#gt nari

[guardiantales-fanblog]

For the celebration of Guardian Tales 3rd year anniversary, fans have made some fanart for a contest, here are some of them

The source of all of these images is here

by "가테짱재밌음"

by "공주님 최고에요"

by "Flare"

and the current winner of the contest, by "메추리알장조림"

[pugscoffee]

Whoops,i forgot to post my Knight drawings here too

Ourgh.... Knight my beloved 🥺💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷

When i look at Ogerpon i always think that she would be Lana's starter Pokémon fr

Silly 🥰💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷

Fun fact of the day!

-Male Knight has 2 JP VAs,one is Yuuki Ono who voiced Louis from Beastars! (Knight is dressing like him in this drawing),and the second one being Yuu Kobayashi (I love her voice for Knight SO MUCH),she is known for voicing Fire Emblem characters!

[rarastmblr]

GT tweets that are rotting in my gallery but it's just Garam, Nari, and the knight.

And, yes, Nari was the rat btw.

[daisukoth]

[dzamie]

Me, a single fox loli on her own without her team, minding her open business in what appears to be the apocalypse: >:3

A higher level boss monster previously fought with 4 characters, enhanced with stronger attacks, that does 30% bonus damage and takes 30% less damage: WELCOME TO WORLD FUCKING TEN, IDIOT

[ray-gt]

Fermi Paradox (Pt. 7)

There are no benefits to being a microbiologist.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 /

_______________________________________________________________________

Part 7: Close Encounters of a First Kind.

Day: Cycle 44  Location: Drun Spaceship (Long-term Holding) Mission: Be Nice to the New Roommate / Work on the Plan / Project Wayfinder (Enceladus) 

Daksh clutched his spacesuit helmet close to his chest as his new cellmate made her way over to the table on which he stood. Whether it was a poor attempt at shielding himself, or simply a lifeline of normalcy to cling to as his reality broke, shifted, reformed, and shattered for the thousandth time that day, he really couldn't say. As she waltzed over to him, grinning in a way he very much didn’t like, he backed up until the small of his back pressed against the railing of the platform and he could move no further. 

When she was standing right in front of it, the table came to her hips and she stole a moment longer to tower over him, raising her eyebrows and smiling just enough to flash her pointed canines at him. Her dark blue hair shone under the white light of the cell in a way that, from Daksh's viewpoint, looked like a halo. 

Daksh watched as she crouched down so that her face was level with his and she rested her crossed arms on the table, leaning in to study him closer. Again, he pushed back against the railing of the platform, somehow hoping that he could faze through it. 

Then again, would that land me any better? I'd still be stuck on a table far above the ground, inside a locked cell. With… her. 

Her dark eyes, glossy like black jade, scanned him. Again, she grinned, though this time like she were about to laugh. 

"A human?" She said, her voice husky yet melodic as it washed over him and surrounded him with sound. "I didn't realise they'd left their burrow yet. And who knew they were so small!" 

Daksh stared at the face filling his entire view as she waited for a reply that wouldn't come. Somehow, this was worse than the Drun. Though they were bigger than his cellmate, there was something impersonal and clinical about the militarists. But here, with her, it all felt like a game he was destined to lose. He swallowed thickly and clutched the spacesuit helmet closer to himself, breathing heavily. 

After a sustained silence, the giant frowned, and Daksh didn’t know if that was worse than the grin. She straightened a little and placed one hand on her chest. 

"I'm Shami." She said before looking at him expectantly. 

Daksh felt like all the connections between his brain and his mouth were fried because, despite his brain telling him to 'Hey, man, oh my god, just say something. Literally anything.', no words came. Rather, his mouth hung open pretty uselessly. Though he'd never admit it aloud, he bemoaned the fact that McBride wasn't there. It was so much easier to look a giant alien in the eye and tell them to fuck off when there were two of them. 

Shami rested her head on her crossed arms, tilting it to one side as she studied him. 

Christ, does she even blink? 

Daksh yelped as she lifted a hand and brought it towards him, clawed index finger extended out. He stared, dread rippling through his body and making his knees wobble, as it landed on his chest and poked him. Thankfully, the railing was already flush against his back, or he would have stumbled back from the force of it. 

"Fuck!" The cursed slipped out of him and it seemed to delight the giant. 

"There we go. Come on, don't be shy!" She purred. "Say hello. What's your name?" 

Her clawed finger moved to lift his chin and force him to look at her. Daksh's breath hitched in his throat as his own dark eyes met hers. He made a note, when and if he ever retold the story, to omit how panicked he sounded when he finally found it in him to speak. Rather, in the retelling, he'd be quick-tongued and suave, with a charming smirk to top the whole thing off. Unfortunately, this wasn't the retelling as Daksh would have it, this was the retelling as it was. 

"Daksh." He forced out with a wavering intonation. He cleared his throat. "My name is Daksh." 

She hummed, contented with his response. She repeated his name, inhaling it like sweet smoke and letting it roll over her tongue, filling the air with it. 

"Daksh." She mused. "I like it." 

"Umm, thanks." He said, daring to glance down at the long, pointed nail that was holding his chin hostage. "Could you - uhh - move that?" 

Shami considered the request and, though she didn’t say anything, Daksh felt her pull the nail away. However, her massive hand still lingered at a proximity that couldn't be considered anything other than a violation of personal space. Shami's head rested on one arm while the other was stretched out towards him. The finger that had already pushed him and threatened him now tapped against the glass of his spacesuit helmet. 

"What's this, Daksh?" She asked. "They don't usually let us bring personal items into Long Term Holding." 

Daksh's heart plummeted as the giant hand pinched the helmet and started to pry it from his grasp. 

"Wait!" He said, doing his best to maintain his hold on it, using all his strength, bracing with his legs, as she used very little, if any, of her own. 

Daksh could feel the helmet slipping from his fingers as she pulled it from him. Eventually, she tugged it from his grasp and the inertia sent him back into the platform railing. 

"Shit!" He said, rubbing the impact point. 

He looked up and felt the blood drain from his body as he watched her hold it up to her eye and examine it. She turned it over in her large, powerful fingers and every move sent his heart into overdrive. 

It she breaks that, I'm fucked. Well, more fucked that I already am. 

"Please," He pleaded and instantly it reminded him of a scrawnier, primary school version of himself, being bullied by the bigger kids during break. He set his feet. "Give it back." 

Shami's glance darted from the helmet to him and his stomach curled under her attention. "Is it important to you?" 

"Yeah, I'd say so." He said, trying and failing to mask the urgency building behind his voice. "Kinda." 

Shami pressed her lips together and hummed again and Daksh couldn't help but feel like she were teasing him. Her eyes squinted and she grinned, flashing her pointed canines. 

"Come get it then." 

Daksh swallowed his thundering heart. "What?" 

Her grin widened and she shrugged with a smug nonchalance. "If it's so important to you, come get it." 

She held the helmet so that it was level with him, but so that he'd have to come off the platform and within a couple of meters of her face in order to do so, neither of these he liked. He stared at the helmet. 

"I mean," He shrugged, wrapping his fists around the railing behind him. "You could just give it back." 

"I could." She replied but made no move to follow through with that. 

They sat there in the tension - neither moving, neither conceding. When it became apparent that the only way he'd get the helmet back would be by playing along with whatever Shami had in mind, he groaned. 

"Ok," He said shakily, his hands loosening on the railing. "But no funny business.” 

Funny business? 

Shami just smiled and it did nothing to reassure him. 

He inched his way off the platform, closer and closer to her face, within proximity of her claws. 

Don't think about it. Just get the helmet. 

The closer he got, the more he could hear and feel her breathing and the further her shadow engulfed him. Once he got to the hand that held his lifeline, he frowned. She'd moved it higher so it was now just out of his reach. 

"Really?" 

"What?" 

"Could you - uh - lower it?" 

"Too high for you?" She said but she lowered the helmet so that, if he fully extended his arms and got up on his tip toes, he could just wrap his fingers around the base of it. With a definitive tug, he pulled it from her grasp and clutched it close to his chest once more, breathing deeply. 

Shami let out a like chuckle, or what Daksh assumed was a chuckle. What if on her planet, that was actually a sign of extreme aggression, or hunger? He watched with apprehension as she rose to full height once more. 

His gaze followed her as she wandered to the corner of the cell, grabbed the back of a metal chair and dragged it over to the table where he remained standing, trapped and frozen. The chair seemed to be the only piece of free standing furniture in the cell - the table and bunk were both bolted to the wall. She sat down in it and leant back. She then raised her legs and crossed one on top of the other on top of the corner of the table. Standing only a few meters away, Daksh couldn't help but stare in horror. 

Then something happened that Daksh did not expect. 

Suddenly, from behind him, Shami's other hand swooped in and wrapped its long fingers around his waist. 

"What - FUCK!” He cried out instinctively as his feet were hitched up from the surface of the table. His stomach lurched with the motion, and he squirmed in Shami's grip, clutching at the fingers wrapped around his middle with one hand and doing his best to maintain his hold on the helmet with the other. The sensation was so foreign - so wrong - that his brain couldn't help but register it as a threat. 

Shami brought him down to sit on her perched knee so that they could look each other in the eye without him having to crane his neck or her having to crouch down. 

This wasn’t an ideal position for Daksh, noting how he could feel every tiny micro-movement of her body beneath his - so small she'd never know she was making them. But he did, and he did his best to put them out of mind. That and the fact that any wrong move by her would lead to his early funeral. Seeing as he'd already told McBride that he'd outlast her, that would be beyond embarrassing. 

Once he was as oriented as he could be in that situation, he looked up her. 

"Can you please not do that?" He said through a tight jaw. 

She crossed her arms and shrugged, feigning ignorance. "Do what?" 

He gestured back down to the table where he'd been standing moments before. 

"That! Don't just grab me without warning!" He said, running his hands through his hair. "Not ok." 

She laughed and he felt it ripple through her whole body which did nothing for his sense of security. "Ok, I'll let you know before I do it next time." 

Daksh frowned. "Not what I meant at all.” 

She dismissed him with a wave of her huge hand. Her eyes closed almost totally in a playful squint as she smiled at him. Up on her knee, totally at her mercy, Daksh couldn't help but feel exposed and vulnerable. 

“Now.” She said. “Let's talk.” 

Daksh swallowed. 

I’m definitely going to die. 

***

Communications Technician Dr Julian Halliday  Age: 26 Log No.: 198 Cycle No.: 192 Year: 2199 Location: Garbage Disposal Deck, Extra-Terrestrial Vessel. 

This is Dr Julian Halliday, logging and reporting on the status of the ITV Europa Vessel and its crew. 

Despite my misgivings, we have successfully tracked and boarded the extra-terrestrial vessel with all crew members suffering relatively minimal injury - 

(- see, halliday? nothing to worry about! -) 

- nari, i'm making a log! - 

We have yet to sight any of the ship's inhabitants. Captain Barnes is currently out of action as a result of the perilous free flight and is recovering in an ITV pressure cell. According to their own assessment, the Captain should be operational in a few hours, but we don’t have any qualified medical personnel with us to confirm that prognosis. That can happen when you barrel head-first into danger without a second's thought. 

(- calm down, halliday, we made it here in one piece, didn’t we? -) 

- calm down? how am I meant to calm down, nari? we just free flew onto an alien spaceship with no idea of what we're doing or what we're up against. we don't know if the ITV's taken damage - but I can almost guarantee that it has. at any given moment, the ship that we're currently on could jump to light speed, and if that happens, we'll never be able to get back. we know for a fact that the species that have malik and mcbride are at least 60ft tall and are heavily armed. oh, and barnes is out, leaving one lieutenant and a comms tech to carry out a fraught rescue operation. did I forget anything? - 

(- yeah, you did. i think i have something stuck in my teeth - maybe from lunch? could you make a log of that too?-) 

- this is serious, nari. we're probably gonna die here, you realise that right? - 

.

(- look, jules. i know, things are pretty intense, but freaking out about how fucked we are isn't helping anyone - not me, not you, not the two techs we're here to help. things are shit, but we'll just have to take it one step at a time until it's a little less shit. if we do that, i think we'll be ok. -) 

- you're not worried? at all? seriously? - 

(- seriously. -) 

. 

 - i don't understand you... How do you- whatever. what should we do first? - 

(- good question. we need to check for any damage on the ITV. once we know, we can figure out what to do next. ok? -) 

. 

. 

. 

- ok. - 

(- so stop the log and come give me a hand. -) 

. 

- ok. - 

This is Dr Julian Halliday. Log 198. Signing off. 

***

They'd spent about an hour doing checks and repairs. Jules couldn't believe they were wasting that much time but, in a rare display of patience, Nari insisted they make sure no critical damage had been done and that any necessary repairs were noted and made before they had to escape with the Enceladus crew. 

She now stood beside him and dusted off her hands on her uniform, staring back up at the ship. 

"No major damage." She said. "Not bad, if I do say so myself." 

"I don’t think I'll ever recover from free flight." Jules said, looking at the ITV, parked in the alien garbage disposal bay. "I don't know if the ITV will either." 

"Hey!" Nari snapped. "You try navigating your ship up the waste disposal shoot of a bigger ship. It's rough." She paused, biting her bottom lip and shaking her head. "That sounds really bad, said out loud." 

Jules frowned at her and reluctantly laughed when he met her eye. 

"Hopeless." 

Nari shrugged, "Won't argue with you there." 

She scanned up and down the ship and nodded. 

"It'll need a few repairs, but nothing critical." She nudged Jules with her elbow. "Not as bad as you thought, aye, Halliday?" 

"Touch wood." He replied. "What about Barnes?" 

"Captain's still out of commission. Free flight can really take it out on older folks. Barnes has done better than most, but won't be on their feet for a bit. Hopefully sooner than later." She exhaled deeply through her nose. "I've left them with the list of repairs, so they can start on them when they wake up. Meanwhile," She clapped Jules on his shoulder. "Looks like you're with me, Halliday." 

Halliday was about to protest, she could tell immediately from his panicked eyes and high-pitched voice, but she cut him off with a raised hand before he could spiral too much. She put both hands on his shoulders and turned him to face her. Gripping him steadily, she did her best to centre and ground him. 

"Look, Jules, I know this is a lot to process." She said. "But I need someone to watch my six. Barnes is out and I'm not exactly spoiled for choice here. You just need to follow my lead and, I promise, you'll be fine." 

She ignored the tickling of doubt at the back of her mind and released Halliday. Chewing the inside of her cheek, she frowned. 

"Ok," She said after a moment's silence, more to herself than him. "We're going to go arm up, and then we'll set out. I want to scope out where we are on the ship, get a look at these aliens, and see if we can get a read on where the techs are being kept. After the scout, we can come up with a rescue plan." 

Jules was pale. 

"I'm not trained for any of this." He said softly, blank-faced and dazed. 

"If it makes you feel any better, Jules." Nari said, looking around at the giant room they were in, hands firmly on her hips. "I wasn't exactly trained for this either." 

With a short nod and a set jaw, she began walking back towards the ITV entrance. From behind her, she heard Jules balk which made her smile through the uncertainty. 

"Why would that make me feel better?" 

*** 

Rationally, Daksh knew that if Shami really wanted to hurt him, she would have done it already. At least, that's what she'd told him, and Daksh had believed her - truly a sucker for a pretty face (even if that face was almost as tall as he was, was purple, had horns, and belonged to a criminal.) 

Then again, technically I'm a criminal. My parents would be so proud. 

"No one's ever met a human before, and now there's one in my cell, sitting on my knee." She said, shaking her head in disbelief before fixing him with an impish stare. "Do you know what the Drun call your planet, Daksh?" 

Daksh frowned. It was an odd question. Immediately, the thought that 'Earth' wasn't the universal name for their little blue planet was strange. Of course, logically that made sense, 'Earth' wasn't even the name used by all its inhabitants, but it was the privilege of the residents to call their home whatever they liked. The idea that strangers looking in had their own name for it felt wrong to him - like they didn’t have the right. Then again, he couldn’t imagine the inhabitants of any of the exoplanets humans had 'discovered' would be too fond of the names they'd been christened with. 47 Ursae Majoris b, wasn't exactly catchy. 

"What?" He said, drawing it out. 

"Tukni." She answered. 

Daksh glanced around and shrugged. "You say that like it means something." He paused and frowned before looking at her. "Does it mean something?" 

"Yes," She grinned. "But you won't like it." 

"Wouldn't be the first thing today." 

She laughed again, a long rich sound that bounced around the cell. "Bad day?" 

"Not a favourite." 

She hummed and nodded. "A Tuk is a small rodent on the Drun's home planet. It’s very loud for its size and quite ugly."

"Oh." Daksh's voice was flat. "Charming." 

The look Shami gave him made his cheeks flush. 

"Earth is very loud." She explained. "It is always broadcasting, sending out messages - shouting into the void and waiting for the echo. The Drun find it very annoying. 'Tukni' means 'of Tuks'. They don't like you very much." 

"Well, I can't say I'm a fan of them either." Daksh grumbled. "But it's not like we've done anything to them. Why do they hate us so much?" 

For the first time since the Drun had entered the cell, Shami's face darkened and grew sombre. And while it was a terrifying sight in and of itself, Daksh knew it wasn't directed at him and so, strangely, he felt vindicated. Finally, there was someone else who hated the Drun as much as he and McBride. 

"The Drun are tyrants." She said. "They control everything in the sector - they monitor all communication, all interaction between systems, transport and trade, everything. The systems that are advanced enough to be a threat are kept under constant surveillance. You humans have walked that line for a while. You're not advanced enough to leave your own system, you don't know anything, and you're definitely not a threat to the power of the Drun. But you just keep broadcasting and that's dangerous. Most of the time, we don't understand what you are trying to say, but it's like a beacon of hope for the rest of us under Drun control." 

"Really?" 

Shami nodded, almost nostalgically. 

"Yes. Really. Unaware of the danger, not knowing what was out there or who was listening, there was this little planet, surrounded by tyranny and oppression, out on a wayward spur. It kept sending out messages, and pictures, and music, reminding us of love and freedom and curiosity. Somewhere there was life uninhibited." Her face fell again, and her eyes glazed, drawing back in on herself. "You will never know what lengths some went to just to send something back… or what it cost." 

"We never got anything back." Daksh said, his brain feeling numb. "If our broadcasting was such an issue for the Drun, why didn't they just shut us up? Gag order, that kind of thing?" 

Shami shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sure the Drun have their reasoning for keeping their distance from your kind. Though," She said before shaking herself out of the mood she'd created. Once again, the sly, playful grin returned, leaving Daksh to recover from the jarring mood shift. She brought a large finger to rest on his head and ruffled his long hair. "That seems to have changed with you, Tuk." 

"Ok, that name better not stick." Daksh said, fixing his hair with mixed results. Shami hummed. "Really? I think it suits you." 

They sat in silence for a bit before Daksh worked up the courage to ask something that had been plaguing him since they first encountered the Drun. 

"How are you speaking English, Shami?" 

Shami tapped the side of her neck. 

"It's the chip. There are far too many systems in Drun territory - thousands and thousands of native tongues. They realised fairly quickly that that makes it difficult to maintain control. So, they developed a database of all known languages in the sector and, using the chips, the Drun can upload any language they want into your brain. Everyone with the chip can speak Drunan, or, more importantly, everyone with the chip can understand Drunan." 

"So, it is a babel fish!" 

"What?" 

"Nothing! So, you got English? Why?" 

"I 'got English' because I was getting a new cellmate. Lucky me.” Shami paused for a moment, as if caught by a sudden idea. “It is a bit odd. Usually they limit access to Drunan only so that, if you want to speak to other prisoners, you have to speak a language the guards can also understand. It prevents any kind of organising. The prison population here is so diverse, that almost no one speaks the same native tongue anyway.” 

Daksh frowned. His hand went to the chip on his neck or, more accurately, the swollen bump where his skin had forcibly grown over it - red, and painful, and irritated. He winced, and the memories of Dr Mei pressing a gigantic pair of tweezers to his neck flashed through his mind. 

He tried searching his brain for any traces of a language he didn’t know, but it proved a challenge. Apparently, it's hard to look for knowledge in your head that shouldn't be there. 

"I don’t think anything's changed with me." He said when the search came up empty. "I don't think I can speak… What was it? Drunish?" 

“Drunan.” Shami corrected. “Well, that would explain why they gave me our language. Yours is a pretty small brain, Tuk. It might not be able to take the upload." 

Daksh crossed his arms. ”I have two PhDs, Shami." 

"That doesn't mean anything to me." 

"It means… I'm smart, ok?" Daksh said, feeling a bit like a dork. "I'm pretty sure my brain could take the Drun DLC download. I'm an expert." 

Shami cocked an eyebrow. ”What are you an expert in?" 

Daksh began listing on his fingers, feeling just a bit smug. ”Microbiology, Astrobio-." 

“-Microbiology?” Shami interrupted. “What’s that?” 

“Oh right, it’s the study of tiny organisms." 

Shami’s eyes glinted. ”You would be an expert on that." 

"Moving on!” Daksh grumbled. 

"Is that what you were doing on your moon?” She asked. “Researching?" 

Daksh was quiet. Suddenly embarrassed, he nodded. 

“What were you researching?” 

Daksh stared the alien in the face as they shared a cell on a ship full of aliens. 

"Well, it's going to sound stupid now." 

"Come on, tell me!” 

Daksh signed and ran a hand through his long hair. He rested his elbow on the helmet is his lap and his chin in his hand. ”I was looking for signs of life beyond Earth." 

Shami made a face he didn’t enjoy and pressed a hand to her chest. 

”Oh, that is so sweet." 

"Ignoring that.” He groaned, eager to redirect conversation towards something where he wasn’t the punchline. “Anyway, why did they chip me if they weren't going to give me the Duo Lingo cheat code?" 

"I don’t know what that means, but I wouldn’t be so eager for it if I were you.” Shami warned, her tone growing an edge that hadn’t been there before. “Using the chip, the Drun can give you access to any language, yes, but they can also take it away. They have a direct line to your brain now. Think about that." 

Daksh swallowed. He felt a twirling, writhing sensation grow in his gut, and bile build in his throat. He stared up at Shami, her expression downcast. 

“Did that happen to you?” 

She took a long breath. "I don't remember my own tongue anymore. I wouldn’t recognise it if I heard it. I couldn’t speak it if I tried. My name had meaning once but the Drun took that from me a long time ago. I feel like I’m wearing someone else's skin." 

Daksh felt a sudden cold clamminess wash over him. His mouth hung open in a way he was aware of but couldn’t seem to correct. What would it be like to no longer be able to remember your own language? How would it feel to not only have to speak but think in the language of your oppressors? He couldn’t fathom it. As he thought, the bump on his neck throbbed angrily. He did his best (and failed) to ignore it. 

Suddenly, he felt like humans were better off being left in the dark. 

”Why'd they take it away?" 

Shami ignored the question and his gaze. 

"They can track you with the chip, you know. That's probably why you have it.” She said, then she forced a smile that almost convinced him. “You’d be fairly easy to miss - so small they need a computer watching your every movement.” 

Daksh groaned, deciding that if the giant alien criminal didn’t want to discuss the details of her punishment, it would be unwise to attempt to push it. He still remembered what the Drun had said about the last person to share her cell. Best not push his luck. 

”Ok, Shami.” He said. “You've had your fun. You know, back on Earth, I'm actually above average height." 

Shami hummed. “That’s funny, Tuk." 

_______________________________________________________________________

(My space idiots are back! Daksh made a new friend that makes him uncomfortable, Jules and Nari are way out of their depth, and McBride is nowhere to be seen. As always, let me know what you think! - ray xx)

Part 8 coming soon!

[philicheesecake]

@noodle-slurp’s Nari is giving Dapple some good old ✨trauma✨

(Both characters use they/them pronouns)

[sevicia]

this is veeeery niche but in gt theres a character u only know as little princess (LP) and shes like. your daughter your little sibling your scrunkly ingame. and she looks to be about 10 to 12 ?and everyone shuts down FAST and attacks anyone who is weird towards her. but then u have Nari who is a fox girl and she looks at most 14 and theres somany ppl who have always made like fbi jokes about it and it makes me so uncomfortable like.....the difference between how decently u treat young girls is in how deeply u know them ? thats disgusting

[pokesception]

Whelp, started playing pokemon sword.  Have complained quite a bit here about dexit & related issues, and honestly I would have skipped at least the initial versions of these games entirely, or at least held off on purchasing them until we could see just how egregious pokemon home will be.  But my brother got shield, and my problems with sword and shield are not so severe that I’m going to refuse to play a game with family.

Thoughts so far?  Setting dexit entirely aside it’s... another pokemon game, for better and worse.  Largely for the better.  The new monsters, at least those I’ve encountered so far, are fun and good.  Music is nice.  Tone is bright and cheerful.  I love my team, and my protagonist.  It’s been nice.

As expected going to a more powerful console, it looks better, but it’s not a huge jump from the 3ds games, not least because lot of the visuals of this game are ported over directly from those games, and the stuff that is new has been made so as to not clash aesthetically with the older stuff.  If you’ve seen mods of usum that display the games at higher res and without the black outlines, it’s very much like that.  Closer to that even than to the let’s go games in ways that I find difficult to articulate.  In and of itself that’s not a complaint, really, the game looks plenty good enough for a pokemon tame.  It’s just not a major leap forward in presentation like the leap from gen 5 to gen 6 was.

Gameplay is mostly what you might expect.  Tall grass battles are an interesting mix of pokemon you can see on the field and engage or avoid as you wish and random battles that appear in the grass.  The random fights appear as a rustling in the grass that again can be pursued or avoided, you just can’t tell what they’ll be before you bump into them.  Finding rarer pokemon in a route is often a matter of sneaking or dashing between the new pokemon to get to the random fight, then crossing your fingers and hoping for the pokemon you want.  I’m not sure if there’s deeper levels to it, like chaining or whatever.  At the surface level it’s engaging enough.

The new pokemon are great so far.  There’s a bunch early on that you won’t have seen if you avoided leaks, and that was really excited.  I went into gen 7 knowing every new pokemon and with a particular desired team all worked out in advance.  This time around I’ve avoided spoilers, and gamefreaks official previews have kept a lot more hidden, so it’s been really fun to meet a lot of cool new faces early on.

The game does let you skip some early tutorials, but still frustrates to no end by stopping you every three seconds for another unnecessary explanation or detour, so it’s still pokemon in that unfortunate regard.  Routes are, if anything, more linear than ever before, at least early on, with the exception of an early expedition through the wild area which... I’ll talk about later.

Experience share is always on and cannot be turned off.  It scales shared xp based on the level of the pokemon, with lower level pokemon getting a higher portion, but not by enough so it’s still a pain to keep everything in the same level range, and you’ll still probably be wildly over leveled from very early on with nary a challenge to be seen even if you try to avoid grinding.

You can access the box from anywhere, which can be used to help overcome both the maintaining-a-level-range and over leveling problems of the experience share, but it’s a hassle to do, and wouldn’t be necessary if you could just toggle off shared exp in the options menu.  And on another level it makes the game even easier, since attrition is much less of a problem when you can swap in fresh pokemon whenever you feel like.

The online functionality is... kind of bad.  Maybe it’s just my internet, but being online in the wild area causes all sorts of slowdown.  Worse, there’s no equivalent to the pss functionality from gen 6.  No way to just see which of your switch friends are online and directly offer to trade or battle with them.  No instead you have to contact them *outside of the game* to share a 4 digit password, and then hope that nobody else happens to be using the same password as you when you try to connect with each other.  Raid battles are neat, but infuriatingly use the same password hassle.  You can’t just have easy friend-only raids from within the game itself.

It’s marginally better then gen 7′s festival plaza, but it remains miles and miles behind gen 6′s pss system that was simple and intuitive, and just centuries ahead of anything that came before or after.

Apart from raid battles, the wild area is... interesting?  Not all that different from having just a really big route with subareas of various level ranges.  Not bad, but not as big a departure as I had made it out to be in my head.  An idea with some potential that future games might expand into something great but that, knowing this series, will just be dropped after a single generation instead.  I’m still pretty early in the game, so my opinion on it might change after returning to it later.

The biggest frustration of the wild area, and something that brings it down tremendously, is that while you can encounter, and with some effort defeat, pokemon there, you cannot catch them at all if they’re above an arbitrary level range set by your number of gym badges.  This runs so completely counter to everything almost good about the wild area that I basically swore the whole thing off until I get to the end of the game, and frankly they might as well have just made it a post game area at that rate.

It’s extra frustrating because the problem of a player getting access to a pokemon too strong for the game too early on is one that the pokemon games already solved infinitely more elegantly all the way back in gen 1!  Just make pokemon that you acquire at too high a level uncontrollable, exactly like traded pokemon, so you can catch that over leveled onyx or whatever, but can’t use it until you’ve progressed far enough in the game for it not to be over leveled anymore.  How hard is that?  And who cares if a player gets an over powered pokemon early and steam rolls the game?  If that’s how the player wants to play, why is it a problem?  It’s not like the main game is challenging to begin with, thanks to always on exp share its almost impossible not to have over leveled pokemon anyway, what does it matter if it’s because you caught them that way or because they just outleveled the game curve?  A better exp scaling system would fix all those problems anyway.

Pokemon games not only failing to progress and solve problems that return game after game, but also repeatedly forgetting solutions that the series has already implemented is the longest running and most frustrating and most justified complaint to level at the entire series.  Of course, in the past pokemon as a series always had one core feature that none of the other - often more innovative - monster hunting games that sprang up in its shadow could replicate.  Backwards compatibility, the ability to maintain your collection in full going forward from generation to generation in a chain unbroken since gen 3 on game boy advance.  And that’s where dexit puts a sour note on the whole business.

The last several pokemon generations have failed to significantly improve on the core gameplay of a nearly two decade old franchise, but for many that has been largely forgiven because each new generation could easily be viewed not as stand alone games but rather as major expansions to the same existing game.  Dexit breaks from that, and forces the new games to be viewed as stand alone games and... well they aren’t pad at all.  They’re still cute.  I’m having fun so far.  Sword and Shield is no Anthem, no Fallout 76, no singular disaster to turn an otherwise largely positive track record on its head, and the extreme negativity directed against the game has been way overstated, even probably by myself.  In particular any vitriol directed at the devs is almost certainly unwarranted, the problems that have been growing in the pokemon series generation after generation almost certainly come down to corporate decisionmaking way above the heads of anyone who actually *worked* on the game.

Still, now that gamefreak’s pattern of cutting progressively more and more corners has reached the point of cutting actual pokemon, it’s shouldn’t be surprising that a lot of people who had been giving all those issues a pass suddenly aren’t anymore.

And while pokemon sword and shield isn’t a bad game, it’s hard to compare it to something like oras or usum and say it’s worth 50% more up front cost AND an added monthly subscription to access features like GTS that used to be just part of the game to begin with.

The dex cuts would have been more forgivable if the games had been a major leap forward, whether in graphics or gameplay.  Monster Hunter World, for instance, had /dramatically/ less content in terms of sheer quantity than the games that came right before it, but it also completely overhauled the visuals, heavily revised and updated the core gameplay, and completely changed how the area maps worked.

Alternatively, I think all the people currently complaining about models and trees and balance would have been fine with ‘just another pokemon game’ if it had maintained the backwards compatibility, just as they’ve been alright with ‘just another pokemon game’ for game after game after game until now.  Imagine if gamefreak had announced sword and shield as the last main line games to maintain all previous pokemon instead of the first games not to.  Then at least everybody’s personal faves would have had the chance to see play on a home system, and sword and shield could advertise themselves as the biggest pokemon games ever and actually mean it, and players would have time to adjust to what was coming.

I’m reminded of a scene from the Gravity Falls Halloween episode in season one.  Mabel & Dipper had always trick or treated together, but this year dipper decided to ditch mabel to try and go to a teen party, arguing that they were getting too old for trick or treating.  To which Mabel says something along the lines of “I knew some Halloween would be our last, but I didn’t realize it had already happened.”

And that’s the feeling I have with pokemon right now, the wet blanket draped over all the bright colors and fun new characters and monsters in sword and shield.  I knew eventually pokemon games wouldn’t be able to keep supporting all the pokemon, I knew eventually my collection would be left behind.  But I didn’t think it had already happened.  And to find out that gen 7 of all games was the last ‘complete’ pokemon?  That’s just kind of sad to realize.  And while I am on balance enjoying sword and shield, it’s a realization that keeps coming back uninvited to sour the experience.

[cocotangaje]

Liburan semester ini beda jauh dengan liburan 2 semester yang lalu. Waktu gue awal kuliah dan baru masuk. Waktu pertama kalinya gue ngerasain libur. 

Waktu itu hampir tiap hari gue cerita. Karena seharian lebih sering mendep di kamar. Ga kemana-mana. Kebetulan lagi musim hujan juga. Ga punya uang. Temen SMA pada sibuk sama urusannya yang udah beda-beda lagi prioritasnya. Gue juga belom mulai terjun ke dunia gambar setelah sebelumnya melewati fase mempelajari banyak hal tentang per doodle an. Juga kondisi keuangan yang belom terlalu sering gue pikirkan kayak sekarang. Mungkin waktu itu gue mikirnya ah toh waktu gue kuliah aja masih lama dan panjang. Masih bukan waktunya juga bagi gue buat cari uang. Meskipun ga berarti juga gue foya-foya.

Emang sih, waktu itu impian gue buat jadi penulis masih mengebu-ngebu dan semangat banget. Nggak kayak sekarang yang udah nggak berani mikir kesana lagi. Gue udah berambisi pengen bikin buku, punya novel, nyampe bikin alur cerita meskipun pada akhirnya berhenti di tengah jalan terus. Saat ini gue udah capek untuk mikir dan berekspektasi kayak dulu. Mau ngalir aja sebagaimana seharusnya gitu. Nulis ya nulis aja. Nggak mau banyak mikir. Justru gue rasa, dengan banyak mikir dan kebanyakan beban di awal-lah yang membuat tulisan gue pada akhirnya ga jadi-jadi terus.

Selain itu, gue… nggak tau sih rasanya udah nggak sesemangat waktu itu dalam nulistuh. Gambar juga sama. Gue kayak hampa aja. Kalo dibilang lagi krisis identitas ya enggak juga. Mungkin kayaknya gue hampa karena selama ini melakukan semua hal-hal yang gue sukai ini tanpa support atau dukungan nyata dari orang terdekat sama sekitar aja kali ya.

Soalnya ya orangtua gue dua-duanya ga support tapi ga larang juga. Gue paham sih, kalo ibarat buah, gue ini merupakan buah yang jatuh dari pohon, terus kemudian menggelinding jauh ke tempat yang baru dan tumbuh sebagai bibit baru yang berbeda dengan indukan pohonnya. Gue ngerasa segala hal yang gue sukai dan gue tekuni sekarang itu merupakan hal-hal yang gue temukan sendiri. Yang bahkan nggak pernah kedua orangtua gue kenalin ke gue.

Kalo ga salah gue pernah nulis disini bahwa waktu SD sejak gue kenal sama SNSD, gue pengen jadi idol dan pengen ikutan kursus dance. Tapi nyanyinya enggak. Waktu itu gue cuma mikir gue suka nari dan gue pengen melakukan hal itu saat gue gede nanti. Gue pengen satu panggung sama SNSD dan bilang makasih.

Iya. Gue kalo ngefans sama sesuatu pasti bawaannya pengen ngucapin makasih ke idolnya secara langsung. Gue tau makasih mungkin ga begitu berarti apa-apa. Apalagi bagi idol gede yang fansnya ada di seluruh dunia dan jumlahnya banyak. Tapi gue pengen aja. Gue ngerasa ketulusan bakalan nyampe ke siapapun yang menerimanya. Naif banget si bangsat ini emang.

Tentu jelas orangtua gue melarang. Makanya SMP gue dimasukin ke pesantren. Karena pembullyan, jadi sendirian meski nggak kesepian, karena gue merasa di fase ini gue berasa dituntun langsung sama Tuhan, gue akhirnya melupakan dunia kpop dan mengubur jauh-jauh impian dance gue itu. Gue terlalu sibuk sama ngafalin surat-surat quran karena semua orang di sekeliling gue pada saat itu melakukannya. Tapi tetep aja, Tuhan ngenalin gue ke kakak kelas yang sama-sama nggak punya temen juga yang ternyata dia juga penyuka korea.

Dia ngajarin gue tulisan hangeul dan gimana cara nulisnya dengan benar. Tata bahasa korea gue cukup bagus waktu itu. Tiap ashar pulang sekolah, di mesjid selesai sholat ashar jamaah, gue belajar bahasa korea sama inggris sama dia. Improve, lumayan. Seenggaknya pada saat itu, gue tau gue yang paling jago bahasa inggris di angkatan gue. Dan gue juga menguasai tulisan hangeul yang cukup baik waktu itu.

SMA gue pindah haluan ke game dan jejepangan. Gue mulai suka anime. Tapi entah kenapa belajar hiragana dan katakana nggak semudah waktu gue mempelajari hangeul dulu. Mungkin karena gue belajar sendirian, gue nggak tau.

Mimpi gue bergeser. Kalo dulu pengen jadi idol, sekarang seenggaknya gue pengen ke jepang atau korea. Atau ya ke asia manapun asal negara yang punya 4 musim disana. Gue pengen sekolah di luar. Liat hal yang nggak pernah gue liat. Ngerasain salju sama pake winter outfit yang kece-kece gitu. Tapi gue udah cukup gede buat tau dan ngerti bahwa kalo cuma sekadar liburan, gue pasti susah buat mengantongi izin. Gue pasti bakal banyak ditanya ngapain kesana, buat apa, kepentingannya apa, sama siapa, dan bahkan mungkin bakalan disuruh bersyukur ajalah udah stay di negara sendiri, jangan aneh-aneh atau neko-neko hidupmah.

Gue nyari jurusan dan akhirnya nemulah hubungan internasionalnya. Karena kata hubungan dan internasional, gue mikir pasti melibatkan banyak negara di dalamnya. Gue bisa bikin alesan keperluan akademik atau pendidikan meskipun ya emang iya sih, bukan ngadi-ngadi alasan juga. Tapi seenggaknya di samping ini, gue masih mau buat tetep melakukan apa yang gue mau.

Disamping pergeseran topik karena flashback barusan, gue bilang gue menggelinding jauh dari pohon induknya dan tumbuh jadi bibit baru di tempat yang berbeda; karena gue emang merasa begitu adanya. Sekeluarga gue kuat banget sama agamanya. Papap sama mamah tipe yang konservatif dan cukup fanatik sama agama. Gue udah gak aneh kalo gue lagi di kamar tiba-tiba gue denger papap ngeanjing-anjingin tv karena jokowi lagi muncul di berita. Tipe yang enteng mulutnya buat ngekafirin orang, yang masih menganggap segala hal diluar akademik merupakan suatu hal yang ga penting dan ga seharusnya dibanggakan.

Beda jauh dengan hal-hal yang gue punya. Gue suka seni, apapun itu jenis dan bentuknya. Gue mendengarkan banyak genre musik dan sempet pernah pengen nabung dan kemudian beli gitar tapi pada akhirnya celengan gue dilempar dan dibilang orang yang ngegitar itu temennya setan dan cuma buang-buang uang sama waktu aja. Gue suka gambar, gue suka melukis, gue suka ngedance, nari, gue suka seni karena cuma ketika gue melakukan kegiatan seni itulah gue bisa bebas dari tekanan dan aturan yang selama ini mengikat gue dari kecil. Gue bisa bikin gambaran dengan banyak tulisan kontol atau setan tanpa perlu mikir gimana-gimana. Karena katanya dalam seni itu nggak ada kata jelek atau bagus. Ga ada kata hina atau mulia. Semuanya kembali lagi ke selera dan kuasa manusia dalam mengartikannya.

Saat ini gue mulai berani. Gue tau ini durhaka, tapi gue lebih memilih untuk mengutarakan pendapat gue sebagai manusia perihal segala hal yang gue suka. Contohnya saat kemaren gue abis beli cat dan alat lukis hampir 200 ribuan. Saat mamah menatap aneh sambil bilang “Ey nanahaonan kabeak-beak duit eweh gawe” gue bales menjawab “wios eweh gawe ge nu pentingmah henteu ngarugikeun jeung nganyenyeri ka batur.”

Dah gt sj

[dramavie-blog]

Jadi ceritanya beberapa jam yang lalu, oppa upload foto kalau doi jadi model mv band DickPunks (kok gak enk ya nama bandnya 😂)

Bertebaran lah langsung di Instagram, dan serius kaget saya doi manis sekali di foto ini 👇👇👇

See? kayak masih kuliah, eh sumpah yang motoin bagus sekali 😘, kalau mau liat mv nya, di menit-menit terakhir doi nari-nari manjahh gt (apaan 😬).

[guardiantales-fanblog]

Happy Farm Life finished piece

[nailaz]

HALOO GAIZZ

jadi aku dsini mau nyeritain sedikit pengalaman aku semasa ikutin lomba di SMP ini klo ditanya senang apa ngga pasti seneng dong apalagi hasilnya memuaskan tambah seneng karna bisa membawa nama baik sekolah,dann ya aku mau ceritain ini jadi ini tuh kita lomba nari dongg udh bisa di liat dr gambarmya jg hihi nmanya lomba kan pasti ada latihan dong nah kita juga latihan dan bisa terhitung lamaa hampr 2 bulnn knpp bisa gtu jadi gini kan awal dikasih tau itu kita ktanya hari lomba itu deket lagi harinya ktanya dan ya guru nyari org buat lomba 5 anggota nah kepilih tuh aku slh satunya alhamdulillah nah itu udh nemu 5 org itu stlh semingguan bisa disebut seleksi lah yaa,trus kita mulai latihan buat lombanya dan udh dikasi tau lombanya udh ga jauh lg harinya kita memutuskan lat trus tuh nahh pas mau udh bbrp hari lagi lomba dikabarin di undur gaizz ya wktu itu lgi ada berita covid tinggi"nya nah yaudhh itu kita udh mulai santai tuh tp ttp lat gaiss nahh trus udh tuh lat lat lat trus yah nah pass besok mau (oh ya ini kan posisi lg keadaan gini ya jd lomba kita itu virtual/take vid)take vid kita udh pripere kya kostum nah kita dsruh kmpul bsk jam 7 pagi hrs udh ada di skull nah kita kesana tuh bsk pagi" dstu udh nyiapin kostum gituan nah kita dstu tb tb dikbarin gajadi take vidny kita dstu lat lagii cumn kita acak gerakan gais jd ga terlalu sama kya yg kita latin slama ini gatauu knp tpi dsruh we gtulah nahh lat tuh ya smpe ada jam 4an nah itu udh prepare segala macem buat besok kya kamera musik gituann nah jam 5an kita balik rumh kita istirahat buat bngun besok pagi(sbnrnya kita dr pagi udh gempor gaisss huhuu tp gpp,itu jg gatau besok kya gimn krana kek udh bnr bnr yasudlhh pasrah krna gerakan gaterlalu inget bgt)nah udh tuh kita jam 5 pagi ke skul buat nyiapin ini itu kita mulai take vid jam 8 nah udh segala dilewatin ber take take dan jam 5 bruu beresss trs stlh beres kita ovt woiii gila krna kita blm terlalu puas dgn hasil take vidnyaa tp gpp ah pasrah dan ya..alhamdulillah dpt kabar kita msuk provinsi gais dstu aduh ank" ade yg nangis wakakak campur aduk prasaannya nah kita dikabarin itu an jg dikabarin kita bkla take vid lagi buat provinsi mah stlh dikabarin bgtu kita lat lagi dong buat siapin iri cumn ga sesering yg sblmnya nah hari h take sma aja gt dr pagii nah tp kita itu magribh tu blm beres istilahnyama blm puas gt sm hasilnyaa ya nah mau lanjut tp kondisi sudh tdk memungkin kan ea nah jd kita mutusin buat take ulg besok mah sm tuh kita bsk bgun pagi lagii prepare segala mcem dann ya jam set 6 kita beress semuanyaa gais legaaaa lega bgttt stlh itu kita mkan brengg nah beres isya lah kali ya pkonya jam sgtuan deh trs lita pda pulng deh udhh nah sgtu aja sih crtanya campur aduk gais seneng sedihnya adaa,hahaha udh segini aja deh dri aku dadaa tunggu blog selanjutnya

[ray-gt]

Fermi Paradox (Pt. 4)

“Mum, come pick me up. I’m scared” - Daksh right now.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 /

CW: Mentions of death, scalpel, violence, swearing.

_______________________________________________________________________

Part 4: When Everything Went to Shit

Day: Cycle 43 Location: Drun Spaceship (Medical Examination Bay) Mission: Don't Die! / Project Wayfinder (Enceladus) 

The doctor clutched their hand and howled. It was a dreadful sound - ear-splittingly loud, reverberating off the walls and shaking McBride to the core. The alien had dropped the syringe in shock and it clattered to the floor far below and smashed. McBride still held the stunner aloft, frozen in the realisation of what she'd just done. From behind her, Daksh ran forward and grabbed the back of her suit, dragging her back and away. However, they couldn't go far - they were still stuck on the table. 

The doctor shook their injured hand and turned back to McBride, their horrible face twisted in a frothing rage. Their glossy, sable eyes were wide and crazed as they burned into her. 

"You little rat." They growled, slamming their fist down on the table in front of them, the force of the collision making the two humans struggle to maintain their balance. 

Daksh lost his grip on her suit and stumbled a few steps to the right. Maggie managed to keep her footing, though it wasn't for long. 

The doctor's other hand shot out and grabbed McBride, forcing her down against the table, knocking her stunner out of her hand and winding her. Her head made a sickening smack sound as she landed on her back and it hit the table. Pain, sharp and blinding, exploded from the impact point. Her vision went white as she struggled against the crushing weight pressing on top of her, increasing the pressure on her ribs and making each breath a gruelling labour. There was a loud whining in her ears and all sounds around her were muffled, like she were submerged in water. Through it, she could hear Daksh call out, though she couldn't make out exactly what he said. 

She blinked heavily, pressing her eyes tight together and opening them again until her vision started to return, blurred and shifting. Above her and far too close was the seething face of the Drun doctor. She struggled to get her arms free to no avail. The distant clatter of metal on metal sent her heart into overdrive. 

But it stopped dead as the doctor grinned down at her, pressing harder on her chest with their giant hand. As her eyes came into focus, she saw what the cause of the metallic clattering had been. In the injured hand, the Drun twirled a huge scalpel. 

"You're going to regret that." The doctor said in a cruel whisper. 

Cold sweat gathered all over Maggie's body. Though, whether it was nerves or her head injury, she didn’t know. She watched the pointed blade descend towards her, looking less like a surgical tool and more like a torture device. 

 Daksh cried out again somewhere to McBride's right, this time pleading for the alien to stop. McBride couldn't move her head under the iron grip of the Drun but, from the doctor's reaction, she'd assumed he was threatening them with his stunner. 

"Don't you even think about it." The giant spat. They pressed the cold metal of the blade to McBride's throat, and she could feel her own breath fogging up against it. "If you shoot me, I'll gut her right now, and then you'll be next." 

Before Daksh could reply - though McBride wondered if he even had one - she heard the giant door of the medical examination room woosh open. Still unable to move, she choked back a sob, praying that someone had come to their rescue. 

The doctor's attention left the examination table and was directed towards the door. 

"What?" 

 *** 

When the two soldiers walked through the door, Daksh couldn't stop the relief that flooded his whole body. 

 They were still Drun and their captors, but, so far, at least they hadn’t tried to cut them open. So, Daksh considered them the lesser evil at this point. 

Clearly, after hearing the chaos on the other side of the door, they'd decided to check in on how the examination was going. Finding one human with a scalpel pressed to their throat by the doctor and the other human with a hilariously small gun drawn and ready, neither were happy. 

"Mei," One soldier said, they had a low voice and skin the colour of an overcast sky before a storm. Their eyes drifted from Daksh, to McBride, to Dr Mei. "What are you doing? We said to chip them and move on." 

Chip us? 

The thought sat uncomfortably with Daksh though, at this point, he'd take a chip over any more time alone with the mad doctor. 

Dr Mei raised their chin in indignation, "Why should I have to explain myself to you?" 

The soldier ignored the question, seemingly familiar with Mei. They pointed at McBride, still trapped under Mei's unwavering grip. 

"Let it go." 

It? 

"Commander wants to talk to it later." 

Mei looked down at McBride and a battle raged on their face. After a few seconds, Mei reluctantly withdrew their hand. McBride gasped for breath, but made no move to stand. Her chest rose and fell in heaving waves and she pressed a hand to her heart, staring at the ceiling far above her before closing her eyes. 

"Why would the commander want anything to do with it?" Mei asked with a deep frown. 

The other soldier, this one the colour of concrete, cocked a head at Mei. 

"Why should we have to explain ourselves to you?" They said. 

Mei exhaled a sharp breath through their teeth, but then paused, grimace morphing into a contemplative smile. Their eyes fell on Daksh, whose whole body went numb in an instant. 

"What about this one?" Mei said, pointing the scalpel in his direction. 

He took a few steps back but found he was at the edge of the table, with a perilous drop behind him. The two giant soldiers assessed Daksh with distant, apathetic eyes. They seemed unsure. 

Behind him, McBride coughed. 

"We’re a package deal." She said, though her voice was hoarse. She still lay on the table, but she turned to face the soldiers. "The commander only gets to talk to me if both our safety is guaranteed. Daksh isn't an option." 

Then she collapsed back on her back. 

It was a gamble. The Drun could easily turn around and say that the humans were in no position to bargain, that Daksh was expendable - or, frankly, that they both were. Whatever assumption underlay McBride's confidence, Daksh didn't know. He just hoped that she was right. 

The first soldier turned to the second. They shared a brief glance before turning back to Mei. 

"Just chip them." The second soldier said. "If the commander changes their mind, I'll let you know." 

Mei clicked their tongue but didn't argue. They picked up a pair of huge tweezers from the metal tray of terror with their free hand and, using them, delicately picked up two incredibly small objects. Turning back to McBride, Mei dropped one of the objects onto her neck. 

McBride winced and Daksh watched as the object disappeared below her skin, leaving a raised lump the size of a 20c coin on the side of her neck. 

Mei then turned to Daksh, who didn’t move. 

"Come here." Mei ordered, temper short and tested. Daksh planted his feet and looked at the soldiers who made no move to stop Mei. More than anything, they seemed bored. 

"Now." Mei said, and Daksh, against all instinct walked within reach of the terrifying doctor. 

He stopped and Mei lowered the tweezers to his neck, pressing the object to it with remarkable delicacy. When they removed the tweezers, Daksh could feel that the metal object stuck. Suddenly, pain shot out from the contact location as his skin grew overtop it, just as it had with McBride. When he felt the spot with his fingers, all he found was a hard bump where there hadn't been one before. 

Mei looked up at the soldiers. 

"There." They said. "Chipped." 

The soldiers nodded and the first placed the transport platform on the examination table. Upon seeing it and knowing it meant that they got to leave, Daksh ran over to McBride and helped her to her feet. 

"That sucked." She said, wincing as he slung her arm over his shoulders and wrapped a hand around her waist to hold her steady. 

As the two humans walked past Mei, their stare followed them like a predator.

"Oh, you poor thing. Looks like you've got a couple of injuries there." Then their voice darkened. "Do you require medical assistance?" 

Daksh glared up at Mei, meeting their taunting stare. With the hand that wasn't supporting McBride, he flipped off the giant alien doctor. 

"Fuck you." 

Then he helped McBride onto the platform. 

 *** 

Technical Officer Dr Daksh Malik  Age: 28 Log No.: 44 Cycle No.: 43 Year: 2199 (Earth Standard) Location: Way out of my depth. 

McBride should be ok. 

 She's got a mild concussion and a couple of bruised ribs. Given everything that's happened today, we both consider coming to the end of it relatively unscathed to be a win. 

She's resting now and I'll keep an eye on her over the next few days - hopefully she heals up quickly. 

After the traumatic encounter with the giant doctor who will haunt my nightmares well into old age, Giant Arsehole No. 1 and Giant Arsehole No. 2 brought us here. It's a small room - well, small for them. Again, everything is relative in space. I don't think anything on this ship will be small by our standards. There's not much in it - just a cot and a huge window looking out to the black of space. It's hard to tell from the view where we are or how far we've travelled from Enceladus. Regardless, it feels pretty damn far away. 

They wouldn't confirm if this is a holding cell or not, even though it obviously is. As soon as our little floating taxi parked itself on the massive cot, they just turned around and left. The door's closed - undoubtably locked. Though, I guess, who needs to lock the door when your prisoners can't even reach the floor to get to it? 

What the hell are we going to do? 

. 

. 

I should have called evac. 

I don’t know how much they could have done, but there's a proper military base on Europa with a real leader at the helm. Colonel Barnes could have done something. Right? 

I don't know. I'm doing my best not to totally lose my mind here. This morning we were arguing about Scrabble, and now we're negotiating our freedom with giant aliens? Nothing's making any fucking sense. And don't get me started on the bullshit "charges" - we're under arrest for the space equivalent of taking water samples in a national park. 

Ok, maybe a little more serious than that but still, it doesn't seem like anything worthy of the Drun's time. 

I feel like there's something bigger at play here, but for the life of me I wouldn't know what it is. Ideally, I'd love not to be around long enough to find out. The Drun don't really seem like the type you'd want to be mates with. Though, they definitely aren't the type you'd want to be enemies with either. 

Ugh! This damn chip. It's driving me insane. It's swollen and it both hurts and itches? I can feel my body doing its best to expel it, but I don't think it's going to have much luck. I'd mess around with it if it wasn't so alarmingly close to my jugular. No clue what it does, though I'm not exactly in a rush to stop by the Drun med bay to ask Dr Mei. 

Anyway, ethically dubious actions aside, I wonder how long we'll be gone before anyone comes to check on Cassini Uno, and what they'll think happened to us when they find we're not there. 

What'll they tell my parents? 

. 

. 

I'm going to try to sleep. 

Hopefully, I'll wake up back in my bunk. I'll find McBride making shitty coffee in the Mess and tell her about the weirdest dream I've ever had. 

Fingers crossed. 

Daksh. 

 *** 

Day: Cycle 43  Location: Outpost Minos B (Rover Charging Station) Mission: Project Wayfinder (Europa) 

The comms crackled in Nari's ear as she clambered out of the rover. It was never easy to do anything in a spacesuit without it being awkward, but after being stationed at Europa for 6 months already, she was used to it. 

"Yun, the Captain wants you to meet them on Transport Deck 3." Came Carrington's voice, monotone and dull. Clearly, he wasn't too thrilled about being assigned to man comms that week. 

Nari frowned, "The ITV Deck? Why?" 

"You know, Yun, Captain Barnes and I aren’t exactly swapping secrets and sharing diaries." Carrington replied. "They said they want to see you and Halliday on TD-3 as soon as possible. That's all I know." 

"Ok, Carrington, I get it. Can you just let Lee know that I'll unpack Rover 4 when I get back?" 

There was a silence over the comms channel and then Nari heard Carrington sigh. 

"Yep. God, I hate comms duty." 

"Aww, but you're so good at it!" Nari crooned. 

"Bye, Nari." Carrington said, and the channel went dead. 

It was silent as Nari made her way across Europa's rocky surface. Instead of heading for the main entrance airlock of Outpost Minos B, she changed direction, heading straight for the large transport decks behind the base. 

What would Barnes want on the ITV Deck? And why the hell is Halliday invited? 

Once a month, Nari did a routine inspection of the three ITV Ascent Vehicles stationed at Transport Deck 3, but that was the only time she spent in the small hanger during their station. You only need to use an Ascent Vehicle if you have to board one of the ITV's floating in orbit far above the outpost. When needed, the AV would be transported to the designated launch point at the outpost, the crew would board, and a pilot (Nari being one of them) would navigate the flight back up to orbit. Seeing as she'd already completed this month's inspection only the day before, when Nari walked in to meet Barnes, she was walking in blind. 

Halliday was already there, looking out of place and weedy, and just as confused by the summons as Nari, as he stood next to the impressive display of the captain. 

Dr Julian Halliday was an electrical engineer and communications specialist from the GWSA. He had thin and angular features and a pair of round, wiry glasses resting on his pointed nose. He was technically a military 'Technical Officer', all the GWSA astronauts were. 

It was an interesting mix of personnel at Outpost Minos B, where the two groups operated side-by-side. While they all reported to Captain Barnes, the GWSA crew tended to keep to themselves and their studies. 

"Captain." Nari greeted, saluting as she approached. She glanced at Halliday, "Hey, Jules." 

Halliday nodded at her before his nervous eyes darted back to the colonel. 

Captain Theo Barnes stood with their hands clasped behind their back. They were tall, imposing, and built like a mountain. 

"Lieutenant Yun. Dr Halliday. I've just received some… interesting information from Mission Control." They said, looking between the two with a firmly planted brow. "You two fancy a trip to Enceladus?"

_______________________________________________________________________

Part 5

(Thanks for all the love for Fermi so far, it means so much that you guys like these dummies as much as I do - ray xx)

[sevicia]

ok so in gt u have chapters with stages, sub stages n passages between main stages. i am on world 11 passage 1 which is one of the hardest because not only are the maps made by the devil himself BUT u only get one revive that u buy with 30 gems. n i got to the final fight without using it and i was like 😇 teehee if i die now i can use it! But Guess Who Ran Out Of Gems after pulling for nari AND GETTING ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING

[diaryt]

Hai, gue tasya. Gue mau cerita tentang bagaimana gue tumbuh hingga sekarang. Mungkin tulisan ini akan jadi berjuta-juta part. And here we go.

--------------

Masa sd gue super duper seru bgt!! Gue beneran sekelas nyatu banget. Gaada namanya geng-gengan. Temenan dari mulai yang absurd sampe pageant queen pun ada. Kalo istirahat yang cewe ngumpul buat ngerumpi. Yak tasya amelia memang udah ngerumpi dari sd. Ck. Habit. Sohib gue itu nisa. Kita sebangku mulai kelas 4-6 sd. Pertemanan di sd beneran ngalir aja gitu. Sd gue namanya sds taman rezeki. Coba dicari aja ya di google maps. Nisa itu tomboy bgt. Nah karena itu mungkin gue jadi tomboy jg. Ya gatau knp si gue ga merasa cocok buat gemes gemes manis cewe gitu. Gue sama nisa pernah malakin cowo di kelas kita and then apa coba. Kita beneran dikasih uang. Gue gatau apa temen gue ini takut sama kita atau uangnya emang kebanyakan. Tapi, ni cowo emang ga berasa masalah uangnya dipalakin. Haha.

Terus waktu kelas 1 sd gue inget bgt pernah berantem sama devi (teman sebangku, tetangga, dan temenku yg baik bgt dari tk sampe sd) gara-gara devi ngeliat jawaban gue pas ulangan. Berantem nya bukan adu mulut, tapi nangis bareng. Trs gue mikir knp si gue dulu lebay bgt, padahal kalo sekarang mah sharing jawaban gasi guys pas ujian HAHAHA.

Terus pas kelas 2 gue sebangku sama siapa coba tebak. Andika sri hahahaha. Udh kemana ya itu orang. Sumpah. Kalo dia baca tulisan ini gmn ya. Hm. Andika sri tuh kocak, karena dia suka dikatain "teh sisri "sama "baso lu baso" karena dia anak yang punya resto baso gitu. Trs dia pernah pup di celana dan pup nya jatuh di kelas. BANYANGIN GUYS GUE WAKTU ITU SEBANGKU NYA HAYO.MAU LEWAT JIJIK TAPI KALO GAK LEWAT MATI KEHABISAN NAFAS. Trs andika sri sama gue juga suka berantem. Dulu gue merasa jagoan bgt si pas sd. Tapi sekali lagi guys tenaga andika sri gede bgt. Gue dicubit sampe biru huhu. Bener2 lebam guys. Trs gatau knp dulu waktu sd gue pengaduan bgt ke ortu. Jadilah andika sri diomelin ibu gue. HAHA. Skrng gue gak suka ngadu lagi kok guys. Trs kalo istirahat suka ke kantin makan nasi goreng. Itu nasi goreng bude siapa ya lupa namanya. Enak bgt. Sehat-sehat ya bude. Aamiin.

Kelas 3, gue makin bandel. Gue duduk sama gita. Gue bareng nisa gita pernah sleep over di rumah gita. Kita ke toko rental film buat nyewa film-film di tonton di rumah gita. Malem-malem nunggu fear factor. Coba dicari fear factor itu acara tv yang seperti apa. Trs pas di rumah gita juga kita sekalian mampir ke rumah albert. Hai albert apa kabar? Sekarang albert udh jadi dancer hebat ya. Gue sama gita pernah jahat bgt dulu sama husni, cowo freak di kelas kita. Kita berdua ngumpulin sampah-sampah di kelas buat dimasukin ke tas husni pas doi ke kamar mandi. Gilak jahat bgt gue. Aduh gue liat bgt waktu itu si husni sedih. Tapi, gue sama gita malah ketawa-ketawa. Sumpah husni, kalo gue bisa ketemu sama lo skrng, gue mau minta maaf. Trs gue pernah nyoba nyontek dari lks. Dengan lks nya di taro di bawah sepatu gue. Dan kalo guru dateng, lks nya gue tutupin pake sepatu. Tau gak ada karma nya. Datengnya cepet bgt. Buku lks bangsat ini malah ketinggalan. Mampus gak tuh. Terus lks ini diambilin sama si mang lukman. Orang yang kerja di rumah gue. Doi ke sekolah buat ambil lks doang. Dan tebak besok nya bu tia bilang gini "kamu nyontek ya...?" Denga smirk gitu. Anjir gue cuma jawab dengan haa haa kaget gitu karena bingung mau jawab apa. Terus waktu kelas 3 gue pernah dipanggil ke ruang guru karena ketauan salah ngasih info tentang seorang guru (guru yang gue omongin itu gapernah masuk, beritanya doi cabut dari sekolah. Tapi kayanya sakit apa izin gitu. Ngakak gasi. Nah berita yang gue omongin ini sama temen-temen nyampe ke guru, gara-gara info ini gua sebar ke kaka gue yang sekolah disitu jg. Kakak gue mulutnya ga lemes, tapi emang dia juga lagi ngerumpi gitu sama temen-temen terus isi rumpiannya gatau gmn nyampe ke guru). Jadinya, gue sama kaka gue di kirim ke ruang guru buat dimarahin. DEG DEGAN BGT WAKTU ITU. Tapi kalo diinget sekarang gue mau ketawa, knp dulu gue bisa nyebarin info begitu.

Kelas 4, gue duduk sama nisa. Asik bgt ini, kita mulai ke amazone bareng, ngumpulin tiket. Tiket gue sampe bisa buat nebus monopoly dan diary berkode gitu. Keren bgt gasi ini jaman dulu. HAHA. Terus mulai lah disitu malakin teman, yang gue ceritain di atas. Gue ikut lomba gambar 2 kali men dikirim sama sekolah gue. TAPI GA PERNAH MENANG HAHAHAHA. Ikut tryout GO juga ga pernah tembus juara. Kelas 4 gue mulai ada pelajaran tari di sekolah. Nari apa guys? Nari pendet. Demi allah gua gabisa sama sekali. Nilai gue 7 doang. Dan remedial. Gua bnr2 kaku bgt. Bawa2 bokor. Kalian yang baca hrs cari bokor di inet, itu tuh semacam mangkok gitu genks yang buat nari pendet.

Kelas 5, absurd bgt si. Gue pernah pup di celana men. Dan sampe sekarang gaada yang tau. Cuma waktu johanna duduk deket gue, dia bilang "kok bau ta*i" dan disitu gue duduk di kelas diem aja. Terus pas johanna pergi, gue sendirian ke kamar mandi. Karena geli pup nya nempel, akhirnya celana nya sekalian gue buang ke tempat sampah hahaha. Jadi gue pake rok sama short aja tanpa celana da*lem. Maaf ya jadi senonoh gini. Terus gue juga berantem sama excel kohar. Dia ini anak cowo pindahan mulai dari kelas 3. Gue bener-bener tiap saat berantem mulu sama dia. Dia ngejek gue mulu. Ngejek nama ortu. Tau gaksi yang dulu pas sd, kalo nama ortu kita suka diplesetin buat dikatain. Gue pernah berantem yang gede banget sama kohar sampe di depan kelas, gue ngeludah. "Gue jiji sama lo, cuih" begitu gais, silakan dibayangkan reka adegan yang seperti itu. Dan kalo kita berantem tuh di tontonin skelas, sampe di lerai sama wali kelas alias pak edi. Kaget kali ya pak edi sama murid kayak gue. Terus waktu johanna berantem sama kohar, gue mau coba jadi super hero, gue mau coba lerai mereka gais, eh malah gak sengaja gue membuat lengan kohar kebaret2 berdarah gara-gara kuku gue. Niat gue kan baik ya guys. TERUS GUYS WAKTU ISTIRAHAT MAMA NYA KOHAR DATENG. KIRAIN HATI INI, MAMA KOHAR AKAN MARAHIN JOHANNA. EH DOI MALAH MAMPIR KE TEMPAT DUDUK GUE. Doi marahin gue, karena gue buat tangan anaknya berdarah. Tau gaksi mamanya sampe nunjuk-nunjuk muka gue. Gue bener-bener sedih dan malu banget. Terus temen-temen sialan (temen sekelas semuanya ngerubungin gue). Anjir ini khas anak sd banget gasi. Ada temennya yang dimarahin smaa ortu lain, malah di kerubungin dan di tontonin. EMANG TEMAN-TEMAN BANGSHAAT. TAPI GUE KANGENNN. Udah deh mulai dari situ, gue jaga jarak sama kohar tapi tetap berteman yah guys. Kelas 5 gue jg nari, nari merak. Demi apapun, gua benci sama pelajaran nari, gatau knp gua kaku bgt. Trs anak kelas 5 tuh mulai disuruh jadi instruktur senam pagi kalo jumat. Dan lu tau ga gua pernah dibilang sama guru gue "kok kamu kurus banget si, kaya orng2 an sawah" demi apapun jleb bgt dibilang kyk gitu.

Kelas 6 masanya gue belajar, les sampe sore, ttp main sama temen, selesai UN, gue main ke rumah johanna bareng nisa, gita, alen, devi, dhea. Asik si, marathon movie, makan bareng, ngobrol, main. Film apa coba yang ditonton. Yap horror. Karena temen-temen gue semua suka horror, kebawa deh sampe sekarang. Smp kita beda semua, gue lost contact sama mereka. Terus hamdalah, gue keterima di smpn 1 depok. Terus pas perpisahan sd, dengan sok ngide oleh mama2 kita, kita nari dong guys. Nari apa ya gue lupa demi allah (tapi kaya tari saman di modif gt) kita semua (johana alen nisa dea devi gita gue) bener2 setiap minggu latihan di rumah dea. Hhhh kangen bgt sama mereka semua.