#YOU HAVE THIS WHOLE CAST OF COLORFUL CHARACTERS THE OPTIONS ARE ENDLESS…… | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

allieebobo · 2 years

Text

Cast of characters (w images)

These descriptions and images are still a WIP and totally pulled out of my ass - please don’t let it restrict your own imagination / creative license :)

Update: I've decided that I'd like to give readers/players more agency in imagining how the characters look like in their head - hence, I've separated the "cast of characters" post into two options - one with pics/images, and one without. After all, I myself am not yet convinced that the images are exactly how I see the characters in my head :P Also, ya can’t really change hairstyles easily in Artbreeder, so take the hairstyles with a pinch of salt.

This is the list with images, but click here for a list without images-

ROs

Rayyan Afiq | Follows the gender of your team | 20 Nationality: Egyptian-American Student information: Junior, Political science major Player information: Vice-captain, No. 1 position, Aggressive Baseliner Description: 5′6 (f) or 5′10 (m). Lean, athletic build. Dark, wavy curls, and thick sweeping eyebrows over piercing dark-olive eyes. Tawny, honey-brown skin.

Detailed description:

Surly, intense, proud, focused. a.k.a. Tough on the outside, mushy on the inside.

Gives no shits, until they suddenly realise that they do. At which point they'll probably die for you, grumbling the whole way to the afterlife.

Loves organising things, has a plan for everything, and dislikes surprises.

Soft spot for cats. Lives in Seattle with a large family, whom they love.

Smart, but cannot for the life of them understand literature: "ok but why does the color of the curtain have to mean anything!?"

Motto: Everything has a time and place. Except winning. It's always the time and place to win. Alternative motto: Do or die, there is no try.

Seems to have some sort of beef with you(??)

Tobin Harris | Follows the gender of your team | 21

Nationality: American Student information: Senior, Anthropology major Player information: Captain, No. 2 position, All-court player Description: 5′9 (f) or 6′1 (m). Tall, solid build. Short black hair, warm, brown eyes and a calm, assured demeanour. Dark bronze skin.

Detailed description:

Kind, laid-back, selfless, sociable and utterly unflappable. They go out of their way to make everyone feel welcome.

Lights up every room they are in, but has a bad habit of stuffing down their own emotions until it's far too late. Surprisingly private.

Gentle to a fault, but steadfast in the things they believe in. Almost limitless patience, and always assumes the best of people. So loyal that they sometimes fail to see when a good thing's gone bad.

80-year old in a 21-year old body - yawns uncontrollably and repeats “it’s past my bedtime” from 10pm onwards. Has an endless supply of protein bars in their pocket and has trouble figuring out social media.

Textbook example of how friendliness does not equate attraction. Until, you suppose, it does??

Sam O’Connelly | M or F | 18

Nationality: American Student information: Freshman, Undecided major. Childhood best friend. Player information: No. 6 position for the UCLA Bruins Description: 5′4 (f) or 5′8 (m). Trim build, with a small frame. Slightly curly golden-red hair. Mischievous light blue eyes.

Detailed description:

Excitable, with infectious positivity.

Self-proclaimed chaotic good. Somehow manages to survive on a diet of cheetos and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Motto: it's ok not to be able to find anything - in the process of looking for it, you usually find something even better. Or you realise you never needed the thing in the first place.

Adaptable, scattered, and fun-loving. Competent tennis player, but has too many other interests to really buckle down (e.g. avid video gamer, podcast-nut, D&D dungeon master, and aspiring journalist).

Has a vague fear of commitment, but secretly wants to find something worth holding on to.

Comes to root for you at your games - to ogle other players. Unless… they’re ogling… you?

Guillaume/Genevievé | M or F | 20

Nationality: French Canadian Student information: Third year exchange student, Cognitive science bachelor’s degree. Hall-mate. Description: 5′6 (f) or 5′11 (m). Toned, supple build. Dark, tousled hair with fair skin. Smoky grey eyes, with a smattering of freckles.

Detailed description:

Quiet, but with a rich (and intensely private) inner world. Very intelligent, and almost wholly unreadable. Never lets on what they're actually thinking or feeling.

You know almost nothing about them despite living on the same floor.

Seems only to have a single expression on their face: a tiny half-smile, no matter the situation. You suspect that’s the look they’ll have on their face at your funeral.

Can be snarky as heck when they actually decide to speak, though.

Motto: Tell me why I should give a damn.

The sheer number of times you bump into them will start to get ridiculous. Coincidence? Perhaps. Fate? Possibly. On purpose?? Most certainly not (?)

p.s. I will eventually work on properly coding and writing a non-binary option for one of the ROs, and maybe for an additional character- let me know if there’s a particular character you’d strongly prefer an nb option for, but otherwise I’ll go with my gut (this might not be ready in the next update)

Other Characters

Coach Evelína Sýkorová | F | Mid 40s Nationality: Czech, naturalised American Character Information: Cargill’s head coach. Description: 5′8. Slim, with stern, aquiline features and a dry acerbic wit and regal bearing. One of the greatest tennis players to have graced the Earth.

Coach Tyrone Jones | M | Late 40s Nationality: American Character Information: Cargill’s assistant coach Description: 5′9. Burly, with a sudden, booming laugh. Switches between thundery rage and twinkling joviality at the drop of a pin.

Mike Chang | M | 19

Nationality: Chinese-American Student Information: Sophomore, Fine art major. Residential Assistant (RA) for your floor. Description: 5′9. A little lanky. Straight, black hair and dark brown eyes. Light-skinned, permanent smile. Golden retriever personality(TM). Would probably get through a nuclear apocalypse with a smile on his face.

Thalia Aetös | F | 19

Nationality: American Student Information: Sophomore, Undecided major. Lives on your floor. Description: 5′5. Sturdy, solid build. Sandy blonde hair and light blue eyes, always looks like she’s plotting your murder. Would probably get through a nuclear apocalypse because she’s likely to have unleashed it in the first place.

Daniela/Diego Rojas | M or F | 18

Nationality: American Student Information: Freshman, Undecided major. Room-mate. Description: 5′2 (f) and 5′6 (m). Small build, huge personality, with a voice you can hear from at least a mile away. Dark curly hair and a light brown complexion. Dopey, reckless, and has absolutely no comprehension of the concept of "consequences”. Absurdly lucky anyway. You're not entirely sure how they’ve managed to survive till now.

Max Williams | Follows the gender of your team | 18

Nationality: American Student Information: Freshman, Undecided major Player Information: Singles ranking TBC. Counter-puncher. Description: 5′4 (f) and 5′8 (m). Fair-skinned, with a small, lithe build. Reddish hair, in tight curly ringlets, and twinkly light grey eyes. Cheeky, cheerful, and prizes harmony above all else (sometimes at the expense of actually winning).

Note: Please feel free to make up your own characters, art, headcanons etc. This is also why I’m still divided on whether or not to put up images in the first place, because there’s a lot of good things to be said about leaving it up to the reader’s imagination.

p.s. you might notice that some of the descriptions have already changed somewhat from the demo - fret not, this will be updated in the demo the next time I release more content).

#CT:OS #master-post #feel free to tag yourself as a character #i'm prolly a sam with the cluelessness of a daniela/diego

69 notes · View notes

aerois · 3 years

Text

Remarried Empress: Sovieshu Contextualized and Navier the Unreliable Narrator (SPOILERS!)

So recently I started reading Remarried Empress on WEBTOON. Honestly the whole premise wasn’t my cup of tea and I was solely reading it because it was part of an event where I could get free coins (lol). But then... I got hooked. I got invested. Started drinking in chapters whenever and wherever I could, and even now I still crave more. I wanted Navier to have some semblance of a happy ending (and, let’s be honest, I wanted to drag that precious little bitch Trashta by her fucking hair across the yard). At first it was mostly that. Raging at Trashta and her Simperor, pondering at Heinley’s true intentions, drooling over Kaufman.

And then, I noticed something odd. I noticed-- the strangest thing-- Sovieshu seemed to be... not as enamored with his mistress as meets the eye. And there was even some hinting that his feelings for Navier weren’t what we assumed.

I have to preface this: I don’t condone Sovieshu’s crappy actions. He’s an idiot, and acts very poorly as a husband. And there’s no excuse for cheating. Absolutely not! So I don’t want this post to come across like In Defense of Sovieshu, because it’s not. But I do think that our view, the reader’s view, of Sovieshu, is warped. And this is mainly because we see the story through Navier’s eyes of course, but we forget that every individual person is fallible. Every person, at some point, harbors false assumptions that color their concepts of truth and reality. Put shortly, Navier is human, and therefore is not a reliable narrator at some points. Especially concerning her husband. We see Sovieshu entirely through the eyes of his wronged wife in the webcomic. Pin that: in the webcomic. Did you know the webcomic is actually based on a mobile game? Yes, it is! And I downloaded it! And I’m playing it! And... I’m actually... hating Sovieshu less??????????

Ok, ok, put the pitchforks down! Hear me out! I’m not saying any of the stuff he did was okay! But Navier’s narration of the story paints him as this cold, detached man who grew to hate his wife so much that he flew into the arms of some hussy for warmth and then just cast his wife aside and deliberately acted like a jerk just because he wanted her to suffer. And there’s a grain of truth to that. There are points where Sovieshu feels bitter and does or says something waspish. But it’s not as black and white as you might assume. I played the mobile game, and decided to take Sovieshu’s route out of spite. I opened this app, saw it was an otome with this garbage-fire, cheating sack of shit for a romance option and thought “Hah! The nerve. Probably some semi-abusive dirtbag route aimed to appeal to girls who like men who treat them badly. You know, that mutually abusive relationship appeal that some girls like because drama.” And I needed to rack up in-game currency anyway (it’s like usual mobile games, where when you wanna make cool choices you gotta cough up cash unless you “diamond-mine” on crappy stories to save up the meager bits of free currency the app gives you for playing) so I figured I’d blast through the Sovieshu route and skip onto my darling Kaufman in playthrough 2.

And then the smoke genuinely compelling character development got me. So I could run y’all through Navier’s version of the events, but you already know that. For Sovieshu though? Here’s the kicker: this idiot has had a raging passion for his wife slowly building up for years throughout their entire lives, and only realizes it about halfway through the events of the story. This idiot, this buffon, this absolute brain-dead dolt... didn’t even realize he was pining over his own wife until he was about to explode from the desperation from it all. God, I wish I was joking. Lemme break it down for you:

Sovieshu’s POV: He and Navier are introduced as kids and are told they’ll be married someday. Life partners. They are raised in tandem to respect and care for one another. Kinda smacks of grooming (go mom and dad!) but whatever, that’s the background. These kids are mentally regarding each other as spouses their entire conscious lives. And Sovieshu, as he grows, quickly comes to realize his intended is a selfless girl who holds everything inside. The first spark of his affection for her is wrapped in this: that Sovieshu longs for Navier to take off her “perfect princess” mask and let herself be vulnerable with him. He admires her intellingence, her grace, and her devotion to her country. He looks at her and sees someone that inspires him. He craves the opportunity to comfort and protect her. He waits, and these opportunities come in small instances. But they get older, their burdens get heavier, and like most young women, Navier gets better at pretending nothing is wrong with her and putting everyone else first. Sovieshu feels more distant from her. But that desire to break through her wall still stands.

They marry, but Navier, in her infinite wisdom, makes the assumption that this marriage is entirely political (despite...the fact... that they were raised together??? they were literally best friends their entire lives??? are y’all seeing how this could be confusing for him???) and that there are absolutely no feelings involved on Sovieshu’s side. Expect there’s that little problem. That little problem. Of Navier’s absolute inability to be vulnerable. And so she starts this marriage all Elsa-Conceal-Don’t-Feel convinced that her husband (whom she is secretly in love with, shocker) holds no warmth for her because she’s never received any from him.

Now I’ll acknowledge that this is a two way street, where Sovieshu fails as well. Should Navier have made a mature decision and asked for love and support when she needed it? Yes. Should Sovieshu have offered anyway, despite not knowing that she wanted it at all? Yes. They’re both in the wrong here. They’re both too passive, too afraid.

So the first few years of their marriage pass by like this. And Navier kinda melts into more of a depressed state over it, while Sovieshu becomes frustrated. But he doesn’t know why. He hasn’t quite put his finger on the fact that HE’S IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE, GEE WHAT A SURPRISE BUDDY. And then... the little ingenue comes in. Trashta, with her crocodile tears, oversharing of emotions, co-dependent as all get-out. You see where I’m headed, right? It’s not just that she’s the opposite of Navier that gets Sovieshu hooked. It’s that she gives him that opportunity to unburden all this pent up romantic frustration. He can comfort, and protect, and wipe away the tears of a woman who loves him... And for a while, it’s intoxicating. That itch is finally being scratched.

Or so it seems. Because sooner or later, Sovieshu realizes that this woman is not his wife. And she’s a bit clingy, and clueless, and she’s... well, she’s not his wife. She’s not his wife.

“Oh, dear God...” the idiot finally realizes. “I don’t want this hussy. I want my wife!”

Ding ding ding! You did it! And it only took you--what? 20 years? After all this time, Sovieshu (and the audience playing his route) realizes. He’s not cheating because he’s bored, or because he hates his wife, or because he’s Inherently An Asshole And That’s What Assholes Do. He’s cheating because he’s using this woman as a stand-in for his wife. He’s been looking straight through this woman and seeking his wife the entire time. He’s cheating because he’s stupid and repressed and misguided and human. And again, that doesn’t excuse it. He still cheated, and that’s something he needs to spend a life-time making up for. It’s a mistake, and a big one. But it’s not fueled by a malicious hatred or a desire to hurt her. It’s fueled by confusion and fear. And, strangely enough, a desire to perform love for his wife.

So anyway, this stupid dweeb finally wakes up and realizes that no matter how much he plays around with the Town Skank, it doesn’t slate that thirst for the woman he’s spent his life growing to love. And that he actually, truly loves her to begin with. Now at this point, Navier was away travelling, doing queenly stuff. And he gets a message from a servant-- his wife is home. This boy books it. This man throws down what he’s doing, sprints across the imperial palace, to stumble at the feet of his wife; red-faced and breathless, absolutely undone. This man is screaming for his wife on the inside and now nothing he can do will quiet it. And his wife, ever the perfect pinnacle of a monarch, just raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him and wonders what’s got him in such a tizzy.

This is where the difference between the narratives hits especially hard. Navier has absolutely no clue that her husband is a hair-thin thread of self-control away from all of this just completely spilling out of him. She looks at him and sees a tormentor; someone who’s treating her like a used doll. And he sees this Goddess that’s been hiding in plain sigh the whole time. He sees his sins and repents before this, his wife, his almighty Goddess. But he doesn’t know what to do. She’s still been hurt by him, Trashta is still in their lives, and damn it all, he’s still frustrated. He still feels bitter and abandoned because even after everything, even after the years of marriage, his wife just seems so unaffected by him. This is where Navier’s “perfect queen” image that she tries so hard to curate really bites her in the ass.

These two dumbasses are hopelessly in love with each other but they’re deadlocked in an endless cycle of letting their prides get in the way. Navier doesn’t want to be vulnerable. Sovieshu doesn’t want to compromise, doesn’t know how to not lash out in anger when he’s really feeling sad. Unlike Navier, he can express emotions-- but not in a heathy way. So he says something mean, does something kinda shitty. And Navier thinks it’s because he delights in her suffering. So Sovieshu’s over here in his head like a cranky little child that’s mad at mommy because she’s on the phone, and Navier is over there in her head wondering why on earth her husband can’t notice a love that she’s never actually expressed to him. And it’s just terrible. But kind of hilarious. Mostly sad and terrible. But defintely hilarious.

To further illustrate this: even a lot of Sovieshu’s actions, for that matter, get warped by Navier’s unreliable narration. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! In the chapter where Trashta is stabbed, Sovieshu immediately screams for guards to surround Navier. So I’ll sum up their thought processes here.

Navier: Oh my God, I can’t believe this asshole. Calling the guards? He really fuckin thinks I did this?! Jerk! Asshole! He really thinks I’d arrange for a pregnant woman to be stabbed!! He’s probably deliberately framing me too, so he can get me out of the way and live happily ever after with her!

Sovieshu: OH MY GOD, MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE COULD GET STABBED NEXT SOMEONE HELP well actually maybe she had something to do with it? nah. prolly not. but even if she did idgaf I LOVE MY WIFE, I’LL COVER FOR YOU BABY I’LL FORGIVE WHATEVER. GUARDS, FIND WHO DID THE STABBING SO THEY DON’T STAB MY PERFECT WIFE NEXT

Like I wish I was joking, but that’s how it read. Anyway, I’m not done with the comic or the game yet. But Sovieshu’s motivations aren’t all as they seem. And while he’s not a perfect husband, he has the capacity to mature, let down his pride, and make steps toward atoning to his wife. I honestly and genuinely believe this marriage could be salvageable if they could come clean with each other. A lot of people want to root for Kaufman or Heinley, and I get it. Those two would probably treat her well. But the fact stands that these two are married, and surprisingly, they both actually still hold a spark of love for one another. If Sovieshu could genuinely repent, and demonstrate this to Navier, they would attain the happy marriage with each other that they both strive for. Anyway, I find myself surprisingly hooked on the story now that I see Sovieshu’s POV. He’s not a hero in this story by any means, but I’m somehow, against my better judgement, rooting for him. I’m rooting for him to make the right choices and repair his marriage.

It’s a bold strategy, folks. Let’s see how it pays off.

#remarried empress

308 notes · View notes

technicallyaminecraftsimp · 2 years

Note

Dude okay so like. Okay so.

Forgotten Indigo is a series about figuring out some bullshit in the city of Indigo.

It's actual play livestreams and vods, using a hyper-flexible tabletop rpg system that the GM made called Windrose.

You can find the whole series and some spin-offs and add-ons on Stabbyness Twitch, as well as 13 episodes and a few spin-offs on the Stabbyness Youtube (it's still getting re-uploaded).

It's kinda hard to find a way to pitch this series, to be honest. So instead, I'll pitch the player characters (the ones that you know about right away, as well as one that I think is pretty important)

Cassius- Okay so this is a weird pull but uh. Disco Elysium? Fucked up amnesiac detective? Same concept but entirely different execution, far less fucked up, far more polite.

Martha Teach- G. Guess what her job is? Yeah I don't really have to tell you her deal, except that holy shit she's so poggers. She's my mom dude. (That's a joke a lot of the cast makes but she. Actually reminds my of my mom sbchahfya) She's such a stressed out workaholic woman.

Beretta Pietro- Yes she's named after a gun. This is intentional. In her spin-off series, Beretta's Endless Summer Time, she also gets called Glocktua which is really funny considering a later character. Anyways she's my favorite character by far, her family Invented The Gun and hasn't shut up about it ever since. She goes on lots of dates, meticulously schedules everything, and her character's Twist fucked me up so badly because I didn't watch her session zero. She's easily my favorite character.

Selyf (I forgot his last name :[ ) : good boy!!! Good owl boy!!! Holy shit dude. He just wants to go to school.

The Champion of Noctua (AKA Noctua AKA Nocti) : an NPC, technically, but she's listed as a player character on the reference sheet Discord server so. Yeah anyways she's a Slug and she has prosthetics on all four of her limbs and she wasn't even supposed to befriend the party but! Here we are! She won the popularity poll and has been non-canonically launched into space via gazebo. (If nothing else, please watch the popularity contest battle royale. It's so out of character (intentionally so) but it's so funny. Ooc Teach made my side hurt with laughter. It's not going where you think it's going at all.)

AAAAA but yeah I spent 15 minutes typing this. I actually watched the first official session of Forgotten Indigo live when it first happened. I didn't watch the session zeroes and was so confused (watch the session zeroes. The middle two if nothing else, please the context is so important)

Forgotten Indigo isn't going to be for everyone, but like. There are so many other shows across Stabbyness and SurpriseroundRPG. Want JJBA but cyberpunk? Boom, Carbon Interface on Stabbyness. Want JJBA but with a bunch of depressed people? Bang, Cheer Up on SurpriseroundRPG. Want TV show Epithet Erased if it was just. So fucking wild and also weirdly dark?? Red Stich Report on SurpriseroundRPG is new, only two episodes, and it's so good. It's actually a pretty good jumping-on point if you want to start watching a show live. (I've noticed that a lot of shows I liked are DMed by a Specific Person and that person is Lamp. She's so cool. She's a romance option in a dating sim called Pizza Game.)

Anyways I've been writing this for?? About 30 minutes?? And I feel like I've barely said anything which Sucks so uhhh I'm open to questions :]

Ooooo okay I am trying my absolute best to comprehend this but boy does it sound interesting

So far the characters you’ve mentioned sound soo coooool and like I want to know more about them and how they look and their favorite colors and kshsjshs

One question I have is like,,,, how exactly does it work? Is it like DnD or like,,,,,,, kinda how the dsmp was w streams and everything? Is there a main character pov or separate ones? And the like spin off series (if I may call them that) sounds really interesting I’m even just the fact that they exist!

I would love to hear anything else you have to say about this and (if I’m not overwhelming myself with catching up on hc episodes haha hehe) I’ll try to check it out on YouTube at the very least!

#mmmmmm I’m intrigued :]#I heard owl boy and brain started going a lil brrrr #darling!

6 notes · View notes

hollysharks · 5 years

Text

The Lightning-Struck Boy

2k of Draco Malfoy being sad at the end of Half Blood Prince

Content/ Trigger Warning for: Major Angst, Character Death, Suicide, Implied/ Referenced Suicide, Scene Re-Write

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17335181

Draco couldn’t breathe, whether it was excitement or fear or the fact that his chest had been ripped open a mere few weeks before he couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that he couldn’t breathe and that each stair he raced up drew more and more of it away from him. He waved his wand and cast a quick alohomora under his breath before using his shoulder to rush through the door.

“Expelliarmus!” he shouted, erupting through the door. He watched as the wand spiraled in an arc out of Dumbledore's hand and far out of reach. His eyes darted between the headmaster and the wand, stunned at how easy it had been to disarm him.

“Good evening, Draco,” Dumbledore said calmly. Draco's hands began to tremble. He didn’t understand how Dumbledore could be so calm when disarmed. He couldn’t stand to look at him. Didn’t he know what was going on? Didn’t he see the mark above his head? Didn’t he know what Potter knew? Draco flinched at the name even in his head. Potter... Potter….Potter…. Shit. The second broom.

“Who else is here?” He asked, fully expecting the savior Potter to jump out from elsewhere in the tower and stop him. Perhaps truly killing him this time unlike before.

“A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve got back up. There are Death Eaters in your school tonight.” He spit the words at Dumbledore. His arrogance flaring. There was nobody else here, or else they would have come up. Dumbledore was wearing a mask, just like him.

“Well, well,” Dumbledore said, “Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in did you?”

“Yeah,” Malfoy said, excitement boiling over so powerfully he was panting. He jabbed his wand forward and laughed. “Right under your bloody nose and you never realized!” How pathetic, that Dumbledore, the great and wise Dumbledore, feared by even the Dark Lord himself, was fooled so easily. Draco was quick and happy to explain to Dumbledore how he’d done it. The vanishing cabinets, the necklace with Katie Bell, the poison with Ron. How he’d stop at nothing to complete his task. How he was proud to complete his task. How he was proud to fulfill his honor.

Yet as Draco gloated to Dumbledore, the headmaster continued to smile and nod, as if he was proud. As if Draco was telling him about his study habits or how he’d scored all O’s on his O.W.L.S. It made him sick.

“Enough! I - I’ve got a job to do.”

“Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy,” Dumbledore said with a smile. Draco opened his mouth, but slowly shut it again. He couldn’t stand that cursed smile. It was a twist of a blade in his stomach.

“Draco, Draco, you are not a killer.”

“How do you know!” Draco said at once, taking a step closer. “You don’t know what I’m capable of,” he continued, his voice more forceful and raw “You don’t know what I’ve done!”

“Oh, yes, I do,” Dumbledore said mildly.

“No!” Draco shouted back. “I’ve… I’ve killed to get this far. You won’t be my first!” Draco's mind flashed back to the vanishing cabinet and the small white dove. She had been part of a pair, and Draco had taken her away. Of course, it hadn’t been him who snapped her neck, but it may as well have been. He had sent her to her death, and wasn’t that as good as murder? “I’ve been working on it all year, and tonight-” Draco was cut off by Dumbledore letting out a yawn.

“Perhaps you ought to get on with the job them hm? You don’t really need any help … I have no wand at the moment … I cannot defend myself.” The two of them stood silently staring at each other, and Draco cursed himself for being so pathetic.

“Hm. Well, there is little time, one way or the another,” Dumbledore began. “Let us discuss your options, Draco.”

“My options!” Draco cried out. “Isn’t it a little late for you to be trying to step in and save me as you did with Potter? I’m not some pathetic orphan who needs saving you insolent fool. I’m standing here with a wand, and I’m about to kill you.” Draco began to shake, a habit which he had developed after his father began using the cruciatus as a means of behavior correction.

“I… I haven’t got any options!” he shouted, attempting to use the power of his voice to steady himself. To reassure himself that what he was doing was what must be done. He felt the color drain from his face. “I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!”

This time it was Dumbledore who stepped closer to him, extending a hand out to the boy who so clearly threatened to kill him. “I can help you, Draco.”

“No, you can’t,” Draco said, closing his eyes and using his non-wand hand to fist at his hair. “He told me to do it or he’ll kill me. I’ve got no choice.”

“Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban... when the time comes we can protect him too... come over to the right side, Draco... you are not a killer…”

Draco stared at Dumbledore, and for a moment he considered it. What it’d be like to be protected for once instead of shoved into the center of the playing field like a pawn in some distorted chess game. How nice it’d feel to be the one protected by Dumbledore for once. His mother would be safe. His father would be safe. They could sit out this disgusting fight and live to see another day free from the weight of The Dark Lords regime. All he had to do was take his hand.

“I-” Draco began his wand lowering, but he was cut off by the sound of rushing footsteps behind him. He quickly backed away from Dumbledore and threw his arm up again. The weight of the wand now heavy in his hand. Four black cloaked figures flooded around Draco, each of them cooing and praising him for his hard work so far. The words were like vipers in his ears.

“Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone. Well done, Draco, well done.” Amycus jeered, clapping Draco on the back so suddenly he almost fell forward. The sudden impact knocking him back into his reality. That’s right, he had Dumbledore cornered. He was fulfilling the orders sent to him by the dark lord himself. He didn’t need Dumbledore's protection. He could protect his family on his own. No, he wasn’t doing this to protect them. He was doing this because he wanted to. He wanted to protect the pureblood line. To restore the wizarding world and Hogwarts to its former glory. To be the hand which brought forth the future of purity.

“Is that you, Fenrir?” asked Dumbledore.

“That’s right,” rasped the other. “Pleased to see me Dumbledore? You know how much I love kids I couldn’t resist a feast such as tonight.” He chuckled. “So many bloody options, it’s an overflowing menu.”

“Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual… you have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?”

“That’s right,” said Greyback. “Besides, what’s a few more werewolves on our side hm? It’s a win-win between me and the Dark Lord. He receives soldiers and I…” He smirked, although it wasn’t happiness on his face but pleasure. A familiar pleasure which brought bile to Draco's mouth.

“Shocks you, that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?” Greyback continued to taunt.

“Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little,” said Dumbledore. “And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live...”

“I didn’t, I didn’t know he was going to come -” Draco said. A win-win with the dark lord? Surely Fenrir wouldn’t attack fellow purebloods? Quickly his mind raced to the Slytherin common room. How many of his friends sat in there completely clueless as to what was going on in the tower. Of course, they’d find out, and when they did they’d be so proud of him. Of course, they would be proud of him, he’d done the ultimate task. He had fulfilled the wishes of the Dark Lord himself. He’d killed Dumbledore. He’d brought death eaters into the school all on his own. Perhaps, accidentally, he’d killed a few students as well.

The thought flew through his mind like a bullet train. Quickly, it collided with the cool facade Draco had built and he began to collapse. The voices around him faded into white noise as reality slowly dawned on him. This wasn’t in his control anymore. These weren’t school games to play in the yard. This wasn’t joking around with Crabbe and Goyle or hell even simply cursing at Potter. This wasn’t even just about Dumbledore. This wasn’t about losing points, it was about lives. He felt his wand falter.

This was a war. A war which he had started. A war he was starting. A war where when the dust settles, there will be endless blood on his hands. Every witch hunted down, every wizard murdered, every child's life snuffed out could be traced back to here. Back to now. Back to him. But, didn’t they deserve it? The same filthy mudbloods who, who. Who had nothing. Who had done nothing. They had simply existed.

Draco had failed. No matter what he did he had failed. He had failed his father by being a traitorous coward just as he was. He had betrayed his mother by taking the mark and serving the Dark Lord in her name as if that's what she wanted for her son. He looked at his hands. That’s all he was. No assassin, no killer, no dark wizard. He wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. He wasn’t a name which would be celebrated or honored. He was the son of a Malfoy, the sole heir to the family name. No, not an heir, a disgrace.

“We’ve got a problem, Snape, the boy doesn’t seem able,” Amycus said, the mention of Snape bringing Draco back to reality. He hadn't even noticed the professor come onto the tower.

“No.” Draco insisted, taking another step forward. “For once, for once I won’t fail.” For once his voice didn’t tremble, his arm raised solid and firm. “I can’t fail. Not anymore” He pushed through the Death Eaters who had circled around him, and strode around the center of the tower. He stood in front of Dumbledore.

“I want to do it where you can see. I want you to see me. Look at me, Look at me!” he shouted.

“Draco…” he whispered softly, and for the first time in the evening, Dumbledore was pleading. The tower fell silent.

“You don’t know… You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this. How long I’ve spent thinking about how good it would feel.” He let out a small hiccup of a laugh. “I’ll be free after this. I’ll be free of it all. No more of Father looking down on me and comparing me to some forsaken Mudblood. No more of Voldemort doubting my strength and threatening me. No more Potter breathing down my neck and blaming every mistake on me.” Draco began to laugh, truly began to laugh.

“It’ll feel good, won’t it. Death I mean?” Draco asked, his eyes burning into Dumbelors. The two now standing nearly nose to nose. Draco's wand pressed hard against Dumbledore chest.

“Draco....please…”

“And won’t it be so wonderful,” Draco whispered to the old man. “To not be a failure anymore.” Draco raised his other arm out, but no spell fell from his lips. Instead, he simply took a single step back. For a moment he seemed to hang suspended in the air beneath the shining skull, and then he slowly fell backward, like a bird with a broken wing who knew it could never fly, into the darkness of the night.

#draco malfoy #draco #hp fanfic #draco malfoy fanfiction #fanfiction #harry potter fanfiction #my fanfic #My writing #whump #whump fic #angst fic #draco malfoy angst #draco angst #im sorry yall #im just trying to get my writing out there more

12 notes · View notes

4colorrebellion · 5 years

Text

4cr Plays - Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection (PS4)

It’s a testament to the strength of the casts in the Persona series that its characters can appear in spinoffs in so many disparate genres and feel like naturals. Fighting game? Sure, they can duel each other to submission. First-person dungeon crawler? That’s basically what they did already, from a new perspective. Dance off? Why not?!

The last one is our focus today. A couple of years back, the Persona 4 cast took to the stage in Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Despite the absurdity of the core premise - the investigation team must dance to protect missing idol singers from monstrous shadows - the game was a delight. It was pure fanservice, but damn, I adore those characters and that soundtrack. I’ll dance the night away with Chie and Rise any day of the week.

Now, Atlus has returned to the rhythm genre with a pair of games applying the same formula to the soundtrack and casts of Persona 3 and Persona 5. Persona 3: Fancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Startlight launch this week on PS4 and PS Vita - either separately for $60 each or in a dual pack - with a PS4 version of Persona 4: Dancing All Night - for $99.

I should start off my impressions with a disclaimer. I am not a big fan of rhythm games. I love music, but I am basically tone-deaf and have the reaction times of a pineapple. I suck at games that require matching any sort of beat. I am, however, a massive fan of the Persona series. So, this review is going to be from that perspective more than a look at the games as a fan of the rhythm genre.

That said, the gameplay of the Persona dancing games is thoroughly in the vein of something like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero - pressing the right buttons in time with the notes. Basically, as you work through a song, notes will stream from the center of the screen to the edges. You must press one of six buttons as the note nears the edge of the screen - the down, left, and up buttons on the d-pad and the triangle, circle, and X buttons on the right. When the note lines up with a circle on the edge of the screen, press the corresponding button.

There are also a number of special notes that require some more effort. Some note must be held - press the button in time and keep it down until indicated. Others require two buttons to be pressed simultaneously. The last element are the “scratches”. When these circles near the edge of the screen, you need to flick one of the analog sticks (scratches can also be mapped to the triggers). The scratches are important, as hitting the right ones will activate a special “fever mode” - where a score multiplier is activated, and where you can save yourself if you’ve been falling behind.

Scoring is based on how well you landed notes, ranging from perfect, to very good, to good, and to a miss. Too many misses, and you’ll fail the song. At the end, the number of hits in each category and your combo will determine your final score. An early miss will harm you less than a miss at a critical moment that breaks a long-running combo. Keep in mind - “good” ratings are a hit, but will also break a combo. You need to make a lot of “perfect”s and “very good”s to top the boards.

This is the same basic formula at the heart of Persona 4: Dancing All Night (P4D). As a rhythm outsider, I don’t think there have been any fundamental changes - if you liked it there, you’ll be fine. If you hated it, I doubt this will change your mind. For my part, I think it works well. The controls feel responsive enough. There are multiple difficulty levels - higher ones up the speed and number of notes. I tended to stick to “normal”, and did just fine. I didn’t go near the higher difficulty levels, but know some fiends will work to master the highest tiers. I wish them, and their superhuman reflexes, the best of luck.

Of course, the attraction here is definitely the music. The Persona series features some of the best soundtracks in gaming. The great part too is that those soundtracks are quite different. The music in Persona 3 is vastly different from that in 4 and 5, so the experience feels fresh across games. That said, splitting the soundtracks over games makes each feel a bit thin. Some of the same basic songs appear multiple times, with remixes and live versions. As a result, the tracklists seem a bit thin. Few songs are true duds, but I didn’t care for some of the remixes.

Still, the soundtracks are great, and the presentation is top-notch. Both games look great - clean, colorful, and sharp. I realize that creating the sets for a rhythm game is a smaller task than creating a full explorable world, but seeing all of the Persona 3 settings recreated in HD really made me wish that Atlus would remake P3 and P4. This is the sharpest, cleanest presentation of these settings and characters that have existed. It can be a little hard to tell what is happening on screen at times, with all of the effects in full blast. However, this is definitely a fun game to watch. It’s a visual treat.

A number of factors can be customized during dancing. There are track modifiers that can be enabled to make the experience either easier or harder. For example, one modifier prevents “good” hits from breaking a combo. However, the modifiers that make playing easier will cost you points. Other modifiers make the experience more devilish. You can also outfit dancers in a huge variety of outfits and accessories - from wigs, to glasses, to headphones. The more you play, the more clothing options you can unlock. After the first playthrough, you can also select different dance partners. Both costumes and the backup dancers are pure fanservice, but some Persona fans will have fun playing with different options.

P4D had an extensive story mode to supplement the core dancing. A lot of people found the story mode boring, but I really liked it. I love the Persona 4 characters, and thought the story was an interesting look at the issues with idol culture in Japan.

Sadly, the two new games have both dropped the story mode entirely. Instead, a basic “it’s a dream” framing device is used to justify the dancing, and that’s about it. Instead, checking off requirements in the dancing mode will open up “social link” scenes with the individual cast members. These are fun little fully-acted vignettes, and progress a bare-bones overall plot. Later scenes let you explore each character’s bedroom. If you have a PSVR, you can activate it and walk through each area in first-person. As a fan, these scenes are cool. I love spending a little more time with both casts. However, you definitely notice the loss of a dedicated story mode. The scenes feel inconsequential without any central driving plot - just a bonus for fans of the series.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of these games will depend on how much of a Persona fan you are. The soundtracks are incredible, the dancing is fun enough, and the presentation looks great. However, the experience is thin on content, especially at full price. I’m not sure I could recommend either game at $60 each. These feel like budget releases tossed out at full price, and should have just been one game from the start. The $99 collection has more merit - especially since it includes a PS4 version of P4D. Looking at is as $33 per game, it doesn’t seem bad at all. If you’re a fan of the series as a whole - if you love those casts and the soundtracks - the full collection may be worth your time. If you aren’t already a Persona super-fan, I don’t think there’s as much to recommend at the high cost of entry.

This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher, Atlus.

Official Website

#video games #reviews #Atlus #Persona 3 #Persona 5 #Persona 4 #Persona #PS4 #PS Vita #greg4cr

1 note · View note

theeurekaproject · 4 years

Text

Parva Rubrum Marmor

The rice plants waved from side to side in the summer breeze, endless viridian green against a landscape of burnt sienna and umber. The sunlight streaming through titanium white clouds was zinc yellow, and it left sparkles of aluminum powder on a pond of cobalt blue. Cressida swirled the paintbrush through American rose and dotted it on the vermillion of the cliffs far in the background, completing the picturesque landscape of the quadrangle.

She leant back and looked at the painting, somewhat dissatisfied with it. American rose might not have been the right color. It was more candy apple red or electric crimson. And maybe diamond dust would have looked better than aluminum powder, to really capture the essence of sun on water, or maybe-

Maybe she was just overthinking it.

She looked at the painting, and then at her pigments. She eyed the chocolate cosmos. Dark, rich, deep red—it would be the perfect opposite of bright, vibrant American rose, especially in a painting where she was trying to create so much contrast. But was chocolate cosmos really faithful to the cliffs of the Mare Acidalium at sunset?

Cressida frowned and walked over to her window. It wasn’t that she wanted photorealism, exactly, but she wanted something that really matched the soul of the place, the heart of the landscape. Colors were important for that. She pulled open the drapes, revealing the real rice plants, and all of the people who worked in them. The cliffs rose up in the background. Chocolate cosmos did kind of match their character, but it wasn’t really super accurate-

“What the hell?”

Something flashed in the sky, momentarily flickering before vanishing into thin air. Cressida squinted. There it was again—a sleek chrome triangle, pulsing in and out of existence. That was advanced cloaking technology, the likes of which she’d never seen outside of crappy sci-fi B-movies they played at the theater on Fridays. Martian ships didn’t look like that.

“Dad?” she called downstairs. “Dad, there’s something weird in the stratosphere.”

“I know,” he shouted back. “They’re with me-“

“The ones in the ship?” she asked, watching all the workers in the field stop their labor to gaze at the cyan sky. “Because there’s a white thing-“

“What?”

“Come take a look at it.”

She heard him murmur an apology to his visitors—Eleutherian ambassadors, probably, but she had long since given up on trying to keep his various guests straight—and run upstairs, his footsteps pounding on the hardwood floor. He joined her at the window still, shielding his eyes with one hand.

“Look, Dad,” she said. “It’s flickering, see? That’s not one of ours.”

“That’s strange,” he said slowly. “That’s a nice ship. A really nice ship.” Even from this far away, Cressida could tell it was expensive; the way the mid-morning light glinted off the metal was unique to fancy Eleutherian cruisers. But why would the space equivalent of a yacht have cloaking technology unless whoever was flying it really, really didn’t want to be seen?

“It doesn’t look dangerous,” Cressida said, “but civilian ships aren’t even allowed to have that type of tech. That goes against so many regulations it’s not even funny.”

“You’re right. And it isn’t just cloaking, either.” Her father tilted his head up, shielding his eyes with one scarred hand. “See how shiny it is? That’s not for aesthetic purposes—or, well, it is, but those are shields, like on a military ship.” Cressida’s voice caught in her throat. “Military?” The Eleutherian military was no joke; their fleet outstripped anything Mars had by far, to the point where fending them off was laughable. The last war they’d fought had resulted in patches of nuclear devastation all over Daedalia Planum, and the soil was still irradiated and poisonous even centuries later. And, to Eleutheria, that had been nothing—at the time, their Imperatrix had called it a “skirmish.” Millions of people dead and entire cities leveled, a civilization reduced to radioactive ash, and it barely even registered on Eleutheria’s radar. They could nuke the entirety of Mars and barely bat an eyelash. Cressida was sure that her father’s status would protect her in some way—he prided himself on being annoyingly overprotective, and he was rich and powerful in some sectors—but, at the end of the day, he was just a farmer who had gotten lucky. He was high-ranking, but was he high-ranking enough to save his daughter and his planet from the most volatile empire known to mankind?

“What did you do?” Cressida demanded. “Why is the Eleutherian army coming after us?”

“I didn’t do anything, not really,” he said quickly. “And they wouldn’t send the army after us. They’d send the space force.” “That is literally the opposite of reassuring.” The only thing more terrifying than the sight of centuria of mutant super-soldiers was the sight of centuria of mutant super-soldiers riding indestructible starships.

“Don’t panic just yet. That might not even be a military craft,” he said, though Cressida could hear the waver in his voice. “Military ships are’t sleek and white—more cubic and black and intentionally intimidating.” Cressida squinted, trying to get a closer look. Everyone in the fields had long since stopped working; now, they just stared up at the sky, enraptured. The vessel drew closer, close enough to cause tornadoes of rusty-red dust to swirl up from the ground in jets of spent soil, and then closer still. It was big—admittedly, not as big as a yacht, but big—and Cressida felt a surge of anxiety as she realized just how near it was to the farmhouse. Either it would flatten all the crops and destroy the year’s harvest, which would be a massive inconvenience requiring ten tons of paperwork, or it would completely crush the homestead. Neither were good options, and both were bound to piss off the almighty Algorithm.

But, to her surprise, the ship simply coasted over them with a surprising amount of grace for something so large and unwieldy-looking. It cast a long, dark shadow over the fields as the Martian sun vanished behind glimmering Eleutherian plastic, sending chills down Cressida’s spine.

“Hey, Ace,” her father called to one of his guests. “Can you come up here for a minute?” “Ace?” Cressida asked. That name sounded like it belonged to a frat boy, not a visiting dignitary. “Who the hell is—“ “What?” A teenage boy with wild, curly black hair came barreling into the room in a cacophony of noise. His clothes suggested that he was a soldier, but his demeanor seemed less “military precision” and more “confused.” Maybe Eleutheria’s massive population meant that they were less discerning when it came to their soldiers, since they had so much cannon fodder, or maybe he was smarter than he looked.

“Is that who I think it is?” Cressida’s father asked, gesturing to the ship. Ace considered it for a minute.

“Yeah,” he said. “Oh my god, yeah. That’s Acidalia. We’re so fu—uh, screwed.”

“Wait,” Cressida interjected, “Acidalia? You’re not talking about-“

“You know exactly who I’m talking about,” he replied. “Either that or her psycho mother, because there are only two people I can think of who have rides like that.”

Cressida looked nervously at her father, and his eyes widened slightly.

“You don’t think it could be Alestra, do you?” he asked.

“Alestra Cipher is after you?!” Cressida exclaimed. “What the hell, Dad?” Alestra was the most dangerous woman in the solar system—hell, probably even the whole galaxy. She killed her own citizens on a regular basis, and she did not like Martians, particularly martians from the Mare Acidalium quadrangle. If she saw the opportunity to strike, she’d probably mow down the whole Seren family where they stood.

“I don’t think it’d be her,” Ace said dismissively. “It must be Acidalia. If it was Alestra, she’d have burnt this whole place to the ground already. We’d all be piles of radioactive ash by now. But that’s not the point—it doesn’t matter if she’s on that ship or not, because she’s the hunting dog to Acidalia’s fox. We are so, so, so screwed—and the fact that Acidalia thought it was necessary to come all the way here doesn’t bode well, either.”

“What do you mean, ‘that doesn’t bode well?’” Cressida asked again. “Dad, what’s happening?” Moving away from the window, she knocked over the all-but-forgotten jar of mixed chocolate cosmos, which left a reddish brown stain where it spilled.

She went utterly ignored.

“Yeah, it must be Acidalia’s,” Ace decided. “Alestra wouldn’t have let us live this long—she’s too efficient for that. And Cassiopeia’s an impulsive idiot, but Alestra keeps a leash on her, right?”

“I suppose there’s only one way to find out,” Cressida’s father shrugged.

***

Approximately thirty seconds later, Cressida and her father, trailed by Ace and a strange Eleutherian girl with fluorescent pink hair, stood outside the homestead in a rare patch of grass. Each and every one of them was sweating and tired-looking—something about the heat made standing under the sun exhausting, even when one had barely done anything requiring any sort of labor. Together, they stared at the ship, watching, waiting.

Suddenly, with an odd lack of fanfare, the shields vanished, and in place of their iridescent glow was a set of marble steps that somehow looked as natural on the landscape as the rice plants and the trees. At their very center stood a woman in a white dress and a veil—she could have been a bride, but Cressida knew better. She was flanked by two other women wearing identical gray uniforms, but somehow they gave off the same energy as an entire court full of people, and Cressida felt like she ought to respect this person, whoever she was.

The girl with pink hair, the one who apparently didn’t speak a word of Anglian, dropped to her knees in an awkward sort of worship. Cressida briefly contemplated doing the same thing, but neither Ace nor her father followed the girl, so she did a slight curtsy and remained standing, feeling very small compared to this foreign princess of a person. Even here, surrounded by the spoils of her family’s wealth—a mansion of a farmhouse, fields upon fields of employees, the best technology any Martian could ever hope to buy—Cressida felt like a tasteless hick.

“You know how to make an entrance,” her father said to the stranger, smiling slightly.

She sighed. “Old habits die hard.” Something in her expression was completely humorless, but not in an I-mean-business way, more of a someone-just-died way. Something churned in Cressida’s stomach, and she suddenly got a horrible gut feeling that something had gone very, very wrong.

“Are all the Imperials this dramatic?” her father asked, apparently not picking up on the David-this-is-serious vibes the woman was clearly trying to send his way. It took a moment, but a wave of embarrassment surged through Cressida. Imperials? This woman was an Imperial? Not just an Imperial—if she was standing here, and she wasn’t Alestra, she had to be—

Oh my God, Cressida thought. I’m speaking to Acidaila Cipher. It should have been obvious in retrospect; Ace had identified this craft as her ship, after all, and it made sense that the Imperatrix Ceasarina would be the one person outside the military who would own a ship this nice. But Cressida had been expecting some type of aid or minister to come out first—why would the ruler of the most powerful empire humanity had ever known want to speak face-to-face with the Secretary of Agriculture on Mars, of all people?

“David, I don’t have time for this,” Acidalia said, looking harried, and the tone in her voice made Cressida want to hear whatever she had to say sooner rather than later. She gave off a sort of frantic, panicked aura, even though her stone-cold face was completely calm. It was like chaos and disarray just surrounded her—she wasn’t its source, but it seemed to like her, and Cressida wanted to figure out what the problem was before it turned into a catastrophe.

“Sorry,” her father said. “Generally, when important political figures show up at my house with no explanation or forewarning, I get a little curious.” She glared at him. “There are a lot of things we could be talking about right now that don’t involve dramatic entrances. I’m afraid that I come bearing bad news.”

“Bad news?” Cressida asked, terrified by the vagueness of the statement. “Bad news” coming from a political figure could mean anything from an unfavorable poll to a famine that killed eight thousand people, and that was just on Mars. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened in order to make Eleutheria acknowledge that it had a problem.

“We should discuss this inside,” Acidalia said, gesturing quickly towards the ship, which vanished into thin air at the movement of her wrist. Every worker in the fields stared, open-mouthed, but the Eleutherians didn’t look surprised in the slightest. As Acidalia walked to the farmhouse, Martian dirt soiled her elaborate white gown, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. She exuded the same type of confidence as Arlen Tycho—the persona of a leader who knew damn well how powerful and famous they were, and didn’t care what the unwashed masses thought of them.

With surprisingly little fanfare, Acidalia and her companions sat at the low wooden table in the kitchen by the foyer, and Cressida almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of the sight. Even she didn’t sit in the kitchen—they had dining rooms for that. The kitchen was the domain of the help and other people whose social points weren’t high enough to let them sit with the big guns. But Acidalia was the biggest gun in the room, and if she wanted to sit in the kitchen, the Algorithm probably wouldn’t penalize either of the Serens for that.

Acidalia said something low to Cressida’s father before turning to her. She gulped, half-expecting to be struck down or laughed at, but the Imperatrix had an expression of almost friendly neutrality, though she still gave off an underlying feeling of dread and anxiety.

“Um… bonus vesper, celsituda tua,” Cressida said, feeling nervous for a reason she couldn’t place.

“Loquerisne Latine?” Acidalia asked, surprised.

“Scio exigua.” I know a little bit. She’d studied Latin at school, too, but not the complicated, intricate dialect that Eleutheria used, if one could even call it that. Eleutherian “Latin” was really more of a creole of Latin, English, random Romance languages, Greek, and a bunch of drunk people adding -um and -us and -trix to words where they didn’t belong. It was created by a slew of college students armed with online translators and some Church documents two thousand years ago, and it showed. But she could hardly insult Acidalia’s mess of a first language in front of her, so she smiled blandly and tried her best not to cringe at the incorrect declensions and pronunciations.

“Ego Acidalia,” Acidalia said, as if Cressida wouldn’t know who she was. She pronounced her name the Catholic way, like the word acid. “Tu es filia David?”

“Sic. David pater meus,” Cressida replied. “Meum nomen Cressida est.” Yes, I am David’s daughter. My name is Cressida.

“Suave te cognoscere est,” Acidalia. “Pater mecum operatur. Qui dixit mihi multus est de te. Quotos annos habes?”

“Sedecim annos habeo.” I am sixteen years old—well, more like I have sixteen years. She was pretty sure that’s how they said it in Latin. That’s how they said it in Spanish, right? Tengo dieciseis años, not soy dieciseis años. And Latin was like Spanish’s ancestor, sort of. So that had to be it. Cressida was suddenly reminded of the Horus she’d spent in Trinity Court’s Academy for Young Women, staring longingly at the languid summer days just outside the window and trying to remember complex webs of verb tense rules for the sake of grammar quizzes. Was Acidalia trying to test her?

“Libens sum. Possumus, eamus intus?” Acidalia asked.

Before she could reply, Ace interrupted them. “Et arripuerit,” he said. “T Ubi est?”

Acidalia sighed deeply and didn’t meet his eyes. With a sweeping gesture, she announced more than said, “Veni. Nos eamus.”

No one moved.

She did not say anything, but gave them a look that wordlessly said, “this is a command, not a suggestion.”

***

“Et mortuus est?!”

Acidalia’s expression barely changed. “Cassiopeia.”

Looking incredulous, Ace sank down on the table. “Quomodo?”

“Et percusserunt eum. Significatum est enim mihi est…. mea culpa, se nunquam mori. Et ego paenitet.”

“Non utique creditur moriturus!” Ace exclaimed. “Erat tantum septendecim annorum… Ego ei ne ire. Cur non ibimus?” He buried his head in his hands and sunk down to the table, muttering frantically to himself in a whispered Shakespearean soliloquy.

Cressida didn’t know enough Latin to pick up on most of the conversation, but she knew enough to judge that someone had died. Mortuus, mori, moriturus… dead, dying, dying? It was difficult to tell; half their words didn’t make sense in Classical, non-Eleutherian Latin, because they had the wrong declensions or wrong grammar or were in the wrong order. But “mort” she understood enough. And “mea culpa…” that meant “my fault.” Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa was part of the Confíteor. Imperatrix Acidalia was claiming responsibility for someone’s death.

Apparently Ace had asked a rhetorical question, because Acidalia didn’t answer him. Instead, she merely looked down at the wooden table, elegantly mournful. Her eyes were watery, but there was no other sign that she was even remotely upset.

Ace, meanwhile, remained with his head in his arms for a few seconds, and the girl with pink hair looked over at him, concerned. She went to lay a hand on him, then redacted it, swallowing hard and looking at Acidalia.

Suddenly, Ace jolted up, his eyes red. “Et scissis vestibus pergens ad te.”

“Fecit,” Acidalia said softly.

“Et occidit se ipsum pro te,” Ace snapped. “Et occidit se ipsum pro te et tu ne quidem curant!”

Cressida caught the word occido—killed. Et occidit se ipsum pro te—“he killed himself for you.” She was taken aback; who would just say that to the Imperatrix? This random soldier had to have been of extraordinarily high rank to get away with this type of open defiance.

“Hey,” she whispered to the girl in gray, the one with long hair tipped with streaks of red (which the Algorithim would have killed her for if she wasn’t Eleutherian.) “Hey, do you speak English?”

“Um, some?” she whispered back. “I’m Athena.”

“Thank god,” Cressida said. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“The brother of the Imperatrix—uh, the empress?” she asked herself. “No… she who commands? I don’t know if there’s an English word with the same exact meaning-“

“Doesn’t matter,” Cressida said quickly.

“Yeah, I guess it doesn’t. But, um, the brother of the Imperatrix is dead.” She didn’t use the English possessive Acidalia’s brother, which made her voice sound stilted and awkward in a way she probably didn’t intend.

“I didn’t even know she had a brother,” Cressida said. She saw Acidalia and Aleskynn’s faces everywhere, but there was never any boy with them. If Acidalia did have a brother, his image would be on every propaganda poster ever produced.

“I didn’t know either, until about yesterday,” Athena said. “He’s gone now, though.”

“What happened?”

“Acidalia said Cassiopeia shot him—you probably don’t know who that is. She’s, um… insanus. What’s the word for-“

“Insane. It’s the same, pretty much,” Cressida interrupted. “How did she-“

“I don’t know,” Athena said. “I found out about this five minutes ago, too.”

“Oh.” Cressida felt like she shouldn’t be sitting here watching this—Acidalia had just lost a brother, and Ace was clearly upset about it. At the same time, though, she wasn’t sure how she could get away. Surely if the Imperatrix wanted her gone, she’d have told her to leave, but why would she want her here?

She turned to Athena, who looked like she felt just as bemused as Cressida did.

“Non est vestrum erit flagitium!” Ace shouted, suddenly, standing. The Imperatrix looked momentarily surprised before reverting to the same expression she’d worn before—sad, but strong, determined. She looked like a movie character, not someone whose brother had just been brutally murdered by a madwoman.

“Non ea culpa fuit,” Cressida’s father said gently.

“Sic factum est,” Acidalia replied, looking down at the ground. “Et mortuus est in me. Me paenitet, Ace-“

"Ignosce, non satis!” Ace spat. “Quod illi non erit! Et profecta!”

Cressida cringed internally. This man was going to wind up dead if Acidalia was anything like her mother—which, judging by the white and the theatrics, she was. Insulting the Imperatrix was not a good way to become popular in Eleutheria.

But, to her surprise, Acidalia hardly reacted. She closed her eyes and put her hands on her face for a moment, before sighing deeply. “Scio.” I know.

“Acidalia,” Cressida’s father said. “Prohibere. Quid enim sunt ne putasti?”

The Imperatrix didn’t say anything, but she wiped her eye with the back of her hand so subtly Cressida might not have noticed it if she weren’t so close. Ace just sunk back into the table again, and the girl with pink hair was clearly crying. The whole room filled with a stilted silence for a few minutes. Athena, her friend, and Cressida stood against the wall, bemused. Athena’s friend looked scared and embarrassed, chewing on her lip until blood trickled down her chin.

With a sudden realization, Acidalia abruptly straightened her shoulders, switching from one emotion to another far too quickly for Cressida’s comfort. She couldn’t tell whether the Imperatrix was upset and very good at hiding it or crying crocodile tears for the benefit of Ace, but either way, the transition was too sharp to seem normal. Acidalia looked—and acted—almost like a robot. A creation that had been told what humans liked when it came to looks and personality, and then replicated it, but replicated it wrong. Her oddly symmetrical features, her strange bright brown eyes, her impossible hourglass figure, the way she went from a weepy sister to a strong leader in a nanosecond—it wasn’t right, and it made Cressida slightly anxious. Acidalia was far too deep in the uncanny valley for her liking.

“Aegre fero,” Acidalia said, while Ace continued to look blankly at the wall. Then, addressing Cressida’s father, “David, si necesse est dicere.” We need to talk.

“About what?” Cressida asked, recognizing too late that she maybe shouldn’t have.

Her father’s eyes turned shifty. “Non hic.” Not here.

Acidalia nodded. “Sunt telecameras.”

“Cameras?!” All the times she’d danced around her room singing Vocaloid songs into a brush at top volume flew through Cressida’s head, before she remembered that there were clearly bigger issues at hand. Who would want to bug the Seren farmhouse? Just what types of games were her father playing?

“In Revelatio,” Acidalia said, standing. “Non debeo hic.”

Cressida really wished they would stop speaking Latin—or at least speak normal Latin—but knew better than to say it. She joined her father, glaring at him. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Come with me.”

The stitch in her side returned as her father dragged her back to the ship, which materialized again in order to allow the passengers on. She winced, clambering up the marble steps. They were a lot less beautiful when she was roughly forced up them, and they were steep. Acidalia followed quickly, almost jogging in her seven-inch heels. It was a miracle she didn’t fall. Robotic, Cressida thought again.

The Revelation had entirely too many chairs and too much decor—all blue stones mixed with Greek and Roman art, not like Eleutherians even had any concept of what Greece and Rome were outside of those cool ancient people who made pretty statues. The neon lights immediately gave her a headache, and the architecture was sleek and organic but cold—but not literally, it was about eighty degrees. Everything Cressida disliked was in the Revelation’s sterile insides.

She collapsed on a rounded bench with white LEDs on the edges, blinking at the brightness. None of the other Eleutherians seemed too bothered by the harsh, unnatural lighting, though they’ll all been squinting in the Martian sun. Cressida’s resentment towards them grew suddenly, especially when every last one of them started speaking in rapid Latin, much too fast for her to understand. Who the hell were these people? They could land a ship on her farm, invade her house, make battle plans without her? Who did they think they were?

“Excuse me,” she said.

She was promptly ignored as her father delved deep into a conversation with Athena, the one who spoke a bit of English.

“Excuse me,” she said, louder this time.

They continued their discussion.

“Veniam in me!” she snapped. Six heads turned to look at her. “What the hell is going on?”

They stared at her blankly.

“Quid agatur in infernum?”

Her father sighed, looking worried. “We’re going to Eleutheria.”

“What?”

“Acidalia had a conversation with the Proregina of the Lunar Colonies-“ he began.

“What on Earth is a ‘proregina?’"

“Like a vicereine-“

“A what? None of this makes any sense! You can’t just-“ “Like a female viceroy,” Acidalia added, very unhelpfully. Cressida looked to Athena for help, but she just whispered, “Don’t know either.”

“An important person on the Moon,” her father said slowly, looking like he had a headache. “She said there’s been an uprising in Appalachia—that’s Eleutheria’s capital city. They think Acidalia’s dead-“

“Well, she’s clearly not, unless this chick really is an alien robot,” Cressida snapped, “so I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“I’m a leader of the Revolution,” Acidalia explained, like this was something completely normal to say. “We’re in a difficult spot here. The Novagenetica-“

“The eugenicist crazies,” Athena explained helpfully.

“-have declared a full-out war on us and claimed to have killed me. Obviously, since I’m not on-planet and it’s difficult to contact me out here, many have made their assumptions about my untimely death. The entire reason I’m here is because an assassination attempt that killed my brother forced me to flee, so that likely was a contributing factor in why so many believed the Nova when they declared that I had been murdered. Either way, most people on both sides think I’m deceased, and it’s vital that we correct that in order to preserve the safety of the planet.” “What does that have to do with me?” Cressida demanded.

“Well,” Acidalia said, “meet our Martian contact, David Seren.” She gestured to Cressida’s father. “Ally of the Revolution and close friend to President Tycho.”

Astonished, Cressida stared at her father. “What the hell, Dad? You’ve been in cahoots with a bunch of Eleutherian insurgents and you didn’t tell me?” “Seeing as we’re spearheaded by several members of the federal government, we aren’t exactly insurgents,” Acidalia replied calmly, her tone never shifting. “More like one faction of a civil war. But we need to stop discussing this. Clearly, I’m needed on-planet, and so is your father. For your safety, so are you. Besides, you’re an expert on Martian climate and agriculture and you’ve attended finishing school; the daughter of a Martian aristocrat is valuable.” She smiled in a way that was probably supposed to be as welcoming, but the corners of her eyes didn’t crinkle up like they were supposed to, and she looked too strange for anything she said to come across as genuine.

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me,” Cressida said. “I can’t leave Mars. I have a life. I have school, exams are coming up—it’s November, remember? Finals start next month.”

Acidalia looked entirely nonplussed about this. “I can tutor you on anything involving biology,” she said, “and I’m sure you’ll find that there are plenty of educational opportunities on Eleutheria.” “You’re missing the point,” Cressida said, wondering if she was really that thick. “I can’t just not take exams. I need a diploma-" “A what?” Athena asked.

“I’ll write you a recommendation letter,” Acidalia said dismissively. “No school in its right mind would deny you an admission. And, keep in mind, this is only temporary, and for your own safety. Now that I am here and my brother is dead—“ Her voice broke for a second, then she regained her composure so quickly Cressida wondered if anything had even changed to begin with. “Now that my brother is dead,” she continued, “this place is no longer safe for any of us. My mother will find out the truth soon enough, and then we will all be in danger.”

“But I haven’t done anything,” Cressida said indignantly. “I have no part in any of this.” She found it hard to believe that any Eleutherian dignitary could get away with murdering the daughter of an important politician. People would notice that, and then they’d be angry, even if there was nobody left to really mourn the Seren family. Acidalia sighed and looked up at Cressida. “Your innocence doesn’t matter,” she said. “Your father spoke to me once, and that’s enough. She’d murder you in a heartbeat if she thought you were related to a revolutionary, even if you posed no threat to her. I’ve seen her mutilate people for less. And even if the people of Mars rioted in response, there’s nothing they could do to counter Alestra’s immense power. She’d sooner bomb your whole city to ashes than show an ounce of mercy.”

“Acidalia is right,” Cressida’s father said. “That woman is a psychopath, and she doesn’t like Mars—or Martians—very much.”

“But she’s half-Martian!” Cresida exclaimed.

“Yes,” Acidalia finished, “I am. And so is—was—my dead little brother, who my mother’s henchman shot in the head. Nobody is safe from her, I guarantee it.”

A shiver went down Cressida’s spine. “What do you think she’ll do if she finds out—?” “I don’t know,” Acidalia replied. “I can’t say. But if you would like to remain alive—which I suggest you do; it is a dreadful waste to lose somebody so young—I suggest packing and leaving. Once the sirens start blaring, it will already be too late. I’m sure you know what happened to Daedalia.”

“Okay, but…” Cressida’s voice trailed off. She’d be missing school, she realized suddenly, and she’d lose half of her social points if she was absent any more. After that bout of flu in October, the Algorithm was already angry with her, and it would not be merciful if she abandoned her planet without a trace a month before exam season. And then the rumors would start and her reputation would sink even lower—she’d be called a deadbeat and a dropout and all manner of other things, and she’d never be able to go to a good college if she had no status left. The Martian meritocracy didn’t allow for mistakes or variations from the norm, even during a civil war.

But losing merit was still better than being dead.

A surge of fury coursed through Cressida’s veins. There was no way for her to get out of this—if she stayed she’d surely die, and if she left she’d be abandoning the life her father struggled so much to build for her. And none of it was her fault. She wasn’t the one who joined a revolution for the sake of a planet she didn’t even live on, she wasn’t the one who made friends with a woman whose family was insane enough to murder anyone its black sheep of a daughter set her eyes upon, and she wasn’t the one who dragged her friends into a war so violent teenage girls could be shot to death over nothing, absolutely nothing. This was all her father’s fault, and even beyond that, Acidalia’s—Acidalia Cipher, who had the nerve to show up at the Seren home, completely ignorant of the trail of destruction she’d leave in her wake. How dare she? None of this was Cressida’s problem.

But the nuclear war hadn’t been the Daedalians’ problem, either, and they were still the ones who had to pay for it. Such was politics. It was all one big game of chess—you sacrifice the pawns for the sake of the king. And the Algorithm would rather see a game won than save a useless piece.

Still, despite her desire—no, need—to please the Algorithm and her homeland, Cressida was growing tired of being a pawn.

#eurekaproject #on the edge of eureka #POV Cressida #Cressida Seren #Acidalia #ace (character)#Carina #Athena #David Seren #Cressida #David

0 notes

gokuss7gamer · 4 years

Text

Nintendo Switch hidden gems: 6 underrated Switch games you need to play

There are plenty of fantastic Nintendo Switch games out there, but it's fair to say that some titles hog the limelight more than others. (That's right, Mario and Zelda, we're talking about you.) This sometimes means that wonderful (but smaller) Switch games get lost in the Nintendo eShop and never truly get the recognition they deserve.Well, here at TechRadar, we've decided to shine a light on these games. We've put together a list of great Switch games that you may never have heard of – but that you definitely should play. So get your wishlist ready, as these are the top Nintendo Switch hidden gems (AKA the most underrated Switch games) available right now. The cheapest Nintendo Switch bundles, deals and pricesCheck out our Nintendo Switch reviewBest Nintendo Switch games 2020: the most essential Switch games right now1. Dungeon of the Endless

This recent port of a six-year-old rogue-like game, technically set in the same universe as PC strategy game Endless Space, is a perfect multiplayer dungeon crawler with gorgeous 2D visuals. You pick a character with a specialty, descend ever deeper into the dungeon and fend off waves of enemies. An unexpected good action game that's well worth checking out on Switch. 2. Overland

Overland is a curious Nintendo Switch game, if just for its unrelenting bleakness – as you attempt to travel across post-apocalyptic America in search of some remnants of civilization, with plenty of pitfalls, monsters, and permadeath getting in your way. But beneath the dour setting is also a smart and varied strategy game, with procedurally generated levels (and characters) that feel eerily familiar each time over, and the confidence to take its narrative to the only possible conclusion. 3. Bad North

Sure, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla may be close to launching, but why go big when you can go North? This beautifully-animated Switch game puts you in charge of an army of Viking warriors, beset on all sides – and we mean all sides – by invaders you have to deflect from your island home. The real-time strategy is based on simple mechanics, but which can quickly get taxing if you aren’t paying close attention to the layout of the islands themselves, which are effectively 3D puzzles for you to figure out how best to defend. Watching approaching boats from the mist, with the slow thud of drums in the distance, is as satisfying no matter how many times you experience it too. 4. Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition

Do the words Lovecraftian-seafaring-text-adventure-roguelike take your fancy? If your answer is “no” then you’re going to have to walk the plank, as you’ll be missing out on one of the Nintendo Switch’s most unique games.Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is an excellent port of the hit indie PC game, which casts you as the captain of a steampunk ship amidst in the gothic tides of a collapsed London, now submerged in a cavernous, waterlogged underworld.You’ll take part in ship-to-ship combat, exploring a randomised map while evading sea monsters and the ever-increasing demands of your loot-hungry, easily terrified crewmates. The real joy here though is in the first-class writingThis download-only Nintendo Switch title also includes the Zubmariner DLC pack, which lets you dive the depths of the game’s murky waters. A game to truly lose yourself in. 5. Ape Out

Enjoy frenetic jazz, bright colors and rhythm-based violence? The Ape Out may be for you. This top-down, single-player beat-em-up is sure to be unlike anything else you’ve ever played. Players take on the role of a gorilla frantically trying to escape from gun-wielding humans through a series of mazes - each one different than the last. Kill the humans in your way, and use others as shields, as you make your way through the labyrinths to victory. Oh, and the whole thing is scored by chaotic, all-percussion jazz music. The further you get, the more chaotic the music becomes. Ape Out is truly a feast for the eyes and ears. 6. Oxenfree

Oxenfree is a great Switch choice for those who love classic point-and-click adventures. You play as Alex, an angsty teenager who goes on a weekend trip to a military island with her friends and step-brother. But, unwittingly, the teens open up a supernatural rift on the island, causing things to go a bit awry. Oxenfree is largely choice-based, with players being presented with a variety of dialogue options that range from classic-teenage moody to optimistic, while bigger choices impact how the game plays out. What results is a supernatural thriller combined with a coming-of-age tale – and a Switch game you absolutely have to play. Best Nintendo Switch accessories 2020: make the most of your hybrid console Read the full article

0 notes

qrhymes · 7 years

Text

Tales of Berseria Analysis - The Elements of a Wonderful Game

There is a lot to talk here, and because of that, I won’t be touching the gameplay part of the game, and don’t get me wrong, I think the gameplay is important (and if you fuck it here you could end like Nier, in where you love the game but you get so over frustrated with the gameplay, because you sucked at it, that you need to watch a playthrough to enjoy the whole experience…Now that they apparently fix that, I’m really looking forward to Nier: Automata, it looks great) but the reason of my attachment to the series is the narrative and that is the point of view I gonna share here…So let’s begins.

Eeny, teeny, spiny, crow, why this game is so fucking good?

Well, we are talking about an epic story, of a badass female anti-hero (or an actual villain protagonist, more of that later) seeking vengeance for the death of her little brother, a quest that would make us question the nature of chaos and order, a conflict about what is rational and what is right, It is correct create a world of peace at the cost of the people’s emotions and their free will? Such state of existence can be considered life?…

The game doesn’t wait to through the biggest questions early on and I thanks for it. The whole genre has this stigma of been slow games, overly long, too convoluted and with too many bifurcations, so it is great that we can start almost immediately with the whole point. Main driving force of the plot: Revenge seeking quest. Main theme: Emotion vs Reason. You and your party are in the emotions side, the Abbey and the Exorcist, reason side, and from here is just explore every corner of this conflict, through the story, the character…and WHOA.

First of all, the game is surprisingly gray, and that’s because the story is not so much about of decide what side is the best, if not more about develop these two ideas in conflict, the good in both ideologies, the toxicity of their extremes, the many forms that they can take and how they coexist with each other, and for that purpose the game will go to any place possible to carry the message, if it need to be harsh, it will go harsh, if it need to be ambiguous, it will go ambiguous and if it need to be dark, it will go dark…and in that matter, the game is also really dark (And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think dark equals good, you can be bright and colorful as fuck and still be deep and complex…but sometimes you need to go to some dark places to really make a point and Berseria definitely needed that, but to be clear, Berseria is not good because is dark, Berseria is good because it USE his dark tone to reinforce its narrative…sorry for make so much noise for this but this is an argument that I listen to much in, well…actually everything, and been honest it piss me off when people uses without fucking context) with it’s not an actual surprise considering that this game brings back the concept of Malevolence from Zestiria, but what that really give it this edge, because the series has gone dark before most notably in Xillia 2 and ,again, the Malevolence in Zestiria, it’s the ambiguity of the main cast (This directly connect with the morally gray tone of the game), because even treat them as anti-heroes maybe stretch the reality a little lo much.

The party is not heroic (and this is not necessarily bad, in fact that is the actual definition of what an anti-hero is. The brooding and dark Batman type character is just one type of anti-hero. Any character in the position of the protagonist/Hero/Heroine of the story who doesn’t embrace the attributes of the classic hero archetype, courage, strength, selfishness, etc. is an anti-hero.) and most of the time they aren’t even good, leaving aside the adorable Malak child Laphicet and the exorcist gone rogue Eleanor (The only two who actually fits the role of anti-heroes), all the other members of the party are pretty much selfish villains. They have questionable motivations, a lot of their actions are most than questionable and the question here is why would we care about these people that just seem like a bunch of dicks? (Again leaving aside Phi and Eleanor)

Because the game actually makes an effort to make us care about them…through the skit mechanic.

…And the story does his work, don’t get me wrong, even without the Skits all the characters are interesting individuals, they all embrace different ideas that are develop through the course of the game, they have well-constructed and meaningful arcs, some of them have sympathetic backstories, memorable scenes, hearts to hearts, high and lows, everything that you need to have to make interesting and likable characters…what does the skit mechanic is took this more than great bases and raise them to new levels.

The skits are one of the core pillars of the franchise (And because of that this also applies to every game in the series) and give us a new whole dimension to know these characters outside the main plot.

Through the skits we can have a chat between two or more characters between story points, we can see them discuss the recent events of the plot and how affect them in a more personal and introspective level or just a moment for them to dick around and have a moment to enjoy themselves.

There are just little conversations and are optional but they make marvels in favor of their characters; it makes them more relatable and memorable because we can have more time with them, it makes them more complex because we can flesh out more of their personalities, and helps to maintain every character relevant even if the current story arc is not about them (And this is particular issue that I have in the genre, when a character is demoted after finish their particularly arc and just get a few lines here and there for the rest of the game), is a genius mechanic that enriches the characters and, if use it correctly, the narrative and the themes of the game.

Rokuro is an amoral Daemon murderer but then we see through the skits (and the story, again, team work) that he is a nice and funny guy who also have passionate discussions with ruthless 1000 year old Malak Pirate Eizen, about what kind of beetle is the best, the Stag Beetle or the Rhinoceros Beetle (Live hard and die young, am I right Eizen?), then you have this skit with the apathetic troll witch Magilou and Phi, in which the first tries to cheer him up (and also tease him) and we end with the two shouting “MAGIKAZAM” during an infiltration quest to one of the bad guys bases, funny yes, but also one of the first and strongest insiders in Magilou’s true character.

Comedy, drama, insiders, development, the skits are this window to endless possibilities and in the case of Berseria, it took an already strongest cast and brings them to God-Tiers.

I said it in the begging Tales of Berseria is an amazing game, the story is great, explores a lot of interesting and ideas, it has a fantastic sense humor, good pace, a lot of intrigues and questions, powerful moments and a fantastic cast with meaningful and memorable arcs.

It looks like we have finished here, right? Well I still have not answer the main question, If you believe me, you already know that the game’s bones are the perfect base to build a wonderful experience…but we still have the meat of the question, Why Tales of Berseria works so well?

The individual character arcs.

The characters are the voice of the game and are all member of the cast working to bring us this mind blowing experience…so let’s go deeper here, to darkest place in the darkest prison of Berseria and let’s find out the reason of…Why Magilou’s Menagerie and the cast Works so well?

MAGIKAZAM!!!

Part 1: Tales Series Retrospective

Part 3: Velvet’s character arc - Blindness and toxicity

Part 4: Rokuro’s and Eleanor’s character arc - Obsession and Conflict.

Part 5: Laphicet (Phi)’s and Eizen’s character arcs - Coexistence and Romanticism.

Part 6: Magilou’s character arc - Contradictions.

#tales of berseria #velvet crowe #magilou #rokurou rangetsu #eizen #eleanor hume #laphicet #tales of #tales of series #tales series

23 notes · View notes

entergamingxp · 4 years

Text

King of Cards Review — Long Live the King!

December 17, 2019 2:30 PM EST

Yacht Club Games proves that their final Shovel Knight expansion, King of Cards, is no fool’s gold by making their best game to date.

It is no real secret that I love Shovel Knight. I’ve bought five copies just for myself and three more as gifts. I’ve got each soundtrack on vinyl, I’ve bought magazines with special interviews with studio, Yacht Club Games. Heck, I even did my own interview with some of the developers back in 2017 and covered the game for DualShockers at PAX East 2019.

Something that has been a secret was how I was not too hot on King Knight winning one of the Kickstarter backer polls to become one of the playable campaigns. Frankly, he seemed like the most boring choice when compared to the other knights in the Order of No Quarter. I have always had a hesitation to the decadent dandy having his own campaign, despite having the utmost faith in the overachievers that make up Yacht Club Games.

That hesitation has been replaced with enthusiasm. Shovel Knight: King of Cards is the best game in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. The character of King Knight soars in his jaunty tale alongside my favorite 8-bit knight gameplay to date. King of Cards is more of a sequel to the 2014 indie delight than some simple stretch goal checkbox. Yacht Club Games has outdone themselves in every single way for the grand finale.

youtube

“King of Cards is the best game in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove.”

Set as another prequel in the Shovel Knight video game universe, King Knight is on a quest to defeat the Joustus Judges, three regal representatives of an increasingly popular card game that is sweeping all the lands. The winner will be showered in riches and could even become a king of their own. It is a simple and silly premise that aptly fits the persona of King Knight. Yacht Club Games’ pun-packed writing shines as you explore three worlds in search of treasure and glory.

The meat of the story comes from its colorful cast of characters. Traveling across the world maps lands King Knight on board of an airship that steadily fills up with tons of characters; both old and new. King Knight’s interactions with the cast, especially those with his mother, are a comedic delight. The plot is a foil to 2017’s Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment and its dark, tragic backstory. I frequently chuckled throughout the King of Cards plot as King Knight did a quest all his own way. There are plenty of delightful references throughout the game for fans that made me smile, too.

Unlike Specter of Torment, King of Cards brings back an overworld map. This is not some cut and paste with a map like that in Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope or Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows. This time around, Yacht Club Games took inspiration from Super Mario World. Instead of one map that reveals more of itself the more you play, there are three entire maps: Two of which are brand new two the series. Each world map is slammed with alternate paths that can only be unlocked by finding hidden alternate routes within the levels themselves. Red paths indicate that an alternate route can be found within the level. Never mandatory to advance, these hidden paths encourage you to replay levels and fully explore each dense world map. Replaying a level is equally enticing due to them being so much shorter than the previous games’ levels.

Almost every level in King of Cards contains only one checkpoint. These levels are snappy with a tight focus. Death never feels like a major setback, even if you shatter the checkpoint for the loot inside. While not as quick as respawning in platformers like Celeste or Super Meat Boy, King of Cards benefits from having the entire level be shorter. I found myself far more willing to stick with a tough challenge or to hop right back in a level to find all three Merit Medals or to hunt down a secret red path.

This short design also is far more adaptable to the numerous platforms that the game is available on. Out of the nine platforms King of Cards is available on, three of them can be played portably (3DS, Vita, and Switch). It is far more convenient to pop in and play one level or two than it has ever been for Shovel Knight. It also does not hamper the home console and PC platforms, giving players a sense of great accomplishment to complete and explore a bunch of levels in a single sitting.

“I truly love playing Joustus.”

The traditional start-to-finish levels are not the only level types packed into King of Cards. Items (dubbed heirlooms in the Shovel Knight universe) get their own short levels. They force you to use the item to complete them with an endless supply of vigor, the game’s version of mana or magic. I prefer this design rather than buying items from chests or at the hub world. It taught me practical use cases for each item I picked up. Each of these item levels also ends with a character joining your motley crew aboard the airship. I love meeting the wider cast this way. I learn about each character while accomplishing something I was setting out to do.

These heirloom levels alongside the traditional levels give players an active choice in how they want to spend their time. It keeps the game fresh over long periods of play, while giving the portable crowd a quick hit of gameplay before they have to put their console down. There is one more level type that gives folks a choice in how they want to spend their time. Actually, it’s quite more than a level type. It’s a whole other game, entirely optional, but a surprising delight worth every player’s time: Joustus.

Joustus is a grid-based, board possession focused card game. The cards have arrows that indicate which way they push other cards. Your goal is to have your card placed on the most green gem tiles by the time all the main squares have been occupied. The closest game I could relate it to is those sliding block puzzles that when arranged correctly make a picture. Joustus is more a positional puzzle than an attack/defense card game.

Each players’ deck can only have 16 cards and three are revealed to both you and the CPU at all times. This limited deck keeps Joustus from feeling overwhelming like Gwent or Pokémon TCG. The board can have a center of 2×2, 3×3, and plenty of other combinations. There is a border of “graveyard” squares where cards get pushed out to and can no longer be manipulated by players, unless a card with a special perk is used. The loser has to forfeit a card of the winner’s choosing from any card out on the board. If you happen to lose a card you wish you hadn’t, the salesman, Chester, can sell you back any card you lost, which is a nice option for completionists. Chester will also sell you cheat cards that can make the games easier, something that seems perfectly in character with King Knight. I did not use a cheat card, in part because I wanted to challenge myself, but also because there is an achievement for not using them.

I truly love playing Joustus. It triggers that puzzle solving part of my brain without having to memorize too many rules and abilities for cards with attacks and whatnot. It is simple in just the right ways, while allowing for mentally engaging rounds against the CPU. I wish there was some way to play Joustus against another person, but the Joustus houses and numerous characters on the airship offer plenty of opportunities to deck it out against foes.

“King Knight’s moves feel like an evolution of Shovel Knight’s slash and down thrust.”

As for the knight in shining armor himself, King Knight’s move set is platforming design gold. He has two main abilities that are intricately intertwined. Pressing attack will trigger a shoulder bash that dashes King Knight a set distance to either the left or the right. When King Knight makes contact with an enemy or a wall, he triggers his second move; bouncing into the air like a spinning top. This spin has the same bouncy properties of Shovel Knight’s down thrust letting players hop all around the screen. If you manage to spin off the top of an enemy or object, the shoulder bash recharges allowing you to keep the chain going.

What I love about this move pairing is the versatility of it. They work wonderfully against baddies while providing both horizontal and vertical platforming movement. If you fall into a pit and should bash into the wall, you can pop back up with the spin. Bouncing around feels incredibly precise, especially on the 8Bitdo SNES-inspired controller I was playing with. King Knight’s moves feel like an evolution of Shovel Knight’s slash and down thrust. This evolution has turned the gilded goof into my favorite knight to use.

Back with the original release of Shovel Knight back in 2014, Yacht Club Games established themselves as pixel wizards with their 8-bit vistas and iconic characters. Shovel Knight has always been a looker. King of Cards is pixelated eye candy, no matter what type of screen you are playing on. The visual design of each level is engaging. They are all connected, too. You can see a clear geographical story that is told through the visual design. You can clearly tell where one level leads into the next and where on the overworld map the level is located. It is a subtle touch that ties each level and the world-at-large together.

Yacht Club Games also got to stretch their art team to new lengths. With the inclusion of two brand new worlds, we get to see places never-before-seen in the Shovel Knight kingdom. It’s refreshing and exciting to experience, especially as a long time fan of the series.

The graphical achievement rings even louder when considering all the types of screens that King of Cards can be played on. Nine different platforms had to have become a daunting visual task. Consider the franchise’s origins on the Wii U and 3DS. The stereoscopic 3D is killer for King of Cards! It is a shame to think fewer people will get to see this effect in action the further away from the 3DS the market gets, but the 3D shines. The multiple planes bring new life to the NES aesthetic. On my New 3DS XL’s larger screen, I got a diorama feel from the 3D on full blast. It also helps separate the action by literally placing it front and center, which is a nice perk.

What about the Wii U? I mention the Wii U selfishly, because of one particular picture setting the system has—component video. You know, those green, blue, and red video cables? Because I am a mad man and my wife lets me keep a 24-inch CRT in the living room of our apartment, I decided to try playing Shovel Knight on a screen from the era that inspired it. The results filled me with a warm, fuzzy feeling of imagining a world where Shovel Knight did launch on the NES. King of Cards simply looks fantastic; no matter what screen you play it on.

“King of Cards is the crowning achievement in the long and rich history of Shovel Knight.”

Perfectly paired with the 8-bit art is composer Jake Kaufman’s chiptune soundtrack. Three expansions in, I was excited to see just how Jake would mix up his iconic Shovel Knight themes once again. Previous games expanded and built upon the themes, giving them a new edge to strike out with against your ears. For King of Cards, the themes you know and love are almost all the same. For the grand Shovel Knight finale, Jake opted to make brand new music for all the new content in King of Cards.

There are tons of new songs just for Joustus. They perfectly blend into the scene of the card game and may cause you to bob your head along while dealing out the cards. All-new themes were also made for new level themes like Troupple Pond. One classic that received a new spin was Pridemoor Keep, King Knight’s stage in the previous games. It has inspired the world map theme for the whole land of Pridemoor. Jake’s soundtrack is an exuberant delight that is a wonderful finale for Treasure Trove as a whole.

King of Cards has reinforced that age-old saying of not judging a shiny knight by his armor, even a Joustus Judge. Years of development, five total games, and countless hours of work shine through every pixel. Yacht Club Games has taken what could have been a palette swap far beyond what anyone imagined. King of Cards may be a narrative prequel to Shovel Knight, but it is truly a sequel in every way. Yacht Club Games has raised the bar for what Kickstarter stretch goals mean to their communities and the video game industry at large. King of Cards is the crowning achievement in the long and rich history of Shovel Knight. The decadent dandy proves to have more beneath that gold exterior than I ever thought could be possible. I haven’t been this happy to be proven wrong in a long time.

December 17, 2019 2:30 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/king-of-cards-review-long-live-the-king/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=king-of-cards-review-long-live-the-king

0 notes

jillmckenzie1 · 5 years

Text

Hell No

Some characters lend themselves to endless interpretations. Batman is one of them. Let’s say you’re planning to make a Batman movie, and by some miracle, you don’t have to attach it to an expanded universe or follow up on threads from a previous installment. Warner Brothers gives you a $90 million budget and sends you on your merry way. What kind of film should you make?

Lucky you, because you have options! Just a few of them might be:

A goofy comedy that’s tonally similar to the 1966 Batman television series

A horror movie where Batman is trapped within Arkham Asylum

A procedural where Bats must live up to his title of the World’s Greatest Detective

A gothic romance between Batman and Catwoman

A globetrotting adventure in the vein of James Bond with a focus on bat-flavored gadgets

A family drama where Bruce Wayne undergoes extensive therapy to let go of his trauma

Other characters don’t quite have that degree of flexibility. Sure, you could do a dark and gritty take on Superman,* but why would you want to? The right Superman story should be light and colorful, with a splash of science fiction and a drizzle of aspirational morality. You should walk out of that film feeling…well, like you can fly.

That brings us to Hellboy. Created by the wildly talented Mike Mignola, the character was well-loved yet fairly obscure. His comic book adventures have deep roots in pulp adventure, Gothic horror, and folklore. There was a pretty solid 2004 film and an even better 2008 sequel, both directed by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Ron Perlman. Years dragged on, creative differences were inflicted upon us, and it was decided that the character was ripe for reimagining. Ripe is certainly one way to put it with the reboot of Hellboy.

Rather unceremoniously, we’re dropped into Ye Olde England and right into the middle of a pitched battle between the noble King Arthur (Mark Stanley) and Nimue (Milla Jovovich), a supernatural blood queen with unholy designs upon the Earth. She has unleashed a plague upon the land, but thanks to the trusty blade Excalibur and an assload of special effects, the plague is stopped. Since fire was apparently not an option, Nimue is hacked to pieces, the pieces are placed in magically locked boxes, and the various boxes are hidden across the land where nobody will ever, ever find them.

From there, we fast-forward to the present, and we’re re-introduced to the demonic paranormal investigator Hellboy (David Harbour). As an agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense,** it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. His side gig is to have massive daddy issues, apparently, and boy does he ever! His adopted father is Professor Broom (Ian McShane), and to say the two have a somewhat fraught relationship would be an understatement.

As so often happens, the world is on the brink of destruction. Why? Remember the boxes crammed with the remains of Nimue that nobody would ever, ever find? Welp, it turns out the pig-beast Gruagach (Stephen Graham) is busy re-assembling her. Why is he doing that? While her head has been locked in a box for centuries, Nimue has devised a plan to enact vengeance upon humanity and stuff.

Hellboy must team up with Alice (Sasha Lane), a young woman who can channel the dead, and Major Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim), a gruff soldier with his own secret. They will (takes deep breath) try to stop the apocalypse, deal with vampire luchadores, famished giants, the Baba Yaga, the corpse of Merlin, and learn the truth about Hellboy’s origins and destiny. Oh, and Lobster Johnson shows up. Don’t hold your applause, guys.

If you haven’t read Mignola’s original comics, you’re really missing out. His art is shadowy and moody, and he excels at creating a mood of creepy unease. Mignola’s Hellboy is a guy who’s literally seen it all, and whether he’s dealing with French werewolves or cyborg gorillas, he has a world-weary resignation about the whole thing. Add to that Mignola’s tight plotting and strongly researched lore, and you’re in for a treat. I mention all of that because while I was watching the 2019 film I desperately wanted to be at home with a good glass of whiskey and my nose in one of the Hellboy trade paperbacks. Instead, I had to watch this.

The film should work. Director Neil Marshall made the very good Dog Soldiers and The Descent, as well as a few episodes of Game of Thrones, so the guy clearly knows what he’s doing. He’s got a game cast, and the blessing of Mignola himself. Instead, we have a movie that too often feels like a charmless and repetitive slog. Hellboy goes to a place, has a conversation, fights a fiendish thingy, repeat. We get all of that with action scenes that are rarely inspired, editing that feels haphazard, and effects that look cheap.***

The screenplay by Andrew Cosby feels just as haphazard. The moody horror and wit from the comics are replaced by gore, copious f-bombs, and lame one-liners. Clichés are embraced with abandon, and clunky exposition plagues the story. To be fair, the production of this film was notably troubled, and there were 16 credited producers. I’d be willing to bet that Cosby wrote a draft that was pretty solid, and he became just the latest writer to have his script brutalized during production due to a group of people failing to work as a team.

Let’s also take a moment to consider the Deadpool-ization of Hellboy. When 2016’s Deadpool made close to $800 million, the lesson learned was that people like superhero movies with swearing and blood. The thing about that? It works for Deadpool, since it fits the interpretations of the character. It doesn’t work for Hellboy, and here it feels like a 15-year-old boy desperately trying and failing to be edgy.

Ron Perlman’s film portrayal of Hellboy casts a massive shadow. With the right script and production, David Harbour might have equaled it. Burdened by both pounds of makeup and a lousy script, Harbour acts his ass off. It’s not enough, and it’s not his fault. He tries to show us the sensitive and conflicted interiors of Hellboy’s gruff exterior, but too often he’s just asked to make a lame joke, snarl, or punch something. As Nimue, Milla Jovovich seems to be the only member of the cast who could escape the production woes and deliver a performance that balances gothic horror and fine cheese.

When I heard that Del Toro and Perlman wouldn’t be able to finish their original trilogy, I was disappointed. Hollywood is littered with cinematic almosts. When I heard that Neil Marshall was making a film, with Mignola’s blessing that was meant to be closer in spirit to the comics, I hoped for a character piece where Big Red investigated the nameless horrors at a spooky old house. What we got is a failure from people who consistently deliver better work than this.

*We’re lucky that nobody has ever had an idea that bad and saw it through to its unfortunate conclusion.

**In this film, the BPRD is headquartered in Colorado. It makes me smile that, in movies like this, Colorado is depicted as being towering mountains everywhere always.

***How is it that, more than ten years later, the Hellboy makeup and prosthetics actually look worse than the 2004 and 2008 movies?

from Blog https://ondenver.com/hell-no/

1 note · View note

geekade · 7 years

Text

Geeky DIY Halloween Costumes: 2017 Edition

There are so many things to love about Halloween, but the thing that warms my geeky little heart is the costumes. It’s the one time of year that cosplay is acceptable in more mainstream environments. If you’re a fellow costume enthusiast, you’ll likely fall into one of two camps. The first contains those who plan and work on their costumes year-round, devoting all their spare time and energy into it. God bless you, you passionate lunatics, I envy your skill, creativity, and free time. The latter are more like me; we love costumes but don’t have much in the way of time, money, talent, or all three. If you fall in this camp, you might think it’s too late for you. Well, as my favorite Lex Luthor ever once said…

In general, the best Halloween costumes are easily recognizable for what they are and specific to the year you wear them in. Of course, there are time-honored classics, but if you’re going to do it, I say make it count. The best costumes for people like us are easy to make and affordable. And even though it’s October already and the costume shops are likely all sold out of the “good” options, there’s still plenty of time to make something cool yourself.

Closet Cosplay: Snag yourself a WW logo tee (available at Kohls, Walmart, and Amazon) and pair it with navy leggings or jeggings. Slap your most ass-kicking calf-high boots and as many gold/bronze bangles as you can find. Complete the look with a take-no-shit expression.

Upgrades:

If your leggings are expendable, do some white stars up the sides with fabric paint.

Or swap out leggings for a No-sew tutu, search pinterest and take your pick of tutu-orials. (wear over short-shorts, these tutus usually don’t provide modesty)

Take a cue from fellow Geekader Sam Ahearn, who custom-made a tiara and wrist gauntlets for my daughter using felt, hot glue, glitter, elastic, and velcro. This would also work for a belt.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, boot covers really add something special to your look and aren’t too hard to make.

Closet Cosplay: This long sleeve fitness shirt is a decent approximation of the Spidey’s look in this year’s cinematic offering. If you’re feeling too bashful for tights, go with blue workout pants. A red gloves and ski mask combo can finish off this one, especially if you’re willing to use a little black marker to add detail.

Upgrades:

Have the confidence? Wear the tights, my good man, and more power to you

Boot covers aren’t just for ladies, some red ones will work for this look too.

If you’re into building things, check out tutorials to make your own wrist web shooter, like this one.

Closet Cosplay: Both characters have a lot of costumes in this year's Breath of the Wild, but the simplest to recreate is the basic look. For either, start with a long sleeve shirt and pants in white, tan, or brown. For Link, top with an oversized teal tee shirt and a brown belt over the shirt at your waist. For Zelda, go with a more feminine cut top. Add a white tank over top of it and tuck the straps and upper third under to mimic a corset and complete with the widest brown belt you can find. Finish off either look with brown boots and some DIY cardboard weapons. Bonus points if you do this as a couples costume.

Upgrades:

Strap it up. Do a google image search, these costumes actually involve a bunch of straps crossing the body, so if you can find some extra belts or scraps of brown fabric, all the better.

Elf ears from a Halloween store will give you that subtle Hylean look that sets you apart from Peter Pan.

Use some white fabric paint on your blue layer to recreate details from the in-game looks.

Closet Cosplay: This is one is especially great for kids, but works for any age. The inklings in the game all tend to dress in fairly casual, slightly oversized skater gear or athletic wear. With a parent's permission, have fun with some funky spray-on hair color and some wacky styling. If you have one, use your biggest most ridiculous water gun as a prop. If not, check if any stores near you have any summer toys on clearance.

Upgrades:

A neon colored wig from a Halloween store can really bump up this look.

DIY an ink tank like this one to wear on your back and hold extra candy in.

Grab some pals, color coordinate your outfits and weaponry, and show up as a team!

Closet Cosplay: Not only has Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s classic has been a huge hit, but the costumes have been widely seen in public, as some have taken to wearing them as a form of political protest. Therefore, this is definitely a highly recognizable and very current costume and it’s also ridiculously easy to pull off. The basics are a drapey red garment that covers the whole body and a white bonnet. The former can be achieved by making a cape from any large red piece of fabric you can get your hands on or by wearing a long sleeved modest top and long skirt, both in red. Check your closet or your local thrift shop. Create the latter by attaching some white posterboard (the bigger the better) to a white painters cap, available for cheap at most craft and hardware stores. Complete with a dour facial expression.

Upgrades:

DIY your bonnet for a more authentic look using a pattern like this one

Halloween stores everywhere mean you can find a proper red cloak pretty easily this time of year.

Add a plain canvas bag. Stitching up a totebag is one of the easiest sewing projects there is.

Closet Cosplay: Once GoT’s costumer revealed her source for the Night’s Watch furry capes, it became an instant meme and a DIYer’s dream. The key to taking the black is, unsurprisingly, wearing lots of black. Black pants, black shirt, black belt, black cape, black gloves. (No hat though. Anybody else notice that? People in the north rarely cover their heads. WTF is up with that?) You don’t have to use the officially sanctioned IKEA product, use any shaggy rug you can find, spray it black if need be, and throw it around your shoulders. This look goes best with five o’clock shadow and a surly expression.

Upgrades:

If you’re willing to make the investment, here are IKEA’s official instructions on making the furry cape.

As with the Link/Zelda costume, the more straps, the better.

As Adult Halloween is mostly about costumes and drinking, make sure to get yourself a fun tankard or drinking horn to carry around/clip to your belt.

Closet Cosplay: If the Season 7 malarkey surrounding the death of SPOILER didn’t put you off watching the show, this one may be for you. It’s easy to put together from existing pieces in your wardrobe but iconic enough to be reconizable. Jeans, leather jacket, and a red scarf (or even a bandana) around the neck are the key pieces. Don’t forget Lucille! DIY some barbed wire using dark yarn and this tutorial and wrap it around any old baseball bat you have.

Upgrades:

If you’re not going to need the bat again, might as well bloody it up with some fake blood from a Halloween store.

This is one where a group costume can work well. If your friends are into it, check out images from Season 7 to have your friends find their lookalikes in the cast. Bonus points if anyone can pull off a Glenn or Abraham look.

Closet Cosplay: Season 5, which aired this summer, definitely went outside the norm for this show and the costumes ran the gamut, so there are lots of options to choose from. Start with the basic khaki look (you can a set of khaki scrubs anywhere pretty cheap) and make your own ID badge, or go without. Accessorize with a gray or white undershirt (long or short sleeve) or gray hoodie. This is really one of the easiest, comfiest costumes out there.

Upgrades:

Modify the look based on any of the character’s variations on the uniform. For sexy, try Flaca & Maritza’s schoolgirl looks. Add glasses and go for Alex’s sleeveless Rosie the Riveter version. Crazy short hair and thrift store glasses on a chain can turn you into Red. The possibilities are endless.

For another variation, use black pants, a blue button down shirt, and your own accessories to make a modified C.O.’s uniform like Cindy or Allison.

Closet Cosplay: It couldn’t be easier to recreate the look from Rick & Morty’s most popular season 3 episode. All you need are green clothes, green face paint, a green ski cap, and a bad attitude. For true authenticity, you’ll have to lay on the ground and only move by rolling around, so it’s a great choice if you just wanna be lazy.

Upgrades:

You can go as nuts as you want with the mods on this one and they’ll all work, since Pickle Rick’s existence went through multiple stages. Try Halloween stores for fake bones and blood to dress up your costume. Various crafting scraps can help with the look of his repurposed vermin limbs. Use gray/pink socks and gloves for the hands and feet.

Don’t forget his accessories. You’ll need a brown belt with a couple of holsters containing giant batteries and his shoulder mounted laser cannon. Use your imagination and a lot of cardboard and spray paint.

Extra bonus points if you get a teenage kid to follow you around wearing a yellow shirt and jeans.

Whatever you choose to go as, have fun this Halloween. I’d love to see what you dress up as, so tweet me pics!

#Cosplay #Closet Cosplay #TV #Movies #Comic Books #Video Games #articles

0 notes