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boombox-fuckboy · 3 years ago

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Hi @rec-rewind, I hope you don't mind I make a post for this. I know you like Unwell, you've heard TMA, and you're listening to Archive 81 (if season 2 was more your thing). Here's 30 other horror pods for you:

Alice Isn't Dead: A truck driver travels America, telling stories of her strange encounters while looking for the wife she had thought was dead.

A Voice From Darkness: A radio help line for all your strangest and most disturbing troubles. Host Dr. Ryder takes calls, answers questions, shares strange history, and discusses ongoing supernatural problems around America.

The Blood Crow Stories: Each season is it's own horror story. S1 is tapes from a doomed cruise ship in WW2, S2 is a religious horror western, S3 is a cyberpunk with demons, and S4 is the occult and old-time movie studios.

The Deep Vault: Dead Signals' (Archive 81) other podcast, following survivors of a crumbling world in an underground bunker, complete with robots, ai, cosmic entities, etc.

Dining in the Void: Heads up for initial pacing issues and rough audio, but the issue is resolved, and I enjoy other aspects of the show enough to disregard. A group of strangers are summoned to a space station for a party, and promptly locked in with various horrors and an ominous countdown, until they can work out who the host is.

Dos: After You: A charming young hitman leaves home to travel Europe, hoping to track down, and kill, the god he fell in love with.

Down: A group of scientists and explorers are put in a submarine sent down an apparently bottomless pit in Antarctica. Nobody likes what they find down there.

Duggan Hull: After her friend/ex-girlfriend goes missing, a young woman tries to track her down and ends up in the middle of a strange and disturbing small town mystery. Fantastic piece of cosmic horror. (Not on Spotify)

Hello From The Hallowoods: A powerful entity visits your nightmares bearing stories of the people, in varying states of human and alive, who inhabit the Hallowoods, through horrors and joys, and as their lives begin to meet. Super queer.

Hi Nay: Supernatural horror following a young woman named Mari, who's babaylan (shaman) family background draws her into helping people with various horrific supernatural problems around Toronto. Formatted as phone calls to her mother telling her what's happened.

The Hotel: About a supernatural hotel that kills people, and the weird staff that make it happen.

How I Died: Work recordings of a forensic pathologist who can see ghosts, when he moves to a new town and encounters a strange sequence of murders.

I am in Eskew: Personal accounts from a man living in something that very much wants to be a city, and an investigator who was, in her words, hired to kill a ghost. Creatively horrific stories with a gentle voice and ambient rain. Rougher audio initially but not uncomfortably so.

Janus Descending: A xenopalentologist and a xenoarcheologist investigate the abandoned ruins of an ancient alien civilisation and find more than they bargained for. Listen to the supercut for this one. Really clever use of a strange format: you hear her recordings first to last, and his last to first, and it's all the more heartbreaking for it.

The Lost Cat Podcast: A man befriends strange entities, loses bits of himself and drinks an awful lot of wine while looking for his cat. Unique and fun writing that's stuck with me, yet just the right hint of cliché to make it satisfying in the moment, too. Soft and cosmic horror. (Not on Spotify)

Mabel: Series of voicemails from an elderly woman's caretaker, to her unresponding grandaughter. Horror/mystery with a slow slide into poetic lesbian fae body horror.

Maps of the Lost: An audio guide book to the strange people, places, and happenings of Britan. Lovely soothing voice, more supernatural or new weird but horror enough for this list.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality: You're led through a museum of strange artifacts by a sweet audio tour guide AI, who will tell you the story behind each one. More new weird but there's plenty horror in there too.

Old Gods of Appalachia: Tales from the 1800s and 1900s of an alternate Appalachia inhabited by witches, old gods, and entities beyond understanding. With the air of being told stories around a campfire, these tales are connected by individuals or places, seperate but not detached. Any character is disposable, but none are treated with less respect than they deserve.

The Petrol Station: Strange and unsettling stories from a young woman working at a 24 hour petrol station in a very remote british town. Only 5 episodes, but I am hoping for more.

Red Valley: British cryogenic conspiracy comedy horror with some truely gorey sfx at times. Not my sense of humor personally, but it is enjoyable regardless and well made.

SAYER: Several sophisticated AI bully you into completing an array of both mundane and horrible tasks.

SCP: Find Us Alive: First, you don't need to know anything about SCP to enjoy this. A research team gets trapped in an underground research facility when the complex collapses and the building is dragged into a pocket dimension. The tear it was designed to study begins creating tiny copies of itself, generating strange entities the team needs to deal with. Oh, and the entire situation physically resets every 30 days. And yet, this is genuinely also an office comedy.

The Sheridan Tapes: In 2018, famous horror writer Anna Sheridan went missing leaving behind a collection of strange tapes. Listen along as a young detective with his own strange past tries to work out what happened to her. Cosmic horror.

The Silt Verses: In a modern world where gods are both commercialised and banned, two followers of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage. Great worldbuilding and tasty body horror. Same creators as Eskew (further up this list)

Station Blue: Isolation horror following a maintenance man who sets up an antarctic research base ahead of the main crew. Based on the creator's experiences with her own untreated mental illness but also there's some cosmic fuckery and light body horror.

Video Palace: Guy (and his wife when she has time) hosts a personal investigation into a collection of video tapes generally considered an urban legend, after he finds one and begins sleep talking.

The White Vault: A repair group sent to a research base near Svalbard gets trapped inside as an unending snowstorm rages, decides to take a nosy at the tunnels under the base, and find some disturbing things. Fantastic audio and a fun cast of accents and languages.

VAST Horizon: An agronomist travelling to a new world wakes from cryo to find the ship empty, off-course, and damaged. With the guidence of a malfunctioning AI, she tries to work out what happened and how to stop the situation aboard from getting worse.

WOE.BEGONE: A man's curiousity gets the better of him as he begins to play an alternate reality game of a different kind. The challenges are brutal and disturbing, but for the prize on offer, it might just be worth it. Single most endearing asshole lead I've encountered, very funny, very gay, and the music slaps.

Hopefully at least one appeals.

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womenofwonder · 3 years ago

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RWBY characters races for AUs set in our world.

How I’m going to do this: three things. The first, the city they live in Remnant. This is the least important because that leaves us with only five…maybe six places compared to our world’s hundreds of countries.

The second will be the original of their names, which they’ll have to keep in the AUs, meaning that they need some culture background for them.

The third will be their fairy tale origins.

So to start, Ruby Rose:

She lives in Vale, which is similar to France (I’ll explain why in another post maybe), but technically grew up in patch, a small island off the coast of Vale. I have no idea about Patch’s culture as we hardly ever see it, so I’m going to skip this one. We also don’t know if either Summer or Taiyang was originally from Vale.

We know Taiyang is Chinese from his name, so I’m going to say she’s half Chinese. I also wrote a western au once and really love the idea of Taiyang being an Asian Redneck…so I think I’m going to say Ruby is very, very southern just because that would be adorable.

But if you don’t want that idea I generally see Taiyang being either Asian-American or Asian-French, or Asian-British if your doing a HP AU. Summer is harder to pin down, but Red Riding Hood was originally an Italian fable, so I’m going to have her be Italian or Italian-American.

Weiss:

Weiss is German, although making her simply white America/British would work. I could see her being Russian too in some AU because Atlas fits well as Russia. For American works, Pennsylvania has quite the German population and coal mines, so that works pretty well for her.

Blake is really complicated. From Remment Australia which is culturally SEA (south East Asian), has an English name but parents with a Hindu-inspired names, but neither looking vaguely Indian. I’m going to assume her family are immigrants (as they are in cannon I think) to Australia, maybe even changed their name to help them fit in. Immigrants from where? Well, India is an option, but I like to think Malaysia. They have a large Indian and Chinese population, and I like to think Blake is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicities, from Malaysia and immigrated to Australia. And if you think this is crazy or unrealistic, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sheer mix of cultures I’ve seen growing up as an ex-pat is insane. This isn’t too crazy.

For Yang, we already have Taiyang as an Asian red-neck. Or at least I do. Raven and Qrow are going to be a little harder to pin down, but I’m think bandits getting replaced by mafia. Which mafia? I don’t know, take you’re pick. Branwen is Welsh, but I can’t think of a Welsh mafia. Coming from Mistral I would see them as being Triad, not Yakuza because Raven’s gang is famous for being less than coordinated.

If you need a logical reason for Yang having blonde hair, Taiyang could be only half Chinese, half blonde (blonde is race right?).

Either way I see Raven operating in an American city like New York or Detroit.

This would mean Yang is fully Chinese ethnically.

JNPR:

Jaune’s name and inspiration are all French. However his mother does come from Mistral (I think), so I do see him being half Chinese, but nationally French. It’s also funny to imagine him with a French accent.

Pyrrha: she’s Greek or maybe Greek-American with her parents being recent immigrants. Argus seems to Remnent-Greece and her name and fairy tale are greek.

Nora: she should be Scandinavian. I feel like in a MCU AU she’s Thor’s daughter. But she also grew up as a street rat in Mistral, which is hard to fit in our world. Therefore I’m going to have her in America, the great melting pot (and also America seems to be more like Mistral than any other Remnent king with our state system), and she going to ethically Scandinavian but knowing nothing of her culture due to her upbringing.

Ren: obviously Chinese, but I might have him be American-Chinese to fit his story nicely in with Nora’s.

Others:

Coco: we’re all ignoring that she’s based off Coco Channel, so let’s make her a LA girl

Velvet: Australia, because of the accent. Or maybe English because that is her story origin

Fox: he’s difficult, because tribes are pretty rare in modern AUs. But his story could work for various things. He’s one of the few black characters so he could come from practically any African tribe (I’m currently going with Hausa because it’s one of the few I know anything about). His name is based off ‘the fox and the hound’ which is a rare American story, so he could also be from a Native American tribe if you want the AU to be more American-based.

Yatsuhashi: Japanese, this one is thankfully easy.

Sun: Chinese. He comes from a tribe as well, but I can’t think of any nomadic Chinese tribes except the Uyghurs. Making Sun a Uyghur doesn’t make much sense but it will serve to piss off certain people on the internet. And now this is going to be taken down, isn’t it? Oh wait, this is tumbrl. This is anarchy. It won’t. Forgot why I liked this place for a second.

Scarlet: sorry for the rambling there. Anyway, Scarlet is definitely English. “I hope I don’t get sand in my shoes.”

Sage: well, he’s black, but other then that we have nothing to go one. He’s also from Mistral but that doesn’t really work? If Mistral is America as well as China I guess we can make him African American. Or whatever else works best for the AU. He might be Indian too now that I think of it. Or even Maori. Really options are limitless here.

Neptune: Yeah, so probably just American, but does have both a French last name and an Italian first name. So probably ethically American (aka white mutt). Also he lives near a port, I think I’m gonna gone with him being from Tacoma Washington because I am.

Flynt: African American

Neon: Japanese-American because of her meme (it started as part of Japanese pop song on YouTube, the latter of which is America summed up in one invention)

Oscar: Hispanic-American, he just looks it. And I’m guessing he lives in Kansas for obvious reasons. His last name isn’t Hispanic but their could be a lot of reasons for that. Or he could be Native American (Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Osage are all Native American tribes in Kansas).

Penny: well if she’s still a robot she probably stays white, but if you want her human in this AU she might end up being half black as Pietro is, although she also could just be adopted. I guess the later makes more sense, huh? I figure she’s American, with her dad working with a ‘well meaning’ but ultimately corrupt government. Probably living in DC, as that has both the government and the poverty issues.

Emerald: oohh, boy. This is hard. Sustrai is Basque, and Aladdin is a French addition to an Arabian story, she herself is dark skinned with anime features that are super unhelpful for this sorta thing.

I have three ideas. Brazilian, mostly as there’s no South American themed RWBY characters I can think of, and it’s diverse enough that someone looking like Emerald would fit. Secondly, for American centered stories she’s just an orphan with no idea of her ethnicity. Or she could be African, Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or some mixture between those four. It’s honestly really hard to tell. In my fanfic she’s from Suriname and ethnically 1/4 Indian, 1/2 Creole, and 1/4 Javanese.

Ilia: Sioux (Native American). Ilia means a lot of things in a lot of different languages, and Amitola mean rainbow in Sioux, so I decided to just stick with that.

Mercury: American, white mutt American. I’m guessing New York or Philli for where he grew up, it seems like a place where he’d be comfortable

Neo: the new novel reveals her father lived in vale (btw I haven’t read it, I’m just getting this off the internet) and her mother was a assassin who’s origins aren’t known. She doesn’t really have a fairy tale. So I’m going to go with British or French (thank RWBY thoughts for the first one) although in an American AU she works as just a white American.

Robyn: depends on what Atlas is in this AU, but probably German or American.

Qrow: I already mentioned he’s probably Chinese due to being from Mistral. It’s a bit weird to think of him as Asian, but not as weird as it to think of Raven as white, so I’ll take it. Although I do like the idea of him being American Irish, that’s fun.

Winter: whatever Atlas is in this AU, German or American, although British and Russian would work well too.

Maria: Mexican

Salem: If you want a AU where she’s just a normal person then New England or Italian for her story origin

Watts: British

Tyrian: uh…I have no idea, but he looks white. And he kinda has a British accent? I want him to be southern for the accent tho. Probably just another crazy American

Cinder: her fairy tale is French but her origin is Chinese. Also, Cinderella doesn’t really have an origin, it’s an ancient story with every culture having at least one Cinderella story. So I’m going to say Chinese.

Hazel: American, from the Midwest. He’s darkish so maybe he’s a POC? Part Native American or Hispanic? Idk or really care I can’t stand Hazel

Roman Torchwick: American-Italian, he runs/works for the mafia

Ozpin: American because of the whole wizard-of-Oz-thing or French, because he seems to have come from Vale.

Glynda: American or French for the same reasons Ozpin is

Oobleck: Jewish American (because Dr. Seuss was)

Professor Port: Russian, due to his fairy tale, or English, due to his style

Taiyang: already said he’s a red-neck Asian.

Raven: depending on whether you want her to be white or not, either Chinese or Irish American, like I already said.

Cordovin: Karen

Ironwood: again, depends on Atlas in the AU. Either American or German…maybe Russian

Clover: Irish-American (or German, obviously the ace-ops depend on where Atlas is. I’m just going to do the rest of them assuming Atlas is American because Germany isn’t that diverse)

Harriet: African-American, I guess. It kinda messes with the story because Harriet is supposed to be privileged, which doesn’t really work in this AU, but she’s also obviously black.

Elm: Just normal American, maybe greek-American because of the Aesop fable themes

Vine: Tibetan based on his design

Marrow: either African-American or Pakistani/Indian-American. (I’m personally going for Pakistani)

Klein: english. All butlers are English. It’s a rule.

Pietro: African-American

Johanna: Pakistani or Indian American

Fiona: Jewish-American (kinda random but while she’s obviously white she also needs to be a minority for the Faunus thing to work)

May: normal upper glass American/German

Ghira: Half Malay, Half Indian, from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia later in life

Kali: half Chinese, half Indian, but also from Malaysia

Adam: much like Fiona I’m going to assume he’s Jewish due to him being white but still needing to be a minority. German or American, again, depending on where Atlas is. Or he could be Chinese, even though it doesn’t work with his name, due to the theory that he was trafficked much like Cinder. I’m going with ethically Jewish though

Sienna Khan: Indian

Huh, I actually finished that. I’m pretty sure I was accidentally racist multiple times and apologize in advance,

I’m exhausted and starving and not thinking straight. But anyway, here it is. Your very messy guide to modern RWBY AUs. I swear this was insane to sort out.

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introvert-no-chameleon · 4 years ago

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Of Monsters and McGuckets

Fiddleford just wanted to have his morning coffee in peace, but Gravity Falls and the Stan brothers had other plans.

AO3

Fiddleford Hardon McGucket considered himself to be a patient, level-headed individual. One had to be if they ever hoped to survive Gravity Falls, and, even more daunting, live with Stanford and Stanley Pines. Keeping them in line was an occupation in itself. His co-workers were two of the most chaotic and morally questionable people he’d ever met in his life. (Then again, as someone who had once made a giant robot to terrorize his ex-wife in an admittedly misguided attempt to get her back, maybe he shouldn’t be throwing stones in that last department).

The point is, when it came to dealing with uncommon and frustrating situations, he usually managed to keep a straight head. But on one deceivingly lovely morning, just when he’d went out to the porch to sit back with a nice cup of coffee and the sun had just begun to kiss the horizon, he saw two large monsters sprinting towards the shack, and. Well.

It was only reasonable that he’d react the way he did.

The first thing he did was spit out his early-morning coffee, ruining his only clean tie in the process. The second thing he did was dash into the shack like the Devil Himself was on his heels. Lastly, he slammed the door shut, locked it, and began combing the living room for the shotgun he knew for a fact Stanley kept around. He thanked the Lord Stanford wasn’t here, lest he’d be chastising Fiddleford for “harming” (defending himself against) a perfectly healthy specimen. Never mind the fact that half of these subjects of study had tried to eat him, no sir. Scientific discovery was always more important.

(Sometimes, Fiddleford wondered how on God’s green earth Stanford Pines hadn’t fallen to his death into a ravine or some other nonsense in pursuit of an anomaly. Heaven knows the man, while undeniably brilliant, was severely lacking when it came to common sense).

A bang rattled the wooden door of the shack. Fiddleford yelped, dropping the pile of books he’d been in the process of moving in his scramble to find the gun. He eyed the secret lab entrance and wondered if the door would hold them back long enough for him to make a dash for it.

“Fidds, we saw you run in, will ya just open the door?”

Fiddleford froze. That voice, while even more gravelly than usual (a thing he hadn’t thought possible) was definitely familiar.

“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” he said, dazed, as he walked over to the door and unlocked it. “Stanley?”

Upon closer inspection, he couldn’t deny that the square-jawed face that peered down at him belonged to Stanley Pines. There were some…notable…differences, such as the fact that he had glowing orbs for eyes, all his featured seemed to be carved from stone, he had ridiculous pointy ears and fangs to boot. He’d be right at home next to the gargoyles from those pictures of cathedrals he’d studied for his History of Western Art course.

“Took ya long enough,” said Stanley, ducking his head under the doorway and lumbering inside. Each step made the floorboard groan loudly, and for a few seconds Fiddleford thought the man would break through the wood floor. “Thought we’d never get back.”

“Stanferd, do ya have…fur?” said Fiddleford, stepping away from the door to let the other man in.

Stanford—it couldn’t be anyone else, not with that straight-backed posture and furrowed brow peering over thick-rimmed glasses—walked in behind him, hands behind his back.

Hearing the question, Stanford adjusted his glasses, with a large, six-fingered paw. His facial features were lion-esque, as was his entire body, save from the colorful green, blue and red feathered wings that trailed behind his body. He even had a cute little lion tail poking out from a hole in his pants. “It appears so, yes.” He cleared his throat. “We may have a…problem.”

Stanley, who had gone to the fridge to get a beer, came back glaring at Stanford with those bright yellow orbs. “No shit, Sixer. I hadn’t fucking noticed.”

Stanford’s ears flattened against his skull. Fiddleford would’ve found it amusing if Stanford wasn’t now 7 feet tall and didn’t have large, sharp teeth. “Language, Stanley.”

Fiddleford considered grabbing some alcohol as he took in the situation. After a few attempts at forming words, he finally settled for the question he found himself asking on a near-daily basis. “What in tarnation did ya two get yerselves mixed up in now?”

“Oi, don’t look at me,” said Stan. He jerked his clawed thumb at Stanford. “Mr. Science here was the one who just had to walk right into a mysterious, glowing lake that he almost drowned in.”

Stanford’s tail twitched, and he growled. “We almost drowned, Stanley, because you turned into 300 pounds of moving stone.”

“I was only in the lake because you started flailing around growing a tail and screamin’ for help!”

Ford sniffed, chin held up in that way it got whenever he’d start getting defensive. “Swimming with wings is incredibly difficult.”

“Yeah, I would know, I have them now.” Stanley stretched out his bat-like wings for emphasis.

Judging by Stanford’s bloodshot eyes and Stanley’s slouched posture, along with the fact that they seemed even more short with each other than usual, Fiddleford guessed that they’d been arguing on and off about this for a while. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Now see right here, the two of ya best calm down, you’ll tear the shack apart if you start fighting bein’ like this.”

The two of them, while far from calm, quieted down.

“Right,” said Fiddleford. “So ya discovered some magic water that turns folks into monsters?”

“Yup,” said Stanley. “We found it in some hidden path behind some bushes and a couple of boulders.”

It’s almost as if it was hidden away for a reason. “Did ya at least remember where the path is?”

“Of course,” said Stanford, having the audacity to look indignant. “What do you take me for?”

“An idiot who got us turned into two walking Summerween costumes because he couldn’t just collect the water in a cup and some gloves like a normal scientist?” said Stanley.

“As if you would know what a “normal” scientist does,” said Stanford, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Alright, fellas. Let me just get some food in me and then we can go back out and get some samples,” said Fiddleford. “I need me some caffeine to deal with this.”

Stanford opened his mouth but Fiddleford stopped him with the same withering glare he’d give his son whenever he tried to step out of line. “Stanferd Pines, if ya think I’m gonna run around the woods with the two of you, in this here state, on an empty stomach, yer sorely mistaken.”

“Fidds has got a point,” said Stan. “You probably haven’t had anything other than that piece of toast since you woke up.”

“I suppose some food wouldn’t hurt…” said Stanford. “I did have an incredibly strong urge to maul a deer we spotted on the way over.”

Fiddleford was getting some bacon out of the fridge when he heard the end of the sentence. He straightened up and slammed the door with more force than strictly necessary. “Y-ya did?”

Stanford seemed to come to the same conclusion Fiddleford had, because he raised his paws up. “Oh, n-no, rest assured. I don’t have any inclination to eat you.”

“Thank the Lord…”

“After all,” said Stanford, rubbing his chin. “According to mythology, sphinxes only consume humans if they are unfortunate enough not to know the answers to their riddles.”

“Don’t I feel better,” said Fiddleford, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Do ya reckon ya can still have some bacon and eggs?”

“Yes, that’ll do,” he said. “Oh! I must write down our findings in my journal. Now, where did I put it…” Stanford went up the stairs, muttering to himself the entire way.

“Ya know, he actually started running on all fours at least twice on the way over.” Stan grinned through another sip of beer. “was the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.”

Fiddleford sighed. That would explain the fighting. He rolled his eyes as he saw Stanley reach in the fridge for another can and shut it before he could. “Stanley Pines, it is 8 o’clock in the morning.”

“Ooh,” Stanley raised his eyebrows. “Two last names in less than five minutes, it’s a new record.”

“Stanley.”

Stanley pouted, and even with his new…physical features, Fiddleford still found it endearing. “Aw, come onnnn, Fids, I’m emotionally distressed!”

“Yer no such thing.” He smiled a soon as back turned to the other man. He took out their skillet and placed it on the stove.

“Y’know, I gotta hand it to ya. You’ve gotten a lot more assertive since we’ve met, it’s kinda hot.”

“Yer flattery will not sway me into lettin’ ya get another drink.”

Stanley laughed behind him. “Yeah, yeah. I’m still bein’ serious. Ford didn’t even try to fight you about getting breakfast. If it was me, he’d be yelling at me by now about how we were wastin’ time and crap.”

“It doesn’t take much for the two of ya to get at each other’s necks.” Fiddleford cracked an egg on the edge of the skillet. Anyhow, that’s because he’s hiding away scribblin’ field notes. The moment he’s done, he’ll be tryin’ to drag us on out of here.”

“Eh, true.”

For a moment, the eggs sizzling and snapping on the pan filled the warm silence. His stomach grumbled as the savory smell of cooking food reached him. “Stanley, can ya hand me the coffeepot?”

The floorboards creaked behind Fiddleford. A shadow loomed over him. “Stanley?”

“…You’re not, uh, scared of me or nothin’?” Stanley’s voice had gotten so quiet Fiddleford had hardly heard him.

Fiddleford glanced back at Stanley, who despite his size was hunched over, looking mighty small for someone who was now a literal boulder.

“Why on earth would I be?”

Stanley blinked meekly. He gestured towards his entire body. “Uh…’cause I look like this?”

Ah. He did try to threaten them with a shotgun. Some of the unease he’d gotten rid of returned, but he tried his best not to show it. He swallowed down his fear as best as he could. “Should I be?”

Stanley frowned. “Eh, I mean, I feel different, but not in a “eat somebody” kinda way. I do have a very strong urge to perch on the roof and attack pigeons.”

“Fascinating.” Even without his caffeine, his scientific curiosity was finally starting to get the best of him. “Well, gargoyles are known as guardians meant to ward against evil. Perhaps you’ve developed some sorta protective instinct…”

He stopped mid-ramble. Even without eyes to speak of, Fiddleford could tell Stanley was avoiding his gaze.

Fiddleford brought his hand to Stanley’s cheek. It felt warm, to his surprise, like rock that had baked under the afternoon sun. Stanley peeked up at him. “Darlin’, the only thing I’m afraid of is the damage you’ll cause around the lab if we don’t turn ya back. Yer like a bull in a china closet as it is.”

Stanley chuckled, leaning into Fiddleford’s touch. “Somebody has ta make things interesting around here.”

Something crashed overhead, quickly followed by a string of curses. A series of heavy objects thumped against the wood overhead.

“I’m alright!” called Stanford’s voice. “I simply knocked a bookshelf over my person, but this new form is surprisingly durable!”

“Things are interestin’ enough as it is,” said Fiddleford, his brief moment of curiosity gone as soon as it came. “Where in tarnation is the coffeepot?”

“Relax, Fiddlenerd, I’ll make ya a fresh one.” He went over by his side, giving him a playful shove that sent Fiddleford to the ground. “…Oops. Sorry, uh, forgot about the whole…stone thing.”

Fiddleford glowered up at his boyfriend, taking his hand as he helped Fiddleford back up. “Yer lucky a got a soft spot fer ya, else I’d be mighty cross.”

Stanly gave him the gentlest peck on the top of Fiddleford’s head. “Once I have my human body back, I’ll make it up to ya.”

Stanley gave him a cup of his precious lifeblood, black with two sugars, just as he liked it. Smirking, Fiddleford took a sip, getting warmed by more than just the coffee. “I’ll hold ya to that.”

Somebody please give Fiddleford a raise.

Comment on what monster you all think Fidds should be, and I may do a second part. I've read some people make him a scarecrow, and I considered making him a centaur.

#mystery trio au #mystery trio #gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #fiddleford hadron mcgucket #fiddleford mcgucket #young fiddleford #young stanley pines #young stanford pines #young stan bros #fluff #fiddlestan #monster falls #gargolye!stan #sphinx!ford

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chuchuroon · 5 years ago

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IKEMEN SENGOKU: FEAST THINE EYES ON STEAMPUNK WARLORDSSSS

Soooo after MM I have finally found my next Otome obsession Currently, the Taiwan server of Ikemen Sengoku is running a region-exclusive event that puts all the Warlords in a Steampunk AU. The outfits are too good, so I wanted to share this with the Western/JP server players! (Currently, I play on all 3 servers like the dumbass obsessive idiot I am)

More photos and information on the event story under the cut! (SPOILERS for the Taiwan Ikesen Steampunk Event). If you’d like to play on the Taiwan server, the app is named 美男戰國 (copy paste into your app store and search) and it doesn’t appear to be region-locked. Ikesen is licensed to/published by a different company (iSweety) in Taiwan, so they sometimes have artwork and events /merch that are exclusive to that region, as well as unique promo videos.

There wasn’t a promo page where I could grab the event artworks, so pardon my phone screenshots of dubious quality. I tried my best to take screencaps where the dialogue was minimal so you can get a better idea of their outfits. They’re all so good!

A 3/4 view of Mitsuhide’s Steampunk outfit. In this event, only stories for Nobunaga, Masamune, and Kenshin are available, and a minor collectible story for Ieyasu. In Masamune’s afterstory, he mentions that Mitsuhide has the special ability to read people’s thoughts.

*holds back nosebleed* I’m weak to men with slender waists ahhhhhghhgh. Masa’s Steampunk outfit fits him so well (Is that a man-corset? Can we make all men wear corsets?) and of course his collar is unfastened. I love the cogwheel design on his eyepatch too.

Even Kennyo looks rather dashing, that rascal, although he’s human in this story and hates the androids (and especially Nobunaga, of course) for having killed his fellow brethren.

IKESEN STEAMPUNK EVENT: STORY BACKGROUND / INTRO

You, the (human) main character, are the granddaughter of an eccentric Duke that created sentient machine life-forms called 械偶, which I will call androids for now (The name literally translates as “mechanical puppets”). Kennyo and others sometimes refers to them as merely “puppets” (人偶), likely in a derogatory manner.

The androids are sentient and are made of cogs and wheels and circuitry, and powered by a main heart-like “core” which contains a rune. The rune contained within the core is referenced as the “soul” of the androids. Runes have different names, meanings, and uses. If an android’s core is too badly damaged, they cease to function, or die in the robot sense of the word. Even if the core is repaired, if the “rune soul” is damaged, the android wouldn’t be considered living/sentient even if the rest of its mechanisms are functioning. Runes can exist in other forms, such as carved on things like doorways and rocks and hold power. There are teleportation runes which is how androids manage to quickly travel to and from the human community when necessary. Different circuits within an android serve different functions (movement, senses, etc), much like how different lobes or parts of the brain control specific bodily functions in a human. There are different types of androids, such as battle-types and healer-types, and they can have specific protocols and purposes. The story alludes to additional types, but they are not specifically named. Androids have masters, who are typically the one who created them, although this can differ. If a master dies, an android can live without a master or choose to follow another one. Androids can have multiple masters in their life, but in the story the majority of the androids live in their own community and no longer have a master.

Androids can obtain energy through consuming human food/drink, although it’s not described as their ideal or main method of obtaining energy (the main method was not specified). It’s possible for traces of human food and drink to remain in their system, which can eventually build up over time and cause them to break down. Androids have their own emotions/opinions and thoughts, and can touch and feel just like humans. However, there is tension between humans and androids, who fear that androids, being physically superior, may one day wipe out the humans, and fights often break out.

After your grandfather’s death, you go to “Elfland”, a hidden, floating island-slash-sky vessel created by your grandfather that is the last standing community of the sentient androids. Within this community, there are peaceful androids, who do not want to harm humans, and anti-human androids, who will attack humans on sight, as well as a third, neutral faction. You are here to search for your grandfather’s hidden treasure, which he left you clues to before he passed away, and you’re assisted by the androids during your search. Nobunaga, Masamune, Mitsuhide, Mitsunari, Hideyoshi, are part of the peaceful faction, while Kenshin is part of the anti-human faction. Yukimura and Ieyasu are part of the neutral faction. In Kenshin’s route, Sasuke and Shingen are also mentioned briefly, but their faction is unknown. There was no mention of Yoshimoto or Ranmaru.

CHARACTER STORY - MINOR TO MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

Masamune:

Your grandfather the Duke had a friend and fellow android researcher whose eldest son passed away. In light of this, the Duke created Masamune in the image of that eldest son, to keep his friend company. Instead of “Master”, Masamune referred to the Duke’s friend as “Father”, and they had a close relationship.

The Duke and his friend eventually had a bad falling out that escalated to violence, and Masamune got between them to stop them from fighting each other. His “father” tried to shoot the Duke, and Masamune chose to protect the Duke. As a result of this incident, Masamune lost his right eye, and also became estranged from his father, who was upset that Masamune chose the Duke over him. Although Yasu-bot offered to fix it, Masamune declined, saying that he wanted to keep the broken eye as a reminder to himself that “all choices have consequences” (and because eyepatches are cool). When you arrive on Elfland, he has you skydiving into your target exploration area rather than take a long time to walk there, and generally shows you around and adventures alongside you, while simultaneously protecting you from skirmishes against the anti-human androids. Ieyasu mentions that while Masamune “isn’t a battle-type android, he’s pretty capable”, but doesn’t really explain just what kind of android he is. When Masamune’s father got grievously injured, he was kept alive but was on a deathbed, suffering from tremendous pain every day. When Masamune came to visit him, he begged for Masamune to put him out of his misery. Masamune decided to do so, knowing that it would result in his father’s wife and younger son resenting him and people saying horrible things about how he’s an android that killed his own master who treated him like a son. You, of course, help resolve this misunderstanding and also see past the terrible reputation this gave Masamune, and you accept him fully, ya’ll bond over war and fighting dealing with your ex-fiance (who happens to be the biological younger son of Masamune’s father, and colluded with Kennyo to try to wreck Elfland) and discovering your granpapaw’s treasure, and become lovers. In the afterstory, Masamune recalls that his father once told him to live life to the fullest. “If you’re not doing what you love and enjoying all that life has to offer, then you’re not truly living, whether you’re made of flesh or steel doesn’t matter. Otherwise, even if you have a heartbeat and you’re breathing, you’re no different than a walking corpse. If one day, I can no longer feel like I’m alive, then I’m already dead, even if my body is still functioning.” Reminiscing on this, Masamune wonders if meeting you was all fated since then. “I’ve fallen in love with an incredible woman”, he realizes, and listens to your heartbeat and makes you listen to his - “Every movement of every cog in my body is saying how much I love you, to the point of breaking. Can you hear it?” He asks. “Let me listen awhile longer, and I’ll answer,” you reply. In true Masamune fashion, he declares he can't wait any longer and decides to get his answer directly from your body. Yee haw.

Nobunaga:

He has a special ability which can disable the functions of other androids temporarily. During your research you discover that he was made in the image of the famous historical warlord Nobunaga Oda, who once united Japan. You guys are already lovers when the story begins. Human-Android tensions are high, and what’s worse is that Mitsuhide has been sneaking around meeting humans (including Kennyo) and making shady ass deals. You discover your grandfather’s treasure hidden behind a door with a riddle written in ancient Japanese, a dead language that only you know because your grandfather taught you. The riddle reads: “What can save both the humans and androids and allow them to live in peace?” and the answer is “love”, and the door opens when you write out the character for love in Japanese on the entrance. Inside the treasure box you find in the room, you learn secrets that could be used for both great and terrible deeds, including the knowledge of how to create sentient androids and how to destroy them, how Elfland was created, and various other secrets about androids. You decide to hide them again to prevent this knowledge from getting into the wrong hands.

Human-Android tensions escalate into full out war as Mitsuhide informs the humans how to gain access to Elfland and where to attack. Kennyo and Nobunaga cross swords and Nobunaga is nearly outmatched when Mitsuhide appears, revealing that he led the humans here intentionally because he wanted to herd the bulk of the anti-Android fanatics together in one location and collectively wipe them out in order to effectively stamp out future threats of war. He apologizes for being late as he was delayed by Hideyoshi-bot almost killing him. Nobunaga just laughs and tells Mitsuhide he deserves it for worrying Hideyoshi, and a spiteful Kennyo reveals that he has been modified with Android parts to become stronger, and activates this power to try to land a killing blow on Nobunaga - only to discover that Mitsuhide has even plotted everything this far back in advance, and way back when Kennyo was being modified, Mitsuhide ensured that he had faulty parts installed. Heheh. Mitsuhide:2, Kennyo: 0 In the afterstory, it’s revealed that one of the secrets you learned was the process of turning an android into a human. Androids can perform what’s called a “soul contract” with each other; when two androids perform this, they become linked and know each other’s thoughts and feelings, and if one Android dies, the other also loses power to their rune core and dies as well. However, if an Android performs a soul contract with a human, they can become a human (but there are unspecified risks involved, and success is more or less regarded as miraculous), and share a life. Since Nobunaga’s primary protocol was to protect Elfland and the vault that guarded your grandfather’s treasure, and that duty has been completed, he wishes to become a human so that he can grow old with you and share the same lifespan. You establish the contract and miraculously he’s turned into a human and ya’ll enjoy fun kinky times where you both know what the other is thinking and feel what the other is feeling (oh boy).

Ieyasu:

Healer-type android and constantly frets about the fact that he’s not a battle-type and therefore weak, and wonders why your grandfather created him this way. He claims to not like humans, and he blames himself for not being able to save the Duke, but you help him understand that it wasn’t his fault and that you are thankful he was able to stay by the Duke’s side and keep him company when he passed. He complains about having to repair Mitsunari-bot (who we never see). He is reluctant to get involved with humans, though this is revealed that it’s because he believes humans are too frail and die easily, and he didn’t want to experience heartbreak again. One of the lines he mutters to himself (well out of your earshot of course) is how the existence of people like you and your grandfather is the reason he could never bring himself to fully hate or reject the humans. He has a workshop and appears to not differentiate between factions when it comes to treating those who need it, as he mentions having repaired Ken-bot before as well, who is on the anti-human faction.

Kenshin:

The text translates to “My emotional circuits have been broken since a long time ago”. I chortled to myself for a good, long minute at that one.

Anyway, Ken-bot is a battle-type android who also happens to have “protecting you” written as his top/primary protocol by your grandfather, which is why he goes along with all your endeavors despite belonging to the anti-human faction of the androids. He constantly emphasizes the fact that, as a battle-type droid, he is only capable of fighting and causing destruction. His emotional circuits aren’t completely broken, and he still has an obsession with sake and dried plums, which, according to Sasuke-bot, Ken-bot partakes to a degree that leads Sasuke-bot to believe Ken-bot is trying to drink/eat himself into an early grave.

You learn from your grandfather’s journal that he originally created Kenshin as a battle-type android, but that he desired to have Kenshin protect his legacy (the androids on elfland, and his granddaughter) rather than simply for fighting and destruction. He saw Kenshin as a protector, not a destroyer. You try to tell his to Ken-bot and also confess your feelings, which seem to cause Ken-bot’s emotional circuits to malfunction even more. “I don’t understand what you mean when you say you like me,” he says brokenly, and during the height of the human-android battle decides to stick you in the safest place possible, which is in a... dun dun dun-geon. He then throws himself into such a battle frenzy against the humans that invaded Elfland that Yuki-bot (instructed by Sasuke-bot, who we never actually see) comes to release you from the dungeon and take you to Ken-bot in order to save him from himself. Ken-bot believes the only way to achieve lasting peace is to wipe out all the humans. You challenge him by saying he should then kill you, since you are a human. Just as you seem to be about to convince him, a shot rings out, and Kenshin shoves you out of the way, his core taking a hit from protecting you. Shingen-bot and Sasuke-bot also having taken serious injuries, the anti-human faction have no leaders, and retreat.

You take an unconscious Ken-bot to the Oda forces to seek Ieyasu’s help. He says that the rune powering Ken-bot’s core is damaged too badly, so you find the hidden treasure of the Duke, hoping to learn a way to restore Ken-bot. Ieyasu suggests attempting the soul-contract to try to convert Ken-bot into a human as a last ditch effort to save him, as it allows the bonded pair to share their lifeforce, but he stresses that there’s no known record of it succeeding, and you may shorten your lifespan as a result. Your grandfather’s records also mentions that would only work with high-level androids. Yasu-bot also adds this flavor text that by attempting the soul contract, “You will share and endure all of the hardships, feelings and memories from the past of the other person”. You, of course, plow forward without hesitation, to which Yasu-bot gives his typical sigh of annoyance. “As expected of you”, he comments simply, and adds “I can see why this emotionally-broken idiot would be changed by you.”

After what feels like a long and painful dream, you wake up to find Pinocchio - I mean Ken-bot - has become a real boy! He confesses his feelings to you, Yasu-bot fills you both in what happened with current events while you two were unconscious, and slaps on an added warning to Kenshin of “Don’t ever make her cry again. There’s more people than you can imagine who hold her in high esteem, and they’re all incredibly annoying people...and will be much more difficult for you to handle now, as a human” - to which Kenshin answers with a typical bloodthirsty threat and by grabbing and hugging you possessively. Yasu-bot shrugs and says he doesn’t want to meddle in between “an annoying couple” anyway, and makes an offhand snide remark about how neither one of you make him worry any less than Mitsunari-bot does, checks up on you two one last time, and hurries out the room like he can’t stand to be there for another moment longer. Which is smart of him, since in the Afterstory ya’ll basically exchange mushy ass words with each other and do the nasty.

annnnd there’s the Steampunk event as I experienced it. Hope to see some Steampunk AU fan creations of our favorite warlords in the future!

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loucifieri · 7 years ago

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ndrv3 HPA AU (Class ‘79) notes~

I’ve only ever been posting snippets of the their silly school life (without following a chronological timeline of events) so here’s some context of how I characterized the ndrv3 kids (essentially the same personalities but with some tweaks) and maybe some info on the relationships in my comics. Implied and outright spoilers, apparently. The rest under the cut.

NDRV3 Character design masterlist here Class 79A Character descriptions here Further characterizations here Family headcanons here Cover Art here Dorm designs here

Comic snippets so far: (most of these were from before I finalized their characterizations) Moms called out by trash child Kaito and Kokichi have “The Talk” How Kaede became the Class Rep A Lesson in Romantics Real Talk Sports Day

[Facebook] [Instagram] [Twitter] [Blogger] [Kofi]

/Draft/ Final characterizations here

Kaede Akamatsu: The ‘protagonist spotlight’ mostly falls on her. Personality-wise, she’ll still be the ever cheerful, charming and kind Kaede (with a toned down self-righteousness) but with a dash of her pre-game personality which is being mistrustful and to an extent, condescending.

Angie Yonaga: Angie is still Angie, but with added eccentricities. Since she her character design kind of implies she’s from an island in the West (okay, Hawaii) which is part of America, she’s going to be referencing memes and western culture.

Kirumi Tojo: Her maid shtick is a conscious effort for her. She has selfish whims and insecurities deep down that calm, collected and altruistic persona that she tries to project. (in-game Tojo was just too one dimensional, ugh)

Tenko Chabashira: She mostly maintains her enthusiastic, down to earth, protective (of the girls) nature but she won’t be too vocal about her aversion towards the MENaces (it was so overdone in the game to the point of being annoying) and with a short temper. Will probably have a sad or comical (still can’t decide which lol) backstory about why she dislikes DEGENERATE MALES.

Himiko Yumeno: Mostly the same with her in-game personality but isn’t dismissive of human interaction. Apart from her “I’m a mage, not a magician” gag, she’s suspected to be always on drugs by most. Secretly stays up late a lot to watch k-drama.

Maki Harukawa: Still anti-social and uptight but it won’t be because of her talent (which is outright revealed to be Ultimate Assassin)… she just hates talking to people her age (lol). Also, her backstory won’t be the same in-game coz that seemed intentionally sad in context, but it’s strangely out of place in a peaceful AU like this. She’s still from an orphanage and serves as an elder sister figure. She was physically conditioned and trained to be an assassin but it turns out it was just a complicated plot to make her a Motion Capture stunt girl for an Assassin’s Creed game. So yeah, she hasn’t really killed anyone in real life but she physically (and mentally??) can, if desired.

Tsumugi Shirogane: She won’t think she’s a plain jane nor will she make an effort to remain a ‘wallflower.’ She’s into a lot of fandoms, naturally. She also stans Junko Enoshima (who isn’t a Despair junkie btw) and makes vague references about “being in a reality show,” (wink, wink)

Miu Iruma: Same ol’ Miu, but will try to make an effort to be likeable. Also has standards, so no she is not going to do lewd things with Teru Teru-sempai.

Shuichi Saihara: Since no one has to die for his character development, it’s going to take awhile for him to remove his hat. At first, he’s still meek and unconfident but not codependent on Kaede. Also adding a dash of his pre-game personality, him being an avid fanboy of all things detective (stans Kyoko Kirigiri, has a sizable collection of Nancy Drew Books and Detective Conan manga etc). Struggles with depression at times.

Kokichi Ouma: Compulsive lying is dumbed down and has his limits with his intentional assholery. His genuinely caring personality will also peek through a lot and he won’t vehemently deny it that much.

Rantaro Amami: Carefree, easygoing and fabulously gay big brother figure of the class. Makes vlogs in the style of Bear Grylls’ Man VS Wild. He also references the Danganronpa franchise plots (except V3) in his stories of his adventures.

Kaito Momota: Still quite sexist but it’s more because of upbringing rather than intentional. He doesn’t just suddenly develop an incurable, deadly disease but he has Tuberculosis (hence, coughs a lot). And, he’s very competitive (his pre-game personality repackaged).

Ryoma Hoshi: Mostly detached and stoic but not depressive and unfeeling. I’m tweaking his backstory a bit coz an ex-con that has served prison time going back to high school is a bit weird (and I don’t want the “HPA pulling shady shenanigans” shtick). His family has been murdered and all he has left is the family cat (that he gets to keep in the dorms) and he’s been pursuing leads about the mafia responsible for it. He’s basically a Sasuke Uchiha here. Anyway, he’s wise but vindictive. Fortunately, he doesn’t want to serve justice with his own hands.

Korekiyo Shinguji: Doesn’t have a sister complex and definitely not a compulsive serial killer here. He’s already got an interesting, creepy persona. Miyadera is alive, but still sickly and would visit him often to bring him home-cooked meals. Unsurprisingly has a fascination for see-saws.

Gonta Gokuhara: still the best boy best boy best boy raised in the mountains He won’t be too gullible here and would even join in roasting Kokichi.

Keebo Idabashi: He’s the Ultimate Robotics Engineer since he’s not a robot. Spent most of his life sheltered (even from the internet) so he’s shy and quite socially inept. Always gets very defensive of his talent.

And now, for the platonic and romantic ships~ I actually multiship but in this AU I’m going to stick to one ship for a particular person since I’m personally not keen on polyamory. (please don’t burn me on a stake)

Kaede||Shuichi: Saimatsu BROTP; in fact, they refer to each other by first name. I didn’t want this to be an “OTP” here since Saimatsu was mostly set up and situational in-game because of Shuichi’s codependency and Kaede’s desire to break him out of his shell, though undeniably they do have a really good chemistry together. Really, I love Saimatsu just-- let them explore their options. (I’m also just bitter I couldn’t flirt more using Kaede after Chapter 1 ;w;)

Kaede|Kirumi: I’m not inconspicuous about it actually lol idk I just see a good chemistry between them. Also, think of the mom jokes since they’re both the class moms. And while my comics tend to jump back and forth chronologically, if I was going to write a fic– their relationship is a slow burn with lots of pining

Shuichi|Kokichi: Their love hotel scene oh my god Kokichi really has it bad and that little liar is a good match for Sai, he facilitated his growth in a (twisted) way but this is an AU so yeah. Beforehand, Kokichi has a slight interest in Rantaro.

Maki|Kaito: This is a canon-ish ship that had a weird development too, but again, they have a nice chemistry too. I wanna explore that normal, potential development between them (also, I’m not sayin they’re both necessarily straight coz this is a straight ship lol).

Himiko|Tenko: There’s just… a lot of potential cuteness in them, even though they were kind of dysfunctional in canon. The fact that they’re polar opposites when it comes to physical activities gives me enough cannon fodder for their tandem. And Himiko being involved with Tenko can really help her a lot (like when the latter’s death in-game impacted her so much).

Kaito||Kokichi: Sort of a Oumota reference lol Chapter 5 gave me an inkling of their dynamics together and it was nice to see that Kaito gave Kokichi a leap of faith despite all his atrocities. So, I think they’d be good friends in the AU, just laced with a lot of badmouthing and insulting each other.

Rantaro||Tsumugi: Mastermind and Survivor solidarity~ They’re good friends in middle school before entering HPA.

Miu||Keebo: They’re both socially inept techie nerds sitting at the back of the class so finding friendship with each other isn’t far from happening. I lowkey shipped them in the game but I haven’t decided in this AU yet~

That’s all for now I guess :D I can try to make an actual comic with plot about them someday… but I can’t promise, even to myself. huhu

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fls8729 · 3 years ago

Text

The Latest: Mexico accepts its 1st group of Afghan refugees

Mexico has accepted its first group of refugees from Afghanistan

By The Associated Press25 August 2021, 09:51• 22 min read

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has accepted its first group of refugees from Afghanistan.

The five women and one man arrived Tuesday in Mexico City, where they were welcomed by Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. Ebrard told the group, “Welcome to your home.”

The refugees belong to a group involved in the field of robotics. They had to travel through six countries to reach Mexico. They fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country earlier this month.

Ebrard says Mexico will grant them “whatever legal status they consider best.” That could include giving them asylum or refugee status.

———

MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

— Taliban insist on airlift deadline amid new report of abuses

— Biden decides to stick with Aug. 31 final pullout from Kabul

— G-7 grapples with Afghanistan, an afterthought not long ago

— UN rights chief warns of abuses amid Taliban’s Afghan blitz

— Taliban takeover prompts fears of a resurgent al-Qaida

— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

———

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says forces are on track to leave Afghanistan by his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline but it will depend on Taliban cooperation.

In an address to the nation Tuesday, the president said he is pushing U.S. forces to leave “the sooner the better” due to increasing threats from ISIS-K and other terror groups in Kabul. Biden says the threats are “real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration.”

Biden says more than 70,000 people have been evacuated since Aug. 14. But there is tumult and violence outside Kabul’s airport making it difficult for Americans and their Afghan allies to reach safety.

The president says that in a virtual Group of 7 meeting with world leaders, the nations were resolved to stand “shoulder to shoulder” to get people out of Afghanistan. But Biden’s decision to pull out forces by the deadline has received sharp criticism from at home and abroad

———

MOSCOW — Russia’s defense minister has voiced concern about the Taliban seizing a large number of weapons, including air defense missile systems, after sweeping over Afghanistan.

Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday the Taliban has captured hundreds of combat vehicles along with a number of warplanes and helicopters.

He expressed a particular worry about the Taliban obtaining more than 100 man-portable air defense missile systems.

Shoigu noted that Afghanistan’s refugee problem is a cause for grave concern.

The Russian defense chief voiced hope that the Taliban would move to form an inclusive government that would include all groups in the country.

———

ROME — Italy will offer Afghan citizens evacuated to Italy from their homeland the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Premier Mario Draghi’s office said Tuesday he has asked the Italian army general in charge of the national vaccination program to work out a plan so evacuees of recent days can receive the vaccine. If they want a vaccine they will receive them at locations around the country.

Right after they arrive in Italy, evacuees are issued humanitarian visas and are tested for COVID-19. Earlier in the day, Italian ministers told lawmakers that 2,659 Afghans have already reached Italy, and nearly 1,100 more were at Kabul airport awaiting Italian flights.

———

MADRID — Spain is receiving a new batch of 290 Afghan refugees on a commercial airplane that has flown from Dubai to a military airbase in the outskirts of Madrid.

At least 130 more people are expected to travel later on Tuesday in two separate flights operated by the Spanish Air Force, the Defense Ministry said.

The latest arrivals bring to more than 1,200 the number of people that Spain has evacuated from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

They come as Defense Minister Margarita Robles acknowledged that Spain won’t be able to aid all the people it had planned to despite the ongoing frantic efforts to evacuate as many as possible.

In an interview with Spain’s Cadena SER radio, the minister said that controls by Taliban forces and increasing tensions in Afghanistan were making it even more difficult for Afghans who worked for Spanish troops in the western city of Herat to travel to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“We are going to take out all the people that is possible. But there will be people that will remain for reasons that don’t depend on us, due to the situation there,” she said.

———

BRUSSELS — European Council President Charles Michel says a number of G-7 leaders raised concerns with U.S. President Joe Biden about the Aug. 31 deadline for getting their nationals and Afghan helpers out of Kabul.

Michel says that “several leaders expressed concerns about the timing of August 31,” during Tuesday’s G-7 summit. He declined to tell reporters after the meeting what response Biden gave the leaders.

According to an administration official, Biden plans to stick with his deadline for completing the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan. The decision reflects in part the U.S. military’s concern about heightened security threats to the massive airlift that began 10 days ago.

Michel says the EU remains concerned about European citizens and Afghan people who worked with them being able to safely reach Kabul airport.

Michel says the EU “raised this issue with our American friends and partners” notably “the need to secure the airport, as long as necessary, to complete the operations; and second, a fair and equitable access to the airport, for all nationals entitled to evacuation.”

———

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow is strongly against any U.S. troops presence in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations and also opposes American attempts to persuade them to host Afghan refugees.

Speaking during Tuesday’s visit to Hungary, Lavrov noted that Russia and some of the Central Asian countries are members of a security pact stipulating that any foreign military presence in the region requires their common agreement.

He added that the presence of U.S. troops in any of the region’s countries would expose it to a potential retaliatory blow.

“Hosting troops from the U.S. which has openly declared an intention to keep Afghanistan in cross hairs and launch strikes if necessary means immediately turning itself into a target,” Lavrov said. “I strongly doubt that any country, in Central Asia or elsewhere, would be willing to become a target to help the Americans pursue their initiatives.”

Russia’s top diplomat predicted that Washington’s efforts to persuade Central Asian nations to host the Afghans who worked with the U.S. and its NATO allies would prove equally futile.

Lavrov charged that the U.S. has asked the countries of the region to host the Afghans for a couple of months before it gives them them American visas, the offer he scathingly criticized.

———

BRUSSELS — European Council President Charles Michel says the sweeping Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the chaos that has followed are proof that the European Union must boost defense cooperation to handle security challenges itself.

Taliban militants took control of Afghanistan in just a few weeks as the NATO-trained national security forces withered after the Biden administration announced its intention to leave the conflict-ravaged country.

European NATO allies rely on U.S. airpower, transport and logistics to operate in Afghanistan and were forced to pull out too.

Michel says “these events show that developing our strategic autonomy, while keeping our alliances as strong as ever, is of the utmost importance, for the future of Europe.”

Twenty-two EU countries are members of the U.S.-led 30-nation military alliance, NATO.

Michel told reporters Tuesday after the G-7 summit that he plans to put the question up for debate at Europe’s top table.

———

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the European Union is ramping up its aid to Afghanistan amid a widening humanitarian crisis in the strife-torn country.

Von der Leyen says the EU’s executive commission “will propose to almost quadruple the humanitarian aid coming from the EU budget.”

She says Brussels “will now increase it to over 200 million euros ($235 million)” this year to “help meet the urgent needs of Afghans” inside Afghanistan and those being sheltered in neighboring countries.

Von der Leyen told reporters after Tuesday’s G-7 summit that the 27-nation bloc has frozen development assistance to Kabul and will only resume payments if the Taliban meet several conditions, including on human rights and forming an inclusive government

———

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States and its allies for leaving Afghanistan in chaos that raises potential security threats for Russia and its allies in Central Asia.

Addressing Tuesday’s meeting of the main Kremlin party, United Russia, Putin noted that militants could use the turmoil to destabilize the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations bordering Afghanistan.

“There is a danger that terrorists and different groups that found a refuge in Afghanistan will use the chaos left by our Western colleagues and try to launch an expansion into neighboring countries,” Putin said. “That will pose a direct threat to our country and its allies.”

At the same time, Putin noted that Moscow has learned the lessons of the 10-year Soviet war in Afghanistan and will stay away from turmoil in Afghanistan.

“We have drawn the necessary lessons,” Putin said. “We don’t have any intention to interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and, moreover, let our military forces be drawn into the all-against-all conflict.”

He added that a possible rise in drug trafficking and the exacerbation of problems with migration could also pose threats to Russia.

Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator over the past few years, reaching out to the Taliban and other feuding Afghan factions.

———

BERLIN — The German military says it is concerned by the growing risk of attacks by the Islamic State group in Kabul.

Germany’s top military commander, Gen. Eberhard Zorn, told reporters Tuesday that “the threat has further increased.”

“We have signals both from American sources as well as our own assessment, that there is an increase of (IS) suicide bombers (slipping) into the city,” he said.

“That’s increasing and leads to heightened precautions,” he added.

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said she takes seriously the Taliban threat not to allow any foreign troops to remain beyond Aug. 31.

“I think one needs to take very, very seriously the announcement that they won’t agree to a further delay,” she said. She added the threat could also be an attempt by the group to “drive up the price” in negotiations with foreign officials.

———

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch military is halting shooting exercises at one of its firing ranges because the facility will be used to house Afghans evacuated from Kabul.

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that shooting training at the Harskamp military base is suspended until further notice.

The first Afghan evacuees are expected to arrive later Tuesday in Harskamp, a large military base in the forests of the Veluwe region of the central Netherlands.

Military exercises are continuing near the first Dutch army base opened to house Afghan evacuees, in a northern village, but shooting has been suspended there, too.

The military says that evacuees will hear almost nothing of the exercises at the base in the northern village of Zoutcamp.

The Defense Ministry has opened three barracks to evacuees. So far, around 1,000 people have been brought to two accommodation centers, which are already nearly full.

The Harskamp base will house a further 800 Afghans.

———

A Taliban spokesman says the U.S. must complete its evacuation of people from Afghanistan by the Aug. 31 date the Biden administration set for the withdrawal of all American troops.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday his group will accept “no extensions” to the deadline. He says life is returning to normal in the country but chaos at the airport remains a problem. Many Afghans are desperate to flee the Taliban takeover of the country.

Mujahid says he is “not aware” of any meeting between the Taliban and the CIA, but he did not deny that such a meeting took place. An official says the director of the U.S. agency met with the Taliban’s top political leader in Kabul on Monday.

———

ANKARA, Turkey — Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Turkey has so far evacuated 1,404 people from Afghanistan — 1,061 of them Turkish nationals and 343 nationals of “various countries.”

“Because of our (troops’) presence at the airport, many countries, international organizations or NGOs have asked our help in evacuating their personnel,” Cavusoglu told reporters Tuesday. “We have been providing assistance to them together with the United States and Britain.”

Cavusoglu said that there were some 4,500 Turkish nationals in Afghanistan but only around 200 are still waiting to be evacuated.

“We have contacted each one of them. ... An important number of them said they did not want to return,” Cavusoglu said, explaining that they included people who had businesses or jobs in Afghanistan or were married to Afghans.

“We of course, respect their decision but we have also made the necessary suggestions and warnings,” he said.

———

ROME — Italy’s foreign minister is warning allies against concentrating on blaming the U.S. administration for the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense commissions on Tuesday that while such finger-pointing ��is coming into fashion” in European public opinion, it risks weakening the traditionally solid trans-Atlantic alliance. Those engaged in assigning blame should “be aware that if this alliance ends, there is no other” to replace it, Di Maio said.

“After the Americans leave Kabul airport — the date hypothesized for now is at the end of the month — it won’t be in any case possible, not for us, nor for any country in the Alliance, to maintain any kind of presence” in Afghanistan, Di Maio said.

Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini told lawmakers that so far 2,659 Afghan citizens, about a third of them children, have been evacuated by Italy. Another 1,000 people were waiting inside the airport for flights to Italy.

Italy is using its current leadership of the G-20 grouping to involve world powers, especially China and Russia, to try to build consensus on strategy toward Afghanistan.

The rapidly unfolding crisis in Afghanistan has forced Italy to suspend aid cooperation agreements. But “we don’t intend to interrupt humanitarian aid” where conditions permit, Di Maio said. He said assistance would be funneled through the International Red Cross and U.N. agencies, especially for women and other vulnerable people.

At the request of the United States, Italy is also allowing temporary transit of evacuees on U.S. flights through military bases in Sicily and northern Italy.

———

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Russia’s foreign minister says he opposes the placement of any U.S. military forces in countries neighboring Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the country and its subsequent takeover by the Taliban.

Speaking at a press conference in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, Sergei Lavrov said the presence of U.S. soldiers in Central Asian countries bordering Afghanistan would create instability in the region, and make those countries a “target” for potential attacks.

“This is not the right way to preserve stability in those countries,” Lavrov said.

———

HELSINKI — Finland says it has now evacuated over 200 people from Afghanistan, including permanent staff and locally hired employees working for the Nordic country’s embassy in Kabul with their families.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto tweeted on Tuesday that Finland’s most recent evacuation on Monday included also 40 persons from the European Union delegations in Afghanistan.

He said that the majority of those evacuated from Afghanistan were women and children, and that the evacuation effort was continuing this week.

On Friday, Finland sent a few dozen of its special unit soldiers to Afghanistan to help safeguard evacuations at the airport in Kabul.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto urged the international community in a speech in Helsinki on Tuesday to take notice of “the acute human distress” unfolding in Afghanistan. He expressed concerns over the situation of women and girls and “other groups in a vulnerable position” in the country, including locally hired employees of foreign embassies.

“We have a specific responsibility for the security of the locally hired people who have enabled our (Finland’s) own operations in Afghanistan over the past years,” the Finnish head of state said.

———

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it has sent three military aircraft to Afghanistan and an unspecified nearby country to evacuate Afghans who worked for its embassy in Kabul and other South Korean-run facilities.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday did not confirm how many people will be evacuated. On Sunday, Song Young-gil, lawmaker and leader of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, said the Seoul government should evacuate some 400 Afghans who were involved in South Korean rebuilding projects in Afghanistan.

Apart from embassy staff and their families, the South Korean planes will pick up Afghans who worked for a South Korean-run hospital at the U.S. military’s Bagram Airfield before the facility closed in 2015 and a South Korean-run job training center, the ministry said.

———

BERLIN — A German army officer trying to help Afghans at risk from the Taliban to flee their country has launched a blistering attack on Germany’s evacuation efforts.

Cpt. Marcus Grotian told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that he was “overwhelmed by disbelief at the way Germany’s governing parties and politicians disregarded warnings” about the Taliban advance and accused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office of failing to step in when needed.

Grotian, who heads a network of volunteers trying to help locals who worked for German institutions in Afghanistan, said some 6,000 Afghans are still waiting to be evacuated and many likely won’t make it.

“There will be many, too many human tragedies to come,” he said. “That’s absolutely clear.”

Grotian accused German officials of creating a dysfunctional bureaucracy that is making incomprehensible decisions about who can board evacuation flights and who can’t.

“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes a person who was never on a list is let through, sometimes a person who has been on our lists or those of the military command for six weeks is still turned away,” he said.

Grotian recounted one incident earlier Tuesday in which an Afghan woman who had worked for Germany’s foreign development agency four years ago was barred from entering Kabul airport.

He said the mixed messages being sent to Afghans by German bureaucrats would likely mean some will miss other opportunities to leave the country because they are still waiting for Germany to evacuate them.

“Everyone who has worked for Germans must now be let through, because there won’t be many more chances,” said Grotian. “They’ve been rejected three times, some of them four. There may not be a fifth when the planes don’t fly anymore.”

——��

PARIS — French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said an Afghan evacuated from Kabul to Paris and suspected of links to the Taliban was detained by French police on Tuesday.

The man is one of five Afghans placed under strict surveillance by France’s intelligence agency for possible links to the Taliban. The five men were required to stay in a hotel in the Paris region for a quarantine, as are all evacuees who arrive in France without having been fully vaccinated.

“One left the place where he was asked to stay” and police arrested him, Darmanin said on news broadcaster France Info.

Of the other four men, one “was obviously linked to the Taliban,” Darmanin said. “But he helped the French army a lot, the French (nationals), your fellow journalists, more than a hundred Afghans who had visas and could not get out from the embassy.” The French Embassy has served as a shelter for hundreds of people before they were transferred to the Kabul airport, where the French ambassador and a reduced staff now work.

The man admitted to belonging to the Taliban and to bearing arms at a blockade in Kabul that was under his responsibility.

Darmanin said the security checks were done in Abu Dhabi, where the French have transferred evacuees before the onward journey to Paris.

“There was no breach,” he said.

Darmanin said France has evacuated over 1,000 Afghans from Kabul over the past week, including a large majority of Afghans who worked with the French government or French groups in the country.

———

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A second person who had been deported from Denmark to Afghanistan, and who returned to the Scandinavian country on an evacuation plane from Kabul, has been arrested.

Danish police said Tuesday on Twitter that the man faces preliminary charges of violating an entry ban. Preliminary charges are one step short of formal charges.

On Sunday, a 23-year-old man was recognized by police for being member of an outlawed criminal gang when he tried to sneak back into Denmark. He too arrived on an evacuation plane from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country.

Because of the situation in Afghanistan, Denmark is no longer deporting people to that country.

Denmark’s Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said another 50 persons have been evacuated out of Kabul. A Danish Hercules C-130 flew them out Tuesday, with Bramsen saying that so far a total of about 850 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan.

In neighboring Sweden, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Monday evening that 55 people — mainly Swedish Embassy employees and their families — had been flown out of Kabul, bringing the total number of evacuees to 225.

———

WARSAW, Poland — Officials say that Poland has evacuated over 750 people from Afghanistan and a few dozen more are waiting at the Kabul airport for the air transport to Poland, but time is running out on the possibility of evacuation.

A deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, said on Tuesday that majority of those who cooperated with Poland’s diplomatic mission have been evacuated and the waiting list is getting shorter. However, there are still a number of families and mothers with children whom the authorities want to bring to Poland for security reasons, Przydacz said.

But the logistics and the conditions of the evacuation are challenging, he added.

Top government official, Michal Dworczyk, tweeted an appeal for help in locating the family of 13-year-old Fawad who got separated from his relatives during an “attempted evacuation” from Kabul. It was not immediately clear if Fawad has been brought to Poland. Fawad’s photo was posted on Dworczyk’s Twitter account.

———

BEIJING — China says the international community should support chances for positive developments in Afghanistan rather than impose sanctions on the Taliban.

“The international community should encourage and promote the development of the situation in Afghanistan in a positive direction, support peaceful reconstruction, improve the well-being of the people and enhance its capacity for independent development,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing on Tuesday.

“Imposing sanctions and pressure at every turn cannot solve the problem and will only be counterproductive,” Wang said.

China, which shares a narrow border with Afghanistan, has seized on the ugly scenes at Kabul airport to redouble its harsh criticism of U.S. actions in the country, particularly its attempt to install a Western-style democracy. Beijing has kept open its embassy in Kabul and sought to maintain friendly relations with the Taliban.

———

KABUL — Afghanistan’s Hazaras, a Shiite minority, are calling on the Taliban to set up an inclusive government in which all ethnic groups would have a voice.

Shiite leader Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi said the country’s Shiite clerics have issued a declaration stating that a future parliament in Afghanistan should include members of different sects of Islam.

He asked for freedom of religion under an Islamic government and asked that there be separate courts for Shiites that follow Jafari jurisprudence, “in accordance with the provisions of law.”

The Shiite concerns come as the Taliban negotiating team in Qatar has been was insisting on implementation of Islamic law, and specifically Hanafi laws which are a major school of Sunni jurisprudence, in the laws and the constitution of Afghanistan.

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sketchiedetails · 7 years ago

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While I think Binary Domain is a fun action game with a great B-movie tone, I feel like its plot is trying to do way too much at once to make any of its core themes really stick.

Lemme just get this out of the way: Binary Domain is one of the funniest action games, both unintentionally and intentionally. The cutscenes have better comedic timing with their edits and performances than most Western games these days and that’s when the game is trying. There’s some jank in the game that comes across and adds another layer of bizarre humor to the overall package. If you played the game, then you know about Bo’s stare or even trying to rescue Bo at the end of the game.

It took me a while to warm up to the cast, but they’re all very likable with their exchanges and you really feel that they develop a sense of camaraderie by the endgame.

My problem with BD’s writing isn’t with the characters; it’s with the setting. I wanna say the central theme in Binary Domain is “loving someone shouldn’t change after learning they are different from you” but it comes way too late in the game to be properly expressed and the people who should exemplify that theme - Dan and Faye - don’t really have enough time to naturally develop that kind of relationship. They’re supposed to start out butting heads and that tension transitions into sexual tension and eventually love but it really only works if you keep Faye on your team from the very beginning of the game and never swap her out.

Dan and Faye’s love arc is part of my problem with the writing. Binary Domain’s setting very clearly treats robots as second-class citizens. They’re called “scrap heads” as a slur and it gets thrown around very liberally and later on people who sympathize with machines get called “scrap lovers.” It kept reminding me of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided when they tried to make “clank” a slur for augmented people. I find it weird that unanimously people are on board for treating robots so terribly. Everyone across the globe just universally agrees that robots need to be suppressed, and I guess Yoji Amada himself points this out and calls it “The Frankenstein Problem,“ where humans fear the things they create will surpass them. I get it’s a theme, but it feels like it’s half-committed. I don’t buy in a setting that everyone would completely agree on the same thing; there should have been other people in the setting to offer counterpoints to provide different takes at the issue.

On my initial run of BD, I assumed there was gonna be a point that the Hollow Children would prove that they were capable of being sentient and shouldn’t be suppressed, but no it never gets proven and the game actually kneecaps that possibility. Hollow Children are considered terrifying to people because they can pose as regular humans for decades and no one would know, even the Hollow Child wouldn’t know what they are until ... something happens? The game is trying to be like Blade Runner, but there’s no rules established to explain how people can discover if a person is a Hollow Child, and the true purpose for Hollow Children doesn’t get revealed until the very last chapter, and it doesn’t really justify their existence.

At the end of the game, Yoji Amada reveals that he isn’t really Yoji Amada: he’s a sentient AI that the original Amada created to prove to the rest of the world that it was possible and died by his creation out of fear that the IRTA would come - who better to describe The Frankenstein Problem then an actual Frankenstein’s monster? AI-Amada (AI-mada?) then proceeds to create Hollow Children because he needed to procreate like any other lifeform. His plan is to integrate his Hollow Children into the general populace and create hybrids which have both human DNA and ... Hollow Children DNA? (I’m not sure how it works biologically, but it’s interesting how this game cribs from Blade Runner and then somehow unintentionally predicts the main plot of Blade Runner 2049.)

So if Amada’s plan is to cause miscegenation between humans and Hollow Children, what is the point of creating male Hollow Children? It’s stated just before this reveal that female HC’s can conceive, but nothing about male HC’s virility. It’s shown that Amada can remotely hijack any Hollow Child anywhere in Japan, and that really doesn’t help the argument for Hollow Children since they pose a threat as potential sleeper agents.

The most important part of this reveal is that it turns out Faye is a hybrid - her father is human, and her mother is a Hollow Child. Amada captured Faye and by the time the Rust Crew reach them, she’d already been turned. Dan at this point had been stubbornly defending Faye against the rest of the Crew who automatically agree to put her down - it’s their job, y’know how it be - and a boss fight ensues with Faye leading a pack of ninja robots. The fight has moments where the player as Dan can issue voice commands saying they love Faye and don’t want to fight, but again the pacing here has sideswiped so fast and so frequently that none of this really feels earned.

There’s a recurring flashback Dan experiences throughout the game where he’s a child bashing in a robot’s face in his family’s kitchen. It’s implied that his alcoholic father beat Dan and his mother and the robot did nothing, so in a fit of impotent rage Dan retaliates on the defenseless machine. When Dan learns that Faye is a Hollow Child’s ... child, he returns to that flashback but it’s adult Dan kneeling over a battered Faye. It’s supposed to be symbolic of Dan overcoming his bigotry and accepting Faye to be as much of a person as he is; I read it as Dan being an idiot for most of his life and having an epiphany that the rest of the world should have had from the very beginning when they started focusing on robotics as their main source of infrastructure.

During my last run on Metal Gear Rising, I listened to as many of the Codec conversations as I could this time around. They offer some very detailed world building that the rest of the game itself couldn’t support at the cost of the game’s pacing. The conversations cover a wide range of topics concerning a world recovering after the fall of the Patriots. Cyborg soldiers took over as the main source of infantry in PMC’s, and the game dips into concepts about how the rules of engagement would work with cyborg soldiers, the logistics it would take to maintain a cyborg body, and the public perception of cybernetics in both a domestic and military context.

I’m not saying every game needs a codex section in their menus to explain the world and how it works (BD technically does have that via the info logs you can pick up in the game), but the setting should be internally consistent. MGR’s Codecs add flavor text to the world, but they also explain away the more gamey aspects of the setting, like why it’s important to the Doktor that Raiden collect as many left hands as he can or why some returning boss fights aren’t as imposing as their initial encounters.

Most of the time Hollow Children appear as a way to create a plot twist and shake up the story. Shindo’s right hand man was a Hollow Child and the rebel base gets attacked by a huge robot. The general at the beginning of the game who ranted about how the existence of Hollow Children was ridiculous turned out to be a Hollow Child. They exist in order to generate drama, much like how Dan and Faye’s relationship exists in order to challenge the notion that Hollow Children shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Binary Domain’s final boss turns out to be the Rust Crew’s commanding officer. I’m not sure if he states that the President approved it, but the US is going to take the Amada AI for their own purposes and kill the Rust Crew so the rest of the IRTA won’t know what happened. It’s interesting how all three games I’ve played to write these series of posts - Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising, and Binary Domain - all feature either final or penultimate bosses that are involved in some branch of the US government. Lt. Col. Burns and Major Philips are part of the Marines, and Armstrong is a US Senator. I hate to keep dumping on BD, but their plot twist just feels unnecessary and would be but it needs to happen in order for Dan and Faye to run off together and hint at potential sequels where Faye becomes a leader for Hollow Children resistance with Dan by her side.

As a piece of speculative sci-fi, I think Binary Domain has some faulty logic but I still enjoyed this game. The combat is slower and more plodding compared to the other two games I recently wrote about, but that’s the point of the gameplay. It’s a group of humans fighting machines who can be engineered to have an edge in fights where the humans have to rely on their wits and each other in order to win every battle. Also, Vanquish and MGR are Platinum titles, and every action game is gonna feel like a slog compared to a Platinum game.

I’ll have to amend my original thoughts about playing Binary Domain alongside Vanquish: you should definitely play those two back to back, but also add in Metal Gear Rising to that block. They’re all compelling action games with some interesting ideas about how war will look in the future.

#binary domain #metal gear rising #mgr #vanquish #thinking bout games

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yetanotherfilmanalysisblog · 6 years ago

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Film Genres

What is a Genre?

A genre is defined as a group of films that has story formulas, themes, subjects, settings, character types, stars, presentations and techniques in common way that unites them into their group. Conventions of genres, such as plot elements, themes, techniques and icons, are used to further define films in genres. While some films can be considered crossovers and be defined by two or more genres, typically films are attempted to be classified into a single genre to make it easier for producers, viewers and publicists to understand what films are like. Sometimes it can be hard to define genre, as several films, as well as TV shows, can blur the lines of genres to create something potentially unique. It is noteworthy that some films may choose to revise or reject the conventions associated with their genres. Also of note is that films usually offer something familiar within genre conventions, but also try to offer something new.

It also important to know about the concept of a genre is that all genres constantly change over time. They borrow techniques from other forms of media in a way that reflects innovations and they cycle through being in and out of fashion. They can even sometimes change by just mixing with each other! But, ultimately, genres become established when one film has a major commercial success and starts to become imitated.

How Are Genres Used?

Genres are used for several different purposes:

Genre allows us to predict what to expect

Genre helps audiences select the type of movies they consume

Genre allows reviews/critiques to compare one film to others in its genre

Genres aid movie listings

Genres help with film rentals and organizing retail sales

Genres interact with values, rituals and social trends

Reflectionist genres reflect social and cultural processes and attitudes

General Genre Terms

Four Types of Conflict -> There are four types of conflict that are typically in film stories:

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Self.

Semantic Approach -> This approach to film genres is based on a broad applicability, a macro approach if you will. It includes the following:

Focus on similarities

Fixed meanings, and emphasis on what remains constant

Brings attention to the building blocks of the genre:

Settings

Character Types

Costumes

Props

Plots/Situations

Conflicts

Syntactic Approach -> This approach to film genres is based on films’s explanatory power, a micro approach if you will. It includes the following:

Focus on change and development over time

Variable relationships between structured elements.

Major American Genres:

Gangster -> The tropes typically present in this movie include:

Themes revolving around rags to riches to destruction

Urban settings

The questioning of authority and institutions

The protagonist is either an antihero or an outsider of some kind

The female characters are either molls, mothers or femme fatales

On some occasions, there are male versions of femme fatales called homme fatales

Fatalistic and cynical moods, with an emphasis on corruption and despair

Hard-boiled characters

A highly recognizable visual style

Sci Fi -> Some of the conventions of this genre include:

Themes revolving around technology against humanity

Speculative Settings

Protagonists that are grounded and down to Earth (sometimes literally!)

Antagonists that are “Others” such as aliens, robots and computers

Horror -> The identifiable parts of this genre include:

Horror films are characterized by their effect on the audience

Themes in horror films include death and insanity

Typically revolves around an unnatural and threatening monster, and the other characters’s reactions

Settings usually are “normal worlds” or rural locations, often at night

Protagonists are loners or “flawed” in some way

Antagonists are “Others” whom threaten infection and conversion

Some horror films have been suggested to reflect certain social concerns

The iconography includes settings, lighting and makeup

Highly recognizable visual style

Western -> Elements usually present in this film genre include:

Basic themes of conflict over civilized order and lawless frontier and wilderness against civilization, with iconography to reinforce this

The hero typically falls in between order and lawlessness

Characters often have a sense of duality

The conventions tend to reflect the themes

A form of modern American mythology

Rural settings that dominated by landscapes

Highly recognizable visuals

Innovations in this genre have developed to include more complex protagonists and a reversal of the portrayal of conflicts between Native Americans and white civilization

Musical -> Some of the tropes in this genre include:

Association with romance or children’s stories

Several different formats, including Back Stage Musicals, Cakewalk Musicals, Operettas & Integrated Musicals

The reality of the musical ruptures the narrative of the musical

Spontaneity is emphasized

Terms frequently used pertaining to this genre include operetta, Broadway musical, Vaudeville, dialogue, repertoire and monologue

Has a long history dating back to 5th century Greece and is still a popular genre to this day!

Other major genres include the following:

Film Noir

Action/Adventure

Biopics

Comedy

Detective/Gangster/Suspense Thriller

Epics

Fantasy

Social Problem Films

Teen Films

War Films

Women’s Films

Melodrama

Musical Genre Case Study: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

To demonstrate application of knowledge of what we learned in Week 12 about film genres and, specifically, the musical genre through our lectures, I decided I wanted to do another short case study. This time on the musical TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that I bring up quite frequently as what I consider to be a great example of a work in the musical genre.

Elements of the Musical Present in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Assocation with Romance -> Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a musical deconstruction and parody of romantic comedies. The plot revolves around the main character, Rebecca, suffering a nervous breakdown and uprooting her life to chase after what she believes to be the reason for the last time she felt truly happy: Her ex-boyfriend Josh. This inciting incident leads to the show’s deconstructions of romantic comedies, some of which are expressed as musical numbers such as this one:

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “Where is Josh’s Friend?” (2016) dir. Marc Webb

In this number, “Love Kernels,” Rebecca sings about how she and Josh are meant to be because of the “little things” he does that she thinks are signs that he’s thinking about or caring about her. Among those “kernels” are Josh texting her at 3 in the morning, inviting her to come to the movies with his friends when they bail and asking her where his phone is. We can see that these have no meaning in the context of reality, but in most romantic comedies, “love kernels” can be used as a straightforward trope. The show deconstructs the trope by pointing out that these are just little things with no meaning that Rebecca is twisting to justify her obsession with Josh, all through the lens of a pastiche of Beyonce’s Lemonade album.

Musical Format -> Above, I mentioned that there are several different formats of musicals. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s own musical format is an Integrated Musical. Integrated musicals are musicals that blur the boundaries of internal diagetic performances (typically featured in cakewalk musicals) and external diagetic performances (which are featured primarily in back stage musicals.) So, in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, we get several performances that can be heard only by the audience and one or more characters, but we also get performances that exist within the narrative. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend even manages to integrate a tribute to the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers Musical with one musical number:

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “I’m Going on a Date with Josh’s Friend!” (2015) dir. Stuart McDonald

Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers Musicals were screwball comedy musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that are considered perfect examples of “genre.” And, often times, a lot of the musical numbers in these comedies revolved around sexual desire put to song and dance In “Settle For Me,” the characters of Greg and Rebecca take on the roles of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The number does indeed revolve around sexual desire, but works as a deconstruction by portraying Rebecca’s view of Greg’s sexual desire for her. She is interested in Josh and not Greg, and so she views his desire for her as him wanting her to settle for him instead of Josh, all through the lens of an Astaire / Rogers musical number.

Reality of the Musical Ruptures Reality -> As per most musicals, the narrative reality of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is not so much a simple reality, as it is a style created where musical reality ruptures the reality of the narrative. The show’s star and co-creator Rachel Bloom has explained that the musical reality of the show is that Rebecca processes her life as a series of musical numbers. Eventually, as the show goes on, her musical mindset goes through a shift where it infects the other characters and they, too, begin to process their reality as musical numbers. All the musical numbers function as extensions of the characters and reflects their development and stages in the story. Let’s look at an example from the third season:

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “Josh is a Liar.” (2017) dir. Stuart McDonald

This musical number, “I Go to the Zoo,” serves as an extension of the character of Nathaniel and to develop him further. Up to this point, he was established as Rebecca’s unlikable boss whom gradually falls in love with her. “I Go to the Zoo” develops Nathaniel by showing that Rebecca’s lack of interest in him in favor of Josh is affecting him. It affects him by making him feel so much pain that activities typically associated with masculinity, such as drinking and drugging, hooking up with women and going to clubs, can’t alleviate his pain. The only thing that can soothe him is going to the zoo and spending time with the animals. And, due to the musical reality of the show, all of this is expressed through a musical number parodying hip-hop songs like Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” and Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids.”

Spontaneity! -> The myth of spontaneity lives on full well in some of the musical numbers of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend...but can also be deconstructed in musical numbers such as this one:

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “Josh is a Liar.” (2017) dir. Stuart McDonald

Spontaneity can be defined as “an outburst of joy and positive response to life! An emblem of authenticity versus prepackaged calculation of other performers; can’t help bursting into song or dancing involuntarily. It’s a self-expression through song and dance.” The character of Heather during “The Moment is Me” is definitely bursting into song and dancing involuntarily, but the whole performance on her part is involuntary. Her sour response to having to perform an “inspirational musical number” is contrasted with the prepackaged calculation of the dancers behind her. The lack of traditional spontaneity is what characterizes “The Moment is Me,” emphasized by Heather’s deadpan singing, lack of dancing and snarky interjections.

Critical Reflexivity -> As mentioned before, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is intended to be a deconstruction. One of the tools the show uses is critical reflexivity, which is a form of criticizing older forms and stars with the intent of leaving behind a residue of deconstructions that lingers after the ending. Typically, when musicals use this, they tend to negate or invert previous generic hierarchies. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, in its four season run, gave us deconstructions of primarily romantic comedies, but also other things as well. Take this scene for example:

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “I’m So Happy That Josh Is So Happy!” (2015) dir. Lawrence Trilling

This musical number, “I’m In a Sexy French Depression,” is a deconstruction of some of the content featured in French New Wave films. Some French New Wave films feature one or more characters being depressed or experiencing ennui, but looking glamorous and sexy while behaving in that manner. Rebecca, in the middle of a serious depressive episode, sings about being so depressed and anxious that she’s watching porn but can only focus on wondering what led the performers to act in porn films, or that she bought a book about John Wayne Gacy online. Yet, she manages to appear sexy and glamorous during the entire performance, which is why she claims to be in a “sexy French depression.” Its intent is to deconstruct and parody the presentation of French New Wave films, while showing us what effects Rebecca’s depression is having on her.

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aryapathak-ls25-blog · 7 years ago

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Week 14: Alt-GAMING

Elisa!!! :)

GSI elisa’s focus has been on internet art and making work on and through the internet

her work explores gender, sexuality and labor in relation to technology and internet

taught at RISD and Brown before she came to Berkeley!

some problems: free labor, big data, etc.

did the MFA program at RISD

Archive Fever: night before midterm, she took all her browsing history until her computer crashed, and then link after link is plaid back in chronological order.. there was soothing music in the background

-she trellised there were different trends and the cluster of data was able to give herself and others and idea about herself… at the time she was very interested in the narrative qualities of video montage but now it reads in an entirely different way… its interesting how the project and the way people read it drastically changes depending on the political climate

- she’s still selling her data on a flash drive online because she was interested in the whole idea of selling your data on line just like companies like Facebook do today

-started to receive warning from eBay about how she was putting herself in a “vulnerable” position

need ideas!?! PLZ!!

just a bunch of videos of youtubers talking about how they don’t know “what to do” or about how they need “video ideas” and then the youtube ask their viewers what to make… like whether or not they should sing, what they should talk about, whether or not they should make make up vids… they also ask viewers to “subscribe, comment, follow, etc.”

Labor of Sleep, Have you been able to change your habits? (2017)

touches on how sleep has been a new behavior from which data and other things are exacted…. basically sleep used to be something that was the last known method of shutting down and being unproductive but now sleep apps allow our sleep to produce something fruitful!

continuation of archive fever project in the sense that it examines how we are more and more viewing humans and things that produce classes of data… we are perceiving ourselves in a more quanitifiable way

-if you are on the whitened website during the time or sunset/sunrise in new york, the website is interrupted with her art project

techonologies of care- the projective is documenting how effective labor (a time of immaterial labor that effects and modifies emotions of consumers/ viewers) is being outsources to computer… i.e. workers on line can perform micro tasks like designing loiece was censored in the backgos/labels, pretend to be bf/gf online,

-workers on these platforms are usually from non-western countries with problematic economics and inflation (so maying low amount of dollars may look good to them), very cheap labor, etc…. most importantly for elisa, most of these works were produced by women… elisa interview 70-80 workers and selected 10 for the final projects. they all wanted to be anonymous so elisa abstracted their images with geometric shops

when the towel drops- project done by a collective that elisa is in with one ugandan artist and one indian artist called radha may

the research started in italy, next phase in india, last phase in south africa

she visited the national censorship archive of ital- all films in italy are first reviewed by a state review board.

-they did a montage of all the censored scenes and presented in italy.. at the same time someone read why the clips were censored... ex “women showing pleasure

Wednesday: Porpentine Heartscape

Porpentine Charity Heartscape - “Oakland based new media artist, video game designer, writer and curator primarily a developer of hypertext games and interactive fiction mainly built using Twine. In conversation with artist Elisa Giardina Papa”

sticky zeitfeist-the game is about girls who are animals and girls who are robots… collaboration with her friend from canada. there is a lot of music from transgendered artists. she gets bored with one thing, so the game is constantly changing,

glitches are the second best part of making a game.. the best part is not having any glitches lol

she also made another game for a contemporary art museum in chicago, very simple game

she’s interested in repetitive, pattern work

-foldscape = a game made out of posters

she’s also really interested in how the speaker/presenter in a game can mutate the entire game

another game asked people to draw things, for example. “a symbol of the new year

this world is not my home- collaborative project where her collaborator added music & where they turned their game into a portal like exhibit

tiny bubbles exhibit in SF->

to her, feeling always matters more than physical form

JOURNAL ENTRY

I’ve been in Elisa’s discussion section all semester and I had no clue that she went the #1 design school in America, and that she’s already had her work shown at various famous museums like the Whitney! I’m not surprised but I was surprised she never talked about her work in discussion before. The first piece she shared with us was Archive Fever. It was pretty funny to see what peoples’ reaction were when she tried to sell her own information on line. She got messages warning her about the risks of sharing her personal information online, which is ironic since most individuals use still such s Facebook, which we’ve just found out might not be as safe as we think! I also really loved her second piece, titled, “need ideas!?! PLZ!.” I’ve never been a huge user of any social media asides from twitter, which mostly consists of 240 character tweets that make me laugh, so it’s interesting to me that kids really care about the number of likes they get online. When reflecting back on the piece, I couldn’t help but feel sad about the direction of where this so-called form of “art” is headed. When I think backk to some of my favorite presents, like Barbara Hammer, Chip Lloyd, and Lynn Hershman-Leeson, I remember being amazed at how many ideas they had lined up in their head and ready to bring to fruition. Call me old fashioned, but I really enjoyed these presenters, not only because of the amazing work they produced, but because it was genuine and they’d truthfully believed in the whole project from beginning to end. For example, Chip Lloyd had to literally jump through hoops and get so many random permits just to blow up a bunch of TV’s! I feel like that takes real passion and self-realization that those kids will not learn if they are already taught at such a young age to just sit online a wait for people to tell you what’s cool instead of exploring/experimenting and figuring it out for themselves!! Lastly, my favorite piece was When the Towel Drops. I loved the idea of creating a montage of all censored scenes and reading why they were censored, just so people can understand how ridiculous it is that something like “showing pleasure” is ok with the Italian government for men, but subject to censorship and considered too taboo to be shown on screen for women.

Porpentine Heartscape is a well-known, tumblr famous gamer and writer who is in conversation with Elisa. I’m actually really curious to see what both of them will collaborate on because they both have such different styles on interacting with audiences and working! I really admire Porpentine because she seems very sure of the direction she’s headed. I felt like her presentation gave a very holistic view of her work, but I didn’t learn much about her and her motivations for doing what she does. In fact, halfway through the presentation she just started putting up different games without really saying anything. But, she did indicate that he believes feelings matter a lot more than physical form. This definitely rings true in her work and it seems like the closest thing she gave as a theme or motivation behind her work. For example, one of her game, foldscapn, was made entirely out of postcards. It was really cool how much she lit up when she found that boy that was obsessed with her game, and its really obvious that she loves what she does. She said that the ideal way she pictures someone playing her game is sitting in a messy bedroom with a box of pizza, and this seems like exactly the environment that some her fans would be in.

READING NOTES: Not much to say about this reading since its just archived reviews of A1 from different people, but I will say that these reviewers seem incredibly animated and loyal. It’s also very interesting how their ratings are in jibberish letters that seem like

MULTI MEDIA: [DISCLAIMER- MUST DOWNLOAD ON ANDROID OR IPHONE TO PLAY]

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

This links you to a game created by Jason Rohrer called Passage. Passage was one of the first experimental games to really change peoples’ prospects and persuade them to decontextualize video games as an art form. Elisa and Professor Skoller have both probably already heard of Passage because It’s apparently one of the most famous and influential experimental games, but I thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve played. In fact, in 2012, it earned one of the 14 coveted positions in the MOMA’s permanent video game collection. The game is unique because there is no tradition plot. Hopefully this doesn’t spoil the game, but the game is supposed serves as metaphor for the human condition. Players LOVE the game, and many people said they were very emotion and/or they cried afterwards.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/passage

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cooldigitaltrends-blog · 8 years ago

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From Siri to Alexa, why is the voice of technology predominantly female?

The first mention of an android is found in a novel by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, published in 1886, called L’Ève Future (The Future Eve). It is the story of a scientist whose friend comes to him with a conundrum. He is engaged to a woman who is physically alluring but has an annoying personality. The scientist solves his problem by building a female android that looks like the fiancée but overcomes ‘the flaws and artificiality of real women’.

It is hard to conceive of a more poignant example of techno-masculinity, the phenomenon whereby men are the creators of technology and women the objects. Fast-forward a century and a half and humanity is still hung up on this notion. In fiction, most robot slaves tend to be women. Think Ava from the film Ex Machina (2015); the fembots from Austin Powers whose breasts double as guns; and all the female robots – many of whom are used for sex – in the 1973 film and new TV show Westworld.

In this modern age of digital assistants, many are also identifiable as female. Whether it’s Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Assistant or Apple’s Siri (which is female by default in the US), Silicon Valley seems to think we want our little helpers to have a woman’s voice.

Some of the reasons are rooted in classic neuroscience. For example, there is a theory that the warmth in the female voice is associated with helpfulness. It has also been found to be more authoritative in a crisis, which is why fighter pilots receive commands from a female voice, earning aircraft assistants the nickname ‘Nagging Nora’. In the connected home, people may be less threatened by an alien female voice erupting from a gadget than a male voice.

‘People generally prefer listening to voices that sound human,’ explains Tom Hewitson, a conversation designer and founder of The Chatbot Agency. ‘And by and large, most human voices are distinctively male or female.’

The preponderance of female robots in fiction has often been put down to old-fashioned jealousy, according to Dr Eve Bennett, author of Gender in Post-9/11 American Apocalyptic Television (2015) and a university lecturer specialising in cult TV. ‘There is a theory that men are envious of women’s reproductive power,’ she explains. ‘They think, “A woman created me so I will create a woman.”’

“In the connected home, people may be less threatened by an alien female voice erupting from a gadget than a male voice”

As voice assistants become more ubiquitous, the conversations we have with our digital helpers could start influencing our interactions with real people. This has prompted Microsoft to demand civility from its Cortana users. ‘We believe ardently that the personality we build for Cortana should reflect the kind of respectful, positive interactions we ourselves value,’ says a spokesman.

‘This industry – digital assistants and AI – is in its infancy, so the interactions we design now will become standardised through familiarity. We are just beginning to see how people and computers will communicate with each other,’ he says.

Some technology companies are trying to move away from the notion of gendered software. This mirrors the movement in Western society and other societies towards non-binary gender for human beings, whereby individuals can identify as ‘trans’ and ask to be called ‘they’ rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’.

Ask Apple’s Siri, ‘Are you male or female?’ and the response is: ‘Animals and French nouns have genders, I do not.’

‘When I designed Sage’s accounting chatbot, Pegg, I wanted it to be a blank slate, free from any of my preconceptions or bias,’ says Hewitson. ‘Technology is a product of the bias of the people who built it, so we must all guard against warping the software we design.’

Microsoft is also keen to show the gender neutrality of its voice assistant. ‘Cortana is neither female nor male, but artificial intelligence,’ said its spokesman. ‘If you ask Cortana, “Are you a girl?” she’ll answer, “Well, I’m awesome like a girl.” We get to look carefully at how she responds to all kinds of treatment, and we hope we can craft conversations that are both positive and powerful.’

#siri #alexa #voiceoftechnology

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krissysbookshelf · 8 years ago

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Free Ebooks (2-14-17)

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Lost Tomorrow: A Fear & Sunshine Story by Donovan Scherer: An afternoon of fun becomes an adventure into madness as Sunshine Saliente tumbles down a rabbit hole into a post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow. Will she escape the robotic wasteland in time for her family’s picnic?