#conscripted agent

[voxyldy]

12.12.2022

[NEWS]

Military service update of @BTS_twt Suga! Suga will be doing his military service as social service agent instead of as a soldier, according to local media and industry sources. When and where he will be starting service is yet unknown. We’ll keep you posted! 🫡 #BTS #Suga #슈가

Source: Kpop Herald

#taehasmysoulinhispocket #bts #suga #min yoongi #military service #social service agent #conscription #december 2022

[incompleteninny]

The fifty-second free, unedited chapter of my upcoming book, “The Heist at Cordia Aquarium” is now available on its website (or click here to read from the beginning).

As I near the end of the book and continue editing previous chapters, I’m constantly second guessing myself and asking: is this writing good enough to share? To publish? Reminding myself that were all just made of meat and electricity and none of this matters helps, though. Fun, thinky meat makes book. Makes thinky meat feel good

It's just out of reach of Waylon's flailing hand. Thin wires; the cold, metal tracks of the overhead door; a lever with an unclear purpose. All felt, but not what he's searching for: the telltale feeling of the squishy, rubber button that triggers the door's motor. Pain screams warnings through his mind. The hole worn away by his breath is shrinking around his shoulder, digging into his armpit. A grunt slips out; he stretches until threads of fire burn inside his arm's tendons.

There.

His hand brushes against rough, plastic housing, then a pad of rubber at its center. He slaps the edges of his fingertips onto the button. After a momentary shudder, the door jerks; it climbs up its metal tracks and steel slats clatter with each inch of travel.

Waylon slips his arm out. Metal creeps from the hole's edges in a crystalline pattern, like water turning to ice. Pain still burns in his armpit: a cut probably. He rubs at the spot, but — at even a ginger touch — his brow furrows and his hand recoils. Gah— that was almost bad. If I made it any larger I'd have passed out, though.

[...]

#Been having lots of dreams lately where I'm conscripted into top secret Russian programs #last one was a bunch of kids with superpowers trying to make it through a maze of deathly hazards #every time the majority of us succeeded we'd get an indoor block party with pizza and that dead mouse guy DJing #As an introvert and someone who just doesn't like social situations all that much #I was wishing for another trip through the maze #book tags I guess #queer novel #queer webnovel #lgbtq author #gay protagonist #probably a Russian agent or something idk

[boombox-fuckboy]

Do you know any podcasts with transfeminine main characters?

Apologies for the delay. I have a few:

Between Heartbeats: (Urban Fantasy) In a city of incredible abilities and mundane struggle, we follow Sundiata, a time-manipulator struggling to stay employed. During a a quick break from waiting tables to go help in an emergency, she instead finds herself caught in a bizzare mystery. Unfortunately release seems to have stalled following the first episode, but I'm eagerly awaiting its return.

Inn Between: (Fantasy, Adventure) What the adventuring heroes get up to at the tavern, between the grand adventures. Cleverly fills the listener in on the adventures using "previously on" and "next time on" segments. You'll need to wait (or jump) to Season 3 to meet our transfem lead, but she is an absolute delight.

Interference: (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance) A human tabletop podcaster and an orc researcher get their broadcast signals crossed between worlds, and start a dialogue. Cross-reality research, and a budding romance, ensue.

The Magnus Protocol: (Horror) Seeking employment, Sam gets a job working with his friend Alice for a bizzare little government office. The work? Night shifts listening to, and then cataloguing, bizzare and unsettling material trawled from the internet. Despite Alice's warnings, Sam may be getting a little too invested.

The Night Post: (Supernatural) Concerning the conscripted nighttime couriers/postal workers of Gilt City, and the otherworldy encounters they have on the job.

PSST: Paranatural Support Services Team: (Supernatural) Struggling with a supernatural entity or haunting encounter? The PSST's got you covered. Meet The Agent at the other end of the phone as she gives advice, unravels mysteries, and tries to work out just how long it's been since she went home.

The Silt Verses: (Horror) In a modern world where gods are abundant, frequently both commercialised and restricted, two devotees of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage. You'll meet the character in question a few episodes in.

Breathing Space: (Sci-fi, Space Western, Anthology) Included more as a special mention (as this is an anthology and the leads change every episode), Breathing Space is an array of stories set in the early age of space exploration that leans hard into the "Western" part of "Space Western". A not-insignificant number of the stories feature trans characters. If you don't vibe with the first story, do me a favour and listen to the second before you bail.

Additions are, of course, always welcome.

#between heartbeats #inn between #interference #the magnus protocol #the night post #paranatural support services team #the silt verses #breathing space #audio drama #fiction podcast

[callsign-rogueone]

by your side - b.d.

Bodhi Durran x girlfriend!reader Your friends suggest that your recent bouts of nausea might be something more, and it sends you into a spiral, but Bodhi is there for you, as always. [requested] wc: 1.1k 🏷: no spoilers this time? set toward the beginning of Iron Flame (his third year and yours). descriptions of vomit / nausea, anxiety, one (1) reference to sex. healthy established relationship between reader and Bodhi :) writing this one was fun because I know exactly how it feels (it sucks lmao)

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Imogen says rather indelicately, patting your back as you heave into the grass at afternoon formation for the third time in three days, “but is there any way you could be…”

You blink once, twice, realizing what she’s implying, and the mere idea has your stomach turning again, but there’s nothing left in your system - you haven’t been able to keep food down for days.

“Imogen,” Sloane scolds from your other side, still holding your hair back from your face, “we agreed that now was not the time.”

You take measured sips from your waterskin, trying to rinse the acid from your throat, but the burning feeling doesn’t subside.

You look to Violet, who remains quiet as the grave.

“I agree that it’s a possibility,” she says carefully. “But either way, we’re here for you, and I know he will be too.”

Oh, gods. You hadn’t even considered having this conversation with Bodhi yet. What would you even say to him? Hey, I know we’re in military school and doing this whole double-agent-arms-dealing thing on the weekends and there’s a very real chance that neither of us will make it to next month, but I think I'm pregnant with your child?

The women you’ve come to regard as younger sisters can sense that you’re spiraling.

“He’s a good man,” Sloane says, rare praise from her, “and he loves you. You’ll find a way to get through this together, whatever it is.”

You’re too drained to argue, but that doesn’t stop the swirl of thoughts in your head. 

You, Bodhi, and a child.

Maybe in another life, where the both of you hadn’t been conscripted to Basgiath, and you weren’t in mortal danger all the time… but even then, you’re barely adults yourselves, and your parents won’t be able to help you from the grave. You’d be doing this entirely on your own.

You shake the feeling off. Today is a Saturday, one that you have free. You’ve completed your assignments already. You’ll try to sleep this off, you decide, and if that still doesn’t kick it, you’ll see a healer. 

Sleep comes easily with how exhausted you are, but it does not show you mercy.

Muscled arms cradle a bundle of blankets. You recognize the swirling pattern of Bodhi’s relic easily, having spent many nights tracing the black ink with your fingertips as you lay beside him in the afterglow.

There’s a soft sound of discomfort from the baby. “Shh, darling,” he soothes, rocking them gently. “We don’t want to wake your mama.”

A hand rests on his shoulder; Xaden’s. “She looks just like you,” he says quietly, a soft smile on his face. 

A tiny hand peeks from the blanket, stretching to grasp Bodhi’s finger, which now bears a silver wedding ring.

You shake yourself awake, heart pounding as you move to sit up.

There’s a knock at your door. “It’s me.” Bodhi.

“Come in,” you reply weakly, and you hear the lock click — the day you had moved in, Xaden helped you ward it so that only you and Bodhi could open the door, doing the same for Bodhi’s room down the hall.

“Vi said you weren’t feeling good, so I brought you dinner,” he says gently, sitting on the side of your bed and touching a hand to your cheeks. “No fever,” he observes, kissing your forehead, and continuing to check you over for injury.

You’re going to cry. “Bo,” you say quietly, “I need to talk to you.”

“Anything, darling.” He says, ready to listen, and your heart twists hearing the same petname he’d called your daughter.

“I don’t know if it was a vision or just a dream, but…” you swallow, the words getting stuck in your throat.

Bodhi stills beside you, fearing the worst. 

Your signet gives you clouded images of the future, but they usually aren’t happy sights. You’ve come to talk to him about your visions in the middle of the night many times, as distressed as you are now. 

“What did you see?” He asks gently, taking your hands in his.

“You, holding a baby girl. Xaden was there, too, but I woke up before I could see anything else.”

He doesn’t follow.

“I’ve been throwing up for days, and I think… I think I might be pregnant,” you whisper, eyes brimming with tears. “I’m so sorry.” 

“Oh, darling, don’t apologize.“ He pulls you close, pressing a kiss to your hairline. “I love you, and I will be by your side every step of the way in either case.”

His words of reassurance are the last straw, and you finally start to cry, your tears dampening his collar.

“I’m going to stay right here, for as long as you want me to, and then we can go see the healers, together.”

You nod against his shoulder, too exhausted to respond.

Every step of the way.

He holds your hand all the way across the bridge to the other side of the college, only letting go when a kind older woman in pale blue healer’s robes comes to take you into an exam room.

You stay quiet as she takes your pulse, listens to your heart, and goes through the motions of a physical.

“You appear to be reacting to something you’ve been eating or drinking.” She diagnoses, handing you a small paper bag with medicine to take. “This should help.”

“So I’m not…,” you trail off, and she knows exactly what you mean. She’d seen how terrified you were walking in here, hand in hand with your boyfriend, and instantly realized what you were concerned about.

“Not with child,” she confirms with a knowing smile, and a weight is lifted from your shoulders. Thank Zhinal. 

Bodhi is still waiting outside. He stands as soon as he sees you, ready to draw you into a warm embrace.

“It was those damn berries,” you say, shaking your head, and he laughs, no doubt feeling the same relief as you. The rich sound soothes every nerve in your body.

He tugs you closer, wrapping you in his arms. The paper bag crinkles between you. “The moment we graduate, I’m marrying you.”

“What?” You ask, stunned.

He pulls back so he can look you in the eye.

“I thought about it while you were with the healer,” he says, as if it’s that simple, “and I decided that I want to be there for you for the rest of my life. Through all the visions, good and bad.” 

You smile up at him, pure happiness flowing through you. “I love you, Bodhi Durran.”

“I love you more, darling,” he says, tucking the bag into a pocket of his flight jacket and taking your hand. “Now, I snuck you an extra piece of cake from dinner, and if you aren’t going to eat it, I will.”

You burst into laughter. Yeah, you decide. This is the man you want by your side forever.

#bodhi durran #bodhi durran x reader #fourth wing fanfic #fourth wing imagine #fourth wing reader insert #fourth wing x reader #mine

[halobirthdays]

Happy birthday to Spartan Kelly-087!

Today is her -487th birthday!

Kelly was born on Imber in 2510. She was identified as an exceptional child by Catherine Halsey and selected to be conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program. On the day of her kidnapping, she evaded ONI agents for several hours, coming out only because she thought the ordeal was a game for her upcoming birthday.

Like all Spartan-II conscripts, she was brought to Reach and trained under CPO Franklin Mendez. There, she met John-117 and Sam-034, the first friends she made after her conscription, and the foundational members of Blue Team. Kelly became known for her incredible speed, easily outpacing the other trainees during exercises. The augmentation procedures were particularly difficult for her, and she nearly died. While she took the longest to recover, once she did, her natural speed became unparalleled.

Like all Spartan-IIs, Kelly participated in hundreds of missions and engagements over the course of her life, and particularly during the Human-Covenant war. After the fall of Reach, a heavily-injured Kelly was brought to Onyx with Dr. Halsey, where she would be introduced to the Spartan-III candidates and assist in training them.

Sarcastic, stubborn, and cynical, Kelly is perhaps the most emotional member of Blue Team, and the most likely speak up and challenge others. She is incredibly resilient, having been near death multiples times yet always making a full recovery. While she has served in more engagements than any other Spartan besides John, and, as a result, is heavily decorated, Kelly doesn't care for or pay attention to her accolades.

At the close of the war, Kelly continued to serve, rejoining Blue Team to face the threat of the Didact, and then Cortana and the Created. It is unclear if she was on the Infinity when it was attacked by the Banished.

In canon (~2560), she is turning 50!

#you thought i would forget my daughter? #not a chance #happy birthday my kel-kel #september 21 legends only #kelly 087 #kelly-087 #spartan-II #blue team

[jessepinwheel]

it's been a long time since I've said anything about parasitic extraction on this blog and I've gotten a lot of followers since and I am currently being haunted by how much I want it to be real and the preposterous amount of work it would take to make it real so I'm gonna talk about it again

parasitic extraction is a role reversal star wars au (reversing the clones and obi-wan) taking place in an alternate universe mandalorian empire (a different one than most mandalorian empire aus take place in).

basically: three hundred years ago, mandalorians were like "hey the jedi are the only things stopping us from taking over the galaxy" so they attacked coruscant and obliterated the jedi temple, then killed or assimilated the survivors, then carved bloody conquest across the rest of the galaxy

now: jango is emperor, with his clone sons cody and rex (older twins) and boba (younger). the mandalorian empire conscripts jedi within the empire to be trained as superior warriors within their military, while the remnants of the old jedi order are in hiding and working to protect young force sensitives from being taken by the empire as well as working with rebellion forces.

jango hates the jedi to a frankly unhealthy degree and so he has a plan to destroy them all: he decides to make 2000 clones of the only jedi they've ever captured alive (obi-wan) in order to create an elite force of psychic agents who can help capture and subdue the jedi and force them to give up the location of their home planet so that he can send a giant space laser over there and wipe them out of existence

these obi-clones are distributed as special agents all across the galaxy--jango has his own personal obi-clone, cody gets one, rex gets one, satine (with bo-katan and friends) get one, pre visla gets one, ursa wren (with padme and ahsoka) get one, etc. but what jango doesn't know is that all these obi-clones have a sort of psychic hive mind thing going on and they are all plotting to take down the mandalorian empire so they can save obi-wan and the jedi

there's a lot more going on (like plots from death watch who want jango dead yesterday and every single mandalorian character's Massive Issues including how Intensely Abnormal jango is about obi-wan in particular) but that's the overall gist of the story

anyways, ask me questions about parasitic extraction I wanna talk about it more

#fic: parasitic extraction

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! Do you have any suggestions for ttrpg that are like Control (video game)? I enjoy number crunching, and playbooks are a plus :D

THEME: Games inspired by CONTROL

Hello! I’m going to first reference to you one of the first posts I ever made, about Paranormal Agents. If you like playbooks, you’ll probably want to take a look at Against the Dark Conspiracy, but don’t sleep on External Containment Bureau! Not much of what’s in that post is big on math, but I don’t want to leave out any possible options. Now, on to some more recommendations.

In Case of An Emergency, by boyproblems.

You work at foundation., a global corporation known for its cutting edge inventions and morally dubious treatment of its labour force. It stays at the top of its field by exploiting the paranormal and the metaphysical. Due to an "incident", you are now trapped inside. The glitch causes you and a group of your co-workers to be tasked by a group known as THE SHAREHOLDERS to fix what has broken, and solve THE EMERGENCY.

The Head Office is an ever-shifting office complex that threatens to trap your intrepid group within its labyrinthine walls. Fable and superstition come alive and threaten your very life. Gain new abilities (ABSTRACTIONS) through exposure to the powers that lie beyond, investigate the truth behind foundation., traverse a place where new science is discovered daily, and cut through bureaucratic and literal binding red tape to escape and survive.

This is a one-shot game, but that doesn’t mean that your character can’t gain new powers throughout the course of play. In Case of Emergency is directly inspired by CONTROL, so theme-wise we’re definitely in the right territory. It doesn’t look like it has playbooks though, which is a bummer - in almost every other aspect I think it’s what you’re looking for!

Agents of the O.D.D., by Jason Tocci.

Agents of the O.D.D. is a tabletop roleplaying game of conscripted cryptids, shaky psychics, burned spies, and other investigators of the paranormal. Based on the rules from Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland, and inspired by series like Hellboy, Planetary, and The Laundry Files.

Agents of the O.D.D. doesn’t necessarily have playbooks, but it does have player archetypes. During character creation, you roll a d100 and take the result from a hefty list of archetypes. These will give you one or more special moves, companions, and/or pieces of equipment. And equipment is a really big thing in this game - there’a at least 6 pages in this 24-page game dedicated to equipment alone. This might be because Agents of the O.D.D. is built off of Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland, which are both minimalist and focus on dungeon-delving.

Now that I think of it, exploring a place that is abnormal and haunted is likely very similar to engaging in a dungeon-crawl, so expect a game like this to point you to your inventory when it comes to solving problems - like talking to extraterrestrials, or fighting against hostile cryptids. You’re also going to be tracking your gear, so if you like inventory-keeping this game is for you.

Making Change, by Beth and Angel Make Games.

Researchers at The Observatory study all sorts of objects that seem ordinary but are gifted with a special power. One of these objects is a coin. However, when the senior researcher went to start testing it, it… convinced them to "liberate" it. Surveillance shows the researcher was speaking to something or someone —presumably, the coin— and the researcher quickly went from arguing to utterly submitting to the coin.

This is an adventure made for the CoinSides Jam of 2023, which had the stipulation that the adventure have a coin as a central theme. This adventure invokes the coin with some kind of intelligence, as it has the ability to affect the desires and emotions of people around it. Because the adventure is system-agnostic, it’s meant to work with a number of different systems, but I would recommend using games that are good for detective stories or modern horror, or even something like External Containment Bureau.

You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Leave, by Marn S.

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave is a game for 3+ people, and a surreal horror-flavored hack of Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands by Meguey & Vincent Baker. It is also a loving homage to The Shining, NanQuest, and the songs of the 70s and 80. 

Play as a Guest, Staff member, or living Anomaly at the Hotel California, the first and only hotel to exist outside of time and space! Create messy entanglements — ally with monsters, or backstab your friends! Inject the surreal and horrific into everyday life! Solve mysteries! Have strange dreams! Chase someone with a knife! Burn it all to the ground!

The setting for this game takes place in a hotel rather than The Oldest House (or something like it) but what makes it interesting is that it’s a hack of Firebrands. This means that rather than following an adventure seed like a traditional RPG, you’ll be setting up and playing through various scenes in the form of mini-games. The creator has also published Such A Lovely Place, a supplement with five extra mini-games to incorporate into your eerie stay at Hotel California. There might be math here but if there is it’s probably only in a mini-game or two.

FIST, by CLAYMORE.

FIST: Ultra Edition is a tabletop roleplaying game about paranormal mercenaries doing the tough jobs no one else can. In the game, you belong to a legendary rogue mercenary unit called FIST. You are a soldier of fortune who doesn’t fit into modern society. You are a disposable gun for hire, caught up in the death and destruction of pointless proxy wars and oppressive establishments. You may also be someone who can turn into a ghost or control bees with your mind. 

FIST focuses on action and combat, but specifically against the paranormal. You aren’t regular soldiers, not by a long-shot. The time period is during the Cold War: there are tensions that will affect your missions outside of simply what you’re hunting. The combat is meant to be brutal, the missions highly tactical, and the character builds are modular (so there might be some number crunching). No playbooks here, I’m afraid, but if you want the gritty action that keeps you on your toes in CONTROL, you might want to check out FIST, especially since it’s on Kickstarter right now! (Ending soon!)

THE COMPANY, by Mega_Corp.

The Company is a survival horror game centered around corporate emergency response teams and the aftermath of the situations they are assigned to deal with. Players take on the roles of Employees assigned to response teams that quickly find themselves in over their heads with one player facilitating play as the Game Manager.

Now this looks like a game with playbooks. At the beginning, your character chooses one of five Careers, each of which come with special Perks, pre-selected skills, a personal item random table, and some jobs and goals to focus your character. The game itself ins’t terribly long, but there’s enough lore to establish how the game borrows from CONTROL without copying it completely, and the designers have crated an Employee Handbook for players as well as a Management Manual for GM’s. You get both when you pick up this game on Itch. There’s definitely a lot of pieces to keep track in this one - I don’t know if that translates to number crunching but it might get you close!

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #CONTROL #paranormal games

[pleasecallmealsip]

"And what shall be the reward of spilling so much blood, one drop of which has more worth than all the crowned heads of the world?"

L’Ami du Peuple, No 634, from Thursday 19th April 1792. [The very next day, on the 20th April 1792, war was declared against Austria]

If it was still impossible to doubt the traitorous dispositions of the court, after all the plots that it has formed to this day, in order to crush the people, to ruin the nation, and to re-establish despotism, the scene of high scandal that the ministerial cabinet has just been playing out should have sufficed to open the eyes of all.

On the 14th of this month, the ministers presented themselves in the Assembly. The Minister of Foreign affairs [Dumouriez; he took this post on 15th March 1792] took the floor to communicate to them, after the orders of the king, of the dispatches that, he said, were delivered by an extraordinary courier who arrived during the night. He first read out the letter written [by Louis XVI] to sieur [Louis Marie Antoine, Vicomte de] Noailles, ambassador at the court of Vienna, demanding the new king of Hungary [Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire, nephew of Antoinette] to give a categorical response on his attitudes towards France. He then read out the response of sieur Noailles, containing a formal refusal to continue a negotiation that he [Noailles] said was impracticable and an announcement of his [Noailles’s] resignation. He [Dumouriez] proceeded to give a reading of a very pressing dispatch [from Louis XVI] addressed to sieur Noailles. Finally, he [Dumouriez] announced that Louis XVI had just written in his own hand a letter to the king of Hungary, and sieur Molle the field marshal was to deliver it. The response to this letter would arrive on the 10th of next month at the latest and would decide whether peace or war would be. In this epistle, one can clearly sense that Louis XVI is repeating his crude joke of professing his love for the Constitution.

Scarcely had these readings been finished than sieur Briche and sieur Guadet demanded a decree of indictment against sieur Noailles for having disobeyed the orders of the king; they must say so, for he had betrayed the interests of the nation and compromised public safety. After several light debates, this decree was given a near-unanimous pass. Already the ones that did not follow the thread of the story were singing to their victory, for they saw that he was declared a nation-harming (lèse-nation) criminal, he who is an ambassador of France, a close relative (cousin-germain) to sieur Motier [Noailles and Lafayette had the same father-in-law], a member of the Tuileries committee, and a pillar of the Feuillant club; that is to say, one of the main conspirators, bolstered by all the forces of his accomplices, and sure of the support of the vast majority of counter-revolutionary conscript fathers. But their joy was short-lived. Several hours after the decree of indictment, the veil was ripped to lay bare the juggleries of the ministerial cabinet. Sieur Dumouriez appeared on stage to announce to the president a letter that he had allegedly just received from sieur Noailles, who had finally obeyed the orders of Louis XVI and had given news that the king of Hungary refused all negotiations, declaring war on the French nation. Immediately Thuriot, Goupilleau, Vaublanc, Gentil, Dumas ＊and the other gangrenous ministers demanded that the decree of indictment be revoked. Sieur Kersaint and Sieur Delacroix ⁑ proposed that the letter of the minister [Dumouriez] and the dispatch of the ambassador be sent back to the diplomatic committee, so that the report would be done on time.

The report done, under the name of the committee, by sieur Lasource, the decree of indictment was adjourned. Such was the conclusion of the ministerial and senatorial farce against sieur Noailles. Thus, by the method of a double correspondence, the perfidious agents of the prince will always get away with their deeds, just like how pirates escape by the method of using false flags. Always the artifices of the court will render the laws illusory; always the apparent acts of justice from the legislator will be none but lures to deceive the people; and no matter how things turn out, always the public enemies at the helm of the vessel of the State will manage to throw it at the reefs, and to direct it in such a way as that shall see it broken by the storm and engulfed by the waves in the end.

So finally here is war declared on the French by the powers plotted against freedom. However, who does not see that all these pretend ministerial negotiations with foreign courts had no other goal than to amuse the nation and to buy time, until all these powers have their batteries loaded, and they are ready to shoot us? Who does not see that all these bellicose preparations, arranged by the Assembly, had no other goal than to lure the nation to sleep in deep dreams of security? Who does not see that all these sending-back to the executive power, the denunciations, the prevaricating ministers, and these complaints of citizen soldiers crammed onto the frontiers and left without munitions, without weapons, without clothes, without pay, had no other goal than to leave the patrie with no means of defence, to leave the State in the grip of the machinations of the court, of the undertakings of the fugitive plotters, of the attacks of the foreign lackeys.

Will there be war? Everybody is saying yes. It is certain that this opinion has finally prevailed in the cabinet, after the representations of sieur Motier who, without doubt, has made it the only way in order to distract the nation from the concerns within to occupy with concerns without, in order to make the nation forget the internal dissensions in favour of news in gazettes, in order to dissipate the national property into military preparations, instead of employing it to liberate the State and to comfort the people, in order to crush the Nation under the feet of taxes, and in order to slit the throats of patriots of the infantry and of the citizen army, leading them to the butcher’s, under the pretext of defending the barriers of the empire. It is always certain that he pressures the monarch to stop negotiating and to order the campaign to be started, which he regards as a means to honourably end his own career, if he runs out of ways to regain the nation’s confidence with new acts of seduction and of hypocritical devotion to the cause of liberty.

Lost in the heady rhetoric from Brissot, from Lemontey, from Girardin, from Delacroix, from Gouvion, from Dumas and from other scoundrels who have sold themselves to the court, seduced by a false image of national forces, intoxicated by the fumes of Gallic boastfulness, the people seem no less desiring for war than their implacable enemies do. For three years I have represented war as the last resort of counter-revolutionaries and I have not stopped working to thwart the various undertakings of the cabinet to set it aflame. Since then, my attitude has not changed, and in my eyes, war is always the cruellest curse that may be cast on the kingdom. Whatever new focus that war will draw public attention to, by only fixing it onto news in gazettes, war will leave an open field for the enemies within to machinate at their ease and to breathe the fire of civil dissensions into all parts of the kingdom, to instigate troubles, and to set traps for proponents of freedom; the war will completely squander the national property and accelerate public bankruptcy; the war will consummate the loss of everything that France has in good citizens and it will drain the State of all the patriotic youth, because it is the most zealous proponents of the revolution who have been rushing to the defence at the frontiers, and they will always do so. However fearless they may be, they are without weapons ¹, without discipline, without tactics, without idea of grand manoeuvres ², without the smallest notion of the art of war, without experienced chiefs, without shrewd and faithful generals. How would the soldiers of the patrie resist the attacks from the disciplined armies of lackeys, they who are commanded by shrewd generals?

If war happens, I repeat, regardless of the bravery of the defenders of freedom, it does not take an eagle-eyed genius to foresee that our armies will be crushed in the first campaign.

I can conceive that the second campaign would be less disastrous and that the third could even be a glorious success, since it is impossible that we would not learn at our own expense, impossible that some great man would not be given a position. Yet, to wrest victory from our enemies, we will need to suffer a long and disastrous war. Now, it would fall short of the truth, to say that our losses, over three campaigns, shall round to a billion livres and five hundred thousand combatants.

How shall we compensate for the loss of so many brave soldiers, the flower of the French citizens? And what shall be the reward of spilling so much blood, one drop of which has more worth than all the crowned heads of the world? To prevent this precious blood from being shed, I have proposed for a hundred times an infallible method, which is to take hostage among us Louis XVI, along with his wife, his son, his daughter, his sisters ⁂, and hold them accountable to what happens. A senate faithful to the patrie will speak to him thus: “King of the French, it is in vain that you (vous) hide in the detours of a tortuous policy to see us ensnared in the disasters of war; you have no escape from the avenging power of the people. We declare to you, in the name of the nation, who is your august sovereign, that we do not wish to deal with your fellowmen, the princes of Europe, that we wish to make no preparations at all for war. Whether or not you compromise with them is your choice. The duty to remind your rebellious brothers and cousins is upon you, and so is the duty to divert your fellowmen from all hostile undertakings. The barriers of the State will stay open, yet rest assured that upon certain news that the first corps of enemies shall have crossed them, your culpable head will roll at your feet, and your entire dynasty shall be extinguished in its own blood.” But a senate faithful to the patrie is even rarer than a patriotic king. How insensible the people is, that they do not sense the necessity to finally choose a supreme dictator, to give him powers that would be circumscribed, so that he would have no authority to dominate, but unlimited authority to cut down the chief conspirators that the public voice has identified, to force the corrupt legislator to put at a price the heads of kings, of princes and of the generals who will come with weapons against us, to offer sums of gold to their troops who will deliver these kings, princes, and generals to us, living or dead, and to receive these troops among children of the State. Soon we shall see their numerous legions, running with weapons and equipment under the flags of freedom, and France shall be delivered from her enemies forever.

The fate that awaits her is less consoling for the friends of the patrie, but the fate that awaits her enemies will be terrible.

At the first shot of the canon fired on the frontier, the departments agree on a plan to reduce the castles and the gardens to ashes and to slit the throats of all public enemies who can be found in cities and in the countryside. As the army will massacre its own perfidious chiefs and conspiratorial generals, and as the entire nation will rise up against its own worthless representatives to seize back the powers that they have stripped from her, the mysterious veil long hung over the intrigues of the cabinets will be torn: however impatient the cabinets are to put the French back into chains, I strongly doubt that Louis XVI shall have the humour to do nothing if he even takes a look at this terrible picture. Let some good man have the courage to put it before his eyes.

---------------------------

Notes in the original:

[1] It is an unchanging fact that sieur de Grave, despite all his civic affectations, has not given a single order to prompt the ministry to arm the national guards of the frontiers since he arrived at the ministry. It is upon their actions, and not upon their talk, that the royal agents must be judged.

[2] It was to prevent the citizen battalions from training for grand manoeuvres that the generals have kept them divided and dispersed into different posts.

Translator's notes:

＊This would be Mathieu Dumas (1753 - 1837), a colonel of the general staff of Paris, long lambasted by Marat for refusing to fight, and whose name had come from his father, and not to be confused with Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762 - 1806) the Haitian general, whose name had come from his mother, an enslaved and nigh-erased woman.

⁑ This would be Jean-François Delacroix (1753 - 1794) the Dantonist, not to be confused with Charles-François Delacroix (1741 - 1805) the Thermidorian, and father to the painter Eugène Delacroix (1798 - 1863).

⁂ Marat notably did not mention either of the brothers of Louis XVI, because the comte de Provence (future Louis XVIII) emigrated in June 1791 to the Austrian Netherlands, and the comte d’Artois (future Charles X) emigrated even earlier, on 17th July 1789 to Savoy.

I am indebted to @citizen-card for helping me with finding out about the relation between Motier and Noailles, and to @lamarseillasie for making me interested on "just what was Marat's view on dictatorship" in the first place.

#frev #french revolution #jean paul marat #marat

[choiceofgames]

New game! On the Run: Rogue Heroes, by Alyssa N. Vaughn.

We’re proud to announce that On the Run: Rogue Heroes, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, Android, and on iOS in the "Choice of Games" app.

On the Run: Rogue Heroes is 33% off until March 28th! 

Awaken your powers and save your friends! Uncover the secrets that the military has been hiding about Activated people, about your family, and about you.

On the Run: Rogue Heroes is an interactive teenage-superpower novel by Alyssa N. Vaughn. It’s entirely text-based, 200,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

For decades, everyone with special powers like super-strength or flight has been forced into lifelong conscription in W.I.N.G.S.: the Weaponized Individual National Guardian Services. Most of this military branch’s activities are secret—except for the daring exploits of heroes like Ms. Midnight, Phantom Phaeton, and Sergeant Smash.

You and your older sister grew up living with your grandmother, who cared for you, provided for you, and sheltered you from the truth. She knows what they do at W.I.N.G.S., she knows what happened to your parents, and she knows about the deadly genetic disease that you and your sister both carry.

Now, you and your sister have finally Activated your powers, W.I.N.G.S has arrested and conscripted your sister, and you've fled with your grandmother, on the run from psionic government agents with abilities just as powerful as yours.

But you’re not alone! There are people out there trying to fight back against W.I.N.G.S., people who could be your friend—or more than friends. There's Micah, a long-lost friend with shoulder-length locs and a big secret to protect. Alex, a pickpocket/con-artist has illusion powers and a lot of eye makeup. Then there's Knockout, a vigilante with a red-brown ponytail and homemade costume, including a mask and cape.

While your scrappy little group races against time to save your sister and yourselves, your own powers are growing stronger every day. Outrun cars on the highway with super-speed, pull down telephone poles with your super-strength, let out supersonic cries that can shatter glass—or just turn invisible and sneak away from it all. You’ll need every bit of your power and your smarts as you uncover secrets that could change the lives of every Activated person on earth.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual. • Choose your portfolio of powers: super-strength, super-speed, heightened senses, supersonic shouts, or invisibility! • Befriend or romance a childhood sweetheart, a scrappy con-artist runaway, or a powered vigilante with big golden-retriever energy. • Discover the truth about your family and rebuild your relationship with your long-lost mother—or leave it all behind and seek support only with your friends. • Fight back against the government’s control of Activated people, join their secret organization and become even more powerful yourself, or make peace between opposing factions.

Who will you trust? Who are your parents? Who will you date?

#choiceofgames #choice of games #interactive fiction

[eretzyisrael]

by Hen Mazzig

My own family exemplifies this reality. Concurrent with the Holocaust in Europe, Jews in the Middle East faced violent dispossession just for being Jewish. My Iraqi grandmother was just a child in 1941 when she experienced the Farhud, a two-day pogrom against the Jewish population of Baghdad. During these days of antisemitic violence, my grandmother witnessed her best friend being raped and murdered in the streets of Iraq, just for being Jewish. Meanwhile, Tunisian Jews like my paternal grandfather were conscripted to detention camps and forced labor in a gulag, where conditions were barbaric.

Even though we and the world have seen all this before, Israel nevertheless committed to a ceasefire on November 21, an agreement that included an exchange of all hostages taken on October 7 as well as Hamas putting a stop to all missiles launched into Israel. Predictably, Hamas began firing rockets into Israel fifteen minutes into that ceasefire. They also slaughtered four Israelis on Nov. 30 in Jerusalem, and continued attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

To those with genuine hearts who just want the suffering and carnage to stop, know that I am with you. I understand the hurt you are feeling and pray every day for an end to this war so we can begin the difficult process of healing and peace.

As hopeful as I am, I am also realistic: Hamas started this war on Oct. 7, and the only thing that guarantees an end to all the pain and suffering for Israelis and Gazans is for Hamas to lay down its weapons and release the 135 hostages.

Pressuring Israel, which is on a rescue mission to release its citizens from captivity and bring a group of barbaric death agents to justice, will do nothing to bring peace of mind to humanity or peace to the region.

I am certain that this is clear to many of those calling for a ceasefire. But much like the chant "from the river to the sea," the calls for "a ceasefire" have turned into another thinly veiled euphemism for the destruction of the Jewish state that is meant to fool the American public.

#ceasefire #gaza #hamas #hostages

[sitp-recs]

Hey! :) do you know any sci-fi drarry fics (with things like robots, futuristic aspects, etc)?

Hi anon! I have yet to see fics with robots but I know a couple set in/involving space (love me some astronaut Drarry!). I’d love to read more sci-fi AUs, it’s a theme I’m very interested in especially time travel (reclist) and multiverse. Imo aideomai is a great author to check as they play a lot with time and dimension, I’d highlight both In the Hand and Dwelling. Let’s see if my followers can share more recs!

Relic Radiation by @tackytigerfic (M, 927 words)

Draco goes into space, leaving behind his son Scorpius (who has just started at Hogwarts, at least), and his not-quite-boyfriend Harry Potter. But Harry can't stop loving Draco just because he's approximately 408km up, in constant orbit.

Sleep for days by megyal (M, 2.5k)

In the future, Ministry Agents mix nanotechnology with magic.

Defined Parameters by Amelior8or (E, 4k)

Harry is a security officer on a ship stuck in the far end of the Delta Quadrant. Malfoy is the Maquis First Officer they tentatively have an alliance with. If they're going to spend the next 70,000 lightyears together, they need to define the parameters of their power. They just so happen to define it on the Holodeck, during a bout of Turkish oil wrestling.

Magic Among The Stars by trulywicked (E, 7k)

Draco is well-decorated fighter pilot, who has a penchant for returning his jets in pieces. Harry, his ship's senior engineer, has had enough of Lieutenant Malfoy's brass, and attempts to ream him out, only be the one receiving a reaming himself.

i wake up falling (orphaned, M, 9k)

Draco’s always leaving, one way or another. Harry’s usually 240 thousand miles too late.

starlight (the unsuccessful return of a runaway prince) by @softlystarstruck (E, 11k)

Harry doesn't do the damsel-in-distress thing anymore. Even when he stumbles across a starship marooned in one of the most dangerous quadrants of the system.

Supernova Galaxy Pop by @piarelei (E, 22k)

Sometimes, one has to jump through wormholes, wander the universe, stumble upon their dead professor, and bodyguard a diva to find happiness.

Always Already by @aibidil (E, 170k)

Harry and Draco are perfectly fine, separately minding their business in 2004, when the Unspeakables conscript them into service... in the First War against Voldemort. Come for mutual pining and forced proximity in a 1980 hotel room, stay for young Sirius and philosophising about immortality and wormholes. And an eighties cowboy soap opera.

#asks #anon #Drarry reclist #sci fi AUs

[cantsayidont]

MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM (2020–2022): Extremely frustrating bootlicking modern fantasy series, set in an alternate America in which witches with genuine supernatural powers are required by law to submit to military conscription upon their 18th birthdays. The show follows three new witch cadets, Tally Craven (Jessica Sutton), Abigail Bellweather (Ashley Nicole Williams), and Raelle Collar (Taylor Hickson), as they go through basic training to join a magical War on Terror against a ruthless terrorist organization called the Spree — of which Raelle's new girlfriend Scylla (Amalia Holm Bjelke) is secretly an agent.

Although the premise is truly cringeworthy, the first season offers some intriguing worldbuilding (including a novel treatment of the witches' magic, which is called "work" and based on sound) and paints a surprisingly dark picture of the witch army — so dark that it starts to seem like the original intent might have been closer to Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS than a supernatural TOP GUN. Despite all its unsavory flag-waving, the Season One storyline touches on the dehumanizing effects of military training, the Army's use of torture, the grim consequences of refusing conscription, and even the negative environmental impact of military witches' "work"; the season's climax then has the witches' rather sinister commanding general (Lyne Renée) — a 300-year-old witch who survives by literally stealing the youth from volunteers and who is apparently plotting a military coup — ordering the green recruits to commit an atrocity that has significant civilian casualties.

The second season, however, immediately beats a cowardly retreat from any criticism or questioning of the Army or its leadership, shrugging off the disturbing events of the previous season (without actually undoing or contradicting anything that was previously shown, including the atrocity the protagonists committed!) and shifting focus to a stupid, unpleasantly grisly new conflict with an ancient secret society of witch-hunting bigots that threatens all witches. This conflict also occupies the the third season, which drifts yet further afield with some oddball revelations about the ultimate source of witch magic and culminates in a finale that somehow manages to elide all of the actual conflicts established in the show.

The first season has enough points of interest to suggest an opportunity missed, but the increasingly repugnant jingoism and the later seasons' obnoxiously woolly mysticism (even by the standards of a show about military witches) become harder and harder to tolerate even on a dopey nerd show level, and of the ostensible core cast, only Scylla gets anything approaching substantive characterization. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Yes, but you'll hate yourself in the morning. VERDICT: If you can stomach the basic premise (Mazel tov!), the first season (and only the first season) might be worth a look, but the rest goes from bad to worse.

#teevee #hateration holleration #motherland fort salem #jessica sutton #ashley nicole williams #taylor hickson #amalia holm #lyne renée #the cruel thing about the first season #is that it gives the misleading impression that the show #might be capable of transcending (or inverting) its own jingoism #which makes the subsequent reactionary shit worse #than if it had just been top gun with witches from the start #i know many viewers stuck it out for raella and scylla #but raelle is so sidelined in the later seasons that there's no emotional momentum there #and it's pinkwashing #which sits very ill given the show's disturbing militarism #pinkwashing #look it up

[qqueenofhades]

I kinda doubt there will actually be a civil war or that putin is in any kind of real danger but do you think that maybe prigozhin will be killed? it would at least be sth i guess

I have seen some speculation in various places around the lines that "Putin ordered Prigozhin to do this and Prigozhin is just playing the role of the agent provocateur/setting the stage for another war crime in Ukraine and there's no actual crisis at all." I do not think that's true. They already blew the Kakhova Dam with much less ceremony, and with much less tangible risk to the regime. Likewise, the thing about Russian "provocations" or "false flags" is that they're all lies and don't actually involve any real action, just rhetoric and claims in their information/social media sphere. This also plays into the repeatedly discredited idea that Putin is a "master strategist" and is playing some incomprehensible genius 12-dimensional chess that it's impossible for us to understand, rather than being an aging psychopathic dictator who decided to "reconquer" Ukraine for a) the greed of his rapacious oligarchic inner circle and b) the "messianic militarism"-inspired crusade favored by Alexander Dugin and the other ultra-Orthodox, ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist thinkers who influence Putin the most. It's not actually that complicated.

Likewise, the amount of Russian military activity/attempts to fortify Moscow against an actual siege suggests that whatever Prigozhin is doing, it's not on Putin's orders and is out of Putin's direct control. Putin has given the requisite fiery speech about how Prigozhin is a traitor and he should be destroyed, there are Wagner Group vehicles heading up the M4 motorway to Moscow, anti-terrorism preparations underway in Moscow itself, etc. If you remember the fit they threw when there was one tiny drone above the Kremlin, you can see that they're taking the possibility of an actual attack seriously. If Putin was a master strategist (which he's not), there's no way in hell he would decide on launching an actual, real-world, armed coup against himself as the best way to shore up his power. The Wagner group has been fighting for months, Prigozhin has been blasting the Ministry of Defense for months, and Putin, like any other degenerate Russian dictator increasingly past his sell-by date, fears a coup more than anything else in the world. That's why he keeps hiding in bunkers and using doubles and whatever the fuck else layers of disinformation and misinformation that the regime specializes in. He knows what happened in 1917 and then in 1991 and the collapse of the Russian Empire/Soviet Union as a result. Putin's only aim has been to keep power, no matter what. There's literally no way in hell he would actually run the risk of letting a coup succeed.

Basically: I still don't know what's going on, nobody else does either, and as I said in my last answer, it's a good idea to question everything that comes out of Russia. However, this does absolutely not at all appear to be in Putin's control in any way, and is something he and the establishment are trying desperately to tamp down, because it represents a genuine threat to his power. Also as noted, we're rooting for all of them to bite each other's dicks off and explode. If Putin is still in effective control of the military or the country or anything, he clearly has to give the order to execute/liquidate Prigozhin. If he gives it but can't carry it out, he's no longer in command in reality, regardless of what it says on paper. If he doesn't give it, he's fatally weak and knows the inept regular Russian army of conscripts and criminals can't compete against the battle-hardened Wagnerites, and he's totally dependent on them to continue his insane war. If that's the case, everyone else will also see it too, and things could go very bad for poor old Vladimir Vladimirovich, very fast.

As I said before: Stay tuned.

#anonymous #ask #russia ukraine war

[dedalvs]

do you have any tips for creating a font for a logographic conscript?

Yes: Create a classification/call up system. I created a logographic font for Kamakawi (in fact, my icon is one of the glyphs), and despite the fact that I feel like I could do a better job now, I think I did a pretty decent job with the design of the glyphs and the system. The one thing I absolutely did NOT do well is design a useable font. Since, at the time, you could only really access the characters you could type using lower case, upper case, alt, and alt + upper case (as well as the numbers), you only had access to ≈100 characters for a font. Furthermore, characters would be in random places. To expand the number of characters I could access, I made italic, bold, and bold+italic versions of the Kamakawi font that didn't actually italicize or bold the font at all: They brought up different character sets.

So, take, for example, the keystroke <l> (that's an ell). By typing it in various combinations, you could get all the following:

Regular (lower case): syllabic glyph for [la]

Regular (upper case): syllabic glyph for [lo]

Regular (alt): the agentive infix [-li-]

Regular (alt + upper case): the causative suffix [-le]

Italic (lower case): glyph for [eli] "to love"

Italic (upper case): glyph for [peka] "land"

Italic (alt): glyph for [poi] "scarcity"

Italic (alt + upper case): glyph for [elu] "long"

Bold (lower case): glyph for [kilika] "lobster"

Bold (upper case): glyph for [kala] "to speak"

Bold (alt): glyph for [tiki] "lava"

Bold (alt + upper case): glyph for [noe] "leaf"

Bold Italic (lower case): glyph for [maʔa] "to learn"

Bold Italic (upper case): glyph for [tama] "leg"

Bold Italic (alt): glyph for [halaʔi] "life"

Bold Italic (alt + upper case): glyph for [ite] "shortness of breath"

And it took me, like, 15 minutes to find all these, because that's how hard it is to manage this "system" which isn't a system at all.

For High Valyrian, I created a much simpler system. It goes like this:

Type #

Type a word in English

Type another #

Then the font automatically returns the glyph you need.

Now, I have to program every word in there as a contextual ligature, but my GOD is it worth it. Plus I have a full list detailing each glyph, what words it's used for, what words can be used to call it up in the font, etc. This is the organization system that Kamakawi desperately needed, but I had no idea how to do it.

So, that's my advice for creating a font that features logographs. If you don't have a way to organize all the glyphs, I promise you, you'll lose some of them. I need to catalog Kamakawi's glyphs at some point (maybe do a new font...). Eh. Someday.

#conlang #language #kamakawi #high valyrian #valyrian #orthography #font making