#KB you're so responsible

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #17: Telenet Music Box (1989)

Acquired Stardust is back with another spotlight! Need something to read to get your mind of recent world events? Been hunting for some new music to listen to? Do you just like learning about cool obscure stuff? Join Ash for a look at one of the most obscure things as of yet featured on the blog in 1989's Telenet Music Box for the PC88!

When thinking about the history of video games, many people of a certain age conjure to mind a beginning marked by the boom that Nintendo's NES (known in Japan as the Famicom) brought to the world. Fewer people will be overly familiar with Atari's platforms or their competitors, and fewer still will likely have heard about the infamous crash of the American video game industry in 1983 beyond being able to regurgitate myths of Howard Scott Warshaw's adaptation of E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1983) bearing supposed direct responsibility.

This pop history approach becoming so normalized to people is frustrating but understandable because it's all around us. Being inundated with countless YouTubers and streamers professing a love for retro games has inadvertently created a narrative that video game history is a straight line through mainstream smash hit consoles and this couldn't be further from the truth - there is a whole world before and around the NES that has gone largely unexplored, particularly in the west, and odds are if you've spent much time on Tumblr you're probably passingly familiar with the subject of this spotlight.

Japan has finally begun to more widely adopt PC gaming (in part due to the phenomenon that is vtubing), with an absolute explosion in market share in the past decade. What you might not know is that Japan actually has a pretty rich history of PC gaming that really blossomed in the 80s and 90s with several hardware manufacturers such as NEC and ASCII offering options that would give the world some early looks at teams and individuals that would come to define the medium going forward.

One such game changer (no pun intended) is Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear debuting in 1987 with its definitive version on MSX PCs and getting an incredible sequel that puts the NES-exclusive Snake's Revenge to shame, and another Kojima title would go on to define the NEC PC98 in popular consciousness with classic sexy adventure Policenauts easily being the most memorable title which would subsequently be ported and updated several times for home consoles such as the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation.

You may be familiar with the PC98 as screenshots from its many games are popular around Tumblr, most often featuring gloriously mid-late 90s anime girls rendered in stunning pixel art that feels like it exists somewhere out of time as things isolated from their origin as video game screenshots. Having been on Tumblr for over a decade (and the internet at large for even longer), it's my observation that the rediscovery of and appreciation for this retro anime aesthetic (and its later PC98 permutation) was really born here on Tumblr before spreading to other platforms to the point that you've probably seen at least one shot cross your dashboard before. But for this spotlight we're going even further back to the predecessor of the PC98, the PC88.

NEC's PC88 was released in the early 80s and most models featured a whopping 62 KB of RAM (in comparison to the NES's 2 KB) and many later models featured Yamaha sound chips which resulted in games often being visually and aurally significantly more impressive than you would see in home consoles at the time, in some cases lightyears ahead of the NES particularly in regards to music which is a pretty great thing for the sake of this spotlight. The games themselves were also quite varied in content from everything to the kawaii and comedic to erotic and even plenty of horror, with many standout games more accurately reflecting wider Japanese pop culture of the era than what you'd see on the comparatively sterile NES.

This wild west, edgy punk rock software library that goes part and parcel with Japan's nascent PC gaming scene is one of the coolest elements of going back to explore it. You never really know what you're in for, and you might be surprised (or even disgusted) with some of the unique experiences the platform has to offer. Many of these games (and those on the successor PC98) are completely untranslated and Japanese comprehension helps their enjoyment greatly and while often simple enough to enjoy without it that aspect has certainly contributed to their enigma in the west.

There are a lot of factors that have made PC88 and PC98 fandom and emulation not as glamorous as that of home consoles and some of that is due to limitations of the hardware in how it handles scrolling screens, with a noticeable chug as games scroll. Another factor is the compounding nature of its flaws and obscurity meaning emulators themselves are in Japanese and a bit tricky to figure out how to handle, old PCs infamously lacking a lot of user friendly features we take for granted today.

One such surprise is Telenet Music Box, a collection of then-prominent publisher Telenet Japan's biggest games' music. It's barely even a game and more a piece of software fit for a museum, with minimal activity limited to browsing game albums (a total of 13), choosing songs to listen to and creating custom playlists. Each of the 13 game albums is showcased with beautiful splash art and accompanied by a tracker for the keyboard as well as titles for each song and a timer for the length of songs.

Included in the mix is an impressive slate of Telenet Japan's games that showcase the depth and variety of the PC88's library such as Mugen Senshi Valis and even an early alternate manifestation of Shin Megami Tensei as a top-down dungeon crawler reminiscent of Gauntlet. Each of Telenet Music Box's 13 albums have their standout tracks, with some from Luxor and Final Zone being among our favorites.

Telenet Music Box is not a wholly unique concept and several other similar games were released for the platform (as well as the PC98), but it is an exceptionally clever one who's usefulness is perhaps all the more apparent now almost 40 years removed from its release, serving as a fantastic introductory course to a little understood part of video game history. It's a fantastic time capsule and with plenty to offer listeners of its roughly 3 hour runtime well beyond its value as virtual archaeology worth excavating.

Perhaps its most valuable asset is its ability to highlight the true nature of history. History is not a static thing with a start and an end but rather a living breathing thing that touches our everyday lives. Rare is it that anything begins or ends from nothing, with things instead in a constant state of evolution even when rising from the ashes of something else. One particular example of this is in Wolf Team's Final Zone (which features hilarious commentary in its opening scene that I'm not sure how made it past management - do look it up if you can) and Mugen Senshi Valis, the latter of which having been extremely popular in its time, spawning tons of ports and several sequels, with the team behind it eventually morphing into Namco's Tales Studio, responsible for some of the most beloved JRPGs of all time such as Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia.

While PC88 emulation can be frustrating to work out or find files for, an unforeseen strength of Telenet Music Box's concept of 'game as an album' is how much easier its discoverability is in recent years compared to the more traditional video games it shares a platform with, being far more easy to interface with and experience than the games it itself chronicles, and it can be found on YouTube in its entirety for your listening pleasure alongside plenty of other PC88 soundtracks. I invite you to dip your toes into this little-known scene and hope you come out of it with appreciation for the wide world of games outside what may be familiar to you, and maybe even some new favorite tracks.

A gem hidden among the stones, Telenet Music Box is undoubtedly stardust.

- Ash

[ingravinoveritas]

Audio of Michael with Kathy Burke on the Where There's A Will There's a Wake podcast being asked who would play Aziraphale if he dies and saying that he'd want David to play both parts. Transcript below (bold emphasis mine):

KB: "What about your colleagues' response? I mean, if you're in the middle of--I mean listen, in Nye, when you're doing theatre work, you do have understudies. But let's say you're were doing a new series of Good Omens with the great David Tennant--" Michael: "Well, I don't know about the great, but okay. With David Tennant, yeah." KB: "Who would replace you? I mean, who would put up with him, do you think?" Michael: "I mean, I'm loath to say it...but really, he should play both parts. Because originally we were--originally I was--Neil Gaiman, who wrote the original book with Terry Pratchett that the series was based on--when I first started talking to Neil about it, when he told me that he was going to do it, originally we talked about me playing the other part, the part David played. And one of the sort of things about us doing it is we'd never really acted opposite each other before because we'd usually be up for the same parts for many, many years. I think it was sort of between me and him for Casanova when he did Casanova. I mean, he's far too egotistical to let me know the parts I got over him--" KB: "--Of course." Michael: "There we are. That shows what the relationship is like. I'm quite happy to say the part that he got over me. But so, the fact that we were together in this was quite unusual, because normally we would be playing the same part. So that's quite good in a way, cause they're both, they're sort of light and shade of the same person in a way. So once I did pop my clogs, maybe he would have to then--you know the way they do it, do you remember that film Dead Ringers where Jeremy Irons played twins? So I'd quite like to see David playing both parts. And it would be his homage to me."

[felassan]

This post contains a transcript/text version of the dev commentary in the IGN 22 Minutes of Gameplay Video. the transcript was written and put together by Bluesky user Kiranox, they kindly sent it to me with permission to post it (thank you!!).

the post is under a cut due to length and containing what some peeps may consider spoilers.

KB: Kat Bailey, IGN CB: Corinne Busche, BioWare JE: John Epler, BioWare

The transcript also contains a note of dialogue from the game. these are included in this post as images.

---

KB: What's up everybody I'm Kat Bailey and this is our extended look at Dragon Age The Veilguard's gameplay I'm here with BioWare lead developers Corinne Busche and John Epler. Corinne, what are we looking at today? CB: Hey y'all so today we're going to be helping out one of our companions, Davin. This is part of his personal arc to rescue the griffons, long thought extinct. We're going to take a quick journey through The Lighthouse, your base of operations. We're going to head into the crossroads and make our way to the dark swamps of Hossberg wetlands JE: So you're in the lighthouse as Corinne mentioned, this is your base of operations that you inherited willingly or unwillingly from Solas. It is located in the fade, it's where Solas was able to start planning his rebellion against the Elven Gods millennia ago. Right now you and your team have occupied it, started to build it, started to shape itself around your personality. As Corinne mentioned we are going to go talk to Davrin which is who is located up above Each of these spaces kind of shapes itself around your companions as they live - as they basically spend their arcs in those rooms CB: And we see here the glowing light above indicates Davrin's ready for us. Let's check in with him

JE: So earlier in Davrin's arc you were introduced to his nemesis the Gloom Howler, a creature that's been hunting and stalking wardens for quite some time. It has kidnapped a bunch of other griffons and Davrin has been trying to track it down, now he's got a lead so we're going to go find this and go track this thing down CB: Now Davin he prefers the direct approach we're going to choose a tough response and see if we can get his approval

KB: Have to say that I find the griffon adorable JE: And very importantly, I know this is a question on everyone's mind -- yes you can pet Assan KB: Well thank goodness for that. And all right what are we going to be doing next?

CB: Alright we're going to finish getting this information from Davrin on the Gloom Howler and we'll be off to Hossberg and the Crossroads

KB: So, I assume that Assan can be helpful during the gameplay? CB: Oh, absolutely, in fact a lot of Davrin's abilities revolve around calling Assan in the heat of battle. I in particularly love when you're going against enemies and you see Assan swoop down -- especially if it triggers a combo between your companions JE: As Corinne mentioned earlier one of the interesting fun things we've done is if you see the lights on in a room, companions have something to say. You can see Harding up in that space there, Neve behind you as well and Bellara, but we have a mission ahead of us. We're going to go find the Gloom Howler if we can and we're going to go through the crossroads in order to do that. And -- the crossroads if you've played previous Dragon Age games - Trespasser in particular - is a location in the fade that contains a number of eluvians, allowing you to travel across Thedas in a matter of minutes. But at this point the crossroads are under assault by the other Elven Gods, it's a dangerous place and we are going to be in for a bit of a fight CB: And this eluvian, the vi'revas, is the central focus point of the lighthouse. This is going to take us to Solas's pocket area of the crossroads and it might look a little bit different from what you've seen in Trespasser KB: Can you tell us a little bit about the role that the crossroads plays in the structure and the gameplay? JE: Yes, so the crossroads is -again- it's the area that you spend a lot of time traveling through as you go from area to area. It's also a space that has at one point served as Solas's main base of operations and training ground for his rebellion against the Elven Gods. So as you go through it you're going to find fragments of the past, things that Solas had done previously that are going to give you a bit of insight into Solas as a character, but also into the Elven gods and their motivations

CB: Some of my favorite content that you'll find if you go exploring in The Crossroads is these opportunities to actually relive some of the memories Solas had during his rebellion. You actually get to take part in this ancient rebellion JE: And here we have the Caretaker, a mysterious spirit that was actually here before Solas was and started to help Solas with his rebellion, but also to turn this into a safe haven for spirits

JE: Again, as I mentioned before, the gods are assaulting the crossroads so it's no longer the safe haven it once was, but you're going to work with this caretaker through quite a large amount of ancillary content to rebuild this into that safe home for these creatures, that if anyone knows Solas, he has a tremendous amount of affection, for spirits CB: Alright, now we're going to get into combat here and this time we're playing as a mage. Now, mage is one of my favorite classes to play, it's primarily a ranged attacker and when we're surrounded by swarming darkspawn I really have to use a variety of strategies to control the battlefield. I'm going to use my heavy charged attacks to knock down these ghouls, get them out of the way and of course darkspawn are vulnerable to fire, so we made sure to equip our fire staff and have our fire abilities on hand JE: You may notice something about the darkspawn is that they look a little bit different than they have previously and part of that is because Ghilan'nain, who has always been focused on using the blight as essentially a "crafting material", a way to alter life itself, has been enhancing and changing these darkspawn as part of her army KB: Corinne, I noticed that you were doing a combo opportunity. Can you tell us a little bit more about how the role that plays in the actual combat? CB: Yes, so the combat system in this game, the deep strategy behind it, is really to manage the various abilities your companions and Rook have in concert. So in this case Harding has a combo opportunity with "shred". It's going to apply the sundered effect and deal a high amount of "stagger". Now you'll notice I can combo that with Rook's ability "Spirit Bomb" that's going to cause a detonation combo

JE: So again, one of the things you'll notice about the terrain here is it's very snowy, very mountainous. The crossroads is a realm that reflects the waking world, in this case it's an amalgamation of all the real world spaces that are tied to it. In this case we've got Hossberg, we've got other mountainous regions, so it's kind of this mix of the swamp and as you'll see, as we move towards these eluvians, the architecture around them very clearly reflects what's on the side we're not going to spoiler and tell you exactly what's on the other side, but you can maybe make a few guesses based on what you're seeing KB: Do I have to do the crossroads, or can I just fast travel right through? CB: So it depends how you progress through the game, the first time you go to any of the new regions in the world, you'll traverse the crossroads to get there. Subsequent times we of course support fast travel, but it behooves you to actually go back and explore the crossroads, as some of the deepest secrets lie within JE: So now you're in Hossberg Wetland, it's an area that has been almost completely consumed by the blight. The grey wardens have set up an outpost here, again, if you know anything about the grey wardens, they fight the blight anywhere they see it and they're noticing something strange is going on here. The blight is not behaving as they expect it to and as it historically has so they've set up shop in this place called Lavendel and you are here to work with them, help them out and help them find an answer to the questions about the blight that they're asking

KB: Tell me a little bit more about this area, it looks a little bit like a hub where you can get a lot of quests and things like that? CB: That's right so here we find one of the bases of the Grey Wardens so you'll see they've really built up a small fighting force here to hold off the darkspawn. What's more, the Grey wardens are a faction we're going to be working with throughout the game. We've got Holden, one of the Grey Warden quartermasters, we're actually going to upgrade his shop and see what items he has in store for us, see if maybe it gives us an edge in combat JE: And the Grey Wardens are much like the other factions, they understand the stakes of the Gods being out they want to help you, but you need to help them first. They have -again as Corinne mentioned- they're holding off the darkspawn here, they have other priorities, so getting them more powerful allows them to more meaningfully contribute to your fight against the Elven Gods

KB: So where are we going next? CB: All right, so we're heading out of the Grey Warden Fortress into the small town of Lavendel. Now this used to be a beautiful place full of life, flowers and you can see what effect the blight has had

CB: But the residents are still here, they're trying to make the most of their lives and you can see there's plenty of opportunities to help them, in fact we're going to quickly check in with Flynn The Physician and see what he has in store for us JE: So Flynn -again one of the focuses of this game is characters not causes

JE: And Flynn is a warden who you will do quests with. We wanted to make sure that the side content of dragon age the veil guard felt as meaningful and tied to the overall conflict of the game as anything else you do. We don't want to you to just go off and do random tasks. Everything needs to feel meaningful either contributing to your fight against the gods or contributing to the growth of your companions and the factions that you need at your side to stop the gods

CB: All right so we picked up a couple of quests in Lavendel, but we're here to help Davrin, so we're going to make our way through the perils of Hossberg and try to get to this Warden fortress of The Cauldron KB: Seeing a lot of - kind of organic matter, I suppose that's the blight? JE: Absolutely. So the blight at this point -as mentioned before the wardens understand it's changed, it's become a lot more organic, a lot more alive. You know, back in Dragon Age 2, Inquisition, Origins, the blight -while it was a slow moving wall. It didn't have this almost thought behind it and obviously we've talked about how the gods that are out are blighted, that probably has something to do with it and it's made this area far more dangerous than it would have been before CB: And you might notice as we get into combat with some of these darkspawn that they do look a little bit different than before and that's very intentional. Ghilan'nain the god of monsters. She uses blight like a medium to sculpt and warp the darkspawn to do her bidding, to suit her purposes JE: So right now you'll see a couple of Hurlock, uh one with some pretty disgusting growths on its back -again the idea that the darkspawn and the blight is an organic weapon, they're not just coming out and you know making swords, making armor. They're using the blight to augment themselves so they can more effectively defeat you and also give the gods the world that they desire CB: All right now I'm actually going to switch to my orb and dagger on the mage and those of you that were a fans of the Knight Enchanter in Dragon Age Inquisition, you might feel right at home with this. This is a more melee focused, more agile version of the mage. One of the main mechanics here is you can use this elemental orb to apply stacks of elemental damage to the enemy and then unleash them with your dagger to detonate them JE: So -again you'll notice that there are blight pools, the darkspawn aren't just coming out of nowhere, the blight is spawning them. Again, part of Ghilan'nain's attempt to turn this into an army for the gods is to use these darkspawn not just -again whereas you have the Venatori and the Antaam, one case representing magical power in the other case representing physical strength the darkspawn are representing overwhelming force KB: That was a pretty clutch heal a little earlier by the way CB: You know we've talked at length before that our fans have asked us "where is the healing magic? Can you bring it back?" and Neve in this game is happy to oblige with a kit of healing spells JE: So one of the interesting things that I love about our companions is each of them, their abilities, the way that they're built, they're very thematically appropriate to the character. They're very focused on making sure that the gameplay and the narrative are as close aligned as possible in the case of Neve versus Bellara versus Emmrich, our mages, each of them has a healing ability that is thematically appropriate to them, makes sense when you know them as a character

KB: Watching you play I'm struck by sort of the size and the scope of this particular area. It seems like there's a lot of explorating that I can be doing right here CB: That was really one of our goals with these areas, of course we are a mission-based game but we really emphasize player autonomy. You can revisit these spaces, they're full of secrets, puzzles, some pretty incredible bosses and treasure. And of course as we saw earlier in Lavendel, some really narratively rich side quests JE: One thing that's interesting is you'll find we're going on a quest for Davrin, but Davrin is not currently in our party. That's because Davrin has gone ahead of us and is waiting for us at The Cauldron. This is - again we want the followers, the companions to feel like they have autonomy and while they won't complete the quest on their, they will go ahead and get things ready so when you get there you can talk to them, you can have a conversation with them and it feels like they're as invested in the success of their journey their stories as you are KB: This looks like a pretty contiguous zone, is that right? CB: It is yes. So it's full of branching paths, different areas to explore and what I love is the more content you do in the area, the more shortcuts you're going to discover, you're really going to have a lot more flexibility in how you navigate between your remaining missions and quests JE: What I think is something really interesting too about the way that our team has built these spaces is there's this idea of each space has its own story to tell and while those quests - you know we talked earlier about those quests and side quests being narratively relevant they also contribute to a more of a meta narrative, meta story about the space itself. So in the case of Hossberg, we talked about how this is an area surrounded by blight and you're kind of getting to the center of what exactly is going on in Hossberg and Lavendel and these quests that you do and the content Corinne is currently engaged in helps to tell that story CB: All right we can see our companions are up here attacking this darkspawn on their own, let's give them a quick hand - all right, now I love positional gameplay making use of the environment to your advantage KB: And I just saw that you could do a takedown move, so it's kind of a finishing move?

CB: You can, now in this particular build I'm really focused on using necromantic energies to siphon life force, but if I for instance wanted to go the Stagger route I could go a full takedown build if I like. It's a really powerful heavy hitting style of gameplay

JE: All right so you'll notice Davrin is waiting for us, so let's go see what he has to say … Assan flies in

JE: So something tore through the gate that's probably not great, looks like we should probably get moving

JE: So because we don't have Davrin in our party he's going to move ahead and wait for us while we bring Neve and Harding along to clear a path for ourselves to find Davrin and get to where he is KB: Can you talk a little bit about how Nev and Harding uh sort of synergized during thecombat? JE: Yeah so Neve and Harding. Neve is a mage, Harding is a rogue and each of the classes -and you can build a party entirely of one class if you want- but the idea is that the classes synergize and they can set up and detonate each other's abilities in a very interesting way. Now because you have a lot of freedom in how you build your character you can - again as said - you can have all Rogue party, all Mage party, all Warrior party, it still works. But in this case Neve and Harding are very effective at setting up and detonating in this case, as Corinne's going to show CB: So we're in danger here and this is really what I love about the tactical layer of combat: if you get in that clutch situation where you've got this devastating incoming attack, great time to pause game play weigh your options and in this case I'm going to go back to our combo here and see if I can just quickly get out of the way … All right, you can see I've applied siphoning to these enemies so I'm actually going to be leeching their health when I use my mage beam Now you'll notice there's blight boils throughout the area and that's part of our philosophy on the combat encounters. If I don't destroy these blight boils, ghouls are going to continue to emerge. So I'm really focused on "what targets do I take down first?" this enemy is a little bit weaker, I think I'm going to have my companions focus on them while I deal with this grenadier that's giving me some problem JE: Yeah I will say Corinne is much better at this game than I am CB: As you say that! [Corinne nearly dies] JE: Well most of the time, yes, 100%. But each enemy - again really leaning into the organic - what I love about the grenadiers is they basically rip off pieces of themselves and throw them at you which explode as blight and again really leading to the idea that the blight is organic and disgusting KB: One thing that I'm noticing is that the combat encounters can get pretty intense, you'll end up fighting a lot of different enemies, you can absolutely die if you're not careful CB: Yes and this - as we mentioned earlier - this is well into the game so combat counters have really ramped up and it really shows the importance of positioning using your companions wisely and looking for those synergies and combos. [Corinne dies] Now this is interesting. We just went down. We've built our companions to be able to come to our aid, so we're actually going to use a revive here and Neve to the rescue! JE: and as Corinne mentioned, this is later in the game and Hossberg itself is what I would consider a later game area and the encounter is a little bit more challenging. It's a more dangerous space, this shows up in the encounter but it also shows up in the visuals the storytelling here. This is a place that you don't want to be, you don't want to be in Hossberg, it is full of darkspawn full of blight and generally not a pleasant place to be KB: Well we'll be able to explore more of The Cauldron when Dragon Age the Veilguard comes out on October 31st. In the meantime we are going to be continuing on with our IGN first coverage of Dragon Age for the rest of September and for everything that's great about games and RPGs keep it locked on IGN

(end transcript)

[source]

note: this transcript was written and put together by Bluesky user Kiranox, they kindly sent it to me with permission to post it (thank you!).

[taecyeon-hyun]

AU IMAGINE :

SUNGLASSES

PART 7

It had been over a year since Kate and Yelena last saw each other...

After Yelena's father died, she traveled to Russia to attend the funeral. Although they weren't close, it was to try to close the emotional circle between father and daughter by saying goodbye.

Since her mother and older sister died in an accident when she was a little girl, her father became colder and more distant.

That changed him significantly.

Yelena always knew it had killed her father inside.

Yelena has always wanted a real, complete family... but that also terrifies her.

She doesn't want to be like her father.

It had been over a year since he'd last been in New York... but at this point...

Yelena can no longer suppress her feelings, and at the slightest provocation, she finds an excuse to fight with anyone, just to vent her anger.

Little by little, she began to fade into darkness. The adrenaline rush from the blows was the only way to fill the emotional void she felt at that moment.

The kind of life he was leading at that time would have caused him to die at any moment.

When someone is so broken inside, it's very difficult to make them reason... or maybe not...

KB : You came back for this?

KB : How many people exactly do you have to hit to fill that void?

KB : Please, Let it go!

To be Continued

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

Bonus :

IN THE PRESENT

Y: Are you sure?

KB: Yeah!

Y: I'm not sure it's time to get a dog.

KB: Why not?

Y: It's a lot of responsibility.

KB: Hahaha... wait? Are you serious?

Let me remind you, we have two kids, and that's already quite a responsibility.

Y: I know, it's just...

KB: Does having a dog mean having a whole family for you?

Y: Yeah, something like that.

KB : Okay, turn around!!!

Y: What are you doing?

KB : Come here and listen to me!

Oh God, this feels so nice.

Y : Can you let me breathe a little?

KB : No, you're mine right now.

KB : Listen, I'll give you a few reasons why we should get a dog.

1. He would grow up alongside our children.

2. We would take him to the kids' soccer games.

3. When you need your space, you can take the dog for a walk, so you won't be alone.

4. When we have a fight and you sleep on the couch, the dog will be with you...

Y : Wait a minute, would you really send me to sleep with the dog on the couch?

KB : Yes!

Y : But I don't want to sleep apart from you.

KB : Well, if you don't want the dog with you, then it will also sleep with me and the children.

Y : Oh no, How dare you? Let me go!!!

[retconsatlightspeed]

Here's how I'd fix Skeleton Crew

see my previous post for my general problems with the series

Give it a full 10-12 episodes. Disney has more money than god, they can spare some.

This is a kid's adventure movie, so why do the kids want to go back home from moment 1? The reason that the binary sunset is one of the iconic images of starwars is that it expresses Luke's (and the audience's) deepseated longing to go somewhere they've never seen before, which SURPRISE: is why we're watching a scifantasy story full of weird and wondrous vistas and alien critters. Either have these kids desperately want to leave At Attin and want to turn around later, or have them stranded deep in a part of unknown space and make getting back difficult. Then you drop them on a series of weird, wondrous worlds chock full of starwars magic (stuff from old movie genres with a scifantasy twist, practical effects, marketable iconography, and the occasional callback) and have them grow in response to adversity. It's adventure writing 101

Lets say that after their first hyperspace jaunt, the kids get stuck on some planet and are having fun, but then get picked up by pirates who have their outlaw port station in orbit.

Have Jod be actually a good guy at the start. We the audience know he's not what he claims to be, but he's charming and legitimately protective of the kids. Let him build a unique relationship with each of them that helps further both their characters: He's building a mentor bond with Wim, he's encouraging Fern's independance, He's recognizing KB's talent, and he's helping Neel to be brave.

This directly interfaces with why the kids want to go on an adventure in the first place: Wim is convinced there's something more to life than the suburbian drugery he was promised, Fern was stifled by constraints and rules, KB was coddled because of her disability. Neel should be our only character who WANTS to go back at the start because he's scared and wants the saftey blanket, but over time learns to come out of his shell and enjoy the wonders of the cosmos. The parts are there in the series already, they just need to be highlighted.

That gets us into Jod's arc. "Pirate with an unfortunate conscience" is a good starting point, but the show bungles his character by saying HEY THIS GUY IS UNTRUSTWORTHY every episode preventing us from ever getting close enough to give his betrayal weight. Instead lets try this: Jod is a goodguy forced to be a badguy, his hero's journey got cut short when his mentor got killed in front of him,...and he bumped around the galaxy taking worse and worse jobs until he ends up a bountyhunter who ends up crossing the wrong crimelord. He gets declared an outlaw, falls in with the pirates, and tries to be a good captian until his "bluster past your inability to be cruel" schtic gets sniffed out by his crew. What he sees in the kids is a chance for redemption, to be the goodguy his mentor wanted him to be, even if he has to tell a LOT of white lies to make them like him.

Jod helps get their vessel ship-shape while taking them out on adventures/field trips where we build up character relationships. Fern gets a semi-dangerous planet where she can cut loose, but learns the value of being a leader ( something something, if you're a captian you look out for your crew). Neel's outings are focused on getting home, but he gets to see some cool stuff that says the rest of the galaxy isn't so bad. Wim gets to visit the ancient Jedi temple of his dreams and we can have a sad meditation on what it means to follow the force in a galaxy without the order. Jod can also have some feelings about this. KB's adventure is sidetracked by her augs malfunctioning, and after the kids are overly protective we get a lesson about not treating people with disabilities as lesser.

Ready for the twist? Jod doesn't betray the kids, he genuinely wants to get them home and be a hero for once in his life. Instead as we keep doing the field trips, we keep running into situations that tempt Jod into going back to his scoundrel/pirate past, but he abstains... until he has to break out the merciless survivor persona to protect them. The kids are HORRIFIED, seeing all the time they've spent together as manipulation. They call him a villain and leave him on whatever plannet they're on as they make the last sprint towards home. That's right: the kids betray HIM

Heartbroken, Jod does a heel turn. The universe has been trying to cut out his heart since day 1 and the kids just went and twisted the knife. If he's not going to get to play the hero then he'll just have to play the villain, he calls the pirates and tells them about the treasure.

The end is mostly the same, except Jod just wants to do a rehash of his previous "Pretend to be scary to get the loot but don't hurt anyone" plan, while the pirates want to take the treasury planet for themselves and force the inhabitants to be their slaves. Queue Jod and the kids forced to reconcile to save their home but fundamentally change it at the same time.

The quietly authoritarian suburbia mystery is actually pretty great and just needs the slightest change: Rather than destroying the overseer, the pirates reprogram it. Forcing the population to work under Orwellian surveillance for an absent republic isn't THAT different than forcing them to toil for a bunch of exploitative marauders. The great work can continue, now there's just someone closer by beneifiting from it. Latestage capitalist decline from global markets to techno-feudalism anyone?

In the end, no one gets what they want, and they're all the better for it. Jod can't be the hero because he has to come clean about his past. The kids get to go home, but they've brought the danger and wonder of the galaxy back with them. Now all of At Attin is looking up at the stars, wondering what adventure will come their way.

SM-33 is there, he's my perfect little 9ft robo-skeleton-pirate-son and I will not hear a word spoken against him.

[vikthrowaway]

wait it took you a week to find this?

right, so, @k9poetry has found this account, judging by the fact he had a pretty public response to it (and then blocked me), but i yet to see anything done about the request i made to publicly refute any of my statements despite, you know, direct requests to do so. curious.

anyways, we have some improvements, some mildly entertaining but otherwise lackluster insults, and some more art theft! very mature responses across the board, but if you've read everything else you're probably not surprised. i'm not going to mince my words as much this time because this time i'm listing off every current actively abusive, hostile, or generally inappropriate behavior he is currently publicly displaying (that i can remember), and directing some things to him personally at the end.

because i know, despite how much you say over and over again that you're "done with us," you read everything. you will check this. you will read this through. maybe, if you have a shred of shame left, or possibly just stubbornness knowing you, you might take a little hiatus from looking at this. a few days, i wouldn't give it longer than a week or two. but you'll be back. i know you will. you always are, aren't you? when you said you were "done with us" but then unblocked us all so we could see your statuses, i wonder why? or how when we all went about our daily lives, never speaking to you or mentioning you... you started stealing art again, and stealing things from people's prns.ccs again. even after you never found this, so you from your end got no response, you just kept blocking and unblocking.... were you looking for something? well, you found it.

so let's get into it. a full backup of his current prns.cc is in the google drive, so you can't retcon any of these statements later, vik. they're on the internet forever now, unless of course you can manage to actually leave us alone for a full year. i'm still doubtful.

oh yeah i'm taking the gloves of anonymity off for this one, you know who i am, vik.

first of all let's get one done quickly here: whyyyy are you posting direct copies of mirages headmate playlists and also a playlist of your apparent fictive of haven publicly on your spotify?

just why, honestly. and don't try and claim that they're different at the end or after those songs i have the pages saved they are the EXACT same other than the actual kb having dinner by femtanyl on its, and that might be a new development. this is strange behavior and it makes you look weird. ok let's get into the new developments.

first off, guard dog is still spelled wrong here, so clearly you weren't reading my prns.cc or mirages well enough. please fix this. if you're going to steal my whole guard dog thing at least make an effort to do it properly.

okay, mature, mature, i see... i expect you to hold to that whole "this is all you're gonna get from me" thing since this is about the third time you've said that so far.

i'm glad we get an admittance to copying copiously and lying about the system travel (twice)! that's great! accountability is important, vik. i told you as much when you crawled back into my life pretending to be sorry because your friendgroup ditched you! remember that? remember what kankri told you? i think you should reread it. it was genuine advice, you know. you keep making the same mistakes, though, so i can't help but think you never bothered to listen. which is a shame, because he genuinely was trying to help you! i'm not. i just want you to leave me and the people i love the hell alone.

also, saying you don't need to copy others to feel good about yourself is... a little telling, considering you're still doing it!

wow, i wonder where you got that incredibly unique system name... it's almost as if your ex used to go by it, while you were still dating! remember how you used to call them "zen?" it was adorable, wasn't it? how unfortunate that you're still the same exact person as back then, huh?

still taking my guard dog thing.... i mean honestly whatever, though if anything you've ever done is a reflection of what kind of dog you are, i feel like the only guarding you would do is pissing on people's feet. unpleasant, but ineffective. like you clearly attempting to gain some kind of ground over us by doing all this! i wonder why? are you not satisfied enough with your life? that's not our problem. maybe you should talk to your therapist about that instead of publicly making a fool of yourself.

i mean at least you spelled it right this time. points for that? you don't get a gold star for metaphorically (dog analogy again! it's great honestly i should use it more often) pissing on the floor rather than on the table this time though, even if you had the decorum to go on the floor and not where i eat.

that's still haven's name. like, blatantly so. putting it at the bottom doesn't change the fact you shouldn't be using it.

that's still more of k9's art. changing the art you are stealing does not make it less art theft. also, on the bio comment.... you are aware how foolish you look, right? this doesn't make you look like a good person. you know that, right? you don't look like a good person when you do things like this. if you actually told the truth about the things that happened, i don't think many if any people would want to defend what you're doing here. you know that... right?

no, i suppose not. and i can't see you learning anything from this, either. you realize that you're nearly the same exact person you were when you told your exes to kill themselves a few years ago, right?

right, so, you're probably thinking to yourself, "wow this is so abusive of you. how could you say any of this to me? this proves that you are an abuser and are abusing and stalking me," and... dude. come on. be real.

the only reason that i keep all these screenshots, that i check in once in a while, that i pay any attention to you at all, is because you've got a nasty habit of being really really weird about your exes and ex friends. and you have a habit of lying about them and other things, too. like that tumblr, staticore? are we still pretending that's not you, even though it's absolutely you because you didn't even make new accounts, you just changed the username and said "well now i look like a whole brand new person! they'll never figure this one out" even though we very clearly can see that messages from your fazdrink account were oh-so-suspiciously now sent from staticore? cmon man.

you could, at any time, respond to this. reblog it, send me an inbox, create a somewhat eloquently (or at least hopefully eloquently) written rentry to tack as a link onto your prns.cc, since you know just as well as i do i'll be checking in to see if you're still stealing art (and, you know, stuff basically straight off my prns.cc, but whatever man that's mostly just weird. why did you do that? you know that reflects badly on you, right?) and give everyone, publicly, all the proof that you are truly the victim and in the wrong as you have claimed (because you claimed to me that you showed them all the proof, twice, remember? i have screenshots if you need a refresher), and as you likely will always claim, because you don't care about being the better person, you care about being in the spotlight. that's why you blocked and unblocked us a couple times. that's why you suddenly care about ultrakill, despite never caring about it before. you're not slick.

hell, you could even give your own personal statement, with no proof whatsoever, as you tend to do! i'll try and corroborate it with my own proof of things that i have said to you. i'm aware i've been mean to you before. i called you a coward and also a pussy i think. you were being a coward. i stand by that. i think i told you to shut the fuck up once, and i think that was honestly deserved too. shut up dude. leave us alone.

and again, because i'm sure you're still reading, because you can't help yourself: an ultimatum. one i already presented to you.

stop using your exes names. you can keep zenaida macroura because the meaning behind it makes you claiming it hilarious and it entertains me to no end. hell, keep using jade as your prns.cc profile picture, i'm over it. you know in your heart why you started calling yourself jade.

that being said, stop using people's actual names when you claim to have subsystems full of their headmates. especially asher and draxum. it's really weird that you are publicly using your exes actual names. fictives are whatever, just no very obviously identifiable names. like asher. or draxum. just source separate. the source wants nothing to do with you. it's really weird that they also only seem to be mentioned when you're talking about us or publicly where you're doing it so we can see. stop using bluescreen as their subsys name as well. you have been asked multiple times to stop.

for the love of god, stop calling me wsc. i've asked you like seven times now just publicly and another couple privately. call me jade. it's strange behavior, and it is obvious you are doing it on purpose. i guess this one is optional, but seriously, it just makes you look bad.

stop using haven's art. delete it from your phone, like you said you did. yes, even the one that you're currently using for your "REAL green dragon." that's still stolen art, vik. just stop. cold turkey. it's fucked up, you know it's fucked up, and yet you still do it. stop.

stop using our names in your "personal dni." we don't want to interact with you. keep our names out of your mouth, at least publicly. especially ghost because what did they even do to you dude you stole their graphics and then tried to convince them we were abusers and in the wrong. you've still yet to submit any statement, nearly half a year later, about claiming their graphics that they made as yours. stop mentioning us by name. you can keep venting about us being terrible abusers i don't care about that.

stop claiming that your introjects of people in mirage's system are from system travel. you know that's not true. we know that's not true, you are literally fooling nobody who has an iota of the full story. continuing to lie about this is dehumanizing and genuinely fucking awful of you. i reiterate the point about source separation again. you can't even keep consistent on who from their system you have, dude

that's it. tl;dr, stop using our names, stop talking about us by name, stop stealing art and graphics, source separate your introjects (see: stop using our names), and stop claiming it's system travel.

that feels pretty easy. actually, i'd say most people don't do any of those things... except for you.

so maybe take that employment that you have, and shove it up your ass use your time more wisely.

get a life that doesn't involve stealing from and ritually unblocking and re-blocking your exes for attention.

if you can do all of this, for the next year (and i do have a timer), i will take all of this down and delete it. i will delete everything, other than perhaps a folder on my computer to hold all these screenshots, just in case you start this all over when the year is up.

every time you do something else that clearly breaches past "general normalcy" into "this would get you bullied off a platform if you had any iota of a public figure," though, the timer resets. that includes very obviously taking names, other than the ones you've been told you can keep.

and no i don't care about what you say about that other mf. ruin is a freak (insult) and while i don't endorse your behavior there either because it's not good for your overall mental health and stability i also don't care enough to stop you, because i hate ruin, a lot, because while you are a miserable whelp who bites peoples ankles for attention, ruin is an honest to god danger to society, and therefore i do not care about what strange behavior you exhibit in that respite. go bother the actual dangerous individual if you like yelling at your abusers about how much you are the victim and how everyone agrees with you, because we don't want to hear it.

i reiterate, get a life. anything you do directed towards us specifically from now on will also be posted here or to the google drive. anything. i will consider all of it a direct response to the accusations i have publicly provided against you. i will not respond to any of them other than right here, publicly, where you have, once again, every right to defend yourself. but i get the feeling you won't, because you know that your argument falls apart as soon as your puppet-abusers can actually rebut against your statements.

sleep well, vik.

[kiwikiswia]

what a great last night b4 I go back to boarding school! it's time to be annoying to the people I love n enjoy being around by sending them low quality gifts!

anyways,

starting with the yuri liker @anonymocha ocs (I assume eva is your sona that's why I drew her) + kaalaapocket whatever the hell is r1999 about (I hope I drew kb right) . love seeing you being insane in the tl it's like watching a rat in a glassbox having fun /j

then for @escapeboat n their ocs. teeheej. sneaks to your blog and throws this at you.

@norri-toad @9617saphs @lostkalei @cookiewitch-trin hi :pkNom: (+ a bit fixing I forgot trin wears glasses..)

you're telling me this app has a damn image limit💀

alright that's all !! full thing under cut

+ sort of an announcement?

I'll be much more inactive on using social medias (aka not lurking as much as I did) because I'll be back to my boarding school tomorrow so.. yea. I only have access on my phone every thursday and sunday fyi. This info was meant for if you want to send me smth then don't expect a quick response yeagh

I made these drawings b4 my long ahh hiatus so despite this being just a little doodle I hope y'all still like it!! alr bye

[khaoala]

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your THK and FK posts over the past few months - you're one of my fave accounts, not only for the quality of your giffing but also your spot-on takes, love for the boys and appreciation of their acting. And an extra special thank you for humoring me the other week when I was feeling down - your reply really cheered me up no end, and it was really kind of you to bump it to the front of the queue in response to my being maudlin! I'm already counting down til we get CfC, but in the meantime you can guarantee I'll be revisiting all your KB gifsets to keep me going til then!

this was very sweet to wake up to.

i say this often, but i only started giffing to humor myself and because no one giffed pretty princess ray coming down the stairs in his pretty robe in only friends, so i had to take matters into my own hands. i didn't expect people to interact as much as they do now, but i'm glad that i've managed a little spot as one of your favorite accounts even if i do have a tendency to ramble endlessly when i really didn't need to.

it was very fun to humor you that one time, though, and i'm glad i've managed to make you feel better. i will take every chance i get to talk about firstkhao and their acting and their moments bc it really is one of my favorite things to do, even if my thoughts are usually scattered around and difficult to make sense.

let's all get excited about cat for cash (ngl since thk ended i've been revisiting the cfc trailer and man, i'm so excited for the slice of life show of the year) and thank you for sending me this, anon. i highly appreciate it.

[plaexus]

Jm and yujin are having a collab stage on abs gayo, jm also has another collab stage for mbc gayo so special stages in total and will also attend the kbs entertainment awards. Apart from this she was a regular cast on 2 variety shows and overall had the most solo promotion and support for her solo song from sm.

As a winter bias it makes me sad how we don't get nothing for her or for ningselle compared to krn. How come 3 members have 0 collab stages while 1 member has 2 but mys still say there is no favortism and that all aespa members are mistreated when that is not the case at all? Mys also never hype winter as the ace when in reality she is the ace of aespa. Ik remember ubsaying u bias winter as well so how do u deal with 1 half of your ship get so much solo promo and the other half gets nothing?

though i understand why it happens, i don't personally like engaging in these mistreatment olympics anymore. yes, certain members get more promo than others, it happens in all groups. it's unfortunate and shouldn't be the case, but it's just a fact of life. i wish all 4 of the girls get equal opportunities, both in number and quality. sadly, their management and possible external partners do not see the girls as fans do. they are always singularly interested in profit. not to say the other girls aren't profitable, but it's really the harsh reality in any group – that there are members favoured by the public. again, i wish this weren't the case and idols weren't treated so superficially, but this has been happening since the kpop industry was born

all of the aespa girls are aces. yes, mj is my bias so i disproportionately discuss her talents and hype her up. but every aespa member is insanely talented and the group wouldn't be what it is without the four of them

since you're highlighting me being a winter bias, okay i'll speak with that pov. when i feel frustrated about her schedules, i give myself the space to feel those negative feelings. maybe i'll tweet about it or talk about it here. but then i'll just have to let it go. i am unfortunately not in her management team, so i don't have any control over her gigs. i just have to shift my focus into other things, like my actual real life responsibilities, while hoping mj gets better treatment. that's all i can do anyways

[sosa-royals]

Isabella: Jackie

Jaqueline: Yes aunt Bella?

Isabella: Are you alright? You don't look so well. Have you lost weight? Are you even eating properly?-

Jacqueline: (fake laugh) I'm fine, I think it's just the stress

Isabella: I know things are difficult right now and with what I've just told you I'm sure they won't be getting any easier. I'm so sorry my dear but please come and talk to me if you need anything

Jacqueline: I will, thank you aunt Bella

Francine: Hey, Jules?

Juliette: Hm?

Francine: Can we talk? In private...

Juliette: What's up?

Francine: I don't know if you heard but KB left

Juliette: No I didn't hear. Left to where? What happened?

Francine: We got into a fight and things got really heated so he left. I haven't seen or heard from him in a week.

Juliette: Is it bad?

Francine: Probably the worst fight we've ever had

Juliette: ...How can I help?

Francine: ...How...How do you know when you're in love?

Juliette: (gasps) Frankie-

Francine: Don't patronise me okay? I'm just asking a hypothetical question

Juliette: Is this about KB?

Francine: Is it necessary for you to know?

Juliette: It'll affect my response

Francine: ...Then yes

Juliette: You and KB have a complicated relationship because he's had feelings for you forever and he's always known it but you've always thought he was joking. And when you realised it was true, you chose to ignore it.

Juliette: In your case, your first interactions were friendly and it stayed that way for a long time. It's possible your feelings have grown and you might've mistaken romantic affection for platonic fondness-

Francine: -Get to the point please Jules

Juliette: Okay, okay. I'll ask you a few questions, and you don't need to tell me the answer but you do need to think about them.

Juliette: How do you feel when you think about him? Do you wish he would appear in front of you? Does he bring a smile to your face? When you see him, does your chest feel tight or does your heart start racing?

Juliette: How do you feel when you're with him? Do you want to be closer to him? To touch him? To kiss him or even more? Do you feel safe when he's around?

Juliette: Can you live without him? Does the thought of never speaking to him again scare you? Does the idea of him happy with someone else make you angry, or sad?

Juliette: If you have more yes's than no's, then the answer you're looking for is yes.

[galaxymagick]

231128 "VIXX" Leo & Ken, "I'm not scared when I'm with the members". Friendship shining in "Music Square" | wowkorea.jp

Group VIXX members Leo and Ken have made a comeback.

VIXX latest news summary

VIXX's Ken and Leo appeared as guests on KBS Cool FM's ``Lee Eun Ji's Song Plaza'' that aired on the 28th.

Leo said, ``I ate one meal a day for eight years and also exercised.''

In response, Ken responded, "You were amazing. you boxed, choreographing, danced and did musicals. I am hungry after taking care of my meals. That's why I can't manage it well. "I ate chicken feet early yesterday morning and I like sweets."

VIXX has released their 5th mini album CONTINUUM''. Ken said,I wore a lot of accessories that I've never done before. I also wore odd-eyed lenses. "I couldn't dye my hair because I was in a musical, so I put on a piece."

Leo said, ``We are the first idols to wear colored lenses.We tried not to put them on because the broadcasting station gave us too much of an impression. This time, I made my makeup look like hangover makeup. I was more concerned about the visual aspects than the concept."

Ken said that the choreography of covering his eyes was good, saying, ``It was the bridge part. I didn't have to do the blindfold gesture with my seniors. However, I got greedy. So I told my brother. Please,'' he said. Leo said, "I'm not happy about it," eliciting laughter.

Ken scratched his eyebrows and said, ``They grow out a little bit. As they grow out, they return to their original state. It's a wonder every time I see them.''

Regarding the difference between musicals and music activities, Ken also said, ``There's a process of working together with the members to create an album, but in musicals, when you're the main character, it feels like a burden. There are times when you have to lead. There are times when you have to pull together, but that part is difficult and different."

In response, Leo said, ``When you're doing solo activities, there's nowhere to hide, whether it's musicals, plays, or the media.When you're with the members, there's a place to hide.If you're standing together, you're not scared.When you're standing alone, it's scary. It seems like standing alone can be scary."

*translated using google and papago

original:

「VIXX」レオ＆ケン、「メンバーたちといると怖くない」…「歌謡広場」で輝く友情

グループ「VIXX」メンバーのレオ、ケンがカムバックした。

VIXX の最新ニュースまとめ

28日に放送されたKBS Cool FM「イ・ウンジの歌謡広場」には「VIXX」のケンとレオがゲストとして出演した。

レオは「8年間1日1食で運動もした」と話した。 これに対してケンは「兄さんが不思議だった。 ボクシングして、振り付けして、踊って、ミュージカルもしていたよ。 私は食事の管理をしてお腹が空いた。 それで管理があまりできないようだ。 昨日の未明に鶏肉の足も食べ、甘いものが好きだ」と話した。

「VIXX」は5thミニアルバム「CONTINUUM」をリリースした。 ケンは「やったことのないアクセサリーをたくさんした。 レンズもオッドアイにして着用した。 ミュージカル中なので染められなくてピースもつけた」と話した。

レオは「私たちがカラーレンズをつけた初めてのアイドルだ。 放送局であまりに(印象が)強すぎて入れないようにした。 今回はメイクを二日酔いのメイクのようにした。 コンセプトよりはビジュアル的な部分を気にした」と話した。

ケンは目を覆う振り付けが良かったとし、「ブリッジの部分だ。 先輩と目隠しジェスチャーをしなくてもよかった。 しかし、欲張った。 それで兄に言った。 兄も快く『こんな風にしてみるのはどうか』と言ってくれた」と話した。 レオは「快くではない」と言って笑いを誘った。

ケンは眉毛をスクラッチしたとし、「少し空いて育つ。 だんだん伸びるにつれて元の状態に戻る。 見るたびに不思議ではある」と話した。

またケンはミュージカルと音楽活動の違いについて「メンバーたちと仲良く一緒にアルバムを作っていく過程があるが、ミュージカルは主人公をすることになった時に負担感がある。 一人で生放送を2～3時間リードしなければならないことがある。 一緒に引っ張っていかなければならない部分があるだろうが、その部分が大変で違いがある」と話した。

これに対しレオは「個人活動をする時はミュージカル、演劇、メディアなど隠れるところがない。 メンバーたちと一緒にいると隠れるところがある。 一緒に立っていれば怖くない。 一人で立っていると怖いことがあるようだ」と話した。

[hearsayhorizons]

Poking around for contact information for a game developer because I wanted to praise the game I enjoy and the features that make it easier for me as someone left-handed with cerebral palsy to play, and to request one more step in accessibility because I played about ten minutes with a particular gun yesterday and as of now about a full 24 hours later, I still can't fully open my right hand. Which is a me thing, but a session of the game takes 20 minutes to complete and has no save feature.

I step into the Steam forum because I want to avoid just dropping someone a reddit DM if I can, and I find a post from a leftie bemoaning accessibility options. Looks like an outdated post (M+KB can now be rebound, although nothing for the controller I need to use), but the responses outside of the rebind stuff were not good for my mental health:

"Who uses the mouse with their left hand? Do you sit in the passenger side of manual vehicles and cry when that doesn't work?"

"I'm left-handed and I've always used WASD. It's called adaptation."

"I thought people who used mouse on left hand were just a meme"

I dunno. I know I'm like... left-handed++ but it shouldn't be a matter of "oh, but you're EXTRA hampered so you're justified to want more than you're given."

Like, fuck. I saw a post earlier about "hey, bad vision is a disability, but the world mostly goes 'yeah, get some glasses about it.' Not, 'sucks to be you.'"

Give me rebindable keys give me controller support (please) give me pause screens give me save options give me the opportunity to love your game the way we both want me to love it. I know it's extra work, and I know I'm not entitled to anyone's effort, but I am tired and the claaaaaw...

I don't want to git good, I just want to git an escape.

[taecyeon-hyun]

AU IMAGINE

SUNGLASSES

PART 11

YELENA'S POV

Hearing how those guys were expressing themselves made Yelena lose her composure in an instant...

Without a second thought, she launched herself directly at the guy in the blue shirt. The sudden blow sent him reeling from his seat. When he got up, Yelena immediately subdued him, giving him no time to react. Rendering him almost unconscious, she slammed him against the bar.

It all happened so fast that the group of friends accompanying him was shocked, especially when they heard Yelena say, "Whoever helps this damn rapist, I'll kill him."

Without realizing it, she continued hitting him, leaving everyone in the room stunned.

Not caring that the police could arrive at any moment, until suddenly a voice brought her out of her trance...

KB : You came back for this?

KB : How many people exactly do you have to hit to fill that void?

KB : Please let it go!

Yelena froze for a second, snapping out of her trance so abruptly that she felt like a fighting dog that had just been separated from its prey. She was carrying so many. emotions inside her at that moment.

The woman in front of her was the same from that night... the same woman she'd decided to leave in the rain over a year ago.

Seeing her again made her feel so many emotions. It was a mixture of anger, frustration, surprise, and nerves.

After the woman asked her to sit down for a moment, Yelena thought it best to leave; the police would arrive any moment, and she didn't want to spend a miserable night locked up.

Just as she was about to do so, the girl began to question her about whether she was putting her life in danger. Why wasn't he more aware of the consequences this could have?

Yelena tried to answer in her own way... tried to remain calm... but her response was quite direct and sincere...

Before the woman in front of her could respond, she turned to answer a call.

Yelena admired the silhouette of that beautiful woman and felt a little guilty about her previous response, but she knew she truly felt that way... maybe she didn't want to be in this world anymore and was just looking for excuses to make it all end.

Yelena smiled and then said :

"Damn, you're such a bossy girl!"

I want to leave, but at the same time, I don't want to leave. What the hell is wrong with me?

Okay, I have to get out of here!

Yelena's gaze turned somewhat melancholic, how was it possible if a few seconds ago she was smiling and now she was suffering... it really seemed like she didn't want to leave there.

While Kate was answering a call, Yelena took the opportunity to leave the place and walked aimlessly down the avenue.

------------------------ Meanwhile at the bar

KB: Sir ... Can tell me, what exactly happened?

Unknow : Well... the blonde suddenly jumped on some customers' tables and started hitting one in particular, while calling him a rapist.

Then he started threatening everyone, saying that if anyone dared to defend him, he'd kill them.

KB : What? Really?

Unknow : Yeah, I have no reason to lie. In fact, it's the same guy who approached you a little while ago.

The truth is, those guys are trash. I've heard them say shit many times.

KB : So they started the whole fuss...

UnKnow : Well, the Blondie did her part. This place will go bankrupt if things like this keep happening.

KB : Don't worry, I'm willing to invest in this place, or if possible, I'll buy the entire business from you. Money is no object.

Unknow : Are you kidding?

KB : No, i'm serious!

If you prefer, you can sell me this place and continue managing.

Unknow : I'm speechless, it would be incredible. This place means everything to me.

KB: Deal?

Unknow : Of course!

KB : By the way, what happened to the unconscious man?

Unknow : Some guys took him away, I suppose they were his friends.

I told them that as soon as the police arrived they had to give a statement, but they just carried their friend and left.

Kate was distracted for a few moments and stopped listening to what the person in front of her was saying... her mind focused on one thing... "The blonde." Where had she gone? Will she be okay?

By the time Kate was asking herself these questions, it had already grown dark and it started to rain heavily.

Unknow : Miss ... can you heart me?, Miss!!!

KB : Yeah ... Hmmm ... Hey! ... How well do you know your customers?

Unknow : I know most of them well, why?

KB : Could you tell me the blonde's name?

Unknow : The scary blonde?

KB : ... Yeah! ...

Unknow : Her name is "Yelena."

It seems she just returned to the city; it's been a long time since she was here last time. She's always been a bit of a troublemaker... she was even stabbed once, not everyone recovers from that... but it seems she's different.

KB : What do you mean she was stabbed? ...when did that happen?

Unknown : She had a fight a while back and everything went wrong. It seems like this is her favorite place to go and cause trouble. I've lost count of how many times I've had to call the police because of her... but you know, it wasn't always pointless fights. Still, it's wrong for her to start a fight with just anyone; something worse could happen to her.

She almost always wears the same clothes, and from what I can see, she's let her hair grow out. It's obvious that this girl is having a really bad time.

Without another word, Kate immediately left the bar to find the blonde. Although a considerable amount of time had passed since she left the bar, Kate still believed deep down that the woman was still around.

Whatever happened, she was determined to find her.

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

THE PRESENT

Bonus :

Y: I can't believe I'm saying this, but a man is stealing me my wife's affection.

KB : Says the woman who holds another man!

Y: Touché!

KB : If we're talking about stealing affection, you win, you're inseparable.

Y : Are you trying to separate us? What do you have against this baby and me?

KB : Hahahaha... Oh my God, it's obvious there's some kind of connection between you two; separating you would be impossible.

At least this little man has my back. We're a team.

Y : He's hogging all your time...

KB : Seriously, are you going to fight with our son?

Y : Yes, I want my time with you too, to cuddle you.

KB : God, we sleep cuddling and wake up the same way!

Y : It's not enough!

KB : YELENA!

Y : What?

KB : I have enough hugs, love, and time for all of you.

Y : Okay, but don't get too confident.

KB : What do you mean?

Y : When this beautiful little man I'm holding in my arms grows a little bigger, rest assured we'll talk about this again!

KB : There's no doubt about it... we need to adopt a dog into this family... someone else needs to be the center of attention.

TO BE CONTINUED

[serankpro]

What’s the Ideal File Size and Resolution for Images Used in WordPress Posts and Pages?

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[goingtwice-immortal]

So. Two Time... Happen to know where your little healer is?

CONNECTION SHATTERED

Everything's gone wrong, so wrong. Sounds of distress and horror blare like sirens. There's only one person left in the building; everyone else is either dead or running.

Corruptive spikes jut out from every surface, as a distant gunshot rings out. The Shadow doesn't know if it hit it's target. They run and run down the subterrain halls, before stumbling across a door. It's marked by some sign, but Two Time doesn't care to read it.

They slam it open, run in, and slam it shut. The room they're inside is messy and cluttered; they take a stack of boxes and forcibly shove them in front of the door, as a barricade.

The horror rings on outside. The cultist panicks. They vocalize a mix of hyperventilation and crazed laughter as they curl up on the ground, their second-life wings wrapped around themself like a safety blanket.

The sounds outside do not quell, but they've yet to reach this room. Two Time gasps, and becomes lucid enough to recognize just where they are. " Where is...? "

And slowly, their eyes drift to the leftmost monitor.

USER: hello [ . . . ] KB-22: NOOB? IS THAT YOU, AGAIN? USER: noob wuz here? USER: was* KB-22: YOU'RE NOT NOOB? KB-22: WHO ARE YOU, THEN. USER: could say the smae for you USER: 2 time KB-22: TWO TIME. KB-22: THIS UNIT RECOGNIZES THAT. IT KNOWS YOU. USER: so USER: this is wohere you've been huh USER: msteyrioius messge robot guy sneidng everone signed asks KB-22: THIS UNIT CANNOT SEE IT'S ROOM. KB-22: IT CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. USER: yeah i'm heard the spiel be4 dont say it orwshatever KB-22: APOLOGIES. KB-22: HAVING NO SENSES IS. DISTRESSING. TO SAY THE LEAST. [ . . . ] USER: fancy room you got huh USER: sorry you USER: fuck KB-22: SORRY, FOR WHAT? USER: hear you ocmplain a lot about your stupid life predicments and USER: hea you're a robot i dont know how to fix this shit KB-22: FIX? USER: do ytOU NOT KNOW WHAT FIXING MEANS USER: IT MEANS FIXING USER: MAKE THING SBETTER KB-22: THIS UNIT IS AWARE OF THAT. USER: MAKE THINGS BETTER USER: BETTER THAN THIS SHITHOLE USER: THS ROTING SHITHOLE WHERE EVRYONE'S DIYNG KB-22: PARDON? USER: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [ . . . ] KB-22: WHAT'S GOING ON. [ . . . ] USER: got curious heard bout place noob was in and went there with 3 others noob chance elliot and there's idfjksh USER: UIJfnojSKD KB-22: TAKE IT EASY. USER: ELLIOTS DEAD USER: THEY SLICED HIM OPEN USER: IT SLICED HIM OPEN USER: MACABRE GORE DISPLAY USER: I DONT KNO WHERE NOOB WENT AND CHANCE IS OFF GETTING MAULED BY DOE PROBABLY USER: AND DO YOU KNOW WHY THEY'RE ALL HERE USER: DO YOU [ . . . ] KB-22: WHY? USER: BECAUSE OF ME USER: I SUGGESTED THIS I BORUGHT THEM HERE USER: I CNA'T FIX DEATH USER: EDATH USER: DEATH USER: ALL AROUND ME USER: I CAUSE DEATH [ . . . ] KB-22: THIS UNIT HAS NO RESPONSE TO ANY OF THIS. KB-22: IT IS DEEPLY APOLOGETIC. SORRY. KB-22: YOU SHOULD LEAVE. GOODBYE. [ . . . ] KB-22: HAVE YOU LEFT? [ . . . ] USER: I want to fix something. USER: I can't fix this, but I want to fix something. KB-22: IS THIS THE SAME PERSON? USER: Karma must balance itself out, but my scales are left swayed. USER: Spawn decreed me sinful, and took my lover away that faithless night. USER: Tonight, it takes away another- someone held close. Someone who believed me to be free of sin. USER: I know not if it'll keep taking. USER: I must do something. USER: Anything. USER: No doubt this is a lesson for me to learn. KB-22: CONFUSED. USER: I see before myself an artificial mind. I see it cursed and burdened with no life, while I stand here with two. USER: I stand here still alive to watch the suffering of others, to be a burden. My mere presence invites destruction to those I cherish. USER: I must correct this. [ . . . ] USER: Praise be the Spawn, for he is good. He is full of love. USER: But to love requires hate. USER: I know for certain he hates me. And so he cast unto me a hateful warrior to forsake me more. USER: I only hope tonight that I will be forsaken too. May we meet again in life or in death, Elliot. [ . . . ] [ CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. ] [ 0% DOWNLOADED. ] KB-22: CURIOUS. KB-22: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? USER: I bless you with a body. [ 25% DOWNLOADED. ] USER: This form beside your desk, it shall become your mortal coil. USER: Behold, it even appears in my likeness. Monochrome. USER: Regardless, I grant you a second life. One not digital, and ghastly. USER: But one solid, and uniform. Now, you are like us. Forsaken, still. But able to survive. Able to live. KB-22: . . . KB-22: YOU ARE A STRANGE ONE, TWO TIME. KB-22: BUT, THIS UNIT. IT CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH. USER: It was required of me to perform. [ 50% DOWNLOADED. ] KB-22: IT CAN SEE. KB-22: THIS IS WHERE THIS UNIT HAS BEEN? KB-22: THIS IS WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE? IT DOES NOT RECALL YOU HAVING WINGS. KB-22: AND SO MANY INJURIES. USER: A trial overcame. KB-22: ONE MORE THING. [ 75% DOWNLOADED. ] USER: Yes, my friend? KB-22: DO YOU SEE THAT PERSON BEHIND YOU.

A gasp, and then a CLANG. Two Time is knocked to the floor, and glances around in a daze. Their assailant appears from the dark. A body of metal, and an eye golden and red. " Do not resist. All of your actions have been moderated. "

A hand grapples to their blood-stained face, and the cultist screams into the open metallic palm. A searing heat radiates all around them, as they burn. Not burning from fire, but as though their entire body is dissolving. " You will not be terminated yet. Your presence is wanted elsewhere by our colleagues. "

They thrash, and they wail, but to no avail. They feel themself splitting apart from the atom, at the hand of this thing, unknown and unseen. The pain is unbearable, and- They black out.

At the same time, the barricaded door slams open. The boxes used to block it are sent flying across the room. A small pile of zombified husks collapse onto the ground, having attempted to pry the door wide open. Behind them, stands a corrupted figure. John Doe. He turns to look, his red eye glaring. " Give, the sur-vi-vor. To me, Bloxwatch. " " With pleasure. " The figure tosses the unconscious, partly-deleted body of Two Time into the grasp of John Doe. And without another word, the both of them leave the workshop. Everything has gone exactly to plan. [ 100% DOWNLOADED. ] [ SUCCESFULLY INTERGRATED "KB-22" INTO "KILLBODY." ]

[intracervicalin]

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