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I could not care less how you write about "me" in this nonsensical game, as long as it's funny. {= )

And you can rope in Phobos, too, if you really want to.

~Neshomeh

This time, focusing on what my main cast has in terms of ground combat abilities, since they're a mix-and-match of various kind of powers and equipment.

In which the plot of Detective Conan tries to continue, but the nature of the Unraveled World means that a lot more people get involved than in canon.

For a very long period of time, there was a prevailing fan theory that the Ethereals weren't just psykers, but were psykers created as the result of genetic meddling by the Eldar of the Craftworlds, in a kind of history-rhymes version of the space elves's own creation myth as servants of the Old Ones. However... they're not. Tau'faan barely have a presence in the Warp, and this includes the Ethereals; they have been subject to rigorous testing in that regard... by the Drukhari witch cults, who instead found that the actual method of control was great for making into combat drugs. I'll spare you the details. =]

But yeah, the modern canon leans heavily on the idea of the Ethereals actually exercising control via the medium of some kind of alien pheromone, which from this old fan's perspective is something of a cop-out. It feels to me like a ham-fisted way to try and deal with the unbelievable whining about the T'au's existence as "not fitting the established setting" that started from their introduction in Two Thousand And No I'm Still Young Shut Your Whole Entire Up, which -- as someone who was there even on the periphery of it -- was as loud and intolerable as... well, as everything else screamy, loud and intolerable in the Warhammer 40,000 fandom.

Speaking solely for myself: I think the T'au absolutely do fit the setting both as they are and as they were. They're actually one of the last bits of genuine political satire in the game, with all their NATOspeak weapon designations and bloodless naming conventions about warfare being broad satires of the neoliberal order prosecuting an illegal war in Afghanistan and later Iraq. It's not a grenade launcher, for example, it's an Airburst Fragmentation Projector. More centrally to my thesis, however, they're also a powerful contrast within the grim darkness of the far future, because they were (at the time of their inception) extremely naive about the nature of the universe of which they were a part and acted like capital-S Science! could fix everything. That was the central irony; they were symbolic of the wondrous technology and fundamental hope for the future that fascist humanity had spent ten thousand years stamping out wherever it could, only survivng through their own unbelievably rapid technological development and sheer blind luck. Making the Ethereal caste pheromone-controlling versions of Fu Manchu and cranking up the re-education camps idea is both a little too rooted in Sinophobia and "yellow peril" ideas for my tastes and also, in my opinion, was something that was both unnecessary and clashed on a fundamental level with the satire they were trying to make. It undercuts the fundamental naivete of a faction if their leaders are secretly a bunch of scheming egomaniacs twisting society for their own ends.

At least, that's my take as a long-term fan of, and there's really no getting around it at this point, twenty goddamn years Jesus Christ help I have fallen and I cannot get up

=]

Even though it's not strictly applicable, I just have to say:

PLOOOOOORT!

IIIIIIIINNNNNNN!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

I do hope we find a route to Ekwy and Milano, though. It doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility! {= D

~Neshomeh

Physical descriptions can be found ... somewhere in previous year's threads, probably.

He/him

Feel free to grab me for whatever.

I may or may not actually write anything this year, depends on how life goes.

In ship suggestions: Scape/Nesh/hS, because they've been rambling on about the T'au just a bit down the Board from here.

Dark hair, dark eyes, glasses.

Obligatory description dump incoming: Tall, pretty skinny, has somehow developed curves in the last year. Green eyes with central golden heterochromia, glasses, tan skin, has multiple ear piercings, a nose piercing, and a belly button piercing. Short brown/blonde hair that’s usually slightly past my ears. I generally wear comfy clothing (sweatpants and oversized tee-shirts) but I sometimes get the urge to dress up like the mildly goth bimbo I am.

No shipping me with underage people please.

If I didn't have this weird love/hate relationship with dresses and skirts, I would probably wear my bodice from the ren fair a lot. Realistically though, jeans and t-shirts or button-up plaid shirts is what I wear.

I like cooking and baking. I think I'm fairly good at it.

Platonic ships only, please, though nonsensical reasons for doing so are appreciated. Put me in as a young man with dark hair and brown eyes. Also, please don't ship me with Scapegrace.

-Ls, opting in

They're fine. They don't feel as alien as some of the other races. They sometimes feel like a Gundam script got bitten by a radioactive Warhammer. That's not to say they are bad, just incongruent with the tone of much of the universe. That's why I like the choice of the Scar Lords as the antagonists in the book I'm reading. It draws a lot of attention to the tonal dissonance.

I've encountered them a couple of times in various novels, but I'm currently reading my first Tau-centric novel: Farsight - Crisis of Faith. I like the character of Commander Farsight. He's smart enough to see through the Tau propaganda machine, but too much of a good soldier to say anything against it.

In any other series, I would say the Tau are definitely headed for a civil war between the castes. However, the existential threat posed by the Imperium, and eventually by Chaos (when the Tau finally figure out what that is), will likely keep them together. The interesting thing about a potential civil war would be that the Fire (warrior) caste would likely be on the more just side, with the Water (scholars, ambassadors, merchants) caste opposing them, which usually isn't the way these things go. Air (pilots) and Earth (engineers and laborers) could split over this schism. The Ethereal caste (leaders) would absolutely use the Water caste as a meat shield.

If I've learned one thing in this book, it is don't trust the Ethereals. When they say something is for the Greater Good, the list of beings that encompasses is very small and almost purely Ethereal. I'm also becoming suspicious that potentially they are psykers, and they have decided the rest of the Tau don't need to know what that is.

-Phobos

Iximaz/a librarian - I reckon Iximaz is a bookish sort of person.

hS/Kaitlyn - Does this really need explanation?

hS/Plort - I think it happpened before.

hS/Iximas [platonically] Nerdy discussions.

[I will add more later if I think of any.]

I am not with it this year. I am in, so is Kaitlyn. She doesn't know yet, but she's in. ^_~

hS

Description: Go wild. All I'll request is keep the flat chest, everything else can be whatever you like...

In which they get a proper Disney Fairies badfic, and Urato can finally start learning to be a gentleman. Maybe.

-Yuki is not an aestheticist, she just likes finding an excuse to gush about beauty and will wax poetic at length about what she considers the most beautiful fantasy setting of all time

I probably won't write much.

Details:

I do a lot of arts and crafts projects and some writing and poetry. Not all of them get finished. I sometimes play Terraria or No Man's Sky. I don't do any other videogames. When I'm not doing things like that, I read sci-fi and fantasy. I am a pretty big Tolkien fan. I love cats, and I am very lucky to have 3 of them. I'm a classical violinist who also likes to play folk music. I also like to sing, and I think I'm decent at it.

Restrictions: Not with Maslab. We're not exactly on speaking terms.

Unless we're waiting until the Wiki thread is done, I believe it is Shipfest time.

-Ls

You've got three different polities - the cohesive Red and Blue, with Black split in two and only held together by treaty-passages through systems like Neshomeh and Huinesoron. Red and Blue are in conflict, with a handful of battlefields along the front lines - the Huinesoron-Delta front, Oracle, Araeph. Black is more of a commercial power, trying to hold it together while the galaxy goes to pot. Some systems are massive hubs of warp lanes; others are trapped out on the edge of things. There's even some Black systems that have been completely blockaded - Red no longer permit access to Ekwy and Milano, after Black helped Blue drive them out of Neshomeh.

...

Captain's Log, stardate... seven. The long run through the Bryn-Maslab Quadrangle always gets the crew's spirits down; it is so empty out there, with nothing but the distant gleam of the Harpy redoubt Novastorme to light our way. Our arrival at Miah was cause for hot anticipation, but the reception we received was muted at best. The Harpy-Gernell war is stirring up again, and Miah has been a Harpy system for many years. The populace are bunkering down against the red tide, and had little time for trading.

Things are somewhat better here in Caddy-Shack, where there is only a light blue presence. I have been able to send the crew groundside on shore leave, and fully expect a spate of bleepka-induced amnesia incidents when they return. For myself, I am studying my charts, and wishing once again for a direct route from Caddy-Shack to galactic north. But all warp-lanes here point south, with the primary axis being the triple highway to Miah, Pretzel, and the Guvnorate of Space.

What's that? Computer, accept message. Hmm. I... no. What? No, they can't. We're supposed to be going home, we...

Resume log. I have just received orders from Thorntree itself. How they got here I don't know - the shortest route follows the triple highway and then cuts through Neshomeh to reach kippur, but that lane is now a front line in the war. I almost wish the courier had been set upon, cut down by Gernell bandits or Harpy raiders. Anything other than what lurks beneath that official Koright seal...

We have been ordered to Huinesoron, the flashpoint of the most recent war. The Powers That Be have decreed that the conflict is an opportunity: while we would never violate the Gernell sanctions on the Huinesoron-Ekwy lane, there is always a chance to discover new warp lanes. We are to explore the nearby systems, Vemi and bjam and Fawkes, searching for any route to Ekwy and Milano, or long-lost Teena and WyldeHorse. It will take us deep into red territory, and there is no knowing when we will return.

It is a noble endeavour. I made the run to Milano once - the people there are good Koright citizens, they do not deserve to be cut off like this. But I wish to Legal it had fallen to anyone but me.

I must get to work. My orders are to stay as far from both the Harpies and Gernell as possible, so the direct route through Neshomeh is out. I only hope I can plot us a course that doesn't lead right back around the Maslab-Bryn Quadrant in reverse...

~

(You could also use red and blue as literal star colours, with black representing standard yellow stars. But that doesn't produce such an immediate story.)

hS

Phil Kelly is pretty much the only game in town right now when it comes to the creation and exploration of T'au lore and stories. However, he seems to delight in retconning stuff that had already been established for no reason (it seems) other than "he didn't know about it or forgot it existed". The "T'au blood is red" thing was a meme for a bit precisely because of the Farsight books. Not my favourite. But then, I've not read the Farsight series in a while, so Phobos is one up on me there. =]

Life gets busy; fic can wait! I always look forward to reading your feedback, no matter how belated it might feel to you. :)

I reckon it was a mix of "keep Harry out of trouble", "help Madam Pomfrey deal with her incredible workload", "give Harry a chance to uncover the truth", and "punish Harry by having him clean bedpans". Severina certainly knows how to make her help feel like torture :'D

The line about trusting sapient objects comes from Arthur Weasley, but yes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. And yeah, blood magic isn't really something you want the kids to read about for school, haha.

You'll find out next chapter what her motives are. I think she's still a bit sympathetic even if she's doing terrible things. I do plan for her to live for a while yet! She also has a character arc to go through, even if it's not as dramatic as other people (read: Draco)'s!

Thank you again for taking the time to review!

It's Farsight something or other. Looks like there are a couple of them, and I'm not sure which one he's on.

He mentioned the Scar Lords Space Marine chapter, which sounds just incredibly messed up and makes the T'au look very good by comparison! {= D Apparently there's a saying that "the Emperor judges you not by your medals, but by your scars," and these dudes decided to take it literally—not only do they prevent their wounds from fully healing, they allow themselves to be horrifically disfigured. Also they have a ship called Scabbard of Flesh. Which. Um. Well, Phobos speculates they might be descended from the Emperor's Children. {X D

He also mentioned a bit where one of the T'au touches a broken Gellar drive (having never seen one before and not knowing better), and basically gets Black Oil'd by demons. Whoops.

I don't think he's quite convinced they're all sweetness and light, I'm afraid. Apparently their caste rigidity is pretty extreme; like, if you're a scribe (i.e. not a mechanic) and you dare to take an interest in the mechanical data pad or whatever that you're scribing on, you can get beat up for not staying in your lane? And then there's that whole fifth caste nobody talks about. Pretty shady!

~Neshomeh

Charlotte's Web, anyone? I loved the animated film as a kid—but I especially loved listening to the audiobook, performed by E.B. White himself, at bedtime. He has such a rich, mellow voice. You can hear a remastered sample here. {= )

Anyway, I actually think I'm in the middle of the chart because I've dabbled in a bit of everything, with multiple generations of Boarders. It's a feature of longevity more than prolificacy.

~Neshomeh