#spi-borg

[sibbydoo]

[🕸] Project: SWING!

SWINGtember 6 - The Bite™️

When Cario found out that evidence of experiments from NiteMax—the same place that took Cario’s life from him as a child—were resurfacing, lurking in the shadows, he fled to find one of NiteMax’s abandoned laboratories to scream his heart out. He did not know then, how returning to that cursed place would change him again, as well as his fate.

[vordenburg]

Adelaide Kane needs to reprise her role on SNW (somehow) so we can see her in Romulan tactical gear and with those famous pointy ears.

[apoemaday]

The Watcher

by Jorge Luis Borges tr. Alastair Reid

The light enters and I remember who I am; he is there. He begins by telling me his name which (it should now be clear) is mine. I revert to the servitude which has lasted more than seven times ten years. He saddles me with his rememberings. He saddles me with the miseries of every day, the human condition. I am his old nurse; he requires me to wash his feet. He spies on me in mirrors, in mahogany, in shop windows. One or another woman has rejected him, and I must share his anguish. He dictates to me now this poem, which I do not like. He insists I apprentice myself tentatively to the stubborn Anglo-Saxon. He has won me over to the hero worship of dead soldiers, people with whom I could scarcely exchange a single word. On the last flight of stairs, I feel him at my side. He is in my footsteps, in my voice. Down to the last detail, I abhor him. I am gratified to remark that he can hardly see. I am in a circular cell and the infinite wall is closing in. Neither of the two deceives the other, but we both lie. We know each other too well, inseparable brother. You drink the water from my cup and you wolf down my bread. The door to suicide is open, but theologians assert that, in the subsequent shadows of the other kingdom, there will I be, waiting for myself.

[incorrectly-quoted-queers]

I fully don't understand the Picard dudebro situation.

I was a full on season 1 and 2 apologist. While they had *many* flaws I found bright spots in them. I liked Picard's place as a mentor figure but not quite a father. Queerness. Some of Jurati's autism coded experiences. ELNOR my LOVE. The campiness of sexy Romulan spies. Borg persecution and Ex-Borg life.

But Season 3, plot wise, is objectively the worst. Some fun nostalgia moments? 100%. Shaw's devastation with the Borg? Understandable and moving. Worf x Deanna x Riker energy? Top-tier. Geordi seeing Data again? Melt me.

HOWEVER

Shaw's soft-core racism to Seven? Out of pocket. Killing Shelby and Ro to further the plot? YIKES. Sidelining and practically deleting Raffi and Seven's relationship? C'mon. Dropping Picard's other father-like role characters in favor of Jack? Lame. Jack's "Borg genes"? i get its sciencey wiencey but Borg reproduce by assimilation that's absurd and makes no sense and 100% relies on a very aged bachelor who hates kids accidentally impregnating someone. Terrible plan. Fast-tracking Jack through Starfleet so he could be a cadet on a new Seven ship? Nepo-baby bullshit. And where's Laris? Who fucking knows.

I get the nostalgia. I am a hardcore Worf simp, I melted at his mere existence on screen again. But c'mon. The dudebros saying this was the best season were delusional.

All the seasons had some ridiculous, absurd bullshit. You just give this one a pass because its the cis white guy chosen one hero bullshit you like.

Anyway. If anything I just hope Jeri Ryan gets the spin off series she fucking deserves. I can accept the third season being unecessary lauded as the "best" one for that reason alone.

[abcwordsurge]

so I started writing a little fic that's tied to my ninjago royalty AU (the one with pixal and kai in an arranged marriage), and within like, two paragraphs, I accidentally gave myself so much lore. like I feel like I lore dumped myself when I didn't even know the lore beforehand. bizarre experience, highly recommend, and now I feel like I gotta give you this AU lore that I accidentally created

I've said that in this AU, there are four royal families. I LIED. there are five. the Jiangs, and Borgs, the Jades, the... (desperately searches notes) the [Vania's family] (does she not have a last name?!), and the Garmadons!

now, the reason why it's so important to add this last family to the royalty group is because I needed a reason for pixal and kai to be engaged. like, "political alliance" just feels so vague, right? so I needed to create some drama. and, like it came to me in a dream, this is what I blurted out.

there are rising tensions between the kingdoms- specifically between the Jades and the Garmadons. the other kingdoms know that the two families are somehow becoming involved in each other's business in a way that doesn't seem quite safe for anyone. they fear that there are only two possibilities for what's going on: 1) the two are going to form an alliance and turn on the rest of the kingdoms, or 2) the two are about to wage all out war on each other and maybe wreck the entire realm with their fighting.

I am so overcomplicating this, but I will continue to do so, because thinking about this is a sweet relief from the real world.

the Borgs and Jiangs are attempting to form a connection that will aid them in the potential upcoming war, by getting pixal and kai to be married

Vania's family is preparing for this hypothetical war as well, but... not in quite the same way. now, hear me out here. what if. what if shintaro creates a system of spies, and sends several spies to become insiders of the other kingdoms. so shintaro won't be caught unawares by the other kingdoms' weapons. and what if. what if cole is one of these spies, sent to keep an eye on the new pixal and kai marriage. would that be messed up or what

this also opens up some wonderful avenues for lloyd and harumi dynamics. perhaps they are star crossed lovers. or perhaps they are the reason the kingdoms suspect that the two nations are about to be in an all out war with each other. so many possibilities

that's all I've got for now. thanks for coming to late night thoughts with wordsurge haha

[smidgeart]

SWINGTEMBER - Suddenly Symbiotes?!

Luntian: “Miguel is going to have a stroke when we tell him….”

.

.

.

Luntian belongs to MysteryRatedR on Twitter

And Spi-Borg belongs to sibbydoo on Twitter!

[isagrimorie]

So if we want to look into how Seven of Nine was as First Officer, and probably Captain. Let's look on her Efficiency Reports:

Captain and First Officer are amused by this and kind of loves it.

Chakotay, because this helps him with personnel work.

The other senior staff however:

And not even Best friend Tuvok gets a pass!

A Vulcan undergoing some form of existential crisis.

Just a tldr to say, after Seven dusts off the rust from her Fenris Ranger days she’s gonna be like this as First Officer in the USS Titan but a little less brusque.

A little.

Like, I do think Shaw has a problem with Seven being an ex-Borg but in terms of work efficiency and as someone who is a great engineer herself in terms of work I bet its one of the things that made Shaw begrudgingly respect Seven.

In terms of paperwork, Seven of Nine is great at paper work and personnel stuff since that’s most of the work of the XO/First Officer.

I’m curious how Raffi and Seven are gonna be as a Command team with Seven’s tendency to go overboard and her internal Borg programmed perfectionism sometimes.

And Raffi’s more flexible on things as some spies tend to be but on the other hand Seven was also on Fenris for years so she could be flexible on the weirdest things and it drives Raffi nuts as someone who’s been in Starfleet longer, and once upon a time breathe, ate, and sleep Starfleet.

(I just need a series with them already dammit!)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#15yrsago Gibson’s self-destructing poem Agrippa: screen-movie https://agrippa.english.ucsb.edu/post/bibliography-subcategories/video-resources/a-run-of-william-gibsons-agrippa-poem-made-from-playing-a-copy-of-original-1992-agrippa-diskette

#15yrsago Chinese “poem” on the cover a scholarly journal is actually an ad for a brothel in Macau https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/chinese-classical-poem-was-brothel-ad-1058031.html

#15yrsago Theme Time Radio Hour: With Your Host Bob Dylan — the greatest shuffle-run on Dylan’s MP3 player https://memex.craphound.com/2008/12/09/theme-time-radio-hour-with-your-host-bob-dylan-the-greatest-shuffle-run-on-dylans-mp3-player/

#15yrsago Stem-cell trachea transplant was endangered by EasyJet: “your cell culture is a security risk” https://web.archive.org/web/20081214063827/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3490549/Easyjet-threatened-to-derail-stem-cell-transplant.html

#15yrsago HOWTO Carry a gun onto an airplane https://web.archive.org/web/20081218004445/http://wbztv.com/local/fake.federal.agent.2.874625.html

#10yrsago Lessons from Glitch http://20minutegarden.com/2013/12/09/life-lessons-from-glitch-the-game/

#10yrsago TSA seize tiny, itsy-bitsy gun from sock-monkey https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/tsa-agent-confiscates-sock-monkeys-toy-pistol/281-246977307

#10yrsago Spooks of Warcraft: how the NSA infiltrated gamespace https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life

#10yrsago We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: spectacular, deep, zingy novel https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/09/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves-spectacular-deep-zingy-novel/

#10yrsago Elsevier censors self-publication by papers’ co-authors https://svpow.com/2013/12/06/elsevier-is-taking-down-papers-from-academia-edu/

#5yrsago Uber is a “bezzle,” doomed to disappoint the suckers who buy into its IPO https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/will-uber-survive-the-next-decade.html

#5yrsago Argentine hacker mods Furby so it quotes Borges, creates a “Borgy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jlDL-j9upg

#5yrsago Merry Mixmas! It’s time again for DJ Riko’s badass Christmas mashup http://djriko.com/mixmases.htm

#5yrsago Uber forces its drivers to arbitrate, rather than sue, but Uber also won’t arbitrate https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-uber/forced-into-arbitration-12500-drivers-claim-uber-wont-pay-fees-to-launch-cases-idUSKBN1O52C6/

[samiholloway]

What is like to see on Seven's ship in Legacies:

XBs and Jurati-borg, integrating into the federation, even if this is like a pilot program; bonus points if a few of them are unknown species from very far away who knows stuff the feddies don't, as they remember who they are, and super bonus points if seven and jurati both are involved in helping them remember

Harry Kim, commander at last, constantly on his back foot in the face of spies, pirates a thieves

Leaning into the spies, pirates, and thieves storylines, but in a funner way at least some of the time. You know they enjoyed it at least sometimes

If Shaw is there, he's an XB now, having survived several of his own worst nightmares, and also now working his way back up the ranks

Wesley pops in sometimes for plot reasons and is actually part of the plot and gets to interact with people

Soji and some of her first new synths to be allowed back into starfleet; she's a diplomat tho, not fleet, free to do what they cant

Laris is their information officer, and it's Picard that gets left home this time; maybe she even takes Narek under her wing to deprogram him from his romulan cult and both of them are involved in keeping operatives out of fleet but letting romulans in -- and remans

Elnor is there and has a plot purpose that makes sense and doesn't do him dirty

Rios-holos. Seven separates them back out and uses at least one on her ship; bonus if there's more than one, because that's super fun, and also let's us catch up with how holograms are doing now

They're expanding the borders in the first time of peace in ages, back to contacting new life and etc, so there's new people's and new adventures and it's not all dire all the time. They're first contact sorts now

At least one non-humanoid character from the books or cartoons

Adult Jake Cisco in at least one ep, but even better if he's like a correspondant stationed there in this experimental crew

Lightbulbs. Let seven turn the lights up when she takes over, for god's sake

Jack has never once been a team player in his whole life ever, please for the love of plot let him struggle hard to figure out rank and friends and true connection and such

[biblioflyer]

Jumbled thoughts about Picard s3e1

The short version without spoilers? I liked it. I'm not surprised I like it. That just means Picard is 3 for 3 in really solid first episodes. This is a show that's always been good at sprinting but can it finish the marathon without being winded and slightly confusing?

Spoiler free commentary:

They're getting the band back together!

Riker & Picard's dynamic is arguably more solid than it ever was in TNG. There's a genuine warmth and congeniality to it that rarely got explored in TNG.

Raffi's character growth from seasons 1 & 2 is preserved and expanded on. Narratively the character also seems to be playing a role that is a better fit for her personality and talents.

The mystery to unravel doesn't seem like its going to be as arcane and at risk of requiring a convoluted resolution.

Yay starship porn! But also....ehhhhhh starship porn. (I don't love one of the new designs for extremely arbitrary and very nerdy reasons. Your mileage is free to vary without my judgment and I'm hoping I'll warm up to it.)

Spoilers after the jump.

This is where the spoilers start.

Bev kicks ass?

I find it to be a rather interesting choice to make one of the main characters to be a key element in the central mystery. Making it Beverly of all people just adds another interesting twist. At first I was put off by her lethal efficiency in dealing with the boarders but I really appreciated how Riker pointed out how out of character this was for her when he was examining the aftermath.

Casual XB-ism

I'm uncomfortable with Captain Shaw's casual prejudice towards Seven of Nine. A certain amount of anti-Borg sentiment would be understandable in a less utopian setting and while its not entirely out of character for people in the Federation to hold prejudices, those prejudices are generally the direct result of some sort of trauma. Which is not great, but its not entirely realistic to expect people to be entirely free of bitterness over horrible experiences and it is better, relatively speaking, than simply being prejudiced because of a bunch of ancient conspiracy theories and undeserved smugness over one's culture or genetic lineage. Although it is still not objectively good, just better than more irrational forms of prejudice.

To throw out a few examples of what I'm talking about, Kirk hated Klingons because on multiple times he was a firsthand witness to Klingon atrocities and a Klingon murdered his son because he was Kirk's son - pointedly though, he was able to realize by the end of the Khitomer affair that his prejudice may be something he may never get over but it was also something that could get a lot of people killed if people like him were the only ones directing Federation policy. O'Brien hated Cardassians because of his traumatic experiences during the Cardassian war. Sisko was hostile to Picard at first because his wife died at Wolf 359. Notably he also was able to recognize that he was being unfair in blaming Picard for the crimes of Locutus.

By contrast, Admiral Satie hated Romulans in a more general sense and was willing to ruin people's lives trying to root out spies.

All of those Admirals who are hidebound obstacles for the crew to rebel against, and sometimes are villains outright, must come from somewhere. So it does seem like somehow Captain Shaws slip through the cracks, in spite of Starfleet's best intentions, and wind up becoming symbols of authority that is too remote and out of touch to be of use.

That having been said, there is an opportunity here that I hope will be seized to give Shaw a legitimate reason to be standoffish with Picard and to dislike former Borg. Maybe he was part of the flotilla that fought the Borg in First Contact. Heck, maybe he was a fresh Ensign that Picard forgot who was on the Enterprise during the events of First Contact and witnessed Picard's spiral into Captain Ahab territory. Maybe he lost a parent at Wolf 359.

I just hope that he's not prejudicial because of generalized dislike of the Borg, because that's one of my arbitrary lines where I think it is possible that humanity could reform itself: to let go of arbitrary, generalized prejudice and collective punishment of liberated individuals for the crimes of a hegemonic collective.

Shaw didn't do everything wrong.

Okay I have to admit it was hilarious and just plain good world building for someone to behave like they're part of a command structure with defined responsibilities and reporting structures, and not running off to showboat based on the whims of two people who absolutely no authority or standing, besides their status as heroes.

Raffi is where she should be.

One of the issues I plan to address with a rewatch is the generalized sense among many fans that Raffi should not have been cleared for duty after Season One based on how she behaved in Season Two. That may or may not be unfair, depending on just how effectively you think you can stress test someone who already knows most of Starfleet's tricks for psychologically screening people for their mental fitness to serve.

Season three addresses this by having Raffi serve in Starfleet Intelligence as a field operative with what seems to be a wide reservation to work inside of it. This seems to be a much more appropriate place for her based on her personality and skills. Also I am entertaining the possibility that her handler is not who we all probably think it is and that the comment about Raffi being a warrior is a Red Herring. It would be interesting to see it wind up being Moriarty of all beings, newly emancipated after the lifting of the Synth ban and free to roam wherever the processing power exists to support him, and unable to resist a good mystery.

Arbitrary gripes

The mystery son trope. Don't get me wrong, I'm curious about his parentage and conception. I'm sure we're meant to assume he's Picard's (somehow) but I think it would be neat if he were actually Jack Crusher's son and Bev just decided to have another child with her late husband using preserved DNA and somehow managed to keep it secret from the rest of the crew. Maybe his growth was artificially accelerated?

Machine gun phasers. Why? No, its rhetorical. I know why, not having a suppressive fire option for energy weapons means that everyone and their uncle would be using bullets instead like it was The Expanse, but a part of me loves the moderately kinder, somewhat gentler Old West style exchange of fire one shot at a time.

[jimsgotweb]

Lilith by Wine Lo Borgias

Lilith by Wine Lo Borgias I am marketing an incredible book called Lilith written by a trans women in Bangkok, a sci-fi, thriller dark romance, equal parts A Court of Thrones and Roses and Borges with a lot of intrigue, end of the world shenanigans, hybrid human-animal sex spies in a burned out Disney Land, and fallen angels refusing to fight Eldrtich demons to save the world. Leaving it up to…

[sibbydoo]

[🕸] Project:SWING!

SWINGtember 29 - Leap of Faith

Here’s a long one in honor of this being my last entry, and for Cario’s birthday today!

Every single Spider-Man had their leap of faith as they donned their suits. But Cario had only been a child…

“Every one of you Spiders talk about a moment that changed everything for your journeys as Spider-Men.”

Cario tilts his head. He’s close to calling Sophia corny, but she looks serious and thoughtful about this. “What kind of moment?”

“No clue,” she shrugs. “Just a moment. An all-defining one. I think Peter B. called it a leap of faith. Or some shit.” She leans back, looking up at the sky. “Something that changed the trajectory of your life forever. That boy, the sweet one, Miles? He said it was when he recognized his fear and did what was right anyway.”

Cario leans back as well, noticing Sophia glancing at him.

Sophia hums in thought. “I guess I was wondering if you had a moment like that. Your leap of faith.”

The cyborg blinks as he glances at Sophia, then back at the sky, more thoughtfully now. “I don’t remember having one as a Spider-Man.”

Cario half expects Sophia to interject with a joke. But she only raises an eyebrow expectantly.

He recognized his fear and did what was right anyway.

“If I’m really being honest, I think what changed my life forever was when I escaped.”

Sophia’s eyes widen slightly. “You mean…from NiteMax?”

Cario shrugs. “Me and a few other younger kids found a way to get past the drugged haze they kept putting us under. We planned our escape, how to get the others out. The day came, two years later, and…and I was the only one left in my group still running. I…I remember getting shot in the ribs”—he inhales sharply, as if remembering the bite of the bullet—“but I guess I have the experiments to thank for adrenaline. I kept running, and I kept going until I could find one of the override exit points to open all doors.”

Cario gulps down the lump forming in his throat. It’s suddenly hard to breathe. “I did find it, but the gangway was quickly receding, getting farther from the exit, and the override lever that could open exit doors all over the facility. But I was already dying anyway…”

[graphicpolicy]

Black Widow embraces here Symbiote Powers in Derrick Chews' Thunderbolts #1 variant cover

Black Widow embraces here Symbiote Powers in Derrick Chews' Thunderbolts #1 variant cover #comics #comicbooks #thunderbolts #blackwidow

Bucky Barnes has a hit list of the world’s most corrupt villains, and this December, he’ll assemble the deadliest assassins, spies, and black ops agents in the Marvel Universe to take them down in Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Geraldo Borges’ new Thunderbolts series. Part of Bucky’s new squad is his longtime confidant, Black Widow, but Natasha Romanoff has been changed dramatically! In…

[voyagerscaptain]

If Chakotay found another woman (young, beautiful and blonde - just like the way he likes them) how would you react, Captain? 'Cause you had your chances...

I would say the same thing I say to every crewmember who finds a companion: congratulations.

[swampythesweetsketch]

Cryptor Comes In

A while after Zane was rescued from Chen's Island, the Ninja took things slow to regain some semblance of normalcy. With the new addition of Zeke, some things had to change.

For one, Jay was off Ninja work until his android son went to daycare. But in the meantime, Jay loved the quiet around the condo.

It was wonderful, as the team now had a nice place to rest. And Jay had the comfort to raise Zeke with no need to manage a tight budget.

Silly that years back the four failed in mentoring one child to even afford the humongous condo. And now money seemed to be a worry long forgotten.

Cyrus Borg being more than willing to keep the Ninja within city limits to keep the crime rate from climbing to the point it did when Zane was... MIA.

Well- they still budgeted cause Wu would massacre them if they spent money on takeout every night-

But that all changed when a phone call requested Jay to Borg Tower.

A project to restructure a portion of the tower's energy to shift to greener- more eco-friendly power, but the wiring was tricky and a bit frazzled since the Overlord Virus.

Jay is hesitant. He had his son to take care of, the others would still be working on other things than Ninja duties. But Cyrus assured him that the in-building daycare would be perfect for Zeke as other employees with their own android children would be present.

He agrees. And planning starts in a week. Jay is excited to do something other than parent duty. Yes he loved being a dad but he needed to stretch once in while!

The first day, Jay walked in to a familiar face.

Still stoic, but without mask or messed up edits to conform to the Overlord's tastes. His hair hidden by hood was now clean kempt and slicked back, save a few front strands that curled from his forehead.

"Cryptor?"

His waggish uniform was now more fitting akin to a bodyguard.

"Mr. Walker."

He was a bodyguard.

Jay fixed Zeke so the tiny android could cling to his collar. "You look good. Are you doing rounds on the ground floor today?"

"Negative, Borg assigned me to escort you inside the Tower to ensure any inner threats nor spies have access to you or your..." the onyx-skinned nindroid looked to Zeke.

"Oh- my son!" Jay held his baby boy up a bit higher in his held arm to press his cheek on Zeke's head. The baby's soft, synthetic hair tickling the tip of his nose. "This is Zeke, he's almost 7 months old!"

"Interesting. Not many parents of droids estimate their ages like you."

Jay blew Zeke's hair from his nose, but the fluffy mass again rested on his face. "Yeah well, I speed ran this little tyke's conception in 7 months. So exact timing kinda fell off my plate. Besides, he's my son. Not a appliance."

Cryptor raised a brow. "7 months? Doesn't development of a android take a year, at most for blueprinting and design refinement."

"Yeah well, I'm built different." Jay smirked as he walked to the elevator, Cryptor behind him.

"You have components?"

"Only the ones that make me annoying~"

[jessica-problems]

sort of like D&D: F.I.S.T. by Claymore RPGs- Imagine James Bond meets Metal Gear meets G.I. Joe. players are a party of super-spies and mercenaries in the latter half of the 20th century running around doing crazy action hero shit and ending up neck deep in conspiracies and forbidden science. It's quick and simple and generates some of the most ridiculous characters I've ever played. Your entire character is basically two Traits, each of which has about a paragraph of it's own mechanics, plus a Role, which defines what they're trying to do, plus a few pieces of equipment. You can easily generate a character in, like, 30 seconds once you get the hang of it. HYPERMALL: UNLIMITED VIOLENCE by Rat Bastard Games - basically Cruelty Squad: The TTRPG. Players are a group of gig-economy mercenaries in a nihilistic cyberpunk parody of modern capitalism This is a world where cops are *literally* pigs, and the official state religion is Consumerism. You gotta pay rent, so you take jobs like kicking a puppy or strikebreaking or assassinating a CEO as part of a false flag operation to start a war to further corporate interests. This game hates capitalism with such a visceral and all-consuming disgust. MORK BORG - an OSR game (think "similar to early editions of D&D") in a dark, brutal fantasy world. Players are small, fragile people struggling to survive a dying world that doesn't care enough to hate them. It seems unlikely that any hope could exist. Civilization is on it's last legs. Play this game to see how your pathetic character dies alone in a hole, or maybe, survives, permanently altered. The rule book is, uh, very intense to look at due to some unique graphic design choices, so there's also a free version with much nicer formatting available here: LINK

I am yet another wayfaring tumblrina here from your post analyzing the two kinds of DND players, and I am here to ask: what are some of your favorite TTRPGs and their different features (both in terms of straight mechanics and the kinds of storytelling they tend to produce), and do you have any advice for branching out for people whose knowledge of TTRPGs is primarily limited to DND actual play shows and one ill-fated attempt to put together a DND party in high school?

@lifeandtimesoftrying Some games I like(this list is DEFINITELY colored by my particular tastes, but there's cool stuff out there for basically anyone. feel free to ask for more specific recs if there's something you have in mind.): tumblr seems to not like the formatting of this post so I will break it into a chain of several smaller ones.