#now that that’s out of my system: i cannot believe ive been to two series winning games what the fuck

[deanscherrypie69]

hi, check this post to try and solve the problem with your tags. i’m sorry tumblr is being shitty. now i hope you don’t take offense, bc i’m gonna give a few tips and constructive criticism to help you out, from a writer to another.

there’s a lot of us writers here, a hundred is not a stretch. it only makes sense that there are many well-known and favorite writers, so sometimes readers don’t check tags everyday. not to mention that tumblr’s tagging system is shit. since you’ve only started writing recently, it will take some time for your notes and activity to grow. i know it’s discouraging, but everyone goes through this phase, so all we can really do is persevere and wait.

sometimes it also depends on the trends/fan favorites, on which character is being talked about/thirsted on the most right now. in our case it’s currently Ari (due to the recent photos) and Lloyd (because of TGM). you don’t have to follow the trends of course, you can write for anyone you want, but it’s a factor that affects the notes. Andy is still one of the fan favorites though, so don’t worry, readers will come around.

as for writing, it’s better to post when you have the fic finished. oneshot sneak peeks don’t get good notes in general, and readers are likely to forget them. i also suggest having someone beta for you, or if you don’t want to (which is okay), you can use grammar checkers. make sure to not skip over scenes no matter how long they take to write so the fic won’t seem rushed. you can try being more descriptive of what they’re doing, what they’re feeling, the atmosphere and environment, expound more on the background story… sometimes they’re more important than dialogue and character thoughts. don’t just tell readers what your characters are doing, show them. you know the kinds of stories that you can see and imagine so clearly in your head? that’s our goal. it’s not easy, it’s tiring and writing makes you double-think especially when you’re not getting the feedback you want, but it will come, and it will be worth it.

i hope i did not offend you, i just wanted to help you out because i was like you when i started writing too. above all, you have potential, so believe in yourself :)

Ty sm much for this. I’ll try to figure it out, I’m not entirely. New to tumblr and writing. I’ve been doing it a while so I know how tumblr works. (Wow that sounds mean, it’s not tho I promise)

BUT! I’ve never had this problem AS many times as I have. It’s so discouraging. And I hate it. Idk what else to do. I’ve done tags. I’ve looked at tags that no ones has used, Ive did all that… a lot of ppl use the tags. So I don’t know honestly. Which ones to use and not to use…

As for the sneak peeks. I’ve seen a lot of writers do it before and get 200+ notes… so I thought it would be cool because I was Proud of what I wrote.

And as for a beta reader. I don’t have anyone. I’ve always read my own work. It sucks yea. Because I feel like no one ever wants to proof read my work… so I just post it without a beta reader.

As for fan favorites. I’ve always written for lloyd. Andy and, Ari. I have two new Andy series in the works and a hundred oneshots in drafts in multiple apps.

Imma vent really quick:

I’ve been writing for YEARS and I’ve never ever gotten the feedback I wanted. So having this void of where ppl cannot see my work. Suck. I mean I should be used to it now? You know what I mean?

So. It doesn’t entirely suck. Maybe it’s for a reason. Idk

I’m just really hurt buy all of this..

So if this whole message is scrambled. It’s 3am.

But Ty for the sweet message. Ily🫶🏽

#anon #roise responds #asks

[coolkidstable]

guess who’s back!

it’s been like a week but i am BACK BABY! as you can guess i have mixed feelings about that entire series, which were amplified by the fact that i actually went to that game - yes, game 4 - as a (slightly early) birthday present from my brother. this is truly just 2.3k words of me being emo and getting personal, but it helped me process everything. and sorry for the lack of a read more but i’m on mobile lmao

i made it clear to both family and friends that i wanted this series to be a close one, for the home team to win each game, and for it to be a hard fought series that shows just how good both of these teams are. (maybe this wasn’t as clear on tumblr, but the decision to step away was made abruptly, though i’m very glad i did it.) that, well, didn’t happen. the canes are a great team, and their success wasn’t a fluke. don’t even try to suggest that. but this series didn’t work for them, for reasons that i really don’t know but may be revealed with time. who knows. regardless, it was a fantastic run and while i wish the ending wasn’t so bitter, i’m so proud of this team and all that they accomplished this season. the future is bright, and this time “next year will be better” isn’t just a hope - it’s a promise.

i really wanted them to score a goal, though. i love tuukka, and i want him to win those two trophies so badly, but i was really hoping he’d give up a goal. obviously, the canes’ chances of coming back to win the series were slim to none, but one last goal would’ve been a way to end the season on a somewhat promising note. and it’s weird and a bit sad that i went to 3 home games this season, and didn’t even get to hear raise up in person - two shutouts and a whalers night for which brass bonanza played instead.

that’s not the main reason, though. i was at this game with my brother, whose main team is the canes, who just got back into hockey late last season, opting to root for his local team over his childhood rangers and getting to see such an incredible run. he just wanted to see a goal to ease the blow, and i was right there with him. it was expected, though, and he’s not crushed or anything. he went to some pretty special games this season, including both the first storm surge and the first playoff win, and he knows that the rest of our family is happy. and really, that’s what it all comes back to - family.

the first bruins game that i have even the vaguest of memories of watching is the 2010 winter classic against the flyers. i’m not even 100% sure if i watched any of it; i just remember asking my dad why they were playing outside and catching glimpses of the game while he watched. he and my mom, once diehard bruins fans, had become fairweather fans upon moving to north carolina in 2003. the bruins, quite frankly, sucked, and games were rarely on tv. meanwhile, the patriots were quite the opposite. the bruins soon started to improve and began to creep back into our lives. i remember the 2011 cup finals, and not knowing a single player other than zdeno chara - the Tall One - and tim thomas - the Brick Wall. i don’t remember much else, but i was there in some capacity.

then came 2013. a series against the leafs. a historical game 7 comeback from a 4-1 deficit. i remember watching bits and pieces of this game on two different TVs - first the main one downstairs, where my dad was watching, only because it was the playoffs. he didn’t watch or care about regular season hockey - i didn’t even know there’d just been a lockout. when he gave up on this game, he went upstairs to go to bed and turned on the tv for background noise while i hung around to say goodnight. we were almost done when nathan horton scored the first goal, and from there, we watched history unfold. i was losing my mind - was this what i’d been missing out on?

from there, i watched the rest of the playoffs, and i haven’t looked back since. first i watched this young undersized rookie defenseman by the name of torey krug take the rangers by storm, then i watched the bruins hand the penguins‘ asses to them in a swift 4-game sweep that began with a shutout on my birthday, and then i watched the bruins lose a hard-fought series against the chicago racistlogos in the blink of an eye. it was a rollercoaster of a postseason, and i spent most of my free time learning about the game and my new favorite player, who i must regretfully admit was seguin. every game brought me closer to my dad, as before the game 7 comeback, i’d never join him to watch sports, or anything, really. in turn, it allowed him to reconnect with the sport he’d once loved most of all.

the next season was a good one as well: my first full season, the first game i ever attended in person, and the bruins winning the president’s trophy. that season ended in disappointment, but it was a good run, and i grew an appreciation for every single member of that bruins team. (nowadays, i guess that attitude is what the kids would call my brand.)

halfway through that season, i discovered hockey tumblr. i didn’t really make content or liveblog or even talk in the tags, and i never made any lasting connections, but still, it was a community that i greatly enjoyed. it also opened my eyes to other teams, and i started to experiment with the whole having more than one team thing - yeah, those were my stars fan days, among other questionable choices that aren’t important right now. this is also where the canes first came into my life, though not as a true second team until much more recently. things were changing, and not always for the better.

the 2014-15 season was fun, though i wasn’t able to watch as many games due to not knowing about r/NHLStreams or anything of that nature. regardless, the bruins just simply weren’t very good, and the season ended in disappointment. a few months later, hockey became very disappointing for reasons i won’t get into, and this coincided with my second emo phase (see: my current url). i ended up jumping ship for bandom tumblr and the life of a panic! at the disco stan.

still, i kept up with the 2015-16 season a little. it kinda sucked, but it was fine. i still loved the team - i just wasn’t really invested anymore. and maybe it was for the best given how busy school was that year. the next season went much the same, only this time, the bruins made the playoffs, i had just about given up on using tumblr at all, and there was this new kid on the team named sean kuraly.

the 2017 playoffs were odd. i hadn’t watched many games that season, and i hadn’t watched a bruins playoff game since the last time i was truly invested in hockey. still, it wasn’t like a switch flipped and i suddenly stanned the bruins again. i spent all the games in that series playing pokémon moon while occasionally glancing at the screen to see what was happening. i wasn’t even truly playing the game; i’d already beaten it and was merely trying my hand at shiny hunting a jangmo’o by hatching dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of eggs, nicknaming them, and randomly trading them over the internet. it was mindless enough to pay attention, and pay attention i did.

it was kind of like the rangers series, on a smaller and less successful scale. much like torey krug before him, sean kuraly came out with a bang and made bruins fans love hockey again - or maybe i’m just projecting. regardless, you know he scored the 2OT winner, and you know about the kuraleap. i don’t remember how many jangmo’os named sean, kuraly, and sean kuraly i traded to the lucky people of pokémon sun and moon wondertrade, but the humber was definitely higher than 52. the bruins did lose the series, but i was interested again.

when the 2017 draft happened, i felt a special connection to it by virtue of these boys being the right age to be in the same high school graduating class as me. this draft piqued my interest in a way no other since 2014 truly had (unpopular opinion on 2015, i know, especially considering my favorite player was drafted fourteenth that year), and you know what? it had been a few months since i’d been active on tumblr, but i searched a few tags and started peaking back at hockey tumblr. i was almost convinced i should dive back in and redo my account for the second time, but i had college orientation to worry about, and by the time i returned, the motivation was lost.

until the 2017-18 home opener. you all know i love jake debrusk, and you probably know he scored his first nhl goal in that game (alongside charlie mac). you’ve seen the video and/or gifs of his dad crying. but beyond all that, it was just a damn good game. i had so much fun watching it - in boston, no less, because finally, after all those years trapped in my hometown, i was where i wanted to be - that i just had to get involved with hockey tumblr again. watching on my own wasn’t going to be enough, i knew.

and so, tumblr user @david-pastrnak returned. honestly, that season was fun, but the first half felt like a blur - likely just because it was my first semester of college. i even went to my first bruins home game in november, and though it wasn’t a good one, it was fun. they picked up the season with a win against tampa on the day i met my favorite band, and somehow, that seemed important. soon i saw my first live bruins win on td garden ice, and even went to a few more games, during which i watched as my grandma grew to love hockey and the bruins, bringing us closer together. it was around this time that i truly embraced the hurricanes, too, and having that second team that i truly care about and love has made being a hockey fan so much fun. it was also around this time that i rediscovered my love for writing. things were changing for the better, but they were only getting started. even when the bruins lost in disappointing fashion to the lightning, i knew things were going to be okay - better, even.

the off-season was mostly uneventful, but towards the end and into the beginning of the season, i ended up in a few group chats with others on here. some of these are still active while others are not, but regardless, i connected with a lot more people, got better at making conversation, and, most importantly, found some of the best friends i’ve ever had. you don’t really expect to meet a lifelong friend on the internet, never mind several, but i’ve gotten incredibly lucky!

this season has been special. i started going to games more often, grew to care about every member of this team more than i’ve probably ever cared about the entire team, and made some incredible friends who i’m blessed to know. and beyond me, this season has been incredible. you know that if you’re reading this, so i won’t get into it all. there were ups and downs, there were moments we thought we’d be golfing in april, and now we’re going to the stanley cup final. the last time this happened, i had just started watching hockey and was still learning. i was also a literal child who still thought i was straight. a lot has changed since then, and somehow, this stanley cup final feels like a culmination of everything i’ve been through with and because of this team. winning the cup isn’t just about how happy it would make jake, how much tuukka deserves it, or whether sean would hand it to danton or vice versa. it’s not about watching to see who helps wags lift it without damaging his injured hand further. it’s not even about watching the look of pure joy on pasta’s face and thinking back to his draft day and my bold, unwarranted, yet correct claim that he would be one of, if not the best player to come out of the 2014 draft. no matter how much they mean to me, winning the cup isn’t about the players.

winning the cup this season would be a celebration of all the friends i’ve made, the stories we’ve shared, and the connections we’ve made. winning the cup would be a celebration of how much closer hockey has brought me to my family. shit, winning the cup would be a celebration of kureinen and all our fun memes because why the hell not?

winning the cup isn’t about the players, or the team, or the parade, or the bragging rights for fans of boston sports. winning the cup is about the deeply meaningful and even just the fun ways in which hockey and the community on here have positively impacted our lives.

and even if we don’t, it’s okay. this season has been by far the best i’ve ever watched, and no matter what happens, it’s one i’ll always remember.

but hey, if we do, i’ll get my first tattoo to commemorate it. speaking of playoff promises, from now on, i’m going to have to talk like anders bjork on here so checkurohhhhhhhh

#now that that’s out of my system: i cannot believe ive been to two series winning games what the fuck #and i need to finish the fic i promised but once i get home it’ll be my priority! #personal #also i won’t be fully back until tomorrow in reality bc i’m busy today lmao #long post

[weedwhoreswitchcraftwriter]

Controversial and stigmatized beliefs, propaganda- also known as uh, complete and utter bullshit.

While I was brainstorming this morning, it got me thinking- “Why don’t I do a blog about my top three topics that I have the strongest, beliefs and experience in?”

Today, it’s time we discussed some Drugs, Satanism, and Sex (Work), where you could damn near say that I am as close to an expert on, as expertise gets.

Plus, I figured, why the fuck shouldn’t I break down the stigmatized ignorant belief systems and stereotypes about some of the most misunderstood topics to date?

Welcome to todays episode of: Satan, Sex, Secrets! Fuck Your Stigma: Ep. #1!

Get ready to get fucking schooled, because today, we are going to get raw and in-depth.

Because today, we are going to debunk the most common stigmatized misconceptions about three of the most taboo topics to date- we are talking about Satanism, Sex/Work, and some top secret truths behind these severely misunderstood topics.

Trust me, I would know, as I personally am a Satanist, Sex Worker, and Sex Advocate and Addict…

Stigma, Propaganda, Ignorance. What do these three things have in common, you ask?

They all have one for sure thing in common: they are all fucking loads of bullshit. it can come in endless shapes, and sizes. Sometimes though, it comes in the shape of someone we trust more than anything, in the news, and also in Christianity- but we will, as always, get to that later on.

Well, I suppose I should begin with what prompted me to write this piece, specifically. What prompted me to write this right now was a very motivating,(I feel motivated, anyway!) fucking email, one that speaks to every belief I have in my very existence.

Say the biggest of hellos to the newest fucking member of… THE SATANIC TEMPLE!

Now, let me be crystal clear here, The Satanic Temple, and Satanism overall, is ignorantly misunderstood as fuck. People will read or hear the word Satan-anything, and automatically lose their fucking shit, no bullshit (the people out there that have no common sense to educate themselves before establishing a “belief system”, if you can even call it that.)!

The. Satanic. Temple. Does. Not. Worship. SATAN!!!

A bit shocking, I know.

Here are some very useful facts about The Satanic Temple, as well as Satanism overall-

Let’s Talk Satanism!

Let me start this off, with some useful facts about The Satanic Temple- more specifically, facts directly from TST themselves:

“The Mission of The Satanic Temple is to Encourage Benevolence and Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, and to Undertake Noble Pursuits.”

Now… let’s compare the mission of The Satanic Temple, vs. the mission of “Christianity”- The Seven Fundamental Tenets vs. The Ten Commandments.

The Seven Fundamental Tenets of TST are as follows: And then there would be The Ten Commandments … But first, let me just say, that is was fucking impossible to even find two versions of Christianity’s Ten Commandments!

I have some very strong beliefs on the topic of Christianity, if I am being honest here.

Although, my beliefs stem from factual evidence and experience, so I do believe I am more than qualified to share them.

Anyways, The Ten Commandments are as follows:

1. I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange Gods before me.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

4. Honor your father and mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

From https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-true-ten-commandments

So, now you’ve read The Ten Commandments. Now, what about The Seven Fundamental Tenets of TST?

I am in the mood to write a little bit extra today. So, let’s get a little controversial.

i. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.

ii. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

iii. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

iv. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.

v. Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.

vi. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

vii. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word. https://www.thesatanictemple.com

The most amazing reference I have come across so far, would have to be the “Hail Satan” podcast- more specifically though, “The 10 Commandment” Episode, where real members of TST compare these two (it is actually the best fucking thing, ever.)

Highly recommend this, by the way.

Now, The 10 Commandments, on a very honest base level, is so mother-fucking contradictory, not to mention incredibly egotistically and ignorantly designed for gullible humans to fall victim to- and also? Fun-fact: no matter what religion you identify as, it is not some excuse for mysogynistic “belief systems” nor something that should be used for discriminatory actions, something used to “convert sinners”, and LASTLY- “Sinning” is something that is strictly specific to CHRISTIANITY ALONE!

Therefore, it is factually impossible to “convert sinners”, as you technically cannot be a “sinner” if you are not a Christian to begin with- therefore, it would be literally impossible to “save or convert”, anyone outside of the Christian Religion.

Personally, I would say that the latter (TST), is by far more reasonable to follow- not to mention at least TST is consistent- and justifiable at minimum!

Although, everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinions!

Believe what ever you so desire, but do not force it upon others just because another human being doesn’t follow the same belief system as you do.

If you evaluate TST and Satanism on a base-level, it is far more realistic and reasonable to follow than most would expect!

A very good example of why educating yourself is so fucking important! Ironically, though, members of TST do not even believe in Satan, or the supernatural- at all!

In all honestly, I have always been attracted to the more “taboo/shock value inducing” type of things in life- hence, me being a Stoner, a Sex Worker and Sex Addict, Poly-addict, and now, proudly, a Satanist.

This is going to be, a several-part series!

Stay Tuned…

So, if those of you who are reading this, have any questions, or stigmas you want to have debunked- leave a comment below and ask me anything!

-Haylee the Satanic Sex Working Stoner

#sex blog #sex blogger #short story #success #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing #witch+prompts #satan #rant blog

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy Review

Year: 1987 Original Platform: Famicom Also available on: Nintendo (NES), GameBoy Advance (Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls), PlayStation One (Final Fantasy Origins), PSP (Anniversary Edition) Version I played: PSP

Synopsis:

The world is in danger. Four monstrous fiends, each corresponding to an element of nature, have wreaked havoc on the world, causing each of the four elemental orbs (in later remakes, crystals) to turn dark. Four Heroes of Light, each holding their own orb, meet and band together to take on these fiends and restore nature to its proper balance.

Gameplay: The original game introduced the Job System. The six jobs are Warrior, Thief, Monk, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage. Each have their own stats. You are free to name each of your heroes. Later on the game, each job can be upgraded.

We are introduced to a classic setup of turn-based combat. Final Fantasy was notable for being the first video game RPG to show your characters on the right and the enemies on the left; all previous video game RPGs had a first-person view with the enemy directly in front of you.You choose your action between Fight, Magic, Drink, Item or Run. Then the enemy takes their turn.

It’s a simple system that at the time was already well-known. It was really the Job System that intrigued players. Black Mages perform destructive magic, White Mages heal and restore, Warriors are the powerhouses, Monks deal damage without weapons, and Thieves can run from battles successfully (they cannot steal, as later games would introduce that). The game can be quite difficult on the original Famicom and NES. It was made at a time when technology was limited, so developers had to make the game harder so that people spent more time playing it. There’s a gaming term that I’ll be using in many of these Final Fantasy reviews called “grinding”. Grinding is when you end up having to run around and fight monsters for the sake of leveling up your characters. There is a lot of that in this game, as well as the early Final Fantasy games in general. Unlike games today, the direction isn’t fully laid out. You are thrown into the world and wander about from town to town to figure out where to go next. Instead of games like today where other non-playable characters (NPCs for short) tell you what to do in cutscenes and whatever, you actually have to approach the NPCs and find out the information. The overall effect is more open-world. You walk across fields and oceans and deserts. There are caves and other secret places to find more items. From a modern gamer’s perspective, the exploring can be quite bare and – for lack of better word – boring. The remakes, like the PSP version that I played, brightened it up with updated graphics. They also added a couple extra dungeons. I actually spent time in those extra dungeons believing they were part of the story, appalled by how difficult they were, when I later found out they were extras put in for the PSP version. That has happened a lot to me with remakes of old RPGs (Chrono Trigger for the DS, another example). A little more obvious sign would have helped to make me realize that I didn’t need to finish those extra dungeons. The pace is definitely slower than the other Final Fantasy games. Most of your time is spent grinding. Grinding can sometimes be a wary word when talking about video game RPGs. If an RPG is too boring or tedious, grinding is the last thing you want to hear. But even when an RPG is fun, grinding means that you need to spend time battling enemies, and that means hopefully you don’t have a huge backlog of other video games. It's probably why I never got around to finishing the original NES version on an emulator. Once and a while I'd be pumped up about going through with it but then as I played I just. . .got distracted by other video games that I wanted to finish.

You definitely need time and patience. The most aggravating thing about the original version (Famicom/NES) is that if your character is set to attack an enemy but another one of your characters defeats it first, that character attacks nothing but air when it's their turn. It was a very annoying issue that they fixed in all subsequent remakes. When comparing the original to any other version, the original always is the best way to experience the game. It can also be the hardest and most time-consuming. You would need to pay attention to this game entirely and not be distracted by anything else.

The PSP version is watered down. I found it infinitely easier than the NES version. I actually played them side-by-side to figure out at what point the difficulty branched off. Right away when you venture to save Princess Sara, I realized that the PSP version gives more XP per battle than the NES version. Hence, you have to grind more in the original version.

Graphics:

Everybody loves some 8-bits, but let’s be honest here – there’s a whole lot of black empty space going on when you battle.

But hey, that was due to the limitations at the time. Battles may seem more boring to you due to the lack of detail to catch your eye.

The later remakes added a floor or ground where appropriate. The PSP remake did a good job of giving a facelift to the original, as shown below. It has this cute, rounded feel to the characters.

(My favorite battle background was in the final battle.)

The opening FMV sequence is ripped straight from the Playstation One remake. That didn’t age well. It’s awkward as hell. Want to see how awkward it looks? It looks mad awkward. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just look it up. I don’t want to sully this post by posting a screenshot. In my opinion, they should have created a brand new opening FMV sequence for the PSP version.

Story: The first several minutes of the game acts as a prologue. The Four Heroes of Light save a princess - Sara - from the clutches of Garland, and then the King of Coneria allows a bridge to be built for them to enter the world and save it. It’s not until that bridge is built that the game truly starts and the title screen actually displays – much like a late opening title in a movie. In retrospect, saving a princess probably seemed like the most common trope in video games throughout the '80's. Gamers would have been used to it by then. That short prologue acts like a trope-breaker. The average gamer would have probably expected the game to be like Mario or Zelda. Oh yeah, save the princess from some evil fiend, okay, got it. They would have then maybe been perked with interest when they "defeated" Garland so quickly, and then when the King of Coneria lets them pass into the world and the title screen opens up with the theme song, they maybe were like, "Ooooh. NOW it starts." Final Fantasy then plunged them into a wide open world.

The bulk of the story is mostly comprised of self-contained incidents. You run into someone who needs help with a thing so you do that thing and then you’re on your merry way again. You know what would be a great adaptation of this game? A Netflix series. It’s very episodic. First you deal with these pirates led by Bikke, then get a ship to sail across the land and go on a sort of delivery quest for a crown, a crystal eye, an herb, a magic key, until the main story picks up with defeating the Four Fiends and bringing light to the darkened orbs. There's no real huge spoiler other than the time travel paradox at the end, which had me wracking my head a bit. It's quite admirable that a game this early in video game console history produced a higher concept plot involving time travel. Music:

Composer Nobuo Uematsu created a legendary score that immediately became on par with the Mario and Zelda theme songs.  The Prelude/Crystal theme – the harp-like scale that we are all familiar with – was actually composed last. Uematsu had complete the score when Sakaguchi approached him at the last minute realizing they needed music for the game’s introduction. None of them had any idea that the theme would become a staple for Final Fantasy.

Due to the technical limitations at the time, you can imagine that the soundtrack is limited, but even so it was still quite expansive for its time. There are several individual tunes for dungeons, for sailing your ship and for flying your airship. The map theme will have you humming it without realizing it.

Uematsu drew his inspiration from two sources – classic rock and living in Shikoku, an island off Japan. The melodic world map theme in Final Fantasy (and the rest of the series) derives from the picturesque memories he has of the island. The town theme is reminiscent of the sleepy villages – as he was never a city person. Meanwhile, the battle theme has undertones of rock music.

There’s only one battle theme, even when fighting bosses and the final boss, but the amazing thing is that it never gets old.

Final Fantasy games are known for their great battle songs. The opening bassline always gets you in the groove to fight. You’re fighting but want to sing at the same time. Maybe that’s the brilliance of Uematsu; because of the fact that you need to grind many times in these old Final Fantasy games, he created a tune that you wouldn’t get tired of because it’s not so serious or mundane.

Not to crap on other great developers, but other video game RPGs at the time of Final Fantasy didn’t quite have memorable battle music. Just look up the battle theme to the first Dragon Quest game (released before Final Fantasy). You can imagine how that simple tune could get old really quick. I could be pulling this out of my ass, but after Final Fantasy, it seemed that battle music in video game RPGs suddenly got better. If you listen to the Dragon Quest IV battle theme, there is a portion that sounds similar to the battle theme of Final Fantasy.

The PSP version adds more tracks, specifically to the boss battles, and I like how they incorporate the original battle motif thrown into the new battle songs. The original battle theme has a guitar and drums added, which is the style that Final Fantasy battle music was known for by then.

There is one last thing to note about the score that I found very interesting for its day and age. You see, in a movie score, you have themes and motifs, just like a video game score. But in a movie score, other tracks reference those themes and motifs. For example, you have The Raider’s March in the Indiana Jones films; that’s the theme for the character Indiana Jones. Then in the movie, whenever Indy does something badass, you hear his theme blare in that instance. Obviously the entire theme doesn’t play, but it is incorporated in snippets throughout.

Uematsu actually does this with the Town Theme. He incorporates it at the ending music in the epilogue. It took me a while to try to understand why. Then it hit me. The epilogue mentions the heroes becoming legends as people talk about them. Legends are told and spread in towns.

It’s a very small detail. It’s such a small detail that it could be nothing but if it is what I think it is, then it’s cool that he was already in the mindset of passing on themes and motifs throughout the game, treating it like a movie.

Notable Theme:

I already posted the main themes in the introduction, but here’s the original battle theme:

Verdict:

A strong debut to the Final Fantasy series. To a modern gamer though, you may be spoiled by the fast-paced, eye-catching video games of today. When console games first hit the market, developers had to create games that took longer than the average arcade game to finish, or else kids would get bored with their games in minutes and gee, wouldn’t that be a waste since they paid way more than a quarter? Thus, that’s another reason why old games are harder. Given the technical limitations at the time, developers couldn’t expand much on the game, so there’s a lot of leveling up and grinding because what else could you do? You know? Ultimately, playing a video game back then was all about honing your skill with that game.

Ideally, you could play through every Final Fantasy game in order of their release, and that would give you a greater sense of the evolution of the gameplay and the series as a whole. However, most people reading this (and me) are probably more modern gamers – and as such, our perspective is biased on what feels “exciting” and “remarkable”. The first Final Fantasy game could feel boring and tedious to you now, but if you put it in the context of when it was made, this was entertainment for hours on end. This is basically like watching one of those silent adventure films starring Douglas Fairbanks. Yeah, you’ve been spoiled with more amazing stuff like The Matrix and Star Wars, but golly – this stuff blew people’s minds back in the day.

Direct Sequel? No. However, there have been multiple remakes, which I have already listed above.

#final fantasy #final fantasy nes #final fantasy famicom #nobuo uematsu #square enix #square #squaresoft #final fantasy i #final fantasy origins #final fantasy psp #final fantasy anniversary edition #onvideogames #video games

[marcazoshop]

I Am A Simple Woman Dog Paw Flip-Flop Wine Trucker T-Shirt

This photo is from way back in ’98 at my first headline nyc show at tramp’s before the start of this very wild ride with the slim shady lp with jimmy and dr dre definitely a I Am A Simple Woman Dog Paw Flip-Flop Wine Trucker T-Shirt special time I looked back on after watching the premiere of thedefiantones in la the series starts on hbo tomorrow night also be on the lookout for this limited merch to celebrate the premiere. ️ ️ ️ ️ ️ no one has to know your age unless you want to share says fan linda about her eye lift pro experience what else gives you a lift our vote goes to chocolate chip cookies comment below your avon representative is ready to come 2therescue with your eye lift pro. Playing the super bowl last year was indescribable it changed my life so excited to see what justin s going to do I know it will be amazing sb52 superbowl superbowl52

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So this is going to be a bit long but bear with me I had what I believe to be a pointless and incredibly frustrating experience with the assistant manager jamie at your auburn hills great lakes crossing location today I have been coming here for three years I frequent your orlando san marcos and new jersey locations as well at least once a year when we stop we usually spend 5 to 10 thousand dollars on your products the system is simple I go in park in a corner and bring bins to my corner sort them bag them move them to the front register and repeat today I brought a personal duffel bag as it holds about 8 to 12 of your bags worth of stuff I get told that i’m not allowed to use it because it’s policy not a big deal at all I say okay i’ll do that for the rest rather than rebag all of this i’ll just go up in line and pay for it and it can sit behind the counter seems pretty reasonable to me nope I got obstructed suggested that I might be stealing something and not allowed to pass stating if I don’t want to follow the system I can leave he then takes my entire duffel dumps it onto the floor and then rebags it into victoria secret bags then moves it to the front counter so it can be rang in I thought this was a little odd but hey he was doing all the work rebagging it so whatever i’m like dude i’m going to be spending about 8k today all I want to do is come in spend some money get out without any drama what’s the problem whoevers in charge should be thrilled with a sale like this we’re spending 8k keep in mind that I told him that I would do what he wanted and it wasnt’ a big deal and the response was to the effect of stop being lippy and just listen I told him what do you want from me I just agreed with you and said I would use your bags i’m not being lippy at all I know this because I said okay dude not a problem i’ll use your bags his response was maybe if you get to buy it i’m like what are you suggesting that an 8 000 order is something you guys don’t want he’s like yeah if you buy it i’m like dude we are spending 8k today why would I bag up a bunch of stuff and spend 2 3 hours picking our your fabulous product to not buy it anyway so I had 4 credit cards one card had 2 000 one had 3500 one had 2000 and one had 1000 because I am buying for multiple people I had 4 different cards all in my name I wanted one receipt for each card not a big deal to me right wrong again he cited some policy and said if the order is more than 750 items that they aren’t allowed to ring in under 750 items on any one receipt id like to point out that that amount is higher than your employees said they could take as a cash payment I asked him to please show me that I would understand better if I could just read it he was willing to do so he brought out the policy book and to my surprise what it actually said was words to the afffect of cash payments cannot be split up or over 750 items I forget the second half my immediate reply was so what’s the big deal im using credit not cash he snatched the policy book away from me at that point and said you know what you can just listen to me or I don’t have to let you buy anything it’s up to my discretion I then called your orlando outlet and your new jersey outlet and talked to the store managers and cited your policy I was given I asked them to confirm if that was accurate and both said if it was a policy it was news to them I then asked if they would let me buy my order using 4 cards and 4 receipts the woman at orlando said oh my gosh yes we do that every single day I asked if I went to her store if I would have any trouble with this in the future and was told no then she said you can always come down here if you’re in the area and i’ll be happy to take your order after that phone call I tried again here’s the video of that attempt I said listen I have 4 credit cards your register girl said you told her she can’t ring up an order under 750 items that’s 3500 if it’s 5 items not all of my cards have that much I have done multiple receipts every time I came here heck I can even supply them to show it he tells me that because I am order so many items that I can’t have less tan 750 items per receipt so I point around to everyone else and ask what about everyone else you aren’t forcing them to spend a minimum of 750 items what about the final charge i’ll have 750 items for two tickets but the leftover isn’t going to be 750 items you’re not going to let me buy them he shrugged his shoulders to say no at this point I haven’t yelled ive been a bit snarky and sarcastic because I know he’s just giving me a hard time two people ring in our order almost every time I am up there and we were there 3 times in the last 6 months spent a bunch each time so at 730 8pm or so we are done shopping assuming that two people could ring us up ended up being a fantasy he forced one employee only to ring us up later on he comes up when its now close to 9pm and says hey you mind if we ring you up on both registers I chuckle and say no I don’t but you do you don’t want to be breaking that 750 rule do you he glared at me and then sent the employee away and walked off after blinking a few times I laugh because after telling me over and over he couldn’t do it he just got caught trying to do what should have been done to begin with a short while later after 9 I find out that everyone is standing uip front except for the one girl and another associate because none of the rest of them are allowed to help her ring us up the only two people left in the store with about 700 more items to be rang in if that’s not enough since it was a holidy all of these employees are apparently being paid overtime to stand around and wait at a bit after 10 all but two girls leave and one girl is waiting to count cash while the other girl sits and keeps ringing stuff in we apologize profusely we expected two employees to ring us up like always and timed our visit to be out around 9 if this had happened instead of having one literally stand there and watch her for 1 hour and 47 minutes after close we would have all been out on time and no overtime or extra hours spent so finally at 10 47 pm our orders are done we thank the lovely girl lauren and jasmine who got stuck staying 2 hours past close because a manager made up some random policy and had to double down when I pointed out he really needed to follow that 750 rule when he was going to toss another girl on the register if this is policy fine it doesn’t seem to be no manager at your other outlets knew what he was talking about the orlando one insisted that the only restrictions are on cash payments and verified I was paying cash or credit it’s a pretty humiliating experience to get hassled trying to buy panties and bras by someone who’s on some type of power trip the only thing I said sideways to him was that I flat out didn’t believe his policy and that credit absolutely is not the same as cash I didnt call him any names scream at him or did anything to disrupt the store beyond what you see in the videos if this is not policy i’d like an apology from that manager in person or over the phone admitting he was mistaken I would hope that the next time I go there I am not hassled but if not I guess there’s always orlando or new jersey who seem to be quite friendly I also want to give recognition to jasmine and lauren lauren is the poor soul who got stuck ringing everything in alone because of the manager’s silly rule and not allowing anyone to help because it would be in violation of the 750 item rule jasmine was the cash counter who had to wait until we were out of the store to count cash even more interesting is that I had a former employee with me helping me buy and she said she never heard of this policy either but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t added since she left she was just as confused because the manager spent over 30 minutes trying to explain and defend this when that time certainly would have been more efficiently spent doing productive things instead of hassling someone who literally sits in a corner and speaks to no one while sorting through your products one bin at a time id love a call back about this or to find out what exactly is going on ive never been hassled like this before and it was a little frustrating and very trying to keep my cool joe rossetti alexandria gunn See Other related products: I Am A Simple Woman Dog Paw Flip-Flop Wine Trucker T-Shirt

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[big-bara-boys]

Turtles and their S/O

Some fluff, and some turtle x reader lovin’. Enjoy! 

Leo: 

“I cannot believe the nerve you have, Leo!” he watches as you huff and continues pacing. “Don’t look at me like you’re cluel- do you even know what I’m talking about?” you stop your pacing and stare at your blue clad boyfriend.

“No, darling I don’t,” leaning back against the couch, Leo runs through his head all of the possible things he could’ve done,  “Please explain.” 

Not passing the opportunity to let him know exactly how you feel, you let it all out. “As of late you have really been crossing the line with how you talk to me. You’ve been using that I’m-not-taking-your-bullshit-I’m-the-leader tone with me lately and I don’t appreciate it. It’s the same tone you use with your brothers. I’m not your brother, I’m your other half. I’m the one who loves you unconditionally with all my heart. You, Leonardo, carry my heart with you, and I hope I hold yours. But when it comes to being with someone you love, you don’t treat them like you would treat your siblings when they step out of line.”

Walking over to him, you get close to his face and hold his icy gaze, “All I ask of you, is to treat me like I'm your equal, because it's what I know I deserve," and with that, you walk away from him and head home, not once looking back to his pleading eyes. 

Night fall comes around and you’re curled up on your queen sized bed when there's a tap at the window. Sighing, you get up to go and open it, knowing your boyfriend is on the other side.

Pushing open the window, you stare into his cerulean eyes, "Hi Leo," is the only thing you say to him before walking inside.

"Y/N, I want you to know how sorry I am. I- I have realized what I've been doing lately and I didn't bother thinking too much about it. You seemed fine so I payed no mind to it. And you are my equal, you're my love, my life, and one of the few things that keep me going. And I'm so sorry I failed to let you know just how much you truly mean to me. Please forgive my mistakes?" Leo stands in the middle of your living room, head bowed, waiting for you to say something.

You walk up next to him and place your hand on the side of his face, turning him to face you. "I can forgive you, only if you actually pay attention and do something about the way you're talking to me. Let's be honest babe, the only time I really need to be reprimanded is when we're in bed," you both chuckle at your joke. 

“I can definitely promise you that.” Leo reaches up and strokes your cheek. Smiling he leans closer and kisses you. 

Raph: 

“God damn it, Raphael, pick up your damn phone!” You angrily toss your phone onto the couch and continue your pacing. Patrol nights were never easy on your anxiety, especially not after what happened six months ago. Six months ago it was just a regular night. You went to visit the turtles and splinter and hung out with them for the day. When night fell they mentioned that it was time for patrol, so you told them you would stay back and wait for them. 

Two hours later you were reading a book when you heard frantic voices. Standing up, you face towards the entry way and watch as Leo, Donnie, and Mikey drag a near unconscious Raph. Your heart skips a beat as you rush over.

“What the hell happened?!” you stare at them with wide, panicked eyes.

“We were messing around on the rooftop of a building over on 34th street, when we were ambushed by the Foot. Raph got hit by some tranquilizers that knocked him out fairly quickly. But if I’m right on the kind of sedative that they used, he should be fine within a few hours. I’m just going to run some tests really quick and see if I can’t try and flush it out of his system quicker.” Donnie paces over and has Leo and Mikey place Raph on the curved table they made to fit their shells. 

Suddenly you heard the rushed sound of clawed feet coming up behind you. Turning around you see Splinter walking towards you and the turtles, “What on earth has happened?” Leo and Mikey immediately go into detail on what happened. Tired of standing there, you walk up to Donnie and ask if you can do anything to help, “Uh, if you could go over to that metal cabinet and get the prep supplies for the IV insert that would be great,” Donnie replies without even turning away from his unconscious brother. 

You walk over to the cabinet Donnie told you about and open it. Looking over the shelves you find what he was talking about and bring it over to him, “Thank you Y/N,” Donnie smiles at you and immediately begins getting Raph ready for the IV. 

Ever since that night happened, you’ve been very apprehensive on letting the boys go on patrol night. Of course you couldn’t tell them what to do, you could only tell them to be safe and come back in one piece. But one rule that you had set down was that they were to answer their phones when you or splinter called. Your reasoning being that you wanted to make sure that they were fine and hadn’t gotten taken away before you could do anything to help. You only ever called on that rare occasion where they were out for more than two hours. The turtles were usually very good at coming back on time (thanks Leo) but there were always those nights where it sometimes turned into three or four. Tonight just so happened to be that night, the first night they’ve been late since the run in with the Foot. 

You try calling again, and you even call Donnie, but there’s no answer. In an attempt to calm your racing nerves, you turn on the cooking channel for some background noise. About an hour later you’re sitting on your couch when you hear series of taps on your window, instantly telling you that it’s Raph. Rushing over to the window, you rip open the curtains and throw open the giant window.

“Are your brothers with you?” Raph begins to shake his head no, “Good, now get inside, Raphael,” instantly Raph knows something’s up because you only use his full name when he fucks up. When he’s stable on the ground, he turns and shuts the window, locking it in the process.

“Baby doll, I’m sor-,” Raph starts, but you don’t let him.

“What happened? Why did it take so long?” instantly your panic is noticeable to him. Guilt overrides any possible emotion he could’ve felt in that moment. He knows how worried you’ve been getting ever since that night all those months ago. 

“We were messing around on the chrysler building again, just practicing some parkour.” His voice is soft and gentle, an attempt to lower your emotions.

“Where’s your phone, Raph? I called you and you didn’t pick up, I even called Donnie and he didn’t pick up.” You continued to press, even while knowing that you were starting to overreact.

Slowly, Raphael walks up to you and gathers you in his embrace, “I’m so sorry baby doll, I didn’t mean to worry you like that. Upping your anxiety is the last thing I’d want to do to you.” He leans down and smothers his face into your hair, taking in your scent. Gently he starts to rock you both from side to side, knowing that relaxes you. Pulling away just enough to look at him, you say “Please answer your phone next time? I just want to know you’re okay,” with a small kiss to your forehead he whispers his promise. 

Donnie: 

Laying in bed you stare at the ceiling waiting for your boyfriend to walk into the bedroom. A bit more time goes by and he still hasn’t come lumbering in. Turning onto your side, you stare at the alarm clock and see that it’s been twenty five minutes since Donnie said that he would be in bed with you. Sighing in frustration, you get up off the bed and walk towards his lab area to see what he’s doing. You don’t bother knocking on the door, knowing that he wouldn’t even hear it. 

Opening the door you see Donnie hunched over his desk, mumbling to himself while using a pipette to drop a liquid into a test tube. Rolling your eyes you walk over, “Donnie c’mon, time to go to bed,” you run your nails over the back of his shell causing him to release a squeaky churr. 

“Darling, don’t start something you can’t finish,” Donnie puts down his equipment and smirks at you. “Well I can’t exactly do anything when you’re stuck in your lab at one in the morning, now can I?” you raise your eyebrow at him and cross your arms.

“One in the morni- what? That’s not the time, I swear it was just like, what, midnight?” His face contorts into a confused expression. Looking down at his watch he see’s that it is in fact, one in the morning. “Well shit, I’m sorry honey I lost track of time. Let me just go ahead and put this away.” Donnie stands up and starts sorting his stuff away into his cabinets and draws. Once he’s done you grab his hand and lead him to the bedroom.

“I believe you and I need to have a bit of a talk, Donatello,” climbing onto the bed you turn and gesture for him to sit down. 

“Sure, what’s up?” setting his mask on the nightstand, Donnie settles into bed next to you. 

"I love you, very much, you know that right?" You start, staring at him. He nods his head, "Then you must know that I enjoy spending time with my boyfriend, right?" Again he nods his head. "My question to you is, do you like spending time with me?" You lean back and watch his face to gauge his reaction.

"Of course I do, why on Earth wouldn't I?" A look of bewilderment crosses his face, "When I'm with you I'm the happiest I've ever been!" Donnie grabs your hands and holds them close to his chest, "And I'd be a fool not to be".

Softly smiling at him, you lean up and rest your hand on the side of his face, "Then why do I barely see you anymore? I love you to the moon and back, but there is always something so godawfully important in your lab. It always take your attention away, and lately I've barely seen any of you. I consider myself to even be lucky to watch you get food out of the fridge!" With a light chuckle, you hope you got your point across.

As much as you loved watching him tinker around and create little inventions, you loved spending time with him more. Even after three solid years together the flame of chemistry between you two never died. In fact, the bond only grew stronger. But, it's strongest was when you two would be in each others physical company, which has been a rarity as of late.

"Wait, no, we've hung out plenty of times! Like last ni-",

"You were working on the computer until three in the morning.", you answered before he could finish.

"Oh! Then it was three days ago that we- " again you interjected him,

"Three days ago I was working a double shift and didn't come over at all." You exhale, slightly amused by his confusion. "Donatello, the last time we truly had any time together was a week ago. I've been trying to be understanding and let you do your own thing, but I miss you. I honest to god miss my boyfriend. I'm tired of the mumbled responses I get when I pop into the lab. I miss my "Hello beautiful" greetings that I would get from you. I miss my random kisses throughout the day. And most of all I haven't had sex in like two weeks. How can you expect me to still be sane when you look this good and won't pay attention to me? Hmm?" You fold your arms across your chest and pout. Donnie has been looking extra good lately and you haven't been able to get any of it!

"I'm so sorry, Y/N, I hadn't realized what's been going on. I've been so kept in my own thoughts and ideas that it just kind of took over me. How can I make it up to you?" He stares at you with pleading eyes.

"I have a few ideas in mind," smirking slyly you grab his hand, leading him further onto the bed for a night of fun. Suddenly you weren't as tired as you thought you were.

Mikey:

“Hey Mikey,” pulling out a chair, you sit down next to your boyfriend as he sketches away in his sketchbook. 

“Hey Angelcakes, what’s up?” Putting down his pencils he looks up at you. You got him some art supplies for Christmas, knowing he was extremely talented.

“Nothing much I was about to go to the fridge and grab a bottle of soda. Do you want one?” Looking over his sketches you see that he was doodling funny pictures of his brothers.

“Yeah sure, that’d be great.” smiling up at you he leans over to give you a kiss.

Smirking, you walk into the kitchen area and make sure no ones around. As of lately Mikey has been a little busy with his art. He’s been running around town and practicing his graffiti and designs, which in turn has taken his attention away from you quite a bit. His lack of presence has left you to think, and that’s never a good thing because this is when a prank war starts. When you are left to your own devices and left “unsupervised” you come up with some whack shit, and this is one of them.

You walk over to the fridge to get a bottle of orange crush for your boyfriend and yourself. Reaching into your pocket you take out the roll of dental floss you placed there earlier. Setting the floss aside, you grab his bottle of soda and undo the cap and set that aside as well. Picking the floss container back up, you take out two small pieces and make an X over the rim of the bottle; reaching back into your pocket you pull out a single mentos mint and place it on the floss pieces. Quickly, you loosely screw the cap back on, just enough to hold everything in place, and grab some scissors. 

After you had trimmed down the floss to where it couldn’t be seen anymore, you grab your bottle and head out to your awaiting boyfriend. When you walk out you notice that he’s still working on his art. Walking up you set both sodas aside and grab his face and kiss him. You use the distraction to move his artwork and tools aside so they don’t get ruined. Backing away you smile and wink at him and hand him his soda. He smiles back and stares at you as he uncaps his soda...only for it to start gushing all over his hand and then squirt up into his face.

“AH! Y/n, what did you do?!” he shouts as he quickly stands up and rushes over to the sink in the kitchen. 

Mean while you’re still at the table laughing to the point where you’re snorting. You watch as he practically throws the bottle into the sink and stands there, dripping in orange crush soda with wide shocked eyes. 

“I- I just put a mentos mint into your soda” you finally manage to get out in between laughs. 

Slowly, Mikey starts to stalk towards you, still covered head to toe in sticky soda. “Oh y/n, I do believe I haven’t gotten a hug in quite some time. Why don’t you come over here?” A predatory glint sparks in his blue eyes.

Your heart stops, you start to panic because you’re wearing brand new clothes you just bought. Getting up from the table you go around to the back. “Mikey, let’s think about this, do you really wa- Ah! No! Mikey leave me alone! I just got these clothes!” he continues charging towards you with a smirk on his face.

“You should have thought about that before doing that, Anglecakes!” he laughed as he hopped over the soda covered table.

And suddenly, a prank war was born.

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[unlikely-allies]

****Spoilers****

5/5

The majority of the Illuminae Files have been reviewed during the tribunal, but there is still one piece of the story left. Six months after BeiTech’s attack on Kerenza IV, survivors are being forced to mine for hermium to power the Magellan Jump Station. Once the Magellan is up and running, the BeiTech troops have been given orders to liquidate the remaining citizens of Kerenza. Rhys Lindstrom was a specialist working on the Magellan, until he was brought planet-side to replace the techs that were killed by members of the rebellion. Being sequestered on Magellan, Rhys was guarded from the horrors taking place after the attack.

Asha Grant, Kady’s cousin, is alive and working in the hospital on Kerenza. Asha is a member of the resistance working to fight against the BeiTech troops on the ground. Asha and Rhys have a history. Once high school sweethearts, the pair’s relationship turned toxic and Asha was sent to Kerenza to live with her cousin. The two hadn’t seen each other for three years. After being exposed to the injustices taking place on Kerenza, Rhys agrees to aid Asha and the resistance.

Back in space, the Mao has met up with the Hypatia, whose resources are running dangerously low. The decision is made to move the citizens on the Hypatia to the Mao, effectively combining the survivors from the Alexander, Kerenza, Hypatia, and Heimdall. A plan to return to Kerenza and commandeer the Magellan is formed, but tensions are running high. Many people are doing jobs that they are unqualified for, and those that are qualified are as young as 15 years old. Many adults refuse to listen to, let alone follow, the orders of a “child,” causing dissention among the crew. Kady, the only one able to fill her position, is the only one able to maintain a sense of respect from the adults. Ezra, after having been promoted to Wing Leader, is grounded after getting into a fight with adult trainees. Captain Boll can’t see past Nik’s criminal past, Hanna’s tactical abilities are demeaned, and Ella barely has a working life support system.

After AIDAN assisted in saving the universe, Kady convinced Captain Boll to allow AIDAN to be uploaded into the Mao’s system. Once resources become scarce. AIDAN takes it upon itself to do some population control, unleashing carbon monoxide into two levels of the ship and killing roughly two thousand people. AIDAN cannot be trusted, and Kady is forced to shut it down. AIDAN’s mistake worsens the already high tensions. Several ex-Heimdall crew members stage a mutiny, during which 16 crew members and Captain Boll are killed. Winnifred McCall manages to reclaim order and becomes the Mao’s new captain. Luckily, McCall has faith in our teenage heroes, and finally utilizes their talents once again in planning the siege of the Magellan.

After finally receiving a communication from the survivors on Kerenza, the plan is finalized. Kady, commanding the bridge, readies the others for war. Ezra and Nik man one of the Mao’s Chimera fighters, Hanna is apart of the invasion team and has worked out the tactical aspects of the mission, and Ella hacks into BeiTech’s system to earn the fighters an advantage. The crew of the Mao are outnumbered, but they have made it this far and have survived the impossible. They cannot give up now. The citizens of Kerenza join the fight. With air support from the Mao’s Chimeras, the rebels face off against the soldiers that have turned their world into rubble. The time to take back their freedom has come.

I don’t want to spoil anything too important so you’ll just have to read it to find out what happens. Obsidio was the perfect end to an amazing trilogy. The heroes that we followed in the first two novels are finally together and kicking ass. The adults on the Mao make life tough for a good portion of the novel. This was extremely frustrating given that Hanna, Nik, Ezra, Ella,and Kady have more than proven how capable they are. Issac Grant, Kady’s dad, and McCall are the only ones who seem to grasp this. Once the decision-making is left up to them, the plot hits it’s stride. Issac is the fictional father of the year. He has more or less adopted all four of Kady’s new friends and he truly cares about each one of them. Prior to the siege of the Magellan, Issac takes the time to write little notes for each of them and its very heartwarming.

Having Rhys on team BeiTech allowed the reader to have a different viewpoint of the enemy. The previous two books focused more so on showing the humanity of the victims, but not the attackers. In Obsidio, the BeiTech troops are shown as people simply trying to do their jobs. As AIDAN put it, the villain is the hero of their own story. Adding this new viewpoint provided an new layer of depth in a complex story, but without it the ending would not have had the same impact.

Like Illuminae and Gemina, Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is full of action, drama, betrayal and plenty of twists.  Heart stopping thrills are balanced out with romance and witty humor, making Obsidio a must read for fans of any genre. As someone who was never really into the Science Fiction genre, I can say that The Illuminae Files has converted me. Please read this series, you will not be disappointed.

P.S. If you read my reviews of Illuminae and/or Gemina, you know that my favorite character in the series has been Analyst ID 7213-0089-DN. In Obsidio we find out that Analyst ID 7213-0089-DN is none other than Nik Malikov. Unsurprisingly, the tattooed bad boy has once again stolen my heart. I can’t believe that I didn’t figure it out while reading Gemina. I could read an entire book of just Nik narrating random daily activities.

#young adult book #scifi #science fiction #the illuminae files #kady grant #hanna donnelly #ezra mason #nik mali #ella malikova #obsidio #gemina #illuminae #amie kaufman #jay kristoff #book nerd #bookish #booklr #booknerd #book review #book recommendations

[ofcacthuxandkylosaur]

Are there any trans Kylo fics out there? I feel as if it's all only trans hux this or feminized hux that...

I think there is indeed more trans Hux than trans Kylo out there, but I still managed to find some. Beware that I haven’t read most of the fics and therefore cannot say anything about their content. I also recommend of course you read the autor’s warnings;)

Trans Kylo Art

https://croatomunchi.tumblr.com/post/142969291522/would-u-ever-draw-like-hux-and-trans-kylo - croatomunchi

http://artllama.tumblr.com/post/146236116396/i-did-a-transition-log-because-i-cant-not-spend - artllama

http://toiek.tumblr.com/post/141289851114/i-love-trans-kylo - toiek

http://rip-space-birdie.tumblr.com/post/141067487245/kylo-ren-is-trans-pass-it-on - rip-space-birdie

http://opens-up-4-nobody.tumblr.com/post/153044170134/stutter-iplier - opens-up-4-nobody

http://opens-up-4-nobody.tumblr.com/post/147354462721/nice - opens-up-4-nobody

http://angerydj.tumblr.com/post/169121106275 - angerydj

http://corvosfursona.tumblr.com/post/137737245113/they-fixed-him-up-but-hes-conked-and-phasma - corvosfursona

http://kiiiloren.tumblr.com/post/137138625403/coming-to-u-live-tiny-trans-padawan-ben-solo  - kiiiloren

+ There is also a blog whose name is Trans!Kylo

Trans Kylo headcanons/ideas

http://bygoneboy.tumblr.com/post/148311042452/hi-u-should-talk-abt-ur-trans-kylo-headcanons - bygoneboy

http://nbnightwing.tumblr.com/post/136272896831/anyway-ive-been-thinking-a-lot-about-trans-guy - nbnightwing

http://kremaclassii.tumblr.com/post/137459014170/whispers-more-trans-kylo-head-canons - kremaclassii

http://kiiiloren.tumblr.com/post/138435517778/ive-been-thinking-about-trans-hux-and-kylo + http://kiiiloren.tumblr.com/post/137141605853/since-leia-is-force-sensitive-imagine-her-being - kiiiloren

http://lilstarkiller.tumblr.com/post/141230802426/alright-alright-i-keep-thinking-weve-got-trans - lilstarkiller

http://generallyhorribleatlife.tumblr.com/tagged/trans%21kylo - generallyhorribleatlife

Trans Kylo Fics

“Almond”  - angry_android || Kylo likes to hang out at his local Starbucks and brood. Hux works there part-time while going to community college. Because of someone else’s sloppy handwriting, Hux accidentally calls out Kylo’s name as “Kylie,” and there is fallout. The fallout might include dating.

“pocketknife”  - angry_android || There’s a reason Kylo wears a crop top. Hux understands.

“Casanova, Fuck Me Over”  -  Anonymous || With another kiss, Hux glances up. “You promise try and keep your limbs to yourself?” Ren snorts. “I will try my best,” he says, placing his hands on the sheets, “If you promise to stick your face between my thighs sometime soon.”

“Tarine Tea and Lambro Shark”  -  armitageren || The First Order celebrates a recent victory on a luxurious planet and it’s the perfect setting for Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux’s first date. Hux struggles to survive the date with his anxiety putting him on edge because Ren doesn’t know he’s trans and he isn’t sure what that means for their future.

“all the noises (from your hateful little mouth)”  - bloomthefox || In which Kylo whines and puts off his feelings, Phasma calls it like she sees it, and Hux is a stone cold mystery. Or, the defense attorney AU that literally nobody asked for.

“care and control”  -  cracktheglasses (cormallen) ||  It’s a wide strip of dark brown leather, soft, already a bit worn at the edges, snapped shut over Ben’s wrist. It means Ben wants him. Ben needs him. He may not always be able to say it, but he means it every time he puts the cuff on, every time he puts himself into Hux’s care – I’m yours.

“juxtaposition”  - cracktheglasses (cormallen) || He hopes Hux makes it hurt. Hopes Hux is as mean and arrogant and smart here as he is everywhere else, the way Kylo tries to be.

“Changed” -   Davechicken || Kylo was sure from a young age that he wasn’t female. It’s not until he leaves home that he finds people who agree.

“Pushed”  - Davechicken || Hux has to push his boy a little, to get him through the discomfort. Kylo always appreciates it after.

“Control”  - DoctorNinjaSpy || Patience is Armitage’s most valued virtue. Sometimes, however, he falters.

“special delivery” - gonnapop || Hux had not intended to be present for this messy process. Rather, he’d imagined returning after his shift and being handed a clean, swaddled baby. But there was nothing for it now.He rolled up his sleeves.

“Heel, Beg, Speak”  - JulieCox || Emperor Hux has a new pet, and enjoys pushing him around. Kylo has secrets, and enjoys keeping them to his own damn self. But they won’t stay secrets for long.

“the Panty fic”  -  kyloskummies || Kylo and Hux are roommates. Kylo is trans and wears panties. It’s a hot day and the AC is broken. Y'all know where it goes from there.

“Bad Poet and Good Artist”  -  lovewashisname || Hux has moved schools before. He’s sure this time won’t be any different. He’ll keep to himself, make a few acquaintances, and put up with his father the best he can. But not even an hour into his first day and he’s shattered his phone, walked into a gorgeous boy, and had a very, very awkward conversation with said gorgeous boy. In other words, Hux meets the incredibly sad Ben Solo, and maybe he doesn’t want to leave this school so soon.

“Bad Poetry on Starlit Rooftops”  -  lovewashisname || Everywhere Kylo looks, high school is portrayed as either the best place you’ll ever be, or a shithole that will ruin four years of your life. For Kylo, it’s neither. High school has been a place to hide from his own body, and to get into fights every once in a while. So in one year, none of that will change, he thinks. How wrong could he be? told from Kylo’s point of view

“A Real Boy”  -  MosImagination || Ben solo is a transmale junior, he has a crush on a senior named Hux. Ben is too afraid to show off his real self, but Hux quickly accepts him. And loves him.

“Birth of a dream”  -  MosImagination || Ben solo is a transmale, hux has always wanted a child, Ben gives his body to have their child.

“Expectations”  -  MosImagination || Ben solo didn’t know what to expect coming home on Valentines Day.

“Shark in the Water”  -  SeraphicVictory || Kylo Ren was absolutely the best sailor there ever was. Or that’s what he liked people to believe anyway. In truth, he was no better than any other man at the mercy of the sea. With one fatal mistake, he and his ship were destroyed in a terrible storm, and Kylo was certain he would fall to the watery grave that most sailors met at the end. But then he wakes up to a handsome, red-headed man. His savior: The Mershark called ‘Hux’.

“Someone to come home to”  -  ShinigamiKnox || Hux is the supportive boyfriend and helps Kylo deal with his dysphoria. It was supposed to be a more serious piece of work, but I could not stop laughing at the infamous Ren quote. I’m so sorry.

“A morning at the gym”  -  SidMjkGc || Just another kind of workout.

“This Asshole”  - twinkyatta || Hux goes to a coffee shop every day, but there’s a new barista, and holy fuck does he hate him.

+ Trans Female Kylo fic

“Fate”  -  MosImagination || It was fate that they met. A beautiful transfemale Kylo ren. A handsome transmale Hux.

Trans Kylo series (of fics) 

“The Monsters We Keep”  -  AriMarris || Description: “The Monsters We Keep” is the story of Hux and Kylo, who fall in love and marry young and make many mistakes. Basically, the films rewritten through Kylo’s eyes with drastic changes. With extra one-shots thrown in the mix for fun.

“Bastards and Broken Things”  -  Bipolar_Armitage_Hux, kohoutek || No Description –> Resume of first work: A story of Armitage Hux’s childhood from the Bastards and Broken Things AU / Series.

“Caged by Monsters” (one work for now)  -  Bipolar_Armitage_Hux, kohoutek || No Description –> Resume of first work:  An introduction to the psychiatric ward AU - this is written by an actually neurodivergent person and thus there is a strong attempt to make it not remotely ableist. The “bad guys” in this are the abusive doctors and an ableist system. Hux meets Kylo Ren for the first time, or rather the other sees him in a therapy session with Dr. Brendol Hux and becomes fascinated by him.

“The Tired Raptor”  -  Kylux_TRASH || Description: “Hollywood, 1939. Amidst the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie talent at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right. A beacon for the show business elite. Now, something is about to happen that will change all that”Something did happen to change that. It happened, on October 31st, 1939, Hollywood California. Kayla-Rose and her male escort, Mr. Hux were riding in the elevator when they entered into a world unknown. They entered The Twilight Zone.

“when the lights are low”  -  transkylo (captainandor) || No Description –> Resume of first work: “Do your colleagues know how fucking possessive you are?” Kylo asks, canting his hips back, pressing into Hux’s touch as far as he can.Hux grins. “Does your mother know that you sleep with her political rivals?” Kylo’s laugh is breathy and uneven. “I don’t make a habit of it.” 

+ Trans Female Kylo series (of fic)

“She’s Just a Girl and She’s on Fire”  -   Kylo Hux (Loki_Likey_Thor_Odinson) || No Description –> Resume of first work: Hux and Phasma have been sent to a fundraiser for The First Order. Their uniforms have been changed for a smart military uniform and a glamorous ball gown. Everyone that should be here is – except for one person.Kylo Ren is absent, still on another planet, having surgery. She was supposed to be here, supposed to be on security detail for the night; Hux lost hope of seeing his girlfriend for the first time in months when he saw two Knights of Ren circling the room.

“from bby Finn to teenage heartthrob + Hux  (one work for now)  -  orphan_account || No Description –> Resume of first work: Mostly, Phasma loves her job. But sometimes, just sometimes, she really hates it. Meanwhile, Hux has a slight problem, and her name is Kylo Ren.

#here you go #hope it helps #this is of course a non exaustive list #tbh i usually do not do fic rec/lists but i had time and i didn't have it in my aus too... #if you spot any mistake don't hesitate to tell me:) #kyux #au #trans kylo au

[kristinebritney]

Pre-Stem Cell Harvest Thoughts

Forgive me for this long post as I have nothing else to do in the hospital but to wait until my stem cells can be harvested. I am on Day 15 at the hospital and hopefully soon, my stem cells can be harvested already then after a month, the stem cell transplant will happen. I have so many thoughts going on in my head that sometimes I could not sleep.

Will I beat cancer again?

Can my body handle all the toxic chemicals being infused for me to get better?

Will I ever not worry about cancer coming back?

Can my family ever recover from this sickness?

Why is it so hard to beat cancer?

When will I get out of this hospital?

When will I go back to work?

When does the suffering end?

Diagnosis

Being diagnosed the first time was the worst day of my life. And being diagnosed the second time around is the hardest and also the worst day of my life. Just after putting all my efforts in rebuilding my life, cancer struck me out of nowhere. I knew I had to be vigilant that’s why I never let a simple pain be forgotten. That’s how life is after cancer. I feel like I am walking on eggshells – I have to be careful not to trigger anything. What triggers cancer anyway? We wouldn’t know. I still don’t know. Since I got better, I have been living a somewhat “stress-free” life. My family and friends are very kind to not let me stress over simple things. I admit, I still eat what I want but I do it in moderation.

The second time I was diagnosed, my first thought was, “What about my work?” Back in 2016, I had to take a 6-month leave to finish my chemotherapy. Some people can still work while having chemo. Me, I can’t even walk on my own that time. I am so fortunate that the company I am staying with is very considerate with regards to my case. The support of my colleagues all over the world were tremendous! When I came back to work on January 2017, I still had to do radiations so what I did was to wake up at 5:00AM then proceed to the hospital so that I can start radiation by 7:00AM, finished by 8:15AM, get to work by 9:30AM just in time for my 10:00AM shift. That was a routine for 19 days straight. I was so relieved that finally, I am done with the treatments!!!! Now, my company is again very gracious to allow me to take a leave again for me to get better. I was devastated to take a leave because I was starting to work on a project, but I had to let it go as health is my priority. Back in my mind, I am feeling guilty for leaving my colleagues for an indefinite time and passing on my work to them. But deep down, I am so thankful for their understanding. I am relieved when they say “Don’t worry, just focus on your health and we’ll see you soon” all the time. You see, it is important for a cancer patient to still look forward for work. This motivates me to heal faster and get back on my feet the soonest.

Having Cancer in the Philippines

Coming from a middle-class family, earning my own money is a big deal. Just a few weeks after graduation, I started working and earning my own money to fund everything I want and need. I was financially independent. I’m not earning a huge amount, but it was enough to live a comfortable life.

My first diagnosis, we were told to prepare PhP750,00.00 for chemotherapy alone (not including other complications of chemo – which I had) I was unfortunately diagnosed with the expensive type of Lymphoma. I don’t even have enough savings to fund 1 cycle of chemotherapy.

My second diagnosis, a stem cell transplant is the recommended second line treatment for relapse in Lymphoma which costs around PhP 2.5 Million. Basically, I will be having an autologous stem cell transplant in which my own stem cells will be harvested, a high dose chemo will be given to kill the cancer cells, then my stem cells will return to me. Seems easy, right? But no, I had to undergo a total of 4 high dose chemo because the transplant can only be successful if I am in Partial or Complete Remission.

We were given two choices -  to go with stem cell transplant or just go with 6 cycles of chemo. In comparison, stem cell transplant has the highest chance of cure compared with chemo alone. However, neither of them guarantees the cancer won’t come back. I asked helped from my friends in making a decision and one answer struck me the most, “No matter what the cost, I would do anything to increase my chances of living.” Although we do not have the money for the transplant, my parents never hesitated to push through with the procedure. “We will make it work,” they said. And for the past months, we did make it work through the help of so many angels.

I have joined many Lymphoma support groups all over the world and I am jealous of their health care system. They don’t have to worry about the cost of the transplant. Having a stem cell transplant in their country is not a question. It’s part of the procedure. While here in the Philippines, you have to think about it because it is not easy to shell out PhP 2.5M.

Here in the Philippines, PCSO gives medical assistance whether you are rich or poor. I believe that when one of your family member has cancer, it will always drain your savings. Processing PCSO guarantee letters is definitely not a walk in the park. I am lucky enough to have a brother and sister-in-law to process my papers instead of me going to PCSO. Imagine how many sick people line up as early as 3:00AM for them to secure the golden ticket in the form of a guarantee letter or medicines. It would take up your whole day! For some people, PCSO is their best way to survive the costly chemotherapy.

Miracles and New Beginnings

I would sometimes wonder what it would feel like to not ever worry about money which is an impossible world. Everyone worries about money. I remember telling my mom that with all the medical expenses we incurred, we could be millionaires right now. But then she told me, “None of them was ours. They were all given and donated for you to get better” Then it hit me how so many people are always willing to help. When I needed my first chemo immediately, my mom’s brother and friends willingly gave us money. When the bill was too high to be paid in cash, my mom’s friend went to the hospital and swiped her credit card. When there was a problem with my health card, my dad’s friends did everything to get it approved. Whenever we are about to be discharged from the hospital, help from my colleagues and friends would always come. I remember a dear friend of mine giving me P50,000.00 just because they have extra blessings in their family. Colleagues from Manila, Amsterdam, and Singapore pooled funds to help me with my medical bills. I receive so many messages saying that the only thing they can do for me is pray. Please know that prayers mean everything! I am blessed to have so many prayer warriors. I am deeply touched with the help I’ve been receiving. Even until now, my friends haven’t stopped creating fundraising events for my transplant. Miracles are indeed everywhere. You just have to stop and realize them.

Series of events led us to losing our house at the same time while I am battling cancer. It was heartbreaking. I kept on thinking why does these have to happen at the same time? With God’s grace, we were able to find a new place to stay immediately – as if it was handed to us without any glitches. I take this struggle as God’s way of telling us to start something new. I read a quote saying “You cannot heal in the same environment where you got sick” so maybe this is my new beginning.

Waiting Patiently

I am currently on my 15th day of confinement. I had 5 days of intensive chemo and now that my white blood cell count is down to 0.15, we are waiting for it to shoot up, so the stem cell harvest can be done. The waiting game is not easy. My counts are low, hence, I had a platelet transfusion and will be having a blood transfusion in a bit. I currently have a fever. My electrolytes are low too. For the past few days, some of you may know that I feel a bit down. I feel like I am not as strong as before when I was first battling cancer. I feel like I am so tired from everything. I just want to go home. But of course I will not stop fighting. I have so many angels standing with me in this fight and I won’t let them down.

I recently had a chat with one of the nurses that will handle my transplant. He was so informative because he told me what I should expect. Hearing his stories scared me. He said that when stem cells are transplanted back to me, I will experience a 40-degree fever, problems with the GI tract (this one is what I’m scared of the most), stomach pains, unable to eat anything to the point that my nourishments have to be given thru IV, that familiar feeling of weakness due to chemo but this time, it is more intense. The good news is, this will not last forever. I just have to endure the pain for a few days or weeks. But I admit, knowing these scared me so much that I had to cry to my parents.

I am almost there! I am wishing and hoping that I will be cured and cancer will never ever come back for my family.

#lymphoma #stem cell transplant #chemotherapy #Cancer

[icharchivist]

Ive been told da2 gets a lot of bad reviews. What's your opinion on the game?? :0

Heyo!!

Oh dear. Okay so let’s start it by saying i absolutly adore da2. I love all the da game, and da2 is no exception. They all have different strong points that makes them stand out on their own and as a result da2 is a great game on its own.

I tried, under the cut, to enter more into details without spoiling, hopefully it worked ahah.

IMO the reason da2 had bad reviews…. is that it came after dao and people had high expectations, and some people having problems with new things da2 introduced - ie the general “Sequel Problem” of people refusing it to be any different from its original game. 

I’ll get more in depth under the cut (avoiding spoiling as much as i can) but ay

I believe it’s likely people got upset to be kinda “locked into a city” while dao allowed you to go to more places. The focus of the story is also much more the Mage/Templar conflict while dao focused on a diverse brunch of conflict. (which…. Okay the thing that annoys me with that argument is that yes there were more conflicts in dao, like, the dwarves and such, (and like, dao’s focused on so much because they didn’t focus as much in depth on them. dao was an intruduction to the lore, so it couldn’t overwhelm us with it) but the magic conflict was a pillar to dao not only with the Circle incident, it was worth focusing upon, and even there they took the time to explore others lore stuff. Hell there’s a hell tone of forshadowing in da2 which personally for the lore hungry person i am, i love to death.)

And there isn’t “one great goal” in the end of the game - like in dao you have to defeat the blight! in da2, you have no idea what’s the endgame will be and how it’ll end, you kinda move forward to understand why Varric is telling your story to the Seeker of Truth.

(I think a complain that could happen but that I don’t see brought up a lot is that da2 being the only game narrated by a character, da2′s story could… actually be a little simplified? I personally blame most of the clumsy writting or like, lack of environment (which are two problems a lot of people complain about) to the fact that it’s Varric telling the story and the Seeker imagining it, therefore the point of view is biased. It gives them a good narrative stun imo and it allow more fluidity, and it doesn’t mean that all of da2 is bullshit either I hope people would understand that. I don’t see much people complain about the narrative format but imo a lot of the major “uncoherence” people complain about can… completely be justified over the narrative format so idk)

I think what people are overlooking when they make those complains is that… da2 is meant to be a smaller story. It’s not the story of a Warden, or of an Inquisitor - it’s Hawke, a person who’s trying to survive in this world, who’s trying to have their family survive, and who ends up wrapped into a conflict against their will. 

da2 isn’t meant to be as big and vast as dao because it’s a smaller story with huge consequences, it’s not supposed to be like dao.

(also on the technical levels i’ve read apparently the story was more planned to be dao->dai, but EA pushed the compagny to do another game quite quickly so instead of rushing to dai they decided to expend elements with da2 so the story will flow more naturally. Because they were pressed and with new engins the game had limitations, so they focused on a more intimist story about Hawke and their friends.) 

In some ways da2 can be considered a transition game, but i don’t completely think so, it gained an identity on its own and personally i think the emotions and elements of da2 stand out even more as its own strong story because of the approach taken. 

Then I think also it’s because this game is much more heavy on small consequences, especially with how the approval system work - say, how easily it is to lose the surviving sibling’s life to the deep roads, or how completely different a character storyline can go depending on how you befriend them or rival them. If you don’t play your cards right i think it’s possible to be disappointed with where it’s taken, but 1- it’s not. as bad as it sounds, 2-, I personally think it’s even more of a strength. 

DA2 is a personal game. if the Warden’s companions stuck around because they had to save the world, da2′s companions only stick around because…. they like Hawke. That’s it. That’s why the approval system is Friendship/Rivalry and not Approval/Disapproval. This isn’t a question of them approving your actions it’s a question of how your friendship developped toward the years. It’s extremely bold but require players to be even more involved with the characters because their own friendship is what holds the game together. 

Also the fact that da2 happens over the course of multiple years (if i’m not wrong about 7 years) while we have dao happen over the course of one year/one year and a half with awakening, only. The bound between the companions isn’t supposed to be the same. Da2 asks you to care more than dao did. And while dao definitly have character development with the approval, da2 pushes it further with how the consequences of said development pay off. (although i’m not saying it in a bad way for dao - even if they were “around to save the day” their friendship was genuine with high approval and it was still emotionally charged).

And I think a few people may have had a problem with that while… it’s a great thing? It makes the game stand out. It makes it more emotional. 

Then - be careful with reviews because who generally leave review? Ye certain bases of gamers that. huh. Especially in 2011 where it was still the time of even shittier gamers that we have now. 

For exemple I’ve read there had been a lot of uprising over the fact the whole romance team were bi. Which i find stupid af, but apparently this was a problem in 2011. I’ve read people being absolutly upset and tear the game to pieces because they found it irrealistic. Worse even - Anders shows he has a crush on Hawke no matter what gender Hawke is, so players can’t exactly ignore it. (Also if the info filtered on forum - in the mlm romance with Anders, it’s confirmed that Karl, the mage who was made tranquil in the begining of the game? Was Anders’s… lover for lack of a better word when they were in the Circle so they remained intimate. (he was the reason Anders ran away from the Circle in Awakening for the last time- a whole other can of worm i won’t expend on) It’s therefore implied that after his death Anders’s emotions were all over the place, thus his crush happened over the person who helped him. But ye, if people learned that, they therefore learn that Anders kinda have his bisexuality in the frontrow and it cannot be ignored.) I’ve read hundreds of fanboys rant about how it made them uncomfortable, and a lot of different sort of discourses over the sexualities of that game. (most that I think are completely ot of place and again, remembering the target demographic, 2011 wasn’t as much a good time for those things as recent years.) 

(also the worst thing about da is its fandom, i don’t trust any “common opinions” whatsoever. 9 out of 10 it’s deforming plot informations to fit an argument that doesnt have its place here). (…. although I suppose the same thing could be said from my own opinions so like, make your own opinion, truly. Don’t let people influence you. DA is a personal experience, which can be completely different depending on your choices and on how you get along with the companions-  don’t let anyone ruin it.)

Then i’m not gonna act like the game is flawless either but I think the reasons people pick on it are… not good reasons. There’s flaws yes but like all the games (there’s tons of flaws in dao and dai, and it doesn’t remove from their qualities and the strong stuff that are in those games - why would you treat da2 differently), and they’re minors in the whole game.

I know the ending caused problems for a lot of people too, and that I can’t enter in details there - I see a few cons, but imo the endingS are incredible on what they mean on a thematic level. it’s really complicated to enter into details and i wouldn’t want my “it’s incredible” to be taken out of context or like, about a detail that I don’t mean by that - so maybe later, but i do think the game is asking you to weight the impact of your decisions and the conclusion is really strong. 

I think one of the possible other reason it may have badly reasonated with some fans is the lack of power fantasy? For exemple, especially for human nobles, you can actually become king/queen in dao. And it’s treated as a good thing. And in the end, even without playing this origin, you become Warden Commander, and an advisor in the throne room, and the Hero of Fereldan people will respect for ever. Your accomplishment are important and it makes you feel empowered.Da2 doesn’t treat power the same way. The Mantle of Champion is more stress indulging, especially when you play as a mage, because you are seen by everyone. The Champion Mantle isn’t the end of your story, like the Warden Commander was the end of the Warden’s story in dao. the Champion title is more stress infliging considering the current political state of Kirkwall.and there’s more to that later but to me it’s something I find fascinating. 

What I find fascinating with this series of game is how much the context change how you can approach a similar situation. I’ve compared it a lot to dao to make my point but I want to be clear: i love the approach of dao, it fits in its context, in how the plot elements are going on, about why all of this is happening. because in dao’s context, the fact it happens this way is extremely interesting and much more telling - and the emotional involvement is still here. The idea is that by contrast, because of the different context in da2, the way things are different is fascinating and coherent. But say, a treatment like that wouldn’t have worked in dao’s context - it works because da2 created a context in which this was what rose the stakes.

People who just wanted to relive the experience of dao couldn’t get that in da2 because the context was too different, so even if you can hit some vague marks (romance and have sex with your LI, characters development, position of power ect..) the context will require you to think about it differently, so if you go in thinking about having it the same way as dao i think you can be disappointed.

I personally think da2′s context make for a lot of brilliance in its scenario without undermining what dao accomplished.

(and i didn’t mention dai at all because i don’t want to spoil but my reasoning applies there too - the differences or similarities in dai with the others games works because it works in its context and those elements cannot be taken out of their context if you want to appreciate them. Putting them in contrast isn’t belittling one or the other, it’s seeing why the context allowed to have such different or similar plots and why it works.)

Also i think it may play that da2 is more political. or at least the politics cannot be ignored. dao was extremely political but you could go "shut up i just want to kill that dragon" and make quick decisions about politics. Da2 is entrely centered about the politics of the chantry/circle/mage/templar and people can be allergic to plot asking you to take into consideration a lot of issues linked to oppression. but idk politics were in dao too ppl who complain about it in da2 are just mad that this time they are forced to care about it

I think da2 fall flat if you’re not ready to involve yourself emotionally, because the emotions is the most important factor of da2, before even the accomplishments and the likes. it’s the driving force of the game. I do think the emotions are super important for the enjoyement of all the games, but for da2 i’d go as far as to say it’s a requirement. 

if you like lore, too, da2 is full of it, it has a lot of intruiguing lore pieces to remember for later; I know i didn’t think much of them the first time but ever since dai i’ve been digging in every codex possibles and da2 has a lot of interesting stuff when it comes to the lore. Maybe harder to find the interest for without the big picture, but really incredible and interesting to read nevertheless.

For the story, again, I think it needs the emotional bound to your character and to the other characters, but i still think it’s a really important story that had to be told, and if it had to be told, this way to do it was really good, it was important, it showed how those things in the little picture would affect the big picture. I love this kind of things. Thematically the story is incredible.

TL;DR: I absolutly love da2, it’s an incredible game on its own rights, and i entered a lot of details why because a lot of the things i saw people complain about are… the things I actually love with the game. It’s supposed to be different from dao because of its context, and it does it well, if you’re ready to be taken by this new adventure and understand it doesn’t have the same stakes as dao. 

People complained about a lot of things, the da fandom always complain about something all the time, but especially in 2011, when most of the reviews of da2 came out, the fanbase and people who were loud about it were… Not ready i think? For lack of a better word? 

SO YE that’s more of less my thoughts, and i’m mostly just saying why i like things people disliked, but trust me i loved this game in a lot of others details, and i tried to remain vague to avoid possible spoilers ahah.

Take care!!

#ichafantalks da #yoo *finger guns* #spider lilies #ichareply

[cyberramblings]

3DS: Time for Playtime

It's been fun getting a Wii U lately, but I wanted to look back on all the use I've gotten out of my 3DS in the last year by running down my most played games.

Super Smash Bros. - 154 Hours

This is still my most played game after recently getting back into the 3DS, despite playing zero Smash in that time. I played a lot of this game when it came out and then leading up to the release of Ultimate. This game was a godsend for someone like me who didn't own a Wii U but wanted to stay involved with the series.

Pokemon X - 56 Hours

Again, this is from when I first got my 3DS. I played this one over a whole summer vacation off and on! I still can't decide how I feel about XP Share.

Pokemon Ultra Moon - 51 Hours

Okay, this one is this high because after beating the game, my girlfriend tried to catch all the Pokemon and collect all the totem stickers. I really enjoyed this one, but the Ultra Necrozma fight kicked my butt.

Link Between Worlds - 49 Hours

I actually own the special edition Triforce 3DS which came bundled with this game! As my first game on the system, it is no surprise to see it so high, even though I got stuck on the final boss. I consider this to be one of the best Zelda games.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - 41 Hours

This one makes a lot of sense. When I played all that Smash Bros before the release of Ultimate, this was the one other game I played during that time, to the point of actually beating it and a good chunk of the daily puzzles! I even missed a college lecture because I was so wrapped up in the climax.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - 27 Hours

Finally, a game I played recently with no shenanigans or excuses. This was an interesting "book ends" with Omega Ruby, as OR was the first Pokemon game I played in my recent endeavor to play them all, while AS was towards the end. Backwards of their names, huh?

Pokemon Omega Ruby - 26 Hours

Fitting that this game should be so close to Alpha Sapphire. I would think that one of these two games would've been left running overnight or somehow had the playtimes differ more, but it somehow makes me hapy to see them side by side. I appreciated Wally's Theme much more the second time through.

Pokemon Y - 23 Hours

Considerably less than the time I spent in X all those years ago. This was one of the last Pokemon games I played in my recent playing of all the games, since I had already technically beaten X. It was a lot of fun to revisit though, and I love Sylveon!

Ocarina of Time 3D - 21 Hours

This one also makes sense, since I owned it during my original teenage years of owning the 3DS. I can't believe I paid 40 bucks for this just to get stuck on the Forest Temple for years! OoT doesn't resonate with me the same way as everyone else seemingly.

Pokemon Red - 19 Hours

Again, this makes sense. I think this was the third game of my recent Pokemon marathon, right after Alpha Sapphire and Ultra Moon. It was a short run thanks to an overlevelled Venasaur and the three legendary birds. I enjoyed crushing this game.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - 16 Hours

This is the game I just finished. I love the series and it was nice to finish it out. I think the ending was silly but the presentation value was nice to see.

Pushmo - 14 Hours

This was my go-to breakfast game for weeks, but phone-scrolling has replaced it as my morning activity while eating.

Shovel Knight - 14 Hours

This used to be the premiere downloadable title on 3DS. I think this game still holds up, but it has lost the sheer novelty of being a Kickstarter retro success over time.

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 13 Hours

I liked Persona 4 so I thought I would like this. It was too difficult for me back then, but now I don't have the patience. This was one of the games I actually paid 15 bucks to download back in highschool.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 13 Hours

The first of my several attempts to get into Monster Hunter. I bought, played, quit, and sold this game all back in high school. I would later go on to buy, try, and sell Monster Hunter World as well. It just isn't for me.

Metroid: Samus Returns - 12 Hours

I tried and hated this game on PC emulator, but it has a lot more charm on the actual system. I still generally dislike the melee mechanic but I generally enjoyed this game. It helps that I even beat the original first! Hopefully Dread fixes the few things wrong with this game.

Kid Icarus: Uprising - 12 Hours

I don't know if I ever fell in love with the "unique" control scheme of this game, but I definitely fell in love with all of the characters! This was a great one to play with my girlfriend watching. It's also great to have more of a context for Pit, Palutena, and Dark Pit in Smash now!

Pokemon Sun - 11 Hours

I haven't beaten it yet, whoops.

Rhyhm Heaven Megamix - 11 Hours

One of the last purchases I made before the Switch came out and killed my 3DS playing nearly permanently. I paid 30 bucks! As much as I love this game, I don't know if it was worth that.

Super Mario 3D Land - 10 Hours

A rare game that I played before AND after the rift of me playing 3DS. It's...fine. Definitely Mario.

Picross 3D: Round 2 - 9 Hours

I have always loved Picross and this is no exception. I really should dive back in sometime!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 8 Hours

I just can't get into it, I've tried but I can't.

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - 8 Hours

This was actually a birthday gift! I was very excited for the concept but hugely turned off by the time travel and setting. I need to give it another shake, perhaps after replaying some of the Ace Attorney games.

Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D - 7 Hours

One of my few highschool digital purchases. I played a lot of Mercenaries in 6 and 5 (which this is based on, seemingly). It's...fine. But I should have just replayed Revelations on 3DS instead.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - 6 Hours

It was 7 bucks at GameStop used, so I guess I almost got a 1:1 ratio of hours to dollars. I would've enjoyed this game more now, after playing FF7 Remake.

Pokemon Picross - 6 Hours

Free AND Picross? Yes, but also grindy and scummy. I wish you could just buy a physical copy of this game with everything unlocked.

Paper Mario Sticker Star - 5 Hours

Ten dollars on clearance was too much for this game. Maybe I will try it again sometime knowing ahead of time that it is a joke of a video game. I spit on this game's grave.

Mario Tennis Open - 5 Hours

A lot of the games I acquired within the last year have much lower playtimes, so I was not expecting to see this game this high. I guess I played a few tournaments. I feel like I quit because Waluigi cheated, then played just the tutorial of Mario Golf before quitting that too.

Elite Beat Agents - 4.5 Hours

This game rules.

Tetris Axis - 4.5 Hours

This game drools.

Kirby Planet Robobot - 4.5 Hours

Cute game, but I only play it with my girlfriend.

New Super Mario Brothers 2 - 4.5 Hours

I am surprised it is this low considering I got stuck on the final boss in single player and beat around 2 worlds in coop.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - 4 Hours

I need to play more!

Super Smash Brothers Demo - 4 Hours

Hell yeah this was such an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan! Trying to get ahold of this demo was like getting a Willy Wonk golden ticket. I was so excited to play as Mega Man, Villager, Mario, Link, and Pikachu even if just on Battlefield.

Kingdom Hearts 3D - 3.5 Hours

A surprisingly competent action RPG. This game kind of reeks as part of the PS4 collection, but it really shines on the original version.

Layton's Mystery Journey - 3 Hours

I like the idea of playing as Layton's daughter, but I don't like having a talking dog and an insufferable simp as sidekicks. I hope the next game just returns to the original crew.

Mario Kart 7 - 3 Hours

It's...Mario Kart. Not a ton more to say.

Mario Party Island Tour - 3 Hours

I have trouble keeping the different 3DS Mario Party games separate in my mind, but anything that's not Top 100 is fun with friends. Top 100 only has one, miserable board! Why???

Ultimate NES Remix - 3 Hours

A great game for pick up and play, but not for long sessions.

Art of Balance Touch - 3 Hours

Recently got into this. Tons of fun until the difficulty gets a little too high!

Warioware Gold - 2.5 Hours

I completely beat this game and it is still this low. Fun, but hard to recommend at any price but free.

Luigi's Mansion 2 - 2.5 Hours

Cute game....but feels hard to play for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Dead or Alive Dimensions - 2.5 Hours

Again, all I did was beat the game and then quit. Surprsingly competent for a 3DS fighting game, but too barebones with content compared to Smash.

Boxboy - 2.5 Hours

I feel like I played this game way more. It's cute and fun, but now I have a hard time picking up the puzzles where I left them.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Demo - 2.5 Hours

This tricked me into buying the game! Dangit

Mario Party Star Rush - 2.5 Hours

Oh god, I can't keep this one and Island Tour straight.

Pokemon Shuffle - 2 Hours

I feel like I played this one way more, but that is probably because the phone version also exists.

VVVVVV - 2 Hours

Beat the whole game! Not a bad way to spend time, but this makes it worth only 2 dollars according to my 1:1 ratio of dollars to hours.

Final Fantasy Explorers - 2 Hours

I like some things about this game but I just cannot play anything related to Monster Hunter.

Tri Force Heroes - 2 Hours

This suffers from "Overcooked syndrome" where you have to rely on your teammates so much that it becomes a total chore.

Theatrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call - 1.5 Hours

I played that much just to unlocked multiplayer.

Super Street Fighter IV - 1.5 Hours

I think I paid for this game full price back in high school and then barely played it. I've always tried to delude myself into thinking that I can play real fighting games that are not Smash.

Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX - 1.5 Hours

Again, I feel like I played this game for days and days. I suppose rhythm games feel like time slows down when you play them. Thumbs up for including Puyo Puyo! I am surprised this game released in the West at all.

Rune Factory 4 - 1.5 Hours

I got this far as a favor to a friend. I just can't play any game where there is an optimal way to act that sounds exhausting but possible to me. I know I could easily talk to all the NPC's every day... but I do not want to.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 1.5 Hours

This was exclusively played with friends. Not a fan.

Pokemon Rumble World - 1.5 Hours

Free games. Novelty as a kid. No time for them as an adult. Nothing about this game is appealing beyond the price point.

Attack of the Friday Monster - 1.5 Hours

My biggest memory of this game is playing it on the schoolbus when a little kid asked if he could play/watch and I told him I was playing a boring game that he wouldn't like. As cute as this game is, yes, it is boring and not very fun.

Sonic Generations - 1.5 Hours

I somewhat enjoyed this game until the Shadow boss fight. Can't figure it out. Not fun.

Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn - 1.5 Hours

Cute, played it with girlfriend.

Super Mario Land 2 - 1 Hour

I think I got this with Club Nintendo points?

Rage of the Gladiator - 1 Hour

Medieval offbrand Punch-Out.

Mario Party: The Top 100 - 1 Hour

ONE BOARD?!? At least it has the storybook minifame from gamecube Mario Party.

Trace Memory - 1 Hour

Bought used from GameStop. I was told it was a hidden gem, but I didn't have the patience.

Mario and Sonic Rio 2016 - 1 Hour

Cute game to play with friends but some of the minigames suck. Thumbs up for less common Sonic characters.

Azure Striker Gunvolt - 1 Hour

Not bad, just helped me realize that I don't really like Mega Man style games all that much. The genre of "Mega Man" just feels like a Metroid with no exploration or meaningful progression.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - 1 Hour

I tried to get into this franchise but it is so booooorring and slow and unappealing to me.

I've been rounding to the half hour, so the next game is Zelda Oracle of Season at 44 minutes, which would round down to half an hour. I will take that as my cue to finish here.

In conclusion: games I owned longer tended to be played longer. Shocker. This was all just an excuse to ramble about Nintendo games anyways.

#3ds #ds #nintendo #mario #zelda #pokemon #metroid dread #sonic #kid icarus

[questionthebox]

Poets Diary

last night, Saturday January 16th, 2021, 

I fell into a series of dreams, which have been occurring, since 

that “famous woman” has come into my life, 

over the past few weeks, ive been coming to terms, with how 

inauthentic, unreal, fake, performative, everything is, 

alongside, 

the brutality, barbarity, and ugliness, 

coming to grips, and slowly understanding, 

a few things, one of which is that everyone operates under a 

“masochistic sleep” that we deal with a people so in effect, “drugged up” 

that they move in the world “Asleep” 

but that’s obvious, 

the more deeper into it, I came to realize something, 

and it occurred to me in those dreams/visions, 

at the risk of sounding completely rididcoulus although haven’t I already opened myself up to that, 

I have come to see, that the Earth, is the place where “The Creators Intent Fell” 

meaning, these people are all the fallen, and in the vision, I saw the world as Noise, large overwhelming Noise, I saw all of the wickedness in the world, how everything is used, 

and in juxtaposing this, with something so fantastical, its quite odd to say, but I have also come to believe, there exists a place, where the people didn’t fall from grace, and this place literally exists, and a woman once visited this place and in her descriptions of if, there’s no way she could’ve known or summarized something like that, in the timespan she lived,  in studying her, I came to realize what she experienced was correct, and that place, how its designed, its the complete opposite of this place, that place has no monetary system to speak of, and its dwellings how the people live, are akin to a “park” if that sounds vague, what it means is, their dwellings aren’t cluttered, or large, their communal, and the people who live there, know nothing of what is seen here, 

and in venturing to this place, one will experience the difference as a smell, 

and I can now smell The Earth, and the planet is emitting, a smell, of death and murder, and misery, 

as the dreams/visions progressed, I walked amidst a place, and saw, everyone on earth, and this crystal light blue string, coming out of everyone, tying people together, and this string was everywhere, in everything and everyone, 

afterwards, I was taken to different lives, of myself, so real, that they can’t be denied, it was if I was living out different episodes, but the intent was to understand others, various others, to feel how they feel, and there was one particular interaction with someone, that I had, which was emotional, all I can say is “the road not traveled” weighs on two peoples hearts, 

overall I was left with an understanding, of the ties that bind people, and when people fell, they fell into a tie, that has subverted their potential, it in effects causes them to live in a waking asleep, of confusion, and negligence, and non communication, with all things, the earth, the animals, the plants, each other, all of this misery is about the refusal to communicate, its why evil people are allowed to tell you, you cannot have healthcare, and that the global poor cannot have food. 

#poets on tumblr #metaphysical #diary #my thoughts #writers on tumblr

[imahnoorblog-blog]

The Rossiter System®: Extending Ida's Teachings to Immediate Relief of Structural Pain

[I. Introduction and Personal History] Though it evolved from my SI practice, the Rossiter System® is not Rolfing® SI.  It is a method for targeted relief and prevention of structural pain -- i.e., pain created by overuse, injury, trauma, abuse, or stress -- in which practitioners coach clients to resolve their own pain by restoring normal joint range of motion in space. The techniques employ the client's weight-assisted active vectored stretching of painful tissue in the context of a pre-stressed whole-body fascia net. Structural pain, which usually resides in the connective tissue system, often alters that system to the point where simple massages, chiropractic adjustments, and analgesic medications no longer work.  At that point, sufferers seek more drastic measures. Thirty years ago, I was one of them.  Refusing to believe it should take months of adjustments or massage to get results, I turned to Rolfing.  Like so many clients, I fell in love with it from the first session.  By the third session, I had decided to become a RolferTM. As a new Rolfer in 1983, I landed on a strange planet -- Little Rock, Arkansas -- where the inhabitants weren't especially interested in becoming more aligned with their gravitational field.  What they wanted was pain relief -- and they demanded immediate results. After I was a Rolfer for a year, I was fortunate enough to begin to work with a neurosurgeon, Dr. Jim J. Moore. He told me if I could fix his back, he’d send people to me.  I fixed his back with straight old fashioned Rolfing.  We worked together, him sending me clients, for the next 5 years.  He sent his “basket cases” to me for Rolfing.  He was thrilled, and the basket cases started flocking to my practice. For him, the change was about finally having someone to send people to, who weren’t chiropractors, PT’s, DO’s and massage therapists.  He felt he was finally getting results. At one point, I became disillusioned with my results.  I spoke to Dr. Moore about this and asked to expand what I was doing.  He liked my work and agreed to let me take parts of the Rolfing series and work differently.  I was given this opportunity because I’d worked with him for months and months doing straight Rolfing working on people who had the worst of the worst pain problems. But his agreeing to letting me do Rolfing differently, allowed me to enjoy the results we get with Rossiter today. [II. How the Rossiter System Developed] I realized I had to change how I was doing the work.  The most important step, turned out to be dismantling the series.  The time I spent working with the doctor gave me the freedom to go into untapped and unknown areas of connective tissue work.  I took chances. I was looking for better quicker, and more long lasting results.  Results to me are about pain resolution, not human evolution.  Rather than accepting what I had been taught I wanted to know exactly what each thing I did, created.  What made things happen?  So from that point on I started creating a database of what each technique I used, did. Part of what was discovered was how people reacted to the results.  They disliked the process but when they felt the results, they forgot about the method being difficult.  Once they realized how deep the pain actually was they wanted to also get ahead of the pain by returning for preventative care.  They began to see the value in staying ahead of the pain.  Mostly this was due to the fact that many knew they had to keep doing the same job, chore or play.  So rather than getting to a point of needing over the top care, like doctors, missing work, not being able to play, they often decided to use the work as maintenance and prevention as well as recovery.  This changes everything. The second step became how involved should the client be in this process?  I soon realized two important facts. 1)  Without movement nothing happens and 2)  Without client involvement, nothing happens.  No matter what Rossiter technique you use, those two items were the first two keys to the new process.   The Rossiter System addresses just one thing -- pain.  Pain is why people show up at my door.  NEVER in 30 years of practice has anybody ever asked me to realign them with gravity so that they can evolve more thoroughly. Pain is why we go to doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, and finally to structural integrators. All because something isn't right in our body and we seek out the answers to our own pain issue.   [III.  The Rossiter Premises/Setting] Because the source of most structural pain is the connective tissue system and structural integrators have been trained to understand connective tissue more than anyone else, I prefer structural integrators as students of the Rossiter System.  But -- the look and feel of Rossiter work is nothing like that of traditional SI. In the field of Structural Integration, Rolfers, KMI, Postural Integration, Soma, and others, it is we who push the envelope of the connective tissue system or fascia.  I would go so far as to say we’re better at this than ANYTHING else out there.  I could say that we all work in the myofascial network, but I won’t, because I, and a number of others, don’t.  I think, work, and create in the fascia and only in the fascia.  I know I affect the other areas, but that’s not how I think.  So, if the issue is pain, that's our story. We don’t fluff.  Rossiter focuses only on the pain.   A Rossiter practitioner is a "Coach" -- not a therapist.  A Rossiter Coach does not cure or rehabilitate anyone.  Instead,  Therapists and therapy implies it’s own name.  (Therapy: treatment of physical, mental, or behavioral problems that is meant to cure or rehabilitate somebody.  Or, Treatment: a remedy, procedure, or technique for curing or alleviating a disease, injury, or condition)  As Rossiter Coaches, we provide the guidance to the unwinding of the cause rather than how things happened.  How they unwind may be totally different from how it went in.  Finding all the tie ins to their issue is one key.  By re-linking everything to each other, we re-create the originally designed body A Rossiter Coach does not necessarily understand how the techniques work, but that understanding is largely irrelevant to relieving pain. What is important in the beginning, is getting your client to do what you tell/ask them to do.  Not every client is willing to do this at first.  However, as soon as they realize they’ve just completed two or three moves and suddenly the pain is half gone or gone from what it was two minutes ago, they tend to listen to the coach after that.  Or, they don’t come back.   Using Your Feet, and Their Brain   To contact their clients, Rossiter Coaches use their feet instead of their hands.  I started using my feet 24 years ago. How I learned to use my feet was a complete accident. Now, I only teach using my feet.  Most Rolfers who study with me, simply put the work back on the table.  This is fine, your results will be better than before but you pay the price with your body and the results still aren’t nearly as good as doing it on the floor.   The theory behind Rossiter is as important as the technique. Connective tissue works like breathing, no matter what we know, it knows more.  That includes being able to recover itself from injury and abuse.  The results for clients -- or PICs (Persons In Charge), as they are called in Rossiter -- is produced in their connective tissue.  You get the results you want, by making the client do the work. If YOU do the work, the work stays in the room with you.  It doesn’t leave the room with them. If the PIC does the work, the power of doing it themselves stays with them.  Their work stays with them. Your Client, the Smartest Person in the Room Keep in mind, the smartest person in the room about the client’s body is the client, and always will be. As the Coach, your job is to do just that, you coach. Coaches control the environment, the room, the floor, the field. If they don’t control the room, they’re fired.  Gone.  Players cannot control the plays, the field, the room, or the COACH.  In Rossiter, you, the Rolfer, are the Coach, period.   The Coach cannot and does not control the PIC, the player, or person who comes to them in pain.  What the coach can and should do, is inspire the PIC, the person in pain, to work their hardest to get themselves out of pain. But it’s the PIC who must do the work. Yelling and cheering are valid in making a person reach out of their comfort zone to achieve better or even the best results possible. it really does work to push a person further then they thought they were capable.  A well placed yell of encouragement at a difficult moment can make all the difference in a session, or workout, as it’s called in Rossiter.  It’s called a Workout because everybody who’s ever done Rossiter says that’s exactly how it feels.   To ‘help’ a person get out of pain.  First, you must show them how, and then   give them the tools.  Then get out of their way. [IV.  Key Components of Rossiter Technique] TDMP, Time, Dimension [????], Movement, and Power Theory  [Richard: We need an opening line or two, identifying the 4 elements and suggesting how they relate to the work.  Just a few lines for some kind of transition/continuity.] Time is simply the first element in creating a fully recovered body issue.  Unlike other modalities, Rossiter pushes the time to minimum amounts.  Not days, weeks and months to recover but seconds, minutes and hours to recover.  By taking people into their pain we push them to recover, not later, but almost immediately.  Chronic pain doesn’t need time to recover, it requires condensed effort in a short time by the PIC. Dimension is about recreating the original areas of designed space the PIC had before the pain, the accident the trauma. The PIC must find the missing areas of movement. Movement is making the client do the work while under the weight of the Coach.  This irons or takes out the wrinkles created by the original problem.  Movement is concise and targeted. Power or weight determines the speed of the recovery. Time This is the dimension we are most familiar with daily.  It looks constant to us.  Time has it's own feeling of movement.  If we're happy and playing in some activity it seems to pass quickly.  If we are in the throes of somebody’s death or working at a job we hate, time seems to drag by with no end in site.  Overall, it’s perceived as a smooth movement of time over our lives, including the immeasurable speeding of it, as we grow older.  So time, ever present, surrounds us. In Rossiter, that time is about spending it wisely.  When a technique is started do you want to move too fast????  Bad choice.  Do you want to stop quickly?  Another bad choice.  The right choice is about getting involved in the process, not the ending.  That means direct participation by the PIC.  PIC movement is slow and deliberate.  IF you speed through an area you may miss what’s important to relive, and therefore relieve.   If you (PIC) miss an area that you know you’re supposed to go through, your Coach should catch you and make you return to that area you avoided.  That’s a Coach’s job.  Miss something? Go back and get it. Dimension We live and move in 3 spatial dimensions. We can slap our arm, poke a friend, or walk away.  We live in these outward dimensions.  We raise our arm, walk, work and play in 3D.  When we start doing Rossiter, we use a testing system of Points & Dots as a way to visit an area to see how well we handle the pain the area.  If we want to push the envelope of HOW we move, then we move through more powerful movements.  All are categorized by how the PIC responds to the movements.  All are always, slow and deliberate, but then the coach pushes the PIC into new areas of and including all the space we want to occupy and reclaim. This is where Locking comes in.  Locking is the outward push of ourselves to stretch not only the immediate area being worked on, but the rest of the body in it’s entirety, while the work is going on.  That means stretching the rest of the body AWAY from the area being worked.  So the lock creates an even bigger stretch that literally unlocks the area from the other side that has been shut down and painful.  By stretching from the inside every fiber of our being while being stretched from the outside (a foot in place), we push the CT matrix beyond its current boundaries.   Doing this from multiple points on the body, internally restores the originally designed body if two more parts are included in the process. This pattern the body has developed over the years, months, weeks that created the pain needs to be stretched internally.  By pushing the envelope of connective tissue to its outermost region, while you are stepping on them, you are essentially ironing the CTS from the inside out.  It’s got wrinkles from living and by making the person stretch absolutely everything they have access to, you are reestablishing the original space that person had before, and now, has again.  By moving in multiple dimensions while pinned and locked, produces incredible results, immediately. Movement The movement in all dimensions through time re-creates lost space.  The caveat is, if your client doesn’t move or reach, you don’t recreate the space. By making them participate with Locking, the other areas of the body, you push each stretch into the whole body.  IF you don’t do the locking, the body re-imposes it’s “bent-ness” back into the area you’ve just worked. If you are working in 10% of the body, don’t you think the other 90% will re-impose its authority on 10%. If they don’t participate, the work simply doesn’t stick.   When we first start with a person we give them smaller bites to chew on, while also making them push their limits as soon as possible.  Reaching for a point is simple, but it may not be easy the first time.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes.  Some people understand and feel reaching out or stretching in as little as three times.  We do this test stretching with our hand, leg or whatever we're working on.  That is the Points and Dots, reach out then relax, do it again. Whatever we stretch, wherever we stretch, if we stretch it hard enough, it will be painful.  We stretch our fingers out to feel what it feels like at the end of the stretch. "Can I handle this stretch or more, if it were sustained?  Sustained for how long?  What' s my limit? It doesn’t take long to see whether a person is serious about getting out of pain with Rossiter.  Some people are always testing, while others rarely test themselves. If we like the feeling in our arm or leg AFTER the test, we usually will continue the stretching. Each new movement we push the PIC through recreates a movement they needed to regain the correct order to take out the dent or “bent-ness”.  Movement in multiple dimensions must recreate the movement that is normal and natural to that area of the body. Power The last part of this whole process is Power.  You maximize the stretch of each and every part of the connective tissue in any area by adding weight to the body. I remember the thought process I had as a beginning Rolfer. I knew I had to push him that way because that’s the way he needed to be pushed. Now, after all these years, to me that was pompous! If you can deliver pure energy in the form of weight to a PIC’s body, wouldn’t the body know more about what IT needed to do with that energy? I gave up trying to put things anywhere and just gave the body the energy the PIC was willing to invest in the situation for their own recovery.  This created Power, the amount of weight to be delivered was simple.  Ask them to take as much as they can and still be able to move the full distance you ask them to go.  No more, no less.   These 4 things together create the most powerful results you can ever expect to get. This means to get the maximum results, the Coach or practitioner should use only the weight of their own body.  If you are small, wear a weight belt.  Never push, if possible. the more engaged the PIC is, through their own tension, will again amp up the results. By delivering simple weight or energy to a problem, the PIC's body inherently will know what it needs and move accordingly. If the problem is the connective tissue, then the problem will almost immediately start to resolve itself.  How do know if this is the solution?  Ask them if the pain went away. [V. Applications and Relationship to SI] The Rossiter System is not Rolfing SI. It is, however, a body of work derived from my training and experience as a Rolfer.  It enlists the traditional ideas of (i) working with the whole fascial net; (ii) using gravity (i.e., weight and the client's sense of it); and (iii) tapping into the client's capacity to self-organize. (yes) This is TDMP, it's everything in Quantum Pain Relief®, PainSlayer® and PainSlayer Series, and the Rossiter System® that makes it all happen. Each is designed for what it is YOU want to do with the stretches.  So to do all of this, we’ve created systems of bringing people up through a series of powerful stretches. Do you want a strict pain practice?  Do you want to go into companies and help them get their employees out of pain?  Do you want to become an extreme player in the preventative athletic pain game where instead of removing the pain you are now preventing pain through the PainSlayer Series?  There are solutions for every area you may want to use them in.   All have the same base of information. All deal with the pain NEED SOME KIND OF CONCLUSION -- ??

https://rossitermasters.com/blog-post/the-rossiter-system-extending-idas-teachings-to-immediate-relief-of-structural-pain/5

#pain #pain management #pain relief #stretching

[mystt]

so yeah i took advantage of the sale and bought borderlands 3 on steam! i played for about 4 hours, enough to get through all the missions, main and side, up until the point where u get to promethea. here are some thoughts 

-this game picks up SO MUCH faster than any other game in the series and i love it. after about an hour you already have access to fast travel, a shield, grenade mods, and a car! no slowly following clap trap around the southern shelf for 3 hours

- i cannot believe how gorgeous this game is (and how well it runs after its been given some months to work out the kinks). it really is just borderlands 2 but. better. its a totally natural evolution of the series’ style, and shows just how badly telltale did w its games art direction towards the end 

-the lighting system needs some special notice.....shadows are ultra-realistic, and lighting spreads across surfaces in a convincing way...i spent my first half an hour just staring at everything soaking it all in

-bl3s new gun system was 100% worth the weight. all of the parts of the system that were great in bl2 have been elevated even further in bl3. gun models have been crafted to a gun-porn degree. the firing and reloading animations give every gun a lot of character and a surprising amount of weight, too. and thats not even mentioning the vfx and sound design which have been revamped across the board, not just w weapons

-the class system seems really fuckin cool, if a bit overwhelming. itll all make sense by the time im a higher level, but for now there seems to be a dizzying amount of possibilities

-the twins are tragic. they couldve been awesome, man. yeah sure tyreen is just a weird millenial version of doctor lamb from bioshock 2, so conceptually shes not very interesting, but the relationship between her and troy is really fascinating. like if they had focused on making these two characters more dimensional and less meme-y they wouldve been great leads. ofc ive only seen them briefly so maybe i dont really know what im talking about, but thats my initial impression

-this intial cast of ladies running sanctuary is so cool. the elevation of ellie into a main npc is fantastic. she fills the niche that can no longer be filled by scooter (RIP) perfectly. shes a fat character whose weight is used as a joke, but only sparingly and in a way that an actual fat person would joke about themselves. shes maybe one of the greatest fat characters in all of gaming at this point, which id never expect to say

-OH YEAH AND BEFORE I FORGET gearbox deserves props for essentially NOTHING when it comes to this games development but they do deserve credit for the amount of restraint they showed in terms of cosmetics. the eridium shop is PACKED with super cool cosmetics, things that i didnt even think COULD be customizable in a borderlands game, and all of it is attainable w in-game currency only.....they recognize that customization is a huge part of games now and couldve very easily introduced eridium packs or whatever and they didnt. so thats cool

[jolienjoyswriting]

Mortem In Contumeliam FFVI, Ch. IV

Chapter 4 of "Mortem In Contumeliam Final Fantasy VI," a Final Fantasy VI fan fiction story.

No fun facts about this chapter, I'm afraid.  "What you see is what you get."  Well… mostly.  I did give some reasoning behind a certain character's actions, in a minor revision~

Word count: 3,360 – Character count: 19,226 Originally written: July 18th, 2019

As they start on an outpost near Doma, the soldiers and officers get settled in.

Final Fantasy VI, Wedge, Biggs, and related characters, scenarios, and properties created by Square Soft, Inc. and © Square Enix Co, Ltd.

[ ← Prev. Chapter | Next Chapter → ]

    “Company, halt!!”

    It had been a long journey from ship’s landing to the natural land bridge but, after half-a-day… they finally arrived.

    “You!  Get that bridge erected and set up a motor pool in the central perimeter!” the commander shouted to a random soldier.  “You!  Set up some tents!  You!  Grab some sandbags and start getting barricades up!  We only have so long to set up, so let’s get this camp ship-shape before General Palazzo arrives!  Move, you slugs!  Move-move-move!!”

    As requested, the first thing anyone did was get a sturdy, temporary bridge set up to cross the stream at the north of the area.  Next, soldiers began placing modular, wooden floors down in strategic locations based on elevated land, erecting tents over that.  A pair of soldiers worked in-tandem to bring the six Magitek Armor units into the center of the area and, not long after, some non-enlisted men brought out some equipment and assembled some power generators.  Some of the other conscripted civilians also set to work on what looked like alien technology – bumpy, disc-shaped objects with mechanical arms and laser arrays – which would serve as eyes-in-the-sky, once powered.  As night fell over the area… the camp had started to take shape.

    “Not too shabby, huh?”

    Wedge grinned to his partner as he made the finishing touches on their tent – one of the ones closest to where they’d started the camp.

    “I have to admit… you seem to know a-thing-or-two about pitching a tent,” Biggs told him as he looked around.     “Was there ever any doubt?” the shorter man beamed.     “This reminds me of our failed mission to Narshe, a while ago…  Remember that blizzard that came out-of-nowhere?”     “I remember ordering that cute witch-girl to clean my boots!” Wedge laughed.     “Yeah…  Effective use of military equipment.”  Biggs rolled his eyes.     “Oh, you’re one to talk, Biggs!  Remember what you made her do?”     The other soldier gave a remorseful sigh…  “I’m starting to remember, yes.”     “Anyway, it was a pretty unique situation.  It’s not every day that we have a loyal li’l ‘soldier’ all our own!”  Wedge grinned as he added, “She really made the time in that tent fly by!”     Biggs hummed… then, he sighed.     “That mission… wasn’t one of our finer moments.”     “Yeah… yeah, I guess not, huh?  Between losing our pants and losing the phantom beast, it was a pretty big wash.  But, hey.”     He smiled at his partner.     “‘least we made it out alive.”     The other soldier smiled in return.  Wedge had a point…

    “Wonder if General Kefka found out where that girl went?”     “Doesn’t matter, at this point,” the taller man told the shorter.  “It’s out of our hands.”     “Yeah, but…”  Wedge rubbed the back of his neck.  “It’d be nice to know that she’s alright.”     “I seem to remember saying something about not getting attached to military property…?”     “Biggs… the more I remember about that mission, the more I recall…”     He sighed.     “What a babe that lady was…!  Man, I can’t believe I ever forgot!  I so in love!”     Biggs narrowed his eyes.  A moment later, he suggested that they turn in for the night.     “Yeah, a’right.”  The other man shrugged.  “G’night, then?”     “Mm.”     With that, Wedge doused the lantern situated on the table in the center, then settled down and tucked himself into his bedroll.  Not long after, he fell asleep.

    “Gooooood morning, Imperiaaal Caaaaamp!!”

    The following morning, both Biggs and Wedge scurried out of their sleeping bags, the duo stumbling outside at the crack of dawn.  Someone – “some loudmouthed idiot,” as Wedge put it – was on the speaker system… which, neither of them even knew the camp had… and, was in the process of making a series of announcements.  Once that was done, they could hear music playing through the system… which, they had to admit, kind of lightened the mood.

    “Standard-issue military rations!  Yum-yum!”     After getting dressed in his gear, Wedge sat outside the tent, situated on the sandbags that surrounded the small rise where he’d set their tent.     “What’d your mom pack for you, Biggs?” he asked as took a pin-key to a tin.     “Standard-issue military rations,” was his friend’s response as he did much the same.     “Mine’s meat-flavored and it comes with some cocoa!” the first man said, his voice light and high as he imitated a child’s.     “Mine is… uh… the same, I think?”     “Wanna trade?”     Biggs gave a blink, then stared at his partner.  He was smiling.  After a long pause…     “Yeah, alright.”     The two exchanged their perfectly-identical meals, then dug in.

    “This is the life,” Wedge said after a few bites, “eh, Biggs?”     “What do you mean?” the other man asked.     “Going out on missions… seeing exotic locales… eating exotic food…”     Biggs looked into his tin.  He was pretty sure the ration was well past its prime…     “Life is great!” Wedge finished with a radiant smile.     “Alright, I’ll bite…  Why are you in such a good mood, this morning?”     “Jessie and I had a little date, last night!” he said, surprising his companion.     “Really…” Biggs said in disbelief.  “Here?  During a mission?”     “What can I say?”  The other man grinned.  “I’m a bad influence!  Besides… she helped get my mind off that witchy woman I remembered I loved!  I– aww, dammit.”     The other soldier just rolled his eyes from underneath his helmet.

    “Seriously, though…”  Wedge paused as he looked over to the flowing river.  “This place is pretty peaceful.  There aren’t a huge amount of monsters around, the air is nice, and the water is crystal-clear!  Oh, by the way!  I filled your canteen after I got back, last night.”     Biggs was quick to unscrew his water flask and give it a sniff.  When he didn’t notice any particular aroma, he took a sip.  A second later, he went wide-eyed under his helmet.     “Oh…” he whispered.  “This water is so… pure!  Cold, too!”     “I know, right…?” Wedge laughed.  “I felt kind of bad when Jessie convinced me to go skinny dipping in it.”     His friend briefly considered spitting out his water… but, it didn’t taste like people had been splashing around in it, so he just gave his friend a smirk.

    “So, you and Jessie are back on-track, are you?” he asked.  When Wedge gave a nod, he hummed…  “Ready to give up on that witch-girl?”     “Let’s be honest: it’s an unrealistic goal,” he heard his partner admit.  “Still… who says I’m crushing on Jessie, anyway?”     “You went swimming with her.  Naked,” he added after another sip.     “Okay, okay, I could see how that might paint a certain kind of picture…” Wedge laughed.

    “Really, though… I’m happy to see you in such good spirits.”  Biggs looked over with a smile.  “You’re usually more pessimistic and down on the military or the mission.  Since starting this one?  I’ve barely heard you complain even once.”     “Well, now that you mention it… these rations suck!” he exclaimed with unexpected disdain.  “Why, when I get back to Vector, I’m gonna walk right up to the guy who made these and go… ‘Hey.  Thanks for the nourishing food.  They don’t taste very good, but I know you’re just trying to keep us fed and alert, and I appreciate that.  So, thank you.’”     “That’s… I…”  Biggs blinked… then, he smiled.  “Oddball.”

    Breakfast came to a sudden end as, not long after that exchange, the commander could be heard barking orders over the public address system.  Minutes later, Biggs, Wedge, and the rest of the camp were back onto the grind as the black-armor military man and General Christophe set out on a diplomatic mission to Doma.

    “Boy, some guys get all the easy jobs, huh?”     Wedge grinned as he hammered away at a cross-beam.  He and Biggs had the “prestigious” honor of erecting a guard tower at the western bank of the land bridge.     “I doubt this will be an easy task,” Biggs told him as he steadied the wooden structure.  “I’ve heard that Doma is strongly opposed to the Empire’s goals.  General Christophe has his work cut out for him, today.”     “If anyone can convince an entire nation to change their mind, it’s him!”     “You really think so?” the taller figure asked with genuine curiosity.     “General Leo’s pretty awesome!” was his shorter friend’s response.  “I bet by tomorrow night… we’ll be back on the ship and heading to Vector!”     “That’s… strangely optimistic of you.”  Biggs smiled as he added, “I certainly hope so.”     With that, the two turned there focus to erecting the guard tower. –––––

    “Doma refuses to ally themselves with the Gestahlian Empire… which, unfortunately, means that we must prepare for war.  Gird your loins, steel your resolve, and pray to whatever gods you believe in…  This will not be easy, but remember: you are not alone.  Your families are with you in spirit, your country wholeheartedly believes in you, and the whole of the Gestahlian Empire’s might is behind you, as proud of you are you are to serve us.     “I cannot promise that this will be a bloodless war.  I cannot promise your safety.  But, I can promise that we will do everything in our power to provide you with the greatest technological and tactical advantages possible.  With good fortune and the blessings of those who silently watch over us, we may see this war end before too many casualties are had – on either side.  War is a senseless act, but sometimes… a display of force is all one can do sway a group or nation to the greater good.  Just remember: you are not a disposable commodity.  Every single one of you is a human being… one with hopes, dreams, and aspirations.  Be aware of yourselves and each other, and strongly consider your alternatives before doing anything drastic.  Men?  Do your country proud and serve the Empire with grace and honor.  Thank you.”

    The entire camp burst into uproarious applause as General Christophe walked away from the radio system and headed through the motor pool toward his private tent, his words stirring their hearts and encouraging them to bravery and valor.  That night, every soldier went to bed with his words ringing in their ears and giving them comfort.  Every soldier… except for one.

    “I thought I might find you out here…”     Wedge sat alone, staring up at the stars in the sky from his newly-christened “thinking spot” – the sandbags right outside the tent’s entrance.  When he heard the familiar voice of his partner call, he looked over and offered a smile… but, no words.     “A Gil for your thoughts?” Biggs suggested as he sat next to Wedge.     “Keep your money,” he chuckled.  “My thoughts aren’t worth even that much.”     “I’ll be the judge of that.”     When he heard his friend chuckle, he gave another smile… then, he sighed.

    “Okay, so…” he started, “you know that speech General Leo gave, today?  The one about ‘being brave’ and how our ‘country is proud of us,’ and stuff?”     “Yeah?”     “Well, as inspiring as he was trying to be… his speech, well…”  He gave a slight pause before confessing, “It didn’t do much for me.”     “Are you saying you don’t want to die for your country?”     “Biggs,” he sighed, “you know I’m originally from Kohlingen…”     “That… was supposed to be a joke, partner.”     “Oh.”     The two fell into an awkward silence, then.  At least… for a little while.

    “No,” Wedge eventually told his friend.  “I don’t really want to die for ‘my country.’  I– I mean, yeah, I guess if I were still living in Kohlingen and someone came rolling in, trying to take us over… I would be willing to lay my life down?  But… this thing with Doma?  And, that thing with Narshe?  H-hell, that thing with Narshe wasn’t even supposed to be a combat mission!  Those idiots turned it into one – and, for what?!”     He punched both sides of his sandbag seat and scowled, glaring straight forward.     “We wiped out their militia with our Magitek Armor!  We killed their trained whelk!  And… and, we didn’t even get the damn phantom beast…”     Wedge shook his head… then, he looked at Biggs with a frown.     “What’s it all for, partner?” he asked in a quiet voice.  “What’s it all gonna lead to?  What’s the Emperor gonna do when he has the entire world in his hands?  When will all this fighting just… stop…?”     “I think you answered your last question with the one before it,” Biggs chuckled.

    “Okay, sure.  Fine.  Emperor Gestahl takes over the world and everything is under his control.  So… what if not everyone’s alright with that?  Rebel groups form, then we, the Empire, wipe ‘em right out!  Then, more people rebel and the Empire wipes them out!  Where does it all end, Biggs?  Like… at what point do people just… give up?  Never!” he shouted, preventing his friend from answering.  “It’s an endless cycle of violence… and, we’re just fanning the flames by attacking people we can’t get on our side with words, alone…  It sucks…”     “Er… partner…?”     Biggs blinked… then, he frowned.  Wedge had pulled his helmet off and hidden his face behind his gloved hands.  He’d worked himself into a frenzy and quiet tears seemed to be the only way he could calm back down.

    “Wedge… I… don’t have any easy answers,” his partner told him.  “‘War is hell,’ as someone much more eloquent once said… but, sometimes?  When words utterly fail?  Sometimes, violence is necessary.”     “Oh, get a freaking clue, man!”     Biggs gave another blink.  Wedge had pulled his hands away and was staring right at him.

    “Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one, Biggs?” he said with controlled anger.  “Don’t you get it?  We’re the bad-guys, here!  We’re trying to shove our agenda onto people who want nothing to do with us!  We’re the bullies and Doma… Figaro… everyone is our victim!  We’re just gonna push ‘em all ‘til they either completely submit, or… or… fight back, tooth-and-nail!  A lot’a people are gonna get hurt, man… a lot’a people have already been hurt!  And, it’s just gonna keep gettin’ worse-and-worse…  Why does the Empire even want to control the world…?  That’s a lot’a work for just one nation… just one leader…  I don’t get it…”

    Biggs didn’t know what to say, to that.  He knew Wedge was completely right… but, for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to say so.  Instead, he decided to ask a question…

    “Wedge?” he called, looking at the man who was looking at the moon.  “Why did you join the Imperial Army?”     “What?”  Wedge chuckled, rubbing his eyes and giving an uneasy smile.  “What do you mean?  I joined because my parents kicked me out when I turned 16.”     “So, you joined the Imperial Army because they wanted you to get a job?”     “My dad…”  The man looked down before starting, again.  “My dad served in the army before I did.  When he got old, he retired to Kohlingen with my mom.  His heart belongs to my mom… but, his soul belongs to the Empire…”     “What do you mean, ‘his soul belongs to the Empire?’” Biggs inquired.     “His dad made him enroll when he was 16 – just like my dad made me enroll when I was 16.  Unlike Dad, though… I never really wanted to join the army.”     “So, why did you?”     “Why else?”  He chuckled.  “I wanted to make my old man proud.”     “Do you think he’d be proud of you, right now?”     “I think he’d call me a pansy for crying about doing my job.”     Wedge squirmed, looking away with that same nervous smile.     “But… he’d be proud that I haven’t given up, I guess?”

    “Wedge…  If you weren’t in the army,” Biggs began, deciding to go a different route with his inquiry, “what would you want to do?”     There was a long pause before Wedge finally answered, “I don’t know.”     “Is that why you’ve stuck with the army for this long?”     “Probably…?”  He paused, again.  “Look, man, where are you going with this?”     Biggs gave a blink.  Wedge was half-glaring at him, still with wet eyes.     “I’m just saying… if you’re not happy with serving the military… why not just quit?”     “Because…”  He looked away, again.  “I’ve done this for so long, I… I don’t think I’d know how to do much else.”     “Is that so?”  When Wedge gave another nod, Biggs asked, “You seem pretty handy with a hammer…  And, I’ve seen you repair your body armor pretty easily.”     “So?  Those are just things I’ve picked up since serving.”     “Plus, you seem to have a silver tongue when it comes to merchants…”     “Again, just skills I’ve picked up since serving…  Besides.”  The sad man paused to rub his nose.  “I can’t make a job out of haggling.”     “I wouldn’t be too sure about that…  Regardless, you have plenty of skills that have real-world application.”  Biggs offered a smile as he listed off, “Armor repair, carpentry, negotiation…  I’ve even seen you fix up simple machines, in your spare time!  In fact… if you combine carpentry with your machine skills, you could go into business as a clock-maker, or music-box-maker, or something along those lines!

    “I guess my point is that… you have plenty to offer, Wedge.  And, if you’re truly miserable in this man’s army… if you really don’t believe what we’re doing is ‘right…’ if you want to walk away from all this, then… go ahead.  If you’d like… I’ll even come with you.”     “You’d… come with me?” Wedge asked, sounding as surprised as he looked.  When he saw Biggs give him a nod, he gave a light chuckle… then, he looked away, bringing his hands together and going silent.  It seemed like he had a lot on his mind.  At least… until he spoke.

    “I’m not quitting the army,” he said after a long while.     “You don’t want to quit?” Biggs asked, sounding surprised, himself.     “Honestly…?  It’s not so bad, here.”  Wedge looked up with a smile.  “I mean, they give us room-and-board for free…  They give us a fairly decent stipend for equipment and extras…  Plus, girls seem to like the uniform, for some reason.”     “It’s the lightning bolt on the helmet,” his partner jokingly suggested.     “Sure… we may have to bust some heads and throw our weight around… but, if people were smart, they’d get with the program and join the winning side, already!  Because… clearly… the Gestahlian Empire is gonna win this war and every other one that follows!  Just like always!”     “Do you truly believe that?”     “Partner…”  Wedge grinned at his friend.  “The Empire is too big to fail.”     “The bigger they are…” Biggs started to say…     “Excuse me?  What’s this treasonous talk about?”     “‘T-treason…?’”  He seemed taken aback…     “Are you saying you don’t believe in the Empire?” the other man asked in a playful tone.  “Are you saying that we’re gonna fail?  Are you, in fact, suggesting that we… gasp… lay down and let other nations just walk all over us?”     “N… no, of course not.  I–”     “General Leo!  Commander Garven!  We have a traaaitor in our midst!”     “Sh– sh-shut up, Wedge!”

    Biggs leaned over, putting a hand over his partner’s mouth.  When he felt something touch the palm of his hand, he drew back and looked… then, he gave his friend a curious glance.     “Did you… really just lick my glove?”     Wedge was flicking his tongue and rubbing his mouth on his arm.     “Tastes like leather!” he said with a grin.     “You’re a crazy bastard, Wedge.”     “Yeah, but…”     The soldier nudged himself a little closer.     “I’m yooour crazy bastard, Biggs.”     “Oh… c’mere, you fruitcake.”

    The formerly-sorrowful soldier laughed and brightly smiled as his partner wrapped his arms around him, then returned the favor, half-snuggling into the inviting embrace.  He always liked getting Biggs to hug him – Biggs gave the best hugs!  Not long after, he leaned back.     “Hey, Wedge,” he started.  “All this deep thinking that you’re doing?  What sparked it?”     “Jessie ditched me,” he chuckled.  “Saw her leavin’ the ‘cadets tent.’  D-don’t tell her!”     “I knew it,” the other soldier laughed.  “And, I won’t.”     “Thanks, man.”  Wedge shyly smiled.  “For… everything.”

#fan fiction #Final Fantasy VI #Mortem In Contumeliam #commercial characters #Imperial Commander #Imperial Soldier #Wedge #Biggs #Jessie #Leo Christophe #fantasy #slice of life

[arastiia]

|| do you perhaps have any headcanons about how satsuki feels about mako? if yes, would you like to share them?

              Oh, I may have. In fact I deem a potential friendship between these two to be one that harbors a LOT of potential (I would love to interact with a Mako ngl). Especially post-KLK / post- episode 22 that is. Since I still have to interact with a Mako, however I don’t really have that many headcanons in mind yet but rather some analysis based on their interactions during KLK.-- I will try to keep my ramblings short.

          I. First & foremost; Mako & Satsuki actually did not truly interact much  conversation-wise which I find interesting given the fact that Mako was usually in Ryuko’s proximity.. – it is save to say that Satsuki sees her as another subordinate / pawn (the Fight Club Arc proves that much) at first. After all, Kiryuin uses Mako’s closeness to Matoi as a tool to manipulate ‘vagabond’ into giving in / bowing to the rules of her system & the academy in general (perhaps also to prove Matoi that friendships/tight,personal bonds are inane & a flawed concept). To her, the Mankanshokus are but another set of tools who do exactly like she tells them to do (yielding to corruption via power, behaving like ‘pigs in human clothing’, etc). In earlier battles (especially in episode 3), Kiryuin was even close to simply killing Mako off since she dared to both, stand between her & Ryuko, & moreover interfere with her ‘lection’. – Mako is truly nothing but a vexing nuisance to her at first.

            II. Ryuko’s rampage in episode 12 surely marks a certain turning point. Mako saves Matoi from being consumed by her kamui (Senketsu), aka takes a grave burden off Satsuki’s shoulders. She was ready to kill Ryuko in order to prevent worse things from happening but was then however disturbed by Mako. Due to this (& because of the fact that Mankanshoku managed to more or less impress Kiryuin by recognizing her own weaknesses & putting her affection towards Ryuko above her own good thus proving that something like ‘selflessness’ exists), Satsuki evolves a clandestine kind of respect. – in fact, she never once threatens Mako again after these episodes.

            III. Mako’s entire personality is build up on irrationality & a ‘light your heart up’ / positive attitude. To the overly RATIONAL & analytical Satsuki, Mako herself stands for the paradox that is humanity. After realizing that she had been wrong & a fool throughout the earlier episodes of the series, it surely is Mako who proves that the world cannot be reduced down to black & white chess boards but that it is colorful, indeed worth saving & not as cruel as Ragyo made it out to be. Another important aspect is her closeness to Ryuko. Satsuki is aware of their tight bond & thus deems Mako as essential part of her sister’s life. This furthermore explains why both sit next to each other / eat together in the ‘last meal’ scene. – Mako manages to show Satsuki a certain kind of levity in the simplest way possible (let us never forget the moment in which Satsuki smiles because of Mako’s family). 

            IV. Now for light headcanons I thought about lately: I personally believe that Ryuko, Mako & Satsuki undertake some rather trivial activities together now & then (when Sats can spare the leisure that is; shopping tours, casual trips to restaurants or the cinema). Since Kiryuin wishes to spend more time with Ryuko to establish their sisterly bond, she willingly accepts Mako’s company whenever the latter decides to tag along (as mentioned above, she already realized that Mako is a vital part of sibling’s personal recovery process). I envision that Mankanshoku oftentimes manages to make her laugh &/or loosen up a little. -- in exchange, Satsuki would grant Mako the permission to drop the ‘-sama’.  

              As for more serious hc’s; it is no secret that Satsuki has a very prominent guilt complex which oft coerces her to feel obliged to make up for the ‘sins’ which the Kiryuin family has committed. Due to this, Satsuki will be adamant & mayhaps HELLBENT on paying Mankanshoku’s further education & the house in which her family will choose to reside in (after all it is Kiryuin’s fault that Honnouji/ their prior existance is no more). To her, it is the least thing she can do in their case. 

#conceptualmortem #「〈✦〉 ᴘʀᴇsɪᴅᴇɴᴛ's ᴅᴜᴛʏ. ━ asks. 」 #[[ and again I rambled #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING THIS THO! #I love random hc asks. They truly give me life. Especially if they concern matters I have not thought about. ]] #「〈✦〉 ᴏ ᴀᴛʟᴀs; ʜᴏᴡ I ᴇɴᴠʏ ᴛʜᴇᴇ. Fᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀʀʀʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ & I ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴇɪɢʜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. ━ headcanons. 」 #tw // long post