#hermitage express game

[thedoomedpie]

Accidentally made a zombie Micheal Jackson lol.

This is the testing area, so none of the area will be in the final product, but here's a little snippet of the gameplay! or, just. moving around and me laughing at the zombie. It's not even aligned with the ground yet lol.

Anyways, wanted to share a little bit of the game. Today I finished the slot checking in the inventory, coded in a new separate mailbox (as you can see in the video) and, obviously, added a zombie :)

The zombie wasn't too bad to make the sprite of. I made them instead of starting to complete the tile sheet lol. It's a daunting task, because I think I need at least fifty different blocks or so to accurately show the hermitcraft environment? I'll get around to it. I'll get around to it. eventually.

Aside from the tile set, I think all I need to do is create the 'scenes' (hermit bases & post office), code in a nether portal (the nether hub will be very dumbed down, just so you can travel between clusters of bases with their mailboxes). I also need to code in all the other hermits' mailboxes, and then I'll start the process of making all the letters, as I only have two working ones in now.

AND NOW that I've sidled into that specific topic, if anyone wants to have a tiny part in this little project of mine, I am in need of little letters that could theoretically be sent between the hermits in this season! I have a post with more info here. If you have letter ideas, especially for the lesser-known hermits (or just the ones I don't see enough- like XB, wels, xisuma, hypno, false, keralis, beef, to name the ones I'm most in need of) or just any of any quality! Please send them through! You will get your name in credit on the finished product, too!

I love absolutely all the submissions so far! And fun fact, there is already TWO neck kisses letters submitted. Godspeed friends you are all amazing.

[neolxzr]

imo there’s a difference between “queer coding” and very specifically playing to both sides whether or not the writers/artists/directors intended to make a character queer or not. I think that for enstars specifically, with the new valkyrie event, while people are happy that some characters such as shu and mika in the new event are being shown expressing their love for each other and their views on their sexuality and expression, people are frustrated that it is not explicitly said because of the company’s need to not confirm a character as queer in order to not alienate (homophobic!) fans. Because at the end of the day in happyele’s eyes, if that homophobic fan spends a lot of money on the game then they’re worth pandering to (shrug emoji) And I mean some people also just don’t like shumika

anon i understand where you're coming from but i think you are wildly missing the point in my original post

my point is EXACTLY that if you need the characters to walk up to the screen and say "i'm gay" or "i'm [insert some 21st century-friendly label]" or "this is my boyfriend" for it to count as queer media in your eyes than i think you need to do some reexamining about what exactly your views on queer media as a whole are

plus, they DO do this. they explicitly talk about queer themes out loud many many times in enstars. shu says to mika that they should, together, create the happiness that his grandfather was never allowed to have, after they spent the entire story detailing shu's grandfather's queer romance story. they probably kissed in hermitage, and the lyrics to acanthe talk about them kissing. rinne proposes to niki in every other story they appear in together. he told him to do a striptease during nightclub. tori has very explicitly gay feelings for eichi. arashi narukami exists. eichi, while talking to arashi in pretty mission, says "people like us," confirming himself to also be some form of queer. kuro calls keito an old word for spouse or husband. and SO many more examples. this is not "queer coding" or subtext, its just text.

in any case, authorial intent is generally of no interest when it comes to examining media. the conversation of what the author could have meant by something is wildly less interesting than the conversation about the ways in which the audience can interpret it. what the writers intended should have little to no place in the discussion. what we should be talking about is what the thing itself is saying, both implicitly and explicitly.

expanding your view on what exactly can be seen as "queer media" can only do you good. and it would do so much good to not give a shit about the possibility that homophobic people will also like the thing and interpret it as not queer. that is literally not my problem whatsoever, and it shouldn't be yours either.

what it seems like to me is that no matter what pieces of queer media will always be criticized in some capacity. if they're not explicitly queer enough, they're just bait and have no merit. if they are explicit, then they're promoting stereotypes, or its rainbow capitalism, or it's fetishization. there is no winning. the standards for queer media are absolutely absurd, but they don't HAVE to be. you don't have to look at a piece of media through this kind of silly cynical lens if you don't want to.

the discussion about a work loses so much interesting and important nuance when you try to shove it into a box of "good representation" or "bad evil queerbait." thats just really really boring way to view stories

[pyropsychiccollector]

How does Shuichi live there?

I'm not sure what you're asking here. XD If you mean how he lives in a postgame AU, well…

For a few years, Shuichi and the rest of Class 79 survivors have to recover and get some therapy for the years they were forced to endure repeated Killing Games and a bunch of other scenarios. On top of finishing the high school education they were robbed of.

Thankfully, Hajime was on-hand to fast-track that. They didn't have to worry about a ton of the academic fluff that adults rarely if ever end up using. Just cut straight to the heart of what they'd be getting into "post-Graduation". You know , the practice stuff. Possible career changes if they expressed interest. (人◕ω◕)

In a world that survived the Tragedy, that is getting back to what it used to be like, Shuichi chooses to remain a detective. It's not the talent Hope's Peak gave to him, but it's what he's come to view as normal in the past few years. (人◕ω◕) It's taken time, but Shuichi has accepted Kyoko, his senpai, is gone and he's under no obligation to carry on her legacy or anything. It's not wholly for her sake that he's choosing this path; Shuichi feels the world needs detectives. They can't prevent tragedies, not all of them, but solving mysteries brings closure to people. And it can keep new mysteries from drawing inspiration from the old ones if they're solved. (人◕ω◕)

Kokichi remains one of his best friends and sort of barges in as a "Watson" to Shuichi's "Holmes". (人◕ω◕) Naturally, Kirumi has attempted to extract Kokichi and give him the boot several times, but Shuichi eventually relents and allows Kokichi to be an…assistant. He's got no formal training as a detective, but the ability to see through lies and that keen intellect does make Kokichi a valuable asset. Much to certain people's dissatisfaction. (人◕ω◕)

When he's not working, Shuichi has moved into a…not necessarily a manor, but it's a fairly big Hermitage with a history that captures Shuichi's imagination and appreciation for mysteries. He received it as a token of apology from Future Foundation for not being able to save him or Class 79 sooner. Everyone in Class 79 received generous accommodations as they settled back into society. (人◕ω◕) Naturally, it's lonely to live in such a large place on his own. So all his girls took it on themselves to move in… Although that was a bit of a tense affair. (人◕ω◕);;;

Kaede continues to play piano and make a living off of performing at shows, galas, wherever and whoever is interested in having her. (人◕ω◕) Kaede had her own condo suite for a while, so she was among the last to move in with Shuichi. But after seeing everyone else just do whatever they pleased, well… (人◕ω◕);;; Kaede decided someone needed to put their foot down and get Shuichi to stand up for himself.

Tenko lives as a gym trainer, though it took a while to convince her to open up membership to both women AND men…. (人◕ω◕) It's a rather open place, you can go to her gym just for casual exercise or training, or you can take self-defense classes with her. At the start men had to pay a small premium to sign up for that, but Shuichi talked her into premiums for everyone for the class since Tenko did need to pay for gym upkeep and all that. Premium was only like $25 for the full 3-month course anyway. … Refunds negotiable. (人◕ω◕);;;;; Tenko barged into Shuichi's home when she heard Kirumi and Miu had taken up residence, and she hasn't left ever since. (人◕ω◕);;;;;;

Miu… is a freelance inventor. Corpos try tempting her with lucrative exclusive contracts with them, but Miu refuses to tie herself down and deprive the world of her genius. (人◕ω◕) She's more or less moved in with Shuichi after hearing about Kirumi hogging the detectives for herself. (人◕ω◕) Kirumi tried showing Miu the door, but… Shuichi insisted it was fine. And Miu has long since crafted a woman cave in the basement areas where her main workshop is. Kirumi tries to force Miu to keep it clean, but rather than put in the effort on that inconsequential stuffs, Miu pays the exorbitant fees to have Kirumi do it if she's so hard-up on tidiness. (人◕ω◕)…….. As you might expect, Kirumi isn't precisely HAPPY with Miu. But she gets paid, so all Kirumi can do is accept until Miu's foolishness catches up with her. (人◕ω◕) … The matter of Miu constantly distracting Shuichi with lewd nonsense is something else entirely, and they WILL be talking about that. (人◕ω◕)

Finally, Kirumi… She still has a reputation as the best maid, but rather than go back to serving just anyone and everyone, Kirumi has "retired" in a manner of speaking and has become Shuichi's exclusive maid. (人◕ω◕) He was a bit shocked to come home one day and find her maintaining the Hermitage, but they've since hashed out this is what Kirumi has decided to do, because Shuichi overworks and neglects himself and Kirumi refuses to allow it any longer. (人◕ω◕) She was the first to move in, and privately Shuichi allowed it because he wanted to help Kirumi through her own problems - finding a place to call home, understanding that servants are people too and Kirumi is his equal if not superior… Kirumi and Shuichi balance each other out nicely. (人◕ω◕) She was at the forefront objecting to the other girls just barging into Shuichi's home, but as he pointed out, she did much the same. It's only fair to let them live together. (人◕ω◕) Though Shuichi didn't necessarily approve of it, Kirumi initiated a "rent" system where even she pays Shuichi a monthly rent of about $150. They all hash out grocery and utility costs, keeping things fair and even. The monthly rent can be done away with when they're married to Shuichi, but not a minute before. (人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕)(人◕ω◕) Mama Kirumi is on top of things~

[theoutcastrogue]

Spectacles in Constantinople (other than chariot races)

[by Marcus Rautman]

Reconstruction of early Constantinople

Like any great city, Constantinople was a nexus of social space, civic ceremony, commercial entertainment, and endless diversion. Medieval observers saw a busy urban environment where streets and plazas were regularly taken over by processions, churches and monasteries were filled with clergy and worshipers, and competitive games and performances took place in the open-air hippodrome.

The unruly intensity of enthusiastic crowds could also have unforeseen consequences, and on occasion violence and riots flared. John Chrysostom and other guardians of public decorum warned that attending mass spectacles could lead to laughter, immodest and licentious behavior, impulsiveness, and loss of responsible identity. While theatrical shows were generally improvisational, their potential to critique and undermine social order was clear to officials like Justinian (527–65), who suppressed Christological mimes and withdrew funding for their public performance. Some of the most negative views came from bishops attending the late seventh-century Council in Trullo, whose canons discouraged clergy and monks from attending the hippodrome and condemned exhibitions of mimes, wild animals, and public dancing.

Yet other sources make clear that organized spectacles were inseparable from the intensity of city life, with state-sponsored processions, games, and performances growing out of playful, demonstrative interactions experienced every day in street, market, and home.

On stage

Acrobat, musician and dancer, silver cover of a bowl, 12th century (in the Hermitage)

Theatrical entertainments were another popular spectacle inherited from classical times. Roman citizens had long been in the habit of attending public performances and several open-air theaters are known in early Constantinople. Unlike classical drama, stage productions in late antiquity aimed at visual rather than literary appeal, and ranged from choreographed group performances to individual displays of acrobatic and illusionist skill. One of the most elaborate forms of stage performance was pantomime (pantomimos), a ballet-like retelling of familiar mythological tales known in the third century BC. Commanding public stage or private dining room, a single interpretive dancer assumed well-known character roles by wearing distinctive costumes and trappings. The expressive eloquence of non-verbal performance was reinforced by instrumental or sung musical accompaniment.

By contrast, the less decorous antics of mimes and mummers offered broadly comedic diversion in the tradition of burlesque and slapstick. Expressive mime (mimos) performances had an equally long history, with plots drawn from easily recognized, often transgressive aspects of everyday life: family dramas, mistaken identities, infidelities, crime, violence. Requiring no scenery and few props, mimes moved freely from stage to street corners and taverns, delivering lively action supported by flutes, pipes, lyres, singing, and drums. Acrobats and jugglers appear in different media and are mentioned by late medieval authors. The depiction of small, costumed, and sometimes nude figures on carved ivory boxes of the tenth–twelfth centuries suggests the broad parody and implicit social commentary of playful display.

Like other forms of mass entertainment the theater was viewed by authorities with suspicious tolerance. Chrysostom and others saw the manipulative inauthenticity of dramatic roleplaying (hypocrisis) as inherently blasphemous. Naturally the unpredictable and emotional response to public performance contributed to immorality and political subversion. Performers were seen as inhabiting the social margin; foreigners, slaves, and especially women were regarded as morally irresponsible, even as they were invited to play in the palace itself. Prokopios’ overheated account of Theodora’s stage career likely drew on widespread prejudices about the moral fluidity of the entertainment community as much as its enduring popular acclaim.

On the streets

Broad, porticoed streets were among Constantinople’s most characteristic urban features. While major processions stuck to these primary routes, secondary streets in peripheral quarters saw myriad local celebrations. [...]

Streets were busy throughout the day. Carts and wagons kept to the main roads, with porters carrying their loads through uneven, winding alleys. Food vendors, scribes, and moneychangers lined the porticoes, which were good places to meet people and pass time with friends. Keeping passages clear of debris and lit by torches at night was up to shopkeepers, who might briefly expand their domain by setting benches and tables for customers outside their doors. Floor mosaics, graffiti, and game boards carved into the paving of porticoes reflect the attractions of recreational leisure. Observers note the boisterous conviviality of restaurants, taverns, and baths, where acrobats, illusionists, and jugglers shared their talent at close range. Trained bears, birds, and dogs were always reliable attractions. Mime-like performers and storytellers continued to play back streets and tavernas.

— Marcus Rautman, "Entertainment" in The Cambridge companion to Constantinople / edited by Sarah Bassett. Cambridge University Press 2022

[uselesslilium]

idk if more than one question is ok but i really love all your valkyrie fics and have much questions so if its too long feel free to skip this 🌸

Soo anyway id love to know questions 1 and 2 for all of them 👉🏻👈🏼 oh and also 11🙏🏻✨️

Wish you a nice dayy :>🧁

More than one question is totally okay! I love getting to ramble~ :3 Just gonna put all the answers under the cut.

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way? Awakening Hermitage: The whole point of this fic was to examine how Mika and Shu might grow up if they failed to reunite through Valkyrie, as well as explore their individual relationships with art and how they grow closer through it, so I knew from the start that alternating between their POVs was essential. I only came up with the idea to break it into rough 'acts' once I'd finished the first draft though lol, but it helped a lot with the pacing once I did.

Scapegoats/Ventriloquism: I originally planned to stick with just the Mika POV fic purely because the idea of Mika volunteering for Shu while Shu has no clue who he is was just too compelling. But then the more I thought about the absolutely nightmarish position I'd left Nazuna in, the more I felt like I had to get him out of it, so I had to write a sequel lmao. The Avox in general don't get a whole lot of focus in the original Hunger Games series, and a lot is left to implication, so I also wanted to try and work out for myself what that day-to-day life might look like. (And there will be a third fic from Shu's POV to close out the series, but I need to reread Mockingjay before I get to it.)

Mimesis: As it was heavily inspired by Umineko and mystery fiction, the plan was always to remain firmly in Shu's POV with him as the detective figure, and for Mika's POV to be expressed purely through stories they were making up. I went with fairy tales for Mika's genre of choice rather than mysteries, though, because a) Valkyrie in general is more fairy tale-aligned, b) there's no 'meta world' so this was a way to still include the concept of magic and dispelling it, and c) I'm a lot more familiar with fairy tales than mystery novels so I was more confident making up fake ones.

Swear not by the moon: I really, really, really wanted to write Mika's POV again after being stuck outside it for so long. :')

2: What scene did you first put down? This one has pretty much the same answer for all of my fics. At least for my first draft, I always start with the first scene and write sequentially. The first line is a pretty major tone-setter for the whole story, so I don't usually get very far until I've hammered that out.

I think Mimesis was the only exception - my original plan for that one started in media res, with Shu having already been awake for a few days and still trying to get a read on Mika. But I found having it start right from his first real moment of consciousness left a much stronger impression and made it easier to get right into Shu's perspective, so I made that the starting point and bumped that 'first' scene down.

11: What do you like best about this fic? Awakening Hermitage: That I was able to get Shu and Mika back onstage despite the fact that they missed their 'ideal' chane. The idea that you can always find and work towards your passion is a very important one to me.

Scapegoats: Man. Coming up with that whole arena and figuring out how Mika could plausibly win was so, so fun. Especially the closing fight.

Ventriloquism: Nazuna's confrontation with Shu at the end. Having no idea how many of his own assumptions are right, and carrying so much repressed anger and resentment and love and guilt all muddled together, only able to express anything with Mika as the trigger. <3

Mimesis: Honestly I'm pretty proud of the fact that I was able to make romance happen believably in this setting despite. Um. Everything else going on. It's not an easy road ahead of them, but I'm glad I got them to a point where it feels like they can make it anyway...

Swear not by the moon: As far as the first chapter goes, I think my favorite part is Mika in the ballroom alone. But honorable mention goes to Shu's 'This isn't my fault!' at the end lmao, he is terrible. /affectionate

[artbyblastweave]

I’ve expressed, at least twice, the idea that Steven Universe is as effective as it is because it shifts from an unironic children’s adventure show to, late in the game, an examination of the destructive psychological and interpersonal effects of being the protagonist of a children’s show, and this gives it a punch that it wouldn’t have if it was about those destructive effects from the word go. This was notable to me for being basically the only series I could think of that does this.

Recently, though, I thought of another one- it’s very possible to view Batman’s arc in the DCAU through this lens.

You have the four seasons of his own show- foundational to the animated canon- in which he’s unironically superheroing, having adventures, gradually expanding the size of the Batfamily, the Rogues gallery and the supporting cast. Crucially, one of the structural things I liked about BTAS was that it leaned in hard to the idea of a comic-book status quo; the idea that these weirdos are doing things and having adventures offscreen, Lots of adventures that springboard from other adventures, a lot of episodes predicated on the weirdness intersecting with the lives of everyday people, a lot of episodes predicated on the idea that the supervillains are sufficiently around and organized to have developed a nascent little subculture. This was a very earnest show!

Then you get the Justice League animated series, set later in the timeline; you see Batman as part of a team dynamic with equitable cape peers; you see how his mannerisms bounce off the others, you see his tendency to buck what the other capes are doing and go his own way, with good and bad effects; you see his martyrdom complex emerge at certain points, like when he attempts a suicide run on the Thanagarian force field generator; but you also see how is insane stubbornness and willingness to roll with any situation, no matter how ridiculous, is an asset, like in the episode with Dr. Destiny where he just starts chugging Coffee by the gallon to stay awake when he’s the last man standing, or his willingness to break into the pentagon and start walloping generals when everyone else stands down to keep the peace. You see his charming emotional constipation, the stoic mask that occasionally drops. This is the peak of his career.

And then you get to Batman Beyond, which is... predicated, actually, on the logical endpoint of traits he showed in Justice League that were quirky and charming in an ensemble dynamic, but in the long run kinda ruined his life.  He’s got strained-to-destroyed relationships with the rest of the Batfamily. He’s outlived huge swaths of his peers. He never got past his (genuinely entertaining to watch!) emotional hang-ups; he never resolved things with Diana, or Selina, or anyone else; He kept going, alone, as long as he possibly could, until he was too physically destroyed to keep to his own standards of conduct, and by then he didn’t have much left besides a mopey hermitage. His villains aren’t doing much better; the where-are-they-now episodes revisiting old foes find all of them in bleak, bleak circumstances. Superheroism as a whole isn’t doing too well; the BB-era justice league has like six people in it, all of whom are legacies of serious die-hard capes plus Superman; heroism sort of implictly....fizzled out, and given the state we find Batman and his rogues in it’s really not hard to guess what happened to the 100+ other superheroes. They got old. They got killed. They never struck the balance, and things just kinda wound down.

Terry comes on the scene, and he’s a great hero, but his mentor presents this great challenge- how do I not wind up like the last group of people who tried this? How can I do this and be happy? Because none of what I’ve described above is really an attack on superheroes in general; it’s not even an attack on Bruce Wayne; it’s just an extrapolation of Bruce Wayne as he’s been shown earlier in this continuity. In the same way that Steven Universe Future’s “deconstructive” elements are really just an extrapolation of his traits as shown in the first five seasons. (Remember how this started out being about Steven Universe?)

So to round this out, this does feed into this idea I have, that Batman, more than any other hero, has a fun and compelling and necessary relationship with continuity; you need to show the guy, the same iteration of the guy, at many, many different points in his life in order to wrangle the full emotional mileage out of him. You gotta see him in year one, you gotta see him when he’s picked up a couple Robins, you gotta see him when he’s down a couple Robins cause they’re sick of his shit or dead, You gotta see him with some more Robins when he’s worked on himself, you gotta see him as a father, as an older guy, as an old guy. All the most interesting things about him are informed or enhanced or highlighted by the passage of time, the growth and atrophy of his network. You gotta show and establish enough of his status quo that you notice the development. The comics try for this, and are the source for this, with all those far-future Elseworlds and limited series like Year One and The Long Halloween highlighting pivotal events in his past. They’re like. A primordial soup of status quo from which meaningful character insights and developments are hauled out and momentarily examined, to the delight of all. And I think that we all have a sort of gesalt mostly-functional Batman-career timeline in our heads as a result of this. But I think the DCAU represents the longest-term, largest-by-runtime and most-involved depiction of a single iteration of Batman, flawed in my estimation only because it leaves out a lot of Batfamily characters like Jason, Cassandra, Steph, Duke, and others who have kind of become lynchpins in that gesalt interpretation of his timeline. I haven’t seen most of Young Justice, which was produced over a similarly long real-life timeframe to the DCAU and covers a long stretch of time; did that get close? 

[dailyadventureprompts]

Ally: Lexxia Mare, Scholar of the Ashen Wastes

The sage put down her scepter, and spoke with a sympathy unfelt in her expression.  “I’m sorry, it appears you and your companions have appeared at an inauspicious time, the dust-storms last for weeks this time of year, and afterwords the saltskitters will be out claiming new territory along the dunes..”  

“ What is this place? “ Asked Rhorgar

“ Who are you?” queried Verna

“ Where in the nine hells are we?!” Demanded Ogierd, which drew the stranger’s reproachful glare.  

“Not so far as that, I assure you.. but much farther than any of you have likely been before. Come, we will shelter in the lower catacombs away from the howling wind, and I will answer any question you may have. Questions are why I found myself in this ruin in the first place, and I have uncovered a few answers to share in my hermitage.”  

-A journey beyond the horizon: a tale of the Patrisford five

Setup: Though it features prominently in the mysticism of nearly all cultures, few pay much attention to the moon, far as it is beyond the reach of mortals and too constant in its cycles to never warrant scrutiny. Scraps of lore speak of divine palaces on the outskirts of the firmament and while some scholars see the truth of these tales, most other consider them little better than the fairy-stories hinting at the existence of foggy gardens and pearlesant seas. 

Lexxia Mare was one of these scholars, a deacon of a dogmatic faith who’s patron had long since ceased his visitations to the mortal world. Dissatisfied with endless postulation on the abstract nature of their absent benefactor and the vagaries of his last commandments, the deacon decided to seek a means to meet with the god on her own terms. Seeking out a relic from the founding of the faith said to have come from the god’s own halls, Lexxia used her substantial power to teleport herself back to the relic’s origin, finding herself in a deserted ruin where the world of her birth hung in the sky like a glistening jewel. 

While it might have once been the realm of palaces and pearl gardens hinted at by the stories, Lexxia found the moon to be a far cry from that splendor: an endless, ruin dotted wasteland filled with nothing but glistening silver-white sand and the windcarved canyons. Here she spent several years in isolation, combing through the wastes for clues to a forgotten past and meditating on the foundations of her faith.  Though her hermitage has led her no closer to her god, it has greatly increased her wisdom and occacular powers, and should the party seek a guide to the cosmos, they could ask for none better. 

Adventure Hooks: 

A teleportation mishap under an open sky leads to the party being deposited into the wastes or a lunar ruin. Disoriented and preyed upon by strange beasts of the wasteland, they are saved from their predicament by Mare, who offers them her own hermitage as a place to retreat and recover their strength.   

Lunar ravagers are towering fey raiders who live in floating fortresses among the clouds and descend to hunt dangerous prey by the light of full moon. Though they are rare and secretive on the planet below, they maintain a constant presence above the lunar surface, able to utilize their full abilities whenever they wish and finding no end of game among the dangerous scavengers of the palace-moon.  Those abducted by the fey as slaves may end up escaping to the silvery wastes below, or may be freed by Lexxia when she comes to parlay with yet another ravager fortress infringing on her territory. 

There are more ruins across and beneath the lunar sands for Lexxia to ever explore herself, and any one may hold the secret to what happened to exile the gods from their luminescent perch. A properly equipped party may have many adventures ahead of them in the wastes, each one enriching them with treasure and whatever answers the lunar sage can supply in trade.  

[benandstumpy]

went ahead and revisited hermit ren. this is one of the best episodes and i think the fact it was a passion project is very clear. obviously it's an episode of comedy, but there's a lot of care and personal artistic sensibility put into it.

one detail that always stuck out to me was the reuse of the home sweet home phrase. it's a pretty good moment of subtlety that the show usually doesn't go in for, and tbh i'd argue this episode as a whole is pretty carefully made. chris reccardi not only directed and storyboarded, but even did some of the music for this one, which is especially standout because i can't really think of another instance where original scoring was done in this show. at least not off the top of my head.

speaking of storyboarding as well, the expression work in this episode is very distinctive. frequently it takes less inspiration from old wb cartoons and veers more into reccardi's own stylization, which is typically more angular than the show's normal look. there is some difference between the spumco style and the games style, but i feel like this is still set apart from other games-era episodes. it does have the effect of giving the characters stiffer movements and appearance, but imo it isn't too jarring when the episode is fairly unique as a whole. (i would include more example screencaps but honestly i'm too lazy.)

regarding the story, though, the most interesting thing about it to me is the way that ren's hallucinations consistently belittle him and/or work against him. not necessarily uncommon with hallucinations, but from a screenwriting perspective, i think there was a lot of care put into how this plays out during the climax of the episode. the mummy highlights ren's anger/fear/ignorance as if to suggest that these are all he's capable of or all that are worth experiencing, and this comes immediately after ren expresses openly that he misses stimpy's companionship. that initial positive emotion is dismissed as worthless sentiment by ren's deceased predecessor.

and then ultimately, when ren snaps under the pressure of his own self-loathing, he has no choice but to leave the hermitage. but he's better off for it! the choice to become a hermit is framed from the moment he makes it as one that results from an inability to cope properly with the stress of his life, and then the salesman/hermit union rep calls him a loser. ren's perception that the struggle he undergoes is a product from without as opposed to an internal lack of patience, confidence, and understanding is the conflict here. the relationship he has with stimpy is a pillar of support for when he is unable to cope; he is unwilling and unable to self-reflect and therefore cannot solve the root of his problem, but having support from another person is enough to keep his head above water in the meantime. that emotional connection is a necessary and even fulfilling counterbalance to the cynicism inherent to his character.

i really think this episode is a stunning example of originality and i don't think it would have been possible in the spumco era. games may have been hit or miss at times but it had some damn fine hits.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

I've been thinking a lot about hermitage and how people view irreligious hermitage as an inscrutable symptom of mental illness instead of a rational response to certain environments. Even people who overtly suffer from mental illness have their desire for seclusion grounded in contentions with the outside world that aren't wholly unreasonable. The knee jerk response to aversive social behaviors is to blame the person for their own perceived cowardlyness and unwillingness to face reality. What is this reality that is desperately needed to be faced? What is there to gain from it? If the hermit perceives the outside world as isolation and pain, with people who are looking to subject them to the most unending petty and hurtful of whims, hermitage isnt a failure on the individual to surmount challenges and win a prize as much as it is outwardly expressing that you prefer to exit the game entirely.

I got into a bit of a heated argument (well, on my end at least) with Chris a while back about Chrostopher Thomas Knight (most famously known for his 20+ years of seclusion in a national park). He attempted to insist to me that there must have been something wrong with him to isolate for so long. Knight was actually the opposite of the antagonized examples I listed above -- he lead an indifferent life wherein the lack of intimacy he received from friends and family made living on his own simply a choice of convenience. If you believe that your relationship to others-- to the "real world" is completely arbitrary, interchangeable and rather shallow, then what difference is living in seclusion? In his own words when he was recovered, he mentions how it was a relief to be living free of the performance of social interaction. His perception at the time was that other people were simply a tenuous event to maintain, at best. Something unthinkable to anyone who is actively enriched by others.

Im not advocating for seclusion or even insisting that it is "healthy" (the healthy thing would be to make a society in which people want to stay in), but it's odd that certain lifestyles that are considered unthinkable when often it's simply someone working within their means to find the solution to unbearable circumstances.

[tinyshe]

How to be a hermit.

“I occasionally receive enquiries from folk asking for advice or support in pursuing their own vocation to the hermitage, so I put this page together.  The information here is purely of a practical nature, and I write only from my own experience in the UK; it is not exhaustive, and things may be different in your locale and circumstances.  I may add to it from time to time. Please let me know if you have further (practical) information which might be included.

The call to hermitage is often a gradual realisation,  a growing affinity with solitude, a desire to know God in the ordinariness of simply being alive.  It is a call which is falling on increasingly receptive ears.  By nature, it is a very individual call, and each individual will realise it in a different way depending upon personal inspiration and circumstance.  

I hope you will not be put off by the apparent lack of a support structure around the vocation.  It is one of the great joys and freedoms that each one of us interprets the call to hermitage in such  a different ways– it is essentially, perhaps, a call to “solitary living in the conscious presence of God”, though I know of hermits who live in small communities as well, so even the solitude is not a given!

You will find that much of the information on this page boils down to, “you have to work it out for yourself”.   Please don’t be put off by that.  It might take time -  longer than you expect -  and the solutions might appear to be at odds with any romantic ideals you might have been nursing at the outset, but with determination, a good dose of pragmatism, and a sense of adventure, all things are possible.  

By way of encouragement, I discovered (after I had been here 10 years!) that the journey of getting to my hermitage (which took me 15 years) has become a part of the sort of hermit that I am.  So don't feel that the eremitical life only begins once you step over the threshold of your hermitage.  This long search and struggle for stability is the beginning of it.    God is with you.

I hope this page is helpful.  

Canon 603

§1 Besides institutes of consecrated life the Church recognizes the eremitic or anchoritic life by which the Christian faithful devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.

§2 A hermit is recognized in the law as one dedicated to God in a consecrated life if he or she publicly professes the three evangelical counsels [i.e. chastity, poverty and obedience], confirmed by a vow or other sacred bond, in the hands of the diocesan bishop and observes his or her own plan of life under his direction.”

State of Life

There are very many different ways of living as a hermit within the Roman Catholic Church.  A hermit can live anonymously, without being “recognised in the law” (of the church), or they can choose to make some sort of commitment, either privately or publicly.  If public, this would usually be into the hands of the local ordinary (bishop).  Again, the type of commitment can vary by arrangement with the ordinary.

A bishop will usually expect you to have devised a “rule of life” for yourself before accepting your vows. (more on that later).

If you are considering  the possibility of becoming a “canonical” hermit by profession of  the Evangelical Counsels you will need to refer to Canon 640ff (“canonical profession” simply means, “profession with reference to the Canons”) which describes the process and requirements (basically a minimum of one year’s guided novitiate, followed by a minimum of 3 years in temporary vows).  Or you might be able to come to some other arrangement with your bishop and still be professed, but not canonically…

There is no “hierarchy” of hermitage – no single type of commitment is more valid or worthy than another.  Neither a canonical hermit nor a professed hermit , nor a privately vowed hermit is a “better” hermit than one who has taken no vows at all.  Most hermits (from the little information which is available) are living simple, anonymous, solitary lives without advertisement.

Rule of Life

This is a guide for daily living.  It should be useful rather than beautiful (though it can be both!).  Some hermits prefer to adapt monastic rules, or a rule from a religious order to which they feel an affinity.  Rules can be of varying length  and detail– I have found the primary usefulness  of mine to be a reference point for decision making; others might look for something which will more definitively structure their day.  From experience I would caution against anything too rigid  -  it is likely you will be chief cook and bottle washer .. and porter .. and gardener.  You will need to have the flexibility to respond easily to circumstance.   I would suggest that drawing up a rule might be one of the occupations towards the end of the novitiate year – when you have more of a feel for how you will live in hermitage.  We each do it so very differently!

(My own Rule of Life can be viewed here  - the first several paragraphs are scriptural and canonical guidance.  The practical bit is just the three lines at the end!)

Hermitage and living expenses

Whichever route you take, vowed or un-vowed, you will usually be expected to be self-supporting.  There is no centralised source of practical nor financial support for hermits, nor any register of empty-hermitages-seeking-occupants, not in the UK anyway.  You will need to find your own living place and some sort of income to pay the bills etc. Many hermits have a working life behind them & so are able to provide their own accommodation. Others are "donated" accommodation in return for caretaker or similar duties, or persuade a convent or monastery or other religious community to loan them an outhouse in return for labour.  You have to be pretty pragmatic, determined, and prepared to explore lots of avenues!  It isn't easy.  

In terms of work, and support from the state:  in civil law you are expected to support yourself in the same way as everyone else.  You can look for, and express a preference for work which enables you to work alone, but there is no special exemption which entitles you to benefits or financial support if you refuse to work at all, just because the work offered isn't hermitage-friendly.  

You may have the skills to earn a living from your hermitage – eg. book-keeping, accountancy, copy-writing, web design etc.  all of which which might be financially viable ways of earning a living from your front room.  Realistically, some of the more menial jobs like cleaning work and ground maintenance are usually plentiful and reasonably suitable as most cleaners/gardeners seem to work in solitude even if they are part of a team.  (I worked as a solitary care assistant to a profoundly disabled woman for 5 years in her own home, which worked out very well).  You may find previous skills can be adjusted to become more hermit-friendly eg. my teaching experience still provides a firm basis for occasional private tutoring.

From experience, the pursuit of the artisanal work traditionally associated with hermits and monastics, does not provide a reliable, nor sufficient source of income – not to an unknown hermit – unless you are at the top of your artisanal game and already earning a living this way.  Many of these types of activities which help support established monastic communities are reliant on the regular footfall of associates and affiliates to the communities, and the publicity which is inherent in their longstanding, their USP, and the loyalty of their local churches.  If it works for you – then great!  But if you are just setting out and hoping to make your living from weaving baskets all day, then I would advise you to have a plan B to fall back on.  Sometimes God’s providence makes itself best known in the guise of a bit of realistic and prudent forethought.

Spiritual support

If you are seriously exploring a vocation to hermitage  then it would be wise to enlist the support of a spiritual director.  The life of the solitary can throw any number of oddities and curve balls at you, and it is as well to have some one you can freely consult and who will be able to advise you. Try and find someone  with a mature and committed prayer life of their own, who will take you, and hermitage, seriously, who is not in awe of the solitary life, and who will not pander to your whims and fancies!

And finally!

This may not have been the sort of information you were hoping for.  Launching into hermitage  is not the same as entering an established religious order - there is none of the security and stability which might be found in other forms of consecrated life.  It is an adventure with God which will require of you every last wit and ingenuity.  I pray and hope for God’s blessing on you.

In prayer, in God.

Rachel (Hermit of the Diocese of Nottingham)”

source

[thedoomedpie]

Ain't Pearlie just the cutest?

Side note: game programming. guys. how is it this hard. I know I'm lucky to have SOME experience, but! Why!

figured out half an inventory, and how to pick up stuff. Need to figure out how to allow the player to select stuff inside the inventory and 'use' it (put it in a mailbox).

I did manage to create part of an original tile set, and was testing it when I realised the dirt looks kinda ugly :(

Anyways just. throwing these small screenshots at you. I hope I get around to finishing this. I have drained so many hours into bug fixing alone. that was pretty much all today has been. Oh well.

[onegirllis]

Since Life is Strange 2 is finally fully released, I let myself to write a probably not-so-short review of the complete season. The momentum for such a summary is already gone I presume but it took me a moment to finally digest and find the proper words to describe what I think and feel about this production. Following the game from the start, I patiently waited to look at the story as a whole, hoping to find an explanation for tons of burning questions and satisfying outcomes to my choices and decisions. Unfortunately, most of those didn’t happen, therefore I present you with a piece that is not very favorable towards the newest Dontnod production, harsh in places but honest. Please, do not read if you really enjoyed the story of the two brothers and find it meaningful and important, not burdened with any fallacy. Life is way too short to read reviews that just leave you frustrated.

Remember the scene in Life is Strange season one (I still hate the fact that I have to separate different instances of the franchise calling them seasons), when Max summoned by an enormous plasma TV in Victoria’s room fantasizes about watching “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” on it? “I like this movie, I don’t care what everybody says,” getting protective about her preferences, the little freckle leaves the room soon after, never gifting us with any explanation as to why she indeed values this animation so much or why it was an important statement. It was never brought back again, it will never matter, becoming simply a meme material or a trigger for snarky comments from Twitch streamers and YouTubers. I watched the said movie a long time ago, recalling only two things about it: the breathtaking animation of hair at the beginning and the fact that the main male character looked like Ben Affleck. The rest of the story fell into obscurity before the end credits hit the screen. I reached for this title only because I was interested in anything video games related, and the name of the popular franchise was more than enough.

The same thing goes for Life is Strange 2.

Just like the mentioned FF: The Spirits Within, the second instance of the beloved series is more of an animation than an interactive experience. Recently, plenty of video games, overwhelmed by finally reachable technology of smooth mocaps, facial expressions, hyper-realistic locations, and scanned people as characters, turned into an alley dedicated to B-class movies. From adventures by David Cage to Death Stranding, video games started to flip their working template, replacing the actual action with long animations, not the other way around. With scattered gameplay, sometimes forced as if the developers reminded themselves at the last minute that this product is supposed to be interactive, they raise an eyebrow at best, and boil your blood with the lack of creativity at its worst. Life Is Strange 2 follows this trend with astonishing enthusiasm and to the core. Even regarding this particular genre that’s supposed to focus on narrative, it barely stands as a walking simulator becoming a hardly watchable TV series — a road trip story where walking is limited.

Well, shit.

The gameplay in Life is Strange 2 is nonexistent. To be frank, riveting action-packed sequences were never a trademark of the series, but a blatant lack of any didn’t make this experience any better. With the first one, the rewind power allowed the player to actually be part of the narrative. The second, where Sean just serves as a witness to his brother’s actions, plays more like a full motion picture. An enormous amount of un-skippable cut-scenes change LIS2 into a tedious, dragging journey straight from the worst selection of buy 1 get 3 free Z-class movies. The music and the mastery in creating an atmosphere that rose Dontnod to international fame due to widespread acclaim can’t save those sequences either. It almost feels like their own creation so enchanted the development team that they ignored all the red flags and clumsy solutions to immerse in the world themselves, treating the actual player as a lesser evil, throwing them a bone just to claim it is a video game format. To no surprise, most of the items the player interacts with don’t matter at all and don’t serve any purpose either to foreshadow an upcoming outcome, present exposition to the world, or be in any way helpful.

The lack of superpower is not an issue here though. Before the Storm met the expectations with way more grace, proving that a story doesn’t need a lot of strange in life to grip and hold its audience for hours. Watching a superhero growing up is an interesting premise, but a hell of a challenge to execute and execute well. Some stories like “Little Man Tate” translate to a brilliant film, but don’t necessarily work as games, after the planning stage or first Game Design Document. The references regarding the first game also remain scattered and uneven, tossed on the pile with a heap of faith that devoted fans would notice, but without a purpose in mind.

Even if I sound harsh, I do believe that Dontnod wanted to deliver the best story possible, but Life is Strange 2 feels even too big to absorb or fill with details. Captain Spirit, not necessarily my cup of tea either, was in my opinion way more coherent, as the creative team felt more comfortable with such a small scope of a product. Everything falls into place after careful exploration, makes more sense with every minute. The mystery about the mother, an alumnus of Blackwell Academy, and an admirer of Jefferson’s work is a solid premise that didn’t raise expectations up the roof nor overpromise. The mystery of yet another mother, this time Life is Strange 2, played for over 3 and a half episodes, falls flat in comparison and ends in the disappointing question “that’s it?”

No, that’s not it. There’s more to it.

Life is Strange 1 was mocked as Tumblr: The Game, while the second instance could easily pass as Twitter: The Animated Series. The writers didn’t challenge themselves or the audience to answer the question of why certain people voted for Donald Trump, or why they would do it yet again. The only reason presented in the story is quite simplistic and obvious – because they are evil, deplorable people, not worth listening to. They are the worst. We are better. Issues of being harangued by foreigners about domestic policies and troubles of your own country are a brewing can of worms I wouldn’t like to touch at the moment. Still, this particular stance, which serves as painful generalization that every single republican voter in the US is foul, can be forged only by someone who either lives in a bubble or doesn’t live here at all. Simply because we all have parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, or co-workers who decided to elect the actual prescient to power. Some of them are racists, disgusting, and horrible personas, and some just belong to the scared of change, confused and manipulated crowd that don’t accept the fast-paced transformation nor the need for a revolution. We coexist together, arguing and fighting, especially during holiday breaks, but even if it costs me a headache, I wouldn’t call them evil. Millions of people voted for Trump, but only a few wouldn’t spit on a swastika if confronted with the Nazi banner.

It’s even more painful when you understand what kind of message was sewed into the stitches of a shattered story. There was no ill will, or at least I don’t think so, but an honest, genuine need to express the concern about modern America. Unfortunately, when executed, this concern changed into another yell or discourse by the family table during an argument with your racist uncle. An open discussion in a game community that unifies both left and right supporters equally by their love for this form of entertainment would be appreciated by many, just like after playing LIS1, a handful of people changed their views on LGBT issues.

Instead of a lesson that had to be experienced, we got a lecture about morality and tolerance, contradicting itself constantly and nonchalantly following the well-known tropes NOT in a sarcastic and admirable way known from Saturday Night Live, but in a lazy and sometimes even clumsy substitute of a dramatic format. The political landscape painted in LIS2 is caricatural, unforgiving, harsh like a deserted wasteland with a few peaceful oases to stop at, but shies over its own existence, not willing to thoroughly discuss the dreadful weather. Guess what? The sand won’t change into greener pastures only because you close your eyes, putting your imagination to work. Donald Trump might not be re-elected for a second term, but his supporters will stay in place, even more conflicted by the other side. It’s a brave decision to deliver such a punitive story but such a cowardice to break its pillars, hoping that the general public wouldn’t notice or get distracted when things get too heated up.

The lack of subtlety forced scene by scene is even more polarizing. There is no peaceful dialogue with the other side as if it couldn’t exist in this world. There is no change of heart or a path to do so. Sometimes it feels like the only message that LIS2 writers wanted to provide was to find your own, peaceful and liberal hermitage, either among hipsters in the Redwood forest, driving a car that your ‘family with money but no soul’ had bought you or move to a trailer park filled with artistic souls in Nowhere, Arizona. Any contact with the outside world can hurt you and your feelings. Drop off the grid or die. The end.

No discussion.

The efforts of trying to understand the motivation behind even the most dreadful character of the first game, got lost in preparation for the second. LIS2 builds a higher wall between two political sides, than any other game released after Trump became the president of the United States and desperately wants to keep it erected, ignoring the crumbling foundations of such. A proverbial river you shall not cross nor build bridges over since the only outcome would end up in death, destruction, or you and your young brother getting hurt.

I’m familiar with the discussion about LIS2, especially with a shouting match that if you do not like this instance, you are therefore a racist pig, a disgusting person without a soul, conscience, or working brain that doesn’t understand the situation and never will. On the contrary. In my humble opinion, we deserve a better discussion, better stories, better representation, not sticking to whatever is presented because it’s brave enough or was never approached before. I disagree with the stance that a Latino, bisexual main character is enough to close your eyes, omitting all problems that this title tries to shun, riding its high horse. No. Those topics are way too crucial to just walk past, setting for less with your head down, thanking for the game industry to take notice. You the player deserve better, even if you don’t struggle with specific issues on a daily basis. And after playing LIS2, you may feel so good about yourself, stating that an effort was made but it it wasn’t made enough.

I expected more. I wanted Dontnod to do more, and frankly, I feel silly putting so much faith in them and supporting their efforts. Armed with resources provided by Square Enix, I’m sure they are aware of the fact that most of their audience is quite young and wouldn’t mind a lesson or message about what to do amidst troubled times. Well, Dontnod doesn’t have any but warns you that voicing your opinion or being different may end up in disaster. Outraged, they just yell at the news, angry about what our reality has changed into, but nothing comes out of it. It’s all right, though. Our parents do the same thing. We started to do the same thing, but instead of complaining to family members, we have Twitter.

While Life is Strange 2 tries really hard to come across as a realistic and raw portrait of the US at the end of the decade, they didn’t have enough courage to show realistic obstacles two runaways would be faced with. The brothers do meet a handful of bigots and racists, but the rest of the fellow travelers help them beyond understanding or hidden agenda. Sean and Daniel never really struggle to find a place to stay or a warm meal, usually complaining on or off the screen just before the game mercifully provides them with a solution. There’s no trap they can fall into, no ambiguous characters that promise one thing and then demand something in return. It’s very honorable for Brody to pay for a place to stay, but if an adult man gave young kids a key to a motel room, I would consider a way more sinister outcome. It’s not even about Brody himself, since good people exist, just like the racist ones, but the boys not even once are put in a realistic, scary situation created by a supposed ally. If somebody is helpful, this person is always decent, offering them a job, a ride, some food or money. The bad people wear red hats and yell racist slurs. America by Dontnod is simple to navigate but raw and painful when not necessary and fairy-tale-like when it could teach an actual lesson. Running away from home is not so hazardous because of Trump supporters but because you can end up dead in a ravine, being robbed and raped. It’s not the first and surely not the last time when the developers feared to touch any topic of sexual abuse with a ten-foot pole, but then the journey plays more like a vacation than a desperate escape. Sean gets beaten-up a few times, loses his eye due to a brawl, but it doesn’t affect him at all in the long run. When Daniel finally gets kidnapped, it’s not an Epstein-like circle, dealing with human trafficking, but a religious cult that worships him. The first option, even if it feels like a stretch, is unfortunately way more realistic than the latter.

Preaching to the choir is not the biggest sin this game commits though. That brings me to the most discussed theme of the production, which is education.

With all due respect to the developers, writers, and designers, Life is Strange 2 in this aspect falls flat as a discovery of a Sunday father, who is responsible for taking his kid to the zoo and struggles to find any common ground with his offspring, either trying to crack jokes about famous pop-culture phenomena or talk about food discussing their next favorite meal. The said father is trying his best though, perfectly aware that it’s his only chance to teach his son a thing or two, but doesn’t know exactly where to start, torn apart between buying more ice cream and throwing a fit about a stain on the carpet. The father doesn’t even like kids that much and can’t translate his lessons into an engaging play that would be memorized forever, rolling his eyes and counting the days to his kid’s graduation so they could share a beer or two and talk about adult things. Now, any effort to explain how the world works seems to be in vain, therefore a waste of his precious time. Leaving the emotional approach aside, the father doesn’t have to cuddle with his kid when he’s scared, bullied, traumatized or asks millions of questions about the future or present, because the full-time mother is waiting at home willing to replace him in this duty. The mother, knowing that her ex-partner sucks big time at talking about feelings, will be the one who will hold the kid, patiently explaining that the boogieman does not exist, playing pirates, or stay late at night to distract his sorrows. The kid will never discuss his fears with his dad though, trying so hard to impress his male parent. He will never know, and it’s fine. The mother is going to do the job while he can deliver a once a week entertainment along with the lines of ultimate wisdom that most likely will be forgotten anyway.

This is not raising a kid, it’s nursing them like a fragile plant in a flowerpot, focusing on water, sun, and fertilizer, but discarding the emotional background, hoping that somebody else would take care of such issues if things go south.

Sean can’t raise his brother well, simply because he is immature and will stay immature for the rest of the game. There is no moment when he truly goes through a transformation changing from a boy to a man, a fully grown-up adult who takes responsibility for his actions and makes sacrifices for the sake of the greater good. No, surrendering in a fight in the church doesn’t serve as one, neither does the first sexual experience. He doesn’t wonder even once if the hastily constructed plan is benefiting Daniel, forcing it to the last minutes of the game, taking the separation as the worst thing that could happen. There’s no spark of a tragedy like in “The Road” when a father gives up his son to strangers for the sake of saving him. Sean doesn’t care, presenting no character development across the board, merely pushing forward. If there are doubts, they disappear in the blink of an eye when the next cut-scene takes place.

I understand that such a young lad as Sean wouldn’t know how to raise a kid, especially if having no model to rely on. However, a part of growing pains is developing the awareness that we know way less than we assumed. That said, Sean Diaz is always assuming he is right, not asking for advice regarding Daniel even once. Apparently, it’s not something that he’s interested in or ever will be. If Life is Strange 2 wants to pass as a coming of age story, it falls on its face before it even starts.

Moreover, locked in the auto-driven plot, Sean cannot grow up and gain a new perspective; otherwise, the story wouldn’t reach its big, explosion-packed finale of crossing the border. His desperate efforts of influencing his brother usually converge to order him around, feed him with half-truths or simply leave him in the dark when convenient. I didn’t see any difference or change in Sean’s approach from episode one when he scolded his brother, annoyed for his party plans being interrupted, and in episode three, when he reacts similarly, for the sake of spending time alone with the chosen love interest. There’s no deep thought, no wonder about his own wrongdoings expressed to his brother, no faults admitted, no fallacies explained, with one life-threating situation after another. From an illegal weed growing farm, to destroying police stations, Sean just follows the road, paved by the writers, oblivious to the harm done to his younger sibling, as if Daniel simply forgets the morally gray choices, growing his moral spine entirely on performing chores. Washing the dishes and peeling potatoes does not make us better people but understanding a perspective so different than our own does. Thanks to Sean, Daniel expands his world, but it’s a very one-sided perspective, focusing on always praised, hippie-style liberties, and disregarding every option that requires any code of conduct, as represented by the grandparents. While the older brother forces the younger one to keep up with the designed tasks, he never discusses the issues that really matter. In episode 3, the youngster gets involved in a heist, a robbery, but after it fails, costing Sean his eye and the possible death of some of their companions, this is never mentioned. Mexico, a plan that is hardly a plan at all, is supposed to be an answer to all the questions and doubts. El Dorado of knowledge.

This is not how you raise a dog, not to mention a child.

There is no emotional bond, no special ties between the brothers, except a few problematic moments that play mostly on simple connection forged by blood, not by circumstances. Sean worries about Daniel because he’s his brother, but the player starts to wonder quite quickly why and what for. Reminiscing about old times gets nailed down to a few lines about the comforts and amenities of a life long gone. The tough topics, such as grieving after personally witnessing their father’s death, are mentioned scarcely and without much emphasis, as if serving only as a reminder to the player, but not a poignant struggle. Same goes with the dog, their friends mutilated at the end of the weed farm chapter, Chris (aka captain spirit) who is mentioned just before the end credits of the second episode, and tons of others. On top of it, the scattered and not so often dialogue lines about putting people in danger refer only to the good folk, siding with the brothers, not to humankind in general. Killing a police officer or knocking down a gas station owner are just natural ways of how things work in America, honorable deeds since it’s apparently perfectly fine for a kid to attempt a homicide if people are mean.

What a brave story.

Chloe Price had been suffering for five years after William, her beloved father, died in a car crash. For Sean and Daniel, there is no grief to experience, but a memory to share with a plan to erect a monument in the future. Esteban Diaz is a plot device, a symbol of inequality, but not a family member. Even a dream sequence with his guest appearance lacks the impact of the subconscious conversations we’ve seen in Before the Storm. It just simply doesn’t matter.

I can’t believe I have to say this but the relatable part about LIS1 wasn’t the tornado, just like in LIS2 crossing the border is its weakest point, but it’s those small moments, gestures, quick smiles in passing, the atmosphere and a breath of fresh air when a line, sometimes silly, got dropped. In the most recent story, there is not a single line worth quoting, memorizing, or discussing. And please, don’t bring up “awesome possum” again. It’s literally taken from The Lego Movie song.

The brothers, just like Thelma and Louise, decide to leave everything behind, throwing away the life as they knew it and forging their own future despite all odds. Although, when the two desperate women drive off the cliff committing suicide, chased by the armed forces, there is nothing to explain as the audience fully understands their reasoning. Their will of life was strong, but the path they followed was too steep to return. Without any help or support, confronted with brutal honesty and the world’s cruelty around them, it is the best possible solution. The story of the two brothers, even if it tries to echo the iconic movie, couldn’t be more different. Despite resources at their disposal, family members that do care about their wellbeing, the whole community rising in protest in their hometown, they risk everything for the sake of getting back to the land they don’t even know. Their Mexican heritage is also mentioned just as an exposition, and, as we learn in the very last episode, just before the ending that Daniel doesn’t speak Spanish. So why do the stubborn Diaz brothers despite all odds travel to Mexico? Because.

Canada was too close, I guess.

Last but not least, let’s talk about sex, because why the hell not. A lot of fans or admirers of the previous instances howled across all social media about how much they miss Max and Chloe. I don’t really think it’s the case, but those two girls symbolize something that LIS2 has a tremendous problem with. There’s no emotional connection between the characters the brothers meet along the way, especially the ones that really should matter. Even the love interests feel more like nagging choices than anything else, an experiment during a camping trip, not something that would last or could be fantasized about. Instead of nerve-wracking decisions such as if you’re supposed to kiss Rachel, hold her hand, or the ecstatic discovery (for PriceFielders, but it was ecstatic, right?) that Chloe changed her phone’s background, we are instead presented with a lineup of sexual experiences, that maybe trail-blaze the road when it comes to topics tackled by a video game, but fall into obscurity as an emotional construction. There is no build-up between Sean and Finn as everything develops to a kiss in one conversation, and Cassidy has fewer lines than Victoria Chase before she invites Sean to her tent. We watch it as we watched it before, trying to get attached, feel something, but the only thing we remember was how much it touched us years ago when we played a different game but with a similar title. The sex scene, relatable or not, is stripped from the emotional intimacy and is as sensitively challenging as a dog being killed.

Character development doesn’t move an inch even if Sean, a surrogate father to his brother, lost his virginity to an older girl. There’s no single thought in his head that he might conceive his own offspring during this short but probably memorable experience. There’s not a single line except for the satisfaction of some female parts finally discovered. Oh, dashing explorer, will you ever learn?

It’s sad. I did want to like this game and gave it plenty of chances like no other titles ever. I’ve made excuses for the poor execution, technical problems, with the whiny voice acting that was driving me up the wall, plot twists written (I think) on a lunch break, and so on, but I couldn’t stand it. It’s a hard pass when it comes to a video game in general, not to mention the story, script, and everything else. Life is Strange season one; a low-budget production, was the first step to create a masterpiece that LIS2 might’ve been able to become. The second season didn’t learn much from LIS1’s mistakes, additionally exchanging the well-known beauty for a garbage fire, ignoring all the warning signs along the way. Delivering a story that tackles such important topics, it slides between the checkmarks on the board of issues, mentioning conversion therapy, religion, gayness, illegal immigration, and a spiral of crimes but never elaborating on any of them. There is no meat and potatoes presented on the plate of events, but just a sticky, sweet gravy with nothing underneath that leaves you not only hungry but frustrated, willing to call the chef and yell at the waiter. The trick is that unless you were living under a rock, there are tons of other productions in different media that give those themes justice, carefully unfolding all the aspects, giving voice to both sides. The fact that it’s the first video game having an affair with serious issues doesn’t matter. I don’t believe that anybody who consumes any kind of other media like decent books, movies, or TV shows can remain blind to the problems of Life is Strange 2, claiming it to be a good story. It’s not.

So here we are, girls, boys, and beyond. Life is Strange 2 with its broken mechanics, story, characters, and spirit slowly but surely will be forgotten. It’s Dontnod’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that you might love to watch or play on your brand-new TV, despite what everybody else would say, omitting any valid or invalid criticism, but unfortunately, it won’t change the general optics about this particular piece of media. A lost chance or recklessness created a convoluted mess and with a heart beating in the wrong place. You might praise Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, get excited about it since it’s a free world, free country (and even if it’s not, no one will take this ersatz of such liberty) and don’t let anybody tell you what to love. The problem is, that most likely the only thing that people will remember about this production is that the main male character looked like Ben Affleck and the hair animation was dope. Everything else won’t matter.

The same thing goes, unfortunately, for Life is Strange 2, subtitle: The Spirits Without.

[gem-quest]

NPC: Lady Robin of High Hermitage (tbf)

“Leave the ruins where they fall.

Leave them all,

And let the wild take over.”

- Grow, The Oh Hellos

Name: Robin Bredbeddle, Lady of the High Hermitage, Knight of the Holly, Mistress of Revels

Age: It is not honorable to ask a lady her age.

FC: Lily Cole

Species & Class: Faerie Mage-Knight

Occupation: Knight of Queen Tatiana, Royal Master of Ceremonies, Emissary to the Courts of the Realms, Judgement of Heroes

Guild: Officially serves a Moonstone-aligned court, but in her capacity as the keeper of High Hermitage and a judge of would-be heroes, she prides herself in showing no guild-based favoritism or offering any extra boons or challenges based only on one’s allegiance.

Powers:

As a fae of the courts, Lady Robin possesses powerful illusion and charm magics and is inherently capable of flight via a pair of delicate-looking insect wings (dragonfly wings, to be specific).  Her personal preference in magic leans heavily towards illusion, and she’ll often project the images of objects, structures, beasts, traps, other NPCs, or even duplicates of herself during a fight.  These illusions are a bit unusual in that they *can*, in fact, deal damage to PCs until the PC being attacked or damage declares that the illusion is not real.  Robin also has a special affinity for plants and, once an individual or party has broken through her illusions and misdirections, often controls the vines and briars of the forest to hinder and ensnare her opponents.  She’s been seen to whisper to tree boughs and clusters of flowers and creeping vines, asking them to “keep watch” for her.  Whether this has any direct mechanical effect or not has not yet been confirmed.

Outside of her magical abilities, Robin is a highly competent swordswoman and fighter.  While unusually low in strength for a fighter, she’s extremely agile and skilled with a blade.  She’s hard to hit, and she has the endurance score to keep her dancing around for long periods of time without tiring or providing players with easy shots at her.  This is likely as not meant to discourage players from fighting her more than necessary.  

Robin’s wings are only slightly less fragile than they look.  While her wings heal and even regenerate fairly quickly (a non-standard trait for fae, though also not a trait exclusive to her), it’s quite effective to deal a good amount of damage to her by knocking her out of the sky.  It also seriously impedes her mobility for the next few rounds of combat.  As a very plant-aligned fae, Robin is also vulnerable to fire, and her illusions flicker slightly whenever an open flame comes within a few feet of them.  Though going right up to every single obstacle and monster in the High Hermitage with a torch isn’t exactly a great idea, either, considering that not *all* of them are illusions.  

Another of Robin’s greatest weaknesses (depending on who you ask…) is her inability to lie.  While she is by no means required to tell the whole truth of anything or to answer every question she is asked, she must either speak truthfully or not speak at all.  This is very much at odds with her illusion powers and not a standard trait shared by all fae, so there’s some speculation that it’s the result of some as-yet-undiscovered element of her backstory.

Appearance: Lady Robin first appears to players entering the High Hermitage as a beautiful red-haired woman with delicate, almost doll-like features and a distant, serene expression.  She has no wings.  Her gown is green with silver and red embroidery and a lighter green sash, with a single cluster of holly pinned neatly to the sash’s knot.  She first issues her challenge to players in this form, and if they do not accept, they are physically unable to enter the level.  

Once players enter into the level and deal their three promised strikes to the Lady of High Hermitage, though, this illusion of Robin disintegrates into the ground.  The true Robin then steps out from behind a half-collapsed stone arch in the form she’ll take for the rest of the level.  In this form, Robin has jewel green dragonfly wings that stretch out from the back of one of the most ornate sets of armor in the game.  Her hair is tied back with a length of dark green ribbon and topped with a circlet of vines.  Her cluster of holly berries now appears on her scabbard.  In this second form, she also has a noted tendency for highly expressive glaring and amused smirking, and screenshots and gifs of both are common reaction images in the online GQ community.

Places Most Likely to be Found In-Game:  For most of the year, Lady Robin is found mainly in the High Hermitage and in a brief cameo appearance in the court of Queen Tatiana in the following level.  There have also been a handful of sightings of Robin in level-appropriate attire in the courts of Prince Finvarra, Princess Aliane, and other rulers throughout Gem Quest, suggesting that she may serve as a regular emissary of Queen Tatiana to other kingdoms.  Around the winter holidays, Robin also hosts a grand winter festival that manifests across several levels, with her pet event being a large tournament of various martial and magical disciplines held within a portion of the High Hermitage that is inaccessible for the rest of the year and is (for the duration of the festival) open to all players that have cleared at least Level 10 to fast travel to.  While she serves as the Master of Ceremonies for the tournament there, she also appears more frequently in other court levels during this time and at most of the major holiday events throughout the game.

Item Drops:

- TBF

Strongest Character Traits: Playful, steadfast, in fact prefers to be a mentor but is also more than capable of being a fearsome judge

Stats: (Lady Robin is, in terms of basic stats and of encounter difficulty level, one of Gem Quest’s most powerful humanoid foes that players are required to face in single combat no matter what choices they make.  This is offset by the fact that they don’t actually have to definitively vanquish her.  They just have to work through her tests, which only entails having to stand a few rounds of combat with her while doing some amount of damage.  The only stat in which she’s significantly below average is Cautiousness, and often a moment of reckless flourish or a spur-of-the-moment little trick on her part opens up a good chance for players to strike meaningful blows against her.)

* STRENGTH: 5 * DEFENCE: 6 * CHARISMA: 6 * PSYCHE: 8 * WILLPOWER: 8 * CAUTIOUSNESS: 2 * AGILITY: 10 * ENDURANCE: 9 * INTELLIGENCE: 7 * LUCK: 5

Personality: TBF

Biography:

TBF

[cerastes]

Hey, first of all, to address some actual concerns I see in my inbox: I am indeed alive (you silly geese, reminder: I cannot die and am impervious to most forms of damage that don’t directly relate to Jacques Lacan or Academia, the two vilest forms of evil in this world), I haven’t had any more piping hot impromptu dates with the front, 60-miles-per-hour end of any vehicles, nor did I disappear forever into the misty hillside, the sounds of my footsteps as my heavy boots ripple the mud shadowed by my silhouette heralding my absence, the dirge of our heart-throbbing times in this cyberspace we etch with much gusto, vim, fervor, and pulchritude to forever remain a perhaps dear, perhaps brief, most likely memorable boulder soon to disappear forever as the sandstorm of time engulfs all that has been and never will once again be.

I’m just really busy, as I warned I’d be at the start of the year. It’s not “haha crunch three days and then back to Drimo-ing” busy, this is advanced busy, it’s “cry into the arms of a shaman that lives in the peaks of mountains that don’t show up on maps or GPS as the Chikulin in the hereafter’s own vagabond blessings find you in your research hermitage, trying in vain to guide you back to the real world outside the lie that is Academia” busy.

So, with concerns about me being bonafide dead or otherwise gone forever successfully addressed, ahem, HEY KIDS, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN.

I’VE BEEN GOOD. BUSY. BUT GOOD. I’ve more or less killed 100% of my net presence for a bit over a month now, and it’s not been in vain, I’ve been getting the Desired Results from going all in into the final year of my magister degree, as I explained prior, at the cost of, you know, a social life and some pounds because I’ve not been able to do much except Dedicate To This, which means much less working out, much less being a charismatic online swashbuckler loved by the masses, much less everything else. PAIN AND EXTRA WEIGHT ARE TEMPORARY, GLORY IS ETERNAL, however. Can’t wait for this year to be over so I can go pump iron and make rancid posts on the net once again.

Just checking in! It just occurred me to that, hey, I went Full Hermit for over a month without really making a blip in any given radar. For those who expressed actual concern in my inbox or through IM regarding befuddlement as to whether I still have a pulse or not nowadays, I Am Very Sorry To Inform You That My Heart Still Beats. 

My life as of late has been: Research, Work, Eat, Play Game (unwinding is very essential in order to be able to do a good job), Sleep. In times of Extreme IRL Duress like this, I usually find a new obsession to sink myself into in my entirety in order to unwind in what free time I can find. Guess what I got into this time.

I Guess I’m A Nep Now.

BUT MORE ABOUT THAT LATER. That’s all, see you in another month or so (jokes aside, it should be like... 2-3 more weeks at worst, maybe less, depending on a few things).

[diedre-ffxiv]

Quiet Beginnings

Hello all! I recently fantasia'd back to Viera and decided to write out some new lore for my Warrior of Light. I'm very excited for where this story is headed and maybe it will keep me from buying fantasia again. Please enjoy and let me know what you think of it. :)

TW: Death, allusions to parental neglect/abuse, discussing hunting/killing animals for food.

Isolde and Deirdre were like night and day, their mother used to say when she still lived, like winter’s first frost and the lush green of a forest in summer. If Isolde did not cry when a baby bird fell from its nest and died, their mother blamed her winter-blue eyes for giving her an icy soul. If Deirdre climbed high in the trees and leapt from branch to branch, their mother would laugh and say it was the summer in her heart that made it possible. Deirdre often wondered, as a woman grown, if her mother hadn’t molded the two of them into what they would become: If she felt any warmth in her heart that felt like summer, it seemed more that the warmth of her mother’s smile had put it there, and if her sister was cold, it was their mother’s own icy scowl that seemed to pierce the space between them. In this way, their mother lived on long after she breathed her last breath, though both children had barely begun to emerge from childhood when they laid her to rest. 

Deirdre became mother and sister to Isolde after that, and the two lived together in the small cottage in the woods, teaching themselves from their father’s old Sharlayan textbooks and notes. Isolde took to them with a passion, interested in the theories of magics and aether. Deirdre, on the other hand, would often venture outside, unable to sit still in the cramped and dim confines of the house for long, and taught herself the basics of conjuring from her father’s words and the voices of the wood. Deirdre also honed her skills with bow and arrow, remembering what had been taught to her by their aunt when she was still alive, and with much practice she was eventually able to bring fresh meat to her sister -- smaller animals and then larger ones. Her sister in turn learned to prepare and cook what her sister had gathered for them and thus the two children were able to survive on their own. Before long the two had grown into capable young women -- Deirdre was quite strong and defended her sister well against any harm that might come their way when they would gather firewood and other resources from the old city ruins near their hermitage. Isolde was clever of mind and could set traps for game and cook excellent meals, she kept to herself and was the quieter of the two. One summer day they gathered next to the hot springs by their hermitage and discussed their futures, both agreeing they felt they had outgrown their childhood home, and deciding to leave it. Deirdre desired to travel to the city of Gridania, where their aunt had once served as a member of the Twin Adder Guardsmen and a place she had visited once as a child before the death of their father. She was becoming quite skilled at marksmanship and conjuring magics and wished to follow in her aunt's footsteps perhaps, if she could prove herself worthy. 

Much to Deirdre’s surprise, Isolde revealed she wished to join the Conjurer’s guild in the city of Ul’Dah and perhaps learn more of the city's history firsthand. Before this, she never expressed any desire to pursue magic other than to study the theories behind it, and now she wished to learn the most destructive type of magic imaginable. Isolde was no longer the young girl she had once been, however, and Deirdre did not show her surprise, but gave her sister her blessing - trusting she knew what was best.

The sisters packed their meager belongings and said their farewells, vowing to aid one another whenever they should meet again on their journeys.

[tsmadigan]

Anything Mentionable: Standing Where Rembrandt Stood

My introduction to the art of Rembrandt came indirectly, through my friend Fred Rogers. In the fall of 1995, I traveled to Pittsburgh to interview the children’s television icon for a newspaper story, and in one of our early conversations, Fred mentioned that his favorite author was Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest.

Henri, as I would soon learn, was one of the world’s most beloved spiritual writers with recurring themes of grace, healing and redemption in a world of pervasive suffering. After Fred’s tip, I found The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri’s book that was a long meditation on the monumental Rembrandt painting of the same name.

Henri had first been captivated by a print of the masterpiece, which led to his 1986 pilgrimage to the State Hermitage Museum in what was then the Soviet Union. He sat alone for hours in front of the painting—Rembrandt’s dramatic depiction of a father’s welcome and forgiveness for a wayward son.

“And so there I was; facing the painting that had been on my mind and in my heart for nearly three years,” Henri later wrote. “I was stunned by its majestic beauty. Its size, larger than life; its abundant reds, browns and yellows; its shadowy recesses and bright foreground. But most of all the light-enveloped embrace of the father and son surrounded by four mysterious bystanders, all of this gripped me with an intensity far beyond my anticipation. There had been moments in which I had wondered whether the real painting might disappoint me. The opposite was true. Its grandeur and splendor made everything recede into the background and held me completely captivated.”

The Return of the Prodigal Son is a beautiful book and inspired me to read several others written by Henri. But I remember thinking it was somewhat odd that he would invest so much meaning in an art work, that he would delve so deeply into each fine detail, that he would find the experience of it so overwhelming.

I think I understand better now, after becoming somewhat more acquainted myself with great art in recent years. There is indeed a mysterious power in the first-hand experience of a masterpiece, and fortunately for me and people like me, that pleasure, awe and wonder are not reserved for those with advanced degrees in art history.

That, in fact, was a founding principle of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the internationally renowned institution that opened in 1972. When it came to art, the Kimbell’s first director, the late Richard Fargo Brown, put as much value in the opinion of a museum janitor as a curator from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

“He was very much of that mind,” Brown’s widow, Jane, told me a few years ago. “He both despised and prized the word ‘elitism,’ saying that if ‘elite’ means ‘special’ and that’s really all it means, then he was an elitist. But that didn’t mean that the janitor couldn’t be an elitist, too; the janitor could also recognize that beauty. Rick said that there is a reason that great works have come down through time—that there is an appeal that you don’t have to be schooled for.

“He was among the young art historians…[who] really believed that your eye told the truth—you needed no other information.”

In the remarkable story of the Kimbell Art Museum, only Kay Fortson and her husband, Ben, have been there from the beginning. Kay was the niece and heir to Kay and Velma Kimbell, the Fort Worth business giant and his wife. Upon his death in 1964, Kay Kimbell left a large personal art collection and a vague but Kay and Ben Fortson at the Kimbell Art Museum opening in 1972imposing mandate to “build a museum of the first class.” Velma then immediately contributed her half of the estate to that same end.

More than any two people, as leaders of the Kimbell Art Foundation board for decades, Kay and Ben have been responsible for seeing the dream become an unlikely reality. But in the summer of 1960, four years before Kay Kimbell’s death, the coming challenges were impossible for the young couple to imagine. Kay was a young wife and mother, Ben an ambitious oilman who had never set foot inside a museum.

That year, while traveling with another couple to the Olympic games in Rome, the party from Texas made a brief stop in Amsterdam. The wives then coaxed their husbands into visiting the famous Rijkmuseum, home to one of the world’s great art collections. Most of the names of the artists there were unrecognizable to Ben.

“That’s the day I became familiar with Rembrandt,” Ben told me a few years ago.

But it was more than that. As he viewed the collection of Rembrandts, one by one, Ben understood immediately why the work of the Dutch master had endured through the centuries. He might not necessarily have had the vernacular to explain what he felt—Ben just knew.

“I remember walking through and seeing how the Rembrandts just glowed and stuck out,” he said. “There was something about the way he painted faces.”

He would never forget the experience, particularly with all that was to come. In 1975, Richard Brown acquired a Rembrandt masterpiece for the Kimbell. “Bust of a Young Jew” is a dark painting of a brooding young man in a yarmulke that was finished in 1663, late in the artist’s life and the same period that Rembrandt completed “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” That was when the artist most sought to explore the human spirit through his work.Bust of a Young Jew

For Ben Fortson, the Kimbell’s Rembrandt remains deeply personal and satisfying. But he has never forgotten the broader meaning of his experience with the Dutch master.

“That’s what we’re trying to develop here,” Ben Fortson said. “We give people the opportunity to come in, sit down, and really look at masterpieces, one at a time. If you can just educate one person like me, who walks in at eighteen or nineteen or twenty, and he sees masterpieces and the experience just sticks...That changes a person’s life.”

The December weekday afternoon had turned overcast. Dusky natural light filtered into the Kimbell gallery where I was greeted by a Picasso painting. Further down the greens, blues and browns of a Cézanne landscape fairly leapt from the canvas. There was a Cézanne portrait hanging nearby, and a Matisse on the opposite wall and at the end of the room the Kimbell’s newest acquisition, a sublime landscape by the French painter Pierre Bonnard.

But on this visit to the Kimbell I had a destination in mind, so I had to tear myself away. A left turn into an adjoining room, past Monet’s Weeping Willow to the place where Rembrandt’s moody masterpiece hung. The face of the young Jew was half in shadow—curls of beard and forelocks and eyes whose expression have baffled viewers for four centuries. Were they sad? Weary? Did they even betray a subtle mirth? As I wondered again, I was conscious of the beating of my heart and stirrings in the deepest part of my being.

Then I moved closer to the painting, standing where Rembrandt himself once stood. Inspection from that distance revealed that the speck of light at the end of the nose was really a dab of white paint; the wisps of beard and lines in the forehead were brushstrokes. It was humbling, such an intimate acquaintance with the details of his creation.

I heard a voice behind me.

“What do you see?” the middle-aged man asked.

I told him that for all the times I had looked at this picture, I never quite knew. The picture meant something different to me every time I stood before it.

“I sure don’t know anything about this stuff,” he said.

“But that’s the glory of it,” I said. “You don’t need to be an expert.”

As we stood there, I told him the story of young Texas oil man in Amsterdam, in a museum for the first time, understanding the greatness of Rembrandt the moment he encountered it. As Ben Fortson learned that day, you don’t need to know, at least not in the scholarly sense.

“Wow,” the man said.

He paused while looking at the painting.

“If I can take the time to appreciate these things. I can appreciate God’s work, mountains, rivers. But this…”

He smiled, thanked me for my time, and wandered through the quiet gallery toward the next masterpiece.

**

Rembrandt van Rijn, Bust of a Young Jew, 1663 Oil on canvas 25 7/8 x 22 5/8 in. (65.8 x 57.5 cm) AP 1977.04 Kimbell, Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

**

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