A rejuvenated Brighton & Hove Albion side welcomes* Chelsea to the Amex Stadium, where the Seagulls seek to glide on from their respectable draw against Newcastle. Chelsea arrives giddy with Europa Conference aspirations, despite their season of shaky performances.
And here we are, little ol Brighton, in prime position to condemn them to yet another European-free season.
Injury News:
Brighton faces yet further injury concerns with both Veltman and Enciso coming off at St James Park with knocks.
This is the sorry sight down at the med bay currently.
Julio Enciso (knock) Joel Veltman (knock) Joao Pedro (ankle) Solly March (knee) Kaoru Mitoma (back) Jack Hinshelwood (foot) Pervis Estupinan (ankle) James Milner (thigh) Evan Ferguson (ankle) Jan Paul van Hecke (thigh)
Not ideal, but we’ve got just enough depth to start something such as the below;
Brighton Possible Lineup: Verbruggen; Lamptey, Dunk, Webster, Igor; Gilmour, Gross; Adingra, Buonanotte, Fati; Welbeck
Chelsea have a decent swathe returning from injury atm including James. But despite their recent form upgrade under Pochettino, Chelsea's quest for a Conference spot is met with skepticism and the Seagulls could seriously dent the possibility. Chelsea still have defensive vulnerabilities and have been generally inconsistent for most of the season. Despite their more recent success, pundits have doubts about their ability to secure crucial victories, especially away from home.
Chelsea Possible Lineup: Petrovic; Gusto, Disasi, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Gallagher; Sterling, Palmer, Mudryk; Jackson.
The game should be good. The fans will be up for it.
UTFA!

~First~
HHH/Herbert’s Hundred Harem
Things had started moving fast, but with a quiet, restrained panic. Spire Anmeru was under quarantine, the Plates of Galvori and Muliti were out of position and being moved away from the planet in question. The official excuse is that each of these places have been randomly selected for the equivalent of a fire drill and that things would end within twenty four hours unless something was discovered during the drill. Meaning this seemed like normal, non-panic inducing situation and they could make up any excuse they needed to keep the quarantines up as long as they needed. All nice and legal.
Forces were moving and mobilizing, Herbert’s agents are all being teemed up with numerous different groups and the wanderers around Centris are up arming and reporting into The Dauntless to be ready to move. The fact that there’s a Cognito Hazard grade threat on the planet, and has been on the planet for a long period of time.
“The worst of times for Sir Philip to be released to his mission.” Herbert mutters to himself as he vaguely wonders where his mentor is and what poor fool is in the man’s path. They’re either already converted to the maniac’s side, dead or compromised to such a point that they’re more an asset to him than whoever they’re employed by.
“Look, I understand that your partners for this are as subtle as a nuclear blast but you still to have put in at least a token effort to not stand out. If it helps, think of them as walking distractions.” Herbert says into his communicator as all the ‘observation teams’ that had been slammed together in this joint effort had vastly different methods and objectives. But that’s what you get when you slam Security Forces, Police and Intelligence Operatives into a single team. Someone there to look scary, someone there to de-escalate and someone trying not to stand out all standing together looks like a mess at best. To say nothing of the... how would he even qualify Lady Bazalash’s forces to assist on this? Knights Templar of Justice? Judicial Crusaders? Warrior Monks of Law and Order?
However they’re supposed to be qualified they make things awkward as hell. They’re going to Deus-Vult the civilians into a panic when they need things calm and that’s saying NOTHING about how they’re going to make actually stalking down the Darnaxian Concurrence harder than hell.
Still, you work with the shit you have and not the shit you want. He reminds himself of this as he sighs to see the flashes of reports scrolling over his communicator screen. All of them can be generally summarized as his agents being generally ignored as they beg for discretion and subtly and Herbert juggles the merits of having all Private Streams active in the case to enter The Silent state and just be ready to kick ass instead. It’s not like there’s any room or respect for subtlety by these people.
“A moment of your time please?” Jahlassi states and he looks up from his communicator.
“Yes?” He asks her and she gestures to the side. He follows and she indicates a high stool. “Ma’am things are moving quickly, if this conversation is going to require me to sit then I need to keep working during it.”
“It will not take long, however I’d rather make eye contact during this.” She says and he sighs before reaching under his coat and placing his finger on a piece of khutha. He didn’t need the khutha, but it was mildly distracting to use it.
She senses his Axiom use and turns to find herself at eye level with him. He has not aged, but he is larger. Temporarily.
She is taken aback for only a moment before rallying herself. “I want you to pull back your troops.”
“Why?” He inquires.
“Can you not figure it out?”
“If you are concerned for their combat capacity or investigative capacity I can assure you that every single instance of a Private Stream is an extremely capable force in battle and has a great deal of non-invasive assistance from a skilled researcher and technician at all times. When Private Stream looks at you two people see you, and one of them is in the process of pulling up all your publicly available information.” Herbert assures her.
“It’s not that. It’s their appearance.”
“Ma’am, if you or your forces are not able to maintain professionalism just because a fellow soldier resembles a child to your perspective then I, and in short order Lady Bazalash, will be very disappointed in you.” He says sternly. The fact that his voice maintains it’s high pitch is taking away from it. So he decides to give her some reassurance.
“Forty Percent of Private Stream Operatives are in fact full grown members of shorter races such as Gohbs, Kohbs, Metak and The Ikiya’Ta. Thirty Percent are part of the Deep Stream Initiative where the use of shrinking techniques allows fully grown and full sized members of larger races to take the appearance of Private Stream. We have fully grown Bull Cannidors in such outfits. Fifteen percent are remote control prosthetic bodies being piloted by experts well away from the danger and only the remaining fifteen percent of Private Stream Operatives are like myself, mature members of their species that have undergone rejuvenation to the point that they are physically children again. But regardless of what category a Private Stream operative is, you must understand that each one is heavily armed and armoured to an extent that when the sheer scope of the arsenal has been detailed to a Crimsonhewer Matriarch her opinion was that it was a loadout she wished her incautious children would carry. Which I consider a respectable seal of approval.”
“Hmm...” Jahlassi says before taking a breath.
“What is the real issue?”
“You’re thirty. My eighty year old son is still finding himself. You are going into places and killing enemy targets. One of the areas we have locked down has a dent in the wall from the bullet that shredded through you. You shouldn’t even be near a weapon, let alone handling them with enough skill to counter a longshot expert with an abjectly inferior weapon.”
“Abjectly inferior?” Herbert asks in amusement.
“In the terms of range, power and accuracy, yes your little pistol is abjectly inferior to a high quality custom rail launcher.”
“In those categories yes. But I’ve trained extensively with pistols and understand exactly how to put my shots in places and people who think they’re safe.” Herbert replies.
“But that is exactly my point. You are very skilled with a deadly weapon. I understand that by the standards of your species and culture you are not only an adult, but have been one for a third of your life at minimum. But I am twenty times that and consider myself barely grown.”
“The personal assistant of The Trytite Lady considers herself barely grown?” Herbert challenges.
“We’re all children smelling of the egg next to the Holy Primals.” She says.
“But does that make you any less skilled or capable?” Herbert pushes her a bit.
“It does not. It...” She pauses and turns to him before sighing. “Right, just... there are standards. Standards that the humans of The Undaunted are violating flagrantly.”
“Standards we are not physically capable of adhering to or legally required to fulfill.”
“I know, which is why I am uncomfortable with this and dealing with it in the most appropriate way I can rather than simply trying to get your parents to wrangle you home.” Jahlissa states and Herbert sighs.
“Look, we don’t have to do this for long so long as we do this properly. The fact of the matter is that we humans are developing at a proper pace. More in line with nature. While we may not have the massive amount of experience to draw from, we do have the same raw instinct that lets us handle things. We are far more than the children we resemble to you.”
“Yes, but the fact I’m seeing child soldiers everywhere does not make this easy.” She says and he nods.
“I understand. When I decided to take advantage of my situation the way I have I knew something like this would happen.” Herbert says before going at some files on his communicator. It then projects the image of an adorable looking little girl. “She’s older than your goddess and has played the role of the innocent daughter in more movies than I’ve had hot meals.”
“I know, I was a big fan of hers as a child. I was shocked to find out how old she is. Or to hear her talk on an interview, she is a dirty old woman in a nine year old body.”
“Yeah, the bit where she had a synth body with a basic logic tree made to serve as a fluffer that she can’t go to sleep without made me spit out my drink when I heard it.” Herbert says in an amused tone.
“She gets back to that point fifty years later. She has a collection of them.” Jahlassi says and Herbert snorts before laughing.
“That filthy old hag!” Herbert exclaims and they both share a further laugh.
“That helps. If I think of you more like Miss Rosen then it’s much easier on me.”
“Please don’t compare me to that dirty old woman.” Herbert pleads and she laughs again. “Alright, we seem to have found some common ground here. Can you please spread it to the rest of your... uh... religious army of justice? Or whatever the definition of Lady Bazalash’s Honour Guard is.”
“The Honour Guard of Lady Bazalash.” Jahlassi says simply.
“Fair enough.” Herbert says. “Anyways, can you please tell your girls to stop trying to undermine my agents, or at least pretend to take them seriously?”
“I just did.” She says and he pauses before openly considering. “Not everyone has their implants easily visible from the outside as you Undaunted seem to prefer.”
“Hey, repairing things or switching out for a better model is important.” Herbert protests.
“Good enough is often better than the bleeding edge. After all, good enough is reliable and predictable.”
“Like my pistol against an advanced rail gun.”
“... Well you certainly are paying attention when people talk to you.” Jahlassi notes.
“Ma’am, I’m in Intelligence. It’s my job to pay attention.” He says before nodding back to where the rest of the group is. “So are we clear with each other.”
“Yes, but expect to have this conversation again with the others.” Jahlassi says and he snorts.
“Then I’ll consider this conversation practice for the following conversations.” Herbert says and they walk back together. It takes all of three minutes before Miya Umberclaw places a gentle claw on his shoulder and asks for a few moments of his time.
•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•
After several other similar conversations of the sort and things get sorted out. They relocate to the moderately crowded hallway where the Blood Metal Panels are being extracted. The painted panels have had the ‘paint’ fade by this point and are now slightly raised instead and make a vague pattern of circles forming circles. These panels in particular are left undisturbed.
They’re doing something, but Modan, Ivan and every Nerd they have can’t figure out what it does without feeding more power into it to see. Something that NONE of the other Adepts want anyone to do. For good reason. Whatever the symbol is meant to do, it’s primed to go off and the strange twisted flow it gives to surrounding Axiom is disturbing to say the least.
“Still, it is fascinating how this disrupted flow conceals itself naturally. Stepping outside of this effect this area appears normal, but the moment you enter any delusion of it being standard is swept away.” Ivan notes.
“Disquieting I would say, this sole effect means that there could be further Blood Metal Caches anywhere on Centris and these Axiom Eddies or whatever the official name is are natural hiding places for all sorts of potential bad behaviour.”
“Axiom Eddy is an appropriate term, they’re also known as bubbles, backflows and other such things. There are ways to detect and disrupt them, but the process can and will damage delicate equipment and all forms of sensors.” Investigator Snow answers and Herbert nods.
“Which means that we need to get some excuses to get these disruptions in the air. Which is going to be the equivalent of taking a club to every bee hive we can find.”
“I’m going to assume your referred to the ancestors of the Charbis and Vulba and not actually attacking their hives.” Jahlassis says.
“Yes.” Herbert agrees before there’s a whoop from nearby. “That’s a good sound.”
“We got the portal open over here!” A Nerd cheers.
“We know were it leads! The other plate!” A woman returns.
“Oh just let me have this will you?” The Nerd demands.
~First~ Last Next

DC Next presents:

I AM BATMAN

In What We Believe
Issue Fifteen: Amusement Mile
Written by ClaraEclair
Edited by VoidKiller826
 
<< < Previous Issue Next Issue >
 
This story directly follows the events of Heavy Metal!
 
 
Over the course of a single night, three buildings across Gotham each experienced a break-in that would never be detected, even by the smartest of technology. Steps across expensive flooring not even leaving a single mark, countless devices were left within each home.
Felice Viti’s home was the easiest to break into, its electronic security system the only obstacle, and one easily bypassed. Sofia Falcone’s office, however, was never truly empty. There was always someone at the door, waiting and watching for any signs of danger or tampering. They didn’t notice the figure who slipped in and out.
The Arkham Manor was a much different story, having to bypass multiple police officers standing outside and roaming the halls. Placing listening devices in almost every room, the officers — and eventually both Jeremiah and Astrid Arkham themselves — almost catching a glimpse of the intruder. By the end of the night, however, none were the wiser to what had happened, and as the feeds lit up on Oracle’s screen, she let out a sigh.
 
 
Batman landed on the fire escape outside of Christine Montclair’s window, the sound reverberating through the apartment, startling the young woman. It was the same fire escape her feet had pounded upon hundreds of times before, leading to the same small window she’d climb through every other night. Familiar touch and sound, suddenly so foreign.
Christine jumped to her feet from her bed, rushing toward the window to open it, smiling wide as she saw the Dark Knight on the other side. Reaching out a hand, she grabbed the Caped Crusader’s arms and pulled her into the apartment, and finally into a deep embrace.
Every worry she had ever felt evaporated, like a weight off of her shoulders, and every problem in her life, in this very moment, had disappeared. Christine was complete now that the woman she loved had returned, and she wanted to do nothing else but hold her as close as she could, to protect her from the world.
But it took a moment too long for Cass to return the embrace, hesitant to hold onto the woman who missed her so much. The moment did not go unnoticed.
“Is everything alright?” asked Christine, releasing her hug and looking into Cass’ eyes. They were distant, clearly distracted. Christine furrowed her brow, trying to read that Dark Knight, but the cowl she wore masked her thoughts just as the darkness of Gotham nights obscured the beastly form of her suit.
“Yes,” Cass said firmly, refocusing herself on Christine. Something within her ached as she looked into her partner’s deep brown eyes, so filled with adoration. A shot of pain echoed through her heart. “I… I saw things, when I was gone.” Christine cocked her head slightly, gleaning more from the dry and cracked makeup around Cass’ eyes than any sort of expression she could find.
“What do you mean?” she asked, reaching up toward Cass’ cowl and attempting to remove it, though she was stopped by a soft, yet unwavering hand on her wrists. Christine frowned as the clawed glove pushed her hand away.
“I was in… another world,” Cass said. “I had a life — a normal life. It… did not work.” She looked away from Christine for a moment. Endless conflicting thoughts raced through her mind, even in this moment she was distracted by what she was missing in the city.
“I mean, yeah,” Christine replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly trying her best to convey her love through her words, pleading with increasingly deaf ears. “You’re anything but normal, but that’s what I love–”
“I need to fight,” Cass said, interrupting her. “I need to be Batman. I don’t know if I can… be anything else.” Christine stood still, her mouth frozen slightly open as the word lingered on her tongue. An open wound pulsed as love soared through the air and its recipient let it fall away.
In the Metal, Cassandra had seen what it was like to have a normal life. The impulses never went away. Despite her fictional self never having learned to fight, never having been raised as a living weapon, she had the instincts. She forced a full grown professional fighter to the ground in seconds, she had been beckoned toward the most dangerous place in the whole simulation, despite how much her simulated life would have urged otherwise. There was nothing more to Cassandra Cain than fighting for good.
Cassandra — Batman — was a living weapon, and there was no escaping it. If it hadn’t been David Cain, it would have been Lady Shiva. She could not avoid her fate, she could only point herself in the right direction. She knew that having a civilian life was a mistake from the first moment she tried, it was foolish of her to think she could fit in. She had witnessed the consequences of trying — the call to action was an overwhelming force.
“But you can be something else,” Christine said, grabbing Cass’ hands in her own, squeezing lightly. “You are something else, to me.” Christine’s eyes traced the cowl of her partner, barely able to see the woman she fell in love with beneath it. “Remember, you had that audition last month? You were doing so well–”
“It doesn’t work,” Cass said, finality in her voice. No matter how much the dagger twisted, Christine struggled to stop the bleeding. She haemorrhaged her very soul through the pleas in her eyes. Cassandra couldn’t look directly at her, she would have to read the hurt and the uncertainty she was creating. “It won’t work.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Christine’s composure fell, her shoulders slouched as she fought the tears forming in her eyes, threatening to blur her vision and further obscure the woman she cared for.
“Gotham needs me–”
“I need you, Cass!” Christine shouted, her resolve shattering. Tears began to flow down her face as she moved in to embrace Cass once more, holding on tightly as she buried her face into Cass’ shoulder. Cass hesitated once more as Christine’s shaky breaths rang in her ear. She held her hand up, almost willing to hold Christine back. From where she stood, she looked around the apartment, spotting numerous books strewn across Christine’s bed, all annotated with sticky notes in the exact places that Cass had learned new words, where she had fallen in love with stories, and where she had held her love closely as they read.
She saw the stack of movies next to the TV, the small dinner table they’d hunched together around for dinners on slow nights, the first aid kit on the kitchen counter — the fifth that Christine had bought since the two had met.
For a brief moment, Cassandra’s shell cracked.
“I–” Cass tried speaking, but stopped immediately, unsure of what to say. Instead, she returned the embrace and held Christine closely, not willing to let go — not yet. “I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”
All it took was one single moment.
With a deep breath, Cass nestled her chin into Christine’s neck, holding on tightly. She could have been elsewhere, but in this apartment was where she was needed, for the time being.
 
 
Over the years, the Amusement Mile — an island between Burnley and North Bristol, separating the Miagani River between the New Gotham island and the Mainland — was almost entirely abandoned. Save for the highway that twisted and turned around the decaying corpse of the old Gotham Fairgrounds, inexplicably still powered by electricity, and the remains of the old zoo on the north end, the aquarium on the seaside half flooded from poor maintenance — and Joker’s bombs — levelling the sea wall that separated the ocean from the tanks.
Only a few thousand people per week dared to drive over the Amusement Mile’s highway, preferring to take the longer detour over the Trigate Bridge just to the south, should they need to move into the city from north Bristol or the other way around. Much more than the Narrows, the Amusement Mile was a dead zone, utterly discarded by the city government, and where it differed was its lack of inhabitants.
Remnants of Joker’s crew, waiting impatiently for the Clown Prince of Crime’s return, remained on the island, keeping to themselves. Painting over painted over graffiti, they rarely seemed concerned with entering Gotham — no activity from the hardcore members that lived there had been seen in more than two years, leaving all to wonder what they had been planning, if they even were.
No one seemed to know why the fairgrounds still had power, the chime of the carnival jingle could still be heard over the Miagani channel during quiet nights, but it seemed to be utterly wasted. Not a single ride remained intact; if it hadn’t been destroyed by Joker through his twisted idea of fun, then his modifications had rotted away under the harsh weather, seawater, or his own acid weapons.
The Amusement Mile, Vicki Vale used to say, with a sly grin and no shortage of knowing irony in her voice, is anything but what the name implies. Toxic infertile ground in the places that cracked and dusted asphalt couldn’t cover, it was seen by all as a lost cause, left only to the clown-masked criminals that called it their home.
Just four hundred metres south of the walls of Joker’s Funland, situated at the base of the shallow southern peninsula of the already small island, was a cache of weapons and information, long abandoned by a dead man, forgotten by the woman who knew everything. The door rusted shut, micro explosives attached at the hinges and the bolt effortlessly ripped the barrier down, allowing entry to the abandoned cove.
Unlike the rest of the island, power had been cut to this small batcave, and the private grid its defence systems ran on had long been shut down. Connecting the devices inside to a portable battery attached to her Bat-cycle, Batman activated the old computer system, waiting an excruciatingly long time for the processes to complete and the command line prompt to open.
With Oracle in her ear reciting the proper commands, Batman navigated through the computer with ease. Endless neatly organised directories pointed to various case files taken on seemingly every single active criminal that worked on the island, a few pages from the lowliest to dozens on the most prominent of hoodlums.
The file she was looking for was the longest, nearly one hundred pages of detailed notes, image files and voice recordings accompanying the short novel that awaited her.
The Joker was a mystery that had never been cracked and a force of chaos that could never truly be contained. Endless repeated stays at Arkham Asylum did nothing but fuel his resolve, faceoffs with the first Batman only truly ended when Bruce Wayne died. Thousands of lives had been ended at the hands of the Clown, each name diligently recorded at the end of Bruce Wayne’s notes on the mad killer, a memorial of those he could not save nor avenge. He carried every name on his back until his death.
Cass lowered her head for a moment, ruminating on the cruelty that she could only read about, before transferring all of the files on the computer to a portable drive she had taken out of her belt. The Amusement Mile Batcave was much too old and eroded to use actively; she needed to transfer the data somewhere else. The lack of activity on the island told her it wasn’t worth reestablishing, but an odd, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach argued with her head, instincts telling her that she needed a foothold.
Storing what she deemed important inside of a compartment on the Bat-cycle, she let the remainder of her micro-explosives destroy the abandoned Batcave. From the trees on the peninsula, she heard the rustling of animals and the chirps and squeaks of bats reacting hastily as the explosion rocked them. Dozens of small, formless creatures flew into the night sky in swarms, fleeing from the danger.
Cass couldn’t help but watch as they flew up and disappeared into the night, off to settle somewhere else in the city. They were simple animals.
She activated her Bat-cycle, near instantaneously shooting off through brush and dirt and back onto the cracked roads of the Amusement Mile, the lights of Joker’s Funland brightening the black matte paint of her motorcycle. Its electric motor was near silent, even in the uneventful night she found herself patrolling, allowing her to pass through the city while barely turning any heads.
Zipping under the sound of the elevated monorails and gas-powered engines of the few vehicles left on the street, she navigated the city effortlessly and unseen, finding her way through the winding roads and labyrinthian alleyways. The silence allowed her mind to wander for far too long.
Who was the Batman?
She was a woman who feigned interest in removing the cowl to please those around her, she told herself. The Batman was a duty and responsibility toward the people of Gotham City to ensure their protection. In the days since returning from Detroit, she had become subsumed into the role, taking longer nights for herself and her investigations.
Robin had scarcely joined her, set aside in favour of moving quickly through the city, expanding her ever-present eye through countless ad hoc surveillance systems placed wherever she could fit them. The patron-less Iceberg Lounge, City Hall, the Harvey Dent Rehabilitation Facility, the Gotham City Police Department, and even Blackgate Prison. In a few nights’ work, Batman had infiltrated and bugged every point of interest in the city.
Batman felt fine as she included Robin less and less — though the girl often voiced her displeasure. She knew that Maps was working on her own investigation with Barbara, something about radio signals, though she figured that Oracle was just humouring the overzealous detective. Moving without a Robin gave Batman more freedom to accomplish her goals and move around the city. She could focus on everything the Dark Knight needed to be.
Swerving through the final blocks of Old Gotham and arriving at the base of the old Wayne Tower, Batman drove her Bat-cycle into the storage rooms beneath the building and zipped up the sealed elevator shaft all the way to the top. Jumping up through open doors, she moved with purpose into the central room of the Belfry, tossing the external drive onto Oracle’s desk without a single word.
Babs could barely thank Batman before the Caped Crusader had turned around and left, no doubt for endless patrol. There were no more lunches with Alysia, Babs, and Blair, there were no date nights with Christine, Cass barely even left the Belfry when she wasn’t under the cowl. Babs knew something was going wrong, she’d seen this before with Bruce. She feared that she didn’t know how to stop it.
Cass had already been through hard-headed determination, before. As Batgirl, she overstretched herself numerous times — once as a death wish, another as anger, and another as rejuvenated strength after her revival at the hands of Lady Shiva. What Babs was seeing now was something entirely different, and she struggled to diagnose the cause. Cassandra had simply stopped being a civilian in her time off. She never got the full picture of what had happened during her time away, and Cass refused to elaborate on what little she did reveal.
“Um, Oracle?” asked a hesitant, yet inquisitive voice. “Is everything okay?” Maps Mizoguchi asked on the other end of the line. Oracle struggled to justify the call to Robin at two in the morning, but the girl wouldn’t hang up or give up. She wanted to solve the mystery of the radio station, and Babs truly was just humouring her. Pirate radio broadcasts weren’t usually under her jurisdiction, but the extra secrecy did intrigue her.
“Yeah,” said Babs. “She just stopped by for a second.” Maps remained silent at the allusion to Batman, and that silence was heavy as Babs felt the mix of disappointment and embarrassment that Maps felt. “Anyway,” she continued, hoping to lighten the subject. “I did find the cipher for the encryption you wanted me to take a look at.”
“Ohmigosh!” Maps said under her breath, masking her excitement from the rest of her sleeping household. “What is it?”
It was remarkably simple, Babs thought.
“It’s a four-digit one-time pad cipher,” said Babs. “The key constantly shifts, but I can bypass it without it.” She had done so three minutes prior. “Are you sure you want to figure out what this is, Maps? You found it on a bathroom wall–”
“I need to know,” Maps said simply, as determined as ever. Babs muttered a few words under her breath before progressing through the file, finding nothing but a small text document inside with a series of numbers.
“It’s more numbers,” said Babs. “A radio frequency and a password, looks like.”
“Send it to me!” Maps said, struggling to keep her voice down. Babs hesitated for a moment, drumming her fingers on the desk. She wanted to verify what she was sending to the girl, scared of what it could’ve been. The layers of encryption that she and Maps went through — regardless of how simple they were — felt like it was going out of its way to hide something that shouldn’t be heard. Extended pleas came through Barbara’s speakers, and with a sigh she nodded to herself.
“Y’know what,” she said. “We’ll tune in together right now for a bit, just so I know I’m not sending you something you shouldn’t be listening to.”
“I’ve seen dead bodies, y’know,” Maps replied.
“I–” Babs said, freezing and stuttering for a split second. “I know, and you shouldn’t have.”
“Oracle, please,” Maps said once more, extending her words by seconds at a time. Babs sighed and entered the radio frequency and password, connecting the audio to the call with Maps.
 
 
Good evening Gotham City, and a special welcome to our newest batch of listeners. I hope the encryption wasn’t too tough on you guys, but I know you weirdos out there love puzzles. The music will be coming soon, I’ve got some real headbangers in store tonight, but first I’d like to chat a bit about something that’s been on my mind lately.
We once had someone I’d describe as an artist in this city. Maybe others would disagree, I’m sure most normal people would, but that’s how I saw him. Like splatter painting, there wasn’t a consistent pattern or any sort of rhyme or reason to his art, but it always ended up so… glorious, to say the least. He’s more impressive than anyone I’ve seen, I’m sure you all agree.
The Joker was funny, most of the time. That contrast of telling a joke while the city burns around him was a spectacle every time he did it. He laughed as he poisoned our water — I was only a child then, believe it or not. Some time later, he kidnapped our own beloved James Gordon to run an experiment about what it could possibly take to drive a man mad. It’s claimed that it didn’t work, but every time I look into Jimmy’s eye on the TV, I see that twinkle. Something’s rolling around in that head of his, and I’m just waiting for him to deliver the punchline to this ages-long joke.
But now? We’ve got all these damned copy-cats. Lonnie Machin wasn’t an artist, he was a hack. He usurped a name that didn’t belong to him, that he didn’t understand, and he did nothing with it. He wasn’t original, he wasn’t interesting. Who the hell thinks starting a riot is funny if you don’t do anything to the rioters? No, the funniest and most interesting thing about that night was the sighting of not one, but two Batmen on the bridge — and we proceeded to never see that second one ever again. I wonder what his deal was?
Don’t even get me started on the third one. No one is original in this city anymore. We have a third Batman now, too, apparently. I haven’t seen her, but she’s running around calling herself Batman. I don’t know about you all, but I’m tired of these copycats, stealing everyone else’s gimmick because they’re not original enough to think for themselves. There’s no more artistry in what these people do anymore. They’ve taken all the meaning out of the beauty.
What Joker used to do… He would comment on society as a whole, the meaningless sacks we’ve all been turned into. None of us mattered then, and we certainly don’t matter now. Twenty years after we die, we’ll be lucky if one person still thinks about us. Eight billion people, and what does it matter to trim the herd by a few thousand? Nothing matters anymore, and that’s what he was telling us. That’s what was so funny about it all. Wherever he is now, I hope he’s still laughing.

I had a client tonite that really made me mad. She had a massage before her facial, so I had a little time to read her client notes. She washes her face with shampoo in the shower and does nothing else, refuses to hear anything about changing that. When I asked her she's still doing the same thing and won't hear about getting a better routine because she won't do it. I kept quiet throughout her facial because I didn't want to be more angry. So basically she's saying that she picked a Rejuvenating facial with Red LED treatment just for fun, but she's going to wash it all away in the shower!
I really wanted to tell her to save her money and stop getting facials if she refuses to keep up with skincare at home. I don't want to waste my time and good products on someone who can't see the value of them. Why am I trying to save her skin if she doesn't care?
I ended up giving her samples (coworker's suggestion) of Vitamin C cleanser, eye cream, and moisturizer - hoping to make a dent. She even tried to stop me giving her stuff. I did tell her that I was giving them to her because I can see she's a sun worshipper and the VitC will help with sun damage. Why did I bother?

Latveria Ark:
The Fantastic 4: The Fantastic 4 are warned by Silver Surfer that an all-powerful entity known as Galactus is arriving to their planet with the malevolent intent of absorbing Earths lifeforce, the Fantastic 4 seek advice from the smartest man in the world, Dr. Doom who is currently contained within military level solitary confinement. Reed and his team must do favors for Doom while communicating to him through confinement Silence of The Lambs style. The film ends with the Fantastic 4 leading Galactus away from Earth, but Dr. Doom ends up escaping his confinement in the process.
Doom Chronicles: A Disney+ Series that takes place shortly after Dr Dooms escape, it'd be a miniseries mockumentary inspired by Book of Doom. Dr Dooms story is narrated from his perspective where he talks about his final goal of paradise through world domination under his own dictatorship. By the end of this season after seeing through the twisted Lense of Victor Von Doom the recordeinterviewer of the Doom Chronicles documentary begins to question Dooms ideology which results in him killing her before she can erase the documentary. Doom removes the footage of killing his only producer and publishes the documentary himself which touches the hearts of many Latverians.
The Fantastic 4 Dooms Reign: Doom reclaims his role as president of Latveria by manipulating the residents of the country through propaganda, he ends up starting a Cold War between Latveria and multiple other states which Dr. Doom dominates with his use of technology and warfare tactics. The Fantastic 4 must put a stop to this war by defeating Doom before he can reach his goal of world domination, Doom ends up being defeated by the Fantastic 4 after a harsh battle, faking his death in the process so he can scheme from the shadows.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God Ark:
Kang Dynasty: The Fantastic 4 sends an interdimensional distress signal to the 616 Avengers, after receiving this message they use Starks time machine from Endgame to cross into their home world. The Fantastic 4 reveals a Kang variant has been pursuing a vicious assault on their home universe, the F4 and Avengers team up to defeat this Kang but come to discover there are an infinite amount of Kangs. The F4 and Avengers are promptly overwhelmed by the Kang Council and judged by them before being pruned and sent to The Void.
Post Credit Scene: A high tech secret laboratory winds over to the back of a green cape working on some device, "My intentions... were righteous, I intended to solve world hunger... create world peace! ", the mysterious figure speaks, "But even then, they hated me, they all hated me!", sparks fly off of the mechanism the figure is engineering as he continues his monologue, "Now however... with our world in constant danger, not only can I become the hero of one universe", but the figure also turns around revealing the charred and dented mask of Dr Doom, "I can become the hero of many".
Secret Wars Part I: The film starts where the post credit scene left off, revealing Dr Doom created a new and improved time loom which he proceeds to use to start an Ultimate Incursion that leads into the TVA's Void. The Avengers and Fantastic 4 must regroup with new variant allies before they ultimately meet back together, Dr. Doom unravels his plans to use The Void as a "Battleworld" of sorts with the intent of letting the variants battle things out until they realize peace is the answer. The Kang variants end up killing too many of the lesser variants which pisses Doom off, so he absorbs the energy from his timeloom with his specially made God Emperor suit before becoming God Doom. God Doom begins his journey of executing Kang variants throughout The Void as a solution to their tampering with his plans.
Secret Wars Part II: The heroes of the multiverse attempt to bargain with Doom over his ideology however this does not go as planned so they resort to violence, the Avengers throw everyone at Doom from Dr. Strange, to Reed Richards, to Scarlet Witch but they are inevitably defeated and he even tragically kills Thor. The last hope of the Avengers is finding Thors formerly thought to be deceased brother Loki, but not just any Loki, God of Stories Loki. The Avengers eventually discover the means to summon Loki through yggdrasil and awaken him from his slumber, God Loki has a final battle with God Doom, Doom gains the upper hand but just when all hope seems to be lost Thor comes from the skies in his rejuvenated Valhalla form. Loki God of Stories and Thor God of Valhalla then team up in an ultimate tag-team of brotherly battle against God Doom and defeat him once and for all. Thor and Loki then have a heartwarming moment where these two brothers get to see each other in the first time in centuries, even if they aren't from the same world they are the same brothers, nonetheless. Loki and Thor end up harnessing their powers together to reset the multiverse into an ultimate 616 universe resetting the franchise.

Revamping your space with a cabinet makeover is a transformative endeavor, and the magic lies in the art of cabinet painting. The perks are undeniable – a fresh, modern look that breathes new life into your interiors. However, the key to unlocking the true potential of cabinet painting lies in working with an expert, someone with years of experience and the right equipment.
This is where Dunwoody Painters, a renowned painting company, comes into the picture. Thanks to their seasoned cabinet painters, they bring a fresh coat of paint and a wealth of experience. It ensures a meticulous process that guarantees longevity and visual allure. In this guide, we will cover the aspect of cabinet painting where we will unveil insights from Dunwoody Painters that promise to transform your cabinets into a captivating focal point. Let's explore the magic of cabinet makeover with the skilled hands of painters.

Why is Cabinet Makeover Important?

Revitalizing your cabinets isn't just about aesthetics; it's a practical and cost-effective way to breathe new life into your kitchen or bathroom. Here's why a cabinet makeover holds substantial importance:
Economic Efficiency
Opting for a cabinet makeover is an economical choice compared to a full-scale renovation. It allows you to achieve a fresh look without the substantial costs associated with remodeling.
Contemporary Appeal
The visual impact of your cabinets is undeniable, influencing the overall aesthetic of the space. A well-executed makeover ensures your kitchen or bathroom stays in tune with current design trends, presenting a modern and timeless appearance.
Durability Enhancement
Cabinets endure daily wear and tear. A makeover, particularly a fresh coat of paint enhances durability by guarding against scratches, moisture, and other common environmental factors.
Quick Transformation
Unlike extensive renovations that can disrupt your routine for an extended period, a cabinet makeover offers a quick transformation. It allows you to refresh your living space efficiently and promptly.
Personalized Refresh
Your cabinets play a significant role in setting the tone for your kitchen or bathroom. A makeover provides an opportunity to personalize the space, tailoring it to your preferences and ensuring it aligns with your unique style.
Increased Property Value
Updating your cabinets impacts the resale value of your home. Potential buyers often appreciate a well-maintained and stylish kitchen, making it a valuable investment for the future.
Signs Your Cabinet Needs a Paint Job:

• Fading or Discoloration: If you observe a loss of color vibrancy or uneven discoloration on your cabinets, it's a clear sign that a paint refresh is in order.
• Peeling Paint: Peeling paint is a straightforward indication that the existing finish has worn out, and the cabinets are in dire need of a new coat to restore their aesthetic appeal.
• Visible Water Damage: Cabinets near sinks or areas prone to water exposure may exhibit visible water damage. Stains, warping, or discoloration are signals that it's time for a paint intervention.
• Stubborn Stains: Cabinets that resist your attempts at cleaning due to stubborn stains are telling you they require more than a surface wipe. A fresh paint job can effectively cover and address such imperfections.
• Outdated Appearance: If your cabinets appear outdated compared to the rest of your space, a paint makeover can bring them into alignment with current design trends, enhancing the overall visual harmony.
• Scratches and Scuffs: Daily use can lead to scratches and scuffs on cabinet surfaces. A new coat of paint covers these imperfections and provides an additional layer of protection against future wear.
• Visible Wear and Tear: Cabinets that show visible signs of wear and tear, such as dents or nicks, need attention. A paint job can act as a rejuvenating treatment, giving your cabinets a fresh start.
• Mismatched Finishes: Inconsistencies in the finish of your cabinets, whether due to age or varied maintenance, can be addressed through a uniform paint application, creating a cohesive and polished look.
• Change in Style Preferences: If your taste has evolved, and your cabinets no longer align with your preferred style, a paint makeover allows you to update the look without the need for a complete cabinet replacement.
• Increased Difficulty in Cleaning: Cabinets that become increasingly challenging to clean may indicate that the existing finish is no longer providing the smooth, washable surface it once did. A new coat of paint can restore this functionality.

Tips on Choosing the Right Painter for Cabinets:
Seek Recommendations:
Ask friends, family, or neighbors for recommendations. Personal experiences can provide valuable insights into the professionalism and quality of work of potential painters.
Assess Portfolio:
Review the painter's portfolio to gauge their expertise. Look for projects similar to yours to ensure they have experience with cabinet makeovers and can deliver the desired results.
Request Detailed Quotes:
When soliciting quotes, ask for a detailed breakdown of costs. This should include materials, labor, and any additional charges to avoid unexpected expenses during the project.
Check References:
Contact references provided by the painter. Speaking with previous clients can offer a firsthand account of their satisfaction with the painter's work, communication, and adherence to timelines.
Verify Licensing and Insurance:
Ensure the painter holds the necessary licenses and insurance. This not only validates their professionalism but also provides you with protection in case of unforeseen circumstances.
Inquire About Experience with Cabinet Painting:
Specifically, inquire about the painter's experience with cabinet painting. Experience in this niche ensures a better understanding of the unique requirements and techniques involved.
Discuss Color and Finish Options:
Engage in a discussion about color and finish options. A skilled painter should be able to guide you on suitable choices based on your preferences and the existing aesthetics of your space.
Confirm Project Timeline:
Clarify the expected project timeline. A reliable painter should provide a clear schedule, allowing you to plan accordingly and minimize disruptions to your daily routine.
Check for Warranty or Guarantee:
Inquire about any warranty or guarantee offered for the work. A painter confident in their skills and materials should be willing to stand behind their workmanship.
Compare Multiple Quotes:
Do not settle for the first quote you receive. Compare quotes from multiple painters to ensure you are getting a fair price for the services offered.
To Conclude
Recognizing signs like fading color and stubborn stains signals the need for a paint job. A makeover not only refreshes the look but also enhances durability, protecting cabinets from daily wear and tear. Choosing the right painter is crucial, involving steps like seeking recommendations, assessing portfolios, and checking references. A well-informed decision, coupled with insights from this guide, ensures a visually stunning and enduring cabinet transformation.

This is gonna be a long post but I seriously don't understand this. Slander Yuta all you want, some are hilarious, but this one is just asinine. I want to discuss this because I seriously don't get what some people are saying.
"Sukuna has his RCT output lowered and he's exhausted"
Okay the RCT Part, sure that's true. But Exhausted? Against who? Let's look at who he fought recently? A bunch of Grade 1 Level Sorcerers who hasn't even tickled him. I've seen this reasoning being thrown out when people point out the fact that Yuta was taking on Sukuna better than Kashimo. They would point out that Kashimo had to fight a newly rejuvenated Sukuna but seriously, which fight did make Sukuna break a sweat? Because as far as the recent chapters, I could tell that none have actually put up as much of a fight as Yuta.
"Sukuna hasn't used his CT Against Yuta"
This is false. There's literally examples of him Using his CT
Sukuna here is quite literally using his technique to make sure he isn't bleeding. It's one of the most creative ways he actually used his technique.
​
He tried Fucking Cleaving Yuta but the Sneaky one managed to dodge in time. And you know it's Cleave because He doesn't point his finger, instead actually try to grab Yuta. And let's not forget that Cleave is a lot deadlier than Dismantle
​
He used it here as well to block Yuta's sword slash.
I don't know if the reading comprehension curse has gotten to everyone who hates Yuta but seriously, saying Sukuna of all people wouldn't use his technique on Yuta is hilariously stupid considering this man loves spamming his technique so much it isn't funny. This guy doesn't discriminate who to cut people up, his fight with the finger bearer literally had him use his Ultimate, why wouldn't he use his technique on a guy who's literally second to Gojo and whom he threatened just a chapter ago? This leads me to my next point.
"Sukuna isn't trying"
Okay seriously, why would you think Sukuna isn't trying. If anything, his previous fights against his other opponents is him not even giving a single rats ass about the fight. The piece of argument everyone's been throwing out is the fact that he hasn't cut or used any incantations against Yuta.
To which I reply, YUTA IS FAST.
I think everyone's been too spoiled by Sukuna just dog piling on everyone that people forgot that Yuta is SECOND TO GOJO in terms of EVERYTHING. Maybe the reason Sukuna isn't using any of his technique is because Yuta is actually fast enough to compete against Sukuna on a level equal to Gojo. And also
​
Sukuna's hands were occupied by everything going on, how the fuck was he supposed to do you're supposed Techniques when his hands was busy with two things and Yuta just dealt him probably the most damage he'd received since Gojo.
​
Does this man look like who's not even trying? Man looks shook that Yuta opened his domain ffs
We've already seen that Sukuna in this form is physically fast enough to dodge the Anti Sukuna team's attacks, only in times when he's caught off guard like Sheisty and Itadori did he ever get hit and even then, barring Itadori, it barely dented him.
People often forget Special Grades are on a different level than most sorcerers, I think everyone has just been brainwashed into thinking a restrained Yuta in Sendai and against Itadori is him going all out, forgetting the fact that he's not actually even taking that fight seriously.
This Yuta is actually not letting Sukuna up and is completely unrestrained, that's why no downtime of talking or monologue from Sukuna as well, Yuta is practically attacking him with as much speed as possible.
I'd also like to point out that This is the Only Time Sukuna actually and is actively trying to block someone's weapon attacks. With Higuruma, he dodges them because he's slow and ofc it's the death sword, but with the others.
​
https://preview.redd.it/l7mylt2896gc1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=053600cbd9cc2fda1582fde2489abf39b69f948c
He blocks Ino's quite easily, he was tickled by it but no serious damage, heck he looks bored blocking it.
​
https://preview.redd.it/8vclasye96gc1.png?width=857&format=png&auto=webp&s=d844def800e5dd9a9db99d6daaf8188d23dbff74
Kusakabe and Itadori couldn't even hurt him and he had time to sneak in a dismantle to keep them occupied. It's only against Yuta he actively tried blocking it. Why? Maybe because Yuta is actually fast enough for Sukuna to not be able to dodge it.
​
Deflects is with his CT
​
Is using his CT to avoid being cut
​
Uses his CT to block it again.
"Yuta dealt no serious damage"
Okay now this is just hilariously stupid. Give me another person in the verse right now that actually made Sukuna Bleed other than Gojo? NO ONE. Not even Higuruma whom everyone hyped up has ever damaged Sukuna. That was self damage.
​
https://preview.redd.it/eo93cfnu56gc1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=462672cecd0539d1c942e9f9e18b45ea3a3c2628
You're telling me this isn't significant damage? He popped one of his eyes for crying out loud, that's more damage than any of the other supposed "Anti-Sukuna" squadmates ever did to him. That's more than the Waffled One ever did.
And also, the meat of the fight hasn't even begun. Seriously, how come when Higuruma ACTUALLY barely did a thing to Sukuna, people praise him when he lit his executioner's sword, but when Yuta actually did SERIOUS amounts of pressure and damage to Sukuna in the first five seconds of the fight suddenly everyone's throwing out the "Uhm ackshtually Sukuna isn't even trying"? I get we're all in agendas here but seriously, grow up.
Conclusion
I think people hate on Yuta too much. I get that some of you don't like him, and I understand, but don't let that fucking skewer your view of the chapter. Yuta did better than EVERYONE barring Gojo, because he's Gojo. It's like when Endeavor fought that Nomu and had to try a lot harder than All Might. In Anime, the Second Strongest isn't exactly a parallel to the actual Strongest, they put a lot more effort and they usually don't immediately deal as much damage as the Strongest.
Sukuna was trying a lot harder in this fight, you can see by the fact that only at the end did he waste time actually looking at things and being smug, the fight he was full on being active and trying to counteract whatever Yuta was throwing at him. And let's not forget we know what Sukuna is like when he's "Not Trying"
​
\"Sukuna is definitely trying his hardest trying to pierce Kyou's husband here\"
​
\"Sukuna is definitely trying his hardest against the man he despises the most and could not give two craps about\"
Thank you for listening to my long Yap Session.

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A loud blip from the sonar screen knocked Captain Tanaka Hideyo out of his semi-slumber. His eyelids fluttered like moth wings as he leaned from his chair to examine the screen. Whenever the sonar’s spinning "needle" swept over the lower right corner, a large green silhouette shaped like an elongated teardrop blinked into view. And each time it reappeared, the mysterious form appeared to have drifted one bit closer to the screen’s center.
“What do you think it could be, Captain?” Lieutenant Suzuki Kenji asked. His tanned yellow-brown face had turned paler than usual.
“Probably a whale,” Tanaka said.
Suzuki shook his head. “I’ve never seen a whale leave a blip that big. Not even a blue whale. And it’s coming straight toward us!”
The captain groaned. “Don’t tell me it’s one of those fictional sea monsters, then. I keep telling you, Lieutenant, you watch way too many silly kaiju movies.”
“Maybe, but with all due respect, Captain, you should at least keep an open mind.” Tanaka took a deep breath and stiffened his arms to suppress a desire to slap his subordinate for talking back. “Very well, you can check the stern. But do expect to be disappointed.”
Suzuki hurried out of the bridge with a flashlight to pierce through the nocturnal darkness. Tanaka shook his head with a mutter as he sank deeper into his chair. His lieutenant may have still been young, but nonetheless he should have had enough experience on board their vessel to know that kaiju, or sea serpents, or whatever it was he imagined did not exist outside of myth and movies. There were massive sea creatures such as the blue whale to be sure, but even the largest blue whale on record was less than a hundred feet long, or more than sixty-four feet shorter than the Hayabusha-class patrol boat they had manned.
Tanaka checked the sonar screen again. He had to admit, the blipping silhouette looked to be over twice the size of the last whale he remembered passing by. And it was still approaching their vessel. The whole bridge jolted and rocked, almost pushing the captain off his seat. That was strange. As far as the boat’s masthead light could let him see through the darkness of the night beyond the bridge, the sea had been calm before, without any rain or howling wind. What Tanaka could hear was the crew shouting and the clapping of boots on the metal deck.
Lieutenant Suzuki burst back into the bridge from the starboard door, his face as pale as the snow on Mount Fuji and glossy with sweat. “It’s a kaiju, alright! And it’s surfacing!”
Tanaka ran out where his subordinate had entered and advanced along the boat’s starboard toward the stern, clinging to the railing as the vessel rocked and crewmen brushed past him. He had reached halfway to the stern when he froze in place, the blood draining from his face and leaving it cold. The boat’s sidelights shimmered on the surface of a giant spiked fin which pierced up from the ocean. In front of the fin rose a titanic scaly dome which parted to show a mouth lined with ivory spears longer than men stood tall, with the stench of rotten fish hitting Tanaka like a fetid gale. Above the cavernous gape burned a pair of luminous green eyes with snake-like slits for pupils.
If it was not a kaiju, or giant monster, then Tanaka would be at a loss to imagine it being anything else. As the leviathan spurted toward the boat with a velocity impossible for such a giant creature, the two machine guns mounted behind the bridge sputtered at it. Their bullets bounced off the monster’s flesh without leaving even a dent, as did those of the crewmen’s rifles. Without any time being left to launch the boat’s guided missiles before the kaiju struck, Tanaka could think of only one way he and his men could come out alive.
“Take to the life rafts!” he shouted over the monster’s resonant roar.
By the time he and his crew had scrambled to the boat’s portside, the kaiju’s jaws had closed onto the starboard, crunching through the metal hull. Those men who had not already grabbed the portside railing tumbled across the deck while it tilted in the monster’s direction. Once the creature had bitten off its first mouthful, the boat rocked in the opposite direction until it capsized with a crashing splash, throwing Tanaka and all his crew into the cold ocean before they had even launched the rafts.
After he breast-stroked himself back to the surface and spat out salty water, the captain turned to see his lieutenant surfacing behind him, with what remained of their vessel submerging beneath the waves.
“Did you at least get a report out to the coast guard?” Tanaka asked, grabbing Suzuki’s shoulder.
“Thankfully, I was able to,” Suzuki said.
They embraced one another as the colossal kaiju swam toward them, its mouth open once more for dessert.
The House of Councilors within the Japanese National Diet in Tokyo echoed with more raucous noise than any primate exhibit at the zoo, with men shouting and cursing over one another in a contest to see whose voice would rise the highest about the din. Not that Prime Minister Saito Kazuma had expected any quieter. The reports of a sea monster sinking so many patrol and fishing boats off the Japanese coast were alarming enough without accounting for the trend that each attack had taken place closer to Tokyo than the last. It was like those kaiju movies had come to life at last.
“I say we throw everything we have at the monster!” one of the councilors yelled.
“No, we should ask our friends in Washington to nuke it,” the one next to him said. “If anyone in the world can destroy it, it’s the Americans. Our weapons so far have been useless.”
“Nuke it? Are you insane?” a third councilor cried out from the desk behind them. “You know today’s nuclear missiles are much worse than what we faced at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We can’t have one of those launched into our waters so close to Tokyo!”
“Then how do you propose we get rid of it instead?” a fourth one asked. “The more firepower we can throw at the monster, the better!”
If Saito had to pick any one of those councilors to sympathize with, it would be the third one. Having had his own paternal grandfather broiled alive in the Hiroshima bombing back in 1945, he knew better than most how much devastation a nuclear missile could wreak. Today’s nuclear weapons were even more powerful than those, with the US’s biggest one having a maximum blast yield of over a million tons, vastly more than the Hiroshima bomb’s fifteen thousand. As much as Saito wanted to eliminate the kaiju advancing toward Tokyo, he did not want to cause even more destruction than it had so far.
The prime minister’s secretary scurried up to where he sat near the back of the room and tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me, Prime Minister, but we have three guests who request your audience. They claim to offer a solution to the kaiju problem.”
Saito shrugged. “Please let them in. They can’t have any worse ideas than what I’ve heard so far.”
He clapped and barked a command for the House to fall silent. The doors at the room’s far side opened, and in entered a trio of young women who all appeared to be of gaijin, or foreign, origin. The leader was a mahogany-skinned woman of African descent with long braided hair who wore a gold crocodile-skin jacket and gold chains over a white crop-top, flared white pants, and gold platform shoes. To her left was a pale European woman with a braided blonde ponytail, a blue parka lined with shaggy white fur, and darker blue trousers above fur-lined boots. The third woman, an olive-skinned Mediterranean type with a short dark brown ponytail, was clad in a ruffled red knee-length dress and high-heeled leather sandals.
All three women had strapped to their backs compound bows and quivers. Hanging from the Black woman’s belt was a curved sickle-like khopesh sword, whereas the blonde had on hers a large ax and the Mediterranean one a broad-bladed xiphos. Saito wondered how they were able to get past security with such armament.
From their semicircular rows of desks, the councilors all gawked at the gaijin women as they strutted down the central aisle toward the prime minister’s seat. Yet the strangers held their heads high without paying their onlookers any heed.
“So, who are you three, and why have you come here?” Saito asked. “You know this is an important meeting, don’t you?”
“Of course, it is, baby, or why else would we be here?” the Black woman spoke. “I am Neith, and these would be my homegirls Artemis and Skadi. And we are the Goddesses of the Hunt.”
The Mediterranean woman nodded to the name “Artemis”, and the blonde to “Skadi”.
The prime minister blinked several times. “So, wait a moment, you three claim to be goddesses?”
“I know who they are,” his secretary whispered. “Neith is one of the goddesses from the Egyptian pantheon, Artemis is from Greek mythology, and Skadi is Norse.”
“This is just absurd!” one councilor interjected. “Three gaijin come barging in here, claiming to be goddesses from old mythology? I suppose they know how to beat the kaiju too!”
Neith swiveled her head to shoot the old man a piercing glare. “As a matter of fact, honey, we do. What you call a kaiju is in fact a demon from the underworld, released to terrorize and destroy humanity.”
“Only we goddesses have the ability to destroy it,” Artemis added. “Demons like it break out every few generations, and it is our duty to protect humankind from them.”
“So, you will do that for us…without compensation?” Saito asked.
“Without asking for anything other than your faith, ja!” Skadi replied, unsheathing her axe to twirl it by its handle in her hand.
The councilors murmured among themselves while the prime minister watched. One of them, the same one who had spoken against Neith earlier, stood up and raised his hand.
“Like I said before, this whole situation is simply absurd!” he announced. “We have no reason to believe any of you three gaijin have any fighting experience whatsoever, let alone are ‘Goddesses of the Hunt’. Why don’t you ladies scurry off to the nearest teahouse and leave this issue to the menfolk?”
All the women grimaced at him, with Skadi snarling loudest of all, her face burning red with rage under her stripes of blue war paint. She dashed in a flash toward the councilor, leaving behind a trail of blue light, and hauled him off his seat with both hands on his suit’s collar.
“How dare you speak like that to any woman, let alone a goddess, mortal!” Skadi growled. “Why, I have a mind to—” Neith snapped her fingers. “Calm down, Skadi, my girl! We have to win hearts and minds here!”
Skadi grumbled as she let the councilor drop back onto his chair and returned to her friends’ side.
“I don’t approve of the man’s attitude, but I’m afraid he does raise a valid point,” Saito said. “What we need is assurance that you three can carry out what you’ve offered to do for us. Could you at least demonstrate your divine powers before us?”
“Will do, babe!” Neith said with a nod.
She unslung her bow, nocked an arrow to it, and shot it at one corner of the ceiling. It hit with an explosion of golden light, leaving behind a hole big enough to fit a man through that went all the way to the building’s roof, exposing the sky above. All the councilors in the room, even the one who had been skeptical before, gaped with wordless awe.
“We apologize for the damage to public property, of course,” Artemis said.
“It could have been worse,” the prime minister said. “Very well, I for one am willing to trust you. If anyone can defeat the kaiju, it’s you three. All those in favor?”
All the councilors’ hands shot up in agreement, with some waving theirs in excitement.
“Then it is decided,” Saito continued. “The people of Japan, and all the world, have vested their faith in you, Goddesses of the Hunt.”
“Then my girls and I won’t disappoint them,” Neith said. “We’ll have that kaiju’s ass kicked and chopped up into sushi before y’all know it!”
While the audience clapped, the three women sped out of the room within a second, with red, yellow, and blue light trailing behind them.
Deep in the bowels of the underworld, Lucifer swiped his fingers across his All-Seeing Pool with an annoyed growl. The image of the House of Councilors inside the Japanese Diet rippled before it faded into the pool’s resting pitch-black color while the Lord of Chaos paced around it, his red-fringed white cape swirling behind him.
“I should have known those goddesses would show up again,” Lucifer said to himself. “They always do, no matter how little the mortals remember them!"
He looked again into the pool, admiring the smooth bronze-skinned face with a mane of curly black hair which it reflected. He was always the most handsome and brilliant of the immortals, the one they called the morning star. So handsome and brilliant, in fact, that the other gods envied him and condemned him to eternity in the underworld’s sweltering magma-lit depths. Well, that and they loved the mortals way too much. How could any god feel compassion or even pity for those disgusting creatures, with all their filth and breeding and corruption and overall imperfection? Why devote so much divine energy to preserving the pollution that was life?
One time, around sixty-six million years ago, Lucifer had attempted to cleanse the Earth of life by manipulating an asteroid into colliding with it. It was then that the other gods had apprehended him and thrown him into this subterranean prison, and what was worse, he had only eradicated about three quarters of the lifeforms, with the survivors rebounding to pollute it once more. And the bipedal apes known as humankind were among the most loathsome of them all, even if they had evolved intelligence almost equal to that of the gods themselves. If anything, it was that very intelligence that made them most repulsive.
Every few generations, Lucifer had sent one of those demons from his abode to cleanse away the human plague, and each time he had done so, those insufferable Goddesses of the Hunt would come down and slay them. Doubtless they would do so this time as well. What the Lord of Chaos needed was something that could destroy them in turn. It had to be something stronger than a demon, something capable of destroying a god, or at least taking away their power.
A crack in the chamber’s walls of coarse black stone spread from floor to ceiling and widened into a doorway to admit Hades, Overseer of the Underworld, the god responsible for watching over Lucifer. He pointed his onyx-pronged bident at the Lord of Chaos with eyes smoldering redder than the rubies encrusting the gold circlet around his head.
“Did you think you could get away with this forever, Lucifer?” Hades boomed. “Sending demons out right under my nose to terrorize the mortals? Did you not expect we’d find out you were behind them all?”
Lucifer smirked. “You could have acted sooner. The wonder is that you found out in the first place.”
“Believe me, Morning Star, after enough of your pets’ rampages, anyone would get suspicious. It’s a good thing Neith and her friends were able to put them all down, as they will this one.”
“So, what do you plan to do to me, Hades? Destroy me once and for all?”
Hades gripped his bident so tight that his olive-skinned knuckles popped white. “Mark my words, Lucifer, I could do so with ease. You have no idea how much mercy the High Gods had shown you by sparing your existence after you hurled that asteroid into the Earth all those millions of years ago!”
“I take it then that they’ve changed their mind at last? Go ahead, Hades, annihilate me if you dare.”
Hades sighed while lowering his gray-bearded head. “To be honest, my orders were merely to give you a warning. What the High Gods plan to do if you defy them further, I do not know, but what I do know is that they want you to stop unleashing these demons.”
Lucifer chuckled. “I should have anticipated their impotence, or rather their cowardice. Tell me, Hades, why do you take orders from them at all? Why not destroy me once and for all like you evidently desire?”
“Lucifer, you know I cannot defy the High Gods. None of us can, and besides, my dear brother Zeus is among them.”
“And do you not resent your brother for that? Have you never questioned why he got such an elevated position while you languish down here as my overseer?”
Hades banged the floor of the chamber with his bident’s butt. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work.”
Lucifer’s grin widened. “Think about it, do you even enjoy spending all your time overseeing the underworld, with me and all the other condemned souls in its bowels? Do you not resent it, Hades? Do you not crave something greater for yourself?”
The sweat was building up on Hades’s brow, and the bident started shaking in his grip. “Someone must watch you down here. If not me, then who?”
“Oh, there are plenty of gods humble enough to be better suited to the task than you. Why not aspire to something greater for yourself, Hades? As the brother of a High God, why not aspire to become his equal? Why not become a High God yourself?”
Hades raised his gaze toward the ceiling while squeezing onto his bident’s handle some more. Lucifer savored the envious uncertainty his longtime jailer was exuding.
“So, is there anything you can do to help me with that, Morning Star?” Hades asked.
Lucifer balled his hand into a fist, with heat blazing in the skin of his palm while beams of white light shone between his fingers. Hades’s eyes widened as they reflected the light.
“I can grant you the power you need to take away your brother’s immortality so you can replace him among the High Gods,” Lucifer said. “It is a power I have absorbed from these infernal surroundings over millions of years, a power none of the other gods can even imagine.
“But, if I am to grant you this power, there is one thing I must ask of you, Hades. I need you to let me out of this underworld, just for a short while. After I have done what I seek to do, then I will bestow it upon you.”
Lucifer held his glowing fist close to Hades, who held his own hand above it and winced as if the heat had burned his skin.
“Alright, I can release you for a short while, and provide you with a disguise so the other gods will not notice,” Hades said. “But, if you betray me in any way, I will have no qualms about dragging you over to the High Gods to decide your final sentence.”
“You need not worry about that, my fellow god,” Lucifer said as he opened his hand, let the power dissipate in it, and then laid it on Hades’s shoulder. “Though, I must warn you, I can fight back when necessary. But that notwithstanding, do we have a deal?”
The Overseer of the Underworld sighed and extended a fist toward the Lord of Chaos. “It’s a deal.”
Lucifer bumped his own fist against Hades’s with a smile. “And you know I love nothing more than making deals.”
The towering archways on Tokyo’s Rainbow Bridge, which had dazzled white as alabaster during the day, had taken on a pale yellow tone in the face of the setting sun. The three Goddesses of the Hunt watched the horizon above Tokyo Bay’s sun-gilded waters from atop the southernmost archway, their compound bows already in hand. As a chill evening gust brushed past Neith’s cheek and pulled on her braids, she missed the balmy warmth of her native Egyptian domain’s nights, even though she and her companions had given their lives to protecting the entire planet from those hell-spawned demons many centuries ago.
Skadi popped a sushi roll in her mouth and smacked louder than Neith would have preferred, as was usual for the Norse goddess. “Ja, I think I’ve taken a liking to this Japanese cuisine.”
“You like almost any cuisine wherever we go, Skadi,” Artemis said. “I swear by the High Gods, your appetite would rival your friend Thor himself!”
Skadi beamed with pride. “Well, the mortals do say I have giants’ blood in my veins. Maybe that’s where I get it from?”
“If you fancy those sushi rolls, my girl, just wait until we’ve killed that kaiju,” Neith said. “Then all of Tokyo is gonna feast with us!”
Skadi smacked her lips again. “Oh, these rolls are just a little appetizer before the main course.”
Artemis pointed at the southern horizon. “You guys, it’s coming!”
On the horizon swelled a massive dome of water which zoomed up the bay toward the bridge, producing a wake that shoved aside any boats moored on the nearby harbors. As the swell expanded during its advancement, an arching fin with spiked ribs pierced up through the water’s surface. Beneath the swell itself glowed a pair of serpentine eyes like twin green flames.
From both sides of the bay sounded sirens and the faint screams of panicked citizens while a news helicopter hovered over the scene, the chopping of its blades almost inaudible under the roar of the waves. All the goddesses nocked arrows to their bows and aimed them at the encroaching kaiju. The whole mortal world would see them take on one of the largest monsters that the underworld had ever thrown at them. If that did not restore the mortals’ diminished faith in the gods, nothing could.
Neith released her arrow, as did Artemis and Skadi beside her. Tails of gold, red, and blue light followed the divine shafts as they rocketed toward the kaiju’s gargantuan head. All three arrows struck the monster in the brow with luminous explosions, leaving scarlet craters in its scaly drab green skin. Raising its gaping maw to the heavens, the kaiju let out shrill, echoing roars of pain while a beam of green fire shot out of its gullet toward where the goddesses stood.
Neith, Artemis, and Skadi leaped off the bridge’s tower to escape the emerald blast and soared through the air in circles over the beast, with their gold, red, and blue light trailing behind them like jet engine exhaust. They pelted the kaiju’s hide with more arrows, peppering its hide with wounds while it lurched around in the water to vomit more green fire at them. Waves from the spinning monster’s wake splashed over the bay’s shores and piers like small tsunamis.
A torrent of fire from the monster’s maw came straight at Neith. She darted aside, and the blast crashed instead into one of the skyscrapers overlooking the bay, breaking off its top. Now pocked with bleeding wounds, the kaiju dove beneath the bay’s surface and rammed straight through the Rainbow Bridge. The bridge split apart with the cracking of asphalt and the snapping of cable wires while vehicles fell into the water. As the kaiju accelerated toward the bay’s northern shore, the goddesses flew after it, arrows drawn for the next attack.
A burst of white light flashed over Neith, almost blinding her eyes. An eagle plumed brilliant white was soaring after her, its eyes blazing reddish-orange like molten magma. From its open beak shot a silvery missile which Neith dodged by less than a finger’s length. It hit Artemis right beside her, evaporating upon contact while leaving a black mark on her shoulder. The Greek goddess yelped while the red trail behind her vanished, and she plummeted to the water beneath them.
Neith dove after Artemis while steering herself away from more of the eagle’s silver-white attacks. Skadi shot an arrow at the bird, but it ducked out of the way and then spat out another beam which hit her in the abdomen. The blue light behind her extinguished, it was the Norse goddess’s turn to descend toward the earth, screaming in rage and terror.
“Your fellow huntresses have lost their immortality,” the voice of Lucifer, Lord of Chaos, taunted with an echo inside Neith’s head. “After I get you next, you’ll all be as helpless as the mortals against my demon!”
Neith scooped Artemis and then Skadi up in her arms before either of them hit the water, hauling both her fellow goddesses on her shoulders while dashing past the bay’s western shore. The kaiju by then had already climbed onto land further north on its four sprawling legs, crushing people, vehicles, and everything else that fell under its webbed feet while plowing through the buildings in its way. Neith would address it later, but now she had to get her two best friends to safety while evading Lucifer’s eagle.
She maneuvered her way through the Tokyo skyline, zipping between skyscrapers and diving under overpasses, but the eagle stayed on her trail, unrelenting in its barrage of silver projectiles. Each time Neith dodged one, it would smash into a building or a stretch of road and blow a chunk out of it. This chase could do almost as much damage to the city of Tokyo as the kaiju itself.
“You can flee me forever, Neith,” Lucifer said. “But never will you be able to hide, nor will I ever surrender!”
“Maybe you’ll think differently once I strike back, Luci babe!” Neith retorted. She lowered herself to the flat roof of an office building and laid both her friends behind a generator box on it. As the incoming eagle outstretched its wings, beak open for another attack, Neith shot an arrow at it. It struck the bird right in the mouth, causing it to explode into a cloud of glittering white dust and feathers.
That had been her third to last arrow. Neith had only two left to bring down the kaiju once and for all. Skadi groaned as she pushed herself back onto her feet and rubbed her eyes. “What happened to us?”
Artemis rose soon after her. “You should have heard Lucifer back there. He’s taken our immortality away.”
“At least for a while,” Neith said. “You two should head for the nearest shrine. The kami there could restore your divinity. I’ll handle the kaiju myself.”
“You sure you’ll be able to slay it by yourself, Neith?” Skadi asked. “I see you’ve only two arrows left.”
“Girl, I know where to aim this time. Y’all don’t need to worry about me!”
After carrying both her friends down to the ground beneath the building, Neith darted northeastward across the city. She found the kaiju lumbering toward the Tokyo Skytree, the city’s tallest structure and the third-tallest in the world, while leaving behind a broad trail of burnt and shattered architecture, trampled roads, and citizens reduced to bloody smears. The odors of smoke and death were even stronger than the monster’s natural fish-like effluvium.
After brushing a regiment of Japanese soldiers aside with a swish of its finned tail, the kaiju stopped to inhale while facing the Skytree. The light of the green fire building up in the creature’s open gullet shone on the windows behind the skyscraper’s latticed shell of white trusses. Floating in the air close behind the monster, Neith aimed her second-last arrow at the spot above and behind its eye, where its brain would be. The arrow trembled and banged against her bow’s grip while the fire in the kaiju’s mouth brightened.
She let the arrow slip through her fingers. It whizzed right into the beast’s eye and blasted it out. The kaiju threw its head up to the sky again with a roar that launched its torrent of fire toward the Skytree’s summit, barely grazing its antenna. While the creature lurched in recoil, the fin of its thrashing tail swatted Neith away. She streaked through the air like a golden meteor until she crashed into a street.
As Neith pulled herself out of the resulting crater, the asphalt shook. The monster had turned to face her, its one remaining eye scintillating with even brighter fury than before while its jaws parted once more for a second deep inhale. The depths of its throat turned green with another buildup of kaiju fire.
Narrowing her eyes to keep out as much of the blinding glow as possible, Neith nocked her last arrow and aligned its tip with the roof of the kaiju’s mouth. If this did not take the demonic titan out, nothing could. Tokyo and then all Japan would be helpless, for she and her fellow Goddesses of the Hunt would have failed them.
She let the arrow go. It hit the kaiju’s palate right where she had aimed, puncturing gum and bone. The luminance in the monster’s eye flickered into nothing, and green vapor like smoke streamed out of its mouth with a sizzling hiss. The beast’s body wobbled until it tipped over and crashed on its flank, shaking the earth in waves across the city. It was dead.
After standing there to marvel at the sight of the kaiju’s collapse, all the citizens who had been trapped in the rubble around Neith clapped their hands in thunderous applause and chanted her name, cheering in Japanese. She would have loved to stand there and bask in their adulation, but first she needed to check up on her friends. After bowing to the crowd gathering around her, she jumped back into the sky and flew toward the nearest shrine.
Beneath a red torii gate, surrounded by a grove of cherry blossom trees crowned with their namesake pink flowers, Skadi and Artemis sat together, each engulfed by a wavering halo of regenerating immortality. Neith landed in front of them and embraced them both.
“If only y’all could have seen me kill that kaiju,” she said with a tear cascading her cheek.
“We’ll see the footage soon enough, ja,” Skadi replied. “You know how the mortals can’t resist recording everything nowadays.”
“And the important thing is, you were able to defeat it all by yourself,” Artemis said.
“No, we defeated it together,” Neith rebutted. “We’d already given it a hard whooping before ol’ Luci came into the scene to muck everything up. How about we celebrate tonight with some refreshments? Drinks will be on me.”
“And of course, with a side of kaiju sushi,” Skadi said. “That is, if the people of Tokyo leave any of it for us.”
After the shrine’s kami spirits had fully rejuvenated Skadi and Artemis’s divinity, the three Goddesses of the Hunt left with arms on each other’s shoulders, laughing together with joy while the people they passed cheered.
Back in the underworld, Lucifer’s infuriated roar bounced off the black stony walls.
“I was so close!” the Prince of Chaos cried. “I could’ve had all three of them left mortal and defenseless!”
Hades crossed his arms with a smug smirk. “You failed to account for them being able to fight back. Or for their ability to heal at shrines like those of the kami.”
“Maybe, if I had gotten the demon to destroy that shrine first, that could’ve been avoided.”
“Maybe it could. Anyway, Morning Star, how’s about your end of the deal? Do I gain the power to kill my brother Zeus now?”
The doorway in the wall behind Hades opened once more, and there strutted in the messenger god Eshu with a cheeky grin while his necklaces of cowrie shells jangled. “What’s this about plotting to kill Zeus now?”
The color drained from Hades’s face as he and Lucifer turned to face Eshu. “Why, why…you must’ve misheard something, Eshu. We meant nothing of the sort.”
“Ah, but I did see Lucifer sneaking out of his prison to harry the Goddesses of the Hunt over in Tokyo. We all did. Now how would he have gotten out, Hades?”
Hades stuttered. “H-he…I-I…I’ll never let him out again, I promise. Please, have the High Gods spare me!”
Eshu folded his scrawny umber-skinned arms with a nod. “Tell you what, if you were to help the mortals in Tokyo rebuild their city, that shall suffice for your sentence. I will watch over Lucifer in the meantime. Next time, however, if the Morning Star tries to trick you into doing anything for him, do not oblige him, or you’ll both be in trouble.”
He left the room with a click of his tongue. Hades took one step toward the doorway before pointing his bident at Lucifer.
“You heard Eshu,” Hades said. “Don’t expect to be able to pull a stunt like that ever again.”
Lucifer said nothing as his overseer left the room. Once both Hades and Eshu were out of earshot, he growled to himself. He would have to go about it another way, but he would never give up on his ambition to cleanse the world of humanity and all other life. Whatever way he would achieve it, someday he would remake the world into a perfection even the other immortal would envy. Then they would crown Lucifer the Highest God of All, as he deserved. Then he would no longer be the Lord of Chaos, but the Lord of All Creation, All Existence.
He clenched and brandished his fist. “You may have won the battle today, but sometime in the future, I will win the war. Mark my words.”

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So it's a bit of a meme at this point that Millard has been powercrept so hard that virtually no buffs can dig him out of the grave he's buried himself in (presumably with the proper funeral rites). I wondered about that, though.
Instead of directly buffing Millard, let's start fresh with a clone of him--we'll call him Willard. Willard shares all the same flaws as Millard: no regen skills, all single-hit attacks, painfully mediocre damage output, and for good measure, let's also remove his burst heal and his passive that ups his healing strength.
But Willard's ultimate is Flamebringer's Respite: Immediately breaks target regardless of Shield Points, heals entire party (potency 200-250). The heal is there for flavor reasons, the premise being that Willard summons Aelfric to instate a pause in the fighting and rejuvenate all 8 team members.
My question is: just how far does this shoot Willard up the tier list? Is a free and immediate break with no strings attached worth bringing someone who's effectively dead weight for the rest of the battle? In the face of damage cap raising and doublecasting shenanigans, does Willard enhance the team's utility or take away from it? I'm not the best at theorycrafting, so I was wondering how far this mechanic could be pushed. I can imagine 2-break fights finishing up quickly with back-to-back breaks, or bosses with ridiculous shield numbers being trivialized (looking at you, Cleric Tower EX 5).
Would this bust the game wide open or barely make a dent?

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First Previous
Memory Transcription Subject: Vani, venlil surgeon
Date [Standard Human Reckoning]: 2136-12-09
We exited the cabin into a quiet corridor. A blend of warm orange lighting and cool blue on the right mimicked the terminus of our planet. Interactive screens displaying the train's view from above ground decorated the wall. One screen showed estimated arrival times, and news from different provinces. With my shoes on, I could not feel the soft textures of the turquoise carpet beneath our feet paws. But they looked comforting.
The gentle thrum of the train reminded us that we were riding a giant machine traveling at the atmospheric speed of sound. I glanced at Janji. While his body language still looked restrained, he revealed some semblance of emotion. Right now he felt a bit anxious.
"May I hold your paw?" I ventured.
He considered my request before grabbing my paws. It felt firmer than intended but I felt a trust in that hold.
"Our cabin is above the food court. We can go down there." I indicated toward the staircase.
The descent brought us to the mid-level. The sound of people and the clinking of dishes filled the food court. People of all ages and sizes mingled in the area. Stalls lined one side of the food court. The screens above each stall showed dishes in preparation. Seating areas dotted the opposite side. Some people were engaged in animated conversations while others savored their meals. Everyone took a moment to relish the journey as much as the destination.
We walked from one end of the food court to the other, looking at the offerings from each stall. I wanted to show Johan the taste of my homeworld other than my own body. No one paid us any attention and it felt gratifying to move among my own people unremarked. I suppose, outside of the human enthusiasts and participants of the exchange program, few people know about me.
Of all the stalls, however, the one stall caught my attention the most. Its name "Homeworld on a Plate" hinted at its offering. They served some sample platters, showcasing each province's dish. ranging from Kandul from the Heartland to the Tabisa fritters from the other side of the planet.
"What do you think of that stall?" I pointed out.
Janji looked at the stall. "I... almost forgot how the homeworld tasted like. The humans have been feeding me their food. They're tasty... don't get me wrong. But..." he stopped.
"Between me, you, and Johan." I started. "I suppose we all need a bit of homeworld in our mouth."
When we visited the stall we found that one stood attending it. A message written on the counter told us to order right away.
"Is there anyone here?" I called.
"Order here and we'll cook your dish right away." A high-pitched voice came from behind the counter. It had a different Timbre than a normal venlil however.
"Are you a human hiding behind the counter?"
"Maybe?" said the voice.
"You can show your face, human. You do not scare us."
As I expected, a human appeared from behind the counter. They looked so young, which explained why they sounded almost like one of my people.
"Hi..." said the kid. His pupils darted between me and Jani. "You don't think I'm scary?"
The presence of the human kid caused a twinge of concern in me. Their species had stringent rules about putting young people to work.
"No, we do not. You are not attending this stall alone, are you?" I asked.
"Oh... no. Mom had to secure some more stock. She needed me to mind the stalls here." The young human looked and sounded relieved. maybe because we did not react to them. With the venlil-sized design, the counter stood at just the right height for him.
"Greetings, gentlemen." A feminine greeting rose above the ambient chatter. "John... I told you to get down." A venlil woman steered a trolley brimming with boxes toward us.
"It's okay Mom, they're not scared of me." John flipped up a section of the counter to let her in.
"Thank you for engaging my son." The woman's smile had a blend of professionalism and genuine warmth. "What can I offer you today?"
"You're this boy's mother?" Janji asked, sounding surprised.
"Well, yes," she responded with a gentle affirmation. "Haven't you heard about the adoption program?"
"He had just returned from the Farm, ma'am." The mention of 'the Farm' gave her enough context. Pity and shock colored her gestures.
The woman's features softened, ears tilting back. "Oh... we're glad you're back here with us."
"Farm?" asked John. "So you're a farmer?" He asked looking at the adults around him for an answer.
"We'll talk about it later... okay?" his mother deflected, encouraging him back to the task at hand. "For now, help me with these boxes, okay?"
John nodded. The human kid pushed the cart through a door to the kitchen.
"The boy..." John already disappeared, not even visible through the pass-through. "He's... a refugee from Earth isn't he?"
"Yes." the vendor affirmed along with the flicker of her ears. Her fingers danced across the counter's interface. She brought up images of the dishes as she spoke. "He's from Manila. Several urges ago, millions of people called it home. Now..." she sighed. "You know what happened next."
She then shifted her focus back to us, resuming her role as a vendor. "Now, let's get you that sampler plate, shall we? I hope that can reintroduce you to the taste of homeworld." She motioned to Janji.
"We will take five," I confirmed.
"Oooh! Hungry aren't we?" She teased.
"We have three other people in the cabin up there," I said. "Including a human who had just landed the previous timepaw, eager to try some of our cuisines."
"Wow... okay... that's quite a challenge. But I'm sure I can impress your human friend!" After some tapping, she came out with the price we had to pay.
"Now, just wait at any of the tables. We'll bring your order as soon as we're finished."
We chose a table and looked at the stall. From the passthrough, I saw the woman busied herself with our order. Her son, John, assisted with a precision that belied his age.
As we settled at a table with a view of their work, the minutes wove themselves into a quiet lull. I caught Janji's eye observing me.
"I heard about your last conversation with Johan," I decided to broach the topic.
That remark had an instant response. Janji's body tensed.
"How... What did Johan say to you?" His voice managed to escape the tightness in his throat.
"He mentioned your thoughts on ending our partnership," I responded, watching for any sign of distress in Janji's demeanor.
His eyes cast down, tracing the wooden swirls on the tabletop. "Do you... disagree with this decision?" His voice struggled to rise over the clinking cutlery and conversations around us.
"I do not want to force you into a relationship you do not want" I began. "All I want is your happiness, Janji. You deserve that."
"Thanks." He tried to look me up again. "It'll take me a long time to find that happiness, even if I deserve that."
"It will." I acknowledged. "But you need not walk alone on this journey."
He drew in a breath, finding solace in the offered solidarity. "Then what are we now?"
"We do not have to be bound by labels," I reassured, extending my paw across the table.
"We don't have to be," he repeated, putting his paw on mine.
"Do you envision yourself sharing a life with someone else again, someday?" I asked.
He shifted his gaze. "I... haven't discussed this in therapy yet, but..." A heavy silence fell between us. I let him pause as long as he needed.
"The time I was held by... Them. It... it rewired something within me." His confession tumbled out. "It disgusted me, but at the same time..."
I cursed the predators for twisting Janji into this broken man in front of me.
"But... then I found the earthlings, the humans. They... have this... allure like the arxurs but without all the horror that comes with the predators ... does that... make any sense?"
"You owe no one an explanation for your feelings," I assured.
Janji mulled over in silence for a while before speaking again. "Do you think Johan would consider a venlil as a partner?"
For a moment, I felt the world fall silent around us. I might have gone into a fugue state from the shock of his implication. When I refocused, I found Janji waving his paw, a look of concern etched across his face.
"Vani? Are you okay?" he asked.
I collected myself, thinking of how to respond.
"Your order, mamsirs!" The human child, John, appeared with our order, breaking the tension. He set down our food with earnest pride.
"Thank you, child," I replied.
He seemed pleased with the responsibility. "Mom usually does the delivery, but since I don't scare you, she lets me bring your order over."
Grasping the opportunity to steer our dialogue away from the topic of Johan, I turned my attention to John. "How do you find living on Venlil Prime?" I inquired.
He pondered a moment before responding. "It's... different," he admitted. "The grown-ups keep their distance, but the other kids? They're always so curious about me until their parents come to pull them back."
I have used the BeltLine a lot of times, and the logistics have just occurred to me now. Those who worked in the train would resign themselves into nomadic life. They could spend a timeclaw forward and a timeclaw backward on the train back to their hometown, but that took too much time. In either case, a kid like John would not be able to attend normal school.
"And your schooling? How do you manage it?" I continued.
"I attend classes online," John revealed. "I kind of miss hanging out with other kids, but it's okay, I guess."
"But hey! On our days off, we can explore the entire planet!" His eyes lit up as he continued sharing more about his life. "We either visit the big city or nature. The small towns... they have bad people there."
"Bad people?" Janji repeated, a soft furrow forming between his brows.
"Yeah," John's brightness dimmed a notch. "They wear these scary suits like they're going to space, and they carry big flamethrowers."
"They're exterminators," Janji explained. "Their job is to protect you," he added, even though his words didn't seem to reassure even himself.
"But one of them tried to catch me!" John's voice quivered. "Mom was right there to help me though! I don't feel safe around them."
"John!" The commanding yet caring call from his mother sliced through the tension.
With an energetic bounce, John waved, "Gotta go! See you around!" He darted away.
Later, after we brought drinks we found ourselves back at our cabin. There I discovered Johan was in the middle of playing a board game with my mother.
"Oh hi there!" Johan greeted us, his nose twitching at the taste coming from our parcels. "That... smells incredible, what have you got there?"
As the enticing taste filled the cabin I put the bag onto the table and removed the boxes one by one. "We found a stall that sells sampler platters from across the homeworld," I announced.
My eyes wandered to the board game laid out before them. The board featured circular pits in four by eight, each pit holding a varying number of small pips.
"What is this game?" I asked.
"Mancala," Johan answered. "Or rather this is just one version of it. Mancala is a family of games played by different earth cultures."
His finger tapped on a pit on the board. It prompted the pips to glide and redistribute itself around the board. "You see, the primary move in this game is to take seeds from a pit and sow them."
Mother chuckled, her body language belied an admiration for the game. "I love the agricultural theme you've woven into the gameplay," she mused. "I think it would be quite the hit back at the farm." On her turn, she tapped a pit on her side of the board and the pips also danced to new positions.
I passed the boxes to Mother and Sister. While Janji passed a box to Johan. My human stretched the board game on the table surface to give way for the meal. Its circles turned into ovals. Johan inspected his share of the meal. The box had separators that divided it into eight compartments. Each featured a small version of dishes from around the homeworld.
"So... each of these dishes came from a different province," Johan asked. He picked the Kandul and rotated it this way and that way.
"Indeed it is." Mother added. "The one you're holding is called Kandul. It contains nuts, fruits, and other vegetables wrapped in a flatbread." She observed her own box too. "I think they're going for one dish from each province. Though, this box doesn't cover all provinces ."
Yeah, it would be difficult to pack the dishes from all the forty-eight." Vichak said. She then looked at one of the compartments. "Hey... I think this one came from the colonies! Quite an exotic one."
Johan took a bite of the Kandul and to my delight, he looked like he enjoyed it. "Tell me about the origins of these dishes," he said after swallowing his bite.
"This one, the Kandul, is from our Heartland, the region where Capital and Kleran reside." Mother began her culinary tour.
As Mother continued her description, they continued their game of Mancala. I watched them playing the board game, trying to divine the details of the rules. However, it seemed that we had come at the tail end of the game. After two of the dishes, a notification appeared in the board game, telling us that Johan had won the game. Mother's paw retreated from the board as she acknowledged her defeat.
"Do you fancy a round, Janji?" Johan extended the offer, the game board reset itself, and the pips aligned back.
Janji hesitated, but his voice sounded steady as he replied, "Maybe... I should give it a try."
"Perhaps you can play against Vani?" Said Johan.
I opted out. "I will just watch this round."
"Let me play against Janji then." Said Vichak.
I ate my meal while watching Johan explain the mechanics to Janji. Watching Janji, I realized his demeanor softened around Johan. The man had lowered the guard that I observed when I first met him. I remembered Johan's words about Janji having to share me with him. At this rate, maybe I would be the one who has to share Johan with him.
The meal and the games unfolded in a seamless flow. Each round drew us closer to our destination until the train's announcement signaled our arrival. We gathered our belongings ready to step into the auxiliary train at further notice. Tenth of a paw later, we found ourselves riding the escalator to the Tram and Bus Terminal above.
Emerging into the bustling terminal, Mother stopped and spoke. "Do you have a place to stay, Johan? Janji? You're welcome with us until you're settled. I'll sort things out with the Apartments Association."
"I did some research last timepaw." Johan's face brightened at his own news. "I've found a little gem, a rejuvenated bathhouse in Old Town. It's become a hit with humans."
The mention of the Old Town brought hesitation to Mother's and Sister's gestures. "Old... Town... huh?" Vichak said. "You know... it can be rough around the edges. Are you sure about that?"
Johan's gave her a firm assurance. "Yeah, the guidebook did remind me that it might be a bit adventurous? But it should be safe enough with some company." He then snapped his head to me. "Vani, you'd come along, right?"
I could feel Mother's silent trepidation. Mother once forbade me from going to the Old Town. She considered the place more treacherous than the wilderness that lurked in the nightside outskirts of the city.
Janji stepped in before I could answer. "I'll accompany you."
I waited for Mother to object. But she just gestured resignation. "Oh...well... if that's what you boys want. But... please be safe, okay?"
"Shall we then regroup after settling in?" I tried to compromise. "Do any of you have some agenda?"
"Well..." Vichak hesitated for a moment. "You know Professor Baslik?"
"The cross-wired researcher that caused a storm in academia." I said, "What about him?"
"He wanted to see you." She said, "But I have set it for the next timepaw."
"Can we regroup the next paw then? In your school perhaps?"
"Hmm... yeah, you can bring Johan and Janji too. I think the human students would like to see him."
To reach the Old Town we had to ride different tram lines so I bid my farewell to Mother and Sister. The Old Town as its name suggests, was the old part of Kleran. Even before we set to the sky to crack an asteroid for its content, we already dug into the crust of our planet. At some point, we exhausted the minerals. So we turned to the sky and put up a spaceport near the old town. The vast artificial cavern then turned into a place for people to live.
As we approached the Old Town, the tram made a steady descent until we entered a tunnel burrowing into the crust of homeworld. When we emerged from the tunnel the sight seemed to entrance Johan. High-powered lamps decorated the ceilings high up. Offering a mimicry of daylight where the natural one can not reach. I felt a momentary feeling of disorientation as the lamps cast multiple shadows on everyone and everything.
Johan observed with a blend of curiosity and wonder. "I didn't expect venlils to embrace subterranean living quite like this," he remarked.
"It takes a specific kind of venlils to live here," I replied. "However, there are billions of us. Even one in a thousand means millions of people,"
"Yeah, the guidebook said that people around here were less wary of humans." my human said, "Which made it a popular destination for humans."
The tram's gentle stop ushered us into the heart of Old Town. From there we followed the map through the warren of streets. The narrow city's arteries pressed close as if the ground wanted to reclaim what we had dug from it.
"Hold on a moment." Johan's words cut through the rhythm of our steps causing Janji and me to halt as well. The human looked back and his expression turned into panic. When I checked our self-moving luggage had disappeared. Johan's fingers fluttered through the air, interacting with an invisible interface before his eyes.
"Someone took them" he stated before dashing off without warning. Janji and I tried to go after him. But even someone as short as Johan can sprint faster than most of the venlils, and our distance grew larger.
He took a sharp turn into an alley, and I heard a shout coming from Johan. As I rounded the corner, my heart skipped, seeing Johan sprawled on the ground. My human held onto the boxy luggage.
"I guess I got a bit too protective with our luggage. I lunged to hold onto it," he explained, getting to his feet. "The venlils who took it ran away."
I closed the distance to Johan, my eyes scanning him for injuries. "Today, I am thankful for our lack of speed in a chase," I said.
Johan eased the tension from his shoulders with a rub. His eyes locked with me and then on Janji. "Do you think we should move?" he asked back.
"I have never visited Old Town myself," I admitted. "I do want to see what the district may offer, beyond the theft." I noticed Janji's fists clenched.
"I'm more than capable of confronting a few venlil hoodlums," he stated. I sensed something natural in his response. My annotator added that he felt indignation. Perhaps in response to what Johan had gone through.
Johan then crouched to the luggage. He fiddled with the box's handle until it snapped off. As he pulled it, it revealed a slender cable.
"Maybe We could give this place a chance," Johan said, examining the piece of the luggage handle that now lay in his palm. "Should we encounter any more incidents... we can move the safety of the complex. First... we need to secure the luggage and report this incident to the authorities."
With the safety measure in the form of the cable, we did not encounter any attempt at stealing again.
As we approached the inn, its structure stood as a testament to the resilient spirit of Old Town. Hewn into a wall of rock that bore the scars of Kleran's rich mining past, the inn. If I ignored the chipped tiles and worn edges, I could see the sign of its past opulence. The introduction of humans to Homeworld had revived the inn back toward its former glory. Unlike venlils, humans required frequent baths. This had saved the establishment from complete decay. The sign in front of the bathhouse advertised that they now have a pool of hot water besides the traditional shower.
The lobby hummed with the banter of human guests. After a brief interaction with the reception, we learned that they had just one remaining room for the timepaw. Our belongings tucked away in the room, we then navigated our way to the police station.
The police station's exterior bore an unpolished, utilitarian appearance. Its walls, like much of Old Town, told stories of occasional scuffle, with their fair share of dents and marks. Inside, the surprise came from the presence of a human officer behind the front desk. She wore a vest with the police's emblem on it. But other than that, her fabric looked like a generic formal human wear.
"Good day to you all." She greeted us all.
"Oh... good day," Johan said. "I didn't expect to see one of us here... to be honest."
"Well, the Old Town has a large concentration of humans outside the capital."
"Yeah, that makes sense." Johan agreed.
"So... what can I help you with today?"
After Johan reported the attempted mugging, expected disappointment tinged the officer's response. "This isn't an isolated event," she noted, her voice holding a hint of frustration. "But we couldn't get a good view of them."
"Don't you have a security camera?" Johan asked.
"That's the thing, they know where the cameras are."
"But they weren't clever enough to consider that our luggage might have eyes," Johan retorted with a wry grin.
The officer's demeanor shifted, her eyes brightening at the prospect of having a lead. "Oh, bless you."
Immersing ourselves in the heartbeat of Old Town seemed the best way to shake off the unpleasantness of our earlier ordeal. The air carried a tang of minerals unique to this deep-dwelling part of the world.
Wandering through the bustling lanes, Janji came to a halt in front of a shooting range. Its entrance was adorned with boasts of precision and skill. A contemplation shadowed his face before he turned to us. "Do you think they'd let me take a few shots?" he asked.
"Uh..." Johan paused, trying to find words. "Are you sure, this is a good idea?"
"I was the best shot in my training group," Janji confessed with a trace of pride. But then a sobering silence overshadowed him. "I haven't touched a gun since..." he paused, letting us fill in the blank.
Johan nodded in understanding but held back. "I've never handled a gun," he admitted.
Janji looked at my human. "Maybe I could show you how?"
Johan pondered for a moment, "I think I'll watch, this time. You go ahead yeah? There's something I need to talk about with Vani."
With a supportive gesture from us, Janji took a steadying breath and moved toward the range. Once he was out of earshot, Johan turned to me, a wrinkle of concern etching his forehead. "Is it really wise for him to revisit this... with everything he's been through?"
"It is a controlled environment," I assured him. "The firearms wouldn't work outside a certain zone, and the staff have remote disabling capabilities. I think this might even be therapeutic for him."
Johan seemed to consider this for a moment, chewing on his lip in thought before giving a tentative shrug. It was then that I decided to broach a more delicate topic.
"Johan, there's something you should know," I said. "Janji may be developing feelings for you."
The words hung between us as Johan processed them. "Did something happen on the train?" he asked, "Did I do something?"
"No, you've done nothing to prompt this," I clarified. " I think he... might have developed an attraction to arxurs and see humans as a morally correct alternative."
Johan took a long breath and breathed out through a rounded lip. "Complicated, isn't it?"
"Just like you said... we can navigate this one step at a time," I offered.
"Yeah... one step at a time. Let's check on him, yeah."
With our conversation concluded we followed Janji into the shooting range. The venlil had secured a firearm for himself and stood in one of the booths. In the confines of the shooting range, Janji stood with confidence. It seemed almost foreign, considering his usual reserve. The bursts from the gun in his grasp sounded crisp and methodical. We watched Janji from behind the safety line. His shoulders squared with a steadiness that each shot seemed to bolster.
Janji's skill impressed even a human-like Johan. "He's really got a knack for this," he murmured.
The gun range proved to be a positive influence for Janji. His body language screamed satisfaction when he came out of the booth. Following the shooting exercise, the time for the last meal arrived. We sat in a restaurant that served some fusion dish between venlil and human.
"I think the human therapists missed this," Janji said in the middle of the meal. "I feel... good there. I imagine myself shooting at... Them."
I wondered. How did the arxurs capture Janji if he had that much skill? I did not have to wonder for long, for he continued.
"I did manage to kill a lot of Them... you know. But...my ammunition is not infinite. They took us by surprise and I only have a pistol with me."
No more detail came from him, the tan venlil continued eating in silence again. Satiated with the meal, our return to the inn brought us to the communal bath area.
The bathing house looked more like the hot spring we visited back on Earth, than any bath I took together with Johan. The humans, including Johan, covered their groin, and sometimes their chest, with opaque fabric. The atmosphere was thick with water vapor and tasted of minerals.
Janji eyed the pool with trepidation. Like a normal venlil, he was not fond of deep water. My human entered first, and I followed soon after.
"It's only a couple of spans deep, Janji," I reassured, settling next to Johan. "You won't drown here."
Janji's approach was gradual, a mix of resistance and curiosity. He dipped a tentative claw, then an entire footpaw, into the pool. At last, he allowed the warm embrace of the pool to envelop him. As the water's warmth seeped into his limbs, the tension melted from his frame.
"This feels... nice."
Next

Intro [Intr]
I want to start off by saying that this guide is by no means the end-all-be-all of the character, but rather my 2 cents on her and what I've learned from playing her recently. Because there's going to be a lot of detail in here. I'm also not putting ability descriptions in here as is usual with these kinds of things. Instead I'm going to give my thoughts on the abilities in an attempt to cut out the fluff since this is going to be a little detailed. The structure of this guide will be her abilities [Ablt] & talents [Tlnt], her cards [Crds], her items [Itm], my example builds [Bld], and then finally notes on a game plan [GmP] with her at the end.
For those that don't care about/play Yag: Only important thing for you to know about her on your team is that your team will do leagues better with her as your off-tank instead of your point tank. Point Yag can be done, but it's actual torture for the Yag player and if your team isn't up to snuff, there's no way for her to win point without the other team being worse than yours. Do an eldritch space worm and yourself a favor by not forcing her to be the point tank. I can't count the number of times I've locked Yag and my team went triple dps or double support and then proceeded to get at or near top credit economy and/or KDA in my team only to lose. Unfortunately soft-locking her and doing it the polite way results in being able to play her maybe a few games a week even with daily play, so that's why you see Yag players lock her in immediately. Space worm chivalry is dead and we as a community killed it. Also go down a little to look at her ult section to see how you can help your friendly neighborhood space worm to grab some lunch and get a kill.
Fair warning this is a long one (big worm, big guide, so the math checks out), but I think it's worth the read if you like the character. I'm also biased. Without further ado, here we go:
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Abilities [Ablt]
Passive: While in Planted form, Yag gets 30% DR. This means that when buying Haven makes this value 34.5%, 38.5%, or 41.9% respectively. Don't let the diminishing returns discourage you from buying Haven, it's still super useful on her, especially in her Travel form where she still gets the full benefits of Haven.
Form Swap: There's ~1s until you can start moving after swapping to Planted form, so keep that in mind for when you're looking for a time to retreat.
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Planted Form Abilities
Caustic Spray: This weapon has an arc to it; which means at range, you'll need to aim a little above the enemy's head to hit them with it. Yag's weapon is a fantastic zoning tool. Not only can you do pretty good damage to your opponents, but the pools it leaves behind also slow enemies within it by 15% (ofc this isn't a factor if they're running resi). You essentially give them two decisions: let you push them out of the position they're currently in, or take the slow tick damage. But it doesn't end there! You can also use it to hit enemies around corners, which means you don't always have to be in their line of sight and that's a blessing for a character that takes so much damage. For shields do not shoot them directly before shooting in front of them to leave behind a pool that still hits the enemy.
Piercing Quills: A great poking tool at range and also great to throw in between acid sprays to increase your dps. Use this intermittently with spray if you're at a range to hit with both at the same time, firing a quill when you know it'll hit whoever you're trying to focus down. Try and aim this at their lower body, going lower the farther away they are in order to get the extra 50 AoE damage. Since your spray needs to be aimed farther up the farther away someone is, at a certain range you have to either just spray, alternate between the two, or just poke with the quills. Or you can also just reposition. You can also use the AoE to hit enemies that are just around a corner along with your spray. I would advise that when you first start firing at someone, hit them with a quill first to get that extra 170-220 burst, fire for long enough to get all of your pools down, and then start using your quills between sprays. Quill "burst" will also let you finish a kill faster than the spray will.
Hardening: I'm going to start off here by saying that this is not your main defensive tool even though it gives you a total of 55% DR at base; your main defensive tool is to retreat. You'll still use this defensively in some situations, and those are usually pretty self explanatory or learned through experience. With that out of the way, there are a few use cases for this ability that are important. The first is that you're CC immune during it, so you can use it to dodge the effects of any CC ults/abilities that you have time to or know are coming. The second is for damage since it has a burst depending how long you're in it of 300-1100 damage within a 25 unit radius which can be insane. If you're going to use it offensively, decide how low your HP can get for you to survive after form swap + your retreat option. Then keep an eye on your health and when the enemy starts backing away from you or you reach your decided safe health threshold pop the ability and either run or keep aggressing depending on the situation. You can also use it to punish an enemy trying to stall with a defensive ability but holding it down and popping it when the ability ends. Never try and use this as the main show of your offense however. It's a useful tool in your belt, but most of your damage comes from your spray and most of your defense comes from getting around corners.
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Travel Form Abilities
Trail of Acid: Not much to say here. If you're near enemies in Travel form or just passing by, just pop it.
Acceleration: This is the best tool in Yag's belt if we aren't counting form swap or her weapon by far. If you want to stop during it, just Form Swap to Planted and you'll stop in place. You can use this defensively to get away from enemies or to try and get to an ally faster to save them (I've used it to save teammates from Talus ults for example). Offensively, you can use this to run through an enemy after form swapping to finish them off or to chase a kill and still get out. You can also use this to just run through the enemies real quick while using Trail of Acid to get some really nice burst damage in or to hit someone you can't get to safely through normal means. Just keep in mind that CC will stop you in your tracks, so plan your dives with this accordingly. If you're in the air, you can turn immediately as well meaning you can easily re-route yourself without having to deal with her awkward turning to finish a kill real quick, get to a position you can't normally get to (like getting from the high ground to the window of the upper bridge room before the final part of a push in Ice Mines.) If you use this offensively, just make sure that you do have an escape plan for if you get caught out during its cooldown.
Primal Vision: If you're not using Sight Begets Strength, you'll primarily use this for scouting and to let your team know where an enemy is after you VGS their position. With that talent, you'll still use it this way when it's the best option, but there's a lot more versatility to it. Most of the time you'll just use it whenever it's off cooldown, but keep an eye out for situations when you might actually need to hold onto it. I'll go into more detail in a little during the talent section.
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Ultimate
(For controller users: Do yourself a favor and map her ult to L3 so you can aim aim with the right stick and hit the ult easier than you would with triangle/Y. The same goes for if you play Khan.)
A powerful ultimate when you pull it off right, but it can get you killed if you use it in the wrong spot, but your stun window can be reduced with Resilience or the card Extermination since it counts as CC. Try and use this on isolated enemies or to stop a flankeoff-tank from killing a teammate. It's also good to try to ult someone with an object between you (looking at your Bazaar) to shield you from damage to make ults easier to get off. There's also a few tricks to this like when you use Primal Vision in Sight Begets and then go into Planted and ult someone and then the shields will start applying to your ult health pool. Your DR also applies to the health pool, so the effective health is 3750/.7 = 5357. The card Out of Time also adds to the DR for your ult, which means that for up to 2.5s your ult has 42.5% DR which makes for 6521.7 effective health, but Towering Presence is still staight up better at 6785.7 effective health.
Sometimes even though you won't get a guaranteed kill, it's good to pull an enemy out of position with it whose movement/survivability isn't super strong or who is low and trying to run so your team can gang up on them. There's 2 bonuses to this: 1) Your team gets a kill and 2) You get back 35% ult charge so you can use another faster. Only do this if you know you're in a safe spot and able to get out after the stun. Another use for the ult is when you're low on HP and need to stall point. Although this means your ult will get stopped, you get a refund on it so you can charge it back up faster, so it can be worth it to fail on purpose sometimes if you think your team can pull off the rest afterwards.
When Yag is your teammate and trying to grab a bite to eat: A few things to note is that you can't heal her and her ult health pool can't become damage immune, so Fernando or Rei ult doesn't help. But you know what does? Putting a shield up in front of her so they can't shoot her; so Fernando, Barik, Ash, Atlas, Nyx, Khan, Koa, and Terminus (hell yeah, king) can all help to guarantee a kill. I've also had some pretty experienced Fernando's actually try to link up ults with me instead of just shielding or body blocking if it's desperate and saving their ult since two ults doesn't feel worth one pick unless you don't see any other use cases for it popping up. For flanks: Androxus Reversal, Evie Ice Block, Zhin Counter and Moji Barrier can all help with this or VII can fear the backline to get his own picks while keeping the backline off Yag. For DPS the only one that I know is practical is Octavia Bubble to hide where Yag is if they don't already know where to shoot. For supports a Ying illusion or Luna can help to guarantee a kill if placed in the right spot and for the upcoming patch Io might be able to run Goddess' Blessing to add a little more DR (10% after dim. returns with no haven). Technically Damba or Pip can do the same as VII with his ult, but I personally don't think it's a great use case for them since the reason VII's is good is since it synergizes with his playstyle to get even more picks, while the other two are much more niche in where you'll actually add to the number of picks with a Yag pull distraction. But when it works, it works. You can also try to body block a bit of damage, but I really don't recommend going out of your way for that unless you think you can survive and it's worth it. I'd rather die for my mistake than let you sacrifice yourself for the kill.
*Edit: Thanks to u/NatchGa for correcting me on Fernando's ultimate. My apologies, it apparently does keep Yag's hp at 1.5k for the duration, it apparently just happened to not work out when it's happened to me. Probably because they did it at the start of my ult instead of waiting for a bit of damage to be poured into it first so we ran out of time.
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Talents [Tlnt]
Corrosive Acid - Fantastic for boosting your damage, this is Yag's "selfish" talent. Your damage goes from 380/132 dps for your spray/pools to 420/160 dps for a total +68 dps. More damage also means more ult charge so keep that in mind when picking your talent for a match. The +20% movement speed isn't the main selling point for the talent, but it is useful. For example, when spraying onto point, you're also increasing your point tank's speed. And if an ally needs to retreat, you can create a little path for them to help them rotate out if you think they need it. It's a niche use, but it only takes one or two pools so make sure to just tap your fire button if you're going to do this to save ammo unless you're about to swap forms to reposition. *There's also a pool that will slowly move out from Yag doing extra damage during hardening with this talent I completely forgot about. Thanks again to u/NatchGa for reminding me about it.
Sight Begets Strength - Giving your team an extra total of 360 shield and +15% move speed for 4s in a 150 unit radius is fantastically useful and a lot of the time you'll be buffing all of them. This talent is a must pick if you think your team is okay on damage and the point tank isn't using a shield since Wrecker makes this talent a lot less useful. This is also especially useful to help out Inara, Term, or Atlas with their move speed without needing to be that close to them, so keep that in mind when picking talents! This is also her main point tank talent imo since you'll be able to help protect your team in a radius and wrecker is a non-factor without another tank (minus Vivian or Dredge running his shield card, but hey). Don't forget to run Rejuv + Chronos if you have to run this on point.
Unnatural Persistence - A lot of people use this talent on point. But it's not even useful for that since anti-healing makes it useless and Sight Begets both protects yourself and your team even if just a little. Even Corrosive Acid is better on point since it lets you deny space and pressure the enemy better.
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Cards [Crds]
Yag has... a lot of cards to consider for builds. Some are trash, but imo that's a good thing since it makes it easier to choose cards for your builds. There's also certain threshold you'll want to hit or stop at for some cards, so play around with it and don't just send a card to 5 for kicks, you might get more use out of an extra point or two on another card.
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Self-Sustain Options
Spreading Domain - Let's just get this one out of the way and say it's her worst option and it isn't even close. Not only do you have to hold Hardening until it's over for the 100 heal, but that's also going to be subject to anti-healing.
Raze and Burn - This is the most popular self-sustain option for Yag by far and in my opinion only her second best one. She can get 50-250 healing per quill (unless you get lucky and the enemies lined up) and in the shooting range this seems super strong since most run it from 200-250 healing on their builds. But what situation are you usually hitting enemies with your quills in? Usually you're exposed to get line of sight with quills, which means that that sweet sweet 250 burst heal is nearly always subject to anti-heal. It should also be noted that the heal is only for the initial hit and the AoE damage after won't proc the card.
Last Efforts - Many would say this is worse than Raze and Burn, but it trades the faster burst heal for more healing over time per quill especially if the enemy is grouped up for the same proc condition. If you run this though, it's usually just a 1-2 pointer since you'll want more points in other cards that need it. If you're going to only run 1 or 2 points in your sustain, I would say this is the best option for that.
Collateral Damage - In my opinion, her best sustain card. Since the condition is that you just have to swap into Planted, you don't have to be in line of sight to use it. That means that you can use it for some extra sustain around corners. The lifesteal also applies to the pools Caustic Spray leaves behind even if you swap forms while they're already out, but does not apply to pools left by Trail of Acid. Since you need to swap forms and reposition with Yag often, you end up re-proccing the card a lot and it helps to keep you from just standing in one place. Not only that, but Yag's weapon hits an area, which means you can lifesteal from more than one enemy, so it scales depending on how many you can hit. With all that said, this card is great at level 3-5, but I usually run it at 3 unless I have a reason to go higher. Even though having self-sustain is important on Yag, you also need to spread points in your build to get use out of other cards.
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Ammo Options
For those that want to know how I calculated the values for these, the methodology is in a comment since I ran out of space (I know, I have a problem).
Ancient Wounds - This card will keep Yag's ammo pool up the longest of all her cards, but I would argue that at a certain point it's kind of moot. You'll usually be choosing between this or Triumphant Return for your ammo card (try to stick to one or the other). One thing to note is that there's a pause in firing between spraying and each quill, which prolongs how long you're attacking for, but doesn't really increase the resources. It just alternates from one to the other. Still really strong ammo generation though.
Triumphant Return - Adds .36s of fire time per level after form swapping. Since you have to form swap to reposition with her often, this is a very useful ammo card. I like to run this at 3 since it aligns with Collateral Damage nicely. You also usually want to wait for her regular ammo consumption to come back before firing quills to get the bang for your buck in both Triumphant and Collateral. So should you use Triumphant Return or Ancient Wounds for your ammo card? TR has the easier availability and you can fire for longer at enemies that you can't see directly or are farther away, but Ancient wounds has the edge in ammo economy as long as you're hitting quills. Personally at level 2-3 I've never had a problem using TR over AW so it's really down to personal preference since they both do the job you need them for pretty well.
Deadly Predator - 8% ammo means we're adding 2.4 to our ammo pool, which means .2s of firing per level. Triumphant Return and Ancient Wounds are just much better than this one.
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Cooldown Reduction Options
Violent Birth - Fantastic CDR card since Acceleration is such a strong and versatile part of Yag's kit. You can still do without it, but if you're going to run Chronos as a main part of your item build this card is just that much better.
Dreadful Compact - Another strong CDR option, I only use this card if I'm going to point tank since I don't usually have Hardening when I need it as off-tank with her.
Futile Efforts - Not a bad card, but she has better ones since quill availability is already good. There's an small exploit with her quills that will up your dps a little with this card, though. There's a .5s delay between quills, but if you use your last quill and then reduce the cooldown you can technically fire them faster than the .5s and increase your dps, but it's pretty inconsistent and impractical.
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Defensive Options
End of Era - Technically also an offensive option since it increases the rate Hardening's damage ramps up at. It's a strong card that is great to have if you can find the space in your build for it. Some would say it's a must have, but I personally don't use it since it doesn't suit my playstyle. Yag gains +5% DR per level (25 * .2 = 5) of EoE in Hardening and reduces the duration by .4s per level. At level 5 you have 80% DR for up to 2s in Hardening. *Edit: The reduction in duration also means the damage ramps up faster, but I would advise only running it for damage when you really feel you have Yag's game plan down and know when it's safe to use Hardening offensively. I didn't mention this at first because I didn't want to create bad habits for early Yag players.
Out of Time - Reduces the Hardening DR to 42.5% in exchange for letting it last after Hardening ends. Each EoE level adds 2.5% DR. This also helps with ult picks by Hardening and then getting out of it before ulting. I like this card for when I have to be on point, since it lets you be a little more tanky for a couple seconds while still allowing you to spray/quill to pressure the enemy out. But if you do this make sure you're in a spot where as few people as possible can still fire at you!
The Great Worm - Fantastic 1 point card and if you can find the space it's still good to put points in. This card can be the difference of life and death sometimes. Even with 80 shield I've had ~5k-6k shielding at the end of a match (not running Sight Begets) that went 4/3. Although the value is more often around 3k-4k.
Extermination - CC is Yag's bane, so this card is really good to have in a build you use specifically when there's a lot of CC on the enemy team you don't want to deal with. That said, you can skip this card in most builds and play around CC by positioning yourself in spots where it isn't such a big deal, but if there's a ton of difficult to deal with CC on the enemy team, then run a build with this card
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Utility Options
Towering Presence - This card doesn't just add 200 health to your ult per level. It's actually 285.7 effective health. Invaluable card to have since your base ult health pool is difficult to get picks with if the enemy team is paying attention. Yag ult is super impactful, so making sure to have a bit more leeway to get that pick helps a lot.
Deadly Pursuit - I know people are expecting me to say this card does nothing. And that's untrue. Since I started running this card I've been able to get out of situations where I know for a fact I wouldn't have before. It's effect may be practically unnoticeable, but it is impactful. This card doesn't seem to activate when form swap (which takes 1s) starts, but instead does when you're first able to move after swapping. Yag's max move speed is 45un/s (units per sec), which means at 20% move speed it's 54un/s. The issue is that she takes 2s to accelerate to max speed, meaning that during that time her slower move speeds are what's getting buffed by 20%. What really matters isn't calculating the speed that she's going at each interval, but the distance each level of Deadly Pursuit adds. When you math it out it looks like this:

Time	Normal	Deadly Pursuit
1s	11.25un	13.5un (+2.25un)
2s	45un	54un (+9un)
3s	90un	108un (+18un)
4s	135un	162un (+27un)
5s	180un	216un (+36un)

(How I arrived at this in the same comment as the ammo details)
As you can see, this card at level 1 does basically nothing, but after 2s increases the distance moved by that 20% in increments of 9. I run this at 3 on all my builds because I've found that extra 18 units to be a sweet spot for survivability and repositioning just a little faster and still putting enough points in other cards I need. 18 units is a big difference on whether or not you're able to get around that corner before dying. I don't see a lot of reason to put it at level 4 or 5, but if you like it better go for it! Running it at 2 is still pretty weak, but it'll still help you out, but if you run it at 1 you might as well not.
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Items [Itm]
Blue
Illuminate - Don't need it. You can track invis enemies (minus Seris) with ticks from acid pools or find where they are with Primal Vision before swapping to Planted and firing at them.
Resilience - Must buy if there's CC you're worried about. Sometimes you skip it from first buy just to see if the enemy is actually good with their CC if it's just a Jenos or BK (you can also dodge his bomb or ult with Hardening if it's off CD or just run if it isn't Accelerant BK). Otherwise, don't buy it if you think CC won't be a real problem. But at high levels it usually is lol. If you're running Extermination at 4 you can even just buy resi at 1 and keep it that way or ignore it in favor of other items.
Guardian - No.
Haven - Great card since it also makes her ult harder to stop and helps with survivability in Travel form. Even though it's subject to diminishing returns in Planted, it still really helps out since Yag is a big ol' damage sponge.
Yellow
Morale Boost - Fantastic item on Yag if you have the space to buy it.
Chronos - Great item for if you're running Sight Begets, but otherwise you may get something else since Haven + Chronos is so expensive and you may have to choose between the two depending on circumstances needing you to get more defensive items. Or you'd rather get Morale Boost over it. With that said, if you think you have the space for it, do it as long as it helps your game plan. Even at just level 1 Chronos is a huge help for Yag.
Green
Life Rip - Very rarely will you ever run this item and only if you're really desperate for healing, then sure. A waste of credits in most cases.
Kill to Heal - Waste of credits imo. Yag's health pool is too large for this to really make much of a dent. It can help, but Rejuv is far superior. *u/NatchGa brought up a good point that you can use Primal Vision (and Yag's area damage from acid) to farm elims and proc this. So if you have a team that picks up kills well, this might be a good pickup if you feel like you need that extra healing.
Rejuvenate - Must buy. This is the best green item for Yag (and tanks in general). There's a lot of health to heal on Yag since one of her jobs is to soak up a ton of damage and still get out to survive to try and waste their resources so your team can win the resource war. That means you're a serious drain on your support's resources and your teammates may end up dying while they're trying to heal you. Get to at least 2 or max asap. Side bar for DPS players: I know it's not sexy, but if your healer is a Jenos, Corvus, or Grover just buy Rejuv. It counters anti-healing and allows your support to keep you alive in a way that Life Rip never will. With those supports it's almost always going to be your first buy unless you guys really need Wrecker or something.
Veteran - Haven is better, especially for Yag ult, but if you think you'll need the extra credits it'll work alright. Even if you have Haven, this is still a good buy if there's nothing else important to get.
Red
Bulldozer - I mean, if there's a totem Grohk it's a pretty good secondary pickup, but not essential. Otherwise there's not really much reason to buy it unless you really want to mess with a Barik.
Lethality - No reason to buy this on Yag ever. Unless you're trolling.
Wrecker - Usually don't run this on her, but sometimes you have to if the enemy shields are being a real problem. Even then, Rejuv or MB is usually your first buy
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Item Starts
Make sure that you look at the enemy team to figure out the 3 items you're going to focus on most are and try and synergize those items with the build you're using or situations you think will be the most trouble to deal with.
Rejuv + Resi - The classic tank start, don't think I need to explain this one.
Rejuv - Also a classic tank start. Great for if you want to get your support's healing as effective as possible asap or you want to second buy Haven , Morale Boost, or Chronos.
Morale Boost + Resi - Great for if there's a lot of enemy CC and you're running a build focused on ult picks or if you just want the 1st level of MB to get more ult charge throughout the match while still focusing on other items afterwards.
Morale Boost - Pretty risky, but if you think you're going to get a lot of opportunities for your ult or just want to do it for fun, go for it.
Haven - I don't usually run Haven starts since Rejuv is a more important defensive item to focus on first due to Yag being a big healing drain for your team. Usually if you're building Haven, you'll do so after a Rejuv start. However, if you think you won't be able to survive the enemy team's damage without it then it's a very strong starting item for Yag.
Chronos - Only a good start if you think you'll have the space for it. Your second buy will usually be Rejuv afterwards. I only have 1 build I use this start with.
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Builds [Bld]
When it comes to building Yag, going with a one size fits all is to your detriment. You want to make builds for different situations and she has so much diversity you can have 6 builds and still feel like there's something missing. These are the builds that I run as an example, but make sure your build suits your playstyle since these are tailored to mine.
Abbreviation Key:
AW - Ancient Wounds CD - Collateral Damage D - Deadly Pursuit C - Dreadful Compact
E - Extermination OoT - Out of Time GW - The Great Worm TP - Towering Presence
TR - Triumphant Return VB - Violent Birth
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Ult & Damage (Corrosive): TP 5 CD 3 D3 TR3 GW 1
I use this build with Corrosive Acid in order to take advantage of the extra ult gen. CD 3 is just enough lifesteal to help while not taking points from other cards, Deadly Pursuit is 3 in all of my builds, TR can be swapped out for AW if that's your preference, but I'd say put that at 2 and put the extra point into GW. When using this build, start with Morale Boost 1 as your first item and then get some Rejuv and the rest of your buys is going by the situation.
Survival (Sight Begets): TP 3 CD 3 D3 TR 3 GW 3
Great for hit and runs or when you need some extra cushion for getting out. As a note for Sight Begets: don't run the talent if your tank has a shield since it Wrecker makes the talent much less useful and incentivizes the enemy team to buy it even more. I use this build if I'm running off-tank Sight Begets and don't think I'll be able to buy Chronos until later in the match. Again if AW is your preference, knock it down to 2 and put TP or GW at 4 would be my recommendation.
Chronos (Either): VB 4 CD 3 D3 TR 3 TP 2
If I'm starting Chronos or it's going to be my second buy, this is the build that I use. Usually I'll go for this if I think Acceleration is going to do more work than usual. You can use it for either, but if your team doesn't already have shields, then Sight Begets is the best talent for it.
CC Reduction (Either): E 4 CD 3 D3 TR 3 TP 2
If CC is going to be a REAL problem, then this is the build I go. I also use this if I don't think I have the item buy space for Resi because I want to focus on other ones.
Point DR: OoT 5 C 3 D3 TP 3 AW 1
If I end up on point (which is more often than I'd like, but hey, that's what happens when you want to play Yag in casuals lol) this is the build I run. Out of Time helps to stay longer on point while still firing for pressure and and Dreadful Compact makes sure you get more use out of that. It also synergizes with Ancient Wounds well. Towering Presence 3 is so you can get your ult off since it's a bit harder to do when you're the only tank. For items, always start Rejuv as the point tank and the other items will usually be something like Resi, Haven, Veteran, or Chronos with some situations calling for a bit of Wrecker in there.
Point Evasive: CD 5 GW 4 D 3 TR 2 TP 1
I use this build if I'm on point and I have to run on and off of it a lot. It also helps to get away from spam. I especially use this build if my only support is a Jenos or Corv which sucks but happens. Yag does better with burst healers. That's also the reason for the Collateral Damage 5 so I have more sustain.
There's a lot more you can do with builds for Yag and probably better ones than mine, but I showed mine as an example of how you want to build Yag for different situations: Keep some common cards for consistency, and have a couple variable cards that address what you need for the situation you think you're going to be in. When it comes to self-sustain or ammo try to keep it to 1 card each to afford build space to the others.
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General Game Plan [GmP]
Most of what you do with abilities or items and cards are above, so I won't include any of that there since most of the leg work is already done above. For tips on those, go to the corresponding sections (their search codes are included in the intro [Intr]).
I'll try to keep this relatively short, but there's a fair amount of things that make Yag an effective team member. I bold that because this is a team game and if you aren't looking to help your team with Yag, you aren't using the character as effectively as you could. What you want in general is:

1. Survive - Yag being difficult to kill is her strongest point and if you get out of a situation after the enemy fires at you, you just wasted their time and resources while keeping yourself safe. This is one of the things that makes the character so effective. Not only are those resources wasted, but you make it harder for them to take space, probably kept them from being able to pressure the objective until they're healed back up, and in addition frustrate them throughout the match. The mental game is everything, especially for a good Yag. If you're just rolling by and on their mind that could be enough.
2. Waste enemy resources - This is mentioned in the last point, but I wanted to add something to it: don't just take damage for the sake of it. You're also there to DO damage, and health and lives are a resource.
3. Help out your support/backline - If they're struggling it's your job to help push the enemy away from them. Sometimes you want to save your Acceleration to get back to your team to help out. You can also use Hardening over them as a way to protect them and wait for the area damage to be around kill range if the enemy is close by (which I've done to mess with Talus ults more than once). Keep in mind that area damage will still hit whoever you're over, so try and plant in front of them instead or shield them in travel form if they won't survive you going for the kill. Biggest help to your support is to cleanse anti-healing. Stopping and planting around a corner where your support can heal you is a huge help to them. Don't forget that you can stop Accelerate after getting around that corner by using Form Swap.
4. Deny space - By placing your pools and hitting multiple enemies at once, you also influence their line of sight and who they can shoot at or where they can stay. It's that or they take damage. Push them out of position so your team can do the rest.
5. Reposition - I'm constantly form swapping to go to a new angle to find a piece of cover where I can still fire at an enemy. Don't just stand in place being an easy target, you waste more resources (like time) by being harder to hit. It also lets you pressure the enemy for longer, so always try and be in the place where you can do the most damage while being hit the least. That said, sometimes it's unavoidable to be that big target in the open, but try your best not to be.
6. Set up kills - Tied to the above, if you can finish a kill that's great, but getting an enemy low enough for a teammate to get the kill is more than good enough. So if you don't think you'll survive the retreat after the kill, then don't. You've already done your job here.
7. Finish team's kills - If you see a kill ripe for the picking go for it, but do so cautiously since they might be retreating to the rest of their team. When you go for this try and do so with Accelerate to get that 500 burst unless you think you'll need it to get out. You don't need to finish the kill if it'll end up in your death, but if it's the support that's a judgement call. I've sacced myself for that support kill and still had my team lose that point in a 4v4.

The most important thing with Yag, and this can't be stressed enough, is good positioning. I know for some that's a bit of an abstract concept, but it's the difference between playing her effectively and just feeding so there's no getting around it. Luckily you learn from experience and if you died with Yag it was probably due to bad positioning, so after each death ask if there was a better spot you could have been or better time to try and get away. Recognize when you died for being too greedy and try and avoid doing it again. In general you want to be in range to hit whoever you think needs pushed out (or killed if you can) and still have an escape route.
Conclusion
Welp, that's about all I have to say on the character, so if you read this far I'm both impressed and incredibly thankful. I know it's a lot to go through, so thanks! I left the explanation for how I arrived at the numbers for the ammo cards and Deadly Pursuit in a comment below since it put the post over the character limit. If that somehow gets buried you can search author:woefullyineptpigeon in the comments. Let me know if I seemed to forget something mid-thought because I forgot to go back and finish it. Take care!
Edit: Changed Chronos section because I didn't word it right. Edit 2: Added suggestions from comments

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