#office stories

[helenapsent]

Translation of the inscription on the shrimp dish “bon appetit”

I'm doing a bunch of stuff all week, throwing a million spoilers, I've got another request coming up, so I'll be dealing with everything I can in the near future

[daisys-notes]

Friday Afternoon at the Office: How Much Poison Do You Drink?

Friday at the office is a ride full of drama. Colleagues form opinions without context and target the black sheep. Admitting mistakes is hard, and trust is tough to regain. Enjoy your weekend and see you Monday at the coffee machine! Subscribe for more!

The week’s done, and what a ride it’s been! Full of problems masquerading as heroes. Fascinating how these problems always point fingers at others. Reflect? That’s for people with brains. Personally, I enjoy the awkward situations people put themselves in. They set their own traps, and I’ve got a VIP seat. But wait, it gets better: colleagues who form opinions without any context. They directly…

[wauln]

[ She Got Back ]

[nidbaesenpai]

i fear an ISAT rhythm game would dig its claws into me and never let go

[alwayssunny93]

My boss came by my office today as I was working on my laptop alone

He says "this is a song that reminds me of you" and proceeds to play "all by myself"

This is a toxic work environment

[kendyroy]

My favorite thing about the marketing for this movie is the fact that Logan and Wade participated in it themselves.

Like the bachelorette ad, the silence your phone PSA, the little podcast they did…

I’d like to think that Wade convinced Logan to do all of these with him and they both popped into our universe just to promote their little rom-com (which tells the story of how they became a couple).

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

An unbothered queen has entered, and subsequently left.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[aashiyancha]

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

It's been some beautiful spring days that made me think of the summer to come. So, I decided to give this game another whirl

Also peak summer moment. I wanted Jeremy to come back just so I could pour another cup on him.

[spiderliliez]

ES Magazine The quiet accession of Emma D’Arcy by Evening Standard

[+] EMMA D’ARCY [GIF Collection] ✨ [+] LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 [+] ..more on this shoot 📸

[imaginative-reblogs]

Congratulations, Jod Na Nawood. You just may be the first Star Wars character to deny the call of Adoptive Fatherhood to Sassy Kid(s).

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[lepusrufus]

In which they're all artists working for the same animation studio (and these two still bicker like angry kittens)

[chuluoyi]

“show some respect to the farspace fleet’s colonel.”

main story — homecoming wings (chapter 3)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Lackadaisy Enrichment

[dolledbambi]

i have a type i fear

[bothoutsiders]

"Don't move a muscle," the voice over the comms said. Red Robin stopped what he was doing, staying still in a very quiet, and dark room. His brain repeating the words, paying full attention to the seriousness of the tone, and how deep the voice sounded.

He quickly tried to focus on the case again, trying to listen to anyone who might be near. This was an important case, and he was following instructions from Jason to get in, look for clues and steal vital information before getting out of the building without being seen.

Yes, he could've done this without his help, but both of them had the same case, and it was better to help each other, than screw it up and let the target know they were after him.

"Don't jump, even if you can reach the floor." The voice wasn't in a rush. It was clear, and. . . Nice. "Do it carefully."

Maybe if this was another person (or another voice), Tim would've rolled his eyes at the instructions. He wasn't new, he knew how to do things, but his brain was paying full attention to each word, the pronunciation, the tone, and then it would repeat it as an echo over and over.

"He went back to sleep," for a moment, it crossed Tim's mind that Jason was skilled with his voice. He wasn't sure if this is a result of practice, or he was just naturally gifted. Maybe he would do great if he had some RP voice videos, or an ASMR channel. "You can walk now. The door is on your left, twist the knob to your left, too."

"You have to twist them to the right to open," Red Robin whispered.

"I know, but I've been studying them, baby bird. They fucked up that door, the guy who installed it did it wrong, and the guy sleeping in that office has complained about it many times." Jason's voice felt like it was going deep in Tim's head.

It was gravelly, always with the right pauses, and when Jason smiled, it made his voice had a special tone that made Tim want more.

Did Jason always had this . . . voice? It could be the case that only now Tim was paying attention, because his other senses were kind of limited, but it could also be that he only did that while in this kind of moments. Where he is giving clear instructions, and it's important to have full communication with each other.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Jason's tone shifted to something like annoyed and Tim's brain was quick to look for the reason why, until he noticed his hand still on the knob. He had twisted it in the wrong direction, because he had been too distracted with Jason's voice.

"My bad."

And even annoyed, the voice sounded. . . attractive.

Maybe next time it wouldn't require a smaller body like his to break in the building, and he could be the one giving the instructions to Jason, because right now, his brain wanted more.