Avocado angel costume meaning

Wish I wanted these, but I'll stick to Game Theory summarizing them.

2023.06.09 22:24 Onlyhereforthelaughs Wish I wanted these, but I'll stick to Game Theory summarizing them.

Wish I wanted these, but I'll stick to Game Theory summarizing them.
$4.99 per book.
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2023.06.09 22:04 Profecionallystupid Respect Jason Grace Thread [All] (Long)

Some time ago, I made two posts with some of Percy's best feats. The first one can viewed here. And the second: here.
Now I know that Jason isn't the most liked character in the fandom, but I like him. So I wanted to scale him.
Contents: Strength, speed, reaction speed, skill, durability, actual powers, Tl;dscaling, closing segment.

He was able to throw a club hard enough to knock down a Venti. Even causing it to curve so that it would hit Dylan when he tried to doge:
Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked in the head so hard he fell to his knees
The Lost Hero
He was able to deflect a spear hit from a giant:
Jason raised his javelin to block the giant's next strike-a big mistake. Don't fight force with force, a voice chided him-the wolf Lupa, who told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.
The Lost Hero
The same giant was able to cause the entire mountain to shake just by slamming the butt of said spear into the ground:
Before they could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook.
The Lost Hero
Moving onto House of Hades, we see him casually shatter a metal with a kick, firmly putting him into the superhuman category of strength. Not only that, but he managed to stagger and knocked a giant to his knees:
One last time Jason flew at [Clytius], kicking him in the chest, and the giant's breastplate shattered. Clytius staggered backward..He fell to his knees, and the demigods encircled him
House of Hades
He was able to cut through a statue made of metal with help from Piper:
Piper and Jason went to work on Hygeia. They slashed through the statue's knees
Blood of Olympus
We are now done with Jason it the strength department. Obviously, he lacks many feats in this department, especially compared to Percy, but he is definitely stronger than an average human.
Speed:
He was able to stab a giant:
[Jason] rolled away from the giant's first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankle. Jason's javelin managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor-the blood of immortals-trickled down the giant's clawed foot.
The Lost Hero
This might not seem that impressive, but Jason was being slowed down by Gaea. The Giant was being helped by Gaea. Finally, the giant was predicting Jason's attacks:
Enceladus' spear missed him by a millimeter. Jason kept dodging, but the ground stuck to his feet. Gaea was getting stronger, and the giant was getting faster. Enceladus might be slow, but he was not dumb. He began anticipating Jason's moves, and Jason's attacks were only annoying him
The Lost Hero
We see this here again:
Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move.
The Lost Hero
Reaction/ combat speed. This is where Jason really shines. As he has several impressive feats:
He was able to keep up with Lit. The same guy who was so good, he earned the name Reaper of Men:
Lit charged.
The guy was fast. He slashed and sliced, and Jason could barely dodge the strikes, but his mind went into a different mode-analyzing patterns, learning Lit's style, which was all offense, no defense.
The Lost Hero
He can react to giants:
Jason raised his javelin to block the giant's next strike-a big mistake. Don't fight force with force, a voice chided him-the wolf Lupa, who told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.
The Lost Hero
He scales to Percy in reaction speed and was able to amaze Piper:
[Piper] rolled to the edge of the road and looked back, dazed and horrified, as [Percy and Jason] crossed swords, gold against bronze. Sparks flew. Their blades blurred-strike and parry-and the pavement trembled. The first exchange only took a second, but Piper couldn't believe the speed of their sword fighting.
Mark of Athena
The same guy who I scaled to have reaction speed as fast as 10 milliseconds. And the average human reacts at 250 milliseconds.
He can react to lightning:
Jason called down another lightning strike, but Ephialtes caught it on his spear and deflected the blast, melting a life-size plastic cow. He slammed a stone column out of his way like a stack of building blocks. Percy tried to keep the lake churning. He didn’t want Otis rising to join this fight, but as Ephialtes closed the last few feet, Percy had to switch focus. Jason and he met the giant’s charge. They lunged around Ephialtes, stabbing and slashing in a blur of gold and bronze, but the giant parried every strike. “I will not yield!” Ephialtes roared. “You may have ruined my spectacle, but Gaea will still destroy your world!” Percy lashed out, slicing the giant’s spear in half. Ephialtes wasn’t even fazed. The giant swept low with the blunt end and knocked Percy off his feet. Percy landed hard on his sword arm, and Riptide clattered out of his grip. Mark of Athena
While technically not reacting to lighting, Percy fought a giant who could, so Ephialtes' reaction speed=Percy's. What I'm getting at here is Ephialtes can react to lightning. Percy can keep up with Ephialtes. So Percy=Ephialtes' reaction speed. Jason=Percy reaction speed. Therefore, Jason=Ephialtes' reaction speed.
Too much for you to follow, here:
Jason swung at the first spirit. His blade passed through it and the creature's smoky form disintegrated. The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. Jason stepped in-one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder
The Lost Hero
There you go.
He reacts to arrows:
This time Jason's senses were on high alert. He felt the air ripple as an arrow materialized, racing towards Nico's chest.
Jason intercepted it with his sword and deflected it sideways.
House of Hades
Now, Romans use a type of composite bow called a Sagittarii. Composite bows can shoot arrows as a speed of 250 to 370 feet per second (76 to 113 m/s).
Also keep in mind that he is nearsighted. Giving him even less time to react than normal:
"Oh, of course!" Asclepius said. "You're a bit nearsighted! Simple fix."
He opened the drawer, whipped out a prescription pad and an eyeglasses case. He scribbled something on the pad, then handed the glasses and the scrip to Jason.
Blood of Olympus
So all in all, he has some fast reaction speed. Well above human.
Next up, skill.
He can keep up with Lit, a man so deadly, he was named the Reaper of Men:
Lit charged.
The guy was fast. He slashed and sliced, and Jason could barely dodge the strikes, but his mind went into a different mode-analyzing patterns, learning Lit's style, which was all offense, no defense.
The Lost Hero
He did all of this:
"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."
The Lost Hero
He killed the Trojan sea monster and killed a Titan without a weapon.
Durability:
He is immune to, or at least, resistant to electricity:
Dylan's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"
The Lost Hero
He survived this:
Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move. He swept his spear sideways and met Jason's javelin-and with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.
The explosion was hotter than the giant's breath, blinding Jason with golden light. The force knocked him off his feet and squeezed the breath out of him.
The Lost Hero
While this is an already impressive feat, we have this to make this even more impressive:
The javlin's destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick, glassy substance.
The lost Hero
He was uncut by plastic shrapnel:
Together, the giants picked up a fake mountain as big as Percy's New York apartment and hurled it at the demigods. Percy and Jason bolted. They dove into the nearest trench and the mountain shattered above them, spraying them with plastic shrapnel.
Mark of Athena
He can tank a hit from a giant trident, although he was in a lot of pain:
Jason managed to avoid the prongs of the trident again, but the giant swung the other end around and smacked him in the chest.
Jason reeled back, stunned and in pain. Polybotes came in for the kill. Just before the trident would have perforated him, Jason's ventus acted on its own. It spiraled sideways, whisking Jason thirty feet across the courtyard.
Powers. This is another place he is impressive in. He has several abilities he can call on in a clutch:
He can correct aim of things he throws:
Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked in the head so hard he fell to his knees
The Lost Hero
He can control air pressure:
[Jason] felt a tugging sensation in his gut, and the air pressure dropped so rapidly his ears popped.
The Lost Hero
He can summon Tempest, a horse made of wind and electricity:
Suddenly the air turned cold. Piper's ears popped. About fifty yards away, a miniature cyclone three stories tall tore across the tops of the sunflowers like a scene from The Wizard of Oz. It touched down on the road next to Jason and took the form of a horse-a misty steed with lightning flickering through its body
Mark of Athena
Jason and Percy working together can create a massive storm:
On the deck of the Argo II, Percy and Jason stood together, their swords crossed. Annabeth got a tingle down her spine as she realized the boys were working together as one, summoning the sky and the sea to do their bidding. Water and wind churned together. Waves heaved against the ramparts and lightning flashed. Giant eagles were knocked out of the sky. Wreckage of the flying chariot burned in the water, and Coach Hedge swung a mounted crossbow, taking potshots at the Roman birds as the flew overhead.
The Mark of Athena
Jason can fly and carry people with him:
Jason summoned the wind to carry him and Piper to shore
Mark of Athena
He can cause water to boil and temporarily blind Piper:
BOOM! Lightning stirred the water into a boiling cauldron, steaming and hissing with electricity. Piper blinked the yellow spots out her eyes as the god Achelous wailed and dissolved under beneath the surface
Mark of Athena
He can use wind offensively:
The demigods rolled to either side, and Jason summoned the wind, using the giant's own momentum to shove him into the water
Mark of Athena
He can get angry enough to generate electricity:
the air turned electric-literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks.
Mark of Athena
He can melt iron and cause gold to steam:
Just then, thunder boomed overhead. Lightning flashed, and the bars on the nearest window burst into sizzling, melted stubs of iron.
Jason flew in like Peter Pan, electricity sparking around him and his gold sword steaming.
House of Hades
Jason has the ability to track people who use winds as a method of transport so things like air spirits can't run from him:
Jason couldn't exactly see him, but he'd had enough experience controlling the wind that he could track the angel's path-a warm wisp of red and gold zipping across the street..
House of Hades
He can control the four winds and even construct this out of wind:
[Jason] thrust out his hand. A swirl of dust shot toward the nearest horse. A lasso-a rope of wind, more tightly wound than any tornado-wrapped around the horse's neck. ..In less than a minute he had tethered all four venti. He reined them in, still whining and bucking, but they couldn't break Jason's rope. It felt like flying four kites in a strong wind-hard, yes, but not impossible.
House of Hades
He uses wind defensively:
Jason summoned gusts of wind to last aside javelins and arrows. He deflected a vial of Greek fire right up the throat of a gryphon, which burst into flames and spiraled into the pit.
House of Hades
He can carry others without having to fly himself:
Three dead Romans rose into the air and flew across the chasm. Then three more joined them. Finally Jason flew himself across and his squad began cutting through some very surprised-looking telkhines
House of Hades
He can use a sword or a javelin:
Jason slashed his gladius in a wide arc, vaporizing the nearest suitors; then he vaulted onto the table and jumped over Antinous' head. In midair he willed his bade to extend into a javelin-a trick he'd never tried with this sword-but somehow he knew it would work.
Blood of Olympus
He once more demonstrates his ability to create objects from air and now he can encase himself in air armor:
[Jason] raised his arm and summoned a lasso of wind... He lashed out with his wind rope, searching for strongest, most ornery *ventus in the storm.
He lassoed a nasty patch of storm cloud and pulled it in. "You're serving me today."
Howling in protest, the ventus encircled him. The storm above the ship seemed to lessen just a bit, as if the other venti were thinking Oh, crud. That guy means business.
Jason levitated off the deck, encased in his own miniature tornado. Spinning like a corkscrew, he plunged into the water.
Jason is capable of summoning weird lightning stuff at the bottom of the ocean. Also worth noting it is still as deadly and didn't shock Percy who was also in the water next to him. On top of that, he can now separate the volts to attack multiple targets instead of just one:
But [Jason] couldn't think of a better option. He thrust up his sword. Immediately the blade glowed red-hot.
A diffuse cloud of yellow light billowed through the depths, like someone had poured liquid neon into the water. The light hit Jason's sword and splayed outward in ten separate tendrils, zapping the basiliks.
Blood of Olympus
He can carry a current throughout his body, holding it for latter:
With a deafening blast, a white-hot bolt arced from the sky, straight through Jason's body as he leaped, wreathed in lightning, at the giant king.
Jason fell on King Porphyrion with such force that the giant crumpled to his knees-blasted with lightning and stabbed in the neck with a golden gladius.
He can blast a 30 foot giant off a clif:
Porphyrion lashed out wildly with his spear, but Jason cut it in half with his gladius. He charged in, jabbing his sword through the giant's breastplate, then summoned the winds and blasted Porphyrion off the edge of the cliff.
Blood of Olympus
Tl;dr and scaling: So Jason is powerful. He is definitely superhuman in al physical states. I am going to say, city level durability. His power level is at mountain level.
Closing segment: Honestly I think he could have been more powerful if we'd seen him in more books. Also I didn't use a Trials of Apollo feats as there I didn't find any. If you see any feats I missed let me know so I can scale them. So what did you think? Did this make you see Jason as more or less powerful than you originally thought? Who else would you like me to scale?
Respect Jason Grace, son of the sky god, Zeus!
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2023.06.09 21:57 dlschindler [Murder Of Crows] S1E5 My Crow Speaks To The Sleepless

"I hate zingers. I was told, growing up, that they are for the weak-minded. Like a 'Jedi mind trick', you know?" Detective Winters was doing something on his phone in our hotel room. His voice startled me as I lay half asleep on my own bed. He was sitting on his bed, half undressed, smoking under the fire alarm. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Will you open a window? Cory has very small lungs." I requested.
"Cough." Cory said in perfect English. Then my talking crow imitated the hacking and coughing of Detective Winters in the middle of the night. It went on for about as long as a mummer's dance and then ended with the sound of a man spitting.
"Jesus would have sworn for a bird like that." Detective Winters applauded the performance and then used the lit cigarette in his mouth to light another and then he put the smoldering one in his mouth and used the lit one again to finish lighting the fresh tobacco. Then he accidentally scattered the rest of the brown stringy stuff all over the floor. He swept the remains of his new rolling kit off with the spill and shrugged, laid back, and puffed away.
"Goodness." Cory flitted down and inspected the stuff. He liked it too much and I told him to stay out of it.
A knock came upon the door. I already had a bad feeling. I'd read my horoscope and Detective Winters's too. We both had it coming our way. Nothing good could come from 'non-dairy starlight' and 'niche holes on the border'. Those phrases meant no sense, and yet our stars translated to those words, as they danced drunkenly across the keyboard of the starry skies.
"You get that." I stiffened.
"Uh, I always get it." Detective Winters smiled at me weirdly for being weird. He wasn't feeling the terror I felt. For a man who hated zingers: he sure took fear literally.
"One knock, my Lord. Very bad." Cory told me. I nodded, I already knew something was terribly amiss. Just because the armed and half naked policeman in my bedroom was blundering forward to grip the doorhandle without regard, didn't mean that we were safe. Only terror gripped my heart as my crow went to the bedpost and squawked in alarm, "Must go now!"
He opened the door and it was the same maid from before. She was wearing her regular street clothes instead of her uniform. She reminded Detective Winters that he was a policeman. He agreed and she asked him if, as a policeman, he could help her. He agreed to that too.
I didn't want to go, but I had no choice. Gagging and swaying stiffly like a terrified zombie I went with them; knowing this was going to be very bad, because I had read those weird horoscopes and believed them. Sweat shot out from my upper lip as I gibbered helplessly in dread:
"Where are we going?" I asked in apprehensive discernment, finally getting the words out of my sweaty lips.
"We are going to Sesame Street and Brooklyn Ave. You ever gone there before?" He accepted one of the woman's menthol cigarettes and fumbled with the book of matches from the hotel that was in the ashtray of his car. Then he put the cigarette to his lips and lit it while driving. He eventually cracked the window and let out most of the smoke.
"Why don't you open your window?" The woman asked. I was very afraid of the kind of trouble she was asking for. If I opened the window I might lose Cory in an awful way. Trembling I reached out and took the window's lever and opened the window a crack. Then I reached over and got the other one too. She smiled, like a golden devil, and cracked her window and then got her's down to about halfway. By then only the odor of the smoke remained.
"That's probably good." I gulped.
We got to her apartment and went inside to meet her husband and her son. The boy was tied to his bed and his eyes were terrifying and horrible. His face was monstrous and contorted and looked like a bad makeup special effect. Except that was his actual flesh. He struggled mightily and for a moment it was as though he would break free and rampage like an angry animal. His teeth glowed in the shade, sharp and ready to bite. He looked at us.
As his eyes met Detective Winters, the man froze. Then some of his hair started to wither and wilt. It became brittle and grey. He staggered backward and fell. I tried to avoid the gaze of whatever that was. It only wore her son, but something else was with us, watching us from within him. As Detective Winters made the communion of eye contact it had known him and known itself to him. Thus kin to its ways, he had fallen to the shock and horror of something unfathomably horrifying beyond words. The meaning of such a thing is simply instinctive, and to not know it is a blessing, and it cannot be known to someone until they have seen it, smelled the fruit-candy sweetness and the sulfur of its breath. Heard the voice of an angel, but not one from Heaven.
"Open the window." It commanded. The voice of this creature was not made by a human-will, yet it was from the lips of a child. Horrible and deep and grinding like a thousand souls on wheels of torture, all crying out this one phrase in unison, and then as one voice together and tormented and irresistible.
I quaked and fell back against the wall, refusing to look at it. I crept along the wall until I got to the shades. Then I drew them and let in the light. I gasped at the surreal horror I could see then:
The whole city was covered in flesh. Parts of people twitched and dripped and dangled everywhere. Skinless ones dragged their feet, leaving trails of themselves as they went. I heard a rumbling, or rather saw it, sensed it somehow. The clouds convulsed and began to drip and it was then raining. The rain was blood.
I screamed and fell back. Cory flapped around the room and the demonic thing with us was laughing. I clawed my way to the door, frantically. Detective Winters got up suddenly, and with a wild look in his eyes. His head was struck upon the shelf and a clacking monkey doll with chimes fell free onto my back as I crawled out the bedroom door.
The vision of ultimate horror burned the landscape into my memory. Once it is seen, it cannot be unseen. As I looked around I could still feel its presence on everything. I clawed at the floor, slick with the butcher's offal, but it was just the carpet. The fear was real, and as I held myself and cried in terror: I knew the carnage was still all around me, invisible. There were bodies hung from ropes, and chopped apart, and torn, and there were dead staked to the ceiling, and vivisectioned. Only I knew they were there, even if I couldn't see them. I had seen them and knew they still remained. My heartbeat slowed and I felt the clacking of the monkey on my back. I shook myself free of it and went and hid in a corner.
"My son, he is feeling better! You two have cured him! How do you do this? No exorcism? Nothing?" The father was in tears and holding up his son for us.
"Let's get out of here." Detective Winters helped me up. Cory rode on my outstretched left arm, nervously. I kept lowering my arm to which he would click his disapproval, each time. Detective Winters helped my shocked frame into the car and tossed the toy monkey onto the seat next to me. It had most likely followed us out of the apartment, or else he had carried it. Certainty is for the weak-minded, I concluded, as I stared at its malevolent glass eyes.
We got back to the hotel room and one of us put the monkey on top of the television.
"Time to get some sleep." Detective Winters stated. He laid down stiffly, like some kind of rigid corpse.
"Must go now." Cory hid behind my head on the pillow and softly called.
I watched sleeplessly as the horrible thing sat there atop the television. I could only speculate that it was the cause of the child's malady and that removing it had made everything better. I stared at the infinite evil in its dark glass eyes. Suddenly it started to chime its little chimes, clashing them loudly in the darkness.
"Oh, gawd! It's awake!" I yelled and sat up. Cory fluttered around on the bed, flapping frantically.
"What! What's happening?" Detective Winters woke to a start.
We laid back down and I started to fall asleep. As my eyes slowly started to close the absolute terror I had felt since the beginning was starting to subside just enough to catch my breath. Maybe I would not get left forgotten in the starry skies. Perhaps the wall of sleep had an unlocked door for me to get through safely to the other side. My eyes were fluttering shut when suddenly the monkey chimed again, evilly and terrifyingly in the dark.
"That thing!" I shrieked in gross terror as I woke suddenly.
In the darkness its shape sat there ready to pounce on the sleeper. It was watching our eyes close with its own eyes always wide open and staring, shining in the darkness. The toothy grin of the diabolical creature anticipated this third calamity upon our dying nerves.
My sleep brought the image of the mirrored eyes. I stared into a mirror, seeing its marble glass amid the tufted spiky hair. The monkey in the mirror wanted out; as I dreamed in a delirious fog. My dreams told me of its true nature in the true world. The one we shared alongside it.
The doll was merely where its existence met ours, like a kind of intact vortex. The space between the walls of the whirlpool, as it drains into the darkness, gurgling. I was staring too deeply into that darkness and there it was. I could see its true form there. It clambered up out of the darkness, held back only by the glass of the mirror.
Enraged, the monkey glared and snarled at me. It showed its sharp teeth and then it began hitting the glass. It threw itself against the glass over and over. As the glass fractured and broke, it began the crawl through, shrieking and snarling in terrifying rage. Its flesh was cut to the bone and it peeled off its own face coming through the broken glass like that. Then it came crawling across the floor to get to me, its hate-filled eyes glimmering over its vicious teeth.
Sleep was not a safe place to be. The chime blasted again, clanging loudly and diabolically. I jerked to my feet with a start, the image of the nightmare still clinging to what I thought I was seeing.
Except as I blinked away the nightmare I could see the dark liquid of its true form writhing back into the shape of the doll. Its shadows scattered across the wall like animated flames with no color. The foul smell of sweet and rotting things filled the air. I could hear its growl from the doll and from all around and from within my own mind, echoing from the memory of Dream.
Then without warning there was a loud detonation and blinding flash. The doll exploded into thousands of tiny sticks that were painted in red stripes. Detective Winters put his gun back into the holster.
"Perhaps now, we can get some sleep." He had a bent rolly in his mouth with bits of tobacco sticking out of it every which way. He managed to get it lit without setting it on fire and smoked it for a minute before he snuffed it out.
"I am too afraid to." I yawned.
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2023.06.09 21:56 npc-69420 [Excerpt: The Eye of Medusa] The secrets of the Iron Hands and their cold grudge against the Raven Guard

CONTEXT: The Iron Hands can simulate any recorded memory of past Iron Hands. This is used for training, intelligence and so on.
Stronos is an Iron Hands Marine. He is often disliked and mistrusted by his comrades due to his reluctance to embrace the mantra of the flesh being weak. Although he has significant augmentations himself, something about the Iron Hands' cold adherence to algorithms in battle and decision making bothers him.
As Stronos continues to question the doctrines and practices of his chapter, he begins to unravel the secrets of the Iron Hands which make the Dark Angels' internal politics look like children's play.
PART 1: THE CONCLAVE: Iron Father Kristos is a controversial, but increasingly powerful figure in the Iron Hands. His rise to power came with his crushing of a WAAAGH, but the specifics of that campaign are simultaneously very controversial & secretive.
His actions were so controversial, a conclave was created by Kristos to represent him to the Iron Council. Despite the controversy he creates, Kristos is incredibly powerful both as an individual and a commander.
“Blessings and benedictions of Mars.’ Velt smiled graciously. ‘Your criticisms are noted and welcomed–’ the scratching of meme-quill on parchment recorded his contrition for the future historians ‘–and I will be improved for the recognition of my prior failings.’
‘See to it,’ Verrox grumbled.
‘I will, Iron Father. As you know, the Iron Council demands the uprising be crushed immediately and utterly. To the last soul. Word of the Iron Hands’ failure to prevent insurrection within their own system limits cannot be allowed to spread. It will draw unwelcome attention at a difficult time, when the conclave of Kristos continues to engender discord within.’
‘I do not care what others think.’
‘What you will not have heard in open council,’ Velt went on, ‘is that Warleader Kristos himself has demanded the Mechanicus resolve this insurrection.’
‘Former warleader,’ said Verrox. ‘The Iron Fathers have chosen not to elevate one of our number to lead. Not since the debacle on Columnus.’
‘Putative,’ Quorus reprimanded the Iron Father. ‘The morality of Iron Father Kristos’ methodology remains in dispute. That is the entire basis of the conclave. He would undoubtedly emphasise that the Weirdwaaagh was crushed with minimal losses.”
So we can glimpse from conversations about him that Kristos is both disliked and respected. Guymer does an excellent job of portraying Kristos as someone worthy of this reputation, but most noteworthy is the mention of the Weirdwaaagh that he crushed.
Why is it so controversial? Stronos does not actively seek out the truth but it is eventually given to him.
PART 2: DISCORD BETWEEN IRON FATHERS: In this section, Stronos is shaken after learning a member of the Raven Guard was able to sneak around him undetected. He goes to the tech priests for a check-up and an upgrade, but encounters Tubriik Ares, an Iron Father and a Dreadnought.
“Is Stronos injured?’
Stronos considered silence, but decided that he could keep nothing from the ancient. ‘I am defective. I seek to rectify that.’
‘How so?’
‘The Raven’s son proved himself my superior. I must improve and adapt.’
‘Improve and adapt.’ Ares’ vocabularisers rumbled with scorn. ‘We recall a time when Iron Hands were less like Kristos and more like Kardan Stronos. They were ruthless, yes, but adaptable, not slaves to calculus.”
The calculus is a complex, algorithmic system that dictates every part of a battle to the Iron Hands. Most Iron Hands will follow the calculus to the letter during a battle, a practice that Stronos himself dislikes but is pushed for very strongly by Kristos and his conclave.
Interestingly, Ares, a Dreadnought and an Iron Father, dislikes the modern Iron Hands' reverence of it.
“The Kristosian question makes all matters subject to doubt,’ Stronos said to Ares, voice low. ‘All will be as it once was once the arguments are resolved.’
Ares turned from the Apothecary to him. His emptiness seemed for a moment… sorrowful. ‘Kardan Stronos speaks of the arguments, but what does he know of the question, for there is only one?’
Stronos made to formulate an answer, only to realise he had none. Often he had railed against the waste of energy that the conclave brought on the Iron Council, but had never found the time to learn for himself what, in effect, it was all for. He shook his head honestly. He had been built to be a war machine. This round voyage to Medusa was the first time since his novitiation that he had not been either in the thick of a warzone or in transit from one to another.”
Ares' sorrow is a noteworthy reaction. A sign that not all Iron Hands condone the actions of Kristos.
“I know little of Kristos beyond his roll of honours,’ said Stronos, stung. ‘I know that he was once considered an exemplar of the Iron Creed.’
‘As it is now interpreted for you, perhaps.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ demanded Haas [the Apothecary working on Stronos].
Ares did not answer directly. ‘It began on Columnus,’ he said.
‘Everyone knows that,’ Haas said, dismissively, then picked up a spoon-headed implement from his medicae trolley and bent towards Stronos.
‘And what happened there to cause such crisis?’ Ares countered.
Stronos couldn’t answer. He looked to Haas. The Apothecary let out a frustrated sigh and said nothing, focusing instead on Stronos’ eye. He had no answer either.”
PART 3: THE CALCULUS: To show him the truth, Ares takes Stronos to the Simulus. With the Simulus, Stronos can experience the memories of anyone at the event - the Simulus uses complex algorithms and calculations to accurately simulate the POV of anyone at a recorded event, even if the perspective of that individual is not recorded in data.
The simulus jumps to the planet Columnus where the Raven Guard and the Iron Hands are fighting an Ork Waaagh together. Stronos sees the events from the perspective of Captain Stenn
Stronos canted, and though he was unconscious of his physical body he could somehow feel that he spoke with a strained jaw and through gritted teeth.
He had a bitter, illogical loathing for the descendants of Corax that he could not explain. Having just experienced a small part of Orvid Stenn’s existence, he felt that he should feel greater empathy for his brother Space Marine, but he did not. What he felt was greater ambivalence, as though along with his body he had been dissociated from everything of his own experience that could have made him care. He was not Orvid Stenn, and the dissonant notion arose that he might equally not be Kardan Stronos. He was nobody, and anybody had the potential to be him.
He was simulus – the collective.”
...
“The Raven Guard were spread along the length of the thigh-height rockcrete wall that demarcated the bombed-out lot of haulage depot 764 from the adjoining premises. It wasn’t much, but it was something. With the exception of some minor damage, it had weathered the destruction of the outer defences relatively intact, a credit to the Administratum clerk that had overseen its construction, and ran roughly parallel to where the curtain wall had been until ten minutes before.”
After being driven back by the Orks, the Imperial forces realize that the Waaagh is being led by a warpboss who is granting the orks unnatural bravery and fierceness. The Raven Guard hold the front line alongside mortal troops.
“He had heard in dispatches of the psychic energies that flowed through their Gargants – weapon grids, shields and piercing uncanny augurs – and that brought their lumpen drop ships to ground still. He had heard too of the court of warpheads with which the self-styled warpboss, Zagdakka, surrounded himself, and had lost two squads of his most experienced Scouts in a failed attempt at thinning their “numbers. He saw now with his own eyes the weird energy that flowed through these greenskins in their battle-madness like some manner of psychic connective tissue, the brawn and sinew of some gestalt ork that drove them unto death with a single, overriding will. The fire discipline of the Raven Guard and their mortal allies slaughtered greenskins every minute by the hundred, but they didn’t seem to care, hurling themselves recklessly against the Imperial guns as though possessed.
Not that the blasted Iron Hands would allow for the slightest deviation from their precious calculus. Stenn sneered, his pistol emitting a final hiss as coolant jets sprayed from the weapon’s muzzle and the vents locked. He thumbed off the safety and selected rapid fire.
He could teach the Iron Hands a thing or two about logic.
‘Kristos, you honourless shell, I’m talking to you.’ He raged into the vox as he seared the heaving mass of orks with plasma. Too soon, heat warnings blinked red on the pistol’s side and he was forced to flick back to vent. ‘I need reinforcements and I need them now. Now, Kristos! I want a creeping artillery barrage walking outwards from the outer “wall over the southern highway and I want aeronautica backup. Kristos!”
As the Raven Guard fight tooth and nail, Captain Stenn and the rest of the Raven Guard realize the Iron Hands are standing behind them but not engaging.
“A squad of Iron Hands Centurions, almost as well camouflaged as the Raven Guard themselves in their huge black warsuits and perfect stillness. Their hurricane bolters were unloaded and pointed at the ground or at walls, whichever direction they had happened to be facing when the strange malaise of inaction had taken them. Stenn regarded them with fury. The few Iron Hands he had seen had been that way, ever since the unexpected psychic onslaught had levelled the south wall outright. At first he had wondered if it was a secondary effect of Zagdakka’s powers, but the Raven Guard and their mortal allies were unaffected. Yavid had a replacement eye as well as a bionic arm and he remained functional, as did the crew interfaces of their vehicles. As did the damned skitarii.”
...
“The Centurions moved!
There they were, silent as the blown-out repair shops through which they came, ghosts of the machine bound forever to a doomed cycle of destruction and repair. The firepower of the Centurions alone would have ripped a hole into the ork horde as wide as the gates of the Ravenspire, but six full squads of Tactical Marines also moved up through the rubble behind them. They spread out, taking fire-positions just beyond the chokepoint where Stenn’s efforts held the orks at bay. What were they waiting for? He saw a pair of hellfire Dreadnoughts lumbering into position either side of the smaller Centurions, and then heard the weary collapse of a pockmarked stretch of rockcrete as the glacis plate of a Redeemer pattern Land Raider drove through it. Its sponson flamestorm cannons traversed to track the flows of the ork horde, liquid promethium dribbling to the rubble floor.
Stenn cursed as he punched his lightning claw through a charging ork’s ribs. Never expect an Iron Hand to commit until he was good and ready.”
...
“What are you waiting for?’ He shot an ork in the face as it made to barrel towards Yavid, and found himself in the sights of the nearest Iron Hands squad. They had bolters locked and aimed, but for some reason held their fire. Their eye slits shone an ephemeral white, but they could have been decoy suits for all the urgency they showed. ‘Shoot, curse you!’
A horrible sense of premonition grew under his skin like a worm. Stenn looked over his shoulder and >> RESTRICTED DATA >>
The simulus is interrupted and Stronos learns from Ares that these events have been hidden from normal viewers. However, the data cannot be falsified even by Iron Fathers so Ares and Stronos continue watching.
We continue watching the Raven Guard struggle against the Warpwaaagh as the Raven Guard line begins to fall. Captain Stenn valiantly holds the line but warp powered orks are chipping away at the Raven Guard. He recognizes that the Iron Hands are holding back because of their calculus, but does not anticipate the final tactic the calculus commands.
“Stenn gave a grunt of pain as psychic fingers tightened around him and squeezed. ‘Damn you >> RESTRICTED DATA >> Just kill me yourself.’ His armour cracked like a sea-crustacean’s shell, blood spurting from ruptured seals as his body was crushed. He screamed, genhanced anatomy fighting a battle with pain that had been stacked well against it from the outset. ‘Emperor forgive you!’
With every scrap of conscious thought locked away in hardened centres of his brain structure he cursed the Iron Hands. He cursed the casual brutality, the bare calculation of risk versus reward. His last thoughts before those final redoubts succumbed to braindeath were not of the pain, nor of his brother Raven Guard that fell to the mind-blasts of the warpboss’ retinue, nor even of the Iron Hands themselves as they finally descended on the fray. With the enemy leaders bottled up with the last of the Raven Guard, the Iron Hands opened fire. Tactical Marines, Centurions, Land Raiders, each warrior a cog in a war machine that sprayed fire to a perfectly choreographed maelstrom that consumed Warpboss Zagdakka, his retinue, the Raven Guard, and Stenn himself.
But he was not thinking about that. He was thinking about Dawnbreak.
Because Iron Hands did not make mistakes.
>>> TERMINATING SIMULUS.”
TL;DR The Raven Guard and Iron Hands are defending against a Warpwaaagh. In the final, climactic battle, the Iron Hands under the command of Kristos and the calculus, determine that the most efficient way to win the battle was to use the RG and IG as human shields, and only fire once the Warpboss was in range. Kristos rises to infamy because of his methods, which resulted in minimal losses for the IH.
In part, this incident is linked to an innate hatred of the Raven Guard that many Iron Hands have. However, as implied when Stronos first enters the calculus, it's suggested that this hatred has been programmed into the Iron Hands' calculus.
The calculus itself isn't unlike incredibly important algorithms that exist in companies today. Any changes require a collective vote, and the entities that have worked on it include Iron Fathers and important tech priests. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of conspiracies. If you want to find out how the Iron Hands are actually way worse than the Dark Angels in terms of secret circles and internal politics, I highly recommend Guymer's books.
Stronos is one of the most complex Space Marine protagonists I've read. He believes in many of the Iron Hands' tenets, yet cannot help but question aspects that the rest of his peers readily accept. It's an interesting look at how the dogmatic attitudes of the Space Marines often prime them for corruption as much as it protects them.
submitted by npc-69420 to 40kLore [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:54 cstar373 Riley’s age

There is a lot of debate on this subreddit on whether or not the physical age difference between Buffy and Angel matters despite him being a centuries old vampire. However, I never see people bring up the actual human age gap between Buffy and Riley. Buffy is in her first semester of freshman year when she meets him. Riley being a grad student means that he’s most likely at least 22 but could be older. As someone that is the same stage of life as Riley I find it super weird for him to want to date a freshman let alone one in the class he’s a TA for. If any of my friends that are 22-24 were dating an 18 year old I’d be very judgmental. I get that it’s legal but when you’re discussing average human relationships instead of a fantastical one, you are at two vastly different points of life at those ages. I find it strange of the writers to make her “normal human boyfriend” also older.
submitted by cstar373 to buffy [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:50 autobuzzfeedbot 19 Actors Who Accused Their Costars Of Behaving Like Monsters On-Set

  1. Alexa Nikolas opened up in 2019 about Jamie Lynn Spears and other Zoey 101 cast members allegedly bullying her on the set of the teen show. Nikolas was notably written out of the show after Season 2.
  2. Another celeb accused of bullying on set is Lea Michele. After guest star Samantha Marie Ware accused Michele of racist bullying involving “traumatic microaggressions," Amber Riley seemed to support the claims after posting a GIF of her sipping tea, and Alex Newell also took to social media to support Ware's claims. Heather Morris later revealed there was a "hush hush" atmosphere about Lea's "scary" on-set behavior.
  3. John Leguizamo says costar Steven Seagal bullied him and others during Executive Decision, and claims he even physically assaulted Leguizamo during the first day of rehearsals.
  4. David Yost, who memorably played the blue power ranger in the '90s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, says he was bullied so badly that he had to leave the show, shortly thereafter experiencing a nervous breakdown. Yost claimed the bullying — including being called anti-gay slurs like the f-slur — was incessant, and came from creators, producers, writers, and directors. "Basically, I just felt like I was continually being told I was not worthy of being where I am because I'm a gay person. And I'm not supposed to be an actor. And I'm not a superhero," he later said, revealing the bullying caused him to become suicidal.
  5. Decades after the '80s sitcom Charles in Charge, star Scott Baio was accused of sexual harassment by two of his then-teenaged costars: Alexander Polinsky and Nicole Eggert.
  6. Eggert accused Baio of molestation during her time on the show, which began when she was 14. The abuse allegedly continued until Eggert was 17, with Baio telling Eggert if she told anyone, the show would end and they would all be out of jobs. Baio has denied any inappropriate touching and says they had a onetime consensual encounter when Eggert was 18.
  7. Jerry Lewis was accused of sexual harassment after his death. Karen Sharpe, who appeared with Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly, said she was forced to model her wardrobe for Lewis. “He grabbed me. He began to fondle me. He unzipped his pants," Sharpe claimed. She says he then isolated her, asking that no one else speak to her on set.
  8. Hope Holiday also accused Lewis of assault, saying that he brought her into his office and locked the door during her first day on set of The Ladies Man. “He starts to talk dirty to me, and as he’s talking, the pants open, and the ugly thing came out and he starts to masturbate," Holiday revealed.
  9. In 2017, Trace Lysette accused Jeffrey Tambor of sexual harassment on the set of Transparent, describing one incident where he said, "I want to attack you sexually" before filming a scene, then "waddled over to me in his pajamas and put his feet on top of mine, and started these little, like, thrusts on my hip. They were discreet and insidious and creepy. I felt his genitals on me. And I pushed him off.”
  10. Rebel Wilson recently opened up about "awful and disgusting" sexual harassment from a male costar, though she did not name who. "He called me into a room and pulled down his pants," she revealed, saying the costar then asked her to perform a sexual act. Afraid of retaliation and wanting to be a "professional," Wilson stayed on the project, though she said, "Definitely amongst industry circles, I made sure people knew what happened."
  11. Lili Reinhart also says she was sexually harassed by an unnamed costar early in her career. "I was a teenager working on a project when I started to have a crush on a guy I was working with," she explained in a Tumblr post. "He was pretty significantly older than me, but I thought of myself as mature so it didn’t seem like a big deal." Reinhart says that he later tried to force himself on her. "I had to stop him and say, 'No, I don’t want that,' and 'I can’t do that.' I physically walked away from the situation before it could get any worse. I remember feeling like this was a scene right out of a horror movie."
  12. Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women — including The Cosby Show costars Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl. Bernard alleged that Cosby had drugged and raped her on multiple occasions in the '90s, while Tirl alleged that in 1989, Cosby touched her without consent in his dressing room. Cosby was convicted in 2018 on multiple counts of sexual assault (after being accused by over 50 women), though this was overturned in 2021.
  13. Daniel Franzese (best known for playing Damian in Mean Girls) accused Bully costar Bijou Phillips of being an actual bully on the set of the film. “She body-shamed me and ridiculed me about my sexuality and physically assaulted me," he said, revealing he was scared to speak up and lose his job.
  14. Geena Davis accused Bill Murray of making her lie in a bed while he used a massage device on her while they were costarring in Quick Change together, despite her saying no multiple times. She also said he verbally berated many in the cast and crew, including Davis herself. She's also discussed inappropriate behavior during the press tour for the film.
  15. In fact, Murray has been accused of bad behavior by a number of costars, including Seth Green, who appeared with Murray on Saturday Night Live when Green was just 9. He was sitting on the arm of Murray's chair backstage when he says Murray picked him up, dangled him over the trash can, and said "the trash goes in the trash can." Green flailed until he hit Murray in the balls, causing Murray to drop him and Green to fall into the trash can, which fell over. Green then ran into his dressing room, hid under the table, and cried.
  16. Murray has also been accused of “inexcusable and unacceptable” comments toward Lucy Liu during rehearsals for their film Charlie's Angels.
  17. Eliza Dushku was fired from the series Bull after complaining about sexual harassment from her costar Michael Weatherly. Dushku detailed how she “found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized, and lewd verbal assaults" and "suffered near constant sexual harassment" from Weatherly. "This was beyond anything I had experienced in my 30-year career," she said.
  18. While star Judy Garland herself never publicly stated these allegations, her ex-husband Sid Luft wrote in his memoir that the actors playing the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz would put their hands up her skirt. Garland was 16, and many of the men were in their 40s.
  19. And finally, according to the documentary Celluloid Crime of the Century and the book Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, Sandra Peabody (who went by the name Sandra Cassel at the time) was horribly mistreated by her male costars on the set of The Last House on the Left. Marc Sheffler admitted to threatening to throw her off a cliff to try to rile her up for a scene (though in 2018 he stated she was not in real danger), and David Hess allegedly threatened to actually assault her in a rape scene they were about to film.
Link to article
submitted by autobuzzfeedbot to buzzfeedbot [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:50 dwago Assassins creed origins, standard, or gold edition?

I don’t know which one to buy, honestly I never understood what season pass means as well. Do we not own the entire dlc forever if it’s season pass? Like it’s rented?
I just want all the dlc that includes new missions or story that’s possible I don’t really want costumes or overpowered early items.
Can you help me decide if I should buy it or not? It’s also gonna be the first Assassin’s creed I can hopefully finish since the pc port of the first one crashes on me when you get to a certain point halfway through which sucks.
submitted by dwago to ShouldIbuythisgame [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:44 Cosmosly I found the PERFECT stock, and I’m betting everything on it.

I found the PERFECT stock, and I’m betting everything on it.
Disclaimer: this is my own stupid thinking, not investment advice. Ask your wife’s boyfriend if this is right for you.

Summary

Feel like you missed out on winners, or were too scared to put in your Doordash check? $SOFI is literally the next big thing. Bears/bulls, value/growth, regards/chads- it fits every DD. I’m so sure I maxed out my entire life savings. Considering a line of credit on my mom’s house and a margin loan next.
PROOF w/ my brokerage, 401k, Roth, and Robinhood options
Brokerage and 401k (in the process of converting the stock losers)
Roth
Robinhood options

This is NOT some SPAC bagholder trying to boost the stock price, nor is it a 0DTE cokehead move. This is a rational thesis for (I believe) a smart equity play. Did I see it go up a few cents, cream my pants, and think I’m the next Buffett writing this post? Maybe. In my opinion this is a 100% small penis 4-bagger and I’m sharing it like Moses with acid tabs.
Here’s the 4-point DD for you with ADHD:
  • It’s Robinhood, but actually good for you
  • The company is in great shape
  • Permabears and bulls have reasons to love it
  • The brand is (let me explain) the next JPMorgan Chase

Thesis

Product
  • SoFi is actually a great product. Is it the BEST? Fuck no. But it’s like the goldilocks/Anna Kendrick of all apps. The Friday night reliable.
  • The company is going for this generation’s next big bank. It is a high-interest, chartered (4.3% APY) and offers everything you need under the sun.
  • The whole company’s theme is: “Get your money right.” They want to be the one-stop shop for all your MONEY needs and they do it with a bank teller smile.
  • SoFi will be your ride or DIE. Student loan refi, your job’s direct deposit, a loan for that cock ring, a credit card for that solo trip to Thailand, a HELOC for that YOLO stock play. It goes on and on.
  • They have consumers in mind, and not in a fake old lady See’s Candy kind of way. For example: if you lose your job and can’t pay your student debt, they will pause your payments and help you find a job. No joke. Look beyond the news and you’ll see people are over the moon about their relationship with SoFi.
  • They have a few bad spots (dogshit trading platform and ETFs that never move), but they are trying so fucking hard. I could go on and on, but it’s 5:49am (couldn’t sleep, came up with this post in a fever dream) and I have a ton more to write.
  • They also have Galileo and Technisys, which are like new PVC pipes for the financial system. I’m literally too smoothbrained to explain this, all you need to know is there is a lot of real interest from banks and companies to use these products. /sofistock has nerds who can explain this to you.
Financials
  • Okay here comes the boring stuff, so skip this if you don’t care about amateur due diligence.
  • Remember when banks used to pay good interest, then you realized they were pocketing it all? People are realizing and going to SoFi. When the bank crisis happened and everyone was moving their money out, SoFi actually GAINED deposits. The company has said they are on-track to add $2B each quarter, and management are known to low-ball their estimates. NINETY PERCENT of their customers use direct deposit for their premium membership SoFi Plus, which will only accelerate the trend. You know how hard it is to change banks with direct deposit. Sticky as shit.
https://preview.redd.it/jht14744q15b1.jpg?width=782&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f143ae9fa6210dc26662fedaf0acca27d72010e8
  • SoFi has EIGHT fucking quarters of consecutive revenue growth, is EBITDA profitable (whatever that’s worth to you), and is projected to be GAAP profitable by Q4. I think there’s an outside chance this happens in Q3. Dig into it more if you want to Burry it https://s27.q4cdn.com/749715820/files/doc_financials/2023/q1/Q1-23-Investor-Presentation_.pdf
  • SoFi is growing WHILE student loans have been paused. Name a better miracle. They replaced it by diversifying their business in financial services (e.g. the shit I mentioned earlier) and other loans.
  • While most banks have been selling their loan books at a loss to manage higher interest rates, SoFi have been keeping theirs to maturity and getting a higher return. There is a lot of debate into this, especially around how they calculate mark to market, so again do your own DD about this.
  • By the way: “there are many reasons insiders sell a stock, but only one reason to buy.” The CEO Anthony Noto is eating pork and beans like me buying the stock like CRAZY. I mean just look at this degeneracy. He knows he has a chance to become the next billionaire bank CEO Jamie Dimon and has purchased back $13.6m dollars worth of shares (1/5 of his total comp so far lmfao).
https://preview.redd.it/33ihxpf5q15b1.jpg?width=657&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3bc4125ceab1a49c14debaa7ff7c00f1dfe0b8e
Macro
  • Big picture time. Full disclosure, I’m a permabear. I literally have the worst outlook on things and I metaphorically killed my therapist with my doom and gloom. This country is so levered up to the tits it’s just one gentle breeze away from collapsing.
  • But you know who always gets paid? By hook and crook, the banks will get what they’re owed. If not we are all fucked and/or there will be a bailout. If everything is going to shit, banks are the least dogshit shit. Would you rather buy a stock with a tremendous amount of debt super dependent on consumer spending, or something that will make money in a depression?
  • I said this was a stock for everyone. For the permabulls, everything is fine and SoFi is growing its metrics like a rocket ship. What is there to lose? The management team has signaled good outlooks and the stock price has gone up consecutively since June 1st.
  • For value investors, this stock is still near book value. Most bank stocks are, but considering its fair value by Morningstar ($16) or PT by well-known analysts ($8-12) there are still some mArGiN oF sAfEtY
  • Growthies, this is a tech stock BABY. They are the AWS of finance! They use tech to analyze loan risk. They have AIAIAIAI in a chat bot! Upside everywhere
  • Oh and by the way, $SOFI is not correlated with its peers. Look at $LC $UPST and other fintech companies in the sector. In my mind it’s becoming the Nubank of America.
  • The Fed is expected to “skip” rate hikes next week. Long term that means APY is probably plateauing and on a downward trajectory. But if you know SoFi has done nothing but good and given you the best interest rate, why move?
Brand
  • Okay let’s start with them suing the government for pausing student loans. The CEO has addressed this multiple times: they support student loan FORGIVENESS, but when it comes to PAUSING payments for borrowers who don’t qualify, they thought the 3rd year was excessive. Yes they shit the bed bad for that, but they’ll recover.
  • Aside from the revenue, a big reason they did this is because the CEO has integrity. Like too much integrity to let this go for shareholders. Anthony Noto grew up working class, graduated from West Point, and rose through the ranks in the finance world. Imagine if Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was real and became a banking god.
  • His track record is insane. CFO for the NFL during record growth. COO for Twitter where he was putting out garbage fires. He knows how to run shit, and now he’s back in finance after SoFi booted the last CEO for being pervy.
  • One downside, he is boring as shit. He won’t talk about who’s a pedo, how Soros is evil or some other drama. He only talks about banking and banking accessories I tell you what. Bank Hill
  • Look at his Twitter Likes. https://twitter.com/anthonynoto/likes He knows something is brewing, and he gets a big payday if the stock hits $45.
  • Back to the company. At a recent fintech conference hosted by Piper Sandler, Noto announced that SoFi has a Net Promoter Score (how much people like the brand) of 80. For context, American Express has 52. The math says SoFi is literally 54% better.
  • Maybe part of the reason is because they have the naming rights to a football stadium in Los Angeles. One where little kids go to see Taylor Swift and grown ass men watch other grown ass men smack into one another. Where it’s mentioned all the time for being state of the art and environmentally friendly in the largest entertainment market. WHERE THEY WILL HOST MULTIPLE WORLD CUP GAMES AND OLYMPIC SPORTS.
  • I mentioned the SPAC bagholders. They still exist and have been pounding nonstop about the stock all the way down. There are some stonk flashbacks here that are about to explode.

BUT BUT BUT…

  • iTs pRiCeD iN – Wall Street is only getting a taste of this dildo. Once the annual shareholder meeting comes along next week and estimates come in better than expected on earnings, this next door 2 turns into a 10.
  • Student loans defaults are coming, you stupid fuck – You think the bank will let you go to Disneyland once they start asking for their money? They will garnish wages and withhold taxes on you plebs. Grow up or move to Vietnam. Or, just maybe, the stock goes up and you use the profits to pay off the ball and chain?
  • This is literally your first time posting to WSB – Yes, I’m a fucking worm lurking in the shadows. This will be the one and only thesis I put out.
  • Wedbush has a PT of $2.50, this thing is going down – Go ahead and listen to David Chiaverini, who has a success rating of 35% and has no skin in the game https://www.tipranks.com/experts/analysts/david-chiaverini Or me, who’s about to mortgage everything because he see’s asymmetric risk.
  • Why post now? – I genuinely think this will get re-rated with a soft tech valuation of $32, and we’re at the cusp of it happening.
  • What will change the price – Market realization, better than expected results coming soon, major deals announced, new product releases planned this year. Literally yesterday they announced “SoFi at Work”, a program to allow employers to help contribute to student loan payments.

In Conclusion

Take this however you want, go fuck yourself etc. If you miss the boat, DM me to sign up for a new SoFi account and get up to $275 back when you set up direct deposit.
submitted by Cosmosly to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:44 VillainTheory X-23- Hero Kit Deep Dive

Are two claws better than three? That is one of the many questions I’ll be attempting to answer as we delve into X-23’s cards! Here I will go over her cards in great detail, try to predict which aspects and archetypes she will like, as well as estimate where she’ll rank in terms of power.
Disclaimer #1: X-23 has just been previewed. I have not played her, this is all simply theoretical and done for fun!
Disclaimer #2: This is my longest deep dive yet! Skip to the conclusion if you want a shorter read! Just read the bullet points at the end for the quickest read.
But let’s cut to the chase.
Identity Card - Alter-Ego
X-23 or Laura Kinney as she’s called in alter-ego is, in many ways, much like Wolverine. She has a giant REC of 6 and has a setup ability to put her claws into play. And while yes, she is high damage and has plenty of healing, the similarities really do end there. She functions entirely differently.
So let’s hit the boring stuff. She’s got 10 hp and the standard hand size - 6 in alter-ego, 5 in hero form. Not great, but not bad - distinctly average. She also has the Mutant alter-ego trait and X-Force hero trait as you'd expect.
As mentioned, she has 6 REC and this is by _far_ her best stat. 6 REC is monstrous and shouldn’t be underestimated - she doesn’t automatically heal when starting the turn in her hero form, meaning there’s no opportunity cost for going alter-ego to use it like with Wolverine.
Given how dangerous it can be to drop to low hp in the pursuit of not missing value from a large REC stat, she will like any well-costed increases to her hit points. So far, we haven’t seen an equivalent of Adamantium Skeleton, but you can bet that Endurance, the unannounced but probable Honorary X-Force card, or even Symbiote Suit are all on the menu as potential cards for her deck-building.
Increasing her hp will help her in other ways - but we’ll get to that.
Like Wolvy, she has a setup ability to put her claws in play. Unlike Wolvy, she has a second ability that she can actively use throughout the game. It’s an action to shuffle either the Honey Badger ally or the Sisterly Bond event from her discard pile into her deck and then draw a card. The shuffling of either card is a cost, so you are only able to use it for the sweet card draw if either is in your discard pile.
Unfortunately, it appears X-23 only has one copy of Sisterly Bond and she seems heavily incentivized to keep her signature ally around on the board at all times. Which is to say, her alter-ego ability won’t always be online to use. But it's much better than not having one. ...Like Wolverine.
But let’s get to the good stuff.
Setup Ability - Shhnk!
The ability is very simple. Put X-23’s Claws into play. So let’s talk about those.
Her claws have the weapon trait, the permanent keyword, and have a hero action that reads: Exhaust X-23’s Claws and take 2 damage → X-23 gets +2 ATK until the end of the round.
As you can see, suddenly her 6 REC is looking a lot more useful. And she has other sources of healing which we’ll soon cover. She also has multiple sources of readying, and thus you can really start to get excellent value from these. If anyone has ever played Quicksilver with Maximum Velocity, multiple readies with a +2 ATK boost is incredibly good! And she can pull the trigger every turn - as long as she has the hp!
Identity Card - Hero Form
Her form is, quite frankly, amazing - and her entire kit has fantastic synergy with it. As do a lot of aspect cards.
She’s another 2 THW, 1 ATK, and 2 DEF hero. The same as Cyclops and Angel - apparently this has become popular! But like both of those heroes, she has a ready source of damage. In this case, the claws we just talked about. By taking 2 damage, suddenly she’s a 2 THW, 3 ATK, and 2 DEF hero.
2 damage might seem steep, but remember those readies I talked about? They’re here. X-23 has an ability called Living Weapon. It’s a response which says after she takes any amount of damage, ready her (Limit once per phase.). So, at the most basic level on our turn, we can always thwart for 2, ready by taking damage from our claws, and then use our basic ATK for 3 damage (or even just another 2 thwarting!).
If she attacks twice, it’s 4 total damage (1 and then 3). If she thwarts twice, it’s 4 threat removal total (2 and 2). She has to take 2 damage to do so, but restoring 2 hit points is generally considered to be roughly the equivalent of one resource.
Remember Captain America? He's pretty good. By discarding one card (read: one resource), he too can ready to potentially attack twice, thwart twice, or some combination. And he too hits a maximum of 4 damage or threat removal, but even he can’t hit 3 damage and 2 threat removal like this while X-23 can.
What I’m trying to say here is that X-23 is going to be incredibly, incredibly consistent. Notably in solo play but still amazing in multiplayer. Even before you look at your cards in hand, you can basically guarantee defeating any one of most minions or clearing most side schemes. That versatility and output from Turn 1 is rarely talked about from Captain America but I believe it is one of his greatest strengths. Now? One of X-23's.
Lastly, I need to bring attention to the fact that the Living Weapon response, the thing that readies her, is once per phase. You can defend with her on the villain phase and, should she take a point of damage, she’ll ready straight back up. Nice. Cap can’t do that either.
In short, if you’re being compared to Captain America, you’ve done good. Right now? X-23 is looking very strong.
…But maybe all her other cards are bad? Heh.
Signature Ally - Honey Badger
…Who names these characters?! Anyway, Honey Badger is a key weapon in your arsenal. Why? Because she readies you. She’s a 1 THW, 1 ATK, 2 HP ally with a printed cost of 2. She also, curiously, has the X-Men trait. This is weak, but her ability is very strong.
Her Hero Response reads: After Honey Badger takes any amount of damage, ready X-23.
This is very good because X-23 has great stats and we’ve yet to scrape the surface of how high her ATK can really go. If you’ve ever used the Web-Warrior ally of Peter Parker, you know just how good allies that ready you can be. Since consequential damage works for this, the timing will be largely comparable to Peter Parker except she’ll be defeated first before you can use her response if you spend her last hp on an ATK or THW.
With a great ability comes great potential to boost her hp and/or keep her healed. Or even recur her with something like Make the Call, Chance Encounter or Regroup.. See, you are going to want to keep Honey Badger in play as much as you can. Because readying is awesome. And we have other cards that benefit from her sticking around.
By readying you, she effectively has a THW stat of 3 or an ATK stat of 4+. And, since she delivers 1 of either the ATK or THW herself, it’s in some ways able to be split and she can definitely pop Toughs for you. So she’s already a solid ally before you factor in boosting her hp and/or keeping her alive. And all those other cards that synergize with her.
Remember the X-Men trait on her? Every aspect has a Training upgrade that adds hp. Expect to see one or more of these in all her best decks. Maybe a little X-Mansion to heal her, or Game Time, etc. Med Team, Command Team… There are a lot of options. And all of them end in Honey Badger readying you a LOT.
…In short, if your signature ally is being compared to the Web-Warrior version of Peter Parker, you’ve done good.
…But maybe, just maybe, all her other cards are bad? Hehehe…
Let’s check out her events.
Claw Mastery
A 1-cost event with the caveat that it’s “max 1 per round”. What does it do? It’s a hero action that says, until the end of the round, X-23 gets +2 attack - and, if Honey Badger is in play, her attacks gain overkill.
This is super good.
If you don’t ready her again, it’s not so hot. But if you do even once? That +2 attack becomes four damage between two attacks. Combine this with her claws’ +2 ATK bonus and she us hitting 5 ATK and is really going to love more ways to ready. If you make a basic ATK, ready, repeat a few times? We’re in Quicksilver territory. And between Leadership shenanigans with Honey Badger, or Protection shenanigans with all its direct readies? You can deal massive damage here.
Battle Fury isn’t quite in the same league, but it’s starting to make sense why it was reprinted with Wolverine now. She’ll love that too.
This is easily one of her best cards, you just need to combo it. And I say it’s one of her best cards before we even discuss the potential overkill it gives you. Note the overkill is for all her attacks, not just her basic ATK. You could drop Into the Fray on a 1 hp minion and, in addition to removing 5 threat, deal 5 overkill damage. Nice.
Sisterly Bond
A 0-cost event that is a Hero Interrupt - when Honey Badger thwarts/attacks, add X-23’s matching power to Honey Badger.
So, despite Honey Badger having 1 ATK, if you have just played Claw Mastery and used your Claws? This 0-cost card basically gives her a total of 6 ATK for one use. And even without Claw Mastery, it’s still very good at giving either 3 damage or 2 threat removal for 0-cost.
This is like Leadership’s Teamwork card in reverse, except nobody has to exhaust either. If you boost Honey Badger’s hp and/or heal her, this card is a must-play. And her best builds are almost certainly doing this.
It’s very efficient and super flexible with serious combo potential on top. And remember her alter-ego ability? Once this is in your discard pile (looks like only one copy), you can shuffle it back into your deck.
…This is easily one of her best cards too.
Regenerative Longevity
A 1-cost event and an action, meaning it can be used in hero or alter-ego form, that heals you and Honey Badger for a total of 4. It’s reminiscent of Wolverine’s healing card and is one of her two previewed cards to have the Superpower trait.
So, for two resources (1-cost + the card itself), we get 4 healing. This is basically what we should expect for our money for identity healing. However, the ability to heal Honey Badger as well is extra valuable given how ridiculously good Honey Badger is for us.
Is it one of her best cards? You’re going to have to draw it at the right time (after you’ve played Honey Badger), but then? Kinda. Keeping Honey Badger alive and healthy is incredibly valuable. Every hp restored to Honey Badger is another ready, and your readies hit HARD.
Next up? Upgrades and supports.
Sisterhood
If all three of her events and her setup ability, her claws, all combo-ing with Honey Badger wasn’t enough of a clue, here’s the final card that cements the theme: Honey Badger is vital and you absolutely desperately want to put her in play and keep her in play.
X-23 is the first hero we’ve ever seen who works so closely with their signature ally. Wong, Mantis, Vivian and maybe even Gambit come close, but not quite like this. Though, to speak of Vision, keep his Hickory Branch Lane card in mind here. This is her version of it.
Sisterhood is a 2-cost support that has an action (alter-ego or hero form) that says to exhaust it, discard an X-23 card from your hand, then search your deck and discard pile for Honey Badger and add her to your hand.
In other words, wherever you are and whatever is happening, you can always find and thus play Honey Badger once Sisterhood is in play. Whoa.
Now, I generally think beefing up Honey Badger’s hp (and, ideally, other stats) is going to be the best move, but recurring her with this? This can be a great option if you lean into it. Notably, in leadership, the Team Training card is going to do huge work here by giving Honey Badger +1 hp every time you play her. This will also combo really well with Danger Room. Just grab her, play her, and use Danger Room to immediately find and put a Training upgrade on her. And repeat as necessary.
This card is basically infinite copies of Make the Calls for your best ally. As long as you have another signature card in hand that you don’t mind swapping for her.
Nice.
This card? Easily one of her best - for the right build. Otherwise, it’s probably dead to you if you find Honey Badger first and have built the deck to keep her alive forever. However, even with such builds, this could be pretty valuable to find Honey Badger sooner if you happen to draw this first. Honey Badger is just that good.
Puncture Wound This upgrade is basically a delayed event and is reminiscent of Nebula’s techniques. Play it, benefit from the passive bonus, wait, and it goes off in the next round.
And I love it.
It’s a 0-cost card that you can only attach to an enemy that X-23 or Honey Badger have attacked this turn. The attached enemy gets -1 ATK. And then, as a forced response that triggers after the player phase begins, you must discard it - but for doing so you deal 3 damage to the attached enemy.
So, first things first - 3 damage for a 0-cost card is great. This is Turn the Tide levels of efficient. The downside is that it's conditional, also like Turn the Tide. Given X-23’s crazy damage, minions are unlikely to survive - you’re mostly putting this on the villain aside from a few edge cases and mostly in multiplayer (Surprise Contender? Dragon? Sleeper? That Future Past guy I forget the name of?). Normal minions won’t live long at all.
But for a hero who hits hard and fast, hitting the villain is going to be something you want a lot of the time, especially in solo where she can definitely melt through their hp. And if you’re focusing down the villain, you don’t want to be putting a ton of resources into your defense. And this is where the -1 ATK comes in useful.
The slight downside, the anti-synergy here, is that if you reduce the damage you take too low while also defending? You won't take any damage and so won't ready back up with your hero ability. It's going to be a fine line to balance that will vary with each scenario.
We believe she has two of these in her kit and they do stack, so for a total of 2 effective resources you can put both of these on the villain, take -2 from any attacks they make, then they take 6 damage. That’s crazy.
What’s even better is when you consider multiplayer. First of all, this is an upgrade. Cyclops is going to be able to Optic Blast off of it. Secondly, every single attack the enemy makes will be affected by that -1 ATK. So you’re really helping to protect the whole table.
The combo I’m most excited for is with Cyclops (again) and Storm, two of the best multiplayer heroes already. If Cyclops attaches Practiced Defense and Storm changes to her Blizzard Weather, you can play one Puncture Wound too and now the villain has -3 ATK for that entire villain phase. Or -4 if you draw into both of these.
But a lot of other characters will love the -1 as well. Spider-Ham might not need the help, but this will help him take lower chunks of damage for efficient toon counter generation. Drax? Now, when he takes attacks, he takes less damage too. The Groot ally? Suddenly it’s surviving a lot longer. The same goes for Spider-UK.
There are probably even more multiplayer combos I have yet to think of. There are a lot of handy little interactions.
What’s also good about this is that it makes “taunt” cards a lot better as well - cards that make the villain attack. Traditionally, cards like Toe to Toe and Bait and Switch haven’t been worth it. Whether they are now is still debatable, but certainly they get better if you can factor in the villain having -1 ATK. And remember the new card with Angel, actually called Taunt? That works great here as well.
There’s theoretically a situation where, in 4-player where everyone has their own copy of all the content, you have X-23, Storm, Cyclops and Drax, all running 3x Taunt or 3x Toe to Toe, with the first three using their -1 ATK abilities to weaken the villain throughout the game while everyone grabs massive value from these cards.
I love this card.
Grim Resolve
And now for a traditional upgrade. So traditional, in fact, that it’s basically just Clarity of Purpose. The main difference? Its cost arrow says you must TAKE 1 damage rather than DEAL 1 damage, which is relevant with the new 1.5 rules when it comes to potentially blocking the damage.
If you block damage (let’s say with Energy Barrier) from a cost which says TAKE, then you have not actually taken the damage since you prevented it. But if you block the damage from a cost which says DEAL, the damage was still dealt - you don’t have to take it to have fulfilled the cost.
(If this is confusing, while I will try to help in the comments, I recommend looking for some youtube talks on it or scouring the pages of the new 1.5 rules reference!)
Like Clarity of Purpose, it’s a 1-cost card which you exhaust to generate a resource. Clarity of Purpose has you also deal a point of damage to yourself as an extra cost. Grim Resolve has you take a point of damage as its extra cost.
It’s good! Now, you can pop your Claws to get +2 ATK first before using X-23 at all, then make a big basic ATK, then use Grim Resolve to ready then and make a second one. It gives a lot of flexibility in the timing of when you want to ready with her hero ability.
But it’s also just an ever-so-slightly worse version of Clarity of Purpose. Still, Clarity is a powerful card and X-23 has a lot of healing. You can totally run both, whether to just to find one earlier or even put both into play.
Pain Tolerance
Last but not least, we have X-23’s consistent healing card. This upgrade is 2-cost, Superpower traited, and has a Response - meaning it works in both hero and alter-ego form. It says “After you play an X-23 card (including this one), heal 1 damage from your identity.”
Any rules followers will immediately recognize the reminder text being something absent from Sky-Destroyer, another card that triggers upon playing itself, so that is a welcome addition here that should help a lot of players out who otherwise might not realize it. And so we can, in some ways, also consider this to immediately include a 1 hp heal before we even really start using it properly.
So - three effective resources for 1 hp, then 1 hp every time you play one of your signature cards. I can tell you right now that, given how ridiculously good her signature cards are, you are going to want to play them already. And not just that but, as you may have spotted throughout the preview, all X-23’s cards are cheap. So, not only do you want to play them already purely because they’re so darn good, but you can play a lot of them because they’re so darn cheap.
In short, this thing is going to give a TON of healing. Outside of an unlucky hand, this is likely a minimum of 1 and sometimes up to 3 or, if the stars align, 4. And it will likely trend on the higher side if you thin your deck or build for card draw or some kind of recursion (Mutant Education, etc! And her alter-ego ability).
It’s not mind-blowing, but she’ll benefit more from the healing than most heroes will.
And that concludes the signature cards previewed so far - let’s take a quick look through some deck-building options for her.
Basic Cards
With the Mutant trait, she’ll love a lot of the X-Men supports. With an X-Men signature ally who is key to her entire deck, she’ll also love the X-Men supports.
X-Mansion? Heal Honey Badger. Danger Room? Beef up Honey Badger who you can easily recur, and thus get multiple uses from Danger Room on just her. Cerebro? Perhaps find her faster.
Weapon-X? Find more signature cards because 1) they are awesome and 2) she will heal the damage from Weapon X with the card drawn thanks to Pain Tolerance. This can also find Honey Badger sometimes.
X-Gene? Maybe. Definitely if you run Mutant Education.
Endurance? 110%. Symbiote Suit? Honestly, she is clearly one of the better characters for it in the entire game.
Professor X is also a stand-out ally. She lacks confuses and doesn’t always want to thwart. The confuses will help her go alter-ego and use her massive REC, cycle cards back, or heal Honey Badger with X-Mansion.
Oh yeah. And Game Time for Honey Badger. That should really speak for itself. Readying yourself through readying and healing an ally? All for 0-cost? Incredibly good.
Perhaps most importantly, the new basic side scheme she brings that rewards the linked cards will be super powerful for her. It’s called Specialized Training, and she really wants the Combat Specialist reward most of all in most decks. I’m not going into great detail on the new cards here but if you haven’t already, please please check these out. +1 ATK and card draw in any aspect is immensely helpful. It has a decent cost to get it, but if you do? It's superb.
Aggression Cards
X-23 has a plan. Boost her ATK and ready. Aggression can help with both.
In terms of ATK boosting? In addition to new card “Now I’m Mad”, there is the classic Combat Training and even Fluid Motion. I don’t see her loving Brute Force, but I’m sure there’s a novelty meme build where you boost her ATK to insane levels.
For readying, there is largely only Battle Fury. She doesn’t really need another source of incoming damage, but she loves readying so much I can’t see her not using it. Expect this in a lot of decks.
I also think Hand Cannon has her name written all over it. Certainly, she can get Overkill from her Claw Mastery event, but it’s not consistent every turn. Hand Cannon will boost your ATK further and make sure none of your damage goes to waste.
Skilled Strike definitely fits with what she wants to do. With the Weapon trait on her claws, she can technically use Mean Swing and Fusillade far more reliably than most heroes - but I think she’d rather focus on keeping her hp high to just use her claws directly. Better to block with allies or stun the villain than exhaust her claws for something else, in my opinion.
She will actually possibly like Quick Strike. One of the first heroes to genuinely do so without niche builds?
And let’s not forget Papa Wolverine. Who also, like Honey Badger, wants Attack Training which X-23 110% wants to run here.
And do you know what Skilled Strike, Wolverine, Hand Cannon, Combat Training, Now I’m Mad, and Attack Training all have in common? The physical resource. Drop Kick and Jarnbjorn are both on the table. And I think she’ll like them both.
While you might not want to use all of them, that is potentially a whole deck there that just wrote itself into existence. Just add Sunfire and Psylocke like almost every modern Aggression deck.
She is going to be strong in Aggression and hit very, very hard. With the thwarting to make it very solo-viable (if you don't just speed to victory with huge damage!).
Justice Cards
X-23’s plan here is in good hands. She can’t boost her ATK, but what if we, say, gave her Heroic Intuition and just readied her for thwarting? Or split her focus? Perhaps mixed in Making an Entrance to heal? Seems good, right?
Justice also has the best access to confuse. Which means the most reliable access to heal Honey Badger through X-Mansion. And, you know, use her massive REC. And she can find Honey Badger quickly with Chance Encounter if she needs to. One Way or Another? More card draw for her amazing cards, and more healing per turn on Pain Tolerance from those cards. Having a side scheme out to thwart also sets her up well to ready with her claws even if the villain only added a measly 1 to the main scheme. Thwart→Claws→Attack.
Everything here is going to run very smoothly. And she is going to want the cards Psylocke comes with. Something she doesn’t appear to have are any status effects and Upside the Head solves that very efficiently. And with great confuses, comes great ability to use Float Like a Butterfly. With her own ready and Honey Badger’s, she is getting a bunch of damage from it.
Mission Training? That’s Honey Badger’s Justice ticket to Game Time town. That goes in every Justice deck she ever has, surely.
I don’t see any other incredible cards for her here. Just lots of very solid cards that work for most heroes, and will for her too. While it won’t play as fast as Aggression for the most part? With fantastic threat removal here, great access to alter-ego healing, and her innate damage, it’s looking hard for X-23 to actually lose in this aspect.
Leadership
Good ol' Leadership. Where do I start? X-23 is the hero who, as mentioned, resolves the most around her signature ally. And Leadership is the ally-centric aspect. I could probably write a whole deep dive on the possible combinations here.
Let’s hit the basics. Danger Room Training to enable Game Time, X-Mansion, and just get more use from Honey Badger? Auto-include.
And if you’re bringing Danger Room Training, why not bring Beast along?
Pixie can grab Honey Badger for you, or Beast or Professor X, or anyone other X-Men should you bring more.
Inspired is great if you go for the voltron angle and keep her alive forever.
Rapid Response? Eh. This actually immediately gets us a ready from Honey Badger when it deals damage to her after reviving her - but it’s not optimal for her here. Regroup is obviously a great option in multiplayer, but when is it not?
Make the Call is going to be particularly exceptional for Honey Badger recursion decks. And is always an S-tier card in general for any ally you need at any time.
The Leadership side scheme we’ve seen so far, Call for Backup, will be another way to find Honey Badger.
Team Training, so Honey Badger gets an extra use every time you recur her? Super good.
Innovation to heal Honey Badger? Why not.
Then there is Command Team to ready Honey Badger and thus yourself. You might even run it with Lead from the Front given that both you and Honey Badger will get a lot of value from it. If Honey Badger attacks twice, and you attack four times, that’s 6 damage before you factor in other allies and potentially more readies from Game Time or anything else.
There is Clarity of Purpose which I’ve already talked about.
And of course Kaluu. As a combo-centric hero, you’ll love it when he grabs you Claw Mastery when you have a bunch of readies lined up in hand. Or vice versa.
Leadership is, at the end of the day, Leadership. It’s incredibly strong on its own and, with all the support for Honey Badger, it’s going to be one of her most popular aspects.
Protection
And finally we have Protection. My initial instinct for X-23 was Aggression or Leadership, and I was already wondering if Justice might exceed them for its consistency, but Protection? Protection might just out do them all. At least for solo play.
Picture the scene.
You’ve used your claws and played Claw Mastery. You have 5 ATK. You wink at Drax, knowing you both share the same devastating damage now. It’s time.
Suddenly you use Leading Blow. What Doesn’t Kill Me. Then Counter-Punch.
BOOM.
And let's not overlook the potential with Repurpose.
The sheer amount of readying or cheap damage based on your ATK stat here is incredible. And with Repurpose, you potentially have more than 5 ATK for all those other readies and Sisterly Bond.
Energy Barrier can help you defend the villain attack and ready without taking too much excess damage. Perfect defense? Not here. She wants to ideally defend but still take at least 1 damage. And this, of course, is the best card to combo with Repurpose. And then that brings Electrostatic Armor into the mix for a splash more damage and another Repurpose target.
Protective Training goes straight onto Honey Badger. It’s basically an auto-include like all the other X-Men Training upgrades in the other aspects.
Med Team and provide extremely consistent healing for Honey Badger and can help you in a pinch.
Iron Fist and Tackle are going to help her keep the villain under control and still help her pile on the damage quickly.
But really, I cannot overstate the value of those readies/ways to use her basic ATK. Using X-23, her own ready, the ready from Honey Badger, and let’s say drawing 2 of them alongside Claw Mastery? That’s 25 damage. And all you had to play first was Honey Badger.
More with that Combat Specialty upgrade from the new basic side scheme. More from Repurpose.
She is potentially going to run faster than Quicksilver and hit harder than Drax.
Rush has never looked so good in green. And even if you don’t love rush strategies like me, it’s hard to deny the potential. You can try to go slower, use these tools to clean up the board, and still do extraordinarily well!
Conclusion
Overall, X-23 looks amazing. She is basically a fusion of Wolverine and Quicksilver that came out looking like Captain America with a tiny pinch of Drax who really, really likes their version of the Peter Parker basic ally. And if you like any of those heroes, or you’ve ever enjoyed readying a Web-Warrior with Peter, I think you will really like X-23.
At least if you can also enjoy working closely with an ally. Some people don’t like allies, and that’s okay. But, for X-23? She can be good without Honey Badger, I think. If you broke the official rules and removed the ally from the deck, she wouldn’t be the weakest character in the game by far still. But she does lose a lot.
Unrelated to the ally, I will say I am predicting her to be the least popular of the X-Force from a general standpoint. I think many players will just see her as a clone of Wolverine - which is only true in terms of her story, not her gameplay. I also think she is a combo-centric character where it’s hard to see the value of her cards individually/without playing her. But, like Drax, will likely become a fan favourite over time.
For me personally, and this goes beyond the bounds of a hero kit deep dive, I think the biggest strike against her is the card art. It might just be me, and I mean no disrespect to any of the artists or whomever is responsible for the creative decisions, but it doesn’t work for me. We have various greys and blacks on a grey/black background. Her alter-ego art is off-center, her identity card just had a plain brown background.
I like the art for Claw Mastery, Sisterhood and Pain Tolerance. But I do think she has the worst-looking cards of all the heroes from this wave so far, and perhaps the X-Men and Web-WarrioChampion waves too.
But you know if I’m picking on the art as my first and only negative, it’s a very good sign for the rest of her. In terms of fun? I think she’ll score high and pleasantly surprise people.
In terms of power? She has a lot of strengths, but also a couple of weaknesses. But her strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses by a landslide. So far, I have mostly focused on her strengths. So let’s cover her weaknesses quickly.
Her only true source of resource generation or card draw we have seen so far is Grim Resolve. And it’s a good card! But it’s not quite like those heroes who can draw extra cards every turn, or have a couple of extra double resources, etc! So her economy, while fine, isn’t great. I don't believe her alter-ego ability is reliable enough to contribute much.
Fortunately, it’s partially offset by her low costs and she gains a lot elsewhere in areas many high economy heroes do not.
The biggest obvious weakness is that she has no status cards - but in a game where we are getting an increased amount of steady and stalwart, it’s less of a factor. Likewise, we’re getting more access to status cards in the aspects. The exception to both arguments are Toughs but, as a hero who wants to take damage, they are less desirable for her in many situations compared to the average hero.
Cyclops doesn't have any status cards, nor does Wolverine. They get get by. But it's still worth noting!
And lastly, she is somewhat fragile. She is a 10 hp hero who wants to take damage, just like Wolverine, but Wolverine has two advantages. One, his healing is automatic from Turn 1. And two, he has Adamantium Skeleton in his signature cards - a +4 hp upgrade. Now, she can defend and ready immediately with her hero power, but it’s not guaranteed. Against weaker villains, notably on standard, she might not take enough damage to ready. And against stronger villains, particularly on expert, she might still take a significant amount of damage despite defending and readying.
It is of course a great perk of her ability that she can ready in the villain phase, but putting her in the line of fire when she already wants to take damage on her imminent turn and likely did on the previous turn can surely be rough, especially if you haven’t got her healing upgrade out yet.
But smart deck-building can cover everything. As alluded to, we have a good few status cards accessible in most aspects now. She has access to X-Gene as mentioned earlier as well as things like Weapon X, and we have plenty of “fragile” characters who do very well with a healthy supply of allies or stuns built in - plus her healing when she finds them - plus her epic 6 REC.
Another small weakness is that she’s draw-dependent to a degree. Her stats are great with just the use of Claws, but she’ll have quiet turns and large turns. Drawing Claw Mastery? Her damage goes up a lot. Drawing it with Sisterly Bond or other readies? It spikes. But you’re not going to get all those pieces together all the time, and some turns none at all.
Fortunately, as kind of mentioned, her base output is veeery good. And if you build into Honey Badger, keeping her out and alive means every turn will still be huge.
The final weakness I see is her reliance on her signature ally. With some bad luck, Honey Badger (and Sisterhood) could be hard to find. There are ways to help find her - but again, you also have to find them to find her, and most of them have costs of some kind. It's possible for this to sometimes be difficult.
But that was just a look at what I think are her weaknesses, and I hope I have not hurt your impression of her. The rest of the article is strength after strength - and all in all? She is looking brilliantly powerful. Here’s a quick summary:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
As you can see, far more strengths than weaknesses and I will say that the "weaknesses" aren’t really that bad while the strengths - particularly the top four - are especially good! She will hit hard, hit fast, find thwarting while she needs it, and have it all basically at her fingertips from early on.
So, where would I rank her overall and next to the other X-Force heroes? Great question. Of all the X-Force heroes, she has been my toughest one to rank. I will also say all five X-Force heroes revealed so far are ones I am predicting to be in the top 20 of what will then be 48 heroes.
For her specifically, I think the scenario is going to make the biggest difference compared to the other few X-Force heroes. She is damage incarnate, and I think tougher scenarios that can slow her down, that prevent her from winning too quickly, could see her notably fall off when she runs out of steam. On the other hand, she’ll glide through low hp villains like a hot knife through butter.
But I do think, with her best builds and some optimization, she will truly be a force to be reckoned with. So I’ll peg her to fall somewhere between the 7th best and 17th best, with my best guess right now specifically being 12th-ish. She hits very hard and can deal with pretty much anything from Turn 1, and I think that versatility is huge. But I also think that, for the most part, she’s fairly honest.
But, since she has so many combos and I've not played her at all with any of them or any approaches to Honey Badger, I really wouldn't put money on this exact placement. Just know she is going to be amazing.
In some ways, despite being so different to Wolverine, they are still very similar. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. He too is high damage, low setup and - especially early game - can be a little fragile unless you build otherwise or ignore his claws. And while it will probably depend on the rest of her cards and whatever X-Force support we get, I will end by saying I do think she will be the better of the two. In my opinion? X-23 > Wolverine - for fun and for power!
Whew! We got there. Thanks for reading and I’d love to know your thoughts! Am I way off the mark? Do you agree? And is there anything I missed? I am sure there are some great aspect cards I overlooked!
submitted by VillainTheory to marvelchampionslcg [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:35 Popular_Trash7368 Inlaws rescheduled a funeral excluding me

My(24f) Husbands(25m) uncle (FIL’s brother) passed away 3 years ago. His family didn’t have a funeral, The uncle had mental health issues so he didn’t have anyone in his life outside of immediate family and myself. In February of this year we get this random text that on June 3(no significance to this date) there’s going to be a funeral for him in Ohio. We agreed to go(it’s only 3 hours away from us and we would be back home that night) even though it’s really weird this is happening almost 3 years later on an insignificant date. We agreed to go despite our feelings of it being 3 years later strictly out of respect for FIL.
In March, we went on a trip to Virginia for a wedding and we stayed with his parents. His dad brought up that he’s booking an Airbnb for the funeral and we have to stay with them. This was ignored by both my husband and I since our dog has been having these weird stomach problems(she’s mostly back to normal now) and our pet sitter had to clean up shit and bathe her for 2 days. It kept getting worse she couldn’t stop throwing up or control her bowel movements. We left our trip early while our angel of a pet sitter stayed with her until we got home. At this point with us leaving early, FIL is upset because he wanted us to spend the night in Ohio, and he was trying to book an Airbnb, even though we never agreed to that and he was like “oh, I guess I shouldn’t have asked for that given the circumstances with the dog”. 24 hours later, he still booked the Airbnb.
Anyway, so throughout April and May our dog was still having these issues where we couldn’t leave the house for more than eight hours without her having uncontrollable diarrhea/vomit for multiple days. My husband tells his mother that we’re not gonna be able to spend the night because of our dog and we don’t want our pet sitter to have to deal with what he went through in March again because that would not be fair to him and not fair to the dog to lay in her own shit overnight. MIL just started screaming at husband on the phone saying that “this is funeral more important than our dog and we should have our pet sitter watch her so we can stay the night with them and be a family.” This controversial conversation went on for weeks until they finally let up on our decision to prioritize our dogs health. This past Friday, inlaws dog ended up needing emergency surgery. So they had to reschedule this funeral, which is okay however we’re moving back to to our home state in the south in a few weeks and we have a lot going on. I suggested the first weekend of July if they want us to be able to come this summer, but that doesn’t work for them because there’s gonna be traffic and they have a vacation the second week of July. I also suggested a date in two weeks from now and heard crickets. They decided that we weren’t going to go and they decided on a date where I said that my mom I haven’t seen in six months(she just became a flight attendant and it’s the only days she has off she will be flying from Detroit to see me and then back to Detroit for work) is coming to visit and help me pack and husband didn’t want to takeoff of work for this 3 year late funeral as the emotions/urgency has been gone since then. Husband gets screamed at by his mother saying how important this is to his dad and just going off on him and suggesting my husband just leaves me at home and he comes. Then SIL(22f) calls and screams at him that this is important and my “plans are bullshit and everyone is saying it’s bullshit”. They get into it but nothing is resolved. FIL and Ben were chatting about other dates on the phone and SIL comes in screaming because she has a babysitting job on a Friday/Thursday that would work. That phone call ends abruptly and MIL calls husband to scream at him and then the FIL and SIL chime in to start screaming at him to leave me at home and why can’t I be left alone with my mom(my mom was coming to visit with both of us and help us) and why can’t I pack by myself(I have pretty bad health issues). I finally yelled in their presence for the first time “I don’t fucking care anymore just go without me so SIL can go to her fucking babysitting job I don’t even want to go anymore” then they all shut the fuck up and I pretended to leave the room and then SIL starts crying on the phone & now everyone is upset. Next day FIL calls husband and said he understands if husband doesn’t come as my feelings were extremely hurt and this is an open wound they keep opening. Alright so, husband called FIL (who said previously he understands if Ben doesn’t go to stand by me) to tell FIL he’s not going and FIL started screaming at my husband. Apparently they are all offended/embarrassed I yelled obscenities at SIL. After that, my husband was upset and said he has to go to this funeral, I agreed but I’m still upset over how I have been treated like a pet you can just leave at home. Anyways I ended up calling FIL and told him how I feel, it was going okay but then he was saying he doesn’t let his children cuss at eachother and then he randomly asked if my father deceased 10 years ago) allowed that and I stated that my dad encouraged us to fight it out and get over it. He then said that SIL apologized. In my head, I was like to what the wind? I left the room. He was almost insinuating I need to apologize and I stated that I would not be apologizing. He then asked if I wanted to be treated like his daughter because if I want that that means he would tell me to get over it and I would have to come to the funeral regardless of my plans. Found that comment to be bizarre as he’s not my father nor my fathers replacement. MIL had tried calling me that day but I didn’t answer bc I am not in the right headspace and he told me he would’ve told me to pick up the damn phone if I was his daughter…. But I’m not your daughter I’m an adult who’s married to your son. Anyways that phone call ended with me saying I need to be left alone right now and he agreed.
MIL texted me afterwards saying she’s upset and wants to talk to me. Husband called inlaws and was pissed that she texted me. I responded to her with “I am not ready to talk right now cause my emotions are high as well and I want to be able to have a productive conversation with you.”
Anyways fast forward to yesterday MIL said to husband on a phone call that she doesn’t understand why I am offended/hurt. He explained that I am his wife, I was one of the few people that knew his uncle outside of family and they have disrespected me multiple times previously in similar situations. Husband told me he explained to MIL his priorities were with me and she apparently said ”what if your priorities change” and also said “well you’re going without her now anyways so why is she upset”
This has been exhausting. Of course if this death had recently happened, we would both drop anything and everything for it but as it can be rescheduled, I’m not understanding why it has to be a specific time that ONLY works for them.
submitted by Popular_Trash7368 to inlaws [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:30 virgogianni I’m I the only one who’s not so hot on the ‘classic costumes’?

I’m I the only one who’s not so hot on the ‘classic costumes’?
I would prefer a modernized version or even a whole overhaul (provided their identity/personality is still clear, like mkx to mk11 Cassie Cage) rather than literally just rendering their plain classic costumes for the game. I want to call it lazy but I mean there’s a lot that does go into creating this stuff. But i just think when you have that much graphical art space to work with, I think you should certainly take advantage of it. Especially when you’re contending with Tekken and SF6’s next gen graphics.
And on the topic of graphics, has anyone heard anything from NRS about that? Id hate to believe this is how far they’re taking the graphics because they’re seriously lagging behind. Right now (though I know I can’t do Jack shit about it) I can’t see them justifying not releasing for the ps4 if those are the graphics we’re getting. Even MK11 looks way more polished (polished not better).
submitted by virgogianni to MortalKombat [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:24 Strawberrythirty Is Adventure academy worth it?

There was some sale where it was $45 for the entire year and you could add up to three kids. Since summer started I figured maybe it was worth a shot and got it and set it up on the desktop. My son who’s 11 sat to play it and honestly can’t take it seriously. There’s a part of the game that is literally a Pokémon rip off and when he saw it began cackling like a lunatic. It’s been over an hour and all he’s been doing is switching his costumes, feeding some pet thing they gave him etc. I mean it’s too early to tell but I don’t see a lot of actual learning going on. Any other parents have their kids use this?
submitted by Strawberrythirty to Parenting [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:15 -Up6 Confused about obtaining foreign currency

I'm planning a trip to Japan and I'm wondering how I'm supposed to get Japanese money? I will be flying out of lax los angeles and I see they have a currency exchange place, so does that mean I can just walk up to them and give them $1000 USD and they'll give me whatever that equals to in yen. Or is there something else I'm missing? I'd rather get the money before I get there just in case
submitted by -Up6 to NoStupidQuestions [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 21:07 Queen_Of_Omorfia selling items! (nyp)

Wings: - snow pops x2 - mini electric guardian - angel wings
Skirts: - mini skirt x7 - midnight’s strike popstar performance skirt x5 - royal stroll in the garden x2 - real life mermaid x4 - sparkly party tutu
Shoes: - carol of the elves booties - adorable lace-up doll boots - kingly kicks - huggly snuggly booties x3
Accessories: - christmas window shopping top hat - crazy in love glasses - frozen royalty crown x2 - angel halo - kawaii reaper x5 - droopy elf ears - peppermint princess sleeves x2 - nomnom frosted donut waist floatie x4 - exquisite emerald ring x5 - studded rose garters - maracas - arachnofabulous x5 - dear dollie laced back bow x3 - kitchen accident x5 - exquisite emerald necklace x3 - glorious cape - dear dollie gloves x9 - butterfly pavilion fascinator - spring horns - beautiful rose in hand x2 - spring cleaning duster x2 - freshwater pearl necklace x6 - seashell hair clips x3 - sparkly heart hoop earrings - heart of the ocean necklace - pumpkin autumn earrings - dotd aromatic flower crown - giant teddy bear - princess starfrost cozy bodice - bloxy award - polar bear beret cap - nine-tails - royal sword of strength x2 - princely dueling crown - reindeer crossbody x5 - 2020 party hat x2 - pretty kitty tail x2 - skull crown - spider friend x2 - warm glittering cloak x8 - sparkly candy cane ears x5 - fuzzy warm frost hat x7 - light-up ornament necklace x5 - winter snowglobe x11 - merry sparkly dress x6 - shy scarf - abnormally large and very pokey fork - beasty snow antlers - spring bucket hat x2 - stars and moons pendant x2 - warm winter lantern x6 - ice’s ufo x5 - lucky top hat x4 - lucky headband x8 - nightmare witch hat x2 - whiskers - bunny bonnet headband - falling spring blossoms - icey snowflake earrings x2 - wish upon a star earrings x2 - fuzzy bracelets - fashionable round frames x3 - spring queen crown x2 - easter egg boppers x2 - oof head x2 - rainbow visor x3 - easter egg top hat x2 - glowing pumpkin wand x2 - friendship necklace (right) x6 - gone with the wind bow headband x9 - personal snow flurry x11 - crispy air puffy jacket x8 - flower vines arm beauty x7 - stocking bows - soft plush antlers - santa hat x4 - santa’s beard - light-up antlers x2 - classic ghost costume x2 - 2021 party hat x7 - my dollie x2 - candy explosion!!! x3 - spinning web boppers x2 - darling valentina playful puppy ears x7 - bat earrings x3 - supernatural hoop earrings x4 - spider’s masterpiece purse - nomnom chocolate bar x5 - magical fairy lights x12 - dragon staff x4 - cheerleader pompoms! x5 - don’t pick me please x7 - jeweled choker necklace x5 - american flag x4 - canadian flag x3 - glittering noel bows x6 - sparkly christmas bells earrings x9 - snowman’s top hat x4 - runaway damsel candleabra x4 - good tidings shawl cape x2 - father christmas’ present bag x3 - iced gingerbread earrings x2 - aurora’s longsword - elf helper hat - aurora’s battleaxe - polar cutie fur leg warmers - ice prince shawl cape - dashing through the snow scarf - midnight’s strike popstar astral hair bow x13 - sewer rat x8 - midnight’s strike popstar constellation bodice x3 - midnight’s strike popstar celestial armlets x11 - midnight’s strike popstar microphone - popstar microphone
DISCLAIMER: there's no set prices on any of these items, so if you're offering diamonds please name your price!! and I'm open to items/items + diamonds offers though I'm predominantly looking for diamonds ^ the "x(certain number)" just indicates the quantity of the item I have available for sale at the moment
submitted by Queen_Of_Omorfia to RoyaleHighTrading [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 20:55 --Clintoris-- #NRFI #AI - Quick Hitter

I got to make this quick, there are a few games I will be keeping a close eye on. I got ish going on today so I have to make this quick -

RECAP FROM YESTERDAY > 50%
AZ/WAS - POSTPONED
MIN/TB - NRFI
DET/PHI - NRFI
2-0 day - OVERALL RECORD - 20-10 (67%)

MIA/CHW NRFI - **EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM IS ON THIS. And I mean i get it kind of. Eury Perez is a budding star, has great first inning stats and the Miami Marlins have scored in just 18% of their first innings. And that's the analysis youre getting, im guessing. Vig is at -145. -145!!! I don't hate this, I'd likely bet it if vig was at -120 or even -125 but -145 seems like a lot.
Not to mention that CHW have a 50% increase in first inning runs at home this year, and they hit righties WAY better than lefties. no me gusta
And the Marlins have a lead off hitter batting .401

SEA/LAA - Ohtani vs Castillo opened up at -145, went up to -150 and is currently at -130. I will be watching this closely.

**
Todays games > 52%
AZ/DET - 62.6%
CIN/STL - 59%
OAK/MIL - 56%
SEA/LAA - 56%
BOS/NYY - 52%
KC/BALT - 52%
( I am not including the games barely over 50%, I think Mets have an offensive explosion today)

TODAYS ODDS (again the percentage is likelihood of a NRFI occurring) -

Arizona Diamondbacks 73.89% Actual Odds -125
Full NRFI 62.60% RANK 1
Detroit Tigers 84.72% Implied Odds -150
*********************** *********************** ************
Texas Rangers 69.86% Actual Odds -120
Full NRFI 46.53% RANK 14
Tampa Bay Rays 66.59% Implied Odds +110
*********************** *********************** ************
Kansas City Royals 73.85% Actual Odds -110
Full NRFI 52.64% RANK 6
Baltimore Orioles 71.28% Implied Odds -115
*********************** *********************** ************
New York Mets 77.76% Actual Odds +100
Full NRFI 51.33% RANK 8
Pittsburgh Pirates 74.01% Implied Odds -103
*********************** *********************** ************
Los Angeles Dodgers 67.15% Actual Odds +100
Full NRFI 43.37% RANK 15
Philadelphia Phillies 64.58% Implied Odds +120
*********************** *********************** ************
Boston Red Sox 68.13% Actual Odds -125
Full NRFI 52.71% RANK 5
New York Yankees 77.37% Implied Odds -115
*********************** *********************** ************
Minnesota Twins 66.19% Actual Odds -130
Full NRFI 48.69% RANK 13
Toronto Blue Jays 73.56% Implied Odds +105
*********************** *********************** ************
Houston Astros 67.03% Actual Odds -120
Full NRFI 51.11% RANK 9
Cleveland Guardians 76.25% Implied Odds -110
*********************** *********************** ************
Washington Nationals 76.39% Actual Odds +110
Full NRFI 49.95% RANK 11
Atlanta Braves 65.38% Implied Odds +100
*********************** *********************** ************
Miami Marlins 71.72% Actual Odds -135
Full NRFI 50.38% RANK 10
Chicago White Sox 70.24% Implied Odds -105
*********************** *********************** ************
Oakland Athletics 80.02% Actual Odds +100
Full NRFI 56.60% RANK 3
Milwaukee Brewers 70.73% Implied Odds -130
*********************** *********************** ************
Cincinnati Reds 77.68% Actual Odds -110
Full NRFI 59.31% RANK 2
St. Louis Cardinals 76.35% Implied Odds -135
*********************** *********************** ************
San Diego Padres 67.98% Actual Odds +125
Full NRFI 52.55% RANK 7
Colorado Rockies 77.31% Implied Odds -110
*********************** *********************** ************
Seattle Mariners 74.59% Actual Odds -150
Full NRFI 56.58% RANK 4
Los Angeles Angels 75.85% Implied Odds -135
*********************** *********************** ************
Chicago Cubs 63.54% Actual Odds -135
Full NRFI 48.94% RANK 12
San Francisco Giants 77.02% Implied Odds +105
*********************** *********************** ************
I'm going to riding DET/AZ NRFI and OAK/MIL because it is + money
submitted by --Clintoris-- to sportsbetting [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 20:54 FaLlaMAnticore If any Series Deserves/Needs a Rewrite, it's this one

You've got books one and two, which have some strange characterisation, and Butcher was still learning his craft. Especially Fool Moon needs a total rewrite, as the only way for the plot to work is for every single character to be making the exact worst decision at every moment.
Then you have Peace Talks and Battle Ground, which both clearly suffered from being split apart and reordered. Scenes don't make sense, are outright wrong, or should clearly be in different places (The corner hound fight for instance)
With Peace Talks specifically, I don't think it's quite the 'horniness' that get's people so much as how it is presented. Many of the other books explore and focus heavily on sexual themes, but not in such a weird hot and heavy way. You should feel Dresden panting, not Butcher.
The last two books also feel out of place, which is fair, he was out of it for 6 years, but they feel misaligned, like some of the magic is missing.
Harry's relationship with Murphy is the most important thing to smooth out in my mind. She can still start out antagonistic and become his closest friend, but the jumps from "insane villian" to "avenging angel and broken hero" to "completely different person love interest who wants to endanger people by going to the front line" is jarring and weird.
I'm having troubles describing it, but she feels more fuzzy or sleazy or something in the last two books.
Specific changes could include:
Getting rid of or changing the whole busting Thomas out of prison subplot. It was too long to be incidental, and too short to be included. It should have been it's own story or not have happened.
Focus more on Harry's relationship with Murphy in the new "Peace Grounds". They're best friends and lovers. Let's see that relationship start. Let's see them interact with the clarity of gentle love, not the dull burning of lust.
Introduce Harry's first apprentice in Storm Front instead of Fool Moon to get to know her better.
Don't make Murphy directly 110% responsible for Carmichael's death.
Do something with the Bob/Butters situation. Maybe this one isn't an "error" per se, but something about how they change bothers me. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe Butters is just preventing more of the Harry geeking out in his lab scenes I love by holding onto Bob.
The whole Butters threesome thing feels like the sad fantasy of a divorced middle aged man. Doesn't mean it shouldn't happen, but something needs to change to make it feel more natural. Less like a Grant Morrison manifesting bit.
There's probably more little things, but those are the big ones off the top of my head
I should end with that I am a huge fan of the series, one of my absolute favourites, and that the above could and would happen to anybody writing a series so long with so much going on in their own life.
submitted by FaLlaMAnticore to dresdenfiles [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 20:09 MBlancovintage Legacy Guile mains, how are we feeling?

Just a few general thoughts from a lowly Gold rank (being a legacy main doesn't mean I'm good lol).
- Unrelated but I love the club system, I joined ISDD's 'General's Army' and it feels great to watch his videos, learn from his Guile, rep the uniform and represent in a small way.
- First time Guile's ever had a parry, I know it's a universal mechanic, but it feels historic lol.
- I always struggle w/ input windows and charge time on more advanced combos, specially now integrating drive rush, but thankfully his legacy strat is as effective as ever in this game, in time I want to get down at least some more execution heavy combos.
- Love the sonic blade as a normal special in this game.
- cr.lk cr.lp flashkick seems a little harder to confirm this time around, maybe I'm trippin.
- New costume goes super hard, even if I'm rolling w/ the classic one.
-The JP matchup is a nightmare at my rank.
- Overall tho no real complaints, love the character always.
Feel free to add in thoughts from every skill level
submitted by MBlancovintage to StreetFighter [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 20:08 FoodieLoverForver What are some healthy and refreshing summer food choices in Los Angels?

Los Angeles offers a wide range of healthy and refreshing food choices, especially during the summer when fresh produce is abundant. Here are some options for healthy and refreshing summer foods in Los Angeles:
Farmers Markets: Visit one of the many farmers markets in Los Angeles, such as the Hollywood Farmers Market or Santa Monica Farmers Market. You'll find a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, perfect for creating refreshing salads, smoothies, and light meals.
Fresh Salads: Look for salad-centric restaurants or salad bars that offer a variety of crisp, refreshing options. Many places in LA focus on using local, organic ingredients and offer customizable salads with a wide range of toppings and dressings.
Poke Bowls: Poke bowls have become increasingly popular and are a refreshing option for summer. These bowls typically consist of fresh raw fish, such as tuna or salmon, combined with rice or salad greens, vegetables, and flavorful toppings like sesame seeds, seaweed, and soy sauce.
Smoothie Bowls: Cool down with a nutritious and refreshing smoothie bowl. Many juice bars and cafes in Los Angeles offer acai bowls or other variations filled with blended fruits, toppings like granola and fresh berries, and optional add-ins like chia seeds or nut butter.
Fresh Juices: Stay hydrated and refreshed with a variety of fresh juices. Los Angeles is known for its juice bars and cold-pressed juice options, offering a range of fruit and vegetable combinations that provide a nutrient boost on hot summer days.
Veggie Wraps and Sandwiches: Opt for veggie-centric wraps or sandwiches that are packed with fresh ingredients like grilled vegetables, avocado, sprouts, and hummus. Many cafes and eateries in LA offer delicious and healthy options for a satisfying yet light meal.
Frozen Yogurt: Enjoy a cool treat with a healthier twist by indulging in some frozen yogurt. Look for shops that offer low-fat or non-dairy options and top your frozen yogurt with fresh fruits, nuts, and other healthier toppings.
Remember to stay hydrated and choose foods that are light, packed with nutrients, and made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Los Angeles has a vibrant food scene, offering many options to suit various dietary preferences and provide refreshing and healthy meals during the summer months.
submitted by FoodieLoverForver to u/FoodieLoverForver [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 20:07 twerktingz1 (Day 21 of 30) what is the global history of your world with 15 to 20 enumerated sentences

1 the omnigoddess woke up after sleeping for half a millennium
2 she created small friends to play with for 200 years
3 the omnigoddess grew tired of her little friends and split herself into 3 distinct being
4 the Goddess of birth and life created the world and every animal and plants
5 the Goddess of birth and life created the first beings known as angels and they flourished the world for 100 years till they were sent to the divine realm with their mothers
6 the Goddess of birth and life created the second beings known as demons they were known as Erosia (goddess of birth) favourite children
7 they created many structures, empires ,kingdoms and temples
8 for 16000 years the demons flourished on earth until the Goddess of death decided they were to boring and chaotic and killed half of them and sent the remaining to another realm known as the netherus realm
9 the Goddess of birth and life created the humans they were known as the last children
10 the first civilization started in a village
11 first religion was created known as douxorion to benefit the men of the world and exploit women
12 the age of imperialism started and the entire 3 continent became empires
13 the first priestess of douxorion was skeptical of her religion and requested to leave on a spiritual journey to the old ruins of the last civilization
14 the first priestess was enlightened and divine aura was flowing through her and journeyed back to the Rathnia empire to accuse the empire of heresy and claim the throne as her divine right
15 the priestess now empress reigned as the empress of Rathnia for 300 years
16 empress Abeena was the daughter of empress rayna she reigned for 150 years but her life was cut short as a result of the magical emergence
17 the magical emergence killed 70% of the world and brought chaos to everything that was known demons and angels were seen, new religions were created
18 as a result of the magical emergence 10 years later the fall of imperialism and feudalism happened but the nobles fought for their nobility and tried to stay in power any means necessary
19 the queen of cradontia started a matriarchal revolution that started from 1350-1920
submitted by twerktingz1 to worldbuilding [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 19:57 BsdTheories Bsd Villain Theory

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of bsd theories about the book and the beast au, and a question came to my mind…Who is the main villain in bsd? From my expectation, many would say Mori or Fyodor. I mean they are not the best, but they have reasonings and actually do care what happens to the people in their organization (most of the time). I mean, they try to come up with a plan so the lost people would be at a minimal number. It is known the fact that Mori killed the pm boss to take his position, but what would have happened if he remained alive? Before Mori killed him, he asked for the pm to kill every rival organization, but this was a suicidal idea, like there sure were many powerful organizations, which would have resulted at the end of the pm, so somehow Mori actually saved the pm. Don't understand me wrong, I dislike Mori as much as any other bsd fan, but we cannot forget that without him the pm would be dead by now. Even if the mafia didn't exist, trouble wouldn't disappear, because of the Guilt, the Hunting Dogs, and Decay of Angels. Chuuya helped the ada fight the hunting dogs, what would have happened if Mori didn't order him to come to rescue them? Most likely, they would have died or been arrested. Now that we mentioned Chuuya, I want to talk a bit about his joining the pm. Mori gave Dazai the task to inspect the territory where Chuuya and his gang lived. Mori clearly planned for Chuuya to join the pm, but that does not mean he made the Sheep try to kill Chuuya. This just proves Mori saved him from an unhealthy environment, where he was used by the others for their own benefit. The mafia isn't the best, but Chuuya had a better situation than Dazai. He had trustworthy people, he was respected and he lived in a luxury apartment. He had people he could talk to and who tried to help him when he needed it. Dazai did leave the pm, which also resulted in abandoning Chuuya, but he did not leave him. He left an environment more toxic than his, I mean who takes a f*cking child with mental illness who just failed to commit suicide, and makes him join a mafia, a place where everything revolves around death, mental abuse, and maybe even physical. I know it's now canon but seriously, has anyone seen a great villain that didn't get abused physically? I mean he didn't just say, let's abuse Akutagawa so he can learn something, I believe he thought he was training him. So Dazai did get abused and left the mafia after Odasaku's death. Now let's get back to Fyodor. He committed many crimes, but he did it just so he could make the world better, and he isn't wrong. There are still problems in the world without abilities, but some abilities are dangerous and could destroy the entire bsd universe. He wanted to help people have a normal life, and live in peace, even though it is not possible, even how hard someone tries. There might be another reason, but I'll leave this theory for another video. Back to the main question. If neither Mori nor Fyodor are the main villain then who it is? Who is the one responsible for everything that is happening? Firstly, let's think, what is the bsd? A succession of predictions was made by Dazai. As he himself says, "his predictions always come true", but what are predictions exactly? To declare or indicate something in advance, something that will occur in the future. Some villains try to prevent those predictions from becoming true. But which ability user can see in the future and uses his ability to prevent those events from taking place? Oda Sakunosuke. At first, he might seem innocent, but what about his past? He knew Fukuzawa and Ranpo. Couldn't he just ask them if he could join the ADA? Or how he could become a good person? This was he could've joined the ada and become a writer, but instead, he chose to join the pm. There, he met Dazai and Ango, which he became close to, and that's how the Lupin trio was created. Their friendship is a bit weird. Ango was an individual who has Discourse on Decadence, an ability that allows the user to read the memories left in things, Dazai, with No Longer Human, which allows the user to nullify any ability by a single touch, and Oda. These three are like the past, the present, and the future. Ango looks back in time, to the good memories he had with the two. Also, he helped Dazai get his crimes erased, meaning erasing his past. Dazai is the always suicidal maniac, who tries to find value in the thing we call living. And Oda gave Dazai a chance to change his future. But this doesn't explain why he had to die. If he wanted revenge, he could've talked to Dazai. After all, in the end, Alexander would've died, by Oda's hands or not. We know Dazai saw Oda as a father figure, but what about Oda? Did he see Dazai as his son? I don't think so. Like, which father ignores their son, goes to get himself killed ad after that tells his son that he cannot fill the hole he has when the son considers his father the reason he's not dead. If he actually cared so much about Dazai, why did he leave him? Dazai screamed, begged, and even told him what he is looking for, and Oda didn't give a damn about what he had to say, and before he died he tells Dazai to join the good side. He expected Dazai to listen to him even thou he didn't listen for a moment to what he had said. He knew Dazai would do what he told him because he knew how important he was to him. Like seriously, Dazai would do anything for this man, and this might be the biggest advantage Fyodor has against Dazai. His big card. Or better said his queen. We know Dazai and Fyodor are playing a game of chess against one another, but Fyodor has a page from the Book. Couldn't he just revive Odasaku, and make him convince Dazai to join the doa and help them find the book? The answer would be yes because Dazai would do anything to see him again, it's like an obsession. He wants to make Oda proud. He wants his agreement. Somehow it is just like his youthful years in the pm. Dazai was a witness for Mori. He made him live in a shipping container, abused him, and manipulated him. And Oda did the same, the only difference is that he was more discrete. He made Dazai hide for two years who knows where, his last words always torment him, because he thinks he's breaking his last words because even Oda said, he can never be completely good, as for the manipulation, as I said earlier, he would do anything for him and we know it. But what about the book? The book theory says that Odasaku was one of the authors or knew Dazai was the book. In both cases, he puts Dazai in greater danger, because he knows where to find the book and if any enemy organization finds out about this, the Ada would not be able to protect him entirely. Even though now he is an adult, in his inside he is just a child, a sobbing child left in the darkness of a world worse than the one we see. He knows what death is, and how greedy humans are and he specifically does not consider himself a human being. He is a literal puppet controlled by a puppeteer that we cannot see. He gave Dazai the book, a big responsibility, and took the bandages from his face. Could this represent he passed his exam, just like Ada's entrance exam, and now he was ready for his biggest exam? Or if he knew Dazai was the book, did he want to test his loyalty? See how far he would go for him and how much he would sacrifice in order to save him. Was Dazai just a puppet, a pawn, a key for Oda's plan? If so, Dazai surely satisfied Odasaku, because he did create entire alternative universes just so he could live and become an author. We've only seen the Beast au, but there are many other universes where he had to rewatch him die, leaving him right in his arms. In the end, we realize that there is no one we can trust except for ourselves, maybe not even ourselves. The bsd universe will never be perfect, because there is no such thing as perfection in the world, neither good nor bad people. They, like us, are only pawns at the mercy of a greater person. 
submitted by BsdTheories to u/BsdTheories [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 19:51 AstolfoSexual Yoshida is the best boy, an essay

u/AstolfoSexual
Tatsuki Fujimoto
Shipenomics
09 June 2023
Yoshida is the ideal partner for Denji
We all know the endgame ship for this series is a major point of contention in the fandom. Almost every girl seems to have a stake in the competition, from the Asa fans to the ever-delusional Reze fans. However, I am here to prove once and for all why Yoshida is objectively the best choice for Denji. Now many people try to counter this with the belief that,

Denji is Straight

While this argument may seem true and impossible to disprove on the surface level, it becomes clear that it isn’t as soon as you begin to look deeper into Denji’s thoughts. As seen in chapter 43, Denji mentions that he is in love with 2 women. Power, Angel, And Kobeni are then depicted in various states of undress, as Denji lists the “reasons” they aren’t the second woman. Now comparing the states of undress in these pictures, I find it peculiar that despite Denji supposedly being straight, Angel appears to be the one showing the most, wearing merely a pair of gloves, and what appears to be thigh highs, leaving everything else out for display. Under the assumption that these are images Denji has fantasized about, if he is so straight, then why is the only male present showing off the most? This shows that Denji has given considerable thought to Angel, despite claiming to not like guys. Now, keeping in mind that while this proves Denji may not dislike boys as much as he claims, this doesn’t disprove the fact that he still likes girls. Thusly, the only logical conclusion that can be made from this is that Denji is in reality, a little bi-slut. This means that Yoshida is in fact a valid option, Now this brings up the question of,

What does Yoshida bring to the table?

Now that we have established that Denji is not straight, but a little bi-slut instead, it is time to determine why Yoshida is objectively the best. Let’s begin with,

Asa

Asa is arguably the most popular endgame choice and there are a multitude of reasons, the most prominent being that she is pretty darn cute. However, this is greatly ruined by the fact that she is a smelly femcel thereby removing her as an immediate candidate for Endgame.

Reze

Reze is fucking dead.

Kobeni

While Kobeni has proven with her actions that she is driven, responsible, and kind. She does not fit as a potential endgame. Ignoring the fact that she is most likely 21 by part 2, and Denji is only 17, She has not shown any interest in even wanting to associate with Denji anymore. Now this can be disproven in the future, seeing as the manga is still ongoing, I believe that it will remain like this. These simple facts alone are enough to remove her from the running.

Yoshida

Now on to the best choice. As we have learned in part 2, Yoshida is a member of the devil hunters club. This means we can determine that he is responsible and strong. Responsibility means that he is able to take control and independently solve a problem when it arises. Strength can mean a multitude of things but the for the purpose of this essay we will determine it as his fighting capabilities. Despite what little we have seen of his actual capabilities, what has been shown suggests that he has undergone proper training seeing as he managed to land hits during his fight with Quanxi, and in the event of an attack on Denji and his’ homestead, he would be able to sufficiently fight off an invader. Moving on, suppose Denji is uncomfortable with the idea of being seen with a guy. Yoshida would be able to solve this problem easily, all he needs to do is throw on a pair of heels, a crop top, and some booty shorts (Leaving them unbuttoned), and the problem would be solved. Now comparing these 4 that leaves the optimal choice for Denji very clear,

Yoshida would be the best boy

Simply put, Yoshida absolutely beats every possible option for the endgame. From his dashing good looks to his capabilities as a partner, he is simply the best. No smelly femcel or corpse could possibly compete with him.
submitted by AstolfoSexual to Chainsawfolk [link] [comments]


2023.06.09 19:43 seii7 Who’s the guy who convinced Lothric to not link the fire?

Title basically.
We know Lothric had a teacher or tutor of some kind who implanted his skepticism of prolonging the AoF in him, but what other information do we have about the guy? Was he part of the angelic faith? Or of the Sable Church? I mean, considering he basically set the events of the game in motion by influencing a (probably) young and impressionable Prince Lothric, he seems to be a pretty important character to the lore.
submitted by seii7 to darksouls3 [link] [comments]