#also the developers at game freak should unionize

[masterofthez]

“Someone aside from Game Freak should make Pokémon. Scarlet and Violet are just too buggy”

So I’ve seen criticism like that before, and I think it kind of misses the point of why these games came out in the state that they did. Because when comments like that are made, they always seem to be in bad faith. They in large seem to argue that the developers were lazy or didn’t know how to do their jobs. And while that is certainly possible, I highly doubt that. If only because people passed all of the slow down and occasionally wonky looks, I think Scarlett and Violet are legitimately very fun games. I honestly think this is more of a matter of a lack of polish. If the game could have been in development for another year, then I don’t think people who be complaining nearly as much (they would of course be complaining because Pokémon fans are never happy [which is a much longer conversation and I plan to eat dinner at some point today]). But I think that hits on what I see as the major problem. Time. 

Game Freak has said before that Gen IX started development right after Sword and Shield came out in 2019. So a three year development time. Not an impossible development time and Game Freak have always been very good at scope management. But that’s far less manageable if you look at it more holistically. I wasn’t able to find like an average development time for Open World Games, but looking at the two other big open world games the Switch has to offer, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, does give us some kind of idea. BotW had a 6 year development period. Xenoblade had a smaller one in 4 years. Both games had longer to cook the Scarlet and Violet did. Even the other Open World Pokemon game that came out this year, Pokémon Legends Arceus, had 4 years of development time. And I think that’s speaks to the other time problem. 

BotW And Xenoblade had the benefit of only having the one game to work on. Development for Gen IX started after Sword and Shield came out in 2019. And what came out after that game? The DLC Packs and Legends Arcus. So not only does this game have a larger scope, but it also had to be developed in a company that was working on other games during the COVID Pandemic. You can tell just how stressful and exhausting all of that is just by the nature that the Gen IV remakes I didn’t mention earlier in games Game Freak were making. That’s because it was developed by another company. The first mainline Pokémon game made by another company because they were already working on two other games at the time. 1 of which would have to be released with less time devoted to it. 

Now, I suggested earlier that they should have delayed the game by a year to keep working on it, but I don’t think that would have been possible. And that’s because of the Pokémon Company which manages the multimedia aspect of the series. If Gen IX is delayed then it’s not just a game that’s delayed. It’s a card game. A manga. An anime. A number of toys, and tie in products. If the developers looked at all they still had left to do at the start of 2022 and said ‘we can’t do this by November’ then I doubt they would have been able to convince the people in charge to delay it. And bringing in new people to basically work overtime on these sort of stuff in hazardous in a lot of ways save for moments where it’s slow enough to actually train new people. And given the pandemic and multiple overlapping development cycles going on, I imagine most new people wouldn’t be able to really pitch in. 

I think to solution here isn’t to give Pokémon to a new developer or to double the size of the company. It’s to let the developers at game freak have the time to actually make a game. Because the system and conditions they currently have seem untenable. After all, the cracks are already beginning to show.

#pokemon #pokémon #scarlet and violet #generation 9 #breath of the wild #xenoblade #also the developers at game freak should unionize #but I think that about most companies

[lemoneychicken]

while i am excited for the new pokemon game it makes me deeply uncomfortable that its coming out so close to legends’ release, and it makes me all the angrier about how the sinnoh remakes were handled

this means while bdsp and legends were being worked on, sv was also being worked on. game freak had to split its attention between two games made to blow us away, which could put some incredible pressure on the developers. this also means nintendo intended from the start for bdsp to be worked on by someone else so they could have game freak work on these two games

and like. the remakes fucking suck. the controls are weird and jank, the pokemons follow animations look bad, the underground lost the core reason people enjoyed it. issues that wouldnt have happened if game freak was able to handle them. nintendo opted to have long anticipated remakes get handled by someone who didnt understand why people enjoyed sinnoh in the first place so they could push game freak to make other new titles, giving us three pokemon games in the span of a year

anyways

game freak should unionize

#pokemon #pokemon sv #didnt want to get into it in the post but like #god the remakes suck #they arent a better version of the originals which i think a remake should be #every time gamefreaks done a remake they get the third entrys story involved too #but nah nintendo wanted diamond and pearl remakes so who cares about platinum? #ugh #also remember dexit and how the national dex had to be added in a dlc #and the real reason behind that and some other stuff was bc a bunch of data was lost and they had to scramble to add just enough back #and specific pokemon that were on peoples teams #bc like hell would they be allowed to delay the game

[bluesturngold]

i thought the last game freak pokemon game that released before pla was sword and shield in 2019? bdsp was outsourced to ILCA because both game freak teams were already busy (with pla and sv, which seem to have similar mechanics that are reused) don't get me wrong i 1000% think the workers deserve better treatment and should unionize, but it also feels wild to me that everyone is saying it's too many games too soon

this is where limited public knowledge of how game freak operates internally hampers our ability to adequately gauge what's going on, but i actually do agree with you, the studio seems to be in a better position with scarlet and violet releasing this year than they were with sword and shield in 2019

here's a list of game freak releases by year:

1989 - Mendel Palace

1991 - Smart Ball, Yoshi

1992 - Magical Tarurūto-kun

1993 - Mario & Wario

1994 - Nontan to Issho: KuruKuru Puzzle, Pulseman

1996 - Pokemon Red and Blue, Bazaar de Gosāru no Game de Gosāru

1997 - Bushi Seiryūden: Futari no Yūsha

1998 - Pokemon Yellow

1999 - Click Medic, Pokemon Gold and Silver

2000 - Pokemon Crystal

2002 - Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

2004 - Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokemon Emerald

2005 - Drill Dozer

2006 - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl

2008 - Pokemon Platinum

2009 - Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver

2010 - Pokemon Black and White

2012 - Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, HarmoKnight

2013 - Pocket Card Jockey, Pokemon X and Y

2014 - Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

2015 - Tembo the Badass Elephant

2016 - Pokemon Sun and Moon

2017 - Giga Wrecker, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

2018 - Pokemon Quest, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eeeve

2019 - Giga Wrecker Alt., Little Town Hero, Pokemon Sword and Shield

2020 - Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion DLC (Crown Tundra & Isle of Armor)

2022 - Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

game freak is known to have two main teams, and the typical amount of time between pokemon game releases is about two years, so really what makes these releases seem so close together is ILCA's diamond and pearl remakes launching within a couple months of pokemon legends arceus (many people already felt these two releases were too close together), and then a new pokemon generation being announced within a month of pokemon legends arceus releasing

because of its ambitious scope and the hype around it, some people assumed pokemon legends arceus was meant to tide fans over so they could spend more time making a new mainline game and launch it one or two years from now, and that not being the case has been surprising to them

i think, in reality, the pokemon scarlet and violet team and the pokemon legends arceus team were probably working together to make doing open worlds possible and build out a library of assets they could share, that way the biggest things the teams had to do independently was come up with the stuff unique to their game

even if they did have good logistics that helped streamline development, though, and even if 2 to 3 years is a more typical wait time for a new mainline pokemon, it's no secret the series has had a rough transition to 3D and i think they should have the time they need to make something they're proud of rather than just fulfilling a quota.

i deeply enjoyed pokemon legends arceus, but other triple A studios would be mocked relentlessly for having a console exclusive game that runs as poorly in some places and has graphical fidelity as low as that game does, and there's nothing to suggest they'll have improved much, if any, of that by the time scarlet and violet release — and how could they, with it set to come out the same year as arceus, y'know?

[textsfromthefifthbasement]

I finally finished MAZM: Phantom of the Opera! I’m leaving the review under the cut because it’s long and also spoilers for some elements of the game that aren’t in other Phantom adaptations.

General

First off, I loved the art style of the game. The character designs were quite adorable, and it definitely seemed like they made an effort to follow the original Leroux character designs. They had a blonde Christine and an olive-skinned, dark-haired Meg. I also thought they did a great job with Erik’s character design (though there was too much hair). The sets were beautiful. The majority of the main plot of the game does follow the Leroux book, which I really appreciated. There were some favorite moments in the book that I wish had been incorporated, such as Raoul waking up to find Erik watching him sleep (don’t judge I just find it freaking hilarious), but they incorporated so many other small scenes from the book, such as the managers trying to prevent Erik from taking his salary by using the safety pin. As a history nerd, I also really appreciated the collectible notes giving historical context to some of the discussions, including about three notes on the Paris Commune/Bloody Week. I wished the characters would have had different outfits rather than wear the same outfit the entire story. At the very least, I wished they had made a Red Death outfit for Erik during the masquerade.

I also want to point out and give a warning to anyone who has suicide ideation before they try this game. Pretty early on in the story, you play an episode in which you control Joseph Buquet after he’s dropped into Erik’s torture chamber, and eventually, you have to walk to the noose and pick it. The scene cuts right before he hangs himself. About partway through the story, when you control Christine, there’s a scene in which she has to talk Erik out of killing himself with a shard from a broken vase. At the end, when Christine and Raoul go down to Erik’s house to bury him, they found that he had committed suicide.

In all, I spent about 23 hours on the game from start to finish. I still need to go back and replay a few episodes to complete the achievements. I missed quite a few of the historical notes, and there are parts where you can make different decisions to influence what happens.

In this game, the studio added a lot of subplots that didn’t exist in the book and expanded on some canonical subplots as well. I did enjoy quite a few of these.

The Dancers

Meg, Jammes, and Sorelli are all major characters in the game, and I loved seeing them have more characterization and actual character arcs. Jammes, as a character, doesn’t change as much as the others, but she is only a child. As in the book, she is pretty frightened of ghost stories, strangers, and the Phantom, but in the game, she also loves and takes care of the stray cats living around the opera house and does turn into a bit of a spitfire when her friends are threatened by the various happenings at the opera. Sorelli has a knife and is not afraid to use it, and she comes to realize that her fear of being alone led her to stay with Philippe de Chagny in spite of the fact that he would never officially acknowledge her. Meg, in the beginning, seems afraid of her own shadow, but throughout the game, definitely comes into her own and also develops a much healthier relationship with her mother.

Union

This had to be hands-down my favorite subplot of the game. In the beginning, when Moncharmin and Richard first become the managers of the Palais Garnier, they mistreat Christine and mass fire anyone who mentions the Phantom of the Opera. When Christine goes missing for several weeks, Meg, Sorelli, and Jammes finally decide they have had enough and basically unionize the ballet dancers. There’s an entire protest, a performance in which the ballerinas refuse to perform, and they end up getting a promise from the managers to stop indiscriminately firing and mistreating people.

Christine’s Ending

GUYS. When I joked about Christine just traveling the world and performing instead I had no idea that was an actual choice you can make for her. It’s such a bittersweet ending, but I personally hope that one day she would have emotionally healed enough from her ordeal to come back to Paris and reunite with her old friends.

That being said, there were also a lot of additions/changes that I…really wasn’t a fan of.

Melek

So, for context. During Christine’s first stay at Erik’s house, she decides to do some exploring while he’s gone. While in his room, she hears a woman’s voice behind a wall and goes to investigate. She discovers a hidden door, and behind that hidden door is Melek. We find that Melek is a blind Turkish woman who had been one of Erik’s servants during his time in Constantinople. She had refused to marry him, and so he had kidnapped her and had kept her locked in that room for ten years.

Yes, I have a lot of problems with this.

I think the first thing is that when Melek was introduced is when I really realized that the game was never going to go in the direction of presenting Erik as a character who was sympathetic at times and not so much at others. The game had already painted him as a very unsympathetic character up until then through showing how he had gaslit Christine as the Angel of Music. Introducing Melek really drove that point home, which was kind of disappointing seeing as how the literal point of Leroux’s Le Fantome de l’Opera was that we should pity Erik for how he was treated because of his face.

Additionally, Melek’s character just…didn’t do anything. The more she was around, the more I wondered what the point of her character was. She does offer Christine support half of the time, and then the other half of the time is her being upset because Christine wants to change Erik rather than murder him. Ultimately, it’s my point of view that her character was not a great addition to the game and would have preferred a closer adherence to the book in that regard.

Hatim and PTSD

*sigh* This part seriously pissed me off. While Raoul and Hatim (the Daroga) are in the torture chamber, Hatim tells Raoul the story between him and Erik. We end up playing through a flashback of when Hatim discovers Erik living at the opera house ten years ago. As they discuss their past, we and Hatim quickly realize that Erik has PTSD, and mentioning the Shah of Persia is a serious trigger for him. Which, alright. That does make some sense story-wise.

And then through other flashbacks, Hatim proceeds to use this against Erik. Like he literally would trigger him purposefully as a punishment. And say that he was doing it for his own good.

Like, excuse me, but. What the fuck. What. The actual. Fuck. No. Don’t ever do that, that’s shitty.

Anyways by the end I was legitimately rooting for Erik to punt him.

Erik’s Ending

In the original Leroux novel, Erik presents Christine with a choice: turn the scorpion, and she will marry him, or turn the grasshopper, and the entire opera house will blow up. Christine chooses the scorpion, kisses him on the forehead, and he is so overwhelmed by the action that he saves Raoul’s life and lets them go together. The only promise he extracts from Christine is that she will come back and bury him when he dies, which he believes will be soon. Two weeks later, an ad runs in the newspaper that reads simply, “Erik is dead.”

Yeah. The game really went off the rails here in respect to following the Leroux book. After Christine turns the scorpion, Erik pulls Raoul into the lake and leaves him there, thinking he’ll drown or freeze to death, and then returns to force the marriage. He does eventually let Christine and Melek go, as Christine tells him that she will never love him and that she believes he is a monster, all while he is on his knees begging her just to love him a little. There is no forehead kiss. To the end, Erik writes and tells Hatim that Christine is the devil, and that she abandoned him in hell and wants her to suffer for the rest of her life knowing what she did to him. Yeah, I wish I was making that up.

There is one point where Christine tells Erik it’s not her job to save him. Which I agree with. I feel like whoever wrote the story had a misunderstanding of the ending of the book, or else thought the idea wasn’t explicitly stated enough. The forehead kiss does, in some respect, save Erik. It makes him realize how badly he’s treated everyone and yet Christine is still willing to extend kindness towards him. But it’s not Christine saving him, it’s him coming to that realization on his own. Ultimately, the game traded that idea for a way more heavy-handed “I am not here to save you, I am going to make my own decisions from here on.”

And then, in the face of all that, we’re also missing Erik changing and redeeming himself despite the fact that he’s close to death. Instead, he dies while leaving basically a suicide note to Hatim saying that Christine is the devil and he made her promise to return to bury him to hurt her. Which is so out of character if we look at the book characterization.

Like I knew I was signing up to get my heart ripped out, I just figured it was going to maybe be the brand of Christine having to choose whether or not to stay while Erik dies. And damnit, I just wanted a single forehead kiss.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the game up until the ending. I just seriously disliked the ending for the most part. If you’re more of a fan of the idea of Christine being on her own and finding her own path, that is an enjoyable option to go with. I still need to play through that episode with the marry Raoul choice and see what happens with that option though.

#mazm phantom of the opera #mention of suicide #the phantom of the opera #poto #review

[shiddy-donk-64]

That post about Pokémon/Game Freak that's making the rounds is just wild. Nobody in the notes seems to have checked how many studios actually work on the Pokémon games (there's like 20 other companies credited for graphics and UI alone), who develops the spin-offs (as an example, Bandai-Namco did both Pokkén and Snap), what TPC's role is in all that (they are owned by Game Freak, Nintendo and Creatures), or what a fiscal year even is.

I'm not saying this to take away from the main point of the post and what many people have pointed out: going by industry culture and the cadence of releases, Game Freak's staff could very well be overworked. It wouldn't surprise me one bit.

However,

The existence of spin-offs developed by other companies has little bearing on that. It's also a mistake to attribute the mainline games to just the ~170 people that compose Game Freak when the estimated number of people who worked on Sword and Shield is around the 700-800 mark. And that's just the staff and companies that are credited in the game, you should just assume by default that a Japanese developer managing an IP of that size also relies on ghost developer companies such as Tose.

And no, the anime and the TCG don't dictate the cadence at which the games get released either—there's a feedback loop, but it's largely the other way around.

All I'm saying to those that actually care about the labor conditions under which these games are made, is to please inform yourselves. This is all a few searches away, most of it is included in Wikipedia. I know Pokémon is a weird, large IP, and that it can be hard to keep track of who does what, but people have done the work to parse that info so it's easy to understand. It just feels like there isn't any interest in being accurate, which makes me question how much people actually care about the devs to begin with.

Anyway, Game Freak should unionize.

#can't believe it was a post about pokemon what got me posting again since forever #hi mutuals #been a while #pokemon #game freak #game development

[bluerosesburnblue]

Now that KHUx ending has been out for a week a or two and you've dissected it, I wanted to ask you how you would rank the various KH game endings, if you have the time?

Oh, wow, yeah. That's really an interesting question. I never think of the endings much, despite how important they are. Let's see...

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - The nostalgia's got me bad with this one, but I've gotta put it at the top. It was my first KH game and I can only think of two other video games from my childhood that had endings that impacted me as much as this one did. It's clear-cut and succinct, it capitalizes on all of the character development shown in the game while wrapping up almost every plot thread it introduced, playing as Another Side Roxas is intense... and I think it's the only KH ending that's entirely tragic, but that just makes the tone so much more clearly defined than if it had been a mix of emotions. I don't know if I ever would have gotten into the series if the ending of this game wasn't as good as it was and didn't make me desperately crave more just to see how the Sea Salt Trio's story effected everyone else

Kingdom Hearts χ - It's kind of wild that I'm ranking a browser game so high, but the KHx ending (also known as The Keyblade War questline for KHUx players) was magical when it happened. And the thing is, it wasn't unexpected but still managed to be engaging. People were freaking out trying to fight the Foretellers who introduced you to the world of the game only to try and take you out of it. And the ending with Ephemer and Skuld coming to save you at the last minute was beautifully open-ended, while wrapping up all of the storylines from earlier in the game. It went from intense, to sad, to hopeful again and it did it all with chibi sprites. And not just that, but the external community came together just to see it happen. It was really special

Kingdom Hearts II - This one's just very emotionally satisfying, finally seeing everyone get to return home again after a three-game arc. Riku and Sora have a nice character moment where they finally respect each other that draws on their earlier rivalry in a satisfying way, then Mickey, Donald, and Goofy rush over to the boys in such a sweet way, and we even see Sora finally return Kairi's good luck charm! It feels like it really ties the KH1-CoM-KH2 arc to a close, and then leaves on a high note of even more adventures to come. It's beautiful and it feels like an actual, tonally-consistent conclusion

Kingdom Hearts III - On the one hand, this one gets big bonus points for managing to deliver on an ending that saw almost every character who'd suffered from terrible fates get happy endings in a way that felt earned, and to this day I cannot believe that they actually did the beach party ending that had been joked about for a long time. On the other, though, Sora's disappearance feels like a cheap hook to continue the story when it really should have been focused on just ending the Dark Seeker Saga without setting up for the next game (you could have had Sora disappear in the Re:Mind DLC though, I would have been okay with that). The highs are high, it's just really the last few seconds that bring it down for me

Kingdom Hearts - KH1 is a classic, but its ending is pretty basic all things considered. The world is saved! Kairi gets to go home! There's more adventure to come as Sora, Donald, and Goofy set off to find their friends lost to the darkness! It's perfectly acceptable, it's set up in a way where if they never made another game you'd be satisfied with it, but it's nothing remarkable, either

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, & Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory - I'm lumping these three together because I feel the same way about all of their endings. They're fine, but they're mostly setup for future games. Sora's promise to Naminé is cute, Riku teaming up with Mickey and DiZ and choosing dawn over darkness or light is nice setup for his future arc, the Wayfinder Trio's fates are sad but make sense in future games, MoM has some neat lore teases... but all of them rely on the existence of future games to bring the emotional satisfaction of those endings so they don't feel "final," and thus not particularly satisfying on their own

Kingdom Hearts coded/Re:coded: It exists. It's entirely a plot hook. Same issue as the three above, but it has even less substance since we never see Data Sora again. The only real purpose it has is letting Mickey know things that the audience already did. It's not awful, but it's not good either

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- - It's not really a full game, but I put KHx on here so I may as well. I think overall it's fine, and nobody was really expecting much from a short side story anyway. My issues with it mostly stem from the contrived way that it tries to shove Aqua into the KH1 finale without actually changing the finale, and that what Nomura said the original draft was is much more interesting and leads better into KH3 than the actual ending (originally Aqua was supposed to break down in despair and cry about how she wants to go home, which flows better into KH3's Anti-Aqua storyline). As it is, the ending is tonally discordant with the rest of the game

Kingdom Hearts Union χ - I think we all know what I think of Union X's finale. It's going here, because while I think that most of it should be ranked around where I have CoM and BBS, the parts that I didn't were so bad that it ruined the entire experience of it for me. It's only beating out the next entry because the parts that I did like were better than anything that happened in the next finale

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - This game ends with a tea party and Sora in goofy glasses, which is so absurd that I have to give it some bonus points... and yet it's still at the bottom. I can't get over the decision to have Yen Sid fail Sora for being actively sabotaged (while Yen Sid did nothing to help) while promoting Riku, who was not a primary target and in less danger. They both should've been forced to retake the test. This decision is so bad that I don't even care about any good that it does for Riku's arc, because it's not like Riku even uses the Master status that he gets from this anyway so why was it important for him to pass the Mark of Mastery exam? They don't even have the decency to show Sora being all that upset about it, even in private. It's just brushed off! And the way that Lea gets a Keyblade entirely offscreen is so cheap. DDD is the only KH ending that I would classify 100% as a bad ending. It's frustrating to sit through, and that frustration can't even be ignored because it has a major impact on KH3

#liz answers #mademoiseli #kingdom hearts #long post #btw the other two game endings that effected me as much as days were pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of time and drawn to life #both on the ds like days because that's really all i had as a kid

[stargazetheseries]

OPEN CASTING CALL FOR STARGAZE: “THE PILOT” EPISODE & TRAILER VISIT: https://stargazetheseries.com/casting-call/ FOR DETAILS OR READ BELOW: A Borken Creative Production Sept 27, 2021 STARGAZE is a queer campy sci-fi adventure short-form adventure series intended for OTT. Executive Producers: Jill Golick, Carrie Cutforth Director: Regan Latimer Writer: Carrie Cutforth Union: ACTRA TORONTO (NEW MEDIA) Shoot: The pilot will begin shooting for 5 to 6 days between October 25-Nov 17th, 2021 Location: Toronto STORYLINE: A disparate group of rookie oddballs join an elite squad commissioned to save the Queerverse (from itself) only to discover the STARGAZE program is a sham make-work initiative to keep the crew from rocking the boat by sending them out on a fool’s quest (led by two elder queer chaperones who despise each other). Think: A 2SLGBTQIA+ The Facts Of Life meets The Breakfast Club in space! *BIPOC STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY **MUST BE 18+ TO SUBMIT EVEN IF CHARACTER IS LISTED AS YOUNGER THE STARTGAZE RECRUITS: SAF RON (she/her): Character is 20, cisgender woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities; some physical comedy required. LEAD. Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, Saf joins STARGAZE with high expectations. If the adults won’t save the day, she will… and finally get the credit she deserves! But can this lone wolf learn to connect with others, stop being a control freak, relax her unreasonably high expectations of others (and herself), and step into the leadership role for which she is destined? First, she’ll have to stop seeing anyone getting in her way as a mustache-twirling villain, learn to see her crewmates’ value, accept help, and open herself up vulnerably. Gets apoplectic when mad; Has a knack for creating very convoluted protest chants that no one can follow. WHIT SPRINKLES (he/him): Character is 19, cisgender man, gay, open to all ethnicities. Must be able to walk elegantly in high heels. LEAD. A social media influencer famous for his snarky and bitter ’reads,’ charismatic Whit has developed a parasocial relationship with his stans. Living life performing in the spotlight from a very young age, Whit has no idea who he really is, what his real interests are, or his beliefs outside of what his analytics tell him: “My fans are gonna love this!” Only joining STARGAZE under pressure from his stans, his inability to forge true intimate connections is exacerbated by his relationship with his mother/manager Mumsy Sprinkles, a talentless hack/narcissistic stage mother living her dreams through her kid. If Whit was a meme he would be: ‘Bitch, I dun give a fuck!’ But he does, indeed, give a fuck. ESSA T. HATCH (they/them): Character is 18, non-binary or agender, asexual, demiromantic, neurodivergent, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. Adorkable Essa is an introvert who doesn’t really ‘get’ people. The explorer among the crew with an engineering mind and a love of mapping places and spaces, they know every nook and cranny of the ship and are usually the first to forge ahead (i.e. wander off) on every expedition. Essa mostly wants to be left alone to their own devices because they actually prefer their own company (neurotypicals can be so exhausting!). This normally wouldn’t be such a problem except Essa was pressured to join STARGAZE to make friends and widen their social net out of parental concern (‘We won’t be around forever, Essa!’). Loves to knit, make Venn diagrams of relationships; speaks in emojis when emotionally drained. LEW D’SHUS (he/him): Character is 21, transgender man or transmasculine, pansexual, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. When babelicious Lew looks at you with his rapt attention and dreamy eyes, you feel like the only person in the ‘verse until his short attention span snaps away and he forgets you’re there. “Good vibes, only!” Lew will gladly give you your Tarot card reading, but not before taking the negative cards out first. With his strict ‘the universe is love, we are love,’ mantra, Lew never wants anyone to feel bad even when they are deadass wrong! His philosophy of

appeasement can cause conflict amongst the crew and his inability to take sides in crucial moments will often put them in danger. No, we cannot just hug everything out, Lew! CHRYSTRAH SNU (she/her): Character is 17 (must be 18+ to apply), cis-gender woman, identifies as ‘queer’ but just figuring it all out. LEAD. Chrystrah is a fresh-off-the-belt queer who has arrived with big expectations: ‘I’m here, I’m queer! Direct me to my spot on the rainbow carpet!’ The trauma of her homophobic upbringing has left Chrystrah without any real sense of self; her identity loosely held together like a fragile cracked egg. Any criticism, no matter how gentle, feels like an attack, causing Chrystrah to act abrasive, territorial, and defensive. She is always overcompensating in big bombastic ways because she feels so inadequate for not knowing the right words, behaviours, and codes. She is jealous of Saf (some might say obsessed) who does seem to get it all right. Fiercely loyal, Chrystrah is the first to run headlong into danger to save someone. She has a steep learning curve ahead. THE ELDER QUEER CHAPERONES: BAE TORGA (she/her): Character is late 30’s-early 40’s, cisgender woman, bisexual, bipolar, open to all ethnicities. PRINCIPAL. A war hero (or war criminal depending on who you ask), Bae sees STARGAZE as an opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes of former mentor and friend Oracle Cain. She is someone who struggles with self-loathing and self-doubt even though she’s spent her adulthood righting her past wrongs and reining in her bipolar disorder, which contributed to her past rash and reckless mistakes. Possessing a tough, gruff demeanor, Bae is outwardly sardonic but really a bleeding heart who holds back out of fear that any demonstration of affection and empathy will be seen as a commitment. ORACLE CAIN (she/her): Character is middle-aged or older, transgender woman, ambulatory wheelchair user or wheelchair user, open to all ethnicities. *Note, as this is sci-fi, younger than middle age may apply. PRINCIPAL. A founding figure of the Queerverse, Oracle has done her service, done her duty, and now she’s done. She wants a peaceful existence to guard her limited energy and manage her physical pain. Instead, she’s pulled out of retirement to command a ship full of bickering youths. She also has to contend with spoiled brat and former colleague Bae reminding her of the past that Oracle is trying hard to forget. But duty is duty and it’s not like complaining ever got her anywhere. Talking to Oracle can feel like playing a chess game where the aloof commander is always five steps ahead: you never quite know where you stand with her. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS ELP WHIPP (they/them or xe/xem): Character is middle-aged or older, gender-fluid, open to all ethnicities. Leader of the coalition of non-profit planets (each with its own conflicting Gay Agenda) that rule the Queerverse, Elp Whipp is a career bureaucrat/bean-counter who often gets caught in the trappings of their own political web — meaning much of nothing ever gets accomplished and progress is never made. Elp will appear throughout the series in that ‘Dean of the school’ role, occasionally showing up to demand overdue reports, warn the crew that their funding is at risk, and generally throw a wrench in the works. CARDIGAN JACK (she/her): Character is 30s, cis-woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities. Cardigan Jack is a ‘pussy-hat’ wearing neo-liberalist feminist with a pirate vibe. She is the ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ of TERFs, and Saf Ron’s nemesis. TO SUBMIT: Borken Creative is committed to diverse and inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers without regard to disability, race, age, colour, sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by law, unless otherwise specifically indicated, subject to legitimate casting directives. DEADLINE: Oct 8, 2021 EMAIL: [email protected]. SUBJECT LINE: Character(s) Role, Performer’s First and Last Name, pronouns. BODY OF EMAIL: Please provide contact info including phone number.

Please confirm you are 18 or over in the body of email if applying for a Stargaze recruit character. Submit headshot and resume as attachments to [email protected]. Resume should be in a scannable text file format (such as .doc, .pdf, .txt). First round selects will be invited to submit either a video clip audition or zoom audition invite. Only successful candidates will be contacted.

See less

#lgbtq #lbtqia #lgbtqplus #queer sci fi #casting call #auditions

[mrsmaddiebobaddie]

MCYT High School Teacher AU

I don’t know if this has already been done but with student teaching on the brain this was invading my subconscious.

Phil: Principal

The most chill admin you’d ever find (He kind of has to be with the staff at the school)

Will let most things slide if you ask nicely

Has a quiet space in his office for students to take a moment to calm down after acting out. He’ll offer them candy and talk through the situation with them. 

Started out as a counselor at the school, so he still holds a similar mentality when it come to talking with students and staff. 

Always takes the side of his staff. The district is usually in the wrong anyway.

He knows the teachers are the experts, screw whatever requirements the state has, he lets them run their classrooms whichever way is best for the students’ learning

Technoblade:  Literature & Composition

One of the most engaging teachers at the school

Most students love him because he’s real and he’ll tell it like it is. 

Has a coffee machine in his room. It’s rare that he’s not holding a mug in his hand while he teaches

Has high expectations for his students

Rarely gets angry. Even when he’s upset he still comes across as calm.

Usually stays at the school late making sure to give the best possible feedback on papers and reports. He genuinely wants each kid to learn something from his class.

Tommy: Speech and Debate

It’s only his second year of teaching

The students would run the classroom if not for Tommy basically being a student himself

There’s a strong chance his class will be off topic at any given point. It’s always an adventure walking past his door, you never know what you’ll hear

Somehow still gets high scores on average from his students

Keeps students after class when he notices them struggling with school or life in general to talk with them. The conversations are always beneficial.

Will 100% fall asleep during professional development meetings.

Karl: Biology

Tries to act hip, fails most of the time.

Always has the most energy in his lessons, finds unique ways to teach the concepts other than slides and worksheets.

Usually the first one in the building each morning

Will give students different options for final projects so they can chose the best method of showing their evidence of learning. 

Gets lower scores than he should on observations because he doesn’t do well under the pressure. One year Phil didn’t announce when he’d be coming in and watched from the door to give a more accurate review. 

Wears a sweatshirt to class more often than he should

Quackity: Spanish 

Hands on learning whenever possible

Uses the home ec. room to make authentic Mexican dishes with his students when they cover the food and restaurant unit

Will just forget that the kids don’t speak Spanish fluently and ramble on until someone interrupts him.

Slow grader, you get your scores when you get them.

Known to be a bit chaotic with his teaching style, it works for some kids but he does need to reteach certain sections every now and then

One time a kid feel asleep in his class so he had all the other students leave and they had class outside to freak the kid out (They were right outside the classroom window, he could still see the sleeper, he told Phil)

Skeppy: Algebra

Like’s his job, pretty much your average teacher

Can’t stand freshmen, but tolerates them since that’s half the students he has. He prefers teaching advanced algebra to upper classmen

His lessons are always formatted the same, starting with a lesson on how to do that days math, with the remainder of the period being free work time

Holds math challenges with his class and gives out prizes. It’s usually candy, though one time he gave out cash. He made his kids promise not to say a word about it. 

Very good at teaching the same math concepts in different ways to help struggling learners

Always one minute away from being late for first period, but makes it just in time every morning.

Dream: Health/Football and Assistant Basketball Coach

Took the teaching job mainly to coach sports

Still cares about making connections with his students, he uses his class to teach life skills and promote positive social and mental health.

If any of his players are in his class he will pick on them. He has no mercy.

Dreads sex education because no one can be mature about it. He gets revenge by making the students film a “how to say no to sex” video with someone in the class.

His wheeze laugh is iconic. You can hear it from down the hall.

If you meet with him and are honest when you’re struggling, he’ll work with you to pass his class. He isn’t going to ruin your GPA over a project on the negative effects of smoking.

Wilbur: History & Geography/Theater 

The teacher who sits on his desk when he lectures

Is very sarcastic with his students, but knows who can take the teasing and makes sure not to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

Prefers class discussion over solo work time, he likes hearing student’s perspectives and ideas.

Turtlenecks

One of the teachers most likely to be the crush of teenage girls. 

Not afraid to mark you down for sloppy work. You use a black ink pen and draw precise lines when turning in maps and graphs or you redo it.

Speaks in musical references 

George: Physics

The chillest teacher by far

Due dates? Don’t worry, he’ll accept an assignment literally months after it was supposed to be turned in

Makes difficult topics seems simple when he describes them

He doesn’t really care if you have your phone out in class as long as you’re paying attention and learning the material

The students straight up call him George, he doesn’t seem to care

Placing near the top for the most crushed on teacher

King of multiple choice questions

Eret: Economics & Government

Makes any student in his class feel welcome

One of few teachers who can lecture the entire period without students falling asleep. He always has interesting stories

Let’s kids chose where they sit

Freshmen are always caught off guard by his voice when they hear him for the first time

Spends too much of his own money on supplies for his students and classroom (Honestly most teachers have to spend their own money on necessary supplies, he just goes about and beyond.)

There’s always a group of students who eat lunch in his classroom 

The Union Rep at their school, will fight tooth and nail for the staff members

Tubbo: Band Director

Super cheerful whenever he’s teaching

He rarely has any free time before or after school because he has so many one-on-one lessons and meetings with students

Likes to have practice outside when the weather is nice

Does his best to make his students feel comfortable and relaxed whenever he does performance based assessments. 

He’s also a new teacher, but you honestly wouldn’t be able to tell

He will be in tik toks if you ask him to, and he’s familiar with all the pop culture trends

Let’s the students chose a song to play at the last band concert. Some years have been less chaotic than others, the worst (or best, depending on who you ask) being when the students voted to play Deja Vu from Initial D.

Fundy: Computer Science/Coding 

Begins each class with a cheesy computer joke. Every class.

Everyone knows you can’t get anything past him technology wise. He can see that headphone in your ear from across the room.

Isn’t afraid to assign extra work when students are disrupting class

Once took up an entire class period showing his students how he coded different difficulties in Minecraft. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he plays the game in his spare time. 

About half the students in his class aren’t really interested in computers, they just want to have him as a teacher since everyone says he’s cool.

Known to hack school computers to bypass restrictions

Sucker for pizza parties. Has at least one per semester  

Sapnap: PE/Basketball Coach

Hella competitive 

Abuses his power of having a whistle. Someone should really take it away from him

Gyms shorts every day. Even in the winter. Sometimes he wears sweats, but never jeans.

Doesn’t let anyone sit out of activities

Tries to set up fun tournaments for each activity they do, makes sure to balance the teams so no one has too much of an upper hand.

He’s usually the teacher who mans detention, he tries to make it as positive as it can be though.

Keeps extra sets of gym clothes to give to students who forgot or can’t afford to buy them

Schlatt: Calculus and Stats/Business  

You either love him or are terrified of him

One of the only teachers who can have an “aggressive” teaching style and still connect with students

You will learn something from his class, he makes sure of it. 

Doesn’t accept late work unless you have a really good reason why you couldn’t turn it in

Wears a tie every day

If another teacher needs a last minute sub during his prep period he’ll cover them. Doesn’t matter what subject, he can wing it

He was the reason the school started offering business studies as an elective due to some vague threats towards the district

Niki: Art/German

Teaching voice is so soft

You can’t tell whether or not she’s giving you constructive criticism because everything she says sounds so positive 

Let’s her students lead learning for the most part, she will cover topics that most interest them while still trying to hit the district required standards (luckily teaching electives gives her a bit more freedom with her curriculum)

Her classroom always smells lovely

Will bring in homemade goodies each Friday for the staff room

Holds art galleries at the end of each semester to show off the arts since they often go unappreciated. It has turned out to be a super popular event for students and staff.

Bad: Special Education

This man has endless patience. It’s crazy

Even after the longest days when none of the students are cooperating, he still has a smile on his face

If he hears cursing in the halls he will call you out in front of everyone. Teachers included. 

Makes sure to keep a list of all his students favorites so he can surprise them with gifts on their birthdays or around holidays

He works closely with the other teachers to make sure his kids can be as involved in general education as possible.

Always wears something fun, be it a tie, socks, shirt, or even a full outfit. His students love seeing what new wacky garment he’ll be wearing that day. 

More Head Cannons

If someone brings food for the staff room Tommy WILL take it. Sometimes he’ll come back for seconds, there will be none left by the end of the day. He’s not as bad as Skeppy though, who will literally pack it up to take home for later.

For the past few months the staff members have been receiving anonymous email chains with photoshopped pictures of each other. Everyone was sure Fundy was behind it, Eret thought he saw him teaching his students how to use the program by editing their favorite teachers into stupid situations (they’ve all been school appropriate of course). Fundy did in fact start it, but now so many other teachers have joined in that it can’t be traced back to one person anymore.

All the teachers love going to sporting events. They’ll join in with the student section to cheer on the teams. If they know there’s a kid who doesn’t have family that will come to watch them they’ll make shirts with that players number to show support for them.

Wilbur, Niki, and Tubbo work together on musicals. Niki does the sets and costuming, Wilbur directs, and Tubbo leads the pit. There are plenty of long nights during tech week that devolve into chaos (especially when Niki isn’t there)

Spirit week is very intense, to say the least. The teachers are assigned a grade to be advisors to, and they get into it. For the duration of the week they practically become rivals with whoever isn’t in their assigned grade. They’ll pull pranks on each other constantly, especially when the students can see. It’s all playful of course, but it gets the kids more excited about spirit week when they can support their teachers and watch the amicable rivalries carry out.

Technoblade once joked that he knew every detail about every classic novel. His students took this as a challenge, and tried to find the most obscure and specific trivia questions they could ask him. He has yet to be stumped.

Dream and Sapnap had a running streak of about four weeks where they made everything into a competition. Who could enter their grades into the computer fastest? How many cups of coffee did they drink that day? Who got to school first that morning? There was a tally board in the staff room and the teachers had a betting pool going. Phil finally ended it when they accidently broke the school’s copier trying to see who could scan the most documents in five minutes. Dream was ahead by three points, Sapnap never lived it down.

In service days are incredibly boring, so the staff tries to make those days a bit more entertaining. They order in pizza or sandwiches for lunch. Since there aren’t any kids in the school they’ll do everything they’re no supposed to, like racing office chairs down the hallways and blasting non-school-appropriate music in their classrooms.

Wilbur accidentally started a black market of sorts when he took all the new whiteboard pens from the supply closest. He used this to his advantage, getting people to do him favors in return for the good supplies. When Dream found out he not-so-jokingly threatened to slowly steal everything from Wilbur’s classroom until he released the pens. The next day the closet was replenished once more

Quackity and Tommy are co-emcees for the school assemblies. They hold class competitions between the grades, including spirit chants and ridiculous games. Think minute to win it style, but way crazier. Everyone gets super into it, the upperclassmen usually win. The two have good chemistry and a fun energy.

George has a unit where students make bottle rockets and launch them outside on the soccer field. And every year Karl brings his class out to watch claiming that “it’s science, I teach science, I’ll have them write a paragraph about what they learned”. Really he just wants to watch rockets go brrr

For Schlatt’s birthday one year, Wilbur and Techno printed off shirts with his face on it for all the staff to wear. Schlatt was super confused when he came into work and all his colleagues were walking around with his face plastered across their chest. He got back at Wilbur for it by putting salt in his coffee for a week straight, but Techno never got his comeuppance. It’s debatable whether Schlatt just didn’t know he was in on it, or if he knew better than to mess with Techno.

Lesson planning and curriculum building is quite the process. Some departments can stay on task better than others. Schlatt and Skeppy get in, plan out the term, and get out. The math department has everything on lock. Social studies are also pretty good at getting pre-planning done. They tend to spend most of their time having discussions that aren’t necessarily related to the tasks at hand though. The English department is a mess. It’s really Tommy who’s a mess, he just projects that onto everyone else. Karl and George work well together to map out science curriculum. Even though teachers who teach electives aren’t required to collaborate with each other, they still get together and bounce ideas off each other and get feedback.

I have plenty more if people want a second part. I also only listed the MCYTs that I’ve watched enough to know their personalities at least a little bit, but if you wanted to see another person I may expand the staff list!

#minecraft youtubers #dream team #sleepy bois inc #dream smp #high school teacher au #teacher au

[blindrapture]

a union-mandated break post

(okay, let’s see if I can type this all over again after losing the post. gotta remember how it all went.)

Hey there, the few mutuals who Like all of my posts, the lurkers who occasionally make their presence known, the lurkers who I also hope are there, and all you folks who come across this post naturally before scrolling on (that’s fine too, please have a nice day! remember to take a deep breath and unclench!). I wanted to make a post giving a casual update.

Things have been going. You know how it is. Time proceeds onwards at a pace that is a crawl to some and fleeting to others, depending on relative perspective. The average of all these observations may be Objective Truth, a hazy mythical and abstract prospect which to this day no living human has ever known (due to the nature of perspective). We still try to know it for some reason, an endeavour which may be “a good thing” or “a condemnation of our species,” but that’s relative too. See above. Still, it is possible to take an approximation of what we figure this average to be and find ourselves (mis)balanced on a knife-edge in between all perspectives. This narrow path, the knife-edge between fast and slow, between good and bad, between ecstasy and despair, seems precarious at times, yet at other times is like a garden, wide and spacious enough to sit awhile. Our perspectives cover this garden from us with the shrubbery of Can’ts and Shouldn’ts, and the way to the garden is fraught with the misty cloud of Look-Like. And yet, ultimately, these shrubs and mists are but prismatic scenery colouring our time on this Earth, a perspective which is easy to see from within the garden. The Earth is brown and grey and immortal, though wearing an impermanent coat of blue and green. One day, we will slip out of our perspectives and return to the Earth, join her mounding’s mass, and that will be death.

So that’s the weather. Sometimes cold, sometimes mild, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes bothersome and sometimes the only backdrop I could ever want. I’ve been up to the usual, cycling between interests like a bat between haunts.

- The other day I got around to playing Smile For Me, an experience which took me about three hours to more-or-less complete 100%. Really cute game, I fell in love with all the characters, and the budding horror elements made me excited to see where it’d go.

- Currently I’m playing A Monster’s Expedition Through Puzzling Exhibitions, a game often cited in the same breath as Baba Is You and Stephen’s Sausage Roll. I think those two games are puzzle masterpieces, and A Monster’s Expedition is hitting me in the right spot. It frequently fills me with awe, which is impressive considering the game is just a long series of oblong block-pushing puzzles. It has scope, though, and it has the guts to hide that scope from you until you’re able to discover it for yourself. I’ve played for about 10 hours so far, beaten over 200 islands, and yet I feel I’m only getting further away from the end goal. Hard to describe. It’s a good game.

- When I’m done with that game, next I’ll be checking out Spelunky 2. I’ve wanted to try the original for a long time but never got around to it; I picked up the sequel. I know very little about the games (with a rough idea of what gameplay is like), and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. I like games that rely on discovery.

- Book-wise, I’m, y’know, reading Finnegans Wake as I fall asleep, occasionally inching through other books too, but my main reading focus at the moment is The Familiar. I went and picked up a new copy of Volume 5, and I found the Volume 3 I had kinda lost for a while, so now I have the full Season 1 again. And it’s been long enough since I read any of them that it’s finally time to reread them. As a unit this time. I am... so happy to be in their headspace. I’m currently in the second act of Volume 1, taking in a lot more details this time (and I do still remember a sense of where the whole plot goes), really cherishing the commitment to physicality and aesthetic. There’s not many authors out there like Danielewski. House of Leaves kickstarted my book obsession, y’know. And The Familiar is about as grand as a project can be. It’s supposed to be 27 volumes, each one 900 pages long, and the design of these books is goddamn sublime. The publisher only let him do the first 5 volumes, which is sad, but luckily those 5 volumes make up a “Season,” so they’re still a whole thing, a complete story arc for each of the nine protagonists, and plenty of secrets and details that give a good sense of the true scope. And did I mention the series is fucking scary? Profoundly so, each new volume weaving you deeper into its conspiratorial web of eldritch coincidences and patterns. The story is full of cats, immortal cats, God-cats. There’s a scientist who keeps a freaky magic orb and is known as Wizard. There’s an Armenian taxi driver who’s one of my favourite characters. And you can probably get all the volumes Used for fairly cheap on Amazon now. ........please, somebody join me in loving this series.

- Creative-wise, I’m working on music as always, putting notes next to each other until I get a result I can do something with. There is one piece that’s definitely done, a collaboration between Lindsay and I, but it’s going into Nine Is God so you won’t hear it just yet. Speaking of, that’s coming along. I haven’t even started making any codes or cool connections yet; I want to finish the... Core of this update first. Let’s be deceptive and call it the Main Blog. I have proven to myself that I definitely can do this; I keep stumbling on new mechanisms I can add, and I have a pretty vivid idea of what the whole thing will look like. It’s gonna be maybe a decent size for a Blog, all told, but it’s the form of the thing that mandates a lot of care. Luckily I have made Viceking’s Graab, so this isn’t the first time I’ve done something this mechanically ambitious. ...look, just. Of course I’m excited to Actually Talk about this thing, but like with the Graab, its nature requires me to keep it secret until players finally discover it for themselves. I like making that kind of thing, I want the sense of discovery, of climbing up a hill only to reach the summit and see an even bigger mountain looming over you that you hadn’t realized was there. Like Frog Fractions, or its sequel, even if you know there will be more than meets the eye you still get surprised and filled with delight. This concept fits neatly into an ARG format.

- Oh, also, I’m super excited for the Braid remake. It’s gonna have a comically thorough amount of developer commentary, and that’s all I want from this world. It’s even coming to Switch!

Media can be used as a tool to assist with the experience of life, and that is the way I want to approach things. I have spent time adapting myself to feel comfortable in these boring aesthetics (of understated puzzle games, thoughtful pretty books, blogs as art) because this means I am less susceptible to getting burned out during contemplation and self-examination. It may seem like a matter of taste, but taste is relative too; it’s not hard-wired, it can be adjusted, it does adjust all the time under the hood. ...I don’t know where to go with this one, other than that I should be careful not to condescend. I am not above anyone, I am confused too. I just.. like confusion and mazes, and I try to speak these aesthetics in an approximation of how I see others talk about theirs.

Right. I think that’s the bulk of it, that’s what I wanted to say today. I hope you are holding on, reader. It’s a wild and lonely world out there, and it’s our world; it’s yours just as much as it’s anyone else’s. You are important to it.

I leave you, mysteriously, with an old Genesis song. It’s called “Can-Utility and the Coastliners,” which is a silly way of saying it’s a song about the myth of King Canute. Sick of flatterers claiming he was equal to God, he went to the sea shore and said “If I truly am equal to God, then let the waves halt at my feet!” They didn’t. An astute demonstration, but it just prompted his flatterers to praise his ingenuity. “But he forced a smile, even though his hopes lay dashed where offerings fell.” I’m not really sure how the story ends. But it’s a wonderful song, starts off very folks-y but quickly takes a left turn down Mystery and Beauty. And it’s freaking Genesis.

See ya.

#rambles #at least they're not tag rambles this time #can't believe i managed to remember that whole ramble about relativity and objectivity and the garden in the middle #though amusingly i guess i really just remembered........ *an approximation* of it. :3

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 57: Wasting Time with a New Friend

Lotor makes some new friends. Together, they discover that word of Lance and Keith's union has reached video game developers in the worst, best way.

Featuring Leakira in the role of comic relief (Not to offend Leakira fans, this is meant to be a fun, happy place. I just thought it might be funny little detail) XD

First  Previous  Next

Lotor finds them sleeping in a hallway. A much-needed distraction.

More specifically, it’s an adolescent Olkari with orange feelers, dressed in green and white garb stained with red dust. They’re incredibly small, even for a smaller species. Pretty adorable, like a wolf cub.

So obviously he nudges them with his foot.

“Can I help you?” the kit growls, amber eyes glaring up at him.

“You’re sleeping in a hallway.”

“And? What’s your point?”

“... You know what? I’m not really sure.”

With a groan, the kit sits up, tugging on their feelers. “So what are you up to, Mr. Prince?”

“Oh not much. Wandering around, looking for trouble.” He’s actually looking for a distraction, but that’s almost the same thing as trouble.

“Trouble, huh?” The Olkari smirks. “I’m Pidge. Lance’s resident tech genius and vent crawler- I mean spy.”

“Ah-haha, I see. You’re one of his ‘associates’.” Lotor grins, helps Pidge to their feet.

“Yes. Working for Lance usually involves some level of trouble. What are the princes up to today, anyway?”

“Lance is with Allura. She’s having a hard morning. Keith is with Thace, our emergency medic and reproductive specialist.”

“Oh, really? Making sure his junk works?”

“That’s the idea. Why?”

“It’d be awesome to have some dirt on Keith. He’s just so perfect.” Pidge skips down the hallway, a curious prince following behind them. “The worst thing he’s done is drink a bit too much, find his happy place at a party, and get really snuggly with Lance.”

Following Pidge into what should have been an old, empty storeroom, Lotor’s eyes widen in surprise. The typically ignored room is set up with monitors and a work table covered with Balmeran crystals and a few other tools.

“Where did you get some of these tools?” he asks, eyeing a choice laser of Galra design.

“I crawled through the tunnels underneath the actual labs and stole them. I’m welcome in the labs, of course. I just don’t want to share my work with them. The field of science is rife with thieves.”

“You found the tunnels already?” Lotor stares. There are tunnels all under the mountain, his ancestors making the massive peak into an insect hive. There are escape tunnels and hidden caches and underground pools and even a forge made of volcanic glass that he discovered as a small boy.

He still likes to go down there on the rare occasion he can find the time. Someday, he’ll take his children down there, and tell them all about the stories carved into the ancient walls.

“Yep! Anyway, let’s see if I can hack into Thace’s equipment. And by that I mean give me like, thirty ticks because I can definitely do it.” While Pidge types away on their computer, Lotor sits himself on the floor, eyeing a faint square cut into the stone. Most people don’t notice, don’t know to look for the fine edges carved into the floor. “Ooh… Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” Lotor asks. “Is Keith okay?”

“You really care for him, don’t you?” Amber eyes smile at him, intuitive.

“Of course I do! He’s my cousin! And my friend!” And he has more than his fair share of health problems. Lotor himself was not a healthy kit, so he understands the worries that his cousin might have.

“Aw-w. You’re just a big ol’ sweetheart, aren’t ya?” Pidge turns back to their computer. “What’s interesting is that Keith is… surprisingly healthy. His weight and body mass index are good… Thace is optimistic about a successful pregnancy.”

“Why is that interesting?” Lotor scratches his head, frowning a little.

“Because our boys requested contraceptives, probably due to health concerns.”

“Miscarriage risks are higher for him. That’s partially due to his sex, and partially due to his condition. Do you think they’ll use contraceptives?”

“Pfft. No. They’re young, they’re stupid, and they both want pups. I doubt Lance can keep it in his pants.”

“What about Keith?”

“He’s shy.” Pidge shrugs like that explains everything. It kind of does. Keith’s priorities are probably more of the cuddling variety than the ‘aggressive hugging’ variety. “Can I have some of your blood?”

“Hm? Uh… How much blood?”

“I dunno. A few vials? Maybe I’ll swab your cheek too? It might help with my experiments.”

“And what might those be?”

“I’m trying to invent Altean-friendly prosthetics. It’s not going well. Alteans are stupid inside and out.” Pidge gathers their tools to stick him, and Lotor stares. This tiny little Olkari is far more than they appear. “Who do you think will kill Lance for getting Keith pregnant? Krolia or Shiro?”

But they're young, still playful and carefree.

“Hm… My money’s on Krolia. Or the creepy friend.”

“Adam? Oh, he’s softer than he looks. More likely he’ll live vicariously through their children and terrorize anyone who tries to mess with them.” Pidge sticks a swab in his cheek as they fill a second vial with his blood. “Your fangs are adorable.”

“Thanks?” Lotor regards them. “So you do science, you do people… What don’t you do?”

“Relationships.” Pidge cleans the crook of his arm, bandaging the spot where they bled him. “And genders. Those are for more primitive individuals.”

Lotor laughs. “More highly evolved, are you?”

“Exactly. Unlike Alteans. Stupid, scaley assholes with stupid, cranky cells.”

“I don’t get it. What exactly is the problem?” Lotor peers over Pidge’s shoulder as they examine his cells under their microscope.

“Not sure, but Alteans have some odd properties that make their biology incompatible with metal, coral, bone, wood, and other prosthetic materials. When used, the Altean’s cells refuse to accept the forgein material, even if it’s biocompatible. Hence, their cells are stupid.”

“So it would seem. How are my cells?”

“Hm… I'll have to run some of my own, secret tests. I may try to culture your skin cells to figure out how it all works.”

“Have at it. Can I interest you in a secret?”

“Always!” The young Olkari’s eyes shine, eager to learn. To know. A person after his own heart.

“Most of Altea’s technology is rediscovered. Thousands of decaphoebs ago, there was what’s known as The Forgetting. The Altean’s powers were quite suddenly drastically altered, and their society descended into chaos. Much of their technology was lost, then rediscovered within the last few milophoebs.”

“No fucking way!”

“Way. This includes their lauded Teludav technology.”

“Those fakers! How have I not heard of this?”

“I know! It’s their best kept secret. Also, beneath Mount Sil’brana is a petrified forest.”

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Pidge makes a note on their datapad. “I wonder… I don’t know if I could interface with that or not. Probably not, since it’s no longer organic, but then again perhaps I could reach the echo?”

“Echo?”

“All organic life leaves behind an echo. Sometimes, I can reach that echo. I’d be great at solving murders!”

“Well, if ever I am murdered, do find my killer. I’m sure my wife would appreciate it.”

“Unless she did the murdering,” Pidge snickers.

“Some days, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. She’d say it’s my fault, but…”

“Pregnancy.”

“Yeah. How do you think Keith will be when he gets pregnant?”

“He’s relatively mild-mannered as long as Lance keeps him happy, so either unbelievably psychotic or unbearably sweet.”

“He is really sweet. I honestly didn’t expect it when he first arrived. Lance is a little… He’s reserved, but also high-strung at the same time?”

“He definitely can be. But he can also be very playful. Those two are either quiet and reserved together, or cutting up and goofing off together. But Lance is the high-strung one, for sure. Keith just wants to know whose head to crack open. Lance wants to know every single little detail about everything.”

“So he’s a control freak.”

“Little bit, yeah. We’ve all got our thing.” Pidge smiles. “But Lance gave me a home when mine was lost. He had no reason to do that. He didn’t know what I was capable of.”

“I had assumed you were on Altea for research?” Lotor's curious, but won't push.

“No. Though I do enjoy research. For example, I have the new Phantasm Killbot game. I just got to the first visual novel part where they introduce the characters and their little side plots and all. Wanna help me out? For research?” The Olkari holds up a controller.

“Yeah alright. Anything for research.” Lotor takes the controller, waits for the character introduction screen. He’s played this game before. “Player one… Leandro.”

“Player Two… Akira.”

The screen loads.

“Uh… That’s… Interesting. Is that- Does that look like Lance to you?” It really does, at least to Lotor. The only difference is that ‘Leandro’ has brown hair and his scales are a very pale blue.

“Wow, that’s weird. Okay. Let’s see where this goes- Oh my fuck, this is going to be good.”

Lotor can’t help but agree, staring at a screen of a smirking ‘Leandro’ lounging with a wide-eyed Galra presumably named ‘Akira’. The Galra has purple hair and golden irises, dressed in what might loosely be referred to as clothing.

It’s exceptionally weird, even weirder given that Akira is the name of Keith’s father, Lotor’s uncle.

“I cannot wait to tell my cousin about this,” Lotor breathes, coming to the realization of exactly what’s before him.

“Yes! We have to! Right now!” Pidge stands, tugs on his arm.

“Well, let’s not be too hasty.” Lotor stares at the screen, that mischievous part of his brain clicking and whirring. “I mean, we have to do our research, right?”

“You know…” Pidge taps their chin. “You might be onto something.”

“I mean it’s just courtesy, right? Making sure we can give them all the information we possibly can?”

“You’re absolutely right. Okay, so you get first choice for dialogue and it looks like Not-Keith has a prompt for us.”

“Oh, gods. Okay, I am so sorry, Keith… Let’s see, here.”

…

Akira: We can’t keep meeting like this. What if people find out?

Leandro: I’m a prince, my sweet. I do what I want.

Akira: But you could be killed!

Leandro: You’re worth dying for.

Leandro: It’s my fault, anyway. I just couldn’t resist you.

Akira: It’s not your fault. I let you have me.

Leandro: You should let me have you again.

Akira: Please… I need it…

*Kiss Passionately*

Leandro: Oh, my sweet. You’re in season!

Akira: Make love to me, and I will give you a son.

…

“I feel dirty,” Lotor mutters. “This is what’s passing for entertainment right now?”

“It’s so bad! I love it!” Pidge snickers.

“Lance is going to be mortified.”

“No, he won’t.” The two new friends turn to see Adam leaning in the doorway, smirking.

“And why, pray tell, is that?” Lotor asks, one eyebrow almost reaching his hairline.

“Lance is bigger than that. He’ll be filled with a sense of… well-being.”

“Oh, gross! Adam!” Pidge chucks a wrench at the Altean’s head, the trio laughing as he dodges, then retrieves it for them. “I don’t want to hear about my friend’s dick!”

“Am I wrong?”

“No, and I hate it.” Pidge drags Adam to the floor, sits in his lap. “Okay, you can help us. What should Leandro say next? ‘A daughter would be fine’ or ‘Honor me with the gift of your flesh’?”

“Who the quiznak wrote this?” Adam mutters. “And we want ‘Honor me with the gift of your flesh.’”

“I don’t know, but I will find out. And kill them,” Lotor mutters.

“Easy on the instincts, Mr. Prince.” Pidge continues to the next cut scene.

“It’s nothing to do with instincts! I just hate that I had to read that!” Lotor sighs. “At least that cut scene is over. Now we have… Brothers, Sven and Kuron? Lots of new characters for this one.”

Adam blinks, gaping at the screen. “What. The fuck-”

...

Allura sighs, running a hand through her loose curls. It's been a rough morning, one that doesn't promise to get easier. A howling chorus of laughter cuts through her stressed thoughts. Cracking open a storeroom, she spies her husband, Adam, and Pidge laughing away at a video game.

"I wOuLd DiE fOr AkIrA," Pidge mocks, cackling.

"Leandro, please!" Lotor laughs, cutting through a false simper as he pretends to swoon. "I couldn't live without you!"

"That's such a toxic sentiment, honestly." Adam shakes his head, but his eyes are glittering bright.

Shaking her head, Allura leans in the doorway, settling a hand on her slightly protruding stomach. Life is never perfect, not for anyone. But seeing her husband playing around and having fun with their friends -his new friends- suggests that everything might still turn out alright. Or at least, not as awful as it sometimes seems.

#LoveAftertheFact #LAtF #klance #galtean au #altean lance #galra keith #adashi #altean adam #galra shiro #voltron legendary defender #vld

[64space]

thots on sword and shield

ELLO YEWCHUBE so i got shield for christmas even tho i wasnt rly planning to get it. ive heard a lot of good things, but more bad things than good. ive been spoiled on a lot (which is ok, i love spoilers), and i thought “it cant really be as bad as ive heard, right?” unfortunately i haven’t gotten to rose’s final battle yet, but i’m pretty close! so here’s a review!

positives:

- the characterization and positive development of the rivals

- team yell was funny and wholesome, actually

- the gym battle system and how it’s treated as a sporting event is really cool

- i used to dislike the idea of dynamaxing but it can be pretty important for battles and powering up weaker pokemon, and some g-max pokemon are basically mega evolutions.

- character designs!!!!! pokemon really did good when designing some of the new creatures and human npcs!

- the zigzagoon line’s regional variant brings warmth to my little emo heart. i have a linoone at level 59 and i would die for her

- cinderace’s signature move!

- the darkest day being a reference to the x/y plot point of AZ using the ultimate weapon as the war was at its worst!! loved that!!

- its the only pokemon game that i’ve been able to focus on nonstop since the release of gates to infinity

- pokemon camp! its very cute and fun and gives your team exp!

- exp share is automatic

- toxtricity. i think thats my favorite new pokemon from the region! i love the references to guitar and bass and its signature move is pretty neat too! its cool to have a poison/electric pokemon :D

- cutting down on pokemon to get a reasonably sized regional/national dex is nice because you can fill it up faster which in turn gets shinies faster

- you can pretty much choose which pokemon to encounter unless they chase you first

- u can be emo (trainer customization is Everywhere....)

- skin tone variation in player character, main characters of color (leon and hop) that are treated RIGHT

- i think its very cool and cute that the gym leaders’ numbers are all phonetic puns in japanese!

- u can switch the keyboard language while naming ur pokemon so u can put swear words in it. i named my shuckle “fuckle” with a russian c and its funny. i am never using or trading him in battle though

negatives:

- u can switch the keyboard language while naming ur pokemon so u can put swear words in it. this is rated E for everyone

- grimmsnarl is nasty and i wish marnie didn’t use it on her team. or anyone for that matter. the end

- rose is the least evil pokemon “villain” out there and he had pretty good motives. having kids go up against someone who wants to solve climate change sounds a lot like propaganda especially in this current time! could have been handled better.

- dynamaxing is just Big Pokemon and gigantamax is glorified mega evolution. mega evos and z moves should be brought back

- a national dex wouldve been cool even tho its very tedious to fill out :”)

- no z crystals, which retcons the entire sun/moon necrozma/energy plot line :(

- oleana wants what lusamine has

- team yell wants what team skull has

- GAME FREAK NEEDS TO FUCKING UNIONIZE IT WAS SO RUSHED AND THOUGH I APPRECIATE THE ARTISTIC MERIT THAT WENT INTO THIS GAME I DO BELIEVE THAT GAME FREAK WORKERS ARE BEING OVERWORKED AND WE ALSO WOULD HAVE GOTTEN MUCH BETTER CONTENT IF THEY WERE GRANTED EXTRA TIME :(

- leon’s outfit is stupid. i love him though

- hop shouldve ended up as champion, i know its like your Job as the player to defeat the champion, but come on, hop deserves it

in conclusion:

- play it if u want! or dont. tho there are a lot of negatives to the game it can also be lots of fun for ppl so who am i to judge. im not ur mom. or am i

#pokemon #sword and shield #swsh spoilers

[junker-town]

8 players I’m watching this NFL season

You owe it to yourself to pay attention to these guys.

By this point you’ve probably locked your Week 1 rosters for fantasy football, and that’s a good thing. Truth be told, I’m really pretty terrible at fantasy football. It’s a world that demands a very different mind to that of just appreciating NFL games. It’s like watching someone good play Madden, someone really good, who has an innate understanding of what breaks the A.I. and will always pick up a big gain on offense.

Instead I want to talk about the players I just can’t stop thinking about. The guys who I know will do something incredible every week, and who I cannot wait to see back on the field.

Justin Jefferson

God, I’m such a sucker for LSU wide receivers. I have no idea what’s in that Baton Rouge water but the Tigers need to bottle it and give it to every pass catcher around the nation. It feels like it’s been such a long time since we’ve truly seen a receiver so good he makes up for his quarterback, but that’s exactly what Jefferson did for the Vikings in his rookie season.

I’m not here to litigate the skills of Kirk Cousins, because Kirk Cousins is too boring to even warrant time on the court docket. Instead we should focus on a dude who caught 88 passes for 1,400 yards in his friggin’ rookie season. Know the last time that’s happened in the modern era? How about never.

Anquan Boldin: 1,377 yards

Odell Beckham Jr.: 1,305 yards

The GOAT himself, Randy-freaking-Moss: 1,313 yards

I want nothing more in this world that to see Jefferson dominate again, because frankly it’s been too damn long since the league had a must-watch receiver. Hell, it’s probably been since OBJ was making stupid one-handed catches and flexing on the entire league, and go figure, he was from LSU too.

I’m a sucker for feeling like I’m a part of history, and the possibility of seeing the emergence of one of the greatest receivers of all time is enough of an allure that I’ll actually subject myself to watching Kirk Cousins play football.

Derrick Henry

I’ve been trying to limit my red meat consumption under the assumption that reducing my carbon footprint will help the world, so Derrick Henry is my giant weekly helping of beef.

Everything about football is time and place. Go back a decade and Henry would be in the mix with a lot of stellar, league-defining running backs. Now, he’s an iconoclast in a league that keeps pushing more and more towards passing, and ignoring the sweet science of mashing a dude into the turf with a stiff arm and a steely grin.

The season, perhaps more than any other, I cannot wait to see what Henry does in Tennessee. With Julio Jones in the mix it’s going to be a fascinating weekly drama of “who’s defending who?” with Henry more than likely getting a chance to do his own thing and obliterate people, because that’s favorable to giving up 20+ in the air.

Derrick Henry's tired of the helmet on a stick...he needs live bodies to stiff arm pic.twitter.com/A5QcDKIhny

— Buck Reising (@BuckReising) September 6, 2021

If Derrick Henry turns his own teammates into sacrificial lambs, then what the hell is he going to do to his opponents?

Every single poor sap on the Texans

Okay look, I know this breaks my conventions a little because “58 players I’m watching this NFL season” doesn’t have the SEO-friendly ring to it, but I’m lumping the entire Texans team into this scenario as one sorry player.

I truly did not believe things could get worse for Houston than last season, but by gawd they found a way, didn’t they? You know David Johnson? The running back they traded DeAndre Hopkins for? He’s their backup running back to a 31-year-old Mark Ingram now.

I honestly feel slightly bad for the individual players on the Texans, because there are a ton of genuinely delightful individuals on this team. Collectively their depth chart looks like Santa’s workshop if all the elves decided to run off and become dentists, so dolls were pieces together by unskilled labor.

The elves really should have unionized.

Daniel Jones

Let it be known that above all else I am a petty, petty bitch — and while Daniel Jones is, by all accounts, a nice gentleman, he does represent something I love to hate on with the fury of 1,000 suns: Dave Gettleman.

I watched firsthand while Gettleman systematically destroyed my beloved Carolina Panthers are turned away team legends like Steve Smith with a bedside manner best described as “imagine if Jason Vorhees was your orthopedic surgeon.”

Jones represents his biggest roll of the dice. The guy Gettleman took and told the world to “trust him.” He passed on Josh Allen, gave Jones the rope to let Justin Herbert fly by a year later, now he’s getting one more year to prove he’s the guy, following a draft where New York could have selected Justin Fields.

I know Giants fans have reached the same point Panthers fans did with Gettleman. He made us all chuckle with his old man phraseology to start his tenure, then it became abundantly apparent he was still looking at football as if it was being played during the Reagan administration with no appreciation for what was happening in the modern game.

I don’t think this story is going to end well, and while I’m sorry for Giants fans, I promise it’ll be worth it to get rid of Gettleman.

Justin Herbert

Hey, it’s the guy I just talked about the Giants passing on. Cool.

Anyway, I love watching Justin Herbert play ... a lot. He looks like a 12-year-old and plays like a 40-year-old veteran. In fact, I’m not 100 percent sure Herbert really is entering his second year, and he’s not some wily veteran like Peyton Manning aging backwards like Benjamin Button.

I’d really like Herbert to succeed because dammit, I want the Chargers to succeed. I don’t know if there’s a more historically likable team than this one, but who never, ever seems to catch a break. Philip Rivers was a really nice guy, LaDanian Tomlinson was also a delightful fellow — I want Herbert to succeed where they didn’t and finally, FINALLY pull the Chargers out of the doldrums.

Also, it would be fun as hell if we get another elite quarterback in the AFC West for the next decade next to Patrick Mahomes.

Brian Burns

Here’s a guy who nobody outside of the Carolinas really talks about, but totally should. Sure, Burns doesn’t have a double-digit sack season to his name ... yet, but I think it’s about to happen.

The reason I just want to see him play is baked entirely within that sentence: I just want to see Brian Burns play. Last season he registered 9.0 sacks, but these weren’t effort, fight his way into the pocket type sacks. Burns flies off the line with unnatural speed and even without a tremendous array of pass rushing moves, he’s able to overwhelm defenses with his first step.

Burns ranked Top 10 in the NFL in total QB pressures last season, and I think that will jump ahead again. This could be a breakout season, and it’s just fun to see how this guy plays football.

Trevor Lawrence

I’ve just gotta know. I have to know if all these years of watching, and waiting for the best college QB since Andrew Luck actually materializes in Jacksonville and FINALLY gets that team over the hump.

The Jaguars got so monumentally lucky to have this situation fall in their laps and get to take Lawrence, and this was a franchise in dire need of luck. Oh god, that’s three mentions of “luck” in two paragraphs, my editor is going to hate me (sorry Ricky). Shit, now it’s four. Better quit while I’m ahead.

I just want Jaguars fans to be happy in a way that doesn’t require copious amounts of pre-game liquor and vandalism. Is that so much to ask?

Kyle Pitts

In a similar vein to Lawrence I’m just fascinated by seeing what Kyle Pitts does this season. The rookie tight end is being asked to fill some tremendously large cleats with Julio Jones being traded away, but thankfully he is a large man who I presume has feet to match.

Before I get too carried away with feet references and y’all start rumors about me on the internet, let me just say that I think Pitts can be one of those iconic, league-defining players that makes us totally re-think the tight end position. I believe he’s that damn good.

Now, I know there’s also a learning curve here and that transitioning to tight end in the NFL is damn, damn difficult (I mean hell, no rookie TE has broken 1,000 yards since Mike Ditka), but there’s just something transcendent about how Pitts plays football. I need to watch him play and develop this season to satiate my own curiosity.

[ruvik-haunting-eyes]

My thoughts about The Evil Within 2 (spoilers)

I’m not good at constructing criticims (besides I only played it once for now) , but I just want to let you know my thoughts about The Evil Within 2, guys. 

The first game was such an amazing surprise when I decided to purchase it. I’ve never been such passionate by a game for years. I bought it on PS3, then PS4, did the freaking Akumu mode twice. I’ve played this game again and again, without ever growing weary. Sure, it wasn’t perfect. But this game has such a good balance in differents ways : difficulty, recent/old school games mechanisms (I miss those), true boss fights (not just quick time events), horror/infiltration and actions phases. The story was really intriguing, it was like a puzzle you had to reconstitute. Every detail was important, the files were important. The game was literally making you losing your mind.

So, of course, I really wanted a sequel. I’ve made several dreams about it. The story wasn’t finished, and I always thought that this game has great potential, and a uniquness. 

When I finished The Evil Within 2... I had mixed feelings. I felt empty. In a good, and in a bad way. In a good way because, the ending made me feel nostalgic which is the proof to make me think that the game was obviously good enough. In a bad way, because all the answers I’ve been waiting for were mostly unanswered. 

When you think about it : what answers The Evil Within 2 gives us about the questions we have from the first game ? If you bought the game to know what happened to Ruvik/Leslie and Joseph, well, be on your way. The first game was essentially focused on Ruvik’s backstory. Now, it is the turn of Sebastian and his family. Now, don’t get me wrong : I couldn’t wait to hear way more about Sebastian, and also the new antagonists Stefano and Theodore. But it still turned out pretty much different from what I expected it to be. “What happened in Beacon is in the past. You need to forget it.” says Juli. Well, that’s exactly what I felt while I was playing this game. It’s almost like a message from the developpers : this game was made for a new public so forget everything you know about the first game. What is the point to make up the plot and have such a huge cliffhanger at the end, if there’s nothing behind it in TEW 2 ?! Do you want to save Ruvik/Leslie & Joseph for another TEW ? Fine, no problem. I am open minded, and I have nothing against the idea to make the sequel focused about Sebastian and new characters. But you can’t just make us completely ignore these facts in the sequel, like nothing happened. It’s been years since we’re talking and making theories about it. And the game shows NO sign at all from them. At least, Joseph was confirmed to be alive. But Juli said that Sebastian stopped Ruvik. So what ? Are you going to decide that he and Leslie are truly dead now ? I don’t get it. That little moment at the very end of the game, when you see the STEM coming back online by itself... I don’t want my enthousiasm to take over. It could be anything, anyone. Maybe Myra, who knows. 

There was also interesting moments about Sebastian’s past (the events after beacon, his memories,the psychologist) with Anima, but most of them are completely optional. Why ? They should have make this inevitable ! In my first walkthrough, I missed the Anima parts and these moments are one of the most scariest in this game ! After you meet her, she occasionally appears to haunt you while you’re exploring. It’s adding that pressure you had just like in Chapter 9 while you are exploring the mansion with Ruvik’s ghostly appearance. 

It leads me to a point that unfortunately, affected my horror experience for this sequel. The semi open world. I really don’t want to say bad things about it. I love to explore. Semi open world, linear world, both of them have their advantages and flaws. The thing is : in the first game, you were somehow forced to confront the enemies, especially in the action parts of course. The thing is, I really felt tension in the first game. I felt danger. And to be honest, it didn’t really happen in the sequel. Because I think that the semi-open world gives so much possibilities to hide and avoid combats. My way of playing, I think, didn’t allow me to sense that stress that I felt from the first game. The places were big enough to run and hide, but still, it was limited, you couldn’t always choose the stealth option. Sometimes, you just had to think fast, and do with what ressources you possess (Chapter 6 with Joseph, for example). Do you remember Chapter 10, The Craftsman's Tools ? That chapter was really oppressing. In fact, you were in that mood since the first chapter. Chapter 1 in TEW2, is just a flashback, plenty of cutscenes, and walking in a dark screen. Anyway, I hope there is some understanding here. I think they were also much more enemies in the first game, more variety too, that’s why I felt more uncomfortable. 

Which leads me to another point. The sequel clearly doesn’t have the same atmosphere from the first game. It is not about the gore, blood everywhere or something. Gore doesn’t necessarily means that’s it’s super scary. I really felt that Shinji Mikami was not the director in the sequel here. The first game was 100% Japanese. There was definitely a big American touch in many ways in the sequel. And the fact that it was made for a larger audience. More scripted like a movie, playing less, more “simple”. Without any doubt, the game is shorter than the first one to me, if you don’t take the time to explore and wander in Union city. I was shocked how much the chapters seemed to pass before my eyes so rapidly even though I am definitely not the kind of person who rushes through the levels of a game, I can assure you. I finished TEW2 in a little more than 17 hours. I finished TEW1 in 22 hours. Where’s the error ? o_o

Okay, I still enjoyed the story. A lot of people seemed to complain about how Sebastian gets too much emotional here, and I was also scared that the developpers would turn Seb into a Drama Queen. But I honestly think they added more depths into Sebastian’s character, without changing his tough personality. Hey, he’s been through a lot, his reactions are normal. I was touched whenever there was the family moment. Especially at the end of the game, with that damn good “Ordinary world” theme. As awesome as “Long Way Down” by the way. Didn’t think it sounded too much cliché. It was cool to see Seb’s “dad side”. I was just hoping that he would find more on his journey, with the events from TEW1, even as a minor part. But no. NOTHING. 

Once again, the other characters could have been so much more interesting. But to be honest, let’s face it : in TEW1, Ruvik was the only character that was well developped. Sebastian’s backstory was only present in his journal. We barely knew something about Joseph and his friendship with Seb. And I don’t even talk about Juli, you had to play the DLCs for that. I’m trying to stay impartial, TEW2 was still better on this side. I was just hoping something better. The Mobius agents, well... When they begin to die one by one, you just understand that is going to happen for the rest of group. Hoffman’s sacrifice was predictable. It would have been a good suprise if she didn’t die. It would have been a good thing if you were able to save some of the agents depending on your choices. But they would have died anyway because of the ending (I’ll get back to this later on.)

Stefano and Theodore... Well uh... When I encountered Stefano, it felt like, the chapter after, I had to kill him already. Stefano : “Ok let’s fight because you know, Theodore is about to replace me, we don’t have much time.” XDDDD

Whyyy ? I wanted more to just “admire” Stefano’s seedy gallery, needed more backstory again, more interaction with him. But Theodore was the one who disappointed me the most. This kind of character are often the most interesting for me, the ones that use the words with such ease to make you feel uncertain, distort you thoughts, or all the contrary, convince you they’ll change your life for good, manipulate you, uses your inner fears and desires... From what I reminded, his speech was all about “Give me Lily, blablabla, give me her power blabla.” I was expecting more charisma in these two characters, but their apparitions and personalities were unimaginative, or rather too much furtive. It felt more like minor characters to me while they could have been more remarkable. :( Their presence weren’t as memorable as I thought. Still like them. I just think that the developpers would have take one more year to do this game. I am sure that it would have been more in-depth in the form. That moment when Theodore tries to destabilize us with the events from Beacon ( Laura, Keeper, Sadist Boss Fight ) was pure gold. Fan service, but still epic, and intense. That reminds me how much the first game left his mark on me. Maybe because it was the surprise. The mystery of the story, where you were wondering and trying to discover what the hell was going on in this place. By the way, does anybody know what this religious sign we saw everywhere in the first game, and now in the sequel, actually means ? We still don’t get any information from this, do we ? It is a cult but... Is it finally somehow linked to Mobius, or not ?? I didn’t understand. Oh, and I still don’t get why the boss all look like Laura. No answers again. Is it really her, or a model of Stefano ? If that’s the case, they could have changed her design because she looks awfully like Laura. Is it simply because Sebastian’s memories have an impact in this world, so he sees Laura everywhere in different forms ?

And Mobius is dead. The Administrator is dead. 

... WHAT ? ALREADY ??? Oh my, I saw a future where Mobius represented what Umbrella represents in Resident Evil series. A powerful organisation that will persist in the years. And they all dropped like flies. Are they going to make a conclusion to the story already ? Or was it necessarily for a possible reunion with Ruvik ? I mean, Mobius was in the way. Ruvik needed to take them down. I suppose he played a part in TEW2, even if we don’t see him. I’m pretty sure his consciousness is still alive. Ruvik had plans to make sure he’ll be “born and reborn again”, just like he said in the torn letter. I’m pretty sure parts from him still resides in the persons who were connected to the machine such as Sebastian, Juli and Joseph. We still don’t have a clear explanation for Juli’s wound. 

TEW2 is a good game. It’s a step forward in some ways, and a step down in other ways. I know I haven’t discussed a lot about what I enjoyed about this game but... I needed to speak more about this sensation of dissatisfaction. I was pretty sure that I was going to think “WOOOOW THIS GAME WAS SO AWESOME !!!” and instead, I was more like “Oh... that’s it?” When I had TEW1 I just couldn’t wait to play it again. Now, for TEW2, a new day comes and I ask myself “Should I play it today ?... No, I don’t really want to.” which just makes me feel really, really sad.

#The Evil Within #the evil within 2 #Psycho Break #psycho break 2 #tew 2 spoilers #opinion

[itsfinancethings]

March 08, 2020 at 09:40AM

Kevin Connolly says his father-in-law credits the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington with “giving him his life back.” It’s where he recovered from hospice care, flirted with nurses and enjoyed eating chicken pot pie. But now, it’s where Connolly worries the 81-year-old will die because of what he says has been a bungled response to the coronavirus outbreak that has devastated the nursing home facility, which is linked to at least 10 of the 17 coronavirus deaths that had been reported in the U.S. as of Saturday.

“I can no longer sit around and wait for a phone call to tell me my loved one has died. Our loved ones that live here are already amongst the most vulnerable in the community, and they are being left to be picked off one by one by this disease,” Connolly said Thursday at a press conference held by relatives of Life Care Center residents.

“We have limited resources to battle this disease, and I think somebody somewhere decided that this population of people wasn’t worth wasting resources on. That’s how it feels.”

The arrival of the coronavirus in the United States has intersected with the persistent problems associated with caring for the elderly, one of the country’s most vulnerable populations, especially as long-term care is often understaffed and underfunded.

As health experts urge nursing homes to plan ahead and take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus in their communities, some are cancelling bingo games and family dinners, encouraging relatives to take advantage of the ability to “visit” via Skype, and stocking up on the supplies they would need to combat an outbreak in their facilities.

“The data from China and from Italy seems to suggest that this virus disproportionately affects older adults. We’re looking at mortality rates for people over the age of 80 close to 15%,” says Dr. David Dosa, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University and a geriatrician who has researched nursing home infections, referencing a study of the outbreak in China published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. (While hard to assess, the overall coronavirus fatality rate is far lower — 3.4%, according to the World Health Organization on March 3.)

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About 1.3 million Americans live in nursing homes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more than half are over the age of 75.

“They do need to take it very seriously,” Dosa says. “I think that the Washington case is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.”

He said the virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, can spread quickly in nursing home settings, where people with existing medical conditions and compromised immune systems live in close proximity and depend on help for daily activities, including bathing, dressing and eating. On Friday, another nursing home and a senior living complex in Seattle each reported a case of coronavirus among their residents, the New York Times reported.

Brenda Chrystie says she was reassured by an email she received Monday from her father’s memory care facility in King County, the same county where the Life Care Center of Kirkland is located. Leaders at Aegis Living said they are disinfecting “high touch surfaces” daily, preparing a containment plan in case residents or staff members become infected, stocking up on both CDC-approved cleaning agents for the virus and enough food to feed staff and residents “for an extended period of time” if necessary, and canceling events for large groups. The facility has also asked anyone who traveled outside of the U.S. in the past 30 days to postpone their visit.

Karen Ducey—Getty ImagesSu Wilson hands flowers to a staff member (in red uniform) to give to her mother, Chun Liu, who is a patient at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, on March 6, 2020.

“For all of us who care for the elderly, the coronavirus is presenting an unprecedented challenge,” Kris Engskov, Aegis Living president, said in a statement on Thursday. “Over the last few days, we’ve put extraordinary protocols in place in all of our communities to ensure we were doing everything possible to protect our residents and staff from infection.”

“They’re having to ratchet it up and take it to another level and just hoping that all of us, the loved ones, don’t freak out and panic too much,” Chrystie says. “But who knows? Who knows how this is going to spread?”

She says she’s trying to protect her 80-year-old father, who has Alzheimer’s, from any of that panic because stress can be harmful to his health. “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know about the coronavirus,” she says. “And I’ll keep it that way.”

Bethany Retirement Living in Fargo, North Dakota has cancelled group activities, including bingo, music and group exercise as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of germs.

“A lot of times, bingo is passing around cards. Group exercise might be throwing around the same ball,” says Shawn Stuhaug, president and CEO of Bethany Retirement Living. “We’re just trying to be precautionary until we know more.”

The organization has started directing visitors through certain entrances to guarantee they pass a hand sanitizing station, and asking people not to visit if they have a fever or cough, have been on a cruise or have traveled to a country affected by the outbreak. The facility allows family members to Skype or FaceTime their loved ones if they can’t come in person.

Sandy Sidler, a 67-year-old retired teacher, visits her 91-year-old mother, who has been recovering from the flu, almost every day at Bethany, sitting beside her until she wakes up from her afternoon nap and keeping her company during supper. Sidler says she’s not worried about the spread of coronavirus yet, but she always uses hand sanitizer before entering her mother’s room.

Because there have not yet been any cases of coronavirus identified in North Dakota, Stuhaug says his biggest priority right now is preventing the spread of the seasonal flu, which is more likely to be deadly in an elderly population. “It’s just as important to pay attention to the flu,” he says. “Every year, I wish everybody would get this excited about the flu.”

I can no longer sit around and wait for a phone call to tell me my loved one has died.In Rhode Island — where officials have identified three “presumptive positive” cases of COVID-19 — former state senator Gloria Kennedy Fleck says she has been asking her 90-year-old mother’s nursing home, the West Shore Health Center in Warwick, R.I., for its contingency plan in case the virus spreads there. She has wondered if residents would be temporarily moved or separated if they test positive for the virus, but she hasn’t received a clear answer.

“The biggest concern is that no preparations are being made, and if and when it happens, then what? They’re just going to let them sit there in the petri dish?” she says. “I’m not trying to be an alarmist. We have to take precautions. There has to be a plan.”

On Thursday, she spoke with an administrator who told her plans are underway. Representatives from the West Shore Health Center directed inquiries from TIME to Scott Fraser, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, who said the nursing home was screening visitors, had put up signs asking them not to enter if they’re ill and would be following its existing contingency plans for seasonal flu and norovirus outbreaks, but he could not elaborate on what those plans entail.

“We’re following state guidelines and CDC guidelines, and we’re following them very closely because obviously the residents in all our homes are some of the most vulnerable,” he said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released guidelines last week aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes, asking facilities to screen visitors for symptoms such as a cough, fever and sore throat and for international travel to restricted countries within 14 days. Any health care workers who develop symptoms on the job should stop work, put on a face mask and self-quarantine at home, the guidelines say.

Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, says he’s advising families to ask more questions of the facilities housing their elderly relatives. “We’re telling people, ‘Look to see, is your nursing home implementing better practices, doing more cleaning, ensuring that everyone is on board with hand washing,’” he says. “I would ask the administrator, ‘Are you prepared for what is going to come?’”

Fleck — who brings her mother lemon-filled donuts and Hershey’s kisses each time she visits — says she worries about exactly that. Last month, healthcare workers protested at the Rhode Island state house over under-staffed nursing homes in the state, and Fleck worries staffing levels will worsen because of COVID-19.

In Washington state, the leader of the union representing home care and nursing home workers says that’s already happening. Sterling Harders, president of the SEIU 775, says the outbreak is “making the chronic understaffing in nursing homes even worse,” as more workers call in sick.

Sherylon Hughes — a direct caregiver at the North Cascades Health and Rehabilitation Center in Bellingham, Wash., — says at the start of their shift, workers are now required to report to the nurse on duty to have their temperature checked and fill out a short questionnaire about whether they’ve come in contact with anyone who is potentially infected.

“Everyone is just really concerned,” Hughes says. “There’s a lot of frustration among some of the workers. We feel like the people who are in charge haven’t really come up with a plan for what we are supposed to do.”

She and her coworkers have wondered what would happen if someone at her nursing home tests positive for the coronavirus. Will the facility shut down? Will all the workers be tested? Will they have to pay for it themselves?

Chona Kasinger—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesGov. Jay Inslee of Washington address a news conference on the coronavirus in his state as Vice President Mike Pence looks on, in Tacoma on March 5, 2020.

“I’m very concerned about the health care workers, the people who are on the front lines,” says Hughes, who makes about $17 an hour. “The potential loss of livelihood is devastating, especially for caregivers. We do not make very much money at all, and none of us can afford to miss work for any extended period of time, and very few of us have healthcare that’s affordable.”

At a press conference on Friday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the state would cover the cost of the test for anyone who does not have insurance. As officials work to contain the spread of the virus, he said the state would dedicate assistance specifically to long-term care facilities. “We know that the first potential victims of this virus are elderly and those who are medically compromised,” he said. “We are standing up a separate incident command post in the structure to specifically give assistance to long-term care facilities, both to help them prevent infection from entering the facilities and to help them deal ith it in the event that that happens.”

But questions linger for many of the Life Care Center relatives, who on Thursday expressed their frustration with a lack of communication, demanding clear guidance on when their relatives would be tested for the virus and asking to speak with CDC health officials and to relocate healthy residents to a different facility.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said Friday that the Life Care Center has not been shut down or evacuated because the more than 60 residents remaining there require 24-hour medical care, and there were no hospitals or nursing homes with the capacity to take them in. “This is, for many of the residents, the best place that they can be — those who are asymptomatic but have these health conditions that have to be attended to in a 24-hour care facility,” he said.

Connolly’s father-in-law is one of those residents, but he is still seeking more answers. Constantine said all Life Care Center residents and staff members will be tested for COVID-19 now that there is increased testing capacity at the University of Washington.

On Saturday, Connolly said his father-in-law, who has not been showing symptoms for coronavirus, had not yet been tested.

“Still no one has reached out to us,” Connolly said in a text to TIME. “Still we are in the dark.”

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