#Level Up Advanced Fifth Edition

[shaneplays]

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition is the new RPG that adds depth and options to your 5E experience but avoids unnecessary complexity! Lots of love for the exploration pillar. Rethinking classes while keeping their core concepts. Meaningful decisions every time you level up. Modular heritage design. The journey can be the adventure. More! The dynamics, behind the scenes, and fiscal realities of Kickstarter campaigns. Stretch goal economics. Stretch goal fever. The U vs the hockey stick. Kicktraq and other services that "project" Kickstarter campaign totals. Revenue versus profit. Everyone has good ideas, executing a good idea is the hard part.

[jamesshawgames]

Next Project Reveal Time...

Hello, I’m still not dead!

So I might as well let you all in on the project I’m concocting now that the Relics trilogy is finished. It’s going to be long and difficult, but I’m really excited to see where it goes. This could get long, so I’ll put the details under the jump for those who are interested, but I’ll put the title and a few basics up here for all of y’all to see.

SHADOWRUN: NEON FIRE

Yeah, it’s cyber-elf time!

It’s a fan-game, which will be freely available in full to everyone on Dashingdon (I’m not trying to make a buck off someone else’s IP, I’m just trying to craft a tribute to one of my all-time favorite fictional universes!) The aim is to combine some of the best elements of IFs with some of the best elements of tabletop RPGs. It’ll be more statty that most IFs, and will make use of dice rolls and a simplified version of the Shadowrun 5th edition tabletop rules, but it will also make telling a great story with great characters and choice and consequence a high priority, thus hitting some of the more usual IF beats. 

Don’t get too excited: it will still be a long time before anything gets posted (I want to make a particular point in the story before I unveil anything), but I’ll do my very best to make this thing actually happen!

More details below!

About the Project

For the uninitiated, Shadowrun is a beloved fantasy-cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying setting which has spawned six editions of the tabletop game, a huge number of novels, and multiple well-regarded video games going right back to the 90s. I flipping love Shadowrun. I love it so much that I’ll take on the ill-advised burden of trying to write a lengthy Choicescript story that uses actual Shadowrun RPG mechanics. It’s a famously dice-heavy game. That’ll be a lot of *rand variables, then.

Received wisdom seems to be that, in interactive fiction, detailed RPG mechanics and great stories with choice and consequence are mutually exclusive. I think that the received wisdom is wrong. This project is where I prove it, or go down in flames trying.

About the Shadowrun Universe

In the world of Shadowrun, human history is much longer than we currently believe. The earth projects a field of natural mana, which is the source of magic, and which waxes and wanes over very long periods of time. Every five thousand years, the earth's manasphere reawakens, and magic emerges into the mundane world, bringing with it dragons, spirits, creatures of legend and fantasy races. Then, five thousand years later, mana mysteriously recedes again, leading to the beginning of another mundane age. Every time magic either reappears or disappears, it produces tremendous civilization-level traumas leading to the collapse of human society and the need to rebuild from scratch. Until 2011, when magic reemerged in a technologically advanced world, ending the Fifth World and inaugurating the Sixth. For the first time, human society was robust enough to withstand the shock, and it (just about) held together. For the first time, magic and advanced technology needed to coexist.

The return of magic at the beginning of the twenty-first century had profound consequences. The old United States and Canada fragmented into multiple successor states, while wars and magically-awakened natural disasters racked much of the rest of the world. Animals began to mutate rapidly into magically-awakened versions of themselves: now hellhounds, devil rats, harpies and many other paracritters stalk the wilds. Babies started to be born who resembled the elves and dwarves of legend; as they grew and time passed, elven and dwarven culture developed along distinctive lines. Metahumanity diversified further with the phenomenon known officially as Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE), and unofficially as "Goblinization", when, for unclear reasons, some people began to grow tusks and horns and thick green skin, undergoing dramatic and often agonizing transformations into orks and trolls. The majority of the Sixth World's inhabitants are still human, and a high proportion of humans are prejudiced against other metatypes, aligning themselves with human supremacist organizations like the notorious Humanis Policlub. Human supremacism has in turn spawned a violent response, in the form of militant metahuman supremacist groups across the globe. Different countries and regions have responded differently to the challenges of metadiversity, but everywhere tensions between metatypes are never far from the surface.

When magic reappeared, the great dragons reawakened. Impossibly majestic creatures who have lived through all the previous cycles of the world but who hibernate deep in the earth during mundane cycles, dragons rapidly established themselves as major power players in Sixth World society. Unimaginably subtle and intelligent, every dragon is a force to be reckoned with. Some have become heads of state, others CEOs or board members of megacorporations. You never truly know where you stand with them, hence one of the most common pieces of advice you'll hear in the shadows: "Never deal with a dragon".

Alongside the dragons, the real powers of the Sixth World are the corporations, and above all the Big Ten triple-A megacorporations: Ares Macrotechnology, Aztechnology, Evo, Horizon, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies (MCT), NeoNET, Renraku Computer Systems, Saeder-Krupp, Shiawase, and Wuxing. Any one of these corps could field a private military which would vastly overpower that of any nation state. Since 1999, the megas have enjoyed extraterritoriality, meaning that, on their own corporate property, they are exempt from local laws and responsible for their own policing and protection. Making every product and providing every service you could possibly imagine, these beasts often own lesser A- or AA-rated corps and seem unshakable in their global dominance.

In the cracks between the shining corporate enclaves you'll find the shadows, sprawling slums dominated by feral street-gangs and organized crime, inhabited by the desperate and the SINless (those who do not possess a System Identification Number, and are not considered productive citizens). The shadows are the natural home of shadowrunners, guns for hire, highly-skilled deniable mercenary criminals, often hired by corps or wealthy private clients to undertake shady acts of espionage and sabotage. And you will be one of them!

About Neon Fire

I’ll be posting more game-specific info in a future post, so I’ll just give you the basics now. In Neon Fire, you will create and play as an experienced shadowrunner in the Seattle Sprawl in the late 21st century. After a Seattle-based prologue mission designed to introduce the world and the rules, you’ll receive a puzzling message from a figure from your childhood, calling you away to the far side of the world. For the bulk of the game, you’ll be living in the Neo-Tokyo megasprawl, running the shadows with an all-new crew of (romanceable) fellow runners, while also investigating a mystery which will uncover secrets about your own past as well as a sinister conspiracy that threatens Neo-Tokyo’s future!

More details to follow soon. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about this setting, maybe try the video games Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. If you like fantastic RPGs with great writing, you’ll thank me - and you’ll get suitably psyched for Neon Fire!

[worldismyne]

Crest of the Dragon - Ch 13 : The Heylin Dragon Pt 1

Summary: Raimundo's transition to leadership isn't as easy as he makes it appear. Working together, the group tries to advance to the next level, but could the past be distracting them from the present? The fifth Dragon Warrior has yet to reveal themselves. A circumstance Hannibal Bean is more than willing to extort. A fan envisioned fourth season.

Rating: T

(Implied RaiKim, but more like a garnish rather than the focus)

FF.net

Start at the Beginning at Ao3

After a lot of debating, I decided to post the newest chapter before I finish editing the older ones. I hate FF.net shoving adds into the chapters, but that's where a majority of people read it still. I will keep updating the Ao3 one. I just got a lot of older stories I'm polishing at the same time.

I'm happy to talk about all things XS, though I'm a lil rusty on my trivia this story is still near and dear to my heart.

It has been literal years since I posted a new chapter (last one was in 2017 OmO)

As for "Why did this take so long?" after I got my RN license, I burnt out on all the stories I had been writing in college. This one in particular had a wall of writer's blocks. An ending I once had seen so clearly now seemed impossible to write. Between moving into my own place, my father's death and struggling with a toxic relationship, I just lost a lot of whimsy and the part of me that didn't have to be serious 24/7. I got hyper fixated with other series for a while, but I always regretted not being able to deliver the finale I promised for this one.

I'm now in a much better place mentally and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders and I realized I had just made the ending a little too complicated. I'm about 1/3 into writing the next chapter (this sat in my drafts folder for a while and ended up needing major rewrites). I debated whether I should post this to FF given I'm still in the middle of editing and porting it over to Ao3, but I figured why not? (I'm trying to update the Ao3 one weekly, but irl stuff gets in the way sometimes.)

This is chapter 1/4. Three for the finale and an epilogue.

Thank you all for sticking around and sharing this story. It's what's kept me from orphaning it.

(Side note, y'all should also check out Warrior U >_> or talk to me about XS. Still on tumblr at worldismyne)

[hydralisk98]

LEARNBLR #2, Weekend-mode engaged

New hexadecimal number system based around Latin/Cyrrilic/Greek letters so around (A,B,C,D,E,F,K,M,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z)

'Argentique'

12x12 pixel cells & ~12x12 cells grid

MINIX3

TIS-100 low-power as low as possible tech-level requirements

Microsoft BOB's Chaos as virtual assistant analogy

SVG

Free and Open Source Software community

Georgism

Syndicalism

Libertarianism

Nomad48 color palette

OpenPOWER

ITS

CTSS

Multics

IPL

Tumblr 'WIN3D' theme custom overhaul

HyperCard/HyperTalk

Hypermedia with static HTML/CSS pages

Analog and home video rental store analogies

Lisp family structural and symbolic meta-programming similarities

Swift programming language

Fish shell

ZealC easy low-level access, full transparency and in-line multimedia editing

Esolangs site's deque, mysticism and analogical turing tarpit assomptions

Wax cylinders -> 45rpm autoplay small-size vinyls -> large Laserdiscs -> middle-sized optical symbolic disks

Cassettes -> Datasettes -> MiniDiscs -> SD cards

JVM & bytecode compiler/interpreter

Minitel, Prestel, Alex & Bulletin Board Systems, SAM Coupe, Armstrad CPC, Commodore 64, CBM II, SEGA Computer 3000,

Ural computer, MIR-1, MIR-2, russian ALGOL variants, Akademset, OGAS, Soviet Electronic Data Processing, Soviet Unit Record Equipment, BK-0010, AGAT, Law on Cooperatives, Runet, Yandex, OK, VK, EVM, SM EVM, Robotron, Hungarians' TPA, fifth generation computers initative up to 2010 from Japan & Bulgaria, Didaktik, Z9001, K-202, Galaksija, Rapira, Superplan, ALGOL68 with ALGOL W elements, Karel, SAKO, AGAT Schoolgirl's Robic, Perl, Rak...

NOOR, Teuton, BASICOIS, Smalltalk, Lusus, LOGO, FOCAL, Scratch, UTF-8,

Digital Equipment Corporation's COS-310, DIBOL, DECmate III(+?) & OpenVMS

Sun Microsystems' Voyager & misc. hardware

Konrad Zuse's KG

Wolfenstein The New Order's Pflaumen brand, Arya and Tekla

Computer job ladies from all times in history

Microsoft F# & F*

OpenXanadu project

Xerox Alto

SEGA Dreamcast hardware first edition

Olivetti Programma 101

Elektronika MK-52

Transmuters from Atari

PLATO V system's TUTOR language

Pixar early CGI renders

Pouet.net and all the demoscene world

Keypad-based I/O controls?

Cyberware augmentations?

First Tier aka playable Civs: Shoshones, Morocco, Assyrians as Inuits, Mayas Civ, Portugal, Polynesia...

Second Tier aka non-playable Civs: Poland, Songhay, Persia, Carthage, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Sweden, Iroquois as Hurons, Austria, Brazil, Incas, Ottomans, Netherlands, Venice.

City-States: [to be written]

Barbarians, Rebels, Observers and more: [to be written]

Constructed world considerations such as 12-bit tribbles as smallest data unit, multilingual coding paradigm, alternate history of media formats, 16^3 (so 3 elements of 16 unique possible sub-glyph each) ideogrammic dictionary, synthetic android machines of the Stellaris' Rogue Servitor vibe, no Wilsonism or at least way less of such, electricity cars are way ahead, harmonious collaboration on technologies, more variety in ways of thinking aka spirituality and rationalism coexist better, Panian grammars strongly credited link to Turing+Church thesis, less spatial exploration, even less extroverts success compared to introverts, smaller world, more isolation in between social spheres so less harmonious as of the last few decades, less biological matters understanding, medical technologies somewhat behind by two decades, cross-dimensional idiosyncratic imports, synthetic developments ahead by ~20-40 years, free high education similar to Soviet Union / Russia's, much wild-west style software piracy space on the sidelines, many super advanced free software resources to levels like Habrahabr and beyond, synthetic service grids outpacing human agencies' controls yet keeping a neutral attitude towards humans, many disperate computer networks instead of the world wide web we know, lesser adoption of such hyperTech by the laymen as non-enthusiasts went back to some sort of early 20th century-style primitivisms, some sort of aesthetic subculture tribe diversification developments growing real strong as of the last two decades, earlier global pandemic around 1996-2000, advanced nuclear energy abundance, more cross-national collaboration + harmony, sapient-kinds inclusivity as early as the last century or the last half-millenia, longer historical record going back more than ~2000 further into their past (so like 3000 BC instead of 1000 BC here)...

So I want to make a general-purpose (if I had to choose one topic, it would be to describe symbolic computation ala 'TuringTarpit' around video rental store deque operations) programming language 'Servitor' with specific analogical media and low-tech [any medieval scroll vellum media included] constraints in mind.

[felassan]

Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.” 

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game 

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively 

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’” 

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’” 

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.” 

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde 

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine 

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures 

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH31

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

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Chapter 31: Star Death Reality Show (XIV)

He did it!

He actually did it!

After running out of this corridor and reaching a safe corner, Qi Leren's flying heart finally fell back to his chest. He collapsed on the ground from how much he had been drained of all his strength, left only with the strength to pant.

Qi Leren had loaded the save file three times in a row just now, that is, he had done it for the first time since the Witchcraft Sacrifice task. He clearly remembered that the last time he had loaded it like this, he couldn’t stand at all afterwards. Today, however, he had loaded the file three times in a row in this extremely challenging high intensity, but he had still been able to burst out of that corridor of death with explosive force… This was not only a breakthrough in physical fitness.

Qi Leren looked at his hand with a hint of thoughtfulness.

Was it because Maria had given him the blessing of the holy light? Since then, although Chen Baiqi let him know every day that his limit was far higher than he imagined, his training days were limited and he couldn't have advanced by leaps and bounds to this extent, even entering the state of "breaking the shell" as described by Chen Baiqi.

In the last few seconds after the file had been loaded when he had run out of the corridor, he definitely broke through the limits of the human body. This was true for speed, agility, willpower, and judgment. Even now that he was out of danger, this breakthrough after exceeding the limit still benefited him greatly.

Qi Leren looked deep into the corridor, and under the faint light he could clearly see the details that he should not have been able to see—peeling walls, broken corners, scattered folders... He hadn't had such good night vision before.

The weakness of his body brought a strong sense of insecurity. Without the peeping eye of the camera, Qi Leren took out a strength potion and drank it steadily, waiting quietly for his body to adjust. His physique was much better now than before. Even if he was trained hellishly one day, he could always continue to exercise without the soreness of exhausted muscles the next day, which made Chen Baiqi very pleased. She had praised him for being much better than she had been, having the ghost-like appearance of a dead dog every day—Qi Leren felt that she was also pretty harsh towards herself.

After his physical strength was restored, Qi Leren stood up and continued to move forward, taking every step carefully.

The scope of this underground facility was huge, so it wasn’t clear whether it was an air defense facility or an underground research institute. However, from what he could see, it was not a particularly high-tech type of place, but rather it had the Soviet architectural style of the Cold War period. The most incredible thing was that this underground facility had electricity! When Qi Leren walked in front of a closed door and pressed the switch, the iron door would still open. It seems that after entering it, there is no detection system like the laser corridor.

What the hell was this place? Qi Leren, filled with doubts, carefully continued to move forward. This underground space was so large that there were even elevators leading levels deeper underground. Because he couldn't read the alien words, Qi Leren could only guess a little from the symbols. There were danger warning signs everywhere. He feared that this wasn’t an air defense facility, but more likely an underground military base built to prevent nuclear war.

However, when this door was opened, the pictures that appeared in front of him made Qi Leren forget his many speculations and affirmed his original expectation.

This was an underground research institute!

This room was as big as two basketball courts and thick pipes ran along all of the walls, ceilings, and floors, so it was impossible to tell where the light source came from. And in the middle of the room, countless column-shaped growth chambers were like rows of pillars, spreading before his eyes to the end of the room. Each growth chamber was connected with a pipe. In the time when they were used, this pipe provided them with oxygen and nutrient solutions. However, after the underground fortress was abandoned, the nutrient solutions became turbid liquid, and the things in the growth chambers had already died.

It was a scene that could only be seen in science fiction movies. Qi Leren was thinking about this as he approached a growth chamber. There was a mass of something in the dirty liquid. Considering that it had been abandoned for many years, there was no doubt that the creature inside was dead, but it had not rotted away.

What was in the growth chamber? Qi Leren took out his flashlight and wanted to take a look at the contents, but just at the moment when he took out the flashlight from his item bar, he heard a click.

Maybe he wouldn't have realized what it was before, but now, even if he heard it in his dreams, he would jump out of bed and fight back—it was the sound of a handgun’s safety being taken off!

Qi Leren flashed behind the growth chamber without thinking and squatted down. He took out the gun that Chen Baiqi gave him and held it in his hand. However, after a short thought, he decided not to launch an attack rashly, but asked aloud: "He Yi?"

"...Qi Leren?" He Yi's voice, which was horribly hoarse, came from behind another growth chamber.

Sure enough, it was He Yi!

Qi Leren put his hand holding the gun behind his back and slowly came out from behind the growth chamber, but did not dare to stray too far from his bunker: "What happened to you and Mark? Afterwards, I sneaked into Annie's house and found the attic in her house. I also found the pipe embedded in the wall leading to the basement. Is that how you came down here?"

He Yi, who was hiding behind the growth chamber, was silent for a while before he came out slowly.

He doesn't seem to be in a good state; his lips are chapped, and there were red burst vessels in his eyes. Instead of relaxing his vigilance, he continued to point his gun at Qi Leren and snapped: "Take your right hand out."

Qi Leren slowly stretched out his right hand from behind his back, but what was in his hand—the gun—had been quietly replaced by his knife. He wasn’t sure whether the invisible camera beside He Yi had been shut off, so he couldn't take out the gun that would be difficult to explain the source of, and he didn't need to use it—dealing with a weak opponent who didn’t know how to hold a gun properly, he didn't need his own gun at all.

With a ting, Qi Leren threw the knife to the ground. He raised his hand and showed a sincere expression: "What happened? You don’t look very good..."

"Don't talk, come over to me and follow my instructions." He Yi gave him a cold look, and his eyes were full of doubt.

"Okay, I'll do it. Don't be nervous. I mean no harm." Qi Leren walked slowly to stand before He Yi and took the initiative to show him the back of his head.

He felt the tension at this time; what had made him so shocked and frightened? After seeing this underground research institute, Qi Leren could vaguely guess: He Yi already knew about the octopus, and he knew that the octopus had parasitized this group of contestants. But at this moment, he couldn't be sure whether Qi Leren, who had suddenly appeared before his eyes, had been parasitized.

But he obviously didn't intend to kill him, otherwise he could have already done so. Did he have some means to detect whether he was infected or not?

He Yi's gun pointed at Qi Leren's head and he continued hoarsely: "Walk forward, go through this door, take the left corridor..."

The two people walked in tandem through the corridors in this maze-like underground research institute. He Yi, who had come here a few days earlier, was more familiar with the route than Qi Leren. He guided Qi Leren all the way to the third floor underground, and then stopped in front of a thick iron door.

"Press the switch to open the door."

Qi Leren did it, the door opened, and the room inside came into view. This was a room like a medical bay with some items that looked like medical instruments.

Qi Leren, who suddenly realized what sort of equipment it was, glanced at He Yi. He stood in front of a monitor and commanded Qi Leren to stand at the wall opposite him.

He Yi, this guy, wanted to confirm whether he had been parasitized, as Qi Leren has suspected.

A blue curtain of light swept over Qi Leren, and He Yi kept staring at the monitor, finally relieved.

But even after seeing this, the calm and even slightly superior temperament of old still did not return to him. He still looked very anxious, even though he tried to restrain himself: "Thank God, you’re not parasitized. Sorry, I shouldn't have pointed a gun at you before. I can explain the ins and outs to you. We’re in danger right now!

"It hatched, it actually... hatched! That monster that almost destroyed all intelligent life in the whole universe is now hidden among us. It’s already bred and is still breeding! According to their habits, it should be that the 'Genocide Day' where they break out and eliminate us all will be the fifth day!"

Today, it was already the fourth day.

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[nari-nim]

forever anticipating

“hi i don't know if your requests are open but if they are can you write an scenario in which hyunsuk sets jihoon and y/n on a blind date? fluffy? btw do you think he would kiss on the first date?”

aww anonie this is the cutest request! time for some SOFT JIHOON HOURS!  To answer your question, I think Jihoon is highly intuitive and can read body language well so he will use that to inform his decision whether or not to go for the kiss! If his date is down, he will not hesitate. I hope you enjoy the direction I took :) lmk what you think!! 💓

This is how Jihoon secretly looks at you when you aren’t looking during your date. gif credit goes to @khaly-no​

Treasure Jihoon x Y/N

warnings: none, this FLUFFY

word count: 1.8k

— the dorms —

Video game night was in full swing and it has never been louder in the dorms. Jeongwoo screeched over the sound of six other members’ simultaneous bickering. Meanwhile, Asahi decided now was the perfect time hit whoever blinked with a couch pillow. Normally, Hyunsuk wouldn’t have tolerated this level of rowdiness under his roof. But he was busy. He sat quietly on the far end of the sofa tapping furiously into his phone, a sly smile plastered across his features.

“Hey, Jihoon—oh my god,” Hyunsuk said, his smile melting as soon as he looked up. The chaos activated his leader (mother) mode. “Jihoon-Jeongwoo get down. Jeongwoo, please. Haruto, wait--Junkyu-Junkyu- ASAHI”

Asahi stopped. The rest followed suit.

The room turned to normal levels of volume, and Hyunsuk was able to try again. 

“Jihoon, come here.” Jihoon perked up from his Mashiho impersonation, and got up to join Hyunsuk.

“Bro, you should join us. Junghwan is killing it, you don’t want to miss his true maknae on top moment.” (He’s actually not, the beloved super king cow king baby is getting crushed by Haruto every round). Jihoon slid next to Hyunsuk, glancing at his phone screen. “What are you...”

Hyunsuk flashed him a cheeky smile and hid what he was working on for the past half hour.

“You’re going on a blind date tomorrow.”

“No way, this feels somewhat illegal. Tell me more.”

“Her name is y/n and I met her through a mutual friend. They go to uni together and we met at that hangout I went to last weekend. Park Jun, she is exactly your type. You gotta trust me on this one.”

Jihoon blinked at him, for once without a witty remark. Jihoon squinted at Hyunsuk, and chuckled in disbelief. Reality was hitting him and logic does not like that shit eating grin on Hyunsuk’s face.

“Hyunsuk, you’re setting me up? You, really? This is actually happening? Right before our flight to Japan?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow early morning at the Han River. You’ll have a few hours before we head over to Incheon.” 

Jihoon ruffled his hair and sat back into the couch. He sucked in a breath. Hyunsuk frowned, “you don’t want to? Sorry man, I really thought your vibes would’ve matched and-“

“Oh no no, hyung, I’m just...worried since we’re going to promote in Japan for the next two weeks and our schedules are so busy. It might end up hurting us both,” Jihoon confessed. “And it’s been forever since I last been on a date.”

“Nah I think you’re worrying way too much in advance. The policy is chill now and, hey, who can say no to waiting a few weeks for those abs,” Hyunsuk reassured. 

“Oh right, I’m going to flash my abs the fifth minute in,” Jihoon said sarcastically. He did make a mental note, though, because if you really are that cute? He’ll need that Plan G.

“Here, I’ll text you the address now. You better not flake and make me look bad.”

“HEY! What are you guys WHISPERING about!” Jeongwoo said, looking at them suspiciously. Simultaneously, the nonactive players of the game whipped their heads to stare at the pair.

“Nothing, the grownups are talking” Jihoon joked, dramatically nodding and shooting thumbs up at Hyunsuk. Jihoon left the resulting hysterics and sound of Hyunsuk cackling behind for the comforts of his room where he checked his buzzing phone. Turns out, Hyunsuk had attached the pictures of you, figuring he would give Jihoon that peace of mind (and a way to find you tomorrow) under the instructions.

Holy shit. 

Jihoon eyes widened. You are exactly his type. Jihoon couldn’t stop staring at your smiling features. The soft smile that colored his features never left his face for the rest of the night.

He couldn’t wait.

— Han River —

Wow ok, this is slightly worse than evaluation days, Jihoon decided, nervously kicking a small pebble around on the dusty road.

“Hey, Jihoon?”

Jihoon froze for a millisecond and turned around to face you.

You looked ethereal in the early morning sun. The light reflected off your lovely features, illuminating the kind glow of your smile. Jihoon made another mental note to treat Hyunsuk to dinner once they land in Japan.

“The one and only. Y/n?”

“Yes,” you nodded shyly. “It’s nice to meet you, Jihoon.”

Jihoon loved hearing his name coming from your lips. Which were so pretty and pink and—

Jihoon cleared his throat. “Likewise.” After a small pause, “Is there anything you would like to do in particular while we get to know each other?”

You laughed, the sound music to Jihoon’s ears. He wants to hear that all the time now, he decided.

“I actually really like taking pictures of random beautiful things that pique my interest! Maybe we can just go for a walk and explore what we find beautiful about the Han River?”

“Perfect,” Jihoon smiled widely, which somehow grew when he noticed the blush in your cheeks.

And that’s how you two somehow went from exchanging detailed introductions to sharing hobbies to discussing life goals and values, all while snapping amazing scenery pics. This developed into a made up game of taking the best picture, judged entire on a subjective and nondemocratic point system. The winner gets uncontested glory and a copy of all the photos of the loser’s captured moments. 

“HAHA, y/n I just got the spiciest photo of these golden bell flowers over this ledge!”

“What, how??” You whipped around from trying to make some daisies look aesthetic. The competitive side of you was taking over.

“I guess it’s one of the perks of being taller,” Jihoon said, hopping down the said six foot tall ledge he spent the last few minutes scaling. He dusted his pants off carefully and flashed you his eye smile. In a singsong voice, he said, “and one of those perks is winning this game~”

Yeah you were not about to risk a broken arm for that picture. “Okay, fine, but show it to me?”

“Nuh uh.” He flashed you the picture in one second bursts, having the best time teasing you.

Jihoon paused. He got so comfortable with you in the last hour that he just teased you like he does with the other Treasure members. His worries were interrupted at the adorable sight of you giggling. He internally sighed of relief.

“NuH uH,” you mimicked backed at him, reaching for his phone. 

Jihoon quickly yanked his phone above his head, dramatically leaned his body so it was out of your reach. Surprised, you tried to change course. But in the spur of the moment, the momentum carried you just a tad too far. You bump slightly into his chest. Jihoon instinctively grabbed at you to prevent you from losing your balance further, his hands falling on your waist. His large hands felt so warm through the fabric, his breath brushing as the top of your forehead. You were so close.

His eyes widened, heat rushing to his cheeks. For a second, your eyes meet. You wonder if he can hear the thundering in your chest.

Jihoon quickly let go and took a step back, slightly bowing at you. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to grab you like that!”

You could tell your face was absolutely flushed at this point, but you made a show of brushing off your outfit and stuck your nose in the air, “as long as you don’t have cooties.”

“Ooh,” Jihoon winced. “I definitely do. Exclusive, premium, limited edition cooties.”

You laughed, thankful he didn’t press you on the obvious blush. Although it’s not like his face was any better.

“Hey, y/n,” Jihoon said, pulling you out of your internal monologue. “This might be about it for the date. My phone has actually been blowing up with reminders to get back.”

Oh, You tried to hide the sadness in your face. The few hours you spent together seemed to fly by so fast, and you definitely longed for more. Within the span of the date, he showed just how incredible he is—unyielding dedication to his dreams, selfless outlooks on life, and a kind, hilarious and loving personality that felt like sunshine on a rainy day.

Jihoon noticed the quiet pause, and softly asked, “May I walk you home?”

You let out an airy laugh. “Not unless you want to walk 45 minutes in one direction and an hour in the other, Park Jihoon. It’s okay, I’ll take the subway!”

“Right, right,” Jihoon chuckled. You guys reached an intersection leading pedestrians away from the river sidewalk. The signs pointed to your destinations in opposite directions, which felt too meta for your taste.

Jihoon turned to face you.

“You know, golden bell flowers means anticipation in flower language.” He looked the most serious he has ever been all morning.

You mustered yourself to look into his eyes.

“That’s suitable, Jihoon, because I anticipate for you to call me as soon as you safely land and are available.”

“Deal.”

Numbers and addresses (for postcards, he claims) were exchanged.

“Jihoon, I had an amazing time today.” You said, suddenly feeling shy again. A part of you wished you could walk him back, but that would attract unwanted attention.

“Me too, y/n. Thanks for waking up so early to spend all this time with me.” Jihoon said, the tone of his voice so soft and genuine.

He shifted a little closer, eyes flickering to your lips. 

Your eyes widened. 

He leaned in and gently rested his hand against the back of your head. His eyes searched yours, asking.

Oh my god, yes please. You drew even closer in answer, eyes fluttering shut. 

Jihoon closed the distance. His lips gently pressed into yours, completing a perfect puzzle. The kiss was was warm, sweet and heartfelt. Your lips gently moved against each other, before you pulled slightly away for air. As your foreheads rested against each together, a warm wave unfurled in your chest.

Just a little more, you thought. Jihoon seemed to agree as you both lean in again, this time the kiss far less hesitant. Your hands rest against his chest while he cups your face with his. Jihoon pulled back, pushing a strand of hair behind your ears. His phone was aggressively ringing, you realize.

“I’ll see you, y/n.”

“I’ll anticipate you, Jihoon.”

He watched your retreating figure for a bit before he headed back to the dorm, giddy with joy.

— your home —

A few days later, a package arrived. It was from Jihoon. Your heart raced. 

He never mentioned anything about this in his calls, you excitedly thought. 

You slowly pulled out the contents, marveling at each one. A picture of the Han River reflecting the morning light. A dozen of printed photos he somehow took of you that day (you laughing at something you took, looking off into the river, and crouching over vegetation). A polaroid of him in the hotel room, “you better be missing me so damn hard” it captioned. You chuckled, touched by his gift. 

You were about to close the envelope until you realized there’s still one item left. You reached in. And you gasped.

A golden bell flower, pressed by hand. 

[sonicfrontiers]

Off[1] (stylized as OFF) is a French-language role-playing video game released in 2008 by the Belgian team Unproductive Fun Time, consisting of Martin Georis ("Mortis Ghost") and Alias Conrad Coldwood.[2][3] It has garnered a sizable following for its story, characters and atmosphere, particularly after its officially sanctioned fan translation into English. It is about an enigmatic humanoid entity known as the Batter, who is described as being on a "sacred mission" to "purify" the world of Off. The Batter travels through four bizarre Zones in the world, revealing more about the world as the game goes on.

Contents 1Gameplay 2Plot 3Development 4Reception 5References 6External links

Gameplay[edit]

📷Gameplay screenshot of Off, in which the main character, the Batter, is fighting a boss named Sucre, alongside two of his Add-Ons.

The gameplay of Off is similar to that of classic RPGs. The Batter advances by leveling up, acquiring new party members, and upgrading his statistics, such as attack and defense, as well as gaining special abilities termed "competences." Unlike similar games that function in a turn based system, OFF uses a system in which a character is able to attack once a cooldown has passed, meaning enemies and players are able to attack each other at the same time. This system serves to encourage players to make fast decisions in combat. The player can allow combat to take place automatically by selecting the "Auto" option during encounters, which will make the Batter and his Add-Ons act without player input. The battle system also features an unorthodox element system, where rather than "classic" elements often found in RPGs, such as fire or ice, Off uses bizarre elements more commonly thought of as materials: smoke, metal, plastic, meat, and sugar.

There are four numbered Zones, labeled 0–3, along with a fifth zone, The Room, in which the final act of the game takes place. The Zones are only accessible once the player obtains their associated "Zodiac-Cards," which are acquired from the previous Zone's Guardian upon death, and the player traverses between them via a map termed the "nothingness."

One notable f

wow this game sounds really cool thanks for telling me about it michael :)

[sparrow-flies-south]

Ten Things [2]

Fandom: Sanders Sides Pairings: Anxceit, Royality Intrulogical Summary: Ten Things I Hate About You AU When Roman Prince learns that Patton Foster isn’t allowed to date until his older brother, Virgil, is, Roman is crushed. Roman’s twin brother Remus, however, comes up with a plan: find someone who is willing to date Virgil. And who better to ask than Janus Verona, who according to rumours is willing to do anything for the right price? Taglist (ask to be added!): @someone-idk-is-here

Notes: Been awhile, so have an extra long chapter to make up for it! I want to switch to updating every Saturday now this is my main project.  I've switched to using Janus instead of Dee, so I edited the first chapter and summary to reflect that. There's no other differences to the first chapter. Also *pokes tags* there's intrulogical in this now.

AO3 Link - Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three - Chapter Four - Chapter Five - Chapter Six

Roman cleared his throat and looked over the ragtag group of students he’d gathered before him.

Luc Edwards, Scott Brown, Tyler Ellis, Pete Campbell and Alex Swift. Three of Virgil’s friends, and two boys Roman knew sat next to Virgil in class. He and Remus had spent all of Monday spying, making notes of who Virgil spoke to, who he sat by, who he ate lunch with. After much debating, and a fair dose of stalking on social media, the two had come up with a shortlist.

That morning, he and Remus had both ended up late to their first class because they’d been delivering notes to each of the five, telling them to meet in one of the maths classrooms that Roman knew would be empty at this time.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering why I brought you here today,” Roman began.

“Who are you?” Alex Swift, a gangly boy with greasy hair and acne covering his face asked.

“That not important,” Roman dismissed. “What is important is that one of you is going to take Virgil Foster out on a date.”

“Who?” asked Tyler Ellis, who Roman knew ate lunch with Virgil every day.

“That weird emo kid,” Scott Brown answered.

“Why do you want one us to date Virgil?” Alex asked.

“As a part of a scheme to allow me to date his brother,” Roman replied. “But that’s not important.”

“Question,” said Luc Edwards, who, unlike the others, was perched on a table. “What’s in it for us?”

“Uh, the joy of Virgil’s company?”

Luc snorted. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same guy?”

Okay, Roman was beginning to hate everyone in the room. Weren’t they supposed to be Virgil’s friends?

“Quite sure,” he said through gritted teeth.

Luc shook his head. “He’s a freak. He never even speaks.”

“I heard him speak once,” Pete said timidly. “He asked how often the school tested the fire alarms.”

“Probably planning on burning the place down,” Scott muttered.

Roman stared at him. He knew that outsiders judged his friendships for the friendly insults he handed out like candy, but even he had limits, and talking about someone like that behind their back broke all of them. He was beginning to get the urge to defend Virgil’s honour.

“Do any of you actually like him?” Roman asked.

“He doesn’t speak,” Luc repeated. “We let him hang around with us because he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Honestly, it’s kinda pathetic.”

Roman looked from person to person. None of them met their eyes.

Luc sighed. “Look, good luck with your search, but honestly? Don’t get your hope up.”

With that, Luc jumped down from the table and left the room. Roman looked at the four remaining boys, but his hope was dying. Luc had seemed to be the unofficial leader of Virgil’s group, commanding their attention. He’d been Roman’s favourite, though Remus had disagreed.

The other boys exchanged glances. For a moment, no one spoke.

“Sorry,” Pete said at last, “But he’s not my type.”

“He’s a loser.”

“Forget it.”

“I still don’t know who that is.”

One boy one, the boys left the classroom, until Roman was alone. He groaned, and thudded his head against the wall. So much for that idea. So much for Virgil’s shitty friends.

He sighed, and then went to find Remus.

 ***

“Maybe it’s for the best,” Logan said.

The two of them were sat at their favourite table in the library, hidden away among the stacks. In front of them was their homework, which Patton was currently face down on, bemoaning his current romantic status.

It had been the fifth time they’d had that conversation since Friday. Logan had kept track.

“Maybe,” Patton mumbled into the desk, which was an improvement on the last four conversations, when he hadn’t been willing to listen.

“It will give you more time to study,” Logan pointed out.

Patton lifted his head and pulled a face. “Okay, I get it.” He sat up fully and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I hate French.”

“Just be glad you didn’t take Spanish,” Logan said, drily.

Mischief suddenly danced in Patton’s eyes. “Oh? Why’s that, Lo?”

“Because-“ Logan stopped himself. “No. You are not going to distract me like that.”

“Like what?” asked a new voice, and Remus Prince slid into the third seat at the table.

Patton and Logan exchanged glances, and then looked back at Remus, who looked as if sitting with them was the most normal thing in the world, even though they’d never had a conversation together.

They knew who Remus was, of course, even outside of Patton’s crush on his brother. Everyone knew who Remus was. It had taken him less than a year at Padua High to reach a level of infamy most students could only aspire to. Patton still shuddered every time he saw a duck.

Remus looked between them. “Are you guys having a stroke?”

“No,” Logan said. “We’re merely… surprised you chose to sit with us.”

Remus shrugged. “Gotta keep an eye on who my brother’s dating,” he said, and grinned at Patton like a shark.

Patton swallowed. “Roman and I aren’t dating.”

“Right,” Remus said, and then muttered something that sounded like ‘yet’. “So,” he added cheerfully. “What are we talking about?”

“Spanish,” Patton said sweetly.

Logan glared at him. “No, we’re-.”

“Ugh,” Remus threw his head back. “Spanish is the worst. Mrs Richards has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“Yes,” Logan agreed. “And her pronunciation-,”

“It’s awful!” Remus finished. “Like, has she ever seen a native speaker?”

Logan nodded, and then narrowed his eyes. “How would you know? Don’t you sleep through most Spanish classes?”

“Yeah, but it creeps into my dreams and gives me nightmares.”

“No, I mean- how do you how bad she is if you don’t pay attention to what she’s teaching.”

Remus looked at him like he was stupid. It was not a look Logan got very often. “I… speak Spanish?”

“You do?” Logan asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Remus said. “I grew up speaking it. You guys didn’t know that?”

“We don’t exactly know you,” Patton pointed out. “And you are taking it as a class.”

“Yeah, because it’s an easy A.”

“Of course,” Logan muttered.

Patton gasped and clapped his hands together, making the other two jump. He glanced around guiltily at the noise, but there was no one nearby to get annoyed.

“Remus, you speak Spanish!” Patton exclaimed.

“That’s… what we were just talking about?” Remus said.

Patton turned to Logan. “Remus can tutor you!”

“What?” Logan and Remus asked at the same time.

“Well, you’re always talking about how you wish you had someone to practise with! Here’s your chance.”

Logan and Remus looked at each other uncertainly.

“I don’t think Remus wants to do that,” Logan said.

“You don’t know what I want,” Remus protested.

Logan narrowed his eyes. Remus gave his biggest shit-eating grin.

“I wouldn’t want to presume-,”

“It’s not presuming if you just ask me.”

“I don’t have the money for a tutor.”

“I’ll do it out of the goodness of my heart!”

Logan and Remus stared at each other. Remus’s smile took on a slightly sinister nature.

“Unless,” Remus said, “There’s some reason you don’t want me to tutor you.”

It was a challenge and a game all wrapped into one. Remus was watching Logan carefully, waiting to see what he’d do, if he’d admit to not liking Remus or come up with an excuse.

Logan had never backed down from a challenge. Not when he was eleven, and his teacher had given him advanced work and not bothered to explain it because ‘other people need my time more’, which Logan had taken home and researched until he understood. Not when he was fourteen, and his teacher had asked if he’d like to teach the class instead, and Logan had snapped back ‘I’d probably do a better job than you’. Not when he was fifteen and the history teacher had dismissed his comments with ‘you don’t know more than the textbook’, so Logan had compiled a ten page list of sources that showed the textbook was wrong.

He certainly wasn’t going to back down when Remus Prince was staring at him with those infuriating brown eyes.

So he changed the game.

“In that case,” Logan said, forcing his face into a smile, “I accept your offer.”

Remus gaped at Logan, and Logan raised an eyebrow.

“Unless there’s some reason you don’t want to tutor me?”

Remus burst into laughter. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

Patton, whose eyes had darted back and forth between them like a spectator at a tennis match, now smiled as if everything was fine. Remus suspected that Patton hadn’t understood what was happening. Logan knew better.

“What the hell are you doing in the library?” someone called, and the trio turned around.

Roman stood there with his arms crossed, looking exasperated at Remus. It was a common look on Roman’s face.

Remus raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, am I not allowed to be a good student?”

“Not when it means I have to search the entire school looking for you!”

Patton cleared his throat. “Is… everything okay?”

Roman jerked when he noticed Patton sitting there. “Ah, Patton! Yes, everything’s fine, I just need to borrow my brother here.”

“Smooth,” Remus commented.

Roman’s only response was to grab Remus by the arm and pull him out of the chair.

“Ow! Hey! Okay, okay, I’m going. See you later, Nerdy Wolverine!”

The librarian glared at Roman dragged Remus past her desk. Roman gave an apologetic look. Remus grinned and blew a kiss.

“You’re not very subtle,” Remus pointed out when they were standing in the corridor outside.

“Shut up,” Roman snapped.

“Ooh, grumpy! So how did the meeting go?”

Remus began walking through the halls and Roman did too.

“How do you think?”

“I think Operation: Get Virgil Foster Laid has hit a wall.”

Roman rubbed a hand over his face. “We are not calling it that.”

“But fear not!” Remus continued. “I have a solution.”

Roman narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What solution?”

“I’m so glad you asked! See, there was one big flaw with your plan-,”

“It was your plan!”

“-And that’s that you lacked incentive! No one’s going to do things for the goodness of their hearts!”

“So what do you suggest?” Roman asked.

“Use money! What else are you going to do with it- use it to pay for dates?”

“Okay,” Roman said. “Let me get this straight-,”

“Hah!”

“-You want me to pay someone to date Virgil Foster.”

“Not just anyone! It’s all about finding the right person.”

They had reached the cafeteria now. Remus pulled open the door with a flourish.

“Fortunately, I know exactly who that person is.”

Roman followed Remus’s gesture to a table near the back of the cafeteria, where a boy was sat wearing a black leather jacket over a yellow shirt. A hat hid most of his face, but Roman could just about make out a large burn scar from underneath his left eye to his jaw.

He sat alone, attention on the book in front of him. The crowd at the tables near him seemed electrified. Everyone was aware of his presence, but no one dared look over.

Roman shook his head. “Isn’t that Janus Verona?”

When Roman and Remus had first joined the story, Janus had become an urban legend in his absence. The boy with the strange name and scar on his face, which should have made him the perfect target for bullies, but instead he became something else. Everyone had a friend who’s sibling or cousin had messed with him, or who he just hadn’t liked, and had their lives ruined for it.

If you wanted dirt on someone, he probably already had it. If you wanted a fake ID, or alcohol, or tickets to a sold out concert, he could get it for you. He’d do anything you asked, if you had the money.

He hadn’t shown up what should have been his senior year because he was in prison for murder. Because he’d quit school and joined the mob. He was in prison, but it was extortion, not murder. The murder part was true, but he’d fled the country because of it.

Roman had wondered whether he’d even existed in the first place.

And then Janus had come back, and started his senior year one year late.

Janus had become ten times more powerful through not being there, and the school had its resident bogeyman back. Roman had seen him a handful of times in the halls, and had always kept his head down and stayed away.

Whatever the rumour were, Janus Verona was clearly trouble.

“It’s perfect,” Remus said, cutting off Roman’s thoughts. “We pay him, he takes Virgil out, you and Patton get to be together and I don’t have to listen to your whining.”

“It’s Janus Verona,” Roman hissed, because clearly Remus was not getting how insane that was.

“I know,” Remus said, starry eyed. “Isn’t he great?”

Roman did manage to resist the urge to scream, but it was a near thing.

“Look,” Remus said. “We tried it your way. It went down like the Hindenburg.”

“That doesn’t mean we should resort to hiring a criminal!”

“Got any better ideas? I’m all ears.”

Roman opened his mouth, then shut it again. He glared at Remus.

“Great!” Remus said, and dragged Roman over to Janus’s table.

Janus did not look up from his book as the two of them approached. They stood at in front of the table. Janus still didn’t look up. Roman glanced at Remus, who shrugged. He cleared his throat.

“Roman and Remus Prince,” Janus said, his eyes still on the book. “Why ever would two model citizens like you come to someone like me?”

Remus took this as an invitation to pull out a chair and throw himself into it. “I just want to say, I’m a big fan of your work.”

That was enough to get Janus to look up from his book. He had the same confused and mildly horrified look most people got upon meeting Remus. “…Thank you?”

Roman sat down. “Ignore my brother, he’s morally deficient.” Remus kicked him under the table. “We want to hire you.”

Janus hummed. “I charge extra if you want it to look like an accident.”

“What?” Roman exclaimed. “No! We don’t- are you offering to kill someone!?”

Janus met his eyes and raised an eyebrow for a moment, the most terrifying one of Roman’s life. Then he threw his head back with loud, cackling peals of laughter. Remus beamed.

“Oh,” Roman said, laughing nervously. “You were joking. You- you are joking, right?”

“Certainly,” Janus said. “You wouldn’t be able to afford my fee.”

“This is the greatest day of my life,” Remus whispered.

“So.” Janus leaned back in his chair, “What can I do for you? Don’t bother getting all embarrassed, I promise, I’ve heard it all before.”

Roman glanced at Remus, who nodded. “We’d like to hire you to date Virgil Foster,” he said.

“Okay,” Janus said after a moment’s silence. “I haven’t heard it all before. You do realise I’m not an escort, don’t you?”

“I don’t want you to have sex with him,” Roman cried, then ducked his head, blushing, when he realised everyone had probably heard that. “I just- look, I want to date Patton Foster, okay?”

“Whatever you’re about to tell me, I assure you I don’t care,” Janus drawled.

“So I asked Patton out, and he was like, ‘I’ll have to ask my dad’, but then his dad was like ‘not unless Virgil dates’, which apparently is impossible. So Remus and I came up with an idea-,”

“I came up with it,” Remus interrupted.

“So Remus came up with, and I improved upon, an idea: we find someone to date Virgil.”

“And how did that go?” Janus asked, looking mildly interested despite himself.

“Terrible,” Remus chimed in. “So we figured we’d ask you.”

Janus tilted his head, considering. “Alright,” he said at last.

“Seriously?”

Janus smiled, and spread his gloved handswide. “Who am I to get in the way of true love?”

“Well, great.” Roman was suddenly transported to a reality where Remus’s plans worked. It was not a pleasant experience. “Uh, so how’s ten dollars sound?”

Janus gasped, and placed a hand on his heart. “Roman. Are you suggested that I take a fine young man like Virgil on a date that’s worth ten dollars?”

Roman gritted his teeth. “Well, what do you want?”

“Well, let’s see,” Janus mused. “Say we go to the cinema. The tickets cost, what, fifteen dollars? And then, of course, I’ll be buying him popcorn. And then there’s the price of gas…”

“How much?”

Janus smiled. “Let’s say $75.”

Roman balked. “No way.”

Janus shrugged. “All right then. Plenty of fish in the sea, after all.”

He turned his attention back to his book, though Roman got the sense he was still watching them.

“Roman,” Remus hissed.

Roman glared. “I can’t afford seventy five dollars a date.”

“It only needs to be a couple of times,” Remus pointed out.

Roman groaned. “Fine,” he spat, and Janus looked up from his book and smiled. “But I don’t pay you until after the date.”

“Half up front, half after,” Janus said. “Otherwise there’s no deal.”

Roman considered. He didn’t seem to have much of a choice. “I’ll pay the first half once Virgil agrees to it.”

Janus nodded. “Deal.” He reached out a hand, and Roman shook it. “A pleasure doing business with you, Mr Prince. Now, if you excuse me, it appears I have a boy to seduce.”

Janus pushed away from the table, picked up his book – Kant, something he’d read before but which gave him the opportunity to watch the cafeteria without anyone noticing - and swept out of the room.

People scurried out of his way as he walked through the hallways, but their whispers and dirty looks trailed after him. He was not well liked in this school, and he knew it – had known for a long time that he would never be liked, and so he had become something else.

Janus Verona did not need to be liked to be powerful.

He arrived at his destination- a corridor that contained only a set of toilets, a supply closet, and a side door that led to a set of steps down to the parking lot, hidden behind rows of cars. For years, it had made the best spot for smoking without getting caught.

Virgil Foster did not smoke, but he did hang around with people who did.

Janus leaned against the wall of the corridor and opened his book again, pretending to read but really watching Virgil through the window in the door. He was sat on the top step with his head phones on, but he was watching the other boys, even though presumably he couldn’t hear the conversation. At the bottom of the steps Luc Edwards stood, waving his eyes as he spoke. The other boys alternated between listening to him and paying him no attention.

The group was a scattering of losers and outcasts, the kind that banded together not through any shared friendship, or even through liking each other. They were there because there was safety in numbers and nowhere else to go.

In another life, Janus might have been one of them, keeping his head turned away so no one saw his scar.

In this life, the bell rang, and the group outside got up, and started heading to class. Most of them barely glanced at Janus as they passed, safe in being too low in the hierarchy to be bothered. Luc Edwards shoulder checked him as he walked past.  

Janus narrowed his eyes at Luc, but before he could do anything, Virgil came inside, his head down, hood pulled up. Janus pushed off the wall, and fell into step with him. Virgil glanced over at the movement in the corner of his eye, then did a double take when he realised who was next to him.

“What?” Virgil asked gruffly, pushing one headphone away from his ear.

“Janus Verona,” he introduced, holding out one hand. Virgil looked at it suspiciously, but didn’t say anything.

“We have English together,” Janus explained. “Why not walk together?”

Virgil shook his head. “Why are you talking to me?”

“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t?” Janus asked.

“I can think of a few,” Virgil snapped, and sped up.

Truly, it was shocking that Roman and Remus had been so unsuccessful.

Virgil was already in his seat by the time Janus entered the classroom. He didn’t look up as Janus sat down, didn’t even glance in his direction, which meant he was putting in the effort to seem as uninviting as possible.

The teacher- Mr Williams- began his lesson as the last stragglers had taken their seats, introducing the Shakespeare module they were about to begin and handing out copies of The Taming of The Shrew. Janus payed attention only enough to know what was happening. Nothing interesting would be in this lesson, and he wanted a chance to review what he already knew about Virgil.

He’d never had much to do with Virgil, before. Virgil had been in the year below, and even if their paths had crossed, Janus had never had much reason to pay attention to the emo boy at the back of the class.

He knew that Virgil had a younger brother, Patton, and that their parents were divorced. He knew that, if Luc Edwards was anything to go by, he had terrible taste in friends.

He was also, Janus noticed when he snuck glances at Virgil, not bad looking.

“Before we get started,” Mr Williams said, “Why doesn’t everyone share their thoughts on Shakespeare’s works?”

Janus rolled his eyes at the pointless attempt to make the lesson interactive.

Mr Williams made a show of scanning the class. “Virgil Foster,” he said, announcing both names as if there was another Virgil in the school, let alone the class. “What are your thoughts?”

And that was one other thing Janus knew about Virgil: Mr Williams hated him.

Janus didn’t know whether Mr Williams had convinced himself that he was helping to bring a shy boy out of his shell, or if he admitted that he just wanted to torment someone and went for the weakest option. Janus hoped it was the latter, because it would take a lot of denial to believe that calling on him every lesson was a good thing. Either Virgil would stammer out an answer, face pale and voice shaky, or he would say nothing, and Mr Williams would tell him to pay more attention and threaten him with detention.

It made Janus’s fists clench, that a man would go through such efforts to feel like he had power over someone he already had power over.

Still, it gave Janus a chance to look at Virgil, shoulders hunched and head down.

“He’s fine,” Virgil muttered.

“Fine?” Mr Williams echoed. “William Shakespeare, the greatest poet in the English language, is fine.” A smattering of giggles, not because Mr Williams was right, but because there was someone for the class to laugh at. Virgil’s shoulders tightened. “I’m sure you can come up with something better than that.”

Virgil said nothing.

Mr Williams sighed dramatically. “We don’t have all day,” he said. “Really, you must have some original thoughts in that head.”

Virgil lifted his head, glaring fire at the teacher. “I think people should stop putting him on a pedestal,” he said. His voice was shaking but the foundation was steel. “I think there are a lot of aspects of his works that people don’t talk about.”

“Care to give an example?” Mr Williams asked.

Virgil tapped the book in front of him. “Guy abuses his wife for the whole play and he’s supposed to be the hero?”

Mr Williams hummed. “Thank you for your feedback, Virgil. I’m sure Shakespeare would be devastated to know you don’t approve of the play he wrote in the sixteenth century.”

Laughter from the class. Virgil flushed and ducked his head, shoulders tense, fists clenched.

It was obvious Virgil hated Mr Williams, but he had never done anything about it before. Somehow, the boy in the back of the class had managed to surprise Janus Verona.

Virgil stayed with his head down until the bell rang, when he was the first to dash out of the classroom, stuffing his books back into his bag as he went. Janus didn’t bother trying to catch up.

He sent a text to Roman as he walked through the halls, asking for more information on Virgil. The first response came back almost instantly, asking how Janus had his number. He ignored it, and pulled up Google while he waited for Roman to get back with something useful. Excitement rushed through him as he typed, the kind that always came in these early stages of a plan.

Virgil was more than he seemed, which meant that this was going to be interesting.

[iccpl]

Media Mapping Survey by Top PR Agencies in India for Q1-FY21-22

This survey report provides information obtained through media analysis, regarding the news trends across major publications in the country. This survey report will pay particular attention to the news trends in the first quarter of FY2021-22 when the country was reeling under heavy pandemics. These observations do have limitations that will be noted and are based on a total number of stories categorised by different sectors. Not only India, but the entire world is experiencing a devastating wave of COVID-19. The spread of COVID-19 in India was initially characterized by fewer cases and lower case fatality rates compared with numbers in many developed countries, primarily due to a stringent lockdown and a demographic dividend. However, economic constraints forced a staggered lockdown exit strategy, resulting in a spike in COVID-19 cases. This factor, coupled with low spending on health as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), created mayhem because of inadequate numbers of hospital beds and ventilators and a lack of medical personnel, especially in the public health sector. Nevertheless, technological advances, supported by a strong research base, helped contain the damage resulting from the pandemic. In the first ten days of May, India’s reported count of COVID-19 deaths was nearly 40,000, roughly accounting for a third of deaths worldwide during this period. The media ecosystem continues to be challenging this year – and that was before the pandemic. To inform the citizens during these uncertain times, newsrooms and media houses across the country have made pandemic coverage a priority. While there is an abundance of news to be reported on the global pandemic, the esteemed media houses of the country pointed out several other news trends to keep people educated and aware.

THE INDIAN MEDIA

“FREE PRESS IS ESSENTIAL TO FREE SOCIETY”

The Indian Media Industry is one of the world’s most diverse and vibrant in addition to being largely free and fair. The Indian media landscape has changed significantly over the last one decade. With the advancement in technology, the Indian media industry has been burgeoning like never before and expanded its reach, in terms of the number of outlets, whether in television, radio, print or digital.

At this hour of the global pandemic, media has successfully played the role of a watchdog of the government functionaries and has also aided in participatory communication in raising major issues faced by the citizens of the country. Several media platforms across the country kept providing credible news and information to the citizens of the country when they most needed it without letting fear affect them amid COVID-19. The onset of the global pandemic and ensuing lockdown has dealt a severe blow to the Indian economy. It is being reported that the Indian Media & Entertainment sector, which saw a contraction of around 24 per cent at Rs 1.38 lakh crore in the pandemic-struck 2020, is expected to log growth this year and double its revenue to Rs 2.68 lakh crore by 2025.

Print newspapers in India have been seeing a significant surge in revenue, making it the largest global market for the industry. The most popular daily in the country is “The Times of India” that had the highest average readership in 2017. India’s print industry is to be able to retain their audiences through digital platforms, while still maintaining enough advertising and subscription revenue to continue different editions.

TREND ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN INDIA

More than 15 countries including the US, Russia, France and the United Kingdom rushed critical emergency use equipment to enable India counter the COVID-19’s deadly second wave. Ministry of External Affairs announced that several countries are sending hundreds of oxygen concentrators, respirators and large quantities of liquid oxygen to help India at this hour of the pandemic. The Delhi High Court announced that it will take up court proceedings through virtual mode from April 9 to April 23. India became the first country in the world to report over 4 lakh new cases on April 30, 2021. It was being speculated that the COVID-19 wave that plunged India into the world’s biggest health crisis has the potential to worsen in the coming weeks, with some research models projecting that the death toll could more than double from current levels. Several states of the country introduced lockdowns, although Prime Minister Narendra Modi resisted a national effort after one imposed by the Central government last year fueled a humanitarian crisis with migrant workers fleeing the cities on foot and in some cases bringing the virus with them. A devastating second wave of coronavirus in India has seen hospitals and crematoriums overwhelmed and widespread shortages of oxygen and medicines. Hospitals across India are also experiencing oxygen shortages, with some forced to put up signs warning of a lack of supplies. War of words erupted between the Central government and several state governments such as Delhi & Maharashtra government over oxygen supply.

Fitch group company (India Ratings) said “the second wave of COVID-19 infections will be less disruptive than the first wave for the business environment as corporates are better prepared”. But it was being reported that smaller businesses including micro, small and medium enterprises are laying off more employees as demand and sales have plummeted due to localised lockdowns implemented by the state governments. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, recently said that “the unemployment rate in the country has touched a four-month high as over 70 lakh jobs have been impacted.” Amid the concerns regarding shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the national capital, the Delhi government recently stated that “the vaccination of the 18-44 age group remained suspended for the fifth consecutive day” and further informed that there is no COVAXIN stock available for any age group.

AAP MLA Atishi said “Delhi has already shut 235 of the 368 inoculation centres for this category due to a shortage of vaccines.” Few other states including Maharashtra suspended vaccination for 18-44 age group, citing shortage of doses. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, cases of Mucormycosis (Black Fungus) have emerged in patients who were in the recovery phase of the disease. Hundreds of corpses were also found floating in the Ganga river or buried in the sand of its banks in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, fearing they were COVID-19 infected.

Prime Minister during his latest address to the nation said "The Centre is taking back total control of vaccination now, will be implemented in next two weeks. The Centre will give free vaccines to states for all above 18. From 21 June, the Centre will provide free vaccines to states." Prime Minister also announced free ration for the poor under Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana till Diwali.

As the second wave of coronavirus in the country continues to slow down, several states have started easing the strict restrictions which were imposed to check the spread of the deadly virus. Delhi resumed the Metro train services with 50 per cent seating capacity.

Malls, markets and market complexes were allowed to open between 10 am to 8 pm on odd-even basis in accordance with their shop numbers. Private offices also opened up with 50 per cent manpower. In Uttar Pradesh, the curfew continues to remain in districts that have more than 600 actives cases. With states unlocking across the country and the Delta variant still around, health experts are continuously stressing on the need to re-open with a robust vaccination strategy and COVID appropriate behaviour.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCA) has granted its nod to Indian pharmaceutical giant Cipla to import Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in the country. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) extended the restrictions on scheduled international passenger flights to and from India extended till July 31st, 2021. DGCA also stated “However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis.”

US President Joe Biden and house unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the devastating impact of COVID-19 in India and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to urgently facilitate assistance. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently stated that India crossed the milestone of conducting 400 million tests for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with the last 50 million tests being conducted over the last 24 days. The United States’ National Institutes of Health reported that India’s first indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin is able to effectively neutralise the Alpha and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2. Read more on: https://www.iccpl.in

[dungeonqueering]

As You Wish

As You Wish is the (working) title of a game I am going to do when my current in person game wraps up. That is a working title, if you have better suggestions I would LOVE to hear them.

In fifth edition DnD, the spell Teleportation circle becomes a permanent circle if you cast in in the same spot every day for one year. Each circle has a series of arcane runes that acts like a serial number. It takes one round to commit these to memory, and once you have done so, you can use that number to travel to that circle either from any other teleportation circle, or by using the Teleport spell. That’s how it’s listed in the PHB, at least.

The spell Wish is, of course, one of the most powerful spells imaginable. It has a list of possible effects, but it could theoretically do much much MUCH more. However, if you order “off menu” it is up to the DM’s discretion if the spell messes up or has unintended consequences in some way. These are the two spells that are the crux of this campaign.

The three players will be the most important people in a small farming town with a population of right around 500. I have a system set up that will determine what exactly the town has, shown here:

Basically, we are going to use a large battlemat I have to do the rough layout of the town, and I’ll do a nicer map of it between session 0 and session 1.

So far, one player is going to play a Hobgoblin cook who “retired” from the Hobgoblin army after “The War” that was 5-10 years ago. He was the army’s cook, and now he wants to have a restaurant and make actually good food, probably out of the monsters they kill. (We did discuss the logistics of making stock from Dragon Bones, and I found a solution.)

The other player wants to play a cleric who left his small town home to get a Big City Education so he could come back and be the small town doctor / mortician. He’ll probably also be the town archivist because most of the folks here can’t actually Read so someone needs to keep track of town history.

I am not sure about a 3rd player, a lot is up in the air in regards to that.

SO! How does the game begin? Why do those spells matter?

The town, on rare occasions, gets an adventurer who stops through. One such adventurer walks into the center of town and casts Wish.

“I wish for Infinite Loot!”

The implication in the word Loot is that you have to somehow work, or more likely fight, for your spoils. The spell forms a permanent teleportation circle in town square, and forces the caster into it. Inside, an infinite series of dungeons that the caster is cursed to forever roam until his death.

Not so for our heroes. See, the teleportation circle is permanent. They won’t know this for a while, but it magically alters existing dungeons as well as creating new ones wholesale. At the beginning and end of every dungeon is a teleportation circle, so the hapless wizard can get to the next layer. But our heroes? They can get back to the original circle. Back to their hometown. And they will make FAR more money in one trip than their town makes in a year. It’s a poor farming town, after all. Unless they pick one of the luxury goods during creation, they may not even have any real exports beyond food.

So maybe they go in the first time because the town is afraid, and wants it closed. Maybe they build a shack around it and lock it. But the idea is that they build their characters with both a thirst for adventure, yet a resignment to a quiet life. What if they can now have both?

So the players can now use the infinite dungeon as a way to generate income. But they have no incentive to go in every day. That would be dangerous, you see. Therefore, I am counting on days, weeks, even months of downtime between what I am calling “Delves”. So what do we do with our downtime? The DMG and XGE have a downtime system in place, but it isn’t exactly robust. It’s quite limited in what you can do, and a lot of the options lose value as you advance in level. Because of this, I have devised my own Downtime system, using a mixture of the DMG and XGE versions, as well as the downtime system from Pathfinder and the Kingdom Building system from Pathfinder as well. The goal is that they can spend their hard earned resources to not just better themselves, but to better their home town. To add businesses, citizens, defenses, attractions, and more. They may smart as a small town that should never amount to anything, but they will overcome it. This will ideally make them more invested in the reocurring NPCs. After all, that’s your neighbor. Your doctor. The people who helped you build your house. 

So with that said, here is the full Downtime system that I have devised:

Feel absolutely free to use this yourself. I’m going to make a separate post with just the raw text for you to copy and use at your leisure, just don’t, like, sell it or claim credit for it pls. It contains stuff from WotC, so not only will I be hurt and sad, but WotC might get CaD hungry.

Anyway, this is not a full and comprehensive list of things they may do. By its very nature its incomplete, and I hope they will come up with ideas I had never considered. The goal here is to provide a framework so that I can work with my players to create a wonderful city that I will surely use in future adventures. And now, hopefully, so will you.

[birlcholtz]

Okay, I'll bite. How and why did you learn to code?

HI LIN thanks for biting this is a story that tells you quite a lot about me as a person

so some background: my parents are both in compsci. they're the late 80s, early 90s silicon valley crowd, they've both had their fair share of established companies and startup-hopping, and my brother and i grew up here

my brother is about 5 years older than me and took to coding like a fish to water (like a duck to water??) which is to say he started programming on scratch at the tender age of.... i don't even know, honestly, maybe 9? too young for me to really remember, and he's been a compsci prodigy ever since

but then. then there was me.

now i do love scratch. when i was little i always copied my brother (not in like a cute way, in a 'if he can do that i can do it too' mindset that meant my third grade teacher REALLY struggled to find book recommendations for me that i hadn't already read. since my brother was above his grade's reading level, and i would read whatever my brother read. yeah that's the kind of kid i was/am)

so naturally i did what he did. i programmed on scratch, i did advanced math courses, i was in CHESS CLUB (i am so bad at chess by the way. i am not good at it. let's establish that. i think i beat my dad once and i genuinely don't know if he let me win or not. i never beat my brother so in that respect i failed. but i'm better than my mom so there's that)

HOWEVER. around fourth or fifth grade i was like hey. maybe i want to like... forge my own identity. and not just turn my life into 'do whatever elder brother does BUT BETTER.'

and thus began my campaign to NEVER DO ANY CODING EVER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE AND WHILE I'M AT IT FUCK MATH

this gets long so there’s more under the cut sjflsghf

there are two problems with this. the first problem is my inherent pride and the fact that, despite my best efforts, i am actually decent at math and too proud to intentionally fuck it up. so i wound up in honors math. that made part 2 of my independence campaign a little difficult.

the second problem is that my parents were just as determined for me to learn to code as i was to avoid anything to do with coding for the rest of my life

(the third problem was actually a serious problem for this goal. and that was that in seventh grade, when i had a required compsci class where we learned basic, i found myself... enjoying it. HORROR OF HORRORS.)

so i was quite vocal about my anti-math stance and my determination to explore other avenues of life, to which my parents responded by listening with bat-ears whenever i talked about my compsci class and/or my love of spreadsheets so that they could jump on it and say 'YOU KNOW, COMPUTER PROGRAMMING IS JUST LIKE THAT, I THINK YOU WOULD REALLY ENJOY IT' whenever i said something remotely applicable

and to which i responded, of course, by plunging ever deeper into performing arts because fuck compsci, except when it's basic, because then i understand everything because of messing around w scratch when i was little and it's easy and i'm ahead of the rest of the class and can stare into space while the rest of them struggle with closing their parentheses (which is not to say i never messed up my parentheses. i totally did)

now, my brother, because he's a nerd, went to compsci summer camps where you'd spend a week or two learning some program or language. he did things like java and c++ and then would come home and use this knowledge for robotics club. like i said. nerd.

but my parents sensed a golden opportunity. namely, 'if we can get birl to go to these camps, she will actually learn programming things (not just being ahead of the class and spacing out in basic), and we'll probably get her to agree since it's only a week and she can do cost benefit analysis'

and, because i CAN do cost benefit analysis, i agreed to that deal. i'd go to a few of these camps, and then we'd agree that i was done with my parentally mandated computer science requirement. i learned some 3-d modeling, i learned to use unity (which involved some c+ as well), and i learned some java, and all was well. the camps were like 5 days long. we mostly worked on self-directed projects so i could do whatever the hell i wanted (and i made some pretty cool maze games if i do say so myself-- one of them in unity and one of them as a text-based game in java)

and.... horror of horrors....... i didn't hate it.

(of course i didn't want to go BACK any more than i had to but i also didn't hate every moment of those weeks)

so we were out of the woods right?

except no. we weren't.

because here's the thing. my high school ALSO had a computer science requirement. we had to take at least a semester. there were 3 levels offered: AP compsci, normal compsci, and then easy compsci (not its actual name) for the people who did not give a single shit

obviously i wanted to take the last one. my parents really wanted me to take AP but were willing to settle for normal. you will notice there was no overlap

i wrangled my way out of taking AP because that was a year-long course and i didn't have space in my schedule (my parents are wonderful in the sense that they didn't want to infringe on my actual interests to force me to do compsci which meant i had LEVERAGE)

but we literally wound up discussing it with the dean of students who was like 'well if you're capable of AP and just not taking it for schedule reasons then easy compsci would probably be boring for you!' which was an unhelpful take, thanks EVAN

but i did get my way by virtue of volunteering with a progressive tech organization in lieu of taking regular compsci, so i took easy compsci (in which i used scratch again, yay nostalgia, and also briefly flirted with html) and also wound up learning to use squarespace which is criminally easy but you can make it look like you're an expert

and all this while i was getting better and better with spreadsheets due to my own individual love for spreadsheets that near as i can tell, nobody in my family shares (my dad does have a lot of spreadsheets but his aren't as detailed as mine and he doesn't include data validation so HA)

all of which (plus my ap calc and stats classes) combines to mean that while i would not be able to just sit down and write you some code, if you give me access to stack overflow and tell me what language it's supposed to be in i can probably figure it out. especially now that i've become familiar with python by accident (well, more by my desire to write fic)

and because now i'm stuck in a rut, my current internship is with another civic tech company and that's probably what i'll wind up doing next summer as well. i don't actually work on software but i do comms which means i need to be able to have conversations with the engineers so i've been learning on the job. i know so much help

SO. with regards to my fic, my parents would both be thrilled because i taught myself some of a new programming language (python) and disappointed because i taught myself some of a new programming language with just stack overflow and some time and all i'm using it for is fic.

but near as i can tell we finished that battle long ago. it was a resounding victory for birl and i continue to expand my technical talents into areas like photo/video editing and CRM tools.

thank you very much *bows*

[spirit-science-blog]

“Time not important… only life important.” yep, we’re going there, things are about to get a little bit philosophical now that we’re dealing with the Fifth Element...no..not the Alchemical Quintessence, but close! That crazy 1990s Sci-Fi about a killer planet, the power of love… and… You know, Bruce Willis’s Wacky Taxi Adventures... and all that…

So, major spoiler alert… The fifth element is Love. Well, kind of...it’s this woman called Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat… For short, Leeloo is the fifth element, and in essence: a perfect, supreme being of sorts. In a way, she’s kind of like Avatar Aan, destined to unite with the other classical elements in an ancient Egyptian temple to act as a defense system against this super evil Dark Force called Mr. Shadow - which takes on the form of a cruel planet, whose only goal is to destroy life in a cosmic cycle every 5000 years.

It’s a movie that’s had its fair share of criticism, especially in the gender department… Leeloo is the only real female character, with others appearing randomly throughout as passive objects, sex objects, or with most of their femininity stripped away like Major Iceborg. Aside from the fifth element herself, there’s a real lack of divine feminine in this story, but then again, her nature itself does embody many characteristics of the divine feminine: powerful, unique, and beyond the understanding of nearly everyone that she meets.

Regarding the plot, we have kind of a Raava vs. Vaatu thing happening like from Legend of Korra… and it’s hard not to draw lines to Avatar here considering the whole elemental theme huh? In the intro, we see an archaeologist deciphering ancient words regarding the conjunction of celestial bodies, something we should all do more of you know? Which, by the way, if you haven’t picked up your edition of the 2021 Almanac of the New Age, I might highly recommend it, because it helps you do just that without being randomly surprised by a giant robot-alien! Before they show up though, the archaeologist has to keep yelling to Aziz to wake up, as the kid keeps nodding off… I wonder if this is subtly depicting how humanity keeps falling asleep and thus the light that illuminates sacred knowledge is not currently stable. Yet when the advanced beings come to show the way, the light is blinding… Powerful and concrete.

There’s also a sense here that humans are the custodians of Earth, so we have to protect it from darkness and destruction ourselves, and while these higher beings help when the time is right, they cannot do it for us. While Love is shown as this mythical force that these advanced beings can use to defeat the darkness, it could also be said that Love is neutral energy between Light and Dark, one that is capable of harmonizing both sides, ultimately resetting the cycle, something that is echoed in Zorg’s speech later on.

All this knowledge is of course passed down through a secret brotherhood of priests, acting as keepers through the generations, of which there are many stories of secret societies doing the same in our history, and amazingly in the future where the main story takes place, Priest Cornelius is also an “Expert of Astrophenomenon”. He’s not just an expert on the metaphysical, but also seemingly the scientific study of space, and there’s certainly a sense that he’s got that whole balance thing down to a tee, working to better his understanding of both science and spirit by combining the two fields.  

So when the military fires a bunch of missiles at Mr. Shadow, it’s interesting to see how they treat Cornelius, who tries to explain to them what Mr. Shadow is, to which he is mostly ignored, and they continue trying to brute force the problem. Yet Evil begets more Evil - as Cornelius explains, subtly referencing that the military's weapons, or at least their intentions. Mr. Shadow - symbolic of “our” shadow selves, demonstrates that it will grow in power if you try to destroy it with the same mindset that created it. The only way to truly harmonize the darkness is through love.

Even more impressive is this disconnect between the President of Earth and Earth itself. While, of course, they are trying to protect the earth and all of its life, when we see the world, we have to ask… are those living? Police and robots so heavily control everything, it’s smoggy, you see some crazy representations of people like the guy who tries to rob Korben in his apartment, and I’m not sure I saw a single tree…

Now, Major Dallas, to that end, of course, represents the divine masculine, also fulfilling the warrior archetype. While, of course, he checks all the classic hero tropes of the ex-lone warrior destined to save the world and fall in love with a perfect supreme sacred woman, the way it plays out DOES provides us with a bit of wisdom for ourselves concerning synchronicity. He describes that what he wants is to meet that perfect woman, and she falls from the sky into his cab. Perhaps this is a nod to manifestation in some way, as it’s their love story that’s the key to resolving the movie's conflict. It’s also a reminder for us that when we stumble into synchronicity, we have to be willing to take that leap of faith and follow where it leads us. For Korben, he has an opportunity to give LeeLoo up to the coppers but ends up putting his whole life at risk for her instead, but it’s THIS path that leads to the world being saved. Korben has to ask himself what’s important, following his heart and helping someone in need or earning more points on his taxi license…

Now, Leeloo on the other hand, through her character explores the nature of spirituality, DNA, and the physical capabilities of our souls within a body. A big topic in spirituality today is the science of ascension - we made a whole workshop on that which you can watch for free if you like - and what enlightenment might look like or do to our physical bodies. Leeloo’s DNA is perfect.. But it isn’t inhuman. There’s nothing really out of the ordinary about her DNA, she has the same genetic composition as us, just more of it, more tightly packed, allowing for greater inherent genetic knowledge and potential. Perhaps there’s a message here that the human genome is already whole, we just need to utilize its latent capabilities to find inner harmony, leading to a leveling up of what we are truly capable of.  

So if Korben was like Link and LeeLoo was Princess Zelda, Zorg would be Ganondorf, completing the trinity. Zorg actually drops some pretty interesting wisdom in his discussion with Cornelius. Despite his “evil” role, his whole name is Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, being named after the prophet and saint in many religions, and Emanuel meaning ”God is with us” in Hebrew. Zorg explains that life itself results from chaos and disorder at times. He believes that by creating a little destruction, he is encouraging life to renew itself, so the Priest and he are really in the same business… while it might just sound like he’s been brainwashed by the Shadow, when we look deeper, we do find some hidden spirituality!

His ideology is in alignment with the wisdom of the importance and honorable role of darkness in our reality. Much like the tower or death card in the major arcana or the shells of the Qliphoth in the Kabbalah, agents of darkness often come to give structure, boundaries, and direction for light to move through, as well as clearing stagnant energy to make way for new and evolved paradigms. Much like the cycles and sine waves that move through nature, energy flows through peaks and valleys that balance each other out.

Zorg knows he is a monster and is proud of it. He’s a businessman at heart, powerful from the money of capitalism, and a reflection of society's state of awareness and evolution. As we mentioned, this future society is portrayed as consumerist and still dwelling on issues of pollution and crime, even in spite of great new technologies. Perhaps that’s why the Darkness had to come, to help propel the evolution of consciousness forward and bring about divine love. However, while the love between Korben and Leeloo is highly symbolic, it doesn’t seem to affect basically anyone else, which might call us to ask ourselves… would it have been better for humanity and its pollution to be destroyed? This - at the very least - seems to be the underlying thinking behind Zorgs criminal activity. Ultimately, in the face of darkness, humans must come together to accomplish things and stop evil, something we wouldn’t do otherwise… This is what makes us evolve as a species.

Zorg perfectly encapsulates his philosophy in his quote about glass, saying “this glass is serene and boring, but when destroyed, a lovely ballet ensues full of form and color”. He then knocks it off the table and a bunch of little vacuum cleaner droids come and clean it up. Describing that the “People who created them, technicians, engineers, now have money to feed their children. They are part of the chain of life".

Interestingly though, Zorg is only a monster because life experiences took him there, but he started like any of us. There is a nice lesson from Cornelius about how fickle life is: all of Zorg’s power counts for absolutely nothing when his entire empire comes crashing down because of one little cherry. Cornelius saves Zorg’s life regardless, showing us the virtue of the angels, even towards the demons.

When the team finally makes it to the alien space opera, we get to meet Ruby Rhod and Plavalaguna. Ruby is one of the most unique parts of this movie… Crazy sexual antics aside, he is unapologetically authentic to his true nature, bending gender standards and seemingly embodying masculine and feminine with grace and humor. Perhaps the epitome of the wacky human spirit. And then as for Plavalaguna, she has some very ascended master vibes. The Mondoshawans entrusted her with the safekeeping of the elemental stones, who actually carries them inside her body as a safeguard. From a Spiritual perspective, this seems to describe how we all embody the classical elements within us. She even senses Leeloo's presence behind a wall down the hallway, implying she has some measure of clairvoyance. Interestingly, like the Mondoshawan from earlier, she doesn’t seem overly concerned with her own death, echoing the movie’s sentiment that time is not important, only life. Deeper though, it appears that she knew she was going to die all along, in order for the stones to get out of her…. We’re not even gonna ask how she got the stones inside her in the first place...that’d be one hard pill to swallow, let alone perform an entire opera with these giant rocks in your belly. Mad props to her.

Perhaps the reason superior beings don’t fear death as we do is that they know the bigger picture, they know these lives are transitory, so they don’t mind dying for a cause, as they understand the purpose of this life in the bigger scheme of things. Knowing that the flux and flow between life and death is transient, they’ll be back in the right place and the right time as life requires it. In the same way, in traditional tarot the horse Death is riding, is stepping over a prone king, which symbolizes that not even royalty can stop change. Plava understands her role and accepts her death, after imparting wisdom to Dallas that Leeloo is still fragile and somewhat human, despite her seeming physical evolution.

This idea of Leeloo still being human, however, forms a key part of the ending, as up until this point she has been learning all of human history via an alphabetical database… When she learns of war, she loses hope in humanity after seeing the darker sides of our past. Certainly, we can’t blame her, humans are the only species to cut down a forest to make room for a billboard that says “stop deforestation”, I’d be pretty shocked about our history too. However, Korben’s love shows her that love is an undefinable thing, it’s not a stone like the other elements, but a feeling between people that permeates everything and is worth fighting and caring for.

It’s pretty funny that when it comes down to it, none of the characters actually know how to activate the super-love bomb. Leeloo doesn’t know what will happen, but she continues to follow her divine calling to be on that platform without second-guessing herself, even if she didn’t know at the end how to activate the final “weapon”..she follows her own inner voice and calling and is guided into defeating the darkness, speaking to the importance of following our intuition and own inner guide.

Ultimately love is shown to be something with no boundaries, no clear explanations, but still exists through us, changing our lives in powerful ways. And through thousands of years, it will stay as the most important thing worthy to fight for. It’s no accident that in a time of such modernized technologies and possibilities humanity once again has to turn to nature for help in the form of the elements. It reminds people that technology cannot always provide protection, it is nature that always has been the source of power, as it exists forever. And only things that are eternal, like nature and love, are of true significance. Today, it seems people either love or hate this movie, but whatever way the coin falls, it is undoubtedly a fun experience, and packed to the brim with spiritual wisdom!

So until next time, be mindful of what you do with the gift of life, cause we never know when a sentient evil planet might try and eat us. Toodles!

This video was created by Team Spirit Connect with the team at https://spiritsciencecentral.com/about

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Three Hours Longer, the Pandemic Workday Has Obliterated Work-Life Balance (Bloomberg) Six weeks into a nationwide work-from-home experiment with no end in sight, whatever boundaries remained between work and life have almost entirely disappeared. With many living a few steps from their offices, America’s always-on work culture has reached new heights. The 9-to-5 workday, or any semblance of it, seems like a relic of a bygone era. Long gone are the regretful formalities for calling or emailing at inappropriate times. Burnt-out employees feel like they have even less free time than when they wasted hours commuting. People are overworked, stressed, and eager to get back to the office. In the U.S., homebound employees are logging three hours more per day on the job than before city and state-wide lockdowns, according to data from NordVPN, which tracks when users connect and disconnect from its service. Out of all countries that NordVPN tracks, U.S. workers had tacked on the most hours. In France, Spain, and the U.K. the day has stretched an additional two hours, NordVPN’s data found. Italy saw no change at all.

Coronavirus relief pushing US deficits to staggering heights (AP) Spend what it takes, Washington said as it confronted the coronavirus. Well over $2 trillion later, it’s unclear where that spending will end. One of the lasting legacies of the coronavirus pandemic will be staggering debts and deficits on the U.S. balance sheet, with shortfalls hitting levels that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. It’s a fiscal clamp that is likely to persist for a generation, or even into perpetuity, with debt levels having passed the point of easy return in a capital where lawmakers are increasingly incapable, or unwilling, to constrain them. The latest, and dire, projection from the Congressional Budget Office, released Friday, states the U.S. deficits will mushroom to $3.7 trillion in 2020, fueled by the four coronavirus relief bills signed into law by President Donald Trump. A fifth bill is already in the works, and will be “expensive,” according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Trump says he will block coronavirus aid for U.S. Postal Service if it doesn’t hike prices immediately (Washington Post) President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole. “The Postal Service is a joke,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, “The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,” he said. Trump for years has alleged the Postal Service has charged too little for packages and personally pushed the head of the agency to charge far more to ship goods for big online retailers. Several administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said Trump’s criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair.

Turmoil in Brazil: Bolsonaro Fires Police Chief and Justice Minister Quits (NYT) Brazil’s justice minister, Sergio Moro, a former federal judge who became the face of a powerful anti-corruption crackdown that swept Latin America, resigned Friday after accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of seeking to assert improper control of the federal police for political gain. Mr. Moro’s acrimonious departure was a volatile and unexpected development in Brazil, where the rapid spread of the coronavirus has overwhelmed hospitals and roiled the political establishment. Mr. Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the gravity of the virus, last week fired his health minister after the two clashed over strict quarantine measures to slow the contagion. Mr. Moro was the eighth minister to leave Mr. Bolsonaro’s cabinet during the 15 months he has been in office.

Spain’s kids prepare for taste of freedom after six-week lockdown (Reuters) Spain released guidelines on Saturday allowing children to go outside after six weeks living under one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, as figures confirmed a daily coronavirus death toll running well below the peak seen early this month. Children were trying out their masks in anticipation of their first taste of fresh air since Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared a state of emergency on March 14. The government said under 14s will from Sunday be allowed up to one hour of supervised outdoor activity per day between 9am and 9pm, staying within one kilometre of their home.

Pakistani prime minister sidelined on coronavirus (Financial Times)​​ Imran Khan has been sidelined by Pakistan’s powerful military after failing to act decisively on the coronavirus crisis or impose a lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of cases. On March 22, the prime minister told the nation that his government would not institute a sweeping lockdown, arguing it would put millions out of work and leave families struggling to find enough food to eat. But less than 24 hours later, military spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar announced that the army would oversee a shutdown to halt the spread of infections in the world’s fifth most populous country of more than 200​ million ​people.​

India reopens stores, speeding easing of virus lockdowns (AP) A tentative easing around the world of coronavirus lockdowns gathered pace Saturday with the reopening in India of neighborhood stores that many of the country’s 1.3 billion people rely on for everything from cold drinks to mobile phone data cards. The relaxation of the super-strict Indian lockdown came with major caveats. It did not apply to hundreds of quarantined towns and other hotspots that have been hit hardest by the outbreak that has killed at least 775 people in India. Last week, India also allowed manufacturing and farming activities to resume in rural areas to ease the economic plight of millions of daily wage-earners left without work by the country’s lockdown imposed March 24. India’s stay-home restrictions have allowed people out of their homes only to buy food, medicine or other essentials.

In Japan, children of nurses face discrimination, exclusion over virus fears (AP) Children of Japanese medical professions face discrimination or even exclusion from day-care centers over fears they might have the novel coronavirus, increasing the stresses on front-line workers as the country’s health-care system nears collapse, according to media reports. Although most schools and day-care centers around the country are closed, some remain open. Bloomberg reported that children of medical workers were being excluded or asked to prove they didn’t have the virus. Kyodo News reported that some medical professionals had been forced to quit their jobs because of the discrimination against their family members, deepening the crisis in a profession where staff are already under massive pressure and working round-the-clock. “There’s growing prejudice and discrimination against people in the medical field,” said Shigeru Omi, the deputy head of the government’s advisory panel on the virus, according to Bloomberg. “It’s even extending to their families.”

Gaza factories roar back to life to make protective wear (AP) For the first time in years, sewing factories in the Gaza Strip are back to working at full capacity—producing masks, gloves and protective gowns, some of which are bound for Israel. It’s a rare economic lifeline in the coastal territory, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas militant group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in the strip in 2007. The blockade, and three wars between Hamas and Israel, have devastated the local economy, with unemployment hovering around 50%. Rizq al-Madhoun, owner of the Bahaa garment company, said he has produced more than 1 million masks in the past three weeks, “all for the Israeli market.” Gaza may not have the advanced machinery seen in other places, but he said residents’ sewing skills are unmatched. “Gaza workers are distinguished in handiwork and they are better than workers in China or Turkey,” he said.

Ghana’s dancing pallbearers (Washington Post) You may have seen them on the Internet: six men in black suits, sunglasses and patent leather shoes grooving to a techno beat while carrying a coffin. They are Ghana’s dancing pallbearers, a crew of funeral performers who have long sought to make mourners grin through grief. But as the coronavirus pandemic rages, they’ve become the accidental faces of a stay-at-home movement—comedic grim reapers edited into footage of risky behavior as a warning. Reopening a mall when cases are mounting? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Protesting a lockdown in a covid-19 hot spot? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Forget to wash your hands before eating? Cue the dancing pallbearers. People in China, Brazil and the United States have shared video after video since the outbreak began, garnering millions of clicks and an international fan base for the group. Benjamin Aidoo, who leads the group, isn’t sure how it happened. He woke up one March morning and saw his signature moves everywhere. “It’s a bit scary, but it’s funny, too,” said Aidoo, 32, who lives in Accra, the capital of Ghana. “People are saying, ‘I’d rather stay home than have these guys bury me.’ ”

[cassolotl]

Trans Doc Fail (FTM pharmacy edition)

Monday 2nd December 2019

~

If you’re in the UK and using Tostran gel, you’re probably already aware that there’s a shortage of Tostran at the moment and folks are being prescribed alternatives (such as Testogel) in the mean time.

A few weeks ago, when I requested more Tostran and was told that it wasn’t available, the pharmacist sent me back to my GP to get an alternative prescribed. My GP called the pharmacist to talk over options, and the pharmacist recommended Testogel.

When I went to pick up my Testogel, the pharmacist called me into the consultation room and started talking about testosterone stuff, and I was honestly quite confused. I just wanted to pick up my prescription! And he wasn’t trying to talk to me about any concerns or problems with my medication or anything like that.

He started by asking about why I need testosterone, and when I said I was nonbinary he didn’t know what that was. I explained that I am on testosterone at a very low dose, as low as it can be while still causing puberty, because I don’t want to be mistaken for a man but I don’t want to be mistaken for a woman either. I got a “does not compute” vibe from him, which quickly turned into “well I don’t understand but that’s not really relevant.” He asked why I wasn’t getting injections, which frankly was none of his business but I’m guessing he just wanted to make sure I was aware that injections were available, and I told him that because I’m nonbinary and don’t want to be mistaken for a man I need to be able to stop testosterone when I feel that I’m in the right place. I didn’t really feel like he got that, either.

He explained to me that male sexual health problems related to testosterone were of special interest to him, and that men often get prescribed stuff like Viagra when no one conducted a blood test to find out whether their testosterone levels were high enough, and actually they could be prescribed testosterone instead. He also told me about various enzymes that boost testosterone, if I was into that idea. He encouraged me to discuss these enzymes with my endocrinologist (the trans specialist in London) if I wanted to boost my testosterone, wrote down their names illegibly, etc. (I nodded and thanked him and assured him that I would do so. I will not do so.)

This was all baffling to me. I’m comfortable with my testosterone levels currently, he was aware that I was already being prescribed testosterone (the thing he is trying to get prescribed to people more often), I had already explained that I didn’t really want my testosterone levels to be high...

I am all for people talking about stuff they’re really interested in and excited about, but like, this is my body and my health, and I got the feeling (what with him not knowing what nonbinary is) that he had no idea what he was really talking about? I had a sneaking suspicion that trans man hormone issues are pretty far away from relevant to my issues in a lot of important ways, let alone cis man hormone issues, and this guy didn’t really express any understanding of trans issues at all. It was all very concerned ego, and it has been bothering me enough that it’s still stuck in my head a couple of weeks later. I’m not a cis man with erection problems flailing at his GP, eesh! I am a trans nonbinary person with complex and fine-tuned transition needs that are already being dealt with sufficiently by a very experienced specialist!

When I got home with my out-of-routine prescription, I found that I had been given sachets of Testogel, and each sachet contained 50mg of testosterone, with instructions to apply one sachet of gel per day. I am currently on 10mg per day. If I had started taking this medication as directed without checking the instructions thoroughly, I would have quintupled my dosage! And anyway, there is no practical way to use a fifth of a sachet per day. The various medical professionals at various stages of this process knew my daily dose and they had one job, and like yeah, people make mistakes and this was an unfamiliar situation for everyone, but I’m still pretty annoyed and somewhat concerned that this was possible.

I wrote to the London gender clinic, explaining what had happened and asking how I should proceed with 50mg sachets. I was wondering if maybe I would be instructed to apply one sachet every 5 days, but the endocrine nurse wrote to my GP (and CCed me) explaining that I needed to be on a lower dose, and recommending the pump bottle of Testogel instead of the sachets. Testogel in a pump form is about 20mg per pump, which is twice my usual dose and twice the dose of one pump of Tostran, but I have already been taught how to apply half-doses: pump the gel onto my skin, let it run a little, and then wipe off half with a tissue and throw the tissue in the bin (not down the toilet).

This is obviously pretty wasteful, but with no Tostran available (smaller pump dosages) there was no alternative.

Don’t tell the NHS but I saved them some money by swapping with someone who had almost a whole can of Tostran left and is on two pumps of that per day. (😱 Don’t share your prescription meds omg!!!) Testogel is 20mg per pump and Tostran is 10mg per pump, so the person I swapped with who usually has two pumps of Tostran can just do one pump of Testogel, and I can do one pump of Tostran as usual, and half a bottle of testosterone is saved from the bin. You’re welcome, NHS.

The moral of the story is: Check your mg-per-day on your usual medication, and when getting an alternative prescribed, make sure in advance that your mg-per-day is the same on your new prescription. It could save you some time, and it could save the NHS some money.

Pharmacists don’t really know what they’re talking about when it comes to trans people, and especially nonbinary people who are getting atypically trans treatments. Do not trust them or follow their instructions without investigating the instructions booklets of your usual and new treatments.

And, if you take some ridiculous 50mg sachets home with you before knowing they’re not quite right, keep them safe! Because the NHS have to destroy all medication that gets returned to them anyway in case it has been stored improperly etc, and you never know when the NHS will run out of testosterone due to Brexit and you’ll have to awkwardly use a fifth of a sachet per day for five months.

[sgt-nerd-plays]

Week 3: Imperial Infighting

So, I went to see my folks this last week. Work doesn't want me going anywhere February-April, so I wanted to see them while I could. This delayed my battle report writing, so I'm only now getting to last week's batrep. But I got all of the pictures edited, so I can get the games from last week and this week down now.

Game Setup:

We've gone up to 400 points. I've added three intercessors to my squad, one with an auxiliary grenade launcher. The squad is now being run as having all stalker bolt rifles (which the newer lads were built with). I've also added in a mighty redemptor dreadnought!

The base was a joy to work with, and when he's worked, he's worked really well. Onslaught Gatling Cannons and Storm Bolters do some work. I don't currently have enough points for the icarus rocket pod, so it's purely decorative.

My Narrative:

The soil of Herosand V has been soaked in the blood of Xenos and Humans alike as the fighting escalates! Throughout the planet, forces clash as daily reinforcements arrive from all over the galaxy.

However, there are also clashes between imperial forces due to chaos sorcery, fog of war, accusations of heresy, and Looking At Us Funny. Today, tempers flare and egos clash!

Match 1:

Astra Militarum

Their Forces:

A whole bunch of artillery and conscripts, plus two commissars and an inquisitor.

quote:

"Ah, it's nice to finally receive some reinforcements," Captain Incusator said as he leaned against the side of their newly acquired dreadnought. "Please do not treat me as furniture. Beep boop," the dreadnought said. The captain narrowed his eyes. "Reginald, you know you're not actually a robot, right? Just placed in a life support suit?" "Does not compute," said the voice from inside the machine. The captain was going to respond when the ground exploded nearby. "Great scott! What the devil's happened!" he cried out. "I think it's the Cadians," said Sergeant Caminus. "They must have us confused with the enemy." "This is just what happens when you think with your flesh," the captain said. "Weak thought!" He strode forward to teach the impudent guardsmen a lesson.

Cadia's finest on display!

He actually forgot to bring his tank, so he had to rejigger his list to only use the infantry in his army. Lots of bodies to shoot through. This would have given me a big problem the previous week, when I had a small number of attacks to work with. But now I have some real firepower!

Forward for the Emperor!

The stone pillar next to my dreadnought was the superior objective. I made sure to put my lads next to it. I fired into the massed guard, taking out a fair number of them. However, then his shooting turn started.

The mission type was the scouring. Six objectives placed, four worth two, one worth four, and one worth one. The high-value one was actually near the ruins in the middle of the board, on my side. I moved up to get sat up on it, advancing my captain so he could get into melee as soon as possible.

I took out a few of his men with my shooting. However, even with the 22 shots from the dreadnought, that left him with a lot of bodies left on the board.

He decided for his shooting to focus down my intercessors. This was a fairly brutal shooting round. By the end, I had a single intercessor left, with all of the rest of my lads blown to kingdom come. When I could move again, I tucked him down to where he'd be out of sight and only targetable by the mortars:

Bravely seeking cover!

However, this left my biggest threats unscathed. My dreadnought took out a lot more of his army out with its next volley of shots, obliterating much of his forces.

"Didn't we used to have more guys than this?"

Then the charges began. My grav captain got right into his forces and tore through a squad, and the dreadnought through another. His shooting was now much weaker. He did a little damage to me, but not enough to put a serious dent on my captain's or my dreadnought's ability to shred bodies. He finally brought all three of his characters into melee.

"Blended or pureed?"

At that point, he basically just had his mortars left, and there wasn't really any coming back for him. We talked a bit about strategy, and where he should have focused his fire the first round. If he'd managed to take down my dreadnought, he would have had much more time to take out my intercessors, and maybe just played around my captain, who could, after all, only take out a maximum of seven models a turn, assuming perfect rolls.

Match 2:

Space Wolves

Their Forces:

Wolf Lord, Thunderwolf Cavalry, Grey Hunters

quote:

"You know what I hate, Caminus?" the captain asked. "What's that, sir?" "Animals. Just terrible, hairy lumps of flesh. Completely useless." He shuddered. "Honestly, I can hardly imagine who would put up with those filthy beasts. You'd have to be mad." "Ah, sir..." "And the smell! Imagine just constantly having that up your snoot. Disgusting." "Sir..." "No, lad, nothing I hate worse than animals, and those who put up with them." "Sir!" "What is it, Caminus?" "Sir, this is the delegation from the Space Wolves company." Sergeant Caminus gestured to a furious wolf lord and several shaggy men on several shaggy wolves, which were starting to growl ominously. "...Ah."

The battlefield!

So, I was going up against a melee heavy army with an army that has excellent long-ranged weaponry. I also had the superior objective on my side of the map. Obviously, this meant I deployed as far forward as possible.

Hairy Dogboys!

My opponent also deployed as far forward as possible, but also kept his units into cover as far as possible. However, he couldn't quite hide his troops.

More than one way to skin a wolf.

Since all of my shooting was focused on his troops, they were taken out pretty quickly. When his thunderwolf cavalry came out of cover, I tried to soften them up a little, but they all had stormshields, which meant only one in three successful wounds actually went through. He also rolled really well on his saves, so very little damage went through. He then went to where I had grav captain pushed forward. His wolf lord caught up soon after. Over optimistically, I charged my dreadnought and intercessors into the fight. I tried to fight twice with my redemptor dreadnought, using Honor the Chapter, and managed to take out one of the thunderwolves.

A grand melee

My dreadnought and grav captain were soon destroyed, along with one more of his cavalry. This was the end of the fifth round, but we rolled to continue. I broke off what remained of my intercessors, falling back to try and delay the inevitable a little. This almost worked. Overwatch helped me take out the remaining thunderwolf. But his wolf lord got into melee.

"Mommy."

At the end of round six, I had one intercessor left in melee with his wolf lord. We were right next to the superior objective, however. I had one point for being the first to kill a unit (his troops), while he had a point for killing my warlord. My intercessor had priority on taking objectives, and this would have given me another four points. If the game ended right there, I would win... but we rolled just high enough to go to round seven. Seeing that it was futile, I bowed out and we shook hands.

This was a major learning experience for me. If I had stayed back and shot at him longer, I might have had more luck in thinning out his cavalry, or even his wolf lord. If I hadn't rammed all of my units into melee as soon as I could, I could easily gotten the objective secured and lasted into turn seven, guaranteeing a win.

quote:

"What happened?" asked Captain Incusator, as he slowly sat up. "They beat us, I'm afraid," said Sergeant Caminus. "Beat us! How?" he asked. "They fought dirty, sir," the sergeant said. "They hit us right in the flesh." "Our weakest point," the captain said. "Those beastly dastards!"

In my next battle report, I'll go into the games I fought today, and we'll see how I finish up the 400 point level.