#c: rho

[magmacannon]

OC ask meme lets go 16-20 and 31 & 32

YEEHAW let's do it... these are fun ones thank u

Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? Best biologist would be Yarrow if he actually focused on it because organic sciences come more easily to him, but also he might not be the best because his focus would be everywhere. Roman is the secondmost likely to do well at it because he's a giant nerd who lives for school and knowledge and just always does that with all his classes.

Any OC OTPs? oOO with my own guys not as much but me and my wife have a few... huge shoutout to the OGs Roman and Vince, still going strong quite literally 14 years now! (Of my own characters besides this I think I'm... forming an otp for two skyship captains... late-middle aged milf rivals is very tempting to me)

Any OC crackships? fjfhd GOOD question. I think Yarrow smash or passing every character I have is very funny as an idea, and maybe the funniest possibility is like. the absolutely world-ending relationships between the primal gods of my setting (the giant 200 mile centipede has the hots for the unknowably huge primal god of earth, go girls!!!)

Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) Okay choosing one is hard but I've been thinking abt him a lot so it's time to talk abt Yarrow!! Yarrow was the first developed OC that I made that wasn't either Just Me but slightly different (i.e. Roman) or tied/inspired by some sort of media (FR, other games I'd played) and like... idk!!! He's very important to me because of that but because he was the first character that I sat down and purposefully made a detailed background for, and is still one of the few characters I have that is intensely bold and has hard edges to him. He represents overcoming obstacles to me and becoming genuinely good person because you want it even if you're not perfect or 100% successful all the time, and then applying that same grace to others. Also he's fun to get clothes designed for and can be a goofy guy on the side which means I have fun with him in serious and silly situations.

Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)? Of my developed OCs that I can think of off the top of my head, Roman and Yarrow and Sgositova can for SURE sing and do so enough that others would know about it. Roman's a tenor with the best overall vocal skill of the bunch (he can get very loud if he wants to and still sounds pretty good!), Yarrow's a high baritone who has evolved to be a little more smooth jazz than his original voice claims (somewhere in the slider between Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra), and Tova's the worst singer technically with the most gusto and she's a husky-voiced alto (sea shanties will do that). OCs that can sing decently but don't do it often are Rho (higher alto than Tova, could sing lounge jazz if she wasn't shy) and Leynth (tenor as well, beautiful voice but has trouble with breath support and holding a note without accompaniment).

Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really) Gonna pick someone I haven't mentioned as much it's time for Grey because I think his blog would be objectively funny. Grey's blog is aesthetic black and white photos of modern architecture, grandiose party aesthetics, jewelry and suits (with links to buy them that were either there or he added on his own), and advertisements for his own business products (assuming they existed). He'd tag things with a three digit code depending on type and would have everything queued and genuinely it'd be hard to determine whether his account was a personal or company account until one day he posts something notably horny or extremely emotional and then quickly covers it up with about 80 reblogs.

Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? Roman.............................................................. just because he'd be a miserable little bastard who's nearly crying and says "who's there????" at every noise. Special mention to Dehiscence for being the monster in a horror game tho they'd do well.

#ty so much for the ask!!! I'm gonna get to the rest of them tomorrow hehe #c: Roman #C: dehiscence #c: yarrow #c: sgositova #c: leynth #c: rho #c: grey

[emordnilap-fr]

rho has managed to find a new son and apprentice: tango! this now makes 4 generations of alchemists with fathers teaching their sons the science.

dunst (top left) started it all, taking in lehrer (top right) as an egg and teaching him. after dunst's passing, lehrer did the same with rho (bottom left). and now, many years after completing his own apprenticeship, rho has adopted tango and has begun teaching him as well.

<3

#c: Dunst #c: Lehrer #c: Rho #c: Tango #me mentioning rho looking for one manifested this... and so fast #thanks dadboat for having this juicy little guy up i had to yoink him

[murder-popsicle]

@oftomorrow (Tal-Rho)

Jane was two thirds of the way down the ventilation shaft of the HYDRA base -- disguised as an office building, but with a bunker in the basement that held whatever this alien device was that Morgan Edge wanted so badly. She could hear him breathing in her earpiece, but so far he'd restricted himself to only the occasional comment. The occasional annoying comment, to be sure, but some men were like that. They spoke because they liked the sound of their own voices.

But that was beside the point, because she and Edge were allies right now, if only temporarily. Jane would retrieve this device for him -- and steal some of the mineral he'd alluded to, just as insurance -- and Edge in turn would help her track down and kill Colonel Kulikov, the Russian HYDRA head who had sent Jane to kill the Starks and who knew all of the Winter Soldier's control and shut down codes. And Edge had X-ray vision, apparently, which would be helpful when it came to Jane sneaking in and out without being detected.

If it had been only her, she would have blown the base sky high, but that would also mean blowing Edge's cover as a loyal member of HYDRA, which would make getting to Kulikov that much harder. So what the Hell, Jane would do it quietly. She could always come back to this base after she and Morgan Edge parted ways.

"I think I've got about fifty yards to go," she muttered, knowing the tiny but powerful earpiece would pick up her voice.

#oftomorrow #c: tal rho #v; revenge road trip

[lemuseum]

#Eadfrith of Lindisfarne (?) - Chi-Rho page (f. 29r) #Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700)

[jasontoddssuper]

Always being right about Jason Todd comes at great costs.One of them is that my friend and i were talking about him in our dms and it led to me having the realization that the fandom's version of him(insult) is the 'Are you lost babygirl?' meme but unironically

#on the plus side i'm happy about how many times i made them say 'HELP' though so at least there's that #and no this is not going under the cut :) readmores protect you from jaysumm/summer kent posting not from the C U R S E S #jason todd #batfam #lemon #i guess????for implications #rhato #rho #wfa #letters from summer

[tentacion3099]

From the Bronze Age, the magnificent Rhos Rydd shield.

Expertly made c. 3,000 years ago from a single disc of bronze. 20 concentric circles are decorated with 3,700 singly punched bosses.

Found in a bog near Blaenplwyf, Wales, in 1804.

#ancient history #art

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 3 of Nona the Ninth

Huh, so:

I guess this is definition 7, then. I've never heard that word used to refer to a person before, but it's not marked as being regional

So Nona looks old enough that people are fine with hitting on her, but not old enough that anyone thinks she's graduated from middle school. This is not a fun fact

Also, this school has "almost 20 children", this is like a one-room schoolhouse from the 19th century except it's in the middle of New York City for some reason, what even

I mean, is it really that hard to pimp out Augustine? If she'd said "I'd have had better luck pimping out Mercy" that would have been something, but maybe it actually is easier to pimp out Nona and Camilla than it is to pimp out Mercy

Can Camilla and Palamedes have regular conversations with each other? Very curious as to how that might work

Quasi-telepathic abilities sounding more and more likely

There's been descriptions of it being hot, and I'm not sure if a) it's just summer, and that's what summer is like wherever New Rho happens to be, or b) this planet is just hotter than Earth by virtue of being closer to the sun or having a naturally thicker atmosphere, or c) some kind of climate change is happening here

It sounds like she has some still-repressed memories of learning this stuff?

So they live in basically a cop building, and Pyrrha did say that one of their neighbors is a cop and another one has militia connections, so I'm guessing they are probably being specifically kept there by BOE or some other entity because of their Nine Houses connection, and Camilla doesn't want Nona telling people where they live because people might infer that based on the building?

Given that a lot of people here don't speak each other's languages, I wonder how much of this is just another culture's kinship system being mistranslated into whatever language the kids are using. Like, Brother Father and Younger Brother Father sound like they're probably uncles, Eldest Father could be a grandfather, and New Father could possibly be a step-father

I mean, first of all, Palamedes has been living here for a while, I think he should be used to BOE (or whatever you want to call this culture) names by now, but also, Honesty is a perfectly fine name. Like, Wake's name was silly, Hot Sauce is a silly name, We Suffer And We Suffer and Crown Him With Many Crowns are at least fairly odd from an English-language naming standpoint, and many of our common names are borrowed from ancient languages and don't mean anything in regular conversation, but we totally 100% also name people things like Grace and Faith and Hope and Joy and Harmony and Prudence and Felicity and Constance and I'm sure there's plenty of cultures where boys are named this way too and Honesty is a perfectly fine and reasonable name. While we're at it, Beautiful Ruby and Born in the Morning are also pretty good names? The only thing odd about these names is that we're not used to seeing them

Anyway, possibly the kids are speaking some non-House language (or are at least named in non-House languages) and Nona is translating their names into House for this conversation? It's a little odd in that case that she's not translating "Kevin" at least in the narrative text, since Kevin is just an anglicization of Irish Caoimhín which means "of noble birth" in Irish. But if Nona's language abilities are based on some sort of telepathic sense, she might fail to translate Kevin's name because Kevin doesn't know Irish? Irish seems unlikely to have survived the apocalypse, at any rate

She definitely can lie, though, she successfully lied and told the teachers at the school that Camilla was her sister and Pyrrha was a friend of her father's and that she had been through many resettlements, didn't she? She just doesn't seem to know on her own when she should be lying and when she shouldn't be

There are some implications for how language is being processed for someone who really can't lie, basically the science fiction premise of Embassytown by China Miéville, and in that book the aliens who could not lie also had an empathetic aspect to how they understood language. But I don't think Muir knows enough about linguistics to write that kind of linguistics science fiction

Is this why Nona's legs are sore, she is running around with these young kids all day and having trouble keeping up?

Very curious if this is actually some kind of possibly war-related movement of things through the underground tunnels, or if this is just a vernacular name for something else

So BOE is recruiting children on this planet to join their militia, and they are also executing necromancers here by burning them to death

It's kind of funny that Honesty is calling her stupid here - he knows there are spies who are necromancers and/or zombies, and Nona is in fact a necromancer (or used to be one at one time) and she also lives with Palamedes for that matter, but it doesn't occur to Honesty that there is actually a chance that Nona or someone she lives with could be one of the spies

So this is what they call the resurrection beast? Except we know that resurrection beasts don't come for regular necromancers, or else they would be all over the Nine Houses, they only come for Lyctors. I guess it's entirely possible that this one could be here for any of Nona, Pyrrha, or Camilla/Palamedes, or it could just be here to eat a living planet because that's what they do. I wonder if the mythology of these people is that the resurrection beasts are like God's punishment for necromancy or something, it seems like Hot Sauce believes that to be the case, at least. Possibly it's not completely wrong, depending on what the relationship was between the deaths of the nine planets and the occurrence of necromancy

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth

[usafphantom2]

U.S. Navy declares IOC for its new UAS reconnaissance MQ-4C Triton

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/15/2023 - 14:00 in Military, UAV - UAV

The U.S. Navy officially declared the initial operational capability (IOC) of Northrop Grumman Corporation's MQ-4C Triton multi-manned unmanned aircraft on September 14.

Since its Early Operational Capability (EOC) milestone in May 2020, the MQ-4C Triton has operated within the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet, conducting maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in the area of responsibility of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command as the Navy's only unmanned, high-altitude, long-lived aircraft.

The MQ-4C Triton, manufactured for use by the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), supports a wide range of missions. These include maritime patrol, signal intelligence, search and rescue operations, as well as communications relay tasks.

According to the producer, these aircraft offer persistent surveillance capabilities, assisting in predicting opposing actions and facilitating more effective joint military efforts and enterprises.

Operating at altitudes above 50,000 feet and boasting a 24-hour resistance, the Triton serves as a continuous communications retransmission center, ensuring connectivity between dispersed Navy units, while allowing commanders to operate with a shared operational overview.

“The Triton proved to be invaluable for the maritime patrol and reconnaissance mission in the Indo-Pacific. Now that the system has reached its initial operational capacity, commanders will be able to take full advantage of Triton's powerful set of sensors to detect and stop potential opponents around the world," said Rho Cauley Bruner, director of the Triton program at Northrop Grumman.

"The persistent global maritime awareness is fundamental to deter, or compete and win, our opponents. Triton ensures that we are making informed decisions and operating effectively anywhere in the world," added Captain Josh Guerre, manager of the U.S. Navy's persistent unmanned aircraft systems program.

Northrop Grumman provided the U.S. Navy with a total of five Triton aircraft equipped with multiple intelligence capabilities, with the most recent delivery occurring in June 2023.

Tags: Military AviationNorthrop Grumman MQ-4C TritonUASUSN - United States Navy/U.S. Navy

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[gritsandbrits]

Ready to slay (some princes)

Lore time: in my shrek 3 they find godmother's wand which Gwynn repurposes as a rapier as she fights against tyranny :D

Technically not a collectors but a fashion line called well, Dashin' Fashion. The gimmick is highwaymen/masked rogues. Such a description fits Gwynn perfectly. For the body I used a Pocahontas and jasmine. The hair i used a photo I found on Google of different curly ponytail styles and settled on this one. Like previous mockups all the outfits or mashed from stuff I found off walmart and scamazon. I forgot to draw her burn marks in some 🤦🏾 so imagine it to be makeup.

Her palette includes various shades of purple to contrast Rho's pink and white. I made two versions because I couldn't decide which outfit should be official. I also had Charming in mind since they're love interests and all I thought they should match but still look unique from each other. And true to shrek this is meant to be a parody of Bratz GNO. Gwynn's idea of a girl's night out is robbing capitalist pigs.

Background from Shrek 2 (c) DreamWorks

#shrek oc #character design #shrek #fan character #oc: gwynn #dolls #edit #fake

[pretty--in--purple]

Necromancing the Crane Wives: Safe Ship, Harbored (2011)

I happened to be listening to TCW when i first read the books and now they are inexorably linked in my head. So, I'm going through the Crane Wives' discography and seeing how each song can be linked to the Locked Tomb series.

Contains spoilers for the Locked Tomb series!!

Can't Have It All: getting Alecto vibes from this one, with "you won't find me where you left me / I'm long gone / you can't bind me in the state you kept me / for so long" and "my mind's made up, though my head still aches and / all my love you tried to take, but / you can't have it all" - which contains a neat little Harrow lobotomy reference to boot! You can see this as Alecto talking to Jod, a warning at the end of Nona.

The Diving Bell: GIDEON!!! This song is wholly about sacrificing yourself for another person out of love, there's water imagery ("i will drown for you", "hold your heart like waves / open my lungs to let you in", "water rushes in / and i will welcome it"), and lines like "swallow my heart whole / seek me like a soul" and "i am not afraid / to give you everything" !!! It aligns perfectly with the part of HtN where she begs for Harrow to consume her and go full Lyctor.

New Colors: this one's a bit more vague, but i connect it to John pre-resurrection, especially the lines "to climb up in the sky / and steal new colors / away from the sun", plus the chorus literally saying "don't tell me that i can't" - very mad scientist/cult leader/twitch necromancer. Also it opens with the line "orange, yellow, green" which in my TLT brainrot i always link to a) Gideon's hair - and by extension, Wake's - b) gideon's eyes - and by extension John's and Alecto's - and c) the fact that Canaan house was the first time Gideon and Harrow saw vegetation.

Caleb Trask: Gideon to Harrow in GtN. The song's about feeling too guilty and inherently evil - specifically because of the actions of your family ("so you got bad in your blood") - to accept love and comfort. There's even a line saying "there's no reason to live out in chains". Slam dunk.

Counting Sheep: this song is about living a humdrum existence in a world that's falling apart ("as the sunlight filters in / then your daily dread sets in / the cycle's beginning, and in your head alarms are ringing"), so i link it to the world of New Rho and the lives of the people there. Also, there's a section at the end where they repeat Frere Jacques in english, which they translate as "are you sleeping, Brother John?". Could be linked to his absence in NtN and the way Alecto finds him in bed.

Hole in the Silver Lining: this one's very simple, with only really two sections that repeat. I link the first section to Palamedes and the rest of the Sixth House, especially "i'll be the one (...) to find it / i take it upon myself to make sure / i do" and "but i turn it over in my hands until / my fingers wear it through". These lines strike me as very Pal, with all the scientific curiosity he shows but also the responsibility he takes for dangerous information.

Safe Ship, Harbored: Harrow in Harrow the Ninth. "things i forgot i cannot do", "i wasn't born a safe ship / something wore me down", "don't waste your blessings on me"? Very Harrow. The chorus (specifically "i am a safe ship, harbored / losing all of my good years to the shallow water") also makes me think of the fact that she's being severely coddled by Jod and unable to leave the Mithraeum without supervision.

Naked, the Night Falls: strikes me as a Harrow love song to Alecto. "into your arms / sell my sorry soul" is basically what Harrow says to the Body, "been enraptured and tied" definitely aligns with Harrow's devotion. Also, the first line is "softly, a cold wind paints my face", which is such a fun Harrow line.

Ancient History: Ninth House vibes because this one has bones!! ("my dream keep digging up the bones of memories / discarded remnants of former times / now every skeleton is slapping its knees") Weirdly, I kinda think of Anastasia, even though I know we don't have much of a canon personality for her. - we know she was a failed ascension and the line "and my poor heart is an open wound / it's ancient history / that's bleeding out of me / so what am i supposed to do?" has some juicy angst for just such an occasion. This song has only two verses, so not tons to say.

October: oooooh Griddlehark! Interestingly, this one can be taken from both sides. Lines like "i know you, you're the daughter of a lonely man" and "I am naught but a scar upon your breastbone" cut both ways, although at slightly different times. Very cute, very sad, very Griddlehark.

The Crooked, the Cradle: this one uses the word "mercy", but unfortunately doesn't make any sense for her or the OG lyctors. Another Harrow the Ninth song, it seems! "and the devil won't know all the love i just couldn't let go", "this cradle still burns like a hole in my chest", and "but i pray / when it's done, when it's through, i'll have something left for you" are all very Harrow-having-feelings-about-the-lobotomy lines.

I Ain't Done: Tridentariiiiiii!!! "i am a pretty young thing / i am consumed with selfish wanting / carelessly broke you down but i ain't done", "a woman in love has no regrets", "wreckage in the wake of cruel betrayal / paid my sins in blood, but i ain't done". The actual narrative of the song doesn't align with her very closely - it's about the ghost of a woman killed by her husband for infidelity - but there's a real Ianthe + Corona vibe to it.

#necromancing the crane wives #< the tag if you want to block or follow #tlt #tlt meta #the crane wives #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #alecto the ninth #gtn #htn #ntn #atn

[projectbluearcadia]

This Is Fine.

Lizzy: Anne, gonna ask you a real question here, but what the fuck is this?

Lizzy points to the practice exercise the professor handed to the class.

Annelie: Alchemy. 

Lizzy: What?

Annelie: Once you get past the fact that we’re changing the chemical composition of material with magic, it’s not hard. a plus b equals c with b as catalyst. It’s like chemistry, but you can cheat a lot more.

Lizzy: ...why are there so many equations on your paper?

Annelie: Oh, that’s just the basic formatting for the alchemic transfiguration magic. Like you can’t transfigure a piece of lead into gold without formulating the matrix T used to transform each magic circle at steps alpha, beta, lambda, rho...

Lizzy: What?

Annelie: Wait, what’s the highest math you’ve taken?

Lizzy: Um... Triangles?

Annelie pauses.

Annelie: Do you want me to talk to Diavolo? This class is pretty heavy on advanced math. 

Lizzy: Yes pl—

Annelie’s D.D.D. vibrates, and she glances at it before she picks up. 

Annelie: Why are you calling me? 

Lucifer: I wanted to hear your voice.

Annelie: Are you feeling lonely?

Lucifer: Yes, I want to see you. 

Annelie: Awww. 

Lucifer: Come see me.

Annelie: I’m in class. 

Lucifer: Come see me. 

Annelie rolls her eyes. 

Annelie: Be patient. 

Lucifer: Come and see me right now before I come and get you myself. 

Annelie: Oh, please do...

Lucifer appears in the doorway to the classroom. 

Annelie: Seriously?

Lucifer gestures at her, and she sighs as she hangs up and leaves the room.

Lizzy: Did someone say down-bad?

Annelie: Yes, honey?

Lucifer drags her away from the classroom and hungrily kisses her the moment they’re out of view. 

Lucifer: I missed you.

Annelie: I can tell. 

Annelie gives him a peck back, and he hugs her tightly. 

Annelie: Did something happen?

Lucifer: ...why is that your question? I just wanted to see you. 

Annelie: It’s not unwelcome, it’s just that you don’t normally make me skip class. 

Lucifer: ...

Annelie: Lucifer? 

Lucifer: Maybe I was thinking too much...

Annelie: Well, we wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself. 

Annelie fluffs his hair, and Lucifer rolls his eyes. 

Lucifer: I just felt... nevermind. 

Lucifer steps back. 

Annelie: Have I satisfied your craving for cuddles?

Lucifer: ...not even remotely. 

Lucifer kisses her forehead. 

Lucifer: So I fully expect you to come to me at lunch for quality time. No excuses. 

Annelie: You know I don’t have any. 

Annelie kisses his cheek. 

Annelie: I’m going back to alchemy, okay?

Lucifer: Of course.

Lucifer hugs Annelie tightly until she wheezes.

Lucifer: You’re not sleeping tonight either. 

Annelie: Dammit, Lucifer, don’t whisper like that! You know what that does to me!

Lucifer snickers as he pulls away.

Lucifer: Yes, yes I do. Then until lunch. 

Annelie shakes her head as she waves to him, and he walks away. Her D.D.D. buzzes, and she rolls her eyes as she takes a look, only to stare at the screen in surprise. 

Barbatos: Annelie, we need to talk. Come to the castle as soon as possible. Do not bring Lucifer. 

Monologue

I think, at that moment, I already knew. No, maybe even before that moment. I am an insufferable person in that I cannot stand to be disliked, and I will do anything if it means that I can hold someone closer to me. Maybe it was because of that I chose this life, that I became the Queen of Succubi. 

I think I understand now. Why Barbatos tried to kill me, that is.

#illegal cliffhanger #I swear I'm not dead #ominous #obey me lucifer #obey me shall we date #fanfiction #obey me! #shameless self indulgence #obey me angst #lucifer brainrot #LuciAnne #writing

[emordnilap-fr]

The Worker's Guild

Flechte is the resident blacksmith, though he also practises glassblowing and more refined metalwork, like small statues and jewelry. he's one of the earliest members of the town, having joined back when they were only a small grouping of dragons.

formerly a bodyguard and gladiator in his earlier life, subjected to scrutiny and betrayal, flechte has become a much kinder dragon over the past several decades since leaving a now-gone kingdom. he'd fled to the fire territory after a betrayal, and became an apprentice to another blacksmith, learning the trade and developing the skill to breathe fire, even as a non-fire coatl.

eventually he left the territory in search of a long-lost friend, eventually finding her in the shadow territory as a founder of the town-then-band.

now, he makes his smithy in the bottom level of the guild's spire, the chimney of the forge and oven providing heat for the rest of the workshops. he has no apprentice, not since the loss of his only student, but he thinks he may eventually take a new one. he's friendly with all of the other workers and apprentices, though he's particularly partial to spiegel, and spiegel to him (and his own apprentice).

Spiegel and Tadael are engineers, staying in the second level of the spire. they're inventors, builders, and planners, with spiegel teaching tadael everything he knows. spiegel's plans have been essential to the framework of the town since its inception, and tadael has proven himself an exceptional addition.

spiegel was still young when he first joined the small band of dragons. he'd been born to a nomadic pack of mirrors, traveling between the plague and shadow territories. while in the southeast woods, he was severely injured by a pronghorn. his pack, believing him dead, left him behind, until he was found by one of the band's members and brought back to health.

he taught himself math in his own way, using symbols and methods indecipherable to others. tadael is the only other dragon who can understand what's written, and he keeps it under lock and key.

tadael, meanwhile, decided to study under spiegel far later into his life; he's several decades older, being roughly 260 years. for most of his life, he was a florist, something he still enjoys while being an engineer. becoming spiegel's apprentice was almost entirely on a whim, wanting to learn more, and he ended up enjoying it and catching on to it incredibly quickly. he enjoys spiegel's company, and likes talking while the other listens.

so far, he's spiegel's fourth apprentice. he lost all of the first three, none of them able to see the end of their apprenticeship. spiegel has become incredibly protective of him, no matter how much he downplays it and denies it. tadael finds it nice.

Lehrer and Rho are the alchemists, their workshop taking up the third level of the spire. their primary focus is transmutation, though they are also heavily involved in identifying and analysing various forms of magic and their effects, and how to advance or reverse these properties. they end up working closely with the medic, Cayde, in this regard.

lehrer was found as an egg by his father and mentor, Dunst. he was raised around alchemy and, naturally, developed an interest at an early age. dunst taught him everything he knew about transmutation, elements both physical and magical, and the basics of biological alchemy.

after dunst's passing, lehrer took over as the sole alchemist for a growing town. when his partner, Riptide, and the florist, Azure, developed progressively encroaching forms of opalisation, he threw himself into his research of magical effects and managed to stop the progression of both.

rho was, like lehrer himself, was found by his father and mentor, lehrer. and, like lehrer, he developed an interest in alchemy, and was naturally exceptionally talented in the art. with lehrer's knowledge and devoted research, he completed his apprenticeship and became a full alchemist in his own right.

rho has expressed interest in taking on his own apprentice, and lehrer gives his full approval. now, it's just a matter of finding a dragon willing to put in the work.

finally, Frolic is a leatherworker and tanner, with her shop on the fourth level of the spire. she primarily makes clothing and leather armor, but, on occasion, will do custom requests (usually pieces to put together or repair market stalls).

she grew up in a well-off family in the light territory, her father a glasses-maker. it wasn't a profession she was interested in, and without any particular sort of work in mind, she wandered about between towns and villages looking for purpose.

eventually, she ended up in the apprenticeship of a leatherworker, and completed her training. she left the town, and came across the Keepers by accident. she ended up staying, finding business neither too slow nor fast, and settling down for good.

#my lore #c: Flechte #c: Spiegel #c: Tadael #c: Lehrer #c: Rho #c: Frolic

[beatricebidelaire]

some headcanons about jacob snicket and his longtime bridge partner for @asouefanworkevent’s woevember event, day 4, unseen characters

jacob’s longtime bridge partner is not a vfd volunteer, but he is on the outskirts of vfd and knows of its existence - similar to charles’s relation to vfd, where he sometimes worked together with some vfd members

he met e snicket earlier than he met jacob, as he had worked with her on some projects before

even though he’s technically not a vfd volunteer, he also goes by his initial most of the time, and both jacob and e called him c

c was the only person to call jacob as jake, it’s a long running inside joke between them, which started after c and another person named jake registered for a bridge tournament (it was a swiss pairs tournament), but jake was suddenly unavailable and jacob substituted for him that day, playing with c. they didn’t change the name on the registration, and this ended up becoming an inside joke of theirs.

c and jacob played natural 2/1 system, using the standard carding in the early days but later switched to udca

jacob’s bidding is more solid, where c can lean a bit on the lighter side, and very occasionally he would make psyche bids, but he has a fairly good judgement of it and about 80% of the time it pays off

they’ve played together for a long time and have a pretty good understanding of each other’s styles when bidding, and when defending they always cooperated really nicely that made people think they’re minds are in sync, though it’s really just longtime partnership and experience and a well established carding system and having discussed various scenarios between them

kit and jacques had met c when they were little, when c came around to visit jacob and e. sometimes c would bring a few friends around and when they have 4 people they’d play a couple of boards together. young kit was very interested and would often sit on jacob’s lap, watching them play and trying to understand what’s going on

jacob taught kit about the concept of finessing, a declarer technique he thought that’s the easy enough to understand for a beginner. he pointed to the ace and queen of hearts in the dummy’s hand laid out on the table and as he played the 7 of hearts from his hand, explaining to kit that if the king of hearts was with the LHO (left hand side opponent) who has to play before the dummy does, then the queen can win the trick, but if it’s with the RHO (right hand side opponent) who plays after the dummy, then the queen will not gain a trick. by finessing, the queen has a chance to become an additional trick. young kit was very excited at the concept.

sometimes kit would sit by c’s side and watch him play too, and jacob would say “if she grows up to have a wild bidding style then i know where she learned that from”. after she grew up, sometimes she would remember this fondly.

jacob has many bridge books in the house, and kit managed to take two with her after she and her siblings got recruited and took away from their home. one is a book on probability calculation and another is on defense. she treasured both of the books as she didn’t really have many things from her parents that she still carries with her into adulthood. frank borrowed the probability calculation one from her once and took many notes in his notebook during reading.

jacob and c shared some tournament stories with her that she still remembers when she’s older, and she also shared what she remembers with her own bridge friends who regularly meet up to play bridge at hotel denouement (bertrand, r, the denouements). frank and ernest play a lot more than dewey does but dewey likes watching them play.

#asoue #jacob snicket #jacob snicket's longtime bridge partner #kit snicket #also: since it’s related #hotel denouement bridge session tag #vera.txt #woevember #the unauthorized autobiography

[griseldagimpel]

Thinking about The Locked Tomb series and how it’s going to be resolved. Putting this into a number list because I’m trying to organize my thoughts here.

1. The socio-political aspect of the series has been kept at an arm’s length. The first two books have very secluded, isolated settings. Gideon and Harrow grew up in a monastery with a shaky understanding of the broader world (universe) they live in. Nona (bless her) has the socio-political understanding of a golden retriever. The protagonist of the fourth book is going to be Alecto, who doesn’t even understand that kissing shouldn’t leave someone a bloody mess.

2. While the socio-political conflict of the series has informed the story, a lot of the central conflict has been interpersonal. The conflict between Harrow & Gideon? Interpersonal. Cytherea’s anger at John? Interpersonal. Augustine and Mercymorn’s anger as John? Interpersonal. Varun’s anger as John? Interpersonal. Wake and the Blood of Eden’s anger at John and his Empire? Now, that’s socio-political. The Angel sees Palamedes as their enemies because, as they put it, he was born being their enemy. John vs the trillionaires in his backstory is also socio-political.

3. A lot of characters are angry at John, but he isn’t being set up, in terms of narrative structure, as the Big Bad. To start, the second book establishes that to kill him is to kill the Nine Houses. (Parallel: John, in trying to kill the trillionaires, killed the world.) It is further established that John couldn’t be properly killed without also killing Alecto. Now, Alecto the Ninth could undo all or part of this through some loophole or something, but it could easily come off as a cop-out. If you set up a story where Killing the Emperor is off the table, it’s more interesting to explore what happens when you can’t just Kill the Emperor. How do you resolve things?

4. While John does A Lot of terrible things, he is given a great deal of narrative sympathy, and part of that is connected to the way he’s not being positioned as the Big Bad. And what I mean by this is that he spends all of the present portions of the third book being depressed and exhibiting bad coping strategies. There’s never going to be a Star Wars movie where the Emperor is unavailable for a movie because he’s off having a bender. There’s never going to be an MCU movie where Thanos isn’t active in the plot because he’s busy trying to see if getting gangbanged will solve his emotional problems.

5. Continuing on: John was chosen by Alecto because he wanted to save the whole world, and C- lists his driving flaw as him being too vindictive, willing to prioritize retribution over being the savior. In Nona the Ninth, John is not handling the situation on New Rho personally but instead has empowered Ianthe, who literally thinks that John’s problem is that he’s too soft.

6. But, really, while there are a lot of holes in the socio-political setting of the series that are left up to the reader to fill in, the gist of it is that John has spent the last 10,000 years convinced that he just needs to get rid of the Bad People (in this case, the Blood of Eden and the Resurrection Beasts) and has failed to realize that he’s recreated a lot of the same problems that Earth had. (People! Do! Not! Like! Being! Forcibly! Relocated!)

7. Thus, I don’t think the solution of the series is going to be to get rid of the Bad People (in this case, John and his supporters) and then everything will be fine.

8. In the first book, the conflict of Cytherea is resolved by Punching Her Really Hard, but the conflict between Harrow and Gideon is resolved by Reconciliation.

9. In the second book, the conflict of Varun is resolved by Punching Varun Really Hard, but that’s mostly off page, and the conflict between John and his Lyctors isn’t something that can be resolved by Punching Someone Really Hard. Not really. That’s why, even though John prevails in the physical fight, he spends all of the next book severely depressed. Mercymorn and Augustine dying didn’t actually fix things.

10. In the third book, Nona resolves the conflict of Varun by Talking to Varun. The other conflict - returning Nona to the Tomb - involves a bit of fighting, but it’s kinda...incidental? Like, Ianthe is opposed to the Tomb opening, but her opposition isn’t about Nona.

11. The series has a lot of themes of love and especially agape - the love of the divine for humanity. Harrow assumes Gideon will drown her, and instead Gideon forgives her. The original Lyctors all loved their Cavaliers, and that’s why Augustine and Mercymorn are so angry at John for lying to him (and it hurts worse because they had loved him). Cytherea loved John, and that why she became a Lyctor like he asked. Pyrrha and Gideon the First loved Wake, and that’s why they didn’t kill her when John first set them after her, and that’s why there was time for Gideon to be conceived and born. Alecto loved the whole world and John and chose him because he wanted to save everyone and tells him she still loves him after he destroyed the world. Nona loves Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes and Hot Sauce and Honesty and the other students and Crown and We Suffer and Pash and Varun the Eater and if she doesn’t love (or even particularly like) Judith, she still wants to save her.

12. We’ve now got Demons From Hell, and maybe they’ll be an antagonistic force that everyone teams up to Punch Really Hard. Or maybe like the Resurrection Beasts, they’re going to turn out to be another faction with valid complaints that need to be addressed.

13. If the series is going to resolve the socio-political conflicts it’s going to need to, at least to a degree, dive down into the nitty gritty of why those conflicts are happening and how things could be done differently. In order for the Empire to not be forcibly relocating people, the Cohort needs to not be killing worlds. But the Cohort is killing worlds so that the necromancers can fight against the Blood of Eden, members of which oppose Palamedes and Camilla’s desire to Save Everyone because Everyone includes the necromancers they despise, and they’d prefer a plan where they only Save Some People. Because if the Blood of Eden can just get rid of the Bad People, then by golly, everything will totes be fine.

#The locked tomb #Meta #John Gaius

[dragonflight203]

ME1 replay, Luna and post conversations:

-That it triggered conversations with Kaidan, Ashley, and Liara was a surprise. I did not realize Luna would count as a trigger. Their dialogue usually only updates after main missions.

-Also, I'm slow. I always thought Liara's triggers were odd, because the other alien conversation triggers would occur after UNC worlds. Liara's triggers after main missions because love interest triggers occur after main missions.

-The path of relays are interesting. Argos Rho and Gemini are right next door, but you have to go through four relays to reach the other.

Luna:

-Hackett says Shepard is still part of the Alliance military. I wish we knew more about how spectres are supposed to operate. A spectre being a part of their species military appears to be a conflict of interest.

Or maybe it's not? The Hierarchy military is the Hierarchy government. So maybe the Council sees no issue.

Still, as a consultant you ultimately answer to your company. So if a member of a military is on loan to the Council as a spectre, they ultimately answer to their military.

However, Udina and Anderson repeatedly emphasize that Shepard only answers to the Council now. They should remember they're human, but humanity can't tell them what to do.

Doylist answer: I don't think Bioware thought this through all the way.

Watsonian answer: I suspect Shepard was supposed to get a great deal of additional training on what being a spectre means, did not because Nihlus died, and the Council is waiting to see what they'll do as a test.

-Hackett is very emphatic that the VI is not an AI. How can they know that for sure? Are the fail safes not responding not a clue?

-Pluto's orbit was circularized as part of recovering the Charon Mass relay. How the hell did that work? Aren't planet orbits determined by gravity?

-Making the Sol Mass Relay be Charon was a clever way to incorporate Pluto into the game even after it was no longer delcared a planet

-The Codex entry for the Prothean ruins on Mars show the same aliens as the ones for Illos. Javik's design was definitely a retcon.

-All the wealth of the colonies are flowing back to Earth... Are the Turians just eating popcorn as they wait for Humanity's Unification Wars to start?

-As you go through each bunker, you're slowly killing the AI. What's it like to have your body destroyed limb by limb?

-I wish Tali had dialogue for this mission. You'd think she'd recognize a an AI gaining sentience, or have opions about putting down rogue machines

-Insanity is hard. Tactics: Stay in the hallway to better control enemy approach.

-This mission is so sad. The AI throws everything it can to stop you, but you just keep systematically dismantling it. Poison gas, kinetic barriers... Those don't do anything. It's just a last ditch effort to survive.

Garrus:

-Most black market trade can be ignored. Well, at least C-Sec knows how to prioritize.

-There's an Elcor diplomat that was a serial killer. More of Bioware making each race three dimensional. Most Elcors in the game are very kind.

-Ah, Garrus. My beloved corrupt cop. "Interviewing". The game doesn't even hide what this means; if you select a dialogue entry about "interviewing" Dr. Saleon, you ask if he got what he deserved.

-Garrus, just why did the Turian you were "interviewing" start bleeding out of nowhere?

-Garrus has such moral outrage against criminals, but so little actual concerns about the innocent. He hates what Dr. Saleon does, but is willing to sacrifice numerous innocent lives to stop him. Garrus, do you actually care about innocent people? Or do you just hate evil ones?

-I don't think it was an accident that Garrus told Shepard about Dr. Saleon as an interesting story. He was gunning to have Shepard go after Dr. Saleon from the start. This was just a convenient opportunity to do so.

Ashley

-Ashley, I am so sorry for you. Your writer tried, but you are the victim of so many poor choices.

-She tells Shepard so much about her family, but still conveniently leaves out everything about Shanxi.

-If Mike hadn't asked Sarah about sex, Ashley would have worried he thought Sarah was ugly. Just, agh. Let's put this down to it being the 2000s.

-The part where Sarah doesn't want to go to the authorities about the near rape is sadly quite believable and still very common. She's not wrong that reporting it would likely hurt her more than help

-And Sarah hugs him at the end after he tried to rape her, then tried to beat her up after he confronted her later. This is supposed to be heartwarming and show the strong backbone of Williams women. Why, Bioware, why

-And on top of lines that easily come off as racism and a story with numerous sexism issues, the game makes her the only religious human that I can recall in ME1. It's like the writer was trying to put every possible target on her back.

Wrex

-Wrex is so old. Not surprising that he has burnout.

-Krogan burial grounds are sacred. Maybe they're the reason why archeological digs can't be performed at grave sites?

-For all Krogans are comfortable with violence, Wrex is clearly traumatized by his father's betrayal and killing him. He shows a lot of vulnerability in this conversation.

-Even after getting his armor back, there's nothing left for him on Tuchanka.

-We meet Wrex at his lowest point, wondering the galaxy as a mercenary after failing to help his people. It's good to know it's only for him from here (barring certain choices in ME3)

Tali

-The writer sure mined a lot from this conversation in future games, didn't they?

Tali will probably never server on the admiralty board herself

People like her father have enemies, and would use Tali to hurt him

-Quarians place a high family on family and ancestry. They even engaged in ancestor worship. Maybe it's the Quarians that are the reason burial sites are sacrosanct

-Quarians are insular. Even if Tali stopped Saren, her people won't care much

Yet you can use Tali's actions in ME1 to rally the crowd for her in ME2. Retcon, or Tali underestimating how much her actions would improve public relations for her people

-Quarians abandon their criminals on planets, but are annoyed that others have such a lower opinion of them. Folks, I understand why you do this, but surely you can recognize the cause and effect?

Kaidan

-I forgot that Brain school killed kids. Damn. Kaidan's been through a lot

-Wow, this is my first time romancing Kaidan and the dialogue is very different. Usually the second converstation is another infodump. Here's there's very little of that and much more personal talk.

-People frequently say that Kaidan doesn't open up to unless you romance him, but I feel I learned more about him in his non romanced dialogue than his romanced dialogue

Liara

-Just how sheltered is Liara? Does she have much experience with living aliens? She speaks to Shepard like this is her first time actually interacting with non Asari and it's causing her eyes to open up - like a kid from a small town going to college for the first time. But she has a doctorate!

-She thinks humans have an advantage because they're short lived, so they have to fit more life into their short time span. I think this is the human writer showing through. No one says this kind of thing about Salarians, and they live a fraction of a human lifespan.

-The rest of the galaxy sees humans as bullies than run over other people to get their way. Frankly, from what we've seen so far I don't think this is wrong.

-Is the only time that Asari are monogender come up in the Codex and as an option when Liara hits on femshep? I wish Bioware had done more of this. It'd be interesting to run into an Asari sick of dealing with humans treating them as a woman.

-I don't know if this is a Bioware problem or an Asari problem. I'm leaning towards Bioware.

Me: Kaidan is special

Liara: But we are too right?

If I'm generous, it's because Asari are supposed to be comfortable with polygamous relationships. But there's conveniently no dialogue option to discuss that, so it comes off as Liara ignoring the fact that I'm gently letting her down.

Codex

-The entry about Human Military Doctrine strongly comes off as blatant propaganda.

The other species are totally impressed by us, guys! We're very special and despite being newcomers to space totally showing them the best tactics and how to protect colonies!

Meanwhile: We don't need to heavily protect each colony. We'll leave small garrisons to scout. If a colony is in trouble, we'll send reinforcements.

*Eden Prime is massacred* Humanity to the Council: WE MUST BE AVENGED

The Council, in their heads: Have you considered actually protecting the colonies that you are developing in territory that is so dangerous no one besides the Batarians is willing to develop?

In the background:

Ferrus: We call for Aid!

The Alliance: We'll send the new human spectre. We're sure they'll get around to you eventually.

Edit: Fix spellings

#mass effect #mass effect 1 #mass effect 1 replay

[paradoxcase]

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

I THINK the theory is that John's closest friends became the Necros, and their companions/spouses/relatives became the cavs...and he would rather spend 10,000 years with the former than the latter...so THEY got to be Necros, with the power, and then Lyctors.

Oh, I don't mean that the cavaliers should have been the necromancers or anything like that, I mean that it would have worked out better if the necromancers had wound up in the cavaliers' bodies, they still would have been the same people, just in different bodies

Heh. AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and Emma Sen (MSN Messenger). Also, I think Pash expected We Suffer to be executed by BoE, or a faction at least.

Oh, that's incredibly silly, I hope there's more to it than that. Anyway, AIM is the name of the messaging system, not the name of a message

I originally thought that was what Pash meant, but then We Suffer started saying goodbye to everyone like she wasn't going to see them again

Some speculation is that the message is 'too simple for typical humans to understand' is because it is a binary message of 1s and 0s, but I think that's a stretch.

@jods-duplicitous-sluts:

There are also theories about the message being incoded in RNA or DNA... so too simple [building block of life] but also unable for a human to understand without tech to decode it.

The DNA/RNA idea is pretty interesting. There's also the chip that Palamedes found that still hasn't been explained yet

Also Paul is planning on coming back for the 6th house. The actual station and all the population are still on the outskirts of the system. Hence the "see you soon"

But they're probably not going back into the tunnel under New Rho, though, right? Nona described all of the oversight board getting put back into the truck

@turtletotem:

Kind of the only way I can deal with Paul's existence is by thinking of them as Palamedes and Camilla's child. Maybe they think of themself that way, too, thus calling P & C "them" instead of "we."

Yeah, that sounds like a good way to think of it

#the locked tomb #wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess #jods-duplicitous-sluts #turtletotem