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himboarcher · 4 years ago

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reasons i've seen folks say that grad critics hate grad:

they hate travis (in fairness, i’ve def seen some comments of people shitting on trav for the sake of shitting on trav, but it’s not super common and typically gets downvoted into oblivion on reddit.)

it's not balance / travis isn't griffin (???????)

they hate neurodivergent people (again, in fairness, i have seen a handful of comments that could come across this way! but most of the time when travis being ADHD or his NPD is brought up, it's by defenders saying that criticizing travis is ableist because he's neurodivergent or, in one particular comment, infantilizing him bc of it and literally comparing grad to putting a kid's artwork on the fridge. there were some comments early on that pointed to him being a narcissist as the reason for things people disliked about grad, but everyone seems to have realized that that's a shitty train of thought and left it behind.)

they're just toxic haters (again, there are a small handful of people like this because this is the internet, but the genuine criticism greatly outweighs their bullshit. i 100% think that the people, which is mostly just one dude who is also insufferable on reddit, who have been responding rudely to positive tweets under the episode announcements lately are out of line and need to stop. there's been an influx of that lately, presumably because people are frustrated that after over a year of grad going on, there's been no improvement to most of the major issues. that's still no excuse to be a dick to folks, though.)

vs some of the actual reasons i don't like grad:

the racism / racist tropes, and the way that they’ve straight up ignored this criticism and will likely never acknowledge it. pretty wild considering a core tenet of their brand is their willingness to acknowledge when they’ve messed up and do their best to course correct.

clumsy attempts at inclusion that are shallow and often end up being fairly offensive ("...ask me about my wheelchair," anyone?)

on a related note: i don't think that travis had bad intentions, but as an nonbinary person, it feels othering to me that travis only has enby characters give others their pronouns unprompted. i'm thinking specifically of kai here. having listened to their introduction, i don't think it's as bad or awkward as some people have said, but i can't remember travis ever having another NPC tell the PCs their pronouns, especially not a cis character. it's not a huge deal, but it's something that rubbed me the wrong way. admittedly, i don't think it would bother me so much if travis hadn't dropped the ball so much with performative inclusion in the past.

okay i'm putting the rest under a read more because even without getting into all of the problems i have with it, this got Long.

little to no player agency. player choices are ultimately meaningless and have little to no effect on the world. even when he seems to go along with a plan they come up with, it always ends with them having to go back to travis' pre-written script (see: subpoenaing the xorn, but not really because they had to go with travis' original plan of "send the xorn home through the rift".) the players repeatedly get told things about what they think or feel or what they've been doing to an unnecessary degree. fitzroy is the only one who really gets space to play and decide things for himself, and that's only because travis has decided he's the main character.

the NPCs are all too nice and willing to give the PCs anything they ask for and more, unless the PCs are trying to follow their own plan and then the NPCs are completely useless. but honestly, aside from gray, all of the NPCs are just.... nice. travis refuses to even let his antagonists be mean or cruel or even more than just slightly rude, because that'd be a bummer and we don't want that! the "twist" of gordy the lich king actually being polite and chill is not a twist at all because everyone is like that in this world. the NPCs are also wildly overpowered, but then suddenly absolutely useless when the PCs actually want their help.

too many cliffhangers that are dropped immediately at the beginning of the next episode. i feel bad for travis because so many of these cliffhangers actually set up good momentum and seemed like things were gonna get interesting, but almost every single time he just dropped them at the beginning of the next episode. like when althea showed up to interview the boys and the next episode started with travis being like "actually you went to sleep, she said she'll be back tomorrow!"

that time travis specifically said in his exposition dump that the thundermen left their horses behind because they thought the centaurs might be offended by them riding horses, only to later on rag on them for being surprised that the centaurs had horses they could ride.....

also the centaur arc in general, but i already listed racism above, so.

the way that the toxic positivity and parasocial tendencies in the mcelroy fandoms have made a large portion of the fandom take ANY criticism as a personal attack on travis and/or on themselves for enjoying something others consider bad, either morally or just quality-wise. it’s okay to admit that something you like has problematic elements or just isn’t as good as it once was. you can and should engage critically with the media you consume.

related to above: the way travis has handled genuine criticism, which is to throw public tantrums on his twitter or make weird passive aggressive tweets & ultimately ignore all the genuine criticism and advice he's been offered by claiming it's all subjective, even after he specifically asked for it and set up an email for folks to send in genuine, objective advice for him (after he threw a tantrum on twitter and replied to someone's criticism publicly, which resulted in his followers dogpiling on that person bc how dare they insult their internet best friend). while i was writing this last night, he actually announced that he’s taking a break from Twitter and acknowledged that he’s been using it as an echo chamber where he can easily get validation from folks, and honestly i’m happy for him that he’s recognized this problem and is stepping away for a while! i hope he’ll genuinely use this time to reflect on how he’s been behaving and find a more healthy way to use social media. i’m leaving this point in because i think his Twitter being such a positive echo chamber was encouraging him to do stuff like this, and him somewhat acknowledging his behavior doesn’t mean it can no longer be discussed.

rainer. extremely cool concept in theory and i was very into it until that awkward "does anyone want to ask about my wheelchair?" moment. also when travis had her use her mobility aid to RAM INTO A DOOR instead of just fucking knocking???? also all the times travis has tried to force a romantic relationship between her and fitzroy, despite fitzroy displaying no interest in her in that way. also, just to clarify: as an ace person, i don’t think this is aphobic! (and it’s kind of a stretch to call it that imo, especially since griffin never explicitly said that fitzroy's aromantic!) i just think it’s weird and awkward and a little uncomfortable for me personally, mostly because it reminds me of the times i’ve been in similar situations.

less of a problem than a lot of the other stuff and more just bad writing, but the forced emotional moments. in general, nothing in grad feels earned (why are the boys heading a war? when they have multiple actual heroes with combat experience on their side and a supposedly powerful secret organization? and the thundermen are like 21 years old max and have only had like ~10 fights in the entire campaign?) but there've been a couple times where travis has tried to force unearned emotional moments, presumably because he knows people enjoyed those with the last campaigns. but the difference is that in balance, the big emotional moments happened because they were earned. in grad, it's just travis throwing a baby pegasus at us for a few minutes and then the next time she shows up, it's supposed to be a tearful goodbye.

there are absolutely no stakes. remember when the thundermen got told that if they left, gray would kill 10 students? and then they left and came back and it turns out that what gray actually meant was, "i'll tie ten students who are mostly nameless NPCs to a tree and throw some dogs at them that you can easily stop in time, then throw a tantrum because how dare you but i'll leave before you can really do anything to hurt me lol" travis did have fitzroy's magic get taken away, but like. it didn't really do anything? also all he had to get it back was be coerced into using drugs by an authority figure and trip in the woods?

we're told that the school is weird and the hero system is corrupt, but the world of nua is still presented as more of a liberal utopia than anything? althea getting fired because of a corrupt villain is the only time we've somewhat seen corruption, but even then, she was still allowed to get (what seems to me, anyway, but admittedly i don't know for sure bc nothing about the HOG makes much sense) a fairly important job from the very people who stripped her of her hero license or whatever the fuck heroes need?

travis doesn't actually seem to understand how capitalism or bureaucracy works and just chalks up everything to "red tape." also more on the rest of the boys than him specifically, but the "let's destroy capitalism!" thing turning into just pushing some filing cabinets over................... okay.

and one last piece of extremely subjective criticism: it's just kind of.... boring. i think a lot of people, myself included, would be willing to overlook 90% of the problems with graduation if it didn't feel like such a slog to get through.

also people saying that we can't or shouldn't criticize graduation because it's "free" is absolutely absurd for several reasons. first, something being free does not make it above criticism. second, there ARE people who directly financially support the show with monthly donations. three, there's a difference between something being free and something being not for profit. podcasting is their full time job. they make their living off of money made from TAZ and MBMBAM (and probably their other shows to a lesser extent). this not a fun home game that they are graciously recording and sharing with us. it is a product they are producing that they make money off of, both from ads in the episodes and merch & books based off of these podcasts. they have marketed themselves as professionals, and both griffin and travis have been on panels where they are marketed as professional DMs and appear alongside other professional DMs (which makes it incredibly frustrating when people say that travis is just a newbie DM and we can't criticize him because of that. if he's a newbie, then he should not be taking part of panels as a professional DM where he speaks as an expert). TAZ is free in the same way that an episode of NCIS is free. i may not pay for it directly, but the creators are paid to create it and profit off of me consuming this product. so saying we should be grateful for any mcelnoise that the benevolent good boys share with us and that we're not allowed to criticize it "because it's free" is absolutely wild.

#negativity cw #i guess #anyway this is not meant to say that you cannot enjoy grad.#but i'm tired of folks on this website acting like there aren't genuine problems with it #and saying that people just dislike it bc they hate travis etc etc #taz graduation #i genuinely don't expect anyone to read this bc it's so long #but here ya go.#long post

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cruelfeline · 5 years ago

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This Got Long and I am Sorry

Well, the anti in the Hordak tag deleted their post, which is a huge bummer because it means no fun games for me. But! I have been looking forward to addressing the points in that post all day, and I won’t give up my chance to talk ad nauseam about Hordak. Because y’all know that I love to talk about Hordak.

also I saved the post as a draft prior to it getting deleted so I actually have the whole thing hahaha

However: in order to prevent the original poster from getting harassed for said post, I’m just going to address points via my own summary. Safer that way! So, here we go: addressing some posited reasons that Catra and Hordak are not comparable, plus some claims about why Hordak can’t be treated with the same kindness many like to treat Catra with.

1. Hordak being a clone of a dictator/not being biologically similar to Catra et. al, acting as he does because of this biology as a clone.

This portion of that post was a little odd because I don’t really understand what the argument was. Perhaps the idea that Hordak literally cannot be anything different than his progenitor due to... cloning science? I’m not sure.

But assuming that that was the intended argument: being a clone essentially means having the same DNA as someone else. That’s all. It does not mean that you are the exact same person (ask some identical twins if they are the same exact person as their sibling). The environment one is raised in, along with epigenetics (changes in individuals due to gene expression rather than DNA), provides infinite variations between individuals that might share the same DNA. So this argument is a little... nonsensical?

Now, I can definitely buy that some of Hordak’s morality might be biology-based; that is a legitimate argument. See this post regarding why an individual like Hordak may not have issues raising children for his army, for example. Mind you, I don’t really see this as an argument in support of him just being an evil, irredeemable bastard; rather, I look at it as an argument against “natural evil” and more in favor of different biological, cultural, and environmental factors creating an alien morality.

2. Hordak created a social system that resulted in all sorts of abuses being visited upon children. He viewed said children as disposable materials for his war.

...yeah, actually, just go to this post again. Honestly, I have zero expectation for Hordak to have any sort of special tenderness towards children. I don’t expect a clone from a society of clones to value children, not because he’s pure evil, but because he comes from a world where children aren’t a thing. Why would he value them?

A creature whose life is so different from ours as to give it a different sense of morals isn’t necessarily evil, even if they do things that we look upon as evil via our morality. Morality is not a universal constant; our evil may be meaningless to an alien, whereas our good might be horrifying to them. It all depends on the creature.

And as far as seeing children as disposable material for war: well, that follows, doesn’t it? Because after all, Hordak is also disposable material for war. Material that was actually disposed of.

3. Hordak was ready to murder Catra for disobeying orders; he’s likely murdered other high ranking officers for the same.

There is no evidence that Hordak has personally murdered anyone, so we’re just going to pass on that. One may speculate all one wants, but unless Hordak presents me with a neatly-written list of all the poor souls he’s slain, I don’t have much to say about this.

However, regarding him being ready to kill Catra: this is a complex situation because it was not as simple as “Catra disobeyed, so she must die.” Catra did not just disobey Hordak; she lied to him. He gave her a chance to come clean, to be trustworthy and loyal, to own up to a mistake, and she lied to him.

This is an issue for a couple of reasons: first, Hordak appears to have a thing about lies. He has a thing about people deceiving him (potentially because, where he comes from, he is truly incapable of lying), about not knowing what people around him are planning. Personally, I think that this is at least somewhat rooted in self-defense: he is physically weak without armor and prone to emotional manipulation by anyone who knows anything remotely intimate about him. Catra proves this point by manipulating the bejeezus out of him during season four, right after showing him that she can kill him anytime she likes by disarming him via crystal-grab. If one of his subordinates is prone to deceiving him, he needs to get rid of that subordinate to protect himself.

Second, when Catra loses Shadow Weaver, she truly does endanger the whole Horde. Like, Shadow Weaver literally helps the Princesses infiltrate during season three. That is a thing that happens. Hordak isn’t just pulling dumb moments of insubordination from thin air; he elects to eliminate Catra because she has done something that proves to be actually detrimental to the Horde in a serious way.

I don’t mean to say that Hordak is morally correct in sentencing Catra to death, first via Beast Island, then via Crimson waste; what I mean to say is that he enacts an extremely dramatic punishment not due to simple disobedience, but due to Catra being legitimately dangerous to his life and the life of the Horde. It’s still not “good,” but it’s not the same as killing Catra for mouthing off. It’s not some grand confirmation of irredeemable evil; it’s not that simple.

4. Catra is an abused child who has been broken physically, emotionally, and psychologically since she was an infant; Hordak, on the other hand, has no background in abuse. The only bad that has happened to him is being called a defect and sent out to fight and die, which didn’t really matter because he was a clone anyway.

This… this is a sentiment some antis hold that is honestly disturbing to me.

I won’t touch on the Catra portion; all of that is true.

But Hordak… I cannot comprehend how some people don’t seem to understand the true horror of Hordak’s situation. As far as we currently know, as of season four, Hordak was manufactured to be a tool of war. He was never meant to be his own person, despite clearly having the psyche of one. He didn’t even have, couldn’t have, his own name. He was born into this purpose with no way out, no hope for any choice of his own. For pity’s sake, he has a port in the back of his neck that allows him to be erased without a moment’s notice. That is a piece of hardware someone put in him to completely control him against his will. It is a level of bodily autonomy violation suffered by no one else on this show.

Hordak has essentially no personal self-esteem and no ability to self-validate outside of his identity as Prime’s clone. His entire concept of self-worth is based upon being useful to Prime, to the point that he doesn’t seem to understand that his being thrown away for getting sick is not only not his fault, but morally abhorrent. He is so emotionally dependent on his Brother that, despite severe risk to his own life, he seeks to return to him rather than simply taking Etheria for himself (which is what he would have done if he simply wanted to be a ruler). He needs Prime’s validation, Prime’s approval, that badly.

And he tries to obtain that approval despite being absolutely terrified of Prime, despite it being very clear to us that there is no way that Prime will ever give it as long as Hordak remains his own self. Despite all of that, Hordak needs it because he was manufactured and programmed and conditioned to worship this terrible creature, and he simply cannot grasp a different way to live. He’s too emotionally sick.

I’m not sure how someone can look at this character and not see what has happened to him, what is happening to him, as abuse.

5. Hordak only starts to care about anything else when Entrapta enters his life, and he only does so because she validates him; even then, it takes a long time.

This is a perplexing concept to me because… well, yes? Of course he only starts to see things differently when he bonds with Entrapta? Obviously?

Until then, he never had anyone suggest to him that he could be a worthwhile person without having some sort of practical use. He never had a companion to share his vulnerabilities with. He only had his sick ties to Prime.

Perhaps this means to suggest that Hordak should have started building a new life without the help he received from Entrapta? As if people suffering from mental illness and severe emotional pain should just be able to lift themselves up with zero support and fix their whole lives in a snap.

Ailing people tend to need other people’s support to get through their troubles. Hordak not being able to see new possibilities for his life without Entrapta’s help doesn’t say anything negative about him; all it says is that he needed someone’s support to start healing. Just as the overwhelming majority of people do.

6. Catra wants to be in charge so that others can’t hurt her. Hordak wants to be in charge just so he can “be on top,” and he only regrets what occurs with Prime because it means he is no longer dominant.

Hordak as a warlord is actually a very interesting thing to look at. He fails to act in the way that many enthusiastic, traditional warlord characters do, to the point that he seems less into the ruling and more into the obtainment of Prime’s esteem via conquering a planet to prove his worth. Which is, y’know, what’s happening: Hordak doesn’t care about ruling Etheria. He cares about conquering it so he can present it to Prime and prove that he deserves to live. The full post about that is right here.

If Hordak really cared about ruling something, he would have never bothered wasting all of that time building a portal to get in contact with Prime. He would have focused all of his efforts on conquering Etheria and left it at that. His actions only make sense when one understands that he doesn’t actually care about being a tyrannical lord; he cares about showing his Brother that he’s a good boy.

7. Catra feels regret for her actions; Hordak does not. Catra sees herself as an irredeemable bad person and hates herself. Hordak doesn’t believe he needs to be redeemed and just wants to control everything.

Again, I won’t touch Catra here, because that assessment is valid.

Hordak, however: Hordak literally thinks so little of himself that he believes it his own job to prove to his brother that he shouldn’t have been tossed aside to die. He doesn’t see this as a moral failing on Prime’s part. He doesn’t see it as wrong, that he was thrown away because he got sick. He sees it as a problem that it is his responsibility to fix.

Hordak admits to Entrapta that he has doubts: perhaps Prime was right. Perhaps he, Hordak, is a failure. Perhaps it was okay to send him out to die.

Hordak believes Catra’s lies about Entrapta’s “betrayal” because, Twitter Word of God, he views himself as undeserving of friendship.

Whether Hordak believes himself needing redemption is beside the point: the core of Hordak’s story and character arc has nothing to do with being a morally good person. It has to do with learning, understanding, and internalizing that he has his own value beyond what Horde Prime grants him. It has to do with accepting himself as he is, triumphs and shortcomings alike. It has to do with realizing that he has a right to live with or without Prime’s say-so.

Moral redemption has nothing to do with it because before Hordak has any hope of learning to respect the rights of others, he has to learn to fight for his own.

Am I done? I think I’m done.

Well. Regrettably, I had to summarize this, so the original poster’s words are not verbatim intact, but I think I got the sense of them! Also regrettably, they will likely not see or respond to this, so that chance for active dialogue is gone. But anyone else can respond if they like, including any antis lurking about the tag. Well; if you can slog through this whole thing!

Anyway, in conclusion: Hordak is a sad bastard man. He has just as many painful personal problems as Catra and will forever have all of my sympathy and kindness because I have decided that he deserves it. So there.

#hordak #catra #man I have been looking forward to writing this nonsense all day and it was a good time #i love talking about this bastard #to the point that i appreciate antis giving me posts to respond to #you go you angry little people

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stevie-writes-the-pain-away · 5 years ago

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Chapter Eight

"How'd you enjoy today's session?" I heard from behind me. Murdoc caught up to me as I started down the sidewalk.

"It was nice," I sighed with grateful tranquility. I hadn't felt unattached from stress for a while and it felt good to escape, even if just for an hour. "What about you?"

"It was relaxing, I suppose," he smiled at me.

I couldn't help but smile back before facing forward once more and proceeding in the direction of my apartment. "What was so special about today's session?"

Murdoc already had his eyes on me, looking at me with a goofy and distracted smile. "O-oh-" he shook his head, snapping out of his daze. "Nothing really, just wondering." He proceeded to follow me, taking strides at the same pace as me. "Well, even if I didn't talk a lot today again, it was nice seeing you since the last time we talked."

I immediately blushed and my bottom lip quivered with unbelievable and bubbly excitement. "I agree," I nodded. "What are you going home to?" I asked.

"More work," he said. "But fun work, so I have no right to complain. What about you?"

I sighed, "More work at the convenience store . . . Exhausting work."

Murdoc clicked his tongue, "Bummer . . . Maybe I'll come visit you again and make it less exhausting."

I giggled, "You're gonna get me fired one day, I swear."

"And why's that?"

"Well . . . I mean, you make me unprofessional, no offence."

Murdoc scoffed with an unexpected, unsteady grin, "W-what do you mean?"

"I'm supposed to be assisting people and topping up shelves, not conversing." We reached the cross walk, Murdoc taking it upon himself to stick his arm out in front of me so I couldn't walk any further. It made me laugh and shake my head with embarrassment.

He looked down at me as I pushed his arm away from my chest, "Is it not worth getting fired to have a little laugh?"

I thought about it for a second, "Nah."

As the streetlights turned red, we proceeded to walk with the rest of the crowd. "I don't take 'Nah' for an answer." I smirked up at him, wondering if he'd continue to walk his own way or if he'd rather follow me. "Would it count as assisting people if I came to visit you and bought something?"

I was about to open my mouth in disagreement but I had nothing to disagree to, "I-I guess it does."

"Good. I'll come visit you during my break then."

I sighed with defeat, but looked forward to his company. "I'll see you in a few hours," I waved, turning to walk away.

"Farewell," he mumbled from behind me.

As I got inside, I didn't bother locking the door. I ripped my clothes off and jumped into my uniform, grabbing my drawstring bag and digging through the kitchen for a few snack bars and a water bottle to bring. I rushed out the door and continued with my work routine.

I considered my convenience store work exhausting because we had our huge monthly supply, which meant lifting endless towers of heavy boxes and taking extra time with fragile items. It was a pain in the ass to say the least, as well as a pain in my back by the time the shift ended, but it wasn't something I had the audacity to whine about. I decided to stop ranting in my head and focus more on the positives; because even if I was in desperate need of a massage, I would see Murdoc that evening, making it all worth it.

After tossing another empty box into the back room and stretching my back once, I heard a bell ring from to front door. It wasn't usually apart of my convenience store employee procedure, but I ambled towards the front to check on the customer, just in case. Realizing it wasn't the familiar leather and chains I came to know, I was beginning to lose hope, and found myself packing everything away for the night. However, seconds away from starting the last shelf, I heard another jingle and a smile immediately painted itself on my face. To the sound and rhythm of his infamous Cuban heels, I followed his footsteps to see his curious expression wander throughout the store. I watched him from afar, slowly catching his attention as he moved about, grinning in my direction.

"You realize I'm minutes away from closing, right?" I smirked.

Murdoc made a beeline towards me, his thumbs tucked into the pockets of his jeans as he titled his head. "I didn't wanna bug you while you were busy, like the considerate gentleman I am."

I quietly laughed as we met in the middle of the foods aisle, "Thanks for thinking about that. I was starting to convince myself you weren't coming at all."

"Oh, I never break a promise," he said, following me as I headed back to my unloading station. "Besides, I know you don't drive or take the taxi, so I figured I'd walk you home myself if you'd like." I nearly stopped in my tracks to look back at him with bewilderment. Not that Murdoc wasn't naturally a kind man, but it still caught me by surprise that he seemed to care so much. Maybe he was just flirting with me - that was also a possibility - but he still decided to go out of his way to spend more time with me, and my heart melted.

"Aww . . ." I smiled, scooping a handful of toys and shuffling up and down the kids' isle while Murdoc watched me put them away.

"Also, I was hoping to catch up a little after your shift?" he questioned.

I glanced back at him with excitement, but stopped myself within a moment, remembering my plans. "Damn," I sighed. "I wish I could, Muds, but I've got a meeting at the theatre." Convenience store shifts weren't usually at that time of night; it was rare I ever closed the store by myself. So if I couldn't make it to my theatre ticket-selling position in the evenings, I would arrive for any after hour meetings to catch up. It wasn't very nice working late during busy movie nights but at least it gave me another reason to dismiss Cassidy's schedule as nothing to do with me. I acknowledged that this much doubt I had about her was a huge red flag but I couldn't just not give her any chance I could to help me get my social life back. Even if our friendship was doing more harm than good, I admitted.

"(Y/N), c'mon, you're always working," Murdoc protested, pulling my hands down from the ledges and to my sides.

I ignored him and proceeded to stock the shelves in front of me, "You're beginning to sound an awful lot like Cassidy." Murdoc seemed to take deep offence to my comment as he backed up, furrowing his eyebrows and crinkling his nose with disgust. I felt instant regret, choking on air as I saw how he took it and I watched him with worried eyes. "I-I didn't mean it like that, I-"

Murdoc held his hand up to pause my babbling, "I know, (Y/N)." We both smiled in understanding and he leaned against the shelf beside me. "I can't be the only one who thinks you need to have a life, though," he said.

"Well . . . you're not, but . . . I don't think there's anything wrong with succeeding well as an employee for a life," I responded.

"That's not a life, (Y/N), that's just a stepping stone to achieving greater things in life." He got me there. "When're you free next?"

I paused. "Maybe . . . Maybe this weekend, but Cassidy said she wanted to bri-"

"Nope," Murdoc immediately shook his head. "You know what happens when you go out with her," he continued. I couldn't hear the disappointment in his tone, but there was no way he wasn't displeased with my ongoing doormat habits.

I sighed and lowered my head in guilt, "I-I know, Mudz, but . . . I feel so bad shutting her down. She's just trying to help me . . ."

"Doesn't seem like it," he disagreed. "Why don't you just take the day off for yourself instead and . . . go do things you've always wanted to do?"

"Like what?"

"You got a bucket list?"

I shook my head, "All I've ever thought about since being employed is making money to survive living in an apartment and getting into college." Murdoc widened his eyes with disbelief. "I never made time for fun because . . . I felt like it wasn't important."

I heard an audible sigh and I started walking down the aisle towards the back, Murdoc following me like a lost puppy. "Y-you can't just not make time for recreation," he said. I was about to enter the back room before he stopped me, his hand placed gently on my forearm to get my attention. "Wait . . . Why don't we make one together? Then on the weekend, instead of hanging with Cassidy, we go out together." We both paused. "N-not 'out together', but y-you know what I mean," he mumbled.

I smiled, "I better not be pulling you away from any plans you made before me . . ."

He shook his head, "You're more important either way."

I couldn't tell you why, but I instinctively wrapped my arms around him. "Thanks for helping me," I said, my appreciation muffled by squishing my face into his chest.

He was caught off guard at first, but slowly, his arms snaked around my waist as we held each other for a few ethereal seconds. "Yeah . . . No problem."

I let go, "Now I better get back to work."

"Good idea," Murdoc smirked, pointing finger guns in my direction. "I'll see you on the weekend, though?"

I nodded, "See ya," and watched him leave my side for the rest of the night.

The rest of the week had felt short but almost too short. I understood the only meaning to my life at that point was to work and work and work in between lonely nights at home laying restlessly in bed, but I didn't want time to fly by so quickly. It was all worth it to pay off what I needed to graduate with a better chance at life, but I felt as though I was wasting my time. Maybe Murdoc was right about recreation? With that, I couldn't wait for him to get back to my text accompanied with a smiling face.

"I should be done my meeting at 6:00 so why don't you stop by at around 6:30?" he texted.

"Sure thing!"

He sent me an okay hand emoji afterwards. It seemed to be his favourite emoji apart from the eggplant and cucumber emojis, but I dismissed the thought with a laugh.

Murdoc and I didn't text daily, but when we did, he seemed to be the one texting first asking me what I was up to. I'd respond with either "work" or "nothing" every time and proceed to ask him how he was doing, which he would respond with either "excellent" or "fine" every time. Each conversation starters were predictable but the longer the conversations went on the more special each topic proved to be. I hadn't had many contacts in my phone but our chats felt like something I'd never experienced before. There wasn't a lot of deep importance or meaning to our messages; just stupid, yet somehow still funny jokes and him boosting my confidence without realizing it through admiration and reassuring or validating me when I'm doubtful. I guess the back and forth was important to me after all, but I could never tell with Murdoc. After all, I can't be the only person he comforts and supports in a special way, can I?

I shut down my daydreaming and stood up from my warm, comfy nest of blankets. Part of me almost contemplated flaking on Murdoc just so I could lay in bed all day, but that's the last thing I needed in such desperate times as such. Desperate for enjoyable leisure, I mean. I fetched my wallet in search for loose coins to pay for public transit but three pounds weren't the only thing I couldn't find. I swore when I got my monthly pay from the convenience store I went straight to the bank for cash just in case, even if I never ended up using it. But the fifty pounds I had just . . . disappeared.

I blinked with confusion, stammering to myself as I began to look around the apartment. Did I drop it? Did I leave it somewhere? Did Cassidy mistake it for her money? "Cass?" I called out, knocking lightly on her bedroom door.

I heard groaning from the other side, as well as shuffling, and she opened the door with tired, sleepy eyes. "What's wrong?" she murmured.

"I-I thought I withdrew five tenners a few days ago but they're just . . . gone," I explained. She looked at me carelessly, sighing and scratching her neck. I waited for an answer but it seemed as though she was waiting for me to talk some more. "Have you seen them anywhere?"

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "Nope," she yawned. "I'll tell you when I do, though," she said, closing the door without a goodbye.

I'd never seen Cassidy so inattentive but then again, she came back from a party that night. She got home at probably two in the morning and had been sleeping off her hangover since, so I decided I wouldn't take it personally, leaving and locking up the apartment.

Lucky enough to see a few pounds laying around the living room, I was dropped off just a block or two away from Murdoc's home. As I remembered from before, his roommates weren't there the first time I was invited, but Murdoc mentioned they were home for the weekend and actually excited to meet me this time around.

Thinking about it made me smile as I walked up the front steps of the dwelling. After a few seconds of deep breathing, I knocked on the door, backing up and fiddling with my fingers nervously. After ten eerily long seconds, the door opened to my one and only Grinch, a smile already plastered onto his poorly shaved jaw. Classic Murdoc.

"Hey, (Y/N)!" he exclaimed. "C'mon in," he invited, stepping out of the way and gesturing with his arm for me to enter. I did so with a grin, watching him shut the door behind me and place his hands on his waist. "How've you been?" he asked.

"Good, thanks," I quietly laughed at his enthusiasm. "How about you?"

"Great!" he responded. I'd never seen this keen side of Murdoc, but I couldn't be more interested in getting to know him. "My band-" he stuttered. "M-my mates are this way," he sweat, scratching the back of his neck. I followed him down the hall towards what I assumed was the living room, entering the intriguing aura it emitted.

The whole house had a sort of reckless and "I really couldn't care less, I just want to hang out" vibe I never knew I needed to feel until that very moment. The walls weren't afraid to show their true age, just like the rest of the house's architecture, the decorations were rather questionable but unique and enthralling, and the furniture definitely didn't match, but still seemed comfortable enough you wouldn't mind. I loved it.

Two men were sitting on the couch, standing up and turning their attention to the sound of our footsteps entering the scene. "Russ, D', this is (Y/N)," Murdoc introduced as I stood beside him timorously.

The first of the two to walk up to me was a bigger African American man, about 5'7, wearing a plain white shirt under an army green jacket and tucked into loose fitting jeans. To top off the look he stood in black army-esque books, and sat a red beanie over his shaved head. He held out his hand. "Russel Hobbs," he smiled. Now that I saw him up close, I couldn't ignore his milky white eyes, catching me off guard.

I took his hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you."

"I'm 2-D!" called the next man, taking my hand in his and shaking me like a maraca. The kid, pale, lanky and at least 6'2, had vibrant blue locks sticking out in the oddest of places as if it'd never been combed down before. He wore a baggy baby pink t-shirt and wrinkled blue jeans cuffed just high enough to see his bright neon pink socks hidden by his fancy leather shoes. I'd noticed his nails were painted mismatched colours as he shook me violently before looking up at his seemingly eyeless sockets.

"Charmed," I laughed as he let go.

"You must be (Y/N)!" I heard from behind me, coming face to face with a 5'2 tall Japanese girl giving herself extra oomph with her white heeled booties. "I'm Noodle," she smiled, waving then holding her hand out for me. I took it with secret surprise, not realizing Murdoc had a female buddy living with them as well. She had great taste in fashion too, rocking her pink blouse hanging off her right shoulder and over her black miniskirt. She had two pigtails taming her choppy black hair, and I noticed that she would be the one of the four in that house with actual human eyes; not that her beautiful emerald gems were a bad thing to have.

"Nice to meet you, Noodle," I smiled, strongly influenced by her energy.

"Well, (Y/N) and I will be upstairs if you need us," Murdoc said, turning on his heel, and waving goodbye we retired to his place of hiding.

His chamber was all too familiar, maybe even too familiar. In fact, it felt an awful lot like home for me; as if I never should've left the first time he invited me over . . . Despite how strange it sounded.

"So!" the man clapped, pulling out a piece of paper and pen from his desk. "Start dropping names, what do you do for fun?" he asked, getting down to business with a clipboard on his lap.

I smiled, getting comfortable beside him as we sat on his bed, "Writing music, of course."

Murdoc made sure to take notes but it immediately went quiet. "Well? Anything else?" he chuckled.

"Uh . . ." I stammered, turning back at him with a wince.

"That's it?" he laughed.

I found myself laughing awkwardly, ". . . U-uh, yeah . . ."

"How about . . ." Murdoc pondered. "You work at a movie theatre, right? Don't you ever go watch any movies?"

I shook my head, "Sure, I get offers to see movies all the time, but I never have time to go."

"Oh, well that's gonna change," Murdoc smirked.

I shook my head and chuckled, "You can't just change my work schedules, Mudz, or I'll make you pay for my education when Fall comes around."

"At least then you won't be so tied down," he said. "There are so many places you're missing out on, so many sights you've gotta see!" I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, pushing it out of my face to look at the man in all his excitement. He wrapped an arm around me, his hand risen in the air as if he was introducing me to the world - the closet doors across from us - like I'd never seen it before; and honestly, he might as well have been. It's not like I'd been anywhere outside of London, England for the past ten years, except for in my dreams. "In fact, when my band gets up and running again, I'll take you on tour with us," he insisted.

I couldn't help but laugh at his commitment. The thought was surreal but thrilling at the same time, I found myself daydreaming about it.

Murdoc and me, feeling the bumpy road below us as we shared the same bunk, whispering among each other as everyone else fell asleep. Or Murdoc and me, sitting in the same row together, looking out at the clouds we soared above before settling on a movie to watch together. Maybe even Murdoc and me, feeling the mist of the tides as they crashed against the boat while we watched for whales or sea turtles or dolphins. Well . . . Maybe not that one in particular, but now that I thought about it, giving up university to dedicate my life to keeping Murdoc company while he produced music didn't seem so bad.

"Of course, I wouldn't make you do something you didn't want to," Murdoc started, catching my attention once again. "But then again, there are a few producers I could get in contact with for you and you could meet them face to face," he sang convincingly.

"Couldn't you just produce my music for me?" I chuckled.

"I'd love to, but then I wouldn't have enough reasons to persuade you into tagging along with me."

I laughed, rolling my eyes, "You got me there." I sighed, feeling myself fall back onto his sheets and Murdoc followed, his arm brushing against mine.

"I wasn't kidding, too." I looked at him with confusion, but near exhilaration at his proposal. "If we could get you into university so you can get that bachelors degree; you'd have a better chance at being recommended. As a sort of reference figure, I could provide you the best of the best, front-of-the-line selection any musician could ever dream of!"

I turned my head to him, speechless. "A-are you serious?"

"D-did I stutter?" He mocked. Smartass . . .

I could hardly believe it. It was all I'd ever wanted, to be recognized for my writing and to finally have a chance at succeeding in life. It made my heart ache with overwhelming, buoyant relief. "Murdoc . . . You don't know how much that'd mean to me!"

I watched his smug smile grow, "Only the best for you." I couldn't tell if this was genuine kindness or he was just trying to be sly, but he still held out his hand, and there was no way in Hell I wasn't taking it.

"Murdoc, holy shit!" I boomed. "I can't believe this, oh, my God, I could kiss you!" I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to hold back as much enthusiasm as I could in the moment; but before I could even look back in his direction, I felt a pair of lips land on mine. Out of instinct, I closed my eyes, and knowing it was Murdoc, I kissed back.

Suddenly, everything slowed down. I heard him shuffle beside me and a hand reached my face, his long nails tapping my cheeks before his palm gently cradled my cheek. We broke away for a breath and I opened my eyes to see the man looking down at me, his eyes softening up.

I couldn't recall ever seeing him so genuinely romantic before and it felt strange to witness, especially after something so . . . unlike him, I could say. But then why did I enjoy the unforeseen picture of it all? I adored the moment so much I kissed him again myself, and he had no problem pulling me into him. His hand slid behind my head, causing me to press myself against him more. He clearly enjoyed how rough it was quickly playing out and I would be lying if I said I didn't too.

Soon enough, his weight was almost on top of me and his lips slowly trailed to my jawline. He crawled over me, his waist against mine as he planted kisses in the crook of my neck. I almost winced in both pain and anticipation as he began to nibble on my skin, twisting it and surely leaving marks. My hands slid up his back and almost under his shirt, holding him as he ran his tongue against the love bites he left. After a few minutes of feeling each other up, I even imagined things escalating further before a knock was heard from the door. Naturally, Murdoc was easily irritated. He lifted himself from me, sitting on his knees, one of my legs in between his as he looked back, daggers piercing from his eyes. "What?" he growled.

"Russ is heating up some left overs if you two wanted any." It was 2-D's thick British accent, loud and clear through the wooden door.

Murdoc sighed, looking down at me as he bit his lip. I felt so awkward doing nothing but I wasn't sure what I could do. I simply laid still as he observed my neck, studying the progress he made. "Sure, whatever!" Murdoc called back, turning away from me once more.

"'A'ight, come downstairs when you're ready," 2-D said. We heard him leave the hall and Murdoc slowly got off of me, sighing. I propped myself up, sitting straight and brushing myself off. I watched the man rub his neck and hold his hand out, not bothering to look at me. I could tell he was a little embarrassed being cut off like that, but I didn't mind at all. I thought it was rather sweet and possibly cute to see his reaction. I took his hand in mine and he seemed surprised when I did, looking back at me with confusion written in his eyes. Still, he accepted me with a smile and held tight, starting for the bedroom door and leaving the room behind as we headed downstairs.

Supper was swell. I thanked Murdoc and his friends for the food and we conversed quietly, Murdoc not even making an effort to participate. It concerned me how quiet he was but I figured it was on account of what happened prior to the meal; I understood the frustration of cockblocking. I nodded to myself in understanding and kept on eating, noticing he wasn't really touching his food either. 2-D was the first to finish, leaving his plate empty as he left for his room. Noodle was next to leave, taking 2-D's plate with her to the sink to wash and put away. Russel paid close attention to Murdoc and me, and I'm almost 110 percent sure he noticed the hickeys on my neck.

"Not hungry, I suppose?" he commented, addressing Murdoc. Murdoc looked up at him and simply grumbled, laying his fork down on his plate of seemingly tsunami-hit potatoes and steak. Russel sighed and rolled his eyes, lifting himself from his seat with his own plate and leaving us by ourselves. I'd finished my plate by then and looked back at Murdoc, who seemed much more content when the other three weren't around.

By the time it was dead quite and not a soul could be heard, Murdoc took a single tiny bite of his food before pushing his plate away. He looked towards me, "Are you still hungry?"

I shook my head and he took my plate. "Thank you," I smile, but he didn't smile back. He left his seat and placed the two dishes on the counter, walking back over to me. I stood from my seat and tucked in the chair. "Thanks for having me," I said.

Murdoc looked up at me, his arms folded on his chest. "Uh, no problem," he responded.

I smiled at the peaceful, yet slightly awkward aura in between us. "It's getting late, though . . . Perhaps I should leave," I said, taking a single step towards the exit.

"Let me walk you out," Murdoc offered, hesitantly sticking out his elbow. I proceeded to grin, taking his arm and wrapping it around mine as he escorted me to the entrance. He opened the front door and I slowly walked out, leaving a reserved Murdoc behind. "I hope you have a wonderful evening, (Y/N)."

I let go of him and turned back around, "You too . . . I'll see you on Tuesday." He nodded, giving me one last slanted smile to daydream about until our next session together.

#gorillaz #murdoc x reader #fanfiction #x reader #Damon Albarn #Jamie Hewlett #noodle #Russel Hobbs #2-d #Stuart Pot #murdoc niccals #romance

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arnorcttos · 5 years ago

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( ludovico tersigni + 22 + muse 59 ) isn’t that apollo amoretto over there? i heard HE joined faction: nomads after they got back to west ham. it’s funny, ‘cause they were only on the service trip to terrorize his peers. hopefully they fit in there – they’re ADROIT, but also INDELICATE. oh, i’m sure they’ll be fine. ( james, she/they, 20, EST )

okay hi i’m james and this is my baby apollo, who is actually a brand new spankin’ muse of mine so !! we’ll see how this goes b/c i’ve literally never rp’d him before !! and i’ll b frank. his background is inspired by logan in veronica mars. sue me. actually don’t i’m already in college debt but sudfjkfg PLEATHE plot w/ him. leave a like. two likes. that’s not even possible. i may change his fc in the future b/c like ... i’m currently making his gif icons as i go and to b frank ,,, it’s rly hard sdjfkgh but i love him. so we’ll see. sdjnfkmgh

TRIGGER WARNING - DEATH, MURDER, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

a e s t h e t i c s

fingers across keyboards and piano keys, m&m’s scattered, vintage gaming consoles and tangled wires, worn vans and broken skateboards, banging of drums and splintering drumsticks, deep rhythms beating with your heart, the hum of a hefty computer and the buzz of a monitor, green text against black screens, unruly hair unkempt, flannels filling closets, bloody baseball bats, posters lining up and down walls, loud punk music shaking the walls, glares and whispers, the suffocation that comes with loneliness, pills rattling in their bottles, unmade beds.

general info !!

full name: apollo casimir amoretto

nickname(s): caz, polly, lover boy, 2000 (b/c of his screen names lmaoo)

b.o.d. - january 31st, aquarius boi

label(s): the escapist, the hellion, the insurgent, the netizen, etc. etc.

height: hitting 6′0″

hometown: west ham, kansas !

sexuality: bi...? fucking. it’s pride month ofc he’s bi.

his stats are TBD but his pinterest is HERE !

biography !!

cristian amoretto and camilla silvestri had a romance that could be described turbulent at best, and down right explosive at worst

cristian, a native italian actor whose career began before he could walk, and camilla, the daughter of two italian immigrants with big dreams in a small town, met on the set of a coffee shop. their love story began quickly, dating within only a few months of knowing each other and engaged before the year was up

camilla walked down the aisle 6 months pregnant with lil’ baby apollo, who was then born in west ham, kansas, aka the town that camilla’s family had settled in

was raised primarily by his mother and grandparents! his father was often off shooting movies, leaving camilla to take on the role of stay-at-home mom despite her own dreams of making it big as an actress

apollo grew up as a huge momma’s boy -- i mean, god, he just really loved this mother, y’know? his relationship with his father was much rockier because of his ... lack of being around.

when his grandparents died around the age of eight, that’s when things got...worse. it felt as if camilla’s parents were the only barrier between camilla and cristian’s budding wrath.

it became more apparent that cristian was not meant for the family life, his anger quick and his fists quicker, stinging words and venomous glares. a control freak who couldn’t handle camilla being an independent woman.

this wasn’t apparent to the neighbors, or much of the town in general, because the amorettos were such a prominent family up in their mini-mansion in oak ridge -- it was hard to imagine that their life was anything but exquisite and dreamlike.

this was, of course, up until camilla filed for divorce and a restraining order in the same day, face bruised and nearly unrecognizable. she, obviously, got custody of apollo.

at this point in time, apollo was fourteen and...pretty stoked for them to get away from his father. they holed up in southside and life continued as normal. for the time being. gossip swarmed apollo at school surrounding the circumstance which was annoying, to say the least. it led to him becoming withdrawn from the other students, not getting the whole ... gossip appeal.

in hindsight, they should’ve moved out of west ham. death threats in the form of letters and the eerie feeling of eyes constantly being on them came to a halt on apollo’s graduation day: the day that his father also, coincidentally, murdered his mother.

for making me miss out on years of my son’s life, was cristian’s excuse as he was escorted from the bloody crime scene at their apartment and into the police car.

obviously, cristian was convicted and sentenced to prison. apollo still has dreams about testifying in court against his father.

and then apollo became known not as the son of two celebrities, but the son of a murderer. total bummer !

became even more withdrawn and almost dropped out of college a few good times! the only thing that kept him rooted to west ham was his band.

and now he can’t leave, and he’s surrounded by people who all look at him weird and he feels like they’re all expecting him to be like his father, and he’s not, but god -- when people expect you to be one way, it’s so hard to act otherwise. it’s just not a good time !

pretty much why he went on the service trip tbh ... like, y’know ... if ppl want to believe that he’s just as bad as his dad then damn ! he was gonna wreck sm havoc on the trip, just being an absolute nuisance.

personality !!

his main focuses are computers / video games, drums / his band, and like ... skating ... vaping ... gamer things, y’know.

from a young age he’d always been very fascinated by video games, and being the Rich Boi (tm) that he was, ended up with a whole lot of them to play, on a whole bunch of consoles.

but like ... he’s a PC guy :/ he may have a super rare nintendo 64 console or two but nothing can beat his dual-monitor set up with his hand-build computer !

he also got real into hacking, y’know, just small things like watching security cameras in different cities and occasionally changing his grades b/c like ... who wouldn’t ? also ... cheated in dark souls. fucking loser.

his favorite games to play were always multiplayer games online like WoW and overwatch so !! he’s pretty fucking mad he can’t play them anymore. like. so mad. genuinely furious. he’s been trying to hack his way into like ... wifi or something dumb, ever since they got stranded in new west ham, but he’s had no luck !

he joined a band in high school because he was angsty and young, and like, turned out to be really good on drums ?? they had like ... some real big jimmy eat world / green day / say anything / old school fall out boy vibes. just a whole bunch of ‘fuck the government, fuck the authority, anarchy, rebellion, revolt revolt revolt’ angry rock music that got a buuunch of noise complaints during practice.

his role in the band was essentially the ~nerdy~ one, because he was a gamer, but like he was also Edgy and Angry and wore all black like Constantly (he still does who are we kidding)

probably paints his nails black and has a nose ring b/c gamers can be edgy too !!

huuuuuge junk food junkie. like ... he will consume Everything and Anything unhealthy. has a huge sweet tooth, he can’t remember the last time he’s drank straight up water.

but like ... he’s a loner pretty much. only friends he really bothered keeping were his bandmates and like ! half of them went missing along with the rest of the town so ! he’s feeling a lil’ lost

but not lost enough to do Nothing, y’know ?? coming back to west ham to an empty town awoke his little baby survivalist in him, probably due to a lot of survival games he played online, and he immediately took over his old home in oak ridge ! it was pretty much rotting there with his dad in jail, but not anymore !!

has also probably broken into a few homes already tbh b/c he’s just. ruthless. impulsive. if it feels like the end of the world then he’s yolo’ing, he’s peace-ing out, u cannot stop him.

uuhhh so he’s got this fucking...pomsky, right? her name is tulip. she was camilla’s before she passed away and like, what is apollo gonna do, huh ? put the dog in a shelter ? hell fucking nah. that’s his dog now.

unfortunately tulip isn’t the most .... tough looking dog. apollo set up a bunch of fucking speakers around the property of his dad’s house and plays large barking noises whenever somebody gets too close, just to ward off intruders, but like ... there’s no fucking big dogs man. it’s just apollo and tulip.

this isn’t like a Personality Trait but idk where to put it so ! apollo’s on antidepressants b/c like ... y’know ... the whole dad-murdering-mom thing sort of fucked him up a lot ! they make him feel pretty blah and diminished his sex drive so like ... hook ups aren’t really an option for him atm !

besides that he smokes a lot of weed b/c self medication

he’s ... sort of an asshole. like ... he can be rude and he doesn’t have much of a filter and i don’t know if there’s any softness left to him ! he just really misses his mom and his bandmates and has a lot of wishes involving changing the past and he reacts badly to things because he’s so defensive and on edge constantly.

he misses twitter the most, tho.

no but he’s just like. .. sad gamer boi ... a man and his dog ... who also carries like five knives on him and definitely knows where his dad kept his gun.

like he’s not socially awkward or necessarily Bad with people .. he’s just bad with people :/ doesn’t try hard enough ! is a little too apathetic ! chaotic to true neutral

wanted connections !!

i envision his band to have like ... four or five members including him. two guitar electric guitar, one bass, one drums / keyboard, any of them singing idk that’s not important. and since two of them have Disappeared, i’d like the One (or two) that Remains ! anarchy boys !

generally .. anybody else who is tryn to survive, that maybe he can bond with or completely clash with ??

i’d love enemies, just ppl he Refuses to get along with or they are just on bad terms for whatever reason

people he’s trying to not ! not get along with ! but it just doesn’t work out b/c like ... lbr, apollo’s pretty bad with other people.

just any falling outs.

uuhh ... maybe a few somewhat-friendships ! like... awkward acquaintances

ppl he knew primarily from high school / haven’t spoken to since

maybe one or two ppl who’s soft towards him or he’s soft towards or vice versa b/c like ! i’ll b real .. it’s pretty nice to have !

ex-flings, ex-somethings, ex-gfs, bfs, anything from the past.

hookup gone bad b/c he couldn’t get it up b/c antidepressants be like that (this is based off of a true story can we get a sad yeehaw in here)

gaming pals from before no wifi.

skater buds. vaping buds. b/c i can confirm that apollo owns like three juuls. stoner buds.

someone he’s like ... hesitantly forming an alliance with b/c sometimes it’s easier when you have someone on ur team ! b/c then drama when one of them betrays the other uwu

somebody trying 2 break into his house b/c u Know it’s got some good shit in there but he’s just like ‘alexa play dogs barking audio’ and then ur muse is like ... there’s no fucking dogs

juul pod dealer. that’s all.

i’m down for anything rly !! pleathe hmu !!

#apogeeintro #god i'm sorry this took so long #death tw #mental illness tw #it's implied but yknow #murder tw #domestic violence tw

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artquenga · 7 years ago

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! SPOILER ALERT !

RPDR All Stars 3 Thoughts So Far

Episode 1

I’m going to be reviewing all the episodes (at least as long as they’re interesting) Yall gonna read it?

Am i gonna share it online anyway?

But i’m gonna make it with reaction gifs and pics so yall can be at least entertained while scrolling down. Starting with Milk.

I’m a HUGE Milk fan but she belonged in the bottom, if not bottom 2, a bottom 3. If instead of wearing that cardboard stuff, which looks great for a photoshoot btw, she could have done a lot of “real” costume changes or a whole ~deconstructing drag~ performance art, or even ice skating (if possible...) in drag it would be way more succesful in my opinion. It’s a competition... take the fuck THERE miss THANG!! But i loved her entrance look, and even in the challenge she looked good doing it, her face was gorgeous and i love that the hair she was wearing paired well with the silhouettes that she presented.

Ok, miss DeLa is playing a game, girl we all clocked it.

The editing may influence our perspectives a little but that’s sooo last season... CLOCKED. It would be way better saying “i think yall are fierce blablabla but I choose the bitch who might send me home next week *shows lipstick*” That’s what i would probably do. It would be ok bc they all can handle that... Dela is serving some “miss congeniality” storyline for the show... and they are going to e d i t t h e s h i t o u t o f i t so we can watch good television...

I hope they don’t make her look like a bitch... and if they do, she better own it...

But i’m gonna say that in a competition like this you keep your strategy with yourself as long as you can. Morgan laid the cards down way too soon which gave her competitors the chance to make easy reasons to send her home. So in this situation you better be at the mf top all the time... and i don’t think she was expecting to be one of the bottom.

I think Morgan wanted to set the tone of the competition before the first elimination and it worked against her. I was not expecting her to be the first eliminated. And i hope she’s coming back, that two past bitches in red surelly came to “rescue”... Maybe they are not doing a ruvenge... maybe it’s another shenanigan to bring some eliminated bitch back.

Before moving on i might say that I’m keeping distance from the drag race fandom for the obvious reasons: I don’t wanna be bothered with the bullshit and also I wanna avoid spoilers... so i might not know stuff that the rest of the fandom already knows because i’m kinda off ~or very select with~ social media... and tbh that’s the only way you can see the show without spoilers. So, seing Bebe as the 10th contestant was kind of ~ok what’s happening?~

It was sort of an “it’s not right but it’s okay" feeling initially. Not because i don’t think Bebe shouldn’t be featured on rpdr again, but i think if she’s gonna compete again i believe that she should compete against “royalty”. IJS.

But girl... that outfit... she walked in the work room in good drag, and here’s the reason: she showed that she’s current, her makeup was good, the hair was right and the outfit was right... i woulda liked to see some kinda jewelry tho... but instead of going for obvious crowned queen with a bunch of bling and this and that... she went simple and she walked in like royalty because, girl... that cape was the only thing that she needed to show that... that red pattern with the plain soft blue inside was so chique... And on the stage she was Fierce.

Me watching Bebe’s number:

Honestly all season 1 bitches deserves to be featured again on the show at least once. (ok we have exceptions but i’m not gonna get into that)

I’m noticing that Trixie knows how television works and she wants that camera on her... she wants her interviews on air... good for her, i like her so she better do it... but then again we have backstage/workroom trixie and mainstage trixie. It’s only episode 1, i know... i a m A W A R E ... but that’s the first impression. Her act was too soft for my taste. I was expecting her to sing, but i was also expecting her to bring more comedy into it... she has gimmicks that would work. (Except that hooooneeey thing, girl, don’t wear it out please...) Thorgy... i love Thorgy... i was O B S E S S E D with the two outfits that she rocked. The entrance look was fierce, those pants and that pin/buttom thing on the shirt i loved... very fashion clown. On the main stage that white jumpsuit with that hair... Fierce.

I’m not as obsessed with her as much as she’s still obsessed with Bob, girl... I know in the interviews they must’ve asked her something that brought up the subject, but she did bring Bob up in the reading challenge... so... snap out of it!

As far as her performance, i loved it. I knew she wouldn’t just play the violin and wrap it up, she put her character into that and brought a fun act, but i agree with the critique that the girl from hsm gave to her. She could be a little more extra... Speaking of extra. BenDeLaCreme... THAT’S 👏🏻 WHAT 👏🏻 I‘M 👏🏻 HERE 👏🏻 FOR!! Brilliant, amazing, showstoping, never the same*, put it on a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, give birth to it! Her number was my favorite, i thought that it was very funny and entertaining. She’s one of my all time favorites and she did not let me down.

* OK the entrance look. Not my favorite... recycled drag is not my favorite thing in the world when you’re gonna appear on worldwide television.

Aja slayed... she gave me all the loife i needed. I thought that she were moving too fast, but that’s part of the whole vogue thing, maybe i wished to see more precision in her movements... but hey, she put on a good show, she’s a young queen and she brought good drag show like i want to see, and that jump in the end was fierce.

Shablamgela... I am so happy that she’s on the show again, she is one of my favorites to watch... and she worked it. Her entrance look was very cute, i liked it. Not my favorite number but still very good, she edited the shit out of her act i can tell, but honestly... I WANTED TO SEE MORE SHABLAM!!!

Her performance paid off for the outfit she was wearing which was kinda meh. But hey... the bitch is already messing in the workroom jumping in the conversations and talk shit back on that mirror bitch. LOVE IT. Speaking of talking shit...

Kennedy... Her entrance look was kinda bad, i thought that she had too much going on... the mirrors on the face i like, but not with that gown, not with that hair... i like some elements but not all together. Her number in the challenge i loved it... maybe she and Aja planned to use that high platform, or maybe one of them did it first and then the other one went like

And then asked the crew to use the same “prop”. But they used it in very different ways which was awesome. I love seeing Kennedy perform. I just want to see this bitch live (a lot of them, but these dancing queens honey... i LIVE) Me while these hos are defying gravity and the human body:

Morgan. I was underwhelmed with the performance, she should do the thing for the audience not so much for the other girls. But i loved her look, that bodysuit looks expensive as fuck!!

That brings me back to Milk... it’s frustrating... imma be honest because i love her sooo much... i know that Milk could do way better... like, i was more impressed with the fashion from the queens who are not “fashion queens” than with Milk’s, like i said before the performance was not my favorite by far... Her number was all about fashion but... we only heard of it, we haven’t really seen it... so... that for me was a bummer... i liked the beggining, when she fell on the floor i died... BUT then it got predictable, ~thats my real proboblem with it~ , and I GET the whole “touch the fashion” thing, but it felt kinda lazy. I KNOW... I AM HURTING myself with my own words but i CANNOT read the bitch bellow if i’m not honest about Milk just because she’s one of my favorites... I hope she step her pussy up... but i thought she was great in the reading challenge.

[edit] Ok, watching it again (and again and again and again the whole episode) and hearing other peoples opinions i might have been a little too harsh, but that’s because i love Milk and i was expecting her to surprise me with something more fierce, because it’s a competition beetween the ~crème de la crème~ of drag race and the girls have to kinda outdo themselves in this particular challenge... i saw that number with her lipsynching before and its fun for a Milk show but for the competition it wasn’t really succesfull, i do give her props for singing live but... ya... i think she were capable of planning something better [/edit]

ChiChi... honey... when i saw those flats... girl she was done... bottom 2. I knew it. You can wear flats and still put on a fierce show, and she could be wearing heels... she admited that she made a bad decision but... how can someone see other bitches like Kennedy Motherfucking Davenport, Shangela and Morgan putting on some heels in the workroom and walk out in those shoes knowing that their act is going to be “similar”?

It’s not the same act, but if she could work it in heels then she should work it in heels... I love ChiChi... but i couldn’t even pay atention to the performance because those shoes were distracting me the whole time... maybe if the tights were the same color as the shoe it wouldn’t be so bad, and then the hair was not a good choice, not with that outfit, it should be kinda pulled back so she can whip it better. (Bebe was barefoot but that was a part of her number and her look... it makes sense... Katya performed her gymnastics thing with flats last season but her overall look was on point. That’s the difference) The whole look literally lowered way down the level of her performance, that’s why the look is SO important, because we know that the talent, the energy and the work that she put into that was there, but because of the look it felt kinda messy. Her makeup was fine and her entrance look was cute. I liked it.

But hey... can I do 0.5% of what she did on that stage?

But yea, i can still, you know... be a bitch.

So the lipsync was amazing, DeLa managed to perform anaconda the right way, because it IS a fun/funny song and she brought it. Both of them were good but ben was better in my humble opinion. And then she sent Morgan home with the excuse that she were defeating the evil so the children can walk fearlessly in nature on the set of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3...

Girl... i can not wait to see how this turns out.. but I’m done for now.

So hey, if yall (people who had nothing better to do and decided to read this shit) want to message me, and kiki about the show, feel free to do it. Thanks and

#rpdr #all stars 3 #spoiler #rpdr spoilers #ruview

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trentteti · 5 years ago

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Your July 2019 LSAT Instant Reaction

Over nine months ago, LSAC announced that the LSAT would officially join the twenty-first century, becoming a digital, tablet-based exam. And today, that finally happened with the July LSAT.

Well, for only about half of all test takers. The exam will finally go digital for all test takers on September 21st. For the July exam, however, LSAC administered the traditional paper-and-pencil test in half of the test centers and then gave the same test in its new digital format to the other centers, in order to compare the results from both formats. This is known as “best testing practices” to the test administrators and “a total pain in the butt” to test takers.

To better understand the new digital LSAT, I came out of test retirement and signed up to take the July exam. Spoiler: I did not receive the digital version of the test. They say 50% of success is just showing up, but since I had a 50% chance of showing up to the location that was administering the digital exam, I suppose this plan had only a … checking my math … 25% chance of success.

But, fortunately, Blueprint’s crack team of LSAT-obsessed employees have been monitoring the experiences of as many people who took the digital exam as possible. With thousands of students to call upon, we were in a unique experience to get some second-hand report about the digital test, even if your faithful correspondent couldn’t provide that first-hand report.

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The Digital Experience

So, how did the very first digital LSAT go? In all, relatively smoothly. But it was definitely not without incident. The main complaint is how long it took these test centers to finally get the tablets operational. We’ve heard reports that some proctors had trouble getting the tablets connected to the proctor-controlled motherboard that was used to start and stop each section, which meant that some had to wait almost two hours before the test finally commenced. Some test centers were given tablets that were already circling the drain battery-wise, which led to more wait times as proctors figured out how to charge those tablets. With a completely new format, it’s not exactly surprising that the roll-out wasn’t flawless. Hopefully, by September, proctors will be better equipped to administer the test quickly and seamlessly.

There were also reported issues with the styluses … or is it styli? At any rate, at multiple test locations, test takers were not even given the promised stylus. Someone just forgot about those. Oops. So test takers had to use their sweaty, shaky fingers to highlight and underline the text — which is not ideal, especially when one test taker reported having to use his knuckle to highlight, since his finger was too sweaty to do so.

Others report that the provided stylus wasn’t very good at underlining or highlighting the text — that it would rarely underline just one word, but instead would underline multiple surrounding words. Rather than balling out with the Microsoft-certified stylus made specifically for the Surface Go tablet LSAC is using, LSAC allegedly provided the kind of generic stylus you might get at a work conference or something. Test takers were allowed to keep their apparently not-entirely-effective stylus, though.

There were also reports that glare affected some test takers’ ability to see the screen. Allegedly, the adjustable tablet stand LSAC provided wasn’t quite adjustable enough, and the lighting interfered with test takers ability to see their screens.

Most concerning of all were the reports that at least two test locations had to cancel the LSAT altogether. Apparently, the recalcitrant tablets at these locations refused to work, and after much fussing, the test takers were dismissed without ever taking the exam. I suppose that means they never even got the opportunity to become test takers. Which is a huge bummer for them. Hopefully LSAC allows them to take the test soon, for free, with the option to cancel their score after seeing it, and will maybe wave some law school admission fees for good measure. It will not shock you to learn that both of these test centers were in Florida, incidentally.

And, finally, if you want to get really picayune, Logical Reasoning question stems on the traditional paper version of the LSAT often refer to the “information above,” since that’s where the main text of the question is. On the digital version of the exam, the question still said “information above,” even though the main text is now to the left of the question stem. Maybe that gets corrected in September, when the test is written specifically for the digital version of the test.

OK, you’re probably thinking that I initially said things went “relatively smoothly” but then spent six paragraphs outlining all the ways the test went demonstrably “not smoothly.” That’s a fair observation, but it’s important to remember that people for whom the test goes “not smoothly” are the people most likely to report their experiences. People who felt the digital test went fine wouldn’t need to vent their frustrations, and are hopefully on their third or fourth post-exam elixir at this point. And we heard many reports that the digital exam went well — where test takers had a decent enough time getting through the test, armed with apparently bountiful reams of scratch paper, some commonplace delays notwithstanding.

The July Test

So, with all the reports of the digital exam out of the way, what was the actual content of the test like? This I can provide with first-hand knowledge — this was a hard test! I can also relay some second-hand reports — nearly everyone we’ve heard from shares my sentiment!

Interestingly enough, everyone seems to have gotten a third Logical Reasoning section as their experimental section. Which is annoying, because it make it very difficult to figuring out which two Logical Reasoning were the real, scored sections and which were experimental sections. That said, that’s only a minor annoyance. The only reason you should bother trying to determine which sections were experimental is to figure out whether you should cancel your score. But that’s a moot point for the July 2019 exam. Test takers on this test have the option to cancel their score after seeing it, so there’s no pressing need to make that decision right now. Especially because it’ll take about three fortnights to get your score back.

The three Logical Reasoning questions on my sections included many dense, confusing questions that required you to identify formal aspects of an argument. These sections were also rife with many challenging questions that asked you to change an argument in some way — which has been the case for basically every recent exam. So, you know, normal Monday afternoon reading material.

The Logic Games section was fairly difficult — maybe the most difficult since the notorious-in-LSAT-nerd-circles-at-least December 2017 test. None of the games were totally leftfield, but they were all fairly complicated. The first game looked pretty straightforward — you just had to determine how different departments got arranged in a building — but ended up being quite time-consuming. The second game was one of those games that required a not-in-any-way-obvious deduction to crack things open. Games are never easy, but overall they’ve been more straightforward than these on recent exams. So this section was a bit of an unwelcome surprise.

Not as surprising, but perhaps just as unwelcome, was the difficulty of the Reading Comp section. The second, comparative passage was considered to be one of the most difficult passages here … at least among the top four, according to most.

The Curve Prediction

There’s no reason why you should fret about the curve on a test, especially on a nondisclosed test like July that will not publish the curve. But if fret you must, here’s my take: this exam really reminded me of the December 2017 exam. Except for the Logical Reasoning, which may have been slightly easier than that exam (though it’s admittedly hard to determine that, since we don’t know which section was experimental). I think that the curve of this exam will be forgiving, but not quite as forgiving as that one. Here’s my guess at what the curve will look like:

170: -12 165: -19 160: -27 155: -37 150: -46

(These all reflect how many questions you could miss and earn that score)

Conclusion

First things first, it’s time to accept that the Digital LSAT is here to stay. So, you will need to “digitize” your prep. We don’t expect you to run out and buy a Microsoft Go tablet, but you should be taking digital practice tests. If you don’t know where to find one, get a free tablet LSAT practice test here, or sign-up for a free trial of our Online Anytime course (sidenote: all BP students get access to digital practice tests).

Now, this is the point in these Instant Reaction posts where we talk about whether you should cancel your score, and we, in so many words, say you almost certainly shouldn’t cancel your score. However, for this July exam, you don’t have to worry about that decision now. You don’t have to worry about that decision for a long time, in fact — you’ll get your score back Wednesday, August 28, and you can decide then. So we won’t go through the formality of discussing score cancellation.

Instead, let’s end with a discussion of “difficult” tests like this one. When a test is more difficult than usual, it’s easy to feel utterly defeated. To feel resigned to receiving an underwhelming score. But it’s important to remember that our impressions of our exam performance are frequently unreliable. After an exam, it’s very easy to fixate on what didn’t go well; we rarely, however, remember what did go well. The dark thoughts have a tendency to crowd out the positive ones. And most test takers possess at least a modicum of social grace, so they don’t go around talking about how well they did on the test or how easy parts of it seemed. We overemphasize, both to ourselves and to others, the bad parts of the exam. So our impressions naturally incline us to worry about the worst-case scenario.

With the July exam, you’re going to have to wait a long time to get your score back. You’re going to be left with your thoughts and your LSAT-related conversations for a while — way longer than the usual three weeks. I encourage you to try, as hard as you can, to focus on what went well. Try to crowd out the negative thoughts by concentrating on all the parts of the test that you aced. And, hey, even if your score isn’t quite what you hoped, there’s going to be that voucher to retake the LSAT for free, waiting for you with a press of that “Cancel” button on August 28th. So, don’t wallow on the bad, try to focus on the good.

Or … you know … maybe try to forget about it entirely, perhaps aided by your post-exam beverage of choice. Congratulations, my fellow test takers.

Your July 2019 LSAT Instant Reaction was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

#Instant Reaction #July 2019 LSAT #LSAT #trent teti #lsat

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goodboicerberus · 5 years ago

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28 April 2020

Note: any time I say 'relationship', I am referring to the bond between us as people, not a bf/gf status.

You keep saying the future is uncertain, and that is true, but it is a necessary part of being human to make plans in the face of uncertainty. More importantly, I deserve to know what to expect out of our relationship in the immediate future. That is a reasonable expectation for even friends to ask of each other. I am trying to plan my future, including deciding--if and only if there is no hope of us being happy together, at all--whether to move with you.

I have gathered: you want to be single; to live the bachelor life. You feel uncomfortable having sex with people while also having an emotional relationship with me. In practical terms, that means you feel uncomfortable living with me. In emotional terms, it means that you believe that you will not feel guilty/uncomfortable having sex with others if we simply remove all sexual and emotional restrictions from our relationship--to remove "the thought of being held back."

I would strongly prefer living with you, both for financial prudence and because I enjoy it. You wanting to live separately scares me bc it means the relationship is moving in a direction *opposite* of what I wanted. You having somewhere to bring people back to does not bother me, but I don't believe your apartment will be just that. I think you will expect me to go back to coming whenever you say yes to my daily begging, and for me to have the burden of travel expense and being away from my home without my things. I did not enjoy those aspects of our relationship before, but they were necessary at the time.

I want emotional exclusivity with you. I do not care what sexual situation that is in (us having our own other sex partners, us only bringing a third in, etc). I want to be your partner, not your friend with benefits. I want us to be together, as a romantic couple, publically--to friends, family, Facebook. I hate hiding, and lying.

I don't wanna be a dirty mistress, I want to be in a relationship.

To me, being in a relationship means two people agree to be accountable to each other; in other words, you give each other permission to be upset with and discuss your words and actions. You can't be upset about everything--that is the point of rules, to set parameters of what your expectations are; of what you agree to be accountable for, precisely. I have come to understand that you have no desire to subject yourself to that definition.

You are not agreeing to emotional monogamy; not "imposing emotional/romantic restrictions if you're seeking something that excites you and makes you happy..." That is a very nice, well-worded, virtuous-sounding way of saying that you want the opportunity to pursue anything that pleases you, without any responsibility for how I feel about it. There are two ways possible motivations for that: either you want the ability to try to find something better than me, or you want to "have your cake and eat it too"--a metaphor I abhor bc it makes no sense when broken down, but which here means getting all of my sex, affection, time, thoughts (generally, all the benefits of being in a relationship with me) without any of the accountability to the set paramaters (rules) or to the outside world (public relationship).

The core of the conflict in what we want is that I am viewing this as a sexually open relationship, where I have one partner/boyfriend and occasional outside sex partners, while you view it as being single with one Real Demanding Ho. I do not want to continue being in this conflict. You talked about removing all rules as "the best way to ensure the hurt is minimal," but surely you realize this is actually just the best way for *you* to not have to *feel guilty* about hurting me. Because I have been clear, vocal, about what hurts me: whenever you do things that make me feel like you don't give a fuck about me/my feelings.

Last time we really fought, you said you would agree to some rules, but we didn't hammer them down. I have come to realize that you will never agree to the rules that I need. I think, perhaps, this is ultimately a situation where one person loves someone who simply does not (and cannot, ever) love them back. That's nobody's fault, but it's a huge bummer. It means you will always have a piece of me, and I will always have a hole (which honestly should just be carved on my grave).

I need you to think about what you want. And maybe you've done that enough--maybe what I have written is somehow 100% accurate despite my atrocious emotional/social intelligence--and maybe you agree, that we are at an impass. That you will not provide me with the things I am asking for. That hurts, but I would rather know that now than waste months hoping for something that will never be. I love you, and I want to be friends with you as much as I can regardless of the outcome of our sexual/romantic exploits, but I don't know how painful that will be. Please don't respond to this until you are ready. Take time, and joke and play and laugh with me in the meantime, bc I love those things. I don't want this to be over. My heart just hurts and I need to tell you what is in my head. It's an annoying habit of mine. But...once you do reply, don't mince words. I am just as tired of having this conversation as you are.

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mariann672 · 8 years ago

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Tilt studio arcade review

Recently my family and I visited our only tilt studio location here in Massachusetts, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the day overall, but there were a few issues. Below I will break the review up into sections and give you more information on all the important things such as cost, attractions, food and more. I apologize to my readers in advanced that this will be a long review, but I like to be thorough, feel free to skip to the parts that interest you.

Expense- As far as cost goes we all know that arcades are expensive and most likely were not going to be able to win a prize worth what we spend in there, but as long as our kids are having fun were likely okay with it on occasion. Below I’ ll include a photo of all the package deals they have. Before you can get started playing any games you have to get a tilt studio game card at the prize counter, these cost $1 and you can add denominations from 1-100 on it. $1 will get you a total of 4 points and $100 will get you 500 points, they have games with point costs starting at 2 points up to 10 points, the harder the game the less points it cost. I purchased $20 which was 100 points plus 24 bonus for a total of 124, we ended up getting 345 tickets with that, not bad but not enough to get any great prizes.

Attraction’s- They have the following attractions,mini golf, laser tag,mini bowling, laser maze and the Himalaya roller coaster.

Mini golf- There was no staff anywhere but we figured out that we had to get the golf clubs from the prize counter and the golf balls from the machine. The mini golf is black lite which makes it even more fun. I later saw the score cards on the other side of the prize counter so we did not keep score but I'm pretty sure my mom won, apparently she’s pretty good at golf. The rest of us unfortunately don’ t have any chance at a future career in golf, but overall we had a lot of fun in this area, The art work on the back wall is gorgeous and the glow in the dark aspect makes it all the more alluring. The mini golf costs $6 or 24 points which Is reasonable. The game will take no set amount of time, it ends when everyone in the game gets the last ball in the last hole.

Laser tag- We never got to play laser tag because it was roped off and there was no staff in there, we pressed the service button but no one came, after 15 minutes we got tired of waiting and moved onto another area of the facility. Laser tag cost $7 or 28 points, in my opinion that's a bit on the high side.

Mini bowling- Our cards were not working in this area so I had to go find the manager for the 4th or so time, he came over and tried it but it was still not working so he did it via his card, so we did get to play. The games were fun and we enjoyed this area, but the game is only a few turns each so it was very short and not worth the money. We did have to wait 30 minutes before playing because there was a group having a party there, which for us was a bummer but if I was having a party I would want to rent the space out as well to make sure my kids got to enjoy the specific attractions they wanted to do, so I understand it. Mini bowling cost $3 or 12 points and lasts only 5 minutes maximum.

Laser maze- I cant really speak much on this attraction because we didn’t choose to do this activity, but I have done it somewhere else so I’ll give you a brief basic description. You enter your money or card if your paying via points and go into a small box, the goal is to go over as many lasers as you can without hitting any, the game is a cheap thrill and does not last long, I also found that its harder than you’d think. At tilt studio the game cost $4 or 16 points.

Himalaya- This is a small roller coaster, picture is below. It was very bumpy but overall fun. If your motion sickened do not ride it. The ride lasts a good amount of time. The employee at this location was a bit rude, he shut the gate as we were waiting in line, at first I just thought the ride was at capacity and we would go next, as I said to my friend we will get on next he turned to me and said I didn't know you wanted to ride. We were waiting in line so I thought it was obvious that we wanted to ride, are cards did not work here either, I explained to him that the manager said to get him if this occurred because I was a blogger there to review etc and instead of calling him he just let us through. The ride cost $3 or 12 points and lasts approximately 5 minutes at the most.

Games- Like I mentioned previously the games cost anywhere from 2 points up to 10 depending on the difficulty of winning. All of the package deals they offer are for the video games only not the arcade games, which is what we mostly wanted to play, so that was unfortunate. Most of the video games were working but not all. A lot of arcade games were not working and according to other unhappy arcade goers this is per the usual at Tilt studio in this location.

Prizes- There were prizes from 10 tickets and up, They had toys, sports stuff, candy and much more as prizes, see photos below.

Food- I have a photo of the full menu below if your interested, but overall the food was extremely reasonably priced. They had pizza, pretzels, nachos and more for just a few bucks! we ordered a personal sized pizza to split which was $3 for a 7″ inch personal pizza, the pizza tasted pretty good but took a astronomical amount of time to heat up. The pre-made nachos we order, they just have to put cheese on them took over 20 minutes to “make” and the pizza took longer, so by the time it came out we were all starving. Also when we went to the food court there was no staff in the area, which was a huge problem with every area of Tilt studio. Also later I went back for drinks and there was no one there again, so I pushed the service button and the manager ran over, I asked for ice tea, which is on the menu and he looked confused. I asked him if they had any left and he wasn’t sure but also didn’t bother to check so I ended up with water.

Overview- Overall every area was understaffed or there was no staff at all, most of the staff was socializing behind the prize counter. many of the games were broken and not working. The attractions were fun but over priced. The little staff that was there was very unprofessional and even sometimes rude, they were also very lazy and weren’t very helpful when needed. Kevin the manager we worked with only spoke to my mother and ignored the rest of our questions even though I was the blogger they were working with, which I though was highly disrespectful and very unprofessional. Overall I would give this place a 3.5 out of 5 stars, there is some fun to be had but there's a lot they could improve on. I received free credits towards the attractions at Tilt studio in order to review this location and give my feedback. All thoughts and or opinions are my own, unbiased and I was not compensated.

This location is much bigger than it looks, location in Solomon pond mall.

A list of attractions and a full list of there locations.

Mini bowling

Black lite mini golf which was an under the sea theme was my favorite activity.

Here you can see all the costs for each activity and how many points you can get for each money denomination, also there are some package deals which include food and video games.

With how long it takes for someone to come over and then cook the food your better off heading to the mall food court, but here is a full list of the food and drinks they offer minus the iced tea that they apparently do not have but is still on the menu.

Laser frenzy

The Himalaya/ small roller coaster

A few shots of the arcade games, this one rotates and looks pretty cool.

Some of the prizes offered.

Some larger ticket items including a train set, patriots sign and more

#tiltstudio #arcade #familyfun #usfamilyguide #games #videogames #tickets #gotitfreetoreview #review #blogger

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