Hermit

Welcome back

Anxiety disorders and depression both run in my family, so..sympathies. Not that my sympathies mean much

I refer you to our resident Ewok hater/hunter badger who was hating the fuzzy little snots before the interwebz was really going strong

My own view is we are well on our way towards it and little is being done. For the poorest and least influential? Well for them we're already there.

I'm not talking about giving away every little detail, but she did not inspire, did not share with those she was sure she could trust, and was...sorry, bad at communication. She was also woefully unprepared for how little trust she had not just from Poe, but from many others (Poe did not work alone). Notice, I do agree with you that Poe was the chief holder of the tactical idiot ball. If the order had come for him, then wouldn't he have been a rather grand distraction? And we're talking about a master Jedi, where Snoke is dead. Who was going to trace him that easily? Kylo? Sure..he follows Luke and THAT would by the resistance valuable time. And I'm not convinced he couldn't get off planet. Luke's astral projection fight was brilliant, no complaints. Snuffing himself after he saved them once was a waste. We are talking about a Rebellion/Resistance that was apparently reduced to dozens. Also, Leia has done the rescue stuff before, while she got caught once, she still used forethought and planning. Let's give her some credit here. This idea that ALL Luke has to teach is tarnished and impure is an alarming one. The Jedi screwed up. And Rey does not have to be one. Fine. But it's an example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater to assume Luke would now have nothing to teach. It's...bad writing with an ugly undercurrent. IMO, of course. An "ideal' moment? Look, the closest Luke came to killing Vader, had the Emporer using the full force of his will and persuasion egging him on to do it, and Luke still told prunepuss to go @@@@ himself and the Bantha he rode in on. This had Luke, mister "I know there's good at you" looking down on his Nephew with a lightsaber lit up, a lethal weapon. It's not ideal if it goes against a cornerstone of the character. And, let's clear something up. I'm talking about Luke, not other characters with other ideals, other gifts, other strengths, other cornerstones. So this 'what about other character X' stuff doesn't wash.

Right. I stand by my statement. Luke would not have had a lit lightsaber ready to cut open his own nephew. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I'm still having to tell myself Snoke was manipulating with the dark side during that whole encounter. And how was he was quitting? Are you kidding? "he had done all he could" really? Had he saddled up in an X-Wing and joined the rank and file? Looked for other force users to teach and help Rey? Teach Rey some more after all? Hell, maybe he could have stuck around and provided blue milk to the rebels for supplies. What he's old, and therefore useless? That's a lesson we want to teach, that the socety of Logan's Run was right? Even if Luke had somehow burnt out his force powers after that stunt and could never recharge again... his experience, his knowledge, could be useful. Now, as I said, they can salvage this... if he had some greater plan to help more as a force ghost etc. But as they left it? Luke felt bad, got off his ass, helped buy them time, and then...makes the same damn mistake and quits again by suicide by Force rather than helping those who still needed every person they could get. And Haldo (sp) whatever her name was terrible at communicating to her troops. Poe is the worst offender, but Haldo and others had some terrible leadership going on. Like someone else said, that's not atypical for Hollywood writers period. But it was noticeable.

Robots are the least of our problems ? https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/04/future-work-independent-contractors-alternative-work-arrangements-216212

Pogo's kind of fun to write to be honest. I feel like I'm cheating and padding my word count whenever I use her though

You had to know you were getting puns on this right? Thank you though. Does my ego good to hear

Yeah, if there were an external influence, say Snoke is proven later to have been pushing from the shadows, I would be 'well, okay then'' but of course that isn't likely to be what the writers had in mind and proving it even if it is is now much harder. Poe? Lord "That thing's a fleet killer" .. and I was even then like So you're going to kill your own fleet for them? Leia should have slapped him harder...

Finally saw it. I really have a problem with three things only. Now that said, over all I liked it. I , unlike some, adored Rose, but more for her "I'd like to put a fist through this town" and then , amusingly enough, she does. I found Luke's teaching yodalike enough that I laughed. And yes, he trolled a lot of people. Saw a certain betrayal coming a mile away but it didn't detract too much. BB's imperial opposite was actually a scary little droid. Rey was less of a Mary Sue this time imo. I think I'd have given it 7 and a half stars if not for the complaints I mentioned. After that, more like 6.5.

(And for the one or two of you that are still reading, I'm finally resuming) "Gimmie your purse, Lady," I drew the empty gun and pointed it at the face of the woman I loved. This was the fifth try, we went one block, moved another two or so, and then tried again. By now we had crossed from one end of the worst neighborhoods to another and still no dice. And this was an area that was one of Bloodwatch's favorite hunting grounds for punks, muggers, and worse. Maybe Bloodwatch was laying low thanks to Apocalyptic giving a warning he was a target. Assuming he saw himself as a superhero? That didn't quite fit the mentality of the man I had met. He'd be cautious, but give up on his crusade against crime as he saw it? No. He was too obsessed for that. "No, please, I have to pay my bills or I'll lose my coverage," Ariana adlibbed, even as I refocused on take five of the 'let's mug your girlfriend' skit. That's when a green and yellow figure slammed down from above and hit my head before bouncing off! "No means no!" my attacker rebounded for another swing, "Get back, miss! Superhero to the rescue! Girl power! Women unite! And yet she persisted!" Pogo landed almost as many springy blows and punches as she did sentences, which meant the attacks were adding up. "Pogo," I tried to explain, but she wasn't having it and I didn't get to explain until she bounced off a nearby wall and smashed her elbow into my nose moving like a deranged dodgeball. "Shame on you," She lectured as she walloped and thumped me all over, "Shame shame shame, sir! Times are hard, yes, but that doesn't give you the right to mug people. Is it drugs? Are you on the opioids? The crack? There are clinics, there are ways to get help, twelve step programs and support groups, after you wake up maybe the police can help you get your life straight, but first you must pay your time for the mugging. Might for right! JUUUUUSTIICE!" She was now a green and yellow blur thumping and bumping and striking and kicking, my eyes were having trouble finding her. "Pogo, stop," Ariana said, "It's okay, he's not a bad guy, we're both-" But no, she wasn't getting a full sentence in either. "OMG! He Stockholm syndromed you, don't worry miss, we'll get you help too," Pogo assured her, "As soon as he falls I," bounce spring beat beat beat, "Okay, he's one tough mugger, miss. I mean, he should have been out like three whomps ago. If he's a supervillain he's breaking a few rules not wearing a costume." "I'm Eel," I hissed at her hoping she could hear but no one else stumbling onto the scene would. "Ill? Sir, if you have a mental condition that drives you to crime than I'll make sure you get the best therapist I can if the lady refuses to press charges but-" "EEL," I said a bit louder as she planted a bouncy foot in my face. "Heel? Oh, you do not treat women like some kind of dog you mugging misogynist," she said, and rained down another four blows, "not on my watch! Get woke or get broke!" "Oh Christ," I muttered, figuring Jesus would forgive me the slip. Traditionally our lord and savior is a pretty good sport, "Fish Guy. I'm FISHGUY, we met?" And just like that, the attacks stopped as the superpowered Asian-American teenager finally ceased her attacks and settled for bouncing around, "Fish Guy? You're undercover? Cool, why didn't you say it was you? I'm not a telepath you know, though I don't think I'd want to be, all that talk in my head constantly, not able to shut it out, can you imagine what that would be like?" "Getting an idea," I managed to slip in, "Pogo, you're in danger." "Ooo, is it because you stole something from Mister Brute?" She inquired, "It's all on Supranow what he did to Viewpoint, but he can't hurt me, I bounce back from wrecking balls." "Can you be cut?" Valorosa said. "Well," She looked worried. "Or burned?" I asked before she went back in chatterbox mode, "They have a lot of ways of hurting someone, Pogo. And even with raw strength alone, Mister Brute could grapple with you and then suffocate you by covering your mouth and nose until you die." "Eeep," She squeaked as she thought about it, "So, got a spare bunk at your base?" "You didn't have to scare her," Ariana muttered to me, then answered Pogo, "Sure thing, Pogo." "Great, just, uhm, who are you?" Pogo asked Ariana, "Are you like his sidekick or something?" I snerked and looked to the side. Avoid eye contact, Caleb. Avoid eye contact and live. "No," Ariana said taking a moment to collect herself, "I'm undercover too. I'm the newest member of the New Samaritans, they call me Valorosa," She offered a hand. "So, uhm, the New Samaritans brought on female minority superheroine, that's, very diverse of them," Pogo said shaking the hand and sighing, "Of course, they have women, and they have a latino so you know, if I were Lady Obsidian I might try to squeeze in, and I'm just spitballing here, maybe say a younger Asian-American superheroine? But good, good on them, I just you know, been trying for a while now, and it's hard not to take this the wrong way. Kind of hurts, a little, in here. Got big dreams. Yup. Pocket full of dreams and a thirst for justice. If justice were a juice I'd be a twelve can a day girl. But I guess there's some ceilings left to crack, not saying you put it there, just you know, the old green-eyed monster at play here and-" "You're still too young, Pogo," Ariana interrupted. "Darn it," Pogo muttered. "Okay, not to rush things," I said, "But we need to get her to base, and see if we can find Bloodwatch already." "Bloodwatch? Why do you want that nutbar?" Pogo said, "He should be in jail. I mean, we all might be a little loose on some laws, but he thinks Deathwish is a how to guide. I tried to capture him once and he blew me up. I mean, it didn't hurt, but I ended up in the suburbs in a backyard with really yappy, what do you call those little wiener dogs?" "Dachshunds," I told her. "Gesundheit" Pogo said and continued, "Anyway, it really eats me up how many folks he's killed, sure, they're usually bad people but gosh darn it, I've been behind on library book returns and I don't want to die." "I think he's the least of your problems right now," I said, "Now come on, let's escort you to the base and-" I almost didn't see her I'm pretty sure I didn't. It was more like the sound you might hear with a high wind rushing up a narrow alleyway, "Move!" I pushed Pogo and sent her flying against a wall. Slice's blade carved through the space where Pogo had been. Pogo meanwhile rebounded off said wall and sprung into the air. Slice didn't seem to know who to go after, and if she had just left then we never would have caught her, instead she arched around and nearly sheared my head off as I hastily slipped on a mask from underneath my shirt. Secret Identities are important, assuming you don't have other ways to keep your loved ones protected twenty-four seven it can be the best defense they have. "You're not some street thug," Slice observed which is the most I recall her speaking compared to the others of her team. "It's the Jersey accent, isn't it?" I told her, "They told me that it was a stupid idea to do in California, and I wasn't pulling it off anyway." I talked to distract her from Pogo, who was hopefully well on her way to safety. "No hero left behind!" Pogo declared as she narrowly missed landing on Slice, and then managed to get a punch on her anyway. Pogo didn't have super-strength, but she could certainly move someone thanks to her natural knack for kinetic reactions. Slice actually stumbled. "Pogo get out of here!" I called out and slammed my foot down creating a shockwave even as I ordered her, "Where there's one member of the Apocalyptic team there's more," I wanted nothing more than to finish Slice off, but I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. The fact that a burning figure was appearing in the distance proved my point. Even as Slice slammed against a wall and seethed with her razor-sharp weapons ready. Now that she was slowed down, I saw they were knives. The abundance of sharp things that could cut through anything lately was really starting to annoy me. "Alleyoop?" Valorosa asked in the com. I smiled, and hoped this would work, "Alley Oop." Valorosa threw a garbage can, a pretty full one, at the speedster, who could have dodged but instead resorted to cutting it in half. She should have just avoided as refuse rained down over her. Fast or not, that was going to stain. "Can't smell worse than your perfume," Ariana told her trying her best, I thought, to emulate Arctic Fox's style, "Come on, miss stabby, by the time I'm done with you you'll be lucky if you're in shape to sell cutlery on an infomercial." Slice charged Valorosa, and Valorosa , who could be denser than steel, took another option, and went ghost like. Slice rushed through full tilt boogie for injustice, where I was waiting. That's when I seized Slice's arm, whirled her around applying as much pressure as I could, took a cut from her free hand for my trouble but snapped her wrist in return. She screamed, one of her blades dropped, and I threw her into the flaming figure of Firebug. It was possibly one of the best throws of my life. The results were truly spectacular. I didn't just mope when someone kicked my ass, I tried to learn about them, and I knew Slice, like a lot of speedsters, was a quick healer. But I imagine a broken wrist, and a crash into a fellow team mate who routinely burned at fifteen hundred degrees Celsius would leave a mark. Firebug dimmed just a bit at the contact, though whether it was to keep from burning a team make terribly or because she just been hit hard herself I didn't know. "Souvenir, dibs!" Pogo grabbed the fallen knife, and bounced up again, "Wow this is so sharp you could shave with it." "Be careful with that, and let's get moving," Valorosa said, her voice softer in her ghost state than at normal density. "But we can take em!" Pogo protested. "Right now, young lady," a stronger voice as she grew solid, then she turned, "Eel, I know you want to take them down but- hey!" The reason the lady of my life was startled as because I had wasted no time in getting the hovercycle and was now in the driver's seat, "Pogo, Valorosa, get in," I said as I brought it down ground level, "Fast." Ariana slipped behind me and put her arms around me even as she kept an eye on the foes who were recovering, "I think Mister Brute and Dice are in the distance." That seemed to be enough to discourage even Pogo's exuberance, and she bounded into the sidecar, "Okay, we'll get them another day?" "We or we?" I inquired, "Sorry, Pogo, don't let a lucky break fool you into thinking we've got them easily beat." I gunned the cycle and we were off like a shot. However badly hurt Slice was, she was the only one who might catch us right now, and she was still recovering it seemed. Thank goodness. "Mabel," I said, "We've got Pogo, despite a clash with two of Apocalyptic. No Fumian activity here. How about the others?" Mabel replied, "Plenty of action, actually, Tornado, Fox, and Pinprick had an encounter with a Fumian dealing technology to a group of gamers wanting access to the alpha test to some MMORPG. I had to help them detach the poor idiots because their brain patterns became interrogated into the wiring. In short, they almost became a collective Artificial Intelligence. Eventually their personalities would have merged, probably gone crazy, but even if they hadn't they would be dead as individuals." "Well, that's just all kinds of disturbing," I admitted. Ariana shuddered as well. "Cool," Pogo exclaimed, then noticed us looking at her, "I mean, terrible. Absolutely terrible." I couldn't help but chuckle, "It's a little bit both," I admitted to Pogo, then said "Mabel, get your scanners ready. We've got one of Slice's knives" "I was the one who called dibs," Pogo wanted to be sure we understood that. "Yes, yes," I agreed, "But I want to make sure we're not being tracked. I mean, they might figure out where the base is, but let's make them work for it, huh?" Mabel assured me, "Not to worry, the hovercycle has scanners too, and I'm having them do a run down now. Nasty knife, but no transmissions or odd energy signatures. I'll want to study in more in the base, but I think it's safe." "Huh," I grew thoughtful, "damn things cut through me pretty nastily," I said looking at the wound I'd gotten from the other one. "Yes, it's getting annoying," Valorosa said testily. "Not like I intend to get cut on purpose. I'm used to most sharp things not being able to pierce or lacerate my thick hide," I told Ariana, "Then I come to this city, and everything from magic spears to alien squid bots to giant chickens to knives worn by killer speedsters has something. You think it annoys you? Get in line. Besides, nothing a –" "Good soak in the tub won't take care of," Ariana chimed then added, "I know, I know, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." She looked at my reflection in the glass in front of me, "And stop smiling." "Sorry," I said, not quite able to manage full sincerity. I knew she worried, but I was used to folks worrying back home. For her to do it? It made me feel, well, darn it, warm and fuzzy inside, not that I'd ever mention that aloud. "Are you two dating?" Pogo gasped, "Oh my gosh, you're dating," She squeed a bit, "That's so romantic, the heat of battle stirring your passions, respect growing into longing, I am so putting this in my fan-fic" I had no idea what to say to that. I had done an internet search on myself once, and stumbled into some truly dark corners of fandom's collective imagination that I could not unsee. It would probably be best to not ask Pogo how far her fan-fic went. "Robots," Valorosa said. "You want Robots in fan-fic with us?" I said. "No, Robots are swarming a building over there," Valorosa gestured towards a squat building, "They look a lot like Fumian tech to me."

Oh great flaming spheres of stupid

No particular order... ST: Deep Space 9 Firefly Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Futurama Star Trek tos

It's ironic. I was just thinking, the Champions Universe actually makes a big deal about having cleaner energy tech more common among the masses. then add to that superheroes and how they can do things like put out wildfires and the like (If they have the right set of powers)) and I actually think things balance out pretty nicely.

Yay! He beat the new year!

Yup.. Gonna need a larger rage emoji :

Of course, if you don't like homeless you can just give them a bus ticket. Here's a study on how much (And how little) that policy helps. Nearby Knoxville actually has a lot of other cities send us their homeless. Apparently Knoxville has some good programs up, so I'm told, and the other cities, upon seeing this went "Well, let's give them more" put folks on buses and wiped their hands of them.

So how much does a dismantled robot go for on the black market? I have a domicile challenged friend who wants to know

The politicians are reluctant to turn on their donors?

That's a fair point. Of course, I still cringe where it would go if this current administration 'cleaned house' for the FBI. I think it would lead from arguably bad to definitely worse.

Your heart is in the right place even if it sounds like your liver might be in danger

The final vote tally has as our new members , in reverse category order Haste! Glitter Pony (who did an amazing gain the last few days) and we have a tie between Ogress and Omni-Droid! So arguably, Requiem might take both as the mystic advisor seemed to be good with either. What bad could happen? Thanks again to all who voted and commented!

Agreed. He was (Fittingly) always happy to answer a question by someone new to Champions or the boards and nice all around. Sympathies to his loved ones. RIP sir.

We maybe driven back to the bronze age in the interim, but I think some folks will survive to get another 700 years