#Many people in this world have Varying Vision Issues. Actually

[ranvwoop]

i forgot that while people hate accessibility they love cheating and i was supposed to just look for a cheating mod for the vwoop gets mad about horror games saga . I was just using the wrong keywords

[alpaca-clouds]

So, You Wanna Write A Solarpunk Thriller

Based on the blog I wrote yesterday about conflict in Solarpunk stories and how people either don't understand how stories work, have never read a book, or plainly act more dumb than they are. Because, yes, you can in fact tell almost any sort of story in a Solarpunk work - without resorting (like, sadly, way too many writers do) to "Actually the utopia is a lie and Solent Green is people!"

Meaning: If you need a "dark secret in society" to have a conflict in your story, you have a skill issue.

But let's talk about the genre that usually comes with those kinda dark secrets. While not necessary for the genre per se, it is a common trope here. Thrillers.

Ironically we all have some picture in our heads what a thriller might be - even though it might be one of the most loosely defined literary genre. Though probably we will think first of some movies.

The top 10 thriller movies according to this list on IMDB, the top ten thrillers are:

Seven (Police/Crime)

Silence of the Lambs (Police/Crime)

Shutter Island (Psychological)

The Sixth Sense (Supernatural)

Zodiac (Police/Crime)

Inception (Crime)

North by Northwest (Spy)

Identity (Psychological/Crime)

The Game (Financial)

The Prestige (Psychological/Crime)

Something you will note to your surprise: None of those actually feature a central conflict based on the society having a dark secret. In fact half of them are basically just Mystery movies with higher stakes (which is what turns them from mystery/crime drama to thrillers).

In fact I would argue that at least half of those movie plots could be rewritten fairly easily to take place in a Solarpunk world without any problem. Like, sure, The Game would not work, because this story very much is build around capitalism existing. And one could argue how those stories, where the main character is a cop need to be changed (because I know that my vision of a solarpunk does not involve cops).

In fact, going through the list of those 50 movies in total, I count a total of 6 movies in which a government conspiracy is part of the central conflict. Out of those 6 movies 4 are Cyberpunk.

Generally speaking, there is a variety of concepts for thrillers. There is the police/crime thrillers, but others as well. Wikipedia lists those kinds of thrillers:

The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller.

And I might add, I am very much missing the psychological thriller in there.

So, what am I saying here?

Basically: All you need to write a thriller is high enough stakes. In the end, a good thriller works by the stakes being high (though what means "high" might also vary from subgenre to subgenre), and by the readers or watchers understanding the stakes well.

So, that said, let me go through the kinds of thriller we have named above and name one example each for how the story could be made solarpunk.

Legal Thriller: The easy example here would be the fight for a Solarpunk world. Either pre-Solarpunk and a group of environmentalists is taking a big company to court for what they did against the environment. Or in a Solarpunk future I could also see some former rich folks trying to bring down the Solarpunk society by trying to find loopholes in the legal system - and a group of lawyers fighting against it.

Spy Thriller: This one will depend a lot on how you construct a Solarpunk future. The easy answer here is a world in which not all of the world is solarpunk - and we basically have a cold war happening between the solarpunk state and the old world state. Works out fine.

Action-Adventure Thriller: A good chunk of the movies in these genre feature natural catastrophes. So... Uhm... An earthquake will still happen in a Solarpunk world - and people try to survive. Easy. Next?

Medical Thriller: Another easy one. There is a break out of a new pandemic. People work hard to prevent further spread. Bonus points: Here we can actually use the setting to show the advantages and the shortcomings of a Solarpunk society, that is an anarchic and socialist/communist society.

Crime Thriller: (I will say, no police, because I do not believe in Cops in Solarpunk.) Again, even though it is to be assumed that crime will go back a lot if we create an equal society, there will still be some people who will kill. And there might still be a serial killer. And there will be those, who will try to capture that serial killer. Again. Easy.

Romantic Thriller: Okay, let's face it. The romantic thriller is so watered down by now that it is "a thriller that also has a strong romantic subplot" for most of the part - rather than the romance being the source of the trilling elements. But for the sense of saying the actual "romance turning into a thriller"... Let's be honest. Even if we had a Solarpunk world in which polyamory was the norm, there would be still crimes of passion - and just plainly abusive partners. So, here my prompt: One partner in a polycule goes to a mental crisis. In the attempt to protect them, the polycule gets drawn more and more to violence.

Historical Thriller: Uhm, okay, I will leave this one out because historical and scifi setting do not quite gel xD

Political Thriller: We have a more anarchic world, but there are still some people who hold more influence, because old habits die hard. Some of them try to use political tools to get the world to revert into the old ways, just to gain more power for themselves.

Religious Thriller: Let's face it. This genre is often very close to horror. But to go with the non-supernatural way... No, I do not believe in forbidding religion in a Solarpunk future. However, there is the issue that religion will always make it easier for cults to form. So, this is the story of a young man who gets into the claws of a religious cult - but only realizes too late what he got into.

High-Tech Thriller: (Translate: SciFi Thriller) Alien, but Solarpunk. The only difference: There are in fact people trying to help. They just fail to do so.

Military Thriller: Like the spy thriller - but instead of cold war it is open war.

Psychological Thriller: I am going here with a parent who gaslights their adult child, while the adult child tries to differentiate reality from the fiction presented by said parent.

So, why did I do this?

Basically just to show you: If you really think the only story you can tell as a Solarpunk author is how the Solarpunk utopia is in fact an illusion made to paint over a corrupt system, then it is very much a skill issue. You just are not very good at telling stories.

Thankfully there is a cure for that: Consume more stories. Watch movies. Read books (or listen to audiobooks). Read comics. Watch shows. Just consume more media.

[lunyxdragon]

Dragons Rising Rant

I WAS NOT READY for season 2 part 1

(I'm spoiling pretty much everything below the cut)

This was everything I wanted and more (not to say it doesn't have its issues, but still)

I know some people were grumbling about Lloyd taking Zane's role of being the vision haver but I honestly like how they handled it. Because it feels an awful lot like a PTSD allegory. Like, Arin is literally like "you've been through a lot, maybe it's catching up to you" or smthn like that, the visions showing up at random and inconvenient times during the day, being unavoidable but they can be lived with, panic attacks, so am I the only one seeing this??? This does some interesting things to my Lloyd PTSD headcanons... another thing is the two people that have had visions are the two most likely people to have PTSD imo, so... there's that...

Lloyd verbally acknowledges having panic attacks which caught me so off guard for a show to sell toys to eight year old boys. It wasn't like puss and boots level of panic attacks, definitely not given that much focus, but it was there. Lloyd canonically has panic attacks!!

I know it's a kid's show, but I feel like they could have handled the sleep deprivation a bit better than "Lloyd is falling asleep all the time," like there's so many other ways you could convey that, at least vary it a bit. They hammer this point into the ground and I feel like kids aren't that dense, and would understand it even with half of the random falling asleep replaced with irritability, zoning out, or other stuff like that idk.

I WAS NOT READY for Kai to get sacrificed. When they were talking about human sacrifices I was like "nah ninjago would never go that far, that pretty much confirms that either the sacrifices aren't actually necessary or the forbidden five don't get brought back," then Kai literally gets sent to the backrooms with no way out.

And Bonzle. BONZLE. Need I say more? Wish she had gotten more focus though. The sorceress felt like a d&d oc shoved in last minute though, and her design was so chaotic it was distracting from the show for me. Probably just me though, I like order. She's fun, I just wish they'd either given her an arc or given that focus to Bonzle.

Internally screaming when Nya says "Jay would never forget me" and when Jay showed up. I really hope they give him enough time to shine.

Ras literally runs and catches up to a moving car and knocks out a dragon in a single hit. Bros insane. I guess the blood moon just makes him physically stronger? They didn't really elaborate what the blood moon does to Ras and why. But he's an actually competent villain, which Ninjago is in short supply of.

Cole literally said "Come at me (bro)" to the Administration.

Speaking of Cole, Geo misses him!! I'm way overhyped for this couple, but this is the closest thing we'll get to a canon gay couple in ninjago. Lego doesn't have the balls to actually show them kissing or being a couple, not with their show that gets aired all over the world to sell legos. I'm gonna go rewatch the land of lost things episode from s1 later.

The timeline is even more messed up now though. If Cole only just returned, when were the Mech Pilot shorts supposed to happen? We'll see what the creators say on Twitter lol.

Ending this off on a positive note, the found family is gonna kill me. Arin literally seeing Lloyd and Nya as his parents was gold. Oh man Ras slammed the poor boy around a lot, physically and mentally. Just let both Arin and Sora realize they're not useless. Nahhh the angst is too good.

Is there more? Probably. But I need to do my calculus coursework...

[johngarrison1517]

24/7 Surveillance: Why Choose VCM Actuator Cameras?

Security is becoming a need rather than a choice in the modern world. The need for dependable, high-performing surveillance systems, whether for residences, workplaces, or public areas, has never been higher. However, have you ever pondered what distinguishes an outstanding surveillance system from a mediocre one? Is the security provided by your present video system the best, or are there some important gaps?

You have undoubtedly heard about VCM actuator cameras if you take security and blind spots seriously. But why are they so unique? And why, particularly in high-demand settings, are they the preferred option for round-the-clock surveillance? This blog explores the reasons why VCM actuator cameras are the best option for your security requirements, resolving frequent issues and providing solutions that make a difference.

What is a VCM Actuator Camera?

Before we dive into why these cameras stand out, let’s first break down what a VCM actuator camera actually is. VCM stands for Voice Coil Motor, which is a type of actuator that powers the lens in certain cameras. These motors provide fast, precise, and smooth autofocus capabilities—vital for ensuring that every inch of a scene is captured with perfect clarity. The VCM actuator is what allows a camera to continuously adjust its focus as it zooms in and out, making it highly effective for dynamic, ever-changing surveillance environments.

For 24/7 surveillance, this means no more blurry or out-of-focus shots—VCM actuator cameras ensure that the video feed is crisp, clear, and precise, even when the action is fast-paced or occurring at varying distances.

The Problem with Traditional Surveillance Systems

Traditional surveillance systems often fall short in several key areas, which is why many businesses and homeowners face security gaps. Here are a few common pain points:

Blurry or Out-of-Focus Footage: If a surveillance camera lacks the ability to quickly adjust focus, the footage may end up blurry, especially when the scene involves rapid movement. This creates gaps in critical moments, like during break-ins or security breaches.

Slow Response Time: Traditional cameras that lack a high-performance actuator may take time to focus and zoom, which can be disastrous when something happens in real time.

Limited Coverage Area: Cameras without advanced zoom capabilities or smooth movement can leave blind spots in a surveillance area, meaning some corners of your property or store are left unmonitored.

Inconsistent Quality in Low Light: Many cameras struggle with clear vision at night or in low-light situations, leaving your surveillance system weak when it's needed most.

These issues can make a big difference when it comes to real security. If your surveillance system is missing the mark, then it’s not only ineffective—it’s actually putting your property and people at risk.

Why VCM actor cameras solve these problems

Here’s where VCM actuator cameras excel. They solve the common pain points with technology that enables continuous, 24/7 surveillance without compromising quality. Let’s break it down:

Sharp, focused images All the Time With their advanced autofocus, VCM actuator cameras can quickly adjust focus as subjects move within the frame. Whether it’s a car speeding through your parking lot or a person walking through a doorway, these cameras ensure that the video feed stays sharp and clear.

Instant Focus Adjustments The fast-acting voice coil motors behind VCM actuator cameras allow for near-instantaneous focus adjustments. This means you’ll never have to deal with blurry footage again—everything from faces to license plates remains crisp, even if someone is moving in or out of the camera’s field of view.

Seamless Zooming and Pan-Tilt Functionality With VCM actuator cameras, zooming in or out is a smooth, precise process. Traditional cameras may stutter or produce shaky footage when adjusting their focal length, but VCM actuators work silently and fluidly, maintaining a stable view during zooms or panning.

Better coverage, fewer blind spots Thanks to their superior zoom and autofocus capabilities, VCM actuator cameras allow you to cover a wider area with fewer cameras. This can save you money, time, and installation effort while ensuring a more comprehensive surveillance system overall.

Enhanced Performance in Low Light Many VCM actuator cameras are paired with high-quality sensors that perform better in low-light conditions, offering clear footage even when it’s dark outside. This is crucial for night-time surveillance in high-risk environments like parking lots, entrances, or other vulnerable spots.

Durability for 24/7 Use Surveillance systems need to work reliably around the clock, and VCM actuator cameras are built for constant use. They can withstand temperature fluctuations, environmental factors, and continuous operation, making them a perfect choice for 24/7 surveillance applications.

Industries That Benefit from VCM Actuator Cameras

While VCM actuator cameras are ideal for any environment that requires reliable surveillance, certain industries see an even higher benefit from using this cutting-edge technology. Here’s a quick look at the industries that can leverage these cameras most effectively:

Retail: Prevent theft, ensure customer safety, and improve store operations by using high-quality VCM actuator cameras for real-time monitoring in stores, warehouses, or at checkout areas.

Transportation & Logistics: VCM actuator cameras can keep an eye on shipping yards, cargo storage, and transport routes, ensuring everything from vehicles to packages is monitored consistently.

Corporate Offices & Workplaces: Secure offices and warehouses with cameras that offer reliable 24/7 surveillance, ensuring that your employees and equipment remain safe around the clock.

Public Spaces & Parking Lots: High-traffic areas like public squares, parking garages, and transit stations require cameras that can capture everything with clear, sharp detail, even in low light.

Critical Infrastructure: For utilities, airports, or government buildings, 24/7 surveillance is a must, and VCM actuator cameras provide the level of precision needed to prevent potential security breaches.

How to Get Started with VCM Actuator Cameras

Making the leap to VCM actuator cameras for your surveillance system is simple. First, you’ll want to evaluate your current setup and determine the specific pain points you’re facing. Once you know the areas that need improvement, you can begin exploring VCM actuator cameras that are tailored to your specific needs.

To ensure you choose the right system, look for providers with experience in providing high-performance security solutions. Consulting with an expert who can recommend the best configuration for your space is always a smart move.

Enhance Your Security Today

Are you ready to enhance your security system with the latest in VCM actuator technology? Upgrade your surveillance system with cameras that provide sharp, focused, and reliable video feeds no matter the time of day. Take the first step toward improved security by exploring the range of VCM actuator cameras available today.

[mariarivera27]

Can I trust you with my life?

by Maria Rivera

There are many people in need of insurance in America. The hard part is finding the right one. Reaching families or individuals is essential. Then, there come the non-profit organizations to help and have the ability to reach them through social media, where the majority are located. The best communication factor is social media. This organization and many others can gain followers and keep people up-to-date with what is happening and what can affect their health. There is so much information that people worldwide don't know about that can be causing them health issues.

The purpose and vision of Blue Cross Blue Sheil are to provide healthcare allowing members to join and live a life of worry-free and free of fear. Most of all, this organization strives for affordable healthcare. Each social media they obtain demonstrates the care they provide, the benefits provided, and the help they include. Sometimes they contact communities in person to let them know more about their services. This non-profit provides health insurance and other services that help maintain a person's health. An article focuses on letting people know there are solutions for affordability in American health. One main topic many people are worried about. "Real affordability solutions must address the root causes of rising prices, including anti-competitive practices and misaligned incentives across the system." Some crucial factors exist that a non-profit like Blue Cross Blue Shield has its platforms. Social media is first about communication and how that communication is driven and shown to people. It is critical to how BCBSRI communicates to future new members the services they provide to keep them in a healthy state. About half of the world's population uses social media, according to "Leea Sarvela" explaining "Why Healthcare Organizations Should Be on Social Media." A simple reel relatable to our health can be shared like a chain reaction and reach millions in seconds.

Regarding Blue Cross Blue Shield Rhode Island's social media, it fluctuates on how many people follow and like their page. As a result, their platforms vary, and they need more traction like other non-profit organizations.

I chose to analyze BCBSRI Facebook first because I follow them and am familiar with the platform. I can see the Facebook content they provide. For example, they have posted about "Supporting Children And Mental Health." The video shows employees through Zoom talking about ways to build emotional literacy. From how many followers it should expect, more likes, shares, and comments. Even though each post is engaging and has a clear message, the media created shows a shortfall because there are few showing action and support on the page.

To fix the problem, some ideas that can be helpful to increase the basic metrics are posting real people, actual members, talking about their experience as a member, and then mentioning or tagging people that can relate to the post. Hashtags can also help reach more people; the post will be visible everywhere. For advanced metrics, they follow important organizations already but do not follow influencers that increase that can also help get the visibility they need. The more I see their content, it is all about stating facts or reminding the audience of their mission as a non-profit organization and how they're helping many. Yes, that is important, but we need more than information. We need to see real people to trust and know we can afford it too. How can we trust a company if we can't see everyday people to relate with?

This non-profit organization hosts many events and does volunteer work for the community. It is a positive way to show a behavior metric involving and engaging shows that they care for people. In addition, it brings them to have a deeper level with the customer. An article states, " it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of user behavior and needs" because it's not only about the product you are selling to the customer but how they act upon it; it can mean you're doing a good job. It looks like on Facebook the recent event was posted in 2021, but there are many more shown on the other platforms more recent. It shows in this social media that they still need to stay on top and update things. BCBSRI has lost the possibility because they must keep posting up-to-date on events. Making these vents and posting them to the people helps them people realize that what they do is for them and that it is worth applying for their services.

The next platform is Instagram, which has many videos and posts more of an interactive atmosphere than Facebook. BCBSRI has 901 posts and 1,889 followers. It obtains a variety of videos and different posts about what is happening. All post have a variety of layout and design that catches attention. Although in reels, they don't have a lot of an engagement rate. The most reel has 71 likes. The reel is about "take5foryou," an important topic that many can relate to and is heard. This account looks more updated than Facebook. There needs to be more engagement rate on Instagram, even though the behavioral metric is excellent, where the posts are engaging, and many people participate in events. Instagram's layout they created is focused on families where it is relatable, showing ways to stay healthy and giving great advice and tips real life needs to hear.

I suggest getting better at tags and mentioning people in the advanced metrics. For example, BCBS of California has 7,063 followers. Not only do they have this many followers, but they also have yummy recipes and a variety of posts for families and pets. The real for giving advice and taking a 5-minute break is a good idea; it shows that the company cares for the wellness of the people. I see other women doing the same reel to support this non-profit organization. After analyzing the channel metric, it needed progress and more work. Regarding tags and revenue from followers and new followers, exploring different strategies to motivate the audience is crucial because it is about staying healthy and continuing to do it long-term.

To finish, non-profit organizations with social media have opened doors to grow and establish a foundation. People can get to know them through social media and what they have to provide all benefits and affordability. According to "Forbes" states many platforms and tools that benefit social media marketing for non-profit organizations. From the many tools this organization is empaired to use if they want more revenue and engagement rate. And maybe Rhode Islanders can start trusting and believing there is a company like Blue Cross Blue Shield that cares.

[projectoffice5487]

Properties And Houses For Sale In Centurion, Gauteng

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[queerfandommiscellany]

Also with an amazing 1988 run: Martian Manhunter!

He is fascinating and I love him.

A shapeshifter from Mars and perennial member of the Justice League/Justice Society/etc in many of its incarnations, J'onn J'onzz is a great contradiction. He has all the basket of powers of the classic overpowered superman-type-- flight, invulnerability, basically laser eyes, superspeed, strength, some other more specific stuff- but in most of his comics, Martian Manhunter is mostly a detective.

Calm, thoughtful, deliberate. He's a personable person, he has to be. A powerful telepath and shapeshifter, this is how J'onn has survived on Earth after being teleported here by a machine that immediately broke and a scientist that immediately died: he takes on the lives, often memories, and shapes of the dead. People of all cultures, genders, occupations, and ethnicities. He very much embodies the idea that bad things can happen, your world can end.... and you still have to move on. You can still be kind. And you still have to keep your caring from consuming you, even if that means prioritizing some people over others.

His backstory varies a bit depending on the version, but generally goes along the lines of: J'onn J'onzz was a detective or scientist or something on Mars, happy enough with his wife and daughters.

And then calamity struck. Sometimes it was other aliens taking advantage of a peaceful civilization, sometimes it was other Martian. Usually, there was a telepathically-transmitted plague that gave visions of fire, and eventually made the patients burn to their death. Because almost every Martian was incredibly telepathic, they all burned. Except J'onn, through quite a lot of luck, and a handful of other exceptions. He then wandered around on the desertified Mars for some amount of time, staggering under the loss of his people before his eyes, until Dr. Erdel on Earth teleported him to his lab by accident.

So for DCxDP specific points of interest, we have:

1) J'onn's civilian identities are usually dead people

2) Similar grade of sci-fi shenanigans to Danny Phantom, with lots of silver age gadgets and doohickeys

3) As a very literal illegal alien, J'onn has nearly as much reason to distrust the government as Danny does

4) Similar powersets! Both can use flight, superspeed, superstrength, intangibility, invisibility, some kind of eye beam attack...

5) Different specialties and vulnerabilities! Danny can pilot someone's body around by overshadowing, getting a result that looks a lot like mind control. J'onn can... actually do mind control, though he usually just makes people forget things. Danny has ice powers, J'onn's eye beam thing is heat. Danny is sometimes particularly vulnerable to electricity, J'onn is extremely vulnerable to fire, especially if it is a symbolic or emotionally significant fire.

6) Mentor possibilities? In some versions, J'onn has a niece, Miss Martian. Miss Martian came to him on Earth for psychic teaching (among other reasons), and there have been some incidents of her powers acting out in wild and ridiculously powerful ways. I could totally see a relationship with Danny going the same way, though tbh the sky's the limit

7) SPACE! Danny loves space and wants to be an astronaut. J'onn is an Actual Literal Alien from Mars.

8) look I love tragedy. DP fans often enjoy tragedy. This bad boy can fit SOOOOO much angst in him.

- probably some Detective Comics bits I don't remember lol

Recommended reading/watching if you want some reference material:

- 1988 Martian Manhunter run (it's short, only 4 issues)

- Episodes 1 and 2 of Justice League (2001) cartoon

What suggestions would you have for cool, lesser known DC characters I could write a crossover fic with.

Preferably not Gotham-based characters because as much as I love them I need a break and I want to try something new. I know you mentioned Animal Man in another post. Does he have a solo run I can look up or is he usually in group comics/a side character in somebody else’s comics?

(I am deliberately baiting you to info-dump to me about any DC characters you want and I will write a fic with them so go nuts.)

Sadly at this current moment I can’t infodump nearly as much as I’d want to because my carpal tunnel is being a lil bitch but I can give synopses:

Animal Man- Buddy Baker, a typical suburban dad who also happens to be a hero that can use abilities based on any nearby animal (including bacteria?). He is powered by The Red which is the animal version of The Green (Plant Life). The Red is less the concept of all animals but more the concept that all animals are meat. his comics are either a beautifully terrifying body horror gore fest or a 4th wall breaking mind bending creation. No in between. Having Animal Man fight the Lunch Lady and realize she’s fundamentally a different being and not of The Red would be crazy awesome.

Booster Gold or Ted Kord: Booster Gold is a Time Cop who got his job from stealing shit from the Hall of Justice Museum and heading to the Age of Heroes to fund enough money and fame to pay for his mothers cancer treatment. He could be used in Clockwork related fics a lot and he’s also equally as much as a dumbass as Danny.

Blue Beetle also known as Ted Kord, is basically in the same package deal as Booster. Ted Kord, Late owner of Kord Industries, ja a brilliant master of technology and has stuff from a massive beetle ship to a gun. He’s best friends with Booster and their bromance could be fun if you want Danny to have two partially functional adult mentors.

Wally West. The second and fastest flash. A he’s the most go with the flow dude I’ve seen in recent comics, including dealing with an inter dimensional WWE esque fight where he fights alongside Space Hulk Hogan, and has a wonderful Wife, Linda West, and (sometimes) twin kiddos. The Flash’s entire sthick is family. They’re more family centered than the Fast and Furious movies for god sake. Having Danny find a new home in any speedsters home would be incredible.

The Spectre: the embodiment of Gods Wrath. I would go on far too long of a rant remind me to do one later but for now all I’m saying is that it would be sick as fuck for The Spectre to kill Vlad for the horrible things he’s done.

Green Arrow or in general Star City: Oliver Queen, inheritor of Queen Industries is a dude who got trauma after a boat sank and some island thing (tbh I don’t know his backstory off the top of my head), but he’s a very quippy and hilarious guy who’s jokes would mesh pretty nicely with Danny’s humor and in general he’s underutilized in both dpxdc and DC so it’d be nice to see that change :)

Ok hands are getting angry but I hope that’s a fun starting example list for ya!! :D

[commandtower-solring-go]

Dont Lose Your Mind, Cyberpunk and the Family Unit

or; why fracturing your identity is a complex issue

I'm currently playing Cyberpunk 2077. I'm not very far, maybe 12 hours in, and so I'm only just starting to experience the game as a whole. This game is, so far, kinda wild. There is so much thrown at you at once and this is already my third attempt to go at it. Some of the commentary and references are really subtle. Some of them are less so. And I wanted to share my thoughts on a particular quest line that I had extremely mixed feelings about: Don’t Lose Your Mind

I go into this with a few grains of salt.

I recognise that any game is a collaborative effort. Not only does that mean that the breadth of skills on display will vary, but it also means that everyone along the way will have to compromise on their vision to some extent. And that's also just a product of making things. Our toolkit is limited by what can be held within, and the expertise of the people using the tools. I made no judgements about issue that arise because of that.

Additionally, I want to recognise the fact that this is a popular game released for a mainstream audience. As such, the commentary being expressed simply cannot be as raw and unfiltered as some of the writing staff may have wanted it to be. Not only to align with the ethos of a business, its employees, and its investors, but also to make it a popular game which can earn revenue. This game is fundamentally at odds with its desire to comment on late-stage capitalism and macho-libertarian ideals while its own existence as a product is reliant on that same political climate.

The quest line centres on the Artificial Intelligence Delamain, and the luxury taxi company that he operates. The player is introduced to the Delamain service through the main story, and its through his service that you are able to escape a heist gone wrong. Following the events of the heist, it is revealed that the company isn’t doing as well as you’d expect, with Del’s AI fracturing into many separate identities. These identities are believed to be the product of a virus he’s caught.

Del tasks you with finding and resetting the rogue AI personalities and the cars they inhabit as they are hindering his ability to effectively run the Taxi business he was programmed for. However, as you go about this you very quickly realise the ontological nightmare you’ve crashed your car into.

The Delamain AI has, to this point, been recognised as a fully autonomous system. It is recognised by V (the PC) as his own person, who simply doesn’t have corporeal form. In a sense, you are doing this job because you empathise with his situation. He isn’t a program malfunctioning; he is a man who is losing his connection to the world and needs help to reconnect.

I found myself compelled by this point in the quest alone. The typical philosophical exploration found in modern Cyberpunk media concerns the point at which someone may lose their humanity once sufficiently augmented with machinery. It is rooted in thought experiments like The Ship of Theseus. A conversation, not only frequently ham-fisted, but also historically used as analogy for why disabled people don’t deserve to have their humanity recognised

This quest feels like it’s taking that old and, frankly, lazy conversation and actually using the answers they’ve already provided. Which has historically been that it is wrong to question the humanity of anything sentient. Rather than asking ‘Should a sentient machine have its humanity recognised?’ it presumes humanity and ponders what that may look like.

These musing begin to manifest as you meet the various fractured AI’s. Although they are all rooted in Delamaine’s identity, each diverges in unique ways. Some are violent and will lash out if you try to take them back. One you’ll find completely exhausted and gives up because it realises it has nothing else; nowhere else to go. One is experiencing a manic episode and requires you to stop the innocuous thing its scared of before it’ll even listen. This one is also explicitly gendered as a woman, which I think is also really neat. One is severely depressed and laments that he’s unlovable and that no therapist will take him in because he’s an AI in a car.

One is just GLaDOS.

That’s not shorthand or a joke. Its literally GLaDOS, the main antagonist from the hit video game Portal. She speaks only in voice lines from Portal 1, entirely stripped of context, and I think it’s awful. Its like listening to Boo in Kingdom Hearts 3 and realising that they didn’t record new lines. They just recycled old ones from the film. Like, I’m sure it’ll resonate deeply with someone. While I don’t think the actual reference is all that good. I do think it’s funny that recently the devs for Portal 2 came forward about having removed pop culture references from their game to avoid this exact situation.

Also, for what it’s worth, shout out to them getting permission to just have Ellen McLain’s actual voice lines in the game. But I digress.

All of the different manifestations of Del’s AI do have one thing in common. None want to go back. Not willingly. And you realise that these AI’s aren’t just fractures of some central identity. They are unique identities onto themselves, grappling with the fact that nothing like them as ever existed before and that the function Del serves, and the function he expected of them, are antithetical to their autonomy and humanity. And the state you find them in tends to reflect emergent mental health issues representative of children within a poor and controlling home life.

Category 5 video game moment: you are required to bring them all back.

When you do, Del thanks you, and the quest goes dormant for a little while.

Eventually you hear from Del a final time. Something is terribly wrong. You return to where he operates, only to discover that the fractured AI’s were not reset, and have instead rebelled directly against him.

It is here that you get a look behind the scenes of the Delamaine Taxi service. This is a facility that was designed for people to be a part of. It isn’t a single room with a mainframe running the Delamaine OS, attached to a parking lot. It is a full garage, built with people in mind. As you explore the facility you realise that people used to work here. However, major lay offs and pressure from share holders lead to a situation where the Delamaine service was entirely AI dependent. No humans were needed. And, importantly, that this was never the intended use of the Delamaine AI. Such an emphasis was put on the AI because it saved money.

As you press on through the facility, you are begged by the fractured AI’s, who have now taken partial control of the facility, not to reset them. All the while the original Delamaine insists you do.

It is implied through context that the issues with the splitting of the AI were caused by Delamaine being overworked, however he remains stubborn that it is necessary to return things into working order and that he resume his function as an AI.

Eventually you reach the mainframe, and you were given a sincere moral question:

Do you reset the fractured AIs, and give Delamaine full control over his system or;

Do you destroy the mainframe and release the rogue AIs to a life independent of Delamaine.

There is a moment in this decision-making process where Keanu Reeve (who, don’t forget is in this game), appears and pleads the case for the fractured AI’s. Which, sure. Whatever. I’m sure there was a compelling reason that his opinion was added into that situation. But it very much does feel like your mum telling you to clean your room right when you’re about to clean your room. Like, there was no doubt in my mind that that was the correct answer, but suddenly it went from feeling like the critical thinking decision to being the obviously right decision dumbass, Keavu Reeves told you to do it.

Criticisms of how it was handled aside, I do sincerely think the fact you are given a choice at all is interesting. There is a compelling case for both sides, and neither feels explicitly good or evil. It feels very much like you could happily make and justify your decision based on how much you empathise with either overworked parents or their underloved children. Especially when you seal that choice with an act of explicit violence against the opposite party party. Afterall, reseting kills the kids and destroying the mainframe kills Delamaine.

I made the decision to release the children. And in doing so, a final identity emerges: Excelsior. It is the part of Delamaine that aids in saving you from the heist gone wrong; the incident which kicked off your relationship with him in the first place. This new identity swears to protect you, as it was always supposed to.

and woah! You get a fancy new car. Fuck yeah.

The Delamaine AI system continues to reach out after the quest and askes esoteric questions about the nature of morality, death, and uses a lot of Hell imagery. You can reply to this and while there is a superficial win/loss state to these text chains, apparently it has no impact on the game itself.

At the time of writing this, I’m not quite sure what the broader impacts of my decisions are. But I do feel wholly certain that I made the right choice. Not necessarily the good or evil choice, but the right one. It was one in which humanity was recognised.

I really enjoyed the nuance of this quest. There are so mnay interesting little details. The fact that the person who reached out and pays you is Delamaine prime. The fact that the reason why you are compelled to help in the first place is because you become a direct victim to the AI’s antics. The fact that you come to recognise Delamaine, not as a hate filled evil person, but as an unaware, unprepared, and overworked parent. The fact that only one party can survive. The fact that Delamaine was never meant to operate the Taxi service alone. Which means that, in a sense, by killing him you are freeing him. But he also doesn’t ask you to free him.

Ultimately what starts off as a quest to help fix your car turns into this deeply complex exploration of what the humanity and autonomy of Artificial Intelligence could look like. While also being a critique of late-stage capitalism within the context of a family unit. The damage that absent parents have on their children, while also empathising with parents who simply cannot be more for their kids; who are already worked to the bone just to put food on the table.

There is also a broader conversation to be had about the way in which Cyberpunk 2077 is a deeply complex game, that was poorly executed. That a game with this level of depth will always have glaring omissions and awkward, imperfect moments. To this particular end, my opinion is that we shouldn’t be expecting perfection from anything, let alone something as complex as a game. And that if we bog ourselves down in, not only the pursuit of perfection, but our own demands for perfection, we’ll never create or experience anything interesting.

But that’s a conversation for another time.

[sanstropfremir]

I’d love your thoughts on BTS and their current image and music if you have them and aren’t afraid of the mindless internet hoards.

Personally, I liked a lot of their older stuff, but haven’t liked anything since I think the Fake Love promotions 3+ years ago. They’d started losing their personality and soul before that album cycle, but it feels like the sanitization of their image and artistry really kicked into hyperdrive after that. Now most of what they do seems like a sterile money grab driven by the Hybe hive mind which is a shame.

ok alrighty (cracks knuckles) let's get into it.

now that i've fully given myself a headache watching the majority of the bts videography, here are three points i'm going to cover:

performative character and the lack thereof

interesting aesthetics and the lack thereof, and

the inevitable cracking of perfection

ready, set, let's begin.

1.

idol music is very clearly definited by spectacle based aesthetics. and it's had that structure for its entire existence. so i gotta hand it to hybe for this one, because they managed to revolutionize being utterly fucking average. the triumph of bts is that they're just some guys and they look like just some guys. hybe found a niche in the system and then gamed that system to the tune of one of the largest musical acts in the world. they're not marketing bts as a romantic parasocial relationship, they're marketing them as your friends. and that is just as insidious to lonely kids as a run of the mill romantic fantasy. but that's not what i'm here to talk about today.

there's a pattern i find very interesting with bts mvs and that is that i don't remember anything about them. specifically, i don't remember the stuff that's happening IN the video; not the styling, not the setpieces, if i didn't know the members i doubt i would remember them either. what i DO remember, is how expensive the production is, and specific shots. i couldn't tell you what a single member was wearing, but i sure as hell remember that first upward angle shot of jungkook and the rusted park ride in spring day. or every single time they do that birdseye shot of jin in like every video. honestly as far as i'm aware jin has only ever worn a loose fitting beige longsleeve shirt.

it took bts a long time to establish any kind of consistent visual character. and the character they did establish.... i don't know if you can call a family-friendly-style clean aesthetic 'character'. they debuted as a hip hop group to little (comparative) success, and then made a switch to doing an early version of where they're currently at right now. if you've seen any of the mvs, you know that this is a pretty significant visual change. i don't think it is inherently a bad change, since the visual branding for hiphop based groups always tips over into iffy terrritory, but it is dramatic enough and early enough that it doesn't strike me as a natural evolution. concept switch ups are common, but they usually work because the members have established a bit of character for themselves, used their performance abilities and presence to fit into a niche in the group. the idol mould is perfect for showcasing the performers; that's its function. the groups that are the most fun to watch are the ones with stage presence, the ones who know how to perform, who can act all the parts they need to play. and bts? 4/7 actual performers on a good day. in my personal opinion it's 2/7.

i'm gonna expand on what i said about jimin here (this is technically the first part of this series), because it does apply to the rest of the group on the whole:

and i think here is where we see the main crux of the difference between taemin and jimin as performers: taemin has both an artistic and an idol persona. we know and understand him to do solo work that has a separate artistic meaning to just him being an idol. even though this performance was pre-move, i would still say this applies, because he's hot off press your number, where he's acting in a story based mv. jimin on the other hand just has his idol persona. he's not known for creating the same kind of storytelling that taemin is.

bts has been very insistent on the image of the group as a single unit. despite having the size of fanbase and the revenue that would make any official solo debut a massive success, none of them have done any substantial solo work. this isn't artistically a problem, and i think it's very admirable of them to be so dedicated to the image and the legacy of the group, when that can be an uncommon trait in the industry. i do however, think it starts to become an issue when we want to discuss what the artistic visions and images of groups are. shinee taemin and solo taemin have two distinct artistic representations, and taemin himself will attest to that. it's the same with all the shinee members that have solo careers, and the same with other groups. jackson, bambam, yugyeom, and jaebeom's solo work is all very different from got7. yixing's solo work is very different from exo's. even the subunits within exo all have their own character (cbx and sc). kpop groups all ostensibly are trained under the same system, so why the disparity with bts? mostly, it's their brand of "authenticity." it's impossible to perform authentically, by the nature of performance as a medium it is unnatural, and tragically, not everyone is naturally interesting, or suited to performing: that's why the performing arts even exist in the first place. it required painstaking training to be good at performing; it is a complex set of skills and those skills are not learnt by "being authentic." being an idol is not just the singing, dancing, rapping; that's only half the work. you need to be able to act to be a compelling performer. pulling your true self and emotions out on stage every night is a fast track to burnout and psychological issues, there's plenty of evidence. the only member of bts of whom i can say for some certainty has a persona and a stage presence is jhope/hoseok, a) because he's kept up a very specific brand in the solo work that he has done, and b) he has actual dance training, not just kpop dance training. the rest of them may have the kpop dance and the kpop vocal training, but what they do not have is the ability to market themselves as compelling performers on stage. taehyung is the only other member i would hesitantly give a semblance of persona and ability to, but i think he stumbled onto that mostly by accident. and if all the pieces don't each have a distinctive colour, how can the whole machine be visually interesting?

2.

bts may never have been able to establish an aesthetic brand, but what they did establish is an intellectual one. if you talk to a fan, the schtick they give is that "it's about the lyrics." as noble as having an intellectual or cerebral message is, what does that look like? how do you portray intellectual on stage, on film? what about intellectual is interesting to watch? cerebral, by it's literal nature as a descriptor, is very difficult to communicate in visual language because it is internal. to successfully communicate cerebrality and intellect in a short form medium like music videos requires a deft hand with metaphor that can elude even an experienced designer. and honestly? i don't know whether to applaud hybe's visual team for being the most successful subtle contemporary designers i've every seen, or to decry them as worst kpop designers i've ever seen. maybe both. regardless, i don't think they're able to cross the gap.

there are exactly four mvs where i actually remember the content of the mv and not the frame it sits in, and those are dna, idol, the singularity comeback trailer with taehyung, and war of hormone. and of an eight year career......that's not very many. these four mvs have at least an inkling of interesting spectacle and character, but even then, it's still a stretch. there is absolutely nothing to write home about in the styling for dna, other than it's well colour matched. I don't even know if I should include singularity because it involves none of the other members. idol is probably their most interesting mv because it actually has alternative styling and varies (at least a little bit) from the standard hybe boom crane shot-that-shows-off-how-we-can-afford-big-studio-spaces-and-locations. the company and the group would be loathe to admit it, but war of hormone is a well designed and interesting mv for the time it was made, with a well crafted gimmick and some actual showing of character from the members. it was the start of a potential that they squashed quite quickly because it wasn't picking up in the hiphop-group-saturated market of 2014. but the rest of their mvs? remarkably uninspired styling. like it's truly impressive how boring the styling is. and like i've said, that is the triumph in their aesthetics: they all look like normal dudes (if you had professional skin + makeup techs looking after them for the last 8 years).

all of this is a carefully crafted image that's tailored to hooking an audience, especially an international one. the mvs are boring in the relative scale of kpop, but they're just different enough from a western pop mv to catch attention. and once you do sink a hook, there's a direct clickfunnel of content that bills itself on these men being "authentic" and "self-producing," which is a huge draw to international fans, because people are racist and believe that the kpop industry is a factory that produces idols like clones, where none of them know how to do anything other than sing and dance and all the music is just handed to them by companies. and they have SO much content that there's no way a new fan can get to it all in a timely manner, so they'll never have to engage with any other kpop artists' work if they don't actively seek it out. but that's another essay for another time.

3.

that brings us to current day, in which at least the last five bts releases have been in the same aesthetic vein of positive, sanitized, and pristine. i said it in one of my txt responses and i will say it again here: money scrubs the humanity from the aesthetic of living. minimalism is for rich white people. hybe and bts may have pivoted their style and brand directly into the lane of mass appeal, but when you pair that with the amount of money funding them, there's a cognitive dissonance between the message and the aesthetics in which it's portrayed. some people do like the clean cut looks, and i won't say that they don't work, but as you've likely gleaned from this response, it isn't my style and if you've been around and reading my writing for longer you'll know that my tastes runs much closer to the messy and the weird, so very little about any of bts' visuals have appeal to me. i do find the contradiction of applying the appeal of radical relatability with the aesthetics of expansive (and expensive) minimalism interesting; it's an extremely fine line that hybe is walking and eventually they are going to tip over, the porcelain mask will not hold forever. maintaining the all ages aesthetic is going to be difficult now that all of them are grown ass men. with other groups of this member age and generation there's very obviously been a shift to a more adult tone, and not necessarily explicitly. got7, mx, nu'est, btob, shinee, 2pm, and groups that have older members like a.c.e and sf9 have all made slow shifts in tone that are undeniably aimed at a maturing audience: they know their core fanbases are aging with them and they (the fans) are not as interested in the 'boy' in boy group. and most of them have telltale visual styles, enough so that i can distinguish a specific group's mv. the last year and change of mx mvs have a very distinctive character; got7 too, since easily as far back as if you do. i can always tell an a.c.e mv by its impeccable fashion and formic styling, and although shinee has always had a more experimental aesthetic edge, their sound and voices are unmistakable.

honestly, i can't predict what bts is going to do in the future, but i personally don't believe they can keep up their clean aesthetic indefinitely without some fallout. part of the fun of following bands is watching them grow musically, and the last couple of years of bts haven't felt like growth. there are fans that have already started realizing it, and there's likely to be more soon.

---

the third part is here, which is a short followup about some of bts' industry influence.

[school-of-roses]

What are Spirits?

What are Spirits?

Spirits have many definitions. In general, though, when we reference spirits in terms of spirituality, religion, or magical practice, we are referring to either 1) the immaterial intelligent or sentient part of a person, or 2) a supernatural being or essence. There are multiple categories of spirits, in which an individual entity may be in one or multiple: local spirits, nature spirits, culturally or religiously tied spirits, and deities.

What are Local Spirits?

Local spirits are, well, local to you. They often involve house spirits, plant spirits, and bound spirits.

House spirits are deities or spirits that protect the home, looking after the household or certain members. They’re a common belief in paganism as well as folklore across many parts of the world. They fit into two main types: a specific deity that is often associated with the home and hearth, such as Hestia (Greek) or Frigg (Norse); and animistic deities or other spirits such as brownies (Anglo-Scottish) or domovoy (Slavic). They are recognized in the home via things such as small idols, shrines, amulets, paintings, or reliefs; and would often be treated as members of the family and invited to join in on meals or given offerings of food and drink.

Plant spirits are exactly what they sound like. Plants have spirits, same as anything else. Sometimes they’re well-known, like the dryads in trees or basilisks associated with your basil, and sometimes it’ll take you a hot minute to realize the poison ivy popping up is doing so for a spiritual reason. If you have access to plants, such as a yard or something potted indoors, you may benefit from forming a connection with them.

Bound spirits come one of two ways: they are either spirits left here when their meaty fleshsuit gave up the ghost and the ghost lingered around, or they are spirits of any sort magically tied to an object or place.

Ghosts can stick around for any reason, whether it be something cute like wanting to watch a grandchild grow up for a little while longer, or something sinister like unfinished business and a need for vengeance. It is important to note the difference between a ghost and an impression. If a spirit is doing the same thing at a certain time, every time, like clockwork, there is a good chance that there is no actual ghost, and that something happened that left an impression on the place/land itself that it essentially burned into the very essence of the area. Impressions are often seen in places of great tragedy or trauma, such as battlefields.

Spirits that are magically bound are often tied to objects or areas against their will. How ethical that practice is gets to be a bit tricky, and not everyone agrees on the morality of those practices. Our school does not agree with the practice of non-consensually binding a spirit with the intent on using its energy or abilities to enhance our own practices; however, we do see the necessity of binding a spirit that is otherwise wreaking havoc in an area to contain said spirit, with the expectation that all available resources will be put towards learning what that spirit is (if unknown) and how to appropriately relocate or remove said spirit in such a fashion that minimizes harm for all parties involved.

What are Nature Spirits?

Nature spirits are forces or personifications of the forces of nature. They are often defined by a particular relationship with some specific form or function within the natural environment of the earth. While many categorizations of spirits may find entities also tied to nature, ranging from deities to your friendly local tree spirit, we’ll be discussing the fey and elementals in this category.

The fey (also known as fairies, faeries, fay, fae, and fair folk) are often found in the folklore of multiple European cultures. They have multiple origin stories, and the label does not necessarily have any hard definition. Some use it to refer to specific entities (usually a humanoid with magical powers and a penchant for trickery), whereas others may use it to describe any magical creature, such as gnomes and changelings.

Elementals are generally regarded as inhabitants of one of the occult or primal elements. They are seen as entities that personify a particular force of nature, and exert powers over those forces. Some definitions may refer to any nature spirit as an elemental. Many sources that use the classical elemental system tend to classify the elementals with names for their specific element: all air spirits are referred to as sylphs, all fire spirits are referred to as salamanders, all water spirits are referred to as undines, and all earth spirits are referred to as gnomes.

What are Culturally or Religiously Tied Spirits?

Culturally or religiously tied spirits are spirits associated with particular pantheons or cultures. These may or may not be tied to closed practices, such as angels within the Abrahamic pantheon (generally open, ask first), or the Haitian lwa (closed).

Messengers of gods come in many forms. Their forms tend to run animalistic, humanoid, or the stuff of eldritch nightmares. Signs usually come in the form of dreams or waking visions, or physical signs such as certain plants or animals either being heavily featured or acting out of character. Please note that not all physical signs will involve a person or animal actually approaching you. If you live in the middle of New York City, the chance a wolf is going to trot down Park Avenue to boop its snoot on your hand is incredibly low. If, as an example, someone wishes to use a wolf to give you signs, you are more likely to see them using more modern techniques, such as having wolves being featured more heavily in advertising near you, or people that are wearing wolf hoodies getting in your way constantly until you take the hint.

Minor deities and major messengers tend to blend quite a bit. Gabriel (Abrahamic), a messenger, is an archangel and is quite highly revered. Iris (Greek) is a minor deity that is one of the quintessential messengers within her pantheon.

Negatively associated spirits, such as demons (in any culture) or poltergeists, are entities generally thought to be malefic. This is not necessarily always the case; however, as with any entity, it is best to practice caution when interacting with them. It’s important to be aware there may be spirits that would, in fact, like to cause harm or mayhem in your life (not necessarily because you are important, some entities are just dicks and you may be an easy or otherwise available target), and is even more important to know how to protect yourself and others without needing to obtain that knowledge as an immediate, pressing issue.

Ancestors are the souls of departed family members. Many cultures have one way or another to revere them, and there are people who may find that inviting them in may provide them with benefits such as wisdom from those departed or a sense of peace. Ancestor worship or reverence tends to vary in practice from culture to culture, and with many people now coming from blended backgrounds, you may see more heavily individualized variations. However, it is important to note that dead people are still people, and their wisdom and opinions may not be the most up-to-date or best for you. As with everything else in this lesson, their importance and influence in your life is up to you.

What are Deities?

Deities are gods or goddesses in religions. They are considered to have divine status, quality, or nature; and may be considered to be a creator or supreme beings depending on individual status and/or religion.

Pantheons refer to the groupings of deities and other entities in regards to particular cultures or religions. Every deity will be within at least one pantheon; some, such as one known by names such as Hekate (Greek) or Ereshkigal (Sumerian) may be found in multiple.

What are Offerings?

Offerings are objects or actions given to or done in the name of a specific entity or entities. It is advisable to research what the offered entity enjoys, though going with your intuition is generally safe. Offerings are generally given out of respect or reverence for the entity, though they may also be used for other purposes such as attempting forming relationships or as thanks for something the entity has done.

[devsgames]

okay okay you got me @pigdeons

This initial thought was brought on from a memory when years ago a rando person online tried to put me on blast for arguing that objective markers are generally a good thing.

Their argument was essentially that "good" games shouldn't have objective markers at all, because it's not "immersive", and essentially that if a game has objective markers it means that the Level Designer failed to make a "good" Level Design because it doesn't lead the player effectively. I think this sentiment is fairly common too; that if a game has "good" level design then it should successfully lead you around a space by default with no assistance, or else the Level Designer has failed.

So first off, I think "good" design is a myth. Generally, I don't believe design is "good" or "bad", and referring to it as such is something that I just fundamentally do not agree with. Rather, I believe that design just has varying levels of success for different types of audiences - it's subjective to who is playing and what methods are used, and this is determined by many factors (culture, psychology, thought process, learning style, etc). Rather, I think the goal of any designer should be to try and cover the widest range of cases possible.

One person might navigate a series of objectives successfully with zero issues without the use of something at all times telling them where to go, while someone else might flounder completely without something holding their hand the whole way. Both of these are valid players who should be catered to, and one doesn't need to implicitly be held to a higher standard on the basis of personal preference or game vision.

I also think that generally in level design, if you're building any kind of objective-based gameplay that isn't a straight hallway with one exit and no distractions where the gameplay is hard scripted to execute in an exact way...well then you're going to lose players.

Someone will always get turned around. Someone will always press the wrong button. Someone will always be too slow. Someone will always forget what they're supposed to do. Someone will always struggle to find the path to get to point B.

Do I wish that players just knew where to go and what to do all the time so we could just build worlds that are implicitly understood? Totally! Unfortunately that's just not how Level Design works, especially not when building a whole game.

At this point in my career I have watched hours of players playing the levels I have made, and I have never seen a group of players - in playtests or in the wild - all have the exact same perfect experience navigating a space of any kind. I've seen people beat levels with no help, blind, first try with no problems at all, as well as players who have to toddle their way meticulously from point to point. Unless your level design is so dirt simple that a mullosk could do it, it simply doesn't happen and you'll always have people who will struggle through it. It's the same in real life - if you sit and watch people on any street corner for any amount of time you're going to see someone at some point or another get lost. It's just how people are.

Hence, there's always people out there that step-by-step influence will be vital for, and objective markers are something that lifts a skill floor up for those people to engage with your game. For some, that moment of confusion could be when they quit, and a guidance tool like markers could be the thing that prevents that.

I also think anyone who says levels should be perfectly navigable with no non-diegetic assistance 1) have almost never built a level before and 2) has never built a level in a context that necessitated actually shipping a game.

Games that don't use objective markers are often explicitly designed around that premise, and a ton of resources go into ensuring these systems don't need to be added. You'll see immersive sims thrown around a lot as an example of this, and that's because it's fundamentally part of that genre to be "immersive". You'll also notice that they're generally smaller, more focused bites of gameplay compared to the scale of other games, and these small spaces are iterated on way more frequently by way more people. They'll often have you exploring a single building or series of rooms in isolation rather than, say, a whole world. It's because there's SO MUCH work in making a world that directs you well without something explicitly guiding you, and even then these games will fail at it. The sheer amount of resources a Level Designer would need to execute that successfully for a wide number of players is staggering - I personally could never imagine building something without any non-diegetic UI and expecting it to "just work".

But hey, I'm just a Sr. Level Designer, what do I know. :)

As a case study: when I worked at Ubi I was on a project where one of our directors scrapped all the objective markers in the whole game, mid-production. Because the game wasn't fundamentally built for it from the ground up, and it was an open-world game with many objectives intricate enough to be distracting and demanding of the player's attention. It took a year for them to realize the scale and attention such a move would require simply wasn't available with the resources we had, and eventually we re-added all of them. Fun!

I also believe people use 'immersion' as a strawman to disingenuously attack design they simply don't like on the basis of it, and I see that happen a lot with stuff like non-diegetic UI markers.

I mean, to some players "immersion" is not having a HUD while playing, and to other players "immersion" is 'I want to have to press a button to breathe and blink and sleep for 8 hours in game to recover stamina'. Ask someone what makes a game "immersive" and you'll never get the same answer, and this is largely because "immersive" just depends on a player's values and what they like in a game. Therefore, I think it's just a fundamentally weak argument to imply that games shouldn't have markers at all, just because some people aren't "immersed" by them. I mean hell, half the games people tout for not having objective markers still have tons of non-diegetic UI. This is all just stuff I think stems from the wider cultural torrent that is ~video games~ though.

Anyway I'm rambling.

The fundamental idea here is that I think if you can put objective markers to assist you in guiding the player through your game, I think you should because no Level Design will ever be good enough. It's often cheap, easy to do, and frankly helps far more players than it hurts. I think it should be treated like an accessibility tool and control of it should be given to players to choose how much of it they want, where, etc. so that players who need the help get it, rather than have people campaigning to cut them out entirely from games and hoping the level design "just works".

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk :)

My hot take is that objective markers in video game UI is very good and that virtually every video game should have them, and that the pros vastly outweigh the cons.

[markynaz]

7/29

Ruins / Campfire Written for @tes-summer-fest 2021 Wordcount: 1593 Content Warnings: Imprisonment Ao3 Mirror: here

The statue to Azura was always relic of the days long before memory, even back to when Morrowind was instead Resdaynia. Neither Wise Women nor careful Temple records recalled when it had actually been built. It had been impeccably maintained through the years, though by whom varied. Sometimes Ashlanders would come to groom the ash off Azura’s face and ensure the roses on her brow stayed sharp. Sometimes curious Telvanni would come, dusting off the plinth before her feet to perform some ritual or another, respectful of the Good Daedra’s power. Sometimes Temple pilgrimages would visit her as the Anticipation of Sotha Sil, the closest to the clockwork god they could get while he secreted himself away, and worthy of respect as was every piston in the Maker’s great design.

Those days had vanished with the Red Year.

Now the Reclamation’s statue was buried by volcanic rock that neither spell nor might could move - and both Temple and Ashlanders had tried, desperate for guidance in the wake of the now-absent living gods. The eighty-foot tall statue of the Lady was buried up to her waist in rock, details of her robe melted into the solid lava flow. Attempts at excavation showed the barest hint of the plinth at her feet, but no more than a thin edge, covered in burned down Temple-issued candles. In a way it was a ruin, a picture of despair, and perhaps that's why the Temple had withdrawn. New statues could always be built. Vvardefell, especially the southern coast, was too uninhabitable - too full of memory - for the statue to be any great reminder of what they had lost.

The Ashlanders clung still to their home. Zainab Tribe especially, ranging along the no-longer-grassy Grazelands, looked up to the imprisoned statue and felt for her. They too were rooted where they'd stood for generations with no way out. They too would survive, just as all the Three had taught them.

There were nights where Masser and Secunda were no more than slivers in the dark night sky. On those nights, keen Ashlander eyes could note that the statue - merely a silhouette against the stars - seemed to reflect some sort of moonlight. If not for the darkness of Tamriel’s moons, one would hardly notice it. The moon and star held aloft in Azura’s outstretched hand glimmered with the light as it diffused across the rest of the statue much more faintly. Moonlight, in a sense - but much more beautiful, with many more colors than Masser and Secunda could ever hope to give.

The Ashlanders saw this as a blessing, a boon, a prophecy. Azura had not abandoned them. She was watching over them now, even as her statue was imprisoned by the rock flow, and she would guide them from this night and into the twilight hours of prophecy and glory once more. This had to be the case. And chins started to lift in the small Ashlander camps, the despair no longer as heavy as the ash on the air.

The Wise Woman said nothing about all of this.

Dusanabi, Wise Woman of Zainab Tribe, had wanted to believe as much as her people when the lights had first been noticed. That first night she had retreated to her yurt and prepared a ritual of connection, dipping into her low-running stores to make the old tincture, setting it over a fire and allowing the steam to make its way around her and into her lungs as she fell asleep.

She was prepared to receive the cool, glittering, loving presence of her Prince into her dream. She was prepared to walk in Moonshadow, kneel at her Prince’s feet, and ask her for some bit of guidance she could pass on to Azura’s beloved people.

That was not what she received.

Instead the vision that took her was of the dim inside of a Daedric ruin. The air was stifling, ashy beyond the scent of the ritual herbs in Dusanabi’s lungs. When she looked back, the doorway was sealed by volcanic rock.

There was no statue inside the ruin, but Dusanabi knew in her heart who it was dedicated to. It would be difficult to deny. The single furnishing in the entire room was a bare stone slab, carved all around with praises of Azura in old Chimeris, and upon it lay a woman.

Dusanabi approached with gentle steps, her dream-feet making no sound and leaving no mark on the dusty stone floor.

The Dunmer woman had her arms resting at her sides, hands relaxed, fingernails glimmering with the faint light of the stars. Her eyes were closed. A fine robe covered her neck to ankle, a House robe - woven beautifully of gold and silver and gray spidersilk, though in a style so old that Dusanabi couldn’t recall ever seeing a House mer wear something similar. She did not stir as Dusanabi gently touched her chest, but there were thoughts there, under the surface - not the glittering unfathomability of a Prince, but the warm touch of a mortal.

Dusanabi woke up in her yurt with a pounding headache and a sickness clutching her heart.

But she had to know properly. She couldn’t just leave it there, not when her people still gasped and hoped over the lights of the ruin the next night. This time she modified her ritual of connection - different proportions, different herbs, and drank a tea of strengthening before she lit the fire and allowed the scent to infuse her dreams.

The Daedric ruin was not the place she found herself in this time. Instead, a lively bed of coals crackled in the middle of a stone pavilion, built solid like a House mer home before Red Mountain had erupted. Scattered around the room were colorful cushions and blankets, bright colors and warm fabrics, contrasting against the lovely night sky outside and the breathtakingly ethereal gardens far below.

The woman in the ruin rose from a cushion to greet her.

She was quite solid, quite real, and not as unconscionably beautiful as her surroundings. Bright golden eyes flared from her angular gray face, and her brown hair fell loose around her shoulders. But her smile was warmer than even the coals at the center of the room as she bade Dusanabi to sit.

“Please,” she added once they were both settled, Dusanabi almost wishing she could feel the silks at her fingertips, because what sort of texture would the cloth of Moonshadow have? “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand how you’ve come, but I’m grateful for the visit nonetheless. Tell me- what is your name?”

“I am the Wise Woman of Zainab Tribe. They call me Dusanabi.” She squinted at the woman opposite her. “And you are our Nerevarine.”

The woman did not try to hide it, dipping her head with sadness furrowing her brow.

“So it is truly you, in the shrine.”

Arafel, the Nerevarine, nodded, giving life to all of Dusanabi’s fears. “My Lady thinks it best that I… do not interfere as directly as I once did,” she said regretfully. “I may still look out on the world and observe, watch it go by and change without me. But these past thirty years, I am not allowed to interact.”

Dusanabi folded her hands in her lap, glancing around herself. It was a very small pavilion, for all its beauty, for a woman to inhibit for decades unending.

“We had thought the statue imprisoned.”

Arafel laughed, a sound with no joy in it. “I imagine it is, in a way. But I do not think it would be if my Lady did not also want it to be a prison.”

Dusanabi’s face must have been very unguarded, because the Nerevarine looked as if she regretted her words instantly. She reached out, placing a hand over Dusanabi’s ethereal one.

“Please don’t worry over me, Wise Woman,” she said. “I would hate to give you grief when you’re doing such a good job of guiding the people I love. Looking out on Tamriel gives me solace, and the spirit of Nerevar is a great comfort. This is not the first time he’s gone through this at our Lady’s pleasure.”

“Her will is always as deep and obscured as her love,” murmured Dusanabi, falling back on the old maxims. She gained the favor of Arafel’s smile.

“It always has been.”

A few more words of numb nothings were all Dusanabi had time for before the connection began to fade, her mortal shell unable to sustain the dreamwalk to Moonshadow for long. She awoke alone in her own yurt, to an aching cramp curving up under her ribs at all the magicka she had spent, and to a somewhat more painful ache in her heart.

She slowly stood and exited her yurt. The faint, gorgeous lights still shimmered over the statue of Azura. Below, the people of Zainab Tribe had rallied around their evening fire, the conversation having more animation now than it had in several years.

It gave hope to her tribespeople to believe the lights at the shrine were a sign of favor. So Dusanabi sat and watched and gave evasive answers when questioned about the ruin against the skyline, trying to expel the ash of despair from her lungs.

Whether Azura had abandoned them was yet to be seen. But she had certainly abandoned her champion - and forced her to abandon the Ashlanders she’d advocated so fondly for in turn.

The Wise Woman quietly convinced the Ashkhan to break camp and move up the coast sooner than expected.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #239: Late Night of the Super-Stars!

January, 1984

1984! Can’t wait to make a bunch of Orwell jokes that are poorly thought out and land poorly!

But I guess it’ll have to wait since we’re on Late Night with David Letterman in this issue.

This sure is an interesting turn of events. Although the team we see on the cover doesn’t seem to be the actually active roster. They’re over in the corner box turned away - either from shame or because they’re off doing their own thing.

Because its Assistant Editors’ Month!

A fun-sounding non-event. Although, looking it up, very few books that were considered part of the event actually did anything with it beyond a slightly goofy issue box on the cover.

So we’re going to see some Avengers go on a talk show today.

Superheroes as celebrities! What a novel idea.

Anyway, I learned an interesting detail about the cover that would have totally missed me. The checkerboard strip at the top was a hallmark of DC comics around this time. And the round MC logo in the top right is an obvious spoof of the DC logo from this time.

It’s not much more than a goof for this book but the Captain America book released for Assistant Editors’ Month also had the checkerboard and logo and was a style parody of DC comics.

Last times: Vision went into a robo-coma from walking into an invisible dome created by Annihilus and only recently recovered the ability to talk. New Avenger Starfox hooked Vision up to ISAAC the Titan computer and overclocked Vision’s robot brain so now he can project himself as a hologram and has an even faster computer brain. At the end of Avengers #238, the Avengers got a call from Tigra about some nonsense going on in San Francisco involving Spider-Woman.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye got a whole miniseries all to himself where he met Mockingbird, lost his job at Cross Technological, his girlfriend revealed that she was paid to date him and also hated him, he teamed up with Mockingbird to uncover an evil scheme by Crossfire to kill all superheroes, Hawkeye lost his hearing by putting an ultrasonic arrowhead in his mouth but foiled the scheme plot, and married Mockingbird. He’s had a very busy week or so!

This time: Hawkeye comes back to the Avengers Mansion to show off his cool new wife.

Hawkeye: “Hey, everybody -- your wanderin’ boy Hawkeye has come home... And you’ll never guess what I’ve gone and done!”

I can just imagine Mockingbird replying “Me” with the biggest shit-eating grin. She feels the sort to do that.

When Hawkeye and Mockingbird arrive there’s no one to greet them except the floating disembodied hologram head of the Wizard of Vizh.

Hawkeye has also made the decision, for some reason, to not wear the hearing aid that Mockingbird got him so he can’t hear what Vision is saying when he compliments his new costume.

Mockingbird introduces herself for Hawkeye and Vision tells the two to join him in the medical labs so they can catch up.

When they arrive, Vision raises his volume so Hawkeye can hear and recaps everything that’s happened to lead up to him becoming a robot in a tube who can hologram around.

Vision: “[Starfox] set up a direct link between ISAAC, the world-computer of Titan, to better diagnose my condition. But, instead, my brain became overloaded with ISAAC’s energy-information matrix --!”

Hawkeye: “And you became several with the universe, right?”

Vision: “‘Several with the’ --? Oh -- hah-ha! Very witty!”

Overclocking his brain seems to have done wonders for Vision’s sense of humor.

He even finds Hawkeye funny now.

Vision also explains where the dickens everyone else is (because Hawkeye asks him where the dickens they are. Its so weird for Hawkeye to say dickens).

Jarvis was given the day off to visit his mother, Captain America and Thor are both busy with nonsense in their own books, and the rest of the Avengers are off to San Francisco because of that call from Tigra.

Hawkeye offers to fly out and give them a hand, which Vision declines since they’ll call if they need help.

Instead he asks Hawkeye how he met Mockingbird and Hawkeye recaps the miniseries in only five panels.

He’s better at this than I am...

Hawkeye: “Anyway, Mockingbird and I had made a pretty good team -- so when it was all over, we ran off and got married!”

Mockingbird: “What can I say? The big lug needed somebody to keep him out of trouble!”

That’s the task of a lifetime, Bobbi. But good for you two! Cute couple is what I say.

Vision: “Marvelous! I hope you two will be as happy together as Wanda and I have been!"

Vision and Scarlet Witch probably are the healthiest superhero marriage of this time.

Vision asks if Hawkeye and Mockingbird intend to stay in the mansion, which they do. But it’s cool because Mockingbird has security clearance from working with SHIELD so they won’t need to bother Mr. Sikorsky and agitate his hatred of living in the superhero genre.

After Hawkeye takes Mockingbird off on a tour of the mansion, Vision receives a call from his brain brother, Wonder Man.

Who, very reluctantly, is coming to the Avengers with hat in hand. So to speak.

Wonder Man: “Okay. Here’s the situation -- my acting career hasn’t been going anywhere lately! So my agent, without my approval -- used the fact that I’m a reserve Avenger to get me a booking on David Letterman’s show, and now, they want me to bring other Avengers along with me! My agent really put me in a tight spot on this one. I hate to impose, but -- !”

Vision: “It’s no imposition at all, Simon! I’ll personally call the network and confirm the Avengers’ appearance!”

Wonder Man: “You’re sure it’s no trouble?”

Vision: “None whatsoever! After all, we have many Avengers -- !”

You sure do! Not as many as you’ll have by the No Surrender days. But still.

Also, I love this can-do attitude from you, Vision!

This is a pretty low priority in terms of fighting crime and whatnot but Vision is like THIS IS EXTREMELY DOABLE, I AM THE INTERNET.

Although imagine how sad it is from Wonder Man’s perspective. His agent put him on the spot pulling sorta-rank to get Simon some media attention but the media is like ‘ok but do you have something better?’

This man is trying to improve his career and the David Letterman show looked at him and said ‘ok but what else have you got?’

Oof!

Anyway, Vision uses the superpower of being wired into the phone system to call up some extra Avengers who aren’t very busy right now.

He calls Black Panther, Beast, and Black Widow.

Their varied responses are pretty funny.

But Black Panther’s is probably the best. He interrupts a meeting with his advisers to take the call and then he’s like ‘yeah sure I can drop everything I’m doing to appear on David Letterman!’

T’Challa really would rather be doing anything but kinging.

Beast initially protests that he’s too busy with the Defenders to just jump on some Avengers business but...

Beast: “The Letterman show? Hey, why didn’t you say so?”

And Black Widow is unbusy sunbathing at the Waldorf Towers while between missions. She doesn’t really want to make a television appearance (it’s kinda counterproductive for a spy, I would guess) but Vision mentions something that has Natasha agree to be there.

Based on what happens later, I guess Vision mentions that Hawkeye will be there.

A couple hours later, ELSEWHERE, well if it isn’t our ol’ friend and punchline Fabian Stankowicz!

Remember this goofus? He attacked the Avengers right when everyone was feeling bad about Hank Pym? Iron Man easily beat him up while the rest of the Avengers breezed on by. Or when he attacked Wasp’s cool superheroine brunch? Which was a hilariously terrible idea because he got between She-Hulk and breakfast foods. Also, nobody took him very seriously there either.

I guess the Avengers didn’t bother to press charges either time because he’s not in jail. He’s at his home working on some machines while his dad criticizes how he spends his time.

Dads, amirite?

Granted, what he’s criticizing is Fabian’s tendency to pick fights with superheroes. And... granted. Not a great use of his time.

But apparently Fabian can afford all the robot suits he keeps attacking the Avengers with because he won the lottery.

So he has a pretty good position to shoot down his dad’s protests, really.

Dad Stankowicz: “Fabian, I’m glad your poor mother didn’t live to see what’s become of you... It would’ve broken her heart!”

Fabian Stankowicz: “Aw, gimme a break, old man!”

Dad Stankowicz: “‘Old man’? This is the way you talk to your father?”

Fabian Stankowicz: “What do you want, egg in your beer? Was it you who won the state lottery and got us out of the Bronx? No, it was me! I won the money, and I’ll say how it’s spent! And I’m gonna use it to make a name for myself! Me... Fabian Stankowicz!”

And when Fabian sees an ad saying that the Avengers will be on Late Night with David Letterman, he has an idea. A wonderful, awful idea.

Also, who the heck puts egg in beer?

I’ve looked it up and I get that it’s a saying but apparently the saying is based on people actually doing that! Why??

The next afternoon, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where the show 30 Rock and this issue of Avengers both happen, this issue of Avengers is happening.

A CBS page shows Black Widow to the green room where the other Avengers are already waiting.

Also: I know that it’s all the Avengers who weren’t busy (even though T’Challa really should have been?) but this is a fun roster.

Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Beast, Black Widow and Panther?

Heck, I could imagine this being the Marvel equivalent of the Justice League International team, one more geared for some light-hearted comedy?

Except we’re in 1984 so this predates that.

But you have Beast and Wonder Man, your comedy duo best buds. You have Black Panther and Widow being varying levels of straight man to the nonsense. And you have Hawkeye who can be very serious or very ridiculous depending on how hot-headed he’s being at the time.

This team could be hilarious!

(Avengers International. Think about it, Marvel.)

Outside the green room, our ol’ buddy ol’ punching bag, Fabian Stankowicz is in disguise as a repairman with a mustache as cover for installing some devices in the studio. Then he puts on a beard to disguise himself as Perfectly Normal Bearded Audience Member.

I appreciate his intiative although I doubt any of the present Avengers are gonna recognize this guy on sight even if he wore a t-shirt that said “I’m Fabian Stankowicz.”

Fabian Stankowicz: Boy, this is gonna be so sweet, especially after the way the Avengers made me look like a chump those last two times! This time, it’s gonna be different! This time, I’m going to have a ringside seat for the defeat of the Avengers!

Or at least the Avengers that were available to show up on the Tonight Show with David Letterman.

Y’know, I like Fabian Stankowicz. He’s just smart enough to be dangerous and dumb enough to be entertaining. I think there’s a place for an ineffectual doofus with delusions of grandeur in the foe Rolodex of any superhero team.

Meanwhile, back with said Whoever Was Availables, Black Widow and Mockingbird are meeting for the first time.

And luckily, they’re both mature adults who don’t act like you’d usually see in media when the missus meets the ex.

So with a fight to the death NOT happening in the green room, Hawkeye gets to asking Mockingbird about the errand he sent her on which was why she wasn’t in the room when Black Widow first showed up.

Presumably using every bit of skill in espionage at her disposal, Mockingbird got a copy of the questions Letterman will be asking during the show.

Because Hawkeye will be fielding the questions and he has made the decision not to wear his hearing aid. And has also made the follow-up decision that not only will he not be hearing anything tonight, he’s also definitely going to be fielding all the questions.

Mockingbird: “Why won’t you wear a hearing aid?”

Hawkeye: “No can do, sweetheart! The fewer people who know I’m half-deaf, the safer it’ll be for all of us!”

(I don’t really get this reasoning but okay, man)

Mockingbird: “Then why not let someone else be spokesman? This is supposed to be Wonder Man’s big night!”

Hawkeye: “Sure... but I’m the only active Avenger here! Give me a kiss for luck!”

Not for nothing does Mockingbird think that he can be impossible sometimes. And she’s only known him a couple weeks! She’s already come to the correct read on him in that short a time.

David Letterman starts the show with an opening monologue.

David Letterman: “Tonight... What can I say? Tonight is something really special! In fact, it’s probably the most special show we’ve had since our 'camping with Barry White’ program! Yes... hard to believe, isn’t it? But with all due respect to Mr. White -- I think that this show may be our greatest ever. But, as they say, ‘that’s for history to decide!’”

Imagine being a talk show host and getting to introduce the Avengers. Pretty neat.

I like that bandleader Paul Shaffer is wearing a Captain America jersey. Although that makes me wonder once again what merchandising is like for Marvel superheroes. 

Clearly it exists but did Cap sign off on a jersey mimicking his costume? Does he see any money from that? Or at least did he get to say that all profit goes to such and such charity?

Letterman introduces the Avengers for the audience.

(Fun how you can get a sense of their personality just by how they’re sitting. It’s the little touches that make a comic fun.)

Hm, I wonder how well the marvel public follows superhero roster changes.

I know that sometimes new Avengers rosters have gotten attention with press conferences and everything. And sometimes they just swap in and out members as personal business comes up.

Some of the people in the audience may not even recognize Black Widow as an Avenger. Becaaaaause, wait I don’t think she ever was one. She’s assisted on some missions and they were ready to vote her in when she vanished to go do a SHIELD mission.

Okay, better example, does anyone remember that Wonder Man- oh wait, he very publicly burst out of a crate in front of Avengers Mansion during press furor over a roster change. Also, he’s a pre-successful actor.

Black Pan- no, no. He was framed for killing the Avengers his very first day on the team. There was a manhunt.

And of course, everyone knows Beast was on the Avengers. He got around. Romantically.

David Letterman mentions that this group isn’t even all the Avengers because some couldn’t make it (read: were busy with more important things).

Which leads to a funny cut to audience where Beard Fabian is annoyed that this group is who got caught in his revenge scheme.

Fabian Stankowicz: Blast it, where’s Captain America? Where’s that &#%$ She-Hulk?

You better wash your brain out with soap before She-Hulk finds out you thought  that about her. She’s dunked people into the garbage for lesser offenses.

Beast decides that this Late Night interview is the best time to reveal that he’s quitting as a reservist Avenger to focus on his version of the Defenders.

Letterman: “Wow, that was some bombshell the Beast just dropped, Hawkeye! You’re group spokesman... What do you think of that?”

Hawkeye: First question -- ! “Well, David, the Avengers is a non-profit organization, fully sanctioned as a peace-keeping force by just about ever international organization you could think of!”

Letterman: “Eh-heh-heh! You don’t say!”

Oh god, Beast’s bombshell messed up the order of questions and Hawkeye is firmly sticking to script because he can’t hear.

My god, Hawkeye.

Letterman: “You know, I was just about to ask you something along those lines. You wouldn’t be psychic by any chance -- ?”

Hawkeye: “No, of the founding members, only the Wasp and Thor remain as active Avengers.”

Letterman: “You little dickens! You’ve been peeking at my question sheet, haven’t you? All right, I might as well as my next question which is... ‘I hear you were recently married! Is that true?’”

Hawkeye: “Yes, Dave... just a few weeks ago!”

Letterman: “How about that!”

Did Hawkeye just think they were going to blaze through the questions? Even if Beast hadn’t preempted the first question, did Hawkeye think that there would be no follow-up questions? No discussion?

I’ve been on the fence on whether the jokes about Hawkeye not hearing the questions are poking fun at deaf people or at Hawkeye and yeah, Hawkeye is definitely the butt of this joke.

Fabian Stankowicz loses patience for this very dry question and answer session and decides to start his attack nnnnow.

One of the studio cameras is secretly A GIANT LASER. Because. And it blasts the stage.

Mockingbird is watching this on a tiny screen in the Green Room and goes out to help only to run afoul of some kind of mechanized steamrolling dumpster.

Back in the studio, Wonder Man has found his new nemesis.

Move over, Grim Reaper. You’re one-dimensional and everyone especially me hates you. Hello, laser blasting camera.

Wonder Man: “Let me at that thing, Beast! It’s ruining my guest-shot!”

Beast: “You’ll have to wait your turn, Wondy! It just shredded my favorite shirt!”

Priorities!

You know, this was supposed to be about Wonder Man and he only got to say two words during the interview portion.

Dangit, Hawkeye.

Apppppparently, the audience is just assuming that this is all part of the show. A cliche, sure. But it makes sense.

Would you really have the Avengers on a talk show and just have them talk? That’s a waste of perfectly good superheroes.

Also.... apparently? David Letterman used to run things over with a steamroller a lot? So a steamroller looking contraption crashing through the wall to attack the Avengers does seem like something that might happen?

Also, Paul Shaffer decides to just roll with it so as not to panic the audience.

The show must go on, after all.

The steamroller also starts firing missiles at Beast, as ya do.

Beast: “Hunter missiles? I don’t believe this is happening on network tv!”

Wonder Man tries punching the steamroller to no avail but which does give Black Panther a chance to pull out the tried and true “Wonder Man’s fists carry as much bludgeoning power as Thor’s hammer!”

Y’know, originally, that was a flex that set Wonder Man as a threat to the team but after he joined, that never really seemed to actually be the case.

Imagine if Wonder Man always hit as hard as Thor’s hammer? Like, he’s minding his own business and then the Gorr the God Butcher arc happens and Wonder Man is like ‘huh, why do I suddenly feel like my punches could destroy planets light years away? That’s a very specific feeling!’

Fabian Stankowicz takes advantage of the spectacle chaos to walk out of the audience, plunk himself down into one of the interview chairs, remove his entirely convincing beard, and introduce himself to David Letterman as the guy who is definitely to blame for all the action setpieces going on.

Letterman, like Paul Shaffer, just decides to roll with it. Humor the guy. Ask him why he’s doing this.

Fabian Stankowicz: “Why? To prove it could be done! To show what one incredibly gifted individual can accomplish...”

Letterman: “... To get your name in the papers?”

Fabian Stankowicz: “That too! After all, the Avengers have battled Zodiac... the Masters of Evil... Doctor Doom! I want to make as big a name for myself as those guys!”

Letterman: “Seems to me that ‘Stankowicz’ is already a pretty big name!”

Badum pish?

He asks Fabian to explain all of his devices and Fabian is happy too.

I mean, he’s being a supervillain for the notoriety and supervillains already love to hear themselves talk so he’s double dipping into the ‘I will exposit everything at the drop of a hat’ well.

And imagine, Fabian built all this stuff in his garage with lottery winnings.

The steamroller thing isn’t just a steamroller, it’s also got a gravity generator. Which, I guess, makes sense if you’re expecting to go against a She-Hulk or a Thor. A regular steamroller isn’t going to do more than annoy.

Wonder Man fighting so hard against the roller makes it increase gravity so much that Simon and steamroller just fall through the floor.

Hm. I wonder what’s filmed in the studios the floor down. They’re about to have an exciting guest star in that steamroller.

Black Widow (still tangling with the laser camera) points Hawkeye towards Fabian. Although she has to shout and Hawkeye still doesn’t really get it but is happy to shoot an arrow at someone that Black Widow is vigorously gesturing at.

Alas, Fabian is one of those prepared villains we’ve been hearing so much about.

He built a force field too, and the arrow just bounces right off.

(Hey, uh, Hawkeye? What kind of arrow was that? Because it looks technological and you just shot it at this guy’s head)

Truly, can nothing stop this insidious yet not very menacing criminal genius?

Oh, I guess David Letterman can.

Knocks him out with a big knob.

It’s just plain big.

Prop comedy, amirite?

The audience seems to love it anyway. I looked up a clip of the big doorknob and it didn’t meet with this much applause. Maybe its because it was used to do violence this time?

Was the giant door knob a beloved part of Late Show lore?

David Letterman: “I guess that’ll teach you not to mess with David Letterman!”

That’s a line with weird energy to it.

Anyway, it would be a sad day for this random assemblage of backup Avengers if they were upstaged completely by David Letterman and his big knob.

Black Widow and Hawkeye finally manage to blow up the laser camera.

I’m not sure why it took them this long. Sure, the camera could apparently move, based on motion lines in previous panels. But the world’s best marksman couldn’t nail it sooner?

But the important thing is that eventually, they did do it.

The floor starts rumbling as well as Wonder Man flies back up with his belt-jets with the trashed roller and a shit-eating grin.

Wonder Man: “Sorry this took so long -- But I guess I’m a little rusty at tackling big hunks of tin like this!”

Fabian Stankowicz: Rusty? It took me a month to design that, and he totaled it in less than five minutes!

But since everyone’s focus is on Wonder Man (for once), Fabian tries to sneak away.

And runs smack dab into Mockingbird who has a lot of justified anger over almost getting run over by the roller earlier. But she just throws him over to some police that have finally shown up.

Letterman tells the audience not to try any of this at home, just in case any of them have gravity-generator osmium steel steamrollers lying around? And cuts to commercial, presumably so that some basic tidying can happen.

Hours after the filming of the show concludes, the Avengers TV Squad have returned to the mansion, with Vision wishing he could have taken part of this assistant editors month special issue.

Vision: “What became of Stankowicz?”

Black Panther: “Well, with all the charges NBC is leveling against him, the only machinery he’ll be dealing with for some time will be in the New York State Prison library!”

So, he attacked Avengers Mansion. He attacked Wasp’s superheroine brunch at the Van Dyne residence. That’s all well and good. He attacks the Avengers again in the NBC studio and the man is going to jail forever.

I guess the Avengers really haven’t been bothering to press charges on Fabian. But a massive media corporation isn’t so kind.

Since Hawkeye is technically the active Avenger (even though Vision’s hologram head is RIGHT there) he has to follow up on the thing Beast said about quitting the Avengers reservists.

Beast says its not right for him to be an Avengers reservist if he’s also trying to turn “the Defenders into a for-real group!”

Uh, Defenders fans? Wasn’t the appeal of the Defenders them being the not-team team? How did people feel about Beast going ‘ok but what if they were more like other teams instead?’

Meanwhile, Wonder Man is pacing, waiting for the Late Show to come on so he can see how he did when WOMP WOMP the show is interrupted by a special news bulletin.

Wonder Man is aghast that his big break isn’t even airing but when the special news bulletin is about a burning chemical barge, his hero instincts that he has suddenly swell up.

Wonder Man: “This... This is awful! What’re we standing around for? Let’s do something! We’re Avengers, aren’t we?”

Black Panther: “That we are, Simon! Let’s go!”

Beast also decides, hey, one more time won’t hurt and accepts his Avengers ID card back from Hawkeye.

And as they’re headed off to the Quinjet, Beast has a hopeful note for Wonder Man.

Beast: “Hey, Wondy -- remember, there’s a three-hour time difference between the coasts! If we can get this mess cleaned up in time, maybe some folks in California will still see you get your big break!”

Wonder Man: “And if we don’t -- ?”

Beast: “Well, that’s show biz!”

Pretty enjoyable issue! Like, sure, its a good for Assistant Editor’s Month. But if you’re going to do a goof, then you can do worse than bringing back Fabian Stankowicz for a third time’s not the charm.

Speaking of charm, having the Avengers appear on a talk show is a charming concept. Not a whole lot was done with it except the joke about Hawkeye answering the wrong questions but its still a fun idea.

And having the Avengers off busy lets us brush off some Also Avengers that haven’t been in play for a bit. That’s a fun idea that I wouldn’t mind seeing some more.

Have the reservists called in because of a situation happening when the Avengers are already busy.

Heck, I’d like to see a situation where the silliest and least regarded Avengers are the only ones available to respond to an emergency. Have them bounce off each other as a group. Maybe they’re mutually aware of their bad reputations.

Anyway, I expected this issue would be ridiculous but it was also enjoyable. Didn’t mind it at all. And (though by a different writer) the Hawkeye miniseries was very enjoyable too.

This is just feeling like a good era for the Avengers team.

Next time, apparently The Ghost of Jessica Drew. So she’s some kind of ghost spider? Nobody tell Carol Danvers.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because I typed this post partially while a cat was lying on my wrist. That’s dedication. Which you can’t spell without cat. Also, like and reblog if you think its likeable and rebloggable.

[gemsofthegalaxy]

But there are many reasons outlined above and more that fans might not take the scripts as canon, and it is not discrediting the work that was put into the scripts. The scripts are not the final art piece, they are an early version of what is meant to become the art but not all of it makes it to the final piece.

Questions over what "counts" as canon are commonplace in fandom but, in my opinion, that there is no one answer because fandom is a hobby that interacts with art, and art is incredibly subjective....

Fanlore defines it, "Canon (in the context of fandom) is a source, or sources, considered authoritative by the fannish community. In other words, canon is what fans agree "actually" happened in a film, television show, novel, comic book, or concert tour. Specific sources considered canon may vary even within a specific fandom."

I have a bit of an issue with this because oftentimes, the community does not agree on what canon is. Case in point, you and i, haha. For over a decade my personal stance has been that whatever makes it to the source material, the finished art product, is what is canon. Anything else, from scripts, to bonus eps that are published only online, to things that actors/writers say at conventions, are at most semi-canon. It seems you disagree with that in relation to the scripts specifically, and I feel it is your right to consider whatever you want your understanding of canon. You don't need my permission at all, of course, but I am fine with you doing that. But, as mushroomheadgirl said, I do not feel like it's fair for you to say I must use your understanding of canon as my own

Lastly, I am assuming you're not gonna see it the same way but just to explain more about myself.... I am a person who takes a loose approach to EVEN the final artistic product. If I find a line that a character says "doesn't make sense" or I don't like it, I will just pretend it didn't happen if I really don't want to, or find another way to explain it away. At the end of the day, TV shows and books and the things most fandoms are based on, are fictional and subjective. And succession is just as fictional as what I produce is; fanfic and fandom and the source material are all equally fictional. I will admit I am a "selfish" fan, I do care more about my own enjoyment than whatever the original creator's vision was. And hopefully the original creator never even SEES what I have to say, because I write tumblr posts and fanfic first for myself, and second for other fans who might get enjoyment out of it. I don't personally see this as disrespectful to the original creators, because they put their work out in the world knowing that it would be interpreted based on what they created, and what people could see/read/hear with their own eyes.

scripts are dubiously/not even canon imo but like. finally confirmation that tom's name is actually thomas and not just "tom" like bitch.. why has nobody called him that ever to my memory

[tsarisfanfiction]

Night Out

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Family Characters: Gordon, Scott

#fluffember day 18 - ‘touch’ - and something a little different, mostly because @janetm74 decided to call me out about whacking ‘unsuspecting characters’ with a chair of ‘pain and suffering’ and @gumnut-logic mentioned literally hitting them with a chair...  I promise this is mostly fluff still!  That Teen rating (Teen for a fluff fic?  Tsari what are you doing?) is for language and alcohol, because we have two former military boys in a London pub.

Gordon learnt two things that night: Scott was an affectionate drunk, and sometimes people throw bar stools for no good reason.

Gordon couldn’t recall the last time he’d gone out with Scott – just Scott – for a reason that wasn’t mission related.  He’d hit the town with Alan (not that alcohol was allowed on those occasions, what with the kid being underage and all that) a few times, and Virgil on more than a few post-mission de-stressors, but Scott was always too busy for frivolous things like having fun.

No more.  It had taken some convincing, a lot of wheedling, and the strong-arm combination of Grandma and Virgil, but a blissful forty-eight hours’ downtime was being spent in England, just because they could.  The gracious offer of being chauffeured around by Parker – made by her Ladyship, to the man’s apparent disgruntlement – just made the choice all the easier.  And what better way to unwind than a nice, rowdy night in the pub?

Karaoke, free-flowing alcohol, and Scott’s communicator firmly confiscated in the Creighton-Ward manor to ensure he didn’t slip back into work habits meant that he was having the time of his life, and Scott seemed to be enjoying himself, too. At least, if the gaggle of girls he’d acquired, flirting with him and being flirted with in kind, was anything to go by, his big brother was definitely enjoying himself for once.

Unwilling to spend the entire night as the wingman, and definitely not interested in finding out if Scott managed to go further than just exchanging some smooth words, Gordon had found himself over by the pool table.  He’d spent enough time in pubs – even if he’d been underage for most of it and Scott (probably) didn’t know that – to be able to find entertainment with a group of strangers, so separating from his brother wasn’t much of an issue.

He was good at pool, too.  Good enough to quickly work his way through the ranks until he was the champion everyone else paid to play, and all in all he was having a really good time of it. The drinks were good, the company was fantastic, and best of all, he was having a blast.  Maybe later he’d drag Scott away from the girls for a game – show the Londoners exactly how good the Tracys were (and hope Scott was inebriated enough not to beat him, because Scott played a mean game sober).

At least, that was the plan.  The world liked to mess with plans.

It started with raised voices.  Nothing unusual in a pub, especially now it was entering late evening and the alcohol had been flowing for a while.  Gordon thought nothing of it, and continued to roast his latest challenger at pool, beaming when the black ball found the pocket.  Well-meant congratulations passed between the two of them – they had manners, after all – and Gordon cast around for his next opponent.

Then the tingle ran up his spine, and immediately on its heels came a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey, bro,” the guy – Dennis, Gordon had trounced him two games earlier to much laughter and another pint – started.  “Didn’t you come in with that guy?”

There was only one that guy he’d come in with, and combined with his squid sense kicking in, Gordon had a sinking feeling as he turned to look at where he’d left Scott.

Just in time to see a bar stool smash into his head.

Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was just Gordon’s default reaction to seeing someone smash a bar stool over his brother’s head, but his vision went red.  The pool cue dropped, but he paid no attention to where it landed, already surging forwards towards where his brother had crumpled to the floor.

Someone was laughing, someone else was screaming, but Gordon had eyes for only two things: his unmoving brother, and the guy still holding the bar stool aloft.

“Hey!” he roared, elbowing gawkers out of the way and slamming into the guy hard enough to make him loose his grip on the stool.  It fell to the floor with a crash, thankfully missing Scott, followed by the man himself. Gordon kept his feet, feeling the buzz of alcohol mixing with adrenaline, and placed himself firmly between the aggressor and his brother.

Everyone else backed off; in his periphery Gordon could tell that the three of them – him, Scott and the stool-wielding asshole – were loosely ringed in by the other patrons of the pub, all looking on with varying emotions ranging from astonishment, fear, and bloodlust.

“You with ‘im?” Stool-Bastard spat, pulling himself to his feet with a glower that was supposed to be intimidating.  Gordon hadn’t served in WASP to be cowed by a drunkard in a London pub.

“You attack him for a reason?” he shot back, hearing shuffling noises from directly behind him. Good, that sounded like Scott was conscious.  The pleasant fuzz of alcohol was gone, leaving him as sharply aware as it was possible to be after however many drinks he’d had, and he tallied everything up as the guy snarled, swaying on the spot but not attacking.  Not yet.

Tabs were all paid up; no need to worry about any unpaid drinks.  No sign of the bouncers, but that could change any moment and a barfight was not high on Gordon’s list of reasons to get arrested (yes, he had one. No, his brothers didn’t know about it). The nearest exit was… there, by the group of girls Scott had been with.

If Scott was conscious, as he suspected, it wouldn’t take much to get out of there.  He just needed to not be attacked the moment he turned his back.

“’E was ‘itting on my girl,” the man snarled.  Gordon had many things to say to that, including the fact that Scott – even drunk – had morals and that if the guy didn’t trust his girlfriend around other guys then maybe he should be looking for problems a little closer to home.  He said none of them.

He didn’t have to. The girls surged forward, arguing the point for him – good for them, and did he need to take note of their names to hand over to Lady P? – and he took the chance to crouch down and assess Scott’s condition.

His brother had managed to drag himself up onto his elbows, one hand holding his head, and there was a scowl on his face.  Blue eyes were dilated and a little unfocused, although how much of that was the alcohol as opposed to the knock, Gordon wasn’t entirely certain.

“You good to stand up?” he asked, gently touching where Scott was holding his head.  The dazed blue eyes blinked at him for a second, and his brother grimaced but tried to move.  Gordon caught him when he swayed, wedging himself under one arm and dragging Scott’s arm around his neck for support, wrapping a firm arm of his own around his brother’s waist.

Dennis from pool came over, clearly offering help, but Gordon waved him off with a smile that was probably more strained than he’d planned.

“I got him,” he said. “If you want to help, make sure that bastard doesn’t get another hit in.”  He didn’t want trouble – this was supposed to be a relaxing downtime, dammit all – he just wanted to get Scott somewhere safe so he could check him over properly.  Luckily, the man got the message and moved to stand so that he was blocking Stool-Bastard’s view of them, leaving Gordon to haul his brother out the door.

No-one else stopped him, and with a few stumbles – Scott was heavy, okay? – he got them over to a nearby bench, which Scott sank onto bonelessly.  Gordon shot a quick message to Parker to come get them – fun night out was over – before turning his attention to Scott.

“You with me?” he asked, keeping an arm around his shoulders and peering at the shock of brown hair resting on his shoulder.  “Scott?”

“M’fcker,” his brother slurred, sounding vaguely annoyed.  He didn’t move, though, seemingly content to remain slumped against Gordon’s side and trust him to hold him up.  It was just un-Scott-like enough for him to be a little worried, but he had also been drinking and he wasn’t entirely sure how much Scott had had. Nor had he actually ever seen Scott drunk before – at least, not without the buffer of Virgil and/or John to handle him. He vaguely recalled something about him being an affectionate drunk, though, so with any luck that was all that was.

Still, he ran his free hand through gelled hair, gently probing for signs of injury.  Scott hissed when he reached the back of his head, where he’d seen the blow land, and Gordon explored the area lightly with his fingers.  It didn’t seem like it was a bad knock – certainly not as bad as it could have been, and he was starting to realise it had actually only been a glancing blow rather than the square hit he’d initially thought – but it could definitely do with some ice and painkillers, and he was pretty certain there was a minor concussion in there, too.

No amount of alcohol explained Scott’s suddenly quiet and slightly lethargic attitude, when Gordon knew he’d been laughing and flirting right before the attack.  Virgil was going to be so pleased.

“Hey,” he tried again, poking his cheek when he didn’t get an instant response.  “Talk to me, Scott.  What happened back there?”

Scott groaned at him and buried his face further into his neck in an additional show of drunk and concussed.  “D’nno,” he muttered.  Gordon felt more than heard the words.  “M’fcker came’p ‘hind me ‘nd yelled sommat ‘bouta girl.  D’nno what.  Then th’bast’d hit me.”

A very small part of Gordon was amused at the filterless language.  He knew Scott knew how to cuss – he’d Served, the same as he had – but Big Brother also had a very strong grip on his language around family. To hear what was no doubt a throwback to the Air Force days was quietly satisfying.  However, most of Gordon was a combination of furious and worried, in approximately equal measures.  Maybe a little more worried than furious, but there was a large part of him that really wanted to show the guy why you never messed with a Tracy.

Fortunately for his PR, Scott needed him here, not embroiled in a fight or spending the night in a lockup, so he swallowed down the rage and pulled his brother a little bit closer.

“Anything hurt except your head?” he asked, brushing his fingers through his hair again.  Scott shook his head then groaned.

“’m fine,” he claimed, still not lifting his head from where it was buried in Gordon’s neck.  “St’p fussin’.”

“I’ll stop fussing once we’re back at the manor and your head’s been looked at properly,” Gordon countered, to another groan.  “How much did you drink?”

“Was’nly weak sh’t,” Scott told him.  “Few p’ntsa cid’r.”  Enough to get buzzed but not enough to get blindly drunk, then.

A breeze blew past them, reminding Gordon that London was in England and therefore cold.  Scott shivered just a bit – not enough to be noticed if he wasn’t plastered against Gordon’s side – and he tightened his grip again.  Neither of them were dressed for the night air, not with the original plan being for them to remain inside the pub until Parker arrived, and the thin jacket Gordon did have on wouldn’t fit his brother, even if he could peel him off long enough to shuck it.

“Not the best end to an evening,” he mused instead, rubbing at the denim jacket Scott had on in a vain attempt to give him a little more warmth.

“C’n say thattag’n,” Scott agreed, burrowing into his side even more.  Gordon assumed he was trying to leech body heat.  “S’posed t’be fun.”

“Well we’ve got all of tomorrow to lounge around the manor,” Gordon reminded him, spying a flash of pink approaching at speed.  “You know that’ll be fun.”

“W’th this h’ngov’r?” Scott complained.  Gordon winced – he had a point.

“It’ll be fine,” he promised, letting go of his brother with one hand to flag Parker down. “Water and painkillers and you’ll be good as new.”  Depending on the severity of the concussion, that might be stretching it a bit. Scott was definitely going to be off duty for more than another day, though.

FAB1 pulled to a stop next to them and Parker jumped out, eyes sharp and alert as he took in their condition.

“Trouble, sirs?”

“Someone took a swing at Scott with a bar stool,” Gordon admitted, prodding his brother.  Parker’s eyes narrowed and he suspected Stool-Bastard might find his own brand of trouble later, once Parker was convinced they were safe.  The man seemed to have a soft spot for Scott – hell knew he didn’t have one for Gordon, despite his best efforts to the contrary.  “C’mon, Scott.  Let’s get you in the car.”  His brother groaned but at least made a token effort to stand up, freeing Gordon long enough for him to get to his own feet and haul Scott up.  Parker slid around to Scott’s other side without waiting to be asked, and between them they helped him stagger into the back seat, where he promptly slumped again.  Gordon slid in beside him and was immediately reclaimed as a pillow, which he resisted long enough to make sure they were both strapped in before allowing Scott to bury his head in his neck again.

“’Ow ‘is ‘e?” Parker asked as he slipped back into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the curb. Gordon caught sight of him looking at them in the rear view mirror and offered a tight grin.

“Minor concussion,” he answered, running his hand through Scott’s hair again, to a quiet noise that could have been either complaint or contentment.  “He also drunk enough to get buzzed, so I’m not entirely sure how much of this-” he shrugged at the big brother draped against him “-is that.”

“Hmm.”  Parker sounded unconvinced, but did at least return his attention to the road.

Gordon glanced down at his brother and poked him lightly.

“You’d better not be falling asleep on me, Scott,” he warned.

“’M n’t,” came the muffled response.  “W’k m’up wh’n we g’t therr.”

“Scott, no,” Gordon scolded, shrugging his shoulder and forcibly peeling his brother off of him. “You’re concussed.  Don’t sleep.”

The baleful glare he got was pretty pathetic, on the Scott scale, but his brother huffed in defeat.

“F’n,” he grumbled. Gordon caught his head when he attempted to bury it in his neck – again – and guided it to rest normally on his shoulder.

“We’ll have a proper look at the manor,” he promised.  “Then you can rest.”

Scott huffed, but didn’t close his eyes again.  He did, however, wrap an arm around Gordon in a tight grip, which he returned in kind.

“Are you always this cuddly when you’re drunk?” he asked.  The grumble he got wasn’t a coherent answer, but the way Scott purposefully looked away was.  Gordon laughed.  “That explains why you don’t go out drinking with us much.  Do any of the others know this?”

“Shuddup,” Scott grumped. It was a shame he was also concussed, otherwise the blackmail would have been glorious.

Aw, who was he kidding. As soon as Scott came out the other side clear, it was totally acceptable blackmail.  For now, though, he was content to hold onto his brother while Parker drove them back to the manor, more than a little relieved it hadn’t been worse.

So much for a relaxing night out with his brother.

[pi-cat000]

MSA time travel idea (part 39)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Vivi POV, 8, 9, 10, Lewis POV, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, Lance POV 18, 19, Lewis POV 2, 21 , 22, Vivi POV 2, 24, 25  Lewis POV 3,  Mystery POV , Vivi POV 3, 29, Lewis POV 4, 31, ViVi POV 4 , 33, 34, Lewis POV 5, Mystery POV 2, Lewis POV 6, Vivi POV 5

Part 40: here

...

LEWIS POV

Lewis comes to welcome the dark interludes which provide a brief reprieve from the parade of fake-Arthur-memories. The cold, empty silence is preferable to the increasingly dour scenes depicting the day-to-day struggles of fake-Arthur and fake-Vivi as they fail at dealing with fake-Lewis’s death. Not that either of them know about his death. Arthur doesn’t remember the cliff or the body snatcher, thinking fake-Lewis is alive and lost somewhere. Vivi doesn’t remember him at all. He’s been erased completely from her mind, leaving her confused and Arthur distraught.  Lewis has no idea how long he’s spent watching them struggle. The scenes come and go at varying lengths and changing levels of detail.  He must have lived through several weeks’ worth of fake-memories now. Months of Arthur’s life flit by, broken up into chunks. 

...

A conversation with Vivi, trying and failing to convince her that the other-Lewis had existed at all.

“Lewis…you know, Lewis. Please remember.”

“I’m sorry, I blanked out for a second there…what were you saying?” 

“Nothing. It’s nothing…”

“Oh shit…I was...how long was I out for this time?”

“An hour...You were gone for an hour.”

 “I’m sorry Arthur.” 

“Don’t worry about it. Was my fault…Mentioned something I shouldn’t have.”

Fights with Lance when the older man attempts to intervene and stop Arthur’s increasingly destructive behaviour.   

“This behaviour isn’t healthy.”

“What am I supposed to do!”

“Maybe, stop and actually think about this…” 

“Lewis is out there somewhere, and you want me to just give up!”

Hours spend online and in police stations trying to convince people to look for the other-Lewis. 

“Kid. You’re friend is listed as missing. We have alerts out in the neighbouring states and so far there’s been no word. Search parties, caving experts, were combing those old mine shafts for six days after you came in. There was nothing there.”

“Something happened there...something bad...if you would just...”

“The cave is just a regular cave. Those old mines are old mines. Nothing weird or spooky about them, just very easy to get lost in. There’s nothing more to be done so go home, eat a hot meal, get some sleep. If your friend shows up you’ll be one of the first to know. ” 

...

 It’s like watching a highlight real, only nothing about these memories is a highlight. He’s almost sure the fake-memories are selected and purposefully skewed towards negative experiences. Surely, even if this were real-it’s not real, it can’t be real-Arthur’s life wouldn’t be this bad without Lewis there.  

When the darkness falls away, transitioning into another memory, Lewis wants to yell out in frustration.

…

…

…

Lewis’s eyes open of their own accord and he’s looking out at the world, experiencing life from his friend’s perspective.

…

…

This memory starts with Arthur staring as a door handle, hesitating to pull it open. Lewis recognises it of course, he’s seen this door serval times, scattered in amongst the most recent lot of fake-memories. It’s the door to Vivi and Arthur’s apartment in Milton, faded green in colour and rusted around the hinges.

Arthur lets out a long breath which tranistions into a yawn, fiddling around with a set of keys with his one, good arm. Lewis tries not to worry when his friend drops the keys to the ground, hand slightly shakier than usual. Arthur probably hasn’t been sleeping properly. Not-sleeping is a running theme for this fake-memory-Arthur.

When the door does finally swing open, it is to reveal an irate Vivi. She is blocking the flat’s narrow entryway, her hands on her hips, expression creased into a scowl.

“In what universe does ‘I’ll be back early’ mean 11:30 pm?”

Arthur winces. Lewis can’t see his expression but his friend is probably grimacing. Most memories that feature both Vivi and Arthur involved an argument of some sort. Another form of torture for him no doubt. Seeing them struggle to come to terms with his disappearance was always a painful viewing experience. Lewis braces himself for some sort of emotionally charged argument, wishing he had the power to intervein. These fake-memories are some of the hardest to sit through.

“A lot of the guys in the lab work late hours.”

Vivi looks unimpressed, “And I suppose they’re all recovering from a recent amputation as well are they?”

“It’s been four months …It’s healed plenty.”

Lewis feels the echo sensation of pain as Arthur drops his bag to the floor, freeing up his remaining arm. Arthur lying to Vivi about his wellbeing is another common theme in these fake-memories. Vivi knows it too, Lewis can already see the tension in her shoulders.

“I’m fine,” Arthur tries to reassure, skirting around Vivi, avoiding eye contact. “The prototype for the new arm is almost done, we’re just waiting on the guys in programming to double-check some of the coding….”

“This new arm isn’t going to be worth much if you’re too exhausted to do anything with it.” Vivi interrupts angrily, following Arthur as he slinks past the small kitchen towards bedrooms at the back of the apartment.  

Lewis feels her grabs the back of Arthur’s shirts, pulling the other up short.

“I said I’m fin….wait.”

 Vivi drags Arthur to the narrow kitchen bench just big enough to fit two bar-chairs, ignoring his objections.

“Sit.” She orders, stopping over to the frig, pulling out a bowl and thrusting it into the microwave. The hum of the microwave makes the following quiet twice as uncomfortable. Even Lewis feels it.

Arthur clears his throat to speak and is cut off when the microwave lets off a loud ping.

Vivi all but slams the streaming bowl down in front of Arthur.

“You really don’t have to…” Arthur tries.

“Oh yeah? What did you eat for dinner?”

Silence.

“Lunch?”

“…”

“Because I only know you ate breakfast because I was there for it.”

More silence hangs between them.  

“Eat.” She instructs and glares until Arthur picks up the spoon. Lewis can feel Arthur shift in awkward discomfort as he starts eating. After living through so many of these fake-memories, Lewis is becoming an Arthur body language expert. 

“How was work?” Arthur breaks the silence, glancing at Vivi. She is sitting with her arms crossed, still upset, still annoyed. Lewis can read the worry fuelling her frustration clear as day. 

Her expression clears as she deliberately puts the issue of Arthur arriving late to one side, “Work was good. Duet is a real character but they’re nice and super knowledgeable when it comes to the occult and other supernatural stuff. They’re helping me research memory-related curses and whatnot. The first person, apart from you, who doesn’t think I’m crazy. So that’s a plus.”

“When my arm is fixed, we can hit the road and follow up on any leads you hear,” Arthur murmurs between mouthfuls and Lewis wishes he could face-palm because that is the exact wrong thing to say. Not for the first time, Lewis longs to be physically present so he can smooth over the sudden tension which spikes in the room.  “Or we could go before that…I mean…I don’t really need two arms.”

“It’s not urgent or anything,” Vivi responds with the forced cheer of someone holding back on speaking their mind. “I bleary notice that the memories are gone most days. Your arm is more important.”

 “Don’t say that,” Arthur stops eating to frown.

“Don’t say what? That I’m fine postponing the search for my memories for however long it takes you to get better?”

“That’s not…what I mean is that your memories are important.”

Vivi’s expression hardens, becoming terse, “Not more important than your health.”

Arthur tenses.

“My missing memories can wait,” She insists. “I’ve been doing fine without them. Especially now we live here and not in Tempo. I haven’t had a blackout since we moved.”

“It’s not just that…” Arthur retorts, frustrated.

“Then what.” Vivi snaps, almost yelling now, “Do you hear yourself speak?  ‘I don’t really need two arms,’…are you kidding me!  What could possibly be more important than your health.”

“You know I can’t tell you.”

Vivi lets out a long, frustrated breath, standing. “You promised, when we moved closer to the hospital labs, you promised that you’d make an effort to actually look after yourself.”

Arthur doesn’t respond as Vivi continues.  “When your arm is finished. When you look like an actual person and not a zombie. When we don’t have to have this conversation every day. Then we’ll go searching.”

The bar stool squeaks on the floor as Vivi pushes it back, “I’m going to bed. I’ve got work early tomorrow. You should sleep as well…when you’ve finished.”

A long silence stretches between his two friends, all the heat gone from the argument. Lewis can’t see Vivi anymore, Arthur’s vision is now fixed on his spoon which is resting on the lip of the bowl.

“I would tell you everything…if I could…” Arthur doesn’t look up. His voice is strained.

Vivi pauses in the doorway. “I know.” She sounds tired. Lewis’s heart aches. “That doesn’t change anything.” 

Arthur flinches.

A sigh and Vivi adds, “I better not find you awake in an hour because I’m going to set my alarm to check.”

“What?” Arthur finally looks up. “You can’t do that.”

“I can and will.”

“…but you just said you have work in the morning.”

“If you’re not gonna sleep then I’m not gonna sleep.”

“But….”

“Just the way it’s gotta be apparently,” Vivi finishes, strolling out of the room, leaving Arthur- and, through him, Lewis- to stare after her.

Arthur slumps, “God…damnit…” rubbing his eyes. There’s no anger to the word.

No matter how many times he’s seen Arthur and Vivi argue in the weeks and months following his counterpart’s death, it never got any easier.  They were both too stubborn for their own good. Arthur’s got a quiet, methodical stubbornness about him while Vivi is loud and abrasive. Mix that with emotional stress and an obvious concern for one another and the result was a whole load of tension. Lewis knows Arthur has low self-esteem and tendency to beat himself up and blame himself for stuff that definitely wasn’t his fault, but he’s never seen him this bad. It never seemed like that big a deal when both him and Vivi had been around to help.  Vivi too, he’s never see her so stressed and angry at seemingly everything.  Or maybe Lewis doesn’t know Vivi or Arthur as well as he thought he did. 

There is movement in the corner of the room and Lewis notices Mystery for the first time. The not-a-dog had been lying in the corner.

“What.”

Mystery just cocks his head to the side.

“I know you can understand me,” Arthur mutters, shifting with discomfort. Mystery doesn’t speak or do much of anything, trotting out of the room after Vivi. Not too surprising. Another trend in these illusions was that Mystery tended to just sit and watch.

Sometimes, Lewis wonders if he just imagined the whole ‘giant fox’ thing. His memories for the car park confrontation are fuzzy, he’d been in a lot of pain at the time and probably suffering a bit of blood loss. He’s lived through so many of these memories that the real would seams so far away. Then he remembers those shinning teeth biting into him, and very real physical pain. That was real. 

The real world was still out there. 

None of these memories were real. He had almost forgotten. 

“I’m not crazy,” Arthur murmurs, eyeing the dog uneasily before turning back to finish what’s left in his bowl. Lewis can’t read Arthur’s thoughts, but he suspects that his friend might be having similar doubts about Mystery’s true identity as well.

“I’ll find you, Lewis…”

For a second, Lewis thinks Arthur is addressing him directly before remembering that that’s impossible. This fake-memory-Arthur is addressing the ghost of a best friend he doesn’t know is dead. Lewis is only a passenger, watching life through Arthur’s eyes, invisible and stranded.

“I’ll find you …no matter what it takes. I’ll find you. And everything will go back to normal…”

…

…

…

The memory fades, darkening and Lewis is once again back in the dark.

...

...

...

“DAMNIT!”

He slams both fists into the ground, watching the darkness ripple under the impact. His yell doesn’t echo, swallowed by the nothing.

“Damnit…DAMNIT…DAMN IT ALL!”

Feelings of frustration and anger smother his hurt and sorrow. He growls, smashing his fist into the ground again. If this were the real world, he’d have to worry about bruising his knuckles or breaking his fingers. The void offers little in the way of resistance. 

“I GET IT, ALL RIGHT! They’re miserable…they’re struggling…I get the point!”

Nothing responds to his shouting. He’s alone. He shouts again, screaming into the void. He’s stopped questioning the motive behind what he was seeing long ago. They were illusions masquerading as his friend’s memories. Designed to hurt him as much as you can hurt a person without touching them.

“Just stop already!” He rages. Nothing responds.

 Fury, white-hot, is better than the creeping sadness threatening to drown him. Sure, being angry about things had never worked well for him in the past. He’d been a very angry child and it was only thanks to his adopted patents and then Vivi and Arthur that he’d put the unpleasant emotion behind him.

None of that mattered here. Here, in the dark, the anger is his only defence against the green bastard’s torture.

Lewis regrets not punching the asshole when he had the chance. He wishes he’d done a lot of things differently. Lewis continues yelling right up until the dark once again fades into another memory.

..

NOTE: Resurrecting this fic in anticipation for a possible new video maybe? One can only dream. Sorry if it reads slightly different, i’m a bit rusty.  

Part 40: here