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mystery-salad · 4 years ago

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Reposting this since legit somehow Zero of the tags or bolding carried through holy shit

30 questions: GW2 edition I was tagged by @where-is-caithe and @just-eyris-things

This can be done in many different ways: get asks by your followers, pick some questions for yourself, answer the whole damn thing at once, etc! You can draw, write (to explain in details or not) or just post screenshots! If you miss one it’s totally okay, whether it’s by lack of answer or time. Have fun!

1. Favorite living world season?

As much as some of the fights feel really badly balanced, I enjoy LS2 for the close knit new family feel. The whole little group is still figuring their dynamics out and finding their independence, and it’s a real good found family sorta feel as you Go Through A Lot.

2. Favorite expansion?

Heart of Thorns holds a special place in my heart (lol) just for being the first new story since I’d started playing. It’s got many flaws looking back, but nothing has actually hit me harder since. Maybe because anet overuses the punch of tragedy and death an I’m numb to their attempt to low blow us after several years *shrugs*

3. Favorite soundtrack?

The music in Caledon forest was my first step into gw2, and it will forever hold the top spot for me, alongside the original character select screen music.

4. First profession you played?

Ranger! Still one of my absolute favorites.

5. First race you played?

Sylvari, go figure

6. Favorite Destiny’s Edge character?

It’s a tough choice for me! Eir and Caithe rank highest though due to their unconventional character arcs for women. They’ve both got a lot of nuance and challenges and I respect that.

7. Favorite Dragon’s Watch character?

Again gotta pick two, Braham and Rox have a unique feel too and are amazing foils to each other’s characters. I’d like to see more of them together again.

8. Favorite Elder Dragon?

I love the potential held in Bubbles. Deep sea dragon, whose awakening scared even the krait off? Give me those deep sea horrors.

9. Best boss fight (story)?

I honestly really love the final fight against Zhaitan. It really managed to encapsulate the feeling of fighting a larger than life powerful enemy with an army at your back. No big fight since for me has had the same grandeur to it. We did a lot of fighting dragons in “smaller” ways or with “smaller” teams that just feel more...compact, ya know? I want that grandeur back.

10. Best boss fight (fractal)?

Jade maw is fucking wild! And it’s not the boss of its fractal but the giant living statue.

11. Best boss fight (raid)?

Never been in one, would love to one day when I’m in a guild who does them when I’m awake...

12. PvE or PvP or RP?

PvE by far, and RP is fun when you can find the right people.

13. Favorite canon couple?

In one map, there’s a seraph soldier and a bandit having a secret date. They’re so fucking extra and sappy and unnecessary and I love fining them and reading their cheesy star-crossed dialogue.

14. Favorite fanon/self made couple?

With another player, my favorite currently is Matthias with @ascalonianpicnic‘s Aildyn. The two have a very good dynamic.

Solo, I really love my new commander, Kai, with Caithe. I’ve built up a back-an forth for the two that I’m a lot more compelled by than I thought I’d be! I’m excited to share more on these two.

15. Favorite quote?

“sneaky mode engaged”

16. Most emotional cinematic?

The end of Heart of Thorns. A victory, a tragedy, and a clear sign that it’s set off another disaster just by you winning. There’s so many layers to that *boom*

17. Favorite VA?

I’m so bad at naming VAs but whoever voiced the asura female MC knows what she’s about

18. Post a fun screenshot!

Still love this one~

19. Post a landscape screenshot!

20. Most used mount(s)?

I spend most time on raptor still, followed by griffon!

21. Favorite mount skin (for every mount you have)?

Raptor: crested plainsrunner

Springer: kourna jackrabbit

Skimmer: river mothwing

Jackal: lucent sands

Griffon: clouded corvus

Roller Beetle: deep desert scarab

Warclaw: vigilant saberclaw

Skyscale: axejaw skyscale

22. Favorite weapon?

Longbow is my favorite kind of weapon, I like it on every single class that uses it. Favorite overall weapon? Idk man too many to pick from at this point.

23. Favorite gear set?

I’m always a sucker for the sunspear armors

24. Favorite title?

Killer Queen

25. Something you worked really hard to get?

Astralarias is my only legendary so far and it’s pretty rad. Really like Mawdrey too.

26. Favorite GW2 Youtuber / GW2 related video?

Daelin Dwin

27. Most used miniature?

Mini Quail!!! The feather bouncing on the head is an adorable little feature.

28. Most used novelty?

Embiggening tonic!

29. Number of achievments points?

Little over 18,000 now

30. Something you’d love to see in GW2?

Norns getting the same revamp humans got on african american faces and hairs since they’re also based on humans :) Where is it anet? Where’s the fairness? And asura and charr both have some afro-inspired hairs that need better textures now. When anet.

I tag anyone who hasn’t done this yet! Idk who has or hasn’t been tagged in these couple of weeks, but if you haven’t done this yet I’d love to see it via tag 💕

#ask memes

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thecastcompany · 4 years ago

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Writing Prompts

Here are the writing prompts from last week, answering the question

Tell a story of there darkest moment, a moment they were very much the opposite of themselves.

We share the stories of Tobias, Rian & Ere Myth, Lora, Sammuroth and Cyliaa

Tobias

Tobias: "My Darkest moment was recent....little about my background, my parents were afraid that we Sternguards might get snatched up by the local bandit syndicates back home, so they sent a lot of us off to learn real skills, Beatrixx and I were sent with a family friend to head to Ironforge and take a trade, Beatrixx took the warrior route and I wanted to be a ranger, so I was with a band of dwarves teaching me to shoot, grew up with em for hte most part, eventually even my brother Eckhard joined but left shortly after to go to Stormwind since his wife was a practicing priest....besides that I grew up with this group, eventually a pretty little thing joined us a Kaldorei woman, wanted to learn how to use guns, we were friends almost instantly, and that is where my first love went too, but she never wanted us to be nothing more than friends since she lives lot longer than me, so we stayed friends for years.....now fast forward to more recent events, when Slyvanas burned Teldrassil....I was one of the first people there, knowing she would be there....helped evacuate so many elves, she got trapped under a burning building, trying to help a family get out, pulled the rubble off, burned my hands up something nice, and got the family out to safety and went back to drag her to safety, she died in my arms....everything in me died, the military sent me home to heal before being called to war.....was home for a few months and then my father died when the Horde attacked Brennadam....I fell into a dark depression and fell into a very dark place.....started to kill members of the Horde with no remorse, killed soldiers, killed innocent members of there ranks, anything to make them feel as I did....took to the bottle drowning out anything I felt, just became a tool to kill them....a need." He sighs slightly.[10:32 AM]He sighs slightly, "Finding my sister again....helped me through all of this.....when she lost the first love of her life due to the Scourge, she slipped into the same dark depression, took to the bottle, anything to not feel....and I helped her through it, and she helped me through this pain....."

Ere Myth & Rian

Ere: "That would be recent, sadly. I will not go into detail, but the experience of being Nightfallen is...not something I wish on anyone else. I did some rather regrettable things to survive."

If anyone has interacted with the Suramar story, or remembers the story arc for Runas the Shamed, they went through similar ordeals. Quite a few people and withered died at their hands so they could survive, and they are usually more passive so it has been very hard for them to cope with what they did.

Rian: No comment, she hasn't had that moment yet.

Lora

Lora looks off in the distance, upon being asked on something that she tries to bury in her mind. "When I wasn't myself? Hmm." She lets out a melodic, thoughtful hum for a moment. "I guess I should start with saying I have a lot of...what did they say? I think the word was affinity, for my niki...well as my brother and the masters call it, chi. Niki is a name from my sister, when she was alive. Her name was Nika, and my Niki was my connection to her. She always looked out for me, and she raised me. Not my mom, not anyone else in the caravan. Nika did."

She pauses for a moment after realizing she went on a small tangent. "Anyway, that affinity came about when I was really little. The really bad event all started when our caravan was attacked, the snakemen found us. They...got my sister, and I think something snapped in my head. All I really remember was a loud crash and...green, a pale...green. There was lightning all around me, and I..." She stops herself again, "...I screamed, i had never felt so much anger, seeing my sister hurt so badly. So my niki exploded in some kind of green lightning. The snakemen ran after seeing that...i was so scared but Nika told me to run."

She let out a small sigh, looking off at no where in particular. "I couldn't heal her, I knew it was possible, but I just didn't know how to then. So I ran. I came back eventually, buried her and since then, this hat she gave me hasn't left my sight. She even cut the holes for my ears, but it was still too big for me as a kid. Anyway, I guess that's close enough to your question, right? I've got to get back to the temple, there's someone waiting for me there."

Sammuroth

Sam glares at the person asking the question, "You really like bringing up painful memories don't you? Do you enjoy tormenting people by bringing up the worst things in their memories?" He huffs as he looks off into the distance, "When you are possessed by a demon there are times when you are literally not yourself, so I will not use any of those examples as you could say it wasn't really me at all." He sighs, "I had another group of people I considered family before the Cast Company. I saw them all as my children in a way, being the oldest in the group it just seemed natural. Guiding young people giving them advice based on experience, but seeing them that way was a double edged sword."

His eyes mist over, "It is a terrible thing when a parent has to bury their child, especially when knowing you weren't there to protect them. That happened to one of those I considered my child, she was killed and I wasn't there to protect her. The grief was unbearable and that grief soon turned to rage which in turn made me go feral. I left Stormwind, completely unaware of where I was going, only knowing what I was doing and that was looking for people to slaughter."

He growls low at the memory, "Fortunately I came across a band of highwaymen not far from Stormwind. I practically bathed in their blood and viscera, I even think I ate some of one of them. Needless to say I was covered in blood and gore and I was only brought out of it when my lover at the time found me and brought me back under control. It took me weeks to forgive myself for losing control like that on my own without any assistance from a demon trying to control me.

He once again stares daggers at the person, "Now leave before I find myself losing control again and eating you." He grins as the other person falls all over themselves as they run from the room.

Cyliaa

An arrow glides through the air, puncturing a barrel, to which the arrow splits clean through the middle. Cyliaa lets out the breath that she didn't realize she was even holding, and let's the bow relax and fall at her side. Her eyes lacked the usual vibrancy and she's silent for a long moment. "Darkest moment. . .what was my darkest moment. . .?" Her mouth moves without much thought, "I lost control of myself and destroyed. . .everything. . .I remember being in front of all the Priests and they surrounded me. Chanting over and over and over again. The scariest part was that all of the people in the crowd said that they could hear Elune herself speak to them. I couldn't hear a thing. I. . .thought they were going to kill me so I just - " Cyliaa presses the palms of her hands to her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "The worst part is seeing my father's head hit the. . .I - I've blocked so many memories, I think that's for the best." Her hands drop to her side and a lantern in the far corner of the training room suddenly blows out. Wisps of smoke curl in the air and she rushes out of the training room without another word. Leaving the lantern behind

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 5 years ago

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My 2019 Blog Review

Today's the last day of 2019, so I thought it would be fun to dig through my archive and reflect on my blog activity over the past year. I am doing this on my phone but once I have access to a computer again, I'll put this all under a cut. I just can't do it on my phone.

Jan 2019

- Tumblr's background color changed and apparently I'm the only one who liked the change.

- Kingdom Hearts 3 release -- of course, this was a huge thing in my blog at the time. Afterall, I'd only been waiting 15 years for this game. And while I definitely had problems with the game, it also had some very memorable moments that I loved...like Sora punching Davey Jones (I never ever want to forget that moment).

- I began my adventure of learning Japanese. I'm doing pretty good so far.

- The Mummy (Brendon Fraser) appreciation. Occamshipper apparently doesn't like these movies but I love them. I met some great people because I told occamshipper that whereas they didn't like The Mummy Returns, it is in fact one of my favorite all time movies.

- Lots of rambling about my love for Lucy Heartfilia and the Nalu ship from Fairy Tail.

Feb 2019

- BoA Appreciation. I love K-Pop and BoA is one of my all time favs.

- The Vic Micnogna scandal. Honestly, I don't really care about what's going on with the trial, what bothers me is the stain that was left on Funimation because of it. The voice actors really alienated the fanbase in this scandal and I didn't like that.

- Power Rangers appreciation. I love Power Rangers and unironically, too. My favorite power ranger is Adam from Mighty Morphin.

- Within Temptation's new Resist Album dropped and I loved it. I love these epic stories they tell with their albums and the vibes they give.

- I watched the Mythica franchise and my appreciation affair for Zombie Girl began.

- Ronon/Keller appreciation. I loved this pairing so much and I'm super sad the show never did more with them.

- Legacies Reviews. Apparently people find me funny? I have a sense of humor that people enjoy?

Mar 2019

- Emily Bett Rickards revealed she would not be on Arrow for its final season. I was really depressed a out that and I got a lot of hate from comic book fans for daring to say that I like the character of Felicity Smoak.

- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles appreciation. One of my favorite anime/manga of all time.

- I was a victim of credit card fraud because of Creation Entertainment and then they tried to deny they were at fault despite hundreds of their customers reporting credit card fraud all at the same time. They eventually retracted their statement but because of this, I will probably never go to a Creation convention again. They're way overpriced and I certainly will not entrust my important info to them again.

Apr 2019

- Shadowhunters final season started airing and they went from irritating to just plain boring. Seriously, the season's biggest crime isn't how misogynist and racist it was, it was that it was completely nonsensical and boring for me.

- The release of Taylor Swift's and Brendon Urie's collab of ME! and I seem to be the only one that seems to legitimately love that song (even the "spelling is fun" part, RIP you beautiful lyric, alas, you were too good and pure to last in this hateful unfunny world of judgemental culture).

- The X Family appreciation. This is one of my favorite Taiwanese dramas and definitely my favorite series in the KO franchise.

- I broke up with the main SPN meta community (otherwise known as the Positive Police). We just didn't see eye-to-eye. I didn't appreciate them lording over the fandom telling people what they should and should not ship, telling people what they should and should not like...and they didn't appreciate me saying so. Lots of blocking went on and I'm still eternally sorry for the people that got blocked by these big fish because they simply liked my posts.

May 2019

- Game of Thrones crappy ending. What is there to really say about it? It was terrible and misogynist AF.

- Ezra appreciation from the Natural Oneders TFS at the Table D&D campaign. Ezra Lockwood was my favorite character and I'm not okay with how he was written out of the campaign.

- I was quite angry about Dean destroying Chuck's guitar like Dean was a 5-year-old child angry that he didn't get his way (seriously, Dean needs to be sent to time-out).

Jun 2019

- Quicksilver and Dadneto meta commentary from FOX 's X-Men franchise. So much lost potential there, unfortunately (thanks, Dark Phoenix).

- Orca appreciation. They're beautiful, majestic creatures and I love them, they might be my spirit animal.

- Someone unfollowed me because I wasn't giving enough attention to real-world problems. Essentially, I wasn't woke enough I guess. But I'm sorry, if I want to feel all righteous and justicey, I'll watch the news. Social justice and politics are not primary focuses of this blog.

- Godzilla King of Monsters was fantastic.

- Chuck TV Series appreciation. I love this show and I miss it dearly.

Jul 2019

- Veronica Mars Season 4 discourse. Essentially I hate what happened to Logan and what it means for Veronica's character moving forward.

- Played Love Island The Game and had way more fun than I probably rightfully should've had.

Aug 2019

- Re-watched Sailor Moon and then watched Sailor Moon Crystal. Both shows are so much fun. Plus, I love Sailor Jupiter. I love Jupiter's personality and her power aesthetic is badass to match her personality.

- Taylor Swift's Lover album dropped. I might be in the minority but it actually ranks pretty low on my list of Taylor Swift albums.

- Skillet's Victorious album dropped a d ot was a huge disappointment for me.

- I found watermelon to be my new favorite post-workout snack.

Sep 2019

- I watched The Untamed and I absolutely adore this show. I started watching more chinese dramas because of this show. And whereas I haven't found something I enjoyed quite as much from the chinese drama list, I've still greatly enjoyed a lit of the shows...but they still have nothing on The Untamed. The Untamed is just so good.

- Lover Fest was announced. And it was real shady the dealings that were going on with this. It actually kind of made me wary of actually wanting to see Taylor live.

Oct 2019

- I began the Korean drama, Extra-Ordinary You. I haven't finished it yet, but I plan to. I wanted to wait until the entire series was done airing. It does really interesting things with tropes and I greatly enjoy this show and can't wait to to return to it.

- Sherlolly appreciation. Rediscovered my love for the Sherlock/Molly ship from Sherlock.

-Leverage appreciation. Absolutely fantastic show. Highly recommend it.

Nov 2019

-Psych tv series appreciation. Another one of my favorite shows of all time.

- I wrote a Dean Winchester endgame meta. It was fun.

Dec 2019

- Kamen Rider Den-O appreciation. My favorite from the Kamen Rider franchise. I've been re-watching it and it's so much fun. Sato Takeru is amazing in it and the fact that this one of his first acting jobs and he's able to pull off doing so many different characters is seriously amazing.

- SPN finally brought us an angel/vessel dynamic in the form of Adam and Michael and it was amazing.

- The Jumanji re-make appreciation. I love it and The Next Level is just as good as its predecessor and I'm anxiously awaiting the next film in the franchise.

- My thoughts on why I'm single. Mainly because I'm lazy and I just don't feel like doing through all of the work involved in dating.

There you have it. That's 2019 for me. It had its ups and its downs but blog wise, I think I had a pretty good year.

#2019 review

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ask-jaghatai-khan · 5 years ago

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MK11 Roster ranked for Warhammer

// Since I’m on a Mortal Kombat kick. How would each character from the Mortal Kombat 11 vanilla roster fair in either Warhammer? I’m keeping it to the playable roster since all the DLC characters haven’t been revealed yet and I didn’t want to have this post be five miles long. Might do more in the future, however.

Let’s face it, most of these psychos are gonna do pretty well. They regularly get into punch-outs with gods. The biggest problem will likely be which attitudes get them singled out by their allies.

Jade

40k: Decently well. She has many of the makings of an Imperial Inquisitorial acolyte or an Eldar Exarch. Extreme combat skill and mild psychic power are usual marks of greatness. Also very good at subtle politicking. Might be a bit of a pushover though.

AoS: Even better! Less stigma over her magical abilities, slightly more reasonable allies, and less likely to have to fight power-armored super soldiers.

Erron Black

40k: You can already play as this guy in Dark Heresy. Pretty much any Rogue Trader would be happy to hire this guy, and he’s too stupid to be bribed with anything other than cash.

AoS: Limited opportunities due to lack of good personal guns. Might get on well in some kind of mercenary group from Chamon or Hysh, but his rogue nature still wouldn’t earn him many connections.

Kabal

40k: Super-speed and melee skill are good, but only get you so far. If nobody grabbed him as an assassin, he’d still make a killing as a gang boss, and I think he’d be fine with that.

AoS: Probably even better chances of success, but it’s gonna be sucky with those third-degree burns given the lack of things like high-end prosthetic rebreather masks.

Kung Lao

40k: Kung Lao is absolutely a Rogue Trader/Dark Heresy character. He’s gonna get a lot of weird looks, but assuming that hat can cut through power armor, he’ll probably get on just fine. His big mouth might earn him some enemies, though.

AoS: Again, since he uses a low-tech weapon and martial arts, he’s even better in a fantasy setting. The entire Shaolin Temple would do pretty well for themselves in the Mortal Realms.

Sub-Zero

40k: A cryomancer? Seems suspect of heresy. Then again, a cryomancer who hates the undead and can fight as good as an assassin? Seems like prime Inquisitorial material!

AoS: Nagash’s grip is cold, but if Sigmar can get the Lin Kuei on his side, he’s got a lot to gain. Kuai Liang is as great a leader as he is a warrior and mage.

Scorpion

40k: Absolutely corrupted by Chaos, but I think most Chaos Lords would still be reluctant to run into Hanzo Hasashi. Less of a chance he could redeem himself, but even more of a chance for him to wreak absolute havoc on anyone who tries and betray him. Hellfire is plentiful in 40k.

AoS: A better chance for redemption, and even more utility from his ninja skills on top of the hellfire. Whoever has their grips on Scorpion’s soul, whether it’s Nagash or Chaos, better double-check just how strong that grip is.

Cetrion

40k: She’s a god! On the scale of 40k, she’s at a bit of a disadvantage, but being a god is never gonna hurt. She better just steer clear of Slaanesh.

AoS: Again, she’s a god! Set up shop in Ghyran and kick back with Alarielle in the “kill absolutely anybody who messes with our utopia” clubhouse.

Frost

40k: Cryomancer cyborg assassin is hardly the weirdest profession in 40k, and her conniving nature should help her out plenty whether she wants to work with the AdMech, DarkMech, or some other group of bastards.

AoS: Shame she couldn’t keep the robot body, but cryomancer assassin is still more than enough to raise some hell in the Mortal Realms. Nagash’s clubhouse seems most her style.

Baraka

40k: This guy would do well as King Mook of a group of Chaos mutants. That’s pretty much what he is anyways.

AoS: Same meat, different sausage. Being a half-demon warlord may not make you immortal, but it’s hardly a disadvantage.

Raiden

40k: His character and storyline makes him a solid fit for a high-end Inquisitor. Psychic might and leadership skills, with a tendency to turn into a psychotic templar? Tell me that doesn’t sound like a classic Inquisitor.

AoS: As a storm-god, he’d get on even better. He might even have the makings of a mighty Sacrosanct wizard. He’s already attuned to Azyr!

D’Vorah

40k: By the standards of some xenos races, she’s not really a top concern, but D’Vorah knows this and would make the most of what she has. Everyone’s so concerned about Chaos and Tyranids, they don’t even notice when they’re suddenly overrun by the Kytinn.

AoS: Set up in some blighted corner of Ghyran, out of sight but with plenty of foolish heroes to snack on, D’Vorah would do about as well as she’s done in Outworld.

Jax

40k: Eat your heart out, Straken. Or rather, eat your arm off. Jax has all the makings of a Guard commander, though his heart might be a bit too soft to finish his career free of scars to his mind and soul.

AoS: I’m sure someone in Chamon or Hysh could hook the man up with some new arms. Either that, or he’d make for a good Stormcast!

Geras

40k: Who the hell is this guy? Does he work for the Necrons? The Ordo Chronos? Wherever he came from, that archaeotech is going to make him a nightmare for whoever gets in the way of his inscrutable goals.

AoS: Even weirder! He must be some Age of Myth construct left behind in Hysh. Maybe a fractured remnant of a lost God of Law? Either way, he’d probably be more akin to a terrain obstacle in Underworlds than a regular enemy.

Kano

40k: There’s about fifty of this bastard on every world in the Imperium. Maybe he’d help out Chaos, but at the end of the day the Black Dragon is all Kano needs. His smug mug is going to be on wanted posters from Terra to Ultramar.

AoS: Who the hell keeps smuggling Chaos Dwarf cannons into Azyr? What maniac stole a warehouse’s load of weaponry from Hammerhal and sold them to damn greenskins?! If that bastard even looks at a Stormvault I want at least three merc companies sent to hunt him down!

Cassie Cage

40k: The Imperium loves legacy careers! Explains where she gets all those fancy toys from. Inheriting her dad’s mouth is going to make her time in the Schola rough, though.

AoS: A loyal ranger best suited for exploring Stormvaults and hunting down powerful champions. Chaos Lords best not underestimate her, she’s more than meets the eye.

Kotal Kahn

40k: Thank god we managed to find a governor able to rein control of that sector. Not often someone can purge Chaos that efficiently, especially a Feral World-born. Keep an eye on him in case of further developments, however...

AoS: The last of the Osh-Tekk might not worship Sigmar, but he’s a mighty and ruthless ally in the fight against Chaos and undead encroachment. A powerful priest and warrior of the light.

Skarlet

40k: Chaos could always use more assassins. You’d think more people would be looking into blood magic, but the rarity of it just means less competition and counters. Skarlet is every Inquisitor’s worst nightmare.

AoS: Same blood, different vein! Powerful dark magic and assassin skills are hard to knock.

Sonya Blade

40k: A peerless and loyal leader of the Guard. Maybe her choice of friends isn’t the cleanest, but her results can hardly be blamed.

AoS: The Free Peoples always need more competent generals, and even mortal leaders are expected to be able to kick some ass one-on-one. Even if she gets demolished, I think Sigmar was waiting for an excuse to reforge her.

Johnny Cage

40k: Movie stars aren’t so popular in the Imperium, but shining examples of the might of the common man over the unknowable alien? That’s good, even if he never shuts up. Charisma and fighting skill will get you far even if you’re surrounded by enemies. Probably for the best he gets Sonya on his side, though.

AoS: Less likely to be killed for snarky blasphemy! Also everyone’s so damn serious all the time, mockery would probably make for as effective a weapon as magical fists.

Noob Saibot

40k: I swear I’ve seen this type of guy before in Chaos’ toolbox. A shadow-daemon sorcerer assassin? Subtlety is a rare trait among Chaos, so it might make for a powerful advantage.

AoS: There are some parts of Ulgu best avoided. Laugh at the name all you want, just not if you’re standing in the shadows.

Kollector

40k: Mutant or xenos, his ass-kissing skills will serve him well when he inevitably sets himself up with some Chaos Lord. Obviously without plentiful Forge Worlds to draw from, it would best suit your unholiness to hire someone who can scavenge much valuable plunder, yes?

AoS: Hardly different. Having a sticky-fingered mutant to oversee the finances of your kingdom leaves more time for a Chaos Lord to stick to taking skulls and planning conquests.

Kitana

40k: This character absolutely already exists in 40k. Planetary governor turned out to be a heretic? Well thank the Emperor his assassin daughter is amicable!

AoS: Fan blades seem like something a Khainite would enjoy, but thankfully Kitana is more restrained. Diplomatic skill, martial might, and a cool weapon gimmick will help her fit right in!

Jacqui Briggs

40k: Another military legacy, which is always a benefit. Also extremely skilled in combat and making inter-service connections. Probably has a better chance at a legit command position due to her personality over Cas, who’d be better relegated to black ops.

AoS: Again, great warriors and generals are always in high demand. As a commander of the Freeguild or the Stormcast, Jacqui even looks like one of the new warrior-women models GW likes to release nowadays.

Liu Kang

40k: Another mighty champion from outside the Astartes for a change. Liu Kang has protagonist energy, and even if kung-fu is rare in 40k, that’s enough to get you pretty far. Especially when he has such powerful friends.

AoS: More chances to flex those fists, less stigma around summoning fire and turning into a dragon, and he’s still a trusted friend of many generals and demigods.

#mortal kombat #warhammer #age of sigmar #40k #mk11

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entropic-introspection · 6 years ago

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Played that lil game fairness simulator i just reblogged, and it rly makes me think about stuff I’ve noticed playing online games

Warframe is a game that has a high concentration of kinder players. The community prides itself on helping new players, and it isn’t uncommon for older more experienced players to go out of their way to help newer ones. I’ve seen older ones offering up mods, showing newbies secrets, the best ways to run spy missions, or just helping them figure out how to get the biggest bang for their buck. Miscommunications tend to be quickly addressed- “Hey you’re killing stuff too quick for event to happen” “Why are you playing a mini-game right now? ‘oh shit I was in the map by myself didn’t realize you all joined sorry’‘

This isn’t random- the game itself incentivizes playing kindly. Playing in a group get more rewards due to higher enemy spawns, but if you all run as a lone ranger, the spawns get screwed up due to distance. Reviving a player is beneficial in the long run, since you have another person around in case you go down. And receiving a revive instead of self-reviving (of which you have 4 normally) preserves your exp. There’s not really kill-stealing, since you share experience and rewards (in some cases, playing beside a nuker frame is more helpful for you! Experience in WF levels your frame and your weapons, divided up based on what you’re using. However, shared player exp is evenly divided on whatever you have equipped- meaning if you run a crappy pistol in a high level area with a nuker frame friend, even if you never use the pistol, it will still get some respectable exp.) The dev team is active with the player base and works to screw up any ‘meta’ that becomes too hegemonic and overbearing- they want all players to have fun, not just the ones playing ‘correctly’.

Cheating the system and other players certainly happens, but there aren’t as many systems in place to let it happen, and most of them do not unduly reward cheaters over fair players. The biggest complaints are about leechers in open world areas, who let others run the missions while they goof off, and often that’s just annoying, not mission threatening. They might even miss out on some good rewards due to being too far from random drops.

MMORPG’s are trickier. Recently(ish) I’ve done Guild Wars 2 and FF XIV. Since I never got into endgame raid content in either (not rly), I don’t have tons of experience with the areas that are easily the most toxic, but. The biggest problems tend to come from older players getting exasperated that new ones don’t know what they’re doing (miscommunication). Most MMO’s have worked to make kill stealing or loot stealing much harder, since that’s one of the most common causes of toxicity.

That leaves player interaction, most notably in markets. But that’s capitalism babey and I ain’t about to touch that shit. Otherwise, things can be pretty neutral- you might run into some rude folks, some nice ones, but you can just keep on keeping on. Speaking as someone who picked up healing in FFXIV, I am occasionally ready to murder folks in dungeons (tanks who draw too much aggro, dps playing like a tank, both of them ignoring that I’ve got aggro from adds...) but I also have met some wonderfully nice people that keeps me less cynical.

Monster Hunter World is unique in that while you can solo like, the entire game, online play isn’t too bad. Part of this is because there’s limited mechanisms for players to help OR harm each other. Communication is pretty limited, unless you want to take the time to write out a message. You can have preset messages, but most of those are pretty positive and are used for ‘good job!’ or ‘oh that was hella rad’. Someone might kill a monster where you won’t have time to carve it for parts, or be rude/playful and keep smacking you so that you can’t, but at least there’s the rewards at the end. Any weapon can be effective, tho some are better on different monsters.

MHW is just. Incredibly neutral, because unless you run voice chat w/ friends, a multi-player hunt is basically just. Oh hey extra pple for the dps, cool. Minus the times when they chew through your 3 team deaths before failure. Upgrade your armor you fool!

And then there’s Overwatch. I don’t really have an incentive to be nice to my teammates or my enemies. Sure, the commendations can be nice, but they don’t do anything meaningful. If someone hurls slurs at me in the chat, I guess I can report and block them, but lord knows if that will do anything. Working with my team does give me a slightly higher chance at victory, but not if my team in general isn’t willing to work with me. If a teammate or enemy is actively griefing me? Jesus. Christ.

The community itself is very telling, considering that they call toxicity ‘normal’. It happens, they say with a shrug, block report and move on. And when I witness a few teammates who are willing to get involved, and firmly shut down the offending party? That’s an outlier. That’s likely to make the offending party straight up leave the game, and in competitive, that punishes your team. Even in non-competitive play, if you choose to leave a game due to toxicity, doing so too many times prevents you from playing for a while.

Pro advice for climbing the competitive ladder at low ranks? Pick a hero you like, carry, and ignore your team. Since low ranks gain more experience if they gain more medals (of which you can gain gold, silver, or bronze for: kills, kills on the objective, objective time, healing, and enemy damage), that means certain heroes will be given less punishment and higher rewards even if their play-style didn’t benefit the team, only themselves. I like playing Mercy! She’s a fun, highly mobile healer with a resurrection ability. She’s meant to be dangerous only because of her strong healing ability and rez, which can win a team fight. The only medal she is likely to get is for healing, because to do damage you must actively stop healing and switch to a weapon. I am a very good Mercy, but I will unlikely be able to rank up with her because the system is actively stacked against her. (The devs, in fact, have given her less points for winning a match because of ‘too many Mercy mains at unfair ranks’. And then they nerfed her into the ground. Mhm.)

Overwatch is somehow a team-based shooter that gives very little incentive in-game to play as a team, and gives no in-game tutorials or lessons on how a team should play as opposed to a single person. There is barely any HUD to let you know how your team is doing health-wise or with cool-downs (annoying for dps, bad for tanks, catastrophic for healers). They don’t let us see how our fellow teammates are doing for fear of toxicity. I have no way of trying to encourage people to stand in a specific area other than chat or spamming ‘group up’ while standing there.

I still love what Overwatch is trying to be, with its diversity and cool heroes, but I would really like them to reexamine how they have the game set up to reward cooperation and kindness.

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jingleheimerthethaumaturgic · 6 years ago

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Hm, yes, definitely DnD stuff because man. I like my group~ In fact.. I'm just gonna talk about my group!

I... Don't know how to read more on mobile so sorry, I'll see if I can edit it later?

3 of us DM, so we alternate. Well, it started off with just 1, then I wanted to start a story and like... Make a comic or something with the characters and ideas I have (which... Hasn't really gone anywhere) and was gonna DM to pick up while our usual DM, Jon, was real busy with schoolwork while also getting material for fleshing out my world and whatnot. Also to get better at talking and decision making hopefully. And our 3rd DM, Billy, recently started because he too had a story he wanted to tell~ And to try out ideas for like.. Rules he think would be cool.

So Jon DMs a group on Fridays mainly, so his gf can play too, but it's a bit on and off because he graduated and has work now alongside still making projects with his team, so less time for brainstorming and the like. His story has stuff to do with a cult and dreamscapes and whatnot. Deep dungeon crawling in the dream, while having more RP focus in the waking world. I play as the current party's bard, a College of the Maestro (homebrew subclass made by Matt Mercer) human named Leiris! I usually play tanky charactera or some kind of magic melee, so doing a pure support kind of playstyle to try new things. She's.. Kind of a merchant? Because she's paying off her college debt and being from the big trade city, it was the best route in her mind? Even if her 7 Wisdom has caused troubles for the Lifguards... Which is our group name we decided on 2 sessions ago that also consists of: Cade a Divination Wizard halfling, Nimbus the Dragonborn Tempest Cleric, a very... Assassins Creedy rogue named Brock, and a couple of temp? Members of some other friends that may or may not be able to join with us long term, so we'll see how that goes. As it is apparent, we are very magically inclined and also squishy! The frontline is the healer! Legitimate fun times! This is a sorta AU to when we played this campaign like.. Last year with mostly different people. Same world, different characters, different part of the continent.

Billy's campaign, is pretty fresh and interesting in a different way so far! We started off already as apprentices to the elite royal task force (at level 4 already!) of the dragonborn kingdom, and had to fight each other to determine our rankings. I play as a Half-Orc Half-Tiefling Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, Rux! Who is... Uhh. Well not to get flagged but he picked up a side job as a certain kind of entertainer. A good lovable idiot strongboy. I have 2 main spirits that I converse and battle with, 1 from each parent's ancestry. I have yet to go further in detail in game, but I really like what I came up with. Recently, Rux has gotten a cursed axe (that I as a DM already knew what it was, but y'know. Gotta play off character knowledge. And he's an idiot) soo, this'll turn out interesting. I ended up in last place on the rankings, since only 3 of us could make it to the first session and I had to fight the Shadow Sorcerer the first round and missed every attack the second round... But have now risen to rank #2! My boss (well, King Sebastian is my boss per say but I call #1 boss) is Gladiolus, a devoted Paladin and a Blue dragonborn. Our 3rd in command and mage of the group is Durza, the Shadow Sorcerer. He... Is quiet and... Doesn't do well with people but takes orders. So once he ended up melting a door to get into one of our houses to start training off early. But we also have Veraladaine, the elven Ranger~ Sounds majestic, but is a klutz. She's had some irl stuff recently, so Vera had been sick for a while. And finishing up or ranks is Ooguay, a tortle Tranquility Monk. Who is the old man. But man. What a guy. We're currently doing a trial, so we're in seperate gauntlets of monster filled rooms, and Rux is very.. Draw aggro from allies focused, so I can't do much fancy stuff class stuff for now. But ah well.

And lastly, my campaign! Which at this point is the longest running one, but it's been on and off for a month at a time once before? But it's consistant now that I have 2 weeks to prep instead of 1! The gang is on a mission to stop the personified seven deadly sins (devil based... Demigods basically?). At the moment, they've killed Gluttony and have arrived at the capital, where they hear another has surfaced. We have, Leroy J Kins a Lizardfolk Barbarian who is the most fleshed out joke character, I love him. Plus he gave juicy backstory that fit with what I had planned, so that's real nice~. He started out unable to rage (by his player's choice) since he had a second personality, Roy, who is basically his Fight of fight or flight instinct. They've meshed together well by now. Mercy, an elven Rogue who has 2 crossbows and loudly asked the group if they knew the assassin's guild in the middle of a tavern! A badass otherwise, who loves her eversmoking bottle and 40 lbs of soap in her bag of holding. Kiri, who got... Most of them to join the adventering guild they're a part of. Kiri is a Kitsune Storm Sorcerer who is a bit like... Steve Irwin?, but with strange creatures. Sorta? Also a mischevious prankster and problem instigator. Raised an awakened plant from a magic pot (after it grew for a month) and called Leroy the father when it asked last game. Naomi is the.... Either mom, secretary, or logical backbone of the group. An Aasimar Scout (rogue subclass), she wears a mask, is very sciency and experiments (mostly harmlessly) on Leroy whenever she finds weird fruit or plants. Vinnie Vin, their somewhat recently picked up Tabaxi swordbard, who sleeps on Leeroy's head/shoulders half the time because Vinnie small, Leroy tall and big. Goes nya, has a thirst for blood, and whaps foes with a shillelaghed bandora before stabbing them. One player has switched characters a lot, but because he is infrequent and keeps wanting to play different things (also kind of annoys the other players, but I try to keep group discourse low)... But the last member is a... Companion that they run into often. It is her! Domino! A Paladin! (Players found out later that her last name is Ap'al'yden, and lost their shit) a drow Paladin of Edesia's Banquet, who is on pilgramage and helps out whenever they need it (when her player can make it). The church she was a part of got taken over by Gluttony from the inside, and she's the last member to her knowledge... Has a thing for the queen of the kingdom (...Queendom? Since theres no king, the Queen leads alone with chairmen and advisors of course), since she served as a palace guard for a while before setting out. The group has also been traveling with a Silver dragon Leroy named Argent that they saved from a Necromancer (trying to turn it into a dracolich to control), an armoured slime they refer to as Blue Squishy, who communicated via gestures and charades before Leroy found a ring that let them communicate telepathically, their cart driver (who is also a guild member) Dave, and now an awakened shrub.

.....I'm real attached to my session for obvious reasons... I'm running it, we've been playing it the longest, and good party interactions~ I mean to make them kinda OP, as a sort of.. Laid back romp through things kind of session. And they enjoy it! Feels great~

....this got real long whops.

#jingle text #dnd talks #yeahhh there we go #Leroy is so prevalent because his player is fantastic and most of us are either indecisive #Or in Lea's case would careen the story into shenanigan after shenanigan #and leroy just. does things. Could speak draconic and managed to befriend the hurt dragon. Saw the slimy ring and just put it on.

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Do The Republicans Control The Senate

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-the-republicans-control-the-senate/

Do The Republicans Control The Senate

The Gop Has Yet To Land A Single Top Recruit To Run For The Senate Anywhere In The Country

Republicans maintain control of the House and the Senate

The surest way that Republicans can stop whatever legislative agenda President Biden has in mind after the 2022 midterm elections is to win a majority in the US Senate.

Even more than the House, a simple majority in the Senate could let Republicans gum up everything from gun control legislation to Supreme Court nominations.

On paper, it seems easy enough. Republicans need to win just a single seat in order to flip the 50-50 Senate and possibilities for doing so are all over the map. Given that midterm elections often benefit the party out of power, and Democrats control two out of three levers of the federal government, Republicans wouldnt be overly optimistic in assuming Mitch McConnell might soon rule the Senate again.

But here is the thing about the GOPs chances: At this early stage, they are having problems getting good candidates to sign up. And while the historical trends look good for Republicans you cant win something with nothing.

Republicans have yet to land a single top recruit to run for the Senate anywhere in the country even in places where they have an opportunity to flip a seat and a good candidate could make all the difference.

In Nevada, Republicans are pinning their hopes on getting former state attorney general Adam Laxalt in the race to challenge Masto, who won in 2016 by just 3 percentage points. So far, Laxalt has not announced plans to run and he comes with baggage: he lost a bid for governor in 2018.

Arkansas: Mark Pryor Vs Tom Cotton

In a stunning blow to Democrats, Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., beat two-term Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, the first Senate Democrat to lose his seat this election cycle.

Pryors loss is a major upset to Democrats who were hoping to hold onto the seat and keep Republicans from taking control of the Senate. Pryor comes from a popular political family in the state. His father, David Pryor, represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate and served as the states governor. The family maintains close ties with the Clintons, a connection that prompted former President Bill Clinton to campaign on Pryors behalf on multiple occasions.

But Cotton, a one term congressman and former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was able to break through Pryors deep political connections in the state. Throughout the campaign, Cotton, 37, repeatedly tied Pryor to President Obama, whose favorability has reached an all-time low, and stressed issues related to national security, including how the administrations is dealing with ISIS, on the campaign trail.

Kayleigh Mcenany Is Gaslighting America

Washington, DC President Donald Trump made a prediction about the GOP’s control of the Senate at a fundraiser this week, privately telling donors that it will be “very tough” for Republicans to keep control of the chamber in the upcoming election, namely because Trump refuses to support some senators, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Recommended Reading: Did Donald Trump Really Say Republicans Are Dumb

Buzzfeed News Has Journalists Around The Us Bringing You Trustworthy Stories On The 2020 Elections To Help Keep This News Freebecome A Member

McConnell used his power as majority leader to great effect, stonewalling bills passed in the House by both Democrats and Republicans. Rather than vote down those bills in the Senate, McConnell simply ignored them, never letting them go to a vote. Over the four years of Trumps term, McConnells Senate has hardly passed any substantial legislation, despite Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress for the first two of those years. A Republican tax cut bill in 2017 and a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill in 2018 were among the rare exceptions.

Instead, McConnell focused on confirming conservative judges. He was able to confirm 218 federal judges to lifetime appointments under Trump, including three Supreme Court justices. A lot of what weve done over the past four years will be undone, sooner or later, by the next election, McConnell said last month during the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. They wont be able to do much about this for a long time to come.

McConnells disinterest in passing legislation enraged Democrats and also drew frustration from some Republicans in the House and the Senate.

Democrats will be under intense pressure to do away with the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to actually get to a vote on a bill. The filibuster means Democrats will need to get at least 10 Republicans to support any bill they want to pass.

Four Flips For Democrats One For Republicans

Going into the election, the Democrats held 47 seats in the U.S. Senate while the Republicans held 53.

The Democrats have succeeded in flipping four seats: in Colorado, where former Governor John Hickenlooper easily ousted incumbent Cory Gardner, in Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly defeated incumbent Martha McSally, and in Georgia, where Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Kelly Loeffler and Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent David Perdue.

The Republicans have wrested back one previously Democratic seat in Alabama, where one-term incumbent Doug Jones was emphatically denied a second term by Tommy Tuberville, a former college head football coach, most recently at the University of Cincinnati.

Outgoing freshman Sens. Jones and Gardner were both considered vulnerable, as each was elected with less than 50% of the vote in 2018.

Republican Thom Tilliss victory over Cal Cunningham in North Carolinaby less than 2 percentage points according to the North Carolina Secretary of States latest tallyis one of several close Senate races that were not called until after election night. In addition to the seats from Georgia, close races also include the victories of incumbent senators Gary Peters and Susan Collins , which were not called until Nov. 4.

Read Also: Trump Calls Republicans Idiots

Collins Says Gideon Called To Concede

Senator Susan Collins of Maine told supporters on Wednesday that her Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, had called her to concede the race. Without taking Collinsâ seat, Democrats have little change of claiming the Senate majority.

âI have news for everyone. I just received a very gracious call from Sara Gideon conceding the race,â Collins told supporters on Wednesday afternoon.

Collins, one of the more moderate members of Senate, was considered particularly vulnerable this year. If she had received under 50% of the vote, the race would have proceeded to a runoff, under Maineâs system of ranked-choice voting.

Gideon significantly outraised Collins, and hit the senator repeatedly for voting to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

United States Senate Elections 2016

New HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaWest Virginia

Elections to the U.S. Senate were held on . A total of 34 of the 100 seats were up for regular election. Those elected to the U.S. Senate in the 34 regular elections on November 8, 2016, began their six-year terms on January 3, 2017.

Control of the Senate was up for grabs again in 2016. In order to take the chamber back, Democrats needed to gain five seats in 2016, but they fell short, picking up only two seats. Ultimately, Republican senators proved to be far less vulnerable than predicted. Some reasons for the predicted vulnerability are as follows. The majority of seats up for election were held by Republican incumbents, many of whom were freshmen who were swept into office in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Additionally, the Senate election coincided with a presidential election, which has been a boon to Democratic candidates in the past decade. Democrats had made gains in the Senate in the last two presidential elections, while they had suffered losses in the years between.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Democratic Party gained two seats in 2016, resulting in a 52-48 majority for Republicans. The two independent members of the Senate are included in the Democratic totals, as they caucus with Democrats.

100 100

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What Are Senate Special Elections And Why Do They Happen

A special election may happen for any Senatorial seat and is sometimes referred to as a bye-election. State Senators have two-year terms. In some cases, a Senator steps down from office before their term ends. A Senate special election refers to an election to fill a vacant Senate seat between a general election.

In some instances, such as in Georgia, the state Governor appoints an interim Senator to fill the vacant seat until the next general election. In other cases, special elections begin at the time an officeholder vacates their seat.

How Long Will It Last

Republicans keep control of the House and Senate

The Republican hold on its power in the 50-50 split is just as tenuous. The Republicans radical pro-Trump faction could drive more moderate lawmakers out of the party, which would disrupt the balance of power and weaken the GOP. Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski recently floated the idea of abandoning the party. This would presumably make her an independent; she told Alaska Public Radio that she would not join the Democratic Party.

In 2001, after just four months of being in place, the power-sharing agreement was dismantled when Vermont Republican Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and joined the Democrats, giving them true majority control.

Since the deal was only in place for four months, it never really got tested in the way it might have had things gone on longer with tougher issues, said Verdery. On paper, it looked pretty good and it worked fine, but it was only in effect for a short period of time.

Should there be no disruptions, the agreement negotiated between Schumer and McConnell this year would last until 2023. How it will look and how well it will work has yet to be tested.

There probably will be a power-sharing agreement that will be a very lame version of what was produced in 2001, said Steve Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St Louis. Those were different times.

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What Republican Senate Control Means For America

One of the most important memes of political intellectual culture today is that the Republicans are no better than the Democrats.;;Conservatives express this vividly in the notion of RINOs .;;Is this historically true?;;More specifically, what might a Republican-controlled Senate mean for American life beginning in 2015?

Since 1980, Republicans have controlled the Senate from 1981 until 1987, from 1995 until 2000, and from 2003 until 2007.;;The largest majority for Republicans was 55, held 1997 to 2001 and again in 2005 to 2007.;;If electing Republicans to the Senate makes no difference, then we should be able to see in the past 30 years that Republican control of the Senate renders no meaningful difference in several areas — among them poverty, unemployment, and the deficit.;

Poverty

The United States experienced the most dramatic reduction in poverty from 1996 to 2000.;;Poverty in the United States fell to an astounding level of 11 percent.;;Why?

This is an important question, given that poverty is over 15% today and we are approaching the 50th anniversary of a war on poverty.;;The Welfare Reform Act of 1995, compelled by a Republican Senate against the wishes of Democratic President Clinton, ushered in the era of big government being “over.”

Unemployment

The Deficit

Ben Voth is an associate professor of communication and director of debate at Southern Methodist University.

Poverty

Unemployment

The Deficit

How Will Democrats Control Of An Evenly

While Democrats will have some advantages controlling the 50-50 Senate, their majority could also be quite complicated.

Georgia certified election results Tuesday confirming the victories of Georgia Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the US Senate. Their arrival in the Senate splits the partisan makeup in the chamber equally between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, a divide that has occurred only three times before in the nations history.

Warnock and Ossoff are expected to be sworn in this week after defeating former Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, in a pair of dramatic January 5 runoff elections in the southern state of Georgia that determined control of the Senate. Under the US Constitution, the vice president, in his or her constitutional role as Senate president, has the power to break tie votes, so Democrats will technically control the chamber when Democrat Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is sworn in on January 20.

Although the slim Democratic control is good news for incoming President Joe Biden, it raises many questions about how the Senate will operate and perform its most basic functions. The split comes at a time in which the country is deeply divided following four years of President Donald Trump and days after a deadly insurrection attempt that his supporters made against the US Capitol building in Washington, DC on January 6.

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What Does That Mean To Joe Biden

The narrow Democratic majority will help Joe Biden as he tries to fill out his Cabinet and pass an agenda headlined by a coronavirus relief package.

The Senate also has to set a structure for an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump.

The House charged him with inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 but has not yet sent the impeachment article to the Senate.

Biden hopes the Senate can spend part of its time on the impeachment trial while still confirming executive branch nominees.

Divided Government In The United States

In the United States, divided government describes a situation in which one party controls the executive branch while another party controls one or both houses of the legislative branch.

Divided government is seen by different groups as a benefit or as an undesirable product of the model of governance used in the U.S. political system. Under said model, known as the , the state is divided into different branches. Each branch has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with the powers associated with the others. However, the degree to which the president of the United States has control of Congress often determines their political strength – such as the ability to pass sponsored legislation, ratify treaties, and have Cabinet members and judges approved.

Early in the 19th century, divided government was rare, but since the 1970s it has become increasingly common.

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Who Controls The Senate 2021

5:59 ET, Jan 21 2021

THE Democrats are now officially in charge of the Senate – but only by the narrowest of margins.

That means President Joe Biden has inherited a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Senate.

* Read our Donald Trump impeachment live blog for the very latest news and updates on the former president…

Isan Control Of Congress

This table shows the number of Congresses in which a party controlled either the House, the Senate, or the presidency.

Party

^U.S. Senate: Party Divisions

^The Anti-Administration Party was not a formal political party but rather a faction opposed to the policies of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The faction eventually coalesced into the Democratic-Republican Party.

^The Pro-Administration Party was not a formal political party but rather a faction supportive of the policies of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The faction eventually coalesced into the Federalist Party.

^ abThough Washington never formally joined a party, he was broadly sympathetic to the coalition which later became the Federalist Party.

^Washington disapproved of formal political parties and refused to join either party, though he became a symbol of the Federalist Party.

^Adams won election as a Democratic-Republican, but he sought re-election as a National Republican.

^Whig President William Henry Harrison died April 4, 1841, one month into his term, and was succeeded by John Tyler, who served for the remainder of the term. Tyler had been elected as vice president on the Whig ticket, but he became an independent after the Whigs expelled him from the party on September 13, 1841.

^Whigs held their only trifecta from March 4, 1841 until later that year when the Whigs expelled Tyler from the party on September 13 and he became an Independent.

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Democrats Take Control Of Senate With Twin Georgia Victories

Democrats will have a narrow control of the U.S. Senate. The chamber will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris having a tiebreaking vote. Patrick Semansky/APhide caption

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Democrats will have a narrow control of the U.S. Senate. The chamber will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris having a tiebreaking vote.

Democrats took exceedingly narrow control of the Senate on Wednesday after winning both runoff elections in Georgia, granting them control of Congress and the White House for the first time since 2011.

Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue, according to The Associated Press, making him the youngest member of the U.S. Senate and the first Jewish senator from Georgia. Earlier Raphael Warnock, a pastor from Atlanta, defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler after a bitter campaign. Warnock becomes the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from a Southern state.

The Senate will now be split 50-50 between the two parties, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tiebreaking vote.

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Ossoff had a narrow lead Wednesday morning when he declared victory.

“It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate,” he said.

Perdue has not conceded.

Impact on Biden agenda

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lechevaliermalfet · 7 years ago

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Rise, and Escape – A Long Look at Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Quick note: This deep dive write-up was originally posted elsewhere in May of 2015. I’m polishing it for reposting here. In addition, for those interested, a while back I recorded a podcast-type thing for a project called Pause Menu Monologues, which was being done by an acquaintance of mine. Said monologue was derived from a cut-down version of this effortpost. For those interested, you can listen to that here. Now, on to the main event.

As I prepare to leave my current job for another with far better opportunities, it feels tremendously appropriate to talk yet again about a game premised almost entirely on the idea of escape.

I’ve written about Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter before, but it was requested that I write about it again. It was @squeemcsquee making the request, so I listened more than usual. I’m sure I’ll probably wind up saying a lot of the same things I said on the first go-‘round, but who knows?

Well, here’s something I didn’t say before this writing: When I first introduced her to Dragon Quarter, she got into it. Really into it. Given her relative inexperience with Japanese role-playing games, this was surprising to me; it’s so different from the usual run of JRPGs, especially as the genre stood in about 2003 or so when the game first came out. Contrarian that I am (at times), that’s part of what endeared it to me. But as she pointed out, the things that made it seem out of the ordinary to me meant very little to her. She didn’t have much “ordinary” to compare it against.

Unfortunately, watching her play it made me want to play it also. Part of this is the natural (and deeply unfortunate) backseat-driving instinct I have whenever I’m watching someone do something that I’m familiar with, but feel they could be doing better, and in fact, if they’d just let me have the controller for a few minutes, I could show them exactly how… But part of it was also just that seeing the game played really made me want to be playing it myself. This presented a problem, what with us having only the one copy. It led to arguments. Not, like, real arguments, but not exactly cutesy fun arguments, either. We did, at the time, have both a working PlayStation 2 and a backward-compatible PlaySation 3, so it was only owning just the one copy of the game that was really a problem. So the solution was pretty simple.

That’s how good it is. Dragon Quarter: The game so nice, we bought it twice.

Technically, we only bought the game once. I bought it when it first came out, back in early 2003. I played it for a while, and while it was pretty to look at, and it had good music, and the setting was interesting, it just didn’t come together for me. Despite this, I had no desire to trade it in. I had the feeling I was onto something good, though I couldn’t quite grasp it at the time.

I hadn’t had much experience with the Breath of Fire series then. I owned a copy of Breath of Fire IV, which was really the first game in the series that I even tried to tackle seriously. Having unwillingly skipped over the 16-bit generation (owning a TurboGrafx-16 and five games hardly counts), my impression of the series at that time could basically be described as “like Final Fantasy, only not quite as inventive”. It perhaps wasn’t a fair assessment, but I was basing this on the opinions of friends and acquaintances; I was unable to draw my own conclusions. Still, I liked Breath of Fire IV well enough, even outside of some positive personal associations, so I hung on to Dragon Quarter, feeling relatively certain that one day, I would get the itch to try it again.

As it happened, I did, a couple years down the line. The story and the characters were calling to me, and this time, everything finally clicked.

It probably helped that, around that time, I was beginning to become aware that JRPGs as a genre were becoming (or more likely, always had been) deeply conservative in terms of design, as well as character and story archetypes. Realistically, this has probably been the case since the days of the original Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Phantasy Star. But I got into these types of games in late 1998 with Final Fantasy VII; I was new to the genre in those days, so even things that were rote and by-the-numbers were fresh and new to me then. And in fairness, I’ve enjoyed a number of these types of games. But by this time, I found myself wanting games in the genre to branch out and do something new. So many of the mechanical mainstays of the genre, the “traditions” of JRPG design, began life as frankly clunky workarounds for technology that wasn’t really up to giving us a less abstract simulation of the expected features of a fantasy adventure: travel, exploration, fighting monsters, finding treasure, getting new and more powerful gear, and saving the world and any number of princesses. If you wanted to simulate all of these things on older hardware, you had to have a certain amount of abstraction. So you had your turn-based battles, your random encounters, and so on, and so forth.

By the PS2 era, the technology was rapidly growing beyond the need to adhere to these ancient abstractions for any reason other than nostalgia’s sake. It had been doing this for some time – Chrono Trigger jettisoned random encounters back in the mid-90s, but despite the universal acclaim that game received, no one seemed terribly interested in implementing any of its innovations elsewhere. Developers were, by and large, unwilling to grow out of those old ways. In part this might be down to the reluctance of their audience (or at least a very vocal portion of it) to part ways with those same traditions. But whatever the reason, the result was the same: stagnation. Or so it felt to me.

I wanted something that was different from the JRPGs I’d played before. Something that still offered the thought and planning that went into playing an RPG of any kind, something with a good story and interesting characters, but which went off the beaten path and did something different.

And so, in late 2004 or maybe early 2005, two years after I originally bought it, tried it, and hung it up for the foreseeable future, I started playing Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter again.

It’s an odd beast, this game, even when you look at it in the context of its own series. All the more so, really. The earliest Breath of Fire games got compared to the 8- and 16-bit Final Fantasy games, at least by most of the people I knew back then. Really, a more apt comparison would be to Dragon Quest, but I hadn’t played any of those games, and I was part of a group of friends who oddly lacked much experience with that series, so maybe nobody was in a position to make that particular comparison. With most of my friends, Dragon Quest (then known as Dragon Warrior due to trademark issues; I feel so old sometimes) was always “That game where you grind for hours and hours and then you finally say ‘fuck this!’ and go do something else, maybe play Final Fantasy or go outside or something, I dunno”.

Anyway, the whole series up to this point had been pretty standard high-fantasy fare, with the unique selling point being the main character’s ability to transform into a dragon. Most of the game mechanics beyond this were pretty straightforward. My experience with the series at large was pretty much limited to some time spent on the fourth game, and some time spent goofing off with ROMs of the first two out of idle and quickly satisfied curiosity.

One other consistent feature of the series is that the main character, the aforementioned dragon-transforming person, is always a young blue-haired swordsman named Ryu, and there is always a blonde, winged young lady named Nina who typically focuses on magic. Additional characters tend to be of all shapes, sizes, and species.

Dragon Quarter, by contrast, occurs in a future dystopia where humankind, having pretty much destroyed the environment through the use of biologically engineered weapons called dragons, has retreated to a single subterranean dwelling called Sheldar. There, they survive as best they can.

In this society, everyone is given a rank, called a D-ratio. On the surface of things, this ratio is a measure of one’s current ability and future potential, and places limits on their social standing, the kinds of jobs they can hold, places they can live, and overall determining just exactly how high they can rise in the world, figuratively and literally.

“Low-Ds”, that is, people with low D-ratios, live further down in this habitat. The air is worse, people’s lifespans are shorter, and there are occasionally monsters called genics that roam around down there. The people with high D-ratios live closer to the surface where the air is better and things are generally less dangerous. A nice touch is that, especially in cut scenes, the game is literally more hazy and grimy, visually, the further down you are. As you go up, the environments gradually become clearer and brighter. It happens bit by bit, so you may not notice it the first time through, but if you finish the game and start over again, the difference stands out.

One of the few story beats to be preserved is our hero: Ryu. Here, he’s a low-D ranger, whose job mainly seems to involve security and hunting down genics. His D-ratio is abysmally low: 1/8,192. His current job is the very highest he can hope to achieve. He’s partnered with another young man named Bosch, D-ratio 1/64. While Ryu is effectively at the very limit of how far he can rise in the world, Bosch is only at the beginning. A D-ratio as high as his means he can potentially qualify to become a Regent, one of the four rulers of this underground world. Bosch is basically just paying his dues here. He’s friendly enough to Ryu, in a condescending sort of way, which Ryu mostly just shrugs off. What else is he going to do?

While reporting for an assignment with Bosch, Ryu succumbs to a brief fugue, in which he has a vision. He sees the decaying remains of a giant dragon spiked to a wall. Despite clearly being dead, the dragon seems to talk to Ryu, mind-to-mind, though what it says to him makes virtually no sense at the time. Not long after, Ryu comes across the real thing, though it is very visibly dead and inanimate.

A terrorist attack splits up Ryu and Bosch, and shortly thereafter, Ryu runs into this game’s version of Nina, as well as a member of the resistance movement Trinity, named Lin. She seeks Nina for her own – or rather Trinity’s – purposes. The three form an unlikely but highly effective team. But allying himself with these two has its consequences, and by the time Ryu and Bosch reunite, circumstances have made them into enemies. Bosch is a good fighter, and he has plenty of allies with him, but Ryu refuses to betray his new comrades. Thankfully, his encounter with the dragon was no mere dream or hallucination. Unbeknownst to him, it has bestowed him with awesome power… and a deadline.

With every passing moment, the monstrous dragon power lurking within Ryu grows more prominent, threatening to overcome him. While Ryu is in control, he can transform into a bestial form capable of slaughtering even bosses within just a couple of rounds of combat. But drawing on that power accelerates its progress in overtaking him.

And so, with all hands turned against him, Ryu, Lin, and Nina have ultimately just a single option: Escape.

One of the things that I like about Dragon Quarter – one of many, many things – is the way that the game’s more prominent mechanics and its story are so closely intertwined.

The dragon power bestowed upon Ryu early into the game isn’t just a narrative device or story element, coming out only when dramatically convenient. It’s also a game mechanic, in the form of what the game calls a D-counter. This is a number, a percentage, that appears in the corner of the screen. As you play, it slowly ticks up toward 100 in intervals of a hundredth of a percent. Everything you do in the game causes it to increase. Everything. Every 24 or 25 steps will cause it to increase by one interval. Later in the game, this happens every dozen steps or so. Ryu’s special D-dash ability, which allows him to avoid enemy combat, causes it to tick up faster. Transforming, all by itself, raises the counter, and any actions taken while transformed increase it by whole-number percentages. It is literally overpowered. What I mentioned about crushing bosses in just a couple of turns was not hyperbole. I’ve done it. It’s basically my end-game strategy.

There is no way to drop the counter. Ever. There are no items, no spells, no techniques which will allow you to reset it or undo any of its progress. It just sits up there in the corner, slowly increasing and glowing ever more furiously as the number grows. The tension between the temptation to use it whenever you’re in a bind and the punishing consequences of that use can be exquisite.

When I first heard Dragon Quarter described as a survival-horror RPG, it didn’t make sense to me. But that’s mainly because I associated the mechanical elements of most of the survival-horror games I’d played with the more thematic elements of horror. And there are horrific moments and images in Dragon Quarter; the world of the game is not a happy place, and its maintenance is not easily or cleanly done. But that horror is mainly a consequence of the world-building; it’s not the point of the game.

The key here, I think, is the word “survival”. You might more accurately call Dragon Quarter a survival-RPG, except it’s basically the only one of its kind that I know of. It’s kind of hard to wrangle a whole genre out of that.

At their heart, survival-horror games generally “work” based on two principles.

The first is the fragility of the player character relative to other types of games, and relative to the enemies within the game. You are not the hero of a more action-oriented game, who can take maybe a dozen sword strokes straight to the face and just keep going, or who can withstand a hail of gunfire and duck behind cover for a few seconds while your shields recharge. Here, the player is reduced to a much more even footing with the enemies. Every bit of damage taken is a significant setback that needs to be planned around, either to prevent it or to deal with it when it happens. Every attack must be calculated. This is because of the second principle, which is resource management.

The in-game resources, both those which you use to preserve yourself and those you use to eliminate your enemies, are finite. So they must be spent wisely, frugally. Because of this, you are constantly required to take a measured, careful approach to any situation. You can never just blithely wander around; to do so invites disaster twice over. In the short term, you risk serious harm, leaving yourself vulnerable to future threats. In the long term, if you come out of the situation relatively unscathed, it’s generally at some expense of resources, leaving you ill-prepared for future encounters. Carelessness becomes indistinguishable from suicide.

This puts pressure on the player to play extremely well at all times by punishing mistakes immediately and brutally. As a result, some of the typical elements of JRPGs are missing.

There are no healing spells or techniques. All healing – whether restoring health or curing negative status effects – is accomplished by way of expendable (and frequently pricey) items. And you have to consider how often (if at all) you’ll be using some of these items, because inventory space is limited, and multiple items of a single type don’t “stack” very much before requiring another inventory slot. And, naturally, the usual economics of JRPGs are in full effect. Whatever you get for selling an item is a pitiful fraction of what it costs you to buy.

The game offers you the ability to use bait and traps to lure enemies into a position of compromise and get the drop on them, but even these need to be used sparingly. There’s hardly enough for every encounter.

Interestingly, the game knows exactly how difficult it is, and gives you something of a way around the problem.

As with most RPGs of any kind, Japanese or otherwise, you earn experience points, new equipment, and new abilities as you go through the game. In addition, Dragon Quarter also gives you what’s called Party XP. Basically, this is experience you can dole out to party members as you like to boost their levels.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you can’t progress without either having your party wiped or running the D-counter up to 100% (which, if it hasn’t become obvious by now, is an instant Game Over), you have the option to do what’s called a SOL Restart. This restarts the game from the beginning, but lets you keep all the equipment and skills you’ve learned, as well as any Party XP you still have. This gives you get a fresh start while retaining your improved gear, and the Party XP lets you give yourself a boost in the early stretches.

There’s also an option to restore a previous hard save along these same lines. Dragon Quarter allows “soft” saves anywhere, but these are temporary by design. Once loaded, these saves disappear. There are only a few “hard” save points, from which you can restore at will, and to which you will be returned with a SOL Restore.

If this sounds ridiculous for what is typically a long-form type of game, it may help to understand that Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is only about eight to ten hours long from start to finish on a single play through, once you know what you’re doing. Even with a couple of full-blown restarts, you’ll be spending no more time on Dragon Quarter than any other game from the same time period. Less, probably.

Writing this now, I just about want to say that Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was Dark Souls before Dark Souls really existed. There’s a certain similarity in that both games are more difficult than usual while still being relatively fair, and in the expectation that you will die, probably more than once, and that rather than being a tragedy, it’s simply an instructive part of the experience. Or in the case of Dragon Quarter, you’ll experience (probably more than once) a situation in which death is basically a given should you continue, and the smart thing would be to cut your losses and restart.

Dragon Quarter’s infliction of pressure extends even to the representation of the game’s characters and world.

Most characters have a skinny, almost emaciated appearance. Part of this is simple stylization, of course, but it still contributes to the overall effect. These people live a thin and narrow existence, it says, devoid of the expansive pleasures humankind was meant to enjoy. There is a grimness and a quiet desperation underlying it all.

The world itself is a fucking hole. Corridors in the lower areas are littered with random junk and debris; it’s best not to think what it might all actually be. The air is hazy and grimy, and things have a sort of cobbled-together look that just makes the whole place look cramped and dingy and uncomfortable. In these lower areas, everything looks like it’s about one stern look away from falling right apart. The upper areas are cleaner, more solid, but can seem so sterile and strictly designed as to be hostile. Dragon Quarter does a wonderful job of creating a world you want to get the hell out of as soon as you can.

It’s ironic, really. Most games, I play to escape from the troubles and stresses in my life. And most games oblige this desire. Even the ones that take place in barren wastelands tend to take place in gorgeously rendered barren wastelands that encourage you to examine every carefully tailored nook and cranny. They’re an invitation to exploration and adventure, and are “barren” or “waste” only as a matter of aesthetics.

But limitation and escape are the central themes in this game, and a world in which such themes are explored must be more than a background or a prop.

The world is limited in its size; an RPG with little to no detectable exploration, comprised mainly of tunnels and rooms, and a single clear direction and objective at all times. The player's inventory of supplies is likewise limited, in keeping with the surival horror influence. The player is frequently required to prioritize, and ditch whatever they aren't likely to use based on their play style. Care must be taken by the player to work within these limits.

Narratively speaking, the story also explores the idea of limitations. Ryu himself embodies these limits. His D-ratio is among the lowest of the low. His place in society, the ways in which he can define and express himself, how he can live – all of these things have strict limits placed on them. And this dragon entity, Odjn… As much as it much as it appears to be the key to his salvation, as much as it empowers him to break all barriers and overcome or destroy all opposition, it limits him as well. It puts a countdown on his life, ticking down the hours he has left until... well, until whatever horrific thing might happen when Odjn gains total control and breaks free.

And in the end, the characters decide to break free of these limits placed on them by the world by breaking free of the world itself, to smash through the ceiling of it and see once and for all what lies beyond its narrow, choking confines.

Dragon Quarter is a game about escape.

Ultimately, this is a large part of what interests me about the story of Dragon Quarter, what keeps me coming back. Rather than a big, trampling save-the-world epic, it’s about a group of characters who just want out. This is a smaller story, a “tiny tale of time”, as the game itself tells us in its opening narration. It’s huge in its implications for its world and its characters. It’s great in the scope of the ideas it asks its characters to contemplate. (It flirts with Gnosticism, which immediately grabs my interest). It that sense, at least, it does involve the end of the world, in one way or another. But the scale is smaller, and the characters strike me as being more real because of it.

Ryu, Lin, and Nina don’t want to fight anybody. There’s at least one memorable occasion where Ryu, surrounded by enemies, asks why they can’t just let him and his friends go. The character animations in Dragon Quarter aren’t spectacular, but they get the job done here. There’s something about the way that Ryu asks his question that seems to have layers. On one layer, he seems mentally, psychologically exhausted from the strain of all the fighting, and the toll all the deaths he’s dealt out has taken on him. On yet a deeper layer, he seems equally exhausted from fighting the thing inside him that threatens to take over and destroy him.

They aren’t trying to harm anybody. And it seems reasonable just to let them go, on the one hand. But on the other, there is the major problem that letting Ryu and company out of this subterranean pit will completely upend the social order – will end this idea of the world – purely as a side-effect of his escape. Because the underlying problem with Ryu’s world is a variant on the same problem that keeps people in dead-end jobs and abusive relationships long beyond the point when, logically, they should be getting out.

Fear.

The world of Dragon Quarter is, as previously stated, an absolute, utter shithole in purely objective terms. Even the people in charge don’t seem to be enjoying themselves much. And it’s because everyone seems to be in unspoken agreement that even if the current circumstances are awful, at least they’re familiar awful circumstances. It’s possible that things are better on the surface, but it’s just as possible that they aren’t. It’s just as possible that they’re far worse. This, at least, is the devil we know.

Even one of the main villains, the ruler of this subterranean nightmare, is ruled by fear. A thousand years before the story proper, he was given the opportunity to open this world to the surface. But he backed down. In his fear that the world above might still be the barren wasteland people left ages ago, he turned back at the final moment, sentencing himself and everyone in the underground to remain in it indefinitely.

There’s an anime I like quite a bit – it’s probably my favorite, really – called Revolutionary Girl Utena, and in it there is a bit of dialogue that is recited so often it’s practically a ritual. It goes like this:

“If it cannot break out of its shell, the chick will die without ever being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don’t crack the world’s shell, we will die without ever truly being born. Smash the shell, for the world revolution.”

This is actually a paraphrase from the Hermann Hesse novel Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth (usually just known as Demian), in which it’s put this way:

“The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is a world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird then flies to God. That god’s name is Abraxas.”

To go up, to go out, to rise, to escape: This is an act of tremendous faith.

#breath of fire dragon quarter #breath of fire #dragon quarter #rpg #jrpg #video game #deep dive #effortpost #longpost #gnosticism-lite

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jacscorner · 5 years ago

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Why do I keep doing group pics when they take so long? I must be a masochist... So, space animals. This is heavily inspired by Bucky O'hare and the Toad Wars-in fact, I have no qualms in anyone calling this a knock-off someday-with a few dashes of the old miniatures game Critter Commandos. Since it seems unlikely the original comic will continue or that we'll get anything more of the cartoon, I decided to draw my own crew of assorted funny animals in space suits. (They all look like a bunch of defect Power Rangers. XD) So, from...right to left: Nic Cooper - Boar: The Captain of the Solar Scouts. He's a hearty man who's always up for an adventure! Hot blooded, daring, but not stupid. He wouldn't put his trusted crew in any danger if he wasn't sure they could handle it or handily get out of it. He'll gladly jump straight into danger when it calls! He hails from Primus, the Capital Planet of the United Space Federation-or the USF. Primus is pretty much their version of Earth. Natasha Nosferatu - Bat: Navigator and Co-Pilot of their ship, Natasha is a Vampire Bat from the far off planet Tenebris, a planet that's close to the their sun, but is covered in dark clouds, keeping the planet in a perpetual state of night. She's rather flirty and loves to seek attention. She gets a lot of flak under the assumption she's a Vampire, but she's actually an Eastern Red Bat-which doesn't help to calm down any Mice, sadly. Spencer Scott - Otter: 1st Gunner and, according to him, the quickest shot this side of the Soap Bubble Galaxy. Is much cooler than you'd think given the picture, but he loves to show off when he gets the chance. Comes from planet Unda, another planet similar to Earth, but it's flooded and decorated with a number of islands. You learn to swim before you learn to walk. Spencer, along with his shooting skills, is a strong swimmer. Gia Hills - Giraffe: Medical Officer of the Solar Scouts, she didn't think she'd get roped into space adventures when she got out of school. Her poor heart can't take the constant fighting, but she has a job to do and that's keeping these guys alive! Gia hails from Planet Diana, which has one super continent and a fresh water ocean. She was rather poor and only agreed to join the crew to help pay off her school debt. Darwin Chuck - Monkey: A low-ranking monkey from Planet Lignum-a forest planet that's rather primitive, filled with savages that steal and reverse engineer technology. His white fur branded Darwin as an outcast and he only got off the planet after stowing away upon one of the ships that managed to get on and off of the planet. His days on the planet made him good at taking apart and putting back together tech, which is how he got the job as the Solar Scout's 1st Engineer. Lou Simons - Duck: The Solar Scout's 2nd Gunner and Demolitions Expert, Lou was a part of the Space Navy, but was dishonorably discharged for disobeying direct orders from his superiors. He doesn't like to talk about the incident and will shut down any attempts to bring it up. He was born on a distant Aube, an Asteroid Colony at the edge of the USF. He's hot blooded and has a short temper. He's notorious for starting bar fights and blowing things up.

#JAC Art #Solar Scouts #Furry #Anthro #Anthropomorphic #Pig #Bat #Otter #Monkey #Giraffe #Duck #Scifi #Sci-Fi #Retro Science Fiction

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torosiken · 7 years ago

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Question do you like WCI arc? What are your thoughts on it? What do you like or do you not like about it?

hi anon thanks for asking me this question XD *cracks fingers* hoo man this is gonna be long. To anyone, please don’t get offended on what I am going to write- just in case you get the wrong idea.

well, before I start I have to admit that I am a BIG *COUGH* Sanji *COUGH COUGH HACK* fan. And the idea of Sanji Year excited me nonetheless when it first came out, along with the Vinsmokes and marriage theme. I expected a lot of things happening during this arc. And in one side, I do am pleased with the revelation of Vinsmokes and all the new characters. I liked them, however I have to really say I am really displeased with Oda’s writing during this entire arc.

The entire arc was a disaster for me. Not because I expected big things or so. Ever since Sanji’s second backstory was mentioned briefly by the wedding invitation, I already expected this arc will full of cliches and oh-my-god I hate cliches so much. Yet I put my faith in Oda- because maybe he will pull shit out nicely like he always did. But no, we got a horrible rushed-off writing instead.

My guess it’s because Oda announced Year of Sanji back in 2016, and in result, he was rushing himself to write this arc and it ended up having a horrible writing. The idea of this arc was nice- but it was lacking execution. If you have been reading what my friend Malky wrote @sleepdepravity about this arc, I agree most of it with her- this arc has no point of character development. Sanji is kind, but the flaunting of that fact in this arc is only shoving that idea in the reader’s face- to make people go “Ooooh Sanji is so kind he is a salvation angel” instead of actually making this a redemption or some short.

The Straw Hats are adults, at this point- character development might not really presented and it was obvious especially ever since the timeskip. They are solid and are collected. And then suddenly this arc happens. If this arc is only going to show how harsh the New World is, it’s not. Because during the entire arc I don’t even get scared at all that Sanji or anyone is going to be killed for that matter. We had that heart attack that Law might get killed back in Dressrosa, but no. Also, apparently Law’s hand can be sewn back just nicely in the end of the arc. It makes me losing the feel that Sanji might actually lose his hands in this arc. Because, for hell if I knew- they could be sewn back just like ho Law’s hands were.

Most of people are disappointed that the SH are separating again, but for me- it’s to be expected. Especially that back in Dressrosa we got mossywara as a group with Luffy. So it’s to be expected that guruwara will be the only team presented in this arc. With addition of Pedro and Carrot in the gang, that was acceptable. I liked the minks when they were first introduced. But then, Pedro and Carrot joining SH on their trip out of nowhere is way too random. Kinemon, Bartolomeo, and Cavendish joining the war as a gang is actually more established than Pedro simply joining by -assigned-. Carrot joining the gang was written out nicely, however I am displeased on how she is portrayed after that.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked Carrot as a character. But don’t you think she is too overpowered? Hey, it’s great to get a strong, badass female character. And she is cute too. HOWEVER- CONTEXT IS she is YOUNG, and she was joining the trip RANDOMLY. She never been outside before. Yet she could stand up against BM’s troops? Dude. Remember the SH back in the early days? Remember how crazy strong Zoro depicted as? He was still struggling and BADLY too at some of low-rank enemies. This is Carrot’s first adventure out of Zou. And she could handle things NICELY without getting much injuries. Even if she is depicted as a strong character, this kind of writing is just too rushed for her character.

Next is Pudding. Oh God. PUDDING. I LOVE LOVE LOVE PUDDING SO MUCH. When she was first appeared, I already liked her cute attitude- and hell, I wouldn’t mind IF she stayed cute like that at all. And then there was EVIL PUDDING revealed with the memory powers. Dude, that really makes me into her. HOWEVER then Oda decided to fuck things up. Because one second, she was shown with a flashback with Lola and then the next second, she was evil. And then, suddenly she was crying just because a MAN calling her THIRD EYE BEAUTIFUL. The backstory was cool. But… are you SERIOUS??? Then she decided to fall in love with SANJI JUST BECAUSE THAT ONE LINE??? I wouldn’t mind if there was MORE BUILD UP between the two. Maybe like— make their exchanges longer during the pre-wedding scenes??? So Pudding can be more touched by Sanji’s gentleman-y and kindness aftermath??? But come on… the build up was so lacking it makes Pudding like an inconsistent little kid. Come on. Also, give us more screentime of that memory power won’t you Oda? What’s the use of mentioning it if you aren’t going to make Pudding USE IT???

And then there’s Big Mom herself. As many have pointed out about Big Mom, it makes ZERO SENSE that she wanted everything to live in peace BUT THEN SHE CLAIMED PUDDING’S THIRD EYE AS UGLY… WHAT??? It bugs me out especially that she is a Yonko. Strong and powerful. One second she agreed to marry her child with Capone for power, but next second she tried to murder the Vinsmokes to gain their power- I mean- dude??? that was so random????? She could’ve go along with the marriage like all the other times but she decided to go against a fucking nationality filled with assassins out of all deals??? What makes her to think of that??? Why didn’t she murder the other marriage dealers instead??? Didn’t she knew the Vinsmokes were rumored to be so strong even if they actually was clueless in this fucking arc? There was no caution to the Vinsmokes at all?????

And now here comes the Vinsmokes. BRO. You were rumored to be a strong ass kingdom and then they are… this STUPID??? I love the power rangers-esque outta them. But like… dude. You are a fucking nation with science basis. And they are apparently so stupid. Falling on BM’s trap just LIKE THAT? You are trying to make a deal with a PIRATE. Are you expecting things to go simply as that? You have troops. What kind of royalties are you? There wasn’t any soldiers at the wedding party. COME ON. YOU ARE TOO DUMB. Also if I were Judge I might as well kept Sanji for his brain and use him as the tactical commander. Or maybe at least KEEP HIM FOR A FUCKING BLOOD AND ORGAN SUPPLY IN CASE ANY OF THE FRONT ROW TRIPLETS ARE INJURED IN A FIGHT. ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO BE AN EVIL GROUP OF PEOPLE? THEN YOU FAILED WAYS TO BE EVIL GENIUSES. YOU ARE TOO DUMB TO BE EVIL GENIUSES.

And now I am talking about the Straw Hats. Jinbei joining the SH statement was EPIC but like… then I felt nothing. There was no impact to that or whatever. The only MVP in this whole arc is Brook. And I love Luffy. At least bless the Gods that he never changed. Nami in this arc was… horrible. She is suddenly just being a whiny moody kid. She kicked ass nicely in the last chapter action but like- during the entire thing she was just…. there. We are not seeing much action from her NEW WEAPON that was actually there to be a new fighting spotlight. I mean… come on???

And now we got Sanji. Oh god oh god oh god. Why.

I am not going to comment on how he is crying and shit or beating up Luffy. I actually understand why he does all of that. My only concern here is in the WRITING ON ALL OF THOSE SCENES AND NOT HOW SANJI iS ACTING DURING THE WHOLE THING. Sanji is still Sanji, and how he acts is actually still very in-character and it was nice. Including how stupid he is to think to leave the SH. And then we suddenly got Sanji saving the Vinsmokes on the fucking table scene- like a salvation angel coming from the depths of hell. I knew it was supposed to be symbolic, but it was FAR TOO CLICHE and this fucking arc is shoving down “LOOK AT HOW KIND SANJI IIIISSSSS” in reader’s face too much and I’m hella sick of it. You could’ve done that WITHOUT THAT. YEAH SURE. EVERY OP FANS WHO FOLLOW THE ENTIRE OP SHOULD’VE KNOWN THAT SANJI IS NICE ALREADY TBH YOU DOn’T NEED TO FLAUNT IT OVER AND OVER TOO MUCH SLKGSJKGjsKGS

Also Sanji’s second backstory is suddenly changing EVERYTHING about him. It makes as if the first backstory about starvation never happened. No, of course the readers know it’s still there. But suddenly in this one arc it’s treating like it was all that was about- making him sounded like an entire new and different character instead of the Sanji we are all know all these whole time. Character revealations are good, guys. But last time it happened- it was Luffy with his second backstory(ASL). It didn’t change our view on Luffy at all. However, on Sanji- everything did change. All of sudden people are talking about “look at how weak he was! He is not weak anymore! Look at how he never had a proper family and now he does!” when in fact that past was already long gone and Vinsmoke Sanji was dead- he was already reborn as simply Sanji and he was not weak or not having a family. This arc is talking as if he was never having anyone when he actually does.

There’s also Reiju- talking that she couldn’t disobey her father. Yet she occasionally does. This mechanism was confusing in any matter. Also there was the Vinsmoke brothers showing emotions at each other… everything is too inconsistant. Sanji’s resolve to be a chef is not even as strong as I thought it would be. and especially for fucks sake he is a prince, and he is aware that he is one. The fucking kingdom’s system is too fucked up even though I have to admit I liked the kingdom’s concept…

And suddenly I fogotten what else I wanted to write and everything ended up going into a loop without clear points of what I wanted to actually point out /shot

WCI has too many characters to introduce and to be offered. The thing with BM’s head chef is also written as too sudden. I have no surprises if Sanji and that cook is going to have a battle in the future chapters. The classic countdown thing is a thing in OP battles, like in Dressrosa- the time limit existed before the birdcage closes. During this arc, there was the one day to marriage- and the runaway- and to calm down BM’s rage. Time limit wise, it was great to portray all of the characters hurrying and all however- WRITING wise, it was not good to rush things just to make everything fits in into the deadline.

Events in CP9, Marineford, Dressrosa and many many others were having time limits on them, however they were not as rushed as how WCI’s writing was. Oda could’ve managed to sort out more build ups to make this arc flows better thus fitting all of the characters backstories without making things too cliche or rushed.

New World is a harsh place. And I have to admit- I would’ve prefered Sanji to lose his hands or at least a leg. Or maybe even die to make the whole thing flow better. If Oda is trying to portray New World’s harshness with WCI war- the least he could make is to make the characters severely injured- or at least leave some mark off permanently to show how harsh this adventure is.

I am too tired with this arc’s horrible writing that my mind focuses on things to enjoy like “oh look at how uke sanji is in this arc” /shot

Thanks for reading my stupid rant and I hope none of you gets this to the wrong side… hopefully X”D

I am pretty sure i wanted to rant more about this arc but I forgotten what I am displeased with halfway to this answer wwww :”D

#anonymous #ttt #wci arc #sanji

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golfwi52 · 7 years ago

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Round 30 – Da Bull

The Bull At Pinehurst Farms, Sheboygan Falls, WI 53085 Par 72, Green Tees, 6,424 yards, 71.7 rating / 138 slope, 18 holes riding, $125 Sunday, July 23rd, 2017, 9:30am, 80 degrees, 10 mph winds, cloudy

Billed as the only Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course ranked in the top 100 that the general public can play, The Bull at Pinehurst Farms has been an interest of mine that I’ve never chased until this year. Located in Sheboygan Falls about an hour north of Milwaukee, The Bull joins Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits as premier golf course in the Sheboygan area. The Bull offers a beautiful verity of risk reward holes that blend naturally with the wetlands, woodlands and river. We caught a little break on the standard $150 cost, but it was still a little pricey at $125 especially considering the area caught 2.5 inches of rain the night before. Almost every bunker had deep standing water. Which one can actually turn into an advantage…

I roped in my ex-Fox Point neighbor Don and his son Tom to join me. Don’s a lawyer so the steep cost was no issue. Even though I moved away from Don’s neighborhood over 15 years ago, we still hook up for a few rounds of golf and Brewer games every year. Don use to also play soccer with us old timers for a couple of seasons but old man injuries sidelined him. Or it was his lovely wife Ann who sidelined him due to the threat of further injuries. She’s a smart cookie. That was too bad because the old timer soccer club is a great guy bonding time and Don fit in perfectly. Soccer is another risk reward game like golf but in soccer the risk is to your body and the ability to walk normally. But I do like its reward with the guy bonding stuff. Gotta have a good sports balance.

Don, Tom, and AJ

I also talked my golfing nephew AJ into joining us as our fourth. AJ is summer interning in Rockford and can usually jump at a moment’s notice when golf calls. AJ golfed on his high school team and typically kicks his dad and uncle’s butts on the course. He’s a senior at Iowa State, studying aerospace engineering. He played 18 Saturday afternoon and then left Rockford at 6am today to drive 2 hours to Port to join me. He’s a machine. Ah, to be young again. It will be a challenge to keep up with him on this premium course as I continue to nurse a sprained knee from soccer. What was that soccer reward again?

After the starter informed us again of the nightly rain amount and cart path only rule for the day, we decided to play the middle green tees. Those were spec’d for the 10-18 handicapper which most of us fell into. Don and I sent our opening drives far down the right fairway and into a large, pond filled bunker. That actually turned out fine for us because the rain had made the bunkers unplayable so we got free relief. So the only really problem bunkers would provide was that we lost a few balls in the bunker ponds because of the deep and cloudy water. That was frustrating to lose balls in a bunker, but you couldn’t blindly rake for your ball for very long without the fast group behind us getting rattled. With the free get-out-of-the-bunker cards, I was able to par 4 of the first 5 holes and was headed for a decent front nine score. Or so I thought.

Water on the beach

The Bull layout is great. Every hole has a different and challenging risk reward scenario. The course has narrow, heavy tree lined fairways, numerous greenside bunkers, frequent doglegs, large tall grass and marsh areas to drive over, and water on many holes. Just a gorgeous course to play. When a ranger met us on the par 3 sixth hole, I thought he was going to ride us for our slow and less than gorgeous play. But instead he was there to offer us a gambling challenge. Each of us could bet up to $100 on hitting the green around 180 yards away. Win and you get twice your bet amount in a clubhouse merchandise voucher. Lose and you still get your bet amount in that voucher. A “no-lose” proposition he marketed. After spending $125 just to golf I avoided the bet. I have a rule that I only take these bets if they are part of a charity scramble AND are offered by a nice looking, young, female volunteer. Like most male golfers, I am a sucker for that charity sales MO. High rollers Don and AJ took the bet, but just Don “won” by sticking the green. I forgot to ask college boy AJ on what his allowance is these days, but it must be very decent as he used his losing voucher amount to help buy $200 golf shoes in the clubhouse afterwards. Dang.

Beautiful and challenging fairway layouts

The cute cart girl also joined us on the busy 6th hole tee and I think I suffered my biggest double bogey of the day when I ordered a whiskey and 7. In hindsight it may have been a bit early at 11am in the hot and humid day, especially on the heels of little sleep the night before. Usually a little whiskey will loosen me up on the course, but it felt like this one knocked all of my energy out when combined with the high humidity. I fell into bogey hell the final four holes and stumbled to a 42 on the front. Still not bad for me, but a lost opportunity to break 40. We were playing a rotating 2-man scramble and AJ and I smoked the first 6 together, but young Tom and I struggled on the next 3 holes. AJ carded a 46 on the front as he was off his game. Don and Tom both shot in the low 50’s with Tom struggling a bit more because he doesn’t play very often. I did love the par 5 eight hole that had optional fairways, separated by a marsh, to hit on the second shot. A great example of the unique and challenging layouts this course offered. For some reason, Don played the marsh option.

I continued my tired bogey woes on the back nine to card a disappointing 49. AJ caught his groove and birdied two holes on his way to a very nice 38. Well at least I can say I beat him on the front. I will definitely avoid whiskey until the back nine in the future - unless of course I start out playing awful on the front. Don and Tom played middle 50’s golf on the back and whomever had AJ on their team won the rotating scramble skins. In hindsight, we should have handicapped the game to at least give Tom some advantage and make it a little more sporting. The back nine had even more unique layouts and water than the front. I loved the dogleg left 16th which I lost my drive trying to cut the dogleg and ended up taking a snowman. I stubbornly (or stupidly) played out of the hard sand greenside bunker - and took 2 shots to get out. I should have just taken a free bunker drop like everyone else was doing, but I did want to get my money’s worth from this course. The 18th was a very entertaining and challenging finishing hole, which I managed to double bogey with my final ounce of energy.

Don cutting the dogleg on the 16th

Final Score: 91 (42, 49) 7 pars, 5 lost balls. Playing time 5 hours, 5 minutes. It was great to finally test out The Bull after I heard so many good things about. Sure, it’s a bit pricey at $125, but I can stomach that once a year to play this beautiful course. I loved taking on my young nephew and hooking up with Don and his son again. Don was actually trying to talk us into playing another 18 at his Ozaukee County Country Club afterwards. He’s an animal. But I was too exhausted to even think about taking one more swing. The sleep depravation, humidity, whiskey, and challenging course had taken its toll on this old man. But after a fine round of golf with great company and a great course, it was a very satisfying level of exhaustion. And that’s no bull…

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villiansarepeopletoo · 6 years ago

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The Disney College Program: FAQ Before Becoming a Cast Member

After spending weeks staring at the hours, minutes and seconds countdown I had rolling on my phone, my mom and I made the 8 hour car ride from North Carolina to Orlando to start on the biggest journey of my life thus far. All the Disney themed Christmas and Graduation gifts I received just made me burst into tears because I was so ready to be a Cast Member. But I didn’t know true euphoria until my very first day of training, which Walt Disney World refers to as the start of Earning Your Ears. There really aren’t a lot of resources out there that go into detail about what you should expect in the beginning of your program. It can be really nerve racking going to work for such a large company, especially when you know they have such high expectations for their employees. So I really just want to answer some of the biggest questions I had before I left.

What are the apartments like? How do they match you with roommates?

Truthfully, the apartments aren’t perfect. But they provide every basic thing you may need during the time you’re going to be there, except a coffee maker.. The layout is different in each of the four apartment complexes, The Commons, Patterson Court, Chatham Square, and Vista Way (which I have listed according to how expensive they are), but generally they all have a shared living space, bedrooms that all have their own bath and house 2-4 people, along with a full kitchen that does come with pots, pans, and plates. There are pros and cons to literally every housing unit, and even if you put one as your top choice, you still may get your last choice. They do it a lot like colleges do it, when you fill out your housing info you will rank your options from lowest to highest. I won’t go into too much detail on the individual units in this article, but I’ve included a link on the listed names that will take you to the official Disney Programs blog (my opinion is biased anyways because I loved my apartment, they are honestly like being sorted into Hogwarts houses and the loyalty is fierce #PattersonForLife).

As far as roommates go, you CAN choose your roommates! But there is also an option to go random, just like in college! I linked up with all my roommates on the Disney College Program Spring 2018 Facebook page. Almost every class that comes through makes a private Facebook page for people who have applied, and once acceptances go out everyone starts pairing up as roommates. There will be a universal post that will travel around which has you fill out your likes and dislikes and your living habits. Its honestly online dating…and it’s SUPER awkward. But you just have to make the most of it. I was lucky enough to connect with 5 amazing girls all around the same age and we got along super great! None of us were from the same state so it was really awesome to get to know everyone. So once we found each other and agreed to live together, we designated one Leader, in our case we chose my friend Brooke because this was her second program and she was the only one who knew what she was doing… When you receive your acceptance to the program and pay all your fees, Disney gives you an ID number. When Brooke began filling out her housing information, she linked all of us up using our ID numbers and we accepted the invitations confirming our housing requests to be roommates. It’s a pretty easy process once you start filling out your paperwork but if you ever have questions you can always contact housing or recruiting, they work for Disney so they’re naturally super helpful and they’ll get back to you in a few days. ([email protected])

Is there anything specific that I should pack? What should I leave at home?

It really is personal preference, but if you’re a shopaholic like me and want anything and everything Disney, definitely pack light. My entire life changed when I found out about the Cast Discount Store, Cast Connections. They sell everything for an insanely low price after it’s gone out of season. All the ears are $5. I went into my program promising myself I wouldn’t purchase a single pair of Minnie ears, but I had to make room for 11 pairs in my car when I was packing up my apartment.. I was still finding ears under my seats when I moved home… #NoRagrets… I also started a mug collection…you just never know what you’re gonna end up getting into. I would definitely advise against bringing any kind of warm clothing aside from like one blanket and one sweatshirt. I think I wore jeans once during my 6 month program. The kitchen is mostly provided for, pots, pans, cups, plates, and bowls should already be placed in the cabinets when you get there. If they are not, go to the Club House of your complex and let them know and they’ll give you a checklist of everything you’re supposed to have. Be sure and fill out a form with what you don’t have during your first week or they won’t replace it.

I would also talk with your Bedroom roommate a little. You’ll need the essentials such as bedding, bathroom stuff, a bath mat, shower curtain, and hangers for the closet. We split up the shelves in the pantry for food, but I suggest having a bin to put food and produce in. Luckily most of the closet space is great! I didn’t have much problem with storage for clothes. My roommate, Morgan, and I found the plastic drawer sets from Target were really helpful though just for another option if you need something extra. In my apartment, the extra closet space around the living areas were first come first serve so don’t be shy. Claim your spaces and just go with it.

What is Traditions?

Traditions is Disney’s fancy way of saying Training and Expectations. I’ll publish a complete article later on with the expectations of Traditions. A lot of sources will talk about how scary this process can be, but I promise it’s just like any other on-boarding process. You’ll basically just go to Casting and get your finger print and background check done. BE SURE AND BRING YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, PHOTO ID, AND PASSPORT, just to be safe. I thought I didn’t need it, but I was very wrong and had to go to the social security office in Orlando at 4:00 in the morning. It was a terrible experience. I got to know Snow White pretty well though.

After your legal stuff is done you’ll watch some very wonderful videos about how much magic Disney brings to the lives of guests and everyone sits and cries together…Then they give you a super short tour of FantasyLand in Magic Kingdom. I won’t spoil all the surprises, but it was one of the best days of my life. It’s long and you spend it in a classroom, but its just amazing. It’s the first day you feel apart of the company and close to the magic. It’s also the day you receive you’re Name Tag. PLEASE DO NOT STRESS OVER WHAT TO WEAR. The Disney Look may sound intimidating, but if you feel comfortable wearing in front of your grandma, then you can wear it in front of your trainer. (I’ll publish another article about the Disney Look.)

When can I go into the Parks?

Contrary to popular opinion, your first 3 to 5 days in Orlando YOU CANNOT GO INTO THE PARKS (unless you purchase a ticket or have an annual pass). After you complete Disney classical training (Disney Traditions), you will receive, what Cast Members call, your Blue Card. It’s nothing super fancy, just a small bright blue credit card with your name on it and a tiny picture of Mickey Mouse, but when you get it, it basically represents the Disney version of a Hogwarts Letter. It is your access to ALL the magic: The Parks, Free Parking, your Cast Member Discounts on food and merchandise, and it is the tool you’ll use to clock in for work in order to get paid by the big cheese himself. So don’t lose it.

What kind of Discounts and Perks do College Program Kids get? How much do you get paid?

Disney College Program Kids get paid $10 per hour. Very little exceptions to this. VERY LITTLE. So be sure you have a little bit of help, financially, when you go. We don’t often get the chance to work overtime and when you do, don’t hold your breath that you’ll always get compensated for overtime. Be prepped for $10 per hour at 35 hours a week (unless you’re merchandise or attractions, then you’ll have a ton of hours).

We get 20% off merchandise except during the Holidays (We get 40% off), which begins around Thanksgiving and continues through Valentine’s day. So Spring Kids, BUY EVERYTHING YOU CAN IN YOUR FIRST MONTH. Just so you know. The restaurant discounts vary, but there will be a newsletter in The Hub (Disney’s Employee Info Spot) telling you what locations have the best deals, and it’s updated frequently.

How much free time will I have?

I had two days off every week and it was perfect. They weren’t always back to back which was totally fine with me. You always have the option of picking up shifts (though not always outside of your location). If you know ahead of time that you need specific dates off, officially request it through the Hub, which you’ll become super familiar with after a week or two. If you have questions ask your Leaders (Managers). I was blessed with some pretty amazing superiors and I never felt uncomfortable asking questions or even sharing a concern. But I had friends who didn’t have that luxury. I know a lot of people say that your College Program experience has a lot to do with who your Leaders are.

There’s no ignoring that College Program Participants get the crappy shifts and work a lot. Go in with low expectations for your free time, but you’ll get at least one day off a week and it’s easy to make the most of it when you’re in such close proximity to the parks. I was placed at the Contemporary Resort across from Magic Kingdom and took the monorail to work on many occasions after playing in the park all morning. Or me and my favorite coworker would sprint through our closing chores to make it to 9:00 Fireworks on time and ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin until close. Again, the best advice I ever received was to not skip out on something just because you’re tired. You’ll always be tired when you spend every day making sure everyone else is having a “Magical Day in Walt Disney World.”

#disneyworld #DisneyCollegeProgram #faq #firstdayatdisney #firstdayofwork #Castmember #DisneyCastMember #dcp #dcpspring2019

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andyplayslongwar2 · 7 years ago

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Day 7: Operation Sky Claw

A good operation today, with a few of our troops moving up the ranks enough to earn nicknames. Back at the base, we lay the groundwork for our next few (very risky) missions. But first we have a...

New Recruit!

Welcome aboard Paul Franzen! If you want a rookie named after you, tweet at me here:

Operation Sky Claw

Date: March 23rd, 2035

With a team lead by our favorite horse headed medic, X-Com was tasked with rescuing Gwandoya Buthelezi, a scientist who wished to defect. He needed an escort through an Advent controlled city. Along with Sidney, the team consisted of Deanna Bennet, ranger, Xhosa Masango, face-painted shinobi, Dane Cotsonas, assaulter, Gunnar Olsen, an extra specialist, and finally Mahmoud Mansoor, the rookie we recently rescued with a fantastic sense of flair.

We landed without concealment, so the mission began with Xhosa moving up. Shinobis keep concealment even when the rest of the squad is revealed, so she acted as a scout. We had an astounding 22 turns to complete our mission, so I knew we could take things slow (not that that’s how it worked out). Xhosa spent both of her move actions dashing, sticking to the edge of the rooftop we had landed on, and spotted a sectoid and an engineer.

The rest of the team moved up but kept their distance with some going into overwatch in case the aliens moved towards us. Given our high ground, I was actually hoping that they would as it would leave everybody free on their next turn to open fire. No such luck, though. The aliens moved West, away from us.

On our turn, Xhosa moved up but still couldn’t regain sight of them. I moved Gunnar up next, staying behind Xhosa. However, he must have crossed a tile that she didn’t because the sectoid caught him. The battle was on. X-Com was still mostly up on top of the building which provided good cover and a height advantage, but Advent was across the street in another building. Our spot was safe, but didn’t offer good shots at the enemy.

Dane, out assaulter, hopped down to try and close some of the distance between us and Advent. On his way, though, he woke up another enemy pod: a sentry, a drone, and a trooper. Luckily, this group was mostly in range of my remaining troops on the rooftop, so they could stay where they were and start shooting. During all of this, the scientist took cover on the roof, as far away from the action as possible.

While most of my soldiers were in a good spot, it did leave Dane in the middle of it all, with his back to the new pod. I wanted to be able to use his last action to attack, but if the rest of the squad couldn’t deal with the new pod, he’d have to retreat.

Luckily, our aim was true. Deanna took out the trooper and still had one action left as Rangers don’t end their turn when they fire. Payne gave Dane some aid protocol just in case and used his remaining action to remotely shut down the drone, incapacitating it for two turns. Of the new pod, only the sentry was still active for the next alien turn. Deanna took her second shot, injuring but not killing the sentry. Gunnar came in with the assist and dealt the final blow.

Back to the north we were still looking at a sectoid and an engineer. Xhosa broke concealment to make a melee strike against the engineer. These strikes are often very risky as they can leave the shinobi exposed, but the spot the engineer was in offered her full cover on two sides, and he even dropped some loot for us.

With the new pod dead or incapacitated, Dane was free to use his last action to attack the sectoid, firing his arc-thrower. His chance to fully stun the enemy were low, but he had picked up an ability when he become lance corporal that causes his arc-thrower to still disorient the enemies on a miss, allowing it to function like a rechargeable flash bang and that was all I needed.

Of the five advent units that had woken up this turn, only a disoriented sectoid was able to actually take a turn. The rest had been killed or momentarily shut down. A solid showing from X-Com.

On the alien turn, Advent got a few more troops on the board. A patrolling pod of an officer and two troopers walked in from the North, near our evacuation point. One of the troopers went on overwatch and the sectoid curiously skipped its turn.

We hadn’t taken a hit yet and I didn’t want to start now by letting the trooper take an overwatch shot against us. The area felt somewhat locked down with none of our troops able to move up to attack either the sectoid or the new pod without letting the trooper take a reaction shot. Luckily Gunnar was able to edge along the roof to line up a shot without getting into range himself.

The trooper was down and we were free to move. Sidney was the furthest back and had no real chance of reaching the action this turn or even the next. He’s a specialist though and he can use aid protocol from anywhere, so I decided to put him on mop up duty with the stunned drone.

Xhosa considered using her blade to cut down the sectoid, but it would put her in range of the officer. If officers don’t need to move they can spend their first action marking a target (granting all Advent including them an increased hit chance) and their second action firing. Even at full cover it could get dicey. Instead Dane used run-and-gun to get closer to the sectoid and take the shot. Unfortunately he missed. Even if it meant potentially taking a lot of fire, leaving the sectoid standing was a bad call so Xhosa rushed in with her sword.

The rest of the squad moved up to join the action next turn.

To my surprise, on the alien turn Mahmoud--not Xhosa--got marked. The officer used his second action to land a hit, leaving Mahmoud at 2 health, but luckily the trooper missed.

Gunnar ran up to his ally to offer some healing and the squad got ready to deal with these two Advent soldiers.

Once again, it was tempting to use Xhosa’s blade on the officer, but this time the trooper, if he wasn’t killed, would have an easy flanking shot on her. Even if we stunned him, the risk seemed too high. Instead she moved up to cover that also offered a flanking shot on the trooper. She landed the hit but her SMG only did two damage, leaving the trooper at one.

He was now a potential target for Deanna’s Walk Fire ability, which dealt reduced damage but increased the chance of hitting. She ran up to the roof of the building the sectoid and engineer had been in to line up her shot next turn. Mahmoud threw in a flash bang and we kept our fingers crossed.

On their turn, Advent once again fired at Mahmoud, connecting on one of the shots and leaving him yet again at two health. I’m sure Mahmoud was thankful to Gunnar for the heal last turn, and I’m sure the squad was thankful to Mahmoud for having a teammate that could take the heat.

Back on our turn, we were in a good place. Besides Sidney, everybody was where they needed to be to effectively attack the remaining two foes. Because I believed I could count on the rest of the squad to handle the trooper, I sent in Xhosa to slice the officer. She connected, but didn’t get the kill, leaving him at one health.

Deanna now had two targets for Walk Fire. She had enough ammo to spend both of her actions firing so she too her first shot. It was a miss, but she spent her second action using Walk Fire to take out the officer.

He happened to be holding some loot which Xhosa scooped up. This left just the trooper with one health. Dane kept things simple and threw in a frag grenade. At this point, we had a clear path to the evac point and over the course of the next two turns (with Sidney sprinting across the map), everybody made it.

An excellent mission, We got ourselves a scientist, and while Mahmoud will have to spend some time resting up, the team came back intact.

MVP: Xhosa Masango

Our intrepid shinobi scouted out the front when the rest of the squad was revealed and then switched gears into sword wielding aggression when the time was right.

Runner Up: Deanna Bennet

Deanna keeps it simple. She shoots her gun at things and they go down.

Promotions

Four promotions this time around, bringing some of our soldiers high enough up the ranks to earn their nick names (some of which may be changed by me)!

Dane reached Corporal, learning Close and Personal, greatly increasing his crit chance for point blank shots.

Sidney ‘Shady’ Payne reached Corporal as well and learned Field Surgeon, reducing the recovery time for soldiers on a mission with him.

Mahmoud Mansoor was promoted to Squaddie, becoming a grenadier.

Gunnar Olsen reached Lance Corporal, and although we always need medical specialist, I decided to try out a combat hacker, so I gave him Combat Protocol, which allows him to use his gremlin to deliver a small jolt of guaranteed damage. Great for cleaning up enemies with only one or two health left or for removing overwatch.

Back at the Base

Quite a bit got done before the next mission launched. Upon wrapping up Operation Sky Claw, none of my troops were in the field. We had discovered a few sites that might be worth investigating, but I wanted to make sure that I used the Avenger’s scanning capability effectively. Because it can add +4 intel to whatever region it is scanning in, I wanted to discover and launch missions, waiting until I had no troops to send out to investigate the other items on the map

While we looked for missions, the current research project ended and we were able to start researching laser weapons. We’ll need to up our fire power soon to keep pace with Advent.

Soon after that a mission popped up with only 4 days. However, the reward was supplies which we badly need. I decided it was worth the risk and assembled my A-Team. If we were only going to send out four soldiers, they needed to be good. I made sure to include a gunner, to lay down suppressing fire when the squad inevitably becomes outnumbered.

After a bit more scanning another mission with a small window came up. This time time a liberation mission with a scientist as a reward. I needed to take this if I wanted to fast track a liberation in East Africa. I put together a team of five, deciding that I would use intel to boost the infiltration.

This team included a grenadier and White, the technical had learned Suppression at the Advanced Warfare Center, so I did have some defensive soldiers here as well.

At this point, I had only a few troops left and felt comfortable exploring the other points on the map. I moved to investigate a stockade where there were rumors of an engineer who wanted to join us.

Almost as soon as I left, we discovered another scientist mission, this one with 8 days. With any luck, we’ll be able to run this one after one of the other missions finish up.

After investigating the stockade, we got ourselves a new Engineer and then it was on to a clinic to increase the Avenger’s power.

Soon after we did that, Operation Hell Hand was ready to launch. The team of four had not yet reached full infiltration, but I simply don’t have the intel to spare since I need to use it on that liberation mission. This will be a hard one but I believe in our soldiers. See you next time.

#xcom2 #long war 2

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andyplayslongwar2 · 7 years ago

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Day 6: Operation Ice Walker, a near defeat and our first casualty

Well, yesterday I said that all our success was getting me worried, and Operation Ice Walker was waiting to prove me right. The mission was not a complete catastrophe--the squad completed their objective--but most came back wounded and one member of the team was lost.

Operation Ice Walker

Date: March 21st, 2035

Things started simply enough. We landed to the South of our target, another exposed access point. This time around we even had a specialist, Fred Jennings, to hack it. The rest of the squad was a mix; some soldiers at the lance corporal rank, but mostly squaddies and two rookies.

We spent the first turn moving up with no enemies spotted. Eventually Maria Pawlak, our squaddie rank Shinobi, spotted a trooper and an officer. Separate from them, Maria discovered two Advent drones, each on their own patrol (meaning that although there were only four foes total, they were spread out). None of these enemies had not seen us yet as the squad remained concealed.

Next turn, Sandra Kennedy, a ranger at the lance corporal rank, moved up to launch the ambush. I was careful to keep Maria in place to keep an eye on the other pods, but put all the other X-Com soldiers in a spot where they would only be revealed to the officer and trooper when they lost concealment.

Rookie Alex Thompson managed to take down the officer and Ezra, our squaddie Assaulter, moved up to the roof to go after the trooper next turn. As he was the only one the trooper had a line of sight on, Jennings sent his gremlin drone to provide aid protocol, increasing Ezra’s defense.

On the enemy turn, three new Advent soldiers walked towards us and Maria spotted them: an officer, a sentry, and a trooper. On the older trooper’s turn, instead of firing on Ezra as I had assumed he would he ran like a coward to join up with his new friends.

This is where things started to go awry. The sentry ended the alien turn by going on overwatch. Because he had taken an action and the trooper had joined them, I assumed that this pod was awake (as opposed to just patrolling, which is what enemies do before spotting X-Com and “waking up” into a more combat ready state). This was a bad read. Sentries end every turn by going into overwatch, even when patrolling.

The pod was a bit far away from the rest of the group and figuring that they were already awake, I decided to have Maria throw a flash bang. It stunned the officer and the sentry, but this was when I discovered that they had not been awake. Had I simply avoided them, focussing on the drones instead, they probably would not have discovered us until next turn. And if I was going to wake them up that turn, I missed an easy opportunity to get a flanking shot. When they became aware of us (Maria was revealed when she threw her flash bang, they got the chance to scramble and immediately took cover.

One of the rookies, the juggalo-styled Jesus Sanchez, was able to move up onto a building and use the elevation to land a shot on one of the drones, destroying it. This was good, but we were now facing a considerable force and some of the team was not even in range to start firing on them.

Arthur Willems, a Technical tried to use his wrist rocket to destroy some of the cover the trooper and sentry were hiding behind. He missed by a mile. Luckily, it managed to do 2 damage to the officer who had not even been in the initial target range, but nothing else was accomplished.

With no good shot on any of the Advent soldiers, Thompson fired at the remaining drone and managed to bring it down.

Everybody else either spent their turn moving up or missing shots against enemies in high cover. The sentry and the officer were dazed, but we still ended the turn with two advent soldiers in full command of their faculties. The fact that I had not brought a gunner or grenadier on this mission was becoming painfully evident; not having suppression or flash bangs with extended range was a serious liability.

The aliens started their turn and things began to unravel. Arthur Willems and Maria Pawlak both took hits. Maria was left with only two health and panicked. This meant my soldier closest the the enemy and with the best chance of hitting would be unavailable. It also meant that I could not get her into better cover.

On X-Com’s turn, Ezra was able to move up and kill the trooper who was closest to the group.

Kennedy managed to take out the sentry, leaving just the officer that Willems had damaged.

The rest of the team spent the turn moving up and missing shots. Jennings sent some aid protocol to Maria who was in serious danger with just two health and only half cover so close to the remaining officer.

On Advent’s turn, before the officer even had a chance to take his turn, another officer accompanied by a trooper entered the fray. The new officer got a free reaction shot, hitting Maria despite the aid protocol. She was bleeding out and would die in three turns if not stabilized with a medkit. The older officer hit Alex Thompson, leaving him with just one health. All of this panicked Ezra, and once again, I lost my most aggressive and conveniently placed soldier for the turn.

On our turn, Thompson began by healing himself. I had not equipped enough medkits for this mission, but he and Jennings each had one. Jennings moved up to stabilize Maria. Luckily, she fell in a spot that allowed Jennings to take cover while being close enough to administer the medkit (specialists in Long War need to reach a higher rank than vanilla X-Com 2 to get the Medical Protocol ability that allows medkits to be used form a distance). Maria still had three turns on her clock, though, so I decided to prioritize attacking, or at least disorienting these new Advent troops before stabilizing her.

All X-Com soldiers missed their shots. A flash bang stunned the enemy, but almost no progress was made this turn.

On their turn, Advent managed to hit Alex Thompson yet again, this time for enough to take him down. Sanchez took damage as well. I now had two soldiers bleeding out and only one medkit left on conscious soldiers (Maria had been holding the other one). At this point it was clear that not everybody was coming home. Down two soldiers and with a very entrenched enemy (the three remaining Advent all had full cover) I realized that while I should still try to complete the objective, it was time to start working on plan-B as well. It was time for a plan-B last turn, to be honest. Jennings called Sky Ranger for evac. Hopefully we would use it after completing the objective, but if anybody else went down, we would simply try to hold our position until we could escape.

In a cruel twist of fate, Sky Ranger would arrive in three turns, exactly when Thompson would bleed out. If I had accounted for failure earlier, when Maria went down, there would have been a chance that we could save both of them. Jennings had other tasks he needed to accomplish so I ordered him to stabilize Maria who was a higher rank than Thompson, and who was (more importantly) already adjacent to Jennings. RIP Alex Thompson.

Sanchez managed to hit the sentry, bringing him to one life. Ezra used his run-and-gun ability to make up the distance he had lost by not moving last turn while panicked. He threw a flash bang to stun the two officers and Jennings used his remaining action to throw a flash bang at the sentry. The three advent soldiers were all disoriented but they were also still standing. Sanchez had low health and had previously been marked by an officer (making him easier to hit). I was not excited to see how the alien turn played out.

Sanchez dodged the two shots fired against him, staying on his feet, but Ezra, who had moved up close to the enemy, took damage. Nobody new went down though, and nobody panicked so I had four soldiers ready to take order and finally, most had cleared enough distance to at least shoot at the enemy.

Sanchez moved up taking full cover behind an Advent statue and used his grenade on the sentry he had damaged last turn. Loot be damned, we needed a guaranteed kill.

Ezra was hurt, but he was also an assaulter, and close range is what they do. He moved up, giving himself a flanking shot on one of the officers, but leaving himself fairly exposed to the other. He got the kill though and faced down the Advent left standing.

Jennings managed to land a shot against the remaining officer, but once again, the enemy survived with one health.

Arthur could lob a grenade far enough to kill the remaining officer but would catch Ezra in the blast, so instead he threw a flashbang, keeping the last officer dazed. Ezra could kill the last officer no problem next turn, but if the foe opted to leap over the barricade, he would have a flanking shot on our already injured assaulter. Thankfully, we caught a break and the officer spent his turn going on overwatch. A foolish move by the officer but a boon to X-Com.

Without needing to move (which would trigger the overwatch fire), Ezra took his second shot from where he was standing and took out the remaining officer. His panic upon seeing Advent shoot down one of his friends was certainly justified, but he seemed to have turned it into useful anger, taking out both of the officers who kept us locked down.

The enemy was gone, so Jennings was free to spend his turn dashing up to have a line of sight on the workstation in order to hack it next turn. Kennedy moved to pick up Maria who was stabilized but unconscious. Arthur moved to pick up Thompson, who had bled out that turn. We couldn’t save him but we could at least bring his body home.

Next turn Jennings hacked the workstation, completing the mission objective but not earning any additional bonus. All X-Com operatives got back on Fire Brand, but not all of them were breathing. Operation Ice Walker was complete, but we paid a heavy price.

I should have brought more defensive units, I should have realized that the pod early in the mission was not actually awake. At the same time, we knew it wouldn’t all be flawless missions. We still completed the mission and I don’t doubt that I will have defeats far worse than this soon.

MVP: Ezra Schrage

Ezra panicked early on but came back twice as hard. His ability to to land high damage, point-blank shots against three enemies on this mission may have been the only thing that kept us on a good enough schedule to finish the mission on time.

Runner Up: Jesus Sanchez

Sanchez may or may not be down with the clown, but he is clearly ready to fight. This rookie had a great hit rate and was shot at more than anybody else on the mission. He kept his cool and fought well.

In Memoriam: Alex Thompson

Thompson, named after @Thompson_Kaa, fought well but was cut down on his first mission. He still managed to take out an Advent drone and a trooper in his short stint with X-Com.

Promotions

Several soldiers earned promotions. After a mission like this they deserved it.

Fred Jennings reached the rank Lance Corporal and learned Revival Protocol, allowing him to get panicked or unconscious soldiers back in the game--Something that would have been useful in this mission.

Ezra Schrage also reached Lance Corporal and learned Lightning Reflexes, allowing him to avoid the first overwatch shot fired against him each turn, an excellent skill for safely teasing out overwatch shots, especially from Advent sentries.

Arthur Willems was also promoted to Lance Corporal and learned Suppression. Another defensive ability that would have been good here.

Jesus Sanchez was promoted to Squaddie, becoming a gunner. I have no doubt that he will excel in the new role.

Maria Pawlak was promoted to Lance Corporal and learned Blademaster. Although she did not get a chance to use her blade on this mission, I tend to use shinobis as close range fighters, so the extra damage and 10% hit chance that Blademaster offers is critical.

Back at The Base

The crew was wounded. Only Fred Jennings and Sandra Kennedy came out without a scratch. Maria and Sanchez were hurt bad enough that they will be recovering for a full month before they can serve again.

We got our first supply from from the resistance, but of course it was for $0 as I had set all rebels to the Intel task. This was OK.

While these other missions were occurring, Jane Friedhoff had been training in the Advanced Warfare Center and learned her second special ability. She had now added Return Fire and Smoker to her ability list. I decided that I valued better holo-targeter abilities and decided to let her retrain Death From Above. The change will take 8 days, so I may have to pull her out if she is needed on a mission.

Before long, Operation Sky Claw was ready to launch. Here’s hoping that we have some time before out next casualty.

If you want a rookie named after you, tweet at me here. Hopefully you’ll last longer than poor Alex.

#xcom2 #long war 2

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