#if its mixes with organic life AFTER its a cyborg

[killerrobot-killingmatch]

^^^

It's robotic, but not really a robot. Cyborg does generally imply human, and then the term animal cyborg as the only alternative I really found.

So this is a plant cyborg, which does disqualify it from being a robot.

Is this a robot or a cyborg

I- I'm not fully sure. It has a living being in control, but I think cyborg implies the being is human I think? I'd have to go see.

Does, anyone else have an idea? Notes open to sugesstions.

[whereserpentswalk]

Reblog to receive your transformation. Look under the cut to see how your choice goes.

Lycanthrope: You can feel your bones shifting, your soul becoming forever fluid. As the moonlight shines on you you realize you can shift, as easily as you could go from sitting to standing. You can feel your hands turn into paws, your mouth become long, your entire body feel so warm and comfy under a pelt of fur. And you can run, through the forests and streets, and you can see and hear and smell like you never had before. And then you can go back, or remain in-between. Yet even in human form it's always with you, like your other form can always be in there waiting, waiting to be let out. You look in the mirror and it's not just you, your human face is just one part of a larger whole now.

Angels blood: it feels painful at first. You cough up what you think it blood but it looks like static. Your eyes start to glow but then wings come out from the back of your head to cover them forever. More wings sprout from your back, they feel nice, strange to move, strange to have new joints and bones and muscles, yet so soft and delicate and sensitive. Your body slowly shifts, as you become slender yet muscular, and you become completely androgynous, your sex organs fall away and any holes to expell waste close up. You feel comfortable all the time, you don't need to eat or sleep, and can't feel pain or tired, you're so strong now, yet so delicate.

Cyborg: You feel yourself being cut open. They decided to take away your sensation of pain instead of making you unconscious, so you feel everything it's just not painful at all. You can feel them cut through bone, dismembering you peice by peice, limbs and organs being gone forever, the strange sensation of body parts suddenly going dark. And then it comes back, peice by peice you get put back together. And your new parts all feel so strange, cold hard metal and plastic, they all move and feel differently then what you're used to, but they all feel so right. When you finally get up everything is diffrent, and when you see yourself in the mirror you realize there's no going back, you'll never be human again, you're as much a machine as a person, yet you're yourself, you're even more yourself then before.

Vampire: When you were first bitten it didn't feel like much, the transformation was slow. You became more androgynous every day. Your skin lost its color until it was entirely grayscale. You lost weight, you couldn't eat, at first you got compliments from weird people but soon you just looked sick, as you could see bones through your skin. Eventually you basically went through puberty in reverse, until you were sexless, and your genitals shunk until there was nothing left. You hadn't eaten in so long, but food seemed gross to you. Soon your mouth began to shift, seeming wounded at first, and then healing, it looked human when closed save for a few lines around your cheeks and jaw, but when you opened it all the way it was a massive complex maw with many jaws and countless sharp fangs, taking up half your face when fully open. After not eating for so long you finally take a sip of blood, from a freind willing to let you try, your veins light up red for a few moments and you feel so good, it's like a mix between the best food in your mortal life, and the joys of an orgasm, and you feel satisfied like you never had before.

Fae: You slowly let the strange tall woman pet your head and you know you're hers. She giggles as she takes out an eye in her hand and puts it back in bloodlessly. She waves her hand over your arm as it turns to living plant mater, and then she tilts her head to see if it fits and turns it back. She smiles, knowing what she'll do. Slowly she starts work, taking away parts and putting back new ones like you're a building toy. You look and see as she tries new limbs, new faces, everything she can think of, your human form being nothing more then a base she can customize. As she painlessly pulls out your teeth and puts gems in their place, and takes off layers of skin to make way for a new exoskeleton, she compliments you and tells you how good you are, and she gives you a kiss on the forehead right before she glues new wings to your back.

Doll: you can see your old self laying there dead, as you look at your new ageless hands. You can't pass for human like this but it doesn't matter, you have visible joins, and a flat unmoving face. It's weird moving without any soft skin. But you look in the mirror and you're so cute, they gave you such a pretty face, and started you off in a cute little suit to wear, with a rose it it's pocket and flowers in your artificial hair. You take a bit to figure out how to walk with your new legs, and everyone who looks at you thinks you're so pretty, not even as a person but as a peice of art, as something human hands made.

Mermaid: You feel yourself deep in the sea. But you aren't drowning. The water goes from blue to black but your eyes can see down here, and your body can live with the pressure. You can see around you as a city below the sea looms above and below you. Your body parts light up to accommodate the shadows, as do the creatures around you. As you start to swim your legs fuse together, and soon there are no legs, no feet, just a long serpentine tail, your body becoming cold and scaled from the chest down. You feel like you're wearing something cold restricting your movements but there's nothing on you. You can breath yet your mouth and nose take in no air. You'll never live with the humans again. Is this home. This is home?

Wyvern: You let the massive scaled creature bow to you and you touch its head. And suddenly you are one. It's like a link is formed and you can't tell where you and and it begins, your instincts, your thoughts, are the same. You can still feel and move your own body but likewise you can do the exact same for it. You can feel what it's like to move with the creature's weight yet elegance, with its sleek slender form, to move its powerful sharp toothed jaws and its delicate yet powerful wings. There's fire within this new body, and when you so wish you can breath it in and out. And it's all so natrual. You can see through both eyes, and you notice it's eyes have your color now, and a human shape, while yourse have its yellow green, and it's slit pupils now. You feel a need to fly that you know will soon be satisfied. You aren't one begin anymore, you aren't just yourself, you are mount and rider, and you feel your other body's wings spread as easily as you'd spread your arms.

Slime: it happens slowly, all of your body going away. First parts just feel soft, then soft enough to poke into, then it's just pink goo that you can move around as much as you'd like. The Flesh transforms but you just have to digest your own bones. The last parts to go are on your head, your teeth melting away as the last remnant of your humanity. Then you can move everything, it's unnatural feeling at first, you don't have individual body parts, just one shapeless mass that can be whatever you want, at one momment you'll be a human shaped thing, but the next you can be a shapeless blob, or anything else. Every part of you can see, and hear, and taste, and eat. You feel so fluid, so free, you are constrained now by nothing.

Living clothing: You let it wrap around you. It's fluid at first, wrapping around you. You can feel it bond to your skin, become as much a part of you as any other layer of flesh. It transforms, it can be any article of clothing, any outfit, all small or as large as long as there's something still on you. And you can feel it, whatever it is you can sense through it, it feels cold and wet in a refreshing way, and when it's something all around you it like a part of you is able to hug and hold yourself. But it's not you, it starts to whisper, and you realize you'll never be alone again.

Spirit: you are nothing. You can feel nothing. Your body is gone, truly gone, yet you can see, you are somewhere. And at just a thought you can be anywhere else you want to be, and look however you want. You can't touch. There is no more touch but you can lift with your mind what you desire. And you can see souls, see thoughts, see the mindscape that humans never can. Yet you're never to feel again. That is unless you possess someone, those bodies do look so possesable, to see what they see and feel what they feel. Mabye you can't just grab someone, but a living host...

Demon: the pact is sealed and your soul is forever gone. You don't feel diffrent, you're still you, but you can see souls, see the people around you have them, and they look so sweet, taste so good. Your true form sets in, as first you look like your ideal self, but then you begin to mutate. Raven's wings come from your back and horns grow from your head. Your eyes redden and teeth sharpen, and your hair becomes replaced with snakes, as a single snake replaces your sex organs. A Scorpion's tail comes out from your spine, and your feet turn into hardened hoves. You feel your new body parts and they feel so good, so natrual, they feel like this is what you were always meant to look like. You can turn back but it'll just be an illusion, this is your body now. Your wings and tail feel so good to move, like they were always meant to be there, like you were missing something without them, and as your snake hair rises it feels so nice, so powerful.

[therecordconnection]

"Here's to the Damned, to the Lost and Forgotten": "People Like Us" From Doom Patrol, S01xE08

When I had heard the news that confirmed Doom Patrol was cancelled and that the second half of its fourth season (coming out at some point later this year) would be the last hurrah, I got really sad. Shows get cancelled all the time and I don't normally get upset, but this was different. It's kinda like how Ron Swanson felt after he found out Lil Sebastian died. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have cared. But Lil Sebastian was different. Lil Sebastian meant something to Ron in a way that no old bureaucrat ever could.

Let me just say it right now: Doom Patrol was the greatest superhero show I've ever seen, maybe the greatest superhero show I will ever see.

If you are completely unfamiliar with the show, I will give you a (spoiler free!) rundown of what the show is about. Doom Patrol follows the story of five characters: Larry Trainor/Negative Man, Cliff Steele/Robotman, "Crazy" Jane Morris, Victor Stone/Cyborg, and Rita Farr/Elasti-Woman (all pictured below).

Each of them have traumatic pasts and each were involved in accidents that gave them unique metahuman abilities but also left them all disabled and/or atypical in a very unique but true-to-life way. Cliff is a former race car driver who gets in a car accident but survives and lives on as a brain in a robot body (prosthetics). Rita Farr is an actress from the 1950s who is exposed to a strange toxin underwater during a film shoot that causes her to become a blob-like creature that sometimes loses control of her physical form (mobility). Jane has sixty-four distinct personalities, each with their own superpower (neurodivergent). Larry was an Air Force pilot who got horribly burned via exposure from radiation while testing an experimental space shuttle and eventually becomes tethered to an electrical spirit from another dimension (physical). Victor was involved in an explosion that blew off most of his body parts until his father uses experimental tech to turn him into a mix of half-man, half-machine (prosthetics). All of them (except Victor) are found and put in the care of Dr. Niles Caulder/"The Chief", a brilliant old scientist confined to a wheelchair. In short, this show follows a group of very broken people as they attempt to heal and deal with their respective traumas and try to come together as a superhero team. Even shorter, it's a show about atypical/disabled/neurodivergent characters who are seeking redemption and a chance to rebuild their lost lives with the shitty hands they've been dealt.

The show skips the whole "there is nothing wrong with us" conversation and gets right to the brass tax: There is something very wrong with each of them. The robotman can't feel anything except for emotions (read: mostly anger at being a brain trapped in a tin can), the actress has to deal with her face and limbs melting into a blob that can consume and crush people when under emotional duress, "Jane" is only one of sixty-four others that can come out to play whenever they choose, the former pilot will give everyone radiation poisoning if the bandages come off, and the cyborg has PTSD and some issues with a computer running his brain half the time. To the public at large, they're a bunch of walking freaks. To us, they are a rag tag bunch of misfits that represent and, in a way, stand up for the people who are atypical, the people who are different, and, most importantly, the people who have been brushed off and discarded by society.

A lot of their struggles involve dealing with a soulless government organization known as "The Bureau of Normalcy," which wants anybody who is even slightly abnormal removed from the world. I admit that the Bureau's role on the show and even the name is a little too on the nose, but it serves its purpose and sends the message the show wants to send loud and clear: Being different, whether you're born a certain way or have to endure a disease/issue that you didn't ask for, there is still beauty to be found and people who will love you regardless of what you look like, sound like, or have to endure in order to live your day to day life. Doom Patrol was a show that was on the side of the abnormal. It celebrated those that get stared at in public. It celebrated the people who are deemed weirdos and freaks because of their gender presentation or sexuality. It celebrated the people who manage to find hope in a world that would rather see them removed. There is a genuine and wonderfully human beauty to be found in this very weird show that contains robots, wizards, cults, a talking mouse and a cockroach who is a religious fanatic, carnivorous butts, sex ghosts, a man who is a triple combo of animal, vegetable, and mineral, a strange time lord that thinks humanity peaked on August 6th, 1980, and Alan Tudyk playing the snarkiest narrator/villain god I've ever seen in a television show. I will recommend this show until the day I die.

After the news hit, I began thinking about whether there's one single moment that will define the show for me, one moment that serves as the show's thesis statement. I ended up finding three scenes, but I'll write about one of them now and maybe save the other two for another time. Anyway, for me, if there's one scene that I think will define and illustrate what Doom Patrol wanted to do and who it wanted to celebrate, I think the scene posted at the top of this post is what it will be. I'll be getting into spoilers for the show from here so if you have any interest and it wasn't obvious already, I highly recommend watching the show. With that out of the way, I'd like to talk about Larry Trainor/Negative Man singing a Kelly Clarkson song with a drag queen in a cabaret that exists on a sentient, genderqueer street named Danny.

So, Season 1, Episode 8 is an episode called "Danny Patrol." Throughout the first season, we learn that Larry Trainor's (played by Matt Bomer) full backstory is this: he was a handsome ace pilot with the U.S. Air Force in the early 1960s living all the hallmarks of the American Dream. His only issue is that he's a gay man living a lie, being married to his wife, Sheryl, and being a father to their two kids, Gary and Paul. But unbeknownst to his family, Larry is having a love affair with John Bowers, one of his colleagues. After his accident leaves him a completely hideous looking radioactive man (similar in look to Deadpool), he spends decades conflicted about all the things he hid from. He regrets the secrets he hid from his family and the pain he caused them, he regrets not being fully emotionally open with John and pushing him away after the accident left him radioactive and ugly as all hell, and he regrets flying the experimental rocket plane that turned him into Negative Man. Of all the Doom Patrol members, Larry is the one who hides from the world the most, quite literally in the sense of him being bandaged from head to toe and still keeping his sexuality hidden from the world.

In "Danny Patrol," Larry and Victor Stone find themselves investigating Danny the Street, a sentient, genderqueer street that is being hunted by the Bureau of Normalcy. Larry and Victor agree to help, as Danny might have information on the whereabouts of their missing chief, Niles Caulder (who disappeared with the villainous Mr. Nobody earlier in the season.) While exploring Danny, Larry enters "Peeping Tom's Perpetual Cabaret," a building that hosts drag shows. The happiness found in this building fuels Danny and allows them to thrive. Prior to Larry and Victor entering Danny, we are introduced to the origin story of drag queen Maura Lee Karupt (played by Alan Mingo, Jr.) Maura Lee was originally Morris Walker, a bureau agent tasked with infiltrating Danny the Street and eliminating them. One visit to Peeping Tom's later and Morris (now Maura Lee) embraces who she feels she truly is and leaves the bureau behind in order to remain on Danny the Street.

In the Cabaret, Larry is asked by one of the drag queens to get up and sing for them. He responds, "I don't sing." Larry is told that in order for Danny to keep going, the party has to keep going. Larry agrees and approaches the stage. Danny (who can only "speak" through rearranging words on signs or flashing them on spotlights) gives Larry the encouraging message, "Don't Worry, Larry. I got you." Once on stage, Larry begins the opening to Kelly Clarkson's "People Like Us":

We come into this world unknown But know that we are not alone They try and knock us down But change is coming, it's our time now

In any other show, eye rolls and groans would start at the idea of a TV show stopping to deliver a seemingly random musical number. For Doom Patrol, a musical number is the least weird thing that occurs. By the time you've reached "Danny Patrol," the idea of an old gay man who walks around looking like the Invisible Man singing a Kelly Clarkson song isn't out of the realm of possibility. You don't even bother questioning how or why Larry even knows the song, he just does. Just roll with it.

If Larry Trainor had to sing a song, Clarkson's "People Like Us" is a perfect choice for him. From the opening lines quoted above right until the end, it's perfect.

Hey, everybody loses it Everybody wants to throw it all away sometimes And hey, yeah I know what you're going through Don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive

The song is important to Larry's character and he's the Doom Patrol member best suited to deliver a message like this. He's the one member that doesn't really want to get involved in things at all and for the first few episodes struggles with even wanting to be alive. What's the point of living if you're stuck being a bandaged freak that can't really get close to anyone? What's the point of living if you have to hide who you really are? Which in Larry's case is being a gay man in a world that didn't accept him back when he was growing up in the fifties, and only marginally accepts him now. Being radioactive certainly doesn't help things. If any Doom Patrol member was going to tell you, "Don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive," it would be the most convincing coming from Larry, a man who has been through absolute hell––he gets tortured and experimented on for years by the Bureau of Normalcy in the sixties––and is still alive to tell you about it.

Right before the chorus starts, Larry looks towards Maura Lee in the audience and invites her to join him on stage, which she does. The pre-chorus of the song is where the heart of the show really comes out. Larry and Maura Lee deliver these lines with gusto:

Oh, people like us we've gotta stick together Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever Here's to the damned to the lost and forgotten It's hard to get high when you're living on the bottom

These lines are representative of whom and what Doom Patrol wanted to celebrate: the damned, the lost, and the forgotten. At it's core, Doom Patrol is a show about truly odd outcasts and misfits learning to realize that all they have are each other. If they don't look after each other, nobody will, because "normal people" don't give a shit about them. Though the show focuses on comic book characters with superpowers, the metaphor works for marginalized groups in the real world. For example, it's called the LGBTQ+ community for a reason. The people within that community have to look out for each one another, because there's no guarantee that anybody else will.

During the performance, Larry is temporarily shown as human again. No bandages, no goggles, no need to hide. It's the first time in the series that Larry looks genuinely happy gets to be who he is without any fear. The look on his face and the way he's beaming when he watches Maura Lee perform the second verse is pure bliss. It's a little cheesy and it's even a little hokey, but Bomer and Mingo, Jr. are so damn committed to bringing the song to life that you don't get anything but genuineness out of them. It's colorful and full of life and full of beauty. It's one of the show's most heartfelt scenes and one that I hope will define the show once its all fully said and done. The show uses the song as a message of defiance and perseverance in the face a world that casts out the weird, the odd, the different, the broken. Larry and Maura Lee sell it perfectly:

They can't do nothing to you, they can't do nothing to me This is the life that we choose, this is the life that we bleed So throw your fists in the air Come out, come out if you dare Tonight we're gonna change forever

We are what we choose to be and fuck anybody that tries to take that away. That's the message Larry and Maura Lee want to spread. "You won't break us, no matter how hard you try. There is beauty in being different and Doom Patrol argues that a better world is one where those that are different are just as loved and just as embraced as those that are "normal."

Beyond Larry and Maura Lee, even Cliff Steele/Robotman gets in on the fun a bit during the song. During the episode, Cliff and Rita travel to deal with one of Jane's more dangerous personalities, Karen, a woman who believes life is one big rom-com and is using hypnotism to keep a boyfriend submissive to her and her whims. During that trip, Cliff sees a little boy riding by slowly on a bicycle. The boy stares at him and Cliff thinks its because the boy is scared of him or thinks he's a freak. Later, while Larry and Maura Lee are performing their song, we cut back to the boy returning to Cliff, this time in a makeshift robot costume made out of cardboard, to show that he also wants to be a cool robot like him. Cliff is shown teaching the boy some cool robot dance moves. You can't help but have a big smile on your face during that.

The whole damn song is an optimistic showstopper, which is something that DC needed for a long time. In a modern era where Batman is too dark and gritty for his own good, Wonder Woman retired and walked away from mankind for one hundred years for some reason, and Superman kills people (fuck Zack Snyder, by the way), it's beautiful that there's a DC property like Doom Patrol provides a reminder that no matter how dark things get, we have to try and keep going. "You've just gotta turn it up loud when the flames get higher." The Doom Patrol are heroes not because they perform outstanding feats and save the day, but because they inspire people to keep going, even when the chips are down. Their continued presence in our world is proof enough that even those who are dealt the shittiest hands can find ways to keep going, even in the face of impossible odds. Even though the sequence ends with it being revealed that the song didn't happen and Larry repeats, "I don't sing," you're still happy that for just one single moment, Larry got to live out a fantasy. He got to be free. He got to be happy. And everybody deserves that. Even radioactive men who are covered head to toe in bandages.

Doom Patrol's greatest triumph will forever be that it gave a home to the bizarre and the weird, and celebrated them. It not only has a love for its strange cast of characters, but it embraces those characters, warts and all. Though they're all superpowered and clearly ripped out of the pages of an old comic book, there is something so wonderfully human about the Doom Patrol. They struggle just the same as any of us. They battle inner demons, sexuality, trauma, disability, and more, just the same as any of us. They don't win at the end of every episode, but they do make a little progress each time they grace our screens. They help each other, they love each other. They remind us that we're all we've got and we've got to take care of one another. Doom Patrol's thesis statement is that there is beauty to be found in the lost and the forgotten. The Doom Patrol is DC's best kept secret. They're out there and you can find them if you know where to look. If you seek out the strange and the bizarre, you'll eventually find them. The Doom Patrol, both in the show and in the comics, are weird and different and strange. They're a unique superhero team unlike any other. I will miss them when they disappear from television, but my life is better for knowing that they're out there, standing up for the broken and the different.

Here's to the damned, to the lost and forgotten.

Here's to the Doom Patrol. Thank you for what has been a truly unforgettable experience for me.

[nikitasavla21]

Amaya: Time's of War

Concept - Wars in the Future

With the running time and technology, the world developed to unfold its magical advancement in the fields of sciences, culture, and humanity. Flying cars and mansions were the new symbol of riches, while those on the ground were the novelle societal backwards. The mankind sank a little and the robots appeared, with a heart more metallic and less pounding. The new life was a mix, cause the new citizens were more robotic and less human. With its vagitus, the human organs are replaced with robotic ones, to impart power and supremacy; human hearts were removed, discarded, and finally replaced with an arc reactor, mainly for the silver spoons. This new vertical dimension added layers of economic disparity globally. Similar was the situation in Gama Verse, the new superpower of the world.

On a normal morning of 2055, Feriha Palmar, the PM of Gama Verse, and a single parent was recharging herself and her daughter Melissa for the day. While feeding hard drivers for Melissa for her day at the nursery, the button on her wrist turned red and her palm rang. “Emergency! White House, now” it said. Escorted with 7-foot-tall weaponized robots, she flew to the White House. Greeted with trained faces of cyborg ministers with the most powerful abilities, there was panic in the air. They soon capsuled to a secret meeting room to find huge holographic displays telecasting the horrific situation at the city hospital. People groaning and complaining, red ambulances in the atmosphere, all in chaos and tumult, everything umbrellaed under the headline of ‘Verse’s worst outbreak: Children, a target of war, this time”. Seeing the situation, a meeting was set to discuss future actions of the government, with more emphasis on the immediate treatment of the kids and strengthening the medical system. Work was allotted and the authorities were on their feet, but Pablo, the assistant security couldn’t overlook Feriha’s lowered and knit-together eyebrows. He asked Feriha, “Who do you think it could be?”.  Immediately a small team of inspectors and investigators assisted with the most modern technology was set, to find the reason, source, and possible enemy of this situation.

With the passing days, people only panicked more, government spent sleepless nights decoding the outbreak and trying to arrange a good and large medical system. While things were still happening, the crisis was yet to hit harder. Little did anyone know how terrifying and dark the situation was at its root until after a week?

With her palm ringing again, Feriha knew that the news was going to be bad. Little did she know it would be worse. Picking the call, she immediately left for the hospital. Melissa was in hospital. Filled with tears Feriha reached the hospital to meet her only ‘alive’ piece of heart. She held her tight, but Melissa was too weak to give any kind of response. She too was slowly getting paralyzed. All of this, the thought of seeing her administration fail, people criticizing and most importantly her daughter and millions of other kids turning into stone for the rest of 500 years, leaving the nation without an active youth, gave her a chill down her spine.

In the meantime, her team had managed to decode a big question, ‘What is it that was making the kids paralyzed?’. They found a weird pattern amongst the kids in the hospital, all of them had just been inserted with the robotic parts, the kids who were more cyborgs were more severely infected and secondly, all of them were recharging themselves with this new inverter in town called Amaya. “Amaya! Means ‘The end’ in Spanish and Japanese.” Exclaimed Feriha. “Yes! The enzyme in Amaya when reacted with the cyborg blood in the lab, killed the blood cells from within, acting like a slow poison, and turning the body into a stone. And the only way out is, lowering our guards of metal. The human corpuscles are still able to fight this enzyme to some extent. To save the rest of the kids, we need to stop embedding the arc reactor or any other part in their body at least for the time being, maybe half of them survive through” were the words of Jereme Alisson. Feriha went live on her hologram, stating “The Verse is under a state of emergency, and I order the immediate pause of reactor insertion in the body of our kids!”

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Landscape - Flying cars and mansions were the new symbol of riches, while those on the ground were the novelle societal backwards. A new vertical dimension added layers of economic disparity globally. Riches were at the top, while the poor clung to the ground.

People - Cyborg. The new life was a mix, cause the new citizens were more robotic and less human.

Object - A heart, more lifeless.

[st-just]

Hey, coming in for the usual rant about a setting I thought of.

Okay, so: picture a version of humanity that developed with magic. Some wars happened, the continental face of the planet was reshaped a bit here and there, humanity eventually united in tenuous peace and took to the stars because the planet was getting a bit dicey to live in.

Magic fills the current gaps in space travel (because while I love the Expanse I can't write physics to save my life), and after about a thousand years of expansion, terraforming and exploration, alien life is found. Thrice, even!

And this is when humanity realized they were in a Humans are Space Orcs story. The other races find Earth borderline uninhabitable even without all the magic nuke pollution, humans have adrenaline (which is a forbidden combat drug for everyone else) and bones that heal back stronger, stamina for days, they ocassionally nuke planets they're still on, etcetera.

So then the humans decided to Manifest Destiny the shit out of the universe. The universe considered this a bit of a questionable move, but unfortunately the humans weren't accepting a democracy at the time.

About another millenia later and the Milky Way Galaxy has more or less been conquered. The other three races have been dominated and forced to live as second-class citizens, most inhabitable planets have been conquered in the name of Glorious Humanity, and the uninhabitable ones are being fixed.

So, for lack of enemies, humanity turns on itself. Infighting, politicking and the ocassional insult to someone's hairpiece has lead to mankind splintering into three factions.

The Iron Imperium: trans-humanist fascists, big military power, huge dicks, but they have cyborgs which I know you'll see as a redeeming feature.

The Lazar Dynasty: Space Capitalists. Basically, all the biggest corporations in the splintering became divided and eventually fell under the domain of a single enormous family, which became its own faction. No one likes them, everyone has to deal with them.

The Arias Coven: Space witches. Think the Houses from the Locked Tomb saga, mixed with a bit of the Unseen University, a dash of Blue Heron Institute and that one country from Game of Thrones with the magical slavery and you're basically at where they are.

And of course you have the independents, the dregs that fall through the cracks of society as the factions can't be everywhere. Escaped slaves, pirates, runaways, criminals, refugees, anarchists and many others find solace in the company of fellow misfits, often holing up in stations around asteroid belts, mostly uninhabited planets and the ocassional moon.

Anyways, the factions form, spend about a millenia and a half fighting until they reach a tenuous peace/cold war, which is when the story begins.

It has been 3,460 years Terra-standard (yeah, humanity forces the entire galaxy to conform to their planet's rotations around the sun. Easily the most evil thing about them in this setting) since humanity left its cradle. Most of the known universe has been colonized and certain groups are looking to reach further beyond. Weapons are being thrown into the ocassional skirmish as fast as they can be developed. And humanity has mechs.

(That last part is because I realized I was writing sci-fi without mechas and I realized that just wasn't who I am.)

The Iron Imperium sends one of its finest young mech pilots to a secret lab in order to retrieve a prototype for the next step of human evolution.

The Lazar Dynasty sends the youngest son of the family's main branch away to negotiate with a growing criminal organization as people conspire in the shadows of their palace.

A slave escapes the Arias Coven by cutting off her own arm, replacing it with an alien's through stolen magicks, spitting in someone's mouth, kicking someone else in the face, and stealing a bioship. Not in that order.

An independent mercenary catches wind of the job of a lifetime, as rumours of a pirate nation start circulating the independent stations.

Interesting times are ahead.

Thoughts?

So sincerely sorry this took my like two weeks to reply to, but

a) I adore it.

b) Incredibly anime, but I assume that's rather intentional?

c)

Think the Houses from the Locked Tomb saga, mixed with a bit of the Unseen University, a dash of Blue Heron Institute and that one country from Game of Thrones with the magical slavery and you're basically at where they are.

these guys aren't the 'Huge Dick' faction? Terrifying.

But no it sounds like it both has an endless potential for gonzo over the top setpieces/cool aesthetics, and also you've got a solid idea for the problems that drive a plot, which are the main things.

Also a mispent childhood has left me with a natural affection for any setting where it seems like it'd be super easy to write whole supplements of nothing but fluff and description for different very distinct factions.

[regrettablewritings]

Preference: What Strange Being Are They? II

Characters: Victor Stone, Harley Quinn, Erik the Phantom, Nevada Ramirez, **Surprise Character**

Victor Stone - Simulacrum

The proper term, as he saw it, was simulacrum: An image or representation of someone or something. That was the more proper term. But in Victor’s mind, ordealed and pulled every which way but up, it meant something just as contorted as his form had become: An imitation of something else that may or may not have ever even existed. A collection of broken pieces, cobbled together to look like something familiar, all the while lacking in its qualities enough to make it abundantly clear that no, this was no longer what someone knew. Or maybe they never knew him to begin with.

In layman’s terms, Frankenstein’s monster.

Then again, he supposed the term “cyborg” was not entirely incorrect. There were, after all, traces of his organic self still present, albeit restricted to the face. But there was almost a sense of struggle in that title to him. A sense of denial. Simulacrum might have hurt, but at least, to him, it was honest.

But Silas Stone preferred to call him his son. And Victor called that ignorantly optimistic. After all: What sort of father drags his son back from the cusp of a peaceful passing, utilizing otherworldly means to reassemble him nerve by metallic nerve until he no longer resembled the boy he remembered himself being? A father too driven, Victor decided. One whose own dreams and memories had become a simulacra in and of themselves: They became so distorted, that they no longer resembled reason or reality.

And as far as Victor was concerned, he’d paid the price.

He kept to himself, reserving night time as the only time he could wander the streets of Gotham to himself — but just barely. There was only so much hiding a flimsy hoodie from his time at Gotham U could provide. But still: Technically speaking, he was safe. Monstrous, perhaps, but safe. Safe from wandering eyes, safe from judgement over what he’d lost and since become, safe from . . . Well, life. He was perfectly content living a simulation of life, in fact.

But what he wasn’t prepared or safe from was that fateful night he met you, unafraid and completely real. Well, if anything, you were real curious . . .

Harley Quinn - Succubus

Nobody talks about what happens when you starve a succubus. Mainly because the belief is that the only way to starve a succubus is to deny her, ahem, intimacy. And while this certainly wasn’t an untruth in most cases, the case that was Harley Quinn was a rather . . . unconventional one. Well, as unconventional as anything concerning a succubus could be.

For one, she had adapted her needs to better suit her environment. She had to: If she relied solely on just physical intimacy alone, she would have died long, long ago. After all, The One That Shan’t Be Named seemed to make it a point of starving her of all the resources she could possibly siphon energy from. Eventually, it came to a point where she simply had to learn how to consume energy from other means: Attention; the glances of lustful men and women; affections. Little, teeny, tiny sources that paled in comparison to the full-course meal she might’ve gotten before. But it was better than starving, and she needed to get by in this world however she could.

Not only because she quite liked some bits and pieces of this side of the veil, but also because in the end, she simply wasn’t as powerful as she once was. She still carried some of her paranormal traits with her (minor dream-walking, enhanced agility, etc), but it definitely wasn’t enough to drag her back to whence she came. Not that she wanted to.

She’d become rather fond of the den of sin that was Gotham City. And, to her own surprise, she had become rather fond of you, the poor newbie that foolishly agreed to her Craigslist ad for a new roommate. But then again, she was far more than old enough to know better; why be shocked? After all, you were so, so warm when compared to every other person she’d endured in such close proximity in the past. Much sweeter, much more . . . Deliciously innocent . . .

Erik the Phantom - Fossegrim

Fossegrims are, at least when compared to most other water spirits, rather on the benevolent side. They weren’t like sirens, using their musical gifts to lure people in to a watery grave -- at least, not normally. It was that they much preferred to enchant without malicious intent, plucking at their harp strings or sliding bows across their fiddles to produce ensorcelling sounds of the wind in the forest, the chorus of rushing water resonating in every note. It was just simply not in their nature to be especially malevolent.

At their worst, they were very particular: Even at their most agreeable, there was always a caveat of sorts.

If a fossegrim were to agree to live with a human partner, for example, he needed to have free and regular contact with a water source, lest he grow dire. And if a fossegrim were to offer his tutelage for the fiddle to someone, they would need to participate in a very particular ritual that included stolen mutton, a white he-goat, and a lot of Thursdays.

(And even if one were to succeed at this, they would be faced with a most . . . unorthodox means of being “trained”. Once again, nothing done in malice, but surely there had to be a cleaner way.)

Erik personally did not stick as strictly to these circumstances as others of his kind might -- really, he saw little point in it. After all: Who would come wandering in a watery cavern, and searching for a fossegrim’s teachings, no less! No, he had grown used to his solitude, if bitterly so. He told himself that he was more than happy to live out his naturally long life, secluded, playing beautiful pieces that would remain suffocated beneath whatever structure had gone up above his cove. He almost dared to think it a pity . . . Until one day, a visitor arrived.

And you came bearing a gift: Not a he-goat, nor stolen mutton. You hadn’t come bearing meat of any kind at all! All you carried with you as you clumsily paddled your small boat was a ring: An heirloom, old and dingy, but precious nonetheless. It was all you could offer him that equated to your desire to learn by his hand.

It perplexed the fossegrim. But it also filled him with something . . . warm. Bright, even. Pride. After all, who was he to disappoint such a humble, obedient student. . .?

Nevada Ramirez - Vampire

Vampires: Creatures of fear and woe. They lurked in the shadows, the particulars of their lore transforming about as much as they themselves could. Feeding off the fears of the common folk, draining their energy while all the while enticing their prey closer and closer still.

The transformation fit Nevada like a glove.

And, like a fashionable, leather glove befitting as his aesthetic, he wore it all with style. And perhaps a bit too much glee. Vampires, as it turned out, weren’t just day-dwelling bloodsuckers after all: The great thing about living in a city so varied as New York was that it allowed for evolution and strange mixes to occur. Nevada lucked out: He’d been vampirically sired by a strain that could eat human food, go out in daylight, weren’t effected by crucifixes, and didn’t require an invitation to enter a goddamn building.

The catches, unfortunately, were as followed: Food no longer tasted as vibrant; he could go about his day but with powers limited so drastically that he may as well have been another lowly-ass mortal; bullets were still a big no-no (unless he was the one shooting ‘em); and whether he liked it or not, he still required blood to properly get by. And as disappointed by the food situation as he was, he considered that of the blood a proportionate gain: Blood, Nevada found out, was far more varied when spiced with hormones.

His club made for a perfect den, a place where prey of all sorts could walk in, gyrate themselves into a frenzy, then come crawling over to him (the most minimum of efforts on the part of his pheromones) and offer to him their bodies without even knowing the true nature of what he wanted of them. And for a while, it worked like a charm.

Until Nevada realized he’d never quite had a taste of you, yet. You, with your wide and innocent eyes, cheeks burning whenever you saw him staring at you from the VIP section.

Sure, excitement from arousal was tasty. But the undead gang leader couldn’t help but wonder what the taste of excitement from nervousness tasted like . . .

Lucifer Morningstar - Human

They are without particularly long lives. They are born helpless and remain so much longer than most creatures on Earth do. And yet, it is amazing and strange how much humans can pack into their lives.

Take, for example, one Lucifer Morningstar: He’d changed his name from [Redacted] to better suit the image he wanted, which was that of a walking spectacle. And if his name weren’t enough, everything else he did surely was: The wealth he accrued through mysterious means; the successful nightclub on the LA strip that he owned; an immortal bed life; and a tapestry of connections he’d made by pulling favors. All topped with a devilishly handsome face to boot!

If Lucifer ever had a goal, it was to live it up and/or go to Hell in a hand basket trying.

Which was probably why he wasn’t one to shy away from hosting a little large get-together at Lux for Halloween. And by get-together, Lucifer clarified on social media: They would, in fact, be holding a seance and summoning. After all, what sexier way to embrace the taboo of darkness than to play around with the veil as though it were part of a dress-up game? It was too good an opportunity to miss out on, as any good attention-whore businessperson would tell you.

Unfortunately, for as lucky as Lucifer tended to be, he still bore upon his shoulders multiple flaws. Human flaws. Such as the flaw of not exactly doing research and providing a thorough vetting process when it came to hiring the “performer” who would be commencing the seance and summoning.

This was LA, after all: He probably could just pluck any rando off the street and get a good show out of it. He wasn’t even sure where he pulled this rando from (chances were, he was buzzed and/or high while doing so), but he couldn’t argue with the results of a crowd bewildered by the surprisingly realistic smoke effects and lights flickering. Though he had to admit: They could’ve put you in better demonic makeup for when the lights settled and you stood there, having suddenly “appeared” in the previously-drawn pentagram.

Still, you were cute enough: He supposed if he played his cards right, flirted with you in the usual Lucifer way, then perhaps his Halloween night might be filled with many tricks and treats yet! So he found himself perplexed when you continued to act confused and thrown off, even after the “performer” had finished their routine and left.

Wait, weren’t you supposed to be with them? How did you even get in here? Why do you keep asking how you got here, or if you got stuck in another person’s Hell, or -- . . . Oh. Oh, shit.

As a human, Lucifer was intent on filling his life to the brim with as much story and experiences as possible. But sometimes, there are just some things humans -- even ones like Lucifer -- shouldn’t dabble with . . .

[teenslib]

IT’S FINALLY DONE! Every year, the Rainbow Book List Committee has more books to review, because literature is slowing getting queerer, and children’s and YA lit are at the forefront of that change. This year, our committee of 13 people had to review nearly 500 eligible titles, and 130 (well, 129) were good enough and queer enough to make the list. There were so many terrific books that we got a special dispensation to create TWO Top Ten lists--the first time the committee has done so! The Top Tens are below, and please visit the link above for the full list.

I’m proud of our committee’s focus on diversity--along lines of race, ethnicity, queer identity, and even genre. At least half of the Top Ten Books for Young Readers and seven of the Top Ten for Teen Readers are about characters of color, and most of those were written by authors of color. We also tried to feature as many different letters of the alphabet soup as possible. I’ve noted the racial and LGBTQIA+ rep for the books that I’ve read.

Here are the Top Ten Books for Young Readers:

Ana on the Edge by Sass, A.J. Ages 8 to 12. Sports Fiction/Figure Skating. MC is nonbinary and Jewish-Chinese-American. Ana is a champion figure-skater. She hates her new princess-themed program, but how can she tell her mother that, when it cost so much money? And why does it bother her so much, anyway? When she finds the word ‘nonbinary,’ she realizes why the program doesn’t fit, but she still has a lot of work to do repairing relationships that have suffered in the meantime.

The Deep & Dark Blue by Smith, Niki. Ages 8 to 12. Fantasy. One of 2 MCs is a trans girl, all characters appear to be Southeast Asian. A pair of twins flee after a political coup that puts their lives at risk. They decide to disguise themselves as Hanna and Grayce, two girls living in the Communion of the Blue, an order of weaving women who spin magic like wool. What one twin doesn’t know is that, for the other, being Grayce isn’t a disguise. This is a beautiful story about self-discovery, acceptance, and affirmation.

Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring by Burgess, Matthew and Josh Cochran (Illustrator). Ages 6 to 14. Biography. MC is a white gay man. This colorful picture-book biography traces the life and art of Keith Haring.

The Every Body Book: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families by Simon, Rachel E. and Noah Grigni (Illustrator). Ages 8 to 12. Nonfiction/Health. Various identities and races included. Filled with self-affirming information, The Every Body Book uses inclusive language, illustrations, and facts to cover a number of important topics for young people including consent, relationships, gender, sex, puberty, and hormones.

King and the Dragonflies by Callender, Kacen. Ages 8 to 12. Realistic Fiction. MC is a gay black boy, his best friend is a gay white boy. King’s family–especially his father–have strong opinions about what it means to be a Black man, and they don’t allow for being gay. But King admires his friend Sandy for escaping an abusive home and living his truth no matter what. If King comes out, too, can his father learn to change?

Magic Fish by Nguyen, Trung Le. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction/Fantasy. MC is a gay Vietnamese-American boy. A young Vietnamese-American boy literally can’t find the words to tell his parents that he’s gay, but cross-cultural fairytales help bridge the language barrier in this beautifully-illustrated graphic novel. 

My Maddy by Pitman, Gayle E. and Violet Tobacco (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC’s parent is nonbinary, MC and her parent are white. My Maddy is a heartwarming story about a young girl and her parent. Readers learn that not all parents are boys or girls; some parents are just themselves. In this young girl’s case, that parent is her Maddy, a loving, caring parent who lives outside the gender binary.

My Rainbow by Neal, DeShanna, Trinity Neal, and Art Twink (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC is an autistic black trans girl. Autistic trans girl Trinity wants to have long hair, but growing it out is too itchy! None of the wigs in the store are quite right, so Mom makes Trinity a special rainbow wig.

Our Subway Baby by Mercurio, Peter and Leo Espinosa (Illustrator). Ages 4 to 8. Adoption Non-fiction. MCs are white gay men, the baby they adopt is Black. Loving illustrations help tell the story of how an infant abandoned in a NYC subway station was adopted by the man who found him and his partner.

Snapdragon by Leyh, Kat. Snapdragon. Ages 10 to 14. Fantasy. Haven’t read this one yet, so I can’t comment on its representation. Snap gets to know the town witch and discovers that she may in fact have real magic and a secret connection to Snap’s family’s past.

And here are the Top Ten Books for Teen Readers:

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by Johnson, George M. Ages 14 to 18. Memoir. Author/MC is a gay Black man. “Memoir-manifesto” is a well-chosen label for this book, which relates stories from the author’s childhood and young adulthood and contextualizes them within a queer Black experience. Although the author’s family is loving and supportive, pervasive heteronormativity, queerphobia, and anti-Black racism threaten his mental, emotional, and physical safety.

Camp by Rosen, L.C. Ages 14 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC and his love interest are gay Jewish boys. For Randy, going away to Camp Outland is a breath of fresh air, a time to be exactly who Randy can’t always be at school. But this year will be different. This year, Randy won’t be the flamboyant theater kid, this year Randy will be exactly the type of bro Hudson would want to date. Changing a thing or too will be necessary for Randy to succeed, even if that means leaving some friends behind.

Cemetery Boys by Thomas, Aiden. Ages 13 and up. Paranormal/Romance. MC is a trans Latino, his love interest is a gay Latino. Yadriel accidentally summons the wrong ghost in an attempt to prove himself a real brujo to his family who struggle to accept his gender identity. Though he thinks he is summoning the ghost of his cousin, he actually summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, and finds himself with not one, but two, mysterious deaths to investigate.

Circus Rose by Cornwell, Betsy. Ages 12 and up. Fantasy. One MC is white and one is mixed-race, one is a lesbian and one is questioning. Ivory and Rosie are twins and half-sisters, born to a bearded woman who refused to choose between her lovers, and raised in their mother’s circus. After a long foreign tour, they come home to find themselves under attack by religious zealots. As tragedy follows tragedy, will Ivory be able to save her circus family?

Elatsoe by Little Badger, Darcie  and Rovina Cai (Illustrator). Ages 12 and up. Mystery. MC is an aro/ace Lipan Apache girl. In this OwnVoices novel, Elatsoe is on a mission to discover who killed her beloved cousin, and why. If not for her cousin, then she is doing this for her people, the Indigenous Lipan Apache tribe. Elatsoe has the ability to raise ghosts from the dead, a tradition that has been passed down through generations. On this journey it will take vulnerability, wit, and the legends of her people for Elatsoe to understand all that is hidden in the small town of Willowbee.

I’ll Be the One by Lee, Lyla. Ages 13 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a bi Korean-American girl, her love interest is a bi Korean boy. Skye Shin dreams of becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and a reality TV competition may just be her chance. To win, she’ll have to deal with fatphobic beauty standards, fierce competition, and intense media scrutiny–as well as unexpected attraction to one of her competitors.

Miss Meteor by Mejia, Tehlor Kay and Anna-Marie McLemore. Ages 14 and up. Magical Realism. (I haven’t read this one, but I think both MCs are WLW Latinas.) Lita is a star – literally. After falling to earth several years ago, she’s now living life as a teenage girl. When the annual Miss Meteor pageant rolls around, Lita decides to enter – but will her ex-best friend Chicky be willing to help her? Will the pageant help her forget about the past and imagine a new future? Lita learns that winning isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing your true self to the world – even the parts that no one else understands.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Johnson, Leah. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a black WLW (woman-loving-woman). In this affectionate rom-com, Liz Lighty finds herself an unlikely candidate for prom queen at her affluent suburban school. Shy, awkward, Black, and low-income, Liz has never felt like she belonged, and she can’t wait to leave for her dream college. But when her scholarship falls through, it seems her last resort is to win prom queen, and the scholarship money that comes with it. Liz’s plan is complicated when new girl Mack decides to run for prom queen also…and ends up running away with Liz’s heart.

War Girls by Onyebuchi, Tochi.  Ages 12 and up. Science Fiction/Afro-Futurism. Both MCs are Nigerian, one is a WLW. In a not-so-distant future, climate change and nuclear disasters have made much of the earth unlivable. In the midst of war in Nigeria, two sisters, Onyii and Ify, are torn apart and face two very different futures. As their lives progress through years of untold violence and political unrest, battles with deadly mechs and cyborg soldiers outfitted with artificial limbs and organs, they are brought together again and again and must come to terms with how the war has impacted their lives.

When We Were Magic by Gailey, Sarah. Ages 14 and up. Contemporary Fantasy. MC is a white bi/questioning girl with gay dads, her friends are racially, ethnically, and queerily diverse. This firecracker of a novel follows a group of friends who attempt to correct the accidental murder of a classmate. When We Were Magic combines magic, friendship, and awkward moments to create a captivating story. Each character brings their own uniqueness to the strong group of friends, but despite their differences, their loyalty remains. Author Sarah Gailey has written another page turning novel, with the quirky strange content to boot.

[k7l4d4]

Kamen Rider Info and Ideas (Feel free to ignore)

As a huge fan of Kamen Rider, I always wondered about ways it could be expanded, and maybe not improved so much as become More. So, right now, I am gonna make a list of Kamen Rider Series, starting with Black and RX, and continuing all the way to the Reiwa Era! Everybody clap your hands!! *Cricket noises* Okay, here we go!

Kamen Rider Black, and its sequel, Black RX, details the journey of Kohtaro Minami, or Minami Kohtaro for those who prefer the traditional Japanese naming conventions, on his mission to defeat Gorgom, an ancient tribe/organization that has evolved into a cultic terrorist organization bent on world domination. While still holding to the Showa era’s tradition of having Cyborg Riders, Black and RX were the first in which, aside from Kamen Rider Amazon, the supernatural played a prominent part in the powers of the riders, as Kohtaro and his stepbrother Nobuhiko were the designated heirs to the leader of Gorgom, the Century King, and infused with the relics that contained his power, the Kingstones. Both Kohtaro and Nobuhiko were infused with the Kingstones, in the attempt to convert them into the Villains Black Sun and Shadow Moon, with only Kohtaro managing to escape.

One of the things that I felt could’ve been at least a little better in regards to the series was if Shadow Moon could regain his original self and rejoin the path of justice. It would’ve also been pretty cool if Shadow Moon gained his own upgraded form, which did actually happen in tie-in novels and manga, and if either or both of them gained the ability to unleash a final form that drew upon the power they wielded as the New Century Kings. Ah well, that’s what fanfiction is for!

Kamen Rider Kuuga details the battles of Yusuke Godai, the successor to the ancient warrior of justice, Riku, as the Kuuga. Kuuga’s powers are derived from Growth, allowing him to access a variety of forms and powers based on what he needs to grow into, and can be bolstered by mystical energy sources to ascend even further! Yusuke’s enemies are the Gurongi tribe, ancient monsters who abandoned their humanity to satisfy their love of death and conflict, and wished to have all of humanity become as dark and twisted as them, with the “honor” of being the Gurongi to start the process going to whichever of them managed to win their tournament, in which the Gurongi Tribal-members all battled to the death as a whole.

One of the things that bugged me a little, was that Kuuga never fully evolved all his forms, and that his true final form was even used in his series! I mean, seriously, what!? Once again, budget concerns limit the awesomeness of a series before it can bloom, sigh.

Kamen Rider Agito is the story of Shoichi Tsugami, a young amnesiac who belongs to an offshoot of the human race known as the Agito. Agitos possess incredible psychic powers and exist in a perpetual state of evolution, adapting to the changes in themselves and the world around them at an incredible rate.

My only real beef with this series was the limited number of forms Agito had as compared to Kuuga, and that one of the Extra Riders had the lazy name of Another Agito. You heard me right. All in all, not to bad, but a little frustrating.

Next up, Kamen Rider Ryuki, which also served as part of the inspiration for the list. Honestly, with how much I plan on covering JUST for Ryuki, I’ll probably leave this off after this and pick up more tomorrow. Ryuki is one of the first series in the franchise to fully exploit the nature of multiple riders, and basically invented the concept of Dark Riders, which I will also explain.

Ryuki involves the Rider War, a conflict taking place in the real world, and a parallel realm known as the Mirror World, populated by unfeeling monsters known as, you guessed it, Mirror Monsters, which must constantly kill when in our world in order to remain stable, or at least they are allegedly supposed to. The Rider War was a conflict set up by a man known as Shiro to revive his dead sister, under the guise of a tournament to the death for a reality-warping wish, which Shiro wanted for himself. The war brought together 13, yes you read that right, 13 Riders, all with variances in their styles and abilities. This selfish conflict is partially, if not entirely why I said that introduced Dark Riders properly to the franchise; Dark Riders are individuals who bear the same transformative powers of Kamen Riders, but instead of using them to fight against the wicked and monstrous, are instead put towards their own selfish ends, and none of them are the type of individual you wanna run into in a dark alley.

The Riders of Ryuki derived their power from two things, their Contract Monster, a Mirror Monster that they formed a bond with in order to exist without needing to bring about death, and an Advent Deck, a Deck of Cards that harnessed the power of the Mirror Monster it bonded to and allowed the Riders to survive in the Mirror Realm, which is inherently fatal for humans to be in. One of the key aspects of Advent Cards is how they work, each one draws and harnesses an aspect of the Contract Monster it is connected to, or wields a power specifically to fight other Advent Riders. Now, before I get to my thoughts and ideas, I am going to list each Rider from Ryuki, as well as the nature of their Advent Decks and fighting styles.

Shinji Kido: Kamen Rider Ryuki himself, and contracted to the fierce Dragon-Type Mirror Monster, Dragonredder. With a Dragon on his side, you’d expect him to be the powerhouse of the group, right? HAHAHAHAHA no. Shinji stumbled upon the Rider War by near-complete accident, and, being the nice guy he is, decided if he was going to be a part, he would protect the bystanders from the conflict and ensure as many of the Riders made it out alive as he could. Easier said than done. Out of all the Riders, Ryuki has the least straight-forward fighting style, not helped by his incredible clumsiness, with his deck emphasizing the ability to have as many options as possible; jack of all trades master of none, but better master of none than master of one.

Ren Akiyama: Kamen Rider Knight, and the contract holder of the Bat-Type Mirror Monster, Darkwing. He comes across as aloof, cold even, whose only in it for himself, but in truth he decided to enter the war to save the life of his ill fiance. Knight’s fighting style blends straight-up direct combat, and subterfuge based war tactics, with his deck emphasizing this by providing him with both weapons and special abilities that optimize getting the drop on his foes. Hmm... themed after a bat, a knight, and mixing close combat with dark and spooky tactics. Now where have I seen THAT before?

Masashi Shido: Kamen Rider Scissors, a Dark Rider, and the contractor of the Crab-Type Mirror Monster, Volcancer. A corrupt cop and detective, Scissors took bribes and cuts in illegal dealings, and used his Mirror Monster to liberally dispose of witnesses as he pleased. He ultimately died when his contract was destroyed and Volcancer turned on him. Despite his practices necessitating subterfuge, Scissors’ fighting style is rather extravagant, emulating that of a gladiator, with his deck providing cards that mix heavy combat with putting his enemy into an unfavorable situation to seal the deal, fitting for a backstabber.

Shuichi Kitaoka: Kamen Rider Zolga, one of the neutral and later heroic elements in the war, and the bearer of the contract for the Minotaur-Type Mirror Monster, Magnugigas, a colossal bio-mechanical behemoth. A shady lawyer with a lot of wealth, Zolga was diagnosed with fatal cancer, and desired to become immortal to continue living his lifestyle forever. While initially uncaring and selfish, he ultimately came to see the value in others, and lamented all the criminals that walked free due to his actions, hoping Ryuki would win. Cunning, intellegent, and crafty, Zolga’s fighting style favors both heavy defense and massive firepower, burying an enemy in a storm of blasts while he hunkers down, with his deck further emphasizing this with a bevy of long-distance combat cards and barriers.

Miyuki Tezuka: Kamen Rider Raia, a fortune-teller beyond compare, he enters the war to save lives and honor his deceased friend, and bears the contract of the Stingray-Type Mirror Monster, Evildiver. Raia’s fighting style places heavy importance on movement, offering cards that can offer him superior movement, and uses a whip as his principle weapon.

Jun Shibaura: Kamen Rider Gai, an utterly selfish and monstrous beast of a man, he wields the contract of the Rhino-Type Mirror Monster, Metalgelas. A prodigy of computers and gaming, Gai sees the death match that is the Rider War as nothing more than a game, and the fighters as players he can wipe out at his leisure. Gai’s fighting style is a straight up rush of overwhelming force, with his cards emphasizing interfering with his opponent’s options to force them to fight him directly and his brutal power of himself and his Contract Monster gives him an edge.

Takeshi Asakura: Kamen Rider Ouja, and the main Dark Rider of the series, holder of the contract for the Snake-Type Mirror Monster, Venosnaker. A sadistic monster to his core, Takeshi killed his own family as a child, and left a bloody trail in his wake for years, remorselessly cutting down anyone who falls in his path in his bloodlust. Despite his seemingly simple minded nature, Ouja is immensely cunning, favoring a sadistic fighting style that emphasizes causing as much pain to his enemy as he can before they die at his hands, and he is far from afraid to get his hands dirty. Ironically, Ouja has one of the weaker decks in the war, bearing limited options to fight with, Ouja thrives due to his sheer brutality, fighting ability, and utter ruthlessness. “Fun” fact, unlike the other Riders, Takeshi never realized that a wish was up for grabs, he was just having a good time! When he finally learned that the winner got a wish, he decided his wish would be to have ANOTHER Rider War, so he could kill another pack of warriors! Ouja’s deck does have two solid advantages over the other riders; Ouja possesses extra Contract Cards, meaning he can add other Mirror Monsters and their powers to his deck, ultimately deciding to save them to take the Mirror Monsters of the Riders he kills, with his other big trick his Unite Card, which allowed him to COMBINE his Mirror Monsters into the horrifying Chimera-Type Mirror Monster, Genocider (ain’t that a name).

Odin: Kamen Rider Odin, a Rider not designated Dark only due to the fact he doesn’t have enough of a mind to be one, and wielder of the Phoenix-Type Mirror Monster as his Contract, Goldphoenix. Odin is unusual, in that he is essentially a puppet, a brainwashed shell that acts as Shiro’s representative in the war that occupies whatever body Shiro gives the Contract to. Out of all the Riders, Odin has the greatest immediate strength, allowing him to overwhelm just about anything in ideal situations, and if things go wrong, Odin (along with Shiro) can REWIND TIME to reset the war until Shiro gets the outcome he wants, only giving up when he accepts that he won’t be able to bring his sister back.

Satoru Tojo: Kamen Rider Tiger, a man who wants to be a hero, and wields the power of the Tiger-Type Mirror Monster, Destwilder. Tiger is a broken individual, lacking a LOT of basic understanding in regards to people, he wavers between good and evil in his desire to be a hero due to his incomprehension of what it means to be heroic, ultimately becoming a hero when he selflessly sacrificed his life to save a father and son about to be hit by an oncoming truck, finally realizing what it truly meant to be a human in his last moments. A highly inexperienced fighter, Tiger often lost, which didn’t help his instability, forcing himself to rely on ambushes to win, his deck favored close-range melee and offered him support in the form of ice attacks.

Mitsuru Sano: Kamen Rider Imperer, a self-styled mercenary rider, and wielder of the multi-type contract allowing him to command the power of the Gazelle-Type Mirror Monsters, with Gigazelle serving as the leader of his horde. Imperer was raised to believe that wealth was what was most important in life, completely missing the fact that his idea to be a mercenary in the Rider War was impossible as all but one of the contestants must die for it to complete and you cannot quit either. After falling in love, Mitsuru seemed to be realizing that there is more to life than money, he tragically died before he could act on his new views, trapped in the Mirror World, reaching out to the image of his love, screaming in fear. Imperer’s fighting style makes use of boxing, and bum-rushing his enemies with his massive swarm of Contract Monsters.

And, because I am starting to grow tired and this is REALLY LONG, I am gonna finish this later today before I burn out.

[wholesomeklei]

Invader Zim Headcanon Survey Results (Part 1: Irken Lore/Biology)

Thank you so much to all 237 of you who answered the survey!  I’m gonna separate the results posts so people who want to can avoid the content they’re not interested in (like the NSFW section).  These are the questions about irken lore.  There’s a lot to get through, so I’ve put the results under the cut.

As far as irken lifespans go, the vast majority of respondents appear to agree that irkens live longer than humans.  The most popular answer (orange) was 100-999 years, with “functionally immortal/ageless” (purple) coming in second.  Third place was 1000+ years (green).  3 people voted for “similar or identical to human lifespans” (red), and a whopping 0 people think that irkens live shorter lives than humans.

A slight majority of respondents (red and blue) believe that irkens are predisposed to serve the Tallest in some way, though answers about the nature of that predisposition varied.  Most (red) said it was some form of artificially engineered loyalty.  The second most popular answer (orange) said that there was no predisposition at all and that it was all social conditioning.  The least popular answer (though it still got a decent percentage of votes) was that it’s a biological predisposition (blue).

This one got a lot of custom answers, but we’ll start with the provided ones.  The most popular headcanon (blue) for why the Tallest are as tall as they are is simply that they won the genetic lottery; lucky them!  Second place (green) was that the Tallest are selected to have their height artificially boosted with hormones, surgery, or some similar means.  In third (orange) is the idea that irken height is the result of conditional metamorphosis affected by need/environmental factors.  Fourth (purple) was that the Tallest are selected to have their height artificially boosted with a tall robot suit.  Fifth (red) was that the Tallest are the result of a genetic quirk or growth disorder such as gigantism.

Custom answers included:

All depending upon situation.

The Tallest are chosen after displaying an aptitude for leading and injected with horomones to make them grow tall really fast. 

The Tallest are the naturally tallest ones, yes, but their height IS boosted through surgery to make them tower over every single Irken, also to eliminate the chance of an irken growing taller than them.

Combination of luck with genes and later artificial interference.

All of the above.

the tallest are a bit taller than the rest, then get the artificial boost to make them much taller

A mix of a, b and partiall d 

A combination of 1,4 and 5

Tallests are sometimes chosen before they’re born and have their genes changes, other times mutations like gigantism happen randomly.

The tallest cone from a specific smeeterie, that is used to produce leaders, and elite. But whomever grows tallest from there is by chance.

Red and Purple look like they have biologically impossible waist size, looks like cyborg bodies.

A mix. I think the Tallests are naturally taller than other irkens and are chosen for that reason, but then have their height boosted mechanically.

The majority (orange) believe that the tallest irkens are taller than the average adult human, but still possess heights that are realistic for humans to reach.  The second most popular answer (green) was that the Tallest are around the height of humans with growth disorders such as gigantism.  In third (red) is the headcanon that the Tallest are about the same height as the average adult human.  Fourth place (blue) goes to the headcanon that the tallest irkens are still shorter than the average adult human.  In last place (purple) is the headcanon that irkens are taller than any human has ever been or will be.

Most respondents agree (orange) that irkens are stronger than the average human.  Coming in second (red) is that irkens and humans have similar strength.  Only 7.6% of respondents (blue) believe that irkens are weaker than humans, on average.

This one was a surprisingly even split.  A slight majority (blue) believe irken teeth to be rounded and fused together in a single band.  In second was “sharp and separated” (green), followed by “sharp and fused together in a single band” (orange) and “rounded and separated” (red).

57.8% agree that irkens have organic eyes, with 29% saying they’re artificial eyes, and the remainder being either a mixture of both (organic eyes with some artificial additions/enhancements) or occupation-dependent (with soldiers/invaders getting implants and others keeping the eyes they were born with).

The majority of respondents agree that irken eyes come in all of the colors they do in the show.  A lot of people believe blue and green to be possible colors, as well as yellow and orange, but not as many people believed brown, black, and white to be in the color pool.

Had to cut off the custom answers for this one both because there were so many (mainly expressing emotions, general feeling, sensing pheremones, balance, etc.) and because a lot of people believe antennae to have some very R-rated uses.  Who knew?  :P

The vast majority of people (red) believe irkens do, in fact, need to eat and/or drink to survive, but not as much as humans.  Second place goes to irkens not needing food at all (green) followed by irkens needing about as much food as humans do (blue).  Last place goes to irkens needing to eat and/or drink even more than humans do.

Surprisingly (at least to me) the most popular food item people believe that ancient irkens ate is nectar, followed by fruit.  Animal byproducts (things like milk and aphid honeydew) came in third, followed by vegetables, grains, meat, and finally insects.

As far as sleep goes, the winning answer (red) was that irkens do need sleep, but not as much as humans.  Second was that irkens don’t need to sleep at all.  Irkens needing to sleep as much as humans do (blue) or more than humans do (orange) came in at a distant, DISTANT third and fourth place, respectively.  Most custom answers fell into the following categories:

Sleep is an optional luxury.

Sleep is mainly for recovery from injuries/situations that result in massive energy depletion.

They need VERY minimal sleep, but can go extensive intervals (like, months) without it.

The matter of when ancient irkens slept resulted in a pretty even split of answers.  First place (red) goes to irkens being nocturnal (active at night).  Second place (orange) goes to irkens being crepescular (active in the early morning and late evening).  Third place (blue) goes to irkens being diurnal (active during the day), followed by fourth place (purple) being that irkens are vespertine (active in the late evening).  Fifth place (teal) goes to irkens never having needed sleep at all, with sixth (green) going to irkens being matutinal (active during early morning).

Custom answers included the following:

Both twilight/evening and early morning. So they sleep when the nocturnal and diurnal predators are awake.

patternless. awake as needed for any activity. possibly caused by being out of synch with the planet's cycle and/or simply unaffected .

They're dinural, but could stretch it to3am or so.

Sleep if injured.

Variable over the lifespan and social requirement.

Actually I never thought about that.

The majority of respondents (blue) believe irkens need oxygen, but less than humans.  Second place (red) was that they need as much oxygen as humans.  Third (green) was that they don’t need oxygen at all.  Fourth place (orange) was that they need more oxygen than humans.

A slight majority of respondents (blue) believe anxient Irk had less oxygen than Earth.  The second most popular answer (red) was that the oxygen level was about the same.  Third (orange) was that Irk had more oxygen, and fourth place (green) was that Irk had no oxygen at all.

Regarding the nature of PAKs, the answer that came in first (orange) was that the PAK and the organic brain are two halves of a whole irken.  Second (green) was that the PAK is a device with mind manipulating technology; a sort of mental parasite that hijacks and controls thought patterns.  Third (red) is that the PAK IS the irken, and that the ten minutes of life left in the organic half after its removal are the result of some program being run or sheer instinct with no consciousness attached.  Fourth (purple) is that the PAK is a life support system with no real impact on the irken’s mind.  Fifth (blue) was that the PAK IS the irken, and it’s capable of remotely controlling the host body for up to ten minutes.

Custom answers included:

One half of a whole irken brain that also acts sort of like a parasite.

irkens are “born” premature, and paks are fixated on them immediately to increase efficiency, but this also makes the irken biologically dependent on the pak because their body never learns how to function without the pak, similar to how humans become dependent on certain drugs to fulfill neurochemical functions. The paks also include many forced biological restraints, like blocking off certain instincts and repressing certain functions. The pak is also connected to the irken main system, which allows for remote observation and can flag an irken for reconditioning. Much of irken behaviors are, however, a result of social conditioning that goes hand in hand with pak systems, and with enough care and careful planning, a pak can be removed and an irken’s biological functions can be repaired, again, like weaning a human off of a drug.

The Pak is the Irken that also works as mind control for the organic part of the Irken.

"The PAK is a device with mind manipulating technology; a sort of mental parasite that hijacks and controls certain thought patterns in order to control the irken." but it also downloads the irken's organic brain (personality, memories, etc) into it's system, so the whole irken is in the pak, but what makes the irken themself did not originate from the pak.

The PAK is a computer connected to the Control Brains, which regulates their actions by sending signals to the irken’s actual meat brain. Defects have lower to no connection to the Control Brains, allowing the to act freely. Since the PAK also doubles as life support, the Irkens bodies depend on it but the dependency can be eliminated by a regular sleep and diet, so the body re-learns how to function on its own. The PAK also functions as a regular computer and as a storage unit. 

Combination of b and d.

Like the downloaded personality, the PAK carries a perfect copy of memories and personality to supplement or replace if there is damage to the body, but the body can shape that personality. Though it is also a life support system. 

The PAK has no real bearing on who the Irken it is attached to really is. Zim is still Zim without the Pak, but the Pak is like a backup drive for him(it stores his personality and memories in it). 

The PAK is just a life supoort system, but an Irken's mind can be downloaded orior to death. When the PAK is reused, these old personalities can influcence and heighten certain habits, but cannot take over. 

A combo of the last two options: the PAK is a life support system but it also functions as a control mechanism.

The PAK is a highly advanced piece of technology that serves several purposes: fueling and controlling other technological augmentations, being an errorproof databank of both downloaded and experiential knowledge, being an interface with Irken technology, containing tools like PAK legs, etc. And everything an Irken is (memories, personality, etc) can be stored in the PAK (so if the body dies but the PAK is intact and attached to a new body, the original Irken will be there in their entirety unless the PAK is wiped first), but is not generated from the PAK; that comes from the organic body. 

The fourth choice, and it records the Irken’s thoughts, memories, biological states. The Irken brain retains personhood when PAK is removed. PAK hacking is possible, more or less, but effect is normally temporary. 

The PAK is half of an irken, but over time the Control Brains decided to start adding in some programs that keep Irkens relatively subservient.

The PAK is one half of a whole Irken, like two separate halves of a brain or one creature with four hemispheres. The pieces can exist as two seperate conscious minds without the other for a minimum of 10 minutes and an maximum determined by standing and value of the individuals information. Afterwards the organic half/host expires without the help of external assistance and the mechanical half will go dormant until reactivation, termination, or if a suitable emergency host is located nearby. The PAK portion can be used to subtially manipulate and reward more desirable traits of the organic host, but ultimately the interpretations of such informations are attributed to the organic brain and social conditioning. (After all, if mindless obedience was the goal then why not rely entirely on robots?) The PAK was originally intended as advanced life support and extention but it's design and purpose shifted little by little over time.

The PAK is a mix of a life support system and a mind manipulation system.

When it comes to the PAK’s power source, the most popular answer (purple) was that it draws from the irken’s organic body and/or caloric intake.  Second (red) was some kind of internal generator.  Third (blue) was that it has to be periodically charged.  Fourth (green) was that it draws power from external sources (the sun, for example).  Fifth (orange) was that it has a single-charge battery that lasts an irken’s entire lifespan.

Custom answers include:

Usually draws power from the Irken, but there is a sort of emergency battery in case the Irken is starved or otherwise resource deprived.

This is weird but what if paks are powered by a bacteria or fungus that has a symbiotic relationship ship of sorts with the Irken, like how certain species of ants grow mold by taking in a lot of plant matter and feeding the fungus and in tern getting fungus to eat, sorry if this doesn’t make sense!

all of the above. complex system capable of storing mass amounts of energy and able to generate it from organic, electric or external intake.

It is generally powered/charged via whatever powers the Control Brains, but in the event the Control Brains cease powering a Pak, it can still function and draw power from the irken’s caloric intake, or they could likely create an alternate method of charging it. 

Kind of a mix of options two and five.

It has to periodically charge, but only for a short while. When in a pinch, it can use things like solar energy.

It draws power from the irkens, body, but has power cells in it, so that it had back up power if one or the other goes offline. 

Depends what power sources are available and what the PAK is equipped for.

Combination of generator and back up battery. If for any reason the generator fails or requires maintenance/replacement the back-up battery will activate. It's not nearly as efficient or powerful and has finite storage but with moderation can last several months, possibly a year, without recharge. Any and all forms of excess energy can be diverted to the storage from varying sources. This is typically done in increments over time with excess caloric intake being a species favorite. The battery itself can barely refine energy input, so in the event of low battery most forms of organic recharge are insufficient patch jobs at best. It is recommended that a medical recharge station be used instead should one be available. The larger the Irken, the larger the energy requirement and subsequent storage. The organic host in times of great stress or desperation can burn energy from both sources at once, making for impressive feats of strength and speed, it is not recommended however as it can leave them exhausted and vulnerable on the field.

It draws power both from an internal battery and an irken's caloric intake, as well as their body waste.

It turns out that the vast majority of respondents believe that irkens can, in fact, love.  The most popular answer (orange) was that they can, but they’re conditioned from birth to bury and ignore those emotions.  The second most popular answer (green) was that they can’t love because the capacity has been engineered out of them.  In third place is the idea that they can love, but it’s frowned upon or illegal to express/acknowledge.  In fourth place (purple) is the idea that irkens were never capable of love because they didn’t evolve the capacity.  In last place (blue), two incredibly optimistic respondents believe that not only can irkens love, but that it’s perfectly legal and accepted in irken society.

A resounding majority (red) believe that the Control Brains are Irk’s true leaders, with the remaining 8% (blue) responding that the Control Brains are loyal to the Tallest.

And that’s it for the first section of the survey!  More answers to come soon.

[redrobinhoods]

Age of Heroes | Chapter 6, Recovery/Retaliation

AO3 Link | 3550 words (approx) | Prologue, Chapter 5, Chapter 7

Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan makes preparations to depart Mandalore as Plo Koon engages General Grievous. Meanwhile, Ahsoka and Rex prepare for the war to end.

It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it." – Kreia, KOTOR II

“I understand your mission was a success.”

“Yes, I have Maul in custody.” Obi-Wan answered Master Windu. “The 212th and I are escorting him to Coruscant. We will be there within the next few hours, the last of my troops are pulling out now.” He looked around at those present; Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura, and Master Yoda. “I was hoping that I could speak with Anakin, is he there?”

“I sent him to inform the Chancellor that General Grievous has indeed been located on Utapau.” Responded Windu. “Commander Wolffe has just reported that they have engaged Grievous.”

“Then the war could be over soon.” Obi-Wan mused.

“That depends on the Chancellor.”

“Indeed. Well, like I said, I will be back in a matter of hours. I am sure that at that time the Council will be able to discuss the best way to go about the removal of the Chancellor from office, if that is necessary. He may yet surprise us.”

“I can only hope that is so. We shall see you soon.” 

Obi-Wan stayed still until all the holograms had faded. Surely the Chancellor would not prolong the war? Even in his bid for power, could he really ignore the pleas of his people? Obi-Wan didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

He stepped out of his room and found himself gravitating towards the medical bay. He was met at the door by one of the clone medics assisting them. Obi-Wan had only known him a short time, and yet the man always knew what, or who, he was there to talk to him about. “The commander will be fine, sir. Everything will heal, he just needs rest and fluids.”

“Did they torture him?” Obi-Wan looked back to the end of the medbay, where Cody was warily watching the medical droid attempt to insert an IV.

“I believe so, but nothing that would leave a physical mark. We found traces of ozone on his skin, which leads me to conclude that he was shocked. Despite that, he’s in fairly good spirits.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help a wry smile as in-good-spirits-Cody began to tell off the medical droid for being unable to find a vein. ‘I’ll stick the bloody thing in myself if you don’t stop prodding! Try this one.’

“Oh, evidently.” Obi-Wan made his way over to his commander, careful not to bump the medical droid as it prepared the second of two bags of fluid.

“How goes the war, General?” Cody smiled painfully up at him.

“Master Plo and Commander Wolffe have just engaged Grievous on Utapau. And it’s my understanding that Captain Rex is dying to speak to you.”

Cody closed his eyes as the droid bent back down over his arm and attempted a laugh. “I’ll call him later. This di’kut won’t stop stabbing me.”

“If CC-2224 would cooperate this procedure would be done in twenty-nine minutes.” The medical droid snapped back.

Obi-Wan gave the medical droid a sorry smile as he reached down to push Cody’s hair back from his forehead. It was growing long after the past few weeks on the frontlines and only added to Cody’s disheveled appearance. “Did Maul hurt you?”

“Just an electroprod. I can take it.”

“Cody.” Obi-Wan continued to run his fingers through Cody’s hair when he saw how the commander leaned ever so slightly into the gesture, though he knew that the man would fervently deny it later.

Cody opened his eyes again, running them quickly over Obi-Wan’s face before returning to his eyes. “His master has a plan; he wouldn’t stop talking about this plan.”

“What plan? Cody, what plan?”

“He wouldn’t say. Just that we clones are part of it. Part of the plan.” Cody raised his free arm to his head. “I’m sorry, General, I-.”

“It’s okay, Cody. You’re safe here. We’ll be back on Coruscant soon and we can go over this with the Council.”

“Please do not bother my patient any further.” The medical droid requested, pushing Obi-Wan away with a mechanical arm. “He is in capable hands.” Obi-Wan looked down at Cody, who gave him a terse nod of permission. Obi-Wan untangled himself from the medical droid and started off to the bridge, taking one look back to see Cody scolding the droid once more.

---

Plo Koon rushed after Grievous’ wheel bike astride the giant varactyl given to him by the locals. At the sight of the descending 104th, Grievous had rushed off from their initial confrontation with one of his MagnaGuard’s staffs, leaving behind his own lightsabers. If this was all the military might that the Separatists had left, a coward who ran at the mere prospect of defeat, Plo had the feeling that Anakin Skywalker’s vision may have been correct. Grievous wouldn’t get away this time.

Despite having only had the varactyl for a few minutes, Plo was becoming quite fond of it. It wove through Pau City in pursuit of the wheel bike with a will that matched his own. In a way, it reminded him of the clones; chosen for a battle for which it had no personal stake but it’s life, and, perhaps, relative living conditions. Perhaps later he could introduce it to Commander Wolffe. Now that would be entertaining.

They were gaining on Grievous now. Plo slashed at the back of the wheel bike with his lightsaber but was too far away to produce a slash of the size necessary to stop Grievous’ descent. With a grateful pat on the neck of his varactyl, Plo threw himself at the occupant of the wheel bike. Grievous snarled, attempting to strike him with the electrostaff. Plo blocked the attack with ease, pushing the staff to the side and taking hold of its handle with his free hand. Having better leverage than the seated Grievous, he pushed the staff into the rapidly spinning wheel and leapt clear. When his tumbling had halted, he found himself face to face with Grievous on a suspended landing platform.

“Give up, General.” Plo cautioned as he rose to his feet. “You will not be able to escape our forces.”

“Jedi scum.” Grievous hacked, reclaiming the electrostaff from the ground. Well, he had tried to reason with him. Plo stepped forward to meet the advancing staff with his lightsaber, only to be surprised when Grievous pulled out a pistol. He hadn’t noticed that. He pulled his lightsaber back to block the shot, successfully knocking the pistol out of Grievous’ hand but losing his own lightsaber to a swipe from the electrostaff in the process. Face to face with Grievous and with no other weapon, he dove closer to the cyborg and tugged open the general’s chest cavity, revealing his organic organs.

Grievous dropped the electrostaff and grabbed Plo Koon instead, throwing him first into his ship, then grabbing him again and flinging him towards the edge of the platform. Plo fought for a grip as he slid, finally finding one in the platform’s edge. His body swung over the sinkhole for a moment before he brought it to a still. He looked up to find Grievous advancing upon him, Plo’s lightsaber held in one of his mechanical hands.

“Your forces are no match for me.” Grievous said as he raised the lightsaber above his head.

Plo prepared himself to swing back onto the platform, he’d only have one chance to stop Grievous now.

A shot rang out.

Grievous stumbled backwards, the lightsaber falling from his hands as his organic internals burst into flames. Plo looked up to where the shot had come from to see Wolffe slowly descending to the platform, aided by his jetpack.

“Need a hand, General?” Wolffe crouched in front of Plo, offering him his hand.

“Thank you, Wolffe.” Plo accepted the outstretched hand of his commander and was hoisted to his feet on the platform. Once away from the precarious edge, he walked over to the middle of the platform to look down on the charred metal that had been General Grievous. He knelt down by the remains, rising again moments later with his lightsaber. “Impeccable timing, as always.” He said as he turned back to Wolffe, who had taken his helmet off to take in the sight.

“Just doing my job, sir.”

“And you have never let me down.”

Wolffe didn’t even try to hide the smile spreading across his lips. For a moment, everything was right in the galaxy.

---

Ahsoka found Rex in the first place she looked, the barracks briefing room.

“General Grievous has been engaged on Utapau.” She announced as she walked in, giving them no time to react with formalities.

“Maul’s been captured.” Jesse gestured to the briefing that he and the captain had been looking over. “The 212th is preparing to depart Mandalore and bring him back to Coruscant.”

“Commander Cody?” Ahsoka looked to Rex.

“Still kicking.” Rex grinned. “If it weren’t for Obi-Wan, I think he’d be on Utapau with the 104th right now.”

“The poor bastard.” Jesse shook his head, though his lips were twitching to form a smile. “Can’t even give Grievous a parting punch into the afterlife.”

Ahsoka laughed, joining her men at the briefing table. Dooku, Grievous, Maul, now for Sidious. Sidious, who had orchestrated the Clone Wars if Count Dooku was to be believed. She wondered how much carnage would have never occurred if it weren’t for his influence. She wondered how much different her life could’ve been.

“Ahsoka.” She jolted up to the sound of her name. She must’ve been lost in thought because she hadn’t noticed Jesse leave the room. “Something on your mind?”

She bit her lip, then wondered why she would hide anything from Rex. “As a Jedi, we were trained to be keepers of the peace, not soldiers. But all I’ve been is a soldier. I don’t know if I can be anything else.”

She watched with a bemused smile as Rex’s expression faltered for a moment. “Well, I’ve known no other way. Gives us clones all a mixed feeling about the war. Many people wish it never happened. But without it, we clones wouldn’t exist.”

“Then perhaps some good has come from all of this. The Republic couldn’t have asked for better soldiers, nor I a better friend.” She stepped forward and placed her arm on Rex’s shoulder. She was nearly as tall as he was now, counting her montrals. A far cry from the times she had once only stood as tall his elbow. He placed his hand over hers for a few moments then they both let their hands fall away as they turned back to the briefing table, alerted by a new message running across the hologram.

“General Grievous has been destroyed. They did it.” Rex said incredulously.

“So, what do we do now?” Ahsoka asked after a few moments of stunned silence.

“Wait for General Skywalker to return, I suppose. Not much else we can do.”

“No.” She mused. Finally, Rex turned off the briefing table and she followed him into the hallway. “I guess this is it. I didn’t expect it to be so unclimactic.”

“I’m sure it was much more interesting on Utapau. We’re not going to see any action here on Coruscant.” Rex’s comm beeped and he looked down to read the message. “Cody’s going to comm me in a few minutes. You’re welcome to drop in if you like.”

“I was just about to shower.” She stopped by the doorway to her room. “Besides, I’m sure we’ll all be seeing a lot of each other in the next few days.”

“Of course. I’ll see you later, Ahsoka.”

She waved goodbye as she stepped into her quarters to grab a towel. When she came back out Rex was gone and the hallways were relatively empty as she made her way to the showers.

‘Hot water will dry your skin out, you know.’  She could hear Fives’ voice in her head. But he wasn’t here anymore, so she turned the tap to the extreme and stood with her face under the water. The heat was nearly intolerable, but she welcomed the sensation. It took her mind off the war as it eased the deep aches in her bones. She could hear some of the other shower heads running but paid them no mind. The hesitations she’d once had about sharing the barracks shower had been quelled when she remembered that these were the same men that she showered with for the past three years. Any embarrassment at sharing a shower with a member of the opposite sex was long gone from the moment she’d been asked to please pass the nice soap. If she’d reached into the Force right now, she would’ve found that they barely noticed her presence. In the GAR everyone got so little privacy that they had mastered finding it anywhere they could. That was why she was here in the first place, to give Rex and Cody some privacy. She knew that Cody may not want to discuss the events of the past few days with her present.

Over the next few minutes, the other taps shut off one by one until she was left alone. It must be nearly dinnertime. There were very few reasons that the clones would not take advantage of the unrationed water on Coruscant. She prodded out into the barracks with the Force. The energy coming from the men was cheerful and relaxed, but there was something stirring underneath that she focused in on. Sterling. Vaughn. Ridge. They had closed themselves off from their brothers, and she could feel their discomfort and anticipation. They weren’t the only ones. She could feel more faint signatures of anxiety in the barracks. If she’d continued to look out, she would have found it in many of the battalions on Coruscant. But instead she focused back into their hall, reaching out to Rex. The unease was there too. And growing. She needed to talk to him.

She’d just reached out to the shower controls when a burst of pain erupted in her head and she fell to her knees onto the tile floor.

“You must choose.” The Chancellor? Why would she hear the Chancellor? He sounded like he was in pain.

“Don’t listen to him, Anakin!” And Master Windu.

“It’s not the Jedi way. He must live.” Master Windu was attacking the Chancellor.

“He’s too dangerous to be left alive.”

                                                        “Please don’t.”

                                                                                 “I need him!”

And the screaming. Ahsoka pressed her hands into her forehead as if that would dampen the sound. The water that had been a comfort to her stung her skin as if it was electrified.

“What have I done?”

“Anakin.”

---

Rex lowered himself onto his bed with a sigh, leaning back against the cold wall. He ran his fingers over the ridges of the holocomm in his hand, waiting for it to chime. He’d never been more grateful for privacy than now. On deployment, he slept in the same room as his men; the Jedi officers were the only ones to have their own private quarters onboard the cruisers. Perhaps if he was on a ship, he’d be taking the call in the officer’s lounge, where he could request a few minutes of solitude. Of course, if he was on a ship the call would be interrupted three minutes in by an emergency. On Coruscant, if there was an emergency Commander Fox would take care of it long before any request for Rex’s help was made. Unless, of course, there was another attack.

The comm chimed, and he answered before the first tone had faded. “Cody.”

“Rex.” The small blue projection of Cody answered. He was propped up against two pillows and Rex could see what appeared to be a medical droid gathering up instruments flickering in and out of the edge of the frame. Rex took note of the series of bruises down Cody’s arm that he recognized from his own experience with the Republic medical droids. Kix would’ve never left so many marks, but Kix wasn’t here anymore.

“You look like hell. How are you feeling?”

“Like hell.” Cody scoffed.

“Did he hurt you?”

“Just an electroprod-”

“Cody.”

“-And the lightsaber wound, but that’s just a scratch. Didn’t even hit the bone.”

Rex took in a frustrated breath. “Cody, he tortured you?”

“I’m fine, Rex. We were made to withstand almost anything. I just need to drink more fluids for a few rotations. That’ll probably stop the headache.”

Rex thought back to Wolffe and his headache. And yet, nothing had happened. They had successfully taken down Grievous and presumably his army. Perhaps they were all becoming susceptible to the changes in weather in their ‘old age’. Besides, Cody had been held by Maul for nearly two days, a headache was squarely in the realm of possibility for aftereffects. “If you so much as sway getting off that ship, I will personally see to it that you are sedated.”

Cody smiled and shook his head. Rex realized how tired the commander looked. “Honestly, Rex. I don’t think I’m going to make it out of this one.”

Rex’s breath caught in his throat as he tried to think of a response.

“I know that everything is fine, and we’ll be back on Coruscanti duracrete in a matter of hours, but I can’t shake this feeling.”

“What feeling?” Rex prodded.

“Like, I’m standing on the edge of a void. And I know that if I fall, I will never be able to get back.”

“It’s just Maul.” Rex had heard of how the dark side of the Force could cause terror in a being. It had to be him. Wolffe was fine, the war was as good as over, everything was going to be okay.

“Maybe.” Cody didn’t sound convinced. “I just need to get back to work.”

“You need to rest, Cody.” As if the commander would ever sit back and let others do his job for him.

“I have rested. Can you imagine this legion without me? It would be chaos.”

Rex laughed. Not matter how bad things seemed, Cody could always bring a smile to his lips. And he had a point. “Remember- you sway, we sedate. I’d hate for you to miss out on the celebration. I know you love the dress greys.”

“Mhm. They really bring out the bags under my eyes. Maybe after the formal dinner we could go get absolutely pissed at Seventy-Nine’s. You, me, Wolffe, Echo, Ahsoka, whoever else wants to join us.”

“Commander Tano is seventeen, Cody. That’s underage.” Though she’d soon be eighteen and drinking age in most systems, Rex still thought of her as the same brash fourteen-year-old he had met on Christophsis when it came to anything but combat.

“Four years older than we are. You can’t protect her forever, Rex. If she can fight in a war and die for the Republic, she can have a drink. Though, with the amount you lot drink, she may swear alcohol off entirely.”

“I’ll make sure Jesse is there if that’s our goal.”

Cody grinned and looked around the medical bay before turning back to Rex conspiratorially. “Do you really think we’re going to win?”

“General Skywalker thinks so. Why not?” Rex couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “Count Dooku is dead, General Grievous is dead, you’ve captured Maul. We may have just won the Clone Wars.” As soon as he had said it Rex knew that he was wrong. Fear roared up in his gut and he could’ve sworn he’d seen the flashing of lightsabers behind his eyelids when he blinked.

In that moment, Rex considered telling Cody what Fives had said about the inhibitor chips. He’d thought about it, he’d thought about him, every day. But Fives was killed, General Tiplee was slain by Count Dooku, and Kix had gone missing. Rex was sure that he was next on the list, and he could have never put Cody in that position. Then the moment was over, and the door to his quarters was sliding open to reveal a half-armored Jesse.

“Captain Rex, General Skywalker is on his way back. He wants to see you, sir.”

“I’ll be there.” Rex turned back to Cody, who was scanning over another message on the holocomm.

“I’m needed on the bridge, Rex.”

“Then I suppose duty calls for both of us.” As it always would; whatever it takes.

“I suppose so. I’ll see you on the other side of the war.”

Rex felt a hint of dread still creeping over his shoulder. Surely, the war was over. The Separatists couldn’t continue their onslaught without their military leadership and the man who arranged the war was close to capture. Yet, General Plo was right. There was something he was missing.

He tried to shove the feeling off, taking in his friend’s features; the scar that traced along Cody’s temple, the bags under his eyes that had been there since Christophsis, the unruly curls that were beginning to frame his face. He should’ve noticed them earlier. The time for teasing would come later. But the feeling was still there, and he began to understand how it must feel to stand at the edge of the inescapable void.

“See you on the other side of the war. Take care of yourself, Cody.”

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Star Wars: Best Darth Maul Moments from The Clone Wars and Beyond

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Since his debut in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has demanded the attention of Star Wars fans everywhere. In 1999, Maul looked unlike any villain that had come before in the saga, and the movie’s high-energy lightsaber duel is still one of the most memorable parts of the Prequel Trilogy. It’s unfortunate, then, that Maul was originally created by George Lucas as a one-off character, present only to re-establish the threat of the Sith. 

But you can’t keep a good character down. Maul returned in The Clone Wars season 4 to introduce even more chaos to the galaxy. Infamously unkillable, his obsession with killing Obi-Wan Kenobi and reuniting with Palpatine kept him going for much of the galactic conflict and well after the rise of the Empire.

Maul has been a Sith apprentice, a ranting hermit, and a powerful crime lord throughout his strange and storied life. Maul failed to become a Sith Master, as Palpatine tossed him to the side once his role in Anakin Skywalker’s story was over, but Maul never stopped trying to clamber to the top. As you’ll see in The Clone Wars season 7 and the Rebels animated series, Maul will fight until the very end to get what he wants.

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As we say goodbye once again to one of Star Wars‘ greatest villains, let’s take a look back at the former Sith’s best moments from The Clone Wars, Rebels, the comics, and beyond.

Duel of the Fates

The Phantom Menace is not a perfect movie, but the two-on-one lightsaber duel in the third act is a great example of the kind of action and physical storytelling that makes Star Wars such an effective and enduring movie franchise. Maul is a nearly voiceless demon dogging the heels of the good guys for most of the film, his powers obscured until he finally reveals himself on Naboo. For the audience watching this duel on the big screen, this was the first chance to see a full-fledged Jedi of legend dueling a Sith Lord.

Actor Ray Park was hired primarily for his ability to do the stunts and fight work. Choreographed by Nick Gillard, the lightsaber fight was acrobatic and wide-ranging, mixing in more melee than had been possible in the Original Trilogy. The climactic duel also introduced the double-bladed lightsaber to the Star Wars galaxy. The weapon and the character would be inseparable in fans’ minds for years to come.

Maul’s Return

How do you revive a character who has been cut in half? Just as in the world of comic books, Star Wars offers plenty of options. Since the Original Trilogy, Star Wars has made it common practice to rebuild mortally wounded and horribly mutilated villains, shaping them into a whole new threat. In 2012, The Clone Wars confirmed that there was more to Maul’s story than The Phantom Menace. Season 4 episode “Brothers” opens with the horror movie atmosphere of the scrapyard on planet Lotho Minor, where Maul has been living since his defeat on Naboo.

He fashions himself a new, arachnid-like body out of trash, and it fits the frightening philosophy of the Sith as well as Maul’s gruesome fate. Spider legs twitch and stab, allowing Maul to climb around his trash-filled cave. Maul has become a hybrid of person and machine, human and animal. He doesn’t keep the spider legs for long, only for a few episodes, but it’s one of the most dramatic changes to his look, and a frightening new possibility when it comes to what cyborgs in Star Wars can become. Spider Maul will haunt your dreams.

Rematch with Obi-Wan 

Obi-Wan Kenobi is skeptical when he hears Maul is back from the dead. But their confrontation is certainly real. After his surprise return in “Brothers,” Maul beelines for Obi-Wan in the next episode, suitably titled “Revenge.” This is the first chance to see the Sith’s rebuilt legs in action. It also shows Maul’s ruthlessness, as he destroys an innocent settlement just to draw Obi-Wan to his location. With the help of Savage Opress, his newfound brother, Maul captures Obi-Wan and kicks off a couple of action-heavy episodes that re-establishes Maul as a force to be reckoned with.

The Shadow Collective

Try as he might, Maul can’t get back into Sidious’ good graces, so he throws the Star Wars villain version of a tantrum: he forms a gang. With the help of the Mandalorians, he goes on a killing spree in season 5 to take out rival criminal organizations in the name of his new Shadow Collective. It’s a sequence of slaughters where there are no good guys.

Maul uses his Force powers, intimidation, and overwhelming force to destroy or intimidate the Black Sun gang, the Pyke gang, and the Hutts, including Jabba himself, into joining him. Maul is back on top.

Taking Over Mandalore  

After recruiting a group of rogue Mandalorian warriors known as Death Watch to his side, Maul has bigger ambitions: to take over the entire planet of Mandalore. In season 5’s “The Lawless,” he slaughters the planet’s reigning leader, Duchess Satine Kryze, as well as the leader of Death Watch, and claims the symbolic weapon of Mandalore, the Darksaber, for himself.

It’s a visually striking episode, with much of the action set inside the Mandalorian throne room. The Darksaber is also the perfect example of silly Star Wars lore taken to the extreme. It also, somehow, works, even when it returns in live-action in The Mandalorian. 

Duel Against Darth Sidious 

Much of Maul’s story in The Clone Wars is about a student who wants to return to the teacher who discarded him. But Sidious isn’t going to accept him back so easily. “The Lawless” also features a duel between three dark side users: Maul, Darth Sidious, and Savage. This is a three-way clash of red lightsabers, ranging up and down the edifices of Mandalore. It’s one of many examples of The Clone Wars‘ elevated Star Wars action, and it’s one of the series’ most exciting sequences.

There are no good guys here, but someone has to win: Sidious kills Savage and defeats Maul, sparing his former apprentice so that he may feel the sting of rejection for the rest of his life. This is the reunion Star Wars fans had been waiting for since Maul’s return and it goes about how you’d expect.

Facing Grievous 

The Son of Dathomir comic was adapted from unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, so it’s closely linked to the events on Mandalore. It also features the entire rogues’ gallery of Prequel era villains, pitting Maul, Sidious, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Mother Talzin against one another. The fight between Maul and Grievous, in particular, is the stuff of fantasy “What If” scenarios and it’s a visual delight, even if it happens off-screen. 

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The Siege of Mandalore

One of the most hotly-anticipated conflicts of The Clone Wars did not disappoint. The Siege of Mandalore, which shows how the Republic took the Mandalorian homeworld back from Maul, features a lightsaber duel between the former Sith and ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano. Though both have left their old orders behind, they bring all the acrobatics and Force powers one could want from a Star Wars fight.

This duel in Mandalore’s throne room and high above its capital city is an amazing use of setting, as Maul and Ahsoka climb up the rafters of one of Mandalore’s domed cities and balance themselves on thin beams. The fight also feels mythic, the two characters’ viewpoints clashing as much as their lightsabers. 

The episode “The Phantom Apprentice,” in particular, shows that, despite being banished from the Sith, Maul is still one step ahead of the Jedi in terms of Palpatine’s grand plan. In fact, Maul instigates the Republic invasion in order to lure Anakin to the planet and stop him from becoming Sidious’ new apprentice — something he’s already seen in a vision before the Jedi even begin to suspect that Palpatine might be an agent of the dark side.

Maul’s Solo Cameo

Solo: A Star Wars Story spends plenty of time with the galaxy’s underworld. Throughout the movie, Han Solo and Qi’Ra tangle with rogues, thieves, smugglers, con men, and drifters, all leading to a big standoff with Dryden Vos, the leader of criminal organization Crimson Dawn. But Vos isn’t the true villain pulling the strings of the movie.

A big reveal is left for the end: Maul has been in charge of the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn all this time, manipulating others the way Palpatine manipulated him. Maul doesn’t do a lot in Solo, appearing just for a few minutes to make Qi’Ra his new lieutenant, but he does ignite his lightsaber, showing he’s a step above most of the enemies the group has faced so far by virtue of his Sith legacy. 

Maul’s Epic Death

Even though it seemed like he could survive anything, Maul had to die eventually. Luckily, the team behind Star Wars Rebels knew how to make Maul’s ending something truly amazing.

Maul has spent decades seeking revenge against his old Jedi enemy, while Obi-Wan has gone into hiding to protect Luke Skywalker, finding peace and coming to terms with the tragedy in his own life. The episode “Twin Suns” shows the final confrontation between Maul and Obi-Wan.

Although not a true adaptation, “Twin Suns” is loosely inspired by “Old Wounds,” a non-canon comic from the speculative comic series Visionaries. That comic, which was written and drawn by Aaron McBride, is also a great Maul moment unto itself, with a vivid lightsaber battle and the threat of Maul possibly discovering a very young Luke Skywalker. It gets to the heart of why Maul works as a frightening villain: a demonic-looking Sith with the drive to keep hunting you, even if you cut him in half. 

“Twin Suns” chooses to go a more contemplative route than “Old Wounds.” While the basic setup is the same (Maul finds an older Obi-Wan on Tatooine), the lightsaber duel isn’t the focus in “Twin Suns.” Instead, one of the best Maul moments is actually an Obi-Wan moment. Their lightsaber duel is just one move, both of them considering their options but it’s Obi-Wan who actually finds the inner strength to carry it out.

In the end, Obi-Wan kills Maul, but also shows him pity, telling a truth that comforts both of them: Luke Skywalker, the one to bring balance to the Force, is still alive. Obi-Wan has escaped the cycle of revenge and ambition Maul has been stuck in his entire life, and he’s closer to the Force for it. It’s also a stunning farewell fit for a fan-favorite character like Maul.

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Review: The usage of living dolls is not a new concept and has been used ever since humanity discovered natural magic. There are several different types that have been created. Some range from being like golems to full blown cyborgs powered by craft. The various branches have agreed that the usage and creation of living dolls after the date of [REDACTED] is a capital offense. There are a few exceptions, such as certain mage families that have been grandfathered in. .

Doll Name: Hana [Dolls belonging to families do not receive codes. as per Document #202A-B. Please read the attached PDF for more details]

Original Name: [REDACTED]

Personality: The original personality of this doll is unknown. As are with most cases of puppets, their former personality has been suppressed or removed altogether. 

Hana is earnest, single-minded, and tries her very best for Professor Go. Her spirit is high, as is her cunning. Her affection levels are low to anyone that is not Professor Go or her daughter, though she can “read” her master’s personality very well. Hana is formal but she has some dark and dangerous personality traits.

====OBSERVATION NOTES                                                                  

Last Updated                                                        [REDACTED] ——————————————————————————–

Due to the nature of political of this doll’s origins, the Agency has decided that it is going to have to prevent the origins of this puppet from being released to the public..Professor Go has issued the following notes. 

Alias: The doll’s often referred to as Nana while on duty.

Gender: Female.

Nationality: Possibly European.

Age: Possibly mid-20s.

B-Day: Unknown

General Notes #1::This doll is to be removed from the [REDACTED] Mage estate. This doll was created illegally  I believe that it is possible that the [REDACTED] family has more than this doll in their possession. Her “sister doll” noted as “The Sixth One” has gone rouge and is using the name of [REDACTED]. Due to this fact, it will be my duty to watch over this creation.  .

General Notes #2: Her body is a mix of artificial parts and original human bits. Elements of mechanical bits are also present. This is a horribly crafted mix of modern magecraft with ancient studies. I will have to design a lot of the cruder parts.

.....

General Notes #4: Hana was the main guardian of the [REDACTED] youngest daughter named [REDACTED]. In order to keep this doll stable, I will place in the role of a mentor for [REDACTED]. 

.....

General Notes #8: I have conducted interviews with Hana. My theory was correct. She was slain by a magus killer hired by the [REDACTED] family to turn a girl with a high magical potential into a doll to be used as a combat weapon.

I have also conducted research into the green jewel around her neck. It is a piece of jewelry that was crafted from Shards. It is most likely that exposure with this stone have cancelled out some of the magic used to suppress her memories and her attacks are largely randomized on the level of danger her mistress is in.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Height: 5’4”

Hair: Black. Her bangs reach down to her shoulders..

Eyes: Purple, probably due to the conversion. These are not her natural color.

There were attempts to use a magical device that was placed over her heart that helped to control all of her implants. I have altered the functions of these devices, for they were not well made. After interrogating one of the [REDACTED]’s sons, I found out who made them. This group has been nullified. 

General Appearance: She attempts to always look posed and regal. She is almost always seen in a maid uniform. Its unknown how it stays in good shape since it’s her only clothing available to her at this point.

Strengths: Since Hana is a living doll, she can perform feats considered impossible for normal humans like jumping high and packing a powerful punch. Hana is fast with a blade.

Weaknesses: Even living dolls are not without certain flaws that leaves them vulnerable. Since the modifications that Hana has received were generally man-made and had no magical origins, there were some limits to the extent of what she could do. Unless she was upgraded over time, her power does not change, meaning that her attack patterns are very predictable. Multiple encounters and her foes might be able to overcome her. It seems that her brain remains organic..

MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Aspirations: [REDACTED]

Hobbies: Hana enjoys putting things together, from cabinet making and woodwork to puzzle building. She is great with details and enjoy painting, music and knitting.

Likes: Order, Teaching, Protecting. 

Dislikes: Hana highly dislikes anything she considers sordid; this includes sloppy workers and squalor. Her greatest dislike is #6. 

SPECIALTY CHARACTERISTICS

Weapons: She knows how to handle blades. Hana can also use mops, brooms, and other items as efficient melee weapons. If push comes to shove, she can always punch someone.

Magics: Reality Song: The Mystic's Dream. Reality is bent with the tunes of a fairy tribe. It causes a slowing of a foe’s senses, as the fairy realm typically crushes a human’s body into dust. Hana is not of faye origins, but this song magic seems to be a skill trait from her past life. 

HISTORIC BACKGROUND

General History: [REDACTED]

====SUBJECT NOTES                                                              

Last Updated                                                 [REDACTED] ——————————————————————————– As of [REDACTED], all level 3 or below researchers are forbidden from editing this field.  All previous subject notes have been ordered to be locked permanently. The main line of the [REDACTED] family are aware of my involvement in countering their research and ownership of this doll.                        

[megashadowdragon]

sanji will end up transforming after getting angry enough

Diable Jambe, although it makes Sanji stronger is more of a technique rather than a traditional power up. It’s more of a Gear 3rd rather than a Gear 2nd/4th. I believe Sanji’s next power-up will play more with the Devil theme that Oda has given Sanji. I believe Sanji will have an emotion based Hakuba like transformation, to where when he gets angry he heats up, his blood “starts boiling” and his facial expression changes. A berserk mode if you will. In my opinion Thriller Bark was a huge playground for Oda to forshadow future abilities and power ups. Nightmare Luffy -> Gear 4th Luffy, Sanji bursting into flames -> Hell Memories, Franky’s docking - Franky Shogun, Robin’ Big Tree -> Mil Fleur: Gigantesco Mano, Zoro burning Ryuma -> Zoro’s future Fire technique (he showed interest in Kinemon’s teqnique) … and finally the scene is similar to sanji reminds me of  this panel):

so  sanji will have  a devil form which he reaches through anger there’s a tokusatsu that we know Oda likes, which would be a much more explicit inspiration for the Germa 66 : Kamen Rider. specifically the villainous organization shocker 

Shocker was a terrorist organization that planned on ruling the world (in the original manga is shown that Shocker had some influences over the governments of the world), with virtually all of its members modified in some way. The founders had mostly Nazi ties so it fits that germa66 not only references the nazis but the shocker organization from kamen rider Shocker’s scientists performed surgical alterations that gave the subject superhuman fighting abilities. Even the most basic Shocker soldier was tougher, stronger and faster than the average human civilian. The most powerful of their forces were the Kaijin, modified humans who were combined with animal DNA and human cybernetics to create living weapons. In an attempt to create the ultimate warriors, they were responsible for the rise of the very first Kamen Riders 1 and 2, whom defected and became the heroes who would ultimately lead to the fall of Shocker. and sanji and his siblings were altered genetically and the kamen riders specialty is the kamen rider KICK

In it Kamen Rider Black RX is a cyborg whose motif is a black grasshopper, which mirrors Sanji’s own epithet as Black Leg. Grasshoppers are known for their incredible spring like leg muscles that allow them to jump incredible heights which allow them to launch themselves in the air to fly. However he also has another motif and that is based on the sun. Kamen Rider Black RX is a photosynthetic warrior who is powered by the sun.

Since Kamen Rider is powered by the sun, he can set his legs and fists on fire to increase the lethality of his kicks and punches, which is basically what Sanji’s Diable Jambe does

and kamen rider black who sanji is partly inspired from had a transformation called the prince of anger which he  transformed when he reached a certain level of anger

I like to add that when Sanji was fighting with Judge and thought about their past, his Dj(Poele A Frire) glowed brighter than than usual.

against judge

Diable Jambe and Poele A Frire against Doflamingo:

and sanjis raid suit is called stealth BLACK

plus on sanji resembling kamen rider black rx  who is solar powered

both sanjis experience as a child  and duval was a reference to the man in the iron mask .

Though based on a real prisoner in the late 1600’s who Louis XIV forced to always wear a velvet mask to hide his identity and who was made to serve other prisoners, one of the most popular versions of the story is that of Alexandre Dumas, translated into a film in 1998. The prisoner, now shown wearing an iron mask, was Louis XIV’s twin brother  

sanji had encountered the same fate as written in Alexandre DUMAS book (The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later). Declared dead for the country but condemned to wear a mask and to spend all his life in an horrible prison

and louis XIV was known as the sun king and kamen rider black rx is solar powered

and sanjis and zoros rivalry parallels inuarashi and nekomamushis rivalry ( and inuarashi is called the ruler of the day and has a group under him that reference the three musketeers by alexander dumas  (a french story ) and sanji was dressed up as a musketeer and oda said in an sbs that sanji in the real world would be french

porche-chan . tumblr . com/post/134501849916/weve-located-zoros-fashion-twinkie-everyone

We’ve located Zoro’s fashion twinkie, everyone!. One Piece, chapters 82 and 809 porche-chan . tumblr . com/post/138118772526/i-made-an-observation-a-while-back-about#notes I made an observation a while back about Nekomamushi and Zoro being fashion twinkies, but now that I think about it, Inuarashi is wearing pinstripes, which is an early Sanji trademark:

And as Wanda explains in chapter 809, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi seem to have a little bit of a volatile relationship, not unlike Sanji and Zoro:

I have no fully formed theories regarding this, really, but there doesseem to be a recent influx (i.e. since Dressrosa) of duos whose dynamics are reminiscent of Zoro and Sanji. They all seem to exhibit a rivalrous and/or combative temperament, but there is either a history or discovery of working well together. And they all share, in some capacity, characteristics relatable to Sanji and Zoro in physical appearance:

What I hope it means, though, is that we’re going to see some next level development in Sanji and Zoro’s relationship. Like, some Thriller Bark level type of stuff. porche-chan . tumblr . com/post…is-an-imposing-figure?is_related_post=1#notes Like Zoro, Nekomamushi is an imposing figure; strong, intimidating and perceptive. And like Zoro (with his naps and sake), Nekomamushi also exhibits hedonistic tendancies:

And most hilariously, they both share a general disregard for their poor, poor medical professional:

both nekomamushi and inuarashi (zoro and sanjis counterparts) losing the precise limb that could incapacitate zoro and sanjis respective fighting styles

about inuarashis similarities to sanji I have to point out that inuarashi has a group that operates under his command called the Inuarashi Musketeer Squad Among them are three minks known as the “Three Inuarashi Musketeers”, The name of the squad is a reference to the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. a french story and oda stated in an sbs that sanji would be french in the real world

and this could make three allusions/connections that sanji has to the sun since inuarashi was the ruler of the day

sanji may  end use white fire

It is a common misconception that the Sun is yellow, or orange or even red. However, the Sun is essentially all colors mixed together, which appear to our eyes as white. This is easy to see in pictures taken from space.

Even though red typically represents hot or danger, in a fire, it depicts cooler temperatures. Blue, on the other hand, while representing cooler colors in society, actually epitomizes the opposite in fires as some of the hottest flames all around. When all flame colors combine, they produce white, the hottest color of them all. (though some say blue fire is the hottest  and it would fit for sanji to use use it since sanji is associated with the color blue )

  sanjis transformation being a physical transformation where he goes into a devil form  ( This has already been hinted at with Hell Memories where he remembers his past two years in order to enter a rage mode and Diable Jambe burns so intense it produces enough fire to cover the rest of his body:)

and “2. The Devil theme, started with Devil’s Leg and continued with Hell Memories could be greatly substantiated by having a mode in which Sanji becomes a Devil in terms of his personality as well. It could also lead to him earning a new moniker in the future, one that could better encompass what Sanji has become through out his journey, compared to the Black Leg that stuck closely to the teachings of Zeff before leaving the floating restaurant.”

zoro is connected to the ruler of the night nekomamushi in contrast to sanji with inuarashi while day = light night is connected to the dark so it fits for zoro to be the next dark king along with the parallels he has to Rayleigh like with the scar they both have on their eye. and there is the possibility that sanji will get the nickname light/sun  king which is fitting since his backstory and duvals character is a reference to the man in the iron mask who was said to be the twin brother of the sun king. so it fits if sanji gets the nickname sun/light king which will be after sanji vs kizaru (or before and it will foreshadow the confrontation ) since kizaru uses light and sanji will probably have conquerors haki ( since any time we see someone with conquerors haki they have a nickname associated with royalty or they have royal blood

given sanjis connections to the sun I think sanji will have powers that connect to fire and light which fits with sanjis theme  being satan the master of fire  who was once lucifer (lightbringer)

megashadowdragon . tumblr . com/post/139186383737/sanji-represents-satan-who-was-once-lucifer-the

or maybe sanji will transform as a result of ussops death megashadowdragon . tumblr . com/post/138764551657/kizaru-will-kill-ussop-and-it-will-lead-to-sanji/embed

after all the scene in thriller bark was zoro telling  usopp  not to rile him up anymore or else he will transform and usopp would inadvertently cause sanji to be riled up enough to transform by his death after all we know how much sanji cares about protecting people and  how angry sanji got in the usopp situation.

“You know what’s more amazing here than the fact that Sanji seriously kicked his captain’s rubbery ass? He almost hurt Nami by kicking Luffy right toward her direction. Nami was threatened enough to actually scream, not just dodge out of Luffy’s way. Sanji doesn’t apologize to Nami - hell, I bet he didn’t even realize that he almost hurt her. This really shows the heat of the moment, as well as how much Sanji was upset over Luffy’s words to Usopp”.

“sunnyul . tumblr . com/post/145669021863/you-know-whats-more-amazing-here-than-the-fact#notes

sanji was always someone who would defend usopp and in some way save him

sanji ended up going  go against people who have harmed usopp two times before but each time the damage  to ussop and the danger to ussops life that the  person provided  grown  the first time with bon clay bon clay had beaten ussop up and stole his goggles when sanji was far away but didnt kill him   and sanji wanted to get them back for ussop   , the second time with jabura he beat ussop up and then tried to land the finishing blow but sanji got there in time and saved  ussops life so the third time  usopp will die by kizarus hands  with sanji not being able to get there in time to save ussop and seeing ussops death (or coming in right after ussop died )    he would lose it  if usopp dies that will be the end for usopp in contrast to nami just getting a bit hurt 

@pernanegra

@sanjiafsincedayone

[duhragonball]

Variations on a Theme

My fanfic is long enough that I start to worry that I may be repeating myself in places.   In particular, I feel like the villains sort of run together, although that’s arguably true for any long-running story.   Lots of people get the Joker and the Riddler mixed up, for example.   Your standard Batman villains are all going to play off the same themes: fear, chaos, power, dual-identity, genius, etc.   Some of them are bound to overlap eventually.  

I thought about how this works with Dragon Ball’s villains.   In general, I feel like the major bad guys manage to be pretty distinct from each other, even though they’re basically all doing the same things.  I guess I should make a list.  Note that I don’t really have a firm definition of “major bad guy,” so if your fave didn’t make the cut, I wouldn’t read too much into that.

Emperor Pilaf: Wants to use the Dragon Balls to wish for world domination.   He seems kind of lazy and unfocused at first glance, but when you think about it, he puts a lot of time and effort into his goals.   It’s like he thinks Dragon Ball hunting is the quickest, easiest way to get what he wants, but it never actually works out that way, and he never seems to notice.  

Red Ribbon Army: I’m sort of lumping General Blue and the other RR officers into this one.   They’re all cruel and ruthless in their search for the Dragon Balls, but they’re only doing it in service to a larger cause.   For most of the Red Ribbon Saga, it’s assumed that the Army wants to wish for world domination, just like Pilaf, because what else could they possibly want?    But you have to figure that a guy like General White wouldn’t be much better off before or after that kind of a wish.    He’d still be assigned to some Red Ribbon outpost, carrying out the will of his superiors.   He’d probably be richer and more powerful in a world ruled by the Red Ribbon Army, but in the end he’s doing it all for espirit de corps. 

Mercenary Tao: He’s just in it for the money, and I suspect the money is really just a way for him to keep score, since his rates are so high that he’s he’s probably already a rich man.   Besides, he never pays for anything, so what does he need with money anyway?  Tao’s the first bad guy who’s so strong that he can just do whatever he wants.    He’s like a one-man Red Ribbon Army in that sense.   As an individual, he doesn’t have to worry about angry superiors or unruly subordinates.   I suppose his only real overriding motivation is his pride, as he refuses to accept defeat at the hands of Goku, even though he has no particular reason to keep fighting him.

Commander Red: The big twist of the Red Ribbon arc is when Staff Officer Black finds out that Red only wanted the Dragon Balls to become taller.   You’d think he’d rather have his right eye healed, but nope.   This is where we find out all the RR guys have been fighting for a completely meaningless objective.   The Army is already rich and powerful, and one could argue that they practically rule the world anyway, since they can more or less do as they please.   I think Red’s quest to become taller demonstrates that they’ve already peaked as a world power.   With nothing else to accomplish, Red’s applying his accumulated power on selfish desires.  

Tien Shinhan: Essentially, he’s just a patsy for the Crane Hermit, who in turn is out to avenge the death of Mercenary Tao, who in fact isn’t even dead.   I suppose Tien’s character arc in the 22nd Budokai is really just him waking up to the fact that his whole life is pointless.    He’s just stealing and killing for other people’s benefit, not unlike Tao’s mercenary career.    His power was impressive, but his victories over Yamcha and Jackie Chun were empty, and his victory over Goku would have been empty as well if he hadn’t repudiated the Crane school during the fight.  

King Piccolo/Piccolo Junior: I guess the big difference with King Piccolo is that he already ruled the world fifty years ago, and now that he’s been unsealed, he’s going to pick up where he left off.   Also, we eventually learn that he’s the evil side of Kami, and if one dies the other will cease to exist.   That puts an interesting spin on his villainy, since his greatest enemy can never truly be defeated.  Not unlike the Biblical Satan, his plan is to just to defile creation as much as he can until his inevitable end.   Like Tien, there’s a certain pointlessness to his brand of evil, which probably contributed to his reform.   I like to think that when Piccolo Junior became a martial artist, he began to appreciate the discipline and sportsmanship of it, to the point where he began to think of Goku an company as peers to be respected, instead of enemies to be destroyed.   And, as Kami observed, training Gohan was a way for Piccolo to leave a legacy behind, something he could never do as a Demon King.

Raditz: Really, Raditz only came to Earth to recruit Goku for a battle on some other planet.  What sets the DBZ villains apart is that they don’t even care about the Earth at all, and only see it as a stepping stone to some larger goal.  Upon learning about the Dragon Balls, he believed that his comrades would use them to bring him back to life.

Nappa: Not unlike Raditz, in the sense that he probably would have used the Dragon Balls to wish him back to life.  Nappa’s thought of breeding a race of Saiyan-Earthling hybrids suggests that he had some lofty dreams of his own for the future, but he was happy to put them aside when Vegeta suggested something more selfish. 

Vegeta: The first guy to think of wishing for immortality.   The key difference between Vegeta and past villains is that he’s not just looking for a way to conquer a particular empire, or to kill lots of people.   He’s thinking ahead to battles he wants to fight in the future (i.e. Frieza), and he wants to keep conquering and killing forever.   I don’t think Vegeta ever truly wanted to be immortal for its own sake, but he saw it as a way to hedge his bets, in case he ever bit off more than he could chew. 

All of Frieza’s henchmen: In a nutshell, they serve Frieza because they see that as the only way forward in a universe where Frieza is the strongest mortal in it.   There’s no freedom from Frieza, only freedom through Frieza, and your Zarbons and Captain Ginyus thrive in the organization by doing their jobs very well.  They think the universe is an extremely simple equation because of this, and they’re always shocked and horrified to learn that they’re mistaken. 

Frieza: Basically all of the previous bad guys rolled into one.   He already rules the universe, by virtue of being the strongest guy in it, so he’s a lot like Red, Tao, and Piccolo on Earth.  He seeks immortality like Vegeta, but it almost feels like Red’s wish to become taller.    Frieza doesn’t really have anything else to wish for, you know?   He also planned to destroy Namek after getting his wish, just as Piccolo did when he got his youth restored, and he became a revenge-obsessed cyborg like Tao. 

Garlic Junior:  Okay, he’s filler, but I still think he’s cool.    Garlic sort of doubled down on the whole “evil-for-evil’s-sake” gimmick that King Piccolo represented.   Unlike Piccolo, he’s not the evil half of anybody, and he’s not just looking to torment everyone on Earth.   Instead, his plan is to convert everyone on Earth to his cause, using the Black Water Mist.   I get the sense that none of this was really headed anywhere specific.    He spoke of resurrecting his dead father, but I have no idea what the purpose of that would be when he had already conquered the Earth and overthrown his enemies.   He reminds me a lot of Pilaf, and I almost wonder if Garlic is supposed to represent what Pilaf could have become if he’d tried a little harder, or stooped a little lower.

Dr. Gero: Revenge personified.    Akira Toriyama later established that Gero lost his son in the destruction of the Red Ribbon HQ, and that’s why he wanted revenge on Goku so badly, and that’s fine and all, though I liked the original implication that he just really, really liked the Red Ribbon Army as a concept, like a middle-aged wrestling fan who really misses WCW.   You could argue that Gero is the most nihilistic villain of the set, as his revenge plot involves multiple long term schemes, some of them arranged beyond his expected lifespan, and none of them were particularly concerned about the fate of the Earth.  

Androids 17, 18, and 19: I’m assuming that 19 had some semblance of free will here.   None of these three had any stake in Gero’s plot, but they didn’t really have anything else going for them either.   I’m pretty sure 19 stuck with Gero because he wanted to be on the winning side, and maybe because Gero was the more powerful of the two.  �� By contrast, 17 and 18 turned on him at the first opportunity, and wandered around for a while before turning good.   Their counterparts in the Future Trunks timeline never reformed, which I always assumed was they were driven mad by boredom.    Of course, they were always designed to be fodder for Cell, so in a sense they were trapped in Gero’s vendetta whether they wanted to be or not. 

Cell (The Best Villain): He’s a lot like Frieza if he had actually wished for immortality.   What would Frieza have done next?   Well, he’d probably sip wine and gloat for another hundred million years, so maybe this analogy doesn’t hold up.   The point is that Cell was designed to fulfil a very specific set of objectives, making him stronger than everyone, and then he just sort of had nothing else to do.    It’s very similar to Tien and Mercenary Tao’s lack of purpose, but since Cell is an inhuman monster, there’s no guarantee that he’d eventually  get sick of killing and destroying everything.  

Babidi: He’s a lot like Commander Red, Frieza, Garlic, and Dr. Gero, in that he relies on others to do his dirty work.   You know, that’s actually a pretty long list.  All five of these dudes use different forms of manipulation to control their underlings.    Babidi uses mind control, and I suppose Garlic does too, though the Black Water Mist isn’t quite so well-defined.   Gero seems to be able to program his cyborgs to varying degrees of complaince.   Frieza uses on intimidation and cult of personality, and Commander Red seems to rely on military hierarchy and a sense of “we’re all in this together”.       Babidi is more direct about it.   If he wants someone on his team, he just uses his magic and makes them join his team, whether they would have shared his objectives or not.  He also wants revenge like Dr. Gero, and he has dreams of ruling the universe like several other past villains, but all of that seems to take a back seat to reviving Majin Buu.    That seems to be what makes him stand out.   Mind control is a bit cliche, but the real hook to Babidi is what he’s trying to use it to accomplish.   Each guy he brings to his side is just cannon fodder for winning the next guy, until he can finally get Buu on his team.   I’m pretty sure he could conquer the universe and kill the Supreme Kai with Dabura and Vegeta alone, but he can’t stand the thought of not having Buu on his team.  Except Majin Buu’s the one bad guy he can’t control.   If he had just left that one go, he would have been unstoppable.  Instead, he pushed too far and lost it all.

Majin Buu: This guy gets a lot of criticism for being short on personality, but I think that’s the point.   He’s a weapon, like Cell, and he’s even more devoid of purpose than the Crane School guys, King Piccolo, or the Androids.   He’s basically a walking natural disaster, practically begging the universe to stop him.   I never really thought about it before, but he’s a lot like Tien’s run as a villain.  Like, Tien met Majin Buu in the middle of that arc, and you’d never make that connection during that encounter, but it really is a similar kind of situation.  They both needed somebody to slap some sense into ‘em.

I thought about moving on to the villains from GT and Super, but this is pretty long already, so I’ll just call it here.  I think I’ve seen what I needed to see anyway.   A lot of these guys have similar power-sets and motivations.   Babidi and Dr. Gero are very similar in the sense that their revenge plans end up summoning an unstoppable weapon and unleashing it upon a defenseless Earth.  

But the difference lies in the details.   For Gero, Perfect Cell was Plan C or D, a failsafe he never expected to live long enough to see in action.    Plan A was to tackle Goku in person by becoming an android himself, and everything else that happened was because of his initial failure to accomplish this.    Majin Buu, on the other hand, was Babidi’s first and only goal.    As much as he wanted to get revenge on the Surpreme Kai, he seemed much more fixated on Buu.   Killing the Kai was just a way to clear a path to Buu, or a fun thing to do with Buu once he got him. 

This also puts some parallels in stark contrast.   When 17 kills Dr. Gero, it’s superficially similar to Buu killing Babidi.   The difference, though, is that Gero never trusted 17, and he was only activating him out of desperation.    Babidi really thought he had Buu figured out, and then he lowered his guard for just a moment and paid the ultimate price.    Which is ironic when you think about it, because we don’t usually think of Buu as being treacherous or sneaky.    17 comes across that way sometimes, but he’s pretty up front about his intentions.   Gero wasn’t exactly surprised when 17 turned on him.

And this is why I get pissed off when people who don’t watch the show try to dismiss it as the same thing over and over.   It’s not the same thing over and over, but the only way to be convinced of that is to take the time to sit down and experience Dragon Ball in depth.    I don’t like football, but I’m not gonna buy into the tired old joke of it being a bunch of guys running around in tight pants.   I have no idea how football works, but I’m not gonna pretend that there isn’t some deeper appeal, or that there’s no tactical or athletic contest going on, simply because I don’t like it.  A lot of people enjoy it, so there must be something to it, even if it’s not for me.   I just haven’t taken the time to study it.

Anyway, I’m concluding from this that I should probably take the time to study my own work, and maybe that would help me to shake some of these confidence issues.    I can talk myself into believing that my writing is better than I think it is, but maybe I need to analyze that in detail, and actually write the analysis down instead of letting it swirl around endlessly in my head.    I’ve always resisted this sort of thing because it feels like an ego trip, but maybe it’s been the opposite all along...