#like the fact that they actually just made him speak ASL and have a realistic text-to-speech device for when he needs to make phonecalls!!!!

[autisticcassandracain]

Now that I've finished volume 1 & 2 of The New Teen Titans I feel like giving my official ranking of the Teen Titans based on how much I personally like them:

Koriand'r: Love of my life. She's the reason I read this comic I love her so MUCH. I'd literally be here all day if I went in depth on why I love her. Spectacular showstopping amazing 10/10.

Joey: Listen! He's just a lad! Just a nice little lad! I knew practically nothing about him going in but I love him now. He's just a genuinely kind and compassionate person, his power is cool as hell, and I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how well his disability was handled. 

Donna: Her arc about creating an aura of perfection around her and being scared to watch it crumble is really good, her leadership arc was likewise great, the issue where she found her family was fantastic, the Amazons as a concept are super interesting to me, and I really love her relationship with Kori and Dick! She's a little bland but that's ok I still love her.

Raven: She doesn't grab me as much as I feel she should for some reason? But she's still a good character. I like the idea of an empath being wildly incompetent with her own emotions, I have to respect and admire her selflessness, and her powers are cool as hell.

Kole: Yes I know she was only in like 5 to 10 issues and existed to be killed off in Infinite Crisis but have you considered: I love her.

Dick: When he's not being a jackass he's really nice! He weirdly feels a lot more... idk, human? In the ntt than I've usually seen him in batfam comics. I especially like how much this era leans into his detective skills. Unfortunately he's also quite frequently a jackass and it makes me want to strangle him.

Vic: His combination of brains and brawn feels very unique, I love how they don't downplay his intellect, and his relationship with the school for disabled kids and his grandparents is adorable! That said there's only so much self pity and 'I look like a monster' monologues I can take before I start to roll my eyes at it.

Tara: Yes we're counting her. Her character was abysmally written, her backstory makes no sense, her flat evil personality is infinitely less interesting than a more nuanced alternative, and of course there was the whole victim-blaming Mess with Slade, but also I thought she was funny. She's a bitch and it's entertaining.

Garfield: As a self-proclaimed chauvinist and the designated group sexual harasser I'm legally required to dislike him. I'd probably like him a little better if he didn't also wallow in self pity constantly but here we are. Yeah your whole family is dead and I guess that sucks but in the immortal words of Donna Troy, that's not exactly unique in this group. Go cry about it in your McMansion. Occasionally has some good moments and his friendship with Vic is cute tho.

Danny Chase: I feel embarrassed having to put him on this list bc I've literally never heard anyone or anything mention him so I'm pretty sure he's getting written out in 2.5 issues flat but. Still a Titan. His entire personality is 'loud-mouth 14-year-old ex-spy' so he's mostly just boring and kind of annoying. Feels like he's only there to get more kids to read comics and I'd bet real money that's the actual reason he exists. And on top of that his powers are boring.

Wally West: This is an NTT Wally West hate blog. I hate this guy so much. He's a conservative in the 80's and as if that wasn't bad enough all he does is feel sorry for himself, complain, and lash out at others. Every time he opens his mouth my brain goes 'That's what I thought you'd say you stupid fucking Republican!' I'm not even going to try to be objective here. If I could push him off a roof I would. Fuck NTT Wally West.

[thetomorrowshow]

Slower Than Words Ch. 20

First  -  Previous  -  Next

Been a busy week! I’ll let you know if I need to slow down updates! So how about we visit Virgil, see what’s up with him?

cw: a n g s t, panic attack

~

Virgil couldn't move. Roman had helped him into bed, then sat in the room for a while, trying to talk to him. When Virgil didn't respond, he eventually left, stating that he would be back later.

His world was crashing down around him.

Could he believe that just yesterday, he'd smiled? He'd laughed? Now it was all background noise, mindless buzzing that felt totally inconsequential. There was only one thing that mattered now. Patton.

Therapy had been rough, and Virgil had expected it to be. What he hadn't expected was to go over every meaningful interaction he had with Patton. The doctor had said she was “doing some tests”, so Virgil struggled to keep himself together as he talked about the one person he missed most in the world.

Then, she'd had the audacity—she'd dared to—

Virgil took a deep breath, blood boiling as he remembered that it was she who encouraged these breathing exercises. What if he didn't want to calm down? He deserved to feel, remember, Patton needed him to—

Virgil's legs started quaking, but he paid it no mind. He could not be wrong, admitting he was wrong would be abandoning Patton, he couldn't do that, he wasn't dead, he wasn't gone, he'd always been there and always would.

His breathing quickened, coming in short, shallow breaths. His entire body was shaking, and Virgil nearly puked when he realized he could smell rubbing alcohol. He hadn't had a flashback all week, he'd been doing so well!

As if summoned, there were gentle fingers on his wrist. Calm, the fingers traced. It's okay. I'm here.

“Patton,” Virgil croaked. “I—I knew it, you're here, you're here, I knew it—”

V breathe slow. Safe.

Virgil got his breathing under control after a dozen rounds of exercises. His legs were still quivering, but he knew where he was. He was in his room, in Roman's house, and he was going to be okay, and Patton—

Virgil choked.

His own hand gripped his wrist. His own hand was tracing soothing words.

“She was right,” Virgil whispered. His mind frantically grasped at straws, trying to explain what had just happened, as Virgil felt an overwhelming amount of despair.

“Virgil, you talk a lot about Patton. In every instance you told me about, however, you never hear him. You can't see him. Based on your time alone at the beginning of your imprisonment, it seems unlikely that they would suddenly decide to move you into a room with another person.”

Virgil's body had been completely out of energy, lax and unable to move, but now he was stiff as a board, locked in place. It couldn't be. It couldn't.

“We haven't been able to find out what that book was, based on your description of it.”

No. No no no no no.

“And I've seen you trace words onto yourself, in times when you need comfort. An interesting coping habit, one that might appear when a person is locked in a room with no outside stimulation.”

Virgil sobbed, full on weeping as his body couldn't move. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.

And that was exactly the problem, wasn't it?

“Virgil, I think Patton may have been a hallucination that your brain fabricated in order to keep you comfort during the year that you were alone. I may be wrong, but everything you've told me about Patton points to it. Virgil, can you be absolutely certain that Patton was real?”

He'd said yes, he'd said that there was no other option. He'd stormed out of the office five minutes later. He'd refused to talk to Roman in the car. He'd gone straight to his room and curled up on top of his blankets.

Patton had to be real, didn't he? He couldn't have made up a person so complex, so loving, so wonderful. And, more realistically, he couldn't have created something so solid it had washed his clothes on days he felt too ill. Unless he'd imagined it. Anything was possible if it came from his head, wasn't it?

One part of him was screaming, begging him to not abandon his best friend. The other part of him was mourning the loss of Patton. Virgil wasn't sure what to do, torn this way. He had to be real. He was real—but was he? Where was the evidence?

The world was crumbling. Virgil choked on his tears, crying for Patton, crying for himself, crying for the loss he'd just suffered. Patton wasn't real, Patton had to be real, Patton couldn't be real.

Roman knocked on the door, asking cautiously if Virgil wanted to come down for dinner. Virgil pretended to not hear him, feigned sleep when Roman opened the door to look in. He buried his eyes in his pillow as he heard the door quietly shut, then Roman's footsteps retreating. He was alone, isolated, and the one person he'd truly loved had probably never even existed.

What was Virgil supposed to do?

-

“Dude, what does it say?”

A long silence. Virgil groaned. Apparently he'd gotten an email as well as a letter, but Roman had insisted on reading it to him. Screen-readers were 'too impersonal' now. It wasn't like he was going to get his information any other way.

“Virgil, I . . . I'm sorry.”

Virgil's heart dropped. Roman sounded lost for words, his voice cracking in the middle of the sentence. There was no way whatever the letter said was good news.

“You . . . you got in!”

In a shot of adrenaline, Virgil smacked him. Probably on the arm.

“Ow! That was my face, you heathen!”

Oops.

“Roman! Don't—why—” Virgil could barely speak. He'd gotten in? He was certain he wouldn't get in the first time, let alone twice . He got in!

“It's my job, as your adopted older brother!” Roman said, the false hurt completely gone from his tone. “I have to bully you a bit! You should've seen the look on your face, it was priceless!”

Virgil frowned, his heart still racing. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it a bit. “I'm . . . older than you?”

“Doesn't matter! I am, by proxy, older!”

Virgil snorted. “That makes no sense, dude.”

“Doesn't have to!” Roman proclaimed. Virgil could practically see him doing some dramatic arm thing. “I'm the older brother, and therefore, I don't have to make sense!”

Virgil tilted his head back in an approximation of rolling his eyes. According to Roman, it looked pretty creepy when he actually rolled his eyes, and it stung a little. Still, he would probably roll his eyes once he was around people who weren't Roman's parents.

He was really going back.

He sniffed, his nose burning. It had been so, so long. Had the campus changed? Would he be in a different dorm? Would he and Roman still share, since they were in different grades now?

He knew everything about their accessibility and whatever, about how they would accommodate disabled people. The school had actually reached out to him, informing him that he could finish his degree no problem, they had four or five visually impaired students already and could easily make it possible for him to continue his education. Virgil had been in contact with various foundations in order to work things out with his university, and he'd gotten a few scholarships—not to mention, the handful of scholarships he'd already had had gladly reinstated themselves. In fact, Virgil had pretty much already known that he'd be going back. There'd been very little room to doubt, as his therapist had told him several times.

This was real, though. Right there, in Roman's hands, was proof. He was allowed back, and would see teachers and classmates he hadn't seen in over a year. He was starting spring semester, which was still a few months away—Roman, despite his protests, had also put off starting his junior year until spring semester.

“Virge? Are . . . you okay?”

Virgil sniffed again, wiping his cheek to find a few tears there. “Yeah, I'm fine,” he said, with an attempt at a laugh. “I just . . . didn't think this would ever happen, y'know?”

Roman also laughed, albeit much more nervously. “With the way admissions was basically begging you to come back? Of course it happened!”

Neither of them acknowledged what Virgil really meant.

“So, packing?” Roman said, after several seconds of silence. “I know it's a while away, but is there anything specific you want to bring?”

With a pang, Virgil thought back to his hand-stitched hoodie. Hopefully it was bringing Patton as much comfort as it had always brought him. He'd had it for years, made it in Home Ec in high school. Until recently, he'd never been without it. It was bittersweet, in a way. Sure, it was gone, but it was with Patton. Like . . . like a piece of his heart would always be with Patton.

Virgil shook himself. That's stupid. And cheesy, he told himself. Grow up. Move on. He doesn't exist.

There was an ASL club on campus, one that Virgil planned on becoming a part of. Roman wanted to as well, making up something about having always wanted to learn sign, but Virgil knew it was just protectiveness. Virgil was pretty sure Roman had been about to rearrange his entire schedule so that they could have the same classes, despite the fact that Roman was a year ahead and in a different program of study. After a long evening of Virgil sitting in his room anxiously while Roman talked to his parents in the living room downstairs, Roman had come to the conclusion that it was best for him to continue with his intended major. Virgil was relieved—he was a grown adult, after all. He didn't really want someone trailing after him everywhere, insisting on helping him with every little thing.

Did he?

“Am I ready for this?” he wondered aloud. Roman gripped his shoulder tightly.

“I think so.” The words were soft, but no less powerful than Roman's usual loud tone. “You're so strong, Virgil. You're the strongest person I know.”

Virgil couldn't help but cringe. He knew someone much stronger. Whether that person was real or not was up for debate.

His most recent therapy sessions had involved a lot of tears, but Virgil had agreed to acknowledge that Patton might not exist. In turn, the doctor agreed to not make a formal assessment on Patton for the time being. It was still devastating, of course. It was still as if his entire world was falling apart. But Virgil was finding it easier to smile, more natural to joke with Roman.

He was healing.

Did he want to heal?

Yes, of course Virgil wanted to heal. He wanted to move on. He wanted to lead a normal life, without hurt and flashbacks and hallucinations.

But not without Patton.

There was a fork in the road approaching, Virgil was sure of it. He was going to have to choose between waiting for, hoping for Patton, and moving on. He wasn't sure what would happen when he reached that point.

But it scared him that he would have to make that decision alone.

~

Taglist (let me know if you want to be added/removed): @enragedbees @gotta-love-alejandra @bunny222 @basiic-emo @patt0n-sanders @rosiepupper @fangirlgeekandfreak @dn-fan21 @that2000skid @remy-the-lemon-berry @itsadastraperaspera @xionbean @sanderssides-angst @hell-yea-we-gay-tonight @maybedefinitely404 @broken-pencils @thewhimsicallibrarytech @doomllily @hereissananxiousmess @judyismydog  @arodynamic-enby @at-that-one-nerd @therapysides

[fatummortem]

REPOST DONT REBLOG

FULL NAME.   He doesn’t have one, he chose to throw it away the moment he was disowned the first time. NICKNAME.  Aki, Daken GENDER. Male HEIGHT. 5′9″ AGE.  73 years (physically looks about 23) SPOKEN LANGUAGES. English, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, Chinese, Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, Kana, ASL

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR.   Black EYE COLOR. Blue SKIN TONE.   Fair/Olive BODY TYPE.   Lean, Athletic, Muscular VOICE.   Daken’s a master manipulator so he can change the tone, sound & accent if he needss or wants to. His voice also softens when he’s speaking to his sister’s (& either slightly softens or is husky when around Alec or Rictor) DOMINANT HAND.   Ambidextrous POSTURE.   Refuses to hunch over, cause/relaxed/lazy in some instances. his posture can go from a predatory animal stalking his prey to a suave & smooth charmer. SCARS.  Daken only has scars when his healing factor isn’t working or is malfunctioning, once it’s in full working order they vanish. TATTOOS.  Daken has a tribal dragon tattoo that scales the length of his left arm, coils over half of his chest & back, & tucks beneath his waistband. (I don’t like the newer one, so I use the oriiginal) BIRTHMARKS.   None. MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S).  He has a tattoo, which upon first glance seems odd considering his healing factor, but the reason tattoos stay in the first place is that the ink is too big for his body's natural healing processes to remove. (Tattoo removal is using lasers to break up the ink into process-able size.) The much more peculiar fact about his tattoo is that it somehow manages to heal when his skin is destroyed.

      Two retractable bone claws on the hand; one retractable bone claw on the undersides of his wrists, unliike the other’s in his family his claws are black. Black nail polish (or that’s just his nail colour. i always wonder bcuz his claws are black. so my daken’s nails are always black)

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH.   Jasmine Falls, Japan HOMETOWN.   Unknown SIBLINGS.  Laura (half sister/clone of logan) & Gabby (half sister/clone of laura) Kinney, Kouen (half-brother),Bellona, X23_3PAR, Zelda, six unnamed clones (clones of laura/half-sisters, most of them are deceased), Erista, William Downing (aka Gunhawk), Saw Fist, Cannon Foot (half -brothers that are all dead), Shadowstalker, Fire Knives (dead half sisters), Amiko Kobayashi (foster sister), a brother from a different earth... (lesson: Logan needs to use condoms), there’s a new sister somewhere but i haven’t read it.

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION.   Crime Lord trying to stop, Self Discovery CURRENT RESIDENCE.   He drifts around all over the world but he’s been staying closer to his sisters of late CLOSE FRIENDS.  Y’know that’s a good question. Does siblings or peeps he’s dating in different universes count?? Johnny Storm would work i think... RELATIONSHIP STATUS. Single/Dating FINANCIAL STATUS.   Comfortably Rich & continuing to get comfier. That boy knows how to con people outta money and invest said money for himself DRIVER’S LICENSE.   A few different ones & passports. CRIMINAL RECORD. He used to get other’s to take the fall for his crimes, those that he wasn’t locked up at Xavier’s school or y’know Logan killing him. do those count? VICES. Wine, Fashion, Manipulation, Lack of Impulse Control, Drugs, High stakes games, Self-destructing & making people hate/love him

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION.   Bisexual or Polysexual, y’know I can’t really pick but he hates labels for himself so he’d probs just be however he wants to be PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE.   submissive | dominant | switch PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch   LIBIDO. High (from other’s perfection), Low (isn’t truly interested unless there’s a lot of natural chemistry, then it goes back to high) TURN ON’S. To most other’s views: anything. Truly: Pain, giving pain, a good banter, fighting certain people, Fashion. What always works: Powerful People or People w/ a lot of Power in their own right TURN OFF’S.  Judgmental People, Purifiers, Perfect people... There a long list I’ll have to sit down the about it more. But the biggest turn off is: Being Compared to Logan or referred to as Logan in any way shape of form, certain people from his past, being made less than he is LOVE LANGUAGE.   Being a Master Manipulator, he can switch between any various language of love literally or metaphorically. It’s normally easier for him when he’s playing a long game.  RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES.  I only really know that 100% for his relationships that weren’t entirely real or were actually long games, as i don’t write those I’m not gunna list ‘em.

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. Right now I’m feeling I feel like I’m Drawning by Two Feet. Mainly for his current inner struggle. Tho he probs wouldn’t show it. HOBBIES TO PASS TIME. Reading books, Learning languages, Fashion!, Getting fashion, convincing designers to make him fashion, not wearing a shirt(it’s a hobby shush), causing extra extra drama, Collecting Paintings- Modern & realistic, Collecting power: for himself or making friends with power LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. Left PHOBIAS.  Failure, being alone, Romulus  SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.  daken normally seems to have a high self confidence, though in certain areas of life, where he doesn’t have much experience in the matter, he as fairly little of it. Though he only lets it show around certain people VULNERABILITIES.   Heat, his sisters (laura & gabby), those he’s in a relationship, Logan & Romulus probably have him freak out in similar fashion. Tho he’s one to manipulate the situation than fall prey to it... unless it’s logan or romulus apparently, emotional state. 

tagged by : Stolen from: @scouscr

tagging : @dementedspeedster, @deborahmorgna, @earthtrembled, @wereallmuseshere, @theredwonder, @cardshcrp & anyone else who wants ta.

[kriatyrr]

The many ways in which Fallout 4 could have been better.

I’ve had so many ideas run across my mind that I have no hope of getting them all in writing, but some of the big ones..

During the opening, when your spouse goes into the cryopod in Vault 111, instead of merely waving to you, they could signal “I love you” in ASL. Your character mirrors the gesture and whispers “I love you too, hon.” Even if sign language never comes up in the game again. Just that little thing could mean so much to some players.

The intimidate perk could be used to resolve some situations peacefully. In Diamond city when that guy pulls a gun on his brother, thinking him a synth, you can pacify him if you have the perk - and nothing happens. The security goons don’t arrest him, they just stand around doing nothing and the encounter does not resolve until you put your gun away or walk away, where it resumes as scripted and security shoots him. 

Not to mention in the Railroad ending... Haylen surrendered to me, and then Tinker Tom comes along and fucking murders her anyway. How awesome would it be if you could talk her into joining you, in order to reduce collateral damage. While you’re planting bombs on the Prydwen, Haylen rounds up the squires (+Emmet) and take them down to the ground and away from the blast radius. Or you could even tell Desdemona that no, we’re not blowing up the Prydwen, there are children on that ship. Your plan sucks and I will not do it until you come up with a better one. At least in the Institute ending they had some time to evacuate - the last thing I saw before being forcibly relayed away was Elder Maxson in power armor, running away.

Everyone has already mentioned actually fixing Danse’s dialogue post-Blind Betrayal. A redemption arc would be nice too. He doesn’t strike me as the type of hypocrite who would accept himself being a synth while still hating every other synth in the game.

You learn Danse’s synth designation, but you can’t do a damn thing about it. You can’t ask the Railroad about what happened (granted, they’d have a lot of personnel changes since 97 originally escaped, but Deacon at least was probably still around back then, or they might have records. Or maybe those were destroyed at the Switchboard)

You can’t ask anyone in the Institute. Not even Liam. Obviously he’s too young to have been involved back then, but he’s pretty good with computers, surely he could dig up information about old synth escapes.

you never actually get to see the intel that Quinlan decrypted. All you get to know is he was on the list of “missing or escaped” which Arthur Maxson can’t tell apart from “infiltrator unit” and they announce his synth designation to the entire division as if there is no risk of actual institute infiltrators who can then contact their superiors to get the recall code. So I get at this point that bringing Danse back isn’t an option, but surely there is no danger in Danse existing after the institute is destroyed. When Maxson tells you that we will never speak of this again, I wanted to tell him that I’ll obey that order until the institute is destroyed, but after the dust settles, we need to talk.

Or how about some delightfully awkward situations where BoS members see you with Danse and you run away instead of killing them. Have Maxson exposed as a liar. Undermine his authority. (They sure gave us a lot of fanfic fuel...)

How about being able to assign settlers to corpse disposal or general clean-up and slowly over time get rid of those trash piles that are everywhere and those infernal skeletons that you can’t even drag around. But no, we had to get a mod for that.

How about after getting rid of the raiders at Nuka World, they actually start wearing normal clothing and take off the damn shock collars and get someone to work in the radio station - it’s still on air, Red Eye just left the studio without turning anything off. I bet they meant for that guy in Cappy’s Cafe to take over and then just never finished it.

Also wouldn’t it be cool if you ran into Red Eye in a random encounter that could go many ways depending on what you say to him. I wanted to say I loved his station and it was the only thing I missed from before I killed everybody. Offer him a ton of caps to come back and work for me again.

If you let the raiders take over Commonwealth settlements before turning on them, they’ll randomly show up and try to kill you - again and again, long after you exterminated them at Nuka World. How do they keep getting new recruits when all their leaders are dead? How does the Brotherhood keep getting new vertibirds when they crash all the time? There are always more raiders. Where was this massive population when I was just thawing out? Encounters should get less frequent to reflect the dwindling population.

There is no sense of scarcity beyond the first few levels. Things respawn at a ridiculous rate. Just the other day I was picking up some scavenge, wandered into a different area, backtracked and went through the same area later the same day and everything had respawned. This is so upsetting to me. I want my efforts to mean something. I am cleaning up the commonwealth, one discarded beer bottle at a time, but all the clutter just keeps coming back! I hate it. I have yet to play a character who is a cannibal because I really can’t imagine needing to do that when the world is just full of food. I plant some crops and tell a settler to tend to them, and when I return a day or two later it’s ready for harvest.

Speaking of harvest, there are no seasons. The daylight hours don’t get longer in summer or shorter in winter, there is no sense of the passage of time, the date is just a string of numbers in your pip-boy with no meaning whatsoever, you get a quest and everything just waits on you, for months or years, Father doesn’t start to question your dedication to the Institute when you STILL haven’t relayed to Mass Fusion six months later, nor will he be a good boy and just die already from his rapidly progressing terminal illness, no he’s going to force you to kill nearly all of your friends before he’ll let you actually take over. Not that you get to do ANYTHING at all as Director. All you get is the institute power armor paint job and the ability to buy synth relay grenades. You don’t get to say “Oh by the way I’m abolishing slavery, have fun doing your own menial work from now on” (I keep thinking I’d be able to do more good for the synths as the leader for the institute than I ever could with the railroad) and why can’t I tell Desdemona to go deeper underground and I can just tell Father they had already left when he sent me there to kill them. Why can’t I tell Elder Maxson to go back to the Capital Wasteland because literally no one in the commonwealth wants him there. We have the Minutemen to defend the settlements and the Railroad to fight the institute and all he’s doing is making things worse.

And let MacCready stop being such a deadbeat dad and bring his son to live with us in the Commonwealth.

I loved the Far Harbor DLC, but it was so disappointing that none of the companions other than Nick had any new voice lines. 

Why can’t I bring my romanced companion to the Memory Den for a date in a simulation of the pre-war era? Danse would love that, I’m sure..

why can’t I pet cats? Why didn’t Bethesda spend a quarter of the effort they did on dog animations on making cats look more realistic. They should be napping on beds and chairs, rubbing up against settlers’ legs and tripping them and interacting with their environment too. Have you seen the animation that passes for a cat’s yawn? The first time I saw it, I thought Ashes was about to throw up a giant hair ball.

If you are caught pickpocketing, that’s it, game over. Diamond City Security doesn’t try to arrest you, it’s shoot to kill. Same in the institute. I’m sorry to say it, but that was something Skyrim did better. 

why can’t you romance non-companions like in Skyrim? I want to marry Arturo Rodriguez and be Nina’s step parent.

Synth relay grenades should not work after blowing up the Institute.

The AI should not fall off things quite so often. I should not go through an entire Research Patrol assignment for the Brotherhood only to have the Scribe I’m escorting fall to their death when I take the vertibird up to the Prydwen.

When an enemy panics and decides to run away, they should keep running and not turn around and go right back to trying to kill me seven seconds later.

my companion should not be quite so bloodthirsty. They should not attack a fleeing enemy, particularly a civilian like the institute scientists.

Every companion shouldn’t have all the same animations. Preston should not inhale Jet if you linger around on the top floor of Drug Den. Curie should not smoke.

The companions should have preferences as to what food they prefer to eat, which chems they take or under which circumstances. I gave Danse a whole bunch of different stuff to see what he’d use, and the first time I got in a fight he had taken med-x and berry mentats (fun fact: your companion takes berry mentats and you see the pink haze). You’d think Yao Guai ribs were his favorite things to eat, but no, it’s just that the AI will favor taking anything with damage reduction. Other companions do the same. Synths will not favor Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. Little things like that would have made the game so much more fun to me.

Damn it there should have been a terminal with journal entries in Danse’s quarters on the Prydwen. Or he should have continued to update his terminal at the Cambridge Police Station. Maybe wash his face once in a while after the Prydwen arrives.

You should be able to give people caps. I hate how caps only flow one way in the game. You can take your settlers’ measly pocket change, but you can’t pay them for working for you. You buy property in Diamond City but you never pay taxes or utilities. (that might help with the sense of passage of time).

You build a peaceful utopia at your settlements, but your settlers never form relationships or start having kids now that it’s finally safe to do so. The world could feel a lot more real. (I mean I love how absurd it is, but absurdity and realism can coexist, I promise)

“Crop’s been growing pretty good lately” - there’s never any crop failure, or natural disasters making food a scarcity. Rad storms don’t affect anyone but you, and people will not seek shelter.

Nick and Ada remind you that they don’t need to eat or sleep or anything, but neither does any other companion. I mean I guess they’re adults who can take care of their own basic needs, but they don’t have any money of their own unless you specifically tell them to pick up caps you find.

You never find out where Danse got that lovely suit of X-01 power armor from.

Hate me for this long post yet? I’m not even done but this’ll do for now. Uh, how do I do a Read More thing again?

[briangroth27]

A Quiet Place Review

A Quiet Place is an excellent movie! It's confident about what it wants to be and very effectively achieves that terrifying goal while still crafting characters who are easy to care about. It also makes great use of the fact that the characters are almost never able to speak vocally to each other or make any sound at all, lest alien monsters hunt them down. 

Slight hints at spoilers...

Every one of the actors was great at expressing emotion despite limited spoken speech and I think Emily Blunt got to show off the most range. Blunt was fantastic at conveying love, concern, terror, and agony, but still found small moments to inject levity and even a bit of romance into the proceedings. I do wish she had more to do as Evelyn Abbott, but there's no question that going into labor without being able to make a sound (and later keeping a newborn baby quiet) is an incredibly effective way of ratcheting up the tension. Plus, she never came off as incapable of defending herself or her kids and the movie does show she can be tough; her final moment is a great one.

John Krasinski (also the director, executive producer, and co-writer) gave a great performance as Lee Abbott, a father desperate to protect his family and discover the invaders' weakness...if they have one. Krasinski nailed the worn-down father still clinging to hope while struggling to show his kids he loved them and that they should keep their hope alive too; definitely not a role I’ve seen from him before. I liked that even though the end of the world had clearly taken a toll on him, he hadn’t become a hard man despite huge losses and still took the time to have positive moments with his wife and kids (even if one of his children didn’t see it that way). His arc did feel a little predictable (not that the only way for a movie to be good is complete unpredictability), but I absolutely felt the emotional intensity of his relationship with his family (especially his daughter Regan, played by Millicent Simmonds) despite the growing sense that I knew where things were going.

The kids—Simmonds, Noah Jupe (Marcus), and Cade Woodward (Beau)—were very good too. Simmonds gets the deepest emotional range to work with and totally knocks it out of the park! Though Regan could’ve easily come off as a defiant teen whose rebellious nature puts her in unnecessary danger, her reasons are completely understandable and Simmonds’ acting made her sympathetic. Her bravery and reasoning skills in the face of horror were also great to see. Marcus’ near-constant terror and stress felt appropriate to the situation and Jupe never felt like he was over the top or one-note. Marcus also gets a bit where he can play a board game and an excellent moment of release when Lee shows him a place where it’s safe to scream; rare moments where this family’s lives aren’t horrible and a kid can still be a kid. Woodward was also solid as a child who—much more than his siblings—just wanted to be a kid in this horrible situation. Their dramas felt like realistic kid struggles and the question of whether their father still loved them after an incident felt like real doubts teens might have; a nice connection to reality in these outlandish circumstances. Even though the kids do make some foolish mistakes, they were honest accidents or character-driven moments rather than beats where they were written as “dumb” just for the sake of creating danger.

Krasinski created an excellent, foreboding sense of terror throughout the whole movie. He also achieved a brisk pace that moved quickly without feeling rushed at all. Everything the movie sets up is paid off well—even if it’s not exactly how you think it will happen—and there’s just enough exposition to give us an idea of the backstory without feeling unnatural or unnecessary. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this world, but the movie also feels totally complete and satisfying as is. Including a deaf character was very cool and I liked the use of sign language throughout the whole film. I thought Lee and Evelyn still whispering a bit as they signed was exactly what I'd do had I learned it to communicate with my child, lending it another layer of relatability. It was great that Krasinski insisted on casting a deaf actress as Regan so that she could bring authenticity to the role and help with nuances in the cast’s use of ASL, as well as how each character would sign with their own variations on the language; a brilliant addition that added a lot of character to their interactions. Beyond all that, representation is simply important: everyone should all get to see themselves in stories. The sound mixing was really well done, switching between full volume with spoken speech on the rare occasions when it was safe, the hushed panic of trying to evade creatures while making the least amount of sound possible, and total silence when we experienced the world from Regan’s perspective. I thought the score weaved into the fabric of the film without feeling obtrusive or undercutting the idea that there wasn't much sound happening. 

I loved that even though there were relatively few monsters, they could be anywhere and were extremely quick to show up at the slightest sound. I also appreciated all the thought that went into making the Abbott home as sound-free as possible, from paint marking squeaky floor boards to sand used to dull the crunch of leaves and even cloth game pieces. That gave credence to the "you can never make a sound!" idea. The film also employs a wide variety of things doing just that to imperil our heroes, making the jump scares very effective at fueling the growing dread of the overall film. I was shocked one apparent jump scare from the advertising actually resulted in a death that stuck; I sat there stunned for a good while after that! They took a risk showing what was essentially an enlarged ear within the monster heads, but it worked and the whole design of the creature was very cool and scary. I liked the movable plates of "armor" they had, and Krasinksi was very smart to mostly imply the kills rather than dig into the gore; it's much better and creepier this way.

A Quiet Place is one of my favorite movies of the year so far and definitely worth seeing! If you're looking for a confident and creepy horror thrill ride, this one’s for you!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!