#that reminds me I need to finish playing bioshock

[azurdlywisterious]

Headcanon time! This one is how the Atompunk Ancap Trio takes their coffee☕️

Mr. House probably gets a hot latte from a local coffee shop. Will get a robot to pick a latte up for him if he’s too busy to go himself. Doesn’t like the taste of coffee on its own but he does like it in balance with some cream and spices.

Cave Johnson likes his coffee black. Has accidentally drank motor oil because it was indistinguishable from his coffee mug. Fixed this issue by just drinking the coffee straight from coffee pot.

Andrew Ryan takes his coffee with bourbon creamer (yes this is a real thing that exists). Just a little something to take the edge off. What edge? Who knows. Guess the waterbed woke him up last night.

[vvatchword]

So: it has come to my attention that napciyunka (or their clueless supporters) are claiming that I have doxxed AND stalked napciyunka for "racefaking." (Apologies for polluting the "bioshock" tag; this is the only instance I'll devote to this absolute garbage.)

Now, I fully intended to let that relationship just die off, quietly, without fanfare or explanation, because it was purely between napciyunka and me, but if you guys are gonna play telephone in the background, I might as well put my own two cents out there.

I will start small, without screenshots, but if I have to, I will fill out the blanks from start to finish.

Here is how it went down:

Napciyunka offered the olive branch via Tumblr DMs and wanted to discuss Native issues in-depth with me.

I apologized to them. They never apologized to me, but that didn't bother me very much; I felt like all we needed was an acknowledgment of the situation.

Although I was very touched and deeply fascinated, I was also wary because our initial interaction involved napciyunka calling me "evil" and me clapping back with "liar." Long story short, not a very good start. I wondered if napciyunka might have ulterior motives, and was aware that if they wanted to sic a mob on me, they could.

I discussed the possibilities of napciyunka taking revenge on me with my private BioShock server. One of the topics was whether or not napciyunka really was who they said they were (Native, a spokesperson with their tribe, and some other pertinent information).

I must reiterate: this was intended to vet a possible relationship that could backfire on me spectacularly. I thought mob justice and possible doxxing might be on the line, among other things.

We discussed some ways we could verify napciyunka's identity. This included checking IP addresses. The purpose was to verify identity, not to harass. This is explicitly clear.

Part of the reason was because we'd all seen a white person put on a POC face to make their argument more palatable. (Important note: napciyunka is who they say they are.)

This was a single discussion over the course of a few hours that we dropped immediately and never returned to.

Meanwhile, I fostered a relationship with napciyunka. I really liked them. There is so much that's good about them. Apparently they make it a habit to approach people they've had arguments with, which is very cool. They have a great sense of humor, an interesting life, and a cool cat.

Napciyunka's iPad, iPencil, and iPods were stolen from their workplace. This was a not insignificant source of income for them, as they are an artist. I happened to have an iPencil that I'd found at an airBNB. I'd had no idea what the worth of the thing was ($179, no fucking shit! I'd had it with my $.10 pencils).

Napciyunka gave me their address without hesitation. I sent them the iPencil... with my own address on the return section. It is worth mentioning that we are about as far away from each other as you can go north to south in the United States.

I really liked the cut of napciyunka's jib. They were a fun person, and from the screenshots they shared with me, it seemed like the other server was the worst fucking place on Earth. "Come to my secret BioShock server!" quoth I, a complete fucking moron.

Napciyunka went through our salt server. Most of us apologized to them in a general sense, explaining that we hadn't known them initially, explaining that emotions had been high and that we shouldn't have judged so quickly.

Despite our apologies, napciyunka never hesitated to zing us with reminders of our failures. They would do this to me without warning pretty regularly. I was starting to wonder if they had really accepted my apology. And if they hadn't accepted my apology, why were they here?

At one point, napciyunka shares a screenshot with me where they are complaining with sakowin, fellow Lakota tribe member, about the "big BSI doxxing." I was the only person who had brought up sakowin in our salt channel, and it was a passing mention; they weren't on our radar at all. If they were doxxed, it was not by us. Napciyunka implies that it was other people in the fandom--supposed supporters.

I remind napciyunka that I only talked about finding out their information and never actually did it. Napciyunka explains that other people in the fandom had tried to doxx them, too. At this point my eyes narrow a little: I was there and I don't remember people trying to doxx them. But what do I know? I wasn't there for all of their experience (which I don't doubt was horrendous).

My server had a mini-meltdown, after which napciyunka left.

Napciyunka either removed or blocked me as a friend on Discord to boot.

I was pretty sad about it, but it did make me realize that I had never felt fully comfortable with them, although I couldn't have told you why. "A lack of emotional sincerity" was how I explained it to a friend.

Also, I couldn't really figure out what the appeal was for napciyunka? We are very different people, although our sense of humor is very similar.

Napciyunka contacted me on Tumblr telling me it was messed up that I had "tried to doxx them." The meltdown that preceded this had nothing to do with doxxing.

I apologize for that specifically and admit that it was wrong and pretty fucked up, yes, but I never would have carried it out for a number of very good reasons, not the least of which is that it hadn't been my original intent (plus, it's evil, why would I fucking do that rofl).

At this point I have apologized something like five or six times for various fuck-ups. Napciyunka's refusal to apologize for anything is starting to get weird. It's like I can't do enough to appease them.

Napciyunka and I reconnect on Discord. Napciyunka asks to return to my server. I've cooled on the whole thing and decide to confer with my mods. I explain that we got off on a bad foot, repeating some of what napciyunka had explicitly called me ("evil," misreading my post intentionally so that it sounded like I was calling them a pussy for being upset about the Wounded Knee Massacre, and so on). "Water under the bridge," I explained, "I know that emotions were just high."

Which is when napciyunka begins to recount the BSI drama back to me... incorrectly.

They lie about having read the essay before writing their response post, they lie about who they were addressing in the essay (clearly me), they lie about what they said specifically. It gets extremely bad.

At this point I think I have a feeling for napciyunka and I'm completely done. I block them on Discord and on Tumblr and decide to let the whole thing die.

There was no doxxing. There was no stalking. I was in the process of losing my job and getting my ass kicked by my own brain. Who the fuck has that much fucking time.

Believe what you want. My slate is clean.

[lulusoblue]

one of the reasons I love Dishonored so much is because of its morality system and how it ties into the gameplay, AND how much it reminds me of and builds on the morality system in the first two BioShock games.

BioShock 1 & 2 had the Little Sisters and choosing whether to harvest their ADAM slugs and kill them, or rescue and cure them with the catch being less ADAM in return. It also plays into which ending you get, a Good ending, a Bad ending, or a "Neutral" ending.

The problem with BioShock is that the choices and consequences aren't the big factor of the games. Your morality choices don't have a massive impact on gameplay beyond how many plasmids and upgrades you can purchase throughout the game, and even then chances are you'll only be using your favourites and you'll have plenty enough for them. The endings as well are literally just the endings, you have some alternate dialogue and minor changes to events in BioShock 2, but the endings are just an FMV that start to play once you finish the last level.

Dishonored 1 & 2 plays with that system, takes your morality based off of your gameplay and not just a button prompt.

You, as Corvo, are literally built as a killing machine and the world you is your bloody playground. You can slice heads from shoulders and summon rats to eat your targets and posses people to walk then right into water because nobody else but you knows how to swim. All your skills, abilities, weapons and powers give you the freedom to do almost anything, come up with creative ways to murder and maim and it feels awesome. And you have to pay the blood price for that.

The morality system is tied to the city's wellbeing through the Chaos System. The more bodies you leave behind you, the higher the chaos. You try to destroy the evidence by feeding the body to the rats? Rat population increases and the Rat Plague spreads and the more Weepers you encounter. Get that nifty ability that disappears the bodies after a stealth kill? Missing people, Dunwall's anxiety grows, more chaos.

High Chaos VS Low Chaos playthroughs show how your actions as Corvo affect Dunwall. There is a plague, the empress is assassinated, the heir to her throne is missing and everything's going to shit if you aren't a nobleman or a cop or a cop but cult-flavoured. The consequence of invoking the Rule of Cool in your kills is that the bodies pile up and the people who aren't being eaten alive by the emboldened mutant rats are fuelling the chaos with anxiety and paranoia about a masked murderer running about in the shadows. The morality makes itself known throughout your game experience, and it reminds you that your actions have consequences, no matter how big or small.

If you want a good ending for Dunwall, you can't be that awesome killing machine slashing and shooting to Drunken Whaler. Low Chaos can be hard and for some even boring, because Low Chaos is about stealth and mercy. It's about minimising your body count, about choking guards unconscious, about ensuring that said guards are left napping out of sight and out of the reach of hungry mutant rats. Dunwall's peace and stability is something you need to earn with restraint, with alternate solutions and clever manoeuvres and as little bloodshed as possible. Turns out a populace is better at keeping a level head and surviving when corpses and rats don't flood the streets.

Dishonored challenges you on what you want: do you want the best possible outcome for Dunwall, for Emily and your allies, or do you want to be a badass master of death? You can't have both, because the Chaos System gives you semi-realistic consequences for casually slaughtering all the enemies in the level. Those enemies are discovered, or get eaten or just vanish, and that causes panic. The rebellion you're working with in 1 best reflects this, as your actions influence their attitudes and motives, up to the final level being drastically different with their setup depending on your chaos level.

The Dishonored games feel like they took the morality system of BioShock games and improved on it, if only to make your choices feel like they have more an impact in your experience. While the endings are still brief and perhaps lacklustre, the world changing around you to reflect how you treat this world or how you want to be in it is just so solid in how it asks you, "well what did you expect to happen?" as you stand in front of it covered in blood that isn't yours with a superpower to summon rats to eat people.

[zzaunite]

Headcanons for Wanda playing video games?

a/n: wasn't sure exactly what to do for this one but here's a lil somethin that got a bit off track. my knowledge is limited to animal crossing, cars 3: driven to win, tony hawk pro skater, bioshock, and various lego games, so that's where we're at.

gamer wanda headcanons.

RATED G FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES.

i do take requests but please give this a read before making one!

It’s Tony’s fault, really, as most things involving technology are. “Killer time waster,” he told her when he dropped by with the giant television and the game system. “Maybe it’ll sharpen up your reflexes, too.” Wanda’s reflexes did not and do not need sharpening, they’re fine, more than fine, but Tony never misses an opportunity to poke fun at his people. It is his love language, after all. But she did need a distraction, and a good one at that, what with the Avengers on hiatus and Tony keeping her on the compound “for her own safety.” If gifting her with fancy technology and leaving her alone was his way of apologizing for the circumstances, well, fine.

Wanda doesn’t like shooters (okay—she does, but she doesn’t like that they’re called shooters, and she doesn’t like the idea of killing people in excess even when it’s a game) but hell if she isn’t good at them. She swears she doesn’t use her magic as an extra trigger finger but she’s gotten so good at little magic that doesn’t leave a trace of red in the air that nobody can be sure.

She talks—never yells—at the television while she plays. Mostly to reply to in-game dialogue that doesn't need a response at all.

“Why does the man on the phone keep asking me ’would you kindly?’” They’re technically in a meeting. Technically. Meetings never feel quite right to Wanda when the whole squad isn’t assembled. It’s just Tony, Nat, and Scott around the table with her. Tony’s trying to brief them on something that may or may not be happening a year from now, Nat’s listening, Scott isn’t, and Wanda’s talking to whoever will listen. “The same phrase was on the little note on the plane,” she says, “and I don't think it's a coincidence.” Tony stops, frowns, and, “What?” he asks. “On the gift box from mom and dad,” she adds, as if it helps. The, “What?” comes from Natasha next. “BioShock,” Scott offers, “which is a sweet game. Super twisty—great if you want to have your morals messed with while you’re stuck in an underwater city.” They don’t end up finishing the meeting. They end up arguing across the table about whether or not video games are still fun when they employ manipulative psychological tactics. Scott says yes, Wanda says only sometimes, Natasha just observes, and Tony swears they'd have all been dead years ago if this was the entire team.

She doesn’t like when people watch her play unless they’re playing with her. Or unless it’s Natasha. Nat’s unobtrusive and familiar enough that Wanda doesn’t mind if the redhead slumps onto the couch with her and watches in silence until one or both of them doze off hours later.

Wanda’s Animal Crossing island is mostly trees, mostly unorganized, and rich with flowers. No Lilly of the Valley yet, but she’ll get there. It took her a while to figure out she could time travel to progress faster and once she did? No turning back. She plays the stalk market when she remembers to, which isn’t often, but she plays it well enough. She likes the duck villagers the best, and the cubs—all of the teeny tiny ones have a special place in her heart, in fact, and she tends to call them friends instead of villagers.

When Scott tries to get her into GTA it backfires. She gets him hooked on Mario Kart instead. They sit criss-cross, side by side on the floor in front of the couch, slinging banana peels and shells at each other until long after the sun’s gone down. “You remind me of my daughter,” he says in the middle of a race, and, “Sorry, that was weird,” when she doesn’t say anything back. “Wasn’t it?” Wanda pauses the game and considers. “No,” she says after a moment, “it’s not weird. I don’t have as many memories of my father as I would like, so these ones will be nice to have.”

Tony was right. Killer time waster, but not in a bad way. Time she would’ve spent worrying, regretting, wishing she could rewrite her past actions is better spent this way. She supposes it’s healthier for her to wait until she actually has someone to talk to about those things (usually Natasha, sometimes Scott) than to try and work them over when it’s late and she’s alone and there’s nowhere to go but down. She doesn’t like how good she is as demonizing herself when she’s alone with her thoughts, but she does like how it feels to work through things like that with someone she trusts. She only wishes there were more of those people.

[fanfoolishness]

Interview with a Fic Writer

Tagged by @novantinuum, thank you!

__

How many works do you have on AO3?

242 works. The actual fuck??? Wow, me. Of course, this does span about 9 years, so I guess that's not that insane?

What’s your total word count on AO3

549,737! But that averages out to only 2271 words per story, haha. You got me! I think I have less than 10 fics that have more than 1 chapter. I love one-shots, what can I say?

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Oh, you want to get into this? All right. We'll get into this:

The X-Files, proto-fandom, ur-fandom, first OTP ever... yeah, 15-year-old me went. WILD. Many horrible Mulder/Scully stories, and some Doggett/Scully and character study stories as well. Mostly not very good, but with occasional flashes of decent writing. Really had a difficult time writing romantic feelings between 30+ year-olds given a) I did not date in high school and b) was 17 and not an emotionally stunted FBI agent.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - not a huge volume of stories, but definitely some very angsty Spuffy and Spike tales.

Harry Potter - just one published fic (Lupin grieving Sirius), and one with Snape and Harry having a heart to heart I could never quite get right.

Then came the dark times (vet school) where I was exhausted and hard at work for a few years and I thought, horribly, I might have outgrown fandom. Thank god for...

X-Men First Class and the undying love of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr! I'd never fallen for a slash ship before but my god I fell hard for this one and wrote my first fandom smut and my first real AU (mutants with zombies) that I never finished.

Then.... let's see...

Quantum Leap drabbles!

Two Avatar the Last Airbender fics!

Agents of SHIELD fics, mostly focused on Coulson and FitzSimmons, and super angsty.

Bioshock Infinite sads (god I love writing the sad bad dad)!

And then the juggernauts of Mass Effect (my longest fic to date with 30 chapters!) and Dragon Age, which were endlessly productive and are still productive given the variety of different protagonists you can create, different choices, and different relationships to canon characters. I'm still working on a Hawke/Varric fic in the back of my mind here.

There's one random Gravity Falls fic (wish I could have got a little more obsessed with it, or gotten into it while it aired) of Stan sads, and one tiny Avengers ficlet of a sad Tony and Peter.

There's one Wheel of Time fic! Dammit I wanted Rand and Tam to reunite so much sooner than they did.

40-odd Steven Universe fics! So many SU fics!

One random Schitt's Creek fic of David and Patrick!

And finally, The Mandalorian, with 47 fics. Phew!!!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. The Invitation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin finds himself in dreams that seem realer than real, reminding him of his loss, but he begins to find a sense of hope again. A promise is kept.

2. The Outstretched Hand, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin is a man of action, but sometimes, the quiet finds its way in. Din reckons with the aftermath of the events of Chapter 14, the Tragedy. (My very first Mando fic!)

3. Not the Sentimental Type, Steven Universe. Priyanka Maheswaran has long prided herself on keeping her emotions in check. But a mother's love can only grow, and sometimes it expands to people she never anticipated. Like the Universe boy.

4. Translation, The Mandalorian. Din Djarin was a man of few words, but many languages. Some might have thought the Child had no language at all. Din Djarin and the Child grow to understand each other.

5. Full Disclosure, Steven Universe. Just as the world begins to recover from Spinel's attack, Steven starts having nightmares. The more he ignores his fears, the worse they become, until he's left with no other choice but to ask for help. (My thoughts on what would drive Steven Universe Future, and I wasn't far off.)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I really try to! Even sometimes years later if I realize I've missed some. I appreciate each and every one, and have definitely made friendships through comments <3

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, hell... I'm too lazy to link these but if anyone wants to read them let me know or find them on my AO3!

A Stopped Clock from Bioshock Infinite has Booker DeWitt ravaged by Korsakoff's amnesia from his long-standing alcoholism. Is Columbia real or imagined? Hard to say.

The Viscount's Way shows Varric Tethras having become his parent, and a cruel, hard viscount of Kirkwall.

Songs in the Key of Red shows how Cullen fared under the dark future in Redcliffe in DAI, and they write happy endings, don't they? shows what happened to Varric. Both horribly depressing in different ways!

Two by Two, Hands of Blue shows a not unexpected end to lyrium addiction :( Poor Cullen, he got a lot of angsty developments, didn't he?

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever written?

Never really got into crossovers or AUs. Just... meh for me!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, I don't think so.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Charles/Erik, Shepard/Garrus, Shepard/Liara, Shepard/Tali, a mess of different f/f femShep drabbles, and most of my Dragon Age pairings have gotten sexytimes. On the other hand I helped start the NoRomo Mando tag for the Mandalorian to help find non-pairing Mandalorian content. Depends on the pairing and the fandom, for sure.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope, thank goodness!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think so! There used to be a Spanish-language wiki linking to some of my old X-Files stories XD

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but friends and I definitely will beta each others' things to help with sticky points.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

ALL-TIME? Just, why? So many ships I loved in years past turned out to have pretty damn problematic elements I didn't see at the time, so it's hard to say... Mulder/Scully actually has a ton of issues, Buffy/Spike obviously has issues... so maybe Hawke/Varric (except not canon!) or Garrus/Shepard or Brosca/Alistair.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Still need to finish my Hawke/Varric fic for after Adamant! I have 3 chapters written that I haven't posted. Maybe posting them will help inspire me....

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and POV writing from different characters; I feel fantastic writing Steven and Greg, though totally at sea trying to write from Connie's POV, randomly. But I think my dialogue and emotional beats are what people tend to tune in for. When I do write romance, it's usually very sweet and silly and pulled from life. I also love writing nature scenes and settings to help establish mood. Mood and emotion and catharsis are my bread and butter, and I like my poetic prose.

What are your writing weaknesses?

What the hell is a long, well-thought-out plot? Like what even is that???? My longest fic with 30 chapters is basically "Shepard has PTSD and hangs out with her crew. They have some funerals." THAT'S IT. How the heck people actually come up with plot that ties into the lore of a fandom I genuinely have no idea and it's the biggest thing that's held me back from finishing original work. I can come up with a setting and characters and then trying to make them do stuff that's more than just talking to other characters and deepening their relationships with them... how the fuck???

I also definitely have 10-20 words that I am in constant danger of reusing like every other paragraph, LOL!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't speak any other languages so I always avoid it as much as possible. I've seen people describe sign differently in fics and picked one way to depict it that made sense to me for Grogu, but that's about it.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files, of course!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Towards Another Day, the tale of how Cullen went from being a templar in Kirkwall to commander of the Inquisition, is definitely up there.

Reverberations is one of my rare multi-chaptered fics and one of my favorite for the catharsis at the end. It makes me tear up every time. 5 times Din and Grogu encounter the Dark Side, and one time they find the Light.

Either a world for the birds (Steven develops a closer relationship with his Uncle Andy, learning birdwatching along the way) or on the subject of rocks (Steven and Jasper finally reach a peace) might take the prize for favorite SU fic.

__

Tagging (if you’re super bored and would like a fun thing to do) fellow writers:

@lastwordbeforetheend, @runrundoyourstuff, @honestlyhufflepuff, @art3mys, and @fake-starwars-fan if you would like to play!

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

My more critical thoughts on Resident Evil 7

Spoilers and this was copied from a draft that carried a note that I couldn’t send because of the limit. But the first part is where I talk about mainly the final act or so. Mainly Eveline, the Bakers, and Mia. Spoilers for RE7. This was long ago and when I was fresh or so from finishing the 7th game.

Be warned, it’s long and it’s not the best written. Also, I noticed that I mentioned the fact for some reason...AVP 1999 literally had a Xenoborg. But that’s whole other discussion. Reminds me of my old Mecha Predator ideas. Besides, my friend has responded to this and they agree.

“In all seriousness, I do like Resident Evil 7 with what it tries to do. I like that it went back to more of the survival horror aspect. The Bakers are cool scary and cool antagonists/villains. The gameplay is mainly wonderful and fitting for this. But as it was getting towards the ending...I felt off...

I didn’t mind the ship part but...it might be my fault for rushing the final act basically. And I’m trying to recall what were my biggest criticisms and I think it’s these three.

1. Eveline...you know playing and watching cutscenes unfold and what you’ve talked about...I question whether I’m too empathic. All three of these things relate to another. I can understand that Mia and Ethan don’t wanna be empathic to a BOW that did all of this damage...but I feel like it’s a bit...dehumanizing.

I’m remembering more what bothered me. The fact even Ethan calls Eveline a, ‘bitch’ is just...telling. Even if you were to find the documents/notes where it reveals she wanted some love. I can understand Eveline would sadly have to die...

But I feel like despite Jack was saddened to say that Eveline needed to be dealt with. I don’t like how it seems to paint the Bakers more as victims...I’m gonna sound like an asshole.

Again, I get what they are going for with Eveline. The whole concept of her is strangely tragic. That the Connections literally made a child as a BOW. It’s just weird to talk about.

2. The Bakers I again like. Including Zoe. She’s fine. But...unless I play the Daughter DLC or something...I get the direction of victims...I’m sorry to use this as a cop out. And I know you’ve mentioned Eveline before. But the fact that photograph exists of Jack and Mia. Whether it’s just me loving the older games more.

I feel like a douchebag saying I wouldn’t care or feel sorry for this kind of family. It seems kind of tacked on in a way unless I miss certain things. I know infection really changed the mindsets of Jack and Marguerite for the worse. I still feel sorry for Zoe just...it’s weird to talk about.

3. Mia...you know, I know the ending is meant to be happy and all that. But considering Resident Evil 8 and other things. I’m so bothered by how...trying to recall. How they handled that.

I don’t hate Mia and I’ve grown to understand why you like her character. I think she has potential. But I recall I think the idea is how could someone like Ethan love Mia...I know that sounds awful.

The fact just...I’m not saying I want him to straight up yell at her or something. I hate how Mia’s actions aren’t really touched more in RE8 and the fact just...I get what happened to her is traumatic. I hate the fact she literally did this and it feels like they just forgot that this woman literally worked with The Connections or something.

She is responsible for a lot of stuff. And after that. She and Ethan have a baby and just I have a problem with American writers thinking this...we could’ve had something like Brigid Tenenbaum...just why?

I get and I like the idea she cares for her family and not wanting them to know what she was...but holy fucking shit. That should’ve been a big plot point for RE8. I can’t just...I wonder no...it has to be the writer, not any mandates Capcom has. This isn’t Sega. At least with Sega, their mandates make sense.

But holy shit! Decided to answer a message on Twitter on my phone...I don’t wanna say the canon ending in RE7 is too happy...

The fact there were some problems with RE7 and it gets worse with RE8. Listen, I know Resident Evil isn’t like Bioshock 1 and 2 with storytelling or anything else. Just mentioned the Xenoborg thing...but seriously, you can at least respect our intelligence with these games. A lot of people like me really like these characters and some of these stories are a bit more simpler. They aren’t Silent Hill, but they are it’s own thing.

I’m deeply disturbed RE8 just forgets what she did and just makes her the, “Wife”. I shouldn’t accuse someone of sexism...but can these games at least challenge us in some way? I think I’ve talked enough. Time to move on.”

[3dsi]

alright finished bioshock infinite main campaign and its a good 7.5-8.5/10, depending on where I was.

extremely annoying things or bleh:

- turrets time out after you possess them

- half of the vigors just ... sucked. I mostly used devils kiss, possession, bird one, and water one

- only can carry two weapons? compared to bioshock 1 and 2 its meh

- lady comstock's fucking ghost.

- booker only got interesting the last portion of the game

- on the ship at the very end, the vox become bullet sponges as my bf put it. yeah it was hard difficulty but it was ridiculous

- bf pointed out that compared to the philosophies of like Ryan or lamb or atlas in 1 or 2, this one felt lacking and superficial. also it didn't matter towards the end except to give you more enemies to fight.

good:

- very pretty. loved looking around the city and the different rooms

- the story made up for the more annoying aspects of game play. I really liked the ending because I thought I knew what was happening until my 10 daughters needed to drown me. it wrapped up nicely and reminded me of looper

- songbird! the letuces!! voxophones!!

- fink stealing shit from the future lmao

- the lighthouses at the end

- combat didn't feel too repetitive for me tbh except for the end fight. otherwise I liked dropping from skylines and wrecking shit

- the tears were an interesting mechanic

yikes this is long now. probably will start the dlc today or tomorrow.

[sircnss]

3, 15, 18, & 26! 🎮❤️

Video Game Asks

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3. A game that holds a special place in your heart?

Oh okay, I have like two. So the first one is Starcraft, because I've been playing it off and on since I was like 13 (I'm 31 now so you know..math) and I tried playing Starcraft 2 but it didn't hold the same spark and also didn't have Wraiths in it so like what even was the point (I might give SC2 a try now that all three parts are out). And then the other is King of Fighters '94. This is my first fighting game and I played it all the time whenever it was at the bowling alley - it's also my first game I go looking for in arcades when they have the retro game stations. I like all of the KOF games I've played but '94 is the OG for me

15. Video game character you wish you could meet in real life?

RIP to all the Sims I have abandoned or let die off. Not saying that I want to meet them bc again... I've killed several but. Umm other than that I do not know. Maybe the prince from Katamari? Booker DeWitt? I do not know

18. If you could only play one video game for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Ummmm I go through moods and I think Bioshock Infinite is the only one I've replayed to beat several times outside of Starcraft. So like probably one of those two or like the Sims as long as I can get the packs and whatnot for a decent price bc you know, capitalism.

26. Favorite gaming series?

Probably the King of Fighters/Fatal Fury series. I am consistently looking to play them (which reminds me I need to buy KOF XIV) and I've played it for so long? Also cosplayed as a character from the series a few years ago. I really enjoy the Final Fantasy series but I have never fully beat one of the games, with the exception of part 1 of FF7Re. I've gotten close but never finished.

[avale-reves]

So what happened to your gameplays channel?

Discontinued, basically. For a couple reasons that I shall outline now in excruciating detail because I’m currently bored, lol.

1. Probably the biggest reason, and the tipping point, was that I kept experiencing huge technical obstacles. Every time it felt like it was going to be the end of me doing LPs and such, but I would push through it and keep going, but it just kept happening, over and over and over, and ultimately the last time was just the final straw really. Took the sign. First my computer completely broke, leaving me without a computer of my own for months. My boyfriend graciously let me use his laptop because he saw I was passionate about the channel and didn’t want me to give up. So I was pretty much commandeering his laptop for a few months, the idea being that I’d mostly use it to just finish the series I had already started recording and editing until I could get a new computer. I kept having technical issue with his computer since it was pretty old (audio sync issues being the biggest thing) so that was another headache. Eventually figured it out and things were okay. Then, for Christmas+My Birthday my boyfriend went in on a new gaming laptop for me. This was well timed as he needed his laptop back for work and me using it was putting a strain on things in that regard. So thing’s all good, right, new laptop, ready to go. Except now I’m having issues with this new computer. I try recording things but the video will always lag and glitch out (which then makes the audio out of sync) and it does it in a way that is pretty much impossible to edit around. I troubleshoot for weeks trying to figure out the issue, but basically, it just doesn’t work. Then I thought about using my boyfriend’s old laptop, and just only recording at night when he wouldn’t need it. I get this all set up for ReMind only to find out that he had updated the computer to a new OS (it’s a Mac thing idk) and now his laptop won’t recognize my mic. So yet ANOTHER problem. I’m still committed to giving it a go and recording ReMind because it’s the first KH game where I could record it blind and all that. So I end up having to record video using his laptop, and audio using mine. It’s a hassle, it’s messy, but I do it. But then during recording i had YET another issue. At this point, it was just way more work than it was worth, and I felt like... Idk, hitting issue after issue after issue it was like a sign that I should give up. So that was one of the major reasons. But also,

2. My videos weren’t doing well. After BioShock Infinite and Night in the Woods, I noticed a trend where each series after just performed worse and worse and worse, and since I was spending literally all of my time on this channel, it was just hugely demoralizing (in addition to the tech issues). This culminated in my final LP series which pretty much got 0 views for like 90% of the series. Crushing. And given all the technical stuff that was happening in addition to this, it was just another thing on the pile on my back, yknow. I was struggling so hard to make the videos, I was spending ALL my time recording and editing (and basically let all my other hobbies and interests vanish to make room for it), and to top it all off, no one was even watching them anymore. Just felt really pointless and demoralizing.

3. Recording blind playthroughs was negatively impacting my enjoyment of those games. Always having to be “on” and stuff was one thing, but it also just made it be a worse experience. I found that like the act of recording was keeping me at a bit of a distance from the game, I wasn’t getting as invested or connected to the games, as emotionally reactive as if I was just playing it myself. It was hard to get lost in and taken away with a game when I could only play for a couple hours and then had to spend the next few days editing those videos before I could play again. The biggest part of it though was that it just led to a worse experience for me usually. The biggest example of this was Pokemon Shield. I had gotten it and recorded a few episodes before my boyfriend was able to get his copy. But once he got his copy, I’d sit on the couch beside him while he played and we had so much fun, making jokes, getting into it, playing alongside each other using the multiplayer functions and stuff. It was honestly really great and improved the experience so much. But once he caught up to where I was in the story, we couldn’t do it anymore. Because I was doing a blind playthrough and I couldn’t record + edit at the rate he was playing, it basically meant that we couldn’t play together anymore. I couldn’t sit with him and play alongside of him because I didn’t want the story spoiled and all this stuff. And so the second half of the game just felt so much lesser of an experience for me. And I was just getting very resentful of having to do the LP because it meant I was losing out on this moment and experience with him and our other friends. Recording the LP made it worse for me. And I hated that.

4. Let’s Plays are a very crowded niche, hard to break through, especially with Blind playthroughs. Basically, my LPs weren’t different enough to really set me apart from any other channel, especially when it came to Blind LPs. Why would someone take a chance on my (hour long) video from someone they don’t know when they could just watch a YTer that they did know and liked? It was just too much of an ask, but I found that longer videos was easier on me (meant I could get through games more quickly instead of dragging them out for months). So there wasn’t really a way to win. This also played an obvious part in why my series started doing a lot worse when I transition to Blind playthroughs instead of informative ones (Bioshock Infinite/Night in the Woods). With the Informative Playthroughs, I was bringing something unique, my commentary. I knew the game, I had thought about it deeply and had a perspective on it. That made the playthrough interesting even for people who already knew the games. I also would bring up development trivia, and such, too. Basically, it was just more unique, more rewarding than the more reaction-based playthroughs. The problem was: 1) I had mostly started the channel with the intent to do blind playthroughs of new games because, at the time, I liked the idea of having my first experiences with a game perserved, 2.) I don’t have many games that I could do informative playthroughs of. Bioshock Infinite and NITW are kind of it, aside from KH games (which I wouldn’t do because I had intended on starting a kh-specific channel). There just weren’t that many games I could talk deeply about (was what I told myself anyway). So while I knew what the problem was, I didn’t feel like I could fix it, really, so the whole thing felt kind of pointless. My videos were too long (but any shorter and it would take months to get through these games), Blind playthroughs aren’t unique enough (but I had so few games I could talk deeply about like my Informative LPs), etc. 

So, that’s pretty much why the channel ended. I had originally intended to try transitioning more into like video essays or smaller authoured videos (instead of LPs) and I might still do that (though the recording thing is still a bit of an issue). But after spending literally ALL my time on the channel (seriously like, from when I woke up until I went to bed) for MONTHS, only for it to end with my videos getting 0 views, my new computer being expensive but useless for it, the technical issues, etc. I was just EXTREMELY burnt out, and felt that I had just lost the first thing that had made me feel passionate again in literally years. And I’m still feeling that burn out/depression a bit now, so I haven’t started exploring doing authoured content, or my KH channel yet.

Next month marks the year anniversary of me starting the channel though. It might be time that I start thinking about picking it up again, but if I do, it wouldn’t be LPs anymore. They just aren’t worth the time and energy. It might be a KH channel. I don’t know. But anyway, that’s the longwinded answer as to what happened to my gameplay channel. rip.

[pixel-cat-1]

I just finished The Outer Worlds

I don’t really ever use this blog for more than reblogging stuff, so this is probably coming out of left field for anyone who follows me, but as you see in the title, I beat The Outer Worlds not a couple of minutes ago. I have some thoughts I’d like to talk about while their fresh, and this is as good a place as any to do that lol

So, what did I think of it? Overall, I think The Outer Worlds is okay game that ultimately fails to meet up in many regards to not only Obsidian’s golden child, Fallout New Vegas, but in some departments even regular ass Bethesda games from years ago. And that’s honestly such a shame, because TOW had so much goddamn potential and yet I finished it and felt practically nothing for the entire last level and final ending sequence.

The main issue I think is that ultimately speaking, TOW doesn’t necessarily do anything different from any other RPG I can think of, and it doesn’t do anything like that super well. 

For example, the combat’s good on a technical level. The controls and mechanics are fun to use (especially the dodge system), but the enemies tend to either range from “complete curb stomp bitch babies” to “bullet sponge that’ll kill me so fast I won’t even know what happened.” Most fights weren’t particularly engaging, and I was basically handicapping myself but not using the companion abilities for about 75% of the game (I don’t know why I never tried pressing the d-pad buttons, but yet again, when I can just shoot shit and huff an inhaler, I didn’t need to think too hard). The disparity of how difficult the game can be is often confusing, and I was more often limited because of my ammo count more so than my ability to play the game.

The RP aspects can be good at times. There are plenty of skill checks that reward you for being a smart little egg, and a part of RPG’s I like is being able to avoid combat and make people happy, and generally make myself useful, so that was fairly fun. Overall the dialogue options and the performances by most VA’s left me not feeling like I was being hindered in acting and responding to situations how I’d like, so at the very least, that didn’t let me down.

The music was overall enjoyable, although very forgettable, and sometimes a bit all over the place: there’s Western-y guitar ambient tracks, also some more techno-y ones? Elevator music that sounds like they got it from a royalty free website. This kinda wish-washyness ties into multiple issues I had with the game I’ll get into further on.

The graphics are good, which isn’t necessarily shocking anymore because every game looks good. There are some aesthetic choices I liked, that being things like the Art Deco style architecture and advertisements from the loading screens. Terra 2 is gorgeous as all hell, with the skybox being particularly amazing (I’ve often fantasized about Earth having rings, so this partially fulfills that fantasy). Monarch is overall also very well done, with making it look and feel like a hostile shithole with ravenous wildlife. The looming gas giant overheard also does a good job of making me feel dread, which is about as much of that feeling I ever got. However, the game never really maintains a distinct “style”, rather it collages a bunch of them at once. Because for all the aesthetic of the Art Deco style that they do for cities like Byzantium. there’s like 10 levels/areas that are just generic as all hell “sci-fi space shit” that you’ve seen before. And then there’s Scylla, which is so fucking boring in design I don’t know why it’s even in the game.

This creates an issue where it’s like they wanted to make the game look Bioshock, but some people wanted something out of Mass Effect. But some people played Borderlands, and wanted to go for the wacky space bandit and hostile environment feel. But they also wanted to stick it to Bethesda, so they made is vaguely look like a Fallout game as well. It’s hard to describe in text, so I’m just gonna post these and show it best I can

^ It looks like space Bioshock here

^ And here it reminds me more of Borderlands than anything else (it’s a lot easier to see if you look at it from the ground, rip)

Scylla is literally just a rock. As far as I can tell, you could probably fucking avoid the damn thing if you avoid side quests. There’s fucking nothing there. Just enemies, a few side quest things, an empty town and a giant terraformer thingy that’s interesting to look at for like 4 seconds. And despite what you’d think, no, there is no low gravity. That would’ve at least made this place have some interesting gimmick or mechanic, but no. It’s just a fucking dumping ground for side quests. God. Fucking. Damnit.

All science-y buildings just look like this for the most part across all levels. It’s not bad, just very generic and same-y.

The Groundbreaker’s fairly interesting, until you realize that all it is is essentially a giant corridor front to back. Actually, scratch that, it’s two corridors! One of which is this Back Bays area overrun with criminals. How do you get to this clearly dangerous and isolated part of the ship? Well a fucking elevator smack dab in the middle of the pavilion of course! So anyone can just go up or down into this apparent no man’s land part of the ship by literally going into it via an elevator. Dear god.

^Monarch definitely has one of the best looking environments in the game, tied with Terra 2 down below

But what absolutely fucks the game overall is despite how much effort they put into making everything look nice (regardless if you actually like it or not), the overall level design in terms of function and whatnot? Mind numbingly boring.

All levels are really small maps with (at most) a handful of major buildings or towns depending on the scale, and the rest is just a bunch of abandoned buildings with some enemies, or a crashed ship or something. There's just...nothing going on with half of these dungeons.

Also the vast majority of buildings have a “Quarantine” sign out front or is locked in some capacity, which means you could have 4-5 buildings in a random batch of them along a road, but only 2 you can explore. And since all the fucking interiors across multiple planets look the exact same, it leads to an incredible feeling of sameiness in a game that has you running around an entire solar system. How the fuck even??? I’d argue fucking Fallout 3 handled this better. At least there was more to do! More overall dungeons and levels! Did I miss something? Am I just fucking stupid and I missed the all the good shit?

Combine this with the wish-washy aesthetics and music, it leads to an incredible feeling of not really knowing what to make of things. You’ll just be sprinting around, shooting all the red things on the compass just to get it over with by Monarch. And when you realize that LMG’s are just...the best weapons in the game as far as I could tell, and there’s no real downsize to them, you’ll just fucking run around gunning everything down while some forgettable track plays in the background until some enemy with a weirdly large health bar forces you to think for a bit before you get back to running around and shooting shit again. 

Despite this though? I still overall enjoyed the combat. I liked running around and becoming the 4th Horseman. Plus with the mechanics overall being fun to use, it wasn’t really that bad. But I can’t say on an objective level I think it’s good for a game to feel like that. Because despite how heavy handed I’m being right now (and will be throughout the rest of this impromptu review), I don’t hate this game. 

Sound design is overall very good. Guns make satisfying shooty shooty bang bang noises, and as I said before, the VA’s are overall very good all around. Parvati stands out as the most interesting character to listen to in general. She has a lot of informal speech patterns that makes her distinct, and is generally a treat to listen talk. At worst, you get a character like Nyoka, who doesn’t sound bad by any real means, but for a lot of her dialogue, I felt they should’ve slowed it down and focused on getting her emotions down. But it certainly wasn’t bad.

Storywise? This game wasn’t particularly interesting. I’m gonna put the keep reading thing here because I want to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn’t played yet and cares about them. Long story short, I think the game was good, but very disappointing given what it could have been. I enjoyed myself for the most part, but often found the lack of anything super special to really hold it back from achieving something I think the gaming industry needed in an era of, ironically enough, hyper greedy corporations with no morals to speak of.

So, what did I think of the story? And I guess by extension, the side quests. Overall, I think the main story was...not very good. There was a lot of good stuff inbetween though, and a lot of side quests and little things definitely were enjoyable. But the plot is just not nearly as engaging as it should be. Given how short it was though, that might’ve been a mercy.

The story, as roughly as I can summarize is, is that you’re a colonist frozen on the colony ship “Hope.” It’s been adrift for 70 years, but you’re woken up by a guy named Phineas Welles (he’s basically Doc Brown, but nicer). The Board (which consists of the 10 companies who own and run the colony/solar system) try to stop him, but they fail, and you’re escape podded onto Terra 2, near a dying town called Edgewater. The pod accidentally kills the contact you were to meet, so now you’re gonna steal his ship and use it to do shit basically.

Along the way, you pick up a ragtag band of miscreants and general shitheads and kill a lot of people and wildlife in a quest to stop the corrupt Board from running the colony harder into the dirt than they already have. It’s very by the numbers, more or less. I guess.

The immediate issue is that, despite being able to join the Board and betray Phineas if you want, there’s absolutely no fucking reason to do that. Not a single goddamn reason, other than for the evulz. This creates an issue where I feel no reason to deviate from the Phineas side of the story. And I know what someone might be thinking “But Pixel! The Board is supposed to be evil!” And I am absolutely aware of that. But the thing is, so was Caesar’s Legion in Fallout New Vegas. And yet, that faction is often considered just as interesting and compelling a faction for the game as the NCR or Mr. House. People will, to this day, still argue over who had the best idea for solving the Wasteland’s issues. Because despite how evil the Legion is, they still had very valid points about the NCR and how horribly corrupt and bloated it was. And there was absolutely an argument to be made about how safe they made their lands for those under their ownership. Stuff like that that makes you actually consider and think about whether or not you're actually making the right choices for the whole of the New Vegas wasteland, and by extension the rest of the Western part of America.

Here? There’s no contest. There is no necessary evils. There is no good reason the Board does anything. No logic, no reason. All they can do is fuck shit up even more, and that makes them such a boring, vague antagonist that there was never a moment in my mind I actually considered working for them. Any potential moments they had to sway me or dashed aside by them constantly proving how they could never actually fix the problems they made. And if that was the intention? Then Obsidian fucked up.

People remember the villains that raise a point a hell of a lot more than they do villains that are just evil for the sake of it (there are obviously exceptions, for an RPG? you need a compelling villain). And that’s why no one will remember this game in a decade. It pales so hard in comparison to New Vegas, it’s not even funny. It’s on par with Fallout 3, at best. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if the whole point of this game was to make a statement against an increasingly morally bankrupt Bethesda.

Let’s look at, per se, Skyrim. Paarthurnax was a supporting character with an interesting backstory: he’s Alduin’s brother, who is the main antagonist. He is a dragon that secludes himself on the top of the tallest mountain in Skyrim, who meditates and focuses on suppressing his inherit evil dragon nature. Despite this nature, he chooses to be good. And he asks a very compelling question.

"What is better? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?”

In a single sentence, Skyrim asked a more though provoking question than the entirely of The Outer Worlds. And if you played F:NV, then it’s probably weird to hear that, because F:NV was full of moral and philosophical quandaries. So where did it all go?

The thing is, people forget that the Obsidian that made F:NV is dead and gone. The actual people who made that game have all moved on from that company. This is the child trying to replicate the success of it’s parents, without entirely understanding exactly what the parent did to achieve what it achieved.

The biggest difference between F:NV and TOW is that F:NV really forces you to think. TOW just doesn’t require that, at all. 

Phineas good, Board bad. No thinking required.

I think the real warning sign is at the beginning of the game as well. Edgewater, the first town in the game, is dying. People are leaving and the town's also dealing with a disease epidemic. The town’s leader’s answer? Cut off power to the deserters, and force them to work harder despite the fact the town’s basically dying because of the overworking and disease. Despite the fact there’s not even enough medicine to heal everyone, and they have to play favorites with who lives and who dies.

What the fuck logic is this? Why would I ever choose that?

The only other choice, unless I missed a compromise solution (which I would’ve wanted) is to route power to the deserters and finish off the town more or less. The deserters wouldn’t take in everyone though, so a lot of people would die anyways. But even then, she’s still clearly the more competent leader. There’s not a goddamn contest. 

It just continues like that the whole game. I rarely had to think about who I’d side with. because the solution is obvious. The literal only reason I’d side with the corporations is if I was being evil, nothing else.

The best the story gets is when you need to make a compromise on Monarch between MSI (a corporation who got the boot from the Board) and the Iconoclasts (Religious people who are anti corporation). If you work with the second in command of the Iconoclasts, you can depose their extremist, dipshit leader and work out a truce. Which is good! It rewards the player for this too, when these factions come to help in the final level of the game (and when you see specific characters you could save helping out, that also make it feel like your decisions had an impact). You see the two factions...standing next to eachother, which isn’t much, but it’s about as much change you see in the game.

Which is also another thing that TOW fails to accomplish: a sense of longevity with my decisions leads to me feeling that, despite making the right choices, nothing really changes. 

Going back to Edgewater, you’d think after a while, I’d come back and the town would be entirely gone or something, right? 

Nope.

Some NPC’s stood outside the factory forever, as did some guards. There weren’t any lights on. That’s about it.

Well, certainly the Deserters must give me more quests to help out, which can lead to me establishing them and helping them help the Edgewaterers, right?

No. Very quickly you realize there’s very little do or talk about with NPC’s after you do monumental decisions. The only functional difference is an opinion slider, which is another imitation from F:NV that means fuck all. The only in game things it affects is: a) The prices of venders of that factions

b) Whether or not that faction will shoot you on site.

That’s it as far as I noticed. The best idea they had, that being that factions can love you, but also fear you just doesn’t do anything. As far as I could tell, at least.

I’d love to be wrong, because I was so excited to see what would happen to entire settlements and after I helped them. After I made important decisions that’d change the face of the colony. And I felt so disappointing when it became apparent little actually mattered. 

The companion sidequests aren’t too much better. The pacing is so weird, sometimes, depending on how available certain planets are. Parvati’s was especially jarring, despite it being the best written by far.

It basically is you helping her get with an engineer chick from the Groundbreaker. It’s pretty adorable overall, and without a doubt has some of the better writing character wise, but the pacing was so fucking weird. It initially starts with you getting Parvati to talk to her about engineering stuff. They say they’ll email and stuff about engineering stuff. which is neat. So I run around, finish up all the side quests on the ship as I can, then head back to my own ship. I did not go back to my ship at all during this. 

When I come back, Parvati immediately tells me that she and the engineer, Junlei, have been messaging and getting flirty and now she has a crush and it’s just like “Dude, were you texting her while we murdered all those bugs in the engine?”

It’s doubly funny as well, because Obsidian wanted to avoid the player having romanceable characters. Which makes about as much sense as you think. Once source said the reason was that they wanted you to focus on roleplay, and not trying to bang anyone you found hot (okay?). Another just said they weren’t ready for it. And I believe it. As much as I think romance would’ve been another good thing to add depth to this game, I bet you they’d have fucked it up. It’s just funny. Even Fallout 4 had pretty acceptable romances.

Granted the system was fucking basically “Kill shit together until you wanna bang” but fuck, it was something! It also doesn’t help there’s a bunch of cuties all over this game: Huxley stands out as an adorable muffin who becomes a generic NPC at the end of the MSI/Iconoclast questline, despite the fact you can even repair her journal terminal with zero indication at you can do it, which is good! Let me just do things to be nice! But she literally just sits there after you rescue her with a few dialogue options which goes away after the peace deal, and it's so fucking frustrating that I want to enjoy the characters more, but none of them seem to have more than a paragraph's worth of depth to them and it's so sad.

Even the companions are like this. At the beginning I’d try and talk with Parvati about anything, but the only dialogue options would be about getting her out of the party, and that’s it. I can’t ask her what she thinks of things, or of the current quest/situation. There’s such a weird lack of depth in a weird amount of areas, that it felt almost worse than playing a Bethesda game.

I think the penultimate disappointment of the game is, fittingly, the final level, Tartarus. Which is fitting, because it feels very hellish. Not the planet mind you, or the prison which it takes place in, but just the complete lack of anything super special. It’s just the same kind of environments you’ve already run through, but bigger and with more bullet sponge bad guys. Which is funny, because jumping around and killing an army on a purple hell planet that has perpetual lightning storms would’ve been sick as fuck, but nah, gotta run around on Scylla instead of anywhere else compelling.

In my playthrough, MSI, the Groundbreaker, and the Iconoclasts came to help me deal with all the fucking goons, which was mostly cool because I didn’t have to deal with the tediousness of killing every last one of corporate goon myself.

This is about as big of an impact your decisions come to as far as I’ve noticed. Which isn’t saying much.

You meet the Chairman of the Board here, by the way. I just shot him and kept moving. shrugs

There’s also a last minute villain in this Sophia person, who is also apparently on the Board? It’d help if there was a list of the Board people, which could’ve been on a terminal somewhere. Maybe I’m dumb and never found it, which is plausible. 

The final boss fight, (I hesitate to call it that) is just somewhat large robot. It’s a bullet sponge with respawning combat drones flying everywhere and they’re very annoying. I died once after around 10 minutes of fighting, then using Parvati and Felix’s (he’s another companion, he’s also okay I guess) combat abilities I knocked it down and layed into the robot’s weak spot. He died very quickly.

So depending on how you do it, the final fucking boss is either stupidly hard or mind numbingly easy. I don’t know which is worse.

So you go past the dead robot, gun down Sophia in one shot, and save Phineas. You basically become the leader of Halcyon, there’s a F:NV-esque slideshow and commentary about your actions that somehow is worse that New Vegas’s, credits roll, and you sit there thinking “That’s it? That’s really it?”

Yeah, that’s it. 

It’s such a let down, especially because this was supposed to be Fallout New Vegas’s spiritual successor. But all it does it make me want to play that game instead of this one.Which is probably what you should do regardless if you pick this game up or not.

There’s a bunch of other mechanics and stuff I never brought up. There’s technically a character customization screen, but you literally only see your character in the select menu, and there’s no third person. There’s a barber in Edgewater who’s also a doctor, and yet you can’t even get a haircut from him (again, failing to match up to even Fallout 3). 

There’s these Mods you can put on armor and guns, and you find them by the bucket full so you’ll always have those. Just get an aim stabilizing one for an LMG and you’ll be fine. You can also tinker your armor and weapons, making them stronger if you spend credits on it (why not the armor and weapon parts, I’ll never fucking know). You can repair your stuff at a workbench, which is advisable. Just take all the weapons and armor you pick up, take it apart for parts, and never worry about it again. You’ll get money from quests, so buying those parts is meaningless and a waste of money

There’s also hacking and stealth and stuff. Stealth is such a non...thing in the game. There’s no silencers, but since all enemies decided to put cotton into their ears, there’ll be plenty of times I shoot someone, and a guy ten feet away heard fucking nothing. Plus there’s this disguise mechanic where you pick up ID guards and get a hologram disguise that wears out as you walk (passing speech check from suspicious guards restores it), so it’s not like sneaking around was ever a priority. Just put your points into the speech. Stealth is a dump stat more or less. 

Oh yeah, Parvati’s an ace lesbian. Which is nice that they handled that way in a non-dipshit way (you can also identify as ace in certain dialogue with her in her companion questline, which is funny considering they never let you fuck anyways, so it’s weird that you even have the choice). My only complaint is that they should’ve put this representation in a better game. 

What’s funny is that, despite everything, I don’t even hate this game. I feel a remarkable numbness, followed by a desire for something better. I spent about a week burning through it? If I had more free time, I could’ve finished it sooner probably. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It was pretty fun for what it was, but knowing that this is somehow supposed to match up to what F:NV was is sad, and a sign of how bad the gaming industry had fallen. 

The only difference here is that unlike the Outer Worlds, I can’t purge the rot of the gaming industry with a haelstrom of plasma bullets.

Would I recommend this game? I guess. There’s still some fun to be had, but don’t expect anything too major or interesting. Get it on sale, it;s not worth $60 right now. There’s apparently DLC coming out for it eventually? I might play it, and I might post an update to this review, or make a seperate post for that eventually. Depends on how well this one does? Or if the DLC makes me feel enough emotion to type something out like this in 2 straight hours.

[lil-creatorwritings]

Author Interview

I got tagged by @alloveroliver ! Not sure how this will go but let’s do it~

Name: Well you can call me Becky! Trust me, my surname is a tongue twister and you don’t need to know that.

Fandoms: Er dear lord, that’s a lot if I count the ones outside of otome. If we’re talking just that, then it’s mainly Cybird titles (MidCin, IkeSen, IkeRev and IkeVamp). I have anime and video games fandoms too and you can ask me about that here or on my personal blog! Want to do in the future: Write more, I guess. And get a new phone for more otome games!

Where You Post: Tumblr and AO3 for my fics. Twitter is mostly for my ranting about routes or something about the otome and my main place for finding fanart (and retweeting them, BECAUSE WE DON’T STEAL OTHER PEOPLE’S FANARTS).

Most Popular One-Shot:  It’s apparently my Day 2 Kinktober. A lot of y’all are thirsty for some Leonardo smut eh?

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: The MitsuhidexOC smut trilogy (which I am now calling the Phone Call trilogy lol). It’s hilarious because whenever I think of this story, I remember that it wasn’t suppose to be a trilogy in the first place (it was a one-shot but then someone aggressively persuaded me into writing more of it). I honestly didn’t expect it to blow up like that (and I underestimated the Mitsuhide stans hahaha). Here is part 1, 2 and 3.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Probably my Day 21 of a 31 Day Writing Challenge I did in 2018. I also had an original work, but it’s been put on the back burner for awhile now.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Five, which was my first IkeSen fic. I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if I got Masamune’s character right and for a personal reason (that I’m just gonna leave at that hahah).

How You Choose Your Titles: Most of the time, I either have a pending title for it or the title comes to me first as I’m writing it. The general theme of the story also has weight on its title. 

Completed: 70-ish fics. Which reminds me that I need to fix and update my Masterlist lol.

Incomplete: *tucks away my wips and google docs of future fic ideas* What incomplete works? Who is she? (lol but seriously maybe..2 or 3. I don’t usually write something and then start another one without completing the previous one, which is probably why I have few incomplete WIPs--because if I didn’t start on it, it’s technically not incomplete lol.)

Do You Outline?: When I first started writing, not so much in the way that I would write them in bullets or a flow chart. I would imagine the scene in my head then write it out, which works for me most of the time. I suppose you could argue that it’s a form of outlining too.. But I mostly type or write the general flow of my fic when my thoughts start to wander and branch out of my original idea to keep me in check.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: An IkeRev Ray fic that... I’ll be honest it’s a little diamond in the rough, and the theme isn’t really a pleasant thing to talk about. But this is a fic that I feel compelled to write for personal reasons. I don’t want to say much now because I’m not even sure how to start it as of right now. But I do want to write it. There’s also a soulmate AU I want to do for IkeVamp (and for some reason I wanted to do it with Arthur but I haven’t done his route yet), an IkeRev mafia AU (trying to steer away from the ‘crystals are drugs’ and think up of another idea), an IkeSen detective with that femme fatale thing (look idk what the genre is called but think Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea), an Edgar Bright art student AU, and just... more stuff lol. But more smut!

Do You Accept Prompts?: I do, but I rarely get them. Maybe because I don’t get to them on time and my followers don’t bother to ask me for stuff lol :( . I don’t really mind that I don’t get them, since I often write my own ideas. But I mean, feel free to drop one if you want to!

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: Uh, I guess to finish my Kinktober..?? yes shut up i know its 2020

(Apparently the next questions were added by Ash, so I’ll go ahead and answer them too~)

What do you use to edit?: Currently, I’m not using any third party writing editor. That’s just my personal preference though.

Writing setup: My main set up is in my room, sitting in front of my desk with my laptop and bluetooth keyboard (some of the letters on the laptop aren’t working, so I use an external one. I always have a water bottle with me (because I could sit for hours) and Spotify playing on my phone on speaker. I use Google Docs for all of my fics. Sometimes I’ll go mobile and hook my bluetooth keyboard to my phone and type from there, especially if I can’t stay in my room.

Do you use a beta reader? Nope. For some reason, it’s not a habit of mine to ask someone to beta read my work, though I have done it a few times before. I write, walk away from it, come back to proofread, post, then try to stop obsessing over if it will get notes or not.

Where do you get your writing inspo?: A lot of places--books, songs, anime, tv shows, the internet, other people, prompt lists.. As to the motivation to write, well, that’s something that I’m also struggling with right now hahaha. 

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP?:

It wasn’t much of a surprise. This amount of workload always comes with the highest ranking officer in the army, and you’ve always understood that. There are some things that can’t be delegated or that specifically need his approval. Yet it didn’t stop you from feeling a little left out and wanting some of his attention.

Feeling restless, you push off the table and head towards the door. If he was still working, there was only one other person you could think of to keep you company. Skipping down the hallway, you stop in front of one of the doors before knocking on it enthusiastically. “Hm? Little lady?”

Sirius’ room was pristine as always. You step in and plop down on his bed, not caring if your skirts ride up your thighs. “Ray’s still working.”

He smiles and sits down next to you. “And I suppose you came to me to keep you entertained?”

This time, you pout at him. “So what if I did?”

Idk who to tag so if any of my followers (who haven’t done this) see this, go do it!

[trashboatprince]

Back in June I was inspired by this song to write up a little drabble for @thedobermutt as a thank you for something she did for me, and because I just really love writing her Henry and Linda.

In turn, she drew this based on the drabble, and I love it.

So yeah, here’s the drabble for you all to read! Enjoy, it’s been a while since I’ve posted Bioshock au content!

Henry/Alpha belongs to @inkspottie

Ross/Omega belongs to @thedobermutt

Delta belongs to me

--

Ross stared over at his companions, finding Henry curled up on an old cushion seat, completely asleep. Delta was sprawled on a couch, a bit too long for it, but that didn't seem to bother him as Bendy was snuggled up against him, both sleeping soundly. 

He smiled a little, they needed the break and frankly, it was just... nice to be away from trouble. He decided to be on watch this time as the others slept in this old, abandoned lounge room. 

The old soldier found himself perched on the window seat, looking out at the city beyond the thick glass. If it wasn't for all the death and terror around him, Ross would appreciate that the city still looked beautiful and other-worldly even after thirty years. 

He heard the speakers in the room gently finishing up their current song, 20th Century Blues if he remembered correctly, and a new one began. The sound was familiar, like he knew it from back in the day... 

'Away from the city, that hurts and mocks,' Oh yes, he remembered this song.

Closing his eyes, Ross rested his head against the cold glass as he remembered the words of I Cover the Waterfront, a song that seemed to be hitting a little too close to home right now. The singer was gently singing about looking out at the ocean, searching for the one she loves. 

How ironic that such a song would play as he looked out at the dark waters, aglow by the neon signs. Quietly, he started to sing softly with the music that crackled and popped from the old speakers. "I cover the waterfront, I'm watching the sea. Will the one I love be coming back to me..." 

As he sang to himself, Ross toyed with the stained, blue ribbon on his hand, never noticing that a set of tired, blue eyes watched him. Henry quietly listened to the sad voice of his friend, never bringing attention to himself, he didn't want to startle him.

"I cover the waterfront," Ross continued, singing just a little louder to himself, "in search of my love. And I'm covered by a starlit sky above." 

Henry watched Ross as he opened his eyes, looking out the window once more as a school of fish passed by. 

"Here am I, patiently waiting, hoping and longing." Ross frowned softly as he looked at the ring on his finger instead. "Oh how I yearn... where are you? Are you forgetting, will you remember? Will you return...?" 

The song continued from there without the gunman as he leaned back against the small wall for the window seat, reaching up to rub at his eyes as the sad, hopeful song began to come to its end. 

The shorter of the two Ross' bit his lip, Ross wasn't the most emotional out of the small group, but when he was like this, he was so vulnerable and it just reminded Henry that this man was nearly at his wit's end to find Linda. 

But he knew that they'd find her, 'You don't have to cover the waterfront, the one you love will come back to you.' He thought as he closed his eyes once more, trying to sleep again and just let Ross be for now, it's the least he could do.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

“So Happy Together” Analysis

i don’t sleep

tl;dr: tbh not much to go off on about. i think we see a new skin for Iron Bear, one with some stripes. amara smiles, i do talk a little bit about little sisters in bioshock but tbh i think this was all just a stylistic choice lol. oh and handsome jack’s masks- probably Mount Jackmore. i don’t want to get to freaked out over jack returning, but damn gearbox lol u had me there for a second. im pretty sure it’s just a reused cut quest from bl2 that they never got to implement. 

EDIT: here’s all the cut content in bl2 (plus all the non-cut content as well for funsies). you can go to the cut quests and see the audio files for claptrap’s jackmore quest

holy shit can i just vomit all my emotions rn, they’re all good so imma do that so im rational when i start analyzing stuff okay? okay! 

holy shit that was fucking great and im really glad i tempered my expectations to something smaller than i thought because i feel bad for people expecting something huge, i was under the assumption we’d be getting a new mechanic that was like ‘choose ur +1 and they’ll be able to play the game with you if you’re both online even if they don’t have the game’ which was what someone said on reddit. altho im sure the poor company is gonna get spammed now with hate like ‘WTF YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BUILT THIS UP AAAA’. not to lie, i was slightly disappointed it wasn’t a longer stream, but i mean if they’ve got nothing to announce, they’ve got nothing to announce and HEY! new trailer!!! gonna be combing thru on the assumption this has some easter eggs like the MoM trailer did, just in case. i thought it was a cute trailer, gearbox never explicitly said what it was gonna be, a lot people all just assumed what was gonna happen was a demo/beta which sucks so i hope this doesn’t negatively impact people’s perspective of the game. im staying off reddit for now bc when i first checked it people were pretty pissed and i dun need that negativity lmao

okay! emotions are LOCKED behind closed doors. i am shifting into study mode. here we go boys/girls/those of us who know better. haven’t done one of these in a while, let’s see if im rusty at all.

claptrap! and the skull on the chair which reminds me of tyreen’s “favorite skull”. 

tv says “we are under attack, please stand by”

and afaik claptrap is near the beginning of the game, you can see part of the recruitment center behind him when the camera pans.

im thinking there might be something in the roses, specifically the hand-drawn roses later on in the trailer. will be keeping an eye open for that.

this is specifically a jakobs brand chest. i really like the see-through aesthetic of it

intro area of the game again. possible hint to the opening cutscene? tbh i was worried that’s what we were about to get because i haven’t finished the roughs of my mock up lol

so what i didn’t notice my first time through is that you can then see claptrap, also being shown in the chest

waving up at the camera. that’s not trippy at all or anything lol

this car in the foreground (with no one driving it, mind you)

randomly combusts, looking quite like elpis in that one shot of the claptrap presents pandora trailer. wonder if that means it’s gonna ‘splode.

ohhh it spins. please no spin imma get motion sick blech

shot of some cultists. one appears to have a jetpack near the bottom right there

another explosion to the beat

the shock wave!!!! that’s awesome

shock nomads cultists are back. f in chat for our shields

another cultist seconds before he gets blown to bits

it cuts to black for a secco as it moves thru said explosion

another cultist, i assume a psycho

finally some good fucking angles

heh.

idk what i expected from someone who’s first action skill line i ever heard was them shouting MAGIC WALL!!! TAAAADAAAAAAAAH

as a side note

who is shooting those lasers

we see them coming from behind the VHs, but

there’s nothing there

SPOOKY~

they’re coming from... the wall???

tfw u shot urself in the foot on accident

amara is not amused

`is this some human custom i don’t understand yet`

also i hate that i’ve done this exact dance before when i took dance classes as a kid

with less style of course, i was like 7

moze is into it, hell yeah

this reminds me a lot of Kingsman. where all the blood is like fireworks and stuff. i wonder if that has anything to do with the psycho brainwashing. like little sisters in bioshock. they see roses instead of blood, right? maybe there’s something like that going on with the psychos

i’d certainly hope our vault hunters aren’t brainwashed, anyway.

this dude looking SHOCKED to see that tho, lmfao

i relate to this man on a spiritual level i stg

man he looks pissed

omfg lol

“um”

“i guess this is okay”

the body language in this is gold i am just having the time of my life

adsfdgfhgjhgfk

this is so cute

also in retrospect, i think this is one of the turrets we see on promethea. i wonder what it’s doing here!

moze u ok?

oh nvm she’s into it, look at her! she’s dancing! She’s Dancin’!

oooo one of the robots from the we are mayhem trailer! okay you can totally see why i think they’re jakobs, RIGHT???

iirc this is a maliwan soldier

man this is a crossover event, isn’t it?

i get it now. togetherness. i gotchu gearbox.

some maliwan ships in the sky. possibly sanc-iii on the right? or a ship of the same model as sanc-iii!

this is a magitek dropship, change my mind

eh, they both start with M, fuck it.

no idea what fl4k is doing here

mayyyybe shielding themselves from the ‘firework’/confetti shower

i like that the confetti explosions are backed up by purple, you know like eridium/slag/siren powers. seriously, maybe this is just how to cultists see us Vault Hunters and the mass murder.

at the very least, the psychos.

fl4k’s into it. i wish we knew the name of their skag, if it has one. i hope it does.

well now the lasers are coming from the other side! what the hell

moving on

i think this is the HBC from the speakers, plus im pretty sure that skull and the stained glass are the entrance to mouthpiece’s arena

we also get a different colored explosion. im paranoid jack is somehow making a return (please god no), so i’ll just note it’s the same color as his eyes.

AND the chests are vomiting out gold guns, which i think, gold-plated gear, is the cult’s way of signifying standing. which im sure is a tongue-in-cheek commentary as gearbox gives out a gold weapon pack as a pre-order bonus. no, like, it even shows up as an ad on the video

smh gearbox lmao

oh, also, the cultists are doing fuckin flying impressions

im not saying its a reference to the cultist with rakk wings on the cover, buuuut

bitch it might be lol

it’s an upside-down vault symbol! ive been trying to figure out what that is in those screens for the longest time!

back on promethea and we get to see fl4k’s spiderant in action

their skag, too, of course

the jabbermon in the back there, too! i wonder if they’re going to be shock or cryo. i would imagine shock given how they’re glowing

also i love the way the flowers look in contrast to the character models

moze is so happy aw

i love the way fl4k’s skag comes flying in and slides to a stop. such a good doggo ;-;

this is beautiful, i want it as a wallpaper

moze skipping? holy shit

100% verified the best thing i’ve ever seen

i lied. this is.

is this the fast travel station effect?

also! IB is looking a bit different

i wonder if this is a redesign or if IB is wearing a new skin moze picked out

pan over to zane who clearly doesn’t notice the being of darkness and horror in the doorway

oh also, we’re on eden-6 now. which would explain the fast travel effect

psychos dancing on the rooftops lol

oh god my eyes

nothing to really say here, i just like this screenshot

pink shields booyah

this is so fucking cute

we also get a better look at that one facility on eden-6

is that... red i see? >w> i won’t say it i won’t i won’t say it i swear i just- ATLAS

fuck

i like that zane’s clone spawns with his melee attachment

not AS excited as the real life version though

GB pls let this be a zane emote

is that a varkid? on eden-6?

wtf is a varkid doing on eden-6???

more shots of the facility btw. reminds me a lot of sanc-iii so maybe this actually is the supamax mfg construction facility like i originally thought. hmmmmmmm

ah yes, of course

holy shit what is this a reference to?

im told it’s the sex pistols

the back of the bullet turns into Athenas

pans in

amara!

enemy with a top hat on. some variation of/upgraded gravedigger? it’s like a psycho but recolored with blue pants and a top hat. you can see it fall off when amara shoots him

y’know, these guys

some rakk in the background

i am hoping bc this is a celebration of togetherness we’re seeing all enemies everywhere, not that the planets don’t have their own unique fauna.

she’s so happy omfg

oh, you want some?

Uhhh then there’s THIS sequence

they’re doing the flying thing again lmao

there’s also whatever that black blob is on the left. a spaceship maybe?

car wheel

all their eyes started glowing red. uh oh gamers

also another fast travel effect

hmmmm... zarpedon is that you??

back on pandora.

“super 87 racetrack”, maybe this is near that motorcade fast travel we saw?

huzzah! rainbows!

i do believe that’s sanctuary-iii

another ship. drop ship?

elpis is looking nice this time of year. definitely not explode-y. yet.

pret-ty sure that’s iron bear. moze is standing atop the tower lmao

also! back to it’s old paint scheme. looks like moze was using a skin or smth

we also have this. are my eyes failing me or is that a big cross on the left? could be where jack was buried. 

also i know there was cut content in bl2 about Mount Jackmore! and this looks like a Mount Jackmore to me. it’s a cut quest where claptrap asks you to basically ruin the thing. but since the quest was cut, it’s still here in bl3. maybe they’ll reintegrate the quest lol

i can’t imagine it being roland’s gravesite. because it looks like the below.

i do know we’re going to roland’s grave in bl3, but the statues don’t really match up. maybe it is and the statues were broken, or ruined or something and replaced by a cross. could be then that the gravesite was defaced with, well, the guy that killed him. 

im really hoping jack doesn’t make a return. im fine with dealing with what he set in motion, and his influence, and probably even some ECHO logs and movie trailers, but please, for the love of god, don’t actually bring him back, AI or otherwise. im really excited for the calypso twins, i’d really hate to see the focus shift back to that guy. he’s had his fingers in every borderlands game. it’s time to let him go.

idk what this is exactly. it looks like maybe that weird eye bot troy stands next to in the intro for the behind closed doors panel?

goodbye mr magical jakobs chest, it’s been real

the RC now has red drapes going down it. have those always been there? i don’t remember those

hmmmmmmmmm maybe we’re looking at it from the back 🤔

anyway, that’s all she wrote. i haven’t see any hidden morse code messages or anything yet, but if something surfaces, i’ll be sure to add it here.

[lulusoblue]

What would you say is your favorite thing about Bioshock infinite? I beat it for the first time recently; real mixed bag there for me, and I’m interested in what draws other people to it.

(ok sorry for the delay on this but I really had to think on this)

I guess my favourite thing overall about it is the nostalgia? Weird to say but whenever I play it I just feel comfortable because it reminds me of when it first came out and I was only just on tumblr and how talking about it lead me to my closest friends in my social circles? It's also a semi-collectathon like the other BioShocks or Dishonored, just looking around in corners for lockpicks, money, audio diaries, little setups of props that tell a story you could easily miss. Y'know, the lore.

And so that I don't clog anyone's dashboard, here's a read more as I ramble (I'm sorry I can't help it this is an ask that genuinely got the hamster in my head to start working the wheel thank you), because I can't speak for sure what draws other people to it but I can speculate on what drew us all in around the time of release.

So it's been nearly a decade and pretty much everyone has agreed there are aspects about Infinite that did not age well up to today. How the Vox Populi were handled, the combat system, how they tried to create a BioShock framework to link the alternate universes, Burial at Sea... plenty was not implemented to the greatest potential, and since then we've learned more about what happened behind the scenes and it's no surprise some things were so messy.

However, at the time, Infinite was a bit of a breakthrough for a Triple A title. Your mileage may have varied, but there were just things about it that made it differ from other Triple A games at the time.

Introducing the Multiverse

Main thing was how the story went into things like multiverse theory and the idea of constants and variables, which was a great jumping-off point for future Shock titles and helped connect back to System Shock, what BioShock spiritually succeeded. It wasn't the best use of multiverse theory and certainly wasn't the first, when we had things like Fringe or His Dark Materials, and not everyone liked how Infinite handled it.

On the other hand, I think it's one of the alternate-history timeline pieces of media that helped popularise the idea, and fit with BioShock's previous alternate-history stories with how the first two games had some subtle hints of it with certain characters being involved in historical events. And, again, before the DLC episodes came out, it really opened up potential for how the series could go forward with the idea that a BioShock game didn't need to continue directly from Rapture or Columbia, but an entirely new "impossible" city with similar elements.

People got excited and connected the roles of characters between games - Jack, Eleanor and Elizabeth being key characters raised by antagonists to fulfill their wishes/legacies; if the Man could be the role of the protagonist of titles or the founders of these fantastic cities; the cities both having people in charge abusing their power and acting on ideals warped by going into the extreme, leading to the populace falling into chaos as they tear the city from the inside out; how when certain people get given a power that goes against nature to do whatever they want, they use it how they want to devastating effect - it was the idea of all these possibilites and connections, similarities and differences that I think really buzzed about in the fandom early on.

I think when Burial at Sea was finished it put a damper on things like the theorising, because at first it was sort of railroading not just Elizabeth's character and ambiguous future, but both 1 and Infinite's overall fates. Infinite was no longer a flawed standalone, it was now a prequel to BioShock... but also ran alongside it? Rapture in BaS is the primary timeline... but the bond between Big Daddies and Little Sisters are completely different now? Fink had people fishing for ADAM slugs from the sky?? Drinkable ADAM took 10 times the amount of injectables, and Fink and Suchong still make a limited resource drinkable???

Needless to say, the whole multiverse vibe of Infinite getting dropped in Burial at Sea left a negative impression on a lot of people, I noticed it a lot on here because I was the deepest in the salt mines and yet plenty were still fond of Infinite so... Burial at Sea just got disowned. I remember someone saying Levine had said BaS wasn't canonical, and to this day I cannot for the life of me find real evidence that he ever stated this, but a bunch of us clung to that and the fact that whatever Levine didn't understand in the original game he either still didn't understand or just didn't care about with the DLCs.

We also viserally hated BaS for pretending 2 never happened.

It's Just So Goddamn Pretty and Charming

Weird thing to say for a BioShock game, I know, but Infinite was pretty much tumblr gifset gold, and its graphics are probably what aged the best of everything in the game.

Not to say Rapture didn't have any beauty to it, but it was very much leaning into a haunting and deteriorating aesthetic, 1 having the immediate aftermath of a city gone to ruin and 2 showing the ocean slowly seeping in to reclaim its space. You could soak in (haha) the environment of a city long since dead, come across props placed deliberately to tell a story without words, with that little hint of survival horror where a splicer might walk in and catch you off-guard.

Columbia was a very different experience, there was sunlight and sky and clouds and floating buildings and people walking about going on with their day. The levels where you get to put your weapons down and just play walking simulator for however long you want are probably the better levels. In general, Columbia has a lot of well-done atmosphere and moments where a player can just stop and take a screenshot for their desktop later. It was an still is a visual treat, and the general artstyle of BioShock as a franchise not being super realistic and being somewhat stylised really helped the games age well. Even the massive hands of NPCs and the horrifying children of Columbia have their own charm to them.

And on that note of charming, the characters themselves had charm to them, be it in short audio logs or through the story with recurring characters. All the games get their charm from the audio diaries because they inform the overall story in some small aspect and add to putting you in the time period and setting of the story, as well as the attitudes of characters then. Honestly I never get enough of walking through the welcoming level and overhearing people talking in this cheery tone where the subject matter of conversations starts to become slowly off, or how an NPC will comment on finding Booker attractive when it's entirely possible that not 30 seconds ago Booker was rummaging in the trash and found loose change and a pineapple.

And you might be wondering if things like these were really that great, and in 2013? Yes. Yes, they were great. Why? Because it was 2013 and everything was brown. (or at least it felt like it) Mainstream games were varying shades of sepia tone and mud-brown because war or something, it wasn't ALL games but for triple A titles it felt like they thought spilling coffee on the camera was a style choice. Characters as well, they were either bland or assholes, I could articulate better if my brain wasn't white noise surrounding the before times, but it felt like western-made games like Calladuty Shootaman were just devoid of colour or charisma unless you were a BioWare game.

With Infinite, its bright colours and characters with... well, character (for better or worse put a pin in that), were a breath of fresh air for those generally playing it, even if some of the charm came from NPCs being blatantly bigoted in that old-timey voice (which really Infinite is not the only piece of media to do that).

And you're going to sigh for me saying it, because it makes me sound like a stan again, but another big factor in making it Infinite charming and different was... Elizabeth.

Yes, Elizabeth

Women in games weren't really treated as characters in the early 2010s, particularly in Triple As. It was a particularly misogynistic time in gaming in pretty much all areas; within the game narrative, behind the scenes in a game's development, and ESPECIALLY in fandom.

If a character was female and feminine, then she was either going to be a useless damsel just there to be a nuisance or to serve as a slutty mcslutterson just there to be sexy and/or bang the main character (or for bonus points, be punished for her sexy, slutty crimes). Like, any instance of a female character where her boobs were just existing meant some kind of misogyny was heading her way. It all just lead to pushback of being a girl and girly, like the only way to make a female character feel like she had a point or had worth was to make her a hardass and just as misogynistic "I'm not like other girls" as the men.

so Elizabeth being the emotional core of Infinite was pretty 'groundbreaking' at the time, for lack of a better term. She was feminine, she was girly, but she wasn't a useless damsel because of her gameplay design to assist the player, and she wasn't a slutty mcslutterson because she's never sexually available to the main character. Hell, she IS the main character in a way, Booker's just her bodyguard.

Escort missions were treated with the utmost disdain (a big reason why people chose to shit on BioShock 2 when it's entirely optional after one tutorial), and women were treated like eye candy, sexy lamps, or romantic interests/sex objects for the player character in more linear titles. So in terms of a giiiirl in a main role, Elizabeth was something new people into games and gaming culture; her escort mission didn't have annoying mechanics leading to fail states, and she was treated as her own character first and not as a romantic or sexual interest for the main character. She was allowed to just be, with interests and skills and agency in the story.

Triple A titles and the developers behind them just didn't seem to know how to write or design female characters beyond what would entertain what they believed was the main demographic; horny dudebros. If you want a quick example, the Mass Effect series was a big hit with its first two installments, being a space opera with some horny-on-main showing *cough*Asari*cough,* but nothing too egregious for games at the time and nothing as bad as other stuff out there. Then we had Mass Effect 3, a game that like Infinite was the third game in a surprise hit franchise given the Triple A treatment, and released not a year before. And returning female characters had designs that... well... choices were made, some more egregiously boggling than others. Biggest example would be Ashley Williams, whose new wardrobe didn't fit her established character in previous games.

Fans weren't fooled, because Ashley is a character who went on record to say she was comfortable with her femininity as she was while dressing appropriately as a soldier. While not stated, the obvious reason for the redesign was to make her look more like Miranda Lawson from the previous game, whose sexy appearance is actually part of her character and comfort in her sexuality. They literally changed Ashley's appearance from wearing practical uniform to a catsuit with a miniskirt for the sake of titillation for a potential new audience. And to be clear, it isn't that sexy characters are inherently bad or badly written. It's that developers and writers usually picked the wrong time to sexualise said characters, i.e. "there's a time and a place for a butt shot, and a scene where this woman is asking for help on a personal matter isn't it."

But anyway without going further off-topic, Game companies wanted to sell games and when it came to women in games, they believed that sex sold, hence female characters in games being sexualised with it rarely informing their characters or serving anything beyond titillation for a presumed male demographic.

Infinite seemed to be on that track with Elizabeth's demo appearance, where her bust was much bigger and she sounded a lot older, but looking at iterations of Elizabeth over time up to the final game, it becomes clear that the people behind Elizabeth were actively trying to avoid having her fall into that sexualisation, or at least any further than she already was. They made her breasts smaller and changed the bodice of her dress to her corset, keeping the blue dress that was by that point iconic while also modifying it to something that Elizabeth clearly would not wear by choice. They gave her her sailor-style dress for two thirds of the game so that players could connect with her more for her personality and story.

And, to top it off, the game is actively laughing at you for trying to ogle Elizabeth, after an age of games where the male gaze was encouraged. When there's a scripted scene, the camera keeps focus on Elizabeth's face and not her body. A player can't walk up flush to her to stare at her chest or her butt because her hitbox is pretty big and she will keep moving out of the way. You can't look up her skirt because it's too long, you can't get a view as she jumps off a skyline because she's too quick and even if you get it glitching out, Elizabeth's character models don't even have any legs above her knees (which for saving polygons is common in most games but that's not the topic). Hell, the ONE time a player can "successfully" try to be a perv to her exposed skin is when she's tied to the operating table at Comstock House, and aside from not being able to get too close, you know what the devs did? They defocus Elizabeth if you try to use your sights on her.

(from 08:23 to 08:57)

Most games at the time would not bother to put up this much resistance to players being gross horndogs, even as a joke like in the playthrough above. At first with Infinite and Elizabeth it was like "haha they cockblocked us lol", but in hindsight it feels more and more like it was pushing back against objectifying the emotional core of Infinite wherever possible, like the devs wanted people to view Elizabeth as a character first.

Honestly? Elizabeth wasn't the greatest example of how to treat a main character who was a woman in games, but she was one of the characters that at least pushed people in the direction of handling women and their writing better in future. Most people, anyway.

I'm gonna cover this separately in another post on the topic, but my friends and I are usually just baffled at how much the attitude towards Elizabeth has changed today, because while there are instances of dodgey writing with her story, Elizabeth is one of the characters that helped push narratives in gaming towards drinking their Respect Women Juice, because for all the "critiques" about her appearance and her role in the story... I can only think of what games were like around the time and I just

And just to cover my bases...

Yeah, the Narrative About Racism Was Pretty Racist Itself

With the subject of the Vox Populi and Daisy and the "both sides can be monstrous" way that plotline got ended unceremoniously, I don't believe it was written with any malicious intent (though I wouldn't argue if I was proven wrong on that, who knows what else we're missing behind the scenes). How the racism is handled has aged the poorest and is very much a deal-breaker for some players today, but with the context of when the game was made and released, I think they were trying to be sincere without completely understanding what they were getting into. Unfortunately with most media by white people, it's down to ignorance.

It did not help Infinite's case either that later that year, Black Lives Matter started, and with that movement more attention was given to black voices speaking out about stereotypes and portrayals of black characters in media, including in BioShock Infinite. I don't believe the people behind Infinite meant any harm in their portrayals of Daisy and the Vox. It doesn't mean it wasn't wrong or justifiable, but given the general lack of diversity in game companies at the time it's at best understandable how they and some players of Infinite would have missed the mark on a subject like racism. When it comes to racism, it's a lot deeper and a lot less PC than a white writer would want to get into if they weren't genuinely dedicated to showing the truth and ugliness of the topic, which Levine was not, because Infinite was not a story meant to be about racism at the end of the day.

I think with the demos, while the Vox were clearly antagonists, the reason for them being antagonists was a lot better than what we got. It's how they were always intended if we believe what was shown, and we might not know exactly how they went from that to being "the good guys get the means to fight the bad guys, but in doing so they become the bad guys". It was a mistake, and on some level we KNOW Levine knows it was a mistake by Burial at Sea Episode Two's development at latest, given how he tries to retcon Daisy's reasons for holding a child at gun point (which isn't better it's just. another flavour of "bad").

tl;dr, In Conclusion, yada yada

Overall, I feel so many people still like BioShock Infinite today because of what it kind of did for gaming along with other titles released back in 2013. It got lots of mainstream attention for a game that wasn't Call of Warfare or Modern Duty, which was what people expected from first-person-shooters a lot of the time. It was also one of the titles out there pushing for the argument that video games could be artistic and hold deeper meaning and stories, even if with Infinite your mileage may vary. It was part of the "you HAVE to try this game" list of experiences, and it's stuck to those people even if it hasn't gotten on too graceful with time.

I feel like it was a net positive at least with how it treated the main girl of the game and how fans reacted. Yes, there were plenty of horny dudebroes and creeps drawing fanart because the internet never ceases to surprise, but a lot of people fell in love with her for being a female character that got better treatment than most, both in-story and in fandom. Plenty of other women in games may have had better stories and characters and mechanics than Elizabeth, I won't argue that, but again, this was a woman in a game for a mainstream audience at a time where women were either a sex object or a punchline in popularly consumed media, particularly online.

You know what, I'm changing my favourite thing about Infinite. My favourite thing about it was that it shone a spotlight on the whole series. Something that was an ironic positive was how, after Infinite came out, people started viewing BioShock 2 a lot more favourably, either by comparison to Infinite because it felt weaker in certain elements, or by revisiting / first-time-playing the games, especially when the remastered version in the BioShock Collection was released. Infinite being such a big success financially prompted 2K to try and make more money by bringing the older games to the next console generation, which brought the whole series to a wider audience. And it was damn good to see BioShock 2 get a new perspective that was heaps more positive than when it was released, it was always a shame to me that online circles treated it like trash since it was the first game in the series I played until completion (I just couldn't get into combat for BioShock 1 at the time).

I'm sorry for making this so long and sorry if there are points that don't seem clear or make sense, it was too fun and brain-excercising to not go into why so many people still like this game. Well at least the reasons that wouldn't require me to retire at 30 from exhaustion and mental breakdowns anyway.

[sol-falloutblog]

I was trying to finish the rest of Bioshock Infinite by playing the DLCs, and I played little of Clash in the Clouds but since it doesn't have a story and is just combat I decided to move on to the Burial at Sea one. I was able to finish the first episode without really any issues and moved on to the second one, I played a decent amount of it (I think I did at least) and made sure I stopped/exited out after a recent save point. I was about to try to continue playing it and maybe even finish it but... after loading it up the game started back way close to the beginning of the episode (I think it's what happens right after the" exploring Paris" part) in the Toy shop... I had just completed gathering 2/3rds of the stuff I needed for fixing up the portal machine (whatever it's called Idc, lol) and now I'm... basically back at the beginning...

Yeah that's an immediate "fuck this shit, I'm done," moment for me, not sorry the games not good enough for me to put up with all that again (especially with no way to manually save, weird but not necessarily bad but also not great gameplay that changes how you play the game because your a woman & not a tough strong ex soldier & no way to skip cutscenes). I'm just going to look up the summary of what happens or something, MAYBE I might try completing it on the easiest setting but I'm not a patient person and having to redo what I already have done just... UGHHHH, pisses me off and just reminds me of my hard work I put into my first attempt and how it was just WASTED & I have no idea why or wtf happened!!!

[fanfoolishness]

a stopped clock (Bioshock Infinite)

There’s always a lighthouse.

There’s always a man.

There’s always a city.

***

The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist…

***

Booker DeWitt stares down at his hands.  They’re calloused, cracked, scarred.  Funny how he still sees blood there even when they’re clean.

He shakes his head.  No matter.  He’s got a job to do.  The rain lashes his hands clean, and in the distance he sees it rising from the churning sea: the lighthouse.

***

It’s a city here, nothing he’s ever seen, maybe New York in a fever dream.  He doesn’t feel so good, but shooting through the air, nearly drowning, and floating in the sky might do that to a man.  

He’s dizzy in the thin air.  He tries to take it all in, but the details slide past him, overwhelming.  Buildings rising impossibly into the clouds, the sun more blinding than it’s ever been, wind chilled like a gust from an icebox, music he’s never heard swirling around him.  The fuck is this place --

“Welcome to Columbia!” a man says brightly.  Booker just scowls, head clearing.  He’s not here to make friends.  He’s never been anywhere for that.

“Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt,” he mutters.  The man eyes him warily.

***

A coin flips, hangs glittering in the air like one of the hummingbirds in the gardens, and Booker wonders what it means, how much it’s worth, whose blood it might buy.  Twin faces politely catalogue his choice and he prowls past them, man on a mission.

***

Ah.  Turns out this city ain’t so golden after all.  

This, this makes sense to him, nose crunching beneath his fist, knuckles splitting, blood fountaining from another man’s face.  It always comes to this, doesn’t it?  He’s a Pinkerton man, brutish through and through, and before that --

The shrieks are in English now, not Sioux, but they end the same way.  

***

Monument Island, the signs all say, but Booker’s skin crawls.  It doesn’t make sense.  What monument needs danger signs, quarantines?  Doesn’t add up.  Yet all he finds in the end, humming and twirling in a library behind iron doors six inches thick, is the girl.

Elizabeth.

***

She’s so damn naive.  

It almost hurts him, that innocence in her wide eyes.  How could anyone get through life so trusting?  There’s a hot flash of vindication he feels when it all goes south in the station, but it vanishes when she flinches away from him, recoiling at the death written into his hands and bones.  She thinks him a monster.  He’s inclined to agree.

The name Anna flits through his mind, but he’s not sure why.  All it leaves behind is a sinking bitter guilt and a rush of anger: seething, volatile, aimless.

Enough.  Elizabeth’s here now, and he tries twisting himself into the man she needs him to be.  Anything to get the job done, right?  

He tries his best.  At least, it’s what he tells himself.

***

“You were there at Wounded Knee.  I can see it in your face.”  Her voice is kinder than it has any right to be.  It cuts him worse than cruelty ever could.

He swallows.  Shivers.  Remembers the smell of burning leather and prairie grass, lullabies in Sioux, bloodied hair dried and cracking in the folds of his hands.  

Fuck, he needs a whiskey.

***

A choice.  Numbers spinning beneath his fingertips.  He’s never flown an airship, but somehow that doesn’t bother him.  New York?  Paris?  He doesn’t know what she wants of Paris.  He’s never been there, never planned to be.  

It has to be New York.  Wipe away the debt!

All he knows is what he’s been told, wipe it away and come out clean, but when she levies the wrench at his head, he doesn’t feel afraid.  He only feels he’s failed, and at least the feeling is familiar.

***

Finktown’s full of filth, but what did you expect for a place with a name like that?  Booker’s seen it too many times.  He leaves dead almost-Pinkertons behind him like shadows seared in the streets.  

Elizabeth’s compassion makes him uneasy.  He wishes he had the words to warn her of the snakepit they’re walking into.  Wishes he knew how to keep that kindness in her eyes where it ought to be.  But words are tools unsuited to his dirty hands, and besides, he doesn’t feel right here. Nose bleeding, head foggy, fucking dizzy.  Something’s wrong.  

He died.  He lived.  He died.  Did he?  He fights it.  There’s something wrong here, something goddamned wrong….

He almost thinks he has it, then, the puzzle, the shape of it, but it slithers away from him before he can pin it down.  He pushes on.  Work to be doing, after all.  Protect the girl.  

He fights through the worst of it, but Fitzroy falls.  It’s Elizabeth’s kind face wearing the blood that’s his by rights, and he’s sick, sick, sick.  Like Wounded Knee.  Like -- like Anna --

His fist is heavy on the door, but she doesn’t answer him.  “I know how this feels,” he tries, guilt coiling in his belly, but the silence grows.  He’s crushed beneath it, condemned, and Columbia’s sins collapse upon him.

***

“Let me do it,” he insists.  He stands over a dead woman cased in glass and for a moment he hears a cry ringing out, sees a sweet face whiter than the blood-blown sheets, remembers her name --

But it’s gone, quicker than he can follow, and he does this thing so Elizabeth doesn’t have to.  He’d do anything, so she won’t have to.

It won’t be New York, this time.

***

Snow in the air, January roaring across the white sky.  The wind sighs in the walls and Booker wanders the asylum, fighting panic with every step.  The faces here are wrong, horrible masks in plaster and doll’s hair, hollow blank eyes.  The thing that gnaws him is how familiar they seem, somehow.  And through it all her screams, so distant he might almost imagine them, but he has to find her, has to save her, has to fucking fix this --

Fire and blood, rage towering in him like he’s never known before, and she’s there.  She’s there.  His hands tremble.  “Elizabeth.”  

He falters with his words; they come out so small and simple.  Not enough for the hurt in her eyes or the bruises on her back.  The sounds he tries are just useless things in a graveled voice, clattering against the floor, and he leaves them there.  Blood will have to speak for him.

***

“Nothing is finished!  You lock her up her whole life. You cut off her finger, and you pin it on me?”  His throat’s ragged with the effort and hatred boils up out of him, a foulness that leaves him panting.  Comstock’s dead, he’s finally dead, and shouldn’t he feel better with the man’s blood on his hands?

But Elizabeth fixes him with luminous eyes and fists clenched at her sides.  “What did he mean?”

He doesn’t know, he doesn’t know the answer to any of it, and the wrongness buzzes in his head.  Can’t think about that right now.  Work’s not done yet.

He wipes his own blood from his nose, and it dries red on his fingertips.

***

Doorways.  Elizabeth’s right.  They’re beautiful, lights in white and gold awash against the inky dark, the sound of waves gentle.  The lighthouses call to him, and their song hums unbroken.  

For a moment he doesn’t know what he feels.  It’s wholly unfamiliar.  Is it… hope?

She takes his hand.  It’s small, but steely, too.  The doors open, and that faintness he called hope dissolves to dread.

Water rushes in his ears.  Voices singing, hymns over a river’s course.  The baby cooing, the way she used to kick her legs just so.  Rain against his face, hard to tell the difference between blood. Or tears.

She’s kind, even now.  He’s so proud of her for that.  Even with it all, she’s better than he ever was.  He knows as well as she does that this, this final choice, is a mercy in more ways than one.  

Her hands are small.  But they hold him down just as well as iron.

***

“Mr. DeWitt?” she asks, giving him a friendly smile.  He is one of her favorites, even though she has read through his file.  Pinkerton.  Widower.  The White Injun of Wounded Knee.  Still, a man’s old life has little bearing once he comes to this ward, and Polly knows she has a calling here for folks like this.

Booker DeWitt gazes up at her, green-glass eyes bright and alert.  She cannot help a moment’s trace of pity.  He always seems to be here with her.  And yet….

“Elizabeth,” he says gruffly.  “Don’t run off like that.”  Though he gives her a stern look, a half-smile edges across his face.

She likes him in this mood.  The male orderlies worry for her when she sees Mr. DeWitt, and she knows they mean well, but he only ever seems to get violent with them.  He is nothing but a gentleman -- well, a gentleman rough around the edges -- when he speaks to “Elizabeth.”  Dr. Bay has encouraged her to play along when Mr. DeWitt falls into these moods. Anything else seems to distress the man.

“Don’t worry, Mr. DeWitt.  I’m here now.  I’ll take care of you.”

A flicker of confusion crosses his face; his mouth thins, lips turning down at the corners.  “Call me Booker.”  He sighs, leaning forward and burying his face in his hands.  The bedsprings creak as he moves.  “Elizabeth, I won’t let them take you.  You understand?”  He raises his head, giving her a piercing gaze.  

It reminds her of someone.  She blinks when she catches it.  The Indian woman that lived near her parents’ farm; she remembers that same steeliness in the eyes.

“Of course, Booker.”  She carefully checks his heart rate, gives him a thermometer.  He keeps it under his tongue obediently, but holds out his hand for her to check.  She turns it over.  As always, the only abnormality is the jagged AD scarred into the back of his hand, long since healed.  There are no new wounds.  Yet he has held this hand to her a dozen times.

He looks at her expectantly.  She sighs, then removes a strip of gauze from her apron pocket and wraps it around his hand.  “Much obliged,” he says.  She makes a note to replace the gauze for the next time she tends to him.

She turns to the tray behind her, then turns back to him, his medications nestled in a tin.  “Here you are.”

Mr. DeWitt looks at the tin, his forehead creased in concentration.  She notices the lines at the edges of his eyes, the gray streaking his hair.  It’s a shame.  He’s no longer a young man, but nor is he elderly, unlike so many here.  Perhaps that is why she sorrows, now and then, thinking of him.

“Salts?” he asks.  They have never been able to figure out what he means when he says this.

“Salts, Booker.”  She hands the tin to him, and he pops them into his mouth readily, cradling the tin in his hand.

Dr. Bay tells her it’s called Korsakoff’s, named after a famous Russian neurologist.  A curious syndrome brought on by alcoholism.  She had never heard of it before coming here.  Anterograde amnesia.  

They don’t know how to treat it, though.  Dr. Bay tries sedatives at a low dose.  Polly isn’t sure they do much but make the man sleep.  She always hopes they will rest his mind, but every time she sees him, there is a new story, usually more fantastical than the last.  She has pieced together some of them.  A floating city.  Strange worlds beset by violent rebels.  A bird that somehow frightens him.  

She remembers Dr. Bay’s notes, the phrase that makes her heart ache.  The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist…  She scratches down today’s log in his file.

“How did you get to be so good at codebreaking?” Mr. DeWitt asks her, noticing her writing.  

Polly’s mind races, attempting to keep pace with the delusion.  Before she can formulate an answer, though, Mr. DeWitt yawns.  With a start she notices a trail of blood from his left nostril.  

“Booker, you’re bleeding.”

Dr. Bay says it’s something to do with the alcohol.  Hurts the platelets, somehow, makes it hard for them to clot.  She reaches hurriedly for extra gauze in her cart and tenderly blots the blood from his nose.  They’ll have tests to run on him later, poor fellow.  She checks his eye and gum color.  Still all right, thankfully.

“I remember I fought -- Slate and I, we burned the Hall of Heroes -- I died for the Vox --”  He shakes his head, breathing hard.  She lays her hand on his shoulder, hoping he finds it a comfort.  It will only be a moment now.  

“Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt,” Mr. DeWitt mumbles, pupils unfocused.  His grip on the tin that held the medication loosens, and carefully she wrests it away from his fingers before it can drop on the floor.  His hand is warm, the fingers heavily calloused.  

“Stay with me, Booker,” Polly says softly.  He slumps, leaning heavily to one side with his shoulders sagging, and she helps him down the rest of the way until his face meets the pillow.  She pulls his blanket up over his chest.  Once he is asleep she collects a blood sample from him, then tapes a bandage to his arm.  Dr. Bay will need to check his platelets again.  

She carefully notes the encounter in his file, but she is temporarily distracted by the rain drumming against the window, lightning sharp in the distance.  With the aid of its flash she can see the lighthouse far beyond the sound, miles beyond their city.  She shivers.  Something about it seems sinister, somehow.

“Constants, and variables,” says a woman’s voice.

Polly jerks upright.  A man and a woman in rain slickers, both alike, stand beside Mr. DeWitt’s bed.  “Excuse me!  Visiting hours are over!” says Polly indignantly.  She’s quite surprised.  Mr. DeWitt’s only family listed is a wife and daughter, both deceased.

The man looks mildly put out.  “It seems you win this round, dear sister.”

“I told you this one could not be considered.  Far too damaged.  Biology and self-loathing are strange masters, brother.”

“Excuse me,” Polly repeats.

“The file is fascinating, though, you must admit!  I suspect there may be other windows between realities beyond the ones we have made ourselves,” the man suggests.  Polly stares at them in bewilderment.

“The girl may be communicating with him, but I think it is more likely that a mind can only be broken in so many ways.  Eventually, it might happen upon the truth.”

“Excuse me….”

“Such a faint possibility for these particular delusions to be created, unless counterparts are somehow innately connected --”

“You are overthinking it, as usual.  Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day, and in an infinite universe, no single outcome is as unlikely as the next.  Sometimes I wonder if biology might have been as equal a pursuit as physics --”

“Excuse me!  You’ll have to leave!” shouts Polly, standing and squaring her shoulders.  “Mr. DeWitt needs his rest.  How did you get in here?  Was it Alice at the front desk?  She’s always shirking --”

“There is no need to get upset.  We won’t be troubling you again,” the woman assures her.  

“We have seen all we need to see.  We wish you the best of luck in caring for him,” the man says, gesturing to Mr. DeWitt.  “We do apologize for the inconvenience.”

A terrific flash of lightning is followed by a resounding crack of thunder. Rain slams against the window in a mad staccato.  Polly blinks.  The man and woman are nowhere to be found.

Must have hurried out, she thinks, suddenly anxious.  Then she breathes a sigh of relief.  Korsakoff’s, at least, is not contagious.  No need to worry about her own mental state. 

The rain pounds against the building.  Beneath his roughspun blanket, Mr. DeWitt stirs.  “Anna?” he murmurs, his voice gentle.  “Anna?  Is that you?”

Polly frowns at the sight of his sleep-slacked face, worry sinking into the pit of her stomach.  Not again.

She reaches for her gauze, and she wipes away the red.