#(and both of those games are older than ToD)

[fortune-maiden]

To this day, I firmly believe Olivier Lenheim might have been inspired by Johnny Shiden xD

[rendy-a]

The Red String of Fate - A Poll Game

Part 2

Here we are at Chapter 2 of our story. This wasn't meant to be this long but it turned out huge. If you are just finding our story now, you can read Chapter 1 here. I will be writing our romantic conclusion next!

In Which the Prefect gets Advice

The dim green glow of a candlestick cast a strange shadow over the face of your senior.  Lilia sits across from you and pours out a cup of steaming tea for the both of you.  You eye it warily before deciding it was worth the risk.  You take a sip and are relieved to find it just common green tea.  He gives a chuckle at your expression, the bright and cheery smile he dons seems at sharp contrast to the eerie atmosphere of Diasomnia.  

“So, to what do I owe this friendly visit?” Lilia asks kindly.  You take a sip of tea to calm your nerves and begin, “Well, you see, it’s like this…”  You explain to him about your almost red string of fate and what you learned from Ortho and Crewel.  “I think I don’t want to sit around and wait.  If this is real, if I have someone out there waiting for me; then I want to find them!”  You look at Lilia to see how he responds. 

At times, Lilia seems far older than he appears.  As he sits and looks into the distance, reviewing his memories, you feel that this is one of those times.  Finally, he sighs.  “I’ve met a lot of soulmates and seen many with the red string of fate but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of your situation before.”  You deflate slightly and he chuckles, “Now, now.  No need to be so glum.  What you say is true, the more people you meet, the better the chance you have at running into your soulmate.”

You nod, sensing he was finally getting around to his advice.  “If you’ve felt the sensation for a few days but not recognized your soulmate, it is quite possible it is someone you don’t interact with every day.  Why not range further; seek out new acquaintances and experiences.  At the very least, you’ll be having a merry time with your classmates.  It’s just the sort of thing youthful students, such as ourselves, should be doing.”  He finishes his statement and sets his hands on his hips, giving you a fang-toothed smile.

You think it over and see the merit of his suggestion.  If your soulmate was in your class, why had you not noticed him before?  Perhaps he is one of the many students of NRC that you rarely interact with, a faceless NPC in your game of life.  Well, ok.  You’ve got your ghost camera and an order from Crowley to capture school memories, so that is what you’ll do!

You had thought introducing yourself to students in other classes would be easy.  Stop in over lunch and say hello.  You had forgotten the typical attitude of students at NRC.  You were thankful that you had at least stated with a class of first years.  The look of suspicion they’d given your awkward introduction had been so extreme that you barely had time to check for the famed string before backing out the door.  You can only imagine the hostility that would have arisen from a third-year class.  You decided even true love wasn’t worth the risk of braving the student body of NRC.

After failing so abysmally with your first plan, your second was more carefully thought out.  As you never officially joined a club, you decided to use this as an excuse to join club activities.  With Ortho already being in your confidence, it made him the perfect co-conspirator in your plan.   When you asked, he was able to get permission from Idia to attend Board Game Club’s next club activity.

When you showed up, you were greeted by an eager Ortho at the door.  “Good afternoon, Prefect-san!” he beams at you as you enter.  “I hope you are able to discover the charms of board games today!”  You smile at him and enter the classroom, subtly checking your hand for signs of the red string.  As far as you could tell, there were none.  “Ah, so where is your brother?  Let’s have a game.”  Ortho deflates a tad and informs you, “Nii-san declined to come today.  He said not even a rare drop would entice him to join a co-op mission.”  That did not really surprise you.  “How about Azul then?”  You weren’t exactly friends but it would be nice to see a familiar face.  “Azul Ashengrotto is also not present,” Ortho replies, “my GPS indicates he is having a meeting in Headmaster Crowley’s office currently.”  Hmm, dorm leader business, you suppose.  Though you had not met your soulmate, you did win at checkers; and that was something.

Club activities pass without any incidents, for which you were grateful.  You leave the club room and turn toward Ramshackle.  You pass by a window and get the strangest sense of foreboding.  You cautiously look over your shoulder but there is no one there.  You shrug to yourself and turn around only to come face to face with an upside-down Lilia.  “Gah!” you screech.  Lilia chuckles, “Fufufu, what a lively reaction.” 

You shake your head at your senior.  “Lilia!  Don’t tease me!” you scold him, knowing full well it was a useless endeavor.  He smiles back at you cheerfully before asking, “So, how goes your quest?”  You give a sigh, “Not well.  I’ve tried to get out there and meet more of the students but it’s harder than I planned.  People aren’t friendly and, even when they are accommodating, you can’t be sure you’ve even met everyone.  We always have students out sick or skipping class or…whatever.” 

You shake your head sadly, “I know he has to be a student at this school but I just don’t know if I’ll find him.”  Lilia ponders that for a moment before he says, “Oh, I don’t know about that.”  You smile at him, “I’m glad at least one of us believes I’ll find him.”  Lilia’s eyes widen slightly, “Oh no, I don’t mean that.  I mean that you really have no idea if he is even at this school.  There is also the town and Royal Sword Academy on the island.  Really, there is no way to know if you are even looking in the right place.  In fact, if you hadn’t meet him by now, isn’t it more likely that he doesn’t attend NRC?”

Your mouth falls open.  “LILIA! Why didn’t you tell me this sooner!”   Lilia only smiles, amused by your discomfort.  You shake your head at the mischievous fae, knowing he’d likely omitted that little fact from the start.  “So, oh wise one, what do you recommend I do now?”  He tilts his head, “Hmm?  Oh me?  Well!” then he sets his hand on his chin and pretends to consider, “I think, instead of running down people individually, I’ll find a place where everyone gathers.  Then cause a giant ruckus before going into screamo.” 

“Are we still talking about finding true love?” you ask the fae.  “Hmm, love?  Oh, pardon.  I’ve just had a great idea.  Well, good luck with your quest, Prefect.”  While your first conversation with Lilia had left you feeling inspired, this one has left you confused.  What was the best course of action; continuing to hunt among the students of NRC or trying to scope out the town and mysterious rival academy?  Finally, you decided on a compromise; you’d take new routes home after class to try to meet new people at NRC and, on the weekend, you’d go to town.  There was only one thing you were sure Lilia had gotten right; if you didn’t find your soulmate soon, there would be some screaming happening.

The town on Sage Island was small but, compared to the school campus, it was exciting as a bustling city.  You had lunch at a café, examining your hand each time a new patron entered.  Then you did some shopping, browsing the goods being offered but not really interested.  There was only one thing you were on the market for.

It wasn’t until you found your stomach rumbling that you realized you’d spent nearly the entire day in town.  Searching desperately as your hope waned.  You found a stand selling meat-filled buns and purchased one to eat.  As you sat on a bench in the square, you let your mind drift.  Would this all be worth it in the end?  You were starting to doubt even true love could be worth all this disappointment.  You give a long sigh, lamenting your star-crossed fate.

“Ah?” says a voice beside you.  You turn to look into the largest pair of sweet brown eyes.  The ebony haired boy gives you a cute grin, “I know you!”  You smile back, “Neige!  It sure has been a while.  How are you?”  Neige gives you a gentle look, “I’m just dandy but how are you?  That sigh sure did sound lonesome.”  You let out a depreciating laugh, “Tell me Niege, do you believe in True Love?” 

If you ever find someone questioning the value of True Love, you will recommend they get a pep talk from Neige.  The princely boy just gushes about his own hopes and dreams of the love he feels is waiting for him someday.  You think he is naïve, terribly so, but somehow, the talk restores your spirit.  By the time he is telling you about white horses, you feel ready to return to your own quest. 

“I just don’t even know where to go from here.  I feel like I’ve looked everywhere!”  Suddenly, a strange voice responds, “Have you looked front-ways and side-ways?  How about up-ways and down-ways?  Nyah, maybe backwards is the way to go when you need to go forward.” 

You seem to be running into a lot of acquaintances today.  “Hello Chenya.”  The beastman materializes next to you, grin first.  “Have you come to weigh in on my love life too?”  He chuckles at you, “Why no, I’ve only come to bring my companion back to school before curfew.”  He considers you with his usual air of mystery, “Meowny new opportunities come along when you least expect them.”  You roll your eyes at the pun, “Thanks for the advice.  Shall I pass on your greetings to Riddle?”  He gives you a wide grin as he fades away, “I’d a-purr-eciate it.”

Neige gives you a small wave as he joyfully departs back to RSA.  You sit and ponder the strange conversation you just had.  Front-ways and down-ways, huh?  Were there opportunities waiting for you backwards?  You chuckle at Chenya and his strange advice.  Only, that last one had you pausing.  Cheyna is known for offering solid, if somewhat cryptic, advice.  Was that statement random or was it his way of telling you to return to NRC?

You figure you might as well head back; the day was nearly ended anyway.  Upon entering the gate of NRC, you realize that something was happening.  Leona was standing near Main Street, highly agitated.  You approach him cautiously and ask him what is happening.  “Some genius decided to crowd the plaza right as everyone is trying to return from club activities.”  His tail swings in an angry sweep.  Epel comes to your side, “Are you trying to get through?  I’m about to push my way through!  You can come with me, if you want.”  You figure that was a good offer and follow in the wake of the energetic country boy as he shouts and shoves his way through the crowd.  You learn a few new curse words too; you just hope Epel doesn’t run into Vil while he is speaking like this.

When you finally reach the center of the chaos, you see a stage set for a music performance.  Cater and Kalim were already on stage, setting up.  Pausing was a mistake; the short time you spent looking at the stage was enough for the crowd to swallow Epel up, leaving you without his assistance.  You look around for an escape and spot a familiar face.  You borrow some of your new vocabulary from Epel and force your way over to Lilia. 

“Lilia!” you should as you arrive at the side of the fae. “What is going on here?”  He sets his base guitar down as he reaches your side.  He leans in to shout out a conversation to you over the noise of the crowd.  “Isn’t it wonderful?  I got the idea this morning!  Why spend all week inviting everyone to the concert when we can just have it where everyone already is?  Fufufu.”  Suddenly, the advice he had given you earlier made more sense. 

You sigh and start to form a complaint about his reckless behavior and how it had inconvenienced nearly the entire student body when you bump into someone in the crowd.   Without fully understanding, you feel your heart start to pound.  A sensation rolls down your entire body before centering on your pinky.  The red string is no longer a phantom but a bright red beacon.  You turn your head around to meet the eyes of the boy behind you and feel the hand of fate close tightly around you.  You had finally found him, your soulmate and, as you met his eye, you could tell he felt it too.

[catsplushellhounds]

favorite headcanons (and theorys?) of glee that i created

i was thinking if i really was going to write this, but im bored so lets go, this got so long and i am so sorry (not really it was fun and i liked it, if you like big metas you probably gonna like this)

*this can have some triggers for some people because i will be talking about bullying, abandonment, depression and violence*

(also i would like to say that most of this are things that i like to believe happened, and idk if the rest of the fandom agrees or if someone said it before and this is all blaine related, i left it glee on the title because it sounded better idk)

- blaine's dad is filipino and he left after blaine came out

i know that blaine said he was there in shooting stars, but hear me out

first of all, to me his name is tod anderson, dont ask me why it just makes sense and i like how it sounds.... so

in sexy, blaine tells burt that his dad tried many times bonding with him, but apparently that didnt work, because he also says "you think my dad built a car with me because he loves cars? i think he did it because he thought getting my hands dirty might make me straight." and after 4x18, he is never mentioned again? and he wasnt on his son's wedding too

so my theory here is that he never accepted that blaine is gay, and all of his "efforts of bonding" were actually because he thought he could "fix" blaine, and when that didnt worked he left, (that also explains blaine's abandonment issues) but he did came back im the shooting episode because he felt guilty for what he did, but after he saw it was a false alarme he went back on pretending he didnt have a gay son

to be really honest sometimes i pretend that his dad wasnt on the shooting day because i feel that it doesnt fit that well into this and i really like this one because its kinda obvious to me that blaine have daddy issues??? so usually i just put on my character-backstory that blaines dad left after he came out and never came back

for the first year that he was gone, blaine spended every night trying to contact him. sometimes he just texted, but most of the times he called and left a message crying begging him to come back and tell him what he'd done that made his father hate him so much, his dad never called or texted back

- blaine's parents

(im not sure if this is canon but blaine's mom is named pam)

i know that technically i've already talked about blaine's family when i was talking about his dad but that is so complex i felt i had to do a topic exclusive for that

i believe blaine has and always had a good relationship with his mother, yes she was usually gone because she works selling a really famous cosmetic line she created (to me the andersons are a really known name) that would explain how blaine could study in a school like dalton (he said so himself that dalton isnt a school that anyone could afford), and why she is never there

but despite her being busy with her job, she always tried to keep im touch with blaine, texting him, and calling and skyping

blaine always missed her, but he tried to not make her feel guilty about working too much, because she loves her job

sometimes he got really depressed, because he wished she could be there to see him sing with his friends, or just be there so that he could hang out with his mom like all of his friends did with their parents

his das was a businessman, i dont know why it just fits to me, also idk what kind of business because i dont understand any of it so thats up to imagination

before he came out, he and his dad were super close, sure his dad a lot of the time was busy but he was at home more than his mom, his dad was the one that introduced him to liking sports, and they always watched games together (cooper would join in too) and his dad always let him have a sip of his beer, blaine always loved those moments and his dad was like a hero to him, he was sure that coming out to him would be easy, because he would love him no matter what

all of the andersons have always been brodway babys, all 4 of them liked to sing, tod was a little bit more serious and didnt dance around the house like cooper, blaine and pam but he enjoyed seeing them having fun

the andersons were like the perfect family of the neirbourhood, all 4 of them are very good looking, talented and educated so yes everybody thought they were perfect

they all lived in the philippines until blaine was 5, and then moved to ohio because tod got a really good job offer there

after blaine came out, his parents argued A LOT. tod would ask himself and pam of what he had done wrong and pam would say its nobodys fault and thats just how blaine is

(to me that was the time tod was revealed to be an asshole and not long after he divorced pam and stoped talking to all of them, except for cooper, he and cooper still talked)

- blaine's bullying

the bullying blaine went through was a lot like kurt's, people laughing at him, shoving him around, beating him up, etc

he tried putting a brave face through it but he started losing all of his light, even more when all of his complains didnt matter at all

it only got sort of better when he met skylar (thats the kid he went to sadie hawkings with, i read in a fic that was his name and stuck with me so im calling him skylar)

skylar was going through the same thing he was, and one time blaine saw him getting shoved at lockers, and helped him pick up his books and thats were they started talking

maybe they liked each other, they never got to find out because after the bash, skylar never spoke to blaine again

blaine was in a 2 week coma after getting beat up, and the first thing he said when he woke up was "where's my dad" and his mom had to gently tell him his das was not there. that was when blaine realized he actually meant nothing to his dad and that broken him even more

he was bashed about 3 months after his father left him, and for the rest of that school year he was homeschooled by a teacher his mother hired

- blaine joining dalton and the warblers

so, since blaine is a year younger than kurt, in my head goes sorta of like this

he came out when he was 13, that was the time he was bullied, beaten up abandoned and homeschooled, and he joined dalton when he was 14, but to be a warbler he had to be a little older than that, so he had to audition to join (im guessing you dont have to audition to be a warbler, just to have a lead, i mean kurt didnt auditioned, right?) and and trent auditioned together, they became friends and were roomates (dalton is a boarding school DONT @ ME EVERYBODY KNOWS ITS TRUE)

it took blaine a while to take the step to audition, because he was still scared, but wes and david helped him and gave him a little seed of the confidence he pretends to have later on, but when he sang for the warblers for the first time they were all blowed away by how good was his singing voice even if he was only 14

after he felt comfortable in the warblers, he became friends with nick and jeff, and they were a trio of dumbassess, wes and david (usually the most mature of all the warblers) sighed everytime they saw nick, jeff and blaine doing something stupid

trent joined in sometimes but he always had been a really chill dude, and he saw blaine as a older brother (even tho blaine is younger than him)

jeff, nick and blaine pulled pranks on wes and david like hiding stuff from them and act all inocent when they asked if they saw said thing

the warblers had a bet going on how long would it take for kurt and blaine to start dating (and yes all of them shipped klaine, and even after kurt and blaine went to mckinley the warblers still kept hearing about them and seeing them on jacob ben israel's blog)

jeff, nick, trent, wes and david were the only real friends blaine had there

wes and david has already gratuated when the slushie happened, and nick, jeff and trent all apologized to blaine after that (even though they had no idea that was gonna happen) but their friendship was never the same

- blaine and cooper's relationship

as we know, blaine and cooper didnt got very along when blaine was growing up, cooper is 9 years older than blaine, and has always been really hard on him and thaat made blaine really dislike cooper, even tho he really wanted for them to be friends, he always has bitter feelings towards him duo to all of the pressure and expectation he was under because cooper was the oldest, and blaine felt like he had to be just as good or better than him, so he also had a lot A LOT of jealousy

but that started to change after "big brother", when they talk things out, cooper finally realizes how blaine feels, and starts doing his best to be best brother to blaine

they dont become besties immediatly, blaine helps him with his audition (which makes kurt really proud and happy seeing cooper being all excited talking to blaine, while blaine is trying to pretend like hes cool but actually hes just as excited), and they start to talk more and more after that

after finn dies is when they start getting actually close, after the funeral, he calls cooper but dosent say the reason why, he just says that he loves him and that he misses his big brother, they call and talk to each other a lot more after cooper finds out about finn

when cooper has a son, he and blaine teach the little guy how to dance and they play a lot of happy and fun piano songs to him

- the anderhummel family

blaine and burt are actually really close, they both like sports and beer so they watch games together and bet about whos gonna win, burt sorta of became the dad blaine lost, but in a non weird way, because they both agreed that blaine calling burt "dad" after he married kurt was just... weird

finn and blaine played a lot of videogames together, sam and puck played with them too, but when kurt was helping on dinner or more interested in a magazine or trying to convince carole to let him do a makeover on her, finn and blaine played videogames and maybe sometimes gossip about kurt and rachel (after he became besties with sam he did that same thing but hey playing videogames and talking about your s/o is fun!)

carole took care of blaine when he was in the hospital for the eye surgery, and when he was hangover at kurt's after biota she helped him with all the vomiting and headaches and all of that

pam met carole and burt when blaine got slushied, blaine was already like family to the hudson-hummels at that point, so when burt found out what happened he ran to the hospital, (carole was already working there anyway) and thats where they met, it wasnt ideal and all of them wete stressed and worried but they got along pretty well

pam, burt and carole werent really close since pam was usually out working, but the few times they sat down to talk to each other they really liked. pam thinks burt and carole are a sweet couple, that raised two wondeful boys and burt and carole think that pam is a sweet and funny lady, they all exchanged embarassing stories about kurt and blaine (that made them go "MOM DONT TELL THEM THAT" or "DAS STOP I WAS 7")

pam absolutely adores kurt, he was fascinated when he found out she had a line of cosmetics and spended hours talking to her about skincare routines

blaine can always make carole laugh, she thinks hes a sweetheart and usually keeps burt from bursting into the room when the door of kurts bedroom is closed ("i told them already, leave at least 2 inches open, is that really so hard??" "honey, relax they're just watching a movie" "im going in there" "no you're not leave the boys alone")

burt has walked in a few times on klaine making out on the couch and he always makes a joke about it to not make it awkward

burt was thrillled to know he was gonna be a grandpa, and he spoils tracy anderson to OBLIVION (blaine doesnt argues because he sorta of does the same thing)

even after both breakups, burt and blaine had always kept in touch, maybe it wasnt what it used to be when he and kurt were still mad at each other, but once they go back being friends, blaine is a little more comfortable in hangin out with the hudson-family

- blaine's depression in s6

i think is canon thay blaine had depression and anxiety during the whole show, right? it just got worse in s6 because kurt breaking up with him was sort of what pulled the trigger

it begun when his father neglected him, and it only got worse and worse, he was abandoned by his father and sometimes felt like by his mother and brother too, he had anxiety and it got worse after sadie hawkings, then kurt and him broke up for the first time, and he kept bottling it all up until it all reached the boiling point and it all exploded when kurt broke up with him

(side note, i think that when kurt started pulling away from him in s6, it reminded him of his dad pulling away too, his dad tried to bond with him but i feel that as harder blaine tried to make his dad stay, didnt matter and his dad kept pulling away until he was gone, that makes a parallel to s6 breakup, and why blaine was trying so SO hard to make kurt stay, because he had been there before, and he wasnt good enough for his dad, and he really wanted to be good enough for kurt)

so, after they breakup, blaine stays in a cheap hotel, not getting out of bed and feeling empty inside, his phone buzzed a little with missing calls from his friends but at some point the batery died and he just ignored, he only charged after 2 days because he probably had to let people know he's still alive

he went back to the loft in the afternoon, because he knew kurt wouldn't be there, he was going away and leaving nothing behind when kurt showed up, blaine was kinda of embarassed because he was probably stinking and his hair and clothes were a mess

im not sure if they talked at all after the breakup night, but i kinda feel that blaine might have said to kurt something like "you think i'm broken? when are gonna realize the problem here isnt just me? i should have known, everytime things get serious and scary between us you run, you're so afraid of something and honestly i have no idea of what, please just stay away from me" (i dont knooow he was angry and being all cold to kurt and shit i think that happened and maybe thats what made kurt go to therapy)

he got kicked out of nyada because he didnt left his hotel room for anything other than food, and he felt even more lost after receiving the email saying he was no longer a student there, thats when he decided to go back to lima

in lima, he barely left his room, he didnt ate for days and when he wasnt crying he was sleeping, his friends would call, text and sometimes try to visit him but he never texted back, answered the calls or opened the doors for them, sam was the only one that had some success because he was living in lima too and could go to blaine's house more often, sometimes he got lucky and blaine would open the door for him

at first he tried to do pep talks to help his bestie get better, but nothing helped so at one point he just sat there with blaine and did nothing with him, because at least like that he wouldnt be alone

one day blaine felt a little better and started trying to be okay again, it was never easy but he got a job at breadsticks, and even tho he would much rather be in his bed he kept working because at least like that his mind was busy with something

after he started therapy, he still felt empty inside, the world was still sorta of grey to him and he didnt felt like doing anything, so he had to take meds for that, and kept taking them even after kurt cane back (but as blaine was getting better they slowly became less and less needed)

when blaine started working at dalton, he was already in a much better place that he was when he came back, and throughout s6 he was still battling depression, and wasnt always okay, sometimes he would still want to just be alone and dont talk to anybody or do anything, and if that happened when he was surronded with people he would just be more quiet, that sometimes got rachel and kurt's attention, because they're not used to this "new" blaine and when they asked him if he was doing okay he would just say "yeah, im just tired" sam later on explained to them what that usually meant, it meant that blaine needed some alone time because he was draining himself a lot

- blaine at nyada vs blaine at nyu

soooo i have a good theory about this one, at nyada blaine was constantly surronded by people who would probably kill someone to get at the top, to be the best

and was such a competitive place, that ended up being toxic for blaine. i used to think that he didnt fit there because he always was one of the best in show choir and dalton and he was always *that* guy, but now i think he didnt fit there because actually he dosent like competition that much

okay, sure, playful competiton with your friends its fun, show choir competiton is fun, fighting with tina, mercedes, rachel, santana and unique about solos was fun because it was serious but he was with his friends so okay, whatever

but the competition they had at nyada was just SO MUCH, and lets agree nyada is kinda of a toxic place in general, people made fun of kurts face and clothing there, rachel's "friends" ditched her when she lost the diva off to kurt and started kissing up to him, and (im not sure about this one but like 99%) people laughed when blaine lost to kurt at combat's class

my point is, in nyada, people only like you if you do well in classes, there's a lot of lying and backstabbing going on and c'mon blaine pratically grew up like this with cooper

always not good enough, always behind, always made fun of, never being great at anything, so maybe thats why blaine felt so stressed at nyada, and why he gets so insecure in 5x16, seeing kurt being praised and getting all of that attention might have reminded him of the years he and cooper didnt get along so well

he didnt found himself at nyada, mostly he was there because it was said to be the best school and rachel and kurt were there, so great, right?

but i get the feeling that at nyu things were a little lighter, not easier, but lighter, it didnt had so much toxic people, it wasnt a place where it was kill or be killed, people helped each other when needed and yes there was still competition, obviously but (almost) nobody made fun of people for failing

(i said almost there because im sure there was some douchbags there too, they're everywhere, but i hope you got my point)

- blaine's friendships

i am almost done i am so sorry this is so long i've been here for like 2 hours

i have some small headcanons about blaine's friends, because we did NOT get enough of his friendships (im leaving kurt out of this one because maybe one day ill do a meta/hc/theory about klaine....... maybe)

mike and blaine were besties on s3

they both like to dance and sometimes they+brittany would do a dance number together, sometimes for the glee club to see, sometimes only to themselves because thats fun

mike talked with blaine after the its not right but its okay number to see what happened and if he was okay (actually it was mostly blaine just venting about it "AND THEN HE SAID HE WANTED TO MAKE KURTS VOICE HIS RINGTONE I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK????????")

blaine talked to mike about mike's dad because he knew what mike was going through and they both agreed thay family sucks sometimes

after mike graduated he and blaine kept têxtil each other and sometimes sending gifs or videos of dance moves to each other

santana and blaine were actually really good friends

after the glee club found out about what santana's grandmother had done when she came out, when they were alone blaine told santana about his dad, even tho he was afraid she was gonna tell everyone because he doesnt like talking about it, just so that she would know that shes not alone and its not her fault, santana never once teased or told anyone about this, she always sorta of liked him and thought he was nice but that moment she started seeing him as a friend

while preparing for the new directions vs warblers in 3x11, santana tried helping blaine bring out his inner bad boy, she helped him pick his outfit and they planned together the whole performance

(im stealing this one from a post i rebloged i guess a day ago? i didnt found the blog to tag but this is the post) > santana and blaine are friends on facebook, and follow each other on twitter and instagram, and they always spam on each others profiles because they're comfortable to do that with each other

santana kinda sees blaine as a male version of brittany, so she has this need of protecting him (which is kinda why she was super invested in getting him justice for his eye)

speaking of his eye, when he was at home before surgery, santana went there and told that she was gonna make sebastian confess what he'd put on thr slushie, blaine asked her how she knew where she lived but she cut him off, she also came back there after and told him everything, and she and kurt asked him what he wanted to do about it

brittany and blaine really were sunshine twins

they always liked each other, blaine didnt get her at first, but he got used to it

she always talked to him about cats, and what lord tubbington was up to, she tried inviting him to fondue for 2 but he knew that she would ask some really private questions so he always came up with an excuse

after he almost went back to dalton, she (alongside with tina, sam and marley) tried to make him feel as welcome as possible

when she was dating sam, sometimes the three of them would go to her house after school and cuddle in her bed with lord tubbington while watching a movie

when britt was planning their weddings, she asked blaine to try up some suits (with the excuse that she wasnt sure the one she picked was right), but she asked him that like a day after he kissed kurt at rachels party so she could tell he was kinda sad and asked him why, he told her and she said it was gonna be okay because their love was magical (it was weird but it did made blaine feel good, so...) she was also the only person he told that

blaine and britt always have ideas like "we should totally put glitter in the entire room to celebrate our wedding aniversary!" kurt and santana shut down the idea at the same time

blamtina were like 3 chaotic brothers

sam and blaine would have a dumb idea that would result in absolute chaos (but funny tho) and tina always plays along with them even if she thinks its a bad idea

the three of them are completely harry potter nerds, sam and blaine are hufflepuffs while tina is a ravenclaw, in a halloween party in s4 they went as the golden trio

after graduation, sam and blaine still skyped tina and told her all about ny, and she would tell them all about her collage

sam kept his promise of sending his imitations to tina and blaine sometimes would call her to vent about a fight he and kurt had

blaine read all of the harry potter books to sam

after sam talked blaine into staying at mckinley, sam and tina would always be with blaine, always talking to him, and spending time with him, thats how the 3 of them got so close

marley and blaine were good friends

when marley joined the new directions, blaine was one of the first to make her feel welcome

when blaine almost left for dalton, she tried make him see that she liked him in the nd too, and would randomly start talking to him so that he wouldnt feel alone

she would rant about jake to him sometimes, like how he wanted to have sex but she wasnt ready, and blaine told her she should do it only when she felt comfortable

after she got suspended, he apologized for yelling at her because of the performance, and remembered mr schue that she was recovering from an eating desorder and that he shouldnt be so hard at her

unique and blaine were "frenemies"

they started off not liking each other, since they both wanted it to be the new rachel, even after blaine won, he and unique still were kinda competitive with each other

but eventually they became sort-of-friends, they sang together sometimes when no one else was there, and they liked to pretend to not like each other but yes they did and it was just their thing

sometimes marley would do a sleepover and she would call blaine, unique and tina, while marley was talking about jake or tina was talking about missing mike, blaine would braid unique's wig and she would try to convince him to let her see his hair without gel

when the whole plot of unique and the bathroom happened, when mr schue told everyone he couldnt give up twerking, blaine stood up for unique saying that wasnt fair and mr schue should try harder to help her, he also held her hand (alongside with marley) when she was scared of having to go to the bathroom again

blaine and mercedes talked to each other more than twice :O

lol ok im not sorry for that title

mercedes and blaine LIVED together people, she used to be kurts best friend, and sams girlfriend are you telling me they barely talked to each other? no

in fact, they really like each other's company, blaine is kinda of a goofball and mercedes thinks its funny

he would ask her to talk to sam when blaine wanted something from him, and mercedes did the same with kurt

sam and blaine would do stupid things together (like dance around their house in their underwear) just to make mercedes laugh, they swore to never tell anyone, and they never did

sometimes at 3 am when no one could sleep they would all have a little dance party until they got tired

blaine and mercedes are junky food addicts, they eat healthy and stuff but they love some cake at 5 in the morning

one time when kurt and mercedes were arguing about the tots, blaine sided with mercedes and told her he agreed that tots are delicious

[musical-broken-heart]

Half-Brothers

Ship(s): None

TW: feels, death

Bill ran down the street trying to get home before he was caught by Henry. Turning the corner he ran into Mike. "Whoa, Bill slow down! Take a breath!" he said helping up the tired boy who shook his head violently. The other losers walked out of the building and stared at the boy. "Bill, what's wrong?" Eddie asked. "C-can't t-t-talk g-g-gotta go!" Bill said after catching his breath a little. Before he could get far Patrick grabbed him and carried him back over to where the losers now stood watching. "Let him go!" Ben yelled. "Hush up tits," Henry said walking over to the younger boy who struggled to get out of the death grip.

"H-hey B-b-b-billy." Henry mocked. "Now now William! Don't give me that look. I'm being nice by doing this to you and only you well these losers are here! Show me some respect." he seethed. "I am sh-showing you all the r-r-respect you deserve. None!" Bill yelled kicking Patrick in the shin only to be grabbed by Henry. "This town should have no fags allowed rule!" he hissed. "Yea b-but it s-s-seems to have an open-door policy t-t-to assholes though," Bill said glaring at the older boy who held him up against the wall.

"Time to show you a lesson you little-" before he could finish Bill's mom walked up. "Henry what are you doing to your bro-"

"MOM! You saved me from his game he tried to break my leg!" Bill yelled not stuttering causing Henry to glare at him. "I did not! I'm just trying to have a friendly conversation with him," he said but it was too late Bill had already wrapped his arms around his mother and was pretending to cry. "Oh, my William are you alright?" She asked then glaring at the older child she just sighed. "Henry go home to your father now I'm talking to him later," she said no longer looking at the stuttering boy who just smirked and grinned at the bully. "Yes, ma'am," he said walking away.

~Flash Back~

Bill ran up to Henry laughing. "Momma said I'm going to be an older brother just like you!" he smiled jumping up and down. Henry laughed and picked up the little boy and hugged him. "I'm sure you'll be great. Hoping for a little brother or sister?" he asked. Bill thought about it and smiled. "Sister!" He chuckled.

"Henry?" Bill asked as he laid next to his brother. "Yes." "We'll always be close right?" He asked sleep filling his voice. "Why Billy?" Henry asked running his fingers through the boy's hair. "The book the teacher is reading to us the sibling's fight and don't get along. She said that some brothers, especially ones that don't have the same father don't get along. I don't wanna fight." He said tears threatening to spill.

Henry pulled the child close to him and hushed him. "I promise you we will always be close." He said softly. Calm gentle breathing came from Bill and Henry smiled carrying him to his room.

~end of flashback Time skip~

Stan sat across from the worried boy who had told him everything years ago when they first met. The losers waited to be told why their friend was almost called a brother to Bowers. Watching the boy start to panic Stan moved over to sit next to Bill. "h-Henry is my older b-brother." Bill whispered. "That can't be true he tried to kill us!" Richie yelled causing Bill to shudder. "That was b-before -"

"Before what!? Multiple times he has tried to kill us!" Beverley said. Bill stood up and slammed his fists on the table. "Don't you dare take his damn side!" He yelled surprising everyone including him. Stan went to calm him but Bill slapped his hand away and ran off. Henry sat outside waiting for him.

"Didn't go well?" He asked well Bill kicked and punched a bag. "How do you think it went asshole?" He snapped. Henry held his hands up in surrender. "I have news." He said. Bill nodded. "Mom got a new job. But we have to move." He said. "We h-have to m-move again!" Bill groaned. "Yes! Now start packing we leave tomorrow afternoon." He said walking away. "Henry! Where are we g-g-going this time?" Bill asked. "Back to Hawaii." He said after a moment of silence.

Bill sighed and rode his bike around town until he saw the losers. Walking over to them he was quick to apologize. "Look I'm s-sorry for n-not telling y-you I sh-should have and-" before he could finish Stan pulled him into a hug. "Don't worry. They understand the thing now." Stan said.

"Bill! Hurry up!" Henry yelled across the street looking as though he was waiting. "You w-wont have to d-deal with Henry anymore a-after tod-day! He's moving," he said his voice full of sorrow. "What about you?" Eddie asked. "I'm g-going aswell. S-s-sorry." Bill said leaving his group walking over to Henry.

~Later Raining~

Bill stared out the window watching the rain pour. "They've b-been gone for a l-long time," he said. Henry nodded as he got up to answer the door. "Yes?" he asked. Bill didn't bother listening to the conversation but all he could remember was short and brief. "I'm sorry for your loss."

~Time skip one month~

Henry banged on the door waiting for his brother to unlock it. "William open this door!" he yelled only to have his brother turn up the music. "Leave me to die!" he said. "Ugh, Bill we don't have time for this! The social worker will be here any minute!" Henry yelled trying to unlock the door. "You are so dead when I get in there! I'm going to-" as Henry continues he didn't see a man walk up and pull him away from the door. "This is good what's in it! I'mma say- Love! And nurturing and- Hello you must be-" Henry said dropping the hammer in his hand and outreaching the other to shake.

"The stupid head." the man said."Oh! Oh, I am so sorry about that if I had known who you were I would have- I can pay for that." Henry quickly said. "It's a rental. Now inside your house-" he began as the Losers rode up to watch the scene next to Henry's friends. "This will be fun," Victor said. "Yea!" Richie said. "I was thinking we could talk out here?" Henry said. "No? Okay just-this way," he said walking around the house. "Do you often leave your brother alone?" the man asked. "No this would be the first time." Henry lied.

Looking over he rushed to the stove and turned it off. "You left the stove on?" the man asked. "Just a shimmer- AHHH!" Henry yelp. "Found that this morning," Bill said from behind them. "BILL! There you are!" Henry said trying to hide the anger he had towards his brother at the moment. "Hello I'm Mr Fury (haha I'm keeping it) are you happy here?" the man asked. Bill smiled and nodded. "I'm v-very well cared for and h-have a great friend g-group. I am healthy and strong. My b-brother likes to- d-discipline me!" Bill said.

"Discipline?" Fury asked. "Yes! Sometimes with bricks!" Bill said. "Alright, that's enough sugar for you!" Henry jumped in pushing his brother away.  "Let me get one thing straight I am the one they call when things are not alright and things are not alright! I'll give you two days to change my mind! Here is my number William. Call if things don't go well." he said walking out the front door handing Bill his work card. "And if you were wondering this did not go well!" he said as the others walked into the room. "Where's Big Bill?" Richie asked.

Henry turned around to see his brother. Yelling Bill ran into a different room only to be dragged back into the living room. "Let me g-go!" he yelled. "What is wrong with you?! Do you want to be taken away?! Do you understand what would happen?!" Henry yelled. "NO!" Bill yelled. "No, you don't understand?! No what?!" Henry questioned. Bill gave up and fell unto the floor mumbling something. "You are so impossible!" Henry groaned. "So why d-don't you sell me and b-buy a d-dog instead?!" Bill yelled. "I am trying here Bill!" Henry yelled. "It's not good enough, try harder!" Bill yelled slamming his room door.

Henry groaned and fell onto the couch ignoring the guests. "So! Didn't go well?" Belch asked. Henry just muttered something that no one could understand. "I'll order pizza!" Richie said standing up fast and walking over to the phone.

After a few hours, Henry walked to Bills room only to see his little brother face down on the bed. "Hey, Billy," Henry said trying to smile. Bill sat up and let his brother sit next to him both boys ignoring their friends standing at the doorway listening and watching. "Brought you some pizza." Henry chuckled setting it down next to the bed. "We're a broken family aren't we?" Bill asked suddenly without stuttering. "No!" Henry said getting a questioning look from Bill. Henry sighed. "Maybe- a little," he said. Bill sighed and looked away. "Maybe a lot. I shouldn't have yelled at you. Or have done any of those things." Henry said looking at the sheets and the floor.

"We're b-b-brothers it's o-our job." Bill tried to joke. Henry sighed and nodded about to say something but Bill interjected. "I like y-you b-better as a b-brother than a f-father," Bill said quietly getting a chuckle from the older boy. "I love you as a brother way more than a dog." Henry joked trying to get a hug from Bill who still wouldn't look at him. "We'll get through this Bill. I promise." Henry said quietly smiling at his brothers laugh. "Okay!" he said nodding.

[crystalsoul16]

This is the “32 Things About Myself” game

Tagged by: @yk-shooting-star tysm for the tag~!! :D

Also, I know @dragonpigeons and @sander-sonia tagged me for a different tag thing, but all but one of the questions asked are on this one too. Soooo I hope y’all don’t mind that I’m just doing both at once here ^^; otherwise I’m just copying and pasting answers. As one of my professors liked to say, “Think smarter, not harder!”

To make it easier, I italicized the questions that are on both lists

Also to all three of ya, sorry it took me a bit to get to these ^^;;;;

1. Name: Kaitlyn  2. Nickname(s): K, K-chan, Katie, Kait, Kai, Crys, KK (feel free to give me more if you had another in mind! I love nicknames :D) 3. Zodiac sign: Cancer 4. Height: 5′2″/157cm 5. Ethnicity: Caucasian 6. Birthplace: Greensboro, North Carolina 7. Sexual orientation: Pansexual 8. Favourite fruit(s): Melons, mangoes, and cherries 9. Favourite season(s): Autumn 10. Favourite song(s): This always changes, but at the moment it’s Stronger Than Ever by Raleigh Ritchie 11. Favourite flower(s): Hydrangeas and gardenias 12. Favourite book(s): Confession: I haven’t done a whole lot of reading since I got out of high school. However, I do recall really loving the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series! My bro and I read the shit outta those! I kinda wanna go back and read them again now lol 13. Favourite animal(s): I love animals in general, but I have a weakness for wolves and griffins (yes I know the latter are fictional but I just fucking love griffins) 14. Favourite beverage(s): Dr Pepper, coffee coco, and honey vanilla chamomile tea 15. Favourite fictional character(s): Yoosung from Mystic Messenger (obvious), Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, Link from The Legend of Zelda (Time and Twilight are my favorite incarnations so far), N Harmonia from Pokemon, and Zevran from Dragon Age just to list a few 16. Dream trip: honestly, all I want right now is to go on vacation with some of my friends, idgaf where we go I just wanna have fun with them ;A; 17. Killed people: I had a dream once where I stabbed someone to death with a kitchen knife out of self defense >->;;;;; but otherwise no, never killed anyone and I have no plans to do so! 18. Siblings: younger brother, and older half-brother 19. Horror films?: I tend to avoid the genre, but I can handle suspense films pretty well, as long as they don’t do a lot of jumpscares. I’m too weak 20. Reason to smile: When I make someone else happy~ 21. Questions you are always asked: nothing comes to mind right now ^^; 22. Favourite food(s): pasta. Just pasta in general. I fucking love pasta 23. A gift you currently want to receive: I want a lot of things tbh lol (mostly games), but I’m bad about asking for things cuz I always have a sense of guilt about it! So just money gifts work so I can buy things I want myself or save up for them for later! 24. OTP: I have a weakness for YooSeven 25. One thing that changed about you: I guess I’m more confident with who I am as a person. I mean I still have a low self-esteem, but at least I can accept it instead of just hating myself for it lol 26. Your first ship: hmm… I don’t recall what my first actual ship was… but I think the first ship I actually looked up stuff for was PreciousMetalShipping? 27. NOTP: nothing comes to mind really 28. Fear that you want to conquer: my fear of bugs that aren’t pokemon my fear of starting conversations (not sure if fear or just very strong discomfort tbh but still) cuz I’d be so much better at keeping in touch with my friends that way and be able to reach out to potential friends >~29. Favourite fanfiction(s): funny enough, I haven’t read many fanfics lately! I really need to look into some soon 30. Favourite sport(s): do Wii sports count? no K of course not honestly I don’t really watch or bother with sports at all. Seriously, the most hyped I got at watching “sports” was from watching a Street Fighter tournament on eSports on TV one night 31. Birth of your blog: July 11th, 2011. I’ve been here a long time. And apparently share a birthday with my blog. How do I keep forgetting this? 32. Followers: currently at 385! I am one follower away from having the Hoenn dex completed :D cuz I like to compare my follower count to pokedex entries lol

Bonus! Number of Blankets You Sleep With: right now, just one throw blanket. Two if it’s chilly enough.

Tag time!! @greywardentheronmahariel @ultyso @robot707 @novacorgi @blushingjojo @akabane-chan

Either do the numbered ones or the italics + bonus, only if you want to of course! No pressure ^^

[lion-magnus]

Since I don't have enough to do already (which i actually do orz) and I can't resist Tales of Destiny aus/crossovers, I decided to flesh out the story of evil au a little. If I feel like it, I might write an one-shot or two or draw something for it, but for now it'll just be musings about possible events and character interpretations. I want to stick close to the novels and songs but I'll also include some input from (one of??) the manga adaptation (Servant of Evil actually) and think up some stuff as well. Basically, I'll just mix SoE and ToD things up and see what comes out.

More detailed posts on characters and the settings will come some time later, for now I just want a rough summary of some important aspects, so let's see...

The story will take part in what I suppose will be a tweaked version of the Er'ther lands. There will probably be influence from Evillious regarding the setting, but for now, we'll have Seinegald, Fitzgald, Phandaria and so on, with Seinegald being Lucifenia, Phandaria being Elphegort and Fitzgald being Marlon. I need to do some more research on the countries of Bolganio in general but that'll probably be it. More about that will follow tho. As for now, the story will be tweaked to fit the Er'ther lands setting.

From what I've seen so far (tho I still gotta do more intense reading on the novels), there appears to be stuff like spirits and all, but that'll most likely be cut from this au. We still have a mage but no reincarnated spirits or immortal beings. Just plain old humans I suppose!

Rutee and Leon play the roles of Riliane and Allen respectively. I've actually been thinking about maybe swapping it around, but I want to explore the story and especially their characters when they're in this situation. Rutee Gilchrist, having been raised to become the next ruler and without any influence and experiences she gained from being an orphan as she does in Tales of Destiny, develops into a direction straying from her original character, although I'll see where I can still include things that will just scream RUTEE. As for Leon Magnus (born Emilio Gilchrist), since he didn't grow up in an abusive household, he won't be as much of as a jerkass as he is in ToD. He'll still be cheeky and an asshole from time to time, but I will explore a direction that is more similar to how he is shown in the Rutee's dream event in the ToD remake. About them, I will stick closer to the manga adaptation and less to the novels but more on that some time else. I'll enjoy writing some posts on Rutee and Leon alone. Also, they're twins in this setting and not actually two years apart. Although that would be an interesting approach to the SoE story. I'll see what I'll do about this.

Hugo Gilchrist and Chris Katrea continue to be the parents of Leon and Rutee and are actually the rulers of Seinegald. Though not corrupted by Miktran this time, Hugo still continues to be a jerk but I guess he's trying his best. He still needs to take some lessons on parenting tho. Here, Leon won't be subject to Hugo's "attention" but Rutee, although she actually gets positive attention and actual affection. He loves his little girl but ends up spoiling her. Nonetheless, Hugo continues to be awful to Leon. As for Chris, she will make some proper appearances unlike in ToD, but she won't be around all too long to see the story progress. I haven't actually thought much about her tbh but that will follow as well!

Stahn (playing Kyle's role) and Lilith Aileron are the heirs to the rulers of Fitzgald. In this au, Fitzgald still has some kind of monarchy, unlike in ToD. After some internal crises and hardships, Fitzgald was on the brink of dissolving, but it was thanks to Seinegald that the country still exists. Therefore, the relation between the two countries are blossoming. That is also strengthened by the engagement between Princess Rutee and Prince Stahn when they were younger. The engagement was made to strengthen the countries' bond even further, regardless of whether Rutee and Stahn even like each other.

For the story to properly progress, we still need two essential characters, the ones who will take up Michaela and Germaine's part. Michaela's role will be played by Philia and Germaine's role by Woodrow. Philia Philis doesn't hail from Seinegald but from Phandaria, whereas Woodrow's origin is more of a mystery. He might be from Phandaria, but during the story, he lives in Seinegald.

As the story and the work on it progress, there will probably be other characters included that aren't covered by this post.

With the main characters set, we also know the ships. Rutee -> Stahn. Stahn/Philia. Leon -> Philia. Although I'm actually not much of a Leon/Philia shipper, it makes sense without tweaking too much of how SoE progresses. Also, the ship isn't too far-fetched actually.

Unlike the games and the older manga adaptations, Finley makes a proper appearance as well. He plays an important role in Leon's life in the DC manga and the Proust drama cd, so he's perfect to take on Leonhart's part. In this AU, Finley adopted both Leon and Woodrow and raised them as his children with Marian. Maybe he and Marian are just very good friends or maybe they're married. I'm not sure about their connection so far. Anyways, Finley tries his best to do good for the Seinegaldian population during Rutee's rule but that doesn't end well to say the least.

Clarith's character will be tweaked quite a bit and Mary will take on her role. There's still some research I need to do about her, but that would be an interesting turn to explore. Much like in ToD, Mary lived with Dalis some years earlier, but during a battle (either internal or some earkly skirmish between Seinegald and Phandaria), they were wounded and managed to escape. After collapsing, they were found and taken in by Philia who took care of them. Despite doing her best, Philia couldn't save Dalis and Mary, although recovered from her physical wounds, lost her memory due to the trauma. She will eventually recover it tho. Mary stayed with Philia and the two of them became good friends.

Elluka is still a mystery to me and I haven't read that much about her, but I read mage and I like mages. Harold will be quite a counterpart to Elluka but she will basically play her part. Her brother, Karell, also makes an appearance but that scene deserves an extra post. Although there isn't that much to say about him for now and he won't be around for Rutee's time of reign, he actually leaves a big impact on the story and could possibly be blamed for being the spark that caused the fire. Those who have read the manga adaptation of Servant of Evil will most likely guess why but it'll all be covered and explained. To say the least, I'm probably not much nicer to Karell than Bamco is.

But what would a ToD story be without Swordians? They're not stuck in a sword this time, so they'll play a different role than in ToD. So far, I've mostly worked on Atwight and Chaltier's place in the story but I intend to cover all of them. Both Atwight and Chaltier are servants, with Atwight also being doctor. While Chris was still alive, she and Atwight had been very good friends and she had asked her to take care of her children after her death, to which Atwight had agreed. Her relationship with Rutee will be very similar to how it's shown in ToD. Chaltier's character will actually be a mix of original Swordian master!Chaltier and actual Swordian!Chaltier. The biggest little shit to everyone except Leon and probably Rutee because he doesn't mind being alive actually. He's best friends with Leon and one of the few people who actually know the truth about him being the Seinegaldian prince believed to be dead.

The story itself will progress in pretty much the same manner as the original SoE story. Rutee turns out to be a tyrant. After discovering that Stahn loves Philia more than her, she declares war on Phandaria and wants Philia dead. (I'm pretty sure it's different in the novels?? but) Leon kills Philia. Woodrow starts a revolution together with Stahn who both grieve for losing people important to them (Finley, Philia). Said revolution eventually ends in the capture of Leon who is supposed to be Rutee. Leon is executed while Rutee escapes, together with Atwight and Chaltier.

I think that's pretty much it for now but I still have more in mind. Those things that go more into detail will be subject to other posts though.

[itsleeviyah]

A Reflection Paper on the Learners with Special Needs

Everyone was carefully and wonderfully made by God. He crafted the Earth for His most special creature, the human being. As years went by, the human race have become subject for studies because of the differences each human have in terms of physical aspects, talents, skills, capabilities as well as limitations and boundaries. In general, the human race is diverse. It maybe because of environmental-geophysical factors, influence, nature and genes.

Nevertheless, we are all equal to His eyes. We are given the heart to be equal in the society where opportunities are given whether you are physically capable or not.

In a classroom setting, too, a teacher cannot have a complete set of students with the same physique and capabilities. Each learner has its learning style, learning techniques and strategies that will help them enhance learning which is also based on their physical and mental capability. These all resorts to diversity of learners.

There are seven kinds of abilities or disabilities and diversity factors. They are the following: (1) Learners with self-care difficulty (2) Gifted and talented children (3) Learners with difficulty seeing (4) Learners with difficulty hearing (5) Learners with difficulty communicating (6) Learners with difficulty in walking and (7)  Learners with difficulty focusing and remembering.

Pre-service teacher like us must know the detailed information about the kind of learners which was mentioned to be able to adjust and include them in the normal classroom setting. As per mandate of the government that this learners should be given extra inclusion and care, they should have also the feeling of assurance that they will be taken care of in the classroom.

Learners with self-care difficulty

Children and youth with disabilities may need extra support to follow hygiene rules and routines. They may struggle reading social cues and knowing when to fix a hygiene issue such as smelly breath. Also, if a youth has a physical disability they may need extra help with personal care.

 Although parents are likely the main educators when it comes to hygiene and self-care, service providers can make a difference when they reinforce the messages given by parents. Service providers are in a unique position to support both parents and children/youth through the process of puberty. Consistent messages from both parents and service providers can make great impact when it comes to the management of hygiene and self-care. Hygiene is important for health but also for social reasons such as smelling and looking good. Good hygiene and self-care is considered to be a positive social quality and can help us feel good about ourselves.

 Gifted and Talented Children

Concept of Gifted Children The term ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ are used interchangeably. The gifted child shows his excellence in performing some special tasks their behaviour in classroom is above average or very high. The psychologists have identified gifted children on the basis child show them best on any one ability is known as gifted child.            

The psychologists in various ways have defined the term ‘giftedness’ They have stated the term with help of intelligent quotient, social potentialities or social efficiency and also statistically. Some of the important definitions of ‘giftedness’: According to W.B. Kolesnik: “The term gifted has been applied to every child who, in this group is superior in some ability which may make him an outstanding contribution to the welfare and quality living, in our society.” However, this case may be difficult for him to conform the other students, the government shall have a curriculum suit for them.

According to an Australian School research 2019, Gifted and talented children have different learning needs from other children the same age. This is because they’re very curious, they learn quickly, and they like more complex ideas than other children their age. They don’t need to go over things as often as others do. And they’re often ready for activities, games, books and puzzles earlier than other children of the same age. Learning is important to the wellbeing of gifted and talented children. When you support your child’s learning in the areas that interest her, you’re also supporting her overall wellbeing. Support for your gifted child’s learning starts with noticing his strengths and natural abilities. When you know more about your child’s strengths and abilities, you can give her everyday experiences that offer new learning opportunities. This doesn’t have to be expensive – there are lots of homemade toys and free activities that can extend your child’s play and learning. When you’re choosing toys for younger children, you can look for things that encourage your child to play using imagination, creativity and problem-solving skills – for example, blocks, balls, cardboard boxes, dress-ups and crafty bits and pieces like coloured paper, washable markers, crayons and stickers. If you choose toys designed for older children, age recommendations are still important for safety – for example, some toys might contain small parts that toddlers could swallow. In these cases, it’s wise to follow the age recommendations, even when your child’s natural abilities are advanced beyond this age. Offering a range of learning opportunities will keep your child stimulated. It might also lead to him developing talents. For example, playing outdoors can prompt imagination and problem-solving, develop physical skills, and provide opportunities to play with others. Watching birds, learning about trees or collecting autumn leaves could be the start of a scientific interest. Reading books is a great way to answer your child’s questions, guide her learning and extend her interests. You can borrow books from your local library, or use the library’s online resources. You could also let family and friends know that books make great birthday presents for your child.

Learners with Difficulty Seeing

When you are teaching a visually impaired or blind student, it is important to clearly explain all visual materials. For example, if you are showing a picture to illustrate a point, you should describe the image. You should also get in the habit of dictating what you are writing on the chalkboard or whiteboard. This way students who are unable to see the board can still follow along with the material and take notes. Do not provide your students with a hand-out that contains assignment instructions. Visually impaired or blind students in your class may have difficulty seeing the words and learning what is expected. Instead, you should always give oral instructions for every assignment and activity.

Many classrooms rely on visual cues in order to ask questions or get the teacher’s attention. It is very traditional for students to raise their hand if they want to speak during a lesson. Visually impaired or blind students may not notice when their peers raise their hands. Instead, you should replace visual cues with audio cues. You should try and incorporate tactile learning experiences whenever possible. For example, instead of talking about rocks and showing images of different types of rocks, you should actually have physical rocks available in the classroom for the students to touch and handle.

 Learners with Difficulty Hearing

Packer (2018) said in her article for children with special needs, according to the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), 1.3 out of 1000 8-year-olds have bilateral hearing loss (loss of hearing in both ears) of 40 decibels (dB) or more. And 14.9 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 19 have hearing loss of at least 16 dB in one or both ears. Even hearing loss in only one ear has a tremendous impact on school performance; research shows anywhere from 25 to 35 percent of children with unilateral hearing loss are at risk of failing at least one grade level.

Hearing ability is critical to speech and language development, communication and learning. Hearing loss causes delays in the development of speech and language, and those delays then lead to learning problems, often resulting in poor school performance. Unfortunately, since poor academic performance is often accompanied by inattention and sometimes poor behaviour, children with hearing loss are often misidentified as having learning disabilities such as ADD and ADHD.

According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), children who have mild to moderate hearing loss but do not get intervention services are very likely to be behind their hearing peers by anywhere from one to four grade levels. And for those with more severe hearing loss, intervention services are even more crucial; those who do not receive intervention usually do not progress beyond the third-grade level.

The learners with difficulty hearing has given the special ability to be able to work using his eyes. As the old saying goes that a human has five senses and if one is lost, the others will reinforce. Customizing teaching strategies will help them learn. Teachers should encourage students with a hearing loss to seat themselves toward the front of the lecture and use assistive listening devices such as induction loops, hearing aids which may include transmitter/receiver systems with a clip-on microphone for the lecturer and provide written materials to supplement all lectures and tutorials.

Learners with Difficulty Communicating

Children with speech and language problems may have trouble sharing their thoughts with words or gestures. They may also have a hard time saying words clearly and understanding spoken or written language. Reading to the students and having her name objects in a book or read aloud to the teacher can strengthen her speech and language skills. When you read to the child, you are helping her brain to develop. Read the same story again and again. The repetition will help her learn language.

According to Psychology Today’s site, language disorder, as defined by the DSM-5, is marked by "persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across modalities (i.e., spoken, written, sign language, or other) due to deficits in comprehension or production." Such deficits include limited vocabulary, limited ability to form sentences, and limited capacity to use language to communicate relative to what is expected for one's age.

Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder involves "difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication," such as a lack of ability to alter communication to fit particular contexts (e.g., a classroom), to grasp normal rules of conversation, or to understand nonliteral meanings of language. Some of the symptoms are the following:

One category of speech disorder is dysfluency. 

Childhood-onset fluency disorder (formerly referred to as stuttering) is characterized by a disruption in the flow of speech and includes repetitions of speech sounds, hesitations before and during speaking, and/or prolongations of speech sounds.

Articulation difficulties are commonly found in people who have speech disorders. The term refers to problems forming and combining sounds, usually by omitting, distorting, or substituting them.

Voice disorders include difficulties with the quality, pitch, and loudness of the voice (prosody). Individuals with voice disorders may have trouble with the way their voices sound, and listeners may have trouble understanding a person with this speech pathology.

Auditory Processing (Hearing)

Central auditory processing disorder, as described by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), is "characterized by impairment of the auditory processing, resulting in deficiencies in the recognition and interpretation of sounds by the brain." This disorder is not included in the DSM-5. The best way to approach treatment for a communication disorder is to focus on prevention and early intervention.

Parents should be aware of the typical age at which their child should be reaching each developmental milestone. "The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing, is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills," according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. By 4 to 6 months, a baby typically babbles in a manner that resembles speech, using a variety of sounds, and responds to changes in voice tone. After one year, it is normal for a child to, for example, understand some simple words for items, to communicate with physical gestures, and to use one or two words. From ages 1 to 2 and beyond, children regularly pick up new words and begin to use multiple words together.

If a parent has concerns about their child's speech or language development, they should talk to their family doctor, who may refer them to a speech-language pathologist trained to treat communication disorders. Treatment may involve interactive, communication-based activities for parent and child and, potentially, group or individual therapy.

Learners with Difficulty in Walking

Children with physical disabilities, once taught in separate classes and even separate schools, now learn beside their peers in regular classrooms. As types of physical disabilities vary in degree of impairment, teachers will find a general knowledge of various conditions and how they affect children helpful. Assistive technology can level the effects of these impairments by allowing students to participate in classroom activities more easily and independently. Specific classroom and instructional strategies, as well as accommodations and modifications, also assist students in achieving their best individual educational outcomes.

According to Australian Disability House’s site, there is a range of inclusive teaching strategies that can assist all students to learn but there are some specific strategies that are useful in teaching a group which includes students with physical impairment.

The fact that students have a mobility disability may not always be immediately apparent. Needs will vary, and difficulties may fluctuate. Some students will choose to disclose their disability; others will not. At your first lecture, you might invite any students who have a disability to contact you for a confidential discussion of their specific learning needs. You might also ask students what, if any, information would need to be shared with other members of staff, or with other students in the class. Below are some further suggestions:

·         Students who use wheelchairs, callipers or crutches, or who tire easily, may find it difficult moving about within the constraints of lecture timetables. Absence or lateness may be a result of the distance between teaching venues, so at the end of a lecture you may need to recap any information given at the beginning.

·         Check that academic activities which take place off-campus (such as industry visits, interviews or fieldwork) are accessible to people with a mobility disability. Consider supplementary laboratory practical, films or videos as alternative options to field trips.

·         Students with a mobility disability may sometimes wish to use their own furniture, such as ergonomic chairs or sloped writing tables. Extra space may need to be created in teaching rooms, but this should be done unobtrusively.

·         Some students with back problems may prefer to stand in lectures or classes, rather than sit.

·         Some students may need to use a tape recorder or note-taker in lectures. Extra time is involved in processing information acquired in this way. It is common practice in some departments to routinely tape all lectures. This is a practice which will assist a variety of students, including those who may be absent from time to time because of their disability.

·         Students may need extensions to deadlines for work involving locating and using library resources. Provide reading lists well before the start of a course so that reading can begin early.

·         Academic isolation may be an issue for students who are unable to participate in some class activities. One-to-one sessions with a tutor may help fill this gap in participation.

 Speaking from experience since I had a classmate, a friend and neighbour whom are in wheelchairs, they have difficulty, actually almost all school activities especially in early education where physical activities could cause euphoria and much learning. However, to control such and to accommodate them properly, everyone in the class should customize their activities.

Learners with Difficulty Focusing and Remembering

For the students to take everything slowly to grasp a lesson, he may use the technique in breaking down tasks into smaller more manageable chunks – dividing up questions/tasks between pairs/groups and then asking learners to share their answers with each other encourages collaboration and peer support. Keep the classroom a clutter free zone. Remove any unnecessary notices and posters from the walls as they will only add to distraction. The teacher may let the student play memory/concentration games can help students learn to focus better and longer.

To address problems in memory and to enhance memory skills, Loveless (2018) in Education Corner suggested effective memory strategies for students with special needs.

Mnemonics is a learning strategy where students associate familiar words, rhyming words or phrases, or songs with terms they're struggling to remember.

Rote Practice Exercises is used. Repetition is one of the best ways to learn and retain new information, so teachers should constantly review concepts with students struggling with memory loss problems. Teachers can create drills students can complete on their own, or conduct drills with the entire class. Whatever strategies teachers employ, if they repetitively review curriculum in their classrooms, students will retain more information.

After students become familiar with a concept, they can further their knowledge through hands-on learning. For example, students can learn about an insect and then conduct a dissection to study its anatomy. Students can also learn about a historical event that occurred in their community and then tour a historical site associated with it.

One of the best things you can do to help with memory is to take your time and present information as slowly as possible. Give the child time to fully process a small chunk of information before you add onto it. This may mean having to review the material several times before moving forward, but getting that information to find a place in the long-term memory will help greatly. Much of what we teach children is based on previously learned concepts. This is especially true with math.

Recommendations

When a child has an impairment of one of his senses, as a teacher, make sure to make use of his other senses well because it all works together for it to fulfil the duty of the impaired ones. I recommend to have a research that could make an innovation of instructional materials with the use of technology as what we called Assistive Technology so that it will be easy for them to help themselves and even their assistants to learn.

For students will difficulty seeing, the teacher may not always use gadgets and presentations that uses light or radiation. It would be harmful for their health. Traditional ways of presenting outputs, giving oral and less visual instructions or hand-outs may help them catch up with learning.

“Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”−Plato

 #credits to the sites I got information from

[gta-5-cheats]

Inside Atari’s rise and fall

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/inside-ataris-rise-and-fall/

Inside Atari’s rise and fall

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

.eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 margin: 5px; padding: 0px; @media screen and (min-width: 1201px) .eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) .eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) .eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) .eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 display: block; @media screen and (max-width: 767px) .eyvmj5b2beea7ca2f9 display: block;

Jamie Lendino Contributor

By the first few months of 1982, it had become more common to see electronics stores, toy stores, and discount variety stops selling 2600 games. This was before Electronics Boutique, Software Etc., and later, GameStop . Mostly you bought games at stores that sold other electronic products, like Sears or Consumer Distributors. Toys ’R’ Us was a big seller of 2600 games. To buy one, you had to get a piece of paper from the Atari aisle, bring it to the cashier, pay for it, and then wait at a pickup window behind the cash register lanes.

Everyone had a favorite store in their childhood; here’s a story about one of mine. A popular “destination” in south Brooklyn is Kings Plaza, a giant (for Brooklyn) two-story indoor mall with about 100 stores. My mother and grandmother were avid shoppers there. To get to the mall from our house, it was about a 10-minute car service ride. So once a week or thereabouts, we’d all go. The best part for me was when we went inside via its Avenue U entrance instead of on the Flatbush Avenue side. Don’t ask me what went into this decision each time; I assume it depended on the stores my mother wanted to go to. All I knew was the Avenue U side had this circular kiosk maybe 50 feet from the entrance. The name has faded from memory. I remember it was a kind of catch-all for things like magazines, camera film, and other random stuff.

But the most important things were the Atari cartridges. There used to be dozens of colorful Atari game boxes across the wall behind the counter. When we walked up to the cashier’s window, there was often a row of new Atari games across the top as well. Sometimes we left without a new cartridge, and sometimes I received one. But we always stopped and looked, and it was the highlight of my trip to the mall each time.

For whatever reason, I remember the guy behind the counter gave me a hard time one day. I bought one of Atari’s own cartridges—I no longer remember which, but I’m almost sure it was either Defender or Berzerk—that came with an issue of Atari Force, the DC comic book. I said I was excited to get it. The guy shot me a dirty look and said, “You’re buying a new Atari cartridge just for a comic book?” I was way too shy to argue with him, even though he was wrong and I wanted the cartridge. I don’t remember what my mother said, or if she even heard him. Being too shy to protest, I sheepishly took my game and we both walked away.

Mattel began to run into trouble with its Intellivision once the company tried to branch out from sports games. Because Mattel couldn’t license properties from Atari, Nintendo, or Sega, it instead made its own translations of popular arcade games. Many looked better than what you’d find on the 2600, but ultimately played more slowly thanks to the Intellivision’s sluggish CPU. Perhaps the most successful was Astrosmash, a kind of hybrid of Asteroids and Space Invaders, where asteroids, space ships, and other objects fell from the sky and became progressively more difficult. Somewhat less successful were games like Space Armada (a Space Invaders knock off).

Mattel also added voice synthesis—something that was all the rage at the time—to the Intellivision courtesy of an add-on expansion module called Intellivoice. But only a few key games delivered voice capability: Space Spartans, Bomb Squad, B-17 Bomber (all three were launch titles), and later, Tron: Solar Sailer. The Intellivoice’s high cost, lack of a truly irresistible game, and overall poor sound quality meant this was one thing Atari didn’t have to find a way to answer with the 2600.

These events made it easier for Atari to further pull away from Mattel in the marketplace, and it did so—but not without a tremendous self-inflicted wound. A slew of new 2600 games arrived in the first part of 1982. Many important releases came in this period and those that followed, and we’ll get to those shortly. But there was one in particular that the entire story arc of the platform balanced on, and then fractured. It was more than a turning point; its repercussions reverberated throughout the then-new game industry, and to this day it sticks out as one of the key events that ultimately did in Atari.

The single biggest image-shattering event for the 2600—and Atari itself—was the home release of its Pac-Man cartridge. I can still feel the crushing disappointment even now. So many of my friends and I looked forward to this release. We had talked about it all the time in elementary school. Pac-Man was simply the hottest thing around in the arcades, and we dreamed of playing it at home as much as we wanted. The two-year wait for Atari to release the 2600 cartridge seemed like forever. Retailers bought into the hype as well. Toy stores battled for inventory, JC Penney and Kmart bought in big along with Sears and advertised on TV, and even local drug stores started stocking the game. And yet, what we got…wasn’t right.

Just about everyone knows how Pac-Man is supposed to work, but just in case: You gobble up dots to gain points while avoiding four ghosts. Eat a power pellet, and you can turn the tables on the ghosts, chase them down, and eat them. Each time you do so, the “eyes” of the ghost fly back to the center of the screen and the ghost regenerates. Eat all the dots and power pellets on the screen, and you progress to the next one, which gets harder. Periodically, a piece of fruit appears at the center of the screen. You can eat it for bonus points, and the kind of fruit denotes the level you are on (cherry, strawberry, orange, and so on).

But that’s not the game Atari 2600 owners saw. After securing the rights to the game from Namco, Atari gave programmer Tod Frye just five weeks to complete the conversion. The company had learned from its earlier mistakes and promised Frye a royalty on every cartridge manufactured (not sold), which was an improvement. But this was another mistake. The royalty plus the rushed schedule meant Frye made money even if the game wasn’t up to snuff, and thus Frye had incentive to complete it regardless. Atari also required the game to fit into just 4KB like older 2600 cartridges, rather than the newer 8KB size that was becoming much more common by this point. That profit-driven limitation heavily influenced the way Frye approached the design of the game. To top it all off, Atari set itself up for a colossal failure by producing some 12 million cartridges, even though there were only 10 million 2600 consoles in circulation at the time. The company was confident that not only would every single existing 2600 owner buy the game, but that 2 million new customers would buy the console itself just for this cartridge.

We all know how it turned out. The instruction manual sets the tone for the differences from the arcade early on. The game is now set in “Mazeland.” You eat video wafers instead of dots. Every time you complete a board, you get an extra life. The manual says you also earn points from eating power pills, ghosts, and “vitamins.” Something is definitely amiss.

Pac-Man himself always looks to the right or left, even if he is going up or down. The video wafers are long and rectangular instead of small, square dots. Fruits don’t appear periodically at the center of the screen. Instead, you get the aforementioned vitamin, a clear placeholder for what would have been actual fruit had there been more time to get it right. The vitamin always looks the same and is always worth 100 points, instead of increasing as you clear levels. The rest of the scoring is much lower than it is in the arcade. Gobbling up all four ghosts totals just 300 points, and each video wafer is worth just 1 point.

The ghosts have tremendous amounts of flicker, and they all look and behave identically, instead of having different colors, distinct personalities, and eyes that pointed in the right direction. The flicker was there for a reason. Frye used it to draw the four ghosts in successive frames with a single sprite graphic register, and drew Pac-Man every frame using the other sprite graphic register. The 2600’s TIA chip synchronizes with an NTSC television picture 60 times per second, so you end up seeing a solid Pac-Man, maze, and video wafers (I can still barely type “video wafers” with a straight face), but the ghosts are each lit only one quarter of the time. A picture tube’s phosphorescent glow takes a little bit to fade, and your eye takes a little while to let go of a retained image as well, but the net result is that the flicker is still quite visible.

It gets worse. The janky, gritty sound effects are bizarre, and the theme song is reduced to four dissonant chords. (Oddly, these sounds resurfaced in some movies over the next 20 years and were a default “go-to” for sound designers working in post-production.) The horizontally stretched maze is nothing like the arcade, either, and the escape routes are at the top and bottom instead of the sides. The maze walls aren’t even blue; they’re orange, with a blue background, because it’s been reported Atari had a policy that only space games could have black backgrounds (!). At this point, don’t even ask about the lack of intermissions.

One of Frye’s own mistakes is that he made Pac-Man a two-player game. “Tod used a great deal of memory just tracking where each player had left off with eaten dots, power pellets, and score,” wrote Goldberg and Vendel in Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Years later, when Frye looked at the code for the much more arcade-faithful 2600 Ms. Pac-Man, he saw the programmers were “able to use much more memory for graphics because it’s only a one player game.”

Interestingly, the game itself is still playable. Once you get past the initial huge letdown and just play it on its own merits, Pac-Man puts up a decent experience. It’s still “Pac-Man,” sort of, even if it delivers a rough approximation of the real thing as if it were seen and played through a straw. It’s worth playing today for nostalgia—after all, many of us played this cartridge to death anyway, because it was the one we had—and certainly as a historical curiosity for those who weren’t around for the golden age of arcades.

Many an Atari 2600 fan turned on the platform—and Atari in general—after the release of Pac-Man. Although the company still had plenty of excellent games and some of the best were yet to come, the betrayal was immediate and real and forever colored what much of the gaming public thought of Atari. The release of the Pac-Man cartridge didn’t curtail the 2600’s influence on the game industry by any means; we’ll visit many more innovations and developments as we go from here on out. But the 2600 conversion of Pac-Man gave the fledgling game industry its first template for how to botch a major title. It was the biggest release the Atari 2600 had and would ever see, and the company flubbed it about as hard as it could. It was New Coke before there was New Coke.

The next few games we’ll discuss further illustrate the quality improvements upstart third-party developers delivered, in comparison with Atari, which had clearly become too comfortable in its lead position. First up is Activision’s Grand Prix, which in hindsight was a bit of an odd way to design a racer . It’s a side-scroller on rails that runs from left to right, and is what racing enthusiasts call a time trial. Although other computer-controlled cars are on the track, you’re racing against the clock, not them, and you don’t earn any points or increase your position on track for passing them.

Gameplay oddities aside, the oversized Formula One cars are wonderfully detailed, with brilliant use of color and animated spinning tires. The shaded color objects were the centerpiece of the design, as programmer David Crane said in a 1984 interview. “When I developed the capability for doing a large multicolored object on the [2600’s] screen, the capability fitted the pattern of the top view of a Grand Prix race car, so I made a racing game out of it.” Getting the opposing cars to appear and disappear properly as they entered and exited the screen also presented a problem, as the 2600’s lack of a frame buffer came into play again. The way TIA works, the 2600 would normally just make the car sprite begin to reappear on the opposite side of the screen as it disappeared from one side. To solve this issue, Crane ended up storing small “slices” of the car in ROM, and in real time the game drew whatever portions of the car were required to reach the edge of the screen. The effect is smooth and impossible to detect while playing.

Shop On SecondCovers

.fejqi5b2beea7cb67e margin: 5px; padding: 0px; @media screen and (min-width: 1201px) .fejqi5b2beea7cb67e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) .fejqi5b2beea7cb67e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) .fejqi5b2beea7cb67e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) .fejqi5b2beea7cb67e display: block; @media screen and (max-width: 767px) .fejqi5b2beea7cb67e display: block;

The car accelerates over a fairly long period of time, and steps through simulated gears. Eventually it reaches a maximum speed and engine note, and you just travel along at that until you brake, crash into another car, or reach the finish line. As the manual points out, you don’t have to worry about cars coming back and passing you again, even if you crash. Once you pass them, they’re gone from the race.

The four game variations in Grand Prix are named after famous courses that resonate with racing fans (Watkins Glen, Brands Hatch, Le Mans, and Monaco). The courses bear no resemblance to the real ones; each game variation is simply longer and harder than the last. The tree-lined courses are just patterns of vehicles that appear on screen. Whenever you play a particular game variation, you see the same cars at the same times (unless you crash, which disrupts the pattern momentarily). The higher three variations include bridges, which you have to quickly steer onto or risk crashing. During gameplay, you get a warning in the form of a series of oil slicks that a bridge is coming up soon.

Although Atari’s Indy 500 set the bar early for home racing games on the 2600, Grand Prix demonstrated you could do one with a scrolling course and much better graphics. This game set the stage for more ambitious offerings the following year. And several decades later, people play games like this on their phones. We just call titles like Super Mario Run (a side-scroller) and Temple Run (3D-perspective) “endless runners,” as they have running characters instead of cars.

Activision soon became the template for other competing third-party 2600 developers. In 1981, Atari’s marketing vice president and a group of developers, including the programmers for Asteroids and Space Invaders on the console, started a company called Imagic. The company had a total of nine employees at the outset. Its name was derived from the words “imagination” and “magic”—two key components of every cartridge the company planned to release. Imagic games were known for their high quality, distinctive chrome boxes and labels, and trapezoidal cartridge edges. As with Activision, most Imagic games were solid efforts with an incredible amount of polish and were well worth purchasing.

Although Imagic technically became the second third-party developer for the 2600, the company’s first game didn’t arrive until March 1982. Another company, Games by Apollo, beat it to the punch by starting up in October 1981 and delivering its first (mediocre) game, Skeet Shoot, before the end of the year.

But when that first Imagic game did arrive, everyone noticed.

At first glance, the visually striking Demon Attack looks kind of like a copy of the arcade game Phoenix, at least without the mothership screen (something it does gain in the Intellivision port). But the game comes into its own the more you play it. You’re stuck on the planet Krybor. Birdlike demons dart around and shoot clusters of lasers down toward you at the bottom of the screen. Your goal is to shoot the demons all out of the sky, wave after wave.

The playfield is mostly black, with a graded blue surface of the planet along the bottom of the screen. A pulsing, beating sound plays in the background. It increases in pitch the further you get into each level, only to pause and then start over with the next wave. The demons themselves are drawn beautifully, with finely detailed, colorful designs that are well animated and change from wave to wave. Every time you complete a wave, you get an extra life, to a maximum of six.

On later waves, the demons divide in two when shot, and are worth double the points. You can shoot the smaller demons, or just wait—eventually each one swoops down toward your laser cannon, back and forth until it reaches the bottom of the screen, at which point it disappears from the playfield. Shoot it while it’s diving and you get quadruple points. In the later stages, demons also shoot longer, faster clusters of lasers at your cannon.

The game is for one or two players, though there’s a cooperative mode that lets you take turns against the same waves of demons. There are also variations of the game that let you shoot faster lasers, as well as tracer shots that you can steer into the demons. After 84 waves, the game ends with a blank screen, though reportedly a later run of this cartridge eliminates that and lets you play indefinitely. If I were still nine years old, I could probably take a couple of days out of summer and see if this is true. I am no longer nine years old.

Demon Attack was one of Imagic’s first three games, along with Trick Shot and Star Voyager. Rob Fulop, originally of Atari fame and one of Imagic’s four founders, programmed Demon Attack. In November 1982, Atari sued Imagic because of Demon Attack’s similarity to Phoenix, the home rights of which Atari had purchased from Centuri. The case was eventually settled. Billboard magazine listed Demon Attack as one of the 10 best-selling games of 1982. It was also Imagic’s best-selling title, and Electronic Games magazine awarded it Game of the Year.

“The trick to the Demon Attack graphics was it was the first game to use my Scotch-taped/rubber-banded dedicated 2600 sprite animation authoring tool that ran on the Atari 800,” Fulop said in 1993. “The first time Michael Becker made a little test animation and we ran Bob Smith’s utility that successfully squirted his saved sprite data straight into the Demon Attack assembly code and it looked the same on the [2600] as it did on the 800 was HUGE! Before that day, all 2600 graphics ever seen were made using a #2 pencil, a sheet of graph paper, a lot of erasing, and a list of hex codes that were then retyped into the source assembly code, typically introducing a minimum of two pixel errors per eight-by-eight graphic stamp.”

Although you can draw a line from Space Invaders to just about any game like this, Demon Attack combines that with elements of Galaga and Phoenix, with a beautiful look and superb gameplay all its own.

A watershed moment in video game history, David Crane’s Pitfall! was one of the best games released for the 2600. As Pitfall Harry, your goal is to race through the jungle and collect 32 treasures—money bags, silver bars, gold bars, and diamond rings, worth from 2,000 to 5,000 points each. Jump and grab vines, and you soar over lakes, quicksand, and alligators, complete with a Tarzan-style “yell.” You can stumble on a rolling log or fall into a hole, both of which just dock you some points. Each time you fall into quicksand or a tar pit, drown in a lake, burn in a fire, or get eaten by an alligator or scorpion, you lose a life. When that happens, you start the next one by dropping from the trees on the left side of the screen to keep playing.

Pushing the joystick left or right makes Pitfall Harry run. He picks up treasure automatically. Holding the stick in either direction while pressing the button makes him jump, either over an obstacle or onto a swinging vine (running into the vine without jumping also works). Push down while swinging to let go of the vine. You also can push up or down to climb ladders.

In an incredible feat of programming, the game contains 255 screens, with the 32 treasures scattered throughout them. The world loops around once you reach the last screen. Although Adventure pioneered the multiroom map on the 2600, Pitfall! was a considerably larger design. Crane fit the game into the same 4KB ROM as Adventure. But rather than storing all 255 screens as part of the ROM—which wouldn’t have fit—Crane’s solution was not to store the world in ROM at all. Instead, the world is generated by code, the same way each time. This is similar to games like Rogue, but even in that case, the game generates the world and then stores it during play. Pitfall! generates each screen via an algorithm, using a counter that increments in a pseudorandom sequence that is nonetheless consistent and can be run forwards or backwards. The 8 bits of each number in the counter sequence define the way the board looks. Bits 0 through 2 are object patterns, bits 3 through 5 are ground patterns, bits 6 and 7 cover the trees, and bit 7 also affects the underground pattern. This way, the world is generated the same way each and every single time. When you leave one screen, you always end up on the same next screen.

“The game was a jewel, a perfect world incised in a mere [4KB] of code,” Nick Montfort wrote in 2001 in Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971-1984.

You get a total of three lives, and Crane points out in the manual that you need to use some of the underground passages (which skip three screens ahead instead of one) to complete the game on time. The inclusion of two on-screen levels—above ground and below ground, with ladders connecting them—makes the game an official platformer. And the game even gives you some say in where to go and what path you take to get there. Pitfall Harry is smoothly animated, and the vines deliver a genuine sensation of swinging even though the game is in 2D.

The game’s 20-minute timer, which approximates the 22-minute length of a standard half-hour television show, marked a milestone for console play. It was much longer than most arcade games and even cartridges like Adventure, which you could complete in a few minutes. The extra length allows for more in-depth play.

“Games in the early ’80s primarily used inanimate objects as main characters,” Crane said in a 2011 interview. “Rarely there would be a person, but even those weren’t fully articulated. I wanted to make a game character that could run, jump, climb, and otherwise interact with an on-screen world.” Crane spent the next couple of years tinkering with the idea before finally coming up with Pitfall!. “[After] only about 10 minutes I had a sketch of a man running on a path through the jungle collecting treasures. Then, after ‘only’ 1,000 hours of pixel drawing and programming, Pitfall Harry came to life.”

Crane said he had already gone beyond that 4KB ROM limit and back within it many times over hundreds of hours. Right before release, he was asked to add additional lives. “Now I had to add a display to show your number of lives remaining, and I had to bring in a new character when a new life was used.” The latter was easy, Crane said, because Pitfall Harry already knew how to fall and stop when he hit the ground. Crane just dropped him from behind the tree cover. “For the ‘Lives’ indicator I added vertical tally marks to the timer display. That probably only cost 24 bytes, and with another 20 hours of ‘scrunching’ the code I could fit that in.”

Pitfall! couldn’t have been timed more perfectly, as Raiders of the Lost Ark was the prior year’s biggest movie. The cartridge delivered the goods; it became the best-selling home video game of 1982 and it’s often credited as the game that kickstarted the platformer genre. Pitfall! held the top spot on Billboard’s chart for 64 consecutive weeks. “The fine graphic sense of the Activision design team greatly enriches the Pitfall! experience,” Electronic Games magazine wrote in January 1983, on bestowing the cartridge Best Adventure Videogame. “This is as richly complex a video game as you’ll find anywhere…Watching Harry swing across a quicksand pit on a slender vine while crocodiles snap their jaws frantically in a futile effort to tear off a little leg-of-hero snack is what video game adventures are all about.” Pitfall!’s influence is impossible to overstate. From Super Mario Bros. to Prince of Persia to Tomb Raider, it was the start of something huge.