#shoots rockets & torpedos

[2broschlininahotub]

Meet the Springans.

Springans is a portemanteau between spring gun and Spriggans, which are legendary creatures from the fairy tradition of Cornish mythology.

The "Springans" monsters are soot-based life forms wearing missile, torpedo, and cannon armor. Some, such as "Rockey", can fold their bodies into their respective weapons to attack. The bodies were built by Kitt and ferrijit. The thing is harr did not create the spriggans, therions and splights directly instead what happen was harr with Mardel created the energy that created them or the source of their existence. The energy is what allows beings of energy to manifest a physical form as both the therions and slights are made of electricity while the springgans are manifestations of dust, soot and ash. It was called the spark of life. Supposedly this energy is what made Frankenstein's monster come to life.

Meet Rocky

Rocky is not that smart. Rocky loves Kitt. Rocky loves to be launched. Rocky and the rest of spriggans live in a desert known as gulgonda. That place is much more dangerous than Sumeru desert as the threat of wormholes and a giant serpent. Rocky loves to launched like a cannon. Rocky has a built in self destruction device on his back. He is immune to the damage of self destruction and best described as this meme. Head empty only explode. Rocky cannot speak but has the fearlessness and carelessness from someone from Florida.

Meet Branga

Branga is that friend who is normally a yes to everything type of person. When he says no that is when something is wrong. Branga is described to be as himbo. Branga is fun loving person who wants to see people smile. He has an inherit love of wanting to see people and especially children to be happy. He loves fireworks. Can be surprisingly tactical in a game like warships or given a mortar. The reason why is that no matter how far he is he can for some reason hit the opponent. The thing his strategy is much more simple that you think. The strategy is to always aim where around the target as he the shock wave could always force the target to a tile he wants them to move in.

Meet Pedor and his brothers. Pedor is best described as tries to be cheer someone up but failing at it so horribly that it cheers the person up. His brothers and by extension all spriggans in this area love shiny objects and give you shiny stuff as gifts. They all have this thing when they are in their armors they see things as if they're pilotting a mech. They even have rockets that they can shoot. The rockets contain their brothers.

This is actually how the spriggans travel. They have a giant airship that has a largege springan inside. This is also the base of the tri brigade. It also can be prepared to blow. It can explode to be a nuclear bomb but that is only a last resort. Don't worry this does not appear in teyvat but this is stuff kit and ferrijit can make. Yes, the spriggans can survive a nuclear fallout as these beings do not need clear air but do need something to burn or or soot/ash to eat to live.

This is what happens when Spriggans Sargas combines with a therion in this case Regulus. This form can produce a large laser beam from the giant belt that can chuck an entire mountain out of existence.

Here is where they currently are. They all appeared in Inazuma they appeared near Yoimiya and her father's shop. They were scared of them at first but they were all able to warm up near Yoimiya. What happened was that there were some bandits and the spriggans were near an empty ruin guard and ruined hunter that had their cores removed. The spriggans were able to hot wire the two machines and used them selves as cores. The bandits ran away as they saw a literal ruin guard and ruin hunter activate. Yoimiya first thought they were yokai. Then word got out about it and it reached the tri brigade so Kitt went to investigate it. They went there on an airship. They were all able to reunite with each other. Some of them were fine staying here so Kitt, ferrijit and Shuraig stayed here. Kitt showed Yoimiya something about the spriggans. Kitt taught them how to dance. Kitt started to clap her hand and Spriggans in pairs started to square dance. Yoimiya used this as great idea for a carnival game.

[snooty-tooty]

I was seeing an ad for a new mortal kombat game that had scout from tf2 in it, except he had no additional powers and would basically get KO’d instantly in every match. Also the blue ninja turtle was in the game, but if he clasped his hands(?) together he could shoot a torpedo from his shell.

Suddenly I was in the ad, and started rocket jumping around an underground train station. Eventually I got bored and left the rocket launcher behind and surfaced. I found my family at a museum and joined them.

Instead of looking through the museum, I went to the lobby where there was a thrift store set up and I started looking for new shoes.

[usafphantom2]

Tap pics to enlarge ☝️

conversion of the Beaufort, it was quickly apparent that more extensive modification was needed, resulting in a much more capable design. Heavily armed with various combinations of 20mm cannon, machine guns, rockets, bombs and even torpedoes, the ‘Beau’ was a force to be reckoned with. Over 5,900 would be built.

Beaufighters began to enter service in September 1940, but were not initially fitted with AI radar, the first kill using the new technology only being achieved in late November. Thereafter, the type quickly became the RAF’s primary night fighter, taking an increasingly heavy toll of Luftwaffe bombers. It would remain in this role until Mosquitoes began to take over in 1943. Notable Beaufighter pilots included John Cunningham and John ‘Bob’ Braham. Guy Gibson also scored victories on the aircraft during a ‘break’ from bomber operations.

Beaufighters saw extensive service with RAF Coastal Command. Some were used to counter Luftwaffe patrols over the Bay of Biscay, but the type is best known as an anti-shipping aircraft. Carrying rockets or torpedoes, Beaufighters took a heavy toll of German shipping, though many were shot down in return. The North Coates Strike Wing, for example, was credited with 150,000 tons sent to the bottom, at the high cost of 120 aircraft. A Coastal Command Beau also took part in one of the most audacious missions of the war. On 12th June 1942, an aircraft of 236 Squadron dropped a Tricolour on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris before shooting up the Kreigsmarine HQ.

Beaufighters saw extensive service in the Mediterranean in all roles. They operated from bases in North Africa and Malta against Axis shipping and aircraft, proving particularly effective against Luftwaffe transports. Later, operating from Italy, they conducted anti-shipping operations over the Adriatic and Aegean. From August 1945, 19 Squadron SAAF flew ground attack missions in direct support of Yugoslavian partisans.

In the Far East, several RAF squadrons operated Beaufighters from Burma, primarily for ground attack, but also on long range intruder missions. In the Southwest Pacific, the RAAF used the type extensively, with five Beaufighter squadrons being formed. 30 Squadron flew British-built aircraft to mount devastating strafing attacks during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943. Over 350 Mark 21 Beaufighters were produced in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) from September 1944.

Pictured:

1) Beaufighter IIF night fighter of 255 Squadron at Hibalstow, Lincolnshire. This Merlin-powered variant proved underpowered and suffered from instability issues, which caused a number of accidents.

📷©️IWM ATP 10603B

2) Beaufighter VIF of 272 Squadron at Ta Kali Airfield in Malta, June 1943.

📷©️IWM TR 1064

3) Salvo of rockets being fired by a Beaufighter of 455 Squadron RAAF, Coastal Command, based at Langham, Norfolk.

📷©️IWM MH 5117

4) Crews of 30 Squadron RAAF pose in front of a DAP Beaufighter Mark 21 on Morotai Island in the Netherlands East Indies, April 1945.

📷©️AWM OG 2522

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.30 (after 1940)

1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies. Some 300 captured Allied troops are killed after the surrender. One-quarter of the remaining POWs remain alive at the end of the war. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy. 1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people. 1945 – World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred and twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp. 1948 – British South American Airways' Tudor IV Star Tiger disappears over the Bermuda Triangle. 1948 – Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in his home compound, India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, broadcasts to the nation, saying "The light has gone out of our lives". The date of the assassination becomes observed as "Martyrs' Day" in India. 1956 – In the United States, Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery bus boycott. 1959 – The forces of the Sultanate of Muscat occupy the last strongholds of the Imamate of Oman, Saiq and Shuraijah, marking the end of Jebel Akhdar War in Oman. 1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, specifically designed to operate in icebound seas, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard. 1960 – The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties. 1964 – In a bloodless coup, General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows General Dương Văn Minh's military junta in South Vietnam. 1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. 1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police. 1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Sunday: British paratroopers open fire on anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 people; another person later dies of injuries sustained. 1972 – Pakistan leaves the Commonwealth of Nations in protest of its recognition of breakaway Bangladesh. 1974 – Pan Am Flight 806 crashes near Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa, killing 97. 1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary. 1979 – A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. 1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner". 1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is closed. 1995 – Hydroxycarbamide becomes the first approved preventive treatment for sickle cell disease. 2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ivory Coast, killing 169. 2006 – The Goleta postal facility shootings occur, killing seven people before the perpetrator took her own life. 2013 – Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea. 2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

[secrettyrant]

Right now, Carlo doesn't have a single opinion about the manic driving. He's thankful that they're rocketed along the street, and his mind travels right along with them. First, he thinks of his brother. If anything happened to him, what would happen to Gabriel? His mind travels to survival, his instincts on alert even as he's jostled to and fro in the back of that damned truck.

And then it all stops, Carlo catching his breath in a huff as the wolves all leave. He's out next, his mind still torpedoing for the need to survive. His eyes catch the convoy of two vehicles and then his mind travels to his sister. Is Taliah there? Still, he draws in a sharp breath and waves a hand as if to yield Rineike and Hunter's idea. "I think we should follow them. They could be going to a camp or a facility, we could go back later and help more." and more chances to find wolves they're missing.

His idea may as well have fallen on deaf ears as Carlo watches the Vaisman wolf hurtle herself into harms way. "No! Wait!" he calls but it's no use, she's gone and leaving a swirl of kicked up leaves in her wake. He throws his back to the nearby tree, readying his gun and aiming to watch her. "What the fuck is she doing?" he hisses, as if the others would have any idea. But he watches, feeling the rise and fall of the gun pressed into his shoulder.

Carlo steadies his aim as the soldier approaches Alana, squinting as he stares down the sights. He's ready to shoot, but she shoots quicker. The thud of the soldier's body is like a signal to everything else, soldiers pooling from the trucks and gunfire rattling into the air. "Someone better get those doors open so whatever's in there can help us!" he calls across the loud bangs. He can't see where Alana's got to but he shoots anything in a uniform with return fire and rushes so he gain closer. He doesn't know this wolf but it becomes instinctual to protect her, even as he carefully switches through cover to approach the street. @gloriouswhispers

'im just saying, man.' diego shrugs to hunter, his head shaking to refute any confrontation the cross is willing to get into there and then. 'there's a better time for that shit than when we all need to pull together.' he doesn't hold much kindness towards rineike now, considering her vote to stop searches. but, he doesn't particularly want to rip her face off either. he nods at carlo's interjection, noticing the wya his cousin has no blame in any of this but purely by joining the cross' is catching the heat from the other wolves.

to be at war but not on the frontline. diego has thought often about what that means. it doesn't make the war any less real, especially when they're face to face with barren towns. especially when he thinks about how humans may be living. so, he doesn't have an exact response for hunter's bitterness. in fact, he agrees with it. working together through the abandoned town is easier in silence, too. diego thinks of his son, of carina. high alert on the happenings around him, every glance shared between rineike and hunter.

so when the rumble rattles loose gravel stones on cracked tarmac, diego is already in a rush to the truck. his gun is at the ready, flung from his shoulder as he slips into the passenger seat. he turns as carlo speaks, nodding as his finger precariously hovers closer to the trigger. 'depending on what's passing through, we might not be able to hide. just be ready.' his eyes then bounce between alana and rineike, letting hunter take the wheel again and trusting his mania will be useful for one thing. driving really fucking fast. @manybcdthings

[neocurio]

pOLARIS NUCLEAR SUB 

[lemaistrechat]

Hordak’s body transformations

The rocket form, his most common transformation, was introduced in “Reunions”/The Secret of the Sword.

He also transformed into a drill.

“A Loss for Words” introduced several new forms. First, he plays with his daughter as a wheeled vehicle with four arms.

Then turns into this jackhammer when he gets knocked down through the floor (in “Of Shadows and Skulls”, he just makes his left arm a jackhammer).

Then this tank with claw arms.

After the fight, he turns into a different configuration of rocket, indicating that he can control this form much better now. We would see him use his arms and talk in variants of his rocket form in, for example, “Gateway to Trouble” when he fights Skeletor.

In “The Unicorn King”, he transforms into a torpedo.

In “Into the Dark Dimension”, he forms this helicopter backpack.

Later that episode, there was... this thing:

Note that he’d later transform only his head into the hammer when frustrated with Perfuma.

In “Loo-Kee Lends a Hand” and “Brigis”, he transforms into a tank like the mass-produced Horde Destructo Tank... which raises the question of why they don’t transform into giant Hordaks.

JUST AN ARM:

Hordak's right arm cannon could shoot a beam, sleep gas, a flamethrower, a rocket, a steel javelin that splits into prongs to restrain an enemy, or act as a vacuum cleaner. In "He Ain't Heavy", he transforms it into a magnet. In "A Loss for Words", "Into the Dark Dimension" and "A Lesson in Love", he elongates his right arm with a hand, shears or a butterfly net at the end.

In "Friendship", he transforms his left arm into a device with four spinning blades. In "The Stone in the Sword", it becomes a chain with a winch. He repeatedly turned it into a shield. It also sometimes turned into cannons like his other.

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Super Squid! Flying Marvels of the Natural World

Look up in the sky—it’s a bird! No, a plane! It’s…it’s…a squid?!  Most people wouldn’t expect a squid to fly, but truth is sometimes stranger than comic book fiction. The natural world is full of wonderful surprises, including many creatures that seemingly have no business being airborne. They can live in very different habitats, ranging from beneath the ocean waves to high up in the tree tops of a rainforest. Yet all these animals have expertly managed to adapt to their environments and utilize flight as a successful survival tool.

Flying Mammals

Wouldn’t it be a strange world if mice and rats could fly? Besides being a housecat’s worst nightmare, this notion also seems unbelievable. But out in the amazing world of wildlife, this isn’t so far from the truth! Gliding mammals can be found around the globe, from the tiniest of these arboreal aerialists, the Mighty-Mouse-sized Feathertail Glider, which lives in Australia, to the largest, the 16-inch-long Colugo, sailing through the tree tops of the rainforests of South East Asia.

The Southern Flying Squirrel (also called the assapan) measures 10 inches long from nose to tail and covers a wide range of the eastern side of North America. It lives in the deciduous forests that stretch from Southeast Canada to Florida. Their habitat is like that of the Gray Squirrel, but we often don’t see them because they’re nocturnal.

These squirrels are nocturnal, and eat a variety of fruits, nuts, insects, spiders, flowers, and seeds. They’ll also eat bird eggs and gastropods like snails and slugs!

Flying squirrels, like all gliding mammals, has specialized flight gear that enables it to take to the skies. This unique flying tool is called a patagium, which is a stretchy cape of loose skin that starts at their wrists, extends along their body, and attaches at their ankles. To become airborne, they usually like to take a running start from a tree top. But they can also take off from a stationary jumping point by pulling in their limbs and head close to their body. Then, like releasing energy from a coiled spring, they push off and propel into the air. Once they’re in the air, they stretch out their arms and legs to create an “X” shape with their body. This causes their patagium to billow up and stretch into a square shape. This allows them to turn into furry little pilots, expertly maneuvering around obstacles and trees. They can even manage to make last- second, hair-raising 90-degree turns!

When preparing to land, they raise up their flattened tail, which acts like the stabilizer on a kite or airplane. This allows them to adjust their trajectory and hone in on their landing site. By pulling their limbs in front of them, the squirrel’s patagium transforms into a parachute and slows them down when they reach the limb of their choice. Although they’re clumsy walkers because of their patagium, the Southern Flying Squirrel’s ability to glide is an effective adaptation for traveling long distances, and a great tactic for evading predators.

Flying Reptiles

It’s not just mammals that can sail through the wild blue yonder; reptiles have their superhero moments, too. When you think of a flying reptile, the first thing that might come to mind is a menacing winged serpent or dragon out of some mythical Medieval legend. But these captivating creatures don’t just live in the land of fairytales—they inhabit our world, too. The Draco Lizard, also called the Flying Dragon, makes its home in the jungles of Southeast Asia and Southern India. Measuring a mere 8 inches from head to tail, it’s astounding that they can fly through the forest for up to 100 feet! They accomplish this by using folds of skin that rest against their body. When unfurled, this skin acts as wings. This tiny “dragon” can travel quickly from tree to tree using their wings for lift and their long, slender tail for steering. Their airborne expediency is very useful for avoiding danger, finding mates, and tracking down meals.

You wouldn’t think this little lizard could be airborne, but they can glide distances up to 10 times their body length!

Another gliding reptile is the nocturnal Flying Gecko, which lives in the tropical forests of Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Measuring up to 8 inches, they can fly for up to 200 feet! They have special webbing that surrounds their neck, limbs, feet, trunk, and rudder-like tail. When the gecko stretches itself out, this webbing acts as flaps that create surface area and generate lift.

Lastly, there is one brave reptile that seems to break all the rules of flight and aerodynamics. It’s the flying snake. There are currently five recognized species, and they range from Western India to Indonesia. Scientists are not quite sure why snakes fly. Maybe it’s to escape predators, hunt prey, or quickly move from tree to tree. Whatever their reasons, it is an amazing sight to see. The Paradise Tree Snake of Southeast Asia will slither to the end of a branch, dangle in a J shape, then spring off using the lower half of its body. Then they use the speed of free fall to fly. In midair, it flattens its body into a concave “C” shape to trap air and provide lift. As it glides, it undulates side to side in an “S” shape. This action increases stabilization so that it can cover more horizontal distance. No other gliding animal maintains stability like this. At just 4 feet long, the Paradise Tree Snake can fly for up to 330 feet! It’s quite an achievement for a reptile with no legs or wings.

Flying Sea Life

Most people think that dolphins and whales are the only aquatic acrobats of the animal world. But there are many other sea creatures that peek above the ocean waves from time to time. Perhaps you’ve heard of the flying fish. There are 40 known species that inhabit the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Their streamlined, torpedo-shaped bodies can be as long as 18 inches. They’ll rapidly beat their forked tails to break the water’s surface and propel themselves through the air at 35 miles per hour. Using their unusually large pectoral fins as wings, they can glide for up to 655 feet before re-entering the water. It’s an astonishing feat that seems incomparable, but there has been a recent discovery of another flying marvel of the seas…Super Squid! All joking aside, this mollusk is called a flying squid. Scientists think that there are possibly dozens of species of squid that can fly, some of which are the Neon Flying Squid, the Orangeback Squid, and the Argentine Shortfin Squid.

Although there are several different species of flying squid, they most likely all evolved their mantles and funnels similarly for the most effective speed and aerodynamics when airborne.

A flying squid launches itself out of the water like a rocket by using its mantle and funnel. A mantle is a cloak of soft, muscular tissue that surrounds its body. When the squid contracts its mantle, it sends water shooting through the funnel, a tube below its head. It blasts out of the water like a jet and can travel as far as 100 feet in 3 seconds and fly as high as 10 feet above the water’s surface! It glides by spreading out its fins and flapping. But it also forms wings by spreading out its tentacles in a radial pattern. A membrane between their tentacles enables them to catch air, and this creates lift. Upon re-entry into the water, the squid folds back its fins and dives under the waves. Scientists have observed groups of over twenty squid flying together, and they’ve noticed that the squid don’t just glide passively. They change posture based on their distance from the water and their phase of flight. Scientists also think, more than likely, squids fly as a defense method for predatory escape.

So, the next time you’re outdoors, take a moment to look up into the sky and imagine seeing a snake, a squirrel, a lizard, or a squid sailing high above your head. It’s seems utterly inconceivable, but these amazing animals really do exist. And no, none of them wear a little red cape and have an “S” on their chest. And they’re not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But that doesn’t make their gravity-defying feats of flight any less super.  

Shelby Wyzykowski is a Gallery Experience Presenter in CMNH’s Life Long Learning Department. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[fizzingwizard]

Ep 38 is another good one! We are on a roll. I have some thoughts on why and whether I could still end up whining in future episodes again... but for now let’s just enjoy the moment.

We are finally catching up with Yamato (and Jou) who has the sort of episode you’d expect from the brooding lone wolf of the group. I wish they’d pushed it just a liiiittle further than they did and I’ll tell you why below. Still, the point is we learned some things we needed to about Yamato, and with some higher than usual stakes (for a side plot) than usual.

Pic of the day, though, is all about his highness, our lord and savior, JOOOOOOOOO.

You will bow before him, peasant!

More below.

Like I said, the stakes are a bit high this week:

Right off the bat, Gabumon’s been beaten, captured, and tied to a cross...

... where Mephismon (this guy) is apparently planning to kill him in ritual sacrifice.

In other words, this episode is: Yamato and Gabumon Go To Digimon Hell

:P

I mean... Mephismon even looks scary. Very Satanic. Gives me chill, lol. Probably not as scary for kids who didn’t grow up being hit over the head with a Bible every day by evangelicals, though. Sometimes I look back on my childhood and just think “wtf?”

That being said, Mephismon is the sort of lackey you’d expect Millenniumon to have, much more in the vein of Devimon or DarkKnightmon. Aka, pretty darn scary. I was so frustrated for so long by all the small fry Digimon Taichi “struggled” with by himself for no apparent reason - they felt like filler episodes, tbh - filler for a show that has no reason to have filler!

And I STILL do NOT understand why we got WarGreymon’s evolution over a totally forgettable nobody Digimon, but these recent episodes with Koushirou, Mimi, and Yamato have all been serious crises where the characters put everything on the line, and yet nobody evolves. It’s not that I think they HAD to evolve here - I can see they’re leading up to it and since that guarantees more focus on them in the future, I’m totally down for that. What I don’t understand is why Taichi DIDN’T get that. Why play WarGreymon so early? The episode itself did involve Taichi challenging himself, but it all felt so setup. And so unmemorable that it’s just hard to care.

Anyway... I’m ranting about things that didn’t happen in this episode. Rant over xD Back to Yamato.

His desperate play to rescue Gabumon by himself goes as well as you’d expect.

Yamato: I’m too cool for this shit

He is chased by those gas mask-wearing Digimon whose name I forget. But they are conveniently blown back by the gush of a timely geyser. Geyser, you say? That means hot springs must be nearby. If hot springs are nearby...

Jou: Now I know what it feels like to be Team Rocket!

Jou falls out of the sky and right into Yamato’s path. Dressed in nothig but a towel, he looks to Yamato like a scrawny, nerdy, guardian angel.

Yamato: You’ve gotta help me, Clarence. Fly me to the top of the mountain.

Jou: I can’t, I haven’t got my wings.

Yamato: Yeah, you’re about what I’d expect my guardian angel to be like...

So, Jou immediately starts to chatter at Yamato, and it looked to me like Yamato might be getting annoyed. If this were 99 Adventure, he’d had snapped and said something like, “Can’t you see Gabumon’s gone? Aren’t you even going to ask about that or do you only think about yourself?”

But this is 2020 Yamato, and 2020 Digimon Adventure, where the kids are all Very Nice and don’t have much in the way of flaws. That’s my number one complaint about this show so far. So Yamato just waits for the moment where Jou needs to take a breath to break and ask for his help rescuing Gabumon.

(Gomamon reminds Jou to get dressed first, thankfully.)

Up on the mountain peak, Mephismon sacrifices the Data of poor blue!Elecmon to the fragment of Millenniumon he is guarding.

At first I was like, why do Yamato and Jou know about these crystals?? But then they’re like, we heard from Taichi over the digivice. Ah, of course. I kind of miss the old digivices that pre-date smartphones :P

Yamato explains how they ended up in this situation, and I REALLY like this. They came across Mephismon sacrificing innocent Digimon on their journey to reunite with the rest of the team, and it was Gabumon who insisted they had to stay and save them. Gabumon!

So this is not the first time we’ve seen the Digimon partners take initiative this season. The lack of personal flaws and personality clashes are my least favorite part of the reboot, but the increased agency of the Digimon themselves is probably my favorite. When DanDevimon swallowed Taichi, it was Agumon’s pain that caused his warp evolution. Not saying Taichi had nothing to do with it, but the focus was certainly way more on how losing his partner sent Agumon over the edge. Now we’ve got Yamato actually arguing with Yamato because he feels so passionate about rescuing the captured Digimon.

Yamato’s not heartless, of course - he just prioritizes the people closest to him first. And I have no idea if we’ll see much more of this sort of willpower from Gabumon - it’s partly there for convenience, since no one else is around. (Last time, it was Sora who wanted to help others at their own risk and Yamato clashed with her over the same thing.) The other reason is, this is the episode where we find out how Yamato and Gabumon became friends - which is especially important for the guy who gets the Crest of Friendship - so they needed something a bit more meaty than “the proof of our friendship is I follow you wherever you go and do whatever you want.”

But I love it because it really makes them feel like partners.

Of course, Yamato can’t say no in the end, so he and Gabumon go to save the Digimon. But they’re overwhelmed.

The vision of his partner’s bony ass shrinking into the distance as bullets fly overhead will haunt his dreams always ;^;

Yamato: Once a psychic read my palm and said I have an unusually short life line. I guess she was right. But she also said I’d marry Emma Stone and have eight children.

Jou: are you sure she wasn’t just playing a game of MASH?

While Yamato and Jou plan their strategy, we switch back to the rest of the team, where the girls are having tea time.

I know I complain about this every time but WHO DA HECK decided Sora and Mimi should wear the same color scheme look what you did now they both blend into the couch

The boys talk a bit of shop, then Takeru reveals that he and Yamato don’t live together because their parents fight and don’t get to see each other because they both work so much. He doesn’t really come out and say “they’re divorced” but he says he and his brother are separated. Even though Yamato calls Takeru to talk a lot, Takeru still feels sad that there are things he misses since they live so far apart.

Taichi assures Takeru that Yamato will be fine, pointing out that Yamato had already been adventuring in the digital world for an unknown amount of time before Taichi’s group ever got there. Wow, haven’t referenced that in literally ages. I’m glad these things are finally relevant again. Also like how it seems to confirm Taichi still kinda holds special admiration for Yamato. That seemed like the route they were going way back when Yamato joined the group in episode 8, but then it wasn’t touched on till now.

Then we get the long-awaited Yamato & Gabumon origin story! Yamato appears to have arrived in the digital world in a similar way that Taichi did. He looks the same, so probably it wasn’t a huge time difference (in human world time anyway).

At first, Yamato’s like, “leave me alone. I don’t have any interest in the digital world. Where’s the exit?” And Tsunomon says, “Fine, then I will just protect you whether you want me to or not.”

Yamato: Reeeeeally wishing Ikkakumon could fly, lol

Yamato recalls how, despite his chilly behavior, Tsunomon still jumped to his rescue.

(The rescue involved Ikkakumon shooting torpedoes up the mountainside so Yamato can grab them and climb to the top. What I don’t get is why this didn’t draw Mephismon’s attention :P I guess he figured his gas mask lackeys would handle it but uh.)

Past!Yamato rescues Tsunomon, who is so touched that he is able to evolve. Yamato makes an attempt to remain aloof...

... but in the end he turns into Taichi :P

So that’s the origin story! It’s more or less what I figured. Kind of surprised we didn’t get any scenes of them in the digital world proper, since I got the impression Yamato was familiar with that world as well as this plane that seems to be a sort of interface between worlds. But maybe not, who knows.

What they try to do here is set up that Yamato is an aloof type who tries to avoid relationships. But he snaps out of it and warms up to people so fast that it’s hard to really appreciate it. Plus he doesn’t really do much to push them away other than say “leave me alone.” Eh.

Lol it’s funny because he’s strapped to the cross but because his leg fur hangs like that, from behind it looks like he’s just standing there....

Mephismon starts to sacrifice Gabumon!

A power blast of dark energy starts to pulse from the mountain, sending everyone to their knees. Jou thinks fast and hides inside his bag. Nylon is good at blocking out satanic chanting after all.

His eyes fall on... his textbooks! Social studies, chemistry, the periodic table, Japanese history memorization textbook... these useless books! Could they actually be useful?!?!?!

no.

no they couldn’t

Yamato: Ahh! That’s it, I have got to start lifting more.

But wait - Jou gets an idea. There’s something that calms him when he’s stressed and that’s... chanting passages from his rote memorization technique books x’D So he sits down and... it’s basically a throw back to the Bakemon episode in 99. I believe he’s chanting things from the Japanese history book, but as I’ve never been a Japanese kid, I’d have to do more research than I want to to figure out for sure.

He then switches to chanting the numerals of pi! He has pi memorized! x’D I don’t know why that should surprise me. He soon begins to glow with the Zen energy of a cram school trance.

Jou: 3.14159265359... 3.14159265359...

Gas mask Digimon: 3.14159265359.... 3.14159265359...

These bright ripples emanate from Jou, counteracting the evil ripples coming from Mephismon’s mountain. It soon pulls the gas mask Digimon into the trance as well.

Ikkakumon: ... I have no effing idea what is going in this episode on anymore

Jou comes out of the trance to discover the gas mask Digimon ARE NOW HIS OBEDIENT SUBJECTS. WHAT.

(see I told you you’d bow)

seriously what just happened! XD is this Jou’s mutant power

or is this something all Japanese children who survive juku can do as a result of spending so much time memorizing shit

Ikkakumon then is able to shoot a bunch better pathway of torpedoes for Yamato to climb and MEPHISMON STILL DOESN’T NOTICE

Yamato finally makes it to the peak!

Mephismon’s like, “nice try, but what were you planning to do now? You left your friend at the bottom of the mountain and I’ve got your partner. And I doubt you’ve memorized all the numerals of pi.”

He kindly creates an evil burning vortex to increased the hellishness of the landscape. He understands that a Yamato episode needs the proper ambience.

Gabumon’s about to be sacrificed to Digi-Satan lmao

Yamato steps into the pentagram and get shocked. But he presses on despite the difficulty (and the hellfire), thinking about how much his partner means to him.

He drops to his knees while Gabumon begs him to save himself.

Yamato: “You’re my... friend!”

The power of friendship destroys the pentragram and also frees Gabumon from the cross.

The Crest of Friendship glows...

Gabumon is strengthened and becomes... WereGarurumon.

:P

Yeah... seemed like a good time for MetalGarurumon but whatever.

After a cool but brief fight, Mephismon is defeated.

He appears frozen? Can Gabumon freeze stuff? Whatev. Anyway he’s frozen and then disintegrates.

Gabumon is tired but happy. Their bond is now even stronger.

Cute Takeru on Pegasusmon flies down to his brother at last.

And the others wave up to them from Komondomon. Aw. So finally the team is back together! ;__; Please let it last this time, please please please....

Kay so, overall... I liked this episode. The whole “You’re my friend!” bit would have been stronger if we’d seen more of Yamato resisting that though. I don’t really know why but the reboot seems to pull its punches a lot. I really wish they’d let the kids be mean to each other like 99 Adventure did sometimes. Being mean doesn’t mean you’re a bad person and a terrible influence on children watching your show. It just means you are human and your viewers can learn from watching your mistakes and seeing your growth. Try to understand that, showrunners :P

A missed opportunity in this episode: Yamato and Jou. I was excited that they were gonna be together because they often clashed in 99. And in the reboot as well, it was established that Yamato is annoyed by Jou, although he’s much more polite and hadn’t said anything about it till now (just stayed away from wherever Jou was until he fell asleep lol). So I thought, in this ep, we’d see them butt heads and learn to work together, something like that. But aside from the very first moment where Yamato might look a teensy bit annoyed, they just get alone fine. Idk. Not interesting.

In the end, though, the ep was clearly meant to be Yamato only and Jou was just there as a matter of convenience so the whole group would be together at the end. Since the team is finally reunited, I hope we do start to see all of them interacting in different ways that show their personalities more. Might not be the same as 99 (or, I should say definitely won’t be, at this point), but just something more than “look how well we all get along.”

Next week...

Looks to be a light and funny episode. The Burgermon were one of my fav bits of Frontier. But I’m a little nervous about this being a Jou epiosde. It’s his turn, I know, but everyone else got something meaningful. Even Mimi - though there was lots of humor in her episode, she was also major league cool the entire time. Maybe that will be the case with Jou here, but I’m not sure because 2020 Jou is a little different - more scatterbrained, more open, more talkative, less serious, less likely to act sullen... he’s quite different, now that I think about it. So I’m actually having difficulty imagining what his personal test will be in this episode. Guess we’ll have to wait and find out. Maybe it won’t even be that kind of episode anyway.

Also, just a guess, but next week is ep 39. So ep 40 maybe will be the start of something big again. It would be good timing: the team’s together and everyone’s had a chance recently for an episode to themselves...

See y’all next week! As usual didn’t check for typos :P

[maswartz]

Power Rider Hybrid

(Logo by@riceyhot)

A group called the Alloy Army commissioned several laboratories to create the next big technological wave. One group discovered a way to harness the essence of a living creature or an object into bottles creating a type of fuel they dubbed Fuelsion (fuel + fusion). Hybrid Laboratories learned they intended to use their discovery as a weapon and refused to hand it over to the Alloy Army. They decided to use it to create new technological marvels. However the Alloy Army was not fond of being rejected and used a mole to steal their research injuring a scientist in the process. Eventually Hybrid Labs was ready to test their Fuelsion and put a call out for test subjects. One of the volunteers was a young woman named Samantha, a genius without motivation she found herself interested by the concept. However during the test the Alloy Army attacked to steal the rest of the research. The Army reveals they have created monsters called Fusers, made by exposing people to the energy of Fuelsion directly. During the chaos Samantha used a special suit meant to manipulate the Fuelsion to fend off some of the attackers allowing the scientists to flee to a secondary lab. This lab had a hidden entrance inside a storage container. The scientists who remain on board decide to fight back against the Alloy Army and modify the suit Samantha used to create a Rider suit. They help her fight against Fusers by creating new weapons and restoring Fuelsion she collects from fallen Fusers into usable bottles. For reasons the scientists don’t fully understand each bottle of Fuelsion has a partner that it resonates perfectly with. The energies feed into each other unleashing their full power.

Power Rider Hybrid- Samantha Nguyen - A 22 year old woman, Samantha has a brilliant mind but is lazy and unfocused. She volunteers to test the Fuelsion because the concept interested her and when the villains attacked she used the tech to fight back and defend the scientists. She decides to help reclaim the stolen tech and for the first time has motivation. At first the only bottles she has are Hare and Artillery. When Samantha defeats the Fusers she reclaims the stolen Fuelsion used to create them. Face Claim: Lana Condor Transformation Device: Fuelsion Injector Hybrid Model Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: As she cranks the belt a helix of energy surrounds her forming the armor Weapon: Spiral Buster- Finisher- Spiral Breaker Final Moves: Defaults listed Rider Hopping Blast Kick- She cranks the belt shooting a helix of energy trapping the enemy leaving them open to a charged kick Rider Primal Gem Punch- She cranks the belt charging his fist with energy Rider Soaring Bullet Shot- She spins the barrel of the gun charging the blaster with energy Rider Shadow Panel Slash- She cranks the belt charging the blade with energy Rider Howling Call Rush- A ring of phones surrounds the enemy as an energy wolf runs through them before attacking Rider Shell Age Bash- Freezes time around the target and bashes them with her shell Rider Insect Photo Flash- Flashes the camera stunning the enemy and striking with the beetle horn Rider Long Cyclone Twist- Creates a cyclone around the enemy before attacking with the giraffe neck Rider Chomp Speed Strike- Rushes up to the enemy and strikes in a flurry of blows Rider Frozen Trick Crash- Freezes the enemy in place and speeds in on the board shattering them Bike- CyCall- Phone that turns into a bike Main Mixes Hartillary- Hare + Artillery Perfect balance of offense and defense

*Hartillary Refined

- Enhanced form- stronger attacks

*Hartillary Raw

- Stronger power, risk of losing control

*Hartillary Pure Hare/Pure Artillery

- Enhances power of individual bottles - Keeps the power boost without losing control - Pure Hare combines power of Animate life Fuelsion - Chimera Blast - Pure Hare is much faster and agile - Pure Artillery combines power of Inanimate objects Fuelsion - Armory Blast - Pure Artillery is much stronger and has stronger firepower

*Mega Mix

- Final form - ALL Fuelsion - Combines every Fuelsion into one form - Mega Chimera Blast - Mega Armory Blast - Increases all attributes exponentially

Apestal- Ape +Crystal Has incredible strength and defense

Falgun- Falcon + Gun Grants flight as well as a powerful blaster

Ninmic- Ninja + Comic Arms Hybrid with a ninja sword with four different powers

Wolfhone- Wolf + Phone Allows Hybrid to use sonic howl attacks

Tortime- Tortoise + Time Slows down time for a targeted foe.

Beetera- Beetle + Camera Allows Hybrid to pinpoint weak points in enemies defenses and attack with piercing horn.

Girafan- Giraffe + Fan Creates high winds and gives extended range

Sharkcle- Shark + Cycle Enhances speed greatly and allows for quick devastating blows

Pengoard- Penguin + Skateboard Freezes the environment and allows for quick travel on the frozen surface Other Mixes Porcugine- Porcupine+ Fire Engine Bearket- Bear + Rocket Buccanail- Buccaneer+ Rail Leouum- Leo + Vacuum Squlb- Squid + Bulb Dinocer- Dinosaur+ Racer Tigcer- Tiger + Flying Saucer Phoebot- Phoenix + Robot Spidge- Spider + Fridge Whalet- Whale + Jet Grizee- Grizzly + TV Flowpter- Flower + Chopper Uniser- Unicorn + Eraser Scorpold- Scorpion + Gold Dogmic- Dog + Microphone Deermid- Deer + Pyramid Ghognet- Ghost + Magnet Wasub- Wasp + Sub Rhirer- Rhino + Dryer Different Fuelsion has different prefixes for attacks. Hare- Hopping Artillery- Blast Ape- Primal Crystal- Gem Falcon- Soaring Gun- Bullet Ninja- Shadow Comic- Panel Wolf- Howling Phone- Call Tortoise- Shell Time- Age Beetle- Insect Camera- Photo Giraffe- Long Fan- Cyclone Shark- Chomp Cycle- Speed Penguin- Frozen Skateboard- Trick Spider- Web Fridge- Freeze Wasp- Stinger Sub- Torpedo Rhino- Horn Dryer- Burn Leo- Hunter Vacuum- Vortex Squid- Ink Bulb- Flash Buccaneer- Cannonball Rail- Steam Bear- Claw Rocket- Orbit Porcupine- Quill Fire Engine- Rescue

Power Rider Mythril- Rebecca Carter-  A 21 year old woman who answered the ad for the cash. Street smart and quick on her feet. She stayed with the scientists as well and understands the threat the villains pose with the stolen tech and offers to help. Eventually gains the ability to transform into Power Rider Mythril, powered by the Drake Fuelsion Face Claim: Kiana Lede Transformation Device: Fuelsion Injector Mythril Model Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: She cranks the handle of the belt igniting flame energy around her forming the suit Weapon: Dragon Sword Finishing Moves: Burning Slash Mythical Kick

*Mythril Scorch- Enhanced form gained when Rebecca pretended to defect to Helix Inc in order to gain a sample of their solid Fuelsion. This form was lost during a later battle.

* Mythril Blaze- Enhanced form with stronger armor and weapons.

* Mythril Eruption- Final form- Supercharged with extreme heat and flames. Finishing Move: Eruption Burst, a fury of flaming attacks.

Power Rider Gears- Kelsey Zhu- A woman in her 20s, mechanic, works for Helix Inc. a second lab who was working on Fuelsion. Helix Inc created a more solid form of Fuelsion and sends her out to prove their version is superior. Aided by a trio of Fusers who are able to keep their sentience while transformed (Fortress, Barn Owl, Beetle) When Scar arrives and attacks all parties Kelsey joins forces with Samantha and Rebecca at first out of necessity but soon she grows to consider them friends. Face Claim: Malese Jow Transformation Device: Fuelsion Injector Gears Model Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: She cranks the handle of the belt creating a group of energy gears forming the suit Weapon: Gear Gauntlet Finishing Moves:Piercing Drill

* Gears Mechanic- Final form-Supercharged with extreme cold and armed with a robotic claw

Power Rider Scar- Grace Wen- One of the original scientists who developed Fuelsion, she volunteered to test it before it was ready. A flaw in the equipment caused an explosion that scarred her face and body. Filled with rage she took some of the equipment and fled. Now she has returned to take her pain and anger out on all parties. She believes her actions are justified and that she is in the right. However after Samantha saves her life she puts her agenda aside to help fight the Alloy Army. Soon she learns the truth behind the accident and when given the chance to take her years of anger out on the person responsible she lets them live, leaving her rage behind once and for all. She is aided by her Mechanical Fusers enforcers Tick and Tock

Face Claim: Fan Bingbing Transformation Device: Fuelsion Injector Scar Model Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: She cranks the handle of the belt creating cracks of energy around her body forming the suit Weapons: Revenge Blaster and Vengeance Blade- Combines to the Retribution Rifle Finishing Moves: Avenging Blast, Avenging Slash.

Villains- The Alloy Army, determined to use the latest in technology to fuel their conquest of the world.

Echo- Giselle Odinsdötir- Serious and strict she is the loyal enforcer of the Alloy Admiral’s commands. Any who cross the Admiral fear the shadows when she’s near. What her suit lacks in variety it makes up for with brute force. Face Claim: Billie Piper

Venom- Sullivan Jones- Eccentric and self serving he is sadistic and enjoys testing new weapons and abilities on his enemies. He enjoys coating his weapons in his experimental toxins and seeing their impact on his targets. Face Claim: John David Washington

Tarantula- Karl Jones- Dramatic and brutal he was sent to the field after the repeated failures of Echo and Venom. The fact he and Sullivan are brothers does not prevent him from unleashing his frustration over their failures against the Riders. His enhanced powers make him a match for the Rider’s stronger forms. Face Claim: Evan Ross

Power Rider Maniac- Natalie Parker- A mole working for the Alloy Army the whole time. She gives them samples of the tech the lab develops allowing them to reverse engineer it for Alloy Admiral to use. Was the one responsible for Grace’s accident Face Claim: Brianna Hildebrand Transformation Device: Fuelsion Injector Maniac Model Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: She cranks the handle of the belt creating chaotic energy around her forming the suit Weapons: Chaos Blaster and Chaos Blade- Combines to form the Chaos Rifle Finishing Moves: Cruel Blast, Brutal Slash.

Alloy Admiral- Evan Burke- Leader of the Alloy Army with dreams of world conquest. Thanks to Natalie’s efforts he is able to utilize Fuelsion from other Riders. In his civilian identity he’s a wealthy CEO who invests heavily in technology. His hands reach into many companies whether they know it or not. Face Claim: Ted Danson

Using the Drake Fuelsion he gains stronger attack power

Using the Hare Fuelsion he gains better agility.

Alloy Admiral Darkness- Uses the power of darkness and black holes. Also gains the ability of teleportation

Alloy Abomination- Frustrated by his losses he injects Fuelsion directly into his bloodstream mutating him into this abomination. Power Rider Arcade/Hybrid: During the final battle with V.A.I some of his code ended up on the internet where it eventually found its way to a computer inside of Hybrid Laboratories. Utilizing the Fuelsion system it built itself a new body forcing the Arcade Riders to assist Hybrid and the other Riders in destroying it once and for all.

(Faces by @dream-chef-flavors)

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[kiapet2]

Aperture Sides Facility, Chapter 6: PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT! LEAVE ME IN! LEAVE ME IN! LEAVE ME IN! LEAVE ME IN!

Masterpost

Chapter Summary: The big confrontation.

Chapter Warnings: Attempted Murder by and towards main characters, Neurotoxin, Not-Really-Unsympathetic Sides

The Control Chamber is large and dimly lit, cylindrical with a high ceiling. Hanging from the walls and in a circle from the ceiling are a collection of large screens, like you would see in a stadium. They flash through a series of images almost too quickly to follow: red theater curtains, a black hat, a courtroom, a two-headed snake, a lock with no key…

What really draws your eye, though, is the figure hanging from the ceiling, right in the center of the screens. It’s a massive form constructed of plastic, metal and hanging cables, gathered into a long body that moves with a sinuous grace as it turns to peer at you. At the end of the body is what you recognize as a Core, but one that differs significantly from the designs you’re used to. Where the others are formed of intricately interlocking metal pieces, this Core is one piece of sleek, jet black plastic, an unlidded yellow eye staring out at you with an alien gaze.

“So,” the AI says, “you’ve made it here at last.” His voice has changed, all pretenses of a robotic monotone dropped in favor of a smooth, sonorous drawl that sends shivers down your spine.

“No thanks to you,” Virgil spits.

“And you brought the whole group with you! Now what could I have possibly done to deserve such an honor?”

“Tried to kill me, for one,” you say, placing a hand on your hip and trying to seem casual and self-assured. Hurry up, Logan…

The AI gives a scandalized gasp. “Kill you? Now why would I ever do something like that?”

“Drop the act, villain!” Roman yells. “We know what you really are!”

The AI hums, sounding unconcerned. “I can’t help but notice that one of your number is missing. You wouldn’t happen be planning something, now would you?”

You laugh nervously. “What? No, we’re just here to talk.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Subject One,” the AI says. “Let’s stop with the stalling, shall we?”

There’s a hissing sound as vents open up in the walls, some sort of gas coming out.

“Don’t breathe that in!” Virgil hisses, and you back away from the steadily encroaching cloud, before your back hits the opposite wall. The gas keeps advancing, and your next breath tastes sickly sweet with it, making your head spin.

“Enjoying the neurotoxin?” the AI taunts. “It’s my own special recipe. I’m sure dear Patton is familiar.”

“Don’t do this, Ja-” Patton starts, before cutting off into static.

The AI lets out a deep, villainous chuckle. “Be sure to take in a nice, deep breath now, I’ve heard the toxin has lots of nice vitamins in it. If you live long enough to breathe it in, that is.”

That statement and the sound of machine parts clicking are your only warnings before a torpedo launches out of the AI’s mainframe, directly at you.

You throw yourself sideways, landing painfully on your side on the floor as the torpedo hits the wall and explodes behind you, showering you with bits of concrete or whatever substance this building is made of.

“What was that?” you yelp, scrambling to your feet. “What kind of science facility gives their AIs freaking torpedoes?!”

Your only response is another torpedo. This one you sidestep, watching as it again hits the wall behind you. That gives you an idea…

You shoot the blue portal behind yourself and the orange higher in the wall, then move to stand in front of the blue portal as the torpedo system targets you again, jumping out of the way of the ensuing missile.

Instead of flying through the portal, however, the torpedo runs straight into Remus, who apparently decided that it would be fun to follow you as you dodged the explosives.

“Remus!” Roman screams as his brother’s robotic body-frame explodes into scrap metal. For a moment your heart is in your throat as you search for telltale rounded parts in the scattered pieces, then you slump in relief as you see the Core himself rolling away from the carnage, giggling.

“Let’s do that again!” he cheers. “Can you build me a bigger body and then blow it up with an even bigger rocket?”

“Absolutely not,” the AI says. “Giving you arms and legs was a bad idea in the first place- too much opportunity for chaos.”

“Well whaddya know, he’s actually right about something for once,” Virgil snarks.

Another torpedo comes shooting out at you, and this time when you dodge it flies unhindered into the blue portal. You watch as the torpedo shoots back out of the orange portal, straight towards the AI. It connects with his long, sinuous body near the top, making the entire thing shake, and he falls limp.

“Did… did you just kill him?” Roman says in an awed whisper. Beside him, Patton whimpers. You swallow, staring at the motionless form of the AI in front of you, not knowing which outcome to hope for.

After what subjectively seems like an eternity but is probably only a few seconds, the AI twitches back to life and straightens up.

“That was unpleasant,” he says. “But not as unpleasant as being hit by one would be for you, I expect. Shall we see who gives in first?”

You jump out of the way of another torpedo, which deploys harmlessly into the wall since you didn’t have time to set up another portal. You land awkwardly, and bite back a curse as your elbow smashes into the ground and sends a wave of pain up your arm. You just barely roll out of the way as a second torpedo follows almost on the tails of the first, the AI taking advantage of your momentary distraction from the pain.

You stumble as you roll to your feet, the combination of pain and neurotoxin making you unsteady. The AI was right; you don’t know how long you can keep this up.

Warning, Central Core is 80% corrupt, an automated voice announces, and your heart leaps in your chest with sudden hope.

“That’s funny, I don’t feel corrupt,” the AI says nonchalantly.

Alternate core detected, the voice says. To initiate a core transfer, please deposit substitute core in receptacle. A metal socket folds up out of the ground, clearly intended for the placement of said substitute Core.

Logan’s voice fills the room. The replacement process has been initiated and should be autonomous going forward. Follow the instructions carefully.

“Logan, you beautiful nerd!” Roman cries. You couldn’t agree more.

“So that’s your plan,” the AI hisses. “You little-”

I’m placing a timer on the screens for when the neurotoxin will reach potentially lethal levels, Logan says, and the screens surrounding the AI turn a light blue with a red timer counting down to the millisecond. It looks like you have around two minutes left.

I’m afraid I can’t do much more, Logan continues. Just follow the steps, and- He cuts off into static.

“Did you hear anything?” the AI says. “Such an echo in here, I swear.”

Two more torpedoes shoot out of his mainframe, and you dodge to the left, letting them be redirected through the portal behind you. They both hit, and as the AI once again goes limp you use the window of opportunity to cast a look around you for the nearest Core.

“Patton!” you say, spying the Core nearby. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Patton says with a forced cheer. Not having time for more confirmation than that, you run up and take him by the handles, pulling him off his rail, then run over to the receptacle thingy and carefully slot him in place.

Substitute Core accepted, the automated voice says. Substitute Core, are you ready to start the procedure?

“Oh, is that me?” Patton says nervously. “Uh, yes!”

Corrupted Core, are you ready to start the procedure?

Almost before the voice is done talking, the AI yells out, “No!”

Stalemate detected. Transfer procedure cannot continue...

“Are you kidding me?” Virgil shrieks. “What kind of crappy replacement system asks for permission from the Core it’s replacing?”

...unless a stalemate associate is present to press the stalemate resolution button.

“Oh dear,” the AI says, “you’re not a trained stalemate associate, are you? That’s too bad, it looks like this whole thing will just have to be cancelled.”

Another torpedo comes whizzing towards you. You don’t have time to shoot a portal behind you this time, so you just dart out of the way. Out of the corner of your eye you see a red button pop out of the ground- a small one, meant to be activated by hand rather than by cube- and you dart towards it.

“Ah ah ah, not so fast,” the AI admonishes, and several panels fold up from the ground, blocking your path. You try to dart around them, but more fold up as you go.

“Remember your portals!” Roman shouts.

Right. Portals. That’s a thing you have. You shoot one portal onto the wall on the other side of the button, then another directly below your feet. As soon as your feet hit ground again you’re running, too fast for the panels to react to your sudden relocation, and then the button is giving way beneath your hand.

Stalemate resolved, the automated voice says. Please stand clear of the transfer bay.

The others cheer and you turn with a grin, only to be interrupted by a chilling scream.

“Thomas!”

You look just in time to see a long, flexible metal tendril with a pincer claw at the end seize Patton and forcibly rip him out of the socket. Quicker than you can react, it retracts back down into the floor with Patton still wiggling in its clutches, and then it and Patton both are gone.

The mechanical voice announces, Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in sixty seconds.

You stare for a moment, frozen in shock as you try to process what just happened. The AI was holding that in reserve, you realize. If you’d known he had the ability to grab the others, you could have accounted for it, redirected torpedoes into the pincer arms or had Logan try to interfere remotely. But instead, he waited until you were distracted with the stalemate button- until your back was literally turned- and then made his move. And now your friend is gone.

Another voice shrieks your name, and you turn to see a torpedo streaking towards you, the AI once again having taken advantage of your distraction. You shift your weight and prepare to make a last-ditch dodge, but before you can, Roman comes flying in from the side.

“Roman, no!” you scream, but it’s too late. The torpedo glances off his round surface, veering off from you and exploding on the nearby wall. Roman goes flying, wrenched off his track, then bounces once and rolls into one of the holes in the floor created by the raised panels. You go sprinting over and stare down the hole, but all you can see is blackness. Wherever Roman fell, it’s too far for you to see.

A whistling in the air alerts you to another torpedo, and you frantically roll to the side. The torpedo hits where you just were, widening the hole Roman just fell through and littering you with shrapnel.

“You bastard!” you hear Virgil shout. You pull yourself up to a standing position, feel a sudden rush of dizziness at the motion and briefly sway on your feet.

“Feeling a bit poorly there?” the AI says faux-sympathetically. “That definitely doesn’t have anything to do with the neurotoxin you’ve been breathing this whole time. I’d keep up the exertion if I were you- it makes the toxin take effect even faster.”

Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in forty seconds.

You glance up at Logan’s timer and see that it has just under a minute left. You won’t have time to go through the stalemate process again if the transfer halts here, not before the neurotoxin kills you. You need to find someone else to replace the AI with, and you need to do it fast.

You spin in a circle, fighting down the dizziness as you do, looking for- there!

“Virgil!” you yell. “Virgil, I need you!”

Virgil’s eye widens as your gaze falls on him. “What?”

You run towards the Core, panting with exertion. “I need to put you at the head of the facility, come on!”

“No!” Virgil shouts, floating backwards and out of your reach. “Thomas, you can’t, you can’t put me in there, please!”

Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in thirty seconds.

You reach out, trying to outwardly project calm despite the panic racing through your body.

“Virgil, I know it’s scary, but there’s no one else!”

Virgil floats even further backwards, his parts audibly clattering as he shudders. “I- I’m sorry, maybe if I can find Roman fast enough...”

“Virgil, wait!” you scream as the Core flies down the hole Roman fell into and disappears.

Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in twenty seconds.

“Well,” the AI says, “I think this foolishness is just about finished. Honestly, did you really think your little half-baked plan was actually going to work?”

You can barely hear it over the pounding in your own ears. This can’t be it! You can’t have fought your way through all the trials, can’t have had your friends believe in you for so long, only to die here. There has to be some way-

Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in ten seconds.

A high-pitched cackle follows the announcement. You and see Remus muttering gleefully, his green eye spinning in circles within his battered frame.

“How do you think he’s gonna kill us, huh? Will he smash us flat, blood and guts and jagged metal all strewn across the floor? Will he drop us? How long do you think we’ll fall for, how will it feel when we hit the ground? Clatter-squish!”

Substitute core has been disconnected. Aborting transfer in five seconds.

You don’t have time to think. You seize Remus by both handles and with a gutteral cry slam him down into the receptacle.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” The AI says, distorting with volume. “Thomas, don’t-”

Substitute core accepted. Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?

“What?” Remus shrieks, sounding genuinely rattled for the first time since you’ve met him.

“Say yes!” you yell desperately. “I’ll help you figure it out, Remus, just say yes!��

“Uh, yes!” Remus says.

Acceptance verified. Resuming transfer.

“You idiots!” the AI yells. “You absolute, blithering idiots! What have you- wait, no! No no no n-aAAaAaaAaAah-”

The bot’s screams turn distorted and desperate as metal appendages seize the core at the end of his robotic body and begin pulling it down towards a circular hole in the floor as walls come up and shield it from view. A similar scream sounds behind you, and you turn to see the receptacle that holds Remus also sinking into the floor.

Your heart pounds. Is that supposed to happen? Logan said the process wouldn’t hurt them, right?

Both cores disappear below the floor. For one heart-pounding second, it is silent. Then, the walls around the hanging robotic form retract back into the ground, and-

“WOOOOOOO!” Remus shrieks, the snake-like body rearing up to reveal his familiar round, green-eyed form where the black-and-yellow Core once was. “Boy, that’s a rush!”

“Remus?” you say, heart still pounding so loudly you can hear it. “You- you’re good? You’ve got it?”

“Fuck yes I do!” Remus crows, spinning around like a top in his perch. “Check it out!”

As you watch, the wall panels around you begin to flip and move, forming abstract patterns. It’s strangely mesmerizing, and your heart finally starts to slow from its adrenaline-fueled patter.

“You idiots,” a familiar voice says, and you look down to see the black core lying on the ground, its yellow eye glaring straight at you. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

“Aww, lighten up, Jan-Jan!” Remus says, bending down to peer at him. “It’s about time we switched things up around here, it was getting booooooooooooring. Ooh, I’m gonna make some mashy-spike-plates! Can’t go wrong with mashy-spike-plates!”

“Uh,” you say, “Maybe before you do that, we should, y’know, find the others?”

“Oh come on, Thomas, at least give me some time to have fun!” Remus says as the wall and ceiling continue to shift, smooth walls now being replaced with ones that have disconcertingly sharp points.

“Remus,” the AI snaps, “stop playing around where you don’t belong and put me back!”

All the activity in the room halts, wall tiles freezing in place.

“Playing around where I don’t belong?” Remus says lightly. “Right, because a corrupted core can’t be trusted to run this place, right? Gotta get Roman and his dull white-bread ideas up in here, cause that’s so much better.”

The AI huffs. “You know that’s not-”

“Nuh-uh,” Remus says, “My talking time.”

Several metal appendages rise from the floor- long, flexible metal tubes with grabby claws at the end, like the one the AI used to grab Patton. One of them reaches down and plucks the black and yellow Core off the ground, holding him in front of Remus and tilting him side to side, as if Remus were inspecting a bug.

“Y’know, Janny, I feel like you need a change. That old plastic thing is so last decade, know what I mean? Hey, remember when you said I had the processing power of a potato battery? That was funny! And it gives me an idea.”

The AI only has time to get out a final, “Remus-” before a metal tendril comes out of the circular opening below Remus and drags the Core back in.

“And Thomas,” Remus says, turning his green gaze on you, “Don’t think I didn’t notice how I was your dead last choice.”

Your stomach tightens in sudden fear. “I didn’t mean-”

Remus cackles, the sound reverberating off the walls and assaulting your eardrums.

“Naw, I’m not too torn up about it, I know me. But once you find the others it’s only a matter of time before you decide I’m just too dangerous and unpredictable to stay. So I think I’ll have some fun, while it lasts.”

The circular opening below Remus makes a little ding, and the metal appendage that had pulled in the black and yellow Core pops back out, holding- is that a potato?

“Voila!” Remus says with a flourish of one of his grabby-arms. “One potato battery. I dunno Janny-poo, I think it’s an upgrade!”

A yellow light flashes from the potato battery’s circuits.

“Are you done?” It’s the AI’s voice, sounding tinny because of the potato’s speaker quality, and sounding sardonic because of the potato’s occupant.

“Not quite!” Remus says cheerily. “Hey Tommy-boy, catch!”,

The metal hand tosses the potato at you, and you fumble with the portal gun, trying to get one hand up to catch it, before the potato smacks you in the face with a thump and falls to the ground.

“Ow,” the potato says.

You duck as more metal appendages pop out of the ground and start slamming the top of the elevator, making it shudder. You look below you, through the clear bottom of the elevator, and see only blackness. You don’t know what’s at the bottom of this shaft, and you don’t particularly want to find out.

“I’ll see you in the testing chambers!” Remus says cheerfully as another metal arm slams down onto the elevator.

“Remus, wait-” you yell, then lurch and catch yourself on the side of the elevator another big bang makes the whole thing tilt. Spider web cracks form on the glass floor below you, making your heart rise into your throat.

“Ta-ta, Thomas!” Remus calls. “If you survive this, we’re going to have so much fun together!”

There’s one more big, jarring impact, and then the glass elevator floor gives out from under you, sending you careening down into the dark.

[elsa-should-be-arrested]

Frozen 2 Pitchmeeting copypasta by Anonymous

>"So anyway Elsa, Anna, and Olaf are walking along to find the mysterious voice when they suddenly come across a shipwreck that turns out to be the same one from Iduna and Agnarr's final voyage!" >"Oh, wow." >"Yeah, it turns out they didn't go to the South Sea like Elsa and Anna thought, they really went to the Dark Sea, which is right next to the forest." >"So this scene takes place on a beach?" >"Oh, no, they're still in the middle of the woods." >"What?" >"Yeah, the beach doesn't come into it until later." >"How did their parents' ship sink in the middle of the forest?" >"Unclear." >"Did the area used to be part of the ocean but the water has since receded?" >"Oh no, there are decades-old trees everywhere and the ocean can't even be seen on the horizon." >"Did the Spirits throw the ship clear from the ocean into the middle of the forest?" >"I mean they probably could do that but I don't see why they would instead of just letting the ship sink to the ocean floor like we saw in the first movie." >"I just feel like this raises so many questions that could've been easily avoided if the scene just took place on a beach." >"Yeah, probably. So anyway the three of them run into the ship and look around to see if they can find an explanation as to why it's here in the forest instead of the South Sea like they said they were and find a map that mentions Ahtohallan." >"Gesundheit." >"No, sir, Ahtohallan is the name of the magic glacier that Iduna used to tell Anna and Elsa about when they were kids, and she thought it might have had something to do with Elsa's powers, if it even existed at all." >"That's an interesting theory. I just hope Elsa doesn't put all her eggs in one basket and immediately decide Ahtohallan is the key to everything because there's no concrete connection to her powers, and even her mother wasn't entirely--" >"And so Elsa immediately decides Ahtohallan is the key to everything!" >"Of course." >"But then she remembers Olaf's 'water has memory' thing from earlier in the movie and so she decides to use her water memory restoration powers to witness their parents' dying moments." >"Wait, what? Elsa has water memory restoration powers? I thought she just controlled ice and snow." >"Well, sir, as you know, ice and snow are just forms of water." >"Yes, but doesn't this movie's mythology treat water and ice as two completely separate elements? And if she can control water why hasn't she ever done it before? And even if she can use water to recreate past memories how would she even know how to do that? Wouldn't she need to train under some sort of magic ice Enchanted Forest Yoda or something?" >"Sir, I need a reason for Elsa to get really sad really fast, so I'd like you to get all the way off my back about Elsa's new water powers that will never be mentioned again." >"Fair enough." >"So anyway Elsa is able to recreate her parents' dying moments in which they embrace each other in the face of a really violent, terrifying death and call out Elsa's name." >"Not Anna's name, who is also their daughter and is watching this whole thing next to Elsa?" >"Nope, not at all, sir." >"Iduna and Agnarr couldn't put in the time or effort to think about both of their daughters as they were dying?" >"Nope! They even say Elsa's name multiple times, so it's not like they didn't have the chance." >"Wow, I guess the girls know who the favorite was." >"It is pretty rude, I will agree." >"Very rude dying parents!" >"So anyway, the sight of their parents dying horrifically makes Elsa really upset." >"I don't know what else she was expecting." >"She runs out of the ship, so Anna tries to comfort her by telling her she'll never abandon Elsa and she believes in her and her magic is awesome and that Elsa was a gift from Heaven above to bless their parents with basically just the most perfect child possible and that she'll always support Elsa in anything she does and that she loves Elsa with all her heart and together they're going to solve this mystery and save their kingdom. And Elsa thanks her." >"Aww, how sweet and heartfelt!" >"By throwing her down a hill." >"What." >"Yeah, Elsa's worried that the rest of the journey may be too perilous for Anna and Olaf so she summons an ice canoe around them and then sends the thing just... careening down a hillside at roughly fifty miles an hour." >"Oh my God." >"Yeah, it's pretty much an ice rocket, just shooting past trees and rocks left and right." >"Elsa wanted to keep Anna safe by trapping her in a murder rocket made out of material famous for people slipping on it and shooting it into a forest full of rocks and trees and cliffs and supernatural monsters that Elsa is in no way familiar with?" >"She had to. There was still one Spirit left to deal with and the Dark Sea can be very dangerous." >"Hasn't Elsa kicked the ass of every Spirit she's come across so far? And isn't she capable of freezing large bodies of water as we saw in the first movie?" >"She has and is, yes." >"And isn't she capable of creating life, so she could just make like a huge eagle or dragon or something big enough to fly herself, Anna, and Olaf harmlessly across the Dark Sea?" >"She most definitely could." >"So why does she need to kick Anna down a hill in order to continue the mission?" >"Because I want her to fight a horsey." >"Excuse me?" >"I want Elsa to fight a horsey and I don't want Anna just standing there watching and making it weird." >"I mean you don't have to have her just standing there watching, you could involve her. Make it a really cool fight scene where the sisters work together and show teamwork and it could be a really cool, inspiring, empowering moment where they unite against a powerful enemy and overcome it and--" >"Don't be silly, sir. Two women can't fight a horsey. That's just crazy talk!" >"I just feel like Elsa kicking Anna down a hill because a fantasy quest adventure is dangerous is sort of really harshly unnecessary and also sort of undermines the whole 'stronger together' thing we've been selling for the last six years." >"CRAZY TALK, I SAY!" >"I mean I guess so." >"Crazy movie producer." >"So tell me about this horsey fight, how does it go?" >"Well at first Elsa tries to run across the Dark Sea but she keeps getting hit by waves and sent deep into the water." >"The ice sorceress capable of freezing large bodies of water tries physically running across a stormy sea?" >"She does, sir, yes. And then one time when she's underwater she gets attacked by the Water Spirit, which is a kelpie named Nokk." >"The Water Spirit is seaweed?" >"No, sir, a kelpie is a beast from Celtic mythology. It's basically a horse made of water and it controls the sea." >"Oh, wow." >"And it killed Iduna and Agnarr." >"Whoa, what?" >"I mean it's pretty obvious since this is where they died and it's guarded by a supernatural sea monster that intentionally makes the ocean all stormy and dangerous, which is what killed them." >"That sounds pretty intense. So is Elsa gonna get some some sweet karmic justice on Nokk for killing her parents?" >"Oh, no. Well, not intentionally, at least." >"What do you mean?" >"Well like I said, it's pretty obvious if you think about it, but we're not gonna make a thing out of it. In fact we're not even gonna acknowledge it at all." >"Elsa's going to engage in mortal combat with her parents' murderer and she's not even going to realize it?" >"That's right sir, yes." >"Seems like a weird way to take that potentially massive plot point." >"To be honest, sir, I wanted to make more of a deal out of it but I honestly couldn't think of a way to... write it good." >"I guess it is better to write nothing than to write something disappointing and stupid." >"Exactly!" >"So how about the fight itself? How does Elsa versus Nokk go down?" >"Well Nokk can dissolve and become the water all around Elsa and if she freezes him he can just immediately unfreeze himself and he's just really strong. Basically imagine how dangerous a normal wild horse is, but then also factor in drowning, a shark attack, and a homing torpedo." >"Oh my God, Nokk sounds borderline invincible. Is it gonna be hard for Elsa to beat him?" >"Actually, it's going to be super easy. Barely an inconvenience!" >"How so?" >"Well at one point during the fight Elsa just... rides him." >"Just... rides him?" >"Yep. After getting the everloving snow beaten out of her for ten minutes Elsa gets the idea to hop onto Nokk's back and ride him around shouting 'yee-hah!'" >"The ancient supernatural being who controls the seas themselves is defeated because the woman who must weigh barely over 100 pounds asks for a pony ride?" >"That's right sir, yes." >"I guess that makes sense."

[usafphantom2]

Tap pictures to enlarge

☝️ a simple conversion of the Beaufort, it was quickly apparent that more extensive modification was needed, resulting in a much more capable design. Heavily armed with various combinations of 20mm cannon, machine guns, rockets, bombs and even torpedoes, the ‘Beau’ was a force to be reckoned with. Over 5,900 would be built.

Beaufighters began to enter service in September 1940, but were not initially fitted with AI radar, the first kill using the new technology only being achieved in late November. Thereafter, the type quickly became the RAF’s primary night fighter, taking an increasingly heavy toll of Luftwaffe bombers. It would remain in this role until Mosquitoes began to take over in 1943. Notable Beaufighter pilots included John Cunningham and John ‘Bob’ Braham. Guy Gibson also scored victories on the aircraft during a ‘break’ from bomber operations.

Beaufighters saw extensive service with RAF Coastal Command. Some were used to counter Luftwaffe patrols over the Bay of Biscay, but the type is best known as an anti-shipping aircraft. Carrying rockets or torpedoes, Beaufighters took a heavy toll of German shipping, though many were shot down in return. The North Coates Strike Wing, for example, was credited with 150,000 tons sent to the bottom, at the high cost of 120 aircraft. A Coastal Command Beau also took part in one of the most audacious missions of the war. On 12th June 1942, an aircraft of 236 Squadron dropped a Tricolour on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris before shooting up the Kreigsmarine HQ.

Beaufighters saw extensive service in the Mediterranean in all roles. They operated from bases in North Africa and Malta against Axis shipping and aircraft, proving particularly effective against Luftwaffe transports. Later, operating from Italy, they conducted anti-shipping operations over the Adriatic and Aegean. From August 1945, 19 Squadron SAAF flew ground attack missions in direct support of Yugoslavian partisans.

In the Far East, several RAF squadrons operated Beaufighters from Burma, primarily for ground attack, but also on long range intruder missions. In the Southwest Pacific, the RAAF used the type extensively, with five Beaufighter squadrons being formed. 30 Squadron flew British-built aircraft to mount devastating strafing attacks during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943. Over 350 Mark 21 Beaufighters were produced in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) from September 1944.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.12 (after 1940)

1942 – World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life. 1942 – World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army troops. 1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is rescued from house arrest by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny. 1944 – World War II: The liberation of Yugoslavia from Axis occupation continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among the liberated cities. 1953 – U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. 1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments. 1959 – The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the Moon. 1959 – Bonanza premieres, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color. 1961 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded. 1962 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University. 1966 – Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions). 1969 – Philippine Airlines Flight 158 crashes in Antipolo, near Manila International Airport in the Philippines, killing 45 people. 1970 – Dawson's Field hijackings: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Zarqa, Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman. 1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, 'Messiah' of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years. 1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody. 1980 – The 43rd government of Turkey is overthrown in a coup d'état led by General Kenan Evren. 1983 – A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros. 1983 – The USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet destruction of Korean Air Lines Flight 007. 1984 – Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record. 1988 – Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage. 1990 – The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification. 1992 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space. 1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well. 1994 – Frank Eugene Corder fatally crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing. There were no other casualties. 1995 – During the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race, an American balloon is shot down by the Belarus military. 2003 – Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers. 2005 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is completed, leaving some 2,530 homes demolished. 2007 – Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder. 2011 – The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City opens to the public. 2013 – NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.

[anderson-residence]

Summer Headcanon

I know I know summer is a ways away but shh On the last day of school, Hank leaves a bright orange bag on the pourch steps for the kids to find:

It looks a lot like this:

What’s in it? Well it varries from year to year (and which kids it is. Yay so many verses and muses) but typically it is just all the things for a fun start to Summer. A bunch of outdoor fun items and sweets. Everything for all the kids is in one big bag and or next to the bag if it doesn’t fit. There are things they will share and things for each of them to have on their own. Specifically each kid gets a kite, a pair of sunglasses, new earbuds or headphones, a bathbomb, a pack of water balloons, a pack of glow sticks, a water gun, a bubble glove (you wear it and wave it around and bubbles come out of the gloves), a pack of air heads, a small container of cotton candy, and a bubble wand. To share they have a bucket of chalk, a bag of goldfish crackers, a big bag of reeses cups, some packets of kool aid, ice pops (the kind you buy as liquid and then freeze), and some type of out door toy. In this case there is a bubble torpedo. You jump on a pump and a rocket launches into the air and shoots out bubbles. This applies to Cole, Yk, and the human kid au for the RKs (Connor, Carter and Niles)

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Cockroaches of the Universe”

Don’t forget to throw a prompt, request, comment, message, or critique at me. I love any and all of the above. :) 

Talk of guns and weapons in this one, so read at your own choice, don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Report ID 2241568

Author Krill

Weapons

If I have learned anything in my time on earth, it is that humans are very good at killing each other. Honestly, the sheer amount of weapons they have is.... unfathomable. Where most civilizations have evolved in such a way that weapons are used to stun is normal, humans are capable of shaking of pretty much anything that can’t kill you and some things that can. Also, I should point out that, while most of us, think humans don’t need weapons because of their superior physical prowess, they have devised ever more aggressive ways of killing each other.

Let’s take a look at the stunning weapons for instance, used most by policemen and private citizens these include.

a.       A baton this is code for, I’m gonna beat you to death with this stick specifically designed to F*** you up. Can be used lethally.

b.      Pepper spray, hey you remember those things humans love to put in their mouths because they burn, turns out it burns so much that, if you spray a human in the eye with it, it causes even more glorious effects which include slobbering, tearing up, and a general drippiness. Not always effective.

c.       Next comes the taser = this is code for, I am going to electrocute you till you submit, also not always effective.

d.      Next comes Tear gas which is pretty much like pepper spray accept they stick it inside a f***ing grenade *(see section 3a) and is generally used on entire crowds of people.

e.      Additionally they also like to just choke each other out with their own arms and legs. Because humans are scary as hell, and they love killing each other. Don’t let them fool you with their big doe eyes, hugs, or cuddling. They will murder you. They are adorable bringers of terrible death.

f.        Oh they also train animals to eat each other’s faces off, because doing it themselves is to messy, even though they totally could and you can’t talk me out of that fact.

2.       Going on to lethal weaponry from smallest to largest.

a.       Rocks and sticks, because anything can become a weapon if you swing it at someone hard enough. This includes feet, fists, and teeth.

b.      Throwing rocks also works, not to be confused with a sling, a mechanism which allows a human to throw rocks… faster

c.       Next up is knives. This could be a pointy rock or, in later years, a pointy steel stick they use to gouge each other’s organs out with, because beating each other to death wasn’t good enough.

d.      Spears = pointy sticks they stabbed each other with.

e.      Bow and arrow, don’t want to get close to the person your stabbing with a stick. Stab them with your stick from 100 meters by slapping that baby onto a taught string attached to, you guessed it, another stick.

f.        An axe = originally used to cut down trees limbs, the logical step from tree limbs is of course each other’s limbs.

g.       Swords, because our original pointy metal sticks weren’t big enough, now I’m going to make them as tall as me, and stab people with that, because why the hell not.  These sticks come in many shapes and styles, so you always have one to match your coat.

h.      Catapult = I didn’t believe this one at first, because who the hell would think of loading a big ass boulder onto a contraption that throws big ass boulders…. Humans, that’s who.

i.         Guns = humans favorite way of f****ng each other up. Want someone dead, don’t worry just throw this metal tube of doom up next to your face and pull the trigger. We promise to keep the enclosed explosion contained while it projects a tiny bit of metal at about 1,800 mph towards your enemy.

                                                               i.      They come in all sizes too, some for your purse, some for your hip, some for hunting large game, and some that are taller than you, and some that are so damn big you might as well just strap that thing to the back of a truck, oh yeah, the humans already thought of that.

                                                             ii.      Oh they are also capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute, so have fun committing one man genocide.

                                                            iii.      Oh, and they make them in bigger sizes too. I honestly get rockets and guns confused, but, if the little ones aren’t good enough for you, you can always just find a massive armored car and strap a F*** off big gun to that. You can also attach them to planes, cars, and boats space ships.

j.        Oh yeah, rockets work too. No not the fun kind of rockets that let you go into space. I mean other flavors any kind you like. Big tubes of doom that you hold onto for dear life. Heat seeking tubes of doom, also can be attached to cars and planes like modern catapults, accept instead of just hundreds of yards, it’s all the way across the world.

k.       Don’t forget, they can also shoot these underwater (torpedo) more than half their planet is covered in it after all.

3.       Explosives = these have different flavors too, and humans are very proficient at making them, all kinds of them, but the important ones include.

a.       Grenade = a small metal ball mixing the human ability to throw, with the human ability to rip all your limbs off. How you may ask, well by creating an explosion in tandem with shrapnel, if the sudden change in pressure doesn’t kill you than being ripped apart probably will.

4.       Now, for my “favorites”, bombs.

a.       This includes dropping high explosive on large groups of people, preferably civilians because nothing says you mean to F*** someone up than by killing large numbers of them all at once.

b.      Oh and then there is the ultimate death machine, humanity and death’s love child. The nuclear bomb because it’s a great idea to shoot a proton into an unstable uranium or plutonium atom causing it to split releasing gamma rays and thermal energy so powerful it can burn your shadow into a wall, ha ha oh and if you SOMEHOW survive that because humans are STUPID DURABLE “UNIVERSE COCKROACHES.” Than it will probably give you cancer.  The two, and only, nuclear warheads ever used exploded with the force of 20 kilotons of TNT (See reference chart 2a)

                                                               i.      This is the favorite weapon of entire human populations throwing hissy fits at each other because trade agreements, and despotic mania.

c.       And then there are hydrogen bombs, because of fission explosions weren’t bad enough, we are now going to add hydrogen atoms that fuse together and cause the remaining plutonium to explode as well.

                                                               i.      Because humans want you so dead, they will use the power of the F*CKING SUN.

5.       Modern weapons include

a.       AA guns for anti-airship using superheated plasma to make your day hell

b.      They still use hydrogen bombs, because die, but now they use them bigger, so big that they are capable of glassing your planet and the planet of anyone else who decides to F*** with them.

c.       Oh and I heard they are developing a method that could potentially turn your planet into a black hole. They want your planet so gone they will reduce it down to a singularity.

Humans are the embodiment of destructive force, they are death incarnate….

Death Incarnate would really appreciate warm cuddles, and something fluffy to pet.