#with 0 cleanup.. its so bad for me

[pseudophan]

✧･ﾟ: happy 38th birthday @amazingphil! ✧･ﾟ: (better quality video version under the cut)

[preemshots]

johnny + the nomads lore

alright, i know this is a screenshots blog but i'm going to go ahead and start dropping some juicy lore tidbits as i dig them up. part of what i'm doing outside of just photo diarying is shard hunting, and BOY is there a lot the game likes to hide in those little shards for idiots like me who like to read so we can write unnecessarily accurate fanfiction! 

full disclosure, i know jack shit about the TTRPG/cyberpunk 2020 rulebook except what i read in the wikis. 

so here’s my lore roundup so far of everything i know about johnny joining the nomads

we know johnny likes to narrate v’s quest objectives. here’s the first mention where he says it himself: 

during the voodoo boys quest "transmission" there's a shard in the maglev tunnels beside the ice bath, presumably from brigitte's research into johnny in the first place:

okay, so the timeline is this: johnny joins the nomads after trying and failing to rescue alt. johnny hides out in the badlands for some years. then he and rogue come back to night city and nuke arasaka tower help alt escape the arasaka subnet by uploading liberator to their network once and for all.

this ultimately makes sense. in alt’s flashback, we meet santiago, who is a nomad/connected to nomads, joins rogue and johnny when they're trying to get alt back, and eventually becomes the leader of the aldecaldos. 

part of santiago’s TTRPG lore is that he, johnny, and rogue have to lay low in the badlands with nomads after they storm arasaka headquarters (i am aware the game takes many liberties with the original lore so who knows the full accuracy of anything from the original rulebooks)

ENDING spoilers: in the rogue+johnny storming AHQ ending, it's revealed that rogue has a son while they're prepping for the job. if you eavesdrop on her calling him while you're at the afterlife, you hear her tell her son to (paraphrasing here) "pull over and look at the stars", which immediately made my brain go to: nomad, badlands, santiago = dad? maybe. (santiago also canonically has a son according to the TTRPG lore)

this immediately reminded me of another interesting shard that i believe you can find in multiple locations around night city: “"what REALLY happened in arasaka tower?“

i love this dang shard. at first i thought it was just a cute conspiracy with some juicy gossip (and i love how 99% of the shards that mention johnny in this game are reminding us that he's not a real rebel, he's a poser) but it brings some interesting shit together

one: it tells us where johnny got his hands on the nukes! he and the nomads jumped a militech convoy and jacked some bombs! 

which is never directly explained, even as saburo arasaka is interrogating him shortly before using soulkiller. very nice of johnny to protect his homies like that. 

...or maybe he didn’t. saburo emphasizes that the dead don’t lie like the living do, and we don’t know what exactly arasaka did to johnny’s construct in mikoshi. 

it also explains why the obvious media narrative is that militech nuked arasaka, a nice neat political bow to the end of the fourth corpo wars, which is an entire section of the TTRPG lore that makes my eyes cross when i read it. 

it also makes the star/nomads ending extremely interesting, because i originally believed it was the ending where V’s journey deviates the most from rewalking johnny’s path... which also has weird implications if the johnny’s nomad era is being kept from v. 

(this also leads into my belief that the star ending/the devil ending are narratively two sides of the same coin, but that’s a WHOLE ANOTHER POST for another day.)

TWO, just straight up the fact that they turned the raid where they actually obtained the nukes into an action flick BD that pretty much ANYONE could watch. who the hell was doing that?? 

well, who else other than the guy who johnny (optionally) punched the shit out of for filming alt's death: thompson, media guy, and according to rogue, “bad luck”. because you know, recording your crimes is straight up evidence that can be used against you.

during the alt flashback we meet thompson, and just after that in cyberspace before meeting alt, johnny tells v that he has no idea what happened to him and that they never worked together again. 

oh, johnny, you lying bastard man

this is blatantly untrue, and if V even had two braincells and better memory than a goldfish they'd know this--in the first flashback sequence where johnny and rogue nuke arasaka tower, thompson is on the comms as they ride the AV towards AHQ, questioning their plans and use of violence. 

which leaves me with some questions, like where the fuck is thompson, why does johnny keep lying about this, why doesn't johnny say almost anything about how you interact with the aldecaldo clan nonstop throughout the game when he himself may have been a member of the family for some time?? is he continuing to protect the nomad clan that saved his ass? we know that a lot of his flashbacks are unreliable at best, that johnny changes shit up as desired when presenting V with his memories.

in 2077, you can also find that there’s a remake of “badlands raid” in the shard “new release braindances” that is pretty much everywhere. that shard doesn’t add much, but does mention something along the lines of “many people don’t know the ending of the original” which probably means johnny punched thompson out for filming again, or something. 

my running theories: rogue ditched santiago and the aldecaldos with johnny and thompson to nuke arasaka tower, and when johnny died she was stuck looking for (heavily implied by johnny here:) corpo sellout ways to survive.

adam smasher obviously has something to do with this since johnny/rogue's vendetta against the guy isn't entirely clear beyond the smokescreen of "he killed johnny and he sucks". i have done 0 research into this though i'm tired of typing okay

i obviously cannot be certain i have found everything related to this in the game as i’m not even done with this playthrough where i’m trying to pay attention, but i hope this is fun for someone else to dig into. 

enjoy, fellow silverhand freaks

EDIT: additional findings

ALRIGHT I HAVE DONE MORE DIGGING AND I AM BACK WITH MORE NOMAD/JOHNNY FINDINGS. these ones are kind of a bummer but VERY interesting.

there’s a shard called “excerpts from a history of the nomads by bb pires” that goes into detail about how nomads came to be

there’s an interesting quote in it: It's hard to imagine a group less inclined to wandering than farmers, but in fact they were the ones who sparked the age of nomads. Natural catastrophes, crops ravaged by bioplagues, armed conflicts and martial law allowing corporations to speculate and privatize land - all this forced them into a life on the road.

when you ask johnny why he wants to take down arasaka, he begins by referencing this himself!!

it’s a little awkward to imagine a nomad V doesn’t also know what he’s referencing, but hey, V is the fool because we are as players and that’s only one life path... so sure.

johnny also has unique dialogue during this scene about a nomad origin V, telling them that he’s been trying to understand how V thinks, and came to the conclusion that “their family was a crutch” and essentially made them stupid because they always had a safety net (lmao johnny calling v privileged basically)

BUT this also may reference why johnny would find it confusing as hell that V doesn’t immediately share the views he does when nomads, in terms of values, seem to be more aligned with johnny than V is. but once again V is the fool for a reason and this is all my own speculation so YOU KNOW.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, at the end of chippin’ in, when you ask johnny what he meant by letting down his friends... santiago is named directly

i thought this was interesting since the only glimpse of their relationship that we get is seeing johnny meeting santiago via the alt flashback for the first time.

so now it’s obvious that while johnny and rogue were with the nomads their friendship developed, and johnny went on to disappoint santiago in some way by being his normal dickhead self

but HOW? how did he disappoint santiago? is santiago even still alive?? did smasher kill santiago and is this why rogue mentions during chippin’ in that she wants smasher to “settle a score” moreso than avenge johnny??

the only additional hints i have are from this shard, which you can find at the aldecaldos camp: “nomads at ground zero”

i’m just gonna transcribe here and bold for emphasis:

It was no secret that Night Corp offered generous pay and, in some cases, free cyberware and biomonitor upgrades to anyone willing to help clean up the crater of radioactive rubble at AHQ ground zero. Some firsthand accounts recall the incessant ticking of Geiger counters, like the loud buzz of cicadas in summer. In retrospect, we can only guess how many "crater cleaners" lost their lives to radiation sickness shortly thereafter. Both the city government and Night Corp have claimed casualties were kept to a minimum, while providing no official statistics to substantiate the claim. That being said, they have never been under pressure to release such figures. After all, most rescue, engineering, and rubble cleanup teams were not local Night Citizens, but nomads. Surprised you didn't know? Don't be. It is a fact many history courses tend to overlook. The city employed hundreds of nomad mercenaries, primarily from clans in Aldecaldo nation. These nomads were hungry for gainful work and the city needed experts who were not only experienced but brave enough to knowingly put their lives on the line - all so Arasaka could one day erect another tower in its place. But history is not without its sense of irony. These nomads, who so deliberately live outside our so-called "system," came to its very rescue. Not for the first time. And not for the last.

a main theme we find in this game is the idea that the system of corps and exploitation cannot be stopped by grandiose rebellious gestures--no amount of samurai songs, assassinating mayors, or even planting nukes in towers will change things. yet johnny, his friends and mercs at atlantis in the 2020s, including rogue, chose to rebel any way they could, thinking it better than not. johnny criticizes her lack of rebellious spirit CONSTANTLY in 2077.

but ultimately, johnny, trapped in mikoshi, didn’t get to see the outcome of what detonating the AHQ nukes did to night city’s fragile ecosystem. rogue, however, did--and likely watched their former allies, the aldecaldos, be forced to take dangerous work at AHQ’s ground zero (from lack of other opportunities as detailed in this shard), then die from radiation sickness throughout the following decades, all as a result of what she and johnny did to try and fight the system. and she also watched all the former mercenaries of atlantis be hunted down by arasaka.

so rogue sees firsthand what the cost of rebellion is and johnny doesn’t. and nomads, considered the most free of any of the factions we encounter in the game, are the cost.

[zoey-wades]

Honeymoon (King Liam x MC)

Rating: M (Drug Use, Substance Abuse, Violence)

Characters: Dark!Liam Rys x Dark!Lyra Frasier (MC) 

Summary: Fresh out of school and trying to figure things out, Lyra Frasier spends her weekdays going to a job she hates and her weekends in a drug fueled haze. And then she meets golden boy Liam. Lyra soon realizes that the violent underbelly of New York City’s elite may be more than she can handle.  

Word Count: 2,155

Author’s Notes: This is sometimes a bit hard to write for, because you have to be in the right headspace for it. I'm finally getting around to it. This is the most I’ve written in a while, and I’m finishing at almost 1 am. 

-x-

O1. Bad Habits

Lyra couldn't, for the life of her, figure out how she ended up vomiting in the bathroom of some East Village hole-in-the-wall.

Actually, she understood the vomit. She tested her luck with the Jolly Rancher shots, and she paid the price. Her cell phone --which was covered in some unknown sticky substance-- told her that it was close to 4am. Which meant that there was a whole two or three hours that she couldn't account for. The last she could remember, she was going shot for shot with her dealer at a dive bar near Tribeca. She was feeling pretty good until...Oh.

The sound of the heavy bass beyond the stall door made her head throb, and she realized that she was laying in a heap on the dirty bathroom floor. She managed to mostly throw up in the toilet, and she still had her purse and cash to get home.

Lyra: 1. Life: 0.

The thudding of the bass quickened, and someone was shouting something about peeing. As the fogginess of the drugs cleared a little, she realized that the bass was someone knocking on the door.

Wiping the tiredness from her eyes, she winced when she realized that she smudged her makeup into her eye. Along with whatever was on the bathroom floor. At this point, she couldn't bring herself to care. She'd already pressed her face to it when she passed out. No use in being anal now. Pulling herself to her feet, she used toilet paper to wipe her mouth and eyes, and flushed every biohazard down the toilet.

New Message:

“Lyra...it’s me. I saw you at the bar with Maxwell. ... how you deal with shit, why can’t you just...? Call me back.”

New Message:

“...I swear to fucking God, if you don’t...in an hour I’m going to come get you. I can figure out where you are...”

New Message:

“...this is why I cheated. You just don’t know how to let shit go. I’m done.”

Lyra wanted to cry. In fact, she could feel herself trying to =will the tears forward. But, ultimately, she just felt tired and dehydrated, and very very confused. Sitting atop an overturned crate in the alleyway behind the bar, she listened to the last of the messages, which sounded weirdly distorted and slow to her ears. She dropped her heavy, clouded head in her hands. Seeing Justin that night was bad enough. Having him call to remind her of all the ways she was a fuckup was just the shit icing on the shit cake that was her life.

She knew that she wasn’t the greatest girlfriend. She had really terrible bouts of depression that took a while to get out of. And, sure, she could’ve been more attentive to his needs. But she was trying her best. Up until he broke up with her, she thought she was getting better. She was going to therapy, and taking her medication. She hadn’t gone out partying in months, and she came straight home after work.

Maybe she wasn’t making as much progress as she thought. That was obvious, based on where she was and how she ended up there. She chuckled humorlessly.

It was now 5 A.M.

The sky was a deep shade of purple, and every blink seemed to make the colors more vibrant. Her vision doubled, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She realized that her shift was in three hours, and she had to sober up to the best of her ability before heading in. The scattered conversations of the exiting bar goers drifted away, and she considered calling an Uber when she heard harsh whispers further down the alleyway, away from the street. Suddenly, there was a loud crash as if someone was pushed into something, followed by the sickening sound of someone being punched. Drug-fueled curiosity crept into Lyra, and she considered looking to see what was going on and calling the police.

Then she remembered that she was Black and decided to mind her business. Steeling herself, she took a few deep breaths and rose to her feet... then fell on her ass on top of the crate again. She felt like she could feel the Earth spinning on its axis. She wondered if, maybe, she could run fast enough to match the speed of the spinning. Since, clearly, it was moving so fast that she was losing her balance.

Kind of like those spinning carnival rides. 

 Clumsily rising up from the crate she attempted to run in her heeled boots, then stumbled a few feet to the curb of the street  before being overcome with the severe dizziness she felt earlier in the night. Leaning up against the opposite brick wall, she vomited on the sidewalk, and collapsed on the ground in a puddle of dirty rain water.

                                              -x-Liam-x-

This wasn’t at all how he wanted to start his weekend. He got a call about a mole among his father’s ranks. And once again, he had to be the one to handle it. He could understand that his father was older now, and therefore less inclined to pay attention. But, Jesus Christ if Liam wasn’t tired of constantly picking up after him.

Drake found him first, pissing drunkenly in the alley outside the bar. Neither Liam nor his best friend were into the idea of fucking up someone in such a public place. It left a lot of questions, and it left the potential for witnesses. But both men were already annoyed with the fact that they had to follow this guy for hours, in the dead of night, before getting him alone. Earlier, they watched as he approached a young, dark skinned woman, clad in ripped denim jeans, a tank top, and a leather jacket. Her messy, dark hair tumbled around her shoulders, and she cocked her head to the side, curiously. She was clearly already far gone by the time Sebastian Clark approached her, but even she could sense the leery nature of dad’s associate. He was about twice her age, with a steely gaze and abrasive nature. He smiled strangely at her, rubbing her arm, and she swayed slowly, scrunching up her nose before walking away. 

Liam noticed him put something in her drink before she left. Which made him feel a little less badly about what he was about to do to him. 

Now, it was just the three of them facing each other in the alleyway, with Clark looking as if he’d just seen a ghost. 

“Damn, Seb,” Drake tutted, shaking his head and smirking, “What are you doing man? Stealing money, tipping the feds, and drugging girls? It doesn’t stop with you, huh?” 

The older man raised his hands in defense, and took a step back, tripping over his own feet, “I don’t know what you’re talking about man. I ain’t no snitch.”

Liam shoved his hands in his pockets and took three slow strides towards the man, “So you admit that you’ve been stealing and drugging girls. Or did I just imagine your account transfers, and you dropping a pill in that girl’s drink?”

“I-I didn’t...”

“Ah, so I’m delusional now, is that it?” Liam raised his brows, glancing at Drake, who kept his eyes trained on the bumbling man before them, “You hear that, Walker? Apparently, I imagined all of this shit.”  

“Interesting...” Drake shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, and produced a pair of brass knuckles, “Maybe he forgot. I think I needa jog his memory.” 

At this, Clark turned and tried to make a run for it. To where, Liam wasn’t altogether sure. The alley stopped at a dead end, and he knew Clark wasn’t a fighter. He was just making Liam even more frustrated with his cowardice. Pulling the knife from his sheath, he threw it, taking aim at his back. It pierced Clark’s skin with expert precision, and he fell into a couple of metal trash bins, toppling them over. 

As the two younger men approached, Clark groaned and began begging for his life, mumbling something about his loyalty and how long he’d been with the family. At this, Drake laughed and landed a lazy kick to the man’s side. 

“Shut the fuck up and take this beating like a man. You shoulda thought about that shit before you stole from us and tried to get us killed.”

Drake approached him, and he raised his hands again, “Wait, wait, what about Constantine?  I’m his oldest friend!”  

Liam felt the anger swell in his chest. He had the audacity to mention him after betraying his trust and stealing millions? Liam landed the first punch, squarely in the side of Clark’s head. 

“You’re dead to him,” Liam coolly replied. 

And with that, Drake took over, landing punch after punch until nothing was left but pulp and matter smeared on the concrete. 

“We can’t just leave her here, Man...Look at her. She’s shivering, ” Liam looked down at the passed out woman, drenched in dirty water, “Also, someone might ask questions, and the cleanup crew is on its way.”

Drake groaned and ran his bruised hands through his dark hair, “You’re such a fucking softie, I swear.” 

Removing his leather jacket, Liam placed it over her and lifted her up into his arms, carefully. It was the same woman that Clark drugged at the bar, and he felt a pang of remorse. Sure, he wasn’t directly involved. But Clark was a part of his circle, and he felt a sense of responsibility. Drake tapped away at his phone, then glanced over at the girl before raising his brows and shaking his head. 

“What?” Liam asked, leaning up against the wall for support. He didn’t realize how tired he was. 

“That’s Justin’s girl,” Drake casually remarked, “Or was. I think he ditched her for some Upper East Side chick.” 

“No shit?” Liam looked down at the girl in his arms, feeling a deep sense of sadness for her. She’d clearly had a rough couple of years, based on what he heard about Justin’s relationships with women. A sleek, black Lincoln van pulled up to the curb, and Liam placed the unconscious woman in the third row of the car, making sure to watch her head. He slid into the second row, and Drake followed. 

It was on the ride back to the suburbs that she woke up with a deep groan and a sharp wince. Liam watched as she took note of her surroundings, and she jumped when her wide brown eyes landed on him. 

“W-what?” Her hoarse voice croaked as she pressed her hand to the tinted window, “What the fuck is going on? Where am I? Who the fuck are you?” She squinted, “Did you fucking kidnap me?”

Liam raised his hands in defense, “Whoa! No! Jesus--!”

But she was on a rampage.

“I swear to God, I will jump right out of this fucking car. I’ve seen enough movies to know how to tuck and roll! Let me out, right now!” 

“We’re on the highway...”

“I don’t care if we’re on the fucking moon, let me out of this car! Now!” 

“I told you we shoulda left her there,” Drake mumbled, resting his chin on his fist.

Liam ignored his friend, choosing instead to try and calm the anxious young woman down, “Look, no one is kidnapping you. I’m Liam, this is Drake. You passed out on the street, and we found you. We wanted to make sure you were safe...that’s all. No harm done.” 

He hoped that she could read the sincerity in his voice. Because, from her perspective, this probably looked really bad. He didn’t take into consideration how this would appear, and that was a huge mistake on his part. 

“I’m sorry if we scared you,” he continued, calmly, “It’s just...it wouldn’t have been right to leave you there.” 

She eyed him warily and frowned, raising a shaking hand to her forehead, “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”

“That’s because a cockroach named Sebastian drugged you at the bar before you left,” Drake stated matter-of-factly. For the first time, he turned to face her, and Liam noticed something flash behind his eyes before he trained his disposition again, “Instead of waking up in a dirty puddle, you woke up in a luxury car with a bottle of water and two handsome guys. So, you’re welcome for that.” 

She blinked slowly as if registering everything he said. Then she lay back down across the seat, pulling her knees to her chest,  “For you, handsome is a bit of a stretch, but thanks for the water, I guess. And also for not being terrible and leaving me in the street. ” 

She paused. 

“So where’s this Sebastian guy, anyway? Did the cops take him?”

Liam and Drake exchanged a look, and Drake turned away again.

“Sure,” he said. 

[eldritchsardine]

BBRae Week Day 7: I Never Asked To Be Like This

Raven sat in her signature armchair in the Titans Tower common room, staring blankly at the book hovering before her without truly seeing the words. Her chin rested in a palm as she hunched over listlessly, posture masking the torment of her mind, nearly overwhelmed with a torrent of thoughts and feelings that she struggled to push down, to quench. It almost made her long for a time that she wasn't bothered by things such as emotions, undaunted by sentiments and the like.

Almost.

But dwelling on her flaws of the past would get her nowhere, so she quickly cut off that train of thought, instead focusing on what lay before her.

She had a decision to make.

Of course, it was quite possible that the choice would be made for her, whether by Robin, the Justice League, police, or some other party. She almost wished for such an outcome, as it would take the oppressive weight of the dilemma off of her tired, worn shoulders.

It would be so much easier for me if I was just kicked off of the team by force.

After the thought crossed her mind, she realized its selfishness and berated herself for it. If that happened, there would no doubt be conflict between other members who didn't agree with the sentence, and could possibly even lead to a break-up of the Titans. She couldn't allow something like that to happen, and going to others for their input or advice would only bring anguish to them as well. No, this had to be her decision alone.

With that decided, she relaxed slightly, happy to have at least one issue solved. Now she could focus on where to go from there.

As she sat, the main television screen in the room, which had been set to a random news channel earlier before the alert, caught her attention. It depicted helicopter footage of the aftermath from a large battle in her very city. Smaller craters and cracks could be seen in buildings, streets, and cars in roughly a two block radius. The most noticeable feature, however, was what the camera seemed to focus on. The tell-tale signs of a much larger explosion than the others which had collapsed several buildings directly in the center of the area, inside of which many civilian paramedics and police huddled.

The headline read, "Notorious Villain Doctor Light Killed During Battle With Teen Titans. No Other Casualties Reported."

As a reporter appeared on the screen, the footage relegated to a smaller corner, the half-demon found her gaze locked onto the words. They swam before her eyes in a haze, screamed at her consciousness accusingly, a relentless reminder that she was-

"Raven!"

The empath started, losing concentration as her book fell to the floor before her, turning to the doorway as Starfire glided through it, followed by Robin. The alien immediately flew straight to the half-demon's chair, emotions radiating concern, the Boy Wonder close behind.

"We returned home as quickly as possible after you did the departing," the redhead began. "Friend Beast Boy should arrive soon as well, though friend Cyborg remained to participate in the paperwork and cleanup."

Robin caught up with his girlfriend while running his hands through his hair, which was currently is disarray. "Star carried me," he said by way of explanation.

Raven remained silent as they spoke, merely staring back at them from under her hood, debating between simply waiting them out or conjuring a portal to escape herself.

However, she simply sighed, resigned for now to talking to the team's power couple as Robin continued. "I didn't expect you to be here. I thought you'd be... I'm not sure. Not here."

Raven decided to act, for now, as though nothing had occurred. Her teammates seemed to be doing the same. "Fascinating," she deadpanned.

"Look, we don't blame you for what happened," her leader began, dashing any hope that she had of avoiding the subject. "It was an accident. You just lost it for a second there, nothing we can't work on a fix for together."

"Yes!" Starfire added loudly, lifting a finger in agreement. "You should not be doing the feeling down, friend Raven. This situation is most certainly not the fault of yourself."

Finally, the dark girl responded with a scoff. "Really? How can you say that? Just because I didn't want it to happen doesn't mean that I'm not a ki-."

The common room door opened once again, cutting her off as the trio turned to see the newcomer, a lithe green-skinned young man with eyes and hair to match, stride through them and pause at the top of the stairs. He quickly glanced around the room before his gaze settled on the empath, still sitting in her chair.

She froze.

Raven was no stranger to disapproval and other similar emotions directed her way due to her heritage, but she had never held much stock in the opinions of most others. Those who looked at her that way didn't truly know her, and therefore whatever judgements they had held no weight at all. There were very few people whose opinions truly mattered to her.

And one of those people was currently staring at her with emotions clouded with anger, fear, concern, and sadness.

Disappointment.

He was judging her.

He was disappointed in her.

Her eyes began to sting with tears at the realization, and without a second thought a portal was conjured in front of her chair and she stood to stride through, cutting off her team's cries to wait by closing it behind her.

Finding herself in her room, she reached into a pocket and withdrew her yellow disc-like communicator, staring longingly at it. The piece of tech in her hand meant more than she could have ever imagined.

It proved that, regardless of her parentage, she could strive for good. It reminded her of the position in the world that she had earned for herself. And it represented the people whom had done it alongside her, had been with her since the very beginning, had loved and trusted her, and made her finally feel like something akin to a person.

The tears almost fell as she dropped it onto her desk with a resounding thud, but she held them back.

Barely.

She then turned to the bag sitting on her bed, and felt a self of relief that she had the sense to pack beforehand regardless of what decision she ended up making as a precaution, as her teammate's voices and knocks were heard from her door, accompanied by their jumbled, frantic emotions.

She took one last look around the room, this sanctuary that she had adopted and made her own all those years ago. Reminiscing over the countless memories it contained, good and bad, happy and heartbreaking.

But she knew that she couldn't delay or afford any sentimentalities, and with a wave of a hand another dark gateway waited before her. With one more glance about the room, the last she would likely ever see of it, she walked through the portal.

-:0:-

When Raven exited the black doorway and took in her surroundings, she was almost surprised. She stood upon rocks overlooking an expansive body of water, stretching out to the horizon. Land accompanied it for a time before ending a short ways out, meaning that the place she stood was inside of a bay. She also knew without turning around that directly behind her towered a huge T-shaped building. One that she had for years called home.

She smiled a wry, bittersweet smile, before breathing in the air around her and admiring her surroundings once more, memorizing every tiny detail, from the beautiful way the setting sun reflected off the water, creating a stream of fire running from where it kissed the waves to the land, to the flicks of birds who were constantly flying above the water, winging around gracefully to rest upon the still surface only to take flight again, to the peculiar shape of a rock near her foot protruding out of the island into the bay.

She would miss this place. More than she could imagine. But she didn't have a choice.

"So you're leaving?"

She flinched at the voice, whirling around to see the very person she had ran from standing mere feet away on the rocks, emerald eyes staring emotionlessly back at her.

Beast Boy began to walk forward and she tensed in trepidation, only to be replaced by confusion as he continued right past her and took a seat on the rocks, feet hanging off the edge. He glanced back to her, his gaze questioning, along with the hint of a challenge.

Raven sighed, before dropping her bag and trudging to his side, and sitting down as well, albeit reluctantly.

"You're leaving," Beast Boy repeated. It wasn't a question this time, merely an emotionless statement.

She replied, just as unfeeling. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Garfield, you know why," she answered wearily. "I've been warning everyone about how dangerous I am since we met, and no one listened, and now someone is dead."

"Yea, Doctor Light. Big loss there," the changeling scoffed.

Raven shot him a disgusted look. "Regardless of who it was, I just killed someone. A life was ended, because I wasn't strong enough to remain in control of myself. And who's to say that next time it won't be an innocent bystander? We were just lucky that the houses I demolished were already empty. Or what if it's Star, or Robin? What if it's you? I can't..." she trailed off, unsure if she could maintain her cold, even tone if she continued.

Her teammate turned to her, fixing her with his bright green gaze, imploring her with his eyes. "Rae, that won't happen. You'd never heard us. You'd never hurt me." He paused, before adopting a bittersweet smile. "Well, other than when you toss me through walls or into the bay."

Raven ignored the attempt at humor. "You say that like I have a choice in the matter."

"Well I think you do have one, at least more than you say, but one thing that you definitely have a choice in is whether you run away and leave." The green teen's voice had grown stern, hardened, almost as if he was lecturing her. As if he knew better than her. As if he understood her.

"Yes, I can chose between putting my family's lives in danger or not," she growled in response, returning his gaze with a glare.

Beast Boy shook his head in disappointment. "Raven, your demons will always catch up to you eventually. I just want to see you stand up and face them instead of running away. Fight them. Beat them. You've done it before with Trigon, why not again?" His emotions began to spike as he spoke, attacking her with wave after wave of concern, sadness, and disappointment.

The anger rushed out of the dark empath as quickly as it had come, replaced only by hopelessness and despondency. "Because this time, the demon I need to defeat is myself."

"So what?!" He exclaimed. "You can beat anything, you're you!" He said it so convincingly, as if that were all the evidence he needed to prove his point.

"You don't think I've tried?!" Her voice rose as well, emotion fueling it. All around, rocks began to be consumed by a dark aura, unacknowledged by both teens. "If I didn't think I possibly could have kept control, I never would have come here in the first place. But I was wrong. I'm too weak."

"So you're going to run away," her teammate replied, tone derisive. "Because that takes so much strength."

She bristled once again. "I am prepared to leave behind all that I enjoy and love, just for the well-being and safety of people like you! Don't you dare try to judge me," she hissed back.

"It takes more strength to stay and fight for those things," Beast Boy countered. "So in that case I guess you're right. You are weak."

Raven starred at the changeling in shock, a look he returned with a challenge in his eyes, raising his chin in defiance. He had never spoken to her in such a... scornful way before. The emotions she detected from him were similar, still centered around that terrible sense of disappointment. Disappointment in her. As if this were all her doing, her fault.

Like she was in control of this. Like she had a choice. Like she wanted this.

Raven stood up, staring down at him furiously, eyes stinging. "I never asked to be like this, Beast Boy!" She all but yelled at him, his expression never wavering. "You think I enjoy pushing down my emotions and feelings, not allowing myself to feel, not allowing myself to live, all just so I don't kill those around me?! You think I want this?!"

She was cut short when the green teen stood as well, now returning her angered look. "And do you think you're the only one who hates what you are?!"

Her breath caught in her throat, surprise overwhelming her rage for a brief second. "What are you-."

"Do you know why I'm a vegetarian?" His voice was more controlled now, but expression and emotions still reflecting anger, hate, though she didn't think directed at her.

Bewildered by the sudden change of topic, Raven merely stared back at him, caught off guard. "Because you turn into those animals, and it would be like eating yourself..." she retired into silence uncertainly as he began shaking his head.

"Didn't think so," Beast Boy continued bitterly. He turned away, looking out to the water once more, still standing. "Sure that's a part and what I tell everyone, but more of an excuse than anything. When my parents died and before I met the Doom Patrol in Africa, I was given to my uncle, Galtry. When he looked at me, all he saw was a freak. However, I was a useful freak. He kept me as an animal, locked in a cage and collared, and forced me to do his dirty work for him with my powers. He starved me and hurt me. Until finally one day when he beat me worse than usual, I snapped. My animal instincts took over, and I..." this time it was his turn to trail off, suffocatingly strong self-disgust reigning over his other emotions and nearly overpowering her before she could force it down.

"That's why I don't eat meat," he finally finished.

"Garfield," she began softly, though was unsure of what to say. All previous hurt, uncertainty, and anger were forgotten. So instead, she merely reached for him, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder, which was shaking nearly imperceptibly. The shudders wracking his body seemed to calm slightly when she made contact with him. Or at least, she hoped they did.

"I never asked to be like this either, Rae," he murmured. "But I'm still here." And along with the words came more emotion, this time a deep-seated caring, along with affection.

Love.

Raven was nearly floored by the influx of feeling, but was distracted by a harsh cracking sound. She glanced away from the changeling to see that her powers had been wreaking havoc on the island, large rocks breaking off and falling into the water below, cracks running the surface, her black magic encasing it all.

The sight merely strengthened her resolve and she moved to back away, to leave him, but Beast Boy's hand placed over hers, still on his shoulder, brought her pause. "Look around, Rae. What do you see?"

She snorted. "More proof that I need to leave before I hurt anyone else."

"Really?" He replied. "Because all I see are some rocks breaking. Tell me, when have your emotions ever damaged something important? Your communicator, one of our vehicles, or even Cy himself? He's practically made out of electronics, and you've never even blown one of his fuses."

"I don't know if he has any fuses," Raven muttered halfheartedly, but he was not to be deterred, turning to look her in the eyes once more, his emerald gaze now flooded with emotion.

"Rae, you have more control over this than you realize. And even if you didn't, I'd still accept any risk I needed to if it meant you'd still be a part of my life," he told her, voice strong with conviction, heated by caring. "Because even if you never asked to be like this, I don't want you any other way."

After he finished, Raven simply stared at him silently, and him at her, emotions jumping between their eyes, their bodies, their souls. Trust, caring, love. It was overwhelming for the empath, and she was swept away in the tide, lost in a weightless yet unshakeable pressure of sentimentality.

She struggled to reign in the emotions of both herself and the changeling, and formulate a proper response, not even sure what it should be herself. Finally, she found the willpower to once again make use of the English language, and turned her face downwards to hide behind her hood, though it did nothing to lessen the assault of his emotions on hers. "Thanks." She stopped, choked with feeling. "You too."

After another short quiet, she spoke up again. "We should get back inside."

His face lit up, hope and joy flooding his boyish features and emotions, bringing her a warm, pleasant feeling as well, both from his expression and emotions transferred to her. "So you're staying?!"

Raven allowed herself a small smile. "Someone needs to be around to remind you how terrible your jokes are."

Beast Boy didn't respond, but instead swept the dark empath up in a tight hug, pressing her to him desperately. And though she generally was against physical contact of any kind, she decided that she would allow it just this once.

And when he pulled away, briefly only to come close once again, closer than before this time, mere centimeters separating them, to gaze into her eyes one last time, noses brushing each other's, she once again chose to let it slide, and closed the space between them. A foreign but wonderful warmth erupted inside of her at the sensation, and her eyes quickly slid closed, bringing a hand to cup his face automatically as their lips danced slowly, passionately, against the other's. His arms slid around her, keeping her anchored to him, and she sighed into his mouth.

The kiss was languid and agonizingly slow, a gradual burning fire that eventually began to ignite between them, stoked by their passion. Raven finally allowed herself to be completely and utterly taken by his emotions as it continued, and in return shared hers with him, inundated by raw feeling. They mixed together, until she was unsure where her emotions ended and his began, and they were one as she surrended wholly to the sense of pure love.

That is, until his tongue brushed her lips, and with a deafening crash the rocks they were standing on shattered, plunging them into the waiting bay, the chill water shocking her back to reality with a gasp. And yet, when she saw her teammate's confused, flustered expression when he surfaced beside her, sputtering in disarray, she couldn't help but laugh.

Because they may have never asked to be the way they were, but Trigon be damned if they let that get in the way of each other.

And with that, BBRae Week 2018 is over. I hope you all enjoyed reading what I came up with, if you want more feel free to check out my Fanfic account, link in my bio. Shameless plugs aside, this was a cool first thing like this I’ve ever done, loved the submissions from other people as well. Sayonara!

[paulisweeabootrash]

New Year’s Cleanup: End of 2018 Mini-Reviews

It’s a mini-review pack!

Sometimes I watch shows that I have something to say about, but I don't feel like writing a real review of them.  Let's close out 2018 with some short appraisals of a few shows I watched this year that fit that bill.  Happy New Year, nerds!

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1. Chu-Bra (2010)

(based on 3 episodes)

I found this show purely by scrolling alphabetically through VRV's catalog of Crunchyroll shows.  The synopsis sounded like a total disaster, so I clicked on it, and it pretty much is, but surprisingly it's mainly because of the execution, not the premise.  This school life comedy follows Nayu Hayama, a middle schooler who aspires to design underwear.  It seems like it's trying to use an otaku-friendly mindless fanservice format as a vehicle to sneak in some endearing friendships and surprisingly informative information about puberty, ordinary adolescent insecurities, and, uh, how to properly fit bras.  But if you want that, just go watch Please Tell Me!  Galko-chan instead.  It is a much better show that won’t leave you feeling nearly as uncomfortable afterwards.

Classic W/A/S: 2 / 6 / 7

Weeb: There's a little bit of particularly Japanese attitudes and references that pop up regarding how others react to Nayu, but anyone who has gone to school with judgemental classmates or teachers should understand.

Ass: Brief actual nudity, plus tiresome levels of conveniently-timed gusts of wind and/or pratfalls lifting skirts, and groping that is played for laughs but ultimately pretty uncomfortable, especially because of the age of the characters.

Shit: The "ass" score, and how it’s executed, is closely related to why the show falls apart for me.  The whole show just felt icky.

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2. Love and Lies (2017)

(based on 4 episodes)

A complicated love story set in an alternate present where Japan decided to boost its birthrate through algorithmically-enforced matchmaking.  Drama ensues as a forbidden romance between a couple who are not matched to each other, Yukari (who, by the way, is named after the Yukari Law — the law that authorized the matchmaking system!) and Misaki, gets cheered on by Yukari's assigned wife, Rinina.  It's a beautiful and engaging work of speculative fiction and criticism of overconfidence in automation with varied, believable, and lovable characters and please just go watch it.

Classic W/A/S: 3 / 3 / 1

Weeb: There are some very distinctly Japanese allusions, most commonly and notably the "red string of fate", but if you're watching the subtitled version, anything likely to need explanation is explained on-screen.  The most foreign concept to an American audience might be the idea of a government agency that is widely trusted and assumed to be competent.

Ass: Brief partial nudity and allusions to sex because of course there are, the show is about romantic relationships.  Little that's fanservicy or gratuitous, though.

Shit: The only complaints that come to mind are a few off-looking facial expressions and the weirdly variable competence of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare — not in their matchmaking, but in their ability to find Yukari in a park at midnight but not find Misaki's legal address.  But maybe that's intentional, and it seems almost in character, given their supreme confidence in the perfect system and obliviousness to anything being wrong with it.

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3. KADO: The Right Answer (2017)

(based on entire series — 12 episodes)

Speaking of great works of speculative fiction you need to go watch, this is that, at least for most of its run.  Watch Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiator Shindo Kojiro accidentally become humanity's ambassador to a radically-non-human alien while he's trying to go on vacation!  Explore the social and political implications of sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic!  Ponder the disturbing implications of being unaware of higher spacial dimensions but still existing in them!  Then nosedive into a poorly-set-up, literal deus ex machina ending that defeats most of that development and speculation and exploration!

Classic W/A/S: 1 / 1 / 3 for most of the series, then suddenly 9 at the end.  Seriously guys this ending is baaaaad.

Weeb: Not so much Japanese as just very sci-fi geek.  Not in references, but in topic.  This is a show for the committed sci-fi fan.

Ass: I watched it pretty early in the year and wasn't actually planning on reviewing it, but I don't remember any nudity or innuendo or anything at all.  If the mere mention of sex is too much, that’s the only thing I can think of justifying a point of Ass for this show.

Shit: Other than the terrible ending, my biggest complaint complaint by far is some aspects of the CGI.  The entire show is 3D rendered, which makes the intricate and shifting surface texture of KADO, the alien craft, look incredible (and suitably alien), but the human characters often end up looking oddly robotic, maybe due to a failure by the animators, maybe due to the software itself.  It’s frequently unpleasant to look at, but the story was so interesting I wanted to keep watching!

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4. Magical Girl Ore (2018)

(based on entire series — 12 episodes)

A couple of aspiring idols, Saki and Sakuyo, become magical girls... who are ridiculously muscular men after they transform.  A love triangle immediately ensues, with Sakuyo crushing on Saki, Saki crushing on Sakuyo's brother Mohiro, and Mohiro only returning Saki's feelings when Saki is in her transformed male form.  The rest is an over-the-top parody of magical girl shows, full of twists on or outright subversions of the usual tropes of those genres and frequent tangents and fourth-wall breaks.  But I think I've seen a lot of these jokes before in Excel Saga (which is such an old favorite of mine that I really should review it sometime), Pop Team Epic, or both.  A somewhat-surprising plot twist later and we're at a climactic showdown with the Big Bad.

Classic W/A/S: 7 / 4 / 3

Weeb: Jokes may still work in a "lol so random" kind of way, but are much funnier if you get the references.  The show relies heavily on familiarity with not just magical girl shows but several anime in other genres, the formulaic expectations set up by recent anime across genres, and even to some extent the animation industry.  This is a show by otaku for otaku.

Ass: Most questionable content occurs in the context of occasional parodies of fanservice — spun not to be genuinely sexy but to laugh at the way typical anime fanservice portrays women by treating male bodies the same way.  There's also quite a lot of partial male nudity in the obligatory hot springs episode, which is treated sexually because of the aforementioned love triangle.  (Psst, anime writers and directors: more fanservice shots of men in other shows, plz.)

Shit: A lot of gags are kinda just low-hanging fruit of "haha, look at this, it's a thing you recognize from other shows".  The things that aren't are pretty well developed, and a few things that appear to be art errors turn out to actually be part of the joke.

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5. Polar Bear Cafe (2012–2013)

(based on 6 episodes)

This mellow slice-of-life follows a group of humans and surprisingly-realistically-drawn animals, focusing on the patrons of Polar Bear Cafe (run by — surprise! — a literal polar bear named Polar Bear), especially on the terminally-lazy Panda's attempt to work part-time as a zoo exhibit.  Its slowness is a nice part of the atmosphere, but it's also not a show suitable for binge-watching.  You might end up falling asleep, and the running jokes get grating after a while.  Watch only an episode or two at a time when you need something happy and relaxing.

Classic W/A/S: 5 / 0 / 1

Weeb: Polar Bear constantly makes puns that only make sense in Japanese, which are explained as on-screen notes, but seeing a pun accompanied by a note is not nearly as funny as actually getting the pun.  I don't think I've ever seen an American show from any time period or genre that is similar to this show's format or pacing, so I'm also going to maintain that "mellow slice-of-life" is itself a concept that deserves a few weeb points.

Ass: Near-constant nudity... by the non-human characters.  Seriously, guys, this show is far more innocent than your typical Disney movie.

Shit: I'm sure there's something wrong with this show, but I'm blind to whatever it is because it's so cozy.  

[artpharos]

Arty’s VGC 2018 SG Open Team- 2nd Place Finisher

Anyway I figure since I FINALLY LEGIT PLACED WELL AT A REGIONALS-LEVEL EVENT even if it was just a 38-man regional sobs I’m just gonna write a summary of a team I’m proud of even if they’re technically not that good oops 

Put under cut because it’s long haha I put a lot of thought on my pokemon vgc teams weeps

So I haven’t had a lot of success in VGC 18. Not since the actual VGC 18 format, anyway. I’ve struggled to find a team composition I feel comfortable with, and I’ve had a lot of trouble relearning all my forgotten skills and regaining confidence in myself, especially since I was Out of Action for like... 2 years. But then after watching Brazil Internationals, I realized a lot of the standard ‘meta’ teams had this really gaping weakness to Bisharp and... I really missed Bisharp a lot. So then, I popped onto Showdown, placed Bisharp onto a team I was working on which was then Kangaskhan/Zapdos/Tapu Fini/Snorlax/Gothitelle/Landorus-T and then realized if I replaced Goth with Bisharp I needed another setup sweeper. I remembered back in VGC 13 that Volcarona was a good partner for Bisharp (or vice versa tbh) and I played a few games and then a month later I was in the top 100 on Showdown. And after staring at the team for a while I realized it had a strange resemblance to my 2015 team (Kangaskhan/Talonflame/Sylveon/Bisharp/Landorus-T/Rotom-Wash), which would explain why I was strangely comfortable with it. So then I ran it in a few tournaments, top cut a few MSSes, had a friend talk me over my mental blocks, and got 2nd at Singapore Open. Anyway, a breakdown of the team:  Potato Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite   Ability: Scrappy   Level: 50   EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD   Adamant Nature   - Fake Out   - Double-Edge   - Low Kick   - Ice Punch  

Throughout the season, people have been telling me since Jan 1 2018 that Kangaskhan Is Bad. And after a whole season and 38 teams of Kangaskhan, I can finally come to the conclusion that yes, on paper, Kangaskhan is a Bad Mon. Kangaskhan, as a mon, just isn’t as good as in 2015, when she was the overwhelming force of the metagame. The Parental Bond nerf has seriously hurt her damage, and Psychic Terrain makes it difficult for Kang’s primary support option (Fake Out) to be completely useful. The loss of Power-Up Punch, and the general increase of offensiveness in the metagame, and Kanga’s neutral matchup towards Intimidate Incineroar have all been factors in why Kangaskhan, in theory, does not work. 

But to be completely honest, whenever I used another Mega I’d just run straight into the stuff they’re automatically weak against and the thing is: Unlike the other Megas, Kangaskhan has technically no matchup that she automatically loses. It just feels a lot easier to put Kangaskhan into a position where she can do work, and I can accept the shift of her role from Primary Attacker to Offensive Support, relying on her to deal constant damage for the team and providing Fake Out support. 

So a breakdown on Potato. I’ve tried all sorts of Kangaskhan, and for the longest time I was convinced that Jolly was the only way to go because without the max speed investment, you’d be unable to outspeed stuff like Tapu Lele and Charizard. However, Jolly Kang always ran into the problem of being outsped ANYWAY since Tapu Koko, Kartana, Mega Metagross and other random fast pokemon exist, and without any investment in her HP she can’t take hits that well. So after trying out my friend’s team, I finally decided on the Super Bulky Kangaskhan with 0 speed investment. I’m still not content with the bulk-speed ratio on Potato, but with the way that the metagame is so matchup dependent, I feel like it’s safer to be bulky than not. In fact, after recent battles, I think if I had to improve Kangaskhan, it’d be to actually drop her attack (since you’re still going to get intimidated to Kingdom Come anyway) and invest in her bulk some more. 

Anyway, on to the moves. Fake Out because Kangaskhan is still, in my opinion, the best Fake Outer in the game, especially with Scrappy to hit ghost types (Hi Mimikyu!) and the ability to outspeed the other premier Fake Outer (Incineroar). Double-Edge for the consistently painful damage that OHKOs stuff like Tapu Koko and Charizard Y, Low Kick to deal 70% to Snorlax/almost OHKO Stakataka/random heavy things like Tyranitar and 4hp Heatran, and Ice Punch to still OHKO 4hp Landorus-T even after Intimidate. Potato functioned more as cleanup, or to clear certain threats that my main sweepers didn’t want to fight. 

Cernunos Landorus-Therian @ Groundium Z   Ability: Intimidate   Level: 50   EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 228 Spe   Jolly Nature   IVs: 0 SpA   - Earthquake   - Rock Slide   - Protect   - Knock Off  

Landorus-Therian is, arguably, the best mon in all of VGC. In fact, in VGC 2018, it’s only matched for utility with Incineroar, who’s also another Intimidating Cat. It’s also been constantly placing at the top (or near to the top) of all the usage stats, and it’s been said that the Best Way to check a Landorus-Therian is to use your own Landorus-Therian. In fact, it’s gone so far that some Landorus-Therian have switched the special scarfed Hidden Power Ice variants I also really liked the scarf Landorus-T variants since that would have helped my matchup vs Metagross+Tapu Lele/Charizard Y and random fast mons like Gengar a lot. However, given that I only have one other Ground-immune (Zapdos), I opted for the Groundium-Z variant, WHICH OHKOS INCINEROAR AFTER AN INTIMIDATE HAH TAKE THAT YOU STUPID CAT  and does a bunch of other neat stuff like being a really powerful nuke, being a single-target ground attack (even if only for one turn), and has the ability to P R O T E C T. Being base 91 speed has its drawbacks, sure, but I hoped to mitigate that somewhat with Tailwind, and once you get an unintimidated Landorus-T on the field with the ability to switch moves+a nuke+x2 speed, it’s definitely a huge boon on your side. 

So Cernny’s set is actually something Coach gave me. Jolly to abuse as much of that fast speed as necessary, attack to maximise the damage output, and the rest in split defenses for some ‘bulky’. His moveset was Earthquake (of course), Rock Slide (for the flinchy flinchy and Charizard Y/Zapdos), Protect and Knock Off because I hate Snorlax and any other mon that uses one of the Super Healing Berries, as compared to the lack of Steel/Normal type mons that you’d usually run Superpower for (and let’s be real, Superpower doesn’t OHKO anything of worth anymore, and without a scarf it didn’t really make sense to run Superpower). 

Castor Bisharp @ Life Orb   Ability: Defiant   Level: 50   EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe   Adamant Nature   - Iron Head   - Knock Off   - Sucker Punch   - Protect  

I’ll be honest, Bisharp is pretty much the glue holding the team together. The ability to gain attack boosts from any status drop, and the ability to pull out a powerful priority attack with those boosts can utterly cut through teams that are unprepared for him. All it takes is an Icy Wind or an accuracy drop from Muddy Water, and Castor can go to town. Especially since most teams rely on Intimidate to control opposing physical attackers, Defiant/Competitive users like Bisharp and Milotic can do a lot of work in the right conditions. Moreover, dark is an extremely good attacking type, even now, and with the ability to hit Fairies super effectively with Iron Head, Bisharp has almost perfect neutral coverage for most of the metagame (with the exceptions being idk Blaziken and Lucario). 

I was running Adamant Nature with max speed and Life Orb because that was the damage calculation/spread I was used to since 2015. Bisharp’s moveset is Iron Head for comfortable STAB, Knock Off to take out berries and also potentially KO weakened Cresses/other bulky mons/stop Snorlax before their berries trigger. Sucker Punch is priority, which helps me pin and maneuver around faster mons, and Protect is Protect lol. At max speed, Bisharp outspeeds most spreads of Tapu Bulu/Tapu Fini, Heatran, and also my own Kangaskhan, which allows me to make some silly plays like Knock Offing a Porygon 2′s Eviolite before Double-Edging into them, destroying fairy redirectors like Togekiss, or limiting Cresselia’s Ally Switch utility by taking out the supporters before Kang attacks. 

Curry Volcarona @ Firium Z   Ability: Flame Body   Level: 50   EVs: 4 HP / 92 Def / 192 SpA / 220 Spe   Modest Nature   IVs: 0 Atk   - Quiver Dance   - Heat Wave   - Giga Drain   - Protect  

I admit I named Volcarona Curry for certain very blatant biases BUT ANYWAY. I haven’t actually used Volcarona that well in VGC at all, dabbling in it only at the start of 2018 with a Salamence/Azumarill team that Did Not Work because I always felt that Volcarona was better off setting up Quiver Dance and sweeping than playing Rage Powder. Remembering that VGC 13 had a Volcarona+Bisharp team working super well for my brother, I decided to try it in VGC 18 because why not. Volcarona had 135 SAtk and with a Quiver Dance, I bet Inferno Overdrive would be extremely spicy. The other item choice that has been recommended to me time and time again is a Super Healing Berry, but to be completely honest I’m perfectly happy with having a secondary nuke in case I can’t land Tectonic Rage for whatever reason. 

Volcarona pairs well with Bisharp, Kangaskhan, and Tapu Fini, being able to clear steel/grass types as well as luring in stuff like Landorus-T into the battle (which its teammates can then take out before Volcarona starts quiver dancing). Volcarona is not a ‘good’ mon; it has far too many weaknesses and requires a lot of ifs to set up properly, and even then it’s main stab is Heat Wave and its defenses are, to put it mildly, shit. However, with most of the metagame being physically defensive, being able to set up a powerful special attacker that gets boosts in speed/special defense/special attack can seriously nuke a lot of teams to oblivion. 

So, Volcarona ran Quiver Dance, Heat Wave, and Protect. Modest 192 SAtk was to maximize my Special Attack as much as possible, but I do know that at +1, in the Sun, Volcarona’s Inferno Overdrive has been able to net OHKOs on Charizard Y of all things. 220 Speed was to outspeed modest Tapu Lele, 4HP/92Def was to survive a -1 Spread Landorus-T Rock Slide. Giga Drain was run to have a better way to deal with Tapu Fini and Milotic, but even at +1 Volcarona will still die to Hydro Vortex so that’s something to keep an eye out for. 

Vegetable Zapdos @ Iapapa Berry   Ability: Pressure   Level: 50   EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe   Timid Nature   - Thunderbolt   - Heat Wave   - Tailwind   - Sky Drop  

Zapdos has been something I’ve slowly grown accustomed to over the season. Without Talonflame, I’ve been searching for another Tailwinder that provided the sort of support/pairing ability with Landorus-T that I just couldn’t find elsewhere. While I am more used to the Misty Seed/Roost version, I just felt that it was far too passive and didn’t really feel like it could help contribute to the team with a low speed stat that the Misty Seed variants run (ie, set up Tailwind before dying to a Charizard Y Overheat). In the end, I decided to try something slightly different- not the Gigavolt Havoc Zapdos, but the fast speedy Tailwind support with Iapapa Berry. While it worked somewhat well, I realized that my team had issues with Azu+Redirector support, so I decided to toss Sky Drop onto Zapdos (something I learned from playing Hawlucha earlier in the metagame).

Sky Drop easily opens a lot of doors for my team, being able to stall out Trick Room, Tailwind, deal with redirectors, and force mons into not being able to Protect the next turn when they’re dropped. While my Zapdos spread meant that it was actually exceedingly frail for a Zapdos, it’s also an extremely good utility mon, if used properly (Hint: I still haven’t completely figured it out yet).

Thunderbolt for obligatory STAB. Tailwind helped support my team a lot, since the majority of them were slow and would greatly appreciate the speed advantage. Heat Wave was chosen over HP Ice because of the great Kartana weakness I seemed to have, as well as being able to threaten the 3hko on Mega Metagross. And Sky Drop is... Sky Drop. (Fun fact: I still haven’t completely understood all of Sky Drop’s mechanics yet, isn’t it fun?)

Ultimately, Vegetable started off as a mon I didn’t really like, but it is incredibly necessary for this team to work. If there is one thing I would change, I would drop its Satk and try to figure out a bulkier spread and go max speed Timid simply because I am tired of not having the ability to speed tie Charizard Y. 

Melusine Tapu Fini @ Mago Berry   Ability: Misty Surge   Level: 50   EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 12 SpD / 60 Spe   Calm Nature   IVs: 0 Atk   - Scald   - Moonblast   - Calm Mind   - Protect  

So finally, the Tapu of my team. Tapu Fini easily loses out to ALL THE OTHER TAPUS of the metagame, but it also has one of the best terrain abilities. Immunity to status? Yes Please. Also, being the slowest Tapu (barring some really slow Leles/Bulus), it is almost guaranteed Terrain Control on turn 1. 

I opted for the Calm Mind variant of Tapu Fini because I Like Setting Up, and also Fini just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise. Calm Mind also helps shore up its special defense, giving it a chance versus Tapu Lele and occasionally Tapu Koko/Charizard Y/MGengar/other random powerful special attacking mons. I’m using the standard CM Tapu Fini EV spread, which allows it to outspeed slow Bulu while dealing some really nice damage with its STABS. 

While most Tapu Fini opt for Muddy Water, I’ve lost far too many games from Muddy Water missing, so I decided to go for the more reliable and slightly more powerful single-target Scald. Thus far, I have not regretted that decision. Moonblast for fairy STAB because you need Fairy STAB somewhere on your team to deal with Kommo-O, and Protect because this should be totally standard by now.

AND I HAVE SPENT 2 HOURS WRITING A LONG DRAWN SUMMARY OF MY TEAM. I’M EXTREMELY PROUD OF HOW WELL THEY DID, OF SOME OF THE BATTLES I’VE MANAGED TO PLAY WITH THEM, and while I’m not certain if I want to bring them to Worlds, I’m glad that this is the team that finally helped me overcome my own weaknesses and gave me my confidence back to play. 

Tl;dr: I really love pokemon vgc and I really love this team 

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/the-streets-of-kenosha-world-news-group/

The streets of Kenosha | WORLD News Group

At the corner of 22nd Avenue and Roosevelt Road in Kenosha, Wis., there used to be a camera shop. Now, it’s a pile of rubble. A few blackened walls are still standing, the windows blown out. The heap of splintered wood and rebar and shattered concrete looms over bystanders. A charred mattress lies flopped on top of it all, and broken glass litters the sidewalk.

I drove into the city early Thursday morning, four days after a Kenosha police officer shot a black man and violent mobs set the city on fire. I saw hardly any windows: Every business had its glass boarded up with sheets of plywood, some with spray-painted pleas such as, “Protect the people in our community,” and “Kids live upstairs.”

Farther east, in the downtown business district, the plywood sheets are painted with bright flowers and hearts. Community organizers have tents set up on sidewalks, ready with check-in clipboards, cleaning supplies, and paint for volunteers. They tell volunteers to paint messages about love, because “Love is the answer.”

Kim got here around 8 a.m. She’s armed with a spray-on spray-paint remover, and she says a lot of people have stopped by to check on her: It looks like she’s doing graffiti instead of scrubbing it off. “I don’t like this cleaner,” she says. “It’s definitely not on the top of my graffiti cleaner list.” 

Dale and Michael are priming a sheet of plywood so other artists can come along and turn it into a mural. Michael lives a few miles away; Dale lives just down the street. His cousin texted and asked if he wanted to get out of town for a few days, but he said no. “I feel like if I did, the bad guys win.” “We tough it out with our community,” Michael adds. “This is home. So we gotta be here to wake up and clean it up.”

Different groups of volunteers are milling around, painting, chatting. A barefoot guitarist sings on one street corner. A couple of vendors have set up tents with muffins and smoothies. 

I ask Michael what the goal of the artwork is. “Love,” he says, without missing a beat. “We’re spreading love.”

A few blocks over, Pastor Matt Henry lives in what he calls “the hood.” He points out a row of houses: Gangs own all of them. The furniture store on the corner is completely demolished. There aren’t any murals or cleanup crews here. The streets are quiet, but Henry still hasn’t relaxed. He sent his wife to stay with relatives outside the city earlier this week. “Since Sunday, I’ve had maybe nine, 10 hours of sleep.” He spends nights with his police scanner on and his gun by his side, car backed into the driveway in case he needs to get out fast. The first night of riots, he watched buildings burn a block away and listened to cars exploding in the auto lot down the street. 

After 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people Tuesday night, things got quiet in the city. “I think the soul got taken out of it with the shootings,” says Henry. But he also says a lot of Kenosha residents are still frustrated with how state and city leaders have handled the unrest. To him, everything seems to come two or three days too late. “It’s shocking to me that a 17-year-old young man did more in 45 seconds to bring calm to the city than all the forces of our government,” he says.

According to Henry, politicians are using the unrest as a platform for grandstanding, not to achieve meaningful change: “I just don’t have time for the posturing. It’s empty.” He says painting murals or even doing a prayer walk isn’t going to fix anything if everyone just goes right back to the way things were before. Instead, it has to be a generational approach. “I think we have to realize that the ruins are there, metaphorically and now literally. And the only way to repair them is to regenerate households that are then being equipped to live out that Biblical worldview.”

Though discouraged by the political response, Henry is encouraged by ordinary Christians living well and living out the gospel in their communities. Instead of empty phrases, “They actually have something true to offer. And that gives me a lot of hope.”

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[yourtokentony]

Finding the Finest: A look into the Tecolote Tournament

Hello friends, family, and fans of the La Jolla Finest! Today I will be taking a deep dive into the recorded statistics from this weeks Tecolote Tournament and handing kudos to some of the players. (Acronym definitions at the bottom)

**NOTE: The Stats and Records bureau will improve their work in 2 areas:

1) Fielding. I was not the greatest at changing who played where during different innings and as a result, the fielding statistics are not very accurate.

2) Baserunning. The difference between “stolen base”, “passed ball” and “advanced on wild pitch” is important for and against pitching statistics.

Being at the Plate

The statistical MVP was without a doubt “The Big Cat” Brody C. Leading the team in all the major hitting categories, and only second in QABs, Brody continues to do big work from the cleanup spot. Maybe I’ll change his nickname to “The Big Cleanup” instead!

When I said he was second in QABs, the person he didn’t catch was “The Gold AR” Anthony R.  Out of 8 plate appearances, 7 qualified for QABs. He also leads the team in “pitches seen per AB”. Additionally, he ties for first on the team with “2 out RBIs”. I couldn’t write an article without mentioning my son, right?

So when I told Anthony this last stat, he said “It’s all thanks to Nicholas”. And its fair to say that’s top level awareness, because “The CH” Nicholas H. is tied for the team lead in walks, and more importantly, leads the team batting average with runners in scoring position. That is absolutely huge as at this age, when a kid gets on base, they have to score to compete.

Being on the Mound

Different than batting, not everyone is asked to pitch. Only those who are reliably throwing good pitches are even put on the mound. Being asked to pitch the most innings on the team is a great indicator. BUT...being asked to pitch the most innings on the team AND throwing the least pitches per inning is one feat to admire. So when “Chocolate” Charlie S. goes to the mound, the team behind him knows he’s going to get through it, also putting up the highest strike percentage and second best team ERA.

I often yell a catchphrase when seeing this kid on the mound...”You can’t spell (insert last name) without Ks!” Well, I now will be changing that to “You can’t spell WHIP without W!” As stated earlier, keeping kids off base is how games are won, and Wyatt R. is handily the team leader. His .818 is leading the NL in the Major Leagues! Although he’s not old enough just yet.

And who gets the old slogan? Well, you can’t spell (insert last name) without Ks! Matty B. is not only the team leader in strikeouts, but has the second lowest Batting average against and batting average against balls in play. So he’s either getting you at the plate, or getting you at first!

Moving on to Fallbrook

Initially, you may see 0-3 in a tournament as a bad thing. And because this city is use to the Padres, we might be use to that. But the stats say a completely different story...

Our “Best Player” vs. Their “Best Player”

Let’s say we live in a world where we could remove their best hitter and pitcher, but we have to give up ours as well. In a simulation that sees us lose Brody (at the plate) and Charlie (on the mound), our team would destroy. This tells me that there are one or two moments in the game that are turning things against us that will fall our way in the future.

Midgame Slump

Our midgame slump, call it 3-4-5 innings, seems to coincide with our opponents best innings. WE as fans have to get more involved to get them to play at their beginning game and end game levels!

Also, what do you guys think of the La Jolla Jacks! (A jack is another word for a homerun in baseball, and we could use this image for logos!)

An AB is an At-Bat...anytime a player approaches the plate to bat.

A “quality at bat”, or QAB, is defined as: 6 pitches total, 3 pitches AFTER being at 2 strikes, a Hard HIt Ball, a Walk, or a Sacrifice. 

ERA is Earned Run Average. This is a complicated pitcher stat, but it is used generally to show the team effectiveness of a pitcher.

WHIP stands for “Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched”. As a reference, the Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi has a 1.182.

[hydrus]

Version 257

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. I am almost done with the new duplicate system.

dupe stuff

I have essentially finished the duplicate filter. The 'this file has a higher resolution' statements are better and the underlying database code is as efficient and productive as I can think of. I have also added some new merge option checkboxes--you can now apply 'archive' status across a processed pair or even choose to delete both files.

You can also filter which tags are merged when you say to copy or move tags between the pair. Check this out if you are interested and let me know what you think--the panel to edit this new 'tag censor' object is a little technical and I think it could do with some user-friendliness work.

And I have made a new 'system:duplicate relationships' system predicate. It finds files that have a certain number of the given kind of relationship, such as 'files that are better than at least one other file' or 'files that have alternates' or 'files that are equal to two other files'. This is not wholly useful yet, but it will be when thumbnails are dupe-aware and actionable. (Thumbnails will know their existing dupe relationships and will allow you to set new dupe relationships manually through the right-click menu.)

I believe I will have this thumbnail stuff done next week, at which point I will be done with this initial phase of the new duplicates system and I can start on the downloader engine overhaul!

some other stuff

You can now move the main gui's page tabs all the way to the left or right with their right-click menu, and you can also append or insert new pages in the same way.

The statusbar is a little more informative when it comes to db locking--it will say a bit more than 'db locked', and if you hover over it, it will report the current database job in a tooltip. If your client has been locking up from time to time, please hover over it and report to me what you now see.

full list

the duplicate filter will now maintain zoom on files with the same ratio

split the duplicate merge options into separate tag/rating controls--you may see some duplicate service entries, but these will be cleaned on your next shutdown

duplicate merge options now allow syncing 'archive' status

duplicate merge options now allow 'delete both files', which you may find use for in custom actions

created a tag censorship object to handle and action a rich tag censorship ruleset

tag duplicate merge options now have and use this tag censorship object to filter which tags are merged, with an initial value of 'let everything through'

wrote a tag censorship edit panel and tied it into the duplicate action edit panel so these new tag censorship objects can be edited

added an optimisation to the duplicate status setting code--if two files are better/worse, they are inherantly duplicates and so 'not dupe' and 'alternate' relationships apply to both equally and can be duplicated

fixed and culled and normalised the 'this has more tags' dupe filter statements to be more accurate and useful

added 'this has a larger filesize' type-statements to the dupe filter

created a 'system:duplicate relationships' predicate that can find files based on how many duplicate relationships of a particular type they have

cleaned up some misc duplicate filter code and added some tooltips to the top hover window dupe action buttons

added 'move to left/right end' to main gui page tab right-click menu

added 'new page' and 'new page here' to main gui page tab right-click menu

you can now right-click for a menu from empty tab space on the main gui

the main gui statusbar now updates more efficiently when under heavy refresh load

the main gui statusbar now shows db read/write/commit status and sets the current db job summary as its tooltip--if you experience persistent hangs, please hover over the statusbar and report what you see!

export tags to .txts checkbox will now default to 'all services on' when checked

fixed the thread watcher, which was accidentally disabling its text input early

'similar files' searches launched from the thumbnail menu will now default to 'my files' file domain rather than 'all local files'

downloader pages will now correctly sort their files on initialisation

refactored and generally cleaned up some collect and sort code

fixed some unlikely-but-possible collect/sort bugs

fixed some bad layout in the top-right hover window that was making it grow unreasonably tall when many urls were shown

on the different download import pages, the progress gauge that shows file download progress will now reset back to 0 as soon as the file download is complete

fixed a problem where video imports with unicode characters in their path were failing to mime-parse

improved the file import status update pipeline to better deal with large transactions (like skipping/deleting/retrying a thousand rows at once). all these big transactions should lag the gui far less

improved some misc import status cache code

made first step in a big size rewrite job that will size many elements according to local system font size rather than specific pixel values

hydrus servers now explicitly default to TLSv1.2--we'll see if that clears up some of the handshake timeout problems we have recently seen

cleaned up a bunch of possible pydeadobjecterrors when the new review services panel is closed

improved and rescheduled gelbooru redirect url purge

added a catch-and-recovery to hydrus network session initialisation, which may sometimes receive invalid data after a service deletion

added similar catches to tag parent/sibling initialisation, which apparently can be vulnerable to a similar invalid data problem

I think I cleaned up some more Linux ClientToScreen console errors

refactored and cleaned some frame size event responsibility

refactored and cleaned the panel and controls that display file import status

did a little more menu code cleanup

misc cleanup

misc fixes

next week

I want to finish the thumbnail dupe stuff if I can, as I would like to start the downloader engine overhaul asap. There is also some IPFS work I accidentally missed this week, and I would like to apply the new Tag Censor object to the client's regular tag censorship system.

[mikemortgage]

Peter Foster: Corruption, Pink Floyd and Aboriginal rights walk into Banff’s ‘post-normal’ law conference

This weekend sees a conference in Banff that should be of interest to all those concerned about the rule of law, and the forces undermining it. Titled “Indigenous Solutions for Environmental Challenges,” the conference’s “context” is the US$8.6 billion (at last count) judgment in an Ecuadorean court against U.S. oil company Chevron. According to the conference’s website, the Chevron case will be used “to consider the critical role of judicial remedies for violations of the rights of indigenous and other affected peoples… both in Canada and beyond.”

With the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on judicial hold, and capital evacuating the Canadian oil patch due to legislative uncertainties, the topic is timely. But if “hard cases make bad law,” then corrupt cases threaten very bad law indeed.

Two U.S. courts have determined that the Ecuadorean decision was the result of a fraud engineered by U.S. lawyer, Steve Donziger (who will be appear at the conference). Donziger claims this is all a Chevron campaign to “vilify him” for innocent “errors in judgment.” Earlier this year, Donziger’s licences to practice law in the U.S. were suspended.

The Supreme Court allowed a corrupt case into Canada. That should worry everyone

Peter Foster: Canadian courts shouldn’t be apologizing for not enforcing a corrupt judgment

Peter Foster: There goes the plunder for the Pirates attacking Chevron

Conference organizer Kathleen Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Calgary, told me this week in an email that she denies the conference is about applying “pressure to bear on Chevron to come to the table,” but those are the words used more than a year ago in her letter to Donziger proposing the conference, and suggesting he support it (the letter is reprinted below). The letter, part of a contempt motion filed by Chevron against Donziger, redacted until recently, was last month ordered fully disclosed by a New York court. The court exhibit shows Donziger passed the letter to colleagues with the comment: “Please do not send around. This is potentially breakthrough stuff…. Kathleen is (former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations) Phil Fontaine’s wife and she is a major force in Canada as a human rights lawyer and activist.”

Phil Fontaine, former three-term national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, at the National Arts Centre with his partner, law professor Kathleen Mahoney.

When presented with a copy of her letter this week, Mahoney explained that she had denied writing those words because I had taken them “out of context and created a wrong impression.”

The Chevron case is based on environmental damage arising more than 25 years ago from the operations of Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001. Texaco paid for a cleanup and was released from further obligation by the Ecuadorean government. If this really is “the largest environmental catastrophe in the world,” as the conference material claims, that is surely due to the state oil company, Petro-Ecuador, Texaco’s former partner who has since operated in the region.

Donziger has tried to pursue the judgment in numerous jurisdictions, and has to date been universally unsuccessful. In Canada he sought to collect via Chevron subsidiary Chevron Canada. The most recent rejection of his claim was delivered in May by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The judges concluded that the case (argued locally by Toronto lawyer Alan Lenczner) boiled down to “an exhortation that we should do the right thing for his clients, untethered to the jurisprudence, the statutory rights of corporations, or any discernible principle.” Lenczner has sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Chevron meanwhile is pursuing Donziger for allegedly failing to comply with the provisions of the 2014 racketeering decision against him in the U.S. The oil company alleges that Donziger continues to raise — and keep — money from “investors” to pursue the case, despite a court order that any Ecuador-related moneys should be passed to Chevron.

Steven Donziger in 2013.

The recently unredacted court exhibits filed by Chevron also show those who have been either paid by Donziger or were contracted to receive a share of any settlement. Among them is Fontaine (who is not Mahoney’s husband, but her partner). According to documents disclosed by the court, Fontaine, now a consultant, would receive a small percentage of the proceeds, plus expenses, in return for “political, communication and strategic services.” There is certainly nothing wrong with such work. Fontaine, who is speaking at the conference, did not respond to my request for comment. He has previously consulted for TransCanada on the now-defunct Energy East pipeline. He was criticized for doing so within the Aboriginal community. This consultation is presumably more popular.

Others in line for a piece of any settlement include Roger Waters of iconic rock group Pink Floyd. Waters is to speak at the conference on the “Use of Popular Culture and Music to Inform the Masses.”

The conference seems to represent what might be described as “post-normal law,” which joins post-normal science and post-normal economics in “privileging” feelings and identity over truth. What is important is to get “the right impression.” It is a law of taking sides. (Mahoney, nearing the end of our correspondence, sent me an email asking “Do you work for Chevron?”)

Apart from the Ecuadorean plaintiffs (namely, Donziger), the conference’s “platinum” sponsors include the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Why a union would be supporting a crusade that would inevitably cost jobs perhaps requires some explanation to its members. CIGI communications adviser Kristy Smith, when asked about her institution’s involvement, declared that the case against Chevron was “fairly robust.” When asked to elaborate, she replied: “The case has vigor. It dates back to class action lawsuits that began in 1993 so the narrative, history and impact of the case has been significant.”

A post-normal perspective if ever there was one. Never mind the justice. Feel the vigor.

The conference’s gold sponsor is the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, a government-funded organization whose grants also support anti-corporate witch-hunts and opposition to Trans Mountain. Perhaps the most surprising sponsor is the Royal Bank. I contacted a spokesperson to ask if the bank knew exactly what it was supporting. I had received no answer by press time.

That Donziger’s corrupt case washed up in Canada is disturbing enough. That it is still going six years later is an indictment of the Canadian legal system. That it is being pursued via a post-normal law conference supported by unions, government-funded institutions and a major bank, and whose organizers seem eager to conceal its purpose, is outrageous.

One conference session is titled “Formation of a Global Movement to Fight Global Corruption.” They might start with Steve Donziger.

———

The following letter was filed as an exhibit in a New York court by Chevron. It was recently ordered publicly disclosed by the judge in the ongoing case in which Steven Donziger has been seeking enforce an Ecuadorian court judgment fining Chevron US$8.6 billion for environmental damage in Ecuador. Several subsequent rulings outside Ecuador have refused to enforce the judgment against Chevron, with courts ruling that the original order was secured by Donziger’s legal team using fraudulent means, including judicial bribery. Donziger denies these were more than “errors in judgment.”

In this letter, sent last year, University of Calgary law professor Kathleen Mahoney suggests to Donziger that a conference in Canada, with the right people attending, could help his case against Chevron — if there were funding available for such an event. The conference, “Indigenous Solutions for Environmental Challenges,” takes place this weekend in Banff. Mahoney and Donziger are both scheduled to present.

Hi Steven,

Thanks for your note. I have as you know a few ideas that could perhaps be of some assistance going forward with the case, one of which is a conference at my university with national and international experts.

The emphasis would be on restorative justice and would bring together experts from a variety of backgrounds — law, environment, history, business, philosophy, climate change specialists, etc., including of course some of the claimants themselves.

The concept would be to re-frame the case, assuming resolution in the form of a win-win settlement If we could get representation from the oil industry here in Calgary, the epicentre of the oil industry in Canada, that would, I think, bring significant pressure to bear on Chevron to come to the table instead of following their scorched earth policy which does not fly well in Canada.

Let me know what you think. I have raised the concept with a few of my senior colleagues at the law faculty and they think it would be a great idea. I would need some significant funding to pull it off. I think if we got funding, we could work on a timeline of having (the) conference in the spring. I could get a lot of law student volunteers I am sure. We also have public interest law clinic that is a possible resource. Let me know what you think,

All the best,

Kathleen

Kathleen Mahoney FRSC, QC

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Trudeau Fellow

Fulbright Fellow

Sir Allen Sewell Fellow

Barrister and Solicitor

Professor of Law

    from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2OAtOk2 via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[treeyo]

Hurricanes and such storms are forms of disturbance in ecological terms.  Disturbance sets succession back and creates new forms of habitat.  They change coastlines, they knock down forests, the trees turn to soil when natural systems are at play.  New coastlines become inhabited by varying creatures and plants as systems of ecology are not static, rather they are very dynamic.  The edge of the coastlines and forest are altered, becoming more productive in the long term. Our psyche, our consciousness, gets stirred up by such events as we move from a state of apathy to empathy because of the people affected and the animals and other life forms.  We don’t see these events as productive but in some ways they are.  Why don’t we?  Because we have a rational, Cartesian framework for how we see the planet.  We can only see negative because our minds evaluate in terms of good and bad in a linear model rather than a holistic worldview.  And why are they so damaging, why are they so costly and catastrophic, and so negative in our mindset; simply put, bad design.

Our love for coastal living and in flat low lying areas has long plagued humanity.  It’s not like the people of Florida and Texas and Bangladesh (another current catastrophe is occurring in Asia as well) haven’t been suffering from such events for thousands of years.  It has been happening and will continue to happen.  Our insistence on using the same anti pattern of development, the same rational model that Rene Descartes brought to us that we are above nature will continue to create this feedback loop.  Its called the half hydrological cycle and has grave consequences. And to further that we will mine, cut forests, suck fossil fuels, and a hierarchy of wealth

The forest at Treasure Lake, 2016

accumulation will happen from these storms to stubbornly rebuild thus further perpetuating degradation.  It’s simple logic, hell Einstein said it, the genius himself, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  So we will rebuild, our presidents have long said this, as they should when we have this rational worldview.  Rather than humbling ourselves to the whispers of the intense winds or the surges of sea water over walls we built to keep it out, we wont listen to nature saying, grow, evolve, learn, cooperate with me rather than trying to oppress me with feudalism and slavery.  These chains, these systems of structuring humanity are reflections of how we approach nature.  Technology is not our lord and savior.  It will not be able to pull us out of every single one of these storms.  The psychological imprint left behind with these events is maybe the greatest damage, the trauma lasting long.

If we dont switch course now, we are doomed.  Our species has gone down a long straight road of specialization rather than a sinuous form, as nature does, of adaptation.  We have brought this onto ourselves by thinking stored sunlight, fossil fuels, was the key to our evolution.  Specialization equals extinction in biological anthropology and we must learn from these extinction patterns, these waves in nature to diversify our energy addiction.  So now the ocean waves maybe our own extinction.  The storms intensification will eventually bankrupt our financial systems.  Simply how do we keep paying for this cleanup?  Who are we in debt to?  Who sits on top of the pyramid? Why do we not have a circle with many interconnections in between forming a web of life?  Why do we not rebuild ecovillages designed for catastrophe and resilience? We are walking towards the edge of a cliff and our worldview, the paradigm of man being separate from nature is creating our extinction even at a time when our population is bubbling out of control.  The party must stop, we must stop the incessant consumption, the withdraw of natural capital out of bank accounts that were long bankrupt.  In the last great depression (and at the time of the Dust Bowl) Roosevelt saw the connections and said we must build natural capital and started the Civilian Conservation Core.  It built earthworks for water harvesting and soil protection, it planted forests where farms were erosive and damaging to water quality, and the program created jobs.  We must invest in nature.  All of us.  Together.  That way when a storm comes, we feel the suffering and we act with a positive response, not one that is stubborn and childish.  Who says, no, i want my house on the beach where storms can swallow it again.  A stubborn five year old as they should because their consciousness is still growing.  Will we use these times of disturbance to grow our consciousness or simply keep on the path of extinction? We will never plant enough trees or sequester enough carbon to slow climate craziness and the half hydrological cycle if we dont evolve our consciousness.

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soil under a microscope, a web of life

Hurricanes and Ecology- A Path to a new Paradigm? Hurricanes and such storms are forms of disturbance in ecological terms.  Disturbance sets succession back and creates new forms of habitat.  

[rebeccahpedersen]

Canada’s Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS)

TorontoRealtyBlog

A few weeks ago, there was a feature article in one of the national newspapers on Mortgage Backed Securities in the Canadian marketplace.

I must have had at least 4-5 clients email me this article, and the same number of blog readers asked me to comment on it.

Everybody heard “mortgage-backed securities,” and immediately conjured up images of Brad Pitt and company in The Big Short, and figured this was serious news.

But guess what?  MBS’ have been around in Canada for a long, long time…

How does that saying go?

“I know a little, about a lot.”

Or is it, “I know a lot, about a little.”

Well I’m not sure what category I fit into.  Sometimes I think it’s both.

But when it comes to blogging, and discussing complex topics that often have a loose association with real estate, but that I want to explore anyways, I’m usually up for the task.

When it comes to Mortgage Backed Securities, however, I can’t in good consicence speak to you guys about what’s going on in the industry, where we were, where we’re headed, and most importantly – the differences between Canada’s MBS’, and those that are associated with the financial crisis in the United States in 2008.

So I’ve called upon my trusted mortgage broker for his thoughts.  Although thankfully, it’s not just thoughts, but rather an entire blog post.

Thanks to Ben Sammut from Mortgage Architects for providing the following…

  Mortgage Backed Securities: Be Very, Very Afraid…….In A Way

Mortgage Backed Securities!  Deposit withdrawals!  Sub-prime mortgages!

Are you scared yet?  Well you should be.  It’s frightening that the majority of people do not know enough about these terms to know what they actually are or that they play a crucial role in a working economy.

BMO recently announced that they would be packaging their non-insured mortgages and selling bonds to the public, backed by these mortgages.  The mechanics behind this are very simple:

-A borrower with less than 20% down takes out an insurance policy on their loan.  If they ever default, the insurer (CMHC) pays the bank.  This poses zero risk to the bank.

-If the borrower has 20% or more down (or is refinancing their property), they are not required to take out insurance and the bank instead assumes this risk.  This is typically justified by charging the client a slightly higher interest rate.

-BMO has decided to double dip by charging slightly higher rates AND selling the risk to the public in the form of mortgage backed securities.

-Mortgage Backed Securities are bonds sold to the public that are backed by a large fund of combined mortgages.  Essentially, if the fund does well, the bond holders do well.  If they fund does poorly (i.e. massive defaults), the bond holders do poorly.

Now it’s worth noting that BMO’s mortgages, and the majority of mortgages in Canada for that matter, are fairly safe.

We have 6 major banks in Canada that fund a multitude of different mortgage lenders.  But the entire show is run and regulated by our Ministry of Finance as well as it’s guard dog CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation).

Yes, it is easy to obtain a mortgage today given low rates and real estate markets across the country increasing in value.  But the scrutiny through which Canadian lenders have doled out money is quite high; we have some of the lowest fraud and default rates in the developed world.

To play devil’s advocate, taking on the risk for the banks is obviously…risky.  It’s in the name!  But let’s compare numbers.

There are three components that differentiate the US housing market pre-2007 and our current housing market with respect to mortgage backed securities:

1) The size of MBS funds being traded. 2) The number of players in the game. 3) The way in which mortgages are underwritten/registered.

1) The Size of MBS Funds Being Traded

At the height of the US housing boom in 2007/08, Lehman Brother’s had amassed over $85 billion in mortgage funds from which they sold their mortgage backed securities.  This was an accumulation of their own lenders’ money as well as sub-prime loans purchased on the open market.

We’ll speak more about purchasing loans in a moment.

But in the meantime, the $85 billion was sold to pension funds, retirees, mutual funds, etc., and played a very large role in the overall investing economy of the US.  For scale, BMO has announced that they are packaging less than $2 billion of their mostly AAA loans.

Up until 2007/08, mortgage lending and home buying were rampant and loosely regulated.  The US has hundreds of banks, trust companies, and credit unions all regulated by their own shareholders and local/state regulators – whereas Canada has six.

2) The Number Of Players In The Game

Let that sink in. We have six banks in Canada that own and administer the majority of uninsured mortgages.

This obviously allows for more oversight, regulation, and government intervention. It also allows for more efficient systems as well as greater investment in security and fraud-prevention.

It’s a lot more difficult to sell a skunk loan 6 times and repackage said loan again and again until it eventually looks clean.

And speaking of repackaging loans…

3) The Way In Which Mortgages Are Underwritten

Mortgages in the US are a completely different animal than in Canada. On the northern side of the border, we originate a mortgage for a specific term (usually 1-5 years) and upon renewal of said term, both bank and borrower can part ways or renegotiate the terms of their mutual mortgage.  The repayment can take upwards of 30 years, but this time is broken up into terms.

In the US, however, a typical mortgage loan is originate as a 30 year term and traded among lenders.

For example, you may take out a 30 year loan from Sun Trust this year.  By next fall, your mortgage could be sold to Quicken Loans, Wells Fargo, or Chase Bank. But more realistically, it could be sold to the Oklahoma Teacher’s Pension, the Denver Steel Workers’ Union, or the New York Jewish College Fund.

In fact, throughout your 30 year mortgage, you could be sold to 6, 7, or 10 different creditors.  There is a degree of transparency in this but you can easily see how each seller passes the risk on to the next again and again to remove themselves from any exposure.

When we begin to package these loans again and again, and sell them into other funds, the confusion (and inability to oversee) is magnified.  So imagine the chaos when $85 billion was combined and sold from literally hundreds upon hundreds of independent sources…

Frankly, the move from BMO was an inevitability after Justin Trudeau’s government took away their ability to bulk insure their loans back in October/November.

Is it bad for rates?  A little.

Is it bad for the bank? Not at all.

Is it bad for the borrowers? Not really, it’s actually business as usual.

Is it bad for Canada’s economy?  Not in the slightest.

  If you want to read more on this, there was a great article published in May of 2016 by InternationalInvestment.net, entitled: “Mortgage Backed Securities: Time To Let Them Off The Naughty Step?”  It’s worth a read for sure.

Bottom line: I personally believe that when the first article about MBS’ popped up in a Canadian newspaper a month ago, it was the first time it garnered a lot of attention.  Those that don’t know about MBS’ (which is most people), immediately thought this was something new, and something that perhaps was delivered to the Canadian economy a decade after the United States had their financial debacle.

Now, add a slew of articles and attention to the Home Trust crisis a couple of weeks later, and now a lot of people wanted to connect the two, along with the red-hot Canadian real estate market.

The market is red hot, mortgage backed securities are being sold in Canada, and financial institutions are going under.

Put those three things together, and you’ve got the foundation for a spectacular financial crisis.

Only the MBS’ aren’t anything new.  And now Home Trust is doing business.

So while I’m not blaming the media for this one (which is rare, on my part), I think a lot of people who read headlines, but don’t delve deeper, were looking to make connections, and as a result, conclusions, that weren’t there.

I welcome your thoughts on the MBS market here in Canada.  And specifically for those in the know, how our MBS’ differ from that of the United States in 2008.

And for those of you who didn’t read any of the above, and were just skimming for something of interest, here’s Selena Gomez explaining a CDO:

The post Canada’s Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2qcoLvA

[voidcrow]

The Involuntary Blood-pumping Muscle of the Cards - Day 108

Still clad in his sleeveless shirt and corduroys, a napping Shaaghun awoke with a start at the sound of a massive spell going off.

Outside the nearest window (which had a smear of dry raspberry jam on it as a result of a food fight some weeks prior) flashed a torrent of green energy and eredun runes, which eventually gave way to reveal not the star-spangled Twisting Nether, but the blue skies of Azeroth.

The felguard stood up and looked out the window. The surrounding landscape was verdant, boasting evergreen trees-- a far cry from the environs of the Ghostlands.

Shaaghun soon heard a muffled, high-pitched shout of frustration coming from downstairs. He sighed and left the window.

<> <> <>

"The pantry's almost empty, too!" Laciel said, practically stomping as she walked alongside Shaaghun down the stairwell. "What little wine I had is all gone."

Shaaghun looked away from his master. "Yeah, Kazuul drank most of it himself. He was havin' tobacco withdrawals, and he tried drowning them."

"And the pillow forts! You just had to raid the guest bedrooms so you could build those in the living room..."

"Okay, that, I tried to stop. I knew it was gonna piss you off."

"The boiler room is completely littered with empty ink bottles!"

"Wait, what? I didn't even know about that one."

"Shaaghun... The blankets and pillows on my bed are all damp. Why are they damp?"

There was a pause before Shaaghun was willing to answer. "...Sarola spent like ninety percent of the trip touching hers—"

"Nope, I don't wanna hear any more about that. You just go downstairs and start helping my other minions clean this place up."

"Ugh. You're a killjoy, y'know that? I don't wa—"

"You've had a hundred eight days to slack off, and it's time to go back to work. Off you go."

Shaaghun took his deck of Summoners' Showdown cards out of his pocket and held it up for her. "Let's settle it with this."

Laciel put on an impish grin. "Reeeally now~? You know, I haven't found anyone who admits to knowing about that game in ages. Did you actually learn to play it while I was gone?"

Shaaghun nodded.

"Okay, then!" Laciel clapped once. "Give me a bit to gather up cards around the Spire and build a deck. I'll meet you out in the garden."

<> <> <>

"Auch minas," said Laciel, prompting a wall representing 8000 life to appear on each side of the outdoor table in Voidcrow Spire's herb garden. Both she and the felguard proceeded to draw five cards.

"Shaaghun," said Laciel with a smile, "if you somehow manage to beat me, I'll let you skate on having to help with the cleanup. Otherwise, I expect you to hop to it right after this game." She took a copper coin out of her pocket and tossed it to Shaaghun, who flipped it to decide the first turn.

"Tails," called Laciel. It landed on tails.

Shaaghun huffed, but took heart; his opening hand had one of his beloved Mosh Pit Warriors, along with the Warrior of Fate—the starting ingredients of a potentially devastating combo.

{Background music, “Nyeh Heh Heh!”, begins and loops continuously.}

Laciel drew a card and looked over her hand. "Let's start with this Kingly Avarice," she said, revealing that she had that basic draw-two-cards nonsense in her opening hand. The Avarice promptly went to her discard pile as she drew an additional two cards.

"And I'll set this face down," Laciel said, placing a card on her back row. "And I'll set this face-down." She placed another card on the back row, then scrutinized what was left in her hand. "Hmm. The rest of this hand is junk, so I'll cast this." And so she showed to Shaaghun a spell card:

[SPELL] Mutually Assured Discard Both players are to discard everything in their hand, and then draw five new cards.

"Ah, shit!" Shaaghun watched as his whole hand flew out of his grasp and into his discard pile, whilst Laciel's did the same. Both proceeded to draw a fresh hand of five.

From her new hand, Laciel set another card face-down in her back row. Then she showed a spell to Shaaghun. "I'll cast this."

[SPELL] Necromantic Avarice Shuffle the five top cards in your discard pile into your deck, and then draw two cards.

Most of the cards in Laciel's pile floated over to her deck, which shuffled itself, before the warlock drew another two cards. She looked over her hand... and started to pout. "Well, these stink. I cast this," she said, showing Shaaghun a spell card: Mutually Assured Discard.

The felguard scowled. "You have another one?"

"Shaggy, I have three." Laciel watched her hand discard itself and drew five, just as Shaaghun was forced to do the same. However, she made a disappointed face at this hand as well. "I can't work with these either." She turned around a now-quite-familiar spell card. "Mutually Assured Discard again."

Shaaghun watched as yet another full hand of cards was replaced against his will. "Again?"

"Again~!" squeaked Laciel with a smile as she drew yet another fresh hand of five cards. She showed Shaaghun a Kingly Avarice from this new hand, discarded it, and drew two more cards, prompting an irritated sigh from the felguard. The blood elf set one more face-down, this time on her front row.

"Finally, a familiar," quipped Shaaghun. "Can't wait to see what that is when I attack it."

"Too bad," Laciel snapped back, "You're gonna see what it is right now." She showed the felguard another spell:

[SPELL] Invoker's Scroll You can flip up any one of your face-down familiars-- even one that has been summoned face-down earlier this turn.

"Let me introduce you to my bestest friend, Gordy." Laciel flipped over her most recently placed face-down:

[FAMILIAR] Gordy the Excavator [COST 0] [ATK. POW. 240] [STAM. 350] [ON FLIP]: Shuffle Gordy back into your deck, then excavate cards from the top of your deck until you draw a familiar. Discard all excavated non-familiar cards afterward.

The card projected an image of a little rotund humanoid wearing archaeologists' gear. "Isn't he cute? I'll be using his on-flip effect now." With that, Laciel put down her hand, filed the familiar back into her deck and shuffled it.

Then the warlock started drawing a card, briefly looking at it, tossing it to let it float neatly onto her discard pile, and repeated, all the while humming a chipper tune. Not appearing to find anything wrong with it, she proceeded to dump a huge amount of cards. Her servant couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

After well over a minute of this, the elf at last drew a card that she didn't throw out. "Oh, here's a familiar~. Good thing, too; there's only two cards left in my deck."

{“Nyeh Heh Heh!” pauses.}

"What the—?" Shaaghun blinked. "Is Gordy the Excavator the only familiar you have?"

"Uh huh."

For a moment, there was only silence at the table.

"You're insane!" Shaaghun then shouted.

"Whatevs, big guy. I'mma just set Gordy face-down again." Sure enough, the elf set a card face-down on her front row. Then she set yet another card face-down on her back row.

Laciel looked over her field and hand for a moment. "...'Kay, your turn."

{“Nyeh Heh Heh!” continues from where it left off.}

As Shaaghun drew a card, he wondered what was going on in his master's head. She had but a single familiar that lacked enough power to kill many of his own, she'd wasted almost all of her cards in her first turn, and she was going to deck out and lose in another two. His having no familiars in play or in his hand was looking like a minor disadvantage at worst.

Still, he didn't like the look of Laciel’s back row. No, those four traps needed to go, and he happened to have a spell card for that. So Shaaghun played it:

[SPELL] Nullification Vortex All spells, traps, equipment and the environment currently in play are returned to their respective owner's hand.

"Nope!" Laciel flipped up one of her back-row cards:

[TRAP] Bribe with Great Haste Cancel your opponent's spell, sending it to the discard pile. As a concession, your opponent draws one card.

{“Nyeh Heh Heh!” completes its current loop and ends. New background music, “Bonetrousle”, begins and loops continuously.}

"You see, I can give the Nullification Vortex," said the elf, "but I sure as heck won't take it!" Her freshly-sprung trap floated to her discard pile, while the Vortex went to Shaaghun's.

"Oh, well. Thanks for the free card, brat." Shaaghun drew said card from his deck... and grinned. He immediately showed it to Laciel:

[SPELL] Daredevil's Avarice Flip a coin. If heads, you draw two cards. If tails, your opponent draws two cards.

Discarding that card, the felguard picked up the copper he'd earlier flipped to decide the first turn. "You're in a situation that makes casting this nothing but beneficial. If I get tails, you deck out and lose the ga—"

"Nope!" Laciel flipped over another trap:

[TRAP] Mana Bombardment Cancel the opponent's spell, sending it to their discard pile. Inflict 300 damage to the opponent's life for every non-familiar card in your discard pile.

Laciel giggled. "Seeing as there's upwards of fifty spells and traps in my garbage bin right now, I'm curious... How's it feel to be a smoking crater, Shaggy?"

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer," retorted Shaaghun, as he showed Laciel another spell from his hand:

[SPELL] Pummel You may cast this at any time to cancel an opponent's trap activation and send that trap to their discard pile.

The Mana Bombardment floated to Laciel's discard heap. Shaaghun then picked up the copper again. "This coin flip is happening, whether you want it to or—"

"Nope!" Laciel flipped over another of her face-downs:

[TRAP] Polarity Shift You may activate this at any time during your opponent's turn. You lose 1000 life, but both you and your opponent must swap their own discard pile with their own deck, shuffling them both.

Shaaghun watched his deck dump itself, while the relatively few cards in his discard pile shuffled themselves and rested where his deck once did. "Shit, shit, shit!" he panicked. The fact that Laciel’s life depleted to 7000 amid this was no consolation at all.

"Lookie, Shaggy!" Laciel watched her prodigious discard pile switch places with her deck. "I have most of a full deck again~. You, on the other hand, have undergone an emergency deck-ectomy!" She cackled. "I'm so funny!" She laughed for a bit longer, and then sighed. "Alright, now you can flip the coin."

Shaaghun tossed the copper. It landed on tails. He bit his lower lip with frustration.

Laciel took two cards from her deck, and didn't lose her smile as she looked at them. "Oh, look, I drew my Mana Bombardment. Thanks, sweetie! Take heart knowing your next turn will go quite a bit like this one, sans any defenses or counters on your part. And that's assuming my next barrage of Mutually Assured Discards doesn't make you deck out first."

{“Bonetrousle” completes its current loop and ends.}

This sent Shaaghun into a state of tranquil fury. "I hate you so much."

"Face it, big guy; I am not someone to be outsmarted. Certainly not by a lesser demon."

The felguard took a moment to look at what was left of his hand. Laciel was indeed much too cunning to be bested in a battle of wits, but Shaaghun knew—based on this morning's events alone—that she had a different weakness. He also just so happened to have the two cards he needed to exploit it.

And so he shoved his right hand down the back of his pants.

{Background music, “Kefka’s Theme”, begins.}

Laciel lost her smile in an instant. "What."

"Hang on; I got an itch in there." Shaaghun kept his hand where it was, doing something ungodly. "Gotta dig my fingers in, you know?"

The elf flailed her free hand. "Too much information!"

The demon took his hand back out, then made a show out of wiping his mouth with it. "Alright, sorry for the delay. I've got a spell here." He showed Laciel a card:

[SPELL] Count Longardeaux's Treaty Offer your opponent a handshake. If they agree to shake hands, all familiars currently in the field return to their owner's hands. If your opponent refuses, nothing happens.

Laciel shook her head. "You're gross, and I'm not touching that filthy hand. It's wise to recognize when you only have one choice."

"For once, I agree with you." Shaaghun then turned another card from his hand around for Laciel to see:

[SPELL] ...And Carry a Big Stick As long as this spell is in your hand, when you cast Count Longardeaux's Treaty, your opponent cannot refuse to shake hands.

Laciel blinked. "Oh gods, I forgot I had that."

{“Kefka’s Theme” reaches 0:31 and continues.}

Shaaghun held out his right hand. "C'mon now; let's shake on it."

"Not after where it's been, I won't!"

"You have to."

"No."

"Shake it."

"I don't wanna!"

"Shake it."

"Nooo~!" Laciel whined.

"Shake it!"

"No!"

"You have to."

"I'un'wannaaa!"

"Shake it."

Laciel dramatically threw herself to the grassy ground and started whimpering. "Oh, it just isn't worth it. I forfeit!" With that, the projected wall nearest to Laciel turned red, while her life count switched to some text reading "SURRENDERED." The images disappeared, and the decks reassembled themselves.

{“Kefka’s Theme” reaches 1:01 and continues.}

The felguard guffawed. "Yeeeah! Suck on that, nerd! Shaaghun's still the king!"

"Ugh." The elf stood back up and dusted the grass off of her robes. "Alright, a deal’s a deal; you are exempt from cleaning duties. Now go wash your hands. When you come back, we're going to play a much better thought-out card game."

"What's it called?" asked Shaaghun.

"Go Fish," replied Laciel, seething with resentment.

{“Kefka’s Theme” reaches 1:17 and ends.}

~ FIN ~

[podcastrightnow]

The Silence of the Jake Lambs

by Churp Daly TL;DR: Don't be afraid to play a left handed hitter against a left handed pitcher. Most nights I fire a single bullet at the $25 GPP on Fantasydraft.com. Saturday night that lineup included Diamondbacks numbers one through three. That was A.J. Pollock, Chris Owings, and Paul Goldschmidt. No Jake Lamb. Goldschmidt and Pollock appeared on 40%+ of lineups that night, Owings on 16%. Decent production from my guys in the early innings.: Pollock single, Goldschmidt walk, Pollock and Goldschmidt each steal a base. Then, in the 5th inning, Lamb goes deep with a man on base. Bad news for me and my mini stack, I thought. To my surprise, Jake Lamb shows up on the MVP list and I get a peak at his ownership, a measly 4%. How, in a top 5 hitters park, against an average pitcher in Tyler Anderson, were #1 Pollock and #3 Goldie drafted ten times more often than #4 Jake Lamb? For me, he wasn't an intentional fade, just never on my radar. Lefty versus lefty. Meh. First principles, gamers. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing, ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man we seek? He hits for power... he has favorable splits... he- No!That is incidental. What is the first and principle thing he does? He plays professional baseball. Research is important, and in general, we want to target players who have something working in their favor in any given matchup. But, again, this guy was hitting cleanup in Chase Field. And was owned at a rate of 4% compared to a rate of 40% for the guy in front of him. Why? Lefty versus lefty. Meh. Somewhere in the back of all of our minds is the idea that with enough research we can control everything. It's just not true. We need to embrace the element of randomness in fantasy sports, and part of that is recognizing that a professional baseball player in a “bad” spot can represent value in the long run. Pollock, Owings and Goldschmidt were in good spots that night, and Lamb wasn't. But so what? This is a professional baseball player, and a good one at that. George Springer was also in a good spot that night, and went 0 for 4, as he often will. When you play Lamb instead of Springer, you'll be right much more often than 1 in 10 times. And it could be the difference between making money and not. Some nights the Diamondbacks will hang 15 on Tyler Anderson and it could win you a tournament. Now, it turns out that Jake Lamb is actually particularly bad against LHP lol. Maybe not the best example, but I really wanted to quote that movie. And if you're telling me that every player on Fantasy Draft knew that Lamb was as bad as he is in that situation, then well... they didn't. They saw left on left and moved on. Last week on Rotogrinders I heard Dean remark that Marco Estrada became an autofade when Russell Martin, a catcher, was announced as the starting third baseman. Then Pepsi pointed out that Estrada is an extreme fly ball pitcher, and therefore still playable. Thanks, Pepsi. I was worried there for a minute. In DFS, you win by interpreting information better than your opponents. Finding the signal in the noise. Often times the clearest signal is just how much of what we hear is noise. <sniff> Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns pinch hits for Ken Griffey Jr. at the company softball game because the pitcher is left handed? That's you, when you ignore the Jake Lambs of the world.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now at draftkings.com/r/ChurpDaly HMU with your questions on Twitter @realChurpDaly

[tinfoil-king]

Nier Automata - Thoughts as playing through

This is just a fun activity I like doing.  Instant theorizing of something while it is going on. 😃  This time Nier Automata.  Spoilers below the break.

 The idea is I’ll break the game up into chunks by what seem to be natural plot break points.  Just to see how my perception of the story evolves as I play along.

 The rules:

·         Playing spoiler free

·         Very rough understanding of the previous games and backstory

Noob Dungeon/Tutorial Area till regaining control on the space station

 Things of note:

��         The five ships and a white one reminds me a bit of stuff I heard about Drakengard 3. Never played it, so it might be superficial.

·         Speaking of a game about characters with crimson eyes, the protagonists have their eyes covered.

·         Fodder enemies are robots who look like Emil

·         The whole zone is a mechemil  factory

·         Giant boss dudes look like possessed machines.

·         2B reminds me of Yonah.

·         9S makes me think of that Japanese version of Nier’s protagonist due to the similar look. Well, if Nier was brainwashed and forced to cleanup into a preschool look.

·         They can back themselves up.  Trailers say you can even fight your old dead body.

·         In the end they tap black boxes (local saved selves) to nuke the area

·         The history cutscene is giving a propaganda vibe

·         The cutscene makes it seem like the aliens brought the mechemils to Earth?  What.

·         Memories may not be complete, as seen by 9S losing some of his due to not saving

·         Glory to human kind, more queasy propaganda sounding stuff.  Not what it sounds like, but the way it is said.

 Thoughts so far:

·         The Automatas may be partially based on the crimson eye thing in Drakengard and in Nier’s backstory (all in the manual, crimson eyed person who can come back the dead leading a legion of zombified mindless mutated humans).

·         I don’t buy that the Mechemils are the aliens.  Maybe the aliens have possessed them somehow, but they didn’t bring them. Unless… they came from the Drakengard world instead of through space.  Emil was created due to things set in motion that came through from that world to “our” Earth.

·         2B is probably going to rebel.

Space Station to Resistance Fetch Quests

 Things of note:

·         Yorha reminds me of Yonah.  Just swap the last two letters and have part of the lowercase n fade away so it looks like an r if you want to believe they are going for some “CaLiMa” or V’ger level justification here.

·         The integrating setting saving to the character is a nice touch.

·         The leader of the group isn’t blind folded.  So, there is a purpose to those who are blindfolded.  

·         Resistance Leader “You are 2…”.  Not “a” and we don’t get a letter.

·         Resistance person wearing a Mechemil head mysteriously.

·         Game is making a big deal about plants returning and growing large

·         Chit-chat with eye in the sky really makes it seem clear only 2B is emotionally blank. Or tries to be.  Yet she said emotions are forbidden in the first game segment.

·         Supply Trader raises the “Ship of Theseus” argument regarding the one leg he won’t replace.

·         Weapon Trade raises the arms race escalation just making things worse than better question.

 So my thoughts are:

·         We’re going to meet a 2A who has gone rogue or the Resistance Leader knew 2B before she had an 9S moment.  Maybe in a Tinman scenario from the original story where after the Tinman in Oz replace his entire body with tin someone went and put his fleshy body back together as a different person.

o   Accidentally had this maybe confirmed when I stopped playing.  I saw I was given an A2 card.

·         Mechemil head wearing Resistance Person is non-0% chance of being Kaina in disguise.

  The Desert

 Things of note:

·         The robots are noted, again, to be talking.  So until now they have been quiet.

·         They seem to only be anti-android

o   Note: robots near the resistance base seemed peaceful

o   Note: They are saying they are scared and want to kill the androids

·         The robots in the desert have seem to have gone “native” almost

·         The “Glory to mankind” speech is described as always “stiff”

·         Stumbled upon “Apologetic Machine”.  Text scrolled by super quick so it was hard to read what was being said.  Something about being apologetic that we found “this place”, that we will learn the truth, and that the truth will fill us with rage.  Also it blew itself up to help us with its scrap?

·         It was guarding a locked door

·         I’m really being reminded of the alleged post-Nier timeline where the Replicants became fully human even if they didn’t merge with their shades.  

·         In the pit:

o   One seemed to think it had a baby in a cradle

o   Another sounded like it thought it was a baby

o   A third was either a crawling baby or a dog

o   A few looked like they may have been trying to have sex

·         The robots want to kill the scary androids that never give up

·         Massive mechemil orgy leads to Sephiroth’s birth.  I feel like I missed a pacifist option here.

·         Get back to the Resistance Camp.  Nothing. Leave to get told all units must go save some units who have gone quiet, but look to still be alive.

Thoughts so far:

·         Robots are the “shades” of this Nier.  They’re humans or what are left of humans or a new species that is benign.  

·         Androids… could they be the invaders?  Replicants who look human vs “humans” who look like robots?

·         Countdown until I, 2B, is sentenced to death.

·         The one shop keep mentioned having replaced everything but his leg.  So that would make him entirely machine, entirely an Android.

·         The whole “Glory for mankind” stiffness might mean the speeches are recordings.  There may not be any natural humans left.

  Operation Rescue

 Things noted:

·         9S: Yo, we were made to look like humans.  That thing the robots made looked like us.  Why?

·         The robots in the amusement park all seem fine.  Even talkative.  They have shop keepers and warn that a section up ahead are broken an dangerous.

·         Tank was skippable.  

·         The Yorhas are now evil.  Hacked?

·         Beat the Opera Singer.  All the Androids had fried circuits.  Despite Nines saying he’d hack her, the death is sudden POD-mehameha to the torso.  Did I miss another pacifist branch?

·         Meet a robot thanking us.  It is waving a white flag.  Given a choice.

 The game is very much pushing the robots are good and it might be the androids are bad thing.  So I decided to trust the peace claiming robot. I figure either I’m doing what devs hope we’d do in the NG+ as the correct action or they’re hoping we go this route to trick us.  Either way it should be fun.

 So my thoughts after my first day playing this game:

·         2B, 9S and A2 will be the main characters in some way.

·         Humans are dead, save for possibly Emil.  All the machines look like him so I suspect he had a hand in creating them, and wasn’t he even stupidly long lived before becoming an animated skeleton?

·         Knowing the creator of this series and how the game seems to be setting up a forever war due to confusion I suspect the aliens, if they ever existed, are also dead.

·         Question is how engrained is this info.  Is 2B and 9S in danger of a triggering a wrathful response from a conspiracy if they discover this or is it hidden from near everyone?

 Post Script:          

At the end of this play session I’m very tempted to just give up on trying to remain spoiler free here.  After writing this, but before posting, YouTube threw at me a “Secret Ending (Letter) – TRUE EMIL FIGHT”.  It was a higher letter ending, Y I think?, so it isn’t a canon ending.  I’ve heard those are limited to A through E.  

Still, this means Emil is in the game.  Or something claiming to be him.  Like the A2 card it confirms some of my suspicions before I was probably meant to have them confirmed in-game.  So I think I might be on the right track here.  

[hydrus]

Version 405

windows

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exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a good week. 'system:number of tags' now supports namespace filtering.

number of tags

The 'system:number of tags' predicate now lets you attach a namespace, so you can search for 'files with two character tags' or 'files with more than one creator', or any other combination you can think of. Also, all 'number of tags' queries have been optimised, and are now typically much faster, particularly when mixed with other tags. They are also quickly cancellable, so if you do enter a very slow one, it should respond fairly quickly if you hit the 'stop search' button that appears after a delay.

I updated a bunch of the database code here to support new types of search. With the namespace searching, you can enter a blank namespace to search for 'unnamespaced' tags, and if you have a very specific need, you can now enter a wildcard namespace, like 'crea*', perhaps to help search for typos.

Unfortunately, I am removing 'system:number of tags' from the 'default system predicates' options panel. EDIT: I am hiding the whole panel now. This horrid stack of UI runs on ancient and difficult-to-update code, so rather than wrestle with it more, I plan to retire it and replace it with a clean system that also allows for editing search predicates in place (e.g. right-clicking an active search predicate and changing the >2 to >3 or similar).

I am really happy with how namespace counting turned out, and I have wanted it myself for a long time. Let me know how it works for you.

duplicate subscription queries

I believe the subscription data storage rewrite introduced a bug where when you paste queries into a sub and it says 'x y z are already in the sub and will not be added', they were being added anyway!

I fixed it. If you paste into subs a lot and get this message regularly, please check your subs for dupes! Now we have faster and more flexible subs, some users have also asked for broader de-duping tech that spans across multiple subs or does upper/lower case deduping, so I also expect to write buttons to do this in the near future, so you may also just want to wait for that.

ptr parents

Please note that the public tag repository is turning off tag parent submissions for regular users for a bit. If you haven't seen it already, the 'ptr' tab in manage tag parents will disappear in a few days. The task of cleaning up old and ongoing mistakes is proving too awkward with the current tools, so it is halted until I have a 'virtual parents' rework done, which will allow for more cleanly undoable parents (and hence less contagious bad ones). If you have seen 'shadow the hedgehog' or other bizarre tags appearing in odd places, this is what we hope to fix.

I have scheduled my next 'medium-size' job week, 408, to be for a 'presentation' tag cache, which will allow fast and accurate searching and loading of the tags you actually see on the front end. It will start with siblings, extend to tag filtering/censorship, and then parents will be made virtual and moved to it as well. This was a priority at the end of last year, before Qt and 2020's fun appeared, so I would now like to focus on it again.

full list

tag search:

system:number of tags now supports namespaces, for example 'find files with two character tags'! (issue #280)

it also supports wildcard namespaces, as now do regular namespace search predicates. both run faster. "crea*:anything" is now possible

system:number of tags has been optimised, and in many cases is now ten to a hundred times faster

system:number of tags still does not support siblings, something I hope to start correcting as of v408

both tag existence (numtags =0 or greater than 0) and tag count database routines now respond quickly to 'cancel search' commands, so if you do run a slow query (a bare 'has creator tag' search on 'all known files' on the PTR, for instance), you can now back out quickly after the 'stop' button appears

note that 'system:number of character tags greater than 0' and '= 0' are equivalent to +/-character:anything, which will be swapped in if you enter these. also, +/-unnamespaced:anything can now appear

the program is a bit better about determining =0 and greater than 0 and less than 1 being 'none' and 'any but none', when it needs to determine optimisations and special labels

unfortunately, I am taking away the default value for system:num tags in the options page (edit: I am killing the whole panel now). this old ugly mess of stacked predicate edit panels works on ancient, difficult to update code, so I will retire it and replace it with a unified system that is easy to use, supports in-search system predicate editing, and keeps up with changes automatically

system:number of tags is now comfortable with redundancies--if you add >2 and >4, it now knows that >4 is the true lower bound (previously, the one used was random)

boring code changes here:

updated tag existence and tag count searches to take advantage of the tag cache when in a specific file domain (which is pretty much all the time), which should speed them up significantly

updated tag existence and tag count searches to more carefully plan their queries, speeding them up both in advantageous and difficult situations

cleaned up tag existence and tag count code significantly

updated all edit system predicate panels to return full predicate objects, a step towards decoupling them and allowing in-place system predicate editing

wrote a new number test object to hold and help with number range test values. num tags now uses it, and eventually all range predicates will too

the namespace existence search code ('anything' queries) is now folded into the new generalised tag existence search code

streamlined how the search context propagates through all database tag searching--now, most queries do not know or care about domain or current/pending status--they just iterate over n tables as determined by a specialised routine

added a handful of unit tests for the new namespace num tag searching

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database repair:

the database menu has a new entry, 'repopulate truncated mappings tables', under the newly renamed 'check and repair' submenu, which will try its best to 'fix' a client.mappings.db file that has been truncated due to hard drive fault by repopulating from the local-file-only tag cache. do not run this unless you know you need to

the 'help my db is broke.txt' document has a full update pass. the language is clearer, common issues and questions are better addressed, two new recovery routines are added, a section on the stages after boot recovery (like the new repopulate job above) is added, and I added my stock 'now become a backup patrician' nag at the end

the debug routine to clear cached service info numbers is now moved to the 'regenerate' database menu. this thing fixes hanging incorrect 'pending' counts until I can fix it properly

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the rest:

fixed an issue where when you pasted queries into a subscription, those that were already in the sub (and got the dialog saying so), were being added anyway! I believe this bug came in the last few weeks, after the data storage rewrite. please check your pasted-into subs for dupes

fixed tab double middle-click behaviour (so you can spam page close), which I thought I had fixed last week but actually messed up completely right at the end (issue #314)

cleaned up some more of the page tab event code--it was a mess all around. should all be on Qt now, no wx hacks

network jobs will no longer wait for and consume bandwidth start tokens while all network traffic is paused. all bandwidth competition now halts. (previously, they would continue to consume tokens according to current rules and then all rush to start as soon as traffic was resumed)

fixed some client booru/client api requests to correctly 404 on missing file results, rather than 500

cleaned up some file sort code and fixed the sort string conversion, which was rendering the opposite sort direction (asc/desc) in summary labels (e.g. on manage favourite searches)

cleaned up some ui layout stretching code, including some borked tag import options expand sizing

improved some button and padding layout definitions, and improved, slightly, the way the top-right media viewer hover window lays itself out and changes its size on media change

improved some review services layout. should be fewer weird heights and widths in unusual situations, and the new multi-column list fits better

the manage subs dialog now saves its changes to db more cleanly and atomically

updated the default derpibooru parser to pull species tags. ten points if you can guess what that is most of the time

next week

Next week is cleanup. I did some layout/sizing work this week, and it was nice to clear out some cobwebs, so I'll keep pushing on that. I'd like to bring back system predicate defaults as well, with a cleaner system.