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adventuresofclever · 3 years

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CleverMax: SDCC 2021 Masquerade Entry

Comic-Con@Home Masquerade Entry: Adventures of Clever Costume Title: CleverMax - Mr. Clever as a Borderlands boss Costume Description: Recreation of Mr. Clever from the Doctor Who episode Nightmare in Silver, written by Neil Gaiman, done in the style of the video game, Borderlands. Bio: They/He pronouns

Greetings all!

I realized that I never wrote about how I made my CleverMax mashup cosplay, so when SDCC posted about their At Home masquerade, I figured this was the perfect time to do so! Most of you know that I cosplay exclusively as Mr. Clever from Doctor Who, with the random mash up thrown in here and there. I’ve always wanted to be a Borderlands cosplayer, and the following is how I managed to combine the two together.

As always, enjoy the blog and if there are any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Let’s step into the TARDIS and jump back to October 20, 2009, when the first Borderlands game was released. It was my first foray into FPS (First person shooters) and I was hooked from day one. In 2012 they released Borderlands 2 which is, in my not so humble opinion, the best video game ever created. We got some of the most iconic charcters and storylines in that game. Including the best DLC ever, Bunkers and Badasses. And my second favorite villain of all time – Handsome Jack.

Jack’s sass, sarcasm and charm fits well with Mr. Clever’s personality. And in the pre sequel you get to play a version of him called the Dopplegnager. I mean, this pretty much wrote itself.

Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2 and Mr. Clever from Doctor Who

Borderlands cosplayers have aIways left me in a state of awe and admiration. The style of the game is so unique and seeing it recreated in person is nothing short of incredible. I’ve always wanted to figure out a way to be a Borderlands cosplayer. For the past eight years I have only ever cosplayed as Mr. Clever from Doctor Who. In the summer of 2019 I decided that was the perfect time to try to make this happen before NYCC.

When I initially decided to do this, it was going to be more of a mash up between Handsome Jack and Mr. Clever. I had planned on wearing Jack’s basic outfit, but in Clever’s colors with the a few add ons. Namely the bow tie and the cybernetics.

After much research and drafting, I decided against that. I ended up just turning Mr. Clever into a Borderlands boss. Same basic outfit as Mr. Clever/11th Doctor, but cel shaded and with weapons, cause Borderlands.

I made the accessories, chess set, and obviously the working cyberplanner piece itself for my Nightmare in Silver version of Clever, but I have never tackled anything this ambitious. An entire costume from scratch? Not something I thought I could do. Not knowing how to sew and being visually impaired were both challenges that I had to work around.

I started with looking around my house for various items that I thought I could use. I figured if I messed up, might as well mess up on something I hadn’t spent money on yet! I was going to toss a pair of my old paddock boots as they had some rips in the leather. Ripped leather? How very Pandora. They were the first thing I tackled.

Old paddock boots that I refurbished for the cosplay

This was my first time using leather paint and I have to say I am very pleased with the Angelus brand of leather paint. I have worn these in the rain and through puddles, and they have held up 100%.

After the boots were done, I started on the vest. I had an old black vest lying around the house that was sort of the shape and size I wanted. I don’t have a dress form, so I put it on myself, inside out, and used safety pins to make it the size I needed, then hand sewed around the safety pins. Not ideal, but it works.

I had a spare pair of black jeans, button down light blue shirt and a plain bow tie that I just ended up cel shading.

The only item that I really couldn’t figure out was the purple frock coat. Try as I might, I couldn’t find one to modify. So the coat was actually made by my friend Heather Long. I did alter the length after NYCC.

With the clothes themselves all set, for the most part anyay, it was time to paint. This was my first time trying to recreate the art style of Borderlands, often referred to as cel shading. I have a few “art of Borderlands” style books that I poured over before I sat down to attempt this.

Other than the accessories and anything leather, I used the same materials and techniques for each article of clothing. Instead of describing each seprate piece, I’ll just explain what I did to achieve the overall look.

When you look at a Borderlands character on screen, it can be a bit overwhelming. So many colors, and so many nuances of each color. I did my best to visually sift through all that, and try to establish what I thought was the base color.

Once the base color was determined, I just added blotches, blobs, shading, low lights, highlights and other variations of the base color itself throughout each piece. I recommend keeping your fabric wrinkled and using those wrinkle as guidlenes for where the lines and shading would fall naturally.

Once all of that dried, I then went over different sections of the fabric with white and black lines. To get that crisp, almost comic book looking outline of each piece I used black sharpie, and white fabric pens as well as white fabric paint.

When I sat down to do the coat, I wanted something a little different than just cel shading. During a second playthrough of Tales from the Borderlands, I noticed Rhys and other characters had interesting logos and designs on the back of their jackets. I ended up putting a chessboard pattern on the back as a homage to the chess game between the 11th Doctor and Mr. Clever in the episode.

Great shot of the chess board and my Judd Nelson pose

The materials that I used for all of the clothing items were craft paints that I had around the house. Any brand works, but I prefer Americana paints. I then added an additive that you use to make the paint water proof and used various sized brushes. Dry brushes are also very useful if you have them.

Black sharpies of different sizes and any fabric markers are also very helpful. Heat setting is required to make the paint waterpfoof, so if you mess up before you add sharpies, you can wash the clothes and start over.

A few tips if you decide to undertake cel shading clothing: Until now I hadn’t noticed that there aren’t many thing in Borderlands that are true black. Due to the art style most things that appear black are in reality shades of grey, with a grey base colr. This makes it easier to add the lines, shading, and what not. Looking back, I should have bought GREY clothes. It was a ton of work to make the pants look like they were a mixture of greys. And as a result of so many laers of paint, they are stiff, lost their stretch and feel an entire size smaller! So I would recommend grey fabric as a base for black clothing and buy a size larger.

The pants are so stiff that I think they will stand up on their own

This entire process was way more fun than I thought it would be and I’ve since become addicted to cel shading anything I can. I may or may not have started cel shading my guest room.

After the clothing was finished, I started on some accessories and props. The first being the easiet – a wee little cybermite that I cel shaded. My cosplay of Mr. Clever always has a cybermite on my lapel, so I took one of my older ones and repainted it.

You can’t have a Borderlands character without some sort of weapon, so I painted a nerf gun that looks similar to the one that Clara Oswald holds in the episode.

I have never had to carry a gun for my Mr. Clever cosplay before so weapon checks are sort of new to me. I didn’t want to go through that at NYCC so I came up with a clever, no pun intended, way around it.

I took a photo of each side of the gun. Went to Staples and had them printed on heavy cardstock. Then I cut around the guns, glued them together between a piece of cardboard then added some black electical tape around the edges. Viola. Instant weapons check approved gun that is lightweight, and also acts a fan when it gets hot. It was a huge hit at the con. A few security guards were like “ we have to check your…wait..is that flat?” And they proceeded to play with it. I highly recommend doing this!

Gun and its flat counterpart

I am holding the flat gun in this picture from NYCC

In the actual game, you can equip your characters with mods that give them certain abilities and bonuses. In the Pre-Sequel, you can play as a Dopplganger of Handsome Jack so I searched for some of his mods and found one in purple which seemed perfect. I made the mod with cardboard, covered it in craft foam, modge podge to set, and installed led lights. The first time I wore it I put it on my belt which didn’t work. It kept falling off. I eventually put it on my lapel and wore it like Jack does. Unfortunately, someone glomped on me at a con and broke it, so I recently had to remake it all over again.

No Borderlands costume would be complete without cel shading on yourself. This was a huge challenge for me for a few reasons. One, I’m visually impaired so doing line work like this was challenging. Two, I am highly allergic to so many materials and ingrediants that finding a make up brand that I could wear was a trial and error process that ended up with many break outs and rashes before I found the perfect combination.

I used mostly eye liner pencils and liquid eye liner to achieve the look. The Wet n Wild liquid eye liner lasts forever, and is actually difficult to remove, but that is not a bad thing as it stood up to the heat of a very crowded venue.

As for the cel shading itself, I relied on many refernce photos of various characters in the game. I started with the eyebrows first as that seemed to frame the face nicely and give me a nice mischvieous look. I then just outlined the bones of my face, adding some random lines here and there. It never looks the same way twice, but that’s ok. Playing with different angles, lines, shading etc is half the fun!

The only real challenge were my hands. The make up didn’t last that long on my hands so I had to touch it up throughout the con. I also eventually started to use band aids that I cel sahded to cover up a tattoo on my inner wrist.

Figuring what to do with my hair is an on going process that I still haven’t 100% mastered. I opted to not use a foam wig as I have over heating issues on a cool day let alone trying to wear one if it gets warmer. I have had adverse reactions to craft foam in the past, so I don’t want it touching my skin, and lastly, I think a wig AND a facial prosthetic would be too much for me. So I decided to just cel shade my hair.

This takes forever to do, and I’m still figuring out better techniques every time I wear it.

I have a really great brand of colored gel, called Mofajang which I apply with a baster brush that you would find in the kitchen gadgets aisle. I also use a clean mascara brush to add some finer lines here and there. Set with way more hair spray than I ever used in the 80’s and it becomes fairly waterproof.

I have learned that due to how hard the make up and hair color is to remove, I really need to wear this on the LAST day of a con. I made the mistake of wearing it on day one of Long Island Who one year, and spent hours scrubbing my skin and hair for the next day. Far better to just leave the con with a tad bit of left over cel shading. Which makes it very interesting when you stop at a roadside bathroom on the trip home.

With the entire costume done it was time to work on the actual cyberplanner appliance.

Next time I make a variation of Clever, I will make this FIRST. Making these pieces is the bane of my existence – I love wearing them, hate making them. It’s a long process.

I am allergic to latex, silocone, scuply, most clays, and so many other things that seem to be every cosplayers go-to. When I made my first cyber piece back in late 2013, I spent weeks trying to find a substance that would keep attached to my face all day without causing a rash. Like an alchemist in a fantasy novel, I submerged myself into creating the perfect concoction. It took 22 days to finish the final product.

I admit that I rushed a bit on the Borderlands one. As a result, it doesn’t quite fit as well as my others, and is a bit heavier than I expected. I only added two working lights, instead of the usual four, to hopefully balance the piece out. It lasted through two full days of a con, despite the heat of a crowded venue, but I did end up tweaking it a bit after. Even with the tweaks, it still doesn’t fit as well as I would like. It is too heavy and brings down the entire left side of my face, making it difficult to keep my eye open at times. I really need to sit down and force myself to make a new one.

There are a few more things that I would like to add to this costume eventually. Like a belt of grenades, and maybe another gun. But aside from that, I am incredibly pleased with how this costume turned out. It is by far, my favorite Clever variation that I have done.

I hope this post gives you the inspiration to go off and cel shade something, and possibly even play some Borderlands!

#doctorwho #misterclever #mrclever #nightmareinsilver #cosplay #borderlands cosplay #doctor who cosplay #comic-con #comic-conathome #comic-conathome2021 #comic-conathomemasquerêde #cyberplanner #borderlands

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templeofshame · 4 years

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Phil’s Own Fem!Phil AU & Violent Femininity in Phillippa

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Long before there was the Norman makeup tutorial, before Phil talking about watching Louise's makeup vids, there was Phillippa. Uploaded in November 2009, Phil creates his own sort of fem!Phil AU with an ominous weird!phil edge. The Phillippa AU emphasizes a gendered lens on elements of Phil's persona and typical YouTube patterns, and even riffs on pieces of his own canon.

Visually, Phillippa is illustrated with an attempt at pigtails, smudges of makeup, and Mardi Gras beads. She's accompanied by Lioness, a heart-shaped pillow with other Phil appearances, and the edited-in image of a kitten's face that is emblematic of the cute/creepy vibe this vid plays with. As a '90s kid myself, Phillippa reads a bit violent Lisa Frank to me. In the first few seconds, we're introduced to Phillippa in silence, staring intensely into the camera. The mannerisms and intensity feel very weird!phil, and the expression is highlighted by the instantaneous shift to a smile when the audio and the lipsyncing begin.

The first thing Phillippa does, in the same breath as introducing herself, is express attraction to a man. Joe Jonas had that diagonal brown fringe, and while the primary effect of this bit is to jokingly place Phillippa into a bit of a teenage fangirl archetype, I wouldn't be surprised if Phil very much saw the Joe Jonas appeal.

Phillippa moves on to riff on a typical YouTube structure―the tutorial video―and a bit of Phil canon featured a month before in pinof: the cordless hammer drill. Phillippa starts as if to create a drill tutorial, but then she effectively proposes a masc!Phillippa AU that intersects with the Phil we know, but isn't just looking back at actual Phil. There's humor to the heightened masculinity that Phillippa describes Phil with because we know Phil's "show" and we know that the gendered line she draws isn't so sharp and clear. She describes it as "so manly," an echo of Dan's words in pinof; in both videos, the cordless hammer drill serves primarily as a way to laugh at the idea that Phil could be that type of "manly."

In her list of Phil's manly interests, we get the iconic lions, but also fighting and petrol and blood. And if we didn't yet with her interest in the hammer drill or her love for "blended unicorns" earlier, we quickly get the sense that Phillippa doth protest too much in her delineation of gender roles. She's very excited about the blood she lists as one of Phil's manly interests, and the kitten's eyes turn red before the image grows to block most of the screen briefly. (The cute fuzzy animal going demonic is a weird!phil bit I'm glad we got as recently as Bunny Biscuits.)

The sound of Phillippa's interest in blood is only surpassed by her disconcertingly long reaction to saying the name "Edward Cullen." The violent/cute vibe is very much Phillippa, so what could be better than a sparkly vampire? This moment is the second allusion to male attraction, and it transitions from the topic of blood back to the fangirl archetype and the idea that "sparkly things" are within Phillippa's realm of femininity. There's probably analysis to be done on Robert Pattinson masks, Living With Robert Pattinson, and Phil's Team Edward answer in the Friend Test. He justifies the latter in terms of liking vampires, which fits with the framing here, but we get a sense of attraction through Phillippa that is direct (and slightly creepy) relative to other appearances.

And so we reach... the makeup tutorial. In pinof, the cat whiskers are not gendered in any apparent way, and we see drawing on faces in a non-gendered way elsewhere (e.g., blindfolded cat face game). But the gendered element in Phillippa the focus, so the same act of drawing cat whiskers is presented as a "makeup tutorial." (We do see this association between cat whiskers and beauty YouTube recur a few months later in IF I RULED THE INTERNET...) The tutorial ends with fairly extended meowing, which, wherever you fall on furry discourse, isn't without its appearance in other Phil content. This meowing is marked as more ominous, though, with the kitten's eyes turning red again.

Phillippa leaves us with a return to her brand of violent femininity in "use unicorn blood to paint pretty flowers," but with a final statement (accompanied by traditional weird!phil visual effects) that could be from so many weird!phil vids without a gendered lens: "I want to eat your soul." Of course you do, Phil. Social constructions of gender could never change that.

#weird!phil analysis #gender roles are the worst kind of bread #phan #pinof #phan meta

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Dark Knight: Why Heath Ledger’s Joker is Still Scary Today

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It’s one of the great villain introductions in cinema history. Standing with a slight hunch at the center of a massive 70mm image, Heath Ledger’s interpretation of the Joker not so much dominates the frame as he commandeers it. He seduces the IMAX camera, which is still capturing vast amounts of Chicago’s cityscape around him, and draws it closer to his sphere of influence, and by extension us. Before this moment in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the director’s Gotham City functioned with clocklike precision. Even its greatest villains were slaves to the need of rationalizing everything in cold, utilitarian logic.

Not the Joker.

Within our first breath next to Ledger’s clown, one senses a malevolent spirit has been summoned, and he’s chosen to manifest out of thin air at this exact moment, on this exact street corner. He’s come to claim Gotham’s collective soul, but he’ll settle for any individual with delusions of virtue who crosses his path—including you.

This is of course just a fleeting moment in The Dark Knight; a brisk tease before Ledger’s shown his makeup-encrusted face or uttered even a word. In fact, Nolan and the actor dole out the character with impressive restraint: first as a masked Mephistopheles who is primarily a sing-song-y voice until he unmasks at the end of a bravura bank robbery. Later he becomes an actual narrative presence when he shows up again more than 20 minutes into the film, demonstrating for Gotham’s criminal underworld how to perform a magic trick.

As an isolated performance, there’s an argument to be made that none has ever been finer in the realm of superhero movies. Sure, there’ve been showy turns before and since in comic book blockbusters; there have even been great interpretations of the Joker before and after Ledger. Yet what the actor was able to do in 2008 transfixed audiences because he, like the character, had the freedom to bend the film to his will—even as Nolan prevented the movie from simply becoming merely a showcase for the performance.

With the grungy strung out hair of an addict who hasn’t showered in three months, greasy self-applied pancake makeup, and a grisly Glasgow smile that’s as unnerving as it is uneven (suggesting perhaps half of it was self-inflicted to make a matching set of scars), Ledger’s anarchist supervillain was a long way from Jack Nicholson’s hammy version of the same character in 1989. For audiences, and even comic book fans baying for something darker than Nicholson, it was abrasive in its time—and electrifying, like a punk rocker leaping into the mosh pit. Indeed, Ledger reportedly based the character’s appearance in part on the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten, and there is more than a hint of Tom Waits’ gravel in Ledger’s cadence whenever the clown growls.

But more than aesthetic culture shock, the enduring horror (and not-so-secret appeal) of Ledger’s Joker lies in the effect he has on the film, both in terms of its narrative storytelling and its enduring pop culture standing. Speaking strictly about this Joker as a character, the villain is off screen for far more of The Dark Knight’s running time than he’s on it. Appearing in only 33 minutes of The Dark Knight’s epic 152-minute running time, the average length of a Hollywood spectacle passes without the Joker on screen. Yet he’s omnipresent in the film, a shadow that hangs over each of Nolan’s three relatively equal protagonists: vigilante Batman (Christian Bale), police lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman), and district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).

Nolan and his brother and co-screenwriter, Jonathan Nolan, have admitted the setup is somewhat inspired by another quintessential blockbuster, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. In both films, three disparate, combative male authority figures band together for a mythic battle against a presence so malignant and evil, it transcends being simply a shark or a madman in makeup—or even a comic book supervillain. Like that beast, Joker has no arc, no psychological growth, he’s a force of primal evil unbounded. And as the heroes’ battle against him creeps on, it seems like the sanity of their entire community is being dragged into the abyss.

This framing allows Ledger’s Joker to functionally be a catch-all stand-in for many of the social anxieties that kept American audiences up at night during the Bush years. Some of them still do today. There are of course obvious implications to the Joker being the terrorist, the non-state actor who cannot be negotiated with, and who doesn’t play by preconceived rules or notions of fairness. There is also shading of the lone wolf, the usually male gunman who inexplicably pulls the trigger. Most of all though, the Joker represents the hole in which much of humanity’s irrational predilections toward violence is collectively stored and ignored by our cultural memory… until it can’t be.

As Michael Caine’s Alfred Pennyworth famously reasons, “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” That summation of staring into irrational, needless cruelty is what gives The Dark Knight bite. And what a sharp bite it is in moments like when Ledger’s Joker laughs manically at the Batman, our ostensible hero who’s resorted to pummeling (or torturing) the villain in an interrogation room. The clown gloats, “You have nothing to threaten me with, nothing to do with all your strength.”

This is why the Joker is such an effective villain for The Dark Knight’s parable about how best to use moral power in immoral (i.e. irrational) times—and perhaps why the thrill of Ledger’s performance was so strong on first glance that it powered him all the way to a posthumous Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category seven months after the film’s release.

Still, Ledger’s Joker, more than any other movie villain in recent memory, continues to haunt well after that Oscar night. The mental image of the character slipping his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, like a cobra, and licking his scars—a tic Ledger invented to keep his prosthetics in place while upping the creep factor—has stayed with us like a subconscious boogeyman. Thirteen years on from The Dark Knight’s release, Ledger’s depiction of the Clown Prince of Crime has gone down in the annals of cinema alongside Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs or, well, that shark in Jaws again. He’s an enigmatic and mysterious persona who is barely seen in his film, yet unmistakably casts a pall of evil over the whole proceeding.

We don’t know why Ledger’s Joker actually became the way he is, or what made him so obsessed with the Batman—to the point where he was inspired to put on “war paint” and declare his love for the Caped Crusader by saying, “You complete me!” The Joker gives multiple versions of his origin story in The Dark Knight, telling one mobster played by Michael Jai White that he’s a victim of an abusive father while later recounting to Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that he scarred his own face to cheer up his similarly disfigured wife. Both tales are of course lies, transparent manipulations intended to prey upon perceived vulnerabilities in his victims. This touch was inspired by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke where the comic book Joker provides the reader with a sob story flashback, and then confesses he probably made it up.

“If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice,” he says on the page.

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The Dark Knight, The Joker, and Game Theory

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The Nolan brothers understand the horror of this, and they keep the Joker a manipulative and inscrutable evil. Beyond obvious sociopathic tendencies, we know nothing about his inner-psychology and barely can ferret out his real motives beyond an odd devotion to maintaining Batman’s attention. He claims to be an agent of chaos who wants to “just do things,” yet his meticulously planned attacks belie this claim. In the end, he sees himself in a battle for “Gotham’s soul.” Like Amity Island’s Great White Leviathan, or the original incomprehensible nature of Thomas Harris’ cannibal serial killer in the earliest books, we never know the truth about why he is, and how he’s able to do what he does.

That mystery makes him live on in our own heads for years after the story ends and the credits roll.

It’s interesting to consider that effect now, after years of pop culture storytelling going in the completely opposite direction, particularly in comic book movies and other fanboy-driven media. Rather than find satisfaction in the inexplicability of evil, or standalone visions, we like to rationalize it and sympathize with it, even while glorifying it. Most of all, however, we insatiably seem to simply want more.

The need for endless content being generated by intellectual property has led to prequels, sequels, and even spinoffs that explore and too often redeem villains. Even the Joker himself is not wholly immune to this.

Since 2008, there have been two big screen versions of the Joker. Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix both had the unenviable task of stepping into Ledger’s shadow, with at least one of them being dwarfed by it. Leto’s attempts at “method acting” stunts on the set of Suicide Squad shows what can go wrong when scenery-chewing is mistaken with Strasberg.

Phoenix obviously fared better in his own Joker movie two years ago, making the actor the second performer to win an Oscar for playing the comic book villain. However, his film’s interpretation is diametrically opposed to Ledger’s enigma. Instead Phoenix’s film attempts to rationalize everything about the character, depicting the Joker as a mentally ill sad sack whose motivations are borrowed from other iconic movie screen villains and anti-heroes like the mother-obsessed Norman Bates (Psycho) and ticking time bomb Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver).

It still makes for a fascinating (if unoriginal) portrait, but one divorced from the terror of the unknown. We understand who Phoenix’s Joker is and why he is. Society, man. Phoenix’s Joker even outright states it before murdering not-Johnny Carson (Robert De Niro). “What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? I’ll tell you what you get, you get what you fucking deserve!”

Technically, Phoenix’s Joker appears closer to our reality and our daily horrors. With clown makeup inspired by real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy and preening self-pity parties resembling the manifestos of so many mass murderers, Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is modeled as much off nightly news nightmares as comic book panels. Writer-director Todd Phillips is inelegantly blatant about it.

Nevertheless, whatever ugly truth there may be in that approach, it’s not as haunting, or exhilarating, to witness as what Ledger did in his own rock star interpretation of evil. Save for a blink-and-you-miss-it insert shot, we never see Ledger with the makeup off. And while he might indulge in mocking “society,” he is a character who says more by basking in the chaos of a city in terror, literally sticking his head out of a stolen police car like a dog with the wind in his hair and our horror on his face. It’s a more enduring image than a didactic conversation about insecurities with a father figure. Thirteen years later, Ledger’s version of the character continues to confound, horrify, and ultimately thrill. He still has the last laugh.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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thecatnoodlet · 4 years

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UI/UX #1

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

It’s been a long time coming. While I had been working on UI/UX sporadically throughout the span of the project so far, I felt I hadn’t made enough progress to warrant an entire devlog about it. BUT! The time has finally come! She’s finally got some content in the bag! This post is going to sum up the progress on the UI/UX design from the beginning to now. Let’s go!

Wireframes

As a result of crippling creative burnout, I was having some trouble with creating the initial layout of the screens. So, @theeggnoodlet kindly helped with creating the first set of wireframes. You can check out her thought process from her UI devlog post!

After I’d gotten back on my feet, I modified the wireframes a little and put a very simple prototype together in Adobe XD to show the links and flow between each page. The modifications were more simplifications than anything else - I felt that the boxy menu design was too squeezy, so I changed the buttons to the layout used by the Join Room screen.

Here’s a video showcasing the initial flow of the UI!

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Mobile Game Screen

This screen underwent a bit of improvement after we’d fleshed out more of the game mechanics and the values we’d have to display on the screen for players to see. To keep from making the interface too cluttered, I kept all static elements along the borders of the screen. The joystick and interact buttons are placed at the two bottom corners, where players’ thumbs can reach most easily when holding their phone horizontally.

UI Assets

Icons and Pop-Ups

After creating an asset list for all the in-game UI assets required, I got to work creating every icon and pop-up. These mostly consisted of 2D illustrations drawn by hand. Unchanging elements (like instruction pop-ups and certain indicator icons) have the illustrations and their respective backgrounds combined into a single layer. However, assets like the illustrations that appear in the interact button depending on what the player interacts with has been separated for the developers to enable or disable the icon easily.

The pop-ups have been designed to look like written notes, since technology was not yet rampant among hawkers of that era.

Buttons

I have created two sets of buttons, each with different themes:

The first is used in the menu / lobby screens, and is themed after Chinese shophouse signs from the 80s. They usually have a long framed board with all-caps red words painted on them.

The second is used for the pop-ups. Following the same theme, the buttons look like a piece of paper stapled to the pop-up background.

#UI UX #game dev

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rhc777211 · 4 years

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Annotated Bibliography

Game Title: Beat Blader 3D

Genre: Music

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

To be honest I got addicted to this game from the start. It’s like a combination of Guitar Hero and Temple Run with also addictive music. The design of the game is bright and kind of cyberpunk looking where the player has two swords and slashes cubes to create music. The idea is very original and was implemented by using ideas from other games and putting them together. The mechanics are simple to understand and the UI is easy to navigate. The main issue is not being able to stop the game and that really bothered me because songs are long and the only way to stop is by crashing against and object and watching an add to try again. There are also ads everywhere which makes the game a bit frustrating due to multiple stops every time you end or start a song. The game needs to remove the number of ads and add an option to stop the game anytime. The player can also unlock new player skins and weapons and the three-star goal keeps the game simple but enjoyable.

This is one of the titles that I would like to use as an example for my capstone project. I really like the implementation of the IU and the mechanics of the game which feel fluent and easy to recreate. I would probably take some ideas for the character creation that is futuristic and original.

Game Title: Color Roll 3D

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: everyone

Monetization: Free App

The game is simple and easy to understand. It is about rolling this colorful roll and create the image that is above the rolls. The player also has the option for hints. Every 3 puzzles the player beats an ad will play but you also have the option to buy the game for $3.99 to remove all ads. It is a very original concept for a puzzle that I have never seen in other games and I can continue where I left off anytime which is great. The slide mechanic is well implemented, and the design of the game is simple with icons that help the player beat the puzzle.

Game Title: Do Not Fall.io

Genre: Arcade

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

This game is different from any other mobile game I have played. Its about moving this character around platforms and to avoid falling while playing against other players. The game is simple and only requires the player to move around. The character jumps when close to the edge of the platform. Very interesting concept for a competitive game. Every two games an add will play and the player collects coins for unlockable skins. I would prefer if it had better graphics because the design is not appealing and could look better.

This would be my second choice for capstone ideas because after playing the game I realized that its fun and challenging but also rewarding. I would probably try to implement the character movement mechanic and the auto jump on edge for my project. This also gave me an idea for a multiplayer game about jumping on platforms and shooting the enemy players with movement mechanics.

Game Title: Foil Turning

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: 6+

Monetization: Free App

So, the game is quite interesting because it is about creating objects from foil paper. First you shape the object and then you hammer it to make it more realistic. The player has the option to paint the object and to add textures before using it. The minigame are easy to play and once you beat them it will give you a trophy that also has the object created on it. I played a couple of mini games like bowling and throwing a hammer but after that I got bored because it is all about creating this object and throwing them against stuff. Also like the other games tested this game is full of ads everywhere which is very annoying. The mechanics are well implemented by using multiple gestures to create the object but very fluent. I would keep playing this game if it wasn’t for the number of ads.

Game Title: Scribble Rider

Genre: Action

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

This is a racing game where the player builds its tires by drawing it on a canvas before the race stars. The player can continuously change the tire while on the race to avoid obstacles and to move faster to beat the opponent. It seems that it’s an online game and the player needs to win to ear coins and stuff like skins and collectibles. Fun concept but the drawing mechanics has already been used in mobile games. I did enjoy the game and was not bothered by the ads because they only appear before the race starts and there is an ad banner on the bottom. This game has a simple UI that is easy to understand and the graphics are not bad. I would add more options for races and maybe a racetrack builder to make it more interesting.

This is my third choice for a game example because the mechanic for drawing your tires is vary amazing and unique. I would totally try to implement something similar for the players vehicle, but I also would have to find more information for this mechanic as I have no idea on how to code this drawing tool. Also, I like the platforms implemented which are very animated and I could use them on my game.

Game Title: Emoji Puzzle!

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: 10+

Monetization: Free App

This game is about dragging a line to connect images with the one that makes more sense. Its only about dragging lines and connecting image and there are also special levels where you drag the image and place it next to the ones that are similar. The game is not challenging and needs more than just connecting images to make it more fun. The design of the game is boring and does not offer much for the player to keep going. The lack of content also makes this game not appealing because it does not offer much other than going forward on levels. I don’t like the fact that its an emoji game and felt that games like this would fall short due to the lack of imagination. Its just a game that will never be great or taken seriously because of its main design.

Game Title: Who is?

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: 10+

Monetization: Free App

The game gives you two similar options to choose from to answer the question. The player gets 50 hints that can be refilled by watching ads. I had a hard time selecting my answer because apparently the touch gestures are not well implemented or maybe the developer forgot to add a tutorial for selecting the option if its either touch or swipe. The game is fun, and the UI is simple but also has a good level of challenge which kept me going. Even after struggling with the controls I found this game fun and interesting and would add a tutorial but also a fix for selecting the answer. The game does not have much content for me to talk about and the mechanics are broken making it a less appealing game than the others I tried.

Game Title: MultiCraft – Build and Mine!

Genre: Adventure

Target Demographic: 10+

Monetization: Free App

This is basically a free to play Minecraft game with less to offer and terrible virtual controller. The game suffers from frame drop even thought I am playing on a Galaxy note 9 that can handle heavily intense games. The game allows you to destroy, build, fight monsters, and collects items or weapons. The difficulty is random and depends on the monster you encounter, and the player can go underwater but needs to avoid for the air bubbles run out because if not the player will die. The player has a bunch of hearts to start off to fight monsters but also the player starts in a very random areas when creating a new world. There is nothing telling me what to do or any type of objectives, so it’s rather confusing because I don’t really know what to do.

Game Title: 6six9ine Runner

Genre: Music

Target Demographic: Teen

Monetization: Free App

This game is like Beat Blader 3D which is a runner with music but less appealing and has a creepy looking character. The player has the option to play with others and to collect skins and weapons, but the game contains less content than Beat Blader 3D and has ads everywhere on the screen. The UI is confusing and getting new music is harder because money takes forever to collect unless the player watches ads. Mechanics are good and easy to control also its less challenging then Beat Blader 3D and graphics are just not good. The game should improve the actual design and fix the UI to make it more understandable.

Game Title: Puppy Town

Genre: Casual

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

Not sure what the purpose of this game is but its about unlocking dog breeds. It works by dragging two dog images of the same breed together to create a new breed and to keep waiting for the timer to go off for unlocking more dogs to combine. It’s about leveling up but there is no challenge or main side objectives other than watching ads to unlock dogs faster. The game is addictive even though it lacks many components of a game and reminds me of the examples we got from comparing toys against games. This game is nice, but it does not feel like a game or puzzle which could be improved if adding mini games of something else other than just combining dogs to get new breeds. Also, this seems to be one of those make money games that are fake.

This would be my fourth choice because I did like the rewarding feeling when getting a new breed on the game. I could implement some type of collectible that would require fusion to create and used for either armor, weapons, or both. I feel that the idea for this game falls more into an extra mechanic for a bigger game and that would keep the player interested on the item system of the game.

Game Title: Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

Game is like Candy Crush and it’s all about moving pieces of the same color and putting them together. This one has a Harry Potter theme with lots of content and items to purchase that will help you unlock more levels. This type of game is fine but not my type as it feels endless and repetitive. The animations and the design of the game are great with excellent UI and very clear icon descriptions. The game also has multiple powers that help destroy multiple crystals faster but the player needs to watch out for the limited number of moves. There is challenge and excitement when unlocking new levels due to the great art and animation of the game.

This would be my fifth choice because of the UI being very appealing and it give the player the feeling to see what is available in every option. The game incorporated a great reward system for exchanging coins to get power ups and use them on levels. Also, the transition between panels is great and keeps the player interested due to the great design of each element on the screen.

Game Title: Toca Life World: Build stories & create your world

Genre: Educational

Target Demographic: Everyone

Monetization: Free App

Unique game where the player can enter buildings by selecting them and once inside there is multiple objects to interact with. The player can create its own characters and collect skins around the world. I like that the map can be moved around, and the design is very appealing with a Japanese look. You can also build around the world and add stuff to houses or buildings. It reminds me of the Sims but in a 2D form with many interactable objects. Everything is self-explanatory with an easy to understand UI and simple mechanics. Overall, I enjoyed playing this game and created around seven characters. Also, playing around the level is fun because you can combine stuff and change characters appearance which makes the game fun but also the design of everything kept me interested on the game.

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pixie-mage · 6 years

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For anyone paying attention in the Jacksepticeye Community, today’s video - Transference - was a hell of a firestarter as far as Blazing Fandom Infernos go.

After startling everyone with a constantly-changing, zalgo-text-including video title (all six of which are shown above), community theorists were able to pick this video apart frame by frame to find all the hidden goodies our lovely Team Septic hid there for us. There were a lot of super sneaky single-frame Easter Eggs (kudos to Robin) and they require a bit of frame-by-frame searching to find, or some major digging through the Transference tag here on Tumblr...so to make things a little easier, I’ve created a Master Post detailing what the community found between the pixels.

For starters, The Title™. At first, we all believed that YouTube had goofed again and the video had simply been posted with its original file title - as it has happened before. But no, this turned out not to be the case, because shortly after the video went up the title...changed. Only slightly. The text had begun to glitch, and it wasn’t too long after that when the glitching words “HAVE YOU SEEN HIM” appeared alongside the video in its place. Next came something a little closer to an actual episode title, along with an official thumbnail (shown below)...then we got a jumbled, zalgo’d title, the capital letters of which spelled out “HELP”. It was an entire hour after the original upload time that Episode 2 of Transference was in a normal state of upload, complete with thumbnail, free of any zalgo and (seemingly) back to normal.

Except it wasn’t. It still isn’t. Just look at the thumbnail:

I don’t know about you, but there’s something eerily familiar about this image.

Want a hint?

Red lights and glitching eyes. As in most videos that appeared during the Egopocalypse back in May, red lights can be seen glowing in the background...and if you look closely at Jack’s right (our left) eye, it’s green, glitching, distorted.

And we haven’t even begun to touch the contents of the video.

04:05 - “Crystals”

Hidden behind a natural glitch within the game, a familiar face can be seen. It’s not clear whether it’s Anti or Jack, because while the person is wearing the same shirt as Jack is in the corner, the coloration is iconic. It’s interesting to note too, that while the glitches don’t always move between frames, the eyes do. Watching eyes, staring straight at the camera, that don’t stay still when everything else is.

14:10 & 14:11 - “Red Hallway”

This pair of appearances both came at a moment that put most viewers on the edge of their seats, whether they caught the hidden images or not. In Jack’s words from this same segment of the game:

“I do not like that...standing at the end of a fuckin’ - red hallway, silhouetted like that? Big fear.”

This is a clear reference to the red hallway scene with Chase at the end of “Dark Silence” and the images Robin snuck into Transference are from that same moment.

Perhaps this is a clue that it’s Chase, not Jack, who is playing this game? After all, the reason so many people were excited for Sean to play it is because of the parallels to the Egos, specifically Anti and Chase. Glitches, digital distortions, a red hallway...a broken family, a mother trying to leave a father and taking the child with her. While the story is different from Chase’s, the parallels are evident, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Jack had noticed it too and had planned accordingly. Though I suppose we’ll have to wait and see...

14:52 - “Harmonies”

This one lasted for only a few seconds, and it was more subtle and undertoned than the others. Jack, leaning his head to the side - the “Neck Thing” - and a visual lag. We’ve seen this effect before, and every time it shows up, all signs point to Anti.

20:12 - “Eyes”

Another familiar scene, hidden behind another glitch. (Kudos again to Robin, because holy shit this one’s good.) In game, Jack was being run down by the same distorted monster that has been appearing again and again throughout the game...and its approach was very similar to how Anti approached Chase in that infamous Red Hallway scene. So of course, after a few frames, the Glitch Bitch himself makes an appearance right behind the in-game distortion. You can see the shadow of his nose, the dark shapes of his eyes, and in the bottom-right corner the shoulder of his shirt can be seen. Just like here, in “Dark Silence”:

45:42 - “Still Here”

Did you think Anti would leave without saying goodbye? :3c Of course not!

In the single frame between Jack’s outro and Sam’s tank showing up, our glitchy boy makes one final appearance in the form of a final, sinister side-profile that supersedes the little window Jack has been playing from this whole time.

So what can we take from all this?

As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have nearly enough of the pieces to put this little puzzle together...but I have two ideas, one of which feels much more likely than the other.

1) This is Jack. Clearly, Anti hasn’t finished playing with our favorite boy, and he’s making it quite apparent that he’s in control. Jack may be the one on the screen, but Anti’s the one pulling the strings. Shameless and comedic HDWGH tour plugs, that same familiar sense of humor, plus jokes about “I thought speed was key?” from the previous video, and a lot of signs point to this being the same old irish bean we know and love...but (unknowingly) under Anti’s command.

2) The person we see in this video is Chase. Last we saw of our favorite trickshot master, Chase was being ambushed by Anti himself...and we haven’t exactly heard from him since. There are blatant parallels between this game and Chase’s life, though the story being told in the game is a much darker one, painting the father is the clear villain and a madman. (I would go so far as to say the game is a nightmare version of what Chase has been going through in his own life.) Sean mentions a fear of red hallways, of silhouetted faceless people standing at the end...and that’s what Chase went through at the end of “Dark Silence”. There was also a line in the game where Benjamin says: “I just wish we could go back.” Sean automatically say this in response:

“I just wish we could go back...to the way thing were before.”

Now, where have we heard that before? Chase, in the video for “Tie”. While one could also make the argument that Chase has been talking to Jack throughout his coma (and has probably said that same phrase at Jack’s bedside), and it’s possible that Jack’s automatic response could have been just a connection of a familiar phrase to something he’s heard before, it’s much more likely that it’s Chase. The way it was said, the absolute sadness and loss in his voice...that felt more genuine than on offhand comment.

Other things Sean said that raised a red flag for Chase:

“What’s wrong with this dad? Is he an alcoholic…?”

“Your wife, the dog… what about me? No one seems to care about me…”

“He was just focused on his work so she wanted to leave…” [A pause, where he looks rather forlorn]

All quotes found thanks to @steffid101‘s post

Plus the lighting in the facecam? It’s not red. It’s. Not. Red. One of the key differences between Chase videos and Coma!Jack videos back in May was the lighting...specifically red lighting. Chase is a new player in this Nightmare World that Anti has created, so clearly isn’t as deep into the nightmare state that Jack is.

Again, there’s not enough evidence for us to come to a clear conclusion on any of this...so I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what else Jack and Robin are planning on sending our way. After all, October is just around the corner...

...who knows? A̰nything c̣óuld̠ happ̋e͇n~

#Jacksepticeye #Transference #Antisepticeye #JSE Theories #JSe Egos #Chase Brody #Pixiemage Theories #JSE Ego Theories #Antisepticeye Theories #Anti

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lokis-lady-death · 5 years

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Stark Tower Layout

Lady Death: This is a little snippet I did which originally began as a reference for some future snippets I’ve been working on for a Loki x Reader (Ice Mutant).

If you’re interested in a story this is based on: Click Here and read the first installment.

It’s been months since Thanos’s defeat and Tony Stark has built a second Stark Tower for the Avengers in Brazil, deep in the forest. It’s built similarly to the tower in New York, but has less of a skyscraper feel. The outside is coated in a reflective material manufactured similarly to the camouflage used to hide the kingdom of Wakanda and was specially developed with Shuri’s help. This feature, however, is only to keep it from being seen from above by satellites as the facility itself is not in a secret location.

1st Floor: The Entrance

As anyone could expect, the entrance to Stark Tower is incredible and, simply put, extraordinary. Entering the main floor, the first thing visitors see is an arc reactor the size of a car along with words illuminating across the top in bright fluorescent “Avengers Assemble”. Tony said it was cheesy but it puts a smile on Steve's face every time he sees it. Elegant glass staircases on either side of the arc reactor lead up to the second story. It is all completely open and bright with massive windows that let in the brilliant sun rays, even showing a beautiful sky when it was taking thanks to specially manufactured glass invented by Shuri.

2nd Floor: Tourist Center

Stark had specifically chosen to create a tourist center in the lowest levels of his complex for the simple reason that he knew the Avengers needed to maintain face (and Pepper insisted it was a good idea to keep up appearances without holding press conferences on the regular basis). They were icons, symbols, and most of all heros. All profits made go towards hundreds of different charities around the world, usually those pertaining to Avenger related missions. Once of the most popular destinations at Stark Tower for visitors is the world renowned gift shop that houses random images taken of the Avengers with unrelated daily quotes they have made. The most notable include: Black Widow “I can’t, I’m afraid of spiders”, Captain America “You can’t do the fondue unless you have protection”, Spiderman “Oh, geeze guys, I don’t know”, Ironman “ Excelsior “

3rd Floor: Accounting Department

Because a building this large, this full, and this advanced requires money. It is nearly entirely made up of Tony's own pocket change, but sometimes a grateful nation or wealthy family the Avengers saved will make a donation to housing (but that secretly gets donated back to the community around the Stark facility, such as orphanages and hospitals).

4th Floor: Loading Dock and Med Bay

This is the floor where most of the Avengers tech is kept (beside things that are personal such as Sam's wings). It also houses a well stocked armory that contains anything as weak as bean bag shotgun shells (used for low level crooks) to much more lethal high caliber assault rifles (for more complicated cases). Any weapon repair would happen here, as well as any medical treatment that the Avengers could need. It can be used in emergency cases for the rest of the workers at the tower but so far that has not been necessary.

5th Floor: Training Rooms

This floor contains a fully loaded gym, a jacuzzi tub, steam room, and stall showers that are accessible to everyone at the tower. There were however, rooms separated for special training that was only used by the Avengers that included a holographic simulator that, while not as physical as the microbots, could use a projection on an android dummy, perfect for one on one training when you don't have a partner. As a joke, Tony had programmed the only reflection the dummy was capable of to be Secretary of state Thaddeus Ross. As an extra joke, someone (no one knows who but suspects Bruce) reprogrammed the boys to instead show Tony, repeating sarcastic comments and rolling his eyes. Steve said he had never had such a great workout partner.

6th Floor: The Simulator

The simulator, which takes up the entire sixth floor, requires special access passes not every Avenger has. This floor is most notably used for team training and uses microbots to create simulations of different villains and scenarios. Only Bruce or Tony themselves are capable to turning on the simulator because of its complexities. This rule came after a near disastrous event with Sam nearly creating a lethal replica of Thanos in with the Simulated Microbots, an event Steve brings up regularly. “You’re just mad cause the giant eggplant kicked your ass. Again,” Sam would snapback.

7th Floor: Avenger Academy(because Tony couldn’t think of a better thing to call it)

The classrooms are more technical than academic, but make for a good show for when Aunt May allows Peter to come stay at the tower. It has several computers set up for any of the Avengers team or Stark Tower’s employee to use. There is also a small library tucked away, because while Tony insisted everything be electronic, Pepper thought some of the tower inhabitants could use the nostalgia of a good hardback book.

8th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Geriatric Floor) Bucky, Steve

Because, let's face it, they're lost without each other so of course they're on the same floor. They insisted on having the lowest level apartments in the complex so “If someone attacks” they would be the first defense. Their apartments are very similar in style, with simple amenities, painted in patriotic colors, and decorated with several old pictures and framed special news articles the old school men enjoyed. Even the electronics in their apartments are simplified, with Friday always there to help the boys with any questions they had for new age tech.

9th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Experiments-gone-wrong Floor) Wanda and Vision, Bruce

Wanda and Vision were apprehensive about moving into the tower at first, but once they officially had their apartment set up, they couldn't imagine calling anywhere else “Home”. Vision especially enjoys Bruce being across the hall whenever he is in the mood for discussions, usually ending with some bizarre, other world innovative ideas that they would run by Tony when he comes by the tower. Wanda has come up to join young and Nat in your late night lounging.

10th Floor: Individual apartments(Dubbed the Deadly Women Floor) Reader, Natasha

You weren't sure what living on the same floor with Black Widow would be like, but it turned out the two of you made fast friends. It was nothing for you to go over to her apartment in the late hours of the night to enjoy some wine and girl talk, or for her to come by so you could both binge watch murder mystery shows, almost always challenging each other to guess the murderer by the end of the shows. The two of you go on a girls’ nights out with Wanda and Pepper every other weekend, usually spending your time comparing the men you had to put up with on a regular basis. Everyone agrees Pepper is a saint for dealing with Tony. On rare occasions, Gamora and Shuri join you, but those stories never get shared with the rest of the team. There is a rumor, while out enjoying one of these legendary evenings, your small group overthrew an evil dictator and liberated a country in the throws of civil war, but that never made the news so no one could confirm it. Viva la revolution.

11th Floor: Guest rooms: It is strategically located in the middle of the avengers team so they are secured at all times.

Most often used for Clint and his family during family friendly events such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone, including Scott and his daughter,come every New Year to watch Stark light up the sky with his endless supply of iron suits. Dr. Strange has also stayed, but only after a party since he is usually plastered and goes around asking guests if they would like to watch him conjure a demon. So far the answer has been no but Clint's kids have asked him to pull a rabbit out of his hat. He normally goes to bed after the jokes are made. The Guardians have stayed once after a party, but no one is allowed to talk about that night. Ever. T'challa and Shuri come to every single party and even the tower has, but it always ends the same way: the brother and sister in a head to head match on one of the many competitive games in Sam's apartment. And every single time, Shuri wins at the last second. Peter Parker comes during family events with his Aunt May, but has been known to sneak into the tower during the more adult parties. He has even started a tradition of “Movie Night” where they set up a projector screen on the balcony and play movies (usually big name classics that Peter annoyingly quotes halfway through, but every once in a while they play The Notebook because Clint cries every. Single. Time).

12th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Bachelor Pad) Sam, Thor, Loki (newly moved in)

Sam and Thor always got along well and once they found something they enjoyed in common, they became quite the unexpected besties. Turned out they both enjoyed video games. Sam keeps an assortment of gaming consoles that he regularly plays through with the god of thunder between missions (and anyone else that dares challenge their gaming skills). Sam was, however, less than thrilled when Loki took the apartment across the hall from him. He has a hard time getting along with the god of mischief and they would constantly bicker, a fact that was not made better when Loki consecutively defeated him and Thor at Super Smash Brothers. Loki tends to either stay locked away in his room, but every once in a while he will sneak away to the library.

13th Floor: Tony Stark’s Closet (named by Pepper)

It’s really more of a workshop for Tony's suits but Pepper considers it Tony's closet (and was quite adamant that they were not to be kept on their living foor). It also houses the main lab. Tony only allows full access to Bruce, Vision and Shuri because he thinks any other Avenger may “mess up the intricacies of the numerous sensitive technological advances” he has made in that lab. Steve doesn't take the secrecy personally, just makes comments that they better not be working on an Ultron 2.0 (he is extremely proud of this 21st century tech joke).

14th Floor: Tony and Pepper’s Penthouse

This is where the Avenger’s have their major get together. It opens up to a wrap around balcony and is the only access to the rooftop Helipad, which is mostly for Tony and Pepper's personal use when getting to and from Stark Industries in New York. Though they don't live at the tower full time, Pepper come at least once a week to check on things. Tony comes so often it's easy to forget he doesn't live there. He has been known to come in the early morning hours to work on new suits, but Pepper doesn't know that.

Floors located under the compound:

Garage: where every type of vehicle you could imagine is stored, nearly all of them donning the Avengers logo. There are anything from motorcycles (including a special edition Harley-Davidson RL 45 Steve picked got for Bucky), ATVs, cars, trucks, and one massive speed jet used to transport the whole team. The garage is only accessibly to the Avengers team and has a massive ramp that opens up 100 meters away from the normal front entrance of the tower.

Basement: Located an extra 50 meters below the garage, no one ventures this low in the tower. It is used to mostly house old tech Tony has developed, unused suits/weapons the team has no use for that is too dangerous to dispose of, and even some left over alien artifacts collected over the last decade.

Like my garbage? Read more of it! Master List

Let me know if you wanna be tagged if I decide to do a sequel!

I tagged anyone who might like the story this will be used in. It won’t be some intricate, detailed story line sort of thing, more like random snippets of stories that happen in the tower, but they will all be based on Loki x Reader (and won’t all involve Jotun Loki)

LOKI TAGS: @socialheartbreak @kcd15 @maladaptive-ninja-returns@nephalem67 @jessiejunebug @woodyandbuzz20-01 @bambamwolf87 @kitsuneharo12 @yzssie@macbetheliza @lokilvrr @lokixme @li-ssu @j-u-s-t-4 @letskillthefuhrer

#loki #loki x oc #loki x reader #loki x you #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #marvel #loki (marvel)#marvel fanfiction #marvel smutt #avengers #stark tower

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fearofaherobrine · 5 years

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Roleplay Server Log #380

"Licht on the Server, EAlex goes irl, Slenders Reunited”

-There's the jangling of keys as Licht fumbles at the door, finally opening it and stepping inside. She tosses her coat onto a nearby chair and wobbles a little. She's obviously been drinking a little as she makes her way into her room-

[EAlex] looks out of the computer screen- Licht? Are you injured??

[Licht] - No no, I'm fine, just had a biiiiit too much to drink

[EAlex] Why does imbibing liquid make you walk like that?

[Licht] - Because alcohol

[EAlex] Does it have a poison effect?

[Licht] - I suppose you could say that

[EAlex] I'm sorry. That's awful. Would you like me to mess up the computer of whoever poisoned you? I bet I can knock the wi-fi off a phone pretty easily.

[Licht] - I willingly drank it, we were celebrating

[EAlex] Stares at her for a moment. - No offense, but humans are strange and inexplicable.

[Licht] - I don't do it often, but an officer who was a great mentor to me retired today so we gave him a farewell party

[EAlex] Did I miss anything? I mean, I'm not complaining. Just curious.

[Licht] - No, you probably would have been bored. Just a lot of talk about the past and things he had done

[EAlex] Oh, okay. To my chagrin I ended up on YouTube, and Ebay briefly. I didn't buy anything though.

[Licht] - Then you have better restraint than most

[EAlex] Well.... I'd have to borrow money from you. I'm not going to embezzle online or anything. -chuckles- Then you'd have to bust me for stealing.

[Licht] - I think I'd be more likely to be blamed than you since you can't come out here- Licht sits and starts taking her shoes off

[EAlex] Leans against an icon. - I don't want to get you in trouble anyway. -pauses- Hey I found out something neat, wanna see?

[Licht] - Sure, why not

[EAlex] Shoves against the flat picture on the desktop and brings up the control panel and then the wallpaper. She scrolls a little and changes it to a stock photo of a very pretty empty beach with clear blue water. She shoves against it with her back to Lich and kind of falls through a small barrier and onto the sand at a larger size that fits the photo before kicking around in the shallow water like she's there. - Neat huh?

[Licht] - Lucky, you get to take a vacation whenever you want

[EAlex] Kinda. I can't go any farther then what's visible. It's like an invisible wall on the sides you can't see from there. And you can always visit me with a little help.

[Licht] - I'm well aware of that- She heads over to her closet to change into some more comfortable clothes before sitting down in front of the computer and moving the mouse to hover over a familiar icon-

[EAlex] Watching the mouse, almost afraid to say something that might make her change her mind.

[Licht] Sighs and clicks on it, pulling up Minecraft- Little too drunk to do much else

[EAlex] Awww. I'm happy anyway. I want to show you my build! - She scoots over to the loading window and hops in-

[Licht] - Alright, just let everything load first

[EAlex] From the computer in general - I have another suprise for you too once you get in!

[Licht] Clicks on the world and waits for the terrain to download- Alright, I'm in

[EAlex] Has set her to third person- Suprise! I made you a skin! - It looks like a decent likeness of Licht in some of her [non work] ordinary clothes.

[Licht] - Well it's certainly better than anything I could have done

[EAlex] Thanks! There's a website where you can recolor skins pixel by pixel. -She switches the view to first person again- The little dirt house is still there but there's a path stomped in the dirt with torches along it now leading away-

[Licht] - Alright then, lead the way

[EAlex] It'll take some of the fun out if it with you just using an avatar, but I'm too excited to wait! - They lead Licht down the path through some trees and a house comes into view. It's not huge but it is two stories and backed up to a strech of beach. The construction is mostly oak, glass, and some cobbles around the bottom.

[Licht] - A nice small house huh?

[EAlex] Well I'm in survival technically, so I did cut all the wood, mine the stone and cook the glass myself. - She opens the door for Licht- The entryway has a bit of white and gray carpet and a few scattered pictures and leads into a room with trunks and a couch made of wool blocks, a bit farther down is a kitchen area with a crafting table and furnaces-

[Licht] - Well at least you seem to have a well set up home to be safe in

[EAlex] Shy look- It's big enough for both of us if need be... But you should see the back too.- She leads outside the kitchen onto a nice porch. - I picked this spot for a reason besides the weather.

[Licht] Follows her out to see what the reason is-

[EAlex] She gestures down and there are sea turtles loafing on the shore. - There's a sea temple out there too, but I'm not tackling guardians until I'm better equipted.

[Licht] - Turtles? I wasn't aware those were in the game

[EAlex] They're new, I updated this seed myself! You should go swimming with me. It's safe near the shore and there's tons of new tropical fish, kelp and corals.

[Licht] - Is this why you changed my background to a beach?

[EAlex] Nah, that was just good to demonstrate with since I could kick up the water. It is a pretty photo though.

[Licht] - I see. You're sure it's safe near the shore?

[EAlex] Yeah. There's a few Drowned zombies but they move slow. We can just avoid them.

[Licht] - Alright, if you wanna go swimming then we can go swimming. Should I empty the boxes at the bottom of my screen first?

[EAlex] Nah. It's just stuff you're carrying. Just watch your bubbles. If you go to the top they'll fill up again just like taking a breath.

[Licht] - Got it, shall we?

[EAlex] Great- she wades into the water and the turtles turn to watch them curiously-

[Licht] Follows and watches some of the fish in the water-

[EAlex] Is enjoying herself immensely and shows Licht a partial wrecked ship buried in the sand and a bit of run that looks like it should be in a fishtank. Just some broken arches. and a bit of floor. The water is clear and blue, and judging by EAlex's smile, plesantly warm.

[Licht] Ducks under the water for a bit and then comes back up- Hey, where are the bubbles you said I should be seeing?

[EAlex] There aren't any bubbles on your bar? Wait... is there not a row of drumsticks either?

[Licht] - No?

[EAlex] Oh! You're still in creative! Then swim as deep as you want. The mobs won't bother you and you can't drown. There's some lovely coral below us.

[Licht] - Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone if you don't want to be left alone

[EAlex] I'll be okay. I'll stay just above you.

[Licht] - Alright- She sinks under the waves to go look at the coral

-There's tons of it in many colors and lots of curious little fish, as she gets close a pufferfish plumps in suprise and makes a rather amusing noise. -

[Ealex] Chuckles- They're so silly-

-There's a veritable forest of waving kelp and a Drowned zombie turns to look but not pursue her. It also makes weird noises-

[Licht] - Well, you can't deny that the Mojang staff put their heart and soul into this game...

[EAlex] Maybe that's why my kind arise here... it's a beautiful waiting world big enough for us all to be born into.

[Licht] - And yet from what I've seen your kind still gets persecuted

[EAlex] Brushes a gentle hand against a clownfish as it passes- Some of us... aren't nice. Maybe it's a side effect of being too powerful. They become bored gods tormenting players. Not everyone appreciates the wilderness. And... not every NOTCH allows a peaceful existence.

[Licht] - You know, I'm sure the sanctuary might have some answers for us...

[EAlex] You have questions of your own?

[Licht] - There are things I still don't understand, and I know there are things you want to learn and possibly have done to you

[EAlex] I'm still considering it... - she swims closer- I wouldn't mind being able to... make contact with you again. If it doesn't make you uncomfortable.

[Licht] - No it doesn't, I'd just like a little more warning before you suddenly go grabbing me

[EAlex] Okay. I was just a bit over-whelmed. You did save me after all.

[Licht] - And we do kinda owe them since we dropped that... Thing, practically onto their doorstep

[EAlex] I didn't see it, but I gleaned it was pretty horrifying. I'm not ashamed to admit there's plenty I don't know either.

[Licht] - Which is one reason I think you should be there, there's a lot you can learn there, especially about what you can possibly do and what your type are as a whole

[EAlex] Maybe... but I rather like having my own space too. You're... you're not trying to get rid of me.. are you?

[Licht] - No, not at all

[EAlex] I think I need to learn how to, 'seed hop' they called it? Then I can just visit when I need too.

[Licht] - Once you learn that you probably wouldn't need the cord to get to my phone either

[EAlex] Yeah... well could you at least tap one of the beds in the house so it'll be your spawn point here?

[Licht] - Yeah, sure- She heads back towards the shore and the house- Are the beds upstairs?

[EAlex] Steps around a corner and runs her clothes through her inventory to dry them - Yes! Just go up the stairs.

[Licht] Heads upstairs-

-The staircase is small but the room it opens into is the entirity of the second floor. There are two beds near to eachother but not touching and a half round, glass window with a few yellow, and light green panes taking up most of one wall. The daylight outside paints the room in colorful squares. The floor has a bit of yellow carpet and there are trunks and a few pictures against the walls. EAlex has also put an old gold sword in an item frame like a modest trophy.

[Licht] Observes the entire room, quickly memorizing it's layout before selecting the bed which looked like it hadn't been slept in yet and laying down in it-

-There's a bit of a cluck and a chicken wanders out from behind a trunk -

[Licht] - … Why is there a chicken up here?

[EAlex] Peeks up the steps- Oh! That's the one Doc spawned in your room.

[Chicken] bok. - Lays egg-

[EAlex] Comes up to collect it. - They're useful to have around-

[Licht] - If you say so...

[EAlex] You don't like chickens? - she tosses the chicken some seeds and they erupt in a gale of floating hearts. - Can't make a cake without eggs.

[Licht] - I've never been very good around farm animals- Has a few flashbacks to petting zoo incidents

[EAlex] Oh... okay. - She digs for a few fence pieces and makes a small pen. - I'll keep them away from you then. I don't want them to wander outside anyway.

[Licht] - You know, if you want to visit the other server to learn how to seed hop, I don't have work tomorrow

[EAlex] Is obviously excited but doesn't want to show too much. - I'd like that.

[Licht] Yawns and looks at the time- It's getting late out here, I think I'll go to bed, do you want me to call Doc in the morning?

[EAlex] Yes please. Thank you for playing with me for a bit.

[Licht] - You're welcome, do you want me to leave the game running?

[EAlex] It's up to you. I can get in either way. It just closes the viewing window on your computer.

[Licht] - I'll leave it open for you

[EAlex] Softly- Then sleep well my friend.

[Licht] Heads for bed and is soon asleep-

[CP] Tromps into Docs castle carrying a trunk on his shoulder- Oi! TLOT!

[Steve] is pruning the hanging vines and jumps in alarm- he's outside in the back cutting sugar cane. Why ya gotta be so loud?

[CP] - Because Lie wants this gone- He motions at the trunk

[Steve] Do I dare ask what it is?

[CP] Puts it down- Take a look for yourself

[Steve] Is basically too curious for his own good and peeks in the trunk- FUCKING NETHER! - he scuttles back quickly and coughs-

[CP] Just has a shit eating grin-

[Steve] You suck.

[CP] - You're the one who willingly looked in the chest

[Steve] May you have to change all the really stinky diapers.

[CP] - I'll save the worst for you

[Steve] What makes you think I'm babysitting?

[CP] - I'm psychic, and you already adore my daughter

[Steve] bristles- Still not going to let you push responsibilities on me.

[CP] - Well of course not, but Lie and I will occasionally need time to ourselves

[Steve] slightly smug- Then I guess you should be nicer to me if you're asking for favors.

[CP] - Whatever, just give the cheese to the gaudy one

[Steve] He already knows. I think you forget sometimes that talking to one of us is basically talking to both.

[Lie] After a few days of being stuck in the house with the baby she feels like making a bit of mischief. n She pulls out her phone and starts texting Dofta- Hey, sorry if I'm waking you up, I don't know what time it is for you, but I thought you should know that there's a new brine on the server

[Dofta] oh! That's good. Did you find another wandering brine? Perhaps save someone?

[Lie] Gets up and takes a picture of her sleeping baby and sends it- Not quite...

[Dofta] Oh my goodness!!! She's so tiny! But she's glitched?

[Lie] - The seed is reacting to her like she's a native brine, but her eyes aren't glowing. We think that might start happening when she starts being able to see something other than light and movement

[Dofta] So what have you named her? She's yours isn't she? You and Cps little Herobrine.

[Lie] - Yes she's ours, and her name is Aether. Yster was actually just here and left the evening before she was born

[Dofta] Oh for... so she missed it? Was it weird???

[Lie] - Yes she missed it, and as far as I know it was like a normal human birth... Which I suppose on our end would be weird since we're digital- She notes Aether is starting to wake up and snaps another quick pic so Dofta can see her eyes

[Dofta] Awww she's so sweet. Are you okay...? A normal birth involves quite a bit of blood and screaming...

[Lie] - Yeah, had three doctors there and TLOT was handling CP

[Dofta] Laughs- A husband can be pretty in the way in a situation like that! I'm happy for you.

[Lie] - Plus if I were to hurt him while angry it would cause permanent damage

[Dofta] That too! Geeze... You're both lucky to have so many helpful friends.

[Lie] - Yeah, I think I might try taking Aether out today, she hasn't been outside yet

[Dofta] Outside the house or out-out?

[Lie] - Outside the house, but don't worry, I'll send her out with her farfar to visit you guys before her glow becomes too noticeable

[Dofta] Oh good! Should I tell the others? Or have it be a suprise?

[Lie] - We can surprise them, just let me know when a good time will be

[Licht] Pulls up outside the office with a yawn and glances at EAlex on her phone- You ready?

[EAlex] Is wearing a small chest like a backpack- Yep. I'm ready.

[Licht] Goes up to the door and knocks-

[Fangbo] Comes to answer the door. - Oh... hi. - Let's her in- I hope you don't have more bad news for us?

[Licht] - No, is Dofta here?

[Fangbo] She is- leads the way-

[Dofta] Can be heard using talk to text on her phone- She's so darling Lie!

[Licht] - I hope I'm not interrupting anything?

[Dofta] Oh! Um... - her eyes flip back between the two- I'm just on the phone with a friend.

[Licht] - Speaking of friends- She wiggles her phone a little

[Fangbo] Am I needed here?

[Dofta] No... thank you Fangbo.

[Fangbo] Leaves and shuts the door-

[Dofta] Concerned look at Licht's phone- Is EAlex okay???

[Licht] - She's fine, she just wants to visit the other server and start learning how to seed hop. Isn't... Isn't Lie one of the brines on that server?

[Dofta] Yes, and- she's obviously bursting with supressed excitement- She had her baby! The first child concieved by two Herobrines. I mean, that we know of. It didn't trip anything weird on the main server, but it's so exciting!

[Licht] - A baby? Wow, she's gonna be busy

[Lie] - Dofta?

[EAlex] That's going to be a handful. Chances are good she'll have powers....

[Dofta] Oh! Lie! Licht is here and she brought EAlex, like on her phone.

[Lie] - Do I need to open a portal? I don't know how to get EAlex off the phone though...

[Dofta] At Licht- Lie can let you in okay. - at Lie- and I'm betting someone there can help her off the phone.

[Lie] - Yeah, true. Dofta, is your computer on? And do you want to visit as well?

[Dofta] Yes and yes!

[Lie] Laughs a little before creating a portal using Dofta's computer- Come on in

[Dofta] Eager hop and shift into her Mc skin- She flaps her little dragon wings happily and hugs Lie- Congratulations!

[Licht] Hesitates and follows Dofta through, shifting into her new Minecraft skin-

[Lie] Laughs a little- Not so loud, she only just woke up

[Aether] Kicks her legs a little

[Dofta] Goes right to the baby and starts making little noises at her- AWWW!

[EAlex] Can you hold up the phone so I can see?

[Licht] Steps closer and holds it up so she can see- That is a tiny baby

[Lie] Starts digging around and pulls out a fresh onesie and a fresh diaper- Time for a change I think

[CP] Comes in from trying to wear Blake out-

[EAlex] Is a bit speechless.-

[Blake] Way too excited- Boof!

[CP] - Why the fuck won't you settle down- He heads for the bedroom and frowns as he see's their visitors- The fuck is happening now?

[Dofta] Oh hi Cp! Just visiting. Congrats to you too! Your daughter is so cute!

[CP] Motions at Licht- And she's here why?

[Licht] - EAlex would like to learn how to seed hop

[CP] - Well I don't see them

[Dofta] She's on the phone.

[Blake] Inspects Licht- Urf?

[Licht] - That's a large dog...

[CP] - Well then that can be her first lesson, learning how to get off

[EAlex] Can I get a hint on how to do that???

[CP] Just grabs Licht's phone from her-

[Licht] - Hey!

[CP] - Start by looking at the code

[EAlex] You mean like the operating system for the phone itself? It's pretty basic.

[CP] - Now can you see the coding of this server?

[EAlex] From inside? Not really... but I can feel the difference from out there and in here.

[CP] - Well then it sucks to be you

[Dofta] That's mean Cp! Everyone learns in different ways. Maybe she's more prone to feeling things out then reading them directly.

[CP] - Actually that reminds me, tell your boss to stop fucking bothering me

[Dofta] confused- why is he bothering you? OH! Is it what you did with the phantoms? That was brilliant!

[EAlex] Is trying to brute force the phone and making it shake around-

[CP] - No shit, he's already called a few times since! And you can't just force it, you have to integrate yourself

[EAlex] Okay... - She starts feeling around again and there are a few hopeful crackles around the phone like a minor electrical glitch-

[Dofta] Does he have something else for you to fix? We've been having some minor issues with the Vexes...

[CP] - Oh for fucks sake no! I do not want the fucking job!

[Dofta] But you would be good at it...

[CP] Exasperated noises-

[Lie] Laughs a little as she picks Aether up- Calm down CP

[EAlex] Suddenly tumbles out of the phone with a yelp- Yes!

[CP] - There, you figured it out

[EAlex] Gives him a slight frown- Someone taught you to do this stuff didn't they?

[CP] - Nope

[Dofta] I thought the Zelda guy taught you? BEN?

[CP] - Only how to get Irl

[Blake] Licks Licths hand experimentally.

[Dofta] Hmm.

[Licht] - Good dog?

[Blake] Obviously slightly annoyed at being called a dog, but still friendly enough- urf.

[Lie] - That's Blake, he used to be human

[Licht] - Wait, what?

[Blake] Pads over to Lie.

[Dofta] So he's a werewolf?

[Lie] - Just wolf, he was being driven mad so Dawn changed him- She smiles at him since she's holding Aether

[Blake] Happy panting-

[Dofta] Oh, the witch? I guess as long as he's okay with it.

[EAlex] How hard is it to get irl anyway?

[Lie] - It's not necessarily hard to get out there, it's what happens afterwards

[EAlex] Is it... something bad?

[CP] - Immense pain, for weeks

[EAlex] Swallows hard- But after that you can come and go?

[Lie] - Yes, you can- She's sending a private message to Hera

[EAlex] Looks to Licht- I'd like to do that... but I'd obviously need help...

[CP] - You'd need somebody to keep an eye on you

[Licht] - If she's at my place that can be handled easily

[EAlex] You wouldn't mind? I don't want to be a hassle....

[Licht] - No, I mean you'd be alone for about eight hours most days while I'm at work...

[Lie] - Well EAlex will be completely unconscious for about a week or so, so there won't be much you can do during that time

[EAlex] When we go then, if... that's okay Licht?

[Licht] - Yeah, that should be fine

[EAlex] Dusts herself off -

[Herabrine] scoots in the door unannounced- She's here? Hi!

[EAlex] ... hello?

[Lie] - EAlex? This is Hera, she's a glitched Alex, like you

[Licht] Is looking at the size difference between the two-

[Herabrine] Floats up to EAlex's eye level and sticks out a hand- Herabrine. Glad to see another, I was pretty sure I was the only one.

[EAlex] I'm pretty sure I was supposed to spawn as a normal Herobrine and got... cockblocked is a good word I guess...

[Aether] Makes a grumpy face-

[Lie] - Oooh, no no no, please don't start crying

[CP] Goes to grab a blanket in case Aether needs to feed-

[Herabrine] Who's your friend? You got a random player buddy? - floats over to Licht.

[Licht] - I'm Licht...

[EAlex] She's my friend, I guess we're sorta roommates?

[Herabrine] Smirks- Found a summoner instructional on Youtube or something?

[Aether] Starts crying-

[CP] Hands Lie the blanket-

[Licht] - In a chest when the world spawned

[Herabrine] That's oddly convenient...

[EAlex] It was a trick... another entity invaded her computer and took my spawn.

[Herabrine] That's rough man. Are you coming to stay with us?

[EAlex] Just visiting to get some lessons for now- gestures at Cp-

[Herabrine] Oh, from old sourpuss? He does know his shit, I'll give him that.

[CP] Flips Hera off-

[Lie] Covers herself and starts feeding Aether- There you go, settle down

[Dofta] Awww. Who's a happy baby?

[Herabrine] Love you too Cp.

[Licht] - EAlex, is there anything else you want to do while we're here?

[EAlex] Well I wanted Cp to help me seed hop... But I guess I could ask Doc instead....

[CP] - Well you figured out how to get off the phone, figure out the rest on your own

[Lie] - Says the one who still panics when I go into the digital realm by myself

[EAlex] Yeah... I'll ask Doc...

[Herabrine] Has turned to Lie and is murmuring sweet nothings to Aether.

[Lie] - Me thinks Auntie Hera is going to spoil her niece rotten...

[CP] - Go ask them then, if you can find them

[EAlex] Bristles- I will then! - She heads for the door- Come on Licht! Let's go!

[Licht] - Congratulations on the baby- She then goes to follow EAlex

[EAlex] Looks around outside and stomps past the small horse pen- He makes me so mad... -

-The chain chomp bounces up from it's spot by the honesty blossoms and startles Licht- AR Ar Ar ARR!

[Licht] - THAT'S NOT NORMAL!

[EAlex] Jumps as well- Sheesh! Bet you an emerald it's from another game.

[Licht] - It is, even I recognize that

[Chomp] Satisfied with a job well done. - Ar!

[EAlex] Gives it some space- Lie makes flowers right? Maybe it's guarding whatever blooms are in that pen. -

[Splender] Is happily fishing on the shore-

[Doc] Wanders over to Splender's house and says pleasantly- Hi neighbor! Catch anything good?

[Splender] Smiles brightly- Just some boots!

[Doc] Awww, what kind?

[Splender] - Leather! Two pairs! And one of them is shiny!

[Doc] The shiny one likely has an enchantment at least.

- one of the sea dragons floats by a bit off the shore-

[Doc] Points at it- that's probably why. The big critter scaring off the littler fish. How's Trender doing?

[Splender] - Doing well! So is my mother!

[Doc] Have you lured her out of the house at all?

[Splender] - A bit more often now

[Doc] Good. We've had such nice weather these past few days. Been getting behind on my side work since I can't seem to sit still inside for too long.

[Splender] Laughs and then tenses a little-

[Doc] Are you okay? You look a bit.. stressed...

[Splender] - It's time for the changing of the guard... Are you sure you want to be here?

[Doc] Gets up excitedly- And miss your big bro seeing his mom? I wouldn't miss this for anything!

[Splender] - Okay...- He sends a quick message to Trender before creating an opening with his tendrils

[Sally] Is the first one to run through- Splendy!

[Splender] Laughs and picks Sally up into a hug-

[Slender] Steps through, he's obviously a bit annoyed at the moment-

[Doc] Hello Sally, you're looking chipper. - Xe turns to Slender and looks up with a big smile. - And hello to you as well.

[Slender] - Doctor. Splender, where is Trender?

[Splender] - He's coming! He was in the house!

[Doc] Points a bit down the shore- He's staying in sight of his bro. Just give him a sec. We have a suprise for you anyway...

[Slender] - I am in no mood for surprises Doctor

[Trender] Comes up, making certain that Mirabella is not visible behind him- Hello brother

[Slender] - Trender, did everything go alright

[Trender] - Yes, very much so

[Sally] - Hi Trender!

[Doc] Oh, but I think you'll be happy. - Eyebrow waggle at Trender-

[Splender] - Brother brother brother! Guess what!

[Slender] Sighs- What is it Splender?

[Splender] - We found mother!

[Slender] Tenses, becoming very wary- You what?

[Trender] Steps aside to let Slender see Mirabella-

[Mirabella] - Slender...

[Doc] Is all smiles- You know how there's a ritual for summoning you? A friend and I kinda, tweeked it a bit.

[Mirabella] Approaches cautiously, feeling her eldest's unease- It's alright, he did not follow me here. You are still safe

[Slender] - Mother...

[Sally] Looks between the familiar slender beings and Mirabella- Papa? Who is she?

[Doc] She's kinda your... grandma I guess?

[Mirabella] Reaches for Slender- My you've grown so tall... And this must be the little one that Doc told me about...

[Sally] Hides behind Slender a little-

[Doc] It's okay Sally. She's very nice.

[Slender] Let's Mirabella touch his face- I was certain he would have killed you after what you did...

[Doc] She told me he'd basically ignored her, we've just been trying to get her out in the sun and socialize a bit.

[Mirabella] - It's alright Slender, we have plenty of time to talk

[Sally] - Papa...

[Splender] - Come on Sally, let's go play in my house

[Trender] - How about you let me out first

[Splender] - Oh! Right!- He opens another way and Trender pets Sally's head before bidding his brothers good bye and leaving

[Doc] Very sappy expression. -Thanks for hanging out with us Trender. And nice job on your moms clothes too. Very flattering.

[Trender] - They're much less enslaving now

[Doc] Even better. Stick it to the man. - Little fist salute for Trender.

[Trender] Steps out and Splender closes the portal-

[Doc] Checks to make sure everyone is doing okay and slips away with a happy spring in hir step. Xe types a quick whisper to Deerheart- That was nice. He didn't have much of a look on his face obviously, but I got the gist.

[Deer] - Good, and Mirabella deserves to reconnect with her children again

[Doc] Also dashes off a whisper to Cp- Just a heads up, Slender's here and Sally too. But I think he's going to be quite busy chatting with his mom for a while.

[CP] - WHY WOULD YOU LET HIM ON!? HE COULD INFECT AETHER!

[Doc] chat- Because it was his turn to watch over Splender? What was I supposed to say???

[CP] Frustrated keyboard smash-

[Doc] chat- Oh chill. Even if she was infected I could reverse it easily. Don't be like that.

[CP] - I don't care!

[Doc] chat- He doesn't even know she exists ding-dong. Keep your cool and it can stay that way.

[CP] Goes to punch his punching bag-

[Doc] Sends Cp a winky emoji - Trust me.

[CP] - Fuck off

[EAlex] Reaches the spawn and looks around in confusion. - This is a super weird seed. These two trees look like they're made of chocolate and ice cream and these headstone inscriptions are very silly. And they have a... skeleton horse rental business?

[Licht] - I've learned to just stop questioning things here...

[EAlex] It's creative, I'll give them that. And someone has certainly beefed up the Testificate village. I've never seen one with such a high wall around it.

[CN] Comes flying in in his bird form, clutching a few cold flowers in his small talons-

[EAlex] Spots the little bird- Umm...

[CN] Tosses the flowers as he shifts so he can grab them with his hand- Hi!

[EAlex] Leaps in alarm- IT'S A NOTCH!

[CN] - Um... I'm Lie's NOTCH, CN

[EAlex] Is still really wary -

[Licht] - Why are you here?

[CN] - Lie sent me to give these to you, they're cold flowers!- He holds the flowers out

[EAlex] Takes them cautiously- Lie sent you...? Why are you giving us flowers?

[CN] - She said you were planning on going irl? She said they'll be helpful for the.. The... Fever? I think?

[Licht] - A fever?

[EAlex] Oh... thank you then. And thank her for me please. Do you know where I can find Doc?

[CN] - Maybe around the castle? That's usually a good bet

[EAlex] Looks around- Well... I'm guessing that's going to be the giant cobblestone build I can see a bit of over there? - points.

[CN] - Yeah!

[Licht] - Thank you for the information

[EAlex] Nods in appreciation and sets out that direction.

[Lj] Is outside watching amused as Yaunfen tries in vain to walk Fru on a leash. - I like this critter, it's got bangers.

[Waffles] Lounging in a nearby tree.

[Fru] Tries to chew the leash-

[Yaunfen] No! Bad!

[Licht] Pauses at the sight of the animals and LJ-

[EAlex] Umm, excuse me?

[Yaunfen] Oh, hi! Are you new here?

[EAlex] Just visiting.

[Lj] Points at Licht - You I know. How did you get here? Did you piss off Cp?

[Licht] - I was let in by his wife

[Lj] Oh, Lie. Yeah, she's nice.

[Yaunfen] Are you lost?

[Fru] Tries to run and gets pulled up short with the leash-

[Yaunfen] Heel!

[EAlex] we're not lost, just looking for Doc.

[Lj] Well you found their kid, Yaunfen.

[Licht] - That's their child?

[Yaunfen] Yep. Mada hatched me hirself.

[Lj] Don't be fooled by appearances, the Doc adopted a dragon while they were still an egg.

[EAlex] Somehow that doesn't suprise me...

[Licht] - Do you know where Doc currently is?

[Yaunfen] I can find out! - In chat- Mada, there are some people looking for you. By the side porch-

[Doc] chat- I'm down near the shore, I'll be there in a sec.

[Yaunfen] Headed this way now.

[EAlex] Thank you.

[Fru] Teeny roar.

[EAlex] That's a very unique animal.

[LJ] It's some kinda dinosaur, and judging by the texture, also part cake.

[Licht] - I'd be very careful with that creature of yours

[Yaunfen] Yeah, they're going to need lots of training. But Waffles is well behaved and I trained them. - Points to the sabertoothed cake cat in a nearby tree.

[Licht] - Let's hope that's the case...

[Doc] Comes up from the garden- Oh! Hello again! I got busy and I didn't see you come in.

[LJ] I take it Slender isn't mad at you for kidnapping his mom? You seem in good spirits.

[Doc] Not at all. I think he was more suprised then anything else.

[Licht] - Kidnapping?

[Doc] It's more noble then it sounds. She was in an abusive relationship and we stole her away from her husband and reuinited her with her sons.

[Licht] - I see...- She's not entirely convinced

[Yaunfen] nods- Mirabella deserves to be happy. The Wicker Man's a big meanie.

[EAlex] I actually came to ask you for a favor... I need to learn to seed hop and... I want to be real.

[Doc] Geeze... Let's not do both of those things in one day, just pick one for now. And I warn you, you will be laid up for a while if you choose to go out. Is someone willing to watch over you?

[Licht] - I already agreed to

[EAlex] Then... please take me out.

[Doc] If you really want too. Just be careful out there once you're recovered. There are human agents who will try to capture you if they can.

[Licht] - Before we go, there's a question I've been wanting to ask you

[Doc] Sure, what is it?

[Licht] - You say this place is a sanctuary, so why is there such a violent brine as CP here? It doesn't make much sense at all...

[Doc] Small laugh - Well... intially Lie was the one I took in, she used to be human. He was obsessed with her and followed. So my friends and I used that as a crowbar to start unpacking all of his personal issues and trying to help reform him. This is good behavior for him. He killed me several times when he was first brought in.

[Licht] - He did all that, but you let him stay?

[Doc] He was... afflicted, and not in his right mind at first.

[LJ] Sighs- It's a common thing for creepypastas to be partially posessed by the spirit of Insanity. She can make a person do horrific things without a second thought or a crumb of sympathy for the victims...

[Licht] - I see...

[Yaunfen] Picks up on the hint of sadness. - Don't be sad. We know you're trying.

[Doc] He's still an ass sometimes, but at least it isn't random anymore. And hey, if I didn't know him, he would still be the only Herobrine that could go irl.

[Licht] - The only one?

[Doc] Yes, it's a special trick. He can punt people out and they'll kind of adjust... he can also draw them in, and after a long stay in the digital realm the physical body just ceases to be and the person just becomes a digital entity on their own. Either direction it's painful. But it literally saved Markus's life.

[Licht] - Saved his life?

[Yaunfen] He had a hearts attack!

[Doc] Nods- He went into cardiac arrest and Cp pulled him inside before he passed. It gave me a chance to heal him with the local methods. I think if he would have tried to go out again before completely going digital, he would have resumed his cardiac failure and instantly died.

[Licht] - I see, I suppose it's a good thing then that he's still alive

[Doc] And now he's a Notch for real too. His MC skin just became his real shape in the process. You see why it was a hassle for him to try and meet with you. And also why he just up and vanished for so long.

[Licht] - Yeah, I guess so

[EAlex] What do you mean he's a real NOTCH, does he have powers?

[Doc] Some. He can make a shield thing around himself and others, and he has a weird loud shout that can actually damage things, hearing and otherwise.

[Licht] - Is that what happened in the apartment then? When his voice got louder?

[Doc] Yep. I consider it his dad voice. Usually stops Cp in his tracks too.

[LJ] Snickers-

[Licht] - It stops CP?

[Doc] He does respect Markus. I mean, as much as he respects anyone. Markus has been there for him in any way he could, and even let Cp beat up and kill his avatar multiple times without even fighting back. He knew Cp was in pain and lashing out at all NOTCHs because of it.

[Licht] - I hope this was before he entered the server...

[Doc] Yeah, it was.

[LJ] And there was his little brother...

[Doc] nods- That too. His little brother got a bad potion that turned him back into a child. Markus pretended to be their dad and helped take care of Stevie until he was cured of the effects. It really brought them all together. Cp had been estranged from Stevie for a very long time.

[Licht] - He has a brother?

[Yaunfen] Most brines come with a Steve!

[Doc] Yep. In Cp's case his Steve is his younger brother. He's a decent guy. Took him a very long time to settle in, he has trust issues and Cp does give him shit now and again.

[Licht] - That's not exactly uncommon amongst siblings...

[Doc] Exactly. But most of us came here with someone. A new seed has a very high chance of spawning a self-aware Steve, a smaller chance of getting an Alex too - Gestures at EAlex- and then an even smaller chance, just a sliver, of generating a Herobrine glitch. And if that happens, then the system counters with an automatically generated AI NOTCH to keep an eye on the brine so they don't do so much griefing that the players get driven off.

[Licht] - Sounds complicated

[EAlex] So like the little one that gave us these? - holds up the flowers-

[Doc] Yeah that's CN, he's a good kid. My NOTCH is decent too.

[Yaunfen] That's Buff. He's got huge muscles.

[Doc] Yeah, I got lucky. He's an overly helpful excercise nut, and the most annoying thing he does is noisy granola making way too early in the morning.

[Licht] - What happens if either the brine or the NOTCH dies?

[Doc] hesitates, remembering... - If the NOTCH dies, the system generates a new one. If the Herobrine dies... we don't know. Thankfully none of our Herobrines have died. I keep the server set to infinite respawn here to protect everyone.

[EAlex] Makes a grim face. -If you set a seed to hardcore, if the player dies, the seed deletes itself.

[Licht] - Yikes...

[Doc] Thankfully server space is cheap, and I've got lots of backups too. Keeps my family safe.

[Deer] Comes out- Hey, lunch is ready

[Yaunfen] Yay! Hey mom? Could you try ordering Fru around like you do the mobs?

[LJ] Speaking of family...

[Doc] Hello love. - blows her a kiss

[Deer] - I could try...- She concentrates a bit and frowns- That's... Odd...- She blows a kiss back

[Yaunfen] What is it?

[Fru] Curious noise-

[EAlex] You... are not a Herobrine. -she hesitates, feeling around the codes- Good grief... what are you miss?

[Deer] - Hm? Oh, I'm the server!

[EAlex] Is blinking at her, really seeing what's there - Like a spider... in the middle of a web of everything! - She looks at Licht in awe- It's like we're standing inside her soul!

[Doc] You kind of are. She's the physical manifestation of the world itself.

[Deer] - I'm not the only server here either

[Fru] Scoots over to Deerheart and tries to nom the bottom of her pants leg-

[Deer] - Fru no! I'm sorry Yaunfen, but there's something different about Fru, I can't urge them like the other mobs

[Yaunfen] Awww.... There's Cp's mom, Flux!

[LJ] And your shirtless friend with the sticks perpetually in his hair.

[Doc] Chuckles- Salvatage. He's a wild one.

[Fru] blach! - cloth flavor-

[Deer] - Exactly! Actually Yaunfen, you could try asking Salvatge about Fru, he may have better luck

[Yaunfen] Food first and then yeah! - They take out a chunk of chocolate chicken and offer it to Fru. The little dinosaur pounces on it and savages it to chunks-

[LJ] Ho-boy.

[Licht] - … Interesting diet there...

[Yaunfen] They're from a candy seed. Like me.

[Doc] It's their main diet. The whole world is made of cake, ice cream, frosting, candy, and chocolate.

[EAlex] Is that where the weird trees down the hill came from?

[Doc] Yup. They drop saplings that are also ice cream cones.

[Deer] - Come on Yaunfen, you need to eat too

[Yaunfen] Okay mom- They head inside, pulling the dino with them. - Come on Waffles!-

[Waffles] Hops down from the tree and pads after them, their frosted back and colorful sprinkles clearly visible as they pass Licht and EAlex-

[Licht] - Well then, are we going to head back or?

[EAlex] I'm ready if you are-

[Doc] Okay. I'll make a hole for you. - They shift into their larger shape with practiced ease-

[Licht] - I'm guessing we're coming out at my apartment?

[Doc] She's going to collapse the moment she steps out. So that would probably be for the best. And you'll want those flowers in your hand close by, they'll help your fever.

[EAlex] Passes the cold flowers to Licht and swallows hard.

[Doc] Shakes hir mane a little - Remember, soft food only once you actually wake up. You're going to feel like you ate lava and that's normal.

[Licht] - Alright then, let's do this

[Doc] Steps forward and slams hir head against reality itself, leaving a crackly edged hole that leads out of Licht's tv. - Licht, you go first. Catch her if you can.

[Licht] Steps through and waits on the other side, putting the flowers on her desk for now-

[EAlex] Quietly- Thank you Doc...

[Doc] Good luck out there.

[EAlex] Steps through the hole and has only a spilt second before the pain hits and she collapses-

[Licht] Moves forwards and grabs her- Hang on, I got you- She starts dragging her towards the bed-

[Doc] Pokes just the tip of hir snout through. - Take good care of her please. We're both trusting you.

[Licht] - I will

[Doc] Pulls back and closes the portal. Xe looks down at Deerheart- Another one set free. I wonder if Cp really comprehends what a lynchpin he's been in giving us all more space to run?

[Deer] - I think he might be a little more focused on other things at the moment

[Doc] Snorts- Yeah I know! You should have seen him when Lie handed him the baby. I could have set off a block of TNT and he wouldn't have even noticed the noise. I've never seen him so spellbound.

[Deer] - That's wonderful. It's such a change from when I first met him

[Doc] Same, and he was already a bit mellowed out by then. You weren't around for all the times he straight up murdered me.

[Deer] - I know, and I'm glad I wasn't, I may have killed himself for doing that to you

[Doc] Hunkers down and puts hir snout on the ground by Deerheart- It's all over and done, but I'm flattered all the same. You still protected me in your own way. I was never afraid to die here. - purrrs-

[Deer] Laughs and kisses Doc's snout- Come on, let's go join our child

[Doc] Shifts back down from the tail to the head and intentionally stumbles to land in Deerheart's arms- whoops...

[Deer] - Oh no, whatever will I do with you?

[Doc] You make me dizzy with love. I'll have to go sit down close to you until I get my equilbrium back.

[Deer] - So long as I don't fall over along the way

[Doc] Walks with her- You have yourself a deal-

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trecheon-blog · 6 years

Text

Running Chapter One

Summary: Rindel Zivas seems at first to be your run-of-the-mill Hunter- Somewhat aloof, prone to be anywhere but the Last City- But where most Hunters are in it for glimmer or glory, Rindel has been running. Some would say from his duties, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Now, he has returned to the Tower for the first time in a while, both to pay respects to a lost comrade and face the ire of Zavala. But Ikora Rey has called on a debt to be paid, and what seems at first to be the simple oversight of a rookie Warlock may yet determine the fate of humanity.

Warnings: Some language, regret and PTSD.

Genre: Angst, original characters, campaign adaptation.

Author’s note: Well, this has been a long time in the making! There characters have been floating around in my head for a while now, and I’ve finally found the time and inspiration to put their stories to paper. Without further ado, lets get to it!

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Chapter One: Showdown

The Crucible could hardly be called “quiet” on the dullest of days. The series of open-aired arenas were sectioned off from the rest of the City, but the varied architecture made it perfect for honing the skills of humanity’s protectors- Guardians.

The late summer sun beat down on the battlefield like a drum, matching the staccato bursts of gunfire. It was already a stressful environment- Every engagement was live-fire, with death being a daily occurrence. Of course, that didn’t matter when Guardians had their Ghosts to revive them and get them back into these elaborate matches. But today was different.

--------------------

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

The Hunter ignored the little voice inside his head. His Ghost, Solas, was phased into him, at least for the moment, so it made it a little easier to disregard him.

Solas let out a long, metallic sigh. “You can't just run from the Vanguard's debriefing, you know. I've been getting pinged for months.”

“Later.” The Hunter finally spoke, his voice hoarse from a lack of use. “We need to finish this first.”

Though Solas was still phased, the Hunter felt him tilt, as if to affect a quizzical look. “If this is about Kira, I’ve been saying for years-”

The Hunter bashed a fist to his chest. Solas rolled his eye. “For the record, I don’t see the point of this exercise. But when you get called out by the Vanguard in front of the entire Tower, I’ll be the one saying I told you so.”

The Hunter shrugged. He didn’t care about the reports, about Zavala and how he’d inevitably be lectured on being out alone, about not coming back to report more often.

He clenched an amulet that lay close to his chest before tucking it under his armor. For your memory, my love...

“Hey! Are you deaf? We drop in ninety seconds!”

The Hunter turned. The only problem with the Crucible was that multiple Guardians had to take part. The Warlock who yelled at him was flanked by a pair of Titans. Their equipment looked flawless next to the Hunter’s muddied cloak and tarnished armor.

Like they haven’t been in the wilds for some time, the Hunter thought.

“I haven’t seen you before.” The female Titan standing furthest away hefted a large multi-barrel machine gun like it was a rifle. “When were you rezed?”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter!” The Warlock’s faceplate did little to hide his exasperation. “We should have waited for Anthony. Now we’re matched with some rando, and we lose our winning streak, so help me…”

“Easy, Tray.” The other Titan looked about as apologetic as he could in the moment. “He’s a few matches away from meeting Ikora’s record. I think you can tell he’s on edge.”

The Hunter shrugged. He activated a small screen on his left arm, going through some menus.

“You know, if you want to listen to some music, all you have to do is tell me.” Solas’ voice came as if whispering in the Hunter’s ear. The Hunter continued tapping his screen.

“You know, it bothers me when I speak to someone and they don’t respond.” Tray the Warlock moved up to the Hunter, grabbing his chestplate. “You too good to talk to us or something?”

In a lightning-fast motion, the Hunter drew a large-framed revolver and pressed the muzzle into the Warlock’s robes. It took a moment for Tray to register what had happened, but he shifted slightly, moving further from the Hunter.

“I'll talk when I've got something to say,” the Hunter almost whispered. “I suggest sticking with your fireteam. If you're worried about the match, don't worry about me.”

Tray released the Hunter and backpedaled to the Titans. “Just hope that you don't cost us the round, stranger.”

“Guardians!” The booming voice of Lord Shaxx echoed through the staging area. “Welcome back to the Crucible! As a reminder, this round’s game is Elimination. If you're killed on the battlefield, your Ghost will transmat you back to the staging area after fifteen seconds, where you will stay until the round is over, last team standing wins. You may revive downed teammates if you can get to them in fifteen seconds, but just remember that you’ll be painting a Cabal-sized target on your back!” He let out a jolly laugh. “Get out there and show me what you're made of!”

The group transmatted to the field. The Hunter took off before the others on his team could say anything.

The female Titan sighed. “Typical Hunter. Should we connect him to our comms?”

“Well, as long as we can stay alive, why should we care?” Trey pumped his shotgun. “To victory!”

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The Hunter lept behind cover as a hail of gunfire hit the wall he had been in front of. He had managed to take down one of the opposing Guardians, but according to his HUD, two of his teammates were down for the count. That’s just fine, he thought. I work better alone, anyhow.

Bullets continued to pepper the thick concrete between him and his assailant. The Hunter swung open his Revolver chamber to reload, when a burst of energy zinged just over his head. The opposing gunfire abruptly stopped.

“That’s two!” Trey pumped a fist into the air before running over to the Hunter’s position. Trey pat his shoulder. “Hey, no hard feelings about earlier, huh? It’s just you and me, so we need to work together if we’re gonna win this. Any ideas?”

The Hunter simply shrugged. Tray shook his head.

“Contact!” the Hunter felt something nudge his shoulder “Six o’Clock!”

He leapt from his position as a pair of Pulse Rifle bursts fired, their rounds finding their way to Tray’s faceplate. The Hunter spun midair and threw a pair of cylinders toward his Titan opponent. Seeing the cylinders, the Titan formed a shield of pure Light- but no explosion came, not even smoke. If those were grenades, they were duds.

The Titan chuckled. “It’s just you left and two of us, Hunter. You may as well call it quits so we can go back to the Tower early. There’s no shame in admitting you’re outgunned.” He looked around, his Pulse Rifle raised. “Hell, I’ll even buy you the first round when we get back! How ‘bout it?”

From cover, the Hunter held out his display and pressed an icon with a triangle on it. A small smile formed on his lips.

Suddenly, a strange noise, like a beam building energy, could be heard in the area. The Titan leveled his rifle, confused. Then he heard singing.

Well it's been such a long time coming, I thought you'd understand

The realization hit the Titan like a warhammer.. The Hunter hadn’t thrown grenades. They were speakers.

That I'm so far ahead of the lines you've been drawing in the sand

The Hunter smirked under his helmet. He holstered his revolver and moved to a higher position.

'Cause it's simple, you were wrong

He decided to hazard a peek into the next area. True to form, the Titan held his position- And based on his movements, he was extremely confused.

You must have known that we’d end up alone

“Where are you?” The Titan’s voice boomed in anger in the small space as he tried to cover every entrance to the space he could think of.

I know you thought I'd sold my soul, but you never told me to my face

The Hunter reached into the air and grabbed at pure Light. It manifested in his hand as a revolver cast in flame. It was now or never.

I just had to leave you cold and blow this shit away!

The music broke into a crescendo as the Hunter revealed himself. He jumped from his perch into the space occupied by the Titan. His Golden Gun erupted in a glorious volley of devastating Solar Light.

A bust of bullets hit the Hunter in his side for his troubles. He felt the bullets burn his flesh, but his momentum could not be broken. His first shot had gone too high- just over the Titan’s helmet. He rolled as he hit the floor, stopping abruptly in front of his opponent.

The Titan, in a rage, threw his rifle away. His fist crackled with Arc Light. The Hunter was close enough that a punch enveloped in electricity would likely finish the match.

The Hunter sprung away from his landing, putting just enough distance between himself and the Titan that the punch missed. The next volley from the Golden Gun, on the other hand, found its mark. As the Titan fell in front of him, he felt another burst of bullets strike his leg. He dove for cover with what strength he could. Traveler’s Light, it hurt!

“Give me just a few seconds,” The Hunter heard his Ghost in his head. “I’ve already transmatted out the bullets in your chest cavity, and lucky for you, only one bullet is still in your leg. Give me twenty seconds and you’ll be right as rain.”

The Hunter hardly felt the cooling sensation of Solas’ healing. Somehow, he felt calm in the moment. I feel like you’re right here with me, Kira, He thought to himself.

A noise from behind snapped him from the reverie. A Warlock stood behind him, bringing a Pulse Rifle to bear. The Hunter raised his Golden Gun to fire.

The flaming revolver fizzled away in motes of Light like embers.

Swearing, the Hunter kicked himself away from the wall to avoid a burst of gunfire from his opponent. Stupid, stupid! A weapon made of pure light never lasted very long- and he let himself get carried away. He sprang to his feet as another burst of bullets only served to remind him of his opponents presence.

As he rounded a low wall, he turned toward it, intending to jump over and ambush. His own auto rifle was stowed behind his cloak and would be impossible to draw without stopping- He drew his revolver and lept for his opponent.

The next thing he noticed made his heart stop.

This Warlock- She looked like Kira.

But that was impossible. She was dead.

He felt a burst in his head and everything went dark.

----------

The Hunter sat up from his position, holding his head. It didn’t matter how many times his Ghost brought him back from the dead- It always gave him a massive headache that caused his vision to blur for a few seconds. The next thing he heard almost made him wish he’d stayed on the ground.

“Outstanding!” Shaxx entered the battlefield with the downed Guardians from both teams, slowly clapping. “I don’t think I’ve seen a performance so glorious in a while. He clapped the victorious Warlock on the shoulder. “That was an impressive performance.” The Hunter could tell that the Warlock was pleased with herself, helmet or no. He pictured a smug smirk on her face.

“Equally impressive,” Shaxx continued, “Was the performance of this Hunter. Distraction is a valuable ally when overpowered in battle. It can drop the most well- laid defense if done correctly, but also remember that you should never let your opponent distract you from your objective. Remember this lesson. Of course, I can think of no better teacher of that lesson than the Iron Wolf himself. Isn’t that right, Rindel?”

The Hunter flinched. That nickname. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Shaxx had identified him, he brought up a name which had its fair share of spectres associated with it. Before he could respond, a page came in over the citywide comms system.

“Guardian Rindel Zivas.” Commander Zavala’s voice echoed throughout the city. “Report to the Vanguard for debriefing. Now.”

Rindel looked toward the tower. The jig was up now. He sighed before looking at Shaxx.

Shaxx shrugged, a motion that looked more comical than it should have with the Titan’s enormous shoulder pauldrons. “Sorry, Rin. We’ve all been told to report sightings of you. Commander’s orders. Now, get up there.”

Rindel made is way to the exit. He looked around. All the Guardians were now talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. Even Tray, the arrogant Warlock seemed like he was in awe.

Rindel kept walking. It took everything for him to ignore the stares. This was one of the reasons he avoided the Tower as much as he could.

Solas phased out of him. His red shell had seen better days- it looked more brown from a lack of maintenance. He focused a beam at Rindel’s throat and rotated side to side, looking as if he was shaking his “head.”

“What?” Rindel’s voice was much clearer, showcasing his annoyance. “Gonna say ‘I told you so?’”

“I would,” Solas started, “But then, you just did.”

Rindel glared at his Ghost behind his faceplate. Getting from the Crucible setup to the Tower was a long walk in any case. Answering to Zavala’s ire would make it feel far, far longer.

#destiny #destiny 2 #original character #adaptation #holy crap this took a while #It's totally worth it #Hold onto your butts #This is the start of something awesome #my fiction

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critrateup · 6 years

Text

Run It Back: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 -- The Introduction and Destiny Islands

The title screen of Kingdom Hearts remains to be my favorite intros in all of games. Dearly Beloved is a theme which by now has been arranged, reprised, and remixed into about a dozen official versions. It’s a theme so iconic that rather than start fresh with an entirely new track for each new series entry, it’s been repurposed as an overture of sorts -- every reimagining of the track can tell you something about tone, beats, and themes present in the game ahead. In this instance, the theme has a somewhat melancholy bass line married to a flittering melody. The rhythm goes in an unhurried circle arriving back unto itself, accompanied by the sounds of waves gently crashing onto the shore. Sora stands in a beautiful watercolor illustration, alone and looking out at the sea. Like most of the other parts of the game that I remember fondly, the elements come together in a way that just feels right. Sora is alone, and though his expression is relaxed you get the feeling that he isn’t quite happy either. There’s a touch of mourning to the scene, which stands as a somewhat abrupt contrast to the expectations one would bring to a licensed Disney game in the early 2000’s -- something was different this time, and it was exciting!

The menu options are unfussy. You can start a new game or load a save (and in the case of the ReMIX versions, back out to the game select screen), and upon starting a new file you’re greeted with an intro cinematic. The cinematic starts with a beautifully rendered cloudscape that flashes the title in an unstylized, spartan, and serif’d font, and fades into a scene with Sora voiced by Haley Joel Osmant narrating his thoughts. It feels a little surreal, with him floating in space eyes half closed, wondering aloud to himself if he can trust his grasp of reality anymore. It sets the tone for the series, and places its production values front and center with a flashy cinematic delivering visuals well beyond what the hardware could deliver and professional Hollywood voice acting on par with what we’d expect from a Disney production yet surpassing performances we’d heard from up to that point. It also captures a certain angst that just resonated really well with 14 year old me. My stresses were piled high though I wouldn’t know to call them that at the time. I was just beginning to process some intense personal trauma that had occured very recently; national tragedy had struck the year before, with 9/11 and the G.W Bush Administration altering the course of American politics; and of course I was just entering high school, and all the baggage that brings along. Something about the way Sora saw himself falling from the sky, eyes closed and unable or unwilling to take control of his descent, resonated close and hard with me.

This is also the first time we hear the iconic Simple and Clean track, here as the -PlanitB Mix- with clubby vibe that marks the dramatic sweeps of the chorus have just a little more flair. The soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts was so good that it led to me hunting down a copy of the soundtrack at Tower Records. The craziest thing to me was that it had a domestic release (!) complete with the english (!!) versions of the Utada tracks and an unabridged, two-disc version of the soundtrack. Yoko Shimomura has since become a favorite composer of mine, to the point where I’d instantly recognized her work when I saw the first Final Fantasy XV trailer.

As a somewhat technical aside, The PS4 remaster runs at 60 frames per second, while the original ran at about 30. While the gameplay with look and act much smoother as a result, it is worth noting that the animation in the cutscenes has been keyed to 30fps resulting in a visual discontinuity when moving to and from cutscenes to live gameplay. It’s understandable, but it also shows the beginnings of what will be a recurring question with the remastered version of the game running on modern hardware: should the game be presented as the original was in 2002, and what should be modernized to make the game more akin to something of a remaster (or ReMIX in KH parlance) in 2013 then again in 2017. Although I recognize the sheer amount of work hours it would have taken to go back and essentially reanimate every cutscene in the game would border on absurd, it does give the impression that there was some work the developers and management at Square Enix were seemingly willing and unwilling to do in a re-presentation of the game -- this is not a no-holds-barred recreation of the original, nor is it quick and dirty supplanting of the original. Rather, it’s something that lands in the world between, and I’ll be noting such seems as they occur to me.

The opening with the stained glass figures is still striking as ever, and the constant moody, cryptic narration sets the mysterious vibe well. There’s a short sequence of actual gameplay that gives a brief tutorial of basic movement and attacking controls, then asks you with somewhat cryptic messages to essentially choose a build for your playthrough. I chose defense as my boosted stat in my original playthrough because of the way it’s worded. “The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all.” Of course these were values that I was All About™ but to be frank in later years when I discovered speedrunners and disgustingly destructive magic builds I became all about them, and would probably have never chosen Defense as a buffed stat in any of my playthroughs to begin with. It’s telling how effective the copy is when I still feel a pang of shame in sacrificing the shield as my default stat nerf.

The opening moments of gameplay on the Destiny Islands are totally unremarkable, and serve to highlight a coming weakness in the game -- namely, the clunky as hell platforming, with something of an identity crisis to come. It attempts to make stages interesting and fun by including varied elements of traversal and platforming, but the game’s unforgiving movement and jumping mechanics make it a difficult sell. With small ledges, an obtuse camera, finicky movement and facing requirements, a seeming lack of jump buffering and ledge forgiveness (more on that here https://www.patreon.com/posts/gamemaker-tips-14531948), getting precise movement out of Sora takes a whole lot of patience. Some of this will later be alleviated with Metroidvania-esque upgrades like a glide and a high jump, but running through the game’s platforming challenges with a vanilla Sora is tedious. Punishment for missing jumps can be harsh, reminiscent of Ratchet and Clank’s Planet Novalis Waterworks where a single misstep would send you to the back of the line to redo an entire sequence.

There’s something kind of cool and again telling in the way the tides are rendered on the beach. They’re GIF-y, cycling between a few frames of canned sea foam animation. Out of place as they may look running natively on a Playstation 4 in 2018, the way the gentle ebb and flow are rendered serve as a quaint reminder of the hardware that served the original entry -- it’s something of a momento mori for the videogame age.

The cave/secluded room on Destiny Islands has a bunch of really cool chalk drawings that I recommend you check out. Some of them seem to be of elements to come in the series, like the royal castle, starry adventures, and what even appears to be a Donald and Goofy. Weather intentional markers of the series’ now apparent time traveling and mysticism shenanigans or just fun little easter eggs for attentive players using the first person view function, it’s still a nice touch.

After some tedious gathering missions meant to familiarize you with the controls, Sora’s weighty movement, and some minor characters, the meat of the story begins to reveal itself. The introduction of the trio of Kairi, Sora, and Riku is mostly to the point -- Sora is excitable, smiley, and kind of a bag of rocks; Riku is intent on accompishing his goal of leaving the islands, seemingly in spite of the costs; and Kairi is kind if somewhat mischievous. There’s something of a love triangle painted between the three which serves to further drive their division in the coming cataclysm.

This is (to my knowledge) the only time the parents of Sora, Kairi, and Riku are even briefly acknowledged in the series. There’s a quick and disembodied line about dinner being ready at Sora’s house, and Kairi only briefly mentions family as the island is being torn apart from within. It’s kind of weird and maybe telling that Nomura and company weren’t sure how the game was going to do and what kind of future it may or may not have had coming. It’s a weird appendage to the series that seems impossible not to acknowledge.

And with that, the trio are sucked into the abyss, we get a glimpse of King Mickey’s castle, Riku in what we’ll later discover is Hollow Bastion, and Donald and Goofy are introduced. The story is told from and omniscient, cross-cutting point of view and I think it works for the most part. There are a lot of threads to keep track of, with characters we’re given lots of reasons to care about. In a game where the player character is one of a group of protagonists, each thematically and literally lost and in search of something, it creates a bigger payoff in dramatic tension to see them criss cross and near miss in pursuit of one another.

Next time, we’ll visit Traverse Town and discuss it’s soothing, soft-porn sax track at the crossroads of every world.

#CritRateUP++#kingdom hearts #game crit #ReRuns #Runitback #Run It Back

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aion-rsa · 2 years

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West Side Story: Steven Spielberg Makes Musical a Turf War for America’s Soul

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The fight is over before it begins. Steven Spielberg makes that much obvious in the opening shot of his West Side Story. From the picture’s first frame, the Upper West Side occupied by the sound and fury of the Sharks and Jets has been lost. How can it not be when audiences are immediately introduced to a collapsed and dilapidated building? Fire traps and abandoned slums which would look at home in one of Spielberg’s World War II movies are the spoils of gang warfare in this soulful reimagining of the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical. The neighborhood’s a corpse that’s already decomposed, and upon this rot, the last of the flies do battle.

It’s a striking departure from the youthful exuberance that opens the previous (and iconic) West Side Story movie of 60 years ago. But perhaps that’s why Spielberg, a filmmaker who never previously made a full-length musical in his 40+ year career, has gravitated toward walking on Robert Wise’s sacred ground, and finding something that’s just as provocative and poignant in Sondheim’s lyrics now as when the first film came out. Perhaps even more so.

Whereas Wise’s movie opened with a soaring overture and then an immediate embrace of the alleged coolness exuded by street-wise (and heavily stereotyped) gang leaders Riff and Bernardo (Russ Tamblyn and George Chakiris in the ‘61 movie) as they did graceful pirouettes on a basketball court, Spielberg begins his picture in a ruin that acts as a mirror for our time. It’s here we’re introduced to a morally grayer and disquieting version of the Riff character (a kinetic Mike Faist). He too can take on balletic rhythms, but they last only for a moment; they’re a dalliance before the real point of the scene becomes clear, and Riff and his gang of lower income dead-enders, the Jets, reach their target: a mural of the Puerto Rican flag. The gang proceeds to desecrate it with multiple cans of paint, which terrorizes the local Puerto Rican immigrant businesses as much as it does their rival Sharks.

So starts a more visceral and, at times, violent rivalry between Spielberg’s Sharks and Jets. And as these events unfold, the filmmaker’s reasons for re-adapting the original 1957 Broadway musical become clear. As with so many other recent films in the director’s filmography, Spielberg is turning to the iconography of his country’s past to comment on its present and future. America’s most acclaimed director remains undaunted in his quest to become its most visible on-screen conscience.

Of course revisiting historical settings—or even beloved intellectual property—to say something about a current moment is as old as the Bard himself. And, indeed, allusions to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet find new echoes in Spielberg’s compositions here. However, the director who invented the modern blockbuster 46 years ago with Jaws (1975) has largely eschewed special effects extravaganzas for more than a decade. Instead he uses his clout as one of the last directors who can open commercial event films without IP to often helm historical biopics and passion plays which engage in conversation with his largely mainstream audience.

On the eve of President Barack Obama’s second term, Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) attempted to articulate the need for transformative presidencies to rise above the petty tribalism inherent in daily Beltway politics and do something substantial; as tensions frosted over between the U.S. and Russia, Spielberg also returned to the pressure points of the Cold War, searching for the humanity beneath spy games in Bridge of Spies (2015); and The Post (2017) was nothing short of a benediction for the need of a free press at a moment when it seemed the American presidency had again been co-opted by paranoid and surreptitious forces that made Nixon look like a boy scout.

Now the new West Side Story finds its mainstream audience at another crossroads which looks painfully familiar. While other directors may frequently return to mid-20th century dramas about racism and bigotry to extoll the progress that’s ostensibly been made, the hate crime perpetrated by the Jets at the top of Spielberg’s musical looks blatantly similar to the anti-immigrant bigotries and racisms that flared during the Trump years. And while that particular presidency has ended (and after West Side Story’s original release date, which was supposed to be last December), the xenophobia and prejudices it brought to the foreground of American life are as pronounced in 2021 as 2020.

It’s in this context that Spielberg uses his remarkable gifts as a populist and commercial filmmaker to entertain audiences and attempt to stir their better angels. Perhaps that’s why he collaborated again with his Lincoln and Munich screenwriter, Tony Kushner. One of the best modern American playwrights, Kushner uses his instincts to heavily rewrite the script and dialogue that connects the classic songs, and speaks with more nuance and subtlety than Ernest Lehman’s previous screenplay from ’61.

In the aforementioned initial scenes, Corey Stoll’s Lt. Schrank still breaks up the Jets and Sharks’ skirmish, but the cop is far less arch here as he implies his contempt for both parties. He remains a racist when it comes to Puerto Ricans speaking Spanish on his streets, but with Kushner’s piercing dialogue, he also can communicate a weary disdain for the Jets; they’re the children of white “couldn’t make its.” Kids who, like their parents, Schrank believes are doomed, especially once this neighborhood is blessedly razed in favor of sky-rise condos. If there really is a “forgotten America,” here are the ones who will remember when they’re stepped over. In this way, Spielberg frames them as one of his favorite subject matters: orphaned Lost Boys, only instead of fighting pirates they settle for attacking brown faces.

Of course these themes were always present in the original West Side Story. Sixty years ago, it was controversial when Rita Moreno’s Anita insisted that “life is alright in America” and Bernardo fired back “if you’re all white in America.” But today, only the most strident Texan school board would find fault with that critique. And yet, Spielberg and Kushner bring out these themes in a way that’s more visceral than before, including by casting Moreno again now as the druggist shop owner who tries desperately to knock some sense into the young, angry white boys in her store, especially that promising beautiful one, Tony (Ansel Elgort).

But the revised story also seeks to add depth and at least some small measure specificity to the other side of the neighborhood which was mostly paper thin in its original incarnation. The Puerto Rican Sharks beyond the leads remain less served than the Jets, but Ariana DeBose’s Anita is allowed to sincerely speak her peace in Spanish, and even without the burden of subtitles while doing so. And Bernardo’s (David Alvarez) objections to a white boy dating his little sister are explored with more insight and intelligence than him just being a protective big brother. The whole movie thus acts as an extension of Anita and Bernardo’s “America” barnburner. What is this land they’ve made a home in?

None of which is to say Spielberg loses the thread of making a swooning romance for the ages. In what is arguably only his second romantic picture—the first being another remake, Always (1989)—the director finally reveals his starry eyes, bottling the ephemeral headiness of first love when Elgort’s Tony is filmed from above as he sings “Maria.” Standing in a puddle that appears impossibly blue in Janusz Kaminski’s dreamlike cinematography, Tony becomes a young man lost at a sea of longing. And in the subsequent scene where he finds safe harbor with his beloved Maria (an enchanting star turn by Rachel Zegler), the giddy high derived from their forbidden attraction has never been more visually arresting than as they sing “Tonight” with a fire escape grate between their two faces in alternating close-ups for most of the ballad.

There have been many “balcony” scenes done between the various Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story films over the last century, but none have had this level of spellbinding craft on display.

The competing pulls of love and hate ultimately conspire as Spielberg takes his West Side Story to its inevitable end. If you know the finale of the original film, Spielberg’s version concludes in much the same manner, yet it also leaves us in an even more ambiguous place. The bricks and blood of Tony and Maria’s decaying world are long gone now—even this movie’s glitzy Lincoln Center premiere occurred on the buried ruins of the Sharks and Jets’ old turf. But the hate, anger, and fear that drove those gangs remain. As does the human capacity to love and forgive. We’re still on Maria’s fire escape, still with a grate dividing our line of vision, preventing Anita’s showstopper vision of “America” from becoming a reality.

West Side Story opens Dec. 10 in the U.S. and UK, only in theaters.

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themadnessthatis · 6 years

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So, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness...

Warning, this is going to be a long-ass post, mostly me rambling about how TR6 was a game with good concepts but shitty execution. Expect a bit of non-linear ranting.

I have some serious Opinions™ on this game, now having finished it (which was a quasi-Herculean feat in of itself from fighting against the game the whole time, but more on that in a bit).

When I first got this game, eyes full of wonder and amazement, I was like “aw yeah, a new Tomb Raider for a new generation of consoles!”. Having only played it for a bit my opinion quickly soured, and the game was never played after having fallen down a hole and dying in the Parisian sewers. All I said to myself at the time was “wow, this game is shit,never playing this again :| .”

Which I didn’t, until recently.

Fast forward a bit, and a friend of mine lends me her PC copies of Tomb Raider 2-through-6 (sadly no copy of TR1 :’[ ), which I sat down and played, all while eyeing up the box containing AoD with animosity. Boy did I regret saying I wouldn’t mind if she lent me that one as well.

But after going through the other games with various degrees of ease, from the “wow it’s over already?” of Chronicles to the “Will it never end?” of TR3 (which I personally rate as the worst of the “old school” Tomb Raiders. Just....fuck that game, the best part of it is the credits, but I digress.), we were left with just one more game; Angel of Darkness, sitting there, almost expectantly.

“Well, it’s been a while, maybe I was just bad at the game, and it’s actually alright?” I said as I set about installing it, ready to give the game the benefit of the doubt.

Well the fact that controller setup was a pain in the arse should’ve been a dead giveaway that something was up. Though is was nowhere near as infuriating as Chronicles, which required a fucking JoyToKey configuration to get it to work smoothly, otherwise jumps would result in Lara just careening off to the side every.fucking.time.)

Actually, when you first play AoD, the controls are really the first thing you’ll pick up on. I.E: they’re the worst. Really they’re the biggest flaw of this whole game, and if they weren’t as clunky and gods-awful as they are, AoD might’ve been a much better experience. Lara controls like a fucking Mark IV from 1917; turns, speed, everything. It’s such a jarring shift from the previous installments that it really takes some time getting used to, and could be a reall deal-breaker. Also Lara no longer runs like she used to, more like a slow jog, only gaining the ability to sprint later in the game (you know, the thing she could do at the very beginning of TR3, 4 and 5? Like she has to learn how to use her legs, after all of her previous escapades?!). Jumping also seems to have undergone some hideous transformation; from somewhat fluid sequences to an absolutely jerky mess of a mechanic, not helped by Lara needing some space to build up momentum (from walk to jog). Like the only time she handles almost smoothly is when she’s swimming (which thank fuck no longer has her getting stuck on the walls and floor like she did in previous games.).

When you’re not busy fighting against the controls and some of the early Capcom-esque fixed camera angles, you might be able to notice some of the changes to the TR formula, for better or for worse.

Perhaps the most noticeable is Lara’s equipment; gone are her iconic (not Ubisoft iconic, mind you) pistols with unlimited ammo. In their place Lara can collect a plethora of new pistols, including a very nice taser. Though this is moot when Lara eventually loses all of her acquired weapons, as she is wont to do if TR1, 2 and 3 are anything to go by. You also get the classic shotgun and two SMGs. Though tbh, and this might just be me, but don’t all of the weapons in this game feel like the do the same amount of damage?

One thing that was a nice touch was the inventory revamp. The ring-like setup from previous TRs is gone, and now each type of item (health, weapons and puzzle clues) have their own inventory sections, making it less of an eyesore than the cluttered messes of the previous game’s inventories. Speaking of health, the repertoire of healing items has been increased, with various items granting various degrees of health restoration, which is nice, no more wasting medikits (though i do not understand how a chocolate bar could heal a person, but whatever, video game logic, i guess.). The puzzle clues section does get kinda cluttered though, as Lara doesn’t seem to want to get rid of anything she picks up, even if she no longer needs it, so her pockets are basically just full of security cards and bits of paper until the end of the game like JESUS CHRIST ON A STICK JUST DUMP THAT SHIT IN A BIN, LARA!”.

On the subject of puzzles, it’s great that that is an element that has carried over to AoD nicely, unlike some of the more modern titles (looking at you, Tomb Raider 2013). The Hall of Seasons was a great example of this, and is very reminiscent of the St Francis’ Folly from the original games, what with its God-themed rooms. Granted that there were other “puzzles” that were a little too obvious, like “push table to find mixture to kill giant plant”. But overall, the puzzle side of Tomb Raider is definitely there. Although, there are no secrets to find (but after TR3 and 4′s “And your reward is FLARES” bullshit, I’m okay with that).

So, what about the story? To be perfectly honest, it’s as about as normal as a Tomb Raider story line can be: Secret sect looking for paintings so they can resurrect an ancient race of human/angel hybrids that was destroyed back in biblical times except not all of them, and Lara gets involved b/c they killed Von Croy and she was framed for it... Look, it’s certainly not as far-fetched as “Italian mafia dude looking for magic Chinese knife that turns people into dragons instead of corpses when stabbed with it.” (Love you, TR2, but what even...), or whatever the hell was going on in TR3 with its magical ancient Polynesian artifacts and “rapid evolution”, but it’s out there.

Mechanics wise, there have been some changes that are quite nice in concept, but are failed by poor execution (a running theme for this game). The grip meter is a new thing, and is influenced by Lara’s upper body strength (like how her jumping/sprinting and door-kicking are affected by her lower body strength), like a sort of RPG attribute. These body strength factors are a nice tough and could’ve been a plus in a good game, but here the attributes are given out at arbitrary moments throughout the game and feel forced, like at one moment Lara must gain an upper body strength upgrade by just shunting a pile of boxes around for no real reason. When you couple this with the sluggish momentum-based “running”, it’s almost like the developers were trying to go for a more “realistic” feel but didn’t really know how to go about it.

There’s also a certain Bioware-esque dialogue tree that pops up from time to time in the game. While it’s a nice touch, the fact that there’s no real change to the outcome (bar 3 exceptions) kind of makes the interactions pointless.

Going past the mechanics, the game itself (at least on PC), is a glitchy, buggy mess that would crash for no reason. Textures are missing, walls vanish in some of Kurtis’ (a boring, bland secondary character we get to play as, and I’ll get to him in a second.) levels for no reason, not to mention that one level can be skipped entirely thanks to a bug where Lara just has to roll into a fucking wall. Also, not certain if it’s more an exploit than it is a bug, but it’s kinda of an anticlimax that the last two bosses can be cheesed by just commando-crawling under their projectiles. The greatest menaces to humanity, outdone by toddler maneuvers .

Now, onto Kurtis...Kurtis is a member of an organisation dedicated to stomping out evil, particularly sorcery and alchemy (thus pitting him against the big baddie, Eckhardt, who looks like he just got done trying to audition for the part of Auron from Final Fantasy). He’s supposed to come across as some sort of bad boy with magical powers, but honestly he’s a boring, ugly, fucking Broody McGravelvoice with no personality. You get to play as him for all of 3 (or was it 4?) levels, and boy oh boy, you will hat him throughout all of them. Somehow, and I didn’t know it was possible, somehow he controls WORSE than Lara. He moves like he’s got a broom up his arse and jumps like he’s on the fucking moon. His levels feel like they were some De-mastered edition of Until Dawn, full of enemies that serve no purpose other than to drain you of resources, and are capped off with the worst boss fight ever, thanks to twitchy auto-aim and Kurtis’ shoddy controls. Like fucking Mark Williard at the end of TR3 was more feasible than this cavalcade of bullshit. Also the first time he meets Lara in the Louvre, the cut-scene is just so unsettling and creepy, she should’ve just beat his arse into the tiled floor there and then. I seriously hope he’s dead.

And the ending... What a bloody disappointment; Lara wanders off into a dark passage after killing the bigger bad, and then...nothing. No credits, no “the end” screen, the game just shits you back onto the “Press Start” screen.

But in the end, after all was said and done, I think my opinion of AoD has shifted somewhat. I don’t hate it like I thought I did, I’m just, I dunno, disappointed...This game had so many good ideas that were handled so poorly, and it certainly wasn’t helped that, at least on the PC version, it was a glitch-fest and the controls were piss-poor. And as a final insult? Jiggle physics. I’m not fucking kidding like Core Design couldn’t iron out the bugs and do something about the arse-backwards controls, but they gotta make sure dem jiggly titties are in there? -_-’ Fucking hell what a dumpster fire of a game. Like I want to like it but the fuck-headedness of it all just, just no.

#rant #video games #gaming #tomb raider #tomb raider angel of darkness #tr6 #tr: aod #lara croft #idk i just #feel very conflicted about this game #opinions

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comicswithcate2020 · 4 years

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Connor’s Collection of Comics

Imagine being seven years old, sitting in a movie theater and watching Toby McGuire on the big screen wearing the iconic blue and red suit. Imagine leaving the theater speechless and wondering what other adventures and stories Spiderman has to offer. That’s exactly when 25 year old Connor O’Keefe decided he wanted to try comic books. Connor has been collecting comic books for almost 15 years. Growing up in Medford, MA, Connor was influenced by his parents and the pop culture that surrounded him. Between the cartoons that he used to watch and growing up with comic book movies originally starting to come out, Connor became hooked. It was after the third Sam Rani Spiderman movie that Connor officially got into comics. He became a collector of all things Venom and Venom related. Although Connor's collection isn’t just limited to Marvel, as he also collects a lot of Star Wars merchandise. He specifically likes General Grievous- he recently completed a General Grievous model. To complete the model, he painted it by hand to make it look more realistic. A peek into his bedroom can show you just how much he has collected throughout the years.

His walls are adorned with quite a few posters, his shelf is filled with comics, posters and frames that have yet to be hung sitting in a pile on the floor. A lot of these frames were gathered at Comic Cons- when he got old enough, he started going to Boston Comic Con with his father and has been known to go for at least one out of the three days every year. He has autographed headshots of different characters, like Bane from Batman. Yet to be hung up is a Venom shadow box filled with different cut outs of Venom’s different art styles throughout the years. Funko Pops adorn his shelves and his TV stand, ranging with characters from The Big Bang Theory to Smuag from Lord of the Rings. Everywhere you look in his room, you can find something comic related- whether it is DC, Marvel, Star Wars, or even select video games.

Growing up in Medford, Connor would go to shop at Harrison's Comics, found in The Meadow Glen Mall. When he was 14, his family moved to Reading, MA and Connor realized he needed to find a new store. He happened upon Comically Speaking and has been going there ever since.

Q: How were you introduced to comic books?

A: They were just there. I was born in 95’ so I had my adolescence and early adulthood molded by the comic book movies. As we know them today, they started really in 1998 with Blade. That's kind of when they started taking off, because then they had the Sam Raimi SpiderMan movies, the original X-Men trilogy, and so on. I grew up watching these movies and watching the cartoons and eventually, I think it was after SpiderMan 3 came out, I was in fifth grade, I thought, ‘yeah, I want to read the material that inspired these movies that I liked so much.’ I was living in Medford at the time, so there was a comic book store, Harrison’s, that was in the Meadow Glen Mall, which is no longer a thing in Medford. But I went there and I picked up a couple of back issues of comics and I have been reading comics consistently since then. It's a month to month thing, but the movies basically got me into it. Well, the movies and the cartoons.

Q: Who is your favorite character and why?

A: My favorite character is Venom, specifically Eddie Brock as Venom. There have been a couple of different characters that have had that title. Eddie is my favorite character because first of all, his visual design is very good. It's very crisp- you immediately know when you're looking at when you see him. He’s super edgy and I really like that kind of thing. I like Eddie because he's had a very long transformation over the course of the 30 years he's been around. At first he was just trying to kill SpiderMan and then he had an arc where he realizes that Spiderman isn't such a bad guy. And then he was sick with cancer and he realized, ‘Hey, I have kind of been doing some terrible stuff’ and he gets better from the cancer and he decides he's going to take this new lease on life and become a better person and be a hero. When I first started reading comics, they were in the middle of the cancer arc. So while I've been reading comics, I only know Eddie Brock as a hero. So in my mind, Venom is a superhero because that's what he's been for 20 of the 30 years he's existed.

Q: What type(s) of comic related things do you collect?

A: I do collect back issues, starting when I was in fifth grade, so I am 25 now. I take great pride in the fact that I have amassed, I don't want to say all of them cause I'm sure there's an odd issue here or there that I might've missed. But every single issue that Eddie Brock has appeared in, with the exception of his first and second appearances, which are like massively expensive, $200-300 issues. Those are the great white whales. But I have just about every single issue of comic book that he's ever appeared in over the course of 30 years. I kind of take some pride in that. That's taken a while to amass. Obviously that's ever expanding because he has a current ongoing book. In terms of other things I collect, I am trying to build a physical collection of the movies. Personally I enjoy streaming content but at the same time I realize that I don't want to be left without a particular film, if a company decides that they want to pull an individual move from a service. A little while ago they almost pulled Friends from Netflix and people started freaking out, everyone was losing their minds about it. And I'm like, ‘Hey, buy the physical copy, no one's taken that away from you.’ So I collect the movies. I think out of the 20 Marvel Studios movies, I have about 17 of them in some capacity or another. I don't necessarily collect games, there haven't been too many comic book games lately. But I do play them when they come out.

Q: Which is your most treasured comic?

A: My most treasured comic is the first mini series of comics I ever got. It's a series of six issues that came out in 94’, called Venom: Lethal Protector. It was Eddie Brock's first standalone story where he was trying to prove his worth as a hero and they were kind of hard to track down. I had to track them down over the course of two years. I started collecting them when I was in fifth grade. It was before the internet really took off, and before online ordering was a thing. So I was tracking 20 year old comics down at brick and mortar stores, which is kind of a tall order. Especially when you're 10 years old and you can't get anywhere yourself. So I have all six of those. They're in packages, they're propped up and they're preserved. I don't read them, I have different means of reading the story if I ever want to revisit it. But those are probably my most treasured thing in my comic collection.

Q: Which comic book related movie is your favorite and least favorite?

A: I'm going to sound like a bit of a broken record, but the Venom movie that came out, the other year has a very special place in my heart even though it's not necessarily one-to-one with the character. That movie was in production, since SpiderMan 3 came out in 2007. It's been in production a very long time and people have been trying to get it off the ground for many, many years and I was following it day by day. When that finally came out, I had this big party, I basically went through my contacts and got a bunch of people that I knew over the course of that 10 year span. And I'm like, ‘Hey, you remember that Venom movie I always talked about? Uh, it's finally coming out. You guys want to go see it?’ It was this big thing. I have pictures from that day. We all went to Dick's Last Resort in Boston, we went out to dinner beforehand and we all just had a great time with it. That movie, even though it's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, it holds a very special place in my heart.

Q: Are there any movies that you think goes against a character completely?

A: This is a slightly controversial opinion. I don't think Marvel Spiderman, like the current Spiderman, Tom Holland is good. I enjoy the movies and I think Tom Holland's great. But Spiderman- he's supposed to be his own man. In the new Marvel movies that come out, he's presented as Iron Man's sidekick. He has not had a solo movie where he's dealing with one of his own villains. Every villain that Spiderman has so far is somebody who's pissed off at Iron Man. So Spiderman has to spend his solo movies, cleaning up Iron Man's messes. I think that it's really unfortunate that they used Iron Man as Spiderman's jumping off point because Spiderman has, out of all the characters, some of the richest individual stories he can tell. Every character has their big stories, but Spiderman has the most. He is that company's flagship character and has been for so many years before Iron Man blew up. It's especially unfortunate that Iron Man has taken the place of Uncle Ben in the current Spiderman movies. Uncle Ben is the reason Spiderman does what he does in every single medium across the board. So, slightly controversial take on that one. But yeah, Tom Holland Spiderman, while enjoyable to watch is definitely not the Spiderman I would have liked to have seen on the big screen. I still think Toby Maguire is probably the most accurate Spiderman.

Q: Can you touch upon the movie script that you wrote for Venom when you were younger?

A: I was 10 or 11 years old and I had written a script for the Venom movie that was 20 pages long because I had no concept of how that would translate to the screen. I still have it by the way, it's up in my room on my desk. It's terrible and it's cringy and it's everything you would expect a 10 year old to write. But I got to say, I wrote a fight scene in that movie and that fight scene is a banger. I would love to see that translate to the big screen. 10 year old Connor could choreograph fights. All this crazy stuff was going to happen, they're really beating the life out of each other. Lampposts were flying, it was great. I want somebody, if you're reading this, give me a call. We can work something out.

Q: How did you find out about Comically Speaking?

A: A couple of years after I started getting into comics, my family moved from Medford to Reading. Granted this was not the thing that really drove me to Comically Speaking. The thing that drove me to Comically Speaking was Harrison's shuttered their doors like a year or so before we made the move. So when we ended up in Reading, I knew I needed to find a new place to do comics stuff . So I just Googled places for comics near me and Comically Speaking came up and I went there and I've been going there pretty consistently since we moved to Reading about 11 years ago.

Q: What were your first impressions of the store?

A: My first impression of the store was that I felt a little overwhelmed. They have a lot more than Harrison's did, in terms of their selection of books. You got to remember also at the time, I was like 13 and they like to think that they know everything and when they are presented with something that they do not know, they refuse to admit that they do not know it. So I spent about 40 minutes in that store just wandering around like a dumb ass, searchng for what I was looking for. Eventually I figured it out, It was the preteen equivalent to when they change stuff around at the grocery store and you get angry that you can't find it. But yes, I was very overwhelmed and I was too full of myself to accept anyone's help.

Q: You’ve been to other stores that sell comics, chain stores and whatnot, how does Comically Speaking compare?

A: I’m struggling to remember what the Harrison's in Medford was like because that was a lifetime and a half ago. There’s one in Salem, it’s pretty easy to navigate. They have stuff like manga, the Japanese comics. Harrison's is all right, I prefer Comically Speaking myself,it's my home store. Newbury Comics they're less of a comic store, you'll go into Newbury Comics and you can get a lot of stuff there, but you walk in there like, ‘Hey, I'm looking for comics’ and they have this tiny itty bitty rack in the corner with like only like 10 of the most recent comics of the most from the most popular books. And it's just like, 50% of your name is complete bullshit Newbury Comics. You're selling like 10 comics in this store. Comically Speaking, for me, is where I want to go and get some books. I'm gonna get some books and with the downstairs area I can go down there and get collectibles now. I only go to Harrison's or Newbury if I'm completely out of the area, those were my go to while I was at school in Beverley. But if I'm here and I have the time and money, I'm definitely going to be in Comically Speaking at least once a month, picking up the books that I read.

Q: What do you think about Comically Speaking as a whole?

A: It's my store. There's a lot of concern right now, I don't know how familiar you are with the actual comics industry, but one of their big shipping companies, Diamond, shut their doors for the minute because of the coronavirus. So DC and Marvel can't get their books out if Diamond isn't actually moving them. The Corona virus is going to be hitting the comics industry a lot harder than most industries. I am a little concerned about it because the locally owned stores are going to be the ones hit by it. I'm hoping that everything works out once this wears off and things are stable again. I'll definitely be going in there and helping out, spending some time. I like the store, it’s a good homey environment. That's the other thing about Newbury, I walk into Newbury Comics and I get the trendy geek vibe. When you go into Comically Speaking, I never get that vibe. It's just very down to earth and it doesn't feel pretentious. It's always like these people like what they're doing, they like comics. If I walked into a Newbury Comics and I asked them what they thought of a particular artist, they wouldn't know. I don’t know, there's more genuineness there to the people and the environment. Everything about Comically Speaking, I feel like I'm with my people there.

Q: What do comics mean to you?

A: They entertain me. I like reading the stories. I think most of the characters are pretty good. There are more characters you can count with comics. I could sit here for hours and I probably wouldn't even scratch the surface. They’re really good to convey things about who we are as a people and what we hold dear. If you exist on this earth, if you have a pulse, there's a comic book character that you can connect with in some way. Or you can look at this character and say, ‘Hey, I understand what that person is going through. I want to read more about that person and I want to see what kind of adventures they go on’. You can connect with that and I think that's what gives any type of medium; comics, movies, TV shows. That's what gives mediums their strength. When you can look at characters and see characters who you are inside, or you know someone like that. I think that's what gives a story their legs. Comics for me are filled with characters like that.

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