#Grew up on call of duty and its franchise

[carefulfears]

can you pleeeease please pls pls talk about piper maru/apocrypha theeee apex of the early myth arc obviously i just rewatched it and also you rewatched it a few months ago but i rly would like to hear you get super into it. talk about watever you please but i wld love 2 hear stuff about specific scenes/line or plot implications or performances or technical stuff you liked or what have you. i love you xoxo mikey

okay coming back to this because we just watched these together lol but the thing about piper maru/apocrypha is that like...they speak so much for themselves. and they have a lot to say, about the core themes of the series. it's not just the apex of the myth-arc, it's a subtle love letter of everything that the show believes in.

firstly, i've said this before, but that opening sequence of first scully and skinner, then scully and mulder, is so much of what it all boils down to. and, almost in contrast to the rest of the arc, it's relatively loving and hopeful. just not in the sense that everyone wants things to be.

the government is not going to pursue melissa's murder investigation. the FBI does not care. those in power do not care. they have the tools and technology to piece together any crime, but, as scully says:

"in a case of a woman, my sister, who was gunned down in cold blood in a well-lit apartment building by a shooter who left the weapon at the crime scene, we can't even put together enough to keep anybody interested."

scully is always bubbling with this benevolent indignant rage, just under the surface, and it's so moving when it breaks. it's her sister. and no one is even interested.

it matters that skinner tells her that he's fighting it, he's going to appeal. he's going to go over all of the evidence personally, make sure nothing was overlooked. i love the way he tells her that he got the memo last night and debated calling her at home, you can tell that he's been sitting with it all night.

when she goes downstairs, and mulder is buzzing about some ship wreckage that he's already researched coordinates and weather and radiation spots before anyone else got there that morning, the way she smiles is the end of any confusion as to why she stays. it's been 23 years since the last time anyone cared about his dead sister, and he's down there digging. ("i'm just...constantly amazed by you.")

it's nice that someone stays interested. it's nice to spend your life with someone who cares, when no one else does.

later, in san francisco, i always cry when scully drives onto the military base where she grew up, and sees the kids playing. and it flashes to the kids as her and melissa. once again, this episode is a love letter to everything this show believes.

and when she speaks to her old neighbor, it's spelled out in my favorite quote of the franchise: "we bury our dead alive, don't we?"

i always think of @scullysflannel's post on this thematic arc:

But then I also think about “we bury our dead alive” and “nothing disappears without a trace” and how The X-Files is always in conversation with its ghosts...It matters that the show is saying both everything ends and nothing’s ever really over. You can’t stop moving forward, but there’s also a duty to remember, both out of love (“I want to remember how it was”) and to prevent the same things from happening to anyone else. The future won’t be any better unless people honor the ones who came before. Progress on The X-Files is this constant push and pull between hope and tragedy; you can’t have one without the other.

the x-files is always in conversation with its ghosts, and everything buried still speaks.

when the first installment of this two-parter ends, skinner is shot for his unwillingness to abandon melissa's case. and krycek's soul is overridden with visible darkness, before mulder's eyes.

(i also want to talk about krycek lying, in the airport, and telling mulder that he didn't kill his father. but i think that may be a larger post on krycek/mulder and trust.)

(it literally can't be stressed enough that krycek briefly becomes an alien in this episode and mulder doesn't notice. mikey like that one time you were like "if i were possessed by a demon and a guy who i know personally sat next to me on a twenty hour flight and didn't notice at all i would be so mad")

moving on to apocrypha...well...the x-files is about love, you guys. i love scully running into the hospital and holding skinner's hand. most of this episode is a whirlwind of allies, of understandings. and a testament to how much it matters, to have allies. to have someone you can call. to have three friends who will pull off an elaborate ice-rink locker heist. to have someone who will come hold your hand, chase down an ambulance to watch over you.

back at the FBI, pendrell breaks down the data they've collected on skinner's shooter. partial prints and saliva and secretors and hemofactors and chromosome-stains and hair fibers. i love the run-down that they give, it really drives home the point that scully was making in the beginning. they have all of this equipment and all of these resources and all of this science. but what does it matter when no one cares enough to follow through?

ultimately, it's scully that pieces together the evidence, and realizes that the man who shot skinner is the same man who killed melissa. (at the same time, the syndicate is starting to grow impatient with CSM, as the man suspected in the shooting is: "one of yours, isn't he?")

but in the end, there's nothing. they're pulled out of the silos without finding any evidence. they lose krycek, after learning of his involvement. the man who killed melissa is dead in his cell. "nothing vanishes without a trace," but everything can be controlled.

when mulder goes to melissa's grave to tell scully that cardinale is dead, it's one of my favorite details of the series that he's holding flowers. it just makes me tear up that he stopped to bring missy flowers. even though he was just going by to tell scully news. (it was only a year ago that it was missy sitting having coffee with him, or banging on his apartment door. that it was missy who didn't give up on him, when scully was gone. these sisters linger. there's a kind of reverent respect.)

"You know I thought... when we found him, this man that killed Melissa, that...that when we brought him to justice, I would feel some kind of closure. But the truth is no court...no punishment is ever enough."

four years before the show concludes "there is no closure," scully quietly betrays, there is no closure. nothing would ever be enough. her sister is gone. there are no answers, there is no justice, that would make it better. (and what a statement to make)

and the episode ends on scully repeating back: "maybe we bury the dead alive."

as we cut to krycek, locked in the missile silo, banging on the door, crying, screaming for help.

it is on this note that the x-files leaves its most thematically relevant arc. there is no closure. we bury our dead alive. and no one is ever coming to save you.

[furiouszippernickelcookie-blog]

I have a franchise idea that called Walking Slade which Focus on Slade and his rising undead army as they infect and kill or eat their brains as possible as they try spreading across globe and try conquer the world by bring human civilization to their knee or cause it collapsed.walking slade is pardoy of walking dead and other horror movies and shows including Stephen king books and Ridley Scott aliens etc .this franchise actually set in dirty dogs universe and connected to that universe too somehow Warning: The following story contains graphic content and may not be suitable for all readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Day 9: The world had descended into chaos. The once peaceful streets were now overrun with hordes of undead animals. It started innocently enough, with reports of strange behavior in pets and wildlife. But soon, it became clear that something far more sinister was at play.

The outbreak began on a sunny afternoon, when a group of children playing in the park noticed a raccoon acting strangely. Its eyes were bloodshot, and it moved with an unnatural, jerky gait. Before anyone could react, the raccoon lunged at one of the children, sinking its teeth into the young boy's arm.

Within hours, the boy was dead, and the raccoon had disappeared into the woods. But it was too late. The virus had already spread, infecting other animals in the area. Dogs, cats, birds, and even larger creatures like deer and bears were turning into mindless, flesh-craving monsters.

As the days went by, the situation grew worse. The infected animals roamed the streets, attacking anything that moved. People barricaded themselves in their homes, but it was only a matter of time before the creatures broke through.

I had managed to find refuge in an abandoned warehouse with a small group of survivors. We had armed ourselves with whatever we could find - baseball bats, knives, and even a few guns. But it was a losing battle. The animals were relentless, their hunger driving them forward.

On day 9, we received a distress call from a nearby farmhouse. A family had been trapped inside, surrounded by a pack of infected wolves. We knew we had to help. It was our duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

We made our way through the desolate streets, the stench of death hanging heavy in the air. The sound of growls and snarls echoed all around us. It was a constant reminder of the danger we faced.

When we arrived at the farmhouse, we found the family huddled in the basement, terrified and desperate. The wolves were clawing at the door, their eyes wild with hunger. We knew we had to act fast.

With a plan in mind, we positioned ourselves strategically around the house. As the door finally gave way, the wolves burst in, their feral instincts taking over. We fought back with everything we had, swinging our weapons and firing our guns.

Blood splattered across the walls as we battled the infected animals. The screams of the family mixed with the growls of the wolves, creating a cacophony of terror. It was a gruesome scene, a fight for survival in the face of unimaginable horror.

In the end, we managed to kill the infected wolves, but not without losses of our own. One of our group had been bitten during the struggle. We knew what that meant. We had seen it happen before. The virus would take hold, and he would become one of them.

As we left the farmhouse, the weight of our actions settled upon us. We had saved a family, but at what cost? How many more lives would be lost before this nightmare was over? We had no answers, only the grim determination to keep fighting, to find a way to stop this outbreak and reclaim our world from the clutches of the undead animals.

This prequel franchise going lead up to The events that happen in walking slade day 9

However, little did we know that this prequel franchise would eventually lead up to the events that happened on "Walking Slade Day 9," a. gory and terrifying day that would forever change our lives. As the days went by, the grim reality of our situation became more apparent. The infected dogs roamed the streets, their once innocent eyes now vacant and filled with bloodlust. We gathered what little resources we had left and formed a small group of survivors, determined to survive and find a way to overcome this nightmare. We knew that the Dirty Dogs Halloween special at our local theater would never be the same again. Gone were the days of cheerfully watching canines perform tricks and entertain the audience; now, our theater served as a haunting reminder of the horror. We fortified the entrances and barricaded ourselves inside, using whatever we could find to create a sturdy barrier against the relentless onslaught of the infected dogs. As night fell, we huddled together in the dim theater, the flickering light from a single lantern casting eerie shadows on the cracked walls.then all suddenly someone use bazooka to bomb up theater The deafening blast echoed through the theater, shattering what little remained of the fragile windows. Dust and debris filled the air, swirling in the aftermath of the explosion. Coughing and sputtering, we stumbled out from the cloud of smoke, our senses overwhelmed by the chaos that lay before us.(flashback to day 1 or pre -outbreak ) Back before the outbreak, Halloween was a festive occasion filled with laughter and excitement. Families and friends gathered together, dressed in vibrant costumes and indulging in sugary treats.then midnight come , and with it, a drastic change in the atmosphere. As the witching hour struck, an eerie silence engulfed the entire town. Shadows seemed to dance on the street corners, and a chill ran down my spine as I walked through the now-deserted town. I clutched my bag of candy tightly, the sound of my own footsteps echoing through the empty streets.then outbreak begin , the once lively Halloween turned into a nightmarish scene. The air filled with a ghastly fog, clouding my vision and making it hard to see. I stumbled forward, trying to find my way through the thick mist. As I continued to navigate through the eerie haze, faint whispers reached my ears. My heart raced as the whispers grew louder, their words indecipherable but the tone filled with the unmistakable sense of danger. I quickened my pace, my pulse pounding in my ears. I could feel a presence, something sinister lurking in the shadows, watching me. My breathing became shallow as I frantically searched for a way out of this nightmare. The wind blew, carrying with it the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves, adding to the unsettling atmosphere.then infected zombies animals start infecting people and kill them My heart pounded even harder as I realized that the danger was not just limited to whispers and shadows. I scanned my surroundings, my eyes widening in horror as I saw the infected zombie animals closing in on unsuspecting people. Panic gripped me as I realized the extent of the horror unfolding before my eyes. The once lively Halloween party had turned into a terrifying battleground, with people screaming and running for their lives as the infected zombie animals tore through the crowd,bear maul one of person eyes and eat it for tasty snack His scream pierced the air, a bone-chilling sound that sent shivers down my spine. The infected bear had sunk its teeth into his flesh, devouring his very essence. Blood sprayed, painting the night in vivid shades of crimson. The once joyful Halloween celebration had transformed into a macabre slaughter, with every step I took leading me closer to my own demise.

I ran, fueled by fear and pure survival instinct. The stench of decay filled my nostrils, mixing with the coppery tang of blood. My heart raced, thumping against my chest like a war drum. The streets, once adorned with innocent decorations, now resembled a battlefield soaked in horror.

As I turned a corner, a familiar face greeted me. Sarah, my childhood friend, stood there with a haunted look in her eyes. Her shoulder was drenched in blood, evidence of a recent encounter with the infected creatures. She reached out a trembling hand, pleading for help. But I knew the truth. She was beyond saving.

Reluctantly, I continued my desperate sprint, leaving Sarah behind in the clutches of the relentless creatures. Guilt gnawed at my soul, but there was nothing I could do. In this new reality, it was every man, woman, and child for themselves.

The further I ventured into the nightmarish chaos, the louder the screams grew. Each cry for help was promptly silenced, replaced by guttural roars and the sound of flesh being torn apart. This was a world spiraling into madness, where innocence had been devoured by darkness.

As I reached the outskirts of town, a wild gust of wind blew, carrying with it the scent of death and decay. A sense of foreboding washed over me, and I knew that my journey was far from over. The infected animals may have been the catalyst for this nightmare, but something far more sinister was lurking in the shadows, orchestrating the destruction of civilization.

I tightened my grip on the makeshift weapon in my hand, ready to face whatever horrors awaited me. The world may have fallen, but I was determined to rise from the ashes, to fight against the tides of darkness that threatened to consume us all. And so, with each step I took, I walked deeper into the heart of the apocalypse, where death and despair reigned supreme. His scream rent the night, an icy wail that stabbed into my very bones. The contaminated beast sank its teeth into his flesh, an unholy banquet of his essence. Rivulets of blood erupted, transforming the evening into a grotesque fresco of midnight reds. Laughter and merriment degenerated into a slaughter, a tableau of horror that inexorably drew me towards my own demise.

Fear and raw instinct propelled my trembling legs, propelling me through the shadowed streets. The fetid stench of decay mingled with the metallic tang of blood, invading my senses. My heart hammered against my ribcage like an apocalyptic drumbeat. Streets, once adorned with the trappings of innocent festivity, now bore witness to the ravages of a relentless battle.

Turning a forgotten corner, I came face to face with a specter from my past. Sarah, a friend of my childhood, stood there with hollow eyes, their depths mirroring her tormented soul. Her trembling hand reached out, beseeching my aid, but I knew the bitter truth. She was forever lost.

Reluctantly, I pressed on, abandoning Sarah to the clutches of the insatiable creatures. The weight of guilt clawed at my psyche, but my fate was sealed. In this shattered reality, every man, woman, and child fought for survival alone.

With each step into this abyssal chaos, the symphony of screams swelled into a deafening crescendo. Begging pleas for salvation gave way to guttural growls and the grotesque symphony of rending flesh. This was a world that spun in demented madness, where purity had been devoured by the blackness.

Nearing the town's periphery, a violent gust sheared through the desolation, carrying with it the scent of decay and the specter of death. Dread crept through me, foretelling that my odyssey was far from over. The infected beasts may have birthed this shattered nightmare, but a more nefarious force lurked within the shadows, pulling the strings of civilization's cataclysmic downfall.

My weapon, a crude amalgamation of desperation and hope, tightened within my trembling grasp. I was prepared to confront the encroaching horrors. The world may have crumbled, but from the smoldering ashes, I vowed to rise. Against the impenetrable darkness that threatened to engulf us, I pledged to wage an unyielding war. With every step, I forged deeper into the pulsating heart of the apocalypse, where death and despair reigned supreme.

[daughter-of-sapph0]

seven people worked on the first final fantasy. at the time of its development, it was so underwhelming that it was assumed it would be Sakaguchi's final game, as he considered leaving game development altogether

pokemon red and green were seen as the b movie equivalent of role playing games. they were practically programmed on duct tape and glue. even the update blue version and the international releases are filled with glitches. the first generation of pokemon games being playable is a miracle.

both these game series were seen as jokes when the first game was released. yet they became international bestselling franchises and some of the best rpg series of all time. because these games with dev teams of less than a dozen people from 35 and 25 years ago are better than a modern game made with modern technology by a team of hundreds of modern developers.

yeah, in today's game industry, pixel art is easier than 3d modeling. that's why every single triple a modern game released in the last decade are all 2d sprite based, right? call of duty, breath of the wild, horizon forbidden west, elden ring, god of war, those are all pixel games, right?

honestly, if you managed to make a 3d game thirty years ago on the nes or gameboy, I'd be impressed.

there is one thing you're correct about. you are comparing "hairy potty and the protocols of the elders of zion" to games from decades ago made by smaller teams on underpowered hardware by people who had less than a decade of combined game development experience. and the hilarious thing is that pokemon red and green and final fantasy 1 are better. you are comparing an apple orchid to a cherry. and the cherry tastes way better

so I'll give you a fair challenge. go ahead and compare the antisemitic wizard game to modern games. I'll even give you a fighting chance. compare avalanche software, a studio that has developed a shit ton of licensed games going back over two decades, to indie studios and teams of less than a dozen people.

hollow knight. undertale. Celeste. stardew valley. cuphead. all of these games are indie games made by either one person or very small studios. and as far as I can tell, there is no antisemitism or racism or transphobia in any of those games.

so go ahead. compare your shitty wizard game to those indie games. or admit that your rotten apple orchid is worse than a single apple tree.

of course I wouldn't expect some bitch with "slytherpuff" in their username to understand. you are so obsessed with a series that's filled with blatant homophobia, racism, antisemitism, fatphobia, ablism, classism, and transphobia, that you'd rather deny the reality of everything around you and alienate yourself from everyone you care about, rather than just admitting that you're a sad adult and the nostalgia you feel for something you grew up with is not worth the bigotry that comes with it.

but you won't admit that. I know you won't. because you care more about a racist antisemitic series than you do about actual real living people.

you drive away every single person you meet. you are incapable of making connections or forming relationships, because all normal people are mature and socially aware enough to know that hairy potty is not immune to criticism. you're so deep down a pipeline of bigotry and love for a shit series, that the only people who you are capable of talking to without them being disgusted by you are terfs and fascists.

you'd rather live in a false reality saying "it's not fair! those games from 35 years ago made by seven people are way better than this modern game made by hundreds of people! you need to be objective when judging this game!", rather than admitting that the glitchy mess of a game with graphical issues and clipping and shit story and bad mechanics and missing features and a plot that involves LITERAL BLOOD LIBEL MYTHS is bad.

grow the fuck up

[x]

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #593

Top Ten Tom Cruise Stunts in the Mission: Impossible Franchise

In retrospect, I should have flipped last week’s list and this. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part 1 actually came out over here on Monday, so this list would have been perfectly timed to hit just before its release; meanwhile, Microsoft has been in the news all week long due to the company winning its court case with the FTC and – it looks like at the time of writing – finally being able to close the deal on its purchase of Activision Blizzard. But, hey ho, here we go. Last week was about Xbox, this week is about Tom Cruise jumping off of or clinging onto things.

The Mission franchise is remarkable for two reasons, I think. One is that really it didn’t begin until Ghost Protocol in 2011, which was actually the fourth Mission: Impossible film. The other is that as a franchise it has an incredibly high quality bar, and all of the films since Protocol have been of exceptional quality, among the best action films of all time, with some of the most impressive stunts and action set-pieces Hollywood has ever produced. And a lot of that is down to two people: franchise architect and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie; and of course Tom Cruise.

The first three films are incredibly different, not just from each other but also from how the franchise evolved. Ethan Hunt doesn’t really have a definable character from one movie to the next, and aside from some continuity in supporting cast (well, Ving Rhames at least), there’s very little to connect one to another aside from Cruise playing somebody called Ethan Hunt. The first one is a noir-inspired team-based spy film centred on espionage, subterfuge, and heists; the second one is a weird and slightly icky, supposedly-romantic film of feuds and duels; the third is a really miserable, dark film about revenge and cruelty. Of the three, the only one that could offer connectivity to what came later is Brian DePalma’s initial 1996 offering; the team-based dynamic grew stronger once more after III, Cruise’s intense, slightly haunted demeanour is visible in how Hunt behaves in recent movies, and amazingly there are some characters still in play (Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow from Fallout is related to Vanessa Redgrave’s Max; and Henry Czerny’s Kittridge pops up again in Dead Reckoning). But 2 and III are really out in terms of tone and plot and don’t feel like what came before or after (despite III giving us Simon Pegg’s Benji and Michelle Monaghan’s Julia, who has appeared a couple of times since).

I still say that the series as we now know it began with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, however. Harking back to the first film, we have a beleaguered IMF team acting on the hoof, staging heists or similar activities to get what they need in an urgent rush to save the world, lead by Ethan Hunt who has to perform a sick stunt or two in the line of duty. McQ’s fingerprints are visible immediately in terms of the focus of the films being the action and stuntwork in various locations, the structure pivoting on important set-pieces. The talky bits are the connective tissue that gets us from one bit of action to the next, and the action scenes themselves are in a constant battle to one-up the previous entry in the series.  The line from Ghost Protocol to Rogue Nation to Fallout to (presumably, I haven’t seen it yet) Dead Reckoning is visible and clear, and we get a lot more continuity of cast and story across these movies, the continued presence of a creative hand evident on screen.

And, I have to say, the films are terrific. On the whole the saga is – hot take alert – a lot better than Bond or Bourne. I don’t know, if I rewatched everything, whether my favourite film ever from those three franchises would be a Mission or not; but the average quality bar is substantially higher. How long can they keep this up? Surely, the way these things are structured, eventually some kind of fatigue will set in? watching them back-to-back as I did earlier this year, I think the structural similarities between Rogue Nation and Fallout are quite similar, although Fallout arguably perfects the formula; it’ll be very interesting to see where both parts of Dead Reckoning end up.

Anyway; Tom Cruise does daft stunts in these films. Crazy, outlandish, frequently death-defying. This is a list of them. And I’m not saying, y’know, which is the biggest or wildest; this is just which do I think are most impressive, both from a stunt point-of-view, but also from a wider scene-in-the-movie perspective. Sadly “just” fight scenes don’t cut it, otherwise the fantastic bathroom scene from Fallout would be here, starring Henry Cavill and his loaded arms; as would, most likely, the improbable knife fight from the end of 2, with Cruise’s ridiculous summersault kicks and the bit where he holds a knife really near his eye. But I digress; mostly he's climbing things or jumping off them or clinging onto them, often all three at once.

Now read on, should you choose, etc etc etc.

Free solo climbing (Mission: Impossible 2, 2000): I don’t know why this one is always foremost in my mind, but I guess it was where the whole “Tom Cruise does something batshit” motif began. A beautiful, slow helicopter shot focuses on Cruise halfway up a cliff in Utah, his tiny frame contrasted against the vastness of the landscape and – quite frankly – the size of the drop. He leans against the rock, dangles by his fingertips, and at one point he leaps from one rocky outcropping to another. Like, for real. I’m sure there was some harness or whatever, but there’s no denying he was really, for-real climbing these bloody things. It was such a rush to see the Biggest Movie Star in the World actually doing stuff like this. And it still holds a special place in my heart.

Clinging onto the outside of a plane (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2015): speaking of Cruise being up high, this one is flat-out bonkers. Ethan grabs hold of a door and holds on whilst the plane takes off; we see him, camera strapped to the plane’s fuselage, wind contorting his face, as behind him the ground rushes away at terrifying speed. It’s incredible to witness, and one of those shots that would be impossible to duplicate. We knew this was happening as it was all filmed for real on location; it was quite a surprise, then, to discover that this formed essentially the film’s cold open, tossed off minutes into the movie.

Dangling from the ceiling (Mission: Impossible, 1996): almost back to basics with something that’s a stunt performed on set, rather than Cruise being daft in the great outdoors. But arguably this stunt defines the entire franchise, as Ethan hovers on a cable as he attempts to steal files from a computer in an impossible vault. Cruise’s mid-air ballet act, swinging round perfectly, is something that appears at first glance to be relatively simple but would be, in actuality, fiendishly tricky to pull off. The tension of the whole scene – never has one bead of sweat seemed so threatening – is masterfully played, and the sound design is exemplary.

The helicopter chase (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, 2018): a lot of the press surrounding Top Gun: Maverick has centred on the fact that Cruise flew that jet for real. Here, he actually flies a helicopter, and the resulting photography is astounding (better than Maverick in my opinion). The chase through the canyon is nail-biting, but the whole scene is incredible; he tries to climb up a cargo net into the helicopter, at one point falling sickeningly and only just managing to cling on, the landscape flying by below him. Quite how they pulled all this off is baffling to me but it’s another stunning example of Cruise being up high somewhere.

Climbing the Burj Khalifa (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, 2011): speaking of being up high, blimey. As if climbing a mountain wasn’t bad enough, here he’s stuck outside a skyscraper, the skyline of Dubai visible all around – so vast you almost feel like you can see the curvature of the Earth. As an example of physical stuntwork and cinematography it’s tremendous; whatever digital wire removal went on, Cruise really is out there apparently clinging to the glass edifice of the building and we can see the ground so very far below. But again it’s an example of a thunderingly tense sequence, with nail-biting moments of near-death. Still, the behind-the-scenes photo of Cruise nonchalantly sitting right at the summit of the building is arguably even scarier.

The Eurostar (M:I): known in the trade as “the David Schneider scene” due to the beloved comedian’s cameo as the train driver. This is another excellent example of Cruise performing a cunning stunt in a studio setting, but as a sequence in a film it’s brilliant. We’ve seen action heroes battle along the top of a moving train before (and it looks like we will again in Dead Reckoning) but here the generic train-that-goes-from-London-to-Paris is moving so fast that any attempt at standing heroically on the roof is pointless. Instead, Cruise is basically buffeted along as he tries to avoid being sliced by Jean Reno’s helicopter blades. Again, not really sure how they filmed it, because Cruise really does look like he’s getting flung about by the train’s momentum. It does give us the cool “red light, green light” kiss-off moment too as he blows up a helicopter with some Wrigley’s Doublemint.

The underwater heist (Rogue Nation): this is a sequence that, yes, is brilliantly staged and directed and is suitably tense, but it’s one where the actual physical work involved maybe seems a bit more subtle. Cruise isn’t jumping off something big this time, but he is free diving and swimming around underwater quite a lot. We know how much air he has and the whole sequence is a comedy of errors, things going wrong, Ethan getting hit by machinery or losing his little data card and whatnot. Cruise really was in the water trying to do a lot of this stuff, holding his breath for minutes at a time, and it was a tricky and dangerous stunt to perform.

The Paris bike chase (Fallout): I nearly had the Morocco car chase from Rogue, featuring as it does a nice transition from four wheels to two, but the close-up tension of this nail-biting pursuit just about pips it. High-tailing it through Paris, Ethan weaves in and out of busy city traffic, slicing through oncoming cars at terrifying speeds. Filmed on location on real roads with real cars (mostly – when asked how many cars where digital, McQ replied “enough”), it’s bum-clenching stuff as Ethan rides the wrong way around the Arc de Triomphe roundabout, only just missing a couple of cars. Also has a nice finale as Hunt is twatted off his bike by a passing vehicle.

Rooftop run (Mission: Impossible III, 2006): one of a number of scenes across the franchise where we follow Ethan as he runs really fast, arms pistoning like the T-1000 on steroids, whilst someone (usually Benji) tells him where to go. Here, he emerges onto a rooftop in Shanghai, the city sprawling all around him, and in one beautiful continuous shot we see him sprint across the rooftops, leap from one building to the next, drop down and leap onto a bridge, and continue his run across the city. There are some really nice shots following as he chases across the city, but it’s really that first shot that impresses the most; it seems simple, but it was a tricky and dangerous stunt to pull off as the risk of Cruise falling and seriously hurting himself was high.  

Breaking his foot (Fallout): this feels like a bit of a cheat, but how could I exclude it? It’s another scene of Ethan running across the rooftops and streets of a city whilst Benji instructs him via a phone, and the breakneck scene of sprinting across a roof and leaping onto the adjacent building is like a live-action Crackdown. Except, of course, Cruise mistimed the jump or something, and collided badly with the target building, breaking his foot in the process. But in true Jackie Chan style he got up and finished the shot, the merest hint of a limp visible as he clambers up onto his feet. Yes, it’s a great shot, an impressive leap; but really it’s the iconic-ness of the whole “Tom breaks his foot” thing that makes it art.

That’s all for now. I just need to see Dead Reckoning.

[unaloquita]

I had such a nice night yesterday evening. I walked into Ari’s bedroom to spend time with her, and usually, she kicks me out because either she’s playing Call of Duty with her boyfriend Rocky or she gets super mad at me and then I’m kicked out. It gets lonely being her younger sister, but I know that that’s how it goes among sisters, especially younger sisters who get the door slammed in their faces constantly by an older sister. But this time around, she wasn’t up to anything and she wasn’t moody. So I sat in her twisty desk chair and faced her while she layed in her bed, because I wanted to spend time with her. I asked what the boxes atop her armoire were holding. Note: I learned the word “armoire” from a Seinfeld episode when Elaine kept saying it and in another episode of the cartoon network short series, Over The Garden Wall (I watched it on DVD checked out from the library when I was sixteen!).  Ari said “Let’s see,” and then she got out of bed and took down each box. In the biggest box she had, she told me that that’s where all her Godzilla figures were stored. She has a total of four. I remember she bought one when we went to Nisei Week, a festival celebrating Japanese culture, in downtown Los Angeles. Godzilla is Japanese after all. Seeing Ari light up talking about her Godzilla passion made me feel so warm inside. I needed that light. Ari is a fanatic of this radioactive monster, so much that she named one of our cats after him, our cat, Zilla. Zilla’s actual name is Godzilla but I told Ari when Zilla was a baby to make his name two syllables because in a cat behavior book I had read, the author, Heather Dunphy (their credentials look kind of reliable; in their ‘about the author,’ it says they are foremost a writer and journalist, and it says they’ve authored over 300 articles on all aspects of pet care and then it includes a list of publications but those publications are mostly canine related—Puppy Scoops, Dog Knows, Healthy Maturity, The American Kennel Club Gazette, and Canadian Dog Digest) said cats learn their names much quicker if it’s two syllables. Therefore, Ari shortened his name to Zilla. She told me about the Godzilla lore, saying that originally when he was created for the first japanese films, Godzilla started off as a prehistoric reptile awakened by an american nuclear submarine in 1954 who fed off radiation and grew in SIZE. It just so happens that our cat Zilla also feeds on radiation. Instead of sitting in the sunlight, he sits under our microwave feeding off its radiation. In Legendary Pictures, the company that has produced the most recent Godzilla film franchise, Godzilla is an ancient lifeform who can be considered a god. She showed me clips from the movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters when Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself to wake up Godzilla because the people needed immediate help. Ari said it sucks that they killed off that character because that actor who played him was also a character in the Godzilla franchise in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Ari said Godzilla: King of The Monsters is her favorite film amongst the other Godzilla films that Legendary Pictures came out with because Godzilla is shown more in that one. Ari said the three movies that feature Godzilla were each directed by a different director. The director who showcased their love for Godzilla the most was for the second movie. Ari said that movie got poor ratings because it was mostly “Godzilla” in the film and not enough human interactions. I can’t believe Ari stored so much information about him in her brain; that’s so amazing! It was really nice just listening to her and asking questions. I want to do that more with my family members, mom, páp, and ari.

[weaper-reaper]

Eventuality Pt.1

2, 3+4, 5, 6

Hey shawties its me again, back with my FIRST Konig fic. Very terrible German shenanigans will ensue so be warned. I’m here to feed the small community that is the Konig baby girls. New format, this fic is written with an MC (I know huge surprise, but just consider it a reader-insert.) MC uses She/Her pronouns, I’m sorry. Feminine anatomy and all that.

CW: Medical Inaccuracies, German translation Inaccuracies, Military Inaccuracies, you get the point, Fluff, Plot heavy, Eventual smut, Established background, Updating tags with each chapter, Konig x Reader, Konig x OFC, Maybe Johnny “Soap” Mctavish x reader, unless?, COD Franchise, MWII, Call of Duty characters, Captian Pierce, loosely mentioned

“Fucking stupid… piece of shit.. god-“ the sticker label fell through my fingers and I knocked an entire stack of papers over trying to grab it. “Damnit.” I sighed. How I ever made it as a nurse, much less working as an ICU nurse in military bases is lost on me. A chuckle at the doorway pulled me from my self loathing.

“Captain!” I quickly stood from my crouched position over the floor, and brought my arm up in a salute.

“Please no need,” he started, “I’ve just come with your next assignment.”

I could feel my face twist together with confusion. Next assignment?

“I’m stationed here until the sixteenth, sir.”

“I’m afraid we can’t send anyone else.”

I almost scoffed- and motioned my arms out. Here I am, surrounded by my own mess, and I’m the best person for the job?

He read me easily and tipped his head towards me in recognition, “Do you have any dependents waiting for you back home, soldier?”

I shook my head. No, I didn’t. And everyone knew it too.

Since I turned twenty, my entire life had been dedicated to school and military life. Even before then, as a child my dad uprooted us from place to place. Mission to mission. That’s how we always lived, so I tried my best to not get too hung up on any one particular place. Ultimately following in his footsteps and enlisting the moment I became of age. It’s like everywhere I went I had a label on my back that said ‘My dad was KIA, and I’ll serve until I am too.’

I’d made no real friends since I landed here anyway, so packing up and leaving now or in a week wouldn’t really make much of a difference in the end.

“Right sir, I’ll be packed within the hour.” I turned my back to him with a nod and scooped the rest of the spoiled papers in my arms.

“Good on you nurse,” He praised and it did little to settle the nerves that always followed being sent to a new unknown place. “Heli leaves at eighteen hundred.”

By helicopter? That’s a new one at least.

An hour later I stood at the edge of the heli pad packed to the brim- watching the black mass fade in from the far west of the sky, the sun glaring almost mockingly above it. As if the helicopter was a manifestation of my unescaped impending doom. A missile honed directly to me.

The duffle bag I shouldered grew heavier as it landed, attempting to root me to the spot. I was handed a pair of gray headphones and shoved up onto the machine. I pressed the hanging mic up to my lip and strapped in behind the pilot, facing outwards towards the doors of the tiny metal thing. A large window curved from my side directly overhead. There was only really enough room for the three of us and what little equipment I was allowed to bring. Although I was promised I could take inventory and order any additional nessecities, honestly I wouldn’t know where to really start.

“Evening boys.” I greeted, and was met with only nods in response. Great.

The blades hadn’t even been given a moment to slow down before we hauled off the ground and into the air- dust cropped up and swirled around us until we were almost level with the low hanging clouds. They were as dark and gray as the machine we flew. The metal blades thumped about as loud as my heart, and I did my best to settle into my seat, deciding to focus on the shrinking base below.

I eyed my bags tied tightly against the net on the walls, hoping I didn’t forget anything. My entire life was practically stuffed into those two bags- one being 80% emergency medical equipment said a lot I think. The photo bound tightly in the breast pocket of my vest burned hot- I itched to take it out but didn’t trust my fingers enough not to drop it right out into the air.

I sighed and threw my head back, maybe I could get some rest in at least.

____________

“T-3 Minutes until landing.” Chatter in my ears over the radio roused me from my head. I hadn’t been able to sleep- given I just spent the last two hours strapped in a fucking helicopter, but I was able to daydream and rest a bit.

The sky had turned a pretty gradient of orange and pink as we neared the new base. Light beamed through the breaks in the clouds. We were in the desert from what I could tell, dunes resided on either side of the starch brown compound below, almost letting it blend in completely with the scenery. If we weren’t directly above it, I don’t think it’d be too noticeable from anywhere on the ground.

Save the fact that I knew we were facing east, I had no clear idea where we even were. Hopefully I’ll be briefed upon landing.

I tore off the straps of my harness when the heli touched ground, and tossed the headset on the seat as I left- making sure to grab both of my bags before jumping down. My cropped hair bit against my face as the blades continued to whir above me.

Two men approached the edge of the pad, the tip of their boots not having even touched the yellow caution paint before the helicopter lifted itself up into the air again. I watched for a moment as it buzzed over us and into the darkening clouds.

“Private nurse Mack?” One of the men shouted and I turned to face them, pushing a hard look onto my face, the grip I had on my straps tightened significantly. I could see my knuckles turn white from the pressure. Okay new base, don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up. My own personal mantra replayed in my head as we took long strides towards each other.

“Evening gentlemen.” I raised my voice, as if it made me sound anymore sure. “Heard you boys needed some help.” I motioned to the large red medic badge on my shoulder.

“Aye, I’ll be the first to admit it, that we do.” The shorter one with the Scottish accent rang out, though they both stood impeding over my own frame.

“We’ve got ourselves into a bit of a predicament.” The other man began, he was slightly larger then the first, with scruffy facial hair and a worn cap that’s definitely seen better days.

“Captain Price,” He motioned to the other man beside him- the one that addressed me first. “That’s Soap.”

I nodded and fell into step between them when they turned, following as they headed into the large sandy building. We stepped through a series of doors before we ended up in what looked like a makeshift infirmary- a handful of cots lined the walls with no real space between any of them. More importantly men atop the dirty and stained beds, some even sat on the floor nearest the entrance.

“Forgive us if we skip the formalities, lass.” The scot voiced, Soap. “‘Y’have yer kit with ya?”

I swung my unessacey shit off first- the bag filled with uniform briefs and clothes mostly, lost in whatever corner of the room that was unaccompanied. Unstrapping my suture kit I approached the closest bed to me.

“What the hell happened here?” I almost shouted over the groaning and muttering that filled the room. A quick glance told me around ten or so men filled out the little space. The man sprawled across the bed in front of me clutched at his bicep. Blood seeping through the wet rag he held against the wound as dripped down his fingers.

Soap approached my side and watched as I snapped on some rubber gloves from the bag attached to my waistband belt.

“Joint mission, we were regrouping with members of KORTAC when they were ambushed.” Price stated- a practiced calm behind his words. He said it as if it were any normal Wednesday night.

I gave him a curt nod and tried not to panic much, but being thrown into a room full of wounded men within only minutes of landing at a new base I didn’t even know existed this morning- it’s safe to say my nerves were beginning to get fried. I took a deep breath, the details aren’t really that important. I was here to help, so I’d focus on doing just that.

“Thankfully there were no casualties, just a small group of bloody nobodies.” Soap pulled over a trash bin from behind him and set it near me, I gave him a quick smile as thanks. He had a kind look on his face, a small scar rested below his bottom lip and his shaved Mohawk didn’t really do him much justice, but he didn’t seem that intimidating in this light. Should fate grant me a longer stay here- I don’t think I’d mind getting to know him a bit more.

Shifting my focus from Soap, I pulled back the bloody rag from the man on the cot’s shoulder and tossed it into the bin. Then wiped his arm down with a sterile alcohol pad. A gangly gash sat red and bright against his pale skin, a bullet must have torn straight through his uniform. “Just an ugly graze soldier, you’ll be alright.”

He grunted and rolled onto his side so I could treat him better, so I pulled out a disposable suture kit from my bag and got to work. Doing my best to remember to prioritize, I glanced between Price- who moved back to the entrance of the room, seemingly not wanting to get involved, and Soap still at my side.

“Life-altering patients first,” I shouted to the room, “If you can move- help the injured onto beds, and if you’re not bleeding to death go start a line in the hall.”

It took a good minute and a hard glare from Soap for the men to start moving, but soon there were only three others in the room with us. Though he stayed longer than Price, and did his best to assist me with two particularly nasty stab wounds; he decided to call it.

“That’s all I got in me nurse, hell’s bells, I can’t imagine how you’d do this all day.” He said as he left. I thanked him for his help but ultimately was more grateful that he left me alone with my work- his general presence was intimidating enough, I didn’t want to screw up on the first day under his supervision. So with another deep breath I eventually saw everyone who was involved in the ambush, and crashed against the steel table in the back of the room. Eyes closed the moment my head hit my arms, gloves still on and everything.

It wasn’t until a good minute or so that I rose back up and took a look around the room again. A mess greeted me, as per usual. My fingers ached and my shoulders screamed at me, but I spent the next hour piling dirty linens and rags into one corner, and moping up what I could of dried blood and mud into another. What I wouldn’t give for a warm bath right about now. Though I’ve had worse days in the ICU for sure, this one definitely got close to topping the cake. I was even more thankful for Soap’s help after the fact. Maybe I could sneak him an extra MRE next time we came across each other as thanks.

If he was the only one who’d stayed to assist, I wondered if they had anyone here at base who was properly medically trained. Given I’m not a licensed doctor or anything, but who was the last person in charge of their medical needs? Or rather.. what happened to them if they did have one?

The entrance to the door creaked open behind me, and I pulled myself from my thoughts, leaning on the mop handle for extra support. My eyes were drooping from exhaustion, and it took them a moment to focus.

“You are cleaning?” A soft voice spoke, something I did not expect to hear from the man who graced the doorway. His frame was hunched over slightly, a hand under the hood that hung over his face, two piercing blue eyes stuck out starch against the torn holes that stared directly through me.

It took a second for me to realize the voice belonged to him, and not some other stranger hidden behind his large figure.

“Uh, yeah.” I sighed, “Someone’s got to, right?”

He had no response and instead stared blankly at me through his mask like a statue- unmoving.

“Uhm.” I began again, “Do you need medical assistance?” I tried to say as calmly and invitingly as I could. Though I couldn’t see his face, by his body language alone it seemed as if he would turn and leave with any wrong movement.

He stayed as he was and watched me while drained the dirty bucket and put the mop back into the closet I originally found them from.

“I thought perhaps I could do it myself, but..” he trailed off and guestured up to his face with a point from his elbow.

I put on a fresh pair of gloves and sat on the edge of an empty cot.

“Do what yourself?”

He took a step forward and glanced from me back to the door. Letting a little ‘uhh’ cross his lips. Ultimately settling on twisting the deadlock shut on the door. My heart leaped in my chest and I instinctively stood and inched my way back to the steel desk.

He caught on quickly and immediately held both of his hands up in front of him, slightly crouching as to appear less intimidating.

“Ah please, I just do not want anyone to see.” He waved a hand in front of his face and tangled his fingers at the bottom of the cloth that hung over his entire head- held up only by the helmet he wore. With another wary look towards the door- as if someone would burst in at any moment- he lifted the mask just enough for me to see a long stripe of red from the tip of his jaw down to his collarbone, disappearing under the collar of his shirt.

My mouth went dry as our eyes met again.

Okay, Mr.Mountian of a man just needs some help. That’s all. I let a wary glance of my own settle over the lock on the door before turning to grab a first aid kit and some more sanitary wipes. My back was to him, but I nodded my head over to a cot- “Have a seat.”

After grabbing what I needed onto a tray and rolling it over, I stood infront of him. Even as he sat we were practically eye to eye still. I cleared my throat, trying to calm my nerves from under the uneasiness of his stare. It felt like he noticed every twitch of my fingers and any little movement I made, any inch of exustion I had disappearing with a rush of adrenaline from being locked in a room with a six-foot-something man.

He lifted his mask again just enough so I could clearly see the wound we were working with. It wasn’t very deep- and It looked like he tried to superglue it shut himself, but there were still spots where I could see the blood bead up through. His jaw had some stubble on it, like he hadn’t shaved in a week or so.

“It’s cleaner then some of the cuts I’ve seen today.” I spoke, doing my best to ease the tension that settled thickly over the two of us. The tiny room felt somehow smaller under his gaze. His body and presence took up so much space that it was nearly suffocating.

He only hummed in response. I dabbed some alcohol on a cotton pad and wiped it against his face as gently as I could, if it hurt he did a good job of hiding the pain. Only the back of his jaw clenched when he grinded his teeth together, eyes now anywhere but mine.

I placed my other hand against the other cheek, angling his head towards me a bit more and he stiffened underneath me. His body going as rigid as the cold metal gear he wore.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled and I could see his eyes twitch over to my face.

“If it hurts I mean.”

“I- I am alright.” His lips were chapped and his teeth clacked harshly against each other when he snapped his mouth shut again, as if he regretted speaking.

There was a beat of silence before I spoke again, “What’s your name? I’m Mack, though everyone seems to just call me Nurse.” I chuckled dryly.

His eyes didn’t leave my face this time, and I began to sweat under his watch. I sounded like an idiot to even myself. He just came here to get patched up, why do I ever bother with the small talk. I’d most likely be gone or replaced within the month anyway. He hissed under a particularly sensitive spot at the base of his neck and I immediately apologized, reaching for a clean cotton swab.

“König. That is what they call me.” His accent was thicker this time he spoke, gently cursing in some German dialect when the cut started to bleed again from all my prodding.

“Well König,” I repeated, “you did a good job of cleaning this up yourself.” The grip on his mask loosened and fell below his lips as he settled on the cot a bit more comfortably, and I praised myself for my smooth patient talk. It didn’t take me very long to finish wiping him down and stop any bleeding, I made quick work of setting a bandage over the deeper parts of his cut. Only a slight bit stayed exposed on the parts where the skin moved too much for me to cover it properly.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to take another look when we change the bandages again. Just to make sure it doesn’t reopen, but I don’t think you’ll need any stitches.” He dropped the cloth and let it settle down over his face and neck fully again, eyes boring directly through mine as I spoke.

He nodded with me, “Yes. Then I will see you tomorrow morning.”

He rose up into his towering form again and made his way over to the door- snapping it unlocked once more.

“Sure.” I agreed, tossing the bloody cotton pads into the bin. “Tomorrow morning könig.” And the door clicked shut behind him before I could even turn to watch him leave.

The uneasy feeling continued to sit at the bottom of my stomach as I picked up my bags again. Their weight was ten times heavier as I left the small room and wandered back out into the main hallway. In all honesty I didn’t even know if I would be here in the morning, though it was apparent after today that this little band of soldiers needed some official medical assistance. Wether or not I was the best person for that job.. well who’s to really say.

Soap was in the hall as I left, leaning lazily against the opposite wall from the door. I turned to pull it close and met his eyes. He had more color to his face now then he did a few hours ago, maybe he was squeamish around blood? No, there’s no way.

“Hey.” He greeted.

“Hey yourself.” I joined his side, “Thanks for your help earlier, by the way.”

“‘Course newbie.” He turned to face the end of the hallway and waved for me to follow.

“Newbie? What happened to Private nurse Mack.”

“Too long. Plus everyone’s the new guy at one point.”

I hummed in response, and he lead me back out through the main entrance.

“Cafeteria’s through there- always stocked so feel free to eat whenever. Sleeping barracks are this way.” It was dark outside now, and the clouds still hung so thickly over the sky I couldn’t see any stars. Out only light from the few floodlights that were scattered randomly around the compound.

“So when do I get a cool nickname? Or will it be lame too.”

“Lame?”

“Soap?” I countered.

“Johnny.” He corrected.

“No you’re right, Soap sounds cooler.” He scoffed and I bit my lip to force the smile down. At least someone here could make good banter.

“You’ll fit in well here newbie.” He redirected us towards another sand colored building. I recognized a couple of the men I treated earlier hanging around the front entrance. It looked like there was only one door in. Their eyes watched us as we passed through, a couple whispers making their way around in groups.

“Don’t mind ‘em.” Soap had leaned over to mutter in my ear, his warm breath cascaded down my neck and I hadn’t realized how cold it’d gotten in the dark. I hummed again- not trusting my voice to speak any coherent words.

“This is you.” He pointed to a steel door sat at the very back of a long hallway. The numbers ‘21’ written in bold white letters above it. He could read the uneasiness that found it’s way over my face, and I hated how simple a read I was. Maybe I should don a balaclava like everyone else around here. “Something the matter, bonnie?”

“Oh, no.” I turned to him and hadn’t realized how close he really was in the dark and cramped hall. I could almost smell his aftershave, he probably dipped on me earlier to shower, though I couldn’t really blame him. I must’ve looked like a mess currently, so after a shower myself I was headed straight to bed.

“Honestly it’s just been a while since I’d stayed in coed housing.” The door opened with a creak, but I was relieved to see only one twin sized cot. At the least I wouldn’t be rooming with anybody.

He nodded in understanding, “Well if you run into any issues, I’m just over there.” He jutted his thumb back to a door labeled ‘19’.

“20 up are mostly empty anyway, those are the overflow rooms.” He paused and glanced around the hallway at all the doors. “Though with the men from KORTAC dirtying our plates, I’m afraid ‘tis fuller than usual.”

I let out what must’ve been my hundredth sigh for the day and nodded.

“Thanks Soap, again I appreciate it.” The bright dorky smile that adorned his face helped ease my nerves. I stepped over the threshold of the room and turned back to him, one hand on the edge of the door. He leaned against the frame casually, hands in his pockets.

“It’s nothing. Sleep well, lass.” He turned to leave.

“Oh hey,” he stopped me once more just before I shut the door. “If you’re feeling up to it a couple of the lads and I are going for a run in the morning- ‘round 0400 or so.”

He shrugged, “Could be a good bonding experience, or y’know maybe we’ll think up a cooler nickname then Nurse.”

“Cooler than Soap?”

“Extremely.”

I chuckled and let the door close as he turned again, watching him disappear down the hall.

Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad finding a reason to stay in one spot for a bit longer after all.

_________

AYOO look I know what this looks like… but It’s NOT a Soap fic I SWEAR. I just adore my babygirl so much you know I had to do it to em. Unless you guys are into a multi-ship fanfic centered around the same MC? Lemme know what you think.

Also crossposted on Ao3 under ‘WeaperReaper’

Anyway more Konig content in the next part, pinkey promise.

[toaster-boi]

(tags by @bear-the-shitposting)

no, but i grew up on Burnout Paradise and Split/Second. i miss those kinda games, but the whole subgenre seems like it got swept away in the early 2010s as publishers rushed to emulate the success of Call of Duty's Modern Warfare trilogy and subsequently left racing games behind for the most part.

the only franchises that survived that era were the AAA flagships (Forza, Gran Turismo, Need for Speed) and, somehow, The Crew, which ditched basically all its defining features in the second game for the sake of live-service marketability.

extremely disappointed by the lack of modern destruction racing games. forza horizon isn't enough i need to slam the ferarri i'm passing into an oncoming bus then barrel roll off a downed bridge, stick the landing, and get PIT-maneuvered by an A-Team van going 250kph, all while some high-energy pop rock or eurobeat song is being blasted into my ears.

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

"I always just rode the waves,” Rebecca Ferguson says with a shrug. The comment hangs in the air, as if the Anglo-Swedish 37-year-old is only now processing that a combination of currents and tides has led her not just to an acting career but to the brink of big-screen stardom.

“I’ve never been ambitious,” she says. “I’ve always thought that that was a bad thing.” She’s seen others in the industry consumed by constant striving and asked herself why she hasn’t hungered for fame since childhood, slept in cars outside castings, barged into directors’ offices or thrown herself in the path of a producer. “But should I not be burning for this? Out meeting people and networking for the next job?” says Ferguson, who has chosen the sort of quiet, private life outside the big city that so many actors claim to crave. “My life just took another turn. But I’ve always thought: Am I where I should be?”

At the moment, on this late July day, Ferguson is slumped in the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz sedan, crawling through rush-hour traffic on the M4 out of London. She is capping off a hectic week during a particularly busy period. Most immediately, she’s coming from a table read for Wool, the Apple TV+ adaptation of Hugh Howey’s bestselling postapocalyptic trilogy. Ferguson is both the star and, for the first time, an executive producer. “I’m sitting in all the different rooms, listening and learning like the students,” she says. She’s filming Mission: Impossible 7, her third tour of duty in the long-running series that first brought her widespread recognition. She’s also promoting the film Reminiscence, the sci-fi noir written and directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy in which Ferguson stars opposite Hugh Jackman. And now she is starting a press push and festival prep for her role as Lady Jessica ahead of the much-delayed release of Dune (in theaters October 22), director Denis Villeneuve’s reimagining of Frank Herbert’s novel. “After this film, I think everyone will see what I see in her,” the filmmaker says. “She has a beautiful, regal, aristocratic presence, elegance. But that was not the main thing: The most important thing for me was that depth.”

After tracing a long, meandering path, Ferguson has landed in a rare and rarified position: ascendant in her late 30s (still an anomaly for women in the film industry) and sought after by some of the biggest names in the business. “When you meet Rebecca, you just see it. She’s very open, candid, collaborative, hardworking, funny—and not pretentious,” says Tom Cruise, who handpicked Ferguson to star opposite him in the Mission: Impossiblefilms, which are known for their demanding shoots. “She just rose to the occasion every single time.”

In February 2020, when the pandemic began, Ferguson left Venice, where she’d been shooting Mission: Impossible 7, and hunkered down with her husband, their 3-year-old daughter and Ferguson’s 14-year-old son from a previous relationship at their farm in Sweden. After four months, Ferguson returned to the M:I set and basically hasn’t stopped working since.

Dune has sat idle for far longer. By the time the movie premieres, more than two years will have passed since it wrapped. Ferguson recently asked to screen the film again: “I miss it,” she says. She ended up bringing along her Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg. After the credits rolled, Pegg broke into a smile and wrapped her in a congratulatory bear hug. “That’s all I needed,” she says.

Despite being a sci-fi epic based on a novel from 1965, Dune feels “very timely,” Ferguson says, pointing to its handling of environmental issues, religious zealotry, colonialism and Indigenous rights. The plot of the film, which cost an estimated $165 million, centers on occupying powers battling for the right to exploit a people and their planet, named Arrakis, for melange (or spice)—the most valuable commodity in Herbert’s fictional universe, a substance that provides transcendental thought, extends life and enables instantaneous interstellar travel. “Spice,” Ferguson says, “is equally about the poppy and oil fields.”

Ferguson’s Lady Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful secretive sisterhood with superhuman mental abilities. She defies her order by giving birth to a son, Paul (played by Timothée Chalamet), who may be a messianic figure. “She basically just f—s up the entire universe by having a son out of love,” says Ferguson. In her hands, Jessica is equal parts caring parent, protector and pedagogue. Among the skills she wields and teaches Paul is “the Voice”—a modulated tone that allows the speaker to control others.

The movie was shot in Norway, Hungary, Jordan and Abu Dhabi, whose desert landscape stood in for Arrakis. Filming there was particularly arduous, as temperatures exceeded 120 degrees Fahrenheit, limiting the shoot window to only an hour and a half each day at 5 a.m. and again at dusk. “We were running across the sand in our steel suits being chased by nonexistent but humongous worms,” Ferguson recalls, referring to the sand-beasts later rendered in CGI. “To be honest, it was one of the best moments ever. It was the most beautiful location I’ve ever seen.”

Back in London, Ferguson is approaching home. She leaves the following day for a small town on the coast of England, where she plans to spend her first vacation in two years and to do some surfing. “Let’s hope it’s good weather,” she says. “If not, I’ll surf in the rain.” Not that she’s the sort to paddle out into storm swells. “I think I’ve managed to stand on a board once in my entire life,” she says. “But it was quite a high. Complete surrender to the waves and total control all at once.”

Born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström to an English mother and Swedish father, Ferguson grew up bilingual in Stockholm. She immersed herself in dance from a young age, enjoying ballet, jazz, street funk and tango. Despite being shy and prone to blushing and breaking out when forced to speak publicly, Ferguson found she was at ease in front of the camera. She dabbled in modeling and then, at 15, attended a TV casting call at her mother’s urging. Ferguson ended up getting the lead role in Nya Tider (New Times), a soap opera that became wildly popular, splashing Ferguson’s face into Swedish homes five times a week.

When her role ended about two years later, Ferguson was adrift. She had no formal acting training to fall back on, no clear sense of how to steer a career and no major connections to the industry. She had a short run on another soap and appeared in a slasher flick and a couple of independent shorts, then…nothing. “I was famous in Sweden, but I didn’t really have an income anymore,” she says. “So I went and I worked in whatever job I could get.” That meant stints at a daycare center and as a nanny, in a jewelry shop and a shoe store, as well as teaching tango, cleaning hotel rooms and waitressing at a Korean restaurant. She eventually landed in a small coastal town named Simrishamn, where she lived with her then-partner and their toddler son, content to be a where-are-they-now celebrity.

When fame again came calling, Ferguson ran away. She was at the flea market when she recognized the acclaimed Swedish director Richard Hobert, and he saw her. As he shouted her name, Ferguson grabbed her son, who lost his shoes and sausage, and fled. “I panicked,” she says. “I don’t know why.” When Hobert eventually caught up to her, Ferguson tried to act nonchalant as he proceeded to tell her he’d admired her work and pitched her on the lead role in his next movie: “I’ve written this role, and I think I have written it for you. Do you want to read the script?”

Her work in Hobert’s A One-Way Trip to Antibes earned her a Rising Star nomination at the Stockholm International Film Festival. She quickly got an agent in Scandinavia, then one in Britain. On her first trip to take meetings in London, she read for the lead in The White Queen, the BBC adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels about the women behind the Wars of the Roses. Ferguson got the part, and her portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of England, earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the admiration of at least one Hollywood heavyweight.

Ferguson was in the Moroccan desert filming the Lifetime biblical miniseries The Red Tentwhen the assistant director whisked her off her camel. “We’re going to have to pause shooting,” he said as he asked her to dismount. “Tom Cruise wants to meet you for Mission: Impossible. We’re going to fly you off today.”

Cruise had seen Ferguson’s work in The White Queen and her audition tape and couldn’t believe she wasn’t already a major star. “What? Where has this woman been?” Cruise recalls exclaiming to his new Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie. “She’s incredibly skilled,” Cruise says, “very charismatic, very expressive. As you can tell, the camera loves her.” Ferguson landed a multi-picture deal to star opposite Cruise in the multibillion-dollar franchise. He and McQuarrie built out the role of Ilsa Faust for Ferguson, creating the anti-Bond girl, an equal to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. “We could just see the impact she could have,” he says. “She’s a dancer. She has great control of her body, of her movements. She has the same ability to move through emotions effortlessly.”

Ferguson threw herself into the films and quickly found a shorthand with the cast and crew. “There was a dynamic that worked very well with all of us,” she says. “One of the things I absolutely love is doing all the stunts.” That physicality has given her a reputation as an action-minded actor. “It doesn’t matter that I’ve done 20 other films where I don’t kick ass,” Ferguson says. “Mission comes with such an enormous following. That was what made my career.”

Ferguson’s M: I movies bracket a number of films in which she played opposite marquee names: Florence Foster Jenkins, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant; The Girl on the Train, with Emily Blunt; The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams; Life, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds; Men in Black: International, with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson; The Snowman, with Michael Fassbender; Doctor Sleep, with Ewan McGregor. And now Dune, opposite Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Zendaya and Chalamet, whom she calls “one of the best actors, if not the best actor of his generation—of this time.” She was similarly impressed by Zendaya, who plays the native Fremen warrior Chani. “She’s quite raw and naughty and fun,” says Ferguson. “She has an enormous f— off attitude.”

When Ferguson first spoke to Villeneuve about appearing in the movie, “he started telling me about this woman who was a protector, and a mother, and a lover, and a concubine,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry. You want me to play a queen and a bodyguard? And you want me to kick ass and walk regally?’ I was like, ‘Denis, why would I want to do that? That’s the last thing I want to do.’ ”

After the call, Ferguson says, “I went downstairs to my hubby and said, Oh, my God, he’s amazing, but I’m not going to get the job. I just criticized the character.” Ferguson worried she was being cast as a stereotypical “strong female character,” where “it’s constantly, ‘She looks good, and she can kick.’ That is not what I want to portray.”

Ferguson hasn’t always been able to work with collaborators who’ve given her the space to question or opine. “I’ve been bashed down. I’ve been bullied,” she says, though she opts not to say by whom. That was never a concern with Villeneuve, who welcomed her critique. He and his co-writers had already decided from the start to make women the focus of their screenplay adaptation, and he promptly offered her the part.

“I want Lady Jessica to be at the center, the forefront. For me, she’s the architect of the story,” Villeneuve says. “I needed someone who will convey the mystery and the dark side of the film in a very elegant and profound way. Rebecca was everything I was hoping for. She’s so precise. She brought a beautiful, controlled vulnerability—it becomes very visceral on-screen.”

Ferguson vaguely recalls trying to watch the 1984 version of Dune, directed by David Lynch, in her youth, but she fell asleep. And she had never opened Herbert’s novel until being offered the part in the new adaptation. As she dug into the book, she says, she learned that her character was subservient and far more like a concubine, forced to eat alone in her bedroom, not spoken to and not allowed to speak. Ferguson ended up relying primarily on Villeneuve for her research and prep—his notes and comments, his references and the pages in the book he suggested she focus on. “I would feel ignorant not to have read Frank’s book at all,” Ferguson says, though she admits there are parts of the sprawling novel (which Villeneuve is splitting into two films) she’s only skimmed. “I have to finish it.” That will not happen on her upcoming vacation, however. “Absolutely not,” she says “I am surfing.”

By the way, if you saw, I am snaking on the ground, snaking around my room to get good Wi-Fi—it’s not some dance or yoga thing,” Ferguson says. “You have to do that in this old house.” It’s a week and a half after our first meeting, and Ferguson is at her new home, a more than 500-year-old property southwest of London that has, over the years, been home to numerous English Royals. It’s more spartan than stately now. “Empty except for a rock star,” she says, turning her phone’s camera to reveal a framed duotone poster of Mick Jagger that’s leaning against the wall. “We haven’t even started renovating.

Ferguson has returned from her holiday fortified and with renewed confidence, thanks in part to her success on the surfboard. “I went up nearly every time,” she says cheerfully, “but the waves weren’t very high.” She shrugs. “I was proud. I was up. I rode them, not the other way around.”

After years of going with the flow, Ferguson is eager to replicate that sense of control in her career. She values her role as an executive producer on Wool, she says, “because I am, for the first time, a part of it from the beginning.” She relishes weighing in on every aspect, from casting (the show recently added Tim Robbins) to cinematography to her character—which has not always been easy for her. “Why do I feel it’s difficult to speak up? I still battle with these things,” she says. Alluding to those times she was pushed around in the past, Ferguson says, “I was angry, but it was more me getting off at ‘How can I let that happen? Why am I letting myself react this way?’ And I take it with me to the next thing where I go, ‘OK, how do I stop that from happening?’ ”

She is learning that she can ride on top of waves without giving up her agency or maybe just let them break against her. “I want to feel I can go home and think, That was a hard day or that pissed me off—and that’s OK,” Ferguson says, with a nod and tight smile. “Because I still stood there as Rebecca. I didn’t shift.”

[luciferfriendoftheneighborhood]

King Mordred AU (aka Mordred good ending.)

(This was supposed to be about Mordred, but it keeps coming back to Artoria. Just like the franchise, i guess. Also, i still don’t know everything about the Fate version of Camelot, and i welcome anyone to explain if i got something wrong. Also english is my second language, so please go easy on me.)

Ok, please consider: King Mordred.

A timeline where Artoria talked with him after the bomb that was learning he was her and Morgan’s son. Like, really talked with him.

A timeline where she explained why he couldn’t be king. Explained why she wouldn’t recognize him as son or heir. Explained anything! Just…. talked with him.

He would be pissed. Of fucking course he would be pissed. But at least they talked. At least she gave him reasons. And valid ones. He wouldn’t just trust his words either. And he still could be a knight of the Round Table. Yes, he still could be at her side like the others.

And after Artoria returns from the Lancelot Incident, Camelot is… still the same. Mordred didn’t took over, he had no reason to do so, he was still waiting for her. Helping Gawain, taking care of Camelot.

Their relationship wasn’t the best, but eventually they worked things out. Even if she wouldn’t recognize him as son or heir, he was still one of her knights. And that was enough for Mordred. And Artoria, with time, saw him grow. As a knight and as a person. And they still talked. It had become a thing: Talking. So much that she would call other knights too to just… talk about things. Not even Camelot things, just things.

As time went by, the heir problem grew more and more. A kingdom needs a king, and Artoria wouldn’t be around forever. Artoria had already made things clear: He wasn’t her heir. So, when she called him to the throne room, he was honestly surprised that she had chosen him.

“You are the closest to an heir i have.” She said. “We will keep Morgan out of your story. You will be a strange coincidence: My unknown bastard child that became my knight by destiny.”

He asked why. After all that, why him. Why did she change her mind about him?

Her response? “When you came to me, i told you didn’t had what it takes to be a king. And i was right. But now, now i think you are mature enough.”

It was kind of awkward in the Table after the announcement. Artoria began to teach him the basics of how to be a ruler. And he finally understood. He knwe there was more about being king than just sitting in a throne and overseeing Camelot. But all that bureaucracy and its nuances, relations between kingdoms, enforcing the law, listening to the people (Thing that Artoria still wasn’t so good), and so much more. So many duties with so much details…

But he wouldn’t back down. Never.

The day it happened, when the whole kingdom came to the castle, the day Arturia passed the crown to his head and Excalibur to his hands. That was the happiest moment of his life. He felt the Knights, the people, even maybe Arturia looking up to him. And he felt the weight of those expectations. The weight of those responsibilities. For Camelot, for the people, for the Round Table, for everyone.

When Mordred became king, Artoria became his counselor. Both for genuine advice and to keep an eye on him herself. Just to make sure. He clinged a little on her and the other knights at the beginning, but soon was walking his own way.

He became a noble and just man, still a bit bratty and short tempered, but mature enough not to let it be a problem. And he was much closer to the people than Arturia ever was. At first she advised against it, more because of her own ideas than for any real danger, but after some discussions she decided to humor him and let it be.

And it worked out! Mordred listened to the people and answered their complaints, up to a certain level, of course.Camelot slowly changed from stone white and almost cold holy city to a warm and welcoming kingdom. Even Artoria couldn't argue against the happy citizens.

King Mordred, ruler of Camelot.

King Mordred, the Mordred that had the chance to prove himself worthy of the throne.

King Mordred, the Mordred that was acknowledged by Artoria. As son, as heir, but first of all: As a person.

Ruler class: King Mordred Pendragon.

[toonrandy]

The Loud House Movie: My Thoughts

There will be spoilers! If you've already watched the movie, feel free to read this!

Dropping today on Neflix, the feature length Loud House Movie is a celebration of the TV series with lots of humor and heart. In it, the Loud family discovers that they are descendants of Scottish royalty, with the title of duke being passed on to Lincoln, and they decide to take a week-long vacation to Loch Loud. There, their antics at the Loud Castle annoy Morag, who also schemes to be the duchess of Loch Loud.

The entire movie centers on Lincoln and his desire to get noticed and respected more within his family: As we see in the film, his sisters received their accolades and being noticed more, and Lincoln is being pushed aside. After he earned the title of duke, he feels that he's finally being noticed, but it's all not what it seems and that there's more to being a duke. And, as not seen in the TV series itself, there's some actual peril facing the Louds during the climax of the film, as the film sets out to make everything bigger than the series itself.

That being said, The Loud House Movie is the best thing to come out of The Loud House franchise, and I've enjoyed this much more than the later seasons of the series. The songs are great with an awesome villain song to boot. (The soundtrack is out now digitally and through streaming.) When the plot was revealed, I admit that a part of me thinks that the movie is gonna be somewhat predictable in that Lincoln wants to gain something -- and that some people in the fandom made their voices known that he would be selfish and then fails and learns his lesson -- is what we usually have seen in some past episodes. However, this is not the case here. Lincoln totally shines in this movie. Director David Needham confirms that the movie takes place between the fourth and fifth seasons, and while I haven't watched much of the fifth season my friends noticed that Lincoln has become much more confident in his episodes since the events of the movie. I do feel that The Loud House Movie is the staff's way of addressing the fans who are skeptical of Lincoln, feeling that he's not special, while also acknowledging that the TV series itself long ago had begun to put Lincoln's sisters in the spotlight in its stories, leaving Lincoln without much needed character development (and being completely absent in many episodes).

Although this won't completely change my mind watching the series again, The Loud House Movie is really fun, heartwarming and many funny jokes. I will have no problem re-watching it again! And now, here's my observations for the movie!

Observations

It's really awesome that the production staff decided to go for a different look for the movie and they went all out. Unlike what you see in the TV series, the movie employs a lot of shading and color gradients, especially in the backgrounds, and reflections in the water. It's really gorgeous. The animation is also different that what you usually see in the TV series. It's great overall but at places it's choppy. Initially I thought it was okay when the first clip of the movie was released back in April, but my appreciation for it grew with each time more clips followed leading up to the film's release. Instead of the usual Canadian studio Jam Filled Entertainment doing the animation for the series (and The Casagrandes), Top Draw Animation of the Phillippines performs the animation duties here. (They're best known for animating My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.)

Speaking of The Casagrandes, Bobby and Ronnie Anne made their appearances, but it's only a very brief cameo. I realize some are excited when Izabella Avarez (the voice of Ronnie Anne) announced that she recorded some lines for the movie and perhaps have a significant role in it, but after I heard about it I thought it's only gonna be a cameo...and I called it. :)

The movie has an orchestrated underscore courtesy of Phil White and Christopher Lennertz (The Looney Tunes Show, the 2021 Tom & Jerry film and Smurfs: The Lost Village). I love film music and I'm glad that the movie decided to have an original score unlike the TV series, which mostly uses stock music cues which is fine but can be annoying that it uses some of the same cues over and over.

Leni has a new crush! I acknowledge that I actually liked her and Chaz and that in a recent episode of season 5, it's revealed that she has yet another crush. While I know many within the fandom ship Leni and Chaz, the TV series or even the graphic novel adaptations never confirmed that they were dating. As in real life, people can have multiple crushes or move on to another potential significant other, and I do think that's what have happened to Leni.

There are ghosts and dragons in the movie, which caused some controversy within the fandom and some claim that The Loud House is supposed to be realistic. Honestly, in my opinion, the ghosts and dragons in the movie serve the story well and it's central to it as well. While The Loud House as a whole does feature realistic situations, it should be noted -- and a fact that people mostly ignored -- that wacky situations and the supernatural have almost always occurred, including Lisa creating a garbage monster, a giant mechanical spider appearing at the end of an episode, and the implication of reincarnation in "Spell it Out" -- which of all have happened during the first two seasons. And while I have known that the series have become (mostly) grounded since those seasons, it never really abandoned its wackiness  -- which have been evidenced by the way the fifth season is going. I'm sure that there were other animated slice-of-life comedies with wacky situations, and The Loud House is no exception.

Lastly, be on the lookout for the newest graphic novel Lucy Rolls the Dice, out Tuesday! 

[sophi-s]

After three days. Three freaking days.

It is finished.

A kiss to die for

By: sophi-s (me)

Words: 4,531

Franchise: Darksiders video games

Characters: Fallen!Astarte, Abaddon

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of violence, blood and gore, near death experience, angst, necromancy, I changed the storyline just a tiny bit for the purposes of this, Abaddon gets his ass handed to him by his ex :P.

--------------------------------------------------

Eden. The first gift from the Creator himself to the Humanity. A home for the First Ones. Once, an indescribably beautiful place full of grand trees and fresh, soft grass, flowing with cool, crystal clear waters. Colorful fruits growing in the trees, a delight to eye and tongue. Within, no danger could reach Humanity's ancestors. Truly a paradise the first humans rightfully called it. But now, after a great war that took place here, seemingly not that long ago, the great garden was left scarred and burning. Made into a tomb for those who sought to claim it. Bodies of Nephilim were left to burn and decay, forgotten and abandoned.

However, something has changed. A dark shadow passed over the sacred graveyard, leaving only madness and corruption in its wake. Those who perished picked themselves up from the ground and lashed out at Eden's guardians. Surprised and unable to respond with a coordinated defensive, the Faneguard had to call for retreat after their leader, Malahidael fell to the blades and arrows of the living dead. Amongst the scattered angels was the general of Heaven's Legions. Trying his best to keep his brethren focused and plan a tactical escape.

At least that's what he was trying before. Before he saw the cause of this nightmare. Now, outstretched on the ground in the dust, he forced himself up onto his elbow as he crawled towards his discarded blade, clutching at his chest that felt as though it had been caved in after a charging monstrosity trampled him in full speed.

How could this happen?

Fighting with his chaotic thoughts, he finally got a hold of the hilt but when he turned around, it was already too late. A large paw armed with razor-sharp claws landed on him, pinning him down and successfully immobilizing his lower half. And then his own blue eyes stared up into a pair of white ones, the same eyes that doomed him from the moment he met their gaze for the first time. The eyes that occupied his thoughts when he was awake and his dreams while he slept. Eyes of Astarte.

But what stood above him… this thing, this monster was Astarte no longer. From the waist up, the woman was stunningly beautiful as she always was, with her pale white eyes and long flowing, platinum blonde hair. But her legs have been replaced by a body of a feline beast with wings coated in blackness of corruption, feathers shimmering with red glyphs. A wicked smile was twisting her petal like lips and wherever her clawed paws fell, the dead bodies shivered and rose, called back into the accursed unlife. Utter insanity shone in her eyes.. Keeping his stone façade was no longer possible as inwardly he was falling apart. Astarte. The same Astarte who would kill and die for him, the same who he trusted more than anyone. The same Astarte he dared to love. Her smirk grew wider as she chuckled.

"Who do we have here? The great general of Heaven's Legions Abaddon himself!"

The unfamiliar taunting tone of her voice sent a shiver down his spine, as did the way she bared her teeth in a disturbing grin. Giving the large paw a tug to try and wriggle free, quickly realising it's pointless as the damned thing didn't even budge, Abaddon took a struggling breath, pretty sure his sternum was damaged if not broken.

"Astarte…"

His voice came out as a broken, pleading whisper. He still couldn't… or maybe he didn't want to… cope with what he was seeing clearly like on the palm of his hand. Astarte, his most formidable soldier, the strongest of them all, and the only woman in the Universe he felt something special for… Fallen into the vice-like grip of Lucifer's corrupting influence. Gone was the gentle smile that crawled its way up onto her face whenever she spotted him. Abaddon swallowed thickly when he noticed the spear in her hand poised to strike and carve his broken heart out from his chest. Astarte would never harm him…

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

She scoffed and used her other paw to press his right arm to the ground should he try to take a swipe at her. But they both knew far too well that he couldn't have, even if he wanted to. Astarte leaning over him was still the one his heart yearned for, still beautiful just… in a different, more horrifying way. Through the ringing in his ears after his head cracked against a rock, he could hear someone call out to him but whoever it was, they were successfully pushed back by the horde of undead Nephilim.

"Astarte, don't do it.."

He quietly begged, even though he never begs. Seeing her like this, twisted and bestial, did something to him he couldn't quite comprehend. Touched that part of his soul he didn't even know about. Strangely enough, even in her madness, Astarte must've sensed something in him that gave her a pause as she curiously tilted her head to one side. All the moments, even the shortest ones, he'd spent with Astarte in the past were flashing before his eyes. Every time they had one another's back in battle, every time one saved the other's life, every time they spoke about the things they would never tell anyone else whenever they were alone. And that memorable moment when they stood together, away from the prying eyes that moonlit night. Abaddon was listening to her as she asked him if what she feels is right, if there's any possible way he feels that way as well. He almost laughed at her obliviousness and the fact that his love was there before she even realised her own. Of course.. He took her hands in his and gazed into her eyes, absolutely mesmerized, waiting for permission to finally grant her the proof of his love and devotion, one which she silently gave him with a nod and a smile.

"I would walk through the fire of Nine Hells for you."

He said before leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. A kiss, stolen kiss he was dying to receive. It was very brief but still felt like his first flight over the White City. Liberating, wonderful and equally as intoxicating. Those were the most beautiful memories he'd ever made but now they were like a parasite buried deeply into his brain, one that refused to leave his head, reminding him of better times and cackling maniacally at him as the present was coming undone before his very eyes. He wanted those memories to go. But there was no escape. Neither from them nor from Astarte herself.

"Look at me.."

"I am."

"Please, come to your senses. It's not you.. You need to fight it, I know you have it in you. Don't leave me like this… Don't you remember everything I'd done for you? Everything you'd done for me ?"

For a second, Astarte's grin fell, making place for a thoughtful expression and for this short second Abaddon dared to hope that there's still light in her. That he somehow managed to get to her. But all these hopes were taken away when she shook her head and looked at him… not with anger. It was pity, plain and simple as she spoke in a condescending tone.

"Fool. So loyal and righteous. Look around! The war had ended long ago, yet we remain stranded in this forsaken tomb! We've been abandoned and no one will set us free if we don't do so ourselves! Don't tell me you cannot see it."

He couldn't believe his ears. It wasn't the honorable and just angel he used to know. The Astarte he knew was gone. This was a twisted monster bearing the visage of his dearest, taunting him with her beauty that was always keeping his hand paralyzed whenever he tried to strike her even though his life depended from it.

"I have chosen my path, Abaddon. And you can walk it with me.."

Abaddon eyed her hand warily as she stretched it out to him, offering him help in standing up. He was torn. On the one hand, he so, so wanted to accept and be with Astarte as he used to. No one would take her from him ever again. But taking her hand would also mean slipping into the hateful darkness. Welcoming the sullying blackness inside and succumbing to madness. Straying from the light and forsaking his duty in favor of the same accursed power that destroyed her.

It was a dangerous thing, this love.. Pushing even the most reasonable people to do unthinkable and dangerous things in the name of it. More often than not at costs that rarely make it worth it. Lucifer knew this. And he used it as a weapon against Abaddon by turning Astarte. He knew not what the Dark Prince offered her but it must've been worth losing oneself. Astarte was now Lucifer's servant, not the love of Abaddon's eternal life. He couldn't… he couldn't end up like her. His already bleeding heart screamed out with anguish when he finally gathered himself to speak.. and refused.

"I… can't do this, Astarte. Not even for you…"

"That's a pity…"

Abaddon grunted in pain when the pressure on his wrist increased to the point when he could feel his bones beginning to crack. And then as suddenly as it appeared, the crushing weight was gone, both from his arm and his chest. But he wasn't free. His breath was abruptly cut off when Astarte's slender fingers, which often fiddled with his hair when he had a moment to lie down and rest after a hard day, looking up at her sitting beside his head, before all this, mercilessly curled around his throat and lifted him up to her eye level until his toes could no longer reach the ground. She was strong. Stronger than he remembered. His left hand grasped Astarte's wrist as he tried to struggle free while he raised his sword to attack. But… looking deep into her eyes, at her face, mouth curved in a poisonous sweet smile, the silken skin of her cheeks… His hand trembled. Once again he proved her and himself he doesn't have it in him to do this. Damn it all. This one, seemingly harmless emotion was what ultimately led him to his own doom. If he'd never fallen for Astarte he wouldn't be here, flapping his wings madly in an attempt to wriggle out of her hold. But he couldn't command his heart. It would not listen to him.. Abaddon couldn't simply stop loving Astarte. Her eyebrows furrowed in a gentle frown and he felt the tip of her gilded spear press insistently against his abdomen, right under his ribs. Cold sweat began to bead around his brow. Oh Creator…

"Fret not, love.."

Astarte purred, making him finally stop beating his wings and look her in the eye again only to see an unsettling spark in there. Despite the obvious danger, hearing her call him her "love" in this deceivingly sweet voice still made his racing heart skip a beat.

"It won't be long.. And when you die, you'll be forever at my side. Just as you desired."

As a monster, not unlike her. A living corpse that defiled the natural order by its existence itself. He didn't want to go like this. What an end it is for a general of Heaven? Killed by his own lieutenant and brought back to life as a shambling husk of what he used to be? Preposterous. Cold lump of fear settled into the pit of his stomach. He could only count seconds. One.. two… it didn't even come to three when the blade sunk deeply into his flesh, piercing the armor as though it wasn't even there in the first place and running him through. After all, the spear was created specifically to fight armored opponents… Abaddon wanted to scream out in pain but the wail of agony was cut short by the firm grasp on his throat that stopped the air escaping his lungs. Pain clouded his vision but did not silence his racing thoughts. He was weak. He couldn't strike Astarte down as his enemy, denying her the well deserved rest and falling to her blade like a fool he felt like. He struggled to breathe and keep his eyes opened when he felt Astarte loosen her ironclad grip on his neck and move her hand to his face, oh so gently pulling the strands of his hair, matted with sweat, to the side and behind his ear before placing the same hand on the back of his neck to keep his head still. He gasped for air through his opened mouth as blood was beginning to well up in his throat and dribble down his chin. And then Astarte unexpectedly leaned in and decisively captured his lips with her own, granting him the final kiss for a farewell.

Abaddon's eyes widened in fear and shock but even though the pain of the spear through his side, he found himself going slack in Astarte's arms. His ornate blade clattered to the ground when his fingers unfurled and let it slip out. No strength remained within him to even try and respond to Astarte's lips, even if he wanted to. But what he hoped to be his last comfort turned out to be nothing more than a cruel torment with how cold and meaningless the kiss felt. It was nothing like the one back in the White City. Hollow seconds ticked by. It tasted only of the blood flooding his tongue and the bitter defeat. No love, no passion and no feelings remained in her black heart. Only the empty void and tasteless ashes… Monster. Astarte no longer… She would never hurt him…

Astarte knew him and all of his weak spots all too well. She knew how and where to strike to make it hurt. And this last kiss was only a tool to her. There wasn't any physical pain anymore when she finally pulled away with his blood painting her lips in deep crimson and let his body slip down the spear to collapse onto the shriveled grass. The last thing Abaddon saw before numbing darkness swallowed him was Astarte delightedly licking his scarlet life essence on her mouth and teeth before she hummed contentedly

"Farewell, my love. I'll see you again soon enough…"

She stood close, gazing at the distant stars shimmering in the black sky.

"The night sure is beautiful."

"It is. Even more so with you around."

"Tsk. Sweet-talker…"

In the impenetrable black, Abaddon heard nothing, saw nothing and felt nothing aside from the dull ache within his chest. Betrayal… Every beat of his heart was a torture. He couldn't even tell if it was really beating or not anymore. It bled ceaselessly. Craving for the lost love. Crying out to Astarte as something started to tug at the strings of his very soul. Trying to pull him free from his still body that refused to move no matter how much he wished to stand or at least sit up. Memories were passing all too quickly through his head. Eyes shining with uncertainty, a relieved smile as he staggered upright with a pained grimace that was supposed to be a comforting smile..

" Are you certain everything is alright? For a moment there I was afraid you were gone.."

"Never, my light. I would never leave you."

He wasn't going to the Kingdom of the Dead, he was certain. Astarte would make sure of it.. Curse Lucifer.. curse this wretched feeling still coiled in his chest, like a festering plague. Warriors of Heaven are people of unbreakable steel. Calm and collected beings of logic. But when it comes to honest feelings, there's nothing in between. They either don't care or love to the death. And when they love and it all falls apart, their hearts break like no one else's. No, they don't even break… they shatter to a million pieces like a frozen flower. And even if they are ever put back together, they're never the same. Those scars run too deep to ever disappear. Curse everything… Soft hair he tangled his fingers in, a heartbeat right beside his… warm presence next to him and a misleadingly delicate cheek pressed to the skin on top of his chest..

"What happens now then?"

"Doesn't matter. As long as we stay together."

"We will, Abaddon…"

He tasted the copper tinge of blood again as Astarte's voice echoed in his head when she swore to him. When he believed her..

I  P R O M I S E .

Those two words… They meant a world to him. Even after he saw what Astarte had become… Abaddon desperately clung to those words like a drowning man holds onto the final breath until the very last second. And that was his downfall. She promised me…

The last memory of Astarte before all this chaos wormed its way into his mind. A less pleasant one. He could see there was something wrong with her back then. This was the first time they had a true falling out. Well.. can this really be called a falling out if it was just him being yelled at? Astarte was changed already. Something happened to her after the Nephilim slaughter. Something he had foolishly overlooked. Maybe he was just too preoccupied with his own grief? Blood tumbled down from her wound, painting both her and his armor in vibrant red from where a crude spear met her body… 

It didn't take long for the last of the Nephilim to fall when this happened. She held onto life tightly as he led her deeper into the garden where healers would take care of her. Abaddon waited outside the tent, pacing back and forth until Azrael, who'd been tending to Astarte himself, walked out. A slender hand fell onto his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks and making him look at his old friend bearing a sullen expression. He'd never been so terrified in his life like in this short moment when he waited for Azrael to inevitably tell him that it was too late to help her but he merely asked Abaddon to come with him inside. Somehow, it was even worse. He saw her sitting on the edge of a cot, face pale, lips pressed into a thin line, staring at nothing. Eyes of other angels were on the three of them as the two archangels walked in. It was a relief to see her alive but there was no doubt that something was wrong. The patches of fresh crimson staining her trousers on her inner thighs only confirmed his suspicions. And Azrael didn't keep him waiting for an explanation.

"She was with child.."

The news hit him like a slug to the face. With a sack of bricks no less. Astarte, his beloved, bearing his blood in her womb. By all means he should feel ecstatic. He should rejoice. But this one word, this tiny word filled him with absolute dread. Was.

"The blade went deep.. There was nothing I could do. I'm sorry."

Who knows how long he stood there like a wooden stake? There was nothing I could do. Azrael was inarguably the best healer in the White City. He knew what he was saying. And yet… Abaddon found it difficult to believe his words. A child. His child. Died before they even had a chance to live.. It hurt more than any wound he'd ever received. When he finally could move, he approached Astarte and sat beside her, reaching for her hand to give her something to hold on to. But her violent reaction caught him off guard. She jerked away, her words dripped like acid.

"It's your fault. Get away from me!"

"Astarte, listen.."

"No! It never should've happened! Why would you do this to me?!"

This was the first time she called him per "you" in the presence of other angels. He knew not what she was truly going through but if his own sorrow was any indication, it must've been a nightmare. They'd lost something they didn't even know they had and it felt like the end of the world they'd built together. In a way, it was... Abaddon tried reaching out again but Astarte batted his hand away and leaped up to her feet despite the pain.

"Don't touch me! Do not speak to me, get off!"

"Astarte!"

He managed to call out before she stormed out of the tent, wrapping her wings around herself as a barrier that could protect her from the world around. Were it not for a firm grip on his arm, he would've gone after her. It was Nathaniel who stopped him. Abaddon looked at his friend, the right side of his face wrapped up in bandages just like his side he was keeping his hand over.

"It's not going to help. Let her go for now."

It's been a long time since he felt this lonely. He left the tent without another word, ignoring whatever it was Azrael was saying, and walked away from the camp like a wandering spectre who lost its way to the Well. And when he was far enough, he found himself collapsing on the ground, angrily hitting it with his fist as though it was the culprit here. They died without so much of a name.. Abaddon knew that what Astarte said wasn't true. He had no idea, it can't have been his fault… and yet this thought kept bothering him.

I should've protected you better. I have failed you.. both of you…

It took a couple of shaky breaths to collect his thoughts. Unable to do anything else, he pulled himself to his knees, clasped his hands together and started to whisper a prayer, seeking compassion in the Creator and his silent presence.

Astarte was already slipping after that and the prolonged stay in Eden only made it worse. She became distant and irritable, constantly itching for a fight, be it with words or blades. He thought she needed time to grieve. But this was something else. Something more sinister. Perhaps if he noticed it earlier.. done something… If only…

The odd tugging suddenly ceased and moments later a wave of comforting warmth washed all over him, gathering in his side where he was impaled. Deep within his chest, he felt his heart quiver, desperately fighting to keep beating. At first he thought he was merely waiting for Astarte to pull him back into the land of the living as a detestable abomination but no.. He yet lived. His thoughts were abruptly dispersed when he heard voices, very familiar and concerned voices, break through, the buzzing in his head.

"Did that do it?"

"Is he even alive ?"

"Hard to tell. It doesn't look good.."

"No, it doesn't.. Do you think we got to him on time?"

"I do not know. I'm not even sure if- Wait, I think he moved."

Abaddon indeed stirred, prying his eyes open with no small effort, immediately regretting his choice after a far too bright light intruded underneath his eyelids, and descending into a fit of uncontrollable coughs, spitting out all the blood that remained within as soon as he took a deeper breath. Pain. Horrible, excruciating pain filled his chest. He had been right. His sternum was definitely broken.

Damn all of it. Damn Lucifer, damn the Nephilim and damn the blasted air that hurt his lungs with every breath. Mist eventually fell from his sights, revealing to him familiar, tired faces of angelic soldiers leaning over him with distressed looks. His men. The Faneguard. They survived. Some of them at least… Malahidael wasn't so lucky.. One of them, Fariel if his memory doesn't deceive him, was holding up Abaddon's hand in his, and held between his curled fingers, Abaddon noticed an emptied crystal, a used up healing shard glimmering in the sunlight as the energy that was channelled into his body began to close the torn blood vessels.

"Lord Abaddon. Can you hear me?"

Gasping for another bit of air, horribly weakened but still very much alive and likely to stay that way, Abaddon gurgled out a disturbing sound that was supposed to be a miserable chuckle. In honesty, it sounded more like a dying demon than a laugh.. It only served to agitate them even further until he breathed out with relief and nodded as no coherent word could form in his mouth. What happened to Astarte when he was on death's door, he could only guess. But one thing he was sure of. She was still out there. Raving mad and dangerous to all who step into Eden. The law was clear. Astarte had fallen into darkness, defiled the dead and raised her weapon against her brethren. This was not an easy decision but after what he'd seen and lived through, Abaddon was certain now. He tried to bring her back, save her from the hate that grew within her like a malicious weed. But she was clearly too far gone. He couldn't help her.. Too late. As always, he was too late. Whether Abaddon likes it or not, Astarte needs to die. There was nothing more he could do for her. But he won't be the one to play the executioner and the hand of justice. He knew he couldn't. He'd failed twice already.. It will be done, just… not now.

Perhaps another time… They were safe for now. And he needed to think… Abaddon lifted his free hand to his mouth. It was still there, this horrid sensation.. and he knew it won't go away for a long, long time. Resting his head against the ground, he exhaled heavily as blessed unconsciousness started to take a hold on him once more. He needed to rest. They all did…

Even as he was falling into the dark again, he could still feel Astarte's venomous kiss upon his lips. Burning like fire and sinking cruel claws into his chest. Would he ever forgive her for tearing his heart apart? Probably. It wasn't her fault after all. It can't be, can it? Would he ever forget, though? Unlikely.. Abaddon couldn't help but wonder… if it was all his fault? He couldn't command his feelings and order them to leave him. But still, he felt guilty. Not even for Astarte's fall anymore but for ever letting this infatuation control him. That's where this love had gotten him so far. It left him weak and vulnerable. It was beautiful while it lasted but now? Only suffering remained.

No wonder Heaven has such a disdain for love. It causes naught but misery and ruin. A dire thought invaded his hazy mind. It matters not what Astarte had done. He still loved her. Soon, she will be put to rest. And him? Well.. Every, even the greatest warrior has to fall in battle. Eventually… And when that day comes, he will be ready to embrace his end. When that day comes.. they will meet again. Maybe... But until then… His heart hastened even still as he took another breath and silently told himself…

…Never again…

--------------------------------------------------

It.. it was supposed to be short? I did say short fic, didn't I? Uhh.. Whoops 😓

Also, Gimp 2 has nearly succeed in driving me nuts. In Poland we say "stand on eyelashes and clap one's ears" when something is nigh impossible. Yeah. That was that.

Btw, I take back everything I said about Abaddon's shoulder pads , they're mf'ing gorgeous 👌

[leechonspeeddial]

Midnight Shift: Party On Chuck E. Cheese   

word count: 1,757 Read on ao3

The sunset gave the – for lack of a better word – restaurant an ethereal glow. The sticky layer that covered the tables shimmered and the soda puddles on the tiles reflected the pissiest of yellows as the sun rays hit at the perfect angle. The quiet hum of the appliances and the sizzling of hot oil complimented the soft rock that played from the ancient speakers.

This was as peaceful a moment could get here.

I took out my iPhone and ignored the combined 37 messages from Bedward – it was worth noting, only two of them were from my mother. Instead, I took a picture of one of the puddles for my Insta-story and then scrolled through my contacts; there was a birthday boy that needed to accept my face time request. I waited patiently as the phone rang.

In the meanwhile, I dipped two of my French toast sticks into the sweet golden syrup and shoved them in my mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, I watched as Gay Kevin swept the floor and Straight Kevin wiped down the counters. Jeremiah had been gone all week; a friend of his had roped him into offering ice fishing lessons across town.

“Hey, Nessie,” the warmth in his voice made me smile, as did the tiny messy braids in his long dark hair.

“Happy birthday, Jake!” His eyes twinkled when he mirrored my smile. He looked older, which I knew logically was a thing that happened – people grew older as time passed, duh. I knew that, but I rarely knew anyone long enough to see any meaningful results from aging.

“Here I thought you had forgotten. Nice hair by the way – distressingly orange,” I scoffed but he had a point. It was excessively orange, almost violently so. When Alice saw it on me for the first time, she told me she wished she were physically capable of crying.

“Nah, I’m too pretty to forget anything. I was on my shift and couldn’t call earlier”

“Shift? Wait a second, is that…Burger King?” There was more than a hint of incredulousness in his tone.

“Yup. Dropped out and got a job here” he laughed so hard that both Kevins stopped their cleaning and stared at me. I waved them off. Straight Kevin went back to work, but I could tell Gay Kevin was trying to eavesdrop.

“You’re kidding. This is a prank”

“Nope. Dead serious,” I smirked and ate more of my French toast sticks.

“There is no way Edward ‘chronic boundary stomper’ Cullen would let that happen”

“Hey, Kevin?” When both responded, I amended, “Assistant Manager Kevin”

He approached my table and tried to appear aloof, but I could tell he was invested. Despite how hard he tried to project a strictly professional persona; the man was a still a journalism major living in a town with a population of about three thousand. He was starved for anything that could be interpreted as remotely interesting – nearly had an aneurism when he found out he missed the incest baby scandal.

“Could you confirm that I work at this Burger King?” Jake looked amused and I assumed he waited to see how this would play out.

“If by work you mean eat a ridiculous amount of our inventory and consistently insult our few customers, then yes. You work here,” it was blatantly obvious how much he wanted to figure out the story.

“And I’ll be glad to return to my duties once my break is done in 15 minutes”

“Ten, but nice try”

We waited in silence until Gay Kevin took the hint and walked away from my table. He was still within hearing range, which he knew that I knew, but it was the thought that counted. Living with mind reader – and owning a smartphone – meant acknowledging there was no such thing as privacy, simply the illusion of it.

“I can’t say I fully believe this,” I simply shrugged. “But the mental images of how your parasitic relatives are dealing with this, makes me not care about silly things like the truth”

I grimaced. The damn family meeting that was called because of this had been a fucking nightmare. There had been so much yelling, and I had to promise Alice I would let her throw a shitty ‘Congrats on the new job’ party in order to get her on my side. In the end, Esme was the deciding vote, and I was sure she voted in my favour only because she wanted to feed my new coworkers.

“Enough about the leeches. How are you?” I used my French toast to gesture vaguely at the braids “Is sweet Sarah around?”

“Just put her down for a nap, she was getting cranky,” I pouted. Not only was Sarah the cutest kid ever, she also said the most insane things – once she talked to me for over 45 minutes about how you shouldn’t feed rocks dry grass because it makes the moon princess very mad, and that’s bad because then the moon princess has to bury you in sugar dirt.

I still didn’t know if I should be worried about the sugar dirt.

“Tell her aunt Nessie says hi,” he rolled his eyes.

An idea suddenly hit me.

“Hey! Let me give you a tour of the place. You’ll love it,” Gay Kevin snorted a bit too loudly for someone pretending not to listen.

“You sure?” I nodded eagerly and shoved the remaining toast into my mouth, drinking up the syrup to wash it down. Definitely ignored the looks of disgust being thrown my way.

“Ok, so this is where our customers, if we had any, would sit. And that table over there –” I pointed to the table near the heater “– is where Jeremiah sets up camp. He’s not here today though,” I hoped he was ok, it had been a cold week for humans.  

Jake listened as I showed him all over the establishment, making sure not to miss the weirdest and grossest parts.

“Ok, but why do the stalls have no doors?” it was a common question.

“We were tired of teenagers hooking up in there –”

“In there!?!” I shrugged. While gross, it was far from the grossest or most unhygienic thing that happened in there. I could still remember how shell-shocked Straight Kevin looked while he recounted the tale of the Red Tuesday.

“So, we decided to take them down for a bit”

“How haven’t you gotten shut down”

“I’m pretty sure there is this whole conspiracy going on with health inspectors and the franchise owner”

Almost as if on cue, a giant fucking rat sped past me and into the kitchen.

“Holy F –” Straight Kevin’s screech cut me off, and the sounds of things being thrown could be heard.

“Jake, you just missed like the biggest rat I’ve ever seen”

“Seriously, how are you not shut down”

“Let me see if we can catch it. God, I wish I could livestream it right now”

The kitchen was a mess, Straight Kevin was scrambling on top of the counters and Gay Kevin was waving the broom in the general direction of the rat. I made sure to point my phone in a way so that Jake could see the chaos.

“Don’t just stand there!” Gay Kevin yelled, his voice a few octaves higher than usual.

“I’m still on a break though,” Gay Kevin spluttered while Straight Kevin threw whatever was available to him at the rat – in this case, it was napkins.

“Ugh fine, I’ll help with the little rat” I groaned and propped up my phone on the deep fryer ledge. No way I was going to deprive Jake of this.

I tried looking for something to catch the rat with and then spotted our big carry out bags, they looked like they could fit the fat rodent. I went to reach for one, but ended up knocking down a big tower of cups. Straight Kevin and I had made it while waiting for customers to arrive for the non-existent rush hour.

“Dude! That’s not a normal rat. It’s frigging huge,” Straight Kevin squeaked and continued his assault, now having moved on to cups.

“Calm down Kevin, stop wasting our resources!”

One Kevin glared a the other, and soon the Kevins got into an argument about what was the appropriate response for dealing with a rat of this size. I ignored them and grabbed a patty and threw it into a carry out bag, I approached the rat’s hiding place and presented my offering. I knelt down to wait and I could see its beady little eyes staring back at me.

“I don’t want to interrupt, but I think there is another rat by the back door”

All three of us Burger King employees turned to look at Jake. He tried to point to where he meant, and all three of us looked back.

Indeed, almost as if it knew we were watching, the rat stopped mid-step and stared back.

“Fuck! Me!” Gay Kevin moaned. As assistant manager, this was definitely a him problem. His outburst seemed to snap the rat out of its trance, and it scurried somewhere deeper into the kitchen.

“I want to go home!” Straight Kevin cried; he was not having a very punk rock time right now.

I looked back at phone!Jake and he looked deeply concerned.

Me? Well, I sort of wanted to take a picture of the rat and send it to the Cullen group chat. I could tell them I was bringing home a snack.

“Nessie, Watch out!” Jake’s voice made me aware of my surroundings again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur and quickly snapped my head to the side. It was yet another rat – one that was jumping directly at my face. My eyes widened and I swatted at the rodent…maybe a little too hard because it went flying across the kitchen. It hit the fryer ledge with a crack and I gasped.

Thankfully, the rodent didn’t fall into the hot oil, though I don’t think it survived the trip. Un-thankfully, my phone did fall into the hot oil and I was certain it didn’t survive the swim.

Fucking Fuck. Now, I wasn’t having a good time.

And this is how None of Your Fucking Business Kevin found us; A 22-year-old crying on a counter and praying, an assistant manager desperately flipping through the phone book trying to find an exterminator, and a high school drop out fishing a phone from an industrial fryer.

[aqours-remade-again]

this may be a hard pill to swallow but 90% of the time leaks work in benefit of video games. it usually gets people more excited to see what content is in the game. in pokemon’s case it has ESPECIALLY worked for many years, the full pokedexes and other things being leaked constantly year after year has helped consumers plan their teams in advance and knowing the full pokedexes before the games release has usually always been a rousing + for pokemon. for YEARS TPC/GameFreak/Nintendo has done NOTHING against the fact their unreleased game’s details are constantly leaked to serebii and other outlets knowing this for a fact. have you EVER heard of pokemon game suffering from leaks? because SwSh sure as fuck didn’t; 60 million copies and selling and one of the fastest selling Switch games in history.

isn’t it funny how when TPC releases the single most controversial generation of pokemon ever released, only now they actually care? NOW they actually care that people leaked their full pokedex early? revealed all the moves cut from the games? mega evolution and z-moves cut? only now that people are actually angry and are no longer wanting to support a franchise they literally grew up with does TPC after years of embracing leaks actually care. why blame yourself when you can blame others? claim it was just shitty employees invalidating the god-like NDA that governs all morality instead of just acknowledging you as a company made incredibly controversial decisions with your product and it made a minority of us not want to play it. the only reason i’m willing to give pokemon more chances in the future is because i didn’t waste 60 dollars on this game and carry that resentment for a year.

leaks have never hurt incredibly large game series like pokemon, call of duty, and mario. at best they get people excited actually KNOWING whats in the games, at worst a minority of people chose not to get it anymore. TPC knew this and for quite a while has embraced it, until now when its no longer beneficial for them to do so.

[bxstiae]

⚜ ; [ THE HERO’S SHADE & HERO OF TIME / HC.5  ]     WORLDBUILDING │ META

i sat ( && slept ) on this for a bit because i really, REALLY, wanted to discuss this. i just didn’t know how or when the right time was for this. since i am a mun who is reactive rather than being proactive, i just needed a good reason to talk about it. well, you all can thank @hyaciiintho​​ for that because after i posted that ask from them, i had the strong urge to talk about not JUST the hero’s shade, but also the hero of TIME. 

in a way, this HC post will be a 2-part piece. like i said, i didn’t know how to tackle this. if i wanted to really make two posts, i could, but the hero’s shade & the hero of time are so interwoven together that you can’t just write about one without the other -- mainly because they are the SAME person. it is impossible to talk about one without the other. thus, i have decided to talk about the both of them in this post instead.

keep in mind that this is going to be a very LONG post -- i cannot sum it up for you either. if i, at any point, think or want to write about more of the shade or of time separately & at some late date, i will. just know that this will be considered the og post. any & all other things i write about in regards to this ‘subject’ will always refer to this post. 

now without further ado, let me begin under the cut.

A KEY for you just in case you get lost because i will use the shorthand terms:

the hero’s shade : the Shade the hero of time : Time the hero chosen by the gods ( TP Link ) : Twilight , Twi , Link

first & foremost: the hero’s shade = the hero of time. no doubt about it. this isn’t up for discussion, this predecessor is the one & only hero of time. that being said, the Shade =/= Time. Rather, Time & the Shade are two different entities that you need to consider -- which i will discuss. know this though:

the Shade is Twilight’s teacher & predecessor. Time is Twilight’s incarnation ( one of them ) & therefore is also a predecessor by default.

these are TWO different people to Twilight. & yet they are the same person. I don’t want to keep going back & forth between them though as each one has a lot to unpack. so i will start with the Shade because you clearly have a more definite & canon interaction with the Shade than you do with Time. 

THE HERO’S SHADE

i know there are some people who don’t really know the LOZ franchise well enough -- as somebody who also hasn’t gone much outside the realm of... like TP, SS, BOTW, MM & Warriors, i can kind of relate & understand. but unfortunately, i don’t want to spend every moment of this post explaining things to people because, i genuinely want to get into the real thing that this post was meant to be. That being said, i will give you a few things that you can look into. i do suggest you go down that rabbit hole. there’s so MUCH to unpack really. so here is this: 

Just ONE link to the Hero’s Shade ONE link to the White Wolf ( which i personally call & prefer as the Golden Wolf )

Twilight is introduced to the Shade near the beginning of the game -- like when he first sets out on her journey AFTER he restores Faron from the Twilight. Right from the START, you can tell that the Shade has mixed feelings about Twi. Like, he WANTS Twilight to learn & grow, yet at the same time, you can see his frustrations with Link as well. the Shade wants to be his teacher! He wants help him so that he doesn’t make the same mistakes & so he can actually learns to BE the hero of courage. But it’s not just that. it’s also for a slightly selfish reason too... the shade wanted Twilight to learn the skills that Time knew of but was never able to pass down. in turn, that selfishness can also be seen in the form of IMPATIENCE with link. You can tell that the Shade can get incredibly frustrated with him at time. You see this when ( in game ) you don’t do what the shade asks you to do, or you do the wrong skill -- or when you take too long to learn a skill. 

the Shade is a rather stoic entity with a bit of pride as well ( as he ought to be ). while that makes him a bit flawed as a character, its really understandable that he is that way! remember, he died not being able to pass things down & not being remembered. he even admits that to Twilight when you first meet him. That being said, though, the Shade is very commanding & bossy. it’s not a ‘can you’ or ‘will you?’ its very much a ‘no, you WILL learn this.’ he’s not at all as humbling as like.... Twilight when you play the game. & Twilight just.... does it. he just listens. cause he naturally tends to do that anyway.

Twilight’s thoughts on the Shade though? honestly. he kinda sees him sometimes as a grumpy old man. he’s sometimes annoyed with him too. Mainly because he wants to learn from him! but the Shade, at times, just seems to always put him down. he wants to do good for him, he wants to make him proud. he doesn’t want to disappoint him. he looks up to the Shade as a teacher! he really does. even through his own frustrations, he can SEE the other’s pain and desperation. in a way, there are times when he wants nothing more but to LOOK for him because he feels like of all the people in the world -- the only one who can understand his own doubts is the Shade. 

you that feeling you get when you have all of these people that surround and love you, but you feel like there’s nobody in them that would truly understand how you feel? yes, THAT is what Twi often feels, and that is why he sometimes SEEKS out the howling stones or any other way to see the Shade. cause from all of the people in the world, he feels like there is absolutely nobody else that can understand. ( which is, in theory, WHY the shade wants to teach & help him because he DOESN’T want Link to end up in his shoes ) & yes, there will absolutely be times where.... link THINKS or prays to the Hero’s Shade instead of the Gods because he just has moments of doubt but it’s in THOSE times that he wants the Shade to know that he REALLY is trying his hardest. He really is...

it also makes his last interaction with the Shade all the more upsetting. because here is this ghost of his predecessor. a spirit that has been with him from like the VERY beginning of his journey, & now he has to say goodbye? just like that? that can’t be. he couldn’t have learned them all already. there HAS to be more. why would he leave him alone? he can’t do this alone, please don’t leave him. 

what Twilight doesn’t understand though (at first), that the Shade does, is that Twilight doesn't NEED him anymore. yes, he taught him what he knew, he’s ready. he’s more than ready. staying longer will only HINDER him. he has to go. Besides. he technically had been alone this entire time. since twilight was just a reincarnation of the Hero of Time. the Shade was only teaching another version of HIMSELF. staying any longer would create problems. Twilight is not of Time’s world. the Shade had only lingered for so long due to his past life’s regrets. now that he taught him all he needed to know, he has to go. he can leave now, and be with the people he loved in his own time. to stay would not only hurt Twilight, but it would hurt himself. the Shade KNOWS that Twi will eventually come to understand, but it doesn’t make it any less painful.

But honestly, i digress. i think, it hits link THE MOST when he fights ganon. like, it’s always been in the back of his mind. and there are moments throughout the battles that remind him of the Shade ( the shield block, for example, when you battle zelda as Ganon’s Puppet -- at least i think so it’s been a hot minute ). but it’s that FINAL blow that hits him the hardest. it’s a skill that he’s grown to just NATURALLY do without second thought. but when he stands there, over ganon, after dealing that fatal blow, that he just has that sudden && SINKING feeling that he KNOWS. After all of this time, it gets to him, & while he understands everything now, he cannot help but to shake at the thought. his very CORE trembles at it. 

just that, oh ,   gods.... moment. 

thanks to THIS post honestly for reminding me :’]

& while he should understand and accept it, things just hurt EVEN more. more than they should. 

lets not forget to mention that Link already has survivor’s guilt from the battle with ganon. I’ve discussed this in another HC post -- which i won’t really discuss here. but i suppose it should be extended that the Shade if one of the REASONS why he has that guilt as well. Because, unlike the Shade & the Hero of Time, he survived. & gods, as much as he grew to appreciate & care for the Shade, he also can’t help but to be SPITEFUL towards him as well. throw in the fact that Midna, another person who was there the entire time, decides to go home & DESTROY the mirror of twilight? its just a god damn triple-whammy for Twilight now in such a short period of time. like LOOK at the people in his life that are now GONE:

he killed ganon -- probably the only person to understand the pain and trials he’s been through. the hero’s shade passed on -- literally the ONLY person to understand because he IS him. midna goes home -- she’s been there since the beginning & should understand him cause she was THERE

nobody can ever tell me otherwise that Link is NOT a grumpy asshole. 

like of all the rabbit holes of the Zelda franchise? TP is the ONE rabbit hole that i understand the most, and good GODS, Twilight is one of the more COMPLEX characters in the LOZ series by FAR. ( Time surpasses him, but he should anyway, that’s okay, i didn’t say Twi was the MOST complex one ) 

I get is, link is considerate, he is sweet. he CARES for his friends. & yes, i understand that! i really do. yes, i still find him to be humbling, even if he’s tired, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t learned. he has. & he’s just VERY tired. of all the mental/emotional baggage he has, he’s just kind of done. he’s done his duty, now he just wants to be left alone. 

But anyway, i am GOING off on a tangent. lets get back on track.

in regards to the hero’s shade? link appreciates him. he looks up to him, hell he MISSES him. even if he’s a little bitter towards him, its not like he does’t understand. he’d be happy to see the hero’s shade again, but honestly, he doesn’t know if he’d WANT to see him again. its a mixed relationship with the Shade cause all he’s ever known him to be was this pushy, grumpy old dad of a man ( which i say very, VERY lightly cause he doesn’t think of Time in the same way like AT ALL ). not that Twilight considers the Shade a father -- he really & absolutely does NOT -- but you know, honestly he can really relate to him. & he really is THANKFUL for him. but he’d be DAMNED is he saw the hero’s Shade again -- there would be a lot of anger towards him & with good reason. 

Anyway. lets now dive into the OTHER part of this post.

THE HERO OF TIME

CLASPS HANDS TOGETHER cause people know i’m a heathen for potential stuff. like???? interactions with links meeting other links & content OUTSIDE the world of canon? i’m not talking about canon divergence or anything like that. I’m not talking about AUs, verses or crossovers. while they may fit under the same boat? just imagine a world where they all meet.... kinda like in Hyrule Warriors. but instead of like different character and changing the plot lines of characters (COUGHMIDNACOUGH) its... more like they all just meet one another as they are? 

honestly, i think this is known, but linkeduniverse does this well enough. yes, i can enjoy that uiverse very well, but i keep it RATHER separate from what i would consider my own ‘canon’ for how Time & Twilight would interact. Granted, this probably is biased already mainly cause of a certain somebody who should know what i am talking about ( i mean this in the nicest way possible ), but you know what? i really don’t care cause in all honesty? there are so many different ways to go about this. & yes, i do actually have ideas for how link would interact with Time is he met Time as his older, more tired self -- in other words, he met Time like right before his supposed ‘death’ or after Time grew worn & lost an eye. yes, i HAVE consider possible interactions for that. but NO that is now how i automatically see Twilight interacting with Time.

The way i see it, I see Twi interacting with Time as Time is as an adult. ( be it whether he has experience as a child or not idk & idc but he sees Time as..... an adult regardless ) it could also because i’ve seen really good art from ruebird that makes my heart kinda go doki doki. not to meantion that honestly??? the tag for tp link??? ooof oooooooof my heart... it gives for..... two (2) heroes.. ( yes, 2, fight me, i love.... them..... & i love Time more than i should.......... despite not knowing ANYTHING about him )

ANYWAY..... so yea. Twilight would see Time in his obvious ‘better’ days. But that isn’t saying much cause, you know, shit’s fucked in the world. Time has had a hard time too. But what did i say before? Time is JUST as complex character as Twilight is -- if not he’s probably the champion & king of complexity lbr. when i say ‘better’ days, i really just mean they’re probably close in age & can really relate to one another. 

UNLIKE the Shade, though, link honestly, doesn’t spite Time. in fact, he finds him more pleasant to be around. not that he’s distrustful of the Shade, but.... he feels like he can be a bit more open to Time? I wouldn’t want to say that he’s doting or affectionate to Time, but you can CLEARLY tell that he treats Time & the Shade as TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE ( despite the fact that they are one in the same ). 

the shade was his TEACHER, but Twilight see Time as a PEER & a friend. He see’s him as an equal above all else really. there isn’t any of this professor stuff that he would see with the shade -- he CANT. the shade is old.... timeless. Time is.... not...  

this is why, when Twi see’s Time for the first time, he’s so THROWN off by him. mainly because, well.... the shade is SO different??? not just on appearance alone!! personality wise too! it’s just so VASTLY different? he can’t help but to consider them different?? more to that too -- Twi would much rather prefer to be accompanied with Time than with the Shade ANY day.

He may not understand everything about Time’s world or what Time feels, but he does understand that they share at LEAST similar pains. That much he can understand. They are both more.... focused heroes anyway. Both DO actually have their sass & sarcasm, without a doubt. but they both are very humbling in their own way. These two are INCREDIBLY soft, so yea, i can see why Twilight would just be so NATURALLY comfortable with Time & would be really open & honest with him. While they both may be the chosen hero of courage ( just from different times ), & ( in theory ) are each other, its like no other person can truly understand their pain & what they are feeling. 

Sure, maybe one is better with their emotions -- i can tell you right now that i may not know anything about Time, but Twilight IS NOT good with his own emotions. Twi is very much emotionally stunted & doesn’t know a thing about what he feels sometimes. This is why Twilight can be rather standoffish at times ( he’s a bit of a tsun ), but that doesn’t mean that he HATES what he feels. he just doesnt understand what he’s feeling & it’s easier to deny or ignore them. whereas with Time? I just feel like Time is just more in tune with them and is more accepting of them.

They should be the same incarnation. but... they arent???rather. they hold the hero’s spirit. but they are not at all the SAME person. they are two different people who just happen to embody the SAME thing: the hero of courage.

anyway. Twilight really does appreciate Time, a lot more than he leads on tbh. & Time probably will/would never know unless he ASKS. not that twilight would give him a straight answer, lbr here twilight is not the best with words -- he really isnt! he doesn’t know how to express his thoughts in the form of words. you would be better off asking him to draw his emotions out. twi is very much a hands on person ( very technical ). & yes, while he smiles, laughs, gets mad, etc. its more due to the fact that its reactive ( except save for a few things like crying, he doesn’t tend to cry -- well he tries to hold it in ). Though for the most part, Twi is VERY stoic. sure he may look surprised or furrow his brow but, at the end of the day, he’s a serious guy. But... Time..... on the other hand.....

Well. Time is Time. there’s no other word for it.

& since Time is Time, Twilight feels more comfortable. 

Twi has a sense of belonging & familiarity with Time -- as he does with ALL of his incarnations ( as you can kinda see with Wild as well ). i think what is so special & unique with Time is that he sees him as an EQUAL. this isn’t about being a teacher, a brother, a parent, a guide.. this is him seeing the other as a peer. which speaks VOLUMES cause.... i think at this current moment, he doesn’t see any of his incarnations the same. ( perhaps maybe sky though? but that’s for another day ) he honestly loves that about Time the most though, because he doesn’t have to feel responsible or FORMAL with him. ( like after that first ‘stiff’ phase he has with him, he’s pretty chill with him ) he can just be.... himself... which means a lot for him because he can’t really do that often -- especially not after the battle of ganon.

take this as you will though. i’ve said what i’ve had to say about this. but i’m honestly more than happy to answer anything that anybody may want to ask me about the  subject though! i love looking at lore & character development! there’s so much potential of a lot of interactions. i know some people are more quiet about it than others, but this is why i’m over here posting what i think about it, cause i want people to know that i’m very OPEN to talk about anything.

i have a friend who knows first-hand that i can discuss things with others and see certain things in a certain light. it just takes time with me. :)

anyway, you know the usual. yadda yadda yadda. my inbox is open for discussion. :’]

[scoutception]

Final Fantasy Type-0 review: Depression central

If there’s one Final Fantasy subseries whose fate gets me feeling down, it’s the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, a novel and ambitious concept based around various games and stories of different settings and casts of characters, but sharing common themes and mythos, putting them in different contexts in each. While a fascinating idea, it ran into nothing but trouble with each of its entries, with Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels being very divisive, to say the least, Final Fantasy Versus XIII running into an infamously extended development hell, only to finally emerge as Final Fantasy XV, now almost completely separate from its original concept, and the final big entry, Final Fantasy Type-0, vanishing until 5 years after its announcement in 2006, as a PSP exclusive that only came out in Japan, a rarity for the series when it comes to its higher profile spinoffs. Thankfully, in 2015, Type-0 got a remaster on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, finally allowing other audiences to enjoy it. Was it worth the almost 10 year wait? Well, that’s something we’re about to find out now.

Story:

Final Fantasy Type-0 takes place on the world of Orience, divided into 4 great nations blessed with Crystals: the Dominion of Rubrum, a place for the study and teaching of magic granted by the Vermilion Bird crystal, the Kingdom of Concordia, a female led monarchy able to communicate and control monsters and, more importantly, dragons, and home to the Azure Dragon crystal, the Militesi Empire, a technologically advanced state able to produce great machines of war known as Magitek Armors, or MAs, through the power of their White Tiger crystal, and the Lorican Alliance, whose citizens are much larger and powerful than any other in Orience thanks to their more direct connection to their Black Tortoise crystal. Orience is, unfortunately, not a place of peace, with each of the 4 crystal states wishing to unite Orience under them, and making plenty of attempts to in the past. The motive behind this is the legend of the Agito, a messiah said to appear during Tempus Finis, an apocalyptic event prophesied in the somewhat dubious, yet widely believed, Nameless Tome, with every crystal state seeing it as their divine duty to create Agito, to the point of Rubrum training so called Agito cadets from its brightest and most magically adept citizens.

The story opens with yet another war being started in the year 842 by Milites, whose emperor has been deposed by the brilliant and ambitious Imperial Marshall Cid Aulstyne (Final Fantasy games have a tradition of having a character named Cid somewhere, and finally, he made it as main antagonist), who immediately sets out to attack Rubrum. What would otherwise be a “normal” invasion quickly turns disastrous for Rubrum when Milites unleashed a new device called a crystal jammer, which cuts Rubrum’s legionnaires from their connection to the crystal, rendering them helpless before the Militesi invaders. Even worse, Milites also deploys a l’cie, a human chosen by their nation’s crystal to become its direct servant, in exchange for immense power and near immortality, the use of which in warfare was mutually banned by each of the 4 nations. Just when Rubrum seems doomed, the mysterious Class Zero arrives, 12 cadets who are unaffected by the crystal jammer, raised by Rubrum’s even more mysterious archsorceress, Arecia Al-Rashia, who proceed to liberate the capital, Akademia. Now, with the addition of two promising but otherwise normal cadets, Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya, Class Zero becomes a vital part in Rubrum’s efforts to reclaim their lost land and defeat Milites, once and for all.

To just come out and say it, the story’s biggest weakness is the cast, or, more specifically, its use of the cast. While the playable cast alone is certainly large, at 14 characters, and the supporting cast only grows from there, almost nobody gets proper focus. The main 12 members of Class Zero, named after playing cards, consists of Ace, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven, Eight, Nine, Jack, Queen, and King, and despite being the “proper” members of Class Zero, they all only have a few character traits each. Trey is a knowledgeable type that tends to ramble, Sice is an arrogant loner, Nine is a violent muscle head, Cinque is nice, but downright weird, and so on. While after a while they all grew on me, it’s still pretty unsatisfying, especially when Ace, the face of the game, gets neglected just as badly. The supporting cast gets it even worse, as outside of Arecia and Class Zero’s commanding officer, Kurasame, most of everyone else that’s notable either has minimal at best story presence, or doesn’t show up in the story, period, being relegated to sidequests. Ultimately, the most focused on characters are the two “normal” people in Class Zero, Machina and Rem, which kinda makes sense, giving a more grounded air compared to off how putting the others can be to begin with, but even they don’t work out quite well. While Rem is fine, she doesn’t do very much interesting with the time she gets, while Machina, on the other hand, is very, very unlikeable to the point of hurting the story, whether it be his own cold attitude or broodiness to put the usual RPG protagonist stereotype to shame, he ends up way more unsympathetic than near anyone else in the story, even most of the antagonists. While the cast overall is definitely flawed, though, they’re definitely entertaining at a lot of points, whether they come from the main cast, mostly Trey or Cinque, or from some of the side characters, mainly the extremely greedy Carla and, most memorably to me, the paranoid, bombing throwing Mutsuki.

Since the story doesn’t focus on the characters very much, the main focus is instead the war itself. While it definitely has a few twists and turns, especially starting in chapter 4, overall, the battles and events of the war aren’t the most interesting subject by itself. More interesting is the elements around the war. This is by far one of, if not the darkest game in the franchise, and it doesn’t shy away from showing just how messed up Orience is. Rubrum’s main strength comes in the form of its Agito cadets, meaning, teenagers, as young as 14, at that, and the tactics the military uses means they tend to die in droves. Even when it’s technically pragmatic, between magic proficiency peaking at teen years and decreasing with age, plus not having many other means to resistance, it’s still very uncomfortable, and keep in mind, this is what the good guys, or the relative ones, get up to. Milites, meanwhile, is all too happy to deploy superweapons, such as literal nukes, and its soldiers are disturbingly fanatic, being more than happy to massacre towns, and even refer to Class Zero as demons. Class Zero themselves were raised to be soliders, and feel almost nothing in battle, and Rubrum’s leadership are paranoid and petty, to the point of the military commander actively trying to get Class Zero killed out of pure spite. Eidolons, extremely powerful monsters able to be summoned by mages, demand the lives of their summoners, and there are outright suicide squads of cadets who are only meant to summon more powerful Eidolons. Additionally, a very important plot point is that the crystals automatically erase the memories of anyone who dies from everyone’s minds, to the point Rubrum’s citizens need to wear dog tags just so it can be confirmed they even existed after they die. While they try to justify it as a blessing from the crystals that allows people to move on and not be held back by the dead, all it’s done is completely desensitize Orience to death, and having characters casually talk about being informed of their friends or family dying, and not feeling a single thing, is pretty disturbing, especially when it’s named character involved. It does a very good job of showing how constant warring and lack of reverence for the dead has corrupted this world, even when many of the characters affected still remain sympathetic.

Unfortunately, the biggest flaw of the story to me is that there simply isn’t a lot of it to be found, at least in regards to the main story. While the game is comprised of 8 chapters, that’s more than a little inaccurate, as half of those consist of a short introduction and a singular mission, rather than the 2 or 3 missions in the rest of the chapters. The story only really gets moving in chapter 4, and even then, many important points aren’t addressed until chapter 8, which is a downright bizarre and sudden change of subject and tone compared to the rest of the game, to the point a second playthrough is required because of how many holes are left otherwise, and even then, it can be a bit difficult to figure out just what is going on. The biggest achievement of the writing, on the other hand, is the lore of the setting. Orience is a fascinating world, with a detailed history of each nation, plenty of info to find on the various characters, and examinations of the various enemies of the game, all stored in a book in the hub called the Rubicus. It’s also quite interesting seeing the perspective flip compared to Final Fantasy XIII; instead of l’cie “merely” being granted the use of magic, and quickly going through their usefulness, at least by their masters’ consideration, along with the main cast being comprised of them, l’cie in Type-0 are near demigods who often live hundreds of years, and are just as fearsome to the party as to everyone else, for instance. Overall, though, while there are certainly many problems with the writing, I can’t help but say it works quite well regardless. Even with the limited time for both the story itself and the characters, it still builds a cast worth rooting for throughout the horrible situations, and an effective atmosphere that’s quite good at leaving you feeling somber. Moments like the entirety of the opening chapter, showing the utter devastation inflicted on Akademia in a mere three hours, and the various costly, large battles are very effective moments, and the ending is easily one of the saddest endings I’ve seen in a video game, for all the right reasons. Even the final chapter, odd as it is, has a lot of cool revelations and setpieces to me, at least now that I comprehend it.

Gameplay:

Type-0 is an action RPG that has you control the 14 members of Class Zero on various missions, each one possessing a different weapon. Ace uses cards, Deuce uses a flute (I swear they aren’t all this weird), Trey uses a bow, Cater uses a magic infused pistol, Cinque uses a mace, Sice uses a scythe, Seven uses a whipblade, Eight fights with his bare hands, Nine uses a lance, Jack uses a katana, Queen uses a longsword, King uses dual revolvers, Machina uses dual rapiers, and Rem uses dual daggers. Each one possesses a vastly different moveset and playstyle, such as Cinque being slow, but strong and tanky, Sice encouraging an aggressive hit and run style of play, even getting stronger for the more enemies she defeats while taking minimal hits, Trey excelling at range to a much degree than anyone else, while being near helpless up close, and Deuce being more of a supporter, having great support abilities, while her attacks are fairly weird to get used to, though effective on their own once you understand them. Despite the huge amount of characters, they’re actually fairly well balanced, all of them having important strengths and weaknesses, and while some can definitely be better than others, with Trey in particular coming to mind, possessing absurd range and the ability to charge his shots, it’s never quite game breaking. You can have up to three characters in your party, though their AI isn’t exactly great. They can certainly distract enemies well, and will make sure to heal you if your HP gets low, they don’t tend to be aggressive, and are terrible at avoiding the attacks of most enemies more complex than your average imperial trooper, and are near guaranteed to die to bosses. Speaking of which, the main wrinkle is that, while it varies, overall, your characters are not very durable, and in fact take hits about as well as wet toilet paper when faced with most enemies. This is balanced by the sheer amount of people you have. One person dies on a mission, don’t sweat it, you’ve got 13 backups. Of course, this also encourages training them all up and learning to play them as well, which is complicated by only characters in the active party gaining experience. Leveling up, in addition to granting the usual stat boosts, also grants ability points, which you can use to purchase or upgrade command or passive abilities and moves.

While just attacking enemies normally is decently effective, it can put you in unnecessary danger, and while you do have items like potions you can use to restore your health quickly, the most efficient way to fight is to use breaksights and killsights. Every enemy has at least one attack that leaves them vulnerable for a short time either before or after using said attacking. Hitting them during this period will trigger a break, or, if their health is low enough, killsight. Breaksights take a good chunk of their health away and stuns them, giving you a chance to attack them freely, while killsights just kill them outright. This one mechanic adds a lot to the gameplay, encouraging you to learn enemy patterns and attacks to see when they are vulnerable, and getting the timing down can make otherwise fearsome enemies easy to take care of. Of course, some enemies won’t take this very well, and may counterattack or even go into berserk states after recovering from breaksights, so you still have to be careful. Every character has 4 commands: regular attacks with their weapons, 2 slots that can either hold abilities or offensive magic spells, and a defensive command, whether it be the cure spell to restore health, putting up a magic wall to nullify some attacks, or just flat out blocking, which, while still causing you to suffer damage, prevents being knocked down, letting you score breaksights easier than if you were to simply dodge. Magic can be upgraded by harvesting phantoma from dead enemies, coming in various types like red for fire magic, green for defensive magic, and purple for unique spells. While powerful, magic usually takes a large chunk out of your magic points, meaning it’s better to save it for more dire situations, though harvesting phantoma restores small amounts of MP. As for equipment, aside from weapons, you have access to accessories that do things such as increasing HP by a certain percentage, giving immunity to status effects, or raising defense, though everyone can only have 2 accessories at a time. You also have three different squad commands: triad maneuver, which simply causes the party to do 3 powerful, rapid attacks, Eidolon, which summons an Eidolon you can control for a short time, in exchange for KOing the character that summoned it, and Vermilion Bird, a powerful spell that, to actually become powerful, has to be upgraded using crystal shards, which, while fairly easy to get most of the time, aren’t very numerous.

Type-0 uses a mission system, throwing you into various locations to complete objectives, though it usually equates to to reach the end of the area and kill an enemy commander. Most locations are pretty linear, though they all have a few side areas you can go to, usually for more items. You get graded based on how fast you completed the mission, how much phantoma you harvested, and how many party members got KOed during the mission, with getting the best rank on all three categories getting you an S rank, which gives a bonus item. Beating each mission on a difficulty above easy also unlocks other bonuses, whether they be additional items up for purchase or unlocking new spells or Eidolons, or just flat giving you a rare item. Completing missions also gives you money, with more the higher the difficulty and the higher your rank. Speaking of difficulties, there are 4 of them: cadet, which is just easy mode, officer, normal mode, Agito mode, which is a hard mode that makes every enemy 30 levels higher than on cadet and officer, and Finis, which is only available after completing the game once, and is, just plain absurd. All enemies have their levels increased by 50, they’re in permanent rage mode, causing them to move twice as fast and hurt twice as much, and you’re restricted to only being able to use one person per mission. It’s not much worth the effort. Aside from completing missions, your main source of items, magic, and Eidolons is from completing special orders, optional objectives that can pop up in various areas. While there’s various generic, white orders that only give items at the end of the mission for doing stuff like not getting hit for 30 seconds or not using magic for a few minutes, there are also specific, red ones with more specific objectives like taking out certain enemies, that give out better rewards. The main problem with accepting them is that, if you fail to complete them, you risk instant being killed over it, though you can avoid it you’re fast enough, as it’s delivered through portals on the ground.

In between missions, you’re allowed to explore Akademia, chatting with NPCs or party members, or engaging in “free time events” which are either conversations with random people, or cutscenes that tend to have much more interesting information. You only have a limited amount of hours until the next story mission starts, with each event taking two hours away, though time doesn’t pass just running around and talking to people without events. While a neat concept that could easily be like Persona, in practice, it doesn’t add much. While you can get some interesting information at times, and doing events also gives you items, it’s not very in depth otherwise. Even the sidequests with the more prominent side characters just consist doing their events whenever they’re available and doing a sidequest for them, eventually getting admittedly very good bonuses at the end of their little storylines. The other thing you can do with your free time is go out into the world map, where you can visit extremely small towns, get into random encounters, visit dungeons, and... not much else. While the world map isn’t tiny, there’s just not much to find. While there’s many towns, they are, again, tiny, only consisting of a single small area with a shop or two, a sidequest, and a little unofficial side quest to get a l’cie stone, which can be traded into a certain NPC to unlock lore entries in the Rubicus. There’s just not much of interest, and you’re very heavily restricted in where you’re allowed to even go on the world map, only being able to go to areas officially reclaimed by Rubrum, or that are the destination of the current story mission. Only in chapter 7 do you finally get some kind of freedom, to the point of being able to gain an airship to allow easy traversal of the world. Plus, most dungeons aren’t even meant to be explored on a first playthrough, with only about one or two being reasonable at that point, not that there’s even much to find besides l’cie stones and a chance at a rare item, emphasis on chance, since they’re always in a specific chest at the end that can only be opened once without reloading your save, and the chance of getting the most valuable item from them is rather low.

As for other activities, you can train in the arena, for downright piddly gains, or take on sidequests, most of which just contain of going out and defeating a certain amount of specific enemies, giving over items, and so forth. Most rewards aren’t great, but a few, namely from the more notable characters like the leaders of Rubrum, Kurasame, and Arecia, give very notable rewards. Sidequests don’t take time to do, but often require you to leave Akademia, meaning you need to weigh the time lost going out to do the quests against the time you could use doing events, which is difficult when you don’t know just what rewards either give out. When it comes mission time, though, you gotta venture out on the world map to your next destination. Speaking of the world map, along with the regular missions, there are also RTS style missions, where you, controlling a party member on the world map, help the dominion army reclaim forts and towns by taking out enemies and having units generated by controlled areas weaken said areas until you can invade them in a regular mission style. Instead of being graded on phantoma harvested, you’re instead graded on objectives completed, as occasionally you’ll get orders to do stuff like defend a fort for a specific amount of time or taking out a large enemy. While technically optional, you get bonuses for completing them beyond mission grade, such as access to “hero units” and direct control of certain areas. There’s a decent amount of these missions in the game, and they do make for an interest change of pace, but they aren’t much notable. You’re even allowed to skip participating in them, though obviously you miss out on rewards.

The highlights of the game are, rather sensibly, the end of chapter missions. Not only are they much longer than typical missions, they have much more unique settings, and, of course, bosses. This game has some very enjoyable, if difficult, bosses, ranging from the giant mech Brionac that is more than capable of wiping you out in a single attack, to the highly mobile mech of Qator Bashtar, Cid’s second in command, to several fights with the near invincible Gilgamesh (another recurring character in the series). My personal favorite is the boss of chapter 5, the dragon Shinryu, which is also all too happy to instantly kill you with most of its attacks, even more so than Brionac, and spend most of the fight enveloped in the darkness surrounding the arena you’re in, only being visible by the lights of its glowing red eyes. It makes for an amazing setpiece, and losing to it is almost more enjoyable than winning simply due to the failsafe implemented since the devs expected most players to lost, the details of which I simply cannot spoil. Finally, on a second playthrough, two new types of missions are available for you: expert trials, and Code Crimson missions. Expert trials are optional missions you can do during your free time, which you’ll likely have a lot of since events you see on a previous playthrough can be viewed again at no time cost on repeat playthroughs. While technically available in the first playthrough as well, they are way too difficult for the average player, i.e who isn’t insane like me. Code Crimson missions, on the other hand, are replacements for the end of chapter missions, consisting of you going off to do other stuff. While an interesting concept, in practice, they aren’t anything special, especially when they’re replacing the most interesting parts of the game, and they barely give any more story context either. The chapter 7 mission is the one exception, being very short, but an interesting concept and adding a bit more to the story. Plus, completing them all on one playthrough unlocks an interesting alternate ending, so that alone makes them worth a go.

As for the hardest challenges to be found, they’re a bit lacking. Aside from the regular optional dungeons, there’s one notable bonus dungeon and two notable superbosses. The bonus dungeon is the Tower of Agito, which can only be reached by airship, which consists of 5 floors where you need to fight 100 specific enemies, such as tonberries and behemoths, with plenty of chests to open in between, ending off on an extremely disappointing end boss that is just a Malboro that happens to be massive. While it certain sounds difficult, and pretty much everything is capable of one shotting you, once you get into a good pattern, it’s really just boring. Most of the time, they just spawn so slowly, and while after a while more of them come out at a time, it takes about an hour and a half at best to get through even if you’re otherwise efficient. As for the superbosses, there’s Nox Suzaku, only available in a second playthrough and onward, who has a chance of appearing whenever you harvest phantoma, stealing everything you try to harvest until it decides to go away. Aside from making it go away on its own, you can beat it up, which is quite a doozy. Instead of fighting you directly, it summons phantoms of various enemies to fight you, and while you could just defeat them all, this doesn’t do anything to Nox itself. Instead, you have to let the enemies defeat you, causing Nox to appear for a short time, allowing you to attack it until it retreats. Rinse and repeat, it’s not that difficult, and the rewards aren’t that great, so the main reason to beat it up is just to make it go away, because it stealing your phantoma is extremely annoying, especially when it can show up during missions, since you can’t just leave to fight it, and it’s entirely possible for it to flat make it impossible to get an S rank on that mission it decides it doesn’t want to leave. Not exactly a fun mechanic. The other superboss is, per tradition, Gilgamesh, in a stronger form than in the story. He only shows up on a third playthrough, at a few different locations on the world map, in the form of a portal. Entering said portals causes him to randomly select one of your characters to challenge. If you win, you get that character’s ultimate weapon, but if he wins, he steals your character’s current weapon. The ultimate weapons are kinda underwhelming, especially considering you may well have everything else done after a second playthrough, and it’s annoying getting specific people picked, but it’s actually a fun and fair fight, if easy to figure out.

Overall, Type-0 has some of the tightest gameplay among all the Final Fantasy spinoffs, and is the main thing that holds it together. It has a fast, hectic pace to it, interesting enemies to tackle, and a wide variety of people to try out. Really, the main criticism I have is the actual missions you have with which to try them out. The other main story missions aren’t much to look at, and same goes for the expert trials and Code Crimson missions. I’m sure this is at least partially due to originating on the PSP, and having to deal with its limitations, something that’s about become a theme in this review. Overall, though, it’s still more than satisfactory.

Graphics:

The visuals of Type-0 are a very mixed big, unfortunately leaning more towards negative. More than anything else, they make it very apparent that Type-0 was originally a PSP game. While the members of Class Zero themselves have decent looking models, if rather unemotive, everyone else, except a few important characters like Arecia, are much lower quality, especially the faces. Here’s a comparison between Ace and Carla.

The textures don’t fare much better, looking very blatantly stretched and blurry, especially on the world map, where bridges are just one long, hideous texture. Most locations outside of, again, the end of chapter missions don’t look anything special, and so many areas are just reused over and over. You go into a town, it’ll look like every other town, at least of that region. You invade a fort, it’ll look like every other fort. Repeat for almost every mission in the game. Thankfully, the big story missions look quite impressive and creative, my favorites being chapter 5′s, taking place on frozen clouds that end up near breathtaking, and especially the setting of the very final mission, which is, to avoid anything too specific, downright insane, in a good way. Another positive are the enemy designs, more specifically, the actual monsters, with enemies such as bombs and flans resembling their earlier FF designs much more than most modern entries. Unfortunately, there’s just one problem: the actual variety of enemy designs is rather lacking, with the majority of enemies being slight alterations or palette swaps. It’s a more minor point than most, but still something. The original enemy designs are quite inventive though, and overall, this is a game that excels more in general design than actual fidelity, like the spiraling Concordian capital surrounded by a sea of clouds.

Sound:

The music of Type-0 is plain great, as is usual for the series. The boss themes especially are fantastic, along with the main theme, The Beginning of the End. It also sounds quite distinctive compared to most of the rest of the series, having a greater focus on metal, fitting the more modern aesthetic. The English voice acting, on the other hand, isn’t quite great. It’s pretty obvious the dub was a rush job, considering Type-0 lacked the simultaneous localization process of the main series games, resulting in it being very lackluster overall. There are some notable voice acting names in it, like Cristina Vee as Cinque, Bryce Papenbrook as Machina, Danielle Judovits as Carla, Cassandra Lee as Mutsuki, and even Matthew Mercer as Trey, and they all do good jobs, but the rest of the cast varies, especially Class Zero itself. Ironically enough, the side characters tend to have much more solid performances, with special props going to Steve Blum as Cid, giving a very menacing perfomance, as well as other characters like Aria, Class Zero’s orderly, and Kazusa, the resident mad scientist. Corri English as Sice and Heather Hogan Watson as Queen also fair quite well. Beyond that though, the performances can be rather forced, like Nine and Cater, or just weak overall, like Rem and Deuce. This is not helped by the normal, in game cutscenes themselves, with their structure causing many long, awkward pauses nearly every sentence. It does, however, improve as the game goes on, to the point of the final cutscenes not being hurt by it near at all.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a solid recommended by me. Even with the weakness of elements like the graphics and the short, underdeveloped story, the core gameplay just holds up that well, and there’s quite a bit to enjoy in the weaker elements even beyond that. Overall, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy spinoffs, and the fact that it will most likely never get a sequel due to the departure of its director, Hajime Tabata, makes me very sad. With that unneeded note, this shall be the last of the Final Fantasy spinoffs I play in some time. The next time the name Final Fantasy pops up as the subject of one of my reviews, it shall be about the main series. Till next time.

-Scout

[oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch]

“The Hate U Give” Movie Review

“I was nine years old the first time I got the talk.” One might think this is about the usual talk on sexuality parents give to their kids at the onset of puberty, but one would be wrong; this isn’t that kind of talk. This talk is of a different, far harsher sort; a father is teaching his kids how to behave when a cop pulls them over so that they don’t get arrested, or worse, shot and killed. This is life for Starr Carter.

So begins The Hate U Give, a young adult drama directed by George Tillman, Jr., most well-known for  producing the Barbershop franchise (and directing some episodes of Luke Cage and This Is Us). It stars Amandla Stenberg, Russell Hornsby, Regina Hall, Anthony Mackie, Common, Issa Rae, and K.J. Apa. Adapted for the screen by Audrey Wells (who sadly passed away from cancer just a couple of weeks ago) from the best-selling novel of the same name by Angie Thomas, the story concerns main character black high school student Starr’s struggle against a racist and corrupted system that put her and her family in harm’s way after she sees her childhood friend Khalil get shot by a white police officer for no reason.

Starr is from Garden Heights, a predominantly black community her father grew up in where she knows just about everybody’s name. But not every day is beautiful in this neighborhood, and when an officer pulls Khalil over for no reason, he is shot and killed after reaching for his hairbrush. Being the only witness to the murder, Starr is called on to testify in front of a grand jury – but she isn’t sure she can. If she testifies, certain people that seek to maintain the status quo she could disrupt will know it was her who spoke up, or “snitched,” and could come after her and her family. But if she doesn’t, is she really being a true friend to Khalil? Does she have an inherent duty to further the cause of justice or is ultimately staying alive and keeping her family safe more important than taking that chance?

Truth be told, until I had seen the trailer in theaters for the first time back in early August, I had no idea this movie was even coming, much less how impactful it could be. Watching that trailer for the first time blew me away as I had no idea that the story was going there in the opening seconds. Not having read the book either, I wasn’t sure just what to expect when it came to how deeply this movie would delve into racism, police brutality, gentrification, drug funneling, etc. And while there certainly are spots in which the film could have been improved or delved deeper into certain socio-political issues concerning black communities surrounded by the white and privileged, this movie still covers an impressive amount of ground concerning all of those topics, buoyed by fantastic performances by all involved to create one of the best films of the year.

This film is bound to impact all who see it in one way or another, but one of the primary ways in which the movie’s voice finds the audience is by forcing them to view the atrocities presented therein through the eyes of children. It’s easy enough to look away when things like racism and police brutality affect the average adult who believes that the world is far more complicated than we would like it to be, but to force the audience to see these situations through the eyes of children places a fresh perspective on these things that too rarely gets brought up even by those that seek to further the cause of justice; as Starr puts it to her uncle (Common) at one point in the film, “it doesn’t seem that complicated.” And the truth is, it’s really not, certainly not when view through the eyes of the young people who are affected by this every single day. No parent should ever have to have that talk with their child, and yet, many parent of color give that talk to their children, just as they were given it by their parents.

One of the many methods by which George Tillman, Jr shows the audience how uncomplicated it is that what happened was not only wrong, but inherently racist, by a conversation that happens between Starr and her uncle. I won’t spoil the contents of the conversation here, but suffice it to say, if you are a person of color, you may have had or may have to have this conversation with one or more of your white friends or colleagues at some point. It’s an immensely powerful conversation that shuts down an age-old argument against the racism in shooting an unarmed black person because the officer “thought they were holding a weapon.” What’s more, she has other conversations with the white people around her about the importance of seeing color and the heinousness of co-opting a social justice movement like Black Lives Matter for personal gain. And this isn’t the only ground this movie covers. In addition to these more socio-political topics, The Hate U Give also addresses things most young adult stories do, like searching for your sense of self and finding your identity.

In order to have these points come across in the best possible way, you need an ensemble of insanely talented actors, and The Hate U Give has one fully prepared to embrace its story, particularly in the cases of star Amandla Stenberg and supporting actor Russell Hornsby. Stenberg crushes it as Starr, a fully realized character with a wide range of emotions that Stenberg uses to their full effect, forcing the audience to experience horror, joy, pain, relief, fear, and abhorrence through her eyes. It’s a sincerely star-making turn (no, there’s no pun here), and I am very much looking forward to whatever she does next. But perhaps the greatest performance in the movie belongs to none other than Russell Hornsby. Without doubt, his character is the most nuanced and masterfully acted character in the entire movie. There’s a speech he gives his children approximately 3/4ths of the way through the second act as they’re standing outside their house on the grass that literally left me in chills; that’s definitely the speech they would use for his Oscar reel, and you’ll know it when you see it. But these two also aren’t the only great performances in the film. Common and Regina Hall are also reliably great as always, Anthony Mackie reminds everyone he’s a legitimate force of nature outside of his Falcon costume, and it’s nice to see that there’s more to K.J. Apa than just dark Archie Andrews.

I do have a couple minor issues with the film though. Even though it certainly covers a lot of ground in terms of the struggle against a racist and thus unjust system, there are so many moving parts to that system that don’t get the time devoted to them that they probably should. It’s sort of a catch 22: if you don’t spend enough time on just one or two issues, you don’t get to really explore all the nuances that go into those issues, but there’s a lot more ground to cover that needs to be addressed as well, which is hard to do in just over 2 hours. But while this is a notable detriment to the more analytical viewers like myself, it does little (if anything) to diminish the power the film retains despite it, thus rendering it relatively inconsequential.

My only real “problem” with the movie is its ending; while I’m certainly no cheerleader for every movie involving racism or the black struggle to have an unhappy or complicated ending rather than a happy one, the ending to this one felt a little tidy. This isn’t to say that the ending doesn’t fit narratively, but it does seem to lay some of the blame for the racism that affects black communities on the communities themselves for not “stepping up” and “doing their duty” against each other. I won’t spoil how this comes about, but I will say it’s fairly late into Starr’s narration regarding the film’s title. It’s almost as though the thematics changed as if to say that the real issues present in these communities are only present because of some form of in-fighting or false loyalties to each other, which I won’t say doesn’t happen, but ignores that police brutality and racism frequently occurs in black communities that have none of these problems as well. Again, I haven’t read the book personally, and as an average white man I am far from the leading authority on matters like this (in fact if you’re a person of color who’s seen this film, I’d be more than happy to hear your perspective on it), but that’s just how I saw it personally.

In the end, The Hate U Give is an immensely powerful, poignant, and inspiring film about the struggles of black communities, police brutality and racism, gentrification, the strength to find yourself and your voice, the whole nine yards. It’s chock full of great performances, especially from star Amandla Stenberg and Russell Hornsby, and is bound to impact all who see it some way. This is a film that should be taught in schools across the country. This is a film that should be seen by everyone, if only to start a cultural conversation sorely needed today. And it just so happens to be one of the best films of the year.

I’m giving “The Hate U Give” a 9.6/10