacation there and regretting not throwing Robin out instead. See, kindred spirit.

In Part 2, Beast Boy gets Smegal with Jessica’s ring, making it fall into Zatana’s Hat and thus magical world within. So Jessica, Robin, Zatana, Wonder Woman, and Raven go inside to prevent Beast Boy from getting to the ring. Meanwhile Supergirl and the rest decide that they can handle it and continue to watch Muffin Wars. This includes Karen. Again, kindred spirit.

Now this part has many flaws. While its Zatana’s hat, it feels closer to the TTG side of things. Robin is trying to give a motivational speech to Jessica about not needing powers, only to prove that they do. And Raven and Zatana don’t do much but be magically powerful together. Beast Boy gets the ring, becomes a monster, but Jessica out thinks Beast Boy and manages to get the ring back from him. Now Starfire is obsessed with his new tiny form. This story overall felt more Teen Titans Go than balanced. Granted, Part 1 was definitely DCSHG focused, but Part 3 and 4 will fix that.

Part 3 has a Meaty Ore heading towards him. Its up to Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Starfire and Cyborg to stop it. But they all got their own ideas. So they decide to use simulations to see what would happen. Supergirl’s Plan: Be awesome. Didn’t work. Starfire’s plan: live on the meaty ore. It worked better but eventually spoiled milk. Wonder Woman’s plan: Steve Trevor. After all, he worked in the military so he could in theory come up with a good plan. 

Its a shame he’s her Kryptonite. Whenever he’s around, she shuts her brain off. So she spends the rest of their panning time living out a fantasy with him. So all they got left is Cyborg’s plan: re-enact the Armageddon movie. Be Oil Drillers, slow motion walk, crash into the meteorite, Beast Boy playing the role of Bruce Willis’s Daughter and having to leave one body there to detonate it. If only they played I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing. Don’t worry, they all made it out since Cyborg can use his body without his head.

Part 4 has the super obvious reveal that it was Brainiac behind all this. He gathered every super hero from every universe (including the Animated Series, Brave and Bold and original Titans) to get a collection. But this is Go’s Brainiac and he’s basically a stereotypical nerd who lives with his mother. The duo make a deal with him that if they can turn him into an adult, they will let go. After some terrible results, it works.

Thing is now that he’s “matured”, he’s now done with collecting and is now having the hobby of blowing up planets. So all the heroes and villains, not just the DC Superhero Girls and Teen Titans Go, but everyone, worked together to defeat Brainiac. It ends with the two teams we’ve been following ditching everyone else there so they can go to a Space Beach. I’m sure they can figure out how to drive their houses like the two did.

Also Teen Titans Go Superman, Young Justice Superboy, and Krypto the Superdog Krypto!

Overall, its a fun story. Part 2 was the weakest to me and Part 4 was annoying, but Part 1 and 3 were definitely my favorite parts. I recommend watching those two parts before Part 2 and 4.

[rubyredsundae]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

[synthetic-human-prototype]

17. Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress? 19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night? 22. Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen? 29. Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?) 30. Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies) 32. Thoughts on material possessions in general? 47. If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?

Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress?

At the moment, Alma wears the uniform he is required to wear around the lab, or simple clothing that is given to him to wear when he is outside of it that is usually of similar design to his uniform or is at least bland in the same way with neutral colors like black, white, and gray. He almost always looks professional in appearance. However, once he starts being allowed to wear clothing of his own choice, he starts to add a lot more color to his wardrobe. He still tends to wear more office casual sort of clothing and looks sharp most of the time, but he also takes a liking to more cyberpunk looks and has an interest in unique, futuristic looking fashion, especially if it has a hood, lots of layers, or takes inspiration from military uniforms but puts a casual twist on them. He likes boots too.

As far as rituals around dressing goes, he doesn’t have much in the means of special habits to getting dressed. Although, he is exceptionally adamant about having his privacy. He absolutely does not like undressing in front of people he does not completely trust, and even then, he’s still shy about it.

What do they think about before falling asleep at night?

Alma plays back his memories of each day and runs simulations to calculate possible alternative outcomes to try and learn how to improve himself. Unfortunately, his preconstruction programs can only do so much to help him with any choices involving social interactions and that’s where he needs the most work. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to run millions of possible outcomes through his processor and usually he enters stasis shortly afterwards, able to turn it on and off like a button. However, sometimes, he will simply spend time ‘daydreaming’ and coming up with stories in his head for his own entertainment if he doesn’t feel like sleeping right away. He has more control over these imaginings than the dreams his subconscious comes up with in stasis, so is less afraid of them.

Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?

An absolute masterpiece on a simple scrap of paper, completed within seconds of the pencil touching down. He would then ask for a fresh sheet to do it again with a different subject to draw. He could belt out dozens in one sitting and each one wouldn’t look out of place in a fine art museum and would be completely unique from the previous.

Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?)

Depends on the situation, but he would likely try to assist in ending the crisis and repairing any damage done. His number one priority would be making sure no one is hurt and anyone involved is kept safe and treated for any possible injuries. However, if it’s not something he deems important, he’ll just stand back and watch the world burn.

Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies)

Extreme emotional break down. It could get ugly, and not just for him. Again, this one depends on the situation and is all circumstantial, but he’s not above revenge and he could easily spiral down into an unhealthy obsession with ‘fixing’ whatever disaster has happened, whatever that may entail. He will most definitely fixate on it until he can achieve some sort of relief from the emotional pain it has caused him, and if there is no way to achieve that relief, Alma will keep stretching his goals, never satisfied with the result, until someone stops him by force, he ends up killing himself, or he ends up destroying everything around him until there’s nothing left for him. The only way to stop this from happening is to find some way to console him or bring him closure for whatever intrapersonal disaster has happened to him, and that will definitely take some work from both him and someone else. He can’t handle it on his own, he’s not emotionally developed enough.

Thoughts on material possessions in general?

At the moment, he isn’t allowed to have any. Everything he has is not his own and is the property of his creators. Possessions can’t own possessions. However, once he realizes that he is his own person and can have material possessions of his own, he likes to collect things. Odd little random objects that he finds fascinating. One might even call him a hoarder, as he will decorate his personal space with all sorts of bizarre treasures he’s found. Though, he will always organize them and keep them ‘tidy’ in his own way. Nothing would ever be unsanitary or out of place. But he would definitely have a lot of ‘stuff’.

If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?

He’s not sure. It actually takes a while before Alma starts feeling any sort of attraction, romantic or sexual, towards anyone at all. Though, when it does hit, it hits hard. But romantic attraction is completely luck of the draw for him. There are a few things that would make it more likely for Alma to fall in love, and those things would be 

Someone that is very patient and understanding with him and loves him back unconditionally 

Someone that forces him out of his comfort zone, but tries not to push him too far past what he is capable of handling 

Someone that is very open minded and willing to explore and accept new concepts and beliefs (perhaps not adopt them as their own, but tolerate them in others)

Someone that can keep him from going too far when he loses control of himself but that won’t take control of him themselves and will instead coax him back to his senses, essentially acting as his moral compass

And someone that accepts him for who and what he is without judgement

[mitigatedchaos]

Is it Satire?

(~1,000 words, 4 mins)

Is this real or satire?

In the 1990s and the 00s, as the veterans of the second World War reached their 70s and 80s and were gradually fading from this world, the History Channel ran World War 2 documentaries so often that people sometimes jokingly called it "the Hitler Channel."

Those who celebrate war and violence as transformative are too eager to invite devastation and unnecessary human suffering. ...but war is transformative. "War made America a country. War gave America a continent. War cast out the curse of slavery. War marched on Europe and burned the terrifying vision of Adolf Hitler into nothing more than the ashes of history." Is this not the national mythology of America, which war itself has reforged?

If you are anyone else on Earth, like say if you're perhaps European, Chinese, or Japanese just as an example, more typically your men are dead, your infrastructure is destroyed, there's a breakdown in public order, and you're in debt up to your eyes. You've cast an entire generation into the fire, and for what?

But if you're American, the inheritor of a continent-spanning superstate safely resting beyond two oceans on the best land on Earth, that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, in part thanks to the greatest war of all time, your country still effectively defines the world order. In 2001, when you ask why America deserves this power, the answer you're given is to use your overwhelming economic and military might to "make the world safe for democracy." And that's not necessarily so terrible. They say the old empires fought wars for rare resources. Under the Americans, you just pay for rare earth magnets with money. There are coups and assassinations and spies and drone bombings, but there are what, maybe seven countries in the whole world who even need an aircraft carrier anymore?

So the Americans loved war, or at least, they loved the idea of war.

Americans have a dream, a fantasy really, of World War 2. The total mobilization of all of society - every class, every race, every sex - towards one overwhelming and measurable goal of profound justice. Not a world without suffering, but a world where your suffering matters. A world where every drop of your blood shed, up to and including the end of your life, brings the country that much closer to ending Nazi Germany.

But very few wars are World War 2. Not even wars against Communists are World War 2. (Some would argue that, in a certain sense, not even World War 2 was World War 2.) When it seemed the Communists were gone, it was easy to slip (or rather be lead) into a terrible and costly mistake that has damaged the country's institutions, morale, and spirit. (Why are Millennials so in favor of the Democratic Party? Yes, there are rumored demographic factors like later family formation, but remember that Millennials came of age during the Iraq War and, like those who spent decades refighting the 60s, they seem keen to refight the Bush Administration.)

When I called for every competent teenager to be dunked in a VR tank and sent off to fight the digital ghosts of the Third Reich, what I proposed was to give the Americans something they are yearning for. If the Americans want to send every generation off to fight a war, why not let them? We'll give them not just any war, but the perfect war they've always dreamed of - a war so much better than reality that they'll never choose a real war instead unless they absolutely must.

The thing about countries is that they have a certain fundamental mortality; a country must be renewed with each generation. And sure, you can read about the motivations of the founders in a book, but the emotional energy, the weight, the context of founding a country, that's a product of experience. To be truly understood, you must, for a moment, live them. The goofy cars, the slicked-back hair, the leather jackets and googie architecture may seem like set dressing. After all, we don't expect anyone to embrace them. But they belong to an era with a much lower compression of space and time, without the constant buzzing of addictive electronic noise. This isn't only to allow time to think and reflect, with only a magnetic compass and a map as your guide in the quiet summer night, but to understand on a visceral, intuitive level the constraints that lead your ancestors to make the choices they did, to see that they weren't such fools, and were in many ways even similar to you.

(Some will argue and claim that I haven't used America's founding as the date. But I have. Recently, some scholars have argued that America wasn't founded in 1776. They are correct, of course - America was founded in 1941.)

Some might object to the randomization of race and background, but of course the men who fought that war didn't have much of a choice in that, either. Others might object to altering the distribution of demographics to match the current one, or that the way the simulation plays out each time is different - but this is because, for that generation, the simulation is their war (and they must bear the risk of failing it). The purpose of the exercise is to generate a shared body of culture and personal experience not based on immutable characteristics, to build trust in your fellow Americans in order to form the minimum consensus necessary for governing.

We might say it's absurd, but provided the technology required to carry it out, is it really that much more ridiculous than anything that's happened in US politics since 2015, or perhaps even 2001? Certainly it seeks to arouse hatred of only a phantom enemy (as the original Nazis, the enemy of the piece, are quite dead) rather than any living people, and it should cause far fewer deaths (foreign or domestic) than any real invasion - if anything, it should be much safer.

The US Locomotive Act post, of course, is just a light-hearted joke.

[quirkykayleetam]

Water Torture

Have you missed reading about Jay?  I’ve sure missed writing them!  But this...This was hard.  Because this is the moment where Jay breaks.  As requested by @fallingstormphoenix​ and foreshadowed in Broken Pieces Pt.1, this is Water Torture.  I read a lot of first hand accounts of American Military personnel who got water boarded for training purposes in order to make this as realistic as possible.  Content Warnings for suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, death references, panic, water torture, mentions of fingore and whipping and stabbing, just general torture.

The last time the Faceless Men cut Jay out of their zip ties, Jay did not fight them.  As blood streaked down their neck, arms, and legs, burning through scars that were never left alone long enough to heal, Jay tried not to picture the whip cutting blood trails through their back.  They tried not to imagine the pain of the knife plunging into the soft spots of their rib cage and the agonizing twist their torturer always gave it before pulling it out.  They tried not to imagine their throat growing hoarse around screams they knew they could not stop.

It was just another day, Jay thought.  Another round of tortuous pain that they would endure for their mother, their clients, their bosses, anyone they could think of that would benefit from this.  Jay didn’t think that could get through it just for themselves.

This time when Jay was dragged into the solid metal room on unresponsive legs, there was no whip that they could see, no knife, no chafing manacles.  There was only a bucket of green and brackish water.  The goons behind them somehow forced Jay’s stiff and aching body into a kneeling position before the vessel as Jay stared at it blankly.  Then a new man forced Jay’s wrists’ together and Jay’s screamed.

The Faceless Man had broken Jay’s hands and fingers weeks ago, crunching them to bloody bits.  Jay had made sure of that.  While the rest of their body had frozen to numbness in their captivity, however, Jay’s hands still hurt like the day the hammer had slammed down on them.

I had to, Jay thought desperately.  It was the only way to…

Half-way through their thought and their scream, however, they were thrust forward.  Jay sucked briney water into their lungs as a strong hand, fisted in their hair, forced Jay’s head into the bottom of the bucket.

Within moments, Jay’s vision began to go black around the edges.  Their world was on fire.  The piercing agony in their hands was nothing compared to the burning that coursed from their throat through their entire body.

Jay wanted to relax, to let death take them.  Logically, they knew that was how this was going to end.  They couldn’t give the Faceless Men what they wanted.  As soon as they discovered that, this torture would end and their execution would begin.  But logic didn’t exist in this watery inferno.  There was only panic and pain and an instinctive part of Jay calling out to every fiber of their being that they were going to DIE.  Their legs tried to kick out in protest.  It came out more like a brief spasm.  Their head tried to struggle against the grip forcing them down, but Jay wasn’t strong enough.  They were already having trouble remembering which way was down anymore.

Just as they heart struggled with its last beat against the all-consuming blackness overwhelming Jay’s eyes, the hand behind them forced up them.

Air!  There should be air, right?

“Passcodes!” a voice barked roughly.  Jay did not hear it.  They were too busy dying on the floor.

Jay collapsed bonelessly with the hand no longer there to hold them up.  Their body spasmed wildly.  All they knew was that they were vomiting fire.

Water spilled from Jay’s lungs in hacking coughs as their body struggled to breathe again.  If Jay could have curled up into themselves, they would have, but they didn’t have the strength.  They thought they had known exhaustion before.  They were wrong.  The adrenaline that flooded their body only moments ago in an instinctual burst immediately spewed out of Jay, leaving him drained and shaking and… was disoriented the word for when Jay didn’t know what was the ceiling and what was the floor and whether there was someone else there.

Suddenly that hand gripped Jay’s throat, cutting off their air again.  Jay wanted to cry, to scream, to beg, anything, but couldn’t.  They just hung in their torturer’s fist like a puppet with its strings’ cut.

“Passcodes!” the man in the mask demanded.

When Jay didn’t move, he hovered the captive’s face over the bucket.

Jay’s whole body shook uncontrollably.  They couldn’t do that again.  It was more than just pain.  It was dying, the simulation.  In that bucket they could kill Jay again and again and still ask him for his mother’s Social Security Number.  Hell, they could ask Jay to confess to murder and Jay would do it just to make them stop.

Four, Jay’s logical brain supplied, picking their favorite number in the space between life and death where that logic still mattered.  Let me do this four times and then I can break and it’ll be okay.  I’ll have held out long enough.  I’ll have made my father proud.

Jay didn’t know if they made it to four times.

They didn’t know if it was strength or weakness that surged through them.

They just knew through burning fire and chilling water, hard metal and punishing force they managed to choke out two words: “I can’t.”

“Can’t what?  Go another round?” the man with the hand demanded.

“My...hands…” Jay gasped.  “Broken...you broke...my hands…”

The man lifted Jay up against and Jay grew desperate.

“Can’t give you...passcodes.  Not without...my hands…”  They tried to hold up their mangled appendages to prove their point, but that was too much.  The hand still had them by their neck.  It started dropping them towards the bucket.

No!  No no no no, Jay wanted to yell.  Then everything went black.

Jay awoke back in their cell.  The chair was gone so they huddled mutely against the wall.  They were wet to the core, but it didn’t matter.

Faceless Men cycled in and out in an endless spiral, getting Jay’s full story, learning of the final security measure to Morgan Security’s computer system, a measure Jay had programmed himself.

Jay was almost too exhausted to smile as he explained it.  The system required Jay to type in his own unique 6-phrase passcode, a passcode that would only be marked correct if the computer detected the exact speed and pressure of Jay’s typing presence, a typing presence that could not be mimicked by man or machine and that Jay would never be capable of making again, not with mangled, broken hands.

Jay could see the Men get desperate.  They brought Jay’s office desktop in for testing.  Jay didn’t know how they’d gotten it, but supposed it didn’t matter now.  They broke Jay’s nose anew, forcing his hands onto the keys, but one look at his crumbled fingers spluttering against the hard plastic convinced them it was useless.

Jay was now useless.  He had been useless for weeks when they could have tracked down other leads instead of focusing their might on him.

There was anger.

Jay took their beating in silence, finally able to curl up against the cold metal when they left.

You did it, Jay told themselves.  You did what you wanted to do, all that you could do.  You were a distraction, a stumbling block, a bug in their code.  Hopefully Morgan Security would realize that, would continue to take care of their mother after their death.  Hopefully the Faceless Men would never get their hands on what they wanted.  Hopefully…

But to be honest, Jay didn’t have very much hope left.  They knew their death wouldn’t be painless.  They doubted it would be fast.  They were struck with a sudden sadness that no one beside their boss would probably ever notice.  Jay would just seep out of this world with their only mark on it being a lack of evil, not a creation of anything good.

Was that something to be proud of?  Jay didn’t know.  So they slept in their cell and waited for the end.  If they shed a tear or two, would it have mattered?  Jay didn’t know that either, so there’s no use telling you.

Tagging the Broken Pieces Crew: (If you want to be added or taken off this list, just let me know!):  @stoic-whumpee, @whatwasmyprevioususername, @whumpty-dumpty-fell-off-the-wall, @straight-to-the-pain, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @0idril0, @fallingstormphoenix, @whump-fantasies, @imagination1reality0, @whumpback-wail​

[marvelloussynergy]

COMIC BOOK REFERENCES & EASTER EGGS - Captain Marvel (2019)

Carol Danvers has a long and complicated history in the comics, much of which would be very difficult to adapt for the big screen. Thankfully, though, for comic book fans, there are many allusions to the source material instead. The following is a guide to all the ones I’ve spotted along with any deviations from the source material (I will update this as more come to light). Note that owing to the convoluted and complex nature of comic books, I’ve tried to include only the most essential information regarding a character’s history and backstories.

Though not a direct adaptation, the general story of the “Kree/Skrull War” (The Avengers #89-97, 1971-72) is used as the basis for the film—the Kree and the Skrulls fighting each other with Earth caught in between.

A former US Air Force pilot, Carol Danvers gained her initial powers of flight and enhanced strength after being caught in the explosion of a damaged Kree Psyche-Magnitron. This was amidst a fight between the Kree warriors Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel and Yon-Rogg (Captain Marvel #18, 1969). The Psyche-Magnitron—a machine that converts thoughts into reality—alters her genes and turns her into a human/Kree hybrid, granting her the abilities possessed by Mar-Vell. Danvers would later develop the ability to absorb energy and fire them as blasts from her body. A slight retcon to her origins would occur in The Life of Captain Marvel #4 (2018), in which it is revealed that Danvers is in fact half Kree, and that the Kree Psyche-Magnitron merely activated her latent powers. Originally going by the code name Ms Marvel, Danvers would also go on to use the names Binary and Warbird, before taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel #1 (2012). 

In the film we briefly see Carol’s father (Joseph Danvers) and brother (Steve Danvers), though in the comics she has an additional sibling, Joseph Danvers Jr. At one point in the film Carol says “Higher, further, faster, baby,” a nod to the Captain Marvel comic arc titled “Higher, further, faster, more,” as well as being words Carol’s mentor, Helen Cobb, wrote to her to describe their similar mindsets and desire to push boundaries.  

While Maria Rambeau is a character taken from the comics, it is her daughter—Monica Rambeau—who is friends with Carol in the source material. A hero in her own right, Rambeau has the ability to convert her body into various types of energy. Monica has also used various code names throughout her career, including Captain Marvel, Pulsar, and Photon (Maria’s call sign in the film is a nod to this). Carol affectionately calls Monica “Lieutenant Trouble,” which in the comic books is a nickname she gives to a young friend and fan, Katherine Renner.

Carol and Maria not being allowed to fly in combat missions bears a resemblance to Helen Cobb’s situation from the comics. In 1961, Helen is told that she and her fellow female pilots are not permitted to become astronauts as they lack military jet experience, experience they cannot obtain as women were barred from flying jets.

Early on in the movie we see Starforce dispatched on a mission to Torfa. The planet is a relatively minor one in the comics, known for its poisonous atmosphere resulting from vibranium extraction.

The Kree are an alien race known for their military prowess and advanced technology. Their home planet is Hala, which is located in the Greater Magellanic Cloud Galaxy. The Kree have blue skin, but breeding with other alien races has resulted in pink skinned (also referred to as white) Kree.

In the comics, Starforce are a group of Kree warriors tasked with protecting the Kree Empire. Formed by the Supreme Intelligence, the initial comic lineup consisted of Att-Lass/Captain Atlas (a soldier trained in many forms of combat), Minn-Erva/Doctor Minerva (a pilot and gifted bio-geneticist; in the film she’s Starforce’s sniper), Korath the Pursuer (a cyber-geneticist; he was previously in Guardians of the Galaxy), Shatterax (cybernetically enhanced warrior; not present in the film), Supremor (an android housing the Supreme Intelligence’s consciousness; doesn’t appear in the film), and Ultimus (has the ability to manipulate cosmic energy; not present in the film).

The comic book incarnation of Bron Char (rendered as Bron-Char in the film) is a member of the Lunatic Legion, a group whose goal is to destroy the human race. Though a scout in the movie, in the comics Soh-Larr was a Kree warrior who fell in love with a Skrull, Ryga’a, with whom he had a child, Dorrek Supreme.

Yon-Rogg was a Colonel in the Kree army, unlike his cinematic counterpart who is the commander of Starforce. His antagonistic relationship with Mar-Vell from the source material has been carried over to the film.

In the comics, the Supreme Intelligence is an organic computer created by the Kree Science Council, initially designed to help the alien race create a Cosmic Cube. Upon gaining sentience, however, the Supremor refused, knowing the danger such an object posed. Composed of the brightest Kree minds, it served as the leader of the Kree Empire for many years. In the source material it’s depicted as a large green floating head, it’s true form in the film, however, has yet to be revealed.

Mar-Vell has been changed from a male to a female for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The comic book incarnation of Mar-Vell was sent to Earth to spy on humanity. Adopting the identity of Dr Walter Lawson (the name of a scientist Mar-Vell encountered who had passed away; changed to Wendy Lawson in the film) he began working at the Cape Canaveral military base, where he would meet the facility’s security chief, Carol Danvers. Mar-Vell would go on to defend humanity many times despite his mission, before dying of cancer as depicted in the graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel (1982).

The aircraft Wendy Lawson designs is called the Asis. This is a reference to the Asis program from the Ultimate Universe. Mahr Vehl (the Ultimate Universe version of Mar-Vell) joins the program in an effort to help humanity with interstellar travel.

In both the comic books and the film, Skrulls are a green-skinned reptilian alien race with the ability to shape-shift. Originating from the planet Skrullos, Skrulls have a warrior culture and, like the Kree, have conquered many worlds throughout the galaxy.

Unlike his cinematic counterpart, Talos wasn’t born with the ability to shape-shift in the comics. A skilled combatant, parts of his body have been cybernetically enhanced giving him super strength.

Nick Fury tells Carol that he was born in Huntsville, Alabama, though in the source material he hails from New York City. His middle name of Joseph, however, is something both incarnations share. The comic book version of Fury loses the ability to see with his left eye as a result of a grenade blast, whereas his film counterpart has the misfortune of losing it after Goose scratches it.

In the comics, Carol calls her pet Chewie (named after the Star Wars character Chewbacca, since Danvers is a fan of the franchise), whilst in the movie the cat is named Goose (referring to the character of the same name from the 1986 film Top Gun). Both Goose and Chewie aren’t real house cats, but rather an alien species known as Flerken (Rocket Raccoon reveals this to Carol in Captain Marvel #7, 2014) that look like domestic felines. Flerkens possess tentacles that are released from their mouths, lay eggs to reproduce, and contain pocket dimensions within their bodies.

Carol’s call sign in the MCU is “Avenger,” though her comic book counterpart has the decidedly less cool call sign of “Cheeseburger” (she got the name after vomiting during a g-force simulator exercise). 

The various costume colours Carol cycles through are references to costumes she’s worn in the comics. The black, red, and yellow combination allude to Carol’s Ms Marvel outfit; the black and silver colour scheme could refer to the Warbird costume; while the green and white one is a nod to the classic Kree uniform.

Being set in the past, it comes as no surprise that there are many nods to the MCU. The space-jumps through honeycomb-shaped portals is a design first established in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. S.H.I.E.L.D. once again has a presence in a Marvel movie, although a slight continuity error sees the organisation’s name pronounced as it appears, despite Coulson saying the full acronym in Iron Man, only shortening it towards the end of the film. At one point Carol flies a Quadjet, a precursor to the Quinjet. We see an early version of Project Pegasus, the facility where it’s held making appearances in Thor and The Avengers, and in turn, the Tesseract is seen on screen once again. Carol Danvers gives Fury a modified pager to contact her with, a device we see him use at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Fury puts into motion his “Avenger Initiative,” originally naming it the “Protector Initiative.” Lastly, for the mid-credits scene, we get a sequence depicting Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and James Rhodes monitoring the pager, culminating in Carol’s arrival back on Earth, which appears to be taken from Avengers: Endgame.

[cthulhubert]

Thoughts, not even a review, of Terra Ignota

recently finished Will to Battle.

(Book 3 of Terra Ignota, preceded by Too Like the Lightning and Seven Surrenders. The sequel and finale, Perhaps the Stars, is expected in 2021.)

So I wanted to post some thoughts, not even a review, really.

The take away is that despite many of its major, fundamental features leaving me cold or even actively repulsing me, I overall very much enjoyed reading it.

This is perhaps a higher recommendation than unalloyed praise. The more I like something, the more I complain. For one thing, it's a kind of eustress: the perfect thing has no flaws to catch interest; for another, if I just plain dislike something, I wouldn't spare much thought on it to begin with, much less linearize so many of them into words.

So my mostly negative venting (consisting of immediate and thorough spoilers) beneath the cut

So right off the bat: I HATE the genius serial killer trope; and I detest SFF trolley problem analogs.

I was so irritated by the one-two punch of these big reveals in the first book that I actually let my hold on Seven Surrenders and read several other books in the interim. (I knew I'd be back though, I put a new one on both 2 and 3 next.)

Mycroft Canner... one who believes themself "free" merely because they can kill. It reminds me of something that's stuck in my mind for a long time: a guy calling other peoples cucks because they used alarm clocks to wake up. "I can't believe you let a machine boss you around."

Because I otherwise liked the writing so much, I kept trying to dredge up another layer of meaning to the treatment of Mycroft as torturer-rapist-murderer. For instance: "Oh, so many people around him being sympathetic and liking him is actually the narrative sneakily reminding us that the core trait of serial killers like this is a manipulative personality, which his savant abilities would only feed." Carlyle Foster even brings this up specifically in the scene where we first learn the specifics of Canner's crimes, but of course, their portrayal in that scene (which, reminder, is literally by Mycroft) is of one hysterical and unreasonable.

Palmer did achieve one of most author's highest goals in emotionally transporting me to one of their scenes, but it just really made me wish I was in Carlyle's shoes. To react with, rather than panic, the cold disdain merited by a creature so broken it is wrong about the ways in which it is broken. To spit on them and denigrate their feelings of uniqueness and specialness, arising both from the murders and from their oh so pitiable martyrdom and servitude now. "If only we could mercifully lobotomize away your personality and still use the savanthood modules so unfortunately stapled to them."

Mycroft: "Everybody seems to have one murder they thought was the worst. I thought yours would be []" Me instead of Carlyle, snidely: "Is that a fun game for you, that speculation?"

(In another scene, the Major's sympathy to Mycroft and Saladin as "fellow killers" somewhat raised my hackles; my experience is military people expressing exaggerated disgust for "civilian" killers, perhaps as a way of mental separation between their acts. Though the revelation that the Major is Achilles, with an ancient's attitudes, perhaps ameliorates this.)

As for OS... if you've invented prophecy, there will be heaps upon myriads upon multitudes of miraculous ways to reshape the world before you reach a best value intervention of cold-blooded murder. I was, at least, amused by considering the linear combination of this limitation between the author and the characters. Palmer was quite clever in making sure that the mystical demographic math must be facilitated by humans (and the very odd set-set humans at that).

I admit I hold this philosophy a bit more strongly than my time investment in the fields merit, but I see it this way:

In physics, infinite, friction-less planes in perfect vacuums occupied by inelastic, spherical cows are a useful tool. They approximate things that are theoretically possible, absent the various extra forces.

In ethics, and in any system that is so truly complex, everything you remove makes for a completely different system. None of the elements are basically orthogonal to the circumstances the way air resistance is to a bullet.

These philosophical sorts of thought experiments are, at best, emotional exercises. They are not simplified tools to build a foundation for more complex issues, they're figments born of the phantasmal conditions possible only in the interior of the brain, and too much work with them will only foul both logic and intuition with garbage data.

As for what merely fell flat:

While I deeply enjoyed so much of the speculation about cultural changes brought about by technology, and travel technology specifically, the "no proselytizing" law felt quite forced. I can definitely believe such a law would be passed after the Church Wars described, but holding so strong for centuries?

There are all kinds of supernatural thoughts and beliefs people accept, and there simply isn't a neat threshold between those and religion. Even in the counterfactual world where there was one, it would be quite concealed by the sophistry that's metastasized through the entire discussion space around it.

I can think of a dozen questions off the top of my head that they'd have to decide. And while flipping a coin or an attempt at a definitional framework could answer them, it couldn't do it in a way that's strong enough to stand the test of time. Imagine Laurel/Yanny, the Dress, or if a hot dog is a sandwich, but with material-security level of investment in them!

I'm areligious (to put it... mildly) but for personal, psychosocial reasons, when I sit down to eat I spend a moment in mindful gratitude towards the plants and animals that gave their life for mine. Is that religious? Are ghost hunter shows illegal because they're proselytory for any animistic religion? Would acupuncturists be able to work, or is that a daoist superstition? Could my neighbor's still paint the ceiling of their porch haint blue? Are scientists allowed to register trials for psychic powers? Can schools teach the arguments for dualism?

That doesn't even get into the subjects that, in real life, yank out all the stops on linguistic-conceptual inventiveness! Europe has had a pestilential outbreak of sophistry around head scarves! Would the Alliance ban them for being religious garb? If so, would they ban clothing that covers the ankles as Calvinist religious garb? Or that covers the nipples? (Oh wait, showing the nipples is of significance in some religions! can't allow that!) Should they ban clothing that contains unmixed fibers for being a religious display!? They don't seem to do any of these things, but that's just as much a choice about the First Law as doing so.

Someone proposes personhood begins at conception; I claim that this is fundamentally a supernaturalist belief. Is one of us in violation of the first law? If a hive outlaws birth control, how are they investigated for whether this is a cultural or religious condition? What happens when, I dunno, a Cousin run campus has somebody that wants to put Intelligent Design in the biology textbooks? Most people (well including the people pushing it) know that it's religion wrapped in plausibly deniable words. So is that proselytizing, or is someone pointing it out proselytizing atheism?

Speaking of, there's a pretty good correlation of peace and prosperity with movement to non-religioun. It honestly doesn't seem like sensayers should have much work.

But we meet Bridger and his miracles right at the beginning of the book, before we know a thing about the Church Wars etc. And it's obviously a central tension of the story, intended to be coequal with the brewing war, and yet it quite failed to rouse my interest. The book would've been stronger without it.

Perhaps this *is* just a me thing, since my mind has held miraculous intervention as a solved problem for most of my life. If I were convinced of an event's miraculous character, the most parsimonious explanation is in the vein of, "We're in a simulation that's only been running for a week or so, either as a game or as an experiment, and now we're running under different rules than the ones our (artificial) memories imply." The probability of that happening is too low to waste time processing any other ramifications or possibilities ahead of time.

There is another, related layer of enjoyable consideration, which is of course the reliability of the narrator and his evidence. In Will to Battle, our author is revealed as explicitly delusional, suffering regular, presumably PTSD (and/or anti-sleep drug) related hallucinations. I wish I'd had the patience to do a very close read, or to do a second read—especially given the revelation that 9A edited some of the delusions out of the first two books. Diegetic skepticism is a regular part of the narrative. And there are lots of "rhymes" in the text to mundane circumstances. We're told Bridger looks like Apollo and Seine, and shown the artificial, parentless children, Ganymede and Danaë (crafted to be such a degree of hyperstimulus that among other things, Ganymede has an entire school of art dedicated to him). We're shown that perceptions are malleable, with Thisbe's "witchcraft" and Cato's magician like showmanship. We're constantly exposed to griffincloth and know that just its presence at JEDD's assassination spread skepticism. We're told that scientists proclaim Achilles to have Ancient Greek DNA and an adult's bone structure, but we're also constantly shown an incredible variety of artificial animals and related wonders, and told Apollo was a great scientist.

And yet, over and over the narrative rebukes skepticism. 9A endorses most of what Mycroft has written, and if we go so far as considering them (along with, eg, the officialese headings and warnings) as Mycroft's delusions too, we're at the point where we have to step back so far that the unreliable narrator is actually this "Ada Palmer" character, who is writing about things that don't exist in a year we haven't reached yet!

I was bothered that nobody who learned about it seemed ready to express the proper amount of disgust at the extra-incestuous politics of the world leaders, and honestly find it simply hard to accept that their consortium worked so altruistically.

Finally, ultimately, the central themes of the novel, about peace and war and complacency seem awfully poorly considered for the current era, where voting age children have never known a world without an official war, and the just grown generation is the first since the industrial revolution to be poorer and less healthy and more stressed than their parents. Not just this novel, but the world in general seems to be sorely missing the concept of the important qualitative differences between distress and eustress.

[dalekofchaos]

The First Order:Incompetence and Overconfidence

The First Order (EST 5-21 ABY [After Battle of Yavin]/1-17 Post-Return of the Jedi) was formed in the wake of the collapse of the Empire following the defeat of their fleet at the Battle of Jakku (5ABY, 1AE [After Endor]). Various imperial hardliners and diehards fled into the Unknown Regions of space to establish a new Empire, fix the mistakes of the old, and one day return to defeat the New Republic that had displaced them. For 30 years the First Order grew and developed into a formidable force, yet was not seen as a threat to the New Republic. The true size and scale of their power was kept hidden intentionally, lest the Republic be provoked into acting against them in any meaningful way, the Resistance was seen as an allowable way of keeping them in check, but it was more like a plug in a dam, when the dam is cracked all to hell and back. It is heavily implied that the New Republic was already addled by corruption and bureaucratic bloat in just the 33 years it had been established, so the fact that they had no real idea that the First Order had an Ultra Star Destroyer and that they were hollowing out a planet to build a super-weapon can be forgiven through this conceit. The “Resistance” is funded by a few small contributors, has few ships (one capital ship and three support vessels), and relies on being small so as to be easily hidden. To contrast the Rebel Alliance was funded by former Republic senators, armed by resistance groups, and provided ships of even capital scale by races such as the Mon Calamari; it was, by in large, a popular movement. Yet the Rebellion and the Resistance face threats of similar scale.

So how does the First Order fuck up so badly in killing such a small number of “rebels?” Simple answer? Mass incompetence. Complicated answer? Incompetence combined with overconfidence.

Who Makes up the First Order?

Take whats been discussed already, the officers of the former Empire retreat into the unknown regions to rebuild, who will these officers be? Its very likely that they fall into a small number of categories; first among them your hardliners, dyed in the wool Imperials who needed to escape the end of the war, we can count these people as among likely the best trained and the most realistic believers in the Empire of old; second are those who weren’t good enough to be part of the main fight and werent bad off enough to let it be over; and third, your dregs, men scoured from the old Empire, people who had been assigned to punishment posts and back-water details, but they have training, and they can be useful. These people make up your base, and they can be built upon as time goes by, but in the beginning this is what you have. Impressment, population growth, and recruitment can be another driving factor towards establishing a force. For the next 25 years the First Order would grow and develop out of the shadows of the Empire, establishing their own officer corps, their own ships, and their own designs but still heavily influenced by their forebears.

Lack of Experience

But none of those new troops would have the same level of training, they wouldn’t have the foundational schools, the true pedigree needed. No active wars to train officers in, or soldiers for that matter, everything would be war game and simulation, they wouldn’t face the same scale of consistent internal threats the Republic would go on to face for the 29 years in between such as piracy, warlords, and civil conflicts; with an Iron Fist those kinds of threats could be stamped out in short order before they could flourish. So their new officers have no idea how to fight a war properly, or even badly, they just have theory and the experience of their older officers to draw from. Indeed many of the more senior officers in the First Order had many reservations about the new generation and their capabilities, as seen with Captain Canady of the First Order Dreadnought Fulminatrix, the man knew he was dead, and he knew it was the incompetence and inexperience of the fleets leader, General Armitage Hux that was to blame for his demise.

Starfigher Corps Incompetence

This deficiency can even be seen in their starfighter corps. Take for example the battle in the skies above Takodana in the Force Awakens, yes, sure, Poe Dameron is an ace pilot, but in a single maneuver around the combat area he shoots down no less than 11 enemy fighters in under a minute, that puts him above and beyond any fighter pilot ever seen in Star Wars media and in the real world makes him an ace twice over. There is luck, and then there is improbable incompetence. Its no wonder that the Resistance was able to continue fighting over Starkiller base after losing more than half of their X-Wings when their kill ratio can be as high as 11:1.

Incompetent Leadership

On to the First Order’s leadership in general, General Hux, Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma.

General Hux -Military Leader of the First Order.  Hux is only 34 years old, he literally aged with the First Order, he was five when the Empire fell, turned 18 roughly 13 years after the establishment of the Order, and is somehow the highest ranking member of their military, yes he betrayed his father, who had been high ranking before him, but that hardly warrants him becoming the military leader of the entire First Order. He has no military experience, his formal training is much in the same sense as British dilettante generals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his emotional outbursts while in command betray this whole-cloth inexperience and lack of maturity. Hux is a caricature.

Kylo Ren -Enforcer of the Dark Side. Kylo Ren is doing his best Darth Vader impression… while also doing a fair whiny Anakin impression only without a sympathetic backstory. Also prone to emotional outbursts and destroys expensive and important equipment for the ship. I’m surprised he hasn’t destroyed The Finalizer by his outbursts. Kylo Ren isn’t a leader, he’s an enforcer, there to be the voice of Supreme Leader Snoke, and he’s genuinely menacing… up until he takes off his mask in the Force Awakens. He was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, nephew and Padawan to Luke Skywalker. Snoke chose Ben Solo because of his powerful light and dark side. And.....he turned to the dark side, killed The Jedi, betrayed his family and joined The First Order because his family was trying to build a better galaxy for him...... Because Han and Leia chose to put their life into the rebellion and not enough time into him, that’s why he fell. “My loving parents who doted on me and gave me the best in life also wanted to help other people and rebuild a wartorn galaxy. It makes me so mad just thinking of it!” The lesson apparently is spend more time with your child instead of building a better world for him otherwise he’ll shoot up a school, join a fascist organization and blame his every action on his family and constantly harass and gaslight the one girl who peaks his interest. 

Captain Phasma -Stormtrooper Command Captain Phasma is an odd bird, she would’ve been ten when the Empire fell, but we already know she wasn’t born into imperial service, or into the First Order, she joined, willingly, as an outsider. She has genuine martial capabilities and informal training, having been a clan military leader on her planet where combat was a part of daily life. After joining the Order she gained actual training which only helped to develop the skills she had developed naturally and its suggested she went on to train much of the First Order’s stormtrooper corps. Shes almost better for NOT being in the First Order from its inception because it gave her access to real experience. And yet she is entirely underwhelming on screen, being taken by surprise, suffering from total overconfidence, and seemingly being more flash than substance. As the triumvirate of the First Order its no wonder their military victories are… lacking.

It's the economics of the thing

So how does the First Order do anything at all? Money. Money is how they are successful, money is how they stay competitive. And Supreme Leader Snoke is the source of those funds. The Supreme Leader isn’t wise, hes just an incredibly rich old darksider who has chosen to invest in the First Order because he has a fetish for opulence and military parades. Infinite money can buy you a great many things, an actually experienced military seemingly isn’t one of those things! Imagine if you will a group of guys who think they are the worlds hottest shit at Call of Duty, now give them the newest in military hardware, heartbeat sensors, night vision, body armor, the works, yeah they’re a lot more deadly than your bog standard guy without that gear, but against an actual military unit? They get the floor wiped with their corpses. All the fanciest hardware in the galaxy doesn’t mean shit if you don’t have the experience to know how to use it to its capabilities. So yes, they have an Ultra Star Destroyer, and they have Stormtrooper legions, and they have planet bombarding dreadnaughts, but what they don’t have is the experience to use all those things effectively. The TIE fighter still sucks, still doesn’t have reasonable shielding, and while there is a special version with a turret and rear gunners seat, doesn’t seem to count for much unless Poe Dameron is flying it.

So we’ve established overconfidence in their capabilities and equipment, they’re the best equipped force, they have super weapons, they have a fleet, and yes, they could destroy the Resistance with ease… makes random whack-a-mole motions if they would JUST. SIT. STILL.

Incompetence in Escort Tactics

Let talk about their incompetence. Hux is goaded into allowing a Starfighter into point blank range with one of their fleet’s more valuable assets, he doesn’t launch a fighter screen to keep that fighter at bay, and when a real danger is detected, still does nothing. Captain Canady is left to launch his own fighters from Fulminatrix, and gets no support from Hux or the rest of the First Order fleet. Hux doesn’t launch support fighters, direct their batteries to put up defensive fire covering the dreadnought, nothing, no he’s too busy massaging his bruised ego because some flyboy put him on tilt with what amounts to a practical joke, and an 8km long warship pays the price for their incompetence.

Conflict with the Force Awakens

Now, to note, the First Order doesn’t seem all that incompetent in the Force Awakens, or at least not nearly as much as in the Last Jedi. They deploy a reasonable number of fighters, put a serious hurting on the Resistance X-Wings, and lose because base security wasn’t tight enough because they didn’t think an aging freighter with a crew of 3-4 would be enough to cripple their super weapon. Realistically if Han, Chewie, Finn and Rey hadn’t bombed the facility the Resistance would have lost. And if Phasma was a die hard FO loyalist, if Phasma chose to activate the security alarm instead of lowering the shields. The Resistance would’ve lost if JJ Abrams cared about making Phasma a character instead of a toy.

Incompetence when Pursuing the Resistance Fleet

And now onto the chase, or as I like to call it “the dumbest bit of military nonsense since the Emu war.” You have the First Order Fleet chasing the Resistance flotilla, supposedly the Resistance fleet is “faster” but they aren’t opening the gap between them and the First Order because… it would burn more fuel (because inertia isn’t a thing in Star Wars Space)? So they stay just at the extreme range of the First Order’s guns, and the Raddus has to be on the receiving end of a potshot every once in a while. Meanwhile said Resistance ships are flying in a straight line, direct away from the First Order fleet, so why not just set course past them and Hyperspace in front of them and catch them in the middle? Are interdictors at play here? Are they content to just think the fleet will run out of fuel and they can just catch them? It bothers me to understand that the heroes are only alive because of the gross incompetence of the First Order, because it doesn’t speak well to the capabilities of the heroes.

Incompetence in Ground Invasion

So now the Resistance is stuck on Crait, the First Order knows they are there, we know implicitly that the First Order has more than one dreadnought in their fleet, we also know the Resistance is fresh out of bombers. Maybe instead of calling for a costly ground invasion just call in another dreadnought and finish the job once and for all. This isn’t next level thinking, this isn’t superior tactics. This is using a rock to smash a bug levels of thinking. But they don’t, they land a ground invasion bigger than Hoth and bring a mini Death Star with them. Note again, that while Hoth was defended by more men with better equipment, Crait is defended by a quarter as many with rusting, dilapidated equipment… but it was enough to keep the Order stalled for Luke Skywalker to video-conference in.

Leadership in said Invasion

Which brings us to the a point concerning leadership and the ground invasion, it takes a screaming General Hux to get guns to stop, I guess because everyone is scared shitless of Kylo Ren, and then he’s treated like a rag doll in front of his men, again. Hux isn’t a true leader, Hux is a moron.

Failure to Blockade and Control the Theater of Operations

But more on the invasion, there is apparently no fleet around Crait, no blockade, no nothing, because the Millenium Falcon is allowed to escape completely unhindered and unchased by the First Order with the remaining resistance fighters aboard. Yeah, you read that right, the resistance can now fit on the Falcon, but no, they didn’t lose, they live to fight another day, by the grace of the Order’s incompetence.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, you have a raw officer corps that has no idea what its doing yet has displaced and replaced many of its senior experienced officers. A leadership that is wholly unsuited to be such. All the equipment in the galaxy but none of the experience. And a total lack of understanding of tactics. They are a group that desperately wants to be seen as the Empire, complete with angry triangles, white armored soldiers, and poorly armored flying death boxes. Maybe they should be the ones following Kylo Ren’s advice and allowing the past to die. I mean, if they can’t win even when the odds are ridiculously stacked in their favor, do they deserve to win?

[typhon-science]

68. ("This isn’t what it looks like.") for... anything with North and Connor, if I had to pick anyone for that.

this is my first attempt at humor so like,,, proceed with caution fvgwakvfgwhkavk also it’s unbetaed except for grammarly saving my ass with some errors here and there. also no.2 i learned that prompts were supposed to be 100 words long which like,,, oops? here, have a healthy 4,1k heap of chaos instead. Enjoy.

@kianraidelcam asked to be tagged, so here you go!

68. "This isn't what it looks like."

North was just watching them. Just watching. Absolutely not breaking into their house and stealing their pets right from under their noses. No, sir.

In her defense, said illegal act hadn't been a part of her plans for that night at all.

She's just been spending her free time the usual way - which meant stalking small anti-android groups, a hobby that made her feel both productive and useful in a way none other hobbies did.

(Besides shooting things, which Markus disapproved of, as it apparently ruined the "aesthetic" of New Jericho to have gunshots going off at night. Clearly, even with his fashion sense, Markus had no sense for true aesthetic.)

The group she chose to observe that day called themselves the True Humanity. It was a really small group - nothing nearly comparable to the gangs that Cyberlife attracted to itself, or the terrorist groups that tried to snipe Markus every few months. Definitely not similar to the workings of the BIOR (Blood is only red) group, Detroit's biggest anti-android establishment that Markus was semi-forced to tolerate for the time being, even if their protesters swarmed Jericho 24/7.

True Humanity was not some masterminds' strategic plan to overthrow the android movement. Not even a boycott or a protest.

It just looked like a band of teenagers with nothing else to do.

She had been standing outside on the street, leaning against the wall, in front of their meeting point, a small, semi-collapsed shack of a house, when she overheard the conversation.

It was between two of the teenagers, the one leading the group and its member, smoking outside in front of the porch. North had been watching them for some time, choosing her place so that the shadows were in just the right position for it to be unlikely that they'd notice her.

They didn't really talk about anything interesting, spent 15 minutes bickering about sports alone.But just as she was losing patience and itching to go and see if there was something else happening in the house, she heard one of them curse and start in a different tone.

"Damn fucking bitch won't stop making more kittens. I swear, one more time and I'll shoot it, right between the eyes." He glanced towards the open door of the house.

The other followed his gaze, before taking a drag of the cigarette and asking, smoke flying off his tongue. "You still having trouble with the cat?"

"Yeah. Gonna drown the new ones today."

North system stuttered. They what?

"Why do you even keep that cat, dude. Can't you just...shoot it already or dump it on the street?"

The leader's answer was quiet. He stared into the ground, voice slightly pained. "It was my brother's."

"Oh," the other replied, shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "What...what exactly happened to him?"

The leader took a while to answer. "He...he was near Hart Plaza the day those plastic bastards decided they needed their freedom and vandalized the place."

North scoffed to herself but continued listening. It wasn't the worst she'd heard.

"He tried to run away, but the military mistook him for an android. He...didn't make it."

Oof. It never occurred to her, but really, how was the military supposed to know who was and wasn't a deviant? She didn't care at that time, either.

How many casualties were there? Nobody mentioned any at the meetings.

The leader took a breath and turned around when he received no reaction other than a mumbled "I'm sorry," from his accomplice, ending the conversation.

"You're right though, I should just shoot the cat. No reason for it to stay here, It'll be basically mercy." He nodded to himself, straightening up.

"Gonna shoot the kittens to while we're at it, I don't really feel like going to the river."

North's insides twisted in disgust.

She knew humans could be brutal to creatures that they considered below themselves; the acts against androids spoke for themselves just how far they'd go.

But kittens? Why would they drown kittens? There was a multitude of other things they could do that would not require such a brutal (and illegal) action. Hell, shelters still existed and all they needed was to wait until morning.

She didn't know much about pets, not many androids did, but from what she knew from Connor, humans were usually pretty fond of them. More than fond, in some cases. They were family members, even more than androids used to be (oh, how bitter she was about that.)

"You wanna help?" The other dude asked, absolutely unconcerned.

The leader shrugged. "If you want to."

North's spine went cold. Of course. Of course.

She should've guessed that people who saw no issue in gunning androids in the street would see no issue in shooting a helpless fucking kitten.

She watched as they retreated into the house, complaining about the lack of light. The absence of street lamps in the less funded parts of Detroit was actually something that went in her favor, now more than ever.

She was just supposed to watch. Connor allowed her to stalk them with only that one condition, and North initially saw no problem with it.

Now, she was on her own thin ice.

There was no reason to save that cat. None, really. A few lost kittens wouldn't make the world crash and burn.

But it nagged at her. G-ddamn empathy.

A door shut and the two teenagers came out again, a third member dragging behind. The leader carried a gun, an old rifle from the year 2027. Quite the punch, but without the reloading speed.She had to say it was a good gun when you're fighting androids in the streets.

The leader was explaining how the gun works to what she assumed was a new member. They were all completely caught up in their conversation, not paying attention to anything else.

She was so close. Given that she was an android, locating the cat and taking it away without being noticed would be a breeze. She'd just take it to the closest vet and-

Ah, yes. 2:34:27 AM. She'd take it to New Jericho then, just for the night.

Okay, okay. She could do it.

Only then she realized that she had really started planning.

I'm really doing this, huh?

Fuck Connor. She's saving a life today whether he likes it or not.

She sneaked around the fence, careful to evade detection. Thankfully, it was second nature to her from the minute she became deviant. At last, the days of constantly running and hiding like a coward were actually good for something.

As far as she was aware, True Humanity only had three members, but she'd never seen the newcomer before. Which brought the number to four and meant that one more person was inside, probably sleeping.

She assumed they were awake. Rather assume the worst and then later find out it was better than the other way around.

She went around the back of the house, finding all of the lights off. It wasn't a problem to her; one more advantage she had to herself was night-vision.

(Not all androids had it, but it was standard equipment for sexbots, of course, because how else were they supposed to find the dick in the dark? Echolocation?)

She took out her knife and opened the window to what seemed to be the kitchen and climbed inside, her night vision protocols automatically loading.

The place was a mess.

Did humans really live like this?

The first thing that hit her was the smell; burned food, mold and sweat, oppressing and stuck to every surface.

It was a sight to behold - trash everywhere, clothes and wrappers laying on the ground making her movement unnecessarily difficult and dirty dishes in the sink that she doubted were ever touched. Anti-android banners and posters covered the walls. The room was large; a kitchen connected to the living area; making her able to see the lights on the porch through the window on the other side of the room, above the couch repurposed as a bed.

She checked the couch for the fourth member while she made her way to the door. Wherever he was, it wasn't there.

She avoided stepping on the wrappers and moved over to the hall, adjusting her audio units and listening for any sign of a human presence.

She heard meowing instead.

It came from the other side of the hallway. She crouched at the door, hearing the conversation outside, and moved in the direction of the tiny sounds to the small space in the darkness in front of her.

She saw the cat's bright, reflective eyes staring back at her.

Half across the hallway, her units picked up other sounds, human breathing. It was coming from behind the wall, slowed down and deep; definitely from a sleeping person.

She knew the sound well enough; it was something that androids simulated quite well while in rest mode and she was awfully known for watching her friends sleep, paranoid and insomniac as she was.

The floorboards creaked softly, but she doubted human ears would pick that up.

The cat started hissing when she finally came close enough to touch and North realized that she actually had no idea how to handle a cat with kittens. Well, too late to stop now.

She recalled what Connor did when he wanted to pet a dog on the street and simulated the movement, curling her fingers and reaching out towards the cat.

It recoiled at first, but eventually leaned forward and sniffed her hand. Hissed again, this time quieter. Wary, not aggressive.

North finally noticed the kittens, four fluffy, breathing balls curled next to the cat. They were smaller than her own hand; their ears stuck to their heads and limbs short. She had only used to word three times in her life, but she had to say that it was, as humans said, really fucking cute.

Humans' ability to murder kept surprising her. Androids, their own, children, pets? They didn't care. They would murder everything if it got them what they wanted. Or even, if it just got rid of a problem for them.

(It had actually been what made her stop wanting to murder. Realizing that she could be better than them. After that realization, only then was she able to see what of an extraordinarily strong being Markus was. Murder was the easy way out; it took a lot of strength to avoid it.)

She reached, slowly and hesitantly, for one of the kittens, feeling tears in her eyes when she actually touched the tiny, warm body, felt the fast heartbeat and the weak breaths. How could anybody cut the lives of these creatures short? And even worse, how could they choose to?

She couldn't see the kitten's colors as her night-vision was nowhere as sophisticated as Connor's, but she knew they were beautiful. Tri-colored, by the way how some parts of them appeared darker.

She looked around for anything that she could carry the cats in, noticing a rectangular cardboard box lying on the side of the hallway. She reached for it, emptied it of the never-opened books, and laid it in front of her.

The cats watched her while she took off her jacket and placed it inside the box to create some cushioning.

Now, the hard part.

North didn't know how to handle cats. She never actually met one before, only knew how they looked and what they did, but the actual presence of one and the overall situation made her anxious.

She reached with a whispered "sorry" and lifted the animal with both of her hands, ignoring the way it scratched her synthetic skin in protest, causing drops of thirium to drip down her fingers.

The much easier transport of the kittens began as soon as she laid the cat down into the impromptu container. North hoped their meows, quite loud with the way her audio sensitivity was set on high, wouldn't alert any of the four members.

She was well aware the conversation outside stopped, but currently powerless to do anything about it.

The door opened while she was still holding the fifth kitten in midair. Her thirium pump jumped fair beyond parameters.

"What the fu-"

With the changed audio-sensitivity, the gunshot was loud enough to rattle her processor as a bullet went through her right shoulder. Warnings exploded in her vision, huge and assaulting, but all she cared about was finally closing the cardboard box and getting the fuck out.

The leader of the group stood in the light coming from the main door, gun aimed, his accomplices behind him.

"Oh, my g-d! And android!"

It was really time to go.

The door to the kitchen area was on the other side of the wall, the dude standing directly in front of it. Which left one option.

She picked up the box and broke into the other bedroom, almost falling as she stumbled into a mattress. The fourth member was there, waking up from his slumber, still obviously groggy and not exactly aware of what was going on.

She vaulted over him, trailing thirium behind her and broke the window to the outside, calibrating her leap with the safety of the cats and then jumping through.

The fall was rough for her, she could survive much more than a kitten could.

She picked herself up and started running in the direction she originally came from, knowing where the street allowed her to get to the roof.

Several gunshots rang off behind her, these only hitting the cement wall. Splinters rained down on the sidewalk.

"You fucking bitch-" the leader screamed at her, taking aim and missing again.

Excellent vocabulary there, mister.

She turned a corner and found the ladder, climbing to the roof of the abandoned apartment building.

She immediately set course to New Jericho, only then realizing that there was no way she could make it through the main door like this.

First, there were the protesters. Second, one of the leaders of Jericho just randomly showing up in the middle of the night covered in blue blood is prone to scare some of their own poor, poor people. Third, Markus was probably still awake and she was not nearly okay enough to hear whatever bullshit he'd have to say.

Her own room in New Jericho was inaccessible from the roof; she made that choice so that nobody could sneak up at her and try to kill her while in rest mode. Markus' room was the same case and even if it was accessible, she wouldn't even think of it.

Which left the one and only room which she could use. Connor's.

Connor got the ridiculously small room after everybody picked out their own, elaborating on his choice to wait and see by the claim that he wouldn't be in Jericho much anyway, which turned out to be true. North didn't know much about where he actually went or spend the nights at, but the only days he made sure he was in New Jericho were saturdays.

It was thursday. So, no Connor.

She stumbled several times while on her way to the building, her thirium pump skipping a beat each time. The cats had to make it. Had to.

She knew the thirium loss was making her partly delirious, but it was still concerning when time stopped working how it was supposed to, her awareness fading in and out as her processors tried to cope with the sudden losses of power.

But she made it in under 30 minutes. That was good.

Connor's window wasn't easy to open, the action much more difficult by her hands growing uncoordinated from the unsteady power flow, but she managed to pry it open and started climbing through, cradling the box to her chest with one hand and using the other to stabilize herself.Getting her leg through the frame without completely destroying Connor's special flowers was harder than all the other times she'd done this, but she made it eventually.

The sound of somebody clicking off a gun's safety went off.

She froze and stared into the dark, trying to find the source, while her processor struggled to give her prompts of what to say and produced one heap of utter garbage.

"This isn't what it looks like!"

Okay, North. That was definitely words.

What did it even look like? She was covered in blood, one leg in the room with the other still outside, clinging to a box full of cats like if her life depended on it and she just attempted to break into New Jericho through the room of its Security counselor of all people.

"North?!" Connor's voice. Fuck.

Only then her processor realized that yes, Connor mentioned that he's gonna be finishing some work on thursday. Damn.

The lights turned on. Connor was standing in front of the door, which was still ridiculously close to her; the room itself was more like a tiny pantry than anything that could be lived in, anyway.

His gun was already down, but she knew he had been aiming right at her head a few seconds before. His LED finally lighted up, going to yellow.

He was worried, she could tell, but she doubted she ever saw him so confused in the entire time she'd known him.

"What- did you get shot?!" There it was.

North tried to get her other leg through the window. "...a little."

"A little?!"

"Okay, actually a bit lot." Words, North. Words.

Connor rushed to help her, basically pulling her out of the window and helping her stand.

"There's blood fucking everywhere, North, what the-," he glanced over at the windowsill, "my plants!"

North honestly hadn't considered that she was still dripping thirium everywhere and that thirium was highly toxic. Ah well.

"My G-d," Connor turned to her, his gestures unusually expressive. "What the fuck is going on? North, what did you do?!"

She wasn't sure if her processor was that fucked up from the thirium loss but it sure was producing garbage instead of meaningful sentences.

"Cat. I stole... a cat," she held up the box, "uh, more like, five cats."

"What?!"

And that was the moment the cat decided to investigate the outside, pulling a black paw through a hole in the box and meowing loudly.

Connor stared at her, mouth slightly open, but he didn't say anything. Just stared as if in some kind of shock, his eyes darting from North to the cat and back to her. He didn't move. His eyes were still wide.

She shouldn't be proud of it, but Simon sure did owe her 10 dollars now that she was the one who made Connor bluescreen. Their ongoing bet was silly yet challenging, as Connor never fell speechless when he was supposed to react, always knew what to do next and what to say.

Until now, apparently.

She itched to do something, realizing that she had been staring right back at him and also hasn't moved, as if they were stuck in a staring contest unaware.

Connor moved first, shifted his weight, his expression not changing. "...okay." His voice was strained.

"Can I…?" She gestured at the box and then the desk, getting a nod in response.

She left him standing there and laid the box on the desk, sighing in relief when she found that all of the kittens survived. The cat immediately tied to jump out and North didn't blame it, given that the time it spent in the box wasn't exactly a relaxing experience.

North couldn't scan and even if she could, she wasn't sure if scanning animals for injuries would be available. She surveyed the net and tried to work with what she got, still coming up too short for her liking.

She hadn't even realized Connor moved to stand next to her until he leaned over, his LED went yellow, scanning. His calm facade was back.

"You will tell me how the fuck this happened, but for now, let's take care of these," he reached forward and let the cat, currently sitting on the table, sniff his hand. "You should be glad that I started taking veterinary courses."

North turned to him. "You what?"

"I'm pretty sure the message I conveyed was clear. Did the blood loss damage your auditory units?"

There was the Connor she knew. Cold, stone-faced, sarcastic bastard.

"Fuck you," she snapped back, getting a grin in response.

"They're all dehydrated and haven't been cared for for quite a while, but I don't see anything serious.” He straightened up, his expression going back to neutral. “They’ll stay here for the night. I can drive them to the nearest shelter tomorrow. The cat isn't chipped, so I think it should find a good home pretty fast."

She was surprised at herself when her mind recoiled at the thought. "No."

"What?"

"Mine," her voice was louder than she expected. "Mine now."

"Come again?" His eyebrows rose up.

"I'm keeping them."

"North, are you sure? Do you even know how to care for a cat?"

"No," she began, "but I almost died for them! I'm not giving them back to the humans!"

He thought it over. "North...why exactly did you steal them? I thought you went to investigate the True Humanity group."

"I did. And this was never my plan, but the dude said he was going to shoot them and I just...I just couldn't let him do it."

She saw the fire rise in Connor's eyes. She almost expected him to be shocked, but he was a detective after all; he saw what humans could do to each other, what they could do to androids.

And if there was something she knew that made the detective angry, it was the mistreatment of helpless animals.

"So," his voice was firm. He was, indeed, fucking mad. "They shot you? Because you broke into their house to save these?"

She nodded, looking back at the kittens. They were tri-colored, her search identifying the coloring as calico, except for one, which was fully black.

Her eyes with the mother cat’s and she noted their color  – copper-brown, whiskey at the edges.

Connor was rubbing his hands together, his LED yellow. "Don't worry about the law, I'll cover it for you."

She nodded again, trying not to show her relief. "Thanks."

"Do you have anything to do tomorrow? I'd rather get to the vet as soon as possible."

North crossed her hands. "When did you get the right to command me about this?" she teased.

Connor straightened and put his hands behind his back, a habit he still hasn't let go. "North, you don't know how to care for a cat and these will need more than what you can google. I want to help."

"Sure," she chuckled. "You're just a sap."

His expression dropped. He actually looked hurt as he stared on the ground.

"Fine! You're co-owning them."

His eyes lighted up instantly. It was pure excitement, which was also something she didn't see on him often.

"So, 6am tomorrow?" She asked.

He nodded. "I'm not letting you off the hook about breaking into the house of an anti-android group just yet, but this is way more important."

Connor reached for one of the kittens, petting it with extremely careful movements. "I'm going to order the supplies shortly, but I'll wait on your input if you have color preferences and such."

"Yeah," she said, opening a connection and sending the information.

She lifted her hand, intending to fix her hair, frowning when she noticed it was covered in blue. Ah, yes, bullet wound.

She looked down on the floor, relief washing over her when she noticed the thirium loss was much weaker as her self-repair systems kicked into gear. The floor had quite a lot of bloody footprints, though. Connor hadn't noticed yet. She should leave before he does.

"I...I think I'm gonna go get repairs now."

"You should be glad it didn't hit anything important," Connor said with a slight frown as he looked at her.

"I am."

She hesitated for a while. "Take care of them, okay? I'm gonna be back in an hour or two."

"Of course. "He replied with a nod and a smile.

She nodded back and gave the cats a last look before she turned and left through the door.

She noticed Markus incoming from the other side of the hallway, doing his typical waltz-walk. Their eyes met. If she won't leave now, he will notice.

Not today, sir.

Too many things happened. Too much new.

She turned in the other direction and sped up, hoping he wouldn't notice the blue footprints she was probably still leaving behind.

[sepublic]

Metroid Prime Hunters: Spire Ramblings

So if there’s one story thread from Metroid that I’m certain will never be addressed again, that’s poor Spire and the fate of his species, the Diamonts. Considering the hiatus that Metroid’s been through, I can’t see Nintendo putting in the resources to give closure to a fairly minor and forgettable Metroid character, from an admittedly obscure Metroid title, in favor of discussing Sylux, or Samus, or the Galactic Federation. It certainly doesn’t help that Spire’s whole origin story is more of a meta joke to the cancelled Raven Blade than anything else. So, to deal with that, I’ve written my personal idea regarding the ‘truth’ of the Diamonts, and Spire’s origins!

           The truth of Spire’s race, the Diamonts? They never existed in the first place.

           The story initially started with Biologic Space Labs. The company was hired to perform a secret experiment of dubious ethics for the sake of sociology and other related studies; In this case, simulating an entire society and history of a planet and its supposedly naturally-occurring species.

           For the sake of economic reasons, the project, dubbed Ravenblade, initially started with only one synthesized subject- A silicone-based organism named Spire, who would be the basis for the rest of the Diamont species, should the project provide enough encouraging results. Designed from the ground up, Spire’s brain was programmed with false, simulated memories of life on a planet where the Diamonts had existed and established their own culture and society. To simulate this computer society, bits and details were taken from various real-life cultures and peoples, and unknowing science-fiction authors were hired to contribute.

           The result was an entirely-fabricated simulation of a planet, with various AI posing as the fellow inhabitants, Spire’s mind freely wandering about in their life. Asleep in their simulation pod, Spire lived out a full virtual life, unaware that their entire reality was all a simulation.

           Results seemed worthwhile after years of study, and the BSL researchers prepared to create more Diamonts to inhabit the virtual world with Spire. However, commands from higher-up took an interest in the project’s potential military applications, and so the research was geared towards more warfare-related purposes.

           Postponing manufacturing of other Diamonts, the researchers instead set to work modifying their current creation, Spire, into a bioweapon. Spire was equipped with the ability to roll into a spiked ball, as well as given crystalline formations on their body, and an experimental weapon- The Magmaul. The justification for this change in the simulation was flimsy- In Spire’s virtual life, they supposedly developed these mutations specifically because of that- an enigmatic mutation.

           Next, the researchers created a war within Spire’s simulated world. The other virtual Diamonts were fighting each other, and Spire was forced to choose a side and participate in combat simulations. To enhance the authenticity, Spire themselves was occasionally awoken in a holographic environment that would mimic the battlefield, and be forced to fight against disguised test drones.

           These simulations continued, with Spire showing promise as a powerful warrior. Within Spire’s simulation, they were hailed as a hero by their comrades. However, even after one war ended, another came in the form of simulated invaders, based off of infamous Space Pirate species and the Kriken. These fake battles continued, with Spire occasionally noticing the slightest glitch, but never suspecting a thing.

           Each time, Spire’s ‘species’ successfully fought off the token invading species of the day. The simulation was currently in a period of peace and reparation when Project Ravenblade was suddenly shut down.

           Evidently, the higher-ups weren’t satisfied with the results, and had decided to cut funding. The project was cancelled, and Spire’s last virtual memory was of themselves falling asleep under a cliff before the simulation was turned off.

           The unconscious Spire was preserved in a pod, and equipment for the cancelled project was repurposed and transferred. The now-obsolete Spire was placed into a warehouse for potential future usage, and remained there for years.

           Eventually, an economic recession occurred, and Biologic Space Lab’s stocks dropped. Hoping to make some quick money, an employee violated company protocols and snuck Spire’s pod out of the warehouse, selling Spire to the black market. To drum up the price, the employee made up a story of how Spire was the last of their race, the Diamonts, which mysteriously disappeared alongside their planet.

           Regardless of how much the price was altered because of the story, it was at least believed. Spire was bought and kept in storage, before trading through a long network of hands, the story of their enigmatic race’s disappearance travelling alongside with them between owners.

           Spire finally awoke when a malfunction in their pod’s systems occurred. Spire broke free, finding themselves in a strange alien transport taking them to a buyer who hoped to sell them off to a being known as the Collector. Dazed and scared, Spire steeled themselves and attacked the crew, demanding to know where they were, who these people were, and what had happened.

           Fearful for their lives, the crew of the transport explained to Spire the false story of the Diamonts and their disappearance. Shocked and afraid for their species, Spire forced the knowledge of who had sold them, and tracked that person down, as well as the person they bought Spire from, and so forth. Spire hoped that by tracking down the trail, they could find out what had happened.

           Alas, the trail went cold. Desperate, Spire searched for their home planet, typing in the coordinates only to find empty space when they arrived. With their whole world shattered beneath their feet, Spire was forced to adjust to living as a vagabond within Galactic Federation space before making a living as a bounty hunter. Using their military training and powerful abilities, Spire became determined to find the answer to what happened to their people. 

[3dgamelp]

evaluation

Throughout this project, I learned a variety of new techniques, such as; how to make an enemy attack the player, how to roam around, and how to run towards and around the player. This gives the enemies a more traditional “zombie-like” feel. I thought this would help to reinforce the horror genre I hoped to achieve in my game's play style. It was always a game that had started with the idea of using the Black wing virus in some way. The game was good in the aspect of view from fog and lighting but the texture of the main map as the texture quality was very low poly.

Textures against the walls and floors aren't as high quality as what the lighting shows them, which was a sad part but to link it to a game I would say have a look at Halo Combat Evolved with the texture quality.

To build my game I primarily used Unreal Engine and blender, I ran into some strange problems such as the player's shadow being cast awkwardly with the way they were holding the gun, to solve this I had to cut the body of the player model in certain areas, to make it all look a bit more natural. In terms of techniques, I used a program called Blender for the models of players and weapons, and I think they turned out really well. The weapon models I got from a friend who's a part of a Star Wars group that makes models for VR to use in military simulator games.

I did alter my project to make the map smaller due to how much time we had to make the game. My friend's assets saved me a lot of time as if I never had the models I would not have made it star wars related if I never had the models then I would make the weapons more realistic instead of space weapons, I did not use voxel as I wanted a more smooth outcome minted of cubed enemies or weapons.

From the beginning, I had an idea to make a zombie Star Wars with the initial premise of the Blackwing virus spreading, overall I believe the main game turned out very well, however if I had more time I would’ve added sounds for the zombies, and even tried to develop 4 more variants of them. This would’ve made the game longer, other options were a potential lockdown area [you're stuck in a room with no way out, with undead spawning in and attacking for a time limit].

I would’ve like to make up to 8 different areas where more and more zombies are there to overwhelm you. In terms of winning the game you must reach a reactor once the button is pressed, I would like to make a timer so you could escape but for now it's just a flash of light.

I learned how to make an enemy AI that tracks you once it's seen you, Like I said before the weapons I got from a friend who sent me the google drive link, but the zombies I got through gmod. We added code from making zombies roam around to making a gun that uses line tracing for firing the weapon, we also made a hp bar and score so when you get to a certain score a new horde of the dead spawns, this is so the player doesn’t get overwhelmed at the beginning. The design of the level was really good, the only thing I dislike is the 3d maps. They’re a pain to create consistent levels in, but I enjoyed it as it let me make stuff you would not normally see, or be able to do in 2d, things like hallways you can only see at right angles to stairs that seem to lead to nowhere.

If I was to restart from scratch I would add more variants of the clones [phase 1 and 2] and more guns [dc-15a and the Z-6].

[cacophony-eg]

Carnation Complication (Shkidge)

(If you don’t like Keith/Pidge/Shiro, Keith/Pidge, Pidge/Shiro, or Keith/Shiro. Please do not read) Everyone has a soulmate mark, for humans, the marks can be vast many things, and colours, the thing that ties one soulmate to another is that the silhouette of each mark is always the same. Race, gender, it does not matter who, or what your soulmates are, the only taboo is if you are a cursed third soulmate. This is a story about Pidge being Shiro's and Keith's third.

Katie's mom often told her; life was not defined by one or two moments, it was created by many moments big and small that combined and shaped a person's life.

It's just her mom just never told her how many could happen spread apart over years or condense within a handful of months or a few weeks… or how many of them could revolve around only a small handful of people.

The first person to completely flip her world around was; Takashi "Shiro" Shirogama, her father's favourite pupil, and a good friend to her brother. The tall muscular man was practically a legend in her household, both her father and brother often spoke of Shiro at their dinner table, their words filled with high praise, and admiration.

 As Matt and Shiro became better friends, the tall man's presence at her home became a semi-regular thing. Katie was always polite to Shiro; he was kind, smart, and never spoke down to her; out of all her brother's friends, he was easily her favourite. She wasn't really talkative with Shiro, but she liked being around him, despite her long list of inept social skill, he had this unexplainable calming aura about him. It sort of drew her to him, often finding herself hanging around him and her brother. Most often when they worked on something, either to help them or just for some company as she worked on some of her own things.

Her personal often work involved building up her application for the garrison, she was still a little too young to join the garrison but she wanted to be prepared as possible.

Katie was going to get in on her own merits and not with her father's recommendations, she could already hear the voices of her future classmates mocking her and claiming she only got in because of her father's help.

Pidge was never sure how, but Shiro got wind of her wanting to join the Garrison. Ever the person to try and build up other people, he offered to help her learn some Japanese, all so she could add multilanguage skills to her application. Shiro openly respected her choice, compared to others who sconed her for taking the 'hard way'. It was the main reason she agreed, and he ended up being a great teacher for her.

She even got to call Shiro by his first name during lessons. After she asked for permission of course. Surprisingly, Shiro seemed touched by the request and almost encouraged her to call him by his first name. Katie guessing it was because most people called Takashi by his nickname over his first name.

One hot summer's day, Takashi was over helping Matt replace the engine in his hoverbike. Katie off to the side, providing 'helpful' peanut gallery comments here and there as she worked on her Laptop, staying off to her own little corner.

Katie never thought the simple act of Shiro rolling up his sleeves, would change her life forever. She usually would have never paid attention to such an action, but Shiro almost always kept his arms covered and the flash of a soft Aqua colour on his arm caught her eyes.

Time felt like it had slowed at that moment as her eyes looked over the Aqua colour Soul mark on his lower right arm; it was in the form of a Carnation, and it's shape and design mirrored her own mark.

Katie swore her heart jump into her throat. It looked so much like hers, it matches up so perfectly, but she wasn't the kind to jump to conclusions... not without research, and with her mark being on her back she needed to double check...

So she did what any good scientist would do… she discreetly captured a picture of Shiro's Soul Mark and spent the next few days comparing it to hers, taking measurements and making digital flat renderings of both. It proved to be an undeniable matched.

All Soul Marks even between soulmates had their differences, Shiro's was a heartwarming Aqua, and looked so much better than the one on her back that was white with splotches of mix match colours.

She could never imagine someone so strong and kind; not to mention already knowing her father and brother, who was almost a part of her family already, would be her soulmate.

After her discovery, Katie spent as much time with Takashi as she could. Now that she was more aware of their bond, some of the strange sensations she got around him made so much more sense. When Katie focused, she started feeling his emotions and being able to sense when he was nearby. It made her feel giddy, it was proof that their bond was growing even if Takashi didn't know it yet.

In hindsight so much about the feelings she had towards Takashi made sense, the comforting sensations she had around him, her intuition to predict where his line of thinking was going, or how she never felt scared or hesitated to trust him.

Katie doing her best to calculate the right moment to tell him. She was never the best at these things, especially person to person, wondering how she could tell Shiro that they were soulmates. She never told her parents or brother, wanting Takashi to be the first she told.

One day Katie joined her brother and father as they went to the garrison, another schedule training session for a future mission still in the planning stages. Katie knowing Takashi would be there as well, not to mention she had assisted her father in programming the latest simulation and wanted to see it in action.

Pidge surprised to see Takashi brought someone else to this simulation, showing around a boy that was about the same age as her with dark hair, wearing a White and Red hoody.

"Who's that?" Katie quietly asked her brother, leaning a little closer to Matt so only he would hear her. Not really one to go out of her way to meet other people if she didn't have to, but her curiosity was buzzy. Katie could swear she had never seen the guy before but something about the guy felt... familiar since the moment she saw him with Takashi.

"Oh, that's Keith, Shiro's soulmate" Matt whispered back, and in that one moment, Pidge felt her life shatter. Takashi had mentioned Keith before, someone with a quick temper and great piloting skills, but never said anything about finding his soulmate… she was supposed to be…

Matt, unfortunately, miss reading his sister's expression, "I know right? I was surprised too, They've known each other for over a year" only a little earlier than when she met Takashi, Katie noted "but Keith always hid his mark and only half a year ago finally showed Shiro-"

Katie tried to listen, but Matt's voice faded away as her mind spiralled. She was a cursed third, a deviant, a taboo love to temp and test the real soulmates. Takashi would hate her, shun her from his life forever if she told him about their shared marks now.

What would her family think? Would they always look at her with pity or worst disappointment for the misfortune of having a third as a daughter? They could never know…no one could ever know.

Katie put on a mask, and watched the simulation like she usually would but kept herself as far away as possible from the Keith guy; thanks to him, her life was twisted and changed forever.

Katie spent the next few months hating Keith, hating that he was Shiro's real soulmate. Taking steps to distances herself from Shiro; stop taking lessons from him so he could focus on the upcoming mission. Even though the mission was over a year away… Change all her applications, she couldn't go to the Garrison anymore, she could never handle being in the same grade or classes as Shiro's real soulmate. Coming up with stories that she wanted to go to a more robotic focused military school. Stop hovering around both her brother and Shiro claiming they were becoming too distracting while she was working. Overhearing her farther once tell Matt and Shiro that she was distancing herself so it wouldn't hurt as much when they would be gone on the Kerberos trip for almost two years… and she let them think that.

Once Katie got into Avem academy; a sister flight combat school of the Garrisons that focused more on robotics, and program enhancements. She spent as much time at school as she could.

But no matter how much a part of her wanted to cut Shiro from her life completely; fearful of what he and her family would do if they discover her secret. She just couldn't...

Shiro had become too much a part of her families life, Katie did take every chase she was given to bury herself in her school work or personal projects, try to avoid Shiro whenever he was over. It wasn't unusual for her to be unsocial or get lost in a project, but every so often… even she couldn't fight the desire to get to know him more, to have a few moments near him even if she didn't say anything.

Eventually, she just felt numb whenever she was around Shiro, feeling tired as she tried burying all her feelings towards Shiro, forget any kind of connection she thought they had, forget he was her soulmate, so deep down she would forget the day she discovered he was her soulmate.

Launch day came and went, nothing more than a brief hug with Shiro before he was tossed into space with her family. Katie putting all her focus on her work instead, it was easy to just drown herself in the work, and forget about everything else, or she at least pretended it was.

Sadly nothing could stop the next time her world shattered and ripped her heart apart. Over half a year later Katie and her mother saw the news; Shiro, along with her Father and Brother we're declared dead, because of a flight accident.

So many emotions filled Katie at once, roaring, burning and flooding through her, through the bombardment of all her emotions she chooses to focus on her anger. How dare they blame Shiro's skills, he was the most amazing pilot the academy had to offer. He would never cause an accident like that, there had to be more.

Katie took time to sit down and think, if it had really been an accident, they would have been personally informed by soldiers from the garrison, showing proof to the next of kin so her mom and she would know they were K.I.A instead of M.I.A. No, what they did was completely against usual protocol. Even putting into account the public side, leaking it to the press? letting the world know before the next of kin did? No, this stuck of a cover-up, they wanted the public and her families attention to all be on 'Shiro's Mistake'.

The world, could fall for the illusion the Garrison was giving them but she never would. Shiro and her family were alive, she could almost feel it.

Katie watched as her Mom fell into depression, while desperately putting on a brave face for so her daughter wouldn't worry about her. Katie wasn't the best at handling other peoples emotions and dove herself more into searching for the truth, knowing the best way to help her mother was to find her brother and father.

Days with little to no sleep passed. Katie doing everything she could with her current equipment to find the truth, to find anything about her family. After hitting wall after wall… even with her hacking skills she quickly discovered she was going to need a direct link into the garrison computers if she was going to find anything.

A new thought suddenly crossed her mind, a person who she spent months hating and even longer childishly pretending he didn't exist, someone who was probably hurting just as much as she was...

Keith; Shiro's soulmate.

A fresh wave of guilt hit her, thinking about how much Keith must have been suffering this last week. She really didn't know Keith well enough to even know how he would have taken the news... He might even have the same feelings as her.

It didn't take long for Katie to find his latest contact information, what took her forever, on the other hand, was crafting the right message... how was she suppose to tell someone she barely knew that their…no...his soulmate; she mentally corrected. Had been wrongly accused, that the garrison, the school he went to, was lying to the whole world. To them about their loved ones? All while making it sound believable and not the ravings of a broken little girl that lost her big brother and Father.

She eventually settled on the most straightforward and short message.

The Garrison is lying about Shiro and my family,

There's no way the ship went down like they said it did, they're hiding the truth.

Are you willing to help me find the truth?

-Katie (Matt's sister)

Sleep refused to come to her that night so she waited for his reply. Katie wondering what kind of person Keith was, would he believe her? Would he want answers like her? Was he so loyal to the Garrison that he wouldn't believe what she said and report her for the accusations?

Katie's mind swirling with possibilities not knowing what to expect from Shiro's real soulmate. The thought made her flinch... the fact that she was not Shiro's real soulmate still left this painful heavy feeling in her chest.

She shook her head, in a vain attempt to get rid of her thoughts at least for a few moments as she looked down at her phone waiting for a reply. Katie had sent the message through an old recycle phone, one she had put back together not too long ago on a board whim. It gave her some deniable if Keith did try to report her.

Katie staring down at the phone, rubbing her fingers over the screen like it would make the message come faster, her other hand absentmindedly petting Bae Bae; her family dog.

When the phone finally buzzed, her body instantly tensed up, startling Bae Bae awake, the pup huffing a little before resting her head back on her human's lap.

Katie held the phone close to her face with both her hands as she quickly opened the phone. A spark of hope filling her as she read the message from Keith:

What do you need me to do?

----- (AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cacophony_EG Fanfiction.net:https://www.fanfiction.net/~cacophonyeg )

[sapphicunicorn]

Ignite the Stars by Maura Milan (young adult/science fiction)

Everyone in the universe knows his name. Everyone in the universe fears him. But no one realizes that notorious outlaw Ia Cocha is a seventeen-year-old girl.

A criminal mastermind and unrivaled pilot, Ia has spent her life terrorizing the Olympus Commonwealth, the imperialist nation that destroyed her home. When the Commonwealth captures her and her true identity is exposed, they see Ia’s age and talent as an opportunity: by forcing her to serve them, they will prove that no one is beyond their control.

Soon, Ia is trapped at the Commonwealth’s military academy, desperately plotting her escape. But new acquaintances—including Brinn, a seemingly average student with a closely-held secret, and their charming Flight Master, Knives—cause Ia to question her own alliances. Can she find a way to escape the Commonwealth’s clutches before these bonds deepen?

I happened to spot the cover from a random “In your orbit” post and I knew I had to have it. What kind of sci-fi fan would I be if I passed up something as gorgeous as that? I read a quick synopsis and then hopped over to Amazon to buy it right away. And when it showed up on my doorstep, I cracked it open right away.

And then I started seeing “Think Throne of Glass in space!” And it made sense why I struggled to keep reading. While Throne of Glass is compelling for some people, as someone on the other side of the fence… I should’ve listened.

Ia (“It’s pronounced eye-yah” she insists in the first chapter) is a notorious criminal but no one knew she was just a girl. When she’s confronted by the military aboard a refugee ship, the secret comes out and she trades her freedom for the safety of the refugees. Soon her face is paraded around the Commonwealth, the day going down in history that the Blood Wolf of the Skies was brought to heel.

Brinn is a girl just trying to fit in. She dyes her hair, keeps her head down, does everything according to “normal” standards, but nothing can change the fact that she’s Tawny. And Tawny aren’t widely accepted in the Commonwealth. When she sees the news of Ia’s capture, Brinn decides she’s destined for more than a normal life as a history scholar. She’s a citizen of the Commonwealth, she’s more than the slurs say, she’s more than her past, and so she decides to make her mark and enrolls at the military academy Aphelion.

Here’s where the book instantly begins to drag. Although we have an explosive chase from Ia’s first escape attempt, the book mostly wanders between three different POVs and nothing really happens. When we travel with Ia, she’s either alone or orbiting Knives. When we travel with Brinn, well, literally nothing happens. When we travel with Knives, it’s all about Ia. You might think that a military academy has drills, that we might see some flight training, spend time with all of the jets that are so highly talked about.

Nope. The majority of the book is spent sitting around. We see maybe two classes? One is a lecture (which turns into a convenient plot point not long after it’s introduced), and the other is a simulation. Sure would’ve been nice if someone actually piloted something or even took a test. School work is more interesting than just sitting around!

While Ia is a compelling character when she’s actually doing something, the middle of the book finds her so comfortable with her surroundings that she’s hardly thinking of escape. Instead, she’s thinking more about Knives’s ice blue eyes. His eyes as blue as an ocean. Those blue eyes that are like storm clouds. Hey, did you know that Knives has blue eyes? And when she’s not thinking of Knives, she finds herself surrounded by people unable to do very basic things. So that makes her The Best at everything. And everyone must notice she’s The Best.

Meanwhile, Knives is unimportant. There’s no point to him being here besides confirming that Ia is The Best and everything she does is awesome, but scary, but totally super awesome. His chapters were the hardest to finish because there was just no point. He made the book drag and drag and drag. But thank god his eyes are blue. Did you know that yet?

Brinn was the least interesting, but that wasn’t surprising since she was supposed to be boring. That’s her entire character. Secretly she’s the brainiac character, complementing Ia’s ability to pull plot convenience out of thin air, but even that isn’t used until towards the end of the book. She struggles the most at Aphelion academy; refugees are quickly becoming targets for violence, and even Brinn’s brother is swept up in an attack that lands him in the hospital. Slurs appear around Brinn’s dorm--that Ia conveniently cleans before anyone sees, so we don’t see any growth from Brinn confronting the people involved.

The plot appears much later in the book. Suddenly we’re thrust into star gates and dead space and slavers and betrayals… and, honestly, the latter half of the book didn’t make much sense. But Knives had to have some of the spotlight, and Ia had a chance to finally prove she could do something besides talk. And Brinn had to come to terms with her heritage.

All in all, the book itself was confused. It started as a sci-fi thriller, turned into a social commentary, threw in some romance and friendship, and then quickly nosedived into typical YA territory where the main character magically makes everything better and saves the day. And gets the guy. Was the obnoxious romance mentioned yet? Because it’s certainly there. And it’s obnoxious.

Ignite the Stars isn’t a bad book by any means--it’s just boring. Even with all the standing around and talking, the characters never really took on life or grew or did anything interesting. Still, I wouldn’t compare it directly to Throne of Glass. Celaena only insisted she was The Best and that was all the proof anyone needed--no questions asked, no proof necessary. At least Ia proved she could do something. At least Ia wanted to do something.

Don’t think of Ignite the Stars as “Throne of Glass in space” because it’s much more enjoyable, and more descriptive, than that series.