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Thread: Soul Guard Militarization
In forum: MSY News and Politics
By user: 8MileRd
The other day I was out hunting near the edge of the city limits, and a bunch of women came out of nowhere and smashed through an apartment building in the miasma. They clearly weren’t just hunters, because they left most of the wraiths behind looking for something or someone, and clearly magical because of the wraiths they did kill. Would have taken pictures or video if the miasma didn’t interfere with it, you know how it is.
What they also were was decked out in body armor from head to toe, carrying automatic weapons. Can’t imagine why magical girls would need them but I guess that’s why I don’t work for them.
Talked to my local rep in the aftermath, and they told me it was something to do with the Soul Guard. I guess I believe it, because they were too organized to not be affiliated with one of the MG unions or whoever.
What’s more scary to me personally is what this means for the Soul Guard’s core principles. The Soul Guard is meant to be a strictly reactive police organization, a moderating force between different magical groups. They’re supposed to be focused on protecting us, not busting down doors and taking heads. Lord knows we get enough of that with the mundane police here in the D.
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The Turk (TCF Moderator)
Warning: This post contains information that may compromise details of a MSY Soul Guard action. While the Salem Star-Times does not forbid users from discussing Soul Guard operations, users are reminded that excessive disclosure can endanger Soul Guard officers and civilian populations, and may result in prosecution by a tribunal.
This post has been temporarily hidden for your protection. If you still wish to proceed, send me a message to that effect within the next 24 hours.
8MileRd
Edited out some specifics. Should be good now, Turk.
Mulberry
Everyone’s favorite automaton sure found this thread fast…
In any case, I think this concern is on everyone’s minds to some degree. It was more excusable during the days before the merger, when there was always the chance of semi-open war. Nowadays this kind of action is a lot harder to justify.
Still, we have to remember the Soul Guard’s job is much tougher than their mundane analog. The regular cops don’t have to worry about keeping everything a secret from 99% of the world’s population.
Scylla (SMC - Assets and Affairs)
No point in worrying about things we can’t change. Pretty obvious even since the start that the MSY does what it wants. They’re not accountable to anything, never have been, never will be.
HarrietTheFool
Elections aren’t accountability?
Scylla (SMC - Assets and Affairs)
I guess I don’t buy that they’re really elections. The Incubators say there’s nothing going on, but for obvious reasons I don’t really trust anything the Incubators say. They’ll never give me a straight answer on whether the MSY was for real.
WhiteStockings
Election data is publically available on the MSY’s own dark site. We don’t go to all the effort of making a tally for nothing. Feel free to go find someone with information analysis magic to take a look at it, we have nothing to hide.
To respond to @8MileRd more directly, the Soul Guard has strict policies regarding engagement of and negotiation with suspected dangers to the magical community. Lethal force authorization against magical girls requires the unanimous approval of a Tribunal, and any incident involving a fatality becomes part of the public record.
To be clear-this restriction makes the Soul Guard’s job much more difficult. Containing a skilled magical girl who doesn’t want to be contained is next to impossible. Everyone in the Guard has lost good people before, and we’ll lose good people to it again. But it’s worth the price to ensure the trust and support of local magical communities around the globe.
HarrietTheFool
Exactly. There’s a real price to be paid in this line of work. People die, people get hurt. Back before there was a real central support infrastructure, I lost my body for six months trying to stop some nuts from trying to kill the entire population of Seattle (long story, not gonna get into it here). If there’s any equipment we can give the Soul Guard to make their job easier I’m all for it. Even if they end up looking like a particularly girly mundane army in the process.
8MileRd
I’m aware of all that, and I appreciate all the work the Soul Guard does. But I think it’s more important for us to be inquisitive, especially as the MSY/SMC complex further consolidates its powerbase.
Thread: Starcraft VIII Discussion (Alarak’s Ultimatum expansion out now!)
In forum: Casual Discussion
By user: ZeratulGroupie
Not much to say in the thread OP, I guess, so talk about Starcraft VIII here!
For help with some of the trickier campaign missions, check here for strategies that have worked for other people. For partners for the Archon Campaign, check out our LFG chat here . For traditional competitive multiplayer or tips on specific races, it’s probably better if you go to Liquipedia. (Not that you probably need the help against regular humans, if you’re magical.)
We run a private magical girl league, if you wanna play against people who are just as fast as you. Games every Saturday night, little championship tournament for the top players in our group the last Saturday of the month.
EDIT: Alarak’s Ultimatum expansion just came out! Seems like the meta’s been shaken up quite a bit. Seems like here’s as good a place as any to bitch about the new Tarrasque Serum upgrade for Zerg or the umpteenth Immortal or Swarm Host reworks.
Page: 106/106
GoneWithTheVoid
Ugh. Really wish they had found a better way to help out Zerg in this expansion than just loading even more power into creep. Tarrasque giving raw health and defense to the degree it does is already too much, even without the self-reviving property if the units aren’t killed with Destructive weaponry. Feels like half the Toss units are just useless against Zerg once they get Evolution Chamber and Hive up and running.
MtenskMacbeth
So one of my coworkers really wants me to get into this game, but I’m having tons of trouble even getting it to work. I’m magical, and even I can’t work this interface properly. Maybe I’m just not used to doing stuff on my contacts and waving my hands around like a lunatic?
Mulberry
@GoneWithTheVoid : it’s not so much for protoss, they’re just an unintended casualty. At this point zerg really need Tarrasque to have any chance against Widow Minefields. No way to deal with those with the new manual skillshot fire to hit you even if you stay outside the automatic range, especially if they’re a twitchy gesture player.
@MtenskMacbeth : Have you tried switching to the Traditional scheme? It’s a lot more limited in functionality than the gesture interface, but keyboard and mouse are still decently functional. A lot of the old Starcraft 4 or 5 players I’ve seen around do okay with them.
MtenskMacbeth
Until I contracted, even the homeless people in St. Petersberg thought I had it bad. So I didn’t have much experience with a keyboard, or with computers in general.
Coworker has me playing Terran, any tips for them, I guess? Anything I can do to keep things easy on me?
HarrietTheFool
You can always just do a timing push. The 1-1-1 marine/tank push is pretty old but it's still super reliable. Get +1 and stim as you're doing it and you'll crush most players under diamond within 5 minutes. Drop the main too while you're at it, keep the pressure on.
MtenskMacbeth
English isn’t my first language, so I’m not really confident I understood any of that.
GoneWithTheVoid
English’s got nothing to do with it. Probably best if you check out the Liquipedia guide here . It’s got videos, so maybe wait until you get home to open it.
Private Messaging
You are reading an archived conversation between:
GloriousNipponTrident
FletcherJ (Former Soul Guard Director) (SMC - Security Division)
FletcherJ
You really shouldn’t message me here, you know. Not secure, and always the chance someone might get your password or crack the servers and get your IP.
GloriousNipponTrident
Doesn’t need to be secure, really. I’m more just looking for advice. Like, Soul Guard Director advice. They told me they were considering me as a candidate the other day.
FletcherJ
You want my advice? Don’t. It really, really wasn’t worth it.
GloriousNipponTrident
Already thought of that. Decided I couldn’t turn it down, if it ends up being offered.
I know it won’t be everything I want out of it. But even in your time, you did a lot of good, made a lot of changes to make things better today, even if they didn’t appreciate it at the time. I want that same chance.
FletcherJ
You think that now, but it’ll be different once you’re in the chair. Can’t you see it? World’s going to shit everywhere. I’m not talking the magical world so much as the mundane world, but the mundane world affects us too, much more than anyone is willing to admit.
Pressure’s building up, soon enough everything’s gonna explode. If you’re in the chair, you’re the one who’s gonna be left holding the bag. It’ll end your career.
GloriousNipponTrident
It’s the fulfillment of my career, not the end of it. Even if I get busted back down to Task Force leader at the end, I’ll still have a chance to leave my mark. I’m well aware there’s nowhere higher to go unless I’m willing to sully my hands with politics, but that’s fine with me.
In any case, I’m aware you don’t think I should take the job. Until the moment they swear in someone else, I want to prepare as if I have the job. That means putting together my team and my plan starting today, so we can get off to a fast start if I’m chosen. I want you on my team.
FletcherJ
I’d be on any team you ran. Just not this one. Me being associated with you will drag you down before you even start.
GloriousNipponTrident
Then don’t be on my formal team. Just...help me out, okay? Because I really need someone on my side who’s been there before, for what I’m planning to do.
FletcherJ
How much you gonna shake things up?
GloriousNipponTrident
Maybe not flip the table, like you did. But there are definitely gonna be pieces rearranged.
Thread: Russia approves new implant legislation
In forum: International News and Politics
By user: Queen Superintendent
Original Russian state news article here. If you don’t have space for live text translation on your contacts, the New York Times has a piece here, by our favorite Cassidy Vander-Rosch.
For those who don’t have time to read, the gist of it is: Russia’s government approved a rule allowing employers to mandate that their employees receive implants as a condition of employment. Previously, employers could offer additional pay or benefits for employees who received implants, but not require it.
Thoughts?
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Beastquake (MSY - TNC)
Really not a huge fan of this. My boss controls enough of my life already, without being able to control what I do with my body, too.
Azur Highway
It’s really not that big a deal. I know in my office, people with implants get twice as much work done as the ones who don’t. You wouldn’t keep someone around who refused to use contacts for work, I don’t see why implants should be any different. Plus, you can use them after hours too.
AntonABC (SMC - Confidant)
Suppose this is why Russia doesn’t have a real safety net these days. People might be able to leave jobs like these. I’ve heard tell of some of the larger employers there using contacts to monitor their employees’ votes, if their votes even mattered at any point in the last fifty years to begin with.
Beastquake (MSY - TNC)
Meh. Don’t care that much, so long as removal if/when I leave the job is covered too. If they want, say, neural implants that aren’t safely removable, then guess they’ll have to find someone else to replace me. Nothing’s worth having my head fucked forever, especially if those rumors of mind control implants are real.
BirandaMailey
Mind control implants seem sorta plausible, I guess. They already have implants that can read from your mind and execute commands, right? Not so big a jump from being able to read to being able to write.
Queen Superintendent
Color me skeptical (of the mind control implants, that is). A hundred world medical safety agencies all audited the latest generation of neural implants for any possibility of brain frying or tweaking, and didn’t find anything. Without an actual case, it’s just a rumor.
MtenskMacbeth
Mind control implants are real. It’s something chemical-neural implants are probably safe. Won’t say more than that.
Azur Highway
You gonna provide some evidence for that claim? There’s no implant manufacturer on the internet who sells anything even remotely close to what you’re describing, much less anything that could even do harm. Like @Queen Superintendent said, every regulatory agency in the world is going nuts over these. You’d expect one of them to have found something.
MtenskMacbeth
I’m not supposed to talk about it. I could lose my job.
Doubt me if you want, though. I won’t shed a tear when [removed by moderator]
Jane (TCF Moderator)
Wishing harm on other users that explicitly isn’t acceptable. Take a break from implant threads for a few days.
Private Messaging
You are viewing an archived conversation between:
AntonABC (SMC - Confidant)
MtenskMacbeth
AntonABC
Are you okay?
MtenskMacbeth
Really getting tired of people asking me that question.
AntonABC
I don’t mean any disrespect or diminishment. It just seems like some of the stuff you’re talking about is pretty ugly. Personal, probably.
If you want to vent a bit to someone, I’m here.
MtenskMacbeth
I don’t know if I trust you. Especially given who your wife is. I mean, it’s not exactly a secret that you haven’t been part of the abaissés in forever, no matter what your name implies. Maybe you never were.
AntonABC
I just like helping people who seem like they need it. There are more people who need help these days than ever.
If you want to keep it to yourself, just say the word and I’m gone.
MtenskMacbeth
It’s one of my friends, okay? She’s in trouble. I can’t go into the full details here but she’s really fucked up now. Some people she worked for made her get implants, bad ones. Now she won’t talk to me anymore, since I don’t work for them, and she’s spending fourteen to eighteen hours a day on the job. Watching it, it almost feels like it’s an addiction.
I really want to get her out, but the MSY won’t help me. Everything I’ve done for them and they just hang me out to dry on this one thing I need in return. I know you can’t do anything about it, that’s just the way it is.
AntonABC
You probably already know this, but I’m in the EU government on the SMC’s behalf, and these days I’m...fairly independently wealthy. I can pull some strings to get her a visa. Pay for therapy, rehabilitation if the MSY won’t cover it. I just need a name and a country. Russia, based on your name?
MtenskMacbeth
I...really appreciate the offer. But I don’t know if she’d even take it anymore. Work is her “greatest joy” now-her words, not mine. I wouldn’t want to ask you to invest your resources in a hopeless endeavor.
AntonABC
It’s what the resources are for. If you invest in enough hopeless cases, some of them will turn out to have had plenty of hope all along.
Message me again if you change your mind.