#products history game board

[acheseustabuleiros]

[waffled0g]

Everyone gets “The 90s” look wrong and I hate it

Couple years ago I saw these two board games at the store back to back. Well, not saw them per se, but ya know. Spied them out of the corner of my eye. And for a moment without reading the text, I couldn’t tell you which was which decade at first. Funny. Either they were in a rush to get these out the door or they wanted their throwback trivia game boxes to look uniform. I didn’t think too much of it.

Only, from then on I started seeing it MORE. Every time someone markets a 90s or 80s throwback...

Goddammit they’re identical! What??! How did we let this happen? As a 90s survivor and a designer, this drives me up a wall.

Look, I know I’m late to the party to complain about “the 90s look” when we’re just starting to get sick of the Y2K nostalgia train. But c’mon, the 90s were not The 80s: Part Two™ 

Trust me when I say that we weren’t all wearing neon trapezoids up until the year 2000. The 90s look being peddled is so specific to the tail end of the 80s and an early early part of the 90s - a part of the 90s when it wouldn’t stop being the 80s. This is Memphis design being conflated with the wrong decade.

Keep reading for a long ass graphic design history lesson and pictures of old soda and fast food.

Specifically, the look is Memphis Milano, self-named by the Italian design house Memphis Group. Starting in the early to mid 80s, they made all sorts of furniture, fabrics and sculptures that were like a Piet Mondrian grid painting under heavy radiation. Their whole deal was defying the standards of existing industrial design up to that point on purpose. Chairs had weird arches, bookcases would be in strange alien colors, unusual materials like plastic or elastic were used in place of metal or wood, that sorta thing.

Memphis quickly became the signature look for the decade. You can tell something’s influenced by Memphis design from it’s telltale trademarks:

Clashing, neon colors.

Use of diametric shapes.

Contrasting patterns like zebra print stripes, confetti squiggles and checkerboards.

It wasn’t long before Memphis Milano-inspired design was everywhere in 80s pop culture:

It was a special time, yes.

I was a kindergartener at the tail end of the 80s, so I knew Memphis mostly through the lens of kids media. Toys, clothes, games, tv shows used it like candy colored catnip. Cable channel Nickelodeon more or less adopted the Memphis aesthetic as their signature in-house style and practically built a monument to it at a Florida theme park:

I think this is why folks mistake what decade Memphis is representative of - 90s staples like Nick, Saved By The Bell, Fresh Prince - they all stayed around much longer than the design trend’s expiration date. 

Couple that notion with the fact that companies are slow followers to design trends. Something gets popular and they want to get on the bandwagon? Gotta wait for the ink to dry, gotta wait for the production molds to be made. It would take a few years for them to completely work Memphis outta their system.

Now, this is not to say Memphis is bad! Personally I’m a fan of the aesthetic, if my neon-drenched artwork wasn’t a tip-off already. But it is a trend, and trends never last forever.

So what took the Memphis Milano look down for good? This part’s up for debate, but I personally think it had something to do with this dude:

It’s that grunge music from Seattle that’s so popular with the kids these days dontchaknow.

Once Smells Like Teen Spirit hit in 1991, the Nirvana tone drove the rest of the decade. Clean geometry became weathered, grainy and organic. Bright neon pastels became more bold. Bubblegum pop music sounded fake and manufactured. Attitude and apathy was authentic. Whatever.

Things got grungy. Things got grimy. Olestra was invented.

I think the best way to visualize this transition is how Cherry Coke entered the decade and how it left it:

1992 Memphis on the left, 1998 grunge junkie on the right. Fitting that the 90s would end with a design that looked like Darth Maul’s lungs.

Okay, so what should 90s retro design look like?

Continue on to PART TWO! Spoilers: No VHS filters or vaporwave needed, but maybe bring an antacid.

[perseruna]

heyyyy do you have any details/sources for the ca*ill being a jackass thing? ngl i watch twn for yen and jaskier so i was already planning on continuing to season 4 but i'd love some reasons to be actively excited for the actor switch. but i haven't kept up on the behind-the-scenes stuff so i'm kinda lost on that front if you're up for sharing any of what you know!

okay guys buckle up this is THE anti henry cavill megathread xoxo

First of all him dating a teenager as a 33 year old fully grown man literally gross and disgusting.

Also as this quote implies they started dating a year prior and only went public when she was 19 so they supposedly started dating when she was 18.

His entire dating history is a MESS. Sure the women he dated are not him, but he chose to date them, I wouldn't even associate myself with people like these let alone be in a relationship with them. He dated the infamous transphobic TERF Gina Carano, albeit before her loud controversy, but I doubt her harmful views were any different back then. His current gf has a history of doing black face.

His "Me Too" comments.

His comments on the Me Too movement are literally so vile. If you don’t want to be called a rapist, just don’t rape women, it’s literally as simple as that. They’re even more foul because they’re promoting the idea that women lie about their abusive for fame, promoting that harmful rhetoric especially in our times is incredibly dangerous.

Now onto his on set behavior.

We can't talk about his set behavior without mentioning the deuxmoi set leak. Here's the transcript of it:

[Transcript:

There’s something I really really wanted to read to you guys--it has to do with why Henry Cavill left The Witcher. I know that was something that you guys were super interested in when it happened, and I just recently got this message. Somebody was like “Hey, do you want to know what really went down?” And I was like “Sure!” So let me just read it. It says:

“At the beginning of the show, Henry was good to work with. A lot of difficult demands that made people feel like he wasn’t a team player, but that’s not unusual for a really big star. Though in TV it truly usually doesn’t happen until the second season. But in season two and three something shifted and he became really impossible for women to work with, which is always a big problem, but even worse here because the showrunner is a woman. He would try to overrule her and try to get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge, which, if you know anything about showrunning, is completely fucked. The showrunner has to sign off on every miniscule detail down to the buttons on a costume. Female writers and directors were suddenly being completely ignored on set, unable to do their jobs. Every department head was complaining. He started making comments—it wasn’t a sexual thing, he wasn’t grabbing anyone or being lewd, but it was disrespectful and toxic all the same.

“He is deeply addicted to video games, to the point where it was like working with any other addict. He was distracted, he was late, he was obsessive, and a lot of people think the misogyny came from gamer world. Video game bro language is not how you talk to coworkers, and he wouldn’t stop. Someone on the show compared it to watching someone get brainwashed by QAnon, like his whole personality shifted. Eventually his disrespect escalated. He would rewrite scenes without even alerting the other actors in the scenes until it was time to shoot. He decided that he didn’t want any romantic scenes at all—no kissing scenes, no shirtless scenes, et cetera. He wanted complete control of storylines but really had no idea of the limitations of TV, structure, budget, et cetera. He formed a weird alliance with one writer who was also a gamer, who eventually got fired after multiple HR complaints were made and after that writer left, Henry did anything he could to hold up production and cause problems.

“Eventually top brass at Netflix was tired of him costing them money with delays and HR investigations and the showrunner was asked to construct a potential exit for him. Netflix reached out to him personally and he was given one final warning, and violated that warning with an email he sent to the entire writing staff right after that meeting. That was it. It’s very disappointing.”

End transcript.]

Now believe me or not, but I know from a really good source that the leak was indeed real.

There's a lot of patterned behavior that tracks with what we know of him and his past controversies.

After that leak came out, there was a lot of people from different places coming to comment that ‘yes’ they’ve heard a very similar story adding a little bit more details of their own.

this quickly deleted tweet from one of the writers/producers:

there were rumors about him being an asshole to Anya specifically.

He went on record that he doesn't "understand" sex scenes. Which I know the sex discourse is rampant nowadays and each to their own, but he specifically signed up for a role that requires those scenes and then refused to do them and was allegedly nasty to Anya about it and with the way he talks about women...

Also it’s important to touch upon the “writer he had a weird alliance with” that man in question is Beau DeMayo of the recent fame of getting fired by Marvel from X-Men ‘97. He was previously allegedly fired from The Witcher for being emotionally and physically abusive. And he allegedly got fired from X-Men for being abusive as well. One of The Witcher writers tweeted this after Beau smeared them for “disliking the books” Beau was literally the first person to start that narrative.

The fact that it was HIS idea not to say lines of his dialogue in S1 and instead grunt. To the point that Joey had to take Henry’s lines and make it his own, so the plot would make sense, he talks about it in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Oyh0t117t0U&, and then once S2 press arrived Henry was talking about how he was trying to fight the big bad writers to give him more lines. Ridiculous.

Everyone is already pointing out that the cast looks so much happier without him, and it’s very true. Henry was never present on close to any BTS pics from filming the previous seasons, or on any cast dinners or birthdays. He wouldn't even do any shared interviews with the other three mains but only had solo interviews which to me was giving disrespectful like you're an ensemble you’re not the only lead here. It felt like he was above them to sit down and answer questions with them. When they were doing press junkets in Brazil and Poland Anya, Joey and Freya would always arrive together and leave together with that man leaving all the events early and by himself. And like people who post quotes from the cast about him being perfect from press junkets as “proof” are insane to me like Obviously they’re going to say nice things about him, not only they're newcomers, and he's an established industry name, but they’re doing PRESS for a show that he’s a STAR of (well, was lmao)

The fact that he never defended Anya from the racist trolls, even though most of them were HIS fans. Like she had to go through so much and that man couldn’t make a single comment about it as a leading man BUT he could make a whole IG post because people were being mean to his gf and calling her out for doing blackface.

And sure people might say that a lot of these are unverified sources, and I’d get it if it was a singular case, but there are a ton of these accounts that all match each other. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

The Folio Society presents an illustrated collector’s edition of Fire & Blood

George R. R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, the prequel to A Game of Thrones, joins the Folio series. Explore the Targaryen dynasty with beautiful illustrations, detailed maps, sigils and family trees. A must-have for Westeros fans. ​ Coming 28 January 2025. What’s that in the distance? Is it the brush of dragon’s wings against the clouds? Queen Daenerys’s family tree is a rich one, filled with over 300 years-worth of rulers of the seven kingdoms. In Fire and Blood, George R.R. Martin dissects the Targaryen family’s history through the eyes of Archmaester Gyldayn. ​ This is the ultimate book for fans of the original series; it provides rich context of the family responsible for the world of Westeros as we know it. Plus, there are dragons, and lots of them! Artist Audrey Benjaminsen has captured the Targaryen family like no one else. Her illustrations jump from the page – the absentness in Area’s eyes upon returning with Balerion, the madness in Rhaenyra as she sits on the Iron Throne. This is the definitive edition of a definitive story, one that would surely sit in the library of the Citadel for centuries to come.  ​ PRODUCTION DETAILS Bound in three-quarter blocked cloth with a printed and blocked cloth front board ​ Set in Vendetta with Esmeralda as display ​ 616 pages  ​ 4 full-page and 1 double-page spread colour illustrations ​ Prints 2 colour throughout in black and gold with illustrated chapter openings ​ Printed endpapers ​ Coloured tops ​ Blocked and printed slipcase ​ Additional colour illustration inside slipcase ​ Sized at 10˝ x 6¾˝  ​ Printed in Italy​ UK £110, US/Canada $150, elsewhere £125

[thisisnotthenerd]

Dimension 20 Wrapped: 2024

It's the first day of 2025, so it's time for a look back at this year of Dimension 20.

General Stats:

We saw a total of 47 Episodes of D20, across 3 seasons and a live tour in the UK. This counted for 98 hours, 50 minutes, and 30 seconds of time on screen, or just over 4 days.

We are now up to 268 total episodes, with 6 more coming starting next Wednesday, January 8th. If we count all of the Dimension 20 content on Dropout, including Adventuring Party, Adventuring Academy, Dimension 20: Behind the Scenes, and Dimension 20 Animated, we're up to 585 episodes.

We got a threequel with Fantasy High: Junior Year and our first sidequest sequel with Misfits and Magic: Season 2.

We also saw the use of a new system in the dome for two seasons: Never Stop Blowing Up. This mix of Kids on Bikes with Murph's Awful Dice Game made for some absolutely insane moments of game-breaking hilarity.

Cast:

We only saw one new cast member in 2024: Jacob Wysocki.

Other than that, we had a plethora of returning cast, with Fantasy High: Junior Year and the Time Quangle live tour featuring the main cast:

Emily Axford

Zac Oyama

Siobhan Thompson

Lou Wilson

Ally Beardsley

Brian Murphy

and Brennan Lee Mulligan as the GM

Never Stop Blowing Up, featuring:

Izzy Roland

Alex Song-Xia

Jacob Wysocki

Ify Nwadiwe

Ally Beardsley

Rekha Shankar

and Brennan Lee Mulligan as the GM

Misfits and Magic: Season 2, featuring

Lou Wilson

Erika Ishii

Danielle Radford

Brennan Lee Mulligan

and Aabria Iyengar as the GM/Magic Mommy

Production:

As always, the dome keeps leveling up with each new season, as we saw:

brand new interactive projections

tons of props and tokens

physical character boards

a moving orrery in the middle of the table

a written test in the middle of a fight

and some of the best battle maps in Dimension 20 history

if you want to see more of these stats and where they come from, feel free to check out the spreadsheets:

thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats for general stats, mechanical breakdowns, seating charts, and more

D20 Episode Randomizer for all the watch orders you could ever want, from chronological, to alphabetical, to utterly random selections at the click of a button.

[morkhan]

I did not have high expectations to begin with, but I am genuinely blown away by how much I despise NATLA. Every moment reeks of cynical corporate cowardice. "We can't have Sokka be sexist, people will think we're endorsing sexism!" "We can't have Katarra be angry, people will think she's a nag!" "We can't have Aang abandon his responsibilities on purpose, people might think he's bad or flawed instead of the perfect good hero!" Just, decision after decision that demonstrates not only a complete misunderstanding of the source material, but a lack of understanding of, like, stories in general. Of why they work. Of why we even bother to tell them. Every decision made in NATLA feels like it was born in a board room and designed to make the characters and world a more palatable product, something they could more easily sell, something that will go down smooth and not offend anyone. Well, newsflash, assholes; I'm pretty fuckin' offended, and I'm not alone. You're too cowardly to give your characters flaws they need to work to overcome, but you have no problem showing a genocide onscreen, that's fine. Character development is bad! Let's replace it all with pointless action scenes and the dryest, most sleepily delivered exposition in the history of film! Fun? We can't show our characters having fun. Fun is for children. What's that? Our characters are children? Well, too bad, our target audience is people who liked Game of Thrones, so those kids are just gonna have to learn to be miserable.

Alright, I gotta stop talking about this or I'm going to choke someone, possibly myself.

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 3

🎲Hermes🎲

- watch a comedy special

- watch a funny show or movie

- watch travel videos

- watch sports (literally any sport)

- if able learn a new language if unable to do that listen to music in a foreign language or watch a movie or show in a foreign language

- learn about the underworld and His role as a psychopomp

- the story of Him stealing Apollon’s cattle always makes me laugh so if you’re feeling down maybe read about that or watch a video about it!

- eat food from a foreign country or watch cooking videos with recipes from foreign countries

- make a bucket list of places you’d like to travel (doesn’t necessarily have to be other countries! It can be within your own country or in your own state! Or hell maybe there’s places in your own town/city you haven’t checked out yet that you’d like to go see!)

- learn some geography!

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- play some board games or card games or dice games

🌊Poseidon🌊

- listen to oceanic/sea soundscapes

- learn about earthquakes

- listen to sea shanties and learn about why they were used

- watch documentaries or shows about marine animals or the ocean/sea themselves

-learn about horses

- stay hydrated

- watch aquarium videos! They’re very soothing

- if able print out or buy ocean themed coloring pages/coloring books and color! (I also think the finished product could go great on His altar if you have one!)

- learn about and if able to take trips to local ponds or lakes (and if able go to the beach)

- learn about marine plants and marine biodiversity

- watch videos about naval history, or naval warfare

- learn about boats and sailing history

- watch videos about hurricanes! Learn about them!

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- learn about shipwrecks or maritime disasters if that interests you (my favorite YouTube channel for these vids is: Oceanliner Designs)

- watch ocean or maritime related shows or movies (I personally like The Terror which I get isn’t 100% ocean related but y’know)

[witchofthesouls]

Guys, what if the TFP verse didn't have grocery stores and supermarkets?!

If the Cybertronian diet is limited to liquid from crystal Energon, then they would be completely used to a great beast of a combination between Home Depot, IKEA, and Kay Jewelers. Like a build your own customizable personal fuel station or for the department. Maybe there's minor cultivation of different kinds of crystals that act as herbs and spices equivalent. Look at the displays of crystal decor. While it's Energon, the structures are too unstable or deemed unusable for consumption to be sold (different story for the lowest castes trapped in poverty though)

The 'bots are familiar with a job site providing room and board as well as picking up prepared food from restaurants at different price points. But if Team Prime actually looked into the history of agriculture on Earth, the immense scale and absolute variety would shock them speechless. Optimus would fall into a deep tunnel of botanical science versus the culinary arts and how a lot of veggies are basically the same plant that's been curated to enhance very specific features.

There's a new game at the base and road, it's called "Can you eat this?"

(This actually starts a lot of "lively discussions" between the kids because of cultural differences, family histories, and geographic/regional dishes and traditons.)

And if the kids ever needed to do a report on animals or plants or food, then they would receive full marks.

If the 'bots ever get enough fuel to use a holomatter, then the kids would get the delight of seeing:

Teaching Optimus how to select a good watermelon. The man is in deep concentration as he eyes for a "sun spot, a creamy other side, and a good-sounding thump."

June and Ratchet having a hissy and very heated argument over what's inside the shopping cart. The cart fills and empties between them.

Arcee staring down the produce that is and isn't organic, and then trying to figure out the difference between oranges and grapefruits without breaking them open

Bumblebee buzzing around the honey products and sweets to make puns and jokes. He's having a blast in the personal care aisles, especially with the masks and Burt's Bees.

Bulkhead is entranced by the inside Starbucks and the meat department. He's watching the baristas and counter workers deftly move to produce a new thing. He wants to learn to make a sandwich and a Frappuccino for Miko.

[puckpocketed]

So do you actually believe PLD is a good player or is that part of the bit?

The PLD Post

i spent a good 2 days giggling about this to friends. i cant tell if ur a curious caps fan, a person who knows me from my other teams, a disgruntled kings fan (i’ve mostly ruled this out because im pretty sure i know all of the active ones on here) or WHAT. but i’m laughing. the tone of this ask is hilarious and vaguely accusatory but i will take it in good faith and answer <3 tl;dr yes and no. he’s better than people think he is rn, but he’s likely never going to live up to the potential of his tools unless something . idk. recalibrates his entire being. who knows!

i was working on something longer and more complex but i thought about it for more than 5 seconds and i REFUSE to go hockey-bro mode and pull out the microstats and i don’t wanna make this into a full on PLD manifesto. so. caps girlies (gn) HERE are your adoption papers under the cut!

if you are looking at pierre luc dubois who is 6’4 + 220lb and thinking “Oh he’s a power forward” i have to inform you he is in fact THEEE smallest mouse to ever play hockey in the whole world and in all of history. he sips nectar out of a thimble and sleeps curled up in a match box and goes fishing in a boat made from nutshells and twigs . he’s big, but he sort of plays small.

this is not necessarily a bad thing — he relies on foot speed and skill over hitting.

he can throw hits but prefers to stick check. he leverages his big frame to guard the puck and to defend, and it makes him simultaneously VERY effective and very much what i like to call a Nexus Of Crime. he is either drawing ten thousand penalties because people have to do something to stop him from driving the net with speed OR he is taking ten thousand penalties because he gets eager in the corners.

PLUS he’s huge and refs do just assume he’s committing a crime when they can’t see what’s going on <3 hence, Nexus Of Crime! if there’s a penalty he’s probably involved LMAO

not a “dirty” player by any means. not physical unless he decides he wants to. and there is no violence inside of him unless he’s deeply horsebonded to his team <- IMPORTANT re; playoffs aspirations. you won’t see him put himself on the line simply for the love of the game, he HAS to be committed to the team.

to be committed to his team… i’m honestly not sure what that takes. i’d guess a combination of knowing his role on the ice and in the locker room (this was very unclear on lak) consistency of messaging from coaches (also seemed to be an issue on lak)

i know nothing about caps coaching or management or the team vibes but i’m sure you can fix him <3 i’m ready to fall in love and ride this team to the sunset

this failhorse will NOT shoot the puck and if he does it will be the saddest soggiest most pathetic shot you’ve ever seen. you will tear your hair out in chunks if you watch him expecting an elite goalscorer.

he’s a pass-first guy. likes to drop pass! likes to drive play from the middle but is also capable of getting pucks off the boards. he needs a finisher on his wing. i could pull up stats here, there are stats to be pulled up, but i know this in my HEART from watching dozens of kings games: he would have had 10-15 more points easily if he wasn’t stapled to the 3rd line and had better finishers. many times i watched him tee up a very good opportunity only for his guy to miss the net or fan or just get knocked off the puck

individually, he thrives in front of the net. his ass is fat and he’s about to use it to screen the goalie. hes good at catching loose pucks in the crease to send them home <3 see his performance at worlds. he scored basically all of his goals right up there!!

most media coverage/narratives will tell you his point production dropped off bc of effort (which is true) but even the MOST resentful kings watchers will say pld wasn’t given his best shot playing with inexperienced+fringe nhlers, being line shuffled the moment he got a bit comfortable, and also not getting ANY net front time on the lak pp. i factor this into all my judgements of his performance.

He’s def earned his diva rep LMAO!! this is personal opinion here but he seems like a sensitive and easily rattled little clam… like he will have a couple of bad shifts and if there’s nobody there to shake him out of it he’ll lose his grasp on the game and play like shit <3 a rolling joke on kingstwt was figuring out which PLD we were getting that game, and you could tell by his 5th if he was switched on or off!!

they hate him for this but EYE think this is nothing new for athletes and if he can consistently stay in the zone he’ll probably be pretty good. mental fortitude of a wet tissue my beloved….

moving onto the Vibes section!! he was always good humoured in media availability and didn’t shy away from scrums even when public opinion soured against him and critiques of both his hockey and his character had reached a fever pitch. i like this about him. he always gave authentic answers and tried his best to accomodate them, and never hid behind his captains.

he gets along quite well with teammates despite the narratives. no seriously!! some of the the kings had a hang out during off-season right before they went to worlds!! there’s bisexual lighting!!!!

there’s interviews from old jets teammates that are just like. “he used to turn up at my house with his dog and text IM HERE with no warning and that’s how we became friends” or “his obsession with euro soccer teams bewitched me”. he had control of the aux cord. he was a den mother and planned group gatherings. a genuine sweetheart to every teammate he’s ever had!!

I don’t think he’s some. idk. secret 100 point producing star 1C. but i truly believe with the right environment he’ll probably hit 60 points again.

thank you for your time if you made it this far and i hope to see you all in the trenches (caps lb) next season 👍

[f4unlette]

𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑑

⌗ bake for other people, like family, friends, colleagues

⌗ watch mukbang videos, informative documentaries about internet phenomenons, history (political, fashion) crime or strange occurrences

⌗ listen to new music and learn more about the artist or the band itself, make new playlists

⌗ watch a gameplay on youtube or play childhood nostalgic video games

⌗ learn new makeup styles, hairstyles and build outfits based off of different fashion styles

⌗ get a homemade manicure

⌗ create your own website (ex. carrd)

⌗ deep cleaning: making your bed, doing laundry, going through a pile of clothing, throwing away old/expired makeup products, de-cluttering, cleaning the bathroom, deep cleaning the kitchen and the pantry by throwing away expired products, cleaning bags, boxes, wallets and pencil cases, changing the aesthetic of your bedroom

⌗ gardening or taking care of house plants

⌗ learn more about certain species of flowers, animals, subjects (like astronomy, philosophy, sociology, biology) and take notes

⌗ make a shopping list for necessities (food, cleaning supplies, hygiene necessities) and wishes (makeup, clothing, collectibles) on paper and by making pinterest boards and sections

⌗ re-watch old nostalgic movies or series (comedy anime like azumanga daioh, lucky star, nichijou, gakuen handsome and saiki k, horror/thriller and comedy movies, novelas)

⌗ read a book, whether it’s classic literature or a comic book

⌗ studying: watching videos, taking notes, reciting out loud

⌗ take an everything shower with music playing. from skincare, to hair care, brushing teeth and body care

⌗ skincare: do a face mask and a gua sha massage, learn more about your skin type and how to take care of it

⌗ make handmade gifts:

customized cds/playlists

paper crafts: stickers, bookmarks, collages, keychains with shrink paper, decorated envelopes (drawings, glitter, paint, gluing things like buttons and lace, 3d open envelope drawings), scenery stands, fake food and objects, strings, drawing posters, paper stars, paper crowns, flower bouquets, realistic camera;

clay crafts: vases, boxes, plates, bowls, spoons, jewelry holders, cups and mugs, charms, rings, playhouses, paint palettes, animal sculptures, candle and incense stands, lighter cases;

crocheting and sewing: hats, gloves, scarves, plushies, keychains, pillow covers/pillows, bags, cup stands, book cases, water bottle bags, pencil cases, creating new clothes out of old ones, mixed/leftover fabric rugs or blankets.

bracelets: patterned, beaded, with a string and buttons;

other: door handle hangers, painted wooden spoons, painted tiles, painted tea bags, pins, painted rocks, decorated journal cases, soap making, altoid wallets, decorate your phone case, hair wraps, decorate a photo frame, recycle an old candle (seashell and can candles), flags, window beads, hair accessories (decorated headbands, hairpins), decorated sunglasses, soda tab friend, bleached t-shirts, surfboard necklace, washi tape, gift baskets.

gift ideas

diy ideas when you’re bored

cinnamon roll trinket box (just really wanted to share this one, it’s absoluty adorable ♡)

⌗ try out a new sport: ex. badminton, volleyball, dance, swimming, tennis, basketball, martial arts, athletics.

⌗ do pilates or a 1980s workout, play just dance or do a karaoke session

⌗ play a board/card game (monopoly, trivial pursuit, uno, cluedo, guess who)

⌗ take a walk and explore your surroundings

⌗ write down new recipes you haven’t tried yet including the necessary steps to make them and make a grocery shopping list of everything you need

[vintagerpg]

Hey! HEY! This is my book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, coming to a bookstore near you on October 10, 2023 thanks to MIT Press. Pre-orders are live now pretty much everywhere, though I recommend using Bookshop.org, as I have been impressed at their packaging skillz. I have a real live copy of the book in my possession and I gotta say, it’s pretty neat.

What is the book? It’s a look at the history and development of tabletop RPGs, one product at a time, arranged in chronological order across five decades. It’s sort of like this Instagram feed, actually, but way more polished, and, you know, on paper. I covered the classics, but this is also very much an exercise in expanding horizons — I hope there is at least one game featured for every reader that they never heard of. To that end, there are lots of lesser known games, weird games, silly games, even a couple board games. All pulled from my collection, all illustrated with something like 350 photographs.

There’s original art, too. Kyle Patterson did the amazing cover, somehow transforming my deeply silly post-it sketch (last slide) into a canny encapsulation of the RPG experience. He did a two-page spread introducing each decade, and effortlessly capturing its essence. He also did a handful of gorgeous spot illustrations. All of Kyle’s art makes me low-key angry. How dare he be so talented? I’ll share more of it, and some sketches, later on. You’ll be annoyed by his talent, too, I guarantee.

We (that’s myself and Derek Kinsman, who did the layout) also filled some empty spots with rights-free art from Amanda Lee Franck, evlynmoreau and natetreme, which is pretty rad - Amanda did the wizard van in the next to last slide - and also some Giovanni Battista Piranesi, cuz that dude had aesthetic for days.

And there you go, a first taste of 450-something pages of full-color RPG goodness. Go snag a copy now, yea? (Worth noting, this is the Standard edition. I’ll show you the Deluxe edition tomorrow.)

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

Couch surfer in his 30s. Oscar winner in his 40s. Why the whole world wants Taika

**Notes: This is very long post!**

Good Weekend

In his 30s, he was sleeping on couches. By his 40s, he’d directed a Kiwi classic, taken a Marvel movie to billion-dollar success, and won an Oscar. Meet Taika Waititi, king of the oddball – and one of New Zealand’s most original creative exports.

Taika Waititi: “Be a nice person and live a good life. And just don’t be an arsehole.”

The good news? Taika Waititi is still alive. I wasn’t sure. The screen we were speaking through jolted savagely a few minutes ago, with a cacophonous bang and a confused yelp, then radio silence. Now the Kiwi ­ filmmaker is back, grinning like a loon: “I just broke the f---ing table, bro!”

Come again? “I just smashed this f---ing table and glass flew everywhere. It’s one of those old annoying colonial tables. It goes like this – see that?” Waititi says, holding up a folding furniture leg. “I hit the mechanism and it wasn’t locked. Anyway …”

I’m glad he’s fine. The stuff he’s been saying from his London hotel room could incur biblical wrath. We’re talking about his latest project, Next Goal Wins, a movie about the American Samoa soccer team’s quest to score a solitary goal, 10 years after suffering the worst loss in the game’s international history – a 31-0 ­ignominy to Australia – but our chat strays into ­spirituality, then faith, then religion.

“I don’t personally believe in a big guy sitting on a cloud judging everyone, but that’s just me,” Waititi says, deadpan. “Because I’m a grown-up.”

This is the way his interview answers often unfold. Waititi addresses your topic – dogma turns good people bad, he says, yet belief itself is worth lauding – but bookends every response with a conspiratorial nudge, wink, joke or poke. “Regardless of whether it’s some guy living on a cloud, or some other deity that you’ve made up – and they’re all made up – the message across the board is the same, and it’s important: Be a nice person, and live a good life. And just don’t be an arsehole!”

Not being an arsehole seems to have served Waititi, 48, well. Once a national treasure and indie darling (through the quirky tenderness of his breakout New Zealand films Boy in 2010 and Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016), Waititi then became a star of both the global box office (through his 2017 entry into the Marvel Universe, Thor: Ragnarok, which grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide) and then the Academy Awards (winning the 2020 best adapted screenplay Oscar for his subversive Holocaust dramedy JoJo Rabbit, in which he played an imaginary Hitler).

Waititi playing Adolf Hitler in the 2019 movie JoJo Rabbit. (Alamy)

A handsome devil with undeniable roguish charm, Waititi also slid seamlessly into style-icon status (attending this year’s Met Gala shirtless, in a floor-length gunmetal-grey Atelier Prabal Gurung wrap coat, with pendulous pearl necklaces), as well as becoming his own brand (releasing an eponymous line of canned ­coffee drinks) and bona fide Hollywood A-lister (he was introduced to his second wife, British singer Rita Ora, by actor Robert Pattinson at a barbecue).

Putting that platform to use, Waititi is an Indigenous pioneer and mentor, too, co-creating the critically acclaimed TV series Reservation Dogs, while co-founding the Piki Films production company, committed to promoting the next generation of storytellers – a mission that might sound all weighty and worthy, yet Waititi’s new wave of First Nations work is never earnest, always mixing hurt with heart and howling humour.

Waititi with wife Rita Ora at the 2023 Met Gala in May. (Getty Images)

Makes sense. Waititi is a byproduct of “the weirdest coupling ever” – his late Maori father from the Te Whanau-a-Apanui tribe was an artist, farmer and “Satan’s Slaves” bikie gang founder, while his Wellington schoolteacher mum descended from Russian Jews, although he’s not devout about her faith. (“No, I don’t practise,” he confirms. “I’m just good at everything, straight away.”)

He’s remained loyally tethered to his ­origin story, too – and to a cadre of creative Kiwi mates, including actors Jemaine Clement and Rhys Darby – never forgetting that not long before the actor/writer/producer/director was an industry maven, he was a penniless painter/photographer/ musician/comedian.

With no set title and no fixed address, he’s seemingly happy to be everything, everywhere (to everyone) all at once. “‘The universe’ is bandied around a lot these days, but I do believe in the kind of connective tissue of the universe, and the energy that – scientifically – we are made up of a bunch of atoms that are bouncing around off each other, and some of the atoms are just squished together a bit tighter than others,” he says, smiling. “We’re all made of the same stardust, and that’s pretty special.”

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We’ve caught Waititi in a somewhat relaxed moment, right before the screen actors’ and media artists’ strike ends. He’s ­sensitive to the struggle but doesn’t deny enjoying the break. “I spent a lot of time thinking about writing, and not writing, and having a nice ­holiday,” he tells Good Weekend. “Honestly, it was a good chance just to recombobulate.”

Waititi, at right, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople actors, from left, Sam Neill, Rhys Darby and Julian Dennison. (Getty Images)

It’s mid-October, and he’s just headed to Paris to watch his beloved All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup. He’s deeply obsessed with the game, and sport in general. “Humans spend all of our time knowing what’s going to happen with our day. There’s no surprises ­any more. We’ve become quite stagnant. And I think that’s why people love sport, because of the air of unpredictability,” he says. “It’s the last great arena entertainment.”

The main filmic touchstone for Next Goal Wins (which premieres in Australian cinemas on New Year’s Day) would be Cool Runnings (1993), the unlikely true story of a Jamaican bobsled team, but Waititi also draws from genre classics such as Any Given Sunday and Rocky, sampling trusted tropes like the musical training montage. (His best one is set to Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.)

Filming in Hawaii was an uplifting experience for the self-­described Polynesian Jew. “It wasn’t about death, or people being cruel to each other. Thematically, it was this simple idea, of getting a small win, and winning the game wasn’t even their goal – their goal was to get a goal,” he says. “It was a really sweet backbone.”

Waititi understands this because, growing up, he was as much an athlete as a nerd, fooling around with softball and soccer before discovering rugby league, then union. “There’s something about doing exercise when you don’t know you’re doing exercise,” he enthuses. “It’s all about the fun of throwing a ball around and trying to achieve something together.” (Whenever Waititi is in Auckland he joins his mates in a long-running weekend game of touch rugby. “And then throughout the week I work out every day. Obviously. I mean, look at me.”)

Auckland is where his kids live, too, so he spends as much time there as possible. Waititi met his first wife, producer Chelsea Winstanley, on the set of Boy in 2010, and they had two daughters, Matewa Kiritapu, 8, and his firstborn, Te Kainga O’Te Hinekahu, 11. (The latter is a derivative of his grandmother’s name, but he jokes with American friends that it means “Resurrection of Tupac” or “Mazda RX7″) Waititi and Winstanley split in about 2018, and he married the pop star Ora in 2022.

He offers a novel method for balancing work with parenthood … “Look, you just abandon them, and know that the experience will make them harder individuals later on in life. And it’s their problem,” he says. “I’m going to give them all of the things that they need, and I’m going to leave behind a decent bank ­account for their therapy, and they will be just like me, and the cycle will continue.”

Jokes aside – I think he’s joking – school holidays are always his, and he brings the girls onto the set of every movie he makes. “They know enough not to get in the way or touch anything that looks like it could kill you, and they know to be respectful and quiet when they need to. But they’re just very comfortable around filmmakers, which I’m really happy about, because eventually I hope they will get into the ­industry. One more year,” he laughs, “then they can leave school and come work for Dad.”

Theirs is certainly a different childhood than his. Growing up, he was a product of two worlds. His given names, for instance, were based on his appearance at birth: “Taika David” if he looked Maori (after his Maori grandfather) and “David Taika” if he looked Pakeha (after his white grandfather). His parents split when he was five, so he bounced between his dad’s place in Waihau Bay, where he went by the surname Waititi, and his mum, eight hours drive away in Wellington, where he went by Cohen (the last name on his birth ­certificate and passport).

Waititi was precocious, even charismatic. His mother Robin once told Radio New Zealand that people always wanted to know him, even as an infant: “I’d be on a bus with him, and he was that kind of baby who smiled at people, and next thing you know they’re saying, ‘Can I hold your baby?’ He’s always been a charmer to the public eye.”

He describes himself as a cool, sporty, good-looking nerd, raised on whatever pop culture screened on the two TV channels New Zealand offered in the early 1980s, from M*A*S*H and Taxi to Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson. He was well-read, too. When punished by his mum, he would likely be forced to analyse a set of William Blake poems.

He puts on a whimpering voice to describe their finances – “We didn’t have much monneeey” – explaining how his mum spent her days in the classroom but also worked in pubs, where he would sit sipping a raspberry lemonade, doodling drawings and writing stories. She took in ­ironing and cleaned houses; he would help out, learning valuable lessons he imparts to his kids. “And to random people who come to my house,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘Here’s a novel idea, wash this dish,’ but people don’t know how to do anything these days.”

“Every single character I’ve ever written has been based on someone I’ve known or met or a story I’ve stolen from someone.” - Taika Waititi

He loved entertaining others, clearly, but also himself, recording little improvised radio plays on a tape deck – his own offbeat versions of ET and Indiana Jones and Star Wars. “Great free stuff where you don’t have any idea what the story is as you’re doing it,” he says. “You’re just sort of making it up and enjoying the ­freedom of playing god in this world where you can make people and characters do whatever you want.”

His other sphere of influence lay in Raukokore, the tiny town where his father lived. Although Boy is not autobiographical, it’s deeply personal insofar as it’s filmed in the house where he grew up, and where he lived a life similar to that portrayed in the story, surrounded by his recurring archetypes: warm grandmothers and worldly kids; staunch, stoic mums; and silly, stunted men. “Every single character I’ve ever written has been based on someone I’ve known or met,” he says, “or a story I’ve stolen from someone.”

He grew to love drawing and painting, obsessed early on with reproducing the Sistine Chapel. During a 2011 TED Talk on creativity, Waititi describes his odd subject matter, from swastikas and fawns to a picture of an old lady going for a walk … upon a sword … with Robocop. “My father was an outsider artist, even though he wouldn’t know what that meant,” Waititi told the audience in Doha. “I love the naive. I love people who can see things through an innocent viewpoint. It’s inspiring.”

After winning Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for JoJo Rabbit in 2020. (Getty Images)

It was an interesting time in New Zealand, too – a coming-of-age decade in which the Maori were rediscovering their culture. His area was poor, “but only ­financially,” he says. “It’s very rich in terms of the ­people and the culture.” He learned kapa haka – the songs, dances and chants performed by competing tribes at cultural events, or to honour people at funerals and graduations – weddings, parties, ­anything. “Man, any excuse,” he explains. “A big part of doing them is to uplift your spirits.”

Photography was a passion, so I ask what he shot. “Just my penis. I sent them to people, but we didn’t have phones, so I would print them out, post them. One of the first dick pics,” he says. Actually, his lens was trained on regular people. He watches us still – in airports, ­restaurants. “Other times late at night, from a tree. Whatever it takes to get the story. You know that.”

He went to the Wellington state school Onslow College and did plays like Androcles and the Lion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Crucible. His crew of arty students eventually ended up on stage at Bats Theatre in the city, where they would perform haphazard comedy shows for years.

“Taika was always rebellious and wild in his comedy, which I loved,” says his high school mate Jackie van Beek, who became a longtime collaborator, including working with Waititi on a Tourism New Zealand campaign this year. “I remember he went through a phase of turning up in bars around town wearing wigs, and you’d try and sit down and have a drink with him but he’d be doing some weird character that would invariably turn up in some show down the track.”

He met more like-minded peers at Victoria University, including Jemaine Clement (who’d later become co-creator of Flight of the Conchords). During a 2019 chat with actor Elijah Wood, Waititi ­describes he and Clement clocking one another from opposite sides of the library one day: a pair of Maoris experiencing hate at first sight, based on a mutual suspicion of cultural appropriation. (Clement was wearing a traditional tapa cloth Samoan shirt, and Waititi was like: “This motherf---er’s not Samoan.” Meanwhile, Waititi was wearing a Rastafarian beanie, and Clement was like, “This ­motherf---er’s not Jamaican.”)

With Jemaine Clement in 2014. (Getty Images)

But they eventually bonded over Blackadder and Fawlty Towers, and especially Kenny Everett, and did comedy shows together everywhere from Edinburgh to Melbourne. Waititi was almost itinerant, spending months at a time busking, or living in a commune in Berlin. He acted in a few small films, and then – while playing a stripper on a bad TV show – realised he wanted to try life behind the camera. “I became tired of being told what to do and ordered around,” he told Wellington’s Dominion Post in 2004. “I remember sitting around in the green room in my G-string ­thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? Just helping someone else to realise their dream.’ ”

He did two strong short films, then directed his first feature – Eagle vs Shark (2007) – when he was 32. He brought his mates along (Clement, starring with Waititi’s then-girlfriend Loren Horsley), setting something of a pattern in his career: hiring friends instead of constantly navigating new working relationships. “If you look at things I’m doing,” he tells me, “there’s ­always a few common denominators.”

Sam Neill says Waititi is the exemplar of a new New Zealand humour. “The basis of it is this: we’re just a little bit crap at things.”

This gang of collaborators shares a common Kiwi vibe, too, which his longtime friend, actor Rhys Darby, once coined “the comedy of the mundane”. Their new TV show, Our Flag Means Death, for example, leans heavily into the mundanity of pirate life – what happens on those long days at sea when the crew aren’t unsheathing swords from scabbards or burying treasure.

Waititi plays pirate captain Blackbeard, centre, in Our Flag Means Death, with Rhys Darby, left, and Rory Kinnear. (Google Images)

Sam Neill, who first met Waititi when starring in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, says Waititi is the exemplar of a new New Zealand humour. “And I think the basis of it is this,” says Neill. “We’re just a little bit crap at things, and that in itself is funny.” After all, Neill asks, what is What We Do in The Shadows (2014) if not a film (then later a TV show) about a bunch of vampires who are pretty crap at being vampires, ­living in a pretty crappy house, not quite getting busted by crappy local cops? “New Zealand often gets named as the least corrupt country in the world, and I think it’s just that we would be pretty crap at being corrupt,” Neill says. “We don’t have the capacity for it.”

Waititi’s whimsy also spurns the dominant on-screen oeuvre of his homeland – the so-called “cinema of ­unease” exemplified by the brutality of Once Were Warriors (1994) and the emotional peril of The Piano (1993). Waititi still explores pathos and pain, but through laughter and weirdness. “Taika feels to me like an ­antidote to that dark aspect, and a gift somehow,” Neill says. “And I’m grateful for that.”

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Something happened to Taika Waititi when he was about 11 – something he doesn’t go into with Good Weekend, but which he considered a betrayal by the adults in his life. He ­mentioned it only recently – not the ­moment itself, but the lesson he learnt: “That you cannot and must not rely on grown-ups to help you – you’re basically in the world alone, and you’re gonna die alone, and you’ve just gotta make it all for yourself,” he told Irish podcast host James Brown. “I basically never forgave people in positions of responsibility.”

What does that mean in his work? First, his finest films tend to reflect the clarity of mind possessed by children, and the unseen worlds they create – fantasies conjured up as a way to understand or overcome. (His mum once summed up the main ­message of Boy: “The ­unconditional love you get from your children, and how many of us waste that, and don’t know what we’ve got.”)

Second, he’s suited to movie-making – “Russian roulette with art” – because he’s drawn to disruptive force and chaos. And that in turn produces creative defiance: allowing him to reinvigorate the Marvel Universe by making superheroes fallible, or tell a Holocaust story by making fun of Hitler. “Whenever I have to deal with someone who’s a boss, or in charge, I challenge them,” he told Brown, “and I really do take whatever they say with a pinch of salt.”

It’s no surprise then that Waititi was comfortable leaping from independent films to the vast complexity of Hollywood blockbusters. He loves the challenge of coordinating a thousand interlocking parts, requiring an army of experts in vocations as diverse as construction, sound, art, performance and logistics. “I delegate a lot,” he says, “and share the load with a lot of people.”

“This is a cool concept, being able to ­afford whatever I want, as opposed to sleeping on couches until I was 35.” - Taika Waititi

But the buck stops with him. Time magazine named Waititi one of its Most Influential 100 People of 2022. “You can tell that a film was made by Taika Waititi the same way you can tell a piece was painted by Picasso,” wrote Sacha Baron Cohen. Compassionate but comic. Satirical but watchable. Rockstar but auteur. “Actually, sorry, but this guy’s really starting to piss me off,” Cohen concluded. “Can someone else write this piece?”

Directing Chris Hemsworth in 2017 in Thor: Ragnarok, which grossed more than $1.3 billion at the box office. (Alamy)

I’m curious to know how he stays grounded amid such adulation. Coming into the game late, he says, helped immensely. After all, Waititi was 40 by the time he left New Zealand to do Thor: Ragnarok. “If you let things go to your head, then it means you’ve struggled to find out who you are,” he says. “But I’ve always felt very comfortable with who I am.” Hollywood access and acclaim – and the pay cheques – don’t erase memories of poverty, either. “It’s more like, ‘Oh, this is a cool concept, being able to ­afford whatever I want, as opposed to sleeping on couches until I was 35.’ ” Small towns and strong tribes keep him in check, too. “You know you can’t piss around and be a fool, because you’re going to embarrass your family,” he says. “Hasn’t stopped me, though.”

Sam Neill says there was never any doubt Waititi would be able to steer a major movie with energy and imagination. “It’s no accident that the whole world wants Taika,” he says. “But his seductiveness comes with its own dangers. You can spread yourself a bit thin. The temptation will be to do more, more, more. That’ll be interesting to watch.”

Indeed, I find myself vicariously stressed out over the list of potential projects in Waititi’s future. A Roald Dahl animated series for Netflix. An Apple TV show based on the 1981 film Time Bandits. A sequel to What We Do In The Shadows. A reboot of Flash Gordon. A gonzo horror comedy, The Auteur, starring Jude Law. Adapting a cult graphic novel, The Incal, as a feature. A streaming series based on the novel Interior Chinatown. A film based on a Kazuo Ishiguro bestseller. Plus bringing to life the wildly popular Akira comic books. Oh, and for good measure, a new instalment of Star Wars, which he’s already warned the world will be … different.

“It’s going to change things,” he told Good Morning America. “It’s going to change what you guys know and expect.”

Did I say I was stressed for Waititi? I meant physically sick.

“Well…” he qualifies, “some of those things I’m just producing, so I come up with an idea or someone comes to me with an idea, and I shape how ‘it’s this kind of show’ and ‘here’s how we can get it made.’ It’s easier for me to have a part in those things and feel like I’ve had a meaningful role in the creative process, but also not having to do what I’ve always done, which is trying to control everything.”

In the 2014 mockumentary horror film What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-directed with Jemaine Clement. (Alamy)

What about moving away from the niche New Zealand settings he represented so well in his early work? How does he stay connected to his roots? “I think you just need to know where you’re from,” he says, “and just don’t forget that.”

They certainly haven’t forgotten him.

Jasmin McSweeney sits in her office at the New Zealand Film Commission in Wellington, surrounded by promotional posters Waititi signed for her two decades ago, when she was tasked with promoting his nascent talent. Now the organisation’s marketing chief, she talks to me after visiting the heart of thriving “Wellywood”, overseeing the traditional karakia prayer on the set of a new movie starring Geoffrey Rush.

Waititi isn’t the first great Kiwi filmmaker – dual Oscar-winner Jane Campion and blockbuster king Peter Jackson come to mind – yet his particular ascendance, she says, has spurred unparalleled enthusiasm. “Taika gave everyone here confidence. He always says, ‘Don’t sit around waiting for people to say, you can do this.’ Just do it, because he just did it. That’s the Taika effect.”

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Taika David Waititi is known for wearing everything from technicolour dreamcoats to pineapple print rompers, and today he’s wearing a roomy teal and white Isabel Marant jumper. The mohair garment has the same wispy frizz as his hair, which curls like a wave of grey steel wool, and connects with a shorn salty beard.

A stylish silver fox, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he suddenly announced he was launching a fashion label. He’s definitely a commercial animal, to the point of directing television commercials for Coke and Amazon, along with a fabulous 2023 spot for Belvedere vodka starring Daniel Craig. He also joined forces with a beverage company in Finland (where “taika” means “magic”) to release his coffee drinks. Announcing the partnership on social media, he flagged that he would be doing more of this kind of stuff, too (“Soz not soz”).

Waititi has long been sick of reverent portrayals of Indigenous people talking to spirits.

There’s substance behind the swank. Fashion is a creative outlet but he’s also bought sewing machines in the past with the intention of designing and making clothes, and comes from a family of tailors. “I learnt how to sew a button on when I was very young,” he says. “I learnt how to fix holes or patches in your clothes, and darn things.”

And while he gallivants around the globe watching Wimbledon or modelling for Hermès at New York Fashion Week, all that glamour belies a depth of purpose, particularly when it comes to Indigenous representation.

There’s a moment in his new movie where a Samoan player realises that their Dutch coach, played by Michael Fassbender, is emotionally struggling, and he offers a lament for white people: “They need us.” I can’t help but think Waititi meant something more by that line – maybe that First Nations people have ­wisdom to offer if others will just listen?

“Weeelllll, a little bit …” he says – but from his intonation, and what he says next, I’m dead wrong. Waititi has long been sick of reverent ­portrayals of Indigenous people talking to kehua (spirits), or riding a ghost waka (phantom canoe), or playing a flute on a mountain. “Always the boring characters,” he says. “They’ve got no real contemporary relationship with the world, because they’re always living in the past in their spiritual ways.”

A scene from Next Goal Wins, filmed earlier this year. (Alamy)

He’s part of a vanguard consciously poking fun at those stereotypes. Another is the Navajo writer and director Billy Luther, who met Waititi at Sundance Film Festival back in 2003, along with Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo. “We were this group of outsiders trying to make films, when nobody was really biting,” says Luther. “It was a different time. The really cool thing about it now is we’re all working. We persevered. We didn’t give up. We slept on each other’s couches and hung out. It’s like family.”

Waititi has power now, and is known for using Indigenous interns wherever possible (“because there weren’t those opportunities when I was growing up”), making important introductions, offering feedback on scripts, and lending his name to projects through executive producer credits, too, which he did for Luther’s new feature film, Frybread Face and Me (2023).

He called Luther back from the set of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) to offer advice on working with child actors – “Don’t box them into the characters you’ve ­created,” he said, “let them naturally figure it out on their own” – but it’s definitely harder to get Waititi on the phone these days. “He’s a little bitch,” Luther says, laughing. “Nah, there’s nothing like him. He’s a genius. You just knew he was going to be something. I just knew it. He’s my brother.“

I’ve been asked to explicitly avoid political questions in this interview, probably because Waititi tends to back so many causes, from child poverty and teenage suicide to a campaign protesting offshore gas and oil exploration near his tribal lands. But it’s hard to ignore his recent Instagram post, sharing a viral video about the Voice to Parliament referendum starring Indigenous Aussie rapper Adam Briggs. After all, we speak only two days after the proposal is defeated. “Yeah, sad to say but, Australia, you really shat the bed on that one,” Waititi says, pausing. “But go see my movie!”

About that movie – the early reviews aren’t great. IndieWire called it a misfire, too wrapped in its quirks to develop its arcs, with Waititi’s directorial voice drowning out his characters, while The Guardian called it “a shoddily made and strikingly unfunny attempt to tell an interesting story in an uninteresting way”. I want to know how he moves past that kind of criticism. “For a start, I never read reviews,” he says, concerned only with the opinion of people who paid for admission, never professional appraisals. “It’s not important to me. I know I’m good at what I do.”

Criticism that Indigenous concepts weren’t sufficiently explained in Next Goal Wins gets his back up a little, though. The film’s protagonist, Jaiyah Saelua, the first transgender football player in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, is fa’afafine – an American Samoan identifier for someone with fluid genders – but there wasn’t much exposition of this concept in the film. “That’s not my job,” Waititi says. “It’s not a movie where I have to explain every facet of Samoan culture to an audience. Our job is to retain our culture, and present a story that’s inherently Polynesian, and if you don’t like it, you can go and watch any number of those other movies out there, 99 per cent of which are terrible.”

*notes: (there is video clip in the article)

Waititi sounds momentarily cranky, but he’s mostly unflappable and hilarious. He’s the kind of guy who prefers “Correctumundo bro!” to “Yes”. When our video connection is too laggy, he plays up to it by periodically pretending to be frozen, sitting perfectly still, mouth open, his big shifting eyeballs the only giveaway.

He’s at his best on set. Saelua sat next to him in Honolulu while filming the joyous soccer sequences. “He’s so chill. He just let the actors do their thing, giving them creative freedom, barely interjecting unless it was something important. His style matches the vibe of the Pacific people. We’re a very funny people. We like to laugh. He just fit perfectly.”

People do seem to love working alongside him, citing his ability to make productions fresh and unpredictable and funny. Chris Hemsworth once said that Waititi’s favourite gag is to “forget” that his microphone is switched on, so he can go on a pantomime rant for all to hear – usually about his disastrous Australian lead actor – only to “remember” that he’s wired and the whole crew is listening.

“I wouldn’t know about that, because I don’t listen to what other people say about anything – I’ve told you this,” Waititi says. “I just try to have fun when there’s time to have fun. And when you do that, and you bring people together, they’re more willing to go the extra mile for you, and they’re more willing to believe in the thing that you’re trying to do.”

Yes, he plays music between takes, and dances out of his director’s chair, but it’s really all about relaxing amid the immense pressure and intense privilege of making movies. “Do you know how hard it is just to get anything financed or green-lit, then getting a crew, ­getting producers to put all the pieces together, and then making it to set?” Waititi asks. “It’s a real gift, even to be working, and I feel like I have to remind ­people of that: enjoy this moment.”

Source: The Age

By: Konrad Marshall (December 1, 2023)

[talenlee]

Game Pile: The Comprehensive Videogames History of Grammy-Award Winning 1999 Hit “Smooth” By Santana Feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

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You might have found this because you would Rather Be Listening to Grammy-Award Winning 1999 Hit “Smooth” By Santana Feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. This is because, inexplicably, the internet loves Rob Thomas, a walking meme of a man with whom I have a weirdly complicated relationship, not in any small part because for as long as I’ve been able to tell you what pop music is, he has been part of something in it that’s cool.

Not necessarily something that’s very cool.

But pretty cool.

At least, cooler than me, a guy who thinks Rob Thomas is cool.

Rob Thomas (of Matchbox 20) lives somewhere in the same space as All Star or Lazytown, a meme that is shallower than you think and yet better known and more well-liked than you’d expect. Meme fodder. That kind of memetic status is what led to the time, back in 2015, Nicholas Kula to design a T-shirt with the excessively specific and middlingly funny I’d Rather Be Listening to Grammy-Award Winning 1999 Hit “Smooth” By Santana Feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty shirt slogan shirt. Kula put the shirt on Redbubble, it got a little bit of attention, and then it got copied and then it became a wildly successful meme raising upwards of hundreds of dollars, reblogged by Rob Thomas (of Matchbox Twenty), then shut down by the representatives of Rob Thomas (of Matchbox Twenty) for violating the copyright of amongst other people, Rob Thomas (of Matchbox Twenty). The design is back up, now, I suppose?

You might have seen this shirt, maybe on some streamer or the like, a really deliberately ironically un-funny funny thing that exists in that special place of meme magic that has no value but to remind you that hey.

Products exist.

It’s still a thing that put Rob Thomas, who hadn’t had a hit on the radio since, really, 1999 and also, what the hell is a radio, on the radar around that time, so that meant that after all this furore in 2016, it was a time ripe for the retrospect. Rolling Stone took the time to strike while the iron was gone, and three years later (around the song’s twentieth anniversary, I suppose), and it was thanks to a guy named Rob Wesley sharing an excerpt of the article that the conversation takes a turn for the gamer.

What Wesley shared in the thread is a section where the narration outlines the way that Rob Thomas was playing Silent Hill and how that was important to Santana’s relationship with him – that their friendship during the songwriting of the song Smooth was marked by long stretches of Rob Thomas playing Silent Hill games while Santana got stoned and told him what to do.

[Excerpts on screen]

This presents us with an interesting question: Was Carlos Santana playing a videogame?

Now there’s a way to discard this argument pretty conveniently; you can say ‘no,’ and that’s that. That’s fine, if you want to be boring about it, but that also shows an unwillingness to engage with the question, to work out what the question is asking and what kind of answers present ways to view the world.

What Carlos Santana was doing was passing instructions to another player, while probably chemically compromised, and that player – ostensibly enacted their will. How is Carlos not playing that game? If we assume that you need direct control over a game for it to count, then a lot of chess games in history were played by nobody. Fancy lads with fancy hats would send one another letters with chess moves in them, and then the recipient would put those moves in action on their chessboard and send a letter with their own moves in it, in response to the state they were both maintaining. Now in no case did either of these players have direct hand on the chess pieces on the other board, meaning that if directing a player to enact your intention doesn’t count, then these people were playing against literally nobody, and therefore, not playing chess, and therefore, probably didn’t exist.

This also runs into the problem of Dungeon Masters or Gamemasters or whatever – after all, in all those games, you have to give your game actions to another player, and then they enact your intentions. This capacity of confusing intention and outcome is a thing I refer to as enrolment, where you become enmeshed in the behaviour of the game. One of those things that games just do is that when you partake in playing in the game, you are committing actions whose outcome is uncertain; not impossible or unknowable, but just that when a game becomes inevitable, it loses something, and players tangibly react to the nature of a game being decided. You know what it means when you’re entering endgame. Players often can predict the outcome of the end of the game when it becomes inevitable and either fold or scrap for their last points.

That means there is some clear element of game playing that is the way that the control mechanism, while maybe feeling good, is not necessarily capable of delivering perfect outcomes. You don’t need your control scheme to be reliable for you to to be playing the game. After all, one-handed play or players for whom an interface is incompatible aren’t not playing a game just because the controller wasn’t designed for them, they’re just dealing with an interface problem.

Now to look at the alternate side of things, how about some people in a similar situation, trying to influence a game, badly, with a control mechanism that doesn’t reliably work, by talking to someone else? Ie, what about people watching a stream?

Stream audiences clearly try to have impact on the game they’re watch. In popular channels, it’s not uncommon for them to cheer, to try and remember or suggest strategies, to try and ask the streamer to take a more explicit or clear route through their thinking process. They will try and influence the conversation happening around the game, where they will invite the streamer to speak on a topic, and that has an impact on how the game is played. There is a stimulus, a response, an uncertain outcome, and a control scheme. They are engaged with the stream, and the streamer is affected by that engagement.

Okay, what about the chat where the player is wholly unaffected?

What about streams where the players are isolated? What about streams without chat, or without the audience necessarily speaking to the streamer? Are they going to have an impact on the game, as it is played? Are they playing the game through their presence? Is their observation an engagement with the game of the stream? Streamers will often explain that the presence of an audience transforms the experience of playing a game – that when you have to be aware of an audience, it changes one’s focuses and reactions. Even if that audience is elsewhere, even if that audience does not interact with the streamer through conventional interface, is the fact of being observed a thing that can be done as the engagement surface of a game?

Well, they’re doing something, right? If the audience, if the crowd, wasn’t a factor in a game, well, the most obvious example of spectators in a game, sports, wouldn’t have a meaningful idea of ‘home team’ advantage. We know that spectators in a sport influence the game that’s being played, after all — if nothing else, there are a lot of times in Baseball’s history in particular where a game was concluded, thanks to the actions of the spectators. Bless you battery hucking weirdoes. Now, hang on, you might argue that that’s not playing the game, and yeah, maybe it’s not. It’s concluding the game, with a different set of priorities. But the knowledge that fans can do that kind of thing, concerns that the reactions of the fans could curtail the game certainly play into the game’s players’ functions. They are an influence on the playing of the game, so we can definitely not say that they are separate from it.

But let’s say that that’s a material concern; that the game is agnostic of the spectator behaviour, and that the game is only defined by the rules that they experience. This is a great big discussion, something you can delve into at length through The Philosophy Of Sport, but that mighty tome is built on the work of Bernard Suits, the author of that book Grasshopper, Life Games And Utopia. From this book I draw my definition of games, where he defines games as the voluntary overcoming of unnecessary obstacles. Under that definition, there are definitely some things to squint at. It’s a very broad definition, after all, and you may feel it includes some things that don’t count. It means that you can’t be coerced into playing a game, and that can ask questions about whether people who are playing a game as a job are still playing a game, if their continued livelihood is contingent on it. It is a definition you use for what it lets you do.

What it lets me do, is talk about games in a way that includes lots of different types of game.

Something that book describes is that just because people are all playing a game together that doesn’t mean they’re playing the same game. Suits describes the way that a player might be cheating, which immediately means they’re playing a different game, since you can’t both play a game and violate its rules. There’s also players playing for reasons to impede the game, the spoilsports, who are following the rules but playing in a way that reduces the play or the fun of the other players. Similarly, what if I’m playing a game with a little kid, and I know the game much better than they do, but I’m deliberately trying to impose rules on my self to ensure that kid isn’t blown out? We might both be playing Rhino Hero but I’ve set myself an extra, additional limitation – I’m trying to beat the game, I’m trying to win, but I’m trying to do so in a way that keeps the game close, while also making sure this other player doesn’t feel like they’re being humoured, and trying to make it fun for myself. This may involve imposing new, other rules on myself. I’m playing the game, but I’m also playing another, nested game on top of it.

If you accept it of game experiences as maximally inclusive, you have a tool for when you can sit at these odd intersections and ask the question: Are the audience playing a game? And if you’re trying to be maximally inclusive, and you want to include the idea that engaging with the game, trying things, hoping, cheering, hypothesising strategies and seeing how your strategies relate to the enacted ones, then you are playing a game, it’s just a game with an entire other game as one of its components. A lottery is a game, and that’s a game where you’re trying to correctly guess a number with exactly one attempt, and the result of that is a stunningly engaging game if the incentives are lined up right.

What about an audience who are completely disconnected? What if we took the audience completely out of the sport, let’s put them in a remote location, where they can’t say or do anything to the players, like the esports community of South Korea’s Starcraft channels. For lower-tier matches, outside of code A (at least ten years ago when I was paying a lot more attention), players weren’t getting a live audience, but their games were being broadcast to satisfy a bottomless demand… and we know in that case, that nerves, choking, all are factors that the audience’s existence can impose on the players.

Okay, so what if we remove the ability of the audience to influence the players. What if the players are somehow, emotionally, unaffectable by the attention of an audience? What if they were cold, efficient, and entirely automated in their play experience in a way that could be equalised and fair? And in order to make sure they’re not too complex, let’s make these game players as simple as possible such that they can’t fail or break or be otherwise impacted, meaning the game can operate in the purest possible way, without any psychological influence of the audience.

Are those spectators playing a game, with these ideas of enrolment and maximally inclusive game definition?

Yes.

In that simplest possible definition, there is a goal, and the spectator is trying to achieve the goal, with a consensually-chosen unnecessary obstacle: Specifically, the goal is to get their chosen simplified actor into a victory position, with a control mechanism that is completely deprived of all functional agency. The spectator wants a player to win, they want to succeed, but the only means they have to influence the game are by cheering and by wanting. They negotiate, they pray, they plan, they strategise, they try to find a way to see their chosen player win, or get better results, or wind up where they want them to be, all through no means at all, through the least effective means possible. They are in many cases, trying to construct visions of the future for what can happen if it does happen, to get the outcome they want, which is itself, a prediction game that can be satisfied or not.

I forward then that the audience are playing a game when they map out expectations, when they cheer, when they connect with one another. They are playing a game just as Carlos Santana was playing a game when he, stoned as hell, gave instructions to Rob Thomas; he wasn’t necessarily playing the same game as Rob Thomas.

…

The story about Rob Thomas and Santana is completely false, by the way. When I first wrote about this was when I learned, because it took me four years to get around to checking the source material.

I mean…

It doesn’t matter if it’s false.

But it is a pretty funny example.

And chances are, you might have thought that Carlos Santana was a Silent Hill fan for some reason.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[machetesquirrel]

Neurodivergent Study Tips

A teacher at my school asked me if I had any study tips for other students with ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, ect. so I typed up a little list. Thought others might find it helpful as well! Sorry it's so long. This is just my experience, so they probably won't work for everyone, I would love it if everyone could add on there own things they do to stay focused.

Do you have something that you’re really obsessed with whether it be a piece of media, a video game, a book, a certain subject or a time period in history? Try to relate it to what you are learning! 

-Use mnemonic devices related to your special interest or current thing you’re really into.. When I often need to memorize certain terms I like to make my mnemonic devices relate to the tv shows I like (ex. I  needed to memorize the three main gunpowder empires so I used the term “Silly Oncologist Man” which reminded me of Wilson from House MD but the first letter of each word matches the name of each gunpowder empire; the Safavids, the Ottoman Empire, and the Mughal Empire.) 

-Relate the things you like to what you are learning about.  Find a way to tie in the things you enjoy into what you are learning about. For math and science this can be quite easy, especially when you are learning about motion and other things that can be applied easily to many scenarios (I turned all my equations on calculating the motion of an object into playing roller derby or throwing projectiles in dnd or video games I like) For me I often relate political movements in fictional TV shows to the part of American history or philosophy they most align with, I find that any TV shows with complex fictional governments or that explore certain themes and ideologies are good for this (I used the Battlestar Galactica Reboot for this, but you can really use anything that you’re interest in, even other parts of history, this can also help you develop a deeper understanding!) 

-Find some way to fit something you like or what you’re interested in into your study routine. I often have the soundtracks of my favorite tv shows, movies or video games playing in the background as I study, or I often keep something that reminds me of the things I like nearby.  (I like drinking coffee while studying because it helps me focus and reminds me of my favorite character Ianto from the tv show Torchwood, similarly I also have a scented candle I like that smells like the Sunnydale Library from Buffy the Vampire Slayer burning while I work) 

Find ways to reward yourself for studying. 

- Make a tangible final product. I often find that making a tangible product relating to what I’m learning or what I’m interested in can be quite helpful. For example, instead of just forcing myself to memorize all the neurotransmitters and parts of the brain for AP Psychology I made up a fake video game where each of the neurotransmitters was a member of an alien punk band and the parts of the brain were places they went on tour. I was able to make little skill trees for each of the neurotransmitters as their character leveled up relating to the effects of what would happen if you had too much or too little of that neurotransmitter, also allowing me to memorize the different causes of mental illnesses at the same time. At the end of this project not only did I have a little booklet and ton of sketches of my neurotransmitter characters, as well as many accompanying pinterests boards but I also memorized all the terms I needed to know, often in far more depth than my classmates because I would look up additional information to complete my project. Plus if you have something you can take with you outside of school and show to other people it often leaves you feeling much more fulfilled. 

-Use Technology I use a lot of study and task tracking apps to motivate myself to study. My favorites are the ones that tie you studying to taking care of some kind of virtual pet or gaining in game items. My favorites are Study Bunny which allows to gain coins every time you study to better take care of your virtual bunny, Finch which is more of a self care app but you can also use to set goals for the day to take care of your virtual pet bird, Focus Traveller which also lets you make soundscapes and travel a mountain by studying more, Habitica a fantasy themed task managing app where you get coins and equipments for completing tasks and Hatch where you get to hatch alien creatures for studying. You can also use rewards not tied to an app but tied to something you like to do or something that you are interested in, but I also just like the apps.  

-Make your place to study actually fun to be in. I know this can be a lot harder for some people depending on if you actually have your own space at home. But you can even bring a cute action figure or good luck charm to put with you while you study, or just find a place in your school where you like to be (I have a favorite spot in my school library where I love to sit in for studying.) Your environment could also include playing the kind of music you like while studying or creating a special soundscape with calming sounds like rain or birds. I also often like lighting a scented candle or incense while I work because I really like good smelling things and it makes me happy to be at my desk. I also just have fun stickers on my laptop and a cute computer mouse that has just the best texture, making me happy to work.  

Find ways to prevent yourself from leaving your desk or stopping the task you are doing. 

Create a reason why you can’t leave your study space or stop your task. For this I often like to light a scented candle because I can’t leave an open flame unattended for more than a few minutes because my cat Gus has a death wish. So because I don’t want to waste matches I often find myself staying put and continuing to work as opposed to getting up and wandering the house to go bother the rest of my family. You can also use an app like Study Bunny or Hatch that sets a timer for how long you need to stay put. 

Incorporate movement into your studying. I am often very very fidgety and find myself often leaving my desk to wander around the house if I haven’t moved for long enough. Instead I have started pacing while reading my textbooks or using a fidget while studying so I can still get some movement in. My mom has a little mini elliptical thing she keeps under her desk which she finds very helpful as well, though that can be a bit expensive. 

Limit technology based distractions. Apps like Study Bunny or Hatch will stop you from accessing the rest of your phone without losing your progress, which can stop you from getting distracted and texting your friends or scrolling social media. I also have the software Virtual Cabin which not only makes it feel like you are studying in a cozy cabin with a cute cat/dog and nice music/nature sounds but also blocks the rest of your computer from view, keeping yourself focused on whatever you are doing.  Frankly I just find myself trying to do assignments on paper/analog as much as I can because it eliminates the temptation of me switching out of what I am doing and looking at something else on my computer. 

Find ways to hold yourself accountable. I often find that telling someone that I am going to do homework before I do it can be helpful. I even sometimes tell them what assignments I am doing so they can check in to see if  I actually did them, though I often find this a bit stressful. My best suggestion is to find someone who understands how your brain works so they won’t shame you if it gets in the way of you doing work and they can even help come up with new strategies for working more effectively. For example I often tell my penpal that I am doing homework because they believe in me but they also have issues focusing and staying calm sometimes so they understand if sometimes that stuff gets in the way. You can also just sit with someone very quietly and work next to them this is called “body doubling” and I find that if I am working while someone else is working I feel more motivated to work and less likely to go through social media, because frankly I don’t want them to see the weird crap that I google when I’m trying to avoid doing homework (way too many questions about the lore surrounding video games I’ve never played and have no intention to play, and many weird questions for my various creative writing projects.) 

[monocle-teacup]

What personality do you see in the Terrans? Aside from lack of depth and development, I don’t see much personality, style, hobbies, or traits. Nor can we fully ask ‘who’s most likely to do’ in order to understand their character. How much introverted/extroverted are they? Or are they omnivert?

I more or less wrote short paragraphs of what each Terrans are like. Here’s what I came up with.

Nightshade: very introverted and creative. Interested in the science/technology field. Enjoys passive activities like watching tv, playing board games, bird watching, not TF tag. They dislike the military training the most.

Jawbreaker: shy, introverted or omniverted. Least assertive. Most anxious. Most likely to forgive a bully for bullying him. Twitch: Competitive and extroverted. Most likely to give puppy eyes and give hugs. Has the most pressure to do better (leader of her Terran siblings). The best at controlling her emotions in a certain situation (cuz it’s what a leader should do. She learns to become an efficient leader).

Hashtag: very extroverted and tends to be ignorant when socializing others. Loves to share and make the most of connecting with people. Most likely to cry when her fav show ends. More in-touch with her Earthling side than her Cybertronian side.

Thrash: Courageous and confrontational. Extroverted. He’s the most reckless and the most likely to get into trouble and arguments. He would do pranks, do something wild and get revenge if he was done wrong.

I pretty much agree with what you've written. For the most part, Twitch, Thrash, and Hashtag are pretty much the same as their Production Bible (PB) bios although the show left out how Hashtag low-key wants to be human. Nightshade and especially JB were stripped of a few interesting quirks:

Nightshade -Was supposed to be much more eccentric to the point the PB uses the word 'kooky' -Their altmode was originally a gargoyle and they used a war hammer in battle -Actually hacked the cyber sleeves because SCIENCE -Would continue tinkering on whatever they were working on even if there was danger which is what Mandroid does in the show

JB -Idolized OP which they sort of had in S2 -Was supposed to be very interested in Cybertronian history

Unfortunately, the ES staff decided to mostly focus on JB's tendency to break things. However, in the PB it was so bad that the Maltos had a catch phrase "Did anybody need that wall?" In the show, JB was a huge fan of pro wrestling in S1 so he at least has one hobby/interest.

[seriously-siri]

I was rooting through more works to post and I realized I never posted this. So yay, new content!

For a little background, this is the War/Fall universe (the games, not Netflix show). Might be a little dry at the start, but I really enjoyed writing Megs in this.

 “All Hail Megatron!”

Sparks cascaded down from the wreckage of a small transport and the smell of burnt metal and wiring lingered in the air with the unmistakable, acrid smell of spilt energon. There were a few survivors; whether or not they should be kept alive? Well that depended on who you asked. 

To Megatron, it could go either way. It all depended on what the cargo had to say. There weren’t weapons or energon cubes or any other kind of war supplies on that ship. There were bots. Generic made to order bots fresh off the production line on their way to Iacon. On their way to join Optimus. 

He couldn’t have that, now could he? 

So one well aimed shot later and he was standing on the edge of the small crater the transport made on its impact waiting to see who was strong enough to survive. Strong enough to crawl to their feet and take his hand. Smart enough to stand against the Autobots. Strong enough to join him. 

If they weren’t? Well, too bad they won’t even have a chance to transform for the first time. 

“All Hail Megatron!”, the cry sounded again, less muffled this time as audio receptors reset themselves from the shock of the crash. 

A bot listened to the cheer again as he slowly tested his limbs. Nothing was pinning him down and he couldn’t feel any serious damage. He’d gotten lucky. He hurt, but that would happen when you fall from the sky in nothing but a small metal tube jam packed with other bots; most of whom are now dead.

So much for not getting scratched up on the first deca cycle.

With a disturbing creak in his frame the bot sat up and pushed himself up onto shaky legs. His orientation leader had said there was a war on the horizon. He said they were going to play important roles in the war. He just failed to mention the war had started and was so close. They weren’t even a dozen clicks from the facility he came online in. Were they trying not to scare them? He didn’t even know what his function was going to be. He woke up, got a digital download of the last million years of history and was shoved onto a ship to continue onwards to his life. 

Everyone on board the ship had been a little shell shocked and then they went down. 

Looking for a way out of the crater they had ended up in, his optics focused upon a towering form.  It knelt near the edge and offered a hand to him, which he gladly accepted and found the strength of its grip incredible.  It was with very little effort the larger ‘bot hoisted him out, and only then did the difference in their size become truly apparent. And he was not alone.

A rescue party? 

A myriad of colors and designations were present.  Some shorter than knee joint height, others with the gift of flight. They all stood a pace or so behind the one that had helped him up.  In the middle of their chest plates shone a mark. 

Oh. He knew that symbol. It was the mark of the Decepticons. The ones that he was told were the enemies of this war. The ones that had to be stopped. The bot looked down at his own chest, a red symbol recently plastered to it. Compared to the purple insignia he suddenly felt very small and very weak.

The Decepticon symbol was more distinct.  It wasn’t something one was given, like his, it held far more value than that.  It had to be earned. He didn’t need any history download to tell him that. It was obvious that this group of bots had proven themselves a hundred times over. They stood tall and proud and unafraid. 

He really wished he wasn’t so scared right now. Still, he took what little courage he had and met his savior’s gaze. “Thank you.” 

This one. Megatron resisted the urge to grin.  It didn’t take a lot to figure out which ones were worth keeping around and which ones were, well, scrap. It usually only took him one or two moments to figure it out and it all started with an action. 

Whether or not they had the courage to look him in the optics or not. This one passed, so far.

“No thanks needed.” Looking over the measly few who survived the crash he turned back to the one in front of him. “Who are you, my friend? What is your name?”

He already knew the answer, of course, but he waited nonetheless. The confusion came as it always did. 

Cue.

“You...do not have a name?”

“I am MS 9-78160 of 107511, but a name? I… no.”, The bot glanced at the other stragglers in the crater, but most had halted their ascent to listen and watch.  He processed for a moment and looked slowly upward into the glowing red optics studying him. “You have a name?” 

“I do.” Megatron loved this part. Loved this speech. It wasn’t just for fresh ears to hear. It wasn’t about convincing others to join him. It was a reaffirmation of his purpose, his cause, for all his men. “As do we all.”

Gesturing behind him Megatron turned to look at his small army. “But some of us had to claim our names. Take them and make them ours because we are more than just a bunch of numbers and code.

“AC 9-78." A knowing smirk. "That was my number, my callsign in the mines, but that wasn’t me. That wasn’t my choice. My friends, you are unaware of what this world is, how it works. How we, as numbers, are simply binary for a larger functioning machine. One that gives to the greedy and steals from the needy. One that gives us numbers instead of names. I’ve come to warn you, my friends, about this world that refused to designate me and my brothers as anything more than useful tools. I have also come to give you something I never had.” Turning back to the small group of bots he made sure to catch the front liner’s optics again.

“A choice. A choice to prove your worth. A choice to be a part of something great and good. A choice to change this world for the better- one where we are beyond ones and zeros.” Gathering himself he raised his voice just enough. “I am Megatron and I have come to let you choose. Join me and my Decepticons or...don’t.”

And that was the sound of Barricade cocking his gun. 

Megatron finally allowed himself a toothy grin. “The choice is yours, but I warn you. Be wise.”

“Megatron! Back off! They are not yours!” A familiar voice called out from the other side of the wreckage. 9-78 turned to find the orientation officer, Downshift standing around the side of the wrecked ship. He must have driven out after the transport went down. 

“Oh?” Megatron laughed. “No, they are most certainly not mine. I do not claim ownership of a spark that has not chosen to be by my side. You, on the other hand, seem very intent on getting your property back.” 

“Property?” 9-78 spat the word. “We’re not-”

“No?” Megatron raised an eyebrow. “You have a brand and a number? Surely that means someone owns you.” 

This time a voice floated up from the crater, another one of the survivors. “You have a brand!”

“That I chose. That I painted on myself. It was not stamped on my chest without my permission. What about yours?” Megatron waved a hand in the air, dismissing the argument. “If anything my point has been proven. I came here to free you. He’s come here to put you back in shackles.” 

Downshift shook his head desperately. “Don’t listen to him recruits! Megatron is a master of lies and-” 

“Oh shut up already.” A purple and yellow bot to Megatron’s right raised an arm, hand trading out for a shotgun. 

“Just a moment.” Megatron flashed a wicked grin and turned slightly to his left. “Barricade, your spare.” Holding out an arm Megatron waited for the mech’s spare blaster pistol to drop into his palm. Barricade always had a spare or two. Sometimes three. Turning back to 9-78 he held out the gun. “Why don’t you see what you’re capable of.” 

Raising a wary hand, 9-78 hesitated before wrapping trembling fingers around the gun’s barrel and turning it over in his hands to look at it. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean?”

“Put it down!” Downshift pleaded. “Guns were not meant for you!” 

9-78 turned to look at his orientation officer. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Megatron chuckled. “9-7 yes? That’s the code for messenger, am I right? It means you are to be a delivery boy. Traveling to and from with writing and items at everyone else’s whims.” 9-78’s optics got a little darker, a little angrier. “I believe they make you in bulk because with this oh-so-savage war going on, your life expectancy is minimal, at best.” 

This world Megatron presented was one that offered a fate worse than termination.  Endless cycles of what? Nothing? These… Decepticons, they sought a better world as he had said.  They were unafraid to take it if they had to.  He turned again toward the crater.  The same look was upon every face, including Downshift’s.

Fear.

They were afraid. Of what? Of Megatron? Of the Decepticons and their weapons? It was becoming clearer. They were afraid to choose. To choose means to ask.  Asking yourself, which path. It was already so obvious to him, and they could not see it. Blinded by their fear of the choice, they could not comprehend the outcome of either option. Casting one last look over his production mates, all identical to him in form, obviously not in function, he turned back toward Megatron.

“I choose a better world.”  There was no further hesitation. He would not be like the others. He would stand out. Gasps came from the others behind him, but he stood proud of his choice, and awaited its outcome.

One of the minicons, purple and silver, shifted and leaned into another that looked similar, red and black. “Quick thinking, that one. I like 'em.”

“Shut up Rumble.” Barricade snapped. He took a step closer to Megatron. “Lord Megatron, the others seem hesitant. Perhaps you didn’t inspire them quite enough.”

Megatron didn’t react to the bribe, but right now he was looking at one of the saddest bunch of bots to come from manufacturing he’d ever seen. Perhaps with the haste and need of more numbers the quality had gone down. Which then begged the question if anyone here was worth the effort.

But he was also looking at one of the bots that might just turn tides in the future. Reaching out he gestured to 9-78. “Come.”

The bot responded almost immediately, taking three shaky steps to plant himself in front of Megatron who turned him to look back at his group and held him in place by the shoulders. “Will any of you be joining your brother? Will anyone be standing by his side?”

No answers. 

“My Decepticons.” Megatron turned to his lieutenant just behind him. “Would you be so kind as to motivate them for me?”

9-78 was unsure which sound coming from behind him was more disturbing; the weapons fire, the screams, or the laughter.  It was less than a full cycle and it was almost over.  Only two remained. Himself and Downshift.  

From the other side of the crater he called out. “You were so quick to choose this?! Traitor!” 

9-78 cocked his head in question glancing down at the gun in his hand and then back up at Downshift. “Traitor to what? I’ve only made one decision in my life so far. How can I betray something I never believed in? Something I haven’t been taught to be a part of yet?”

Megatron grinned.

Barricade knelt down next to 9-78 and quickly righted the gun in his unpracticed hand and raised the bot’s arms to shooting level. “I always like to aim for the face.” He whispered before backing up a couple of steps.

9-78 took one step forward, aimed the unfamiliar weapon across the crater, and sneered. “You can’t betray a free choice.”

The bolt of plasma that seared from the weapon struck true and detonated Downshit’s head, erasing the look of both horror and shock.

He handed the weapon back to Barricade and looked back toward Megatron, unsure of what he would find.

Megatron didn’t hold back a grin. “Well done. To stand up against such odds. To be so alone and yet so alive. Conviction and good sound logic run through that head of yours.” Placing a hand on the bot’s shoulder he looked out into the crater and at the strewn about bodies- the final one across the way still smoking. “You have proven yourself to us, a maverick among cowards. Welcome, my brother.” 

Maverick. That… I like that. I think I’ll take it.

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Maverick is my friend's OC, a little naive, a little lost, but he's got spirit.