#because insomnia has to insomnia

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[dykedvonte]

I think everyone but Jimmy would believe in Aliens to an extent and have a weird story about something that happened while in space that they link back or like a UFO or alien.

Curly talks about blips on the radar that move to fast or irrationally to be regular space debris. Too uniform or too fluidly, they disappear too fast too. Anya talks about weird flickering and medbay or like odd flashes on the day screen that are too direct and specific to be simple glitches. Swansea talks about random mechanics on the ship giving out in odd ways, he’s been working for years and things don’t work like that, maybe even a gear or sprocket found after landing he swears is to foreign to be manmade but P.E always confiscates it. Daisuke always wanted to believe and takes the experiences of his very serious superiors, especially Swansea, as proof and wonders if the Tulpar is like a magnet for extraterrestrial happenings.

Jimmy thinks it’s stupid because why would aliens waste time doing all those little things and not just like abduct them? His ass obviously sees one and no one believes him cause they think they just being a jerk and messing with them, even Curly.

[triptychofvoids]

heavy is sleeping and medic has been standing over him in the dark holding a scalpel for the past half an hour wanting to slit his throat just to see how he would react but hasnt done it yet because hes not sure if respawn is on right now or not and if thats not real friendship then i dont know what is

[italiantea]

bit of translation+parsing through the shooting scene

saw someone say they didnt know it was a model gun so yeah. gun's not real guys free my boy he did nothign wrong

so the insomnia mv was edited together in a purposefully ambiguous way, with scenes that are nonchronological or metaphorical, representing fuchi's chaotic mental state.

first there's the shooting

then this shot of a truck driving itself

which then cuts to the seven car pileup

and then transitions to the news story covering it, presumably the next day

translation: indiscriminate shooting with a model gun at shibuya scramble crossing. an indiscriminate crime?

below that: passenger car, truck, minivan etc. involved in seven-car serial collision incident

the date and time is 11pm on the 28th of march, which happens to be 1 hour before what I'm assuming is fuchi's 18th birthday

sidenote: this crossing is literally the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world

anyway the police come for him and he runs for it.

'under arrest: occupation unknown, suspect fuchi sunao (18)'

then there's this sequence of him wrestling for control with his inner child, which is obviously not meant to be taken literally

along with this shot of him tumbling down the stairs into the path of a truck

however, that stairwell is nowhere to be seen in the shot after he's actually been hit by the truck, and if you look closely he still has both shoes on his feet

so we can infer that the whole sequence did not happen in reality

then there's this newspaper from the 30th of march. the headline says 'successive accidents in tokyo'. on the right: 'collision with a driverless* truck' and on the left: 'accident in the same spot as...' (cut off) *literally: in motion with no driver(human), not referring to self-driving technology

the words are blurry but basically the right part describes the seven-car pileup from the 28th again, and the left part describes fuchi's collision with the self-driving truck. the good news is at least the pileup doesn't seem to have killed anyone, with the text describing 10 people with light to severe injuries, and 2 people in a coma.

the caption to the left of the photo says it's the scene of the accident, taken at 11pm on the 29th in shibuya, tokyo

so yeah piecing all that together, fuchi went on a sleepwalking shooting spree with a model gun on the night of the 28th of march, caused a massive traffic accident that injures several people, presumably just??? left?? and went home?? they just let him? i guess all the people ran away or were too busy dealing with the 7 smushed cars. then on the night of the 29th he sees the news on the tv, the police knock on his door and he runs. one mental breakdown and dreamworld sequence later he ends up getting hit by a truck in the same intersection as before.

edit: as some in the notes have pointed out, the truck is reported as 'driverless' because his zingai mr. creepypasta was the one driving it, and it's invisible to most normal people. it's also foreshadowed (represented?) by this shot during the scene where his child self is rampaging.

anyway now he's in jail. rip.

[happi-dreams]

okay so i realised there’s A LOt of doodles i have just forgotten to share here about silly lost n found au stuff so whoopee big doodle post time !!

[sleepyorchidmonster]

As a fun exercise, I went over all the standard banner characters and attempted to think of actual in-universe reasons for each of them to be featured in this group and make us lose the 50/50 by randomly spawning.

Turns out it's quite wholesome!

Jean

Well, for starters, she probably feels a deep sense of gratitude for the Traveler's help with Stormterror, and still thinks they deserve more than just a few posters for their sibling (especially since the knights were already going to do that anyway). Also, she probably stays up at night (not that she actually even sleeps, she's just stressing while doing paperwork) thinking about how Traveler doesn't have a roof over their head, and is traversing a completely unfamiliar world with only Paimon by his side, "What if they get hurt? Can they even heal themselves?"

We get a 50/50 when the worry gets the best of her.

Diluc

Similarly to Jean, he's also worried about the Traveler's well-being and would like to repay them for their help with Stormterror and the Darknight Hero's Alibi. Also he's extremely invested in the Traveler's quest to find their twin.

And he KNOWS the Traveler is going to end up fighting most harbingers, so he's looking for a rematch, and maybe even a chance to punch whoever decided to leave a kid in a foreign land to act as a spy, in the rain, I might add.

His chances of coming home tend to increase whenever he realizes we're befriending the Fatui (I literally lost the 50/50 to him for the first time during Lyney's banner lol).

Mona

She was practicing hydromancy when she foresaw the Traveler was about to suffer a great loss. Despite knowing she can't change the future, she wanted to at least be there for them, maybe try to shield them from the worst of it.

The "loss" she foresaw was the 50/50, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

She's also low on mora and wanted to help out with a few comissions or ley lines.

Qiqi

She once heard Dr. Baizhu go on an hour-long rant about how the Traveler has no regard for their well-being (Chansheng: Pot, meet kettle), stressing over the Traveler potentially dying a gruesome death with their allies being none the wiser, be it from an enemy or simply a disease left unchecked. The fact that they're outlanders who may not have developed immunity for most of Teyvat's illnesses is another concern of his.

Qiqi then wrote a reminder to check up on the Traveler's health, especially since Baizhu couldn't leave the Pharmacy for that long.

There's also an additional note about how the Traveler is always collecting herbs and other olants, so if she can't find any Violetgrass or Qingxin, chances are the Traveler took them all.

She comes to visit whenever she checks the notes and remembers. Hence the high rate of Qiqis.

Keqing

After witnessing the Traveler being 5 hours late for an important meeting because they got sidetracked with quests, seelies and treasure, she deemed it unacceptable and vowed to set them straight as soon as possible. There'll be no procrastination on her watch.

(Also she wants to repay them for saving Liyue, deciding that the posters weren't enough compensation for everything they went through).

Tighnari

He found out the Traveler is worse than Cyno at taking care of themselves and decided to take matters into his own hands.

His methods range from providing medicine and helping out with traversing the rainforest and other difficult environments to simply anihilating the enemies before they have a chance to land a hit.

He may also appear if he thinks the Traveler is getting Cyno's sense of humor.

Dehya

Like the others, she's also worried for the Traveler and wants to help them out on their journey to find their sibling. She's also completely aware that people are scamming the Traveler for commissions and would like to have a small chat with those scammers. Preferably with her fists.

Also, imagine seeing your friend off to a new region and then not even two weeks later there's news about them being arrested, and a gigantic flood. She's CONCERNED.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Both my parents actually suffer from HORRID emotional dysregulation and are prone to snapping and going into rages. My sister is the same way tbh. I am now realizing this is why they are constantly baffled by the question of whether or not I am mad at them.

I don't have external meltdowns.

I could. I don't let it happen.

I keep my rage on the inside and stay pretty quiet about it. It's just as strong as theirs [physically shaking nose bleed from high blood pressure kind of bad], but like as a kid I saw how terrifying it was to be around [dad breaking dishes, mom putting our lawn chairs into walls] and I just internalized that I wasn't going to wear that anger on the outside.

So my mother genuinely cannot tell if I am just being quiet or if I am silently hearing the dial-up noises of pure rage. This has lead her to both making strong and confident statements like "You are a pacifist who would never hurt a fly U.U" but also acting like I am secretly dangerous maybe... It's because she has never seen me snap.

She knows what her temper is like [throwing chairs through walls], she knows what my father's temper is like [pick up child and toss out door], and she can tell I am being tested, but she doesn't know what happens when I snap or where that breaking point is.

Her -perhaps unhinged- solution to this, my whole life, has been to do things that should obviously enrage me or shut me down completely, like ignoring important boundaries, repeatedly, punishing me for expressing emotions or needs at all, etc... And then to constantly ask me if I am angry with her when I get too quiet [right after near directly telling me to shut up].

It has occurred to me now, they have never once seen me lose my temper, so they literally just can't tell if I am angry at them. My sister is easy, my mother fights and screams with my sister constantly, my mother understands this. My mother doesn't have any grasp of feelings or boundaries that are not screamed at her [apparently, and I fear my sister is the same way]. Her and my sister are close despite constant fucking fighting because they understand each other.

They are trying to get me to engage the same way and it is not working. I realize now that this has been hard for them.

I was so successfully taught to suppress my emotions, by being punished for any outburst, that rage quiet looks the same as any other kind of quiet from the outside. To them anyway.

I did tell her. For the record. I used my words. I did tell her very calmly that my response to rage, in order to avoid doing the things that terrified me as a child, was to simply leave [the autistic urge to GTFO]. When a situation or person causes too much of the dial-up rage noise, I simply extract myself from that situation, up to and including never speaking to a person again. I explained this calmly. I explained it calmly 100 times and I explained that I explain myself calmly as my rage response 1-5 [also pretty much every other negative emotion tbh], and I told her that what came next was me simply opting out and fucking off. I told her this. I couldn't understand why she never took me seriously, or why she never fucking understood.

I couldn't understand what made her like this.

But it's the same problem I have with everyone else multiplied by a factor of 10.

If I am explaining myself calmly, they can't understand that it's actually serious or that I am actually upset. ESPECIALLY because they read me as "female" and women "aren't that rational" so if I am not screaming and crying about something, which I never do, people assume I can't be upset and it isn't serious.

And then after having my boundaries ignored too many times despite having calmly explained how and why it's a problem [shaking inside or not]... I leave. I leave and everyone gets upset like this is unexpected behaviour, even though I told them 50 times that is how I would respond if they kept doing *the thing.*

And for neurotypical people especially, they are expecting there to be a disconnect between what someone says they need or feel and what their actually boundaries and feelings are, and they expect the latter to be demonstrated with emotions. Telling them bluntly you do not function that way somehow never helps?

My mother isn't just looking for normal yelling or a few tears to know I am serious, whether or not I do those either [I don't], she's looking for an explosion to know there's a problem at all.

Fucked if I know how she proceeds through life this way in general or if this is just her expectation of her own kids???

And I couldn't get why my mother couldn't read my emotions and didn't seem to think I have any. It's because she's testing for the rage limit to see where my 'actual' limit is instead of taking my word for it. Never the fuck mind that she could simply *not* test at my boundaries instead of letting me have them. Separate issue.

I couldn't figure out what made her *like this*

She's expecting me to throw a giant meltdown violent tantrum at people when I have 'actually' had enough. Maybe she got away with those being like 5'4" in another time, but I am the size of the average man, I do not get to have giant screaming rages, whether or not people perceive me consciously as a woman, and least of all because a lot of people -at least unconsciously- read me as 'masculine' or at least always "they guy" of the situation compared to all other women and some men [bigger stronger and more rational, more able to just absorb the damage and let it go so the less rational screaming/crying one doesn't have to be dealt with]. Even if it was in me to be willing to terrify people [usually never], there are such limited instances where it wouldn't just blow back on me. Potentially very dangerously.

I am going to be the quiet calm one. You are going to have to let me use my words, bitch.

So she kept ignoring my boundaries until I had to cut her out of my life, and she probably doesn't understand and probably thinks it feels sudden -after 36 long years of bullshit- abrupt and unfair.

But I told her hundreds of times.

I probably should have just screamed at her.

[chaocollective]

Apollo was info dumping about the best way to make cookies (Klavier has no idea what hes talking about but thinks its hot anyway)

[possamble]

trying to get kiki's characterization right (at the same time as navigating a falin who's gotten into a tense situation with people she doesn't know very well AND without the assistance of laios or marcille) is highkey kicking my ass ngl

[goldetrash]

I wonder what they are whispering about~

Error belongs to @loverofpiggies​

Dream belongs to @jokublog

[cheapbourbon]

Hunters Knight : Silence is golden

[cheaploafs]

late night cuddles

[marc--chilton]

(mgv) oh my god i said something about house being bitey and wilson letting him bite him to get it out of his system but i backtracked. but it can happen HERE if biting is slightly more normalized. still kinda weird but still like whatever. once they're a bonded pair wilson really indulges house on those urges. it's not even (always) sexual, house just has a strong oral fixation and wilson is just an enabler. house lets wilson watch his spanish telanovelas IF wilson lets him put his teeth on him. just latch onto him like an anglerfish. he'll pick his head up sometimes to correct wilson's pronunciation but other than that they're just chillin. some nights house leaves marks, some nights he just puts his teeth on him. and later when they're in bed if wilson's feeling frisky he returns the gesture, latching onto house's neck from behind (because house is usually the little spoon)

[akindplace]

okay queued a bunch of stuff

[patchyworx]

People talk about fast metabolisms like it's all fun and games and eating whatever you want but they fail to remember that it also means your body is Incredibly Stupid and decides that you become deficient in everything in a couple or so days where it takes most others a week. Or months compared to "oops you forgot to photosynthesize sufficiently :( no i don't care that it has been freezing and overcast for the past week, you didn't absorb enough sun. Perish Badly."

Or at least it would be if i didn't like citrus fruits so much, probably

[totallyseiso]

Cool manager from ages ago came back and became a different kind of manager.

Anyway, yesterday I told her about how massively overworked I am and how it's affecting my health. I'm having the worst depressive episode I've had in who knows how long, the stress is causing me to wake up constantly throughout the night, and so on. Mt old self-harm urges are back, but I didn't tell her about that part.

Her suggestion was to just call in sick one day, because she knew just how badly I need to work less, and that "I need to look after myself first and foremost."

Anyway, today she informed me that she'll be my manager next week and will actually need me to work even longer hours than I already have been, because other people are taking holidays. Holidays, that thing I don't get. 🙃

So much for encouraging me to look after my health