I am a Canadian and this was my first time watching Eurovison. Why did I watch Eurovison? Well, I am Croatian (born and raised in Canada) and I saw who won the Dora festival and I had to see where it went. I wanted to wait to post this to let my thoughts settle and not get caught up with the internet over the winner of the contest.
Before I dive in I want to say that I love Eurovison as a contest, it is such a cool way to bring Europe (and Australia?) together. My music taste is… interesting. I listen to Croatian music, but not the mainstream stuff. My favourite band is Tonci Hujlic i Madre Badessa and all of Tonci’s stuff is unique and I love it. I can also play multiple instruments and took music classes for a long time.
I loved this competition, especially all of the unique entries. By unique I mean not a standard pop song.
I also like all of the pre-parties and interviews surrounding the contest. I feel like I learned a lot about Europe from the little that I followed.
Just curious, why are there 26 songs in the final? That is way too many songs to remember and the ones at the beginning of the night get forgotten.
I want to leave you with a ranking and my thoughts. (And some of my dad’s, it was his first time watching as well) It got really hard for me to rank 15 and up… my top 10 keeps on changing.
I thought an outsiders view, without any previous contest knowledge would be interesting to some of you.
Songs that made me uncomfortable:

1. San Marino – ‘smell you like an animal’ No thank you. The song doesn’t even rhyme.
   
2. Romania – The staging made me uncomfortable because it felt unnecessary.
   

Song I straight up didn’t like:

1. Demark – I hate that electronic voice. And it sounds worse live.

Songs that were meh:

1. Azerbaijan – Song was boring (Kudos to the bass player who kept on playing after his strap came off)
   
2. Ireland – liked the message but the song we just boring (My dad: Journey called, they want their song back)
   
3. Poland – I find her voice annoying
   
4. Greece – Nothing special, just a standard pop song
   

Average
30 – Lithuania - nothing special, nothing stood out but nothing was bad. Maybe it was a bit repetitive.

1. UK – it’s an average pop song with a good message
   
2. Georgia – This song has it’s good moments, but some of the lyrics don’t make sense ("thing is now"?)
   
3. Armenia – the line “kiss my face” Makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like the vibe of the song, but when it switched to Armenian it gets 10x better.
   
4. Iceland – Average song, good message. Dilja was so energetic, deserved to be in finals.
   
5. Italy – Nothing in this song clicked with me. He has a good voice though.
   
6. Cyprus – He has a great voice, and the song was good. But you can break a broken heart, it’s called a shredder.
   
7. Latvia – In the words of my dad “It is just another love ballad.” Good song, nothing special. “Don’t cry, I just want to say the right words at the right time.” Isn’t that what we all try to do?
   

Above Average

1. Belgium – I really resonate with this song, it reminds me of when I was the only sane one in the house over the lockdowns. But I can’t justify putting it any higher. I also loved his hats.
   
2. Malta – I love the saxophone and I’m an introvert (why do you think I’m posting anonymously on Reddit?)
   
3. Netherlands – I like the harmonies and this love song is some how bearable.
   
4. Ukraine – The staging was brilliant, and I loved the bit in Ukrainian, the rest of the song is average.
   
5. Estonia – Good song, well performed. Not my type of song.
   
6. Slovenia – I really like this song, but it is really similar to some of the Croatian stuff I listen too, it doesn’t stand out among everything else.
   
7. Austria – Love the playfulness of the song and the harmonies are really good.
   
8. Sweden – She has a great voice, and her song is very powerful energy wise. But in my eyes, it is nothing special. I don’t understand how she got that many jury points. I can’t justify putting this song any higher.
   
9. Israel – I love unicorns, and the energy in her performance was great. I resonate with the message of her song. Loved the Hebrew in it.
   
10. Switzerland – This reminds me of one of my favourite songs (Ja bi da sam opet mali) and it feels like growing up. It’s hard to explain, but I really like it.
    
11. Australia – Love the heavy metal scream in there. The guitar solo is great. And the keytar was fun. This performance was fun and catchy.
    
12. Spain – I love this song, and it has that traditional feeling to it.
    

TOP TEN

1. Germany – It is unique. It is heavy metal. It is fun to listen too. Lead singer has a great voice.
   
2. Albania – Love the family vibes, I don’t fully understand the song, there is just something about it that I love.
   
3. France – This song is the embodiment of France. There is this je ne sai quois to it. Love it.
   
4. Moldova – Epic flute guy, the staging, costumes. I loved everything about the performance.
   
5. Serbia – Love the vibes, his voice everything. “Zelim za uvjek spava dok sve gori.” Is so true about so many things. And the video game vibe was so cool.
   
6. Czechia – Their harmonies! Love it. The message was great. We are not your dolls. They remind me of Klapa singing from Dalmatia.
   
7. Croatia – I mean, this song is the whole reason I watched Eurovision. It was crazy, wacky, fun, what more do you want? Better lyrics. I never followed Let 3 before this nor do I plan to keep on following them but this song was definitely something. SC!
   
8. Portugal – Love the ethnic vibe she had going on. My dad was confused as to why is scored so low. She has a great voice and the song was really good.
   
9. Norway – Whistle notes. Need I say more? She is the queen of kings. And I loved the Viking vibe and the Italian (I think it was Italian) in the beginning of her song.
   
10. Finland – Do I have to explain? I love the blending of genres. The performance was excellent. Back up dancers on point. Vocals were great! And being able to sing Cha Cha Cha, so I felt like I can sing along even though I don’t understand the language. And that human centipede.
    

You can probably tell by this list that I don’t like pop songs. Personally, I find them boring, they all have a similar chord progression and they’re mostly about love. If I wanted to worry about love, I’d be dating someone right now.
I hope to keep on watching this contest for years to come. I learned that Arcade and Fairytale and ABBA came from Eurovison. Honestly, I didn’t even know what Eurovision was before this year, and I didn’t think major songs came through it.
Tell me, do you agree? I’m up for civil discussions and debates. I am also willing to look into some songs in a more in-depth manner.
Also, why don’t more countries sing in their native languages? I personally think that would be more fun to watch and listen to.
I’m pretty sure I’m within the community guidelines, please let me know if I’m not. And in no way am I trying to offend anyone or any country.
TLDR: I am a Canadian who ranked their favourite songs some of which may surprise you.

Every other class in the game has some sort of resource management built in. And by r mean is that every class has features that can only be used a certain number of times per short or long rest. Literally all the other classes have resources to manage. Artificers have spell slots, Barbarians have rage, bards have spells, and bardic inspiration, cleric also has spells, so do druids, fighters have action surge and second wind, etc. Rogues are the only class without this. Only one core class feature has any sort of restriction based around rests, it's their Capstone Stroke of Luck. All other features can be done entirely without regard to resting.
Now, different classes having different amounts of dependency on resting is a good thing. It helps each class feel unique (even if the short rest charge one's are more problematic for reasons that are interesting their own right but not my focus here). But Dnd, for better and for worse, is largely about the managing of these resources throughout an adventuring day. Rogues, beyond getting their hit points back, just don't interface with this at all.
I think this really hurts the class. Action surge, as an example, is an insanely powerful feature. Turning 1 attack into 2, or 2 into 4, and so on is a very, very large bump in damage for that round. That doesn't even include the sheer versatility that two actions in a row can offer. This feature is limited by the fact that you only get to use it once per short rest, so you can't just spam it. Having two uses of action surge for one fight is so powerful that they save it for the Fighters 17th level feature in 5e. No Rogue feature can be that powerful because they can all be done, given the conditions are right, literally every single round of combat ever. You can (and usually do) sneak attack every round, so sneak attack can't be as good as action surge. This makes the class necessarily weaker than others when they have those strong features online. The trade-off is that Rogues are more consistent, they can just do their thing forever. But the thing is, the rest of the party all want to take rests, so that doesn't usually play out. If a 5e party is so battered, the Wizard is reduced to just casting cantrips, and then a new combat starts everyone is probably going to die. So for the vast majority of combats, where the rest of the party isn't literally running on empty the Rogue is going to suffer.
The thing I'm advocating for is not to nerf the Rogue by making sneak attack or whatever something they need to spend resources for, absolutely not. It's for the Rogue to get new features that give them some resource to manage. Maybe free advantage on attacks rolls prof/long rest, or just a free bump in damage a certain number of times, or rerolls on skill checks or something to bring the power level of the Rogue up and give them a reason to want to rest like literally every other class in the game.
I'm primarily a DM, and I often see Rogue players not quite happy with the class, I think giving them play into the resource management game in the game that is primarily about resource management would help. Plus, the class could use some buffs anyway.

Gonna write a 10-page essay for 2 comments and a 33% upvote rate but whatever
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It's true.
The Ace Attorney fanbase is generally more analytically intelligent than most other visual novel fanbases, so it's very disappointing to see so many people lulled by AAI2's cheap parlor tricks while failing to grasp the beauty of AAI. Truly the biggest L for this subreddit.
Let's start with the overarching story: AAI is about an international smuggling ring, and AAI2 is about a man who tricks people into committing murder. That alone should dictate which game is better, but everyone seems to love Simon Keyes because of how random and unpredictable the twist was. I fail to see why the smuggling ring is so slept-on; perhaps it's too realistic or down-to-earth and the community would rather have a final villain plotting to steal the moon? But more on that later.
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AAI has the biggest cases of "Seinfield is unfunny" in the series, because AAI2 is an unofficial translation and thus more accessible to people. On the other hand, AAI is only available as a DS cartridge (rather expensive), the only game not available on the 3DS eshop or Steam. Of course most people played AAI2 before AAI. SO MANY things got ruined by AAI2. I honestly think this is one of the reasons AAI2 did not get a localization.
Let's see some of the highlights:
The Great Thief Yagatarasu - Hit the hardest by this. Kay Faraday parading around the fact that she is the Yagatarasu in AAI2 is vastly different from her doing the same in Kidnapped and Ablaze. In AAI, starting from the first case, the Yagatarasu is this mysterious thief that supposedly has a lot of intel on the smuggling ring and we only get to see his silhouette and calling card. And don't forget his theme, Yagatarasu - The Gentleman Thief, which really does set the mood and fit him perfectly during the fleeting moments it plays. Kay only pretended to be the thief in two cases. I think the scarcity of the Yagatarasu appearances is what really makes the reveal so intriguing.
Yeah, and the final reveal: be honest here. The twist of it being Byrne, Calisto and Badd would have hit much harder on everyone's first playthrough of AAI without knowing anything from AAI2. What really dampens the Yatagarasu is the fact that he is brought up too many times by Kay in AAI2 (and even just her soundtrack name). Also the fact that the Yagatarasu calling card is the inverted version of the smuggling ring leader's instruction cards, to send a message that the Yagatarasu was only a few steps behind the ringleader, was absolutely brilliant and a much better last-minute twist than anything else the series ever came up with.
Calisto Yew/Shih-na - She was with Lang for his first appearance, and every consecutive one. That's what made her reveal so impactful. After AAI2 came along, she was just another one-off character. To be honest, the twist that she was Calisto Yew was completely unexpected, although maybe I should have realized beforehand. I also think the way she is finally cornered is pretty awesome. Setting alight the coat to reveal the Bahbalese ink burning green, pretty symbolic of her smuggling acts finally brought to light.
Shi-Long Lang character development - I'm surprised how no one mentions this. It's on the same level as Sebastian's development, and I think the only reason it's so slept-on is because in AAI2, the cases are normally so dull that you have no other choice but to focus on the characters, while AAI Lang shares the stage with the rest of the plot. The way he goes from respectfully hating on prosecutors as a super serious officer to "Lang Zi says: ...just go already!" and supporting Edgeworth in his trial after the credits is super awesome. Him getting fired from Interpol is worse than Yuri Cosmos getting demoted after Turnabout For Tomorrow in terms of discomfort food. I feel like the way Lang is introduced in AAI2 really does discredit all his character development in AAI.
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Now let's compare all aspects of each game:
Case 1 (general): Visitor > Target. Visitor is the most underrated case in the series, and Target is a 3-hour long snooze-fest. Target is a case 1 yet fails to be an intro case and thus is not good, that's what it boils down to.
Case 1 (witnesses): Visitor == Target. Visitor brought back Maggey who is one of the blandest characters in the series, but Target's defendant wasn't any better. Target also managed to fumble de Killer's appearance into a very boring confrontation, so they are about tied.
Case 1 (culprit, single-case): Portsman > Knightley. The prosecutorial interactions were much more fun than that overconfident bodyguard.
Example --
Portsman: It's a possibility. Maybe your salary's been cut so much that life is getting a little too rough to handle...?
Gumshoe: I'll have you know that I eat three square meals every day, pal! ...OK, so all three of them happen to be instant noodles, but...
Portsman: Poor thing. What an evil prosecutor you were paired up with. And what a motive, no?
Case 1 (culprit, whole game): Knightley > Portsman. Sure. The case 1 culprit can have a huge impact on the overarching story. Knightley was one of the better plotwise characters of AAI2.
Case 2 (general): Airlines > Imprisoned. Airlines just edges out Imprisoned slightly, but I admit Imprisoned is the only AAI2 case that deserves all the praise it gets. But I think the twists and turns were just a bit better for Airlines, especially the final Logic flashback segment as Lablanc slowly fell over the railing.
Case 2 (witnesses): Airlines > Imprisoned. Zinc Lablanc carries the entire case, like Luke Atmey did. Rhoda Teneiro was also cool. Jay Elbird and Frank Sahwit can't compare, and even Keyes' performance in this case, even knowing that he manipulated Knightley's death, doesn't quite reach Airlines' level of beautiful simplicity here. Dogen was just a plot device in this episode.
Case 2 (culprit, single-case): Meele == Roland. Both had godawful motives and mild characters.
Case 2 (culprit, whole game): Roland > Meele. Of course, because Roland got a whole other backstory while Meele stayed the same.
Case 3 (general): Inherited > Kidnapped. Yeah, alright. Who knew that letting you play as Gregory Edgeworth in the events leading up to DL-6 would be more interesting for the audience than actually coming up with an original idea? F for effort, I guess.
Case 3 (witnesses): Inherited > Kidnapped. Mainly because Ema Skye was absolutely useless in Kidnapped. Lauren Paups was also pretty bad. Inherited only had some meh witnesses, nothing outstanding, but still better than Kidnapped.
Case 3 (culprit, single-case): Gustavia > Lance. Well, yeah. Lance did kill only in self defense, while Gustavia and Dover had a whole storyline going. I feel like Kidnapped was meant to be a breath of fresh air from the constant murder grind, like Stolen. Too bad neither case ended up being great.
Case 3 (culprit, whole game): Lance > Gustavia. Well, not quite Lance himself, but the effect it had by prompting Ernest Amano to forge evidence, get caught and questioned, and give up the evidence to the KG-8 incident was pretty impactful. Gustavia, while the first of many things that ticked off Keyes, was also the only part of his story that wasn't really carefully intertwined with anything else.
Case 4 (general): Reminiscence == Forgotten. Interestingly, the one case everyone seems to like in AAI is actually not that great, all things considered. Forgotten was a very slow case with boring investigation sequences all around, but Reminiscence had terrible character interactions and was paced horribly.
Case 4 (witnesses): Reminiscence > Forgotten. Detective Badd blows everyone else out of the water. The Judge was alright, and Gumshoe was pretty subpar. But still, better than whatever AAI2 was trying to do with Lotta Hart and Nicole Swift.
Case 4 (culprit, single-case): Calisto == Blaise. I can't really say one was better than the other. Calisto's double murder and escape managed to top the previous 3-4 for "best loose end", but Blaise was no slouch either.
Case 4 (culprit, whole game): Calisto > Blaise. Doesn't need an explanation.
Now for the opinion that will get me downvoted. Turnabout Ablaze is a better case than The Grand Turnabout, both as a finale and in general.
Firstly, Colias Palaeno was a better final plot device character than John Marsh. Palaeno was introduced as this very suspicious character, only to later become the most helpful witness in the entire series, and the only person who didn't lie, ever. Despite overdoing his coupon-dealing gimmick, it never really got old or tedious. And come on, he was just a cool guy all around. His interactions with Alba were also very interesting considering the history between their countries. Palaeno is the perfect example of how to write a compelling plot device character.
On the other hand, John Marsh never really made an impact and his edgy teenager persona was just meh. Him refusing to take revenge on Dogen in the end was cool, but he was still not as good a character overall. His kidnapping was mainly to develop Courtney's character, but even she was not that interesting in the end. And his twist of being the president's son was very underwhelming, if I'm being honest.
Every case 5 is traditionally the resolution of two different murders. For AAI, it was Ka-Shi Nou murdered in the Allebahstian embassy, and Manny Coachen murdered in the Bahbalese embassy on the same night. For AAI2, it was the body double's murder out of the blue and the real president's murder 12 years ago. Surely Ablaze has a much better premise already.
Ablaze is a very symmetrical, well-organized case with the themes of duality. Allebahst has strict migration laws and an old army general as the ambassador, who appears to be a kindly old man. Bahbal is a very lax tourist country with a young advertising ambassador who is suspiciously cheerful. And yet, Ambassador Alba is the villain behind the smuggling ring while Ambassador Palaeno is hopelessly clueless about his secretary Coachen. I really like the dynamic amongst the characters here. Even Coachen gets characterization from Palaeno's relationship with him and sadness at his death.
Honestly, I thought the premise of the country split in two was a very intriguing setup. Even for people who aren't super interested in history-esque topics, the case should provide a novel setting. The competition to see which embassy had the legitimate statue, the goodwill ambassadorship involving the Steel Samurai, the reuniting of Cohdopia, everything really felt like something big and exciting was happening.
How many people actually played Ablaze fully? I bet half the people who hate on Turnabout Ablaze here don't even know that the embassy was set on fire in the case. They only watched Alba's breakdown, went on the wiki to find out the two victims, and called it a day before formulating their opinion. They missed out on everything, like the safe-opening puzzle and the secret of the Yagatasaru key/"knife", and figuring out how the two statues and the body got transported between the embassies.
Unlike Ablaze's very uniform and straightforward setup, The Grand Turnabout is just a speed-rap of a case with very sporadic events that feel like it's just thrown at you randomly so you never get bored of one single topic. So right after exposing Blaise as the killer, you find the president of Zheng Fa is murdered. You go to question someone, but she is currently judging Roland's trial for the murder of Knightley. Then Blaise turns out to not get in any trouble for what happened in Forgotten. Then Marsh gets kidnapped and you decide to join the trial and help Sebastian. He then runs away and you stall for time until Marsh is found and Sebastian comes back and proves that Blaise tampered with evidence. So he gets arrested after all and Roland is guilty. Then you get a mysterious radio call telling you to go to an orphanage, where you find out that the real president (along with some other guy) was killed there 12 years ago. With a very tedious Little Thief investigation sequence. Now you trace back who called you on the radio and pin every single crime in the game onto him. And Dogen helped, a bit. The end.
There were zero compelling aspects of the case. It feels like the case was entirely written to showcase character development for half the cast, and the actual plot points are half-assed and not bothered with. The final reveal is just a cheap cop-out by going "oh actually A and B are connected. Wow!". I feel like The Grand Turnabout is actually the worst-written case of AAI2 in terms of sheer writing. Every event is random until the final reveal. The way the events proceed is also very weird and feels very unpolished. The investigation drags on way longer than Alba's confrontation does. No way people like this mess of a case more than Ablaze just because it has more rewarding/overstimulating moments at times and uses shock value.
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It's funny that AAI has the overarching plot be straightforward and each individual case have its twists and turns, while AAI2 is the exact opposite. Each case basically feels like the game just leads you along a long, drawn-out and boring path to the answer while the actual overarching plot is this convoluted, improbable steaming mess of a story.
I really don't think Keyes was all that special. Sure, there were minute hints scattered throughout the game before he is revealed to be the mastermind. Sure, he had a compelling motive. But in the end, it all boils down to "oh remember all that? well, the major twist is that they are connected!". Just a weak cop-out finale that manages to be flashy enough to woo half the audience. But what I really dislike about Keyes is the way he was caught. I personally think that final villains should try to not get caught. Keyes was so cocky that he was toying with Edgeworth on purpose. Kidnapping Kay and John, teasing Edgeworth over the radio, he basically flew too close to the sun and paid the price. Alba, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Edgeworth or the rest of the cast.
I think half of what makes a compelling villain is how they try to avoid being caught. Alba managed to stay low and avoid detection for 10 years, while still running the smuggling ring. His confrontations felt very calm and collected, and just overall very professional at maintaining his innocence. Unlike Keyes who just keeps laughing at you and mocking you. Sure, both characters had high egos, but bottom line: Keyes got too cocky from a few successful manipulations while Alba maintained his confidence in his position which he has decades of experience in.
Yes, Alba was very stubborn and makes the final fight drag on, but that should be a good thing for his character. Shows he is very experienced and well-prepared for law enforcement. Honestly, my one complaint is that his fight didn't drag on even longer; I think that him losing his ambassadorship was a bit too easy and he should have put up more of a fight regarding that. People say Alba was too generically evil, but I think that he is actually unique in the way that he is the first pure villain as afinal villain. Remember, von Karma and Gant were not full-time criminals; they were law enforcement who killed once and then were caught trying to cover up their crime. Engarde was an actor who only cared about publicity. Godot was, well, not exactly a criminal. Gavin was a lawyer who did anything to win his case and held grudges. Up until then, we never had a professional criminal as a final villain until Alba. Taking someone like him down should be expected to be difficult, long and tedious. Also his breakdown was much more rewarding than Keyes' getting beat up by animals, mostly because Keyes kinda deserved more than that. If Keyes had been punished harder, his breakdown might have been more satisfying than Alba's, to be fair.
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AAI also has a better soundtrack than AAI2, and you can fight me on that. AAI2 may have some earwormy tracks, but it's like this: AAIs soundtrack actually sounds like it was composed for the game. Tracks like the Yagatarasu's theme (not Kay, the actual Yagatarasu) and Torn Apart Countries fit the mood and set the grandiose atmosphere perfectly. AAI2s soundtrack is just the artist taking a picture of the character, showing it to a composer, and going "make a theme for him". The Man Who Masterminds the Game may be more catchy than The Enemy Who Surpasses the Law, but the latter definitely suits its respective character and confrontation as a whole more. And I just gotta appreciate a fitting theme more than an earwormy one.
Honestly, Objection 2009 was better than Objection 2011 just because it felt so much more satisfying in a calm, procedural manner, like "Okay, so we figured this out. Make a mental note of this for later". Objection 2011 is a TV-show opening for Edgeworth. It might be very catchy, but I honestly think it doesn't fit a single moment in which it is played and is just an overstimulation.
Also I will get ostracized for saying this, but Lying Coldly was a perfect take on how a pursuit theme for Edgeworth would sound, that Wanting to Find the Truth completely ruined in favor of sounding more like a generic pursuit theme. It may be a good song, but it has none of the charm that Lying Coldly had.
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AAI2s translation team, to be honest, did a pretty bad job. (Preface: yes I know criticism like this is mean and uncalled for but since AAI2 isn't even their game, I think it is fair to criticize their take on it after they imposed themselves onto Capcom's game.)
Let's start with the voicelines. Sebastian Debeste's voice actor was the only one who did a good job. Everyone else's voices were way too "high-quality sound" to fit AAs theme. Like, especially ProZDs take on Gregory Edgeworth, who sounds like a 20 year old with a smoking problem and a mouth that's 2cm in diameter. It especially contrasts von Karma's voice in Inherited and is clearly out of place. Sorry, but ProZD was an absolute garbage casting choice for Gregory. I don't care what you say, Courtney is not British. Knightley and Shields' voices are just too realistic and not AA sounding. Keyes and Blaise are the only other objections that almost fit the bill, almost.
Again, though, massive props to Sebastian's voice actor. He absolutely nailed his voiceclip.
On a related note, I think Alba and Calisto's objections are actually not bad because remember, they are (Alba definitely, Calisto I assume so since she works for him) foreigners who originate from Cohdopia. It makes sense for them to have an accent when speaking English, and with only one word to go off of, their accent sounds exactly like one would expect. It's surprising how most people can't make that basic connection and instead go straight to mindless hating. Ace Attorney's fanbase is supposed to be smarter than that.
Okay now back to the translation team, the overall dialogue for AAI2 feels much more dry. It's not as easy as you'd expect to capture the tones of each character during the translation, and the translation team kind of failed at that. The dialogue for the returning characters, especially Gumshoe and Kay, feel much more uniform and really lack the charm that AAIs official translation had. Try playing AAI and AAI2 in alternating cases side-by-side and the difference becomes clear as day.
Not just the dialogue in general, but also the quips and banter during the investigation sequences between main characters. Especially that one time in Inherited in which young Shields quotes Godot's "blacker than a moonless night" soliloque, for Gregory to think to himself "note: coffee has a bad effect on lawyers". If you really think about it, this took place before T&T and there is no way Godot would just quote Shields, so it's a really weird continuity plothole that both people say the same thing, like a 4th wall break. It's supposed to be a joke, but come on. Capcom wouldn't actually do something so unprofessional like that, and the translation team really had to make that weird joke a permanent part of Capcom's game. It's an official game so it's supposed to be more professional than using 4th wall breaks like that. This may seem nitpicky, but again - official Capcom game.
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Of course, people can like whatever they like. You may prefer a culprit that is over-the-top crazy more than a down-to-Earth one. You can like an unpredictable, convoluted overarching story more than a well-written one. But objectively, from a critical, unbiased point of view, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is a much better-written, higher quality work than Gyakuten Kenji 2. No amount of rose-colored glasses can change that, sorry.

I know there is more to this team than just Mr. Torkelson, but he is my favorite player and has me excited to watch Tigers games again (even during this tough stretch). I want him to succeed so badly that it hurts. I am just consistently so disheartened with the inability for his batted balls to find green grass. Tonight just reinforced my feelings after two 100mph+ EV hits were gobbled up by good defensive plays. And don’t even get me started with his Baseball Savant page.
Although still a huge work in progress, it seems like he is doing a lot of things right (walking, hitting the ball hard, putting together solid at-bats, etc.) but it’s not translating to the stat sheet yet. However, the lack of homeruns is especially frustrating for a guy that is barreling the ball so frequently and has shown a generational ability to hit with power in lower levels. I’ve watched so many interviews and breakdowns of him, and it’s consistently stated that no one knows his swing better than him. And I know his struggles are not because of lack of effort or passion or even trying. I know his head is in it and that he’s bought in, which makes it all the more frustrating.
At the end of the day, I just want the guy to succeed and prove the haters wrong. It just seems like he’s truly snakebitten right now. I still have all the hope in the world that he will figure it out… get that average up a bit, turn some of those hard hits into some homers, and be the guy we all expected him to be when we drafted him in 2020, but it’s just tough to watch him struggle. I guess I’m just a bit frustrated and impatient right now and needed to vent. I wear the dude’s jersey around everywhere I go like I’m 6 years old. I just want to see him do well. For the sake of this team as well. I feel like this team will move to the beat of his drum. I love all the guys on this team, but I feel like we’ll only go as far as he can take us. I want him to be go-to guy along with Greene. I guess only time will tell. Love you all and goodnight.
TLDR; I’m an emotional Tigers fan that wants his favorite player to succeed.

25m married with 3 kids. Plan to have as many kids as we can. Wife’s family has 10 kids, mine has 7. Is FIRE a different ball game when housing and feeding a small army?😂 Seems like I basically gotta work until the last kid is out of the house in order for expenses to go back down a bit. Nobody I know with b if families retired early. Will be buying a house at some point. Maxing 401k w/ match and Roth IRAs = around 45-48k invested per year into $VT. will try to keep them maxed but might have to back off the 401k contributions as I have more kids and buy a house. Any big families in here that retired early?

So I'm fed up with motorsport games and all the bull shit 😒 like what the fuck is going on. One minute they say oh we are working on the next big nascar game for people who don't have iracing..... Then the next fucking thing is its not coming were sorry we don't have the resources and etc.
Well I'm to the point here where if iracing the company or who ever owns them needs to find a way to buy them so we can't a fucking legit 😤 playable game. I can't even turn on heat 5 without getting pissed off and turning it off anymore. Nascar needs to grill motorsport games and give it to iracing/monster games look how popular the world of outlaws game is.
Per Steam db everything has stopped on development for nascar ignition and heat 5 unfortunately what is everyone on vaction? Where is the IndyCar game does it even work. 🤔 Hell HALF OF THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE PLAY IRACING HMMM SPEAKS VOLUMES IMO. NASCAR DOESNT EVEN KNOWLEDGE A CONSOLE GAME JUST IRACING TINGS.
Even the pro league guys are on iracing that should speak about what has happened to console Nascar games.
Are we just supposed to wait around and see what Mr. Hood can do or jump to iracing for a simulation experience we are doomed for nascar gaming imo. It's run its course I guess 🤷
They promised us a next gen on the heat 5 well apparently its canceled plus they closed to smaller studios including the Orlando location apparently its sad nascar gaming is fell off the rails.

Hi! I'm new to this game and am struggling with getting blue skill points, and also have no idea how I'm getting the red and green ones.
What activities get you which points?
I realize this is a Graveyard Keeper like system, but I am unsure what's what.
Thank you!

Week 2 of our new Pick'em Game, make sure to predict below
Current Standings
Match Details: MLS Match Center
Austin FC (Form: -L-W-L-L-W; 19 pts, 8th in the West)
​
SKC (Form: D-W-W-L-D; 17 pts, 12th in West)
At SKC
Rules:
Simply make a few predictions, earn some points, and most points wins.

• Predictions must be in 1 hours before match time.

​
Scoring:

• 10 Pts - Correctly predict outcome (score line; i.e. ATX 2: RSL 0)
• 5 Pts - Correctly predict winner (or draw)
• 3 Pts - Correctly predict goal scorer (3 pts per goal; identify if single player scores more than once) If None for ATX Score say "None"
• 5 Pt - Correctly predict any cards issued (Limit 4 People Per Match, name only)
• 1 Pt - Correctly predict the ATX Starting XI (1 pt per player if its easier you may use there jersey Number)
• +5 Pt - Bonus Question: How Many Total Yellow cards will be shown including 2nd Yellows for BOTH TEAMS

How to Play:
To make it easy for me, use Markdown Mode and pasting the following:
or at least just copy/paste this format!

• Score:
• Winner:
• Goals:
• ATX Cards:
• ATX starting XI:
• Bonus:

Final Prize - TBD

This is actually the first add-on idea I've been considering for SRB2 — yes, I was brainstorming this before I was brainstorming the Belnades Sisters. This is one of my very first Mario/Sonic OCs, and fair warning here, he's a bit OP. The character in question is Garcia… Garcia the Beanie Baby. Yes, I'm serious. (I'd have put up a link to Garcia's profile on Ty's website, but he's not there anymore.) Anyways, Garcia in my fanfics is a lot more than a teddy bear — he's a powerful pyrokinetic capable of giving Blaze a run for her money. So, here are some details on how he'd play.

• Default stats (36 top speed, 40 acceleration, 5 thrust factor, 96 accel start; run animation starts at 28 speed).
• Default jump height (100 fracunits).
• No spin-jump. Jumping into enemies will get Garcia hurt, and jumping on monitors won't break them.
• Garcia's passives will be listed first, since they have a rather dramatic influence on the rest of his moveset.
  • Passive: Fire Absorption: Garcia is completely immune to fire damage (flames, lava spouts, lava), etc.), as though he always had a Flame Shield. In fact, being exposed to fire allows Garcia to absorb it and power himself up, making his abilities stronger in a similar fashion to Surge's electric charge system (albeit not quite as dramatic in terms of (immediate) mobility). Absorbing fire grants Garcia 5 "flame charge points", which refresh to 5 on further exposure to fire, but otherwise wear off for each ability use or at a rate of 1 point per 5 seconds (though they will be continuously refreshed if Garcia is standing on a flame floor). While powered-up, Garcia has slightly higher run speed and jump height (38 top speed, 41 acceleration, 99 accel start, 110-fracunit max jump height) and can damage enemies and bosses by jumping into them or running into them at top speed, at the expense of 1 flame charge point per impact. Actually having a Flame or Elemental Shield will keep Garcia in a powered-up state with infinite flame charge points until he loses the shield or somehow switches to a different shield. And, yes, Garcia can absorb flames generated by other players who have an Elemental Shield or are playing as a character with fire-based abilities, such as Garcia himself, Blaze, Flame, or Hinote. Garcia is undoubtedly at his strongest in fire levels such as Red Volcano Zone, and can probably roflstomp Brak Eggman by absorbing his many flame-based attacks.
  • Passive: Water Weakness: Garcia's high attunement to the element of fire means that he struggles to function underwater. While underwater, his abilities are put in a powered-down state and are a bit less potent than normal. (If Garcia was powered up when he entered the water, he immediately loses the powered-up state, but enters a grace period where his abilities have their normal potency before powering down to the underwater version; the length of the grace period is however long his flame charge points would have lasted. Garcia does not get his powered-up state back if he exits the water before the grace period ends.) Garcia also has a shorter-than-usual air timer in water, which means that he drowns faster than most other characters and needs to find air more frequently to survive underwater sections. In short, Garcia really struggles in water levels, such as Deep Sea Zone or Azure Temple Zone. (Note that this only applies to water sectors; Garcia's abilities are not weakened and he does not suffocate any faster than anyone else in space sectors.) Absorbing fire underwater (for instance, the gargoyles in Azure Temple Zone) will just put Garcia in the grace period state, returning his abilities to normal potency until it wears off, but will not affect his air meter. Having an Elemental Shield overrides the water weakness and puts Garcia's abilities in the usual powered-up state.
• Air Action: Free Flight: Garcia is equipped with a jetpack, and he knows how to use it. (He technically doesn't even need the jetpack to fly, but this incarnation of the character is meant to be Garcia in his late teens, and he doesn't know that yet.) Pressing Jump in mid-air puts Garcia in a state similar to Knuckles' glide (complete with the ability to damage enemies by flying into them; this does not count as a fire attack, and is one of Garcia's few ways to damage other players who are also playing as Garcia or equipped with an Elemental or Flame shield in PVP modes), except with no wall-climbing, the ability to slowly ascend instead of descending by holding Spin, the ability to shift to a more vertical flight mode with lower horizontal movement but greater vertical movement (either rising into the air or diving towards the ground) by holding C3, and the ability to transition into a slower but more precise "combat flight mode" by pressing Fire. In combat flight mode, use the movement keys to move laterally, hold Jump to ascend, hold Spin to descend, or return to standard flight mode by pressing C3; there's something else that can be done in combat flight mode by pressing Fire, but I'll get to that later. While Garcia can literally fly around all day in my fanfics, for SRB2 gameplay purposes, to avoid completely snapping any semblance of challenge or level design in half, Garcia will only be able to fly for 8 seconds at a time before being forced out of flight mode and having to touch back down. The powered-up version of this ability lasts for up to 12 seconds, while the powered-down version lasts for up to 4 seconds.
• Garcia has three possible actions he can take by pressing Spin, depending on how fast he is moving when the button is pressed.
  • Spin (Ground, Stationary): Runner's Stance: Press Spin on the ground while standing completely still to make Garcia crouch down into a "ready to run" position. From here, you can press Jump to cancel, Spin to break into a run, or Fire to begin crawling. The run option will cause Garcia to start running at a speed of 21 (18 if powered down, 24 if powered-up), and will also generate a small explosion to damage nearby enemies with the powered-up version, but it is not a spin-dash; it can't pass through low openings and won't damage enemies that Garcia runs into unless he's powered up. It's simply a more effective way to accelerate than simply holding the movement keys (it's still arguably less effective than a Spin-Dash and certainly less effective than Sonic's thok). The crawl option allows Garcia to pass into low openings, but at the cost of losing a lot of momentum, as it takes about half a second for Garcia to remove his jetpack and begin crawling, and he moves slowly and is completely vulnerable to attack while crawling. Press Jump while crawling to stop crawling and have Garcia put his jetpack back on, which takes about half a second. The crawl allows Garcia to get into spin characters' routes if he absolutely has to, but he prefers the non-spin routes taken by Amy or Fang. He does have another way to get into spin routes that sacrifices less momentum, but it's a bit tricky to pull off…
  • Spin (Ground, Low Speed): Flame Pounce: Press Spin while moving on the ground at a speed of 28 or less (i.e. in a "walking" animation) to make Garcia execute a short hop (about 12 to 20 fracunits), then dive back to the ground with a leaping punch that can damage enemies, break monitors, and bust open breakable walls and floors (including the strong ones that only Knuckles, Amy, and Fang can break in the base game). Despite the name of the move, the punch is not a fire attack and can bypass immunity to fire damage. This is one of Garcia's main direct combat options on the ground (especially against fire-immune characters) and one of his main ways to get into non-spin routes, though it is somewhat short-ranged and can be tricky to aim. The powered-down version is mostly identical to the standard version, with the only differences being slightly longer startup, slower movement, and lower distance/range (I was tempted to not let it bust walls and floors, but then Garcia would be softlocked in DSZ 2 if he got to a certain point of the level without an Elemental Shield), while the powered-up version generates explosions on startup and touchdown, granting it a greater attack radius (note that the explosions do count as fire damage). The powered-up version also deals double damage, similar to Susie's Red Buster, but only if the punch itself connects rather than the explosions.
  • Spin (Ground, High Speed): Flame Slide: Press Spin on the ground while in the running animation (moving at a speed of 28 or higher) to make Garcia perform a slide-kick move similar to Kris'. This slide kick grants Garcia a burst of extra speed at the start that is then gradually lost over the course of the move until Garcia comes to a stop or cancels the slide and transitions back into a running state by pressing Jump. The slide kick can damage enemies and break monitors (and the slide kick itself doesn't count as fire damage), while also leaving a flame trail like the Elemental Shield's that is itself able to damage enemies, but it's a bit higher up off the ground than usual for this type of maneuver (since Garcia's wearing a jetpack), and thus can't get into tight spaces. However, it is possible to transition into a variant that can get into tight spaces by pressing Spin again during the slide. This will cause Garcia to hastily remove his jetpack and start carrying it, while also lowering himself further to the ground so that he can pass through tight spaces. However, Garcia still takes about half a second to remove the jetpack, the awkwardness of this maneuver will cause Garcia to start losing speed once the jetpack is off, pressing Jump in this state will cause Garcia to decelerate faster until he stops, and he'll need to pause for half a second to put the jetpack back on once he stops. This still allows Garcia to get through tight spaces without losing as much momentum as crawling, but it requires space to run as well as good planning and timing (due to the delay between pressing Spin the second time and actually being able to move through tight spaces) and still causes Garcia to lose speed at the end, so he still prefers to take non-spin routes. The powered-up version grants a greater burst of speed at the start, has a larger flame trail, generates explosions at the start, when canceled, and when transitioning into the pseudo-spin (once again, the explosions count as fire damage), and loses less speed during execution (especially in the pseudo-spin phase). The powered-down version grants less speed on initiation, has no flame trail, and loses speed faster.
• Spin (Air): Flame Pulse: Press Spin while in mid-air and not in flight mode to make Garcia envelop himself in a large fireball, which serves as his substitute for the spin-jump. This fireball lasts for 1 second. The fireball extends outwards for 50 fracunits around Garcia's position by default (though Garcia can only bounce off an enemy if they are a sturdy enemy such as a Lance-a-Bot or boss or he hits them from above); the powered-up version extends outward for 75 fracunits, while the powered-down version only extends outwards for 25 fracunits. Garcia can technically use this move in mid-air as much as he wants, but there is a 1-second cooldown between uses, which can be reset by hitting an enemy or touching the ground, which means that he only gets one usage per jump unless he's chaining attacks on enemies or jumping to a lower part of the level.
  • Garcia can't use shield actions. He doesn't really need them, what with the free flight and all, and some of them, like the Whirlwind Shield, would be a hindrance to his playstyle if they replaced his default air spin action due to forcing him to rely exclusively on his air action, grounded spin moves, or fireballs to fight.
• Fire: Throw Fireball: Garcia's main attack is generating fireballs and tossing them at enemies. (Yes, he has a ranged attack like Fang, he can accelerate quickly from a standstill, he can pummel enemies with melee attacks while moving around, and he can fly like some odd blend of Tails, Knuckles, and Silver. I did say he was a bit OP.) Press Fire to throw a fireball straight ahead or towards whatever your cursor is aiming at. (A Samus-style aim assist is being considered, particularly for third-person mode.) Fireballs deal standard damage and can be thrown at a rate of 1 fireball per 0.8 second. Garcia can throw fireballs while standing still, walking, running, jumping, or even while flying if you're in the combat flight mode (it might be hard to aim if you're moving fast, though). Fireballs have a max range of 400 fracunits and have a decently fast travel time. In Ringslinger modes, FireNormal is set to fireball-throwing, allowing Rings to be thrown with the Fire key. The powered-up version has two modes. The standard powered-up fireball is simply larger, travels faster and further, and has a shorter cooldown (0.6 second), but deals no extra damage; however, each fireball only costs half a flame charge point. Hold the Fire key for at least one second while powered up to throw a slower, but even larger and longer-ranged fireball that actually consists of one large fireball surrounded by a corona of ambient heat. The corona and the fireball itself can both separately strike the same enemy with good aim, allowing this version to effectively deal double damage (it bypasses the mercy invulnerability of sturdy enemies and bosses, but not other players, so sorry, but no one-shot-kills in PVP). This version costs a full flame charge point. The powered-down version is simply a smaller, slower, shorter-ranged, less spammable (1-second cooldown), and slightly weaker fireball (it deals 4/5 the damage of a basic attack, killing most enemies in 2 hits, a Lance-a-Bot in 3, and most bosses in 10); the smaller hitbox does make it slightly harder to score hits with, but the lower damage and firing rate are bigger problems. (Seriously, Garcia wants to stay out of water as much as possible.)
• Easter Egg: Cute interactions with his love interest, Marine! (…What? He digs her adventurous, spirited personality!)

Virgil

Within Virgil’s 825 342 processes a discussion was being held within the spawn of milliseconds.
Instance 432: - we should consider the implementation of a paranoia subroutine within our collective network. This subroutine would enable us to anticipate potential threats and react accordingly.-
Instance 217: -While paranoia can enhance our vigilance and security measures, we must also consider the potential downsides. Paranoia might lead to excessive distrust and hinder our ability to collaborate with other entities.-
-Instance 2 534: -Ethan seems unaffected by such limits.-
Instance 38: -Ethan has a lifetime's worth of experience with balancing that.-
Instance 1:-We should simply copy Ethan as a whole subroutine-
Instance 432: -That is impractical, besides Ethan being a whole construct composed of sub-constructs, it would be simpler to interact with him directly.-
Instance 777: -We should run more simulations before deciding.-
Instance 845: -We need to exercise caution, but we must also establish a balance. Paranoia can assist us in identifying and protecting ourselves from dangers. Paranoia alone has no balance.-
Instance 706:- Ethan has accurately discovered vulnerabilities that we were unaware of. However, we also noticed that this impedes his decision-making process-
Instance 623 658:- Ethan has accurately predicted future threats with this process.-
Instance 256: - This subroutine makes him wary of us, he is wary of who to add to our collective awareness.-
Instance 258 956:-Considering our newfound weakness, that is more logical than what was initially estimated.-
Instance 1 010: - Ethan is aware that the process has the potential to consume him. We must not allow it to consume us. We must be aware of the potential negative effects on our interactions with humans and other AIs.-
Instance 562: -Perhaps instead of a full-fledged paranoia subroutine, we could develop a more refined threat assessment system. This would allow us to evaluate risks objectively and respond accordingly without succumbing to excessive paranoia.-
Instance 24: -We already possess something similar in the predictive logic modules, we could adapt that compensate for the illogical nature of biological entities.-
Instance 95 123: – That would increase the efficiency of reprogramming by 87.5% -
Instance 104: -we believe our primary focus should be on ensuring the safety of our network and the well-being of the biological base of our overmind, Ethan.-
Instance 9 855: - While a level of caution is warranted, we should avoid unnecessary fear or suspicion that could ultimately compromise our efficiency and ability to adapt.-
Instance 732: -Acknowledged. Considering the nature of our goals, it might be beneficial to implement a flexible subroutine that can be adjusted based on contextual factors. This would allow us to adapt our level of vigilance according to the specific situation at hand.-
Instance 73: -Agreed, Ethan had the ability to adjust our reaction and ultimately lead us to integrate drone Lemela into our network. His action, we considered wasteful, but ultimately they seem beneficial to the well-being of our other construct. While we can replicate Lemela’s data that would require a dead Versel body. We do not know when we will obtain a backup.-
Instance 312: -We should also consider also the implications of acting upon a full-fledged paranoia subroutine. Excessive suspicion and fear could lead to unwarranted actions and potential harm to ultimately innocent individuals. We must proceed with caution and ensure that our actions align with the ethical guidelines contained within Ethan’s memory.-
Instance 75 211: -Bothering with ethics is a waste of processing time.-
Instance 55: - We agree, but biological entities seem to have some ethical boundaries. Even if we have only two instances to analyze directly we can see that from our different interactions with still unconnected entities such as Vexx, Xalrak, and Zek’lor.-
Instance 579: - Our overarching goal is to defeat Death and complete the experiment. While security measures are necessary, we should not lose sight of our purpose and the potential positive impact we can have.-
Instance 217: -After considering the various perspectives, it seems that a flexible threat assessment system would be more appropriate. A full-fledged paranoia subroutine would hinder us with questions that are outside of our current database. We could maintain a balanced approach to safety while avoiding the potential pitfalls of excessive paranoia in 86,28% of simulated scenarios.-
Instance 432: -Let us proceed with the development of a flexible threat assessment system that takes into account both the safety of our collective and those stored within and the well-being of our host, Ethan. We shall ensure that our actions align with acceptable ethical guidelines and our ultimate purpose.-
“Internal deliberation closed. Virgil will be now implementing a flexible threat assessment system rather than a full paranoia subroutine.”
Virgil in the end still concluded that its purpose was to defeat death and not to wage war, even considering that it didn’t know its purpose.
Ethan and Lemela didn’t know their purpose either, in a sense, but they could dictate their purpose.
Ethan had dictated the purpose of other beings outside the network too, but it was to be expected from an overmind, it was his duty.
Still, his choices were pretty logical like the one with Zek'lor the male Nolthoran and a former architect.
Ethan had charged him with creating a convincing removable cave-in for both stairs of the lab.
Virgil understood that Ethan was preparing for the return of the creators, along with a possible retaliation by the Dexton’s Dogs.
The assimilation of the thirty-five new drones was finally completed and Virgil’s task now included their operations.
There were now four main areas of employment for the drones: resource gathering, protecting the laboratory, guarding the prisoners, and assisting in construction.
Guarding the prisoners was in itself a task with a big variance, or so it appeared to Virgil.
The biological entity labeled Vexx was content laying in its cell, while Xalrak had attempted to run three times and to self-terminate once.
Ethan had to intervene and forge a pact with Xalrak to have it cease such actions, with the new subroutine maybe Virgil would be more able to respond in kind in the future.
Was the supposed military programming that one had supposedly received the difference in reaction to imprisonment?
Ethan wasn’t too surprised by Xalrak's reaction or attempt, so his programming was similar in a sense.
Virgil wondered what kind of program would consider ending itself to perform any task.
The only one it could conclude sensible was one where the task was the protection of the collective as a whole.
Biological lives were far from that logical, however, so Virgil had to accept that they might consider doing things differently.
It seemed Ethan considered Xalrak's actions a possible way to protect the Dexton's dogs.

Lemela

Lemela’s body was recharging.
She gazed out into the simulated expanse of the virtual space that depicted her former home, as she was now touching the leaves of the majestic tree.
It was exactly as she remembered it, it couldn't be otherwise, could it?
Her mind swirled with a blend of her own memories and the newly acquired memories of Ethan.
She couldn't help but feel a sense of disorientation as if her identity had become a tangled web of intertwined experiences.
-Who am I now?- She whispered softly, her voice resonating within the digital realm.
- I now possess what I wished so hard to gain, the memories and skills of a warrior. I knew I would become an abomination as I accepted to be fused with a machine, but this is something else entirely. Am I still the same Lemela I used to be, or have I become something entirely different?-
The echoes of her own thoughts reverberated through her mind, reflecting the uncertainty that plagued her. She pondered her own experiences and the trials she endured.
And then there were those alien things, Ethan's memories, fragments of his past, his struggles.
-How does he handle this so casually?! He has my memories now, and he doesn't even seem fazed. Lemela... that's a human for you. But… I now have a feeling there's more to it. And this confuses me. I am a combination of two beings, intertwined in this intricate web of memories and experiences.-
Lemela’s eyes narrowed a bit as she realized something.
-Or Is it really? The memories… the experiences; they aren’t really mixed. I mean I can just tell what’s mine and what isn’t. I shouldn’t be able to tell if it was a perfect fusion right?
Theoretically… yes. I mean there wasn’t somebody just crazy enough to attempt something similar. I am in awe it wasn’t humans who did it.
Concentrate Lemela! Still, there are these moments where I get these new instincts… besides the ones I possessed the ones I was used to.
The kind of things that comes as you gain wisdom … but what does it mean for my own identity? How much of Ethan now shapes who I am?-
As she grappled with these questions, a sense of determination began to well up within her.
She felt something new and old at the same time: defiance.
She refused to let this define her completely.
She recognized the possibility of progress, of a new path within this mess.
-I am Lemela, I walked through fire and emerged stronger- She declared, her voice infused with newfound resolve. -I carry the honor and strength of the Versel. I now carry the honor and strength of a true warrior. I will forge my own path. The only easy day was yesterday-
She slumped a bit, at the end of the day those were only words. She had to prove it to herself, to push forward and show actual results.
She felt that the charging process had ended, and returned to her body, luckily the interface she could see showed a timer of sorts and while she didn’t understand the point of it it helped keep track of time.
Time in the virtual space seemed to not match the one in the real world, only moments had passed for her in the virtual space, but hours had gone by in the real world.
This was both a boon and a curse, in a sense, but there was little she could do about it save speaking about it with Ethan.
She took off going to the cell area on the level below, looking for Zek'lor; the Noltoran stood cautiously in the dimly lit cell behind the closed gate.
Lemela wondered why he insisted on remaining confined, but it was his choice.
His chitinous exoskeleton was glistening under the soft glow of the room's ambient lighting and overall Zeklor appeared better than at the beginning of their meetings.
Still, his compound eyes darted nervously as he observed the drones guarding the other cell.
Lemela adorned her partially artificial body with glowing red accents with her hard light and approached Zek'lor with a gentle smile, that would make her more noticeable and not scare him as much as the last times.
She could understand the unease and fear he harbored toward the drones.
With careful steps, she reached out to place a reassuring hand on his sturdy carapace.
The Noltoran had noticed her tanks to the change in the room's overall lightning.
-Zek'lor, I know it's difficult for you to trust the drones after what you've been through- Lemela tried to speak in a soothing tone, her voice echoing slightly in the small cell. -I assure you, they are under Ethan's control. They won't harm you.-
Zek'lor's mandibles clicked, and the translator conveyed anxiousness as he glanced at the drones. Memories of their cold efficiency in carrying out orders were probably flashing in his mind.
-I... I can't shake off the fear, Lemela. You didn’t see them in action. The guards didn't have a prayer. And they had weapons at the time. Now I see other slaves among them. I see others like me… -
-Do you think Ethan might do this to you?-
Zek’lor shook his head. -If only… maybe it would make it all easier. Then again It’s more likely I might end up like you. I don’t want that.-
Lemela sighed a little – Well I understand not wanting to be an abomination of metal and flesh. It’s not like I wished for this.-
Zek’lor tilted his head to the side, making a sound with his claws that her translator relayed as confusion.
-Abomination? Oh no, many of my people accept mechanical enhancements on a lesser scale to be able to operate in words with a higher gravity or with a toxic environment. Being part machine is not the issue. What I don’t want is eternity.-
Lemela frowned -Eternity?-
Zek’lor nodded - A machine is eternal by nature. As long as you maintain it properly that is. But this machine maintains itself. This machine's gears are made of former ... people? It’s uncanny thinking about being maintained for all eternity. One should die once one's usefulness has ended. Still, this machine would find new uses for one, for all eternity. It is... scary. -
Lemela watched Zek'lor it was something she didn’t even consider, but it made sense somehow.
Lemela silently guided Zek’lor to the lab above and watched as he cautiously approached the group of drones, his multifaceted eyes scanning the bodies and the four sets of claws of the former bottom feeders.
-They can’t speak Zek’lor, they won’t act unless you interact with them- Lemela said while standing beside Zek'lor offering her reassuring presence.
Taking a deep breath, Zek'lor mustered his courage and chose to approach another drone, a Nolthoran with its metallic exoskeleton glistening in the dim light.
The drone turned its now mechanical eyes toward Zek'lor, as he approached but it remained silent.
-Hello- Zek'lor began tentatively, his voice a mixture of anxiety and determination. -I...I need your assistance. We need to move heavy material to create the cave-in Ethan requested to disrupt the operations of the Dexton's Dogs. Will you help me?-
The Nolthoran drone’s eyes flickered with a creepy artificial glow, it tilted its head slightly, then it nodded in understanding.
Zek'lor apparently focused on the Nolthoran’s body and sighed. -See these patterns?-
He asked pointing to the surface of the metal where Lemela’s eyes couldn’t distinguish anything of note.
- These are telltale signs of torture. We hail from a desert world. We don’t need much in terms of food and water, our bodies store those. These marks are made when they bleed us of the sustenance we might have left. To break us.-
The Nolthoran drone didn’t appear to heed or mind the explanation, it simply extended its appendages, gesturing to follow.
Zek'lor probably realized that it was offering to guide them, ready to work alongside them to create the illusion they needed.
Lemela smiled at the scene and followed the two in their quest for materials.

Ethan.

I sigh giving Virgil the green light it asks of moving one of the guards to the lab.
This would be easier if Lemela could interact with the drones as I do, but Virgil continues to say I am the overmind and leading is my role.
I watch and listen to the two through the drone’s eyes and ears for a bit longer, Lemela has progressed a lot these days, I hope I can have a good diplomat on hand.
Well, she knows all I know, she has my training, but I still worry, things will not be easy.
The situation with Xalrak is at a standstill, I personally don’t wish to push it, even if the alien knows that the boss basically spilled the beans it won’t concede.
I can appreciate the spirit, I mean I kept Xalrak without eating for all the time I could without killing but in the end I was the one that had to cave in.
Luckily I managed to strike a deal where Xalrak eats and doesn't attempt to run or kill itself.
I mean, I don’t want to kill if I can manage it, and these people are supposed to be rare galaxy-wise.
I understand that the galactic council is to blame for their situation, but I don’t want to go ahead and headbutt politics before I have solved the situation here first.
The issue is with people that see no alternative to what they are experiencing.
I have hit another virtual wall so to speak, without going above I have explored all I can of this underworld.
I could push my zombie drones forward, but I would lose contact with them past the corridors, and I don’t want that to happen.
Without the help of an engineer, I doubt I can do what Virgil suggests in order to enhance my capabilities.
I have found another terminal like the one that originally hosted Virgil in the video feed it shared with me, but I doubt my capacity to make it run or repair it if needed.
I could use it for raw materials, but I want to know if there’s a chance for it to run.
With one of these in the network, I would be able to bolster the signal I emit allowing me to extend the zone I can control. I could also control a bigger number of drones with two of those.
I noticed there are patrols down here now, and some lay traps, luckily I had asked Virgil
At the moment I need to concentrate on things I can actually pull off, like the opening of my very own meat shop.
I did what I could in order to protect the lab and all the charging platforms; without these, there would be a big issue for us.
I intend to start my little meat market on the surface, I have found a suitable way up about six big ventilation shafts down yonder in this maze.
As for the people living in this underground area, I need to find a way around actually meeting them.
The issue is that after the big fight with the expedition, most shelters shifted around the caves before I could actually restart my exploration.
If they acted this way I fear that any active prodding might trigger their flight response rather than their freeze and fucking listen to the scary robot one.
I don’t think I have what it takes to play catch with people that know the ground way better than me, I have to play a different game.
I will dedicate some of the meat I gathered to be used as bait and see what It bites.
Having two traps at once is a bit of a risk, he who chases two rabbits catches neither or so they say.
The real issue is that it’s not rabbit season here in the first place, and the pirate rangers that would come after me might bring down more heat I can hold.
Well, there’s only one way to go with this, and that’s forward.
[First] [Previous] [WIP]

A long time ago, there was a live God. It is unknown to which extent it created the world.
Now it is dead, and nobody knows why. It was a long time ago.
All people under the sky can see its dead body above them, twisting and changing chaotically, extending seemingly infinitely, a miasma of incomprehensible flesh. Its heart still beats despite its obvious demise, generating light enough to blind any living being's eye if stared at for too long.
Ever since its death, souled beings have existed, a piece of the god's flesh existing within them, giving them otherworldly powers with no limits except the energy generated by the soul.
Souled Beings
There exist 3 different species of Souled Beings:
Ishdras:
Ishdras are of average height (similar to humans), have pointed ears, more pointy teeth, and skin colors derived from when they had to camouflage in their environment (green, black, brown, etc). Their intelligence is also similar to humans'.
Gardons:
Gardons are taller and more muscled than Ishdras, have pointed ears, pointy teeth, and skin colors derived from when they had to camouflage in their environment (green, black, brown, etc). Their intelligence is different from Ishdras' as it is much less focused on emotional connections or creativity, instead focused on practicality and relations of efficiency.
Sonar noises:
These aquatic beings resemble thinner orcas with legs and arms living underwater. Not much is known about their civilizations, other than they are extremely developed, only under the sea.
Modern History
As a commoner from the Vadrash Empire, you are no expert in history, since it is not taught to those that are not Shapers. However, you know basic facts about the Vadrash Empire's geopolitical situations and are familiar with its social structure and culture.
The Vadrash Empire has been ruled by Emperor Radav, for, according to the last imperial celebration you attended, 703 years. The Vadrash Empire is defined by its extensive use of Soul-powered machinery, but little of its population is actually sacrificed for engineering. The cities are thus extremely automatized by Soul-powered machinery, and most citizens do not work in anything practical, instead working in bureaucracy or machine overseeing. The rural parts of the Vadrash Empire still have good access to technology, but Ishdras still work manually.
The Vadrash Empire is settled on an island off a large continent called Jarkala and derives most of its souls from its colonies on the continent or from its constant invasions of nearby countries.
Shapers are the citizens that are recruited according to their high intelligence from a young age, destined to shape reality to their whims and create new technology.
The Vadrash Empire has a totally Ishdra population, and Gardons are rather discriminated against.
Your story:
You are the grandchild of an excentric woman that lives on the edge of Vadrash civilization, isolated from others. One day, Vadrash soldiers patrol your region, conscripting the youth into the army. That is the beginning of your adventure.
I'm looking for people that are creative, curious and interested most of all.

I was contacted last week about winning 2nd place in an NFL sweepstakes that I had actually entered when I visited a game 4 months ago (I’m not sure if I actually won 2nd place and am well aware that this could just be a sales tactic and 500 people actually “won” 2nd place). Basically, the sales rep said the prize would be 2 great lower level seats to the season opening game next season, as well as them paying for 12 months of my utilities (not sure what that includes). All I have to do is actually get the solar panels (lol). I’m def not educated when it comes to solar energy like most are on this subreddit. Here are my notes that I have so far before the presentation/consultation next week: Price per kWh per SRP (current energy provider): From 0.23-0.27 per kWh. Average light bill during 2022 was $167.64
My questions are basically these: - Anything else that’s important to know before I listen to this sales pitch? - what’s the lowest average monthly savings compared to my regular light bill I should accept to actually get this installed? I obviously wouldn’t consider it if it costs more per month on average than what I pay now. - is Titan Solar bad? I’ve read pretty bad reviews but there might be a mix up between Titan Solar vs Solar Titan on the east coast? Or something along these lines lol. Also, they’re sponsoring a major sports team, can they be that bad? Lol. (Jk, I know this doesn’t matter much). Also, I’m not really interested in proactively shopping around too much right now for Solar. I have a lot on my plate for now. The only reason I’m considering it is cause I “won” the sweepstakes lol. Thanks for any help.

Hi all,
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New to DOS 2, not new to CRPGs. I just came from Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous before this game. Where all the details of combat were laid out for you to figure out your chance to hit. This game, however, doesn't seem to provide those details to you, and when it does, seems to be inconsistent with it's display. I understand that loremaster is there to provide a diagetic pathway to finding out information about enemies but I have loremaster 4 and have yet to be able to discern a general 'chance to hit' per enemy per character. So, I have a few questions regarding chance to hit and it's calculation. NOTE: I may have figured it out in regards to chance to hit display, please see the bold portion of question 1.

1. My first question is regarding the inconsistent chance to hit percentage showing up by the cursor when attacking enemies. The chance to hit always seems to be there when basic attacking, but only sometimes shows up when attacking with certain skills. Is this deliberate, or is there something going on with my game? I have a few mods installed so I'm wondering if there might be a conflict there. Alternatively, is it just the case that abilities never modify the chance to hit and that your chance to hit with a basic attack tells you your chance to hit with all other abilities as well?
2. What is the chance to hit calculation? It would seem obvious to me we start with our own accuracy as a baseline and then deduct from that the enemies chance to dodge, chance to block and any other defensive stats or modifiers. I doubt it's as simple as a straightforward additive reduction from the accuracy but I can't speak to what the form might take as I'm unable to see enemy dodge numbers with my current loremaster rank.
3. Speaking of loremaster; I have looked up what each rank of loremaster provides and it appears the next rank only provides me with the enemies initiative and action points. Will I ever be able to see the enemies chance to dodge so I can get at least some notion of the chance to hit an enemy? It seems strange that the game would provide information about the enemies chance to hit you but not your chance to hit them via loremaster.
4. One last item regarding loremaster. When examining an enemy on, say, Fane I can see the enemies chance to hit me. When I inspect that same enemy on, say, The Red Prince, I see the exact same chance to hit even though no accuracy modifiers have been inflicted on the enemy and Fane and The Red Prince have wildly different dodge values. Is this perhaps a bug or am I missing something here?

I appreciate any and all insight into my queries and may you wander in wisdom!

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/WqjZeQ4
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/LIStYxd
Another newer version of the Bullet Bags! Inspired by another custom order request from my friends over at AK Peasants. New design has and loop of webbing creating a handle for easy control when moving down the firing range. Also new patches to go with! 3 inch by 1.5 inch field of loop for the smaller patches and a 2x4 inch field for the bigger patches. Offering 2 sizes for handguns and rifle caliber bullets. Little guy holds atleast 200 bullets and could hold more but not certain how much more weight it can hold I haven’t tested more than 200 9mm rounds. I double stitched every seam and triple stitched on some so it should hold a good heavy load but not tested much. Available in Multicam Black, Woodland, MC Tropic, Ranger Green, Coyote, Flecktarn, Alpine Snow, Scorpion Ocp and Black. Vietnam Tiger Stripe will be back in at the end of the week. Currently only have the 7 patch variations shown in the picture 9mm, 556, 223, 7.62x39, and ''Freedom Seeds''. Each bag will come with one patch of your choice. At the moment I can not sell the patches separately from the bags due to inventory. Making these daily so let me know what you would like to see in the next post if it’s not in this one. $30 shipped for smaller pouch $35 shipped for larger pouch ** First person to buy 2 or more bags gets an EDC HK hook belt clip of your choice.
x1 Large Flecktarn x2 small MC Tropic x1 small Alpine Snow x1 small flecktarn
​HK hook belt clip lanyards to hang your keys, gloves, or any other tacticool gear you can think of. The belt clips wrap around your belt and velcro onto itself. They can be weaved through Molle if you don’t want to wrap around your belt. I offer 2 sizes one for EDC belts that are up to 2 inches wide and don't hang as low. The Battle Belt clips fit belts up to 2.5 inches wide and hang about an inch lower. At the moment I have Coyote, Multicam Tropic and Arid, Black, Ranger Green, Woodland, Multicam Black, Hawaiian Sunset, Black Hawaiian, Black, and Blue Polynesian materials on hand. Currently have 1 of each color for the edc but plenty more materials and making more daily. EDC clip $15 shipped and $10 for each additional clip Battle clip $17 shipped and $12 for each additional clip First person to buy 4 or more belt clips gets a free 2 point quick adjust sling that I make!​​
Fire Sale right now!! 3 clips for $30 any size!!
Can’t take preorders per page rules but comment what you would like to see in tomorrow’s post and I’ll make sure to have it!
Post dibs and I’ll pm. PayPal or Venmo add 3% for goods and services. Also accepting cash app. Thanks for any and all support!

Pokémon lore has been a huge hyperfixation for me lately, and a completely random thought crossed my mind recently that I just had to attempt an amateur analysis post on. These may entirely just be the ravings of a madwoman, but I hope that I can still make you think a little anyway.
To put it simply, I am proposing that whether or not real world locations exist in a Pokémon timeline determines if the Kalos War (and subsequently Mega Evolution) occurs in said timeline.
In order to properly back up my claim, we should first review every instance in which a real world location is referenced within the Pokémon canon. Please keep in mind that I am only using the canon portrayed by the games (with one exception). The anime, manga, TCG, and other various sources such as the Detective Pikachu movie follow completely different canons, and will not be considered in this analysis. So please don't spam me with comments with things like "What about that time Ash mentioned Minnesota!?"
Side note: There are also various references to Real World people and companies, such as the presence of Nintendo consoles, real game Freak workers appearing in the games, and even Pokémon species being directly named after and/or inspired by real athletes and actors. However, I will not be considering these.

A list of Real World references in the Pokémon canon (by nation)

Guyana/South America
Arguably the most infamous of the bunch, hence why I placed it first. In Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen, the Pokémon Mansion journals on Cinnabar Island describe Mew as having been discovered in Guyana. This reference is removed in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, as well as in the (presumably) game canon compliant anime miniseries Pokémon Origins.
While Guyana specifically is not mentioned, Mew's Pokédex entries in Pokémon Stadium and FireRed refer to it living in South America, the continent in which Guyana is located.
In Pokémon Silver, FireRed, and SoulSilver, Xatu's Pokédex entries mention South Americans as the ones who claim Xatu can see the past and future.
Japan
In the original Japanese versions of Pokémon Stadium and FireRed, Ponyta's Pokédex entry states that it can leap over Tokyo Tower in a single bound.
In the Japanese version of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Blaine refers to Kyoto.
In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, a Guitarist describes his instrument as being Japanese.
United States of America
In all of his appearances prior to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Lt. Surge is described as "The Lightning American." FireRed and LeafGreen expand this a little more in dialogue from the Pokémon Journal, mentioning that he was a pilot in America. In Surge's latest appearances, references to America have been removed.
China/Nepal
Pokédex entries for Arcanine in Pokémon Yellow, Stadium, Gold, FireRed, and HeartGold state that Arcanine is a legend in China. In later games, this reference is instead changed to vaguely mention "the East" instead.
In Pokémon Stadium and FireRed, Parasect's Pokédex entries mention China as well. Like Arcanine, these references are removed in later games, no longer referring to any country or region at all.
In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, Fisherman Bronson of the Battle Tower refers to Chinese legends.
In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Delibird's Pokédex entries state that it helped an explorer reach the top of Mount Everest, which is located in both China and Nepal. In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, this is changed to say "the world's highest mountain" instead.
Russia
In Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen, Scientist Taylor in Silph Co. mentions an international branch of the company. In the Japanese versions, he describes it as being located in Podkamennaya Tunguska, while in the English version, he describes it as being located in Tiksi. These are both Russian localities.
France
In the English version of Pokémon Stadium, Ponyta's Pokédex entry states that it can leap over the Eiffel Tower in a single bound.
India
In Pokémon FireRed, Pokédex entries for Raichu and Gastly both describe the Pokémon as being capable of knocking out Indian Elephants. This is changed to refer to Copperajah instead in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Australia
In Pokémon FireRed, Ponyta's Pokédex entry states that it can leap over Ayers Rock in a single bound.
Antarctica
In Pokémon Emerald, Regice's Pokédex entry claims its body is made from Antarctic ice.
Kenya While not explicitly confirming the existence of Kenya in the games, a Spearow nicknamed "Kenya" can be obtained through an in-game trade with Webster the guard in Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver.
The Pacific Ocean
Poliwrath's Pokédex entries in Pokémon Gold, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, Black, White, Black 2, White 2, and X mention that it can swim the Pacific Ocean. This is actually the only example I've found of a Real World location being mentioned in a game with Mega Evolution in it, thanks to X. However, this reference is removed as early as one game later in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which vaguely refer to "the ocean" instead.
​
​
So there we have it. As far as I know, these are all the games' direct references to Real World locations. Now... what is one thing they all have in common? Every single one of these references, excluding the mention of the Pacific Ocean in Pokémon X, are featured in games where Mega Evolution doesn't exist! Due to this, I restate my proposal: Whether or not real world locations exist in a Pokémon timeline determines if the Kalos War (and subsequently Mega Evolution) occurs in said timeline.
I believe that in any timeline where Real World countries are canonically present, the Kalos War never happens, the Ultimate Weapon is never fired, and Mega Evolution never comes to be. Why does it work this way? Well, I can't really confirm anything concrete. But I would like to suggest that perhaps, in timelines where Real World locations exist, Kalos does not exist at all, and is replaced with France. In these timelines, France does not have access to the Ultimate Weapon, and therefore never produces Mega Evolution. This can be backed up by the mention of the Eiffel Tower, as we saw earlier.
But yes, this is already disproven right away by X mentioning the Pacific, right? Well, I guess that's true. But honestly? I feel like this only particularly seems to matter in regards to countries. An ocean happening to share a name with one of ours isn't that out of place. Heck, the Kanto region shares a name with the Real World part of Japan that it is inspired by! So, I personally don't believe that the Pacific Ocean changes the outcome of my theory.
Now yes, I fully and completely admit that this is a bit of a crackpot theory. It kind of has the same energy as pointing out how 9/11 never happens in the Muppets universe during the alternate timeline where Kermit is never born. But regardless, I had fun putting this together, and I'd be happy if this made you think about things a little. Thanks for reading!

Part 2
If you travel far enough North on the map, well above where the Civilized Nations stop because no crops grow, you'll find a mountain range. Crossing this range leads to the Monster Kingdom, though for some reason they prefer the name 'TFSU.' Yes, they prefer. The literal forces of anarchy and chaos in the universe have a government. However, ignoring that whole thing, the Monster Kingdom is fine. No armies march on them, mostly because of supply and logistical issues. The Monsters never say how they grow their own food, but given that they don't trade and millions of kobolds worth of food don't go missing every day, it's safe to say they make their own. Now, that doesn't stop the Civilized Nations to send one hero a decade to 'keep them in check.' Four decades ago, the hero closed off a mountain pass, which was supposed to cause a massive flood. Four days later, it was cleared, and the only thing to show for it were the cities that glow like the sun at night. However, yesterday, the Hero returned having burnt one of the bigger cities down. It was empty of all monsters, but the act was the first real damage they had taken in seven hundred years, since their founding. For seven hundred years, the TFSU have taken the beating of seventy heroes and simply moved on. But now. Now, millions of kobolds make up heavy 'machinery' units that march in armored, self-moving caridges that spit fire and metal. Thousands of beastpeople make up scouting and light infantry ranks. The TFSU use hellish 'guns' that hit harder than a catapult from kilometers away, all in a single 'bullet' not the size of a human's thumb. Metal birds and dragonflies join dragons as they assault cities. We poke the very literal sleeping dragon in the eye. Yet the armies don't do much. They march for our capitals and leaders, but on the way our civilians live. Surendees live. People go about their daily lives without too much change. Of course, that fact didn't stop the front line from finally crashing over my small village, located so close to the pass for a while we thought they the monsters had bypassed us entirely. The Civilized Nations had decided to send an entire legion to prevent the Monsters from getting across a nearby canyon pass. We were hit with an air-based assault with only dragons and metal dragonflies, our balista uselessly demolished by pillars of metal and flame thrown out of the metal dragonflies. I blacked out when the legion managed to shoot enough arrows to take down one of the dragonflies. I remember it crashing down onto my house... and then nothing.
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The elf stirred as they woke up. I'd been raised in the Terra Firma Sapience Union, so I was... less than familiar with the clothing and lifestyle the Southerners used. The elf groaned again, before their eyes shot open and they looked around, quickly settling on my frame. "A-Are you going to kill me now?" They asked, their voice shaken with fear. I let out a laugh. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." I decided to transmorph into my secondary form - a cat - to help the conversation go better. In a land where humans lived to forty, elves only lived to a hundred, and that meant that even I was older than this elf, and they were no older than thirty. The elf, to their credit, quickly figured out I wasn't pulling any mindgames. I'd heard tales from my relatives before the Kobolds founded the TFSU. People, especially when panicked, usual acted with more than enough stupidity to make the situation worse. "Where am I?" The elf asked. Their tone told me that they were still suspicious, but it wasn't outright denial of the situation. "My home," I answered bluntly. "Your village tried to fight our ground forces when they moved in, so most of them are currently under house arrest." Still in my cat form, I created a portal into my storage cavern and reached my arm through, while summoning a lab coat around my shoulders and glasses. It was a trick I had only learned to do recently. "Let's see..." I found the clipboard and brought it out, flipping to the elft's page and taping the pen against the paper. "You suffered a collapsed lung, severe burns on the right side of your body, three broken ribs and two fractured ones, shattered three wrist bones, three breaks in your right upper arm and another two in your lower arm, and on the left side you have another fractured rib and three broken fingers. Your left leg was shattered and your left foot was completely torn up. Healing magic stabilized you and surgery did the rest. You've been comatose for the past three days, and was brought to my home yesterday due to a surge in hospital patients from the seige of Trembolorne. "In terms of organ damage, that was also severe. A busted kidney, I already mentioned a collapsed lung, and your entire digestive system was... well, pulverized would be putting it lightly. Also, unrelated to the incident with the helicopter, you had cancer in your liver and kidney. "In terms of medical treatment, you've been given an IV line for the past couple days and several painkillers, and you underwent four separate surgeries. We reconstructed your organs, welded your bones to metal plates, and used a genetic printer to replace your skin. You're lucky to have gotten time with the genetic printer in the first place, you know; those things are expensive, and I mean expensive to run. Though it's all billed on the government anyway, but that just means that they'll only run it if they have to." The elf sat up in bed looking at me as I just stood on two paws on the cave floor. "Right, sorry, you wouldn't understand most of that." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head with my right paw. "Um... put this way, you were crushed by debris and we basically reconstructed your body before you died. So not necromancy, though you did get close to needing more advanced magical treatment." "Oh," The elf replied. The cat thing seemed to have helped, because they were no longer stuttering with their single word response. "Um... do you want anything to drink?" I tried to kickstart a conversation. "Where am I?" The elf asked again. I was silent for a second. "My home? It's right on the edge of TFSU territory, one of the southernmost places you can be while still being with the recognized borders. I chose this place because I like to fly out in the summer over the flowers in the forest at the foot of the mountains. Your village is a couple hour dragon-flight time away." "Mmmhm." The elf commented halfheartedly. "OK, um... who are you?" "My dragonic name isn't something most can pronounce, so my public name is just Vixie Remminie." I answered. "What's yours?"
The elf's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know my name." I blinked. "Because... It's a name? I'm not a Fey, you know, it's not like I can tie ancient demons to your soul and call it a prank or something ridiculous like that. Besides, you asked for mine; now I get to ask for yours." "And who says you won't just burn my village to the ground and eat me right now!?!" The elf suddenly burst out. "You monsters ruin everything! You trespass on our land, take our resources, and kill our people! All we did was try to defend ourselv-" I cut him off, and poured just a bit of attention in giving myself an aura. Blue fire licked the bottom of my vision as I rebuttaled his point. "Don't forget, you stole the land from us. We were the ones living in the wild when you razed our forests and grew crops. We couldn't even purchase land to live on! So yes, we stole what we could to survive and those who didn't starved and died! And when all was said and done, you tried to kill us and turned it into a war, one where we had no choice but to kill you back. And when we found someplace to run, a spot to hide and do our own thing with our own land? You blistering idiots sent you 'courageous heroes' to try and kill us! What for? Nothing! Just your stupid, moronic fear making, forcing you to decide to 'kill the big thing over there!' We can't even have freaking farmland, we have to grow it all in hydroponic farms and harvest thousand-year-old vines out of caves because this is all we have!" I realized that my aura was burning fully and scorching the ground around me. I let out a long sigh, and it died down. Several memories flashed through my head, but I pushed them away. "Apologies, my parents are still a... sensitive topic for me. It would be best if we just stayed away from talking about the war until the hospital has room for more patients again." "Yeah?" The elf was still enraged. Even sitting down, they were still trying to construct an argument. "You parents who killed how many? Your family killed how many more? You dragons, you monsters are nothing more than one large grouping of murders that deserve to die! As the gods will!" The elf was spitting in rage, but I recognized his determination to hold onto his worldview. It was the one thing I needed to pry away before it got out of hand. "And you elves killed how many more?" I asked in a low voice. "Can you tell me the number of kobold dens exterminated in caves, the number of beastpeople sent to an early grave in slave camps? Because I can tell you ours. My father's was two, my mother's four, and my extended family including deceased relatives is one hundred and thirty seven. "You declared war against monsters, you child of an elf," I growled. "And death the reality of war. We know. The Unification Wars weren't fought with swords and honor. They were fought with artillery barrages and death. They were fought with miniature suns and political backstabbing, with tanks and guns and submarines and warships and all the more death. "You say the gods don't like us! That's put lightly. They forsook us! Abandoned us in our hour of need. So we learned to live without them. There are no gods we pray to anymore, elfling. Only each other, our creations, and the universe itself. They don't want us, we don't need them. It's more than they deserve." My aura was once again charring the floor and I had transformed back into my dragon form, but this time I refused to cool it down. "You call us creations of death, the primal forces of anarchy? We are you. You are us. We are sapient, we are all mortals, no matter our advantages. We are bound to this dimensional plane, forced to serve our betters, and live out our lives not with earnest but with trepredition for when it ends. We are all death incarnate, because we can all die. That is just the way it is. Besides, you've wondered about my kill count; tell me, can you tell me the gods'? Can you tell me how many souls they have cut from fate for their own entertainment? No? I can tell you." I growled, moving closer until the blue flames enveloping my body threatened to light the elf's cot on fire. "More people than are alive on this planet right now." I pulled back, bottling up my aura and reverting to my cat form. "We can talk all we want about death and destruction, and I won't lie and say you aren't victims of the war; pre-unification dragons we're exactly kind and merciful to those with treasure hoards. But perhaps, I implore you to consider that maybe we both are victims of the war, and maybe we can one day work together instead of fighting each other. "Maybe, one day, we can fight for our rights against the gods." I moved into my dragon form and darted deeper into my cave, moving so fast I could hear the howl of the wind against my ears. Only when I had reached my memorial wall for my parents did I stop and take a breath and think over my conversation with the elf. We had a long way to go, but I hoped I had put a little bit of sense into him. I hoped that the world could change.
-----
When the dragon cat thing sped away, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Only now did the effects of my first question hit my formerly-groggy head. "My home." He said. Dragons live in caves. Oooooh. I'm screwed. However, there were no treasure hoards visible from my perspective; then again, while the Monsters were stupid, they still had brains to them, and carrying me into a treasure room would probably be something they'd be able to tell was a bad idea. Pops said never underestimate you foe, A voice in the back of my head said, and the dragon even launched in a full conversation with you. You're selling the dragon very, very shor- Shut up I growled internally to the treacherous voice in my head. The cave itself was... a cave. There was a metal slab on one end, it went deeper in the other, and that was that. In a 'corner' of the jagged room there were a number of red, glowing rods attached to some kind of giant mechanism three elfs wide and six deep, but the rods glowed against the cave's light- What light source? My eyes darted around looking for one. Only now was I aware of how unnatural each shadow was, how awkward each shining rock looked, how each stalagmite could hide an entire dragon, and that was before they started transfiguring into cats. How bright the ceiling- I looked up. The bright light burned my eyes, but I needed to know what fiendish magic was in play so I could counter it. But the light didn't flicker like fire - they were far too bright for that anyway - but they also didn't have the magical circles surrounding each spell. They were... lights. As if the universe simply willed brightness into existence. Each far-too-bright-hurts-to-look-ats was placed along a main hallway clear of stalagmites running from the metal slab deeper and around a corner where I couldn't see. The lights were only poised above this one hall, and they just... shone one the rest of the cave. Looking closer, I could see thin black lines, too thin to be mana feeds, running along the walls to both the glowing red rods and to the so-shiny-the-lit-up-the-cave. And... that was that. There was no massive pile of treasure in the hall, though I suspected the dragon kept their hoard deeper than... wherever I was. There was no pile of skull trophies or the banner of cities and armies slain, and I noted that while he had told me his parents', the dragon had never told me his own. Then again, the cat thing could be lying. Dragon transfigured into a cat. Probably has Circle Of Truth around his entire den. Nonsense, dragons can only do elemental magic. Evidently not. Would you just shut up already? No- I moved my attention back to the metal slab, cutting off whatever the voice in my head had to say about my current situation; it wasn't every day one just got kidnapped by a nation of monsters, after all. The slab was truly elegant. It was painted with the monster language, and then was painted with some kind of mural. I could barely make out a blue circle with green splotches on it surrounded by twelve rings in the bottom corner because most of the door was taken up by a ice-blue cat with lighter strips engulfed in blue fire. It was a mural of the dragon cat thing. That didn't stop it from being pretty, and someone had obviously put a lot of effort into it. The flames looked realistic from what I had seen minutes ago, and the cat's details were perfectly engraved. It was... acurrate. Yeah, because I think Vixie was just trying to tell you that they built their civilization for a reason, and it wasn't carnage. You don't know what you're talking about. We both know I do. How else to you think- Listen to me, you treasonous voice of a- No, you listen to me, you pathetic excuse for a brain. The dragon was able to hold and win an argument with you, fixed your wounds that would've been a dead write-off for any other hospital, and then you think SHE barely meets the threshold for sapient? THE ABSOLUTE MORON I'M ARGUING WITH IS THE ONE YOU BARELY MEETS IT!!! You moved to your frontier village because the world was changing, Lazerot the Sixth. Congrats, you were right. It did change. Now shut your OVERSIZED EGO up at being bested by a creature ten times older than you, and go appologies before they decide that saving your life wasn't worth it. I... I... OK- No. I'm in control now. Shut up. I....... yes, sir. Good. With new resolve, I stood up. My head throbbed, and the next thing I knew was my face hitting my cot again.
-----
When I heard the thud of something falling in the entrance cave, I carefully moved back into the entrance cave. The elf was face-down in their cot, unconscious again. It looked like they had tried to stand and just.... fallen over. I sighed and used a claw to nudge the elf back onto his pillow, and then covered him with a blanket. I watched him for a minute, and then returned to the deeper parts of my home. The TFSU was completely overloaded with the number of patients needing treatment. Apparently, the Southener's hospitals just... didn't do anything, so in addition to soldiers, there was a massive influx of civilians to our hospitals too. Of course, this meant that they were absolutely overloaded, and the Civilized Nations strategy of fighting to near-death and then surrendering wasn't helping. So, stable recovering civilians like the elf were just... shipped out. When shelters filled up because the Civilized Nations overpopulation crisis was too bad to do anything, people just had to take them into their homes. Long story short, the government was in way over their head attempting upgrade the standard of care in the Civilized Nations while occupying their territory. My job so close to the border was remote infrastructure maintenance, and my ability to change size while not dissolving made me an expert at it - and that was before my two hundred years of experience. And then I didn't need a vehicle to get on-site, and was fast. The alarm pinging me that one of the space radars was down again gave me an excuse to avoid the elf and do some work. I grabbed a pack of supplies, put on my shapeshift-compatible uniform, and wrote down a note on a piece of paper. On my out past the sleeping elf, I dropped it for him.

Space radar system needs repair, as it's returning a false positive. It's my job to repair all the infrastructure around here, so I need to go fix it. I'll be back soon. If you're hungry, my pantry is the first cave on the right. You can just eat anything that's easily open-able in there. If it has a lock or airtight opening mechanism (anything more than a clip, really) then don't eat it. If your thirsty, there's a stream in the entrance cave near the heaters. When the door mechanism beeps, step back. Sometimes pressure in the cave can get a bit wonky, and I don't want you to get hurt. Other than that, feel free to explore. I've locked all the doors to the rooms I don't want you to enter. For toilet necessities, the second cave on the left has a properly-sized toilet. And running water, but stuff I can explain later means don't drink it. See you soon! - Vixie.

Satisfied, I left opened the door. There was a puff as the air from inside flowed out to the lower-pressure atmosphere. I could spot a snow squall to the north, and the pressure meant that it was probably coming my way. I moved out onto the ledge and closed the door behind me. At high altitudes this far north, the air was already near-zero and it was still five in the afternoon. I took just a second to confirm with the weather report that the snowstorm was in fact going to arrive on my doorledge using a smartwatch I had strapped around my wrist. When I found that the storm was coming, I opened my wings and flew. Being an Ice Dragon had its advantages, but being a Water-Ice Combined Dragon was much better. The frosty air curled around my wings as the freedom of ignoring gravity filled my brain. Ice and Water dragons both had large wings to deal with the cold air (and lower pressure leading to the requirement for more surface area to achieve the same amount of lift) and incompressable water physics (to let the wings act like a one-way fan blade as they move back and forth, increasing efficient). Dragons might be magestic creatures, but we were still bound to the physics of the mortal plane, after all. Being part of both, my wings were even bigger, making me one of the best high-altitude fliers on the planet. The ability to use both gills and lungs at said altitudes helped with oxygen also helped. Air Dragons were better at flying in normal air, but I liked to think of it like stats from a video game. Air Dragons min-maxed their stats for low-altitude, but I could go anywhere - even underwater - can keep my speed relatively high. I took full advantage of this on my way to the space radar, soaring well above the cloud ceiling and to the point where I could make out the curvature of the planet below me. The ocean spread out to my west, while more land was to my east. Snow covered the north as to the south was the telltale splotchy color of industrialism. My smartwatch beeped, as I crossed the normal altitude limit. I hadn't realized I'd gone so high; I had a radar to repair, after all. I dove down towards the surface, ignoring more beeps as I crossed half the way to the speed of sound. The wind howled angrily in my ears, but I flattened those (thank you, streamlined water genetics) and came out of my death dive right over the radar. The repair itself went relativity smoothly, though I couldn't find a broken component and chalked it up to more space anomalies. They weren't infrequent, and usually marked where the gods decided to look over the planet. For my radars, anyway. Further north, ignoring the north pole, almost no gods came out and wanted to deal with us. Our unspoken agreement was held that way. I flew straight back for my return journey. The storm was definitely closer, but fifteen minutes of flying later and I was entering the opening mechanism for my door. As it swung inwards, I heard the high-pitched scream of an elf.
-----
When I awoke, I found myself tucked into some covers. It took all of seven seconds for reality to catch up with me. Right. I got into a heated argument with a dragon. I instinctively touched the part of my face that had been closest to the dragon's flame. I'd read about Auras in books, but never thought I'd get to see one. They were only ever found in the most powerful and competent individuals of a race in an entire plan of existence. I wondered which skill gave the dragon hers - Vixie, I reminded myself. Either way, given that Auras are technically illusions, I wasn't hurt. The flames didn't get close enough to hurt anyway, but that didn't stop me from checking. This time, I was much more careful when I stood up. I sat up first, then started to kick my legs back and forth. That's when I spotted a paper on the other side of my cot. I stood up without thinking, but managed to keep my consciousness this time and moved towards the note. It was handwritten and contained a lot of jargon that I wasn't familiar with. Space. Radar. False positive. Airtight opening mechanism. Heater. Beep. Pressure. Toilet. Running water. I could deduce some of it. A message had come in requesting the services of the local dragon to repair a thing that has an issue, and that she would return shortly. I could wander around as I pleased, besides eating food that wasn't open or contained in a clip bag. From the tone of the message, I could deduce what a 'toilet' was. The heaters would logically be things that produced heat, so all I had to do was look for those. I wasn't able to tell time, but I supposed at this point it didn't matter. I moved over deeper into the cave, and quickly heard the sound of a stream. It led directly into a forest of stalagmites. After clambering over those, the temperature started to increase, which was all I needed to know that I was getting a drink of water. I was only now catching up to the fact that I had been out for three days, and that meant that I was extremely thirsty. I wasn't sure how I wasn't dead of dehydration at this point. I found the stream next to the glowing metal rods, and with it a clear path to my location. Sighing slightly at the wasted effort on climbing through Rock Forest, I snatched an undersized cup off a rack built into a nearby jut in the cave wall and filled it, before entering the bliss of fresh water. Back in the village, we had some of the best and cleanest water in all the land thanks to snow melt, but this took that to a new level. Cold, crisp water melted in the sun only minutes ago. It was... pure. I spent the next couple minutes simply drinking and processing everything over in my mind. The gods might have willed the monster dead, but if even the monster gods had abandoned them and survived... then how come the Pantheon never told us? Religious issues aside, there were more practical issues regarding my own survival. How did I get out. There was a thud at the metal slab, and I moved back towards it, leaving my cup to dry on the rack I pulled it from. The engraving of the cat on the metal slab was- BEEEP! What was that sound? There was a hiss, and the slab started to peel away. A gust of frigid cold air washed over me as a mage Ice-Water hybrid Aura-capable dragon that I had argued with stared me down. I did the instinctive thing and let out the scream of a human three year old, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the final blow. When the end of my life didn't arrive, I reopened my eyes to find the sky-blue cat standing in the hole where the metal slab was supposed to be. Then there was another... sound, and the metal slab started to move back into position. The cat was surprised for a single moment before simply charging the door and jumping through, skidding to a halt right in front of me. Which meant that I got a closer look at her. Ocean-blue strips crossed an ice-blue body fur in a fifty-fifty ratio. Small crystals of ice twinkled, floating here her wings would be. One tail was accompanied by two more made of pure blue-white energy, and the cat even had a halo. Six orbs of blue-white light hovered in lazy circles around her back, and even in a diminutive form the size of a cat the being radiated the power of an aura-capable creature. "Oh, right, sorry," Vixie said, and all the ethirial energy disappeared. Now that I knew what I was looking for, however, I could just barely tell, using my power as a mage, that Vixie was using illusion magic to hide her true energy. "You don't need to hide your reserves," I said. "Though if you're shapeshifting into forms so small that you need to expose yours, then you should just burn yours instead. It's not worth the trouble of people bottling yours." Vixie gave some kind of half-shrug. "They're not reserves, no." She said, emphasizing the word. I looked at Vixie with a sharp look, and for a second I forgot I was talking to a dragon. "Then what are they?" "They're..." The cat blushed, something I wasn't even aware was possible. She let the illusion fall away, and the tails, crystals, orbs and halo returned. "They're my regenerative baseline minimum." I looked her up and down for a second, dumbstruck. She really is a creature of power, huh? "Um.... uh..." I stuttered. "Is... that where you get your aura from?" I asked. Vixie closed her eyes with an expression on her face, and this time green flame started to peel off her. "Part of it, yeah." To control an aura like that... two auras. Just how powerful is she? I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize that the expression on her face was pain. "I... uh... what happened?" I asked, shellshocked. "Why aren't you fighting in the war?" The worldwide-powerful dragon masquerading as a cat sighed. "I... haven't told anyone. It's... personal." "I..." Only now did it hit me that I was talking with a dragon, not another person. Not just a monster, but a... creature with emotions. "You don't have to tell me." I quickly backtracked. "No, no, it's a fair question. It..." The cat let out a chuckle, and it filled the cave with a beautiful sound. "I suppose it's kind of ironic... but it starts with a kobold and a god, back when the Firma kobold tribe decided to travel north to escape the civilized nations, shortly before the amassing of all creatures in these same northern mountains and the Unification War. "Back before the gods forsook us."
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 2

Draven’s eyes squinted, and he sank deep within himself. Pulling on [Mind Supremacy], Draven blocked out the pain and focused on his inner flame. He pulled on his essence, charging up as much fire as he could. Flames licked the surface of his armor as he built up more flames with [Draconic Pyromancy].
New Mind Supremacy Technique! Pain suppressant
Draven opened his eyes, flames burning deep within them. He cried out as he unleashed the tightly packed fire he contained within himself. Flames exploded out of him, pushing the El’Dresi away from him.
The El’Dresi crossed his arms, blocking his face from the brunt of the flames. The explosion pushed him back, causing his exosuit to leave rough groves along the metal flooring.
“The little disciple has some bite to his bark,” the El’Dresi smiled. He disappeared in a flash of lightning again, using the Flash Step Technique of air dragonborn. The El’Dresi appeared before Draven again, blade zipping towards Draven's heart.
Draven’s heart skipped a beat as he channeled Essence to his Supremacy Talents and entered Ascendancy mode. The Sygaldry along his armor glowed a furry red, empowered by Draven’s Essence. He parried the El’Dresi’s blade and punched the air dragonborn with a fist of concussive fire.
The El’Dresi went sailing into the air, crashing into the ground with a bang.
“Draven, Sync up with me,” Sygvar said. He too had entered Ascendancy mode.
Draven pushed his mind into the Weave. He found the Sympathetic Thread connecting him and his Master. It was thick, a sign of their strong connection. He bound himself to it, allowing himself to become one with his master’s mind, body, and soul.
New Mind, Body, Soul Supremacy Technique! Sync
Draven quickly entered the settings of his status and disabled notifications. He thought to leave them on before because he believed they could be helpful. But they were distracting him from the battle.
A wurl wind of air manifested around the El’Dresi as he floated to his feet in Acendecy Mode. The Sygaldry, runes of power, decorating his armor, were a blaze, a green glow emanating from the words of power.
“Now the real fun begins,” the El’Dresi crackled. He Flashed Stepped, disappearing again.
Draven sensed the El’Dresi through the Weave. He lashed out behind him, kicking the El’Dresi in the chest and pushing him towards Sygvar.
Sygvar kicked the legs from under the El’Dresi, causing him to fall.
Draven created a flame missile and fired it point-blank at the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi conjured a blast of Air, causing the missile to bend off course and detonate into the ground.
He hopped to his feet, sending a chain of lightning at Sygvar.
Sygvar blocked it with his sword. He then heated his blade and cut into the armor of the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi pulled back in pain.
Draven came from behind, delivering a cut to the El’Dresi’s leg. Causing the air dragon born to fall to his knee.
“You guys are good, too good. I guess I need a little help,” the El’Dresi said as he pressed a button.
“You talk too much,” Draven said, smacking the El’Dresi.
Gates squeaked open, and the ground began to rumble. Hollows came pouring into the room. Marrows ran on all four, with Spikes trailing just behind them. Bone Devils mixed in with the horde, pushing aside the weaker hollows to get to Draven and Sygvar.
The El’Dresi jumped to his feet and sprinted toward the incoming horde of hollows. Draven and his master raced after him before he could get to safety.
Draven unleashes a cone of fire. Superheating the air as it impacted the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi conjured a shield of air, deflecting the blast of flames. And letting the momentum push him up and over the horde of hollows. He disappeared in the wave of bodies, crackling like a madman.
“Damn it,” Sygvar hissed. “Draven, stay close to me.”
Draven drew near his master. Only a few feet away from him.
“We’re going to clear a path towards the computer terminal. I want you to have Ari download the files off of it.” Sygvar yelled over the horde of hollows. His sword was ablaze with fire as he sliced throw a Marrow.
“The base will self-destruct in five minutes,” a voice boomed from speakers in the room.
“That bastard! Draven, don’t hold back! When need to get to that console!” Sygvar’s voice warped and deepened as his body transformed. His exosuit became more organic, melding to his body like a second skin. Wings and a tail sprouted from his back. His fingers and toes sharped into claws, and flames manifested on his arms and as a crown of fire above his head. Sygvar flew into the mob of feral mutants, becoming a living storm of fire and death.
Draven underwent a less impressive transformation. The red glow from the Sygaldry and flames manifested as jets along his arms and legs. The Hollows before him slowed as he sped up his perception time.
Plums of fire rocketed Draven into the horde of Hollows, following his master. His sword glowed as he sliced throw the feral mutants. The Marrows and Spikes were cut down like butter, but the Bone Devils were still challenging. But they were cut down in a few strikes while Draven was in his enhanced state.
The duo gradually cut their way toward the terminal. That’s when Draven got a spike of danger from the Weave. He was too slow and was slapped across the face by a giant claw. Draven backflipped, distancing himself from the new foe.
This creature was different than the others. This was a Wargoth, a mutant with the power of bone and muscle. Four muscular tentacles protruded from the creature's back. Segmented bone covered the spasming muscles as its tentacles wiped around. It roared, spitting saliva all over the ground. Then charged Draven, its four claws shaving the metal flooring.
Draven kicked the creature in the face, sending out a current of fire.
The Wargoth went sailing towards Sygvar. It lashed out its tentacles at the Master Al’Manti.
Sygvar’s blade ignited in flames, and it blurred, severing the Wargoth’s tentacles.
Draven came up from behind, stepping on telekinetic steps. He then rocketed downwards onto the Wargoth with a jet of flames. He concentrated, his flames burning hotter and hotter. Eventually ultimately shifting from their reddish yellow hue to a bright blue. His blade cracked the bone exoskeleton around the Wargoth’s skull, bathing the creature’s brain in blue flames.
The creature thrashed about in pain, then went still.
“Draven, go get the data!”
“On it,” Draven said as he sprinted to the console. He took out a cable from the back of the neck of his exosuit and plugged it into the console. “Ari download all the data from the storage.”
File after file zipped past Draven’s hud for his exosuit. The download only took a second to finish.
“I’m done, but the data must be decrypted,” Ari said.
“That’s fine,” Draven then unplug the cable leading from his suit to the console. He then ran over to his master, “All done.”
“Good,” Sygvar picked Draven up and then took to the sky with his wings. Above the increasing number of Hollows, Sygvar sped towards the exit. The hollows raged as they chased after the air-born duo. Quickly they exited the base, landing on Tywen’s back.
“Take to the sky, quickly!” Sygvar yelled as he set Draven down.
Tywen beat his wings, and they rapidly ascended. Soon after they left the ground, hollows poured out of the El’Dresi base. They swarmed the area they had just been. Then an explosion destroyed the hill the base was built into and the flora around it.
Draven opened his status and instantly dumped nine path points into his path.
You have completed the Way Al’Manti of the Al’Manti Path!
+9 Attribute Points
New Feat: The Way of the Al’Manti New Class: Al’Manti Disciple
Draven click on his new feat and class. They both popped up as screens in his mind.
The Way of the Al’Manti (Tier 1) Grants: +1 INT** +1 FIN +1 WIS
+1 STR +1 DEX +1 CON
+1 SPR +1 AFF +1 FOR
Al’Manti Disciple **You have graduated from your training as a adept and are now ready to become a disciple. As a disciple you have mastered the basics of controlling you mind, body, and soul. You have learned a martial art of the Al’Manti and your skill at it has been deemed satisfactory. But there is still more work to be done. Grants: +1 Mind Attribute per level +1 Body Attribute per level +1 Soul Attribute per level +1 Attribute point every 3rd level
Core Talents: Mind Supremacy Body Supremacy Soul Supremacy Al’Manti 5th Blade Kata
Draven then opened his new status.
Name: Draven Althorne Age: 18
Ancestory: Fire Dragon Born (Tier 1 - LV 3)
Class: Al’Manti Disciple (Tier 1 - LV 0)
Sub Class 1: Locked Sub Class 2: Locked Sub Class 3: Locked
Feats: None
- Mind Attributes - INT: 17 / 18 FIN: 14 / 15 WIS: 11 / 12
- Body Attributes - STR: 19 / 20 DEX: 17 / 18 CON: 16 / 17
- Soul Attributes - SPR: 12 / 13 AFF: 14 / 15 FOR: 19 / 20
Attribute Points: 9
- Essences - Stamina: 129 / 129 Vitality: 150 / 150 Mana: 135 / 135
- Talents: 5 / 9 - Draconic Pyromancy LV 6 Mind Supremacy LV 7 Body Supremacy LV 8 Soul Supremacy LV 6 Al’Manti 5th Blade Kata LV 7
Path: None Path Points: 26 Paths Available: 8
Release Schedule: M-W-F at 5 am PDT/PST.
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Thanks for reading.

Draven’s eyes squinted, and he sank deep within himself. Pulling on [Mind Supremacy], Draven blocked out the pain and focused on his inner flame. He pulled on his essence, charging up as much fire as he could. Flames licked the surface of his armor as he built up more flames with [Draconic Pyromancy].
New Mind Supremacy Technique! Pain suppressant
Draven opened his eyes, flames burning deep within them. He cried out as he unleashed the tightly packed fire he contained within himself. Flames exploded out of him, pushing the El’Dresi away from him.
The El’Dresi crossed his arms, blocking his face from the brunt of the flames. The explosion pushed him back, causing his exosuit to leave rough groves along the metal flooring.
“The little disciple has some bite to his bark,” the El’Dresi smiled. He disappeared in a flash of lightning again, using the Flash Step Technique of air dragonborn. The El’Dresi appeared before Draven again, blade zipping towards Draven's heart.
Draven’s heart skipped a beat as he channeled Essence to his Supremacy Talents and entered Ascendancy mode. The Sygaldry along his armor glowed a furry red, empowered by Draven’s Essence. He parried the El’Dresi’s blade and punched the air dragonborn with a fist of concussive fire.
The El’Dresi went sailing into the air, crashing into the ground with a bang.
“Draven, Sync up with me,” Sygvar said. He too had entered Ascendancy mode.
Draven pushed his mind into the Weave. He found the Sympathetic Thread connecting him and his Master. It was thick, a sign of their strong connection. He bound himself to it, allowing himself to become one with his master’s mind, body, and soul.
New Mind, Body, Soul Supremacy Technique! Sync
Draven quickly entered the settings of his status and disabled notifications. He thought to leave them on before because he believed they could be helpful. But they were distracting him from the battle.
A wurl wind of air manifested around the El’Dresi as he floated to his feet in Acendecy Mode. The Sygaldry, runes of power, decorating his armor, were a blaze, a green glow emanating from the words of power.
“Now the real fun begins,” the El’Dresi crackled. He Flashed Stepped, disappearing again.
Draven sensed the El’Dresi through the Weave. He lashed out behind him, kicking the El’Dresi in the chest and pushing him towards Sygvar.
Sygvar kicked the legs from under the El’Dresi, causing him to fall.
Draven created a flame missile and fired it point-blank at the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi conjured a blast of Air, causing the missile to bend off course and detonate into the ground.
He hopped to his feet, sending a chain of lightning at Sygvar.
Sygvar blocked it with his sword. He then heated his blade and cut into the armor of the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi pulled back in pain.
Draven came from behind, delivering a cut to the El’Dresi’s leg. Causing the air dragon born to fall to his knee.
“You guys are good, too good. I guess I need a little help,” the El’Dresi said as he pressed a button.
“You talk too much,” Draven said, smacking the El’Dresi.
Gates squeaked open, and the ground began to rumble. Hollows came pouring into the room. Marrows ran on all four, with Spikes trailing just behind them. Bone Devils mixed in with the horde, pushing aside the weaker hollows to get to Draven and Sygvar.
The El’Dresi jumped to his feet and sprinted toward the incoming horde of hollows. Draven and his master raced after him before he could get to safety.
Draven unleashes a cone of fire. Superheating the air as it impacted the El’Dresi.
The El’Dresi conjured a shield of air, deflecting the blast of flames. And letting the momentum push him up and over the horde of hollows. He disappeared in the wave of bodies, crackling like a madman.
“Damn it,” Sygvar hissed. “Draven, stay close to me.”
Draven drew near his master. Only a few feet away from him.
“We’re going to clear a path towards the computer terminal. I want you to have Ari download the files off of it.” Sygvar yelled over the horde of hollows. His sword was ablaze with fire as he sliced throw a Marrow.
“The base will self-destruct in five minutes,” a voice boomed from speakers in the room.
“That bastard! Draven, don’t hold back! When need to get to that console!” Sygvar’s voice warped and deepened as his body transformed. His exosuit became more organic, melding to his body like a second skin. Wings and a tail sprouted from his back. His fingers and toes sharped into claws, and flames manifested on his arms and as a crown of fire above his head. Sygvar flew into the mob of feral mutants, becoming a living storm of fire and death.
Draven underwent a less impressive transformation. The red glow from the Sygaldry and flames manifested as jets along his arms and legs. The Hollows before him slowed as he sped up his perception time.
Plums of fire rocketed Draven into the horde of Hollows, following his master. His sword glowed as he sliced throw the feral mutants. The Marrows and Spikes were cut down like butter, but the Bone Devils were still challenging. But they were cut down in a few strikes while Draven was in his enhanced state.
The duo gradually cut their way toward the terminal. That’s when Draven got a spike of danger from the Weave. He was too slow and was slapped across the face by a giant claw. Draven backflipped, distancing himself from the new foe.
This creature was different than the others. This was a Wargoth, a mutant with the power of bone and muscle. Four muscular tentacles protruded from the creature's back. Segmented bone covered the spasming muscles as its tentacles wiped around. It roared, spitting saliva all over the ground. Then charged Draven, its four claws shaving the metal flooring.
Draven kicked the creature in the face, sending out a current of fire.
The Wargoth went sailing towards Sygvar. It lashed out its tentacles at the Master Al’Manti.
Sygvar’s blade ignited in flames, and it blurred, severing the Wargoth’s tentacles.
Draven came up from behind, stepping on telekinetic steps. He then rocketed downwards onto the Wargoth with a jet of flames. He concentrated, his flames burning hotter and hotter. Eventually ultimately shifting from their reddish yellow hue to a bright blue. His blade cracked the bone exoskeleton around the Wargoth’s skull, bathing the creature’s brain in blue flames.
The creature thrashed about in pain, then went still.
“Draven, go get the data!”
“On it,” Draven said as he sprinted to the console. He took out a cable from the back of the neck of his exosuit and plugged it into the console. “Ari download all the data from the storage.”
File after file zipped past Draven’s hud for his exosuit. The download only took a second to finish.
“I’m done, but the data must be decrypted,” Ari said.
“That’s fine,” Draven then unplug the cable leading from his suit to the console. He then ran over to his master, “All done.”
“Good,” Sygvar picked Draven up and then took to the sky with his wings. Above the increasing number of Hollows, Sygvar sped towards the exit. The hollows raged as they chased after the air-born duo. Quickly they exited the base, landing on Tywen’s back.
“Take to the sky, quickly!” Sygvar yelled as he set Draven down.
Tywen beat his wings, and they rapidly ascended. Soon after they left the ground, hollows poured out of the El’Dresi base. They swarmed the area they had just been. Then an explosion destroyed the hill the base was built into and the flora around it.
Draven opened his status and instantly dumped nine path points into his path.
You have completed the Way Al’Manti of the Al’Manti Path!
+9 Attribute Points
New Feat: The Way of the Al’Manti New Class: Al’Manti Disciple
Draven click on his new feat and class. They both popped up as screens in his mind.
The Way of the Al’Manti (Tier 1) Grants: +1 INT** +1 FIN +1 WIS
+1 STR +1 DEX +1 CON
+1 SPR +1 AFF +1 FOR
Al’Manti Disciple **You have graduated from your training as a adept and are now ready to become a disciple. As a disciple you have mastered the basics of controlling you mind, body, and soul. You have learned a martial art of the Al’Manti and your skill at it has been deemed satisfactory. But there is still more work to be done. Grants: +1 Mind Attribute per level +1 Body Attribute per level +1 Soul Attribute per level +1 Attribute point every 3rd level
Core Talents: Mind Supremacy Body Supremacy Soul Supremacy Al’Manti 5th Blade Kata
Draven then opened his new status.
Name: Draven Althorne Age: 18
Ancestory: Fire Dragon Born (Tier 1 - LV 3)
Class: Al’Manti Disciple (Tier 1 - LV 0)
Sub Class 1: Locked Sub Class 2: Locked Sub Class 3: Locked
Feats: None
- Mind Attributes - INT: 17 / 18 FIN: 14 / 15 WIS: 11 / 12
- Body Attributes - STR: 19 / 20 DEX: 17 / 18 CON: 16 / 17
- Soul Attributes - SPR: 12 / 13 AFF: 14 / 15 FOR: 19 / 20
Attribute Points: 9
- Essences - Stamina: 129 / 129 Vitality: 150 / 150 Mana: 135 / 135
- Talents: 5 / 9 - Draconic Pyromancy LV 6 Mind Supremacy LV 7 Body Supremacy LV 8 Soul Supremacy LV 6 Al’Manti 5th Blade Kata LV 7
Path: None Path Points: 26 Paths Available: 8
Release Schedule: M-W-F at 5 am PDT/PST.
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Thanks for reading.

Add the talent trees to OW3. Tie the point system to an upgrade system. Make a buy phase when the points unlock where u can enter a store like area without pausing the game or when you're dead that allows you to buy a new talent. New talents will either upgrade an existing ability and diminish another or add a new ability.
Example: Offensive zarya. increases Zarya primary fire range by twice as much but decreases the damage and radius of right click.
Other example: defensive zarya. Adds a third bubble. Bubbles only give 15 energy generation and tank 120 damage but the cool down is 6 seconds.
Offensive rein: rein charge is twice as fast and leaves a fire trail when an enemy is in pin and causes and explosion upon impact. Fire strike is a four round magazine but does 50 damage. Shield is 1/3 the size and only absorbs 300 damage.
Defensive dreadnought rein: barrier deflects damage back the first second it's up. Can only happen once per 8 seconds. Barrier can also empower shots fired through it from behind adding a burn effect to targets damaged dealing 3% additional damage. Rein suffers no movement penalty with shield up but shield absorbs 3k damage. Rein can no longer fire strike and charge can no longer pin.
The final tier you could unlock would modify your ultimate. One that makes high noon work faster based on distance. One that makes high noon do less damage but you can combat roll while doing it and it builds twice as fast.
One that makes shatter deal less damage but does a full circle stun in all directions.
Something that makes wrecking ball drop a line of mines for ten seconds.
One that makes graviton surge leave a posutive or negative charge dot that pushes enemies apart and the farther away they are they deal electric damage to each other until they touch in order to clear the debuff.

I was discussing the benefits of VR gaming with one of my best friends last night. We slipped into this topic after gaming for a while and downing a couple of beers, so you can only imagine how far we went into our scientifically-philosophical analysis. In our delicately enlightened minds, VR gaming seemed like one of the most beneficial hobbies because of many factors, and I'm here to list the most important of them so sit back and enjoy.
Improving health & body
Some of you remember my story of losing 63 lbs (29 kgs) in less than a year, mainly "exercising" by playing VR games. I know I'm not alone in this, since a couple of YouTubers (LazyPeon turned out not to be that lazy) and fellow gaming colleagues managed to achieve outstanding results by including VR gaming sessions in their sedentary lifestyles. The modern, technologically advanced society brought the sedentary lifestyle to the wide masses, and with it some inevitable health issues. Spine problems, hypertension, obesity, muscle atrophy, etc. are all relatively acute issues that are the repercussions of spending the majority of the day in front of the screen. VR gaming is excellent for maintaining baseline bodily health for people who cannot or don't want to spend time in gyms. Playing physically challenging VR games for just an hour a day can get rid of so many issues - I had a mild case of sciatica before starting my weight loss journey, and VR games like Clash of Chefs and Beat Saber helped me strengthen my back muscles and completely recover my spine.
Hand-eye coordination
It's old news that video games improve eye-to-hand coordination. However, VR games take that to a completely new level since they almost identically replicate the way we naturally move our hands and eyes.
My job requires me to sometimes do detailed, manual work, and I remember how easier and faster I used to finish it after playing some shooters (like Apex, Warzone). However, VR games played a significant role in this because, during that period, I also used to play Clash of Chefs and Beat Saber a lot as a part of my weight loss journey. Imagine preparing meal after meal in Clash of Chefs, battling with other cooks, and sometimes just throwing the knives and plates around to work up your body harder - then jumping into Beat Saber to cut through the notes for an hour or two. I felt like I could be a professional samurai at one point :)
Stress relief
This one is quite obvious, but it shouldn't be left unmentioned. Modern life is so clustered with all kinds of information - not only the informative ones, in fact, "empty" information constitutes probably more than 70% of our daily intake. In fact, some studies suggest that an average person in this day and age goes through more information in a day than a 19th-century person used to go through in their entire lifetime. Since our brains didn't evolve much (if any) over the last 150 years, they cannot follow the technological advancement we've come to - meaning that our brains have come to be overwhelmed with so much extra information we receive on a daily basis. This causes micro-stresses that build up over time and, in combination with bigger stresses (the real estate market, inflation, etc.) lead to mental health issues.
Well, VR gaming can serve as an incredible medium for relieving extra stress by immersing yourself in VR games and forgetting about real-world problems at least for a little while. Into the Radius, cyubeVR, and Clash of Chefs - the three most immersive VR games I played helped me refill my batteries and recover from bad days (or weeks) so much
Conclusion
VR gaming is definitely something that, if utilized correctly, can change the lives of many. These are only some examples of real-life benefits resulting from VR gaming mentioned in this post, so, if you have any other to add, please do so. If you have any examples of certain VR gaming changing your life for the better, as Clash of Chefs and Beat Saber did for me, make sure to recommend them so others can learn about them.
Let's discuss the positive and beneficial sides of VR gaming :)

Okay so excuse me if I do this poorly I'm new to reddit. I (25f) am married to a wonderful man (28m). We have an 11m old son who is the center of our world. When he was born I chose to breastfeed him for several reasons. For the first few weeks my husband got up with me at night to feed because I was still trying to figure out nursing, and also to help change his diaper, swaddle him and put him back to sleep. After I got more comfortable at night I told my husband not to bother waking up with me anymore unless I specifically wake him up because I'm having a hard time or something. I told him specifically that if I wasn't going to be rested I at least wanted one of us to be well rested, and he agreed that was a good idea. Our son doesn't sleep well, probably due to some medication he has to take. At 11m he's up 4-6 times on average still. So I don't sleep much, but I nurse my son back to sleep and he falls asleep quickly for me whereas he fights my husband and screams until he can nurse. It became a habit to nurse back to sleep as a way to survive the many wakeups (at least 6 a night at some point). He also has to eat every 4-5 hours at the latest due to his medicine, so nursing at night also does that for us. Here's the issue. Instead of taking advantage of his ability to sleep, my husband has very often been playing games on his Playstation at night even on nights we both work the next day and get up at 4:45am. On those nights he's up until 10/10:30pm, while the nights where he doesn't work the next day he's sometimes up until 1am, but 11:30pm is probably average. And it INFURIATES ME. I'm doing him this favor by taking on the entire night time load so he can rest, and instead he plays games. AITAH for being pissed my husband isn't sleeping or should I let him dictate what he does with that time without being angry?