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lady-divine-writes · 5 years ago

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Resolutions

Summary: While writing up his own resolutions, Crowley decides to helpfully write up a list for his husband. (1472 words)

Notes: Written for @drawlight's '31 Days of Ineffables' prompts 'glitter' and 'resolution'.

Read on AO3.

Walking through his shop, returning the daily herd of wandering books to their correct shelves, Aziraphale comes upon a sight he’s never witnessed.

Not in the flesh.

Not once.

And not one he ever thought he’d see no matter how long he lived.

Crowley writing – at Aziraphale’s desk, of all places.

Aziraphale has received notes from Crowley before: requests for an audience to discuss their Arrangement, reminders of the temptations Aziraphale agreed to perform, reports on the blessings Crowley had done, taunting letters during the times in between when Crowley simply felt like nagging him. Dirty limericks scrawled in a sloppy hand on oil-stained parchment would occasionally pop up out of nowhere in his pocket. Nowadays, notes from Crowley are mainly reminders to pick up more wine or chocolate biscuits when Aziraphale goes to the market.

Aziraphale has simply never seen Crowley in action.

He figured Crowley miracles up his memos the way he miracles up everything else. No need to actually set pen to paper when a simple snap of his fingers will do the trick.

Writing seems like too tedious a chore to be worthy of Crowley’s precious time.

Aziraphale smirks as he watches him, planted in his stiff, antique chair; the bottom half of his body rearranged in that liquid way Crowley sits, but still as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

As if the desk is his which, even though they’re married and pretty much sharing everything they own at this point, kind of irks Aziraphale. Yes, Aziraphale lives at Crowley’s flat, sleeps in his bed, and eats at his kitchen table, but he would never presume to grab the keys to his Bentley and take it for a spin.

That would be unforgiveable.

Aziraphale ranks this the same.

But he takes a deep breath in and lets it go. He’s never told Crowley his feelings on the matter, never expressed any emotional connection to his desk. Crowley probably sees it as simply another piece of furniture in this “residence” that they share and therefore had no reservations about sitting at it.

Which is kind of nice when Aziraphale comes to think about it.

Nevertheless, he’ll set him right about the whole situation later.

“What has you so busy, my dear?” he asks since it sounds kinder and less confrontational than, ‘What the Heaven are you doing at my desk?’ A glance at the wall calendar adds a level to Aziraphale’s questioning. It’s December 31st. New Year’s Eve. “Working on your resolutions?”

“Sort of,” Crowley admits, the words coming out in a drawl as he says them over the sentence he’s writing. When he finishes, he picks up the page and hands it over.

Aziraphale takes it, curiosity piqued. “What is this?”

“I was writing a list of resolutions – just for fun, mind you. But then, something hit me, and I started this one … for you.”

Aziraphale’s left eyebrow crawls up his forehead towards his hairline as he reads. “You’ve written up a numbered list of my flaws?”

“No. I’ve written up a numbered list of things you think are your flaws, aided by a list you apparently started, and based off some horrible Post-Its from Gabriel I found in your top drawer while searching for a pen.” Crowley growls the end of it, an angry hiss consuming his s’s, a lick of fire warming the yellow of his eyes.

“Yes, well, we’re overdue to have a talk about boundaries, my dear,” Aziraphale sniffs, scanning through the list numerous times, his posture becoming more rigid with every read thru. “I don’t see anywhere on this list where it says fraternizing with a demon.”

Crowley grins. “That’s because I know, deep down, you don’t see that as a flaw.”

Aziraphale rolls his eyes but he doesn’t contradict. “So, what am I supposed to do with this, hmm? Are these the things you want me to work on in the coming New Year?”

“Nope. Not a whit. I’m not asking you to change a thing about yourself.”

“Then what do I do with this?”

“You tear it into tiny pieces and set it on fire.”

Aziraphale frowns. “I may be wrong, but I don’t think that’s how New Year’s resolutions are supposed to work.”

“You do know New Year’s resolutions are shit, don’t you?” Crowley asks. “They’re completely unnecessary, especially considering that time itself is a made-up construct. I mean, you do remember when we had ten months in a year and not twelve, right?”

Aziraphale bounces his head left and right, agreeing more in spirit than in word.

“There’s nothing about the so-called beginning of the year that warrants beating yourself up over stuff you didn’t accomplish the last time the Earth revolved around the sun. Besides, I think Hastur came up with the concept.”

“It was Gabriel actually.”

Crowley nods. “Makes sense. Seems like the sort of plague his uptight, micro-managing ass would inflict upon the world.”

Aziraphale doesn’t comment, but silently, he agrees.

“So whaddya say? Tear it up? Rid yourself of the bullshit? You know you want to …” Crowley mimics ripping the page in the air in front of him on the off chance Aziraphale may not be familiar with the concept.

Aziraphale looks over the list, reading through the items he’d started writing, bleeding into the ones Crowley added.

Well, Gabriel added. They were simply copied in Crowley’s handwriting.

Un-angelic consumption of mortal food resulting in a slovenly appearance and an unseemly gut.

Slovenly. Aziraphale grimaces. So maybe he carries a few more pounds around the middle than most angels. But that doesn’t make him slovenly.

Un-angelic obsession with mortal material possessions.

Aziraphale scoffs. Hypocrite.

Un-angelic collection of defiled copies of the Holy Bible.

Un-angelic consumption of alcohol to the point of drunkenness.

Un-angelic this …

Un-angelic that …

Un-angelic bull pucky!

And Aziraphale knows that somewhere in his mess of Post-Its, Gabriel commented on the company Aziraphale keeps, specifically mentioning his un-angelic association with an ex-anti-Christ, a witch, a medium, and a demon, but Crowley either didn’t find it or chose not to include it.

Every criticism Gabriel has about Aziraphale begins with the modifier un-angelic. Which means Heaven – or at the very least Gabriel – considers Aziraphale un-angelic.

A pathetic excuse for an angel.

If Aziraphale were a demon, would this be seen as a list of flaws?

Would they matter at all?

Perhaps there wouldn’t even be a list if these are the only things “wrong” with him.

That’s definitely something Aziraphale may want to consider.

He glances at his husband grinning up at him with excitement. Every opportunity Aziraphale has to triumph over Heaven excites Crowley. But Aziraphale has paused so long, worry has started to settle in the corners of Crowley’s eyes. Aziraphale has been pushed down so far by Heaven, sometimes Crowley fears he won’t find the strength to stand again.

But he does.

Always has.

Stands back up and keeps on keeping on, still doing the things he loves, which makes it all the better.

Aziraphale doesn’t need Heaven and their insults.

He has Crowley’s love.

Aziraphale turns the list on its side, pinches it at the edge, and tears it down the middle.

Crowley whisper-chants, “Go! Go! Go! Go!” when Aziraphale slows down, encouraging him to continue.

And continue he does – tearing and turning and tearing and turning – until small squares of torn paper fill his cupped hands, the list unreadable except for a few individual words.

“There.” Crowley glows proudly at his husband. “How did that feel?”

“Good,” Aziraphale admits. “But this is going to feel better.” He tosses the scraps in the air. He doesn’t set them alight. He doesn’t want to trigger his sweet, supportive husband. Instead, with a snap, he turns them into glitter – harmless specks of gold and silver falling through the air and disintegrating where they touch.

“Beautiful,” Crowley says, slow clapping. He puts a gentle hand on his husband’s elbow and pulls him into his lap. “Positively gorgeous.”

“Thank you, my dear.” Aziraphale rests an arm on his demon’s shoulders. “I try my best. By the way, what did your list of resolutions have on it?”

“Oh.” Crowley reaches for the breast pocket of his jacket, but before his hand slips inside, he miracles the page into his grasp. “Read it for yourself.”

Aziraphale snatches it, more eager to read Crowley’s list of perceived flaws than his own. Except … “Darling?”

“Yes?”

Aziraphale flips the page front to back. “There’s nothing on this.”

“Of course there’s nothing on it! Can’t much improve on perfection, can you?”

Aziraphale studies the smug expression on Crowley’s face, his eyebrows bouncing over his yellow eyes, challenging Aziraphale to disagree.

Aziraphale shakes his head and leans in to give his ridiculous serpent a kiss on the cheek.

“Whatever you say, dear.”

#Good Omens #good omens fanfiction #ineffable husbands #31 days of ineffables #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #Frankie writes

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mymanskabu · 5 years ago

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Kabu One-Shot:

A Kiss in Ten Seconds

Anonie requested: ❝Idk if I can req anything for the holidays or if it's too late but, just in case. Can you do something for Kabu finding out his champion!s/o will be too busy on New Years Eve and New Years Day bc of all the events that are going on? Then how would he react, when people are literally doing the 10 second count down right before midnight and he sees his s/o burst into the room/wherever he is, panting, out of breath, looking for him just so they could be there to kiss him when the countdown's over?❞

× IM UPLOADING THIS AT 11:59PM Or at least that's the time it is for me as I post this! I know its 2020 already for many of you! I wish you guys a good New Years!

× sorry some of y'alls requests will have taken a year to get done. Please don't unfollow, I am a hard-working person with one brain cell.

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No one told you just how tedious and time consuming being a Champion would be. No wonder the former one appears much less stressed, the poor guy barely had time for his family on this schedule. You were constantly on the move and everyone wanted to talk to you. Leon came around to check on you after you had sent him a text saying, "Help, why are they coming for my life, I have a shit to do."

"Your schedule is very full," He said, looking at you apologetically. "There should be a warning before people try to become Champion, this is a workload that would surely scare off a lot of trainers."

"I don't even have time for my hobbies!" You flip the page to your schedule and half of next month was already full. "I'm lucky enough to manage a call to my mom and one of the only times I see Kabu is when I am going home in the middle of the night." You were surprised the man hasn't decided to leave you. You would completely understand if he couldn't handle being with someone so busy.

"I was undefeated for a very long time," Leon starts explaining. "Your schedule is much fuller than mine was because you beat someone that no one else could for many years. Even those older than me and with perhaps more experience couldn't defeat me."

"You're telling me your schedule wasn't this hectic?" You stared down at the calendar, realizing that talking to Leon was going to get cut short anytime soon.

"It was hectic definitely. Not like this." Leon gave you a comforting pat on your shoulder. "The workload will lessen later on, not sure by how much but you can only repeat a story for so long before people get bored. Then you have to worry about people trying to force a story to happen. At least you have off time when the Gym Challenge is not at large."

"I'm going to lose to the next challenger on purpose," You said. It got a chuckle out of Leon who raised a brow at you, questioning the honesty of your statement. "Or not." You sighed. "Too many benefits outweighing the negatives right now. Well, I'm happy you're able to have more time for other projects Leon!"

"Thank you... Champion."

You were getting many challengers nowadays. People who couldn't defeat Leon come back thinking they can defeat you, plenty of Challengers coming for your title, and new ones in the making. You had a lot of paperwork as well, surprisingly enough. A lot of interviews, so many damn interviews, and your privacy? Almost completely gone. You were grateful for having been with Kabu since before you even challenged the Gyms to attempt being Champion.

Unfortunately your relationship with him was outed rather quickly because of that though. Even if it was a secret, the ring on a specific finger would have also given you away. That was quite recent, it was his surprise for when you became Champion so now wedding planning is somewhere quite far in the schedule. Your management didn't consider it as important as you did, it's something you had to force into your schedule. They only care about managing your public image, personal problems don't rank high on their list of priorities when they're organizing your calendar.

Champions also have to be very involved with Galar and it's people. You had to understand the public opinion, the government opinion, and manage almost any incoming threat. That was terrifying, they sent you to anything just because you happen to be strongest around right now. You had to suck it up and protect the people, show them that their Champion can do probably anything.

You read over your schedule with Leon for a bit longer until you saw something in it that was irritating. "Leon. Why in the world do I have interviews for both New Years Eve and New Years. They can't take those days! I wanted to... I need to be..." You were fuming. You told them not to fill the holidays and they didn't for the past ones, but for some reason they filled those two dates.

"There isn't much you can do about that," He says. "You can try but I remember trying and they... if its urgent, its unlikely." Leon continued with saying that they probably gave you the prior holidays so that you didn't have room to completely complain about your management.

Your phone started ringing. You hesitated to pick up the phone knowing that it'll be someone to take you away for another interview, photoshoot, or fan meet. You didn't hate the people that wanted to meet you, your anger was mostly directed towards the people that were stuffing so much into your schedule. Leon was right though, they can't keep this up forever and hopefully later on it will get more tolerable.

"Are you alright?" His familiar voice caused your shoulders to ease up. You were crossing your arms on the table with your head laid on them. You had came home tired of socializing and still having to do some paperwork having to do with former Chairman Rose.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm tired though, mentally tired to tell you the truth." You stretched your arms upwards then felt two arms wrap around your shoulders when you put them down. "Kabu, I can't be with you during New Years Eve or New Years. It says its urgent but I very much doubt these Talk Shows need me that badly."

You didn't hear anything from behind you for a long moment. He was most likely thinking, you were too, and depending on what he says, you might just consider the idea of letting him go. It hurt you to ponder upon such a thing, but there's other people out there that could give Kabu much more of their time.

"I understand," He finally said, "I'll open up the Stadium for those that need a warm place to be on those days and I will be thinking of you when the countdown starts."

"You don't have to be like that, you know? You don't have to understand, you can be mad at me, you can be frustrated at me, I won't... I won't blame you!" You got up from where you were sitting to face him. He held your hands and promptly shook his head in response.

"I'm not sure you knew this, love but you do not plan your schedule." He kisses your knuckles to comfort you. "If I am to be frustrated at anyone it will be whoever made you busy on those two days. Was there anything you could do about it?"

"I tried, but they just repeatedly tell me that it's an urgent thing I need to be at," You reply, a frustrated sigh escaping past your lips.

"You do what you have to, and think of me as I will think of you during the countdown." With a hand gently on the back of your neck he guides your mouth to his in a much needed relaxing kiss that made your body melt.

"Of course, you're right... you're right," You mumbled. Your eyes remained closed for a bit after the kiss before you were able to open them without feeling like they held sadness in them. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too."

Your stylist dressed you up nicely for the interviews, these events to celebrate a new Champion and a New Year. This is wrong, why does it feel like you were just rubbing it in everyone's face that you were now Champion? You were backstage waiting to be introduced, slouching in a nearby couch with your elbow on your thigh and your hand holding your chin. Finally you heard your name, you could see the crowd cheering on the screen, all anticipating your presence through the hall that all guests walk through.

Kabu opened the Stadium as he said he would, a lot more people came than he thought would. He had announced that it would be open to celebrate the New Year and there would be food and drinks. It wasn't going to be like that at first but you offered the funds and he couldn't say no. It was open for people and Pokemon alike and that brought his heart a pleasant feeling.

He missed you a lot though. He understood that you had things to do but he didn't realize just how attached he had grown to you for your lacking presence to impact him so much. His Stadium was playing the interview for everyone to see and the people that came; majority of them knew Kabu was engaged to the new Champion of Galar. He wondered if you were going to complete your end of the promise and think of him.

"Here's our new magnificent Champion, (Name)!" The cheers were loud, the "I love you's" came from all directions, and so did flowers. Roses, vibrant red roses that reminded you of Kabu. You sat down, a big smile on your face that only managed to be genuine knowing Kabu would see it. "How are you on this beautiful night, Champ?" The interviewer asked.

"I'm doing great, thank you! I actually have somethin' to say real quick, is that alright?" The interviewer furrowed his brows and pointed towards the camera you should speak to.

"Let's hear what (Name) needs to say folks! I wonder what it is! Sounds mysterious!"

"Perhaps it would be mysterious if paparazzi didn't exist," You responded. "I want to say I'm thinking about you, I'll see you soon!"

"Would my guess be wrong if I say that message was for your to-be husband and Fire Type Gym Leader Kabu!?" The interviewer raises your hand, the one that had the ring. "How is the wedding planning going anyway? Any progress?"

"Its somewhere in my schedule, we have ideas we hope to bring to life." The answer was simple and clearly not to the interviewers' taste. They had to remain unaffected though and continued smiling.

"We have a few fan questions we would like you to answer! First one being, would you date a fan?!"

"Absolutely not. I'm engaged, are you people not getting the memo?" You said this sarcastically, but with a tone of seriousness. It got you a laugh from the audience and you laughed along with them as truthfully as you could. "Not to be inappropriate or anything but I think— no. I know I'll be with Kabu for the rest of my life."

Kabu was almost as red as Gym outfit shirt, hearing the "Aww" from both the crowd in the Stadium and the ones where you were. In all honesty though, he would have said the exact same thing about you.

"A curious fan has asked: Do you sing in the shower?" You didn't think for long and answered it with a brief nod.

"I do sing in the shower, Kabu says it sounds good but I think he may just be losing hearing." Once again, the crowd laughed. "Who knows though, only he has ever heard me sing and no, I'm not singing!"

"You and Kabu live together as you've implied multiple times, has there been any mishaps in the kitchen by one of you?" You pondered on this question for a few seconds.

"Not yet, Kabu is a pretty good cook and surprisingly good baker!" You tried to think of an incident once again but nothing came to mind as of now.

"Have you used the 'Is your Dad a baker' pick up line on him yet?" You chuckled at the question and so did the crowd. You covered half your face as you nodded, confirming that you have used a pick up line on him. "I didn't expect that! How'd that go?"

"He still has no idea what I meant by the line and I suppose now is a good time to get it out in the open." It took you a moment or two to compose yourself. "When I said you had a nice set of buns, I was talking about your butt, Kabu!"

He was sitting in the middle of his Stadium, on the ground and when you said that, he fell back laughing much more than he usually would allow himself to in front of a crowd. He should have known that's what you meant then, all he wished to say in response was that he felt the same way. He knows you would have playfully hit him on the arm or something and thank him for the compliment.

A few more questions passed until it was getting close to the countdown. There was an ad break a few minutes before it started. You didn't want to be here, your heart was telling you to leave, take a flying taxi, find Kabu, find home, and be where you know you want to be. You slowly got up from the waiting area, ignoring the calling security, interviewer, and anyone else you just left.

Ten.

You ran, forgetting you had a flying taxi even though you thought about it moments ago. You only had one thing on your mind and that was reaching Kabu before the countdown was over. You ran, your legs wanting to stop but you wouldn't allow it, your lungs trying to take in all the cold air, and the fancy shoes on your feet making it even more difficult. You stopped and took them off, hastily picking them up then running again. No rock on the ground was stopping you from being where you wanted to be tonight.

Nine.

When the show came back on, you weren't there and he was confused. Apparently you had left abruptly, this caused him to worry and tried getting a hold of you through a text then called you.

Eight.

Kabu didn't know you ran off, leaving your items behind with only one goal in mind. His destination was within your line of sight and it made you push forward much faster, pushing your legs harder to make it before the time ran out.

Seven.

He wanted to be able to at least to see you through the screen as the countdown started. Where did you go? Why did you leave? Were you even okay? Now all he could think about was your well-being.

Six.

You were jogging past the hair salon, the many small stores on the sides, some which had people. People watching the Champion run to the elevator that would take you to Motostoke Stadium.

Five.

No one asked questions as you walked in, your legs almost wanting to give in. You continued, waving off others that wanted to help you walk towards the doors to the Stadium itself.

Four.

You stood in the tunnel for a couple of seconds, your eyes searching for Kabu. He who was watching the screen, hoping for your appearance or any news on your location.

Three.

The crowd spotted you first, the loud cheers startling Kabu as his eyes met yours when he turned his head in your direction. He never felt more relieved to see you there, why you had disappeared made much more sense to a lot people now that you were here.

Two.

With all the strength you could muster in your legs, you practically limped forward. Absolutely tired by the run and feeling like a whole idiot for not using a taxi when you could have at any point on your way here. He saw you panting, no shoes on your feet, you looked like quite the beautiful mess.

One.

No words are exchanged as you throw your arms around his neck, holding him in a tight embrace before your lips passionately meet his. He was slightly taken aback by the roughness of the kiss, you had his body right against yours, and a hand clutching the hair on the back his head. How long had it been since he has had something like this? He had forgotten how amazing this physical contact could feel and experiencing this made him feel as if it was a first kiss. Then the clock strikes twelve, your hold on him loosens, and its just you and him.

Your forehead was on his, you two were sharing breaths because of how long and sudden it was. Embarrassment hit you randomly when you realized there was a crowd, you left an interview, and Kabu was probably staring at you while you didn't dare open your eyes. Not until you could look at him and say something that didn't sound like you didn't know how to form sentences.

You could hear the crowd now, the whistling, the clapping, the stomping of their feet, any form of cheering the could make they did it.

"Another year of you and me," He said. "I am looking forward to another one." He gave you one chaste kiss for his own pleasure and you smiled.

"I look forward to another one too."

#request #happy new year #!!#kabu swsh #swsh kabu #pokemon kabu #kabu #kabu is all i need lmao #kabu pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon #sword and shield #swsh #pokemon swsh #drabble #oneshot

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cephalo-trio · 6 years ago

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Deepsea Escape Part 4

A Splatoon 2 Story written by Splat-Tendency

Starring: Lexi Camellia (POV)

((Lexi was on her way to deliver the last mail at first, and then she wakes up in the underground subway station. She has no clue where she is or how is she going to get back to the surface. She has no choice, but to venture through this abandoned station alone.))

I stared restlessly at the Mem Cakes that I've collected so far. I was back at the main station to buy something out of the vending machine. The tests are rather tedious at first, but they were enjoyable to pass. Either if it's pushing the 8-ball to the goal or a Ranked mode, I had no trouble. I managed to find one of the four thangs in Line B. The telephone seemed pleased that I brought it over to the Deepsea Metro.

As I continued snacking on a bag of BBQ chips with a cold bottle of water, one of the passengers in the train stepped out for some fresh air. He was tall and well-groomed. Pretty much like a businessman.

"Excuse me, young squire. I can't help, but notice the little trinkets you were carrying." The suave isopod sat down next to me. ("I hope, I'm not too off putting to the young lady.")

"Huh..? Oh! Yeah, these Mem Cakes are like collectables.." I was startled a bit when the isopod caught a glimpse of a Mem Cake that I collected. "These memories of mine are from my visit to Inkopolis.. Some memories are from 3 years ago..."

The isopod strokes his whiskers and nodded. "I see.. I used to be an applicant like you.. Riding through the deep underground and hoping to taste sweet freedom. Unfortunately, I discontinued the thrill of collecting memories.."

"Sorry to hear that, Mr. uh....." I paused mid-sentence to the tall isopod.

"Call me Iso Padre, young squire. That's what everyone calls me, nowadays. A pleasure to meet you." Iso Padre shakes hands with me. "If you find anymore Mem Cakes, you know where to find me where I keep my stuffed toys." He got up from the bench and went back inside.

I stared down at the Mem Cake in my hand. "Guess, I better get back to completing those tests.." I finished eating my chips and went back to the train.

I returned to meet Cuttlefish until I heard his conversation with Pearl and Marina. Just what are they talking about while I was returning that thang.

"I hope Agent 8 is doing okay.. After a few tests, she didn't say much.." Cuttlefish looked concerned for me.

"Maybe, the tests are a bit hard on her.." Marina responds through Agent 3's walkie talkie. "If she does come back, try to cheer her up. She's having a hard time.." Marina was analyzing the new lines that I will be heading too.

I remained silent and avoided eye contact with the captain. They shouldn't be worried about me all the time whenever I pass half of the tests. Cuttlefish's attention was fixated on me as I walked passed him.

"How was your short break, Agent 8?" Cuttlefish got up from his seat. "You did a great job collecting one of those doohickies. Just three left and we'll be outta here in no time!" Cuttlefish was concerned at first, but he is putting on a smile.

"Yeah.. Thanks a lot, Captain.. Even though I'm a tad hasty.." I turned around and faked a smile. "Is Marina still keeping tabs on the system..?" My back was facing against the sliding door. I just needed to get through Line D and move on from there.

"She still is! She said if you need help passing the test, she'll use her tech skills to hack the system an-" As soon as Cuttlefish finished, I interrupted him.

T-That's not necessary, Cap'n.. I don't need her help to hack in order to pass.. It's pretty much cheating your way out.. Besides, I'll find another way to pass.." Even if Marina hacked the system, I won't be able to prove to have what it takes to live in Inkling society.

Cutterfish stares at me for a few seconds until he nods in agreement. "Understandable, Eight. Just be careful out there." Cuttlefish let me off the hook for now.

I responded with a salute and walked to the next train cable where C.Q is standing. He's waiting for me to travel to the next test in the D-Line. "Can you take me to err..." I checked the map on my CQ-80 and noticed the station in between Line D and J. "Girl Power Station..?"

C.Q Cumber nods in response. "Understood. For this test, you must defend the orb until time runs out. Be weary because they are other enemies trying to destroy the orb. Are you up for the the challenge?" He asked before making the call.

"I have no time to waste.. I must pass the rest of the tests in order to escape.. I'll be fine out there, kay? How bad can it be?" I gained a bit of confidence before CQ gives the operator the signal to the next station.

Meanwhile in the surface world, Marina looks rather worried. "W-What..?! She's alright with this..?!" The tall octoling kept tabs on the map.

"Afraid so, Marina.. She's going to the stop at the next station. Which is between Line D and J.." Cuttlefish was peeking through the sliding door window while speaking to Marina through the phone. "Agent 8 is her way to Girl Power Station.. If she's in trouble, you know what to do."

Suddenly, Pearl swiped the phone from Marina's hand. "Don't sweat it, Cap'. You have seen Eight kicking ass out there! She'll be fine on this one!" Then, Marina took the phone back and scowls at Pearl until she sighed.

"Yeah.. I'll still keep in touch with you, Mr. Cuttlefish.. I'm just worried about her, y'know.. I'll call you, later.." She hung up the phone and went back to her laptop.

2 minutes later..

"Whoa.. That's a lot of weapons to choose from.." I stared through the glass and saw the entire weapon category in front of her.

"You may choose any weapon that is suitable for you. Once you're finished, step on the launch pad." C.Q will be keeping an eye on the battlefield.

There are 9 weapons to choose from. Something that Sheldon keeps in his display shelf everyday. "I can do well with dualies, but I'm might be comfortable to use a melee weapon..." I looked at the two melee weapons: the Splat Roller and the Octobrush. I stared deeply at the Octobrush, feeling a bit uneasy after what I horribly did in the past. "This is the weapon that Fynn uses most of the time... I hope, I didn't hit him too hard to get a concusion..."

I grabbed the Octobrush in my hands and made it towards the launch pad. "Now, I have to defend the orb and I'll pass this test. But, what am I defending the orb from...?" That was when a couple of sanitized Octolings appeared. They seem to be waiting for me to land. "Shit.."

Suddenly, Marina immediately contacts me through the phone. "Eight, it looks like you're in for the fight for your life.. I will be contacting you while Cuttlefish is away." Marina started analyzing the test on her personal laptop.

"Ms. Marina, right..? You said that there are no vital signs..? If so, then how are they moving..?" Along the way, I've encountered a number of those guys including the Octotroops in the chamber. They must've been trapped down here before I fell in.

"I have no idea.. Maybe, they're under control by someone.. I'm trying the best I can to get to the bottom of this. Right now, you need to pass this test." Marina has a bad feeling about this, but she still has faith in my abilities.

I arrived into the battlefield where the orb is located. Around me, there are also a number of special weapons and 2 armor cases. It didn't take too long to choose a special weapon. If they doo get too close to the orb, I can try to push them away from me with Splashdown.

As one of the sanitized octoling landed on the other side of the field, I quickly went for the two armor cases. I have to be fully equipped before they arrive. "I-I'm sorry for what I have to do...." I charged into battle, regretting my decision. They're not themselves anymore.

A few strokes from the brush caused the poor octoling to burst into a puddle of my own ink. My body felt cold when she screeched in a glitchy, yet eerie tone. I just want to get this over with and finish the job.

I looked up at the number of octolings. They're all staring, dead at me as I'm defending the orb. I felt a cold sweat, running down my cheek. I wish I could look away, but it feels like they're staring into my soul. I slowly backed away to look out for more intruders, but someone's blocking my path. As I turned around, there are two octolings right behind me.

"You seem nervous..." The octoling on the left speaks as I yelped in suprise. There was two octolings behind me and I was careless about my surroundings.

"H-How did you get here so fast..!?" I cried. She must've got here so quickly, while I took out one of the attackers. Something about her looks vaguely familiar. The sanitized octoling was sporting a white ribbon around her ponytail.

"...If I were you, I'd check the orb..." She pointed to the direction to the orb in the middle. I could hear a loud pinging.

I looked over at the orb and my eyes widdened in panic. "S-Someone's attacking the orb..!!" I quickly ran past her and caught up to the orb. There was another octoling. Just like the white ribboned octoling, she has two black ribbons on her twintacles. She continuously hammered down on the orb with her roller.

"Hey! Knock it off!!" I lunged at the attacker and started to flail around with the Octobrush. Suddenly, the octoling looked at with a grin on her face. That was when I hesitated again. I have no idea why, but it feels like I've known them in the past.

"Tooooo late~" She responds as she immediately destroyed the orb. She giggled as she watched the orb explode in a huge puddle of unstable ink.

Then C.Q spoke through the intercom to me and said: "The orb is destroyed. You have failed the test, No. 10008." For those who have failed the test, C.Q will detonate the air bag that is strapped to my ink tank. This happened to me, 3 times already.

The air bag started to inflate. The beeping started to get louder in my ear as was panicking. "N-No!! C.Q, wai-!!" I was cut off as the air bag exploded and splatted me in a puddle of their sanitized ink. All was left was my clothes and weapon on the ground. I could hear the twin tailed octoling was applauding for the quick fireworks show.

"Agent 8!! Are you alright?!" As soon as I respawned, Marina cried in my ear. I groaned and dust myself off.

"I'm fine.... Turns out that two sanitized octolings are keeping me from protecting that orb... ow...." I felt a sharp pain on my back after the inksplosion. "That damn cucumber...." I hissed as I felt my backside. It left a huge mark on my back.

"Maybe the weapon you're choosing isn't going to help.. You might need some weapon to protect yourself with.. Like the Splat Brella!" Marina suggested. "You've heard of it, right? If you hold your shield longer, the sheild will launch itself but it leaves you vulnerable.."

I found the Splat Brella can in front of me. If Marina's right on this one, I might have a chance to clear test. "I did use this weapon before, but I'm no good at it..." The can opened and I see the Splat Brella in my hands.

"It won't hurt to try, 8. Maybe someday, you'll become a pro with this weapon once me and Pearl get you outta here! I hope you survive the inevitable.. I... No... Me, Pearl, and Cuttlefish are counting on you! Good luck." Marina ends the transmission for now.

I proudly nodded. At least this test is kind enough to give me only five tries for this kind of test. "The twins.. I'm starting to recognize them.. I can't let them get into my head.." I went back into the battlefield and tried again.

The sanitized twins both stared at me from afar. "....It looks like she chose another weapon.. No matter... She'll soon fail..." The first twin with the white ribbon is the calm and collected of the bunch. Her go-to weapon is the Octo Roller.

"I don't have all damn day, y'know...." I hissed in response. The twin octolings are about to make their move and I have to focus on the objective. I still have a minute to protect that orb.

"Try as you might, but you can't win....." The white-ribboned girl lunged at me with her own roller. The other twin is trying to cornered me. "I got her blind spot, sis~!" The other twin cackled.

I sighed in annoyance. If they're trying to get me to fail, then it won't work twice. Without doing anything, I morped into an octopus and snuck out of harm's way. As a result, they both crashed into each other.

I morped back to see the twins on the ground. They were both stunned from the collison. I wonder if they still feel pain from that impact since they have no vital signs.

Before they could get up back up, I splatted the twins with a wide spread of ink. My eyes widened when I first fired that thing. "So, this is the power of the Brella that Marina was talking about.. Not bad.." The orb is still unharmed for now, I still have enough time to prepare myself for the other guards to attack the orb.

It was their queue to charge into the battlefield, now that the twins have been dealt with. It appears that I'm not the only one who uses special weapons. Nonetheless, they're doomed either way as I splatted them one by one. I just want this test to be done with, so I can lay down in the train.

30 minutes later of protecting the orb, Marina contacted me through the phone again. "I think, that's all of them.. You can rest now, Agent 8.." Marina felt relieved. "So, how's the Splat Brella treating you?"

I stared at the new weapon as the timer ran out. "It feels different.. It's not something to get use to, yet.. But, I did like it." Since the orb is safe and sound, I can finally go back.

"Great! Cap'n will be back, momentarily. Get some rest while you still can, mkay?" Marina ended the transmission.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my back like before. The explosion from earlier made it worse on my back and was unable to keep my balance. I reached hand to feel my back and something wet touched my fingers. At first, I thought it was the cyan ink from the airbag, but it wasn't. As I stopped feeling my backside, I stared at my fingers. Instead of the ink from the explosion from earlier, it was my own blood.

"M-My back is bleeding..." I trembled at the sight of my own blood. The impact must have wounded my back and I didn't notice it during my 2nd attempt. I felt really light-headed as my back won't stop bleeding.

"A-Agent 8..!! What's wrong?! Please, answer me..!!" I could hear Marina contactating me through the earpiece.

"I-I... can't move... So.. tired.." I'm starting to lose my balance. All Marina could hear was a loud thud as I collapsed on the ground near the orb.

"AGENT 8!!!!" Marina screamed as I laid there, still bleeding from my back.

I don't want it to end like this. If I hadn't fell down that hole in Mt. Nantai, I would be still safe and away from the underground subway. But still, my father would be still missing for decades. Before I slowly closed my eyes, the sanitized twins stared at me as I lost consciousness. "H-Help...me.." I called out for help as my vision fades to black.

The twins were hesitant at first until they decide to carry me to cod knows where. If only my friends were here to get me out of this mess.

To Be Continued...

#;;lexi #;;agent 8 #;;plot: deepsea escape

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seoupdates2019love-blog · 6 years ago

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psychicanchortimemachine · 4 years ago

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Enhance eCommerce with Innovative Mobile Applications

May I develop my eCommerce application with a Progressive Web App?

The topic

PWA

(Progressive Web App-Definition see box) is currently being widely propagated, especially within eCommerce.

Rightly so, is this not a new mouthpiece to make a huge fuss?

Here, I would like to clarify briefly what a PWA is, what advantages it can have for

eCommerce

businesses, and what attention should be paid to when approaching the topic. To put it briefly, what is a PWA?

As the name suggests, it's basically an application, i.e. a web-based software application (as opposed to a native Windows, Android, or iOS application). One can best imagine progressive as "growing with the game. So that it evolves, as we know from before, from a regular website to a modern web application, which hardly differs from a native one. So it does so practically automatically, depending on the environment (browser) it encounters. Why would an operator choose a Progressive Web App (PWA) for E-Commerce?

Any owner of an eCommerce platform will probably want to increase his turnover. In my opinion, the eCommerce Progressive Web App (PWA) has three key advantages over a conventional website:

1. Quicker2. More picturesque3. LOWER Faster, because much of the Innovative Web App is running in the browser of the user (and not on the server of the provider), it can handle data and loads more easily with smaller numbers. But due to the app components, the initial load is slightly larger, many server requests can be saved afterward. It means that while the classic website needs to load more and more content from the server, the PWA has to load only the most important data ( e.g. only images and details of the product, but not the entire software code). Louder, as the Progressive Web App enables eCommerce owners to use different methods to put the product to the attention of the customer:

Homescreen: As with regular devices, PWA can be put on the home screen. They run fullscreen if you start them from there, i.e. the customer stays in the context of the application and can not turn "quickly" to the competitor

· Push Alerts: A PWA can also submit Apps-like push notifications. This gives you the opportunity to draw the attention of customers specifically to promotions etc.

I missed one highly important argument: Google. Google loves fast websites and is pushing the PWA topic. Many SEO experts believe a page that completely meets a PWA 's requirements would push Google's rankings upwards. Unfortunately, as normal with SEO, there are no absolute truths and so there are other experts who say that the so-called Server Side Rendering (see box) is important for optimum Google results – so, in theory, a traditional, old, static website. That might be the best way, it's undisputed it's heading in the direction of PWA. And as I'll explain below, Progressive Web App and Server Side Rendering needn't contradict one another. Function Comparison: Progressive Web App vs. Native App

APP VS NATIVE PWA

Of course, whether a native app or a PWA is recommended depends always on the intended use. But what impressively illustrates the comparison is how many areas the "Web Native App" – i.e. the PWA – has already opened up to the Native App, and how many benefits it has achieved.

From our many years of experience in eCommerce, we know that it is becoming increasingly important to be able to react quickly to market demands and to quickly try out ideas.

There are solutions for the PWA in the form of Frontend Management Platforms that allow the business managers to make simple changes and quick tests. There is usually only a tedious way to get the Native App.

Why Can Smart Mobile Applications Easily Use Electronic Commerce Quite individual: Do it all yourselfFast and dirty: The PWA ProxyA Frontend-as-a-Service modular architecture Do things your own way:

Companies with software DNA in particular but even companies with a broad internal IT department prefer to develop and run their eCommerce entirely on their own. It makes even junior programmers happy-they can actually do some basic work. Most companies, however, underestimate the challenge. After all, it's not all about providing an outstanding customer experience; the entire development process must be managed, stable, automatically scalable hosting must be maintained, and – most importantly – the online marketing team must be able to make regular changes without having to rely on programmers. Only thus can they keep up with the strong competition. Fast and dirty:

If you have a current, modern eCommerce platform, just because new technology is evolving, you don't want to throw away anything and create a new one. Therefore, there are some providers on the market that are practically acting as a proxy in front of an existing shop and thus promising to create an excellent mobile customer experience. Frontend:

For two years now the trend toward an API-first architecture in eCommerce has gained ground. At the same time, Frontend-as-a-Service has been developed by other firms. Such providers concentrate on excellent user experience on all screens and have a Revolutionary Web App for mobile devices in particular. As in other situations, it is important that the people in the departments responsible for eCommerce 's success in day-to-day business will function autonomously from the tools of developers. The Frontend Management Platforms include an easy-to-use editor that helps web administrators and advertisers to execute their ideas and promotions as quickly as a homepage creator does. PROGRESSIVE SERVER SIDE VS. Making Mobile APP

When you believe in Google's own Lighthouse Score, when you have a clean PWA implementation, you don't have to think about Server Side Rendering (SSR). What is the point?

In short, server-side rendering is the standard form of producing a web application. On the server, all of the critical content is measured and transmitted "full" to the browser of the client. Every page change, every user interaction first goes to the server which calculates and delivers the corresponding page to the browser. This is a highly tried and tested technology that needs very little resources on the part of the customer and makes no demands on the hardware of the customer. And not just to the customer but to the search engines as well.

As this is a client-like behavior Google can index a modern PWA and even "rewards," this mobile-friendly technology, in the opinion of many "SEO experts."

Modern approaches most often provide a hybrid approach: the content is provided to search engines as SSR and to actual customers as PWA. Testing-Learning-Improving:

Anyone who today wants to run eCommerce successfully has to hold their own against the major players on the market. To put it plainly, with very little resources, each has to find his own way to sneak up on the major players. A lucrative market, ideal pricing, creative concepts-these are only a few of the opportunities.

If your customers access your offer from mobile devices, you should be concerned with the subject of the Progressive Web App, definitely – but not at any price. The PWA must fit into the overall plan, from my point of view. In my experience, agility is an important factor for success today – regardless of any of the aforementioned forms you want to be successful in eCommerce. You have to be able to change your range, again and again, your pricing and your overall bid.

The credo is "Research-learning-improving." If you don't have a front-end development team of 100 people (who still also have free resources), this might be a subject for you. One support can be a so-called frontend management tool that makes it easy for online editors to make changes based on existing components. DL; RD

PWA is more than just another roost-run. Yet the evolution must continue all the time. So don't make a fast fix, but use a modular architecture with an API-first eCommerce framework and a Frontend-as-a-Service that helps the business team to do the day-to-day business without relying on a single editor to code.

As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to

get in touch with us!

0 notes

lakhwanabhishek · 4 years ago

Text

Enhance eCommerce with Innovative Mobile Applications

May I develop my eCommerce application with a Progressive Web App?

The topic

PWA

(Progressive Web App-Definition see box) is currently being widely propagated, especially within eCommerce.

Rightly so, is this not a new mouthpiece to make a huge fuss?

Here, I would like to clarify briefly what a PWA is, what advantages it can have for

eCommerce

businesses, and what attention should be paid to when approaching the topic. To put it briefly, what is a PWA?

Any owner of an eCommerce platform will probably want to increase his turnover. In my opinion, the eCommerce Progressive Web App (PWA) has three key advantages over a conventional website:

· Push Alerts: A PWA can also submit Apps-like push notifications. This gives you the opportunity to draw the attention of customers specifically to promotions etc.

APP VS NATIVE PWA

From our many years of experience in eCommerce, we know that it is becoming increasingly important to be able to react quickly to market demands and to quickly try out ideas.

Why Can Smart Mobile Applications Easily Use Electronic Commerce Quite individual: Do it all yourselfFast and dirty: The PWA ProxyA Frontend-as-a-Service modular architecture Do things your own way:

When you believe in Google's own Lighthouse Score, when you have a clean PWA implementation, you don't have to think about Server Side Rendering (SSR). What is the point?

As this is a client-like behavior Google can index a modern PWA and even "rewards," this mobile-friendly technology, in the opinion of many "SEO experts."

Modern approaches most often provide a hybrid approach: the content is provided to search engines as SSR and to actual customers as PWA. Testing-Learning-Improving:

get in touch with us!

#b2bservices

#b2b ecommerce

#b2bsales

#b2b seo

0 notes

secretcupcakesublime · 4 years ago

Text

Enhance eCommerce with Innovative Mobile Applications

May I develop my eCommerce application with a Progressive Web App?

The topic

PWA

(Progressive Web App-Definition see box) is currently being widely propagated, especially within eCommerce.

Rightly so, is this not a new mouthpiece to make a huge fuss?

Here, I would like to clarify briefly what a PWA is, what advantages it can have for

eCommerce

businesses, and what attention should be paid to when approaching the topic. To put it briefly, what is a PWA?

Any owner of an eCommerce platform will probably want to increase his turnover. In my opinion, the eCommerce Progressive Web App (PWA) has three key advantages over a conventional website:

· Push Alerts: A PWA can also submit Apps-like push notifications. This gives you the opportunity to draw the attention of customers specifically to promotions etc.

APP VS NATIVE PWA

From our many years of experience in eCommerce, we know that it is becoming increasingly important to be able to react quickly to market demands and to quickly try out ideas.

Why Can Smart Mobile Applications Easily Use Electronic Commerce Quite individual: Do it all yourselfFast and dirty: The PWA ProxyA Frontend-as-a-Service modular architecture Do things your own way:

When you believe in Google's own Lighthouse Score, when you have a clean PWA implementation, you don't have to think about Server Side Rendering (SSR). What is the point?

As this is a client-like behavior Google can index a modern PWA and even "rewards," this mobile-friendly technology, in the opinion of many "SEO experts."

Modern approaches most often provide a hybrid approach: the content is provided to search engines as SSR and to actual customers as PWA. Testing-Learning-Improving:

get in touch with us!

#b2b website #ecommerce

0 notes

technicallyelegantruins · 4 years ago

Text

Enhance eCommerce with Innovative Mobile Applications

May I develop my eCommerce application with a Progressive Web App?

The topic

PWA

(Progressive Web App-Definition see box) is currently being widely propagated, especially within eCommerce.

Rightly so, is this not a new mouthpiece to make a huge fuss?

Here, I would like to clarify briefly what a PWA is, what advantages it can have for

eCommerce

businesses, and what attention should be paid to when approaching the topic. To put it briefly, what is a PWA?

Any owner of an eCommerce platform will probably want to increase his turnover. In my opinion, the eCommerce Progressive Web App (PWA) has three key advantages over a conventional website:

· Push Alerts: A PWA can also submit Apps-like push notifications. This gives you the opportunity to draw the attention of customers specifically to promotions etc.

APP VS NATIVE PWA

From our many years of experience in eCommerce, we know that it is becoming increasingly important to be able to react quickly to market demands and to quickly try out ideas.

Why Can Smart Mobile Applications Easily Use Electronic Commerce Quite individual: Do it all yourselfFast and dirty: The PWA ProxyA Frontend-as-a-Service modular architecture Do things your own way:

When you believe in Google's own Lighthouse Score, when you have a clean PWA implementation, you don't have to think about Server Side Rendering (SSR). What is the point?

As this is a client-like behavior Google can index a modern PWA and even "rewards," this mobile-friendly technology, in the opinion of many "SEO experts."

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kiyote23 · 7 years ago

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One Person’s Broken Is Another Person’s Perfect (Classic Flashback)

This post originally appeared on dorkfam.net on July 1, 2016.

“Are we ever going to play The Division again?” OtherMark asked.

“I dunno,” OtherOtherMark replied, “Is The Division going to not suck anymore?”

I winced, partly at the reply, and partly because I was repeatedly falling to my death in the Vault of Glass jumping puzzle. Four months ago, OtherOtherMark was really excited about The Division. Destiny was looking long in the tooth. Our raid group completed King’s Fall. This was the end game content that we’d been working on together for a couple of months, since early December. And with the end game content mostly completed, the group started to drift apart as players started playing other games. Destiny was no longer holding their interest.

Destiny was the first modern online multiplayer game I had played where I became really involved in a group. In Destiny, you can group up into a fireteam of up to six people, and to do the raid, you’ll need six, so the first step was finding a group of people who could play together. It started with friends, and then friends of friends, and pretty soon we had a group of six who played at the same time and played well together. And so we did strikes, and played in the Crucible together. And it got to be a thing, you’d look to see who was online, and you knew you would be playing with them, often until late into the night. It became this wonderful social aspect to an already almost sublime gaming experience. I finally started to understand why this was all my friends were talking about last year.

But that social aspect was diminishing, and it looked like we were going to move to The Division. And that didn’t quite happen. Not every one in the group made the jump, and The Division didn’t have the end game that we needed, or wanted. It didn’t have much of an end game at all. Certainly not the raid that we worked towards as a group.

I spent most of March leveling up in The Division. I completed the story, and then there wasn’t much to do but to grind out better gear in the Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is an a special area within The Division. The Division is a beautiful open world design, where players move freely through a detailed recreation of midtown Manhattan. You complete missions and encounters on this map to get better gear and to advance your character. But in the middle of this map lurks a large section that is walled off, and can only be entered through select portals. This is the Dark Zone, and within the Dark Zone, The Division becomes a significantly different game.

In the regular game world, the player runs into randomly generated groups of bad guys to fight, but also civilians to help, and most significantly, no other players, except for those that you invite into your game session. You could play the entire main game solo if you wanted to, though you will see and run into other players within the safe areas where you restock armor and sell your loot. But once you leave the safe areas, the streets are yours and yours alone.

In the Dark Zone, you run into other players, players who are ostensibly agents of The Division, like yourself. But the Dark Zone is a place of no rules, and so not only can you see the other players, but you can shoot them. The Dark Zone was The Division’s unique take on PvP, and it could have been very interesting, creating a unique gaming environment.

I didn’t find The Dark Zone to be much fun. I don’t mind PvP, and while I like to keep my PvE and my PvP separate, I can play in a mix. I used to love to play on PvP servers in Warcraft, even though I almost exclusively played PvE. I wouldn’t even duel with people. I tried it once, found it tedious, and moved on. In Warcraft, you knew when you were in a PvP situation. It wasn’t ambiguous. But The Dark Zone was a big mess of ambiguity. A player who was helping you could turn and stab you in the back at any moment. A guy who ganked you earlier could help you out. You couldn’t trust anybody, and basically came down to people taking advantage of weaker players. Maybe if they had disabled level advantages, it might have been better.

I saw a lot of people defending the Dark Zone on Reddit, and I spent a lot of time wondering why they liked it so much. I think they wanted PvP. Some people really enjoy PvP, the challenge of playing against other actually human players instead of the somewhat limited and predictable AI. And that’s fine. I’ve been playing death matches online since Quake. I play Crucible in Destiny, though it’s not my favorite. I think that if you enjoyed The Dark Zone in The Division, it was because you decided that you were going to go rouge. You either went in with a fire team with the intent to go rouge, or you were a solo rouge. Then the ambiguity is gone. Or you play with the notion that everyone you see is a rouge, and stay away from them. And it did make it spooky, because other, so-called friendly agents wouldn’t be tracked on your HUD, so suddenly you’d see a group of gunmen appear out of nowhere.

The problem was that you couldn’t preemptively defend yourself, without going rouge yourself. It was like a game of chicken—you didn’t want to be the first one to shoot. If you went rouge, then not only could they kill you without getting marked for it, but they’d get bonus experience for it. So, if you’re going to play with the mentality that everyone in the Dark Zone is a rouge, then the only way to play it effectively to plan on going rouge yourself.

Which is why I think it’s flawed design on the developer’s part. The idea was to create this sense of ambiguity, this idea that these agents that are supposed to be on your side have flipped to the other side, and you don’t know who is who. But with no real consequences for flipping, in fact, there are actual bonuses and better gear for flipping, then the ambiguity is gone. Everyone is out to get you, because it’s really just a free-for-all.

Here’s how I would fix it: once you go rouge, you’re cut off from The Division, and you have to find the opposition, and make contact with them, and build rank with them, probably through ganking Division agents in the Dark Zone. Eventually, you get enough trust with the opposition that they send you back to The Division to become a double agent, except The Division doesn’t trust you right away, so you have to rebuild some rank with them, probably through not ganking Division agents in the Dark Zone while killing rouges. Then you’d have to make a choice at some point, who to betray, the opposition or The Division. Man, now I want to play that game.

The problem was that there was nothing else to do. I had spent most of March in The Division‘s rendition of Manhattan, taking out looters and rioters and guys with flame throwers and mercenaries. Block by block, I took out bad guys to defend civilians. It was made pretty clear who was bad and who wasn’t, at least to me. The civilians were always a little jumpy around me, skittish if I got too aggressive, a nice touch since I don’t think I could hurt any of them if I tried. I could shoot the tires on parked cars (which I’ll admit, I did a lot) or stray dogs (I never did, and it bothered me when my teammates would), but I couldn’t shoot any of the bystanders.

It was a game without an endgame. You could grind gear in The Dark Zone, but since outside The Dark Zone I was already like a god, basically unstoppable, why bother? There was no reason to play a mode that I didn’t find fun, and that was all there was to do.

What is the end game? Most video games have a story, or at least try to, though in Destiny‘s case, it was sort of loosely stringing missions together with some sort of tangent. It really didn’t matter, because the missions were engaging and fun.

So, the end game is what you do when you want to keep playing the game, but you’ve completed the story. For a multiplayer game like Destiny or The Division, that usually means PvP or a raid. The problem with The Division was that the PvP was more frustrating than fun, and there was no raid.

They did add The Incursion, which was supposed to be the first end game option, but I never played it. From what I heard, it was wave after wave of bullet-sponge bosses, and you needed serious gear to run it. In fact, a whole new tier of gear was rolled out just for The Incursion. To help you grind gear outside the dark zone, a new set of daily and weekly missions were available, but again, it seemed like a lot of work to grind gear for a mission that just didn’t seem fun, which was disappointing because the main story had been fun, and the missions were different and varied.

What Destiny did was a brilliant. Players left because there was only two options for end game, PvP and the raid. The raid was difficult to set up because you needed six players who knew what they were doing, because it was complicated. And you only had a week to complete it, and that’s assuming that you started on Tuesday, which most people didn’t. There were checkpoints through the raid, and if you made it to a check point, you could start there the next day. And when you were learning the raid, you’d need the checkpoints. And really, you could say that part of the end game in Destiny, once you completed the story missions, was getting gear good enough to go on the raid, something that took a little grinding to do. Also, players left because they had completed the raid, and it wasn’t holding their interest anymore.

So, Bungie raised the light limit, to give players something to work towards, and then opened up new paths to get the light limit. Now, in addition to PvP and the raid, you could do the revamped Prison of Elders/Challenge of Elders, which was sort of like PvE Crucible. You could also get higher level gear from the faction vendors, and they made it easier to grind faction rep. So now, just running the daily missions became a way to get better gear and raise your light level.

What happens when you hit the light limit? I don’t know, probably drift into another game for a while. The next update will be in September, and there will be new content, and the light limit will be raised again. There will be a new raid. That will make four raids. I’ve only completed one.

The Division is still on my hard drive, and I’ve been updating it, though I haven’t actually played it in a long time. Things could have changed. The conditions that I’m writing about were in late March, early April. I had a lot of fun playing the story of The Division, and the mechanics and gameplay were pretty solid. It was disappointing that the game didn’t scale well. Once we got to a high enough level, the bad guys just seemed to become bullet-sponges, and the difficulty was upped by sending them at us in overwhelming waves. I think part of what propelled me through The Division through most of March was the uncovering the map, learning the game and how to play it effectively, and grinding out better gear. There’s a whole world of crafting and improving gear that I was just starting to get into before I hit the why bother point. I’m keeping it because there might come a time when I want to get back into it, a point where they’ve fixed things and made changes to end game, or created more story to work through.

I’m still grinding through Destiny, daily. Destiny‘s April update came right when I was losing interest in The Division. At its core, Destiny is a lot of fun. The first thing I did when I dropped back into Destiny after being in The Division for so long was jump. When you jump in Destiny, you can soar. You can float all around the map. In The Division, you’re stuck on the ground. But more than that, the basic mechanics of Destiny are smoother and sweeter. It’s more fun to pull the trigger in Destiny, more fun per round fired. It doesn’t matter than I’m ranging over the same maps that I’ve ranged over a hundred times before, it’s just fun to be there.

Last night we were playing Iron Banner with DMot, who wasn’t part of our core raid group, but had filled in a couple of times when we needed a sixth. He admitted that he hadn’t been playing Destiny for a while, but had been playing The Division. It was fun, he said, “But I always knew I’d come back to Destiny. You can always come back to Destiny.”

And we did. We all came back.

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gigdiyf118-blog · 5 years ago

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How to Explain Download GTA gtadownload.org to a Five-Year-Old

Grand Theft Auto V Game description

For me, Grand Theft Auto V ’s extraordinary scope is summed happy throughout a couple favourite moments. One is from the mid-game mission by which I hurried a smooth in another level, fought the crew, hijacked the thing, and parachuted dazed then observed that crash in the sea to escape death on the palm of earnings military fighter jets. Another time, whilst travel in in the off-road buggy, I got distracted in something that seemed like a path up one of the San Andreas mountains. Turns out it was a route, next I committed 15 minutes respect on the meeting, wherever I almost ran on the faction of hikers. “Typical!” one of them yelled in myself, like he nearly gets run over by a rogue ATV on top of a hill each time he goes on a hike.

I could go on like this for ages. GTA V has an loads of like moments, big and tiny, that make San Andreas – the municipality of Los Santos and its surrounding areas – feel like a living earth in which everything can take place. It both gives you tremendous autonomy to check out a astonishingly well-realised globe also requests a story that’s gripping, kicking, and darkly comic. It is a step familiar with narrative sophistication to the collections, and there’s no physical part of the gameplay that hasn’t been increased over Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s immediately noticeable the cover practice becomes other reliable and the auto-aim less touchy. The vehicles handle less like the tires are made from butter with fix better to the road, though their exaggerated handling still leaves plenty of area for spectacular wipeouts. With at long past, Rockstar has completely slain one of the most persistent demons, mission checkpointing, assuring that you never have to do a long, tedious take six when you repeatedly fail a vision ever again.

Grand Theft Auto V can be the intelligent, wickedly comic, and bitingly relevant commentary about contemporary, post-economic crisis America. Anything about it drips satire: it pulls into the Millennial generation, celebrities, the extreme right, the further abandon, the interior rank, the media... Nothing is sound by Rockstar’s sharp tongue, including modern video games. One prominent supporting character spends largely involving their moment here the room shouting sexual threats at public on the headset whilst playing a first-person shooter called Righteous Slaughter (“Rated PG – pretty much the same as the final game.”) It is not specifically subtle – he actually has the word “Entitled” tattooed on the throat, and also the in-game radio and Television outright piss-takes don’t go much to the imagination – but it is often very weird, and a bit provocative with it. Grand Theft Auto’s San Andreas is a fantasy, but the points that satirises – greed, corruption, hypocrisy, the insult of nation – become all very real. If GTA IV was there a targeted murder on the American dream, GTA V takes point at the contemporary American reality. The attention to depth that assumes doing the world feel successful and believable is also what makes the satire so biting.

GTA 5 ’s plot happily works at the boundaries of plausibility, sending anyone not permitted to be carried dirt bikes along the highest of trains, hijack military jets, and do absurd shootouts with reports of policemen, although its three principal individuals are what store this relatable perhaps at the most great. The well-written and proceeded relationship between them provides the biggest laughs and most affecting minutes, with the way which their links with a single another polished and my opinion of them changed over the story granted the story its energy. They think that people – albeit extraordinarily f***ed-up people.

Michael is a retired con person with his 40s, filling out throughout the inside because he drinks beside the pond within their Vinewood mansion with a layabout son, air-headed daughter, serially unfaithful wife, and very expensive therapist – most of which hate him. Franklin is a kid from downtown Los Santos who laments the gang-banger stereotype even as he’s reluctantly seduced by the scene of an better score. And then there’s Trevor, a hazardous career criminal that times in the desert selling drugs with killing rednecks; a psychopath whose bloodthirsty lunacy is fuelled by a mix of methamphetamine with a badly messed-up childhood.

The assignment flit concerning their own special articles and a overarching plotline which affects Get GTA Gratis gtadownload.org all three, and it’s a thanks to GTA V’s versatility and collective quality that each individual gets his share of standout vision. As their arcs developed I considered quite differently on each one of them by different periods – they’re not solely the models that they are.

This three-character structure reaches for exceptional walking and vast make in the storyline, but it also allows Rockstar to compartmentalise different aspects of Grand Theft Auto’s personality. In doing so, it sidesteps some of the troubling disconnect that took place when Niko Bellic abruptly changed between anti-violent philosophising and sociopathic killing sprees in GTA IV. Here, many of Michael’s missions circle about his relations along with his earlier, Franklin is usually on call for vehicular madness, and maximum murderous rampages are give to Trevor. Each has a particular ability suited to help his abilities – Franklin could to help slow down time while driving, for example – which presents them a unique touch. Narratively, it’s effective – even off-mission I found myself participating in quality, work like a mid-life-crisis gentleman with rage issues like Michael, a thrill-seeker as Franklin, along with a maniac as Trevor. The first thing I did when Franklin finally made the right dollars was buy him the awesome car, because I experience like that’s exactly what he’d want.

Trevor feels a like a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free cards for Rockstar, presenting the opening for all the preposterous tricks and brutal behaviour that normally could not fit into with GTA V’s narrative ambitions. I found the violent insanity a miniature overblown and boring at first. Because get-out clauses go, although, it’s pretty actual, and Trevor’s over-the-top missions are most of GTA V’s action-packed highlights. The a successful way of answering a setback that’s commonplace in open-world games: the anxiety between the story the authors are trying to direct, with the history you make yourself inside its approach and its world. GTA V accommodates both, masterfully, allowing not to challenge the other.

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The concrete action of control between them too offers a window into their personal goes with patterns, weeding out their personalities in a way that feels organic and original. Accept a integrity then the camera zooms out over the San Andreas map, closing fund now by wherever they eventually be. Michael might be at home watching TV when you plunge here next to him, before speeding next to the motorway blasting ‘80s attacks, or using a cigarette in the golf club; Franklin can become moving away from a strip club, eating a case of snacks at home, or arguing with his ex-girlfriend; there’s an excellent chance that Trevor could be gone out half naked on the beach encircled by over bodies or, one memorable occasion, down in a stolen police helicopter.

It could be virtually everything, as there is a bewildering assortment of affairs to do from the different San Andreas – tennis, yoga, hiking, run on beach and also by land, flying planes, golfing, cycling, diving, hunting, and more. The objective remain a great intelligent leader to both San Andreas’ locations and activities, touring people across the road and increasing your taste for free exploration of it all. The way that we’re presented near San Andreas never feels artificial – the chart is finally open on the beginning, for example – which says to the sense that the a real place, somewhere you can get to know. If GTA IV’s Liberty City feels like a living city, San Andreas feels like a living world. I appreciate people walking the dogs together the beach in the country since I jet-skied past, arguing for the street beyond a movie theater with Los Santos, and camped – with covering and all – immediately at Support Chiliad, before pushing up next lasting a hike in the morning. It’s astounding.

The ambience changes dramatically counting at where you are, very. Trevor’s dusty trailer out during nowhere in Blaine County feels like a new planet from downtown Los Santos or Vespucci Beach. That wasn’t until once I hurried a flat from the urban and in the hill I lived cycling around a few hours or that the full scale of it became evident. That drives the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 further than they have any suited near, and it seems incredible. The biggest bounce with class as Grand Theft Auto IV is the person animation, but the world is also much more expansive, described, and populous. The price we buy of which lives occasional framerate dips and grain pop-in, i found became more prominent the longer I played, yet certainly not significantly taken away by my personal experience. For this kind of a huge and flexible world it is also remarkably bug-free – I experienced just three small difficulties in the 35 times I spent on our head playthrough, none which caused everyone to help break down a quest.

San Andreas’s extraordinary logic of site is heightened by the fact that much of it isn’t on the drawing. There’s so much going on that it’s simple learn things organically, rather than spend your life following a mission marker. I when grab a traveling jet from the airport for the hell of it, then parachuted on the top of the tallest form in Los Santos. (I then accidentally jumped off the highest then decrease near my own death, forgetting that I’d already worked with the parachute, however I generally leave to hurt off.) Out driving in the country, I stretched across a man to a mobile phone post with womens’ underwear. I tracked down criminals who randomly swipe bags on the road, and happened across gunbattles between police and other miscreants, occasions to add a sense that it world isn’t completely uneventful if I wasn’t here to help disrupt normalcy. I purchased an expensive mountain bicycle with cycled around in the hills, appreciating the look on. These little moments can be get on your cell phone camera – which, brilliantly, can also take selfies. I have many bites of Trevor make their unhinged description of an look dressed in their underpants over a pile.

The legend which GTA V tells through the quest takes full benefit of all this diversity beyond need and score (nevertheless the motivation and run is still very enjoyable). It’s cause a lot of good moments. It allowed us racing Michael’s lazy blob of a daughter across Vespucci Beach in one of many misguided efforts in father-son bonding, operating a winter scope to look for somebody from a helicopter before chasing them across the city on the ground, torching a meth lab, towing cars for Franklin’s crack-addict cousin to help stop him from shed his task, getting into a feature from the sea in the wetsuit and flippers, piloting a sea, posing as a structure worker, doing yoga, escaping on plane skis, failing many occasion to arrive a flat burdened with drugs at a hangar elsewhere in the sweet… this goes about with by. The days of a similar cycle of “transport here, learn that guy, throw this person” are after us. Also missions that might otherwise be formulaic are filled with novelty with excitement by the possibility to play them since several different perspectives – in a shootout, Trevor can occur exciting RPGs from a rooftop when Michael and Franklin line the enemy on the ground.

It is the heists – multi-stage, huge-scale affairs that function as the story’s climactic peaks – that will event Grand Theft Auto V on their many serious and completed. Usually there’s a choice between a more involved, stealthier option that will (hopefully) attract less temperature, along with a great all-out option that will be less tense although more explosively chaotic – and what crew to take along with you on the job. All of GTA V’s missions are replayable at any time, letting you relive favourite seconds before try off another line. They have optional objectives in the vein of Assassin’s Creed’s synchronisation challenges, but crucially, these are invisible the first time you participate in a mission, so they don’t distract people by fix things your way.

Sometimes your own way won’t are the means that this designers require you to do something, and while GTA 5 is usually great in bending near you when that happens, there were a couple of instances exactly where it wasn’t make for my private type of chaos. Overtake a car you’re not supposed to overtake and it will burn in limit of visitors as if in special. Despite the establishment of fresh stealth mechanics, enemies will miraculously go with people when the mission dictates that they must. Kill someone before you’re supposed to, and that’s sometimes Mission Failed. Most likely the scripting is adequate to be invisible, yet once it’s not, you really perceive it – if only because usually the so smooth.

As always, some of the wittiest record shows standing on the in-game radio which acts behind all of the exploration and chaos. “There’s nothing new profitable, more masculine, new American than a big pile of money,” blasts one of the in-game ads. “We learn periods are challenging, however they don’t have to be tough for you. Still received several liquidity in your home? Are you nuts?” The audio selection is also typically excellent, leading to most of those serendipitous times where you’re take down with the right music comes by. During a heist, when the radio isn’t blaring the background, a vibrant soundtrack seriously builds tension.

The satire is helped with integration of advanced life to the game world. Every character circles around the smartphone – it’s used to trade stocks, call up friends to meet way up and send emails. There’s a great Facebook spoof, Life Invader, on the in-game Interne, with the slogan “Where Your Individual Information Becomes A Marketplace Report (That You can Offer)”. You’ll hear ads for preposterous parodic TV shows that you can actually guard next to your own TELEVISION at home, optionally whilst having a toke. It might not be realistic, but it definitely feels authentic.

It is value mentioning that when that occurs to sex, drugs, with violence, GTA V pushes boundaries much further than ever before or. If the morality controls were concerned with Hot Chocolate, there’s a lot here that will provoke moral hysteria. It’s deliciously subversive, and tightly language in cheek... but one time or double, it drives the borders of style, too. There’s one particular world, a torture place in which you have no choice yet to actively participate, i learned so troubling that we got trouble playing this; yet couched with apparent criticism on the US government’s way out to pain post 9/11, it is a shocking moment that will attract justified controversy. This gives to mind Name of Job: Modern Warfare 2’s No Russian mission, except worse, and with no option to bypass over that. Some other stuff, like the ever-present prostitution and wide strip-club minigames, feels like it is there because this could be rather than because it say anything to say.

There is nothing in San Andreas, while, that doesn’t serve Rockstar’s intent with establishing a exaggerated projection of The usa that’s saturated with crime, violence and sleaze. There are no clear person with GTA V. Everyone you experience is a sociopath, narcissist, criminal, lunatic, sadist, cheat, liar, layabout, or several combination of those. A gentleman whom pays good income to eliminate Los Santos’ worst examples of corporate greed is participating in the stock market near the help whilst he does it. In a world like this, it’s not testing for you to ensure why violence is so usually the first option. All the pieces fit.

Verdict

GTA 5 is not only a preposterously enjoyable video game, but also the sharp and sharp-tongued satire of modern America. This represents a sophistication of the lot that GTA IV transported on the counter several years ago. The technically more accomplished in every conceivable way, although it is also tremendously serious with its just. No extra planet into video games comes near that now magnitude or opportunity, then there is sharp intelligence behind its wisdom of humour and surprise for mayhem. This identifies a compelling, unstable, and provocative story without ever allowing that be in the way of your personal self-directed adventures in San Andreas. It is one of the very best movie games ever get. Notice: That assessment exclusively defends the single-player part of GTA V , since it launched without any multiplayer mode.

#Grand Theft Auto #Grand Theft Auto Download #GTA Reviews

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motherofthebridedresses65 · 6 years ago

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imapplied · 6 years ago

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6 Reasons Why You Can’t Deal Without SEO Tools

People are going to fail you.

Especially the ones you employ.

They are going to make mistakes, miss deadlines, and address your biggest client by the wrong name (true story).

No matter how well you try to prepare for it, mistakes are unavoidable, because it’s only natural for humans to make them. This is how we learn.

But as it often happens to young entrepreneurs, it shouldn’t stop you from delegating tasks and expanding your business.

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This is where SEO tools storm in to save the day.

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OK, you’ve probably heard that today’s SEO tools are whip-smart and can replace the whole marketing department, from analytics to reporting. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

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Minding the costs of the missed opportunities, it will cost you way less than if you were writing the content yourself.

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Using SEO tools allows you to provide services that otherwise would require a lot of manual work.

See it for yourself. Adding site audit to your portfolio is not that complicated. All it takes is a good audit tool, a thought-through template and an associate to fill in the recommendations based on the type of the revealed errors.

The same thing can be done in other areas of online marketing: competitor research, content marketing performance analysis, link building, social media marketing and more.

2. Save You from the Routine of Repetitive Manual Tasks

Repetitive manual tasks are a fruitful soil for human error, not to mention that it’s boring and demotivating.

There’s plenty of tasks like this in SEO. Manually checking SERPs under VPN connection (to imitate access from different locations), trying to find broken links – without automation, it is a tedious and often an impossible job.

Stop wasting your time! A single site audit can provide you with more accurate data on, say, broken links than a week of staring at your monitor.

3. Free up Time for Analysis & Process Optimization

To build a successful business, you need to constantly optimize your work processes and find new, more effective ways of getting things done.

But innovation requires time: analyzing the market, your competition, coming up with the new strategies and implementing them – it’s already a full-time job.

When your day is piled up with routine tasks you simply won’t be able to dedicate time for optimization.

Additionally, many tools show you how effective you are. For instance, any site audit tool will show you how effectively you dealt with fixing errors on your website.

Similarly, position tracking tools will demonstrate how fast you’re moving to the top-10 or top-3 of the search results. If the tool shows positive dynamic – voila! You’re saved from diving into details and can dedicate your time to something more urgent.

4. Help You Find New Strategies & Untapped Opportunities

When you run your business in a certain way for a long time, it’s hard to get out of the bubble and get a fresh perspective.

Competitive research is one of the effective ways to come up with new strategic ideas for your business. If it’s working for them – why wouldn’t it work for you? Plus, brainstorming new ideas for your business is easier when you’re equipped with additional market data.

Competitor analysis tools such as SEMrush, SpyFu, SimilarWeb, and Ahrefs can get you a sneak peek into your competitor’s’ kitchen:

Where is their traffic coming from?

What keywords are they ranking for (that you don’t)?

Who’s linking back to their site and how can you take advantage of it?

The insights gained from competitive research are essential for building a strong digital marketing strategy.

5. Send Nice-Looking Reports to Your Clients

Reporting is one of the important parts of client work. Through reports, you communicate with your clients and demonstrate how hard you’ve been working for them.

Many marketers see it as a necessary evil that’s always waiting for them around the corner at the end of every reporting period. Spending a whole day copy-pasting numbers and drawing charts – we’ve all been there. But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Many tools can automate the process of reporting up until the point when you no longer need to do it at all.

There are many SEO tools that automate reporting (e.g., SEMrush, Google Data Studio, Agency Analytics) and can schedule sending the reports by email, which doesn’t require you to lift a finger.

Among other features that these tools provide are white-label reporting and the ability to share access to a project with other people outside of your company.

6. Get Better Visualization of Your Analytics & Gain Additional Insights

A few years ago, there was a rumor on the web about the Challenger tragedy. It said that it happened (apart from other reasons) as a result of bad data visualization.

I’ll leave the testing of this hypothesis to specialists, but one thing is undeniable: data visualization is important for decision making (even if you don’t work for NASA).

Apart from other useful features, SEO tools help you get a better visualization of your analytics and gain some additional insights that can’t be pulled from native analytics tools.

For example, all position tracking tools show you what kind of pages are ranking by particular keywords. Such data can’t be found in Google Search Console, so these insights are way harder to obtain without additional instruments.

Some tools feature unique data visualization kits. SEMrush’s top pages by traffic is incredibly insightful but would take you tons of time to assemble manually.

Top content by the number of acquired links from Ahrefs is another good example of a visualization-driven source of insights.

More Resources:

Image Credits

Featured Image: Created by author, February 2019 All screenshots taken by author, February 2019

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worldsandcenturiesfunposting · 8 years ago

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Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Review

I had bought Assassin's Creed Syndicate when it first came out. Though more balls were dropped during the release of Assassin's Creed Unity than in a high school I still opted to get the game both because I didn't purchase Unity and thus wouldn't be spending more money on the company and because the Victorian era is one of my personal favorite periods in history and the idea being able to explore it seemed like fun. AC:S is the only of the three big named Victorian games I was able to get as both Bloodborne and The Order: 1886 were both Playstation exclusives.

However, at the time I was using a laptop PC which was quite a few years old and alas, far too out of date to run the game. By the time I had gotten to the first Evie mission where I was to rescue Robert Topping, the fight club curator, along the way to assassinate Sir David Brewster, the game would freeze and then quit out. A quick check at stemrequirementslab.com showed that my computer was out of date. No matter, I was planning on building a PC proper one day.

That day has finally come and of the two games I've downloaded right off the bat, Assassin's Creed Syndicate was one of them. So how does this game fare compare to the previous and on its own?

Disclaimers: I am playing on a PC using an Xbox One controller. I have seen various let's plays and long plays prior to playing. I have not received any monetary or sexual favors in exchange for this review.

–

The Premise:

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the latest in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series. It's an open world stealth based piece of historical fiction taking place in London during the height of the Industrial Revolution in 1868. To paraphrase one of the game devs, it's when the world left the medieval era. People no longer openly carried around swords but reconciled their weapons. Machinery and science was advancing at a pace unheard of in previous times. Industry was booming and once again, God was on the chopping block.

The story follows Jacob and Evie Frye; twin assassins who made it their goal to liberate London from the clutches of the Templars. The entire series is about the centuries old war between the two groups. Like the Illuminati in Deus Ex, the premise of the game is what it might be like if these age old secret organizations didn't die off eventually but kept working behind the scenes for all of history.

Their primary target is a man named Crawford Starrick who controls the London division of the Templars. In the opening cutscene, Assassin Henry Green states “Whoever controls London controls the world” and indeed, being the man pulling the strings behind the world's most powerful empire does make a man dangerous. However, it's not a simple matter of running up to him and stabbing him in the streets. Starrick controls London through his gang known as the Blighters who control various districts in London. In order to get to Starrick, Jacob and Evie will have to free each of the districts from the controlling gang leader.

This is where story starts turning into gameplay. Each district is separated into smaller districts. So say Whitechapel is a district and the area is cut up into pieces that hold different missions. The missions are: freeing children from factories, finding and kidnapping high ranking gang members and delivering them to the police, finding and killing high ranking gang members/templars, or taking control of a Blighter controlled stronghold and possibly saving members of your own gang from their clutches. Each district has several of these and by completing these sub challenges, you'll eventually have the opportunity to face off against the gang leader and a small assembly of their mooks to finally cement your control of the district.

The gameplay:

The Assassin's Creed series is very similar to Call of Duty where it will have the exact same base gameplay but throw in a few different mechanisms in an attempt to distinguish it from the predecessor.

For what it's worth, the core AC gameplay isn't bad, and they've improved some things from Unity such as having a button prompt to enter a building when climbing to avoid leaping all around a window but never getting in it. If you have played one AC game, even the earliest, you've played them all.

However, they have tried a few things with Unity that have translated into this game. A small but welcomed change was free running down where rather than having to play the drop-grab-drop game of scaling down buildings, the character will descend just as quickly as s/he climbs up.

As for the new mechanics, there's a few small ones and a few large ones. The large ones are carriage driving, gangs, and the zipline.

Carriages: Carriage driving is fairly fun and thankfully doesn't fall into any BS pitfalls. In a game where you can lose if you intentionally kill civilians (but sadly, you can't kill the kids), it's good that Ubisoft didn't implement this into the driving sections where you might accidentally (or not so accidentally) mow down hoards of people. The steering is fairly tight but occasionally the carriage can wobble from one side of wheels to the other. This however isn't so much an issue. The horses are invincible to everything but your bullets and knives and you can mow down everything but fences, buildings, statues, and large trees.

The only major issue I have is that you constantly have to press (a) button to keep the horses as maximum speed. I feel it would have been a lot easier just to be able to hold (a) similar to how every other driving game works. Even at max speed they're simple to control. It would also mean I won't have to hear Evie yell “Come on! Keep moving! Faster!” on my way from one side of the map to the other. (She's a dick to horses)

Gangs: They're an alright addition but since I was going for a 100% run as far as the missions go, I didn't use them that often because some of the additional challenges might be ruined by them (such as killing an enemy a certain way, not being spotted, etc) Ubisoft wasn't lying when they said if you recruit multiple members, get in a carriage, and if there's not enough room the remaining members will steal a carriage and follow. However, at times I felt they were a tad bit slow. They also follow you up and down buildings and if there's a path available, across the river as well.

I don't think I've played with them enough to form a truly solid opinion on the matter.

Zipline: This is actually a welcomed addition but one that came at the cost of the first hour of gameplay.

Initially I've found getting from one street to another to be a bit of a hassle. In all the other AC games, buildings are either close enough together to leap from one side to the other or there's a convenient rope stretching from one side to the other for me to run across. Alas in the wide streets of London, that's not the case. So the first hour of gameplay was rather slow because of that.

When I got the zipline however, things sped up. It can reach up to incredible heights and the game tells you this by having the first mission with it involving you zipping all the way to the top of Big Ben in less than a minute. It can stretch far horizontally as well (as apparent by that very same mission).

To use it, look in a certain direction and a button prompt on the screen will tell you where you're able to use the zipline. I found it works quite well and don't think Its messed up during the gameplay. If you need to zipline up, the button prompt will be on the top of the screen.

My only complaint is it's still a bit tedious getting from building to building. If you need to go from point A to point B, it's easier to jump down and steal a carriage rather than zipline from roof to roof. However for smaller areas such as the gang stronghold missions, it's a welcome addition that adds a slight bit of new strategy since you can stick to the roofs or quickly move across the area.

–

Aside from the main story, you have to liberate various sections of London. The sections include Whitechapel, the Thames, Westminster, City of London, the Strand, Lambeth, etc. Each section has several Boroughs which in turn have their own missions. The missions include finding and kidnapping a Templar and taking him/her to the police, killing a specific templar, child liberation, and gang strongholds.

Templarnapping: Of all the missions, I think I enjoyed them the least. Possibly because it seemed like there were more of them than the others and it got somewhat tedious. First you use eagle vision to locate your target who will be in yellow rather than the usual red for enemies. You kidnap people by walking up to them without being noticed and pressing B. A ring forms around you and can expand or shrink depending on how fast or slow you go. The slower you go, the smaller the ring. When you first kidnap someone, be aware that the ring expands completely before shrinking down so if that person is by any other enemies, they'll know. When you have someone kidnapped, you're able to walk in enemy territory without being noticed so long as no enemies step in the ring.

When you get them out of their territory, the game wants you to shove the enemy in a carriage and drive them to a point for the police to take. I've found it's easier to just walk (well, jog) them there since it's usually only 100/200 meters away. When they're shoved in a carriage, there's a chance an enemy carriage will spawn and chase after you which might end up taking more time than just going on foot.

If you're noticed by the target, they will try to run away. You can tackle them and capture them but if they get in a carriage and get too far away, the mission fails so be careful about that. Also for 100%, the target has to be brought back alive.

Gang strongholds: A borough's is considered enemy territory and in it are several Blighters you need to kill. You have to kill all of them to win and occasionally they'll have a few of your Rooks captured which you'll need to free and keep alive for 100%. Also one or two of them have a set of plans you need to burn.

With throwing knives, this is a very easy mission but really, they're quite OP and make a lot of missions easy. Killing them is fun and trying to do so without being detected is a nice little challenge.

I'd recommend not freeing your Rooks or killing the person watching over them until the end since they can get in the way (or die, thus ruining the 100% and requiring you to start over). For the plans I'd immediately scout them out first. You can find them using eagle vision. It shows up as the table they're sitting on.

Templar Hunt: Like the gang stronghold, there's an area that's enemy territory and several blighters walking around. However this time rather than killing everyone, you only need to kill one guy. Again using eagle vision, you can scout the prick out who will appear in yellow rather than red.

It's as simple as using a throwing knife if you're not up for a 100% run but if you are, I'd recommend killing everyone around him/her first. Especially if you need to use the environment like having a police officer kill the target or dynamite.

They're fun and I honestly wish there were more of them.

Child liberation: The second least favorite mission in my opinion. Not bad but again, I feel like there's a disproportionate amount of them compared to the gang strongholds and templar hunts.

You find a factory and there's several children working inside. The children are paired in groups of three so if the mission involves saving 12 children, you need to find 4 of the groups and press (b) when you're close.

100% involves not having the alarm bells in the area rung which you can do by either sabotaging them like in previous games or killing everyone in the area...like previous games. There was one time I was on the ground floor right next to them and absolutely swarmed by Blighters who were trying to ring the bell and every time they got to it, I stabbed them off. That was fun, but a good run involves not being seen.

–

When you've cleared all the boroughs, the gang leader for that section appears and challenges you to fight. Usually they run away, giving you only so much time to kill them. Whether or not you kill them, there's a 'large' fight of 10 or 12 enemies and a handful of your own guys duking it out for one final attempt at the district.

There was one time where the game glitched out. Normally when the head Templar appears and challenges you, the game 'freezes' where an in game cutscene plays and you're unable to control your character. However after clearing only two missions in Westminster, the leader appeared and for whatever reason, I was able to run up to her, tackle her, and stab her. This has not happened in any of the other districts.

After these gang fights, the district is yours. Blighters still appear and a few very small areas are enemy territory for the radiant missions.

–

Additionally, there's a few other smaller missions. The two bigger...smaller missions are the fight clubs and races, hosted by Robert Topping whom you meet during Evie's first mission.

Races: They're okay. There's four types: lap races, A to B, train race, and triathlon.

Lap races are fairly fun. There's only one I needed to do twice. They real key is getting to first and when you're there, it's pretty easy to stay there. Many times you can drive in front of an enemy and cause them to turn into an oncoming carriage or a building.

A to B: Straight shot to the end. These were a bit more fun in my opinion simply because the environment kept changing. They're not super long, but fun.

Race the train: Don't be fooled. You're actually racing a timer which shows how long it will take for the train to arrive at its destination. Maintain a constant speed and you should be good.

Triathlon: This is the most interesting race. There's carriage driving, running and climbing on foot...and running and climbing on foot but on the boats in the Thames.

One thing I wonder is how much of these races are set up the same each time (carriage placement, people placement, etc) and how much is random.

A complaint I have goes back to what I mentioned earlier by constantly having to mash (a) to maintain a constant speed. If that was not a part of the game I think it would be a lot smoother.

Another thing I'm no fan of is the rubber banding the NPCs do in the races. I'm no fan of the mechanic in general because it feels like the game has to cheat in order to keep the challenge up. In my personal opinion if you get so far ahead of the enemies they can't even see you, that should be fair game because you've utilized the environment and gameplay better than the game itself. I did very well with the races so it was kind of annoying to look down at my map and see them far away and then look again a few seconds later and see they've gone turbo and wounded up right behind me.

Fight clubs: They're pretty fun when you get the right strategy. Easy fight clubs you just wail away but for the hardest fight club, wait until a flash of yellow appears above the enemy head and press (Y) to counter. You can get one or two hits in before they block. If another enemy behind you has yellow above their head, press (Y) and tilt the control stick toward that enemy to counter them even if you're mid punch against another guy.

Doing this ensures you won't get hit which can be quite costly on the higher difficulties especially since they usually get 2 or 3 hits in and there's another enemy right there. So using this strategy, even if there's 4 enemies right by you in the ring, you should be safe.

One thing I liked is how the environments changed depending on the level. For lower level matches the fights were underground in these shitty makeshift rings but for the highest levels, they were in proper buildings with proper arenas. However, you still fight the same enemies all the same.

When you're a high level fighting a low level fight, you can one or two shot all the enemies.

One time an enemy got stuck behind the fence. I was unable to punch him but he punched me a few times when I was trying to.

–

Now for the real game story. I should mention that I completed all of the above before getting far into the main story meaning I was quite overpowered by the end of it with all the upgrades and skills I was able to unlock.

The story in my opinion is quite lackluster. I don't find it very impactful and its filled with missed opportunities and aspects that make it seem as if Ubisoft is afraid to be controversial.

For example, chapter 4 involves Jacob investigating a product called Starrick Soothing Syrup which is an opium laced fraudulent medicine. I'm going to list off some historical figures who appear in the game and if you haven't seen any spoilers, I want you to guess who's also involved in that mission: Florence Nightingale, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Queen Victoria, Fredrick Abberline.

You probably guessed Florence Nightingale since she was actually involved in medicine, but no, it's Charles Darwin. Nightingale's involved in one mission in a chapter and the final optional Darwin mission, but alas when investigating fraudulent medicine the one historical figure who's best known for her work in medicine isn't involved. Instead it's the guy who dropped out of med school.

Now you can say this is minor and sure, maybe it is. There's not a lot I can truly bitch about if I get to spend quality bro-time with Charles Darwin in a video game. But other aspects I feel are more damning. For example, in the trailers and promotional material, Jacob was basically ranting and raving about how shit capitalism is and how the working class is getting screwed over despite the age of supposed progress.

Remember when I mentioned Karl Marx earlier? He's in the game. Can you guess how many story missions he's involved in? None. All of his missions are completely optional and even if you do them, the game takes place when he chilled the fuck out about revolution and uprisings so he's no more controversial than Bernie Sanders. I kind of feel as if the AC games have lost their balls at this point, preferring to pander to modern sensibilities and not being too frank about the less good aspects of history.

For example, they completely got rid of prostitutes in the game despite them existing in the Victorian era. They have an openly transexual character for seemingly no other reason than to fill a diversity quota since you know, that's something that would happen in Victorian London. I suppose they needed to have one so they can justify including “multiple sexualities and gender identities” in their long irrelevant caveat before the game starts informing the player about how many different kinds of people are involved in the game. They wanted to fill a diversity quota, it's ironic that London was the trading capital of the world and they could have had plenty of minorities in the ports.

Assassin's Creed 2's final mission involved you trying to kill the pope. I don't think any aspect of Syndicate comes close to that level of controversy. The “capitalism is evil” message is not only one that has been done in tons of other video games, movies, and books, but many other sources are a lot more gritty, brutal, and honest about it. It's no longer controversial.

Despite Darwin being in the game, the fact that human evolution was made up by the Templars is never brought up. He's not aware of the assassin/templar war despite attempts on his life being made nor are any of the other historical figures other than Victory. Like Karl Marx spent his life trying to figure out the overcompensating repetitions that occur in every society in history and somehow he never comes across this underground war.

Some stuff just doesn't make sense. When Jacob kills a Templar, it ruins whatever industry was involved in. Dr John Elliotson was involved in the medical industry making that fraud medicine. When Jacob kills him...suddenly the medical industry collapses? How does killing a minor historical figure who in the game is just a con artist collapse the entire medical industry of London?

The fact that this has never been a problem for any of the other assassins is also something to question. Ezio, Connor, Edward, and Arno all killed politicians and some of them incredibly high ranking but Jacob kills a con artist, a thief, etc and suddenly the whole city's fucked?

The ending was just abysmal. Throughout the game, Jacob and Evie are looking for the Shroud of Eden which is a cloth you can wrap on yourself that heals any wound near instantly. At the start of the game you find out once more that in universe, you're some random prick playing video games and keep getting sucked into this dangerous conspiracy by the assassin's asking you to play through the memories of these historical assassins to figure out where this stuff might be located in the modern day.

So at the end of the game the modern assassin's find out where the shroud it but oh no, there's Templars. They fight but one of them gets shot and in response, the Assassin's run away letting the Templar get the shroud.

Oh fucking gee, if only there were literally a magical artifact right fucking there that could hear any wound instantly. Wouldn't that be fucking superb? Wouldn't that just be the bee's knees? If they literally could grab some magic alien bullshit, wrap it around the injured assassin, heal her, and be able to tank any more gunshots?

This is another non-ending right after Unity's non ending which was in turn after Black Flag's non ending.

It's not a game to play for the story.

–

Jacob was a fairly interesting character. Evie in my opinion a bit less so but then again, she didn't get as much story time as Jacob and hers were partially bogged down by a crappy romance subplot. A lot of people have expressed dissatisfaction with the protagonist always being this rude 'don't play by the rules' young guy who joins the assassins and only after fucking up bad, learns what it truly means to be an assassin.

For what it's worth, Jacob and Evie were born into the brotherhood so we don't have to see an origin story. I felt they were best when arguing, but I would have liked Jacob to have better arguments. When she berates him about killing templars mindlessly, he could mention that's literally what the assassin's are supposed to do. Like that's literally what they're about. Instead they fall back on arguing about their father (who died before the game began) and his teachings.

Henry Green's alright. He actually would have been a very interesting character to play as before the Frye twins arrive considering the game establishes him as someone with all these connections throughout London. They're brought up every now and then throughout the game so it's not something mentioned and then dropped. It's again a shame he's bogged down with Evie in the romance subplot.

As for the historical characters, they're pretty alright. I don't know how most of them acted in real life. Darwin was always described as very friendly and easy to get along with which is what he was in the game. Richard Owen was always a bit of an asshole and sure enough, he was in the game.

It's a bit of a shame the game only takes place in 1868. I mean sure it makes Jacob and Evie probably the best assassin's since Altair considering they've done everything within a year and in the world's most powerful empire no less.

However, restricting it to only a year limits what can be done. For historical figures, especially enemies, you're pretty damned limited. I mentioned Richard Owen who is in the game, but isn't someone you kill. He could have a big role in controlling the science side of London and be a Templar, but instead he's only around long enough to tell Jacob that John Eliotson is making the fraud medicine.

It also restricts the story. 1868 was a fairly tame year for London. There weren't any major social reforms the Assassin's could be fighting for (including a reform on child labor which was passed before the game takes place thus making the whole issue fairly moot). Darwin that year released his oh so controversial book on variations of animals and plants under domestication. Karl Marx released Das Kapital (but don't worry, he doesn't mention it or anything)

Personally I think it would have been better if the game took place over 5 or 10 years just for the sake of having more interesting enemies and real history scenarios.

–

DLC: I only have the Darwin and Dickens Conspiracy and have not played any of the other DLCs. In my opinion, it's not really worth it. There's three missions, one of which seems like it was supposed to be part of the base game optional Darwin missions and the other two involve faking a guy's death and kidnapping some woman so he can pretend to fight you and look like a badass. Hardly the conspiracy.

I think if they had more missions of a similar fashion, it would have worked better. Have Darwin and Dickens telling you to pull the strings of various people's lives rather than just one guy and girl, but unfortunately that's not the case. In the trailer for the DLC, it was all clips from the base game.

–

Graphics: The graphics are pretty good in my opinion but I'm not as much a sticker for them. The textures on clothing and faces is very good but hair is a hurdle Ubisoft always trips on. Sometimes it's alright but other times, like Charles Dicken's facial hair, it's pretty poor.

The game uses in game cutscenes rather than pre-rendered cutscenes (as far as I know) and they still look good. If I'm wrong on this, someone point out so I can correct it.

I wish the nights in London lasted longer because that's one of the more beautiful times in the game. The street lamp's warm glow and dark skies work very well together.

As with every game, when you get in close to an object or asset, you can start to see the texture fall apart and look pixely. I believe it will be the next great graphical revolution when that's no longer an issue.

–

Music: The music in the game was made by Austin Wintory who might be best known for doing the music in the game Journey. It was a pleasant surprise hearing his involvement because Journey does have an excellent soundtrack and the guy does seem to have a passion for making good music in games.

The way the music is handled is it's based more on location and context than anything. Unfortuantely other than the fight music, I found the game to be mostly silent. When you go into a bar or some places outside you might hear someone singing and rarely when on the roofs you'll hear this soft opera music but a lot of it was unfortunately forgettable. I did enjoy Underground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8qKAmO1Mfc which played at the end.

Glitches: Glitches and Ubisoft go together like....Bethesda and glitches. While I thankfully didn't get a case of one of the characters looking like a Gunther Von Haegens art piece because his skin didn't load, there were a few bad glitches.

Some glitches can be funny. A post I made of some screen caps from the game involved a female NPC being stuck on top the carriage and couldn't be shaken off. That was funny and didn't break any gameplay since I was between missions. But here are some glitches that weren't quite funny.

In one case during a cutscene when the Assassin's first board their train hideout, Henry Green failed to load, resulting in a floating box and his voice coming out the aether. Alright, that's kind of funny but one may disagree and think it's simply bad.

Another glitch is when you reply missions, you'll spawn roughly where the mission begins but the effects on the screen would indicate you've died or desynchronized. The game then puts you in the white loading room for a few seconds and respawns you again in the death state. This cycles four or five times before sorting itself out.

–

Additional gripe

I'm no fan of the collectables/currency system in the game.

Collectables are a mixed bag. There's several, which I'm not fan of, but some are a bit more than items you just collect with no reward. The collectables are: flowers, posters, helix glitches, bottles, chests, golden chests, royal letters, and several music boxes with disks in them to unlock OP armor.

For the flowers, posters, glitches, and bottles, it adds stuff to your database. Flowers tells you what the plant represents, posters unlocks images drawn in the 19th century, glitches unlocks letters from the past, bottles unlocks Shawn Hasting's review of various beers, and the letters unlock (I presume) real letters to and from Queen Victoria. As mentioned before, the music boxes lead to the unlocking of OP armor.

Chests meanwhile gives you money and materials and golden chests give you rare materials and schematics you can craft.

I will be fully honest and say I have no gotten all of the glitches or chests (gold or otherwise) so I don't know the full story behind them.

Having some collectables can be fun and it's even better if it gives you a little reward like historical pictures or letters to look at. However having too many turns it into padding. The music boxes, for example, take the place of the parkour courses from the Ezio trilogy. Since those games, getting the armor has turned into a prop hunt. When I finally did find all the boxes, the armor I already unlocked was fairly superior to the supposedly OP armor which gave you slightly more resistance.

Another issue is with currency which involves actual money (pounds), materials, and skill points. Skill points upgrade your character. Money and materials upgrade your gang, items, or are used in just buying things. The issue with materials is that some stuff may be restricted unfairly because of them.

To craft some weapons and armor and upgrades, you need special materials which you unlock by completing missions or find randomly in a chest. Why the game shows you the armor/tool/upgrade before you're able to actually use it I don't know. It says the item is available to buy or craft but then says you're unable to because you lack the special item.

For example, completing all of Robert Topping's missions give you a special cane sword but despite doing all the races and fighting all the fights, I wasn't able to actually get it because I haven't found the special material which turns out to have been locked inside a golden chest in a train station somewhere.

It's just artificially drawing out the game at that point. If I unlock something, at most have it something I need to purchase but having the player play easter egg hunting for golden chests is just nonsense. I still haven't unlocked the upgrade for poison darts because I haven't found whatever chest that's located in.

Sometimes simpler is better and when it comes to this crafting/upgrade system, it's time to tone it back a bit.

–

Anyways, it's a fairly alright game despite its flaws. Certainly one to get on a sale but I don't think I can quite recommend at a full 60 dollars. Maybe more 45. It was fun exploring the center of one of my favorite time periods and running into some of the more interesting people from history but unfortunate that the game doesn't seem to commit to standing out trying something different or exciting with it.

#Assassin's Creed Syndicate #Ubisoft #Review #Video Games

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gigsoupmusic · 4 years ago

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The 1975 'Notes on a Conditional Form'

“How can you solve all the problems around you when you can’t even solve the ones in your head?” That question was the nucleus of DIY ska-punk champion Jeff Rosenstock’s ‘Powerlessness’, a frenetic and panicked blurt. In the two years since Rosenstock put himself on blast, The 1975 have taken that question and rattled it: throttled it to the point of no return. The Manchester group enjoy the existential; songs about the fear of death are masked as love songs, mental illness represented in the form of an uncontrollable sentient brain. In doing so, The 1975 have been one of the most exciting and unpredictable acts in British music for the last decade. The past eighteen months have seen the band outdo themselves - releasing two albums totalling thirty-seven songs - in an attempt to find answers. And with their fourth album, The 1975, for the first time, only seem to ask more questions. ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ was formally announced as the second part in The 1975’s ‘Music For Cars’ era on 31st May 2018. That same day they released ‘Give Yourself A Try’. That was the lead single from album three and the first part, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ - a sprawling but mesmerising record of airtight emotion, intent and craft. The era’s title predates their 2013 self-titled debut; an EP by the same name was released over seven years ago. What ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ was originally intended to be and what it ultimately is are undoubtedly not the same. For one, ‘Notes’ has been postponed twice - 21st February and 24th April were not to be. Their March 2020 UK tour should have been a post-album celebration; instead, an in limbo rehearsal for their next step. Then the tour for their widely-celebrated British Album of the Year Brit Award-winning ‘Brief Inquiry’ overlapped with album four’s recording. Consequently ‘Notes’ was recorded over eighteen months in fifteen studios. You can hear the tension of the recording process in the music. As a result, ‘Notes’ is an exhausted sign of the times: a studio album from a band that could not settle in one. It is sporadic, intense and deeply troubled. It will easily be the album that shapes the band’s legacy. An overarching sense of purpose clouds the album. It is as if The 1975 are aware of the expectation fans, critics, and the band, have put on the record. What should they be saying? ‘Notes’ starts off with a clear vision but gets lost in all the hysteria. The promise of potential commences the album. As with the three preceding albums, ‘The 1975’ kicks things off. The first album made use of the blow-job-referencing lyrics and sounded suitably sleazy. Albums two and three inevitably sounded more self-critical and desolate. Here, they trade sex acts for activism. Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg is the first voice you will hear. For five minutes, she speaks her unfiltered, unflinching truth. “Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that Homo sapiens have ever faced,” she states. It is a terrifying and brutal opener. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWcfzAfuFyE For the sake of the message, it is superb. A confessional and explosive piece that opens your mind from the off. However, what do The 1975 expect? Will fans of the band actively listen to the five-minute spoken-word climate change TED talk every time they play the album? However seriously the band takes the issue (and to their credit, they really do), it pierces the vision of a complete album from the beginning. A dispensable, skippable (and painfully tedious) opener. As the album unfolds, lead singer and the band’s seemingly omniscient idol Matty Healy gets sidetracked repetitively. On ‘I Think There’s Something You Should Know’, he lists mindless thoughts over a cold electronic instrumental, none of which are things anyone should know. “I'd like to meet myself and smoke clouds”, for example. You did not need to tell us. ‘Playing On My Mind’, a genuinely beautiful acoustic number finds Healy rambling about more personal thoughts. One-liners like, “Let's find something to watch then watch our phones for half the time”, bite with wit and cynicism. While couplets such as: “And I won’t get clothes online 'cause I get worried about the fit / That rule don’t apply concerning my relationships”, sting with the self-deprecating tone Healy has made a name for himself with. A moving and confessional number, it is brilliant but in the context of an album that opens with a seventeen year-old climate change activist telling you: “It’s time to rebel”, it borders on self indulgence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdPxXWm7Jg As always, The 1975 have broadened their horizons. It is incredibly rare to find a band in modern pop experimenting as much as they do. The 1975 use genre like an identity: ‘People’ addresses human extinction over a shocking hardcore instrumental; ‘Me & You Together Song’ adopts Busted’s persona to sing of an idyllic romance that likely will not happen; ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ sees the group become Tears For Fears in an attempt to humanise internet sex. ‘Roadkill’, in a radical trip, is the band’s first foray into trucker rock. Perhaps an ode to one of Healy’s favourites Pinegrove, they use the corny caricature to exaggerate the ridiculousness of Healy’s thought process. “I feel like my tucked-up erection, there’s pressure all over my head”, might just be the most stupid lyric of 2020. Judging by the lyric, “And I took shit for being quiet during the election, maybe that’s fair but I’m a busy guy”, this is The 1975 at their most carefree. It is a healthy and entertaining excursion. The aforementioned song sticks out even more considering how heavy the album is: in theme and instrumentation. The 1975 engage in electronics more than ever on ‘Notes’. ‘Having No Head’ is a six-minute instrumental floor-filler, where drummer and producer George Daniel takes centre-stage. What starts as vintage The 1975 plink-plonk blossoms into a cathartic thumper at the halfway mark. ‘Shiny Collarbone’ is at once cringe-inducing and absolutely thrilling. Featuring Jamaican dancehall act Cutty Ranks, it is the furthest the band has pushed themselves. There is little purpose in this shape-shifting hit, perhaps only to replicate the sensation of feeling mindless. Then ‘Yeah I Know’, the first proper unreleased single on the project is reminiscent of ‘Kid A’-meets-'Blinded By the Lights'. With a pitched chorus chanting “Hit that shit”, it is not as lyrically adventurous but still a fascinating audible experience. This raises the question of what purpose the omnipresent pitched vocals serve. Providing a concerning edge to lyrics like “Do you wanna go and get fucked up?” (‘The Birthday Party'), could it be an attempt to segregate Matty Healy from his internal demons? It is a loose thread, but at least it is a thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYYQpTbBSBM Perhaps the most crushing fact that dominates the listening experience of ‘Notes’ is that the months of build-up showed how great the singles are. ‘People’ is by far the most exciting single a major act has released in the past half-decade. No other band would dare go near that. ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ is something the band can conjure with considerate ease. It is almost heartbreaking that the band are so clearly capable of writing some of the best songs in their career, but feel obliged to hide them amongst ten or so shockingly flimsy cuts. And they really can write some absolute belters. ‘Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied’ is as if Brockhampton had more talent. With The London Community Gospel Choir in support, Healy’s voice feels more assured. As with ‘If I Believe You’ from their second record, the strategic employment of a gospel choir to make Healy's insecurities feel more validated is a stroke of genius. Enrapturing and infectious, you will find yourself chanting the chorus at home. This is then followed by ‘Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)’. Label mate No Rome contributes to the writing for this The Temptations-sampling pop gem. George Daniel knocks this one out of the park; this will go off at their shows. Concluding with a sax solo, The 1975 find comfort in another gorgeous love song. Unfortunately ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ tries to be too much. Twenty-two songs and eighty minutes: of course it is going to be a challenge. This is a record that starts off confronting the end of humanity and by the halfway mark sees Matty Healy singing: “Oh, please ignore me, I'm just feeling sorry for myself.” It is simply not thought through enough, or it is thought through too much. They take on styles like throwing darts at a board. The consistent inconsistency becomes grating after a while. However The 1975, to their credit, stick the landing. ‘Don’t Worry’ is penned by Tim Healy, Matty’s father. The song, written when Matty was two years old, has been adapted into a Bon Iver-esque lullaby. It is a tear-jerker, an ode to a father-son relationship barely explored before in the band’s discography. “Don’t worry, darling ‘cause I’m here with you.” It would be a stretch even for The 1975’s biggest critics to not be moved by it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0mzMd17jG0 The album’s closer ‘Guys’ has been suggested by a portion of fans to be the band’s farewell. Realistically it is unlikely to be a sendoff for a band with plenty more to say. For an album as chaotic and frustratingly careless as this, ‘Guys’ is, at last, a simple, effective track. In all the chaos that Matty Healy tries to decipher over the previous twenty-one songs, the only thing that makes sense is his love for his friends. Stripping away the facade, this almost-live performance with straightforward lyrics is the antidote to his problems.There is no flashy production here; no bass-drop; no FKA twigs or Phoebe Bridgers (They make appearances on this record! A lot happens!); no hypothetical life-questioning melancholy. It is simply a song about four guys who love each other. Matty Healy asks a lot of questions on this disorientated, muddled album. Most of them remain unanswered. If this album can tell Healy anything it is this: his guys, his bandmates, are the answer to all his questions. 'Notes on a Conditional Form' by The 1975 is out now via Dirty Hit Read the full article

#The1975

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misstinfoilhat · 5 years ago

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I have a prompt if you like it :) I'd LOVE to read some parental Roy or Havoc where Ed or Al start wondering or already know but struggles with accepting or having people know he's not straight, and him going to the parental figure to talk about it or "subtly" "asking for a friend". I feel like this could work even tho they're not that close, similar to how many ppl choose to come out to s/o they're not that close to first (yk bc if they mind at least it wasn't s/o very close to them to lose)

All right! My first prompt. I’m gonna try to write it- I’ve had some time to think about it now, and I hope it’s what you want! The door to Colonel Roy Mustang’s office flung open, slamming into the wall behind it, leaving yet another imprint telling any visitor that Edward Elric had been here. Roy growled silently, pinching the bridge of his nose while assessing how much the damage would cost to fix once he finally moved his way up the ranks and left this office to the next stringed puppet. “Report,” Edward announced obnoxiously, hurling the crumpled paper onto the desk in front of the exasperated man and immediately turned to march back out. Instinctively, Roy reached out and grabbed the red coat that floated in front of him, and was able to drag the brat back. Edward grunted in annoyance, and crossed his arms defiently, while Roy picked up the paper to look it over. “Fullmetal... Is this crayon?” Roy exclaimed in disbelief. “What? I didn’t have a pen!” Edward complained in response. “But you had a yellow crayon?” “I borrowed it from some kid on the train. He said I couldn’t have the red one.” Roy had no idea how to answer that. Instead, he covered his expression with his hands, dragging them down his face wearily. “I can’t... I can’t send in a report to the Fuhrer, barely legible in yellow crayon, Fullmetal. Even that tiny brain of yours has to understand that.” “Hey!” Ed shouted angrily.“That’s what you get for demanding the report the second we’re back in Central, bastard colonel!” “How naïve of me to think that you somehow would be able to access a pen on a four-day train ride.” Edward pouted and blew raspberries at his superior. With mismatching arms still crisscrossed, he turned his face away and pointed his nose towards the ceiling in obstinance. He shot a quick glance towards the door, and Roy realized that he seemed to have a worry knitted in his eyebrows. Roy pondered for a moment, suddenly realizing what was missing. “Edward, where’s Alphonse?” Edward froze up, only seeming to hold his arms tighter. Roy couldn’t help but notice the inner turmoil probably raging inside the fifteen-year-olds brain at his questions. Damnit. He didn’t have time for this. “Fullmetal, talk to me or I swear I will have you court marshalled for wasting my time.” “You can’t do that,” he retorted but didn’t look entirely sure. He did a double-take, watching the exit longingly before groaning loudly and collapsing onto the chair in front of the messy wooden desk. Roy didn’t say anything, just folded his hands and waited for the vertically challenged teen to spill. “We had a fight,” he finally muttered, defeatedly. Roy wanted to roll his eyes. This wasn’t some kind of school counselling office. Talk about wasting his time. He was not paid to sit and hear about two young brothers having a quarrel. But then again, if this was any other teens, they probably would be in school, and having this conversation with an actual counseller. He had made damn sure that didn’t happen. God, he hated karma. “Go on,” he heard himself say, settling in for a tedious recital consisting of “he said, she said”. “I don’t know... He’s just been acting really strange ever since we left Xenotime. I mean, it was a pretty strange mission, but he’s just been really quiet, or irritable and unreasonable when finally speaking, ever since.” Roy swiftly glanced across the report for clarification. “Ah, yes. Where you met those two brothers that pretended to be you two,” he confirmed. “Yeah,” Edward sighed silently. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. He snapped at me when I tried to ask and went straight to the library once we arrived here.” Edward looked absolutely beat by this. The sorrow in his golden eyes twinged something in Roy’s heart, and he tried to get rid of the useless pain he felt for his depressed subordinate. But, he already knew that he wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on his work for the rest of the day if he didn’t at least try to help. He exhaled deeply to be overly dramatic. “To be fair, you are pretty insufferable,” he murmured with a cheeky grin. Some of the well known Elric-fire could once again be recognized in the kid, as Ed reacted to his words But as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared again. “I can try to talk to him if you want?”

Even Roy was shocked by the words that left his mouth. That was not what he was going to say. He was just kinda trying to lighten the mood with some... ill-timed jokes. Shit. That karma again. “I guess you could try,” Edward sulked, slightly unwilling to admit that he was, in fact, very relieved. If Roy demanded to know what was going on with Al, Alphonse wouldn’t dare to react the same way as he had done with him.

The small hallway between the offices and library was way too short. Before Roy had even figured out what his opening line would be, he was standing only a few feet from the boy. Alright, Roy-boy. You can do this. Think like Maes. What would Maes say? Whatever you say to a fourteen-year-old boy’s soul stuck to a giant suit of armor of course... This is gonna be a shit-show.

“Alphonse,” he greeted carefully, closing the distance between himself and the suit, seated crosslegged on the floor between a tower of books. Alphonse looked up from the text he was reading. “Oh. Hi, Colonel Mustang.” Edward was right. The kid seemed different. His voice, which was usually so cheery and sounded so energetic, was just a flat mumbling. Also, it always seemed so important for Alphonse to greet the Colonel properly with respect. Now, he was already back into the pages of the book he was reading.

“Are you... reading something useful about the stone?” he tried instead, hoping that would trigger the boy’s talkative side. That didn’t happen. All of a sudden, Al startled violently, slamming the book shut and hiding it behind his back. “I- no, no. I- that was the wrong book. I was gonna get the one next to it,” Alphonse blurted out, fidgeting around- making sure the book was safely hidden behind him and a couple of the rest of them lying with spine facing him, obscuring their titles. That was certainly strange... Wait, did they have porn in that library? Gosh, maybe that would make research slightly more... No. No, no, no! Focus. “Is anything the matter?” Roy tried instead, shaking himself out of his curious musings. “No,” Alphonse replied way too quickly, desperately starting to bag up the shielded books. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just tired... or, err... you know. I just need some peace and quiet after the long mission.” “Your brother said you two had some kind of fight. Is that what’s been bothering you?” Alphonse visibly paused, his arm still tucked inside his small brown leather bag. Maybe, just maybe... He could talk to the colonel about this... No. No, he couldn’t talk to anyone. Nobody could know. His brother would hate him if he knew he had these strange... he wouldn’t call them urges- he wasn’t actually sure if he was even able to have those- but feelings. Feelings he shouldn’t have towards someone he definitely shouldn’t. “You know, for a suit of armor, you’re pretty expressive,” Roy chuckled, leaning lazily on the door frame. “What?” What had he expressed? Did he know? How could he know!? “It’s your body language. Which, I guess is expected. You don’t really have too many other ways of showing your emotions.” “I... I guess not. What,” he needed to be careful of what he was saying. One slip up and his life would be even more over than it already felt. “...what do you think I’m I portraying right now?”

“Honestly? You look terrified.”

Oh. Fuc-freak! When Alphonse didn’t answer, instead only kept staring at his book-bag, Roy took it as permission to continue.

“You know, your brother is pretty worried. He couldn’t even think of any good retorts to my short jokes.” Alphonse tilted his head towards the colonel for a moment, before lowering his gaze again, clearly guilt-ridden. “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” he uttered finally. “But he was just pestering me- going on and on about how I was acting strange and I just... didn’t want to talk to him about it...” “He’s not mad, he’s just wo-” “...I mean, I didn’t hit him that hard anyway.” “...rried. You punched Fullmetal?”

“I- The bruise on his cheek wasn’t me, that was this... other kid. Russel, his name was. Mine didn’t leave a mark, I don’t think...”

Roy slowly blinked, trying to digest all of this information. If there was anything in the report about Ed being in a fistfight with some other kid, Roy hadn’t been able to decipher it from the colorful chicken-scratches on the piece of paper on his desk.

But, that was not what this was about.

“Listen, Alphonse. I get that this...whatever it is that is bothering you, is hard to talk about. I’m not sure if I’m the right person for you to talk to anyway. But it’s clearly bothering you a lot. I just think you’d maybe feel better if you talked about it.” Hesitant, he got closer to the hulking armor and lay an awkward hand on his shoulder piece. Alphonse went silent and stayed silent for a long time. Roy was starting to worry if he had hit some kind of off switch when Alphonse finally met his gaze.

“How... how does it feel like to be in love?” That was not what Roy had expected. He wasn’t sure just what he was expecting, but this would probably be one of the absolute last things. But, he had also been a fourteen-year-old boy with a crush once upon a time, more years ago than he liked to think about, so this should be within his comfort zone. Somewhat.

“Uh, well... I guess it’s different for everybody but... I guess the first thing I usually feel is a tingling sensation in my stomach.”

“I... I can’t feel that,” Al sulked. Something in his voice had turned more desperate, which only made Roy feel panicked. A different strategy, then.

“Well, that’s not the only thing do. You... you enjoy her company and want to spend more time with her than other people in your life I guess. She’ll make you feel accepted for who you are, hopefully. You... usually find her physically attractive too.”

Thoughtfully, Alphonse nodded, unfortunately not seeming any more uplifted.

“Anything else that’s on your mind?”

Alphonse hesitated. “And... what if the person you... you love... isn’t a she?”

Roy wasn’t able to hide his surprise at that. Al visibly recoiled and waved his hands frantically.

“N-not me. I’m talking about... about someone else. Someone I met at the mission.”

Roy looked at him skeptically. “Uhu,” he murmured. He wasn’t about to point out the ‘I can’t feel tingles in my stomach’ part. If this was how Alphonse needed to handle this, it would have to do for now. “And this someone, is he afraid of these feelings?”

“Very,” Alphonse answered immediately.

“Well,” this was definitely out of Roy’s comfort zone. “You should tell your friend that he probably has a lot of accepting people around him, who’ll love him unconditionally. And that... the people who don’t, don’t matter. It will be hard at times. There will be people who’ll discriminate against him and make him feel small and unimportant, but he’s not. As long as he remembers that, I think he’ll be okay.”

Roy had Alphonse’s full attention now. In his awe, Alphonse hadn’t realized that he had froze in motion. The last book, the one he’d hid behind his back, was clutched in his left hand, while he was holding the bag in his right.

The title of the book read clearly “Understanding sexuality”. Roy had seen the book before. It was one of the books recommended in the academy. There was a readlist for those who chose to pursue interrogation techniques and profiling.

Roy nodded faintly towards the book. “That’s a good read. I read it during my time at the academy. You should recommend it to your friend too.”

If Al could blush, he would have. He quickly stuck the book into the sack. “Y-yeah, I’ll do that. Thank you, colonel. I feel a little bit better now.”

“Good,” Roy said honestly, aware that this would not be over anytime soon. But it was a start.

“And Alphonse...” The helmet perked back up. “I’m pretty sure that your friend has a brother who loves him very much and will not think any less of him if he shares what on his mind. I think he will be proud.”

Alphonse replied with a couple of rapid, shaky nods and wrapped the strap of the bag over his shoulder and got up from the floor. “I hope so. Thank you. I should probably take brother home now. I think I need to apologize to him for acting irrational. And for punching him.”

He started walking, and Roy quickly matched his pace to walk beside him, holding a reassuring, much sturdier hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about him. I’m sure he deserved it.”

“Al!” a shrieking voice yelled from the open door in Mustang’s office. Edward stood, annoyance and uneasiness rivaling as his main expression. This time, Roy noticed the faint, yellowing bruise on his cheek. He also had a clear, starting black eye which must have darkened in his time waiting in his office.

“I’m okay, brother,” Al exclaimed with a prominent lightness in his voice that hadn’t been there before. Roy smiled.

Edward looked unsure, chewing on his bottom lip as he contemplated about if he believed him or not.

“Okay, I’m glad. Let’s go home,” Ed decided and walked over to where the two considerably taller figures stood, just outside the office. He shot a questioning glance towards Roy.

“Yeah, you probably should,” Roy agreed easily. “Fullmetal needs to re-write his report so it’s ready at my desk at nine tomorrow morning.”

Before Edward could get to physically attacking his superior officer and risk actually getting court marshaled for giving Mustang a matching black eye, Al quickly caught him and carried him gingerly under his arm out of the offices, leaving an echo of curses and other profanities behind them as the disappeared out of the HQ. Roy wasn’t actually expecting the report in the morning. If Alphonse decided to wear his heart on his sleeve and tell Edward about what he was going through, the brothers had a long night ahead of them.

Good thing they had each other. If it was anyone else, things might be a lot more difficult. It would still be, but a child that had offered up his arm after already having lost a leg to save his little brother from dying, wouldn’t make that sacrifice go to waste. Al would still be Al. And Ed inevitably would keep on being Ed. Nah. They would be alright.

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