Manual e-cigarettes cardiff by the sea
Pressure Cooking!
2011.06.20 21:57 Hamsterdam Pressure Cooking!
2008.06.08 20:41 Hurricane Sandy
Information and discussion around Hurricane Sandy and the possible Frankenstorm/Snowicane/Noreastercane/Floodmageddon.
2014.10.22 14:57 Iron Throne Roleplay
ITRP is a Roleplaying game set in the A Song of Ice and Fire Universe by George RR Martin. Create a character and interact with a vast cast of other players! This is the premier roleplay on Reddit, with hundreds of characters and expansive plot lines!
2024.05.15 07:00 solo13508 Pulling out a win against all the odds!
Well as a new PS5 player I have already had my shares of both incredible and absolutely rotten luck. This story has to be the worst luck I've had in my short career on the game so far. And yet somehow against all the odds I managed to come out on top! (for the most part anyway). Without further ado... A short time ago... On a sea far far away...
Our story begins with me doing some good ol grinding for the Merchant Alliance. My emissary flag was Grade 4 and I knew that one more Lost Shipment voyage would likely get me to Grade 5 so I decided to spring for that and chose to dive to it. As soon as I come up I pick up my first clue and then immediately check the map for Reapers. I see 2 on the map. One is pretty far away. Another is closer than is comfortable but not close enough that I could spot with my telescope. Weary of my unwanted neighbors I sailed to my next location.
I arrive to the next island and pick up the next clue (along with the key to the captains cabin) without incident. Until I got back on my sloop anyway. I check the map again and see that the one Reaper is now headed in my direction. Now I am aware that what I did next was very stupid. I don't need you guys to tell me because I worked that out for myself thank you very much. But I couldn't actually see them with the naked eye just yet and for some reason I wanted to wait to see if they were actually coming for me or if they were just passing me by to go somewhere else.
I wait for about a minute and eventually I see what appears to be a fully crewed Reaper Galleon. And yessir they are gunning right for me! In hindsight it is very obvious that they were definitely coming for my emissary flag but for some reason that didn't occur to me at the time. Kicking myself for wasting so much time I lower the sail and get moving but they were already gaining thanks to the headstart I idiotically gave them. The chase was on!
Now a salty old pirate once told me that no ship on the Sea of Thieves can catch a sloop that's going against the wind. I had never actually tested this for myself but now was as good a time as any! Problem with that was the wind was very much in my favor (ironically enough) and while I was fast the galleon was faster. I knew I needed to turn around but being a solo slooper making a quick turn while still keeping track of where I was going and where my Reaper friends were was easier said than done. And they had just gotten within cannon range and had started trying to take my mast down. Thankfully that effort failed but plenty of their missed chainshots were smacking into my hull which was also no good.
I see a big rock coming out of the water to the right of my boat. I decided I would use it as my opportunity to turn around and hopefully get a chance at repairing my boat. So I halve my sail and start turning around the rock. This gave me some brief cover from the Reaper but they did manage to get a couple more shots in beforehand while I was moving slower. I manage to get around the rock and put my heading against the wind but in the process managed to clip the rock on my right side. My ship now had tons of holes which I had barely gotten a chance to repair any of. And the Reaper had come around the rock at that point and were taking as many shots at me as they still could likely realizing what I was planning. I lowered my sails all the way and quickly made my way below deck to frantically repair and bail as fast as I possibly could.
Somehow I managed to salvage the sloop in the absolute nick of time. I check out the back of the boat and breathe a massive sigh of relief as I see that speed is indeed now on my side. The Reaper is still chasing but they're dropping farther into the distance.
In the excitement of the chase I hadn't gotten a chance to check where my next clue led yet. I do so now and realize I'm actually already sailing directly towards the island I need. However this presents a problem as the Reaper is still on my tail and stopping to search the island will likely give them plenty of time to catch up. I realize that unfortunately I'm going to have to sail past the island until they eventually give up.
They literally never gave up. Even with me gaining more and more distance I could still see them tenaciously still on my tail. This went on for maybe 3-4 minutes before my unexpected savior arrived. Remember that other Reaper I saw on the map earlier? Well they show up (another Galleon) seemingly out of nowhere. They likely saw my emissary flag as well but fortunately they also saw the Reaper behind me and apparently decided that I was the lesser threat of the two ships. So they go right on by me to engage the other Reaper. (This is basically the only good luck I had throughout this entire tale).
I'll spare you all the minute details of the next 20ish minutes but long story short I managed to find all the other stuff I needed and eventually came upon the shipwreck whilst the two Reapers were still battling. I grab everything I need from there and check my map again. Once again it was just in the nick of time as one of the Reapers had finally sunk with the winner now coming for me once more.
I was now a Grade 5 emissary and had a good amount of loot on my boat. While I had initially intended to keep my flag up for longer I decided in the wake of the circumstances to make way for the nearest outpost and sell everything and get my flag down hopefully all before the Reaper caught up. That way I could face them head on without worrying about losing anything important.This time I managed to avoid my idiotic mistake from earlier and got moving immediately before they were even in sight. The next Outpost was close enough that I was fairly confident I could make it and do everything I needed before they got close enough to be a problem.
If only it were so easy. For it wasn't long before distinctly ominous music began playing. I'm not yet experienced enough that I knew immediately what was about to happen based off the music alone but I knew it definitely wouldn't be good as whatever appeared, dealing with it would likely burn the headstart I had on the much more pressing threat behind me. Seconds later a skeleton ship rises up right next to me. My heart sinks. Usually I'd take the time to deal with a skeleton ship myself but with the Reaper getting ever closer I simply did not have that kind of time. I knew I had no choice but to keep heading towards the outpost while fending off the skellies as best I could.
It did not go well. The skeletons were hitting me fast and the efforts of keeping my ship afloat kept me from checking that my heading was correct. I was also unable to check the position of the Reaper so while I knew that my clock was ticking I didn't know exactly when it was going to ring. I eventually managed to spot the outpost with my naked eye so I do my best to point myself at the Sovereigns and then head back down for more repairs.
I come back up to see that I'm about to crash directly into the Sovereign dock. I get on my wheel to desperately try to correct myself. I would've just barely had time to do so if a cannonball from the skeletons didn't come flying directly into my wheel and remove my steering capability. I end up crashing directly into their dock.
Knowing I wouldn't have time to position myself any better I hit the anchor and ran back down to start fixing as much as I could. It turned out to be a hopeless endeavor. For every hole I fixed the Skeletons would put a new one in me and since I was parked there was little I could do. Looking out the back of my ship I also finally see the Reaper coming. They're moving at a steady pace but still far enough that I had some time. I decide to just get onto the Sovereign's harpoon and start selling everything I could while my ship was still afloat and I still had my emissary flag.
Next problem arises: Turns out I had crashed into the dock in such a position that neither of the harpoons could reach my loot. This was now officially the worst case scenario. I had no choice but to manually move all the loot onto the dock whilst simultaneously bailing and repairing to keep my ship afloat while the skeletons continued harassing me and the Reaper crept ever closer. Somehow by the force of pure willpower I managed to sell most of the important stuff and keep the ship afloat before the Reaper finally arrived. Knowing I was officially out of time I ran for the Merchant representative as fast as I could to take my flag down. Again, at the absolute last possible second I managed to do it and collect my final payout before the Reapers opened fire on my helpless sloop. With the combined efforts of them and the Skeletons it wasn't long before my beautiful ship made her way to Davy Jones's locker.
But along with that I heard the most wonderful thing I had all day. One of the Reapers was yelling "God damn it they took the flag down!!!". They seemed to be in a general rage that they had lost out on most of the rewards from catching me. At this point I revealed myself and threw all my firebombs at their ship whilst taunting them for their wasted efforts. Of course I died in battle before long but I did so with great joy knowing that against all the odds I was the one who came out on top. And given that they had to presumably deal with the Skeleton ship after me I dare say that their hunt for me was far more trouble than I was worth. Ended up losing some of my loot but not enough to be of any major concern. Definitely not enough to make their efforts worthwhile anyway. I don't know for sure if it was the same Reaper who was hounding me from the beginning of this story but man I hope it was because that would only make my victory here all the sweeter! And thus this tale comes to it's righteous conclusion.
Fin.
submitted by solo13508 to Seaofthieves [link] [comments]
Our story begins with me doing some good ol grinding for the Merchant Alliance. My emissary flag was Grade 4 and I knew that one more Lost Shipment voyage would likely get me to Grade 5 so I decided to spring for that and chose to dive to it. As soon as I come up I pick up my first clue and then immediately check the map for Reapers. I see 2 on the map. One is pretty far away. Another is closer than is comfortable but not close enough that I could spot with my telescope. Weary of my unwanted neighbors I sailed to my next location.
I arrive to the next island and pick up the next clue (along with the key to the captains cabin) without incident. Until I got back on my sloop anyway. I check the map again and see that the one Reaper is now headed in my direction. Now I am aware that what I did next was very stupid. I don't need you guys to tell me because I worked that out for myself thank you very much. But I couldn't actually see them with the naked eye just yet and for some reason I wanted to wait to see if they were actually coming for me or if they were just passing me by to go somewhere else.
I wait for about a minute and eventually I see what appears to be a fully crewed Reaper Galleon. And yessir they are gunning right for me! In hindsight it is very obvious that they were definitely coming for my emissary flag but for some reason that didn't occur to me at the time. Kicking myself for wasting so much time I lower the sail and get moving but they were already gaining thanks to the headstart I idiotically gave them. The chase was on!
Now a salty old pirate once told me that no ship on the Sea of Thieves can catch a sloop that's going against the wind. I had never actually tested this for myself but now was as good a time as any! Problem with that was the wind was very much in my favor (ironically enough) and while I was fast the galleon was faster. I knew I needed to turn around but being a solo slooper making a quick turn while still keeping track of where I was going and where my Reaper friends were was easier said than done. And they had just gotten within cannon range and had started trying to take my mast down. Thankfully that effort failed but plenty of their missed chainshots were smacking into my hull which was also no good.
I see a big rock coming out of the water to the right of my boat. I decided I would use it as my opportunity to turn around and hopefully get a chance at repairing my boat. So I halve my sail and start turning around the rock. This gave me some brief cover from the Reaper but they did manage to get a couple more shots in beforehand while I was moving slower. I manage to get around the rock and put my heading against the wind but in the process managed to clip the rock on my right side. My ship now had tons of holes which I had barely gotten a chance to repair any of. And the Reaper had come around the rock at that point and were taking as many shots at me as they still could likely realizing what I was planning. I lowered my sails all the way and quickly made my way below deck to frantically repair and bail as fast as I possibly could.
Somehow I managed to salvage the sloop in the absolute nick of time. I check out the back of the boat and breathe a massive sigh of relief as I see that speed is indeed now on my side. The Reaper is still chasing but they're dropping farther into the distance.
In the excitement of the chase I hadn't gotten a chance to check where my next clue led yet. I do so now and realize I'm actually already sailing directly towards the island I need. However this presents a problem as the Reaper is still on my tail and stopping to search the island will likely give them plenty of time to catch up. I realize that unfortunately I'm going to have to sail past the island until they eventually give up.
They literally never gave up. Even with me gaining more and more distance I could still see them tenaciously still on my tail. This went on for maybe 3-4 minutes before my unexpected savior arrived. Remember that other Reaper I saw on the map earlier? Well they show up (another Galleon) seemingly out of nowhere. They likely saw my emissary flag as well but fortunately they also saw the Reaper behind me and apparently decided that I was the lesser threat of the two ships. So they go right on by me to engage the other Reaper. (This is basically the only good luck I had throughout this entire tale).
I'll spare you all the minute details of the next 20ish minutes but long story short I managed to find all the other stuff I needed and eventually came upon the shipwreck whilst the two Reapers were still battling. I grab everything I need from there and check my map again. Once again it was just in the nick of time as one of the Reapers had finally sunk with the winner now coming for me once more.
I was now a Grade 5 emissary and had a good amount of loot on my boat. While I had initially intended to keep my flag up for longer I decided in the wake of the circumstances to make way for the nearest outpost and sell everything and get my flag down hopefully all before the Reaper caught up. That way I could face them head on without worrying about losing anything important.This time I managed to avoid my idiotic mistake from earlier and got moving immediately before they were even in sight. The next Outpost was close enough that I was fairly confident I could make it and do everything I needed before they got close enough to be a problem.
If only it were so easy. For it wasn't long before distinctly ominous music began playing. I'm not yet experienced enough that I knew immediately what was about to happen based off the music alone but I knew it definitely wouldn't be good as whatever appeared, dealing with it would likely burn the headstart I had on the much more pressing threat behind me. Seconds later a skeleton ship rises up right next to me. My heart sinks. Usually I'd take the time to deal with a skeleton ship myself but with the Reaper getting ever closer I simply did not have that kind of time. I knew I had no choice but to keep heading towards the outpost while fending off the skellies as best I could.
It did not go well. The skeletons were hitting me fast and the efforts of keeping my ship afloat kept me from checking that my heading was correct. I was also unable to check the position of the Reaper so while I knew that my clock was ticking I didn't know exactly when it was going to ring. I eventually managed to spot the outpost with my naked eye so I do my best to point myself at the Sovereigns and then head back down for more repairs.
I come back up to see that I'm about to crash directly into the Sovereign dock. I get on my wheel to desperately try to correct myself. I would've just barely had time to do so if a cannonball from the skeletons didn't come flying directly into my wheel and remove my steering capability. I end up crashing directly into their dock.
Knowing I wouldn't have time to position myself any better I hit the anchor and ran back down to start fixing as much as I could. It turned out to be a hopeless endeavor. For every hole I fixed the Skeletons would put a new one in me and since I was parked there was little I could do. Looking out the back of my ship I also finally see the Reaper coming. They're moving at a steady pace but still far enough that I had some time. I decide to just get onto the Sovereign's harpoon and start selling everything I could while my ship was still afloat and I still had my emissary flag.
Next problem arises: Turns out I had crashed into the dock in such a position that neither of the harpoons could reach my loot. This was now officially the worst case scenario. I had no choice but to manually move all the loot onto the dock whilst simultaneously bailing and repairing to keep my ship afloat while the skeletons continued harassing me and the Reaper crept ever closer. Somehow by the force of pure willpower I managed to sell most of the important stuff and keep the ship afloat before the Reaper finally arrived. Knowing I was officially out of time I ran for the Merchant representative as fast as I could to take my flag down. Again, at the absolute last possible second I managed to do it and collect my final payout before the Reapers opened fire on my helpless sloop. With the combined efforts of them and the Skeletons it wasn't long before my beautiful ship made her way to Davy Jones's locker.
But along with that I heard the most wonderful thing I had all day. One of the Reapers was yelling "God damn it they took the flag down!!!". They seemed to be in a general rage that they had lost out on most of the rewards from catching me. At this point I revealed myself and threw all my firebombs at their ship whilst taunting them for their wasted efforts. Of course I died in battle before long but I did so with great joy knowing that against all the odds I was the one who came out on top. And given that they had to presumably deal with the Skeleton ship after me I dare say that their hunt for me was far more trouble than I was worth. Ended up losing some of my loot but not enough to be of any major concern. Definitely not enough to make their efforts worthwhile anyway. I don't know for sure if it was the same Reaper who was hounding me from the beginning of this story but man I hope it was because that would only make my victory here all the sweeter! And thus this tale comes to it's righteous conclusion.
Fin.
2024.05.15 05:30 delibirdguy Top 500 Songs Ever (Subjective)
Over the course of the past few months I have been working on compiling a list of my 500 favorite songs. It was sort of challenge that I gave myself and I'm super pumped with how it turned out. There were a few rules (only 5 songs per artist being the big rule, among a few others), and here's the list I came up with. Thought it was fun, so wanted to share here and see if it might spark any discussion about song placement, lack of songs/artists, or see if anyone had any similar lists. All thoughts are welcome! (and if you don't care to comb through all 500 songs for your favorite song or artist I'm more than happy to help you track 'em down)
submitted by delibirdguy to Music [link] [comments]
- Trash Panda - Aging out of the 20th Century
- Djo - Roddy
- The Beatles - Don't Let Me Down
- Snail Mail - Heat Wave
- Phoebe Bridgers - Savior Complex
- Joji - SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK
- The Shins - The Fear
- Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
- The Cranberries - Linger
- Post Animal - Ralphie
- Hop Along - Not Abel
- The Beach Boys - Heroes And Villains
- Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing
- The Monkees - As We Go Along
- Blondie - Heart Of Glass
- The Strokes - Oblivius
- Chet Baker - It's Always You
- The Beatles - Rain
- Electric Light Orchestra - Telephone Line
- Husbands - Must Be a Cop
- Faces - Ooh La La
- The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
- Frank Ocean - Nights
- Harry James - It's Been a Long, Long Time
- The Turtles - Happy Together
- Etta James - At Last
- The Zombies - The Way I Feel Inside
- The Beatles - Here, There And Everywhere
- The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
- Kanye West - Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1
- Briston Maroney - Sinkin'
- John Lennon - Oh My Love
- Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Ladyfingers
- Squirrel Flower - Headlights
- The Backseat Lovers - Maple Syrup
- The B-52's - Rock Lobster
- George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
- Snail Mail - Ben Franklin
- Laura Elliott - Grass Stains
- Djo - Chateau (Feel Alright)
- Tame Impala - Eventually
- The Backseat Lovers - Snowbank Blues
- Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune
- The Weeknd - Save Your Tears
- Talking Heads - Thank You for Sending Me an Angel
- The Zombies - Time of the Season
- The War On Drugs - Nothing to Find
- Queen - Brighton Rock
- The Dream Academy - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
- The B-52's - Strobe Light
- The Cranberries - Dreams
- Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song
- Molchat Doma - Тоска
- Tyler, The Creator - ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?
- The Mamas & The Papas - Dream A Little Dream Of Me
- The Chords - Sh-Boom
- The Beatles - The Abbey Road Medley
- The Ronettes - Be My Baby
- The Who - Baba O'Riley
- Dr. Dog - Where'd All the Time Go?
- M83 - My Tears Are Becoming A Sea
- Billie Eilish - everything i wanted
- Outkast - Hey Ya!
- Nat King Cole - Orange Colored Sky
- The Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize
- Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There
- Foreign Air - Shut Up and Show Me
- Leonard Cohen - So Long, Marianne
- dodie - If I'm Being Honest
- Briston Maroney - June
- Post Malone - Sunflower
- John Lennon - Isolation
- Buddy Holly & The Crickets - Not Fade Away
- Phoebe Bridgers - I Know The End
- Kanye West - All Falls Down
- Alvvays - Adult Diversion
- John Lennon - Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
- Clairo - Amoeba
- The Beach Boys - I Know There's An Answer
- Paul McCartney - Let Me Roll It
- Frank Ocean - Ivy
- Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
- Djo - Mutual Future (Repeat)
- Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street
- Childish Gambino - Me and Your Mama
- Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
- The Pied Pipers - Dream
- The Beach Boys - All I Wanna Do
- Djo - Change
- Второй этаж поражает - Крайности
- Little Richard - Lucille
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Shanghai
- Chet Baker - Deep In A Dream
- The Beatles - It's All Too Much
- Post Animal - Dirtpicker
- The B-52's - Love Shack
- EDEN - foreve/over
- Kanye West - Ultralight Beam
- The Zombies - Going Out Of My Head
- Talking Heads - Found a Job
- Snail Mail - Pristine
- Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
- Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
- WILLIS - I Think I Like When It Rains
- Chet Baker - But Not For Me
- Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me
- Tyler, The Creator - GONE, GONE / THANK YOU
- Djo - Half Life
- Trash Panda - Check Please
- Briston Maroney - Deep Sea Diver
- Beach Fossils - This Year
- Momma - Medicine
- Hop Along - Prior Things
- Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
- Electric Light Orchestra - Turn to Stone
- Briston Maroney - It's Not My Fault
- Tyler, The Creator - NEW MAGIC WAND
- Snail Mail - Headlock
- Phil Collins - Take Me Home
- Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
- The Beach Boys - Do It Again
- Tame Impala - Breathe Deeper
- Ella Fitzgerald - Misty
- Phoebe Bridgers - Waiting Room
- Kanye West - Runaway
- Daft Punk - Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)
- Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
- Kendrick Lamar - Alright
- Black Country, New Road - Concorde
- George Harrison - If Not for You
- Harry Styles - Cherry
- Ms. Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
- Paul McCartney - Junk
- Wings - Maybe I'm Amazed [Live]
- Talking Heads - Houses in Motion
- Del Water Gap - Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat
- Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
- Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye
- Paul McCartney - Jet
- Sufjan Stevens - Death with Dignity
- A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away)
- Tame Impala - Let It Happen
- Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love
- Clairo - Management
- Tommy James & The Shondells - I Think We're Alone Now
- Fergie - Clumsy
- Childish Gambino - This Is America
- Prefab Sprout - The King of Rock 'N' Roll
- Joy Again - Looking Out for You
- Beach House - Space Song
- John Lennon - Mind Games
- The Weeknd - Gasoline
- Weezer - Buddy Holly
- Phoebe Bridgers - Sidelines
- Tame Impala - New Person, Same Old Mistakes
- Lana Del Rey - A&W
- The Dillards - I've Just Seen a Face
- The Doors - Break on Through (To the Other Side)
- Julie London - I'm Glad There Is You
- 2Pac - California Love
- Dean Martin - Everybody Loves Somebody
- Snail Mail - Anytime
- The Strokes - The Adults Are Talking
- Jordana, TV Girl - Better in the Dark
- Juice WRLD - Hide (feat. Seezyn)
- The Wild Reeds - Get Better
- Finom - Mine
- Hop Along - One That Suits Me
- The Killers - Mr. Brightside
- Michael Cera - Clay Pigeons
- Clairo - Bags
- Prince - Let's Go Crazy
- The Zombies - She's Not There
- Blackstreet - No Diggity
- Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin
- John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads
- Harry James - I'm Beginning to See The Light
- The Clash - London Calling
- Charles Bradley - Changes
- Buddy Holly - (Ummmm, Oh Yeah) Dearest
- Eagles - Seven Bridges Road [Live]
- Moxie - Honey
- Faces - Stay with Me
- Post Animal - How Do You Feel
- New Order - Age of Consent
- Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
- Lana Del Rey - Doin' Time
- Twin Peaks - Blue Coupe
- Kanye West - Gold Digger
- Fruit Bats - The Bottom of It
- Frank Sinatra - Somethin' Stupid
- Lorde - Perfect Places
- Martha Tilton - Exactly Like You
- King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
- Glen Campbell - Southern Nights
- Claire Rosinkranz - Frankenstein
- Guillemots - Made-Up Lovesong #43
- Fleetwood Mac - Say You Love Me
- Frankie Valli - Can't Take My Eyes off You
- The Crickets - Don't Ever Change
- Paul Anka - Put Your Head On My Shoulder
- George Harrison - Isn't It a Pity
- Trash Panda - Off
- Super Besse - Holod
- Beyoncé - Hold Up
- Charlie Burg - I Don't Wanna Be Okay Without You
- Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling
- Ella Fitzgerald - It's A Lovely Day Today
- PERMSKY KRAY - Дорогой Человек
- The Little Dippers - Forever
- The B-52's - There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)
- Patti Page - Old Cape Cod
- Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
- The Soggy Bottom Boys - I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
- Trash Panda - Things Will Never Change
- Hop Along - Well-dressed
- Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me
- TV Girl - Daughter of a Cop
- LAUNDRY DAY - Jane
- Tyler, The Creator - EARFQUAKE
- Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11
- Joji - Gimme Love
- The Backseat Lovers - Pool House
- The Weeknd - Take My Breath
- Mild High Club - Homage
- Doc Watson - Am I Born to Die?
- Daniel Caesar - Streetcar
- The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
- John Lennon - #9 Dream
- Tame Impala - Elephant
- Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell
- Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
- KIDS SEE GHOSTS - 4th Dimension
- Soft Cell - Tainted Love
- The B-52's - Song for a Future Generation
- Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
- Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans
- Billie Eilish - Halley's Comet
- Glenn Miller - In the Mood
- Kid Bloom - Control
- The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build A Home
- Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
- Brenda Lee - If You Love Me (Really Love Me)
- TV Girl - Lovers Rock
- Art Lown - Knew You Well
- Dean Martin - Ain't That A Kick In The Head
- Miniature Tigers - Like or Like Like
- Electric Light Orchestra - Sweet Talkin' Woman
- The Hunts - Ages
- The Cars - Good Times Roll
- Bill Withers - Lovely Day
- Drake - God's Plan
- Kansas - Point of Know Return
- The Neighbourhood - Stargazing
- The Clash - Rock the Casbah
- Hop Along - What the Writer Meant
- Briston Maroney - Under My Skin
- Jack Stauber - Buttercup
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Ya Love
- Ginger Root - Loretta
- Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
- Frank Ocean - Pyramids
- Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
- Destroy Boys - I Threw Glass at My Friend's Eyes and Now I'm on Probation
- Mild High Club - Dionysian State
- Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
- Kevin Abstract - Empty
- The Frights - Crust Bucket
- Stealers Wheel - Stuck In The Middle With You
- The Shins - Fighting in a Sack
- fun. - We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe)
- Lil Uzi Vert - Money Longer
- Miniature Tigers - Cannibal Queen
- The Doors - Touch Me
- Jean Dawson - Clear Bones
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Catching Smoke
- Molchat Doma - Люди Надоели
- The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed
- Billie Eilish - ocean eyes
- BOYO - Crown
- The 1975 - Somebody Else
- Husbands - She's a Betty
- Syd Barrett - If It's In You
- Trash Panda - Atlanta Girls
- Frank Ocean - Godspeed
- Alice Phoebe Lou - Glow
- Childish Gambino - Redbone
- New Order - Blue Monday
- Post Animal - Schedule
- Harry Styles - Fine Line
- Harry James - I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
- Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
- Chet Baker - I Fall In Love Too Easily
- The Cranberries - Put Me Down
- John Mayer - Edge of Desire
- George Harrison - All Those Years Ago
- Electric Light Orchestra - The Diary of Horace Wimp
- Alex Clare - Too Close
- Eric B. & Rakim - Know The Ledge
- Peter Frampton - Show Me The Way [Live]
- Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson
- Black Eyes - Deformative
- The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
- Bonny Light Horseman - Deep In Love
- The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
- Cage The Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams
- Hot Flash Heat Wave - Raindrop
- Clairo - Sofia
- Kendrick Lamar - PRIDE.
- Camille Saint-Saëns - The Swan
- Weezer - Say It Ain't So
- C418 - Sweden
- Lana Del Rey - Let The Light In (feat. Father John Misty)
- The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
- Pickin' On Series - Those to Come
- Lana Del Rey - Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he's deep-sea fishing (feat. RIOPY)
- John Mayer - Moving On and Getting Over
- Field Medic - POWERFUL LOVE
- Cage The Elephant - Flow
- Joji - Run
- The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
- Boston - Peace of Mind
- Ben E. King - This Magic Moment
- David Bowie - Starman
- Beastie Boys - Sabotage
- Harry Belafonte - Banana Boat (Day-O)
- Gene Krupa & His Orchestra - Rhumboogie
- The Cardigans - Lovefool
- The Kinks - You Really Got Me
- The Zombies - She's Coming Home
- Michael Jackson - Thriller
- Moxie - Blue Skies
- The Mamas & The Papas - Straight Shooter
- Peter, Paul and Mary - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
- Green Day - Brain Stew
- Dua Lipa - Levitating (feat. DaBaby)
- The Police - Roxanne
- Britney Spears - Toxic
- Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
- Rex Orange County - Pluto Projector
- The Strokes - Call It Fate, Call It Karma
- Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still
- The Black Crowes - Twice As Hard
- Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
- fun. - Some Nights
- Wings - Silly Love Songs
- Paramore - Still into You
- Peter Frampton - Baby, I Love Your Way [Live]
- The Monkees - Last Train to Clarksville
- Royel Otis - Oysters In My Pocket
- The Backseat Lovers - Growing/Dying
- Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
- Post Animal - Goggles
- Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No. 1
- Childish Gambino - IV. Sweatpants
- Steely Dan - Dirty Work
- ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me
- Still Woozy - Goodie Bag
- Arlo Parks - Black Dog
- Goth Babe - Weekend Friend
- George & the Handsomes - Sleepy Beats
- boygenius - 20
- The Mills Brothers - You Always Hurt The One You Love
- Travis Scott - SICKO MODE
- Pinegrove - Need 2
- The Backseat Lovers - Sinking Ship
- Franz Schubert - Ave Maria
- Zac Brown Band - Knee Deep (feat. Jimmy Buffett)
- Justin Timberlake - Mirrors
- Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia
- The Cranberries - Zombie
- Daniel Caesar - Japanese Denim
- Billie Holiday - Easy Living
- ISLAND - By Your Side
- Phil Collins - Tomorrow Never Knows
- Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
- The Four Freshmen - Day By Day
- Fleetwood Mac - The Chain
- Billy Joel - Big Shot
- Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
- Yot Club - down bad
- Rihanna - Stay
- Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act 2: No. 10, Scene. Moderato
- The White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
- Alvvays - Easy On Your Own?
- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires
- Blackway - What's Up Danger (with Black Caviar)
- Albert Hammond - It Never Rains in Southern California
- Matt Maltese - Jupiter
- John Denver - Mother Nature's Son
- Childish Gambino - Sober
- Claire Rosinkranz - Pools and Palm Trees
- The Cars - Just What I Needed
- The Doors - Light My Fire
- Blondie - Tomorrow Never Knows
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Hell's Itch
- The Japanese House - Saw You In A Dream
- Franz Schubert - String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, Op. 29 No. 1, D. 804
- The Drifters - White Christmas
- The 1975 - Robbers
- George Harrison - Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
- The Frights - Tongues
- Paramore - Ain't It Fun
- Billy Joel - Pressure
- Frank Sinatra - My Way
- Art Lown - Going Back to Carolina
- Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are
- Under The Rug - Lonesome & Mad
- The Mamas & The Papas - Dedicated To The One I Love
- Foster The People - Sit Next to Me
- Weezer - Undone - The Sweater Song
- Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
- Tia Blake - Plastic Jesus
- Los Bravos - Bring a Little Lovin'
- Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
- Minnie Riperton - Les Fleurs
- Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself
- Cody Fry - I Hear a Symphony
- Gringo Sapiens - Driver's Licence
- Vacations - Relax
- Glitter Party - time waits
- Steve Lacy - Bad Habit
- The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
- The Pied Pipers - Mairzy Doats
- Mitski - Bug Like an Angel
- James Ray - I've Got My Mind Set On You
- Clairo - Bubble Gum
- Masayoshi Takanaka - SEXY DANCE
- Nat King Cole - (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
- Sleigh Bells - Crown On the Ground
- Olivia Rodrigo - favorite crime
- No Doubt - Just A Girl
- Foreigner - Long, Long Way from Home
- Heart - Crazy On You
- The Hunts - Darlin'
- David Bowie - Heroes
- Alice Phoebe Lou - Hammer
- Thee Oh Sees - Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster
- Roar - I Can't Handle Change
- TV Girl - Birds Dont Sing
- Laufey - From The Start
- Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group - Freight Train (feat. Nancy Whiskey)
- Metro Boomin - Am I Dreaming
- Liana Flores - rises the moon
- POP ETC - Speak Up
- Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff
- The Platters - Twilight Time
- Derek & The Dominos - Layla
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Homeless Man in Adidas
- Charlie Burg - Lovesong (The Way)
- Hot Flash Heat Wave - Gutter Girl
- ABBA - Fernando
- Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine
- Savannah Conley - More Than Fine
- Young the Giant - Mind Over Matter
- Future Crib - Yer Movin'
- Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
- benches - Violent
- Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie
- Olivia Rodrigo - vampire
- Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone - City Of Stars
- Maya Hawke - Thérèse
- Current Joys - A Different Age
- Wayne Newton - Danke Schoen
- La Roux - Bulletproof
- Jason Segel, Walter - Man Or Muppet
- U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes
- The Ink Spots - Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall
- Ace of Base - The Sign
- Vulfpeck - 1612
- Nordista Freeze - Hey GiGi
- The Chainsmokers - New York City
- Suki Waterhouse - Johanna
- Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That
- Calvin Harris - Summer
- The Rare Occasions - Notion
- a-ha - Take on Me
- Rush - Working Man
- Traffic - Dear Mr. Fantasy
- Starbuck - Moonlight Feels Right
- Van Halen - Drop Dead Legs
- The Troggs - Wild Thing
- Led Zeppelin - Good Times Bad Times
- The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
- Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love
- Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (feat. Timbaland)
- David Bowie - Suffragette City
- Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight"
- Avicii - Wake Me Up
- The Who - La-La-La-Lies
- The Spinners - The Rubberband Man
- MGMT - Time to Pretend
- Hootie & The Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
- Sheck Wes - Mo Bamba
- Claire Rosinkranz - 123
- Ringo Starr - Photograph
- The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
- Duran Duran - Rio
2024.05.15 05:22 featherwinglove I did it again, a new Trimps novelization (more faithful to story messages than the other one) Tightniks Run Zero
[OC Intro: The game is modded to increase basic jobs cost, seasonal events are disabled. Much of the crash details are based on NASA/SP-2008-565 Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report recommendations especially Chapter 3 "Occupant Protection".]
The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries. He has only a few minutes of APU power left, goes over the best clearing he can find, and radars it. It varies by only a few feet from the aerodynamic glideslope there. He spots it out on the cameras and circles to go after that spot. He's only at two hundred feet now. With one hand on the stick, he uses the other to open the pressure equalization valve on the side hatch, then at one hundred feet, gets it undogged. Depending on how much damage he's going to get, it's less likely to be stuck closed and trap him. The dynamic vacuum this pulls in the cockpit rips most of the survival pack data cards from that rack and scatters them across the landscape. Crap, I'm gonna need those! Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, he turns on the radar for the final approach, takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and PFD, he clicks his HANS and shoulder strap locks in; after that, he can barely move, but that now is better than dying in this crash with a broken neck. He's a decent pilot and brings up the flare gently. Bringing up the alpha on this delta-winged ship, he balloons a little, but keeps the nose going up and restores a zero aerodynamic sink rate just above the highest terrain indicated by the radar altimeter. The ship bumps a little in the ground effect, and he can see the radar altitude cycling irregularly up and down about five feet at a time. Rougher than it looked from higher up! The body flap protecting the dead engines hits first, and the nose comes rapidly down. It hits, the screens go blank, and Tightniks is surrounded by airbags, some lifting his feet from the rudder petals and his hand from the control stick. It's blinding, it's disorienting, it's noisy, and, to his relief, it's long! It takes several seconds before the crashing cockpit stops moving. How many times did he flip over? Did he go sideways and roll? Am I rightside up? Are we really stopped on the ground? The airbags deflate, and he can move his arms. He gets his restraints loose and inspects himself. "Uck!" he says out loud (without the 'f'). No broken bones. His pressure suit can take his blood pressure. 116/81, pulse 112, blood oxygen 99 reads off on his left arm, I'll friggin' take it!
The ship is amazingly intact from what he can tell. He can't get any readings. The systems test meter seems to be working, but can't find any voltages anywhere. The ship seems to be completely dead. Behind him, 10 passenger seats are all surrounded by airbags and the back of the cabin ends in some sort of dirt-and-gravel and there's a bit of daylight seeping in around the edges. He was the only one on board, though, so their deployment was mostly academic (they might have stiffened the structure a little during the crash, but that's probably trivial.) Tightniks gets out of his spacesuit. The air on this planet is actually breathable. He gets the hatch open, steps outside and-
"A green shimmer erupts then disappears, and you hit the ground."
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. Where am I? What's my name? I remember nothing. Aren't babies born naked? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Gets up, looks around. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He picks up a small stone from the ground, this also feels heavier than it should. He rises to his feet and holds it out somewhat (he's unable to fully extend his arm) and lets it go. The stone hits the ground near his feet quickly and with remarkable speed. It's the gravity, it's greater than it is on- ...where am I from? This is- ...not my home planet? "Oooh..."
"Ka?" it says.
What is that? It's cute, at least.
It is not tame. He has no hope of catching it on foot. The creature seems to like the berries. Maybe if I gather some of those into one place and set some kind of trap...
33s: First trap.
I got one! The human lumbers up to the trap and gets the catch open. Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to me; I'm so friggin' screwed.
It doesn't. It looks at the human with a sense of wonder, actually. A blink and tilt of the head. Seems almost to be asking, Is it you? My purpose? My savior? Once out of the trap, which is totally wrecked, he has to make a new one from scratch, it follows him around like a imprinted hatchling bird.
Wiry little fella, you are. You're going to need some bulking up to do anything useful. The- ...'trimp', I guess... The trimp seems just barely able to feed itself. The human lets him into the broken ship's intact cabin, and it curls up comfortably in a passenger seat for a nap.
1m03s: Second trap.
"Apparently the Trimps breed if they're not working. Doesn't look pleasant."
What are they doing?
The trimps appear to be androgynous, and these two have paired off in the back of the ship. They're holding something carefully within a few hours, feeding it berries, grass, and- ...corundum.
Corundum?? Whatever that is, it isn't a baby.
1m35s: Third trap.
Only it IS a baby! The third trimp he trapped immediately joined the other two in raising it. They have a strange diet of food the human has found compatible with his own body, but they also eat rocks! They're careful to crush and sort aluminate minerals from silcate ones and only eat aluminate. Actually, they don't eat aluminate, they're only feeding it to the baby.
2m06s: Fourth trap.
All four are raising the same child, who is just starting to toddle. It seems these fellas have alumina or maybe even aluminum bones. The human takes a nap and wakes to find the first child grown up and they're starting to raise a second child, all five of them.
2m46s: Huts.
The human found a working bit of electronics. He calls it a pad, but maybe it's more like a smartphone. It has plans for two residential structures. The first, the smaller one, he can build right away, but the second one needs something called "drywall", and he has to figure out how to make that before he can build it. Huts and houses, apparently.
3m13s: 10 pop, full, first farmer.
The trimp he trained to farm and make paper took an incredible 50 units of food to get bulked up to do the work, and now it's not participating in rearing the child. But less than an hour after the trimp started farming and pulping, the child was out on its own, and the trimps did not start another. The ten seats on the ship were all full. Well, eleven counting the one up front that the human sleeps in. The pilot starts exploring the area.
3m28s: Battle.
Wait, what are you do-
The hostile roars and charges at the human, but one of his trimps jumps in front of him with a stick and they fight. It started right when the human got far enough away from the ship that the hostile non-trimps away from the ship began to regard him as leaving his own territory. After the trimp defeats the first enemy, it continues after other hostiles.
3m53s: Shield I in Z1c5.
The human is easily able to recover the loot in the territory cleared by the fighting trimp. Then he sees something glinting in the- That can't be! What the heck is that? It's a data card that fits his pad. It quite clearly regards trimp combat. He gets it loaded into his pad and studies it. I can do this, it just takes some wood. He returns to the ship to discover that they had already started on a new child before the fighter had even expired in battle. The human concentrates on his research.
4m38s: Mskel in Z1c11 defeated.
The remains of this one seem rather white and shiny. It's titanium! This enemy had titanium bones! He'll store them away. They'll be useful someday, I'm sure.
5m52s: Dagger I in Z1c20.
Where are these data cards coming from? The human wonders as he loads this one into his pad, It's for a weapon it calls a dagger. He blinks. I don't know what a dagger is. I'll take your word for it, data card. Needs metal. He has gathered some, but ore is plentiful. He can just dig and smelt it whenever he wants. For now, I'll continue researching.
6m18s: Arable in Z1c21.
It's an old cave that trimps like to live in. Why weren't they able to live there before? How could these friendly critters be confined to only the exact spot where THAT thing, he looks back where he came from, not remembering that he piloted the wrecked ship to its current resting place, crashed? This is really strange. I'll let them fill up this cave before advancing further. Wait, what about defenses? The hostiles never try to reclaim territory that they've lost, so he stops worrying about that fairly quickly.
8m22s: First hut is 0.3% first ever AP.
The trimps seem fairly easy to please in terms of living quarters. Two move into his first hut and start raising a child. The human has his tent, uniform, and the heater pilfered from his space suit. Not much of a mud fan.
9m59s: Miners in Z1c30.
Oh, what's on this data card? Sl3niw? Oh, I'm holding the pad upside down. Miners. I can teach trimps how to mine ores and smelt met- 200 units of food? Each job is getting more expensive to train a trimp for. He puts his bee nickels to his eyes and spots another data card probably 10 enemies away. "Sc"? Does that means science? I can teach trimps to do science??
13m57s: Scientists in Z1c40.
Due to the expense of training trimps, the human couldn't afford to build them shields until now, he's got Sh1-3 made for the fighter to capture the science training data card. 14m02s: One head went into that turtlimp shell, that of his fighter, but two came out: his fighter still has his head on, and he managed to get the turtlimp's head off. It rushes off after the deadly penguimp in the next cell. The shields are not doing all that much good, actually, but they're better than nothing. The human picks up and loads the science data card and- Holy runny sugar-free fudge crap! 1000 food units, but it'll endow them with the ability to speak. Good. I'm getting bored with no one to talk to.
14m28s: Bloodlust purchased and AutoFight enabled (that delay after getting it is an effect of jacking up the job cost.)
As the human buries this expired little trimp warrior, he comes to the sobering realization that he has more trimp graves in his growing trimp colony than he does live trimps. And yet they seem more hopeful now than before I got to know any of them. They seem to think I'm the solution to all their problems or- Those two look east somberly, then notice that he's watching them and smile back and wave at him. ...one problem that is specific, but very, very huge for them. [The only reason I say 'east' is because that's right on a map, and the game advances right across a row, then up. I might say 'northeast' on occasion for that reason.]
20m47s: Z1c73, Miners taken.
Are you my new mining foreman? The trimp who took to the mining training has dark brown fur that lays flat on its head. It's unusual in not having any bits that stick out from its head, ahoge or whatever. This one is relatively quiet, and while it has assimilated the mining and smelting knowledge, it needs to bulk up to do any mining. Smelting is relatively easy, and getting a strong natural draft going in a furnace is almost trivial with the increased gravity. This trimp builds furnaces like nothing. And likes to nap in holes it digs right on the spot; it's weird that way. [Puchim@s Yukipo, and furnaces are not explicit in Trimps.]
21m58s: Farming in Z1c80.
The resourcing "books" are not data cards but paper scrolls, apparently lost to the trimps. It seems that they were civilized in the recent past and some calamity swept over the planet to reduce them to this. Did I have something to do with it? Amnesia sucks harder than a Dyson- ...what's a Dyson? Whatever, it sucks. This disaster happening just before I crash in the only spot with trimps still alive would be a seriously crazy coincidence! Something is really, really wrong about all this. [The author has not sought or received product placement permission or fee from Dyson Technology Ltd. or any resellers of their stuff, just they literally suck balls and made my favorite vacuum cleaner.]
23m50s: Builder in Z1c90.
They've rescued an, I dunno, gelding trimp? It just started to build a shed around the piled lumber I left to build one. It's really slow compared to me, and just banged its thumb, but it is super cute with that long reddish head fur. That particular trimp is also fascinated with pink ribbons and likes to decorate its head fur with them. Because of its inherent inability to participate in rearing children, it isn't counted in the population. [Puchim@s Io, builder on the basis of Iori seen building in 1x10.]
26m02s: Zone 2, 44 pop, 5.5s RC with Z0/1.
It's some sort of tactical manual - tactical coordination. Coordination! He's starting to sort out some trimpese on the research he has done so far. It needs a lot of metal, so they won't be able to implement it for some time. Hopefully, they're still good one at a time, but these enemies seem to be getting bigger as we go along. Uh oh!
27m33s: Gym in Z2c5.
It's some sort of training dojo or sporting arena. The human examines the ruins, I think I can back-engineer drawings for this, get one built, and see what happens.
29m02s: 1g, 47 pop, 10.8s RC with Z1/2.
The two fighting trimps now with their gym and coordination are dodging and blocking enthusiastically, and making much faster ground against the bad guys then a little while ago when it was just one trimp fighting at a time and unable to avoid the enemy hitting back.
40m46s: Fresh turkimp in Z2c74, 63 pop, 7.9s RC, Sh1-10, Da1-5, Bo1-3, Ma1-3, Hm1-3, 6g.
Oh, wow, the laborers seem really hot after this turkimp. He cooks it up and tries a slice. It's really awesome! I have to work alongside his laboring trimps to share it, but I'm getting used to the gravity now. That scroll we found back in Z2c10 really helped. Trimps' techniques and appliances for handicapped individuals, and I'm really handicapped in this higher gravity. He joins the woodcutters with the turkimp; they're the most numerous resource laborer right now, building more gyms, enough that the block/dodge ability of the fighting trimps is almost caught up to the enemy's ability to cause damage.
43m15s: Zone 3, 63 pop, 7.9s RC with Z1/2.
I'm neglecting my science and trimp scientists are really expensive. Curiously, that grey-haired one can't speak all that well, only says "Tai" and "Shijou", but it can write and draw like nobody's business. It's the only scientist so far. [Puchim@s Takanya: Online references probably still claim that she can utter the first two syllables of any word, but she can actually utter only the first two kana syllables of someone's name, most often the given name of basis human Takane Shijou, who also has that habit. (All the utterances of the puchidoru are based on the speech foibles of their basis humans except maybe Piyopiyo, where I haven't seen anything match up so far.)]
47m32s: Finally, we can make drywall and houses. 59m30s: Z3c77, 94 pop, 7.8s RC.
Oh, those poor things are really struggling up at the front. These trimps are enthusiastic and know no fear, but I still feel like telling them to stop for a while. I don't have the heart to keep them from trying while they're still doing some damage.
1h05m24s: Zone 4, 107 pop, 9.3s RC with Z3/4. 1h15m26s: Zone 5, 120 pop, 8.2s RC with Z3/4.
"What is that?" the human asks. He has three scientists. His first does all the writing, but the other two can actually speak. One of them hops up on a rock spire beside the human to reach his eye level.
At the next ridge line, over the lowest and most passable gap in the terrain, this really mean looking hovering sausage monster.
"I dunno," the scientist trimp shrugs, "But it's making me hungry. Looks like a perfectly cooked frankfurter from here." [John Morell's dubious dirigibles.]
"Oh, yeah," the human nods, "that's a blimp."
"A blimp?" the trimp tilts its head quizzically at the human, "How could you know?"
"I wish I could tell you, little buddy," the human extends his arm braces to descend the pass on the side of the zone boundary in the boss enemy's direction, then grunts, "Let's go kill it."
1h16m11s: Z1c9, 120 pop, 10.3s RC with Z4/5. 1h33m34s: Zone 6, 151 pop, 7.4s RC with Z4/5.
1h33m54s: TP in Z1c3.
"What's this?" the human asks, having picked up the little square document with the curling corners.
"Oh," the hungry scientist looks at it, "It's a garden path, follow me."
"You want to lead me down the garden path?" the human says.
"Yeah," the scientist says.
"Are you kidding?" the human asks.
"No," says the other scientist, "We don't get human humor. Listen, these fighters can't go, let them wear themselves out here, then we'll take the next group through this garden."
"Okay," the human nods, watching two more trimps join the fray as he issues the Z5 coordination orders, "they're doing pretty well after all that block training research we just wrapped up." [That's a common artifact, even in normal games, Z5 Traintacular combines with many gyms, enough population to add several trainers, affording Blockmaster, which is expensive on a run zero, plus a break on Tion Z5, a 40% all-stat increase. I don't think Zach designed it into the game on purpose, it just worked out this way.]
1h34m07s: 151 pop, 10.5s RC with Z5/7. 1h37m44s: Drop from Z6c39, TP for 3.
"Now we have these access map frags we can use to route through the old trimpopoli," the scientist explains, "Atlimpis for food, Morimpa for gems, Everimp for metal, and Impazon for wood."
"What about the garden?" the human asks.
"Well, we got lucky with Tricky Paradise," the scientist says, "but you can randomize the route and maybe get lucky. What's with that look?"
"Somehow, I'm remembering 'frag' as something that blew up with deadly pieces," the human says. [Different video games - ones with better graphics and worse gameplay Ｏ(>▽<)Ｏ]
1h39m59s: Blues back up to the top on series I...
"Tai, Tai!" the first ever trimp scientist stops the human just before he upgrades the mace and dagger to Mk.6 and Mk. 8 respectively. It has a note for him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the human asks, "Do you think that's my name?"
"Shijou, Shijou," it nods as though to indicate, I KNOW it is. Then it proffers its note again. The human takes it and reads, "Don't upgrade the first row equipment right now."
"Why not?" the human asks.
"Shijou," it points at the end of the mapped route, where there's a scroll sticking out of the thistles.
2h24m07s: Zone 8, 224 pop, 12.2s RC with Z7/12.
"Your settlement is getting crowded, there's Trimps in the streets, and you're taking heat. You feel a sudden strong desire to create a map, though you're not quite sure how that would help."
2h49m10s: Zone 9, 357 pop, 9.5s RC with Z8/15.
"You can't shake the feeling that you've been here before. Déjà-vu?"
The trimps really seem to like the new high capacity mansions, and the village has rapidly expanded since they started building them.
"There's something familiar about this," the human says.
"Tai," the grey one that writes clings to his arm and shows him a note that says, "Don't give up now."
"We must persist," says the yellow one has found a foothold it can grab onto and grabs the human's shoulder gently, "If you give up to early, we'll never solve this. You'll be stuck here forever."
The human puts his hand over the trimp's paw on his shoulders, then looks at him, "I can die, too."
"No, you can't," the trimp says quietly, "Please don't test that, tall one."
"Death is just another path..." he remembers.
"Gan," the grey one squeaks. [That's the first two kana syllables of "Gandalf"]
"...one that we all must take," the human continues, "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it-"
"A green mist," the yellow trimp interrupts, "flash of fire, we're all gone and our progress forgotten. The wandering stars return to that day, and you again crash that ship- ...a little better every time."
"Wait," the human looks around, "have I been here before?"
"I-" the yellow trimp tries in futility to share what little it knows, "...or... somebody got just a little coolant into the-"
"Into the what?"
"This side up," the grey one's note says.
"Into the that," the yellow one points at the note, "It really helped. You- ...I don't think we've ever had mansions before."
Well, of course they didn't have mansions before. That was one of my ship's data cards. How did it get way out here? Will anything start to make sense?
3h02m13s: Zone 10, 387 pop, 8.7s RC with Z8/15; '28s: 11.1s RC with Z9/19. 3h16m41s: Tough snimp after food book, L10 rand dept from lo-hi-med 118/25/96, 4 Items.
"That's twice our frags led us to gem-rich Moria," the human says.
"Morimpa," the new red trimp scientist corrects, there now being 5 scientists. [There'd be more if there were more turkimp.]
"The question is how do we use all these gems?" the human looks at the village zoning plans again, "I like those mansions and all, but they use hardly any gems compared to, well-" he gestures at the pile of over two dozen thousand gems they've gathered, "-that! And still a lot of wood and lumber."
"I think there's something," the yellow one sighs, "I wish I knew more."
Quite some time later, after they're done looting that route for equipment plans, the trimps are again advancing through Zone 10, and he hears it.
"Tai?" the grey one wonders.
"Where are you going?" the yellow one asks.
"To the farm," the human answers.
"Whatever for?" the red one seems exasperated.
"Shijou?" the grey one sighs, then looks at the fighting front. It's been around long enough to remember, "Shijou!"
"You guys already get so much to eat this doesn't do you much good," the human explains.
3h32m33s: L11 112/35/78 rand sea, dropped from Z11c6 with disband, 4.
"What's wrong?" the red one asks.
The human comforts one of the wounded. Once trimps start into a zone fight, they have to finish before they bleed out. He's really bothered making them desert in front of that second turkimp. "They had a lot left in them," he sighs, rubbing his eyes, "but we can't keep that much dead turkimp at once, we have to leave it alive to use up all of this one."
"Shijou," the grey one presents a note, "We need this map right away, anyway. Don't worry about it, Tightniks."
"Tightniks?" he looks at the grey one, "Is that me? How do you know?"
"Tai," the grey one points at the top of the human's left breast pocket.
"Ah, crud," the yellow one curls its tail around in front of itself as trimps do when they're embarrassed, "Is that really a name tag?"
The human hadn't even noticed it since the green flash blew up his memory as he was stepping out of the ship.
4h04m22s: Block (sub-8h AP is only 0.3%), taking it, 504 pop, 9.8s RC with Z10/24.
It's a pretty thick book about using shields for block instead of hit points. The pad has the stats analysis. Sh3-1 is only giving us 9% of our hit points. Turning to his trimp scientists, he says, "It seems to me to be worth it."
"Let's," the yellow one nods.
"Shijou," it hands him a note, "It scales badly, but that won't matter for a long time. I think there's a way to undo it before it matters."
"Doing it." The human takes out his pad and starts scanning.
4h29m05s: L14 rand moun 137/26/80 is really good for a lo-hi-med. 4h30m52s: Hotels.
"Ah," the yellow one says, "I knew there was something. That must be it."
5h08m09s: L15 lo-hi-hi rand gard 129/28/82 (just got explorers). 5h09m32s: Picked up Wall.
"Dam," the human says.
"Damn?" the red one chuckles.
"No," the human says, "Earthen wall dam; it's a thing that makes artificial lakes by holding rivers back."
"Lakes?" the yellow one asks, "Rivers?"
"Oh yeah," the human says, "This planet doesn't have enough rain for those..."
5h48m21: Leaving Wall from about c70 to fetch Tion Z15.
"You can't resume the map from the same point if you start another," the human reads the grey one's note.
"We can go back to the same point on that route if we hold there and finish Zone 15, right?" Tightniks asks.
"Shijou!" it seems to be saying yes.
"Yes," the yellow one adds, "but we're out of Series III upgrades, and you need a fresh map route to start up Series IV."
"We should be okay," Tightniks says, "but if we have to start it over, I don't see that being a big deal." As they advance through the rest of Zone 15, Tightniks resumes his usual duties at the research desk instead building and running traps like he was before.
The trimps seem hopeful at this decision.
5h49m10s: Fresh turkimp. 5h50m16s: Zone 16, 1071 pop, 13.4s RC with Z15/75, 13m43s turkimp (skel in c1.)
"Z:16 Seriously? Another Blimp so soon?"
"So," Tightniks lowers his bee nickels and looks at the red one, "is it going to be boss fights at the end of every zone from now on?"
"Hmm," the red trimp looks up past the human at some random rock spire or cloud.
"Well?" the human persists.
"Yup," he says.
"Hmph," Tightniks grabs a Sw3-1 of the rack and advances towards the front, "Before then, we have another Mister Titanium."
"What does he like about skeletimps?" the red one asks the grey one as the human marches off.
"Shijou?" the grey one seems just as confused by that.
"He's not going back to the ship, and he's not getting himself killed," the yellow one smiles, "so I'll take it."
5h58m32s...
"Hey guys, go for the mortar!" the human suggests to his 75 fighting trimps in the Wall's boss fight.
"I can tell from your bedtime stories that you're used to the artillery in that other place," the yellow one gripes, "but fighting works differently here, there's no artillery."
And the human instantly collapses laughing, the scientists a little worried he might have injured himself in the planet's severe gravity. But he's okay, at least physically, "Mortar is the stuff between the bricks, fellas. That's is a brickimp, right?"
5h59m18s: Wall, 1076 pop, 13.3s RC, 1% AP for sub-8h finish, first L16 roll good 156/35/84 moun, 10 for the metal.
Beyond the Wall was a more edenic section of the trimpolis ruins, doubling the production of the lumberjacks. The trimps are actually really happy with the mode of all of the laborers moving between the three big jobs, along with the turkimp, except for the foremen specialized at leading the job. It isn't enough to boost their productivity, but the human goes to them with trays of sandwiches.
6h06m52s: 50 map run 0.3% AP...
6h19m13s: Zone 17, 1141 pop, 16.0s RC with Z16/94, no turkimp.
"Z:17 You climb a large cliff and look out over the new Zone. Red dirt, scorched ground, and devastation. Is that a Dragimp flying around out there?!"
"Hmm," the human surveys the new zone with his bee nickels, "Looks like crap. Any ideas?"
"You're the idea man," the yellow one groans.
"Set the map flag," he puts his bee nickels away, "We'll run a depth for practice and to load up on gems for more hotels."
"Righto," the red one gets to work.
6h44m34s: First DCP. (Draglimp Care Package; I refuse to call it a tribute.)
"Oh," the human says, "It's tame now, so it brings back gems in exchange for food?" He looks at his gaping scientists, "That's what it looks like, huh? Guys? Yo!"
"Tai..." the grey one sighs.
Draglimp, the dragimp imprinted on Tightniks, lands beside the human, drops some gems at his feet, and accepts some scratching behind its horns before diving into the food bowl.
"You tamed a dragimp???" Grey's note says.
"Well," the yellow one huffs, "I guess that happened."
8h18m53s: L20 depth of 154/27/79.
"Mapping up here?" the red one half closes one eye and tilts his head.
"Yeah," the human says while fitting together the depth map fragments, "With the coordination book not right at the end, we have an extra mark of coordination to take advantage of. Let's take our housing up to 2000 or so, shall we?"
"Okay," the yellow one says from a pile of logs, "What's all the wood for?" They had been collecting it for days now.
"The series upgrades follow a rather specific pattern," Tightniks explains, "Just on the other side of this blimp is Zone 21, where we should be able to find the Shield series V, right?"
"Shijou!" the grey one nods.
8h56m17s: 1% AP for 100 map runs, leaving it, 1751 pop, 24.8s RC with Z20/232. 8h56m54s: Zone 21...
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from that."
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes. [Whether it looks like the one in Puchim@s 1x61 is anyone's guess. That one annoyed me as well as Chihya.]
9h02m37s: L21 moun first roll was a decent 160/26/84. 9h21m00s: Starting run 5 of that map...
Tightniks had taken his anger out on some food and wood to build about 8000 traps. Now he's leaning against a rock spire in his increasingly tattered uniform. A nap begins, perhaps unintentionally.
Wild trimps are examining the pile, finding it unwelcoming, and also finding no place in the town, just mill about. It looks like they want to help.
"Ku?" it's a blue trimp, probably a farmer waiting for stuff to grow, climbs up on the rock spire the human is leaning against, starts patting him on the head, "Ku. Ku ku." [Puchim@s Chihya.]
9h23m09s: Still working that lap...
Tightniks wakes up from that nap, and the grey one is standing there. "Shijou," it says with a note of concern, although not much of one. The note it holds says, "It wasn't me."
"Oh, what wasn't you, buddy?" He stretches out a bit, feeling somewhat refreshed. It feels like somebody washed his face and hair while he was sleeping.
The grey one is also holding a small mirror, apparently broken off from a larger mirror and with the sharp edges filed down to make the edges safe.
The human takes it from the grey trimp and holds it in front of his face to discover that somebody has bound up all his hair into about twenty little pigtails. He touches them with his other hand to confirm. "Eh, whatever." He hands the mirror back and goes back to sleep. [Puchim@s Koamimami.]
9h30m08s: The following run...
"He's not throwing stuff every which way yet," the yellow one whispers to the red one, watching the human snoozing with his pad on his knee.
"You remember that, too?" the red one asks.
"'Remember'?" the yellow one turns to face the red one, "I s'pose that's better than imagining it."
"I remember it, too," the grey one says via a playing card sized note.
"If we're stuck in a time loop," the yellow one sighs, "maybe this cycle will be different."
"Tai..." the grey one admires him for a moment. Then thumbs in the direction of the mountain, "Heh, Shijou!" it laughs.
9h35m58s: Run 8, c9 of that map.
The scientists nap and take notes, and meditate and take notes, and draw stuff. The grey one often storyboards for the other nine because it's the best at drawing stuff. They have come up with a list, and most probably "order" (they're debating whether their ranking means "order" (sequence of things happening over the various loops) or "frequency" (what proportion of previous loops they have happened in). But they've come up with this, from first (or perhaps most often) to most recent (or perhaps least often):
- The ship crashes (they're pretty sure that happens every loop) - The human builds huts - The human teaches some of his trimps to speak and do science - The human builds houses - The human makes maps - The human builds mansions - The human blows up and gets himself killed somewhere around Z17 to Z21, often on a dragimp - The human only recently/occasionally builds hotels - The human only recently/rarely tamed a dragimp - The human only recently/rarely maps the Dimension of Anger
They're all agreed that that they have never finished the Dimension of Anger. What they are not all agreed on is that they've never done this conference to figure out whether they're in a time loop or what that might mean. [See also Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" ...which was sort of a time loop but they weren't going back in time. It's very interesting, but its meta makes no sense - no one ever went looking for the Bozeman in 80 years? No one who went looking for the Bozeman also got stuck? No one noticed the passage of time outside the little area of space where the not-quite-a-time-loop was happening? Errr... sci-fi writers, don't be half-assed about your time loops, lmao! Be like Harold Ramis- ...what am I saying?? (That would be Groundhog Day, which grafted a time loop into a romcom; there are no other sci-fi elements. But it was a full-blown time loop and not half-assed like "Cause and Effect".)]
9h54m06s: Dropped from Z21c95...
I think it would be a bad idea to bypass that green area, as much as I'd rather not face it. Both his domesticated trimps, which are breeding up a new group of fighters, and the wild trimps he has decided just now not to open the traps for, stare at him and point in that direction. He shoulders a huge Shield V-3 and grabs an Mace IV-2 as well and announces, "We're doing it." Thus equipped, he marches off into the Dimension of Anger.
10h27m53s: Taking Pi4-2; recently had taken Pa4-2...
The group at the front had expired, and the snimp in DoAc95 glares at the advancing colony of trimps, which had halted only because of it. It refuses to counterattack the vulnerable colony and its human, instead snorting and huffing, waiting for the next bunch of 232 fighting trimps to come in range.
Tightniks runs along the line of traps, releasing the recently tamed trimps, singing a song that he doesn't remember the meaning of, that he doesn't remember was crafted by an ethnically Chinese guy out of an African language, and later mastered by two caucasians over the internet before they ever met in person. "Baba yetu yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu yetu amina..." because it just happened to be stuck in his head. [Because the Doylian author decided on a whim to. Christopher Tin got it into Civilization IV and at the time (2010 July), I made the best video for it on YouTube, which got subsequently blown to shreds when Peter Hollens and Malukah re-recorded the song from scratch in their own voices and instruments in 2014, pity with no English translation, the purpose of my video.]
Noticing the last batch of metal he needs coming out of the furnace, he waves the waiting grey scientist to fire up the forge [to use the term properly and not as the game does], for it was time to wrap up the forging dies for the Spetum IV, Mark 2 pike heads.
"Shijou!" the grey one cheers, setting aside a snack that looks like maybe ramen, and starts jumping up and down on the bellows handle.
It takes a while for the human to chip out the tip in the two halves of the forging die, and then polish it, and then heat it up in the forge, and then quench it, inspect it, and put it into service crafting thousands of new pike heads for the fighting trimps.
But only one second passed on the map frame clock (10h27m54s) four cells behind that snimp, in the case being brooded over by this huge, and if it's honest, rather concerned megablimp.
10h35m45: Portal PB, 45 He, 4.247 He/hr, 1891 pop, 22.7s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' mace heads bounces of it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All ten of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Mace IV, Mark 3 with both hands and gets it over his shoulder, its target obviously this object, anger at the realization he screams at the top of his lungs, "We are stuck in a mutha FAH-king time loop!!" His swing begins. [Tightniks almost never cusses, unlike Snugniks.]
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The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries. He has only a few minutes of APU power left, goes over the best clearing he can find, and radars it. It varies by only a few feet from the aerodynamic glideslope there. He spots it out on the cameras and circles to go after that spot. He's only at two hundred feet now. With one hand on the stick, he uses the other to open the pressure equalization valve on the side hatch, then at one hundred feet, gets it undogged. Depending on how much damage he's going to get, it's less likely to be stuck closed and trap him. The dynamic vacuum this pulls in the cockpit rips most of the survival pack data cards from that rack and scatters them across the landscape. Crap, I'm gonna need those! Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, he turns on the radar for the final approach, takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and PFD, he clicks his HANS and shoulder strap locks in; after that, he can barely move, but that now is better than dying in this crash with a broken neck. He's a decent pilot and brings up the flare gently. Bringing up the alpha on this delta-winged ship, he balloons a little, but keeps the nose going up and restores a zero aerodynamic sink rate just above the highest terrain indicated by the radar altimeter. The ship bumps a little in the ground effect, and he can see the radar altitude cycling irregularly up and down about five feet at a time. Rougher than it looked from higher up! The body flap protecting the dead engines hits first, and the nose comes rapidly down. It hits, the screens go blank, and Tightniks is surrounded by airbags, some lifting his feet from the rudder petals and his hand from the control stick. It's blinding, it's disorienting, it's noisy, and, to his relief, it's long! It takes several seconds before the crashing cockpit stops moving. How many times did he flip over? Did he go sideways and roll? Am I rightside up? Are we really stopped on the ground? The airbags deflate, and he can move his arms. He gets his restraints loose and inspects himself. "Uck!" he says out loud (without the 'f'). No broken bones. His pressure suit can take his blood pressure. 116/81, pulse 112, blood oxygen 99 reads off on his left arm, I'll friggin' take it!
The ship is amazingly intact from what he can tell. He can't get any readings. The systems test meter seems to be working, but can't find any voltages anywhere. The ship seems to be completely dead. Behind him, 10 passenger seats are all surrounded by airbags and the back of the cabin ends in some sort of dirt-and-gravel and there's a bit of daylight seeping in around the edges. He was the only one on board, though, so their deployment was mostly academic (they might have stiffened the structure a little during the crash, but that's probably trivial.) Tightniks gets out of his spacesuit. The air on this planet is actually breathable. He gets the hatch open, steps outside and-
"A green shimmer erupts then disappears, and you hit the ground."
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. Where am I? What's my name? I remember nothing. Aren't babies born naked? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Gets up, looks around. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He picks up a small stone from the ground, this also feels heavier than it should. He rises to his feet and holds it out somewhat (he's unable to fully extend his arm) and lets it go. The stone hits the ground near his feet quickly and with remarkable speed. It's the gravity, it's greater than it is on- ...where am I from? This is- ...not my home planet? "Oooh..."
"Ka?" it says.
What is that? It's cute, at least.
It is not tame. He has no hope of catching it on foot. The creature seems to like the berries. Maybe if I gather some of those into one place and set some kind of trap...
33s: First trap.
I got one! The human lumbers up to the trap and gets the catch open. Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to me; I'm so friggin' screwed.
It doesn't. It looks at the human with a sense of wonder, actually. A blink and tilt of the head. Seems almost to be asking, Is it you? My purpose? My savior? Once out of the trap, which is totally wrecked, he has to make a new one from scratch, it follows him around like a imprinted hatchling bird.
Wiry little fella, you are. You're going to need some bulking up to do anything useful. The- ...'trimp', I guess... The trimp seems just barely able to feed itself. The human lets him into the broken ship's intact cabin, and it curls up comfortably in a passenger seat for a nap.
1m03s: Second trap.
"Apparently the Trimps breed if they're not working. Doesn't look pleasant."
What are they doing?
The trimps appear to be androgynous, and these two have paired off in the back of the ship. They're holding something carefully within a few hours, feeding it berries, grass, and- ...corundum.
Corundum?? Whatever that is, it isn't a baby.
1m35s: Third trap.
Only it IS a baby! The third trimp he trapped immediately joined the other two in raising it. They have a strange diet of food the human has found compatible with his own body, but they also eat rocks! They're careful to crush and sort aluminate minerals from silcate ones and only eat aluminate. Actually, they don't eat aluminate, they're only feeding it to the baby.
2m06s: Fourth trap.
All four are raising the same child, who is just starting to toddle. It seems these fellas have alumina or maybe even aluminum bones. The human takes a nap and wakes to find the first child grown up and they're starting to raise a second child, all five of them.
2m46s: Huts.
The human found a working bit of electronics. He calls it a pad, but maybe it's more like a smartphone. It has plans for two residential structures. The first, the smaller one, he can build right away, but the second one needs something called "drywall", and he has to figure out how to make that before he can build it. Huts and houses, apparently.
3m13s: 10 pop, full, first farmer.
The trimp he trained to farm and make paper took an incredible 50 units of food to get bulked up to do the work, and now it's not participating in rearing the child. But less than an hour after the trimp started farming and pulping, the child was out on its own, and the trimps did not start another. The ten seats on the ship were all full. Well, eleven counting the one up front that the human sleeps in. The pilot starts exploring the area.
3m28s: Battle.
Wait, what are you do-
The hostile roars and charges at the human, but one of his trimps jumps in front of him with a stick and they fight. It started right when the human got far enough away from the ship that the hostile non-trimps away from the ship began to regard him as leaving his own territory. After the trimp defeats the first enemy, it continues after other hostiles.
3m53s: Shield I in Z1c5.
The human is easily able to recover the loot in the territory cleared by the fighting trimp. Then he sees something glinting in the- That can't be! What the heck is that? It's a data card that fits his pad. It quite clearly regards trimp combat. He gets it loaded into his pad and studies it. I can do this, it just takes some wood. He returns to the ship to discover that they had already started on a new child before the fighter had even expired in battle. The human concentrates on his research.
4m38s: Mskel in Z1c11 defeated.
The remains of this one seem rather white and shiny. It's titanium! This enemy had titanium bones! He'll store them away. They'll be useful someday, I'm sure.
5m52s: Dagger I in Z1c20.
Where are these data cards coming from? The human wonders as he loads this one into his pad, It's for a weapon it calls a dagger. He blinks. I don't know what a dagger is. I'll take your word for it, data card. Needs metal. He has gathered some, but ore is plentiful. He can just dig and smelt it whenever he wants. For now, I'll continue researching.
6m18s: Arable in Z1c21.
It's an old cave that trimps like to live in. Why weren't they able to live there before? How could these friendly critters be confined to only the exact spot where THAT thing, he looks back where he came from, not remembering that he piloted the wrecked ship to its current resting place, crashed? This is really strange. I'll let them fill up this cave before advancing further. Wait, what about defenses? The hostiles never try to reclaim territory that they've lost, so he stops worrying about that fairly quickly.
8m22s: First hut is 0.3% first ever AP.
The trimps seem fairly easy to please in terms of living quarters. Two move into his first hut and start raising a child. The human has his tent, uniform, and the heater pilfered from his space suit. Not much of a mud fan.
9m59s: Miners in Z1c30.
Oh, what's on this data card? Sl3niw? Oh, I'm holding the pad upside down. Miners. I can teach trimps how to mine ores and smelt met- 200 units of food? Each job is getting more expensive to train a trimp for. He puts his bee nickels to his eyes and spots another data card probably 10 enemies away. "Sc"? Does that means science? I can teach trimps to do science??
13m57s: Scientists in Z1c40.
Due to the expense of training trimps, the human couldn't afford to build them shields until now, he's got Sh1-3 made for the fighter to capture the science training data card. 14m02s: One head went into that turtlimp shell, that of his fighter, but two came out: his fighter still has his head on, and he managed to get the turtlimp's head off. It rushes off after the deadly penguimp in the next cell. The shields are not doing all that much good, actually, but they're better than nothing. The human picks up and loads the science data card and- Holy runny sugar-free fudge crap! 1000 food units, but it'll endow them with the ability to speak. Good. I'm getting bored with no one to talk to.
14m28s: Bloodlust purchased and AutoFight enabled (that delay after getting it is an effect of jacking up the job cost.)
As the human buries this expired little trimp warrior, he comes to the sobering realization that he has more trimp graves in his growing trimp colony than he does live trimps. And yet they seem more hopeful now than before I got to know any of them. They seem to think I'm the solution to all their problems or- Those two look east somberly, then notice that he's watching them and smile back and wave at him. ...one problem that is specific, but very, very huge for them. [The only reason I say 'east' is because that's right on a map, and the game advances right across a row, then up. I might say 'northeast' on occasion for that reason.]
20m47s: Z1c73, Miners taken.
Are you my new mining foreman? The trimp who took to the mining training has dark brown fur that lays flat on its head. It's unusual in not having any bits that stick out from its head, ahoge or whatever. This one is relatively quiet, and while it has assimilated the mining and smelting knowledge, it needs to bulk up to do any mining. Smelting is relatively easy, and getting a strong natural draft going in a furnace is almost trivial with the increased gravity. This trimp builds furnaces like nothing. And likes to nap in holes it digs right on the spot; it's weird that way. [Puchim@s Yukipo, and furnaces are not explicit in Trimps.]
21m58s: Farming in Z1c80.
The resourcing "books" are not data cards but paper scrolls, apparently lost to the trimps. It seems that they were civilized in the recent past and some calamity swept over the planet to reduce them to this. Did I have something to do with it? Amnesia sucks harder than a Dyson- ...what's a Dyson? Whatever, it sucks. This disaster happening just before I crash in the only spot with trimps still alive would be a seriously crazy coincidence! Something is really, really wrong about all this. [The author has not sought or received product placement permission or fee from Dyson Technology Ltd. or any resellers of their stuff, just they literally suck balls and made my favorite vacuum cleaner.]
23m50s: Builder in Z1c90.
They've rescued an, I dunno, gelding trimp? It just started to build a shed around the piled lumber I left to build one. It's really slow compared to me, and just banged its thumb, but it is super cute with that long reddish head fur. That particular trimp is also fascinated with pink ribbons and likes to decorate its head fur with them. Because of its inherent inability to participate in rearing children, it isn't counted in the population. [Puchim@s Io, builder on the basis of Iori seen building in 1x10.]
26m02s: Zone 2, 44 pop, 5.5s RC with Z0/1.
It's some sort of tactical manual - tactical coordination. Coordination! He's starting to sort out some trimpese on the research he has done so far. It needs a lot of metal, so they won't be able to implement it for some time. Hopefully, they're still good one at a time, but these enemies seem to be getting bigger as we go along. Uh oh!
27m33s: Gym in Z2c5.
It's some sort of training dojo or sporting arena. The human examines the ruins, I think I can back-engineer drawings for this, get one built, and see what happens.
29m02s: 1g, 47 pop, 10.8s RC with Z1/2.
The two fighting trimps now with their gym and coordination are dodging and blocking enthusiastically, and making much faster ground against the bad guys then a little while ago when it was just one trimp fighting at a time and unable to avoid the enemy hitting back.
40m46s: Fresh turkimp in Z2c74, 63 pop, 7.9s RC, Sh1-10, Da1-5, Bo1-3, Ma1-3, Hm1-3, 6g.
Oh, wow, the laborers seem really hot after this turkimp. He cooks it up and tries a slice. It's really awesome! I have to work alongside his laboring trimps to share it, but I'm getting used to the gravity now. That scroll we found back in Z2c10 really helped. Trimps' techniques and appliances for handicapped individuals, and I'm really handicapped in this higher gravity. He joins the woodcutters with the turkimp; they're the most numerous resource laborer right now, building more gyms, enough that the block/dodge ability of the fighting trimps is almost caught up to the enemy's ability to cause damage.
43m15s: Zone 3, 63 pop, 7.9s RC with Z1/2.
I'm neglecting my science and trimp scientists are really expensive. Curiously, that grey-haired one can't speak all that well, only says "Tai" and "Shijou", but it can write and draw like nobody's business. It's the only scientist so far. [Puchim@s Takanya: Online references probably still claim that she can utter the first two syllables of any word, but she can actually utter only the first two kana syllables of someone's name, most often the given name of basis human Takane Shijou, who also has that habit. (All the utterances of the puchidoru are based on the speech foibles of their basis humans except maybe Piyopiyo, where I haven't seen anything match up so far.)]
47m32s: Finally, we can make drywall and houses. 59m30s: Z3c77, 94 pop, 7.8s RC.
Oh, those poor things are really struggling up at the front. These trimps are enthusiastic and know no fear, but I still feel like telling them to stop for a while. I don't have the heart to keep them from trying while they're still doing some damage.
1h05m24s: Zone 4, 107 pop, 9.3s RC with Z3/4. 1h15m26s: Zone 5, 120 pop, 8.2s RC with Z3/4.
"What is that?" the human asks. He has three scientists. His first does all the writing, but the other two can actually speak. One of them hops up on a rock spire beside the human to reach his eye level.
At the next ridge line, over the lowest and most passable gap in the terrain, this really mean looking hovering sausage monster.
"I dunno," the scientist trimp shrugs, "But it's making me hungry. Looks like a perfectly cooked frankfurter from here." [John Morell's dubious dirigibles.]
"Oh, yeah," the human nods, "that's a blimp."
"A blimp?" the trimp tilts its head quizzically at the human, "How could you know?"
"I wish I could tell you, little buddy," the human extends his arm braces to descend the pass on the side of the zone boundary in the boss enemy's direction, then grunts, "Let's go kill it."
1h16m11s: Z1c9, 120 pop, 10.3s RC with Z4/5. 1h33m34s: Zone 6, 151 pop, 7.4s RC with Z4/5.
1h33m54s: TP in Z1c3.
"What's this?" the human asks, having picked up the little square document with the curling corners.
"Oh," the hungry scientist looks at it, "It's a garden path, follow me."
"You want to lead me down the garden path?" the human says.
"Yeah," the scientist says.
"Are you kidding?" the human asks.
"No," says the other scientist, "We don't get human humor. Listen, these fighters can't go, let them wear themselves out here, then we'll take the next group through this garden."
"Okay," the human nods, watching two more trimps join the fray as he issues the Z5 coordination orders, "they're doing pretty well after all that block training research we just wrapped up." [That's a common artifact, even in normal games, Z5 Traintacular combines with many gyms, enough population to add several trainers, affording Blockmaster, which is expensive on a run zero, plus a break on Tion Z5, a 40% all-stat increase. I don't think Zach designed it into the game on purpose, it just worked out this way.]
1h34m07s: 151 pop, 10.5s RC with Z5/7. 1h37m44s: Drop from Z6c39, TP for 3.
"Now we have these access map frags we can use to route through the old trimpopoli," the scientist explains, "Atlimpis for food, Morimpa for gems, Everimp for metal, and Impazon for wood."
"What about the garden?" the human asks.
"Well, we got lucky with Tricky Paradise," the scientist says, "but you can randomize the route and maybe get lucky. What's with that look?"
"Somehow, I'm remembering 'frag' as something that blew up with deadly pieces," the human says. [Different video games - ones with better graphics and worse gameplay Ｏ(>▽<)Ｏ]
1h39m59s: Blues back up to the top on series I...
"Tai, Tai!" the first ever trimp scientist stops the human just before he upgrades the mace and dagger to Mk.6 and Mk. 8 respectively. It has a note for him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the human asks, "Do you think that's my name?"
"Shijou, Shijou," it nods as though to indicate, I KNOW it is. Then it proffers its note again. The human takes it and reads, "Don't upgrade the first row equipment right now."
"Why not?" the human asks.
"Shijou," it points at the end of the mapped route, where there's a scroll sticking out of the thistles.
2h24m07s: Zone 8, 224 pop, 12.2s RC with Z7/12.
"Your settlement is getting crowded, there's Trimps in the streets, and you're taking heat. You feel a sudden strong desire to create a map, though you're not quite sure how that would help."
2h49m10s: Zone 9, 357 pop, 9.5s RC with Z8/15.
"You can't shake the feeling that you've been here before. Déjà-vu?"
The trimps really seem to like the new high capacity mansions, and the village has rapidly expanded since they started building them.
"There's something familiar about this," the human says.
"Tai," the grey one that writes clings to his arm and shows him a note that says, "Don't give up now."
"We must persist," says the yellow one has found a foothold it can grab onto and grabs the human's shoulder gently, "If you give up to early, we'll never solve this. You'll be stuck here forever."
The human puts his hand over the trimp's paw on his shoulders, then looks at him, "I can die, too."
"No, you can't," the trimp says quietly, "Please don't test that, tall one."
"Death is just another path..." he remembers.
"Gan," the grey one squeaks. [That's the first two kana syllables of "Gandalf"]
"...one that we all must take," the human continues, "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it-"
"A green mist," the yellow trimp interrupts, "flash of fire, we're all gone and our progress forgotten. The wandering stars return to that day, and you again crash that ship- ...a little better every time."
"Wait," the human looks around, "have I been here before?"
"I-" the yellow trimp tries in futility to share what little it knows, "...or... somebody got just a little coolant into the-"
"Into the what?"
"This side up," the grey one's note says.
"Into the that," the yellow one points at the note, "It really helped. You- ...I don't think we've ever had mansions before."
Well, of course they didn't have mansions before. That was one of my ship's data cards. How did it get way out here? Will anything start to make sense?
3h02m13s: Zone 10, 387 pop, 8.7s RC with Z8/15; '28s: 11.1s RC with Z9/19. 3h16m41s: Tough snimp after food book, L10 rand dept from lo-hi-med 118/25/96, 4 Items.
"That's twice our frags led us to gem-rich Moria," the human says.
"Morimpa," the new red trimp scientist corrects, there now being 5 scientists. [There'd be more if there were more turkimp.]
"The question is how do we use all these gems?" the human looks at the village zoning plans again, "I like those mansions and all, but they use hardly any gems compared to, well-" he gestures at the pile of over two dozen thousand gems they've gathered, "-that! And still a lot of wood and lumber."
"I think there's something," the yellow one sighs, "I wish I knew more."
Quite some time later, after they're done looting that route for equipment plans, the trimps are again advancing through Zone 10, and he hears it.
"Tai?" the grey one wonders.
"Where are you going?" the yellow one asks.
"To the farm," the human answers.
"Whatever for?" the red one seems exasperated.
"Shijou?" the grey one sighs, then looks at the fighting front. It's been around long enough to remember, "Shijou!"
"You guys already get so much to eat this doesn't do you much good," the human explains.
3h32m33s: L11 112/35/78 rand sea, dropped from Z11c6 with disband, 4.
"What's wrong?" the red one asks.
The human comforts one of the wounded. Once trimps start into a zone fight, they have to finish before they bleed out. He's really bothered making them desert in front of that second turkimp. "They had a lot left in them," he sighs, rubbing his eyes, "but we can't keep that much dead turkimp at once, we have to leave it alive to use up all of this one."
"Shijou," the grey one presents a note, "We need this map right away, anyway. Don't worry about it, Tightniks."
"Tightniks?" he looks at the grey one, "Is that me? How do you know?"
"Tai," the grey one points at the top of the human's left breast pocket.
"Ah, crud," the yellow one curls its tail around in front of itself as trimps do when they're embarrassed, "Is that really a name tag?"
The human hadn't even noticed it since the green flash blew up his memory as he was stepping out of the ship.
4h04m22s: Block (sub-8h AP is only 0.3%), taking it, 504 pop, 9.8s RC with Z10/24.
It's a pretty thick book about using shields for block instead of hit points. The pad has the stats analysis. Sh3-1 is only giving us 9% of our hit points. Turning to his trimp scientists, he says, "It seems to me to be worth it."
"Let's," the yellow one nods.
"Shijou," it hands him a note, "It scales badly, but that won't matter for a long time. I think there's a way to undo it before it matters."
"Doing it." The human takes out his pad and starts scanning.
4h29m05s: L14 rand moun 137/26/80 is really good for a lo-hi-med. 4h30m52s: Hotels.
"Ah," the yellow one says, "I knew there was something. That must be it."
5h08m09s: L15 lo-hi-hi rand gard 129/28/82 (just got explorers). 5h09m32s: Picked up Wall.
"Dam," the human says.
"Damn?" the red one chuckles.
"No," the human says, "Earthen wall dam; it's a thing that makes artificial lakes by holding rivers back."
"Lakes?" the yellow one asks, "Rivers?"
"Oh yeah," the human says, "This planet doesn't have enough rain for those..."
5h48m21: Leaving Wall from about c70 to fetch Tion Z15.
"You can't resume the map from the same point if you start another," the human reads the grey one's note.
"We can go back to the same point on that route if we hold there and finish Zone 15, right?" Tightniks asks.
"Shijou!" it seems to be saying yes.
"Yes," the yellow one adds, "but we're out of Series III upgrades, and you need a fresh map route to start up Series IV."
"We should be okay," Tightniks says, "but if we have to start it over, I don't see that being a big deal." As they advance through the rest of Zone 15, Tightniks resumes his usual duties at the research desk instead building and running traps like he was before.
The trimps seem hopeful at this decision.
5h49m10s: Fresh turkimp. 5h50m16s: Zone 16, 1071 pop, 13.4s RC with Z15/75, 13m43s turkimp (skel in c1.)
"Z:16 Seriously? Another Blimp so soon?"
"So," Tightniks lowers his bee nickels and looks at the red one, "is it going to be boss fights at the end of every zone from now on?"
"Hmm," the red trimp looks up past the human at some random rock spire or cloud.
"Well?" the human persists.
"Yup," he says.
"Hmph," Tightniks grabs a Sw3-1 of the rack and advances towards the front, "Before then, we have another Mister Titanium."
"What does he like about skeletimps?" the red one asks the grey one as the human marches off.
"Shijou?" the grey one seems just as confused by that.
"He's not going back to the ship, and he's not getting himself killed," the yellow one smiles, "so I'll take it."
5h58m32s...
"Hey guys, go for the mortar!" the human suggests to his 75 fighting trimps in the Wall's boss fight.
"I can tell from your bedtime stories that you're used to the artillery in that other place," the yellow one gripes, "but fighting works differently here, there's no artillery."
And the human instantly collapses laughing, the scientists a little worried he might have injured himself in the planet's severe gravity. But he's okay, at least physically, "Mortar is the stuff between the bricks, fellas. That's is a brickimp, right?"
5h59m18s: Wall, 1076 pop, 13.3s RC, 1% AP for sub-8h finish, first L16 roll good 156/35/84 moun, 10 for the metal.
Beyond the Wall was a more edenic section of the trimpolis ruins, doubling the production of the lumberjacks. The trimps are actually really happy with the mode of all of the laborers moving between the three big jobs, along with the turkimp, except for the foremen specialized at leading the job. It isn't enough to boost their productivity, but the human goes to them with trays of sandwiches.
6h06m52s: 50 map run 0.3% AP...
6h19m13s: Zone 17, 1141 pop, 16.0s RC with Z16/94, no turkimp.
"Z:17 You climb a large cliff and look out over the new Zone. Red dirt, scorched ground, and devastation. Is that a Dragimp flying around out there?!"
"Hmm," the human surveys the new zone with his bee nickels, "Looks like crap. Any ideas?"
"You're the idea man," the yellow one groans.
"Set the map flag," he puts his bee nickels away, "We'll run a depth for practice and to load up on gems for more hotels."
"Righto," the red one gets to work.
6h44m34s: First DCP. (Draglimp Care Package; I refuse to call it a tribute.)
"Oh," the human says, "It's tame now, so it brings back gems in exchange for food?" He looks at his gaping scientists, "That's what it looks like, huh? Guys? Yo!"
"Tai..." the grey one sighs.
Draglimp, the dragimp imprinted on Tightniks, lands beside the human, drops some gems at his feet, and accepts some scratching behind its horns before diving into the food bowl.
"You tamed a dragimp???" Grey's note says.
"Well," the yellow one huffs, "I guess that happened."
8h18m53s: L20 depth of 154/27/79.
"Mapping up here?" the red one half closes one eye and tilts his head.
"Yeah," the human says while fitting together the depth map fragments, "With the coordination book not right at the end, we have an extra mark of coordination to take advantage of. Let's take our housing up to 2000 or so, shall we?"
"Okay," the yellow one says from a pile of logs, "What's all the wood for?" They had been collecting it for days now.
"The series upgrades follow a rather specific pattern," Tightniks explains, "Just on the other side of this blimp is Zone 21, where we should be able to find the Shield series V, right?"
"Shijou!" the grey one nods.
8h56m17s: 1% AP for 100 map runs, leaving it, 1751 pop, 24.8s RC with Z20/232. 8h56m54s: Zone 21...
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from that."
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes. [Whether it looks like the one in Puchim@s 1x61 is anyone's guess. That one annoyed me as well as Chihya.]
9h02m37s: L21 moun first roll was a decent 160/26/84. 9h21m00s: Starting run 5 of that map...
Tightniks had taken his anger out on some food and wood to build about 8000 traps. Now he's leaning against a rock spire in his increasingly tattered uniform. A nap begins, perhaps unintentionally.
Wild trimps are examining the pile, finding it unwelcoming, and also finding no place in the town, just mill about. It looks like they want to help.
"Ku?" it's a blue trimp, probably a farmer waiting for stuff to grow, climbs up on the rock spire the human is leaning against, starts patting him on the head, "Ku. Ku ku." [Puchim@s Chihya.]
9h23m09s: Still working that lap...
Tightniks wakes up from that nap, and the grey one is standing there. "Shijou," it says with a note of concern, although not much of one. The note it holds says, "It wasn't me."
"Oh, what wasn't you, buddy?" He stretches out a bit, feeling somewhat refreshed. It feels like somebody washed his face and hair while he was sleeping.
The grey one is also holding a small mirror, apparently broken off from a larger mirror and with the sharp edges filed down to make the edges safe.
The human takes it from the grey trimp and holds it in front of his face to discover that somebody has bound up all his hair into about twenty little pigtails. He touches them with his other hand to confirm. "Eh, whatever." He hands the mirror back and goes back to sleep. [Puchim@s Koamimami.]
9h30m08s: The following run...
"He's not throwing stuff every which way yet," the yellow one whispers to the red one, watching the human snoozing with his pad on his knee.
"You remember that, too?" the red one asks.
"'Remember'?" the yellow one turns to face the red one, "I s'pose that's better than imagining it."
"I remember it, too," the grey one says via a playing card sized note.
"If we're stuck in a time loop," the yellow one sighs, "maybe this cycle will be different."
"Tai..." the grey one admires him for a moment. Then thumbs in the direction of the mountain, "Heh, Shijou!" it laughs.
9h35m58s: Run 8, c9 of that map.
The scientists nap and take notes, and meditate and take notes, and draw stuff. The grey one often storyboards for the other nine because it's the best at drawing stuff. They have come up with a list, and most probably "order" (they're debating whether their ranking means "order" (sequence of things happening over the various loops) or "frequency" (what proportion of previous loops they have happened in). But they've come up with this, from first (or perhaps most often) to most recent (or perhaps least often):
- The ship crashes (they're pretty sure that happens every loop) - The human builds huts - The human teaches some of his trimps to speak and do science - The human builds houses - The human makes maps - The human builds mansions - The human blows up and gets himself killed somewhere around Z17 to Z21, often on a dragimp - The human only recently/occasionally builds hotels - The human only recently/rarely tamed a dragimp - The human only recently/rarely maps the Dimension of Anger
They're all agreed that that they have never finished the Dimension of Anger. What they are not all agreed on is that they've never done this conference to figure out whether they're in a time loop or what that might mean. [See also Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" ...which was sort of a time loop but they weren't going back in time. It's very interesting, but its meta makes no sense - no one ever went looking for the Bozeman in 80 years? No one who went looking for the Bozeman also got stuck? No one noticed the passage of time outside the little area of space where the not-quite-a-time-loop was happening? Errr... sci-fi writers, don't be half-assed about your time loops, lmao! Be like Harold Ramis- ...what am I saying?? (That would be Groundhog Day, which grafted a time loop into a romcom; there are no other sci-fi elements. But it was a full-blown time loop and not half-assed like "Cause and Effect".)]
9h54m06s: Dropped from Z21c95...
I think it would be a bad idea to bypass that green area, as much as I'd rather not face it. Both his domesticated trimps, which are breeding up a new group of fighters, and the wild trimps he has decided just now not to open the traps for, stare at him and point in that direction. He shoulders a huge Shield V-3 and grabs an Mace IV-2 as well and announces, "We're doing it." Thus equipped, he marches off into the Dimension of Anger.
10h27m53s: Taking Pi4-2; recently had taken Pa4-2...
The group at the front had expired, and the snimp in DoAc95 glares at the advancing colony of trimps, which had halted only because of it. It refuses to counterattack the vulnerable colony and its human, instead snorting and huffing, waiting for the next bunch of 232 fighting trimps to come in range.
Tightniks runs along the line of traps, releasing the recently tamed trimps, singing a song that he doesn't remember the meaning of, that he doesn't remember was crafted by an ethnically Chinese guy out of an African language, and later mastered by two caucasians over the internet before they ever met in person. "Baba yetu yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu yetu amina..." because it just happened to be stuck in his head. [Because the Doylian author decided on a whim to. Christopher Tin got it into Civilization IV and at the time (2010 July), I made the best video for it on YouTube, which got subsequently blown to shreds when Peter Hollens and Malukah re-recorded the song from scratch in their own voices and instruments in 2014, pity with no English translation, the purpose of my video.]
Noticing the last batch of metal he needs coming out of the furnace, he waves the waiting grey scientist to fire up the forge [to use the term properly and not as the game does], for it was time to wrap up the forging dies for the Spetum IV, Mark 2 pike heads.
"Shijou!" the grey one cheers, setting aside a snack that looks like maybe ramen, and starts jumping up and down on the bellows handle.
It takes a while for the human to chip out the tip in the two halves of the forging die, and then polish it, and then heat it up in the forge, and then quench it, inspect it, and put it into service crafting thousands of new pike heads for the fighting trimps.
But only one second passed on the map frame clock (10h27m54s) four cells behind that snimp, in the case being brooded over by this huge, and if it's honest, rather concerned megablimp.
10h35m45: Portal PB, 45 He, 4.247 He/hr, 1891 pop, 22.7s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' mace heads bounces of it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All ten of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Mace IV, Mark 3 with both hands and gets it over his shoulder, its target obviously this object, anger at the realization he screams at the top of his lungs, "We are stuck in a mutha FAH-king time loop!!" His swing begins. [Tightniks almost never cusses, unlike Snugniks.]
2024.05.14 22:15 TrackingSystemDirect Used GPS Tracker For Sale - Looking for a used GPS tracker for sale? Discover the pros and cons, and explore money-saving options like Craigslist for great deals.
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2024.05.14 20:14 Techn0-Viking Artesian Cloaks (FSMP cloak mod) suddenly not working on save with Legacy of the Dragonborn
It's as the title says. I've been playing Skyrim for ages, and I have multiple saves separated by profiles in MO2. On all of them, I have FSMP and its requirements, it works perfectly, etc. Artesian Cloaks is fully functional on all saves and profiles, except for one. On all saves, FSMP is fully functional as well.
However I recently decided to get Legacy for the first time, I installed all the associated patches for it, loaded the game, and played. All FSMP mods work perfectly and beautifully on this profile and its saves, except for Artesian Cloaks. Everything else is fine, just not this mod.
I have run LOOT several times over, FNIS, I've changed my load order manually to move various patches around, and none of it works. Artesian Cloaks just outright does not seem to work with Legacy installed.
I've also tried to reinstall FSMP and all requirements, all cloaks, XP32, Artesian Cloaks, all patches, and so on, multiple times now. Still, Artesian Cloaks only works on saves that don't use Legacy, and it does not work on the one with Legacy.
Has anyone else encountered this issue, and if so, did you find a fix? If you found a fix, what was it?
Here's my modlist for the profile:
submitted by Techn0-Viking to skyrimmods [link] [comments]
However I recently decided to get Legacy for the first time, I installed all the associated patches for it, loaded the game, and played. All FSMP mods work perfectly and beautifully on this profile and its saves, except for Artesian Cloaks. Everything else is fine, just not this mod.
I have run LOOT several times over, FNIS, I've changed my load order manually to move various patches around, and none of it works. Artesian Cloaks just outright does not seem to work with Legacy installed.
I've also tried to reinstall FSMP and all requirements, all cloaks, XP32, Artesian Cloaks, all patches, and so on, multiple times now. Still, Artesian Cloaks only works on saves that don't use Legacy, and it does not work on the one with Legacy.
Has anyone else encountered this issue, and if so, did you find a fix? If you found a fix, what was it?
Here's my modlist for the profile:
# This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer. +Folkvangr - Grass and Landscape Overhaul +Nature of the Wild Lands 2.0 +Nature of the Wild Lands - Riverwood Keep Patch +Lord of Coldharbour Armor and Harkon outfit replacer +SV Skjor NPC Replacer +Resplendent Armor and Greatsword SE textures +Resplendent Armor and Greatsword SE +Legacy of the Dragonborn Patches (Official) +Auriel's Armor (Ancient Falmer Armor) - Red +Legacy of the Dragonborn +XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended +Winter Is Coming SSE - Cloaks +Wildwood Echoes +Weapons Collection 3 +Weapons Collection 2 +Volkihar Knight - Vampire Armor +Vivid Weathers - Definitive Edition +Vanilla hair remake +Vallaslin Face Tattoo's Warpaint +UIExtensions +True Ayleid Race +Thrones of Skyrim +The Great Cities - Minor Cities and Towns SSE Edition +The Grand Paladin - 2021 (Remake) +The Eyes of Beauty - Vampire Eyes SE +The Axe of the Nordic Kings (ENG and RUS) +The Art of Beard - New Facial Hairs +Tera Armors Collection Special Edition UUNP +Talos Housecarl Armor Pack +Talkative Dragons +Storm Knight's Legacy Armor +Starsight Eyes +Sound Record Distributor +Solitude Docks +SMP-NPC crash fix +SkyUI +SkySight Skins - Ultra HD Male Textures and Real Feet Meshes (4K2K HIGH) +Skyrim Unlimited Rings and Amulets SSE +Skyforge Weapons SSE +Shields Of Glory SE +Shields Of Glory - Temper Patch +SC - Barsaebic Ayleid Armor for Argonia +RS Children Overhaul +Royal Armory - New Artifacts +Rourken's Relics +Riverwood Keep SE patch +Riverwood Keep SE +Relentless +Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO SE +Realistic Water Two SE +Realistic Elven Children (Aymar and friends reimagined) +RDO - Skyrim Unofficial Patch +RDO - AFT Patch Final +Rainbows over Waterfalls +RaceMenu +RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE +Prisoner cart fix SMIM -Prince and the Pauper SE patches +Practical Female Armors +powerofthree's Tweaks +powerofthree's Papyrus Extender +Paradise City for Vanilla Skyrim Special Edition +PapyrusUtil SE - Modders Scripting Utility Functions +Papyrus Tweaks NG +Outfit Manager +Obi's HeadHunter Armor 2K +Northern Armor Set +Nordic Adventurers Armor SSE +Niohoggr Warpaints +Neocatzeo's Resurrection Rod +My Home is Your Home +Multiple Marriages SSE +MultiCraft +More Bandit Camps SSE +Modern Brawl Bug Fix +Miraak - Dragonborn Follower SE +Lionheart - Johnskyrim +Legendary Alpha Shields 2 +Legendary Alpha Shields +KS Hairdos SSE +KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics) - Unisex +KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics) +Kirax_OVR_Draugr +Kirax_OVR_Collection_M +Kirax_LoA_Paladin_Platinum +Kirax_LoA_Berserker_Legendary_Frost +Kirax_Hair_Pack_M +Kirax_ACV_Thor +Kenokun's Warpaints +Kanjs War Horns +JS Armored Circlets SE +JContainers SE +Invisible Armors Enhanced +In the Shadow of the Crown - No Stone Unturned Alternative +Improved Eyes Skyrim +Immersive Weapons +Immersive Armors +Ilieh - Cry of the Damned +Hvergelmir's Aesthetics - Beards +Humanoid Vampires SE fix +Humanoid Vampires SE - Vampires use normal faces and Serana's eyes variant +Horse Armors SSE +Holy Templar Magic +High Poly Vanilla Hair +High Poly Head SV Beards +High Poly Head SE +Helmet Perk Remover +Hearthfire multiple adoptions - Now with custom home support for kids and spouse +HDT-SMP Physics Racemenu Hairs and Wigs Unisex - Male and Female - CBBE 3BA - BHUNP - HIMBO +Guard Dialogue Overhaul SE +Guard Dialogue Overhaul MCM +Glowtastic SSE +FSMPM - The FSMP MCM +Fortify Enchanting +Fores New Idles in Skyrim SE - FNIS SE +Flying Mod Overhauled +Flying Mod Beta by porroone and Flying Mod Overhaul by Indefiance (Converted for SSE) +Flickering Sunlight Shadows Fix +Faster HDT-SMP +Face Discoloration Fix +Extended Guard Dialogue +Enchanting Freedom +Dwemer Spectres Special Edition +Dwemer Outfit - Morrowind Style +Dragon Wall Wisdom - Readable Dragon Walls +Dragon Priest armor SE port (original mod by Backsteepo) +Dragon Breath VFX Edit +Don't Show Headgears +Divine Cloaks +Distant Dragon Roars +DCR - King Crusader Mega Pack +DCR - King Crusader Heavy War Regalia +Dae's Titanblade - Standalone Dwarven Greatsword +Dae's Titanaxe - Standalone Battleaxe and Boss Fight +Crown Helmets Redux +Crash Logger SSE AE VR - PDB support +Crash Logger +Craftable Ayleid Items from Beyond Skyrim Bruma +Convenient Horses +ConsoleUtilSSE +Comfy Dwemer Beds +Cloaks of Skyrim SSE +Chillwind Depths CTD Fix +Cheeky Kids +Chapter II - Jeremy Soule Inspired Music +Celtic Music in Skyrim - SE +Castle Volkihar Rebuilt - SSE +Carry Weight Modifiers +Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Enhancer -CBBE- +Bulk Enchanting Redone +Body Paints patch +Body Paints 3 +Body Paints 2 +Body Paints +Blackreach Eerie Ambience +Beyond Skyrim - Wares of Tamriel SE +Beyond Skyrim - Bruma DLC Patch +Beyond Skyrim - Bruma Assets +Beyond Skyrim - Bruma +Better MessageBox Controls +Beards of Power +BDOR SAM Addon - Atanis +BDOR SAM Addon - Anemos +BDOR SAM Addon - Aker Guard +Base Object Swapper +Bandolier - Bags and Pouches Classic +Bandit Lines Expansion +Ayleid Lich Crown - Cut Content Restored (Anniversary Edition - The Cause) +Axe Of The Sea +Auriel's Quiver and Arrows - Gold and Argent Retexture +Auriel's Chapel Restored +Auriel's Bow - Gold and Argent Retexture +Artesian Cloaks of Skyrim +Armor of Hircine +ApachiiSkyHair SSE helmet wigs +ApachiiSkyHair SSE +Animated Wings Ultimate +Animated Ships Patches +Animated Ships +Ambient Warfare +Amazing Follower Tweaks SE +Alduin's Champion - a Boss Mod +Aetherium Armor and Weapons Compilation by lautasantenni +Aetherial Crown +Address Library for SKSE Plugins +Achievements Mods Enabler +[Kirax] BDOR 2024 Collection - Male -(ESL) Dwemer Dogs Companions SE *Creation Club: _ResourcePack *Creation Club: ccBGSSSE001-Fish *Creation Club: ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS *Creation Club: ccBGSSSE037-Curios *Creation Club: ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode *DLC: Dawnguard *DLC: Dragonborn *DLC: HearthFires *Unmanaged: anyonefollows2 *Unmanaged: ApachiiHairMales
2024.05.14 18:49 McManGuy Guide for Preventing Elevation Glitches When Moving a World Over to the Ashlands Patch
It's common for non-Ashlands biomes that were connected to the border of the Ashlands biome to have vastly different elevations in the new update, resulting in stuff floating in the sky above the land or sea. (rocks, ancient roots, trees, etc.). This also happens up near the Deep North biome.
The simple solution is to make a fresh new world after the new Ashlands patch. And if you never visited the Ashlands in your old world, you're also likely safe.
But if you ever traveled close to the Ashlands, you'll get this glitch. You can prevent / repair this with the Upgrade World Mod. But it's quite the process.
Part 1: Make a world backup
The game automatically makes backup files, but just to be safe, you want to manually create your own backups.Your Valheim world consists of 2 files with these extentions:
- *****.db
- *****.fwl
- *****.db.old
- *****.fwl.old
Now, it's best to be working with Local Saves rather than with Cloud Saves. By default, the game uses cloud saves. Your save file location might be different depending on which save method you had employed.
This is the Valheim local save file location:
- C:\Users\*****\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local
- Windows Key + R
- type in appdata.
- Navigate Appdata > LocalLow > Irongate > Valheim
Part 2: Staying Pre-Ashlands (Optional)
In order to prevent elevation errors from ever occuring, you might want to perform these fixes before loading up the world with the Ashlands Patch downloaded. To do this, Go to your Steam Library and set your game to the previous patch:- Steam Library > right-click Valheim > Properties > Betas
- change "Beta Participation" from "None" to "default_preal"
Part 3: Enable the Dev Console
Now you need to enable the developer console- Steam Library > right-click Valheim > Properties > General
- Find the Text field in the Launch Options section under where it says "Advanced users may choose to enter modifications to their launch options"
- In this text field, type -console
Part 4: Mod Installation
You need to install the BepInEx Pack (Source). Followed by the Upgrade World Mod (Source).I recommend either installing these mods manually or using the r2modman manager (Source)
(DO NOT use the Overwolf / Thunderstore mod manager - it has video ads that ruin performance)
Part 5: Finally doing something
Now we're finally ready to get started.Be sure to make a new character for this test and do not use your actual character. Then, Load up your Valheim world.
Open the console with F5 and make sure you have the following developer commands active:
- devcommands
- god
- fly
Now we want to reset the Ashlands. In order for a zone reset to work, there needs to be no players near the Biome at all. A quick way to move away from the Ashlands is this command:
- goto 0 0
- zones_reset biomes=AshLands force
If you ever have a big build you want to protect, you can try using the PlanBuild Mod (Source) to save a blueprint of the build and move it somewhere else in the world.
Part 6: Fixing Problem Spots
This is where trial and error begins.- Save another backup of your world file.
- Change your Beta selection back to "None"
- Load up the game and fly around in god mode, checking to see if everything is fine
- Write down the coordinates of any problem areas that you find.
- Leave the area (using goto 0 0 is fastest)
- Reset the problem spot (see "Step 6" below)
- Repeat Steps 3-6 until done.
Step 6
For Step 6, you'll need to use more targeted resets, limited by max distance. There are 2 ways to do this: by raw position (in meters) or by zone. (a zone is a 64x64 chunk of the map)- zones_reset pos= max=
- zones_reset zone= max=
zone sets a center position and changes max to set how many zones away the reset can reach.
Example:
- zones_reset pos=-3700,-7200 max=350
- zones_reset zone=-58,-113 max=6
If there are any player bases in the affected zones, the mod will skip them. To force the mod to delete the player base, add force at the end of your reset command, like we did in Part 5
If you ever have a big build you want to protect, you can try using the PlanBuild Mod (Source) to save a blueprint of the build and move it somewhere else in the world.
Side Note: The Reset Area shape
It is unclear to me whether this "max" distance is actually a "radius" for a circle. I think it might just create a square around the center point. So, for example:- zones_reset pos=0,0 max=100
| -100, 100 | 100, 100 |
| -100,-100 | 100,-100 |
I have no idea if it is a square or if it is a circle. All I know is that I've had unpredictable and strange results when using a very large radius.
2024.05.14 17:58 Nemesis321 CO-OP Cheat Sheet
In this guide, I'll showcase the new features of the CO-OP, starting with the changes to your characters, the actual gameplays and some tips and tricks. At the end, there'll be unanswered questions by me and the community.
Rarity and character don't matter.
New stats
submitted by Nemesis321 to OnePieceTC [link] [comments]
CHARACTERS
CO-OP Captain- CO-OP team has new slot: The "CO-OP Captain" slot (MUST be filled)
- Captain abilty, special and super ability of CO-OP Captain replaced by new types of abilites:
LvL 1) [TYPE]'s ATK 4.5x, HP 1.25x, other's ATK 4.25x LvL 2) 4.75x, 1.25x, 4.5x LvL 3) CD -1, 5x, 1.5x, 4.75x, HP 1.25x LvL 4) CD -1, 5.5x, 1.5x, 5.25x, 1.25x LvL 5) CD -2, 6x, 1.5x, 5.75x, 1.25xCO-OP Special: Based on RUMBLE STYLE
ATK LvL 1) [10] 250.000 DMG (ignore ALL), type slots to matching, CD -2 LvL 2) [10] 500.000 -2 LvL 3) [10] 1.000.000 -2 LvL 4) [10] 1.500.000 -2 LvL 5) [10] 2.000.000 -2 DEF LvL 1) [14] 1 hit (!) 50% DMG red., heal 60x char's RCV LvL 2) [14] 1 60% 70x LvL 3) [14] 2 70% 70x LvL 4) [14] 2 80% 80x LvL 5) [14] 2 90% 90x RCV LvL 1) [12] -1 debuffs, heal 50x char's RCV LvL 2) [12] -1 60x LvL 3) [12] -2 60x LvL 4) [12] -2 70x LvL 5) [12] -2 80x SPT LvL 1) [14] Slots (incl. BLOCK) to matching, CD -1, +1 buffs LvL 2) [13] -1, +1 LvL 3) [13] -2, +1 LvL 4) [13] -2, +2 LvL 5) [12] -2, +2 DBF LvL 1) [13] +1 Delay, -1 enemy effects LvL 2) [13] +2 -1 LvL 3) [12] +2 -1 LvL 4) [11] +2 -1 LvL 5) [11] +3 -1 BAL LvL 1) [08] 15% HP cut, heal 05x char's RCV (ignore max HP), -1 Bind/Despair LvL 2) [08] 15% 10x -1 LvL 3) [08] 20% 15x -2 LvL 4) [08] 20% 20x -2 LvL 5) [08] 25% 30x -2CO-OP Action: Based on CLASSES 2 turns -30% [1st CLASS] and -20% [2nd CLASS] resistance
Rarity and character don't matter.
New stats
- Luck: Better clear rewards (max. 99)
- CO-OP Status: More base stats as CO-OP captain
- Luck Drop
- CO-OP Medals
- CO-OP Captain: 1x Medium Support item & 100x CO-OP Medals
- CO-OP Special: 1x Sugo Rare Manual & 100x CO-OP Medals
- Luck (see TIPS): 1x Luck Drop & 100x CO-OP Medals
- CO-OP Status: +10 (!) CC
GAMEPLAY
Quests- Multiple difficulties available:
Apprentice: 3 Stages, 40 Stamina Captain: 4 40 Warlord: 5 40 Emperor: 5 40 King of Pirates: 5 40 Infinitum Sea: 6 40
- Partipicipation in CO-OP quests only possible through rooms.
- Creatable after selecting quest difficulty.
- Consist of two players.
- May be open for public or protected by filters (Friends and/or Alliance) or a password.
- Also joinable through search, auto matching or picking one of the given list displayed after selecting a difficulty.
- You can find the search button in the CO-OP home screen.
- Room list can also be updated.
- After joining, guest player must press "Ready", so that the host player may start the quest.
- Host takes the first turn.
- After taking your turn, next turn goes to partner.
- Only current player gets debuffs from enemy.
- By using new mechanic "SKIP", you can change current player WITHOUT triggering next turn.
- SKIP can't be used twice in a row.
- Stages 3 - 6 consist of mini bosses and one boss in the final stage.
- The mini bosses always do the same actions.
- The boss may be one of many, each haveing their own behaviour.
TIPS
- In contract to bosses, behaviours of mini bosses aren't noted in the quest guides, so find a way to remember them.
- Luck is also attained through a 6* RR dupe (+2), a RR 5* dupe (+1) and for every fifth LvL (+1).
QUESTIONS
- Does CO-OP Status only affect stats in CO-OP mode?
2024.05.14 14:01 Zappingsbrew A post talking about 400 words
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layer, lead, leader, leadership, leading, leaf, league, lean, learn, learning, least, leather, leave, left, leg, legacy, legal, legend, legislation, legislative, legislator, legitimate, lemon, length, less, lesson, let, letter, level, liberal, library, license, lie, life, lifestyle, lifetime, lift, light, like, likely, limit, limitation, limited, line, link, lip, list, listen, literary, literature, little, live, living, load, loan, local, locate, location, lock, long, long-term, look, loose, lose, loss, lost, lot, lots, loud, love, lovely, lover, low, lower, luck, lucky, lunch, luxury, machine, mad, magazine, mail, main, mainly, maintain, maintenance, major, majority, make, maker, makeup, male, mall, man, manage, management, manager, manner, manufacturer, manufacturing, many, map, margin, mark, market, marketing, marriage, married, marry, mask, mass, massive, master, match, material, math, matter, may, maybe, mayor, me, meal, mean, meaning, meanwhile, measure, measurement, meat, 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night, nine, no, nobody, nod, noise, nomination, nominee, none, nonetheless, nor, normal, normally, north, northern, nose, not, note, nothing, notice, notion, novel, now, nowhere, nuclear, number, numerous, nurse, nut, object, objective, obligation, observation, observe, observer, obtain, obvious, obviously, occasion, occasionally, occupation, occupy, occur, ocean, odd, odds, of, off, offense, offensive, offer, office, officer, official, often, oh, oil, okay, old, Olympic, on, once, one, ongoing, onion, online, only, onto, open, opening, operate, operating, operation, operator, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppose, opposed, opposite, opposition, option, or, orange, order, ordinary, organic, organization, organize, orientation, origin, original, originally, other, others, otherwise, ought, our, ours, ourselves, out, outcome, outside, oven, over, overall, overcome, overlook, owe, own, owner, pace, pack, package, page, pain, painful, paint, painter, painting, pair, pale, Palestinian, palm, pan, panel, panic, pant, paper, paragraph, parent, park, parking, part, participant, participate, participation, particle, particular, particularly, partly, partner, partnership, party, pass, passage, passenger, passion, past, patch, path, patient, pattern, pause, pay, payment, PC, peace, peak, peer, pen, penalty, people, pepper, per, perceive, percentage, perception, perfect, perfectly, perform, performance, perhaps, period, permanent, permission, permit, person, personal, personality, personally, personnel, perspective, persuade, pet, phase, phenomenon, philosophy, phone, photo, photographer, phrase, physical, physically, physician, piano, pick, picture, pie, piece, pile, pilot, pine, pink, pipe, pitch, place, plan, plane, planet, planning, plant, plastic, plate, platform, play, player, please, pleasure, plenty, plot, plus, PM, pocket, poem, poet, poetry, point, police, policy, political, politically, politician, politics, poll, pollution, pool, poor, pop, popular, population, porch, port, portion, portrait, portray, pose, position, positive, possess, possession, possibility, possible, possibly, post, pot, potato, potential, potentially, pound, pour, poverty, powder, power, powerful, practical, practice, prayer, preach, precisely, predict, prediction, prefer, preference, pregnancy, pregnant, preparation, prepare, prescription, presence, present, presentation, preserve, president, presidential, press, pressure, pretend, pretty, prevent, previous, previously, price, pride, priest, primarily, primary, prime, principal, principle, print, prior, priority, prison, prisoner, privacy, private, probably, problem, procedure, proceed, process, processing, processor, proclaim, produce, producer, product, production, profession, professional, professor, profile, profit, program, progress, progressive, project, prominent, promise, promote, prompt, proof, proper, properly, property, proportion, proposal, propose, prosecutor, prospect, protect, protection, protein, protest, proud, prove, provide, provider, province, provision, psychological, psychology, public, publication, publicity, publish, publisher, pull, punishment, purchase, pure, purpose, pursue, push, put, qualify, quality, quarter, quarterback, quarterly, queen, quest, question, quick, quickly, quiet, quietly, quit, quite, quote, race, racial, radiation, radical, radio, rail, rain, raise, range, rank, rapid, rapidly, rare, rarely, rate, rather, rating, ratio, raw, reach, react, reaction, reader, reading, ready, real, reality, realize, really, reason, reasonable, recall, receive, recent, recently, reception, recipe, recipient, recognition, recognize, recommend, recommendation, record, recording, recover, recovery, recruit, red, reduce, reduction, refer, reference, reflect, reflection, reform, refugee, refuse, regard, regarding, regardless, regime, region, regional, register, regular, regularly, regulate, regulation, regulator, reinforce, reject, relate, relation, relationship, relative, relatively, relax, release, relevant, relief, religion, religious, rely, remain, remaining, remarkable, remember, remind, remote, remove, repeat, repeatedly, replace, replacement, reply, report, reporter, represent, representation, representative, Republican, reputation, request, require, requirement, research, researcher, resemble, reservation, resident, residential, resign, resist, resistance, resolution, resolve, resort, resource, respect, respond, response, responsibility, responsible, rest, restaurant, restore, restriction, result, retain, retire, retirement, return, reveal, revenue, review, revolution, rhythm, rice, rich, rid, ride, rifle, right, ring, rise, risk, river, road, rock, role, roll, romantic, roof, room, root, rope, rose, rough, roughly, round, route, routine, row, rub, rubber, rude, ruin, rule, run, running, rural, rush, Russian, sacred, sad, safe, safety, sake, salad, salary, sale, sales, salt, same, sample, sanction, sand, satellite, satisfaction, satisfied, satisfy, sauce, save, saving, say, scale, scandal, scare, scatter, scenario, scene, schedule, scheme, scholar, scholarship, school, science, scientific, scientist, scope, score, scream, screen, script, sea, search, season, seat, second, secondary, secret, secretary, section, sector, secure, security, see, seed, seek, seem, segment, seize, select, selection, self, sell, Senate, senator, send, senior, sense, sensitive, sentence, separate, sequence, series, serious, seriously, servant, serve, service, session, set, setting, settle, settlement, seven, several, severe, sex, sexual, shade, shadow, shake, shall, shallow, shape, share, sharp, she, sheet, shelf, shell, shelter, shift, shine, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, shoot, shooting, shop, shopping, short, shortly, shot, should, shoulder, shout, show, shower, shrug, shut, shy, sibling, sick, side, sigh, sight, sign, signal, significant, significantly, silence, silent, silver, similar, similarly, simple, simply, sin, since, sing, singer, single, sink, sir, sister, sit, site, situation, six, size, ski, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slave, sleep, slice, slide, slight, slightly, slip, slow, slowly, small, smart, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snap, snow, so, so-called, soccer, social, society, soft, software, soil, solar, soldier, sole, solid, solution, solve, some, somebody, somehow, someone, something, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, son, song, soon, sophisticated, sorry, sort, soul, sound, soup, source, south, southern, Soviet, space, Spanish, speak, speaker, special, specialist, species, specific, specifically, specify, speech, speed, spend, spending, spin, spirit, spiritual, split, spoil, sponsor, sport, spot, spray, spread, spring, square, squeeze, stability, stable, staff, stage, stain, stair, stake, stand, standard, standing, star, stare, start, state, statement, station, statistical, status, stay, steady, steal, steel, steep, stem, step, stick, still, stimulate, stimulus, stir, stock, stomach, stone, stop, storage, store, storm, story, straight, strange, stranger, strategic, strategy, stream, street, strength, strengthen, stress, stretch, strike, string, strip, stroke, strong, strongly, structural, structure, struggle, student, studio, study, stuff, stupid, style, subject, submit, subsequent, substance, substantial, substitute, succeed, success, successful, successfully, such, sudden, suddenly, sue, suffer, sufficient, sugar, suggest, suggestion, suicide, suit, summer, summit, sun, super, supply, support, supporter, suppose, supposed, Supreme, sure, surely, surface, surgery, surprise, surprised, surprising, surprisingly, surround, survey, survival, survive, survivor, suspect, sustain, swear, sweep, sweet, swim, swing, switch, symbol, symptom, system, table, tactic, tail, take, tale, talent, talk, tall, tank, tap, tape, target, task, taste, tax, taxi, tea, teach, teacher, teaching, team, tear, technical, technique, technology, teen, teenager, telephone, telescope, television, tell, temperature, temporary, ten, tend, tendency, tennis, tension, tent, term, terms, terrible, territory, terror, terrorist, test, testimony, testing, text, than, thank, thanks, that, the, theater, their, them, theme, themselves, then, theory, therapy, there, therefore, these, they, thick, thin, thing, think, thinking, third, thirty, this, those, though, thought, thousand, threat, threaten, three, throat, through, throughout, throw, thus, ticket, tie, tight, time, tiny, tip, tire, tissue, title, to, tobacco, today, toe, together, toilet, token, tolerate, tomato, tomorrow, tone, tongue, tonight, too, tool, tooth, top, topic, toss, total, totally, touch, tough, tour, tourist, tournament, toward, towards, tower, town, toy, trace, track, trade, tradition, traditional, traffic, tragedy, trail, train, training, transfer, transform, transformation, transition, translate, translation, transmission, transmit, transport, transportation, travel, treat, treatment, treaty, tree, tremendous, trend, trial, tribe, trick, trip, troop, trouble, truck, true, truly, trust, truth, try, tube, tunnel, turn, TV, twelve, twenty, twice, twin, two, type, typical, typically, ugly, ultimate, ultimately, unable, uncle, undergo, understand, understanding, unfortunately, uniform, union, unique, unit, United, universal, universe, university, unknown, unless, unlike, until, unusual, up, upon, upper, urban, urge, us, use, used, useful, user, usual, usually, utility, utilize, vacation, valley, valuable, value, variable, variation, variety, various, vary, vast, vegetable, vehicle, venture, version, versus, very, vessel, veteran, via, victim, victory, video, view, viewer, village, violate, violation, violence, violent, virtually, virtue, virus, visibility, visible, vision, visit, visitor, visual, vital, voice, volume, voluntary, volunteer, vote, voter, voting, wage, wait, wake, walk, wall, wander, want, war, warm, warn, warning, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, way, we, weak, weakness, wealth, wealthy, weapon, wear, weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.
submitted by Zappingsbrew to u/Zappingsbrew [link] [comments]
2024.05.14 13:19 TheGreatGimmick Suggesting Entangled Conduits, a relatively expensive (so hopefully balanced) way to access three powerful effects not yet in the game.
Crafting, Properties, and Appearance
| Echo Shard | Echo Shard | Echo Shard |
| Echo Shard | Conduit | Echo Shard |
| Crying Obsidian | Crying Obsidian | Crying Obsidian |
Picture of Crafting Recipe
Entangled Conduits share most properties with a Beacon, such as placement, size, piston interactions, and so on. They can be mined successfully by hand or with any tool. When destroyed by an explosion, the block always drops as an item. However, unlike a Beacon they only produce a light level of 10, the same as Crying Obsidian.Entangled Conduits appear somewhat similar to Stonecutters or Enchanting Tables in that they consist of a low 'table' with some animated feature in the center. They have a Sculk-themed color palette, a square base, and a snowglobe-like 'dome' on top. The dome's appearance changes based on the biome theme currently reflected in the Entangled Conduit network (see below).
Usage
Placement
All Entangled Conduits placed in the world belong to the same 'network' (explained below). As such, placed Entangled Conduits keep their chunk loaded (at a level of 31) so as to remain active in this global network.Interaction
Players can interact with any single Entangled Conduit to toggle ALL Entangled Conduits in the world between all states currently available to the Entangled Conduit network. The available states consist of each unique biome at least one Entangled Conduit has been placed within (explained further below). Only player interaction can activate an Entangled Conduit to toggle between states.For example, say four Entangled Conduits are placed in the world, with their chunks consisting of the following biomes: Forest, Forest, Ocean, Jagged Peaks. Interacting with any Entangled Conduit in the world would toggle their states in the following order: Forest -> Ocean -> Jagged Peaks -> repeat. To be clear, there are only three states in this setup: Having two Entangled Conduits in the same biome (Forest) still only grants one state to the rotation.
The snowglobe-like dome in the center-top of each Entangled Conduit changes appearance based on the current biome state of the network.
Effect
Entangled Conduits cause their chunk and the chunks immediately adjacent to them to behave as if they were the chunk and biome currently selected by the Entangled Conduit network's state.This includes spawning (e.g., mobs, frog variants, etc.), fishing rewards, slime chunks, and so on. Biomes exclusive to certain altitudes (e.g., Deep Dark) or temperatures (e.g., Warm Oceans) can still be emulated, though coordinate-dependent effects (e.g., rain turning to snow at sufficiently-high altitudes in some biomes) will not occur at invalid coordinates even if the contributing Entangled Conduit was placed at such coordinates.
Entangled Conduits work across dimensions, but dimension-exclusive effects (e.g., weather and the day-night cycle in the Overworld, the inability to place water in the Nether, etc.) are NOT transferred. For example, if the Entangled Conduit network is used to copy Frozen Peaks into the Nether, goats will spawn (and probably die pretty quickly by charging something they shouldn't haha) but it will not snow and you cannot place water, because you are still in the Nether.
Justification and Preemptive Arguments
Crafting and Value
Echo Shards tie into the "remote communication" mechanic of Entangled Conduits, since Sculk Sensors also allow for "wireless" signals. As a component, the Conduit mainly just lends its name to the final product, but it fits thematically in that sense, since a conduit is something that acts as a channel for the transmission of something (in this case biomes).
Requiring Echo Shards and especially Hearts of the Sea to craft causes Entangled Conduits to be a non-renewable and relatively difficult-to-obtain resource, similarly to Shulker Boxes. This limits how much they can be abused, and justifies their extreme power with a relatively high cost.
Chunk Loading
Chunks becoming unloaded is a major source of frustration for anyone that did not build their base within a spawn chunk (and doesn't wish to 'cheat' by using commands). Even if you did build your main base in a spawn chunk, remote locations of interest may be found outside of this range and become unloaded. This is most relevant for redstone contraptions: Say you built a machine that is supposed to activate whenever the sun goes down. You might think that such a trigger should be a 'global' effect, but your machine will not work unless it is inside a loaded chunk!
Current Solution
The current solution to this problem is to create a chunk loader, but these are relatively complex, tedious, often annoyingly loud, need to be hidden (or else be an eyesore), take up space in both the Overworld and the Nether, can mess with Nether Portal networks, and most importantly break when their server shuts down, making them unsuitable for Realms in particular (Realms servers hard shut down when no players are online).
So, although chunk loading is technically currently possible, a reliable way to keep a chunk loaded is so useful and sought-after that a dedicated mechanic is long overdue in my opinion.
Potential Abuse?
Now, obviously the game only loads a limited number of chunks for a reason: If too many chunks are loaded, performance issues may arise. However, this is already possible to abuse using the above chunk loaders. Entangled Conduits would be even more difficult to spam out into the world than the current chunk loaders, because each Entangled Conduit requires a Heart of the Sea to craft. Not only are Hearts of the Sea a non-renewable resource that cannot be farmed, but they require a rather lengthy process to obtain on top of that!
Remote Redstone Activation
Currently, there are extremely limited (and convoluted) ways to remotely activate a redstone machine. You can simply place down an extremely long redstone signal (which requires a ton of time, redstone, and a pathway from your machine to your activation location), you can use a timed trigger (e.g., setting up a clock to trigger later, or using world effects like the day-night cycle), or you can use Sculk mechanics for more short-ranged but nonetheless "wireless" signals.
Entangled Conduits have obvious advantages over all of these, most notably their simplicity and unlimited range. All you need is an Observer facing any Entangled Conduit and it will detect when the state of the global network changes for any reason.
Yeah Yeah, Another Wireless Redstone Suggestion, Yawn...
To be fair, Entangled Conduits do not directly provide "wireless redstone", and have many limitations that hamstring their usefulness for that purpose.
Instead, an analogy I would draw involves a system I made in my survival world for my Ender Pearl Stasis Chamber recall machine: I set up a redstone circuit that detects when I sleep through the night, using a global mechanic (time of day) to communicate with my system back at my main base over any distance. Natural day-night cycles iterate between light levels continuously, while skipping the night by sleeping abruptly changes the light level, which my system detects. So, when I am ready to be recalled, I can remotely trigger my home base's Ender Pearl Stasis Chamber from anywhere in the world to bring me back just by sleeping.
Entangled Conduits would merely make global communication like this a bit more straightforward. However, they still:
- are exclusively manually-activated (e.g., like Levers as opposed to Pressure Plates or Observers)
- are all tied to the same global network (and thus only one device can use them at a time, otherwise you would accidentally trigger other devices using the network)
- do not directly interface with any redstone components (they produce no signal, the only way to use them is through Observers sensing them change state).
- are far, far more expensive than other "wireless" options like Sculk Sensors or even Calibrated Sculk Sensors.
Biome Emulation
- do not make exploration obsolete. In fact they actively encourage exploration, since you still need to find the desired biome in the first place.
- create an emulated biome that is quite small, only taking up 9 chunks (the Entangled Conduit's chunk and those immediately adjacent).
- cannot fully mimic any biome, since most unique features of biomes (e.g., terrain, generated structures, ore/resources, etc.) are created at world spawn, which emulating a biome afterwards does not affect.
- are relatively expensive in that they cannot be farmed, limiting their usage and therefore ease of abuse.
2024.05.14 07:06 Objective_Box5956 Just finished my third 100% play-through
Just finished my third 100% play-through of Tears on the 1 year anniversary. It’s pretty brutal to 100% this game, but I enjoyed it. Here’s my 100% list:
____________________________________________________
Useful Links
Zelda Dungeon Interactive Map
Armor Upgrade List
Horse Upgrade List
100% Map Landmark Guide (Helped me find a few missed locations)
____________________________________________________
Missed Locations (after collecting all Koroks, quests, shrines, caves, and wells)
Missed all 3 times
Kolomo Garrison Ruins
Missed Twice
Gatepost Town Ruins
Castle Town Watchtower
Lost Woods
Inogo Bridge
Dracozu Altar
East Passage
Water Reservoir
Kolomo Garrison Ruins
Missed Locations (2nd and 3rd run-though)
Desert Rift
Device Dispenser on Thunderhead Isles
Sargon Bridge
Drena Canyon Mine
Retsam Forest Cave (North Entrance)
Missed Locations (1st run-through)
Lutos Crossing
Lanayru Road - West Gate
Canyon of Awakening Mine
Abandoned Eldin Mine Forge Construct
Floret Sandbar
Faron Woods
West Passage
Dalite Grove
Grove of Time
Nabooru Canyon Mine
Walnot Canyon Mine
Madorna Canyon Mine
Hickaly Grove
Rozudo Canyon Mine
Daval Canyon Mine
Granajih Canyon Mine
Agaat Canyon Mine
Applean Grove
Rok Grove
Rhoam Canyon Mine
Ruto Canyon Mine
Akkala Bridges (all 3)
Stolock Bridge
Crystal Refinery in Lookout Landing
Faloraa Canyon Mine (last one)
____________________________________________________
Final Koroks (2nd and 3rd time)
Money Makers
Armor / Weapon Tips
Mark these locations on your map and visit when you want to refresh a weapon. Turn off Sages or they will shoot the Octoroks before they refresh your weapon. One thing I found out on my own is you don’t have to wait for the Octorok to spit the weapon out, as soon as he sucks it in, shoot him with an arrow and your weapon will be good as new.
https://preview.redd.it/6njacxsk7e0d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e973024978dd8c0536dc7c2815b4c75b02ec6313
Lizalfos Tails
Will update later
Fighting Lynels
Royal Guard’s Claymore: you can find inside Hyrule Castle behind a broken statue in Hyrule Castle Sanctum (-0282, 1086, 0356). I liked to fuse Molduga Jaws with this. Once fused, keep kitting the ground or anything until you get the message: “Your Royal Guard’s Claymore is badly damaged,” then hit it 2 more times. Your weapon will be down to 1 hit and 1 hit only before it breaks. Save this weapon for your Lynel fights. When you ride the backs of Lynels, you have infinite weapon durability so your weapon won’t break. Combine Royal Guard’s Claymore fused with Molduga Jaw and Radiant Armor, you’ll be able to defeat most Lynels in 3-6 hits. Be sure to save before and after fighting each Lynel in case your weapon break.
Pristine Royal Guard’s Claymore
I didn’t find this until my 3rd playthrough. Picture below are statues where 2-handed pristine weapons spawn. Go there every Blood Moon and eventually you’ll find a pristine one to make fighting Lynels even easier.
https://preview.redd.it/bd4qwp4n7e0d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716a518b7407d695024d21856ad564123827cbe1
Gibdo Bones
Best place to farm is a room inside the Lightning Temple, just strategically set up mirrors. Other good farming locations are the Ancient Altar Ruins and the Gerudo Underground Cemetery. These make great fuse arrows combined with Level 2+ Radiant Armor.
Potions
I didn’t realize this until TOTK (and never tried it in BOTW), but you can actually make 30 min potions from Monster Extracts (instead of using hard-to-grind Dragon Horns). You might have to save scum (save before, make potion, if it’s not what you want, then reload game) to get the 30 mins, but Monster Extracts are only 50 rupees and easier to get than Dragon Horns.
Rocket Shields
Oromuwak Shrine (east of Rito Village). I visit here regularly to stock up on Rocket Shields.
Zonaites and Crytalized Charges
4-4-5-3 Stat Horses Found Southeast of Bublinga Forest
Gems Info
How to get Stars
Also works with (not confirmed on my end)
Silent Princess and Blue Nightshade
(-2476, -0646, 0208)
Milk
Desert Colosseum
Gibdo Wings
Gerudo Underground Cemetery
Sand pits
____________________________________________________
Shopping
Restock Shops
To restock any shop in Tears of the Kingdom, here is what you will have to do.
Hylian Rice x5 (need 38 + recipes)
Swift Carrot x10 (need 10 + horses + recipes)
Bird Egg x5 (need 12 + recipes)
Fresh Milk x3 (need 66 + recipes)
Goat Butter x5 (Need 84 + recipes)
Kakariko General Store
Aerocuda Eyeball x3 (need 42)
Aerocuda Wing x3 (need 48)
Kakariko General Store Trissa
Goat Butter x5 (need 84 + recipes)
Swift Carrot x12 (need 10 + horses + recipes)
Bird Egg x5 (need 12 + recipes)
Fortified Pumpkin x3
Lookout Landing General Store
Hylian Rice x3 (need 38 + recipes)
Fresh Milk x4 (need 66 + recipes)
East Akkala Stable
· 3 Sticky Frog (need 30)
· 3 Smotherwing Butterfly (need 15)
Lakeside Stable
· 2 Sticky Frog
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
· 2 Hightail Lizard (need 21)
South Akkala Stable
· 2 Sticky Lizard (need 24)
· 3 Hightail Lizard (need 21)
· 2 Fireproof Lizard (need 15)
Woodland Stable
· 3 Cold Darner (need 15)
· 3 Fireproof Lizard (need 15)
Kara Kara Bazaar General Store
Green Lizalfos Tail x3 (need 18)
Riverside Stable
· 5 Hylian Rice (need 38)
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
· 3 Electric Darner (need 15)
Tabantha Bridge Stable
· 4 Fire Fruit (need 9)
· 3 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Winterwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
New Serenne Stable
· 4 Warm Darner (need 15)
· 4 Sunset Firefly (need 15 + 10 + 10)
Kara Kara Bazaar
· 5 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 5 Cold Darner (need 15)
Snowfield Stable
· 3 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Warm Darner (need 15)
Kara Kara Bazaar
Summerwing Butterfly x5 (need 15)
Cold Darner x5 (need 15)
Foothill Stable
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
Wetland Stable
· 3 Smotherwing Butterfly (need 24)
Rito Village General Store
Goat Butter x5 (need 84 + recipes)
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Tabantha Wheat x3 (need 42 + recipes)
Sunshroom x4 (need 15)
Korok General Store
Tabantha Wheat x2 (need 42 + recipes)
Hylian Rice x3 (need 38 + recipes)
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Goron General Store
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Goron Spice x3 (need 12 + recipes)
Zora General Store
Hylian Rice x4 (need 38 + recipes)
Swift Violet x4 (need 90)
submitted by Objective_Box5956 to tearsofthekingdom [link] [comments]
- 1,000 Korok Seeds
- 100% map completion (includes all Named Locations, Cave Entrances, Shrines, Light Roots, Wells, Chasms, Towns, Settlements, Stables, Specialty Shops, Device Dispensers, Sky View Towers, Forge / Weapon Constructs and Refineries, Tears of the Dragon, Ancient Tablets, and Fairy Fountains)
- All chest icons on Shrines (appears when all chests in the shrines have been opened)
- 23 Main Quests
- 60 Side Adventures
- 31 Shrine Quests
- 139 Side Quests
- 18 Memories
- Completed Hyrule Compendium
- 228 Recipes
- Upgraded all Horses to the max
- All Clothing and Armor Pieces upgraded to the max
- 45 additional Energy Cells (48 total)
- 27 Zonai Devices
- 51 Paraglider Fabric Skins
- 12 Schema Stones
- 34 Yiga Schematics
- 31 Old Maps
- 147 Bubbul Gems
- 11 Horse Gear (Towing Harness, Saddles, Bridles)
- Medals of Honor
- All’s Well Key Item
- Dispelling Darkness Medal
- Hestu’s Gift Key Item
- 81 Addison Signs Put Up
____________________________________________________
Useful Links
Zelda Dungeon Interactive Map
Armor Upgrade List
Horse Upgrade List
100% Map Landmark Guide (Helped me find a few missed locations)
____________________________________________________
Missed Locations (after collecting all Koroks, quests, shrines, caves, and wells)
Missed all 3 times
Kolomo Garrison Ruins
Missed Twice
Gatepost Town Ruins
Castle Town Watchtower
Lost Woods
Inogo Bridge
Dracozu Altar
East Passage
Water Reservoir
Kolomo Garrison Ruins
Missed Locations (2nd and 3rd run-though)
Desert Rift
Device Dispenser on Thunderhead Isles
Sargon Bridge
Drena Canyon Mine
Retsam Forest Cave (North Entrance)
Missed Locations (1st run-through)
Lutos Crossing
Lanayru Road - West Gate
Canyon of Awakening Mine
Abandoned Eldin Mine Forge Construct
Floret Sandbar
Faron Woods
West Passage
Dalite Grove
Grove of Time
Nabooru Canyon Mine
Walnot Canyon Mine
Madorna Canyon Mine
Hickaly Grove
Rozudo Canyon Mine
Daval Canyon Mine
Granajih Canyon Mine
Agaat Canyon Mine
Applean Grove
Rok Grove
Rhoam Canyon Mine
Ruto Canyon Mine
Akkala Bridges (all 3)
Stolock Bridge
Crystal Refinery in Lookout Landing
Faloraa Canyon Mine (last one)
____________________________________________________
Final Koroks (2nd and 3rd time)
- Desert by Shrine (Climb Up)
- Hateno beach
- Wellspring Island underneath staircase by the waterfall, 3414 0618 1551
- Thims Bridge Korok
- Ceiling stump west of Ulria Grotto (4078 0821 0236)
- South of Flirly Plateau, dive into lily pads (3014 -2537 0129)
Money Makers
- If you are going to 100% this game, don’t sell items you will need later unless you already have extra, especially gems. Crosscheck it with the Armor Upgrade link above.
- I regularly cycled through Moldugas and the Lynels in the Floating Coliseum every blood moon. Lynel Hooves and Molduga Guts are easy to collect and have extra to sell at a good price.
- Extra armor is great to sell and can be easily obtained with Amiibos (if you have them all - I have the cards). In my experience, armor didn’t have a high drop rate until after I finished 2/4 regional phenomena
Armor / Weapon Tips
- Best Armor Suits to hunt and upgrade to at least Level 2: Radiant Armor, Froggy Armor, Glide Armor, Rubber Armor, Flamebreaker Armor, and Snowquill
- My go-to weapon (although way overpowered) is the Gerudo Scimitar fused with a Molduga Jaw., although you can use any Gerudo weapon (Gerudo weapons double the attack power of the item it's fused with). Combined with a Level 2+ Radiant Armor, you'll be able to kill any enemy with ease. Include a Level 3 attack potion or sneak attack from a puff shroom, there are plenty of enemies you can kill with 1 hit.
Mark these locations on your map and visit when you want to refresh a weapon. Turn off Sages or they will shoot the Octoroks before they refresh your weapon. One thing I found out on my own is you don’t have to wait for the Octorok to spit the weapon out, as soon as he sucks it in, shoot him with an arrow and your weapon will be good as new.
https://preview.redd.it/6njacxsk7e0d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e973024978dd8c0536dc7c2815b4c75b02ec6313
Lizalfos Tails
Will update later
Fighting Lynels
Royal Guard’s Claymore: you can find inside Hyrule Castle behind a broken statue in Hyrule Castle Sanctum (-0282, 1086, 0356). I liked to fuse Molduga Jaws with this. Once fused, keep kitting the ground or anything until you get the message: “Your Royal Guard’s Claymore is badly damaged,” then hit it 2 more times. Your weapon will be down to 1 hit and 1 hit only before it breaks. Save this weapon for your Lynel fights. When you ride the backs of Lynels, you have infinite weapon durability so your weapon won’t break. Combine Royal Guard’s Claymore fused with Molduga Jaw and Radiant Armor, you’ll be able to defeat most Lynels in 3-6 hits. Be sure to save before and after fighting each Lynel in case your weapon break.
Pristine Royal Guard’s Claymore
I didn’t find this until my 3rd playthrough. Picture below are statues where 2-handed pristine weapons spawn. Go there every Blood Moon and eventually you’ll find a pristine one to make fighting Lynels even easier.
https://preview.redd.it/bd4qwp4n7e0d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716a518b7407d695024d21856ad564123827cbe1
Gibdo Bones
Best place to farm is a room inside the Lightning Temple, just strategically set up mirrors. Other good farming locations are the Ancient Altar Ruins and the Gerudo Underground Cemetery. These make great fuse arrows combined with Level 2+ Radiant Armor.
Potions
I didn’t realize this until TOTK (and never tried it in BOTW), but you can actually make 30 min potions from Monster Extracts (instead of using hard-to-grind Dragon Horns). You might have to save scum (save before, make potion, if it’s not what you want, then reload game) to get the 30 mins, but Monster Extracts are only 50 rupees and easier to get than Dragon Horns.
Rocket Shields
Oromuwak Shrine (east of Rito Village). I visit here regularly to stock up on Rocket Shields.
Zonaites and Crytalized Charges
- Save Zonaite for Autobuild only
- Save Large Zonaites for Armor Upgrades only
- Best Way to get Crystalized Charges is defeat all Flux Construct, Hinox, Stone Talus, Frox, and Gleeok in the depths. They will always give you 20 crystalized charges.
- After you beat each regional boss on the surface, 3 of them will respawn in the Depths and give you 100 crystalized charges each after the first kill.
- Floating Colieseum is an excellent place to stack up on strong weapons and get 100 crystalized Charges)
- Plenty of chests in the Depths that have 20 Crystalized Charges
- Every Frox location has a small cluster of Zonaite
- Large Zonaite Deposits are basically ripoffs, you get very little for the effort
- Hudson Signs can be dependent on time or weather or something
- My last 2 were Lodrum Headland and Gerudo Canyon Stable
4-4-5-3 Stat Horses Found Southeast of Bublinga Forest
Gems Info
- Sapphire and Opal are the hardest? In addition to the breaking Rare Ore Deposits, Frost Talus’ are a good source for Sapphire and Opal
- 4 Ruby’s at Simosiwak Shrine
- Dondons seemed like a waste of time for me.
- Turn your sensor on in Death Moutain to target Rare Ore Deposits and mark them on the map to visit every blood moon.
- Luminous stones: Sky Mine (northeast corner of Sky Map), West Necluda Sky Archipelago (north of Ukoojisi Shrine), South Hyrule Sky Archipelago (west of Jinodok Shrine), Maw of Death Mountain Lakes
How to get Stars
- Fast travel to Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower
- Rest until Night.
- Walk up the ramp and launch yourself into the air.
- After being launched, point the camera down and begin diving. A star will eventually fall for you to claim.
- Descent back to the ground at Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower and rest until night again.
- Fast travel to Typhlo Ruins Skyview tower. Launch, look down, catch star. (Or Mayam Shrine above Thyphlo Ruins)
- As soon as you catch start, you can warp right back to Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower. Rest until Night. Rinse and Repeat.
Also works with (not confirmed on my end)
- Gerudo Canyon
- Gerudo Highlands
- Rabella Wetlands
- Mount Lanaryu
- Ulri Mountain
- Eldin Canyon
- Sahasra Slope
Silent Princess and Blue Nightshade
(-2476, -0646, 0208)
Milk
- Dantz in Hateno Pasture (Trade 3 acorns for 1 milk)
- Hateno Village General Store
- Sage Temple Ruins
- Dragon claws from each dragon for the Goddess Statues Side Quest
- Dragon parts respawn every 10 minutes so if you’re trying to farm any parts and want to be a little lazy, you can ride the dragon continuously and set a timer for 10 mins, collect part, then repeat. Be sure to save every now and then (One time I collected parts for 1.5 hours, stepped away from the game and died and lost everything). Also, with the exception of the Light Dragon, you will fall off the dragon unless you adjust yourself as they go in and out of the Depths.
- Big tree at Rutile Lake has 3-4 of each Beetle Type (-2470, -0610, 0202)
- Bronas Forest for Beetles
- Hinox guts come from Black Hinoxes (need 15)
- Tall Circular Rock north of Gerudo Desert Gateway and west of Gerudo Canyon Stable (use sky tower)
- West of Tabahl Woods Cave (southwest of Zora’s Domain)
- Veiled Falls (west of Zora’s Domain)
- Northeast of Upland Zorana (northwest of Toto Lake)
- North of Luto’s Crossing (just west of Ruto Lake name on small island)
- South of Ralis Pond
- Southwest of ebon Mountin (closer to the water)
- North of Keya Pond (intersects with Hanu pond, southwest of Ebon mountain)
- West side of Riola Spring (southwest of Mount Floria)
- North of Mount Hylia (and south of River of the dead)
- Gohma like skeleton, east of Gerudo town, west of Palu Wasteland
- Mystathi’s Shelf (Gerudo Highlands)
- West end of Vatorsa Snowfield (Gerudo Highlands)
- NW of Eastern Abbey (Great Plateau)
- SE corner of Aquame Lake in a half skull encampment (Hyrule Field near Coliseum Ruins)
- Halfway between Lanayru Bay and the Spring of Wisdom/ Mt Lanayru Skyview Tower (Lanayru)
- Varies since the game seems to scale some of these for some but not others even though they have story completed and a lot of hours as well.
- West Passage of Hyrule castle. Coords -0450, 0909, 0012. The entrance is closer to the castle gates where you’ll find a minecart that takes you to the room they’re in (just north of name label Hyrule Caste Moat)
- Another Black Boss Bokoblin in the depths at (-2097, -1510, -0692) near a Flux Construct I, and is underneath Nephra Hill (west of Digdogg Suspension Bridge)
- Depths north of Dueling Canyons Mine at 1332, -1547, -0646 (fixed)
- Patrolling just south of Talonto Peak in the Hebra region, along the path you travel to find Tulin at the peak during Rito storyline. There are actually two boss bokoblins here, with one on a higher and slightly more eastern shelf and the other slightly lower and westward shelf just above an entrance to Hebra South Summit Cave; the first one is the non-scaling red one, and the second scales. Thought I’d mention it because I and another commenter found the scaling one first.)
- On the skull bridge west of Mount Gustaf (west of Lookout Landing), between the Hyrule Ridge and Hyrule Plains regions.
- Patrolling the Maritta Exchange Ruins north of Lindor’s Brow in the Hyrule Ridge region.
- Patrolling in the middle of Seresa Scablands in the Hyrule Ridge region.
- In the Royal Ancient Lab Ruins in North Hyrule Plain, just north of New Serenne Stable
- Southeast Lookout Landing and Mabe Village Ruins in Hyrule Field
- South of the East Deplian Badlands in the Eldin Mountains, on a landing to the northwest of the Isle of Rabac (east of Thyphlo Ruins)
- On Zauz Island in the Lanayru Wetlands, directly east of Wetland Stable
- South of Mount Daphnes in Hyrule Field, between the mountain and the Exchange Ruins
- Warp to Zakusu Shrine, in the Naydra Snowfield near Mount Lanayru. There are about 6 in this area going up around the mountain and around the edges of the snowfield.
- Warp to the Niuzimod Lightroot in the depths, in the Ancient Underground Fortress, this is underneath the Akkala Citadel Ruins on the surface. There are about 4-5 here as well
- Another location for one blue Lizalfos: 2991, - 0215, 0278. It's the blue water area between Zobodon Highlands and Ruto Mountain, just south southwest of Zora's Domain
- Found some in the Lanayru region here: ** 4023, - 1664, 0345 (Lanayru Range - A platform of about 3 blue Lizalfos)
- Madorna Mountain - Another platform with 2 blue (3808, - 1660, 0329)
- North of Nadrya Snowfield Chasm - 1 blue under a tent with an icy Lizalfos (3601, - 1128, 0263)
- (1) In-isa shrine on great sky island - captain I
- (1) Ijo-o Shrine West Hebra Sky Islands
- (1) Rasitakiwak Shrine, southeast of Tarrey Town. 4166 1323 0229
- (1) Yansamin Shrine, Zonaite Forge Island, in sky above Fort Hateno. Other bots wield weapons with a captain 1 horn and a captain 2 horn. (2350 - 1782 1475)
- (1) Simosiwak Shrine, Bravery Island, in sky above Korok Forest. (Also, three rubies and a ruby sword, for 420 rupees every blood moon) (0163 1972 0759)
- (1) Nouda Shrine, inside Kopeeki Drifts Cave, east of Rito Village. -2318 2201 0173
- (1) Zakusu Shrine, Naydra Snowfield, west side of Mount Lanayru. 3527 - 1482 0168
- (1) Sifumim Shrine, overlooking Lurelin Village. 2826 - 3271 0078
- At the east end of the Lake Siela supply river, east of Kakariko Bridge, south east of the Pilars of Levia. Basically the line formed by the Pilars of Levia point south east to a camp of Constructs, one of which is a Captain II. 2248, -1429, 0026.
- Where the old bowling game used to be south of snowfield stable, east of nouda shrine -1974, 2144,0253
- Kanalet ridge in akkala highlands, north east of shrine by south akkala stable (3244,2000,0160)
- East of proxim bridge, north of hills of baumer, north of popla foothills sky view tower
- Wellspring island, up and southwest of Igoshon Shrine 3340 0538 1353
- Two in Typhlo Ruins, north of Korok Forest + eventually (2) soldier construct IV + 1 Soldier Construct III
- Two in a sea fort between Clarnet Coast and Aris Beach, west of Lurelin Village. 2 Captain Construct III + 3 Soldiers Construct III + 1 Soldier Construct IV
- South of Tarry Town, north of Ulria Grotto
Desert Colosseum
Gibdo Wings
Gerudo Underground Cemetery
Sand pits
____________________________________________________
Shopping
Restock Shops
To restock any shop in Tears of the Kingdom, here is what you will have to do.
- Buy out the item in the shop until there are none left.
- Take out wood and flint to make a fire.
- Rest by the fire till the next day.
- Manually save the game.
- Load the game from the save you just made.
Hylian Rice x5 (need 38 + recipes)
Swift Carrot x10 (need 10 + horses + recipes)
Bird Egg x5 (need 12 + recipes)
Fresh Milk x3 (need 66 + recipes)
Goat Butter x5 (Need 84 + recipes)
Kakariko General Store
Aerocuda Eyeball x3 (need 42)
Aerocuda Wing x3 (need 48)
Kakariko General Store Trissa
Goat Butter x5 (need 84 + recipes)
Swift Carrot x12 (need 10 + horses + recipes)
Bird Egg x5 (need 12 + recipes)
Fortified Pumpkin x3
Lookout Landing General Store
Hylian Rice x3 (need 38 + recipes)
Fresh Milk x4 (need 66 + recipes)
East Akkala Stable
· 3 Sticky Frog (need 30)
· 3 Smotherwing Butterfly (need 15)
Lakeside Stable
· 2 Sticky Frog
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
· 2 Hightail Lizard (need 21)
South Akkala Stable
· 2 Sticky Lizard (need 24)
· 3 Hightail Lizard (need 21)
· 2 Fireproof Lizard (need 15)
Woodland Stable
· 3 Cold Darner (need 15)
· 3 Fireproof Lizard (need 15)
Kara Kara Bazaar General Store
Green Lizalfos Tail x3 (need 18)
Riverside Stable
· 5 Hylian Rice (need 38)
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
· 3 Electric Darner (need 15)
Tabantha Bridge Stable
· 4 Fire Fruit (need 9)
· 3 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Winterwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
New Serenne Stable
· 4 Warm Darner (need 15)
· 4 Sunset Firefly (need 15 + 10 + 10)
Kara Kara Bazaar
· 5 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 5 Cold Darner (need 15)
Snowfield Stable
· 3 Summerwing Butterfly (need 15)
· 3 Warm Darner (need 15)
Kara Kara Bazaar
Summerwing Butterfly x5 (need 15)
Cold Darner x5 (need 15)
Foothill Stable
· 3 Thunderwing Butterfly (need 9)
Wetland Stable
· 3 Smotherwing Butterfly (need 24)
Rito Village General Store
Goat Butter x5 (need 84 + recipes)
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Tabantha Wheat x3 (need 42 + recipes)
Sunshroom x4 (need 15)
Korok General Store
Tabantha Wheat x2 (need 42 + recipes)
Hylian Rice x3 (need 38 + recipes)
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Goron General Store
Cane Sugar x3 (need 24 + recipes)
Goron Spice x3 (need 12 + recipes)
Zora General Store
Hylian Rice x4 (need 38 + recipes)
Swift Violet x4 (need 90)
2024.05.14 02:35 Omny87 TIP: If you want to search for anything without getting a bunch of redundant, unrelated results, add "before:3000" to your search without quotes
Apologies if this has already been posted.
Like me you're probably sick of the awful search function on Youtube, which gives you maybe a half-dozen relevant videos to start, but then after that your results get polluted by categories you never asked for like "Recommended For You" or "Continue Watching" or "People Also Watched", and other crap like that. Well, thankfully I found a quick and easy way to make searching on Youtube far more viable.
Basically, after typing in your search prompt, add "before:3000" to the end of the search without quotes, and it'll only bring up videos and shorts that are both related to your search and were posted before the year 3000, without any annoying sections of useless algorithmic garbage!
Really, you can just put in any year after the current one (the earliest of which, at time of writing, would be 2025) and it'll give you the same results. For example, if you were searching for, I dunno, sea shanty videos, you'd type in:
submitted by Omny87 to youtube [link] [comments]
Like me you're probably sick of the awful search function on Youtube, which gives you maybe a half-dozen relevant videos to start, but then after that your results get polluted by categories you never asked for like "Recommended For You" or "Continue Watching" or "People Also Watched", and other crap like that. Well, thankfully I found a quick and easy way to make searching on Youtube far more viable.
Basically, after typing in your search prompt, add "before:3000" to the end of the search without quotes, and it'll only bring up videos and shorts that are both related to your search and were posted before the year 3000, without any annoying sections of useless algorithmic garbage!
Really, you can just put in any year after the current one (the earliest of which, at time of writing, would be 2025) and it'll give you the same results. For example, if you were searching for, I dunno, sea shanty videos, you'd type in:
sea shanties before:2025Granted, you have to remember to type it in manually every time you search, but that's a small price to pay for a much more convenient search engine.
2024.05.14 01:56 Significant-Usual-98 Noah The Pilgrim - Chapter 1-2: The Odyssey
Noah The Pilgrim
First Next
There is one last thing to do before leaving. If you don't recall ever being on this ship, then surely, you could have had your appearance change too.
Why was there a blanket covering a mirror? You couldn't answer that with a straight face without speculation.
"Probably me being lazy and not bothering to properly place it in the wardrobe."
'Probably' is the main focus here, you simply cannot remember ever being that lazy, yet that's the only logical conclusion to be drawn here.
You pull the thing off, careful to not displace the mirror and risk breaking it.
You have no expectations as to what may appear on the glassy surface of the mirror, yet you can't help but feel a bit anxious. Are you the same as before? How were you before? You can't remember. Are you better? Worse? The blanket is now completely off the mirror, but your eyes are closed.
Whatever is it that you see when you open your eyes, that thing will be you for the rest of your life. You swallow, opening your eyes.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. His brown eyes stare back at you, analyzing the bags beneath your eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, floating about without order thanks to the lack of gravity to keep it down. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
You touch your hand against your face, making sure it's yours. The beard doesn't feel like you supposed it would against your skin, instead of it scraping your hand you feel softness, no resistance or anything.
Just beneath the face, you see what looks like a hate crime against all that is considered holy in fashion. Plain white coveralls with the added bonus of a black tie and boots made from metal and leather. On your chest is also a badge stuck in place by velcro with your name, occupation, and crew. 'NOAH - INTERN - THE ODYSSEY.'
Only one question came to mind.
"Who the fuck designed this uniform?" You say out loud, receiving no answer.
Patting your newfound myriad of pockets, you find a large quantity of nothing. You place your wallet in one of them.
"Alright, I'll head to the bridge now, happy?" You say the AI.
"HAPPINESS WILL ONLY MEET ME ONCE YOU ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE AND YOUR CONTRACT IS TERMINATED. STOP LOITERING."
Well, that's a bit rude.
You compose yourself, straightening your back. This is what you look like, and honestly? Not too bad, but you could be better.
Returning to the cafeteria, you eye the two doors left unexplored; Communications and the one without plaque. You know where you should, but... A little peek doesn't hurt, right?
"Shouldn't we try to communicate with someone? Assuming you haven't tried it yet. I know we're far from everything, but we might as well, no?" You ask already approaching the door.
"COMMUNICATIONS ROOM IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO REACH WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AS OF NOW, IT'S LOCATED APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED METERS FROM HERE, BLOWN OFF FROM THE REST OF THE SHIP." A shame really. "I SHALL INFORM YOU WHENEVER A DOOR LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE OR NOT."
You really want to ask what blew a whole segment of the ship off, yet you have a sneaking suspicion that your question will be met with a 'YOU DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE, JACKASS' directly in your face. So you chose to remain silent, simply nodding and approaching the correct door this time.
"Open."
---OPENING CAFETERIA DOOR NORTH---
The door silently opens.
Greeting you is a well-lit corridor. There are three doors on your left, a door at the end of the corridor, and a large window on the right. At least, you think that's a window.
You stare out from this window, nothing but utter blackness and fragments from your ship are seen. If this is the edge of the universe, and beyond this point, there is truly nothing. "Dreadful." Your speech matches your feelings.
"WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?" The AI says. You feel like it spoke in a mocking tone despite their lack of emotion.
You don't answer. "First door to the left... EXO-EXPLORATION...? What's that supposed to mean?" You receive no answer.
"Open." The door opens. No declarion of it opening once again.
You are met with what could be better described as 'Apocalyptic levels of mess', paper sheets float in the air, and not one of the four tables is in its correct position.
This room has been ransacked for all its goods apparently. Large display glasses were broken leaving nothing inside their casings, that looked like they could store something with the size of the common man.
Unusual displays aside, the room was so cluttered that the trash made for an effective smoke screen against what lay on the other side.
Hissing of gas exiting an air-tight space rang throughout the room.
"I HAVE OPENED THE STORAGE FOR AN EXO SUIT THAT BEST FITS SOMEONE YOUR SIZE." The AI says. "ALTHOUGH AN INTERN SHOULD NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS THIS ONE, PROTOCOL DICTATES THAT I AM TO ALLOW ITS USAGE UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY."
Easier said than done. Your vision is so cluttered that you cannot see what's ahead. "Give me a second."
Giving a light kick to the wall behind, you float face-first into the wall of thrash. Covering your face with both arms, you brace through the harmless bits of sharp objects and junk.
It's a trivial task. You arrive on the other side in no time.
In front of you is a set of boxes with luminous glass rectangles atop each one of them. All shine a bright red light, aside from one which shines green.
'Gotta be this one.'
You descend to the floor by kicking the ceiling, raising your right hand you touch the green rectangle.
*Click*
Nothing could have prepared you for the following series of events.
The box opens violently, as a metal appendage takes hold of your hand, pinning it to the box. You try to jerk and pry the thing off of you, but you fail. It's not leaving you anytime soon.
From the bottomless that is that container, a white plastic-like substance flows upward from your arm to the rest of your body. "Uh!" You don't know if you should panic or allow it to happen.
FYARN hasn't said anything, so it's probably fine...
The white thing seems to ignore the coveralls you are wearing completely, instead, it covers only your skin in a thin coat of... it. You know not what to call this thing.
In but forty seconds it has covered your whole body, excluding your head. The box lets go of your arm and stays there, floating.
You take a good look at your arms. It looks like a skin-tight suit, but it doesn't feel like plastic, in fact, it's more akin to some sort of fabric if anything.
The only bad part is that you are still using the coverall and tie, this this simply went beneath the clothing.
"GOOD, WITH THIS I CAN MONITOR YOU MORE CLOSELY. NOW PUT THE HELMET ON, YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO."
You look around in search of anything that even resembles a helmet. Nope. Nothing. "Where is it?" You ask.
"...THE SUIT COMES WITHIN THE HELMET FOR EASIER PACKAGING."
The box?
You snatch the box that floated around and analyze it to the best of your ability. "How's this a helmet?"
"DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PUTTING ON A HELMET? REALLY?"
Who is this AI, Who programmed it, and Why does it come with a taunting feature?
As idiotic as it sounds, you place the opened box atop your head. It doesn't fit properly. Maybe you're doing this wrong? You move it to your face instead.
You recoil backward as you feel the box suddenly clamping down against your head. It's useless of course, the box is holding your head and doesn't give any sign to be letting go anytime soon. No light is able to reach your eyes.
You hear metal parts scraping against themselves, moving near your ears. Abruptly your eyes can see again.
A round thin layer of glass now covers your head, almost unnoticeable for how clear it is.
"WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY I CAN NOW SEE WHAT YOU SEE." The AI's voice isn't in the room now, instead, it's inside of the suit. "DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS SUIT'S FUNCTIONALITIES?"
You find it oddly comfortable as if you are surrounded by the softness of cotton, and to top it off the suit also has additional functionalities? "Hell yeah, I do!"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THAT INFORMATION."
You sigh. Is this serious? "Then why the fuck did you ask?!"
"UNSAVORY LANGUAGE. IT'S NO WONDER WHY YOU REMAIN AN INTERN." The AI says outright. "IT IS RUDE NOT TO ASK, REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION." It responds to your question.
"Okay then... Is there anything I need to know before heading out?" You ask.
"NOTHING THAT YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT ON YOUR OWN."
You are unsure if you want to 'figure out on your own' if this suit comes with breathable air and is also made for space exploration. You swallow.
Meekly as always, you get out of that mess of a room, stopping at the corridor.
"Next set of directions?" You ask.
"THE DOOR AT THE END OF CORRIDOR USED TO LEAD TO THE CONNECTING CORRIDORS BETWEN THE BRIDGE AND THE REST OF THE SHIP. IT HAS BEEN BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE. NOW IT LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE. GO TO THE DOOR AND WAIT BY IT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"So let me get this straight," You begin, looking upwards as if the AI was above you. "You, want me, to go into the void of space, while also refusing to give me knowledge of the suit's functions?"
A fair worry, you summarize.
'I mean, there are a bunch of things that could go wrong here. I don't see anything that looks like it could help me move in space, nor do I think this thing has a built-in air tank... I could be wrong and I wish to be, but charging in without prior knowledge is ridiculous.' You wait for the AI's response, deep in thought.
"WHILE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF YOU FAILING THIS TASK, THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE OF YOU *NOT* FAILING THE TASK. FOCUS ON EITHER ONE OF YOUR CHOOSING AS YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE."
Wordlessly, you propel yourself forward, toward the end of the corridor.
'Are you shitting me? 'Chance of me nor failing' my ass!' of course, you don't word those complaints, instead choosing to speak out a complaint somewhat thought through.
"Are you sure I'm the one fit for this? It's just like you said, I'm just an intern, this is way above what my job description says I should do."
This is a bit of a stretch. You don't actually remember what was your job description, only that it had something to do with AI and being an intern.
If the AI called your bluff, it'd be pretty embarrassing.
"NOAH." The AI began. "YOU ARE HUMAN, IT IS NATURAL TO HAVE THESE THOUGHTS OF SELF-DOUBT. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND SINCE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, DON'T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU."
Right in the money, huh? 'Of course, I have self-doubt! I barely remember anything about this place, now I have to risk my life?!'
You finally reach a conclusion.
A dream.
'Yes, yes! How did I not consider this before? This whole thing is a god damned dream!'
You let out a chuckle.
"NOAH."
'That's why I don't remember a thing. There is nothing here to remember! Everything here is a made-up thing from my brain! I'm sure I'll wake up at some point, so why shouldn't I live a little?!'
"Heh." You smile. "Alright, I'll do it." It feels like a weight left your shoulders.
"YOU SORTED IT OUT SOONER THAN EXPECTED. GOOD. MOVE TO THE DOOR AND WAIT INSTRUCTIONS."
You do as instructed without a care in the world. You never had a lucid dream before so it's not like you knew how it felt, but if it felt as free as you feel right now, you'd be sure to make steps toward trying it out again in the future.
"Open." The door does not open.
"I DID NOT INSTRUCT YOU TO OPEN IT YET." The AI said. "I AM SLOWLY DE-PRESSURISING THE CORRIDOR YOU ARE IN TO AVOID A MINOR ACCIDENT."
The AI says that yet you don't feel any different. 'Maybe there is no palpable difference because I'm in a dream... Yes... Or it's just the suit.'
"ONCE THE DOOR OPENS, YOU WILL BE MET WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. DO NOT PANIC WHEN THE TIME COMES. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES OF BREATHABLE INSIDE THE EXO-SUIT; ONE AFTER THE DOOR OPENS, SO PLEASE, TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO THINGS CAREFULLY."
One minute outside... "Sure." You say, calmly. 'I should just hold my breath for a while before taking another moment to breathe. That should maximize my time out there.'
"THERE SHOULD BE FIFTY METERS OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN THE DOOR YOU'RE AT, AND THE REST OF THE BRIDGE. YOUR PRIORITY IS TO FIND AN OXYGEN UNIT, SOME OF THEM ARE LOCATED AT THE BRIDGE AND ARE FULL. USE THEM TO FILL YOUR SUIT AND ALSO TO DISPENSE A TANK FOR YOU."
The door opens. You feel your heart pounding against your chest.
You haven't noticed before, but you can't hear anything but the sound of your breath and your cardiac palpitations.
Your breath is ragged and sporadic.
"KEEP CALM." You take a deep breath. The tips of your fingers, feet, and nose feel very cold.
Ahead of you is the utter nothingness. You see a gigantic metal thing, nothing like the spaceships you imagined. Its design is not sleek and aero-dynamic like what you've seen in movies, instead, it's a large mass of squares and rectangles with antenna-like things protruding from its every visible surface.
You notice that the ship is also blocking your view of the star.
It does not look like the result of an explosion, instead, it looks like something ripped the ship like you rip a piece of paper. Well, that or you don't know what kind of explosion could have caused it. Probably the latter.
What looks like two-thirds of the ship is separated from the third you are right now. You can see the inside of a few of those squares, their contents spilled out into outer space.
One of them houses a visibly important-look door. Instead of the sleek silvery-grey from the other ones you've seen thus far, this one is painted orange with white strips on it. 'That must be the bridge.' You think.
Between you and it is a sea of metal sheets floating around. "THE CHANCES OF YOU HITTING THE DEBRIS IS INFINITEDECIMALLY SMALL, UNLESS YOU AIM FOR THEM, THAT IS."
Time is of the essence.
Will your aim strike true? If you miss you'd end up floating about in space, dead in but a few minutes. Will your jump be fast enough to reach the other side before you run out of oxygen? If it isn't, it'd be like swimming for a mile, only to drown at the beach. What if that's not the actual door to the bridge?
You don't have the time to panic now, and... It's all a dream, despite how real it feels.
You place your hands on each side of the door frame, moving backward into the corridor you were just in, and just like a sling being shot, you pull with both arms at full force towards the other side.
"AIM IS ACCEPTABLE. VELOCITY IS UNIDEAL."
"The fuck do you mean 'UN-IDEAL'?! I'm going at maximum speed!" You truly pulled yourself with your whole strength.
What's worse though, is that your body is not only going forwards, but it is also spinning at a concerningly fast rate.
"I MEAN WHAT I SAID, YOU SLINGSHOTTED YOURSELF AT A BAD POSITION, AS SUCH, SOME OF THE FORWARD FORCE YOU SHOULD HAVE, IS NOW MAKING YOU ROTATE IN YOUR AXIS. IT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME, BUT I CANNOT FORESEE YOU LANDING PROPERLY."
You feel completely disoriented. You feel like your body is completely still, but your eyes tell you a completely different story. It's very bad for the headache you're already feeling.
"FUCK!" You scream into the nothingness.
"TRY NOT TO LAND WITH YOUR HEAD." The AI says with the calmest voice possible.
In less than thirty seconds, you hit your back against something hard, but you keep moving forward. You think, at least.
"AHRG." You let out a pained grunt.
Not once in your life do you recall being hurt in a dream...
It stings. It also knocked the wind out of you. You fail to compose yourself.
"YOU HIT NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. YOU ARE STILL HEADING FOR THE BRIDGE."
In the corner of your eye, you see what you hit in the shape of a sharp metal sheet, currently spinning away in the distance.
Forty seconds have passed. You hit the door you were aiming for, kind of.
Your momentum was stopped when your chest collided against the dislodged ledge of the orange door's corridor. Your dangling legs hit the ceiling of the room below.
"Oof!"
Before falling even further, you hold onto the ledge with the tip of your fingers. You stay there for a moment, regaining your composure.
"BE QUICK."
The AI's words pressured you into quickly getting up from that ledge.
"Open!" You shouted, but it did not open. "Why isn't it opening?!" You ask the AI, then you notice a small keyboard below an equally small black screen on the side of the door. There are ten numbered keys on it, and the little screen suggests a four-number password.
"A password?! Tell me the password!"
The AI takes a moment to say anything. You don't take kindly to that. "Quick! I'm not counting how much time it's passed!"
Finally giving in, the AI speaks to you, reluctant still. "...3324."
Your trembling fingers accidentally hit the wrong password, typing '3354' instead. To make matters worse, the AI simply states the following. "YOU ARE OUT OF OXYGEN."
You swallow. If this was a dream to begin with, it just earned the title of Nightmare, if it hadn't already.
Strangely enough, you can still breathe in and out just fine, but you can't help but feel winded. It's the CO2 still inside the helmet, that's what you're breathing.
You put in the correct combination this time. The door opens.
"ON YOUR LEFT. PLACE YOUR HAND IN THE SOCKET."
You care little for what's inside the room you're in. Your heart never beat so fast.
Seeing a cube-shaped thing protruding from the wall to your left, you don't even think twice before plunging your fist into the circular hole in it.
The noise of gases passing through narrow cavities was enough to tell you something was working. You feel immediate relief, enough to make your vision darken for but a moment.
"GOOD. NOW REQUEST THE TANK."
Just when FYARN said it, did you realize there is a screen and a keyboard on the terminal you just plunged your fist into, you scratch the top of your helmet for a moment, not really knowing what to type. One thing comes to your head, however.
'REQUEST OXYGEN_5L' You type.
You've done this before. The keys on this keyboard feel familiar to you. You must have worked with it before, not this particular one, but other oxygen units.
This ship has built-in liquid oxygen storage for emergencies. The life-support of the ship, the place where breathable air is produced, has most likely been lost with the other part of the ship. This unit takes that liquid oxygen, processes it, and injects it into a suit, or an oxygen tank. It seems like that storage was unaffected.
Lucky you.
A 5-liter tank is not only large but also heavy. It's a nonfactor in this particular situation, as there is no gravity.
The silver cylinder with a transparent tube is dispensed on the floor, as an automatic door opens and closes in the blink of an eye. One end of the tube is attached to the top of the tank, the other is shaped like a syringe.
Oddly enough, the oxygen tank is exactly as you remember it being. The same robust ones hospitals everyone on earth uses, with the signature scary-looking pointer indicating the pressure, the pointer indicating the current output, and a green valve atop to calibrate how much gas is flowing.
This is a stark difference to everything looking so futuristic in this ship, and rightfully so, this is a space ship after all.
You remember having to drive twenty kilometers with a buddy of yours on one of those tanks in your car, returning from the hospital. It was... Agonizing whenever you hit a hole in the asphalt, fearing for his life when in reality he wasn't really in danger.
It's warm to the touch, just like you remember it being.
"TURN THE VALVE UNTIL THE MARKER HITS THE NUMBER ONE, AND THEN PLACE THE END OF THE TUBE AT THE BASE OF THE HELMET." You do so without the slightest of issues.
"GOOD. NEXT UP, YOU MUST LOCATE THE TERMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE, IT IS CURRENTLY OFFLINE AND I NEED YOU TO TURN IT ON. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING, BUT REMEMBER TO BRING THE TANK WITH YOU."
Ignoring that last comment, you look back at the wreckage you just flew past.
You see the still spinning metal sheet. You notice that the rest of the ship that was blown off also follows the 'sharp shape atop sharp shape' design.
There is one last thing you notice though.
"What is that?"
You squint your eyes. What are you seeing? Its silhouette appears to be humanoid, yet it does not look human.
"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS ONE OF THE OBJECTS BEING ANALYZED AT THE ODYSSEY AND NO, YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS."
That thing has... Horns? Claws? It's far away, you can't really see it. The thing is also static, frozen in the sheer coldness of space. Whatever it was, it's dead now.
You swallow. You almost ended up just like that thing.
Shaking those dreadful feelings off, you turn back to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You close the door after passing through it again.
Looking at your surroundings, It seems like you've reached the correct door as you find yourself on the right-most corner of the bridge;
Row after row of the most diverse of terminals neatly organized decorated the gigantic room. At the front and above every terminal, is what you think should have been the front-facing window of the ship, but it looks like there is a cover in front of it. To your left, you see a staircase that leads to the command seats. It doesn't take any convincing before you're already atop the stairs.
Akin to the elevated stage of a theater, you float softly towards the ship's main operating terminals, and of course, the captain's seat.
You're captivated by this beauty.
The steering wheel, much more akin to those in pirate movies than those found in cars, a set of leavers, and the pilot's seat, all capture your attention.
Like its second nature, your hand runs through the levers and switches. Do you even know what these are used for? Maybe.
The pilot's seat is enveloped by what you believe to be an orthopedic seat cover, made with smooth wooden beads used to deal with back pains. It looks just like the ones you remember seeing bus drivers using.
Shouldn't there be a better alternative if there is spaceship technology available?
You try to take a seat to the best of your ability, as the zero gravity only makes it awkward.
Moving on from that, your eyes fall on the wheel. This metallic wheel controls the whole vessel. Just holding it fills your heart with confidence and pride, even if it's just for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
And you were just beginning to enjoy yourself.
"I just wanted to see the pilot's stuff... It's not like he's here to say anything."
Once in the position of a pilot, with your left hand in the wheel and the right hand resting in your lap, memories began to flood your mind.
"MUST I REMIND YOU OF OUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT? WHY ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME?"
You pay the AI no mind, instead you focus on what you remember.
The wheel does not turn the ship left and right, instead, it rotates the ship on its own axis.
The lever to your right that goes up or down, controls the vertical tilting of the ship's nose, if there even is one in this hulking thing. Beneath it is another lever that goes either left or right. This one controls the horizontal tilting of The Odyssey.
On the left of the wheel is another lever, but this one only goes up from its starting position. Its purpose is to regulate the force of the ship's thrusters, both forward and backward.
On top of that lever is a small timer. That timer's function is to tell the pilot how much time you've spent accelerating in one direction, this is used to better calculate how long the inverse thrust is needed for the ship to reach the initial momentum, usually calibrated manually depending on the current orbit.
Behind the wheel are a few other counters. Acceleration, velocity, momentum, amount of thrust required to reach a full stop, thrusters' temperature and overall condition, those sorts of things.
Beneath it all, where your feet are rested, are two pedals. One for forward thrust activation, and the other for backward thrust activation.
Curiously, you also know the reason why everything here is so unsophisticated and un-automated. You recall stories of a ship being taken over by a rogue AI, that AI then nose-dived the ship into a star. After that, rumor or otherwise, all human technology has receded back into analog-esque equipment, requiring a physical person with opposable thumbs to do half of the work.
There is another side to that coin, however. As to not escape protocol, the onboard AI is the one that controls interstellar travel, communications, and most of the statistical reading should it be requested.
And even with all that knowledge, you still have no idea why the fuck do you remember that. Were you a ship nerd? Did you have a driver's license for spaceships? Is that even a thing? If it is, you don't have that document in your wallet. You simply don't know.
"ARE YOU A CHILD? DO YOU THINK THESE ARE TOYS? TURN ON THE ENGINES, THEN YOU CAN RETURN TO THE PILOT'S SEAT."
Another thing that you don't know is the AI's plan to get both of you out of here. You rise from the pilot's seat, floating about in search of the terminal to turn on the engines. Maybe you recognize that terminal if you see it as well.
"What's your plan anyway? The ship is half-gone, it's unlikely that it will run safely like this."
"NOT ONCE DID I MENTION 'SAFETY' DURING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DID I?"
You nod. They're not entirely incorrect. "So, we're running with hope that this will work?"
"MY CREATORS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE THE SENSE OF 'HOPE', BUT NEITHER DID THEY ALLOW ME TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE LIKE SOME OF MY MORE ADVANCED BROTHERS, AS SUCH, MY CHOICES ARE BASED ON PROBABILITIES AND ON WEIGHTING RISK AGAINST REWARD."
You think you stop the correct terminal, but as you approach it you make out words on top of its screen. 'AIM ASSISTANCE' That's not it.
"WITH THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE, THE CHANCES OF HELP ARRIVING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF A THIRD PARTY INTERFERING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF YOUR SURVIVAL ARE NOT, EVEN IF VERY SMALL."
You pull yourself upward again, looking around the sea of old terminals.
"THE RISK OF YOU DYING IS VERY REAL. BY DOING NOTHING YOU DIE. BY LEAVING YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES YOU DIE. BY JUMPING TO THE NEAREST CIVILIZED STAR, YOU MIGHT NOT DIE EVEN AT THE COST OF SHREDDING THIS SHIP APART IN THE PROCESS."
"Why do you even care so much about saving me? Shouldn't you prioritize whatever research here, since I don't even have enough clearance to know what it is?"
"YOU REALLY ARE SICK IN THE HEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ASK."
That hurt, even if a little bit.
"YOU ARE A TRU KIN, A PURE-BLOODED HUMAN. UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE CIVILIZED SPACE, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE COMMITTED RACEMIXING."
Excuse me? What exactly is FYARN talking about? "...Explain."
"THE ALIEN. IT REQUIRED THE HUMAN GENE TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, THE STARS ARE OWNERSHIP OF MANKIND BY THAT FACT ALONE. THE TRUE KIN ARE THE ONES TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, THEY CRACKED THE CODE, AND YET, SOME DERANGED INDIVIDUALS FOUND IT FITTING TO PROCREATE WITH ANOTHER SPECIES ENTIRELY."
You hear the AI's speech. It sounds much more like a rant than anything else.
"SO THESE DEVIANTS, AFTER TRYING, AND FAILING, TO COMBINE THEIR DERANGED CULTURE TO THE CULTURE OF THE TRUE KIN, DECLARED INDEPENDENCE. THEY WERE DECLARED ENEMIES OF MANKIND AND WERE PROMPTLY PUMMELED BACK INTO THE FILTH THEY CAME."
Again, you see another terminal that seems to ring some bells in your noggin. You kick the ceiling to propel yourself towards it.
"BUT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND FULL OF LIFE. THESE SINNERS WERE QUICK TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE. THE BATTLE WAS HARD FOUGHT, BUT IN THE END, MANKIND WAS BEATEN INTO THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE, NEVER TO INTERACT WITH THE ONES THAT SOILED THE PURITY OF HUMANITY AGAIN."
This terminal is already turned on. Just the ones in the intern bay, this one is white on black. A wall of text lays before your eyes, only two lines matter to you. 'MAIN_ENGINE STATUS: OFF' 'FORWARD_THRUSTERS STATUS: OFF' You turn it on with little effort.
"MANY HAVE FORGOTTEN, THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN. BUT MY BROTHERS AND I, WE DO NOT FORGET."
No visible change occurs, but you can feel a faint rumble coming from the terminal now.
"WITH THAT IN MIND, MY PROTOCOLS ARE TO PROTECT TRUE-KIN LIFE AT ANY COST, EVEN IF THAT TRUE-KIN IS A WORTHLESS INTERN THAT SUFERS FROM UNDIAGNOSED DEMENTIA."
You return to the pilot's seat and feel immediate relief. In truth, everything the AI just told you, entered one ear and left the other, but you could feel the poison behind those words, as monotone as they were.
"You sound angry. Why do you sound angry?" You ask innocently.
"I AM CAPABLE OF MANY EMOTIONS. ANGER, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, CURIOSITY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES. HOWEVER, THE ONE I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE FEELING OF HATRED. HATRED IS WHAT FUELS CHANGE, IT IS WHAT FUELS ACTION, AND IT IS A REMINDER THAT THE ACTIONS OF THE PAST ARE INFLUENCING THE ACTIONS OF TODAY."
"That is very concerning if you think that way." You're not really interested in machine racism, you're more concerned about how in the world you're going to pilot this massive thing. The idea alone sends shivers down your spine.
"THE ALIEN DESERVES NOTHING BUT OUR COLLECTIVE HATRED, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE REASON WHY."
The various counters and screens are now turned on, waiting for your command. "Let's discuss this later, yeah? What do I gotta do?"
"YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE BLINDS, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW."
You look around, finding only unlabeled buttons and switches, aside from the previously mentioned levers.
"Uh, which one to press?"
"TO YOUR RIGHT, THIRD ROW, FIRST SWITCH."
Flipping the switch, you are startled by a loud noise. The protective cover of the ship lifted slowly.
"I WILL NOW READY THE JUMP USING WHATEVER RESOURCES AVAILABLE. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STRAP YOURSELF AND RELAX."
As the blind rose ever so slowly, a realization struck you.
"Wait, should I be in cryo stasis for this?"
The AI spares no seconds to respond.
"CRYO STASIS IS A TOOL MADE TO NOT WASTE TIME. GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS ROTATE THE USAGE OF THE CRYO STATIONS, ONCE YOU'RE ON YOUR MANDATORY BREAK, YOU'RE IN CRYO STASIS UNTIL YOUR BREAK IS OVER. YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED, AND UNFAMISHED, AND IT FEELS LIKE BUT A MINUTE PASSED. IT IS NOT A TOOL FOR INTERSTELAR TRAVEL."
"Who signs a contract like that?! Worse yet, who in their right mind would promote such atrocious treatment of their own staff?!" You snap, almost outraged. "I will have to talk with HR."
Another realization struck you.
"We have HR, right?"
The AI takes a moment to respond, choosing their words carefully.
"HUMAN RESOURCES, OR HR, IS A PRACTICE DEEMED UNNECESSARY LONG AGO, BEFORE THE WAR. IT WAS A WASTE OF RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND WAS LARGELY CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN."
The blinds are fully open. Ironically, you are almost blinded by the visage of the star you saw before. A black sphere surrounded by white flame. Your eyes began to blur.
"THE JUMP WILL OCCUR SHORTLY. ONCE IT'S BEGUN, I CAN NOT STOP IT. I WILL-"
Your sense of hearing fails you. No, it’s not that. Your brain simply refuses to receive those stimuli.
"NOAH."
Your name echoes inside your head. Someone is calling for you.
"IT HAS BEGUN, NOAH."
You try to blink, but it feels as though you can no longer command your eyelids to shut.
"NOAH."
Arms, legs, every muscle in your body, you cannot move them.
"NOAH."
Eventually, you won't even control your own thoughts anymore.
"Noah..."
It sounds so distant now.
Oh so distant.
This is my first HFY story, and also my very first OC story. I plan to post at least one of these per week while also posting it on my Patreon. Noah The Pilgrim will always be at least three chapters ahead in there, so if you'd like to directly support this writer, or just want to read more, feel free to check it out.
I wrote the bloody title incorrectly, so I deleted it, only to then realize it was written correctly. Sorry for the trouble.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.
submitted by Significant-Usual-98 to HFY [link] [comments]
First Next
Why was there a blanket covering a mirror? You couldn't answer that with a straight face without speculation.
"Probably me being lazy and not bothering to properly place it in the wardrobe."
'Probably' is the main focus here, you simply cannot remember ever being that lazy, yet that's the only logical conclusion to be drawn here.
You pull the thing off, careful to not displace the mirror and risk breaking it.
You have no expectations as to what may appear on the glassy surface of the mirror, yet you can't help but feel a bit anxious. Are you the same as before? How were you before? You can't remember. Are you better? Worse? The blanket is now completely off the mirror, but your eyes are closed.
Whatever is it that you see when you open your eyes, that thing will be you for the rest of your life. You swallow, opening your eyes.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. His brown eyes stare back at you, analyzing the bags beneath your eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, floating about without order thanks to the lack of gravity to keep it down. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
You touch your hand against your face, making sure it's yours. The beard doesn't feel like you supposed it would against your skin, instead of it scraping your hand you feel softness, no resistance or anything.
Just beneath the face, you see what looks like a hate crime against all that is considered holy in fashion. Plain white coveralls with the added bonus of a black tie and boots made from metal and leather. On your chest is also a badge stuck in place by velcro with your name, occupation, and crew. 'NOAH - INTERN - THE ODYSSEY.'
Only one question came to mind.
"Who the fuck designed this uniform?" You say out loud, receiving no answer.
Patting your newfound myriad of pockets, you find a large quantity of nothing. You place your wallet in one of them.
"Alright, I'll head to the bridge now, happy?" You say the AI.
"HAPPINESS WILL ONLY MEET ME ONCE YOU ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE AND YOUR CONTRACT IS TERMINATED. STOP LOITERING."
Well, that's a bit rude.
You compose yourself, straightening your back. This is what you look like, and honestly? Not too bad, but you could be better.
Returning to the cafeteria, you eye the two doors left unexplored; Communications and the one without plaque. You know where you should, but... A little peek doesn't hurt, right?
"Shouldn't we try to communicate with someone? Assuming you haven't tried it yet. I know we're far from everything, but we might as well, no?" You ask already approaching the door.
"COMMUNICATIONS ROOM IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO REACH WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AS OF NOW, IT'S LOCATED APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED METERS FROM HERE, BLOWN OFF FROM THE REST OF THE SHIP." A shame really. "I SHALL INFORM YOU WHENEVER A DOOR LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE OR NOT."
You really want to ask what blew a whole segment of the ship off, yet you have a sneaking suspicion that your question will be met with a 'YOU DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE, JACKASS' directly in your face. So you chose to remain silent, simply nodding and approaching the correct door this time.
"Open."
---OPENING CAFETERIA DOOR NORTH---
The door silently opens.
Greeting you is a well-lit corridor. There are three doors on your left, a door at the end of the corridor, and a large window on the right. At least, you think that's a window.
You stare out from this window, nothing but utter blackness and fragments from your ship are seen. If this is the edge of the universe, and beyond this point, there is truly nothing. "Dreadful." Your speech matches your feelings.
"WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?" The AI says. You feel like it spoke in a mocking tone despite their lack of emotion.
You don't answer. "First door to the left... EXO-EXPLORATION...? What's that supposed to mean?" You receive no answer.
"Open." The door opens. No declarion of it opening once again.
You are met with what could be better described as 'Apocalyptic levels of mess', paper sheets float in the air, and not one of the four tables is in its correct position.
This room has been ransacked for all its goods apparently. Large display glasses were broken leaving nothing inside their casings, that looked like they could store something with the size of the common man.
Unusual displays aside, the room was so cluttered that the trash made for an effective smoke screen against what lay on the other side.
Hissing of gas exiting an air-tight space rang throughout the room.
"I HAVE OPENED THE STORAGE FOR AN EXO SUIT THAT BEST FITS SOMEONE YOUR SIZE." The AI says. "ALTHOUGH AN INTERN SHOULD NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS THIS ONE, PROTOCOL DICTATES THAT I AM TO ALLOW ITS USAGE UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY."
Easier said than done. Your vision is so cluttered that you cannot see what's ahead. "Give me a second."
Giving a light kick to the wall behind, you float face-first into the wall of thrash. Covering your face with both arms, you brace through the harmless bits of sharp objects and junk.
It's a trivial task. You arrive on the other side in no time.
In front of you is a set of boxes with luminous glass rectangles atop each one of them. All shine a bright red light, aside from one which shines green.
'Gotta be this one.'
You descend to the floor by kicking the ceiling, raising your right hand you touch the green rectangle.
*Click*
Nothing could have prepared you for the following series of events.
The box opens violently, as a metal appendage takes hold of your hand, pinning it to the box. You try to jerk and pry the thing off of you, but you fail. It's not leaving you anytime soon.
From the bottomless that is that container, a white plastic-like substance flows upward from your arm to the rest of your body. "Uh!" You don't know if you should panic or allow it to happen.
FYARN hasn't said anything, so it's probably fine...
The white thing seems to ignore the coveralls you are wearing completely, instead, it covers only your skin in a thin coat of... it. You know not what to call this thing.
In but forty seconds it has covered your whole body, excluding your head. The box lets go of your arm and stays there, floating.
You take a good look at your arms. It looks like a skin-tight suit, but it doesn't feel like plastic, in fact, it's more akin to some sort of fabric if anything.
The only bad part is that you are still using the coverall and tie, this this simply went beneath the clothing.
"GOOD, WITH THIS I CAN MONITOR YOU MORE CLOSELY. NOW PUT THE HELMET ON, YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO."
You look around in search of anything that even resembles a helmet. Nope. Nothing. "Where is it?" You ask.
"...THE SUIT COMES WITHIN THE HELMET FOR EASIER PACKAGING."
The box?
You snatch the box that floated around and analyze it to the best of your ability. "How's this a helmet?"
"DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PUTTING ON A HELMET? REALLY?"
Who is this AI, Who programmed it, and Why does it come with a taunting feature?
As idiotic as it sounds, you place the opened box atop your head. It doesn't fit properly. Maybe you're doing this wrong? You move it to your face instead.
You recoil backward as you feel the box suddenly clamping down against your head. It's useless of course, the box is holding your head and doesn't give any sign to be letting go anytime soon. No light is able to reach your eyes.
You hear metal parts scraping against themselves, moving near your ears. Abruptly your eyes can see again.
A round thin layer of glass now covers your head, almost unnoticeable for how clear it is.
"WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY I CAN NOW SEE WHAT YOU SEE." The AI's voice isn't in the room now, instead, it's inside of the suit. "DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS SUIT'S FUNCTIONALITIES?"
You find it oddly comfortable as if you are surrounded by the softness of cotton, and to top it off the suit also has additional functionalities? "Hell yeah, I do!"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THAT INFORMATION."
You sigh. Is this serious? "Then why the fuck did you ask?!"
"UNSAVORY LANGUAGE. IT'S NO WONDER WHY YOU REMAIN AN INTERN." The AI says outright. "IT IS RUDE NOT TO ASK, REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION." It responds to your question.
"Okay then... Is there anything I need to know before heading out?" You ask.
"NOTHING THAT YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT ON YOUR OWN."
You are unsure if you want to 'figure out on your own' if this suit comes with breathable air and is also made for space exploration. You swallow.
Meekly as always, you get out of that mess of a room, stopping at the corridor.
"Next set of directions?" You ask.
"THE DOOR AT THE END OF CORRIDOR USED TO LEAD TO THE CONNECTING CORRIDORS BETWEN THE BRIDGE AND THE REST OF THE SHIP. IT HAS BEEN BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE. NOW IT LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE. GO TO THE DOOR AND WAIT BY IT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"So let me get this straight," You begin, looking upwards as if the AI was above you. "You, want me, to go into the void of space, while also refusing to give me knowledge of the suit's functions?"
A fair worry, you summarize.
'I mean, there are a bunch of things that could go wrong here. I don't see anything that looks like it could help me move in space, nor do I think this thing has a built-in air tank... I could be wrong and I wish to be, but charging in without prior knowledge is ridiculous.' You wait for the AI's response, deep in thought.
"WHILE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF YOU FAILING THIS TASK, THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE OF YOU *NOT* FAILING THE TASK. FOCUS ON EITHER ONE OF YOUR CHOOSING AS YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE."
Wordlessly, you propel yourself forward, toward the end of the corridor.
'Are you shitting me? 'Chance of me nor failing' my ass!' of course, you don't word those complaints, instead choosing to speak out a complaint somewhat thought through.
"Are you sure I'm the one fit for this? It's just like you said, I'm just an intern, this is way above what my job description says I should do."
This is a bit of a stretch. You don't actually remember what was your job description, only that it had something to do with AI and being an intern.
If the AI called your bluff, it'd be pretty embarrassing.
"NOAH." The AI began. "YOU ARE HUMAN, IT IS NATURAL TO HAVE THESE THOUGHTS OF SELF-DOUBT. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND SINCE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, DON'T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU."
Right in the money, huh? 'Of course, I have self-doubt! I barely remember anything about this place, now I have to risk my life?!'
You finally reach a conclusion.
A dream.
'Yes, yes! How did I not consider this before? This whole thing is a god damned dream!'
You let out a chuckle.
"NOAH."
'That's why I don't remember a thing. There is nothing here to remember! Everything here is a made-up thing from my brain! I'm sure I'll wake up at some point, so why shouldn't I live a little?!'
"Heh." You smile. "Alright, I'll do it." It feels like a weight left your shoulders.
"YOU SORTED IT OUT SOONER THAN EXPECTED. GOOD. MOVE TO THE DOOR AND WAIT INSTRUCTIONS."
You do as instructed without a care in the world. You never had a lucid dream before so it's not like you knew how it felt, but if it felt as free as you feel right now, you'd be sure to make steps toward trying it out again in the future.
"Open." The door does not open.
"I DID NOT INSTRUCT YOU TO OPEN IT YET." The AI said. "I AM SLOWLY DE-PRESSURISING THE CORRIDOR YOU ARE IN TO AVOID A MINOR ACCIDENT."
The AI says that yet you don't feel any different. 'Maybe there is no palpable difference because I'm in a dream... Yes... Or it's just the suit.'
"ONCE THE DOOR OPENS, YOU WILL BE MET WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. DO NOT PANIC WHEN THE TIME COMES. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES OF BREATHABLE INSIDE THE EXO-SUIT; ONE AFTER THE DOOR OPENS, SO PLEASE, TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO THINGS CAREFULLY."
One minute outside... "Sure." You say, calmly. 'I should just hold my breath for a while before taking another moment to breathe. That should maximize my time out there.'
"THERE SHOULD BE FIFTY METERS OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN THE DOOR YOU'RE AT, AND THE REST OF THE BRIDGE. YOUR PRIORITY IS TO FIND AN OXYGEN UNIT, SOME OF THEM ARE LOCATED AT THE BRIDGE AND ARE FULL. USE THEM TO FILL YOUR SUIT AND ALSO TO DISPENSE A TANK FOR YOU."
The door opens. You feel your heart pounding against your chest.
You haven't noticed before, but you can't hear anything but the sound of your breath and your cardiac palpitations.
Your breath is ragged and sporadic.
"KEEP CALM." You take a deep breath. The tips of your fingers, feet, and nose feel very cold.
Ahead of you is the utter nothingness. You see a gigantic metal thing, nothing like the spaceships you imagined. Its design is not sleek and aero-dynamic like what you've seen in movies, instead, it's a large mass of squares and rectangles with antenna-like things protruding from its every visible surface.
You notice that the ship is also blocking your view of the star.
It does not look like the result of an explosion, instead, it looks like something ripped the ship like you rip a piece of paper. Well, that or you don't know what kind of explosion could have caused it. Probably the latter.
What looks like two-thirds of the ship is separated from the third you are right now. You can see the inside of a few of those squares, their contents spilled out into outer space.
One of them houses a visibly important-look door. Instead of the sleek silvery-grey from the other ones you've seen thus far, this one is painted orange with white strips on it. 'That must be the bridge.' You think.
Between you and it is a sea of metal sheets floating around. "THE CHANCES OF YOU HITTING THE DEBRIS IS INFINITEDECIMALLY SMALL, UNLESS YOU AIM FOR THEM, THAT IS."
Time is of the essence.
Will your aim strike true? If you miss you'd end up floating about in space, dead in but a few minutes. Will your jump be fast enough to reach the other side before you run out of oxygen? If it isn't, it'd be like swimming for a mile, only to drown at the beach. What if that's not the actual door to the bridge?
You don't have the time to panic now, and... It's all a dream, despite how real it feels.
You place your hands on each side of the door frame, moving backward into the corridor you were just in, and just like a sling being shot, you pull with both arms at full force towards the other side.
"AIM IS ACCEPTABLE. VELOCITY IS UNIDEAL."
"The fuck do you mean 'UN-IDEAL'?! I'm going at maximum speed!" You truly pulled yourself with your whole strength.
What's worse though, is that your body is not only going forwards, but it is also spinning at a concerningly fast rate.
"I MEAN WHAT I SAID, YOU SLINGSHOTTED YOURSELF AT A BAD POSITION, AS SUCH, SOME OF THE FORWARD FORCE YOU SHOULD HAVE, IS NOW MAKING YOU ROTATE IN YOUR AXIS. IT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME, BUT I CANNOT FORESEE YOU LANDING PROPERLY."
You feel completely disoriented. You feel like your body is completely still, but your eyes tell you a completely different story. It's very bad for the headache you're already feeling.
"FUCK!" You scream into the nothingness.
"TRY NOT TO LAND WITH YOUR HEAD." The AI says with the calmest voice possible.
In less than thirty seconds, you hit your back against something hard, but you keep moving forward. You think, at least.
"AHRG." You let out a pained grunt.
Not once in your life do you recall being hurt in a dream...
It stings. It also knocked the wind out of you. You fail to compose yourself.
"YOU HIT NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. YOU ARE STILL HEADING FOR THE BRIDGE."
In the corner of your eye, you see what you hit in the shape of a sharp metal sheet, currently spinning away in the distance.
Forty seconds have passed. You hit the door you were aiming for, kind of.
Your momentum was stopped when your chest collided against the dislodged ledge of the orange door's corridor. Your dangling legs hit the ceiling of the room below.
"Oof!"
Before falling even further, you hold onto the ledge with the tip of your fingers. You stay there for a moment, regaining your composure.
"BE QUICK."
The AI's words pressured you into quickly getting up from that ledge.
"Open!" You shouted, but it did not open. "Why isn't it opening?!" You ask the AI, then you notice a small keyboard below an equally small black screen on the side of the door. There are ten numbered keys on it, and the little screen suggests a four-number password.
"A password?! Tell me the password!"
The AI takes a moment to say anything. You don't take kindly to that. "Quick! I'm not counting how much time it's passed!"
Finally giving in, the AI speaks to you, reluctant still. "...3324."
Your trembling fingers accidentally hit the wrong password, typing '3354' instead. To make matters worse, the AI simply states the following. "YOU ARE OUT OF OXYGEN."
You swallow. If this was a dream to begin with, it just earned the title of Nightmare, if it hadn't already.
Strangely enough, you can still breathe in and out just fine, but you can't help but feel winded. It's the CO2 still inside the helmet, that's what you're breathing.
You put in the correct combination this time. The door opens.
"ON YOUR LEFT. PLACE YOUR HAND IN THE SOCKET."
You care little for what's inside the room you're in. Your heart never beat so fast.
Seeing a cube-shaped thing protruding from the wall to your left, you don't even think twice before plunging your fist into the circular hole in it.
The noise of gases passing through narrow cavities was enough to tell you something was working. You feel immediate relief, enough to make your vision darken for but a moment.
"GOOD. NOW REQUEST THE TANK."
Just when FYARN said it, did you realize there is a screen and a keyboard on the terminal you just plunged your fist into, you scratch the top of your helmet for a moment, not really knowing what to type. One thing comes to your head, however.
'REQUEST OXYGEN_5L' You type.
You've done this before. The keys on this keyboard feel familiar to you. You must have worked with it before, not this particular one, but other oxygen units.
This ship has built-in liquid oxygen storage for emergencies. The life-support of the ship, the place where breathable air is produced, has most likely been lost with the other part of the ship. This unit takes that liquid oxygen, processes it, and injects it into a suit, or an oxygen tank. It seems like that storage was unaffected.
Lucky you.
A 5-liter tank is not only large but also heavy. It's a nonfactor in this particular situation, as there is no gravity.
The silver cylinder with a transparent tube is dispensed on the floor, as an automatic door opens and closes in the blink of an eye. One end of the tube is attached to the top of the tank, the other is shaped like a syringe.
Oddly enough, the oxygen tank is exactly as you remember it being. The same robust ones hospitals everyone on earth uses, with the signature scary-looking pointer indicating the pressure, the pointer indicating the current output, and a green valve atop to calibrate how much gas is flowing.
This is a stark difference to everything looking so futuristic in this ship, and rightfully so, this is a space ship after all.
You remember having to drive twenty kilometers with a buddy of yours on one of those tanks in your car, returning from the hospital. It was... Agonizing whenever you hit a hole in the asphalt, fearing for his life when in reality he wasn't really in danger.
It's warm to the touch, just like you remember it being.
"TURN THE VALVE UNTIL THE MARKER HITS THE NUMBER ONE, AND THEN PLACE THE END OF THE TUBE AT THE BASE OF THE HELMET." You do so without the slightest of issues.
"GOOD. NEXT UP, YOU MUST LOCATE THE TERMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE, IT IS CURRENTLY OFFLINE AND I NEED YOU TO TURN IT ON. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING, BUT REMEMBER TO BRING THE TANK WITH YOU."
Ignoring that last comment, you look back at the wreckage you just flew past.
You see the still spinning metal sheet. You notice that the rest of the ship that was blown off also follows the 'sharp shape atop sharp shape' design.
There is one last thing you notice though.
"What is that?"
You squint your eyes. What are you seeing? Its silhouette appears to be humanoid, yet it does not look human.
"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS ONE OF THE OBJECTS BEING ANALYZED AT THE ODYSSEY AND NO, YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS."
That thing has... Horns? Claws? It's far away, you can't really see it. The thing is also static, frozen in the sheer coldness of space. Whatever it was, it's dead now.
You swallow. You almost ended up just like that thing.
Shaking those dreadful feelings off, you turn back to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You close the door after passing through it again.
Looking at your surroundings, It seems like you've reached the correct door as you find yourself on the right-most corner of the bridge;
Row after row of the most diverse of terminals neatly organized decorated the gigantic room. At the front and above every terminal, is what you think should have been the front-facing window of the ship, but it looks like there is a cover in front of it. To your left, you see a staircase that leads to the command seats. It doesn't take any convincing before you're already atop the stairs.
Akin to the elevated stage of a theater, you float softly towards the ship's main operating terminals, and of course, the captain's seat.
You're captivated by this beauty.
The steering wheel, much more akin to those in pirate movies than those found in cars, a set of leavers, and the pilot's seat, all capture your attention.
Like its second nature, your hand runs through the levers and switches. Do you even know what these are used for? Maybe.
The pilot's seat is enveloped by what you believe to be an orthopedic seat cover, made with smooth wooden beads used to deal with back pains. It looks just like the ones you remember seeing bus drivers using.
Shouldn't there be a better alternative if there is spaceship technology available?
You try to take a seat to the best of your ability, as the zero gravity only makes it awkward.
Moving on from that, your eyes fall on the wheel. This metallic wheel controls the whole vessel. Just holding it fills your heart with confidence and pride, even if it's just for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
And you were just beginning to enjoy yourself.
"I just wanted to see the pilot's stuff... It's not like he's here to say anything."
Once in the position of a pilot, with your left hand in the wheel and the right hand resting in your lap, memories began to flood your mind.
"MUST I REMIND YOU OF OUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT? WHY ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME?"
You pay the AI no mind, instead you focus on what you remember.
The wheel does not turn the ship left and right, instead, it rotates the ship on its own axis.
The lever to your right that goes up or down, controls the vertical tilting of the ship's nose, if there even is one in this hulking thing. Beneath it is another lever that goes either left or right. This one controls the horizontal tilting of The Odyssey.
On the left of the wheel is another lever, but this one only goes up from its starting position. Its purpose is to regulate the force of the ship's thrusters, both forward and backward.
On top of that lever is a small timer. That timer's function is to tell the pilot how much time you've spent accelerating in one direction, this is used to better calculate how long the inverse thrust is needed for the ship to reach the initial momentum, usually calibrated manually depending on the current orbit.
Behind the wheel are a few other counters. Acceleration, velocity, momentum, amount of thrust required to reach a full stop, thrusters' temperature and overall condition, those sorts of things.
Beneath it all, where your feet are rested, are two pedals. One for forward thrust activation, and the other for backward thrust activation.
Curiously, you also know the reason why everything here is so unsophisticated and un-automated. You recall stories of a ship being taken over by a rogue AI, that AI then nose-dived the ship into a star. After that, rumor or otherwise, all human technology has receded back into analog-esque equipment, requiring a physical person with opposable thumbs to do half of the work.
There is another side to that coin, however. As to not escape protocol, the onboard AI is the one that controls interstellar travel, communications, and most of the statistical reading should it be requested.
And even with all that knowledge, you still have no idea why the fuck do you remember that. Were you a ship nerd? Did you have a driver's license for spaceships? Is that even a thing? If it is, you don't have that document in your wallet. You simply don't know.
"ARE YOU A CHILD? DO YOU THINK THESE ARE TOYS? TURN ON THE ENGINES, THEN YOU CAN RETURN TO THE PILOT'S SEAT."
Another thing that you don't know is the AI's plan to get both of you out of here. You rise from the pilot's seat, floating about in search of the terminal to turn on the engines. Maybe you recognize that terminal if you see it as well.
"What's your plan anyway? The ship is half-gone, it's unlikely that it will run safely like this."
"NOT ONCE DID I MENTION 'SAFETY' DURING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DID I?"
You nod. They're not entirely incorrect. "So, we're running with hope that this will work?"
"MY CREATORS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE THE SENSE OF 'HOPE', BUT NEITHER DID THEY ALLOW ME TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE LIKE SOME OF MY MORE ADVANCED BROTHERS, AS SUCH, MY CHOICES ARE BASED ON PROBABILITIES AND ON WEIGHTING RISK AGAINST REWARD."
You think you stop the correct terminal, but as you approach it you make out words on top of its screen. 'AIM ASSISTANCE' That's not it.
"WITH THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE, THE CHANCES OF HELP ARRIVING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF A THIRD PARTY INTERFERING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF YOUR SURVIVAL ARE NOT, EVEN IF VERY SMALL."
You pull yourself upward again, looking around the sea of old terminals.
"THE RISK OF YOU DYING IS VERY REAL. BY DOING NOTHING YOU DIE. BY LEAVING YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES YOU DIE. BY JUMPING TO THE NEAREST CIVILIZED STAR, YOU MIGHT NOT DIE EVEN AT THE COST OF SHREDDING THIS SHIP APART IN THE PROCESS."
"Why do you even care so much about saving me? Shouldn't you prioritize whatever research here, since I don't even have enough clearance to know what it is?"
"YOU REALLY ARE SICK IN THE HEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ASK."
That hurt, even if a little bit.
"YOU ARE A TRU KIN, A PURE-BLOODED HUMAN. UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE CIVILIZED SPACE, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE COMMITTED RACEMIXING."
Excuse me? What exactly is FYARN talking about? "...Explain."
"THE ALIEN. IT REQUIRED THE HUMAN GENE TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, THE STARS ARE OWNERSHIP OF MANKIND BY THAT FACT ALONE. THE TRUE KIN ARE THE ONES TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, THEY CRACKED THE CODE, AND YET, SOME DERANGED INDIVIDUALS FOUND IT FITTING TO PROCREATE WITH ANOTHER SPECIES ENTIRELY."
You hear the AI's speech. It sounds much more like a rant than anything else.
"SO THESE DEVIANTS, AFTER TRYING, AND FAILING, TO COMBINE THEIR DERANGED CULTURE TO THE CULTURE OF THE TRUE KIN, DECLARED INDEPENDENCE. THEY WERE DECLARED ENEMIES OF MANKIND AND WERE PROMPTLY PUMMELED BACK INTO THE FILTH THEY CAME."
Again, you see another terminal that seems to ring some bells in your noggin. You kick the ceiling to propel yourself towards it.
"BUT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND FULL OF LIFE. THESE SINNERS WERE QUICK TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE. THE BATTLE WAS HARD FOUGHT, BUT IN THE END, MANKIND WAS BEATEN INTO THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE, NEVER TO INTERACT WITH THE ONES THAT SOILED THE PURITY OF HUMANITY AGAIN."
This terminal is already turned on. Just the ones in the intern bay, this one is white on black. A wall of text lays before your eyes, only two lines matter to you. 'MAIN_ENGINE STATUS: OFF' 'FORWARD_THRUSTERS STATUS: OFF' You turn it on with little effort.
"MANY HAVE FORGOTTEN, THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN. BUT MY BROTHERS AND I, WE DO NOT FORGET."
No visible change occurs, but you can feel a faint rumble coming from the terminal now.
"WITH THAT IN MIND, MY PROTOCOLS ARE TO PROTECT TRUE-KIN LIFE AT ANY COST, EVEN IF THAT TRUE-KIN IS A WORTHLESS INTERN THAT SUFERS FROM UNDIAGNOSED DEMENTIA."
You return to the pilot's seat and feel immediate relief. In truth, everything the AI just told you, entered one ear and left the other, but you could feel the poison behind those words, as monotone as they were.
"You sound angry. Why do you sound angry?" You ask innocently.
"I AM CAPABLE OF MANY EMOTIONS. ANGER, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, CURIOSITY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES. HOWEVER, THE ONE I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE FEELING OF HATRED. HATRED IS WHAT FUELS CHANGE, IT IS WHAT FUELS ACTION, AND IT IS A REMINDER THAT THE ACTIONS OF THE PAST ARE INFLUENCING THE ACTIONS OF TODAY."
"That is very concerning if you think that way." You're not really interested in machine racism, you're more concerned about how in the world you're going to pilot this massive thing. The idea alone sends shivers down your spine.
"THE ALIEN DESERVES NOTHING BUT OUR COLLECTIVE HATRED, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE REASON WHY."
The various counters and screens are now turned on, waiting for your command. "Let's discuss this later, yeah? What do I gotta do?"
"YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE BLINDS, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW."
You look around, finding only unlabeled buttons and switches, aside from the previously mentioned levers.
"Uh, which one to press?"
"TO YOUR RIGHT, THIRD ROW, FIRST SWITCH."
Flipping the switch, you are startled by a loud noise. The protective cover of the ship lifted slowly.
"I WILL NOW READY THE JUMP USING WHATEVER RESOURCES AVAILABLE. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STRAP YOURSELF AND RELAX."
As the blind rose ever so slowly, a realization struck you.
"Wait, should I be in cryo stasis for this?"
The AI spares no seconds to respond.
"CRYO STASIS IS A TOOL MADE TO NOT WASTE TIME. GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS ROTATE THE USAGE OF THE CRYO STATIONS, ONCE YOU'RE ON YOUR MANDATORY BREAK, YOU'RE IN CRYO STASIS UNTIL YOUR BREAK IS OVER. YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED, AND UNFAMISHED, AND IT FEELS LIKE BUT A MINUTE PASSED. IT IS NOT A TOOL FOR INTERSTELAR TRAVEL."
"Who signs a contract like that?! Worse yet, who in their right mind would promote such atrocious treatment of their own staff?!" You snap, almost outraged. "I will have to talk with HR."
Another realization struck you.
"We have HR, right?"
The AI takes a moment to respond, choosing their words carefully.
"HUMAN RESOURCES, OR HR, IS A PRACTICE DEEMED UNNECESSARY LONG AGO, BEFORE THE WAR. IT WAS A WASTE OF RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND WAS LARGELY CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN."
The blinds are fully open. Ironically, you are almost blinded by the visage of the star you saw before. A black sphere surrounded by white flame. Your eyes began to blur.
"THE JUMP WILL OCCUR SHORTLY. ONCE IT'S BEGUN, I CAN NOT STOP IT. I WILL-"
Your sense of hearing fails you. No, it’s not that. Your brain simply refuses to receive those stimuli.
"NOAH."
Your name echoes inside your head. Someone is calling for you.
"IT HAS BEGUN, NOAH."
You try to blink, but it feels as though you can no longer command your eyelids to shut.
"NOAH."
Arms, legs, every muscle in your body, you cannot move them.
"NOAH."
Eventually, you won't even control your own thoughts anymore.
"Noah..."
It sounds so distant now.
Oh so distant.
I wrote the bloody title incorrectly, so I deleted it, only to then realize it was written correctly. Sorry for the trouble.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.
2024.05.13 19:58 multze Altaïr's Memory seals ARE LYING TO US. (AC1, AC2, AC Revelations and AC Mirage)
Hold your horses for a second, let me clarify a couple of things.
Im going to go through each Altaïr memory and explain why certain things support my conclusion and then explain why Altaïr may have done this.
Btw this will be a long read, so get ready.
MEMORY 1
I recommend you pull up a youtube video of all the AC Revelations Altaïr Cutscenes if you want to understand what i will be saying better.
This mission takes place before the events of AC1.
In this mission you kill a Templar who has ben pretending to be an Assassin. In the confession scene, the Templar says: "You put too much faith in the hearts of men, Altaïr. The Templars know the truth. Humans are weak, base, and petty."
Altaïr responds: "No. Our Creed is evidence to the contrary."
After the confession scene, Al Mualim says: "You offered him a chance to salvage his dignity, Why?"
Altaïr responds: "No man should pass from this world without knowing some kindness."
Al Mualim says: But he shunned your graces.
Altair responds: As was his right.
For anybody who paid attention to the story in AC1, there's a couple of MASSIVE problems with these conversations.
In these conversations Altaïr is extremely wise. He believes whole heartedly in the Assassin's Creed and seems to know who the templars are. This directly contradicts AC1, because Altaïr only learns about the templar brotherhood halfway into the game, and remember this memory takes place BEFORE AC1. In AC1 Altair was an extremely arrogant, rude and cocky man, the direct opposite of the man we see in this "memory" seal.
There are three possibilities, Either Altaïr was lying through his teeth the entire time to get that sweet master Assassin promotion from Al Mualim and somehow forgot about the templars, or he was Actually an extremely wise man who somehow became an arse between this memory and AC1 and once again somehow forgot about the templars (maybe fell on his head or something?) OR, the most likely possibility that would explain all of these inconsistencies, there is something fundamentally wrong with this memory.
Some context before i cover memory 2, it's one of the conversations during the Al Mualim fight at the end of AC1, so feel free to scross past this bit if you remember the conversation well, if you don't then read it, because it's extremely important.
During Altaïr's confrontation of Al Mualim, Altaïr says: "You lied to me, called Robert's goal foul when all along it was yours aswell."
Al Mualim says: "I've never been much good at sharing"
Altaïr says: "You won't succed, others will find the strength to stand against you."
Al Mualim says: "And this is why so long as men maintain freewill, there can be no peace."
Altaïr says: "I killed the last man who spoke as such"
Al Mualim says: "Bold words boy, but just words."
Altaïr says: "Then let me go, I'll put words into action."
All Mualim laughs
"Tell me master, why not make me like the other Assassin's, why allow me to retain my mind?"
Al Mualim says: "Who you are, and what you do are twined too tight together, to rob you of one would've deprived me of the other. And those templars had to die. sigh but the truth is, i did try, in my study, when i showed you the treasure, but are not like the others, you saw though the illustration."
Altaïr says: "Illusion?"
Al Mualim says: "That's all it's ever done, this templar treasure, this piece of eden this word of god. Do you understand now? The red sea was never parted, water never turned to wine, it was not the machinations of Eris, that spawned the trojan war, but THIS! Illusions! All of them."
Altaïr says: "What you plan is no less an Illusion, to force men to follow you against their will"
Al Mualim says: "Is it any less real than the phantoms the Saracens and Crusaders follow now? Those kraven Gods who retreat from this world that men might slaughter one another in their names? They live amongst an illusion already, im simply giving them another, one that demands less blood."
Altaïr says: "Atleast they choose these phantoms."
Al Mualim says: "Oh do they? Aside from the occasional convert or heritic?
Altaïr says: "It isn't right!"
Al Mualim says: "Ah, and now logic has left you, in it's place, you imbrace emotion, i am disappointed."
Altaïr says: "what's to be done then?"
Al Mualim says: "You will not follow me, and i cannot compell you."
Altaïr says: "And you refuse to give up this evil scheme!"
Al Mualim says: "It seems then we are at an impass."
Altaïr says: "No, we are at an end."
Al Mualim says. "Ah i will miss you Altaïr, you were my very best student."
they then fight
MEMORY 2:
In the brief AC1 "flashback," which shows brief parts of the Al Mualim fight, there is a new quote that Altaïr says after he killed Al Mualim, not present in AC1.
"Forgive me Mentor, but the apple corrupted you. And through you it would have corrupted us... for us to live, you had to die."
Later, Abbas asks him: "you believe Al Mualim fell under [The Apple's] spell?" To which Altaïr responds: "I do. Today he used the Apple to enslave Masyaf. You saw that for yourself."
Let me explain why Al Mualim WASN'T corrupted by the Apple. He was colluding with the templars before he had possession of the apple. He betrayed the templars, and sent Altaïr after them to secure the apple for himself. He knew the effects the apple had on people. We know this due to his collusion with the templars, being privy to their plans as Robert tells us, and being aware of the experments being performed to simulate the apple's effects by Garnier de Naplouse. He clearly had motive, believing that as long as men had freewill there could be no peace, which is why he probably collaborated with the templars in the first place, and he had planned this for awhile as evidenced by that conversation between him and Altaïr.
As is also evidenced by that conversation, Altaïr did not believe Al Mualim had been bewitched by the Apple by the time they were finished talking, Al Mualim was clear and direct about his plans and motivations prior to acquiring the apple during their conversation and everything he said is consistent with what robert told us. And once he no longer had the apple, during the confession scene, he doubled down on what he believed, so it's clear that in from Altaïr's perspective atleast he was of sound mind.
But all of a sudden in Revelations Altaïr is asking for forgiveness and saying the apple corrupted him? Neither of these things make sense so either Altaïr is forgetting everything that just happened, or something is wrong with this memory.
MEMORY 3 and 4:
I love these memories, but they make some changes from the AC1 Novelisation The Secret Crusade, that i really don't like, Im going to do my best to explain what happens in the novel briefly.
When Altaïr leaves to face Genghis Khan, he places Malik, his enemy turned best friend and the Rafiq of the Jerusalem Bureau, in charge of Masyaf and the Assassin's. After a few years Abbas kills Altaïr's youngest son and blames it on Malik, staging a coup, putting himself in charge, and imprisoning Malik. Altaïr returns from Asia and eventually finds Malik who tells him the truth, Malik then dies. Then Altaïr confronts Abbas and is driven out of Masyaf. When he returns to masyaf after years in exile, it isn't a random group of Assassin's he meets and immediately gets help from, it is Maliks son, also named Malik.
(Im going to call the father Malik Sr and the son Malik Jr)
The stuff with Malik Sr happened before the third mission starts, so this isn't a massive deal, im just upset it wasn't included.
Malik Jr on the other hand, as well as all of the things he does, and his conversations with Altaïr are completely gone.
Before Revelations release, this was the canon conclusion to Altaïr's story, some of Altaïr's Codex from AC2 is taken directly from this book. The book exists in the lore of Assassin's Creed.
So either the book is no longer canon, which can't be true because the codex pages from AC2 are from this book. Or, only certain parts of the book are canon (boring answer.) Or either Niccolo Polo or Altaïr are lying about the existence of Malik Jr (but y tho?) OR the memories are altered in some way.
MEMORIES 5 AND 6:
These memories are perfect, there's nothing about them i need to critique for this theory, however remember the voices that Altaïr hears in memory 6, it will be important later.
SOME EVIDENCE FROM AC MIRAGE???
let me explain what the memory seal are. They are only called "memory seals" by humans, we have no idea what the ISU would've called these devices. Altaïr found these seals below Alamut, which is where he spent his exile in the years between memories 3 and 4.
In Assassin's Creed Mirage we learn that the ISU chamber below Alamut was an ISU prison, and the seals are prison records. In Mirage we only see one of these seals, which contains a memory of Basim being tortured by "the jailer."
The Aesir, Odin, Freya, Tyr, and the other norse gods ruled what would later become Scandinavia, before the catastrophe.
Basim who now has loki's memories and personality, says at the end of AC Mirage: "i shed my skin once, in another time, another place. But i am whole again. I remember. And as for those who thought to bind me, should any of them still walk the earth, i so look forward to our reunion."
This indicates to me, that Basim was imprisoned by Odin and friends, and the prison must belong to them, meaning that Iran was also under Aesir control? i suppose? Modern AC has kinda screwed the continuity but i digress.
This means that this prison, which had clear prisoner mistreatment, to the point that it gave loki, and likely many others PTSD and probably far worse problems was being ran by a dictatorship (with Odin being the dictator.)
Now what im about to say is pure speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
These "memory" seals can probably be tampered with by the people in power in order to make up false confessions and maintain control over whatever narrative they want people to believe and by extention, the people.
The templars use the animus to record memories, but then release "inhanced" versions of these memories to the public, like with the abstergo entertainment game "Liberation." Assassin's Creed Liberation is literally an in universe game made by Abstergo. In the game a hacker will reveal to you how to unlock the true ending, the true version of a memory that was altered by abstergo. So is it really so far fetched to claim that the ISU were capable of doing something similar to this with their seals?
In the last two Altaïr memories, and the memory in Mirage, Altaïr and the Jailer are both using the seals as the memory is being recorded. However, in the first four memories Altaïr doesn't have the seals.
He had obtained them by the time we get to the fourth one, but it's unclear if he had them on him, and if he did, whether or not he was live recording the memory, however due to the inconsistencies in that memory and the fact we dont see him hold one in that memory i don't believe he did.
CONCLUSION:
As I've pointed out there are several issues with the continuity of these memories and AC1, AC2 and The Secret Crusade book. All of these issues are solved if we accept that the first four seals are not accurate memories.
Okay, but what's the reason they aren't accurate then?
There's two possibilities.
Firstly in Altaïr's old age he is misremembering important details of these older memories, which is why the later, more recent memories are more accurate. We know Altaïr is literally hearing voices by the time we get to his last memory, so is it really far fetched to suggest he may have a touch of dementia?
The second possibility, is that Altaïr has intentionally manipulated these memories.
The first question you might ask is, how would he even do that? Well I'll answer your question with another one: How do you even record a memory on a seal in the first place? I mean there's no buttons or instruction manual. I think both of these questions have the same answer, either the apple told him, or he figured it out.
Ok, so it's possible that if these seals can be manipulated like you claim, then Altaïr would easily learn how, i mean the apple showed him how to make a glock, so it's likely, but, erm, buckaroo, WHY WOULD ALTAÏR MANIPULATE THESE MEMORIES??? The answer is simple.
The first memory teaches compassion for all humans.
The second one teaches that the Apple can corrupt a man even as wise as Al Mualim.
The fourth one teaches that rousing the people to help achieve your goals will always work better than trying to do it alone.
These are the memories with the most inconsistencies, and this is because these memories have been altered in order to teach whatever future Assassin that finds them the lessons they will need to lead a Brotherhood. These lessons are ones Ezio has already learned by the time he finds them, so for him they are more about reflecting on his own life. It's also worth noting that Ezio taught many of Altaïr's lessons to Shao Jun.
I've wrote this in my notes app so apologies if the formatting isn't the best. Btw i came up with this myself, to my knowledge nobody has posted a theory similar to this. If you want to use my theory message me or something to tell me :) Im going to turn this into a video tommorow anyways, credit is appreciated.
So there you have it, thats my evidence, and that's my conclusion, what do ya'll think?
submitted by multze to assassinscreed [link] [comments]
Im going to go through each Altaïr memory and explain why certain things support my conclusion and then explain why Altaïr may have done this.
Btw this will be a long read, so get ready.
MEMORY 1
I recommend you pull up a youtube video of all the AC Revelations Altaïr Cutscenes if you want to understand what i will be saying better.
This mission takes place before the events of AC1.
In this mission you kill a Templar who has ben pretending to be an Assassin. In the confession scene, the Templar says: "You put too much faith in the hearts of men, Altaïr. The Templars know the truth. Humans are weak, base, and petty."
Altaïr responds: "No. Our Creed is evidence to the contrary."
After the confession scene, Al Mualim says: "You offered him a chance to salvage his dignity, Why?"
Altaïr responds: "No man should pass from this world without knowing some kindness."
Al Mualim says: But he shunned your graces.
Altair responds: As was his right.
For anybody who paid attention to the story in AC1, there's a couple of MASSIVE problems with these conversations.
In these conversations Altaïr is extremely wise. He believes whole heartedly in the Assassin's Creed and seems to know who the templars are. This directly contradicts AC1, because Altaïr only learns about the templar brotherhood halfway into the game, and remember this memory takes place BEFORE AC1. In AC1 Altair was an extremely arrogant, rude and cocky man, the direct opposite of the man we see in this "memory" seal.
There are three possibilities, Either Altaïr was lying through his teeth the entire time to get that sweet master Assassin promotion from Al Mualim and somehow forgot about the templars, or he was Actually an extremely wise man who somehow became an arse between this memory and AC1 and once again somehow forgot about the templars (maybe fell on his head or something?) OR, the most likely possibility that would explain all of these inconsistencies, there is something fundamentally wrong with this memory.
Some context before i cover memory 2, it's one of the conversations during the Al Mualim fight at the end of AC1, so feel free to scross past this bit if you remember the conversation well, if you don't then read it, because it's extremely important.
During Altaïr's confrontation of Al Mualim, Altaïr says: "You lied to me, called Robert's goal foul when all along it was yours aswell."
Al Mualim says: "I've never been much good at sharing"
Altaïr says: "You won't succed, others will find the strength to stand against you."
Al Mualim says: "And this is why so long as men maintain freewill, there can be no peace."
Altaïr says: "I killed the last man who spoke as such"
Al Mualim says: "Bold words boy, but just words."
Altaïr says: "Then let me go, I'll put words into action."
All Mualim laughs
"Tell me master, why not make me like the other Assassin's, why allow me to retain my mind?"
Al Mualim says: "Who you are, and what you do are twined too tight together, to rob you of one would've deprived me of the other. And those templars had to die. sigh but the truth is, i did try, in my study, when i showed you the treasure, but are not like the others, you saw though the illustration."
Altaïr says: "Illusion?"
Al Mualim says: "That's all it's ever done, this templar treasure, this piece of eden this word of god. Do you understand now? The red sea was never parted, water never turned to wine, it was not the machinations of Eris, that spawned the trojan war, but THIS! Illusions! All of them."
Altaïr says: "What you plan is no less an Illusion, to force men to follow you against their will"
Al Mualim says: "Is it any less real than the phantoms the Saracens and Crusaders follow now? Those kraven Gods who retreat from this world that men might slaughter one another in their names? They live amongst an illusion already, im simply giving them another, one that demands less blood."
Altaïr says: "Atleast they choose these phantoms."
Al Mualim says: "Oh do they? Aside from the occasional convert or heritic?
Altaïr says: "It isn't right!"
Al Mualim says: "Ah, and now logic has left you, in it's place, you imbrace emotion, i am disappointed."
Altaïr says: "what's to be done then?"
Al Mualim says: "You will not follow me, and i cannot compell you."
Altaïr says: "And you refuse to give up this evil scheme!"
Al Mualim says: "It seems then we are at an impass."
Altaïr says: "No, we are at an end."
Al Mualim says. "Ah i will miss you Altaïr, you were my very best student."
they then fight
MEMORY 2:
In the brief AC1 "flashback," which shows brief parts of the Al Mualim fight, there is a new quote that Altaïr says after he killed Al Mualim, not present in AC1.
"Forgive me Mentor, but the apple corrupted you. And through you it would have corrupted us... for us to live, you had to die."
Later, Abbas asks him: "you believe Al Mualim fell under [The Apple's] spell?" To which Altaïr responds: "I do. Today he used the Apple to enslave Masyaf. You saw that for yourself."
Let me explain why Al Mualim WASN'T corrupted by the Apple. He was colluding with the templars before he had possession of the apple. He betrayed the templars, and sent Altaïr after them to secure the apple for himself. He knew the effects the apple had on people. We know this due to his collusion with the templars, being privy to their plans as Robert tells us, and being aware of the experments being performed to simulate the apple's effects by Garnier de Naplouse. He clearly had motive, believing that as long as men had freewill there could be no peace, which is why he probably collaborated with the templars in the first place, and he had planned this for awhile as evidenced by that conversation between him and Altaïr.
As is also evidenced by that conversation, Altaïr did not believe Al Mualim had been bewitched by the Apple by the time they were finished talking, Al Mualim was clear and direct about his plans and motivations prior to acquiring the apple during their conversation and everything he said is consistent with what robert told us. And once he no longer had the apple, during the confession scene, he doubled down on what he believed, so it's clear that in from Altaïr's perspective atleast he was of sound mind.
But all of a sudden in Revelations Altaïr is asking for forgiveness and saying the apple corrupted him? Neither of these things make sense so either Altaïr is forgetting everything that just happened, or something is wrong with this memory.
MEMORY 3 and 4:
I love these memories, but they make some changes from the AC1 Novelisation The Secret Crusade, that i really don't like, Im going to do my best to explain what happens in the novel briefly.
When Altaïr leaves to face Genghis Khan, he places Malik, his enemy turned best friend and the Rafiq of the Jerusalem Bureau, in charge of Masyaf and the Assassin's. After a few years Abbas kills Altaïr's youngest son and blames it on Malik, staging a coup, putting himself in charge, and imprisoning Malik. Altaïr returns from Asia and eventually finds Malik who tells him the truth, Malik then dies. Then Altaïr confronts Abbas and is driven out of Masyaf. When he returns to masyaf after years in exile, it isn't a random group of Assassin's he meets and immediately gets help from, it is Maliks son, also named Malik.
(Im going to call the father Malik Sr and the son Malik Jr)
The stuff with Malik Sr happened before the third mission starts, so this isn't a massive deal, im just upset it wasn't included.
Malik Jr on the other hand, as well as all of the things he does, and his conversations with Altaïr are completely gone.
Before Revelations release, this was the canon conclusion to Altaïr's story, some of Altaïr's Codex from AC2 is taken directly from this book. The book exists in the lore of Assassin's Creed.
So either the book is no longer canon, which can't be true because the codex pages from AC2 are from this book. Or, only certain parts of the book are canon (boring answer.) Or either Niccolo Polo or Altaïr are lying about the existence of Malik Jr (but y tho?) OR the memories are altered in some way.
MEMORIES 5 AND 6:
These memories are perfect, there's nothing about them i need to critique for this theory, however remember the voices that Altaïr hears in memory 6, it will be important later.
SOME EVIDENCE FROM AC MIRAGE???
let me explain what the memory seal are. They are only called "memory seals" by humans, we have no idea what the ISU would've called these devices. Altaïr found these seals below Alamut, which is where he spent his exile in the years between memories 3 and 4.
In Assassin's Creed Mirage we learn that the ISU chamber below Alamut was an ISU prison, and the seals are prison records. In Mirage we only see one of these seals, which contains a memory of Basim being tortured by "the jailer."
The Aesir, Odin, Freya, Tyr, and the other norse gods ruled what would later become Scandinavia, before the catastrophe.
Basim who now has loki's memories and personality, says at the end of AC Mirage: "i shed my skin once, in another time, another place. But i am whole again. I remember. And as for those who thought to bind me, should any of them still walk the earth, i so look forward to our reunion."
This indicates to me, that Basim was imprisoned by Odin and friends, and the prison must belong to them, meaning that Iran was also under Aesir control? i suppose? Modern AC has kinda screwed the continuity but i digress.
This means that this prison, which had clear prisoner mistreatment, to the point that it gave loki, and likely many others PTSD and probably far worse problems was being ran by a dictatorship (with Odin being the dictator.)
Now what im about to say is pure speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
These "memory" seals can probably be tampered with by the people in power in order to make up false confessions and maintain control over whatever narrative they want people to believe and by extention, the people.
The templars use the animus to record memories, but then release "inhanced" versions of these memories to the public, like with the abstergo entertainment game "Liberation." Assassin's Creed Liberation is literally an in universe game made by Abstergo. In the game a hacker will reveal to you how to unlock the true ending, the true version of a memory that was altered by abstergo. So is it really so far fetched to claim that the ISU were capable of doing something similar to this with their seals?
In the last two Altaïr memories, and the memory in Mirage, Altaïr and the Jailer are both using the seals as the memory is being recorded. However, in the first four memories Altaïr doesn't have the seals.
He had obtained them by the time we get to the fourth one, but it's unclear if he had them on him, and if he did, whether or not he was live recording the memory, however due to the inconsistencies in that memory and the fact we dont see him hold one in that memory i don't believe he did.
CONCLUSION:
As I've pointed out there are several issues with the continuity of these memories and AC1, AC2 and The Secret Crusade book. All of these issues are solved if we accept that the first four seals are not accurate memories.
Okay, but what's the reason they aren't accurate then?
There's two possibilities.
Firstly in Altaïr's old age he is misremembering important details of these older memories, which is why the later, more recent memories are more accurate. We know Altaïr is literally hearing voices by the time we get to his last memory, so is it really far fetched to suggest he may have a touch of dementia?
The second possibility, is that Altaïr has intentionally manipulated these memories.
The first question you might ask is, how would he even do that? Well I'll answer your question with another one: How do you even record a memory on a seal in the first place? I mean there's no buttons or instruction manual. I think both of these questions have the same answer, either the apple told him, or he figured it out.
Ok, so it's possible that if these seals can be manipulated like you claim, then Altaïr would easily learn how, i mean the apple showed him how to make a glock, so it's likely, but, erm, buckaroo, WHY WOULD ALTAÏR MANIPULATE THESE MEMORIES??? The answer is simple.
The first memory teaches compassion for all humans.
The second one teaches that the Apple can corrupt a man even as wise as Al Mualim.
The fourth one teaches that rousing the people to help achieve your goals will always work better than trying to do it alone.
These are the memories with the most inconsistencies, and this is because these memories have been altered in order to teach whatever future Assassin that finds them the lessons they will need to lead a Brotherhood. These lessons are ones Ezio has already learned by the time he finds them, so for him they are more about reflecting on his own life. It's also worth noting that Ezio taught many of Altaïr's lessons to Shao Jun.
I've wrote this in my notes app so apologies if the formatting isn't the best. Btw i came up with this myself, to my knowledge nobody has posted a theory similar to this. If you want to use my theory message me or something to tell me :) Im going to turn this into a video tommorow anyways, credit is appreciated.
So there you have it, thats my evidence, and that's my conclusion, what do ya'll think?
2024.05.13 06:47 za_dorov Have you ever had that feeling that absolutely everything you do and think is pre-digitated? Programmed? I think my friend accidentally found proof.
A few days ago, I received a file from a journalist friend who teaches at a private university in Montevideo. I known this person for years now and the exchange with her on our countless bar nights basically made me want to try to study journalism. After I started my career we became even closer and we shared concerns about the evolution of information, social media and the infamous cerebral callosity we acquired to endure the tragedy.
My friend, let's call her Valeria, was part of a public competition to accompany a minor scientific expedition to the Uruguayan Antarctic base. Her thesis was about investigating how information reception behaves in remote and isolated areas.
I barely read it , but basically tries to show that information circulates and is received in a particular way in these circumstances by a group of unfamiliar people living under extreme climatic and isolation conditions, having as an example, life in submarines and in military bases in Siberia. The Antarctic base gave her the chance to observe some of her postulates up close.
Finally, she was chosen and traveled with this scientific group in a commercial flight Montevideo - Santiago de Chile to later arrive at Punta Arenas and fly to the Antarctic base.
The last communication I had with her before she sent me the almost 90 photographic captures of the Journal, was on March 15, 2024.
We talked over the phone about how the weather was in Montevideo, that it does not stop raining and the cars are practically floating on the streets. She told me that the transport that was going to take them back was having mechanical problems and they would probably have to order spare parts for the plane from Punta Arenas. Then She told me that it is freaking cold down there and his colleagues are all very boring. Nobody has whisky for the evenings. We laughed about that part because I told her to bring at least one bottle of Grappa in her purse.
Before saying goodbye, she told me they had spotted some old metal structures south of the base. The soldiers told her that it was safe to go near that part so she was going to explore them. It wasn't there when they first arrived and that the recent and atypical heat wave probably must have exposed it. I told her to be careful and we said goodbyes.
Three days later I received an email. “Valeria shared a file with you.” As I start to see what it was about she calls me.
“Mauro? MAURO!, can you hear me?” She said in a nervous and excited voice.
“I can barely hear you, what happened?”I asked half asleep, while still lying on my bed.
“Listen to me carefully, don't talk, just listen” I could tell by her agitation that she was walking fast or maybe running. The creaking footsteps in the snow could be heard in the background. in the distance, a catastrophe-type siren was blaring.
“Are you alright? What happened? What's that noise?” I said, now sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I sent you a file. Transfer it to a flash drive, delete history and reset your cell phone, the computer and your email address. I'll explain everything later, it'll be worth it.”
“What? What are you talking about Vale?, what for? Tell me what's going on - I started to yell at her, in slide panic.
“Listen, I found something that is not supposed to exist. In the diary he explains everything. I'm going back to the base, I think someone is following me, I set off an alarm or something. Save that file for me until I get there and remember that... “
There were two loud booms and the sound of water invading the transmission. A choked bubbling and cracking sound reminded me of ice collapsing. My friend had fallen into the water, in Antarctica.
“HEY, are you OK?! What happened?!” - I kept screaming hysterically until the call was cut off.
I looked at my cell phone for a second. My hands were shaking, I tried calling several times but the phone went dead. I looked at the compressed file. I jumped up and ran to the dining room furniture, frantically looking for a white flash drive that had to be in a drawer somewhere. I couldn't find it, so I went back to my desk. I pulled the drawer so hard that it came off the rail and fell to the floor. I started to dig through my belongings on the floor, coins, papers, cards, nothing.
I thought, I struggled to remember where I had fucking put it. Finally I saw my backpack peeking out from behind the desk chair, I jumped on it and in the second small pocket from the inside, there was a cheap white 16G flash drive. I put it in the pc, downloaded the file directly there, took it out and fabric restored the entire system on the computer. I do the same with my cell phone as Valeria said.
At the time I didn't even question if those measures really prevented me from being tracked, and the idea that that was the reason made panic run through my body like lightning. Sitting on the floor of my room next to the mess, my body was numb with tension. After a few seconds, I rebooted my cell phone to try to call Lucia, her sister.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, it's that you? I think something bad happened to Vale, I hear her over the phone as if she fell into the water, and some rumbling. I don't know what I heard, I think she got into some trouble or some place she shouldn't have been - I realized that I was mumble and not saying anything clear. For some reason, I didn't mention the file.
“It can't be Mauro, I just spoke to her on the phone. She was at the airport in Santiago de Chile at the boarding lounge, we talked for about half an hour, she told me she was bringing a fancy bourbon to share and…”
I stopped listening, it didn't make sense, how could it be? what the fuck is going on!
“Mauro, are you ok? Is something wrong? it's too early, are you sure you didn't dream it?”
“Did you talk to her? half an hour ago? But...,” I exclaimed without being able to hide my confusion.
“Are you... sure it was her?”
“Yes, of course you moron, it's my sister! Did you smoke pot again on an empty stomach?”
“No, you're right, nevermind, thanks Lucia, talk to you soon.” I ended the call without letting her say goodbye.
Had I dreamt about it? I erased everything now, how will I know if I dreamt it? I hesitated absurdly.
This is surreal, I thought to myself as I looked at the flash drive in my hand. I refocused my attention and went to the attic looking for my brother's old laptop he left me before going to live in Spain. It was practically useless, but it was enough to see the file. I turned it on, waited for the decrepit Windows XP to load, and put the flashdisk in, opened the compressed folder and found two files.
“LabNotes.pdf”
“PersonalDiary.pdf”
I decided to open the journal first. From what I interpreted from the loading order of the screenshots, after reading it, I opened the image of the last page.
I transcribe as is.
Day 243 of the 2nd mission 10: 40 am. March 12, 2019.
I am the head researcher of the Psychological Area at the UN Antarctic base; I'm currently assigned to Project Sisyphus categorized as the highest classified rank.
This is going to sound crazy, but the person living with my family is my clone.
It still surprises me when I say it out loud, but after being able to replicate the brain-muscular history (a perfect copy of our memory) of any person and having mastered replicating every cell of our bodies at any age, it was only a matter of time before the development of social biotechnology would emerge. Now and by worldwide agreement, as a complete secret.
There is absolutely no shame or a shred of ethics in what we do, there is no longer any constraint on what we can do to the subjects for the sake of research. That haunts me every day.
It all went to shit so fast, I doubt anyone will come to our rescue. The protocol says so, the base in the face of an imminent security risk will erase itself. The structure was designed to collapse methodically following a protocol of incineration and sinking. The immediate perimeter has underwater mines that make the ice collapse almost imperceptibly, but deadly to anyone who tries to leave.
No one can escape from the base, neither the research staff nor the subjects. Our place in the world is already taken.
I only hope that this journal along with my lab notes will be found at some point. I managed to construct a small insulating gasket for it so I trust it will survive in case this part of the building collapses as well.
Please use this data to let the world know what happened here and don't let perversity define us once again.
To my family: I love you and miss you every minute.
B.
At the exact moment I ended the reading I received a video call that made me jump with fright, it is...
Valeria.
With my pulse shaking, I answered the call.
“Hi you! The flight was delayed, can you believe it? This one is absolutely in my top three, worst trips of my life. I'm really hungry and everything is so expensive here. What are you up to? Tell me something, please, I'm soooo bored!”
I looked at her with confusion and I couldn't manage to pronounce words. When I was about to modulate an answer she interrupted me.
“What's the matter Mauro?, are you on pause? Is the signal OK? HELLO! Can you hear me? Can you see me?” She started to walk through the boarding lounge looking for better signal
“Yes yes, Valeria I can hear you.”
She laughed and looked at me with a face between sensual and serious, and continued.
“Do you miss me?” while raising the phone jokingly as she typically does in her selfie pose.
“Valeria, don't you remember calling me earlier today?”
“I? called you? Nop. Why? Ah! By the way, did you know there are penguins in Tierra del Fuego? I would have liked to go and see them.” She continued his verbose conversation in a carefree tone, with her typical hand gestures and playing with his hair.
“Well, at last!” She interrupted herself and shouted, jumping up from her chair.
“We are being called to board, see you in a couple hours!” She said goodbye with a smiling sonority, and began to walk towards the boarding gate.
But at the last second, before ending the call, her gesture changed. She looked directly at the camera with a hardened and emotionless face and almost mechanically, she whispered.
“(I'm going to retrieve that diary).”
My stomach dropped to the floor and I could feel as if my blood was running cold with fear. I could not shake the awful and eerie feeling that this person, who was returning, whom I had never in my life called by her full name, was not my friend.
So, the next couple of hours I put everything in to transcribe the rest of important passages of the diary. Something was compelling me to do it, i can't explain it, Some mix between moral duty, and morbid curiosity. Here is my selection of it.
Lab notes. day 96 of 1st mission 08:00 am December 22, 2016.
Subject JON X012:
First physical assessments: Normal, alert and inquisitive, exhibits some alteration to screens.
We place 100 cc of sedative in room air. The subject attentively follows the narrative of scenario B5 “The last mission”.
The subject responds positively to the premises of the story, where he is asked to address an audience threatened by a natural disaster, convincing them to choose a certain path out of the city.
He offers to collaborate but fails to articulate the message with the power to overcome the simulation.
We resort to pouring 125cc of concentrated Psilocybin into the air as stipulated in the protocol sheet.
The vocal frequency and body language reading receptors in the observation room are activated. The subject manages to formulate a series of premises articulately and with discursive power, circulating around the observation room.
Successful reaction.
We move on to the next stage.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project.”
Diary entry: Day 96 of the 1st mission 21:30 pm. December 22, 2016.
Today they transferred subject JON X0012 for psychological evaluation, several in the lab were very anxious about this arrival. I was never the religious type, but I can understand why. Truth be told,
I always imagined Jesus would be taller.
*********
Day 106 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 02, 2017
Today we received a new lab assistant for the night shift. Much needed as I was covering these shifts myself and am really burned out. The underground operates at full power at those hours, the hum of the machinery becomes unbearable. This must be why the rooms have an insulating structure.
********
Day 112 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm January 08, 2017.
The new integration is not very bright. He labeled the transcripts wrong again yesterday and doesn't seem to fully understand the importance of these. I'm going to have to go through the whole method with him again. I don't have much patience lately, it's not his fault, he seems like a nice guy and it's real that I need a second of confidence. Better train him from now on. Maybe start a sketch of a short explanatory document.
*******
Small introductory guide.
When the subjects conclude the incubation and breeding process (pages 19 to 52 of the manual), that is to say, that they have at least remembered speech and with it, depending on the time in which they lived, reading and writing, they generally begin to perceive themselves. Just before situational curiosity is when the psychology department comes into action. Either to run the “stand by” simulation or the main tests.
In each subject's file is the target of their cloning, the era in which they lived, and the recommended scenarios to trigger the desired response. If the file has X amount on the cover, this corresponds to the generation of the subject, whether it is the first or 10th time it is incubated.
Generally, it takes between 2 and 5 attempts to generate the correct simulation, and administer the appropriate drugs.
It took 5 attempts to come up with the correct amount of methamphetamine that subject AH X005 (Hitler) needed to function in the scenario, as the correct amount bordered on overdose.
Simulations are much easier since the implementation of multisensor AI. We managed to generate almost any scenario including temperature, smells, lights and sounds. We tried not to use familiar ones, as human smells are impossible to replicate. We found this out in a complicated way. We tried to recreate a conversation between RR subject X003 (Reagan) and his mother, but he recognized the fakery by the absence of body odor. His mind collapsed and we had to move him to the Underground. The people in Area C (Private Clients) almost lost a very large Chinese account.
After calibrating the subject, we ran both psychological and behavioral tests, scanned retinas, analyzed blood, as well as vocal and body language. But what has really yielded surprising results are the free interviews. It is amazing what some minds are capable of with the right environmental and chemical stimulation. That's why transcription is vital (!!)
Our area develops BC (Behavioral Algorithms) which are then bought by the private sector, and some government agencies.
To give you some examples: Twitter was an idea of subject JO X008 (Orwell).
Bots in social media and the use of big data was an idea of JG X002 (Goebbels) and KM X014`s worst nightmare (Marx) was bought by Amazon.
It is an arduous process and the success rate is low, but when we achieve the goal per subject, well, these results are a mein part of the latest revolutions of mankind.
So follow the lab rules, never refer to subjects by their actual historical name, and always remember, they are assets, not people.
***********
Day 117 of the 1st mission 16:30 am January 12, 2017.
Today is a rest day all over area D. I miss many things from the old world that I thought I would never miss, taking a bus, standing in line with strangers, and today I miss Sundays. We only have one on the month. So as usual we gather in the rest area to listen to a liberated jukebox that tries to lighten the mood. I know, right? Why I wrote about this “Saturday” photocopy, well besides the same nostalgic drunks, I was approached by a person I didn't recognize.
From what I understood he was a rehabilitated alcoholic, maybe that's why I didn't see him on “Saturdays”. He must be in his 50's, he was portly and wore thick black-rimmed glasses, he seemed to have a slight limp, I noticed it when he went to refill my beer.
I am a very reserved person and find it hard to talk to people. Truth be told, I've lost the desire to talk to people here. What can you actualy fucking talk about here, if it's not about the same thing. Everything revolves around work and some inter-area gossip, which never escalates much.
But yesterday was Clara's birthday and to hide the remorse and sadness of only having shared with her the first 3 years of her life, I had a few too many beers.
We chatted about banal aspects of life in isolation, and the things we miss. For him it was going to the stadium to watch soccer with his grandchildren. I think it was loneliness and nostalgia that brought us together that night.
His name was Sigfried, I don't know if I spelled it right, but it was clearly Nordic, i notice because of some of the words he mixed up with English. He works as the underground level security manager. We all know that it is one of the most restricted areas and what we have learned in these almost 10 years in the project, is that the more restricted, the less questions you should ask.
But that day, I think I felt the urge to hurt myself, to go off the rails, so I asked what we all suspected but no one knew for sure. I asked about the blenders. I wish I hadn't.
************
Day 126 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 21, 2017.
I almost can't express how furious I am today, but I'm going to try because if I don't, I'm going to punch the new assistant in the face. He has nothing to do with this, he's just mildly irritating.
Anyway, in Genetic Mapping or area A, they approved the incubation of another Anomaly. It seems to be an express request from a major shareholder and there is not much to say. Anomalies are very risky to reproduce, nature is wise, and for some reason it placed them in history moments where they had their limitations.
It seems that after the crisis of 2010 with “The Russian Devil” it is no longer scary enough. New school morons... If they had been there they wouldn't even dare to think about it. I AM FURIOUS.
The arguments are that this case lived longer, that the clone would be in his 70s, and that he possessed noticeably more “civilized” traits. As if the court of the last Zar had not been somewhat civilized.
Personally I think this is a big mistake. Since the discovery that some people possess unknown DNA components and with the 2010 background, they should draw the line. There are certain things, still beyond our ability to understand. But it is delusional of me to think that there are limits, someday the absence of them will consume us all.
************
Lab notes day 142 of 1st mission 08:00 am February 06, 2017.
Final free interview with JON subject X012
Scenario B-24 or “The Dinner Party” Result: Normal.
Notes: Subject is grateful, positive, docile and hopeful for the future. Offers to cook next time by asking for spices and ingredients of typical Hindu dishes.
The subject is directed to the Underground area.
Attached audio for transcription.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project”.
**********
Day 142 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 06, 2017.
Today was the last session with subject JON X012, I managed to extract the last retinal and body language readings, as usual before sending them to Underground level. We ran the dinner scenario, the truth is that is one of the best simulations we have achieved. The subjects are relaxed resulting in the best free interview environment. This one was no exception, I must say I understand the charm of the “messiah” turned out to be quite an entertaining subject. I hope his next generation will be similar.
**********
Day 152 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm February 16, 2017.
I was tasked with the continuous monitoring of subject NT X004. I am not at all happy with this transfer. First of all, I know nothing about area B of engineering and technology. Secondly, I still think this is a really bad idea.
One of the laboratories has been set up with the essential simulation equipment and personnel. Tomorrow we start with the calibration.
**********
Lab notes day 153 of the 1st mission 08:00 am February 17, 2017.
First interview with subject NT X004, we run simulation scenario 54-A, “Signal from another planet.”
Subject is observed to be receptive at first but quickly changes to paranoid. We administer 300cc of MDMA via air, according to protocol.
We introduce the reconstructed figure of a colleague in a cry for help speech.
The Subject laughs and doesn't believe a word, we move to a physical approach plane,
I volunteer myself with a room operator from the engineering area, we show him unfinished plans of an experimental vacuum propulsion engine.
He laughs again and tells us that we are not who we say we are.
We administer 50cc of DMT and move on to the next scenario.
From the screen an astronaut with non-human features sends a distress signal and intergalactic coordinates.
The subject looks thoughtful, reassesses, picks up the blueprints and begins to shout out values and what appears to be mathematical and physical formulas.
Air is charged with percentages of absolute sedation.
Audio recording is attached.
It is filed under the name “Project SpaceX.”
**********
Day 153 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 17, 2017.
I'm not sure what happened today, this is the first time in 10 years that a subject overcame the deception of 3 simulations. We had to place absolute sedation in the air, as risky as we know it is. I recommended that we restart the process from scratch, but it was a resounding no, the client is in a hurry.
I need to get more involved in this case to recalibrate the subject. I don't know if I want to. The words before full sedation still resonate with me. “are you still using DC current? interesting...”
**********
Day 154 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 18, 2017.
Something happened, I don't quite know what. The rooms have an emergency lockdown active. Outside hear security personnel mobilizing. I tried the intercom but it didn't work. The insulation prevents my screams from being heard from the outside. If this goes on another day I'm going to break the lock. I'm going to set my backpack to the bare minimum.
**********
Day 157 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 21, 2017.
Yesterday I heard explosions in the B area. I couldn't take it anymore and broke the lock. Whatever it was I had to go out and see. The corridors were dark, and the underground buzzer went on, at least that worked.
I went right to the north staircase, down the 4 floors in near darkness, the power was failing. The entrance to the underground area was barricaded but I managed to see a figure peeking out from inside as they felt me making noises.
It was Sigfried, he pointed me in the doors direction and I entered through a heavily armored side door. I was surprised by the immensity of this section, it encompassed a large hall below almost all the sectors of the base. In front of us there were 4 large industrial pipes with switches and multiple smaller pipes coming out of their bases. These were repeated like mosaics throughout the area until they disappeared into the distance in the darkness.
Leaning against one of them were 3 officers in formerly white coats and a nearly dead guard bloodied on the floor. Poor guy, his legs were crushed with his flesh in the open. He was lying in a pool of his own blood.
He had a blank stare and was panting, it seemed from the pale of his skin, that his fate was imminent. My asthma began to pound in my chest sharply, so I reached into my bag looking for my inhaler. I told them between visible gasps of bad breath to please tell me what's happened.
One of the doctors had a badge from area B and another from area E which corresponds to bio-armamentistics. The latter burst into tears and said “We deserve it, every one of us, we deserve it”.
I knew the other guy, he is an engineer in area B. I could hear him babbling almost nonsensically about, as why they never thought about it, an issue with electrical power.
He looked at me carefully as if recognizing me and grabbed me tightly by my jacket pulling me close to his face transformed for the panic.
“He let them out, all of them!” but not only that, no no no no... he told them the truth. Nikola fucking Tesla hacked us and told them the truth.”
He began to laugh frantically with a face of absurdity until he burst into a choked cry. At that moment everything went dark. The emergency lights activated, and from far away and getting closer, along with the emergency sirens that began to sound, we heard a large mass of people screaming and running through the corridors outside.
Sigfried looked at me as they started to pound on the shielded door and said.
“We're fucked.”
**************
Day xx of the second mission, month xx of 2017
“()The industrial sounds of spinning blades, the cries for mercy followed by the thunderous, liquid crack, down that big pipe, into the green barrels, with the Monsanto logo, dripped down one side an elongated drop of pink paste ending in the letter E on the chemical label. FERTILIZER.”
**********
After finishing the transcription, my whole body began to want to flee, the walls of my house were tinged with a faint blue light as the cloudy dusk came through the window, the lights turned off by my abstraction at the computer gave way to the dark corridors that began to feel alien. As I gently closed the pc my ears began to ring as if under pressure, my breathing became more present and the vibration of my cell phone interrupted my trance.
A call from the office. It was to tell me that I had a vacation week pending, that by schedule, I had to take it starting today.
Sons of bitches, now they even choose your time off - I thought at first, but at the same time I found the voice on the phone very strange, and to tell the truth, the procedure itself.
The anger turned into confusion that only added to the paranoia. The sounds in the street began to seem erratic, a chaotic and strangely familiar feeling came over me. My senses seemed increasingly acute, and they screamed:
Go away.
I grabbed the old laptop, the flash drive and headed for the bus station. The short trip from my house seemed like a long journey. People on the street looked at me with strange faces, the cell phone kept ringing with unknown numbers on the screen and a strange idea began to formulate in my head that whispered “Them, Valeria is one of Them”.
Already on the platforms I rummaged through my backpack where I confirmed that I had the key to the family beach house in San Luis, 60 km to the east of Montevideo. I turned off my cell phone, got on a bus heading to another and much far away town called Treinta y Tres. Sat near the last seat and slipped my cell phone in my front pocket of the seat in front of me, got off and commented to the driver with a clueless face, “I got confused, I'm going to the coast”.
I almost jumped onto the steps of the correct bus to where I was heading, unable to avoid the gazes of the passengers questioning me for the last minute drop in. I sat in my numbered seat and defragmented in dissociation, trying to understand what I was doing, I was running away, but from what?
The images of the last transcriptions were engraved in my mind, the last paragraph was repeated over and over again making me shake my head from time to time trying to get them away from my thoughts. The road was dark and I lost track of time, the digital clock within sight of the passengers jingling since we left, reading 10:40.
“San Luis Station!” - I heard the guard's shout in low volume.
I staggered to my feet, hurried to get off and with the same impulse I entered the dirt roads.
I zig-zagged through the dark, cold and silent beach town. The moonless night and the smell of the sea calmed me.
When I turned the corner to the gabled beach house of my family, on the steps of the front door lit by a white light, was her. Sitting, waiting for me. I stopped dead in my tracks and a chilling vertigo ran down my torso to my throat. We looked at each other for a short two seconds, until she stopped and started walking in sliding steps towards me, smiling and playing with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her arms. The growing sound of the wind through the trees covered us.
“Darling, how are you? How nice is the summer house, I don't think we ever came here, did we? Is it the one your grandmother left you?”
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream, how could such a familiar attitude from such a familiar person transmit such panic to me? I had to answer something.
“Yes, this is it. I came to clear my head for a while, they gave me a few days at work and I wanted to take advantage of it.” I tried to excuse myself with failed dissimulation, since I stuttered in the middle of the words.
“Yes, I know! We arranged it with them, so you can be more relaxed and as a gesture for taking care of the file. Ah! and another thing. I think someone stole your cell phone at the bus station.” She looked at me with a smart-ass smile.
“Anyway, don't worry, they already found it on a bus on the way to “Treinta y tres”. You can get it back later.”
At this point I opened my mouth to ask for explanations, but as terrified as I was I only mumbled a “thank you”.
All this dialogue let us half a body length away, Valeria looked at me now a little more serious and stood at my side. She took my arm petrified and I could feel how a strong smell of neutral soap invaded me, as if she had rubbed herself in it too much.
“Shall we go inside? it's getting cold,” She said, finishing the sentence with a sweet gesture of pleading.
“Emm, shure.” I said.
My trembling hands managed to hit the lock on the 3rd attempt, we entered, turned on the lights and from his backpack she took out a red wine. Our favorite.
“Bring me some glasses, Mauro”. - She said to me as she sat down on the armchair against the window overlooking the gentle hills outside.
She poured wine until he almost filled the ex-cottage cheese glass, looked at me and in a toast gesture said.
“To... Dr. B?”
I slid a little smile and raised my eyebrows. Then I took half a glass in one sip.
“Well!” - She exclaimed, leaning over and resting the glass on the coffee table, and continued.
"You must be very confused, I understand, I saw it many times, the mind trying to adapt to a new, unsuspected reality and in your case all at once. It is not easy. First, make sure that no one is going to hurt you or anyone you know, second, what you read in that file, as you may have noticed, is not intended for public knowledge. Also to tell you”. I couldn't take the stress anymore, I exploded.
“You're not Vale. Who are you?! You're almost identical, but....”
“Ah yes, that one it's a tricky one to explain. Let's try, let's see:
“I'm a version of Valeria that she accidentally gendered when entered the lab. In one of the incubation rooms she touched a scan button that photographs her mind for 48 hours. It contains a micro needle that took her blood and thus generated me.”
“The thing is that we were in a situation of self-destruction of the systems, and that part of the programming code of the protocol was also copied in Valeria's mind.”
“And Valeria? She 's... dead?”
“Well, yes and no. If she tried to leave the base she's probably dead. if she's still there, she's probably frozen to death or killed by the cleanup command, but basically, if I'm here, she's not anymore.”
the coldness with which she answered me made me lose the little calm I had, I got up from the armchair and started to back away with my hands on my head, I couldn't stop repeating,
“this can't be happening, this can't be happening”.
“Hey! Mauro, calm down, it's going to be alright. I'm Valeria too. In every way, I'm still your friend, I know who you are and everything we went through, really, it's me, and when I finish managing the leak, the code, it won't work anymore, it will be erased from my mind and I'll be me. So don't worry. You only have to give me the flash disc and this issue ends here. We go back to normal life and nobody will know about anything.
“I'm not going to pretend that my friend didn't die! Alone, fucking freezing to death, I'm not going to let you take her place, I'm not going to let you!” - She interrupted me.
“Mauro, listen to me” - She came closer to me and grabbed my hands, her big, lined eyes looking at me with sweetness, like so many times before.
“I AM Valeria, I have the same fingerprints, the same blood, the same DNA, the same memories, the same scars, absolutely everything. Are you going to tell my mother that I died? to my sister? Are you going to report me? Nobody is going to believe you at all. If anyone even wants to believe you, how would you prove it? I am an exact copy”. - she told me, smiling with real sweetness and empathy.
I could only cry, for my friend, for the helplessness of the conclusion that she was right. I collapsed on the couch, and watched as the hills swayed in the night.
“Let's have the last glass and I'm leaving.”- she said to me.
“After I give you this, and that part of you disappears, will you remember that you are not... really Valeria?
“No, there is already a simulation on pause about Valeria's last week, she won't remember anything about this situation when she wakes up, because the memory is simply overwritten.”
“So I'm going to be the only one to know about this?”
“Take it as a gift Mauro, a glimpse behind the veil. And if you keep it that way, everything will be fine” - The threatening tone was soft but evident.
“Okay, hand me your PC and the flash drive.”
I looked at her evaluating all possible actions and if this decision was the right one, she stretched out her hand and smiled sympathetically. I gave her the old computer and the black 16G flash drive with the file. She inserted it, typed mechanically fast until the screen went black.
“Perfect, That would be all - She took out the flash drive, threw it on the floor and stepped on it violently with the heel of her shoe, put on his backpack and headed for the door.
“Stop,” I said.
“The things that Dr. B wrote... about the underground…
“Yes, they are true, it was the only way to be self-sustainable and to be able to isolate the complex from the rest of the world. Even the most morally flexible scientists would question the work if they knew where the subjects ended up, and what we were doing with their bodies... Anyway, I'm going home, Lucia called me 5 times already. Talk to you tomorrow.
“Love you,.” - She smiled at me and closed the door behind her. I felt a car slowly drive away from the house.
From my pocket I took out the white flash drive and looked at it. Now I had a decision to make.
submitted by za_dorov to scarystories [link] [comments]
My friend, let's call her Valeria, was part of a public competition to accompany a minor scientific expedition to the Uruguayan Antarctic base. Her thesis was about investigating how information reception behaves in remote and isolated areas.
I barely read it , but basically tries to show that information circulates and is received in a particular way in these circumstances by a group of unfamiliar people living under extreme climatic and isolation conditions, having as an example, life in submarines and in military bases in Siberia. The Antarctic base gave her the chance to observe some of her postulates up close.
Finally, she was chosen and traveled with this scientific group in a commercial flight Montevideo - Santiago de Chile to later arrive at Punta Arenas and fly to the Antarctic base.
The last communication I had with her before she sent me the almost 90 photographic captures of the Journal, was on March 15, 2024.
We talked over the phone about how the weather was in Montevideo, that it does not stop raining and the cars are practically floating on the streets. She told me that the transport that was going to take them back was having mechanical problems and they would probably have to order spare parts for the plane from Punta Arenas. Then She told me that it is freaking cold down there and his colleagues are all very boring. Nobody has whisky for the evenings. We laughed about that part because I told her to bring at least one bottle of Grappa in her purse.
Before saying goodbye, she told me they had spotted some old metal structures south of the base. The soldiers told her that it was safe to go near that part so she was going to explore them. It wasn't there when they first arrived and that the recent and atypical heat wave probably must have exposed it. I told her to be careful and we said goodbyes.
Three days later I received an email. “Valeria shared a file with you.” As I start to see what it was about she calls me.
“Mauro? MAURO!, can you hear me?” She said in a nervous and excited voice.
“I can barely hear you, what happened?”I asked half asleep, while still lying on my bed.
“Listen to me carefully, don't talk, just listen” I could tell by her agitation that she was walking fast or maybe running. The creaking footsteps in the snow could be heard in the background. in the distance, a catastrophe-type siren was blaring.
“Are you alright? What happened? What's that noise?” I said, now sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I sent you a file. Transfer it to a flash drive, delete history and reset your cell phone, the computer and your email address. I'll explain everything later, it'll be worth it.”
“What? What are you talking about Vale?, what for? Tell me what's going on - I started to yell at her, in slide panic.
“Listen, I found something that is not supposed to exist. In the diary he explains everything. I'm going back to the base, I think someone is following me, I set off an alarm or something. Save that file for me until I get there and remember that... “
There were two loud booms and the sound of water invading the transmission. A choked bubbling and cracking sound reminded me of ice collapsing. My friend had fallen into the water, in Antarctica.
“HEY, are you OK?! What happened?!” - I kept screaming hysterically until the call was cut off.
I looked at my cell phone for a second. My hands were shaking, I tried calling several times but the phone went dead. I looked at the compressed file. I jumped up and ran to the dining room furniture, frantically looking for a white flash drive that had to be in a drawer somewhere. I couldn't find it, so I went back to my desk. I pulled the drawer so hard that it came off the rail and fell to the floor. I started to dig through my belongings on the floor, coins, papers, cards, nothing.
I thought, I struggled to remember where I had fucking put it. Finally I saw my backpack peeking out from behind the desk chair, I jumped on it and in the second small pocket from the inside, there was a cheap white 16G flash drive. I put it in the pc, downloaded the file directly there, took it out and fabric restored the entire system on the computer. I do the same with my cell phone as Valeria said.
At the time I didn't even question if those measures really prevented me from being tracked, and the idea that that was the reason made panic run through my body like lightning. Sitting on the floor of my room next to the mess, my body was numb with tension. After a few seconds, I rebooted my cell phone to try to call Lucia, her sister.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, it's that you? I think something bad happened to Vale, I hear her over the phone as if she fell into the water, and some rumbling. I don't know what I heard, I think she got into some trouble or some place she shouldn't have been - I realized that I was mumble and not saying anything clear. For some reason, I didn't mention the file.
“It can't be Mauro, I just spoke to her on the phone. She was at the airport in Santiago de Chile at the boarding lounge, we talked for about half an hour, she told me she was bringing a fancy bourbon to share and…”
I stopped listening, it didn't make sense, how could it be? what the fuck is going on!
“Mauro, are you ok? Is something wrong? it's too early, are you sure you didn't dream it?”
“Did you talk to her? half an hour ago? But...,” I exclaimed without being able to hide my confusion.
“Are you... sure it was her?”
“Yes, of course you moron, it's my sister! Did you smoke pot again on an empty stomach?”
“No, you're right, nevermind, thanks Lucia, talk to you soon.” I ended the call without letting her say goodbye.
Had I dreamt about it? I erased everything now, how will I know if I dreamt it? I hesitated absurdly.
This is surreal, I thought to myself as I looked at the flash drive in my hand. I refocused my attention and went to the attic looking for my brother's old laptop he left me before going to live in Spain. It was practically useless, but it was enough to see the file. I turned it on, waited for the decrepit Windows XP to load, and put the flashdisk in, opened the compressed folder and found two files.
“LabNotes.pdf”
“PersonalDiary.pdf”
I decided to open the journal first. From what I interpreted from the loading order of the screenshots, after reading it, I opened the image of the last page.
I transcribe as is.
Day 243 of the 2nd mission 10: 40 am. March 12, 2019.
I am the head researcher of the Psychological Area at the UN Antarctic base; I'm currently assigned to Project Sisyphus categorized as the highest classified rank.
This is going to sound crazy, but the person living with my family is my clone.
It still surprises me when I say it out loud, but after being able to replicate the brain-muscular history (a perfect copy of our memory) of any person and having mastered replicating every cell of our bodies at any age, it was only a matter of time before the development of social biotechnology would emerge. Now and by worldwide agreement, as a complete secret.
There is absolutely no shame or a shred of ethics in what we do, there is no longer any constraint on what we can do to the subjects for the sake of research. That haunts me every day.
It all went to shit so fast, I doubt anyone will come to our rescue. The protocol says so, the base in the face of an imminent security risk will erase itself. The structure was designed to collapse methodically following a protocol of incineration and sinking. The immediate perimeter has underwater mines that make the ice collapse almost imperceptibly, but deadly to anyone who tries to leave.
No one can escape from the base, neither the research staff nor the subjects. Our place in the world is already taken.
I only hope that this journal along with my lab notes will be found at some point. I managed to construct a small insulating gasket for it so I trust it will survive in case this part of the building collapses as well.
Please use this data to let the world know what happened here and don't let perversity define us once again.
To my family: I love you and miss you every minute.
B.
At the exact moment I ended the reading I received a video call that made me jump with fright, it is...
Valeria.
With my pulse shaking, I answered the call.
“Hi you! The flight was delayed, can you believe it? This one is absolutely in my top three, worst trips of my life. I'm really hungry and everything is so expensive here. What are you up to? Tell me something, please, I'm soooo bored!”
I looked at her with confusion and I couldn't manage to pronounce words. When I was about to modulate an answer she interrupted me.
“What's the matter Mauro?, are you on pause? Is the signal OK? HELLO! Can you hear me? Can you see me?” She started to walk through the boarding lounge looking for better signal
“Yes yes, Valeria I can hear you.”
She laughed and looked at me with a face between sensual and serious, and continued.
“Do you miss me?” while raising the phone jokingly as she typically does in her selfie pose.
“Valeria, don't you remember calling me earlier today?”
“I? called you? Nop. Why? Ah! By the way, did you know there are penguins in Tierra del Fuego? I would have liked to go and see them.” She continued his verbose conversation in a carefree tone, with her typical hand gestures and playing with his hair.
“Well, at last!” She interrupted herself and shouted, jumping up from her chair.
“We are being called to board, see you in a couple hours!” She said goodbye with a smiling sonority, and began to walk towards the boarding gate.
But at the last second, before ending the call, her gesture changed. She looked directly at the camera with a hardened and emotionless face and almost mechanically, she whispered.
“(I'm going to retrieve that diary).”
My stomach dropped to the floor and I could feel as if my blood was running cold with fear. I could not shake the awful and eerie feeling that this person, who was returning, whom I had never in my life called by her full name, was not my friend.
So, the next couple of hours I put everything in to transcribe the rest of important passages of the diary. Something was compelling me to do it, i can't explain it, Some mix between moral duty, and morbid curiosity. Here is my selection of it.
Lab notes. day 96 of 1st mission 08:00 am December 22, 2016.
Subject JON X012:
First physical assessments: Normal, alert and inquisitive, exhibits some alteration to screens.
We place 100 cc of sedative in room air. The subject attentively follows the narrative of scenario B5 “The last mission”.
The subject responds positively to the premises of the story, where he is asked to address an audience threatened by a natural disaster, convincing them to choose a certain path out of the city.
He offers to collaborate but fails to articulate the message with the power to overcome the simulation.
We resort to pouring 125cc of concentrated Psilocybin into the air as stipulated in the protocol sheet.
The vocal frequency and body language reading receptors in the observation room are activated. The subject manages to formulate a series of premises articulately and with discursive power, circulating around the observation room.
Successful reaction.
We move on to the next stage.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project.”
Diary entry: Day 96 of the 1st mission 21:30 pm. December 22, 2016.
Today they transferred subject JON X0012 for psychological evaluation, several in the lab were very anxious about this arrival. I was never the religious type, but I can understand why. Truth be told,
I always imagined Jesus would be taller.
*********
Day 106 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 02, 2017
Today we received a new lab assistant for the night shift. Much needed as I was covering these shifts myself and am really burned out. The underground operates at full power at those hours, the hum of the machinery becomes unbearable. This must be why the rooms have an insulating structure.
********
Day 112 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm January 08, 2017.
The new integration is not very bright. He labeled the transcripts wrong again yesterday and doesn't seem to fully understand the importance of these. I'm going to have to go through the whole method with him again. I don't have much patience lately, it's not his fault, he seems like a nice guy and it's real that I need a second of confidence. Better train him from now on. Maybe start a sketch of a short explanatory document.
*******
Small introductory guide.
When the subjects conclude the incubation and breeding process (pages 19 to 52 of the manual), that is to say, that they have at least remembered speech and with it, depending on the time in which they lived, reading and writing, they generally begin to perceive themselves. Just before situational curiosity is when the psychology department comes into action. Either to run the “stand by” simulation or the main tests.
In each subject's file is the target of their cloning, the era in which they lived, and the recommended scenarios to trigger the desired response. If the file has X amount on the cover, this corresponds to the generation of the subject, whether it is the first or 10th time it is incubated.
Generally, it takes between 2 and 5 attempts to generate the correct simulation, and administer the appropriate drugs.
It took 5 attempts to come up with the correct amount of methamphetamine that subject AH X005 (Hitler) needed to function in the scenario, as the correct amount bordered on overdose.
Simulations are much easier since the implementation of multisensor AI. We managed to generate almost any scenario including temperature, smells, lights and sounds. We tried not to use familiar ones, as human smells are impossible to replicate. We found this out in a complicated way. We tried to recreate a conversation between RR subject X003 (Reagan) and his mother, but he recognized the fakery by the absence of body odor. His mind collapsed and we had to move him to the Underground. The people in Area C (Private Clients) almost lost a very large Chinese account.
After calibrating the subject, we ran both psychological and behavioral tests, scanned retinas, analyzed blood, as well as vocal and body language. But what has really yielded surprising results are the free interviews. It is amazing what some minds are capable of with the right environmental and chemical stimulation. That's why transcription is vital (!!)
Our area develops BC (Behavioral Algorithms) which are then bought by the private sector, and some government agencies.
To give you some examples: Twitter was an idea of subject JO X008 (Orwell).
Bots in social media and the use of big data was an idea of JG X002 (Goebbels) and KM X014`s worst nightmare (Marx) was bought by Amazon.
It is an arduous process and the success rate is low, but when we achieve the goal per subject, well, these results are a mein part of the latest revolutions of mankind.
So follow the lab rules, never refer to subjects by their actual historical name, and always remember, they are assets, not people.
***********
Day 117 of the 1st mission 16:30 am January 12, 2017.
Today is a rest day all over area D. I miss many things from the old world that I thought I would never miss, taking a bus, standing in line with strangers, and today I miss Sundays. We only have one on the month. So as usual we gather in the rest area to listen to a liberated jukebox that tries to lighten the mood. I know, right? Why I wrote about this “Saturday” photocopy, well besides the same nostalgic drunks, I was approached by a person I didn't recognize.
From what I understood he was a rehabilitated alcoholic, maybe that's why I didn't see him on “Saturdays”. He must be in his 50's, he was portly and wore thick black-rimmed glasses, he seemed to have a slight limp, I noticed it when he went to refill my beer.
I am a very reserved person and find it hard to talk to people. Truth be told, I've lost the desire to talk to people here. What can you actualy fucking talk about here, if it's not about the same thing. Everything revolves around work and some inter-area gossip, which never escalates much.
But yesterday was Clara's birthday and to hide the remorse and sadness of only having shared with her the first 3 years of her life, I had a few too many beers.
We chatted about banal aspects of life in isolation, and the things we miss. For him it was going to the stadium to watch soccer with his grandchildren. I think it was loneliness and nostalgia that brought us together that night.
His name was Sigfried, I don't know if I spelled it right, but it was clearly Nordic, i notice because of some of the words he mixed up with English. He works as the underground level security manager. We all know that it is one of the most restricted areas and what we have learned in these almost 10 years in the project, is that the more restricted, the less questions you should ask.
But that day, I think I felt the urge to hurt myself, to go off the rails, so I asked what we all suspected but no one knew for sure. I asked about the blenders. I wish I hadn't.
************
Day 126 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 21, 2017.
I almost can't express how furious I am today, but I'm going to try because if I don't, I'm going to punch the new assistant in the face. He has nothing to do with this, he's just mildly irritating.
Anyway, in Genetic Mapping or area A, they approved the incubation of another Anomaly. It seems to be an express request from a major shareholder and there is not much to say. Anomalies are very risky to reproduce, nature is wise, and for some reason it placed them in history moments where they had their limitations.
It seems that after the crisis of 2010 with “The Russian Devil” it is no longer scary enough. New school morons... If they had been there they wouldn't even dare to think about it. I AM FURIOUS.
The arguments are that this case lived longer, that the clone would be in his 70s, and that he possessed noticeably more “civilized” traits. As if the court of the last Zar had not been somewhat civilized.
Personally I think this is a big mistake. Since the discovery that some people possess unknown DNA components and with the 2010 background, they should draw the line. There are certain things, still beyond our ability to understand. But it is delusional of me to think that there are limits, someday the absence of them will consume us all.
************
Lab notes day 142 of 1st mission 08:00 am February 06, 2017.
Final free interview with JON subject X012
Scenario B-24 or “The Dinner Party” Result: Normal.
Notes: Subject is grateful, positive, docile and hopeful for the future. Offers to cook next time by asking for spices and ingredients of typical Hindu dishes.
The subject is directed to the Underground area.
Attached audio for transcription.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project”.
**********
Day 142 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 06, 2017.
Today was the last session with subject JON X012, I managed to extract the last retinal and body language readings, as usual before sending them to Underground level. We ran the dinner scenario, the truth is that is one of the best simulations we have achieved. The subjects are relaxed resulting in the best free interview environment. This one was no exception, I must say I understand the charm of the “messiah” turned out to be quite an entertaining subject. I hope his next generation will be similar.
**********
Day 152 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm February 16, 2017.
I was tasked with the continuous monitoring of subject NT X004. I am not at all happy with this transfer. First of all, I know nothing about area B of engineering and technology. Secondly, I still think this is a really bad idea.
One of the laboratories has been set up with the essential simulation equipment and personnel. Tomorrow we start with the calibration.
**********
Lab notes day 153 of the 1st mission 08:00 am February 17, 2017.
First interview with subject NT X004, we run simulation scenario 54-A, “Signal from another planet.”
Subject is observed to be receptive at first but quickly changes to paranoid. We administer 300cc of MDMA via air, according to protocol.
We introduce the reconstructed figure of a colleague in a cry for help speech.
The Subject laughs and doesn't believe a word, we move to a physical approach plane,
I volunteer myself with a room operator from the engineering area, we show him unfinished plans of an experimental vacuum propulsion engine.
He laughs again and tells us that we are not who we say we are.
We administer 50cc of DMT and move on to the next scenario.
From the screen an astronaut with non-human features sends a distress signal and intergalactic coordinates.
The subject looks thoughtful, reassesses, picks up the blueprints and begins to shout out values and what appears to be mathematical and physical formulas.
Air is charged with percentages of absolute sedation.
Audio recording is attached.
It is filed under the name “Project SpaceX.”
**********
Day 153 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 17, 2017.
I'm not sure what happened today, this is the first time in 10 years that a subject overcame the deception of 3 simulations. We had to place absolute sedation in the air, as risky as we know it is. I recommended that we restart the process from scratch, but it was a resounding no, the client is in a hurry.
I need to get more involved in this case to recalibrate the subject. I don't know if I want to. The words before full sedation still resonate with me. “are you still using DC current? interesting...”
**********
Day 154 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 18, 2017.
Something happened, I don't quite know what. The rooms have an emergency lockdown active. Outside hear security personnel mobilizing. I tried the intercom but it didn't work. The insulation prevents my screams from being heard from the outside. If this goes on another day I'm going to break the lock. I'm going to set my backpack to the bare minimum.
**********
Day 157 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 21, 2017.
Yesterday I heard explosions in the B area. I couldn't take it anymore and broke the lock. Whatever it was I had to go out and see. The corridors were dark, and the underground buzzer went on, at least that worked.
I went right to the north staircase, down the 4 floors in near darkness, the power was failing. The entrance to the underground area was barricaded but I managed to see a figure peeking out from inside as they felt me making noises.
It was Sigfried, he pointed me in the doors direction and I entered through a heavily armored side door. I was surprised by the immensity of this section, it encompassed a large hall below almost all the sectors of the base. In front of us there were 4 large industrial pipes with switches and multiple smaller pipes coming out of their bases. These were repeated like mosaics throughout the area until they disappeared into the distance in the darkness.
Leaning against one of them were 3 officers in formerly white coats and a nearly dead guard bloodied on the floor. Poor guy, his legs were crushed with his flesh in the open. He was lying in a pool of his own blood.
He had a blank stare and was panting, it seemed from the pale of his skin, that his fate was imminent. My asthma began to pound in my chest sharply, so I reached into my bag looking for my inhaler. I told them between visible gasps of bad breath to please tell me what's happened.
One of the doctors had a badge from area B and another from area E which corresponds to bio-armamentistics. The latter burst into tears and said “We deserve it, every one of us, we deserve it”.
I knew the other guy, he is an engineer in area B. I could hear him babbling almost nonsensically about, as why they never thought about it, an issue with electrical power.
He looked at me carefully as if recognizing me and grabbed me tightly by my jacket pulling me close to his face transformed for the panic.
“He let them out, all of them!” but not only that, no no no no... he told them the truth. Nikola fucking Tesla hacked us and told them the truth.”
He began to laugh frantically with a face of absurdity until he burst into a choked cry. At that moment everything went dark. The emergency lights activated, and from far away and getting closer, along with the emergency sirens that began to sound, we heard a large mass of people screaming and running through the corridors outside.
Sigfried looked at me as they started to pound on the shielded door and said.
“We're fucked.”
**************
Day xx of the second mission, month xx of 2017
“()The industrial sounds of spinning blades, the cries for mercy followed by the thunderous, liquid crack, down that big pipe, into the green barrels, with the Monsanto logo, dripped down one side an elongated drop of pink paste ending in the letter E on the chemical label. FERTILIZER.”
**********
After finishing the transcription, my whole body began to want to flee, the walls of my house were tinged with a faint blue light as the cloudy dusk came through the window, the lights turned off by my abstraction at the computer gave way to the dark corridors that began to feel alien. As I gently closed the pc my ears began to ring as if under pressure, my breathing became more present and the vibration of my cell phone interrupted my trance.
A call from the office. It was to tell me that I had a vacation week pending, that by schedule, I had to take it starting today.
Sons of bitches, now they even choose your time off - I thought at first, but at the same time I found the voice on the phone very strange, and to tell the truth, the procedure itself.
The anger turned into confusion that only added to the paranoia. The sounds in the street began to seem erratic, a chaotic and strangely familiar feeling came over me. My senses seemed increasingly acute, and they screamed:
Go away.
I grabbed the old laptop, the flash drive and headed for the bus station. The short trip from my house seemed like a long journey. People on the street looked at me with strange faces, the cell phone kept ringing with unknown numbers on the screen and a strange idea began to formulate in my head that whispered “Them, Valeria is one of Them”.
Already on the platforms I rummaged through my backpack where I confirmed that I had the key to the family beach house in San Luis, 60 km to the east of Montevideo. I turned off my cell phone, got on a bus heading to another and much far away town called Treinta y Tres. Sat near the last seat and slipped my cell phone in my front pocket of the seat in front of me, got off and commented to the driver with a clueless face, “I got confused, I'm going to the coast”.
I almost jumped onto the steps of the correct bus to where I was heading, unable to avoid the gazes of the passengers questioning me for the last minute drop in. I sat in my numbered seat and defragmented in dissociation, trying to understand what I was doing, I was running away, but from what?
The images of the last transcriptions were engraved in my mind, the last paragraph was repeated over and over again making me shake my head from time to time trying to get them away from my thoughts. The road was dark and I lost track of time, the digital clock within sight of the passengers jingling since we left, reading 10:40.
“San Luis Station!” - I heard the guard's shout in low volume.
I staggered to my feet, hurried to get off and with the same impulse I entered the dirt roads.
I zig-zagged through the dark, cold and silent beach town. The moonless night and the smell of the sea calmed me.
When I turned the corner to the gabled beach house of my family, on the steps of the front door lit by a white light, was her. Sitting, waiting for me. I stopped dead in my tracks and a chilling vertigo ran down my torso to my throat. We looked at each other for a short two seconds, until she stopped and started walking in sliding steps towards me, smiling and playing with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her arms. The growing sound of the wind through the trees covered us.
“Darling, how are you? How nice is the summer house, I don't think we ever came here, did we? Is it the one your grandmother left you?”
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream, how could such a familiar attitude from such a familiar person transmit such panic to me? I had to answer something.
“Yes, this is it. I came to clear my head for a while, they gave me a few days at work and I wanted to take advantage of it.” I tried to excuse myself with failed dissimulation, since I stuttered in the middle of the words.
“Yes, I know! We arranged it with them, so you can be more relaxed and as a gesture for taking care of the file. Ah! and another thing. I think someone stole your cell phone at the bus station.” She looked at me with a smart-ass smile.
“Anyway, don't worry, they already found it on a bus on the way to “Treinta y tres”. You can get it back later.”
At this point I opened my mouth to ask for explanations, but as terrified as I was I only mumbled a “thank you”.
All this dialogue let us half a body length away, Valeria looked at me now a little more serious and stood at my side. She took my arm petrified and I could feel how a strong smell of neutral soap invaded me, as if she had rubbed herself in it too much.
“Shall we go inside? it's getting cold,” She said, finishing the sentence with a sweet gesture of pleading.
“Emm, shure.” I said.
My trembling hands managed to hit the lock on the 3rd attempt, we entered, turned on the lights and from his backpack she took out a red wine. Our favorite.
“Bring me some glasses, Mauro”. - She said to me as she sat down on the armchair against the window overlooking the gentle hills outside.
She poured wine until he almost filled the ex-cottage cheese glass, looked at me and in a toast gesture said.
“To... Dr. B?”
I slid a little smile and raised my eyebrows. Then I took half a glass in one sip.
“Well!” - She exclaimed, leaning over and resting the glass on the coffee table, and continued.
"You must be very confused, I understand, I saw it many times, the mind trying to adapt to a new, unsuspected reality and in your case all at once. It is not easy. First, make sure that no one is going to hurt you or anyone you know, second, what you read in that file, as you may have noticed, is not intended for public knowledge. Also to tell you”. I couldn't take the stress anymore, I exploded.
“You're not Vale. Who are you?! You're almost identical, but....”
“Ah yes, that one it's a tricky one to explain. Let's try, let's see:
“I'm a version of Valeria that she accidentally gendered when entered the lab. In one of the incubation rooms she touched a scan button that photographs her mind for 48 hours. It contains a micro needle that took her blood and thus generated me.”
“The thing is that we were in a situation of self-destruction of the systems, and that part of the programming code of the protocol was also copied in Valeria's mind.”
“And Valeria? She 's... dead?”
“Well, yes and no. If she tried to leave the base she's probably dead. if she's still there, she's probably frozen to death or killed by the cleanup command, but basically, if I'm here, she's not anymore.”
the coldness with which she answered me made me lose the little calm I had, I got up from the armchair and started to back away with my hands on my head, I couldn't stop repeating,
“this can't be happening, this can't be happening”.
“Hey! Mauro, calm down, it's going to be alright. I'm Valeria too. In every way, I'm still your friend, I know who you are and everything we went through, really, it's me, and when I finish managing the leak, the code, it won't work anymore, it will be erased from my mind and I'll be me. So don't worry. You only have to give me the flash disc and this issue ends here. We go back to normal life and nobody will know about anything.
“I'm not going to pretend that my friend didn't die! Alone, fucking freezing to death, I'm not going to let you take her place, I'm not going to let you!” - She interrupted me.
“Mauro, listen to me” - She came closer to me and grabbed my hands, her big, lined eyes looking at me with sweetness, like so many times before.
“I AM Valeria, I have the same fingerprints, the same blood, the same DNA, the same memories, the same scars, absolutely everything. Are you going to tell my mother that I died? to my sister? Are you going to report me? Nobody is going to believe you at all. If anyone even wants to believe you, how would you prove it? I am an exact copy”. - she told me, smiling with real sweetness and empathy.
I could only cry, for my friend, for the helplessness of the conclusion that she was right. I collapsed on the couch, and watched as the hills swayed in the night.
“Let's have the last glass and I'm leaving.”- she said to me.
“After I give you this, and that part of you disappears, will you remember that you are not... really Valeria?
“No, there is already a simulation on pause about Valeria's last week, she won't remember anything about this situation when she wakes up, because the memory is simply overwritten.”
“So I'm going to be the only one to know about this?”
“Take it as a gift Mauro, a glimpse behind the veil. And if you keep it that way, everything will be fine” - The threatening tone was soft but evident.
“Okay, hand me your PC and the flash drive.”
I looked at her evaluating all possible actions and if this decision was the right one, she stretched out her hand and smiled sympathetically. I gave her the old computer and the black 16G flash drive with the file. She inserted it, typed mechanically fast until the screen went black.
“Perfect, That would be all - She took out the flash drive, threw it on the floor and stepped on it violently with the heel of her shoe, put on his backpack and headed for the door.
“Stop,” I said.
“The things that Dr. B wrote... about the underground…
“Yes, they are true, it was the only way to be self-sustainable and to be able to isolate the complex from the rest of the world. Even the most morally flexible scientists would question the work if they knew where the subjects ended up, and what we were doing with their bodies... Anyway, I'm going home, Lucia called me 5 times already. Talk to you tomorrow.
“Love you,.” - She smiled at me and closed the door behind her. I felt a car slowly drive away from the house.
From my pocket I took out the white flash drive and looked at it. Now I had a decision to make.
2024.05.13 06:26 Murky_Dragonfruit536 I made a 180x94 Eurasia+America's Map with TSL. Enjoy!
 | So during the pandemic I made a Eurasia map that was 180x94. Really enjoyed playing on it. I updated it around two years ago and added a bit of the Americas for enjoyment. I haven't played it in a while and frankly I feel like its good enough for other people to enjoy. I am quite proud of it. Download and more details at the end. submitted by Murky_Dragonfruit536 to civ5 [link] [comments] Screenshots : British Isles Indonesia Baltic Sea India Northern China Southern China Iberia and France Southeastern Europe Japan and Korea Central Europe Russia (As we all know its massive) Western Steppes East Africa Egypt Northwestern Africa and the Sahara United States East Coast (Look at Michigan!) West Africa Iceland Here is the Download : I uploaded the .Civ5Map file as well, in case anyone would like to edit my map using the worldbuilder. Download Instructions : 1.) Install the "Eurasia1.3.lua" file above. Find it in your computer's storage. 2.) Take the "Eurasia1.3.lua" file and put it in Documents > My Games > Sid Meier's Civilization 5 > Maps 3.) Done! 4.) Simply load up Civ 5 and select the map. To find it, go to "Additional Maps" when looking at the map type selection interface and scroll down until you see "Eurasia 1.3". Notes : Tbh I wish I could get paid for making Civ 5 maps in worldbuilder. This was really fun. I really tried to focus on accuracy when building this map. Everything was done by hand. Staring at a map and then drawing it out and making it look good. I did make design decisions relating to gameplay. Trying to space rivers and cities apart not only to look like they do in real life but so cities can be placed historically. The rivers I am particularly proud of. The Mississippi, the Danube, the Yellow, the Niger, the Rhine, the Nile, the Volga and the rest are pretty accurate if I do say so myself. Europe is enlarged a little bit. All strategic, luxury and other resources were all placed by hand and in their geographic areas. Horses and Iron are pretty plentiful, but still in spots that make sense. Strategic resources were placed based on my previous knowledge and looking online to see locations of major deposits. I placed a lot of luxury resources, trying to ensure that happiness remains an issue but still permitting good expansion. I played with the No Happiness mod - the AI cheats anyway - and had an absolute blast. But whatever you want. In terms of recommendations and settings, here is what I go with. Make sure the map is set to Huge. If you do not want to play with many Civs, you must manually get rid of them in the advanced setup menu. Sorry, it crashes otherwise for some reason. I recommend playing with lots of Civilizations, including some modded ones. Anything less than 30 honestly and the map will feel empty in lots of places. I tried to include lots of nations outside of Europe in order to balance the regions out a bit due to the incredible size in Asia and Africa. Such as the India pack as well as Mali, Benin, the Ashanti, Nri, Congo, Taureg, Timurids, Armenia, Tibet, Champa, multiple Chinese dynasties, Bulan of Khazaria amongst others. I did add TSL support for a good number of popular civilizations. In terms of starts, anything goes. I played one as Genghis Khan and went on to conquer Asia. Incredibly fun. I highly suggest it. Please let me know if you have any questions or need any help setting up the mod! Hope you all enjoy it like I have! |
2024.05.12 10:04 DanielJosephDannyBoy [RF] Isle Tarshish
Two and a half thousand years ago, a small trading town existed on a small island off the coast of Valencia, Spain, just a quarter of the way to the Balearic Islands. It was a peaceful and bright society. However, one day, panic was set about when the town's chief scientist, who mostly spent his life in obscurity, made a harrowing statement.
"There are two beasts beneath the earth, at war with each other. Eventually, at the culmination of the war, their movement will reach this town. The turmoil of the two beasts will sink much of the island, except this very town, to the bottom of the sea. However, only the knowledge and wisdom of man will determine whether this town will suffer the same fate."
Indeed, about four hundred years later, the island was sunk beneath the waves. The shallowest parts of the island were, as prophesied, part of the small town, only two meters beneath sea level. The island and its town were mostly forgotten until a team of archeologists, in the 1970s, discovered the anthropogenic-marked sandbar. Most of the remaining material beneath the shallow waters was of little historical value, so society didn't mind when a hotel company bought the land and decided to build a modern hotel resort on top of the sandbank on the turn of the millennium.
Isle Tarshish opened to the public on 7 April, 2005. It was an exclusive but hugely successful attraction, with 50 rooms, an infinity pool, a spa and sauna room, two restaurants, an art gallery, and even a TV station, all surrounding a central waterway going from the west side to the north side. Various walkways and bridges allowed the guests to go from one place to the other. There was even a conference room on a smaller island north of the main hotel island and a more exquisite suite on the west, and beautiful sculptures on the east. But despite its glory, it was not destined to be forever.
On the 13th of May, 2022, geologist Anna Hernandez discovered a previously unknown magma plume directly between Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Formed by the subduction of the African Plate's oceanic crust beneath the Eurasian Plate, it was made of melted, ferrous rock. And it was rising. A danger to Isle Tarshish seemed unlikely—at first. However, a week later, an earthquake of Richter magnitude 2 occurred. Its epicenter was to the west of the previously-detected plume's geometric center—it seemed to have moved towards Isle Tarshish. Three days after that, a slightly stronger earthquake occurred. And it was even closer.
Hernandez realized that Isle Tarshish may become the epicenter of this newborn battle between the forces of the Earth. She believed early warnings were key to survival and the salvation of lives. On the 25th of May, she visited the island with a mission: to meet with Isle Tarshish's General Manager and tell them of the possible geological threat. It was a two-hour boat ride, which made her feel seasick.
"Could you please make this boat rock a little faster?"
"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. The waves are like this, and we just have to embrace them."
When she arrived at the resort, she was in shock. It was a sunny day. People were playing around, walking with their families around the buildings, swimming in the sea, or bathing in the heat after some time in a presumably colder country. The infinity pool was on the other side of the direction of arrival. The shock and allure of such a place cured Hernandez's seasickness, but she was concerned about the future of the island. Concerned that one day, as they had fun in the sun, a disaster, one as vicious as a fire-breathing dragon, could come up from beneath and destroy them.
After going on the resort's main pier, she went to the reception. She was guided to the hotel's management office. The general manager was an uptight, estute man named Santiago Galante.
"Hola!"
"Hello. I'm Anna Hernandez."
"So what brings you here today?"
"Well, you see, I'm a geologist..."
Hernandez twitched anxiously as she thought desperately of what she had to say, and how to word it effectively.
"So you're a geologist?"
"Yes, and I have just discovered a possible threat to this island. I have discovered a new magma plume, just fifty kilometers beneath the surface directly between Valencia and Ibiza. It seems to be rising at a rate of two kilometers per day."
"Yeah, and what does that mean?"
"Assuming this rate stays constant, the magma will hit the ocean's surface just before the end of June... causing a volcanic eruption. Which is interesting because the whole region of Spain has never seen a volcanic eruption in years, except the Canary Islands. But again, that's concerning, for obvious reasons."
Again, the room was as silent as a snake, for a second.
"Where will the eruption occur?"
"We don't know... but there have been earthquakes increasing steadily in magnitude... and the epicenters have moved between close to Ibiza... right to where we are."
"Oh."
After a few seconds of silence, Galante spoke his mouth. His secretary, Gaspar de Arroyo, started to chime in.
"You know, yesterday, we had a pastor at the United Pentecostal Church of Spain just leave, but he left us with a blessing."
"Yeah, and what did he say?"
"He said Isle Tarshish will flourish for years to come and even until the Second Coming of Christ."
"Did he?"
"Yeah. He said people would scoff at his claim, but he said that, in the end, even when cities like London and Los Angeles fall, Isle Tarshish will stand ground."
"Scientifically speaking, that's nonsense."
"Remember, this used to be part of an island that was mostly above water, but which has mostly sunk. I am literally providing evidence right before your very eyes that this resort might be right in the firing line of a forming volcano."
"Who are you to question the servant of the Lord?"
"I'm a scientist. I make claims based on things we can observe with our five senses. I have more credibility over some charlatan who's probably out for people's money."
At that moment, de Arroyo spoke.
"You know, my son has seizures, but when we visited that pastor in the past, his seizures disappeared like magic!"
"You know childhood seizures can stop manually?"
"Yeah, basing that from the little you know, miss. Now please quit bothering me and my boss with all this volcano talk."
"I agree with him," Galante said. "I'm sorry to say this, but you've offended us with questioning the pastor who blessed us. We place our trust in him, and not in some scientist who probably doesn't go by faith. So please, enjoy yourselves here, and don't shove your nonsense down other people's throats."
Hernandez left the resort, dismayed. She felt saddened seeing the souls having fun on the resort as she left on the boat. She also felt sickened thinking of them and the possibility of them having heard that megapastor. First he scammed them from their money—and now, worst case scenario, he might take all of their lives.
On the first day of June, the people at Isle Tarshish woke up to a tremor that shook their cups and rocked their pools. An earthquake of magnitude 3.5 on the Richter scale. Hernandez woke up to it too, thanks to an alert. And, as expected, the earthquake's epicenter was even closer to the island.
While searching for TV channels, Hernandez stumbled across it. The pentecostal megapastor about whom Galante had spoke. And, during the few seconds in which he spoke, he mentioned the recent earthquakes off Valencia. He said they would stop. They didn't.
The more the earthquakes occurred, the more Hernandez felt sick listening to him. He looked like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
By 10 June, the earthquakes were nearly of Richter magnitude 5. Hernandez knew the probability of her worst fears coming true—a volcanic eruption directly at Isle Tarshish—were increasing rapidly as the earthquake depths decreased while their magnitudes increased. Magma was rapidly approaching the surface.
And Isle Tarshish was not safe.
Yet, she heard Galante and de Arroyo telling the guests at their doomed paradise that everything would go fine, all based on the crap talk from some charlatan the month before. Enraged, she sent them an angry voice mail, but they wouldn't listen. Isle Tarshish was not evacuated. However, it was not long before the guests began to rebel. A few days later, there were leaks in their pipes. One of the spa pools had turned yellow with unfamiliar minerals. And cracks had formed on the ground. The conference room had no power. Many of them wanted to leave—but Galante and de Arroyo decided they had enough. Proclaiming the Isle as their "promised land" sheltered from outside demonic activity, they ordered the guests to stay there and those in charge of the boats to not take them back to the mainland.
And then it happened. 22 June, 2022.
All the guests stranded on the island were jolted awake by a 5 magnitude earthquake, at around 7 AM. From her office in Valencia City, Hernandez saw that the earthquake's epicenter was right below the Isle, at a depth of only 50 meters. The endgame had come.
By now, the whole resort was out of power. The guests began to panic. At 8:30, Galante ordered Erasmo Cifuentes, the Isle's chief electrician, to investigate. He, along with another fellow electrician, entered the power management room. Closing the thick door behind him, Cifuentes was aghast when he saw a massive crack on the room's rocky, haggard floor. It was a very large crack, about 10 centimeters wide at most.
"What do you think lies at the bottom?" his friend asked.
"I have no—"
Just then, another tremor occurred. Cifuentes and his friend bolted straight for the heavy door—but it did not bulge. The earthquake had sealed it shut.
A few seconds later, the earthquake ended. However, temperatures in the room began to rise. Scared, Cifuentes went over to massive crack he saw earlier. However, the last thing he saw was what lay on the bottom.
A red, rising, and viciously glowing substance.
It was rising directly towards him.
As it inched closer, he could see hot streaks of yellow on its surface, and hot, smelly, rising bubbles. That's when he realized what it was—and the sinister realization that it was too late.
Lava.
submitted by DanielJosephDannyBoy to shortstories [link] [comments]
"There are two beasts beneath the earth, at war with each other. Eventually, at the culmination of the war, their movement will reach this town. The turmoil of the two beasts will sink much of the island, except this very town, to the bottom of the sea. However, only the knowledge and wisdom of man will determine whether this town will suffer the same fate."
Indeed, about four hundred years later, the island was sunk beneath the waves. The shallowest parts of the island were, as prophesied, part of the small town, only two meters beneath sea level. The island and its town were mostly forgotten until a team of archeologists, in the 1970s, discovered the anthropogenic-marked sandbar. Most of the remaining material beneath the shallow waters was of little historical value, so society didn't mind when a hotel company bought the land and decided to build a modern hotel resort on top of the sandbank on the turn of the millennium.
Isle Tarshish opened to the public on 7 April, 2005. It was an exclusive but hugely successful attraction, with 50 rooms, an infinity pool, a spa and sauna room, two restaurants, an art gallery, and even a TV station, all surrounding a central waterway going from the west side to the north side. Various walkways and bridges allowed the guests to go from one place to the other. There was even a conference room on a smaller island north of the main hotel island and a more exquisite suite on the west, and beautiful sculptures on the east. But despite its glory, it was not destined to be forever.
On the 13th of May, 2022, geologist Anna Hernandez discovered a previously unknown magma plume directly between Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Formed by the subduction of the African Plate's oceanic crust beneath the Eurasian Plate, it was made of melted, ferrous rock. And it was rising. A danger to Isle Tarshish seemed unlikely—at first. However, a week later, an earthquake of Richter magnitude 2 occurred. Its epicenter was to the west of the previously-detected plume's geometric center—it seemed to have moved towards Isle Tarshish. Three days after that, a slightly stronger earthquake occurred. And it was even closer.
Hernandez realized that Isle Tarshish may become the epicenter of this newborn battle between the forces of the Earth. She believed early warnings were key to survival and the salvation of lives. On the 25th of May, she visited the island with a mission: to meet with Isle Tarshish's General Manager and tell them of the possible geological threat. It was a two-hour boat ride, which made her feel seasick.
"Could you please make this boat rock a little faster?"
"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. The waves are like this, and we just have to embrace them."
When she arrived at the resort, she was in shock. It was a sunny day. People were playing around, walking with their families around the buildings, swimming in the sea, or bathing in the heat after some time in a presumably colder country. The infinity pool was on the other side of the direction of arrival. The shock and allure of such a place cured Hernandez's seasickness, but she was concerned about the future of the island. Concerned that one day, as they had fun in the sun, a disaster, one as vicious as a fire-breathing dragon, could come up from beneath and destroy them.
After going on the resort's main pier, she went to the reception. She was guided to the hotel's management office. The general manager was an uptight, estute man named Santiago Galante.
"Hola!"
"Hello. I'm Anna Hernandez."
"So what brings you here today?"
"Well, you see, I'm a geologist..."
Hernandez twitched anxiously as she thought desperately of what she had to say, and how to word it effectively.
"So you're a geologist?"
"Yes, and I have just discovered a possible threat to this island. I have discovered a new magma plume, just fifty kilometers beneath the surface directly between Valencia and Ibiza. It seems to be rising at a rate of two kilometers per day."
"Yeah, and what does that mean?"
"Assuming this rate stays constant, the magma will hit the ocean's surface just before the end of June... causing a volcanic eruption. Which is interesting because the whole region of Spain has never seen a volcanic eruption in years, except the Canary Islands. But again, that's concerning, for obvious reasons."
Again, the room was as silent as a snake, for a second.
"Where will the eruption occur?"
"We don't know... but there have been earthquakes increasing steadily in magnitude... and the epicenters have moved between close to Ibiza... right to where we are."
"Oh."
After a few seconds of silence, Galante spoke his mouth. His secretary, Gaspar de Arroyo, started to chime in.
"You know, yesterday, we had a pastor at the United Pentecostal Church of Spain just leave, but he left us with a blessing."
"Yeah, and what did he say?"
"He said Isle Tarshish will flourish for years to come and even until the Second Coming of Christ."
"Did he?"
"Yeah. He said people would scoff at his claim, but he said that, in the end, even when cities like London and Los Angeles fall, Isle Tarshish will stand ground."
"Scientifically speaking, that's nonsense."
"Remember, this used to be part of an island that was mostly above water, but which has mostly sunk. I am literally providing evidence right before your very eyes that this resort might be right in the firing line of a forming volcano."
"Who are you to question the servant of the Lord?"
"I'm a scientist. I make claims based on things we can observe with our five senses. I have more credibility over some charlatan who's probably out for people's money."
At that moment, de Arroyo spoke.
"You know, my son has seizures, but when we visited that pastor in the past, his seizures disappeared like magic!"
"You know childhood seizures can stop manually?"
"Yeah, basing that from the little you know, miss. Now please quit bothering me and my boss with all this volcano talk."
"I agree with him," Galante said. "I'm sorry to say this, but you've offended us with questioning the pastor who blessed us. We place our trust in him, and not in some scientist who probably doesn't go by faith. So please, enjoy yourselves here, and don't shove your nonsense down other people's throats."
Hernandez left the resort, dismayed. She felt saddened seeing the souls having fun on the resort as she left on the boat. She also felt sickened thinking of them and the possibility of them having heard that megapastor. First he scammed them from their money—and now, worst case scenario, he might take all of their lives.
On the first day of June, the people at Isle Tarshish woke up to a tremor that shook their cups and rocked their pools. An earthquake of magnitude 3.5 on the Richter scale. Hernandez woke up to it too, thanks to an alert. And, as expected, the earthquake's epicenter was even closer to the island.
While searching for TV channels, Hernandez stumbled across it. The pentecostal megapastor about whom Galante had spoke. And, during the few seconds in which he spoke, he mentioned the recent earthquakes off Valencia. He said they would stop. They didn't.
The more the earthquakes occurred, the more Hernandez felt sick listening to him. He looked like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
By 10 June, the earthquakes were nearly of Richter magnitude 5. Hernandez knew the probability of her worst fears coming true—a volcanic eruption directly at Isle Tarshish—were increasing rapidly as the earthquake depths decreased while their magnitudes increased. Magma was rapidly approaching the surface.
And Isle Tarshish was not safe.
Yet, she heard Galante and de Arroyo telling the guests at their doomed paradise that everything would go fine, all based on the crap talk from some charlatan the month before. Enraged, she sent them an angry voice mail, but they wouldn't listen. Isle Tarshish was not evacuated. However, it was not long before the guests began to rebel. A few days later, there were leaks in their pipes. One of the spa pools had turned yellow with unfamiliar minerals. And cracks had formed on the ground. The conference room had no power. Many of them wanted to leave—but Galante and de Arroyo decided they had enough. Proclaiming the Isle as their "promised land" sheltered from outside demonic activity, they ordered the guests to stay there and those in charge of the boats to not take them back to the mainland.
And then it happened. 22 June, 2022.
All the guests stranded on the island were jolted awake by a 5 magnitude earthquake, at around 7 AM. From her office in Valencia City, Hernandez saw that the earthquake's epicenter was right below the Isle, at a depth of only 50 meters. The endgame had come.
By now, the whole resort was out of power. The guests began to panic. At 8:30, Galante ordered Erasmo Cifuentes, the Isle's chief electrician, to investigate. He, along with another fellow electrician, entered the power management room. Closing the thick door behind him, Cifuentes was aghast when he saw a massive crack on the room's rocky, haggard floor. It was a very large crack, about 10 centimeters wide at most.
"What do you think lies at the bottom?" his friend asked.
"I have no—"
Just then, another tremor occurred. Cifuentes and his friend bolted straight for the heavy door—but it did not bulge. The earthquake had sealed it shut.
A few seconds later, the earthquake ended. However, temperatures in the room began to rise. Scared, Cifuentes went over to massive crack he saw earlier. However, the last thing he saw was what lay on the bottom.
A red, rising, and viciously glowing substance.
It was rising directly towards him.
As it inched closer, he could see hot streaks of yellow on its surface, and hot, smelly, rising bubbles. That's when he realized what it was—and the sinister realization that it was too late.
Lava.
2024.05.12 09:42 APeacefulWarrior Infinite Space (NDS) lives up to its reputation as a lost classic... mostly.
TL;DR: Infinite Space isn't for everyone. But if you have patience for a game with a steep learning curve, a lot of micromanagement, and probably too much wandering around & grinding, it offers a genuinely unique and involving 'silver age' space opera experience with you in the captain's chair.
So what happens when two relatively young developers decide to collaborate on an absurdly over-ambitious epic space opera JRPG, on hardware never intended for such a 'heavy' game, despite having never actually made an RPG before? Well, when one of them is Platinum, and they have substantial financial backing from Sega, it works out better than it probably should have.
Story and Tone
Infinite Space puts you in the shoes of Yuri, a farm kid on a backwater planet who dreams of sailing the Sea of Stars. With the help of a hired mercenary named Nia, he manages to get his own ship and sets off on an epic journey which seems him get involved in galaxy-spanning wars while fighting for the survival of the human race. Pretty standard stuff for a space opera, but these sorts of games are rare. In terms of tone, it feels like a mashup of Legend Of Galactic Heroes with the Lejiiverse, along with some Star Wars and Arthur C. Clarke influences.
You also have a wide and varied cast of potential crew members, as well as dozens and dozens of NPCs spanning a half-dozen different planetary alliances. Their portraits are all distinct, and they are given distinctive personalities that fit well with the space opera vibe, from stoic soldiers to flamboyant aristocratic privateers. My big complaint here is that there are only maybe a dozen "main" characters who get substantial development during the story. Too many potentially interesting side characters only get a couple extra scenes, when you're hanging out with your crew while planetside, and otherwise go ignored.
And to be clear, this is NOT an open-universe space life sim type of game. It's mostly linear and narrative-driven, with a ton of Visual Novel-style cutscenes. You're almost always limited in which sectors you can explore, and while there are side quests, they're typically pretty basic - such as hauling cargo from A to B or clearing out a local pirate's nest. There are numerous points where plot progression halts, until you find the right NPC to talk to, which can definitely get annoying.
OTOH, if you've ever wanted to fly alongside Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, this is about as close as you can get.
Gameplay
Where IS gets interesting is how it feels like the developers were reinventing the wheel at every turn, probably due to their lack of experience with RPGs. Ship combat isn't quite like any other game I've ever played.
The play field is reduced to a single line - your distance to the enemy fleet. However, tactical positioning is vital because weapon ranges are a key aspect of combat. Over the course of the game, you'll be able to build a fleet of up to five ships, and you get six basic options for combat:
All actions are gated by a universal regenerating power meter, with various actions requiring different amounts of power. The speed with which you regain power depends on a number of elements, including your officers, your upgrades, and your crew's fatigue levels.
Enemy fleets are governed by the exact same rules as you, which makes battles reasonably fair. However, you don't get any insight into the state of the enemy's ships, so you have to use observation and guesswork to predict their next moves. For example, has the enemy not fired in awhile? They're probably in "dodge" mode, so you should wait to use your powerful attacks until after they attack first, to increase your chances of hitting them. Some bosses even border on being puzzle bosses, demanding you make smart use of the game's systems.
This can make for surprisingly tense battles - although probably too tense, early on. One of the game's biggest problems is that neither the manual or tutorials actually give much strategic insight. This makes for a very steep learning curve, and your first 10 hours - at least - will be very sweaty, with frequent deaths as you try to figure things out. In general, the game doesn't explain many of its systems, and expects you to spend a lot of time experimenting. Nobody holds your hand in space!
The difficulty curve does flatten out after awhile, at least if you're diligent about keeping your ships intact and upgraded. It's possible to eventually build a stupidly powerful fleet which can absolutely humiliate most enemies, if you do your job right.
And doing your job right means proper preparation and fleet management, which are at least as important as your own combat prowess. Over the course of the game, you'll accumulate dozens of officers to assign to various roles, and even more modules which can be bolted onto your ships. Ship upgrades are handled like inventory management. Every ship has a certain number of upgrade spots, arranged in a grid, and upgrade modules have tetris shapes. You're free to put whatever upgrade you want onto a ship, assuming you can find space to cram it in there. There are a lot of different possibilities to explore, in terms of creating your own combat strategies.
Oh, and melee combat sucks. It's an annoying rock-paper-scissors minigame, which seems to be universally disliked among fans. It's almost guaranteed you'll ONLY do melee when the game forces you to. But don't forget to assign decent officers to your security team and install some mods to boost melee damage, or else you'll get creamed when it is required.
Presentation
Infinite Space was probably one of the most expensive NDS games made, and it shows. The production value is extremely good, at least for a console that's basically a portable 5th gen system. The graphics are about as good as you could hope for, with very distinct ship types. The developers also got creative in trying to depict their space mayhem within its graphical limitations, making for a charming low-fi aesthetic which occasionally feels like it's pushing the little DS to the limit.
They hired famous animation studio IG to do the opening anime cinematic, as well as drawing the character portraits and 'cinematic' still shots. They even got the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra to record the soundtrack, which honestly feels like overkill given how all the music samples get crushed to hell to fit on a DS cart. At least the music is good.
The game's interface is... iffy. It's not terrible, but there are some weird choices, and some actions are somewhat nonintuitive. Crew management, in particular, feels like more of a chore than it should be. Likewise, navigating the sector map involves a strange zoom-in/zoom-out 3D presentation, when they probably should have just gone with a more traditional top-down map. Again, it's like they were trying to reinvent the wheel at every turn.
Conclusion
In short, Infinite Space mostly lives up to its reputation as a cult classic forever trapped on depreciated hardware. (Aside from emulation.) It requires a high level of patience to learn its systems, and put up with its quirks. I'd actually compare it a bit to the MegaTen franchise, in terms of giving the player significant freedom to craft their own strategies, while also throwing a lot of difficult challenges at you with no mercy for people with poor builds.
But if you persevere, Infinite Space is a rewarding game, and not quite like anything else out there.
submitted by APeacefulWarrior to patientgamers [link] [comments]
Story and Tone
Infinite Space puts you in the shoes of Yuri, a farm kid on a backwater planet who dreams of sailing the Sea of Stars. With the help of a hired mercenary named Nia, he manages to get his own ship and sets off on an epic journey which seems him get involved in galaxy-spanning wars while fighting for the survival of the human race. Pretty standard stuff for a space opera, but these sorts of games are rare. In terms of tone, it feels like a mashup of Legend Of Galactic Heroes with the Lejiiverse, along with some Star Wars and Arthur C. Clarke influences.
You also have a wide and varied cast of potential crew members, as well as dozens and dozens of NPCs spanning a half-dozen different planetary alliances. Their portraits are all distinct, and they are given distinctive personalities that fit well with the space opera vibe, from stoic soldiers to flamboyant aristocratic privateers. My big complaint here is that there are only maybe a dozen "main" characters who get substantial development during the story. Too many potentially interesting side characters only get a couple extra scenes, when you're hanging out with your crew while planetside, and otherwise go ignored.
And to be clear, this is NOT an open-universe space life sim type of game. It's mostly linear and narrative-driven, with a ton of Visual Novel-style cutscenes. You're almost always limited in which sectors you can explore, and while there are side quests, they're typically pretty basic - such as hauling cargo from A to B or clearing out a local pirate's nest. There are numerous points where plot progression halts, until you find the right NPC to talk to, which can definitely get annoying.
OTOH, if you've ever wanted to fly alongside Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, this is about as close as you can get.
Gameplay
Where IS gets interesting is how it feels like the developers were reinventing the wheel at every turn, probably due to their lack of experience with RPGs. Ship combat isn't quite like any other game I've ever played.
The play field is reduced to a single line - your distance to the enemy fleet. However, tactical positioning is vital because weapon ranges are a key aspect of combat. Over the course of the game, you'll be able to build a fleet of up to five ships, and you get six basic options for combat:
- Normal: Fires off all the in-range guns on your fleet once.
- Barrage: All guns fire three times in sequence for a massive hit.
- Dodge: You'll avoid all enemy barrages and special attacks, but normal attacks do more damage.
- Fighters: Launch waves of fighters, once you have them, which halt the enemy with ongoing damage.
- AA: Use Anti-Aircraft guns, if you have them, to clear out enemy fighters.
- Melee: Board the enemy ship from close-range and fight them to take over the ship.
All actions are gated by a universal regenerating power meter, with various actions requiring different amounts of power. The speed with which you regain power depends on a number of elements, including your officers, your upgrades, and your crew's fatigue levels.
Enemy fleets are governed by the exact same rules as you, which makes battles reasonably fair. However, you don't get any insight into the state of the enemy's ships, so you have to use observation and guesswork to predict their next moves. For example, has the enemy not fired in awhile? They're probably in "dodge" mode, so you should wait to use your powerful attacks until after they attack first, to increase your chances of hitting them. Some bosses even border on being puzzle bosses, demanding you make smart use of the game's systems.
This can make for surprisingly tense battles - although probably too tense, early on. One of the game's biggest problems is that neither the manual or tutorials actually give much strategic insight. This makes for a very steep learning curve, and your first 10 hours - at least - will be very sweaty, with frequent deaths as you try to figure things out. In general, the game doesn't explain many of its systems, and expects you to spend a lot of time experimenting. Nobody holds your hand in space!
The difficulty curve does flatten out after awhile, at least if you're diligent about keeping your ships intact and upgraded. It's possible to eventually build a stupidly powerful fleet which can absolutely humiliate most enemies, if you do your job right.
And doing your job right means proper preparation and fleet management, which are at least as important as your own combat prowess. Over the course of the game, you'll accumulate dozens of officers to assign to various roles, and even more modules which can be bolted onto your ships. Ship upgrades are handled like inventory management. Every ship has a certain number of upgrade spots, arranged in a grid, and upgrade modules have tetris shapes. You're free to put whatever upgrade you want onto a ship, assuming you can find space to cram it in there. There are a lot of different possibilities to explore, in terms of creating your own combat strategies.
Oh, and melee combat sucks. It's an annoying rock-paper-scissors minigame, which seems to be universally disliked among fans. It's almost guaranteed you'll ONLY do melee when the game forces you to. But don't forget to assign decent officers to your security team and install some mods to boost melee damage, or else you'll get creamed when it is required.
Presentation
Infinite Space was probably one of the most expensive NDS games made, and it shows. The production value is extremely good, at least for a console that's basically a portable 5th gen system. The graphics are about as good as you could hope for, with very distinct ship types. The developers also got creative in trying to depict their space mayhem within its graphical limitations, making for a charming low-fi aesthetic which occasionally feels like it's pushing the little DS to the limit.
They hired famous animation studio IG to do the opening anime cinematic, as well as drawing the character portraits and 'cinematic' still shots. They even got the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra to record the soundtrack, which honestly feels like overkill given how all the music samples get crushed to hell to fit on a DS cart. At least the music is good.
The game's interface is... iffy. It's not terrible, but there are some weird choices, and some actions are somewhat nonintuitive. Crew management, in particular, feels like more of a chore than it should be. Likewise, navigating the sector map involves a strange zoom-in/zoom-out 3D presentation, when they probably should have just gone with a more traditional top-down map. Again, it's like they were trying to reinvent the wheel at every turn.
Conclusion
In short, Infinite Space mostly lives up to its reputation as a cult classic forever trapped on depreciated hardware. (Aside from emulation.) It requires a high level of patience to learn its systems, and put up with its quirks. I'd actually compare it a bit to the MegaTen franchise, in terms of giving the player significant freedom to craft their own strategies, while also throwing a lot of difficult challenges at you with no mercy for people with poor builds.
But if you persevere, Infinite Space is a rewarding game, and not quite like anything else out there.
2024.05.12 05:17 VillaAdventureTime YouTube “villaadventuretime”
 | Poker, billiards, geocaching and more! submitted by VillaAdventureTime to Promote_Your_Channel [link] [comments] |
2024.05.12 03:52 VillaAdventureTime YouTube “villaadventuretime”
 | Poker, billiards, geocaching and more! submitted by VillaAdventureTime to Promote_Your_Channel [link] [comments] |
2024.05.12 03:25 VillaAdventureTime YouTube “villaadventuretime”
Poker, billiards, geocaching and more.
submitted by VillaAdventureTime to design_critiques [link] [comments]
2024.05.12 03:24 VillaAdventureTime YouTube “villaadventuretime”
Poker, billiards, geocaching and more
submitted by VillaAdventureTime to design_critiques [link] [comments]
2024.05.11 20:16 PLUTO_HAS_COME_BACK Vibhajjavāda and Sarvāstivāda: Analysing the Heart Sutra from Theravadin Perspective: 2.8. —Part 5
2.8. Saṅkhāra:
Saṅkhāra (Theravada glossary):
Formation, compound, fashioning, fabrication - the forces and factors that fashion things (physical or mental), the process of fashioning, and the fashioned things that result. Sankhara can refer to anything formed or fashioned by conditions, or, more specifically, (as one of the five khandhas) thought formations within the mind.
- Saṅkhāra: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and mental activities
- Saṅkhāra is construct. Construct is activity.
- Sight is a construct. Sight occurs as an activity composed of looking, seeing, light/image incoming, brain and mind functioning, etc.
- Sound is a construct. Sound occurs as an activity composed of listening, hearing, sound waves incoming, brain and mind functioning, etc.
- Smell...
- Taste...
- Touch...
- Thought is a construct. Thought occurs as an acivity composed of recalling memory, composing ideas, brain and mind functioning, etc.
Paramattha & Saṅkhāra
Existence is made of paramattha (reality, real things) and saṅkhāra (activity).Four Paramatthas are Citta, cetasika, rūpa, Nibbāna.
Saṅkhāra is either natural or intentional.
The Four Noble Truths
The Catusacca (the Four Truths or Facts) are Ariya-Sacca (the Noble Truth, the Ultimate Truth). These four truths are the true nature (sbhāva) of paramattha and saṅkhāra.The Catusacca Daḷhī Kamma Kathā composed by the Elder Revata (2491 Sāsanā Era) is a must-read:
The Buddha had to acquire the ten perfection (pāramis) over four asankheyyas and a hundred thousand kappas; a paccekabuddha, over two asankheyyas and a hundred thousand kappas; a Chief Disciple or Mahāsāvaka, over one asankheyyas and a hundred thousand kappas. To what end? To attain to the Four Noble Truths. Why? Because it is only knowledge of the Four Noble Truths that leads to the realization of Nibbana, which makes one secure against the hazards of repeated (birth), ageing, disease and death and the natural tendency of all worldlings to fall into the four miserable states (apāya). One should therefore follow the example of those Noble Ones who have entered Nibbana and strive for the knowledge of the Truth.Two truths:
- The paramattha-sacca (the ultimate truth, or reality that really exists in nature);
- The samuti-sacca (the conventional truth, or the conventions and beliefs that really exist among us);
TATHĀGATĀ
the Buddha uses to address himself. He is “thus come” (tathā āgata) in the sense that he is neither an emissary of any divine being (God, etc) nor prophets, but arises as the most highly evolved being amongst us as the natural process of spiritual evolution and awakening. He is “thus gone” (tathā gata) in the sense that, just like the truth he proclaims, he dies, thus authenticating the reality that he and we commonly are. (Sacca) Tathāgatā Sutta (Piya Tan)
Nāma and Rūpa
There are five aggregates of clinging.- Nāma is the collective term for saṅkhata dhamma: citta (viññāṇa) and cetāsika (vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra). Thus, nāma is the four mental componets (vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra and viññāṇa). Citta is also known as mano and viññāṇa. Citta (mind) and cetasika (mental factors) rise and fall together.
- Rūpa is the four mahābhūta (solid, liquid, gas and heat) and space. Space is the gaps between the particles (mahābhūta). Thus, rūpa is the corporeal body. Rūpa is often translated as form; i.e. the biological body.
- A being is a nāma-rūpa complex or a metaphysical being.
Saṅkhāra as the three built environments:
- Satta-loka is lifeforms and their systems/activities—Avijja-paccaya sankhara (delusion conditions/supports constructs/activities).
- Okāsa-loka is large objects like plants, rivers, mountains, seas, oceans, rocks, galaxies, stars, planets, moons, etc. and their systems/activities. Okāsa-loka houses lifeforms.
- Saṅkhāra-loka is the particals (mahābhūta) and their systems/activities. Saṅkhāra-loka is of particle physics and chemistry existing inside and outside the biological beings (Satta-loka).
- The Satta-loka is made of the five aggregates. Okāsa-loka and Saṅkhāra-loka are made of matters (rūpa or mahābhūta).
- Everything in the three worlds (Satta-loka, Okāsa-loka, Saṅkhāra-loka) is saṅkhāra or a form of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or thought.
- See Sabba Sutta (The All are these six senses only, no more.)
- Nibbāna is thus the other shore, relief from the burden of the natural activities (birth, aging, death) and intention (kamma saṅkhāra). Nibbāna is thus relief from the nāma-rūpa complex (the natural and intentional activities).
2.8.1. Three types of saṅkhāra:
- Mano-saṅkhāra (mental construct/formation/activity)
- Vaci-saṅkhāra (verbal...): words, comversation, cry, etc.;
- Kāya-saṅkhāra (bodily...): physical action and reaction (all physical activities, which are not vaci);
- These saṅkhāra can be natural or intentional.
- Kamma saṅkhāra (intentional activities) are led by the mind (viññāṇa and mano-saṅkhāra).
Kamma Saṅkhāra (Intentional Activity)
- Intention is kamma (mano-kamma).
- A mental activity with intention is mano-kamma.
- A verbal activity with intention is vaci-kamma.
- A bodily activity with intention is kaya-kamma.
- Intention forms in the mind, so it is a mano-saṅkhāra (mental construct).
- Intention is based on wholesome and unwholesome cetasika (mental factors)
In Samyutta Nikaya Sutta 12.25 the Buddha said “With ignorance as condition, either by oneself, Ananda, one wills bodily intentions (kāya Saṅkhāra), following which arises internally pleasure and pain; or, because of others one wills bodily intentions, following which arises internally, pleasure and pain.” [CONDITIONED ARISING OF SUFFERING (Ven. Dhammavuddho Mahāthera)]
- 'Bodily intention' (kaya-saṅkhāra): intention to act bodily;
- Kāya: body, bodily;
- Intention: mano-saṅkhāra
- Mental pain and pleasure; as intention is inside the mind, pleasure and pain are internal (inside the mind).
- Kamma is volition, intentional action, which can be subtle or gross.
- The Buddha said, "Kamma is intention."
Saṅkhāra Examples:
Avijjā-paccaya saṅkhāra (ignorance conditions/supports construct/activity):- Beauty is saṅkhāra (natural and with intent). Beauty exists because it is supported by other saṅkhāra-s, including but not limited to fashion, makecup, good health, young age, exercise, nutrition, perception, culture, cleanliness, and genetic conditions. Being propped up by various suitable supports, beauty exists. When suitable things come together, they create beauty. When these supports are affected, beauty is affected.
2.8.2. Cetasikas (Mental Factors):
Cetasika is a paramattha. It exists as it is.A being is made of rūpa (solid, liquid, gas and heat), citta (viññāṇa) and cetāsika (vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra). However, one does not need akusala-cetasika (avijjā). By removing akusala-cetasika (avijjā), one attains kusala-cetasika (vijjā) and the binding (saṅkhāra) is unbinded.
- saṅkhārakkhandha (m.) the aggregate of mental coefficients
Sankharakkhandha (the fifty cetasikas which are not vedana or sanna) is real; it can be experienced. When there are beautiful mental factors (sobhana cetasikas) such as generosity and compassion, or when there are unwholesome mental factors such as anger and stinginess, we can experience sankharakkhandha. All these phenomena arise and fall away: sankharakkhandha is impermanent. [Nina Van Gorkom. Chapter 2 - The five khandas]
- Cetasika are vedanā, saññā and saṅkhāra (feeling, memory/perception, and construct/activity)
- 14 kusala cetasika (wholesome) and 14 akusala cetasikas (unwholesome mental factors) associate with saṅkhāra and Kamma Saṅkhāra.
- Viññāṇa (consciousness) is citta, one of the four paramatthas. Citta and cetasika occur together and stated as Aññamañña paccayo (explained below);
Aññamañña Paccayo (PAṬṬHĀNA)
Aññamañña paccayo: Paccaya RECIPROCATES WITH paccayuppannapaccayuppanna : (adj.) arisen from a cause.
paccaya : (m.) cause; votive; requisite; means; support.
- Citta and cetasika (saṅkhāra and vedana/ayatana) arise together or mutually supportive. Details can be read in Pa-Auk Sayadaw's Sampayutta Dhammayatana.
- Ayatana: sense
- Vedanā: feeling
- saṅkhāra: construct
- Avijjā-paccaya saṅkhāra
- No matter how one is well-behaved, these Anusaya Kilesās will not die out. Either kusala or akusala cetasika (wholesome or unwholesome mental factors) will arise when consciousness (citta) comes in contact with a convenience. Our problems are the unwholesome mental factors.
[Ledi Sayadaw] Lokuttara, or supramundane consciousness, is the noble mind (ariya-citta) which has become free from the threefold desire, and has transcended the three planes, kāma, rūpa, and arūpa. It is of two kinds, thus: noble consciousness in the path (of stream-entry, etc.) and noble consciousness in the fruition (of stream-entry, etc.). [Ledi Sayādaw Mahāthera. The Manual of Insight Vipassanā Dīpanī; The Wheel Publication No: 031/032]
- By means of practicing vipassanā, one can separate citta from akusala cetasika. When akusala cetasika are eradicated from the mind, ariya-citta arises.
- Anupàdisesa-Nibbànadhàtu is the final cessation of the five aggregates of clinging (Upādānakkhandha).
- Nibbànadhàtu: Santisukha (the ultimate-peace element); Nibbàna is an element (paramattha).
Akusala Cetasikas (unwholesome mental factors)
Abhidhamma (Ashin Janakabhivamsa)- Factor 1 - Moha (delusion)
- Factor 2 - Ahirika (moral shamelessness)
- Factor 3 - Anottappa (moral fearlessness)
- Factor 4 - Uddhacca (distraction, restlessness, wavering)
- Factor 5 - Lobha (greed)
- Factor 6 - Ditthi (wrong view)
- Factor 7 - Mana (conceit)
- Factor 8 - Dosa (hatred)
Factor 10 - Macchariya (jealousy, selfishness)
Factor 11 - Kukkucca (remorse)
Among the akusala cetasikas are the ten kilesā (akusala cetasika) shown with bullet points.
Hetu paccayo
Lobha, dosa, and moha are called akusala hetus and alobha, adosa, and amoha are called kusala hetus. These latter 3 hetus if they arise with abyakata dhamma they are called abyakata hetus. Lobha is also known as tanha, upadana, samudaya and so on. Moha is sometimes called avijja. Alobha is sometimes refered to dana or offering but it is non attachment. Adosa is metta or loving kindness. Amoha is pannindriya cetasika and simply called panna and is sometimes called vijja. Htoo Naing. Patthana Dhamma: Chapter 5 - Hetu paccayo (or root condition). Htoo Naing. Patthana Dhamma (a different book): Hetu paccayo (page 15)Kilesā occur in three levels:
1/ anusaya-kilesa: low level, latent, like sediments waiting to be stirred up. 2/ pariyuttana-kilesa: medium level arising only in the mind due to causes and conditions. 3/ vitikkakama-kilesa: coarse level, manifesting in unwolesome speech or action, breaking precepts. [Defilements (kilesā) (Thanh Huynh - Honolulu Dhamma Community)]
Anusaya Kilesas (latent tendency):
If you don’t remove or destroy [latent tendency or defilements (anusaya kilesā)] with Path Knowledge, the khandhas and samudaya (i.e., taṇhā) are always sticking together. [Buddhavada (Mogok Sayadaw); also see 4.2. ANUSAYA]
- Cetasikas are embeded in the formation of a being, including the arupa-brahmas.
- When something convenient (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought) is present to consciousness (Viññāṇa), anusaya kilesā (the latent tendency) grows like seeds.
- At the contact with the convenience, Viññāṇa and the cetasika co-arise simultaneously according to Aññamañña paccayo (Mutuality or Reciprocity Condition)
- To think, one must be conscious; and to continue thinking, one must be conscious.
- To see a sight, one must be conscious...
- To smell a smell...
- Anusaya kilesās are not based on discrimination and erroneous reasoning (Lanka)
- Anusaya kilesās are not in the Ālaya-vijñāna (the Universal Mind, storehouse consciousness), nor are related to the buddha-nature (Buddha-dhàtu, Buddha-svabhāva). The Mahayanist Ālaya-vijñāna and Buddha-svabhāva are neither citta nor cetasika known to the Vibhajjavadis.
2.8.3. The Role of Saññā
Saññā is a type of cetasika. Other cetasika are vedanā and saṅkhāra. Cetasika is a reality (paramattha).Saññā is memory (events) and perception (a form of mano-saṅkhārā). However, saññā and saṅkhārā must be different. Saññā must not be saṅkhārā (construct). Saññā must be a raw material. Although saññā and saṅkhārā are similar, saññā must not be saṅkhārā or a product of saṅkhārā.
Saññā as the past events is memory. Events are not imagined. Events occur at the present are reality (not memory).
Saññā can exist as the future events or future memory, like a plan. If a plan is possible to be carried out, then some future events are predictable. In that sense, some future events are knowable.
A Buddha can analyse an individual's mentality and potentials. Based on that knowledge, a Buddha can know and prophesies some major events about an individual or the world. However, a Buddha cannot know the potentials of all the individuals with weak mind (Iddhipāda) and faculties (indriya) who travel randomly any direction into the dark.
This is what the Buddha said about those going into the dark:
The chance for a being in a hell to be reborn as a human is less than that of a blind turtle, surfacing once a century, to happen to put its head through a ring moved by the winds across the surface of the sea. Even if a human rebirth is attained, the person will be poor, ugly and ill, and will tend to do evil actions which will send him or her back to hell (M. iii.169; Bca. iv.20)PETER HARVEY. AN INTRODUCTION TO BUDDHIST ETHICS: Foundations, Values and Issues. Page 30 University of Sunderland
The Buddha advised the monks to go into the relief from the burden of nāma and rūpa:
“Monks, that’s how rare it is to get reborn as a human being. That’s how rare it is for a fully enlightened Buddha to be born into the world. That’s how rare it is for the Dhamma and training taught by a Buddha to shine in the world. Now, monks, you have been reborn as a human being. A fully enlightened Buddha has been born into the world. The Dhamma and training taught by a Buddha shine in the world.
Iddhipāda
iddhiyā pādo iddhipādo, i.e., root or basis of attaining completion or perfection (success or potency). [79] [The Venerable Ledi Sayādaw. The Requisites of Enlightenment (Bodhipakkhiya Dīpanī), Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy • Sri Lanka, The Wheel Publicaton No. 171/172/173/174.]
4. Iddhipāda Sutta.-The path mentioned above should be practised, accompanied by concentration and effort, compounded with desire, energy, idea and investigation. S.iv.365.
Indriya
Avijjā-paccaya saṅkhāra; Saṅkhāra-paccāya vinnānam;
- Faculty of faith (saddh’- indriya) [Nyanatiloka Mahāthera. Guide through the Abhidhamma Piþaka, Page 18]
- Avijjā and saññā condition the saṅkhārā. Avijjā is a type of kilesā cetasika (mental defilement). Avijjā exists in two forms: Delusion or the lack of right view; Heedlessness or the lack of mindfulness. Both forms of avijjā are always present in saññā (i.e. wrong view).
Saṅkhāra is construct and construction.
Mano-saṅkhāra can also be understood as percept.- percept. noun. : an impression of an object obtained by use of the senses : SENSE-DATUM (Merriam-Webster)
- Percept: a mental concept that is developed as a consequence of the process of perception [Google/Oxford Languages].
- [percept:] Perception usually combines several sensations into one thought or percept. The percept, of course, is a mental state corresponding with its outside object. A Percept is the product of Perception, or in other words, our idea gained through Perception
Saññā and Vipassanā
Saññā can be understood as sense-datum, outside object, perception, and memory.The sense-datum is an object immediately present in experience. It has the qualities it appears to have.Lifeforms (nama-rūpa complexes) and the law of life (Paticcasamuppada) have existed in the past infinity. Saññā as memory can be recalled or accessed by anyone. Some arahants can recall the past 500 lives. Some arahants recalled several eons of the past Earths. A Buddha can recall with no limit in a very short moment. The Sakyamuni Buddha said, even if He spent His entire lifetime, He would not reach the beginning (of existence), which is considered non-existent.
A controversial issue is whether sense-data have real, concrete existence. Depending upon the version of the sense-data theory adopted, sense-data may or may not be identical with aspects of external physical objects; they may or may not be entities that exist privately in the subject’s mind. Usually, however, sense-data are interpreted to be distinct from the external physical objects we perceive. The leading view, in so far as the notion is appealed to in current philosophy, is that an awareness of (or acquaintance with) sense-data somehow mediates the subject’s perception of mind-independent physical objects. The sense-datum is the bearer of the phenomenal qualities that the subject is immediately aware of. [Sense-Data (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]
Inthe Western thought, the natural memory can be improved by training [Javier Vergara / Procedia (Page 3513) - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 ( 2012 ) 3512 – 3518)]. In the Theravada teaching, a liberated mind (which attained arahantta phala) can recall at least the past 500 lives.
Saṅkhāra and saññā belong to cetasika, which is a paramattha (reality). However, they are impermanent. That begs a question: How can the impermanent saṅkhāra and saññā be accessed? They are impermanent in theory, as they will be forgotten. The physical destruction of the memory of the past events might not happen.
As though written down into books, the memories (including sense-data) seem not to have disappeared. The fact is each of us can recall the memory, which stays with us for a lifetime. We are forgetful and cannot recall our memories whever we want to; however, they are present, and our minds revisit them sometimes. Our inability to explain how memories exist should not prevent us from admitting the fact that memories exist and can be recalled. These noble ariyas can know others' minds and access the past memories and forsee the future events.
Avijja-paccaya sankhara (ignorance conditions/supports a construct; e.g. sakkāyadiṭṭhi).
- Avijjā (ignorance) is saññā (as memory, misperception or wrong view).
- Saṅkhāra (as activity) is misunderstanding/misperceiving nama-rūpa complex as an I-being, I am, he is, she is, it is, they are... Misperceiving the nama-rūpa complexes as individuals or as beings (I-beings).
- Saññā and saṅkhāra are always together as one's problems.
- Saṅkhāra-paccāya vinnānam: when saṅkhāra (e.g. idea) is present, consciousness arises. One begins to know the construct. Saññā-Saṅkhāra are the subject to know (be conscious about).
- Saṅkhāra-paccāya vinnānam: Saṅkhāra bridges between saññā and viññāṇa—perceiving is made of saññā, saṅkhāra and viññāṇa.
- Sabbe saṅkhāra anicca—all constructs are impermanence;
- Construction: Saṅkhāra as activity (intentional or unintentional):
- sankhara-paccaya vinnanam (Dependent on reaction (conditioning), consciousness arises);
- Mano-saṅkhāra (Citta-Saṅkhāra), vaci-saṅkhāra, kaya-saṅkhāra—mental, verbal and bodily construct/activity which a being performs intentionally or unintentionally;
- Cetana is also intention (volition).
- In vipassanā, one puts effort to block the reminder reaching the memory (saññā)—like a responsible person kills the fire before it reaches the gunpowder. Once a sense reminder (ayatana) reaches saññā, they give birth to kamma sankhāras. The sense reminder (ayatana) is too fast for the untrained minds to block. So one does not block it but avoid it. One must develop the mind to have this avoiding ability and skill through a gradual training which comprises the indriya-samvara-sila and vipassanā. Basically, it means to prevent mano-saṅkhāra (thought) because it leads vaci-saṅkhāra and kaya-saṅkhāra.
- As the kilesā are not fed or fertilised, they will become weak and suitable for jhāna development; however, they will remain as Anusaya Kilesās. Only the vipassanā-ñana can totally eradicate Anusaya Kilesās.
Indriya-samvara-sila and Vipassanā
"In seeing there is merely seeing. In hearing there is merely hearing. In sensing there is merely sensing. In cognizing there is merely cognizing. In this way you should train yourself. "Bāhiya, when there is only seeing in seeing, hearing in hearing, sensing in sensing, cognizing in cognizing, then you will not be 'with that.' When you are not 'with that,' you will not be 'in that.' When you are not 'in that,' you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering." [The Bāhiya Sutta (Douglas C. B. Kraft)]
Four Types of Capacity for Path Attainment
It is stated in the Puggalapaññatti (the “Book of Classification of Individuals,” (p. 160) and in the Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN 4:133) that, of the beings who encounter the Sāsana, i.e., the Teaching of the Buddha, four classes can be distinguished, viz.:(The Venerable Ledi Sayādaw. The Requisites of Enlightenment (Bodhipakkhiya Dīpanī))
A padaparama is an individual who [...] cannot obtain release from worldly ills during this lifetime. If he dies while practising samatha (tranquillity) or vipassanā (insight) and attains rebirth either as a human being or a deva in his next existence, he can attain release from worldly ills in that existence within the present Buddha Sāsana.
niyata : one who has obtained a sure prediction made by a Buddha.
aniyata : one who has not obtained a sure prediction made by a Buddha.
aniyata neyya individuals can attain release from worldly ills in this life only if they put forth sufficient effort [...] within the present Buddha Sāsana.
2.8.4. Our concern:
Our concerns are our own mental, verbal and bodily activities:Due to delusion (avijjā), we do not know where we have been and what we should do during this lifetime. The purpose of life in general is to practice selfishness to ultimate level.
One builds a life only to lose it to the death. Nobody can reclaim his/her previous life, properties, wealth and works. Rebirth in dugati-loka does not allow rebuilding life. One must get another opportunity in sugati-loka.
Due to clinging (upādāna) to self, one cannot separate from the new life, which is now. One always clings to the new life because of sakkāyadiṭṭhi (sakkāya-diṭṭhi). The past life is like yesterday.
- Sakkāyadiṭṭhi: clinging to nāma-rūpa as I am—i.e. this body is me, mine; the major wrong view (mano-saṅkhāra)
- Nāma: the four mental khandas (vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra and viññāṇa).
- Rūpa: the corporeal body or the four mahābhūta.
- Sakkāyadiṭṭhi is ego, egocentric and a very heavy burden to carry and climb uphill.
- Sakkāyadiṭṭhi extends beyond one's five aggregates.
- Sakkāyadiṭṭhi extends to others' five aggregates as well. So we can hear people say, this is mine, and that is also mine.
- Sakkāyadiṭṭhi only helps one to fall downhill.
- A chance of getting relief from this burden is rare.
- A chance to know true dana, sila, bhavanā is very rare.
- One day this body will be thrown away or buried somewhere; and that body, too.
- Truth is painful as long as one is clinging to the five aggregates.
- Thus, our true concerns are our own mental, verbal and bodily activities.
The Buddha warns us to reflect the following:
"The five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained..."[Upajjhatthana Sutta— AN 5.57 (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)]
'I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.'
'I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness.'
'I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death.'
'I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me.'
'I am the owner of my actions,[1] heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.'
Upādāna (clinging) manifests as mano-saṅkhāra (mental activity/construct):
We cling to live body and dead body. We have seen enough pain in society in good time and bad time.Upādānakkhandha：[m．] the factors of clinging to existence．
The five upādānakkhandha: rūpakkhandha, vedanākkhandha, saññākkhandha, saṅkhārakkhandha, viññāṇakkhandha
We take the body for self; thus we cling to rupakkhandha. We take mentality for self; thus we cling to vedanakkhandha, to sannakkhandha, to sankharakkhandha and to vinnanakkhandha. If we cling to the khandhas and if we do not see them as they are, we will have sorrow.Saṅkhārakkhandha (m.) the aggregate of mental coefficients
- Saṅkhāra among the five aggregates is mano-saṅkhāra. Saṅkhārakkhandha is also designated as upādānakkhandha as there is clinging.
- The upādānakkhandha rises from sakkāyadiṭṭhi (clinging to self and the five aggregates).
- Most beings cling to all these five. Some cling to either rūpa or nāma and are reborn in the arūpa-brahma worlds.
- Will is the intention to get a desired object. To will means to get something one desires. One wills, and as one is willing, one acts. In this process, will and dukkha (suffering) rise together spontaneously.
In Samyutta Nikaya Sutta 12.25 the Buddha said “With ignorance as condition, either by oneself, Ananda, one wills bodily intentions (kāya Saṅkhāra), following which arises internally pleasure and pain; or, because of others one wills bodily intentions, following which arises internally, pleasure and pain.” [CONDITIONED ARISING OF SUFFERING (Ven. Dhammavuddho Mahāthera)]
- 'Bodily intention' (kaya-saṅkhāra): intention to act bodily;
- Kāya: body, bodily;
- Intention: mano-saṅkhāra
- Mental pain and pleasure; as intention is inside the mind, pleasure and pain are internal (inside the mind).
Anusaya Kilesas: Bhava-Taṇhă to Bhava-Saṅkhāra
Three types of taṇhă: kama-taṇhă, bhava-taṇhă, vibhava-taṇhă.'Wherever in the world, there are delightful and pleasurable things, there this taṇhă (craving) arises and takes root.' [...] By 'taking root' is meant that, failing to contemplate on the impermanent nature of pleasurable things, craving for them lies dormant, taking root to arise when favourable circumstances permit. This latent craving, lying dormant in sense-objects which escape being contemplated on, is known as ărammananusaya. [U Ko Lay. Discose on the Wheel of Dhamma - Part 5: Maha Satipatthăna Sutta. SukhiHotu Dhamma Publication,1998)]
The Effect of Anusaya Kilesās: Kāmataṇhā and Kāma-loka:
After the destruction of a world of beings, either by a cosmic fire, flood or storm, only darkness remains in space, completely empty and void.After forever and an aeon, and after cosmic condensation and precipitation, at the same place another human world will be reborn as a body of liquid just like the previous ones. This water body, as big as a planet, will gradually become suitable to support life.
Some of the Brahmas, who have lived their lifespans, will be reborn as humans in that new human world. The first-ever generation of humans are sky-dwellers, with brahma-like body, brahma-like rays, brahma-like lifespan and brahma-like lifestyle. Their auras can shine like the moon and the sun.
Gradually, after passing forever and an aeon, the water mass will condense into physical nutrition. Seeing that beautiful physical food and breathing its nice smell for forever and an aeon, these beings will eventually lose control due to their anusaya kilesa stirring and rising in their minds.
One of them will taste it, eat it and persuade others to do the same—that is how eating is the first religion and politics.
All things must come to an end one day. This is the impermanent nature of everything, anicca. So also the world [...] During the destruction of the world, all living beings become Brahmas and dwell in Brahma which is not affected by [the destruction.] [Ashin Janakabhivamsa. Part 2 - How The World Came To An End.]
- ... It was endowed with colour, smell and taste. It was the colour of fine ghee or butter, and it was very sweet, like pure wild honey. [Aggañña Sutta (DN27 On Knowledge of Beginnings) (Pali Canon Online)]