stonewall Issue 38 | Spring 2020 Official magazine of the stonewall gaming networktimes
The Klingons are coming! Tales of May ‘qep Spring swing highlights Pets of stonewall Stay at home guide Pixel power Combat ops can help you! Our tributes to true heroes
Contents 04 15 18 19 24 26 32 36 38 46 68 75 91 94 104
Nagh ‘red/May’qep update Staying at home Dr who crossword cociality Stonewall haiku Honouring heroes Sgn’s claps for heroes Discord server stats Sunshine swansong Spring swing recap Pixel power Pets of stonewall Your-o-vision Combat ops highlight Short story
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Ten-Foreword
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hat a difference a few days make. Like everyone we’ve all been caught up in Covid-19 and under some form of isolation and lockdown. But never fret—there’s plenty to do with our guide to staying at home!
Get creative or spend time with your friends online, with what we do best and that’s gaming! Have you tried something new? Plenty of fleetmates to get going with on something you’ve never had the time, but now do!
Editorial team Editor-in-chief Cal Cover artwork GXV3 Layout Callex staff @TLara/tedhembach @hippiepunk @GXV3 @IM_TRICK @insanefuture79 Contributors @saintplazma @viethai @jimmyjoe1a @chipz416 @balduranne @thethanatos @Satyrgrin
We also had our Spring Swing event and showcase some of the highlights from that event—the last organised by outgoing Admiral Chipz! Don’t worry, we managed to catch him just before he left his office for an interview. We also have some features with Fleet Captain Anna on how she does her pixel art as well as Admiral Trick showcasing how they can help your builds in STO! Plus we’ve saved a little short story too at the end ;)
As always don’t forget to check out our home at home on SGN, and on issuu.com as another channel for you to read at your convenience. From all of the team here, stay safe and well and enjoy this Spring edition of your Times!
Cheers,
Cal Recent previous editions of the Stonewall Times are available online at https://sites.google.com/site/stonewalltimes/home
Social Media @StonewallGN Websites stonewallgaming.net Star Trek & related properties are trademarks and ©CBS Studios Inc. Star Trek Online (STO) & related properties are ©Cryptic Studios Inc. Star Wars & related properties are trademarks and ©Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars: The Old Republic & related properties are ©EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. Guild Wars 2 (GW2) & related marks are ©ArenaNet Inc and NCSOFT Europe Ltd. Overwatch is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment Inc. Pokémon go ©Niantic Inc. © Pokémon. ©Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. Pokémon and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo. No infringement of these rights is intended. Stonewall Times is a voluntary, community-made, non-profit production.
Made from recycled photonics a TACTICAL INITIATIVE
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stay at home A times guide
“It was the year of fire, the year of destruction, the year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth, the year of great sadness, the year of pain, and the year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed.” The year is 2020. The place: Earth.
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The opening titles to Season 4 of Babylon 5 seem rather prescient for 2020. A year which has seen the whole world change in its reaction to the global pandemic that is Covid-19.
If like me, you’ve put off certain things...you know the ones...the tidying up of years worth of accumulated...stuff! Now’s the time to start making a difference. The opportunity here is to take time to pause and reflect and to think about There are very few on the planet who have not what you’ve always wanted to do but never had been affected in some form or way, be it through the time or the chance to do so. the isolation imposed by lockdowns, to knowing people who have caught the virus. Events such as these test us both as individuals and society as a whole. There are many stories that cover all aspects of the spectrum from acts of greed and hoarding, to kindness, compassion and empathy. We have seen the true heroes of society - those on the front lines having to deal with those afflicted with Covid-19, to a 99-year old veteran walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday to raise £1,000 for the UK’s National Health Service. At the time of writing, Captain Tom Moore has raised a staggering £25m!
Here at SGN, we made our own gesture saluting these heroes by clapping in game in Star Trek Online on Nimbus III (pages 32-33) as well as joining a dev-initiated event on Deep Space Nine. Do check out pages 26-31 for photos! Even in these difficult times, we can look for opportunities to keep a positive mental attitude that goes a long way towards maintaining our own mental health and those around us. Look out for, and reach out to, your friends and family. A simple thing like asking them “how they are doing” and “how was their day” could go a long way. 16 stonewallgaming.net
Have you ever thought about learning a new language? Duolingo is a free app that is remarkably fun and addictive to help you on your way. It even employs a bit of competitiveness that challenges you to rank up the leagues! OK, a LOT of competitiveness even! One day you too could “spreekt Nederlands” or “Nihongo o hanashimasu”! by picking up this new hobby?
Of course there’s always what we’ve been doing best and that’s gaming! SGN itself has expanded into a number of games, a lot of which are free to play. Why not take a break from that Borg Patrol and pick up an axe to start looting in Fortnite...as you Battle Royale to be #1, or sail the seven seas as you fire your big guns in World of Warships! Free games with an SGN presence:
STO
Fortnite
Destiny 2
Maelstrom
World of Warships
Call of Duty Warzone
Apex Legends
And if you want to find someone else to play with or to show you around the ropes, there’s plenty of willing volunteers ready to team up! If you haven’t already joined our Discord server - go to our website for instructions on how to join in there and navigate to the “About Us” channel where you can assign yourself the game role(s) you are interested in.
But if you are in search of some quiet time, how about a nice free book to delve into? Amazon UK has plenty of free titles ranging from the classics to a romance novel. Why not give it a go and share what your favourite read is? h t t p s : / / w w w . a m a z o n . c o . u k / b ? ie=UTF8&node=21173577031
“It was the year everything changed.” Change can also be a powerful force in our lives. It makes us appreciate things or people more, things and people who we may have taken for granted. Our self-isolation may seem like a pain, but we do it for the greater good that we may all return to a new world in the future. That future may be some time away, which in itself presents the opportunities to make changes in our own lives, for the better. Playing a new musical instrument, or finding a new game with new friends to team up with. We are all in this together. Till all are one.
If entertainment is more your thing, why not schedule a watch party - just shout out in Discord a time and your viewing choice and go chill in one of the voice channel rooms. There’s 5 seasons and plenty of movies in the hit series Babylon 5! We picked the classic Transformers: The Movie for our most recent view and even had a few teething troubles that became a fun micro-game of having to resync everyone back in time! You can’t beat that Michael Bay! We sat there quoting our favourite lines or scenes as they came up. “One shall stand, one shall fall!”
Overleaf, you’ll find a Dr Who themed find the words...and don’t forget to finish and submit the Star Trek-themed crossword from our last edition here http://bit.do/crossword37 and get your submissions in to @Tlara for some Stonewall Credits!
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Social Isolation Distancing?
due
to
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There is help - it's called COCIALITY. [by Tom, the hippiepunk] What to do in times of social distancing? Won't we all get socially isolated with the time growing? When we all stay at home doing nothing else then playing our favorite games? Playing games is not that bad, in fact it can help to overcome social isolation. But how does that work?
In our Stonewall community there is a member called Thanatos. His real name is Michael Santos, and he has had to fight social isolation for his whole life. Mike suffers from a severe sleep-wake disorder, and over time he became photophobic. These are only two of the restrictions that are making his life very diffficult, especially when it comes to meeting other people outside in the social realms of our societies. Over the time, these restrictions accumilated to a lifestyle which wasn't compatible to those of most other people, thus leading straight to social isolation. To overcome this social loneliness Mike founded COCIALITY. It's a project that helps people counter their social isolation problems by playing games in a community. We had a talk with him to learn about his project. Tom: Using cooperative gaming against social isolation sounds amazing. What exactly is COCIALITY and how does it work? Mike: The purpose of COCIALITY is to provide a safe space for socially isolated people to form connections, play games together, and hopefully gather enough confidence in themselves and others to go out and play in the real world as well as online. Some people, like myself, are housebound and do not have the option of going out for a short visit with friends. However, COCIALITY will be there to provide private, secure and well-moderated forums, Teamspeak 3 voice communications, and private game servers in games such as Tower Unite, Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, Space Engineers, as well as old favorites like Counterstrike Rats, Mice, Simpsons, and Mario custom maps. As a community, COCIALITY will continue to grow and add varied game servers over time. Tom: Speaking of the servers and the hardware, what will they be? Mike: I've managed to get some server hardware. I have purchased a 22U open frame server rack. I also bought two SuperMicro 4U CSE-846 24 Bay SAS2 BP w/ X9DRi-F/2x 6 Core E52620 2.0Ghz 16GB IT Mode W/ Rails, one of which has been converted to my gaming machine by moving my old hardware into the Supermicro case and utilizing the SAS controller from the server. This way, I have spares in case there's an issue with the actual server. The other Supermicro is being used for both my Plex Media server and will be the backup server for COCIALITY as that is where I have the most disk available for the purpose and it's easy enough to add more as needed. I've also replaced my home switch with a Juniper EX3200-48P 48 port enterprise class managed switch. Â
Tom: That sounds decent, I guess that's not all? Mike: I have, on order currently, an 8port in 2port out KVM switch that's delayed at Amazon due to Covid 19. And from eBay I've ordered an HP ProLiant DL580 G7 with four Xeon E7-4870 10 core 20 thread processors, 256GB of ram and 8 500GB SAS hard drives and have ordered a rail kit from eBay as well as a 256GB SATA SSD from  stonewallgaming.net 19
Newegg as a boot drive. Once the ProLiant arrives, I'll have the basics for actually getting COCIALITY setup but will still need to switch my home internet to business internet for the static IP addresses and will need to get an enterprise grade gigabit router (probably Juniper) so I have better control and security over my modified ASUS gaming router. Tom: So you have the knowledge to operate these servers? Mike: I have been a certified computer technician and hobbyist networking guy for close to thirty years and have used Windows Server as well as Linux for much of that time as well for my home servers. I have also enlisted the assistance of several other people to help out with various other aspects in which I am not particularly proficient like the website and forums. I also had a long history of volunteering for various organizations over many years and even though I had to leave that behind due to my own disabilities and social isolation, I still wish to provide services, not just to my community but for the largest reach I am able to manage.
Tom: Please tell me about that history. How did you discover that online gaming could be a key element in fighting social isolation problems? Mike: I’ve always been a gamer, since our first Magnavox Odyssey in the mid 1970’s through the eighties with Atari 8-Bit computers and then into the PC gaming area but those were almost all single-player games with no social context. In the mid-nineties, a new type of game showed up, Ultima Online (UO). This was not the first of the massively multiplayer online roleplaying games but it did have more depth that its predecessors and is still running today. The problem with UO was that it was chock full of vitriol and abuse, even from release, the chat areas were truly nasty and it caused my brief experiment with online gaming to stop until my younger brother introduced me to Counterstrike (CS) and his CS clan RealitySlap. I found a sense of community in both the game servers and in the forums that I was sorely missing in my real life.
Michael Santos (not a ZZ-Top member)
Tom: It was CS which made you realize community gaming could actually work well?
Mike: I didn’t really have a social life anymore prior to Counterstrike. In general, Counterstrike was actually nastier than even UO as far as most communities, but Realityslap was very different. They policed their forums and servers well, they didn’t tolerate abuse in either forums or servers, and they worked very hard at being decent places to game and make friends. In about 2003, I requested permission from my boss at the time to host a couple of additional servers on my own hardware from work, which was a combination of an ISP and Computer Repair center and store. This got me into game server administration as well as forum moderation.
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Tom: What happened then? What was the next game that you tried? Mike: My second MMORPG was one of the nastiest games of its time, one in which your character could be robbed blind if killed by another player. I still have no idea why I decided to play Shadowbane except that it was cheap and looked good, and it was actually a good game, except for the community. I didn’t stick around in that game too long but I learned lessons about how not to run a guild/clan, how not to behave around others, and to always, and I mean always, turn the global and area chat OFF. Tom: I know what you mean. Zone chat in Star Trek Online is most of the time very toxic, I never read it. Mike: Star Trek Online, an MMORPG based on the kindest, fairest, and most innocuous universe ever created by man hasn’t even escaped the nastiness in its global and area chats or guilds. Tom: Did you try other games? Mike: My third MMORPG was Star Wars Galaxies, and in that game I found another community (Realityslap had died off as a clan by then) that was wholeheartedly accepting of me as a person and also ensured that their forums and games were exceedingly well policed and moderated. Ice Dragons had given me another home and another online family and I once again ended up in guild leadership. I still had the same problems in the real world but in both RealitySlap and Ice Dragons, I was able to hang out, play with other people and make long-lasting online friendships, almost all of which I have retained since. Tom: I can see how the thought of countering social isolation with online community gaming emerges. Mike: The reality is that, while I did not do well in the real world, it turned out that I was able to flourish in online communities. I was able to have a social network, I was able to make and keep friends because I was Amish Revolutionary, and not just the geek behind the keyboard. The façade of my gaming handle gave me the opportunity I didn’t really have in the real world anymore due to my social disorder. Tom: You mention your social disorder. How did it come that you are socialy isolated? Mike: There are three reasons for my social isolation and since some, or all, of you have backgrounds in mental health care, I’ll start with the second axis of my diagnosis which is, Avoidant Personality Disorder. This alone makes doing anything public quite difficult, including making friends. I was fine while working because, it was usually better if I did not talk to the customers directly and I got quite good at taking notes for the billing as a certified computer technician. Axis one is a different matter, the second diagnosis for me was Major Depressive Disorder, recurrent, moderate which I suspect compounds the second axis and makes life even less interesting for me.
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Tom: When I first met you some years ago, you told me about your sleep disorder. I guess this is contributing to the social problems too? Mike: Yes, my primary diagnosis however used to be called Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder, Unspecified Type and Hypernychthemeral Syndrome but has since been changed to Non-24Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder, or Non-24. That alone is enough to isolate me from my friends, family, and to make it difficult or impossible to make new friends. This is compounded by a nasty version of photophobia which not only creates a sensory overload when I go outdoors or to brightly lit buildings but it also “rolls the dice” on my already dodgy circadian clock. Tom: I remember we were talking about your photophobia. Sadly this was the reason that you couldn't attend to our fleet events, because of all the Disco Balls blinking. I assume this causes a lot of problems in your life. Mike: For the entirety of my adult life, photophobia and delayed sleep phase disorder were the problems. I managed (through force of will and much sisu) to hold down full-time jobs as a computer technician. The only reason I was able to do so was because that was the one area in which I was quite competent and my employers were quite happy to filter the customers for me as long as I was profitable and fast enough. There came a time however when that was no longer possible. In the early 2000’s, I started to lose control of my circadian rhythm and rapidly became isolated from my real-world friends. My friend Roger, *wave at Roger* used to invite me every year for his kid’s birthday parties as well as his own but as time progressed I became less and less reliable or able to control my clock well enough to actually attend until, he just stopped asking me, presumably to avoid embarrassing me when I repeatedly and consistently slept through the time I was supposed to attend. This was the same time in which I was trying to start my subsistence farm but that became impossible due to my circadian rhythm continually altering and animals require a fairly rigid schedule for feeding and taking care of them. Tom: I guess you tried various multiple ways to learn how to live with Non-24? Mike: As time progressed I ended up being one of the administrators of the Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder support group on Facebook and even made my first attempt at creating an informal gaming community for sufferers of Non-24. I learned quite a lot from my first and second attempts and one of the biggest lessons is that trying to keep it narrowed down to a group for non-24 or even general circadian rhythm disorders was like trying to herd cats, only without as much biting and scratching. The biggest problem being that even we aren’t on each-other’s schedules. My daughter also has non-24 and a week can go by without me seeing her due to opposing schedules, particularly late at night when my day-walking wife and son are trying to sleep. But it also showed me that there truly was a need for a gaming group that was able to deal with not only circadian rhythm disorders but generally with all socially isolating disabilities. Tom: Let's go back to COCIALITY. I assume that those experiences as host and admin contributed to your idea of forming a special tailored project? Mike: I looked for groups, but other than AbleGamers, there weren’t any, and AbleGamers, as awesome as they are, concentrate on providing specialized and custom gaming hardware and controllers to disabled people in order to fend off social isolation in the first place. Then I spent time speaking with mental health professionals to see if what I was planning was going to be helpful, or at least feasible and the general consensus ranged from “it couldn’t hurt” to full support of the concept but not unfortunately, financially. The reality is that social isolation is such a broad topic and has so many root causes that it’s seemingly either overwhelmed the mental health community or it’s slipped through the cracks as an unsolvable mystery. 22 stonewallgaming.net
Tom: Can you explain that a bit further? Mike: What caused my social isolation is not what causes other’s social isolation. Even within a diagnosis, such as Non-24 or AvPD, there are so many variables that it’s difficult to even know where to start helping people. For some, it’s as simple as being physically disabled that it’s impossible to even leave their homes without a lot of help, and for others, it may be agoraphobia or severe social anxiety. What I had discovered was that it wasn’t necessary to go to bars to find a community and since my circadian rhythm varies between twenty-six and twenty-eight hours, having friends around the globe to hang out with is much easier than making myself sick trying to hang out in more conventional settings. Tom: What I learned so far I find your project seems to be an interesting alternative to find a way to deal with social isolation. Mike: I know, that with my project that I’ve named COCIALITY, I am trying, once again, to herd cats. I expect more hissing, biting, and scratching this time but since it’s broader. I hope to be able to serve a community that has long been underserved and is incredibly difficult to serve. My intention is in the name: COCIALITY is a portmanteau of Cooperative, and Sociality and is not intended to be a one-person show. The intention is to slowly, and over time, turn much of the service over to the community itself so I can concentrate on where my talents actually lie, back-end server stuff, and hopefully have more time to participate in the fun aspects of the community. The community is intended to always be free and supported by voluntary donations from (hopefully, mostly) outside of the community itself. I’m working on a way that mental health facilities and doctors can refer people to the community without having to deal with HIPAA laws. But mostly, I’m working to provide a permanent community that can address the needs of the socially isolated members, hopefully to the point that they’re able to move on to more open gaming and more social networking outside of the group and eventually, to the real world, where all the beer and fleshy friends are. Tom: Well said, and that brings me to the topic that this all costs a lot of money. You are planning to sell your tractor and even the harley of your wife. Isn't there a crowdfunding? Mike: Yes there is. The crowdfunding is at https://fundrazr.com/b1agb4?ref=ab_67Xxc1 Tom: In Star Trek Online (STO) you play the Character The Thanatos. Can we reach you there too, and how do you like STO? Mike: I've played Star Trek Online since open beta. It's long been a favorite game of mine. I play games for the storylines more than for graphics, or really anything else and with all of their faults, Cryptic has treated Star Trek Online with the utmost respect to the IP and has consistently released stories and episodes consistent with one of my most beloved Science Fiction universes. Science Fiction, and Star Trek's vision of equality has been a big influence on my personality since I was a kid seeing the TOS episodes "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and "Plato's Stepchildren" helped to form my personal ethics regardily equality and has always stuck with me. Yonnie@thethanatos
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Members of the Stonewall fleets Honouring the
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Sunny days An interview with @chipz416 We usually get one of our Admirals to sit down for an in depth interview and a raktajino but today we thought we’d invite our newly retired former Admiral Kevin back into the chair just as he thought he was leaving all his duties behind!
Halo Kevin! How are you today? Good, playing STO a bit, lazying and eating spicy noodles, able to sleep in! Enjoying the sunshine and reading a Discovery book whilst sat on the balcony enjoying the sunshine.
What was your daily routine and how have you adapted it? Not such a full lock down but all the restaurants and bars and cinemas are closed! But we’ve moved to a nice new apartment in a vibrant city so I was really looking forward to enjoying it but a week after everything was closed. It got me a bit grumpy :( But hopefully life will continue as normal in good time again. Safety first of course, but the [Dutch] government is taking good care of us.
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Normal daily routine: Alarm at 6am, shower, breakfast and then I go to work by bike previously but since moving I take the train so now I can sleep in or do a bit of working from home earlier and still leave earlier! I am a process engineer at a pharmaceutical company making medicines - one of which is given to those going into intensive care. More of our staff are now working from home. I am too as I form part of the support line - I haven’t been in the office since March, a long time ago now! I work for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. But we have our quality time at the evenings and weekends and we definitely miss going out to the movies or a bar! I like really fancy restaurants - especially Michelin stars! I go to bed at 10pm, relatively early but I need my 8 hours of beauty sleep! I love visiting my friends and family which now I do via Skype! How did you get into Star Trek Online (STO) and Star Trek? Ah, STO, the only game I play! Well, actually you had a team building game with Maelstrom! Yes we did - small little pirate ships with big cannons!
I got into STO because I was a Star Trek fan - ever since I saw it TV one Sat evening when I was 6 or 8 years old. Everyone in my family likes Star Trek! So when TNG was broadcast, my dad said “oh cool a new Star Trek!” And that’s when I got hooked. I started with TNG, then DS9 and VOY, so years of fun in this golden age of Star Trek. I don’t remember when but a few years before the launch of STO - a news website told us about this MMO. My brother already played World of Warcraft and other MMOs so this was really interesting to have one in Star Trek, so it was probably 2008 or 09 when we rented our first apartment, I installed the game and loved it, played it a lot, got bored, stopped for a bit, then played it a bit more ever since launch!
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How did you find Stonewall Fleet? I think I joined in 2012 or 13? I just did a search LGBT in the Find Fleet tab and there you were! In the beginning I wasn’t super active - just a forum event and some chat but it rose the moment I discovered Discord. In the early days SWF only had Ventrilo and it was just voice chat and I wasn't really interested in joining voice chat during work or on the train. The nice thing about Discord is spending all the time with all you lovely people! So I tried to install it early last year and 3 months later I was an Admiral! It was kinda crazy :) How did you get to Admiral? I saw the post on the forums that they were looking for a Chief of Fleet Morale. I wasn’t sure at first but I did think about becoming more active - to give something back to the community as it was, IS, so cool and I enjoy being part of it. Being an Admiral is such an honour that comes with responsibility but I think it was Dave (@Voleron) who asked if I wanted to apply then I did and I did it for a year and enjoyed it. What did you get up to in post? We did a lot of things such updating the Armada policies, community survey and implementing the results from that, getting Morale into a team again after personal changes and of course organising events - the Romulan Farmer Festival, Winter Whirl, Spring Swing and member events. What advice would you give to whoever steps into your shoes? The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy yourself. It’s a lovely team of Fleet Captains. We had a lot of fun and we worked well together. It made it so easy as long as you remember you’re part of a team who are there to have fun and then you can do anything!
What you most like about the fleet? The people! I love chatting with everyone there and building personal relationships with people, and having lots of different people in it makes it nice. It’s kind of like a cross-section of society but better as we’re all here to have a good time and fun. Our driving force to be here - diversity!
So...about that Aladdin MEME. Why do you think Trick gets so upset? :) I love sharing MEMES. I don’t know? I think it reminds him he’s not a grumpy old man - it’s just an entire act and deep down he’s also a really sweetheart with a child at heart who still loves Disney movies! [Editor notes stares from Trick]
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What's in your manbag? I have multiple manbags! A small leather one, a brown one, a bigger black one...and the contents are the same;
A huge dildo and some fairy dust
A foldable brolly, sunglasses, chewing gum, and a shopping bag for being environmentally friendly.
Keys, cards, money and bike light lamps which is a must in the Netherlands
Ear buds as well
How did you meet your husband, Ferdinand? It was a long time ago, we met in 2005 or 06 when one of my now-ex’s held a party and I met Ferdinand there and we just got a good connection then and there. Later on, when I broke up with my ex, I got in touch with Ferdinand and we started dating and we’ve now been together since Jan 2007 - 13.5 years already! We got married in 2015.
What’s married life like? Awesome! I love it! Just yesterday I was talking about this with a friend during our Covid-19 isolation, that sometimes people get annoyed or have a fight but we’ve not had any of that - we get along and have fun and I love that we have a big ally who is always around and supporting of you. I’m a dreamer - that means I can go off on a whim! I don’t overthink things - and I need someone who’s like Ferdinand who is more rational and who keeps me grounded :)
Like the Yin and the Yang! Yes keeping me in balance, I need that!
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Remember that holiday you took? That was amazing when we went to Greece - we were thinking of going there again later this year to celebrate life - it was the most fancy of hotels I'd ever been to, with a helipad, and a lounge chair by the beach that has this button which summons a waiter to take your drinks order! I want to go there again, it was simply awesome!! We had our own private beach with swimming pool and lounge area - a bit like Risa!
Speaking of Risa, Star Trek Las Vegas … I am still hoping it will be possible this year, as I’m really hoping to go there but if not then next year. Looking forward to meeting lots of fleeties there - all these awesome people and to have fun. And I’ve not been to such a huge ST convention! I did go to one in Germany before...the one thing that was weird is that everyone spoke German on the Galaxy class bridge, as I’d been so used to hearing it all in English on TV! It was pretty cool still! I was 11 or 12 at the time and the only big ST thing I’ve experienced to date so I really want to go to LV. Fingers crossed situation with Covid-19 will settle but I don’t dare book now alas. Talking about cancellations, Eurovision has also been cancelled. What do you think about EV? I cried [when my country won it last year], I was so nervous and so excited, we were doing quite well in the polls and the bookmakers - I didn’t want to get so excited only to find out that we didn’t win and feelings were likely to be hurt. But we did win and I felt such pride, overwhelmed with emotion! The good news is though since EV got cancelled - we will be champion for 2 years! There’s always a silver lining and you just have to find it ;) What I most love about EV is it makes me happy, smile, it’s optimistic, it’s light-hearted, and also SUPER GAY and campy!!! <3 I generally also like the music as well. The quality has recently improved with the judging system and countries are making an effort again.
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You exercise dominion over the kitchen too? I reign supreme there! Now we have a bigger kitchen my territory has increased! It's not by definition that I don’t allow anyone to cook - only those who are worthy may enter! Ferdinand can cook quite well - but even when I was sick I didn’t want to look at how he was cooking as otherwise I’d want it done my way! Where did you learn to cook? It’s just a hobby, being creative and playing around with the ingredients and tasting them. When you make something and people enjoy it and you see it - complete with the atmosphere and setting the table with fancy wines. I derive such pleasure when people have a good time. I also love throwing elaborate dinner parties with 5 courses and 6 guests….!!!!
Where else have you been on your travels? I’ve gone to a lot of the European Union, and been to UK once. I went to the US twice - once for honeymoon in a tour of California and Las Vegas. Also San Diego for a conference. As for Asia, I’ve been to China and India on business trips and also Brazil for a month.
Did they inspire you? Yes, inspire is a big word and I'm quite a superficial guy - but there are lessons to be taken. When I was in the US and Brazil it wasn’t a big cultural shock. A bit different here and there but not that much. China and India however were really different stories. The way the streets look like, even crossing one could be so dangerous! Seeing different cultures is both good and bad but it has to be experienced to expand on one’s understanding of the world.
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What's it like in your city? I love it in my city - the most beautiful in the Netherlands and the world! I genuinely think it’s the nicest - it’s not too big by size but big enough and has all the convenience of a big city - cinemas, restaurants, train stations but not as crowded as Amsterdam yet you can still be in the centre of Amsterdam within just 45 minutes! There are medieval buildings from the 1200s and intertwined with beautiful subterranean canals. There is a nice atmosphere here and I have the feeling that people enjoy life the most here. And there’s a dragon in the middle! Part of the historical war against Spain. Today [23 April] is St. George’s day in England but their poor dragon was killed by an evil knight. But in Wales the dragon is a national symbol too. Dragons are cool!
Who else has inspired you in your life? Zander Hawk! I adore his inspiration! [and so handsome!]
My PhD supervisor is a really inspiring guy, he was my boss and later in life i got to know him as a person and colleague. He was really challenging me to be open to new scientific ideas and to be curious. He had really great people skills as well, empathic - which reminded me of Capt. Picard, bringing out the best in the people working in your team, driving curiosity, learning to discover yourselves, to tackle your weaknesses and build on your strengths, he was really fundamental in all that. The most important thing is you have fun in a hedonistic way maybe, but as long as you have a flair or style - like Oscar Wilde did!
Where you'd like to be in a decade's time I was doing an internship as a student and I hate these type of questions - I’m not a man with a plan, I do what my heart tells me what to do. So I will be here if I still love it. I really don’t look that far ahead! If in 10 years I'm still in the same position, it means I'm happy there. If not I'll be somewhere else.
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Fave lounge wear For home - pyjamas and a vest, I'm always cold - wear socks, pj’s, t-shirt, vest and 2 blankeys, even in summer! Maybe 1 less in summer ;) For being fancy in a club lounge - Has to have colour, flowers, happy Fave work wear - casual, jeans and shirt, shorts in summer. Fave gaming wear - same as lounge. blankeys! Fave music - this varies wildly from day to day - a few playlists on Spotify. At the moment the Eurovision Song Contest! Disney music too. Jazz. Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, Prof. Cunningham and his Old School Band, classical too. My husband loves death metal but I hate it! Zumba music too! Carnival music. Fave Trek series - that also changes from time to time! Been doing a re-watch of all the episodes by in-universe chronological order. So I’m now at S1 of VOY but before that it was DS9...etc. Unfortunately TOS didn’t do it for me. I do love the new ones - DIS and PIC. Ask me again in a few weeks and it’ll be DIS. I do remember though when Janeway got lost in the Delta quadrant, I was so sad for them and when the theme played I cried on the couch - it was very emotional! Fave captain - Janeway, 2nd fave Picard. Janeway was under such extraordinary circumstances she had to be a mother, larger than life, had to be everything. She was way more emotional than Picard. I liked Picard in the last 2 seasons as he became more human and friendly. Like when he got in a fight with his brother and in “The Inner Light” - after those he became more emotional too. That Picard is also awesome. Fave food - anything seafood Fave drink - champagne or maybe some cocktails. I like a dry martini. Oh and an espresso martini - best invention since sex! I remember a few years back when we were in a bar with friends. I need 8 hours of sleep and I was running late and all I wanted was to go to sleep but also that I wanted a drink. I saw this espresso martini, ordered it, had it and I was instantly awake! It definitely looks fancy with a glass. Apple or Android? Android How many inches? As many as possible! Most used app? Discord by far!
And finally, are you enjoying retirement? Yes I like my retirement. I have loved working for the community and giving something back. I’m happy with what I've been able to do, working with an amazing team of Admirals and Fleet Captains but it was also a year of my personal time and I want to spend it differently now. But I will always be in this fleet in STO and Discord n I will never leave!
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Spring swing As youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve probably just read, the Spring Swing in STO was the last event organised and hosted by @Chipz and his team. Here are some of the highlights from the event with pictures by: @insanefuture79, @jimmyjoe1a, @viethai, @saintplazma
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Spongebob are you home?
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@Voleron trying to Dance 50 stonewallgaming.net
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Here's a shot of Gareth's ( @GXV3 ) Booty 52 stonewallgaming.net
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@Viethai pondering the situation 54 stonewallgaming.net
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@insanefuture79 pondering tea 56 stonewallgaming.net
@voleron basking in the limelight stonewallgaming.net 57
@mrchipz and friend dancing the day away 58 stonewallgaming.net
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when @GXV3 met tal shiar @saintplazma
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@SaintPlazma (Not Tal Shiar) gets all the attention 66 stonewallgaming.net
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pixel power An interview with @Momulan (Balduranne) Hi Anna, thanks for coming into the SWT office today for your exclusive interview! How are you doing today? [Incoherent screaming]
How’s the situation where you are what with the lockdown? For us? Mostly business as usual. People are nervous, but the stores are mostly open (Though nongroceries only do curb side delivery). I’m exceedingly grateful that the foodbank is open.
So can you tell us a bit about yourself? Damn, now I need to summarize my life like it’s a coherent narrative. I’m a lesbian in my early thirties. I live in Ontario, Canada but both me and my girlfriend Julie are originally from Poland. We’re both avid gamers, and I’ve been a pixel artist for the past ~10 years or so. Of note would be that I’m trans and I suffer from autism, which is why you’ll frequently see me slither away from events and not use voice chat.
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How’d you find Stonewall Gaming? It’s kind of a long story, but I tried STO out about 2 years before joining SGN and then went back to FF14. After a messy break-up and some questionable choices by Square Enix with the launch of Stormblood, I ended up going back to STO because the ship combat is unique compared to any other MMOs I tried. FF14 is the first time I joined a guild in a game, so I felt really lonely after switching to STO. I ended up finding Stonewall after some plain ol’ googling for an LGBT fleet - Ironically, SGN was the second result, but the first one was inactive so I ended up coming here.
We’ve seen you do some of your wonderful pixel art - as prizes for the Secret Santa, to doing commissions and also even your demonstration livestreams in one of our channels! And I want to continue doing so! I’m actually trying not to over-reward people with those so they feel special as a Secret Santa gift. Doing streams has actually been a lot of fun for me when people are watching. It’s pretty amazing to have someone marvel at something which is pretty mundane to me.
How did you get into pixel art specifically? What “drew” you into drawing this? :) Minecraft. I think that was most people’s introduction into pixel art at the time. The term pixel art didn’t really exist when I was young because then it was just… Game art. It’s kind of a nostalgia driven thing, when you think about it. I started in 2010 when I wanted to contribute to texture packs, and then ended up frustrated that my favorite one was no longer updating. I’d customize the shit out of one with mixing and matching, but over time I tried my hand at actually making things. My beginnings were predictably awful, but over time I started to get better at it. While I never really ended up making my own texture pack for Minecraft (The workload was too overwhelming for me even then), I would practice and do things for fun. Later on I switched to Terraria and I’ve had bit of a cult following there until some mental health happened followed by the realization that I need to flee my country of birth. Somewhere along the line, I realized I can make money out of it and I tried my hands at commissions.
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What types of pixel art do you do? Ships, characters? Anything? Most of my art is broadly defined as “Game art”. It’s usually meant to be for a specific game like Minecraft, Terraria or whatnot.
For a while I would make more general art, even developing my own expressionistic art style, but I generally gravitate towards making individual pieces like ships or sword icons than I do towards making an entire piece or composition. I’d like to make more of those “Filigree” pieces but between my executive dysfunction and low threshold for frustration it’s hard to muster the motivation these days.
What/who are your favourite pieces so far? The crab. Other than that, I’m quite pleased with how the bigger Romulan ships ended up (The Kholhr and T’Laru),
and finally an old commission of someone’s D&D party.
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How long does it take to make one artwork? What are the difficulties, if any? It depends on what I’m doing, but I have a tendency to try and make things as fast as possible before moving on to the next piece. The ships pixel art that I usually do on streams are about an hour of work I imagine, but truth to be told - I rarely keep tabs on how long it takes. As for difficulties… One inherent difficulty in pixelart is what’s known as ‘parsing’, that is - The ability to parse (Recognize) what you’re looking at as the object I was trying to make. If I do it wrong or overcomplicate things, it’ll just look like a flat jumble of different colors and not, say, a ship.
Another area that I personally struggle with is animation, life-like poses/expressions and color choice. These stem from my deficiencies as an artist in general, I’m afraid. Do you have a gallery? Where can we see your art? Most of my art can be seen on https://www.deviantart.com/balduranne but I’m trying to switch to CGSociety, which is linked in my profile.
When will you be doing more livestreams? Whenever I feel like it, haha! I’m just dreadful at following a schedule because I never know if I’ll have the energy and will to do something a week in advance so it’s hard for me to plan those. I like doing them impromptu, but I recognize that it doesn’t let people follow those very well due to the lack of heads-up. I should try making an event group for it on SGN, but I don’t want to use the dreaded @here on Discord to let people know.
Do you do commissions? How do we get about getting some of our wonderful ships or so pixelated? Yup! I generally charge depending on the size of a piece. For the ships and portraits that you’ve seen me doing on Discord, I charge $5 a piece.
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What are you working on right now? I’m working on and off for a voxel game called Vintage Story. Progress has been somewhat slow due to my mental state lately;
For personal projects, I’m mostly toying around with Star Trek ships in different sizes. I’d like to get back to doing the STO ships to scale, but I’m finding it a little overwhelming with FED ships and how wildly the sizes seem to differ.
And is this what you do in your spare time or do you have other hobbies for fun? I play video games most of the time, and do pixel art whenever I have a commission or feel the need.
So a bit about the day job - how’s it like in the Morale department? I actually play very little STO anymore. Socializing and running fleet events is most of what I do around the game. It’s a lot of work to plan and then sit through events on the organizational side, but it’s very rewarding when people enjoy those. It can be a little hard to keep others’ morale up when you have your own anxieties, but it’s worth the effort. Any sneak peek into what’s coming up over the rest of this year? What with being in lockdown we could all use a morale booster! :D Well, there’s the Romulan Farmer Festival in Autumn, and before that we’ll be helping with Stonewall Pride. By the time this gets published, I will have tried organizing board game nights, so let’s hope those were successful. On a more personal note, we’re dying for warm weather to do some gardening.
Well, thanks so much for your time Anna, we’ll leave some of your pixel art around the issue for our readers to admire :D
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ACTION STATIONS! Come join your fellow fleeties on the high seas in World of warships!
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Su
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t t c bj e
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ge n a ch
on c &
n! o i at m fi r
Pets of stonewall By @GXV3
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@coolclonk Pets name/s: Logan Age: 2 1/2 Favourite Toy: Empty Pepsi Bottle Favourite treat: Doggy biscuits Worst habit: Going crazy when the doorbell rings. Best habit: Ready for cuddles 24/7
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@jspectre79 Pets name: Bowie Age: 6 Favourite Toy: Pikachu Favourite treat: Peanut butter anything! Worst habit: When she wants to play she will be in your face barking trying to get you to move even if you have a full plate in front of you. Best habit: Best pal a person could ask for
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@SaintPlazma Pets name: Tilly Age:7 Favourite Toy: Mister Hedgehog Favourite treat: Radishes Worst habit: Attacking the other dogs / trying to steal beer Best habit: She gives backrubs
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@Voleron Name: Scooter Age: 12 years young Favorite toy: Not interested in toys - only food, nom nom. Favorite treat: Pizza bread Worst habit: Begging for food, naturally! Food, fooood, foooooood! It’s her whole life. Best habit: She’s a very sweet and gentle soul and is very calm around wildlife and other animals. She’s walked right up to deer and will chill with them in the park :D stonewallgaming.net 79
@Maxwell1975 Pets name/s: Bono Age: 10 Favourite Toy: carrot & black pig (these are toys !) Favourite treat: a slice of ham Worst habit: none, he's an angel (crazy devil sometimes) Best habit: always listening to voice commands, never disappoints (unless lost in craziness of playing).
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@Kiera Name: Fyreheart Favorite toy: Laser pointer Best habit: rolling over and trilling Worst habit: peeing everywhere
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@deepsky Pets name/s: Vyn Age: 8 Favourite Toy: scratch post (or the furniture) Favourite treat: pieces of chicken Worst habit: wants to sit in front of my monitor while I game. Best habit: Loves to be pet while snuggling
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@jmccomb1979 Pets name/s: Sandi & Toni Age: Sandi 5, Toni 13 Favourite Toy: Catnip-stuffed pouches or balls with bells Favourite treat: Dreamies (any kind at all) Worst habit: I got claws & know how to use 'em (Sandi) Best habit: Snuggles (Toni) - Grooming my human (Sandi) stonewallgaming.net 83
@Caijamin Pet: Wagner Age: 17 Favourite treat: catnip Worst habit: roaming around the flat at 2am, attempting to summon the mothership with his muted meow noise! Best habit: he wakes me up every morning by putting his paw in my hand!
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@Kieran1845 Pets name/s: Flash (flashpants) Age: 8 Favourite Toy: rope Favourite treat: anything he can get his hands on Worst habit: so sleepy, but you only get certain times a day where he will want to sleep with you, if not then it's like trying to move a boulder, also likes eating grass out on walks randomly when I think he's stopped to sniff a scent Best habit: sits like a human on the sofa next to you at times, can sit next to you and watch TV on the sofa
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@ cal Pets name: Ackbar Age: a year and a bit Favourite Toy: Seaweed Favourite treat: Pellets Worst habit: bobbing around Best habit: bobbing around
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@ Gxv3 Pets name: Dotty Age: 5 Favourite Toy: Water bottle cap, she carry's it around in her mouth like a dog Favourite treat: Dreamies Worst habit: Scratching at the walls Best habit: always wanting hugs and running up and jumping at me when i come home from work stonewallgaming.net 87
@Margali Pets name: Fifi Age: 7 Favourite Toy: A struffed racoon named "Brown Bear" Favourite treat: Chicken Jerky Worst habit: She barks at anything she sees outside. (It's a very high pitched screech of a bark) Best habit: She loves to cuddle! 88 stonewallgaming.net
@fritz
and this is quinn. we don't know how old she is.
Pets name: mimic Age: 9
she doesn't really like toys either, or treats, but she always (like, always) wants cuddles.
Favourite Toy: hands she's really hard to photograph Favourite treat: he likes to eat bc the moment you pay attention empty food packets to her she will just put her face right up against your Worst habit: he humps blankets hands until you pet her lol. and a lot she purrs like a maniac, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best habit: he stickS his tongue very sweet. out like mlem
and she's one of those cats who comes and cuddles you and purrs whenever you get sad. she just seems to Know
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@Trick Dino He's about 20 or so, I think. His favorite toy is me. He loves peanuts. His worst habit is either rubbing his junk on my hands, or trying to barf his food into my mouth. Tough call, there. But he does like to give me kisses. 90 stonewallgaming.net
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Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Here to Help! By @Trick
While the various factions have excellent resources in place for the acquisition of crew, equipment, and other resources, they are often found lacking when it One thing Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force, the Romulan Republic and the Dominion have in common comes to teaching captains how to utilize those reis that none of them are particularly good at teaching sources effectively. their captains how best to outfit the vessels they have One of the primary goals of the Stonewall Fleet Combeen assigned. Many commanding officers may find bat Operations Department is to fill that gap and asthemselves overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to sist ship captains in learning how to outfit their outfit their ships in a way that will be effective against crafts. To that end, the Combat Operations Departthe increasingly difficult opponents they encounter on ment has recently launched some new initiatives and streamlined existing processes to provide training their journeys across the galaxy. and assistance to our captains on the front lines.
Combat Operations:
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Stonewall Shipwrights The Stonewall Shipwrights are tasked with assisting members of the Stonewall fleets with designing and improving their ship builds. Through this service, members of the Stonewall fleets can submit their current builds, goals, resources and preferences and obtain assistance from the Shipwrights in improving those builds, or even designing something completely from scratch. The Stonewall Shipwrights have been a component of the Stonewall family of fleets for many years, but in listening to feedback from our members, we realized the process for requesting build assistance has often been unclear to many of our members. To resolve that issue, we have simplified the process by integrating the Shipwright Build Request form into
Example Builds In addition to providing personalized build assistance, another new feature recently added to the Stonewall Gaming Network website is a registry of example builds from a wide variety of ship types. Whether you are looking to build a fast cannon escort, pilot a sturdy tank cruiser, or command a science-based exotic damage build, the Combat Operation Department has provided several example builds from which to pull inspiration. These example builds are designed to be utilized by captains of varying experience and resource levels. For each of the example builds, a relatively low-
the Stonewall Gaming Network website. Requests for build assistance can now be submitted there, at the following URL: https://www.stonewallgaming.net/pages/swf/ builds/shipwright The form can also be found by accessing the Info Center, then “Stonewall Fleet,” then “Shipwright Build Request.” This form will provide the Shipwrights with everything they need to help you optimize your build. You will be asked about what ship you fly, whether you are looking for long-term or short-term build advice, your preferences of weapon types, etc., and based on the answers to those questions, the Shipwrights will help you design a unique and effective build to your personal specifications.
budget version is presented, along with a list of suggested upgrades for captains looking to optimize performance. These builds currently provide examples for ships such as the Legendary 10-pack, ships provided to 1,000-day veterans and lifetime subscribers, as well as several other popular ships. We plan for this list to expand over time to include new ships as they are offered to captains for purchase, as well as other currently available vessels. If you have a ship you’d like to see added, please let us know. The URL for these builds is https:// www.stonewallgaming.net/pages/swf/builds
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Member-Submitted Photos In February, to coincide with the launch of the build pages, we held a screenshot contest for the ships included in the Legendary 10-pack. One winner was selected for each ship class, and the following Stonewall Fleet members had their ships immortalized on the build page for their ships, reproduced here in this article, as well as winning Stonewall Credits:
Command Dreadnought Cruiser: @kerstov
Command Exploration Cruiser: @VietHai
Kelvin Timeline Intel Battlecruiser: @CoolClonk
Miracle Worker Assault Cruiser: @SaintPlazma
Miracle Worker Light Cruiser: @TLara
Miracle Worker Multi-Mission Science Vessel: @Twospirited
Pilot Warship: @Balduranne
Temporal Flight-Deck Carrier: @ArgyrosFtero
Temporal Operative Escort: @CaljgarJS
Temporal Operative Science Vessel: @Voleron
If you have a screenshot you think represents one of the other ships for which we’ve created a build, please pass it on to the Combat Operations Department, and we may use your ship on its build page!
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But Wait, Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s More We in the Stonewall Combat Operations Department are always looking for ways to help Stonewall members win battles, conquer enemies, or just have more fun. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got an idea for something you think might be up our alley, please always feel free to give us your suggestions.
Current members of the Combat Operations Department (as well as the other Stonewall Fleet departments), and their current members, can be found on the SGN website at https:// www.stonewallgaming.net/pages/swf/ fleet-departments. Our in-game mailboxes and Discord private messages are always open, so let us know if you have an idea that might help us make the Combat Operations Department more helpful for you.
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When you go out and everyone has the same outfit! Picture by @viethai 100 stonewallgaming.net
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“First to Contact” By Satyrgrin
Mission Day:
19
Time:
0530 Hours
Location:
Runabout “Charon” en-route to Tartarus Battlestation, Bajor Sector
WARNING The following story contains mildly suggestive sexual content between two men.
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=/\= Carzan Trix sat in his seat on the runabout, reading up on the case he’d been assigned. He was the lawyer for a convicted murderer. Talk about the end of your career. The Trill man sighed as his inner voice mumbled. All work and no play makes Carzan a very dull boy. The Trill merely rolled his eyes and kept reading. Captain Na’qIIlS and Admiral N’Har-V’Ney were not men to meet unprepared.
Teél sat with one leg dangling over the side of his seat into the aisle, sighing aloud for the four-thousand seven hundred and thirteenth time. Nfrel, but eidetic memory sucked, and not even in a way that felt good. At least the transport was clean. Fleeters were always clean – the mark of people who spent too much time in the head. Not that he hated Fleeters or anything. They got him out of that cesspool of a slave market on Rigel VII and now he was heading to “Tartarus Battlestation” for “processing.” What, were they going to stick him feet-first into a meat grinder?
Come on, what the nfrel kind of word was “processing” anyway? Ugh, Fleeters, and their big words. He did not care, really. He was just happy to be free – FREE AT LAST!!! – a green, well, not completely green slave boy free to lead his own life instead of spending his days and nights on his knees. He even managed to boost a few souvenirs from a poor skeht-brain at the auction. Damn, but Ferengi were jittery folk, and oh, all of those slips of latinum just laying there on the body of his new owner after he fainted during the raid. Let that be a new page in the Rules of Acquisition. HAH! Teél bounced his leg and bumped the arm of the humanoid across the aisle.
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What a lovely race with all those spots down the sides of the face and neck. How far did they go under that shirt? Hmmm…Teél noticed how the woman beside him squirmed…obviously his pheromones were working their magic. Ah well, maybe they’d work their magic on “Spots”?
The former slave boy craned his neck to look at the PADD the man was looking at, completely heedless of the torn fishnet shirt he wore or the shiny leggings the auctioneer poured him into to fetch a more “enticing” sale. Aside from the slips of latinum and the golden ring in his left ear, Teél was barefoot, destitute, and on his way to nowhere.
“Watcha’ lookin’ at?” Teél asked with a voice that stirred the soul. He spoke with three sets of vocal cords simultaneously, giving him a beautifully rich, resonant voice for such a skinny waif. His fiery green eyes sparkled with mischief and his grin tempted the virtue of vedeks. “Must be interestin’,” He peeked again. “Looks boring to me.”
Carzan had had enough of the green thing sitting next to him. “They’re notes for a very important case. I must be prepared for when I reach the station.” He snapped tersely. He could feel Trix stir inside him at the sight of the green man. Be Nice to him, He’s attractive and his
voice is very interesting. Carzan heaved a sigh and tried again. “I’m sorry but I’m under pressure right now. My name is Carzan Trix.”
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Teél’s eyes lit with mirth, “Trix, as in ‘tricks’, are you for real?!?” He belly laughed until he fell onto the deck. He peered up through a mop of tight black ringlets, looking far too much like a lost fawn. He saw the sour look on “Spot’s” face and sobered, “Hey, sorry, it’s just that I’ve met tricks, I’ve turned tricks, I’ve played tricks but I’ve never met anybody named ‘tricks’.” His smile grew blinding with charm. “I’m Teél. Are you as bored as I am, Trix?”
Most Definitely! Carzan’s inner voice shouted.
The Trill finally gave up the struggle, when his symbiont got like this, it couldn’t be stopped. “Yes, actually I am quite bored.” Carzan’s eyes openly flicked to the other man’s chest. He smiled, revealing a set of perfect white teeth. “I could use some amusement.”
“Hmmm….” Teél straddled Trix’s lap, boldly facing him. He took in how the other four passengers fanned themselves and looked away nervously. He favored Trix with a roguish leer. “Let’s play a game of questions, just how deep do we dare to go? We start off with something simple and get more personal. If we don’t answer a question, we have to perform a favor for the other one. Anything he wants. You dare to play, Trix?”
“Yes, questions sound like fun. Shall we go to the private quarters I arranged at the station?”
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Well, this one gave in to the pheromones quickly, Teél grinned. Time for a little fun. He took the PADD out of Trix’s hand and set it aside, moving to loosen his collar. “What’s wrong with right here?”
“We’re in view of everyone!” Carzan hissed furiously. “Perhaps we can wait until we get to the station?” He knew it was a long shot but it was the only one he had. The green boy had him so flustered he forgot there was nowhere to run too. “I changed my mind…I’m in no mood for games.” “You give up too easily,” Teél bent his head to one side. “You’re used to getting your way? You must be a big, powerful, man.”
“I’m not powerful,” Carzan huffed. “I’m just a Lieutenant.” He just wanted Teél to go away, but he felt he wouldn’t until he got what he wanted, which appeared to be Carzan. “You’re ‘just a lieutenant’? That’s funny!” Teél laughed merrily, “I was just a slave. That counts as two questions. Care to go deeper?” Carzan winced at the unfortunate choice of words and grumbled. “If it will make you get off my lap, then yes.”
Teél took that as his cue to get more comfortable in Carzan’s lap. He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Hmmm...well, ‘just a lieutenant’ named Trix, what do you do?” Carzan’s eyes widened at the Orion boy’s audacity. “I’m…a…lawyer,” his breathing grew more labored as the pheromones sank in. “I’m the Chief JAG Officer of Tartarus Station.” He shifted slightly, which was the wrong thing to do, “Would you please get off my pants? They will get wrinkled.”
Teél threw back his head and laughed uproariously, “You’re the Law? Skeht! Just my luck,” he wrinkled his nose cutely, hooking his arms around Trix’s neck. “So, what’s your question?” “What’s your story?” Carzan struggled to talk through unnatural pleasure threatening his composure. He broke into a sweat and fought the urge to moan. “Not much to tell, really.” Teél wriggled in Carzan’s lap with childishly wicked glee. “I was cloned from a sample taken from an alien race. I’m a half-breed Orion but nobody told me what the other half was, not that it mattered. I was made for one purpose,” He leaned close to smell Trix’s cologne and whispered huskily against the Trill’s ear. “Everybody wants me.”
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“I’m sure they do.” The Trix symbiont was doing belly flops, if the symbiont had a belly at any rate, inside his chest. “I think you would make almost anyone very happy.” Carzan didn’t add the lie of “except me” because at this rate he wanted nothing more than to have this man on his lap forever.
“I make a lot of people happy but the thing is, they don’t give a skeht about making me happy. Do you want to make me happy, Law Man?” Teél deeply into the Trill’s eyes. Carzan felt as the last of his resistance snapped. “Y-y-yes…” it came out as a moan, but a soft one.
The copilot stepped into the back cabin of the runabout and blinked at how everyone sat as far away from the pair in the center as possible. “Um…all passengers return to their seats, we will be docking at Tartarus Station in two minutes.”
Teél flashed the copilot a sweet smile, “Thanks, it’s nice to know somebody looks after my welfare.” He waited for the man to leave before squeezing his playmate as tightly as he could, bringing him over the edge into bliss. The ex-slave boy kissed Trix to stifle his moan of release, leaving his mark on the man’s neck before returning to his seat. He hooked his leg once more over the arm of his seat but this time he stroked Law Man’s arm with his big toe. “It looks like our game is up, Trix. I guess it’s a draw. He licked a finger in a symbolic gesture. “Maybe next time you can tell me how far down the spots go.”
“They go all the way down,” Carzan said, grinning at the green boy. The ship docked and he rushed into the throng in Tartarus, leaving Teél to figure out how to see the spots for himself. “Easy come, easy go.” Teél sucked in the recycled air of freedom. “Hello, Tartarus. Are you ready to get a load of me? Muhahaha.” He slinked into line for processing as a refugee, thinking about his big, spotted playmate. He wondered just how long the arm of the Law really was.
=/\=
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