#aaa is a show fighting not for its own survival but for the survival of all the shows after it

[spacedlexi]

I am madly in love with your artstyle and its been a big big inspiration for me as of late. Also, what are your thoughts on Jane and Bonnie? Do you like them or not

AAA thank you so much thats so flattering to hear 🥺💕!!

my feelings on jane and bonnie are nuanced just like my opinion on many of twdg characters. but i love twdg for all its messy fucked up characters :) its fun :) so while i dont hate either of them they definitely still do things that piss me off

in janes case, i think her mentorship/sisterhood with clem came more from her guilt about her sister than actually wanting to have this 11 year old around. so while she would teach clem important survival skills, she was also always quick to leave or act selfishly (clems "i thought you believed in me 🥺" always makes me sad). and this is just solidified by her actions in her S3 flashbacks. i do think she TRIES to work with the group, but she just gets in her own way and is never able to fully integrate, especially since the S2 cast is a fucked up mess in and of itself so its understandable. her actions at the end of S2 are born of pure selfishness, leaving a newborn infant in a random freezing vehicle so she could "show clem what kenny was really like" when clem is WELL AWARE of the thread this madman is hanging on to (having already faced the brunt of his frustrations MULTIPLE times at this point, and is desperate not to lose anyone else). she wanted a fight and she got one. i think maybe she told herself it was about saving clem, but honestly i dont think that was really ever her goal. again i just think a lot of her motivation comes out of the guilt of leaving her sister behind, so she saw clem as a second chance to make things right. but depending on clems actions, she can end up on her own without either of them, and jane can be the sister left behind to die. its interesting to see clem kinda pick up janes personality in the first half of S3 now that shes also at a point where she has no one and trusts no one, and is deep down lonely and longing for community. the difference is clem is not selfish (while still caring about self preservation), and actually likes being able to help people when she can. shes more so just afraid of caring for people again to protect herself from what she sees is the inevitable pain of losing them, as opposed to janes "theyre all just gonna bring you down so you should be on your own instead" outlook. but i definitely saw jane (and luke) as a bigger mentor/big sister(/brother) figure to clem than kenny was to her. jane actually taught her how to take care of herself. kenny was just someone from her past she didnt want to let go of

in bonnies case, she can be really horrible to clem if she listened to luke and stayed back instead of trying to grab him, so i'll literally try to save luke just so i dont have to hear it 😭 but also i like the convo her and clem have on the steps if you tried to save him. its an important character moment for clem, being asked what SHE wants instead of what the people around her want, and that she should start thinking about that, which is formative to the decision she makes (or fails to make) at the rest stop. the way bonnie is initially dismissive of carvers behavior i think is supposed to mirror the way clem can be dismissive of kennys behavior after leaving howes. will they come to see the man they once respected is becoming someone unstable? (i used to be in the "kenny might be going crazy but he'd never hurt clem" camp UNTIL i picked the "lee shouldnt have tried to save me ��" option in the car and kenny threatened to smack her for it AFTER giving it a moment of hesitation so he KNEW what he was saying there. my jaw was dropped. but kenny is just another interesting flawed character in a game of interesting flawed characters (although they Heavily backtracked on the kenny/carver parallels in the S3 flashbacks. you can make the argument hes happier now but idk he cant come back from the threat for me he MEANT that)). bonnie leaving with mike is fucked but understandable, and she can show real concern after clem gets shot before getting chased off by kenny. i hope her and mike are still out there somewhere i dont hate either of them, even tho it was horrible of them to steal ALL of their supplies when they knew they were leaving TWO children behind. like cmon. but overall i liked bonnie :) shes a bit of a mess but i like her for it

in the end i am a twdg woman character forgiver :) i do love all the fucked up ladies its refreshing let them do dumb shit and make mistakes!!! i love mess :)

[tunemyart]

I think to a large extent, whether or not a character can be classified as a villain depends on whether or not there's a hero for them to foil. Agatha's definitely a villain in WandaVision, foiling Wanda and Wanda's motives/desires.

But Agatha All Along is so delightfully strange as a Marvel/Disney show because, in Kathryn Hahn's very observant words, "there's no huge, big baddie that comes in". It's just Agatha, fighting against herself.

The story of Agatha All Along is such that it demands growth from its main character - and we get it! Agatha's sure not a hero, and the story makes damn sure we know it. But she's also not a villain, because that's not the story she's in here.

In AAA, it's just her against the world. "Can we not live with the witches?" "No, because they would kill us." Everything about Agatha's decisions and impulses and patterns are revealed to be about trauma and survival. It's Agatha against the world, it's Agatha against D/death, it's Agatha against Agatha.

And the culmination of that is Agatha's decision to sacrifice herself for Billy: a last-second, impulsive, guilt-driven reversal of her initial calculated, planned, and unapologeticially selfish decision to sacrifice Billy for herself.

And yet - she gets there. She makes the decision. She follows through and loses against the world, against D/death - but wins against herself.

imo, Agatha's pretty clearly an antihero - if an unconventional one. AAA follows the "hero's journey" as distilled by Christopher Vogler (eta: I'm not here as a Joseph Campbell apologist but Disney has famously used Vogler's version to workshop its stories) story structure almost to a T, with Agatha as the protagonist. And that's what makes it so interesting, because Agatha's resisting it so hard every step of the way. And by the end, we find out why: because she never intended to be on this journey at all, desperately wants out, and is improvising the fuck out of being the least bit in control of it.

I should note that antiheroes are not required to have heroic or even morally "good" motives - only that they are the protagonist and have unheroic qualities. There are a ton of different concepts of what the archetype of the antihero is per a ton of literary criticism, and Agatha may push at the boundaries of some of those, but I think that's also part of what makes her so interesting.

Because Agatha is so complex! She's so complex as a character and in terms of what she's doing in her own story and in terms of what kind of story forms around her! Is she a villain? Of a lot of people's stories, yes. Like, whoa. Agatha's real bad, y'all! But in her own story - in Agatha All Along? She's something else entirely.

Could we argue that Agatha is a anti-villain than a villain villain, I mean in the sense that she still has some heroic qualities but hides them because I think she's been told so many times that she's evil so she's been like you know what I'll give you evil then or she just is a true villain but likeable.

I definitely wouldn’t classify her as a villain in the black white sense. Has she killed a lot of people? Well, yes. There’s no denying that. We got a whole montage.

Aside (weird that I’m just brushing off murder here) from that, she just has a lot personality traits that most people wouldn’t put up with and would find off-putting. However, we know that a lot of what she does/says is the only way she knows how to deal with the immense pain she’s been carrying for centuries.

Anithero is be the closest word that comes the closest to describing her. She doesn’t want to redeem herself. Morals? What morals? She is self-serving and very complex.

The only heroic thing we see her do is save Billy, but it’s by far the most selfless thing she’s ever done.

Another big thing about Agatha that keeps her from being classified as a villain is that beneath all of her bravado, there is space for the 2 people she loves the most, Nicky and Rio. And that love is deep and precious to her. When she allows herself to show that live, it comes off of her waves. Most villains are shown to have no love for anyone but themselves, but Agatha isn’t devoid of love, despite the solitary persona she presents.

Agatha is the wonderfully complex character that I’ve always wanted and still can’t believe we got. She doesn’t really fit into any one box. And I personally prefer to keep it that way :)

Everyone feel free to way in with your thoughts. I would love to see other pov’s on this topic :)

[lena-cant]

Signalis Review

Content Warning: ommetaphobia, unreality, description of violence

Signalis is a classic-style survival horror game in the same vein as the original Resident Evil games. It hit digital storefronts a little less than a month ago after being published by Humble Games. The game is a classic survival horror game in its truest sense, inheriting design decisions that most AAA horror games have abandoned decades ago and refining the formula to near-perfection.

[Image ID: Signalis’ title screen, featuring a blue eye which follows the cursor, as well as options for “continue,” “settings,” “credits,” and “quit.”]

1: Resident Evil walked...

Am I really about to say that Signalis is straight-up better than any survival horror game of old? Well, maybe, but stay with me on this.

Signalis’ gameplay is most comparable to the original Resident Evil games. You navigate Elster, the main character, through a series of cramped areas with limited resources and ammunition, with the goal of collecting all of the items and information you need to complete the next puzzle at-hand. Later in the game, a lot of the puzzles get very non-linear, in such a way that you are spending a lot of time going to various places around the map, scouring every area for items and documents that you have no way of knowing if they’ll actually help you progress. On your way to solve these puzzles you’ll have to figure out a way to avoid, or, all other options failing, fight your way through these enemies.

[Image ID: A screenshot of Signalis.Elster points a pistol at a gaunt humanoid in a dark room. On the edge of the screen, a large-looking man is pointing a weapon with a laser sight at Elster. On the ground behind Elster are the dead corpses of other enemies, including one that appears to have a large sweater sleeve instead of a head.]

The enemy design is pretty typical, but there are some unique highlights. They’re all zombie-like creatures with static-y visages and a want for your death, but not all of them are created equal. There are some with shields, some that are really good at rushing you, and some of them are silly little guys with one comically long sweater sleeve instead of a head (you can see one lying on the ground in the screenshot above.) Most enemies, especially in the early game, can be run around no problem, but this isn’t without its own consequences (put a pin in that.)

Combat generally feels good, but its not without issue. Unlike classic Resident Evil, I don’t feel like I’m fighting the controls just to move around or perform simple game actions like “shoot a man.” However, later in the game where there are higher-intensity encounters with more enemies, the limitations of the control scheme definitely show up. For me, anyway, this added to the experience. Signalis’ controls operate on a nice middle ground where they’re perfectly usable until the exact moment where you need them to work well the most, which is a great vibe for a survival horror game.

Throughout the game, the game rates you on two axes: Overclustered vs. Fragmented and Hypersensitive vs. Catatonic, conveniently displayed at all times on your status menu. These ratings are for, respectively, how much killing you do and how much damage you take. If you kill more enemies, you’re more Fragmented, if you take more damage, you’re more Hypersensitive, and vice versa for the other to ends of each respective axis. This rating has no direct gameplay impact but it does have impact on a few story-related things later in the game. Other than that, it’s a neat way to get a sense of what your Signalis playstyle is. Personally I ended up hovering around Overclustered, Catatonic for most of the game, but towards the end I started shifting towards Hypersensitive instead.

[Image ID: A 2-axis chart in the shape of a hexagon labelled “Diagnostics”. The X axis is Overclustered vs. Fragmented. The Y axis is Hypersensitive vs. Catatonic. The current rating is all the way towards Fragmented, with a slight lean towards Hypersensitive.]

I found the game to be relatively easy all things considered. I only died a total of five times in my playthrough, and three of those were to barbed wire fence that I couldn’t see properly because I didn’t bring my flashlight (long story). If you’re experienced at survival horror games or other similar games I’d recommend tuning the difficulty up a notch from “normal” to “survival” mode.

Puzzle design is probably the standout feature of Signalis’ gameplay. What starts out as a series of pretty by-the-numbers keyhunting puzzles morphs over time into a series of mind-boggling sequences that were genuinely very difficult for me to keep track of, with series upon series of sub-puzzle building up to one ultimate puzzle (honestly usually its just a locked door that needs 6 keys or something) for each area. Often times, you’ll be presented with a puzzle and hints but you’ll need to backtrack through all of the other areas in order to find items that will actually help you complete it. And of course, this backtracking is another opportunity for the enemies to sink their teeth into you. My favorite one of these is one in the middle of the game where you find a hand embedded into the wall, and have to place rings on its fingers based on a series of obscure clues. The rings themselves are scattered all over the level, usually locked behind other puzzles that you have to solve. Nothing in the game is so complicated that you’d really get stuck, but they’re hard enough that they make you feel clever for figuring them out. They aren’t really hand-holdy either. There’s a puzzle early on in the game where you’re given a cipher for a safe’s keypad, but not all of the digits. As far as I can tell, the only way to progress is to brute-force the keycode, which luckily isn’t hard as there’s only one character missing from the cipher that we care about.

One of my favorite aspects of the game’s puzzle design is the radio receiver. This is an item that you receive early on that allows you to tune into different frequencies. Initially, you only use it for simple things like intercepting a radio broadcast with the key code to a safe, but later on you start using it for much more involved puzzles and it feels really gratifying whenever you end up using it. There are also enemies in the game which are caught in feedback loops, with copies of copies, roaming the area. You can only defeat them by tuning into their frequency and determining the origin of the loop, and destroying that one, which is a really neat way to integrate the radio into combat.

[Image ID: Four enemies outlined in red circles face down Elster. Visual glitches appear on the screen, like static and the word “VIDEO” in large bold in the upper left. Elster is tuned into radio frequency 202.000 Khz in an attempt to determine the origin of the feedback loop.]

One thing that does detract from the puzzle gameplay is the limited inventory space. I understand that in games like these, inventory space is limited to disincentivize the player from hoarding resources, but I think that Signalis ends up taking it a step too far. You are given 6 total inventory slots, each of which can hold one item or a stack of a few consumable items. If you want to carry a healing item, a weapon, ammo for the weapon, and the flashlight (and trust me you do want to carry the flashlight), you’re left with two inventory slots for key items or anything else you pick up on the way. There were multiple points in which I went to unlock a new area and had to backtrack all the way back to my safe room to put items back in the box because there was more than one item in the locked room that I needed. You do learn to live with it though, and by end-game I started taking riskier setups (just a gun with no backup ammo, no healing items, etc.) in order to make the full use out of the inventory space that I had. This inventory system also shines during boss fights, where managing your inventory space can become a fun little minigame in its own right. This is especially true for the final boss.

[Image ID: An inventory screen that looks like it’s running on a CRT monitor. 4 of 6 slots are taken up by Repair Spray, a Flashlight, a Pistol, and Pistol Ammo. The flashlight module is highlighted, and a readout reads “A shoulder-mounted flashlight module. Powered by internal Replika power supply when installed.]

All of the gameplay comes together to produce a really solid whole for a survival horror game. Combat is challenging, especially later on, but never so frustrating that I felt like I wanted to give up or take a break. Puzzle design was good and made me feel clever for figuring out all the solutions. There’s enough to love in the combat and puzzle design that you could probably go through the game with just those, but Signalis adds a cherry on top of the gameplay with an incredible and distinct visual style.

2: New/Old 2D/3D Style

Signalis has a pretty unique art style, comprising mostly of a pixel art aesthetic with limited 3D in the gameplay overworld, with pixellated CGs and PS1-looking 3D for story and puzzle sequences. The visuals were immediately striking to me, with a distinctly grimy feel that brings out its retro-scifi aesthetic.

[Image ID: Elster stands in a room lit by a single green bulb above. There is a closed cryogenic pod, connected to a series of pipes in the background. 4 CRT monitors output unreadable information. On the right, there is a pennant with a Penrose triangle, with the phrase “Penrose | 512″ written on it.]

One of my favorite aspects of this game’s visual design in moment-to-moment gameplay is how thin the distinction between 2D and 3D assets are. For most of the game, it’s pretty difficult to tell if something is rendered in 2D or 3D. I think that all of the characters are 3D models, but honestly if I was told that they were 2D sprites I would totally believe them. The filtering on the 3D elements of this game is done superbly, to the point where most of those elements just look like 2D spritework in their own right. The visuals give everything an atmosphere that you can just bite into, which brings out the best in the game’s ability to invoke tense situations.

[Image ID: Elster points a gun at a humanoid figure, which is chopping meat at a kitchen counter. There is only one light source, which illuminates only part of the room in a dingy yellow light. Counters around the room are all covered in blood and meat.]

Outside of the moment-to-moment gameplay, several areas that require finer interaction are rendered in a 3D first-person perspective. These also look wonderful, as the PSX looking 3D is a great counterbalance to the dingy pixel art of the sections where you can free roam. I don’t have much to say in words here so I’m gonna let the visuals speak for themselves a little.

[Image ID: A first-person perspective of the cockpit of a spaceship, with three monitors and hundreds of buttons. The ship appears to be crashed in a snowy wasteland. A pop-up on screen shows a polaroid photograph of a woman with white hair, and text reads “Pick up Photograph?”]

[Image ID: A first-person perspective of two arms, jutting out from a wall. One is clasped over an opening in said wall, while the other holds out the back of its hand towards you.]

[Image ID: A first-person perspective of a CRT screen, which shows a keycard embedded in what appears to be a skull. Text at the top of the screen reads “BILDM ROEN - OBJ D” and on the right there is a control panel with arrow keys which has wires jutting out of the top.]

The 3D visuals captivate me in a way that I can’t really describe. Maybe I just love the PSX horror aesthetic that this game nails so well in these moments.

In cutscenes, the game uses a combination of 3D animation and prerendered 2D CGs which are usually striking. The pixel art in the CGs is gorgeous and brings across the emotions of the characters incredibly well.

[Image ID: A close-up of Elster’s left eye. It’s bright blue and stares off into the middle distance.]

The 3D animation in these cutscenes bring across a similar vibe to the first-person puzzle environments, a crunchy PSX horror feel that really brings out the most of the game’s setting.

[Image ID: A spaceship crashed in a snowy wasteland, rendered in 3D. Its wing features an insignia with a compass, three stars, and a wreath of wheat, evocative of the flag of East Germany during the Cold War.

As far as visual options go, there are a few. The game defaults to 50 hz, likely because the developers are European and that was the standard in Europe during the era of gaming that they’re borrowing their aesthetic from. It also features a CRT filter and a film grain filter. The film grain filter is just intrusive in my opinon, it doesn’t really add much to the experience. The CRT filter is very cool and looks good, but it also makes some (admittedly mostly superfluous) text unreadable, which is a definite drawback.

[Image ID: The same cryo-pod room as earlier, but with the CRT filter turned on.]

Overall I have absolutely no issues with this game’s visuals. It’s got a striking style and really knows what it wants to be. There is a slight amount of dissonance between the various aesthetics of the Anime-style CGs, the 2D overworld, and the 3D first person segments, but I think that dissonance adds, rather than detracts from the overall experience. This aesthetic is only enhanced by the sound design, which is phenomenal. I have little to say beyond that for the sound effects, but I would be loathe not to mention the soundtrack.

The music that plays during combat is heavy and grimy, adding to the frantic and tense atmosphere that the game so carefully builds up. The game also features several classical compositions by various composers, which add immensely to the artful feel of much of the story content. The game makes heavy use of Rachimaniov’s The Isle of the Dead Op. 29 as well as Chopin’s Preludes, Op.28 - No. 15 “Raindrops”, along with a few other pieces which are listed in the game’s credits. These classical compositions really add emotional weight to the scenes, as well as giving them deeper meaning.

3: A Dream About Dreaming

(This description of the game’s story contains no major spoilers, although it does relay some information learned early in the game.)

Signalis is described by its creators as “A Cold-War Eurasian Retrotech-Sci-Fi take on Cosmic Horror,” and that just about sums it up. The game takes inspiration from Robert Chambers’ “The King and Yellow” and Lovecraft’s “The Festival” to deliver a lethal dose of cosmic horror bullshit that I just loved playing through.

The setting of the game is... a little weird. It takes place in a spacefaring nation of some kind, which doesn’t have a name mentioned anywhere I could find. I have taken to calling them “Space East Germany,” because, well. Look at their flag.

[Image ID: A feminine figure in a black and orange jumpsuit stands holding a flag featuring a compass, three stars, and a wreath of wheat embossed on a black, red, and yellow horizontal tricolor. Text above reads “WUNDERWAFFEN UNSERER NATION” (Superweapons of our Nation)]

Most text found in the game world is written in either German, Chinese, or Japanese, with a few bits of English sprinkled in there (as a treat) (don’t worry, the game provides a translation for all of the important bits). This aspect of the setting has little impact on the game as a whole, mostly just bringing across the aforementioned “Cold-War Eurasion Retrotech Sci-Fi” aesthetic. The meat of the games setting (sometimes literally) comes when exploring the game on a deeper level (also sometimes literally). The vast majority of the game takes place on a mining colony called Sierpinski in the outer reaches of a solar system that is implied to be out own.

The main character, Elster (German for Magpie), is a Replika. The game doesn’t go into great detail as to what this means, so I’ll tell you what I know. In the setting there are two types of people: Gestalts, and Replikas. Gestalts are, as far as I can tell, normal biological humans, while Replikas seem to be human consciousnesses repurposed in artificial bodies to perform specific tasks, which varies from model to model. Most Replikas are made to forget their human selves, though its shown that some can come to remember their pasts. Effectively they are humans who have been repurposed into slave labor for the government. If this strikes you as very Blade Runner, I think it’s supposed to.

Elster arrives at the aforementioned mining facility in search of a Gestalt friend (they were roommates) named Alina. Or was it Ariane? You’re not sure. She made a promise to that Gestalt and she hopes to fulfill it. Unfortunately, much of the facility has gone offline due to a breakout in a new kind of disease. This disease initially only infected the Replika security captain, Falke (Falcon), but it has since spread to most residents of the mining colony. Infected Replikas are turned into aggressive, barely-real, mindless zombies, while infected Gestalts seem to merely have been killed. This doesn’t stop you of course. You need to find her. You remember your promise. You need to fulfill it.

[Image ID: Block text which reads “GREAT HOLES SECRETLY ARE DIGGED WHERE EARTHS PORES OUGHT TO SUFFICE, AND THINGS HAVE LEARNT TO WALK THAT OUGHT TO CRAWL.” in all capitals.]

[Image ID: A young woman with dark, braided hair is bent over her left hand, staring at it. In her right hand she holds a kitchen knife. Tears streak her face.]

[Image ID: Block text which reads “REMEMBER OUR PROMISE”]

[Image ID: A pale, slender young woman with long white hair and red eyes. Chromatic aberration around her gives her a sense of unreality.]

If you can’t tell from the above Lovecraft quote, the game wears its influences on its sleeve. A copy of Chambers’ “The King in Yellow” is even a major macguffin later in the story. This isn’t a bad thing though. Signalis has enough of its own identity that it can easily flaunt the things it references without letting people mistake its influence for imitation.

Over the course of the story, you meet a cast of Replikas and Gestalts who are all just as confused as you about the events on Sierpinski. Many of the Replikas are fighting against the the disease, trying to remain connected to what humanity they still have. A gestalt named Isa searches for another named Erika - her sister. As you cross each of these characters’ paths, a web of relations and interactions begins to form. Each of them is an essential piece of this mystery, just like you are, Elster.

[Image ID: A dark-haired young woman who carries a knife hides behind a pillar from a man wearing body armor and a shotgun. Text at the bottom reads: “Adler: I’ve done this countless times before.”]

As Elster descends deeper into Sierpinski, she faces greater horrors, as the rules of reality themselves seem to break down around her. The walls start to feel alive and the monsters she fights get even more deformed and unreal than they already were. She starts seeing visions, of places and people far removed from her current location. A radio tower in the snow. A grim isle where a lone boat waits.

[Image ID: Jagged rock formations close around the shore of an island with a lone boat and lantern sitting at its edge, and tall evergreen trees just beyond the shore.]

[Image ID: The Painting Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin. Jagged rock formations close around the shore of an island with a lone boat and lantern sitting at its edge, and tall evergreen trees just beyond the shore.]

Yeah it’s uh. This kind of game.

It’s also worth noting that the game has quite a few endings. Three of them are unlocked based on your Diagnostics score by the end of the game, while a fourth, secret ending is unlocked by going through a long sidequest throughout the game. All of the endings are, in their own ways, perfect caps to the beautifully tragic tale of Signalis.

4: Conclusions

[Image ID: Block text which reads “HAB KEINE ANGST.” (Be not afraid.)]

Signalis is a stunning and evocative piece of cosmic horror media that will leave you considering the world around you. Along with that, it’s an incredible love letter to classic survival horror games like Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark. If you’re at all a fan of these old games, or survival horror or cosmic horror in general, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Even if you’re not a horror fan, there’s a lot to love in Signalis and it makes itself accessible to people with all levels of skill.

What criticisms I have of the game are washed away by how immaculately it comes together. The interplay between the gameplay, visuals, and storytelling works so well that its impossible for me not to enjoy it.

It’s deeply moving, a little terrifying, and gave me a lot to think about, and that’s really all I want from a game.

And remember: when you think you beat the game: no you didn’t. It’s that kind of game.

Good night, Elster. Good night, Ariane.

[Image ID: A close-up of Elster’s face, with barely-readable diagnostic visuals in German and Chinese all around her. Her face is segmented, giving her a robotic look.

You can buy Signalis on the following storefronts:

Steam | Humble | PlayStation 4/5 | Xbox | Switch

Signalis is also available on Xbox Gamepass and Humble’s Choice subscription.

[yanderes-galore]

Aaa if its still open maybe some spring hand or steam teen hcs?

They are canonically the same character so they would behave similarly. For now I'll do Spring Hand and some other time I'll do Steam Teen.

Yandere! Spring Hand! Naib HCs

Possible Trigger Warnings: Yandere behavior such as a forced relationship, paranoia, kidnapping.

- In this AU Naib is just trying to get by.

- The streets in this steam powered town are dangerous.

- This required him to adapt to survive.

- He built the spring gauntlets on his hands to increase his mobility.

- 'If they can't catch you, they can't hurt you' was his philosophy.

- He takes pride in his invention and wants to impress the expedition team in the future.

- That's a dream, but currently he has bigger problems.

- Staying alive, for example.

- One time while he slinked through the busy streets, he found you.

- You were also someone who was just trying to survive this dreaded steam town.

- Your outfit was tattered but still hugged your body just right.

- You didn't look like one of the more violent people in this town, so he approached you.

- "Maybe it won't be too bad to have an ally in this world."

- Spring Hand! Naib tends to be a playful Yandere.

- Yet he also likes to be serious and look out for you.

- Due to how he's had to survive, he has a "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" mentality.

- That's how he feels about you at first.

- He'll provide you protection in this town if you supply him with materials and companionship.

- Speaking with him he shows a boyish personality and honestly just wants to make you laugh in this dark time.

- He isn't always cold and serious, just when danger is involved.

- The more he sinks into obsession, that gleeful and playful personality starts to dull.

- He now looks at you with worry and concern, like he's going through something.

- "The more I look at you, the more I realize you aren't safe here...."

- It's an innocent thought, really.

- His execution of it is really corrupted on the other hand.

- Moving out of the town is one thought, ships go in and out all the time and you two may have a chance.

- But when he feels sneaking onto a ship as a stowaway is too dangerous, there's really only one other option.

- Hiding where no one will ever find you.

- You two fight, you wanting to try sneaking on a ship, him wanting to find somewhere safe to hide here.

- "Either way is dangerous! Let's just take a chance, Naib!"

- You cry out to him.

- He's hating how conflicted he is. He agrees with you, but he also can't seem to go through with it.

- "We're going to get through this...Just follow me-"

- He's trying to reason but you shake your head.

- "Naib, if you can't get yourself together then let's part."

- That's not a good option either, are you even thinking correctly?

- He can't just sit there while you walk your way towards the harbor.

- You barely have a chance to scream before he uses his gauntlets to launch in front of you and stop you in your tracks.

- "You're going to die without me!"

- His paranoia makes him think irrationally, he hates how he's losing it.

- He used to be so calm and playful, why is he so frightened like a child when it comes to you being torn away from him?

- He's knows he can protect you if you just listen-

- But you won't listen so he knows he has to take matters into his own hands.

- Now here you are, Naib staring out the window as he looks for anyone nearby who could mean harm.

- The longer you sit in the dark abandoned shelter with Naib, you get to thinking.

- This town may be hell...

- But being locked with Naib is even worse.

[floralovebot]

Helia and Tecna friendship headcanons? -lambofzenith

AHHHHHHHHHH okay so

helia is really bad at technology right? pretty much anything that isn't covered in red fountain lessons, he's a complete no-go at. tecna takes it upon herself to try and help him understand basic technology a bit more and it goes so wrong. helia is literally the mom that squints their eyes and holds their phone away from their face while using One pointer finger to type everything. tecna hates it so much.

helia naturally doesn't understand a single thing that comes out of her mouth when she's talking technology but he still supports her nonetheless

helia is surprisingly rational most of the time! he's a firm Push All My Emotions Down And Then One Day I'll Die kind of person so even during really stressful missions, he's good at keeping a level head about things. tecna really appreciates this and it's not rare to see her, helia, and timmy discussing mission-related strategies During The Middle Of A Fight

tecna has a tendency to talk while she works (only noticeable around people she's comfortable with though) but she gets a little self-conscious about it. she knows it's not Bad or anything, but it doesn't seem Right either so she tries to keep quiet most of the time. helia on the other hand is so used to working while it's noisy that he's totally chill with it. they've gotten used to just vibing in the same room, working on their own things, and not actually talking to each other during it. they're comfortable around each other :) helia doesn't mind when she rambles out loud and tecna doesn't mind him pacing around the room every five minutes. symbiotic relationship.

tecna doesn't like talking about what she went through in the omega dimension, even with timmy. however, she does occasionally draw things out when she really needs to vent and can't think of any other way how. she's always been good at sketching due to her background in designing gadgets so this wasn't a weird transition for her. helia told her about this anonymous place for artists to submit their art with absolutely no names attached and after checking to make sure it was legit and she was completely safe, she started to submit one or two a year. she doesn't like to do it often but it does help to sort of "get it out" without actually talking about it.

while helia is notoriously Bad at video games, he does actually like the more "physical reality" ones (think that virtual reality tecmy scene!) mainly because it feels close enough to real life that he doesn't need to rely on just technology to do it. tecna and helia often have very competitive gaming matches but specifically within those kinds of games otherwise, he's really bad at it and she gets annoyed that he can't remember any of the buttons.

speaking of competitions, helia has an inner bet going on of How Much Can I Pretend To Not Know Jackshit About A Specific Technological Topic Before Tecna Notices. what he doesn't know, is that tecna knows he does this and has her own inner bet of How Long Can I Explain This Specific Topic Before Helia Gets Bored And Moves On. so far, the score is mostly even, with helia only winning because timmy isn't aware of this mental battle and will often jump in to explain things too. helia is very smug about this and tecna can't say anything to timmy otherwise she loses the fight that no one actually set firm rules on.

timmy is just really happy that his two best friends are also friends and sometimes he tries to invite helia and flora on their dates. tecna is okay with this only because she thinks it's funny. florelia were also okay with it but started to not be because they realized that their version of a date and tecmy's version of a date was extremely different. they've started to come up with increasingly ridiculous excuses for why they can't go and so far timmy is the only one that hasn't noticed. poor timmy, he genuinely thinks flora's best friend cactus is sick and needs care 😔

when timmy isn't available, helia will call tecna for any technology related issues he's having. on one hand, she likes that he trusts her and can rely on her, on the other hand, she's told him ten separate times not to leave his computer running all the damn time. (tecna: please turn the computer off when you're not using it. this will immensely help solve all of the problems you've been having. helia: okay so i'm gonna leave it on all the time?). he's not trying to be difficult though. he just forgets everything and assumes it should work regardless (he a little stupit).

roxy gets so much gender envy from both of them and it confuses her all the time. they have no idea what a gender envy is though and they're mostly just wondering how they stop giving it to roxy since it seems like it agitates her??? help please???? researching the matter doesn't help and it ends up becoming a meme on winx stan twt because tecna made a very official and serious post asking about the severity of "gender envy" and needing to know how contagious it is. now whenever either of them posts, earth teens just comment gender envy at them. helia still doesn't know what it means.

they don't watch movies/tv together but they will binge-watch the same shows and then talk about them later on. tecna's formatting is still very formal and functional meanwhile helia bounces off multiple points and forgets to make a conclusion. he stresses her out so much.

helia notices when tecna has stayed up too long for too many nights and will occasionally send her a "please sleep" message when he knows timmy is already asleep and can't do it. she doesn't always listen but sometimes she will, but not before sending the same message back because why the fuck is he up at this hour huh dumbass?????

tecna has a pet bird and helia has multiple cats and they absolutely cannot be in the same room together. her bird is constantly trying to fight his cats and while they're usually well behaved, he's genuinely scared they're gonna try to eat it (tecna: stop calling my bird an "it"; helia: stop putting your bird near my cats 😐)

they actually don't like hanging out when one of them is upset. they both have a hard time talking about their emotions (for different reasons obviously) and they always end up feeling like they have to say something when they're together. they just really prefer hanging when they're both in a good mood or at least calm. whenever one of them gets upset, they stop hanging out together until that person feels better.

connected to the last point, you'd think that would mean they don't know a lot about each other, but they surprisingly do! they're both relatively observant people (tecna gets better every year) and they're actually really good at figuring out why the other is upset and what would help. they just don't talk about it.

although, on a similar note, the one time they did have an emotional talk, it was about timmy. tecna was feeling upset again and worrying over whether or not she's "too logical/not emotional enough" and it was the one time where she actually allowed herself to hang out with him while being upset. they had a genuine heart to heart about things and especially about how she's way too hard on herself. they thought it would be awkward since they actively avoided this kind of thing but it wasn't! it went very naturally and helia even teared up a bit. he's very proud of her and the effort she makes every day and since that talk has been much more vocal about it.

when they went to earth in s4, they both spent way too much time learning about Earth Things; tecna about earth media (canon), and helia about animals since that's what flora was talking about. he started calling tecna "chip" after that because chipmunks reminded him of her. she disagrees with this assessment and he refuses to admit he mixed up chipmunks and squirrels. he still calls her chip to this day, and fortunately, it's grown on her. unfortunately, he calls timmy "chip" too, and now it's a hassle to figure out who he's talking to.

helia is surprisingly interested in zenith technology despite not understanding it all! he enjoys walking through the streets of zenith with tecna while she proudly points things out so he can go "ooo aaa" at everything. sometimes she tries to explain how things work and his mind starts playing elevator music automatically. tecna has gotten really good at knowing when helia is just. brain empty no thoughts because she recognizes the Empty look in his eyes. she enjoys catching it live and trying to figure out why he's just. not thinking (usually it's because he either doesn't understand something or got bored) (this happens often when sky starts talking) (sorry sky)

tecna is one of the winx (besides flora of course) that helia trusts the most. not in an emotional or friend way, but in a physical, we're on a mission way. she has good control of her magic and knows how to use it. she's good at thinking of strategies and applying them properly to the situation. and after the omega dimension, he had a newfound respect for her previously unknown to him survival skills. if he were even in severe danger, she would be the first winx he'd call (depending on the situation, she is occasionally ahead of flora).

helia is really bad at sharing details. he tends to go straight to the conclusion but doesn't share how he got there (adhd king 😌) and tecna is the best person to call in when this happens. her logical questioning makes it seem so easy because she has the patience and knowledge to connect the dots and ask the right questions. when anyone else tries its more like (helia: i'm sitting in a pool of blood; person: uhm do you know where it's coming from?; helia: probably the stab wound; someone: did you get stabbed??; helia: oh yeah definitely.)

[nadziejastar]

I’m glad the creators want to emphasize thatCloud’s “badass, silent dude” personality was just a fake persona he created. I think a lot of fans had the misconception that was his true personality all along.

Warning: FVII Spoilers

Nomura: “While Cloud may look this way, he was a dork. I believe those of you who played the the original would understand what I mean by saying he’s a dorky character.”

I totally agree. I think a lot of people aren’t good at picking up subtle characterization, especially since the original game didn’t have advanced cutscenes or voice acting. Cloud always seemed like a dork to me after I learned he really had dissociative identity disorder and his whole SOLDIER thing was just a persona--an alter. Barret knew it, and made fun of him. So many people complained that Cloud was OOC in Advent Children and I remember feeling confused because I really didn’t think he was? He was depressed, but it seemed realistic after everything he’d been through.

“In severe cases of mental splitting when the extreme pain drives that person into disassociation, at the moment the person disassociates from their body, the soul-psyche manifest coping mechanisms to survive. To disassociate from the painful trauma felt in the body, the soul and mind will split into sub personalities, or create alternate identities. These are called alters.”

While we’re on the topic of Cloud’s fake badass silent persona, the way Tifa repairs Cloud’s fractured mind in FFVII always reminded me of the power of waking in KH. I’m sure FFVII was the precursor to this idea. Cloud developed his badass persona when he watched Zack get murdered right in front of him. He dissociated and took on a tough guy alter in order to cope.

Sora turned around. Empty husks? Is he saying they’re going to break them with sorrow and put another heart into them…? Or did they already do it?

“Translation—they were gonna turn all the members into Xehanort.”

“Make more Xehanorts?” You’re hollowing out people’s hearts to put Xehanort’s inside them?!

In order to turn people into Xehanorts, they had to break the person’s psyche with pain. That way, the Xehanort “alter” can take over the body. I’m sure that’s what the mind control experiments were about.

You could say Cloud’s heart was in the Realm of Sleep, like Ventus’s was when he first met Terra and Aqua. He was unable to talk and he was not really aware of his surroundings. Cloud’s mind was in pieces and Tifa had to “dive” inside his psyche to repair him and restore him to completeness.

KH3′s tagline was “face your fears”. When I write my KH3 rewrite fic, I wanna give each of the Seven Guardians one of these segments to fully explore their fractured psyche. A time for them to face their insecurities and fears, and actually show them being healed. That’s THE biggest thing I think KH3 was missing. Before waking up, each character needed a Tifa to help them piece themselves together. Riku got swallowed by the Demon Tower in the beginning. I think the Demon Tower was supposed to be something that causes you to be trapped in your worst nightmare. Then he’d have to face his fears with the help of Mickey. His “other self”. He’d have to confront all his insecurities and his guilt over feeling like it was his fault Destiny Island got destroyed.

Mickey got swallowed by the Demon Tower later on. Then he had to deal with his guilt over feeling like he failed Aqua and left her to rot in the Dark Realm. I think the Dark Aqua boss fight was probably originally supposed to be part of Mickey’s nightmare that Riku was trying to wake him from. All the things she said sounded like a reflection of Mickey’s worst fears. And that darkness bubble thing looked like the same thing Sora was trapped in at the end of KH3D, when he was in the nightmare.

I think ALL the main characters, including Sora, were supposed to get a segment like that to give their arcs closure. Sora would have to dive into the abyss at the beach (the KH equivalent of the Lifestream that Cloud fell into). That beach is basically the collective unconscious. All of Sora’s sleeping memories (of Castle Oblivion/Namine, Roxas, and Xion) would have to be confronted. And after that, he’d have to help Aqua face her worst feelings, which was that she failed to save Ven and Terra.

The whole opening of 0.2 foreshadowed the part where Sora would wake Aqua up. Sora didn’t really connect with her heart in KH3 or help her face her fears, though. The whole saving Aqua thing felt so rushed. I think higher ups at either Square or Disney thought that a AAA game like KH3 shouldn’t “waste” so much time with exploring the characters’ psyches and the story needed to move at a faster pace. But we missed out on so much.

I’m sure Ven was supposed to face his fears of feeling like he failed Terra. Lea would have to face his fear that he abandoned Isa for his new best friends and forgot all about him. He’d have a lot of guilt over that and he’d have to face a Nightmare Saix which would be the manifestation of all his worst fears. Honestly, I’m sure the FFVII Remake will do a better job demonstrating the power of waking than KH3. Which is sad.

Back to Cloud. In Crisis Core, you see a shy insecure kid who can’t even face Tifa. That’s the real Cloud. The part of himself he can’t accept.

Cloud never even really wanted to be a SOLDIER for its own sake.

He just wanted to accomplish something. He was lonely and depressed and thought a man was “supposed to be” a soldier. He just wanted to be noticed by Tifa. And Tifa didn’t know this. She genuinely thought Cloud was just a typical boy who wanted to leave home so he could fight in the war.

She took care of him during his time of weakness. And the whole point of FFVII was that Cloud was “weak”. I liked that he wasn’t the generic badass hero who simply “won” the girl by being strong and cool. And it made me like Tifa, too. At first, she wanted her and Cloud to fulfill the stereotypical heterosexual relationship roles. She told Cloud that when she was in trouble, her hero would come rescue her. Then Tifa got to know the real Cloud.

He loved her. But he wasn’t really that heroic. Even his mom thought he needed a girlfriend that would take care of him. But Tifa accepted him anyways, even when he didn’t live up to her knight in shining armor fantasy. She got her relationship with him, with all its flaws. She was HIS hero, actually. I liked that because FFVII was really the first game I ever played where the main couple had what I thought was genuine intimacy instead of simply the girl being the “prize”. And I LOVE FFVII. After he is pieced back together, Cloud acts completely differently. He isn’t cocky or cool. He seemed humble, quiet, and not so much a natural “leader” type.

Zack was the badass everyone thought Cloud was. He took care of Cloud after they were experimented on and Cloud was broken. I cannot help but think that Lea and Isa’s past was originally similar to theirs after being experimented on. Crisis Core was an inspiration for me in imagining their past. Lea is similar to Zack. Cheerful, confident, resilient, and heroic. Very compassionate, too. The way he talked to Cloud even when he was “broken” was very sweet. And I think Isa was similar to Cloud who is more sensitive, vulnerable, and needy. Cloud mentally fractured after watching Zack die in front of him. I wanted to write something similar with Lea and Isa. Isa mentally shatters because he witnessed Lea lose his heart. :)

[tumblunni]

I had a really weird dream involving Dr Maddiman. Its a shame i can barely remember any of it and also it seems i woke up before it ended? Like i just had this overwhelming sense that allll the plot threads were gonna be wrapped up any second now and then BOOM awake. So just a whole bunch of random stuff happened with no real explanation at all.

It was some sort of post apocolyptic setting i think? Humanity was in these small isolated cities fighting against some sort of invading army but we never actually saw the aliens themselves. And some part of my brain was like "it makes sense its the same rules as a hairdresser and the design takes cues from a pack of AAA batteries". I have NO idea what that means! So basically everythibg was super vague and undescribed and dream-me just had a sense of already being a long time fan of this series and knowing enough to fill in the gaps. Apparantoy this was some sort of adaptation of a thing id already seen, but id been told the ending was different and more accurate to the manga? Also i wasnt actually a person watching this show i was still the protagonist of the show yet i acted like i'd been reincarnated and relived this week a million times or something

ANYWAY the way dr maddiman comes in is that he was some sort of 'brilliant but dangerous' expert the government had hired to help our fight against the aliens. It wasnt really explained why he was.. yknow.. maddiman. Like is this meant to be that ghosts also exist in this sci fi universe? Was he a half alien hybrid instead of a yokai? Was it just human maddiman with the personality of yokai maddiman due to ptsd...? In any case he didnt seem entirely tethered to the laws of reality and nobody knew exactly how he pulled off all his scientific miracles. He was treated as the only guy who could understand the mindset of the aliens, but that also made him dangerous because he trapped in the delusion of everything being okay and fun and happy and he often did evil things by accident while having good intentions. But they didnt have anyone else who'd cracked the code of the alien weaponry so they had to put up with him. He was just sorta assigned a crack team of secret agents whose job was Be The Old Man's Friend So We Dont All Die. Dont let him realise how the world is all destroyed and such, just play along with his goofyness and try and remind him to do his important work while dancing around why its important. it was super creepy how he was locked up and gaslighted like this!! And he was all 'oh im sure when im done with my ultimate experiment i can go home to my wife and kids' and yeah it was implied here that the same backstory applied :( 'distract the old man and validate his false opinion that his family is still alive and waiting for him' :( poor sci fi madds :(

Oh also for some reason he seemed to be wearing elements of Adventure era Dr Eggman's outfit? But just the general style of the coat and the wearing goggles that he never actually uses. And he had a very warm and cuddly autumnal colourscheme

Anyway i was part of the Super Secret Grampa Cherishing Division whose job was to act as his assistant but also secretly be packing a bazillion weapons to neutralize him if he poses a danger to humanity. But i started to genuinely care for the guy and question the 'any atrocity is permitted for the sake of saving the world' philosophy of my bosses. Also it was just very weird how it was this post apocolypse alien fighting action thing yet i didnt see ANY OF IT cos this story was confined to this one laboratory. It was surreal hearing about all this stuff happening offscreen!

I think Maddiman's main project was some sort of dimensional transport thing using salvaged alien tech? It was just a door in his lab that usually led to a closet but if he got it working itd teleport us straight to the alien base and save the world. And a lot of it wasnt explained but i got this great sense that itd all come together with a great twist ending evebtually but then i woke up before i got that far. Same for the reveal of this maddiman's new sci fi backstory and soooo many other dropped plot threads. Alas!

So anyway: closet. Closet with one of those bead curtain things cos i was thinking about them when i fell asleep. It was supposed to be a teleport but when it malfunctioned it had really scary negative effects warping people's biology and stuff. I remember one of the test subjects was sent in for a five day trip to a specific alternate dimension but then when they came back itd been several years and theyd had to survive in a deadly wasteland and been mutated into a hellbeast. And maddiman had a huge breakdown because he felt like his recklessness and optimism towards this experiment had caused this mistake to happen, and he'd never realized just how awful the consequences could be. He was babbling motor mouth discussing theories for where it went wrong and there was something like 'we'd only tested it for one day trips and assumed that just programming two of them would equal two days but actually with each additional number on the screen it multiplies the days by 3" And there was something about like...the bead curtain was the machine rather than the door itself? Like trying it on a bunch of different doors around the lab to try and find a way to cure this person.

And there was some sort of artificial intelligence computer with the personality of an adorable lil girl, who helped maddiman do calculations and stuff. She missed the mistake in this calculation cos her concept of linear time and the limits of human organs was kinda undeveloped. She only existed within the realm of numbers after all, and didbt even have functionality to record footage of her human friends's faces. No idea wtf a human looks like! So maddiman was lost in his desperate grief of potentially accidebtally killing or at least mentally scarring a person and the government would probably kill them now if they saw they were a super mutant. And he was sobbing and begging this AI to help, his last resort was her maybe being able to see a brainwave that he'd missed. But she was freaking out cos she didnt even fully understand why maddiman was crying let alone what to do to fix it. Eventually she did manage to find a solution theough some simple different logic thing that she had from her perspective as a computer. And that person was saved but still traumatized and maddiman had a moment of realizing just how high stakes everything was and freaking out. He was like 'whats wrong with my head, why didnt i notice that, why was i so reckless, why cant i seem to grasp basic human logic that i need right now" Having a big existential crisis of 'wait how did i even get in this lab, where's my family and why do i seem to have superpowers'. Protagonist mission: hide all the goddamn mirrors to avoid this weird ghostgramp (...aliengramp??) from realizing he's dead (..or an alien??) and losing control of himself. And everyone was running around talking about 'containment procedures' and poor maddiman didnt know that if his panic attack continued he might just straight up be killed for outliving his usefulness. So the protagonist was desperate to help him calm down and it sucked SO MUCH cos they had to lie about his past and weave the web of deception around him again for his own safety. In the end they just hugged him close until he calmed down, and all the other employees were like GASP THEY ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE EVIL DANGEROUS SUPER EVIL MAN and protag was like 'i am 1% away from slapping the next bitch who insults this grandpa'. And it was super depressing cos once he'd calmed down he seemed to start forgetting that anything bad had ever happened?? And he was really panicking and scared cos he didnt understand why he was forgetting, and he knew he had to cling onto something important but he didnt know what. And then five minutes later he was back to haha cheerful nothing is wrong and i love doing my fun science in this room im never allowed to leave. And protagonist was crying the tears that this poor gramp wasnt allowed to cry :(

Also actually i think maybe he was a ghost AND an alien? Like he was a scientist who died in some sort of tragedy back when the aliens first invaded, but along the way he'd been infected so his body got back up as a twisted combination of human and inhuman. And this was something unique to him, like he just happened to have a genetic mutation in his blood that was totally undetectable in life but happened to mix unpredictably with this alien virus to turn him into a hybrid instead of just killing him. So the government was very interested in finding a way to replicate this and create new supersoldiers, as well as just taking advantage of this dude's confused mental state that granted him a unique understanding of alien tech that made him more effective than other scientists. And, of course, also made him easy to manipulate :(

And i also had a feeling that maybe his backstory was mixed up with Adventure dr eggman? Like here it seemed he had a daughter instead of a son, and she had a similar death to Maria Robotnik where she was assasinated by the government he worked for, and it tipped him over the edge. I think Maddiman-alien-scifi-dude originally died trying to save her from being used in some sort of experiment? Like she was already dying of a disease and thats why maddiman took this job to have access to powerful government technology to try and look for a cure. But when the whole alien apocolypse happened, the evil government decided to use her for experiments cos she was 'basically dead anyway'. Theyd just lie and tell maddiman she died of her illness. So this was how they found out that this particular family's bloodline had a mutation that let them form a viable hybrid with alien dna. They were turning this poor kid into a monster in the basement while lying to her dad about her being dead! And maddiman was about to commit suicide from having no reason to live anymore, with the hell of this apocolypse world and the false impression that his kid was already dead. But somehow monster-daughter sensed this or something and broke out of containment to try and save him, and when he saw her he was able to recognise her even in her twisted state. So when the soldiers gunned her down in front of him and fed him some lies about this not being his daughter, he just completely snapped. He tried in vain to fight back and take down as many of them as possible in revenge, but well he was just a simple round dad with no ability to fight a government. So he was unceremoniously executed along with his kid and they shoved the bodies back in the lab to continue testing. "Damn that overemotional science dad, he made us execute our most valable test subject! But at least this way we can analyze his corpse to see if the mutation is passed down on the patrilineal side." But at some point during the fight, monster-daughter's blood had splashed on her dad and gotten into his bloodstream. So the seemingly dead body suddenly got up out of the morgue and started sucking people's blood or something. And this led to the current situation where they have him locked up cos he's a valuable test subject but also hey he has 100% reason to kill all of us and we're screwed if he remembers his past. Also i think the computer AI thing was his subconcious attempt to recreate the personality of his daughter even if he couldnt remember she'd ever existed :(

Anyway at some point things escalated and there was this final showdown versus both the invading aliens and the evil governmebt guys. I think there was some corrupt greedy politician dude who stole maddiman's teleporter tech and sold us out to the aliens cos he wanted money and power or something. And probably predictably the aliens just threw him off a bridge after he gave them the thing, because seriously even this evil army thinks these government dudes are too evil!

So this big actiony event was happening and Maddiman was freaking out like 'no no no i cant leave the lab everyone wpuld be mad at me, i dont even know what its like outside this room' even when he was in the middle of being attacked by aliens. He was forced to face his repressed memories to survive, and he naturally had a massive fuckin freakout! And i think maybe when protagonist character was trying to protect him he accidentally lashed out with his powers and hurt them, and he was so horrified thinking another person he cared about was gonna die because of him. Protagonist was like 'dont worry gramps its just a scratch' but he'd already freaked out and run away into the battlefield to his heavily implied death.

BUT THEN at some sort of moment of dire need, he came back all powered up and re-memoried and was like 'i have every reason to despise humanity but im not gonna let more children die because of these damn corporate monsters (and also literal monsters which are infinately less scary)" And he did some sort of great sacrifice to save the protagonist at the cost of his own life, and it was super dramatic falling from a building into a lake of fire or something. While sobbing and smiling peacefully thinkibg "did i atone for my sins? Will i be able to see my family again?" As his smiling face sunk beneath the flames and the protagonist cried out into the abyss...

Aaaaand then i dont really know what happened in the big battle and i also never found out wtf the solution was to fixing the transporter thing or how the aliens invaded or any of the million plot points that were non gramp related.

I just remember that when we all saved the day and defeated the baddies we found that maddiman had actually survived and it was a big hugs reunion. He was like "OH YEAH i totally forgot i literally already died once and regenerated from it, and this was the entire start to my story. My bad!" *shrugs inexplicably not dead arms*

So yeah in summary im glad my brain summoned up a universe where my favourite sad granddad is literally immortal now, but also why did it torment him with an even sadder plot than his original one

[low-budget-korra]

The legend Of Korra : Book 02-Philosophy Everywhere

I'm going to divide this one into two parts, talking about the episodes before the episodes 07 and 08 and after them. Due to this first half, I consider the 02 book the weakest of all and here are some of the why.

Beginning 6 months after the events of Book 01, after all that dark shit that happened, everything is great. Right away we had a significant change that was the change with respect to animation, previously made by Studio Mir and that in book 2 began to be made by the studios Pierrot. Nothing against the work of the studios Pierrot , after I started studying digital art I saw that it is something way more laborious than I already thought it would be, but Studio Mir's work was so good in Book 1 that this change is a "down" for the season.

We are presented with the danger of this season, evil spirits and the reality of our dear Fire Ferrets. Bolin is the only one who continues in Pro's Bending while Mako became a cop and Korra is just being the Avatar, and Asami is trying to deal with the CEO’s stuff of the Future Industries.

Now something that bothered me a lot in the first half of season. I felt that everything that Korra went through in Book 01 was for nothing, as there is no development in the character. She remains the same spoiled, arrogant from Book 1

The relationship between Mako and Korra is appalling, especially because of Korra's unbearable and inexplicable behavior earlier this season.

We are also introduced to Unalaq, uncle of Korra and soon we see that his relation with Tonraq is, at least ,troubled. Also we met Tony Stark .... cof sorry, Varrick and what a good surprise this character was.

Returning to Korra, this second season she is even more childish than the first. It's inexplicable, I dont know what happened. Like, I can understand her sense of frustration of still being treated as someone who is incapable of making choices, but what does she do? She goes there and shows that she is incapable of making choices.

Like all the building of partnership and trust that was made in book 01 between Tenzin and Korra, something that I unfortunately forgot to mention in my review of book 01, was thrown in the trash because in the first "fight" she exchanged the Tenzin that literally hugged her in the worst moments of her life until then, by an uncle she barely know

I think that when, soon in the first episode Korra dispenses the Tenzin, Unalaq must have thought : "Man, that was easy"

Then we have Korra with unnecessary anger for her father for him not  told he was banished from the Northern WaterTribe and why. Like, girl, this is certainly something your father is not proud of, maybe even blaming himself for the inexperience and arrogance in which he acted when, after chasing the barbarians who attack the city ,  ended up destroying a sacred place. I'm sure you did not tell him about how "cool" the first conversation you had with Amon was.

Okay, I'll take it easy with Korra, maybe this "Stop Protecting Me"  it is her trying to reaffirm herself as Avatar after all she suffered in Book 01. Then this almost desperation for not wanting to be seen as a child and wanting to be considered a capable person, made her, ironically, act like a child and show herself unable , after make some wrong choices.

You guys remember that when the NorthTribe invaded the SouthTribe, she chose to stay with her uncle and not her father. Even Tonraq being an incredible father.

 (Look at this? This  person is trustworthy right. The guy is sitting in a dark room, alone doing a bunch of nothing. IN THE DARK!)

Unalaq was another one that I did not like since the moment I saw it. He is by far the worst villain even more that Ozai's greatest megalomaniac style, worse yet, Ozai wanted his Nation to rule the world while Unalaq wants evil to dominate simply because he wants to. But I give him something, he was good to see that moment of “wanting approval” that Korra and exploits it in his favor.

**

When Korra discovers that his uncle was responsible for the unjust sentence of his father when Unalaq underwent an attempt of kidnapping and that he also was responsible for the banishment his father years ago. First of all I can not blame her for the violent way she approached the judge for the conversation because I think it would do the same. (Dont mess with the people i love)

**

Something very interesting to note was that this season was where everyone was further away from each other. And the frozen scenery of the northern watertribe helped amplify this feeling. The soundtrack of this season is also incredible,  all of the seasons are actually.

**

Another thing I liked was the interaction between the sons of Aang. It was a bit sad to know that despite being a great Avatar, Aang was a bit flawed as a parent. Paying more attention to his duty to the world than with his family. And clearly having a favorite son, Tenzin. I can understand why, but is sucks anyway

But I also think the character who was best explored this season was Tenzin. We can connect with his concerns. The burden of being responsible for the survival of the airbender culture, the fear of failure, and the quest to be a reflection of his father.

We know more about Bumi, and dude, the scene in ep.04 where he talks to his father's statue, apologizing for not being an airbender, and besides that , he did what he can to keep the world . And Kya is kind of a more lesbian cooler version of Katara in terms of personality.

**

One more “down” to this Book in the beginning was to make fun with the Bolin being clearly in an abusive relationship with Eska. This is not fun people, people die because of it.

Poor Mako in the first half,  his only getting slapped by Korra . Later on  I understand, but I dont agree with his position of delivering Korra's plans to get help for the southern tribe to Raiko. Episode 06 was focused on Mako, Bolin and Asami. We can see Asami, in a moment of weakness that I dont understand until today, kissing Mako. Bolin pursuing film career and Mako showing a certain ability as a detective. This I found cool because it gains another layer to the character , it is no longer just the romantic interest of Korra. It also had virtually the revelation of Varrick as a secondary villain for this arc of them

Bolin also has something nice, If in the first episode, he was shown was someone who only can fight with The Krew, later in book 2 he and we see that he is capable to fight alone for himself.

And Asami, this babe was her own “up and fall and up again” arc as CEO of her dad company. And she shows that she has what its need to take control of the business.

**

I really dont know what happened to the writers in this first half of book 02, way below the expected But Raava inspired them to make the wonder that is the second half of the season. And so I finish my analysis of the first half of book 02

**

Beginnings part 1 and 2 are my favorite episodes of the entire AVATAR series. Seriously, everything in these episodes is incredible, from the differentiated animation (Studio Mir is back baby!!!)to the soundtrack, and of course, the script.

In Beginnings we are introduced to the first avatar, Avatar Wan. And so, we are presented as the cycle began. From real, every time I see these two episodes I cry like a baby.

"Return to the beginning. Find Raava "

Lets talk about  Wan, he was a young thief trying to survive, in a  dangerous and authoritarian era of what might be considered the beginnings of the Fire Nation, a city that lay on the back of a Giant Turtle, protected them from the spirits -dominated forests.

I will not say much about these two episodes because even if you dont remember , go watch, seriously, it's incredible. And because if I start talking about them I will not finish.

In short. Wan receives the power of fire from the Giant Lion Turtle and  go into the forest. Then he  return home before entering the forest, and thus steals the fire power ,which was forbidden to use in the city.What is worth mentioning is that the bendinds there were not developed , dont expect  martial arts movements. 

 Here ,even with power, Wan is merciful and selfless. He did not think only of himself, he did not exposed who participated in the rebellion with him and still spared the life of a guard. He is then banished to the forest and .... aaa did not say, I cant not speak of these episodes man

Anyway, after going through "trouble" on his first night out in the woods. He seeks the help of a spirit who simply says "it's not my problem", so Wan tries to fantasize as spirit to be able to enter the oasis of the same spirit that denied him help. Then he discovers that there are other LionTurtles, and consequently, other cities.

And in his journey, even with hunger he decides to release an animal, which turns his animal partner. And so, seeing the altruistic action of Wan, the same spirit that denied him help, helps him to escape the hunters. And so he decides to stay and learn from the spirits.

And so, Wan learns the dragon dance, protecting the oasis and his friends spirits. My baby Wan <3

Back in town, Wan's old friend decides to lead a group of people who believe that only with the power of fire, it is possible to live in the forests. Needless to say that shit happens right ?!

Then Wan decides to travel the world with his pet, Mula. The music in these parts is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, really.

Then Wan discovers Raava and Vaatu fighting and, unknowingly, helps Vaatu to escape. With the help of Raava ,who at first dont like the ideat of joining with Wan to fight Vaatu), Wan finds the other lions turtles and is given the other bendings.

Raava is light and peace. Literally, the good. Vaatu is evil.

However, Wan can only change elements, when the spirit of Raava passes through his body. Wan is an example of a good person, he literally made the biggest shit in the world but instead of running away, as many would do, he took responsibility and face it.

And it is on this journey that he begins to train heavy, the elements, and learn about the balance of the world.

"He can not destroy light any more than i cant destroy darkess. One can not exist without the other "_Raava

"Most humans think only about themselves" _Raava

Man, this is so true, worse, it's a direct truth. There is no metaphor here.

There we see humans using the power of fire to clear the forest, nothing new  really. The same group as that friend of Wan. And so, these people attack anything (spirits) they see, not knowing whether it is good or bad, just by their own ignorance. What unfortunately happens in various parts of the world with minority groups that are attacked only by the ignorance of the aggressors.

In this 5-minute scene, we see all the power of ignorance and violence. Humans have invaded and destroyed the forest, and still set fire to any spirit that appears. In Brazil we have farmers doing exactly the same thing with the natives, with the moral help of the president. But we are not here to talk about the shit hole that is Brazil right now....

The stronger Vaatu gets, the smaller and weaker Raava gets.

(I'm almost crying because I'm writing while I'm watching this wonderful episode.)

It is then that Wan touch’s on the energy that comes out of one of the portals and this scene happens

(This scene gives me so many chills. Its simple epic)

Now officially as Avatar, Wan and Raava succeed together defeating Vaatu, imprisoning for the next 10 thousand years. It is also Wan who makes the decision to close the portal, separating spirits and humans.

We then see the Lion Turtles talking that a new era has begun, and we will no longer be given the power of the elements to the people. Then shows Wan's narration as he separates two armies, because it seems that war is what a human being does best.

Then we think the episode ends there. With the message of the duty of the avatar and all but ...oh boy we are wrong . We see a much older Wan, mortally wounded in battle. Regretting that he had not fulfilled his duty to bring peace, that darkness still surrounds humanity, he did not have enough time.

"Do not worry, we will be together for all your lifetimes and we will never give up" _Raava

Soon after this talk of Raava, Wan dies and the cycle of avatars begins.

(im not crying... you are)

Something I think is very important to mention is that these two episodes, as well as this season of The Legend Of Korra, use something that I hate, that is the megalomaniac villain and the megalomaniac consequences. Only, especially in these two episodes of the Wan, we are not focused on this  but on the learning of the character and all the wisdom of Raava(the hero).

Vaatu can be evil, he has to be evil because he is evil. Now, Unalaq? "Urrr I will release the spirit of darkness to become an evil avatar because I want, even if it destroys the world."

If Vaatu was the villain alone, trying to lead Korra to the dark side, I think it would have been better, or if Unalaq had been better worked for us to believe in his ambitions ... All the Korra villains have a very cool ideology be it equality, freedom or prosperity. Unalaq is only a classic religious fanatic, and a forgettable villain.

**

Moreover, the rest is just Korra and his friends preparing for Harmonic Convergence to beat Vaatu. And the end of the arc’s of Asami, Bolin and Mako.

Now, on this journey of Korra in the spirit world, when she misses Jinora and meets Iroh. Their interaction is wonderful.

I'll separate some quotes from Iroh to Korra, who at the moment is in the shape of a child.

Iroh says: "Even in material world you will find it, if you look for the light you can often find it. But if you look at the dark, heres what you will see "

Several things can be compared to this speech, but the first thing that came to mind was depression and its power to catastrophize everything. As depressive girl, I think I have the property to speak at least of my experience with it.

As depressive, I often see things on the more negative side and thus, "I search for darkness" and so, it is only her that I see. And as much as the search for light is arduous and tiresome, it compensates. It's a daily struggle. Even in the worst of times, look for the light in the dark and you'll be fine. Even if the path is dark and scary, we all have light and we can all walk that path, whether alone or with help.

And Iroh was also right in another speech, helping others is one of the best things you can do. I can not describe the good feeling that takes care of you when you help someone. I think if we all did that, the world would not be in such a mess.

**

Now let's talk about the shocking and sad scene of the loss of connections. 

Honestly I think it's something that can be reversed, and if I did it in a fanfic the creators can do in HQ u.u

About the fanfic, ~propaganda moment here~, I swear that I will continue translate it a and post at least once a month on Wattpad with the link here on Tumblr.Who was interested, here is the link of the chapters already translated. I still do not consider myself fluent in English, so I accept any corrections.

Link for the chapters in English: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/117030440-the-legend-of-korra-book-5-legacy

(This is just to say how much i love Korra with loose and messy hair, my god how I find it sexy. And for you guys to see this gorgeus image and forgive me for the “propaganda time”)

Returning...

Anyway, at first, I found it very heavy and unnecessary but after analyzing the series as a whole and not just Book 2, I think I understood.

Korra is the avatar in a world practically totally different from the world of Aang and the previous avatars. A world where technology grows every day, a world each more similar to ours. That is, a new era. And this new age, perhaps it did not need other avatars. 

Dont slap me please. But like, for example, what am I going to ask a 19th-century person how she communicated, if we have the cell phone today? Things have changed, the experiences and how to deal with the things too. Perhaps Avatar Kyoshi does not have adequate advice for the Avatar in an increasingly political and complicated world.

The breaking of the cycle was literally the end of an era of Avatars, the avatars that will come after  Korra, in theory, will be more apt to deal with these problems so similar to what we experience.

But yes, I wanted her to somehow reconnect.

As you can see, although I love reading philosophical, political, social, historical, and psychological things, I do not quote any specific author in my interpretations, but I certainly use the knowledge I learned in what I write. "Lara, why dont you quote this guys here?" Cause my memory is terrible in memorising words, which means that I would have to reread, to know who exactly said what, and my college dont let me have this much time

Another thing I forgot to mention, the Gifs are not mine, more talented people than I've done them, and I just picked it up from the internet. Ican tag you in the comments if you are the author of those

Although it is not the book that most focuses on psychological issues, it does so through philosophical questions of "Who I am" and "What is my duty in the world"

Overall, book 2 of The Legend Of Korra is the most nostalgic of all, in my opinion. And in my view, the theme that stands out is that of "Search for own identity". 

We see this in Wan,Bolin, Korra, Tenzin, and Jinora in  a more prominent way.

Wan on his quest for Avatar's identity, even if it is unconscious. Korra for the exact opposite, her quest is for herself. Who is Korra? And would Korra be limited to just been The Avatar?

Who is Tenzin? He finally detaches himself from his father's image. As he says in the fog of the lost souls: "Im not a refletion of my father. Im Tenzin " Bolin who discovers his is not just a sidekick to his brother, he is more than that

And Jinora discovering and embracing without question her full potential with the spiritual side.

And besides, i hate it the all giant final fight. I simple dont like it. 

[razieltwelve]

Awakening (Final Rose)

Lightning was en route to the remote Water Tribe village when she felt it: a shockwave of Aura large enough for even the less skilled huntsmen and huntresses alongside her to react. She frowned and turned to one of the huntsmen under her command. There hadn’t been time for her to get up to speed on the details before being deployed.

“Is there anyone in that village with an Aura signature large enough to be detected from this range?” Lightning asked.

The huntsman shook his head. “I stop by there at least once a month. They’ve got a couple of strong people out there but no one who can produce this much Aura.”

“I see…” Lightning’s brows furrowed. “In that case, prepare to deal with a newly awakened Semblance.” Her statement drew gasps of surprise, and she pressed on. “It’s the only conclusion that makes sense. And if they’ve only just awakened their Semblance, they may not have full control over it.”

“Understood.” The huntsman nodded. He glanced out the window as the transport continued its journey over the frozen wilderness. “We should be there in half an hour at our present speed. The wind is making it tough.”

“Half an hour?” Lightning pursed her lips. “I’ll be going on ahead then. Meet me there.”

“Ma’am?”

Saviour flared to life, and Lightning moved toward the rear of the transport. She tapped on the intercom. “Open the rear cargo bay door on my signal.”

X     X     X

Korra screamed.

Fire, wind, water, and earth raced to obey her commands. Her village was in ruins. Her parents and the others had tried to fight off the Grimm, but there had been too many of them. Now, her father was lying on the ground bleeding, and her mother wasn’t moving either…

Light blazed from within her, a combination of rage and grief unlocking a power she’d never known she’d had. It raged out of her control, tearing chunks of ice out of the ground and hurling them at the Grimm as tongues of fire and rock lashed out. The wind roared, a howling, tearing gale.

X     X     X

Lightning reached the outskirts of the village well before the transport. Even the second level of Saviour allowed for travel at ridiculous speeds, completely unimpeded by the weather. There were still a few Grimm around, and she cut them down with ruthless efficiency. However, what caught her attention was the maelstrom of power at the centre of the village.

“Please,” one of the surviving villagers grabbed her arm. “You have to help her!”

“Who is she?” Lightning asked even as Saviour began to analyse the child at the centre of the devastation. 

It was a Semblance of some kind, one capable of elemental control on a large scale. Her eyes narrowed faintly. It bore similarities to the ice Semblance that the crown princess of Arendelle had. Despite only being a child, Elsa’s ice Semblance was already tremendously strong. This Semblance wasn’t at that level of power, but it appeared to be more versatile, capable of manipulating substances other than ice.

“Korra.” The villager pointed. “Her mother and father are there.”

Lightning looked. The two adults appeared dead, but Saviour was able to detect the signs of life within them easily. However, at this rate, with so much Aura being tossed around…

“Korra,” Lightning shouted. “Stop.”

The girl looked at her with eyes that blazed light. Lightning lifted one hand, and the tidal wave of water and ice that thundered their way parted. Interesting. The girl had lost control. Now, her Semblance was operating in an entirely self-preservative manner, attacking anything it perceived as a threat. And Saviour would always be perceived as a threat.

“Do you have medical personnel?” Lightning asked the shocked villager as she continued to deflect a barrage of elemental attacks.

“I… one of us has a healing Semblance.”

“Good. I will deal with Korra. Get your healer immediately.” Lightning blurred forward, and Korra collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut. As the girl collapsed into her arms courtesy of a single, well-placed blow, Lightning reflected on how young she was. She was the same age as Averia. Even in the eerie calm granted by Saviour, she was perturbed. This… this reminded her far too much of her own origins. With any luck, however, the healer hurrying toward Korra’s parents would ensure that it did not end the same way.

X     X     X

Lightning finished giving her report to Ozpin and waited for him and the others to react.

“Good grief,” Glynda murmured. “What a mess. If you’d been any later…”

“Her parents would be dead, and we’d have to fight off hordes of people interested in using her for their own ends,” Lightning replied. “I should know. People tried to do the same thing with me and my sisters.”

“How are her parents?” Ozpin asked. “In more detail, please.”

“Both had serious injuries,” Lightning replied. “Both have been evacuated to a proper hospital. Korra and some of the other villagers are with them, and I’ve asked people I trust to watch over them.” 

“Oh?” Ozpin raised one eyebrow.

“The Yun Clan and the Water Tribe have been on good terms for years. Fang is Yun, and I’ve got a lot of friends amongst them too. They’ll take care of Korra and the others.” Lightning’s lips curled. “Have you got a message from Atlas yet?”

“Yes,” Ozpin replied. “They would like to examine Korra’s Semblance more closely. They believe they may know its origins. Naturally, they want to send an expert in to assess her.”

“Tell JIhl to get lost,” Vanille shot back. The redhead wasn’t physically present. Instead, she was present via hologram. She and Lumina were currently on holiday. “I looked over the medical reports you guys sent me. Korra’s parents should be fine if the people over there know what they’re doing. Just in case, I’ll make some calls, make sure that everything that can be done is being done.”

“Good.” Ozpin glanced at Summer and Taiyang, who like Vanille were present via hologram. “Now, when Korra’s parents have recovered, it would behoove us to present an offer of sorts for when she is older…”

“I’ll do it,” Summer said. “If she is as powerful as Lightning says, then she’ll need to be pushed hard to reach her full potential. Beacon will be able to do that, especially considering who her peers there are likely to be.”

“Saviour doesn’t make mistakes,” Lightning replied, garnering a roll of the eyes from Summer. “And Korra is powerful. Saviour believes that the power she showed during the incident is a ‘higher state’ of some kind. If that is the case, even if her standard power level is only a fraction of that, there are very, very few children in the world with Semblances that strong. If she does eventually gain the ability to use that level of power consistently, she will be a upper AAA-Tier huntress at the very least, almost certainly in the S-Tiers due to sheer power alone.”

“We could use more of those, quite frankly,” Glynda said. There was a buzz as an incoming message arrived. “It seems we’re out of time. Atlas is sending its representative.”

Another hologram flickered to life. It was James Ironwood.

“James,” Ozpin greeted.

“Ozpin.” Ironwood regarded the other people in the room. “Let’s not beat around the bush. This is about Korra, is it not?”

“Indeed.”

“You should know that Atlas is not the only other faction aware of her. Information of her existence has already leaked.” Ironwood looked at Vanille. “Can you suppress it?”

“Already doing it,” Vanille said. “Any videos or other information on the InfoNet are being suppressed.”

“I find it terrifying that you can do that,” Glynda replied. “Albeit useful.”

“I pretty much built the thing with Hope,” Vanille said. “But suppressing public InfoNet posts doesn’t do anything about people discussing it in person or on private networks. There are some people smart enough to have completely self-contained networks. Give me long enough, and I could probably get physical access to most of those, but not fast enough to stop them talking.”

“What a mess,” Ironwood said. He nodded at Lightning. “Although your intervention was timely. Things would be far worse otherwise.” He folded his hands together. “You should know that my government will make a play for her. The village she lives in is technically a jointly administered area between Vale and Atlas via the treaties of the Great War.”

“Of course, it is,” Vanille made a face. “Because nothing can be simple.”

“Indeed.” James shook his head. “But I am not here to pick a fight. I need something to present my government. I am amenable to a compromise, but I need something to work with, something to allay the concerns of my superiors.”

“I see.” Ozpin gestured at the others. “Then let us discuss the matter further.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Korra’s Semblance here was activated by seeing her parents go down. She thought they were dead instead of simply badly wounded. As a result, she activated her Semblance and lost control of it. This allowed her to access far greater levels of power than she would normally have been able to use given her age.

As you can see in the meeting, whenever a powerful huntsmen or huntress is revealed, there is considerable jockeying for control. A single huntsman or huntress of high power (e.g., AAA or higher) can make a huge difference for a kingdom, especially if they can reach the vaunted levels of people like Team STRQ or Team LFSC. As a result, any child with Korra’s power is going to be the subject of strife as the various factions look to take her under their wing.

In this regard, people like Averia and Ruby are lucky since their parents are powerful and influential in their own right. Korra’s parents, while strong, are not nearly as powerful as people like Lightning and Summer, nor are they as influential. The compromise agreement that they eventually work out is why Korra ends up in Beacon without ever having to apply.

[hoenn-hakase]

TPP Bronze: Summary Day 4

Where we last left our heroine, Fifer had just beaten the Normal Type specialist Gym Leader Agar of Brandeis City and was about to make her way through the dangerously dark Deep Cave. It wasn’t going very well though, so she decided to backtrack into town to see if there was anything else to do while she came up with a plan. Despite having Flash, Flash is TOTALLY not part of the plan.

Wandering around town though, she gets stopped by a balding man who said he found someone’s wallet. Given she just beat Agar, he feels she’s strong and determined enough to deliver the wallet to the couple who lives in Deep Cave. IN Deep Cave, sir? Perhaps they’ll be nice enough to tells us why. (Maybe they’re secretly Draconids, who knows.) Taking the wallet, and now having a goal as to where to go, Fifer sets off once more for the cave.

After wandering in darkness, she does actually somehow manage to find the house. The old man is so thrilled to see she found it, he gives her HM03 Surf! Which we then thoroughly inspect the house with the ItemFinder to see if anything else has gone missing, and make way back to town.

Teaching Surf to Lucy the Missingno (?), Fifer has access to many new places to explore! Which she does just that in testing the blob of static’s buoyancy before trusting herself over deep waters. It’s still surprisingly solid.

As much fun as all this is, Fifer decides to heal up at a nearby Pokemon Center outside of Junction Park and discovers a Racket Teen just minding his own business. He tells her to scram, but his presence is enough to cause suspicion. An officer outside wonders if she’s up to no good, but she heads for the Guard Tower to report on the Teens likely being up to something. They’re more than up to “something” though as entering the eerily empty guard house eventually leads to her getting jumped by the Racket Teens! They’ve taken over the station! Luckily, she’s not alone, as she quickly runs into --?!! who seems to be frightened and confused about these hostile punks and heals the team. Fifer explains how she’s run into these guys before and --?!! decides he’s going to help her kick some tail and the pair split up.

Fifer begins to scale the tower, battling against both Racket Teens and guards alike as the terrified police begin to attack indiscriminately. She eventually finds --?!! again, but he apologizes for failing her and says that with his Pokemon all fainted, he has to leave. But not before giving her a warning that the guy he lost to is not to be messed with. Fifer heads on up to meet with the Racket Leader who remembers her from their failed robbery of the Department Store in Peel City. He claims he started the Racket Teens after Team Rocket fell to show the world what true terror is! Which Fifer decides to show him what “true terror is” by obliterating his team with the Missingno. Confused and rightfully terrified, the leader claims she must have cheated and runs away screaming how Team Racket will continue to steal whatever they want! (So I guess that affirms their admiration for Team Rocket was just as a band of thieves who could obtain anything they wanted rather than understanding anything about the larger scale organized crime. Wannabe Evils, pls XD)

With him gone, Fifer heads into another room where an officer tells her thanks for saving them and offers the SecurityPass for all her trouble. It’ll give her access to the Acre Forest, where she runs into one of Prof. Koa’s Aids (who gives her Zap Cannon) and finds lots of … explosives. o.O

To be fair, the explosives are to help clear the pathways of the many large boulders that seem to be plaguing the region. Much like the tiny village with the landslide, this area has somehow suddenly had rocks appear with one NPC saying how one just appeared in front of his house. (Though the way he said it, made it sound like this is an occasional thing that just occurs for some reason?) A couple of booms aside, the woods aren’t all that bad actually. Just when she thought she was out of the woods though, a simple Cut leads the team into a maze of trees which they quickly decide isn’t worth exploring at this time. Besides, they can’t carry any more treasure even if they found anything. 

Heading through the next gate, she fights a couple of trainers who seem to say this area is no easy stretch. To reach the edges of Kohto is to reach a place where you train to survive! And that one has to keep finding something to fight for, even if it’s just fighting for their Pokemon. It truly is the edge of the map (save for an island off the coast) as she enters the quiet little town of Charcoal Town they apparently hail from, which houses Kohto’s only train station out of the region. Shortly after healing up, she closes her eyes and sits quietly with her team to enjoy a taste of Charcoal's local music.

While walking around and enjoying the evening air, Fifer can't help but notice there's a Racket Teen guarding the door to the T.Station itself. While he doesn't seem to be doing anything wrong, it paints a bit of unease over the rest of her night. Rather than trying to pick a fight with him though, she goes to burn off some steam at the gym. As might be expected of a place called Charcoal Town, the gym specializes in... Poison types. Huh. But what IS as you might expect, is that Charcoal's edge of the world = end of the world lifestyle, the trainers are all skaters and skateboarder extremists who play with Poison, and ride without safety gear. The leader himself brings up his love for extreme sports and complains how his sister is so boring just sitting in her gym all alone. But enough about that, he's gonna sting Fifer down with his Pokemon!~ ... After he realizes he didn't even introduce himself! Elroy isn't as tough as he'd like to think he is though as he quickly falls with a combined effort from Lucy the Missingno and Poppy Sack the Furret. Unlike previous leaders, he seems pleasantly surprised by the loss and gives us the Pollute Badge! Which allows us to use Whirlpool~! 8O He also points out that there's only one gym left after his and Karla's. Karla must be his sis then.

With that knowledge, Fifer happily makes her way out of the gym and off to the Center to heal off the remaining poison from her teammates, and decides before she heads out, there's a building she hadn't been to yet. It actually turns out to be an underground pathway where she finds yet another Racket Teen and overhears him saying something on the phone to someone about acquiring some badges. She immediately gets caught though and is told to buzz off before hearing anything more.

Suspicions rising, she decides to prepare herself and seek out advice from others on what to do as she flies home to speak with Prof. Koa, an old man in LittlePond, and eventually just heads back to the Guard Station to report her concerns. Useless as usual, the Police won't talk with her and she goes off into the field to camp out. Turns out she's not alone as a hiker decides to fight her for the ideal spot, and after beating him off, Winnie the Chu finally evolves! 8D <3

After a good night's sleep, Fifer seems to conclude she's looking too much into this, and it's really not her place to go chasing after these punks like its her job. She decides to change things up by giving Lucy a break in the PC and spends some time training a little Phanphy named Aaa::ddem n (Adam? Aideman? Ai'dem?) and goes wandering all over the map in search of treasure and the simple joys of wanderlust.

Returning to Charcoal Town, Fifer finally goes to check out the gym on the other side of the tracks, and goes to challenge Karla. She's quite the arrogant one, saying how her gym is empty because she doesn't need all that "junk" like trainers and puzzles and all that ruckus her brother Elroy is all about. She is above all that. Quite literally as she specializes in the Flying type, or what she calls "the most majestic of all Pokemon." While that may not be true, she definitely knows how to strategize, beating Fifer's whole team down with a single Skarmory (bulky against our group) with a combo of Swift (never misses), Protect (can't be hit), Steel Wing (raises defense) and Fly (temporary dodge). It.... yeah. Fifer realizes she's up against a bit of a monster and tries to do a bit of strategizing of her own with having DeadOps use Sand Attack, IHugs using Tail Whip, and Winnie using Zap Canon! None of which seems to do any good, so Poppy Sack got mad seeing all her teammates get butchered and obliterated Karla's entire time with sheer, brute Strength XD.*** Karla is quite bitter about losing, saying you beat her poor Flying pokemon! And while she does give us the HM for Whirlpool, it's obvious she doesn't want Fifer to get anywhere as she bitterly snarks how she hoped her brother hadn't lost yet. TOO BAD, SUCKA!

As soon as we leave the gym, in true G/S/C fashion, we get a phone call from Prof. Koa and have reason to expect the worst. It's actually wonderful news though as he was simply just calling to check up on Fifer and, after hearing how she's now earned 7 Badges exclaims how her mother happened to be visiting when he called and is now jumping for joy to hear that. They're both so proud ;o;. With no news of any takeovers in the near future, Fifer heads for the center with pride and in MUCH need of healing.

A nice lady lets her spend an hour in her house as she tries to get her party straightened out before braving the water maze that stands between Charcoal town and the island with Celeste City. Even though she had it set near perfect, there seems come a last minute hesitation, and we end the long day off with a trip home to see Mom in person. ;o;

And with that, we've made it through Day 4. Hooo.... boy. Coming up on Day 5 and already up to the LAST BADGE. Though the week's not over yet. We'll surely find out what the Racket Teens are up to before we make it to the League, right?

~~~~~~~~~

***  I know I haven't commented much on the battles themselves, but this one really is a must see. Super close too. XD

[tumblunni]

Mo bug game ideas

Also i was thinking about more Deep Development for the daddy longlegs bug husbands!

First off i need to try and give them distinct personalities cos i mean their whole gimmick is they wear matching outfits and have the same job class to spoof the fact two types of bug have the same colloquial name in different countries BUT if they were like literally recolours of the same guy it would look like brothers instead of a cute couple. Absolutely do not want that! The romance is integral! They aint called platonic longlegs!!!

So i was thinking that maybe one of them (lets go with the name Albedo) is like a super soft and shy cute stereotypical daddo of hugs. But he's also a mega deadly assassin, and a master of disguise and manipulation. Its just like.. Beneath all the evilness he used to be, the soft nice dad was actually the real him. Like he'd fumble his own assassinations by outright crying whenever he had to pretend to be a nice guy in a happy couple for a disguise. He's just a damn good dude who got forced into a shitty job that made him hate himself every day because he was living in poverty and didnt have much hope for his future and stuff. And like even tho now he's escaped the assasin guild due to his fiancee's help, he's still left with all these Really Badass Scary Skills and just never wants to use them again. So he's the archetypical soft boy who is only serious when the people he loves are in trouble, and OH BOY you should not underestimate him...

And then the other one (which i think is gonna be rubedo) is more of a cliche punk personality? Oh and just to add- they discarded their real names long ago when they first became assassins, and these are just the latest in a long list of codenames. But this time they picked matching ones <3

ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Oh yeah Rubedo is also a softboy but he pretends to be a punk! He's very 'oi hands off the marchandise' and tries to act like he's heartless like a true assassin should be, but because of his Real Passionate Soul it just comes out as a guy who's comedically quick to anger and thinks he's way more unflappable than he really is. But also his angryness is linked to a general Big Emotion in all other ways too, and he's actually even more lovey dovey, just more shy about showing it. Half 'but honey my reputatioooon' and half 'OH GOD MY HEART ISNT BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD HOW HAPPY I AM' *blushes himself into a coma*

So yeah they do have similar fundemental souls of love and fatherliness, but different personalities around them. So much in common just like the bugs!

And then i was thinking about their backstory? And i thought maybe they were actually childhood friends that became estranged? Cos albedo was poor and rubedo was rich and actually i think rubedo's family was legit the mafia and it was just a wild ass coincidence that albedo ended up being employed by an opposing mafia when they both grew up. And then they were sent to assassinate each other and were so equally matched that it kept ending in a draw, and they struck up some chemistry and had a crush even before they found out they were each other's long lost childhood sweetheart! And of course as soon as that happened it was like 'jesus fuck ive been seaeching for you for so long oh god i have a reason to live againn and also i am realizing my boss/literal father LIED TO ME TO GET ME TO KILL YOU so fuck this job lets run away together and become smooch redemption'. AND THEN THAT IS WHAT THEY DO.

*throws confetti for the damn best angsty fluffy heartwarmingy shipping idea ive had in ages and somehow it came from bug science*

Anyway i was thinking about them briefly meeting as kids and having their first crush on each other and it all being cute and sweet until Evil Mafia Dad decides his son is not allowed to Mingle With The Commoners and sends him off to Asshole Generic Boarding School Of Rich Jerks. And like.. rubedo's already used to being hopeless about his future and he's like 'i deserve this for trying to disobey dad' so he just gets on the coach to horrible disciplinary school and doesnt tell albedo he's moving away cos he thinks his friend will be better off without him. But albedo goes running after the coach and he's like NOOOOO and rubedo sees him out the window and is also like NOOOOOO and its all really fuckin sad. And albedo is like 'lets run away together!' and rubedo is like 'be realistic, we'd just get lost and die, we're like 9'. And albedo is like 'we'll find some way to work it out!' and rubedo is like 'we're just kids, we dont have any power to change my dad's mind'. And then with the last of the strength in his legs as the carriage starts speeding up, albedo manages to jump up and plant a kiss on his crush! And then immediately goes tumbling and lands in a cloud of dust and broken heart as the carriage leaves over the horizon. But the moment still stuck in rubedo's heart forever and gave him the hope he needed to survive that shitty school! Just imagine him sitting there in shock with absolute first kiss daze and then OH GOD ALBEDO ARE YOU OKAY but he's already off in the distance and there's no hope and just..

Just...

If this is the last time we see each other...

And so it was the first time he let out his boisterous rebel spirit! Yelling over the horizon and not even knowing if the other boy could even hear him, but it has to be said!

"If we're not strong enough to fight this, i'll become strong! Next time you see me, i'll be your prince!"

And well it didnt exactly go down like that, but on the other hand it sorta did? Rubedo lived a shitty life of being groomed into a rigid idea of what a nobleman should be, and found out his family had all sorts of horrible behind the scenes illegal operations and by then he was just so broken he fell into the role of his dad's latest disposeable enforcer, just like he was planned to be from birth. And albedo grew up in poverty and was orphaned at a young age, having to go down equally morally unconscionable paths in life to even manage to survive into his 20s. So by the time they met again they were a big ball of barely surpressed anger in the role of a generic mafia thug, and an emotionless stepford wife esque assassin. If they hadnt been sent to take each other out, they might not have been able to come back from the brink of what they were being turned into. But the side effect of it was that it turned them into the sort of people who had the power to escape if they could ever break out of the brainwashing keeping them there, thats the danger of raising a human weapon. And together theyre strong enough to fight for justice and take down the people who abused them! And one way or another they did end up as the 'gallant prince and the princess he whisked away from the tower', though they can never agree which is which because they both saved each other this time. Its even better than the fairytales!

So ahem yeh here's bunni's patented "getting super feelsy over characters i invented five minutes ago based on a bizarre inspiration prompt" moment. IF YOU DONT LOVE ASSASSIN BUG BOYFS THEN YOU ARE WRONG! aaa they deserve all the happiness...

[artificialqueens]

We've Got Tonite (Jivy/Shalaska/Trixya/Pearlet) Part 2 - Saiphl

A/N: Not so much to say, hope you enjoy the reading or re-reading, I’m very thankful from your support and the love showed to the first part of the story, so I hope you enjoy this second part as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Part Two: So Many Stories of where I’ve been, and how I got to where I am.

All the Drag Race family was gathered in the VIP area, having animated conversations, dancing, drinking and throwing some shade. All the previous Reigning Queens were called to a photoshoot with the new member of the royal family. While Chad was holding a slightly drunk Sharon to help her down the stairs of the section, Jinkx, Bebe and Raja were teasing Tyra. All of this, just before Bianca went straight to get them to have the stupid session finished so she could get back to Adore and Courtney. Both of which were waiting for her to start toasting for every single thing that came to their minds.

“And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed

They don’t know my head’s a mess…”

Surrounded by the music, the dark lights and the chit-chat of Detox and Roxxxy, there was someone that was following without failure the red-haired MILF from Seattle with her eyes. Ivy was so busy trying to keep an eye on Jinkx, that she didn’t notice when Detox asked for Keith. Actually, she just got back to earth when she heard Roxxxy teasing her about making herself so interesting as far as she knew for sure that Keith bought an engagement ring before going back to Michigan.

Ivy felt suddenly sick when Roxxxy asked for the ring that she saw Keith buying and looking for it on her finger. But even sicker when the awkward silence came after both of her fellow queens realized that she wasn’t wearing any jewel on her left hand. And how it had always been, Jinkx just appeared from nowhere with the most perfect timing, to virtually drag her to the bar for a drink.  

“Honey, are you okay?” Jinkx asked, watching over Ivy’s pale face, who slightly nodded.

“I… I’m just a mess,” she responded. Jinkx then took her to the back door of the club. Even when the beautiful butterfly left her heartbroken a few weeks ago, she still was her friend, and she would never leave a friend in distress alone.

Once they were out, Jinkx simply hugged the sobbing Ivy, who by the time was actually shaking and barely able to keep herself on her feet.

“Baby you’re making me really worried. What happened? Those bitches were mean to you?” This time was Jerick talking to Dustin, not Jinkx comforting Ivy. “If they did something to you, I will put them in their place and…”

Ivy straightens her back to look at Jerick’s worried eyes. She gives a small pathetic laugh and shakes her head. It was endearing how worried Jerick was over her - it made her feel important.

“No darling, they didn’t do any harm. It’s just me who can’t keep my own shit together,” Dustin answers, with raspy shaken voice. She takes a few moments of silence to build up the courage to speak. “Roxxxy knew that Keith was proposing, she saw him buying the ring. Both she and Detox were looking for it on my hand.”

As a reflex, Jerick took Dustin’s hand on his, and felt paralyzed at finding the naked finger.

“Because even when I was flat broke

You made me feel like a million bucks…”

Sharon was shaky and not at all from the booze. No, for once it was from the dizziness that came with knowing that sooner or later she would find Alaska, and the both of them wouldn’t be able to say anything, because as it had always been that way between them. The longest wordless conversations, that silent understanding that led them to share the bedroom, to get tangled with each other. And to have those nasty fights that ended with the both of them wasted, high, angry, and in the end, separated and broken.

So no, Sharon didn’t want to find her, but she knew she would and it was sooner than she thought, ‘cause when they finished the photoshoot with Violet, she found herself alone in the way back. The AAA girls were giving an interview about the last campaign they were making and Sharon almost tripped down the steps when her eyes met Alaska’s face.

As it would always be, Alaska was all smiles and flattery. Like a mermaid, elusively moving around the place even when she wasn’t moving at all, the long nails were clacking over the glass of her untouched cranberry vodka. She looked most beautiful than ever, even for someone that had just a year dropped, and just like a fly Sharon started to pace around, looking at her, wondering if Alaska missed her as much as she has all this time.  Just for a second, their eyes met, and Alaska lost her smile for a second - only to recover it when she embraced Willam and Courtney, allowing the reporter to make a couple of pictures of their smiling faces and finally let them go. Willam and Courtney easily found someone to entertain themselves with, and Alaska found herself in front of the bar, with the untouched vodka drink. Silently checking on Sharon’s approach from  the corner of her eye. She felt her hands get sweaty, just like the first time they met.

Sharon smiles shyly - so out of character for her usual abrasive and upfront personality. After they broke up she always wanted to get closer to her, and whenever she tried to do it in a non-work-related way, it always ended messed up. So this time, pretending to be more drunk than she really was, she approached Alaska.

“Hey Gorgeous!” Sharon calls playfully, with a twisted smile on her darkened lips.

“Hi stranger,” Alaska replies in a raspy low voice. Both of them laugh and it’s more than they have done together in the last year.

“It’s been a while and I haven’t been back at Pittsburgh for some time, how you doin’?” asked the queen in green, quietly smiling at Sharon, who was authentically blushing from watching Alaska’s smile.

“I haven’t been at home lately either. The tour got me out from Pittsburgh more than six months, I miss being there already and…” Sharon doubted for a second, and the look on Alaska’s face was pure curiosity.

As if they were sharing a hive mind, they simultaneously said, “I’ve missed you.”

The awkwardness of that confession was broken as fast as it started, and it broke with one of crowd’s guest asking to have a picture with them. After a few words and some goodbye kisses, Alaska and Sharon were left alone, and found themselves walking through the people to find a quieter place to share a moment. They didn’t need a time together in some years, but that moment was just a breaking point, and when they finally reached a relatively calmed spot on the backstage, they looked into each other eyes.  

“I…” Sharon started, clearly finding hard to put her thoughts together. Maybe she was as drunk as she had been acting. “I’m so sorry, I know we promised to keep being friends and count on each other, and that I broke my word so many times.”

She said all this with a mixture of shame, sorrow and rage towards herself, and finally put her head down. She couldn’t dare look Alaska in the eyes. “I promised to be with you whenever you need me, and I’ve failed so badly.”

Alaska trembles for a second, and then sighs. Her next words are spoken in a whisper. “I know. We promised so many things to each other, and we weren’t able to keep our words.”

“We just messed things up, with us, with the careers, with everything… now everything is going well but I still think that there’s something missing,” Alaska tilts Sharon’s chin up with one finger. “and I still think that the missing thing is you in my life. I don’t know if that’s right, but, it’s the way I feel.”

Sharon sighs deeply and puts her arms around Alaska’s waist.

“You see the smile that’s on my mouth

It’s hiding the words that don’t come out…”

Trixie was still on her skates, there was something on rolling over the floor that led her to a state of full mental peace… or maybe just gave her something to concentrate with instead of letting her head fly to those tricky territories again. Even more so when the performances of the other competitors were about to end and she needed a quick escape for whatever could put its face in front of her. Basically, she needed not to think and just keep moving, wherever the hell could it take her to.  

For Katya it was different, she was ecstatic - watching everything from the most hidden corner she could reach. By this point she had survived a flight back from Boston to NYC, she had survived the fact of checking in to the hotel room, she survived the red carpet, all those damned interviews and the hideous photo sessions after that. But most of all, she managed to survive the urge to get a drink, or the other urge to have a cigarette and the worse of all of the urges: to have Trixie close and being unable to touch her the way she wanted to.

Suddenly, Katya felt so tired. Before she arrived to the party, she thought seriously on hooking up with some random guy at the place. That was so easy to get, many fans wanted to know for sure if Katya was the sassy hooker she claimed to be. But when it was about to happen, she just decided it was that easy, that she didn’t want it anymore. In fact, as far as she could remember, she  had been dick deprived for a long while. She didn’t have a guy since that night, when she tricked Trixie for the simple taste of her lips, and for some reason it had been enough… at least for her, at least for the last couple of months, while they were complying with the multiple bookings to accomplish before the crowning.  

Trixie was rolling all over the place, when some distracted one stepped down the stairs. Someone that was stuck within a bleached blond wig and a black sequin dress, and casually tripped on one of Trixie’s skates. The doll was about to apologize for being so distracted, when the voice of Katya caught her attention, pressing a brake on the floor and to keep her arm steady to help the other one to get back to her feet. All the people were too busy watching Ginger performing, so busy that no one even noticed when Katya looked straight to Trixie’s eyes. Or even when Trixie held Katya by the waist, so close that the tuck of the both of them had were in a serious risks of being broken, ‘cause unconsciously they grinded a bit on each other by the proximity.  

“Take me out of here bitch,” Katya murmured in Trixie´s ear and she, being so eager to please, took Katya’s hand. Making a way for the both of them across the people on the place.

“I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules

But baby I broke them all for you…”

Pearl had just came down from the stage when they announced Violet’s performance. The people craved to see the reigning queen show her skilled ass on the stage, specially after the crowning and the show of all the other competitors of that season.  

Violet came out showing all smiles and that vintage elegance that has been her trademark all along, and Pearl’s heart skipped a beat when she saw her climbing up the strings of fabric. The strength and the fluency of movement, the graceful way she was dancing in the air, tangled with the two long ribbons. When Violet fell down to her back looking to the crowd, their eyes met, and Pearl could feel her mouth going dry. Even more so when Violet’s lips formed the word “come” that made her cock ache with need.

Everything had been subtle between them. First a supportive smile from one to another, then a sympathetic hug when needed, even the time spent together out of the set, out of the world. That epic battle of wisdom with their benefactor that led them to share space, drinks, pot and finally a bed that allowed them to entangle with each other. Sharing lips, skin, caresses and endless passion, that started with just one kiss and became something bigger. Something that no one could sniff out, even Ginger’s expert eyes or Kennedy’s natural nosiness were able to notice.

That evening, when the three of them were waiting for the winner’s announcement, it was just a reflex when Violet put her hands on Pearl’s thigh, when Pearl circled Violet’s waist with her arm, and then, when they were embraced. A whisper that said “Congrats bae… I love you”, the instant smile that was put on Violet’s face, and the dreamy eyes that Pearl fixated on her while she was walking away to her crown… after that, they couldn’t find a second to share their joy. They actually hadn’t been able to meet each other in less than four hours, and when Pearl watched her performing, that little voice inside her head told her to get ready to say goodbye, ‘cause she would be left behind… again.

Pearl got her feet back to earth when she heard the crowd burst in applause, and the club’s staff was making Violet’s way back to the dress rooms safe, when she passed besides Pearl, she dared to take her hand and pull her a bit, inviting to follow that path.  At that point of the night, Violet was ready to kill whoever who dared to interrupt her little break, specially when she heard Pearl’s heels clacking behind them on the hallway, a sigh of relief escaped Violet’s lips when she found herself alone in the dressing room, a few seconds later, Pearl managed to sneak there and the instant their eyes meet again, nothing stopped them from crashing into each other’s lips.

Hands in movement, entangled bodies and a rain of whispered I love yous filling the air.

“We shouldn’t…” Pearl whispered, finding herself unable to release Violet’s tiny waist from the tight grip of her own arm, while Violet answered biting her earlobe.

“I don’t care, I got the crown, this is over, and I want you… I need you now.” Those simple words made Pearl’s blood boil, tightening the grip on her lover even more.  They’ve started rolling all over the place, touching, kissing, teasing each other. The magic was only broken when someone knocked the door, asking for Violet to be available in five.

“No they don’t know who I really am

And they don’t know what I’ve been through

Like you do, and I was made for you.”

[virtual-dump]

Red Dead Redemption 2 - What Makes a Game Good?

There are no spoilers in this post.

I recently sent this message to a friend on Discord, venting about my time with Red Dead Redemption 2:

RDR2 is an upsetting and miserable game made for people who hate fun and want to be sad. But the story is so good...I'm getting close but I haven't hit end credits yet. You're gonna want to suffer through it before you inevitably get spoiled

This ultimately covers my thoughts on the game, even after rolling credits. If you read nothing else, you’ve at least gotten that message. 

But more to the point: for all its polish and and pretty graphics and great storytelling, RDR2 can’t manage a single moment of fun gameplay. It is, for my money, the most boring, unfun AAA game to come out in a long time. And I’m not alone in this opinion. Many people across the games industry have driven the point home - the game isn’t fun. If you don’t want to hear about my particular gripes with the game, skip three paragraphs and continue on. 

There is no incentive to do anything in the game outside the main questline. Anything you could do (specifically for money and supplying camp) - hunting, fishing, poker, whatever - does not feed back into the game in a meaningful way. And even though those things can earn you money, the need for those extra dollars is completely mitigated by the very first bank heist that you do in the game, which gives you enough money to pretty much completely upgrade your camp and supply it fully. Anything else you might do (say, stranger encounters, or just random open world nonsense) has to come from your own interest in experiencing it. There is no significant benefit to doing those things outside of maybe stranger questline stories, of which only a handful don’t feel like a waste of time. 

The “survival” mechanics are laughable and poorly implemented. The cores are pointless and easily manageable, they end up just being a nuisance. The food you need to keep on hand takes up slots in the weapon wheel and make the radial menus a chore to tab through. Speaking of the menus, they’re bad. All of them. I have to relearn the menus every time I need to find something, and nothing is where you immediately thought it might be.

The gunplay itself is boring, and at times (like being on horseback) actually bad. The mission design is awful. If you’re not fighting enemies in between some rocks or in a canyon, you’re walking slowly next to an NPC for 10 minutes. Occasionally there’s a hint of fun in some of the stealthier segments, but even that is tainted by the game’s sluggish controls and awkward movement. I could probably go on and on.

Despite all of this, and all my harsh words, I wanted to - needed to - finish this game. As a fan of the first Red Dead Redemption, I needed to see how we got to where we were at the beginning of that game. But even without that, RDR2 has enough gripping stories, dialogue, and character development that you have to see it to the end. So I suffered - and I do mean that - through hours and hours of walking around, talking to people, auto-aiming, walking, talking, auto-aiming, rinse and repeat. And at the end of it I didn’t regret a moment of it. I was bored out of my mind playing through the vast majority of this game and at the end of it all I didn’t regret anything. The story was so good, the characters so well acted, the dialogue so well written. 

So what makes a game good? Because by all accounts RDR2 is, in my opinion, a bad game (strictly speaking about the play experience). It’s not fun. It’s barely even a game at all, if you ask me. But I played it to completion and at the end of the day enjoyed what I got out of it. Does that make it a good game anyway? Are all my complaints moot if I enjoyed the story as much as I did? You might dismiss this question by saying it’s subjective. And, yes, of course it is. But I feel there should be a baseline for what we consider a good game. If something was better suited to be a TV show or a miniseries can we really nominate it for game of the year? I understand that the game’s story slightly changes based on your actions and “honor” level. Is that enough? It can’t be a TV show anymore? Does that stuff really change the game’s story in a significant way? I don’t think so. It has to end the way it does because Red Dead Redemption begins the way that it does.

At the end of the day maybe I’m just confused. Conflicted. Gun to my head I’d say that RDR2 is not a good game. Ask me next week and I might say that ultimately it is a good game. Either way, you should play God of War. What a fantastic game. 

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. 

[waynekelton]

Pacific Fire Review

A strange thing that occasionally happens to me is that I get what I’ve referred to as Paradox dreams. Not because they are self-contradicting, but because they occur when I play too much of one of Paradox’s grand strategy games, such as Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4.

Essentially, my brain ends up thinking of ways I can improve my position in these games via my dreams.

Pacific Fire has gotten my attention in such a way that I had one of these 'Paradox dreams' about it. So, what’s so special about this mobile wargame that it has kidnapped my subconscious?

A PACIFIC UN-PACIFIED

Pacific Fire does not have much in the way of astounding graphics like you may see from AAA mobile studios like the big brains behind Clash of Clans or Candy Crush (people still play that, right?), or a very engaging story, but neither are really missed. Pacific Fire knows what it is good at, and has cut everything else in favor of compelling and engaging gameplay.

You are given several scenarios to try your hand at, pushing air, land, and sea units between bases in order to complete your objectives for the scenario, generally on a strict turn limit of x amount of months. Notably, the game uses WEGO, a turn method that sees both sides make their moves simultaneously, then showing how the action played out at the beginning of the next turn. This format suits Pacific Fire wonderfully, as the Pacific theatre’s naval engagements were defined by the opposing fleets guessing the other’s position, attempting them to coax them into a decisive battle on their own terms.

This brings us to the most important element of Pacific Fire, the order in which all these moves take place. There’s a grand total of fourteen steps to combat resolution, but essentially it boils down to this: air units arrive at their destination and dogfight with enemy air units, the surviving bombers attack their respective land or naval targets. The naval forces then move to their destination, fight the enemy naval forces, and bombard any land units. Lastly, land units resolve their combat with the enemy. This turn ordering allows for clever strategists to replicate the great naval battles of the Pacific, with smartly deployed squadrons and fleets able to negate an invading army’s numbers.

In a nice touch, planes and ships have their own sets of stats, which determine how they function in battle. Generally, newer vehicles operate at a higher efficiency. On a similar note, land units have 3 stats that determine combat capability: men, tanks, and guns. Men are the overall strength of the unit, tanks help the unit in offensive battles, and the guns help on defense and help protect the unit against enemy bombers. This layer of attention to units adds a degree of thoughtfulness to how you should utilize your army, making successful actions pleasing to pocket generals

ISLAND HOPPING

That’s all very well and good, but what about the context surrounding these engagements? Pacific Fire comes with a total of 13 scenarios (1 of which also operates as a tutorial), with a focus on specific areas of the war. There are several scenarios from the Allied side that capture the struggle to survive as war broke out and the Japanese overwhelmed the British, French, Dutch, and American holdings. These make for good starting scenarios, as the map is smaller, and the Allied player needs to worry about deploying smaller numbers of units rather than the entire Pacific theatre. Even while these are certainly scenarios aimed towards a beginner, Pacific Fire is not an easy game. Leaving a base without fighters to defend it can see enemy bombers quickly killing hundreds of men, leaving the player in an unwinnable position for the scenario.

The scenarios covering the later parts of the war are generally more challenging, a particularly campaign covering the time period around the Battle of Coral Sea (still haven’t managed to beat it). Even more intimidating, there are 3 full Pacific campaigns available, with increasing complexity and difficulty. While several scenarios can be wrapped up over the course of a lunch break, these will be campaigns that take a longer stretch of time.

Disappointingly, there are less playable scenarios for the Japanese, but these are very interesting scenarios. One follows the Japanese in the Burma campaign, looking to push into China and India with 0 naval forces in this scenario (a companion to the much harder Allied version of this campaign). Another notable scenario uses the “What If” of an invasion of the Japanese home islands, using civilians to hold off the Americans until a peace can be brokered. The Japanese don’t play significantly different to the Allies, but there is one key difference. Both sides will in a scenario have an “Industry Score” that determines how many reinforcements will be deployed at the end of the turn. The Allies gain Industry Score over time, but the Japanese player’s score depends on how many bases they hold. As they control less territory, the Japanese are less able to replenish their forces, which follows the “rules” of the history well.

While Pacific Fire does a lot right, the few flaws it has are amplified by the focus that is placed on the gameplay itself. In some of the smaller scenarios, it’s easy to feel as if there is a “right” answer to unit movement and placement, making these scenarios feel more like puzzles than proper warfighting. This may not be an issue to all players, but for a game that has several solid wargaming scenarios, these can be disappointing, as one wrong move can mean that a win is impossible.

Similarly disappointing is that with a lack of multiplayer support, the game is entirely player v. AI. The AI is… interesting. It’s difficult to realty get a feel for it, as the AI deciding to sit on a base for several turns without moving could either be a cog in a larger strategic plan, or it could be the AI not properly utilizing all of its forces. It does seem easier to lure AI naval fleets into an engagement than it does to bait an army to attack, but that may be just contextual.

CONCLUSION

Pacific Fire is a surprising hidden gem. I hadn’t heard of it at all until the Editor asked me to write a review for it, and I’m very glad he did. My other mobile games have become completely forgotten in the last week as I’ve used my work breaks to figure how to withstand the Japanese assaults on Mandalay, or how to crack the defenses around Truk. Pacific Fire has some shortcomings, but is overall an excellent use of your time, both when awake and, in my case, when asleep.

Pacific Fire Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[terryblount]

Chivalry 2 has been officially announced, will be timed-exclusive to Epic Games Store

Tripwire Interactive has announced its partnership with developer Torn Banner Studios to publish Chivalry 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the genre-defining, multiplayer first-person slasher that brought brutal medieval battlefields to life in gruesome cinematic fashion.

First announced at the PC Gaming Show E3 2019 press conference, Chivalry 2 is currently in development for PC and is targeting a 2020 release and will debut on the Epic Games Store and release on other PC platforms 12 months later.

Chivalry 2 is a multiplayer first-person slasher inspired by epic medieval movie battles where players will experience the thrill of combat in massive 64-player battlefields brought to life. Chivalry’s flagship Team Objective game mode brings narrative to multiplayer by having players battle across multiple stages in contextualized objectives, thrusting the player into the action of all their favorite medieval movie scenes.

Players will immerse themselves in the sounds and sights of battle as they are thrust into iconic moments of the era, from the heavy thunder of cavalry charges to forest ambushes, sprawling castle sieges, and good old looting and pillaging. Survive waves of fiery arrows raining down from above, slay multiple enemies with a single strike and ride to war on horseback to claim glory by your blade. Riveting sound and effects ensure every blow lands with the sickening thud of steel sinking into bone, making Chivalry 2 the ultimate aggression outlet and emotional release.

Players will also unleash their inner beast with weighty and satisfying combat utilizing a massive arsenal of brutal medieval weaponry. Based heavily on player feedback, Chivalry 2 introduces a revamped, faster, and more fluid combat system that also offers an expanded range of creative choices, allowing players to perfect their own strategy and playstyle. The ability to fight through the pain while wounded or bleeding out and roll back to your feet from the ground or fight on even when down a limb gives players the chance to become a hero or die a good death.

Torn Banner Studios’ President Steve Piggott said:

“With Chivalry 2 we are bringing the grit and emotions of an epic cinematic medieval battlefield to a completely new level. We have fixed the issues of the first game by redesigning our combat, animation and movement systems from the ground up and the result is a deeply satisfying and weighty physicality to every interaction. With an expanded combat moveset allowing for far greater player creativity, a re-imagining of our Team Objective game mode at scale and a focus on AAA level polish and visuals, Chivalry 2 is set to become the first true advancement in the genre.”

Tripwire CEO John Gibson added:

“The original Chivalry was an incredibly successful phenomenon that established the first-person medieval combat genre. We’re very honored to be able to team up with our good friends at Torn Banner Studios to bring Chivalry 2 to fans. When two of the most successful, customer focused independent studios in the world collaborate, great things are going to happen. Chivalry 2 is coming. The king of medieval combat games is back. Long live the king!”

Enjoy!

Chivalry 2 has been officially announced, will be timed-exclusive to Epic Games Store published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[barbosaasouza]

DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup

The swell gang at DreamHack have chosen an array of thoughtful, striking, ridiculous, spooky, and action-packed titles for their Indie Playground at DreamHack Dallas 2019! So, come take a peek at them.

Best Action

Black Salt Coreuption – “Black Salt Coreuption is a one-on-one 3D arena fighting game that allows complete freedom of movement around the arena rather than 3D fighters doing combat on a 2D plane.”

Prodeus – “Prodeus is the first person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques. It reaches the quality you expect from a AAA experience while adhering to some of the aesthetic technical limits of older hardware.”

Them’s Fightin’ Herds – “Them’s Fightin’ Herds is an indie 2D fighting game featuring a cast of adorable animals designed by acclaimed cartoon producer Lauren Faust. Beneath the cute and cuddly surface, a mechanically-deep GGPO-powered fighter awaits!”

Trap Labs – “Follow Billy’s ascent on Trap Lab’s building in pursuit of pocket money in this online action puzzle. Dodge trap doors, spikes, vortices, cats on Roombas, salary-chickens, and other weird things to survive! It’s a game inspired by the strange combination of RTS games and cartoons from early 2000s.”

  Best Action Adventure

Dreamscaper – “A fluid, action-packed, RPG Rogue-lite – every slumber is a different dungeon and you must unlock the powers of your dreams to fend off nightmares and see a new day.”

Freedom Planet 2 – “The fast paced platforming of Freedom Planet returns! Become a full-time cartoon heroine and use abilities and items suited to your play style to explore the world of Avalice and defend its animal citizens!”

Outpost Delta – “Outpost Delta, the latest game from Hidden Achievement, is a single player, 2-D side-scrolling sci-fi shooter for PC. Take on the role of Delta, the outpost’s emergency defense, along with her AI companion, Joule, as you defend the outpost against alien intruders called the “Klaath.””

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines – “The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines is an action packed twin-stick shooter built around your ability to stop time.”

Best Adventure

Depths of Sanity – “Something is brewing at the bottom of the ocean and it is up to you to investigate. Dive into this underwater metroidvania, coming Q1 2020.”

  Best AR/VR Experience

XING: The Land Beyond – “You died. Welcome to XING: The Land Beyond, an atmospheric first-person puzzle adventure for desktops and virtual reality. Enjoy your peaceful escape from the chaotic world of the living, and travel the lands of the dead.”

  Best Arthouse

Blink – “You are trapped within the perception of a mysterious Eye; everything it sees is a reality for you. But a curious thing happens when its eye closes, the world disappears around you and anything brightly lit up leaves an afterimage burned into the vision of the Eye. To you, these afterimages are solid objects, and you can jump on them to get to unreachable places and accomplish impossible feats.”

Heartbound – “Heartbound is a non-traditional role-playing game about a boy, his dog, secrets, and sanity.”

Project Arrhythmia – “A rhythmic adventure in which all things beautiful are deadly. Avoid the musically timed pulse of blocks and bars, and in the process you might just find out what this mysterious “Project Arrhythmia” is.

  Best Casual

Alluris – “Alluris is what would happen if you asked: “What if someone mixed Oregon Trail, D&D, Hearthstone, and Tinder.” The answer is an adventure game with nearly limitless opportunities yet only two inputs: swipe left or swipe right. Swipe your way through an adventure that is uniquely your own!”

Merchant – “Merchant reimagines the classic RPG experience from the perspective of a Merchant. Hire Heroes and Crafters to do your bidding for you.”

Ooga Booga: The Prehistoric Survival Game – “Follow a tribe of the ancient world’s laziest hunter gatherers. See how long you can survive without leaving your cave. Hunt, cook, and eat various pre-historic wildlife and invent new ways to stay alive as long as possible in this weird and wonderful survival game.”

Roundguard – “Roundguard is a bouncy dungeon crawler with pinball physics, lots of loot, and a randomized castle full of oddballs. Press your luck against hordes of dangerously cute monsters and challenging roguelike elements in this all-round bouncy adventure!”

Best Early Access

Super Animal Royale – “Select your favorite adorably murderous fox, panda, or sloth and parachute into a FURocious 64-player battle arena.”

  Best Horror

The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] – “The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] is an ambitious attempt to modernize an old classic in order to keep its memory alive. Through detailed research and hard work, the production team tried to expand the experience while keeping the same ‘feel’ and emotional flow of the original masterpiece from 1987.”

Krumpet Town – “Krumpet Town is a slice of life meets horror game. Customize your character, explore exciting new environments, help your neighbors, and investigate the strange occurrences that are taking place on your home island!”

  Best Humor

Shadow Fencer Theatre – “Shadow Fencer Theatre is the competitive awkward physics sword fighting game set in the world of shadow puppets. Take center stage with a unique cast of characters and make your way to become a Grandmaster of the theatre.”

Wave Break – “Grab and grind to your heart’s content in Wave Break! Inspired by classic arcade skateboarding games, with a splash of boating, explosions, and cold-blooded murder.”

  Best Multiplayer

Balls Out – “Balls Out is a 4 player Cooperative Third Person Action Game Show Shooter. Think Rocket League meets Smash TV. Play solo or with 3 co-op friends, fighting to survive waves of Aliens in an episode of a space survival inspired Running Man type show.”

Mini Wheels – “Mini Wheels is a story-driven karting game. Play one of the five available game modes: Story Campaign, Single Racing, Capture the Flag, Burnout and Boss Battle. Help Pipo – the lost and lonely toy – find the way back to his favorite human through an action-packed series of races.”

Project Winter – “The perfect game to back-stab your friends. Project Winter is an 8 person multiplayer game focusing on social deception and survival. Communication and teamwork is essential to the survivors’ ultimate goal of escape. Gather resources, repair structures, and brave the wilderness together.”

PROTOCORE – “The bad news : you’re lost in a massive spaceship, your memory’s gone and there’s an army of robots that wants you dead. The good news? You have guns. Lots of guns. So lock and load and get your memories back, one bullet at a time.”

Best RPG

Bound By Blades – “In the Action RPG, Bound By Blades, the desolate land of Ashmyr has become overwhelmed by bloodthirsty beasts. Scavenge materials, forge gear, and fortify yourself to confront the ferocious foes that lie ahead in order to rekindle the last hopes of life.”

Last Epoch – “Last Epoch combines time travel, exciting dungeon crawling, engrossing character customization and endless replayability to create an Action RPG for veterans and newcomers alike.”

Popup Dungeon – “A papercraft roguelike RPG that lets you create any weapon, ability, enemy, and hero imaginable.”

Rogue Empire: Dungeon Crawler RPG – “Rogue Empire is a tactical turn-based RPG with randomly generated content and heavy Rogue-like elements. Choose one of multiple character combinations and advance it with unique abilities! Embark on a quest to heal the 5 kingdoms and understand the mysteries of the First Shadow!”

  Best Strat/Sim

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark – “Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a turn-based tactical RPG with a focus on storytelling and strategic battles. Unfold a mature story as you progress through hand-crafted scenarios, controlling your own group of Arbiters, with each character customizable from a wide selection of classes and abilities!”

Summoners Fate – “Summoners Fate is a top-down deck builder adventure game with turn-based combat. Determine the destiny of hundreds of diverse characters by choosing cards as you explore an ever-changing single player experience. Battle other players on desktop and mobile in async and real-time cross-platform multiplayer.”

Wildermyth – “Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG. Lead a band of unique heroes as they grow from reluctant farmers into legendary fighters. Battle the threats lurking in the Yondering Lands and discover secrets that the land has to offer.”

    Dive headfirst into the exhibiting experience by joining the Indie Playground at DreamHack Dallas this June. Selected games will receive a free booth in the Expo at a festival that encompasses everything gamer life from esports, to indie games, to midnight horror films.

The post DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup appeared first on Indie Games Plus.

DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/