#he's basically an infinite resource of conflict

[iridescentis]

the most awful thing about gary is he's such a realistic villain there are people like him everywhere who take 'no' as an excuse to get pointlessly cruel revenge just because they didn't get what they wanted and that's why he's the perfect antagonist

[seventeendeer]

I am Intrigued, so take this as a greenlight to rant

What do you think could be, or what would you want to be explored deeper in Frontiers?

(in reference to this post)

Wellllll, it's not so much that the game lacks depth as much as it lacks coherence, in my opinion!

I think lots of things were meant to be explored in the game that went unused. Let me back up a bit and walk you through my process:

Sonic games are often a bit muddy on details and specifics - however, this usually only extends to plot details, character backstories and character motivations. It's the script that lacks polish, specifically.

However, in most games, the visual language is exceptionally clean-cut and easy to read! Different factions in the story have unique aesthetics (the main cast look like neon-colored 30's cartoon characters, Eggman has red/yellow/black/gray retro practical effects robots and casino/circus motifs, G.U.N. is gray + realistic 2000's tech, etc etc). This makes it really easy to follow the basic plot - we can tell from a glance who the good guys are, who they're fighting and why the conflict matters.

This was all the story context there was for the first couple of games. "Human character kidnaps woodland critters to power large, brightly-colored machines with a combination casino motif, intending to use said machines to destroy natural habitats and establish a theme park-like empire; you play as an animal trying to stop him" is like ... about as clear of a visual design metaphor as you can get. It doesn't get much more on-the-nose.

Even as the stories and conflicts became more convoluted, the games retained the exceptionally clear visual design. Shadow the Hedgehog juggled four different factions (Sonic and friends, Eggman, G.U.N. and the Black Arms) in a wildly disjointed plot - but the excellent visual design meant that no matter how unclear the script was, it was easy to figure out at a glance who you were currently siding with and what role that faction played in the story thematically.

However, the visual language in Sonic Frontiers is all over the place!

Which is why my little pet conspiracy theory is that the plot of Frontiers changed a LOT during development, including so late into development that there was no time or resources left over to tidy up the art direction.

Look at this game's different factions and their associated aesthetics:

- Sonic and friends are the same as ever. Good so far!

- The Ancients are associated with geometrical architecture and the colors blue and white ... except sometimes their tech is also black or gray, and sometimes it glows red.

- The End is usually depicted shooting red lasers, and in the final battle is depicted as a black, moonlike object that glows red. However, during the boss fight, it also sometimes glows blue, and it shoots both blue/white and red/black orbs to attack (though again only red lasers).

- The ruins of Eggman's bases can be found across the islands, and they're perfectly in line with his usual color scheme and clunky, toy-like design style. However, he now appears being assisted by an AI he created, whose avatar is in the form of a little girl with a rounded, moon-like white hairstyle, wearing a plain black dress. No details or design quirks to suggest she was made by Eggman. Toward the end of the game, she begins to flicker in and out of an alternate color scheme ... Blue and white. Huh.

To make matters more confusing, the Ancients have a striking visual resemblance to Sonic himself. The red and black color scheme is normally associated with Shadow. Sage's color palette and glitch effect makes her the spitting image of Infinite from the last game.

Some of these issues can be handwaved - maybe blue and white are supposed to be the colors of positive chaos energy, while black and red are negative chaos energy, Sonic and Shadow each use one or the other more heavily (supported by the different colors of chaos abilities Shadow obtains in his own game), and the Ancients harnessed both.

But then why is The End by default color coded according to negative chaos energy when it spends its entire boss monologue boasting about being a personification of 'order?' Why does Sage look more like a human version of The End, or the wielder of a Phantom Ruby, than an Eggman robot?

One could theorize The End took on properties of Cyberspace due to being trapped there for so long ..? And maybe Sage only took on her current form after entering Cyberspace, causing her physical form to take on characteristics of their tech (blue/white = fueled by positive emotions, black/red = fueled by negative emotions ..?), and her similarities to Infinite and/or the Phantom Ruby is just a coincidence ... Except we actually see her stored on a circular black and red disk before being plugged into Cyberspace in the very first cutscene.

Regardless, those are in-universe explanations.

On a meta-level, I believe Sonic Frontiers is full of ghosts. The visual design tattles on tons of previous drafts of the story. No matter what characters claim in the dialogue in the final version of the game, I think it's pretty clear that where the story ended up is far from where it started.

Here's my personal (extremely unsupported, but fun to think about) theory for how the story's development might have played out behind the scenes:

- The game initially intended to explore the backstory of the Phantom Ruby. The Phantom Ruby would have been a fragment of The End, and Sage would be the Ruby's avatar, with her ultimate goal being to free the rest of herself from Cyberspace and become whole again. Her design was finalized during this draft, which is why she visually calls back to Infinite so heavily (black main color, white hair, right eye hidden, left eye red and yellow), why her head/hair-shape looks like a moon, and why she is constantly plagued by visual glitches that resemble the Ruby's magic. Her being depicted as a little girl would also make sense if The End was initially conceptualized as female/feminine (since it's primarily voiced by a woman, sans the overlay in the boss battle). Sonic games were never big on including more female characters than strictly necessary lol

- At this point, it was decided Sage would pose as Sonic's friend for the majority of the game, potentially using her blue/white form to appear less evil-coded. She may have encouraged him to listen to The End's instructions throughout the game and manipulated him into freeing it for her. It would be at this point Vandalize was chosen as a main theme of the game, as the lyrics would perfectly fit this draft of the story.

- This was the stage in development where The End's boss monologue was initially written (note the very suspicious phrasing of the "I am infinite" bit); I believe at this point Sage would have fused with The End; the monologue is littered with philosophical questions and musings about Sonic's ideals and motives that could very easily have originally been intended to lead into Sage/The End abandoning her initial goals and becoming friends with Sonic for real.

- However, this draft of the story was scrapped when Sega decided Infinite was cringe and it was his turn to go sit in the shame vault with other unused "unpopular" characters like Cream and Cheese (note that Frontiers was first conceptualized right after Forces came out and Infinite initially did get merchandise and references in other Sonic media, but after only a few months, he was completely scrubbed from the franchise, likely due to negative reception). All references to Infinite and the Phantom Ruby were dropped, leaving a lot of gaps in the plot to be filled.

- Since Sonic writers are notorious for scrapping past ideas in order to "get to the core of what Sonic is all about!" (and people were bitching about the Chaos Emeralds not playing a significant role in Forces), I believe the plot surrounding the Ancients and the Chaos Emeralds was added to fill the gaps left over from the first draft of the story with something longtime fans were more likely get hyped about. The End and Sage became entirely new entities unrelated to the Phantom Ruby that just so happened to share its aesthetic because CG models and particle effects are expensive

- Around this point, I theorize there were a lot of rewrites over a short time. The exact backstory of the Ancients and The End is very muddled in the game as it is (the Ancients apparently "burned their souls away to fuel their machines", if The End's boss monologue is to be believed, but this is never mentioned elsewhere, for example). At some point, positive and negative chaos energy was a central part of the plot, hence why the mysterious color coding shows up so distinctively throughout the game, but this was dropped again, leaving us with a lot of bright funny colors that now seem to symbolize fuck-all. The exact dynamics between Sonic, Sage, The End and the Ancients likely also shifted around a lot, though I do think Sage being part of The End and tricking Sonic was kept throughout most of development.

- Someone on the team realized they already did "Sonic makes friends with a mysterious sad girl who betrays him and becomes the final boss, only for her to realize the error of her ways and rekindling their friendship" in Sonic and the Black Knight. Whoops!

- Sega once again got scared they weren't pandering to existing fans enough. What if people thought Sage was cringe just like Infinite? :(

- It was quickly decided the usual main cast should be front and center to the story instead of the new characters; Eggman was made responsible for setting the plot into motion, as well as for Sage's creation, Sage's developing friendship with Sonic was nixed in favor of an arc centered around her coming to view Eggman as a father figure, while Sonic's existing friendships with Tails, Knuckles and Amy were to be explored in more depth.

Obviously this is a lot of speculation and it's very unlikely I got any of the details right, but this is one possible way I see the current messy visual design coming to be the way it is, based on what I know of the usual Sonic development process.

I really like the game the way it is, but it would be extremely interesting to see earlier builds and scripts. This is the most "no, the curtains really are just blue :)" video game of all time.

(or to quote @thenearsightedmicroraptor: "of course the curtains being blue means something! the curtains are blue because Sonic is blue! :)")

Anyway, THANK YOU for coming to my ted talk, I LOVE TALKING ABOUT SONIC FOR A LONG TIME, especially the meta stuff is absolutely fascinating to me. Even Sonic '06 had excellent visual direction despite its rushed development cycle - whatever happened to make Frontiers into the very fun but deeply confusing mess it is now, it can't have been an easy nut to crack for the developers. It's no wonder the optional dialogue for the last level is like 90% patching up plot holes haha

[evo-lutio]

Personal resources

Personal resources are all those life supports that are at the disposal of a person and allow him to provide his basic needs: 1) survival 2) physical comfort, 3) safety 4) involvement in society 5) respect from society 6) self-actualization in society.

Resources are divided into social and personal, in other words - external and internal. External resources are material values, social statuses and social ties, which provide support of the society and help a person from the outside. Internal resources are a person's personal potential, character and skills, which help from within. However, the division into external and internal resources is rather conventional. Those and other resources are closely related and when external resources are lost, internal resources are gradually lost. Reliable external resources ensure the safety of internal resources, but only if internal resources are already available.

Sometimes a person obtains external resources without having internal resources. This is like an external decoration that can crumble at any moment. This is the tragedy of some children from rich families, who have received a lot of social supports in advance without developing their own personality. In this case, falling into the trap of morbid dependency, apathy or depression is much more likely than in the case of the young person who has to earn social resources on his own. However, if such a young person had no external resources at all, it is very doubtful that he or she would be able to survive. That is, a minimum of initial external resources is necessary.

The greater the internal resources, the greater the ability of a person to restore external resources in case of loss, the greater his resistance to the environment, the stronger his subjectivity, will, ego-integration, locus of control, self-awareness and stress resistance. It is important to realize that the strongest internal resources do not replace external resources, but they do allow one to exist for a while without external resources and resist the environment alone. This is exactly what the hero of sci-fi action movies looks like: he goes through any ordeal and comes out victorious. This metaphor is very accurate. Powerful internal resources are like a motor instead of a heart. This is an unbending will, charisma and a large reserve of energy. However, it should be very well understood that any internal resources are like a supply of oxygen in the lungs. They provide autonomously only for some time, until a person has found new sources of power - external resources. A person cannot exist for a long time on internal resources alone, he must find a suitable environment and enter into mutual exchange with it, provide all his needs with its help. Otherwise, after some time the internal potential will be exhausted. That is why a person must constantly take care of maintaining and increasing both resources. The stronger his internal resources are, the easier it is to build up external ones. And the more he himself has built up external resources, the stronger he has become inside.

Internal resources are a reserve of autonomy. This is how well and holistically a person can feel without any support from society, without resorting to protective illusions and denial. A person cannot and should not be infinitely autonomous; a person is a social being and the essence of his life is in interaction with society. However, a person needs a reserve of autonomy to preserve himself during conflicts, to protect himself from encroachments, to assert his subjectivity, his will, his identity and his self, not to become a slave and "food" for all those who are stronger. Any person can be turned into food under certain circumstances, but the higher the stock of his autonomy, the stronger his subjectivity, the core of his personality, his authenticity. It is more difficult to destroy such people, they have high resistance and strength. A person with a very strong core can be conditionally considered invincible, because it would take too much effort to subdue his will. Such an ideal is worth striving for. At any rate, it is worth getting as far away as possible from a situation of personal weakness, willlessness, dependence, and disintegration. In a weak state, the personality cannot find internal supports, it has no autonomy, it is unable to do without support and for the sake of this support is ready to abandon itself. It suffers from loneliness and seeks to escape from the emptiness it finds in itself every time a problem or anxiety arises.

To understand the resource problem, one must realize how dynamic a process it is. One cannot accumulate resources once and acquire power forever. Resources require constant development and renewal. By giving away external resources and not acquiring others in return, a person weakens his external position, which cannot but affect his autonomy. Human is constantly changing, "living" - that is, he is in motion. And if his internal and external resources do not develop, they degrade. Nothing living can stand still. When I am asked the question "Why did a strong woman turned into a weak woman in a relationship, because she had resources?", I want to answer rudely but honestly: "had, but sprayed". Resources can remain, only while a person is engaged in these resources. As soon as he goes headlong into something else, such as a relationship, his resources either go to the one to whom he devotes himself, or gradually disappear. The main thing, however, is that the connection between the integrated parts of the ego is broken. is broken if a person This happens if a person stops developing his subjectivity, his autonomy, and starts doing something directly opposite: relaxing, passively engaging in something that is not him, running away from himself in the hope of transcendence or simply getting high. Any positive transcendence requires gaining some benefit, self-enrichment, not loss of self. Transcendence without benefit is like investing all your money in some endeavor that will not yield a return. It is a dissolution of self, a sacrifice.

Equally damaging is the misunderstanding of autonomy and independence. In an attempt to preserve "boundaries", some people begin to treat the surrounding world with hostility and wariness, stop the flow of investments, which for the purposes of self-development should be carried out continuously. One should realize that there are no sources of energy inside a person, except for the small potential that a person has managed to accumulate and which will soon run out. All sources of energy are outside, in the surrounding world, in society and nature. One can interact not with specific individuals, but with the cultural social stratum, reading books and comprehending art; one can lead a rather closed way of life, engaging in creative work, but this is also social interaction, and sometimes more intense than superficial hangouts. By treating the world around us with hostility or disinterest, a person exhausts himself very quickly. Love, passion, enthusiasm, delight, curiosity, inspiration, admiration, amazement, interest, sympathy, attraction, longing, seeking, striving, desire, thirst - these are all ways to tap into new sources of energy. Without attraction to something there will be no connection, the person will suffocate, weaken, go into energy-saving mode, and as a result the world will seem more and more hostile or simply boring. This is how depression can take over and destroy a person completely.

But love, passion and excitement alone are not enough to energize ourselves. It is enough to connect, but it may not be enough to receive something in return. Mutual exchange requires a system that balances the force of energy flowing to the source so that the energy from the source flows back to the center. This system is intrapersonal integration, the very inner resources. From the point of view of most researchers, ego-integration includes adequate and stable self-esteem (not overestimated, not underestimated, not jumping), locus of control (i.e. the feeling of personal responsibility and power to influence the circumstances of one's life) and trust in life, i.e. readiness to accept its events as lessons, to feel the love of life for oneself.

[ranboo5]

Graphite, comrade, What is StarCraft? Is Ranboo Star? What does Technoblade do, is he Craft? Inform

[the warehouse doors slam shut and lock]

StarCraft is a video game franchise with the first installment, simply entitled "StarCraft," releasing in 1998 and the last major story installment, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, releasing in 2015. It is a real-time strategy game with the fundamental gameplay being establish base, collect resources, manage economy, make army, crush the opposition, and although the campaign missions can vary (several are basically crawlers, some are holdouts, etc) they have the same real-time and micro aspects as a standard game

The plot of the game is that a bunch of human exiles (Terrans, so called because they are from earth, or used to be initially) end up in the Koprulu sector of space and something is spreading in the fringe colonies and then suddenly this fleet shows up on these colonies and glasses the planet. It ends up turning out that the Terrans have stumbled upon a centuries-old interstellar war between the Zerg, a hiveminds (sci-fi "hivemind") insectoid species with the driving force of consuming and assimilating all life (especially the Protoss) into the Swarm to reach their final form, and the Protoss, a highly technologically advanced theocracy of psychic mouthless aliens who are in large part ALSO a hivemind but they don't call it that because "the Khala is the sacred unity of the Protoss" or whatever (and they have UNENDING social conflict going on)

Honestly I'm considering making Techno a Protoss agitator actually on second thought because the Protoss lore has a LONG procession of guys who say WAIT A SECOND THE GOVERNMENT IS BAD and then die (Adun. Tassadar. Raszagal. Zeratul) but currently I have him as a Terran military leader (bc the Terrans ALSO have a long history of political strife and activism including the protagonist Jim Raynor who is a direct action king) who defected and then who also got infested; the Zerg cannot infest Protoss bc their DNA is currently incompatible or whatever but they CAN infest Terrans which usually turns them into drones for the Swarm but there have been a couple (and I do mean a couple) of notable exceptions. In this direction the Zerg hivemind is absolutely the voices with Techno's crown being functionally a psychic shield that lets him think and renders him immune to psi emitters and such tricks. Either way MANY machinations possible at hand here but Protossblade is so enticing actually though either way I might need to alter his name because ESPECIALLY as a Protoss "Technoblade" is such a . Name. (The psi blade is an extremely extant and iconic Protoss weapon). Either way Technoblade has multiple oppressive structures to be dealing with at any given point and the question of how to resolve this and how to deal with his own role in these structures is an extremely extant theme in StarCraft (though it is dealt with. Very little at best)

Ranboo. Ranboo takes a bit more world building to explain you see in the cosmology of StarCraft life in the universe is part of an Infinite Cycle perpetuated by the Xel'Naga, which is the collective term for the previous ultimate species that's taken up the role of perpetuator or whatever. One of the current Xel'Naga, Amon, flipped out, took the Reddit black pill, and decided to have a Lucifer arc except his goal is to break the cycle he's like your standard anti establishment villain (cringe but this IS from Blizzard who love supporting authoritarianism (I didn't forget. Blizzard.)) wherein his idea of being anti establishment is destroying all life in the universe so Amon tries to rush shit and he force advances Protoss society and creates the Zerg hivemind and then he creates the hybrids – twisted abominations in combination of both species that will be the herald of his second coming and the end of all life or w/e. Six six six the number of the beast hell and fire was born to be released but the aesthetic is a little more blue glowy. Basically the hybrid are fucked up combinations of two species that shouldn't exist that were designed in a lab and/or on the altar as weapons in a final conflict that is a twisting of a distant goal of ultimate interstellar unity DO YOU SEE ME DO YOU SEE THE VISION

And so we have Ranboo also psi emitters blocking crown a fucked up hybrid (Blizzard were COWARDS with the hybrid designs why are there only two and why are they both BORING) who may not remember his cause (maybe something w/ Ihan crystals or similar. There's DEFINITELY weird memory shit extant in StarCraft that I can use) but he does remember strongly he viciously does not want to kill and he desperately wants the conflict to stop. WHO IS IT FOR? WHO IS IT FOR? He needs to end the deaths and bring peace to the Koprulu sector type beat yk?

[mx-metronome]

Sky Theory: The Light and The Darkness

A post about my thoughts on light, darkness, how they react to one another, and (possibly) what it all implies regarding the Eye of Eden. (Spoilers ahead!)

I wrote a post about the civilization we see rise and fall, but today we're going to delve a little deeper into how the story might really be going, from the conflict to the climax to a possible resolution.

To quote the game's story (from the updated Isle of Dawn):

"With the stars united, our light was infinite...and together, we lived in harmony."

It is well established that light is a valuable resource that the spirits relied on, and way back at the beginning, it was also a renewable one: Winged Light fell from the sky continuously, a symbol of innocence and purity as a gift from the Megabird. Because it was infinite, the spirits all flourished, and there was no squabbling over a scarcity.

"As spirits, we soon became many...creating our home here in the clouds."

Here is where the civilization really starts to grow, specifically in the Daylight Prairie stage. The spirits' needs are all met every day of every year. But somewhere down the line, their basic need wasn't enough for them anymore. As they grew in number, so too did they grow in curiosity and want.

"But darkness came and the stars fell...

This sentence here sums up the remainder of our story, although what take place over the course of this sentence is an entire age. Here's how I feel it goes down:

The darkness coming literally refers to darkstone being discovered, and how its potential in advancing the people tempts them away from the comfort of their infinite light. The spirits did not have the light ripped away from them: they chose the darkness over light and turned away willingly, severing themselves from the stars. The Winged Light stop falling and become a precious commodity.

So they toy with this newly discovered darkstone and find that it reacts to light: as light is applied to any kind of darkness, it gives off energy, a rudimentary sort of power generation. There are several pieces of evidence to confirm this:

Darkstone technology only activates when you apply your light to it.

In fact, whenever you activate a darkstone door in the Hidden Forest, you recharge a little bit of cape energy, suggesting excess energy is produced in the reaction.

Darkness plants, when exposed to light, are used up in the process (as they are less dense than darkstone), but they release candle wax in the reaction, a concentrated form of energy.

However, as mentioned above, you need light for the darkness to be of any use to advancements, and now that supply is finite. The spirits must now find alternate sources of light, and the only source available to them at this time is the creatures of light.

The prairie begins transporting butterflies en masse to the forest to be broken down, and their light is channeled through their dark machinations to keep things running. As the butterflies become scarce, they look to mantas instead, and so on.

The civilization continues to grow and with it their demand for light, but the supply continues to dwindle. The scarcity of light is now threatening the people, and an ultimatum must be reached. They need a reliable, renewable source of power, one that can run almost indefinitely, so the King has one built, for the future of his people and their way of life. That's right: the Eye of Eden was never a weapon, but a near-infinite energy source, like a nuclear plant.

The finest engineers gather at the capital city and splice together mass quantities of darkstone into one megalith, only requiring enough light to kickstart a chain reaction. The reaction would cause a feedback loop: the energy emitted by the light-dark reaction would be enough light to perpetuate the reaction for an extended period of time, and any excess energy can be harvested or siphoned off and used to power the grid.

The people have spread far and wide and into different factions, each jealously guarding what little light they have left, knowing the King has intent to seize it. Skirmishes turn into battles turn into a full scale war. The desperation of each front has them all take the glorious darkness and turn it into weapons, and in this production of arms the people are failing to realize the true long-term side effects of utilizing darkness: pollution.

The weapons are produced as close to the front lines as the people could safely manage, hence the heavy pollution in the Golden Wasteland, just outside the capital. The water becomes thick and near impossible to sail through; the light from the light creatures begins to react to the darkness in the air and water, hence the presence of krill and dark crabs twisted by the corrupting dusts. The people try to infiltrate the capital city to seize the light that the King was hoarding. Perhaps some of the elders were even privvied to the King's plan and were working to defend him to save their own factions of people. Perhaps some of the elders even fought each other over differing ideals regarding the new generator.

As a last-ditch effort, the King moves the generator to as close to the sky as he can in a futile attempt to harness the holy light of the stars they had turned away from ages before. He hopes that the reaction will reach high enough to begin drawing in star power, slowly draining the heavens to keep his people alive.

He gathers any light left in the capital city and sends it through the machine, and the reaction kicks off in an instant. The power is greater than the engineers had calculated, and it is too great for them to harness; the wave of energy is massive enough to wipe out most of the denizens in the city within the first few seconds. The displacement of energy creates fierce winds and kicks up poisonous dust clouds, even scooping up entire bricks and boulders and flinging them through the air.

The mighty capital begins to crumble under the weight of this blazing light, and the flinging rocks tear down surrounding cities, picking up more debris as it grinds away at buildings. The dark dusts scatter across the land, settling over what few survivors remain, reacting to their inner Light and encasing them in stone, leaving them with no light left to return to Orbit whence they came.

The people had fallen to the darkness and its powerful properties, using up all their precious light to maintain their mortal existence. Now there is no light left and no way home. All that is left of their existence is husks of darkness, broken bones of old cities, and a radioactive storm with an unholy hybrid of light and darkness at it center that will run its course for thousands of years more.

"...and with their light we faded away."

...But not without one last plea.

"A long time has passed. Now we call to you."

In their last few moments, some groups of people, those who still had faith that they'd rejoin the stars, began to pray. They stated prophecies, chanted incantations into the sky, erected shrines with candles, hoping that their selfless offerings of light would grant them grace. That somehow Megabird would hear their cries and send them a chance at redemption, a chance at attaining Her inner Light once again.

And so the Megabird sent down the Winged Light again, hoping it would be enough to begin healing the land. But She did not quite understand the inner workings of this darkness, for it was beyond Her: this Light was fragile, and couldn't stand up against the darkness that swallowed the sky. She needed a vessel able to carry this Light safely into the heart of darkness where Her people slumbered.

So She learned of the darkness and how it cancelled out Light, and in response, she created the first sky kids.

"Go forth, child. Return our spirits to the stars."

Sky kids are different from spirits in many ways. Firstly, spirits are also creatures of light in that they originate from Orbit. It was their go-to source of energy and sustenance. But that connection between the spirits and all the light they'd ever need was so easily broken by the want that darkness produced, and their sensitivity to this darkness made them fall prey easily when it fell out of control.

By contrast, sky kids were created as instruments of the Megabird, shells carrying Her fragile Light within. They are not beings of pure light, but that's the point: they were designed to withstand darkness, and granting them a corporeal form provides more protection for Her Light from darkness than otherwise.

So the first sky kids go and deliver their inner Light to what fallen spirits they can find. The elders see the coming of the sky kids as Megabird's answer to their pleas, as Her Light is within them, and as the sky kids present their Light to the elders, they are able to reconnect with the stars and send up the spirits freed from darkness. So begins the pilgrimage back to Orbit, spearheaded by an army of children.

The first sky kids free some of the spirits and then head to the capital where light and darkness collide, the point nearest the stars. Megabird's intent was for the collected Winged Light in the hands of the sky kids to be enough pure Light to dispel the storm, but the darkness is too great, and as the Light was torn from them, they had no Light left to keep away the darkness, and they fell at the summit with no way of returning to Her.

So She sent more sky kids, thinking greater numbers would aid Her will. But two things began to happen, things She did not foresee: the sky kids, blank slates with no discernable emotions or features, learned from the spirits they saved: they learned how to wave hello, they learned how to laugh, how to cry, how to cheer, and so on. They even began taking on some of the fashions from the spirits! They presented individuality, suggesting that Megabird's Light was more than just pure Light: it was also a soul in its own right, much like the spirits that came before.

The second thing that happened was at the summit of the Eye of Eden, as it came to be called: when the sky kids realized their Winged Light wouldn't survive the Storm, they passed it on to fallen sky kids instead so that they may ascend back to Orbit and rejoin Megabird, at the cost of their own ascension. This soul of Light each sky kid carried not only established a personality, but also compassion, as Her Light was always meant to do. Sky kids were drawn to one another, and they started to work like teams and help one another out. They gave each other offerings of light as symbols of friendship and acceptance, not unlike the spirits' desperate offerings of light and candles to Megabird.

The Eye of Eden is the purest, most powerful light colliding with the purest, most potent darkness, which makes it an ideal euphemism for death: suffering and then release. It is the door to Orbit, but their possessions - their Winged Light - will be left behind. They only carry their deeds in their darkest time, which they are rewarded for after the fact.

When they came to Orbit at last, Megabird lauded them for their sacrifice and kindness, and invited them to remain with Her. But many of them expressed distress and dismay for all the sky kids still down in the clouds that needed help, and all the friends that they would miss. So She sent them back with two boons: additional Light granted by the spirits they helped ascend, and the knowledge needed to guide other sky kids back to Her.

Even if not everyone would rejoin Her in the Light, it brought Her comfort that Her Light was spread across an aching kingdom, sharing hope and peace to those who couldn't be near to Her.

[number5theboy]

Thoughts on the theory that The Commission sent Five to kill Dave?? 👀

It’s fine, I guess? I’ve said before that I don’t particularly like theories that give the Commission too much credit and basically make them an all-powerful, all-seeing entity, because it kind of takes away from the complexity of human life. If everything is engineered by the Commission, how interesting is it really?

I get the tragic and dramatic potential of Five being the one to pull the trigger on Dave, I really do, but Season 2 used that twist up already with Lila. And if you look at the in-universe mechanisms, the Commission leaving Klaus in Vietnam for ten months if they didn’t want him there is just a bit senseless. They knew where he was, as they monitored the briefcase. Since Season 2 introduced the Infinite Switchboard in a frankly baffllingly bad writing move that makes so much of Season 1 a lot stupider, they would also have the resources to track Klaus and where he was, and see what he’s up to. If they didn’t want him to much about in 1968, they could have sent in someone to kill him or take him back instead of risking that the guy who has the potential to summon ghost armies turns the Vietnam war around. And I also don’t like the idea that they let it go on for so long because they know that experiencing true love is necessary to motivate something Klaus will do in the future, because it gives them way too much information about the free will of people and how to manipulate that.

The Commission as established in the show makes no sense and is contradictory if you think about it for longer than a few minutes, and I think adding Dave’s death to the list of shit they have done or could do just complicates something that doesn’t need complicating. It’s the inherent truth of war that people die, no matter who they are or who cares about them, and spinning Dave dying into this big Commission plot to get Klaus back to 2019, or to break him, just doesn’t really appeal to me, or it doesn’t anymore. After Season 1 it could have been an interesting conflict to set up, and I would have loved to see it play out, but after Season 2, it would just recycle plot beats we’ve already had and make the Commission even more of a plot/writing clusterfuck than it already is.

[melida-daan]

ENL Writer’s Commentary: Chapter 7

Sorry I’m so very, very behind on these!

This is the first interlude I wrote, I like writing Obi-Wan’s POV in things, but for this I feel like having other people’s POVs was important to show just how much Obi-Wan was changing.

Even if she hadn’t lived a whole life, didn’t have the memories of those experiences, it still karked Cerasi up to know she’d be dead by now.

Killed by one of her own people.

And, yeah, that made her paranoid. Made her less trusting than she arguably should be, but was that so bad, with what Obi-Wan had them working on?

Cerasi in JA gets assassinated by one of their own people in order to keep peace from happening. I think Obi-Wan knows how important it is for people, even children, to have all the relevant information they might need, and knowing that Mawat is that much of a risk is important.

Not that she blamed him, she didn’t even really mind. She’d lived her whole life in danger and was so, so thankful that Obi-Wan’s foreknowledge was helping their planet and people, so what if that came with the promise of a future conflict?

Stopping someone who’d start up a galaxy-wide civil war for power was just as good of a cause as stopping the Elders had been.

I don’t imagine any of the Young would be fond of the Sith Lords and what they’ve been causing, especially when they get to the “child slave soldier army” part of the Sith plan.

She knew it was real, she didn’t doubt Obi-Wan for a second. The whole world had felt odd around him when he’d woken up into this time, like the air was suddenly too heavy and charged. And he was different. He’d been mature before, and knew way more than most of them, but this was something else.

The longer he was like this, the more she saw the original Obi-Wan shining through, but for as much as she kind of missed that first version of him they’d met, she was infinitely thankful of the one they had now.

In time travel stuff, when they move into a younger body, it always feels like of course the people who spend everyday around them would notice a change. Especially people as close as Obi-Wan, Cerasi, and Nield were originally.

For one, he was a lot better at admitting he liked cuddles (she supposed not really being a physical person for decades could make someone appreciate that, though). For another, he wasn’t heartbroken about the Jedi.

Which was good, because the Jedi were awful and absolutely none of his stories about that old future made them sound any better. She had already discussed it with Nield, all the ways they were going to keep the Jedi away from Obi-Wan, and they’d told others, until she thought probably all the Young, and all the Mandos, and even some of the Middle Generation, were working with them.

This fic is clearly heavily influenced from Jedi Apprentice and those books are egregious with the child neglect and abuse (yes, even for “typical YA trope” level of child abuse) and so no one who knows Obi-Wan outside of the Order would have any good opinion of the Order. Qui-Gon abandoned the child he was responsible for on a wartorn planet, there’s no reason anyone would ever want to let Obi-Wan go back to him if they’re on Obi-Wan’s side.

She knew better than to ask the others for help. Cerasi liked the Naboo and the Alderaanians, she did, but also she knew they liked the Jedi. They even liked the Senate!

The Republic had always been this vague idea to her, ideals that made no sense, and hearing Obi-Wan’s stories it was even weirder to her. She knew they’d have to stay in it, for resources and information, but she couldn’t wait for when they could leave.

Melida/Daan was at war for two centuries, basically, and at no time did anyone try to help until a single Jedi was sent after the Young started their movement. It’s really common for places abandoned by their governments to not believe in the ideals of that government and with the Republic I think it would be even easier, considering how corrupt they are. In the Melida-Daan’s eyes, people who have faith in the Senate are naive.

Melida-Daan had already gotten so much stronger, so much better, and she knew that in a few decades like this they’d be able to take anything that came their way: war, Sith Lords, Separatists. As long as they stuck together, they could accomplish anything.

After all, why else would Obi-Wan’s Force have sent him back here?

I mention in a few different chapters from Obi-Wan’s POV something along the lines of “if I was meant to do X, I would have been sent back to Y time/place” and I think that’s a really valid interpretation of time travel in this way. Obi-Wan was sent to Melida/Daan during the war and that has meaning to them.

[derangedhyena-zoids]

I guess now that I featured The Kids in something I can elaborate on them and everything related slightly without seeming completely insane.  BIG HEADCANON BLATHER TIME: Raven and Ryss had 2 kids, both boys. 

Ryss wasn’t a terribly good mother. She loved her kids but was a little panicked about them at all times, and didn’t really like the distraction they were. Specula was a good mother and did the majority of keeping them out of trouble. 

They were also psychic as fuck, but that didn’t show up until they were hitting puberty. I’m sure that was an entire Time.  

Ryss literally didn’t think she could get pregnant by Raven. She based this off of both what she’d been taught by Hiltz (humans=/=Zoidians) and the fact that Fiona had never been pregnant despite sleeping with Van for years*.  So, once Ryss figured out she was pregnant**, telling Raven was a bit of an event because Raven was under the impression that such a thing wasn’t possible. He also had little interest in being a parent. Ryss also had no idea what pregnancy even entailed for a Zoidian, and neither did Fiona. Again, all she knew was what she’d learned from Hiltz, and it wasn’t as if he went out of his way to teach her the finer points of anything. (Knowledge is power after all, and he wanted wanted to hold as much power over her as possible. What she didn’t know to begin with, she couldn’t know was being withheld. All she knew from Hiltz on the topic was Zoidian pregnancies are of a greater duration than human pregnancies - mainly because he’d irritably snapped about how ‘the vermin’ reproduce faster.)  Raven’s main reluctance about parenting had to do with... you know, his massive unresolved parental trauma. Which after some extreme stress he and Ryss managed to work through, largely because they had a lot in common in this department. Afterwards Raven warmed up to the idea of being a father, and was... well, Okay.jpg at it. Let’s just say he had Shadow helping Specula with the kids a lot. ...the kids were raised by Organoids. SO.

An attempt was made to keep track of Ryss and her offspring, especially after Raven’s death and she began to make herself scarce. But nobody expected the kids to be psychic af, and they quickly sussed out that something was up and followed their mom’s lead, making themselves and their families impossible to find.  ....

The Guardian Force pretty quickly lost tabs on them, but did know what to “look for”, so to speak. 

However, this attempt was never linked up with the information the Empire had on Ryss, mainly because too much time had passed and no one knew to bridge the info.

Anyways. All three Zoidians were aware there were differences between themselves and humans, Hiltz more than most. Hiltz was the only one of them that had an adult level of knowledge from Zoidian times. Fiona and Ryss were literal children and were only ever, at best, taught the very basics about things. Part and parcel of subscribing wholesale to the we’re-the-best group’s newsletter, Hiltz also a keen interest in biology/related, obviously interested in scholars of that group’s discussion on what amounted to Zoidian eugenics. ‘we’re the best, and here’s why.’ Hiltz didn’t even remotely consider that humans and Zoidians could hybridize, nor was he interested in finding out. (though he had well-established to Prozen and the Imperial scientists his “ownership” of Ryss and the fact she was not to be messed with, I’m sure he had to mindfuck and/or sic Ambient on a swath of folks to get them to stop bothering him about jizzing in a cup.)***

Joke’s on him because he fathered *at least* these three: 

while living in the small colony with the scholar. 

because he, Hiltz, the weird guy, was hot, amazing in bed, and quite DTF.   scholar: ...   Hiltz:  (ツ) scholar: ... Hiltz:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  scholar: ...sure, whatever, what could it hurt anyways ^^^THESE FOLKS HAD A TIME. Unlike with Ryss’s kids, who at least had a slight understanding they were different and some guidance on the situation, any and all of Hiltz’s offspring HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON. And not that any of the fertility restrictions were enacted at this point in time (there’s wars, you live in the wild west, please have kids), but the addition of Zoidian into the mix fucks the inbuilt population-control-genetic-engineering-bullshit straight up, which resulted later in a lot of confusing surprises for people annnnnd is part of why miscarriages became common later down the line. 

Nobody expected the spanish inquisition weird side-species fuckery. Nobody even knows to look! By NC0 times there’s just starting to be coherent, unified inquiry into the various vanilla-human mutations running around.

WHOOPS THO: Backdraft & Co have been at this shit for a while and already know a lot about this. Because they have a hard-on for the Empire and a lot of OG Backdraft are basically really rich, bitter offspring from Imperial families who think they’re better in just about every way. Including genetically. When Backdraft became predominantly a moneymaking, black-market, illegal-battling underground enterprise, a rift began and never stopped growing. Backdraft has a strong preference for recruiting folks of Guylos descent (hi, Bit), but in recent memory had stopped turning people away for not being so. Because money.  It did kinda...  go in peoples’ file though.  In the game of historical telephone, Ryss (and Raven’s) bloodline were more or less demoted to the same: ‘from Guylos.’  Alteil was in range of figuring a few important things out. Unfortunately, HE DED. His successor with this information is Layon.  Surely nothing can go wrong there. ANYWAYS. A massive and valid concern Ryss had was what would happen with hybrid offspring, since to her knowledge her kid would be the first. Hiltz’s were already adults, they were fine. They were better than fine, they just needed a lot more water and salt than everyone else. So, as we all know, Hiltz uh, actually succeeded in removing a sizable chunk of the human population on Zi. Once everyone had scraped semi-functional society back together, the powers that-were-to-be basically prioritized secure settlements and making everyone feel safe so... you know, they’d have kids. Important for the whole rebuilding society thing.   The Zoidian offspring became slightly more statistically relevant during this time, because them and potentially even their kids had all been scared shitless and fled into the hills from the Death Stinger bullshit long before anyone else had. Once there they were good at Not Dying In General, because they had a variety of inexplicable abilities and were just WELL I’M A FREAK BUT I’M ALIVE SO, YOU KNOW, WE’RE COOL. 

Greater than zero chance that someone started a cult. Very, very obviously: these folks knew to keep to themselves. Though the original offspring and their mother had NO idea what was going on, over time any kids at least had fair warning, and knew to keep oddity to themselves. When the most blatant expressions of things were bred out, only the subtle but strongly expressed items remained, discussion of familial strangeness subsided.  Then you’re left with people like Brad who can basically see in the dark, but thinks everyone can see in the dark, it’s no big deal right?    RELATED, BUT NOT: This is technically a spoiler, but not really, because I’m not sure this actually “plays into the plot” so much as it is just “a fact of the plot” annnnnd I sort of want/need to explain this a little because it’s related to all of this.  In this hc, the Zoid Eve is a metaphorical hyper-simplification of ‘resources.’

Back in Zoidian times, some scholars - namely those aligned with the group(s) Hiltz was eventually born into - theorized that the Zoid Eve’s power was not an infinite resource as many believed, but actually an incredibly finite one. Not in the sense of it being used up, but the sense of “there are only ‘100′ of these, there will only ever be ‘100′ of these, we cannot add to or take away from this”  (sidenote: I subscribe to the idea that the Zoid Eve was some kind of supernaturally-occurring power source that the Zoidians shaped into what everyone now calls the Zoid Eve. They did this so long ago that its origins became unclear; beliefs from various groups ran the gamut from “LITERALLY GOD” to “it was built by us”)   The power of it gave life and longevity not only to all Zoids but them too. And it seemed that the more individuals there were, the smaller the “slice of the pie” they received. They began to project apocalyptic futures in which the “slices” were so small that death ran rampant, and Big War would be inevitable. Obviously, nobody wanted this. But unfortunately the group who theorized this also started a huge, lengthy campaign to reduce the population, which - after many years, a lot of societal sabotage and and many smaller conflicts between groups - eventually culminated in ongoing, wholesale slaughter, which led to the big Zoidian-apocalypse nonsense that we’re all familiar with. Cool story bro, right? Well, y’see, those ancient scholars weren’t wrong, though. To an extent that’s actually what led to the hyper-concentration of strength in the DSaurer/DScorpion battle, and why Zero and One are functionally god-tier Organoids. But what this means in modern times, is that the remaining Zoidians - and to a proportionately-relevant extent, the hybrid offspring - are the only remaining folks (besides the Organoids and Zoids) benefiting from the pie anymore. Ryss is the last Zoidian; she’s basically non-aging at this point. 

First-gen hybrids? Aging at a complete snail’s pace.  Second gen? Still having a very strange time. So on and so forth... Can they die? Absolutely, but it’s pretty hard to kill them.  Basically only complete destruction of vital parts works. Does this also apply to Organoids and Zoids? Absolutely. “then why’s Fiona dead” Because the double-bond with Zeke seriously fucked her up. Van dragged her down, hard. “but-”  Zeke could’ve pulled away from her at any time and she would’ve lived. Been a nutcase probably, but lived. She suspected it, Zeke was outright in denial; she never called him on it because she cared about him too much and didn’t want him blaming himself for whatever happened. This is what Ryss suspected/understood as well, and likewise didn’t want to break Zeke. “wait, what about zeke?” HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM IN CLOSING: I don’t have names for any of the offspring discussed here, but I have thought about the appearances/other stuff. Obviously. I’ve never specified how many original offspring(s) were running around. But it couldn’t have been too many. So anyone in NC0 times related to either Ryss or Hiltz can trace back to ^^^the folks pictured above, most likely.  I actually have no idea how to properly calculate the amount of population vs how much impact a handful of reproducing individuals would have over x generations. So please excuse vagueness there, as I’m both open to adjusting that number when/if it becomes feasible to do so, and also don’t think it’s terribly necessary to have this information nailed down because let’s be real nobody cares and that’s a lot of work. Also as I’ve mentioned before, there’s several serious confounding factors here: -these people can LIVE A LONG TIME. The original hybrids and their kids ARE POTENTIALLY STILL ALIVE. They mature relatively rapidly, but then coast into a very slow aging process. That means that - especially the males - could still technically be producing offspring.  -that makes my head hurt and makes figuring out lineages stupid nightmare mode. so don’t expect me to actually do that because I’m not sure how to. The main Facts(tm) you need are:  Sara is 4th gen. Vega is 5th gen x2. Brad is 5th gen. Stoller is 7th gen.

that’s the important part, okay.  (*’s from earlier: )  *tl;dr the bizarre situation they’d inadvertently created with Zeke wreaked havoc on Fiona’s ability to reproduce. Conversely, Raven and Ryss *almost* had a ‘proper’ setup, so Ryss was fine. Nobody knew this. **Ryss figured this out with Fiona’s help - and who did they both go to, to ask in confidence?

Yep. ”isn’t he-” YEP. ***The Empire knows next to nothing about Hiltz. The Republic, however has AN OBSCENE AMOUNT of information about him. Difficulty level? The data was both classified, and never really tied back to him. Because Hiltz murdered the scholar and burned down his house/lab, the connecting information was all lost. The scholar had moved the material to his house in secret, due to fears of an Imperial spy in their research facility - he was telling Hiltz the truth.   The most that the Empire ever learned at that time was that the Republic had “captured” a Zoidian (Hiltz), and that was about it. This drove the fervor which led to them grabbing at the Republic’s continued excavations - eg what happened with Shadow, and presumably them attacking (and IMO, overpowering) the Republic group that’d also seized Ryss.   Before Hiltz became involved, Imperial scientists gleaned a lot about Ryss, but as I’ve mentioned before, she wasn’t treated anywhere nearly as poorly as Hiltz had been. She also had Specula, which helped a lot.  So, the Empire knew nothing of Hiltz, but a lot about Ryss.  Thanks to Alteil and his predecessor’s longstanding obsession with the Imperial military, Backdraft has almost all of the Imperial military’s data from the past few centuries.  Ergo...

[silveranjyil]

The Greatest Tragedy

Once my brain has alighted upon a subject, it often does not let it go until ever stone is unturned.  After writing about the impossible task the God of Light had placed upon Ozma, I went to bed, and immediately a new thought popped into my head.

Ozma will never die.

He can not ask or promise Salem to die with him, because she was not part of the conditions from the God of Light.  The conditions were to bring humanity together so that they could live in harmony with one another.

Ozpin/Ozma could *lie* to Salem, sending her to the Afterlife alone to wait for his return (if that is even possible).  But I think it is beyond that.  He told her everything in his first incarnation, so she KNOWS he can not die until harmony is united.

Oh...my...god...  everything makes sense.

She can never die as long as she never accepts death.  He can never die unless humanity is basically united in harmony.  She will NEVER accept death now.  She will keep the world divided and continue to be the antagonist to his efforts so that they can stay living in this world, even if it means they will forever be separated by war.

Jinn said in the Lost Fable that Salem became a being of infinite life with a desire for pure destruction, but was she really

Remember, Salem was able to live a quiet, normal life away from humanity.  She was able to love Ozma even in his new form.  She was motherly and doting upon her children.  All of this naturally.  Even now, she would send her servants away so as not to destroy them when in a fit of rage.

Ozma is her heart.  His very existence destroys her and yet keeps her from becoming truly Grimm.  She is a walking contradiction of the forces of destruction that house her and her own humanity.  A being with nothing but a desire for destruction can not, by its very nature, be motherly or loving.

However, this means she is constantly fighting herself.  She loses control a lot, she succumbs to the darkness within her a lot.  She killed her own children and Ozma in a fit of rage, for example.  She is obviously coming to wreak havoc upon the kingdom of Atlas as well.  She absolutely HATES Ozma/Ozpin to the core.

And loves him just as much.

That book Blake was reading way back in V1 wasn't about Ozma/Ozpin--it was about Salem.  Ozma never really tried to dominate his hosts, they kind of merged together over time, but Salem is the one fighting another soul within herself.

She knows that Ozma will never die unless humanity is living in harmony.  If she dies, she will be alone in the afterlife--forever, probably.  Jinn said a few times, Salem understood that the hearts of men were easily swayed.  And this was from the very beginning when the Gods were in charge.

Never has there been a love story so tragic as Ozma and Salem.  The gods royally screwed them both over, but I think Ozma got the worst of it.

The final battle won't be against Salem.  It will be against the gods.  And Salem wants them to come because it may well be the only way to break the curse upon both of them.  If the gods come and wipe out all of humanity because they continue to fight amongst themselves, Ozma will die.  He will have no way to reincarnate and will go to the afterlife.  Either Salem will also die among them, or she will be able to accept death and finally kill herself.

The only way for Salem and Ozma to finally be together is to destroy all of humanity.  Not just that, but the Gods have to be the ones to do it.  If she destroys humanity on her own, it would be useless.  Humans are like cockroaches and will return.  She does not have the power to destroy the whole world in one blow, making it impossible for any human to return.  But the Gods do.  The God of Light said it himself: the WORLD would be destroyed.  Not just humanity.  He would make sure they could never come back again.

Salem has been waiting all this time, trying to first figure out how to collect the maidens powers and manipulate events to her advantage so that she can gather the relics, get the gods to destroy the world, and finally be with Ozma in the afterlife.

That also explains why, when asked how he could destroy Salem, Jinn said he couldn't.  The conditions the gods set were ever against Ozma's ability to succeed.  As long as Ozma lives, Salem will never accept death.  It's twistedly beautiful.

While it seems like a hopeless situation, it isn't.  There are many ways around all of this.  If the only people in the world who can use magic team up together and defeat the Gods, their curses could well be lifted on both of them.  But that still means endangering all of the world to do it as well as convincing Salem to join with them.  Ozma can still lie to Salem and convince her to accept death (after the Grimm is cleansed) and send her to the afterlife.  There is no telling what a being with powers like hers can do from the afterlife and might lead to a whole new arc, but it is a possibility.

They could summon the gods and try to convince them to renegotiate the situation, but I really doubt that would work in any setting.  The gods are jerks, especially the God of Light.

A lot of people suggest sealing Salem away in one of the Vaults, or up in space.  They fail to understand that sealing any great evil away is merely putting a bandaid on the problem.  It guarantees the escape of said evil being, who will be hell-bent on revenge, and possibly more crazy than before since they lost all human contact.   Cinder is a walking example of people willing to break her out or seek her again.  Plus, while we know that the vaults can keep stuff out, we do not know how much they keep IN.  .

Sealing Salem away could work as a temporary fix, but only if it is possible to get humans to live together in harmony.  Since even the gods of Light and Dark could not accomplish this (see my previous post), the odds are looking like that is not an option.  But it would pan out the series well, using new generations in a new arc to try and get the countries to set aside their difference and such.  It would become more political and societal at that point, like Game of Thrones or something... which....well, that was not a good comparison.  Game of Thrones merely emphasizes how hopeless it is to get humans to live in harmony.

I think it would help to know what the cut-off level is for harmony and fighting amongst themselves.  If the God of Light was referring to a perfect, utopian world: Ozma is screwed.  If he meant the majority, with the minority being ignore, Ozma has a chance.

Of course, you could always kill off the majority of people, reduce them to manageable levels where there is a higher likelihood of harmony and call in the gods to take over at that point.  Ozma would never do that, not in a million years.  For him, it is an unnacceptable option, and I completely understand.  But I mention it as an option because it has been proven that large numbers of people tend to generate more conflict because of space, resources, and individuality.

He could go the State route and just military law everything into an Orwellian future with thought-police at every corner.  Yeah...that didn't turn out well for 1984, either (back of the book strongly indicates that in the future, that society no longer existed).

So...yeah... I am seriously pitying Salem and Ozma right now.  I'm going to go cry in a corner for them.

[battlersexual]

Board Game Showcase #4: Root

Hey! It’s been a while since I did one of these: Six months, to be exact. In that time, I’ve been playing a lot of board games. The old college club moved online for the pandemic, so we’ve had plenty of opportunities. So, I have a new one for today. This is actually going to be a wargame, which means I have to talk a bit about wargame mechanics. I’ll do a more in-depth discussion of them at some point, but for now I’ll just leave space for a link here and mention the basics.

So, Root. This game came out of absolutely nowhere and won a bunch of awards back around 2017-18. It certainly flew under my radar at first - I was more interested in a different wargame, which I will be making a showcase of very soon - but the moment I started playing in earnest, I realized how brilliant it really was. So let me tell you why Root is so great.

Story:

Root’s story is typical of wargames - more about factions and empires than individuals. You and up to three other players - five in the expansion - play as different groups vying for control of a thriving forest. The forces of the Marquise de Cat, an imperialist hailing from tamer lands, have seized control of almost the entire forest and are gearing up to industrialize the place. The forest’s old masters, the proud Eyrie Dynasty and their squabbling bureaucracy, have united under a new leader and are gathering their forces for reconquista. The citizens of the forest, the mice, foxes, and rabbits of the underbrush, have decided to throw off the yoke of oppression and band together as the Woodland Alliance, engaging in sabotage and guerrilla warfare to take the forest for the people. And in the midst of it all is the Vagabond, a traveler seeking to find a place in this new status quo taking shape, with the potential to play kingmaker or even seize power for himself.

Also, they’re all cute animals.

Mechanics and more under the cut. 

Mechanics:

Oh boy, this is gonna be a big one. In fact, for the first time in Board Game Showcase history, I have to split up the mechanics section. See, Root is an asymmetrical game, much like Cosmic Encounter was, but unlike Cosmic, Root’s factions have differences that go far beyond a single ability. So instead, I’ll summarize the major mechanics here and go into detail on the factions in their own section.

Root is played on a board representing an autumn forest, with twelve “clearings” connected by paths and separated by thick forested areas.

Each clearing has a suit, represented by the color of the trees as well as a small symbol (you can see it on the prior image: this one is just the art) next to the clearing. The suits are Fox, Mouse, and Rabbit. Each clearing also has small white squares, which represent building slots: different clearings support different levels of infrastructure.

The denizens of the forest are represented by a 54-card deck with four suits: the aforementioned fox, mouse, and rabbit, as well as a bird suit that acts as a wild card for the board: any bird card can represent any clearing.

Cards are mainly used for their suit, but can also be crafted: if the cost on the bottom of the card is paid (using crafting pieces, which are different for each faction but all in some way represent infrastructure in clearings), you get the benefit. Sometimes this is an upgrade, sometimes it’s points and an item, but it;s usually worth considering, and some effects can make certain factions exceedingly powerful. There are also “ambush” cards, which are played from the hand directly in battle, and “dominance” cards, which unlock alternate victory conditions.

Most factions have three kinds of piece they can place on the board: Warriors, Buildings, and Tokens. Buildings are always square, and tokens are circular.

Moving warriors around is highly dependent on who rules each clearing, which is determined by how many pieces a faction has there. Ties default to nobody ruling the clearing.

Battle is simple: When a battle is initiated, the attacker rolls two dice numbered 0-3. Once rolled, the attacker takes the higher number and the defender takes the lower one. The number is dealt to the opposing side as hits, each of which removes a warrior. If there are no warriors left, buildings and tokens start being removed. You can only deal as many hits as you have warriors.

The goal of the game is to reach 30 victory points. You earn points by crafting item cards, destroying buildings and tokens, and completing your faction’s goals. Each turn consists of three phases: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening.

And that’s the end of the basic rules. If it seems like there’s a lot missing, that’s because...

Factions:

Each of the four factions in Root has completely different rules for how they play. I’ll have to present each one individually. I’ll be leaving some things out: each faction has a LOT going on, and I’ll try to convey what they do at the core.

The Marquise de Cat starts out controlling almost the entire forest, and gets points from building sawmills, workshops, and recruiters. She plays the most like a traditional 4x game, taking territory, building, and using resources. Sawmills make wood, which make more buildings. Workshops are used as crafting pieces, and recruiters make more soldiers and let her draw more cards each turn. She takes three actions each daylight, plus more for each bird card she discards, and can both pump out troops quickly and move across the map at a good pace. She starts with a heavily defended keep, and can spend cards to either overwork her sawmills or save troops from death with field hospitals.

The Eyrie Dynasties start stuck in the opposite corner from the Marquise’s keep, but with a good army and a Roost, which acts as a combination crafting piece, recruitment area, and point generator. They have a choice of four different Leaders:

All of the leaders have different abilities and affect the Decree. The Decree is the Eyrie’s political system: It’s got four columns (Recruit, Move, Battle, and Build), and each turn, the Eyrie player adds a card to the decree, then resolves it from left to right. For each card, the player must perform the corresponding action in a clearing of the same suit. This means the number of actions the Eyrie can take ramps up each turn, but the catch is that if any action can’t be fulfilled, the government falls into turmoil, the leader is replaced with a new leader, the decree is reset, and the player loses points for every bird card in the decree.

The Woodland Alliance don’t start on the board at all, but rely on sympathy tokens and supporters. Supporters are cards in a special supporter zone that can be used to spread sympathy or revolt. Sympathy tokens represent popular support for the alliance: it’s used to craft, it scores them points, and if another faction takes aggressive actions in sympathetic clearings, they make even more supporters of the cause from the general outrage. With enough support, they can revolt, setting up a base on the map and gaining warriors and officers, which allow them to take military action at night. They have fewer troops, but are much stronger: their guerrilla warfare means they always take the higher number in all conflicts.

The Vagabond isn’t a faction, but an individual. While the rest of the players are busy warring, this guy is over here playing D&D, complete with character classes.

The Vagabond wanders around the map with his pawn (not a warrior), searching ruins for items, trading with the other factions, questing, and building up a relationship meter with the other players. He doesn’t take territory, and he can leave the clearings and hang out in the forests. His items determine his capabilities, and everything he does helps or hinders the other players, directly or indirectly. He can ally with a faction by giving them cards, which earns him points, or he can go hostile and earn a point for each warrior of another faction he kills.

The expansion introduces two more factions, but we’ll go over them in that section.

Flavor:

Amazing. The different playstyles really get to the heart of the political game here, where you often can’t easily predict what other players will do and how the forest will change in a single turn. The art on the cards and board is also gorgeous, and really brings this little forest to life.

Replayability:

It’s a wargame, there’s almost infinite replayability by definition, but Leder Games went above and beyond. On the back of the board is another board, this one depicting a winter forest.

The clearings on the winter board don’t have fixed suits: instead, you place suit markers in whatever configuration you like. This is admittedly more for advanced players, but it’s nice that it was included in the base game at all, and adds even more replayability out of the box.

Expansions:

There are several expansions coming out, but only two finalized for release: The Riverfolk expansion, and the Clockwork expansion.

Riverfolk adds several things, including a board and rules for a second Vagabond player, and two new factions: The Lizard Cult and the Riverfolk Company.

The Lizard Cult is a dragon-worshiping cult that cares about the outcasts of the forest, and by that I mean the discard pile. Each turn, the most common suit in the discards is marked as the “outcast”, and the lizards perform conspiracies in the clearings matching the outcast suit. They don’t discard cards themselves to use them, instead only revealing them from their hand each turn, but to compensate, they have to radicalize their followers into acolytes before actually performing their conspiracies.

The Riverfolk Company are riverfaring merchants and mercenaries. Their goal is to set up trading posts in the forest and make a tidy profit. They act as merchants in-game as well: everything is for sale. Their hand is always visible, and other players can buy cards from them. They can sell their warriors as mercenaries, and ferry other factions along the rivers connecting some clearings, and they set the prices of all their services turn-by-turn, so they can react to the market. In exchange, they get more things they can do on their turn the more people buy from them, and if the other players aren’t careful they can become a terrifying force.

The Clockwork Expansion is very different from Riverfolk. It doesn’t add any new factions: instead, it compensates for players not having a large enough gaming group by making automated versions of all the base game factions. I can’t give much more detail, as I don’t actually own this expansion at the moment, but I love the idea.

There are a lot more expansions in the works, including new boards, a new deck, new vagabonds, and a new riverfolk-style expansion featuring two new factions, the Corvid Conspiracy and the Underground Duchy, but those aren’t fully released yet.

Criticisms:

Root can be a difficult game to learn, since you have to keep track of everyone’s different playstyles and rules to really play well. It can also be a bit snowball-y, with the winner often being very obvious several turns in advance. In terms of actual defects, the Lizard Cult have a special rule that isn’t listed on their faction board and only exists in the rulebook, which is frustrating. It’s also not a great two-player game, only really shining with three or more players.

Availability: 

Root is pretty easily available, since it’s still in the process of release to this day. You shouldn’t have issues finding a copy. It’s also got some good mods on Tabletop Simulator.

Conclusion:

When I first played Root, it was two-player, and I got stomped. I thought that would be the end of it, and I decided I probably wouldn’t like the game. Then, a week passed, and I wasn’t able to stop thinking about it. I tried it again, and again. I played it against myself to refine my strategy. I bought my copy and taught it to people.

It’s been months since then, and Root has become one of my favorite games. So don’t be discouraged if it’s hard to get started with. Give it some time, and some thought, and you’ll see the appeal. There’s a lot of great design here, and I thoroughly recommend Root.

[kob131]

https://rwdestuffs.tumblr.com/post/616806790896680960

Ironwood: Yells, screams, rants extensively, shoots things, breaks things

He never screamed, he never ranted, he broke like one thing (a chess piece) and shoot one guy (who in his mind was trying to stop him from saving people).

Yeah, Ironwood is emotional. He’s a fucking veteran Huntsman fighting a war that he was lied about by the man he trusted and the allies he thought he had. He also kind of just had HIS ONE GOOD ARM FUCKING SCORTCHED AND HIS PARANOIA CONFIRMED. Pretty fucking understandable, you shouldn’t be misrepresenting him.

Fandom: Clearly this man is a rational, logical person who is making his decisions based solely on cold reason. RWBY is being too emotional.

Who the FUCK has argued that James is operating under cold logic? He’s not, of course he’s acting under emotion.

What are you even saying?

RWBYJNR: Lies, cheats, steals, rants about a politician trying to do his best to protect a kingdom from going to shit, and also harassed a kid when they’re lied to

You know, Psyga, it doesn’t help that not only are you ALSO misrepresenting shit (They never cheated, the stealing of one airship pales to the numerous DEATHS that would have been caused, they didn’t rant and ONE PERSON  messed with Oscar while the LEADER RUBY comforted him) but you yourself are guilty of this shit (Lying, cheating and stealing? Gee I wonder who else does that? *cough* RWDE *cough*)

Fandom: Clearly these group of well thinking, mentally scarred teenagers are rational, logical people who are making their decisions solely on reason. Ironwood is being too emotional.

Again, WHO IS SAYING THAT? Also, implying that Ironwood isn’t basically a walking mass of mental scars.

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe grown men in charge of armies should be held to a slightly higher standard than teenagers, rather than the other way around?

Has it occurred to you that they’re both adults, they’re both fucking up and everyone screwed Salem’s pooch here? Honestly the only guy doing good is Ozpin. Yeah, he started this mess but he did some damn good work before Cinderella.

Also no Psyga, I am not supporting your hypocritical ass. “they’re taught to be pinnacles of man kind’’ By the headmasters....which includes IRONWOOD.

I laugh at the idea of James “A few city blocks”   Ironwood trying to do the best to protect his kingdom. Especially when he peaced out and decided to scarper not cos of Salem but due to a chess piece, all while ignoring the fact he had Salem agents on his stupid little rock already to instead focus on shrieking at RWBY a bout loyalty. 

The same James “I’ll promote you all to Huntsmen, I’m the one to tell my subordinates the truth first and I SUFFER FROM PARANOIA AND PROBABLY A HOST OF OTHER MENTAL SCARS” Ironwood right?

I mean you support Yang Tumblingxelian because ‘uwu vagin- I mean PTSD’ so SURELY you support Ironwood RIGHT?

Also, he freaked out about a chess piece because it’s SALEM’S SYMBOL. Its like saying “Oh its not Hitler it’s just his CALLING CARD”. And no shit James is calling out Team RWBY, he trusted them and they lied to his face. You know, the same position Team RWBY was in with Ozpin.

Plus Ironwood himself lies and steal in regards to supplies from Mantle and rants too, except unlike RWBY he doesn’t have nearly as good of an excuse save for the fact he’s surrounded himself with enablers and refuses to accept or seek out help. 

Amity? Yes.

Supplies? Where? Robyn says they should be going to Mantle, that doesn’t mean they’re Mantle supplies. Show me where it was shown, said or explained he TOOK the supplies.

Also, what enablers? People who put their trust in him? That’s like saying Team RWBY were enablers for Ozpin: it’s the Ace Ops and Winter’s fault for not looking out for their leader, just as it was James’ issue for not looking out for Ozpin.

Like seriously, nothing is ever done to show RWBY as unstable or irrational, at best they are uncertain which is frank;y better than Ironwood or Opzin’s “I know best” attitude because it means they are open to changing rather than breaking the moment they run into a problem their methods can’t solve. 

Changing, like going from opposing lying to lying themselves right AFTER knowing how bad of an idea that is.

This is the fucking Yang/Adam situation all over again, removing fault and agency just because you don’t like the other side.

We also literally see their rationales, they need to get he lamp to Atlas before either Salem’s agents find them or it potentially lures Grimm in. They make a good plan that only doesn’t work out cos the local general decided t bust out a super mech and prance around screaming and they still hung around long enough to help solve the problem that idiot created. 

Strange that you don’t their talk of telling the truth....

When it comes to Mantle their rationales for why its awful and Ironwood’s decisions are wrong are explained both morally and in terms of practicality, Ironwood sometimes listened but usually ignored them cos he’s an arrogant ass. 

Or, you know, he’s been lied to numerous times, he’s in immense physical pain right now, his mental issues are being played on and he’s in a rushed, fucked if you do fucked if you don’t situation.

You know, WHAT THE SHOW FUCKING SHOWS.

On one side is a pack of teenagers dragged into a lot of nightmarish shit they were in no way ready to deal with, who are trying to work together and find a way to save the world. They do this despite being horribly traumatized, physically dismembered in two cases, having to fight off their abusers (to the death in one case), all the while admitting they’re in over their head, they’ve made mistakes, and trying to fix them and generally improve things.

The other side is a military general blatantly abusing his political power to deprive a city of critical resources, leaving them exposed to man eating monsters, declaring martial law to stop the rest of the government from stopping him from outright abandoning the people of that city (and the rest of the planet) to those monsters, ordering the cold-blooded murderer of an elderly woman to steal her magical powers, ordering the arrest of a group of teenagers and one older man because SOME OF THEM vocally disagreed with these actions, then shot a teenage boy for politely disagreeing with him, with the intent being that the boy would die from either the bullet of the long fall that followed. He does all this while insisting he’s being logical, that he’s making the hard choices on everyone elses behalf, and that he is always right. While hallucinating, ranting and screaming about disloyalty, all of which because he failed once (And that’s ignoring how he backstabbed several supposed friends before that traumatizing incident.)

A. Ironwood is also dragged into this by the same metric.

B. James is ALSO in over his head. Everyone not named ‘Ozpin’ is and Ozpin BARELY qualifies.

C. And James is being abused and used too!

D. ‘physically dismembered in two cases’ One and *taps Ironwood’s metal arm*

E. To try and help EVERYONE he’s ‘depriving resources’ because shit ain;t infinite.

F. Aas opposed to the genocidal, ancient witch CONTROLLING the man eating monsters?

G. And the other option? Have everyone DIE in his eyes.

H. Cold blooded murder...that she agreed to of her own volition....

I. You misspelled ALL as SOME. As in, ALL of the protags disagreed with him.

J. ANd you know, trying to stop him.

K. You know, like literally everyone else

M. He never hallucinated, ranted or screamed

James Ironwood is a coward and a traitor to the Kingdom of Atlas. On top of that, he is an entitled little shit that neglected his responsibilities to the civilians of the Kingdom, and then was so fucking arrogant that he was actually OFFENDED that people were angry with him for not doing his job. Quite a lot of that can be blamed on the culture of the Atlas military, of the demands of blind loyalty and yes-men creating an echo chamber without him even noticing. But in the end, he made the decisions. He decided the people of Mantle are an expendable resource, months or even years before Cinder broke into his office. He decided to order the murder of an elderly woman, to overthrow his government, to arrest anyone that dared to disagree with him, and to personally shoot a boy in cold blood. 

You want to know the twisted part? I think those of us that admit Ironwood is in the wrong actually respect him more. We can see how he came to this point, the cultural indoctrination, the dangers of military culture, the PTSD he’s clearly suffered since Beacon... We can feel sympathy for a fallen hero. Those who support him continue to insist that he’s in his right mind, that all his decisions, from volume two onwards, have all been completely logical... And what kind of person would that make him?

Oh fuck you with that “Because I disagree that makes me better bullshit.”

You didn’t portray a fallen hero, you portrayed a flatter version of Adam, denying Ironwood’s reasons, glorifying Team RWBY and painted it black and white.

And before anyone claims I am supporting Team RWBY:

Actually look up my opinions of them on my blog. Or hell, this single post. I think both parties are at fault for the situation here for their own flaws. ANd I feel sad for both them.

The conflict in the fandom, however?

[definitelynotplanetfall]

Is there any reason you cannot just either fire your therapist or grey rock her during sessions

I suppose I could do that.

Don’t especially want to fire her tho since she was useful with some conflict resolution skill type things, and having someone it’s safe to discuss (some) emotions with occasionally. Speaking is cathartic in ways writing often isn’t, even if writing is what I’m more comfortable with most of the time.

I really do only complain, she’s been genuinely useful for two years. (Some bad things like “radically accept dad abusing call center workers” notwithstanding ofc.) I’d have to find another also covered by insurance and then start allllllll the way over. This current activities thing is only from the last two sessions and just... really stressful and brings up a lot of bad feelings and it just seems like this is jumping ahead too fast. Like if the question is “given infinite internal resources would you do this?“ and I have to answer it for all 360 items of a list, and if I have to answer it even once the question becomes “Why should I assume infinite internal resources?“ “How do I know whether (dis)interest is not just received should(n’t)ing?“ “What if it is secretly evil?” “What if it is not evil but regarded as such?” it feels like this isn’t actually square one.

It’s possible I’m pattern-matching to my previous therapist’s unhelpful “just do it lol” type comments. I spent most of one session describing in detail my inhibitions surrounding writing and all he had to say was “sounds like you have to get over your inhibitions.” He asserted that thought strategies existed for this but refused to tell me any. Needless to say I ditched him pretty fast.

Grey rocking might work, though I’m... not good at it, if the few times I’ve tried are any indication. Either I make it too clear I’m holding back or too easily prodded into emotionality. Terrible at outright lying as well.

Basically it would be fine to switch topics back to interpersonal things or to being less ashamed of existing activities, those seem potentially fruitful and handle-able, but I’m not sure how to really be assertive in that environment without sending up Not Putting In The Work / Uncooperative With Treatment red flags, which would also be a concern with your suggestions.

...now I’m worried this is just brushing off advice and rationalizing inaction. Dammit.

Thank you for reading my nonsense I cannot thank you enough holy shit.

[fictionfromgames]

Project OUROBOROS (Halo Mythic setting)

April 3rd, 2560, UNSC West at Dusk, Pathfinder fleet

Dr. Virtanen stood at the console, watching the latest readouts. No degradation of the neural pathways, or at least, nothing that couldn’t be repaired. A derivative of 87556-UD61 would probably be what they needed to jump the hurdles of flash-cloned brains, but as it was, extra work and months of patience were needed to keep things intact. Doors opening interrupted her thoughts. “I still say fours are the way to go.”

“You know the resources involved,” Emilia sighed, “You know we need Spartans who can do what’s necessary even outside the armor. And you know the tension between UNSC grunts and ONI, even if you call yourself Spartan Ops now. Do you want a supersoldier mutiny?”  “Yeah, I know, doc,” the Spartan woman had her arms crossed, “And secrets tend to get out, especially in confined spaces. Do you think the threes will take it personally if they find out they’re fake?” Lauren Lucas, Spartan IV, loomed at least a foot higher. Her hair was longer than most of the other Spartans, but that probably had to do with her never having been a marine.

“Their conditioning ought to make them ambivalent, although maybe a little confused by it,” she replied, “But given the memories we scripted, they’re Spartans. Old style. Don’t know if you met any, but they’ll be the most task oriented soldiers you’ll have ever worked with.” “That’s not necessarily good,” Lucas stuck her chin out at the cloning tank, “Spartan twos, the ones that still exist, are said to develop sociopathic tendencies. And Gamma Company didn’t do much to dissuade people of that. Might do to make them a little more personable.” “So they’ll be like you?” Virtanen quirked a brow. “So they’ll be predictable, or at least a little more human,” the Spartan replied. “That’s not what made them legends, Lauren,” Emilia shook her head, “You know about S-117.” “Yeah, I know how literally nothing has stopped him yet, and the only reason that’s good is because he’s been on our side!” Lauren snapped, “He has a kill count in the millions due to the scope and sheer insanity of his career! Please tell me they have personalities, like, I don’t know, favorite foods, a fondness for a particular musical genre, anything.” “They have histories,” Emilia said defensively, “The original threes were all recruited, not abducted. They had early childhoods and faced the losses of their families. We’ve used psych specs and personal elements of extant Spartan threes to weave together their new fictions, don’t worry so much.” Lauren walked over to the cloning tank. The woman inside would end up taller than her, but she looked young. “Who is she?” “Spartan D013.” “Not what I asked.” “Gia Hughes,” the doctor sighed, “One donor from the Umaasa and one from cold storage. She volunteered for Project REPOSE as part of OUROBOROS, obviously classified at all levels except on a need to know basis. Told that we needed someone around in case Reach went sideways. If she goes offscript, let me know.”

“She looks like a kid,” Lauren said softly. “Some of the real threes definitely were when they started active service,” Emilia said in a conciliatory tone, “She’ll be about 18 when we wake her up.”

“She’s not now?” Lauren spun to look at the doctor, “She’s my height already.” “She’s tall, she’ll be about 7 feet once the augmentations are done.”

“Good thing they made the doors big, eh?” *******************************

Halo Mythic is a fan made game, which you can find on its sub reddit, r/HaloMythic. It’s mostly charts. Project OUROBOROS as a setting happens right before and concurrent with Halo Infinite, depending on how long the timeline is for that game when it comes out, and takes its name from the canon initiative to preserve humanity in times of crisis, while expanding what all they did to prepare. In the videogames, the only thing linked to the project is Infinity, a colony ship with great new engines repurposed by the UNSC. The campaign setting is mostly to explore more parts of what humanity has prepared, from evacuees to ONI contingencies, and to explore new planets, which is helpfully aided by a chart on planetary generation in the PDF.

Pathfinder Fleet

Headed by the UNSC West at Dusk, the fleet is half military, half large colony ships. The evacuation fleet was chosen to be genetically diverse and small, about 20,000 people, in order to avoid detection that would come in larger scales. Launched after the Created began attacking worlds, they’re following a similar “retreat immediately” reaction, constantly on the move, and ever outward at that.

You can put as many ships as you want, but a couple of Pheonix-class colony ships should be included as all civilian transports, neither of which are at full capacity, which can provide space for recreation areas, labs, schools, or just extra living space.

One of the things colony ships provide is “shore leave” space for UNSC personnel, who will typically stay aboard the military vessels otherwise. It hasn’t been that long, but time off does not need to be taken “at work.” As it’s only been six months since the end of Halo 5, it’s not an immediate issue, but following months and years could make time off a little more pressing of an issue.

What the hell is this about new Spartan IIIs?

The game lists character generation rules for everything from the Orions to Spartan IVs, but mostly makes the suggestion you play them era-appropriate.

Catherine Halsey developed Cortana with 24 year old flash cloning tech in 2549. ONI, seeing the successes of basically every Spartan program since, developed a more modern process following after the end of the Human-Covenant war, and while not flawless, provided something workable. With the addition of drug  87556-UD61 during the flash clone process, flash cloned brains held up with remarkable consistency, leaving only the now-less-frequent genetic anomalies of the rest of the body to deal with.

The UNSC West at Dusk has since been the primary laboratory for this process, highly protected and mobile in order to keep the secrecy of it. After the Created, it’s under the command of Spartan Commander Lauren Lucas, and is run openly under Spartan Ops, though due to her previous career in Section 3 and the sensitivity involved with REPOSE, typically works under the auspices of ONI as well.

Most of the Spartan IVs present are also ex-ONI, though a few are handpicked marines, one of whom had been an ODST (no it’s not Buck because I assume he’ll be in Infinite somewhere but it can be for your game, Buck is easily the coolest).

Project REPOSE is the codename for the cloning process, disguised as a deep-freeze op, mentioned above. Spartan 2s and 3s are flashcloned and, assuming they’re not bonkers, allowed to go into service for Spartan Ops, being told that yeah, it’s time, humanity might be destroyed for real. They can be as personable or not as you like, but again, the idea is that these ones were literally born/programmed to be on humanity’s side- they’re not here to pick fights with the other humans.

Setting Conflicts

So this isn’t Battlestar Galactica. While there could be potential conflicts between Spartans and the rest of the military present over secrets, they’re running from Cortana and the Created. Also there are just... so many Covenant remnant factions, and pretty much only the Arbiter’s group is at all amicable with humanity. And hey, who the hell knows where the Flood could pop up.

If you’ve never delved into the lore outside the games, humanity used to have an interstellar empire and got blasted back to the literal stone age in a war against the Forerunners. One of the armors in Halo 5, the Hellcat armor, is actually made using tech and materials from that old empire by modern humans, so it’s for real, and ONI knows in canon too, but most people don’t. You could run into a formerly human planet, such as Heian, which was later occupied by the Covenant, or you could make a new one and have reasons like The Flood is Here, Whoops. Maybe helping a Covie remnant against some Guardians yields new alliances. Shield planets are a good place to be in case some dork tries to fire off a nearby Halo ring. Maybe you’re in completely uncharted territory sooner than expected because of a slipspace wake and uh oh, you found the people you followed to get there and They’re Mad. In any case, there’s a need-- find a safe haven. Set up as many roadblocks to that as is fun for the players.

[chicagocityofclans]

Ryan Cleirigh → David Corenswet → Warlock

→ Basic Information 

Age: 179

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight 

Powers: Illusionist

Birthday: March 23rd

Zodiac Sign: Aries 

Religion: Buddhist

Mark: Cleirigh 

Generation: 3rd

→ His Personality Ryan is unsure if it is tied to his gift but he is an OCD clean freak and somewhat of a perfectionist. Ryan wants nothing more than to be the best that he can. Ryan never waivers from his vision of becoming the best and perceives all reality through it. Every decision he makes is aimed towards it. Being born into a long line of warlocks has drawn most of his personality traits for him. He’s egotistical, cunning, resourceful and ambitious. Ryan does internally feel that he has a disadvantage due to his lean physique but his intense focus on his mental capabilities make up for it. However, he is his father's son. Making Ryan an engaging, charismatic, intelligent man devoted to inspiring enormous creativity in others and fostering them through wise insights and leadership. Just like his father he has an infinite amount of wit, intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Mentee and Part-Time at Wondering Worlds of Magic

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: Order and New Moons 

Two Dislikes: Harry Potter Series and Chick-fil-A

Two Fears: Seeming Unworthy of the Cleirigh name & Mark and Teleporting somewhere inescapable. 

Two Hobbies: Podcasting and Cycling

Three Positive Traits: Outgoing, Family-Oriented, Friendly

Three Negative Traits: Spiteful, Emotional Obtuse, Secretive

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Judson Cleirigh (Father/Former Mentor): Ryan admires his father and has learned a lot from him. He is grateful that his father is also his friend and mentor. Judson did his best raising him in the supernatural world but also feeding the aspects of humans and their world.

Angelica Northmore (Egg Donor): Ryan doesn’t know much about Angelica only that she agreed to be his father's surrogate. At first Ryan didn’t know how to feel about it but now he doesn’t care. 

Sibling Names:

Possible Half Siblings (Unknown): Judson said the private program ensured him that it was Angelica's first time as a surrogate but all surrogate mothers can return every 10 to 12 years, up to the age of 1000 years old. Ryan and Judson are unsure if Angelica ever returned and if Ryan possibly has half siblings. 

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Katherine ‘Kate’ Brooks (Interest): Ryan finds Kate physically attractive and thinks she is highly intelligent. He’s unsure how to approach her since she is human and doesn’t yet know about the supernatural community. 

Platonic Connections:

Altair Cleirigh (Uncle): Ryan doesn’t care what anyone thinks, Altair was a scary baby and a scarier toddler. Now that he’s older Ryan can be more hands on but he doesn’t respect Altair pulling the “I’m your uncle” card on him already.

Teyla Cleirigh (Aunt): She is by far the cutest thing on the planet. She is a perfect mix of his grandparents. He loves their weekends together and thinks she’ll be a great influence on Margo Wilhelm and their community in general. 

Nathan Cleirigh (Uncle/Podcast Guest): Ryan doesn’t remember much about Nathan growing up but he has had a large impact in his adult life. Nathan often comes on his podcast to talk about mental health as supernaturals. 

Ethan Cleirigh (Uncle): He remembers his uncle’s awesome bedtime stories and their trips to the circus or magic shows. Ethan introduced Ryan to podcasting after one of his deployments. Ethan has joined his podcast once or twice but Ryan knows he listens to all of his recording and promotes him too. 

Akasha Genesis (1st Cousin Once Removed/Podcast Guest): Just like her mother, Akasha has a strong voice and supports the female supernatural population; both mortal and immortal. They get along great whenever she is not trying to pull rank.

Gennifer Genesis (1st Cousin Once Removed/Podcast Guest): They aren’t as close as Ryan is with Owen or Akasha but they get along well enough.  

Owen Genesis (1st Cousin Once Removed/Podcast Guest): Ryan really likes Owen. His cousin usually joins his podcast and talks about the importance of not relying on magic too. Ryan is currently trying to bring him over on the darkside. 

Ronan Cleirigh (Granddad): He’s granddad isn’t bad at all but as a child Ryan was absolutely terrified of him. He and Ronan get along and Ronan usually takes his side against Judson when needed. Sadly, Ronan refuses to join his podcast.

Ishtar L Cleirigh (Grandma/Podcast Guest/Co-Host): Loland is by far Ryan’s favorite person in the world. She is one of the sweetest yet scariest person he knows. She has co-hosted with him multiple times. Her quick wit and no nonsense attitude livens up the place. 

Jia Cleirigh (Mentor): Ryan had to fight tooth and nail to get his father to let him mentor with Jia. Ryan has known Jia his whole life thanks to Jia dating Garrett. He hasn’t been mentoring under Jia long but has learned a lot from him already. 

Patch Cipriano (Godfather): Patch is his father's best friend and Ryan wasn’t surprised when he learned Judson had the documents legally drawn up. He’s heard rumors that his grandparents had it dissolved but he’s unsure. 

Audo Wilhelm (Friend): Audo is Ryan’s downstairs neighbor and they often watch sports together. Audo has always been around from what Ryan can remember.

Raphael Caron (Best Friend): Ryan attended primary and secondary school with Raphael. He was surprised when he found out his childhood friend had been turned into a vampire. They quickly restarted their friendship; making it easier now that Ryan did not have to hide his power and they are both immortal.  

Churchill Darling (Friend/Podcast Guest/Co-Host): Ryan met Churchill via Patch. He introduced him to his podcast and has him on as a co-host on most nights.

Garrett Cleirigh (Great Uncle/Podcast Guest): Ryan thinks Garrett is the crazy one, not Roman. He loves his great uncle but he’s a psycho. Ryan usually avoids Garrett requests to be on his podcast due to his bluntness and uncaring attitude. 

Roman Cleirigh (Great Uncle/Frequent Podcast Guest): Roman is entertaining. Ryan remembers being watched by his ghost as a child and Roman’s awesome babysitting skills and rules. Podcasting with Roman is one word… Interesting.

Brighton ‘Bee’ Genesis (Great Uncle/Podcast Guest): Bee is Ryan’s great uncle by marriage to Kaylor. Bee’s mellow personality alway makes Rayn feel welcomed.

Kaylor Cleirigh (Great Aunt/Podcast Guest/Co-Host): Kaylor is the Cleirigh free spirit that offered Ryan his first drink and blunt. She is a guest and co-host that is the voice for women everywhere, especially those without a voice of their own. 

Clarisse Fields (Podcast Guest): Clara comes on to talk about the Field’s history in Chicago and the extinction of larger animal shifters. She was one of the first animal shifters to grace his show and ratings were off the charts.

Vincent Kane (Frequent Podcast Guest): Vincent comes on to inform the supernatural public of their findings and what can be done to help them out.

Jace Cicero (Podcast Guest): Jace was one of the first witches Ryan got onto his show to talk about his history and his part in the local Council. He doesn’t come on frequently but when he does it’s a hit. He plans on becoming Jace's friend.

Edith Walker (New Friend/Podcast Guest): Edith is a local nimble shifter reporter that reached out to Ryan about joining him as a guest, Ryan quickly accepted. 

Duke Thornton (Distant Cousin/Frequent Podcast Guest): Duke usually comes on with Peter. They promote Anon and speak about homebrewing. Ryan is trying to get Duke and Peter to open up about the supernatural LGBT community.

Peter Knox (Frequent Podcast Guest): Peter usually comes on with Duke and speaks about Anon and homebrewing. Rarely does he open up about his history. Ryan is trying to get Peter to open up about the supernatural LGBT community.

Rayner Hamelin (Frequent Podcast Guest): Ray is one of Ryan's most anticipated guests. Ryan does try to get more information than Ray is willing to let out but it never works. Ryan takes whatever information Ray can give him.

Helo Adama (Podcast Guest): Helo does not come as often as Ryan would like. They can never stay on topic and talk about everything, including politics.

Minsky Edison (Frequent Podcast Guest): Minsky comes on to promote learning about supernatural powers and beings that are not their own. 

Briar Larson (Frequent Podcast Guest): Briar comes on to promote the happenings of the Underground. Ryan sometimes let Briar announce the blood types that the Underground are missing and hint toward people willing to donate.

Hostile Connections:

Catherine Barr (Dislike/Conflicted): Cat has tried endlessly to get his podcast shutdown. She thinks it's a huge breach of security and has brought the case to the Council more than once. He doesn’t know why she’s against him or his podcast. 

Tim and Lee Boaz (Indifferent): Tim and Lee have both made hateful comments about Ryan’s accused false and native reporting on his podcasts. 

Pets:

None

→ History Ryan was raised by a single parent but his community had a lot to do with his upbringing. He grew up around warlocks, witches, animal shifters, human shifters, vampires and humans. While he is not following in his father's footsteps, Ryan does have a hand for charms and spells. Thanks to his uncles, Ryan has been introduced to a lot of human technologies. One of his favorites being podcasting. Instead of reading or staying up late to watch TV, Ryan would stay up late listening to podcasting and thinking of ideas of his own. It wasn’t long before Ryan started his own podcast for the local supernaturals. Of course it starred his family mostly at first but he slowly started winning over more guests. He was the youngest Cleirigh until his grandparents decided they wanted kids again sometime after the Y2K scare. He likes his new uncle and aunt but misses being the youngest. → The Present Ryan has been working on Psychosomatic Illusions behind closed doors. He’s approximately 20 years away from advanced magic but his curiosity had gotten the best of him. He hinted to Jia that he would like to learn the basics of his advanced powers. He promised not to try and go further than the basic understanding and construct but Jia quickly shot him down. Having perfected altering his appearance and the appearance of things around him and excelling in his basic powers, Ryan is growing bored. His family has warned him of the dangers of practicing alone but he is throwing caution to the wind. 

Ryan's podcast has never been so popular. All of the local supernaturals are buzzing around and the last ratings showed an increase of activity all across the Midwest. In between his regular personal life, mentoring with Jia and continuing his potion and spell knowledge with Judson and Roman, Ryan wants more air time with his speakers and fans. Juggling everything has been a hassle now that he is sure Kate is interested in him. Ryan is plotting out ways to ask her out and thinks his next podcast will be about supernaturals dating humans and the necessary precautions.

[alittlepieceofwarcraft]

I know you don’t post about doctor who but what you think of the origin story?

Okay here’s the TL;DR version.

I hate it and as far as I’m concerned everything beyond Capaldi is fanfiction that unfortunately was filmed and aired by mistake.

Long version:

It ruins themes!

• The Doctor is not meant to be a super Jesus God complex catalyst for regeneration. The Doctor considers themselves to be an average person with a screw driver and a police box. They are meant to find extraordinary brave, smart and resourceful companions who don’t realise how great they are. When the Doctor is idolised by them or put in situations where they have to act as God, it makes them have internal conflict. See 10’s interaction with the Master where he refuses to ask the question as to whether he “felt like a God”. This goes against everything the Doctor is supposed to be.

• An origin story ruins the entire idea of Doctor “who?” We aren’t supposed to know the answer or any backstory. It’s meant to be a mystery.

Plot holes!

• The reason for this change was inspired by the Mobius arc with the many faces of the Doctor and to explain this plot hole... but these were debunked as Mobius’ faces, not the Doctors’

It creates more plot holes!

• 11 should never have been given a new regeneration cycle if he already had infinite regenerations.

• If the Doctor is the cause of regenerations, River Song should only be able to do so based on a genetic link, not exposure to the Time Vortex. Did he marry his daughter...?

• If this random scientist the reason for regeneration, Rasslion should never have been in charge because the regeneration ability cemented his leadership. Also, regeneration was not possible without time travel. Unless you’re telling me this random scientist single handedly discovered regeneration and time travel alone.

• If she has endless regeneration energy, no one should ever die in any future episodes now she knows unless it’s on instant impact. No stakes. No risk. She can heal them all!

Basic respect

• William Hartnell was SO PROUD to be the first Doctor. He was SO HAPPY with the role he carried on despite DECLINING HEALTH so he could make kids happy! This relevation shows people who never really get more than an episode of screen time and give them credit in the lore than needed.

It doesn’t change anything or develop any character

• The old incarnation pre Hartnell literally tells current day Doctor that it doesn’t change who she is or what she’s done... so what was the point? Why?

[tanadrin]

[ROSIN:] And starting around 2000, the line starts to dip for all dimensions of empathy - either just understanding someone's position, which is called perspective taking, and empathic concern, the one about tender feelings. More students start saying it's not their problem to help people in trouble, not their job to see the world from someone else's perspective.

By 2009, the average young person measures 40 percent less empathetic than my generation. A 40 percent drop - that is a lot. Do they just not believe in empathy anymore? What's wrong with trying to feel what Jack feels?

So if I create a version of a story which overly identifies and asks the listener to empathize with Jack Peterson, what are the possible consequences? Like, what does that do or put out in the world that's a problem?

MISITZIS: The women who I believe he has abused become the villains. And if you don't get it right and you're inviting your listeners to empathize with someone whose logic is not just so offensive but it's literally flawed, I just think you're creating more turmoil.

ROSIN: For society.

MISITZIS: Right. Like, the point of empathy is that it's bringing us together. And in that instance, I think it, like, further pushes us apart.

ROSIN: So here's what I missed. In Lina's view, there's a cost to empathy. Empathy is not an infinite resource. And it's not free because it saps your strength for the fight. So if you boost one side, you'll make the other side weaker. And that is especially a problem when the side you're boosting is the side with power. There's actually a term for this invented by philosopher Kate Manne - himpathy - the tendency to empathize with men in power over vulnerable women.

Lina told me a story of how she was listening to an NPR interview with a white nationalist named Jason Kessler who was the organizer of the Charlottesville rally. And as Lina was listening, she started to enter into Kessler's thoughts, understand his position. And when she caught herself doing it, she just slumped to the kitchen floor.

MISITZIS: And I feel like, in that moment, I lost a little bit of my conviction. Like, in that moment, I was hearing this person being given the room to allow us into his brain - like, in this moment we were being, like, welcomed into this person's brain. And it was f***ing with my conviction in a way that I'm like, almost ashamed of.

ROSIN: And what's wrong with losing your conviction?

MISITZIS: I mean, in that instance, it puts other at-risk populations further at risk.

ROSIN: Because if you do lose your conviction, you might not have the energy to march in the streets or get better laws to protect women from dangerous exes.

So the new rule is reserve it - not for your, quote, unquote, "enemies" but for the people you believe are hurt or you have decided need it the most - for the victims, for your own damn team. That's how you make things better.

So Lina identifies with Jack's ex and with J and with Christine Blasey Ford. But here's what worries me. In that way of thinking, where the Linas stop listening and trying to understand the perspectives of the Jacks, the Jacks also stop listening to the Linas and identify only with their fellow incels, which is a problem because here is the dirty secret about empathy. Researchers who study empathy have noticed that when there's a standoff - could be the Super Bowl, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Kavanaugh hearings - it is really hard to empathize with the enemy. But that doesn't mean that empathy is absent from the scene. People are feeling strong empathy, but it's selective - only for their own team.

Take this episode of Invisibilia. The core of the story is a debate on extending empathy to an unpleasant subject--a former incel whose behavior certainly fits the pattern of abusive behavior by men, and the question over whether he deserves that or not, and what cost it imposes.

But here’s the thing, the thing where, beyond even the specific flaws in the way the producer arguing against that empathetic perspective presents her case, I reject the argument even on its premises. Empathy is not a zero-sum game. You do not have to yield your worldview to someone to extend empathy to them as a human being. You do not have to grant the premises of their beliefs. You do not have to let your convictions waver! It is possible to have the thought “this person is a human being and deserves respect and fair treatment as a human being” and “this person is wrong and their beliefs, if allowed to triumph, would cause enormous suffering” at the same time! Indeed, it is necessary--because if you cannot grant that, the only way to achieve your political ends is to cut off your enemies from access to civil society or outright exterminate them, and your enemies will notice this and fight back accordingly.

And anyway, the whole point of the story is that Jack ceased to be a member of a toxic and violent subculture when exposed to basic human kindness and drawn out of his social isolation. And that pattern repeats itself over and over again across numerous violent ideologies that gather people to them who have no other outlet for their misery, because society refuses to extend any kind of empathy to them. Empathy is not just the right thing to do, it is also the effective thing to do.

And are you really so arrogant as to suppose you are always and in every case on the right side? Are you so arrogant to suppose that even if you allocate your empathy only to the (in your mind) deserving, you will always get it right? Because everyone--from the incel to the white supremacist to the Trump supporter--that you think of as your implacable enemy, undeserving of empathy, thinks they’re doing the exact same thing as you. Do you really think you’re never, ever going to get it wrong? And unless you’re willing to extend human kindness even to people who disgust you, how will you ever know?