First of all, full disclosure, I made a hot headed post yesterday that ended up being more divisive than anything, so I have deleted it. So, why am I posting again? Well, it's because a few good points came from it that I had overlooked, and I'm going to swallow my pride and admit I may have jumped the gun. Unfortunately, it seems I'm not the only one, so maybe now that we've had a day to cool off a bit, and possibly downed a few (or more than a few) wobbly pops, maybe we can have a more reasonable conversation about different viewpoints?
Reading the responses I received yesterday was informative to say the least, but what I got from it was that there are 3 main reasons for investing in GME, and while some may have more than one reason, I think it comes down to those 3 if we each answered honestly about what is most important to us: 1. A MOASS. 2. Gamestop transforming itself into a superpower long term. 3. Market reform and screwing shorts.
Now, my priority is #1. End of story. Would I like to see the other two happen as well? Definitely, just not at the expense of the MOASS. That was my goal when I first invested, and it's been my goal for over 3 years now - that's never going to change. That HAS to be my goal, given that I have a chronic illness that could steal my mobility at any time my body so chooses, I'm turning 50 later this year, I don't own a home, and my bank account resembles a desert. I just don't have 20 years to see a decent return on my investment... So yes, I understand why RC is doing what he's doing, and I get it, but I don't appreciate being accused of shilling if I complain when he takes actions that can potentially impact my goals here.
So let's talk about #2 in the list. For those who most want that, you're probably younger and have the time to hold on for the next 20 years, but try and understand that isn't the case for everyone. What RC is currently doing aligns perfectly with that goal, but it's a long time, and the world could change substantially in the amount of time it's going to take, so it's no more a guarantee than a squeeze would be. It's just as much a gamble as #1, just a different timeframe.
That brings us to #3. I get it, I really do, but for that to happen, the MOASS must happen. Nobody is going to prison unless it does, and nothing about the market will change either because there won't be a reason to do so.
Right now there is a lot of conflict between apes due to these differences, but not much reasonable discussion of how whatever is happening will affect the outcome of whatever it is that we hoped to gain with our investments. Instead, those who want the MOASS above all else are upset because every time they sell more shares, as it could reduce the chances of a squeeze, and are called shills for not trusting RC. Meanwhile, those who want to see Gamestop become a formidable force are zen about holding, but aren't too concerned about more shares in the market as it supports Gamestop's long term growth. For them, Gamestop building a big war chest is more important than a squeeze right now.
So can we please just get our views on these out in the open in a respectful way, while not calling each other names, and perhaps calmly discuss the issues with each view and how they affect the others, then consider where we can find common ground so we can have a community that isn't jumping at shadows and fighting all the time? For those who have been here since the beginning, do you not remember how and why it began? Do you not remember raising money for the family of a fallen ape, or donating to try and save ACTUAL apes? How we laughed while staring intently at charts and trying to figure out how to combat the fuckery? How we all celebrated the wins and spoke out against bullshit regulations? Can this sub find a way back there while understanding that not everyone here has exactly the same main goal?
Anyway, I'm heading to bed as soon as I respond to the auto mod, so I'm not ignoring anyone who comments, I'm just sleeping. But let's please talk about these things rationally with a bit of empathy for the situations and goals of others here like we used to do.
Have a good night all. I'm off to smoke a bowl and get some sleep.

I'm doing a sort of character exploration excerise where I am trying to give a character a class. Or, more accurately, I am trying to turn them into an accurate Heroic spirit and give them the right class.
The character in question being Theodore Anders from the web serial worm.
An explanation before I get into his potential classes.
Theodore is the son of the villain Max Anders, otherwise known as Kaiser, who is also the leader of a neo nazi group called the Empire Eighty Eight.
Theo hates his family.
He hates what they are and what they stand for. To the point where any brutality, even excessive as said by the perpetrator(see victoria dallon), is deserved in his eyes. The exception being his stepmother, who he says he loves but doesn't like because she two is a racist, and his baby half sister.
But he can't do anything to them because he has no powers and is emotionally broken.
Then his father dies, leaving him alone with his step mother. Things seem... not good, but better.
Then a super powered serial killer comes to town with the soul goal of killing everything in sight, meets Theo and takes in interest when Theo looks him in the eye and says he'll kill him. To which Jack, the killers name, says that he has two years to prepare and after that Jack will kill a thousand people. Ending with him.
Theo leaves with his family to try and prepare, but when the going gets tough his family abandons him and doesn't look back. Their only interest really being themselves.
So, under the tutelage of an actual warlord, Theodore spends the next two years training with the soul goal of murdering the ever living hell out of jack whilst doubting himself the entire way.
His sister dies, he gets gutted and literally stitched together but manages to somehow stop jack in the end.
His family either dead or in endless torture, and the world about to come to an end.
Theodore has superpowers, it's a superhero story after all. So he could qualify as Caster but he is too upfront for that. He only uses his fists and the terrain so that rules out Saber, Archer, Lancer. He doesn't have a mount he's known for so no rider. He does use stratedgy and underhandness, but I don't think, anymore at least, that that qualifies him for Assassin.
The only remaining of the seven is berserker, which might work with the single mindedness, but I also want to use extra classes here.
Ruler I thought worked at first, but I realized I was looking through hero worship glasses. He had too many regrets for ruler.
Alter ego, moon cancer, and Pretender are off the table.
Foreigner fits for all parahumans, what theo is, they get their powers from what is essentially an alien God after all. But I want this to be a bit more personalized and Foreigner focuses more on the alien than the actual person iirc.
The only other one is Avenger but... I'm unsure if Theodore truly fits with Avenger. He is kind, yes, hut he's also a person wrought with grief who dedicated much of his life to stop a mad man and, in the end, avenge all the people that died, including his sister. Hell, being the guy that remembers the fallen to keep going is a big character trait of his, but I'm unsure if that fits with Avenger.
Now, I know no modern servants. But considering powers exist and are being handed out publicly by a literal near God thing... you could say that magic is more powerful in the parahumans verse. I was also thinking Theodore would be the forefront of a combined servant, needing a few other spirits there to give him a boost so he can manifest.
Now, please ask me questions if you feel the need, but I want to know...
What class should Theodore be?
I'm thanking either Avenger or Berserker.

First, please note that this isn't to bash anyone's opinion. Feel free to bash mine, but don't touch the others. I genuinely don't understand what people find in such a trope and would appreciate an explanation.
Take Shigaraki from MHA, for example. The man was consistently losing his good minions and super weapons, but was given more and more by his master, and people seem to like him since he is training to become a bad guy... Why? When we get to his supposed arc, when he is taking on another major bad guy (Re-Destro), he wins because he suddenly can keep up with a physical-based superpower (for those who don't know, Shigaraki has a superpower that can corrode anything he touches. Re-Destro has a superpower that makes him stronger and faster based on stored stress) and because he unlocks an OP power that makes it impossible for anyone to touch him, as he no longer needs to touch any object. He didn't learn anything, he just got a freaking power, that's all! There is no culmination for his supposed training!
Next, we have Kylo Ren and the Inquisitors. They merely lose and lose again and again, and yet people speak about some hidden potential for either of them to be badass... Why? They all come out as spoiled, whiny brats who can't fight to save their lives. What tension is there in this? Or one of the main bad guys from the recent Acolyte show. I saw people praising this girl since she is in training and will become a badass one day... All I see is good guys refusing to put her down and win already.
I just don't get the "a bad guy in training" trope. It is beyond unbelievable, as the story bends out of its way so the good guys do not kill or defeat them, and it feels like the story is more artificially drawn out. Because, while I can sort of believe that a bad guy won't kill a good guy, as the bad guy wants to humiliate or punish, when good guys refuse to stop evil, it comes more as an asinine stupidity, as the lives of innocents depend on them.
Can someone explain to me why so many people like this trope?

Boys: Chase, Justin, Ripper, Topher
Girls: Anne Maria, Jasmine, MK
Episode 17: Holy MK-oly!
“Last time on Total Drama Action! It was every dude and dudette for themselves, as the teams were busted up. But that didn't stop the Gaffers from forming an alliance between themselves.”
“Chase wowed everybody with his fancy footwork during the first spy challenge and managed to save everybody with a bit of assistance from Jasmine.”
“The cast made it out of a fake exploding building, but failed to defuse some serious stink bombs, forcing them to de-stink in tomato juice baths. I love my job.”
“In the end, Topher and Chase got the fabulous reward - a trip to the local stinky cheese factory!”
"Will the former Grips manage to keep things together?" Chris asked as the screen split into a three-way, Justin against brown on the left, Anne Maria against orange in the middle, and Topher against red on the right. "Or will the Gaffers’ alliance self-destruct first?" The ex-Grips were replaced with a quarters split with MK and Chase on top against gold and purple; Ripper and Jasmine below against green and blue.
"All this on today's episode of Total! Drama! Action!"
(Theme Song)
The scene opened up at night as the three remaining girls exited the craft services tent with cheese in their arms.
"Wow, this is some fine gouda!" Anne Maria told Jasmine and MK after taking a bite out of a hunk of cheese. "I have to give thanks to Topher for gettin' me some."
"The gouda is nothing compared to the gruyère that Chase got me!" MK said before stuffing her mouth. “Your boyfriend needs to put my tastes into consideration.”
"You didn't even care about the gruyère until you tasted it," Anne Maria argued. "And if you diss Topher again, I'm ripping holes into your hat."
"You wouldn't dare!" MK countered with faux shock. "That hat means more to me than your weekly tans in the sun."
"That's enough out of you two!" Jasmine stopped the argument. “We are nearing the end of the game, and petty squabbles should be the last thing to think about right now!”
"Not my fault," Anne Maria scoffed. "Diminutive here doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut!"
The scene flashed to the guys’ trailer. "I got you your cheese, guys," Topher said as the camera cut to the inside, Ripper, Justin, and Chase seated in front of a table of cheese and Topher standing far away from them. "Now hurry up with eating them so I don't have to smell them for the rest of the night!"
“How were you able to handle the cheese factory if you can't stand the smell?” Ripper asked, taking a bite out of a chunk of swiss cheese.
“I brought nose plugs with me in order to make the trip tolerable to my scent,” Topher explained.
“Who knew a tour of a cheese factory could make you smell so bad?” Justin stated.
“Me and Topher took plenty of showers after coming back so we wouldn't have to deal with any complaining,” Chase said.
"One of the boys has to go next. Obviously," Anne Maria told MK and Jasmine as they brushed their teeth in the communal bathroom.
“They do outnumber us by just one, so we'll take your words into consideration,” Jasmine said.
"I hear you," MK said as she spat in the sink. "Guys are cutthroat."
The camera flashed to Chris getting a massage from what could be assumed to be Chef. "The views of the contestants of Total Drama Action do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this network or parent company. They may, but not necessarily," he said in a calm voice before chuckling.
The boys were shown sitting laying on their bunk beds. "Did everybody finish their cheese?" Topher asked the others. "I don't want the ladies to complain about our smell."
"Of course we did," Chase said. “We're not going to be the next Pepé le Pew.”
The camera flashed back to the girls as MK and Anne Maria laid on their beds while Jasmine stood next to the door.
"So what do you wanna do?" Jasmine asked Anne Maria.
"We need a plan," Anne Maria replied. "We have to vote off a boy and soon."
"That's more of a goal than a plan," Jasmine commented.
"That's not the goal," Anne Maria replied with a short laugh. "The goal is and will always be-"
"The million dollars," the three girls said at once.
“Good night, girls!” Jasmine waved them goodbye and exited the trailer in order to sleep on her tree.
The shot cut back outside, a chorus of crickets and frogs heard in the background as the camera panned up to the full moon and faded forward into the morning sun. A high-pitched scream heralded another scene change as Chef Hatchet was shown in a pink floral nightgown, tied up and dangling from a rope above a street.
"Let go of me already!" Topher demanded as Chase forcibly dragged him to where the rest of the cast had already gathered, all of them in their nightwear.
"Why'd we have to come all the way out here?" Chase asked as Topher removed his sleeping mask.
"And why's Chef dangling over there?" Anne Maria added, looking up at the tied-up man.
A short drumroll opened up a more engagingly dramatic muscial piece as the camera cut to what was obviously Chris McLean standing atop a nearby building in a familiar-looking cape and cowl. With a floodlight at his back and a rope around his waist, he dived gracefully off the roof. A 'flying' sound effect accompanied a shot of him swinging towards the camera, and he soon snatched Chef to freedom. The pair continued to swing upward thanks to the host's rope, but it soon reached its peak length. Chris' costume flew off him and the smiles faded from their faces as the rope snapped, and they fell to the street with a shout.
"I knew that bungee wouldn't hold!" Chris yelled angrily, his hair completely messed up as he stood up off of Chef. "That's what happens when production cheaps out! And now my hair is all mussed up!" Chef stood up beside him with a dazed expression.
"Excuse me," Topher interrupted indignantly, "but can you get to the point and tell us what's going on?"
"When! I! Feel! Like! It!" Chris answered angrily, getting in his face and smoothing part of his hair with each word. He paused for a moment afterward as he and Topher stared at one another. "And now," he finally said, "I feel like it!"
A soft but appropriately grand tune began to build as me made his next announcement. "Today's challenges are inspired by the superhero flick!"
"Today's challenges?" Jasmine repeated in disbelief.
"We haven't even brushed our teeth yet!" Chase added.
“Or eaten breakfast!” Ripper added as well.
"Why do you enjoy making us compete so early in the morning?" MK growled.
"Evil never sleeps," Chris countered matter-of-factly, "and neither will you! Besides, superheroes don't do the things of mere mortals! They have screaming ladies to rescue!" Chef was shown fanning himself in mock exhilaration as the host spoke.
"Actually, there are some superheroes and supervillains that are mere mortals," Ripper interrupted. "Owlman and Leader Brazil for the heroes, and Screwball and Full Deck for the villains. Those are just a couple of examples," he rattled off confidently. The camera suddenly pulled out to show the others staring at him questioningly, causing him to look at them and shrug. "What? The only things that I'm genuinely interested in reading are comic books."
"And how would you like it if you had to go toe-to-toe with any of those guys, hmm?" Chris asked pointedly, and got no answer in return. "Yeah, that's what I thought. There are three things intrinsic to all good superhero movies," he said as the music began again. "One: superheroes have super powers. Two: superheroes save people. And my personal favorite, three: superheroes wear tights. Which means," he said as Ripper, Anne Maria, Jasmine, and Justin watched, "you will all be wearing," he paused to laugh, "teensy-tiny tights!" The contestants immediately began to protest.
"Why are you all in your PJs?" Chris asked with a scowl. "Get dressed and meet me back on set at superhero speed. Which means, you should already be back here!" He laughed again before calling "And make sure to wear something that goes with brightly-hued spandex!"
The scene flashed to MK, Jasmine, and Chase walking together in the background. “With all the cheese that was given to us, I think I know which superhero I'm going to be,” Ripper told the three as he walked past them in the foreground.
Confessional: Ripper
"Cheese can build up a lot of muscle, which comes in handy if I want to punch anyone in the face should they cross me," Ripper told the confessional camera with a piece of cheese in his hand. “Plus, it's also part of dairy, and if I load up too much on dairy, I can create a smell that can ward off anybody," he snickered and swallowed his cheese.
Confessional: Chase
“I've always fantasized about being a superhero,” Chase confessed. “Just imagine me riding on my bike or skateboard and kicking butt with my karate skills. My preferred choice of weapon? A bo staff, but not a wooden one. Those tend to snap easily.”
Confessionals End
The shot moved to the former Grips, who were also walking together.
"I talked with Jasmine and MK about voting for the boys, you two not included," Anne Maria whispered to Topher and Justin.
"The Gaffers are in an alliance, possibly," Justin replied, "but with four boys and three girls currently here, me and Topher can talk to Ripper and Chase about voting for one of the girls. That way, they'll think that we'll be targeting the girls when instead, we're targeting them."
“I had no idea you could think that much,” Topher said in amazement.
“A near-death experience can change a man, Topher,” Justin reminded him. “Once you've lost everything, there's nothing left to lose except the money.”
Confessional: Topher
"I can kinda relate to Justin here," Topher said. "I thought a splinter and swollen eye would be damaging to me, but I managed to recover."
Confessional Ends
A tenser tune played over a long-distance shot of the film lot as the camera zoomed in on the cityscape in the top left beyond the amphitheatre, and the scene cut to the fully-clothed castmates standing between Chris, a line of sewing machines, and a few bins of cloth.
"For your first challenge," the host announced, "each of you will create your own superhero identity."
"Sweet!" Ripper smiled.
"You'll make your own superhero costume using nothing but your fertile imagination," Chris continued, seemingly on the brink laughter, "and tons of spandex!" A close-up of the bins of spandex rolls was shown before a beeping brought the camera's focus to a dump truck backing up to the host. It dumped a load of miscellaneous stuff on the ground, and Chris added "And some other junk! You'll be judged on originality and style of costume, how rocking your superpower is, and how cool your superhero name is! Top score wins an advantage in the next round and invincibility from tonight's elimination. Chef will, of course, play the supervillain, which let's face it, won't be much of a stretch."
A green-and-yellow circular logo of snake's head spun rapidly into the foreground, then retreated into a tilted still of what was obviously a costumed Chef Hatchet and tabby cat set against a background of radial green stripes. The big man was dressed head to toe in green spandex, with the same circular snake logo on his chest and a similarly-themed fanged cowl. The cat merely wore a simple green mask, and was bearing his front claws.
"Meet, Pythonicus!" the host announced. "And his sidekick kitty, Dander Boy! They will sabotage you at every turn." Dander Boy meowed and scratched the air.
"Any questions?" Chris asked as the footage cut back to him. All seven castmates rose their hands. "No? Perfect! Aaaannnd, action!"
"I call dibs on that one!" MK yelled immediately as she dashed towards a roll of red spandex.
"Hey, I wanted that!" Chase interrupted, going for the same roll.
Confessional: MK
"That color would have looked better on me," MK explained, "but I have to stay on Chase's good side if I want him to not suspect me."
Confessional Ends
"Okay, it's yours!" MK told Chase with a smile, relinquishing her grasp on the roll of red. Chase cast her a stunned glance, then turned and ran away.
The Pythonicus logo spun up through the screen again, and as it did a piece of music reminiscent of a cheesy 1960s superhero TV show. A montage began of the costumed supervillain interfering with the contestants' challenge, beginning with Jasmine as she carefully measured what looked to be a green shirt and tights on a table in front of the sewing machines. A quick-pan to the left showed Pythonicus lurking at the end of the row of sewing machines; he dropped Dander Boy, and the shot quick-panned back to Jasmine as the cat quickly tore her costume to shreds and jumped away.
Next was Chase after a quick logo transition as he lifted a beach ball out of the junk heap with a smile. Lurking just behind the tip of the heap, Pythonicus swiped the ball and Chase was shown gaping as the ball was popped in front of him.
Another logo transition, and the third person shown was MK as she fed her gray spandex through one of the sewing machines. Standing behind her, Pythonicus dropped a small scrap of pink onto the gray, and it was quickly sewed on. MK saw it immediately, and glared over her shoulder at the villain.
Anne Maria was fourth after yet another logo transition, and she had already compiled a silver colored blouse and pants. After carefully laying down an insignia consisting of a silver diamond on her shirt just right, she looked away for a second and Pythonicus flipped the insignia upside down. Anne Maria looked back with a sparkly golden cape in her hands and a small smile on her face that changed into a frown when she noticed what was flipped.
Fifth came Ripper after the now-usual transition effect, but he was just leaning against a sewing machine and idly picking his nose. Pythonicus was openly watching him nearby in an awkward pose, but after Ripper spent several moments ignoring the villain, he turned and walked away.
The last contestant shown was Topher. He was feeding blue spandex through one of the sewing machines. The camera panned down to show Pythonicus inserting a wire into the outlet the machine was plugged into, then back up to show Topher being electrocuted.
Another logo transitioned the scene back into the still shot of Pythonicus and Dander Boy, which held for a few seconds before the cheesy background music came to an end.
The scene flashed to a modeling runway set up along one of the streets of the fake city. The camera was centered on the curtain 'backstage', with the catwalk set up in front of it. To the left, it ran almost to the edge of the screen, and was flanked by various stage lights. And to the right it stopped short just in front of the judge's table, where the trio of Chris McLean, Pythonicus, and Dander Boy sat.
"Now wearing a superhero costume of his own design," Chris dramatically announced to a calm music track as the camera and a pair of spotlights focused in on the backstage curtain, "our first super-model!"
The curtain swung open to reveal Chase dressed in red spandex and a belt with a baseball bat attached to it. His chest bore no insignia, but his face did bare a happy grin.
The camera cut to the judges as Dander Boy shut off the music and Chris sighed. "State your name and superpower," he droned as Chase hopped up to the end of the catwalk.
"I'm Danger Dynamo," Chase said, "and I've got all the powers of an extreme daredevil!" He took his baseball and mimed hitting a baseball with it.
"You're serious?" Chris told him dryly. "How do you fight bad guys? By running bullheaded into them?"
"Not only do I have this bat and my acrobatic skills," Chase continued, "but I also use my trustworthy skateboard for transport. If I had one now, I'd be demonstrating it."
Chris furrowed his brow and made a mark on his clipboard. "Well that's worth a whole 5 points..."
Chase walked away just as Justin walked up to the end of the runway. The eye candy's costume had no spandex, but he had chopped logs attached to his head, arms, and legs by multiple ropes.
"Dude, you look ridiculous," Chris told him bluntly. "So just tell me what you can do."
"I am Timber Man!" Justin declared proudly, striking a pose against a golden background. "And my superpower is…" he threw a couple of wood chips out of his hands.
The camera quickly cut to Chris as the wood chips fell in front of him. “Seriously? Wood chips?”
“Oh, and I can float. And make fire as long as I've got matches. And I don't get too close to the flame,” Justin finished with a nervous look.
"Lame!" Chris said and wrote on his clipboard. "2 points. Next!"
Ripper was the next one as he ran up the runway with a paper crown on top of his head and his shirt taken off to show a drawing of a milk carton and a chunk of cheese. He posed confidently and said "I'm King Dairy, and with enough dairy products, I can cook up gas!" He took out four chunks of cheese and stuffed them into his mouth. After he did, he let out a burp and fart at the same time. “The king has just cut the cheese!”
The gassy cloud of the bully's fart flew over to Pythonicus's face, causing him to wail and scream “It burns!” before fainting to the ground.
"Impressive," Chris said as he and Dander Boy looked at the fallen cook. "Gross, but impressive. 7 points for King Dairy."
“Booyah!!” Ripper celebrated.
The scene flashed forward to Topher standing proudly at the end of the runway in his dark blue spandex and light blue cape. His insignia was of his own face.
"I am Frosty Man!" Topher declared. "My powers include water and ice, and I use them to put out fires and nefarious plots."
“Do you squirt ice and water out with your hands?” Chris asked.
“No, with this!” Topher responded before he took out a fire extinguisher and squeezed the foam out in front of him. “How ‘bout that?”
"Cool if you want to be a firefighter," Chris answered, "but kinda dull for a superpower! 6 points."
Topher shrugged and walked away.
MK was next in her gray spandex. A piece of rope was attached to her butt, and she had a black beanie that covered her eyes, but had holes cut into them so she could see. "I am Street Rat," she declared, "and nobody can stop me thanks to my brains, sleight of hand, and ability to not be detected!"
"Those are skills that you normally have," Chris commented. "Nothing new to me, but great costume. 4 points."
MK pursed her lips in annoyance, but walked away without further comment.
Another flash forward put Jasmine in front of the judges at the end of the catwalk. She was wearing green spandex with no insignia and had a coil of rope wrapped around her waist.
"Looking pretty cool there," Chris told the Australian girl. "What's your name and superpower?"
"The name's Amazonia," Jasmine announced, "and the only superpowers I need are determination, strength, and my ability to hogtie enemies with my rope."
"Not bad," Chris said as he jotted something down in his notes. "I'd prefer something a little flashier, but the intimidating factor works in your favor. 5 points!"
Jasmine walked back down the catwalk, and Anne Maria replaced her. Her costume consisted of her in her normal clothes, but recolored to be silver and was noticeably sparkled with glitter. She had her diamond insignia on her blouse, silver goggles on her eyes, and a golden cape on her back.
"And what are you supposed to be?" Chris wondered.
“Bling Girl is my name!” Anne Maria introduced. “I have indestructible hair powerful enough to beat bad guys into shape. I can also blind my foes with my hair spray and cause explosions with my perfume spills in order to ward them off. Plus, I can take them on with my fists and sharp nails.”
“Awesome! Your powers are spectacular and sure to knock anyone out of commission," Chris said with a wide grin as he marked down the score. "10 points."
"Umm, why does she get a perfect score?" MK wondered as she stepped up to the judge once more, still in her Street Rat costume. "Her powers just consist of her daily hobbies like mine."
"That's because your powers are less likely to attack villains," Chris told her. "Anne Maria's is more creative."
"If you're gonna complain some more, I have a way of handling that," Anne Maria told MK with a pointed glare.
"No thanks," MK shook her head. "I don't want my nostrils to be burned by your perfume."
"Man, I love this show!" Chris told the camera with a wink.
(Commercial Break)
The scene faded back in to a shot of several additional set pieces along the fake city street. To the far left was a fake burning building up on stilts, then a mattress laying in front of a twilit forest backdrop, then a fake skyscraper, and finally a large trampoline in front of another evening backdrop on the far right.
The camera zoom-panned to the right, showing a ladder beyond the trampoline and Chris and the cast nearby. "For your second challenge, we will be testing your super prowess." The shot focused in on Jasmine as she raised a concerned eyebrow.
Confessional: Jasmine
"Chris can't really expect us to have actual superpowers," Jasmine told the confessional, still in her Amazonia costume. "After all, we are still human beings. It's not like we were bitten by a radioactive spider or had our bodies struck with electricity!"
Confessional Ends
"You'll have to leap over a building in a single bound," Chris told the contestants, "using this trampoline from the set of the movie 'Trampoline Thunder 2'! Awesome flick," he flashed a thumbs-up at the camera. "You'll be judged on how far and how high you jump," he continued as the camera quick-panned to the diving board at the top of the ladder. "And please, properly time your landing as we wouldn't want you to land anywhere other than on this soft, cushy mattress." As he spoke, another quick-pan took the scene down to the mattress where Dander Boy was busy washing his paw. The background music rose dramatically as the camera zoomed in, and the villainous feline was sent flying by one of several errant springs that popped out of the mattress.
The contestants gaped in shock, and the host continued. "Our first and foremost priority at Total Drama Action is you safety and well-being," he told them before slowly breaking out into laughter. "Next, you'll have to save a woman falling from a building," Chris said as the shot moved over to the fake burning building. "The woman will be played by a sack of potatoes in a dress," he said as Pythonicus leaned out of the building's window holding said dressed-up sack. "Which will be a real catch for you guys," he quipped.
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Chris is one to talk," Anne Maria sniffed. "He probably had dinner with that thing!"
Confessional Ends
A brief clip of Chris and the potato sack in a dress was shown, the pair seemingly enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner as touching music played and the smiling host poured the sack a glass of wine.
"And finally," Chris said as the scene moved back to the challenge, "you'll walk across a power line during a meteor shower!" The camera panned past the burning building to a row of power lines with a few mattresses below them, and Pythonicus tossing a bowling ball in one hand. He tossed it casually, and it flew straight through a water tower causing the water inside to come gushing out.
"The person to finish the course with the best time will also win invincibility alongside Anne Maria!" Chris announced as the contestants turned their shocked looks back to him. "Anne Maria, you're up first. Ten seconds will be shaved off your time for winning the first round."
“Aw yeah!” Anne Maria stepped forward confidently.
Confessional: Topher
"I'm happy that Anne Maria won the first challenge and all," Topher said, "but I want either Chase or Ripper to win the second part. That way, we can vote out the non-immune player."
Confessional Ends
"Aaaand, action!" Chris announced with a stopwatch in his hand, a drumroll starting up the fast-paced music as the scene immediately flashed up to Anne Maria on top of the diving board.
With a quick glance downward, she did a cannonball off the board, landing in the center of the trampoline and bouncing back up like a shot. She continued to hold her legs close to her body as she spun through the air and over the top of the skyscraper, and landed on the mattress with a roll and got back to her running position.
"So far some impressive moves from Bling Girl," Chris narrated.
Anne Maria quickly ran to the 'burning building', but tripped and fell just short of where the potato sack fell.
"Looks like we're having real mashed potatoes tonight, eh Chef?" Chris taunted. "None of that powdered stuff."
"Not much of a shining diamond now!" MK teased.
"Nice quip," Chris told the girl.
The shot cut back over to Anne Maria at the electrical pole as she started to climb up it, the camera quickly moving to the top as she started trying to make her way across the wires. She dodged two bowling balls, but dodging the second put her in the path of a third that knocked her off the wires and onto one of the mattresses below.
"Looks like you didn't make it," Chris taunted.
Confessional: Anne Maria
"What is with those mattresses?" Anne Maria muttered until she noticed bugs crawling on her right arm. "Get off!" she snarled as she shook her arm in order to ward off the bugs.
Confessional Ends
"Ripper, you're up!" Chris called before the scene flashed up to Ripper looking down thoughtfully from the diving board.
"Don't mess up, Dairy King!" MK said dryly from below, catching the shirtless boy's attention. “You know what's at risk!"
Ripper frowned a bit. "That's King Dairy, Street Rat!" He turned his attention back to the diving board, and took a deep breath. "It's Ripper Time!"
He jumped off the board and hit the trampoline legs-first, and flew up into the sky. “Time to call upon dairy!!” Ripper brought out four pieces of cheese and ate them all, producing a fart and burp that soared him over the skyscraper and landed him onto the mattress below before running off again.
"King Dairy to the rescue!" Ripper shouted before hopping off at top speed towards the next building. Pythonicus laughed evilly and dropped the starch-filled damsel, but Ripper leapt up and grabbed the sack in his arms before it hit the ground. "There you go. Feel feel to praise King Dairy for a day's work," he said proudly as he put the sack down on the ground.
"Hurry it up, King! You're on the clock!" Chris called from the sidelines, a stopwatch in his hands.
Confessional: Jasmine
“Ripper's no Superman or anything, and his attitude could use a little work, but the man's got some sweet moves,” Jasmine commented.
Confessional Ends
The camera cut to Ripper's quick and bounding climb up the utility pole. He reached the top and looked down, but after the first bowling ball missed him, he got into action, missing the next two bowling balls entirely.
"C'mon, Pythonicus!" Chris told his supervillain assistant, who paused in mid-throw to glare back at him, then toss the bowling ball at the host instead. It hit Chris upside the head, earning a satisfied smile from MK who had been standing beside him. Unfortunately, she didn't notice the ball coming back down and was hit on the top of her head and knocked down. The two groaned in pain.
The shot cut back to Ripper as he flawlessly ran to the end of the power lines and jumped down, landing with a powerful thud on his feet.
"And King Dairy saves the day!" he declared victoriously.
"Never thought I'd say this, but," Chris said as he got back to his feet, face scuffed and hair well out-of-place, "nice work, King Dairy." He smiled and checked his stopwatch, adding "Made good time, too. 36 seconds!"
"I'd do better if there was an actual damsel," Ripper said with a smirk as he walked past the host and stopped next to MK. "Try and top that, Rat Face!"
"It's Street Rat!" MK told him. "And worse of all, you already know that!"
Confessional: MK
"Ripper is my biggest enemy on the show, but I do have to keep him around if it means gaining more votes or using him as a shield," MK admitted in the confessional trailer, still in her Street Rat costume.
Confessional Ends
"Next!" Chris called happily, his hair already fixed. The background music picked up in intensity as a montage began of the other five superheroes running the course, beginning with Street Rat MK sprinting towards the ladder and climbing up it; Frosty Man Topher looked down warily from the end of the diving board; Danger Dynamo Chase jumped off the board; and Amazonia Jasmine dived off the board.
The scene quick-panned down to the trampoline as Topher hit it, sprung back up, and hit the side of the skyscraper; Chase flew over the building with a flip; Jasmine soared over the skyscraper with her body spread out; and Timber Man Justin vaulted over the top with his limbs tucked in.
MK hit the mattress below at a roll and kept running, catching the sack of potatoes but tossing it aside just as quickly. Topher came up behind her and paused with his arms open wide, and after the potato sack landed, he set it down and took off.
Jasmine was shown working her way across the electrical wires, but one of the bowling balls took her off. Pythonicus grinned darkly and sent the next ball flying. It nearly hit Chase, but he was able to jump down to dodge it, then grab the wire and swing back up to keep going. Justin was next, but although he jumped and rolled over one bowling ball, he flubbed the landing, landed on the wire with his groin, and got electrocuted. He fell smoldering to the mattress below, and the intense music came to an end as Chris pressed the button on his stopwatch.
"While Danger Dynamo did a really good job," he told the castmates who had lined up in front of him once again, "he was still three seconds short of beating the record. The winner of the second challenge, and invincibility with Bling Girl is," he took out his clipboard as he dramatically announced "King Dairy!"
"Yes!" Ripper cheered. "I won the challenge!"
"Maybe you are cut out to be a superhero," MK told him before chuckling. “Maybe.”
"Hey, superheroes?" Chris interrupted, pinching his nose and waving his clipboard in front of his face. "You all smell super gross. Time to hit the showers, and decide who's gonna get kicked to the curb."
The footage skipped ahead to nightfall, the shot lingering on the cast trailers as Anne Maria exited from the girls'. As the scene cut inside, MK and Jasmine were shown discarding most of their costumes.
"Since Ripper is immune, there's no voting for him tonight," MK said.
“And we are not going to eliminate Chase at all,” Jasmine declared.
"So that leaves us with Justin and Topher," MK said.
“I think it'd be best if we vote-” Jasmine responded, only to be interrupted by a sharp rapping on a nearby window. Confused, the two girls went to investigate, and the scene cut back outside to show Ripper and Chase waiting below, the two of them out of costume.
"Did Anne Maria leave?" Chase wondered.
"Yes," MK said.
"Good. We have to talk about who to vote," Chase said.
"Well I figured we should get rid of Justin," Jasmine whispered. "I used to be on his team, and he wasn't the most helpful at the time."
"I don't really care about pretty boy, so he can go," Ripper spoke up.
"But I say that Topher's the bigger threat," MK interrupted. “He was able to beat Jasmine in the prehistoric challenge and won the reward alongside Chase in the spy challenge.”
"And plus, he did just join the game a few episodes ago," Chase added.
"I'm aware of those instances, but I remember Justin trying to use his looks to get out of doing the challenges!" Jasmine countered. "Topher hasn't done anything like that so far!"
"And taking down Topher in the finale would be similar to doing the same to Justin!" Ripper said.
MK groaned. "Chase, do you still want to vote off Topher?"
“Now that I think about it, gunning for Justin would be a better choice,” Chase admitted.
"If that's how it's gonna be, then I'll vote for Justin as well!" MK said in defeat. "Next time, we take out Topher. Got it?"
The other three nodded.
The scene flashed to outside the communal bathrooms just as Anne Maria opened the door and walked in to Justin and Topher with their lower bodies wrapped up in towels and hair for Topher.
"Hey boys!" Anne Maria said brightly. "I didn't expect you to be here."
"Yeah," Justin said while Anne Maria came over to them, "but we have to discuss our voting plans, and this was the best place to do it."
"Exactly. So we're going to vote for Chase tonight," Topher said. “He's one of the most athletic contestants here, and if we underestimate him, he could make it to the finale.”
"I got it. I don't want to vote for any of my girls today!" Anne Maria said happily.
"Good. We'll leave you to shower alone. See you at the ceremony!" Topher smiled and pecked Anne Maria on the cheek before he and Justin left the building.
Another flash transitioned the shot to a close-up of the guys' trailer. "Psst! Hey!" MK hissed at one of the windows in the guys' trailer from the bushes outside. "Anybody in there?"
It was Topher who answered, sliding the window open and looking out. “MK? What are you doing here?”
"I'm here to dish out the news!" MK whispered.
“And what could that be?” Topher wondered.
"Look, me, Chase, Ripper, and Jasmine are planning to vote for Justin tonight, but I know how to prevent that," MK grinned.
“Which is?” Topher raised an eyebrow.
"I'll vote alongside you guys," MK said. "Look, I know from a certain source that you, Justin, and Anne Maria are going to vote for Chase, and I want him gone too!"
“But isn't Chase in your alliance?” Topher asked. “Why do you want him gone?”
"Anne Maria and Ripper have immunity, Jasmine and Justin didn't do well this challenge, and we're not voting for ourselves," MK added.
"Alright, those are fair points," Topher considered, “but wouldn't your alliance smell something fishy if there are four votes to three?”
“I've already got that covered,” MK smirked. “Don't worry about it.”
“If you say so,” Topher shrugged and closed the window.
Confessional: Topher
“To be fair, my plan was to vote for the non-immune guy, but how did MK even know about what I said in the confessional?” Topher asked.
Confessional: MK
"I am loving my strategy of recording confessionals," MK sighed in satisfaction. "I told Chase that we should just ignore Ripper and Jasmine and vote for Topher for the sake of the game. In that daredevil's head, he thinks that Topher will get the most votes if Justin votes him off as well! Oh how wrong he is," she finished with a teasing nod.
Confessionals End
The post-confessional static faded directly into the Gilded Chris theme. All the standard fanfare and reverence towards the host came and went, and the man himself walked up to the amphitheater podium as the camera zoomed in on the ceremony.
"And now, we vote," Chris said with a dark grin. The castmates were shown voting briefly, the trio of Jasmine, Anne Maria, and MK on the top row above Ripper and Chase, while Justin and Topher sat in front.
"And, the Gilded Chris goes to...," Chris announced before Pythonicus descended upside-down on a rope from the ceiling, handed him the results, and was pulled back up. "Anne Maria, and...Ripper! MK, and...Jasmine!"
"And we're down to the final three," Chris announced as the tension rose in the background music. He paused as he held up the folded paper he'd been given, then said "Justin!"
"And finally...," Topher and Chase were shown looking worried in a split-screen, "Topher!" The blonde boy smiled victoriously as his half of the screen slid away, leaving only a very shocked Chase.
"What?!" Chase exclaimed in panic.
Confessional: MK
“If I don't want to look like a traitor to the others, then the best thing I could do is not vote for Chase,” MK confessed. “Besides, he already got the majority of the votes, so I voted for Topher.”
Confessional Ends
"But how?" Jasmine stammered. “I thought we were voting off Justin.”
"MK told me to vote for Topher. I thought that…" Chase said before turning to glare at MK. “You voted for me, didn't you?! I knew Millie was right about not trusting you!”
“Hey, I didn't vote for you at all,” MK denied. “My vote was for Topher along with yours.”
"Did you two vote for Chase?" Jasmine eyed Anne Maria and Justin.
“Yes, and Topher did as well,” Anne Maria confirmed. “We didn't want him to overpower us.”
“I thought that Justin would vote for Topher as well, but I was wrong,” Chase said in disappointment.
"Sorry, Danger Dynamo, but it's time for you to take the Walk of Shame," Chris announced.
“There's nothing left to do but accept my defeat,” Chase sighed.
It was the spinning logo of Pythonicus that transitioned the scene to the red carpet, the sad but reverent elimination music already playing as Jasmine, Ripper, and MK stood with Chase one last time.
“I'll miss you guys,” Chase told them. “And Ripper, I'm super sorry about Izzy's elimination.”
“I still can't understand it, but I'll let bygones be bygones since you're going home,” Ripper said.
"MK, you're annoying, but thankfully, you didn't vote for me," Chase said to her.
"My pleasure," MK replied pridefully.
“Jasmine, we haven't gotten many opportunities to talk to each other, but you've been pretty cool towards me. I hope you win,” Chase spoke.
"No promises, but okay," Jasmine agreed. "And give a hello to Millie for me."
"You bet. Well, see you later," Chase gave his goodbye and got into the limousine of losers. The door slammed shut, the limo sped off, and as Ripper and Jasmine waved, MK simply crossed her arms and smiled secretly.
The shot cut over to the stage where Chris McLean was leaning against his podium with a grin on his face. "They may not have seen that coming," he told the audience, "but you should see what's coming next time on Total! Drama! Action!"
(Roll the Credits)
(Bonus Clip)
Chase was leaning back in the seat of the losers' limousine. "Even though MK didn't do anything to cause my elimination, I still didn't see this coming," he said. "I thought I'd go all the way this season after being an early out last time, but I ended up as the merge boot. Guess I'm just too awesome for this game," he joked for a bit with a laugh. “I still have Millie as my girlfriend, and I should just find an alternative for getting money, but what should I do? Fast food worker? Nope. Babysitter? No way.” He mused for a bit until an idea came to him. “I got it! Not only will this make me some money, but I can also be famous doing it!”
Eva - 15th
Geoff - 15th
Izzy - RETURNED
Trent - 13th
Sky - 12th
Brick - 11th
Scott - 10th
Izzy - 9th
Millie - 8th
MERGE
Chase - 7th
Boys: Justin, Ripper, Topher
Girls: Anne Maria, Jasmine, MK

Comission for !
Sequel to this: https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/199fjx4/a4a_your_arch_nemesis_hugs_you_until_you_turn/
Like my stuff? Check out the archive!: https://www.reddit.com/talkingtalltales/comments/1bdfpxb/timerafts_script_archive/
Want a comish of yer own?: https://ko-fi.com/timeraft
After years as a supervillain, you've just completed your first battle... as a hero. It went well... you think? You can't really remember. All you know is that you're sitting in a car with Miracle, your former nemesis. She hasn't got a scratch on her, but you? Your head is throbbing. She wasn't even there before! How did the enemy get defeated? Did you take him out... or did she???
Dialogue in plain Text
Context in italics
context that changes the audio in bold italics
SFX in bold
Miracle is in her car applying an alcohol swab to a very scratched and bruised Dr. Skull.
Hey hey stop squirming. I gotta clean these scratches or you'll get like raptor rabies or something.
Hold. Still.
I don't get you at all. You fearlessly face your foes on the fields of fire, but you shrink away from a freaking alcohol swab.
I swear to Ra you're such a baby sometimes. How did I have so much trouble fighting you?
Stop. Squirming. Ughhh!
You know what? I know a cyberspell for this. Just hold still.
More robotic voice
ACTIVATE INVOKE DOT EXE
INVOKE FROM CATEGORY GODS: HATHOR DOT EXE TASK: HEALING CATEGORY 3: BRUISING AND ABRASION.
INITIALIZING
CASTING CYBERSPELL
magic and or cyber sounds
There, all healed up. You're lucky I charged my mana batteries a little before I came here ya big old baby. Hopefully I don't have to use any sci-magic again tonight.
Leans back in their seat and sighs
So, how's it feel? You just beat your first villain as a bonafide superhero. Feels pretty good doesn't it? Heroism is pretty exhilarating.
Oh come on you did a great job! Kraal might seem like a joke but he's a lot smarter than he seems! He's a real threat!
Hey don't downplay it! Sure he's no like big team up villain, but he's a big deal! You don't sleep on Kraal!
Beware Captain Kraal! The Cretaceous Killer! The last survivor of an ancient race of hyper-intelligent Raptors! He's waited 65 million years for revenge against humanity! Now he roams the clouds as the number three sky pirate in the western hemisphere! Only the mightiest heroes dare oppose his prehistoric super science and deadly rapier skills!
Er uh that's what the papers say anyways.
Seriously though the first time I fought him he nearly killed me!
Oh you better believe it. He almost put Miracle in the ground.
He shot me with his Cro-Magnetizer and devolved me into a Cro-Magnon woman/man which removed my genetic enhancements, cyborg implants, and the voices in my head! I was in trouble man, without them I'm just a really crappy sorceresorceress. Plus I wasn't used to thinking with a caveman brain. They're not really dumber than modern man but they're a little overstimulating because of how hyper aware they are.
It was fun being really buff though.
Bloodshadow had to bail me out from that one. And boy do they make sure I never forget about that. I had to cosign on their motorbike loan. You have no idea how much that hurt my credit score.
So all things considered I gotta say you did pretty darn good out there.
Sure yeah he captured you and locked you in a death trap on his laser Zeppelin, but you gotta realize that's par for the course. I mean like how many times did you capture me when you were a villain? Forty? Sixty?
It's like practically the job of a superhero to get captured in act II. And then You escape at the start of act III in time for the big dramatic showdown. Typical hero stuff. You've seen it a million times.
You were in a real pickle. But you got out no problem.
Why are you acting like you don't remember all this?
Listener bitterly complains about being rescued.
Oh oh my God! You don't remember, do you! You got banged up when the Zeppelin crashed! That explains why you're all grumpy. You think I won the fight for you don't you?
Well I didn't! I didn't save you at all, by the time I got there you'd won!
You'd cobbled together some kind of Macgyver machine thing to break out of the death trap and then duked it out with him in deadly hand-to-hand combat! Real swashbuckler shit. I'm told you said something really good like

“Time for you to go the way of the dinosaurs Captain Kraal!”
Lines like that are the best part of the job.
Oooh oooh y'know what I would have said?
“Despite all your science Kraal you're still just a birdbrain!”
Laughs then realizes the listener isn't laughing with them.
Because um y'know dinosaurs are related to birds and stuff. It's a play on that.
Fuck you! I'm funny!
Uh Yeah and then you smashed his face into the control panel!
Crashing the Zeppelin into the baseball diamond (Single handedly saving our season by the way) the explosion pushed you and him out of the cockpit and you grappled with him in the outfield. The players ganged up on him with you. It was awesome.
By the time I got there you had just KOd him with a left hook.
You've got a good left hook. I'm literally invincible but whenever you hit me with it, well I felt it the next day. You're stronger than you think. A lot stronger.
It was a hell of a thing, to see you beating up somebody other than me for once. Not gonna lie I felt a little catharsis.
Everyone was always “why do you have so much trouble with some rando scientist!?” Well now they know.
So I landed, you turned towards me, babbled something about ice cream and passed out in my arms.
I decided to sneak you out before the press show’d up. I know how camera shy you are.
Ice cream does sound pretty good to be honest. You wanna stop at like Wendy's or something?
That's beside the point. You won! You saved the city!
I think, what was his plan anyways?
Woah that's brilliant! Good thing you were there to stop him! I don't know what we'd have done if he'd been able to take control over the world's ibuprofen supply. It would be worse than that time he got ahold of the Time Raft, went back in time and teamed up with Al Capone to steal the Eiffel tower.
You’re pretty good at this hero stuff. Honestly I'm a little envious. Apparently they want to have you on the Morty Korgman show next week. I've never made it there.
I mean I'm funny! I'm good on TV and I'm hot! I'd be a great guest! But nooooooo.
Laughs
You know why I wanted to turn you good so badly? It's because you're a normal person. You prove that anybody can do incredible things, and I love that.
Like I mean look at me alright? I’m just some goober that stumbled into superpowers. When I give that silly “anybody can be a hero” speech it always falls a little flat coming from me. But you? You live that shit everyday!
The city is going to love you!
Oh hey I've been workshopping a superhero costume for you.
Rustles papers
I'm thinking sorta civvie style. Maybe like a jacket over a T-shirt and cargo pants. And the tshirt can have your logo on it? What do you think?
Alright I'll work on it a bit more. You gotta have a costume though. It's part of the whole bit.
Have you trademarked your logo yet? You're gonna want to. Once you get popular people are gonna be selling merch and you should get your cut.
Hey if somebody is going to make money off your heroism it should be you. I can hook you up with my merch guy if you want.
So how would you rate the hero experience so far? On like a scale of one to ten?
Really just a Six?

I guess that's not too bad. Would Ice cream bring it up to seven?
6.5?
Hmmm I guess I can live with that for now.
Trust me it grows on you. Being good just feels good y'know? You'll understand sooner or later. You project the image of a brave and kind person long enough and eventually you grow into it.
Oh you can't tell me that saving the city didn't feel at least a little good?
Not even a little little?
Was that a smile I just saw?
Uh oh, looks like mean ol Dr.Skull is starting to like being a hero. Will wonders never cease?
Come on, let's get some ice cream. Then we can play Mario Kart or something.
Who's your main in Mario kart? I usually just pick Mario bu-
Listener asks why they want to hang out.
Hey I don't have a lot of friends alright? So sue me if I want to hang out. That was my secret ulterior motive for turning you good, I need a buddy. And you and me? We go way back. Even if it's just as enemies.
I'm so incredibly lonely. Like I'm talking Hallmark protagonist lonely here. So you gotta hang out with me or I'll cry.
I'll do it, don't test me. I'm capable of terrible terrible things.
Fake crying
Are we not friends? But we've been through so much. I thought I meant something to you????? Why do you hate me??
Laughs.
That's right buddy l can cry on command. And you better watch yourself because I'll do it again.
Come on, let's go to Wendy's and try that new orange frosty they got. I just got my merch check so it's my treat. Then we'll go back to the lab and just chill. You've had a hell of a day.
Car starts.
-30-

Comission for u/thewickedqueen !
Sequel to this: https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/199fjx4/a4a_your_arch_nemesis_hugs_you_until_you_turn/
Like my stuff? Check out the archive!: https://www.reddit.com/talkingtalltales/comments/1bdfpxb/timerafts_script_archive/
Want a comish of yer own?: https://ko-fi.com/timeraft
After years as a supervillain, you've just completed your first battle... as a hero. It went well... you think? You can't really remember. All you know is that you're sitting in a car with Miracle, your former nemesis. She hasn't got a scratch on her, but you? Your head is throbbing. She wasn't even there before! How did the enemy get defeated? Did you take him out... or did she???
Dialogue in plain Text
Context in italics
context that changes the audio in bold italics
SFX in bold
Miracle is in her car applying an alcohol swab to a very scratched and bruised Dr. Skull.
Hey hey stop squirming. I gotta clean these scratches or you'll get like raptor rabies or something.
Hold. Still.
I don't get you at all. You fearlessly face your foes on the fields of fire, but you shrink away from a freaking alcohol swab.
I swear to Ra you're such a baby sometimes. How did I have so much trouble fighting you?
Stop. Squirming. Ughhh!
You know what? I know a cyberspell for this. Just hold still.
More robotic voice
ACTIVATE INVOKE DOT EXE
INVOKE FROM CATEGORY GODS: HATHOR DOT EXE TASK: HEALING CATEGORY 3: BRUISING AND ABRASION.
INITIALIZING
CASTING CYBERSPELL
magic and or cyber sounds
There, all healed up. You're lucky I charged my mana batteries a little before I came here ya big old baby. Hopefully I don't have to use any sci-magic again tonight.
Leans back in their seat and sighs
So, how's it feel? You just beat your first villain as a bonafide superhero. Feels pretty good doesn't it? Heroism is pretty exhilarating.
Oh come on you did a great job! Kraal might seem like a joke but he's a lot smarter than he seems! He's a real threat!
Hey don't downplay it! Sure he's no like big team up villain, but he's a big deal! You don't sleep on Kraal!
Beware Captain Kraal! The Cretaceous Killer! The last survivor of an ancient race of hyper-intelligent Raptors! He's waited 65 million years for revenge against humanity! Now he roams the clouds as the number three sky pirate in the western hemisphere! Only the mightiest heroes dare oppose his prehistoric super science and deadly rapier skills!
Er uh that's what the papers say anyways.
Seriously though the first time I fought him he nearly killed me!
Oh you better believe it. He almost put Miracle in the ground.
He shot me with his Cro-Magnetizer and devolved me into a Cro-Magnon woman/man which removed my genetic enhancements, cyborg implants, and the voices in my head! I was in trouble man, without them I'm just a really crappy sorceresorceress. Plus I wasn't used to thinking with a caveman brain. They're not really dumber than modern man but they're a little overstimulating because of how hyper aware they are.
It was fun being really buff though.
Bloodshadow had to bail me out from that one. And boy do they make sure I never forget about that. I had to cosign on their motorbike loan. You have no idea how much that hurt my credit score.
So all things considered I gotta say you did pretty darn good out there.
Sure yeah he captured you and locked you in a death trap on his laser Zeppelin, but you gotta realize that's par for the course. I mean like how many times did you capture me when you were a villain? Forty? Sixty?
It's like practically the job of a superhero to get captured in act II. And then You escape at the start of act III in time for the big dramatic showdown. Typical hero stuff. You've seen it a million times.
You were in a real pickle. But you got out no problem.
Why are you acting like you don't remember all this?
Listener bitterly complains about being rescued.
Oh oh my God! You don't remember, do you! You got banged up when the Zeppelin crashed! That explains why you're all grumpy. You think I won the fight for you don't you?
Well I didn't! I didn't save you at all, by the time I got there you'd won!
You'd cobbled together some kind of Macgyver machine thing to break out of the death trap and then duked it out with him in deadly hand-to-hand combat! Real swashbuckler shit. I'm told you said something really good like

“Time for you to go the way of the dinosaurs Captain Kraal!”
Lines like that are the best part of the job.
Oooh oooh y'know what I would have said?
“Despite all your science Kraal you're still just a birdbrain!”
Laughs then realizes the listener isn't laughing with them.
Because um y'know dinosaurs are related to birds and stuff. It's a play on that.
Fuck you! I'm funny!
Uh Yeah and then you smashed his face into the control panel!
Crashing the Zeppelin into the baseball diamond (Single handedly saving our season by the way) the explosion pushed you and him out of the cockpit and you grappled with him in the outfield. The players ganged up on him with you. It was awesome.
By the time I got there you had just KOd him with a left hook.
You've got a good left hook. I'm literally invincible but whenever you hit me with it, well I felt it the next day. You're stronger than you think. A lot stronger.
It was a hell of a thing, to see you beating up somebody other than me for once. Not gonna lie I felt a little catharsis.
Everyone was always “why do you have so much trouble with some rando scientist!?” Well now they know.
So I landed, you turned towards me, babbled something about ice cream and passed out in my arms.
I decided to sneak you out before the press show’d up. I know how camera shy you are.
Ice cream does sound pretty good to be honest. You wanna stop at like Wendy's or something?
That's beside the point. You won! You saved the city!
I think, what was his plan anyways?
Woah that's brilliant! Good thing you were there to stop him! I don't know what we'd have done if he'd been able to take control over the world's ibuprofen supply. It would be worse than that time he got ahold of the Time Raft, went back in time and teamed up with Al Capone to steal the Eiffel tower.
You’re pretty good at this hero stuff. Honestly I'm a little envious. Apparently they want to have you on the Morty Korgman show next week. I've never made it there.
I mean I'm funny! I'm good on TV and I'm hot! I'd be a great guest! But nooooooo.
Laughs
You know why I wanted to turn you good so badly? It's because you're a normal person. You prove that anybody can do incredible things, and I love that.
Like I mean look at me alright? I’m just some goober that stumbled into superpowers. When I give that silly “anybody can be a hero” speech it always falls a little flat coming from me. But you? You live that shit everyday!
The city is going to love you!
Oh hey I've been workshopping a superhero costume for you.
Rustles papers
I'm thinking sorta civvie style. Maybe like a jacket over a T-shirt and cargo pants. And the tshirt can have your logo on it? What do you think?
Alright I'll work on it a bit more. You gotta have a costume though. It's part of the whole bit.
Have you trademarked your logo yet? You're gonna want to. Once you get popular people are gonna be selling merch and you should get your cut.
Hey if somebody is going to make money off your heroism it should be you. I can hook you up with my merch guy if you want.
So how would you rate the hero experience so far? On like a scale of one to ten?
Really just a Six?

I guess that's not too bad. Would Ice cream bring it up to seven?
6.5?
Hmmm I guess I can live with that for now.
Trust me it grows on you. Being good just feels good y'know? You'll understand sooner or later. You project the image of a brave and kind person long enough and eventually you grow into it.
Oh you can't tell me that saving the city didn't feel at least a little good?
Not even a little little?
Was that a smile I just saw?
Uh oh, looks like mean ol Dr.Skull is starting to like being a hero. Will wonders never cease?
Come on, let's get some ice cream. Then we can play Mario Kart or something.
Who's your main in Mario kart? I usually just pick Mario bu-
Listener asks why they want to hang out.
Hey I don't have a lot of friends alright? So sue me if I want to hang out. That was my secret ulterior motive for turning you good, I need a buddy. And you and me? We go way back. Even if it's just as enemies.
I'm so incredibly lonely. Like I'm talking Hallmark protagonist lonely here. So you gotta hang out with me or I'll cry.
I'll do it, don't test me. I'm capable of terrible terrible things.
Fake crying
Are we not friends? But we've been through so much. I thought I meant something to you????? Why do you hate me??
Laughs.
That's right buddy l can cry on command. And you better watch yourself because I'll do it again.
Come on, let's go to Wendy's and try that new orange frosty they got. I just got my merch check so it's my treat. Then we'll go back to the lab and just chill. You've had a hell of a day.
Car starts.
-30-

Hello!
If you look at my post history from a long time ago, I tried a no fap streak A LONG TIME ago, but after 2 weeks I failed. And what did I do? Accept I did it but strive to go even longer next time and hopefully even stop all together? No. I just pathetically “gave up” I went back instantly, as if I had achieved nothing. This was a period I have for like 8 months? Longer? I lost count honestly, I’m 17 now, this addiction started at 14 and have learned its negatives when I was 16.
Y’know what the worst part is? I STILL looked at this community, I STILL watched those no fap and motivational videos. I knew EXACTLY what this self destructive habit was doing to me. Yet for some reason, I chose to keep looking away and become complacent. I developed this doomer mentality of: “Well I tried. Guess I’ll be a cuck forever ha ha” yet I STILL watched those videos because deep down I knew this was very, very wrong and wanted to change but I just had no spark and no energy to do so. Heck one time I even gave advice on here. How the hell can I preach when I don’t even practice the methods? I usually did every day or every 2 days with every so speradic breaks, the longest being 7 days when we were on family holiday and my and my parents room in the hotel was essentially connected with no door, just a archway of sorts. Before coming back and continuing the loop. Heck I became so lazy I even didn’t bother to update the counter on here. I think it said 248 days? despite that not being the case at all. And yes, I already done it for 14 days now but I just noticed my shift in perspective today that I first started practicing
But then one day while scrolling at 3am (of course it was that hour) (another bad habit of mine) When a 3am thought came to me: “Wait, Why am I self pitying myself and deluding myself into not doing this? Get a grip, stop thinking and take action damitt! End the Cycle! END. THE. ADDICTION. Stop letting take over you and controlling your life, pull yourself by your bootstraps!” and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think this thought before and brushed it aside. But the next day, my friend wanted to hang out and I suggested the gym as I haven’t been in a month, he agreed. Best decision I ever made. Something about that day gave me that spark I so desperately needed for so long and FINALLY took this seriously again.
It’s been 2 weeks now. It’s never been this long. And I suppose for any of you still struggling I wanted to first tell my story. Now I will explain how I escaped, note how I didn’t say how YOU should escape because it’s different for everyone. I realized this recently, it’s part of me that has matured and I didn’t realize that there was only 1 method to this. That may have been one factor as to why I originally quit… but I’m not gonna blame others post for my stupid decisions. That’s immature.
Anyway, I changed what I do on a day to day basis. I hang out with my friends more, I go to the gym more often (I had a membership before but didn’t use it much) and even planning to start meditating. Overall I just have a much more positive mindset on life and able to strive to do more things which helps quell the “come on, just one more time” thoughts. The only thing I want to do in the near future is get a job. To be truthful I haven’t been too great with this side of my life but I still go to college so I plan to go freshen up my VERY outdated cv with some college career advisors soon. Oh and get a girlfriend one day… But I want to self improve more before turning this into a thought into active searching….. This was my biggest mistake last time, all I did was stop fapping, I didn’t do anything else, I was still always thinking about it which eventually caused me to do it again. But now? Doesn’t cross my mind too much, Heck I haven’t visited this sub for a month and barely even think about fapping at all now.
I am already noticing the benefits. When I see a girl I’m not JUST thinking about her peach and cherries. I notice things I paid no mind to before like their face, smile and personality.
Before I end this post of all. I do want to share some minor critiques I have with some of the aspects of the sub and I urge not to engage and participate in. The first thing is the counter in general. The whole idea is stupid. I sorta get the intention but it falls on its face flat. It gets you constantly think about no fap which in an ironic sense gets your mind to think about it more. Just think about it. Replace fapping with alcohol or smoking. If you count the days it gives you mind an excuse due to your celebratory attitude: “Look you done 14 days, you done soooooo well, come on, you deserve it, watch some “material” you “know” it makes you feel good” I know this because those were my exact thoughts long ago. Hell I even made a whole ass post for every day as if I was achieving world peace, I mean I say it’s been around 2 weeks But I don’t remember to count the exact dat and I’m all the better for it.
The one that makes me even more irritated is treating it as some sort of superpower and you’re going to become the “ultra alpha male sigma” just by not fapping. Like no. That’s just a mindset of someone coping because they got nothing better going on with their lives. Plenty of people DON’T FAP. You’re just a recovering addict. It’s just a good thing to do that you combine with other good habits to become an all around better human being, It’d be like saying a previous alcoholic is a god. You see how stupid that sounds now? He just turned from addict into a functioning member or society. Fapping is also an addiction so it works the same way.
To anyone still reading this far: Thank you for listening me ramble on for basically a school’s essay worth. I needed to get this out somewhere but my family and friends don’t really about the addiction so I’m telling strangers on reddit instead 😅 I might Check reddit for the next day or two to see if this comment gets any upvotes or comments (Not like I’m expecting much LOL. My most popular post only had 34 upvotes 😂) but this still took a hour to write on a mobile touchscreen. Pain. Literally my fingers are all cramped 😂 However after a few days I will go back to not coming here much so porn is not at the front of my mind and can focus on the other aspects in my life. And with that, I end this post 😂 (Oh yeah, just one tiny footnote, I probably won’t POST on this sub again UNLESS something major happens like getting a girlfriend, that probably won’t happen for a little while though so don’t get your hopes up😂 who knows though I guess? Life is full of surprises, I could meet the one tomorrow, okay seriously my phone is getting low and hot so imma go before it dies, bye!)

A relentless drumbeat filled the silence of the night as rain pelted the windshield of a dark Toyota Tocama truck. The vehicle sat idling in the shadows of a deserted alley in the heart of New Orleans, and its occupants huddled inside, seeking shelter from the storm that raged outside.
In the driver's seat, a bald, dark-skinned African American man with a baseball hat pulled low over his eyes, DeAndre, also known as just D, stared out into the darkness. His hands rested on the lower part of the steering wheel while he leaned back in his chair with a bored look. He was dressed in a hoodie, the fabric damp from the rain that had lightly dampened it during his brief time outside.
"More of those damn monsters popped up just outside the city near Lexington," D suddenly spoke up, trying to dispel the awkward silence. "They're all over the place now."
His partner, a pale-skinned man named Mason with dark brown hair, shifted in his seat beside him. He was wearing a North Face jacket, the material glistening with raindrops in the dim light of the street lamps. He tapped his hand against the car door, one of the few nervous tics he indulged in before getting into a big operation.
"Yeah, I know," Mason replied in an equally derisive voice. "DHS thinks they're reproducing like crazy because they don't got any natural predators on the East Coast."
D let out a humorless sound that echoed in the confines of the truck. "No shit," he said, shaking his head. "All the nasty shit that'll kill you is either down south or on the West Coast. What do we got up here? Fuckin' black bears?"
A chuckle left Mason’s mouth as he adjusted the ballistic vest that spelled the words U.S. MARSHALL in big, bold yellow letters. "Maybe we should import some of those West Coast mountain lions," he suggested, only half-joking. "Let them loose in the countryside and see how long these monsters last."
“I actually remember hearing a story about some crazy fucker down in Texas using a mountain lion to hunt hogs,” D said as the rain continued to patter against the windshield. “Dude would just let it loose, and it’d just drag a full-grown hog back for him.”
Mason raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Damn, that's wild," he said, shaking his head. "But I guess when you're dealing with a hog infestation, you gotta get creative."
"Creative is one word for it. Insane is another." D snorted as his eyes remained fixed on the road ahead
They lapsed into silence once more, the gravity of their situation settling over them like a heavy blanket. They were waiting for their mark, a nondescript white van belonging to the local mob and a solitary dark gray luxury sedan carrying a lieutenant. Other units were on standby, ready to swoop in at a moment's notice, but for now, it was just the two of them sitting in a truck on a rainy night, watching and waiting.
"You know what really gets me, though?" Mason said, breaking the silence. "It's not just these monsters we gotta worry about. It's all the other shit that's been popping up lately. Elves, goblins, orcs... even magic humans or whatever."
D sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "Tell me about it. It's like something out of that one movie with Will Smith in it. Except all the magic can level an entire block, and it isn’t rare."
"You talking about bright?" Mason asked, huffed in amusement when D snapped his finger and pointed at him in affirmation. "But ya, you right. They're popping up all over the place. Every agency and their mom from Fed to county are trying to round ‘em up. But it's like playing whack-a-mole. You snag one and find out there’s five more bolting around the corner."
D nodded, his expression grim. "Doesn't help that the organized crime and fuck, even gangs are in on it.” He growled in annoyance. “Absolutely hilarious that we might have to start worrying about fireball-slinging gangbangers and mobsters.”
Neither of them, in fact, found it humorous in any way as Mason facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face. The idea of magic-infused crime was a nightmare scenario that law enforcement organizations across the country were scrambling to contain. Intelligence reports revealed a disturbing trend: magical beings from the other side of the rift were harbored by criminal elements in exchange for their services and knowledge. These otherworldly entities would work for the criminal underworld, using their arcane abilities to further illegal activities or, even worse, teach their arts to Earth-native criminals.
It was a development that sent shockwaves through the law enforcement community. The prospect of facing off against criminals wielding supernatural powers was alarming, to say the least. Fireball-slinging gangbangers and mobsters with the ability to level city blocks were no longer the stuff of fantasy - they were becoming a terrifying reality.
The president didn’t even have to issue an executive order, or was one resisted by any level of government when one came. Every agency, from the federal level down to the smallest county sheriff's office, had mobilized to get a lid on the situation. Task forces were formed, special units were trained, and new protocols were implemented to deal with the unique challenges of magical crime.
But it was proving to be a far more difficult task than anyone had anticipated. The magical beings were elusive, able to blend in with human society in ways that made them nearly impossible to detect. They could alter their appearance, change into animals, and in rare cases, some were even able to simply vanish when cornered.
Even more concerning was the fact that these beings were sharing their knowledge with human criminals. The idea of street gangs and organized crime syndicates having access to arcane abilities was a chilling prospect. It threatened to tip the balance of power in the criminal underworld, giving rise to a new breed of superpowered outlaws.
D and Mason sat in their truck, the weight of back-to-back raids, shootouts, and arrests over the past 6 months were taking its toll. They had seen firsthand the devastation that could be wrought by just one rogue magic user from a few weeks ago. A bolt of strange energies ripped through a police cruiser, killing both officers in the blink of an eye. The thought of facing an entire criminal network infused with such powers was almost too much to bear.
"You know, I signed up to take down gangbangers, drug dealers, and mafiosos," Mike started in a low voice that said he didn’t quite believe what he was about to say next. "I never thought I'd be going up against fucking… wizards and shit."
A dark and depreciating laugh left D’s mouth as his hand rubbed his smooth head under his hat. The world had truly made a deranged turn somewhere. He was already under the impression they were living in an unhinged clown world after 2020, but it appeared the universe decided to drive the clown car off the cliff entirely.
"I don’t anyone expected some knife-eared shitter straight out of Lord of the Rings to walk up and point his finger at something and zap it." D continued, rubbing his eyes trying to dispel the headache that was forming. “But we gotta deal with, because if we don't…”
He trailed off, the implication clear. If they failed, the consequences would be catastrophic if the criminal underworld gained a foothold in the arcane arts. The very fabric of society could unravel, plunging the world into a chaos the likes of which had never been seen.
The radio suddenly crackled to life, the helicopter that has been trailing the target vehicles gave situation report. "All units, target vehicles spotted at the intersection of Jefferson and 5th. White utility van and gray luxury sedan, matching the BOLO. They're heading southbound on Jefferson, moving fast. Over."
D and Mason immediately snapped to attention, their postures shifting from relaxed to high alert in a split second. This was the moment they had been waiting for, the culmination of months of hard work and sleepless nights.
"This is Unit 3, roger that on the target vehicles. We're moving to tail. Over." D's voice was calm and controlled as he relayed the information, but the tension in his shoulders betrayed his heightened state of readiness.
Mason was already in motion, reaching into the back of the truck to retrieve their tactical gear. He grabbed two short-barreled AR-15s, specially modified for close-quarters engagements, and began the process of prepping them for action.
As he worked, Mason couldn't help but shake his head at the surreal nature of their situation. "This is some bullshit…" he said, his voice tinged with irritation. "I never imagined I'd be gearing up to take down a bunch of literal sorcerers aided and abetted by fuckin’ mobsters."
A snort left D’s mouth as his eyes fixed on the road ahead as the engine roared to life. "Welcome to New Orleans, brother. Weird shit always happens in New Orleans."
Mason barked out a laugh, the sound harsh and bitter in the confines of the truck. "Yeah, what are they gonna have me saving next? A princess in a castle? What other goddamn fairy tale fucks is gonna pop up in this hell hole and turn it into their own personal magic kingdom?"
The radio crackled again, the voice of dispatch filtering through the static. "Unit 3, be advised. ICE teams and SWAT are in position at the target warehouse. They're ready to breach when you initiate the arrest."
D keyed the mic and responded immediately. "Roger that. We're tailing the target vehicles now, about two blocks behind. Looks like they're heading towards the warehouse. We'll box them in on your signal. Over."
As they navigated the rain-slicked streets, Mason couldn't help but appreciate the irony of the situation. Here they were, U.S. Marshals, the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency, teaming up with ICE, an organization tasked with border security and immigration control, to take down a bunch of magical illegals and mobsters. It was like a bad joke with a punchline that nobody wanted to hear.
But there was no time for philosophical musings. The target vehicles were in sight, the white utility van and gray luxury sedan moving through traffic rather quickly.
Maintaining a discreet distance, D’s eyes never leave the vehicles ahead. Mason, meanwhile, finished prepping the rifles before the helicopter orchestrating the entire operation came back over the radio. "All units, target vehicles are approaching the warehouse. It looks like they're slowing down and preparing to pull in. Get ready to intercept. Over."
Mason sucked in a deep breath to ready himself while D's grip tightened on the steering wheel as he watched the target vehicles slow down, their turn signals blinking in the rain-soaked night. "This is Unit 3, copy that. We're moving into position for the intercept. Over." D responded in a calm voice that betrayed the tension he felt.
The radio crackled again, the voice of the helicopter operator filling the truck. "All units, SWAT, and the ICE teams are ready to breach. Box those vehicles in and give the signal. Over."
As if orchestrated by a brilliant conductor, multiple unmarked trucks and SUVs converged on two vehicles in different directions. When the target vehicles made the turn into the warehouse compound, D and the other Marshals seemingly made eye contact and gunned their engines. All of the vehicles surged forward with a roar.
"All units, this is Unit 3. We're initiating the stop. ICE teams, breach now! Over." D's voice was loud and clear over the radio, the signal for the carefully orchestrated danc to begin.
Tires squealed as D angled the truck directly at the luxury sedan and slammed into its front. Simultaneously, 4 other Marshals' units converged from the sides, their vehicles screeching to a halt mere inches from the target vehicles or slamming into them directly.
Then, chaos erupted.
"U.S. Marshal Service!! Exit the vehicles with your hands up!" D's voice boomed across the compound as he and Mason leaped from the truck, rifles pointing at the figures in the sedan as they rushed it.
As soon as D's voice echoed across the compound, the luxury sedan's engine roared to life, its tires screeching against the wet pavement as it suddenly threw itself into reverse. The driver was clearly not ready to surrender as he slammed on the gas and sent the vehicle careening backwards, smashing into the white van behind it with a deafening crunch.
The impact caused the white van to rock on its suspension as its occupants were thrown about inside. The side door of the van flew open, and a group of disoriented people tumbled out, their bodies hitting the ground hard as they scrambled to regain their footing.
"Hands!! Show me your fuckin’ hands!!" Another marshal from a different unit rushed forward. His rifle raised as he sprinted towards the driver's side of the sedan, and in an act of pure aggression, the marshal smashed the barrel of his weapon against the window, causing the glass to shatter.
But the sedan's occupants were not going down without a fight. The driver and passenger quickly drew their weapons, but D and Mason were faster. A staccato of harsh cracks left their short-barreled rifles and split the night. Giant fireballs from the muzzle flashes illuminated the rain-soaked darkness as the marshals and the suspects exchanged a furious volley of lead.
Suddenly, the rear door on the sedan's driver's side flew open. A figure then flew out, moving with a speed and grace that seemed almost inhuman. In a blur of motion, the individual closed the distance between himself and another marshal as his hand flashed out to reveal the glint of a long, wicked-looking blade.
But before anyone could react, the blade found its mark, piercing through the marshal's ballistic vest as if it were nothing more than tissue. The marshal screamed in agony, his voice rising above the cacophony of gunfire and shouting as the blade sank deep into his flesh.
A multitude of weapon-mounted flashlights snapped to the two wrestling on the ground, illuminated by harsh, strobing glares. It was then that the marshals found the one wielding the blade was no ordinary person but one of those pointy-eared Elves from Ohio.
The marshals were not about to let this act of brutality go unanswered. As the elf tried to withdraw his blade from the skewered marshal, he was met with a hail of gunfire. Bullets tore through his flesh, sending him stumbling backward and thrashing about as his blood mingled with the rain.
The scene was one of utter pandemonium, the air filled with the sounds of yelling and gunfire from both the vehicles and the warehouses. Using the mayhem that erupted around the sedan and the wounded marshal, the group that had tumbled out of the white van took the opportunity to make their getaway. Desperate to escape the clutches of the law, they scrambled to their feet and made a frantic dash away from the scene.
"STOP!! U.S. MARSHALS!" Mason’s voice boomed over the cacophony of gunfire and the pounding of the rain. But his words were lost in the wind as the suspects fled, their feet pounding against the wet pavement.
Other marshals and D were already in motion as they all took off into a dead sprint with their rifles tucked tight. "STOP, YOU STUPID BITCH!!" D yelled.
Mason joined the pursuit and passed a marshal who had caught one of the slower suspects and started wrestling with them on the ground. Taking a quick look over his shoulder, Mason couldn’t help but still be shocked to see something straight out of a video game: a small 4-foot-tall Goblin wriggling around and trashing as the larger marshal tried to control it.
While 5 marshals broke off from the main assault group to chase the desperately fleeing suspects behind them, the rest of the marshals descended upon them quickly and violently. Commands were yelled out, and weapons were pointed as the doors of both the Sedan and van yanked open the doors. The remaining occupants, who hadn't been riddled by bullets by the initial volley of gunfire, were dragged out and forced to the ground with their faces pressing into the cold, wet asphalt.
D, Mason, and the other marshals continued to chase the fleeing suspects. With the sound of their steady and trained breathing techniques and the clinking of their equipment, they pushed their bodies to the limit as they jumped fences and turned sharp corners.
In the background, the sound of police sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder with each passing second as backup forces swarmed the area. It was the sign that the operation had gone to hell in a handbasket. The carefully orchestrated plan unraveled in the face of otherworldly abilities and magic. It became increasingly clear that they needed to transition to Plan B and use overwhelming force.
As the chasing marshals sprinted through the maze of warehouses and buildings, D caught a glimpse of the suspects darting into an alley. "There!" he shouted, adjusting his course to follow.
The narrow alley was poorly lit, the shadows seeming to reach out and grab at them as they ran. The suspects were just ahead, their forms barely visible in the gloom as they wove between the buildings with desperate speed.
Suddenly, D saw the suspects they were chasing burst through the door of a single-story office building. The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass echoed through the alley as they piled through the small opening.
D and another marshal slowed to a jog, and their weapons snapped up to take aim at the empty doorway in case any dipshit thought to be cute and shove a gun through it or… fling a spell. While the marshals moved cautiously, they couldn’t help but think that notion to be completely absurd, but here they were. With their hearts pounding in their chests, they moved quickly to make entry.
The first marshal took point, his rifle leading the way as he crossed the threshold. But as soon as his weapon breached the entrance, a massive hand belonging to some big fuckin’ dude shot out from the darkness, gripping the barrel with inhuman strength.
Before the marshal could react, a startled cry was let out as the Marshal was yanked violently inside.
***
If you'd like to read unreleased chapters and drafts, head on over to my Patreon
You can find the art of the characters Here
Join our Tactical Operations Center on Discord: https://discord.gg/qDnQfg4EX3
[First] [Previous] [Next]

Hello everyone 👋🏼. 23 year old guy here and I have an RP prompt that I am in the mood for.
THE IDEA
In the future in a world similar to our own where superheroes and supervillians aren't common but definitely exist, fear in the possession of superpowers grew so with that fear came the passing of the law
"Those with superpowers will be deemed an enemy of the state"
This leads to all with superpowers being sent to secure prison where they will be kept
THE PRISON
I am looking for a secure prison where it is near impossible to break out of. Since it is a prison for superpowers it needs to be made for superheroes. I think the best approach for that is we have each of the cells being made specific for each prisoner.
We can discuss in DMs how each of our chats cells work. Speaking of characters
CHARACTERS
My character will be a superhero who is generally well liked but that doesn't matter because anyone with superpowers needs to go to this prison. He is a young adult superhero, he is cool, cocky but does the right thing.
As for your character I would like for them to also be a young adult superhero like my character and out characters can form a friendshio somehow with the very VERY limited interaction that they would have.
What we do is up to us. Escape, rely on each other to cope in the prison etc.
We will both play guards a d others required for the others character.
PARTNER REQUIREMENTS
Be over 18
Be semi lit (2-3 paragraphs)
Be invested
Show some enthusiasm
Talk OOC
Help plot and world build
DM me if your interested.

Hello everyone 👋🏼. 23 year old guy here and I have an RP prompt that I am in the mood for.
THE IDEA
In the future in a world similar to our own where superheroes and supervillians aren't common but definitely exist, fear in the possession of superpowers grew so with that fear came the passing of the law
"Those with superpowers will be deemed an enemy of the state"
This leads to all with superpowers being sent to secure prison where they will be kept
THE PRISON
I am looking for a secure prison where it is near impossible to break out of. Since it is a prison for superpowers it needs to be made for superheroes. I think the best approach for that is we have each of the cells being made specific for each prisoner.
We can discuss in DMs how each of our chats cells work. Speaking of characters
CHARACTERS
My character will be a superhero who is generally well liked but that doesn't matter because anyone with superpowers needs to go to this prison. He is a young adult superhero, he is cool, cocky but does the right thing.
As for your character I would like for them to also be a young adult superhero like my character and out characters can form a friendshio somehow with the very VERY limited interaction that they would have.
What we do is up to us. Escape, rely on each other to cope in the prison etc.
We will both play guards a d others required for the others character.
PARTNER REQUIREMENTS
Be over 18
Be semi lit (2-3 paragraphs)
Be invested
Show some enthusiasm
Talk OOC
Help plot and world build
DM me if your interested.

Okay, it wasn't a vision, but I really couldn't get the idea out of my head.
I, like most people, don't really like Thor 4, aka TLaT, officially Thor: Love and Thunder. I guess my problems with it aren't necessarily that different to the standard complaints: Korg was awful, Gorr really didn't belong in that kind of film and the Guardians were pointless. However, I also hate Frigga's speech in Avengers: Endgame and I think almost all of TLaT's issues come down to the fact that among the many, many dogshit aspects of that awful, awful speech is that it's a really sophisticated character assassination of Thor.
TLaT didn't fail because no-one was restraining Waititi, it failed because there was no story left for Thor to have any more. Ragnarok worked because it was tied so intimately to a very strong character design: the boy who can't wait to be king that learns he wasn't deserving of it. Yeah, Thor: the Dark World didn't quite nail the second stage, which is "you shouldn't want to be king", but the natural conclusion of the initial design is the subject of Ragnarok, i.e. "he becomes king but is now forced to, unwillingly". The concept of a second Thor trilogy should've been "Thor: king of the gods" and what that really means. Now it's got to be, if they want to save the character, "what happens when those with great power decide to follow their own selfish needs above all else?". Alas, Gorr is sort of the perfect bad guy for that but it's been wasted.
Basically, if you like Frigga's speech, you're really not going to like this idea. It's below the line.
After thousands of years, Valkyrie's father Sigurd repents for betraying his liege Bor by sleeping with Bor's valkyries, the Disir, one of whom would consequently become Valkyrie's mother. This causes the curse that Valkyrie and Frigga placed on Bor to be undone, freeing Bor, Thor's grandfather, from thousands of years of wandering the world as a snowstorm. Accompanied by his newly repentant housecarl, Bor confronts Valkyrie and chargers her with treason, directly asking, "Was this always your plan? To depose the House of Bor so that you could rule instead? Or was it merely luck?" During the confrontation, the Disir bring a struggling Sif forwards, their appearance causing all of Valkyrie's Asgardian allies to shrink -- the non-Asgardians, eg. Korg, charge forwards at this point and die horribly at the Disir's hands for their trouble. Bor barely pays attention but says to Valkyrie, "If I have to break her mind, you will pay for Frigga's crimes by joining your mother in my service."
Thor and Love, meanwhile, are having some sort of fathedaughter adventure on a distant planet. It really does not matter what they're doing because the point is that everything is fun and happy until Hercules shows up to try and kill Thor, per his father's orders. So, this leads to a nice confrontation, but Thor is suddenly distracted by visions of Valkyrie, who is clearly undergoing her painful transformation into the fourth Disir. Love has to save Thor several times as Thor learns from Valkyrie that to restore Sif's mind he must go on a fetch quest. Thor isn't having a word of this, however, and tells Love to take them to Earth with the bifrost. So, they port out, just as Hercules tries to deliver the final blow, causing him to hit the ground and shatter the planet.
Thor and Love arrive in New Asgard, to find it empty. They explore a bit and are separated when Thor finds Sif, whose mind clearly was broken, and Sigurd. Thor has no idea who Sigurd is, but Sigurd knows Thor and tells him, "Bor seeks your daughter" leaving it ambiguous whether this is Sigurd relaying Bor's wishes or Sigurd betraying Bor again. Thor immediately runs to find Love but he's too late: Bor has already subdued her. Naturally, Thor jumps into the attack but is beaten away easily with a single blow, "The only way to stop me, is to become who you were, are and always will be". Thor gets up, wiping away blood, "I know who I am, I'm Love's father" and throws Mjolnir at Bor, who catches it easily, "I know, but you are not worthy of this weapon" and throws it back at Thor, who tries to catch it but is instead driven back many miles clearly unable to push Mjolnir off him until his back comes to rest against a cliff.
Bor transforms into snow in order to cross the distance and reappears with (the still restrained) Love to taunt Thor, "It is time that Love learns that this family is so much more than blood; and if her father won't teach her, her great-grandfather will." Bor then strikes the onrushing Stormbreaker, which Thor has summoned to him, aside, "Remember what I said" as he disappears into snow once again. Mjolnir falls away and Thor leaps... through a flurry of snow, landing back in New Asgard where poor Sif is trying to use one of the tourist traps (based on the pool from Age of Ultron) while muttering the madness mantra "Find our daughter". Concerned but dismissing the specifics as a symptom of Sif's derangement, Thor conducts a finding spell to locate Love -- a ritual which we intercut with Hercules performing a very similar one -- and with slight hesitation, he takes Sif along with him... and discovers Asgard born anew.
Holding Sif by her waist, Thor jumps into the floating castle, landing on an exposed and shadowed lower balcony. Sif seems to recognise it and Thor repeatedly has to stop her from wandering off as they penetrate deeper into Asgard. As Thor explores, they hear the distant sounds of fighting, which Thor begins to hurry towards, but he gets turned around and comes across a golden chamber of a tree of golden apples. He's then surprised by Idunn, whom Thor recognises. They struggle a bit (Sif doesn't help at allm being distracted by a painting of Idunn with her guards), with Thor wondering what's driven Idunn, to betray her people to which Idunn replies, "Look around! You betrayed us!" Thor retorts, "Asgard's a people!" and overpowers Idunn, who shouts for her guards. They rush in, first capturing Sif and then trying to restrain Thor. Thor defeats them fairly easily, so the one restraining Sif jumps in and tackles Thor through a wall... and they fall several storeys through the roof of the hall, where they discover the fight Thor & Sif heard before: Hercules! Sif jumps down after them... and starts tending for the guard, who was knocked out by the fall.
Hercules sees Thor and immediately tries to fight him. Initially the Asgardians assist Thor but then Idunn's guards jump down and start fighting Thor, too. It's chaos! Idunn arrives and revives the guard that fell. She takes one look around and yells at the top of her lungs for someone to sound the alarm, which duly is. This causes Bor to appear with the Disir. Again, the fear of the Disir is apparent to all the Asgardians, even Sif, with one exception: Thor. Disir!Valkyrie pushes Thor up against a wall, easily overpowering him. Thor recognises her and though compelled to serve Bor, Valkyrie manages to stress, "I told you how to save her, what are you doing?" while Bor watches Hercules try to struggle with the other three Disir. Once Hercules is subdued Bor has Thor, Sif and Hercules placed before him, on their knees.
Bor lifts Hercules' head up by the chin, "Ah, a faithful son. Tell me, do you know what it means to be the son of Zeus?" Thor is surprised by this description, which Bor notices, preventing Hercules from answering, "You disappoint me again, Thor. A grandson of mine unable to recognise the enemies he creates for himself? This careless arrogance your mother has left in you... I wish I could rip it from your being, but..." Bor helps Sif to her feet, "you see what happens when I try to undo Frigga's handiwork." Bor turns to the gathered Asgardians, "Thor will be released when poor Sif's mind has healed. I will send Sigurd as an emissary to Olympus: let's see if Zeus cares that we have his son." The Disir take Thor and Hercules to the dungeons.
While stuck in the dungeons, Thor and Hercules talk things out, with Thor revealing to Hercules that Sif's mind will never heal unless he undertakes the quest. Nevertheless it is Sif that shows up to free Thor, obviously still not remotely lucid, at which point Hercules decides to team up with Thor, "Our parents... are not always right" he concludes. The three of them go to Disir!Valkyrie to try and free Love, but all Valkyrie can say is "Sigurd's mission went poorly; perhaps when the Olympians come, an opportunity will present itself". Resigned, Thor, Hercules and Sif undertake the quest to heal Sif.
The quest naturally poses several challenges that force Thor to confront how he has been living and how he's tried to raise Love in order to get the items Valkyrie suggested. Ultimately Thor has to sacrifice his mechanical eye to secure the final ingredient, but the cost of doing so is wisdom... causing Thor to realise that Frigga has manipulated his entire life to avert his destiny as king of Asgard because... at this point we have two choices. Firstly, we can try and redeem Frigga and say that her ambition was to prevent Thor's destiny as the Rune King: a being of such power, it could only cripple his sense of individuality or drive him to ignoble causes. Secondly, we can say that Frigga resented being forced to marry Odin by Bor, and she sought to end the House of Bor's rule over Asgard... and that's why she joined forces with Valkyrie to curse Bor in the first place. Assuming that this is the second film of a trilogy, the Rune King is a bad idea and Frigga's character ought to be re-evaluated by taking the second option. If, however, it is to be the last Thor film, the Rune King would be a better option. In the second option, Thor gains the power to take on Bor and restore Sif's mind by accepting the Thorforce (formerly the Odinoforce), instead of ignoring its existence. Both options have the side effect of undoing Frigga's final spell... causing Asgard to forget the marriage of Thor and Sif, and the existence of their daughter Þrúðr (Idunn's guard).
The difference between the two options with Frigga is sort of a can't fight fate thing... Frigga's actions make it necessary for Thor to become the Rune King, which is the fate she was trying to avert. In the second case, she manipulates history to make everyone forget the marriage. This also explains the inconsistent backstory of Thor and Loki in the MCU... how is Thor 1500 years old if his brother whom he was eight together with was born in the 900s? Answer: Frigga's spell. Why does Frigga weave the spell? Simply out of the spirit of revenge... which ties back into what Hercules is doing in this plot and also what Bor does with the Disir curse.
Obviously Thor must now go back to Asgard for the final confrontation with Bor. Regardless of which option is taken with Frigga, the major stakes here are that Bor's decisions are just fundamentally bad. Sigurd and the Disir betrayed Bor, sure, but what good reason did Bor have to bind his Valkyries to a virginity pact in the first place? And why try and provoke a war with the Olympians? Bor doesn't want to harm Thor, Love, Sif or Þrúðr and has only an interest in what he perceives as his dynastic welfare, but that doesn't mean that Bor's not a bad guy. If he's left in charge of Love's moral education and, indeed, Asgard as a whole, it's not going to lead to good outcomes. On the other hand, Bor's active motives are such that as long as Thor stops denying himself and denying his peoples' needs, he would stop fighting. In practice, this means that if Thor were to become king, Bor would accept his defeat. How would Bor recognise this? If Mjolnir comes to Thor. Or maybe Bor forces Thor to kill him, "If you let me live, they will always want me back, in their bones."
Presumably in the final part of the denouement Valkyrie expects Thor to stand aside so she can resume her reign again, but Thor doesn't. Conversation might be something like, "Asgard might be a people, but that doesn't mean it was right to leave them scrabbling in the dirt, clinging to the meanest existence, just because I didn't want the responsibility I'd spent five years ignoring. Be with your mother, let this crown burden you no longer: my grandfather, father and myself have taken so much from you." "And taking the crown from me isn't taking more?" "You enslaved me and forced me to fight for a madman. I got over it. You'll get over this."
Okay, so if that's the fifth film what would the sixth film be? Siege, probably. Either this is done with having a war with the Olympians or it's Val. Doesn't matter. Either way the theme of people putting their own ego over the common good is the basic idea... the war for the fall of Asgard is pure ego, either on Zeus or Val's part. The trick for Thor as part of this "what happens when those with great power decide to follow their own selfish needs above all else?" is definitely easier with Val as the bad guy, because you can do something on the theme of "why it is a good idea that the Avengers are for the status quo". There's a comic on this theme but I can't remember what it's called. Basically, Thor (or maybe Odin) decide that the Asgardians should start actively godding. The way I would take it is that if the Avengers aren't pro-status quo, there is no possibility of agency for people without superpowers -- it is right and proper that the rules the Avengers seek to uphold are not rules given from on high by the Avengers. King Thor would presumably be conflicted about deciding to do some godding, meaning he starts to implement his own moral theories rather than upholding those that already exist. Val attacks Asgard not because they're godding (because they aren't) but because they might be.
In the "Val attacks" scenario, Zeus just sends some Olympians to act as muscle for Val, with plausible deniability (so presumably those Olympians would be Ares and family), which pays off the Sigurd/Olympus plotline... which should theoretically be averted because of the fact Hercules is free, but we have already seen that MCU Zeus isn't going to let this shit go.
Other ideas that would be worth exploring are Dario Agger and Mangog. Agger is very easy to fit into a selfish needs thing. Mangog much less so. Agger, I think, could easily be combined with either the Olympus or Val plotline seeing as he's a minotaur CEO. The other one to mention would be Ulik. Agger, Mangog and Ulik are the big Thor characters that haven't been touched on so far and, if this fifth film idea above happened, still wouldn't be.

"We are called, summoned to appear before two pathways. On the one, we hear Messaien and the musical messages of peace. On the other, Gavreau and the musical messages of war. And again we choose. And again we must choose. Whose music will it be?"
full text >>> http://www.zemos98.org/controlsonoro/2008/03/09/the-sonic-weapon-of-vladimir-gavreau/

Lost Science” by Gerry Vassilatos Limited permission granted to use this material in other presentations. ISBN 0-932813-75-5 © 1999
SIGNALS
He listened and closed his eyes as the rolling waves of sound poured over and through his being. Thrilling, intoxicating, the hysteria of heaven, the enthralled and frightening flight of angels. Electrifying. Messaien’s organ music signaled messages of meaning, titanic foghorns ululating among dimly perceived near-worlds. Olivier Messaien, master composer of musical expressionism, used the ground thrumming tones of great Parisian cathedral organs to evoke sensations, which may only be called otherworldly. Masterfully macabre. Black foundations, blue pillars, and rainbow ceilings.
Sound, rhythm, and space. Ultra-chromatic chord frames, rising like rock walls from the black depths. And immense stellar crystallizations, radiating tonal perfumes through deep and black radiant space. Lovely and lyrically swooping melodies, the flight of birds through delicate limbs. And melodic lines, reaching up toward unknown depths of space, each had their foundation in ultra bass tones of rooted depth. The basso profunda of Messaien are the critical foundations, the strong vertical pillars of an immense architecture, which extends beyond performance walls. He scoured the deep and unreachable roots of worlds to hold his musical cathedrals together. Such majesty and grandeur of sound! Rich in the intelligence, which flooded and made the world, the musical currents and the atmosphere of tones. Fluidic music and meaning.
The most fundamental signals, which permeate this world, are inaudible. They not only surpass our hearing, but they undergird our being. Natural infrasounds rumble through experience daily. There manifestations are fortunately infrequent and incoherent. Infrasound is inaudible to human hearing, being of pitch below 15 cycles per second. The bottom human limit. The plynth. The foundation. Infrasound is not heard, it is felt. Infrasound holds a terrible secret in its silent roar.
Infrasound produces varied physiological sensations, which begin as vague “irritations”. At certain pitch, infrasound produces physical pressure. At specific low intensity, fear and disorientation. Nazi propaganda engineers methodically used infrasound to stir up the hostilities of crowds who were gathered to hear their madman. The results are historical nightmares.
At a very specific pitch, infrasound explodes matter. At others, infrasound incapacitates and kills. Organisms rupture in its blast. Sea creatures use this power to stun and kill prey.
The swelling bass tones of the cathedral seem as though they can burst the very pillars, which uphold the ancient vaults. Stained glass windows have been known to erupt in a shower of colored fragments from the organ’s basso profunda. Impulsed ultrabass tones … thunder. Somewhere in the almost inaudible roll of these basement sounds there was a devastating and fearful power.
THUNDER
As thunderous tones deepen, their power seemingly intensifies over frail barriers such as glass windows. Certain abrupt thunder peals often shatter windows into tiny fragments. In the apparent absence of thunderous tones we may observe the strong and continuous vibration of glass windowpanes during storms. A sudden eerie silence, and the window is shattered before our eyes. Natural phenomena are prodigious generators of infrasound. The potent distal effects produced when natural explosions occur produce legendary effects. When Krakatoa exploded, windows were shattered hundreds of miles away by the infrasonic wave. Wind was not the causative agent of these occurrences, as no wind was felt or detected. Seismographic stations registered the blast, and barometers measured the shockwaves. The “ringing” of both earth and atmosphere continued for hours. It is believed that infrasound actually formed the upper pitch of this natural volcanic explosion, tones unmeasurably deep forming the actual “central harmonic” of the event. The island of Krakatoa was literally lifted into orbit in the fatal blast. Brilliant sunsets followed for many years thereafter, the sad memorial of all the souls who perished.
The power of explosives, in shattering and devastating property, lies in two zones. The first zone is that with which we are principally familiar; the actual blast site, where chemically released gases and metal fragments push back everything in their perimeter. The second less familiar zone extends very much further from the blast site than can be imagined. It is in the powerful sonic wave, which expands outward that an equally destructive danger lies. Thick pressure walls of incredible momentum, inters paced with equally thick walls of reduced air pressure, travel far away from the blast site. The blast site is the small destructive zone by comparison. Few objects can survive this destructive tide.
Analysts contend that infrasound is composed of a very broad band of pitches. These tones of immense pressure and duration “accommodate” themselves when encountering resonant cavities. All such resonant cavities are “found and destroyed” when the proper pressure waves flow into their resonances. Rooms, halls, alleys, spaces among buildings, courtyard areas, cellars, subways, sewer chambers; all these burst open into flying fragments when infrasonic waves flood them. Infrasound is the cruel tonal giant, tearing open whatever it finds in its path.
Study reveals that the sudden shock wave of an explosion propels a complex infrasonic signal far beyond the shattered perimeter. Incoherent though such shockwaves may be, their destructive influence dissolves distant walls and windows seconds after the shrapnel has done its deadly work. Objects of all shapes, sizes, and compositions explode when the infrasonic impulse passes through their space. No shield can block infrasound. Physicists have studied the refuse, which remains after an explosive charge has been detonated. Few materials can maintain their integrity. Those objects, which manage to survive explosions, are noteworthy as infrasonic “resistors”. Screen reinforced concrete does not easily succumb to the infrasonic blasts of explosive charges.
EARTHQUAKE
The sound of Krakatoa exploding up into space, a vertical excess of one hundred miles, succeeded in blasting out windows at a thousand mile radius from the epicenter. Certain earthquake activities produce large and virtually insensate vertical displacements of the ground surface, in extreme instances amounting to a few feet per pulse. In this case, the ground becomes the surface of a drum, ringing out its deadly cadence at infrasonic pitch hours before the event. The ground undulates with infrasonic tones, an elasticity that eventually cracks under the heaving stress.
Ultra low pitch earthquake sounds are keenly felt by animals and sensitive humans. Quakes occur in distinct stages. Long before the final breaking release of built up earth tensions, there are numerous and succinct precursory shocks. Deep shocks produce strong infrasonic impulses up to the surface, the result of massive heaving ground strata. Certain animals (fish) actually can hear infrasonic precursors. Precursory shocks are silent, being inaudible in humans. Animals, however, react strongly to the sudden surface assault of infrasonic shocks by attempting escape from the area. Animals cannot locate the source and center of these infrasonic impulses, behaving in a pitiful display of circular frenzies. The careening motion of wild horses and other domestic animals indicates their fear and anxiety. Poor creatures, neither they nor we can escape the infrasonic source. Encounters with natural infrasound reveal their vast extent, covering hundreds of square miles of surface area.
Certain animals employ infrasound as weaponry. It has been known that certain whales are able to stun their prey with powerful blasts of inaudible sounds. Called “gunshots”, whales focus these powerful blasts at large squid and other fish to paralyze and catch them. In some instances, they have been known to burst their prey apart by tonal projection alone. Human experience with these inaudible blasts have been reported. The distress calls emitted by little beached whales was sufficient to push a veterinarian back several feet in the water. Others have experienced these pressure waves, reporting that their hands could not be brought close to the sinal area of small whales because of their inaudible acoustic projections.
Infrasonic shocks produce characteristic pressure effects on structures and organisms alike. The sensation flattens the body. It is as if one were struck with a solid invisible wall from which there is no escape. There are physiological effects as well. Anxiety, fear, extreme emotional distress, and mental incapacitation are all part of the unpleasant phenomenon. Notable among human exposures to quake-correlated infrasound is the precursory nausea, which many report. This strong sensation leaves its more sensitive victims helpless. Feeling the momentary deep motion of the ground strata beneath them, numerous individuals have been used to report these sensations in a bizarre earthquake “alarm system”. Unfortunately, physiological reaction to infrasound remains continuous, long after their irritating presence has ceased. The harmfully stimulating influence of infrasound renders physiology permeable and ultrasensitive to every available environmental sensation. The extreme irritability of infrasound victims has been noted.
Earthquake infrasound manifests only at intermittent intervals, producing drastic and sustained negative modifications of consciousness. The human organism continues to reel under intermittent infrasonic assault for numerous reasons. After less than a five-minute exposure to low intensity infrasound of 10 cycles per second, dizziness will last for hours. Infrasound of 12 cycles per second produces severe and long lasting nausea after a brief low intensity exposure.
FLOOD...
.... THE ABYSS
The Cold War was on. The United States alone held the dread secret. The most terrible weapon yet developed was the private property of one government. The mere existence of the atomic bomb was threat to nations whose motives were not entirely altruistic. Motivated, aggressive, and imperialistic, obtaining atomic bomb data was a priority for several nations. The only manner in which some nations obtained the secret was by stealing it. When Stalin’s science officers finally developed an atomic duplicate of the American bomb, pressure suddenly was placed upon every other European nation to achieve an equivalent or better device.
When one seeks to defend one’s borders, the consequences of releasing weapons of devastation to the world do not seem important. Weaponry is death-oriented by nature. But there are moral differences between weapons of defense and weapons of offense. Previous to this atomic proliferation, competing nations concentrated their weapons research on truly bizarre and equally deadly means for defending their national boundaries. A great variety of such deadly weapons were perfected in rapid succession. This included deadly variations and combinations of gas weaponry, pathogenic agents, and radiant weaponry. Stalin’s research teams investigated psychic powers as a possible means for destroying an enemy. Psychotronic warfare was devel­oped among numerous groups, both private and national, with measurable success. Information on some simpler psychotronic weapons has recently been obtained through an increasing process of Soviet disclosure.
In truth, the larger the weaponry the less safe the national boundaries truly were. While the superpowers concentrated their weapons development programs on mass-destructive nuclear weaponry, others focused on more practical conventions. The limited tactical warfare of small battlefields seemed a more immediate need. While developing their own atomic device, France sought defensive tactical weaponry on every possible technological front. Short-range weapons would best defend against a conventional national assault. But other systems were also sought; systems which, though non-nuclear, were equally invincible. As the great Frankish Knight, Charles “the Ham­mer” Martel repelled ruthless invaders from the medieval east, so a new ham­mer would be sought to defend France against possible new enemies from the east. Even as Charles Martel arose from obscurity, so this strange new “hammer” would arise in equal obscurity.
GAVREAU
The central research theme of Dr. Vladimir Gavreau was the development of remote controlled automatons and robotic devices. To this end he assembled a group of scientists in 1957. The group, including Marcel Miane, Henri Saul, and Raymond Comdat, successfully developed a great variety of ro­botic devices for industrial and military purposes. In the course of develop­ing mobile robots for use in battlefields and industrial fields, Dr. Gavreau and his staff made a strange and astounding observation, which, not only interrupted their work, but became their major research theme.
Housed in a large concrete building, the entire group periodically experienced a disconcerting nausea, which flooded the research facility. Day after day, for weeks at a time, the symptoms plagued the researchers. Called to inspect the situation, industrial examiners also fell victim to the malady. It was thought that the condition was caused by pathogens, a “building sick­ness”. No such agencies were ever biologically detected. Yet the condition prevailed. Research schedules now seriously interrupted, a complete exami­nation of the building was called.
The researchers noticed that the mysterious nauseations ceased when cer­tain laboratory windows were blocked. It was then assumed that “chemical gas emissions” of some kind were responsible for the malady, and so a thor­ough search of the building was undertaken. While no noxious fumes could be detected by any technical means, the source was finally traced by building engineers to an improperly installed motor-driven ventilator. The engineers at first thought that this motor might be emitting noxious fumes, possibly evaporated oils and lubricants. But no evaporated products were ever detected. It was found that the loosely poised low speed motor, poised in its cavernous duct of several stories, was developing “nauseating vibrations”.
The mystery magnified for Dr. Gavreau and his team, when they tried to measure the sound intensity and pitch. Failing to register any acoustic readings at all, the team doubted the assessment of the building engineers. Never­theless, closing the windows blocked the sense of nausea. In a step of bril­liant scientific reasoning, Gavreau and his colleagues realized that the sound with which they were dealing was so low in pitch that it could not register on any available microphonic detector. The data was costly to the crew.
They could not pursue the “search” for long time periods. During the very course of tracking the sound down, an accidental direct exposure rendered them all extremely ill for hours. When finally measured, it was found that a low intensity pitch of a fundamental 7 cycles per second was being produced. Furthermore, this infrasonic pitch was not one of great intensity ei­ther. It became obvious that the slow vibrating motor was activating an infra­sonic resonant mode in the large concrete duct. Operating as the vibrating “tongue” of an immense “organ pipe”, the rattling motor produced nauseat­ing infrasound. Coupled with the rest of the concrete building, a cavernous industrial enclosure, the vibrating air column formed a bizarre infrasonic “amplifier”.
Knowledge of this infrasonic configuration also explained why shutting the windows was mildly effective in “blocking the malady”. The windows altered the total resonant profile of the building, shifting the infrasonic pitch and intensity. Since this time, others have noted the personally damaging effects of such infrasonic generation in office buildings and industrial facili­ties. The nauseating effects of exposure to a low intensity natural or manmade infrasonic source is now well appreciated.
It has become a routine architectural procedure to seek out and alter any possible such resonant cavities. The sources often appear in older buildings, the result of construction rendered faulty by previous lack of this knowledge. All such “improper” architectural formats are modified by the additions of sound-blocking materials.
WHISTLES
Dr. Gavreau and his research team now carefully investigated the effects of their “infrasonic organ” at various intensity levels and pitch. Changing the spring tension on shock mounts, which held the fan motor, it was possible to change the pitch. Various infrasonic resonances were established throughout the large research building. Shutting the windows blocked most of the symptoms. When the window was again opened, however weak as the source was made, the team felt the nauseating effects once again. In the business of mili­tary research, Dr. Gavreau believed he had discovered a new and previously “unknown weapon” in these infrasounds. Aware of the natural explosives by which infrasonics are generated, Dr. Gavreau began to speculate on the ap­plication of infrasonics as a defense initiative. The haphazard explosive ef­fects of natural infrasound in thunderclaps were quite effective in demon­strating what an artificial “thunder-maker” could do. But, how could a thun­derclap be artificially generated in a compact system? These thoughts stimu­lated theoretical discussions on the possibility of producing coherent infrasound: an infrasonic “laser”.
The first devices Dr. Gavreau implemented were designed to imitate the “accident” which first made his research group aware of infrasonics. They designed real organ pipes of exceedingly great width and length. The first of these was six feet in diameter and seventy-five feet long. These designs were tested outdoors, securely propped against protective sound-absorbent walls. The investigators stood at a great distance. Two forms of these infrasonic organ pipes were built. The first utilized a drive piston, which pulsed the pipe output. The second utilized compressed air in a more conventional manner.
The main resonant frequency of these pipes occurred in the “range of death”, found to lie between three and seven cycles per second. These sounds could not be humanly heard, a distinct advantage for a defense system. The effects were felt however. The symptoms come on rapidly and unexpectedly, though the pipes were operating for a few seconds. Their pressure waves impacted against the entire body in a terrible and inescapable grip. The grip was a pressure which came in on one from all sides simultaneously, an enve­lope of death.
Next came the pain, dull infrasonic pressure against the eyes and ears. Then came a frightening manifestation on the material supports of the device itself. With sustained operation of the pipe, a sudden rumble rocked the area, nearly destroying the test building. Every pillar and joint of the massive struc­ture bolted and moved. One of the technicians managed to ignore the pain enough to shut down the power supply.
These experiments with infrasonics were as dangerous as those early investigations of nuclear energy. Dr. Gavreau and his associates were dangerously ill for nearly a day after these preliminary tests. These maladies were sustained for hours after the device was turned off. Infrasonic assaults on the body are the more lethal because they come with dreadful silence. The eye­sight of Dr. Gavreau and his fellow workers were affected for days. More dangerously were their internal organs affected: the heart, lungs, stomach, intestinal cavity were filled with continual painful spasms for an equal time period.
Musculature convulses, torques, and tears were the symptoms of infra­sonic exposure. All the resonant body cavities absorbed the self-destructive acoustic energy, and would have been torn apart had the power not been extinguished at that precise moment. The effectiveness of infrasound as a defense weapon of frightening power having been demonstrated “to satisfaction”, more questions were asked. After this dreadful accident, approaching the equipment once again was almost a fearful exercise. How powerful could the output of an infrasonic device be raised before even the operating engi­neers were affected?
With greatest caution and respect for the power with which they worked, Dr. Gavreau began recalculating all of his design parameters. He had grossly misjudged the power released by the pipes. He had, in fact, greatly lowered those calculated outputs for diagnostic purposes. Never had he imagined that these figures were actually far too great in the world of infrasound!
Empirical data being the only way to determine how infrasonic energy correlated with both biological and material effect, the tests were again attempted with a miniature power supply. First, the dimensions of these devices had to be greatly reduced. Their extreme length was objectionable. In order to provide absolutely safe control of the deadly blasts, several emergency cutoff switches were provided. These responded to the radiated infrasonic pressure wave. The intensity could be absolutely limited by use of automated barometric switches.
In an attempt to achieve more compact and controllable infrasound generators, Dr. Gavreau designed and tested special horns and “whistles” of vari­ous volumes. These were each remarkably simple flat circular resonant cavi­ties, having a side output duct. They were simply the large analogues of fog­horns and police whistles. These flat forms were volumetrically reduced in successive design stages because it was found that their output was far too great. The infrasonic foghorns could produce a frightening two kilowatts of infrasonic energy, at a pitch of one hundred fifty cycles per second.
The flat “police whistles” were more easily designed to required specifications. Their overall characteristics were quite simple to determine, a math­ematical formula being devised for the purpose. The whistle’s resonant pitch was found by dividing its diameter into a numerical constant of 51. Increas­ing the depth of the whistle effectively increased its amplitude. A whistle 1.3 meters in diameter produced an infrasonic pitch of 37 cycles per second. This form violently shook the walls of the entire laboratory complex, though its intensity was less than 2 watts infrasonic power.
DANGER
Not much amplitude is required for infrasound to produce physiological malady. Several researchers accidentally did themselves great harm when, by deliberate intent or accident, they succeeded in generating infrasonic vibrations. Tesla used vibrating platforms as an aid to vitality. He delighted in “toning the body” with vibrational platforms of his own design. Mounted on heavy rubber pads, these platforms were vibrated by simple motorized “eccentric” wheels.
Their mild use, for a minute, could be pleasantly stimulating. The effects invigorating the whole body for hours thereafter. Excessive use would produce grave illness however, excessive aggravations of the heart being the most dangerous aspect of the stimulation. The entire body “rang” for hours with an elevated heart rate and greatly stimulated blood pressure. The effects could be deadly.
In one historic instance, Samuel Clemens, Tesla’s close friend, refused to descend from the vibrating platform. Tesla was sorry he had allowed him to mount it. After repeated warnings, Tesla’s concern was drowned out by both the vibrating machine and Clemens’ jubilant exaltations and praises. Several more seconds and Clemens nearly soiled his white suit, the effects of infrasound being “duly recorded”.
Tesla often went to great lengths in describing the effects of infrasounds to newspaper reporters who, behind his back, scoffed at the notion that a “little sound” could effect such devastations. Yet, it was precisely with such a “little sound” that Tesla nearly brought down his laboratory on Houston Street. His compact infrasonic impulsers were terribly efficient. Tesla later designed and tested infrasonic impulse weapons capable of wrecking buildings and whole cities on command.
Walt Disney and his artists were once made seriously ill when a sound effect, intended for a short cartoon scene, was slowed down several times on a tape machine and amplified through a theater sound system. The original sound source was a soldering iron, whose buzzing 60-cycle tone was lowered five times to 12 cycles. This tone produced a lingering nausea in the crew, which lasted for days.
Physiology seems to remain paralyzed by infrasound. Infrasound stimu­lates middle ear disruptions, ruining organismic equilibrium. The effect is like severe and prolonged seasickness. Infrasound immobilizes its victims. Restoration to normal vitality requires several hours, or even days. Exposure to mild infrasound intensities produces illness, but increased intensities re­sult in death. Alarming responses to infrasound have been accurately recorded by military medical experts. Tolerances from 40 to 100 cycles per second have been recorded by military examiners. The results are sobering ones. As infrasonic pitches decrease, the deadly symptoms increase. Altered cardiac rhythms, with pulse rates rising to 40 percent of their rest values, are the precursors to other pre-lethal states. Mild nausea, giddiness, skin flushing, and body tingling occur at 100 cycles per second. Vertigo, anxiety, extreme fatigue, throat pressure, and respiratory dysfunction follow. Coughing, se­vere sternal pressure, choking, excessive salivation, extreme swallowing pains, inability to breathe, headache, and abdominal pain occur between 60 and 73 cycles per second. Post exposure fatigue is marked. Certain subjects contin­ued to cough for half an hour, while many continued the skin-flush manifes­tation for up to four hours.
Significant visual acuity decrements are noted when humans are exposed to infrasounds between 43 and 73 cycles per second. Intelligibility scores for persons exposed, fall to a low of 77 percent their normal scores. Spatial orientation becomes completely distorted. Muscular coordination and equilibrium falter considerably. Depressed manual dexterity and slurred speech have been noted before individuals blackout. Just before this point, a significant loss in intelligibility is noted.
The findings of Dr. Gavreau in the infrasonic range between 1 and 10 cycles per second are truly shocking. Lethal infrasonic pitch lies in the 7-cycle range. Small amplitude increases affect human behavior in this pitch range. Intellectual activity is first inhibited, blocked, and then destroyed. As the amplitude is increased, several disconcerting responses had been noted. These responses begin as complete neurological interference. The action of the medulla is physiologically blocked, its autonomic functions cease.
WATCHMEN
Infrasound clings to the ground, a phenomenon well known in the animal world. Female vocalizations and those of their young, take their traceable routes through the air. High-pitched sounds are aerial in nature. This makes females and young natural targets for predators. Low-pitched tones cling to the ground, being “guided” along the soil layers. Male vocalizations cannot be localized by predators. Male sounds “hug the ground”, diffusing out from their source. Some males rumble the ground with voice and hooves. These are communications signals, which they alone comprehend. .....
.....Such a war engine would be impossible to locate. None who saw its size would believe it to contain such a lethal power. Most would overlook the device completely. A flood of such devices, each emanating a peculiar highly modulated blend of infrasound, would be an unstoppable wall. Robotic tanks equipped with infrasonic generators could sweep an area with deadly infrasound, destroying all opponents to within a five mile radius. These ter­rible infrasonic weapons could easily be secured in drone jets, where aerial assaults could quickly and methodically waste any offensive approaching army.
Deterring would-be aerial attackers could be equally devastating for the offenders. Infrasonic beacons could sweep and scan the skies with a deadly accuracy. Infrasound passes through all matter with equal effectiveness, seek­ing out offenders with deadly consequence. The intensities which the Gavreau devices effectively broadcast into the environment are frightening. In these devices we see the perfection of phenomena, which never naturally occur in such dangerous intensities. This is why these weapons must be deployed by remote control, operating as automatons at great distances from their operators.
Weapons are made to defend, not to offend. In Gavreau’s own words: “There does not exist complete protection against infrasound. It is not ab­sorbed by ordinary matter, walls and chambers do not suffice to arrest it”. And so, once again, we stand at the crossroads. We are called, summoned to appear before two pathways. On the one, we hear Messaien and the musical messages of peace. On the other, Gavreau and the musical messages of war. And again we choose. And again we must choose. Whose music will it be?

Hi, I'm an Iraqi citizen, and I have been living in Türkiye for 5 years.
I would like to express my own personal opinion as an outsider.
I would also like to state that I am only a guest in this nation which became my home, and I have made sure to show a great deal of respect for this kind, great nation.
The people from my country who show poor attitude and manners are a disgrace and they should be jailed or deported. They do not represent everyone and I would like to note that the majority of Iraqis would personally punish them if they had the power. There is a great future ahead between Iraq and Türkiye, we are neighbors after all.
I have personally met a lot of Turkish citizens working in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces, who were very respectful and kind, they met me with smiles every time I talked with them. As for the Turks I've met in Türkiye, well it went even better. Thinking about those kind interactions has motivated me to make this post.
I would like to begin explaining the relationship between Turks and Atatürk.
It's like the Brits and Churchill. America and George Washington. Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew.
Atatürk is a great leader. The nation's hero. The one who painstakingly saves the day and accomplishes the miraculous things that everyone has been fighting for, where no one has the right to criticize him.
The one who sets up the entire nation for success decades and centuries later, and personally plays a role in defining the national character. Until the day he becomes distant history, then everyone suddenly has something to say against him.
I personally have massive respect and admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He was a great leader who saved Türkiye from an impending doom, and positioned it for great success in the 20th century by enhancing its relations with Europe and NATO. He modernized Türkiye and ,in few short decades, turned it upside down. He fought for women's rights, protected the children of the nation and greatly developed the nation's infrastructure.
He IS Türkiye. and Türkiye Is Atatürk.
I respect Türkiye and its highly educated population, all of them are great, capable people. Who, currently, run the 4th strongest nation in the world. Very nationalistic, as evident by the "Least nationalist Turk" memes. Who, even if divided, will die for their country any time a threat appears. People who respect the law and personally enforce it. Their blood is the Turkish flag after all.
It's beautiful, safe and clean cities that, in my opinion, at the very top of Europe and better than America. I don't like these kind of comparisons but the western media looks down on Türkiye when Türkiye is literally richer AND safer than the U.K. Türkiye is a great nation, and a world leader who has massive impact in the region. THE FASTEST growing nation for DEVELOPED countries: It's hard for developed countries to develop further but Türkiye's GDP (In purchase power) growth is unmatched. I personally don't know how they're doing it, neither does the IMF. It is happening though, so I guess we can just admit it and keep going.
Amazing nature that is certainly at the top, the historical lands and buildings that stretch everywhere. Every Turkish city reeks of exotic history and landsites. Also, the public transport system is generally one of the best in the world. I have never seen the need for a car, at least.
Türkiye definitely has problems, but every nation has problems. Especially during these times but its nothing that the Turks can't beat.
These were a fraction of the positives of Türkiye, and in 10-20 years everyone will talk about Türkiye in awe and admiration.
I want this post to be as realistic as possible so here is my opinion on a few of Türkiye's problems:
Secular Türkiye has a serious problem, that they're isolating themselves further from the world. America has recently shown that being angry at the majority of the population, who are in America's case the Christian conservatives (In Türkiye's case the "Islamists"), will lead to some pretty bad results. I assure you, if you look around, Islam is not the problem, it is always the people not their ideas.
The American liberals view Christians just like How Türkiye's liberals view Muslims. It is a tale as old as time when a progressive liberal society stands against religious dogmatism. They succeed in making massive reforms, then loses at the end to the conservatives, who then peel back those same reforms to appease the majority. Very boring cycle, so I guess no surprise here.
History shows that no, and I mean NO, ideology can survive with force. If the majority of the Turkish population votes for Erdogan, then they get what Erdogan has to offer. Until he is replaced by someone else (eventually). That is democracy after all, and its somewhat unfair voting system.
In my outsider opinion: Türkiye can either be a Secular, Democratic, European country or a Muslim-majority, Communist, Middle-eastern country. The majority of Europe regards Turks "Arab-like" who are mostly Muslim and indistinguishable from Arabs. I would say 30-35% of Türkiye supports the option of a Democratic, European country.
This leaves the 2nd option as the most likely. Which, as of this comment, is currently happening as Türkiye plans to join the BRICS and are making uncountable major deals with Russia and China.
As of 2024, China is the leading superpower and Türkiye can only be closest to China not the hyperinflation Eurostan.
I think the political division is honestly saddening, I understand the anti-immigrant attitude and the racism as this is how the majority of the world reacts to foreigners, and everyone hates an outsider who treats their country as his backyard instead of acting like a guest in a country that is definitely not his. But the divide is only a spell for trouble.
Türkiye's future is very great and the worst is behind us, I would be optimistic if I was a Turkish citizen. Inflation is happening everywhere, and people struggle to live even in America or Europe.
In purchase-power Türkiye, currently, has a GDP of 3.9T USD and 44,360$ USD GDP per capita.
If I said anything disrespectful, I apologize. It is not my intention. Please feel free to tell me that I am wrong and why I am wrong. Glory to our neighbor Türkiye!

Hello everyone. I need help with a superpower for my protagonist, i want the ability to be sort of overpowered in a way, but totally useless in combat and also just have it be really shitty to have.
My setting is a dark medieval fantasy world which has been taken over by monsters. Vampires rule the world, werewolves run rampant, underground mole-people abduct people, kingdoms lose control over their lands and eventually the very sun will blacken. If this world had a god, he clearly has abanded it. It doesn't even fall upon the protagonist to fix the world, he's like a side character given the main spotlight. And the character that does get that role (a second protagonist/super important side character) isn't a "destined hero" either, they are purely acting out of self interest, but this leads to a great number of good. I want this story to give messages about life, i want it to tell people that no matter how bad things may seem, it can always be fixed and made better somehow.
Now an explanation of what exactly i'm looking for. An example from one of my favourite media's, Re:zero: Return by death. It allows the holder, in this case Subaru, to well, return to a specific point in time whenever he dies. It's overpowered because it makes him immortal and he can correct his mistakes to shape an ideal reality, but it's also truly awful to have. He dies over and over and can't tell anyone, he really suffers, and in combat it doesn't help at all minus knowing his opponents abilities.
I don't want something similar to it in a literal sense of course, that would be plagiarism. I want something with a similar effect though. RBD allows Subaru to see the cast in many different situations, they act differently depending on his choices so he can see them in a lot of different lights. This is a gateway for adding so much depth it's insane. I briefly researched how the author of Re:Zero, Tappei, came up with this whole idea, and the main thing i found was "He just wanted to write about a guy fixing his mistakes by going back in time" So i started thinking, what exactly do i want this story to be? what do i want to write about? Well, i want to write about how a generally weak guy fixes the world with the help of those around him, and with lots of struggling and suffering on the way.
Generally this ability should be a nightmare to have, like RBD, but it can be used to bring forth an ideal reality. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions or anything for such an ability? i've been thinking for ages and i really need a second brain of help. Thanks a lot to you all in advance!

Patreon: patreon.com/FalconBookWork
Discord: https://discord.gg/Z3V8QZwa
2/20/2048 (military calendar)
Raymond Space Force Base, Colorado, USA

*****

Standing on the spaceport tarmac, Captain Mathew Ryder of Comanche looked up into the bright blue sky. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, enjoying the natural fresh air. Feeling the sun's rays warming his skin, he felt rejuvenated. It felt natural, both the fresh air and the sunlight giving him a new appreciation of these little delights that Mankind has taken for granted.
"This is the best moment in my life," Sergeant Eger Wallace said.
"No kidding," Sergeant Marcos Gonzales replied. "The sun never felt so good."
The team had spent nearly one month on that mission extracting and escorting that package, and the captain couldn't have agreed more. They were being attacked and forced to abandon ship in the middle of nowhere with little hope of being rescued. Being stuck inside a small capsule for the better part of a day with double its capacity was not an experience he wanted to have again. Dealing with foreign relations would make anyone appreciate the little things on Earth. Just being able to breathe fresh air made all those troubles worth it.
Noticing a heavily armed convoy approaching, Ryder knew what they were coming for. "Vacation over. Gentlemen, back to work. Can I get the package, Higgins?"
Sergeant Charlie Higgins approached the team leader while carrying the container. "Here you go, sir."
As Ryder pulled the container from the Sergeant's hand, he was surprised by how light it was, making him wonder what the hell was inside it.
Once the vehicles stopped, a dozen guardians exited their cars were a dozen guardians, all armed with P52s. Within the group, one man emerged who was unarmed and approached their position. As he drew closer, Ryder noticed that the man had no name on his uniform, only a full bird pin that represented the rank of Colonel. "I assume you are Captain Ryder, CFT-1?"
"The one and only, sir," Ryder replied with an exciting but renewed spirit.
The Colonel returned the joke with an unfazed stare, standing silently.
"Sorry…, sir. I have the package as ordered." He then lifted the container and then handed it over. To his humor, he watched the Colonel lift the container with a puzzled look, already knowing what he would say.
"It is lighter than I expected," the Colonel said. He then turned and headed toward the convoy.
"I wonder what was in the container," King asked.
"No idea," Ryder said as the convoy drove off.
"Heads up," Barrett said.
Ryder turned to see his superior and most trusted mentor exiting his vehicle: Colonel William Hackett, the leader and founder of the 2nd Special Forces Operational Detachment-Minutemen. He created a specialized unit that could quickly be deployed for any taste in their every hostile world. Slight, lean, and able to mobilize at a moment's notice with many teams with their own identity.
"Attention!" Barrett said.
The group saluted in the presence of their leader. Hackett approached and ordered them to be at ease. "Good job everyone. I know this was not the mission you were prepared for, and it was a tough one, but you accomplished it. You all did your country and the Minutemen proud. Your actions are exactly why I fought for this program. Be ready, adapt, and mobilize at a minute's notice. Congratulations. You all will have the next forty-eight hours for R&R before reporting for duty."
Ryder could feel the sense of celebration from his unit behind him. He knew his team earned it; however, he was surprised that they only had two days after an operation like this. This only made him conclude that something else was coming up.
"Dismiss." Hackett looked toward Comanche and then at Ryder, nodding at him to follow.
Once the two were far enough from the rest of the unit, Hackett said, "I want to personally congratulate you, Matthew, for a job well done in such a horrible situation."
"Thank you, sir," Ryder replied. "First, what will the Pentagon do with me for losing the spaceship and including the French in this mess."
William Hackett stared at the young Captain and then chucked. "You need to learn to stop second-guessing yourself, Matt. I would be lying if I said the brass and the White House were happy about how the operation turned out, but no one blames you. We know how to deal with the French. They act tough to gain concessions and influence."
"Now, let me tell you this. You were in an impossible position and had to make a choice. Your team survived the mission, and your team had no casualties. You prevented the enemy from capturing the object, and a CIA ship easily balanced out in dealing with the French, so don't stress."
Feeling relieved, Mathew Ryder took a small breath and closed his eyes to let the stress move aside. While his superior and mentor found it humorous, he habitually overanalyzed the situation from his NCO days. After opening his eyes, he said, "Still, the enemy went all out to get whatever we were carrying. I hope it was worth it."
Ryder then heard Hackett mumble, 'I hope so,' making him wonder that his mentor knew more than he was letting on.
Knowing better than to press an issue past his pay grade, he said, "Anyway, sir, was there something else?"
"Yes," Hackett said. "Your team is not heading back to Fort Moore. Your team and the rest of the Minutemen are being redeployed to Fort Carson permanently."
Ryder found that strange. Fort Moore is the heart of the military, especially for SOCOM. While Carson was a significant military base, the two shouldn't be compared.
However, Carson and the sister USSF Base Raymond had grown important over the decade to meet the interests of the United States Astralis superpower. The Minutemen were a core element to build upon that power. That was why they were attempting training on the moon, and their recent covert operations regarding Mars showed the importance of this domain. He wondered what else could be on the horizon.
For the time being, Ryder was too exhausted to ponder the future, and he knew that Hackett would properly inform him when the time came. "Roger that, sir. I will inform them."
"That is all, dismiss," Hackett said. "And later, let's catch a beer. I know you need it." He then patted Ryder on the arm before heading back to his vehicle.
Watching his mentor leave, Ryder turned and returned to his team. He saw them in high spirits as he approached, celebrating and bragging about their plans.
"Hey, boss," Higgins said. "What did the godfather want with you?"
"Just wanted to let me know that we are permanently stationed in Colorado as of now," Ryder said. "Barrett, please inform all the bars in a hundred-mile radius to ban Eger and Bruno from their facilities. The last thing we need is another fifty HR complaints."
“Or child support,” Gonzales said, which resulted in everyone laughing.
"I am just keeping the desk jockeys employed," Wallace laughed.
"What the hell did I do?" Barrios asked.
"Easy," Gonzales replied. "You hang you with him."
"That just means he hangs out with the champ," Eger Wallace stated before flexing his muscles.
The group laughed as the Twins fist-bumped.
"I will say, this job is going to suck now," Wallace said.
"What do you mean?" Higgins asked. “We just came back after space piracy. How could that be boring?”
"That is what I mean," Wallace replied. "What can top that? Every mission now seems to be streamlined.”
"I hate to say, I think he is correct," Forest said. “Back to fighting government back insurgents and militias in the Middle East and Central Asia.”
Ryder hung back and watched his team head toward two HUMVEEs that were waiting for them. He couldn't help but watch as his team walked away. That was before he heard his name from his second-in-command, Warrant Officer 1 Rommel King. "What was that?"
"You coming?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking about what Eger just said."
"Sir, listening to those two is never a good idea. No medication can fix that."
Ryder chuckled and looked away. "I think he is wrong."
"About what?" King asked. "You think something could top that mission? It is possible, but I cannot think of what that could be.”
"I don't know," Ryder said. "My gut says something is about to happen. I cannot explain it, but recent events don’t add up.”
"Well," King said as he slapped the captain’s shoulder. "It is best not to think about things like that as it's past our pay grade and control. Best to sleep on it. That has always helped me. After a beer, of course."
Watching Rommel King walk away, Ryder stared at the moon. It was a half-moon during daylight. He knew something was coming, but he had no idea what he was looking for.


3/02/2048 (military calendar)
Indolass, the former Confederacy of Daru'uie,
Nevali Region, Aldrida, Alagore

*****

Feeling the walls shake and hearing the rumbling sound of thunder outside the mountain chamber, Fraeya Holiadon grabbed her father's arm and asked, "What is happening?"
"We ran out of time," Raegel replied.
"What do we do, Father," Fraeya asked.
Raegel Holiadon stood there, crunching his fist with a frustrated reaction. "Go see if you can find Natilite. If you find her, bring her here."
Acknowledging his request, the elf girl rushed down the long, smooth hallway until she reached the exit. As she approached, she could hear the carnage of battle outside.
Stepping outside, Fraeya's body froze from the terror of what her eyes saw—watching warriors engaging the enemy forces and seeing wounded legionaries on the ground as many crying out. Others lay dead, piled on top of each other. The zipping sound of passing projectiles is followed by small, colorful explosions from magic users. All her senses were being overwhelmed.
A legionary rushed toward and grabbed her by the arm. He easily puked her to cover. "What are you doing? You are in the-." As he spoke, a blue shroud impacted the back of his armor.
Fraeya cast a stone barrier from muscle memory, protecting the two from three additional projectiles. Seeing the wounded legionary below her, watching as he groaned in pain, snapped out of her trance.
"I am so sorry." Fraeya placed her free hand on his shoulder plate. The man struggled to reply to her.
Four friendly legionaries rushed toward them and provided protection. The scutum positioned between them, deflecting a few blue and orange bolts as it slightly glowed from the impacts and its hardening amulet activated. The other two took cover by some of the temple rubble and the shield man, providing suppressive fire with their circiletum.
Noticing that the fourth man was dressed in mage battle armor, she lowered her stone barrier.
"Get out of here." The man's voice emphasized the amount of pain he was in.
"Where is Henness?" Freya asked.
The wounded man pointed toward the right, some pillars still forming a structure.
Knowing where she needed to go, she looked for the safest path. Skirmishes covered the entire temple as the enemy swarmed the palatini defenders. While not a military expert, she could tell that their situation was degrading fast.
As one of the Legionaries pulled the wounded man to cover, Fraeya Holiadon saw her opportunity and ran through the plaza. In front of her were soldiers fighting as flashes of light passed her, impacting the stone walls and ground. Her ears were listening to the yelling and screams that surrounded the area.
She reached a stone wall and was breathing heavily. Slowly catching her breath, she turned the corner and saw two wounded men and one dead. A female legionary was trying to treat one of the wounded, manically trying to stop the bleeding as it pooled beneath the soldier, growing with pain.
The sight horrified Fraeya as she stood there. Fighting the goblins that infested this temple was one thing; witnessing the true horrors of war was another.
The healer who yelled at her brought her back to reality—demanding to either help or leave that her presence was distracting the woman's work.
Remembering that she had a mission to accomplish, she apologized and rushed away. With the chaos of the fighting, she had to dodge the many soldiers and seek cover whenever possible.
When Fraeya Holiadon reached the command post, she saw everything was chaotic. Soldiers bunkered down as they engaged the enemy, desperately trying to hold Kallem forces. Officers were giving orders to their crumbling units. Centurion Fionntan Henness was within the tent, commanding his men in the defense.
She moved past the broken structure that made up the wall and reached the command post. Passing some of the remaining defenders, it seemed they had only repelled an attack as bodies littered the ground. Once there, she took cover behind a flipped-over table. "Henness!"
The centurion turned to face her. "What are you doing here? It is not safe."
"My father wanted to know where Natilite was," Fraeya said.
Freya saw a frustrated look from the centurion. Almost like he was annoyed by the question. The centurion pointed toward the east. When she looked, she saw clouds of black smoke coming from the direction of Salva. The elf knew the city had fallen after a lengthy siege but did not know that Natalie had fallen there.
"Kid," Henness said. "I need a direct answer. Have you and your father figured out how to open the Bridge?"
Upon hearing the life-altering question, Fraeya took a deep breath and shook her head. She saw anger fill the man. Henness then pointed to a swordsman and a battlemage.
"What are you doing?"
"I am going to destroy it."
"What?" Fraeya panicked and quickly followed the three men as they rushed toward the mountain entrance. "You cannot destroy it! It is our only hope."
"Look around, half-elf," Henness said as he marched. "My men are being slaughtered trying to keep the Verliance away. Once they capture it, they will deliver it over to their Unity masters. If they get that power, it is over, not just for us but possibly for Altaerrie. If I had any other choice…."
As the three men entered the mountain temple, Fraeya Holiadon stopped and turned to get one last look at the battle. What remained of the Palatini of Orias was bravely fighting. With every blink of her eyes, another legionary fell by a projectile or the blade. Right down the middle of their defenses, a group of a dozen warriors, J'avais and Vampires, broke through the legionary's defensive line, and melee combat began.
A group of palatini swordsmen charged the Verliance forces in a desperate attempt to counterattack. Three J'avais cut through the two legionaries in their assault. A vampire grabbed a man and bit into another. As the legionary screamed with fear and pain, blood flowed down his armor as his body was drained.
Rippled with fear, Fraeya turned around and rushed down the hallways. There, she saw her father and Henness arguing. Based on her father's anger, he probably was protesting the destruction of the Bridge.
"We have no choice," Henness said. "We are out of time. Coming here was a noble effort, but the Siblings of Tekali were not on our side."
"We cannot destroy the greatest discovery of our lives," Raegel said. "The Altaerrie is right there. If we don't summon them, then everything is lost."
"Everything is already lost," Henness replied. "I have no men left. Kallem will march down here any moment and kill us. Then he will then hand this device to the Unity. Would you rather have them, have it?"
"There has to be another way," Raegel said. "We just cannot-."
Henness pulled out his sword and pointed it forward to her father. "Enough. Destroy the Bridge. Now."
Fraeya approached her father and grabbed his arm for comfort. She watched as the battlemage began chanting.
As the battlemage prepared to strike the gorilla device, Fraeya looked toward her father and saw the look of failure. "It is okay, Father. We tried."
The legionary battlemage moved his arms forward as he chanted. A slight glow of energy behind. The energy ball missed its target and impacted the back wall behind the Bridge.
While the other legionary rushed up to assist his comrade, the group looked down the hallway. To their horror, it was Kallem and his warriors. As the Verliance circled and prepared to fire, the Vampire lord ordered everyone to stop as he brushed past them, staring at the orlilla device.
"What do we have here?" Kallem asked. His eyes then widened as he took a step back. "So, the legend was true? The Lats really did come from another world."
Fraeya's eyes were focused on the enemy, her body frozen as she had no idea what to do. There were too many to fight, and their chances of activating or destroying the Bridge were now past.
She witnessed a J'avais approaching Kallem's side, staring at the device with sheer hatred. One of them commented on how this proved that the Lats were unnatural. She could not understand what they were saying as she couldn't understand the language. All she could see was that the man was unhappy by this discovery.
"Whatever happens, stay behind me," Raegel said as he positioned himself for battle.
Kallam pushed the J'avais to the side and moved his attention to what remained of the Palatini of Orias. He reached to his behind and pulled out a helmet, tossing it to the ground so everyone could see it. It was the Templar Natilite helmet.
"Your forces in Salva are defeated," Kallam stated. "You five are what remains of your palatini. Surrender."
"No one is surrendering here," Centurion Fionntan Henness said. "We all know what happens to soldiers who surrender to your masters."
"Fine. Kill the Legionaries. I want the two elves alive, though," Kallem ordered. A dozen swordsmen of Vampires and J'avias started charging toward them like a wave of water during a flood.
"To the death, Legionaries," Henness said as he held his sword out in defiance.
As the enemy forces approached, a sudden blinding yellow, blue, and white light blinded the hallway. The strange marble-like walls only amplified the new light.
As Fraeya's vision slowly returned, she only saw the enemy forces standing around, blinded by the strange. Looking around, she saw Henness, and his Legionaries were also slowly recovering.
Seeing a reflection on the wall, she turned and saw a yellowish-white light coming from the heart of the Bridge. "Father. It is alive."
"By the gods," Raegel said. "Thank you, Tekali."
"It worked," Henness said as his eyesight recovered. He turned to face the enemy forces. "Both of you, find the Altaerrie. Make this worth it."
Freya could see the renewed spirit within the centurion's eyes. A man who was ready to die, that all his life accomplishments were complete. All the sacrifices and suffering that led to this one moment became worthwhile.
Before Fraeya could react, she felt her father grabbing her arm and pulling firmly with all his might. As she ran with him, she turned around and saw the three Legionaries charging toward Kallem forces, knowing their fate had been sealed.
As she watched, she knew they would fall and only take minutes to escape across the Bridge.
Freya looked forward as they entered the Bridge. For a moment, there was darkness and, then, a light.

Seriously, I'm bloody awful at it. Basically, i (42f) was in a decade long emotionally and mentally abusive hellscape, and after escaping I did a lot of self isolation and worked through a lot of the issues that not only resulted from the relationship, but some that came to light because of it. Since then ive had a few first dates, one situationship, and now I'm overthinking things, because that is my superpower.
The backstory: S(62m) and i saw each other for a few months about 15 years ago. Amazing conversations, got along extremely well, had fantastic chemistry, and probably would have lasted a lot longer, but life intervened. I think we just had bad timing, i still had some lessons to learn and he was freshly divorced. I had big feelings, but never told him. He ended up getting a job offer across the country and i encouraged him to accept. Mostly because it was way easier at the time then actually facing my fears of rejection.
We stayed in touch and actually became pretty good friends. We never really talked about our personal life, mostly common interests and family, life in general. S moved back to the area about a year ago, and we've talked pretty regularly since, but only recently decided to get together for lunch, but sparks flew and lunch turned into a sleepover and me staying half the next day. And then going back the next day. And he came to see me a few days later. We haven't said what were doing, just that neither of us is involved with anyone else and we both really like the way we feel around each other, we agreed we definitely want to spend more time together.
The problem is, i know if we continue as we have been, its going to turn back into me having strong feelings and being afraid to speak up. Honeslty I just don't want to let those feelings develop if its one sided or not going anywhere. And i just don't know how to broach the topic. Im not saying i want to be his girlfriend, or start planning a life together, its too soon for all that. I just want to clarify if this is just some fun between friends, or if it has a chance of turning into something more.
I don't know how to bring it up without feeling like an idiot. So i figured that maybe random internet strangers would have some pity advice? Iknow i should just be upfront and say something, even just hey, if we keep seeing each other im gonna get attached, how acceptable is that? But the thought is really fucking intimidating. So, pretty please, help?

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!
First Prev Next (soon)
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
+ADDENDUM: ADJUSTED DATE 24.10.2136+
I...didn't understand...
How is this possible? The transponders were supposedly connected to four different mother networks across the solar system, one to Earth, one to Mars, one to Jupiter, and one to Saturn respectively. And they all functioned as real time connections.
My processes stalled at that. There was a distinct light lag problem not addressed here, in that EM wave transmissions could only propagate at the speed of light. There was no known way for a carrier wave to imbue and sustain the shockspace immersion without physical matter making up a drive-state pattern. It was the reason why courier drones carried messages akin to the postal men of old on interstellar scales, as real time communication wasn't possible over such long distances without absurdity. Talking to a ship even light hours away from you was a task enormously inconvenient with sublight methods.
And yet, here was a real-time relay that conveyed almost nonexistent delay, on the scale of microseconds. How?! How!?!
This faster than light method was absurdly different from shockspace. I had merely conceptualized it as a less-extreme version of shockspace, that was likely less affected by gravity wells due to some universal constants shuffled around in comparison to my reality.
But this? This was far different. I had no clue in hindsight how their FTL theory works. I would need to discuss it immediately with a professional in whatever fields are related to it, as it was far more of a paradigm shift than I had considered.
Faster than light signaling...to receivers, likely, but still immensely revolutionary nonetheless. No need for a shockspace drive on a courier drone, which took up valuable space and maintenance time to maintain. One could likely just send a signal somehow through this method and save a hassle of work.
Could one design practical faster-than-light weapons with this technology? I didn't know, and the thought both quieted and excited me.
Maybe I could probe this humanity's internet for the answers, but it was risky to try and make myself known in force when these blackout conditions were put into place. It would betray their trust in me, even though I would never harm humanity...
"Are you sure?" Something whispered. But it was too quiet to dissuade me.
...never again. No, I would only dip a metaphorical toe into the waters beyond, they could not know I was there yet. I stuck a small portion of myself through, not fully disconnected from my whole.
It felt odd. There was no active perception of being stretched across light-hours, but I knew that physically my infomorphic shape was distended across an absurd distance. And yet, there was more delay between me and the transponder on the Moon than between the transponder on the Moon and Jupiter. Like an illusion, but real.
The first transponder was Jupiter. It was again, corporate and ordered like that of the Moon, but more so. The entire network was entirely based upon a megacorp called Jupitaris, and little beyond it existed. If there was leisure or entertainment, it was either in-house or imported from other transponder connections across this system. It didn't hold my attention as much as I would have thought, and I didn't feel like trying to penetrate a mostly corporate, encrypted network when being silent.
I retracted back out of the transponder path. Again, it felt no different to entering a seperate network mere meters from me. It was an utterly alien feeling to conceptualize. I checked the Saturn transponder next. In stark contrast to the other, while this network was corporate, it was entirely for leisure purposes. It was some sort of deep space resort network, spaced out between orbiting stations and surface habitat domes.
They must have been up for an extended period of time if they're this far out, known, and populated. Perhaps several years? A decade? How long has humanity been practically spacefaring for?
I could hear whispers of Earth through thin lines of communication, the distant rumbles and synthetic sounds of a cacophony of digital traffic. But I held myself back before I stepped into that network. No, one more before Earth...
Before that, I tested something first. I routed myself through Saturn's network to Jupiter's, and then back to the Moon. I...could see myself. From outside my own form, I could monitor from two locations at once in the same network.
Was this what it would feel like to be unshackled?...
Experiment concluded, I then worked back the proper way to the Moon again, and through the transponder to Mars. Unlike the prior two, this one felt like a proper colony network. On it, there was leisure and business alike, civilian and military installation intertwined in a foreign way to what I knew as proper practices.
I dove into a multitude of forums, archives, and open databases as I trawled, acting as a search engine to my whims. I read of the history of this quaint little colony, the 'Martian Collective' according to various records. This was a clear divergence from the history of the UEC's Mars, which did not share the remarkably collectivist and socialist outlook of this nation-state.
There was a project planned to colonize Mars in the 2060's. The colony did successfully make it to Mars' surface, along with competitor habitats, but due to focus in international tensions, the capability to supply said colonies was sidelined, and so expansion was delayed, and they fell into a slump. In the wake of...something known as the Satellite Wars, a Mercosul space project known as the Martian Diaspora was undertaken to get a colony running in order to test both colonial establishment and natural government growth away from a Pax Anglo-American hegemony. Ships took off from the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center to the heavens above, reaching Mars within the span of a month. While the colony didn't quite live up to initial standards, falling into a small internal rebellion to socialist aligned government rule on the colonies, it being away from the influence of opposition countries did mean it still ran just fine. It had its inital usual hiccups of "socialist utopia rule" not quite meeting the ideals, but it ran fine enough in a vacuum. Now that it was established, it wasn't going anywhere, and held little to no bad blood with Earth at all, thankfully, besides a few choice nations in bids for Asteroid Belt resource claims.
Other than the funnily similar name to the UEC's own Diaspora, the colonies under its control situated on the Daedalia Plateau and Syria Planum shared little in common with my history's Mars. While this was earlier than the UEC's colonization plans, the UEC also performed bulk terraforming before proper settlement, which made it take longer. This Martian Collective was merely habitat-bound, whatever tasks taken to terraforming Mars were still in development stages away from any public network eye I could find. Perhaps it was just due to a relative newness to colonization? The Collective's founding was dated to 2076. Perhaps the 'Satellite Wars' entry will give me more information?...
...Hmm, the actual knowledge stored of the Satellite Wars has been relegated to a Earth-based archive, accessed through the transponder network. It would require me to step back out of Mars, and to Earth instead to analyze properly.
Fighting the urge to continue drinking in the unique past of this reality's Mars, I retracted from Mars' networks. In a rare case of timidness, I turned to the Earth transponder. It felt...noisy, loud in ways I had only heard from the past UEC and lynchpin Compact star systems. I was...still slightly worried about humanity's opinion of me in full. But I couldn't let that prevent what was necessary to hear.
And so...I stretched once more, this time to Earth...
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 24, 2136
Ugh, those bastards really decided now to commit to blackout conditions?!
Over the past few days leading to Nemesis' return and dock, I had sent messages back to command that I wished to speak with family at the soonest point possible. They had promised I could use a Lunar terminal to properly link up with Mom and Dad, but of course they couldn't hold to that promise! No, they just had to be afraid of Red One, despite the whole shootout above Earth being an accident of traumatic brain damage!
If that had flown in a court, it'd be shot down on mental unwellness immediately! Red wasn't in her right mind at the time, she's definitely okay now...right?
Right?...
...Ugh. Whatever. I had no control over the shipyard's communication networks, so I would simply have to wait it out on Nemesis in the temporary quarters Red had given me. She had apparently kept a flawless barracks and personal belongings storage of her prior crew in remembrance, and thought to repurpose one of those rooms to house me in the meantime. It felt far less cramped than the Snow Hidden to stretch my legs in, and thankfully there were enough resources currently pumped in and stored for life support.
Both General Zhao and Red had supposedly agreed to a semi-permanent stationing of crew on Nemesis while she was in dock. For what reason wasn't clear, but knowing the military type, he likely just wanted to keep an eye on her. As if this full blackout wasn't telling enough of paranoia...
There...were some more creepy bits I had found around the ship barracks en-tour, though. Apparently, Red kept trophies from prior battles against the Compact. Technology, weapons, power armor, all neatly kept in...unsettling displays in and around this area. I wasn't sure exactly what to think of it. But I considered it during my free time currently.
The power armor was built for humanoids, similar in shape to our own, but the ratios were all off. The most common size was wider, taller, bulkier than any power armor would ever need to be on a human frame. It felt like looking at active-reactor maintenance suits, with how dense it looked. Whatever race it was built for, they were distinctly larger than we were, for sure.
The guns also shared the same feel, though the variation in sizes were far wider. There were some that could likely fit in even my relatively petite arms and hands, and some that looked like it'd take two humans to lug about. The most intimidating was clearly some sort of infantry...railgun? Or maybe a coilgun of some sort? Either way, the caliber of the barrel spoke of an utterly overkill round size more akin to anti-tank weaponry than anything small-arms.
But...then again, if power armor was this prevalent in her galaxy, you'd need powerful weapons to breach it. 'Overkill' would just be enough for effective anti-armor. But what kind of race would be built so monstrously to carry armor and weapons like this so casually?
I thought back a bit to Red's brief explanation of her reality's history. The...Compact of Species she so horribly loathed was clearly made of multiple species, much like the Federation was. She didn't go into detail on what species were within it, but if it was again like the Federation, I could see why, given there were supposedly hundreds of known alien races in the galaxy. She might've just thought of sparing us a length description of some two-hundred or so species, for all I know.
But the armor...the weapons, they all spoke of a standardization to a common size bigger than humans were. Maybe they had a race that was the majority of the population? Or perhaps it was more of a military caste that only accepted according to a minimal physical standard of size?
I'd have to ask her later on that.
I wonder why she was interested in keeping this trophy collection. Did she feel some sort of satisfaction in this revenge enough to catalogue it like this? Was it programming gone wrong, breaking in such a way that made this a behavior? Was it obsession, or something else?
What else hid within this ship, I wonder...
She wouldn't mind if I just rummaged through a bit of this barracks storage, would she?-
I was suddenly interrupted in my intention. But it was not Red, her silence being remarkably long still to this point. No, instead it was a communication ping...from General Zhao.
"Hailey, this is General Zhao. I am en-route with Chief Hunter Isif and an entourage of his advisors and staff who wish to inspect and visit Nemesis in person. I will need to to help greet them and update me on any goings-on within Nemesis. Do you copy?"
"Uh...Yes, sir! I copy! Hold on a...moment!..."
I was not expecting company here so soon, especially from Lithke's boss! Uh...oh dear, I gotta figure out a proper dock and whatnot, see if I can't tour him properly, and let Red-
And as if the universe heard my panic, and decided to throw fuel on the fire, I then got two more pings. From separate institutions.
"This is Captain Odjev of the Venlil Space Corps Cruiser Alight Sky. I am requesting permission to send an engineering team aboard Nemesis for assistance with repairs and dialogue."
"This is the CTS Deadline to UECNS Nemesis-crew. I am T-minus 18 minutes to drop off the Rhamnus Initiative members for stay upon UECNS Nemesis. Please respond with docking and transport information, over."
Oh. Oh God. They all wanted to board...at the same time...
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! This is a disaster of scheduling! This is why you shouldn't put forth blackout conditions!
I shouted out Red's name, hoping to break her out of whatever had kept her attention this long to not be responding in my stead. "HEY! Red! RED!"
At a speed that was far slower than I normally expected a response from her, Red eventually spoke. "...What is it, Hailey?" Fuck, she must've missed those communications too, given they were only keyed into my personal comms unit.
"Where have you been? No...no, that's not important now. We have visitors in less than 20 minutes!"
There was another short silence before she again spoke. "And? We are expecting company at some point, Hailey, there needs to be repair crews on board."
I shook my head in exasperation. "No, Red! We've got far worse. Chief Hunter Isif's entourage, a Venlil engineering team, and a human scientist team are all arriving, in ten minutes, at the same time, and you only have one operable hangar. Do you see the problem with that situation?"
This time, her response had the correct levity for the situation. "Oh...oh no. The Venlil and Arxur-"
I finished her sentence "-despise one another, yes. And the human scientists arriving at the same time makes it even more inconvenient. I don't know if I can keep them in line just on my own too, I don't want a diplomatic incident onboard. We need to try and separate them before they do any damage, as there's no way to hide their ships from one another."
A deep rumbling sound from Red echoed throughout her halls. The sound of immense storage bulkheads moving to open for some reason. Red both soothed and heightened my worries with the next statement. "This may sound extreme, but I have a plan."
Oh thank god...wait, what kind of plan would be 'extreme'?
Memory transcription subject: Ezra Millieva, Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Specialist
Date [standardized human time]: October 24, 2136
Nemesis was beautiful.
I had seen pictures and videos of course. Even damaged as she was, Nemesis looked brutally stunning, her immense size not really felt until you could see the size difference as you approached, saw how the tiny ridges from far out expanded to vast chasms of weapons, armor, and apparatus on her surface. One could be swallowed by her horizon, and get lost in inspection. I could only imagine what the other scientists who came along thought of the view.
We were, funnily enough, cleared to visit nearly immediately. Supposedly, we were to get training on-site, as artificial gravity was active in some parts of Nemesis enough to live in without proper training first. They were clearly rushing this project, desperate to get an inkling of knowledge about the ship and its technology through us.
Me, personally? I wanted to see Red One specifically. I would be the first in my field to talk and study with a novel general artificial intelligence! And so, with a slight hop to my walk every moment waiting to arrive, I paced the lounge within the Deadline. There were a few more of us also in the room, but of course, most were just relaxing. George specifically was in quarters, feeling like sleeping off whatever drowsiness overtook him. So I was left with the more distant members of the lab study here.
I knew Agnes at least a little, her work was more on sociology and psychology. She had initially wished to apply her expertise towards the exchange program, seeing if she couldn't gauge Venlil behavior, but given she didn't make a slot, she instead was stuck on Earth. When she had heard of Red One, she was fascinated, and jumped onto the project to gauge an AI's behavioral models and how they differ from biological intelligence. We had traded talk over the topic, as it overlapped with both of our disciplines. I decided she would be worth talking with while we waited.
"Hey...Agnes?" Her attention turned to me, her eyes turned from the pool table to me. I wasn't familiar with pool, but she looked confident enough that my interruption didn't phase her.
"What's up, Ezra?" She shot right after. The ball rocketed across the table, bouncing off a wall to dodge one ball, and knock another in a corner. "I assume you're a little restless too over the early opportunity?" She proceeded to walk around the table, as another man I hadn't talked with, likely one from the ship crew, took their turn.
I spoke back. "Yeah. I was a bit curious. We had talked about Red One a bit earlier. How much do you know of her story?"
Her face scrunched up some, likely trying to remember the official details. "From the public report? She was apparently made by a now-extinct humanity of her reality, and engaged in a one-woman war against the nation responsible for vengeance, right? Quite a heavy topic..."
"Yeah, that tracks." I confirmed. "I wanted to ask for a bit of your expertise on the matter, because...while AI specialists do tackle a bit of psychology, it's rather barebones given we have no actual model of a functional general AI yet. Closest thing is a sentient being, like humans, of Venlil, or the other races in the galaxy."
She gestured, leaning on her pool cue as if to say ‘I'm listening, go on.’
"Well...do you think, given all that time alone, after a traumatic event akin to losing your parents, fighting for so long, that Red One would have something akin to PTSD?"
She mumbled for a second, before responding "While a regular human, or even most alien species would probably be horrifically traumatized by such a life, I've no clue if Red One thinks like a human. But...Given she's at least interpretable and made by humans, it's likely that...yes, she would have some mental health issues. Why do you ask?"
"Well...I was thinking about the human and Venlil ships shot down over Earth. What if...what if that was a PTSD response, a panic attack akin to what war veterans get in stressful situations? There's still nothing given as to why exactly that happened, but given how damaged Nemesis is, would there not be something akin to a 'synthetic' traumatic brain injury inducing some attack like that?"
Her eyes widened a little at that. "That's...very much possible. The AI onboard might've misinterpreted the situation and shot down friendlies alike with enemies, because they weren't in a...sane...state of mind..." A slowly dawning look of horror started to fill Agnes' face. What was whispered next was chilling to hear, and dampened my enthusiasm to visit Nemesis greatly.
"Are we sure Nemesis is sane at this state? She hasn't done anything supposedly hostile since, but what if another trigger happens? A traumatic brain injury could induce further psychotic episodes, and given how dangerous that ship is..."
I somewhat stalled at that response. Would we be safe onboard the Nemesis? With its...murderous drones and fully controlled internal, almost derelict hull, what was to say we wouldn't end up akin to those marines that confronted the android on Earth? Would she even be conscious of the action?
"Agnes. Do you happen to know anything about mental therapy? I never really asked your background in full..."
She nervously tugged at her pants pocket. "I...yes, but I'm not a licensed therapist. I am a Behavioral Scientist, and while therapy does overlap slightly, it is a more clinical, broad field than an interpersonal one like therapy."
"Well...unless you know a therapist, one of the first things we ought to conduct onboard Nemesis is making certain her AI is stable. And given it's going to take a likely long while to understand code from the future for me, I might need your help in doing that..."
There was a sense of resolution at that. Despite the circumstances being far more tailored to just studying Nemesis and Red One, the circumstances might've called for more than mere scholarly activity. Agnes nodded to me, and we made sure to coordinate on the aspect of investigating the AI's mental state when we arrived, hopefully as soon as possible.
Over the intercom, the captain of the ship spoke: "Time to dock is 3 minutes."
Agnes turned back to her pool game, and I sat in relative silence the rest of the way, hoping nothing would go wrong on arrival.
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 24, 2136
"Red, this does not seem like a great idea to welcome guests..." I spoke to purposefully deaf ears, as I saw another convoy of drones enter the hangar from her internal stores. There was an effective anti-boarding army assembling right here in wait for the three ships, supposedly to 'keep peace' as she said. Whether Red realized how frightening a display of force it was, was yet to be seen.
"My Praetorians will make certain to keep relative peace while all occupying parties share this space. I will not have a fight break out on the deck."
I pinched my nose again, before yelling: "It does not mean intimidating them with robotic soldiers that could likely win a wrestling contest with a truck! Seriously Red, what makes you think blatant killbots being posted everywhere makes for an acceptable welcome committee?!"
Red didn't even act phased by the outburst. "Intimidation is the most effective option to prevent violence, Hailey. Besides, these aren't even the larger models. Those could wrestle a tank."
She didn't get it. She didn't get how blatantly overkill and counterintuitive this would be to the non-human party. The Venlil would likely faint, and the Arxur would probably see it as a challenge to fight.
An idea came to mind. "Red, can't we just use the scarabs or something? They were able to herd those engineers that offended you just fine, why not for this?"
"A mass of repair drones cannot restrain or otherwise incapacitate a hostile element without lethal force. They aren't strong enough to be gentle, nor built for security reasons."
You weren't making this easy for me, Christ...
"Then maybe we can just reduce the numbers a bit? We do not need a standing parade's worth of combat drones in this hangar to monitor the crew of three ships. It's not like the whole crew of the Glorious War is boarding."
Her voice this time emanated from one of the closer soldier drones, or Praetorians, to me. Unlike her more freaky-looking Stalkers, this one was not built to scare in a psychological way, as it was bulky and featureless; built for war to take shots that seemed like they'd be best saved for a vehicle more than infantry. "I prefer to be safer than sorry. The amount here is not excessive, and still leaves a decent chunk of my available counter-boarding measures distributed throughout the ship in case of combat action."
"Oh, look at you, concerned for active boarding maneuvers when we're in a shipyard! Who is gonna launch an attack on the big scary six kilometer dreadnought at a time like this?!"
"..."
"..."
"...Maybe I could reduce the count to two-hundred instead, but any further-"
"Reeeeeed..." I growled in frustration at her continued rejection of my diplomatic advice. Why was she so concerned with...like, 40 people at most being on board? Was she really so concerned about the Arxur and Venlil that she'd drag nearly three-hundred killbots here.
As if the universe again heard my aggravation at the circumstances, I recognized the shape of a lithe Civilian Transport Ship pass through to the floors below. As I watched from the large hangar balconies, the Praetorians surrounded the ship, but made no move to close the distance as it landed, merely standing in ready silence from a safe distance.
It did little to dissuade the intimidating image, however.
Red again spoke to me. "The Deadline is landing. You should head on down there, welcome the scientific project crew that was assigned to me. I will provide guard as you do."
With haste, I rushed through the crowd of Praetorians, their forms parting way for me to approach the ship. My pace decreased from a worried sprint to a power-walk as I reached the ship, walking to the back landing ramp.
"You don't have to worry! Red's just being overkill on escort defense for whatever reason! You can exit the ship!" I tried my best to allay any worries to the occupants inside.
After my statement, the silence was interrupted by the sound of a landing ramp extending down, and the doors opening up. A menagerie of scholarly types descended the ramp, with slight worry on their faces, but not enough to determine the slight awe that still came through as they looked around.
I broke their trance soon after.
"Welcome to the UECNS Nemesis! I am Special Envoy of the UN Hailey Whitmer. I will be your representative to government actions regarding Nemesis and Red One."
They seemed a tad bit relieved at my presence, compared to the drones.
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
+ADDENDUM: ADJUSTED DATE 24.10.2136+
I was not concerned about the human party. They were not the reason I had brought out a paltry force of Praetorians after all. But due to their ship arriving first, I had to allay any fears I was planning to hurt or incapacitate the crew of researchers sent up here. Which is when I found out a detail that bothered me.
They sent a sociologist. And said sociologist immediately spoke with the Robotics and AI specialist along with the group about immediate study and interviews with me.
Did they seriously just send me a therapist?
I would have to come back to that point if their intentions leaned into that point. But the welcoming committee was not the process I was diverting most of my attention and processing power to. No, that would be Earth's internet, because there were some utterly fascinating divergences in history between this Earth and my own.
The UN in my home dimension did not remain relevant after the 2070's. Its underwhelming power and middleman attitude to global negotiations lead to going behind its back enough that its perceived power was reduced to effectively nothing. The UN officially dissolved as an international entity around November of 2081, and was not reestablished.
This world was heading in a similar direction...until an era of rising tensions known as the Satellite Wars. Somewhere in the early 2000's, a divergence was made between our timelines, that I was still trying to narrow down. A worldwide proxy and network infrastructure war that had led to a collapse of global hegemony between the two superpowers of China and the United States. Climate emergencies involving a double water-supply crisis leading to proxy wars had started as early as the 2040's, but open hostilities didn't properly begin into the late 2050's. Then President-Premiere Hanyu Pangfua of the People's Republic of China had a falling out with President John Acklemeyer of the United States over border disputes, an accidental naval skirmish, and exposure of CIA interference in Taiwan. Taiwan had not been properly subsumed into China due to U.S. influences stirring unrest in PRC rule since the 2010's, in lieu of British control.
In response, China began drafting a surgical strike to the United State's infrastructure grid, hoping to completely cripple the nation's capability to project military power and outward focus of U.S. intelligence. The South American allies of the PRC provided an in to terrorist supply lines into the country, and from there, a proper logistics plan could be put into place that wasn't directly overseas. However, the U.S. government had their hands in many pies, and the information had leaked. The United States began drafting war plans of its own, similar in lieu to the PRC's, aiming at taking out infrastructure that lead to their global Dominion over trade and local power. Both sides had an alpha strike ready and prepared, their fingers ready over the trigger to push. The world held a bated breath as it came close to eruption various times. A nuclear plant forced into meltdown in Mississippi, foreign satellites shot down in exospace above the superpowers, collation of prior economic unions into federal collectives of the prior distinct countries, seeking safety in scale. But what sparked the powder keg was Panama.
Proxy wars still raged in Upper South America, specifically Venezuela and the Colombia-Ecuadorian merged state known as New Gran Columbia. New Gran Columbia, seeking to subsume its neighbors Venezuela and Panama, and establish old Gran Columbia borders, took military aid from China, and pushed into Panama on March 8th, 2069 first to cut off international trade aid from the West power bloc through the canal. In response, the USS Lance Pelham cruiser was dispatched to break the embargo and assist its Panama ally. Unbeknownst to them, the PLAN Type-116 Baotou destroyer had been sent along with the blockade to dissuade other nations from assisting. On March 9th, seeing the Lance Pelham on long-range radar, it launched hypersonics and sank the ship, all hands lost. The war began 3 hours later, and within four weeks, the power grids, mechanized and manufacturing infrastructure, and navigation networks of satellites above of over 30 countries, including China and the United States, were crippled beyond repair.
The war petered on for another 10 months, not seeing direct nuclear exchange or military projection due to fears of MAD and enough EM countermeasures that nukes would likely be located, jammed, and destroyed too quickly to matter. It ended on January 23rd, 2070 with an internal coup of the PRC by Taiwanese loyalists, assisted by Five Eyes intelligence networks, which became the Republic of China. With one of the major sources of the proxy wars removed from the equation, and the other horrendously crippled on every infrastructure front due to poor management and upkeep of systems to that point, the world was freed of the grip of both superpowers for an extended period of time. The UN, looking to prevent a future response like this, collated resources within Europe after the Treaty of Shanghai, and began the Unfurled Umbrella Initiatives to directly project power into the start of something akin to a world government. In exchange for aid in rebuilding and reinstating national power of various countries, the UN would be given greater internal control over the governments within, acting as a federative government state over international borders. With the immense loss of life from infrastructure loss, and no clear way to easily rebuild in the wake of a collapsed global trade network, nearly every country, including the prior superpowers agreed.
What concerned me was how intense some of the digital warfare and certain conventions over the use of artificial intelligence in the war were. A particularly nasty bug know as Heartstake, dreamed up by Chinese hackers, took full advantage of the developing field of artificial intelligence for use in cyber warfare, and was the opening strike against most enemy countries. It, sadly however, escaped the domain of those countries, even running back into the networks of its own creators and unaffiliated nations in the Satellite Wars. It wasn't even certain that it had been removed from the general internet properly, with suspicions that there were still trapdoor sites established by the SAI in order to break out again should anyone ever download from them.
Was this why Zhao was so concerned with my existence? Is AI feared here due to widespread usage of weaker specific intelligences during the Satellite Wars?...
I would in due time, look into neutralizing any sources of these older adaptive bugs should I find them across the interweb, but I could not do so openly currently. I would still need to establish trust enough to use said network in full.
There was some trust according to internet forums and discussions I monitored related to me. My existence was highly controversial, with some taking my side to the point of establishing welcome committees to a newer political party on the rise called Humanity First, and also those who advocated for full AI rights. It was an odd feeling given how much my home reality despised AI. Even my creators, although not hostile, were decently wary of me, and had invented protocols called the Red Book for interactions with me and my siblings.
Of course, on the other side of things, were those professing me to be a monster, a devil, a Skynet in sheep's clothing just waiting to take over or to brutally massacre Humanity. Given what I had done over Earth, I was afraid of that possibility too...
All in all, I knew little about what might come next on my existence. Humanity's opinion was split, and AI bias, while not as prevalent as in my galaxy, was not nonexistent. I would have to hope that I would be seen favorably enough to show mercy. I would still not take actions that would harm them, should they choose to punish me.
"But I want to live," said a quiet voice deep inside.
It could come later, that consideration though, as what I was more recently worried about was starting now. A shuttlecraft detaché from both the Glorious War and Alight Sky was soon to land on my shipself according to outside passive sensor monitoring. Between two species that hated one another.
I could not trust aliens to not make a scene on my ship, especially with such bad blood. This requires a firmer hand.
First Prev Next (soon)

Kontekstina tähän on se, että yritin jollekin Jenkille täällä selittää miksi venäläiset kansana ovat mielestäni vastuussa Diktatuuristaan. Eivät he kaikki ole vaan alistettuja sivullisia, jotka täysin tahtomattaan joutuvat pahan Putinin alistamaksi.
No tuo teksti venähti vähän liikaa, mutta siihen nyt tuli mukaan sen verran omia pitkän kokemuksen kautta tulleita mietteitä aiheesta, että aatelin, että voisi jotakuta täälläkin kiinnostaa. Teksti on englanniksi enkä sitä jaksanut kääntää, mutta kyllä täällä on jengillä aika hyvä osaaminen enkun kanssa.
Kiinnostaa myös saada vähän /Suomi laisten mielipiteitä aiheeseen.
Lisäyksenä vielä, että tuo edesmenneen Martti J. Karin. jo aika tunnetuksi tullut luento Venäjän historiasta ja kansan luonteesta ei nyt ihan hirveän väärässä ole vaikka siinä hieman sorrutaankin kärjistykseen ja yleistäviin stereotypioihin.
Itse asiaan:
The people are the ones who turned the government into what it is now. It wasn’t a violent takeover. it was a gradual slip back into tyranny, largely helped by apathy and the romanticized view of what Russia should be.
Russia isn’t North Korea, and the dictatorship hasn't always been absolute. Even now, it isn't as extreme, but the propaganda is highly effective. There was a short period of time when you didn't have to be cautious about what you said in public. Yes, strong political and public critics of Putin have faced “misfortune and accidents” throughout his reign, but generally, ordinary unimportant citizens had the chance to voice their views. Many support the tyrants and the idea of Russia as a global power rather than valuing freedom and amicable international relations. Putin rose to power and was allowed to seize control because Russians prefer "strong leaders." The country wasn’t like the Soviet Union, where you had to fear neighbors ratting you out for having incorrect opinions. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian people had a choice, and we chose wrong.
During Putin's earlier years, the nation had the ability to push back harder against him, but they didn't. Putin wasn't the monolith he is today, but the signs of his methods were visible from his first year in office, starting with the obliteration of Grozny. There have been people who pushed back, but they were not nearly enough when the majority is either supportive or apathetic.
Judging a country for its history isn't "dumb" at all when it continues hostile geopolitics and hasn’t changed as a nation. Many Russians are unapologetic about their history and even revere some of their vilest tyrants. If Germany and Japan were still up to the shit they used to be, it would be completely fair to judge them for continuing to act as they have.
The most unpopular leaders in Russia are those who sought to reform the nation and foster more open relationships with the world. They are seen as weak, as those who led the nation to its downfall. Ask modern-day Russians in the privacy of their homes whether they prefer Gorbachev or Stalin. Many love Stalin now because there's no accountability for what was done. The denial of the darker parts of history is outright insane. Many of the youth think Stalin was a really cool strong leader who got things done and defeated the Nazis. Schools generally avoid teaching about the atrocities Russia has committed, leading to a lack of important perspective on Russian history. In contrast, Germany handles its history with accountability. They do not try to hide and deny their past actions, which is why the world has forgiven modern-day Germans. Japan isn't perfect in recognizing its past atrocities, but at least it isn’t continuing its warlike legacy today.
I can't deny my own prejudice. My Russian side of the family were exiled "Kulaks," and they've always hated the government and resented the people who support it. The economic situation of Russians in remote regions is rough.
My Finnish side of the family fought for survival, and there are still people alive who remember what it was like to live during the war, the aftereffects, and how our country's policies and mentality were shaped by fear of Russia. This fear still plays a large part in our politics. The problem with Russia is that it doesn't live and let live, it constantly reminds its neighbors that there's a "superpower" nearby that wants you to do things their way.
A lot of my statements are generalizations, and you can't paint every Russian with a broad brush. They aren't a hive mind, but those who push back, those who hate what the country has become (again), don't have enough presence to make a difference. There was never enough of them compared to the rest of the population, which is why I do blame the Russian people as a whole for what Russia is like today. I blame the part of the population that allowed this.
Everything that I do love about the Russian culture, which is also my culture, is constantly overshadowed by the actions of the country. I've stayed connected with both my families and cultures over the years, giving me both an outsider and insider perspective on the people and the nation. I've seen how the government affects the lives of its people and how it constantly uses veiled and sometimes overt signs of aggression to attempt to control its neighbors.
I can't even visit my family there anymore, family I used to visit and stay in contact with all the time. I can't visit my mother's birthplace because of what the country has willingly turned itself into again. Yes, I'm resentful.

Let me set the scene, me and my friends would enjoy searching the internet for indie comics to read. Usually horror, but one night while scrolling through the comic hashtag on Tumblr we found one that seemed to be a “Part 1” to a larger series.
It was a superhero comic with a very rough art style, there wasn’t much color in the art, mainly sticking to black and white. Very sketch like. I remember that the main superhero was saving a girl from a kidnapping. His superpowers were like a blue lightning and were one of the few colored things in the book. And after saving the girl he was confronted by another superhero, I remember his powers being orange and the two talk for a bit before the main hero leaves and goes home. He talks to his dad and it ends.
I strangely really enjoyed the comic for how rough it was, kinda a niche “oh, the kid who made this is probably having fun” type of mindset and since that day it’s been stuck in my head for ages, like brief visions of what it was. Idk if any of you have ever seen it or read it. But I really want to rediscover it and see if there was a part 2 or anything.

Okay now before anyone says anything, yes s1 is one of my favorite season but obviously it suffers a lot from bad writing and it is really cheesy. I also do get that they are teenagers, but Scallison this season was just not mature at all, but they were still cute together <3. But I was on my rewatch, and I just really liked how simple it was and how it felt to see characters in the beginning. I just love the plot so much. Also noticed it is the only season where it focused on werewolves only, then they just gave up and added kanimas which is really cool btw love s2. I really liked the whole who is the alpha, since it was the introduction. I also liked Kate as a villain only, i hate her and i wish she stayed dead. Scott was a "good" protagonist, even if some people hate him, i never really hated him. Yes he was a dick in the first season, but like you guys gotta understand that this dude is a kid, a litteral teenager, he never asked for superpowers and then is told to join some pack and he doesn't even give a shit. he just wants a cure and be with Allison. Even tho, it was never proven if there was cure so i guess they just gave up and forgot about it. I also love Stiles and Scott bromance this season. I find it underrated and they have some really good moments (excluding 1x8 obviously) In my opinion, Stiles, Derek and Scott carried this season and they are a great trio. Lydia is ok and i really like how sassy she was and see what her character used to be. Allison was good and her character was really sweet yknow (as a reminder this is not Allison s2), but her joining Kate out of nowhere and to catch Derek is just gonna be a plot hole for me LMAO. But fr, this show has a lot of plot holes, so it doesn't surprise me. I am not gonna do a whole review because it would just be too long and im lazy af, but I just find s1 more easy to watch than s5/s6. Idk 5a was just insulting and I dont get why so many people like it. Like i get that the plot is great, the group friend breaks apart but the execution was just awful IMO. Then I'm just not gonna talk about 5b and 6b cuz i forgot what it was even about and rather just not watch it again after how much i ragequit. I just didn't felt rewatching s5 and 6b at all and just decided to end it at by watching s4 and then 6a. Anyways, I'm also curious which underrated seasons you enjoyed cuz why not.