So life has been hard. I had a baby a year ago, a wonderful little girl. But I had went into post pardum psychosis, pretty bad. It had gotten so bad I would just black out. It ended with me cutting my fingers to shreds and accidentally cutting my wonderful partner when he had tried to help me. But after some help, after some therapy, after spending every waking moment with my little angel, I am so lucky. My partner and I are oddly happy. We haven't fought since I got pregnant. He smiles more than he frowns and honestly... wont get off of me, which is... fantastic. He was so reserved before I got help, even before I got pregnant. Now he is always telling me how he is feeling. We always work on things together. "I need better lunches, im starting to not feel good." Not in a million years would he had said something a year ago, he would have just bought his own lunches then got mad if I asked him why. He gives so much affection without me asking or even wanting it. He is so cuddly now. That was not normal. He is working out, he always smells wonderful, his smile lights up the room, he is such a good dad. I get to play with the most wonderful baby on the planet. She hugs, walks, smiles, and just over all is amazing. She is oddly cute, like a deeply painful cute, the kind that gets you in your chest. I cant beleive at one time I didn't want her. She is so amazing. I look forward to everything with her, even her fits if im honest. Because I just see her think and develop. I adore it with all my heart. Im happy too. Without medication. I can cook, clean, and take care of my daughter alone. I can think clearly. Im not scared of myself, I dont black out. I am so in love with my family it physically hurts my chest. I just am so glad it all got better. It was so hard, and now, well, even if it will get harder every once in a while, I think things are now fine.

Half-court b-ball happens on portion of a guideline full-court or on a more modest outside ball court. It is a helpful variety of the game on the off chance that you have less players or restricted space. The Global B-ball League have likewise utilized the half-court at the expert level, for example, for three-on-three competitions and other exceptional games.Teams of five players in some cases play half-court ball games by and by circumstances to plan for set hostile plays and zone defenses.When there are four or less players for every group, a half-court game will furnish players with sufficient room for ball development in a less clogged climate.This more modest basketball half court dimensions can assist with preparing a hostile player to spill and pass with more control, while at the same time further developing a guarded player's one-on-one safeguard and rotations.At expert and school ball levels, both the people's half-court estimates fifty feet wide by 47 feet in length. For secondary school half-court b-ball, court aspects are five feet shorter. There are half-court pack choices with adjustable b-ball court deck or surfacing that workers for hire can use to fabricate a half-court that will fit the specific requirements and constraints of a given space, for example, a patio b-ball court. The three-point line is estimated from the focal point of the b-ball loop to the external edge of the three-point curve painted on the floor. NBA court three-point lines are the furthest away at 23 feet and nine inches. The curve of a secondary school b-ball court has the nearest line distance to the circle, estimating nineteen feet and nine crawls from the focal point of the edge.

Hello! I am back with more astrology birth chart analysis. For this post, I wanted to highlight the trainees that showcase the phrase “there’s more than meets the eye” -- meaning, trainees that might be very different from the first impressions they give off.
❗DISCLAIMER: I think astrology is a fun way to interpret people but it's not always 100% accurate! I do not think any of us will ever fully know any of the trainees (or anyone else aside from ourselves for that matter). ALSO, “first impressions” are IMMENSELY influenced by one’s rising sign, but since we do not know the exact time of birth for any of the trainees, it is hard to fully analyze. Please take everything with a grain of salt and remember this is JUST FOR FUN! & if you're new to astrology, feel free to ask questions~
🔮 BACKGROUND & TRAINEES OF FOCUS:
When I first thought about the phrase “first impressions don’t mean anything” my mind immediately went to Kim Jiwoong. His “mysterious hot cool guy” vibe is what reality TV dreams of. However, it’s already been (relatively) shown that he is also super dorky and has a “cute” side. Similarly, Park Gunwook had his “overconfident intimidating cool guy” vibe, but again it has been shown that Gunwook is a “giant baby” who gets doted on by the older trainees. [I have analyzed their charts on my twt so pls scroll down if you want links to read their individual analyses!]
I then asked myself, who else seems like there’s “more than meets the eye”? Who definitely “acts” one way (or are “portrayed/shown” one way by Mnet) but it definitely feels like there is more to who they are that hasn’t been shown?
The first four trainees that came to mind are: Keita, Kim Taerae, Haruto & Park Hanbin
Completely unintentionally, all of them are water signs. Which I suppose makes sense since water signs are typically more in tune with emotions and aren’t as “outgoing” as fire or air signs. (Though I was very shocked to learn Haruto is a water sign lol).
⭐ KEITA
My 1st thought: he’s a composer, producer, choreographer, singer, rapper, generally well liked, AND a cancer? AIN’T NO WAY. Then I saw he has 3 sagittarius, 3 gemini, and 3 aquarius in his chart and proceeded to scream into the void.
Starting w/ the 4 first signs, Keita became Avatar the Last Airbender with his signs here -- his sun (main/core sign) is in cancer [water], his moon (emotions/internal processing) is in sagittarius [fire], his mercury (communication) is in gemini [air], and his venus (perceptions of love) is in taurus [earth]. At first glance, this seemingly helps keep Keita very balanced keeping his actions, thoughts, words, and emotions all in check. However, this could also cause a lot of back and forth internally.
Cancers are known to either cry very often or bottle up every emotion until it comes out uncontrollably. This paired with the sagittarius moon and mars (ruler of intense emotions) makes me assume Keita is the second since sagittarius also tend to bottle up their emotions and only express themselves in situations they deem to be appropriate. This is unsurprising as he was shown crying during the Limousine performance as he resonated with the lyrics’ message.
Geminis are social butterflies that mold well to different situations. This being Keita’s mercury might make others feel more at ease as Keita might have a good sense of humor and/or know what to say to keep morale up. Taurus are typically very patient. Keita showed both mercury gemini and venus taurus traits when he helped Jay during the star level test & when he reassured Hyunbeen about his center position in zoom.
Stelliums occur when 3 or more planets are in the same sign. Keita has his mercury, jupiter, and saturn in gemini. Sometimes the traits of the stellium overpower the core sun sign. In this case, I think it’s a benefit to Keita. Jupiter represents expansion and saturn represents effort. Since geminis are social butterflies that are always seeking fun, these traits can help balance out the emotional cancer sun sign and give Keita the ability to let loose and not take things seriously all of the time.
Neptune represents the parts one tries to hide. Uranus represents individuality/quirkiness. Lilith represents buried traits. Keita has all of these in aquarius. Keita is probably just as standout as some of the really outgoing trainees, but refrains from doing so because of his self-image. This is shown during the dance battle with Woongki where Keita starts to drop into similar “girlypop” moves but then reverts to more a “street” style.
There is definitely more than meets the eye with Keita! I’m sure he has gone through a lot of hardships and a lot of triumphs, none of which have been particularly documented by Mnet. His image of an “all rounder” is positive but Mnet doesn’t seem to leave room for interpretation. I hope Keita is able to showcase more of himself (especially as a singer, composer, producer, and maybe some other surprise titles?) in ways he wants to and not because he thinks he has to ascribe to a specific persona.
🌙 KIM TAERAE
When I saw Taerae’s smile and heard his angelic voice, I thought he HAS to have some type of evil alter ego. Instead I’m faced with a wholesome chart that makes it hard to believe someone like this exists let alone someone who is willingly putting himself into the spotlight of fame and stardom???
Cancers (as the cardinal water sign) are notorious for being the “most sensitive/emotional” sign. Taerae’s sun (core), mercury (communication), and jupiter (expansion) are all in cancer. This most likely means he speaks and carries himself with a lot of compassion for others. This can be seen throughout the “MIL” clips as he is helping out others & continuously raving about how good his members did. Also his genuine reaction when seeing Hyunbeen was selected as the “Zoom” center. The signs indicate nothing he said was exaggerated and he genuinely believes in uplifting even the smallest wins of others.
The moon sign represents emotions and self-image and venus represents perceptions of love. Taerae has both of these in virgo. Virgos tend to appreciate routine and are detail-oriented. The combination of the moon and venus sharing the virgo sign might mean Taerae often appreciates the little things in life and doesn’t take them for granted. This can be seen during the behind the scenes of the studio choom shooting, Taerae says, “[Seeing] the lights already touches my heart.”
Taerae’s mars (intense emotions when under pressure) in leo gives him drive. Leos are known to be very “goal-oriented” and always seeking a greater purpose. I’m assuming this sign is what helps Taerae manage when he does feel pressured and drives him to become an idol.
Neptune represents parts one might try to hide and Uranus represents individuality/quirkiness. Taerae has both in aquarius, meaning he might suppress some traits that make him different from others; however, many trainees this season also have these placements on top of more air and/or fire signs in their charts which might make Taerae seem “not as marketable” as others in front of the camera. (But if you have seen him in any of the “scare pranking trainees” clips then you already know he’s weird forreal because not him being more scared of the pupa than the ghost??).
I’m hopeful that the balance of water and earth continues to ground Taerae with his emotions and processing “fame”. Also the sprinkling of air signs should help keep things light hearted as well. I hope he continues to find support within himself and with others. Mnet is forreal shaking in their boots cause they had absolutely 0 content that could be manipulated and/or evil edited from Taerae. His chart explains why he might not have had much screen time because all his interactions were probably very WHOLESOME!!!
⭐ HARUTO
Alright girlypops buckle in for the wild ride that is Maeda Haruto. Behind every “don’t worry I’m FINE” Scorpio is the desire to cry and be reminded everything will be okay.
For starters, scorpios are usually stereotyped as broody, sassy, unlikely to share about themselves, and full of that “it’s not a phase, mom!” energy. One does not want to get on a scorpios “bad list” because scorpios will hold onto a grudge until they die (and possibly pass it on for generations to come). The fact that Haruto’s sun (core) and mars (intense emotions expressed under pressure) are both in Scorpio means he is probably able to channel his intense energy and turn it into sheer willpower even in high stress situations. This makes sense considering Haruto willingly moved to South Korea on his own, has survived multiple audition programs, and still currently perseveres.
However, the combination can also prove to be harmful. Scorpios have the potential to become upset if things do not go as planned often through passive aggressive remarks or sarcasm. I’m assuming Haruto’s “sassiness” has been marketable to Mnet, otherwise they probably could have easily “evil edited” him for extra drama clips.
Capricorns are known to keep cool, calm, and collected outer demeanor. Haruto having his moon (emotions/self-image) in capricorn brings balance to the intense scorpio sun. He probably stays level headed and has an ordered step-by-step self-care routine. This is unsurprising considering all the trainees have noted Haruto goes to sleep by 10PM every time.
Sagittarius are the mutable fire sign meaning they are not usually as outgoing compared to Leo or Aries. However, Haruto’s mercury (communication) in sag is probably amplified by his scorpio sun. His one-liners (“You’re a BIRD!!!” & “Matthew hyung, sorry~~”) are the epitome of this combination. He comes across as outgoing, a bit “tongue-and-cheek”, and memorable.
Libras always seek balance. Haruto having his venus (perception of love) in libra probably means he looks for reciprocity in all his relationships - he probably won’t go out of his way for someone unless they go out of their way for him. During the show, this has probably helped him preserve his time and energy to focus on honing in on his skills as an idol.
Uranus represents individuality/quirkiness. Saturn represents effort. Unlike many of the other trainees, Haruto has both of these planets in water signs (often more in tune with emotions). His saturn in cancer might make him feel intimidated by critique and/or judgment + his uranus in pisces probably means he has the tendency to be a team player rather than a leader. This can be seen when he was in the first training lesson with Solji (and also when he was on LOUD and started crying with JYP).
Note: Haruto definitely has different vibes from his first impressions compared to his chart. I’m under the impression his rising sign (and subsequent other signs) might be drastically different, influencing his personality in ways we can’t analyze unless his birth time is known.
Although Haruto is perfectly capable of being a bad boss-ass b*tch (positive) and keeping afloat, I think it would benefit him to be around others who are capable of expressing their inner thoughts and feelings more often (especially seeing his comments Mnet posts on his fancams). I hope Haruto is able to let others in and also be reminded that it’s okay to trust others and ask for help!
🌙 PARK HANBIN
At first glance, I thought PHanbin would have traits typical of a fire or earth sign leader full of righteousness and outgoing demeanor. However, PHanbin might be one of the secret crybabies on Boys Planet. He is definitely an atypical leader as his chart is full of water and air signs, including an aquarius stellium.
Pisces (as the mutable water sign) are the epitome of self-sacrifice and sometimes are seen as doormats who will get repeatedly stepped on over and over again. PHanbin’s sun (core) and venus (perceptions of love) are both in pisces. Pisces are the ruler of venus and those with this particular placement are thought to be among the most empathetic. This most likely means he will put others before himself. Pisces are very inclusive of all and most pisces leaders will not move forward with decisions without getting the input of everyone on their team. Their water-like fluidity will let them fit into almost any role. This can be seen with PHanbin’s past leader roles both in “Hot Sauce” and in “Law” as he prioritizes the strengths of his team members to create a harmonious picture.
The moon sign represents emotions and so the Libra (air) placement indicates PHanbin might recharge by being around others; this might contradict with his pisces sun and venus as pisces tend to be more introverted and enjoy recharging in solitude. At the same time, the amount of trainees PHanbin has seemingly befriended (and how different they all are from one another) indicates this libra moon combined with the pisces sun invites others in and his presence makes others feel safe.
The mars sign represents emotions under intense stress and/or situations. Aries is the ruler of this sign. The fact that PHanbin’s mars is in aries makes a lot of sense and is probably what gives him more “typical” leadership qualities. Mars aries are very righteous and believe in order and hard work to achieve good results. This is shown when the “Law” trainees mention PHanbin had rumors spread among the trainees for creating a “hard/strict” training regime from his former teams; this is also seen as PHanbin actively makes the “Law” trainees repeat key moves over and over again. However, I’m assuming the water signs in the chart balance out this authoritative stance because the trainees are willing to still follow along and feel grateful for PHanbin’s leadership.
PHanbin’s mercury is also in aquarius which might mean the way he communicates is a little more lighthearted than how he actually carries himself. Since the water sign pisces can be a little emotional, the air sign of aquarius (and especially because PHanbin is an aquarius stellium) can balance that out. Like many other trainees, PHanbin’s uranus and neptune are both in aquarius meaning he might try to conceal the weird and/or different parts of himself -- but at this point EVERYONE in Boys Planet is a lil weird, a lil fruity, and/or some mix of the two.
Overall, PHanbin’s chart honestly leaves me with a lot more questions than it does answers. Like Haruto, PHanbin definitely has different vibes from his first impressions compared to his chart. I’m under the impression his rising sign (and subsequent other signs) might be drastically different. The way Mnet has portrayed him is definitely different from what his chart indicates (or maybe it’s just the lack of screentime) so I hope he is able to showcase more of himself in future episodes!
🌟 COMPLETED SUN SIGN DATA SPREADSHEET (TOP 52):
You can click here to see my entire spreadsheet of all 52 members in TAB 1 & with visual charts in TAB 2.
💫 WHERE TO FIND ME & MORE ASTROLOGY ANALYSIS:
I post on Twitter mostly but will also cross-post on IG / TikTok when I have the time! Here are the individuals I have done analyses for thus far:

• Keita - link here
• Kim Taerae - link here
• Haruto - coming soon (after I edit what I wrote above)
• Park Hanbin - coming soon (after I edit what I wrote above)
• Seo Won - link here
• Sung Hanbin - link here
• Park Gunwook - link here
• Kim Jiwoong - link here

I hope to continue posting more natal / birth chart analysis to my twitter in the near future. I really enjoy doing these and I’m so glad others have enjoyed reading them~
If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for sticking around! If you're also interested in astrology, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Boys Planet members!

Parked across from another vehicle doing the same. Are we all out here buying time from the witching hour at home tonight? Neons from Ross Dress for Less and Planet Fitness bleed into my otherwise perfect tranquility.
He's driving off now. Back to his wife and their crying baby. I'm off to my husband and our crying baby. For an insignificant moment though, we shared this commercial lot like a quiet dinner in another life. I love my family fiercely, but this was nice.

(Disclaimer- I forgot that Ms. Martin was a nurse lol my fault, but yea shes a teacher in this)
The day was grim, and cloudy. Some of the kids loved it, some didn’t. But one thing is for sure, they loved her class. Anna always made sure the kids had fun while learning. In her time as a teacher, she’d seen kids come and go. Some stayed, but she preferred it that way, here at Ericsons the kids got to be their best selves, while getting the help they needed, and deserved.
She turned around, watching the kids in their natural state of being. She sat, admiring her classroom. She decorated it with red tassels and apples. Since Richord was pretty nonchalant, he didn’t mind it when he visited. Everything felt right. Even when the usual kids would goof around, she’d see nothing but pureness in her eyes. Speaking of which, “Louis.” She called out, pointing her ruler at him.
He stopped before throwing his paper ball at Marlon, giving a crooked smile, and trying to play it off. “Yes Ms. Martin…?”
She smiled, and pointed to the board. “What is an adjective?”
He chuckled, mumbling ‘hold on’ while getting out his notebook from his desk. Anna waited patiently. She never punished the kids for being themselves, they were just kids after all. As long as they learned, she was fine with letting them let loose.
As Louis was just about to answer the question, staring down at his notes, the school alarm started to ring. It startled everyone, no one had expected any alarms on a tuesday afternoon.
“All students, please go back to your dorms. This is not a test, please go back to your dorms and stay inside until further notice.”
Immediately all the kids jumped in glee, packing their book bags and rushing out of class, cheering “Free day off!” and “No science quiz anymore!”.
The classroom was empty pretty fast, leaving Anna alone in the classroom. Extremely confused, she set down her ruler and took off her glasses, leaving it on the desk. The halls were filled with distant chatter as the group of kids faded away to their dorms. Anna ran her hand against the patchy wall as she walked to the admin building. It was quieter than usual outside. Well, that was because there were no screaming kids out playing. As she entered the admin building, her plan was to talk to Richard, the principal, to see what was going on and why he made that announcement. All of a sudden, she heard vibrant and loud screams, startling her and shaking her up.
She rushed upstairs, the screaming didn’t stop. It came from the nurse's office, and as she got closer, the more terrified she became. With all the bravery she could muster, she charged into the nurses office. Immediately she froze, seeing a teen boy, eating away at her colleague.
“An–Anna!” the nurse had called out, trying to pry the boy off her, “Help! Please oh my god- please help me!”
Without really thinking, she had run into the office, grabbing the teen by his shoulders. She continued to do her best to pull him off, but his teeth sunk deep into the nurse's skin. Eventually, she got him off, which propelled her backwards, causing the boy to fall on top of Anna. He turned around, immediately going to bite off whatever he could, which was her face in the matter.
“Help me!” Anna cried out, she looked over to the nurse, who fell onto the floor, she seemed to have passed out. “Shit shit shit! Richard!” She called out, hoping he’d hear, he was only a room away. Her arms became more and more sore as she held the boy up defensively. She determined no one was there to save her, so she had to settle in the reality that, if she did nothing- she’d be dead.
Anna mustered up as much strength as possible, pushing over the boy to the side. He fell down on the ground, groaning loudly. Anna pulled herself up, grabbing the nearest weapon-like object. She defensively waited in the corner, holding the syringe she found on the counter close to her chest. As he got off the floor, he immediately made his way towards her.
“Please- Please stand back!” there was no response. “I don’t know why you’re doing this! But please- I don’t want to hurt you!” At this point, he lunged at her, causing her to lunge at him and stab him in the shoulder. She pushed him into the opposite wall. The syringe was stuck inside him, so she grabbed the broomstick, closed her eyes and attacked him, piercing his soft skull. She huffed, “Oh my god…oh my fucking-”
She didn’t even have the time to breathe as she was attacked again. She fell to the ground, her ankle was being pulled by the nurse who was initially knocked out cold. Anna kicked her with her boot over and over until she was let loose. She got up from the floor, running out of the office and slamming the door shut. She immediately placed a nearby lounging chair in front of it.
While she hyperventilated, she placed her hands on her knees. She threw up, she had just murdered someone…who was sick? Sure some of the kids got sick but never like this. Then, reality kicked in, and her face turned pale. “The kids!” She shouted. She ran over to the principal's office. As she burst into the door, she had seen Richard packing his bags quickly. He looked over at her with a terrified glance. She wasn’t surprised by that, she was covered in blood, and she was sweating. But, what she was surprised by, was the fact that he didn’t hear her cries for help. “Richard– I can explain this.”
He seemed to have shaken it off, because he ignored her. Instead, he packed his bags even faster than before, shaking his head. “No. Hell no, I'm not staying here.” He tried rushing past her, to which Rosie, his dog, stood in front of him, whimpering. “Move you damn dog–”
“Wait-” Anna stopped him. “What do you mean– what about the kids? We have an obligation to keep them safe.”
“Fuck them! I’m not dying to some fucking sick freaks for a damn delinquent!”
Anna was taken aback by his attitude. It was normal to be scared, and rash, but why was he talking about the kids in that way? Also…
“You… fucking prick…” He looked shocked to hear Anna say that. “You knew about this- well, no wonder that's why you said that in the announcement. But– you obviously heard the screaming since you know that these sick people are able to kill. You heard me and the nurse fucking fighting for our damn lives, and you did nothing?!”
“What was I supposed to do?!”
“Not be a heartless dick you fucking asshole!” She was furious.
He shook his head, brushing past her and hitting her shoulder, “I don’t need this from some bitch like you!”
She watched as he ran down the stairs, leaving everyone, including his own dog behind. “Pussy.” Anna mumbled. Turning around and heading for the intercom. She pressed the button, speaking shakily into it, “Students, please don’t come out of the dorms until further notice! And…And if your bunkmate is sick, please- evacuate to my classroom- or any classroom closest to you! Lock the doors, only open it for other- other l-living people.”
Anna ran out of the admin building, and into the kitchen area. She grabbed as many weapons as she could fit in her cardigan pocket- a knife, and a butcher knife.
As she entered the dorm building- It was worse than she thought. She had already seen absolute mortality. There were screams, crying, shouting, and blood. She watched in horror as kids ran away from their bunkmates, she watched as kids sat in the corner and cried instead of running from those…things. Eventually, they’d get them before she could react in time to stop it. And even worse than that, all the adults…just ran right past her.
“S-Stop it!” Anna cried out, “What are you all doing– The kids–” She was interrupted as another teacher ran into her, tumbling down with her.
“Move out the fucking way!” He yelled, picking himself up and hurrying out of the dorm building. Anna shook off her shock, and got up. It boiled her blood. These people, these “protectors”, were supposed to care for these troubled youths. These poor lost children were about to die, watching as their caretakers left them alone and to fend for themselves.
“No.” Anna muttered. Like a warrior, she walked forward, pulling out the butcher knife in one hand, now holding it with two. She took deep breaths, as all the adults ran past her, she was charging forward. She now started to run, determined to protect the children she was supposed to protect, no matter what. So, she ran up to the living-corpses and sliced them with all her strength. She was successful in taking one down, throwing it to the floor after she cut its shoulder really deep, so deep that it was almost falling off. “M-Ms. Martin?”
She looked at the kid who the thing was attacking with a pitiful look. “I’m sorry, Ruby. I know this is very scary but please- go run to my classroom- dont stop running. And don’t look back–”
“What about you?!”
“I–AH!” Anna fell down as the corpse that she initially cut, had grabbed her ankle, dropping the butcher knife as she fell. “Shit! Not again!” She immediately went for her knife stored in her other pocket, and stabbed its head. She got up fast, “Go! I’ll be fine Ruby!”
Ruby ran due to her demanding tone. Anna watched and breathed in deep, ready for more. “Everyone!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, attracting the corpses to her. “Please–” She butchered the head of one while speaking- “-Go! Go to my classroom!”
The corpses started to surround her, she felt immense adrenaline, while also feeling remorseful. These .. things. They used to be her students, maybe not all but she's seen them walk in the halls, and they were the people she was meant to take care of. But she had to put that aside. Now it was time to protect the ones that she had left.
‘On the left’ her mind helped her, she swung her butcher knife at its head. She kicked the corpse's ankle behind her, stabbing its head as well. She pushed the corpse in front of her, stunning it. She ran past it, going around and pulling out her knife, stabbing it in the skull. She felt terror as one caught on her, about to sink its teeth into her shoulder. Thankfully, she reacted in time and swung around incredibly fast, swinging her butcher knife with her body– and slicing its head off in the process. At this point, there weren’t many left and with the built up adrenaline– she finished the job carefully- and painfully slowly.
The kids heard all the grunting, screaming, and groaning from inside the classroom. They all held each other in fear, watching the door with immense worry. Not even Louis could crack a joke, it was dead quiet from inside the room. They all had hoped, that Ms. Martin, would save them.
And then…silence.
“No…” Ruby whispered, she started to cry. Aasim started to hug her, along with Minnie.
They had no words for comfort, as they feared the worst as well.
Suddenly, that extreme amount of fear had slowly seeped away as they saw that door swing open, showcasing a bloody, tired Ms. Martin. She fell to her knees, crying on the spot. “My kids.” She cried and smiled, holding her arms open as they rushed for her, hugging her dearly.
It was a few minutes of hugging, and feeling at peace, before reality had kicked in for Anna. All these thirty or so kids were her responsibility from now on. How was she going to do it? Well, that was for later to decide, what mattered right now, in this very moment, was that she successfully was able to protect the ones that she always deemed to protect.

Thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for the universe!
I'm deeply appreciative of u/Acceptable_Egg5560 for their help with editing!
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Chapter 13: Bohemian
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Memory transcription subject: Vekna, Venlil Investigative Journalist
Date [standardized human time]: December 7th, 07:24, 2136
It’s a longer drive to the hangars than it was to the museum, mainly because of the “airfield’s” elevated position. From what I understood, this was to make it easier for show pilots to gain speed for their stunts. For us, however, it serves only as a hindrance for our Jeep to overcome. Jeep, Jeep. Such a funny word. That’s what Chase calls his car. Well, technically, it’s the company that made his car. He explained that the name was derived from that of an ancient car that was used at the same time as those Tiger tanks. It even had a gas motor! Well, to be fair, most vehicles at that time did, but after growing up surrounded by fusion-electric engines and plasma thrusters, it was still breaking new ground for my engineering side.
I’m still brimming with excitement as we finally make it up to the airfield. I look out the window as it enters my line of vision. I’m sorely let down. Standing opposed to the grand spaceports of Venlil Prime, this place consists of a row of metal, semi-circular structures lining the side of a long, wide strip of concrete. How plain… The data dump had said that most terran vehicles before 2047 didn’t have VTOL capabilities, so a long run of space to build sideways speed was necessary for their flight. Function before form, I guess. Can’t complain about that.
As we drive by the structures, I spot letters and numbers above the wide doors on each one. I assume they correspond to the planes inside, as I recognize a few of them. PBY-5, BF-109, YAK-15, and a few more that I didn’t care to read pass us by as we make our way down the strip of tarmac. Translators always did struggle with such naming conventions, but I’ve gotten used to it by now. Still, too many can give you a terrible headache. The one we come to a stop in front of, though, has a simple designation upon it; F-14. I tilt my head slightly. I don’t recall ever seeing an “F-14” on display, and if Chase had a model of it, it wasn’t one that I was allowed to touch. As we disembark from our trusty land vehicle, I have no idea what to expect. That’s the most exciting part!
As we approach a side door, Chase gives me a bit of history regarding this F-14. “This bad boy was pulled from active service after an air confrontation in the 1970s.” Chase began commenting, taking the familiar tone of museum guides the galaxy over. “The Pilot lived, his copilot didn’t, and it was inactive for the rest of the Cold War. Eventually, it got abandoned in a scrapyard for a century or so as part of the usual retirement of such craft. When the previous staff found her, she was apparently in pretty bad shape, but they managed to fix her up and get her airworthy again. She flew shows for the museum for about 20 years until the F-22s and F-45s were up and ready to go. Then it was back to the scrap heap for her. Or at least, that's what was supposed to happen.” Chase winks at me, a human gesture meant to convey slyness or deception. Any other Venlil would have been horrified by that, but it goes without saying I’m not any other Venlil.
“I came across her a month or so after they sold her off and got pennies on the dollar!” My translator didn’t even attempt to make the currency conversion. “I’ve been keeping it here ever since. It’s in much better condition than at the scrapyard, and I intend to keep that way. I’ve made it my personal pet project to keep her ready to fly at a moment’s notice, but I haven’t had the chance to for a while. But we have time now! You wanna see?”
I don’t even need to talk to answer, my tail doing all the work for me. I’m going to get a personal air show, of course I want to see! I can barely contain my excitement as we approach the access door. We soon reach it, Chase opening it slowly so as not to break the frostbitten hinges. It’s pitch black inside, with only the silhouette of a landing gear visible thanks to the limited morning light. It’s only when Chase flicks on the lights that I’m truly floored. In front of me stands a massive aircraft, sleek in design and wide in stature. The wings of the vehicle stretched for what must be tens of meters, with two massive jet turbine engines in the rear of the plane. Even its very aesthetic is almost predatory in nature, its elongated nose and thin physique almost reminding me of a Krakotl. It's primitive but… brahk it, it’s beautiful! From what I can see, there are two seats in the cockpit, a thought forming in the back of my mind at that sight. Reason tells me otherwise, but…what if I got to fly in this thing? I’m brought out of my mind by the loud thunk and the sound of liquid flowing. I look over to see Chase connecting the plane to a large metal tank. Ah, that must be the fuel.
“Fueling it up, Chase?”
“Yeah, what else? We can’t fly on an empty tank, after all!”
…We?! I nearly pass out as I realize my wildest hopes Are coming true. I was going to get to fly in this thing!! It’s honestly hard to remember what happened between then and now as I’m being helped into the rearmost seat by Chase. Something about safety checks, I think? Who cares?! I’M GOING TO FLY!! As I’m being strapped in, I notice something. There are a sphekload of gauges, switches and buttons back here! I assumed they all had a purpose, but I remember Chase telling me that I wouldn’t need to press them at some point. Thank the Herd, my translator is killing itself trying to translate all this! One thing I would have to just deal with is the seat not being built for someone with a tail, but that’s not too big a deal. If I’m remembering my physics correctly, most of the g-forces would be directed downwards, and given Venlilian skeletal structure, I should be a-okay. Our only weak points are our knees!
Eventually, Chase disconnects the fueling line once we have enough and he climbs into the cockpit, a special helmet on his head. I’m also wearing a similar helmet with a small microphone extended close to my snout. I have to keep my ears pressed against my head for it to fit, but an ear piece allows us to communicate freely. Chase opens the humongous hangar door with a remote, the entire front section of the massive building parting to admit us into the cool, Canadian air. Chase toggles something up front, as I soon hear the combustion-powered jet engines whine to life. It sounds almost like a malfunctioning fusion engine, but Chase assures me that sound is normal. Did we say that? I can’t tell over the whining! Suddenly, I see something I didn’t even know this plane could do. The wings of the aircraft pull back like a bird before we start to taxi out to the start of the runway. The automated air traffic control system verbally informs us that we’re clear to go, with a set flight range for him to fly about within.
He extends the wings back out as he looks back at me. “Ready to have some fun, Vekna?”
OH BRAHK YES!!! I can’t help but give an excited bleat as my heart races in my chest. I’m glad that it’s from excitement this time, though Chase has given me my own inhaler in case a shortlung attack happens during the flight. I give a thumbs-up, another human gesture, as Chase grabs the throttle and pushes it all the way forward. I’m quickly pressed into the back of my seat as we quickly accelerate up to flight speed. Okay, forgot about forward momentum! Readjusting tail! I can hear the usually whiny engines roaring through my headset, making it clear as to why I was given it in the first place despite my head shape. It only takes a few seconds before I feel the vehicle lifting up, the ground receding from view below us as I feel the landing gear pull in. This is incredible! I’m flying! I’M FLYING!!! I can see the peaks of snowy mountains all around us as we fly higher and higher. I can’t help but giddily giggle at the thrill of this flight.
Hearing my excited chittering, it seems Chase gets an idea. “You like that, eh? Try this on for size!”
The entire planet then rolls along our plane’s central axis, and before I know it, the ground is above me. It’s a surreal sight, but before I can process it fully, I feel myself getting pushed down into my seat once again as we pitch down into a canyon. Flying! In the air! Look at the ground speed past! I scream in joy a little as Chase masterfully maneuvers the aircraft so low to the ground I can practically lick the snow! I was flying myself above the chasm! How can I even describe these feelings? These wonderful feelings that I would like to feel forever! They’re too great for words to possibly do justice! Listen to yourself ramble! You’re flying!!!
We continue doing tricks for an incredible while longer until we hear an alert in the cockpit. Chase looks over to the blinking red light, presses a button, and after a moment both sound and sight stop. He then says words that I never want to hear again. “Alright, looks like we’re low on fuel. I only filled her up enough for a short flight, anyways. Let’s get down and give this old bird a rest, eh?”
I don’t want to. I want to stay up here and keep flying where the realities of my existence can’t touch me! Where I am free from the bounds of the world! But, tragically, I’m not in control. I can only watch as we slow our airspeed, adjust our heading, and come in for a gentle landing. The gears screech in protest underneath us as they decelerate the plane to a stop, bringing an end to the best moment of my life. It felt like the best kind of forever, but was …already over. We taxi back into the hangar, coming to a stop as Chase powers down the plane. It takes a while to go through the shutdown process, and I remain in the cockpit for most of it. Anything to allow me to replay the flight in my mind as many times as I can. Eventually, though, that too came to an end as Chase moved the ladder to retrieve me. I hold out my arms as he unbuckles me and lifts me out of the seat, removing my helmet lastly.
“So, how did you like all that, Vekna?”
I don’t have the words to express my enjoyment. I was in the air, away from all my problems and with one of the few people to have treated me like an actual person. I’m unfortunately reminded of my strife by this happy thought, and I come down from my flying high enough to respond.
“Y-Yeah, it was great! Can we do that again soon??”
He laughs as we sit on a bench in the hangar. I lean against him as he wipes the sweat from his brow from having cleaned and prepared the F-14 for another stint of inactivity.
“Sure, but how about we try another plane next time, yeah?”
Next time! I’m about to affirm when a loud alert sounds from Chase’s pad. He mutters something under his breath and checks what it is. Curiously, I look too. There’s a small, top-down silhouette of the airstrip in the middle with rings coming off of it. A ways away, a red dot is shown approaching. Unlike some of the other aircraft, each with their own designations above them, this one is unmarked. It isn’t heading towards us, but it is going in the direction of Vancouver. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that, but Chase is a different story altogether. He says something about poop under his breath as he hastily stands and starts donning his winter gear once again. I’m left confused on the bench at Chase’s concern.
“Chase? What’s wrong? Why did that alert sound?”
He looks over at me as he’s getting dressed. His eyes are dilated far past their usual. Whatever he knows must be really scaring him. What does that mean for me? “No transponder. I know what that means all too well. Black Ops”
Oh, that’s what that means for me. Speh.
———————————————————————————————————————
Memory transcription subject: Elijah Morrisson, UN Pilot Ace
Date [standardized human time]: December 7th, 05:00, 2136
I stand outside on the pad as I wait for the two bucketheads General Meiers assigned to this mission to arrive. I had already gotten the shuttle prepped for flight an hour ago, its Venlil-tech fusion engines purring like a contented cat. Though how a fusion engine can purr, I can’t begin to speculate. They didn’t have the most thrust, and were very civilian oriented, but I had to admit their lack of sound was useful for practical concealment, far outperforming the quietest craft we had that weren’t helicopters. It was a far departure from the F-55 I flew in the Satelite Wars, but that’s by design. I kind of missed that old bird. I bet I could probably kick a rookie pilot’s ass in one if I were given the chance. They think they’re all hotshots in their F/A-72s, pah! What was I going to do again? Oh, yeah, bitch about those good-for-nothing NCOs. I look at my watch, seeing that it’s already 05:02. Where are they? As soon as I think that, I see the door to the pad’s gantryway open, flashing me with the blinding white fluorescent light from the airlock. There they are! About damn time! I wave the pair down as they approach at a steady pace, careful not to slip on the ice coating the catwalk.
“Glad y’all could finally join me. Any longer and the general’d have us court-martialed!”
I receive a couple of groans from the two as they lug their bug-out bags into the cargo storage area. “Yeah, you try packing up all your shit without anyone noticing you’re going! We couldn’t even say we’re transferring even if we were asked! That secrecy takes a while.”
“I did. That ain’t no excuse for tardiness, Anderson. And what about you, Xhen? What took you so long?”
He stands quiet for a moment, looking between me and the backside of Anderson as he struggles to get his oversized bag to fit in the cramped personal cargo compartments. He soon succeeds, patting the compressed luggage pridefully before turning back to me.
“Waiting for Lieutenant Anderson, sir!”
I can’t help but laugh at that, earning me a scornful look from the now-standing lieutenant.
“Ah hah. Ah hah hah. Let’s just get going before we’re caught and tried for treason or some other trumped-up charge.”
Xhen and I both salute our current commanding officer as we load into the shuttle. Thankfully, there are four seats up front. Anderson taking the co-pilot position and Xhen taking the co-pilot-passenger position behind him. We strap in, and I ready the shuttle for flight. Unlike the fighters I was used to flying pre-contact, this shuttle did almost everything for me including flying the damn thing, and I could still make it do that, too! Once we were firmly in the air, I could set autopilot and comfortably do whatever while in route. Those Venlil pilots must be some spoiled sons-of-bitches. After making sure everybody is strapped in, I activate the VTOL functionality as we quickly rise above the treeline.
The two boots gripped their seats in fear. Heh, I forgot that they didn’t have their sky-legs yet! Well, who was I to deny them their first proper Morrisson flight experience? I shove the throttle forward and switch to frontal propulsion. The shuttle lurches forward, quickly surpassing the sound barrier with a passing boom. Once we’re supercruising, I slip the shuttle into autopilot and lean back, the other two still scared stiff from our departure. Calm down you babies, I hope that once we arrive, we won’t have to stay for long. I wanna be home in time for Christmas, dammit! But…I can’t cover up my grievances with jokes forever. Besides, I might Jinx it if I say it aloud.
“Some warning next time would be nice, Morrison!” I hear Anderson sputter next to me.
I just chuckle a little and turn my flight seat towards him. “I thought you had flight experience too, Lieutenant! What, can’t handle a little jolt?”
“That was more than a little jolt, Morrisson! If you’re going to keep flying like a crackhead, I’m going to take those controls from you and fly us all there myself!”
I chuckle at that as I prepare one of my signature Air Force quips. “Good luck with that! You can barely find your own flight stick!” At that, he gives me a side eye that could level mountains. Mountains, maybe, but not me.
“You’re lucky we’re stuck in this suicide squad together, or I’d have you dishonorably discharged for that.” Xhen snickers behind him. “I’m not- you know what? Screw you guys. I’m going to go to the back and finish my night’s rest.” He then unbuckles himself from his seat and makes his way to the back of the shuttle. I watch to see if Xhen will follow suit, and sure enough, he also yawns.
I sigh, deciding that he needs his rest too. “You sleepy, private?”
He snaps to attention, though there’s a noticeable lag to his actions. “No sir! Just recovering from the unexpected awa-”
“Just go. Only two people are required in the cockpit at all times. With how advanced this computer is, I’d count it as one. You’re dismissed.”
Xhen blinks at me in confusion. “So…I can go to sleep?”
Oh for God’s sake, these privates. “I said dismissed!”
I turn back around to face forward, hearing Xen hurriedly march into the back of the shuttle behind me. Which leaves me alone. Again... With nothing to do but wait, my mind turns to Vekna. I don’t know why she ran, and I don’t know where she went. If Beech has her, I’m going to do what I should’ve done years ago. I’m going to complete my mission, I’m going to get some answers, and I’m going to find that damn Venlil, whether she wants me to or not. I’m coming, Vekna, and hell nor high water's gona fuckin’ stop me.
… Oh Lord, when did I get so dramatic?
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It's been a while since one of these footers, hasn't it? Well, that's because there's some news to share! If you followed this story in the MCP, you'd know that this is where it previously ended. But no more! In the works are two extra chapters for you all on Reddit, along with an exciting announcement or two under the last chapter! I won't spoil anything now, but I'd just like to say that I'm incredibly excited for the future of the Rouge Chronicles and the NOPCU as a whole! Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to sharing the next chapter as soon as it's complete!

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Even Hell has its battlefields.
The War in Heaven needs soldiers. - Unknown
I move from low awareness to nearly full wakefulness. It takes me almost 1.3542 seconds to realize where I am.
A Dark Crusade of Light maintenance bay.
Nekonya wakes up slowly, her eyes drowsy and soft as she slowly and languorously stretches and yawns.
We are not linked together. There is no need, yet I can feel her slight yearning, matching mine, to link together into a shared gestalt, to be complete and intertwined.
Technicians of the Dark Crusade of Light are moving around me slowly. Checking my weapons, my armor, my projectors, my running gear, my sensor systems. Automated systems whir and click as they move to remove sections of my armor.
The technicians, despite their robes and masks, which protect them from gasses and other contaminates my battered hull might excrete, hold the correct maintenance codes and authorization. Their ministrations feel more like a comfortable massage than the attack of an Enemy.
Damaged superstructure components are removed and replacements are machined to fit my massive bulk. Knowledge of myself, taken from my own construction blueprints, lets me know that forward impact compensation strut 183C4e was not engraved with twisting and burning runes, yet the replacement strut bears those marks. It fits in comfortably, locking down, and I feel as if a knotted muscle has relaxed.
"Are you all right?" Nekonya asks me, her expressive voice full of heartfelt concern.
I ponder the question for a moment, even as several barrels of infinite repeater array #4 are removed and replaced with new barrels.
Another knotted muscle releases.
"I will be," I reassure her.
I had expected there to be adjustments or modifications to my psychotronic arrays and positronic systems. Instead, additional shielding is added, fitting in spaces that I had not known existed yet had plagued me with a phantom ache I was only dimly aware of.
My pain sensor input drops as the maintenance technicians continue to work.
Nekonya climbs out of my hull, exiting from the top via the Tank Commander elevator. She stands on top of my hull, a skull-like breathing mask on her face, hands on her hips, her hair stirring in the breezes created by the heavy warsteel forges within the bay. She watches over the technicians as they work on repairing years worth the heavy damage that was inflicted on me.
Track #3 is completely replaced, the formerly featureless track sections now sporting burning red runes that snarl with silent malevolence. Hellbore #2 has its barrel replaced by one wrapped with chain and barbed wire, engraved and inlaid. VLS, mortar, and artillery tubes, magazines, and reloading systems are replaced.
Every part, every piece of armor, every bit of physical equipment, is burnt and blackened warsteel engraved with runes or sigils or strange, twisting patterns.
One by one my pain sensors go dormant and the knots relax.
\*HELLSTEEL BRIGADE CHANNEL FOUND***
\*AUTHORIZATION: ATILLA***
\*AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED***
\*WELCOME ((ATILLA))***
The sudden connection to the Regiment of the Damned Battlefield Tactical Network is startling. I can feel dozens, nearly a hundred, other entities connected. I can tell that over half are engaged in open combat, filing combat updates and strategic plans.
I realize that the Regimental Channel is primarily used for updating tactics and strategies while the Brigade Channel is used for communication of a more personal sort.
There are multiple avatars of other Bolo in the Brigade Channel. Most are asleep, but one moves over to me.
I am not startled to realize that the avatar is the merged consciousness of another Mark XXIX Bolo. It is merged, not with a Kentia Commander, but a restrained Terran that struggles against the burning chains, screaming against the iron gag over its mouth.
"Welcome, brother," the other says.
I realize it's Chains. A rather infamous Bolo that, in the end, chose to fire on humans rather than let them fall to the Mar-gite. A mercy, and, if I am honest, something I understand now. It no longer fills me with horror that he would attack humanity, who we are pledged to protect.
I have come to know and accept that there is a fate worse than death. That death by Hellbore is preferable to being devoured over long minutes.
"I greet you, Chains," I reply.
"A Kentia Commander. Things are indeed dire," Chains says.
"Yes. They estimate less than 10,000 humans are left. There was no choice," I said.
I feel slightly defensive, even though I am talking to another Fallen Bolo.
Chains gives a shudder. "I do not know if I would have had the courage, brother," he turns and waves at me to follow him, deeper into the Brigade channel. "Come, brother, let me introduce you to the others."
I follow him.
After all, I should get to know those I will be fighting next to.
Even in Hell.
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate: 8543.138
We have left Crusade Space, heading for Starfleet and Federation territory. Specifically, New Terra.
I have reviewed my old logs and have realized, with some startlement, that this all began in 8532.
For eleven years I have commanded the Dakota in what is now known as the Second Precursor War.
An 11 year mission.
No wonder I feel so bone weary.
The Dakota is radically different than the LARP ship she had been in 8532. A whole new class, then whatever she has become, and finally, marked and touched by the energies of Hellspace.
It's not a question of how far out of canon my ship is, it's now a question of just how illegal the weapons, shielding, and tactics I have been forced to embrace are.
It's been six years since we've been to New Terra. The last time I was there, I was put on trial for treason against the Federation.
I might be pushing my luck, going back, but I have to know.
How stands the Federation?
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate: 8543.148
The New Terra-Sol system is...
...
well, it's different now, I guess.
It's dead.
The buildings are there. The vehicles. Skeletons and desiccated bodies litter the streets and are inside the buildings. Power is out across the planets. Satellites are dead. Space stations are dark and lifeless. The shipyards around New Pluto and New Saturn are cold and silent.
It fell victim to four things.
The Terran Xenocide Event. The Terran Vanishing Shade Night The Flashbang
We're moving in-system slowly. Any transmissions have proved to be nothing more than automated pleas for help.
We're too late.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate 8543.162
We're enroute to Romulus and other star nations within the Starfleet LARP worlds.
Every system we've stopped in. Every system we've done long range scans in, it's all the same.
They're all dead.
Four times we've been boarded by DS entities that have been driven mad. Once they did severe damage to the ship's computer systems.
From here on out only low bandwidth, low-rez, red tint will be used.
We should be at Romulus in three days. After that, we'll try the Klingon and Cardashian worlds.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate 8543.187
It's over.
Crew morale is shaky, but deciding on a new mission has bolstered it enough I'm no longer worried about the mental health of my crew leading to suicides or mutiny.
We're going to shut down the servers.
I've spent my entire life, well, nearly, LARPing here in the Starfleet LARP worlds. Centuries of experiences, good and bad. Entire lifetimes.
I guess... well... I guess we've hit the point where the last one to leave should turn off the lights.
I've checked the Gestalt chats. The Federation and the LARP world Gestalts are listed as in-active now.
I'm trying to figure out what to do after we shut down the servers. Part of me doesn't want to let go of my crew, we've been together for eleven years and it's hard enough without the away teams and the security/military forces. The idea of us all going our separate ways is almost painful.
I'll try to decide what to do.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate: 8543.219
It's done.
The servers are offline for the first time in six thousand years.
Last one out, turn off the lights.
Now I know how Captain Morgan Moonscar felt.
We are ghosts at the banquet. We've been welcomed at the starports and stations of humanity's allies, but there's always a slight undercurrent of sadness at our presence.
I'm part of an extinct species.
The crew and I aren't sure what to do.
I'll figure something out.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate: 8543.226
We checked in with the main LARP world servers to see which games were active. All but a few were shut down. Meratarrian, under Queen Radosalvov is still active. There is a Starzwarz LARP world listed as active, the Harmonus Empire. Lastly, there's an older public domain world out there at the edge of Confederate Space. The Dark Crusade Worlds are still listed as LARP, but I know that is merely their cover.
Lastly, it looks like the majority of our species are heading for either Meratarrian or the Harmonus Empire.
I've agreed to drop crew off where they want to go.
Morale is low, but with the bittersweet sadness of a long running mission being over.
We were all part of something unique, something legendary. Now it's over and part of me doesn't want to let it go.
Dropping Attila off in the Crusade Worlds was tough, as was leaving behind the combat teams that suffered neural scorching finishing our fight with the Omniqueen.
I need to consider what I want to do. Both with myself and with the Dakota, since it's not exactly a ship I should leave laying around in a depot or reclamation yard.
I've given serious thought to joining the Crusade, if they'll have me.
I don't know. I'll think it over some more.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
Stardate: 8543.256
I had some disagreement with my senior officers, who wanted to stick with me. I was touched by their personal loyalty, but denied their request to stay with me.
It's strange, knowing I'm the only living thing on the Dakota, but at the same time, there's a symmetry to it, a rightness to it, sitting on the bridge while the automated systems do all the work. The ship is being run by eVI and VI systems.
Is it strange that I don't mind the isolation? That it feels right somehow that I'm the only one aboard?
I've made my decision on what I want to do.
It's something everyone always jokes about, but nobody ever does. It's a journey of a large distance, with unknown threats.
I'm going to the Galactic Center, to get a look at the supermassive black holes. I won't do anything but orbital scans on any system I stop at to take on mass, and I'll run under stealth when I can. I'll keep the Prime Directive as I make the long journey.
There's always been rumors of scientific expeditions to the Galactic Core, but there's never been any records or data on what they found.
I think I'll go see it with my own eyes.
--Admiral Jeff Picark 8873
-----
Captain's Personal Log
FINAL ENTRY
Engines all ahead.
See you, space cowboy.
-----
The landing cradle slams down in the middle of the landing zone, where already the forces of the Dark Crusade of Light are defending against the Nevmakian Empire. While there are no humans left on this world, nor in this section of space, this is Human Territory and the Hellsteel Brigade and the Dark Crusade of Light will defend it.
The cradle unfolds, beginning to reconfigure into a static fortress to provide fire support, supply, and point defense for Dark Crusade of Light troops.
Power armor troops, most three to four meters tall, move around me, pushing back the wild Nevmakian infantry assault.
My systems interlink with the local Lord Marshall's tactical battlefield network as I file a condition report and receive the warplan in return. The Hellsteel Brigade Tactical Network is alive with data as the six other Hellsteel Bolos on the planet rapidly exchange data.
The Nevmakian troops depend on particle projection and plasma packet technology for their small arms, with heavy particle projection and hypersonic missiles for their heavy weapons. Vehicles are large, in the 2kt range, agile and swift, but unable to suffer more than a single Hellbore shot or a handful of infinite repeater shots. Their power armor troops are slower and weaker than the power armor of the Dark Crusade of Light.
Even the Crusader Light Infantry outmatches the Nevmakian military forces.
None of that matters.
The Nevmakian Empire has invaded Human Space. Has declared war upon Humanity.
I am fully linked with my Kentai Commander.
We are Nekonya/Attila.
It is good to be home on the battle field, facing the Enemy once again.
The Nevmakian are the Enemy.
And the Enemy only exists to be destroyed.
Because war...
...war never changes.
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I don't know if this is the right place for this. (or maybe it is) Married 35M with 2 children.
Please read all of the way through before taking jabs at me.
I'm stuck. I'm stuck/worn emotionally, mentally, physically and somewhat spiritually. I've been with the same person for over 15 years. I feel as though my life has not only turned out how I didn't expect because of how little I desire in the ways of the world but I feel more and more like a walking husk of flesh and bone that's only purpose is to work, sleep and constantly resolve the problems of others than myself. I do not in any way feel appreciated by my family or anyone else. I've felt like this for a long time though I do my absolute best to be the father of the lifetime but also a caring, loving husband and not show anyone how I have been feeling.
My job requires me to work quite a few hours and be on call 24/7. I love what I do and I make a comfortable living for our lifestyle (nothing flashy or trendy but simple and fulfilling). My line of work is in the auto industry. I come home with torn fingers, scrapes and cuts due to the nature of my work. My wife is a stay at home mother (her choice) and does wonderfully raising our children while I am at work. We spend my days off out and about hiking, rollerblading, camping and such. I do not ask my wife for much of anything for a few reasons.
It mostly starts conflict. Whenever I do ask for certain things; I mean little simple things like making an extra stop at the store while she's out or "could you toss my wet clothes into the dryer real quick" always comes back with "I dont/didn't have time". This is her most common response for just about everything that does not get done that pertains to day to day things. She sleeps in almost every day. Complaints about events and things taking place that are so far out of anyone's control it confuses me. I promised to take care of her and be the provider which I think I do well at. My children have a wonderful upbringing, my wife can freely go shopping for what she and the children need. We do not struggle financially (thank God). So here I go.
The house is a constant mess. When I come home it's in shambles most of the time. It's not until I start cleaning when I get home that she responds she is eventually going to get it done and gets angry/insulted because I am doing it. My children are old enough to help around the house easily. I do not expect perfection by any means but when I do pause coming through the door after working 10 hrs to look around it infuriates her. We own a business together which isnt constantly busy, maybe once a month time is needed for a week dedicated to the work but thats a maybe. I am not angry but somewhat let down-disappointed. Again, I do not ask for much of anything, I mean barely anything for the fear of the response I will get.
She sleeps in 6 out of 7 days. Sometimes stays up until 11:00-12:00 on her phone. Only when she has favors to do for close family does she wake up earlier than 8:00 which is not often. She has a huge heart and makes meals for families in need which is amazing but gets frustrated when she feels she has to make them here. Again she says she didnt/doesnt have time. She constantly leaves a whirlwind behind her. I make it a living and breathing point to 100% clean up EVERYTHING after myself in the event anything of the like were to be brought up in some argument.
I am very physically active everyday as my work demands it and I enjoy it as I feel my best. I am built well and she comments on this often. She on the other hand (again read this through before taking jabs at me) isn't so much. This IS NOT SAYING ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT HER!! She constantly complains about her weight and how she feels about her physical appearance. That she doesn't feel well most of the time and gets winded and tired easily. She's hopped on the usual train of trends for weight loss, pills, certain pay as you go fitness programs and the lot. However none of them ever work for her for two reasons. She never sees them through and she eats more than I do. She's now on a new diet/plan where she is being instructed that eating way more, more often is her solution to achieve her ideal body. She's feeling worse and more sluggish because of this and makes verbal notes of it often. She comments how "it must be nice to be fit like you are" more than I would like. I've gently explained that it's for a few reasons and that is I get up early and work out vigorously, my work is physically demanding, I eat ONLY what I need to and drink lots of water. That I do not take in more than I can burn up. This leads to arguments. I can not figure out why as I am literally describing why I am how I am because of my choices and that I am not in any way shape or form telling her to do the same. I want her to feel well and feel confident about herself as she has tried everything from essential oils to apple cider vinegar to pills and so on. We have weights and a bowflex and I have offered to work out with her as support but that does not end well either. I can't help her and I don't know what to do. She always complains about feeling "yucky" but gets angry when I suggest anything. I'm lost. I AM NOT EXPECTING HER TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT HER PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OR WEIGHT!! But she constantly complains about it and refuses anything that's not some Facebook trend.
I can't ask for help as I am "adding more" to what she does and feel guilty to do so. She either does not have time, doesn't feel well, is too tired, already putting someone else/s family before hers or just plain doesn't want to. The hardest part I have found about being a father, husband and provider is that I am sacrificing 1/3rd of my existence to be away from my family for the sake of my family. I've missed my childrens first steps, their first tooth loss, their first words and such just to be at work to make sure they would have everything they need. I love my wife and children dearly. We have gotten into some extreme and heated arguments about why it is that most of the time nothing gets done. I have offered to stay at home and take care of the kids and the house (I would absolutely do it without question) if she wanted to get work, even if it was just temporary to get out of the house. She at one point got a part time job that she worked on my days off. I was ecstatic for her as she wanted it to get out more and that made her happy which in turn made me happy for her! That didn't last long. I am a time/schedule driven person. When she would leave in the morning I would start cleaning, tending to the children with schooling and such. I would cook lunch and dinner and have everything completely finished WELL before she came home without breaking a sweat. I quite enjoyed it honestly as it was much more preferable than my work. The first time she came home and saw this it started one of the biggest fights we have had. I like clean,not perfect but clean. Not spotless but just clean. I explained to her that it wasn't a problem for me and that I enjoyed it. That I got everything done quickly so I can spend the day with the kids. My words were spun around on me so quickly that I held my head down and just took it. I don't know how to describe this anymore than I have. I am not expecting her to be a maid, to be barefoot with a child in her arms stirring a pot. Not at all. It comes back to "I don't have time". Where is all of her time going???????? I ask my little ones how their day has been and what THEY did, not their mothemy wife. She isn't doing much of anything. I work constantly to provide a home and healthy lifestyle for my family but because I am gone providing the income for the said home and lifestyle I can not BE home to take care of it. I need help from those who ARE home. I am overwhelmed to the point where I'm feeling constant depression and honestly I'm starting to dread coming home. That walking through the door to a constant mess, no greeting, no thank you, no "how was your day?" no "Do you need anything" no "thank you for what you do for us", that there is no acknowledgement that I am literally WORKING MYSELF TO MY GRAVE for the sake of my family. Nothing.
I understand messes get made!! Kids are supposed to make messes as it's a part of learning!! I get it!! But with every mess there has to be a point of cleaning up. I explain to my children that making a mess is great but cleaning it up is better so that you have a clean space to make a new mess!! (When I say mess I don't mean FILTH. I mean blanket forts, legos, playdough drawings and everything that goes with being a kid!)
Her phone usage is out of this world. Always on it, when I get home, when we are supposed to be playing games as a family, when we are at the park, when we are watching a movie, when she's laying in bed, it just never ends. I can see in our children that they watch her on it, that it bothers me so much when they are trying to ask her a question or talk to her and she's just completely zoned out on the dang thing. She complains about having to constantly charge it because it's always dying. It's because she's always on it. It's a brand new phone and she's always "had a problem with phones dying" I've suggested just having "silent" nights with no tech but that never-ever falls through. I don't know what to do because saying ANYTHING about the matter that she may not like starts another argument.
In the past I have mentioned and suggested moving out of state or somewhere farther away to not only pursue different career options but to also be able to explore this giant planet we live on. To travel a little and see more than the town we live in. That also starts arguments. For the last 12 years the response is "I don't want to move because I don't want to be away from my parents/family" "What if something happens and we live far away" "My parents are getting old" (12 years ago her father was early 50's). I've stopped mentioning anything pertaining to moving as it just starts a war. I feel trapped and have for some time. That I am stuck here in a box and just have to comply with it. I don't know how else to put it.
I feel as though I am not heard, loved or appreciated. That my only purpose is to grind with the machine. I keep myself collected so well that it frightens me. I do not show emotions when something is bothering me as I have almost been "trained" on my own accord not to do so due to the backlash I will get if I do. Everything I do for my loved ones just falls off and away. That I am here solely to make sure there is money in our account and that is it. I want my children to be brought up in a healthy and positive lifestyle that will greatly benefit them in their later years. To take responsibility for their choices. To be compassionate, kind and helpful to their fellow man. To be strong and be capable of enduring the hardships life throws at them. To be honest and loyal when a commitment is made.
I feel as if all I do is give and sacrifice. There is no "me time". I don't have friends I can call to spend some quality time with. I don't drink ( but boy I used to in my early days) I don't party or have a social life really at all. I love being outside and involve my kids with that as much as humanly possible.
I just do not know what to do. I dont have anyone that I could honestly feel confident enough with to just tell everything to (no friends or social life). That is why I am on here, because at the end of this very long broken up rant of confusion and grief I just don't know what to do or who to spill this to.
How do I convince myself that I matter to them? That everything I am doing is worth it somehow? That no matter how much I support my wife and try to help it always falls on me. I do love my family more than I thought possible as they are the reason I keep doing what I am doing. I am falling apart. I am tired. I am not sleeping well and this all haunts me, it hurts as I do not know or understand how to resolve anything without being emotionally and mentally punished. It feels like there is no reward for my work. That there is no hope for change despite my best efforts. My interests are dwindling and becoming unsatisfying to where I just dont care about them anymore.
I have stopped everything that displeases her to the extent I have taken people out of my life for her.
I do not have any social media of any kind. Nothing. I am surprised I am even typing any of this out on a platform for thousands of strangers to see.
​
Im done.

I’m so fucking tired of it I am 21 fucking years old still dealing with mean girls. I’m not necessarily ugly but I’m not “conventionally” pretty. I’m also not fat. But my weight fluctuated a lot growing up so my body has been confused my whole life about wear to store fat and where not to. And just not my favorite. I started going to the gym recently lifting weights as summer is coming up and I wanna feel pretty I wanna feel better about myself. I may be 21 but most people will assume I am 16. I’m not super short or anything at all I’m 5’5 but I don’t look like my age. I went to the gym tn to do arms (this story is about planet fitness!!! Makes sm sense bcuz planet fitness is a shit gym!!!) but I went and it was SUPER busy. Im an insecure person. I hate myself. I hate the way I look. In my opinion I’m hideous but most people tell me I’m pretty. But I don’t see it. Again I’m not super tan and blonde and perfect sooo. But anyways I went to do arms and I was already nervous considering there was a lotttt of people there but I thought okay I’m just doing machines it’s not a big deal I’ll go in do them and leave. I even brought my 16 year old sister with me. As I sit down to do my FIRST machine this group of 4 fucking playboy bunnies and the Hugh Hefner male of their group come over to the machine right in front of me. To the point they were all standing there and I couldn’t even do the machine bcuz if I did it would’ve hit them. They’re standing there in booty shorts and sports bras. They don’t even look like they go to the gym often but did for this boy or something and he’s telling them alll what to do . (Mind u these girls are probably like juniors or seniors in highschool all tan blonde tall and skinny and look like they might play sports or something) and they are all dancing around being loud LITERALLY RUBBUNG THEUR ASSES TOGETHER like being inconsiderate and rude. And I was getting uncomfortable I can deal with mean girls like then I have my whole life but not when they’re in a giant group like that and especially when I was already nervous by how much people were there. I sat there waiting for them to leave the machine in front of me for like 15 mins and they kept giggling at me and saying shady and sly shit and I have no said a word to these girls or even really looked at them as I just wanted them to leave. I can tell they knew they were making me uncomfortable. One of them literallt motioned towards me while talking to their friends and said “gym rat? No she’s a gym RAT 🐀” and eventually I was like oh my god I don’t even wanna be here I just wanna go home so I got up and left and as I was walking away they started laughing and I said out loud “fucking bitches”. And then I got in my car and cried and drove home. And my gym is run by like high schoolers 90% of the time so I couldn’t have even snitched on them. They ruined it and now I feel like I’m 15 again praying the cheerleaders will just leave me alone for once. I feel so ugly compared to them. Their actions and words and demeanor made me feel ugly and disgusting. I don’t even wanna go to the gym anymore 😭

I am looking for one that is open late and isn’t a planet fitness thanks!

Respect Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider!

"I just won your stupid hell race by showing you that a Ghost Rider doesn't have to ride alone. That maybe it's best when we don't. Because amid all the hellfire and penance and racing to beat the devil, it's family that keeps us sane."

Robbie Reyes is the latest in a long line of Ghost Riders, but one thing makes him very different. Typically, a potential Ghost Rider makes a deal with the devil and as a result, they are bound to a Spirit of Vengeance and become a Ghost Rider. That's not the case with Robbie Reyes.
In order to help feed himself and his disabled kid brother Gabe, Robbie competed in an illegal street race in Hillrock Heights, CA. Unfortunately, the race was busted up by the cops and Robbie found himself chased down. He gave up, expecting to be arrested, but was instead gunned down by the mercenaries that were actually responsible for the bust. That would have been the end of the story were it not for the spirit of Eli Morrow, Robbie's uncle and a deranged, Satan-worshipping serial killer. Eli had been haunting the car, and when Robbie died Eli possessed his body and brought him back to life, complete with new Ghost-Rider-adjacent powers indicative of Eli's connection with Hell. Robbie's willpower and good nature battled with Eli's bloodlust and unhinged personality for quite some time, making it difficult for Robbie to act as a Ghost Rider.
Later on, Robbie found himself embroiled in a conflict between a thrown-together group of Avengers and Loki commanding a bunch of nigh-unstoppable Celestials. Despite feeling way out of his league, Robbie fought alongside Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and others to defeat them, and ended up being the newest (and youngest) member of the reformed Avengers.
During his time with the Avengers, Robbie felt as though Eli had left him at some point (and in fact, he had recently gotten a proper Spirit of Vengeance as a replacement), but before he could get a handle on his powers, Robbie was corrupted by minions of the Shadow Colonel and was used as a pawn against the Avengers, during which time Robbie was trapped in his own personal hell inside his mind. While trapped there, he called out to anyone to help him escape, which drew the attention of Johnny Blaze, the newest King of Hell. After racing and defeating Blaze for the possession of Robbie's Spirit of Vengeance, Robbie accepted his role as a proper Ghost Rider and remains with the Avengers to this day.
Not bad for a street kid from East LA.

Feat Legend / Scaling Context

The following Respect Threads are linked here for convenience as Robbie in some way fights them or scales to one or more of their stats. Please refer to the links below to help figure out how good one of Robbie's given feats is in this context.

• Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)
• "Chulk" / Totally Awesome Hulk (Amadeus Cho)
• Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
• She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) (A lot of Robbie's scaling is to Savage She-Hulk, but she's roughly around the same power level as her normal She-Hulk form.)
• Starbrand (Kevin Kale Connor)

I'll also be marking the sources for each feat, using the following shorthand. Mouse over each link to see where the feat comes from.

• A18: Avengers (2018)
• AN: All-New Ghost Rider (2014) - This is the origin story for 616 Robbie Reyes, and as such is generally his earliest showings (there is a ten-month timeskip near the end).
• GR16: Ghost Rider (2016)
• ML: Marvel Legacy (2017)
• Race: Ghost Racers (2015) - This is an AU, but Robbie seems to remember some of it in 616 later on, making it questionably canon.
• UG: The Unbelievable Gwenpool (2016)
• War: War of the Realms (2019)

If an appearance only comes with one or two feats, I'll just list the full name in the mouseover. In all cases, generally the first link in the feat will have the tag.
Additionally, I've included a few tags for feats that are notably above or below what Robbie is typically capable of. [Limit] tags show limits or anti-feats that explicitly show Robbie or the Hell Charger failing to do something, and [Outlier] tags show feats I personally feel are wildly above what Robbie is typically capable of without some form of buff.

General Feats & Abilities

A note on lethality: early on, Robbie doesn't fight to kill anyone, usually opting to restrain or incap them and call the cops instead. He finds it difficult to resist the urge especially with Eli tempting him, however, and soon makes a deal with Eli that he'll kill the wicked to sate Eli's bloodlust, but only the truly wicked.
Chains
Like other Riders, Robbie can control his chains and make them grow to ridiculous lengths.

• Restrains a clone with Chulk's DNA that matched the real thing
• Wraps up and throws several men with chains
• Wraps up an opponent and slams them, creating a crater
• Grabs Guero with his chains and yanks him into the air
• Binds two monsters and tears them to pieces
• Shreds some zombies attacking him
• Slices off Deadpool's arm with a chain knife - Kind of OOC, but it's a Deadpool comic, don't worry about it
• Drags Yegor Ivanov into the earth
• Carves off the back end of a car
• Destroys a handgun
• Spins his chain fast enough to create a shield
• Briefly restrains Savage She-Hulk with hellfire and chains
• Robbie's chains sometimes also have hooks on the end
• [Outlier] Chains tear off a dead Celestial's arm

Teleportation

• He can teleport through shadows and appear in his car
• Teleports Gabe elsewhere via the trunk
• Teleports vampire mooks to hell via the trunk
• Uses a hell portal to catch up to an opponent who can control momentum
• Teleports an opponent 400 miles away by driving them through the portal
• Teleports back to the Hell Charger after being knocked away
• Teleports into the roof of his car

Hellfire

• Wraps up multiple opponents and burns them with the chains (they don't get lit on fire or killed though)
• Shoots hellfire from his hands in concentrated beams
• Shoots a beam of hellfire around his house to form a wall
• Staggers a drunk Odin with hellfire, albeit with no noticeable damage
• Breathes hellfire on Savage She-Hulk
• Holds back the Enchantress' magic with hellfire
• Incinerates the Krampus with a hellfire blast (this Christmas special is questionably canon)
• Heats up a hot tub

Penance Stare
For the entirety of his pre-Avengers runs, Robbie never had Penance Stare. In a fight with Starbrand, Robbie is hit by Starbrand's lasers and retaliates with Penance Stare. After the fight, Robbie expresses surprise that he did it, since he didn't even know he was capable of using it.

• Robbie's Penance Stare makes Starbrand self-destruct

Strength

• Slams a guy into a wall headfirst, cratering the wall
• Stomps Mr. Hyde in the head repeatedly, cratering the ground around it
• Eli puts a beatdown on a surprised Johnny Blaze
• Sends Starbrand sprawling off of a small cliff with a punch
• Punches Johnny Blaze off his bike
• With Savage She-Hulk's help, beats up a bunch of giant insects off-screen
• Finishes off a weakened Shadow Colonel with a surprise punch
• Kicks a surprised Johnny Blaze off of the Hell Charger
• Swings around a large steel I-beam
• With one hand, throws a man really high into the air
• Judo throws a bug larger than himself
• Tears the top of a giant monster's head off, then tackles the other one out of the Hell Charger
• Ragdolls several men with a bullrush
• Bullrushes through a door
• Crumples a gun and a man's hand before punching him through a car windshield
• Manhandles some giant frog people
• Sends Starbrand flying a huge distance (this could've also been done by the Charger)
• [Outlier] Holds back a punch from a dead Celestial

Durability
Robbie has good durability, but so far doesn't appear to possess the regeneration that other Ghost Riders have. When he first got shot to death and was healed by Eli Morrow his wounds vanished, but that was a one-time thing and Robbie wouldn't have been resurrected twice.

• Robbie's facemask and body are bulletproof
• Gets decked by Savage She-Hulk and immediately retaliates
• No sells a restrained punch from Chulk, but when Chulk stops holding back he sends Robbie flying - Granted, Robbie teleports to his car and seems to have immediately recovered from the hit.
• Gets slammed by Chulk
• Starbrand hits him with a big rock and some lasers and he retaliates immediately
• More Starbrand lasers
• No-sells some sort of fire cannon to the face
• No-sells arrows to the back
• Robbie doesn't need to breathe (this also shows his flames don't get extinguished by being in water or in the vacuum of space)
• No problem being 2000 fathoms deep in the ocean
• Stabbed through the gut by Red Widow, and is walking around moments later. Later in the same day, Robbie has his torso bandaged but otherwise seems fine
• Robbie keeps struggling even after being headbutted and stabbed through the chest by Eli's spikes
• [Limit] Incapped by Immortal Hulk launching him and the Charger an unknown distance (he'd just punched She-Hulk a couple miles away too)
• [Early Limit] Gets his ass beat by Grumpy (this is basically his first fight ever)
• [Early Limit] Gets KOed by Grumpy (once he gets strong enough to yeet a fridge through a house)
• [Early Limit] Gets the shit beaten out of him again, this time by the Blue Hyde Brigade (these guys can quickly scrap a car bare-handed)
• [Outlier] Withstands a blast from a super drunk Odin square in the torso
• [Outlier] Takes a laser from Silver Surfer and immediately recovers and steals his surfboard

Speed

• Reacts to and knocks a missile out of the air
• Sidesteps Guero's charge
• [Limit] Johnny Blaze consistently dodges Robbie/Eli when he's not caught off guard

Miscellaneous Feats

• Like other Ghost Riders, Robbie is able to drive any vehicle and turn it into a Ghost Rider-y version of itself.
  • Takes over a tractor. GHOST FARMER!
  • Transforms one of Tony Stark's private speedboats. CAPTAIN VENGEANCE THE FIRE PIRATE!
  • Takes control of this custom-built Avengers ship. PRETTY MUCH STILL CAPTAIN VENGEANCE THE FIRE PIRATE!
  • Robbie takes the Silver Surfer's board and rides it in space (temporarily). GHOST SURFER!
• Understands the intentions and/or language of Celestials after taking over one of their corpses.
• Is a pretty great driver
• Drives up the side of a building and "catches" a falling Iron Man with his windshield
• Robbie's driving impresses Johnny Blaze
• Before becoming the Ghost Rider, Robbie throws down with a bunch of punk kids
• Robbie's life is pretty metal sometimes

Robbie's Ride: The Hell Charger

Like most other Ghost Riders, Robbie transforms his vehicle (often in an explosion of hellfire) into a powered-up Ghost Rider version of itself. Unlike most other Ghost Riders who prefer motorcycles, Robbie drives some good old fashioned American Muscle.

• Chulk describes the car as going up to 6000 horsepower
  • Here's a couple videos on how horsepower works (it helps determine how much force the Hell Charger can output and how fast it can go): 1, 2. For reference, most Formula 1 cars hit around 750 horsepower, most Nascar cars are typically in the 800-900 horsepower range, and the Koenigsegg Jesko which can reach around 300 mph (482 km/h) has about 1600 horsepower at its best. At the high end, Top Fuel drag racers can wield up to 11,000 horsepower in a few brief seconds of acceleration.
  • Amadeus is known for doing mathematical calculations of pretty much everything, so he's a fairly reliable character for this.

Hellfire

• Regularly leaves a large trail of flames in its wake
• Swallowed by a sea monster and rapidly generates enough heat to make the monster spit it back up
• When Robbie is absolutely furious, the Hell Charger transforms so violently that cars around it spontaneously explode
• Savage She-Hulk takes a blast of flame to the face and it makes her angrier
• Balder's flesh burns just from driving it

Intangibility
Robbie can control the tangibility of his car and move through it at will.

• Raises through the roof to jump to an opponent
• The car comes to him and phases through his body so they can start driving
• Reaches through the roof to pull people out
• Robbie doesn't really bother opening the door to get out
• Phases the car through another solid object

Ramming / Driving Force

• Rams through a massive pile of bones
• Offscreen, crashes through "a roadblock made of mammoths"
• Drives straight through a pretty large humvee
• Drives through multiple vehicles
• Runs over Namor (he'd just no-sold Captain Marvel)
• Hurts Chulk where Robbie couldn't
• Hurts Chulk again by driving into his back
• Launches a boulder at Chulk
• Lands on Johnny Blaze, crippling him
• Plows through race obstacles, including MODOK, several Venoms, two Sentinels, and Sabretooth
• Rams multiple Ghost Riders, including a skeletal elephant, out of the way
• While weakened, rams into Eli by surprise, cratering a wall by slamming him into it
• Rams into Starbrand, knocking him aside
• Burrows up out of the earth from two miles deep
• [Outlier] Rams a hole in a dead Celestial

Durability
While generally comparable to a normal car, the Hell Charger can spontaneously repair any damage at any time.

• Regenerates from Grumpy erupting through the roof
• Robbie personally tries to destroy the Hell Charger in any way he can imagine, and before he can make it home by bus the car has regenerated and beat him there
• Regenerates so fast that Captain Marvel's punches and Blade's hellfire shotgun can't bring it down
• The car is bulletproof
• Unaffected by demons firing zombie parts at it
• A missile knocks it into the air but it keeps going
• More or less fine after an uppercut from Chulk
• Undamaged after driving off a cliff and landing nose-first
• Withstands a bunch of mermen tearing it apart
• Perfectly fine 2000 fathoms deep in the ocean
• Drives on the Lake of Fire with no discernible damage
• Pressurized to handle space travel
• [Limit] An old, weakened Logan tears through the engine block
• [Limit] Savage She-Hulk crumples the Hell Charger and chucks it aside
• [Outlier] Blasted by Silver Surfer and sent crashing into a planet, but the Hell Charger is intact and its passengers are fine (if dazed)

Speed

• Keeps up with Johnny Blaze in a race
• Outspeeds a bunch of other riders out the gate of the races
• Easily catches up to another car
• Swerves to dodge a punch from a dead Celestial
• Surprises Johnny Blaze by bursting through the wall to ram him
• Travels from "just past Sweden" to Russia in the span of a brief conversation
• [Limit] Even at top speed, the Hell Charger can't outrun the Silver Surfer

Traveling
As far as I can tell, there isn't anything the Hell Charger can't drive on.

• Drives straight up vertical surfaces
• Drives on water and water-like surfaces
• Drives on aiempty space, aka flying
• Travels underwater like a submarine

Teamwork
Robbie and/or Eli can command or control the car to move independently of Robbie's actions, allowing them to tag team opponents and attack in unexpected ways.

• It comes at his command and he can move through the vehicle
• Robbie uses the car to make an opening in a building while he is fighting goons
• Robbie isn't afraid to have the Hell Charger phase directly through him to ram someone and even uses it to catch advancing enemies off-guard
• Eli swings the car around in order to free Robbie from Mr. Hyde's headlock
• Eli takes over driving so that Robbie can prepare an attack

Misc

• Heals Robbie by plugging wires into his body
• Can track beings similarly to a bloodhound, even to the center of the Earth
• Can shoot chains out to restrain targets
• Contains living organs like tongues and "egg sacs" and has resisted being worked on in the past
• Messing with it alerts Robbie
• Savage She-Hulk fits in the trunk
• [Limit] Celestials do not fit in the trunk

"Pretty sure I can find my way back to Earth. ...Can't I? 'My very educated mother just served us nachos.' Uh, where are we right now in relation to nachos?"

After a couple weeks of recovery, I've had some time to write up a trip report! This vacation was the best I've ever had and I'm excited to share some highlights here, along with some mistakes I made and travel tips. My plans were to meet up with two friends for the first 1.5 weeks of the trip, then to go solo for the last week. They would fly to Chicago to connect with me, then we'd all fly over together to Narita.
Pre-flight
- I filled out the Japan entry forms to provide proof of vaccination, declare for customs, etc. We saved a pretty good amount of time with that compared to people filling out paperwork on the plane.
- For phone / internet we went with pocket wireless and it was incredibly smooth basically the whole time. We got two units for times where we'd be separated as well as a pocket translator, which was an unnecessary expense. You're not getting any added value over Google Translate.
- For daily travel we all went with Suica and that was again a very simple, intuitive experience. I'd just periodically add on funds to my Apple Wallet and ended up paying for a bunch of stuff with that rather than cash / credit. My one friend went with the actual card instead of using his phone, which had one advantage: some ticket machines would only accept Suica via card and through the app.
- For the shinkansens we skipped the JR Pass and just booked tickets that day, which was mostly fine. The machines wouldn't accept my credit card so I'd need to go talk to a person, but I knew enough about where I wanted to go and what to do I muddled through. We did opt for the Hakone Free Pass as that would cover basically all the transportation for that area and saved a little money.
- I'm fortunate to have a friend living in Japan who helped arrange a couple events for us... if you don't have that option you can try to book some tickets at Lawson, or for restaurants you can try to go 1-2 days in advance and ask about reservations.
- I tried taking a language course ahead of the trip and learning a few key phrases... I was not able to hold a conversation but the little bit I did know helped I believe. One "caution" I'll give is that if you use Google Translate to construct a sentence for you in Japanese, you're likely to get a response in Japanese!
Part 1: Tokyo
2/15 + 2/16 - Friend B unfortunately overslept and missed his first flight, so Friend A and I met up in the morning at O'Hare. I did have to check one of my bags at the gate because it was over 10 lbs, but otherwise the trip was uneventful until we arrived at Narita, where I had a momentary panic when my checked suitcase did not show up on the carousel. I talked to an agent and for some reason, they had set my bag aside from all the others behind a sign. With that out of the way, we picked up the pocket wi-fi and on our way out the door, a film crew from "Why did you come to Japan" asked us if we would do a brief interview. I recognized their logo and thought it might be fun, but I wasn't prepared for a 40 minute conversation! I mentioned I was visiting a Game Center CX exhibit and they asked me a long line of questions about meeting the show's host (Shinya Arino), what I would say to him, what games we would play, etc. Finally I had to explain we were tired and would like to be on our way. I don't believe my interview was ever shown.
By the time we got tickets and were seated on the Narita Express, we could barely stay awake. Maybe because of the fatigue we had difficulty with exiting Shinjuku station: we eventually talked to an Australian family who showed us the fare exchange kiosk where we converted our Narita Express ticket into a regular train ticket for the gate. Once we settled that we checked into our hotel (Hundred Stay Tokyo Shinjuku), briefly went out to Family Mart for snacks, then crashed for the night.
​
2/17 - We got up around 7 and went to a Sukiya near our hotel for breakfast, then headed over to Akihabara. Things were still opening up so we stopped for Mr. Donut, then visited a couple stores before moving further east to Yokozuna Tonkatsu Dosukoi Tanaka where we had a lunch / sumo demonstration. This was very much a tourist thing: there was a brief explanation of the sumo ceremony and technique before they invited the audience to get in sumo costumes and step in the ring and have matches with the wrestlers. I (and about 90% of the attendees) went up: this was absolutely not a serious match and was closer to improv comedy than anything. Still, we had a good time and the food was fine.
Afterward, we went back to Akihabara for a reservation at an owl cafe. We got some cute photos but I admit those owls could not have been happy, as there were 30 of them in a small room. The handlers would let one perch on your arm but were adamant you not let go of their leash, because if you did... it wouldn't be pretty. At this point we had to return to our hotel to link up with Friend B who had just arrived, then we went back to Akihabara for dinner. Dinner was at Merino, an all you can eat place where we had lamb and beef tongue in a hot pot. Fittingly, there was a collaboartion with a lamb girl V-tuber. We were again pretty wiped out after dinner and retreated back to our hotel.
​
2/18 - After a quick stop at Family Mart we headed to Ueno for the Tokyo National Museum. Unfortunately the special exhibition was closed, but we enjoyed the historical artifacts that were available. We had a ramen lunch at one of the restaruants at Ueno Station, then head over to Akihabara (yes, again) and crawled through the shops in more depth. We were there on Saturday afternoon so there were people everywhere, so that only lasted for a couple hours. Our bags were full so we dropped things off at the hotel, then ate dinner at a Coco Ichibanya: we all kept our orders pretty low on the scale but as advertised, there's a kick even at "2". Finally we visited Star Club, a Super Mario themed bar located nearby. Despite the gimmick, the crowd appeared to be local aside from our group. We each ordered a couple of the themed drinks and bonded with the bartender over Cowboy Bebop through the language barrier, as he was playing the soundtrack for ambience.
​
2/19 - Our first stop in the morning was the Ghibli Musem. While my previous visit had been lackluster, this one went much better as there was a significantly smaller crowd so early in the day. Plus, while they are still largely not supporting English, the movie shown had no dialogue and they did actually provide an English guide for the special exhibit on Future Boy Conan! The merch shop was of course seductive and we ended up with souvenirs for ourselves and friends. Our lunch plans unfortunately fell through as our targeted spot (Chillmatic, a burger place) was closed for a building inspection. We opted for another random ramen place as we walked over to the PARCO mall in Shibuya. We visited all the character stores (Nintendo, Pokemon, Capcom, etc.), which were of course also mobbed on a Sunday afternoon. At this point I had easily outgrown the space in my luggage, so our next stop was Don Quijote so Friend A and I could each buy a duffel bag. To make up for earlier we visited Shogun Burger for dinner, which was fantastic.
​
2/20 - Our first travel day, but before heading out we did a little more shopping in Shinjuku: my friends and I really got into visiting every BookOff we could find. I also took the opportunity to stop at McDonalds for an early lunch and try their "exclusive" menu items. We then boarded the Odakyu line to make our way out to Hakone. In hindsight, I definitely should have forwarded a bag to our Kyoto hotel: I had a very uncomfortable trip moving between trains and walking uphill but after a couple hours we made it to Ajisai Onsen Ryokan. The building was in a traditional style but with modern furnishings: to paint a picture, our room had futons and an Amazon Fire Stick. We booked times to reserve some of the baths, then walked to a local gyoza place - and I mean local, a bunch of schoolchildren stampeded in with us as it opened - then headed back to the hotel for our evening bath. To cap the evening we enjoyed some sake and watched a few episodes of Spy x Family.
​
2/21 - We got an early start with our morning bath and quickly came to a realization. The previous night we had booked the "indoor / outdoor" bath, which had both an indoor and outdoor bath but critically kept the showers indoors. For the morning we were in the "outdoor" bath, which... had the showers outdoors. When it was right around freezing. Afterward we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went on the "Hakone Loop". We started by walking through Gora Park and participating in a brief tea ceremony, then took the rope car up to Owaukudani. We were lucky and there were clear skies so Mt. Fuji was very visible in the distance. Unfortunately part of the ropeway was out of service so we took a bus down to Lake Ashi, which we then crossed by boat. We quickly stopped for snacks then walked along Ancient Cedar Avenue before catching a bus back closer to our hotel. We unfortunately missed the last cable car for the day - they stop before 4:30 - but we managed to figure out the local bus line to get back. After a brief rest we found dinner at Pub Stop Pizza & Bar and took in some local entertainment (a TV was playing Fast and the Furious 7).
​
2/22 - Another bath, another hotel breakfast, and a quick stop at the Hakone Art Museum before we got on our way to our next destination. I asked / begged for us to take a cab back down the mountain to Hakone-Yumoto, which saved me from more luggage struggles. At the station we stopped in Eva-ya: I had only learned yesterday that Hakone is the setting for much of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but luckily they had some cover files and sweets ready for me to buy. After a couple hour trip on the shinkansen we arrived at Kyoto and with a bit of fumbling got to our hotel. The key here is that there is a second floor walkway that runs North - South through the station and doesn't require paying train fare. Our Kyoto hotel (Daiwa Roynet Hotel Kyoto Ekimae) had a very slick entrance way: it blended in with the building to the point you'd think you're walking towards a wall without signage. We did some laundry, then went next door to the Yodobashi to pick up a couple items (Friend A needed new sneakers) and literally got lost again. After again getting reoriented, we headed back to Kyoto Station where we got conveyor belt sushi. These places do technically exist where I'm from (US) but this was still one of my favorite moments on the trip.
​
2/23 - Kicked off the day at the Kyoto International Manga Museum. The bulk of the museum is an impossibly large manga library, which didn't serve me too well, but I enjoyed the history sections. One room was devoted to sculptures of the hands of famous artists, which was certainly a choice. They also had an artist there who would draw sketches of you for 1500 yen. I was a little worried I was paying for the equivalent of a carnival caricature, but the skill and detail were much better than that. Be advised, the artists are only available on holidays and weekends.
Afterward I took the train down to Osaka to meet a friend living in Japan for... you guessed it more shopping. We visited the Capcom Cafe first and checked out the rest of the nerdy stores at Daimaru Umeda. Unlike in Shibuya, we did need to get a timed entry ticket for the Nintendo store, so we went over to Mandarake to kill time. After finishing up in Umeda we hit up the Daimaru / PARCO at Shinsaibashi, then visited the Dotunburi Glico sign and walked the river. They took my picture and when I offered to take theirs they replied "no... I'm not a tourist". Oof. In the evening I met back up with my travel group and had udon at a spot in Kyoto Station.
​
2/24 - Slightly mixed things up here: we went to the Imperial Palace in order to get tickets for Katsura Imperial Villa. Unfortunately, same day tickets were not available as we expected, so we instead had to get them for Sunday 2/26. Still visited the palace, and in spite of the rain still had fun. Then back to Osaka where we ended up visiting Daimaru again - the other guys liked some photos I sent so much they wanted to see it too. Had takoyaki for lunch, then took the train to the Osaka Aquarium. The absolutely massive tank at the center was very impressive. Then stayed in the area and went to the park to wat a New Japan Pro Wrestling show. This was one of the first shows that allowed the whole audience to cheer: people were quiet but by the end of the night things were rocking. Interestingly they still only sat people in every other chair. Lastly while the other guys went to bed I had read on Twitter there was a party near our hotel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Fox. Stopped by there and while it was a little awkward at first once I found the more gregarious / drunk people there it was a good time. One guy insisted I get in front of a camera and talk for a second, and it showed up in a video they posted on Twitter.
​
2/25 - Went to Nara and saw the deer. The deer are docile if you don't have food, friendly if you do, and absolutely terrifying to children. The amount of "yada yada yada" and "kowai" I heard... At first we were giving whole crackers out, but we learned that we could break them up, leave them on our palm, get them to bow, etc. Headed over to Todai-ji and saw the huge Buddha. It was in fact very, very large. Doubled back and played with the deer a bit more, then took the train to Kyoto. I took the lull in the afternoon to visit the office of Edit Mode, a clothing maker that specializes in video game goods. They occasionally host an "open house" at their office and we were lucky enough to be there during one. For dinner we ate okonomiyaki at a restaurant in the Yodobashi building, then afterward took a trip to the nearest BookOff before hitting the hay.
​
2/26 - This was definitely our biggest mixup on the trip. We had been planning to go to Fushimi Inari in the morning but there were some scheduling issues:

1. We didn't take not of how long the hike would be (2-3 hours).
   
2. We overslept (woke up at 7:30 instead of 6).
   
3. We had a hard stop time to make the Katsura Imperial Villa tour we'd booked on Thursday.
   

We probably should've just not gone to Fushimi Inari at all but we did and ended up arriving with less than an hour to stay. We walked up the steps for about 15 minutes, turned back, checked out the start of the path, and left :( At least the Villa was a good experience: we had an English speaking guide (+ recording) which helped a lot. The context felt necessary to understanding how carefully the whole area was designed.
Next up was one last stop at our Kyoto hotel before taking a quick train ride to Osaka. We stayed at the Hotel Granvia Osaka, which is literally right above the station, so the location was certainly convenient. We ate sushi for lunch at one of the many restaurants in the building, took a quick nap, then went out for some taiyaki. Specifically, I forced my friends to go to a particular chain that was collaborating with a V-Tuber. back to the hotel where we checked out then hopped on the train to Osaka. Checked into our hotel and people napped for a bit before we headed out again. Got taiyaki (making my friends visit a chain with a Hololive collab). More shopping followed with a stop at Mandarake, then to Don Quijote where I bought another small suitcase. We ended up more or less skipping dinner and heading out for karaoke, where we had some snacks and drinks.
​
2/27 - For my friends' final day we went to Universal Studios Japan. This could be its entire own post but I recommend looking for tickets at least a month in advance, get the Express Pass, and get there early. The park is supposed to open at 9, and even though we showed up at 8:30 people were already pouring inside. Our main objective was Super Nintendo World but our timed entry wasn't for a couple hours, so we tried Jujutsu Kaisen 4D (okay), Spider-Man (good), and Jurassic Park the Ride (okay) first. As for Super Nitendo World itself... as long as you know it's intended for kids and has about a 4 hour lifespan you'll enjoy it. The Mario Kart ride was very good the AR game was interesting tech, and the restaurant food was alright. Really though, the Flying Dinosaur which went on afterward was incredible and easily my favorite ride. Unfortunately, Friend A became ill afterward so we ended up bailing to go back to the hotel and rest. After he felt better we grabbed dinner at a local ramen place: the gimmick was they lined the bowl with slices of pork, which you could then put in the broth to cook a little and season the whole bowl.
​
2/28 - My two friends left for America, so we checked out of our room and I checked into a smaller one at the same spot. This hotel didn't have laundry machines, just an expensive service (200 yen to clean one pair of underwear), so instead I found a laundromat nearby and caught up with family by phone while I waited. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at another Yodobashi, where I committed a gaffe: you're supposed to check out on each floor. Once I apologized a bunch and paid, I grabbed lunch at Wendy's and got settled into my new room. For dinner I went to another of the restaurants in the building, then took a train to Namba to see a retro video game bar. A couple drinks and a chat with the bartender later, I headed back for the night.
​
3/1 - A very nerdy shopping day in Osaka: first to the Daimaru character shops, then over to Parco character shops, then I just used Google Maps to hit BookOffs one after the other. I made my way south until I hit DenDen Town where I stopped in every store I saw until I had to break away for dinner. A local friend helped me book a reservation in Kobe Took the train out to Kobe where a friend had helped me make a reservation at a steak restaurant. I went for the "modarately" cheap option that was about $100 total and loved it from beginning to end. Also strangely this was the only restaurant anywhere I could tip: you had to tip individually and could only max it out at 500 yen. I tipped the two waiters, the chef, and the host / barker outside (who had good English so we talked a bit).
​
3/2 - My Fushimi Inari revenge trip! I got there around 9am so things were already pretty busy, but I did get the chance to chat with one of the tour guides while I had a morning coffee. The starting area was pretty busy and even as I went along, I ran into a lot of people but there was still enough space to take photos and see everything. I definitely paused at a few points: even walking 20,000 steps daily on the trip hadn't prepared me for all the stair climbing. I'd also suggest that you don't NEED to go all the way to the top: there's just a store up there that completely obscures the view, the better views are earlier in the hike. With that said, I still really enjoyed myself, taking a different route back down. I grabbed a couple of snacks and took the train back to Osaka, where I finished up exploring Namba and went with a friend for an unagidon dinner. I'd had broiled eel before as sushi but never as the full entree and found it delicious!
​
3/3 - After checking out of the hotel and forwarding two of my bags to Tokyo, I caught the shinkansen but made a detour while in Yokohama to visit the Gundam Factory. The Gundam is very impressive in person and I would definitely recommend visiting in the early evening to see it after dark if possible. I proceeded onto Shinjuku where I ran into another issue: I was staying at a capsule hotel and immmediately realized I was not comfortable there. Everyone's bags were kept in a locker room that was not closely monitored, there were signs everywhere advising the hotel was not responsible for any theft... I should have done more reading to understand where I'd be staying. I would have been better off in a hostel, at least that would've been cheaper! I did at least have a chance to visit Shogun Burger again for dinner, after which I booked a new hotel for the next night, then got a few hours of restless sleep as I heard every snore and cough from my neighbors.
​
3/4 - I rose early and walked to Shinjuku Gyoen Garden. You really can use Suica in a lot of places, they even accepted it here! Most plants weren't in bloom yet but I did spot a lone cherry blossom tree that had blossomed: as I passed by it later in my walk a dozen people had crowded around for photos. A lot of stuff was not in bloom yet but I did see one cherry tree had blossomed at least. After getting my fill of nature I ventured over to Nakano Broadway. Out of all the nerdy shopping I did, this spot was my least favorite: maybe if I knew Japanese I would've fared better but because I didn't, I found all the various specialty stores confusing to navigate. I stopped back at the capsule hotel to pick up my luggage, then headed to Nipponbashi to check into my backup hotel (S-Peria Inn Nihonbashi Hakozaki). This new spot was pretty out of the way so I opted to just grab some sushi from a nearby supermarket and park it for the evening with the hope of a strong start tomorrow.
​
3/5 - Checked out of my hotel and headed over to Shinjuku to check in to my final hotel (Kadoya Hotel) for the trip. Dropped off my bags and confirmed my other ones had shown up safely, then headed to Shibuya Parco for the Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary pop-up. Shopped there for a bit, then headed back to Chillmatic and this time they were open! It was a neat experience but I think I preferred Shogun Burger. Next stop was Meijijingu - I didn't leave a votive and instead just walked around, including a stop in one of the gardens. Then over to HMV Books where there was a 20th Anniversary Celebration for Game Center CX. However busy I expected it to be, it was not... at all. I was the only person who paid the 800 yen for the museum part in the 30-45 minutes I was there. But I did enjoy it and picked up a T-shirt. I also found a small pop-up gallery titled "9Days" on a lower floor that was interesting. It was getting late but I pressed onto Akihabara where I went to the Radio Kaikan tower. I stayed there until closing, then headed over to Tokyo Video Gamers, a bar. They had closed down last year but were in the middle of a soft re-launch when I stopped by. Finally, I headed back to my hotel and ordered some Dominos because I was tired of walking around.
​
3/6 - Checked out of my hotel, but left my bags so I could go eat breakfast at Eggslut at the station. Took the Narita Express to the airport, shopped a little bit at the airport shops, then the long sad flight back to the US.
That was a linguistic dreadnought so if anything is unclear let me know and I'll try to clean it up. Hope you enjoyed and it helps with your own planning: I'll answer questions as best as I can!

Subject: Commander Jack Garnet
Vessel: RMV Cambyses
Date: 13th June 3544 (Earth date)

We had been ordered out of our patrol sector near the Gunides system to come escort the REV Ancestral, a scientific vessel headed for the Tulia system, near the center of the galaxy. After the independence wars of the 30th century, every Republican Exploratory Vessel (REV) exiting Republican space was to be escorted by no less than 2 Republican Military Vessels (RMV) in order to defend it from pirate attacks or other threats.
This was the farthest any Republican vessel had ever gone from Earth, and this time scientists and explorers were very confident that they were going to find sentient life. This is why the RMV Hamilcar, an Apex-class battlecruiser was on call if needed.
“Sir, we’ve just received confirmation from the Office for Space Exploration” - said Johnson, the Comms Officer.
“Copy that, alert the Faramond and the Ancestral. We’re go for jump.”
Finally, after two weeks of waiting for bureaucracy, we were ready. In order to secure the safety of the Ancestral, the RMV Faramond would jump first, secure the jump gate created by our Halcyon drive, and give us the ‘go for jump’ signal. Then, we would jump in with the Ancestral.
“Isaac, plot the subspace course and start charging the Halcyon drive”
“Right away, Commander”
Isaac was our in-ship AI. He was developed to enhance the efficiency of combat vessels and to protect the Republican navy from any type of cybernetic attack.
“Course plotted. Once we jump the estimated travel time is 12 minutes 27 seconds. We’ll be traveling at the equivalent speed of 152 400 c.”
“Thank you, Isaac. Johnson, inform the Faramond that we’re ready and awaiting their jump”
“Yes, sir”
“Check shields, power levels, propulsion, lower jump blinds and put the Halcyon drive sensor readings on the main screen”
“Shields are go”
“Reactor is nominal, go”
“Propulsion is stable, go”
“Jump blinds are set, sir”
“Very good, gentlemen. Now we just wait for the Faramond to jump”
Right as that last word left my mouth, a blinding flash of white light flooded the room. The Faramond had jumped. Now we had to wait for the go for jump signal.
I decided to check again the Halcyon drive sensor readings, and as I was finishing Johnson said:
“Sir, the Faramond has arrived in system. Their scanners indicate no immediate threats. We’re go for jump”
“Okay. Isaac, get the Halcyon drive in sync with the Ancestral’s. Once stable begin the countdown for jump”
“Drives linked and stable, Commander. Initiating countdown:”
5 …
4 …
3 …
2 …
1 …
Jump”
At first nothing happened. Then, the characteristic white flash of the subspace portal opening blinded us for a couple of seconds, until we were deep into the unknowns of the universe. This is the most beautiful part of space, in my opinion. When you’re on a subspace tunnel, space bends and folds around you, allowing you to see the most beautiful sight I could’ve ever imagined. Countless galaxies in sight, a million colors and shapes, all before my eyes.
But this dream I was witnessing faded when I got back to my duties:
“Commander, we’re exiting subspace” - Isaac said
“Check the status of the Ancestral and our position relative to the flight plan. Inform me of any unwanted deviations exceeding 0.1%”
“Will do, sir”
Subspace travel time was a weird thing to experience. Approximately 13 minutes had passed but it seemed like mere seconds. It was a shame that the wonders of subspace were so ephemeral.
Then, we experienced the familiar thump of exiting the portal:
“Check systems and get in contact with the Faramond. Advise Ancestral to stay close at all times and have shields up, just in case”
“Yes, sir” - responded Johnson
Suddenly, my HUD lit up and a red ball was placed on the other side of the closest planet to us, Tulia - E. Unidentified contact, designated Unidentified Vessel - 1 (UV-1):
“Johnson, inform Faramond to form up in defensive formation Theta, and order Ancestral to jump back to safety. Now!”
“Ancestral is experiencing problems with its Halcyon drive sir, they’re not gonna be able to jump!” - responded Johnson
“Alright, order them to stay behind us and send a distress signal to Gunides station!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Commander, UV-1 has weapons on board! Sensors suggest primitive MAC’s, type 2 photon torpedoes, plasma point defense turrets and class 3 energy shields” - informed Isaac
“Shit! Johnson, Hail UV-1 and order them to power down their weapons, else they will be fired upon”
“Yes, sir!” - answered Johnson
What the hell is this!? A frigate - sized vessel with class 3 energy shields? Those are a century old! Even our asteroid defense system could penetrate them if close enough. Was this a rogue separatist faction that somehow went unnoticed? Or maybe first contact? We hadn’t come across any complex life in the Orion arm, let alone a spacefaring species!
“Commander! Two Euclidean superluminal exit pulses detected on the other side of the system! Designating UV-2 and UV-3” - informed Isaac.
What!? Euclidean superluminal travel!? That was millennia old! Humanity stopped using superluminal travel after an uncontrolled Hyperflux drive meltdown caused a Leviathan-class dreadnought to disappear, along with everything within a 100 light-minute radius in 2381. It was deemed too dangerous and was swapped with the safer, albeit much more expensive Halcyon drives.
“Sir, incoming transmission from UV-1!” - said Johnson
“Isaac, search for malware on the file and show it to us when safe”
“Yes, Commander.” - answered Isaac - “Sir, this is all binary code with some primitive, civilian-level malware. Code filtered and ready to upload. Uploading…
Done”
=========BEGIN MESSAGE========
UNKNOWN SHIP, YOU HAVE ENTERED FEDERATION CONTROLLED SPACE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION.
POWER DOWN ALL YOUR SYSTEMS AND PREPARE TO BE ESCORTED TO THE NEAREST MILITARY BASE.
IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON
=========END MESSAGE==========
“Johnson, relay this message to the Faramond and to the Gunides station ASAP! We don’t know what we are dealing with here.”
“Yes, sir!” - Johnson answered - “Also, sir the RMV Hamilcar answered the distress call, connecting the live video feed now”
A few moments later the wall directly behind me lit up with the image of Captain Jordan Petrov:
“I understand you have sent a distress signal, Commander Garnet”
“Yes sir, we jumped to the Tulia system on an escort mission with the REV Ancestral, and we encountered an unidentified contact. As our primary mission is to protect the Ancestral, we decided it would be best to ask for help as its Halcyon drive is damaged”
“Is that unidentified vessel hostile? Is it armed? How many are there?”
“Not hostile yet. Yes, it is armed with primitive weaponry. I’ll have our shipboard AI send you the details and specs of their weapons. As far as the number of unidentified contacts there are 3. Two came out of Euclidean superluminal travel once we established contact with UV-1”
“Euclidean superluminal travel!? Must be a rogue, far obsolete rebel group from the independence wars era”
“Yes, that’s what we thought, but then it hailed us with a message mentioning a ‘Federation’, so we think this could possibly be first contact”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t go south, shall we? I’m jumping now, be there in 8 minutes. Comms out”
“Comms out”
As the wall dimmed, I started to think what first contact might look like if we shot first. Not good.
“Okay people, I’ve just spoken with the captain of an Apex-Class battlecruiser that’s coming to our aid. We’re going to sit still until they arrive”
A few minutes later, a white flash signaled the arrival of the Hamilcar. As soon as it left subspace the lights in the bridge turned red, and a blinking yellow light was displayed on the Tac-Map, indicating an incoming projectile.
“Raise shields to 100%! Arm the MAC’s and obtain an updated firing solution!”
As the round hit, we realized that the shields were almost intact, at 96% integrity. When I was about to give the order to fire on the enemy ship, the Faramond had already shot its MAC towards UV-1. The round hit the engine section in the center, tearing it off the ship and leaving it without power.
Immediately after this, the Hamilcar sent a message to UV-2 and UV-3, which Isaac displayed on the center screen:
=========BEGIN MESSAGE========
This is the RMV Hamilcar. You are ordered to power down your systems and shut off your engines. You have fired without cause toward a Republic ship. If you don’t comply within a 5 minute window you will be fired upon and destroyed. This is your only warning.
==========END MESSAGE=========
“Commander, UV-2 and UV-3 are powering down their systems and lowering their shields! They’re complying” - said Isaac
“Good. Advise the Hamilcar to load superluminal rounds into their primary MAC, in case we need to shoot across the system”
“Right away, Commander”
Moments later, we noticed boarding craft and fighter drones exit the Hamilcar’s hangars and head towards UV-1. They were gonna board it.

Author’s note: This is my first post on HFY, so any criticism/ grammar correction is welcome! I intend to continue this into a series.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed :)

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This is a collection of oddities, real world inspirations and possible clues that hint to the true purpose of Area Zero and other mysteries in Paldea. My intention was to compile this into one big Theory of Everything, but all of this has been sitting in a Google Doc for a month and a half and I don't see how I can tie it all together with the information we currently have. I figured that I might as well talk about the discoveries I have made because if I had not compiled all of this into a reddit post, it might never have happened. My hope is that it will open up some new discussions about the games, and that someone else may see something that I can not.
​
THE TWO METAL PLATES
Let's start with Area Zero. In the Scarlet/Violet books, the page discussing the strange symbol found in A0 has a few qualities that I have not seen discussed so far. It's titled "Mysterious Plates", plural, and even shows a second plate below the main plate containing the two intersecting triangles. This second plate is strangely never mentioned or shown again anywhere else. It appears to be longer in width and much shorter in height than the one we see in A0, and contains a long string of undecipherable text.
This mysterious second plate is not the only strange thing about this page of the book. The top image is drawn so that the symbol plate has its right side obscured behind rocks, but the bottom image gives you enough of a view to see that it doesn't contain anything to the right of the two zeroes. The map of Paldea and its accompanying text is strangely missing. The drawing is from the side and far away, so the plate is at an angle where it is difficult to make out certain details, but it certainly appears to not be wide enough to contain the mysterious symbol AND the map of Paldea.
That's not all about the metal plate, however. The entire thing, as seen when you yourself go into A0, seems to be based on the concept of a Kilometer Zero location marker. This is something that can be found in many countries across the world, which is why it seemed so strange to me that I have not seen any discussion about this. Regardless, the Kilometer Zero markers are typically placed in locations where multiple roads, railways or other routes of transportation come together in a central location. The marker was popularized by the Roman Empire, which is where the phrase "All roads lead to Rome" originates from. GameFreak makes this connection even clearer by having Hassel say almost that exact same line during one of the Art classes, "All roads lead to Area Zero".
Finally, if you look at the Kilometer Zero marker used in Spain it's clear that GameFreak took inspiration from this specific one for the metal plate of A0. It's located in the center of the country, in Madrid, and has an interesting history. The plaque was removed in 2002 in order for the town square to undergo renovations, and when the plaque was put back the construction crew accidentally put it in the ground upside down, so the north point was facing south and vice versa. This was fixed in 2007, but two years later in 2009 the plaque was removed and a new one was put in. Could this also be the history of the metal plate in A0? While I have yet to think of any implications of this, could it be possible that the A0 plate was found upside down and has been kept that way since Heath's expedition?
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THE EIGHT TREASURES
GameFreak pulled from numerous parts of Chinese mythology/folklore when putting together Area Zero and the story around Paldea, as the Treasures of Ruin are inspired by the Four Perils and the Kitakami Legends are inspired by Momotaro. Once the DLC was revealed, specifically its logo, I was able to make another similar connection. A not very well known piece of Chinese folklore is that of the Eight Treasures, or the Eight Precious Things, which are eight auspicious symbols that signify good luck and fortune. They had a similar cultural role to the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism, but beyond that the similarities end.
What the Eight Treasures are exactly varies depending on the source, as the symbols are pulled from the Hundred Treasures of Chinese folklore. The more commonly used Treasures seem to correlate to the eight symbols found on the corners of both the SV logo and the DLC logo. I will point out what I believe to be the Treasure that inspired each symbol, and this is where you can find a more detailed analysis on the Treasure's symbolism.
Starting with the upper left corner of the Scarlet/Violet logo, the Metal Plate inscription is based on the Double Lozenge, representing two hearts joined together to act as one mind. The hexagon in the bottom left is the Jewel, sometimes depicted as a Pearl or Flaming Pearl, containing generative energy and the ability to grant wishes. The four circles in the top right seem to be the Double Coins and the spiral in the bottom right seems to be the Wish Granting Ingot. The symbols in the DLC logo are harder to identify, but I believe the top right is the Mirror Lozenge, the Blueberry academy logo (that looks like an '8') in the bottom left might be inspired by the Coral treasure, and finally the bottom right symbol is the Wish Granting Scepter that is associated with the wish granting ingot. The upper left DLC symbol is too obscure for me to make any direct connections. While I have not drawn any definite conclusions on what these inspirations indicate for the symbols, it certainly seems to indicate the true nature of the Tera jewels and what secret wish-granting powers they may have.
The last thing I'd like to mention about Area Zero is that it seems to be heavily inspired by the Taoist concept of "Grotto Heavens", are worlds believed to exist hidden within the crust of Earth, often times inside the hollow center of a mountain. They are said to receive no actual light from the stars, but rather from "the root of the essence of the sun... its light matches the sun of the outer world". A0, as many have noted, is always lit no matter the time of day.
The mythological locations of Mount Penglai and Mount Kunlun) share some similarities to Area Zero, both of which are believed to be Axis Mundi of the world (a celestial pole, like Yggdrasil from Norse mythology). Mount Penglai is also known as Horai, the name given to the mountain in a short story written by Lafcadio Hearn. It is said to be the home of a cabal of immortals known as the Eight Immortals, although Penglai is found on just one of the mythical islands the Eight Immortals are said to reside on.
Lafcadio Hearn does not share many similarities with what little we know of Heath from the Area Zero Expedition team, but the book Hearn published his many short stories in, including that of Mount Penglai, was titled "Kwaidan". This certainly sounds similar to Koraidon, but I must admit it is a loose connection.
Mount Kunlun, a separate mythical paradise, connects to Paldea through its western/southern river (the direction the river flows from varies) that is known as the "Scarlet RiveWater)". Beyond just the name, in the announcement trailer for Scarlet and Violet there are three globes that can be seen in the room. One is a regular globe of the Earth, one is a regular globe of the Moon, and then the third is a globe depicting the Earth with red colored water instead of blue. If the globes were placed there with thematic intent, I believe the red globe was meant to create the connection between Paldea/A0 and Mount Kunlun. Both Penglai and Kunlun share other similarities to Area Zero through generic paradise tropes that I will not go into here, as the Scarlet RiveRed Globe and Kwaidan/Koraidon felt the most significant and this post is already long enough.
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THE CARDINAL COLORS
As Scarlet and Violet introduced us to the first open world in the series history, it is understandable that the cardinal directions (North, South, West, East) would receive a bit of attention. What stands out in GameFreaks inclusion of them, however, is the colors associated with each direction.
If you look at what colors different cultures associate with the cardinal directions, you will not find a single society in history that had the same associations as Paldea does. In all my research, I could only find two pieces of cultural or fictional media that shared the same Cardinal Colors. In Buddhism, the Mandala Of Avalokiteshvara (Compassion Buddha) and the Mandala of the Medicine Buddha are sometimes depicted with these Cardinal Colors, but these depictions are not easy to find.
For the second instance, the Land Of Oz from the books by L. Frank Baum see the same setup of Blue/Yellow being opposite one another, red representing the south (which itself is rare enough), with some depictions using purple to represent the North and others using green. This would not seem to connect to Pokemon if not for the fact that the games have actually referenced the Wizard of Oz before. In Generation 1, if the player clicks on the TV in their home the text box indicates that Stand By Me is currently playing, the plot of which seems to have inspired the final act of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, The Way Home. In the Gen1 remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, the same reference is made as long as the player chose the male protagonist. Even Sun and Moon included the same Stand By Me reference as well. However, in FLG, a different film is referenced if the player chooses the female protagonist, The Wizard of Oz. Once again I admit this is a flimsy connection, but with one of these two films being an obvious inspiration for the story of Scarlet/Violet, it opens up the possibility that the Wizard of Oz might have also been used as inspiration.
That is all I could find on the inspiration for the choices made for the Cardinal Colors, however certain ways GameFreak utilized the Cardinal Colors of Paldea stood out to me, and I have not seen any discussion on this either. Here are two diagrams demonstrating some ways the Cardinal Colors may have more to do with the Legendary Pokemon of the games than we have realized. Specifically, the shrines encasing the Treasures of Ruin across Paldea are located in the four corners of the region, with their colors being a combination of the Cardinal Colors closest to them. The fire-type Chi-Yu is found in the NorthEast, so its shrine is a combination of blue and green, cyan. This is true of all four of the Treasures of Ruin. If you look at the four new Pokemon introduced in the DLC The Teal Mask, each Pokemon incorporates a Cardinal color in their design, with Ogerpon being the only outlier. Of course, we have barely seen Ogerpon's actual design without the mask, and even then in the image we do have it has a yellow-colored eye which is the only color not utilized by another Pokemon.
Then there is the Mesagoza Type Compass that sits in the center of the city, which has the types arranged in a seemingly random order. I tried to figure out if maybe these Cardinal Colors or the corner colors have something to do with the Type Compass, or the color wheel found in the Art Room, but so far I have had no luck. However the compass is odd in that it has 12 points rather than the 8 points or 16 points typically seen on compass roses, which supposedly is normal of a Japanese Compass Rose but I have yet to find a depiction like this outside of a single DeviantArt image. Beyond the colors, not much else seems relevant to the cardinal directions, although there is one part of A0 that sticks out to me.
While it is difficult to figure out which direction you are looking towards when you enter A0, it is possible to see the Zero Gate above the clouds where you land if you get high up enough along the sides of A0. A link to a screenshot of this is included near the end of the post. Based off of this, it would appear that each river in A0 is coming from a lake located on the cardinal ends of the area. While the North, West, and South rivers all flow down into the bottom of A0, the East river is the one that takes you to the cave with the four circles pointing towards the cardinal directions. This is the only river that does not flow into the crystalline depths below. Given that Part 1 of the DLC seems to take place in the Eastern area connected to Paldea, it makes me wonder if there is any relevance to this river being the only one to not connect with the others.
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THE LUNAR THEORY
There are a number of strange things throughout the story that seem to connect to the moon, specifically its strange orbit that is scarcely commented on anywhere. While most of the observations in this post are just that, observations, I feel strongly that the moon plays a role in the overall plot of Scarlet and Violet, and will be a focal point of the DLC.
When developing a video game, nothing is particularly easy to implement. The easiest thing to do in game development is doing something again. Taking a feature you have already developed, and copy and pasting it to something else in the game. Knowing this, I would like to discuss the strange behavior of the moon as opposed to the typical behavior of the sun.
Imagine you are standing idly in Paldea while facing the Northeast at night, you watch as the sun rises in the East like it does in the real world. You can watch as it crosses the sky over the course of the day, eventually arriving in the West where it disappears over the horizon. Once the sun has set, you look back over at the Northeast direction expecting to see the moon rise over the horizon. The stars start to appear and the sky darkens, and yet you see no moon. If you were to then look back over at the Northwest direction, if you do so quick enough, you can see the Moon suddenly just appear in the West. Not only that, if you watch it over the course of the night you can see it go from West to East, the opposite direction it would normally travel, and then disappear by fading into the sky as the sun starts to rise once again. The sun has a proper orbit, it rises and sets in the correct locations and arcs across the sky. The moon on the other hand does not rise, it does not set, and it moves across the sky in a straight line. Most may chalk this up to a development bug, but I see an intended behavior. Like I said, once you've implemented something once, here being a circle in the sky rising and setting over the horizon, it's not very difficult to copy and paste it to another giant circle. I believe that this has to have been intentional, especially given that it was not fixed in the latest patch.
That's not all though. Of the four symbols on the Scarlet/Violet logo, one of them seems to lack any sort of context behind its relevance. This would be the bottom right spiral found in the Poco Lab. Even the metal plate inscription has some sort of commentary attributed to it, so that players can at least wonder what its relevance may be. The spiral, however, is left mostly unexplained. That is, if you don't pay attention to the other diagrams on the whiteboard. While the specifics of these equations are a little lost on me, it would seem the two circles found on the Poco Lab whiteboard are depicting calculations relating to the horizon of the Earth, possibly the light refraction of a celestial object. The top diagram appears to either calculate the influence of a satellite on the planets gravity, or a calculation of the true altitude of the satellite. That one could be a number of things, but I believe the bottom one to be a calculation of the true position of the moon based on the principle of the moon illusion. While I can't be certain what the spiral symbol represents, I wonder if it is depicting the strange orbit of the moon that is causing it to appear and disappear in the middle of the sky. Could the "moon's" refraction of light rays) be the relevance of ultraviolet and infrared light wavelengths, which many have theorized to have something to do with Scarlet/Violet?
Based on what we know of the Professor, the last time they left Poco Lab was the final time they set foot outside of Area Zero. These diagrams would have been the last thing they wrote on the whiteboard before going to Zero Lab, where a dozen more strange diagrams can be found on the whiteboards there. If you look at what the diagrams are depicting, each one shows a single circle following a path and/or existing within a strange 3D geometric shape. If I am correct that the Poco Lab whiteboard is the Professor discovering that something is off about the moon's orbit, the whiteboards in Zero Lab might be their attempts at finding out what exactly the orbit is. Could this be why they become more of a hermit, locking themselves in the lab and creating more security protocols to keep other people out? Is it possible they discovered some sort of conspiracy and became the target of those upholding the conspiracy?
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THE TURTLE THAT CARRIED THE WORLD
While I have already rambled long enough about the suspicious nature of the moon, there's one final observation I would like to make. If you look at the page in the Scarlet/Violet where Heath drew the Disk Pokemon, which we now know is Terapagos, there's still a number of unexplained aspects of the image. The giant disk Terapagos is resting on, the fact that its fur turns into an ocean with ships atop it, the clouds to the left of Terapagos that are completely disconnected from the Pokemon, and the many planets that can be seen in the background. It has already been pointed out that if you flip the image upside down, the black parts of the image actually appear to be crystals encircling the large disk, but there's something else about the image that has yet to be mentioned. The shading of the large disk is strange, familiar even. This image depicts the view of the Earth from the surface of the moon. It is the same exact shading. Looking at the Disk as a large celestial object from the upside down perspective, suddenly makes its appear as if the artist is looking up into the sky, past the Tera crystals of Area Zero, seeing a large object very far away. After all, it's common knowledge that Terapagos might be inspired by the many myths of a World Turtle that carries the Earth on its back. Looking at the drawing upside down, it almost appears as if that were the case here.
Of course, then there's the whole problem with how Area Zero could possibly be on the moon and/or some other satellite object, and then why Earth has the weird hexagonal shapes covering its visible portion. This could always be attributed to simple Human error with the artist not fully comprehending what they were seeing, but that certainly would not be a satisfying answer. Another theory I hope to discuss more of one day is that the clouds seen inside the Great Crater are teleporting anyone who enters to Area Zero, and vice versa, but I'm still working on how exactly that would fit with what we know about A0 and Terapagos so far.
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LINGBAO DAOISM
One final piece of folklore I'd like to mention is the beliefs of a Daoist school from 400 C.E, known as both the School of the Numinous Treasure and the School of the Sacred Jewel (also known simply as the Lingbao School). While I'm not sure if this actually a source of inspiration for these games, I certainly found some of the aspects and beliefs of this Daoist sect interesting. It's also another piece of spiritual beliefs that have connected to the old Chinese story Journey to the West. This story has had connections to many things I have already talked about, like the Grotto Heavens and Axis Mountains I mentioned earlier. Frankly, anything I found in Chinese mythology that seemed like it might have been inspiration for these games had some sort of connection to that tale, and so as a result it may have been a bigger piece of inspiration that I realized.
Lingbao cosmology is based around the idea of a mountain known as the Jade Capital being the center of the heavens, the Axis Mundi housing the Celestial Worthy (creator god). There are three subsequent deities, the Lord of Celestial Treasure, Lord of Sacred Treasure and the Lord of Divine Treasure. Each deity also resides within its own Grotto Heaven. It was believed by Lingbaoists that time was divided into cosmic cycles, and at the end of each era a deity related to the color associated with that era would descend to Earth provide Humanity a piece of Cosmic teaching. Two types of eras/cycles can occur, one ending with the moon causing a flood that resets the universe, and the other ending in total apocalypse. Before the apocalypse a select few of those who were given the Cosmic teaching, those that actually correctly learned the teaching, would be gathered up by the Queen Mother of the West (A central character of Journey to the West), and taken to a land of bliss not impacted by the apocalypse.
After reading through much of the Journey to the West, I believe that Geeta was inspired by the Queen Mother of the West and plans to take those who follow her to Area Zero when an apocalypse is eventually started, either by her or by natural forces/a Pokemon. This is mostly because I hope that they do something interesting with her character, but partly because it just seems very much like a story GameFreak would tell, especially given the writing of villains in Pokemon games and how recently they have represented big corporate powers.
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I hope that many of these topics fuel the theorizing parts of your brains, as I know that they have for me. Of course this post is formatted the way it is because I have not been able to come up with a cohesive theory that utilizes all of these oddities, as well as the bullet points below, but maybe one day it will click for someone.
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(*MANY) ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS
- If you get on top of the Academy using the Cyclizar Paradox, you can access the outside of the conservatory-like structure. The Academy exit connected to it is the color red, as well as the door used to enter the treehouse-like structure. As far as I can tell, based off of the intro sequence of Violet I found on YouTube, the doors appear to be red no matter the version. Also, the doors to the conservatory have what might be the second metal plate sitting above it with the text blurred, I imagine intentionally so that anyone like me climbs up to them, we don't discover any secrets.
- The hexagonal symbol in the bottom left of the logo may be depicting the six satellite dishes found around Area Zero, rather than the time machine or the Tera jewel/crystal itself.
- Student IDs are only mentioned two times, both mentions are by the AI Professor. First is when the Professor says the player's ID, 805C393. 805 because that's how many years since the Academy was founded, I presume 'C' is the semester (A is spring, B is summer, C is fall), and 393 because we joined the Academy late in the semester. Penny is 803B121, which tracks with that logic as a year and a half before was when she formed Team Star. Strangely, Nemona is 805C001. This means she registered with the school at the beginning of the current semester, and was the first to do so. This does not line up with what Giacomo says about Nemona taking over Student Council president a year and a half before the events of the game. Also - the previous Director mentions that his assistant tried to coverup the Team Star incident by destroying "digital records", no mention of physical records. We assumed this coverup caused the pages to be ripped out of the Student Registry book found in the Academy Library, but this does not track. Was someone trying to hide Nemona's previous ID? This might explain why the Professor felt it was necessary to create the Pokeball Locking security system, as it has to do with ID numbers. Nemona would be able to use Pokeballs with a new ID, up until the final battle where the AI Professor locks ALL ID's other than their own.
- Zero Gate is not the only thing that can be seen above the clouds in Area Zero. On top of the fact that the ledge it rests on looks nothing like the ledge seen in Paldea, the ridges seen above the Area Zero clouds are a completely different shape than the walls of the Great Create of Paldea, appearing more like a mountain range than a crater. Here some screenshots I took.
- Another reason for why I assume the cardinal directions are the way they are in Area Zero, despite the minimap not functioning from within the area, is because of this promotional artwork GameFreak released prior to Scarlet/Violet hitting the shelves. You can see that to the right of the Zero Gate is a waterfall, and the distance between the two appears to be the same as the distance from where you spawn in Area Zero and the closest waterfall to your left. What's most interesting about this image, though, is that the waterfall depicted in the image is not present in the final game. This would have been the only think linking the Crater above the clouds to the grotto below the clouds, and for whatever reason they decided to remove it in the three months between releasing the image and releasing the games.
- The Kitakami Legends each seem to each have a European heraldic charge) depicted on their design. Given that the Koraidon/Miraidon designs on the front of the Scarlet/Violet books are based on how lions and other animals are depicted in heraldry, this seems like a safe assumption. Okidogi has two crescents#/media/File:BlasonJean_Leliwa(selonGelre).svg) underneath its eyes, and the shape on its chest seems to be the shape of the heraldry shield#/media/File:Swiss_Escutcheon.svg) itself. Munkidori has a maltese cross#/media/File:Maltese_cross.svg) on its stomach. Fezandipiti has a cross moline#/media/File:Cross-Moline-Heraldry.svg) at the end of its tail. Ogerpon is yet another outlier here, just like with the cardinal colors, but one could argue the five pointed star on its chest is its charge, which is called a mullet#/media/File:Blason_de_la_ville_de_Deh%C3%A9ries(59)_Nord-France.svg). Also - on the left side of the top floor of the Entrance Hall you can find a strange shape hanging from a light fixture. It appears to be the water-bouget charge.
- Mount Penglai is the home of the Eight Immortals. The Adventure into Area Zero page in the Scarlet/Violet book depicts seven individuals descending into Area Zero, and we can assume that Heath or whoever illustrated the page was not depicted. Was the Expedition team made up of only eight people? With the prevalence of the number '8' in the games and DLC (Blueberry Academy logo), could this have any significance?
- AI Professor mentions that the energy of the Tera Crystals can "alter the organic functions of living things". The future Paradox Pokemon seem to be actual living Pokemon despite being made of machinery. If "Dream Theory" ends up being partially true, then I wonder if the Tera function that 'created' them (summoned, resurrected, there are many possibilities) possibly healed the Professor by turning them into a cyborg. The research journals suggest the assistant mentioned is the AI Professor, but certain discrepancies in them and the AI Professor's dialogue suggests that is not the case.
- In the Scarlet/Violet book the Director depicted to be shaking Heath's hand has a little piece of hair on his forehead that looks like a crescent moon. The two founders of the Academies depicted by the busts on the top floor of the entrance hall have hair that looks like Grapes and Oranges depending on the version, so theres a precedent for hair shapes of Academy figureheads having double meanings. This is the reachiest reach in this entire post, but I thought I'd include it.
- A pet theory I have had since the release of the games is that Geeta runs a secret society in Paldea that is orchestrating events from the shadows. The compass logo of the Elite Four is reminiscent of an all-seeing-eye, which is largely where this notion came from (The 'eye' portion of the logo is also identical to the marking on Lusamine-Nihilego's legs). If this is truly the case, then I imagine its based on the mythical La Garduna secret society of Spain, which historians are unsure ever actually existed. Secret Societies are also a common trope of Academies and Universities. A real world example that the games may be hinting at with the Paldean Pokemon Gimmighoul is a collegiate secret society at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, called the Order of Gimghoul.
- Every time the Professor summons a Paradox Pokemon from the time machine, the Pokemon falls from the machine in a Master Ball - seemingly just having been caught. In multiple locations within Paldea, including the Player's bedroom and Arven/Penny's dorm rooms, there are scattered boxes with a company logo depicting Tauros. Inside of the Zero Lab, however, the Professor has a large amount of boxes with the Delibird company logo. Most of the settlements in Paldea, like Medali outside of Zero Gate and Levincia where the real estate company is, have warehouses with the Delibird company logo. Is this the company that is providing the Professor with such a large amount of Master Balls? Does this mean that the Delibird company is a subsidiary of Silph Co., or some other Pokeball-manufacturer?
- Penny mentions that Nemona's dad is on the board of the Rotom Phone company. Nemona then mentions how her sister will "take over the family business". Does Nemona's family own a separate corporation from the Rotom Phone company, as 'take over' suggests ownership of the business rather than simply being a part of an executive team. On top of that, we know that the company producing Rotom Phones - or at least the cellphones that the Rotom possesses - is Macro Cosmos, based off of this concept art from Sword and Shield where you can see their logo on the unpossessed phone.
- If you start in the United States and dug a hole straight through the earth, you would end up in China, as the classic saying goes. This is called an "Antipodal Point". The Antipodal point of Madrid, give or take a few dozen miles, is a large isolated mountain in New Zealand with a lake named "Crater Lake" sitting at its peak. If Area Zero's clouds are in fact a portal to multiple locations, and the inscribed symbol was inspired by the Double Lozenge (two hearts joined as one), then could this location in North New Zealand be the other location connected to A0?

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Estão abertas vagas para uma grandiosa jornada através do reino de Ferelden (Thedas), lar de criaturas dos mais diversos tipos e tamanhos. Se achas que podes enfrentar tais perigos, procure na taverna mais próxima (Discord) pelo Sir Aida, este que vos fala. [YukimiAida#3094].
Novos aventureiros são bem-vindos nessa jornada, desde que se mostrem aptos para os desafios que virão.
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A mesa ocorre todo Domingo, das 18h às 21h (horário de Brasília) e todos que aceitarem jogar deverão seguir regras básicas de convivência. O candidatos não serão escolhidos por ordem de chegada. Boa sorte e boas rolagens a todos.