#max caulfield ╱ human time machine.

[4upz]

tags.

[dr-lizortecho]

hello!!!! can i ask about otherworldly heat and leave me in a place you found me safe and soundly for the WIP game? 😊💕

Otherworldly Heat

Smut, like just Liz giving Max a blowjob and him returning the favor, and them fucking. Like I wish I had more to offer besides it’s gonna focus on how Max’s temperature is feverish to a human and Liz’s is cool to an alien. And it’s one part of my three transmasc Max fics in the workings (which I’m excited about)

Leave Me In the Place You Found Me Safe and Soundly

Based on a fever dream I had during season three, this fic follows Eduardo growing up and wanting out of the small backwater desert town he grew up in. During one of his mind clearing rock collecting hikes he discovers a cavern with something -or rather someone inside of it.

Which leads to a slowly built live affair tangled into the Valenti family history. In which Eduardo has to decide where the truth lies, n the shoulders of an overbearing father or the cursed hands of another world’s savior. Leading to his shirking of the Valentines name and mange to join and re aim the focus of Project Shepherd’s biggest competitor (and sometimes ally) into a well oiled machine with the purpose of understanding the tech from other worlds. In hopes to save his lover before time runs out.

Aka what if Deep Sky became what it was under Eduardo to free Jones, the man who found him desperately trying to make a name for himself and get away from his emotionally manipulative and abusive father and weaves him a beauty web of lies and truth. Basically I took the quite where Eduardo tells Alex they joined for the same reason (that being joining to protect their alien lover from their fathers Caulfield connections) and ran into some weird alternate universe with it

[burntotears]

Title: Project Týr W/C: 17,225 Summary: Alex and Isobel commence work on a secret project that their partners are yet to be made privy to. But once everyone is in the know and a mission is underway, a new discovery about the past will send everyone reeling and put their lives on an unexpected trajectory. A/N: Part 5 of Marriage Ain’t Easy TW: mentions of rape

Alex’s disposition after the Álvarez heist started to alarm Michael. He had always been cautious when it came to any part of the alien lifestyle, but once they got back to Roswell, the behavior escalated. He and Michael were still connected by the bond and Michael could feel the utter paranoia he was exhibiting those first few days before it faded. The first thing Alex did was buy more security equipment than Michael had ever seen accumulated in one place before. He set up elaborate systems at their house, then at Kyle’s and Max’s (where Isobel was staying) places too. Even though they all had access to their respective systems, Alex wanted to monitor everyone’s and no one had the heart to tell him no because of how manic he was.

Once the systems were in place and he set up everyone’s phones with chips to keep them secured regardless of what they might be texting or calling about, his husband slowly started to ease back into a calmer demeanor. Michael stopped worrying so much about it then because with everything that had happened during the heist, he did not fault the man for feeling unsafe.

So Michael threw himself into studying the Truman tech they recovered–probably a little too obsessively. No one really commented on that aside to ask him how things were progressing, which he assumed was a polite way of giving him time to process everything. One of the few things he’d been able to uncover about it was that it was, in fact, created by his mother. He had no idea when, but their theories were after the Lockhart machine was built. Michael was of the impression that she might not have built any of it willingly, either. Lockhart had known that Nora and Patricia were working on the original machine together, so it was highly likely that the humans at Caulfield tried to make her build other things during her earlier imprisonment there.

“But why?” Kyle asked, looking at the pieces spread out on the Guerin’s coffee table.

“Advancement of human technology,” Michael said, taking a sip from his beer. He glanced at Alex over on the sofa who was engrossed in something on his computer and was hardly engaged in the conversation. That was par for the course these past few weeks, though Michael wasn’t completely sure why. Kyle was there and was always annoyingly involved even though he worked at Deep Sky where the mole was too. So was it just that Kyle was an idiot and didn’t recognize the danger or was Alex just too hyper-fixated like he tended to get?

[ Read on AO3 ]

[saadiestuff]

thoughts on 3x08

Some thoughts I had while transcripting 3x08.

Observations:

You know I love parallels -- the pool cue fight between Isobel and Jones has soooo many similarities to the sword fight between Louise and Jones. Please someone gif this!!! Or if you did, @ me!!!

Jones pouring Maria coffee -- In 3x06 when Rosa was hearing everything, multiple times we saw Maria at what looked like the Crashdown with coffee being poured in front of her. That was footage from 3x08 of Jones pouring Maria coffee!!!!!! 

They’ve run into the common villain-with-powers problem where it doesn’t really make sense how people keep getting away from Jones/it is unclear what is the extent of his powers. This happens on pretty much every show where a villain has powers though so I’m not holding it against them. It is kinda funny how Jones keeps being defeated by human things like trucks, shotguns, and coffee pots.

Alex’s shirt has horseshoes on it!! Horseshoes were important this ep. They kept Maria warm AND gave Liz a key idea.

Questions I have which await further info:

The hand bandana… MIA on purpose or just wardrobe malfunction? Did it yeet itself somewhere?

Where is Tripp in all this? The box and journal he left for Patty were for her to read when he died. But if Patty already knew about aliens and all that, why was he waiting? Maybe Tripp was kept in the dark about Patty’s involvement at Nora’s request so he would be safe, and be a backup plan to put someone in place to help the pod squad when they hatched if Patty couldn’t. Did Patty and Louise ever meet??

How will the Alighting tie into all this? Is that the name of a special triad of aliens? Also TRIADS are a thing now officially and I am VERY interested. What about how Louise finally died when the pod squad hatched, saying "He has arrived so I may leave." Who?? Did she mean Max or no??

Both Alex and Ramos have talked about making all the suffering worth it. How? I don’t understand what they are talking about. What about the Lockhart Machine would make 70 years of torture of innocent aliens worth it? Are they thinking they can save a whole planet of aliens on Oasis like Nora was kinda saying if they can use it to communicate the science they need? We don’t even know if it is still a war there.

Why was Patricia going to pay the guard with silver crosses? Vampire problem? We’ve got the bats… Also silver is important for pod things. Hmm. Did the guard just want silver so he could sell it? Why did Patty have access to silver in the form of crosses specifically? Does this tie into Dallas somehow? Idk, just spitballing.

Kyle is mentioned twice: 1. Liz (while talking to an unconscious Maria) says she’s been listening to Kyle. And 2. Michael says to Alex, “I know I was right about Kyle and the dead bats, but you said it was all nothing.” This makes it even more unclear about what the gang knows about Kyle??? Alex must have told them something, right? Because if they all believed Kyle was still fully MISSING there is no way they are taking time to celebrate at the Pony. No way. So they have to know he is found… but then how did Alex explain that without telling them about DS and that he was drugged?? Liz would want to be working on that. We saw Alex told Michael about DS but that’s it. I’m fine with characters being told things off screen, but in this case it does not make sense either way! (Maybe this should go into the next category… cuz I am bothered. It is possible this will be addressed next ep though.)

Things that bothered me: 

There is no way they didn’t tell Rosa about Caulfield all this time. There are so many things she would have been told about that needed some background on Caulfield. And it would have been easy to fix that scene to still give the explanation for viewers without making Rosa not have been told about it. I’m going to headcanon that Rosa was told about Caulfield but she forgot the name in what surely was an information overload, and then just patiently waited through Isobel’s one sentence explanation that it was an alien prison run by Manes. (I can buy that Rosa wasn’t told the detail that experiments on humans took place there and that part was new info for her.)

What is happening with Alex and the Iraq/Afghanistan thing. If that was the story about losing his leg (which I think it is) and therefore needed to be set in Iraq, then why the Taliban?? And it was a bit of a yikes choice of story to write to motivate Alex. No doubt it would motivate Alex if he was a real person, but it is not real so it did not have to be written that way. (Note: Afghanistan was first mentioned in 3x02. Prior to that we’d only ever heard Iraq. In 3x02 Alex had both on his salad bar.)

[roswelldetails]

Episode 201: Stay (I Missed You) - Details

Episode Summary:

Torn between the heartache of Max’s (Nathan Parsons) sacrifice and the joy of Rosa’s (Amber Midthunder) resurrection, Liz (Jeanine Mason) suppresses her grief to focus on moving out of Roswell with Rosa. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael Vlamis) copes with Max’s death in his own self-destructive way, while Isobel (Lily Cowles) focuses her attention on honing her alien powers. Finally, Liz makes an alarming discovery after Rosa begins experiencing mysterious side effects from her resurrection. Michael Trevino, Heather Hemmens, Tyler Blackburn and Trevor St. John also star. Lance Anderson directed the episode written by Carina Adly MacKenzie.

DETAILS:

They left Noah's body by the cliff near the turquoise mines

Max tells Liz specifically that Noah called him a savior, and that the victors would be coming for him, and specifically the term alighting.

2 weeks later...

A guy is seen trying to scrub graffiti off the wall. The graffiti is an alien saying to a ghost "I don't believe in humans." Rosa's?

Arturo is working on his citizenship paperwork.

"...the occasional face mask selfie..." Once again, like in the pilot with the reference to the border wall, Carina writes a line that she had no idea would be quite so relevant on the day that this aired. Maria is referring to lab face masks, not medical face masks, but given the current state of things it's still quite the on point line, politically.

The card Arturo gives Liz is San Cristobal (Saint Christopher). Info on San Cristobal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Christopher?wprov=sfla1

What Arturo says to Liz in Spanish: "Para que te cuide en el camino." Translates to: To take care of you on the way.

The church where the funeral is held is the same church Liz prayed at in episode 102... Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. It actually is a pretty interesting place, which you can tour if you visit Santa Fe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel?wprov=sfla1

The photo Isobel looks at is a shot of Max, Isobel, and Noah at what appears to be their wedding.

Isobel is the one hiding Max's death. Liz and Michael are helping, but Isobel wanted him put in the pod. "...we'll make up a story, okay? We'll send text messages from his phone. We'll say that he left town."

Sheriff Valenti tells Isobel that she's "Roswell PD family", but in season 1 they were very consistent about using Chavez County Sheriff's Department, not Roswell PD.

Another reference to the graffiti... Again, Rosa?

Liz had to prompt Isobel to tell at her at the wake, meaning this is them implementing Isobel's "story" on why Max left.

Liz told Rosa "everything except that the whole town thinks she's a murderer."

Rosa's first nightmare... She walks into the Crashdown, plays STP, reveals the handprint, the jukebox sparks and distorts, hears Isobel's voice, and Noah appears.

"They're not going to come after you. They're going to go after the people you care about." - Noah said this to Max in 107 in reference to Wyatt Long's lawyers.

Rosa's necklace that she and Liz argue over is the turquoise bead necklace that Liz wears throughout S1, including in the pilot, So Much For the Afterglow,

Mimi Deluca...

Quoted from Aliens (1986) "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit."

On Rosa's death a decade ago: "Not always. Sometimes it happened just yesterday. Sometimes it's been a century."

Rosa started on oxy. But according to Kyle's scans her "frontostriatal loop is fine." And she produces "normal noradrenaline". Basically, Max healed all damage to her body including damage from her drug addiction.

Alex is listening to Next Time by All the Brightness on his headphones. Thanks @michaeldeluca for figuring it out!

Alex says that most of the Caulfield files are encrypted so there's not much to go on, but he was able to break Project Shepherd's encryptions in the bunker in S1, which again implies that maybe Caulfield is a bit bigger than Project Shepherd.

Michael's mother was marked N37. Her intake form was datestamped Oct 12, 1948, which is almost a year and a half after the crash (June 14, 1947).

Liz and Michael both didn't get handprints from Max, only Rosa. Liz's initial handprint from Max (in the pilot) lasted only a few days. Rosa's hasn't faded at all in 2 weeks.

Isobel's been practicing for 2 weeks and she showed signs of both Michael and Max's powers in this episode (possibly? exploding the lights in her house and blowing up the bowls could both be Michael's power if it was just telekenisis in both cases and not channeling electricity a'la Max)

Mamma Ortecho is "shacked up in Nebraska with some white guy named Dirk."

Michael says that he fixed the old (junked) ultrasound machine after Max died. That they did scans initily while Isobel was in the pod and they were working on the antidote. He had a scan of Max's healthy heart. Now "there's a void".

Michael says Max's heart was damaged before he "lassoed lightning" to kill Noah. He died of a heart attack. His heart is "shredded".

Rosa's 2nd dream: running from Noah and calling Liz to help her.

Noah says: "Strange creatures with familiar features. The alighting! They're coming for us Maximo!" All things he said to Max in the cave in episode 113.

Liz theorizes Rosa's dreams are the result of a psychic connection through the handprint to Max, that Rosa is seeing fragments of Max's memories.

Which means that Max's brain isn't fully dead. Liz explains to Rosa:. "if there's a part of his brain with coordinated electrical signaling, if there's consciousness, that means that there's oxygenated cells...if the connection to you kept his brain alive there's hope."

Cremating an alien body releases toxic fumes (according to Project Shepherd research from after the 1947 crash).

Flint was taking Noah's body to Area 51...where he has clearance and Alex doesn't.

Flint says: "There's a chain of command in this family."

Flint Manes was in the same grade as Rosa (meaning he's two years older than Alex).

During the dissection:

Liz: "It could be some kind of organic phosphorus?

Michael: "It's an unknown chemical compound. A distant derivative of phenyl-2-propanone. I could never figure out the 21st compound. But apparently it's the key to their nanotech and their biology. Our biology. I always thought it was synthetic but if it's organic the tech itself could have neural activity."

Liz: "Wait, you're saying you think these organs are part tech?"

Michael: "In human terms, I guess."

Liz: "That's good 'cause in the human world, broken tech can be fixed."

Translation: The alien organs (and the ship pieces) are part organic and part tech.

Rosa's 3rd nightmare...she is in the gazebo looking at her and Izzy/Noah's drawings from 2008 (episode 110), Noah approaches and she fights back this time. And then Noah uses his powers to choke her.

"All those books and you haven't figured religion out." When he approaches.

"Ophiuchus!" Yelled as he chokes her.

Max appears and lightning-lassoes Noah to free Rosa.

"I've been trying to get to you. I'm sorry to put you through this. You're the only one I can reach. Liz can't bring me back to life. Do you understand? No matter what it takes you have to stop her."

MUSIC:

1. Everclear "Santa Monica"

2. Stone Temple Pilots "Plush"

3. Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real "Bad Case"

4. Justin Townes Earle "Maybe A Moment"

5. Meredith Brooks "Bitch"

6. I See Hawks In LA "King Of Rosemead Boogie"

7. Hamish Anderson "You Give Me Something"

8. The Cranberries "Zombie"

[meditatemoremedicateless]

Who is Mark Jefferson, Really?

I know it’s approximately 4 years too late for this, but I want to take a look at what kind of villain Mark Jefferson really was. He certainly wasn’t the villain I and many others were expecting him to be, connected to larger plots, a psychopathic cog in a larger machine. And I was upset at how boring his motivations came off in Life is Strange “Episode 5: Polarized”. Now that I’ve had a little more time to think, however, I think Mark Jefferson may not be as boring as I thought he was.

Unlike in a lot of my little papers like this, I’m not going to bring up all of my references, I’m just going to go for the key details.

- His art is largely black and white depictions of women in vulnerable positions and/or postures set against simple backgrounds. When men are present, they’re in positions of authority and intimidating, but faceless (I can only recall the cop).

- Mark only targets girls, and among girls, only young ones with a special quality. Kate Marsh, Max Caulfield, and Rachel Amber all have this quality, while Victoria Chase does not.

- Mark likes to photograph his victims who are at the edge of consciousness, so he can watch their innocence die. He avoids letting them ever become fully conscious, because he doesn’t aim to kill them, only ruin them.

So I’m going to make some assumptions about his development here.

- While he may have started with fashion photography, he eventually got the creative freedom to choose his subjects and shots. He preferred women at the edge of adulthood that were naive and easy to bully.

- The artwork he created was viewed as feminist in the 90s, showing women as being unduly victimized. He created this work more out of the thrill of seeing women as victims, but the confusion only made his work easier and granted him more artistic license.

- When he started working for Vogue, he hit celebrity status. He kept his main body of artwork clean, but this is likely when he started doing private shoots with models who were interested in him because of his talent or his connections.

- Unable to get the ‘honesty’ he wanted out of his models in private shoots, he started involving alcohol (and maybe other drugs) into the work process in order to make his subjects more compliant and easy to coerce. Eventually, he got to a point where he was photographing women who were physically incapable of resisting, and he was able to manipulate them and their bodies however he wished. When they sobered up, he continued to treat them professionally, and they slinked away into the shadows, not quite understanding what happened but now afraid.

- As his private collection of work grew, he grew bored as the only one to enjoy it. Being a celebrity had taught him to expect praise and feedback, and without it the work felt empty. So he created a website to host his images, and slowly, slowly started recruiting like-minded individuals, aficionados, to view and critique his work.

- As he finally started getting feedback, he realized the limits of his artistic capabilities - the models themselves had to be exceptional to push the boundaries of his art. And so he became obsessed with an increasingly specific type of girl. An innocent girl. Not sexually innocent per se, but one who perceives the world as ultimately a good place. Not someone cold-hearted and cynical (like Victoria Chase), whose world view could only be confirmed through their victimization. He needed someone who would break so he could capture the moment that she did.

Now, the thing that I find interesting about Mark Jefferson, is that he is a man who, on the surface, must seem sophisticated, artistic, perhaps even feminist, and he’s learned to sell himself as just that. But when you strip it all away, he’s a guy with a perverse love of watching women’s victimization. As DONTNOD has stated in interviews, he ‘isn’t a rapist,’ and I think it’s worth taking into account what they mean. He doesn’t fuck his victims. But given the portrayal of his actions, I still think his actions are sexual, just abstracted so far from fucking that it can’t quite be defined as sex.

Now, a cynical part of myself says that DONTNOD’s treatment of its female characters echoes Mark Jefferson in a lot of ways. On the surface, complex and perhaps even feminist, but under the skin it’s still just voyeurism for women’s suffering. I don’t really believe that this is a company filled with a perverse fascination, but I do find some irony in Jefferson being the villain of Life is Strange, and a gaze much like his informing the game.

Now, one of the reasons I feel pretty confident that the game tries to refute Jefferson’s ideas, is that the endings, despite initial appearances, don’t suggest that growing up is a result of suffering. I think that the writing of the endings is a bit clumsy with its themes, and it’s easy to interpret them as saying so, but I genuinely believe Life is Strange attempts to refute the belief that suffering is a pathway to adulthood (and I think Max’s name being Caulfield is a pretty clear indicator that that’s the case).

So, I guess in summary, what I’m trying to say is that (TL;DR):

Mark Jefferson may be just a huge creep who thinks teenage girls suffering constitutes art, but I’m pretty sure he’s intended to represent the cruel ideology that suffering and losing ones innocence and naivety means you’re an adult. Regardless of the ending chosen, Max Caulfield has to figure out what growing up means, but it always involves refuting this idea. The world may be cruel, but cynicism isn’t maturity. Hope. Love. Trust. Grief. Overcoming self doubt. Recognizing others’ humanity. These are Max Caulfield’s markers of adulthood.

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

10,000 Follower Special: The League’s Path to Victory! The Time Plan?

In this thrilling installment of the League of Villains tale, Ganondorf and his team of dastardly devils make their big move, playing their cards big! Ganondorf’s ultimate plan is revealed, and the Super Smash Bros must race to both stop it, and save their friends!

Bioshock Universe: The Floating City of Columbia

For Booker DeWitt, life had taken a nosedive down the rabbit hole and just kept going and going all the way to looney-ville. As if a fascist/fundamentalist floating city in the sky wasn’t enough, a teenage girl with time-hopping powers whom he had begrudgingly come to care for topped tings off. Add in weird magical powers from drinking magical coca-cola and apparently machine-men and... yeah he was pretty sure that life would never make sense again.

How he had ended up on this quest to save the world from a psychotic religious zealot he’d never know. But by whatever God there might be he was going to kill him as painfully as possible.

And now, here they were. At the precipice of destiny, ready to end the son of a whore once and for all.

“Stand back.” Booker growled to Elizabeth, mentally deciding if he should split Comstock’s skull with his knew zipline claw, or just blast his head off.

He was leaning towards the skull splitting.

Elizabeth shot him a look. “Booker, no.” she said firmly. “This is between me and him.”

Booker shook his head. “You are WALKING into a TRAP.” growled the former soldier.

“I NEED to do this.” she said, the stubborn jut in her jaw announcing an end to the argument. The look was strangely familiar to Booker, but he mentally chalked it up to the girl being more stubborn than any human had any right to be.

The door swung open, Comstock awaited, in all his self-righteous glory.

The room was beautiful, illuminated by a stained-glass window with a small basin in the center, presumably for baptism.

Comstock smiled, looking for all the world like a loving grandfather. “Come here child.” he spoke with a smile as they approached. “Well come on! I don’t bite.” he said with a laugh.

‘He’s jolly for a man who’s been consistently getting his army killed. Is he just that arrogant?’ thought Booker to himself, not releasing his grip on his gun.

“My, oh, my how you’ve grown.” said Comstock gently as Elizabeth approached.

“...Tell me.” said Elizabeth. “What- what am I?” she asked.

Comstock extended a hand and Elizabeth allowed him to take it. “Look at you child, you’re a mess.” he said, removing the sponge from the full basin.

Feeling a surge of protectiveness and anger Booker ground out “Hey! Let go of her.”

Comstock ignored him. “Elizabeth, everything I’ve done is to keep you safe.” he said as he washed her hand.

“Safe from what?!” snapped Elizabeth.

Comstock sighed. “”The Seed of the Prophet shall sit upon the Throne and drown in flame, the Mountains of Man.”” quoted the self-ordained prophet. The his eyes turned grim. “But the Archangel revealed something else: “Beware, Prophet. Beware the False Shepard, Booker DeWitt, for he shall be as a Wall between her and Destiny.” 

“Why?” asked Elizabeth, practically begging for an answer. But Comstock no longer had eyes for her, he was glaring at Booker and Booker was matching it.

“Booker, I’ve been a fool.” he declared. “I’ve sent mighty armies to stop you! I’ve rained FIRE FROM ABOVE!” he cried, slowly walking around the basin. “I did all of that, to keep you from her, when all I had to do was tell her the truth!” snarled Comstock.

“That is the thing about lies, isn’t it.” drawled a smooth voice from behind them. “They have a short self-life. They go bad, and quickly.”

Booker spun around and his already weird day took another dive down the rabbit-hole.

The silver haired man in all black was the strangest man Booker had ever beheld. And not just his outlandish clothes and ridiculously long hair. He also held a weapon, a Japanese-style sword as long as a man was tall.

Booker leveled his shotgun at the man. “Who are you?” he growled out. “And how did you-” he began, but was shoved aside by Comstock who fell to his knees before the man.

“The Archangel!” he cried. “The Angel who came to me! The Archangel: Sephiroth!” cried Comstock, tears in his eyes. “You’ve returned.”

Booker felt like his hear had dropped into his stomach. There was no way. An Archangel? Really? It was impossible!

But... with all that had happened...

“You?!” cried Elizabeth incredulously. “You’re an Archangel?”

The now named Sephiroth chuckled. “I’m an Angel... after a fashion.” he said, before turning his attention back to Comstock. “You’ve done your duty well Prophet. The time has come. You shall be rewarded.”

Booker began to unconsciously backing up to stand with Elizabeth, putting the basin between himself and the ‘Archangel’.

“Yes, mighty one.” said Comstock. “I’ve... I’ve worked so long. I’m ready.” he said.

“Yes.” said Sephiroth, placing his palm upon Comstock’s forehead. “Your reward.”

“A quick death.”

There was a blinding flash of light, a blaze of unholy heat, and Booker instinctively grabbed Elizabeth and tackled her down, using the basin as a shield between them and the explosion.

Slowly, after the heat had dissipated, Booker and Elizabeth stood, looking towards Comstock and the Angel. Elizabeth screamed and buried her face into Booker’s chest. Booker could only stare dumbly.

Where Zachary Comstock had been, was a charred and black skeleton, bits of flesh still clinging to it, ablaze. The ground beneath it was blasted to high, holy hell, leaving Sephiroth staring dispassionately.

“Well, that’s done.” drawled the Archangel, for what else could he be but an angel, “Now,” he said, pointing his massive weapon at Booker. “Give me the girl, and this will go smoothly.”

Booker didn’t think. He didn’t wait. He grabbed his shotgun and blasted at the Angel, or Demon, or whatever it was.

Sephiroth deflected the bullet with the flat of his blade. Sighing, Sephiroth spoke. “Very well. We’ll do this his way.” And with that, Sephiroth snapped his fingers.

The stained glass window behind them exploded, and a monster entered the room.

It was huge. A twisted dragon-like purple monster even bigger than Songbird. The creature landed, crushing the basin beneath it. Booker raised his shotgun to shoot the monster, but it knocked him aside with a single back-hand.

“Booker!” cried Elizabeth.

Booker slammed into the wall, his vision becoming blurry as pain dominated his body. He was vaguely aware of the monster grabbing Elizabeth and taking off in flight. The Archangel followed, a single black wing flowing behind him.

As unconsciousness claimed Booker, he was aware of a massive mechanical monstrosity stomping towards him.

Columbia was burning.

Rebel and loyalist alike found themselves crushed under the furious attack of nightmare creatures. Mechanical nightmares, twisted mutated creatures that had once been human, and demons straight from Hell itself swarmed the streets as they slaughtered the all within the city.

Elizabeth saw all of this from the clutches of the flying demon as it flew beside Sephiroth.

“Stop!” she cried. “Stop! Those people are innocent! Just STOP!” she cried.

The demon laughed. “There are no innocents girlie. By morning, this place will be a smoldering ruin, sinking into the ocean.” it said in a mocking tone.

“Now, now, Ridley, no need to mock.” said Sephiroth to the now named Ridley. “Besides, we have a job to do.”

And that’s when Elizabeth saw their destination. The Angel Statue, her prison. All about the structure smaller ships flew, attaching strange machines to it, readying it for... something. 

Sephiroth spoke. “You see my dear, we needed your father for this task. To build us the Angel. To construct us this colossus for our own use.” his eyes flicked to her. “And to rear you. Our precious Lamb.”

Elizabeth glared at the so-called Archangel, tears in her eyes. “Why!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?”

Sephiroth chuckled as they landed atop the Angel’s head. “Why, for exactly the reason we said. To rain fire down upon the mountains of man.”

There was a blinding flash of blue energy, and they and the Angel were gone.

Arcadia Bay, Life is Strange Universe

“This is my storm, Chloe.” said Max Caulfield quietly as she and her friend- no, they’d been through too much for Chloe to be a mere friend anymore- stood by the lighthouse, staring at the veritable hurricane bearing down on Arcadia Bay. After all, it had to be her storm. What else could it be? All that screwing around with time, it had all led to this.

The world was a cruel place. To bring her and Chloe back together like this, only to have this happen. She felt rage in her heart at the raw unfairness of this whole shitty deal. Both hers and Chloe’s. First Rachel, then that monster Jefferson, now this?! It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.

“Max-” began Chloe, but she was interrupted.

“Oh my sweet summer child or some shit. You ain’t seen a storm yet.” sneered a voice that reminded her eerily of Nathan Prescott at his worst, and yet infinitely more malevolent.

Chloe and Max spun around, seeing the new arrival. He was about their age, maybe a little older, with ashen gray skin, blood red eyes, and bone-white hair. He was dressed like he was going to a Renaissance Fair, complete with a sword in his hand and a shield on his back. Except the sword looked very, very real.

 “What’re you talking about dipshit!” snapped Chloe, moving protectively between Max and the stranger. “And who the fuck do you think you are!?”

The stranger cackled, somehow over the wind. “Me? I’m a shadow. A reflection. The punchline to the bad joke you call existence.” he cackled. “And I’m the guy who’s here for your little girlfriend bitch.”

Chloe snarled and put her fists up. “Try it fuckwit.” she growled. Max felt her heart swell for Chloe, her brave punk warrior.

The dark stranger cackled. “Oh sweetie. It’s not me you have to worry about... it’s him.”

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Chloe and Max turned their heads, seeing their new adversary.

A towering mountain of metal armor and what seemed to be raw malice was marching towards them, a massive flesh-covered sword in one hand and a demonic looking claw flexing in the other.

Max was not afraid to admit that she voided her bowels in that moment,

:What the fu-” began Chloe, but the creature lashed out, seizing her in it’s clawed hand. Chloe screamed in pain, Max screamed in horror, and the monstrous knight roared as he pitched Chloe off the cliff.

“NOOO!” screamed Max, instinctively reaching out with her powers, but there was a sharp pain to the back of her head, and she collapsed into unconsciousness. 

Dark Link spat as Nightmare picked up the girl. “Well, that was easy. Hope Seph got his as easy.”

“Sephiroth was chosen by the Master. The Master does not fail.” proclaimed Nightmare.

Dark Link rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s go big guy. We got a schedule to keep.”

Nightmare nodded and Soul Edge pulsed with power. A massive red portal opened for them and they stepped through.

Neither noticed the winged mechanical monstrosity grab Chloe Price before she hit the sharp rocks below.

Songbird, the mechanical guardian of Elizabeth Comstock landed on the beach of Arcadia Bay, Booker DeWitt and Chloe Price in it’s arms. Before the mechanical beast were three people. A grown man and woman sharply dressed in khaki’s, and a small child in a blue and purple striped sweater.

The woman placed a hand on both Booker and Chloe’s limp form. “Excelsior. Both perfectly fine. Well done.” remarked Rosalind Lutece to Songbird. she turned to her brother, Robert. “You see? I told you it would work.”

“I never said it would not work. I merely predicted a 97.836% chance that the plan would fail.” he said. He glanced from his sister to the child. “You did well to come to us Frisk.”

*Frisk tells the Lutece’s that they’re happy the plan worked*

“Well there’s still plenty of room for failure. Don’t you worry about that.” said Rosalind dryly.

Robert picked up Frisk and placed them upon Songbird’s back. “Now, to the Smash Mansion, all of you. Tell the Smash Brothers that there is more at stake than they realize. Worry not, we will abate the storm.” he assured Frisk.

*Frisk thanks the Lutece’s again for their help.*

“Well given that we exist within time itself, we had better help you.” said Rosalind. “Now off!”

Frisk nodded and patted Songbird. The mechanical beast flew off, disappearing through one of Frisk’s shortcuts, learned from Sans of course.

“Do you think they will win?” asked Rosalind lightly.

Robert shrugged. “For once... I cannot see. And I rather like the not knowing. That’s more fun than I remember.”

“Indeed.” remarked Rosalind. “Now, the storm? Shall we?” she asked.

“Indubitably.” remarked Robert.

The Twins of Time began to glow with power.

Arbiter’s Grounds, Legend of Zelda Universe

Ganondorf stood before the mostly reconstructed Mirror of Twilight, painstakingly reassembled through massive effort after Midna had shattered it. Ganondorf stood upon the scaffolding, built around the massive Angel of Columbia, placed here by Sephiroth and Ridley after their mission. The Mirror now sat with the chest of the Angle, nestled between it’s collarbones.

“So that’s it?” asked Chara. “The Gateway?”

Ganondorf nodded. “Aye. The Mirror was a gateway between this world and the Twili Realm. But now, with the Angel to serve as a conductor and amplifier, it shall open the doorways between all worlds.”

Chara nodded, an evil smile spreading across their face. “And with the Time Power of those two brats within it...”

Ganondorf nodded. “All of Time and Space will be ours for the taking. And you, Chara, with your own Temporal abilities, shall be the one to open the way.” he said, lovingly ruffling the demon child’s hair. 

“I’m ready father.” said Chara proudly.

Ganondorf laughed. “Of course you are.” he said proudly. “And soon the Angel will be as well.” Ganondorf laughed as he turned from the mirror to face the rising sun. “Rejoce, my child, for Convergence is upon us. And our final victory.”

[reimagining-kinship]

Player-Choice Games

Branching-decision based games are games where the story relies heavily on the choices the player makes throughout. These games tend to be very replayable as there are many branching paths that can’t be explored in a single playthrough.

I believe these games can also be a portrayal of kinship bonds and their formations. In many of these games much of the story revolves around how you react / treat other characters. Your relationships with these characters can end up having major impacts on the story. For example, some actions may cause a character to trust you more. Having their trust may allow you to save them (or them to save you) later on!

These games can portray kinship bonds of many types. The first Life is Strange revolves around the friendship  (a fictive kinship) between Chloe and Max. Whereas, the second game follows the relationship between two brothers. In the Tellatale Game: The Walking Dead, a man named Lee ends up becoming the caretaker of a young girl, Clementine. Their relationship resembles that of a nontraditional adoptive relationship. 

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Examples of games of this type:

Life is Strange Series

“Follow the story of Max Caulfield, a photography senior who discovers she can rewind time while saving her best friend Chloe Price. The pair soon find themselves investigating the mysterious disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber, uncovering a dark side to life in Arcadia Bay. Meanwhile, Max must quickly learn that changing the past can sometimes lead to a devastating future.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI3AMPKEPmQ

Detroit Become Human

“Detroit 2038. Technology has evolved to a point where human like androids are everywhere. They speak, move and behave like human beings, but they are only machines serving humans. You will face moral dilemmas and decide who lives or dies. With thousands of choices and dozens of possible endings, how will you affect the future of Detroit and humanity’s destiny?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtPmIBqRwQU

Telltale Games

“Play as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal, who has been given a second chance at life in a world devastated by the undead. With corpses returning to life and survivors stopping at nothing to maintain their own safety, protecting an orphaned girl named Clementine may offer him redemption in a world gone to hell.”