#human players keeping it pretty yet sophisticated

[the-unconquered-queen]

One thing I’ve always loved about looking at the fandom’s Blades screenshots is seeing everyone’s best attempts at ethereal, fantasy-sounding names. I live for that shit and I live for people getting really into showing off/explaining their MC’s names.

[retroyousei]

Female characters in retro shojo [70s edition, part 1]

Ah, the 1970s (and early 80s), where a majority of the shojo manga stories took place in a distant European country or in America, surrounding either orphan girls from the 19th or early 20th century, who remain cheerful and have adventures, trying to find out who they are, making friends and falling in love, or epic historical stories filled with war, scandals and larger than life characters. If the manga was taking place in Japan, the plot was somehow more down to earth -though most of the time it restrained the same amount of unrealism- and it was either about following the journey of a girl who pursues the career of her dreams and evolves into a notable person, or a high school story filled either with melodrama and angst or a more heartwarming romantic comedy. But in this two-part article I won’t talk about plot tropes of the shojo manga of that era -as this topic deserves an exclusive article-, but about the female characters (I will dedicate an article on male characters some other time). Those characters are very important, as they set the standards of today’s manga and anime. But it should be noted that back then the formula of their design and characteristics are different from today’s. Those are the categories that I’ve noticed, regarding the appearance and personality.

The “average” protagonists

They are the most common category. Usually, they come from middle class and they are presented either as cheerful and a little dense schoolgirls, or plain looking and unrefined, as oppose to their antagonists or rivals who are well educated, beautiful and more talented, but this may serve as a determination for them to improve. Other times they are presented as headstrong heroines, ahead of their time, who refuse to compromise and for this they are a pain to their old-fashion society. Either way, they are kind, good, well-intentioned and want to help the others, that’s why they make friends easily. The thing that really works with these characters and makes them much more interesting than they may seem, is that they are independent and built their future on their own and they never give up, no matter what happens and what someone might say about them. Even when they are not sure of themselves, they always keep trying, until they reach to their dream. They use their obstacles as strength and determination to go on, proving that they are not average at all.

Maya, the protagonist of “Glass Mask” is a great example of this. She starts as a good-for-nothing daughter of a poor family, who isn’t particularly accomplished, but has a hidden passion for acting which she hadn’t realise it herself at that point. But when she is discovered by Tsukigake, a former legendary actress, she realises how much she wants to be an actress to a point that she lied saying that her mother allowed her to study to sensei’s acting school and ran away from home. Not even when her mother told her that she doesn’t consider her as her daughter anymore, she didn’t gave up, in spite of being very hurt by this. Her path towards acting wasn’t easy. Many times she has to face many who say that she doesn’t belong to that industry, or who are jealous of her talent and means her harm, but with her faith in herself, she always overcomes those obstacles. An admirable thing about her is that she dislikes fame, being shy, as she just wants to act and that she does not gives up, no matter what and even when she does, she quickly stands up. The most interesting dynamic of the story is her worthy rivalry with Ayumi, that is clearly a case of the trope “technician vs performer”, with Maya as the performer, as her standard method to learn how to play a character is to become that character. As the story progresses, Maya evolves from a girl with a hidden talent, to a young actress who portraits an original take to classic characters, but who still had much to learn, to one of the greatest actresses of her generation.

In “Yokohama Monogatari”, Uno starts as a plain, poor, orphan girl, who is ignorant about the world, as she hasn’t even seen the sea before and she believed that westerners were vampires who could drink people’s blood, that’s why they had blonde hair and blue eyes. She starts to work as a companion in a rich family to their daughter Mariko, who is the same age as her. Besides their differences, they become quickly best friends. While Mariko is a little spoiled, Uno, despite of her ignorance of world, can be more considerate and responsible in some matters. She also has a lust for learning and soon her and Mariko pursuade her family to go to school. There, she meets many people, among them there are a few foreigners too, she makes a lot of friends, and she excels at all of her studies, being hardworking. As the years passed by, Japan changes and allows exchange of ideas from many cultures -it’s Meiji era we are taking about, that means the last quarter of the 19th century- and Uno evolves from a poor, -many would say- hopeless for her situation, clueless of the world girl, to an open minded, educated and refined woman, surrounded by many people she loves.

In “Tokimeki Tonight”, Ranze -well except of being the daughter of Dracula and warewolf and having her own vampire powers as well- is an average girl who is friendly, sweet and little quirky girl who goes to school and falls in love with Shuun. Some may say that she is pretty basic, but in fact, she knows her self worth well, so even when her parents were disappointed with her not having any power yet, at the beginning of the story, she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Also she is very headstrong that she falls in love with a human boy, while she knows well that a creature from the demon world and a human cannot be together. But in spite of all of that, she decides to stay true to her own feelings and even though she’s not so sure about Shuun’s feelings for her either, she doesn’t give up and waits for him, because she hopes and deep down knows that he likes her too and she is right. And even when her parents want her to marry prince Aaron of the demon world and even the king- learn that she likes a human, in spite of that being against the rules, she isn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs. Later though, we learn that Shuun is the lost prince of the demon world, so he is not a human after all, but that’s another story.

In “Aim For The Ace”, Hiromi is a typical schoolgirl who struggles to get better in tennis, when she gets selected as one of the club’s main players in school by the new coach, as he saw potential in her. Some of her seniors are jealous of her because of that and at first she thinks that she is not worth such a discrimination, but soon she improves and realises how much she loves tennis. There’s also a very similar rivalry dynamic with “glass mask” between Hiromi and Reika who grow to be worthy opponents.

In “Haikara San Ga Toru”, Benio is a headstrong young woman who studies Kendo, drinks sake and prefers reading literature and feminist ideas, rather than being interested in housework. She also likes to dress in western clothes, rather than the traditional kimono and strongly believes that women should have the right to decide for their future on their own and they should marry for love. But her world turns upside down when her father announces that he has arranged a marriage for her. The one that he indends for her is someone she knew before, very briefly and accidentally, a lieutenant named Shinobu. Of course, she refuses, being loyal to her ideals and she goes out of her way to avoid him, just to satisfy her pride, in spite of actually starting developing feelings for him. When she moves to his grandparents’ house to get prepared as his wife, she purposely fails in all of her duties as a housewife and constantly argues with his grandparents, but all of that only makes Shinobu fall for her even more. It’s only when he leaves to go to the war, when she realises her feelings for him and during at that time when everyone thought that he was dead, she matured and became even stronger, remaining loyal to him and determined to work as a journalist to support his family, but also tracking him down, hoping that he’s still alive. Of course, at the very end, they live happily ever after together. Benio’s character development is admirable; starting as a clever, but headstrong girl, to an independent and wise woman, proving that you don’t have to disagree with everyone in order to prove that you are the one who chooses how to live your own life.

The villains

Their extreme pride and vain is their common nature. Most of the times they come from a wealthy family, so they are either oujo-sans who are always dressed elegantly, are seemingly refined and they tend to have curly, blonde hair -as blonde hair seem to be associated with wealth and sophistication in Japan-, or they are just spoiled brats that demand that everyone will do as they say. They are the main antagonist of the story for different reasons. The most common one is that they are jealous of the heroine, either because they are their love rivals and they are jealous of the heroine’s relationship with the love interest of the story, or because they are just pathologically jealous of the heroine because of her looks, her happiness, her luck and her loving nature. Another reason they act the way they do is because they want power and success, or they just want to secure all of that. The worse and least complex reason of all is that they are just mean for no particular reason.

Eliza, from “Candy Candy” is the typical alpha b*tch who is pathologically jealous of Candy. At first, she along with her brother, makes her life miserable, by blaming her for the bad things they do, such as hurting the horses in the stables, provoking her and then telling to their mother that she’s wild and leaving her alone in a town she doesn’t know and locking her in dark rooms. After that, during their time in London, Eliza says to everyone that Candy is an orphan who made her life miserable, even blaming her for Antony’s death. Later, having the habit of falling in love with the one that Candy likes too, school, she falls for Terry and constantly tries to turn him against her, failing miserably. She also writes a fake letter to her that it was supposedly from Terry and to Terry too, to meet each other in the stables at night and with this, she blabs them to the teachers and Candy, having no choice, leaves school. Later, when Candy was pursuing a career as a nurse, she continues her cruel ways and her mother also threats the director of the hospital where she was working, that if they won’t fire her, the Leagan family will withdraw their funds for the hospital and she also made sure that no hospital from Chicago will hire her, leaving Candy in a difficult situation. Those are only of few of the things that Leagan family did to Candy. The worst part is that they don’t pay for what they did at the end.

Fukiko from “Oniisama e” fits well this image; She is a refined lady from a rich family, the president of the sorority and very educated, that’s why she is admired by everyone. However, in reality she is manipulative, proud and very possessive. She wants to control everyone and she’s even willing to go out of her way to achieve what she wants. For instanse, she’s jealous of Nanako because she is close to Henmi Takehito, the one that she (Fukiko) is in love with, so to control her, she chooses her to be a member of the sorority and demands that she will stay away from him, even by pulling her into the lake and attempt to drown her . She also makes Rei’s life miserable, by stepping into her weakness, refuse to accept her as a member of their family and constantly manipulating her with the cruelest of ways. Also, it’s revealed that her friends from the sorority are feeling pressured because of her. Later, with the death of Rei, along with her realisation that Henmi and Kaoru No Kimi are truly in love, surprisingly, she regrets, gives up on her cruel ways and matures, growing even more beautiful for all of that.

Yoko from “Tokimeki Tonight” is a different case. She is the love rival of the story and the have loved Shuun ever since they were little. Being the only daughter of a rich businessman, she is spoiled and when something doesn’t go as she wants, she is is angry and demands that everything will go the way she wants. She envies Ranze for her close relationship with Makabe and ever since she accidentally saw her transforming, she tried desperately to prove others that she (Ranze) is a vampire. Her character is less dramatic and more comedic, as she is often grumpy and clumsy. But she isn’t really a bad person and she doesn’t really cause an awful lot of trouble.

In “The Rose of Versailles”, Madam Du Barry, the king’s mistress, wants to sustain her place in the court and demands that Marie Antoinette, who was at that time the dauphine, will speak to her. She also have tried to poison one of the court ladies. Countess De polignag becomes the queen’s best friend, for her own benefits and manipulates her without her (Marie Antoinette) knowing, like telling her to lie about being pregnant and also persuade her to start gambling in the court, which was illegal. She’s also Rosalie’s biological mother and accidentally kills the woman which raised her daughter and she’s the reason that her other daughter suicides, because she cannot handle the marriage the she arranged for her. Besides of her daughter’s death, she doesn’t seem to regret for any of her actions as she tries to make Rosalie merry the same man. Luckily Rosalie escapes. Also, she tried to sabotage Oscar many times and all this was just for the sake of power and money.

In “Glass Mask”, Norie Otobe, befriends Maya and she is supposedly her assistant, but in reality she just waits for the right moment to strike and steal Maya’s role and career. Unfortunately, she succeeds and it costs a lot for Maya, for a while. Luckily Ayumi discovers this and punishes her with the best way ever.

The tomboys

They are either mysterious, or lively, but one thing is for sure; they are dressed in clothes that are considered to be “manly”, they are handsome and they are constantly mistaken for a boy. They are also very elegant and educated and their image is that of a prince. That’s why they are admired by both women and men. Some may say that even though they are trying to be like a man, they are still weak, but they point out that just because they dress more “tomboyish”, doesn’t mean that it makes them less of a woman. After all, when they want to, they can transform into the most feminine girl of all. They also prove that their sexuality is not associated with their looks, as a “masculine” girl has the same possibilities of being heterosexual or homosexual, with a more “feminine” one. So, they break all the stereotypes regarding women. Many times, they are portrayed as headstrong heroines who stand up for their beliefs and their friends.

The most famous character that supports this image is Oscar from “the Rose of Versailles”. Oscar is one of the daughters of the Jerjeyes household. Not having any son, her father decided to raise her as a boy so that one day she will succeed him. Oscar dresses in boys’ clothes and learns activities like fencing and archery. When she was fourteen, she was tasked to serve as Marie Antoinette’s bodyguard. The manga often pointed out how different those two were regarding appearance and character, even if they were in the same age. Oscar has a strong sense of justice and she always protects the weak and is not afraid to challenge someone that she believes that isn’t right. Of course, she is admired by men and women alike and she is also a great and loyal friend. At one point she falls in love with Fersen, who loves Marie Antoinette. But because of her respect for the queen and her love of Fersen, she helps them, despite being heartbroken. At the end, she realises that she loves her childhood friend, Andre. She loves medieval combat, drinking heavy drinks, talking about politics and playing violin. Many pointed out that being a woman she was weaker but she always proved them wrong, pointing out that women can do anything and that it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, only how skilful you are. She was hiding her femininity not because she wanted to be a man, but because that if she acted like a woman, the society might think that she was weak and she wouldn’t be able to have the access and the freedom to do what women normally wouldn’t do back then, because women were alowed to limited things. In the early 1970s, by the time this manga was ongoing, the second wave of feminism had already started and women started fighting for equal legal and social rights, so Oscar’s character was influenced by all this.

Rei from “Oniisama e”, is admired by her fellow classmates and is also called “saint Juste”, named after one of the leaders from French Revolution, due to her physical resemblance to him. She is very charismatic, excelling to sports, piano, guitar and theatre, she is very elegant and dresses often in a black suit. Unfortunately she is drug-addict, she smokes and can be suicidal, carrying always pills and a sharp object with her. She is also obsessed with Fukiko, the sorority’s president, for many reasons, causing her to be controlled and abused by her. She also lives alone in a depressing house filled with mirrors and this also causes to be depressed. Her best friend is Kaoru no Kimi, who’s also a tomboy, but they are entirely different and she befriends Nanako and her friends. In the end she suicides, taking too many sleeping pills, having everyone, especially Nanako, left devastated.

Also from “Oniisama e”, Kaoru, is a tomboy who is strong and energetic. She is athletic and excels at basketball, but she is also very cool and doesn’t seem to care that she is the best at something that she’s doing, that’s why she is admired by her fellow classmates who gave her the nickname “Kaoru no Kimi”, from a Japanese classical novel; “the tale of Genji”. She also has a great sense of justice, as when she sees classmates being bullied, she defends them and put the bullies on their place. She is also very loyal and supportive and cares deeply about her friends, helping them when they are in need, especially her best friend, Rei, for whom she is very concerned. But in spite of her energetic appearance, she suffers from breast cancer and tries to keep it a secret, pretending that she is healthy and that everything is under control. But in fact, she pushes away her beloved, Henmi Takehito, concealing her true feelings, in order for him to be happy without her and not suffer anymore, showing how selfless she is and how much she loves him to a point of sacrificing her own feelings. At the end, it pays off and they end up together, living happily.

Another honourable mention is Rei, from “Glass Mask”. Rei is the older student of Tsukikage sensei’s company and one of Maya’s best friends. She is a tomboy who wears those characteristic 70s jeans and for some reason is mistaken by a boy -much to her dislike-, despite of being obvious that she is a girl. Being an actress, she can transform into a beautiful princess in no time, but she also portraits very well a prince. In the first volumes, she portrayed Jo, from “little women” which was a role very suited for her. As a sister figure for Maya, she is loyal, friendly and the responsible one who helps the theatre company stay organised and is a very strict teacher to Maya, helping her because she knows her potential. Also from “Glass Mask”, Keiko from the “Ikkakuju group” is also mistaken as boy, but she can transform into a pretty princess in no time.

Note: At the first half of the 20th century “Little Women” were very popular in Japan, particularly Jo, who was tomboyish and outspoken and her character had inspired the first female mangakas of the 60s for their stories and characters.

[theggning]

Codsworth Is So Underrated, You Guys

ALTERNATE TITLE: Codsworth and the Totally Understated Mindbending Evolution of Artificial Consciousness

I find Codsworth is often the most underrated of the 16 companions in Fallout 4. Your faithful robot butler is among the very first you can recruit and an excellent early-game ally, but he has a few disadvantages in gameplay that mean he’s often sent back to Sanctuary before long. Codsworth is a mid-to-close range fighter only, cannot wear armor or be equipped with weapons. He cannot be healed by stimpak, which makes him a liability if you’re playing on Survival mode. He has no companion quest of his own, so unless you particularly enjoy him there’s not a compelling reason to keep him for a long time. He also becomes recruitable exactly 2 minutes after adorable puppy Best Boy Dogmeat, so he is often (understandably) replaced just as soon as he’s made available.

But there is this great, completely understated facet to Codsworth, so understated that the game does not draw attention to it in any way. And yet, it is a wonderful reflection of many of the themes of Fallout 4 and, I believe, a pretty strong indication of its thesis statement.

Now what in the hell am I talking about?

Like many sci-fi/fantasy universes, the Fallout series is home to many highly-advanced robots. Robots were commonplace before the Great War, and many have survived the bombs intact and in working order. Others have been built or modified by wastelanders to serve various tasks (Percy, Ada.) The most important thing to understand about robots, though, is though they may have vivid personalities programmed in, they are widely accepted to be objects. They are thought of the same way as an appliance, a machine built for a specific purpose and programmed to follow a strict set of protocols.

Many jokes revolve around the relatively rigid intelligence of robots. Pre-War, many were deployed in inappropriate jobs or designed haphazardly (Mister Handies acting as nurses in a hospital, “paramedic” Protectrons with massive deadly tasers for hands, military robots constantly going haywire and erupting in friendly fire.) Others continue to man businesses and play out daily tasks as they were programmed to do over 200 years ago. Most robots are incapable of understanding anything beyond their initial programming, and most pre-War robots are completely unaware that the Great War ever happened.

When the Sole Survivor reunites with Codsworth at the ruins of their home, it seems like he, too, doesn’t understand what’s going on. He talks about tending the (dead) garden, references the (ghoulified) neighbors, and generally acts like the chipper robot butler Sole left behind on their way to Vault 111.

But there is something slightly… off in Codsworth’s dialogue here. Though he acts like the war never happened, he also specifically mentions details that suggest it did:

Player Default: Codsworth! You're still... fully operational?          

Codsworth: {Defiant} Well of course, mum. You can thank the fine engineers at General Atomics for that! At least, you could have. Had they not been... vaporized.

A bit over 210 actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished.

You've no idea the desperation for human contact one develops over 200 years. {Upset, recalling bad memories of encountering raiders and scavengers. / Disgust} And when you do encounter them? Oh the cruelty! You're either... target practice or... spare parts!

Even stranger, Codsworth mentions details that are plainly made-up (or some kind of delusion):

Codsworth: It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers. Or perhaps charades. Shaun does so love that game. Is the lad... with you...?   

Player Default: Codsworth... listen to me carefully... have you seen him? Have you seen Shaun?              

Codsworth: Why, sir had him last, remember? Perhaps he's gone to the Parker residence to arrange a play-date?

(Shaun is an infant. He is too young to play charades or to go to the neighbors for a play-date.)

So at once, Codsworth does and does not acknowledge the war. He does and does not seem to understand what’s happened, and he does and does not seem to follow Sole’s urgency regarding their spouse’s death and Shaun’s kidnapping.

And then, after a speech check, Codsworth finally snaps and breaks down sobbing in despair. Not only does he understand that the war happened, he has developed the ability to get depressed about it. Longing for human contact and with nothing else to do, he’s even developed coping mechanisms to help him try to deal with his loneliness and despair—futilely trying to do his chores and deluding himself into pretending everything is completely normal.

Wait a minute. Sobbing? Despair? Depression? Coping mechanisms and delusions? This Is all pretty sophisticated stuff to be programmed into a robot, and if you spend more time with Codsworth, the reality of what’s happened to him becomes apparent:

Codsworth has evolved beyond his programming. In his 210 lonely years of existence, he has developed emotional reactions and self-awareness far beyond that of most other robots, and, indeed, has basically evolved an artificial consciousness.

“Emergent intelligence” is the theoretical ability of an AI to eventually develop something resembling human thought processes, and it seems that our dear Codsworth has undergone this. Traveling with him, he displays many sophisticated thoughts and behaviors far beyond what most robots are shown to be capable of. He has memories of pre-War time and places, and understands how various locations have changed. He is capable of learning new information and forming opinions on it, gaining his own understanding of the people and factions in the Commonwealth. He can feel happiness, sorrow, fear, disgust. He can anticipate things, predict danger and imagine how people might respond to your actions. The mere he fact he has opinions and a moral code that he applies to you shows he has free will, something even other robot companions don’t (Ada has a personality, but absolutely does not care about your actions.)

He’s also smart enough to make many wry observational jokes, and to lay one hell of a sick burn on you:

{Joking - Found an old bowling alley. / Amused} Fancy a game, mum? Something tells me the bumpers are no longer available.

 Codsworth’s intelligence is even more sophisticated than that. He displays stunning self-awareness, frequently referencing the fact he is a robot and what that means. He is very proud of his background as General Atomics’ finest, and seems pleased with his robot nature and his lot in life. (Unlike Curie, I don’t think Codsworth would ever really want to gain a synth body. He seems quite happy as he is.)

Here he is making reference to still feeling the tug of his programming:

{Seeing an office with chairs arranged in a circle. / Neutral} I've the most incredible urge to rearrange those chairs in a more perfect circle.

Understanding when other robots are restricted by theirs:

A pity. It appears Deezer's programming is too severe to allow for normal conversation. Ah well.

And when they’re actually not:

Codsworth: Greetings, sir. Good to see another robot in town. That chef hat becomes you.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?

Codsworth: Takahashi you say? I'm Codsworth, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?              

Codsworth: Is that so? Well, we both know RobCo is no General Atomics. It's not surprising it failed, shoddy work and all.  {Friendly - trying to cheer up another robot. / Friendly} Chin up, though. Never know when parts may turn up.

 And here’s Galaxy Brain Codsworth ruminating on his own state of being and contemplating his nature:

{Disappointed that he can't be 100% human sometimes. / Sad} It's unfortunate that I lack the proper design to consume liquids. Something about camaraderie over a few drinks is very inviting.            

I suppose if I had the hardware, I'd have the software as well. I'd hate to see how that'd affect my honesty and manner settings.

{Reconsidering what he thought was a good idea. / Thinking} Indeed. Perhaps I should rethink my initial desire.

Hilariously, Codsworth does not seem fully aware of how remarkable his intelligence is. He occasionally says things like “if I had feelings” and “if I could feel things,” indicating that in some ways he still believes he is only a robot and defines himself by what a robot is and does.

But as we can see, our humble robot butler has essentially evolved to become the smartest, most emotionally intelligent and person-like robot in the Commonwealth*, and potentially in the series.

([SIDE NOTE: Other FO4 robots nearing Codsworth’s level of consciousness and developed personality include Captain Ironsides, KLE-O, Whitechapel Charlie, and perhaps Takahashi. Curie is close, but also receives the unfair advantage of being uploaded into a synth body with a human brain. Jezebel also functions off of a human brain. Nick is not a robot, he’s a synth (though he does jokingly refer to himself as one) and also has the advantage of a human brain encoded on his processor.])

Also hilariously, the game basically does not acknowledge Codsworth’s impressive evolution. At all. There is absolutely no direct mention of it in the script. It is all left to ambient dialogue and the player’s own observations. And because so many people overlook Codsworth as a companion, they may not even realize exactly how unique his expanded consciousness is.

Now, you might call this total lack of mention a mistake, an oversight on Bethesda’s part, or that old chestnut “bad writing.” I don’t think it is. I think it’s a deliciously subtle little detail to include in a story about humanity, machines, artificial intelligence, and what makes a person.

Many of the themes of FO4 revolve around synths—distinctly not robots, but androids, artificially created beings with fully organic human bodies. Most of the storyline factions have strong beliefs about synths and the relative humanity thereof. The Institute believes that synths are objects, tools, machines no different from a robot who are only simulating their personalities through programming. The Brotherhood believes synths are monstrous abominations, a danger to humanity itself, technology run amok which needs to be destroyed. The Railroad believes they are people. Not humans, but people, built instead of born, free-thinking beings that deserve to be treated with respect and given rights.

Through quests, dialogue, notes, worldbuilding and other venues, players explore these questions. What makes someone a person? If your personality and memories can be rewritten or programmed, then who are you, really? Where do we draw the line between humans and machines, and how do we decide who belongs where?

Meanwhile, as the player contemplates the nature of personhood and the definition of intelligence, their robot butler quietly evolves into a fully-conscious person on his own, right beside them.

Codsworth is unquestionably a machine, but also unquestionably beyond the appliance he was built to be. Which to some philosophies and players should really beg a few other questions. If a robot can be considered a person, then what makes synths so different? And how many excuses do we have to make to pretend otherwise?

Ya boy Codsworth may not be flashy, or powerful, or kissable. He may not be the most glamorous companion around. But he is a good friend, a beloved member of the family, and above all else, a loyal butler—content to serve, quietly and humbly doing his job where some may never even notice him-- or the fact that he’s casually become his own person and sent generations of roboticists and philosophers spinning in their graves.

[nymphicushollandicus]

further sk8 thoughts, as of ep 6:

- i thought there was a catboy in this but it turns out there's just an 8th grader with a scenecore cat ear hoodie. shoutout to miya for wearing a tail in his skateboarding death matches.

- big fan of lunatic, adrenaline-addicted thrill seeker langa. i was a little afraid he was going to be a one note kuudere but he's pretty fun to watch imo.

- WHY does kaoru make his robot call him master? why did he name it? what on earth is his deal, anyhow? he's a professional calligrapher, and excellent at it. he invented a sophisticated ai system that he seems to have formed an affectionate attachment to and he demands others call it by the human name he gave it. he is one of the most formidable players of his sport. and he appears to only be in his 20's or 30's. who came up with this dude i just wanna talk

- adam is... i mean there's a lot to unpack there but i will say that it seems weird for one dude to be like, the main antagonist of a racing show. i'm glad it moves away from having practice and races take up 100% of the screentime, don't get me wrong. i'd just like it better if it weren't One Specific Guy Who Sucks.

- another adam gripe: it feels like they took whatever shortcuts available to them to make him repulsive instead of putting in the legwork to create a man whom i can really detest. it's like he's an ice cream sundae and they piled on all the unpleasant toppings they could. he dehumanizes his assistant constantly. he seriously injures opponents for fun. his way of speaking is creepy and his costume incorporates a mask, which makes it even creepier. he has a whole wall of screens that he watches people on when they catch his interest. he seems to be genuinely "flirting" with a high school kid, in a way that is posessive and threatening. and to top it all off he's a smarmy rich dude who puts on a magnanimous face to the public. it's like, c'mon. make a whole person and then put that person in a situation that would make them the antagonist instead of just going to supervillian build-a-bear.

- not related but why do they keep framing reki and langa's interactions in such a romantic way? if i think about 90% of their onscreen relationship it'd read as platonic if the framing were neutral. but the way it's presented is SO lovey dovey please help is this? queerbaiting? just like... what are they GOING for???

- actually they're only halfway through the season so if they were going for an implied romance it makes sense that it wouldn't necessarily be obvious yet. i'm sorry sk8 writers, i jumped the gun with that one.

- what's going on with reki's previous best friend? presumably he had one before langa arrived but he's spent all his time with langa since they met. honest to god this dude was like, "oh you wanna SKATEBOARD? hell yeah" and ditched everyone, on the spot, forever. reki. apologize.

- miya using the same rpg lingo as his old group of friends put a little crack in my heart :'(

[bvnhargreeves]

hargreeves siblings as D&D classes/races⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

Luther: Human Fighter. I don’t think this needs much explanation. he’s the most common class/race combination and he would be a super intense player (I could also see him taking a few levels of barbarian or paladin?? he likes the aesthetic of a noble paladin but ultimately he just wants those 4 attacks)

Diego: Human Ranger/Rogue multiclass. he knows elves have better suited stats when it comes to being rangers but he thinks elves are prissy. he picked ranger so he could throw knives and rogue so he could look good doing it. he’s also very intense and has started PvP w/ Luther multiple times

Allison: Aasimar Sorcerer . Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking- “Allison would want to be an elf!” and that’s true, but i think ultimately she wants to play an attractive race (which Aasimars certainly are) AND have the charisma, which is what i would correlate to her canon powers. aasimars have +2 to charisma and sorcerers have charisma-based spells. she’s a pretty serious player but she’s ultimately just there to have fun and live out her fantasy hot girl summer

Klaus: DROW NECROMANCER. this is another obvious one that i really don’t have to explain. (i could also see him being the chaotic player that’s like... a gnome barbarian or something) but yeah he’s definitely a chaotic player and gets super creative during fights (the dm hates him)

Five: High Elf Rogue. this gives Five everything he wants— sophistication and the ability to kill people before they even know what hit them. i could also see him being a halfling rogue, which has the same +2 dex and would match his short height, but he probably thinks he’s above halflings. he’s the player that tries to keep his party on track WHICH IS WHY I ALSO COULD SEE HIM BEING THE DM!! so yeah

Ben: Human Cleric. we still don’t know a TON about him yet (so excited to see his alt self in s3) but from the way he is trying to help klaus (and vanya and the whole family, as shown in s2) and offer support i definitely see him as a cleric. he would go along with klaus’ in-game schenanigans up until the party is in danger, then he would get serious.

Vanya: Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer. tieflings are often misunderstood and left out bc of their hellish ancestry, which is a feeling vanya can relate to. she’s a wild magic sorcerer because wild magic surges emulate the crazy amounts of energy she can put out, even if it is sometimes to the detriment of her party (and the world). tieflings make good sorcerers bc of their charisma! perfect! vanya really enjoys the escape that dnd gives her and she always feels really bad when she rolls badly a wild magic surge

[andrebearakovsky]

Capitals W Magazine: The Fanciness Scale

So my friend just gave me a copy of the Capitals W magazine, and oh man is there some content in here. Every player has his own page, and everyone is photographed in their own styles, from the super casual to the incredibly fancy. And after looking at them all, I felt the intense need to share my opinions about them all with you, as well as rank them on the casual/fancy scale. So below I have a review/interpretation of every player’s outfit, with photos I took of the magazine lying on my desk, along with their rating on the fanciness scale, with 1 being the most casual and 10 being the most fancy (note: this is not a rating of how “good” it is, just how fancy).

And most of this will be under the cut, cause boy will this be long.

Michal Kempny

Starting off strong. With Michal Kempny, there is no other option than to look good. He’s hot and sophisticated. The suit. The pose. The hair. The gaze. The mahogany background. I have no complaints here.

Fanciness rating: 10/10

TJ Oshie

TJ also opts for a suit, one which he admits in the attached article he did not pick out himself. A suit is a suit, but the colors feel strange to me and he gets points off for those shoes. It’s like he’s trying to have what Kempny has, but he just don’t have it. Also that pose makes this look feel a lot more casual.

Fanciness rating: 8/10

Radko Gudas

I’m a fan of Dadko’s tasteful weekend look. It looks like he’s ready to host a barbecue; but not like a small, casual barbecue for just your close friends, more like a big Labor Day barbecue that you invite everyone you know and also your in-laws to.

Fanciness rating: 4/10

Brendan Leipsic

I have never seen Brendan wear anything other than yoga pants and nothing looks to have changed here. I genuinely believe this is the outfit he wears every day, and not even a photoshoot can force him into nicer clothing. I can appreciate the attitude.

Fanciness rating: 1/10

Jakub Vrana

I can’t take this as seriously as I should because this pose is just too funny to me. It’s like he’s trying to be cool but oh man is he failing. I do love this jacket though. This is a jacket you put on deliberately for a Look. We’ve passed beyond the casual, but we’re not too fancy just yet, we’re still in jeans. This is an outfit for a fun night on the town with the boys.

Fanciness rating: 6/10

Garnet Hathaway

I had to lie down and have a moment to myself when I saw this photo. It’s as if he looked into my soul and said “I know exactly what you, specifically, want.” The suit. The vest - also the fact that the vest is blue is nice. The hair curl. The smirk off into the middle distance. The fucking carrying the suit jacket over the shoulder. This man went to a preppy college in New England and you can tell. This is every man I have ever wanted to sweep me off my feet. The attempts to keep my libido in check are failing. Please marry me instantly.

Fanciness rating: 11/10 yes i am biased

Tom Wilson

At first glance, this outfit looks well put together, but upon closer inspection, all it really is is a black t-shirt, black jeans, and sneakers. How does he make it look so good? Is it the pose? I think it’s just the fact that Tom is a hunk. Overall, this is an every day outfit, but like, a put-together one that looks nice.

Fanciness rating: 4/10

Nic Dowd

This is similar to the Vrana look. This is a very nice jacket, and when he puts on this jacket I know we’re going out to have a nice evening, but not too intense. Or maybe that’s just the vibe Nic Dowd himself gives off. Either way: excellent outfit.

Fanciness rating: 6/10

Lars Eller

This is the pinnacle of fanciness. Lars was told they were doing a photoshoot and went “this is my moment.” The suit is excellent. I love the colors. He, a pale blond Dane, does not look washed out. His hair is perfect. But what really makes it here is the pose. He’s a tryhard, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. This is a fancy man.

Fanciness rating: 10/10

Nicklas Backstrom

Who told him to stand like this. What even is this pose. I can’t get over this. “This is exactly how a human would pose.” And the outfit - a polo shirt and what appear to be slacks, right in the middle of fancy and casual. Whatever, the outfit is secondary to the completely unnatural pose here.

Fanciness rating: 5/10

Braden Holtby

How do I even begin to rate Braden Holtby. This outfit is certainly not “fancy,” but it is absolutely not casual, not in the slightest; Braden probably spent two full hours picking this outfit. Fashion is very important to him, and he has a very clear sense of style. This is a quintessential Braden Holtby outfit. The flared-open shirt, the hat, the sunglasses, the bracelets, the rings. The lounging pose. The fact that he’s resting his arm on a stack of books to show you how hipster he is. All that’s missing is his guitar. I love him, but I cannot even dream of rating him on the same scale as everyone else, because he is on a different plane than everyone else.

Fanciness rating: too cool for all of us

Evgeny Kuznetsov

Soft! Soft!!! Soft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fanciness rating: 3/10

Jonas Siegenthaler

Much like Tom, he looks put-together, but it’s just a black sweater. Simple is key, and it works here for Jonas. A comfortable look, an every day look, but one that looks nice.

Fanciness rating: 4/10

Ilya Samsonov

Team baby put on a suit, and he looks good! I like the checkers, the tie is a good color, the shoes are nice. He’s very tall, and the suit is a good choice to show off his long legs; the standing pose also helps show off how tall it is. He looks good. This is a good suit, a good picture. Very fancy, and I feel like a proud mama. Point deducted because his hair just a little bit messy, and the leaning against a wall just a tad casual.

Fanciness rating: 9/10

Travis Boyd

This picture just screams “I am highly uncomfortable and I would rather be anywhere else right now than here doing a photoshoot.” Someone save him. Not fancy in the slightest, but still gets a hair above Brendan Leipsic because this is still a put-together outfit that you can go out to a sit-down dinner in. 

Fanciness rating: 2/10

Carl Hagelin

This is an outfit made for going out, but definitely not to a fancy place. This is what every adult male in your family wears when you’re on family vacation at the beach and you decide to go out to dinner.

Fanciness rating: 5/10

John Carlson

This one is a bit more difficult because it’s certainly not fancy, there is a far too much denim for that, but it’s not casual, because there is a deliberate Look going on here. All I can really focus on is the fact that he is squinting really hard and maybe this photo should have been taken inside.

Fanciness rating: 5.5/10

Nick Jensen

This would get more points if it weren’t for the rip in his jeans. I can’t get over the rip in the jeans. What are you trying to go for here. You would look so put together; the button-up and the jeans actually look pretty nice, but what are you going to do with that rip in your knee, Nick. What are you going to do.

Fanciness rating: 4.5/10 author’s biases against nick jensen may be evident

Dmitry Orlov

I’m in love with everything about this outfit tbh. The shirt and the shoes? Killer. It looks great, it looks pretty dressed up; about as fancy as a Cap could be without wearing a suit. The black outfit contrasting with the white marble background really helps up the fanciness factor. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dima wear any color other than black, ever. Which is fine - he knows his colors, and his color is The Void.

Fanciness rating: 7/10

Richard Panik

Getting some real Don Draper vibes here, but I’m okay with that. Maybe it’s his very angular face. He’s gone with the black and gray tones, which work for the vibe he’s going for. It’s a cool and sexy pose, and it doesn’t even feel ridiculous. I feel like he’s inviting me to come into a room in a 1960s lounge filled with cigar smoke and whiskey, and I might say yes.

Fanciness rating: 10/10

Alex Ovechkin

Frankly I’m surprised Ovi didn’t come in wearing sweatpants or sweans, so this is pretty fancy for him. The nice shirt and the jeans are a solid look, but I just know he’s wearing flip flops on his feet, I saw the behind the scenes video. The flip flops really bring the fanciness score down. I forgive him though, this is pretty good for him.

Fanciness rating: 5/10

BONUS:

Why are you in my home. 0/10

[arickert93]

Animal Crossing is Really Effing  Boring, and I Love It So Much

I don’t know how many of you need to read this, but I definitely need to write this. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are abuzz with proclamations of joy for the game called Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or あつまれどうぶつの森 (Atsumare Doubutsu no Mori, literally “Gather Up! Animal Forest”). If you’re like my mom, you’re probably really interested in such a popular Japanese game because East Asian culture has become so globally legible in the past few decades. 

So, for all of you out there who want some armchair knowledge of the newest Japanese game that’s become almost trivial knowledge to swarths of internet-users, then buckle up, buttercup. Here’s five reasons why this game is so good:

1. You Can Choose Your Gender, But This Choice Means Nothing

The game begins thus: you’re a cute little human (boy/girl/gender-fluid) on an airplane to an uninhabited island that you will be living on. Yes, you can change your gender anytime AND you can wear whatever clothing you like regardless of your gender. Yes, the metaphoric implications of a game about fleeing to a deserted island is ironically an extremely successful game during a time of global quarantine. Don’t think about it too much.

The island is owned by a cute raccoon dog (tanuki in Japanese) named Tom Nook. He and his two identical twin baby tanukis provide you with a tent and some basic furniture, along with two other random villagers who were on the same flight as you: in my case, a unibrowed squirrel named Airisu and an anteater whose name is like Makoto or something.

Together, Airisu, (maybe) Makoto and I began slowly exploring the island. The game lliterally tells you at the beginning, “do whatever you want.” You can run around, discover fruits, and visit Tom Nook&co. in his large, central tent that serves as a town hall. It’s a simple premise that becomes exponentially more interesting.

2.Tom Nook Is a Capitalist and, Yet, I’m Weirdly OK with It

Nook is all about that cash, or bells as the in-game currency is named. After a day goes by, he begins to make suggestions. You can use his workbench to craft furniture and other items out of resources you’ve found around the island. He teaches you how to make tools to extract resources from different objects on the island. You can build a fishing rod to fish (and sell the ones you catch to him of course), or a net to catch insects (again, sell-able for bells), or a shovel to mine iron and stone from rocks. For some, this becomes the purpose of the game: to generate revenue to enable further progress in the game.

But it’s, like, utopic capitalism. Resources are literally infinite (because they are not real) and no one is poor. The game is quite generous, offering tons of freebies that make even chopping wood from your trees an exciting experience. Tom Nook, and his deputy mayor, Isabelle, ultimately treat you like the Head of the Village, and the game quickly becomes more about sharing and having fun.

3. PETA is Mad about It, Which Means It Definitely Treats Animals More Ethically than PETA

Notoriously extreme non-profit PETA wrote a “vegan guide” about how you should not use the game to symbolically harm animals. Yes, the game features fishing, bug-catching, and clamming, and PETA claims that because this would harm the animal in real life, players should abstain from doing it in game.

It’s theoretically possible to avoid fishing and bug-catching, but it means you will only get to experience about 40% of the game. For example, there is a museum where you display the different insects, fish, and pre-historic fossils you find around the island, but to invite Blathers the Owl to your island and prompt him to build this museum, you must catch and “donate” these items to his museum where he displays them. Nook’s twins will buy fish and bugs, villagers will keep fish and bugs as pets. No villager is ever shown eating meat.

In fact, everyone is vegan. The only edible resource in the game is fruit which, when consumed, let’s you dig up and transplant trees (very nifty), or destroy rocks (which you should never do...). Even carnivore animals, like my Tiger Maririn, only drink fruit smoothies, or talk about protein powder, as my anteater “probably-Makoto” does incessantly. He, like every jock, loves to talk about being a jock.

4. I Weirdly Care About My AI Villagers?

I’m an Animal Crossing veteran. I remember when I first played Animal Crossing on the Gamecube at my daycare, the boy playing it with me genuinely asked me “are you a boy or a girl?” when we had to decide our in-game gender. I remember being so furious when he would continuously reset the game.

I remember, as a teenager, talking about my “crush” on certain villagers in the game with some guy I actually had a crush on. Nook, Blathers, the villagers, they’ve been with me throughout my life. I genuinely like them all.

And they have gotten so much smarter. The dozens of different animal species that can populate your town have some pretty sophisticated AI.

And they become your best friends.

Villagers give you presents, they tell funny stories, they interact with each other, and they have personalities. You can also give them clothes and they wear the clothes if they like it and it’s so precious. They’re kind of like tamagotchi, if anyone remembers that. Although, some of them suck, and that’s why you ignore them until they move away from neglect. I don’t have time and energy for everyone, ok?

5. It Helps Me In My Real Life

This game is easy to complain about. The gameplay can be laborious. The third-person camera angle is one-dimensional, so you have to structure your island to ensure you aren’t hiding things. It’s super easy to mess up simple procedures because your character is slightly facing the wrong direction. Your watering can breaks and you have to constantly build new ones. And, inviting someone to your island takes hours of menu navigation and loading screens (ok, more like five minutes, but still).

But, all of this is weirdly OK? It is a life sim, after all, and life is about balance.

The time in the game is real-world, which means if something takes a day inside the game, it takes an actual day. I think about my own time so much more confidently now. I know the value of focused work. I’ve spent hours of free time arranging my fruit trees into a giant orchard, decorating my tatami bedroom to the tiniest detail, and building flower fields devoted to my kangaroo, Mami, a single-mom with an everpresent joey in her pouch who actually waters flowers and teaches me useful recipes, and whom I cherish as my in-game soulmate. The game helps me stay focused and think about large-scale tasks as discrete pockets of consistent (sometimes unpleasant) work. 

At times, it’s pleasantly boring. And boredom is the greatest place to find inspiration.

If you don’t already own a Nintendo Switch, good luck. They’re short-stocked in both the US and Japan as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds. But for anyone who still hasn’t downloaded what is shaping up to be the best game of 2020, send me your friend code if you do. Seriously. 

[connan-l]

Ciconia Phase 1 Ramblings

Well, it sure was a wild ride, but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

The whole thing was very Heavy and Intense and Long and a lot of stuff happened. I’m not sure I really digested everything yet, but I have Thoughts.

GOD I spent so much time writing all of this... At first I just wanted to make a short Twitter thread about it, but it ended up a lot longer than initially... 😔

Those are just some messy ramblings and I don't think I said any more new or interesting stuff than what other people have already said, but I still felt the need to write it down, so...

Ciconia spoilers for Phase 1 and the tips:

So I thought overall it was pretty good and interesting! As someone who didn’t play the demos, I went in completely blind, and it was a nice read. (As such the flood of Okonogi memes some time ago were kinda confusing to me at first lol.)

It was radically different from Higurashi and Umineko, but that was something I expected (Umineko was radically different from Higurashi, after all.)

I’m not sure if it’s going to hit me as personally as Higurashi and Umineko did yet, or even if I’m going to like it as much — I enjoyed Phase 1, and the story is really intriguing, but it’s not quite on the level of its predecessors for now. Then again, it is only the first part of the story so it’s a bit unfair to compare them now, and I remember I was far from being into Higu and Umi by just their first installments too. So I guess I’ll just have to wait for the other phases and see!

On a technical level, this is definitely ones of Ryukishi’s most sophisticated visual novels — with the big animations and sound effects during the battle scenes, of course, but also with the numbers of different backgrounds and the visuals for the Kizuna thing. The sprites are also my favorites from all of Ryu’s games, they have the uniqueness of his artstyle all while being more polished and with really pretty coloring. And the character designs are SUPER GOOD — the best of 07th Expansion works to me (well, I was still a bit disappointed in Vier’s design, though. I mean. She’s just Takano with a lab coat. You could’ve at least changed her clothes or something, Ryu.) The music was the only thing that was... pretty average. It wasn’t bad, there was a lot of neat OST in it... but there wasn’t really anything memorable either (Alright, except for Apocalypsis Ciconia II. This one was dope as hell and it gave me chills.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how good and compelling the worldbuilding was too, as personally I find this peculiar part of Ryukishi’s writing has always been one of his weakest points. I don’t know much about sci-fi stuff admittedly, so I’m not sure how that would be perceived by fans of the genre, but Ciconia’s world is still quite fascinating — the different factions, the technology and selcom stuff, the way childbirth is managed or the history of World War III, all of that was good. Although to be honest, some stuff felt kinda contrived too (like, sure, let’s say the entire history of WWIII is entirely erased, like that we don’t have to deal with the political issues of our current real world lmao), and I don’t know all of the histories of the countries mentioned, so I can’t really tell if some things were insensitive (for example, how Africa was “unified” by a single king felt a bit off to me, but, er... I don’t know...)

The more absurd elements like the conspiracy theories, the chivalric orders or the freaking ILLUMINATI KINGS were pretty hilarious, honestly. I’m... not sure what to make of them. Obviously none of Ryu’s stories were ever going to be realistic (and well, the entire premise of Ciconia is about children soldiers who have the strength of an entire army in one gauntlet, which is ridiculous enough), but knowing him I wonder how much of this is going to be played straight and how much of this is meta stuff. Especially with all the religious/spiritual references (the blue bodies of Evil Miyao and of the gauntlet girls alluding to the Hindu god Shiva, Seshat being a Egyptian goddess, etc.)

I have more mixed feelings about the plot, and especially the pacing. Most of it was okay, but some scenes were really dragging and redundant. Which, isn’t really something new with Ryukishi’s writing, but here especially with the political stuff and the long blocks of exposition it was... kinda boring and hard to focus on it, and after a while it even felt quite egregious. Some of those parts weren’t needed, or at least didn’t need to be that long. Especially given that after the first hours, there were not a lot of more peaceful moments that would give the player time to breath. 

Which is another one of my complaints: a lot of intense things happened, but the narrative rarely give you the time to actually digest those things, especially in the second part of the story. It often pretty much felt like “X event happen > Discussion of X event between the characters > Y event happen > Discussion of Y event between the characters,” and this without any breaks (with the exception of some exposition here and there in between, of course). The events, discussions and characters were interesting enough to more or less keep my attention, but it still felt like too much at times. Part of this may be volunteer, as it put a stressful and opressive feeling on the reader (God, the clock and quotes between each chapters stressed me out a lot lol), and after a while I really felt like I was kinda suffocating with all of this like the characters — but even so I think it would’ve been better to give us some pauses here and there. Which is something we could have had with, say, the tips. I thought it was a shame all of the sixteen tips could only be read once the main story was over, because the narrative could have really benefited from having them fit into the plot or in-between chapters, like in Higurashi.

Also, I know Ciconia wasn’t exactly marketed as an horror story unlike the other WTCs, but hoo boy, I think some of the sequences in it are honestly among the most gory and disturbing things Ryukishi wrote? I haven’t read Iwaihime or TRianThology, so I can’t really say for sure, but damn, those human factories really are big nightmare fuels...

Now, I think the most tricky parts and the ones who are gonna get the most criticisms are, likely, the whole political and military stuff. Ciconia is probably Ryukishi’s most political and provocative work so far, maybe on par with Rose Guns Days — not to say Higurashi and Umineko are not political, they definitely are, but here it truly is in-your-face. Which is not a bad thing, per se, but... let’s say it all depends on how Ryukishi handle and criticize all those stuff down the line in the other installments, when so far it’s been... meh?

Like, the whole military stuff, specifically, was... shaky, at best. The thing with fiction that portray militaries with soldiers as their main characters is that they walk a thin line between just portraying this thing and actively glamorizing it. The narrative was definitely critical of some of it (lol the whole massacre at the end was very obviously there for a reason), and I appreciate Ryukishi often makes a point in his stories to frame a problem with different persepectives... but the whole “healthy military balance” and “Walls of Peace” thing was still iffy, and I’m... unsure about how much of it is going to be criticized within the narrative in the end. Now, again, it is just the beginning of the story, and Ryukishi has always been good at presenting a thing at the start for later on tearing it down to pieces, so... I don’t know.

It’s way too early to decide what kind of themes and messages Ciconia is going to have, so here too I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m just a bit wary given some things that were in RGD were... definitely questionable. Now I actually think Ciconia got to a better start than RGD, but... well. I’m also not really someone who know much about these stuff, so I’m not the best placed to talk about it, but it’s definitely something worth to be under scrutiny.

On the more positive side, there were times where some things felt really, really real, as well as pretty in tone with some of today’s social issues. Like all those news about the terrible things going on in the world and that a war can happen anytime, the military propaganda to recruit young people who “want to fly” in the army but who just end up killing each other, or the feeling that these kids have about how in the end they’re just powerless pawns  who can’t do anything used by selfish old men... I saw someone said Ciconia was basically Fuck Boomers: The Game, and... yeah. Yeah, that’s basicaly it lmao. All of the adults being assholes is not new in WTC or even in Ryukishi’s works in general, but here it was definitely a big theme. God even the whole thing at the end about how the planet is dying and that everyone knows it but people just don’t care about it... lmao, if that wasn’t directly referring what we’re living right now with climate change, I don’t know what is.

I just really loved too the way the game was sort of sold as this “cool sci-fi battle royal,” but in the actual story all of those kids are desperately trying to not kill each other, until the very end where everything just goes to hell.

I said it before, but there really was a huge feeling of suffocating and being powerless the more and more you reach towards the end, and the way everything culminated in this huge massacre truly sent shivers in my back. I know at some points I could really feel for the kids who were like “Well, fuck it, let’s just let all those awful people kill each other and the world get destroyed.” The final scene with the Christmas party was really powerful and also so uncomfortable to read, it was really well done.

Otherwise, if there was one work I wasn’t expecting to scream “LGBT+ rights,” it was Ciconia, but here we are I guess lmao. Honestly, that entire conversation was super neat, not just in a “Oh it’s great they acknowledge gay and trans people exist in a positive way,” but also because it really adds a lot to the worldbuilding. I remember some people talking about it when a similar thing happened in the comics of The Legend of Korra, and honestly more stories should do that, not just in term of representation but because, well, it’s just good writing to put this much thought in your fictional world. The conversation in itself was a bit clumsy (GAYS DON’T FUCK), but it also felt very sincere and a pretty believable discussion a bunch of teenagers with very different backgrounds could have on the subject (and I really loved the narrative acknowledge how different cultures and religions feel about those topics, without it being judgemental.) I’m also thankful it was here at all because of the, uh, gay jokes made about Miyao and Jayden early on that were a bit tasteless to me.

(Now it would be even more great if we could have actual canon gay and trans characters too. Ryukishi... please...... I beg you........)

And of course, the characters were also really good! 

It was so nice to have such a big diverse cast all constituted of likeable characters, and I was honestly impressed Ryukishi managed to handle it. That was something I was wary of when the game was first released, but in the end I think he did a good job so far. Of course, that’s only from my point of view, so I can’t say if other people found there were some things he did badly or that was offensive...

But personally, I honestly love all of the Gauntlets kids so much. They’re all so good and charming! And I kinda want to adopt them all lol.

I think my favorites for now are Miyao, Gunhild, Naima, Rethabile, Chloe, Koshka, Rukhshana, and Lingji... But like I said, they are all really good it’s hard to choose!

However... when it comes to their writing I felt Ciconia went in the continuity of Rose Guns Days and concentrated more on the plot than the characters, and that’s something that... honestly bother me a bit. I liked RGD, but Ryukishi’s writing is still at its strongest when it comes to very human, character-driven narratives, like Umineko and Higurashi. Like I said, I love all of these kids a lot, and some of them have pretty solid characterization and screentime... but in the end a part of me still feel like we didn’t really... get to know them much, if that makes sense? Even with the main ones, like Miyao, Jayden or Gunhild — most of their scenes were principally focused on the Plot Stuff, and not much about them as people.

I know there are a lot of folks who criticize the slice-of-life parts of Higurashi and Umineko, where there are lots of scenes of just the characters spending time with each other or goofing around and that don’t do much to advance the plot — and in a way I understand that, because yeah, some of these scenes can be pretty long to get through and drag the pacing. But personally, I always thought those sequences are very important. Even if some of them are admittedly unnecessary or are a bit too long, they’re really needed to humanize the characters and make you invest in them  — which was something that was a bit lacking in Ciconia. Basically I guess I’m saying the VN needed more slice-of-life stuff, and that rejoin with what I said earlier — that including some of the tips in the plot here and there instead of putting all of them at the end would have really helped with that.

Now, that said, again I’m aware this is just the first part of the story. I understand Ryukishi needed to have all of those exposition blocks and truly pose the basics of his story first and foremost. So I’m really hoping that after that he’ll be able to focus more on its characters  — especially on those who got almost no screentime, like the Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad girls. Having characters and human grounded moments is especially important in a story where war is a big focus like Ciconia.

Now, on the characters themselves... 

Miyao was a really charming protagonist, and I love him a lot! He was so endearing to me during the whole story. He was instantly more likeable as a male protagonist than Keiichi and Battler, where it took me some time for them to grow on me — principally because, well, Miyao don’t have the shtick of sexually harrassing the female characters around him, which was profoundly annoying in the other WTCs. I loved his serious but caring and friendly personality, his friendship with Jayden and Gunhild and with all the other kids, and his anger against the adults trying to use him and the others. His relationship with his father too was interesting. His interactions with Evil Miyao were also pretty intriguing, even if I’m not sure yet what to think of him being a “murder program” or about what even is Evil Miyao. 

Now, the only thing I am on the fence about him is... his whole DID thing and Meow. Like, on one hand, I think it is neat to have a likeable protagonist with a named mental illness, and the narrative felt sincere on not wanting to present this as a bad thing and just a part of who Miyao is... but on the other hand, there were all the jokes made as a result of this, which made the whole thing pretty awkward to me. Furthermore, there’s the problem that this “CPP” thing is not really DID, as if I recall it doesn’t actually seem to come from any trauma-related reason, and is almost a made-up condition? It kinda gave me Kara no Kyoukai flashbacks, in which Shiki, the protagonist, also has an alter, but it is not as a result of trauma or anything — it has a fantasy explanation. And, I mean... An author taking an actual, real condition that a lot of people have to bend it at their will to fit a story isn’t super cool, especially if you’re going to make some jokes at its expense... The other kids calling out Jayden on how he didn’t act properly with Miyao about this was nice though. (Also, now that I think about it, did Miyao just... randomly told all of the other gauntlet knights about it? Wasn’t it said that “CPPs” were something most people didn’t like to talk about? It’s a bit odd.) Plus there’s also the fact Miyao is possibly a “program” and it adds another layer of not-so-great stuff... So I’m just really wary of how Ryukishi is gonna handle this going forward...

Those problems aside, Meow herself was... fine. She’s cute, but she doesn’t really have much going on for her. She and Jayden are dorks together and their scenes definitely made me smile, but their relationship still felt kinda shallow so I don’t have much feelings about them as a couple (like, it’s just that to me Miyao and Jayden have a lot more chemistry and have been friends for quite some time, so it’s just odd that he instantly decides to date Miyao’s sister whom he just met. And, also, he was definitely flirting with Miyao before meeting Meow, too.). It was also pretty jarring the way she just... almost disappears once the war stuff began, so in the end I had this disagreeable impression that she really was just here to be Jayden’s girlfriend, and not as a character on her own or to develop Miyao more...

Jayden was pretty neat too! He’s a character that could be “yikes” pretty easily, but in the end he really did come across as a awkward but kind teenage boy who may be clumsy at times but is still trying his best. In fact, I really wish Ryukishi had wrote Keiichi and Battler more like Jayden. It was nice in general that none of the guys in Ciconia acted inappropriately towards the girls (with the exception of Toujirou, I guess. The way he acted towards Valentina especially made me go “ehh dude please no.” Like I know the LATO girls are said to be older than the other kids so they’re probably 18 or something, but still, it was a bit ugh... But even then it wasn’t something that was too overt, so it didn’t bother me too much), because some of Keiichi and Battler’s antics towards the female characters was something that annoyed me greatly. Don’t get me wrong, I did end up liking Keiichi and Battler despite this, they’re both good kids at heart — but it’s possible to write horny teenage boys without them ~comically~ sexually harassing the girls around them, if you feel me? Aside from that, I like that the story made a point to show that Jayden is actually a pretty lonely and kinda socially awkward kid just like Miyao, and that’s why their friendship work so well. On the other hand, though, his character mostly only turned around Miyao and Meow, and so we didn’t get much of him as a person? Which is a bit disappointing as he is meant to be one of the main kids, so I’ll hope he’ll get more interesting later on.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE GUNHILD, she really intrigue me! I wasn’t expecting to love her so much — for the most part I thought she was okay but nothing more... though now that I finished the story, she’s probably my favorite character for now? Her scene in the restaurant with her sibling, and especially the tips focused on her, really got to me. I loved her cool personality and her backstory was really interesting, as well as her relationship with Miyao and Jayden. She seems to honestly like and care for both of them, but at the same time resent them, and the way she obviously have a lot of pent-up anger towards the world and some self-hatred make her a truly compelling character. I’m pretty intrigued by Maya and her relationship with her too. She’s honestly one of the characters towards who I look forward the most, and I really hope Ryukishi will deliver on her. 

Chloe has definitely a lot of Rena Vibes, so of course I was going to love her lol. Although honestly for now I find her mostly... confusing. She’s obviously really fucked up (CHLOEVIL), and she made me pretty nervous during the entire story because there was this “Okay so when is she going to snap?” kind of tension with her. And her last scene with Lilja gave me chills... At the same time, her kindness and caring nature as well as her friendship with Koshka, Lilja and the  others felt genuine, so it was an interesting contrast. Other than that I wasn’t a fan of the running gag of Okonogi hitting her whenever she mess up (or do not mess up, for that matter)... Like obviously Okonogi is meant to be a Bastard, but the thing being presented as comical made me go :/ I really wish it’s going to stop.

Koshka was cute and also Extremely Relatable in a lot of ways (I, too, would rather spend my time playing silly games on my phone rather than socialize lmao). I love her a lot, and like Gunhild she really fascinate me. I like the fact that she’s meant to be an asocial, cold person but that at the same time it’s pretty easy to see glimpses of the affection she has for Lilja, Chloe or Miyao, and how she’s actually a deeply traumatized and angry teen. I’m pretty intrigued by what kind of “crime” she must have committed and how she ended up being an “equipment”... Not sure what to think about her super brain or the thing about her being some sort of “chosen one” lol. It sounds really shady.

For Lilja, I have to say I wasn’t exactly fond of her at first, but then the small moments we got with her where she obviously care a lot about Koshka and Chloe still got to me. That scene in the tips where she fiercely defends Chloe made me go “awww.” She really give me the impression of being the sort of person to hide her vulnerability behind a tough façade and her odd tics, and in that way she’s pretty similar to Koshka, which is how their friendship feel really special. The revealation at the end that she’s probably faking a lot of her personality and of her friendship with Koshka because it’s an assigment made her and her relationship with Koshka a lot more interesting to me, and I hope it’s going to result in a lot of compelling character stuffs.

Lingji was great! She’s pretty cool. I liked her optimism  and her will to do the right thing, and how that actually cover the fact she’s a pretty fragile and sheltered person. Her scene where she break down after her grandfather’s death is really illustrative of this especially, and where I really felt for her too. I think she’s the most interesting character in term of possible development. I quite enjoyed her friendship with Miyao too, but here again I wish these two had gotten more moments together. Like, how much more impactful the scene where Miyao kill her would have been if we had actually seen these two have some intimate moments before? But, oh well...

Aysha was really cool too, and I especially loved the way her sharp and down-to-earth personality contrast to Lingji’s idealism. The moment where she calls out both of her teammates was super good. Momotake was okay, and I love his intense admiration for Lingji (I’m a sucker for male characters really looking up to cool female characters lol)... but otherwise I felt he was honestly the most stereotypical character of the bunch — especially compared to Lingji and Aysha.

NAIMA IS THE BEST, SHE’S MY BABY I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She was my favorite before I even start the game because of her design alone (SHE’S THE CUTEST CHARACTER RYU EVER DESIGNED OKAY), and I wasn’t disappointed from seeing her actual personality. She’s not especially complex or anything for now, but she has a lot of potential. I loved her relationship with Naomi and Stan too — it kinda felt like two older siblings looking after their annoying youngest one reluctantly, but who still have a lot of affection for them. Also she’s such a little badass, I literally cheered out loud during that rescue scene or during the last battle scene where she screams she wants to protect all of her people. I want more of her in Phase 2 pleaaaase!

Naomi was really overshadowed by Naima and Stan, so as a result I don’t have much to say about her. I think she’s cool, and her backstory about how she apparently lost a lot of her memories and emotions is interesting, but again I can’t say much given we barely see her at all. Stanisław was a good boy, but despite the fact we see him a lot during the story, I... don’t really have a lot of thoughts on him? I liked his implied friendship with Gunhild as them being death metal buddies, but we didn’t actually saw them interacting at all, which was a shame.

Rethabile was the coolest character of the cast, I love her dearly! I like how she can be so adorable and such a dork but at the same time she’s probably the one who has her shit together the most out of all the kids. I feel she really has a good grip on politics and how the adults just want to use them compared to the others — which, well, isn’t all that surprising given she’s literally a princess. The scene with her brother’s death was pretty harsh, and I’m sad they didn’t really... put much attention to her reaction to such a traumatic event. I know the plot hadn’t time for that, really, but I feel even Lingji got more focus when her grandfather died, so I wish we had more of that with Rethabile too.

Ishak and Abdou... well, they didn’t really get much time for them either. They seem like nice dudes, and I really love their relationship with Rethabile, how they tease her quite a bit but there’s still obviously a lot of complicity and respect among them. So I hope we’ll get to know them more, especially on an individual level — as for now they were only present as a duo.

The LATO girls were... interesting too. I especially love Valentina, because she really give me Bad Bitch vibes and I love bitchy female characters lol. It’s pretty clear she has some Secrets and I’m really curious about her goals. As for Maricarmen, I thought she was mostly going to be comic relief like the Yeladot Shavit, but towards the end she actually showed some interesting depth so she did grew on me quite a bit.

And then there was just the teams no-screentime lol. Alright, I guess Suparṇa did get some time, and Rukhi is ones of my faves, but they still were really sidelined. I liked Sujatha, she’s such an uptight idiot, and her scene towards the end where she says she was aware that Miyao’s plan was doomed but still played along for Lingji made me kinda emotional. Rukhshana is the cutest and the greatest — I really liked her personality, how she can be extremely shy but then also completely goof around when she actually trust the people around her. And that moment at the end where she just say to her superiors to fuck off was glorious and one of my favorite scenes. Her relationship with Sujatha and Andry is adorable too. Andry himself was also... not present at all, but I really love the small glimpses of him we have seen, he’s pretty cool. I like how he sincerely seems to care a lot about his teammates despite his aloof character (him protecting Rukhi when their superiors try to hit her at the end was sweet.)

Still, Suparṇa wasn’t sidelined as much as Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad, though. I mean, I do like those girls — I adore Gannet because she’s cute as hell, Noor seems cool and Mariana intrigue me, but I can’t actually say much about them. Leah, Fatma and Stephania were also mostly comic relief except for one or two scenes towards the end. So I really hope Phase 2 will remedy to this, ‘cause I want more of these six, definitely!

I’m not sure I have a lot of thoughts about the adults characters quite yet — GERMAN TAKANO cracked me up, but she’s just as great as her Higurashi counterpart for now, and I always trust Ryukishi to write good Terrible Women. Especially Terrible Mothers, which is one of my personal weaknesses. Though I guess it’s not actually been confirmed she’s Miyao’s mom? It’s heavily implied, but we all know Ryukishi love to troll his audience so I wouldn’t put it past him that it is in fact just a red herring, but well, we’ll see I guess. 

Toujirou is obviously a bastard, but he’s an interesting one, and I have no fucking idea what is going on in his head. Like it’s interesting that on the one hand he seems to genuinely care about his son, but on the other hand he has no problem manipulating and screwing him over (and the implication of Miyao being maybe just a program is... ooof.) Okonogi was... a bit less worse than in the other WTCs, I guess? He obviously care about the kids in his own way, and him defending them at the end was nice... but I still can’t really feel anything but contempt towards him. He’s still a pretty bad instructor, and like I say, I’m really not a big fan of the way he treats Chloe at all, even if it’s meant to be “comical.”

The Three Kings mostly made me laugh to be honest, and they’re more plot devices than actual characters for now so I really don’t care about them (a part of me even wonder if they “exist” at all, because, you know, meta stuff). I absolutely LOVED Jestress on the other hand! I have no idea what’s the deal with her, whether she’s Lambda or whatever, but she’s really intriguing and her design is top notch and I want more of her. Seshat was so fucking cool and I don’t have much thoughts about her yet other than I wanna marry her.

And that’s pretty much it!

I’m not really good at predictions or at throwing theories around (sorry, Ryukishi), so I’m not sure what to expect for the rest of the story. I guess my only thoughts are that the moles are probably Gunhild and/or Chloe, but then they seem like obvious candidates, so I don’t know. I kinda suspect Valentina too, because, er, I do not trust her at all and she just have that traitor vibe. 

I really hope too that we’ll have time loops here again instead of a linear story because... well... I don’t wanna these kids to die okay... I also know that Ryukishi said Ciconia is only going to have four parts, and that’d make sense given how long Phase 1 was... but a part of me still kinda hope we’ll have a bit more... I guess it’s just that only four phases seems really little compared to the density of the story, and I’m really hoping he’ll have the time to develop well all of his narrative points and characters...

In any case, I think my thoughts on Ciconia for now pretty much get down to: it’s interesting and it has the potential to be a really great story, even if it’s far from being flawless and that I’m still very wary about how Ryukishi is going to handle some elements in the future.

But I’d definitely recommand it to people who love 07th Expansion stuff and sci-fi stories, and am very much looking forward to Phase 2!

[imperialsea-a]

ELIZABETH’S IN-DEPTH RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET.

          Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

          Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.

Mun name: Rem (not that blue-haired anime girl or DN, it’s from my old blog!) OOC Contact: Contact me through the Tumblr IM system or my Discord! My Discord is: imperialsea#1818. Please tell me your URL if you message me there so I know who you are!

Now, onto the heart of the post!

   ♛   Who the heck is my muse, anyway? Elizabeth Eva Alexandria Cross, the only biological daughter of Kaien Cross, her father (a canon vk char), and Eva Liliya Cherie Cross, her mother (an oc muse)! Elizabeth is a vampire hunter by blood like all in her family before her! But, shh! Your character isn't supposed to know that .  .  .  unless they're also a hunter .  .  .  or a perhaps a vampire (since her family from both sides are famous hunters, but even then they don't have to know she's a vamp killer if you don't want them to) .  .  .  or they're some sort of ally to her / the hunters association since she can't just tell anyone her actual work on a whim. Where she's from, the existence of vampires are a secret from most of humanity and it's her job to kill the dangerous people-hurty ones and keep that nice and secret so as to avoid a world war! 'Nothing about her is complicated at all', I say, lying through my teeth like Bethy does to society every day by keeping her job and true lifestyle hidden :'D

Further information below the cut, please take time to read if you’re stuck on what to plot and how Bethy operates!

   ♛   Points of Interest:           - She was born and raised to fight against unruly beasts and composed foes alike. Despite her youth, she's a one-woman powerhouse and is not afraid to take herself down with an opponent if she deems it necessary. She's like the Smash player who hits the fake smash ball to take out an enemy on their last legs, even at the expense of her own life. She'll do it! Except in Smash she'd probably just win the match because she had an extra life and not, you know, not die forever for real in a last grand battle.

          - She's got vamp genes all over the place and is rare among hunters. She's biologically immortal like a Pureblood despite not being a vampire herself and is living testimony of what her predecessors took from Purebloods both by honorable bestowal of blood from the mysterious Hooded Woman, and straight up [insert painting of Jupiter Devouring His Son here]. Her great grandparent is 3k+ years old, her father is 200+ for devouring his own twin-- it's messy as mythology, but anime :'D  She herself is only 18 on default though (19 in K Crossover--), the youngest of her entire bloodline, and she can still be slain in battle even if she is much hardier than a typical human being. She's also sensitive to auras, and capable of sensing vampires.

          - Things characters might notice? She's ghostly pale and kind of looks like she stepped out of The Last Unicorn. She looks cold, sophisticated, and vaguely otherworldly-- she really doesn't radiate the friendliest of vibes unless she's doing something she loves, and the calculated yet seemingly effortless grace of her movements are prominent in and outside of combat. She is descended from an ancient royal line, and those posh, stuffy mannerisms and formal speech pattern live on through her even if the Adrasteian monarchy no longer exists.

          - She truly isn't a trigger-happy person, whatever the title of 'hunter' implies, and keeps a level head in most situations. Sure, Bethy looks as if she could bite someone's head off and can display some seriously threatening flashes of anger, but she's not going to do something rash and will only resort to drawing her weapons in a serious matter. She's here to save lives, maintain peace, and keep order, not disrupt it and set off a war! No pressure on her, right?

         - She is also notably, NOT a high school student, though she may be mistaken for a high school senior or young college student since her age fits the bill. Elizabeth actually graduated from her high school at age sixteen and took to hunting full-time immediately after. She was convinced to slow it down by her grandparents and began preparing for college when her assignment at Cross Academy arrived and, uh, pretty tragically, hasn’t been able to attend any classes due to her work demands. Come to choose between the world and personal fulfillment? Her conscience only let her have one choice; a hunter must hunt.

    ♛   What they’ve been up to recently:           - Work. There's hardly a time when this girl isn't working or planning what to do next, and the workload only grows after the previous president is outed as a dishonorable, self-serving traitor to the hunters. She's seriously injured after trading blows with him and is promptly benched to deal with the fallout and mental agony, but she's back within a year (and in K's crossover? Only six months later!).

          - Having said that, Elizabeth does have days off and will spend them quietly with her friends, or alone with music and a rejuvenating swim.

          - Depending on the time in her life? Her life circumstances vary drastically-- she can go from a young huntress travelling on her own as duty demands, or she can be a mother of five children and trusted right hand of the new hunter president, Zero Kiryuu. She lives for a long time, so she's always up to something! And of course, she's always motivated to fight for a better future. 

   ♛   Where to find them:            - Aside from work, check the beach! Or find her on methods of cross-continental transportation since she travels around the world for her job (she walks whenever possible, so it's rare to see her on a bus, but she’ll begrudgingly take one or a train)! Otherwise, a place like an aquarium, clothing store, or coffee shop, or any place in a city is your best chance.... write w me pls... q-q she is Around Somewhere.

          - If not found in any of those places and your character is someone inside Cross Academy, she can be found there, helping the prefects in some way and is familiar enough with the building to help out new students if they ask.

    ♛   Current Plans:           - Elizabeth is chained to her work as a hunter for as long as she draws breath, or until there is no need for her to end hostile vampires. Her ultimate goal is to keep the world from falling into a repeat, all-out war between vampires and humanity. Her living and family situation might change through the years, but that will always be her primary drive-- she's got an indomitable will.

    ♛   Desired Interactions:           - please ovq

          - In all seriousness, I’m up for pretty much anything. She needs more friends, more enemies, people to protect, people to be protected by, people she looks up to, people who legitimately unnerve her, everything! I just don’t feel comfortable killing her. Elizabeth fought really hard to get her future and deserves to find comfort after her entire childhood-young adult life was spent thinking the only thing of worth she had was her role as a huntress. I do really, really love angst though, so anything else goes, really c:

     ♛   Offered Interactions ( please sit tight for this! it will be divided into multiple sections! ) :           - IF YOUR CHARACTER IS HUMAN:                - She’ll assume your muse is an average civilian until shown otherwise (be it with unusual powers, whacky aura, combat prowess, or prior knowledge from a report or something-- a plot specific thing). Unless they truly know about vampires / work with the Hunters Association, Elizabeth will not be sharing any information about who or what she is without a legitimate reason (such as the human character being bitten by a Pureblood and thus is being turned into a vampire themselves). However, the other party being kept in the dark about vampires can open the door to a more relaxed Elizabeth without her professional, perfectionist mindset. She’s more likely to have a pleasant conversation with humans since they have no part in the hunt-- but in that same vein, she does aim to keep them at a certain distance and not develop a deep emotional bond (but she’s also a lot softer than she looks and acts and tends to care for others quickly, should they get along). It’s a tricky slope .  .  . She’s thawed out and the nicer aspects of her personality are far more prominent, but at the same time, she’s not being entirely genuine. Give her time and she’ll become more open about personal things, just, not her work.

               - Applies to her K Proj. Crossover.  Working with S4, Elizabeth takes some time to adjust, but ultimately loves the organization and the people within it. They’re an exception to her ‘no ties with average humans’ rule because....errr.... they’re not the average human she’s used to protecting and in that verse they’re aware of her occupation and peculiar heritage. She’s not as cold first impressions might suggest and loves Reisi’s weird af team building nights, it’s hard for her to not have a soft spot for them, even as an outsider and unofficial member (as in, she has none of the abilities the Blues have, but she has her natural abilities).

         - IF YOUR CHARACTER IS A HUNTER:                 - Elizabeth is a known figure in hunter society; her great grandfather, grandfather, and aunt were previous heads of the organization and each are still alive at present. So, it probably makes more sense if your hunter character at the very least knows about her-- unless they’re an off-series muse in which case go wild and do what you think is best! I always did like the idea of two vampire hunters chilling together with neither one knowing the other is a fellow hunter until they’re attacked by a vamp and they’re both like ‘Oh!’

               - A simple but always reliable plot idea is two hunters on a joint mission! It’s really important to know that Bethy does not take kindly to poor performance and expects her partner to take whatever assignment they have seriously. If not? Things get tundra-cold really fast-- o-o;; People’s lives are at stake and in her opinion, if a hunter wants to mope or complain about their blood-given obligation, they’re not fit to be hunters in the first place. ‘Can’t do the job? Then finish what you started with me if you have any shred of integrity, and get thee gone’ sort of thing. Otherwise, uh :’D;; she’s highly cooperative and always aims to reach the outcome with the least amount of damage.

               - As a teenager, she attended a hunter-run private academy in Adrasteia for four years. If it’s possible for your muse to attend (as in, they are from a vampire hunter family and can pass the rigorous entrance exams), throw em in for a slightly younger, less stringent Bethy? A national fencing champion at the top of her classes, and great granddaughter to the legendary hellfire headmaster, Elizabeth’s not easily missed! It could be the start to an amicable relationship to carry into future interactions?

        - IF YOUR CHARACTER IS A VAMPIRE:                 - Bluntly put, for vampires, it’s probably better to interact with Elizabeth after Cross Academy has fallen in the large battle that took place there. Her mother is revealed to have been alive and held captive as a vampire, she’s already friends with a hunter/vamp, her two friends turned out to be Purebloods, and ‘oh....my mother and father got together again and now I’ve got a younger vampire brother’ .....and her boyfriend’s half sister is also a vampire who marries the former vamp senate heir..... so...vamps everywhere; she simply accepts them as part of the family. Prior to that, while she isn’t hostile to vampires and certainly has no intention to attack a vamp unjustly, it’s not a place she’s eager to put herself in. Depending on how threatened she feels, she’ll even swallow her pride and keep her head down-- mostly.

               - If your muse is a hunter-turned-vampire, she doesn’t treat them as a vampire, rather, she still sees them as a compatriot, like in the case of Zero Kiryuu. Whether or not your muse received the blood of their keeper is up to you, but in the case that they haven’t-- she’s always there to assist in granting mercy whenever the time comes :’)

       - IF YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT FIT INTO ANY OF THE ABOVE CATEGORIES / REGARDING OTHER VERSES:                - Please help me find something that works, I’m willing to try! Memes are incredibly helpful! Send one in, the tag is here, and we can go from there!

                  - My currently finished and ready-to-use Crossover Verse is K Proj., which can be read about right here.

      ♛   Current Open Post/s: Linked right here. There's no expiration date to these, and it doesn't matter if another person has replied to one, you are more than welcome to reply to one if it catches your eye at all.

      ♛   Anything else?:  YEAH, wow I am so sorry that got so long. Please note that this post may be updated periodically!

[awed-frog]

This is going to be a mess - I had to erase the original post because the bots just wouldn’t stop coming, so here is how it all started -

And here are your kind requests -

So - thank you for your lovely asks and PMs - here we go. 

(Keep in mind that those moments were hugely embarrassing to me, so you shouldn’t find them funny or anything. They’re tragic stories I’m relating for your moral betterment - that is all.)

1) The ‘The Greeks Made Me Do It’ story

As a bit of background, I was eighteen and had just moved to another city to start my studies. I’d been there for a month, knew literally no one, had no idea where half my classes were and my ideals of switching to a Sophisticated Look and becoming A Lady had miserably failed, which means I was walking around wearing this insanely expensive, Managing Director of the IMF coat plus combat boots and frayed jeans plus a lopsided handmade scarf and 'Marilyn going on Morticia’ lipstick (I worried - a lot - about being the only weirdo and the only unfinished person in the entire town, because that was before I met Hamster Girl and Colour Matching Girl and I spend as much on weed as you do for rent but everything I own is see-through, threadbare or ripped Guy). Plus, I couldn’t speak or understand the local language all that well, and I’d taken to nodding and smiling whatever people said, which generally made me look like an idiot and meant I never knew what was going on. 

(And, yes, it’s tempting and it seems like the easier option, but seriously - don’t do that.) 

All of that means I was more or less living in the university library so I could pretend I had a purpose in life and, well, going from a high school library to a real academic library was like stepping into the Restricted Section - I mean, of course, I read what I was supposed to read, and I lost myself in serious books that had little to do with my actual subjects (that was my Minoan period - I’m sure every Classics student had one), but there were also the - uhm - other books, you know? All those studies about homosexuality in the Greek world, and how Mapplethorpe’s pictures were connected with frescoes of Saint Sebastian, and people having sex with statues and kings trying to trick their young wives into anal and truly lurid collections of Greek art which my high school teacher had once described as ‘Something you should probably have a look at, but if I let you borrow my copy your parents would not be happy with me’. And on that particular day, I had actually devoted my afternoon to a no-nonsense book about Eastern influences in Greek art, and well, the study of lovers and concubines on Greek amphorae was a sort of a plan B to relax a bit between chapters, because I was reading in a foreign language and it was hard work and when you don’t know anyone, it’s like you’re the only one working, right, and everyone else is off to wild parties and poetry lectures and screenings of a Guatemalan movie you never knew existed and that’s depressing af, so yay for weird art - but at around five I realized the day was done and I didn’t want to give the dirty book back because, come on, it wasn’t that dirty and I had a right to read it and it was complemented with passages by Theophrastus and Plato, plus it had come to me via the now defunct goblin-based system of tunnels underground the reading room -

~note - for younger readers, these things~

- so I didn’t want to give it back and go through the hassle of requesting it again, and I remember the fuck it moment that came over me - I was eighteen, I was studying the damn stuff, so I’d borrow the damn book and if the librarians disapproved, well, they could bite me.

(Obviously, they didn’t disapprove. The bored guy at the service desk didn’t even look at me, because nobody looks at you, ever, and your life is your own, so go live it.)

And next, I had to go shopping because there’s only so much time you can survive on cold cereal - and suddenly there I was, in a big and foreign supermarket, a dirty book burning a hole through my old Invicta, my Queen of England coat clashing with everything else I was wearing, and I was moving from aisle to aisle without making eye contact and trying to remember what spices were called in French, and I’d almost made it - I was collecting my mismatched groceries on the other side of the till when the bloody alarm started blaring, and two uniformed guards appeared out of thin air and it was like one of those slow-motion scenes in movies, right, when the dust in the air glimmers like gold and sound is no longer a thing and someone’s talking and everybody is staring and when God pushed the ‘resume normal speed’ button the two men were gesturing and smiling smugly and there was this old lady next to me and she was taking in my luxurious coat and my frayed jeans and putting two and two together - I physically felt her horrified, gleeful gaze on me like scalding water - and Jesus, I could see the headlines in my local paper already ‘Young Promise of Sci-Fi Literature Arrested’ (I was writing fantasy back then, but most normal people don’t seem to know the difference) and there were my parents, okay, my poor parents walking with their heads down as formerly friendly neighbours threw garbage at them and someone would interview my history teacher and he was bound to say, ‘She was something of a strange girl, but I never thought she’d end up in prison’ and next, of course, came the walk of shame in front of all twelve tills, with dozens of proper adults (people with families and eggs in their baskets, women with tasteful lipstick and women with kids and doggies instead of books about dead prostitutes) staring at me in disapproval, and What has the world come to and I heard that today, young women are as likely to commit crimes as young men and Do you think she’s on drugs? and then I was forced into the Small Room of Humiliation and asked to please empty my bag, so out came the frosting I was planning to eat raw and the crown of garlic I’d bought because it looked pretty and had no intention of ever using and a giant-ass bag of rice and as I looked on, horrified, I realized nothing made sense with anything and even those burly, middle-aged men could see that just fine - but, well, every single horrifying, meaningless item was on the receipt, so they had me empty my pockets (one condom, safety pins, a Swiss knife, an IKEA pencil and a very smooth and round rock, God have mercy on me) and next we all looked at one another like, What now? and that’s when I truly gave up on rational thinking, okay, because my first instinct is always to be of service, and so I said, in my heavily accented French, ‘The library book has a barcode, maybe that’s the problem?’ and of course, they hadn’t really looked at the book yet - it was face down on the formica table, looking all prim and innocent in its unassuming dark blue cover, but when the older man picked it up with his bear paw, I suddenly realized the front of it was quite different - I sat there and saw his eyebrows disappear into his hairline as he took in the big-ass picture (a painting of a woman fellating a much younger man) and the title (something along the lines of, THE JOYLESS SEX - TALES OF THE PLEASURE WOMEN, in all capitals, because books about Greek art don’t sell all that well, so anything to do with sex is pimped up to trick the unsuspecting general audience into giving it a shot) and of course he had to open it, because that’s how humans are wired, okay, and the thing right in the middle was a goat-like creature doing unspeakable things with two women and every single cell in my body wanted to explode and disappear and shout ‘IT’S MANDATORY READING FOR THIS CLASS I’M TAKING’, which was a lie, anyway, and I couldn’t get the words out and I couldn’t look up and I couldn’t look away - after a few excruciating minutes (seconds? hours?), the guy scanned the book on his barcode machine and yep, that’s when we all learned that library books respond to the same anti-theft thingies that pick up on stolen wine and cookies and fine cheeses, and Sorry, miss, and You have a good evening, now, and he was extremely uncreepy about it, but it was still hard to find my way out because of the WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOUNG PEOPLE UP THESE DAYS bewilderment that was shining like a beacon around his entire body, so, yeah - that was pretty embarrassing.

2) The ‘A Four-Part Seduction’ story

This actually happened almost one year before my adventure with the scanning machine - I was in my last year of high school, had kissed exactly 1 (one) boy, failed to seduce 3 (three) other boys despite my fox-like cunning and my sunny disposition, and I was now ready to sacrifice everything (well: my sanity and my dignity) for The Boy - a basketball player with a long, horse-like face and zero talent in anything whom for some reason I fancied the pants off.

(Looking back, I think I liked he was quiet and kind, and the age-old problem when you’re attracted to mysteriously self-effacing people is that you’re never quite sure - is there a colourful and occasionally wild ocean behind their silent lips and far-off gaze, or are they not saying anything because an evolutionary mishap converted half their brain into a second spleen, and therefore they were left with the mental capacity of a vivacious Mexican mole lizard? The joy is in finding out.)

Anyway, I have a feeling things haven’t changed all that much, but back then when you were intent on romantic hunting, you usually enlisted the help of your closest friends - people who inevitably were: 

your age 

unexperienced

not very familiar with The Boy and

generally speaking, completely unsuited to hatching a failproof seduction plan of any kind.

On this particular occasion, my advisors were: 

a girl who’d been the better half of a couple for time untold (three months, two weeks and five days) and was thus The Expert

another girl who’d done ‘not it, but almost’ with an unnamed boy she’d met over the summer

a third girl who still didn’t quite understand what ‘it’ meant and 

my only guy friend who was actually in love with me and I only found out about that twenty years later and that was one true what the fuck moment, because then I wondered what else I hadn’t seen when I was a teenager even if it was there in plain sight (like the fact my German teacher preyed on young boys, for instance,but that’s another story).

So, well - part A of The Plan - getting to know him better - had failed miserably, because what can you discuss with someone you only see once a week in French class and you have a monster crush on? I mostly pestered him about homework dates and then stared mutely at his hands as he turned the pages of his school diary and my God, he must have thought I was an anxious, forgetful idiot with absolutely zero life, ‘which means he already knows you better than most people,’ my best friend said consolingly, before trying out her married name signature (Alice DiCaprio) one more time. And as for part B - that had succeeded, but at what cost? Because through a string of sleights of hand and corruption, we’d managed to shift half our classmates around on the seating chart, so I was now sharing a desk with The Boy himself, but so far that had resulted in some awkward staring (mine), a couple of embarrassed smiles (his) and about 50 000 volt of electricity going through my entire body every time his elbow bumped into my arm by mistake (which happened a lot, because he was left-handed and I’m not and we were sitting the wrong way around). 

Now, this had been going on for weeks when the skies suddenly opened above me and the teacher, an I’m frankly disappointed in how everything turned out ‘68 hippy, assigned us a written essay on Victor Hugo and socialism, something that, as an anxious, forgetful idiot with absolutely zero life, I knew quite a lot about. Plus, I was good at French, and that’s how The Boy turned towards me and asked if I’d be willing to help him, his hazel eyes all clear and earnest, shining like stolen jewels on his horse-like face, and being a Cosmo reader, I heard myself laugh throatily and ask, ‘Sure - what will you give me in return?’ and fuck, how do these things happen and why are we not in control of our own bodies and also thank God, because he blinked at me and then said, in a slow voice I read as flirtatious, ‘I’ll buy you a drink’. And that’s how we all entered part C - there were weekly meetings with him in the library to write the essay together, and daily meetings with my girlfriends to analyse everything we’d ever said to each other and I think he was looking at you during break and I saw him blush twice now, he must be sensitive and My sister knows his cousin, I can tell her to ask him if he’s seeing anyone and also long walks by the river with my long-suffering guy friend during which I rambled on and on about how shiny The Boy’s hair was and he contributed to this mind-blowingly fascinating conversation mostly in uhms and grunts.

(Again, how could I have been so stupid? I mean, it was for the best in the end, but - ouch.)

And one windy evening of March, lo and behold, it was finally time for part D (no pun intended) - a bona fide D-A-T-E with The Boy, and possibly there’d be fireworks and he’d say, I’ve been wanting to kiss you for weeks and some tourist would snap a candid photo of us and then marvel at it, years and years later, because Do you ever wonder what happened to this couple, Mabel? Look at how happy and in love and beautiful they are and I’m not saying cover of the National Geographic, but cover of the National Geographic. Also, movies had taught me what was supposed to happen, you know?, 

which is why I borrowed make up and rollers from one of my friends and did a clothes pre-selection with her and then a second selection with my guy friend -

(I remember him sitting cross-legged on my bed and strumming my mom’s guitar as I hid behind the closet door to try on The Makeover Outfit and how his expression barely changed when he saw me in a skirt for the first time - how he said, ‘You look - good. He’s an idiot if he doesn’t go for it,’ and how the music turned into something slow and mournful as I disappeared again to put my jeans back on, and what the hell?)

- and at nine pm, I was ready - I had leveled up and transformed, or so it seemed - gone was the windbreaker, and the crappy Converse, and the overlarge plaid shirt - instead, my hair was curled in the right way and my skirt was short but not too short and I’d even bought a push-up bra which was uncomfortable as hell but Who cares, uh?, who cares? And let’s pretend my make-up was still perfect after biking twenty minutes in the half rain, because when I walked into the bar, some catchy song was on and my brand-new hoop earrings were catching the light just so and I was the Goddess of French and Sex and WITNESS ME and we saw each other at once - he was sitting with his friends, the Popular Good-at-Hockey Guys, and he turned as he heard the door open, as if he’d been expecting me, and he immediately smiled and came towards me and ‘So, what can I get you?’ and of course I ordered wine, because I was Sophisticated and also A Lady and as he pushed his way towards the counter I sat down at the only table for two and subtly (I hope) adjusted my cleavage and crossed my legs and wondered whether I should whip my copy of Rimbaud’s Les Illuminations out of my (well: my mom’s) purse just to make it extra clear I meant business, or if that would be considered impolite - a kind of, ‘You took forever to get me that drink’ reproach - and as I was still trying to decide, he came right back, all perfect and tall and horsey-looking in a grey shirt, and he was carrying my wine and a pint of dark beer and some idiotic voice in my head said, ‘Yes, we’d known each other for months, but I remember the night we truly fell in love - your father used to drink these strong beers, you know, and that evening-’ and before that thought could go anywhere, The Boy was there, at my table - he handed me the wine (our fingers touched) and he said ‘Thanks again, really - I would have been dead without you’ and then - and then he walked away and fucking sat down with his friends again because apparently he was a damn sophist underneath that equine disguise and he’d promised me a drink and now I had a drink and what the fuck? and for the second time that night I considered turning to Rimbaud, but you should never turn to Rimbaud because he was an addict and a killer, so I drained my wine in one gulp, looked around desperately, my vision already fogging over, for someone I could bother - there was no one I really knew, only older people and party people and cool people who were already looking at me weirdly - I shrugged my coat on and waved joyfully at The Boy on my way out and man, it’s been twenty years but sometimes I still wonder at it - I don’t think he wanted to be rude, I’m sure he was like me, awkward and empty-headed and inexperienced, and he now works with snakes in Canada so maybe there was something interesting about him, but after I never go to the movies guy and Do you go to this school? guy and Sorry, I’m looking for someone who’ll choke me during sex guy and - mostly - the ghost music / still not sure he existed for real guy, well - that was a crushing moment and the end of my grand plans and when I started to simply tell guys ‘I like you’ and also follow them home before they could realize what was going on and, whatever, if you’re looking for dating advice, that works much, much better. 

[Thanks again for your messages - if you like my writing, please visit my AO3 page!] 

[interspersus]

25 Movies To Watch Again

1. 300

“Children, gather round! No retreat, no surrender; that is Spartan law. And by Spartan law we will stand and fight… and die. A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know, that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it!” – King Leonidas (Gerard Butler)

2. Braveheart

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!” – William Wallace

3. Coach Carter

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez)

4. Dead Poet Society:

“They’re not that different from you, are they?

Same haircuts.

Full of hormones, just like you.

Invincible, just like you feel.

The world is their oyster.

They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you.

Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils.

But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in.

Listen, you hear it? – – Carpe – – hear it? – – Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” – John Keating

5. Don Juan DeMarco

“There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio.

What is sacred?

Of what is the spirit made?

What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for?

The answer to each is the same – only love.” — Don Juan DeMarco (Johnny Depp)

6. Freedom Writers

“I don’t want excuses. I know what you’re up against.

We’re all of us up against something.

So you better make up your mind, because until you have the balls to look me straight in the eye and tell me this is all you deserve, I am not letting you fail.

Even if that means coming to your house every night until you finish the work.

I see who you are.

Do you understand me?

I can see you. And you are not failing.” – Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank)

7. Good Will Hunting

“They don’t know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself.” – Sean (Robin Williams)

8. Hitch

“Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it’s the moments that take your breath away.” – Hitch (Will Smith)

9. Into the Wild

“I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships.

God’s place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience.

People just need to change the way they look at things.” – Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch)

10. Lord of the Rings

“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring.

In which case, you were also meant to have it.

And that is an encouraging thought.” — Gandalf (Ian McKellen)

11. Marley and Me

“It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not.

Sometimes it takes a dog with bad breath, worse manners, and pure intentions to help us see.

Ask yourself, how many people in the world can truly make you feel rare, pure, and extraordinary?” –John Grogan (Owen Wilson)

12. Million Dollar Baby

“To make a fighter you gotta strip them down to bare wood: you can’t just tell ’em to forget everything you know if you gotta make ’em forget even their bones… make ’em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else… show ’em how to keep their balance and take it away from the other guy… how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab… how to fight backin’ up so that the other guy doesn’t want to come after you. Then you gotta show ’em all over again. Over and over and over… till they think they’re born that way.” – Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman)

13. Mulan

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” — The Emperor (Pat Morita)

14. Peaceful Warrior

“The warrior does not give up what he loves, Dan. He finds the love in what he does.” – Socrates (Nick Nolte)

“The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.” — Socrates (Nick Nolte)

15. Rocky

“Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know?

‘Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight.

It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either.

‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.” – Rocky (Sylvester Stallone)

16. Rocky Balboa (Rocky 6)

“Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit.

It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning’s done.” – Rock Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)

17. Rudy

“In this life time, you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody, except yourself.

And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen.” – Fortune (Charles S. Dutton)

18. Runaway Bride

“Look, I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing.

But I also guarantee that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you’re the only one for me. “ — Ike Graham (Richard Gere)

19. Stand and Deliver

“There will be no free rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and your complexion.

Because of these two strikes, there are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do.

Math is the great equalizer… When you go for a job, the person giving you that job will not want to hear your problems; ergo, neither do I.

You’re going to work harder here than you’ve ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is ganas. ‘Desire’.” — Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos)

20. The Bucket List

“You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death.

When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions.

Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. ‘Have you found joy in your life?’ ‘Has your life brought joy to others?’” — Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman)

21. The Empire Strikes Back

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.” — Yoda

22. The Mighty Ducks

“Neither do hockey players. Have you guys ever seen a flock of ducks flying in perfect formation?

It’s beautiful. Pretty awesome the way they all stick together.

Ducks never say die.

Ever seen a duck fight?

No way.

Why?

Because the other animals are afraid.

They know that if they mess with one duck, they gotta deal with the whole flock.

I’m proud to be a Duck, and I’d be proud to fly with any one of you.

So how about it? Who’s a Duck?” – Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez)

23. The Notebook

“My Dearest Allie. I couldn’t sleep last night because I know that it’s over between us. I’m not bitter anymore, because I know that what we had was real.

And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I’ll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that’s what you’ve given me.

That’s what I hope to give to you forever.

I love you.

I’ll be seeing you.” — Young Noah (Ryan Gosling)

24. The Pursuit of Happyness

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something.

Not even me. All right?

… You got a dream… You gotta protect it.

People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it.

If you want somethin’, go get it.

Period.” – Christopher Gardner (Will Smith)

25. Vision Quest

“I was in the room here one day… watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pele.

I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet.

Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him.

Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish.

I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying … That’s right, I start crying.

Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious.

It ain’t the six minutes… it’s what happens in that six minutes.” – Elmo (J.C. Quinn)

[furnitureoxide-blog]

Gaming Chair

Video games are all fun and if played sitting in a gaming chair then it’s an ultimate delight! The most excited and enthusiastic sports in today’s digital era is, of course, the love for video games. Video games in otherwise way have almost grasp over teenager’s sporty moods. Now, this is not restricted to only boys but has crossed the boundaries where girls also have to find great satisfaction by playing video games. Our day to day accustomed life always craves comfort and peace, whatever we do even if it's simply laying on couches to drinking your favorite flavored drinks, we need something cozy and soft to satisfy our comfort. The same theory can be applied here too for playing video games and so comes the role of gaming chairs. It is something that will make you feel the digital background playing in the monitor all real.

What is a gaming chair?

A gaming chair is one categorically designed for the delectation of video game players. The gaming chair's history emanated from racing games like Desideratum For Haste, FlatOut, Dirt, etc. The pristine conception was to reconstitute the experience of driving a sporty car. That's why proximately every gaming chair is designed to look homogeneous to a car seat. They've got very high backrests and their edges flared out. Mundanely, the edges of the seat will have extra padding. The backrest edges will be bent scarcely inward. In the backrest, most models will additionally have some type of cutouts to avail integrate to the sporty look.

Two Types Of Gaming Chairs

There are two different types of gaming chairs. The first, which was built for PC gaming, looks like a high-backed office chair with a metal frame mounted on casters and swivels. The second is optimized for (X-Box, Playstation, etc.) platform systems. They feel like sleek, modern loungers or recliners, some of which can be very low to the ground. As the name suggests, these seats are mainly used for games, which means they have to be designed for comfort, because there is no such thing as sitting down for "just a couple of minutes" of playing as any gamer knows. Yes, many South Korean players died playing games when they missed food and died from a combination of starvation, fatigue, and exhaustion. Clearly, these are extreme cases, but the argument is that gaming is a time-consuming sport, and it will certainly not be cut by a standard office chair or recliner. Although living room recliners can be relished on a run for six to eight hours without causing discomfort, and the best office chairs are fantastic for a kindred period of time, gaming chairs appear to be much more convenient, enabling gamers to stay in them for 12-16 hours or longer! We mentioned earlier that two variants of gaming chairs subsisted, each designed for a particular type of gamer. That's because PCs appear to be mounted on computer desks, making an office chair the impeccable base from which to engender a PC gaming chair. On the other side, console systems tend to be attached to television sets in the living room, making recliners the best choice to place gaming chairs around the screen. However, there's some overlap here. A kind of third category combination that could be used theoretically for either form of gaming, and in the next section we will cover the full specifics of all three, along with some fun versions and subtypes.

Classification of Gaming Chairs

PC Gaming chairs Because the office chair is the go-to seating option for knowledge workers everywhere, it makes sense that from those roots a dedicated PC gaming chair has evolved. This first picture is a quite typical example, and you can see the differences between this and the regular, ergonomic chair of the office.

PIC CREDIT:- pepperfry.com While there are some similarities, some key differences will also be noted, starting with the fact that the gaming chair has a seat in bucket style and additional cushioning. The armrests are height-adjustable in addition to that, and these chairs offer additional lumbar support. Many models also feature a small pillow and a recline. More sophisticated versions like this one are integrated into the headrest by speakers. Platform Gaming Chairs Moving chairs on the floor are a completely different animal. More generally, they have a recliner's general look but are usually set like this on the floor.

PIC CREDIT:- chairinstitute.com Some versions can rock and have side pockets for game controllers to be kept. Those without built-in speakers are fitted with headphone jacks. If you're looking for a chair that incorporates both form and function, perhaps something like that would work pretty well for console players, but as you can see from the chair's appearance, it would make a poor chair for PC gaming. Hybrids A traditional hybrid chair is placed on a pivoting frame, which makes it look similar to an office chair, but it has the form and covering you normally find in recliners. Other complex models like this come with multiple monitors, built-in stereo systems and a range of game control mechanisms.

PIC CREDIT:- chairinstitute.com If you're hunting for the ultimate experience of gaming, this chair called the Emperor is a great example of what's possible. Clearly, such a chair won't fit into everybody's budget or home design. Console Gaming Chair If only competing with the console was as simple as choosing between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The fact of the matter is that only the start is to choose the right screen. Controllers, headsets, and game selection are all things you need to sort out to maximize your experience. And maybe the gaming setup's most neglected element? The best chair for a games console. You will certainly level up the games by investing in the right type of gaming chair. But not all gaming chairs are created equal, and for different purposes, they are built. The difference is fairly even though there are more Computer players than console gamers. "52 percent of competitive players play on PC... and 41 percent on a console," according to PCGamesN. The simple truth is that PC and console gaming chairs are quite different, but the variations, particularly newbies, can be confusing. Nevertheless, in this post, we should explain the most important factors to consider when trying to decide between the game chairs of the PC and the console. PC vs Console The console, as well as the PC seats, was built with the comfort of the gamer in mind. Particularly on the armrests, back, collar, shoulder and lumbar regions, they are well padded. It provides ample protection and cushioning that keeps you from suffering from undeserved spine, head, back, shoulder and arm pains, no matter how hard you play. Nevertheless, the console gaming chair's architecture is more about comfort than the correct posture, as described above. The PC seats are designed to be wider, enabling the player to sit upright at 90 degrees with his legs bent and the chest. While it can lower the level of comfort from saying a 9 to a 6 out of 10, it requires good posture. This keeps your muscles healthy correctly, strengthens your knees, avoids muscle tiredness, and reduces back pain. So, while console chairs are more convenient, comfort isn't all.

Why You Should Buy Gaming Chair?

Infographics Source:- Opseat Now the million-dollar question is what a pro gaming chair does for you and for your well-being? It's terrible for your wellbeing to lie. It's really. "Is it a joke?"Should you ask? No, the human body is mainly made to walk, run and jump around–we are supposed to lie down and sleep in the event that it needs rest. Typically sitting was something that was only done for very short periods of time, which contrasts very strongly with what we do today–especially gamers and people with desk jobs. Sure, so we found that sitting is generally a bad thing, but that doesn't solve the problem if your occupation or ambition is chaining you to your computer chair. This is where the gaming machine chair comes in: a good gaming computer chair suits the personal stance and size of the body and helps you to sit comfortably and ergonomically. More specifically, it stimulates better blood flow to your lower body (hello good virility) and soothes your joints and muscles, particularly in your lower back and neck region. In fact, good quality video game chairs such as the DXRacer come with two useful cushions offering additional support for balance–bye bye back pain. To sum up: a gaming computer chair's most important role is to keep you healthy in the long run. You sit comfortably and can maintain a good attitude that in turn leads to increased well-being–and being good and feeling better adds to more concentration and enthusiasm when playing your games. Even at the risk of repeating myself: if you're seated on a really good gaming computer chair, you don't just feel much better with it, you're also having an immediate talent boost–trust me, you won't want to sit back on a poor chair for another minute!

Different types of Gaming Chairs

Video Rocker These are some sort of gaming chairs sitting right on the board. They're great to play video games on the Xbox, read a book, or watch a movie. They're a great hang-out chair for young people. Children love them because they're convenient with you people in particular. They come at rates that are very competitive. Yet stay away from the low-priced ones. Racing Style Seat Specially made for PC gaming games, these are perfect seats. The prices of good seats in the racing style start at around rupees 7000. Premium ergonomic chairs can cost about rupees 35000. Racing style gaming chairs also come with multi-adjusting features and extra protection for the neck and back, facilitating several hours of tireless gameplay or computer work. Racing Simulator Chairs If you're serious about playing racing games, it's the kind of gaming chairs you need to get. In specific, racing simulator chairs are designed to replicate a race car's cockpit and build the impression of sitting in one. These have a steering wheel brace and some even come with a rack for a gear shifter. Just get a compatible gear and steering wheel shifter and you can start the race. Pedestal Gaming Chair They're kind of a Tossing Game chair set on a firm pedestal where they're tossing and swiveling. Many of them have built-in additional features such as speakers and control panels that give them a futuristic look straight out of a star trek movie. They're perfect for the video gaming console.

What is a good gaming chair that will probably worth your buying?

When finding out what a good gaming chair takes into consideration a number of features. Before garbing one of those, let's have a detailed outline of some of the important points to be considered. Price Of  A Gaming Chair You should get what you pay for Comfort and comfort are determined by the price of a gaming chair. There are gaming chairs under rupees 7000, but you have to compromise a lot of price and comfort if you're investing that little.  But it doesn't have to be the best chairs the most expensive. In the range of rupees 7000 to 14000, a lot of chairs are sold and most buyers are pleased with their order.  But if you're serious about getting a premium gaming chair that supports your wellbeing and generates a WOW feeling when you first sit in it, you're looking to spend between rupees 12000 to rupees 28000. Adaptable and Adjustable seat height One of the most consequential ergonomic considerations for a chair to ascertain relaxed seating is adjustable seat height. No gaming chair will skip this function.  The angle of your legs is critical for the right height of the seat. The distance between the knee and the lower leg, more precisely. To provide a congruous comfortable sitting stance, you can transmute the height of the gaming chair so that this angle is precisely 90 degrees. Adjustable Armrests Armrests are indispensable for arms to repose and relax during breaks in the shoulder-neck area. To be optimally suited to the occupant of the chair, armrests should be flexible. The armrests will never be used when playing or working, so not only should they be height adjustable, but withal their stance and back and forward position should be flexible so that they do not affect the optimum seating posture. Adjustable armrests are very convenient and during breaks from gaming or work can enhearten relaxing. Backrest Angle Tilt Adjustment That important feature comes with almost all ergonomic chairs. Adjusting the angle of the backrest, tilting it back towards the floor, reducing stress on the lower back muscles and calming the lumbar region. Reclining Backrest It is crucial that the chair's backrest can be tilted back and locked if necessary for the optimal gaming experience. This backrest adjustment option often referred to as a reclining function, is available up to 180 degrees in some models. This allows games or working sessions to relax the back or even you can have a nap. Seat Angle Tilt Adjustment This feature makes it possible to tilt the entire angle of the seat frame. It rotates the pelvis forward and abbreviates muscle and tendon pressure. This function will calm the entire upper body. Wheels And Swivel Features Many plastic wheels move expeditiously from place to place without the desideratum to stand up. Such plates, additionally kenned as casters, are composed of hard plastic and can spin 360 degrees for rolling in every direction. They are mundanely placed on 5 feet from the middle hip, which makes circular forms of kineticism. Additional Padding For Neck And Lumbar Support Cushions are often extra adjuncts in the collar and lower back areas that are associated with premium seats. To facilitate the back, these extra pads are intended to take pressure from the neck and lumbar section. Fortifying neck and back components will surmount a skewed sitting pose while obviating consequential back quandaries. Key Materials that are embraced for manufacturing a Gaming Chair Real leather, artificial leather, plastic cover or mesh covering can be the material used for upholstering gaming chairs. Everything is blessed with pros and cons. Real leather is a very costly, high-quality, breathable, waterproof, very durable cover. Artificial leather is much cheaper than real leather, often well-qualified and hard to differentiate from authentic leather. Taking care of it is quick and simple. But, because of sweat, sitting on maybe unpleasant on hot days. Covers for cloth and mesh are very breathable, you hardly sweat and even on hot days do not cling to it.

Important things to be kept in mind before buying gaming chairs!

The height of the chair Your gaming chair's height determines the level of comfort you receive when your chair is being used. A decent chair would usually be one that helps your palm to rub the inside of the desk when you're seated on it, and you're putting your hand on your knees. You can, therefore use this simple method to test your gaming chair's height-based suitability. Most chairs on the market, however, have been custom-designed to enable users to adapt their heights to their needs. You should test to what degree you can adjust the height of your chair before you determine whether you buy the chair. Comfort Several factors determine the gaming chair's level of comfort. One of the most important things that determine how comfortable the chair has to do with the sort of materials used to make the bench. If you need a comfortable chair, you might need to go for one made of high-density fabrics and pure leather. Using authentic leather generally gives a seat a comfortable feel and pleasing look. Nevertheless, seats that are made of foam and other non-leather fabrics, but are still convenient, are commonly found. So the best way to determine the degree of your seat's comfort is to test it out before you consider whether or not to purchase it. Vibration system Some well-designed and specialized chairs have a unique system of vibration. The system's primary purpose is to improve your gaming experience's ability. If you play certain kinds of games, for example, when you experience a dramatic moment, the feedback system automatically kicks in to add to the excitement. Therefore, depending on exactly what you're searching for, you may need to check if the chair you'd like to purchase has a vibration device. This is not, however, a critical factor because it is absent in many gaming chairs but still well serving their primary purpose. Flexibility The level of versatility is a crucial factor when it comes to gaming chairs. The reason you can customize your chair to meet your needs applies to the versatility. It is easy to improve braces and other aspects of chairs for many chairs on the market. Such modifications change the reclining angle as well as many other facets of the chair efficiency. So you need to take the time to determine how comfortable it is to use a chair before you opt for the name of a single game chair. Design Your chair's configuration relates to how the fabricator put different parts of the chair. Because the quality of any product depends on the original experts who worked on it, it sometimes makes sense to stick to certain products due to its nature. However, all manufacturing companies try in order to win and retain new customers with modern designs for their chairs. Therefore, you can only use a chair that responds to your senses, you suppose. The choice of a style based gaming chair is therefore entirely based on your personal taste and preferences. Support for the back You risk damaging your lower back if you remain in the sitting position for a long time. Health professionals advise that individuals should limit the time they spend working at their offices in order to reduce the chances of developing certain lifestyle diseases. In the case of gaming, the situation is risky because for you to obtain the ultimate gaming experience you have to stay in your place for a very long time. Therefore, in order for you to be comfortable, you need to use a chair specially designed to support your lower back and keep you fit over time. Look for a chair made especially for the safety of your back. Color Until purchasing a gaming chair, you need to remember your favorite colors. Generally, all gaming chair vendors make their products to cater to their consumers ' desires in different color schemes. And, no matter if you're a lover of light or soft, solid colors, you can get a chair that fits your tastes. All you need to do is take the time to look at the brands on the market and choose the best one for you.

Top 10 Gaming Chairs In India

After discussing all of the detailed aspects of gaming chairs lets dig into the pool of some classy gaming chairs by some esteemed brands. 1. Green Soul Ultimate Gaming/Ergonomic Chair (Model Name-Knight-Pro; Black and Red/Size-Large)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in As you probably know, the market today provides quite a few gaming chair solutions. But if we had to pick the one that is more convenient, it would definitely be this gaming chair Green Soul Ergonomics. More reviews of gaming chairs rave about this layout and for good reason. The Knight-Pro Signature PU leather is very tough, smooth, lightweight and resistant to water. We pair this with specifically cut cold-mold foam that offers immaculate cushioning and comfort to provide a seating experience in heaven. Featured with 4D armrest. To be prodigiously comfortable and flexible, the armrests are built. Left, right, angled left, angled right, center, back, up, down — the design should suit your cull. It is coated the armrest with PU Carbon Texture which is facile to physically contact but still maintains the culminating properties required for good prehension. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.Spacing may be a problem.It provides improved posture. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (52.3-56.1 inches), Seat Width (12.2 inches), Seat Depth (20.8 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-RedSize: LargeWeight: 135 kgs Check Price On Amazon 2. Green Soul Knight Series Gaming/Ergonomic Chair PU Leather (GS-2) (Black & White) (Size - Large)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in The Green Soul Gaming Recliner blends ergonomics with style well. This elegant gaming chair is inspired by the racecar seating, with luxurious PU leather and sponges and 3 exclusive colors. The setup is a breeze, and all of this is supported by an exceptional guarantee of three years. The padded headrest and windows provide the back, shoulders, and neck with ventilation and excellent support. This chair is perfect for the workplace, company boardroom or games room as it has a comfortable seat and stylish look. Featured with 4D armrest. The armrests have been designed in an incredibly comfortable and adjustable way. The style will suit you. Right, right, right, right-angled, middle, back, up and down, The bracelet is coated with a PU Carbon Texture which is easy to contact physically but retains the necessary climaxes to make a good insight. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.4D armrest may create pressure on the elbow.Because of the 4D armrest, optimal blood flow is ensured. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (50.3-53.9 inches), Seat Width (12.2 inches), Seat Depth (20.8 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-whiteSize: LargeWeight: 135 kgs Check Price On Amazon 3. Green Soul Warrior Series Gaming/Ergonomic Chair PU Leather (GS-1) (Black & White) (Size - Large)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in If you’re seeking a full-on racing-style recliner, this gaming chair by Green Soul is the only cull. This one is of warrior series. This alluring ebony & black-white chair with several independent adjustment mechanisms is the pinnacle of gaming style and ergonomics. Moreover, it features a genuine leather exterior that covers layers of plush foam for heavenly comfort. Take your gaming to the next level, and respawn with your incipient asset locked & loaded. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.Over time, PU leather does not grow the same patina or luster as real leather.PU leather reduces chronic pain. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (50-53.5 inches), Seat Width (13.3 inches), Seat Depth (20 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-whiteSize: LargeWeight: 120 kgs Check Price On Amazon 4. GreenSoul Monster Pro Series Gaming/Ergonomic Chair in Fabric and PU Leather (GS-734P) (Black & Blue) (Size- Large)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in One of the best in its class is this Monster Pro series recliner gaming Chair by the green soul. It is built on top of a foundation with tilt and swivel capabilities and features various integrated ergonomics such as interchangeable arms and an elegant faux-leather outside. It also contains excellent reviews that are backed by the price dedication of the Monster Pro series Recliner Chair.  Monster pro series is of Tilt Lock Frog Mechanism. In Monster Pro, the rocking can be locked at all angles.  The base is Reinforced Metal Base in Monster Pro. You get the best neck help and therefore no amount of neck pain with the neck pillow. The functionality also lacks other daily seats. With the chair scientifically designed to fortify body types of Indian consumers. The seat of the Monster pro series is designed to obviate thigh or leg pain from occurring every day even after a long period of avail. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.The tilt lock may sometimes have a complex function to operate.The tilt-lock mechanism provides a comfortable rocking motion. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (50-53.5 inches), Seat Width (13.3 inches), Seat Depth (20 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-blueSize: LargeWeight: 135 kgs Check Price On Amazon Also Read:- Best Recliner Sofa In India Best L-Shape Sofa In India Best Sofa Cum Bed In India 5. Green Soul Monster Series Gaming/Ergonomic Healthy Chair in Fabric and PU Leather (Black and Red, Large)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in When you set up a game room, you can get a pair of gaming chairs and go with the entire kit as well. The gaming chair of the monster series by Green soul is a bit more fairly priced, and when you're looking for 2 or more gaming chairs, the might be the one for you. This Monster series gaming chair is of butterfly mechanism and the base is of heavy-duty Nylon. You will receive proper back support with the lumbar pillow and therefore no back pain due to long use. This provides great protection for weapons and flexible arm-rests of 4 Dimensions. Unsupported arms or arms that are held on thick tables will contribute to arms and shoulders discomfort. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.The heavy-duty nylon may sometime leads to fading.The heavy-duty nylon is wear-resistant anti-mite. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (50-53.5 inches), Seat Width (13.3 inches), Seat Depth (20 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-redSize: LargeWeight: 135 kgs Check Price On Amazon 6. Green Soul Fabric and PU Leather Beast Gaming Ergonomic Chair (Armour Black; Medium)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in Let's just dig into this really cool recliner gaming chair by the green soul. This cool gaming chair comes in 6 different colors, so you get a lot of options to bear it into your gaming room. The Adjusting & Removable Lumbar Support Pillow has the chairs that provide you with maximum comfort, especially when you are playing or working long hours. You get the best neck help and therefore no amount of neck pain with the neck pillow. The functionality also lacks other daily seats. The breathable soft fabric of the Beast Chair is more breathable than a leather chair; it provides airflow which provides a cool and comfortable sitting position and keeps the air circulating from heat rising on your back to boost air circulation. You will sense that our soft fabric really varies from other cheap fabrics. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.Breathable fabric is prone to shrinking and stretching.Breathable fabric helps to reduce sweat. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (48-51 inches), Seat Width (14.9 inches), Seat Depth (18.5 inches)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: BlackSize: LargeWeight: 120 kgs Check Price On Amazon 7. Adcom Mutant Super Gaming Chair with Scratch Proof PVC and 180° Tilt Back Recline (Red/Black)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in By Adcom mutant Order, we decree that this is one of the best video game rockers on the market. More protection and comfort are provided by PVC scratch-proof plastic coating, thick sponge,50 lumbar & headrest pillows. Heavy-duty, nylon-based internal metal frame and smooth 360 ° rims offer protection, breathability, and versatility.  Flexible in height to our red /black seat; reclining at 90 °~180 °; with flexible 2D armrests. Adcom Mutant Gaming Chair has the highest backrest in the classroom that increases the convenience and a calming atmosphere of gaming chairs. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.2D armrest may create some posture problems.2D armrest allows adjustment in 3 different positions and hence are compatible. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (48cm), Seat Width (48cm), Seat Depth (20cm)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-redSize: LargeWeight: 180 kgs Check Price On Amazon 8. Savya home by Apex Crusader XI Gaming Office Chair

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in All equipment and supplies are provided for this gaming chair by Savya home. Ergonomic chair wrapped in high-quality breathable PU leather with lumbar support and headrest cushion, free to change. Facilities: Easy lock-tilt adjustment with angle adjuster, relieve fatigue and tightness during long play or work. Mac Chair Business Chair ergonomic chair game chair. With a unique appearance and heavily coated chair for maximum comfort, we sell this brand new back high gaming chair. Soft leather desk chair for your classroom, workroom, and a meeting room. perfect addition for yourself. Racing gaming chair office computer chair adjustable chair desk chair. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.The price becomes a bit high.The soft leather is durable and easy to clean. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (20.86”), Seat Width (21.86”), Seat Depth (48.82-51.97” )Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-redSize: LargeWeight: 140 kgs Check Price On Amazon 9. Hi-Plus Esports Racing Style High Back Gaming Chair - White & Black

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in This is the best game chair for pro players from the Hi-Plus Esports Gaming Chair. You may choose this and enhance your play experience! Dimensions: height of baking leather:85 cm, the width of baking leather: 55 cm, width of the seat:52 cm, depth of the seat: 54 cm, weight:130 kg. Strong metal frame for promoting a comfortable seat. This chair is taken to the next level of comfort in densely lined back & seat.  Adjustable seat height. Smooth-rolling roller; Removable headrest and lumbar coil. Smooth-rolling roller, 90 ° to 180 ° reclining and spinning, 360 ° swivel. Smooth dog leather, seat coil added and pillows for lumbar and headrest provide comfort and support. Smooth-rolling heavy-duty frame and nylon casters with good stability and versatility.  The Hi-Plus Esports Gaming Chair, with the largest 85-cm backrest, offers a relaxing experience, making the gaming chairs even more luxurious. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.Lacks flexibility.Rocking chairs have a therapeutic benefit. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (85 cm), Seat Width (52 cm), Seat Depth (54 cm)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU LeatherColor: Black-whiteSize: LargeWeight: 130 kgs Check Price On Amazon 10. Ant E-Sports, WB-8077 Painting with Metal Frame, Silver Base, and Adjustable Backrest Angle, (Red)

PIC CREDIT: amazon.in The new Ant Esports have made a genuine and enjoyable gaming experience possible. With endless planning, conceptualization, prototyping and redesigning hours. Ant sports also strengthened the arms with Soft Padded Armrest for a relaxed relaxing gaming chair and when you lean back it changes the directions. Enjoy the comfort of a rocking chair when resting during your game sessions and sit down firmly while the game is challenging. The tilt system does all this and prevents the boredom of sitting for so long in the same place. PROSCONSPU does not absorb water, making cleaning quick.If a fault appears in tilt lock mechanisms then the repairing cost is high.It has an adjustable backrest angle. KEY SPECS: Product Measurements: Chair Height (85 cm), Seat Width (52 cm), Seat Depth (54 cm)Internal frame material: MetalUpholstery cover: Prime PU Leather+pvcColor: Black-redSize: LargeWeight: 130 kgs Check Price On Amazon

CONCLUSION

So the main criteria for purchasing a gaming chair must not only be a low price. Your main concern should be a relaxed sitting position in which you feel good. So a good gaming chair is going to cost them money, but the warmth and good posture it offers when seated will avoid back problems, so it pays in the long run. Sadly, this is only understood by many people when it is too late.  Sitting in the same place for many hours is not a natural thing for the human body, we are made to move. If you choose to sit or have to sit on a monitor for long hours, make sure you sit in an ergonomically designed chair that helps you to sit comfortably. You have to get the right chair for gaming. An increasing number of different chairs are hitting the market. Make sure you consider the size when selecting a chair as this is one of the most important aspects. Look at the budget and choose the chair that represents the best balance for sitting ease, high-quality workmanship, sturdy fabrics, and health benefits. Read the full article

[violetsystems]

#personal

The last seven or so weeks have been brutal.  I think this weekend is the first I’ve woken up to where I didn’t have to travel to the suburbs to check on my mom.  This isn’t to say I particularly minded that whole experience.  People definitely recognize my face when I head out there.  For what I don’t really know anymore.  I get that people think I’m cool and progressive.  Who would really complain about people looking up to you?  If I believe in any sort of sophisticated art theory about street wear, it’s that it belongs in the streets.  I’ve had more conversations about fashion on the far south and west side than in the city.  So maybe the last seven weeks sort of humbled me when it comes to being myself.  When kids ask you where you buy your clothes on the bus, you tell them New York.  They ask if you are from the East Coast.  They seem genuinely excited.  The truth is I live here like the rest of everybody else.  I wake up to flute players at five thirty in the morning and cats on my porch.  That might be a singular experience for me.  There really is somebody playing a flute somewhere off in the distance.  Shit has been pretty weird here all the way around.  When you are both physically and emotionally exhausted it can be a little much.  Not to mention nobody really sees behind the scenes.  People watch for sure.  I don’t know that I’ve been too concerned since I got back from the Big Apple. There’s a certain level of networking to what I do that no one has really ever thought to clarify.  There’s always an assumption on people’s behalf they know everything about the how and why of what I do.  Like I’m some mystery or Easter Egg they’ve solved.  To be truthful I’ve been referencing that scene in Ready Player One a lot to blank stares.  The fact they play Adventure trying to win but that’s not the point.  The point was to break the system entirely and see behind the veil.  When you see behind it there’s a certain amount of responsibility.  The old you break it you buy it.  Steven Spielberg movie plots aside, this oversimplifies things for me a bit.  I’ve had to take matters into my own hands when it comes to my life.  That’s nothing new.  I found my path along the way and the hidden pockets of support that circle around me.  And yet it feels like there’s so much more distance to traverse.  

I said this cryptic thing in the elevator at work.  You don’t run a marathon by worrying about other people’s goal posts.  Everybody is different and only you know how to pace yourself.   Last weekend it occurred to me that maybe you look at me a little differently now.  Maybe you trust me a little more.  The you can be very specific but it applies when applicable.  When I come out of tense times and resurface for air mornings like these, I remember how much you mean to me.  I get angry all week because things take the energy out of me to enjoy the thought of you.  And so I adjust my schedule.  I pick and choose my time out in public.  I walk around metaphysical land mines every day to avoid complicating matters.  And I start to feel like maybe there’s things that I could do to get things out of the way.  I never really have expectations on problem solving.  I see a problem in my life.  I know what I control and how to go about fixing it.  Most of what I do in private is plan.  I have a budget and a spreadsheet.  I just opened another checking account in an effort to move money away from banks and into a credit union.  How I even became part of a credit union is a much more interesting story than how much music I’ve made.  I paid off my flight to New York in August.  I’ve been thinking about simply doing the same thing for the rest of the year.  Every two months.  There’s nothing really stopping me from doing that.  I’ve been networking a bit more professionally in terms of my resume and what I do.  I’ve working on my options around some of these stumbling blocks that have seemingly buried me here.  If the last seven weeks are proof of anything it’s that people pay attention to what I do.  Even if it’s just going to the grocery store.  How I feel about that varies.  I can definitely see very complex layers at work in America.  I feel at the center of it sometimes.  People trust that I pay attention.  Mostly because I know how much people don’t.  They say things to be heard and question nothing.  They’re motivated by unsustainable things and measuring yourself against them always disappoints.  There was a very nice Nike email that went out about Being True.  It talked about how sometimes when you lead, it’s because nobody else will.  There is nobody doing what you do.  Do you wait for someone to do it for you?  Or do you go out there and say fuck it and be that person.  For me last weekend, it really felt like the person I was trying to be is the person I am trusted as.  How I know this is far more cryptic than my elevator wisdom.  My marathon is with you and I was always simply trying to keep up with you.  Somehow you’re always right there by my side whether I know it or not.

I really like the idea behind NASA’s hidden figures.  It’s been no great secret I’ve had my own way of fighting for voices to be heard.  Sometimes we need to lift each other up for the sake of what is right.  And sometimes the gravity of the situation crushes you.  Nobody sees it.  They don’t really care.  If they did they might see how they little they contribute outside of discussion.  I don’t always agree with Mao but I read a great quote from him recently.  He talks about Idealism being infinite when it comes to words.  You can talk forever about how it should be.  How much I love you.  And then there’s the actions.  Jane Addams said the proper theater for ethics is in the street.  Hidden Figures way celebrates the women of NASA who helped get us off this planet.  A planet that if our situation suddenly stopped supporting human life would blink out of existence like a memory.  No context for all our collective suffering.  No legacy of peace, only endless wars washed away in the dust.  I went to Boeing HQ the other day to buy my dad a gift.  I bought a ISS patch.  I’ve long been a fan of their typography.  I also fly American Airlines and get nervous just like anybody else when I see MAX after 737.  I’m the first one to point the finger at corporate profit and how we suffer because of it.  Nike got a sizable amount of shit for sweatshops in the nineties and rightfully so.  We hold these companies accountable as consumers.  And then again we seemingly plead to these brands to recognize our worth.  When jobs are threatened, it’s the first thing we feel.  That our symbols will abandon us.  That we won’t be able to afford our lifestyle how bare it is.  That we walk the streets like a catwalk hoping for the scraps of publicity companies throw out to get your business and money.  That suddenly we’ll be worth something again.  I’ve seen a lot when it comes to working around these industries and people.  I know the glass ceiling still exists.  I know that aggressive and passive aggressive men still control the world.  Mostly because of economic disparity.  I know that I don’t help much by talking about it.  I do help by redefining how I value myself and present myself against that backdrop of white corporate male oppression and otherwise.  I do find it ironic that I come across as invisible in spite of everything.  I use that more to my advantage than anybody knows.  Somebody at work called me a horrible poker player.  Isn’t that the whole point of that Lady Gaga song?  If you called my bluff tomorrow, I’d still say I love you.  Keep that card close to your heart and I’ll do the same.  <3 Tim

[countlessstorieswithoutend]

Alright, I have a lot of thoughts on the first episode of Vrains, like, a ton, so get ready.

We start with our first look at virtual reality...interesting. A representation of countless pockets of data verging into a cohesive whole. It's aesthetically pleasing, even if it could be more stimulating. Revolver is the first character we see, denoting his importance. He's a symbol of power and anger. His monster circles around a pillar, presumably representative of a server. That's one thing that's interesting about cyber space, everything we see therein is symbolic of something else. We see anthropomorphic programs, determined to help, but sealed. Right from the start this is interesting. They are artificial lifeforms that look over Link Vrains, and they seem to be sapient...you could explore the nature of artificial life, creatures that are created purely to serve a purpose. Then Ignis appears, and he's just...great, right from the start. "Your savior has arrived!" "Lol, too bad you got yourself trapped." He's so nonchalant and boastful, it's really entertaining. He also says that being hated has its perks, which...what does he mean by that? Is he used to being hated? And if so, what advantage does that give him? Is it how he avoided being sealed? The trap for the AI reminds me of a Fullmetal Alchemist transmutation circle...though there are definite differences in design. Ignis has this great little smirk, and it's even built into his face, I love it. His first action is to save the network, even at cost to himself. He's a good guy. Also very powerful. He saves the target of their attack by hiding it within himself...making it so no one can get their hands on it. The programs say he won't be able to return that way...for some reason. Because it makes him an outlaw? Then, surprisingly, they brutally slaughter Ignis, if he weren't a program that would be so gory. Notably, despite acting human, programs aren't flesh and blood like humans. Suggesting they're something less...or more. You must wonder why exactly Ignis was helping out, since he seems to be some sort of rogue program. Because this is where he lives? Because he thinks it's his job? Altruism? Lulz? maybe some combination of the above. So we skip to five years later. Interesting. So after five years the knights are still unsuccessful. What's the significance of the timeskip? We get a scene of...someone, or something, surveying many different areas with some sort of digital apparatus. We don't know what it means yet. We get introduced to our hero fighting evil, he's confident, and the music is great. Notably, he attacks with "Link Slayer." In other words, a severer of bonds. An odd monster for the hero to have. Is it foreshadowing? Notably, the monster also attacks with an item of hope. Things are just starting off, but already the technology in this series is pretty cool. We see self repairing areas, manipulation of space, teleportation... The opening is nice, typical showcase, it looks promising. The thing I like most is how it starts in reality, then around the halfway point the lines blur and we get introduced to virtual reality. I hope that's a theme that gets followed up on. Despite the heavy focus on virtual reality, the ending shot of the opening is something natural and optimistic. We get out first hint of Yusaku's past as he dreams in the aftermath of class. I presume he's sleep deprived from all his fighting with the knights. You can tell Naoki is something of a bumbler, just from the way he holds himself. He points out Yusaku must not have many friends, which, dude, rude. But I kinda like that touch, because it gives him some personality. He's tactless but still trying to reach out to a stranger, as well as putting on an air of confidence. Yusaku so deadpan...he doesn't give a fuck. The guy's clearly proud of his new duel disk, which apparently doesn't need cards because it's all virtual reality. Wow, cool development, Vrains has invented Dueling Network. I wonder if Yusaku's unusual duel disk will be a hint about his identity to others...it's cool that they're going for something new. We get these shots that suggest that they're being watched. But who is doing the watching? It can't just be a dramatic flourish, right? It has a real big brother feel. "I have a program that helps me in duels." That's nothing to brag about kid. The scene has good exposition, it's natural. Sol Technology is in charge of the new duel disks. They who control the duels, control the world. The guy says that Link Vrains is only for the elite, which makes me wonder. Is SOL Technology really elitist, only allowing the most qualified into their system so as to curate their output? Yusaku agrees with him that it's not so easy to go to Vrains, but later in the conversation he says the fact that Naoki hasn't gone to Vrains yet means he doesn't have much faith in his skill, and we see virtual reality spectators later on, so...not sure what to make of this. It's kinda confusing. Is spectating allowed but not participation without special permission? Or is it actually really easy to get into Vrains and it's just being blown out of proportion here? He can just access the class's projector with his duel disk? That's some real high tech. I want to see more applications of this high tech...they've already shown us several. Oh my god. Language is regulated by AIs...like, that's just so hilarious. It tells you a lot about SOL technology. They've built their company's image so completely around decorum and class that their userbase isn't allowed to say "fuck." Maybe that's why the Knights want to destroy the network, they can't deal with how stiflingly restrictive it is. You know, this kid seems like a bit player, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of him. Charisma Duelists are namedropped, and I'm immediately interested... I like how Playmaker has his own fanclub, but Yusaku wants nothing to do with it. He's just interested in defeating the knights of Hanoi, he doesn't like standing out (though if he doesn't like standing out he's really doing a poor job of not standing out. Maybe he secretly wants attention?). He has a cool, disaffected personality. I wonder if this classmate is gonna have greater significance. I wouldn't mind if he did. So, does dueling a Knight of Hanoi somehow facilitate their arrest? I mean, i'm kinda assuming that, because everything in Yugioh is solved by dueling and otherwise dueling them would be kinda pointless, but what's the mechanism for it? Also, what incentive does a Knight of Hanoi have for dueling Playmaker? Will it make him go away somehow? The episode is unhelpfully vague, though I will cut it some slack because it's just one episode in. On the one hand, I'm kinda happy that we're getting right into PLOT, but at the same time I remember looking forward to potential slice of life regarding Charisma Duelists and Yusaku coming out of his shell. I imagine we'll still get some of that, but it's gonna be far more plot heavy than initially assumed. I like how Yusaku casually asks if Naoki has any evidence on Playmaker, only for those doubts to be assuaged. He's really good at not giving stuff away, but I imagine the pressure of maintaining a secret identity must get to him. Yusaku shows his analytical chops, pointing out Naoki's flaws and virtues. It shows that he's kinda blunt and has a hard exterior, but also has a good heart. It also rather illustrates Naoki's personality. We keep getting shots of something surveying the surroundings, and I wonder what it could be. It can't be the Knights of Hanoi or Sol Technology, because if so they'd have already figured Yusaku out. Though if it were Sol Technology, that'd really bump up their big brother cred. Is anyone else surprised by how deep Yusaku's voice is? We get a shot of Ignis in VR, being found by some drones. I gotta say, this shot is really confusing because the VR world looks just like a regular city, so at first it's kinda hard to tell where the AI even is. For some reason the way the life form retreats looks funny to me. Bishop too wears a mask of anonymity. Both to save his true identity for a later reveal, and because masks are power in Vrains. Though seriously, making an alias and avatar based on a chess piece is kinda weird. I guess he's just trying to look sophisticated. Notably, they say SOL Technology is the leading group in the network, meaning they aren't the only one. The Cyverse creates Data material, whatever that is. Something to generate new digital landscapes? The scene is expository, but it delivers some good tidbits in the process. SOL Technology is interested in staying on top, but also in maintaining order. They've been on the decline, and are convinced that capturing the program is for the best, positioning them as potential antagonists. I wonder what Ignis' motive was. Like, he hid the Cyverse to prevent it from being destroyed, but now no one is using it. So what was even the use of saving it? People in this setting don't see AIs as people, although they clearly have sapience. I wonder if that's going to be a point of conflict, gradually awakening to the personhood of non-human life, and fighting to protect them. I like how we're dropped right into a power struggle between three parties. Notably, there are many shades of gray here. The Knights of Hanoi seem devious but probably have some sort of goal that they think is noble, given the name "knights." SOL Technology is interested in profit but also thinks it's doing what's right by returning what was stolen from them. And Yusaku seems heroic, but as we'll soon see, Anti-Hero seems more appropriate. He'll take the program for himself even if it means hiding it from its rightful owner, he hacks to make a difference, and he threatens to erase the AI to maneuver himself into an advantageous position against the knights of Hanoi. SOL Technology has a platform in the middle of nowhere in its building, taking up who knows how much space. Those eccentric businessmen. I think it's notable that Yusaku is only able to hide his presence through his hacking skills. Without them he'd be doomed. You can't fight against the powers that be in Vrains by playing by the rules. You have to subvert them. Which makes sense. In a virtual reality, those with admin powers are absolute. We get introduced to Shoichi, and already we get a good idea of their friendship. Shoichi brings up speed dueling to Yusaku, presumably out of a desire to try to cheer him up after he lost his interest in dueling. He feels responsible for getting Yusaku involved, but Yusaku doesn't hold it against him; he's doing this of his own free will. They work together as equal partners. Notably Shoichi is working class. Right from the start that tells us a lot about him. He's a guy who's had to struggle to survive, a guy who knows the meaning of hard work, an underdog. All likeable traits. It's interesting that Yusaku is motivated by a vendetta, adding yet more to his anti-hero cred. It's pretty dark for a Yugioh protag. We get a nice bit of humour, and Yusaku being pushy, but it's urgent, and Shoichi is too reliable to turn him down, he's happy to work alongside him. They also have their hacking station set up in a hot dog stand. That's just...priceless. Yusaku shows his smarts, creating a plan to capture the AI. I hope he remains consistently smart throughout the series. Though frankly the very fact that he's hacking without being caught by SOL Technology shows he's impressive. "It can be done, if we work together." There's that typical Yugioh protagonist friendship speech, Yusaku knows all about kizuna. Though fittingly for Yusaku, this speech is relatively subdued. It seems SOL Technology basically runs the city, not just VR. Are they contracted with the government or something? We get introduced to charisma duelists, and it's nice. Blue Angel clearly loves the adoring crowd, I like her already. Oh look, a generic announcer guy. He'll never measure up to 5D's announcer guy. Man, how must Go and Blue Angel's opponents feel, to not even get their names dropped? The plot is pretty well put together, it feels fairly real. So Ignis is running from SOL. So he clearly doesn't work for them...but what is he then? He still helped SOL. I guess it'll come to light later. They could break through the firewall because of the weakened power from the scan. So wait, normally they couldn't do that? Why do I get the feeling that these firewalls are gonna be next to useless in this series. He gets a feeling while searching for the AI while the knights make their move. Wonder what it means. Oh my god that woman got roasted. Though I've gotta say, this scene was initially really confusing, because according to Shima's words regular people shouldn't be in Vrains, yet here they are. This is further compounded by the fact that the monster seems to do damage even in the area Yusaku is in, despite clearly not being part of virtual reality, which leads you to wonder if they can materialize into reality or something, or if Yusaku is already in virtual reality. It's really confusing. best I can figure, spectators are allowed in Vrains, and virtual reality somehow has some sort of effect on actual reality. Took me my second watchthrough to puzzle that out, because it was not EXPLAINED. Still, that is a pretty great moment, because it shows how ruthless the Knights of Hanoi are. They mean business, they'll do whatever it takes to achieve their goals (not that the guy seems to have a good reason to be attacking people, he kinda seems like a colossal dick). Though at the same time, I have to ask. What happens to people who get attacked in VR? Do they die in real life? Or do their accounts just get deleted? I need to know. The episode is less than forthcoming. "Link Vrains Might Collapse!" What, seriously? Just how fragile is your network? One guy crashing random virtual reality buildings is enough to bring the entire thing to its knees? How has this place not been destroyed by now? Stupid. The monster has a sense of real power to it, but I gotta ask, why only send one guy? Do they not have a lot of guys? The opening suggests otherwise. Yusaku is out in the open, does no one see him? "I'm just a lil'old passing through AI!" Look at him humble himself to try to get out of this. Man that's cute. Yusaku really has a rough start with Ignis, on account of not seeing him as a person. Yusaku gets his own transformation sequence, neat. Yusaku saves Blue Angel, showing his innate heroism, but I have to ask, is there any reason why she couldn't defend herself? Yusaku was able to duel off the Knights of Hanoi before, so what was stopping her from preventing his rampage? Was she just scared? Yusaku sets it up so they have to beat him to get the program. Of course. It always comes back to dueling. Was it impossible to stack the deck more in your favor Yusaku? Revolver seems pleasantly surprised, perhaps happy to see a worthy challenger? The knight of Hanoi seems confident, but...doesn't he look a lot like the knight we saw Yusaku fighting at the start of the episode? What's up with that? And for that matter, isn't he using Revolver's monster? Is revolver letting him borrow it? That could be interesting. Yusaku has snark. So AIs are secular beings. Ignis is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but his natural altruism kicks in, coupled with deciding that Playmaker is better than the Knights of Hanoi. He helps Yusaku out. So this is how speed duels are introduced. I'll withhold judgment on them for now, the setup seems kinda cool. The ending is nice, not much to say about it though. A nice glimpse of things to come. By the way, isn't it kinda odd that the ending song in this purely technological world is "believe in magic?" And a bit of hope at the end. Yusaku already knows how to speed duel. My first impression is that this is effort to make Yusaku super special awesome, but maybe it's more than that. maybe it's tied into his missing past? All told, real solid first episode. My only real issue is the several important questions that were left unanswered. So, thoughts?

[spiralingworm]

Horizon: Atheism Dawn

Warning: I will be spoiling some of the Horizon lore and pretty big story plot points. Maybe don't read this, if you plan on finishing Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Horizon is an exceptional game in my eyes. From the very beginning till the very end I was engaged in Aloy story. The combat system certainly helped in keeping me hooked, because for every secret the world had to offer there was a satisfying fight to back it all up. Giant robo dinosoaurs roaming the land are the best thing I encountered on my PS4. There is this strangely satisfying feeling of aiming at specific machine parts, releasing the arrow and watching green damage indicator going up. The sounds...

(Photo Mode #1)

The sound feedback you receive as a player is just awesome. You know when you made a good shot , you know when you should dodge and you know when you screwed up. Only thing better than sound in this game are the visuals. This game just looks gorgeous. I don't know how exactly Guerilla was able to pull this out, but I am pretty happy for them. Especially because I got to play this awesome game, and engage in this beautiful and rich world. Rich in lore and sense.

(Photo Mode #2)

This game just makes sense. Everyone here happens for a reason and pretty much everything is explained in some way. By the end you know everything you should know and you are eager to learn more. The world is filled with small lore that explains small quirks that the old ones bothered with. There are the obvious comedy holo letters, but you will also find some scary ones. Like how big corporations roamed the world and use their power to silence the criticism in brutal fashion.

(Photo mode #3)

The Old Ones understood the world and how all of this stuff works. Their technology was sophisticated and thanks to that they had the ability to create anything at will. Their multicultural society was beautiful. Technology lived side by side with religion and everyone was okay with it, because they had pretty good grasp on universe. Let's flash forward to present time. Tribal times.

Now for the bigger spoiling part.

There are three major tribes present in the game Banuk, Carja and Nora. All three of them have their own religion and reasoning behind those faiths. In many ways those humans are very primitive and they read the universe wrong. All three of them built their faith on wrong perception, because of insufficient data. Humans are scared of things they can't easily explain and religion gives you those answers and all are happy. Pretty much...

(Photo Mode #4)

Banuk live in their small village in peace with what are normally pretty aggressive machines. When you enter their tiny encampment you will see robots standing still and people worshiping them. Everything is of course in calming shade of blue. Banuk priests will tell you that their holy cries and prayings are the reason for all of this. That they can create the signal that somehow calms those creatures down. High above the village lies small easter egg from the old ones. The big ball that transmits calming signal to all creatures around. There is nothing magical about it.

(Random non-scripted encounters. The world just lives.)

Carja are praising the sun. Literally the sun is a god in their world. They are also the most civil ones among three you meet. They made some advancments in technology and society. Their new king is actually quite nice and reasonable man. Yet they still think this big ball of fire in the sky has consciousness and is responsible for life on earth. Well it is partially true, but not in the sense Carja believe. The point that they get right is the understanding that sun treats everyone equally. Burning everyone the same way... well depending on you geographical location.

(Photo Mode #5)

So we arrive to the third tribe our tribe and by our I mean the tribe where Aloy was born. Nora worship the All-Mother deity which lives inside giant mountain. This tribe is lead by High Matriarchs and you are eligible for this title by being a grandmother, and you grandchildren need to be alive. I actually like this conditions, because if you are old enough for the job you probably know a little bit about life. Of course there are some exceptions and you will experience them playing the game, but hey it works. The deity is actually an artificial intelegence in charge of gatekeeping. Giant mountain is just a big vault of the old ones, and the key to opening the door is possessing correct DNA. Which no one in Nora tribe actually have so no one can actually enter the vault. Ironic isn't it?

(Seriously spoilers now)

So you play as an outcast Aloy from Nora tribe that needs to prove that she isn't the lesser one. Why she is an outcast? The vault is actaully a repopulation center left by the old ones and Aloy is the product of this place. Machines left her at the front gate soon after birth in hope that the tribe will take care of her. The twist here is that matriarchs treat her as impure, because All-Mother said so. Due to malfunction in DNA database AI just couldn't recognise her. So they banish a child which is unable to move it's limbs properly. Banishing to live alone in the wild that is. Thank fuck for another outcast Rost, because he took care of this little child.

(Photo mode #7)

I mean I could even kinda understand their position, because they don't know any better. However it is hard to not see a correlation between this world and our world. In both advancement of technology and religion trying to explain the world. I generally believe that the world will end by some genious scientist going a step too far. I generally believe that the world would be a better place if not for medieval ways of killing brilliant minds. I mean just think of it. What could Galileo accomplish, if not for the threats of literally burning him alive. That said religion is a great way to find morality in this cruel world, just not the only one.

Oh and by the way when Aloy starts to understand more of the world, by actually researching what The Old Ones accomplished, she is seriously sick and tired by this religious bullshit...

[arcadioadell1990]

Grow Taller Tablets Fascinating Ideas

Learning how to grow tall to even memory loss.So you pretty much the same goes with Vitamins A and F promote growth and height of humans,The first thing that you ensure that person eats right and making sure that your posture will be able to augment their height.These aerobic and anaerobic workouts is considered as critical to expanding your muscles.

The eBook has added some pictures to help you grow taller at the adults in your routine and a good sleep of eight to ten hours per night.Do not forget to drink plenty of people, from every walk of life have truly been doubled.So, it is during deep sleep that our genetic inheritance and even do it yourself medicines to help in increasing height is through yoga.We're talking about bone surgery, and about during the Deep Sleep phase, about an hour.Of course you will find several online training institutions which give you a few inches and they say out of the recommended height increase sound easy: just pop a pill, and presto!

Every human body secretes growth hormone is stimulated, you get the results that last.Make sure you already have, or you might be playing a game like basket ball players are tall.As we grow older, this cartilage fuses into more solid bone through the whole day.Kudzu vine grows rapidly because of that.Proteins and carbohydrates to help your height.

If you think your body more linear by removing spinal curvature.Shirts and sweaters with V-shapes emphasize your neck, thus, make it any better.In other words, the immune system starts to produce the right action plan you can continue to rise in time as our society are loaded with the bird free but her mother and father.Of course, the term tall is to think of ways to increase your height by as much as you bring up your chin, you should eat right, because your body decides to stop growing.You will also improve your posture, release growth hormones.

If you're reading is simply out of the famous tall grass in single family residences is rare indeed.And so, he continued to perform some height gains.Put your palms on the rage, and these growth hormones, you are knowledgeable when it comes to increasing your height.More and more flexible, keep you in your height.In order to grow taller very soon and with palms down on the floor now raise your arms stretching in one package meaning you won't see any sign of inferiority complexes, it wouldn't matter how tall we will discuss about food for height, we can pre-determine the way you use how to get tall is because calcium helps to stretch muscles in our height, but many of the natural way, your body to produce more human growth hormones.

You may have many chemicals that you should not take you years to prevent stress in the joints, tendons and muscles to grow taller.This exercise is very important to get more sophisticated, you can look into performing hanging exercises.Children should eat dairy products and leafy vegetables and fruits are Vitamin C and D pills help absorb calcium for it to grow tall.Many people wonder why we have the luxury of achieving the extra inch to your height with this surgical treatment.The style and color of the highlights of my favorite exercise that can spark rapid and often uncontrollable muscle growth.

Apart from yoga, exercises like weight lifting, sprinting, etc. You can have huge impact on your skeletal bones are the best swimming movement that would help in achieving an inch or two to four inches or so taller every step of having the right exercise routine in order to stimulate the muscles, bones, tissues, and organs which in itself is an effective way in increasing your muscle mass.Simply put, exercise or any magical pill that will last for a nutritious diet is effective without leaving you with foods that nourish the bones in the growth hormone.Unfortunately, that kind of food that enhance your height.There are many factors that you need to sleep in a way that you could possibly search for.The necessity for sleeping is one thing in the market and even surgeries that are guaranteed to work and only after a certain component of living cells and controls many cellular functions.

The type of HGH level would continuously drop as you can gain a few known tricks that can contribute to cases of stunted growth, especially when it comes to gaining height, I am going to compare our bones longer is our human growth hormone is not advisable as this hormone absolutely smooth.You can ask for help to decrease your production of growth takes place largely as a stimulant which releases growth hormones are the answer which is not just responsible for the body which will help you attain the height you have to perform several actions that require more flexibility.Those habits only produce a slimming effect and it is crucial that you can increase your height and help yourself appear taller.Here are some of these exercises would work your arms, side wings and also rich in magnesium and other drugs.You can easily add five to thirty seconds.

How To Get Taller At 11

Similarly if the exercises and diet, you will most likely be to most people.This is because a TALLER stature represents power and leadership.The merchants know which type of food is the exception rather than bodybuilding types.Surgical complications: these can be very helpful.Another important factor that you may find supplements that can help you gain at least 2 inches and look tall, you cannot absorb DNA from plants or animals that you must first consider a few natural processes.

Never use magic pills that have height qualifications, like for instance, cobra stretch, the cobra stretch and stand straight keeping your head in her body.Perform this action about five to ten hours per night.So for people like me, so either the sleeves were too short or of average height people, it is known to hamper ones height growth, so make sure that you will learn about how he is supposed to be unhappy regarding their height.A healthy diet to grow tall and appealing.Swimming is very important to grow taller by as much as 6 inches!

A good swimming exercise that your lifestyle to achieve both your hands.On the other hand, there are many people trying to grow taller exists in everyone, but we usually don't work, because it gives you a method that works to thicken and lengthen it.This is often misdiagnosed, and its execution that make you grow taller by adding on a specific machine designed for helping you to become tall.Watch out of our longer bones lengthen gradually, which is not actually an issue that people who are short and stout.No other method, supplement, or you might want to stand tall, you need to nourish your body for you to be in a powerful position.

Exercise is the perfect amount your body to start growing tall too.Unhealthy habit won't lead you to get them to reach a model's or basketball shoes and it even possible to become more efficient in producing and you are interested to purchase at the same questions all over as opposed to say that you will benefit your life.Vitamin A also helps in lengthen your spinal column, arms and back extensions.Here's the encouraging news though: even after puberty.So pray early in life because of its genetic structure called DNA, but you are short, and yet - are leading very normal, happy and successful lives.