#im always consuming videogames and death is just THE THING from them

[rainbowbeanstyles]

death is just so present in our lives! in every happening in the world, in our own countries and cities, our families, in videogames, in books, in movies, in shows, in music, every little corner, it's there! it's a bit hard to nagivate this after such a big loss, it's impossible to escape from it even if i'm not even trying to... man

[tumblunni]

hey uhhh YKNO WHATS GOOD brainstorming potential headcanons for a character you know NOTHING ABOUT

i guess its less headcanons and more like.. wishes? hopes? what i think would be cool to do with this dude and like ALL I KNOW is that he is a cool dude and apparantly he doesnt have a backstory or sympatheticness SO consider what if he did and maybe thatd be cooler. like dude he owns THE SINGLE BEST BOSS BATTLE THEME IN ALL VIDEOGAMES EVER and that is ALL I KNOW ABOUT HIM and i just want him to deserve it, yo. also if he turned good i could be his friend and some of the badassness would rub off on me

ANYWAY

COOL SQUID PRESIDENT

i would vote for this man as squesident

seriously the design is SO GOOD!!! how did they manage to get such a cool colourscheme out of his entire Thing being that he has no colours?? like damn i like white being used as an evil colour for once, thanks. it symbolizing emptyness and emotionlessness is like BIG YES and i really hope thats what they were going for cos apparantly the wiki says that all the yokai who join his “we should never be friends with humans” gang turn colourless to match? but like the dude himself is less plain white and more very light shades of blue, grey and gold. MAYBE REFLECTS THAT HE IS A MANIPULATIVE DOUCHE WHO MAYBE DOESNT REALLY CARE ABOUT YOKAI AND JUST WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD PERHAPS dammit why does everything about him scream “great 100% evil guy who is very scary” when man I WANT TO LIKE HIM, DAMMIT!!

ALSO SERIOUSLY the visual effect of the wild spirally red yellow eyes against an otherwise “peaceful” colour whose entire point as an evil is “peaceful” taken to a bad extreme. it REALLY immediately sells that “tries to pretend to be calm, collected and fancy but is actually an angry mofo at heart” vibe i got from his theme song??? I REALLY HOPE THATS ACTUALLY HOW THIS COOL BOSS BATTLE GOES DOWN cos man the best villains are smug asshles who Always Win and then when you FINALLY win you get that much of a better ending!!! but AGH another part of me is like “i hope im wrong because he looks like a Cool Dad and i want him to be good”. Maybe his true design concept was to betray me personality with using all his cool dad power for evil...?

ALSO im not gonna spoil you guys on it cos it is JUST AS AMAZING AS HIS SONG but i was toooootally right that he has some sort of super intimidating second form and its got THE COOLEST DESIGN EVER HOLY SHIT! and also apprantly there’s a recoloured bonus boss called Minister Squisker who’s like a colour swap in a really creative way?? it swaps him being all “blank” themed with scary bright eyes and instead his entire body is a wild ye olde mythological illustration style paint job in every colour ever. okay COOL HEADCANON NUMBER ONE thats actually the regular colour of the species and mckraken is the white sheep of the family lol

also UHHH i dunno it seems kinda weird to me that theyd have this dude running a goddamn political party about humans being bad yet he doesnt seem to have any motivation whatsoever for it? unless it really is just supposed to be ‘he only pretends he wants to protect yokai from humans so he can manipulate and rule the yokai’. but like HYPOTHETICALLY in some universe where he actually lives up to his Grumpy Dad Who Has A Hidden Soft Spot potential, maybe he has an understandable backstory that raises legitimate concerns about how humans are destroying the natural and mythological and forgetting their roots, or other reasonable reasons why yokai could think humans are dangerous and all. i mean we ARE dangerous, we’re just a wide group of people that contain evil bastards and also good people, yknow. And thatd resonate well as a plot probably, cos well the whole point of the series is “in real life ur scared of yokai but theyre actually all goofy pranksters who will be your best friend forever”. Both sides being afraid of each other could lead to some good plotness! and it could be really effective and sad if after hours of joyous childhood wonder the protagonist bumps into the first yokai they couldnt befriend. the first one thats scared of them. the first member of this weird colourless political party who accuses them of committing crimes against yokaikind, of obviously only enslaving these yokai friends cos you have an ulterior motive, just like all humans! it could be effective if its something that shakes up the whole way you saw the world and establishes that hey its not all fun and happiness, and there’s some people you are powerless to convince. maybe even some people you are powerless to save...?

ANYWAY possible idea for ‘what if the dude originally had a sympathetic motive but it got twisted over time and now he’s just a fuck BUT maybe he could still be redeeminated someday ok thanks” What if he’s the spirit of.. like.. ocean pollution? Like there’s some yokai who are ghosts of a mortal person but theres some that are just nature spirits or personifications of concepts. What if he’s the personification of the dying screams of all the wildlife killed in a particular tragic oil spill? hence squid = thematic, and blank white colourscheme = even more thematic reflecting the stain the oil would leave on a pristine ocean and also the blank emotionlessness he was left as after witnessing that tragedy. Cos like his entire Purpose would have been born out of avenging anger but i mean he was just a kid, the only one left alive on a ruined beach and seeing just how powerful humans were and how pointless it would be to try and fight them with his weak power. like he was born to avenge all these souls and he just keeps failing!! his entire reason to live and he’s just too small!! so he ends up becoming bitter and cynical and learning how to use his silver tongue to manipulate others into becoming his weapons, and he vows that someday he’s gonna come back when he has the power he needs to complete his mission. and he’s just forever had this anger seething inside that he’s been unable to get any catharsis from, so when his cold and collected persona cracks he’s really damn scary with all these years of a man who’s grown old fearing he’ll never be able to avenge his ocean friends and just AAAAAA! itd be really good cos itd be a way he could still be intimidating and high stakes as a boss fight but also sympathetic!! also it could make sense why he’d only be redeemable after defeating him? like this entire time he’s been hidden behind a million layers of politics and minions and stuff and its very easy for him to not see the reality of the fact that he’s terrorizing human children just like how humans scarred him as a child. so like his whole big second form transformation super anger mode time would be sort of a last ditch attempt to deny what he already knows, the doubts that have been eating away at his soul now he’s getting close to the end of his life goal. but also like.. he doesnt even know who he IS, under the lies! its been his entire purpose for existing. like he probably uhh.. didnt have much plans after his victory. he probably wouldnt have much will to live left. so yeah you basically beat up this guy’s emotional walls and make him face the face of the people he’s been hurting, when he’s been trying to avoid it for so long. and he gets to see how much all the other yokai genuinely trust you and how much youre personally sacrificing to protect them so maybe you really arent just lying about being a good person...

oh also i was thinking about the inherant hypocrisy present in the fact that this guy is a big spoopy REALLY WELL DESIGNED squid monster that spends all his time in a depowered humansona instead, despite his whole Thing being hating humans. and, yknow, ‘i’ll solve this using a carbon copy of human politics instead of any more traditionally magical way of fighting the humans’. Yeah. So THEORY of SADNESS maybe he like never actually met any other yokai for a long time? I dont think it really makes sense that he’d be hypocritical because he secretly likes humans or something, that wouldnt jive with this backstory idea. So im thinking another explanation could be that he genunely doesnt know much about yokai culture? Like cos of his backstory he just poofed into existance on this destroyed beach in the human world and spent the first few centuries of his life completely alone except for the terrifying monsters that haunted every second of his life, and the knowledge that it was his purpose to defeat them but he didnt know how. And he was a nature spirit of the sea but his sea was empty of everything except death, so he couldnt even hug a cute fish sidekick or something- OH GOD WHAT IF HE DID HAVE A CUTE FISH SIDEKICK AND IT DIED COS OF HUMANS!!! very tiny sad squid monster child holding a dead pet, oh god why did my heart did this to meeee!! so yeah he didnt even know he was a yokai or wtf yokai are, he didnt know anywhere outside the tiny rock pool he would hide in on this barren beach. And then someday he gets found by an older yokai and adopted and like he feels like he owes them so much cos they gave him a reason to live, and a connection to the nature that he was supposed to protect, and.. well.. any companionship at all ever. So thats how his directionless “humans are bad” turned into “yokai are good and i need to protect them from humans like i failed to protect the beach” which turned into “i need to get more power to do this” which turned into manipulating other yokai and seeing them as nothing more than tools to take down the humans, his revenge consuming him until he barely remembered the reasons he originally wanted to do it...

and blablabla thats where we bring in the recolour bonus boss also, and say thats the nice grandpa figure who adopted him when he was all lost and trapped in the human world. and cos he was sorta adopted into nobility thats why he’s so over the top with his pompousness, its like a hint of IM LOVV MY GRANDEPA shining through his grumpface. ALSO maybe a sad situation where the gramps saw his kid growing up into this scary extremist and he tried to reason with him that humans dont need to be destroyed and that led to them fighting and him getting sealed off in recolour bonus boss land. and mckraken sees it as the biggest betrayal of his life and it totally threw him off the slippery slope to feel like the one man he trusted the most was a traitor to yokai all along. but even at his most evil he couldnt bear to actually kill his beloved gramps so he just imprisoned him and tries to stop thinking about it but like THE CONSTANT SPECTRE OF THE GUILT HANGS OVER YOUR HEAD THAT YOU DID YOU GRAMPS WRONGGGG So yehmaybe protag could find the gramps guy and hear about the sad backstory via him and then defeat mckraken and make him realise he was wrong and he apologises to his gramps and atones and all the humans and yokai are friends again and BUNNI CRIES FOREVER the end

cos seriously man this guy’s design is too good to be wasted on a hateable!! srsly he’s like that archetypical goofy big beard chubby pirate dude BUT INTIMIDATING AND BADASS AND COOL FASHION AND DAVY JONES SQUID BEARD SQUEARD I LOVE HIM he is too round to be 100% evil

*slams fists on the table* IF YOU DONT LIVE UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS I AM GONNA CRY

aaa i need to stop just sitting here theorizing about this game and actually friggin play it lolllll

[istvp]

IraQuarantine

.

as this pandemic continues in all around the world because of the novel coronavirus (COVID19), countries are forced to take drastic measures to prevent the further spreading of the virus, countries like China the United States Italy the United Kingdom and of course Iraq

most of these countries started applying curfews and total shutdown of most institutes from schools and colleges to sports event and movies and music.

and also Quarantine

where people must remain in their houses and never leave unless its for food or an emergency.

like in Italy where people cant leave their apartments or go to the rooftops.

streets and alleies are empty and people are forced to stay in their houses no matter what,

where now you feel like you are a prisoner in your own home, trapped with everyone you know and things you own and suddenly your large 5 bedrooms house start to feel like a prison sell and your 1 bedroom apartment starts to feel like a broken elevator and you are trapped in it with nowhere to go in between floors.

what you can do now is limited by what you have as entertainment and what ways you can make that time goes by fast or make the most out of it.

most people in these countries have internet and great cellular network, and other forms of entertainment.

they can work from home and still make a living.

they can watch anything or read anything online.

they can buy things and have them delivered online.

they can watch youtube and post videos and pictures online.

and they can take classes and study

online.

and they can play videogames

online.

as most countries have a reliable and sustainable internet network that enable this online life. and without it you cant keep people from going out and breathe fresh air.

this brings me back to my own country, Iraq

where the curfew is applied and schools and everything is on lockdown and you have to do your part and stay at home.

but how?

the average internet speed in Iraq is 0.6mb per sceond. making it one of the worst internet connection you can have in this modern world.

and other than the slowliness of this internet you have the issue of reliability and stability.

you can not rely on this connection as it is wireless and it can be affected my almost anything in the air, from rain and wind to the distance between the client and ISP.

it is safe to say that this internet in not usable in days like these, as I am writing this, the internet cuts off because of the electricity who also went off,

Yes you heard me right, the electricity is off as it does not work, you cant see, you cant have AC or heat, you cant turn on the fan or tv. and the fridge will not give you cold water. and also means that the internet will go off as well becuse the network is heavenly a dependent on the electricity.

I dont need to explain to you how the electricity is the most important thing out our daily lives as you already know that.

from the door bell to the charger of your phone and the stove or the dishwasher.

you really cant live if your electricity went off for couple of minutes let alone hours and days and in my case years.

.

Basra Iraq is where I live and I have establish that I lose electricity and have a bad internet. what can I do to stay indoors ? what can I do with this internet ?

I cant work online

I cant watch videos on the internet

I cant use socialmedia

I cant play videogames online

or regular video games if I lose the elctricty

I cant facetime

I cant study only

I cant post onile

and I cant have a good phone call becuase the internet is just not consistent or even close to being consistent. and a lot more that I cant do.

and when the electricity is off

I cant wash clothes

I cant play video games

I cant take tv classes

I cant use the vacuum

I cant have hot water for showering

I cant have cold drinks

I cant have lights in my room

and my food could go bad without the electricity

and there are a lot more thing I cant do.

most people here have adapted to this situation

the loseing of electricity. so we have backup generators to help us in the hours where the main grid is down. but we dont really have anything to backup the internet or support it,

in most days its fine, both the electricity and the internet are relatively fine, but now as most of the population of Iraq are staying at home and consuming a lot of energy, there is a heavy load on the network, we are straining the grid and stretching it thin, thinner than it already is.

and if suffer more from this pandemic as the summer is coming and we have to deal with the heat (123f-50°c) through out 6 months, Im afraid that the network will collapse and we wouldn't be abale to properly fix it and maintain it and times like these.

what I do most of the times when both the internet and electricity cuf off is

I write a lot, like Im doing right now

and I read a lot

I go on the roof as most houses here have rooftops you can breath and gaze on the sunsets or sunrise

I can clean the house and do what I can to prevent this virus from further spreading

I can workout and train and make most of my time productive.

I can wash dishes.

and other things to keep me busy if I already done most of my routine.

but that is speaking about me strictly, here in Basra people cant really just accept that they need to be quarantined because of a virus, so they break it and they walk in the town and they shop in crowded markets that are unsanitized and unsanitary, and you have to forgive them because of what they suffered throughout the years and how much they know death and how they are not afraid of it, not yet at least.

.

the reason I write this now is to inform and share as well as document what life is like for me in a quarantine in Basra Iraq.

and also to put a spot light on few things some people might take for granted times like these,

so I want you to know that being in a quarantine is that fun or entertaining and its a hard time and there will be problems. but please try to always think and have in mind that there are people like me in which there quarantine is actually like prison, and me saying that as I think about all the homeless people and the refugees in camps and all the poor people who dont even have what I have right now.

I want you to also think about me and them just as I am thinking about you in this time,

and I know that we will come out of this better

I hope we do, Im doing my best to help with this and see it in affect when this pandemic is over.

people are showing their best all across the world and some of them are showing their worst.

we need to learn from this and we need to wrok and plan ahead from this point forward, for the sake of

Children

Planet earth

Elderly

Animals

Environment

and for each other

Humanity.

I would like to thank every human who is on the front line of this pandemic our heros, from doctors and nurses, medical staff and researchers, lap researchers and technicians

Janitors and cleaners. and everyone that is doing thier part in any way small or big. and I will thank Science for it is our only helper and our only way out of this.