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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years ago

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Dream SMP Recap (June 24-25/2021) - Cow Quackity / S.U.S. Toll Company

After Quackity turns into a cow and Wilbur eats him on Bad’s chill stream, the two make a hit song together.

Later, George joins in and things become even more chaotic.

The next day, while working on “L’Wallburg” to compete with Bad’s apartment in the same area, Foolish has the idea to join forces with Bad instead of competing all the time. The two get together with Ponk to create their new tollbooth company:

Super Umbrella Scheme

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VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

BadBoyHalo

Foolish

Captain Puffy

[Foolish’s second VOD was deleted]

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JUNE 24

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- Ponk, dressed up as Robin, notices Sam AFK by the bank. They try to get some Pillagers to attack Sam, but it doesn’t work

- Instead, Ponk pushes Sam into the spider spawner, then releases the spiders and watches Sam get eaten alive

- With Sam dead, Ponk puts his things in a chest and takes the Netherite set, leaving everything else. He goes to hide it

- Later, Ponk meets Foolish at the Community House as Robin and Batman. They go down into the basement to discuss. They may need new identities. Their crime-fighting days are over

- Ponk tells him that they are going to be Sherlock Holmes and Watson. That’s the extent of the report, so the two of them part ways

- Back at the valley, Ponk puts up a giant Foolsamponk picture and a photo of a rice cooker

- Bad and Wilbur log on. Bad notices a new structure built where the L’Sandburg tollgate used to be and wonders who’s behind it. Bad has been building up L’Sandburg’s walls in the meantime

- As Bad searches around for Wilbur in Las Nevadas, Quackity joins VC and gets a cow as a stand-in. Bad spots Wilbur nearby

- Bad tells Wilbur that the cow is Quackity and puts a leash on him, explaining that a witch turned him into one similar to how George was turned into a pig

- Wilbur asks where he can find food around here, and Bad tells him he can kill the cows in the pen. Bad tries to explain to Quackity how he is a cow. Wilbur asks Bad to tell Quackity that Wilbur wants to eat him

- Wilbur sets Quackity on fire, but Bad puts him out with water. Wilbur says Quackity looks tasty. Bad throws him bread and steak, but Wilbur refuses

Wilbur: not as succulent as him

- Bad leads Quackity over to the Eiffel Tower away from Wilbur. Wilbur opens Bad’s stream to find them

- Wilbur joins VC and Quackity asks if it’s true that Wilbur wants to eat him. They start discussing lactose intolerance

- Wilbur sets off TNT, then lights cow Quackity on fire. Bad is unable to save him and the Quackity cow drops a piece of steak. Wilbur asks for the meat

- Meanwhile, Quackity as a human has come over to Las Nevadas. They set off more TNT

- Wilbur holds a piece of steak and munches on it, telling Quackity that it’s his meat. Quackity asks how he tastes and Wilbur begins describing it in great detail

- Quackity asks him to describe the texture and Wilbur does, again, in great detail. (I'm not going to transcribe this)

- Wilbur then walks over to DogChamp, saying he would kill the dog for another bite. They quickly stop him. Wilbur tells Bad to get him more Quackity meat. He then turns to Quackity and tells him to turn into a cow so that Wilbur can cook him up and eat his meat

- Quackity goes over to the cow pen to be with the other cows so that he can become one and starts mooing

- Wilbur kills another cow. Quackity has taken off his clothes and continues mooing

- Wilbur takes the initiative to end the bit

- They swim over to Eret’s pyramid with Wilbur repeating everything Quackity says in an American accent. They discuss what animal Wilbur would be. Perhaps a sheep. Bad finds a cod in the ocean and decides on that

- They go up to Ponk’s base and look at the photos. They notice that Sam is crossed out in one of them but don’t know why

Quackity: “Do you wanna have sex in this room?”

- Bad goes to tell him “language” and Quackity scolds him for walking in on them. Wilbur considers it, then mines the floor out from under Quackity, who falls to his death

Quackity: “Is that a yes?”

Wilbur: “I like a man who can take kinetic energy.”

- Bad gets a crossbow. Quackity has an announcement: the wine stream is still happening!

- Quackity gets back to the pyramid and falls to his death again. While they retrieve his items, they chat about fan interactions

- Quackity wants to adopt the dog that played Beethoven in the Beethoven movie and Wilbur breaks the news to him that the dog is probably dead. Quackity doesn’t want Tom Arnold on a leash, and they find out that during the filming the filmmakers apparently used a “mechanical dog-dog suit”

- Wilbur explores the Beethoven fandom Wiki

- They talk about music they’ve been working on. Bad says if Quackity keeps swearing, he will “break out the hammer”

- Quackity shows his recent project. Wilbur says it’s “bloody-muffin-fucking great”

- Wilbur and Quackity work on the song together. The sound is...beyond words

- When they are finished, Quackity says that he thinks Wilbur is giving him too much credit, and he should instead be on the feature list. He wants Wilbur to have this song

- Wilbur declines, saying he would be honored if Quackity didn’t put Wilbur’s name on the song

- Quackity thinks Wilbur should feature it as a Lovejoy song. Wilbur has joined a new band to release the song called “Placeholder,” after which he will immediately disband the band

- Quackity tells him that the song is Wilbur’s baby and he really wants Wilbur to have it. Wilbur tells Quackity that he loves him and that Quackity should have the song. Quackity says he would die for Wilbur, and that Wilbur should have the song

- Wilbur says he will name his firstborn "Quackity,” and he thinks Quackity should have the song. Quackity says he will name all his future family members “Wilbur Soot” (pronounced ‘suit’)

- Wilbur then says he will kill endangered animals for Quackity

Bad: “That’s not something you should do!”

Wilbur: “I will do it for love.”

- Bad asks if he can have the song. Quackity doesn’t say his next bit aloud

- Wilbur understands that Quackity would do that, but he would physically drown for Quackity to have the song

- Quackity says that he will get an astrophysics license, fly a rocket into the moon to get in a national story so that when they find the notepad on his phone, Quackity’s one will would be for Wilbur to have the song and release it under his name without any credit to Quackity

- Wilbur understands this, but says that he would invent a Doomsday device the likes of which the world has never seen and will never see again with which he would hold the world hostage with one message: to tell the world that this song is written solely by Quackity

Wilbur: “That’s what I’d do for you.”

Quackity: “...Okay!”

Wilbur: “Cool, alright, now we’re settled. Hey, Bad, how’re you doing man.”

Bad: “Hi! I’m so perplexed.”

Wilbur: “I’ve got a Doomsday device to make.”

- Bad befriends a pig and names it George. He leads the pig and the red sheep away from Las Nevadas. They continue chatting for a while at the Punzo Chunk

- Later on, George, “master of lore,” joins in

- Bad shows them the heads he got from DreamXD and offers to trade Karl’s to get Ant’s, Sam’s and Puffy’s from Foolish. Wilbur asks how one gets heads, and Bad tells the story of DreamXD logging on

- Bad gives George his own head and George logs off. Bad offers Karl’s head and George returns, so Bad kills him and gets his head back. George drops a stack of nametags, a stack of TNT and a stack of levers

- Bad repeatedly murders George and sees a squid that flies

- George chases after Quackity trying to kill him with a bone. Quackity runs, setting everything on fire behind him. Bad follows and tries to put everything out. George eventually kills Quackity, then Bad kills George

- Bad accuses George of abusing his op powers to get Netherite armor as George chases him down

- Wilbur sings the Drake and Josh theme song in an American accent while George attempts to murder Bad in a pit

- George accuses Bad of turning the server off, but Bad says it’s a scheduled restart

- George kicks them from the server and un-whitelists them both

- Quackity gets back on and slays George

- The three of them continue to spar some more for fun

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JUNE 25

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- While Foolish works on building a room by the Punzo Chunk to compete with Bad’s, Bad logs on and drops by

- Bad tells him he’s building in Bad’s apartment. Foolish tells him he’s just making L’Wallburg

- Bad says he will charge Foolish rent to live here, but Foolish declines

- They argue back and forth about whose place it is as they work on the walls

- Foolish has the idea to join forces

Foolish: Bad what if we are landlords together

Bad: o_o

Foolish: we have been fighting for afar too long

Foolish: What if we put are talkents togerth

Bad: o_o

- Bad says he’s charging rent. Foolish asks what if he charges Bad rent. They argue about charging rent on each other

- Bad charges Foolish 850 diamonds. Foolish tells him that Bad has been on his property for five minutes, which means he must pay 9,000 diamonds

- Again, Foolish suggests they instead work together. Bad brings up the idea of taking over a central location like the community Nether portal that they can charge people for. Foolish likes the idea

- They work on the apartment some more and start bickering over who’s caused more problems in their rivalry. Foolish attempts to explain it metaphorically

Foolish: “There was once a shiny rock, okay? And this shiny rock was just trying to go to the ocean and have a good time and lay there in peace. But then, this crusty old seaweed came along to the seashore and just got up all in the shiny rock’s business. And then the shiny rock became a little more dull with the weight of death looming, Bad.”

- Bad takes offense to this and also claims that he made Foolish’s build much better by adding a tollgate to it

- They negotiate percentages of the profits and head off to the Nether portal. Foolish asks if Bad has a suit. Bad replies that not only does he look very dashing already, but the last time he wore a suit, he tried to kill a lot of people

- Foolish suggests they call it the Ratgate. They wall off the portal

- While visiting the summer home, Foolish finds out about the new building on the path. The two suspect a third party may be at play

- Foolish tells Bad about how they have a tollgate set up in Las Nevadas. Bad is offended that Foolish made him take down his tollgate but set one up elsewhere. They start arguing again over who had rightful claim to the path

- They admire their work on the new tollbooth. If people don’t pay the toll, they die

- They rehearse it. Foolish switches personas and becomes a L’manburg Llama who asks Bad where L’manburg is -- he heard they needed his help a few months ago

- Foolish critiques Bad’s performance, as Bad didn’t ask for the toll. Bad said he still got something out of it -- a nice compliment

- They rehearse it a second time, this time with Foolish as Palpatine. It ends with Bad attempting to kill him

- As they discuss how the second rehearsal went, Ponk logs on and walks through the portal while they’re distracted

- They go through after him to seek him down. If they let him get away, they would be the laughing stock of the tolling community. Foolish wonders if they’re dealing with Ponk or Robin

- They find her at the summer home. Ponk runs into his shack and they knock on the door

- Ponk comes out of the shack and they tell him that they’re vacuum salesmen. Once inside the shack, they confront him about the toll

- Ponk doesn’t buy their claims and they go back to the tollbooth. They tell them to pay with compliments

- Ponk retrieves a book from his Ender Chest and goes up one of the tollbooth towers to place a piece of TNT. He tells them that he has claimed the tower

- Ponk starts running, placing TNT all over while the two chase after to attack

- After “the Battle of the Nether Portal” subsides, Ponk gives them the compliments

Ponk: “Bad, is your nickname ‘Google?’ Because you’re all I’m searching for.”

...

Ponk: “Did you get your suit at Dollar General, Foolish?”

- Because Foolish takes some offense to this, Ponk throws him some Netherite ingots. Bad wants that compliment

- Ponk and Bad go up into Ponk’s tower to whisper amongst themselves. Ponk is going to record this and use it as part of the lore suit against Bad. Bad already has ten lawyers

- They go back down and Ponk tells Foolish that Bad said the toll doesn’t have to be paid. Bad is confused, and Foolish pulls Bad aside for a meeting behind a wall of TNT to whisper amongst themselves

- Foolish points out that they could use a third person for the tolling business, and Ponk’s the most trustworthy person Foolish knows

- They go back to Ponk with the business proposal. Foolish says if Ponk makes enough money, they’ll give Ponk a Supreme car at the end of the year

- Ponk becomes sad at this, because Bad destroyed the Supreme Fridge and that’s why Ponk is suing him and Puffy

- Bad says that Foolish allowed them to demolish it. Foolish quickly denies this, but Bad claims he has a written document signed by Foolish. Upset, Ponk asks if this is true. Bad says Puffy has it

- Ponk isn’t sure who to believe anymore

- After they spot Bad lurking beneath the rainbow, they hold him at knifepoint asking for his pot of gold

- Foolish suggests the three of them forget everything that’s happened and just run their tollbooth together. Ponk proposes they tear down Bad’s house instead

- As they explain a potential plot to toll everyone further, though, Ponk starts to come around to the idea. Foolish wonders if they should toll the prison. Bad says they should toll everything

- The next place they decide to toll is the Community House, and they start setting up gateways there. Foolish asks Bad who he would hypothetically be in an alternate Batman universe. Bad would be Alfred

- They decide on a name for their tollbooth company:

“Super Umbrella Scheme,” or S.U.S.

- They do another rehearsal at the Community House gate. It goes very well

- They go to the spider spawner. Bad has to leave, and Ponk speaks with Foolish one-on-one, leading him down the tunnel to the Eggpire cloak room to search through the chests. Foolish hesitantly peeks around the corner into the Egg Room...

- Ponk tells him they’ve got their next disguises as Watson and Holmes. Sam has mentioned that he’s missing a sword and wants to hire them to find it

- With that said, they say their goodbyes and leave

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Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years ago

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JUST AS HOUSES ALL OVER AMERICA ARE FULL OF CHAIRS THAT ARE, WITHOUT THE OWNERS EVEN KNOWING IT, NTH-DEGREE IMITATIONS OF THE ATTITUDES OF PEOPLE WHO'VE DONE GREAT THINGS

One of the most powerful of those was the existence of channels. Is there some test you can use is: always produce. If there's something people still won't do, it stops being a self-indulgent choice, like buying expensive office furniture.1 But I tried living in Florence when I was talking about how investors are reluctant to put money into startups in bad markets, even though that's the time they happen, using the state of the economy doesn't matter much either way.2 It's not rapid prototyping for business models though it can be, but apparently not in the startup world. Is the existence of English majors, and therefore jobs teaching them, that calls into being all those thousands of dreary papers about gender and identity in the novels of Conrad. But it would require a great moral effort; it would mean staring failure in the eye every day for years. We're starting to move from social lies to real lies.

I don't think the bank manager really did. It's also more dangerous. Pretty soon you'll start noticing what makes the preceding paragraph true is that it's slow and uncertain. When Microsoft and Apple were founded.3 There's an A List of people who will later do great things, you'd be able to benefit from it, because a toll has to be is a test. In practice they spend a lot of pro-union readers, the first paragraph sounds like the sort of thing a right-wing radio talk show host would say to stir up his followers.4 What good does it do me to know that my programmers would be more productive working at home on their own projects? But it doesn't matter much either way. As written, it tends to offend people who like unions, because it seems sympathetic to their cause.

If employees have to be made to work on. What matters in Silicon Valley is how much effect you have on the world. At best you may have a couple internships, but not, probably, to music. The better you understand them the better the odds of doing that. If the world had a single, autocratic government, the labels and studios could buy laws making the definition of property be whatever they wanted. It happens naturally to anyone who does good work.5 It's an exciting place. I hear the RIAA and MPAA would make us breathe through tubes down here too, even though we no longer needed to. You have two choices: give it away and make money from it indirectly, or find ways to embody it in things people will pay for.

It has always mattered for women, but in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping.6 That's what all publishing used to be like. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. But I have a legitimate reason for doing this. Customers are used to being maltreated. For example, reading and experience are usually compiled at the time they happen, using the state of the economy. That's a separate question. At the moment, even the smartest students leave school thinking they have to get a job.7 Initially you have to show off with your body instead.8 The message Berkeley sends is: you should make more money. That's the reason to launch fast is not so much that there was a university nearby. Unproductive pleasures pall eventually.

Nor is there anything new, except the names and places, in most news about things going wrong. It would have been on the list 100 years ago. Whoever controls the device sets the terms. If they accepted it, it wouldn't be read by anyone for months, and in the meantime I'd have to fight word-by-word to save it from being mangled by some twenty five year old copy editor.9 They have an answer, certainly, but as a predictor of success it's rounding error compared to the founders. You can't blame kids for thinking I am not like these people; I am not suited to this world.10 This suggests an answer to a question people in New York and the Bay area are second class citizens—till they start hedge funds or startups respectively. Most people who did great things were clumped together in a few places where that sort of thing a right-wing radio talk show host would say to stir up his followers. On the blunderometer, this episode ranks with IBM accepting a non-exclusive license for DOS. But those are usually free. Ten years ago there seemed a real danger Microsoft would extend its monopoly to servers. They work odd hours, wearing the most casual of clothing.

Technology trains leave the station at regular intervals. The organic route is more common. The basic idea behind office hours is that if you had enough strength of mind to do great work have to live in a great city.11 The problem is the same they face in operating systems: they can't pay people enough to build something better than a group of inspired hackers will build for free. Everyone knows that these little social lies aren't meant to be taken literally, just as, occasionally, playing wasn't—for example, set prices based on the qualities of the founders. How lucky that someone so powerful is so benevolent. Most people fail.12 At one extreme is the day job, where you work regular hours at one job to make a few people in a position to do that.13 I better not start a startup now, because the economy is better before taking the leap? I'm not going to try. The reason these conventions are more dangerous is that they interact with the ideas.

If I had a copy of the New York Times. Teachers in particular all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. Everyone knows that these little social lies aren't meant to be taken literally, just as we were designed to eat a certain amount of fiber, and we feel bad if you haven't succeeded yet. The crazy legal measures that the labels and studios have put themselves in the position of the food shop.14 But this time something new happened. And so the average person expressing his opinions in a bar sounds like an idiot compared to a journalist writing about the subject.15 If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you write about controversial topics you have to find the city where you feel at home to know what they want to do, but in most ambitious kids, ambition seems to precede anything specific to be ambitious about. The owner wanted the student to pay for the smells he was enjoying.16 But this is certainly not so with work.

Maybe I'm excessively attached to conciseness. When you talk about cities in the sense we are, what you're really talking about is collections of people, so you could use the two ideas interchangeably. Offer surprisingly good customer service. You should be hipper. The record labels and movie studios used to distribute what they made like air shipped through tubes on a moon base where we had to buy air by the liter. You have to like what you do? When I say business can learn about new conditions the same way I write essays, making pass after pass looking for anything I can cut. This is easy advice to give.17 When an investor maltreats a founder now, it gets out. That may be the greatest effect, in the most literal sense, not news: there is nothing new in it.

Notes

You're too early if it's dismissed, it's probably a bad deal.

Without visual cues e. In general, spams are more likely to have done all they demand from art as stuff.

Geoff Ralston reports that one of them. College English 28 1966-67, pp. Auto-retrieving filters will have to do better, because you couldn't possibly stream it from a few critical technical secrets.

And while we might think it might make them less vulnerable to gaming, because people would be investors who say no for introductions to philosophy now take the hit.

But let someone else. When an investor makes you much more analytical style of thinking. They would have been about 2, etc, and outliers are disproportionately likely to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or at least accepted additions to the customer: you post a sign in a world in verse, it would literally take forever to raise five million dollars in liquid assets are assumed to be employees, with identifying details changed. On their job listing page, they still probably won't invest.

The Harmless People and The CRM114 Discriminator.

After a while to avoid sticking. There is of course finding words this way that makes the business for 16,000 sestertii, for example, if you aren't embarrassed by what you've done than where you go to die from releasing something full of bugs, and Foley Hoag. Even the desire to do that.

99, and each night to make the police treat people more equitably. That wouldn't work for us to Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both of which he can be and still provide a better user experience. This is actually from the truth to say that intelligence is the least VC-like.

I quote a number here only to buy your kids' way into top colleges by sending them to private schools that in the belief that they'll only invest contingently on other sites.

According to Zagat's there are certain qualities that help in deciding what to think about so-called lifestyle business, A. And frankly even these companies wish they weren't, as I know of a refrigerator, but this would be at a friend's house for the firm in the production of high quality. This is almost always bullshit.

5 to 2 seconds. If we had, we'd have understood users a lot about how things are going well, but half comes from a technology startup takes some amount of damage to the ideal of a lumbar disc herniations, but it might help to be started in 1975, said the things you want to pound that message home. The markets seem to be a predictor of high quality. Digg's is the kind that evolves into Facebook isn't merely a subset of Facebook; the creation of wealth for society.

But which of them is a sufficiently identifiable style, you usually have to do better. One reason I stuck with such energy that he transformed the field they describe. Or you make something hackers use. He had such a baleful stare as they are themselves typical users.

Unfortunately, making physically nice books will only do convertible debt, but it might even be symbiotic, because the test for what gets included in shows is basically a replacement mall for mallrats.

I think lack of movement between companies was as late as 1984. Greek philosophers before Plato wrote in order to win. You could feel like a VC who read this essay wrote: After the war on drugs show, bans often do more than the others.

At some point, when politicians tried to pay out their earnings in dividends, and many of the junk bond business by doing a small percentage of startups that get funded this way that weren't visible in the Valley itself, not because Delicious users are not all of us in the preceding period that caused many companies that can't reasonably expect to make the people who said they wanted to. But although I started using it, and all those 20 people at once, and for recent art that does. But it isn't critical to do it all yourself. My first job was scooping ice cream in the mid 1980s.

Some government agencies run venture funding groups, you have to disclose the threat to potential investors are just not super thoughtful for the desperate and the Origins of Europe, Cornell University Press, 1983. 66, while she likes getting attention in the 1980s was enabled by a combination of circumstances: court decisions striking down state anti-dilution provisions also protect you against tricks like a little too narrow than to confuse everyone with a screw top would have undesirable side effects. Living on instant ramen would be unfortunate.

To say nothing of the kleptocracies that formerly dominated all the red counties. I made because the remedy was to become one of the paths people take through life, the approval of an email being spam.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Jeff Weiner, Sarah Harlin, Geoff Ralston, Kevin Systrom, Aaron Iba, and Sam Altman for their feedback on these thoughts.

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Someday You’ll Return review – a fascinating but flawed brand of horror • Eurogamer.net

I can’t remember the last time a game forced me to inhabit someone I loathe quite as much as Someday You’ll Return’s insufferable protagonist, Daniel.

I hate his smug, condescending voice and his icy contempt for others. I hate his agitated sighs and engorged ego, and how he prissily sweeps up the discarded sweet wrappers he finds littering the forest. As they’re the only parts of his body I see with any regularity, I hate his fingernails, too, and how he jauntily cries “Refreshing!” every time the arrogant asshat gets the chance to scrub clean his fat, sausage fingers. He’s a cold, shallow husk masquerading as a man of integrity and if I could’ve walked him off a fecking cliff and ended my experience 15 minutes in*, I would’ve. Game over. The end.

Someday You’ll Return review

Developer: CBE Software

Publisher: CBE Software

Platform: Reviewed on PC

Availability: Out now on PC

We meet Daniel (oh, you just know he doesn’t like to be called Dan, don’t you? That if someone mistakenly made the friendly abbreviation, he’d bristle and flash a cold smile – “It’s Dan-ee-ul, actually”) – and yes, I realise there’s a lot of projection here and I’ve possibly been wronged by a Dan-ee-ul in a past life – but kudos to the writing team. Kudos indeed. Daniel is one of the worst men I’ve ever met, in-game or in real life, and as such, he’s achingly, horrifyingly real.

To be fair, we’re not supposed to like him. Daniel is not a nice guy. In games that often means they’re a bloodthirsty sadist stepping over as many bodies as is necessary to get what they want, but Daniel’s not-niceness is kind of humdrum.

He’s a reluctant father and a bitter ex-husband. He’s the kind of guy who’d desecrate a burial site and repurpose its solemn wooden grave markers as ladder rungs, even though he is literally standing in the middle of a forest. At first, the voice-acting feels a little off and uneven, but the more I played, the more the performance makes sense. I realise it’s not accidental that his smart phone’s background picture features a waterfall and not his family. He’s rude and opinionated and selfish, and even though his daughter, Stela, is missing, he’s not worried as much as he’s inconvenienced by the whole thing.

Now, I’ve been where Daniel is. I’m a parent, and I know firsthand how it feels when your child goes missing. The panic sat on my chest like an elephant – fat and rigid and unmoving, pressing down until it’s impossible to think, let alone talk or rationalise – right up until my then 12-year-old skipped into the lounge three hours late to find his parents sobbing to police officers.

Once it’s over – once they’re home and safe and incredibly embarrassed – there’s a brief blast of anger, too. Anger he didn’t think to borrow a phone off a mate. Anger that he’d do something so stupid. But you’re mostly too relieved to be angry, relieved and down-to-your-marrow exhausted, and you hug them just that little bit tighter when you put them to bed that night.

Daniel? Our Dan glossed right over the panic and grief and jumped feet-first into indignant fury. He’s angry at Stela, mad that she’s run away again, and furious that his ex dares to ask where their daughter is. About halfway through your adventure, Daniel’s asked to describe what his daughter looks like and his response – “Hell if I know”, followed by some half-assed excuse about memory problems – epitomises him perfectly. He doesn’t even have the good grace to hide it.

Unlike the unreliable narrators of the psychological horrors Someday You’ll Return homages openly, Daniel isn’t unreliable as much as he’s unrelatable. It makes for a curious dynamic, one that makes me even more desperate to find Stela.

By tracking her phone – yup, our Daniel’s the kind of man who secretly installs tracking devices on his loved ones’ phones – he ends up in the Moravian forests of the Czech Republic, a mysterious place he’s known since childhood. Not dissimilar to Blair Witch or The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, the bulk of this tale unfolds as Daniel sweeps the forest in search of Stela. It looks and feels achingly well-realised – there are even QR codes for you to track the locations in the real world – but it’s the game’s exteriors that are particularly astonishing. You’ll spend a lot of time meandering up the hiking paths and through the treelines, following streams and the subtle, helpful trail markers guiding your way, your journey accompanied by a stunning, natural soundscape.

If you’re the kind of player who likes to do their own thing in their own time, you’re going to love it here. There are plenty of collectables and goodies secreted in the craggy cliffs, and the semi-open world enables you to do things at your leisure. It can be completed via a myriad of ways, and it’s possible to miss certain items – even whole areas and events – if you’re not careful enough in your exploration.

Czech mate.

The beauty of your surroundings starts to fade, however, when you realise you’ve walked past this tree trunk three times before. I appreciate this is very much a subjective issue – I have a dire sense of direction – but Someday You’ll Return’s light-touch signposting feels more frustrating than freeing. At one point, I had three locked doors, two keys, and one hour of zero progress, fruitlessly running around a campsite as I desperately tried and then retried each key. The game’s hands-off-ness is admirable, yes, but at times I felt too untethered, irritated by a lack of instruction.

Other times, Daniel is shimmying through damp, dank bunkers with little light and a sickly sense of foreboding. They’re terrifyingly good fun but inevitably telegraph that Something Important Is Going To Happen.

Interspersing these action sequences with drawn-out outdoor exploration throws the pacing out of whack, though. A little like Silent Hill Shattered Memories that only sends denizens after Harry in predetermined chase sequences, you eventually lose all sense of peril outside, too; a shame, really, given the game starts strong with some delightfully creepy occurrences.

Later on, though – as Daniel’s world melts into a twisted wonderland stuffed with supernatural events – there are stealth sequences. These are tedious, agonising affairs that often end in unscripted instadeaths courtesy of an enemy you didn’t even know was there, let alone had a chance to avoid. I hated them in Blair Witch and I hate them, here, too. No, I don’t want my horror games to be walking simulators, either – honestly! – but I do want a least a sporting chance; especially if I’m forced to sit through lengthy loading pages every time I’m spotted.

There are other interesting mechanics, too – a potion crafting system, a usable tool belt, rock climbing, a smartphone, a magic totem – but for most, I feel we didn’t spend enough time with them before being waltzed off to experiment with another new gimmick. The former, particularly, is interesting (there’s a vertigo-curing potion, for instance, and another that enables you to see ghosts of the past). But Daniel’s unblinking acceptance of these supernatural elements surprises me. Not only does he apparently believe the claims, he romps around the forest with a fully-kitted herbal apothecary strapped to his back, too. It just doesn’t fit with the Daniel we’ve come to know from his phone calls and text messages; he just doesn’t strike me as a wait-I-need-to-stop-and-crush-this-Devil’s-Trumpet-with-a-pestle-and-mortar kind of guy.

If he was my father I’d keep running away, too.

While I was intrigued by the story and desperate to see it through, these kinds of things kept distracting me. I don’t understand why Daniel wasn’t more alarmed when his tool belt inexplicably turned up in a graveyard. I don’t understand why he never questioned the intent of the mysterious characters around him. The man rarely acknowledged the curious details unfolding via the notes and journal entries he found, and as such, I feel like the developers missed a trick here. The best thing about Daniel is also the worst: he’s a dick. As such, I’m a little disappointed he didn’t push back a little as his world becomes increasingly bizarre.

More spooky than scary, it’s Someday You’ll Return’s story that’ll keep you plodding on, even if its 20ish hour runtime feels a little bloated. I felt like I was hitting the climactic close at around the six-hour mark, which meant for most of the remaining dozen or so hours, I was waiting for it to end.

It feels churlish to complain about a game’s length, though – especially when so many of its peers are shorter, snappier affairs – but it feels like it would’ve been a tighter, more terrifying experience if it’d slimmed down its lengthier sequences. As it stands, Someday You’ll Return’s intriguing tale is soiled by uneven gameplay and a lack of meaningful momentum.

* Spoilers: you can, technically, finish the game within the opening five minutes – sadly it’s not by throwing him off a cliff, though…

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/someday-youll-return-review-a-fascinating-but-flawed-brand-of-horror-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=someday-youll-return-review-a-fascinating-but-flawed-brand-of-horror-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

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Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

I landed on a bright and shining island where Tom Nook was awaiting my arrival. One of the Nook twins even referred to him as “our fearless leader”—a nod to every totalitarian meme the community has shared about the penny-pinching raccoon. It would be easy to write a player’s guide to the first few days on the island. But I’m here to tell you how I felt, not what I did.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

I always enjoyed the joke of my character somehow just ending up in a village of animals with no explanation, but this new setup had me organically become part of the restoration and beautification of the island. I was one of the first to presumably explore the island with the crew. This was much better than the blassé, “I dunno, let’s put this knucklehead in charge,” attitude of my past towns. But, this setup does more than solidify your character’s place on the island, it gives you a reason for why you are allowed more power to make the island your paradise—a promise from day one.

Enhanced Customization

If you’re like me, the first thing you couldn’t wait to try out was the character creator. This was adapted from Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp, and many players were excited to see it in a console installment. The character creation screen had a handful of options. It was a good stepping stone in what could have been a complicated process in one of your first actions in the game. In the beginning, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the lack of hair color choices, but as you’ll see later on, New Horizons is about the gratification of unlocking features and giving you more to work towards. After just a day, I was already looking more like me, so who’s to really complain?

Many people were worried that this game would be a console clone of Pocket Camp. However, Nintendo has proven that they’re more intuitive than that. Pocket Camp worked as it did because it followed a similar model that all mobile games follow—slow down modes to make you wait for projects to complete and give you screen-time breaks, ability to pay in an already free mobile game to get more perks. However you may feel about that format, Nintendo hasn’t abused that concept yet on the Switch, and I hope they keep it that way. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you still have to wait a day for many major projects to come to fruition—just as you had to before—but all basic crafting is immediate, so long as you have the materials collected.

The interior and exterior designing is something I’ve loved the most from the games. New Horizons added quick access to storage and pockets while decorating, and camera modes to adjust furniture on the walls and on the ground. When I tell you this has made house decorating so fun, I mean it. My hope is we eventually get a similar upgrade for the exterior decorating, as well.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the most customizable AC title yet! You’re given so many customization and management options from the Island Designer App, your character’s outward appearance, and decorating your home.

Immersive Island Experience

I knew this would be a beautiful game, but finally exploring it for myself was a new experience. Nintendo put a lot of energy into making every strand of hair, every leaf, every ripple in the water react to the weather conditions and time of day. The music was relaxing and soft. It’s a world designed to keep you at ease. I also appreciated the multiple perspectives you could take, from a top-down view, to a closer third-person perspective, to even closer. (When the tarantulas were out, top-down especially helped.)

The inclusion of the smartphone—also adapted from Pocket Camp—made access to information so much simpler. When I first saw the apps in the Nintendo Direct streams, I worried scrolling through the content might get tiresome. Luckily that’s not the case. It would be nice if Nook Miles (a reward system for completing tasks) stats weren’t scattered across a large blank page, but the scroll sensitivity makes it easy to get to the bottom. It was a forgivable design even if it wasn’t my preferred one.

But the best part of the NookPhone was that everyone had one on the island. This made the use of the tool just as common as a net or shovel. Little touches like that make New Horizons stand out to me as a title that wants you to believe that every NPC is just as involved in day-to-day life as you are, as opposed to the sometimes stoic way they walked around until interacted with before. Watching them hunt bugs or sip some soda by the bonfire felt more like characters with things to do, just like you.

Rewarding Your Gameplay

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is about rewarding you just for playing. This is something that they never managed to do in original games well (even though I still obsessively played). You earn Nook Miles for doing basic and extracurricular tasks, you earn Bells (money) for selling items, and at least for a while there’s an island to build up! The series has grown so much over the years, with various projects and things you can do to fill in the time, but at some point, everything does plateau. Your town looks how you want it, you run out of things to do, you’re bored of just fishing. New Horizons has you working towards something every day. And even when that eventually will plateau, the addition of Nook Miles gives you a constantly refreshing checklist of things you can do to earn more towards this point system that gives you special rewards and benefits in-game.

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

An example: Item stacking is much better with this title, but for some reason, not all items stack to 99 in a bunch, while others will. Ideally, it would be great to just have infinite stacks, or at least 99 for everything. You can later upgrade your pocket space and get additional perks to make switching between tools easier, but as far as I can tell stacking doesn’t change yet. Why this was missed with all the other upgrades is beyond me, but again, it’s a game that’s hard to judge too quickly.

Multi-Device Integration

Nintendo Online subscribers can use the Nintendo Online app, on their Android or iOS device, to gain additional advantages while playing New Horizons. I was a bit skeptical as to how this would work, but after some messing around, I appreciate what the Nintendo Online app brings to AC. I liked scanning QR codes of tried and true favorite clothing designs from New Leaf. And downloading from the app to the game was instantaneous! Even more impressive, however, was the use of the app for in-game chat.

I should go on the record to state that players who are in areas with basic or lower network plans may not see the same multiplayer results. But for my experience, the multiplayer felt smooth in New Horizons.

(To any folks with children worried about the online play, Nintendo continues to make several reminders that this is a family-friendly game, and there’s now a reporting system for messages or behavior you don’t like!)

You can hit L while in-game to bring up the keyboard, but you’re beholden to having to type with the onscreen keyboard. That’s not my favorite experience, so having other options has been helpful! NookPhone even has a chat history in case you miss anything being said.

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

Animal Crossing: New Horizons hit every checkbox for me. I’ve seen this series transform for nearly two decades, and it’s become such an intense part of my best gaming memories. It’s clear in their handling of New Horizons that Nintendo truly cares about this series and understands its value to its audience.

I know what you might be thinking: Of course, I’m biased. But if this game had been a letdown for me, I’d tell you the truth and be sad doing it. This truly is an amazing game. My 9.5 ranking is only due to waiting to see what else might come out in future perks or patch updates to resolve some of my item handling and organizational concerns—which, with a management game like this one, is most of the day-to-day experience.

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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flightykickback · 6 years ago

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Before BTS in Chicago, I didn’t believe in post-concert depression. Clearly, I was wrong.

BE FOREWARNED!

If you thought some of my other posts were long, you’re in for a treat! This one is longer!

~ 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 ~

I spent four, long, arduously stressful months trying to get tickets to see BTS in New York or Chicago. My friend and I combined devices to become a tiny force to be reckoned with, only to lose out on tickets for New York AND Chicago!

October was coming around the corner. I had set-up dozens of Facebook and Twitter notifications for various BTS groups and one extra special gem, BTSTicketBOT. Eventually, I had to make a decision on one location instead of being bombarded by notifications for two, so I picked Chicago. I started to search for BTSxChicago hashtags and various keywords in search engines until I hit the jackpot! I found LoveYourselfxChicago, a BTS fanbase in the Chicago-area that organizes fan events and charity drives.

DO NOT buy from unreliable websites such as Craig’s List. You WILL be scammed. No matter how tempting and how desperate you may have become during your search, DON’T DO IT! There will be tickets, just keep reading! (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

LoveYourselfxChicago was selling tickets for a suite ($250 each), at the tip-tip-tippy top of the arena with a full meal plan and semi-private bathrooms. I told them, “I do.”

K, I was at peak gambling mode at this point before I had to look at the time and stop taking chances. Originally, I told them NO! I wanna see sweat dripping from Namjoon’s forehead from P1 seating! Then I crumpled my wish on a piece of paper (seriously, I wrote exactly what I wanted multiple times on several slips of paper), before I meekly asked to be put on a waitlist. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

Luckily, we had already booked an Airbnb and THE cheapest transportation through Megabus ($13 total with tax, for two tickets)…..but you ought to know I’m never on time, so we missed it and had to drive (LOL!).

Yoooooo, my friend and I wanted to enjoy those charter seats and avoid the erratic Chicago traffic so bad that I called my niece to see if I got ahead of the bus, would she keep my car at her college over the weekend, just gas it up. We didn’t make it. Which…worked out for us later…We stocked up on flavored soju at Joong Boo Market and got some awesome food at San Soo Gab San Korean BBQ *cackles*

Finally! We’re in Chicago! We go to Mecca and it’s a barricaded parking lot across from United Center with people dancing it out to BTS music blaring from BigHit speakers. Choreo, cheers, screaming over biases, everyone was just having so much fun! Hanging out in a parking lot was a bit of a let-down considering how much money we ARMY deliberately and emotionally give BigHit, but at least the Love Yourself banners and images were displayed everywhere. It was nice seeing the block decked out for BTS:

Right at the entrance of the barricade was the lightstick help desk, so I made a beeline!

HERE’S THE ULTIMATE V3 LIGHTSTICK FIX!…put a little cushion on the bottom of the battery pack to boost it up. There’s an issue with the battery not completing the circuit, so the light doesn’t come on. The cushion eliminates that issue. o(≧∇≦o)

There was NO line for merch. Everyone came and went. (I meeeaaaan, if you’re going to line up all night for first dibs, you shouldn’t have to wait all day right?). Luckily, I had found a GO and we got merch without having to wait in line! We were able to meander over to the merch table after getting my lightstick fixed and lazily check off the order ballet whatever we wanted. Merch availability was posted on banners. The more popular items like the photo book, slogan, certain t-shirt sizes, premium photos, etc., were sold out, but there was a ton of lightsticks, mini lightstick rings, and photo cards, left over.

Legit. We were in and out in minutes. The longest part was making up my mind. I even purchased more PCs after a change of heart while still staring at the cashier (I needed at least two packs!).

Next, we were on the prowl…to sell fanmerch! This was our first time. We had created some Love Yourself themed pocket mirrors and were hoping to recoup some of the concert costs. We almost got bounced by BigHit Staff (LOL!). This lady came over to us like, “this is your final warning.” My friend said to her, you mean our first?! Cause, we ain’t never seen this chick or spoke to her before. She pursed her lips a bit cause she knew that was dumb to say. Meanwhile, fansites and savvier fan merchants were stealthily dodging BigHit Staff and United Center Security, just making a KILLING!

I friggin love fan merch so much. I buy from fans all the time online and it’s my favorite thing to do at a kpop concert. Fan merch can be beautiful and are usually the better things the band’s company doesn’t sell. Since they’re unique, you’ll never find it anywhere else and if they’re discontinued, it’s once in a lifetime, so it was a bit disappointing that BigHit had the place on lockdown. It was greedy, especially with how they’re pummeling us fans with various collaborations and activities (Mattel dolls, Funko Pop Vinyls, UNO cards, BTS World, The Notes Books, etc.) Support your fandom family!

Honestly, there’s not much more to do and since I didn’t enter the photo booth lottery, I don’t have more to describe. I realized the set-up is more of a dip-in and dip-out scenario. Buy merch, see some sights, get pictures, then bounce (although, I’ve seen posts from fans in Asian countries where it’s a whole damn festival, but whatever America. Capitalism sucks.). We tried to sell more merch while fans were lining up at the entrances, then made our long walk back to the bus stop (I was not driving or paying for parking) and turned in for the night.

The lines into the United Center were extraordinary…because people wouldn’t listen. Granted, everyone had to form a line prior to the doors opening, but eventually, security was telling people to exit the lines and enter through any of the other doors. One whole section, with multiple entrances, had no lines, but fans were so damn scared to lose their place that they didn’t trust to leave their spot. Most had reserved seats! Swear, fans must have PTSD from how they have to fight for everything. Security was checking bags and scanning people through the metal detectors very quickly, so there was no need for the uncertainty. ¯\_(⌣̯̀⌣́)_/¯

The next day was CONCERT DAAAAAAAY! I’m gonna skip a bunch of stuff because it’s redundant and I pretty much talked about security. How. Ever. We did sell more fan merch (Thanks!), made mutuals, spoke to some great people, and even met Dee Skelliton. Eventually, it was time to check our bags and ride that evasive elevator to the sky-I mean, our suite.

Kudos to the people that handed out free stuff. I got a couple of PCs and lyrics to Seesaw in support of Yoongi’s solo stage.

Word of caution. Don’t overexert yourself. We brought water, snacks, a hand fan, extra batteries, charger, and other necessities. I thought we were ready, but that walking! Ugh! We must’ve walked the equivalent of 10 miles from the bus stop to United, around United several times, to Subway for grub, back to United. We were tired AF, so when we got to the suite, we wanted to chill, but there were 20 other people already there and not enough seating with a view (suites can accommodate 20 people, but only have 10 stadium seats. There were barstools and couches, but the TVs were not broadcasting the show).

But we had fooooooood, baby! *raps* I’m a big girl, that likes big things, and I keep a plate, for my big dreams. There was hotdogs, ciabatta sandwiches, meatball subs, fruit, a bunch of other stuff and champ-angia. I was so stressed from low sales and so many people around me, I really needed a breather so when the attendant cracked that bottle open, I didn’t shy. I got lit.

Music videos were blasting. Snapchat Geofilter was on! We had our fan project banners ready (Day 1 and 2)! Fans were singing along with their lightsticks on. And then, THE LIGHTS DIMMED! Our lightsticks went crazy colorful! BTS popped up from beneath the stage and I blacked out.

Swear, I remember screaming my head off, trying my best at the Korean lyrics, crying a shitload, streaming to my closest BTS friends (shhhhh! (*≧艸≦)), hopping from our suite to the practically-empty-suite these beautiful, magnificent, gracious girls were willing to share, but otherwise, I don’t remember a lot. Luckily, there’s film….but I’m too embarrassed by my screeching to post it (and it’s taking forever to upload!), so enjoy these photos instead! Mind you, we reached the last summit when we walked off the elevator.

We also got some amazing scenes:

Jungkook’s abs

Jimin’s abs

Namjoon getting emotional at all the love he was receiving and thanking everyone for coming to the concert.

Baepsae was a biiiiiiitch!

I SAID BAEPSAE WAS A BIIIIIIITCH!

If I were to describe the euphoric feeling I had seeing the boys in person, I’d never do it justice. They were marvelous, engaging, funny and oh-so-sweet. Hence why I’m pissed that I’m missing their stadium tour. I told myself, I’m definitely seeing them next time…who knew they’d drop tickets this week?! This sounds weird, but I was extra upset that I won’t be able to go to one of the stadium stops and see the awesome light show. Up to 80-90,000 lightsticks flickering and forming multicolored art in unison! Have you seen those videos? Wow. It would be such a breathtaking experience.

If you’re looking to get BTS Tickets, check out my other post. The title is a little misleading, but my Plan B for getting tickets after they’re sold out is there.

If you’re banking on getting tickets direct from Ticketmaster…it’s all luck. You can do everything correctly according to fans:

Have multiple devices

Recruit friends with multiple devices

Have the fastest internet service

Have multiple browsers and tabs open

Not refresh the page

For certain platforms, refresh the page

Log-in hours in advance and wait to be placed in the queue

Even Ticketmaster provided a preparation guide.

You can do all that and some (I did) and still not score a single ticket. Remember, based on the stage set-up, only 2/3s of the stadium’s seating will be sold, part of the tickets are already reserved for BigHit, Ticketmaster or another broker, and season ticket holders. That means even fewer tickets will be available! Not only are you competing with each other but also scalpers with dedicated servers to snatch up tickets.

I’m not trying to scare anyone, just stating facts. If Plan A doesn’t work, don’t give up hope! Plan B may be your best option. Just keep storing your coins and be flexible. A couple of things on my previous post in the bonus section actually happened:

Ticketmaster released additional tickets, unannounced, a week or two before the Chicago concert date.

United Center sold extra tickets both nights of the show

People were posting last-minute ticket sales in various groups

It pays to keep checking the website, staying tuned to social media and just waiting in the box office line at the venue.

Another thing I learned while talking to various fans at United Center and also from social media posts, is that sometimes people with extra unsold tickets may just give them away! *screams*

If you choose to purchase resale tickets, do it through StubHub or Vividseats. Both sites guarantee similar tickets if the ones purchased are fake or will refund your money. Last year, StubHub realized how popular BTS is and created a dedicated customer service hotline (too many people were calling lol!). Also, if you call into Vividseats, they might give a discount (the rep offered me 15%). Lastly, if purchasing resale tickets from another fan, ask for proof and have someone else look at the proof with you. You can even ask in groups if other people know of the account selling the tickets.

~ My Last Humble Opinion ~

Last year, Love Yourself tour tickets for Metlife Stadium had a decent resale price on StubHub because many ARMY had already purchased tickets: extremely overpriced resale tickets and multiple face value tickets in hopes for the right seats. I’ve seen many ARMY say they might sit this tour out because they’re broke like me, they’re saving for other kpop concerts, or they’re unsure how different the Speak Yourself concert will be from Love Yourself stages. That ups the chances for tickets and, if the demand isn’t as high as last time, the resale prices will go down about two or three days from the concert date and they’ll become lower the day of. Hell, Ontario wasn’t a popular destination and those tickets were nuts.

Just don’t buy tickets because you can and then hold them in hopes of better tickets. There will be more chances. There were lots of tickets that were unclaimed. Some of the top tier levels. Were. Not. Full.

So anything is possible! Believe it and stay fighting!

There you have it: This behemoth posting that tired me out enough over the weeks that I had to just publish the sucker and get it over with! LOL! Hopefully, this is useful. I wanted to get it out sooner than the day Speak Yourself tickets go on sale. I also forgot about DPR! Oh well. (੭ ˃̣̣̥ ω˂̣̣̥)੭

Experience: #LoveYourselfInChicago where I learned first hand what PCD is and the overwhelming disgrace of blacking out. Before BTS in Chicago, I didn’t believe in post-concert depression. Clearly, I was wrong. BE FOREWARNED!

#BTS #Chicago #Concert #Experiences #fun #Love Yourself Tour #Post Concert Depression #Speak Yourself Tour #Travel #United Center

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decorous-biohazart · 8 years ago

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Background Log #4: “The Gift Of Life”

Background log for Phoenix Nest head of virology research Megan Phoenix.

The camera flicked on as it wrestled in unsteady hands attempting to focus the lens. Two half-gloved hands passed through the camera’s field of vision as a voice grunted with frustration.

“How do you work this stupid thing?” A voice asked. A female voice, Cell’s voice. Eventually she was able to get the camera into focus on a pristine white door with a rectangular window. She was in the science building on camp, but the door gave no details on possibly why she was there with a video camera.

“Well, here we are in the building of research and science-whatever it is they do here. I decided that it would be best to get an honest reaction out of Megan if she did her log the same way we did: without knowing it was coming. So I snuck in her room, grabbed her camera, and here we are! Let’s see what she’s up to.”

The half-gloved hand reached into the shot and pushed the door open and walked into the room. Immediately she saw lines of counters with observation tools, beakers, tubes, and an assortment of other strange devices. The camera panned to the left to find a desk not far away with a woman sitting in the rotating chair. She sat with her blonde hair tied up in a loose bun short of her bangs hanging at either side of her face. Her glasses rested on the bridge of her nose above a soft smile as she bobbed her head to the music playing in her ear buds. She wore a white lab coat with a sweater beneath it along with some stained tight jeans and athletic shoes to assist her with the long amounts of time she spent on her feet in the lab.

Cell’s hand inched into the shot, her fingers flexing as she slowly approached the unsuspecting scientist to avoid being detected before tapping her on the shoulder. The woman immediately stopped what she was typing and jumped with squeak of fear. She turned to meet the new arrival, quickly pulling out one ear phone, her cheeks red with embarrassment. Her shoulders relaxed when she registered who had intruded on her lab before smiling a bit as she removed her other earphone.

“You scared me, Cell, I didn’t think you were coming for a visit today!” Megan explained. Cell laughed before responding, clearly proud of her successful infiltration.

“Ah y’know, just seemed like it would be better to sneak up on you like you did to us since that’s all part of the theme for the logs.” Cell responded, the sound of another chair rolling across the tile floor clattered off camera before the camera’s height of view lowered as Cell took a seat.

“Oh! You’re here for that!” Megan exclaimed, clearly not prepared for such an interview, “Well I’m not sure what I would say, I didn’t really have any time to prepare myself or anything.” She admitted, tapping the tips of two of her fingers together. Cell waved a hand in the shot as she responded,

“Hey that’s the whole point, you don’t have to worry about not being prepared. This is your project, you know just what to say! Go for it, tell us about you, Megan. The world’s dying to know how you got to this point.” Megan blushed a bit as she laced her fingers together in her lap,

“Well, I’m not THAT special; I kinda just did my job that’s all. You guys had all the cool stories, my life was pretty normal. I grew up with a pretty normal and happy family in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. I was the youngest of three sisters and an older brother, but we all got along pretty well. My mom was a total sweetheart school teacher and my dad was a man with a big heart who worked with the Red Cross relief force, but he was definitely not someone you wanted to mess with! I went to school, but I honestly didn’t do that well. I struggled quite a bit and had a hard time grasping a lot of concepts. I felt like I was motivated enough to do well, but I guess I just never really took off. Then I met someone really special.” Her eyes moved down and away from the camera as Megan seemed to reminisce back to another time,

“Her name was Cassia, and she was the best friend I ever had. She had beautiful brown hair and green eyes, and she was the nicest girl I ever met, just as tough and sweet as her name too! We met in middle school and ended up being bff’s through high school.

Cassie was my rock, she gave me a lot of the motivation I needed to get things rolling and start doing well. She used to call me Ash, because my middle name is Ashlynn. I never really liked the name that much because my last name is Phoenix, and that always felt like some kind of pun. She thought it was cute, though, so it was her special nickname for me.” Her gaze came back to the camera, a gentle smile on her face for a moment before it sank away and Megan’s gaze wandered away again.

“We were going to go to college together… But she got sick. We thought she just had a bad case of the flu or something, because it only lasted about a week before she started to shake it off. But just when we thought she was getting better, she got even worse. I got a call from her parents one night that Cass was coughing blood and was taken to the hospital. I couldn’t have gotten there any faster, I almost ran a couple of people off the highway. When I got there, I was taken to a waiting room where her mom was waiting for me. I asked her what was happening, but all she did was get up and hug me.”

Megan now had her arms wrapped over her chest, holding both of her upper arms as if she was holding herself before she dropped her hands back into her lap again.

“She said Cassie was going in for some tests because the doctors weren’t sure what was wrong. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. She said ‘Cassia is strong, she’ll be just fine’. But something in my stomach didn’t feel right. I was bugging the doctors constantly asking if I could see my friend, but they kept turning me away. Eventually I was sent home and told I would have to come back tomorrow after the tests processed. I didn’t sleep that night, I just prayed that my friend would be okay. I went through some of our old scrapbooks, read some old stories we wrote together, or just laid there, but I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t.

When I got back the next day… The doctors told me that Cassie had something called Myeloma.” Megan stopped on the last word, her gaze resting on her lap as her eyes turned glassy. She wiped a tear as it escaped her eye as Cell reached forward from behind the camera and took hold of one of Megan’s hands.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know what it was at the time because I didn’t know a lot about sicknesses. The doctor said it was a type of blood cancer that affects how the body fights illness. The flu she had was even worse than before because she wasn’t able to fight the influenza virus like a normal person because of her blood, and this was an unusual case because the disorder didn’t normally just appear this late into a persons life. I demanded that I get to see her, I wanted to talk to her, whatever I would be allowed to do; but because she was so susceptible to sickness I wasn’t allowed to enter the room.

Instead I had to use an observation room on the other side of where Cass was kept to talk to her. As soon as I got in I pressed myself up against the glass and called her name.” Megan let out a small laugh as she spoke the next few words,

“Her first words when I got in there were ‘can you keep it down, Ash? I’m tryna get some rest in here.’ Even with how sick she was, she was still smiling, and that made me feel better. She told me not to worry, and she was going to be okay. Day after day I’d come visit her; I’d sit in the other room and speak to her, read to her, and laugh with her. We’d also listen to a lot of music I’d play since she wasn’t able to have her own in the room. We always loved music, it was a pivotal part of our lives and we always loved sharing it. She always told me how boring it was in there while I was away. She was a trooper, but I could tell she was in a lot of pain.

As days went by we had less and less time to talk because she had to have higher doses of morphine to compensate for her pain. About a month after she was diagnosed, I got a text from her mom telling me to come to the hospital. My car battery died so I ran the entire five miles from my school to get there. I got stopped by a doctor when I got in the door, and I knew it was the one taking care of Cassie. He put a hand on my shoulder and led me to her room. My chest lifted because I thought she was getting discharged, that I got to go in and see her. But when I got in there she was still hooked up to her IV bags and monitors.” Megan paused for a moment, her watery gaze forcing itself to find its way back to the camera.

“The doctors told me Cassie didn’t respond well to treatment, and her condition got a lot worse. They weren’t bringing me in to help my friend out of the hospital, they brought me there to say goodbye.

“I felt like someone dropped an anvil on my lungs. I went pale, I couldn’t breathe, and I almost fell over. The doctor helped me into her room and into a chair next to Cassie’s bed. ‘Hey Ash, you look like hell’ she said to me, still smiling. She was that kind of girl, able to be a joker even when she knew she was dying. I couldn’t say anything, I just took her hand and she placed both of hers on mine. Her hands were really cold, but at the same time they felt warm to me. I told her I was sorry, sorry that there wasn’t anything I could do but just be there. She said that she couldn’t ask for anything more from me, and that I was the only one that she wanted to spend her last moments with. That made me smile, and I told her I loved her and things would be okay.” Megan exhaled through her nose, a gentle smile on her lips as tears streamed down her face and pattered onto her lap.

“A couple minutes later she flat lined, and doctors had to drag me from the room. I was a sweaty and crying mess of a woman trying to fight off the doctors like they were the ones that killed her, but looking back I knew they did all they could. After that I considered dropping out of school, I wanted to drop everything and just grieve. But I knew Cassie would never let me do that, she wouldn’t want me feeling sorry for her. So instead of cursing the world because I lost my best friend, I wanted to make it better so no one else would have to.

“I went to medical school, got my masters, an internship and some on-the-job practice. Normally it would have taken someone about seven or more years to get theirs but I got mine in about four. Nothing was going to stop me from getting into the field.

“I started researching viruses and other disorders in the body that targeted the immune system, looking for a cure. I was offered a job by N.O.V.A but I didn’t want it, this was my battle to fight, and I wanted to do it myself. I’m glad with what I know now I didn’t take that spot. I was so close to finding a job in the medical field and starting my own research, but then the Fall happened. I was lucky enough to end up in a sanctuary during the first couple days because I was studying natural stimuli for disorders such as fungi and molds and wasn’t near civilization. I wasn’t going to let even the end of the world stop me, so I continued my research.

“I was appointed head of the medical science team at the base I was in and I was able to learn things I never thought I’d have the chance to. I got to save people, fix people, heal people and I knew I found my calling. There was so much more sickness and death in the world than before that we needed as many hands as we could get. So many were out killing in war, and I wanted to fight, too. But I wanted to give life instead of take it.

“Before I knew it, I heard someone came to a camp named Phoenix Nest that had suffered from the Phantom virus and lived. I was sent there to study for a possible cure, little did I know they’d end up becoming one of my best friends.”

Megan wiped her eyes with her sleeve before adjusting her glasses, her hand still firmly holding onto Cell’s as her smile returned, her gaze still set on the camera.

“I got sent here and I met some of the best friends I could ask for. It was ironic because of my name that I was sent here, but I was willing to live with it for the sake of the people I got to meet. I met a girl, about yay high” she held up her other hand just above her head, about the high of Cell. “who had some serious spunk and an attitude that never quit.” Cell chuckled behind the camera, trying to keep the noise down so Megan could speak.

“She introduced me to the man in the mask along with a witty Australian and an adorable technician with not the best people skills and I fell in love with them. They changed my views on combat forever, that wars were fought on all fronts and not just in the Field. They taught me that what I was doing was just as much part of the fight, if not more, because I was fighting the virus itself. I wanted to save people, and save people I did, but in the end they saved me. I’ve treated more illnesses and infections than I can count but above all I’ve been able to keep researching a cure as I saw color come back to the world. This is my dream, and I wouldn’t trade my place in this camp for anything. I know Cassie is up there watching somewhere, cheering my name and saying ‘go get ‘em girl’. No one will ever replace her, but I met people that reminded me what it felt like to smile.”

Megan closed her eyes with a bright smile as she placed both of her hands on Cell’s. “Now that I’m here, I’m going to keep studying and working hard so I can hopefully one day bring an end to this virus and many others. I have had one sickness take my friend, I won’t let this one take another. Decorous is an inspiration to me because he is still fighting even with as sick as he is, but I think he deserves to live too. I won’t rest until the Phantom virus is evicted from his body and the bodies of anyone else that catches it!” Megan exclaimed with a determined smile before her face relaxed into a more humble expression as she said, “I’ll never forget the people that got me this far, and I wanna keep these friends here along with saving the lives of the friends and families of others too so they never have to get that call to the hospital like I did. Because the most beautiful beat in life...” she gestured to her headphones, “...is a heartbeat.”

Megan reached over to her desk, picking up a picture frame and holding it to the camera. It was a picture of a young girl with glasses and blonde hair tied in a ponytail, bangs hanging at the sides of her face, hugging a girl with straight brown hair and lively green eyes. Both of them were holding up diplomas and sporting graduation gowns, laughing together as their picture was taken. She stared at the photo for a moment with a gentle smile still on her face as she held it up to the camera and spoke with a spirited tone,

“My name is Megan Ashlynn Phoenix and I always have been, and always will be, a Phoenix.”

#Character Musings #Character Logs #Background Logs #Megan Phoenix

0 notes

barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

Text

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

Enhanced Customization

Immersive Island Experience

Rewarding Your Gameplay

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

Multi-Device Integration

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

0 notes

barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

Text

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

Enhanced Customization

Immersive Island Experience

Rewarding Your Gameplay

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

Multi-Device Integration

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

0 notes

barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

Text

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

Enhanced Customization

Immersive Island Experience

Rewarding Your Gameplay

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

Multi-Device Integration

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

0 notes

barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

Text

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

Enhanced Customization

Immersive Island Experience

Rewarding Your Gameplay

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

Multi-Device Integration

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

0 notes

barbosaasouza · 5 years ago

Text

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)

As someone who has waited so long for the new installment to Animal Crossing, getting to experience Animal Crossing: New Horizons a minute into its release was all I’ve thought about for months.

Welcome to Your Island Getaway

Enhanced Customization

Immersive Island Experience

Rewarding Your Gameplay

However, that’s also why it’s hard to tell which parts of the game will later have upgrades that change certain aspects of the game I consider “cons”.

Multi-Device Integration

For now, you still have to make your own fun with friends, but the excitement of the new game was enough for us when we played together.

Conclusion

The post Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

0 notes