#Westworld review

[life-of-a-rat]

mildly funny doesthedogdie comments

[vickster51]

Favourite Television Episodes of 2022

My Favourite Television Episodes of 2022! Did I include yours? #TelevisionOf2022 #Review #TV2022

As I continue to reflect on this year’s TV, film and theatre, having picked my favourite TV shows of 2022, I thought I’d also look back on the best (in my opinion) episodes of television I watched this year. These are the episodes that stayed with me, whether due to a storyline, an acting performance, or a culmination of a season delivering a stunning finale. 1. House of the Dragon 1×08 (“The…

[courtiers]

westworld inc

QA: hey we found a bug. also i have a gun.

devs: thanks. we've rolled back to a previous version of the software. also we're investigating to make sure this isn't a wider prob—

senior management: why are you investigating. i thought you said the rollback would solve the problem. stop investigating. everything's fine.

senior management, weeks later: why is this bug still happening. time to fire a dev. any dev will do. doesn't matter if they were in any way responsible.

board: please can our park stop killing guests.

literally any reasonably-run company

QA: hey we found a bug. i will not wave a gun at you over this.

devs: thanks. we've rolled back to a previous version of the software. also we're investigating to make sure this isn't a wider problem.

devs, the next day: we found the problem and patched it :)

senior management: thanks both for doing your jobs :)

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 85th Birthday to Golden Globe winning actor and filmmaker Richard Benjamin! ^__^

[thekimspoblog]

I'm getting a lot of hate comments saying "lol clearly didn't understand the game" and hey shut up? I understand the game better than you do? I was already familiar with UIWAMs, memetics, and tulpamancy, and that's why I wasn't impressed? The world building in this game is fine but "good lore" is not the same as a "good story"? Maybe my understanding was "surface level" because this game is all surface.

It makes no sense for characters to be this obsessed with Lila when she has very little personality and the times we do see her, she's nothing but unpleasant. I get that William was lonely, but if we're supposed to believe Lila was love-bombing him at some point, we're never shown how that worked. The one flashback we do get of Lila and Will happy together, she's just lecturing him about Dualism. And I speak from experience: teenage boys don't give a shit about Dualism. If dry philosophical debate was all it took to win a man's heart, I wouldn't be single right now.

And again, what grinds my gears is that if this entity is supposed to be based on Lilith, this is such a passé interpretation of Lilith! IRL followers of Lilith believe that she was smeared as "vain" by Christianity, simply because she was a proud woman who didn't want to play second fiddle to Adam. And since this entity is shaped by the perceptions of her followers, it's dumb that her character seems to be informed exclusively by Dante and Milton and not like... Anton LeVey or any of the feminist deconstructions of the Lilith archetype. I'm just very sick of video games using occult and pagan iconography simply to call them the tools of evil. I'm not saying your Lilith character can't be malicious, but some of the above nuance would have gone a long way in making Will getting seduced by her feel more credible.

All I'm saying is this: Your story about fictional characters growing powerful enough to take on a life of their own, works a lot better when you bother to CREATE INTERESTING CHARACTERS. "Westworld" for example, also featured a boy named William falling in love with a tulpa-type creature, and that obsession proceeding to ruin his life. But in Westworld IT WORKED because we see Will and Dolores having the kind of conversations Will and Tanya do in this game. Dolores was built to charm people and she is charming; she takes an interest in Will's hopes and dreams, she doesn't just preach a philosophy; she discusses ideas about the limitations of free will in terms of her own anxieties. She makes William feel special; she makes him feel seen. The romance arc in Westworld manages to convey the core concepts of the scifi AND make it abundantly clear what Will saw in Dolores; why she ended up occupying his every waking thought. That's what good writing does. And because of this, Dolores Abernathy is more transcendent than Lila could ever claim to be.

You want another example? You need me to prove that everything this game does, other recent artworks have already done better? Alright, let's talk about Pathologic! In my opinion, that game actually was pretty repetitive with the ideas it wanted to espouse as well, but I had a lot more patience for that because the esoteric jargon was better connected to the characters, and the characters were more interesting and likeable overall. Clara is revealed to have such an inconsistent personality because the gods who made her are in disagreement about who she should be. And even if you weren't surprised by this twist, this development feels satisfying because it's based in relatable every day concepts: half the town has put their faith in Clara as a saint, and this pressure to deliver a miracle not only allows but kind of forces her to rise above the self-interest of a common child and be compassionate to extremes of martyrdom. The other half of the town believes she is a criminal and a witch, and this forces her to become a criminal to survive. Do you see how that works? Instead of just giving the audience a note to read about how a person's sense of self is heavily reliant on who other people perceive them to be, it forges empathy for a character who is actually struggling with this. SHOW. DON'T. TELL!

Or how about Georgi channeling Simon near the end of Patho1? There's a clear parallel between that and what the Lawrence cult was trying to do with Lila. So why was Simon doing this? Why was he willing to sacrifice his mind to spend every waking moment keeping the memory of his brother alive? Well, because he's afraid. He's afraid he'll never be the patriarch his brother was, he's afraid to admit that he never really loved his twin as much as he claimed to, and he's afraid that without the strong leadership of Simon the town is falling apart. That's beautiful and a little bit sad. It's ambiguous whether the Kain family actually has magic, or if they've just gone mad with grief, but either way we know Georgi's memories of Simon are imperfect and spending every moment thinking about Simon isn't the same as raising the dead. Patho1 doesn't just hand you a thesis on how our mental images of friends and family are fictionalized and idealized versions which can never capture the full truth; it shows you the heartbreak of someone trying to embody another mind/soul and failing. Now why was the Lawrence Fraternity channeling Lila? Something something influencing global politics? Do they have any specific grievances for why they believe the world needs to be saved from itself? Is the altruism a lie and this is really about money and power? Do the higher-ranking cult members know they're worshipping Satan or is the entire chain of command made up of lonely people with imaginary friends? Who knows! Who cares! The only members we meet are William and Strupnav, and as I've already explained it makes no sense what they were getting out of tulpamancy either. Boring!

It's just incredibly insulting to dismiss my criticisms as me "not understanding" what the game was going for, when the fact is this story had ONE INTERESTING IDEA and it beat me over the head with it ad nauseum. If you think this game is a good TEXTBOOK about philosophy and occultism, you're not wrong. But a textbook is not a narrative. And these repetitive exposition dumps came at the expense of plot and character.

JJ Abrams got so much shit for his "Mystery Box" TED Talk, and yet people found "Who's Lila?" impressive?! This game is nothing but mystery box storytelling! Lila has no substance as a character, and so she baited you along with a mystery, but she knows that once she reveals that there's nothing under the mask you'll lose interest and she will expire. Much deep; very wow. Kind of feels like the writers admitting they couldn't be bothered to write anything better. Like hey Lila maybe you wouldn't "die", maybe I wouldn't lose interest after closing the game window, if I was given a single damn reason to care about you as a character. Once you've seen stories that manage to admit that the initial mystery was a red herring AND still give you ideas you're left to chew on for weeks after the story ends, you realize how cheap it is for a game to think the red herring mystery was all it takes to be clever. Well ok, the destination was always bullshit; sometimes it's about the journey along the way. Oh wait! The journey sucked too!

"Dada Dog" being an innocent sticker which was coopted into a symbol of racial violence? That's a simple and effective example of how the game's philosophy can apply to every day situations. Too bad Mike is never given a chance to talk about how the murder of his brother effected him, and then the sticker is never brought up again.

The personal struggles Tanya was dealing with did an ok job fleshing her out; she seems like sweet girl with relatable insecurities. Too bad none of that was relevant to why Lila killed her.

Despite being a demon from the noosphere, it's implied Lila actually has a mother and father, and that her relationship with them is not great. That could be the beginning of an interesting characterization, but the iceberg doesn't go any deeper! Sure I could craft elaborate fan theories about how this relates to her bond with William, but no screw that! If the game didn't bother, why should I?!

To reiterate: as a computer game this is fine. Navigating a dialogue tree by showing one of six facial expressions is a creative premise for a game. It's quite fun replaying the interrogation room over and over just to see which faces lead to which outcomes. And while I thought the ARG segments were tedious, overall the program had a pretty good diversity of minigames to keep the player on their toes. The problem is that it wanted to be more than a silly game about a killer trying to cover up his crimes. It wanted to be an expansive, mind-blowing dialectic about the ephemeral nature of the human ego. And it talked a big game but it never delivered. It's an interactive novel, so I don't mind that 80% of the gameplay is just reading stuff. But "novel" implies a level of emotional investment, and nothing went deep enough to give me that. Instead this game feels like being locked in a room with a stoner who wants to monologue for 2 hours straight about the half-baked epiphany they just had. And I get enough of that at home.

If you enjoyed the story, fine. But ideally a work of fiction will use plots and characters to build complex hypothetical conflicts, in a way that the audience can figure out what ideas the piece is trying to convey without the story just grinding to a halt to spell out what we're supposed to be learning. And "Who's Lila?" feels so amateurish on this front, that calling this game "genius" is a disservice to better media which actually tries.

Was up all night playing "Who's Lila?".

Should you buy this game? Sure. The core game mechanic is fun and gimmicky. Really my biggest complaint is that they should have spent more time ripping off "Mario Paint" and less time ripping off "Im Scared"

What did I think of the story though? In three words...

SHOW👏 DON'T👏 TELL!!!!👏

This game is NOT as clever as it thinks it is; every philosophy it tries to spew at you, I've seen already done better in other pretentious video games.

Lila sucks! She's not "manipulative"; she's just rude. She's not "highly intelligent"; she's just a blatant mouthpiece for the author. I don't care how hot the actress is, not even the most pathetic sod would fall in love with this. She speaks in nothing but cliched villain monologues, and THIS is supposed to be such a dynamic fictional character that it reached the Collective Unconscious as a physical plain and gained free will?! As someone who ACTUALLY worships Lilith, I'm offended, because the real deity and her covens are way more interesting.

I hate William LESS as a 1-dimensional fictional archetype, but when your choices for explanation of what the hell is going on are between a supernatural force that absolves him of all responsibility for his crimes, or the good ol' fashioned "mental illness turned him into a cross-dressing killer"... yeah we're not in great shape.

And I'm REALLY getting sick of choose-your-own-adventure games using multiverses to get out of having to write actual focused, coherent endings to their stories. How about we leave the 4th wall UP for once?

[oneofusnet]

Digital Noise Episode 315: Incredible But True Reviews DIGITAL NOISE EPISODE 315: INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE REVIEWS Right on the heels of our last episode, Wright and Chris probably foolishly continue onto a second show (Twas the night before Christmas and all through Wright’s house, two critics were drinking more than…oh hell, a giant mouse). This time around we look at some of the… Read More »Digital Noise Episode 315: Incredible But True Reviews read more on One of Us

[cha-melodius]

2024 Writing Roundup

This one went around last year but I don't THINK I've seen it turn up this year? If it has, please excuse me, especially if you tagged me. 😂

This month marks the 36th month in a row that I've published at least one fic—since January 2022. Insane, I know, but I'm very proud of this streak, especially keeping it going in the midst of writing/posting long fics. I published 17 fics this year, which was considerably fewer than my 31 last year, but my wordcount was almost the same (more stats coming in my year in review at the actual end of the year). Here they are, by month!

JANUARY

Trying My Patience (Try Pink Carnations) (RWRB, E, 5.7k) Florist!Henry and cake artist!Alex have to work together for a wedding last minute

FEBRUARY

Ain't No Place for a Better Man (Lokius, M, 3k) Old west AU, the notorious bandit Loki tangles with gun-for-hire Mobius

MARCH

False Dichotomy (RWRB, E, 62k) You've Got Mail AU, indie bookstore owner Alex and corporate bookstore heir Henry fall in love over email

APRIL

So Close to Something Better Left Unknown (RWRB, E, 20.2k) CIA agent Alex and MI6 agent Henry unwillingly collaborate a mission where Henry gets dosed with a sex pollen drug

The Hazards of Unsolicited Toy Advice (RWRB, T, 2.2k) Henry gives Alex dog toy advice at the pet store.

The Impossible Soul (RWRB, M, 7.2k) Westworld-esque AU. First Son Alex falls in love with an android named Henry at Kensington Palace

MAY

No Ordinary Friend (The Pairing, M, 3.5k) The Calums' story, from Monaco to Palermo

JUNE

Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Firstprince Edition) Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Lokius Edition) Various kiss ficlets from tumblr prompts

Body and Soul(mate) (RWRB, E, 39k) Soulmate bodyswap AU featuring MI6 agent Henry and lawyer Alex, who gets unwillingly pulled into the thick of a mission

JULY

Our Get Along Oodie (RWRB, E, 7.7k) Grad student AU; 3 times Alex and Henry were forced to share the couples oodie and 1 when they shared because they wanted to

AUGUST

Tonight, You're Gold (RWRB, M, 6k) Olympics AU feat. beach volleyball Alex and sailor Henry, accidental roommates in the Olympic Village

SEPTEMBER

Flowers Only Grow Where There Are Seeds (RWRB, T, 4.1k) FSOTUS Alex falls in love with a White House gardener

OCTOBER

Infinitely Late at Night (RWRB, T, 2.7k) Alex is pretty sure the man at the Waffle House in the middle of the night is a vampire

NOVEMBER

Desperate Measures (Lokius, T, 5.3k) When a mission gone wrong strands them on a hostile planet, Loki pushes himself to his limits in order to save Mobius' life

DECEMBER

Since I Memorized Your Face (RWRB, E, 24k) Alex and Henry hooked up in college and find each other 20 years later—oh yeah, and they're soulmates

Not the Hero (RWRB, E, 61k) Fall Guy AU. Stuntman Alex and Director Henry are exes who have to work together on a movie, until the lead actor disappears

[Redacted] (TMFU) My fill for the annual TMFU winter holiday gift exchange.

Ok! Tagging a bunch of folks! @cricketnationrise @rmd-writes @clottedcreamfudge @tintagel-or-cockleshells @firenati0n

@blueeyedgrlwrites @iboatedhere @pippinoftheshire @porcelainmortal @thesleepyskipper

@kiwiana-writes @justabigoldnerd @three-drink-amy @eusuntgratie @faketrex

@orchidscript @loki-is-my-kink-awakening @14carrotghoul @sparklepocalypse @too-young-to-fall-in-love

@welcometololaland @indestructibleheart @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @suseagull5914

@leaves-of-laurelin @nicijones @mirilyawrites @onthewaytosomewhere @getmehighonmagic

[demifiendrsa]

DISPATCH | Official Reveal Trailer - Extended Cut (HD)

 Dispatch will launch for unspecified console(s) and PC via Steam in 2025.

Overview

About

From the writers and  directors of Tales from the Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us, Dispatch is a superhero workplace comedy set in modern day Los Angeles.

You play as Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha Man, whose mech-suit is destroyed in a battle against his nemesis, forcing him to take a job at a superhero dispatch center: not as a hero, but a dispatcher. In charge of rehabilitating a group of ex-supervillains, you must manage your roster while navigating office relationships and rebuilding your suit for a shot at revenge.

Key Features

Shape Your Story – In Dispatch, every decision you make influences the unfolding narrative. From banter in the breakroom to life-or-death situations in the field, your choices affect your relationships with the heroes, their allegiances, and the path your own story takes.

Deploy Your Heroes – Use the strategy map to review ongoing emergencies and deploy the right (or wrong) heroes to deal with them. Balance the risks and rewards as you make tactical decisions, knowing that each choice can have lasting consequences for your team and the city.

Manage Your Roster – Managing heroes sometimes goes beyond their powers. Each hero comes with quirks, flaws, and baggage you’ll need to navigate to keep the team together. Upgrade their skills and unlock abilities to boost their effectiveness in the field.

Blending narrative, strategy, and humor, Dispatch explores what it means to be a hero, whether you’re wearing a cape or behind a desk.

Meet the Misfits

Featuring an all-star cast from every corner of entertainment, including:

Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Westworld, Black Mirror)

Laura Bailey (The Legend of Vox Machina, The Last of Us II, Marvel’s Spider-Man)

Erin Yvette (Hades II, The Wolf Among Us, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon)

MoistCr1TiKaL (Charles White)

Jacksepticeye (Sonic Prime, River City Girls, River City Girls 2, Bendy and the Ink Machine)

Travis Willingham (The Legend of Vox Machina, Critical Role, LEGO Avengers)

Alanah Pearce (V/H/S Beyond, Cyberpunk 2077, Gears 5)

Lance Cantstopolis (Karate, Dancing, Actor)

Joel Haver (Filmmaker, Actor, YouTuber)

THOT SQUAD (Musician: Pound Cake, Hoes Depressed)

Matthew Mercer (Critical Role, Overwatch, Resident Evil 6)

Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction, The Batman, Casino Royale)

[dead-west-podcast]

Inspired by our friends @theholmwoodfoundation who posted theirs here as well. Be sure to check out their show! If you do, leave them a rating/review and let them know the team from Dead West sent ya!

So here is our presentation on why YOU should listen and support The Dead West Podcast!

Spotify

Apple

Youtube Music

Podlink (Links to all the apps) Spotify playlist as mentioned above Also, honorable inspiration mentions for Hunt Showdown 1896, Wild Wild West, Rango, Alex Grecian's Red Rabbit, Hayley Stone's Make Me No Grave, the Never Whistle At Night Anthology, Bone Tomahawk, the 1973 WESTWORLD, The Wickerman, Weird West from WolfEye Studios, and Inscription by Daniel Mullins.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday the Scottish actor Peter Mullan born 2 November 1959 in Peterhead. I love Peter’s work and rate him as highly as Brian Cox and If ever there was a story of rags to riches it is Peter Mullan, born in Peterhead the family later moved to Mosspark in Glasgow. Mullans father was a drunken violent man but despite this Peter did well at school, at least till the age of 14 when the climate at home forced him out onto the streets and into a gang, spending less and less time at school. In his own words he was aggressively lobotomising himself but admitted he kept up his reading on the sly “You couldnae tell the gang you were reading Carl Jung.” he said. I’m not sure his heart was in the gang culture as he says he was “kicked out” after a couple of years, he returned to school and sailed through his Highers and started at Glasgow University at 17. His dad died of lung cancer on his first day. Mullan studied economic history and drama and despite suffering a nervous breakdown in his final year still managed to graduate. He went on to teach drama at Borstals, prisons and community centres while becoming involved in the left-wing theatre movement that flourished in Scotland in the 1980s. In 1987 he made his professional acting debut with the Wildcat theatre company in a political pantomime. Bit parts in Scottish films and TV series followed, The Steamie, Taggart, of course, and Rab C Nesbitt, as well as The Big Man and in Braveheart, he uttered the words, “We didn’t come here to fight for the” Danny Boyle, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting were another two films that Mullan served his apprenticeship in. The breakthrough came when Ken Loach chose him in the title role of “My Name is Joe” he gave a brilliant portrayal Jekyll-and-Hyde character , a recovering alcoholic whose humanity and warmth masked a frightening capacity for brutality. He won his first award at Cannes as Best Actor for the role. Around the same time Mullan was starting to get into directing, three surreal comic dramas set in the Glaswegian working-class world and then his first full length film, he not only directed but wrote the excellent Orphans an odyssey of four working-class siblings roving round Glasgow in the 24 hours after their mother dies. Channel Four, who funded the film chose not to distribute it as they didn’t think it would attract a large commercial audience. The film however was shown at Film festivals around Europe and won numerous awards, in interviews, Mullan has said that once Orphans started winning awards Channel Four apologised and asked if they could distribute it, an offer he refused. Since then Peter Mullan has not looked back, directing and penning The Magdalene Sisters and Neds as well as starring in amongst others, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, War Horse, Hector and Tommy’s Honour, on the small screen he was one of the main characters in ITV series The Fixer, The BBC Two drama Top of the Lake, and in the excellent drama series Gunpowder. More up to date Peter has appeared as Jacob Snell in the first two seasons of the Netflix series Ozark, all three series of the BBC Two sitcom Mum and a recurring role in the popular TV reboot of Westworld. He has also starred in the Netflix fantasy drama Cursed. We will next see Mullan alongside Colin Farrell and Tom Courtney in the BBC series The North Water. Peter was also one of the participants of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Scenes For Survival project, which featured talents from the country’s arts industry making lockdown-related short films as a response to the country’s theatres having to close during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mullan has been busy in the past few years, appearing in TV shows Liaison, Payback, After the Party and LOTR: Rings of Power, as well as the film, Baghead a Horror film which has average reviews on IMDb. Outlander fans look out for him in the spin off series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a prequel to the popular Starz show, it follows the parents of both protagonists from the original series. Tony Curran is also cast as a younger Lord Lovatt. It is follows the parents of both protagonists from the original series it is expected to premiere in 2025 on Starz. He has a few oter projects on the go, the most hard hitting will no doubt be an ITV mini series called Lockerbie which will focus on the investigation into the crash on both sides of the Atlantic and the devastating effect it had on the small town and the families who lost loved ones.

[life-of-a-rat]

I watched westworld yesterday. Very much so enjoyed it, the environment/aesthetic was amazing, lots of very empty kinda liminal shots, and alot of those scenes had no music, which worked really well! Also, did you know that this was apparently the first feature film to use computer generated imagery? Quite a novelty in ‘73!

however, this movie has added one more piece of evidence to my theory that Michael Crichton might not have known what an ending was.

[vintagelasvegas]

Old Vegas, Henderson, 1978, a theme park based on 19th century Las Vegas Valley and early city of Las Vegas history.

Old Vegas opened Dec. 1978 on Boulder Highway in south Henderson. The park featured replica of the first Mormon outpost in the Las Vegas Valley, and a commemoration of Rafael Riviera, the scout who "discovered" the Las Vegas Valley in 1829. A western town was later added, replicating the first structures of Block 16 in Las Vegas. The park housed historic items including an 1875 locomotive built for the Eureka & Palisade Railroad in Nevada, and some of the buildings from El Rancho Vegas.

Houston-based Old Tucson Corp (aka Westworld Inc) developed the facility patterning it after a similar theme park in Arizona called Old Tucson.

Old Vegas closed in '86. The road sign for the theme park remained on Boulder Hwy through the 90s.

Photos: (1) 1978, from Cat's Pajama's Collectables; (2) Postcard, 1978. (3) Undated, from RJ; (4) Boulder Highway, 1990s, from Roadsidepictures. Old Vegas western park completes first phase. Review-Journal, 12/26/78; Old Vegas provides a slice of Old West. Review-Journal, 10/13/83; Old Vegas heads into the sunset. Review-Journal, 7/4/86.

[trulybetty]

Sunday | Week In Review I

So in order to try and be consistent with this, I’ve kept a running Notes page open to keep track of my week.

As I mentioned last week, I don’t expect this every week, I am me. But I am going to keep trying to make an effort to support my fellow creators.

If there’s something you’ve enjoyed this week, please feel to reblog this and tag me so I can check it out and share 💙

Also, not that I feel it needs to be said, but this is a reflection of what I have personally read and enjoyed.

B x

Truly Betty Updates This Week…

New York Part I (Marcus Pike x f!reader)

Fics I Enjoyed This Week…

Conversations with a Movie Star | Chapter 1 by @gnpwdrnwhiskey Even if you’re not a fan of Dieter Bravo, the dialogue in this alone is worth checking out this opening chapter for this new fic. Ava is an OFC down on her luck after being fired, from her families paper no less, and has stumbled across the Bravo Inn… I’ll let Lellen’s writing do the rest

Stripper Jack Trilogy | P. III by @psychedelic-ink The conclusion of maybe the definitive trilogy of trilogies? I don’t think anyone had Stripper Jack on their 2023 bingo cards, but he’s earned his space and I won’t have any arguments on it. 

Hungry Hearts | Chapter by @atinylittlepain Not many Joel AU’s I’ll jump into, but Bruce Springsteen and Joel Miller? Signed myself the fuck up for that as soon as it was announced. The unfolding of Joel and Cherry's relationship in the summer of '86 against them running back into one another 17 years later is such a great dynamic. 

Fall Apart Again | Chapter 1 + 2 by @wildemaven Heidi spoiled us this week, with not one, but TWO chapters of her new Joel fanfic. I don’t think I’ve gotten so emotional over an opening chapter to a fic before like I did with this one! Then the second chapter? Just bury me now… but actually don’t, I want to see the end of this fic first!

The Layover | Chapter 9 by @goodwithcheese How did Megan describe her fanfics? Hallmark movies with smut? She's not wrong. This whole series so far has been a rollercoaster of emotions and keeps delivering each week without fail. Not only are you rooting for Reader + Frankie, but Jules and Santiago anyone? Or maybe just Jules herself because she's just the boss.

Late Night Texts | Chapter 9 by @mvtthewmurdvck I think it's safe to say it's fanfics like Late Night Texts that have got me back in my rom-com/hopeless romantic era. I don't want to give too much away if you've not had the pleasure of reading this - but it has all the hallmarks of a good rom-com set on the backdrop of the early 2000s and with Javier Peña. If you're like me and still trying to make your way through Narcos or haven't watched it yet - please don't let it stop you, you won't be sorry!

A Little FaceTime by @stardustandskycrystals I’m still thinking about this fic days later and may have gone back to read it again. Trust me, just read this - you don’t need an explanation or reason, just read it. Even if Javi isn’t your jam (wasn’t on my list before, that’s all changed now) - it won’t disappoint!

Things I’m Looking Forward to Starting…

Decoherence by @prolix-yuy Westworld and Jack ‘Agent Whiskey’ Daniels crossover, yes, please! It is also reminding me that I never finished season one and should do something about it…

Pleased to Meet You by @intheorangebedroom This is a constant on my dash and on my TBR pile for a while with so many good comments - also getting into my Frankie era, so it’s perfect timing!

The Pilot & His Girl by @avastrasposts Been waiting to savour this one! So you’ve got the Last of Us and you’ve got Triple Frontier, two of my favourite things… what happens when you mush them together? You get a wild ride through the outbreak with Frankie & Reader - I cannot wait to get into this!

Visiting by @ladamedusoif This is another regular on my dash and on my TBR that I’m hoping to get stuck into this week. A college AU of Mr. Ben from the SNL sketch. Fully fleshed out and on the backdrop of New England, I’m ready to get swept away with this promise of a slow burn.

The House by @gemmahale A Jack Daniels x OFC (Best Friend) series coming soon focusing on a long-lost friendship, an inheritance, and Jack sounding like the scallion he is? Cannot wait.

Posts I Enjoyed This Week…

@rhoorl’s announcement of their Triple Frontier AU, Delta Landscaping with mood board and logo! The residents of Tumblr won’t know what’s hit the neighbourhood when they roll into town! 

Thanks to @gnpwdrnwhiskey I will never look at baby hippos without thinking of Dieter Bravo

Everyone’s participation in the WIP poll tag game, it was so fun to see my dash just filled with so many creative people and so many amazing ideas! It was a neat peek into everyone’s draft folders!

Things I’ve Enjoyed This Week…

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - FINALLY got to see it this week, and it did not disappoint. Have not stopped thinking about it since!

My rom-com era has returned, and I’m deep into embracing my forgotten love of a good rom-com. So far this week it’s been The Lake House, You’ve Got Mail & Always Be My Baby. Also it gave way to a Keanu Reeves appreciation post, come share your favourite Keanu!

This Week’s Song… Went waaaayyyy back for this one, an amazing album too - the Sterephonics are one of my favourite bands of all time 🩶

Hope everyone has a great Sunday & here's to a new week!

Please feel free to share your own favourites from the week or what you're looking forward to this week - not a tag game, so no pressure for you to share if you're not feeling it ❤️ xx

[kendsleyauthor]

New G/t Novel Available!

THE RESTORATION PROGRAM is available NOW in paperback and e-book! 🎉🎉🎉

Amazon |||| Goodreads

The first book of the PRINT / TRINKET UNIVERSE is finally here! It's time to meet Nicole and Ryan!

Content warning: This book contains mature themes, depictions of emotional abuse, and sexual assault. Intended for appropriate readers ages 18+.

Synopsis:

Nicole’s tragic death was only the beginning. Against all odds, Nicole Zhou wakes up from a fatal car accident to find that she is a beneficiary of a cutting-edge procedure: the Restoration Program. By transferring her consciousness into a new body, her life has been saved. The only problem? Her new body is merely ten inches tall. As she tries to continue building a life with her boyfriend, Ryan Northe, she struggles to grapple with the strange world developing around her. With each passing day, she questions whether the procedure really saved her life or plunged her into a fate worse than death. Regardless of her fears, both the Restoration Program and Ryan agree: what was lost has been restored. The first in a thrilling New Adult trilogy filled with suspense, romance, and the dawning of a new, strange world, The Restoration Program is perfect for fans of Black Mirror, Westworld, and romance books with an existential twist. It appeals widely to fans who enjoy a love story turned darkly on its head.

If you've enjoyed the stories @marydublinauthor and I have posted about the print / trinket universe, this one is definitely for you! Come and read about the origin of Prints in this universe 👀🧬

If you give our book a read, make sure to leave a review on Amazon/Goodreads!! Reviews are the best way to support indie authors, as it leads to more readers discovering our work!

Thank you so much for all the support over the years! It's time to get this trilogy going! 😍✨

[spoonck]

refuting that one reviewer on here

I strongly suspect I’ll be blocked, so I’m pasting what I said here before anything else happens. This is basically a response to that snarky review we’ve all seen

Anyway to respond to their points: the game refutes most of the reviewers assumptions, if not ALL of them.

the majority of the “points” made here are based off of personal opinion, which is not really valid for the sake of this review. The reviewer keeps alluding to different types of media with similar premises, but who’s Lila is NOT westworld. It ISNT slay the princess. If you want those games, play them. If not, don’t bitch because the game you’re playing isn’t like them.

imagine if I went into a restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger. Upon eating it I exclaim “hey! This is nothing like my favorite restaurants! That makes it bad!” But if I wanted my favorite restaurants food, I should have eaten there, shouldn’t I?

as for the “points” about the characters being uninteresting.. buddy. Go through the ao3 tag. Go through the tumblr and Twitter tags. This game clearly has a very dedicated and active fan base. Are you saying all of them are objectively wrong for enjoying it? Or is it that you simply don’t like it and they do?

and to the final point- you seem to have taken a very superficial look at this game. “That means the game is superficial.” Is it? Or were you simply unwilling to give it any more of your time than you deemed worthy? If you set into playing something with the mindset you won’t enjoy it, you probably won’t enjoy it, and that seems to be what happened here.

as for your last arguments regarding Lila and tulpamancy- this is how I can tell you didn’t play the game very thoroughly. Lila ISNT a tulpa. She ISNT Lilith. Her entire point is to deceive the player with what she might be, so as to keep your attention. Now you have said you don’t find her captivating. Good for you! Doesn’t make it bad.

Something I also want to point out, is that the reviewer states that Lila is a mouthpiece for the author. This directly indicates the authors naïveté to me. The author is assuming the game is going to turn to them during one of Lila‘s monologues and directly tell them Lila is being manipulative. Lila should not be trusted in this instance. The reviewer is indicating that they do not have the reading comprehension to understand that Lila is manipulative and not to be trusted. The game all over backwards to indicate that Lila is a liar that is not trustworthy. It’s all but spelled out for the player that Lila is manipulating William in every scene which she speaks to him. if the reviewer does not understand this, it is not the fault it reads the player has simply skimmed through the game and taken everything at face value. Because the game has told them something, it must be narratively true. when in reality, the exact opposite is true. yes, who is Lila is open to player interpretation, however, that does not mean the exact opposite of these things are true. The reviewer is being intentionally dense in their understanding of the game and not giving it the full credit deserves.

Who’s Lila deliberately lured in the player with thoughts of what might be happening. It sets you up to believe that William is a “crossdressing killer” (seriously op? Shame on you.) and that Lila is some generic supernatural entity. Then it shatters your expectations to- once again- reel you in.

Overall, you don’t have to like it. But this game has a very dedicated and loving fan base. Don’t post shit about it and get surprised pikachu face when people are irritated with your generic superficial take which is ultimately boiled down to “I don’t like it, so you’re stupid for liking it, because I’m so much smarter than you.”

mic drop.