Test
2024.11.25 17:58 WrongPear3584 Test
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2024.11.25 17:58 YesterdayAny2119 Check
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2024.11.25 17:58 BigMoist_Bot Burger King $1 Million Whoppers
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2024.11.25 17:58 Tuxedotux83 CNC: converted Proxxon MF-70 or FF500 for small brass and Alu precision parts?
Or course the MF70 is less than 1/4 of the FF500/BL - both have CNC conversation kits. The FF500 have also an optional 4th Axis (cost another 600€).
Mainly for machining precision small parts in brass and aluminum, maybe the occasional steel part etc.
Yes I know the two can not be really compared, I keep hearing that the MF70 is a capable little bit kit, but I keep reminding my self that even for small parts I need some weight.
What is your observation?
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2024.11.25 17:58 Witty_Entry_8728 Check my CQS
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2024.11.25 17:58 ZealousidealShirt646 Test
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2024.11.25 17:58 Slow_Prior5921 The goofiest villain of Indie animation of today vs the goofiest villain of Indie animation in history
 | submitted by Slow_Prior5921 to MurderDrones [link] [comments] |
2024.11.25 17:58 WriterMoney2307 CQS my Check
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2024.11.25 17:58 rattle-boi What is this?
This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post
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2024.11.25 17:58 Doonsauce 2015 Tundra - not responding
 | This morning I opened up my passenger side door and leaned over to put the key in the ignition. As I was starting the truck, the lights came on and everything for a second or two and then nothing. Now the truck is completely non responsive. I tested the battery with a multimeter and it was good. The truck doesn't respond to the fob and it doesn't try to turn over. The only sign of life is the flashing light I pictured. I tried leaving the key in the ignition for a bit and I tried unhooking the battery for a few minutes. Any ideas? Thanks. submitted by Doonsauce to AskMechanics [link] [comments] |
2024.11.25 17:58 poetroom Röhnisch Black Friday Ads 2024
Visit this page for Röhnisch Black Friday Ads 2024. The website offers a wide selection of coupons, promo codes, and discount deals that are updated regularly, just visit the website to find the perfect one for you.
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2024.11.25 17:58 Scary_Fisherman_7311 Do you
Not realize know shit you think I don’t. How can I believe someone has given me nothing to trust I’m back talking and trying again because I thought you felt how I felt even if it was just to fuck I don’t believe that’s all you want but you do everything you can to hurt me I’m so confused I don’t know how many times I’ve asked for you to just be here but it’s fake profile this fake profile I’m just shown my heart is only a game to be played with over n over again I would never hurt you in the ways you have hurt me time n time again I wish I could actually talk to you but I know that will never happen you want nothing to do with me except be heartless and stone
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2024.11.25 17:58 Klokinator The Cryopod to Hell 598: The Demon Inside
Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 2,332,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:
What is the Cryopod to Hell?
Join the Cryoverse Discord server!
Here's a list of all Cryopod's chapters, along with an ePub/Mobi/PDF version!
Want to stay up to date on TCTH? Subscribe to Cryopodbot!
...................................
(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
Recommended Listening
Hope continues attacking Jason, wearing down the Dronesmith more and more every minute. Eventually, as the fourth minute arrives, the Drone's movements change. It starts fighting more defensively, using its sword to block attacks instead of slashing and stabbing at Hope's openings. It stops speaking, and Hope's eyes flare with excitement.
The time is now!
Without hesitation, Hope, who had seemingly stopped bothering with Wordsmithing up to that point, suddenly begins calling out Words of Power rapid-fire.
"Detect! Locate! Uncover! Examine! Dissipate! Normalize! TELEPORT!"
In the span of just a few seconds, Hope abruptly locks onto Jason's location somewhere in the general vicinity of Tarus II, uncovers his hidden soul signature, and removes all of Jason's protective wards.
Then, he teleports his other-self out of Chrona, making Jason's sleeping figure materialize right in front of him! Wearing a simple black long-sleeved short and some black jeans, Jason appears just as ordinary as ever, lacking any armor to protect his fragile human body.
Got you, you son of a bitch!
Hope's eyes snap open, and a feral grin appears on his face.
"DIE!!"
He pounces at Jason and slashes his sword down, but right before the sword can connect, Jason's eyes open. He shimmers to the side, and Excalibur misses him by a metaphorical mile!
"Nice reaction time!" Hope sneers. "I knew it was too easy! ACCELERATE!"
His body's speed increases, and he intensifies his assault, speaking additional Words of Power while Jason smoothly dodges his attacks, the margin of dodging decreasing with each sweep of Excalibur's blade.
"Die! Die! DIE!!"
Hope becomes furious. His quick execution failed, yet somehow, Jason woke up and easily dodged the attack that should have beheaded him.
Even worse, Jason doesn't say a word, merely looking at his clone with eyes full of mockery.
Less than a minute later, after dodging one of Excalibur's slashes by the narrowest of margins, Jason abruptly teleports 500 feet away, crosses his arms, and smirks at Hope.
"You fell for it."
"What?" Hope asks, frowning at the same time as his sneer slips. "What are you talking about! All you know how to do is dodge!"
"I'm not Jason." Jason says, his words confusing Hope even more. "You allowed your hatred to blind you. I honestly didn't think this trick would work, but it did."
Bewildered, Hope pauses his assault. He and Solomon quickly communicate, causing his expression to darken.
"No... it can't be. You're... another Dronesmith?! But that's impossible! I locked onto your soul signature!"
'Jason' rolls his eyes. "Is that so? Wow. My true, genuine soul signature. Guess I must really be Jason then. Go ahead, cut me in half... if you even possess the ability. Find out just how silly you look right now."
Inside Hope's Mind Realm, Solomon's expression visibly dims.
"...He's not screwing with you, lad. That truly isn't Jason. He must have faked his soul signature, knowing you'd try and lock onto him when he went to sleep. He knew needing to sleep was a huge weakness, so he compensated for it. Brilliantly, I might add."
Those last few words reveal a hint of genuine admiration Solomon still feels for his first Wordsmith pupil. Though the two of them left on bad terms, Solomon can't help but feel a bit nostalgic when he remembers the first time Jason stood up to him and walked his own way, refusing to see things the way Solomon wanted him to.
After showing Jason the entirety of the Ancient Era, Solomon thought Jason would finally understand his perspective, and in truth, Jason did. But he also possessed his own unique point of view, and thus ended up not going along with Solomon's grand plans.
In the end, Solomon sent himself to Hope, finding a more pliable subject, yet also one who somewhat... lacked his own backbone.
Unlike Jason, Hope had already grown accustomed to doing what another person said, that person being Neil Adams. Listening to Solomon's advice came more easily for him than it did for Jason, who had become more independent over time.
When Solomon sees his former pupil outwitting his current one, he can't help but feel a bit of pride. Jason has learned to anticipate his enemies, not merely react to them when it's already too late.
Even so, Solomon pushes that feeling of pride down.
Hope is his student now, and the key to realizing his ambitions for someday slaughtering all the demons. Until Jason is slain, he will always be a thorn in the Knowledge-Seeker's side.
"A fake?" Hope growls. "I dispelled all the enchantments! I even normalized your metaphysical state! How can you possibly be a Dronesmith?! Examine!"
Hope's heart sinks. His Word of Power doesn't fail, and ultimately gives him the information he didn't want to hear.
The Jason before him is a Dronesmith, same as the one he's been fighting until now.
"To think Wordsmithing could be used in such a slimy, deceptive way." Hope says, practically spitting the words at Jason.
"The word you're looking for is 'intelligent'." Jason fires back. "A word that has failed to describe you in recent years. You're falling apart, Hope. Your mental acuity is degrading, as if you've been struck by Alzheimers. What happened to turn you into such a deranged conspiracy theorist? Don't you want to improve yourself, save humanity, and make the galaxy a better place for all? We both come from the same source! I don't understand how we've diverged so far!"
"All I desire is to punish you for killing Neil." Hope replies. "For now, that's it. That's my goal. Once I kill you, I can take everything back that belongs to me. All the things you've stolen from me..."
"Does that include Phoebe?" Jason asks. "Is she... 'yours'?"
"She was." Hope says slowly. "Maybe she should still be. Great kings have often had multiple wives. Solomon, for instance. If I'm going to become a legendary figure... I'd only be following the precedent they set."
Finally, Jason's stoic expression cracks, ever so slightly.
"You really are gone, Hope. There's nothing left of me in there. You're a hollow man. A shell of what you should be. Pathetic. I've no more sympathy for you."
Abruptly, four additional Jasons materialize around Hope. In unison, all of them summon magically enhanced golden Wordsmithium armor, becoming identical no matter how Hope looks at them. Even the damaged Dronesmith disappears and reappears, repaired back to full integrity, or perhaps swapped out for a fresh one sporting Wordsmithium armor.
"I'm done going easy on you." Jason finally says, the last Dronesmith conjuring armor onto itself. "You were right. Today, one of us isn't going to walk away from here alive. I only regret that I'll be hurting Amelia again."
Hope smirks. "If I win, I'll take Phoebe back. If you win, you'll get Amelia. How's that sound? Nice and fair, 'big brother'?"
"Like I said, you're too far gone." Jason repeats. "Even if she were the true Amelia, and not a shoddy facsimile conjured from your tormented nightmares, I wouldn't toy with a woman's heart like that. The fact you would? Well. That has some disturbing implications. It makes me wonder how much of you I have in me."
Jason's Dronesmith lifts its helmeted chin, ever so slightly.
"After I kill you, I'll release Amelia from whatever spell you've put her under. Maybe Gressil really did ruin your mind. You've even starting to think like that demented rapist."
"FUCK YOU!"
Hope doesn't fire back a witty retort. He attacks!
Despite being surrounded by six Dronesmiths, Hope engages in battle with all of them, bravely or perhaps stupidly doing battle despite being outnumbered and surrounded in every direction.
This fight will determine which Wordsmith will rule the galaxy!
...................................
Inside Chrona, Jason sits inside the Spynet Sphere, his attention on many different things at once. Six tiny spheres of energy levitate around his head, connected by thin threads of magical energy visible to the naked eye. These strings of mana fade into Jason's skull, allowing him to monitor each of the Dronesmiths in unison while not needing to keep too much of his focus on them.
He holds a sword in his hand, pausing every twenty to thirty seconds to communicate with his drones and issue them orders, controlling their bodies with pointed directions, then returning his focus in short bursts to the sword once more.
"Examine. Damn. It's still not quite... Eru. No, that isn't it either..."
He pauses, looks up at the Spynet screens, then switches his attention to the drones, then once again back to the sword.
"Multiply. Examine. Maybe that's the problem. Four is the limit. If I go for five, the enchantment destabilizes... Undo."
Behind him, Fiona and Rebecca sit at a pair of computer terminals and deliver intel about the current situation to Phoebe and a select few others on Tarus II. They also work to begin evacuation procedures, since they aren't certain of how dangerous Hope's future actions are going to be. He might lash out and attack the civilians if things don't go his way, so both women work to move people off-world in preparation for that possibility.
Once more, he rotates through his tasks, while Rebecca and Fiona periodically glance at him occasionally.
"How are you holding up? Need me to tag in?" Fiona asks.
"No. I can handle Hope." Jason says bluntly, not bothering with too many words. He can't spare the mental capacity.
Fiona frowns, looking at Jason's back from afar. To her, he seems tired, even more than the last few days.
Indeed, as Solomon guessed, Jason has needed to sleep deeply following these long sessions of twenty-hour battles. Unlike Hope, who has battled his alternate self for less than an hour, Jason has already fought without stopping for several days, soon to close in on a week.
If he were only piloting one Dronesmith, he wouldn't be terribly fatigued. But he has been doing far more than just this.
Controlling a drone, keeping an eye on the galactic situation via the Spynet Sphere, talking to Hope while waiting tens of minutes for the time-delay to allow him to finish speaking, and testing his powers all at the same time... Jason has kept extremely busy.
Now that Jason needs to manipulate six drones at once, even the lauded First Wordsmith is beginning to find that his mental abilities aren't able to keep up.
Jason blinks his eyes more often than usual. Every time he taps into the six Dronesmiths to control their movements, his forehead creases deeply, showing the strain his brain is enduring. He slows the pace of his Wordsmithing tests to put more attention on the battle, and eventually he sets the sword on the ground, giving up on his experiments entirely.
Several minutes of silence follow.
As Fiona and Rebecca steal glances at him, Jason finally decides to speak.
"This is impossible. It's like I'm trying to perfectly execute six Tool Assisted Speedruns at the same time."
Fiona blinks twice. "What?"
"The time differential," Jason randomly explains. "It's just like one of those TAS's. Wait, you don't know what that means..."
He pauses for a moment, transmitting more commands to the drones before continuing. Then he turns in his chair to look at his spiritual wife-clone.
"You've never played any of those video games I set up in the recreation center, have you?"
Fiona shakes her head. "I haven't. Sorry, Jason. They're just not something I understand the appeal of."
"Well, when I was a kid, seemingly living an ordinary life, they were a form of escapism for me." Jason continues to explain. "At some point, people started doing this thing called 'speedrunning' where they would try to play and beat video games in the fastest possible time."
He pauses every so often to communicate with his drones, but always returns to the topic at hand afterward.
"Naturally, at some point, records started hitting the limits of what humans could physically achieve. If a game could be beaten in a minute and thirty-four seconds, it might not be possible to optimize even a single extra second out of the speedrun. That's when TAS's began to surge in popularity. People would slow the game down to a fraction of the normal speed and play it by pressing buttons at extremely specific moments to perfectly control the characters beyond a superhuman level."
"But," Jason continues, "that doesn't mean games became easier to beat. On the contrary. Playing games at 1% their normal speed means needing to adapt to an entire new paradigm of controls and thinking about how button presses work. It became more about predicting movements and reactions to input rather than moving purely on instinct. If a speedrunner presses the 'jump' button, it could be tens of real-world seconds before the character onscreen actually jumps, meaning there would be a huge delay in their actions."
Jason gestures behind himself, at the Spynet's screens, several of which show multiple angles of Hope and the Dronesmiths, seemingly frozen in time, but actually moving at almost imperceptibly slow speeds.
"It may seem like I have a huge advantage over Hope, but in fact, I have to look through the eyes of six drones, control their movements perfectly, and strike at Hope whenever his guard lowers. I'm lucky that my body isn't threatened by him, so even if he does land a vicious attack, it'll just be on a robot I can recreate and send back out there. I technically have the advantage in endurance."
Once again, he pauses to send more mental commands to his drones.
"Except that isn't actually the case. Hope is fighting at high speeds. For him, it's been thirty minutes of high-intensity nonstop combat. For me, it's been days and days of the slowest, most grueling, most boring wait-a-thon ever put to the screen. I have to patiently wait to see if the slash he's sending at Drone Three is a simple downward slash across the chest, and then react accordingly, or guess whether or not he plans to change the angle at the last instant, throwing my prediction off. If I don't pay perfect attention to his every move, I risk a drone falling to his schemes, which sets me back and emboldens him."
Rebecca nods. "I understand the problem. Humans are not usually capable of looking at things moving in extremely slow-motion and staying focused on those things for long periods of time. It is as if you are watching six different movies of grass growing and trying to predict the direction each individual shoot of grass will curve toward as it grows."
"Exactly!" Jason exclaims. "And even worse, my Wordsmithing is extremely weak due to the distance between me and Hope. I can't cast Words of Power on him directly, at least not very often, because I'd be going into conflict with Excalibur's massive pool of energy, and thus would expend too much of my own. The best I can do is counter Hope's Words of Power. Except if I slack off and don't pay attention to the words he speaks, he might slip a Word of Power in and I'll miss it due to the time differential. It's like I'm trying to Skype someone with a thirty minute delay on their responses. It's painful!"
Fiona blinks again, uncomprehending. "Skype...?"
"Old Earth thing. Never mind that." Jason says, waving his hand.
Another several minutes of silence follows. Jason's concentration slips up as his mind wanders. Suddenly, he slams his fist on his chair's arm.
"Son of a BITCH! He got one!"
Fiona glances at the video feed, where she sees Hope unleashing an empowered sword strike from Excalibur, slicing through one of the Dronesmiths and blasting its internal parts to bits. The clean strike essentially decapitates that drone's combat capabilities, taking it out of contention.
"It's okay, Jason. You can summon another one." Fiona says.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know." Jason growls. "Teleport. Teleport."
The destroyed Dronesmith vanishes, replaced instantly with a fresh new one. In realspace, a look of anger freezes on Hope's face, showing his dissatisfaction at the instant swapping of his defeated foe.
"C...O...W...A...R...D..."
Jason's anger bubbles up, unbidden.
"What a god damned selfish lunatic! He knows I didn't kill Neil! He's just doing all this to sate his ego and right the so-called wrongs I've committed against him! And even worse..."
Jason pauses. He glances at Fiona, then looks away.
"...Did you hear what Hope said earlier?" Jason asks. "About Phoebe and Amelia."
"I haven't been paying attention to your talks." Fiona says, shaking her head. "Why?"
Jason hesitates.
"He... Hope said something that struck me as... a little... rapey. It really didn't feel like something he would ever say, not in a million years, but he did. It disturbed me."
Fiona's frown deepens as Jason plays back a short clip of their discussion for her and Rebecca to hear.
"Disturbing is an understatement." Fiona mumbles. "Why would he say that? Why would he even think that? And what would his plan be to make it... work? Would he pretend to be you and deceive her? Would he expect her to jump into his arms? Or would he use Wordsmithing to control her mind?"
"All three possibilities are discomforting." Rebecca says. "The last one, especially so. As far as I'm aware, neither Wordsmith has ever gone so far as to manipulate the free will of other Sentients. Doing so crosses an ethical line, one I'm not certain they could come back from."
Jason's anger shifts. It turns to a hint of dismay, and then guilt.
"No. You're wrong, Rebecca. I did do it in the past. To Amelia."
He pauses, then continues.
"When Bahamut initially captured her, Kar, and me, Amelia started freaking out. I used my magic to control her emotions and dial them down. I did it for, at the time, what I thought was a good reason. But it created a terrible rift between us. It's partly why she left me and went on to become the Black Queen."
Jason hangs his head. His expression becomes solemn.
"What bothers me the most isn't even Hope's words, or his threats toward Phoebe. It's the implication that, despite how far we've diverged, we're not that different. What if I had swapped places with Hope? Would I be doing the same things as him? Pursuing only my own selfish thoughts and desires? Not caring how they affected other people? Becoming an obsessive, intent on subsuming power from those who I perceived as having wronged me? Believing in conspiracy theories so long as they validated my worldview?"
"Jason..." Fiona says softly. "You can't think like that."
"On the contrary. I can and I should." Jason retorts. "The way Hope is acting now is merely an extreme extension of past actions I once took. This seems to imply that if I'm not careful, I could become like him. I don't ever want that to happen."
Jason concludes his self-examination with a warning to himself, solidifying his determination never to fall into the same pits of selfishness and despair Hope has.
In the First Wordsmith's eyes, his other half has become a blight on the Milky Way's future. A harbinger of potential evil that could become an even greater threat than the Plague someday.
"I have to kill him." Jason says softly. "There's no longer any other way this can end between us. It's him or me."
Jason clenches both of his fists, resting his arms on the side of his chair. He closes his eyes and focuses intently on the battle between his drones and his clone.
The battle continues to rage, ever so slowly. Even with his newfound determination, Jason's attention span wavers. Every torturous minute that passes melts into the other. Those minutes become an hour, and then two hours.
Jason flinches. "Motherfucker. He got another one. Tricky bastard."
"Teleport. Teleport."
Jason yanks the destroyed Dronesmith out of Realspace, then he sends another one to replace it. His weary eyes reveal the depths of exhaustion he's beginning to feel at this slow-motion game of cat and mouse.
"This is getting ridiculous." Jason mutters. "How long is it going to take before I-"
Mid-sentence, Jason disappears.
Fiona, busily focused on her tasks, takes two seconds to register the sudden cutting-off of his voice. When she turns around, she stares in confusion at his empty chair.
"Huh? What the- where did Jason go?"
Rebecca's eyebrows tighten.
"It's Hope! He somehow uncovered Jason's true location. He pulled Jason into Realspace!"
She quickly points at one of the monitors displaying the battle, where a baffled Jason stares, frozen in disbelief, at his clone.
The true battle has just begun.
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2024.11.25 17:58 Working-Lunch121 Testing
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2024.11.25 17:58 BraveBoot7283 Brand new sub for The North of England: r/TheNorthUK. Everyone is welcome to join, and hoping it becomes an active sub.
Created a brand new sub: , as there's currently no active subs that are just for the North. I'm hoping it becomes similar to this sub, but for questions/discussions regarding the whole of the North of England as well. Hoping it will become active and would appreciate anyone who's interested or has the time to join/post :)
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2024.11.25 17:58 WoodenZone1214 Testing
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2024.11.25 17:58 Traildetour Act 4 Virgin - did I have a shot with this run?
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2024.11.25 17:58 Powerful_Quantity937 The approval you seek from others won't ever feel as good if you don't accept yourself
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2024.11.25 17:58 flamingnome Anybody wanna Baby Pet trade?
I have a sweet baby Hissi, but I keep wishing I had a baby Kau!!! Any chance somebody wants to trade? :)
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2024.11.25 17:58 WeirdFit6541 Check my CQS
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2024.11.25 17:58 Klokinator Cryopod Refresh 598: The Demon Inside
Recommended Listening
Hope continues attacking Jason, wearing down the Dronesmith more and more every minute. Eventually, as the fourth minute arrives, the Drone's movements change. It starts fighting more defensively, using its sword to block attacks instead of slashing and stabbing at Hope's openings. It stops speaking, and Hope's eyes flare with excitement.
The time is now!
Without hesitation, Hope, who had seemingly stopped bothering with Wordsmithing up to that point, suddenly begins calling out Words of Power rapid-fire.
"Detect! Locate! Uncover! Examine! Dissipate! Normalize! TELEPORT!"
In the span of just a few seconds, Hope abruptly locks onto Jason's location somewhere in the general vicinity of Tarus II, uncovers his hidden soul signature, and removes all of Jason's protective wards.
Then, he teleports his other-self out of Chrona, making Jason's sleeping figure materialize right in front of him! Wearing a simple black long-sleeved short and some black jeans, Jason appears just as ordinary as ever, lacking any armor to protect his fragile human body.
Got you, you son of a bitch!
Hope's eyes snap open, and a feral grin appears on his face.
"DIE!!"
He pounces at Jason and slashes his sword down, but right before the sword can connect, Jason's eyes open. He shimmers to the side, and Excalibur misses him by a metaphorical mile!
"Nice reaction time!" Hope sneers. "I knew it was too easy! ACCELERATE!"
His body's speed increases, and he intensifies his assault, speaking additional Words of Power while Jason smoothly dodges his attacks, the margin of dodging decreasing with each sweep of Excalibur's blade.
"Die! Die! DIE!!"
Hope becomes furious. His quick execution failed, yet somehow, Jason woke up and easily dodged the attack that should have beheaded him.
Even worse, Jason doesn't say a word, merely looking at his clone with eyes full of mockery.
Less than a minute later, after dodging one of Excalibur's slashes by the narrowest of margins, Jason abruptly teleports 500 feet away, crosses his arms, and smirks at Hope.
"You fell for it."
"What?" Hope asks, frowning at the same time as his sneer slips. "What are you talking about! All you know how to do is dodge!"
"I'm not Jason." Jason says, his words confusing Hope even more. "You allowed your hatred to blind you. I honestly didn't think this trick would work, but it did."
Bewildered, Hope pauses his assault. He and Solomon quickly communicate, causing his expression to darken.
"No... it can't be. You're... another Dronesmith?! But that's impossible! I locked onto your soul signature!"
'Jason' rolls his eyes. "Is that so? Wow. My true, genuine soul signature. Guess I must really be Jason then. Go ahead, cut me in half... if you even possess the ability. Find out just how silly you look right now."
Inside Hope's Mind Realm, Solomon's expression visibly dims.
"...He's not screwing with you, lad. That truly isn't Jason. He must have faked his soul signature, knowing you'd try and lock onto him when he went to sleep. He knew needing to sleep was a huge weakness, so he compensated for it. Brilliantly, I might add."
Those last few words reveal a hint of genuine admiration Solomon still feels for his first Wordsmith pupil. Though the two of them left on bad terms, Solomon can't help but feel a bit nostalgic when he remembers the first time Jason stood up to him and walked his own way, refusing to see things the way Solomon wanted him to.
After showing Jason the entirety of the Ancient Era, Solomon thought Jason would finally understand his perspective, and in truth, Jason did. But he also possessed his own unique point of view, and thus ended up not going along with Solomon's grand plans.
In the end, Solomon sent himself to Hope, finding a more pliable subject, yet also one who somewhat... lacked his own backbone.
Unlike Jason, Hope had already grown accustomed to doing what another person said, that person being Neil Adams. Listening to Solomon's advice came more easily for him than it did for Jason, who had become more independent over time.
When Solomon sees his former pupil outwitting his current one, he can't help but feel a bit of pride. Jason has learned to anticipate his enemies, not merely react to them when it's already too late.
Even so, Solomon pushes that feeling of pride down.
Hope is his student now, and the key to realizing his ambitions for someday slaughtering all the demons. Until Jason is slain, he will always be a thorn in the Knowledge-Seeker's side.
"A fake?" Hope growls. "I dispelled all the enchantments! I even normalized your metaphysical state! How can you possibly be a Dronesmith?! Examine!"
Hope's heart sinks. His Word of Power doesn't fail, and ultimately gives him the information he didn't want to hear.
The Jason before him is a Dronesmith, same as the one he's been fighting until now.
"To think Wordsmithing could be used in such a slimy, deceptive way." Hope says, practically spitting the words at Jason.
"The word you're looking for is 'intelligent'." Jason fires back. "A word that has failed to describe you in recent years. You're falling apart, Hope. Your mental acuity is degrading, as if you've been struck by Alzheimers. What happened to turn you into such a deranged conspiracy theorist? Don't you want to improve yourself, save humanity, and make the galaxy a better place for all? We both come from the same source! I don't understand how we've diverged so far!"
"All I desire is to punish you for killing Neil." Hope replies. "For now, that's it. That's my goal. Once I kill you, I can take everything back that belongs to me. All the things you've stolen from me..."
"Does that include Phoebe?" Jason asks. "Is she... 'yours'?"
"She was." Hope says slowly. "Maybe she should still be. Great kings have often had multiple wives. Solomon, for instance. If I'm going to become a legendary figure... I'd only be following the precedent they set."
Finally, Jason's stoic expression cracks, ever so slightly.
"You really are gone, Hope. There's nothing left of me in there. You're a hollow man. A shell of what you should be. Pathetic. I've no more sympathy for you."
Abruptly, four additional Jasons materialize around Hope. In unison, all of them summon magically enhanced golden Wordsmithium armor, becoming identical no matter how Hope looks at them. Even the damaged Dronesmith disappears and reappears, repaired back to full integrity, or perhaps swapped out for a fresh one sporting Wordsmithium armor.
"I'm done going easy on you." Jason finally says, the last Dronesmith conjuring armor onto itself. "You were right. Today, one of us isn't going to walk away from here alive. I only regret that I'll be hurting Amelia again."
Hope smirks. "If I win, I'll take Phoebe back. If you win, you'll get Amelia. How's that sound? Nice and fair, 'big brother'?"
"Like I said, you're too far gone." Jason repeats. "Even if she were the true Amelia, and not a shoddy facsimile conjured from your tormented nightmares, I wouldn't toy with a woman's heart like that. The fact you would? Well. That has some disturbing implications. It makes me wonder how much of you I have in me."
Jason's Dronesmith lifts its helmeted chin, ever so slightly.
"After I kill you, I'll release Amelia from whatever spell you've put her under. Maybe Gressil really did ruin your mind. You've even starting to think like that demented rapist."
"FUCK YOU!"
Hope doesn't fire back a witty retort. He attacks!
Despite being surrounded by six Dronesmiths, Hope engages in battle with all of them, bravely or perhaps stupidly doing battle despite being outnumbered and surrounded in every direction.
This fight will determine which Wordsmith will rule the galaxy!
...................................
Inside Chrona, Jason sits inside the Spynet Sphere, his attention on many different things at once. Six tiny spheres of energy levitate around his head, connected by thin threads of magical energy visible to the naked eye. These strings of mana fade into Jason's skull, allowing him to monitor each of the Dronesmiths in unison while not needing to keep too much of his focus on them.
He holds a sword in his hand, pausing every twenty to thirty seconds to communicate with his drones and issue them orders, controlling their bodies with pointed directions, then returning his focus in short bursts to the sword once more.
"Examine. Damn. It's still not quite... Eru. No, that isn't it either..."
He pauses, looks up at the Spynet screens, then switches his attention to the drones, then once again back to the sword.
"Multiply. Examine. Maybe that's the problem. Four is the limit. If I go for five, the enchantment destabilizes... Undo."
Behind him, Fiona and Rebecca sit at a pair of computer terminals and deliver intel about the current situation to Phoebe and a select few others on Tarus II. They also work to begin evacuation procedures, since they aren't certain of how dangerous Hope's future actions are going to be. He might lash out and attack the civilians if things don't go his way, so both women work to move people off-world in preparation for that possibility.
Once more, he rotates through his tasks, while Rebecca and Fiona periodically glance at him occasionally.
"How are you holding up? Need me to tag in?" Fiona asks.
"No. I can handle Hope." Jason says bluntly, not bothering with too many words. He can't spare the mental capacity.
Fiona frowns, looking at Jason's back from afar. To her, he seems tired, even more than the last few days.
Indeed, as Solomon guessed, Jason has needed to sleep deeply following these long sessions of twenty-hour battles. Unlike Hope, who has battled his alternate self for less than an hour, Jason has already fought without stopping for several days, soon to close in on a week.
If he were only piloting one Dronesmith, he wouldn't be terribly fatigued. But he has been doing far more than just this.
Controlling a drone, keeping an eye on the galactic situation via the Spynet Sphere, talking to Hope while waiting tens of minutes for the time-delay to allow him to finish speaking, and testing his powers all at the same time... Jason has kept extremely busy.
Now that Jason needs to manipulate six drones at once, even the lauded First Wordsmith is beginning to find that his mental abilities aren't able to keep up.
Jason blinks his eyes more often than usual. Every time he taps into the six Dronesmiths to control their movements, his forehead creases deeply, showing the strain his brain is enduring. He slows the pace of his Wordsmithing tests to put more attention on the battle, and eventually he sets the sword on the ground, giving up on his experiments entirely.
Several minutes of silence follow.
As Fiona and Rebecca steal glances at him, Jason finally decides to speak.
"This is impossible. It's like I'm trying to perfectly execute six Tool Assisted Speedruns at the same time."
Fiona blinks twice. "What?"
"The time differential," Jason randomly explains. "It's just like one of those TAS's. Wait, you don't know what that means..."
He pauses for a moment, transmitting more commands to the drones before continuing. Then he turns in his chair to look at his spiritual wife-clone.
"You've never played any of those video games I set up in the recreation center, have you?"
Fiona shakes her head. "I haven't. Sorry, Jason. They're just not something I understand the appeal of."
"Well, when I was a kid, seemingly living an ordinary life, they were a form of escapism for me." Jason continues to explain. "At some point, people started doing this thing called 'speedrunning' where they would try to play and beat video games in the fastest possible time."
He pauses every so often to communicate with his drones, but always returns to the topic at hand afterward.
"Naturally, at some point, records started hitting the limits of what humans could physically achieve. If a game could be beaten in a minute and thirty-four seconds, it might not be possible to optimize even a single extra second out of the speedrun. That's when TAS's began to surge in popularity. People would slow the game down to a fraction of the normal speed and play it by pressing buttons at extremely specific moments to perfectly control the characters beyond a superhuman level."
"But," Jason continues, "that doesn't mean games became easier to beat. On the contrary. Playing games at 1% their normal speed means needing to adapt to an entire new paradigm of controls and thinking about how button presses work. It became more about predicting movements and reactions to input rather than moving purely on instinct. If a speedrunner presses the 'jump' button, it could be tens of real-world seconds before the character onscreen actually jumps, meaning there would be a huge delay in their actions."
Jason gestures behind himself, at the Spynet's screens, several of which show multiple angles of Hope and the Dronesmiths, seemingly frozen in time, but actually moving at almost imperceptibly slow speeds.
"It may seem like I have a huge advantage over Hope, but in fact, I have to look through the eyes of six drones, control their movements perfectly, and strike at Hope whenever his guard lowers. I'm lucky that my body isn't threatened by him, so even if he does land a vicious attack, it'll just be on a robot I can recreate and send back out there. I technically have the advantage in endurance."
Once again, he pauses to send more mental commands to his drones.
"Except that isn't actually the case. Hope is fighting at high speeds. For him, it's been thirty minutes of high-intensity nonstop combat. For me, it's been days and days of the slowest, most grueling, most boring wait-a-thon ever put to the screen. I have to patiently wait to see if the slash he's sending at Drone Three is a simple downward slash across the chest, and then react accordingly, or guess whether or not he plans to change the angle at the last instant, throwing my prediction off. If I don't pay perfect attention to his every move, I risk a drone falling to his schemes, which sets me back and emboldens him."
Rebecca nods. "I understand the problem. Humans are not usually capable of looking at things moving in extremely slow-motion and staying focused on those things for long periods of time. It is as if you are watching six different movies of grass growing and trying to predict the direction each individual shoot of grass will curve toward as it grows."
"Exactly!" Jason exclaims. "And even worse, my Wordsmithing is extremely weak due to the distance between me and Hope. I can't cast Words of Power on him directly, at least not very often, because I'd be going into conflict with Excalibur's massive pool of energy, and thus would expend too much of my own. The best I can do is counter Hope's Words of Power. Except if I slack off and don't pay attention to the words he speaks, he might slip a Word of Power in and I'll miss it due to the time differential. It's like I'm trying to Skype someone with a thirty minute delay on their responses. It's painful!"
Fiona blinks again, uncomprehending. "Skype...?"
"Old Earth thing. Never mind that." Jason says, waving his hand.
Another several minutes of silence follows. Jason's concentration slips up as his mind wanders. Suddenly, he slams his fist on his chair's arm.
"Son of a BITCH! He got one!"
Fiona glances at the video feed, where she sees Hope unleashing an empowered sword strike from Excalibur, slicing through one of the Dronesmiths and blasting its internal parts to bits. The clean strike essentially decapitates that drone's combat capabilities, taking it out of contention.
"It's okay, Jason. You can summon another one." Fiona says.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know." Jason growls. "Teleport. Teleport."
The destroyed Dronesmith vanishes, replaced instantly with a fresh new one. In realspace, a look of anger freezes on Hope's face, showing his dissatisfaction at the instant swapping of his defeated foe.
"C...O...W...A...R...D..."
Jason's anger bubbles up, unbidden.
"What a god damned selfish lunatic! He knows I didn't kill Neil! He's just doing all this to sate his ego and right the so-called wrongs I've committed against him! And even worse..."
Jason pauses. He glances at Fiona, then looks away.
"...Did you hear what Hope said earlier?" Jason asks. "About Phoebe and Amelia."
"I haven't been paying attention to your talks." Fiona says, shaking her head. "Why?"
Jason hesitates.
"He... Hope said something that struck me as... a little... rapey. It really didn't feel like something he would ever say, not in a million years, but he did. It disturbed me."
Fiona's frown deepens as Jason plays back a short clip of their discussion for her and Rebecca to hear.
"Disturbing is an understatement." Fiona mumbles. "Why would he say that? Why would he even think that? And what would his plan be to make it... work? Would he pretend to be you and deceive her? Would he expect her to jump into his arms? Or would he use Wordsmithing to control her mind?"
"All three possibilities are discomforting." Rebecca says. "The last one, especially so. As far as I'm aware, neither Wordsmith has ever gone so far as to manipulate the free will of other Sentients. Doing so crosses an ethical line, one I'm not certain they could come back from."
Jason's anger shifts. It turns to a hint of dismay, and then guilt.
"No. You're wrong, Rebecca. I did do it in the past. To Amelia."
He pauses, then continues.
"When Bahamut initially captured her, Kar, and me, Amelia started freaking out. I used my magic to control her emotions and dial them down. I did it for, at the time, what I thought was a good reason. But it created a terrible rift between us. It's partly why she left me and went on to become the Black Queen."
Jason hangs his head. His expression becomes solemn.
"What bothers me the most isn't even Hope's words, or his threats toward Phoebe. It's the implication that, despite how far we've diverged, we're not that different. What if I had swapped places with Hope? Would I be doing the same things as him? Pursuing only my own selfish thoughts and desires? Not caring how they affected other people? Becoming an obsessive, intent on subsuming power from those who I perceived as having wronged me? Believing in conspiracy theories so long as they validated my worldview?"
"Jason..." Fiona says softly. "You can't think like that."
"On the contrary. I can and I should." Jason retorts. "The way Hope is acting now is merely an extreme extension of past actions I once took. This seems to imply that if I'm not careful, I could become like him. I don't ever want that to happen."
Jason concludes his self-examination with a warning to himself, solidifying his determination never to fall into the same pits of selfishness and despair Hope has.
In the First Wordsmith's eyes, his other half has become a blight on the Milky Way's future. A harbinger of potential evil that could become an even greater threat than the Plague someday.
"I have to kill him." Jason says softly. "There's no longer any other way this can end between us. It's him or me."
Jason clenches both of his fists, resting his arms on the side of his chair. He closes his eyes and focuses intently on the battle between his drones and his clone.
The battle continues to rage, ever so slowly. Even with his newfound determination, Jason's attention span wavers. Every torturous minute that passes melts into the other. Those minutes become an hour, and then two hours.
Jason flinches. "Motherfucker. He got another one. Tricky bastard."
"Teleport. Teleport."
Jason yanks the destroyed Dronesmith out of Realspace, then he sends another one to replace it. His weary eyes reveal the depths of exhaustion he's beginning to feel at this slow-motion game of cat and mouse.
"This is getting ridiculous." Jason mutters. "How long is it going to take before I-"
Mid-sentence, Jason disappears.
Fiona, busily focused on her tasks, takes two seconds to register the sudden cutting-off of his voice. When she turns around, she stares in confusion at his empty chair.
"Huh? What the- where did Jason go?"
Rebecca's eyebrows tighten.
"It's Hope! He somehow uncovered Jason's true location. He pulled Jason into Realspace!"
She quickly points at one of the monitors displaying the battle, where a baffled Jason stares, frozen in disbelief, at his clone.
The true battle has just begun.
submitted by Klokinator to TheCryopodToHell [link] [comments]
2024.11.25 17:58 Winter-Hunt9500 Check CQS my
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2024.11.25 17:58 VegetableGap7609 test
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2024.11.25 17:58 agoi17 ERROR MESSAGE: iPod 5th Gen - Mod SSD 256 Gb
Hello there! Still figuring out my first iPod Mod over here.
Have you guys ever had this error message?
*PANIC*
dc_writeback_callback() could not write sector 92
8616 (error -34)
pc: 0007822c
sp: 4000a7d0
bt end
Appreciate any help in advance!
submitted by agoi17 to rockbox [link] [comments]
2024.11.25 17:58 hamknuckle What is this screen?
 | And how do I stop it from randomly going to it? submitted by hamknuckle to AppleWatch [link] [comments] |