#and i let my dice roll determine whether or not to accept his offers to spend the night together

[digitalduckie]

I unintentionally have been romancing Astarion in my Durge playthru. Except The Prince is 8'3" and Astarion is canonly 5'9" so that's a whole two and a half foot difference and well...

Perhaps Astarion has bitten off more than he can chew.

ETA: now with color!

[kimsiever]

I attended a worship service at a different church this morning. Southminster United Church here in Lethbridge officially became an affirming ministry, and they had invited OUTreach Southern Alberta Society to attend, so I represented our board as the president.

It was such a lovely service. It was inspiring and comforting and emotional. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I attended a church services as emotional as this one.

Southminster has been very open about their new designation. They have signage both inside and outside in their building. It’s quite obvious. No queer person who shows up to this church will ever need to guess whether they will be welcome there.

I long for the day when a queer person can show up to any LDS building to worship and not have to roll the dice on whether they’ll be accepted, let alone welcomed.

When I came out 4 years ago online, I had to calculate the risk that action carried once it got back to my church leadership. When I decided to come out publicly at church 2.5 years ago, I had to determine whether anyone would try to stop me as I did so or reprimand me afterward. Last year, we got a new bishop, and I had to spend emotional and mental labour on worrying whether his replacement would be as accepting (or more) about my sexual orientation as he had and what that might mean for my participation level in the church. And when our new bishop is replaced, I’ll have to do the same thing once again.

There have been situations over the last 4 years at church where ward members have said hurtful, anti-queer things, and I see those who reach out in support and those who stay silent. I see which of my leaders try to offer support and which ones do not.

For a church that theoretically has at its core the declaration to love our neighbour as ourselves, this should not be the case. Queer Mormons should feel loved when they attend a Mormon church.

So many times, we don’t.

It’s too bad I had to attend a different church to be shown that I, as a queer person, belong.

[oldcoyote]

Hey I know this is kind of random, but do you have any advice on how to handle a PC death in D&D? Our lawful good, absolute angel of a character died tonight, and it feels so much like real grief. Plus my girlfriend is our DM, and she's so upset that things turned out this way because she really had no choice in the moment. There's a very small chance we'll be able to ressurect her, but it's very unlikely :( I'm just so sad, and I love her so much :'( :'(

i am so sorry for your loss! it’s so hard, and i think people who don’t play may not understand that when you immerse yourself in these characters, it can feel so real to lose someone like that. it can genuinely hurt so much, and your body doesn’t know that it’s any different from losing a real person - you feel grief either way.

i want to preface by saying i don’t have experience in this field, as i haven’t had a player death in my game yet. which may seem odd for having played for three years, but not if you’d met my team. they are incredibly careful and tend to err on the side of extreme preparation/caution in every situation, avoid being impulsive, and have a very determined cleric with Revivify - who also has a homebrew item (Amulet of the Medic) that doubles her speed for a round provided the next act she takes is a healing spell, effectively turning her into a little paramedic. because of those things, and having had no encounters where the dice rolls were outright disastrous (which does happen, even to the best of us), they’ve been quite fortunate.

that said, i have thought about it a LOT, because you never know when it’s going to happen. sometimes, despite the best of intentions, despite the best laid plans, even if they do everything right - the dice aren’t on their side. as the DM you have to do what you have to do, and that means following through on what the monster would do. 

now, i talked to my party before we started about death and about what would make the game most fun for them in terms of it. i don’t know if your DM did this with you guys or what the feeling is at your table but it varies from group to group. some feel that deaths need to be permanent so the game feels real and has genuine risk. some feel that death ruins the game completely as it stops being fun anymore. how to process and cope with the loss will depend on what your party feels and what your DM decides to do if the res doesn’t work out, if that makes sense?

personally, i agree with what i call the Mercer principle - that outside of Revivify the spells used to resurrect players remove any element of actual risk in the game. having Raise Dead, Resurrection and True Resurrection just, bam, wake up the dead individual with little or no actual cost is too easy and removes any gravity from the game. should any my players make it to that point, i’ll be using his rules for a resurrection ritual - which relies on the party’s RP offerings to lower the DC of a final roll that determines whether or not that character revives.

some of my party have outright said that they will not accept death, that they will pursue into any realm necessary the soul of their lost party member to get them back. i have a contingency for this situation as well, whereby the deceased party member player would come up with a new (possibly temporary) PC and given a page of what that character knows, and they would take the rest of the party on a quest to fight hard to regain their lost member. it carries on the story while letting the players process their grief and actively do something about it, lets the player who lost their character adjust to playing someone else and be partly settled into their new character should the quest fail, and it eases the grief a little to have that player still at the table and working with the team despite the character being gone. this may work for you guys as well, if your DM is on board, but your party may agree that it would feel too much like drawing it out/more painful. it differs from group to group, and you need to do what best serves you as a team.

i’m not sure what your DM has planned for you, it could be that the line ends here. it could be that she has a backup plan. either way, the best thing i can suggest is to remember and let this affect your character, change your character. feed your RP. let them grow, and learn, maybe take an element or two from this character they loved deeply. that’s what death should do, to me, in life and in rpg. it should teach us not to wait to be more like the best parts of the people we loved and lost, the people who inspired us.

[theropegeek]

Ok hi again. What would certify me that they wouldn't see any satisfaction in knowing I've been sexually abused? They find rape funny or hot when in play scenarios and they accept to play such scenarios, so why would their logic be magically different when it comes to actual assault, and abused people? Also 50% of humanity is… super depressing. If that means that when I meet someone, there's 50% chances they're into rape stuff… I think this world is getting way too scary for me.

for comparison, let's think about a pretty common fantasy:  teacher/student.her (on her knees in front of me wearing a schoolgirl outfit):  but professor if i don't get an A i'll lose my scholarship!  i'll do *anything* me:  well, i have an idea.... her:  ***opens mouth***me:  😉i like to think we can all agree that's reasonably hot--or at least, fairly harmless.unfortunately, the reality of that situation is actually pretty fucked up.imagine a beautiful young woman born in an economically depressed West Virginia mining town who spends her youth dreaming of Escape.  her family is poor, but she works hard and manages to make it to college on a scholarship.but then there's a class where she finds the work overwhelming, and eventually she gets a poor grade that threatens her entire future. faced with the prospect of admitting failure and letting her dreams die, she goes to her professor and begs for leniency on a grade. he creepily offers to do so--in exchange for oral sex.  he's old and ugly and sort of smells  like stale potato chips, but she sees no other way out, and in an act of desperation, she does it.  the whole incident is traumatizing for her.  afterwards, he winks at her in class, and she can barely surpress the urge to vomit.  she develops ptsd and starts having nightmares.  that's much more realistic, but i feel pretty confident in stating that virtually nobody with a teacher/student fantasy is wacking off to scenario #2, and likewise, pretty much none of the 50% of people who have rape fantasies are getting off on the idea of what happens to actual victims of assault.the beauty of fantasy is that we're free to imagine a romanticized, wholly unrealistic version of things that can be almost  unspeakably awful. whether you're picturing a boss and secretary, babysitter and dad, cops and robbers, or *whatever,* most of our fantasies involve sexualizing certain elements of a fucked up power dynamic. for some people it can go all the way up to fantasies of kidnapping, assault and rape, and the medical science available suggests that's both healthy and (relatively) common.  when acted out safely among consenting adults who share trust, they have the potential to strengthen both those relationships and the people in them.there's literally no connection to the horrifying realities of situations that Actually Happen. my willingness to indulge in a fantasy-version of a scenario doesn't mean i condone real-life abuse, nor lessens my sympathy for real-world survivors.i'd go further and suggest that virtually *nobody* would find what happened to you sexy or humorous.  If they do, it's because they either lack the ability to grasp the horrifying reality of what you lived through and they're imagining some sort of romanticized version of it, or else they're a fucking sociopath with no empathy at all.as far as "certifying" whether a given person is a full-blown sociopath--sorry, can't help ya. recent events in my life suggest that i'm actually *worse* than average at determining  whether those i love are lying about really fundamental shit.  i'm pretty sure the only option is to attempt an educated guess and then roll the dice on certain people.  and lastly:  i'm so fucking sorry that happened to you.  =(hang in there. 

[seoulsborne123]

Haunted Houses and Ghosts

Shortly after Yasuhara takes the picture… PK ‘splosion. Chill, Naru. 

Haunted Houses and Ghosts

Rating: General

Category: Parody/Humor

Words: 5954 (Oneshot)

Background Info:

A fic featuring the gang playing DnD (GH style) to parody themselves, but it isn’t crack. It’s part of my post-canon fic collection that begins 3 weeks after the events from Akumu no Sumu Ie, mainly exploring Naru’s growth as he settles in to his place with the JSPR bunch. This particular piece is set about three years after. By this point MaiRu is a thing and Naru is continuing his studies in England and comes back to visit Japan whenever he gets a break.

This was previously posted on FF.net, but I’ve made some heavy edits to it and will re-upload there when I can. For now you can read below the cut, or head on to AO3, if interested.

September 08. 9:30 pm

"The sun had set three hours ago. The equipment are finally all set up and the entire group is at base, planning the next course of action, when suddenly the entire school building experiences a black out. Thanks to the back-up generators, all the equipment are unaffected so that the small monitors end up as being the only source of light, casting off a soft bluish hue. There's something strange in the air, and all of you, to different degrees, feel that something is not right. A strange sound comes from the hallway. It's faint, but it sounds a lot like a child's laughter. All of you know that the entire school is deserted—no one else should be on campus tonight but yourselves."

Yasuhara looked up and scanned everyone's faces before finally landing his gaze on the blonde priest to his left. "Okay as the leader of this group, what would you like to do, Naru?"

"Uh-uhm... I think... I would like all of us to head outside in the hallway to check for the source of the sound. Is that okay?"

"You are the boss. If the rest of the group agrees, then you may do as you please."

John nodded. "Okay, then I look at the others and wordlessly go out the door, knowing that they will follow."

"You're good at this," Bou-san murmured in awe, making John turn a slight pink as he chuckled sheepishly to hide his embarrassment.

Yasuhara continued. "Naru is the first one out of the door, followed soon by everyone on his heels. It's pitch dark, but everyone attempts to scan the immediate vicinity anyway, though as expected, find nothing in sight. Just as soon as everyone thought everything's clear, the laughter rings out again. A little more distant this time."

"It's moving. We should follow the source, right? It sounds like it's trying to lead us somewhere," Mai interjected and looked around to gauge everyone's reaction.

"I think Jou-chan is right."

"Then, should we follow it?" When most of his team grunted in agreement, John nodded and solidified his decision. "Okay, then I tell the others, 'We'll follow and investigate the sound, but since we have no idea whether it's paranormal or not, it's better for everyone to stay together for safety.'"

"Wait, is my weird animal instinct thing going off?" Ayako asked.

Mai huffed angrily. "Ayako! It's not ‘animal instinct’! It's my intuition!"

Ayako shrugged carelessly and turned her attention to Yasuhara. "My intuition should be telling me something by now, right?"

"Indeed. Your skill is enough to detect that something isn't right, but you don't know why. You feel uneasy."

"That's useless. I need to know more information. I want to know if we should follow this sound, or what?"

Yasuhara picked up a card from his stack of notes and scanned a few lines before replying, "Alright, let's have you roll for it." He handed Ayako the dice and waited for its results. "A seven... hm. You feel that little voice inside you saying something, but for some reason it's speaking in Swahili so you can't understand a thing."

Mai scrunched up her face and blurted in astonishment, "What the heck? That's not how that works."

Yasuhara ignored her. "Anyway as usual, Mai will need Gene to spell everything out for her." Mai lightly kicked him under the table, making him yelp out in surprise but he persisted on, "Well, sorry but sadly Mai's insight skills are not enough to determine the truth at the moment."

"What score did you give my insight skill? Why did you get to create the character sheets on your own anyway, and why are you the only one allowed to see it?"

"Sorry Mai. I am trying to be as realistic as possible so I rated all your skills as objectively as I could, but I'd really rather not show you all the breakdown in fear of a backlash. Just roll with what I say, I think it's pretty fair. Besides," the young man continued flippantly, "in this case, even if your instinct did tell you to not follow, wouldn't you just write it off and think you're just being paranoid, anyway? You are a very curious kitten, after all."

Ayako laughed. "That is exactly true. Alright, then as Mai, I decide to keep my bad feeling to myself even though it most likely would have been a good idea for the entire group to know."

"Okay, Mai keeps her mouth shut and everyone decides to follow the sound. It seems to be getting louder so you know you're approaching whatever it could be, but then suddenly, all noises stop. The air stills and feels clammy, and the darkness seem to be creeping in closer, sending goosebumps on everyone's skin. Panic sets in. There is still nothing in sight."

"Does Hara-san detect anything? Oh," John caught himself and eyed the boy sitting across the table before continuing, "I turn to Hara-san and ask, 'Do you sense anything, Hara-san?'"

The boy he addressed only looked at him, but did not say a word.

"Come on, Naru-bou, say something!"

Beside him, Mai offered him an infuriatingly reassuring look and Naru felt a tick of annoyance twitching in the back of his head. How could he have been so idiotic to have allowed himself to be roped into playing some god-damned role playing game with these morons again?

-00-Earlier-00-

September 08. 9:00 am

Although he originally should have had about three more weeks in Japan until he had to leave again for England, Naru found himself frequently mentally checking off a list of things he needed to pack. It had been quite hectic the past two days, to say the least.

Martin had phoned him three days ago, letting him know that BSPR recently accepted an extremely rare case of a twelve-year-old girl exhibiting legitimate PK-ST tendencies, and mentioned that his expertise would be greatly appreciated. Naru momentarily struggled to make a decision whether to accept or not, but it was entirely short lived. It only took him the span of taking a breath before he answered, "Give me three days to sort out my things. I'll take the earliest flight out."

It was the day before his flight and he decided to go to the office to look through his notes one final time to make sure he didn't overlook anything, when the door suddenly opened and Yasuhara's energetic voice greeted him a cheery morning. He barely managed to grunt a response.

Yasuhara set his bag down at his desk and noticed the absence of the keyboard clacking from Lin's office and asked, "Is Lin-san not in today?"

"He'll come in later."

"Oh how fortuitous. I was going to ask you something about him in secret." When Naru did not give any form of response, the boy continued, "Has he always been the girly type?"

Naru raised his eyes to look at him.

"I mean does he enjoy dolls, or anything of that sort? Or wait, you know what, I'm stupid. Maybe he has a daughter. Or a niece?"

"What are you talking about?"

Finally getting what he had been fishing for, Yasuhara beamed and left his desk, inviting himself over and relaxing into the sofa across from his boss. "Yesterday I thought I saw him shopping around for a stuffed toy, contemplating between a neon pink or electric blue teddy bear." Seeing his boss' attention immediately shut off, he added, "But I think he decided to go with the typical brown type. The clothes looked kind of ugly though, to be honest. But you know, I really couldn't tell if it was him. I don't often look at his figure from the back, I'm more of a Takigawa Hoshou appraiser--" For a second, Yasuhara feared Naru would walk away, but his boss merely readjusted his position. Even so, he hastily changed the subject.

"Anyway are you all set for your flight tomorrow? You're suddenly leaving on such a short notice. It’s a shame Mori-san isn't able to come immediately to take your place. And we had just scheduled a case for next week, too. So with both the heads gone, Lin-san has to stay behind a bit this time and take care of business first until Mori-san can come take over, right?" An idea suddenly clicked in his head and his eyes widened in excitement. "Ah! Do you think Lin-san wanted to make sure you had a companion for your flight out? Now it makes sense! He probably figured you could put the teddy bear on the seat beside you on the plane so you wouldn't have to sit next to some random person. Plus it would be like he was with you in spirit."

Naru finally closed his book in exasperation, stood up, and started making his way toward his office, yet despite this, Yasuhara chuckled in amusement and crooned, "That Lin-san, always the thoughtful, practical joker. That is so him."

"Yasuhara-san. Tea."

"Oh, roger!"

Naru silently closed the door behind him with a sigh and rubbed his temples. It was too early for this...

He slumped down into his seat and rummaged through his drawers, pausing when a sharp piece of cardstock poked him. He pulled it out and spread it apart: two tickets to Tokyo Disneyland. On the left-hand-side of the ticket, the date 19xx.09.19 was in bold letters. And she had been looking so forward to it, too...

He sighed and put the tickets face down on his desk.

A few minutes later Yasuhara knocked softly and asked permission to enter his office. He looked up and watched as the boy approached, nodding his silent thanks as the Yasuhara bent over to set the cups down on his desk.

"Need any help packing?"

"No, thank you," he answered curtly.

"They must really need you there, huh? Professor Davis wouldn't have called you up to disturb your already short vacation otherwise, right?"

Naru took his cup and sipped its contents, softly drumming his fingers on the table. "Yes, and he correctly guessed I would have wanted to take part in this excellent research opportunity."

Yasuhara laughed weakly. "Yes, of course." When he noticed his boss pause for a moment, absentmindedly curling and uncurling his fist without realizing what he was doing, he decided to take a seat. "What's the matter?"

Naru blinked and looked at him. He set the cup back down and picked up the tickets on his table. "You may have these tickets. I have no need for them anymore."

"Whoa, two tickets to Tokyo Disneyland? Oh I see, it's for two weeks from now. So what was supposed to be the occasion?"

"Nothing important."

"You're just giving it to me? I can pay you, at least. I'll take it for a discount."

Naru shrugged.

"Who do you want me to give the second ticket to?"

"Whoever you go with is none of my concern."

Yasuhara smiled. "If you want me to take Mai, just say so. She'll be feeling down for a while because of you suddenly leaving, but Disneyland should cheer her up a bit. She's been wanting to go for years. Although are you sure about that? I can be quite hands-y, you know."

"I don't care who you go with," he reiterated irritably.

"Well alright if you say so," Yasuhara chirped. "This ticket is an excellent bribe to get myself a date. I'll just pocket these and buy Mai some ice cream then, or something. She's pretty easy to placate anyway."

Naru stared at him hard, but was unable to say a word. Sensing his victory, Yasuhara relented. "Alright, alright, since you ask me so nicely. I'll consider taking Mai with me, but on one condition."

"Yasuhara-san—"

"—We play a bet."

"Yasuhara-san."

"Come on, Naru-bou, it's been awhile since you've played a bet against me. I still remember the last time [1] like it was yesterday. Wasn't it exhilarating? Not knowing whether you were going to win or lose?"

"No."

"Alright, then I think I'll ask Priscilla-chan if she’d like to go. Priscilla-chan is this girl at the place I intern at. You know the type: hard to please, just like yourself, but this ticket might do."

Naru breathed out in annoyance and muttered, "Fine, let's hear it."

Yasuhara nodded. "So Lin-san and that bear. What do you think? I believe I saw Lin-san buy that teddy bear for you so you can have a travel companion and I bet you'll be receiving it sometime before you leave for tomorrow."

"Are you aware how ridiculous that sounds?"

"No, I think Lin-san is hilarious. He'll be just the person to play that prank. So what do you say?"

Naru knew to be cautious. He's had the misfortune to fall into Yasuhara's trap in the past, forcing him to take a bet that ended up with him playing some sort of ridiculous game. No doubt he had similar plans now. The boy wasn't one to make bets without knowing something to his advantage.

He sat back and contemplated the scenario. The fact that Yasuhara saw Lin purchasing a teddy bear must be true; the act itself wasn't in the realm of impossibilities. The only question to consider is in regards to his intentions. Lin would obviously never consider ever buying him a parting gift, let alone a ridiculous teddy bear, especially since they were going to end up seeing each other again in a few weeks. Therefore the only explanation is that Lin was purchasing it as a gift for someone else. Slightly more likely: it could really be meant for him, but Lin wasn't buying it on his own volition. Somebody must have coaxed a favor out of him so he was purchasing it in lieu of someone else. Either way, Yasuhara's claims would be wrong. He frowned. Was that it? Could Yasuhara be thinking that he could win just because Lin was the one who technically purchased it? If so, he was barking up the wrong tree. Naru inwardly smirked.

Or… did their top investigator have something up his sleeve? He became uncertain again. Either way, he couldn’t say he wasn’t curious…

"Fine," he said eventually.

"If I'm wrong, then I'll take Mai on a fun date for you, but honestly I think she's looking forward to going with you. Anyway if I'm right, then I take Mai anyway because I'm not heartless."

"Then what is the point of me accepting your bet, Yasuhara-san?"

"If you hadn't accepted it, I wouldn't have agreed to take her at all. It isn't right for me to take someone else's girlfriend on a romantic date, you know. But since we're cool, I'll take your feelings into consideration and make it a friendly date."

"Fine."

"Wait, I wasn't done yet. My other condition is: if I'm right, then you—"

"'—Owe me', yes I'm aware that's what you're after."

"Oh good, we understand each other then."

Naru finished up the last of his tea. Last time he had lost their bet only because Mai was a weakness he somehow found hard to resist. This time, perhaps he could trust Lin. He reiterated, "Good."

September 08. 1:00pm

Naru entered his office and froze. On top of his desk was a brown teddy bear wearing an ugly tie-dye shirt and faded jean overalls. Behind him he heard Lin exit from the restroom.

"Lin," he called out, making the taller man pause in his tracks, and unfortunately, catching the attention of a certain cheeky part-timer as well. "What is this." Both Lin and Yasuhara made their way toward him.

"That is a present, for you."

"Oh?" Yasuhara grinned and threw a conspiratorial wink towards their boss. "Well, well, how unexpected. Who bought it?"

"I bought it.”

“Ohhhh?” Yasuhara’s voice raised an octave, while Naru resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Lin stared at the two in slight confusion, but continued anyway, “Yes, although I paid with Taniyama-san's money. It is her parting gift to you, Noll. She was unable to purchase it herself as the news of your departure was too sudden and she's been busy with university, so she asked me for a favor. Is there a problem?"

Naru sighed. "Why a teddy bear?"

"As your travel companion. She had joked you can put it on the seat beside you so that you would not have to sit with strangers."

Yasuhara roared in laughter. "Ah, that's right! My mistake. Mai is the thoughtful practical joker, not Lin-san. Silly me."

Naru crossed his arms. "Laugh all you want, Yasuhara-san, but technically I won our bet."

The boy stopped mid breath. "How so?"

"Lin may have physically bought it, but he didn't do so with his own money. Gifts, as I'm told, are all about feeling and intention. And since the present wasn't from him personally, I argue the bet is null."

"Hm, I'll be glad to report to Mori-san that you're taking her lessons to heart. At any rate, you are right. Mai technically bought it for you. But still, I'm afraid you didn't win, boss."

Naru frowned.

"Recall what I said exactly. I admit I may have been technically wrong when I told you Lin-san bought that teddy bear for you, but I said that I bet you'll be receiving it sometime before you leave for tomorrow. And that teddy bear is on your desk exactly sometime before you leave for tomorrow. Wording, Naru-bou."

Naru bit the inside of his cheek and cursed before slamming his office door on their faces.

-00- Back to current time -00-

September 08. 10:00 pm

With a heavy sigh, Naru finally relented and asked in reply, "Is Hara-san's intuition high enough to detect if it's a spirit and understand what it wants?"

Once again Yasuhara checked his cards. "By this point in the story, it could be. Roll a d20 and we'll see."

Naru leaned over the table to grab the twenty-sided die Yasuhara held out for him. He shook it lightly in his hand and let it roll on the table. "Is it enough?"

"Hm, not quite, even with the addition of your skill modifier... You detect something but can't see it fully. It's kind of hazy to you, but at least you know for sure you're dealing with some kind of spirit. It certainly looks like a child, but you feel something is off, like it's tricking you. You feel animosity coming from it."

"Is there just one spirit?"

"One presence you could feel strongly, but there are many others. You just don't know how many, exactly."

Ayako clicked her tongue. "What's up with our useless psychics?"

"Pretty realistic to me," Bou-san offered.

"Hey! And Ayako, I don't think you have any right to be complaining about anyone else being useless when you yourself have countless times-"

"Shut it, Mai."

Yasuhara simply laughed and returned his attention back to his boss. "Okay, now that we've done the game mechanics aspect, you have to let the whole team know what just happened. You need to act it out. How would Hara-san explain to the others?"

Naru stared frostily at the young man, but Yasuhara seemed entirely unaffected and returned the stare evenly with his carefree, asinine grin. A few seconds ticked by. Yasuhara merely folded his hands and re-adjusted his glasses patiently until Naru sighed in annoyance. "I teeter as I walk up to Naru and foolishly, and quite dramatically, attempt to fall into his arms."

This elicited several muted snickers in the room, while Masako looked slightly offended.

"Ah, I catch her carefully and hold on to her, asking if she's alright," John, the ever kind and helpful priest, quickly interjected in fear of the make-believe Hara falling flat on her face.

The real Naru paled as the snickers turned into full blown guffaws, with Bou-san crying out between breaths, "Wow. How unbelievably chivalrous of Naru-chan!"

Immediately John realized his mistake and sent Naru an apologetic smile, but the boy made no show of acknowledging the gesture.

However, Naru figured if he was going to be playing along with this ridiculous farce anyway, then he might as well do it as realistically as possible. He recited blandly, "I mumble quietly to the sleeve of my kimono, 'There are countless spirits manifesting here. Their pain and anguish is making everything appear distorted, but there is one presence among them that stands out. I cannot tell who it is. It appears as a child, but it is unmistakably dangerous and cannot be trusted.'"

Yasuhara clapped. "Nice, nice! That sounds precisely like Hara-san, indeed! Alright, soon after Hara-san informed the group, loud banging sounds thunder along the entire hallway, progressively getting louder and louder, and even more aggressive. It seems as if all the doors in the entire school are repeatedly being opened and then closed shut and—"

"—Nau maku san manda bazaradan kan!"

"Wait,” Yasuhara hastily reached out, cupped Mai’s hands on his own and set it back down beside her, “okay Mai, you don't actually have to do the hand gestures, you know? Let’s be careful here. And I'm assuming you want to use your Mantra skill? You are aware that spell can only be used twice per day, right?"

Mai frowned in serious contemplation. "That's what Bou-san would do, so yes, let's do it. I can regain the spell back once the morning comes, right?"

Yasuhara nodded. "Alright, always with his quick-thinking, Bou-san recites his Mantra and with such conviction that all sounds suddenly stop once again—" in the background, Mai squealed in awe at how powerful she was, "—The air clears first, then the lights go back on. The heavy feeling has disappeared as the spirits seem to have gone away for now. It seems nothing further will be happening for the night. What's your plan?"

"First I thank Takigawa-san, then I tell the others, 'Let's all head back to base and consider our next move.'"

"Is everyone okay with that? Okay, so the entire party makes their way back to base. Everything appears as it was before you left. What do you want to do next?"

Masako sighed, aware that she hasn't said much for the entire night and tentatively offered, "I... wordlessly go back to the monitors and review the recent footage for any clues."

"As expected of our Lin-san," Bou-san chuckled to himself. After thinking for a few seconds, he suggested, "I think we should go over the case file again and see if we can gather some clue from it, right? Where's Shounen in this? Maybe he's got new information for us."

"Yasuhara had to skip the case because he'd just been recently promoted and was working admirably at his new law firm agency for the whole day."

"You're still an intern, Shounen. Interns don't get promoted."

"Well in this timeline Osamu is no longer just an intern. He had long graduated university and is now a working young adult. And right after his work, he went to meet up with his gorgeous girlfriend for a romantic dinner. Maybe he'll finally work up the courage to propose. You can attempt to call him now and see if he'd pick up his phone."

Mai muttered under her breath, "Someone has grand dreams."

"Alright, it's a good idea to try and contact him, then. I stand up, open up my black notebook, and begin summarizing my case notes for the entire group," John announced as he also picked up a piece of paper in front of him full with his own neat handwriting. Earlier, Yasuhara had provided everyone with a blank sheet of paper and a pen so that they can jot down anything they think might be helpful in solving the make-believe case. Everyone, except Naru and Lin, appeared to have taken meticulous notes (although the latter had a blank piece of paper only because he had his laptop with him).

John continued, "'The client is Yashima Akifuki-san, principal of Rokuroku High. He claims the entire school grounds is cursed and even brought in the latest victim with him, a young student named Tachibaki Ana-san. She disappeared for two days and was later found unresponsive by the school entrance. Some witnesses claim they saw her walking away with a strange man, but she doesn't remember much of what happened. When she came to, she was found to have no sign of any mental or physical injury, except for the appearance of an intense rash encircling...'" Here John sighed. "An intense rash encircling her entire head? Yasuhara-san, I'm still not clear on its meaning. Do you mean to say her face is entirely covered in rash?"

"No, just the top of her head."

"Oh, does Tachibaki-san not have hair?"

"Of course she does! Think of it like a hippie-headband. Do you know what I'm saying? It's a band around her forehead, but it encircles the entire top head. Is it clearer now?"

John was still unconvinced but let the matter rest. "So a rash encircling her head, and Yashima-san claims it looks like some kind of bloody wound, but gives Tachibaki-san no pain or itching. Aside from what happened with Tachibaki-san, previous activities reported were mild compared to what we experienced today. Yashima-san said that other students have reported seeing shadowy figures in the old school building, hearing disembodied voices during class, had small fires start in the locker rooms, had all furniture in the teachers' lounge get suddenly rearranged at an angle, and had volleyballs get scattered in the gym after hours after being put away. Does anyone have anything else to add?"

Bou-san rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Something isn't sitting right with me."

To everyone's surprise, Naru suddenly let out a long, aggravated sigh. They waited for him to elaborate, but after a few seconds he simply sunk back into his seat and crossed his arms without any further explanation.

"Okay... Can my intuition thing go off again? I want to use it."

Yasuhara blinked. "Oh, uhh of course you may make use of your abilities. What exactly are you suspecting, Matsuzaki-san?"

"Everything."

"You're going to have to be more specific than that."

"Him, Yashima-san, and her, Tachibaki-san. And the school. I don't know, anything. There has to be something suspicious, Hoshou is right. Something feels off and Naru is acting weird."

"Okay... roll, please."

Ayako did as she was told. "18. Plus I have that modifier so that's 20."

The dungeon master pursed his lips in thought. "Okay, Mai feels her stomach squirm. Something wasn't right, she thought. She squinted her eyes and carefully studied her beautiful, raven-haired boyfriend speaking before her for a couple of minutes until suddenly, the answer hit her. Naru's fly was undone."

The group fell over in shock and collectively groaned but it was Ayako who shouted, "I scored a 20! Surely there's something much more important than that piece of information?!"

John, completely immersed in his character, blushed deeply despite himself and cried, "Goodness, forgive me! I immediately notice so I turn around and discretely zip it up."

"Okay, let me just speak out of character here for a second and explain: there wasn't supposed to be anything suspicious by what had been said so far."

"No, but there's something definitely off--"

Yasuhara cut her off. "--Do you mean in-game, or in reality? I think you're getting confused here, Matsuzaki-san. Your intuition ability only works in-game, not in real life, so even if you yourself feel something is off, rolling a dice won't help you figure it out, you know."

"You little--"

"--Alright, let's just call Yasuhara-shounen. It seems he might have more information for us," Bou-san interjected neutrally.

"I take out my phone and use my speed dial. Ring, ring, ring! Hello, Shounen?"

Yasuhara smiled at Mai and played along. "Hello, Hoshou-kun. Have you missed me?"

"Of course! I've been so lonely without you, Osamu-kun. Don't tell Ayako."

Bou-san paled and reached over to pinch Mai's cheeks. "Jou-chan," he growled, "can you not make me out to be a creep?"

"Sorry, sorry. Alright, I put the phone on speaker so everyone can hear and I say, 'Yasuhara-shounen, were you able to gather more information about the Yashima case? We're hitting a dead end here.'"

"'Yes. I dug more records on the school property and found some interesting history behind it. Rokuroku High used to be an elementary school, but there was a serious accident that occurred fifty years ago involving an entire class of students that forced them to close it down for a year. During a field trip, the bus carrying an entire class full of fourth graders, as well as their beloved homeroom teacher, swerved off the road and fell down a cliff, then blew up before the wreckage even hit the water. None of the bodies were ever recovered.'"

Everyone covered their mouth in horror and began exclaiming:

"That's horrible!"

"Those poor children..."

"Oh dear, it must have been awful for those parents..."

Naru, seemingly the only sane one in the group, pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered silently, "It's only a game."

"Then this is clearly the work of earth-bound spirits."

At hearing this sentence so suddenly, everyone stopped to turn their heads and gaped.

Lin stared back at them unflinchingly. "What is it? It makes sense. Hara-san said earlier that there were more than one spirit, and judging by what we heard, it sounded like children. The powerful presence could be the teacher. Perhaps all of them are unable to accept their sudden, violent death."

"Wow, even Lin is getting in character. You should slam the table too, for more realism."

A tiny smile formed on Lin's lips and he gave Takigawa a slight bow, while Ayako proceeded smack her boyfriend on the back of his head.

"You should try harder too, Bou-san. Your character hasn't said a word yet," Yasuhara admonished.

"Well John isn't usually very talkative anyway. I'm just waiting to see when Naru will need me to perform some exorcism. John, you don't need to be so modest about wanting to use yourself, you know."

"Thank you, Takigawa-san, but it isn't like that. I just haven't found the need for my skills yet. At any rate, I say out loud, 'Yasuhara-san, did all the problems start occurring after this event?'"

"'Not immediately. After the school closed down, they decided to wipe their slate and turn it into a high school. Construction happened in the span of two years. There were no incidents reported during that time, and even another year into the new school's opening. It wasn't until a janitor found a thin, dirty old log washed up on the bank of the lake--"

Bou-san cut-in. "Wait, the school has a lake?"

"Yes, in the back. An underground sewer is also nearby, if you're curious. Anyway a thin, dirty old log washed up on its bank. The janitor, aware of the history of the place, believed it to be an image of the binbougami and therefore deified it in hopes that it will turn into fukunokami and grant him, and the school, good luck. However instead, a string of bad luck started occurring in the school grounds.'"

Mai raised her hand. "Okay so obviously that makeshift idol is the source of all this. Can I attempt to exorcise it? I want to use my weapon and powers."

"My vajra and the nine cuts isn't something to fool around with, Mai..."

"'Furthermore, ten years ago there was a student who caused mass panic, claiming to have telekinesis. Sekiguchi Momoaki, a third year student, was called on to do a demonstration and actually levitated a piece of chocolate in front of the school assembly.'"

Ayako scoffed. "Couldn't he have chosen a more impressive item than a sorry piece of chocolate? Why not make it at least an entire chocolate bar, for crying out loud."

Curious, Masako asked, "What type of person was this Sekiguchi-san?"

"Lin-san wouldn't ask that."

"I'm not asking as Lin-san," the medium retorted angrily. "I'm asking for myself. Or if it matters to you so much, then Naru will ask as Masako on my behalf."

"Only if Naru-bou is alright with you putting words into his character's mouth."

Naru shrugged and waved his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter to me."

"Okay. 'Sekiguchi-san was a strange kid. As an introvert and a social outcast, he didn't have many friends except for his physics teacher and the teddy bear he constantly carried around with him.'"

Ayako laughed and scoffed again, "No wonder the kid doesn't have many friends. Who levitates a piece of chocolate to show off and has a doll as a friend, let alone decides to carry it around school with him?"

This time, Masako sighed and pushed her notes away in disdain before folding her hands on the table. Takigawa was beginning to fidget as well.

"This teddy bear. It has a name?" he asked.

"Why yes. Are you asking?"

"Fine, as John I ask out loud, 'What is the name of Sekiguchi-san's teddy bear?'"

"'The bear? His name is Winnie.'"

At hearing this, John smiled, while Bou-san finally stood up and began laughing uncontrollably, much to the confusion of Ayako and Mai.

"What? What's so funny?" Mai asked. She and Ayako shared an uncertain glance.

"Jou-chan, don't all the events remind you of something we've all experienced in the past? They're just all jumbled up into one giant mess of a case," Takigawa answered between fits of laughter. He first turned to the young man and gave him a thumbs up, then turned to Lin and Naru. "Lin, when did you figure it out?"

"Not too long after Naru sighed. I did not suspect anything prior to that."

Mai frowned. "Huh. Then when you made that comment about earth-bound spirits, you already knew? How come you didn't tell us anything, Lin-san?"

"I did not think Matsuzaki-san would have realized the truth, so as her, I feigned ignorance."

A small tick formed on Ayako's forehead as she angrily growled, "I feel like that was a very thinly veiled insult, Lin."

"I've been having that strange feeling I couldn't place, but I didn't realize what it was until Masako-chan made that face. I got too invested in the game to realize it completely. The names are very clever."

"Why thank you--"

"--Now if you're all done, go home." Naru cut in, standing up from his seat and glaring at everyone equally.

"My goodness, it's already thirty minutes past midnight! That game went on far longer than I intended. Sorry Naru-bou, will you be okay for your flight tomorrow? Your flight is in four and a half hours!"

Mai shot up as well and covered her mouth. "Oh no, no, no. There's no way I'll get up on time to see you off if I go to sleep now!"

"Well we're already up and awake anyway and already all together. Since we were all planning on seeing him off later, how about we just continue playing until it's time for Naru-san to leave?" John suggested.

The rest of the group cried out in agreement, much to Naru's annoyance. Although mildly irritated, Naru had to admit he wasn't in the least bit sleepy. Forcing himself to sleep now would only make things worse later. And so despite his urge to seek some peace and quiet, he found himself settling back into his seat between Lin and Mai, silently committing everyone's faces and voices to memory until the next time he'd meet them all again in three months’ time.

---FIN---

[ryanmeft]

Every Classic Mega Man Weapon Ranked, Part 4

And here it is. Mega Man 11 has just been announced, like most of us probably hoped, and it marries the past and the future, with classic gameplay and modern visuals. We've already seen one of the new weapons, which appears to drop an avalanche on enemy's heads, so it seems Capcom isn't messing around when it comes to creating cool weapons. Let's finish up our countdown with the top 18, and therefore, of course, the top 10 Mega Man weapons of all time. All previous parts of the list can be found here: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168077242247/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-1 http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168128282172/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-2 http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168173192902/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-3

18. Drill Bomb (MM4) In almost any other game on the planet, once you got a flying drill that explodes you would never use anything else. You would use that shit on goombas. In Mega Man, it's just pretty cool. Really, that should tell you something about how crazy Mega Man gets. 17. Homing Sniper (MM8) The best homing weapon, because you could charge up and unleash lots of them at once, making Mega Man basically a ballistic weapons system.

16. Rain Flush (MM4) Somewhere in Mega Man's time, there's a very concerned scholar submitting a report on the dangers of giving a robot boy a weapon that can create an instant acid rainstorm. And he's not wrong. Putting aside the potential for catastrophic, widespread environmental destruction, changing the weather in order to clear out some sentry robots is less "a weapon" and more "an act of God".

15. Tornado Blow (MM9) Functionally, these weapons are all basically the same thing: expensive, screen-filling attacks that wipe out all small enemies. They're like, well, remember in old games where you'd very rarely get a pick up that just cleared the whole screen? That, but reusable. The fact that this one was finally a wind weapon with some power to it earns a lot of bonus points.

14. Commando Bomb (MM10) Like all guided weapons, it was a little hard to aim where you wanted, but man, it's still a missile you can steer. The targeting being a little finicky seems like nitpicking.

13. Tornado Hold (MM8) For being easily the least impressive of the classic series, Mega Man 8 has some seriously bad ass weapons. This one is a trap that generates a tornado. It's fun, if you're a psychopath, to drop it under an enemy and imagine they are thinking "That didn't do muuuuuu holy shit it is a tornado right up my ying yang!"

12. Water Shield (MM10) Dr. Wily finally perfected his shield technology in Mega Man 7, and henceforth they were some of the best weapons you could get. Like leaves, flowers and skulls, I'm still a little iffy on how droplets of water could stop bullets and robots, but we've long since accepted that the rules of physics are a bit different in Mega Man's universe.

11. Junk Shield (MM7) I really do think Capcom enjoys making shields out of the least appropriate materials they can think of. Junk, depending on the specific type of junk, could actually be effective, though. I mean...if your other choice is water. Anyway, this is where Capcom finally got shields right. It didn't disappear if farted on, it didn't fly away if you moved, and you could hurl it off at will. Sure, it still wasn't any good against shields, but since it's name sounds like something to protect your privates and I find that humorous, we'll let it go.

10. Gravity Hold (MM5) Yes, Dr. Wily handed Mega Man the power to reverse gravity. Watching all those annoying enemies suddenly lose their grip on the laws of physics and be sucked into the sky was extremely satisfying, even if the implications of thousands of killer robots who don't, by the way, need to breathe floating around in earth's atmosphere is completely terrifying. Concerns about the end of the world aside, the only thing that would be cooler is if you could literally summon a meteor shower.

9. Gyro Attack This one may be a surprise to see up here. It isn't well-remembered and it isn't very exciting, and it's stuck way over in Mega Man 5 which, if you agree with my list, mostly didn't have the best weapons in the series. It's here simply because it is useful. Flying enemies be all like "That's gonna pass right under me", and you be all like "Nope, gotcha sucker!"

8. Rolling Cutter Sometimes, when the razzle dazzle dies down, you need something trusty and reliable. That's the Rolling Cutter, a weapon which doesn't ask for glory, fame or riches, and just does its job, cutting down mad robots and returning faithfully to your hand. This was a godsend in the original Mega Man, where the lack of passwords and e-tanks made taking out enemies in front of and above you much more important than in later games.

7. Flash Bomb Mega Man 8 isn't exactly wonderful, but it continues to rank highly on the list of impressive weapons. Maybe Capcom knew what they'd made and wanted to atone? Either way, when you throw a Flash Bomb and it hits something---anything, an enemy, a wall, a stray atom---the explosions stays there, going off like the fourth of July. It's basically a really deadly firework. Not that fireworks aren't already deadly enough. Remember, kids, always practice firework safety.

6. Astro Crush You can literally summon a meteor shower. I don't really understand how this doesn't instantly end life on earth, but hey, you can literally summon a meteor shower. I also considered placing this lower because of the low weapon energy levels, but, hey, YOU CAN LITERALLY SUMMON A FREAKING METEOR SHOWER. It just occurred to me: DID Mega Man end human life when he did this? Is it a world of robots now? I probably need more sleep.

5. Fire Storm That's right: despite all the twists and innovations and the fact that Capcom clearly meant ice to get the damn shaft compared to fire, the original fire weapon is still the best. Not only did it destroy most enemies in one hit, it was fast on the draw, had lots of weapon energy (twice as much as the far less useful Hyper Bomb, oddly) and generated a second's worth of fireballs around Mega Man, making it technically the series' first shield weapon. There's not much reason to switch back to the puny arm cannon as long as you collect enough energy.

4. Jewel Satellite The shield perfected. And this time, the substance comprising it actually makes sense, at least if they're diamonds. It can take almost anything and keep operating, allowing you to simply breeze through sections full of small enemies with barely a thought. Sure, you can only throw it one direction. But if you actually need to get rid of it, you're probably in such a tight spot that you're screwed, anyway.

3. Thunder Beam The power of lightning, in the palm of your hand. Other than just looking really cool, this beam was ridiculously powerful, shot in three directions at once, and could even get through some shields. It was one of the indications Mega Man was different from other jump-and-shoot games, whose weapons were mostly variant ways to shoot ordinary bullets. And of course, no old school Mega Fan can forget that classic pause trick, which was just unfair. The original Mega Man is overall kind of uneven in actual weapons, with three near the bottom of this list and three in the top 10. Hyper Bomb, Ice Slasher and Super Arm may have mostly remained in the pause screen, but Thunder Beam, Fire Storm and Rolling Cutter gave you more than enough of an arsenal to work with.

2. Black Hole Bomb You can actually fire a portable black hole. But wait, there's more! You can even control the direction it goes after it is fired! Call now, and you'll receive a special bonus offer: the ability to trigger it on command, like a grenade that can rip reality! Now available in black-and-purple, it sticks around a long time, sucking up almost any enemy it happens to encounter! Operators are standing by! Mega Man 9 did good on the weapons, but making this the likely first one you get was just insane. If you're like me (AKA a psychopath) you probably never got tired of firing it and laughing maniacally as enemies marched into it, to their doom. It's inarguably the coolest weapon you've ever gotten in Mega Man history, so why is it #2? Well, sometimes usefulness trumps coolness. Presenting the best weapon in the classic Mega Man series...

1. Metal Blade After all this talk about weapons, about things of destruction, perhaps we should ask ourselves a question: are the weapons a robot carries really the measure of that robot's heroism? Are heroes determined by whether they have a rapid firing saw blade that can be shot in any direction, almost never runs out of ammo, destroys almost anything and even makes a really cool "BZZZZZZ" sound? Or are they defined by their heart, by their nerve, by their sheer desire for justice? The answer is: they're defined by whether they have a rapid firing saw blade that can be shot in any direction, almost never runs out of ammo, destroys almost anything and even makes a really cool "BZZZZZZ" sound. Was this even a debate? After all the flash and all the dazzle, it's functionality that matters, and the trusty Metal Blade remains the weapon we wish we'd had back since Mega Man 2. The sheer utility makes it the only thing that could top having your own black hole. It slices, it dices, it makes short work of so many bosses that one would almost think Wily wants to lose, as though he's living some kind of weird roleplaying fetish. You can mull that around in your brain a while, but regardless, Metal Blade is on top, and probably always will be.

[mylearningjournal2700]

Week 4: Idea Generation

BMon. 13th Feb 2017 lecture [09:00] // seminar [15:00-16:00]

I LOVED THIS WEEK’S LECTURE. I knew the lecture was going to be different and unique when he told us all to shut our laptops and put our pens down because there would be no notes to be jotted down. This was rather unusual, but exciting at the same time. He proceeded with his lecture and went through different aspects/components of what he believed consisted of generating ideas. It was interesting how he tailored these characteristics to his personal career experience, and this made it somewhat memorable, which contributed to the meaning of the lecture, as it was personalised. His first advice was having a:

1) SWOOSHY TAIL OF PLAYFULNESS

He stressed the importance that most products that are considered to be creative, usually stems up from spontaneity and unexpectedness. The importance of having fun whilst working on a project is also something he mentioned, in that it enables your mind to escape the rigid and systematic forms of conventions that sometimes imprison you from exploring the depths of creativity. Like the tail - we must learn to let it swoosh with the wind - and just go with the flow - let the creativity run through you. And he made his first drawing - of what I thought looked like a broom, turned out I was wrong.

2) ZEITGEIST - Antenna 

The next component of creativity he taught us was the zeitgest - in which he explained a hyperbolised theory in which suggests how all of us carry an electrical mind that sizzles and buzzes in our heads. He says that these electrical fields are often released into the atmosphere, and connect with others who carry the same electrical force. Thus, the analogy of having an internal antenna comes into play, as these connections draw similar people together.  My take upon his analogy consists of an encouragement in releasing our individual forms of Zeisgest which are made up of our ideas, imaginations, fears, dreams that are all useful in contributing to promoting creativity. There is also a tendency in sharing these ideas, in which inspires and draws other people. 

3) Swishy MANE of Self-Belief

Ideas fluctuate and are not stable, the quicker we accept that the more creative we can get. We all have ideas, and in a sense they are all unique because each individual is different. This part of the lecture he implicitly advises the saying - “no idea is a bad idea” and the importance of believing in our ideas should always keep our head straight, no matter how bizarre, insane, it may be. Persevere with your idea but always keep an open mind - how are you able to convince others about your idea if you, yourself do not have a sense of belief in your idea. What you replicate upon yourself, is exerted externally, infecting those around you. And with this he drew what looked like Rapunzel’s flow of hair. 

4) Thundering Hooves of Determination

The instability of ideas can often lead to disappointments or a sense of not meeting the expectation you thought it had. Ideas are in constant motion, and are in always need to evolve and innovate. The importance of perseverance and determination is thus important! Despite all the turbulence and hurdles ideas cause, we must have the gear to continue on. Learn when mistakes occur and apply this the next time. Sometimes accept, that your idea is not always the best suited for that context, but that doesn’t mean its any less from the rest, it’s just not applicable to it. This sense of rejection should be overcome by determination and the desire to continue despite fall backs. He then drew the hooves, to represent the sense of thundering, and i knew he was drawing a type of fantastical horse. 

5) Grin of Audaciousness!

Be audacious he kept on saying. Google defines it as bold, daring, fearless. With this point, although he encourages to think about physical constraints such as time, financial budget etc. the importance of being audacious should not limit you because of these things. When you have an idea don’t be afraid to pursue it - regardless of the constraints there is always a W-A-Y. It may not seem like an easy way, but believe and attain your ideas. He drew the rest of the body. 

6) Magical trail of EXPERIMENTATION

Creativity occurs in so many levels, especially in unexpected contexts. He particularly advised that so often we gain our ideas from others - whilst this is effective in some ways, he points out that this does not entirely produce an entirely unique product. But rather, it’s taking someone else’s idea and re-appropriating it. Thus, making the idea not actually yours but a branch of someone else’s. Don’t emulate someone else’s work - it has already been done, so come up with something new. However, he does say that some ideas surround us, and the importance of being out there, absorbing every part of the environment and immersing yourself with culture - whether it’d be media, music, daily activities all play a pivotal role in shaping and influencing the generation of idea. With this, don’t be afraid to experiment with something you’re good at for example he highlighted how technology can be experimented in various ways don’t be limited by its infrastructure but use it flip it, overturn it to possibly create an unexpected outcome. 

Ideas are not concrete - they change, and within the course of projects sometimes they gear a different direction than you intended, but experiment anyway... AND HE DREW A MAGICAL RAINBOWWW.

The top component he said:

7) Beating heart of you 

In as much as we can gather ideas elsewhere and form them through influences from various platforms, he encouraged that most ideas come from within. Each individual has a unique story to tell, that has shaped them to be who they are today, and rather than concealing these special-ness they should be reflected and exerted elsewhere. Whether it is through ideas, creating posters. Everyone is gifted with creativity, it’s just a matter of finding it, and applying it to a medium of art, medium of music, medium of words etc. 

And he drew a happy heart - with blushing cheeks. 

ALL THESE COMPONENTS MADE A “YOU-NICOR!” IT’s a pretty one too. 

This was all the notes we had to take a picture of. Because this was all that was consisted of creating and generating ideas. 

This video was a project he was involved in, and it is evident that it consisted of all these components:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6UqXLHHigY

As always, the end of the lecture was open for questions to be asked. One of the questions, was one that I intended and it regarded about the constraints of time. Ideas take long to arise, and so how does he deal with time constraints in relation to deadlines? How does he keep under the guidelines of deadlines, time, brief conventions etc. In which he answered, the importance of multi-tasking and working with things side-by-side. Rather than just producing one aspect of the project one by one - ensure that there are other things to be done that could help contribute to the creation of the product. For example, research etc.

I love how the lecture and the reading binded, in a way that it allowed me to adopt a different perspective of the world. The reading particularly offered different approaches in ways in which we could think about idea generation - drawing symbols to combine things together, taking things apart, experimenting with almost anything. Creativity has no limitations, no barriers - and the sooner i realise this, the sooner I will be able to allow ideas to filtrate through me. The concept of play was also present in the reading - experimenting, and having fun was all that it matter but hmm I don’t know if I’ve ever been exposed to that sort of environment. 

SEMINAR

The seminar started off with each person rolling a dice - and whatever number we got, define the groups we were going to be in. I got 2. And 3 other guys did too. She instructed us to read through the briefs and pick one that does not correspond with the one we are doing with our actual groups. We went for the Desperados brief - that challenged us to create and event that will promote a societal change. We brainstormed - and thought of ideas that correlated with the brief. Ideas started sparking up - open aux cord - battle of the bands, silent disco all of which we decided that our societal change was going to be drawing and promoting social cohesion through music. 

We then thought of ways in which this could be presented - through a mobile app. we attached the importance and relevance of digital culture within today’s society - and used this to entail our product with contemporary society. We talked about streaming culture, being able to upload music into an online, accessible stream that then proceeds through a musical queue, in which the public can up-vote and down-vote which music they want. Similar concept to a headphone disco - whereby there will be two channels available to be chosen from. We said that this was a good thing as it enabled a democratisation of music, a musical platform that provided individualism that gave people the choice to present what they like rather than being stuck with the choice filtrated and mediated by the massive music corporations. 

We named it “The Desperados Disco” and had to pitch our product with the rest of the seminar group. There were flaws in our ideas - such as the potential mix of music that may not be mixed together. Or the inaccessibility of it - if people didn’t own a smartphone how would they be able to get involved. These were some of the things we needed to considered - which somewhat provided a sense of preparation for the real thing. This mini-pitch highlighted ways in which we can prepare for the real thing. A consideration of limitations that the products entail and reform this to be improved.

We then had to peer and/or self-  evaluate the pitches - what went wrong and what could be improved. Which reflected the real thing, as we would so a self-reflection too. 

In our meeting, one person couldn’t make it unfortunately as he was ill. This was two times in the row which for me was rather worrying, but we ensured that throughout our meeting we had provided links in the fb chat that would allow him to catch-up, but I don’t think it was relatively clear, but I guess this was something we needed to consider in the future. We watched a series of videos, particularly the Simpson Banksy  and the iPhone Advert that I thought had significant meanings that we could use to influence our own project. The Simpson had an underlying meaning about consumer culture, represented through animation whilst the iPhone advert stimulated audience engagement through textual emphasis, it was just an amazing piece of advert which I HOPE TO incorporate. We gathered some ideas for our projects, and asked for potential models that could participate in, and thought of location. But one thing i didn’t really get was what the purpose was. The meeting was bouncing of everywhere, from ideas, to researching stores in leeds who sell faux fur, critical reading about sharing culture in understanding why people share stuff, and creating a survey to get logistics and statistics that incorporates a more holistic perception of reasons as to why. I highly recommended creating a survey, as we can reach a variety of people, and formulate a sense of data against this rather than saying it with a word of mouth. We ended the meeting having done set tasks, reading about sharing culture, researching department stores we could ask and just keeping an eye open for inspirations. So long. I don’t know how to feel, I hope that enthusiasm would pull through the roof, but it still the early stages, and I pray everything goes well.