#i like to think when he was sitting at the pc right before the trade incident he was playing some old ass computer game . a bit of a loser

[drifloonz]

every time i remember stevens implied to be a gamer i get the vivid image of him in his abandoned lookin unkempt ass house playing league on a desktop pc in the corner of his room with all the lights off

[yandere-daze]

This isn’t a req by any means, but I had an idea for the enstars self aware au and I thiiink no one brought something like it up yet? I looked at the masterlist to make sure, but you can ignore if someone did mention something similar!

So this idea assumes that the player isekaied in the enstars world as an idol and the characters realized that already. You know how you mentioned that the card pictures were like actual pictures taken from photoshoots with the idols? What if there’s something like an in-universe version of the cards (maybe as posters or actual trading cards) and when the player became an idol, they started doing their own photoshoots and have their own cards? Everyone would go absolutely crazy trying to collect all the cards (or at least the ones that they like)! Tori’s throwing a tantrum because he wasn’t able to get a royalty-themed card that Tsukasa managed to get. Kohaku (and maybe HiMERU)’s trying to murder Rinne because he won’t stop bragging about getting a casino-inspired card (like you dressed up as a card-dealer). Mika’s ascending to heaven because he managed to get a clockwork doll-themed card.

Meanwhile, you’re just there watching all of this chaos unfold in a pile of cards that the idols gave you of them. They may not have been able to come home to you with those cards while you were playing the game, but at least now they can give you the cards you didn’t get of them in person!

Yes you´re right, I don´t think anyone else brought up an idea like this before and it´s actually pretty funny to think about jnfdlnf

Like you´re just trying to live your life and do your job as an idol and you can´t help but sigh whenever one of the idols runs up to you with one of your cards and asks you to sign it for them. They act like obsessed fans when they´re supposed to be the idols you enjoyed listening to for so long😭

The rich kids definitely have an advantage when it comes to getting your cards, I bet Tsukasa just sits at his pc in the dead of night, waiting for the sales to start and then immediately buys out the entire stock nfsnf

And everyone else is soooo upset with him because he keeps them all to himself and no one else is able to buy them if he gets all of them

But if you wore an outfit that fit their own aesthetic? They´re ascending. Oh, you must have worn that just for them, right? That must mean you love them more than anyone else!

Yes, they´re delusional like that lmao

And right? Prepared to have your entire room flowing over with pictures because the idols keep dropping off their cards at your place. They´d love to have a part of them with you at all times. Aren´t they just so romantic? <3

[clairethecutepup]

Tykes at Heart: Getting Your Goat (Ch. 3)

Chapter Summary:

For once, the animal IS being sent to an actual farm. But is the goat going to be KEPT on that farm...?

Episode Summary:

Cio decides to save costs by making his own ingredients. However, things go awry when his milk goat is instead a male goat-- and a rowdy one at that! Can Claire, Leena and Sparky help him tame or remove the unruly beast; or will his attempts at reducing costs end up costing him everything?

[Chapter 3: Sent to an Actual Farm (Hopefully)…]

Cio ordered the goat off the company’s site, and confirmation emails are typically sent whenever someone completes an online transaction. As he recalled, it also included a receipt of what was ordered. Unfortunately, it listed every detail of his transaction…

“Wait a minute…” he presses his nose to the screen, then snaps around in his swivel chair, “I really did order the wrong sex?!”

On his shy behalf, Suru phoned the company to complain about receiving the “wrong” goat, but they claimed Cio did order a male goat… and now, he could see it’s true. Sparky, Leena and Claire stand before him, sharing the disappointed frown; Faxie whimpers and sympathetically paws his master’s shoulder from the computer desk.

“I don’t believe this…” Cio rests his face in his hands, his fox ears drooping, “How’d I even make that mistake…?”

Faxie glares at him.

“What, man…?”

Faxie raises an eyebrow. Cio thinks back to the night, slowly shifting his eyes away and pursing his lips.

***

It was another night of Cio staying up and mashing the buttons on his computer-connected controller. He generally preferred console gameplay, but the game he awaited only came out on PC. Faxie yipped at him, furrowing his little brow and sitting tall. Cio just muttered to himself and button-mashed hard enough to make his controller bob in his hands. Faxie barked at him then.

“Dude, not now!!” Cio stayed focused, “I’ve been trying to beat this guy for a while now, don’t mess me up!”

Faxie would just pull that darn cable and tell his master to sleep already, but he knew it’d just make his owner too angry to sleep instead. Cio then screams out in annoyance as he slams his face onto the desk, making poor Faxie jump back and arch his back.

“Verdammt…” Cio muttered, “Still can’t beat this jerk… Man, no offense, but you really need to be quiet sometimes…”

Faxie turns his nose up and stomps off the desk. If Cio didn’t want to care about proper self-care, then that was on him. The fox-hybrid eventually sat himself up again, then exited his game and opened the internet.

“Whatever, I still got that thing to do…” Cio sighs, “That game’s just too fun, man…”

After some browsing and selection, Cio put the final touches on his ordering form. Then, he needed to select the proper sex of his goat. Unfortunately, a sleep deprived guy can’t identify the differing “Fe” prefix all too well… After placing his order, it was finally time to sleep.

*****

Faxie snorts at Cio, finally snapping him out of that embarrassing flashback.

“Okay, okay, I get it, man,” Cio huffs, “No more late night gaming…”

“Sorry, Cio,” Sparky shrugs, “but I think that pretty much clears them of any need to help you out… I guess you could call again and explain everything, and see if they’re willing to make an exchange?” Sparky then widens his eyes, before hanging his shoulders, “Oh, right… You said something about ‘all sales being final’ and generally not taking animals back…”

"Great," Cio sighs, "What am I supposed to do now...?"

"Well, I think the obvious thing is to find someone who will have him," Sparky suggests, "Maybe you could even trade him for a female goat?"

Leena adds, “Or, sell him for enough for a girl goat instead!”

Claire didn’t care which method Cio used for that female replacement, she just wanted the scary thing gone… She watches the deadly caprine from Cio’s back window, observing his consumption of grass. It probably did take a lot of energy to maim people like he did… When the goat realizes her big blues gazing down: he snorts and lowers his horns, pawing up grass in anticipation-- making it clear the pup dies first. … Okay, any of these poor fools could be the “first,” really; save the idiot who can’t seem to perish, no matter how many times the goat smacks his head against the brunette bimbo’s or any other part of her. Still, Satan’s-Fitting-Symbol puts the fear of his holy enemy deep into poor Claire’s very soul: the pup not only runs from the window, but crawls underneath the blanket of Cio’s futon and leaves only her shaking tail visible.

“Aw, do not worry, Little Buddy,” Leena lifts her, making Claire little more than a large and swaddled baby, “Cio will figure out a way to take care of the bad goat, and we will help him.”

“Huh, we probably could do something like that…” Cio taps his chin, leaning into his chair, “Question is: who’d be crazy enough to take that maniac?”

“Oh, I know!” Leena raises her hand, still supporting Claire in the other, “He could be a guard goat, instead of a guard dog!”

“Actually, Leena might have a point,” Sparky explains, “Maybe a shepherd or a farmer could appreciate the help in protecting livestock?” he then rubs the back of his head, “I can’t exactly say I’d see a museum or some manor using a goat instead of a dog…”

“Okay, I could probably get in touch with a farm,” Cio faces his computer again, “I should probably put up an advertisement, though. I don’t think people would like it if I just randomly called and messaged them about a goat,” his fox ears droop, “... I probably wouldn’t like calling ‘em anyway…” his ears perk back up, “But still, random emails can be pretty annoying, too.”

“And there’s also the risk of them thinking they’re being spammed or scammed by you,” Sparky adds, then looks at Leena with his most deadpan expression, “... You remembered to learn from that, right, Leena…?”

“I cannot learn from it, as I have been banned from emails forever.”

It was a simple lottery scam: the typical, “Please give us your personal information, so we may give you your winnings-- and don’t forget the lottery taxes and fees, first.” Leena didn’t have access to an actual debit card nor credit card, so she adhered to the “fees” by giving the numbers on her Perrito Burrito gift card instead. Perhaps a couple burrito combos or a few tacos would have sufficed as well as actual bank funds? Of course, it was demanded that Leena actually pay with a proper card. All she had to do was ask her parents for theirs, and the rest was history… As well as Leena’s permitted, independent use of the internet-- although there were a few other offenses, but it's better for less to be said.

“Well, whenever you’re able to use them again…” Sparky sighs, “Anyway, I’d suggest the newspaper as much as any sites, some farms might not have internet access.”

After taking out an ad in the paper and posting one online, Cio would eventually be contacted by a man on the outskirts of town: a farmer by the name of Johan. They just needed to bring the buck over, and Johan would decide if it’s another “fierce protector” for his grazing goats. Hopefully, Cio’s goat wouldn’t end up being the opposite-- and for more than just the other goats’ sake. They’d need a ride out there, however, and Skyler seemed perfect with his truck. Unfortunately, the demonic caprine managed to pop a back tire with his horns, before Ryuketsu could restrain him again. One spare tire later, and the group finally drove off: Ryuketsu and the goat in the truck’s bed, everyone else inside the vehicle.

When they arrive, Cio gives one final, "Thanks, man," to their driver. ... Along with the proper apology about the prior tire destruction.

"Well, as long as you’re getting rid of him," Skyler sighs, "I'll gladly accept that apology. Also, don’t worry about giving me a new tire, I can see the goat’s difficult to handle."

If this was a simple taste of the goat's behavior, then Skyler dreaded the thought of what everyone else went through until now... The idea that his younger sister and her friends could've been hurt or worse by that crazy caprine made him dislike the creature even more. He offered to come along and help, despite lacking the proper strength to maintain the beast, but Cio assured him they could manage; so Skyler simply sat beside his truck and practiced some field-based sketch work, his wolf tail curled at his side. He needed to get an idea for a commissioned poster, anyway.

Everyone else walked towards Johan's house-- or was dragged toward it, in the stubborn goat's case. Sparky rings the doorbell, being the one who'll speak on Cio's behalf. Johan answered, looking as stereotypical of a farmer as one could: the straw hat, the shirtless overalls and the boots. All the full-human missed was a piece of straw hanging out from the mouth. When he spotted the goat, he knew who exactly this group was.

"So, you must be the one who agreed to trade a buck for a doe?"

Sparky nods, "Yes, we are."

"Hoo wee, this goat must be something valuable if he's apparently guarded like one of them bank vehicles..." he smiles down at Claire, "I especially wouldn't want to be the poor fool who decides to tussle with this little pup for him."

Claire closed her eyes and accepted the head-patting, slightly wagging her tail.

"So, lemme get a look at this fella..." Johan leans toward the goat-- closing his eyes in response to the face-aimed snort, "My, my, you are an ornery critter. Well, too bad for you," he pats the goat's head, "I've dealt with even ornerier."

Cio gulps at the idea of getting "lucky" when it comes to insane caprines. Maybe his pizzeria would have actually been leveled...

"Well, first thing's first," Johan motions them to follow, "We gotta introduce him to his future herd."

They approach an outdoor pen that has a small structure for any shelter the goats need, but the does and bucks remain separated in either section via inner fencing. Seeing Johan, they assumed it to be feeding time and instantly ran toward him, if not just following along the fence's side.

“Okay, listen up, all of ya…” the man begins, motioning to the potential new caprine, “We’ve got a new face here, and I expect all of you to treat him nicely-- even if he’s not exactly the nicest himself, right now.”

Cio’s goat snorts at them all.

“See?” Johan points a thumb, “But don’t worry, I’m sure that once he’s settled in, he’ll warm up to us all,” he reaches to relieve Ryuketsu of gripping the goat’s horn, “Okay, Big Guy, I’ll take over from here: I’ll get him into a private pen, just to make sure he won’t pass on anything nasty to the others here. As for you guys, go ahead and look at the does over there, and decide on which little lady suits your fancy the most.”

Leena grins and runs over to the fence, as all the goats approach her for possible food.

“Oh boy!” she glances around, “Let us get that one-- oh, no, that one! Oh, let us get--”

“Leena…” Sparky puts a paw on her shoulder, “Cio’s the one who needs the goat… He should choose.”

“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got…” the mentioned fox-hybrid looks over the fence, “I dunno, man, it’s hard to tell which one would give the most milk… Maybe we should ask Johan.”

“But Cio,” Leena points at a doe, “this one looks just like my little buddy… It is so cute.”

Claire’s big blues stare into the goat’s, as both pairs scan the other being up and down. The goat only needed a set of blue ears and hooves, and a blue tail, then it’d be the perfect glasses-less goat twin. Claire’s wolf ears tilt, as she wonders if there’s a full-fledged wolf out there that’d answer the question: “What if I wasn’t a hybrid?” Honestly, if Claire ever had to choose between human or animal, than remain a combination…

“Uh, I don’t think I’ll get that one…” Cio grimaces, then mutters, “It’d be even freakier if it were me instead…”

No one feels comfortable at the idea of milking their own friend, essentially-- or something close enough, and double for their own self.

"Whoa, look out, he's loose!"

Everyone's blood froze. Oh no, Johan didn't mean...? The quartet runs for their lives, as Cio's goat rushes toward them from the side. Sparky lifts up Cio from behind, while Leena picks Claire up. Hopefully, the taller duo's longer legs would see everyone saved... Perhaps the pursuing Johan and Ryuketsu would provide salvation instead?

"Don't you kids worry none!" Johan assures, "I've had my fair share of ornery critters to wrangle!"

Cio replies, "Dude, I'm not a kid!"

"I know!" Leena leads everyone to Johan's front door, "Let us hide in here!"

Normally, Sparky would protest the rudeness of barging into someone's house without permission... But there's a crazy goat trying to maim them!! Leena holds the door open for Sparky and Cio, before pulling it shut behind herself. Sparky sets Cio down and catches his breath, Cio eyeing the door; while Leena pins her back to the door and still holds a trembling Claire.

Leena sighs, "Phew, we are safe..."

Leena yelps, as she and Claire are sent flying by the dislodged door. The goat glares down Cio and Sparky, causing Faxie to whimper and hide inside Cio's front overall pocket. Sparky picks Cio up again and runs screaming, Cio's own terrified vocals joining in, as the goat chases-- ensuring to jump onto the landed front door, to crush the two canine hybrids still underneath.

"I think my spine is broken, Little Buddy," Leena groans, "What about yours...?"

Claire can't even process if she's still alive, let alone if she still has a spine. At the very least, the girls were left alone (and left dying), while the boys continued their fleeing from a mad caprine. Somehow, Johan's house was still standing... but it was just still standing. Ryuketsu managed to get hold of the goat again, as much as the beast fought; while Johan glares at the entire group, not pleased with the internal destruction of his humble abode.

"Uh, w-we're really sorry..." Sparky gulps, "I-It just seemed like our best bet at--"

Johan towers over him and points in a direction.

"GET THAT DEVIL OUT OF HERE!!"

"... O-Of course..."

Skyler naturally inquired what all happened, once he laid eyes upon the goat that should've been replaced. As if the goat didn't cause enough chaos, he managed to pop another of Skyler's truck tires.

"Sorry..." Ryuketsu grabs hold of him, "He's a little slippery..."

[End Chapter]

-----------

As you can see, I'm done with italicizing and all, those fancier fonts are gonna be replaced by capitalization for SUPER emphasis in influctuations and general screaming. Less tedious.

[lovenpeace-pkmn]

offscreen post

//(note: set a few days ago, shortly before this post. mostly under the cut because this got kinda long)

[Concordia knocks on the door to an apartment in Nimbasa. “Be good, Cartwright," she says softly. The phone in her hand beeps in response.

The door is opened by a man with warm brown skin, blue hair, and a cane. He gives a sunny smile. “Connie! Hello! You brought the Porygon?” She holds up the phone and he says, “Good, good. Come inside!”

Connie follows him into a warmly-lit apartment. A Tynamo and a Bronzor watch her curiously. “Sit down for a moment, okay?” Tam says. “I just need to finish cleaning this up.” He gestures to a table where some kind of mechanical device sits, partially disassembled.

Connie sits on the couch, goes to open her texts, then thinks the better of it and sets her phone down.

“Any luck finding manufacturers?” Tam asks.

“No, I am afraid not. I have been somewhat busy these past few days.”

“Huh. You heard what’s been going on in Castelia?”

Unexpectedly to both of them, Concordia bursts into tears.

“Oh, dear Palkia, are you alright?”

“I’m—sorry, sorry, I should not be crying…”

“No, I…think that’s reasonable to be upset about, actually. Can I…” Connie nods, and Tam sits down on the couch next to her.

“I’m sorry,” Connie says again. “I just…everyone I know is terribly upset about this, I have spent two days answering phone calls and trying to comfort people and talking them down from arson—most of my friends are former Plasma members, we are not exactly known for making rational decisions when it comes to Pokémon welfare—my siblings are furious, and I have to keep reminding them to eat and sleep—” Connie puts her head in her hands. “I am so tired, Tam. Everyone needs me to be strong, but I am so tired. And it seems that every time I look away Minskt escalates things to new heights of corruption, and I have to start all over again…”

“Do you, um…do you need a hug?”

Connie nods miserably and lets him wrap his arms around her.

After a moment they break apart. Connie stands up, face a little red.

“We, um. We should get to work on the Porygon thing…”

“Right…right.” Tam stands up as well, rubbing the back of his head. “The scanner’s right back through here… You said you don’t have her Pokéball, right?”

“Yeah, N couldn’t find it…”

A stream of electric light comes out of Connie’s phone and congeals into the form of Cartwright the Porygon. She chirps curiously as Tam leads them into a room lined with worktables and machinery. A 3d printer hums away in one corner.

Tam goes to one of the machines and starts flipping switches. “Arright. My machine’s not connected to the PC network, so we can check her registration data, but if we alter it, it’ll glitch out next time she links to the network. It’s a whole mess and I spend a lot of time sorting out reg data corruption for clients who thought they could change their traded ‘mon’s nickname at home…”

“You can release her, though, right?”

“Oh, yeah, that’ll be no trouble if that’s what you want. Sort of in a legal gray area, but—her trainer’s dead, yeah? And she doesn’t want to go back to the company he worked for?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, Porygon, come sit here,” Tam says, pressing some buttons on one of his machines. Cartwright hovers down to sit on the table next to it. Tam presses another button, and a beam of light flashes out to scan her. A few seconds later, the machine’s screen lights up with the scanned information. “…Um.”

Connie leans over curiously to see the screen. “Um what?”

“Connie, this Pokémon is legally owned by the company, not by the trainer. I’m all for Pokémon autonomy, but—”

“We cannot send her back," Connie says quickly. "She says they are going to erase her memory if she goes back.”

“I know, I wasn’t going to say we should—” Tam stops. “Erase her memory? That’s awful!”

“Exactly.”

“I—yeah, okay, this is very justified, I just…you understand this is super illegal, right? Are you sure you want to do this, like, right after Castelia’s law enforcement pulls that?”

“We already have the Porygon,” Connie points out. “Might as well be in for an Ampharos as for a Mareep, no? And they will be distracted. This new change will cause more chaos in their ranks than anything.”

“Okay. Yeah, okay.” Tam takes a deep breath and pushes his glasses up. “Pory, you got anything you want to save from your reg data before we delete it?”

Cartwright shakes her head, then vanishes into the machine for a moment. She types across the screen, “Status: ready rready ready! Begin procedure,” and then rematerializes onto the table.

“Okay. Here goes nothing… Wiping registration data now.”]

[rush-wing]

ahem hem, soooo any OCs you have been ✨hyperfixating✨ on lately? or in general??

where do i start

It’s all d&d characters, all the way down btw. I’m a forever DM so I tend to make characters whenever the whim strikes but these guys never get played much, I just rotate them in my head sadly, waiting for the day…

I might throw you some art for visualisation but I’m still.. eh.. learning so enjoy little extremely stylised doodles

Everyone here you can find me reblogging things for over on @hearthkeep too!

First!

Is Jaisarie AKA Jaise – she was primed to be in a Saltmarsh campaign but that’s not going ahead now so she’s just sitting on the pier in my head, kicking her feet above the water idly. She’s my undead pirate : ) Jaise started unlife because I got my mitts on the Wildemount campaign guide and thought an Echo Knight’s echoes could make a fun reflavouring as something ghosty. Originally she was a Hollow One, but I’ve since altered her to the Reborn "race", but it’s all dead things at any rate~ She doesn’t know how she died, and isn’t sure she wants to know! Last thing she truly remembers is being dragged out of the ocean as bloated corpse, but the open gash on her neck and her abdomen seems to point to the idea that she was murdered by someone good at their job. Well, aside from glimpses of memories of an old crew she’s fond of, but she couldn’t pick them from a crowd if they stood right in front of her at the moment. I have some ideas for what she was involved in, but the great thing about this is I am pretty happy for any and all of that to go out the window for whatever a good game requires.

Second! Is a constant returner:

My boy Keats. He was my first PC I have made, so yess it’s trueee… he’s a bit special for me. I’ve played him the most out of anyone (which I can count on the one hand), and every time he’s just such a hoot to play. God I love him. And he’s “just” a half-elf battle master Fighter! (I will throw hands on anyone saying he’s boring for that though--) He’s an acrobat-turned-gladiator and a complete dumbass so he is big on stupid stunts, and most of the time, bounces right back up when he eats the pavement face-first. Honestly I think I just wish I had his confidence and bravado.

Third:

This is the gentlemen who I’ve been playing Thousand Year Old Vampire as - Madieren. He started out as a half-elven scholar from an isolated monastery dedicated to the study of magic, but he decided he liked blood magic and went off on a tangent. So you can call him a “vampire” of some description, but I refer to him officially as an immortal blood mage. I’ve had a lot of fun with him over the past few months, watching him evolve, go through the shit (his only student got murdered, has been kicked out of his home at least three times, oh, and had his arm accidentally cut off, just to name a few things), and eat his own hubris whole. He actually started life known as Alezaren, but due to certain shenanigans he’s shed his original name. Madieren ended his run making up with his rival who’s been chasing him down across the continent (who also ended up immortal due to the influence of one of the other player’s characters) and like there was only so much those two could stab each other before the tension went elsewhere.

And lastly:

This is Eon! He’s had a nostalgia resurgence after watching something last night and like I want to do something with him now but what??? I have an Eon-sized itch and I cannot scratch it!!!! Anyway, Eon is my sad wizard tiefling. Well, “wizard” in quotation marks because he’s technically an Eldritch Knight. Eon’s a blacksmith by trade, but dabbles in magic because there’s a quiet passion there for it that was nurtured by an eccentric mentor he hasn’t seen in a long time. So, yes, he has the tragic backstory, to the point I somewhat recently realised I gave an 8-year-old PTSD to get him so. Um. Sorry, Eon. He’s got a very stand-offish, stoic exterior, but he really is such a soft creature at heart. Eon’s my nerd. The oxymoronic buff wizard. I have a set of dice someone in my group made from scratch specifically for him so one day I need to play him so I get to actually roll them for him.

[flowergirlmiwa]

literally just autistically infodumping stories from my childhood about my experiences with The Pokemon Trading Card Game under the keep reading (decently long)

It's wild to me almost my entire time caring about the TCG in that real passionate way... was Sun and Moon. The card layouts just feel nice, I like GXs they feel comfy, I just remember having so much fun especially before the introduction of tag team GX

of course as a kid in the year 2000 I had an interest in anything Pokemon, but the cards just weren't on my radar. they weren't sold at any of the supermarkets my parents normally went to besides Walmart but at the time I was historically glued to the video game section

this is a tangent, but as a kid I remember doing that a lot lol. I would sit in the cart until we got to the video games, then I'd sit there unattended and play the GameCube kiosk demos or later download demos to my DS lite. I'd sit around waiting for my dad to get back from food shopping. I feel like kids aren't randomly left unsupervised anymore not like the 00s. It's fucked. Cut this part

anyway outside of playing video games, first the pc Play It! games then the game boy color game, I had no real way to engage with the card game itself. That is, besides the 2 player set I had which is where I got the first Play It! from. Actually being able to hold Pokemon cards was pretty hype but I swear to god I bought more NEOPETS TCG than Pokemon TCG back then. I only remember opening a few packs total and usually losing the cards somehow. I have nothing from those days sadly

i remember going to visit my half brother around 2001-2002 and seeing a cyndaquil card in his card album and coveting it. and then i STOLE it. YOU STOLE COMMON RARITY CYNDAQUIL

ON LEFT: i think this is the common rarity cyndaquil card i stole. worth wholes of cents. this weighed on me greatly

ON RIGHT: Vanessa from The King of Fighters

anyway i honestly pretty much ignored gen 3 cards entirely. just no interest whatsoever past the neo series, which was the only one i was able to pull on in my youth

but diamond and pearl base set. (2007) i was INTERESTED in this. that's right, now a preteen i gained the strength to walk from the back of the walmart to the front so i could locate the cards section. i was pretty into pokemon when i got my hands on pearl so i would get a pack of base set once a week when id go with my dad shopping. i didn't pull jack shit actually i remember pulling ass. i began a card album for my collection and sorted my cards by pokedex number because i was a fool

anyway, moving countries twice or more a year isn't great for keeping interest in childrens card games, so i dont remember keeping up with the rest of gen 4 (or 5) ptcg after early diamond and pearl era until 2015. i only got some exposure to gen 3 era cards seeing a friend's collection in mexico. i think we tried to duel too but we had no energy cards so it was tough. actually now that i remember it he gave me his cards and i later brought them to my high school in america. wonder where those cards went. actually i think they merged into my general library with the other acquisition later on. uh stay tuned?

honestly why don't i just leave it at that with my childhood, i think there's definitely a delineation between these brief flirtations with the pokemon tcg and my real engagement that began in 2015. i'll save that for another time.......... clifhanger

[atlanticcanada]

RCMP wasn't built to police rural communities: criminologist

The RCMP has drawn a lot of criticism for its response to the deadly mass shooting that began in Portapique, N.S., in April 2020.

But even before the deadly 13-hour rampage, the RCMP was being criticized right across the country for its poor track record when it comes to policing in rural communities.

"If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we have to learn that rural policing for the most part [in Canada] is broken," said St. Thomas University criminology professor Michael Boudreau.

The Mass Casualty Commission's (MCC) final report laid out several recommendations on how policing in rural communities can be improved, but Boudreau says the RCMP wasn't built for this kind of policing in small and remote communities.

"They [RCMP] were meant to be a national police force that deals with things like domestic terrorism, human trafficking, and the drug trade," said Boudreau. "Boots on the ground kind of policing was never part of their DNA and it's been an awkward transition for them."

Boudreau says rural provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick should abandon the RCMP policing model and expand municipal policing.

"It may not be a cost-saving measure but it would allow for better community policing, which was so very missing in Portapique in April 2020," said Boudreau.

The MCC's final report included 130 recommendations when it came to policing, and made several suggestions on how to improve policing in rural communities.

The report is highly critical of the RCMP's response on the evening of April 18, 2020, when the gunman, Gabriel Wortman, went on a shooting spree that began in his home and out into the neighbourhood in the rural community of Portapique.

Wortman, disguised as an RCMP officer, evaded police and went on a 13-hour shooting rampage that left 22 innocent Nova Scotians dead, including a pregnant mother. RCMP eventually shot and killed Wortman at a roadside gas bar and truck stop in Enfield, N.S.

Before the deadly mass shooting, the RCMP had faced long-standing criticism of its contract policing services in rural communities -- and not just in the Maritimes -- but the failures in responding to the mass shooting only amplified the issue.

Colchester County, which includes the village of Portapique, struck up a police service review just before the deadly rampage to examine its policing contract with the RCMP, while also determining if the service was effective and if the county was getting its money's worth.

At the time, Tom Taggart was the county councillor for the area that included Portapique, and he was unrelenting in his call for a police review.

Taggart was critical of the RCMP for its lack of presence in the community, and now that he's a PC MLA for Colchester North, he had this to say about rural policing.

"It's a challenge, I don't think it's gotten a lot better but it's a challenge," said Taggart. "I'm not sure what the right way is to face it."

The RCMP review for Colchester County was completed by former Halifax Deputy Police Chief Bill Moore but the county has held on to it while awaiting the findings of the MCC's final report.

It's expected that Colchester County will make the police review public at a council meeting later this month.

"The commission completed their mandate and this is what they set out to do and so now we have to ensure the report is acted upon and it doesn't sit on somebody's shelf," said Michael Gregory, councillor for District 7 in Colchester County.

Gregory is also a retired RCMP officer and says a major issue with the RCMP's rural policing model is the transient nature of the work and the lack of familiarity the officers who are policing the area have with the community.

For the most part, the officers patrolling these rural communities aren't from the area and don't know the people or the environment, said Gregory.

New Brunswick Mayor Ken Stannix agrees and says it's important for police to live in the community they help keep safe.

"It's important for them to integrate into the community," said Stannix. "If they don't know the area, they may not know the players, they won't know who the person was that made the phone call."

The final report says that more value needs to be placed into rural policing and all levels of government need to provide financial support to ensure the communities are adequately policed.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said it's now up to elected officials to take these recommendations and move them forward.

"This is critical, everyone wants safer communities and I certainly do," said Houston. "I think the very first place to start with the recommendations will be the joint committee on making sure the recommendations are implemented."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/vdfemSA

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Little Bones 2

Warnings: non-consent sex and rape (series); harassment, general creepiness, unwanted touches

This is dark! (biker) Thor x chubby!reader and explicit. 18+ only.  Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Series Synopsis: You’re a city girl stuck in a small town, but Birch isn’t as sleepy as it seems.

Sister series to Smalltown Bringdown and When the Weight Comes Down

Note: We got another part and I hope you love biker!Thor as much as I do. It’s lots of fun.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

Chapter 2: Better butter your cue finger up

The bottle of wine sat on your counter and you hid away the vodka in your freezer as you resisted the temptation of both. The library made hangovers even worse with its bright lights and tedious nothingness. So you tried to ignore the tapping at your shoulder, the persistent tug of your paranoia, and pretended that nothing had changed. In Birch, nothing did change, right?

The click of your mouse and the loud tapping of keys filled the silence of the library. Colin snored with eyes wide open. It was hard to tell when the old man was awake or sleeping. You weren’t sure there was a line left between the two for him. He spent most of his working hours in the back on the other side of the windowed wall although what exactly he did there remained a mystery.

There wasn’t very much to do there outside the occasional school visits in which students walked down to complete some research project or the teacher’s held a crafting circle. You liked those days as often you could join in and help wrangle in the pupils as they explored the sterile shelves.

Melissa stood and her chair rolled back with a grumble. She stretched and bent to grab her purse from under the desk.

“I’m going down to Bab’s. You want anything?”

“Hmm,” you tapped your chin as you leaned back. “I wouldn’t mind a latte. Oh, and I think they have the banana loaf today. A slice of that too.”

You peeked under the desk and sat forward to grab your bag from the cubby beside your PC tower. “Nope,” Mel stopped you, “it’s on me today. I need a breath of fresh air anyway. Even if it is cold as hell.”

“Oh, thanks, Mel,” you smiled and grabbed a pen to click in your monotony. “We should dig out the Christmas decorations soon. It might actually give us something to do.”

“Maybe for an hour or two,” she pulled her jacket from the rack that stood against the wall between the front counter and the back room, “We could try something new this year. I saw these lights online, you can program them with your phone.”

“You think Colin could handle that?”

“Like he would even notice.” She laughed and pulled on her coat and grabbed her purse. “Latte, banana bread.” She recited. “I’ll be back.”

You watched her go then stretched your legs out as you arched in the chair. You fell back limp and closed your eyes. You could fall asleep right there. You really couldn’t blame Colin for his waking trance. This place made your ears buzz and your head spin.

You heard the whoosh of the automatic doors and sat up. You were surprised at your visitor but not disappointed. Melissa’s daughter approached the desk as she swung her bag in her hand. You could tell by the little wrinkle between her eyebrows that she wasn’t happy.

“Your mom’s just gone to Bab’s,” you rolled closer to the desk. “You must’ve seen her.”

“I saw her.” She said tersely. She stilled her fidgeting and planted her dangling purse on the desk. She sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m here to talk to you.”

“Is something the matter?”

You were nervous. You knew her as well as her mother and you got along. You shared an interest in old Hollywood and a taste for dry history and humour. You liked her, envied her even for having a mother like Melissa.

“I hate doing this. I hate when he makes me do this.” She dropped her arms and instead gripped her hips. “You want to come down to the Asp tonight? For a drink?”

You chuckled and clicked the pen. “It’s Wednesday. I have to open tomorrow and--”

“Hrgh,” she huffed. “I’m sorry but it’s… not a question.”

You put the pen down and clamped your lips together. She shook her head and looked away.

“It’s an order. From Bucky.” She tapped her toe on the carpet. “I tried to tell him that you wouldn’t want to come so late. That you know, you work. He just doesn’t listen and--” She heaved and threw up her hands in exasperation, “I tried.”

“But… me? I don’t even know any of those… people. It’s not really my scene.” You swallowed and dug your nail into your thumb. 

“I’ll be there. Same with Steve’s girl from the bakery. She’s nice. And…” her eyes were dull but irritated, “look, if you don’t show up, Bucky will go and find you. Everyone in town reports to him. You don’t have to be in his club, he owns Birch.” She grabbed the thin strap of her small purse and drew it from the desk, “you don’t want to learn that the hard way like I did.”

You knew it wasn’t Bucky who wanted you there, you suspected that big blond brute who had chased you down the street. Her anxiety fed yours and made you uneasy. If she were that afraid, how scared should you be?

“I think you know my answer considering I’ve been given little choice.” You said firmly. “What time?”

“Seven. I got him to budge on at least that. You won’t be out too late.” She gave a weak smile and twisted the strap of her bag. “Stay close to me and I’ll do what I can. You know, with Steve’s girl, I really tried…” She looked away and rolled her as they turned glossy. “Sometimes, Bucky listens to me and I’m figuring out how to make him.”

“Why are you with him?” You whispered. “Why--”

“You think it’s a choice I made.” She blinked and sniffed. “No, it was made for me when I was born in this god forsaken pit.” She thrust her purse over her shoulder and shrugged. “I don’t know why anyone would make up their mind to come here.”

“I can’t say I’m happy with the decision.” You returned.

She sent you a pitying look before she spun away. She marched back to the doors as her mother nearly collided with her. They spoke for a few minutes before the younger left and Melissa came over to plop her goodies on the desk.

“New latte flavour, candy cane. I figured we might get a bit festive.” She announced.

💀

You stood outside the Asp and stared up at the snow-covered marquee. The powder began to fall just after noon and collected along the small ledge below the image of Cleopatra.  You wore a bright pink toque with an oversized pom-pom and tucked your chin down against the matching scarf tucked down the front of your cherry-coloured coat. You stuck out among the grey of Birch.

You didn’t put much effort into getting ready. You kept on the same polka-dot blouse from work and traded your trousers for faded jeans and a pair of knee-high boots. You took a breath and stepped through the doors, barely avoided the rush of snow that fell down behind you.

The bar smelled of beer and a stale but pungent dinginess. You looked around in the low din. The bartender, a woman named Lucy, dried several glasses and stacked them on a shelf and every man in the place wore leather. 

You found Melissa’s daughter next to Bucky as he squinted at his closest accomplice, Steve. The shy girl from the bakery was tucked under his arm as she picked at the hem of her short skirt. You cleared your throat as you pondered leaving.

A figure on Bucky’s other side stood and you frowned as that man, Thor, smiled at you like a puppy. You fixed your mouth into a straight line as Bucky’s girl rose and waved you over.

“Hey, you made it,” she said. You didn’t miss the way Bucky’s hand slid up her thigh.

“Yeah,” you said flatly as you rounded the table.

“Kitten,” Thor greeted as he pulled out the chair next to him in a flourish. “I’ve a seat just for you.”

You looked from the chair to his face. You made no move to sit.

“If that’s not to your tastes, you can sit in my lap.” He taunted.

Your lips parted in disgust and you grabbed the back of the chair. You wrenched it away from him and backed up steadily as you dragged it around the table. You stopped it next to Steve’s girl and unzipped your jacket. You sat and shrugged out of the coat then crossed your arms. You tore your eyes from the large man and smiled at the baker girl.

“The banana loaf was good,” you said. “Sorry I didn’t make it down.”

“Oh, it’s ugly out there,” she turned in Steve’s hold and his arm slipped down around her waist. 

You could feel Thor’s constant gaze as you humoured the girl about the weather and listened to her story about how Mrs. Deeton sent back a blueberry scone for not having any blackberries. You did your best to blot out the rest of the bar.

“Kitten, you want a drink?” He interrupted and you peered over at him. You glanced from him to Lucy as she stood and awaited an order.

“Do you have ginger ale?” You asked her directly.

“We have club soda or iced tea right now.” She said with venom.

“Iced tea, thank you.” You fished through your purse for a fiver.

“Put it on my tab,” Thor insisted.

“No, it’s fine, I--”

You held out the bill and he reached across to snatch it from your hand. “On my tab.” He repeated and the barmaid stomped away. He tossed the five back to you and smirked. “Keep it, kitten.”

You swiped it up and turned back to Steve’s girl. She looked frightened as she stared at the blonde man and slowly returned her attention to you.

“Um, so, I was going to tell you the secret ingredient to Bab’s banana bread but you have to promise not to tell.”

“Sure,” you leaned in and she whispered it in your ear and giggled. 

“I’m not supposed to tell.” She uttered as she touched her cheeks guiltily.

“I’ve been telling her she don’t need to worry about rules,” Steve intoned as his fingers danced on her hip.

“My mother made the best banana cream pie,” Thor interrupted. “She handed the recipe down to me. My sister was never much into sweets.”

“Oh?” Steve’s girl turned to Thor. “We don’t serve that at Bab’s but we have lemon meringue.”

“Mother made that too. She showed me the trick to perfect peaks. I could show you.”

Steve growled and pulled his girl closer. She looked at him as he sent a heated glare at Thor. She touched his chest and cooed at him to relax. Lucy returned with your iced tea and you took it eagerly as the tension burned at your face.

“So, kitten,” Thor scooted his chair around the table as you set your glass down, “what trouble did you get into today?”

“I work at a library.” You uttered dryly.

“And did you enjoy your wine last night? I always heard it’s better with company.”

You jutted out your jaw in annoyance and looked at him. He was painfully persistent.

“Excuse me.” You stood and nearly gave him a face full of your chest. You looked to Bucky’s girl as she listened to his incessant grumbles. “Where’s the restroom?”

“Just down there,” she pointed along the far side of the bar.

“I could show you,” Thor offered and you waved him off.

“I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

“Yes, you are,” he purred and you backed up as his eyes grazed your hips.

You were all too eager to hide in the bathroom and closed yourself in a stall as you tried not to scream. You had dealt with perverts before. Often you were the butt of some joke. The wingman settled for the chubby girl so his pal could get laid. Those types thought you were desperate and had no qualms with getting handsy on the dance floor. But college was long ago and Birch wasn’t known for its nightlife.

After a moment, you were able to steady yourself and you left the stall. You stood by the grungy sink and stared at the mirror. Why you? Why was this idiot bugging you?

You went back out with reluctant steps. You passed a drunk man at the bar talking about some feat of machismo in his foregone youth. As you neared the table, you froze in the spot as you listened.

“...she’s fat anyway.” Steve snarled and laughed meanly.

His chortle was curtailed as a chair scraped on the floor and the baker girl cried out. Thor forced Steve to his feet but the front of his tee shirt. He pulled him past his girl and brought him close as he growled down at him through flaring nostrils.

“I like you, Rogers, but your mouth makes it real hard.” Thor sneered.

“What the fuck?” Steve struggled against him, “let me go.”

“I’m not sitting here shit-talking your woman, eh. You might have little respect for them, but I do.”

“Jesus Christ!” Steve was on tip-toes as he was held up by the other man.

“Apologize.” Thor demanded.

“Wha--”

“Dammit, Steve, say sorry.” Bucky snapped.

“S-sorry, dude.” Steve stuttered.

“Not to me,” Thor turned and to your surprise, he thrust Steve around to face you. “To her.”

You stared in shock as Steve straightened his shirt. He was like a petulant child as he looked you in the eye. “I’m sorry.”

“For…” Thor prodded.

“I’m sorry I called you fat.” Steve looked away.

“I…” you didn’t know what to do or say as you glanced past him to the other girls. “Well, I am so it’s fine.”

Thor shoved Steve back and his thick brows drew together. “Don’t listen to him,” he said. “I like a little extra.”

“Hey,” Bucky’s girl interrupted as she stood suddenly, “the table’s free. How about I get Wanda and we can play some doubles, just us girls.” She touched Bucky’s shoulders, “leave the men to their business.”

Thor’s shoulders fell and he shook his head. He grinned at you even as his disappointment shone through.

“Sure,” you answered as you stepped around him. “Sounds fun.”

💀

You focused on the felt. It didn’t help block out the blazing heat of Thor’s leer. You refused to look over at him and instead pretended to be enthralled with the game of solids and stripes. 

When you were a kid, you went to the youth centre and played with the rest of the kids desperate for a distraction. In uni, you enjoyed your plastic cups of cheap sambuca and coke at the campus bar and chalked up the cues. You were no expert but you could hit a good shot now and again. Your mother used to recount tales of her hustler father. Maybe it was his blood that kept your hand steady.

The other girls played as a pair as you handed off to Wanda. She wore the cut of the Birch’s club and her dark lipstick was the same shade as the leather. You saw her now and again with the men. She smoked her cigarettes out front and watched the town with indifference.

Wanda took her shot and clicked her tongue as she scratched. You shook your head as Steve’s girl scrunched her nose at the table. You were even; three stripes and three solids. She went around the far corner and awkwardly positioned herself over the side. She reached back to tug down her short skirt, she was clearly uncomfortable in the revealing outfit.

She sunk her mark but her next stopped short of the pocket. She shook her head and apologized to Steve’s girl who assured her with a pat on the shoulder. You took the cue from Wanda and walked around the table. You walked back and wondered if you could sink two in one. It was a possible angle but could you hit it?

You tilted your head and sighed. You bent and brought your foot back as you squinted and carefully positioned the cue. You couldn’t decide whether you should try to spin it to the right or hit it straight on. You knew the power you needed but you couldn’t afford to hit a stripe.

You almost tapped the cue ball as you felt a warmth over you and suddenly a hard torso was against your back. You went rigid as Thor bent over you and put his hands over your as he adjusted your aim. His hot breath wrapped around your neck.

“Almost, kitten,” he pushed his crotch against your ass.

You pulled the cue back so that it hit his ribs and he grunted as his hands fell to the edge of the table. You took the shot and pushed out of his grasp. His hand dragged over your ass as he stood straight and touched his side with a wince. 

“I got it.” You said as both balls rolled and dropped into opposite pockets.

He chuckled and bit his lip. It was almost a snarl as he watched you across the table and you sensed the bated breaths of the other women.

“I like a woman with a firm grip,” he winked, “And confidence.”

You looked back to the table as he loomed on the other side. You sunk the last solid and lined up for the eight ball. A straight, easy shot that even the most amateur could get. You ended the game and Wanda clapped as the other girls grumbled their congratulations.

“Best out of three?” Steve’s girl asked.

“I’m sorry to disappoint but I have to work early.” You leaned the cue on the table. “I showed up and now I’m done. It was fun, girls, but I’m gonna turn in.”

You smiled at each of them and your face fell as you passed them and went to grab your coat from the chair where it still hung. Thor was less than subtle as he followed you to the table and watched you zip up your coat over your chest. You slung your purse over your arm and pulled your hat on as you braced for the chill that awaited you.

“You shouldn’t walk alone.” Thor intoned.

“It’s a small town. I’m fine.” You spun away and again, he followed.

At the door, you turned back and crossed your arms. “Look, I can handle myself, buddy. Now leave me alone.”

“I’m just being nice.”

“You’re being a pest.”

“You love it.”

You huffed and closed your eyes to keep them from rolling back into your skull. You looked at him again and bit down on your words. “Do you ever give up?”

“On you, never.” He grinned.

“Well, be a good dog and stay.” You jabbed your finger in the air. “Stay!” You repeated as if he was a hyper dog. “Good.”

You quickly slipped through the door and booked it across the street. The door didn’t hit the frame but was instead caught as his boots scuffed out behind you. You peered back as you reached the other side and kept up your steady jog. He watched you but did not give chase.

“I’ll sniff you out one day, kitten,” he called out. “Pussy, pussy, pussy.”

[felassan]

Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director @ BioWare, working on DA4) recently did a Twitch stream where he played through some DAO. Although he works on DA, this is his first time playing through DAO. He’s playing through it looking at random details from a dev perspective as he’s currently working on DA4 and therefore wants to know more about the previous games.

On the stream he mentioned some tidbits on the development of DA4. There were also some insights and anecdotes about the development of DAO and similar. It’s a 3 hour stream so I collected them here in case that’s of use to anyone (for example not everyone can watch streams which don’t have subtitles/captions). The stream is a fun/interesting watch though, so if you’re curious or able to watch I recc doing so. 😊 The rest of this post is under a cut for length.

Please note that there’s some paraphrasing on my part, this is not a transcript.  There are also some additions from another dev who featured on the stream to give some commentary. The stream also contains more snippets that at times I couldn’t make out (I tried my best!).

(There is a mention of Cullen’s VA in the text below.)

DA4

Jon said he can talk about things about DA4 that aren’t “consumer-facing”, but he can’t say anything about the game that would be consumer-facing but which isn’t already publicly available. There are several reasons for this. One, that’s not his job, there are people whose job this is and they let each other do their respective roles. Two, BW are a publicly-traded company, so if he said something that could affect that that would be insider trading. Three, they’re not done making DA4 yet, so if he said that they have added [x] to the game and people got all excited about that or pre-ordered on that basis, but [x] ended up being cut, people would be like ‘BioWare lied to us’, when it’s just that things changed during the course of development, as is often the case

He’s glad that fans are excited for the game but notes that fan expectations are always double-edged. It can be really tough as some people started ‘playing’ the game in their heads as soon as they heard of it. That’s fine, he loves that, but he hopes that peoples’ expectations don’t turn into requirements. Clearly BW have alluded to certain characters, like Solas, being in the game, but some fans say things like “If [say] Morrigan isn’t in the game, then, rahhh!” Y’know, there’s a lot of talk about how certain characters have to be in the game, and yeah.

On characters which are quantum (i.e. characters which can die or which can have similar end-states as death in previous games): their being quantum makes it really hard for the devs to work with those characters in subsequent games. The devs naturally aren’t going to put as much effort into characters which could have died previously. A character can have had an amazing appearance throughout/role in a previous game, but if there is a risk of something happening to them and of them being removed [effectively] from the plot, it just doesn’t make sense to have them as a major character in a subsequent game. If a character can, say, sacrifice themselves in some glorious ending, the devs have to make sure that if they use them again, in worldstates where the character didn’t do that, the character is kind of ‘muted’, as the devs don’t want to disrespect the players who made a different choice

A comment in chat expressed a wish for Shale in DA4. Jon’s response is that he has no idea on that front

Bugs don’t come out of crunch, they come out of development in general. Crunch does impact on the quality of a game though. In recent years BW are always really trying to reduce crunch, they’re currently working really hard to bring it down. The best way of doing that is by controlling scope. As creatives it’s tough to balance wanting to make great stuff and be industry-leading with the desire to constantly do extra passes over things they’ve created like the audio, art etc. Their biggest enemy is time, other ways of reducing crunch or time spent in general include iterating tools to make often-repeated processes as time-efficient as possible

I think the following was an observation on the industry in general as opposed to a BW-specific/-exclusive comment: he thinks that as a result of this sort of thing [working to reduce crunch], a lot of games are going to have to be smaller and a lot more focused in scope i.e. the devs will have to focus on hitting the key selling points of that particular game/series as hard as they can, and cut down on branching out sideways/wide on a bunch of random other stuff

Jon doesn’t personally engage in character creators in games, but he knows that for some players that expression is worth a lot of time and focus. BW want to be industry-leading in this kind of stuff as it’s something which is interesting/key/integral to their games

In a way BW have made their own nest of problems what with every DA game being so different to the previous one. Still, he notes that each game has a staunch fanbase that says that their particular favorite game is the best one in the series

He doesn’t want people who think that DA4 isn’t what they want to buy it and be upset - there are so many other great games out there! BW are going to make the game they’re going to make - if some people like it, that’s great, and if some people don’t, that’s cool. Sometimes waiting until reviews are out and/or really seeing beforehand if a game is something that you want [has things/features in it that you want] prior to getting it - as opposed to jumping right in or pre-ordering - is a good idea. Fans don’t always know what they want, but they do know what they like - these are 2 different things

He hopes that whatever they ship for DA4, people go “I enjoyed this experience”, and that then, if there’s additional content for it down the road, people can decide, “do I want this further content?”

On hair: BW are using the new hair technology in the latest version of the Frostbite engine, so they’ll see what they can do! This was said in response to a comment about the hair in the latest FIFA games (as EA make FIFA)

A comment in chat asked about a flying mechanic (griffons). Jon’s response is that flying is such a heavy gameplay mechanic that you can’t put it in a game without everything in the game being built about it (see Anthem)

Relating to the above comment, in DA4 mounted combat would be cool but then they’d have to make the game ‘around’ mounted combat and make the mounted combat feature meaningful

On the underwater concept art: it should not be interpreted as a promise of gameplay. BW have amazing artists who sit down for a couple weeks while they’re in early production and just draw loads and loads of all kinds of stuff. Concept art is like a moodboard or Pinterest board. Elsewhere in the stream he advised, take all the concept art together like a mosaic and ask, ‘what is the overall theme[s] here?’, and to zoom out from individual details. [This stuff echoes PW’s word on concept art]

BW don’t generally write things or the choices as bleak as the choices in DAO were anymore. This is a conscious choice on their part, they want their game to be fun [note: this was said when the side quest in Orzammar where the Warden has the option of convincing a dwarven mother to abandon her young baby to die was being played through. It seems to refer to intensively grimdark choices/beats of this kind]

I think this was more of a general comment on games: SSDs (solid state drives) mean that players will see shorter elevator rides (Mass Effect - was this a reference to the remaster?) and fewer switchback corridors (those are actually loading zones). Generally, these are going to change mechanically the time it takes to do stuff in games

The devs have lots of features on their backlog that they’d like to offer players but each will ofc involve implementation and subsequent maintenance, and each one that is chosen to add is being chosen over something else. And sometimes, it’s hard for them to tell if [x] feature or [y] feature would be better to add to the game

They’re about to work on a giant feature (a pure tooling feature, something that isn’t consumer-facing) that is probably going to take ~2 staff years of effort [I think “staff effort” includes multiple staff working concurrently, so 2 years of staff effort doesn’t = 2 years of time chronologically] to get done in the next few months. They’re investing all this effort across the people working on it because they don’t want their artists and designers etc to have to deal with the problem that it’s going to solve anymore. I’m not sure what this feature is but elsewhere in the stream they referred to tooling and automation and gave the example of, the better your tooling is, the fewer times you have to manually set the camera for a human vs elf vs dwarf position, for dynamically-generated [cinematic?] content and for the first pass to be automated (if this is the case, less time is spent/wasted on redoing it and manually touching it up) [see last bullet point in this section]

He doesn’t know how big DA4 is going to be but said “let’s ballpark and say like most games it’ll be somewhere between 70 and 100 GB”

If we kept our Wardens as the PC throughout all 3 games, at the end they would be so powerful that it’d be a bit like “Let’s just do [thing], I’ve killed gods before, whatever”. He thinks it’s good that they have fresh characters each time in DA in order to reset that power level. Some people want more Commander Shepard in the next Mass Effect and he feels like, ‘what else could you possibly want / what else could that character possibly do after 3 games?’

When asked how much freedom he/they have now to focus on next gen, he said that there’s actually almost no difference on that front. The problems never change. They now have better renderers, better ray-tracing, better graphics cards etc, but they have always made DA games for high- and low-spec PCs, so it’s actually about gameplay systems. The freedom isn’t power-based and them getting access to more cores and more RAM generally isn’t going to change how the games are played. The games still have to be made for hard drives on PC. Dev creativity matters more than power here. The challenge of building a BW game is more about/from managing loads of different plotstates, loads of different art pieces, etc

On the title situation (two): names are the last thing they worry about because names have to go through legal before being approved. Every name, including character names, has to be checked in case it’s a famous person, or associated with something bad, or offensive in a different language due to localization etc

They don’t do face scans of people with big beards

There was also a bit about changes/developments to/in the cinematic design process and associated tooling [?] but I found it too hard to follow sorry >< This bit of commentary begins at timestamp ~ 1:52:45 and continues til ~ 2:00:05 [keep listening through the bit where they pause for a cutscene]

General BW

There’s currently ~350 staff in Edmonton, ~200 in Austin and more elsewhere

He notes that DA games sell pretty well, but relative to EA games in general, they’re a drop in the bucket compared to FIFA

DAI

5% of players of DAI never created a character [Q: does this refer to people who just used the default appearances/presets with no editing, or people who only played multiplayer?]

The mounts don’t actually go faster than running, this is an illusion

I think they said it has 55,000 lines of dialogue. [I’m pretty sure I remember devs elsewhere saying it has 80,000 lines of dialogue]

One of the companions had to have their name changed during development because of legal/translation reasons. It sounds like the original name sounded too close to something offensive

DA2

Back when DA2 was internally code-named “Nug Storm”: this was at the beginning when it was pitched to the team on a set of slides. The image on the slide for that pitch had devil horns, a metal hand and no flesh, it was just made out of fire and flames

DAO

The engine DAO is made on is the third engine that they tried for it during development. [David Gaider has gone into the DAO engine stuff some on Summerfall’s series of DAO playthrough streams]

The cracks on the cracked eluvian asset are modelled after the crack on the Tardis in Doctor Who from around that time, as at the time some devs had been talking about Doctor Who a lot. A dev actually added this factoid to DAO’s entry on TV Tropes but someone else (evidently not a DA dev) came by and deleted it saying that it was too much of a stretch x)

Before the game had its name there was an HTML script that randomly generated possible titles for consideration, it adds verbs and nouns together e.g. “Grim Dark”. One of the craziest possibilities that it once generated that the devs always remember is "Bone Wind”

One of the portraits that’s used for decoration around the world in-game (it’s of a bearded human man) is actually of a specific BW staff member

He played through Stone Prisoner, where Wilhelm’s son Matthias gives exposition in the cellar. Matthias is voiced by GE and this had been pointed out to Jon earlier on. Jon: “I don’t think that character’s voice acting was super strong there”

On the in-game area towards the end of Stone Prisoner: Outdoor areas in games are large and one of the things needed for them is streaming, so different chunks can be ‘streamed in’. There’s a tower [?], and technically the top of the tower was made an outdoor level so that sky stuff could be there, though it didn’t really need to be. The person that made it an outdoor level chose the very smallest chunk size for the terrain mesh, which determines how fine of a streaming they do. So when playing, every time you moved like 4 meters, the game would stream out 50-100 chunks behind you and the same in front of you (this is the bubble around the player of what actually exists). Because it was so small, it was constantly thrashing the CPU and disc to do all the loading. The devs were like “this isn’t going to work”, but they barely had any time. The solution: they made a new level that was outdoor and copied all the sunlight and other settings, but with the largest chunk size. They copy-pasted the entire level from one to the other. The problem with that many chunks then is that there was a giant expanse of flat terrain sticking out of the middle of the tower. They didn’t know if the story was going to involve shots of the outside of the tower for this sequence or not, so they took the terrain deformation tool and bundled all the terrain vertices at the bottom of the tower in a giant clump. So to this day there’s a mess of vertices and twisted terrain at the bottom of the final level that probably no-one has ever seen [not sure though if this anecdote is in reference to a place in that DLC or somewhere elsewhere in the game?]

There were also some tidbits on Anthem, however I didn’t note them down (sorry).

If you think I misheard or misunderstood anything from this stream please let me know and I will edit/fix it. :) 

(Thankyou to some of my friends who explained a tech detail from this to me.)

[source]  <-- current rewatch link

[wosoimagines]

What Are You Building? - Tierna Davidson/Reader

prompt: R has been traded to Chicago and is dating Tierna. That means she’s closer to one of their favorite stores.

words:1132

warnings: None

Y/N POV

I kicked the door shut with my hands full with the last of the boxes that I had gotten from today but I gave Tierna a small smile as she crossed her arms glancing to all of the other boxes I had already brought in.

“What did you get?”

“Uh...”

“(Y/N), if you spent-”

“I only spent money from a fund Dad and I set up,” I assured.

I sat the last few boxes by the table. I grabbed a big enough antistatic mat from my room before sitting it on the table. Tierna sat down at the table before I started to sort through the boxes looking for a couple of certain ones first.

“So, where did you go?”

“Micro Center,” I grinned at her. Tierna furrowed her brow in confusion. “An electronic store. Dad and I used to go to the one in Westmont just about every weekend. I didn’t come to the one here in Chicago until I had saved up enough of my allowance to buy parts to build my first pc.”

I sat a couple of the boxes on top of the table. I quickly pulled my hair up before starting to unbox the motherboard first. I gently laid it on top of the antistatic mat so that static wouldn’t build up around it.

“So you’re building a pc?” Tierna questioned. I looked at her before I nodded. “Okay, how do you do it?”

“You wanna build a pc?” I asked, causing Tierna to nod her head. “With me?”

“Well, yes. I have to make sure that our future kids don’t think you’re smarter than me just because you can build a pc.”

I paused at that. Tierna and I hadn’t really talked much about our future together. I knew that we both liked what we had, but I didn’t think that Tierna had really thought about a future with me.

“You wanna have kids? With me?”

Tierna chuckled but she flashed me that beautiful smile that always seemed to brighten up the room.

“Of course I do, (Y/N),” Tierna moved closer to my side. “I thought that a future together was pretty obvious since we do live together and we’re now playing for the same club.”

“It’s just, we’ve never talked about it.”

“Well, how about we talk about it after you show me how to build a pc?”

I nodded before turning back to the parts in front of me. I glanced at Tierna a shot her a soft smile.

“Okay, so we’ve got a Gigabyte X570 AORUS Ultra motherboard cause of the CPU we’re using,” I started to explain.

“What’s the CPU got to do with the motherboard we choose?” Tierna asked.

“You don’t wanna use certain types of motherboards with different CPUs,” I shrugged. “Plus you have to make sure that the motherboard is actually compatible with the CPU. Like, I got a X570 motherboard because I got an AMD Ryzen CPU. Its kind of hard for me to explain, but I definitely can later if you want me to.”

“I’d like that,” Tierna nodded. “You’re cute when you’re talking about computers.”

“Cause I know a lot about them?”

“No, cause you focus on telling people about them and your nose does that cute little twitch when you’re focusing.”

I felt my face heat up as I ducked my head. 

“Okay, whatever,” I shook my head as I opened the next box. “This is our CPU. I picked out an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X. This is my favorite CPU right now.”

“Really? You have a favorite CPU?”

“Yeah,” I nodded as I pulled the CPU out of the box. “Which I favor AMD over Intel. Probably cause Dad loved AMD so much, but he had a reason for it. They make great CPUs especially for gaming.”

“So that’s what you’re going to do with this pc. Gaming.”

“I mean, I’ll do more than just that with it, Tierna,” I shrugged as I glanced at her. “There is gonna be so much more that I can do with this than just gaming.”

I unlatched the CPU holder before I pulled the CPU from the plastic that it was sitting in. I held onto the CPU by the sides as I pulled Tierna closer to it.

“See this little arrow here?” I asked, pointing to it. I waited for Tierna to nod before I pointed to the one on the motherboard. “We have to line it up with this one.”

“Can I?”

“Just hold it from the same sides that I am. You don’t wanna touch any of the pins,” I instructed. Tierna gave me a small smile before taking the CPU. She put it in the spot. “Now, gently push on it to make sure it’s in place.”

Tierna did and I gave her a grin as I latched the CPU holder. I made sure that we had everything we needed to get the CPU cooler hooked up before Tierna put the sticks of RAM in. I was helping Tierna push the first stick of RAM since she was having a little trouble to get that perfect click sound when the door opened.

“What are you two doing?”

Both of us looked up to see Alyssa staring at us with bags in her hands. I pushed Tierna’s hands down so that the RAM clicked in.

“Building a computer,” Tierna said.

“You know how to build a computer?” Alyssa asked.

“Well, no, but that’s why (Y/N)’s teaching me.”

“So, you know how to build a computer?” Alyssa turned to me.

“Well, yeah,” I nodded my head. “Dad taught me when I was younger. It was kind of our thing. What are you doing here?”

“We decided to have lunch together,” Alyssa reminded us. She held up the bags. “I stopped and got those burgers you’re always talking about.”

“Oh, yeah, we did say we’d eat lunch with you,” Tierna nodded. She moved to join Alyssa who sat at the bar. Tierna turned back to look at me. “You coming?”

“Not until after I get this finished,” I shook my head. Tierna started to move back toward me. “Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and eat. I’ll only need like another 2 hours to finish this. You can watch. I’ll probably build another PC soon enough. You can always help me with that one.”

“I love you, you goof,” Tierna shook her head while walking back over to me. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “We’ll be hanging out in the living room when you get done.”

I smiled as I watched her head toward the living room with Alyssa.

“Hey, T,” I called out, causing both of them to stop and look at me. “I love you too.”

[dmsden]

Down But Not Out - Keeping someone involved who’s locked out of combat

Hullo, Gentle Readers. We’ve all been there, right? A bad roll of the dice, a failed saving throw, and suddenly one of your players is paralyzed, or stunned, or something similar, and you have a player that’s out of combat. Well, that’s the concern of the Anonymous contributor of this week’s Question from a Denizen. They ask, “ So, having read your latest article (Natural One, Naturally) about dealing with skill and narrative failure and talking about Success With Consequence (a mechanic I've seen in a couple of other games before as part of the core system that I rather enjoy). I was curious if you had any similar advice for failure in combat, such as those situations you have in D&D where a player may be locked out of a fight due to, say, repeated failed saves vs. crowd control, for example?”

So, I do think failure in combat can lead to interesting story beats. I try to make sure that I give misses in combat good narrative description that adds to the story of the monster they’re fighting. “You and the hobgoblin trade blows, but he seems expert at using his shield and his comrades for maximum effect. You don’t find any way past the wall of steel.” Or “You strike at the umber hulk, but your axe turns on its hard, chitinous shell, glancing off with a shriek of contact like nails on a chalkboard.” Or “You hurl your firebolt at the orc, but he makes a desperate dive, somersaulting and coming back up in a crouch, grinning at you almost ferally.”

But when a character is out of the combat due to a failed saving throw, it gets a bit harder to make things interesting. You can give them a little story to it, of course. “The chill of the grave that the ghoul pushed into your bones sits there, heavy in your heart. You try to think of warm and life...the sun on the meadow, a fire’s glow...but despair sinks back in, and your limbs simply refuse to act as you demand.” That way, the story beats keep going, at least.

Another option, depending on the nature of what’s keeping them out of the fight, is to impart a little information on the foe’s nature. “Since you’re paralyzed, and the fight with the ghoul is happening so disconcertingly close to you, you notice that there’s a certain darkness that coalesces around the ghoul’s claws, presumably what causes the paralysis you’re experiencing. Oddly, when he strikes at your elven companion, the darkness seems to recede, as if shy of striking her.” This is a clue that ghoul paralysis doesn’t affect elves. Just a little nugget you can drop on the player so that they’re not completely out of the fight.

You could use this technique to drop plenty of information on the player who’s out of the fight. They might observe which orc is the most powerful, who seems to be calling the shots, which attacks seem to be making the monsters nervous (perhaps revealing a vulnerability) or giving them no concern (showing a resistance or immunity). They might get a chance to see through a disguise or illusion, to notice a small detail, or to get a clue about something in vicinity.

If you have some kind of interesting terrain feature, you might reveal it to the character who has, after all, been forced to slow down and be ready for when they can next take action. If there’s a dangerous bit of terrain, maybe that’s revealed as they watch the fight unfold. “You notice the kobolds all avoiding the same area of floor. At one point, once gets forced towards it and seems nervous, until he finds his feet again.” This might suggest to the character that there’s a trap, or something that they don’t want to stumble into. When he’s next able to act, he’ll have something useful to tell his friends.

This gets a little trickier with someone who is unconscious and stable or making death saves. Obviously, they’re not going to notice details about the fight. At that point, I think it’s possible to do all story beats, just to kind of keep them involved. If a player has failed a death saving throw, you might say something like, “You’re in a long tunnel of darkness, with a beautiful golden light ahead. ou can hear the sound of your friends and the fighting behind you...but the light beckons, and you take a few steps towards it before you realize what you’ve done.”

If you really want to do something unusual, you could give visions to those on the edge of death’s door. Maybe you could reveal something about the nature of your campaign world, or the overall plot. “As darkness closes in, you feel like you’re rocking, like you were sailing on a ship at sea. You almost think you see someone on the deck of a ship, staring out to sea. Her eyes slowly scan the horizon, and, then, she seems to sense you, turning towards you. As her eyes rest on you, she smiles, but, for some reason, you feel terror wash over you like a cold rain.” This could be a sign that a major villain is heading to the continent the PCs are on.

This is a tough one, Anonymous, and I hope I’ve given you some ideas. I may try to implement some of this in my own games and see how it goes. Until next week, Gentle Readers, may all your 20s be natural.

[missmalice202]

Designing Your Melody - Chapter 02: Time

Chapter 01 - Chapter 03

Marinette was once again in a state of panic. She clutched her phone to her ear as she paced around her room, tearing at her midnight blue hair with her free hand as she rambled endlessly, not giving Alya on the other end of the line a chance to get a single word in.

“I can’t believe it, Alya! Today has been so insane. First, I sleep in so I’m almost late for my meeting with Jagged Stone. Then, I nearly trample some poor guy as I’m racing to make it there on time, falling on my butt and scattering the potential designs I had drawn up all over the streets of Paris. After I finally get them all gathered up, I almost die when I ran across the street because some idiot driver didn’t see the crosswalk light was green because he was too busy talking on the phone with his head up his butt. I mean, seriously, there are laws about that kind of thing for a reason.” With a sigh, she falls back on her chaise and hugs its black decorative pillow to her chest in an attempt to comfort herself. “And then, when I finally get to the studio and meet with Jagged, I discover that I LOST ONE OF MY DESIGNS!

“I worked so hard on my portfolio and I’m such an idiot to just lose one of them. Granted, I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be something that Jagged Stone would be interested in because the teal I had picked out for the-“

“Girl,“ Alya tries to interrupt, but Marinette’s tirade is on a roll and nothing could stop her now.

“-Accents on the jacket would have clashed with his signature purple and yellow, but still. What if someone picks it up, looks at it, and thinks that it’s just so awful that they just throw it in the trash?”

“Marinette?”

“Or what if it’s found and someone claims it as their own and they show it to Gabriel Agreste, and he hires them on the spot and they become an internationally known designer because they stole my design? And then-“

“MARINETTE!” Finally at her wit’s end with her best friends ridiculous tailspin, Alya yells to get Marinette’s attention.

Shocked into silence and her ear ringing slightly from the outburst, Marinette stops and takes a breath for to the first time in the past five minutes. “I’m sorry, Alya. Today was just such a crazy day and I don’t like the idea of my designs being out there for the world to see.”

“I get how you feel, girl, but there’s nothing you can do about it now. So instead of focusing on how your day went wrong, why don’t you focus on how it went right. How did it go with Jagged? I know he loved your designs, but did you guys settle on a concept? What can you tell me? Can I post an exclusive story on my blog?”

Marinette giggled softly. Some things never change. “I’m sorry, but I can’t give you anything yet. You know how it is. Non-Disclosure Agreement and all that. But I can tell you that Jagged’s new single is amazing!”

“You got to hear it already?” she gasped in shock. “Oh girl, I am so jelly! I can’t wait until you’re a super famous designer with all sorts of famous connections and when that day comes, you’re not allowed to forget your best friend in the entire world who loved you before you were a household name. And if you don’t give me an exclusive interview with the mind behind Jagged’s new look, I’ll post every embarrassing picture I have of you on my blog, including the pic I have of you kissing a picture of Adrien’s cologne ad back in high school when you were still obsessed over that poor, sweet, oblivious boy.”

Marinette cringed at her threat. Just remembering how completely crazy she had been in high school made her shudder in disgust. She couldn’t believe the way she had behaved at times. It had definitely been unhealthy and she was glad that she had grown up and gotten over her infatuation with her blond model friend.

After a years of unrequited pining and downright stalkerish behavior, she had finally accepted her defeat and come to terms with the fact that she and Adrien would be nothing but really good friends. And it was for the best as it would turn out.

Once she tucked her feelings for him into the darkest recesses of her heart, she had realized that he truly was an amazing friend and she was being unfair to him by trying to force him into a relationship that he truly wanted no part in. All he had wanted at the time was to have fun for the first time in his extremely sheltered life and to learn how to make friends. He wasn’t ready for a relationship with anybody, let alone the first true female friend he had made. In Marinette’s opinion, Chloe Bourjeois didn’t really count as Adrien’s friend. She was far too selfish and egotistical to truly put another person’s feelings before her own, a trait that Marinette felt was very important in a friendship.

So now, she counted Adrien a member of her inner circle and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize their friendship. She had taken her obsession towards Adrien and turned that laser focus on her fashion designs.

Now, a 20 year old Marinette could consider herself a relatively successful freelance designer. She still hasn’t been hired by any of the major fashion houses, but she was often contacted regarding commissions and requests that helped to support her passion. However, she was still holding out for a chance to work with her idol, Gabriel Agreste. Through her friendship with his son, she often got a heads up whenever he was holding a competition or accepting applications for designers, but so far, she hadn’t been able to do more than win a few monetary prizes for her designs and speak to the fashion icon through the screen of his assistant’s tablet.

But she wouldn’t let her phase her. One of these days, she’d create clothing that would send the fashion world into a frenzy and then the Gabriel Agreste would come crawling on his knees, begging her to work with him. But until that day came, Marinette would just have to do her best and live her life, one design at a time.

“Oh Alya,” she giggled, “you know that when the time comes, I’ll give you an exclusive interview and tell you everything I legally can.”

“Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, isn’t it time for us to get going? It’s almost time, right?”

Sitting up on the chaise, she glanced at the clock above her sewing desk. “Yeah, you’re right.” Standing up, she walked over to her computer chair and sat down. “I’ll see you in-game.”

Hanging up her phone and putting it on silent, she plugged it in to the charger and set it on the desk next to her keyboard. With a few keystrokes, she changed the input on her monitor from her PC to her PlayBox, the latest generation game console that she had decorated with little ladybug stickers and affectionately called Tiki. She picked up her red controller, crossed her legs on her computer/gaming chair, and uttered the words she always jokingly said whenever she turned on her console:

“Tiki, spots on.”

-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-

Marinette had always been an avid gamer. Everyone who knew her knew that. So it came to no surprise that when her absolute favorite game, Ultimate Mecha Strike 3, came out with another sequel a two years ago, she had picked up a copy for herself the day it came out.

One of the features she had been most excited about with the new version was the idea that it would be a MMO fighting game. But it wasn’t just fighting. It had exploration, collectables, seasonal events, and player versus player tournaments. It was a dream come true for Marinette. Looking back at the side-scrolling fighting game she had loved so much in high school, she couldn’t help but make comparisons between herself and the game. The original version was great, but the new and improved game was so different, but so much better.

The first weekend after Ultimate Mecha Strike 4 had been released, Adrien had invited her to play together online. Knowing how much of a gamer that he himself was, she readily agreed, wanting someone else with similar passion to play with her. And she had had a BLAST. They had spent hours that weekend exploring the game mechanics, gathering collectible, taking out enemies, and just learning the game. After a few weeks of their friends blowing off plans to play video games, Nino and Alya picked up their own copies of the game and started playing with them.

Over time, their inseparable team had created a long standing tradition that every Friday night, they would get together online and play. Because they played so much and had such a great rapport amongst themselves, they eventually rose to the top of the leaderboards for tournaments.

Then, a year ago, for the one year anniversary of the release of Ultimate Mecha Strike 4, the creators released a new feature that changed the game for Marinette: clans. With the introduction of clans, she and her friends were an officially recognized team and they qualified for their own hideout where they could trade and share equipment, treasures, and in game credits. But unfortunately, it was also a double edged sword because now, her clan, “Miraculous Kwami”, was bombarded with membership requests. She and her friends had agreed that they wouldn’t allow just anyone to join them. They had to be able to keep up with them and contribute to their clan.

So after careful selection and intense tryouts, she and her three friends were joined by four other clan members. One of the requirements that was set in stone for their clan was that they got together every Friday night at 7pm. Allowances were made for certain circumstances, but it was agreed that they would play as much as possible together. To Marinette, it wasn’t a big deal to spend a minimum of one night a week with her best friends.

 It was with a smile on her face that she placed her headset on her head while she loaded her game. Selecting her avatar, she couldn’t help but be excited to start killing noobs. Poor players who didn’t know that she was the legendary “Ladybug” would soon discover that even though her avatar was small in build, she was built for speed and accuracy.

When the player selection screen finally loaded onto her screen, she looked at her avatar in admiration. The countless hours she had spent on this one character had led to the birth of this elite player. Her mecha was a bright, fire engine red, embellished with black pads on its shoulders, elbows, and knees. On its back, was a pair of swords, their scabbards the same red as its suit and their hilts wrapped with black leather. Its cockpit was a red helmet with two black circles around the eyes and a set of short antennae sprouting from the forehead area. Black elbow length gloves and knee length combat boots completed the ensemble.

With one final smile at her online persona, she pressed a button on her controller and loaded her character. She watched as her clan’s headquarters loaded on the screen: an old, abandoned shrine. Seeing the dilapidated tori gates, she felt a thrill run up her spine in anticipation.

 And, it would appear that she wasn’t the first to arrive tonight.

She walked her avatar toward her other clanmate, clad in a dark teal and aqua mecha, a black and teal bow strapped to its back, and a vaguely reptilian looking cockpit. He must have seen the notification pop up on his screen announcing her arrival, because he turned around and bowed.

“Good evening, Lady luck,” he greeted her, his soft voice filtering through her headphones.

“Hi there, Viperion.” She waved. “Long time, no see”

Once again, she smiled. Tonight was going to be a fun night.

-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-

Chapter 03

*Hey everyone, first and foremost, I’d like to say thank you so much for the fantastic response to chapter one. I’m blown away at how supportive you all have been. It’s keeping me going and made me want to get this chapter out to you all as soon as I could.

In regards to Ultimate Mecha Strike 4, think of it as a kind of mix between Destiny 2, Fortnite, and the original Mecha Strike 3 featured in the cartoon. The avatars aren’t completely humanoid, but they’re kind of like armor that the characters wear and control from within. I’m sure I’m not explaining it properly, but it makes sense in my head haha.

Next chapter will focus primarily on Luka, because he’s just so adorable and I can’t wait to torture him with a slow burn, mistaken identity, near miss romance with our resident goofball.

Until next time!*

[danwhobrowses]

A Personal Rant before Sword and Shield comes out

I’ve sat idly by for months, tried to weather a few negative responses but given that it’s now 6 days from release and I’m hearing that devs are getting literal death threats I’m going to put my foot down

If you’re already shitting on a game that hasn’t been released yet, you are all juvenile bitches, and I’m about to tell you why.

Before we begin, I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to dislike a game, that happens, but usually it happens after you play a game, not before.

You are viewing this game through a keyhole and judging the room and what you’re seeing is not worthy of this much hate. Let’s start with the big one Dexit: Not as Big as You Think Having No National Dex is of course not ideal, but it doesn’t ruin the game. Let’s Go has no National Dex, all it had was Alola forms and nobody whinged about it. Ruby and Sapphire didn’t have a National Dex until FRLG, and nobody whinged about it. Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Moon do not have a National Dex And Nobody Whinged About It Do you know why? Because it’s not actually a big deal. People who complain about it are bandwagoning because ‘Dexit’ is a meme, its name literally parodies an event in current Britain that many people don’t actually want to happen.  Now currently, the anger of Dexit is that Bulbasaur and Squirtle are not in it, which frankly is hilarious because the last wave of bitching was ‘Kanto mons are getting all the new stuff’. You wanna know how many main series versions Bulbasaur and Squirtle have not been in? Seven, only way to get them is trade and event. The other complaint is that there’s ‘only 400′ Pokémon. Remember those days where people were fine with 150? 400 is huge, in fact it’s 3 less than USUM and it’s not accounting for the Gigantamax forms Don’t let headlines fool you either, Sun and Moon had 302 Pokémon, it’s far from the ‘lowest dex number since 2003′. Do your own research with these things. Kalos’ regional dex was 151, BW2 was 300, BW 153, Sinnoh 210, RSE has 386 and GSC had 252 Don’t get me wrong, it smarts that some Pokémon isn’t there, but it’s not a dealbreaker, like let’s be honest here. For a good year and a half all your pokémon are gonna do is sit in an unused cartridge or a PC box, you’re literally whining about the fact that you can’t move your perfect IV Pokémon from one box to another. You could simply just let them stay in Let’s Go or USUM, you don’t have to use Bank or Home on continued subscription for that, so your complaints are only set on the foundation that you feel like you have to continually pay to not transfer your Pokémon, Finally, people act like these Pokémon are deleted forever, they’re not, this is for spacing to make sure this game doesn’t break down from the sheer mass of models and textures it has to maintain in a massive open world space, the local and online camping and battles. Just use the Pokémon that are there! There’s new Pokémon don’t you wanna try those? You can also look at FRLG or Emerald and consider that maybe more Pokémon will get patched in once the game proves to be stable. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but the Nintendo Switch isn’t as powerful as the other consoles out there, sometimes it runs like shit. Believe me on that one, Switch is still in a very buggy development phase. Let’s Go was kept small to test it’s capability and Sword and Shield can’t just fly in and give you all 1000 Pokémon just so one of the ones you want can be in there

You have to be much less obtuse with this, I mean this was a long time coming. You’re gonna have to live with the fact that not every Pokémon ever can be supported on one game alone. Disk, Download, Cartridge and Patch Sizes have limits in Compliance, you can’t just throw everything at it. Waah, the New Pokémon Don’t Look Good They do, you’re being petty. It happens every version, the people dislike the starter evolutions or just one in particular. Remember all the Oshawott hate? This all comes and goes because people have simply gone on the first instinct that ‘new and different is scary and should be shunned’ You’re that Simpsons meme when young Homer accuses Grandpa of not being ‘with it’ I won’t spoil to those who haven’t seen it, but I like the new starters, and some of the new Pokémon will need some growing but not every Pokémon looks good at first glance. If Mr Mime, Hypno or Gastly came out nowadays they’d be crapped on so much for lacking creativity or for looking weird. Look at Drampa as well, thing looks like Falkar from The Neverending Story, when I first saw it I thought it look weird but now I like it. You should offer these things time And actually fall back on past experience, you’re reacting like this isn’t the same thing that happens every version; the dex gets leaked, people whine about the evolutions, people get over it and accept that they overreacted. hIgH QuAlItY aNiMaTiOnS I’ve seen that video, 2 clips and you judge a whole game how classy of you? If you don’t see improvement you’re blind. You can’t shit on a game for keeping the battle animations, you can’t expect every Pokémon to move their own unique way to the exact position of the body part the opponent needs to get hit by, that’s just unrealistic. You’re also failing to equate to the new moves and all the new movesets. You have to ensure that each Pokémon is capable of calling this animation as well. The second clip in that video was Hop and Hau having the same rigging, and once again, that’s not abnormal. Rigging is not easy either, do it wrong and it sticks and deforms texture. There’s nothing wrong with Hop having one animation that matches Hau’s, you’ll probably find that many models actually have similar rigging as previous games. Because it’s not that big of a deal and it saves money, as an example look at Disney they copied hand-drawn motion and stuck a different character on them, Robin Hood’s Little John dances just like (animated, for those too young to know otherwise) Jungle Book’s Baloo The thing you’re also ignoring from that clip is the graphical improvement of Hop compared to Hau, Hau looks like a balloon with a smiley face but Hop’s face has depth and his mouth actually moves like a normal person, his clothes have far more contrast and complexity, but no just zero in on one fighting animation and one rigging that’ll surely be worth abusing a game that’s not even out... B-But Charizard I’ve already explained this before but Charizard is Leon’s main, it’s obviously going to have a Gigantamax, ergo it’s also going to be in the Dex. Does Charizard get a lot? Yes, but the reason is because Charizard is popular. One of the rarest cards is a Charizard Hologram Card, Charizard is one of the first version mascots, it is one of the most recognized Pokémon Ash has in the anime Reality of the matter is that like Pikachu, Charizard is a recognized Pokémon for all ages, it appeals to a demographic that’s not playing In Layman’s Terms: that part is not for you A reality you really need to face. Pokémon is a game for all ages, so elements of the game are not always going to be tailored to your age range. The gimmick of Dynamax and Gigantamax is for merch sales and young children because it’s got an audience there, you can’t expect the Biggest Entertainment Brand in the World to simply shut out a large fraction of its demographic just to appeal 100% to you And again, it’s not a big deal, so there’s a Charizard there, just save a Stone Edge and be done with it, if you hate Charizard so much this’ll be catharsis, but in actuality you’re complaining because it’s something to complain about Kanto are getting Everything That went down like a lead balloon didn’t it? Reminder that the first Gigantamax forms were Galar Pokémon, so you can’t really say that anymore. There are Galar forms from non-Gen I Pokémon too I assure you, but the reason Kanto gets a lot of them is because Kanto is the oldest. Let’s not pretend that other gens don’t get love either Or should I remind you of Mega Ampharos, Scizor, Heracross, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gallade, Mawile, Aggron, Medicham, Manectric, Banette, Absol, Garchomp, Lucario, Abomasnow, Steelix, Sceptile, Marshtomp, Sableye, Sharpedo, Camerupt, Altaria, Glalie, Salamence, Metagross, Latias, Latios, Rayquaza, Lopunny, Audino and Diancie? It’s true that the Johto starters could use something, but I don’t think they’re being purposefully ignored, perhaps the right design hasn’t come along. Rather it be done right than poorly wouldn’t you agree? The Devs Should’ve Done <Insert Thing Here> People who say this kinda stuff have no idea how a game is made. I have a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Computer Gaming and Animation Technology and I can tell you that none of the stuff you want them to do is easy. Even getting grass right is a complete hassle. You want small insights you should watch Corridor Crew react to Good and Bad VFX, they tell you about the mechanics of CGI a few times on those vids. This is what annoys me with the prior swipe at the Battle animations and rigging, even with 2 years this is a heavily massive workload and Game Freak have only recently expanded the team that work on Pokémon which makes communication much more widespread and difficult to manage, likewise they are working on other games too they are not just Pokémon, currently their next IP is why Toby Fox was able to do a bit of music for Pokémon, because he’s collaborating with them on another game. The work doesn’t stop, most of these people are overworked and still doing overtime, they bring out a good product and all it gets is ‘but it should have this’, and unless it’s a huge part of the game that’s needed to function then that’s really disrespectful Before you start critiquing on what the people making this game ‘should’ve done’ perhaps you should try to make a game yourself, because it is not easy even for pros, I call back to Toby Fox because creating Undertale took 32 Months to create, that’s 2 years and 8 months for those slow with math, it also took 3 years before it could be ported to Switch because the Engine couldn’t support the platform, Pokémon has less time to do that, greater graphical and animation quality to achieve and more characters to battle, attacks to animate and more songs to compose. Conclusion: You’re All Just Bitter I’ve already seen it happen recently but this group of people senselessly bashing something because of ridiculous demands, expectations or arguments based on a lack of understanding all combine into something I’m simply calling the ‘Bitterness Fandom’. It’s people hating for the sake of hating and trying to bring something down just because it’s been a popular force for so long, and it’s not just Pokémon that’s getting it It’s already been happening to Star Wars. The Last Jedi and Solo were great films but the Bitterness sank its fangs in and act like neither are as good as the original trilogy (like killing Snoke without knowing anything about him and Phasma before she could do anything is any different to killing Sidious and Boba Fett in Jedi or Maul in Phantom Menace and Grievous in Revenge of the Sith), a lack of awareness to reality and the desire to complain for the sake of complaining continues to infect Star Wars. We even have a thing called ‘Star Wars Fatigue’ Star Wars can’t release a film every year because of ‘Fatigue’ but Marvel can release 5 MCU films a year and nobody bats an eye. Those frustrations aside, I refuse to let the Bitterness sink in without me calling them out, because you are not Pokémon Fans. If you were you’d know that having no National Dex isn’t new, you’d know that the graphics have improved and leaks of the game happen every time, you’d know why Charizard is popular and that some features are not intended to be targeted at you Shock and Horror to the heavens above but games can’t do everything And if you’re that naive to think so then you’re clearly not doing your homework So let’s throw out an absolutely WILD suggestion shall we? Let’s decide our opinion on a game After playing it? Because shitting on something you don’t even have hands-on experience with it is a fragile pedestal to put yourself on. If we all think it’s bad then, so be it, but I sincerely doubt that is the case When my copy of Pokémon Sword gets delivered to my house I am going to enjoy it because I will not let petty and incorrect statements sway my feelings and I swear to Arceus if you think the Bitterness will bring down Pokémon that easily then you did not see the queue to the London Poké Center that had been amassing since midnight and was forced to stop taking more people when the doors opened What should matter is how you enjoy the game, play it before you judge it And honestly, don’t send death threats, why we need to tell you that is beyond me, the ones who made these games are people who have worked their asses off day in and day out to provide something you aren’t even going to play because one Pokémon isn’t in it, the irony is not lost on me when I say this but deep into the very bottom of my heart: Grow Up. If you don’t like the game, don’t play it, don’t bother people about it, we don’t need your shit here Enjoy the Game People

[pathetic-has-been-rockstar]

Memories and a movie

Pairing: Castiel x Dean

Written for: @spnchristmasbingo

Square filled: Miracle on 34th Street

Warnings: none

Summary:   Dean Winchester has never been one for holidays, but he's fond of his few good childhood memories. When Castiel unwillingly upsets him, he will have to find a way to make up for it.

Words: 2391

Beta: @raspberrymama

my work can be found on AO3, here! If you’re interested in the whole series, you just have to click here!

Dean is in the kitchen again, making popcorns and humming a cheesy Christmas song that he heard while grocery shopping, and just won't get out of his head. He's not too bothered about it, all in all.

You won't be joining them at the bunker at least for another day, due to the closed roads, but the rest of them can start to get in the Christmas spirit. They decided to watch a Christmas-themed movie, so to give Cas and Jack the full holidays-are-coming experience. While he throws some more butter in the popcorn, he looks for the salt, trying not to spill stuff around.

A moment later, Sam walks in the kitchen, holding his pc and looking at him.

“Hey. Need a hand with that?”

“Yeah, pass me that bowl. Do we have it?”

“Yep. Miracle on 34th Street, as usual. Are you sure you don't want to watch the new version, too? I think maybe Jack...”

Dean stops him before he can go on. “Sammy, we've been over this. You and I are going to show the kid our Christmas movie, and that's it. If he doesn't like it, he'll show us his favourite one, and we will never forgive him for that.”

Sam scoffs softly and clicks a key on his pc. “Alright, then, I'll throw in the subtitles and we're good to go. We'll wait for you in the...”

“Dean cave!”

Sam sighs, exasperated. “... yes, Dean, we'll wait for you in the Dean cave.”

“Don't say it like that. It's a temple of happiness and comfort. It's the Dean cave!”

Sam opens his mouth to say something, then decides against it. He sighs and walks away from the kitchen, smiling. Dean is insufferable, of course, but it's a different kind of a pain in the ass. A light-hearted, happy Dean who teases and mocks people around him because it's fun, and not to keep a distance to avoid painful separations. All in all, he's glad of being nagged like that.

He walks in the infamous Dean cave and he finds everyone already settling down. He connects the HDMI cable to his pc and goes to sit on the couch, next to Eileen. She makes a small hint at him, and Sam nods. He clears his throat and looks at Castiel, curled up on an armchair next to the couch.

“Uh, Cas... why don't you give us the armchair? We can definitely be more comfortable there. Here, take the couch.”

Shrugging, Castiel moves on the couch. A moment later, Dean walks through the door with a ridiculously huge bowl of popcorn, and goes to sit next to Castiel. Jack stands up, going to turn off the lights, and Sam hits play on the pc before going back to the armchair and letting Eileen sit on his legs.

“So... did you love it, or did you adore it?” Dean beams at Castiel and Jack as soon as he turns the light back on.

“I like it! It put me in a good mood”, Jack nods, smiling. Dean chuckles, satisfied, then turns at Castiel, who still hasn't spoken, and looks pretty confused.

"What troubles you, Cas?" Dean asks, curious to see if he will have to explain something.

“I don't really understand the point of this movie.”

“The-the point? Cas, it's the best Christmas movie ever made, until Trading Places, what do you think is the point?”

Castiel shakes his head, an incredulous expression on his face. “Dean, it's a terrible story about how the American system cages a man for believing to be a fictional character. The judge emits his sentence on a case that doesn't belong in a courtroom, based on what's written on currency. It all stems from the troubles of an alcoholic man. How can you love this movie?”

Dean looks at Castiel, horrified. Sam knows that face. It's the same expression he had when he was forced to destroy Baby to survive a ghost attack. Whatever it's going to happen, the happy atmosphere of movie night is about to go up in flames. Surprisingly, Dean just sets his jaw and nods.

“Alright, I get it. Not everyone can appreciate it.”

“I'm just saying that there's not a lot that...”

“Shut up!” Dean barks, a second before walking away without giving anyone the time to stop him. Confused, Castiel turns to Sam.

“What did I say?”

“Cas, uh... Dean loves this movie. Very, very much. We... we used to watch it with dad, so... I-I think he was hoping you'd like it, too.”

For a long moment, Castiel stays quiet, then nods. “I understand. I suppose I'll go apologize to him.”

“It's not... let him cool off a bit, maybe.”

“Don't worry, Sam. I know exactly what to do.” Castiel ignores Sam's suggestion before going after Dean, leaving Sam, Eileen and Jack in the room. Jack stands up and stretches, still in a good mood.

“Don't worry Sam. If there's anyone able to calm Dean down, that's Cas.”

Sam chuckles, taking Eileen's hand. “You know what? You're right. Let's clean this place and go to bed, we'll deal with the lovebirds tomorrow.”

They all laugh, and start tidying up the place.

Castiel walks in Dean's room, awkwardly standing just a few steps from the door. Dean is sitting at his desk, going through some stuff, and Castiel can take a look at him. He studies how his dark blond hair is slightly ruffled on the back of his neck, after being pressed against the back of the couch for the last couple of hours, how the shirt's fabric stretches on his broad shoulders. It's looking at the movement of his shoulders that Cas realizes that Dean is moving. He turns to him, and gives him an indecipherable look.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Dean... I wanted to...”

“Ah, look... it's fine, man. It's just a movie. No big deal.”

“Sam explained to me it was a sort of tradition. I should have known there was a story behind it. There's always a story with you.”

Dean's lips curl again in one of the half smiles that Cas has learned to map and interpret down to a fine art... in a few seconds. There's always a moment or two of pure amazement at seeing how his whole traits seem to turn him from a weathered hunter into a smiling man, showing the Dean he's always cherished so deeply.

“You know... you're right. Guess I was mad because it's one of the good stories, this one.”

“... would you like to share it with me?”

For a fleeting moment, Castiel sees the surprise in Dean's eyes, as clear as fleeting. It almost hurts to think that he could be surprised to be asked to share something obviously so dear to him, but Castiel stays quiet and watches Dean nodding in agreement.

“It's just... you know we didn't have exactly an easy childhood. I had to take care of Sammy from day one, cause dad... you know. You heard more than enough. But Christmas... soometimes it was not about... this.” Dean says, gesturing at the room around him. “Sure, it was always in a different motel, always after some monster. But... the police rarely work on Christmas' night. Families stick together, making it harder for the monsters to hunt. Motels would offer something to their guests, especially to us. They saw a single dad working his ass off with two children... it tends to make people feel sympathy, especially at Christmas.”

Castiel nods, entranced by Dean's voice. He keeps smiling, and it's clear that, despite everything that man put him and Sam through, he still misses his father. His dad.

“And no matter where we were... that movie is a classic. If it wasn't on a channel, it was on another. When he managed to stay with us, Dad would make some popcorn, usually with so much butter that you could see through the bag once you were done, and we would all hunker down and watch that movie together.”

“... it sounds like a wonderful memory, indeed.”

“Yeah, it... it is. One year... one year Sammy was so upset that we had to decide: telling him that Santa wasn't real, or inventing an excuse to justify the fact that, once again, we didn't get a new house.”

“How did you deal with that?”

“We told him that Santa couldn't get a new house for us because we had to move constantly, to stay safe. We had to stick with that for a couple of years, before he grew out of that. I... I did my best to let him be a kid, Cas. Standing up to dad wasn't easy, and I... I just did my best.”

Castiel must fight the anger he feels understanding why Dean sees himself the way he does, and walks as close as possible to Dean. He places a hand on Dean's shoulder, trying to find the right words to say.

“Dean... you did a wonderful job with Sam. You shouldn't have been forced to look out for him. Your father was supposed to do it... and I'm sure that Sam is grateful for it. I'm sorry I didn't appreciate the movie.”

“Ah, Cas, it's fine. I overreacted.”

“No. It's not fine. Allow me to apologize.”

“... there's no need to...”

“Dean, I understood that around Christmas is customary to make kind gestures to each other. Please, let me.”

Dean chuckles, raising his hands.

“Alright. Let's see what you got for me.”

“Fine. Get dressed.”

“... what?”

“Get dressed.”

Dean smiles, curious to see what Cas has in mind and stands up to grab his coat. He puts it on, takes a scarf and a hat, puts on his gloves, and finally turns to face him.

“Is this enough?”

“It is. Are you ready to take a flight?”

“Not a fan of it, but... whatever makes you happy.”

Castiel gives him a small hint before placing a hand on his shoulder, and Dean experiences the familiar and dreaded feeling of his stomach being mashed from the inside during teleportation. A second later, when he opens his eyes, he manages to steady himself against a brick wall and take a deep breath before bending down and trying to catch his breath.

The air is cold, heavy, and Dean knows the smell lingering in the air, even if he can't pinpoint where or when. It feels familiar, but somehow distant, and it brings mixed feelings with it. When he finally feels his stomach settling down, he straightens his back and looks at the angel who just brought him there.

“Cas... where are we?”

“Why don't we go find out?” Cas answers, with a small smile that lets out his anticipation. Dean, affected by Cas' visible excitement, starts walking towards the exit of the alley where they appeared.

Before they walk out of it, Dean has a clear idea of where they are. There's only one city in the world that has that particular kind of bright night, those sounds mixed in a cacophony so terrible to result irresistible, topped with the smell of a thousand different foods, people and exhaust pipes. When they walk out from the alley, his hypotheses are confirmed, and Dean laughs, incredulous, turning to Cas.

“You brought me to New York?”

“So it seems.”

“What the...”

“There.”

Cas points at something behind Dean, who feels his heart stopping for a second, then starting to beat furiously in an attempt to catch up. Sure enough, turning around Dean sees the building of Macy's, dressed in blinding lights and Christmas decorations.

For a moment, Castiel is deeply worried. He never saw Dean reacting like that. His mouth fell open, while his whole face transformed into a blank expression of utter disbelief. He just keeps staring at Macy's, his eyes running up and down the building the only movement that Cas can see, as if trying to find a way to get in, or something like that. After a few very long moments, he decides to risk a question.

“Dean... are you alright?”

Dean turns to Cas so quickly that he almost takes a step back. He raises his arm, pointing at the building.

“You... you brought me to New York. On Christmas' week. To friggin' Macy's? Because you didn't like my favourite Christmas movie... you thought it was a good idea to bring me into it?”

At six and seven for Dean's reaction, Castiel nods. He thought he'd appreciate the intention behind the gesture. Perhaps he's been too intrusive. Perhaps he interpreted the sharing of his story in the wrong way, or perhaps Dean didn't mean that...

“Cas... that's the... that is the most stupid, senseless, sweet thing that anyone is ever done for me!” Dean practically shouts in Castiel's face.

“Why are you yelling now?”

“Because you are not supposed to... Cas, how... why did you do this?”

When he finally realizes why Dean is so upset, Castiel smiles. A big, wide smile that makes his eyes crinkle and the most human side of him flash clearly like one of the Christmas lights around them. Dean Winchester, the legendary hunter, the man who came back from Hell, the one who died and came back to tell the tale more than once... is embarrassed. The most brazen, skilled conqueror of waitress of the United States has no idea about how to react to a genuine gesture of care and affection.

The smile of Castiel erupts into a light-hearted laughter, and Dean is bedazzled in finding out that, in fact, he loves that. He thought he'd hate Castiel laughing at him in a moment like that, but... he was wrong. He adores his laughter. It tells him that Cas just read all the right things in his reaction, understood where they came from, and why they are there.

Dean blushes, sticks his hands in his pockets and mutters, in a falsely angry tone “Shut up” at Castiel. He doesn't stop Castiel when he nudges him with a shoulder and stays close to him.

“What do you say about we go and take a closer look at that place?”

Trying to keep his coolness, and failing miserably, Dean nods. “Well, since we're here...”

Cas shakes lightly his head, impatient and slightly exasperated. “Yeah, we're here. Thanks for seconding me. Come on, let's go.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading! 

I truly hope you enjoyed this little story. Every kind of feedback is very much appreciated, just as much as likes and reblogs!

Please, do not repost my works or part/s of it on different places, not even if you give credits.

[mst3kproject]

Iron Warrior

 Why yes, there is a fourth Ator movie!  Technically, this is the third Ator movie.  Whereas Ator, the Fighting Eagle, The Blade Master (aka Cave Dwellers) and Quest for the Mighty Sword were all made by Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D’Amato), Iron Warrior was made by Alfonso Brescia (aka Al Bradley).  Massaccessi supposedly hated it because it wasn’t true to his vision for Ator or something.  Myself, I was kind of intrigued.  What would a different take on Ator be like?

Well, I don’t know how he managed, but Alfonso Brescia pulled it off.  He made an Ator movie that makes even less sense than the other Ator movies.

The evil sorceress Phaedra used to rule this land, but then some fellow witches (I’m gonna call them Bellerians) banished her into darkness and installed a puppet king. Eighteen years later, however, Phaedra’s sentence is up and she has returned, with a legion of skull-faced minions and an indestructible cyborg named Drogar.  They kill the king and kidnap his heir, Princess Gianna.  The Bellerians therefore call upon Ator to rescue her, which he does, and then the Bellerian Leader tells them they must go on a quest to retrieve the only thing that can defeat Phaedra and free Drogar, who is also Ator’s brother, from her clutches – the Golden Chest of the Ages!  With that in hand, they head back to be crowned King and Queen of wherever this is, only to learn too late that Phaedra replaced the real Golden Chest with a fake!

According to the end credits, ‘script continuity’ was the job of somebody named Mirella Gamacchio.  I can only assume she was drunk as shit the entire time, because this movie is nothing but a series of “wait… what just happened?” moments.

There’s a bit where Phaedra decides to kill Ator before he can rescue Gianna.  She can’t just Thanos-snap him out of existence because the Bellerians have taken that power away from her, so she takes the form of a beautiful woman, lets him rescue her from random thugs, sleeps with him, locks him in a cabin, and burns the cabin down.  That seems like an over-complicated plan, somehow.  Also, Ator escapes by hiding under a wet bear rug.

To kill the king, Drogar telekinetically makes all the decorative weapons mounted on a wall fly into him and run him through.  Then Phaedra replaces the dead king and the kidnapped princess with imposters who look nothing like them and nobody at court seems to notice.  Later, Ator fights Drogar in the same weapons-adorned room and I kept waiting for the psychic stabbing thing to happen again, but it doesn’t.  Instead, Ator and Drogar throw spears at each other and keep catching them.  Finally Drogar throws two spears at once, and Ator catches one while Gianna pops up out of absolutely nowhere to catch the other, despite never having the slightest hint she was able to do something like that!

Later later, Gianna gets kidnapped by the skull-faced minions and thrown into a dungeon where her father is hanging in a doorway, with the spears still through him but apparently still alive.  He begs her for help, and then she suddenly reappears in Ator’s arms wearing a green dress instead of the red one she’s had on so far. This is one of several occasions on which I was absolutely sure that the ‘Gianna’ we were seeing was going to turn out to be Phaedra in disguise, and in this instance I was especially certain about it because green is Phaedra’s colour.  I was wrong. Even at the climax, when I was absolutely convinced the whole thing had to be a trick, the woman who looks like Gianna was always the real Gianna.  I think.

After Phaedra gets the chest, Ator and Gianna are halfway through their coronation ceremony when suddenly Ator’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Sand Nazis, and Gianna’s dangling off a cliff with Phaedra sitting there mocking her.  How did that happen?  Phaedra tells her that life is an illusion, which for a moment left me wondering if anything in this movie really happened?  Perhaps the whole bit when Gianna was in the green dress was just some kind of dream?  I have no idea.  Anyway, Ator beats up the Sand Nazis and then goes and shoves a torch down Phaedra’s throat, which turns out to be her weakness for some reason.  Where did that come from?  I dunno.  Then he has just concluded that Gianna must have fallen and died when he hears her calling him, and goes to untie her from where she’s sitting on a rock.  They embrace and Gianna smiles in an evil kind of way, but as far as I can tell it’s still the real Gianna because we next see Phaedra captured by the Bellerians again!  They sentence her to something else and then giggle in delight because Ator and Gianna have fallen in love.

I don’t know why Ator was worried about Gianna falling to her death anyway, because there are several points in this movie in which one or both of the couple plummet into a bottomless abyss only to wake up completely unharmed.  This is slightly plausible when they leap off a cliff into the water, but what about when they fall from a rope bridge into a deep canyon and wake up lying on rocks in a cave?  Are they indestructible?

Drogar is supposedly indestructible, which means the moment when Ator is forced to run him through is one I expected to be another trick. After all, the same thing happened earlier and Drogar just collapsed into a pile of clothes like Obi-Wan Kenobi. No, this time he’s actually dead, and Ator takes his helmet off and finds another Miles O’Keefe underneath. I think we’re supposed to assume that Phaedra discarded Drogar because she no longer needed him?  I’m sure it’s supposed to be a tragic moment when Ator has to kill his brother, but Ator didn’t seem particularly reluctant to do so.  I also think the helmet removal is supposed to remind us of Luke Skywalker’s little vision quest moment in Empire Strikes Back when he found his own face under Darth Vader’s mask, but I cannot suggest a reason why other than ‘the writer thought that was neat’.

What is even with the Ator-has-a-brother thing?  Wasn’t Ator raised by stick merchants in Solachek along with a sister he eventually married?  Fuck it, I’m gonna assume Ator is like Maciste, and his backstory resets with every movie.  The way the movie works out, the ‘brothers’ thing is never important anyway.  It’s treated as if it’s going to be – we know the revelation is coming from the opening scene and we’re teased with it a few times along the way, but when it actually arrives it has no effect on the plot whatsoever!

So yes, Iron Warrior tries to make you feel many things, but the only one you actually feel at the end of the movie is intense confusion.  The characters never have any personality so you can’t get invested in them or their relationships.  Elisabeth Kaza as Phaedra is having a fabulous time hamming up the evil, but everybody else has their Very Serious Movie faces on and mostly just looks bored. The special effects are basic at best, and the music sounds like an early 2000’s PC game loading.

Costumes and hair are bizarre.  Ator has traded his mile-high meringue hairdo for a tight braid that makes him look weirdly like Alicia Vikander on the Tomb Raider poster. Gianna has a hairdo that looks like a centurion’s helmet and wanders around the wilderness in a filmy red dress with her nipples visible right through it.  The leader of the Bellerians dresses like a budget Queen Amidala. Like previous Ator films (or Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell), there is no sense of any attempt to build a consistent world.  They just threw together a bunch of stuff that looked cool.

The movie was shot on the Maltese island of Gozo, and makes the place look like it’s made entirely of barren rocks.  There are lots of neat formations and forbidding cliffs, and it’s all very spectacular.  Unfortunately, it’s also very obvious that we’re seeing the same neat rock formations and forbidding cliffs over and over again.

As far as analyzing the movie… I don’t think I can do that. There’s not really enough substance there to analyze.  The closest Iron Warrior comes to doing anything meaningful is when it tries to use a furry toy ball as a symbol of the bond between brothers.  When we meet Ator and Drogar as children, they’re chucking this tribble at each other through some ruins, and it reappears a couple of times in attempts at foreshadowing.  The problem is that there is no bond between Ator and Drogar, and the fact that they’re brothers is, as I said, ultimately unimportant.

The impression I get from this movie is that it was written by somebody who had no idea how to tell a story.  The writers, Steven Luotto and Alfonso Brescia, have clearly seen movies (they’ve definitely seen the original Star Wars trilogy) and know that they have things like attractive stars, special effects, stunning revelations, and dream sequences, but they don’t know how to put those together into a plot, or what purposes they should serve within one.  The result is completely incoherent.  To my own astonishment I totally understand why Massaccesi hates this movie.  Ator, the Fighting Eagle and The Blade Master might have been made up on the fly, but they still made more sense than this!

[atlanticcanada]

RCMP wasn't built to police rural communities: criminologist

The RCMP has drawn a lot of criticism for its response to the deadly mass shooting that began in Portapique, N.S. in April 2020.

But even before the deadly 13-hour rampage, the Mounties were being criticized right across the country for its poor track record when it comes to policing in rural communities.

"If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we have to learn that rural policing for the most part [in Canada] is broken," said St. Thomas University criminology professor Michael Boudreau.

The Mass Casualty Commission's final report laid out several recommendations on how policing in rural communities can be improved, but Boudreau says the RCMP wasn't built for this kind of policing in small and remote communities.

"They [RCMP] were meant to be a national police force that deals with things like domestic terrorism, human trafficking, and the drug trade," said Boudreau. "Boots on the ground kind of policing was never part of their DNA and it's been an awkward transition for them."

Boudreau says rural provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick should abandon the RCMP policing model and expand municipal policing.

"It may not be a cost-saving measure but it would allow for better community policing, which was so very missing in Portapique in April 2020," said Boudreau.

The MCC's final report included 130 recommendations and when it came to policing, the report made several suggestions on how to improve policing in rural communities.

The report is highly critical of the RCMP's response that evening of April 18th, 2020, when the gunman, Gabriel Wortman, went on a shooting spree that began in his home and out into the neighbourhood in the rural community of Portapique.

Wortman, disguised as an RCMP officer, evaded police and went on a 13-hour shooting rampage that left 22 innocent Nova Scotians dead, including a pregnant mother. RCMP eventually shot and killed Wortman at a roadside gas bar and truck stop in Enfield, NS.

Before the deadly mass shooting, the RCMP had faced long-standing criticism of their contract policing services in rural communities -- and not just in the Maritimes either -- but the failures in responding to the mass shooting only amplified the issue.

Colchester County, which includes the village of Portapique, struck up a police service review just before the deadly rampage to examine its policing contract with the RCMP, while also determining if the service was effective and if the county was getting its money's worth.

At the time, Tom Taggart was the county councillor for the area that included Portapique, and he was unrelenting in his call for a police review.

Taggart was critical of the RCMP for its lack of presence in the community, and now that he's a PC MLA for Colchester North, he had this to say about rural policing.

"It's a challenge, I don't think it's gotten a lot better but it's a challenge," said Taggart. "I'm not sure what the right way is to face it."

The RCMP review for Colchester County was completed by former Halifax Deputy Police Chief Bill Moore but the county has held on to it while awaiting the findings of the MCC's final report.

It's expected that Colchester County will make the police review public at a council meeting later this month.

"The commission completed their mandate and this is what they set out to do and so now we have to ensure the report is acted upon and it doesn't sit on somebody's shelf," said Michael Gregory, councillor for District 7 in Colchester County.

Gregory is also a retired RCMP officer and says a major issue with the RCMP's rural policing model is the transient nature of the work and the lack of familiarity the officers who are policing the area have with the community.

For the most part, the officers patrolling these rural communities aren't from the area and don't know the people or the environment, said Gregory.

New Brunswick Mayor Ken Stannix agrees and says it's important for police to live in the community they help keep safe.

"It's important for them to integrate into the community," said Stannix. "If they don't know the area, they may not know the players, they won't know who the person was that made the phone call."

The final report says that more value needs to be placed into rural policing and all levels of government need to provide financial support to ensure the communities are adequately policed.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said it's now up to elected officials to take these recommendations and move them forward.

"This is critical, everyone wants safer communities and I certainly do," said Houston. "I think the very first place to start with the recommendations will be the joint committee on making sure the recommendations are implemented."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/9yLZTS7