#warts and all

[sonik-kun]

Nah, I'm sorry, but Jiang Cheng did NOT consent to receiving Wei Wuxian's golden core. If he did, that scene wouldn't have been as big as a surprise for not only us as the readers but also JC himself.

That scene was a MASSIVE plot twist. It wouldn't have been had JC consented or demanded that WWX hand over his core to him.

Not only that, if it was all completely consensual, WWX and the Wen siblings wouldn't have had to have kept that secret hidden from JC and the rest of the world for all those years. It would have become public knowledge. And who knows, it may have even paved the way for future core transplant surgeries. But it didn't. Because it was kept in secret and it was kept in secret for a reason.

Because Jiang Cheng would have never agreed to it.

Jiang cheng was lead to believe that he would get HIS OWN core back from Boashan Sanren. He was never told it would be a core transplant. He was lead to believe he would be receiving a new core of his own. Especially since this Boashan Sanren was a fabled woman, known for her inhuman abilities.

Why else would WWX mislead JC up the mountain, blindfolded, and told him to pretend that he was WWX? He did so because he knew that JC would never consent to Wen Qing experimenting on him, on top of removing WWX's core and putting it into his own body.

WWX knew that JC would NEVER agree to that, that's why he made the whole thing up.

So whilst WWX and the Wen siblings were acting within JC's best interests, it was still nonconsenual. He didn't agree to that surgery. Your idea of medical consent is completely skewed if you think otherwise.

Patients always have the right to withdraw consent and reject treatment. And they should always be made aware of what treatment and surgeries they will be receiving in order to accept or reject said treatment.

So yes, by modern medical law standards, it was nonconsenual surgery.

For the sake of fiction and it being in an ancient setting, I'll let it slide and not apply such logic here in WWX's case. But if we're really going to go there and argue the ethics behind it, I'll stand here and say that it was completely nonconsenual, and JC had every right to be upset by it. Especially since said surgery cost WWX his life, which JC was more than willing to sacrifice his OWN LIFE for.

[crushheadwithrock]

who the hell drew this in my whiteboard

fess up that is NOT my charlie dompler https://r2.whiteboardfox.com/23729065-8226-3736

come join and draw charpim pls and not this

[askagamedev]

a lot of people are probably asking you this, but if they aren't... do you have any clue what's going on with bioware? first moving swtor to another studio, which seems like it can be both a good or a bad thing, and now they're laying off 50 more people? studio veterans included?

this just seems like a very weird move to me, if not outright shitty. i want to believe in bioware, i love their games, no matter how flawed they are, but in the three years i've been familiar with them, things seem to be getting worse and worse. i know that DAD is in alpha so probably this layoff won't affect its quality too much, but again, that looks like a terrible move towards the employees themselves and the studio's more distant future.

Bioware is basically following the publisher mandate. In March of this year, EA declared that they were going to cut roughly 6% of their workforce (~800 layoffs) to lower costs, likely because they (like many tech companies) over-hired during the pandemic and need to correct the burn rate to appease their shareholders. These 50 devs being cut are Bioware's unfortunate sacrifice to the layoff declaration. As to whom and why, I suspect it is a combination of things.

Bioware probably had some kind of incubation team working on a secret new project that wasn't a sequel to an existing current franchise. I know that they would often have one or two such teams going at any given time - Anthem was one such project, as was the short-lived Shadow Realms project. New projects like that are much riskier than franchise sequels, so it is likely that the publisher decided that the risk moving forward was too high and they cancelled the experimental projects in favor of focusing on their established brands (Mass Effect and Dragon Age).

It is also likely that some of the long-term veterans are quite expensive to keep - they have high salaries and have been around long enough to collect on many of the big benefits EA offers, like sabbatical leave and the like. There's also the real possibility that there could be some bad blood or major creative differences between the current studio leadership and some of those veterans that were let go.

My heart goes out to those affected and I really do hope they land on their feet. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that employers never deserve any more loyalty than they're willing to give their employees. The employer will never choose an employee over its own survival, so we as workers should expect to do the same for ourselves. I never consider long tenure at an employer to be worth much when it comes to the business decisions, because I know how little it is worth when all is said and done. Business gonna business.

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[shadesofmauve]

Reels, testing my thumb's tolerance for bow triplets a bit more. And apparently my memory's tolerance for the A part of "Pigeon on a Gate", which I managed to play fine the first time before it decided it wanted to morph into a different tune at that phrase.

...which basically means this is just like watching a live show, where I also frequently have a tune escape me mid-medley and have to wildly try and improv my way back to whatever the hell it was that I just played fine 30 seconds ago. So there's that, I guess.

Oh well. I didn't actually intend to record that one, anyway. It just came out.

[mollysunder]

I'm still stuck on the Ekko-Jinx-Viktor dynamic. At first I was thinking about how Ekko and Viktor's dynamic established in League media has put them in an antagonistic relationship and how Jinx and Viktor's future partnership will further estrange her from Ekko. At first I was thinking about how Ekko would react seeing her once again work with another shady character that could jeopardize lives in Zaun. But now I'm thinking about how Jinx will react to the way Ekko judges Viktor.

In whatever situation that happens in the next season that forces Ekko and Jinx to work together, it's gonna be tense. There's going to be so much distrust and hurt between the two of them that it'll be a win if they say anything constructive to eachother. Now that i think about it, I don't think Ekko has ever talked to Jinx directly in the show, even in Act 1. Does that time he yelled to to distract her on the bridge count?

Anyway, the past and present is heavy for them and here's Viktor. This guy Ekko can't stand because Viktor's actions have killed people, his work has only further endangered Zaun in his eyes. And I can't see Ekko be subtle with his irritation which would likely only deepen as Heimerdinger expresses his disappointment with Viktor's choices that led to his fall from grace. All the while Jinx is just there observing how this one man gets all this ire for crimes that are miniscule compared to what she's done. It just makes her all the more certain of where she and Ekko stand.

When she inevitably meets Viktor would it be like looking at her worst case scenario, friendless and despised by the few that were once called family (which is kind of her reality)? I'm sure she would be able to see that Viktor's reputation is mostly hype. Jinx spent most of her life running with smugglers, crime lords, killers and just criminals of a wide variety. She'd clock him as just some guy massively out of his depth in Zaun. At worst it's all in the middle of his violent depression brought on by his ostracization from Piltover. Jinx has has met plenty of people that embrace a new persona to cope, Silco literally taught her to do that. So it won't matter what stage to becoming the Herald he's on, she still figures him out and sees some dude that fucked up so hard he ruined his own life. Boy doesn't that sound familiar.

It would all just simultaneously alienate her further from Ekko's side and endear Viktor to her (if they haven't already started collaborating), because that's where things fell apart for her too. Jinx stayed by Silco's side because she didn't feel like she could be accepted after what she did on ACCIDENT. She didn't need to be forgiven in that moment, she just wanted to be assured that Vi wouldn't abandon her. And now she's met someone in nearly the exact same position she was in. Their circumstances may not have been 1-to-1, but they share the same emotional truth.

[porterdavis]

[paragon-arthur]

Been meaning to put this to words, but Draco is so good because she's so Nero.

She doesn't change herself to fit into Chaldea's structure, to become another chess piece. She got too much of that under her mother's thumb.

She says she will stay a Beast. Unlike Tiamat and the other playable Beasts, Draco does not compromise on her own self.

She acts as arrogant as Nero- perhaps more, even. She is clearly somewhat selfish and self centered as Nero, yet she does not apologize. Less 'UMU' and more of what made Nero so compelling in the first place.

She refuses to change herself for ANYONE. Instead, Draco makes it clear that instead of losing herself i.e. turning to an Alter Ego, she will remain a Beast.

Because to deny her Beasthood means to hide Draco's true self.

And what she really wants is to be free. Free to be HERSELF.

[thetarttfuldickhead]

A Jamie-centric pre-OT3 Christmas story told in 25 short chapters.

Masterpost / AO3

25.

Epilogue

Roy called her in the evening, as Keeley was carefully removing her make-up in front of the bathroom mirror. It had been a long day, a stifled Christmas lunch with her mother followed by Richmond’s home game against Norwich in the afternoon. At least Richmond had won, managing a by the skin of their teeth 1-0 after a late and defiant goal by Jamie.

She thought she’d seen him looking up at the VIP box as the team celebrated around him, and she’d blown him a little kiss, even if she knew the distance was too far for him to catch it.

Next to her, Rebecca had raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow in a perfect expression of slightly sceptical interest. “And here I thought you were here to support me.”

“I am here to support you,” Keeley had said firmly. “Because I’m an amazing friend and I’d show up to support you with chants and balloons of cute animals and stuff at your murder trial, especially if Rupar’s the victim. But I told you, he’s been having a rough time of it.”

Not telling Rebecca about what had gone down with Jamie and Roy the other day had never been an option. Rebecca had listened with a frown, and asked if she needed to do anything about James Tartt. Keeley had said no, for the moment: Jamie needed to be the one to make the call on that.

“Hey you,” Roy said now, looking properly fit in the black suit he usually put on for his pundit appearances (and which, to the untrained eye, looked identical to all his other black suits, but Keeley knew him and fashion better than most, and thought the Hugo Boss was a particularly nice look on him).

“Hi, babe.” Keeley propped the phone against a moisturiser bottle, so she could continue her routine while they talked. “You back from work then?”

“Yeah. Took fucking ages, because Cartrick wouldn’t fucking shut up. You’d think he’d run out of things to be wrong about after six hours, but no, if the filming crew hadn’t started making noises about needing to go home to their families, we’d still be there.”

Keeley hummed in agreement, even though she suspected Roy was maybe exaggerating things a little. Sometimes it was best to just let him vent belligerently for a bit, get it out of his system. Besides, it was lovely to have him care about things enough to be pissed about them again. Roy was a passionate man, and Keeley loved him for it; having seen him go through the motions with nary a flicker of true feeling throughout the autumn had been awful.

Speaking of caring… “You catch any of the Richmond game?” she asked.

He grunted. “We didn’t really cover any of the Championship games, but yeah, saw some of the highlights.”

“Jamie played well, didn’t he? Seemed a little more aggressive than he’s been lately.”

Roy grunted again, but kept his mouth stubbornly shut. Not ready to talk about the advice he’d given Jamie last night, then. Fair enough; it’d keep.  

Roy kept on saying nothing, though, when normally he would have tried to move on by changing the subject or asking her about her day. When Keeley glanced over at the screen she saw that he was looking unhappy, dark eyebrows furrowed.

Keeley cocked her head to the side. “You all right, babe? Something on your mind?”

“No, it’s… “ He paused, and she waited, until finally he let out a frustrated huff. “It’s just Jamie’s fucking dad, right?” His lips curled. “I can’t stop thinking— Jamie was in a right fucking mess when I walked in on them. Not physically, it was just scrapes, but he was so fucking quiet. It wasn’t natural, not having the little muppet run his mouth like he was getting paid for it.”

“He seemed all right after,” Keeley said hesitantly, because Jamie had, when he left them on the morning of Christmas Eve and when they talked to him yesterday. Happier than normally, even. But Roy was right, it seemed a little strange in retrospect, that he had shaken it off so completely, given the state of him when she first arrived at Roy’s three nights ago. “You think he’s used to it,” she realised aloud. “That’s why he bounced back so quickly.”

“I know arseholes like that, okay? My sister fucking married one. So yeah, I don’t think it’s the first time it happened, and it probably won’t be the last either, and I keep on fucking wondering if his dad’s the reason he walked out on City, and City’s playing Chelsea in a couple of week s and I—“ He paused again. “I know it’s fucking stupid, it’s none of my business. I don’t even like the prick.”

Keeley had a sneaking suspicion that that wasn’t quite as true as it once had been, but she didn’t mention that. Let Roy reach that conclusion when he was ready to. “I think it’s sweet,” she said instead. “The way you stepped in when he needed you to, and took care of him. I mean it,” she added off his predictable eye-roll. “I’m really proud of you, babe. And,” she pressed on, because it was true and because she knew he tended to get a little uncomfortable when things got too earnest, “it was kind of sexy, too.”

Roy’s eyebrows rose at that. “You thought me taking care of Jamie was sexy? What happened to your thing being me crying pathetically?”

“Girls have deep and complex tastes, Royo. So yeah, you being vulnerable and passionate is really hot, but as it turns out, you being all caring and protective and fetching tea really gets me going as well.” She smiled at him and he scoffed, but smiled back. “Seriously, though,” she continued, “I was thinking we should ask Jamie over some day. Just hang out a little, make sure he’s all right.”

Roy’s eyes narrowed. “You better not be suggesting we invite him to Sexy Christmas.”

“No,” Keeley said with a small a laugh, even as the thought of it sent a pleasant shiver through her. Sex with Roy was fantastic. Sex with Jamie had always been amazing. Both of them, and with the way she suspected their tastes would run exceedingly compatible, with her and with each other… Well. A girl could dream (and maybe have a wank once she got of the phone with Roy). “But dinner sometime soon, yeah?

“Fine,” Roy said, sounding like he was only reluctantly agreeing to do her a favour, but she knew him well enough to see the relief in his dark eyes.

Fuck, but she loved him. The way he cared so deeply, even when he didn’t want to, and even when he would sneer at the assertion.

“You’re so fucking hot,” she told him. “I can’t wait for the 28:th.”

He smiled for real then, that wide grin he reserved for just her and sometimes Phoebe and his sister. “Me neither,” he agreed. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah, see you then. Love you.”

“Love you.”

They hung up, and Keeley yawned. It was getting late, and she had to be up early tomorrow, for an entire day of what was supposedly just a bit of informal mingling for publicists, a little holiday get together on Jace Asthon’s country house, but which was in actuality the networking opportunity of the year for people in her line of business. She needed to be well-rested and looking ready to slay for this one, and had a bunch of people and business to read up on, potential sponsors and partners for Richmond.

She still took the time to send a couple of texts before turning out the lights.

hey jamie

got any plans for new year’s eve?

She hardly had time to set the phone down before it pinged with his reply.

Doesn’t really give a shit if I’m not playing for City.

Something slid into place then. “Is that why you did Lust Conquers All?” Roy asked. “To get away from you dad?”

Jamie didn’t answer, but that just said it all, didn’t it?

[poorshadowspaintedqueens]

So, what I thought was going to be a blog post is apparently turning into a series of essays. Intro is above.

[runespoor7]

maybe i should look into whether i could play da2 on the computer.

[13eyond13]

something else you might need to know about this blog is that pointing out the immense flaws of my faves and not letting them get away with anything is how I show my love for them

[askagamedev]

When mass layoffs happen, how is it decided who gets the axe and who gets to stay?

It's usually a combination of factors. Sometimes entire studios get cut, like how Embracer completely shuttered Volition. Sometimes an entire team is let go if the project gets cancelled. For the really massive games (the kind with multiple studios working on them, like Call of Duty) there's the chance that entire studios or subteams (e.g. the DMZ subteam on Call of Duty) can get eliminated if the decision is made to cut further support for the game mode. These kind of decisions get made at the publishing executive level.

When the studio/game isn't getting shut down/cancelled, the (remaining) team/studio leadership generally divides the employees between a "keepers" group (usually devs who are deemed absolutely necessary for a product's ongoing development) and an "everybody else" group. Keepers are the ones who know all of the innermost workings of the projects that are slated to continue. Without enough of them, the tribal knowledge is lost and the project is basically unsalvageable. The keepers are automatically safe from the reaper.

For everybody else, there's the group quotas and value ranking. There's usually some number of each specific discipline that will get stays of execution - server engineer, UI/UX designer, tech artist, QA, and so on. Each remaining employee is judged on the decision-maker's criteria, and this is where things generally get subjective. General qualities like cost to keep (i.e. salary), experience level, and productivity factor in, but so do things like how much the decision-maker likes the person, ease of working with this employee, and overall manager perceptions (e.g. did the manager see the worker crunching/overtime? Did the manager see the worker goofing off?). The highest in the value ranking for each discipline get to stay and everybody else gets cut.

Suggested Reading: [A Gamer's Primer to Practically Dealing with Job Loss]

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[gentleoverdrive]

[24/300] Hope you're ready for the next episode, heeeeeeeeeyyy...

It's been a weird couple of days, but overall things have been well at home and with my family at large. My mom turned 63 and had a small accident, but fortunately she's safe and unharmed. ---- Also it just hit me that I've been married for 3 years now. Holy fuck, does time fly by fast or what? And I love my wife, and all the ways in which she has helped me and enabled me to be a better person. Thank you so fucking much for these three incredible years at your side. I wouldn't change them for anything. ---- Also I finally got my newest guitar! One that I had ordered back in 2021, as a matter of fact! Once I get some proper downtime, I'll take some good photos to properly document it here. See ya' around, and read ya' later, alligator!

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | Hard Sensation (D'Amato, 1980)

This review contains mild spoilers.

This is one of a few island-themed pornos that Joe D'Amato shot in the Caribbean, alongside Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Porno Holocaust, and a few others which I have yet to see. Like those two movies, it features George Eastman in a not entirely negative role. Eastman, who is 6'9" tall, cuts an imposing figure and is not particularly handsome to boot, meaning that his most memorable roles are playing disgusting freak villains like in Anthropophagus and Absurd. Here, he plays one of a trio of criminals who take the heroines hostage. So it's not a purely heroic role like the one he has in Erotic Nights of the Living Dead as a cool guy who fucks (both figuratively and literally). But of the criminals, he's the least sadistic, the one trying to not antagonize the heroines anymore than necessary, and the one who tries to keep them from being raped. Which makes him relatively honourable within the context of the plot.

But without seeing the movie, it can be easy to underappreciate his heroism here. For you see, the criminal most eager to rape the hostages is played by Mark Shannon. And if you've seen either of those other two island porno-horror hybrids, you'll know that the real horror of those movies comes from seeing Shannon in action, especially when the camera gets in real close and you realize that D'Amato is offering a "warts and all" portrait, whether you like it or not. (This features some of the same cast members as those other movies. Normally with Italian horror, I like to refer to recurring cast members as my friends. But Mark Shannon is NOT my friend.) I saw this in a blurry as hell VHS rip that I was hoping would obscure such unpleasant sights, but alas, it was of no help. All it did was obscure whatever artistry D'Amato might have been bringing to the proceedings. If you can tune out those images (I assume by pouring bleach into your eyes), the sex scenes at least have a pretty kickass flute and bass funk score.

So this is a pretty unpleasant experience in obvious ways, and as a rape-revenge hostage thriller it operates at the lowest possible energy level. But because it's D'Amato directing an island porno, it ends up being subtly hypnotic in its unpleasantness and inertia, the sweltering heat of the environment seeping through, the actors almost zombified by their exhaustion, and D'Amato, because he's a goddamn professional, still trying to find interesting ways to shoot the proceedings. If anything, the energy level keeps this from being quite as unpleasant as other roughies, and the sexual content is incorporated more seamlessly than those zombie pornos (and the runtime is thankfully more manageable). D'Amato's thing for facial trauma shows up in one gnarly scene where a character's head is bludgeoned, but I must report with some disappointment that "facial" trauma does not manifest in the pun one would expect given the genre. There's also a really lame attempt at being deep at the end, which got a laugh out of me.

[mollysunder]

I feel like it's easier to guess the dynamics in season 2 of Arcane is easier to understand if you know that crows (i.e. Jinx and to a greater extent Zaun) don't vibe with ravens (Swain and thus Noxus in general). Like crows are hyper aggressive to raven in their territories. Ravens might be bigger, but crows attack them in a well organized fashion, rather than a group mobbing, they have split into small groups to handle the ravens. What's interesting is that crows are recorded to start the fights more often than not, but it's probably because ravens predate on crows and their eggs, they know a threat when they see one.

It's pretty on the nose the show went out of it's way to associate Jinx with a bird (crows) that's not only incredibly similar in appearance, intelligence, and cultural notoriety, but also are competitive with the ones (ravens) associated with Swain.

[newgin-clever-title-goes-here]

"man i wished they gave the new pokemon more time to be ironed out with the bugs and performance issues but there's definitely effort and love with cool concepts, they just needed more time and not rush for holiday sales-"

“IT’S SHIT, THEY’RE LAZY, LET ME REMIND YOU HOW SHIT CAPITLISM AND HOW THE RICH HATE YOU. AND YOU ARE SUPORTING BAD GAMES."

"oh for fucks sake."

I might be slightly irritated with how modern gaming criticism is handled recently