#I really should take another crack at this game - I got stuck probably near-ish the end and was too proud to look up a walkthrough haha

[sysig]

(Requestober) Could you draw something with Virgil from Portal Stories: Mel?? I played the game recently and he was my absolute favorite- such a fun design and personality! Maybe something where he's hanging out with Wheatley or Mel or the rainbow core? I was SO mad they made the player leave him at the end, so just anything where he gets to have a friend, really.

Day 6 - Still together

[purplesurveys]

592

Let's start off with some basics. Cool, I haven’t started off a survey with basics in a while. What's your name? Robyn, but y’all who have stuck around for a while know that already. How old are you? 21. What's your hair and eye color? Hair’s black, eye color’s dark brown/black-ish. How tall are you? I’m pretty certain I’m 5′1. What's your relationship status? In one. Alright, enough of that. Let's move on to the random shit.

What's your favorite song? Uhhh at the moment it’s Sam Smith’s cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. They did their own twist to it and it sounds incredible. It would probably take a bit to get used to in 2019, but once you warm up to the sound, the cover is just brilliant. What does that song mean? What is the message behind it? It’s a disco song, the lyrics just repeat for three straight minutes and is not supposed to be any deeper than ‘I feel love.’ Is it your favorite because you relate to it, or do you just like the beat? I love the beat, the sound, and what Sam offered to the song. Have any pets? If so, what are they and what's their names? Yes, I have a cute Santa Claus-outfit-wearing dog at the moment :)) His name is Kimi. Have you ever met your idol? I have never met Kristen Stewart, AJ Lee, Hayley Williams, nor Beyoncé. And I’d most likely pass even if there was a chance to meet any of them; I’m too afraid that I’d mess up in front of them. If so, were they nice or were they kind of an ass? What's your favorite method of gaming? (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc) I don’t play a lot myself but I do enjoy watching games on Nintendo or Playstation consoles. If you're in college, what's your major and why did you pick it? I’m in journalism. I picked it because I thought it’s what I wanted to pursue back in high school. I was good at writing and loved telling stories, the obvious path was towards journ so I don’t hate myself or regret picking such a major. But through the years I’ve learned to hate it more and more though – my interests lie within public relations and advertising now, a complete 180 from the world of journalism. How're you doing today? A little too early to be asking that, it’s 7:43 in the morning. I do feel quite nice because classes ended up being suspended today due to the incoming typhoon, but otherwise it’s just mostly meh for now. What color are your bedroom walls? They’re white. Describe your favorite shirt. Right now my favorite shirt is a halter tank top I got for ₱50 at a small tiangge booth in Feliz, hahaha. I just wish I could wear it everyday without anyone judging because I look cute in it. Use this space to tell someone off. I don’t think anyone I know deserves that at the moment. What's your view on smart watches? Cool or a waste of money? Waste of money, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting one lmao. What is one poster that you have hanging on your bedroom wall of? I still have that damn poster of Nam Joo Hyuk up near my bed lol. I haven’t seen a k-drama since 2017, but I’m just too lazy to take it down. How many times have you moved in your life? That I can remember? Two. I think we moved a couple times more when I was an infant. If you moved, do you like where you are now better than where you were? It’s definitely more peaceful, quiet, and much much cleaner in our house; but there are days where I still miss having my cousins and grandma under the same roof. What's your favorite color and why? Pastel pink. It’s pleasant to the eyes and looks good on most stuff. My wallet,  purse, main school notebook, one of my highlighters, my phone case, clipboard, backpack, and shoulder bag are all that color hahahaha Do you have a calendar? If so, what's the theme? I have one on my phone; I don’t really need a physical one. No theme because I don’t think my phone allows me to customize my calendar anyway. Have any famous person's autographs? I have AJ’s from a signed poster that I bought like 5-6 years ago from WWEShop. Was never actually sure if she actually signed it but it’s always easier to believe that. Do you draw well? That’s the worst thing I can do, or try to do at that. What type of cell phone do you have? I have an iPhone 8. Should you be doing anything else right now or are you just bored? I am actually supposed to be working on final requirements, but they’re all for my newspaper layout class and I cannot be ASSED to open Adobe InDesign and work on some dumb layout stuff right now. If you're in school/college, what's your favorite subject and why? This semester my favorite class is Kasaysayan 117, or Social History of the Philippines (‘Kasaysayan’ means history in Filipino). Social history veers away from the typical elite/heroes/war/colonization/what have you narratives that history books typically go with, and focuses instead on the developments of, say, gender, education, illnesses, and religion in the country. It basically focuses on the everyday life of the ordinary citizen, which I find more interesting and relatable than war stories. I certainly wish I can take this class more than once. Are you a cat or a dog person? Why? Dog person. They’re friendly and sweet and silly and will always stay by your side, which I love. I have never been able to connect with cats and finally at one point, trying just tired me out completely lmao HISS at me then, sis Tell me about the plot of your favorite book. Not my favorite, but definitely a memorable one – Scarlett O’Hara is in love with some dude named Leslie who’s married to his first cousin. Scarlett ends up gunning after him for a good chunk of time, even as she marries Rich Guy Rhett Butler and has a kid with him. Eventually [spoiler] kid dies and Rhett realizes Scarlett never cared for her just as Scarlett realizes she loves Rhett. Not a good ending for Scarlett. Bunch of people die. Oh and all of this takes place during the Civil War. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Glasses. I flinch at the idea of putting anything anywhere near my eye, so contacts are a no-no for me. What do you think about horror movies? It’s a hit or miss most of the time. Great genre with some even greater hits, though. If you love them (I do), what's your favorite? Misery or The Shining. Cliché picks, but I personally enjoyed both so why not. Got any cool Christmas presents picked out for family or friends yet? I dunno about ‘cool’ but I got Gabie a Hydro Flask water bottle and I’m SO excited for her to get it because she’s always been envious of mine and she’s always talking about wanting one because water tastes so crisp and fresh from those bottles. It’s kind of a bittersweet story for me though – I lost my own Hydro Flask a day after I got hers. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Do you do Black Friday shopping or wait for Cyber Monday? I do neither of those things because I’m from the Philippines and we have no idea what those holidays(?) mean. Have any mental illnesses? I’m sure I do, I just have never gotten myself checked. What's your favorite word and why? I’m not really obsessed with any right now. What is the most expensive thing you own, and what is it? It’s either my laptop or my phone...I’m not sure how much they were; my parents paid for both. Although I’m guessing the phone cost more because it was the newest in the iPhone line at the time of their purchase. Did you buy that item yourself? Hahahaha, nope. Super grateful to my parents for getting it for me despite knowing I have the tendency to crack and break all the phones I own. This current one is staying strong, though! Where do you work and what is your postion? I don’t have a job yet but I’m part of two organizations in college, if that counts. I’m the vice president for external affairs in my journalism org and associate editor in our graduating batch’s yearbook club. How often do you cuss? Probably once every few hours? Definitely way less than when I was an angsty, feisty, annoying little teenager lmao. What type of car do you drive, if any? I have a Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback. Are you happy with it? If no, what's your dream car? I’m happy with it; it’s small, convenient, and easy to drive. My dream car is something just as small but a little more fancy, so I’m wishing for a Mini haha. Do you have a lot of social media accounts? Which ones? Nah I just have three main ones – Twitter, Facebook, and this Tumblr. I’ve made accounts on other apps like Snapchat and Instagram, but I stopped using the former and I never use the latter. What is your favorite genre of music? I don’t have one. Does your family have holiday traditions? If so, what are they? It’s not a unique tradition but we go to my grand-aunt’s house and we do Monito-Monita, which is essentially a Filipino Secret Santa. We fix ourselves in a circle and when you’re It, you have to dance/walk/prance around with your gift while everyone sings the monito-monita song (which I’m too lazy to expound on, lol). When the song ends, you have to hand your ‘baby’ their gift. If you're in a relationship, are you happy with it? Yes. How long have you been with your significant other? Three years, but that’ll change to four by February. Do you like psychology? (It's my college major). I love it. It’s one of my the-one-that-got-away courses, along with history. I wanted to have a glimpse of psych by taking a psychology elective once, but I got a bad prof and never got in the mood to take another elective again, so that’s a shame. What is something your state is popularly known for? We don’t have states, we just have provinces and cities. Antipolo is known for their delicacies such as kasoy, suman, and latik. Do you like to do craft projects? If so, what's the coolest thing you made? Kind of? I don’t like anything I have to sculpt or mold myself; but lately I’ve been into paint-by-number kits and I asked Gab to get me a couple of them as a Christmas gift. It’ll help with my seasonal depression, so I’m excited to be preoccupied during the holiday break. Do you watch sports or do you think they're overrated? I don’t think they’re overrated. I just don’t find most of them interesting to watch. What's one occupation you think gets paid too much and doesn't deserve to? TROLLS Do you straighten your hair? No. Ever dyed your hair a color that isn't natural? (blue, pink, etc) I haven’t dyed it at all. How's your relationship with your parents? We have a best friends-type of relationship in that we banter and not opposed to insulting each other and cursing in front of one another, but I don’t let them know me any deeper than surface-level. The angst and trauma I developed due to my mom being horrid to me when I was younger permanently kept me from ever desiring a soft, emotional, intimate bond with her. And as for my dad, well he’s worked overseas all my life and I only get to see him once or twice a year, so it’s easy to understand why I have not developed a super super SUPER close bond with him as well. Do you still live with them or do you have your own house? I live with them but I’d love to have my own place soon. What's something you are currently saving money for to buy? More Christmas gifts for loved ones. I’ve only bought gifts for my girlfriend so far. Do you smoke/vape? If so, what brand do you smoke/what device do you use? I vape, but don’t smoke. Gab gave me her vape pen which is from a brand named Smok, because she soon learned after vaping a few times that she’s asthmatic. :( I do get disposable vape pens from Vedfun which I honestly prefer more, though. Ever done drugs? Other than painkillers, no. Tell me one of your worst habits. Letting myself go hungry because I’m a little obsessed with the thought of saving money. What's a weird quirk you have that no one else you know does? I have to lock my car doors three times in a row before I feel entirely secure. If you game, what type of headset do you use? What type of computer do you own, and do you like it? I have a Macbook Air, and I love it. What's the thing that annoys you the most? Metro Manila traffic. What brand of TV do you have? All of our TVs are Samsung, I think. Are you excited for Christmas? (It's December 1st today when I made this) I can take it or leave it. Tell me about your favorite vacation you've taken. Sagada x Baguio last 2014. I was hurting a lot that time because of recent shitty events that all happened to me, but the climate, the nature, and the peace and quiet allowed me to recharge and let everything out. It helped that there was a movie that had just come out then called That Thing Called Tadhana (Fate) wherein the lead girl was going through the same stuff I did, then she took a bus trip to Sagada, stood on top of a cliff, and yelled and cried her heart out. I set out to do the same (I didn’t scream though, just cry haha) and it was a good release. I’ll never forget that trip because I had never been more in touch with myself and allowed myself to be that raw until that week.

Tell me something cool about yourself. [continued all the way from 7 AM because I just got lazy for the rest of the morning. It’s now 4:41 PM.] Anyone outside of pro wrestling will probably not find this cool but I’ve been acknowledged by all three of my all-time favorite female figures in the industry (retweeted by AJ Lee, followed by Natalya, greeted happy birthday by Stephanie McMahon). All three are memories I’ll cherish forever. Did/do you get good grades in school/college? Not so much in grade school, because I was admittedly irresponsible and my elders didn’t pay much attention to my study habits, either. I got better in high school, but I still made sure not to tire myself out because I knew the grades I’d get then literally wouldn’t matter in college. Now that I’m in college and for once the grades DO matter, I’m working 15 times as hard and getting good grades throughout. What's your ringtone on your phone? They’re all ringtones provided by Apple. What's your favorite store to shop in? For clothes, independent stores would do. They can sell a tank top for ₱50 (1 USD) that I would otherwise find in H&M for like, ₱299 (6 USD) lmao. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy and why? I’d pay off my parents’ various purchases like our house and cars so that the guilt doesn’t eat me up when I treat myself. How long have you had a Bzoink account? I don’t have a Bzoink account, but I’ve been using it to find surveys since 2008. My survey habit started veeeeery early, y’all.

Ever been to Field of Screams? If so, what's your favorite attraction? I have not. I’m not even sure I know what that is. Do you own a Polaroid camera? I don’t. Do you have hardwood floor in your room or carpet? Hardwood. It's a Saturday night, what are you typically doing? Taking surveys or catching up with work. Do you have a lot of friends or do you not have any at all? I have a lot, fortunately. College taught me to open up my circle. What's your all time favorite movie and why? Two for the Road. It just clicks with me. Audrey and Albert very both very passionate in their roles and their tandem worked amazingly to bring the story to life.

How many blankets do you sleep with at night? Just one. What's the last TV show you watched? Did you enjoy it? Queer Eye; I made Gab watch the Jones Bar-B-Q episode which is usually cited as one of the best of the series. I loved watching it the second time. Do you prefer cable TV or do you use Netflix? I use Netflix; I haven’t tuned in to cable TV for a good 4-5 years maybe. What is your dream job and why? Working somewhere in WWE. That company’s been a part of my life for...welp, my whole life. A part of me just feels as though I HAVE to end up there. Do you think you would be a good therapist? I know I’m a good listener and that I can read body language and signals quite well, but I don’t think I’d want people to dump their burdens and rants on me. What's your favorite brand of clothing? H&M. Did you like this survey? Sure!

[uni-linked-verse]

Three people in four days? AND working on the finally character? Motivation. Here’s Minish!

Games; Minish Cap / Four Swords

Name; Link, Hero of Four

Nickname; Shortstack, Minish (preferred)

Pronouns & Gender; He/Him, Cis Male

Age; 20

Height; 4′10

Defining Features/Traits; Mumbles to self at times. Has googles somewhere on his body at all times. Small burns marks on his forearms, his cheeks, and his jaw.

Skin Tone & Reasoning; Golden. Since Minish is a Blacksmith (here and in canon), he is around fire constantly. It is a little tricky to explain why he would be darker, but since he more than likely works around a window and works near fire, his skin is going to tan a lot when he’s forging.

Hair Color & Reasoning; Dirty Honey Blonde. Within ‘Minish Cap’, his hair color seems brighter than it really should. If he’s a Blacksmith, more than likely, he’s going to have soot on his body and hair. It would probably take a little too long to clean his hair and body of soot, so it takes the dirty color.

Eye Color & Reasoning; Grey-ish Blue. It doesn’t show his eye color within game, but I feel like it would take on a grey color naturally and look well with him.

Jewlery & Reasoning; Doesn't wear jewelry. I feel like he wouldn't wear it after a few got burnt up from the fire while working.

Extra Accessories & Reasoning; Goggles that his grandfather made for him, with a diamond connecting the straps to the main body, the diamond having the four colors of his headmates. Owns a book from the Minish called 'Hyrule Historia', which is a magical book that can pull up any moment within history, responding to Minish's voice, can also change Minish into a Minish. The goggles because he's a Blacksmith, and grandpa Smith would 100% do that. The book is completely improved thought that stuck.

Corruption; Redacted

Extra Info; Minish is a system, with five separate personalities. Minish is a host, the main host that’s seen out a lot, but he isn’t the only host. He stays out as to not confuse anyone around him, but has gone away from a few days out of time to stay out of the light. He is the Blacksmith, not much of an adventurer. Green (He/Him) is another host, the second host to Minish. He comes out a lot more during combat, ready to fight and take on anything in front of him. He isn’t combative as a person, rather quick with movements and calculated with his surroundings. When he’s out during a normal situation, he’ll mimic Minish as much as possible, especially when it comes to his stance and speaking. Green doesn’t speak often, only when he absolutely has to. Blue (They/Him) is more of a puzzle solver. Place him in a situation where it requires complicated thinking, they’re on it to solve it. They don’t come out often, and usually co-front with Green or Vio rather than stay out by themselves. Really skilled with using a boomerang and bombs. Vio (He/Him) is more cold than anything. He has the easiest time saying ‘no’ to anything that could put the others in grave danger, and more often than not, throws himself in the way to protect anyone else. Although he is cold, he can read other people’s emotions well and know what other people want to hear, but he is also very cocky and sometimes ego-tistical. Red (She/Him) is an overthinker, very nervous of everything around him and anxious. She holds a lot of insecurities and overall anxiety about what others think. Any sort of criticism hits him hard, and while she doesn't come out often, she stay in the headspace and talks a good bit. Her coping mechanism with dealing with her anxiety is through jokes and making others laugh, so whenever she comes out and starts cracking jokes, it's an internal battle of anxiety. His grandfather is the only person to know about Green, Blue, Vio, and Red. Gets very seasick and airsick.

Edit; #1- I forgot a detail in the extra details.

[mantra4ia]

The Last Jedi: Hopes / Reactions / Afterthoughts / IX

spoilers lie ahead

What I hoped for:

I didn’t come in with a ton of expectation because I didn’t want to ruin the film for myself with inner monologue ficlets. That said, the things I wanted…

A snapshot of Young-Young Ben Solo - more than just the near death flashback with Kylo and Luke where we get a one-sided tale, then another, and somewhere in the middle we find the truth - to balance out the Force Vision in TFA of Young Rey being pawned on Jakku. I’m not too broken up about this not being fulfilled because I appreciate the cut of this film. The reason I think it shoulda-woulda-coulda been important is because what I’ve been reading from Adam Driver’s acting choices opposite Daisy Ridley and his dare-I-say-empathy for her isolation is that even though Kylo is going after power unabashedly now, I don’t think that’s how it always was. I feel like maybe Ben felt somehow abandoned by Leia and Han to his uncle Luke’s training, and therefore young Ben would have been gratifying to see for a minute, just to see whether or not he wanted to be trained or went with reluctance and insecurity and therefore shares another layer with Rey.

Knowing Rey’s parentage - I’m actually really satisfied that Rey’s acceptance played out a) culminating with Kylo and b) that her parents are just a pair of grifters who traded her for a portion or other (granted SW has a long-standing precedent of cloak and dagger lineage herrings). In this instance regardless of speculation, I don’t think Kylo lied to Rey because of this moment has really been simmering slowly from the start of TFA based on what Rey already feels (kind of like she’s known all along) and what Maz Kenyata told her in TFA to the effect of there’s nothing left for you looking back, they’re not coming back, and poetically from Rey’s own introduction. Her first interaction is trading scrap for rations, and in her Force vision it sounds like the voice of the same scrap merchant that she barters with is restraining her, like she has indeed been indentured to him.

Force Ghosts - game, set, light it up Yoda! This one was really an intuitive ace, but it was better than I anticipated.

Rey undergoing some formal training whether from Luke or elsewhere, and begin to form opinions on the Force. Here’s where I’m kind of salty. I don’t think Luke’s 3 lessons for Rey were enough (I could have blinked and missed them) to test her/ push her hard / sweat her physically, which is what I wanted and what I still hope for in IX - although VIII did a good job putting Rey through the ropes mentally/psychologically. I want to really see her Force acuity and find insight into how deep it goes and why, but that said I like that Last Jedi put Rey through a lot more informal life lesson training hand in hand with and by Kylo.

I would have liked a bit more time spent on Luke reflecting on his friendship with Han Solo (the first question out of his mouth was “where’s Han?” for goodness sake), but those dice were really a great touch…

Stakes set high - holy Kenobi did TLJ deliver. There were a couple weird pace moments with the space retreat, at times it felt urgent and other times it felt like watching the longest deep space car chase in slo-mo. But what I will say is the Paige Tiko scene wins at setting the bar for how VERY not good things are going for the rebels.

More of General Organa - We did get this in a big way and I dig it to the depths. Yoda, can you imagine all the opportunities you might have had schooling Leia in the Force?!

The tag team up:  I really loved the fight in the throne room and the ‘light’ reveal that turned out to really be the ‘dark’ reveal, not only because of the Rey / Kylo dynamic but also because of the strong emotional similarities between Kylo and Luke that came to fruition for me as an audience member while watching the Guard getting leveled. 

What I got that I didn’t even know I wanted!

Sassy Yoda: oh my God he’s such a salty troll, I love that Star Wars is really weird and strange in this film and I loved when Yoda blew up the temple tree. “Page turners they were not” is perfection.

Curmudgeon/Sass master Luke: “Laser sword” and “Everything you said was wrong” is smart, breaking the 4th wall ish commentary. His shtick with ‘reach out’ and the reed of grass while training Rey was awesome. Also, I kind of like him throwing the lightsaber when Rey first gives it to him. Yes it is precious to fans. Yes it was once precious to him, through its connection with Ben Kenobi and his father Darth Vader. But Luke’s been through decades of failure and heartbrek and loss - he’s allowed to be less precious and more jaded. However “see you around kid” was a nice touch, along with his interaction with C3PO and R2 to round out his softer, youthful nature.

Speaking of - R2 not fighting fair with the originally Leia/Obiwan message - expertly done, very character driven.

Failure: I never thought I could see so many plans go sideways (Finn and Rose in the casino, Poe’s almost mutiny, Rey’s #SaveBenSolo plan) or almost sideways (bombing the Dreadnaught, the resistance escape PlanetSide) in a Star Wars movie just like real life.

The evolution of force powers. More on this further down,

Meh - Things that I didn’t like as much:

The beginning Poe humor, on hold for Hux, only because he’s not Harrison Ford/Han Solo, and the execution takes me out of ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far far away’ and smacks me with the present. Good humor attempts, though not all of them were necessary or stuck the landing.

Useless Hux: make this dude more menacing or at least more troublesome to Kylo. He had the potential to be an interesting character and now I feel like he’s just the butt of jokes.

The Porgs: I liked them, but used in such a way to sell toys they were.

Canto Bight: I see the purpose this planet-side excursion served to introduce us to the young, oppressed, and force attuned, and to galvanize Finn truly finding a place of belonging as “Rebel scum!” and I find the war profiteering angle very interesting. However, there’s a two-fold problem in the Casino arc apart from the fact that the lapel pin on the code breaker felt Bond, not Star Wars: we didn’t really spend enough time there to explore the corruption, creatures, etc, and I didn’t really want to given the pace of the rest of the film. So it just became a rushed side story which didn’t do the film or Canto any favors.. It might make a good short story, but I would much rather have had Rose, who’s very savvy, try to be a could breaker herself than her and Finn seeking one out.

Benicio Del Toro’s character: I liked his lines (they get you today, you get him tomorrow) and his concept as a neutral profiteer, I just don’t think they integrated him into the story well. I don’t care for him as a codebreaker, I think he should have just been a weapon’s dealer Maz connected them to just smuggle Rose and Finn onto the ship, and it would still set up the double cross

Rose’s crush on Finn: I like the line that accompanies the crush, “it’s not destroying what you hate but saving what you love” however the fact that these feelings pop up in the last act so abruptly mid battle is jarring and out of place.

Back to the throne room: Despite the fact that I adored this moment, it made me realize a couple things. 1) I wish the guard had roughed Kylo and Rey up just a little more, being that they are an elite anti-Jedi force. 2) I think that if the Force could manifest, it really would smack / have had it with both Ben and Rey the moment they split Luke/Anakin’s lightsaber. I mean together they could be in / reflect the Force balance but after all this time we’re always still stuck in human constructed light and dark mentalities like nah, forget balance when we could be right. Aggggh, the Force must be so done. 3) There are strong emotional similarities between Kylo and Luke at the very end of the scene when Kylo implores Rey to join him that I wish the film would have played on more in the final dual between the two Skywalkers. For about half the film they think more or less identically: let the past die, kill it if you have to (Luke essentially saying let me die, let the Jedi religion die, let the hubris die, Kylo saying let the emotional tethers be severed, the mistakes buried, and archaic rules be destroyed because I was only ever taught that they must be obeyed but not why, however both arguments are sides of the same coin). Luke turns out of that spiral only through the help of his friends, and I wish Luke had managed to spell out the connection to his former pupil, instead of just being a target of ire for Kylo and paraphrasing to Leia “I’m here to confront him, not bring him home.” Because for me there’s a moment at the end of the fight with the Guard where I hesitated because it did not seem like Kylo was automatically going to stay with the Dark. He ended Snoke, and I subjectively thought Kylo wants to wash his hands of both the old hierarchies - again let the past die - and strike out new with Rey (albeit still power-seeking, but not necessarily aligned with a side) when he said “please” as beseechingly as he did. Because during that fight Kylo was so in tune with Rey he seemed for once smooth and in balance, and only when she says “no" did I sense him make a decision to switch tracks to “Rey killed Snoke and I’m Supreme Leader now.” But at that pivotal moment, I don’t think being a sole leader is what Kylo wanted, even if that meant he was supreme. I’m probably wrong, but that’s what I took from Adam Driver’s choice with the character, and I wanted Luke to take one last psychological crack at Ben through that shared mentality.

Things I hope IX will address and questions I had from TLJ:

Will we time jump ahead a few years? Will we deal with Carrie Fisher’s untimely passing by showing Leia’s funeral? When I think of a Star Wars processional I have got to say one of the things the prequels did well was Padme’s funeral, and I imagine it would be a touching, iconic visual to have an onscreen parallel with General Organa, but depending on the state of the Resistance and whether or not they’re still in tatters when the curtain rises on the next episode, I don’t think we’re going to see it on screen. That said, if there is a formal funeral assembly, I’d like it to serve the dual purpose of marking her passing as well as the response to the distress signal at the end of TLJ by introducing us to some of the new generation of force sensitive people in attendance. I think it would be poetic, if executed well, for her funeral to also be that focal point where the galaxy answers the call. 

Luke Skywalker, force ghost? - Well he did say “See you around kid.” I think it would be interesting if Luke ‘haunts’ the hell out of Ben in IX in some way, like the weeds of a conscience. I think it is almost necessary to have Luke more involved since Carrie Fisher passed. I would also love to see the Force Ghost of Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, because Obi is Ben’s namesake I should think, and Anakin was for so long his idol, and it’s about time to give these two actors (Ewan and Hayden) a shot outside the prequels i.m.h.o.

Rey and the training of new Jedi - I would like to see Rey create a new text of lessons for the Jedi order to accompany the old artifacts she stole as she gathers, maybe not necessarily formally trains, a new generation of the Force attune. And, apart from broom kid, I would love to see a range in age and walks of life for those Jedi, plucked from their daily routine with “non-traditional” arcs to their training in the same vein as Luke, if we see the training aspect at all. 

Give me the Knights of Ren - pleeeeeease!

Will Kylo take an Apprentice as the new Supreme Leader like precedence has set before him? I hesitate to give a solid yes for three reasons: a) based on his pitch to Rey, Kylo really pushes back on the old ways on principle alone, so I think the idea of an apprentice is somewhat repugnant to him, and it would be hard for him to have an apprentice until he is fully in control of himself and his Young-Anakin-esque rage. Based on the end of VIII, some time needs to pass for Kylo to become controlled, calculated leader, willing to share without deep mistrust of others, and rightly so given the journey that has made him Kylo Ren. b) I think he’s also a bit Rey-or-bust at this point because when he felt that tether to her at the end of VIII and she rebuked him it may have soured him to a future pupil. c) I think Kylo will be impacted by Luke in this aspect above all others, by which I mean determined to be a better ‘master’ than Luke was to him. However I think one or more of three things will undermine Kylo should he take on a pupil. Either he will have frustrations with the traditions of mentorship and/or the recollection of Rey’s refusal that will come out misdirected at his apprentice and create tension between them, and/or Hux will be a poisonous whisper in his apprentice’s ear, and/or my favorite imagined scenario is that Kylo senses the pull of light in his apprentice and he is trapped in the internal struggle that’s not “do I kill him” because that’s too easy to answer, but rather of “do I snuff out the light, even if that puts me eye to eye with uncle Luke, the man I say I hate, the man I don’t want to be Or do I risk the alternative.” I think Kylo might* take an apprentice (55/45), but if he does it will be his undoing. 

Will there be redemption by deed, by consequence, or by death for Kylo? Is there no redemption possible? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think Adam Driver said it best - and at the core of it this is why I have always loved antagonistic characters. Paraphrasing: Evil for it’s own sake is very flat. At the risk of sounding cliche, I don’t think Kylo sees himself as evil, and when I play him I don’t see myself that way but rather but as right. In the same sense, I think that stories without the hope of redemption are boring by comparison to the alternative. And I think that if Kylo doesn’t think in terms of good and evil, but right and wrong, then he already thinks like Rey. It’s only a matter of getting him to consider for a moment the possibility that he is wrong which could set tide of the Force into motion to rock him.

Who, if any, will reinforce the small 10-ish man Resistance that are left? Are there other factions against the First Order that will back them? I’m firmly in the #LandoforIX camp, and what other non-Rebel  civilian aid might evolve the Resistance that’s now presumably under Poe’s leadership.

State of the Galaxy in IX? Divisions / factions starting to form in the First Order maybe, courtesy of Hux. I don’t know, there are so many rich options.

Also, side note, I hope they revisit Maz Kenata’s line from TFA in the next Episode where she says “same eyes…different people” because I think there’s more to play with and more full circle yet to come, and I was surprised how little that character was featured and how her line didn’t come up in some form in The Last Jedi.

Lastly, I love broom kid, because that’s the spark catching. For as many times as they said spark in the film, the spark is only good if it takes hold onto something. Yes it was Disney, but it served a purpose. I hope we see him again.

The new force projection/visitation power: was it always there and Jedi masters never used it (that would make for a few plot holes), or because the Force is referred to as a religion and, to the best of my knowledge, is living/organic/natural (lots of pastors will speak similarly of the Bible), is this a natural development that the Force recently evolved as a product of time? Also, have force ghosts always been able to blow stuff up, because if so than ghosts of many Jedi should have had a field day.

I’m a little worried about IX having a new set of writers because I want continuity and most important when it comes to Star Wars I want story and spectacle to live in balance (yes, I am directing that concern toward JJ). I want poetry that gives me the feeling of SW without repeating old stories word for word. In short I want more Rian Johnson, but I’ll cross my heart and my lightsaber laser swords for Abrams, Trevorrow and Connolly.

Okay, now I’ve got to go read all the books so that I can actually converse informatively.

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 46: Haunt (1979)

Haunt doesn’t have a title screen

Well, I had a week off.  I’ve been pretty good about keeping to a schedule of late, but ever since I started playing Rogue my desire to blog has somewhat dimmed.  The problem is, I don’t want to play anything else, but the blog cannot survive on Rogue alone.  It’s a great game, but after a while it’s hard to find things to say about it.  On top of that, I’m really into Dungeons & Dragons right now.  My interests run in cycles.  Sometimes I’m obsessed with D&D, sometimes with comics, and sometimes with video games.  At the moment, video games is near the bottom of the cycle.  Never fear, it’ll get to the top again.

What all of the above means is that I’m cutting my posts back to once a week, for the most part.  On Sundays(ish) I’ll post about whatever game is next on my chronology.   On Wednesdays(ish), I’ll post about Rogue, if I have something new to say about it.  Once I’m done with Rogue I might pick up the pace again, but I’m not sure about that.  We’ll see what happens.

For today’s post, I’m tackling Haunt, which is another mainframe-based text adventure.  (It’s often written as HAUNT, all caps, and I don’t know why.)  I’m not sure why I get so trepidatious about the mainframe adventure games.  Zork was one, and it’s undoubtedly the best game I’ve played for the blog so far.  Colossal Cave Adventure, Acheton and Battlestar have all rated well.  The mainframe games do tend to be better on average than their home computer equivalents, but they also tend to be longer.  Perhaps that’s it.  I like making progress on the blog, and short games are great for that.  I’m at the point where I’d almost rather play a short but terrible game than one that’s long and pretty good.  I have no idea how big Haunt is, and that makes me nervous.

Haunt was created starting in 1979 by John E. Laird, who is currently a computer science professor at the University of Michigan.  He would have been studying for his Ph.D at the time.  Laird worked at Xerox PARC for a bit before getting into academia, and he’s significant enough to merit his own Wikipedia page, but I don’t think he did anything else in gaming beyond creating Haunt.  The game was developed from 1979 to 1982, but as usual I’m playing it in the year that the game’s development started.

Getting the game running was a bit of a nightmare.  It requires TOPS-20 emulation; I gather that TOPS-20 was the operating system for the DEC-20 mainframe.  To play the game, I had to go to twenex.org and create a TOPS-20 login.  Then I needed to download a telnet client; I ended up going with PuTTY, which can be found here.  It was a lot of rigmarole, and not the sort of thing I’m used to, but I got there in the end.

The game kicks off with its backstory, and, well… it’s weird.  Get a load of this.

This stuff is wild.

For those who don’t want to squint at my screen caps, the gist is that there’s a bloke whose wife got killed by a moose.  He bought the land where the incident happened, built a mansion called Chez Moose, and set about trying to return her to life.  He wasn’t seen again for seven years, and was declared dead.

What also happened on the fateful day of that picnic was that the man’s child was kidnapped by gypsies (which I’m aware isn’t a word I should be using, but I’m going with what the game says. Apologies to any Romani people who may be reading.).  Only that child will apparently be able to enter the house and find the treasures inside without going mad and committing suicide.  So yes, it’s a treasure hunt, but the story around it is bizarre enough that I can excuse it.

Also wrapped up in this story is an obscure hereditary disease called “Orkhisnoires sakioannes”.  I’ve no idea what this is getting at.  Google just points back to articles about this game, so I gather that it’s completely made up.  I guess it could be a pun or an anagram, but I’m not at the stage where I’m going to try and solve it just yet.

That’s mighty nice of the government, who are always wonderful chaps.

The game began with me standing at a bus stop. My inventory contained a watch and a couple of bus tokens.  I tried moving off in various directions, but there’s nowhere to go from the bus stop.  The only thing to do was to wait until a bus pulled up, get on board, and exit when it dropped me at the front gate of Chez Moose.

I could see the mansion from the front gate; it was dark, but there were lights coming from the windows.  There was seemingly no way to open the gate, so I did a lap of the perimeter wall.  I found a gate with a buzzer on the east wall, but decided to ignore it for now.  The wall was surrounded with a forest, which I’m pretty sure is only there for show.  I tried to explore it, but it very quickly became impenetrable.  The road to the south was bordered by a similarly impenetrable forest, but I discovered that if I went far enough east or west I’d end up back at the bus stop.  I could wait and catch the bus again, but only once.  After that, I had no tokens left, and being unable to catch the bus I sat down on the corner and starved to death.  Going home and living the rest of my life was not an option, I suppose.

Another weird thing happened while I was exploring the wilderness.  At the stroke of midnight, a ghostly moose appeared and charged right through me.  It didn’t seem to have any negative effect, but I’m a little concerned about it.  I wonder if there’s a way to avoid it somehow, or if it’s tied into the whole going mad and committing suicide thing?

Yep. It’s a ghost moose alright.

There’s also a weird area just off the south-west corner of the wall that has no description at all.  It’s just a blank space.  I’m not sure if this is significant or not, but I’ve learned not to dismiss this kind of thing.  I’ll have to remember it when I’m thinking of ways to earn extra points.

With nothing else to do I approached the east gate and pressed the button.  There was a buzz, but nothing else happened.  At this point, I got really stuck, and I almost searched for a walkthrough, which would have been pretty shameful at this early stage.  It turned out that all I had to do was press the button a couple more times.  The buzzing woke up the person on the other end, and after a series of questions he let me through the gate.  Some of those questions were simple (name, quest, etc.) and some of them were weird trivia.  The most common one I’ve gotten is “What was the first production system with more than 1500 productions?”  The answer to this is “Haunt”, which apparently has something to do with the language it was coded in; I only knew the answer to this by looking at bluerenga.blog.  The other question I keep getting is “What is the capital of Assyria?”  I’ve tried Assur, and the alternate spelling Ashur, but it keeps telling me I’m wrong and I’m not sure why.  Google wouldn’t lie to me.  (Actually, I’ve just realised that the answer is probably “A”, which is the sort of dumb thing I would write on geography tests when I didn’t know the answer.  I’ll have to try that next time.)

After answering the questions I was let inside, and informed that I wouldn’t be getting back out through the gate.  The mansion grounds were mostly areas of lawn, with the mansion at the centre and an empty garage to the north-east.  I also found a grave in the north-east corner, which I dug up.  Inside was a bone from the Missing Link, which I took with me.  Taking it increased my score, so I gather that it’s one of the treasures I’m seeking.  There’s also a dry garden bed, which I’m thinking I need to water, but at the moment I don’t have anything appropriate.

The mansion has two entrances.  On the north side is some ivy, which I was able to climb up to a balcony.  Inside was a master bedroom, and a bathroom.  I tried flushing the toilet, and it spun around so rapidly that I was knocked over and cracked my head open on the bathtub.  A “10th level cleric” came by and resurrected me, and I found myself back outside the wall with an empty inventory.  I was able to buzz myself back into the mansion grounds, and I tried climbing the ivy again.  This time I tried to test climbing back down, which was also fatal.

There’s something very undignified about being resurrected by a bus driver.

I wonder if maybe I can jump down?  I dismissed it at the time, but it’s worth a shot.

On my next try I gave up on the ivy, and decided to go through the front door.  The only way to open it was to knock, and the game gave me a very unusual greeting.  I hadn’t mentioned that the guy on the other end of the buzzer asked me about my sexual preference.  I’m not sure if it factors in elsewhere in the game, but it does get a mention here.

I’ve been called worse.

Once I was inside the house, the door slammed behind me and couldn’t be opened.  This game just loves cutting off the path back to the start…  In the foyer was a bowl of candy, which I took with me and resisted the urge to eat.  Exploring west, I found a closet containing a wet suit with fully functioning scuba gear.  I was pretty skeptical about finding a place where this would come in handy, but I put it on anyway.

North of the foyer was the main hall, with passages heading east and west, and stairs leading upwards.  The game mentioned that there was a horrible noise coming from upstairs.  There was also an old chair, which I took with me.  It had a plaque on the back that said it was made by Louis XIV, so I figured it was another treasure.

I explored west, finding a dark hall with a safe.  The safe was shut, and had a combination lock with three two-digit numbers.  The game gave 10-10-10 as an example, and I tried it.  I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t work, but I was a little surprised that the game acknowledged that I was being a bit of a smart-arse by trying it in the first place.  Haunt responds to quite a lot of things I wouldn’t expect, and generally has something amusing to say.

West of the safe was an art room, with a modern art painting inside.  I tried to take it, only to be told that it was worthless.  I held on to it anyway.

East of the main hall was a library, with a bust of Homer and shelves full of books.  I tried to read a book, only to be told that all of the pages were “virtual”, and that the book disappeared.  I tried again, and found a book about vampires, and how to kill them.  Just the usual methods, nothing too revelatory here.  Trying another book, I was told that the rest were all made out of wood, so I left the library and headed upstairs.  (The stairs creaked ominously, and I started to think that I’d only get a few shots at using them before they’d collapse or something.  I went up and down them about a dozen times, with no trouble, so it’s probably just there for spooky ambience.)

The upper hall had passages heading north, west, and south.  The stairs also continued up, but I decided to save those for later.  First I went south, into a dark room with a casket.  I’d already been warned by the book to expect vampires, but I went and stupidly opened the casket anyway.  Sure enough, I found Dracula inside.  He got up to try and bite me, but I quickly left the room, and he didn’t follow.  When I went back in he was back in his casket.  I didn’t have anything I could obviously use to kill him, so I left him where he was.  (Dracula’s been in quite a number of adventure games that I’ve played for the blog.  He’d have to be a front-runner for the most frequently recurring character or monster.)

Exploring east, I was getting closer to the “horrible noise” I’d heard from downstairs.  Eventually, at a dead end, I recognised it as an Alice Cooper record.  Seriously, when it comes time for me to give this game its RADNESS Index, can I knock it down a couple of points for this?  Alice Cooper rules, particularly in the 1970s.  He sings about getting it on with skeletons.  Anyway, there was a wire running along the floor, so I pulled it and the noise stopped.  I’m not sure if this affected anything.

North of the upper hall was a “dull room”, with a closet to the west.  Inside the closet was some gold (another treasure) and a ventilation shaft leading south.  Of more interest, though, was a skeleton and a note scrawled on the wall.

All of our dads are skeletons, deep down.

Plot development?  In a game from the 1970s?  I’d come into this game expecting another treasure hunt with arbitrary puzzles.  For the most part that’s what Haunt has given me, but there are hints that it has deeper mysteries to unravel.  Who is Bas?  Is it me?  What’s the deal with the illness, and the crop?  I’m intrigued by all of this, and I really hope that it plays out further and isn’t just a bit of story detail thrown in at the beginning.

I explored the ventilation shaft heading south, which led into a maze of ducts.  The maze was small though, and the areas easily differentiated by their exits.  It didn’t take me long to navigate, and I soon found myself in a ventilation shaft over the torture chamber. I couldn’t open the grill to get down though, so there was nothing to do but retrace my steps back to the upper hall.

I decided to go upstairs, and found myself in a laboratory.  There was something under a sheet, and a lever on the wall.  First I tried looking under the sheet, but either the game wouldn’t let me or I couldn’t find the right verb-noun combination.  So I threw the lever, and was not entirely surprised when a monster emerged from under the sheet.

I really want to know what he does for a trick.

The monster’s “trick or treat” greeting was a little more unexpected.  Luckily I had a bowl of candy on me, and when I gave it to the monster he left, crashing through the west wall.  I followed through the hole, and found a bar.  There was no alcohol, but there was a bottle of turpentine (or “turps” as its known around these parts) which I took with me.

I had an instant brainstorm upon finding the turps, and decided to pour it on the modern art painting that I’d found.  The paint washed off to reveal a valuable Rembrandt underneath; I’d found another treasure.

I was somewhat stuck at this point, and did quite a bit of stumbling about achieving not much of anything.  Eventually I found myself back in the library, and on a whim I tried turning the bust of Homer.  This opened a secret door to the east.  I wasn’t able to get through while wearing my wetsuit, so I took it off and slipped through the opening into a secret room with stairs leading down.

The stairs led down to a wine cellar, where I found a diamond corkscrew (another treasure, which brought my tally up to five, I think).  I went exploring among the empty wine racks, and was lost in a maze.  The racks apparently stretched on infinitely in all directions, and try as I might I couldn’t find any way out.  Just as I was about to give up (and the game started mocking me) I found a trapdoor in the floor.  It was open, so I slipped through.

It led down into a room, where I found a drunk ghost.  Despite being drunk, the ghost blocked every single action I tried to make.  Even basic commands like INVENTORY and LOOK were unavailable to me.

This game has a lot of euphemisms for being drunk.

I figured that, whatever the solution was, it must be completely divorced from my inventory.  At least I hoped so, as I couldn’t look to see what I had.  I tried all sorts of things, including various levels of invective and a quote from Thor: Ragnarok, before hitting on the amusingly simple solution: BOO.  The ghost disappeared, and I was able to continue on.

Beyond I found the torture chamber that I’d seen from the ventilation shaft earlier.  Someone rushed out and closed the door behind them.  Of more interest was the supposedly sexy female who was imprisoned there.  I set her free and, well, one thing led to another…

I am a female lover, after all.

I opened the duct and crawled my way back to the main house, but at that point I was really quite stuck as to what to do next.  I was also well overdue to write this post, so I decided to call it a day and switch off.  I don’t think I have anywhere else left to explore inside the main area of the house, but I also don’t know how to get back outside.  Well, I guess dying gets me back outside, but it also loses points, and dumps my inventory, so that’s not a good solution.  And I’m pretty sure that I do need to get back outside to beat the game.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is that while I was doing all of this exploring, my character was slowly going mad.  I’d occasionally get a message about how the house was getting to me.

On my next game I’m going to try STAY SANE or DON”T GO MAD. You never know.

The messages gradually ramped up in intensity, until I went completely mad and killed myself.  (Oddly enough, this is the second game in a row that I’ve played with suicide as a theme; Space II had it as well.)  After I died I was resurrected by a passing cleric, and was able to continue playing, and had no more problems with going crazy.  I’m not sure what effect it has on the game, aside from a loss of points.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten with Haunt.  It’s quite fun so far, and has enough of its own style and quirks to stand out from a lot of its contemporaries.  If it actually follows through on its promise it could be a real stand-out, and a game that’s well ahead of its time.  I suspect that it won’t quite get there, but I’m still holding out hope.

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