#a lot of the stuff we're learning he does have some background in

[thelittlespanielthatcould]

baby was getting tired towards the end of agility class so he sat down while doing his paws trick

[scamguy]

Due to Kim Dokja being a VERY repressed person in general, I think he would REALLY struggle with his how he'd associate with his sexuality, whether you see him as gay/bi/aro/ace... Actually if you think he'd be fine with dating Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung, from the bat, without any issue, then I think you're insane. More under the cut because that all became a big chunk of text.

We're talking about a guy who spent his entire life trying to blend in the background so hard that he became a literal ghost. If he even ever thought about his own sexuality, then he either came to the realization that he is straight (which I just don't think is true considering how often he compliments other men's looks), or that he's not and therefore he should try his best to pass as cishet just in case, so that no one would bother him about it. Don't forget he grew up bullied AND scrutinized by the press. He's used to having to keep things hidden.

I also don't think he'd bother experimenting with his sexuality in adulthood, considering he's only still alive for the sole and unique reason that he wants to read that one ongoing novel, so that stuff is completely out of the picture for him. His closest friend is a coworker he barely ever speaks to, do you think he would try to go out and date people? Pleaaaase...

Kim Dokja wants to disappear in his surroundings, he wants to be ordinary, forgettable, just another coworker, the upstairs neighbor, the unnoticeable everyman in the subway seat angling his phone away from other people's line of sight so they can't see what he's reading. Gender and sexuality is a non-behavior for him; he's presenting as a man because of his assigned sex, and he's not looking for romantic partners because he doesn't need one in order to survive. Genderless, and sexless - truly an undefined shape, who discarded everything there was to discard about his life in favor of focusing completely on a fictional story. Funnily, I think his gender is closer to 'reader' than it is to anything else: he's just Not There.

And as such, standing out, even just a little, is his natural enemy. So while I dont think he's bigoted (all of that stuff could've been handled a lot better in the novel, but: it's made rather clear that he doesn't judge people on their gender identity but on their actions - as shown in the early chapters of the demon king castle scenarios with the catfishing crew - and once he comes to see Jang Hayoung as a real person, rather than his OC, he recognizes her as a woman), I think that because of this fear of standing out, he'd obviously consider the idea of queerness as something undesirable, especialy if it's in relation to himself, because it gets in the way of his comfortably dull (non-)existence.

This internalized homophobia is, imo, made even clearer everytime his possible queerness is brought up by other characters, because he avoids the subject like the plague and he rarely comments on it in the narration, which makes his real thoughts on this very ambiguous and up to interpretation. Even if it's only brought up for laughs, I think it's interesting that Kim Dokja just flat out refuses to speak or even think about being into guys because he's just that embarassed.

So what about post-canon? Unless you're some heartless monster without a modicum of reading comprehension, then you surely dream of an ending where Kim Dokja wakes up and gets to live and grow old with the ones he loves. But even after learning that he can be loved, that he IS loved, can he truly let go of his lifetime(s) of repressed emotions, can he truly accept himself? Is the self-love that brought him back, the same thing as self-acceptance? And even after absorbing the idea that he is of immense worth to the world, is it enough to overcome his guilt? Could he truly bear to live without feeling like he has to hide himself anymore? He understands that he should exist, but does he truly try to live his life to the fullest?

[proshippers-against-censorship]

I only got into the whole pro/anti ship thing some months ago. I read a lot about it and realized I'm pro. Now I'm back to uni and I realized how far antis are divorced from reality.

Like I'm sitting there learning about art history and art philosophy ("what is art" is like our most important question, along with "how far can art go" and "when does it stop being art") and we're talking about artists who painted real, not fictional kids naked, some who were accused of being pedophiles, some who weren't, all while looking at and discussing their works.

Like antis could never. They wouldn't get through one lesson without melting down and viewing everyone including the professors as spreading "cp". Like we need to talk about those works. We write about them, use them as reference, all while knowing their background and of course never ignoring any aspect that you can possibly find. They think, pieces of fictional art will make someone a bad person. We literally talked about a German artist who is doing the hitler salute all the time but who could never be charged because it is clearly just a part of his art. He's not a Nazi. Even though it's hard to explain(in English)but that's the reason we are studying this shit for years.

And fictional stuff is just... meh. Like boring. Like everyone in the room would look at you like you're crazy if you started talking about an artist being a pedophile because of fictional pictures. Like have you seen old churches in Germany? There's naked kids all over the walls and they often did use models/real babies to paint this stuff

The behavior of antis makes a lot more sense when you realize that most of them have never been in college and have never sat through a course on art history.

[adachimoe]

what does junes bring to inaba?

this started as a reply to @psychedeliclulu in the cmts on this post but it uhh got really long and turned into a post of its own haha

this is partially based on inaba's pre-existing world building, partially based on anecdotal experience from my couple weeks in the japanese countryside, and partially based on the things that go unspoken in the game.

i believe what the npcs were talking about was how large, convenient, and varied that junes is. not to mention, it is also a community space.

the big pull that junes has, IMO, is that it's a multi story department store with a 24/7 hr grocer on the first floor. just by going on what the characters get in-game, aside from groceries, we know they also sell electronics and clothes. we know they have the roof with the food stalls and a children's play area, and even an event stage. in fact, if the protagonist works at junes during summer vacation, yosuke says something about a costumed hero show which is likely taking place on the event stage. from this, we learn that junes gives the community a reason to come there aside from just shopping, establishing it as a community space. (but i'm sure yosuke's dad surely wants you to spend money before/after the costume show.)

before junes came to inaba, they probably had to go to multiple different specialty stores that didn't quite have a variety. or they relied on getting deliveries, like from namatame's family business. and aside from the events at tatsuhime shrine and the yasogami school festival (per persona club p4, outside vendors can have booths at the school festival), we don't know what else the community has. so junes is functionally a lot of stuff, all in one.

in game, we're told that junes is new and is driving stores in the central shopping district out of business. the things we know about that are currently in the shopping district are:

moel gas station

daidara's store where he sells fish swords to teenagers

shiroku's general store / night time small town bar

rise's grandma's traditional tofu store (this is likely also her grandma's house, and where rise lives while shes in inaba)

kanji's family's textile store (also the tatsumi's family home)

yomenaido bookstore

aiya chinese diner (restaurant)

souzai daigaku (prepared foods)

the shrine

konishi liquors

marutake hobby shop

we dont see any grocers in the central shopping district in-game. is what we see in-game everything there is to the shopping district, or is like how the average rpg town only shows the player what they need?

tbh, i guess you could take hashino's answer to mean there *is* a grocery store in the shopping district, but the player never goes to it lol.

also, some of this is lost in english cause the signs aren't translated, but if you poke around the central shopping district, interact w/some of the buildings and read the signs outside, you'll get messages about what they are, such as:

big stone, a bicycle shop

ichikawa electronics

a store in-between ichikawa and konishi that's closed but its unknown what kind of store it was

a barber shop

nakanishi drugs/pharmascy

an unknown store next to nakanishi (the banner in front of it just says "central shopping district")

a building that i thiiink says "fuku[something; this would be a family name] real estate", next to maruktake

a building with no sign, to the left of aiya

a coffee shop / cafe / "kissa" in the background between the bookstore and daidara called something-hoshi/sei?-something (i cant read handwriting fonts LOL)

all of these have their shutters down, but i'm not sure if they're all closed for good. like in yukiko's new years romance, for example, she'll tell the protagonist they should go to a cafe, which suggests that either the smth-hoshi-smth place is actually open, or there is more to the shopping district than what we're allowed to roam around.

altho, it's also reasonable to assume that some of these shuttered shops we encounter have closed down due to junes. we see in-game that junes has stuff like an electronics department, which might have driven ichikawa electronics in the shopping district out of business. i imagine junes carries products like alcohol too, hence why saki's family would feel threatened by their presence. and when you do the fox's quest for the hobby shop owner, he says that when kids want to buy toys, they just go to junes, so we know junes also sells stuff like that. (there's also adachi's dialogue that might have gotten removed in golden about junes selling toys and kiddie magic kits.)

from the world building stuff, we learn that the junes grocery department is open 24/7 and they put out ready made foods (like to buy and eat at home) at 4pm/7pm/10pm. i believe on november 5th, you see yosuke working late at night at junes, stuck on grocery stocking duty cause junes' grocery is always open. (i dont think i ever translated this before, but in the "junes newsletter" in persona club p4, there's also a submission from sayoko who says she appreciates the grocery dept being open whenever for when she gets off her shift at the hospital late at night.)

i think just having a "24/7 hr grocery store" is kinda huge, as from my exp in the countryside, a grocer otherwise closes at like 8pm. inaba likely does not have much else that's open 24/7, or even that late at night, and golden only has shiroku's store and aiya being open later at night. i touched on this before in a post about yukiko's family ryokan, but the stereotype goes that ryokans are in remote locations and offer breakfast/dinner service to guests because there likely aren't many other places to get food in that area, especially later in the evening. (hence why yosuke assumes yukiko can cook, and why chie assumes yukiko knows what she's talking about when they grocery shop.)

anyway yay more rambling

[acealistair]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard GameInformer Article Transcribed SPOILER-FREE

I've gone ahead and transcribed the GameInformer article about DA:TV for those who can't read it from screenshots/on GameInformer for whatever reason. This version specifically is the PLOT-SPOILER-FREE version! I've removed all references to the main storyline of the game (even those revealed in the gameplay footage already released, just to be sure) to mostly focus on mechanics and the author's general impressions of the game. It does still include some references to companions and their personalities/mechanic abilities, as well as a couple locations that we're already confirmed to be visiting. However, further details on specific locations are hidden.

As mentioned in my full version of the article, I've transcribed it as accurately as I could, which means including typos, grammar mistakes, improper capitalization, etc.

Throughout my research and preparation for a trip to BioWare’s Edmonton, Canada, office for this cover story, I kept returning to the idea that its next game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly subtitled Dreadwolf) is releasing at a critical moment for the storied developer. The previous installment, Dragon Age: Inquisition, hit PlayStation, Xbox, and PC a decade ago. It was the win BioWare needed, following the 2012 release of Mass Effect 3 with its highly controversial and (for many) disappointing ending. Inquisition launched two years later, in 2014, to rave reviews and, eventually, various Game of the Year awards, almost as if a reminder of what the studio was capable of.

Now, in 2024, coincidentally, the next Dragon Age finds itself in a similar position. BioWare attempted a soft reboot of Mass Effect with Andromeda in 2017, largely seen as a letdown among the community, and saw its first live-service multiplayer attempt in 2019’s Anthem flounder in the tricky waters of the genre; it aimed for a No Man’s Sky-like turnaround with Anthem Next, but that rework was canceled in 2021. Like its predecessor, BioWare’s next Dragon Age installment is not only a new release in a beloved franchise, but is another launch with the pressure of BioWare’s prior misses; a game fans hope will remind them the old BioWare is still alive today.

“Having been in this industry for 25 years, you see hits and misses, and it’s all about building off of those hits and learning from those misses,” BioWare general manager Gary McKay, who’s been with the studio since January 2020, tells me.

As McKay gives me a tour of the office, I can’t help but notice how much Anthem is scattered around it. More than Mass Effect, more than Dragon Age, there’s a lot of Anthem - posters, real-life replicas of its various Javelins, wallpaper, and more. Recent BioWare news stories tell of leads and longtime studio veterans laid off and others departing voluntarily. Veilguard’s development practically began with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When I ask McKay about the tumultuousness of BioWare and how he, as the studio manager, makes the team feel safe in the product it’s developing, he says it’s about centering on the creative vision. “[When] we have that relentless pursuit for quality, and we have passion and people in the right roles, a lot of the other stuff you’re talking about just fades into the background.”

That’s a sentiment echoed throughout the team I speak to: Focus on what makes a BioWare game great and let Veilguard speak for itself. Though I had no expectations going in - it’s been 10 years since the last Drag Age, after all, and BioWare has been cagey about showing this game publicly - my expectations have been surpassed. This return to Thedas, the singular continent of the franchise, feels like both a warm welcome for returning fans and an impressive entry point for first-time players.

New Age, New Name

At the start of each interview, I address a dragon-sized elephant in the room with the game’s leads. What was Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is now Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Why?

“These games are reflections of the teams that make them, and as part of that, it means we learn a lot about what the heart and soul of the game really is as we’re developing it,” Veilguard game director Corinne Busche tells me. “We quickly learned and realized that the absolute beating heart of this game is these authentic, diverse companions. And when we took a step back, as we always do, we always check our decisions and make sure they still represent the game we’re trying to build.”

Dreadwolf no longer did that, but each member of BioWare I speak to tells me The Veilguard does. And while I was initially abrasive to the change - lore aside, Dreadwolf is simply a cool name - I warmed up to The Veilguard.

Solas, a Loki-esque trickster member of the Elven pantheon of gods known as the Dread Wolf, created the Veil long ago while attempting to free the elves from their slave-like status in Thedas. This Veil is a barrier between the magical Fade and Thedas, banishing Elven gods and removing Elven immortality from the world. But players didn’t know that in Inquisition, where he is introduced as a mage ally and companion. However, at the end of Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC, which sets the stage for Veilguard, we learn in a shocking twist that Solas wants to destroy the Veil and restore Elves to their former glory. However, doing so would bring chaos to Thedas, and those who call it home, the people who eventually become The Veilguard, want to stop him.

“There’s an analogy I like to use, which is, ‘If you want to carve an elephant out of marble, you just take a piece of marble and remove everything that doesn’t look like an elephant,’” Veilguard creative director John Epler says. “As we were building this game, it became really clear that it was less that we were trying to make The Veilguard and more like The Veilguard was taking shape as we built the game. Solas is still a central figure in it. He’s still a significant character. But really, the focus shifts to the team.

“[We] realized Dreadwolf suggests a title focused on a specific individual, whereas The Veilguard, much like Inquisition, focuses more on the team.”

Creating Your Rook

Veilguard’s character creator is staggeringly rich, with a dizzying number of customizable options. Busche tells me that inclusivity is at the heart of it, noting that she believes everyone can create someone who represents them on-screen.

There are four races to choose from when customizing Rook, the new playable lead - Elves, Qunari, Humans, and Dwarves - and hundreds of options to customize your character beyond that. You can select pronouns separately from gender and adjust physical characteristics like height, shoulder width, chest size, glute and bulge size, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, how crooked your nose is, and so much more. There must be hundreds of sliders to customize these body proportions and features like skin hue, tone, melanin, and just about anything else you might adjust on a character. Oh, and there’s nudity in Veilguard, too, which I learn firsthand while customizing my Rook.

“The technology has finally caught up to our ambition,” Dragon Age series art director Matt Rhodes tells me as we decide on my warrior-class Qunari’s backstory, which affects faction allegiance, in-game dialogue, and reputation standing - we choose the pirate-themed Lords of Fortune.

Notably, instead of a warrior class, we could have chosen mage or rogue. All three classes have unique specializations, bespoke skill trees, and special armors, too. And though our Rook is aligned with the Lords of Fortune faction, there are others to choose from including the Grey Wardens, Shadow Dragons, The Mourn Watch, and more. There is some flexibility in playstyle thanks to specializations, but your class largely determines the kind of actions you can perform in combat.

[SPOILER]

Beyond the on-paper greatness of this character creator, its customizability speaks to something repeated throughout my BioWare visit: Veilguard is a single-player, story-driven RPG. Or in other words, the type of game that made BioWare as storied as it is. McKay tells me the team explored a multiplayer concept early in development before scratching it to get back to BioWare basics. The final game will feature zero multiplayer and no microtransactions.

Happy to hear that, I pick our first and last name, then one of four voices, with a pitch shifter for each, too, and we’re off to Minrathous.

Exploring Tevinter For The First Time

Throughout the Dragon Age series, parts of Thedas are discussed by characters and referenced by lore material but left to the imagination of players as they can’t visit them. Veilguard immediately eschews this, setting its opening prologue mission in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. Frankly, I’m blown away by how good it looks. It’s my first time seeing Veilguard in action and my first look at a Dragon Age game in nearly a decade. Time has treated this series well, and so has technology.

Epler, who’s coming up on 17 years at BioWare, acknowledges that the franchise has always been at the will of its engine. Dragon Age: Origins and II’s Eclipse Engine worked well for the time, but today, they show their age. Inquisition was BioWare’s first go at EA’s proprietary Frostbite engine - mind you, an engine designed for first-person shooters and decidedly not multi-character RPGs - and the team struggled there, too. Epler and Busche agree Veilguard is the first RPG where BioWare feels fully in command of Frostbite and, more generally, its vision for this world.

[SPOILER] The first thing players will do once Veilguard begins is select a dialogue option, something the team says speaks to their vision of a story-forward, choice-driven adventure. After [SPOILER], there’s another dialogue choice, and different symbols here indicate the type of tone you can roll with. There’s a friendly, snarky, and rough-and-tough direct choice, and I later learn of a more romantically inclined “emotional” response. These are the replies that will build relationships with characters, romantic and platonic alike, but you’re welcome to ignore this option. However, your companions can romance each other, so giving someone the cold shoulder might nudge them into the warm embrace of another. [SPOILER]

Rhodes explains BioWare’s philosophy for designing this city harkens back to a quick dialogue from Inquisition’s Dorian Pavus. Upon entering Halamshiral’s Winter Palace, the largest venue in Dragon Age history at that point, Dorian notes that it’s cute, adorable even, alluding to his Tevinter heritage. If Dorian thinks the largest venue in Dragon Age history is cute and adorable, what must the place he’s from be like? “It’s like this,” Rhodes says as we enter Minrathous proper in-game.

Minrathous is huge, painted in magical insignia that looks like cyberpunk-inspired neon city signs and brimming with detail. Knowing it’s a city run by mages and built entirely upon magic, Rhodes says the team let its imagination run wild. The result is the most stunning and unique city in the series. [SPOILER] Busche says BioWare used Veilguard’s character creator to make each in-world NPC except for specific characters like recruitable companions. [The level utilizes] a smart use of verticality, scaling, and wayfinding to push us toward the main attraction: [SPOILER].

[SPOILER] Something I appreciate throughout our short journey through Minrathous is the cinematography at play. As a Qunari, my character stands tall, and Rhodes says the camera adjusts to ensure larger characters loom over those below. On the flip side, the camera adjusts for dwarves to demonstrate their smaller stature compared to those around them.

This, coupled with movie-liked movement through the city [SPOILER] creates a cinematic start that excited me, and I’m not even hands-on with the game.

[SPOILER]

Here, we encounter a dozen or so demons, which BioWare has fully redesigned on the original premise of these monstrous creatures. Rhodes says they’re creatures of feeling and live and die off the emotions around them. As such, they are just a floating nervous system, pushed into this world from the Fade, rapidly assembled into bodies out of whatever scraps they find.

[SPOILER]

The Veilguard Who’s Who

While we learned a lot about returning character but first-time companion Lace Harding, ice mage private detective Neve Gallus, and veil jumper Bellara Lutara, BioWare shared some additional details about other companions Rook will meet later in the game. Davrin is a charming Grey Warden who is also an excellent monster hunter; Emmrich is a member of Nevarra’s Mourn Watch and a necromancer with a skeleton assistant named Manfred; Lucanis is a pragmatic assassin whose bloodline descends from the criminal House of Crows organization; And Taash is a dragon hunter allied with the piratic Lords of Fortune. All seven of these characters adorn this Game Informer issue, with Bellara up front and center in the spotlight.

The Lighthouse

[SPOILER] Epler says, much like Skyhold in Inquisition, the Lighthouse is where your team bonds, grows, and prepares for its adventures throughout the campaign. It also becomes more functional and homier as you do. Already, though, it’s a beautifully distraught headquarters for the Veilguard.

[SPOILER] I see a clock symbol over a dialogue icon in the distance, which signals an optional dialogue option. We head there, talk to Neve, select a response to try our hand at flirting, and then head to the dining hall.

[SPOILER] From the dining hall, we gather the not-quite-Veilguard in the library, which Busche says in the central area of the Lighthouse and where your party will often regroup and prepare for what’s next. [SPOILERS] Busche says I’m missing unique dialogue options here because I’m Qunari; an Elf would have more to say about [SPOILER]. The same goes for my backstory earlier in Minrathous. [SPOILER]

[SPOILER] The ensuing cutscene, where we learn [SPOILER], is long, with multiple dialogue options. That’s something I’m noticing with Veilguard, too - there’s a heavy emphasis on storytelling and dialogue, and it feels deep and meaty, like a good fantasy novel. BioWare doesn’t shy away from minutes-long cutscenes.

Busche says that’s intentional, too. [SPOILER] “You’re defining [Rook's] leadership style with your choices.” Knowing that Rook is the leader of the Veilguard, I’m excited to see how far this goes. From the sound of it, my team will react to my chosen leadership style in how my relationships play out. That’s demonstrated within the game’s dialogue and a special relationship meter on each companion’s character screen.

Redefining Combat Once More

[SPOILER] After loading up a new save, we’re in control of a human mage.

Following the trend of prior Dragon Age games, Veilguard has completed the series’ shift from tactical strategy to real-time action, but fret not: a tactical pause-and-play mechanic returns to satiate fans who remember the series’ origins (pun intended). Though I got a taste of combat in the prologue, Veilguard’s drastic departure from all that came before it is even more apparent here.

Busche says player complete every swing in real-time, with special care taken to animation swing-through and canceling. There's a dash, a parry, the ability to charge moves, and a completely revamped healing system that allows you to use potions at your discretion by hitting right on the d-pad. You can combo attacks and even “bookmark” combos with a quick dash, which means you can pause a combo’s status with a dash to safety and continue the rest of the combo afterward. It looks even cooler than it sounds.

Like any good action game, there is a handful of abilities to customize your kit. And, if you want to maintain that real-time action feel, you can use them on the fly, so long as you take cooldowns into effect. But Veilguard’s pause-and-play gameplay mechanic, similar to Inquisition’s without the floating camera view, lets you bring things to halt for a healthy but optional dose of strategy.

In this screen, which essentially pauses the camera and pulls up a flashy combat wheel that highlights you and your companions’ skills, you can choose abilities, queue them up, and strategize with synergies and combos, all while targeting specific enemies. Do what you need to here, let go of the combat wheel, and watch your selections play out. Busche says she uses the combat wheel to dole out her companions’ attacks and abilities while sticking to the real-time action for her player-controlled Rook. On the other hand, Epler says he almost exclusively uses the combat wheel to dish out every ability and combo.

Busche says each character will play the same, in that you execute light and heavy attacks with hte same buttons, use abilities with the same buttons, and interact with the combo wheel in the same way, regardless of which class you select. But a sword-and-shield warrior, like we used in the prolgoue, can hip-fire or aim their shield to throw it like Captain America, whereas our human mage uses that same button to throw out magical ranged attacks. The warrior can parry incoming attacks, which can stagger enemies. The rogue gets a larger parry window. Our mage, however, can’t parry at all. Instead, they throw up a shield that blocks incoming attacks automatically so long as you have the mana to sustain it.

“What I see from Veilguard is a game that finally bridges the gap,” former Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, who left BioWare in 2021 before joining the Veilguard team last year as a consultant, tells me. “Uncharitably, previous Dragon Age games got to the realm of ‘combat wasn’t too bad.’ In this game, the combat’s actually fun, but it does keep that thread that’s always been there. You have the focus on Rook, on your character, but still have that control and character coming into the combat experience from the other people in the party.”

“This is really the best Dragon Age game that I’ve ever played,” he adds, noting his bias. “This is the one where we get back to our roots of character-driven storytelling, have really fun combat, and aren’t making compromises.”

Watching Busche take down [SPOILER], I can already sense Veilguard’s combat will likely end up my favorite in the series, although admittedly, as a fan of action games, I’m an easy sell here. It’s flashy, quick, and thanks to different types of health bars, like a greenish-blue one that represents barrier and is taken down most effectively with ranged attacks, a decent amount of strategy, even if you don’t use the pause-and-play combo wheel. Like the rest of the game, too, it’s gorgeous, with sprinkles, droplets, and splashes of magic in each attack our mage unleashes. Though I’m seeing the game run on a powerful PC, which is sure to be the best showcase of Veilguard, Epler tells me the game looks amazing on consoles - he’s been playing it on PlayStation 5 and enjoying it in both its fidelity and performance modes, but I’ll have to take his word for it.

Pressing Start

The start or pause screen is as important to a good RPG as the game outside the menus. Veilguard’s contains your map, journal, character sheets, skill tree, and a library for lore information. You can cross-compare equipment and equip new gear here for Rook and your companions, build weapon loadouts for quick change-ups mid-combat, and customize you and your party’s abilities and builds via an easy-to-understand skill tree. You won’t find minutiae here, “just real numbers,” Busche says. That means a new unlocked trait might increase damage by 25 percent against armor, but that’s as in-depth as the numbers get. Passive abilities unlock jump attacks and guarantee critical hit opportunities, while abilities add moves like a Wall of Fire to your arsenal (if you’re a mage). As you spec out this skill tree, which is 100 percent bespoke to each class, you’ll work closer to unlocking a specialization, of which there are three for each class, complete with a unique ultimate ability. Busche says BioWare’s philosophy here is “about changing the way you play, not statistical minutiae.”

Companion Customization

You can advance your bonds by helping companions on their own personal quests and by including them in your party for main quests. Every Relationship Level you rank up, shown on their character sheet, nets you a skill point to spend on them. Busche says the choices you make, what you say to companions, how you help them, and more all matter to their development as characters and party members. And with seven companions, there’s plenty to customize, from bespoke gear to abilities and more. Though each companion has access to five abilities, you can only take three into combat, so it’s important to strategize different combos and synergies within your party. Rhodes says beyond  this kind of customizable characterization, each companion has issues, problems, and personal quests to complete. “Bellara has her own story arc that runs parallel to and informs the story path you’re on,” Rhodes says.

In Entropy’s Grasp

[SPOILER]

“When designing companions, they’re the load-bearing pillars for everything,” Rhodes says. “They’re the face of their faction, and in this case [with Bellara], their entire area of the world. [SPOILER]” Rhodes describes her as a sweetheart and nerd for ancient elven artifacts. As such, she’s dressed more like an academic than a combat expert, although her special arm gauntlet is useful both for tinkering with her environment and taking down enemies.

Unlike Neve, who uses ice magic like our Rook and can slow down time with a special ability, Bellara specializes in electricity, and she can also use magic to heal you, something Busche says Dragon Age fans have been desperate to have in a game. Busche says if you don’t direct Neve and Bellara, they’re fully independent and will attack on their own. But synergizing your team will add to the fun and strategy of combat. Bellara’s electric magic is effective against [enemy], which is great because we currently only have access to ice. However, without Bellara, we could also equip a rune that converts my ice magic, for a brief duration, into electricity to counter the Sentinels.

[SPOILER]

I continue to soak in the visuals of Veilguard [SPOILER]; it’s perhaps the most impressive aspect of my time seeing the game, although everything else is making a strong impression, too. I am frustrated about having to watch the game rather than play it, to be honest. I’m in love with the art style, which is more high fantasy than anything in the series thus far and almost reminiscent of the whimsy of Fable, a welcome reprieve from the recent gritty Game of Thrones trend in fantasy games. Rhodes says that’s the result of the game’s newfound dose of magic.

“The use of magic has been an evolution as the series has gone on,” he says. “It’s something we’ve been planning for a while because Solas has been planning all this for a while. In the past, you could hint at cooler magical things in the corner because you couldn’t actually go there, but now we actually can, and it’s fun to showcase that.”

Busche, Epler, and Rhodes warn me that [location] will starkly contrast to other areas. They promise some grim locations and even grimmer story moments because, without that contrast, everything falls flat. Busche likens it to a “thread of optimism” pulled through otherworldly chaos ravaging Thedas. [SPOILER]

[SPOILER]

Busche [performs combat] with ease, showcasing high-level gameplay by adding three stacks of arcane build-up to create an Arcane Bomb on an enemy, which does devastating damage after being hit by a heavy attack. Now, she begins charging a heavy attack on her magical staff, then switches to magical daggers in a second loadout accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick attacks, then back to the staff to charge it some more and unleash a heavy attack.

After a few more combat encounters, including one against a [enemy] that’s “Frenzied,” which means it hits harder, moves faster, and has more health, we finally [SPOILER]. [Boss enemy] hits hard, has plenty of unblockable, red-coded attacks, and a massive shield we must take down first. However, it’s weak to fire, and our new fire staff is perfect for the situation.

[SPOILER] It’s clear that even after a few hours with the game’s opening, I’ve seen a nigh negligible amount of game; frustrating but equally as exciting.

Don’t Call It An Open World

Veilguard is not an open world, even if some of its explorable areas might fee like one. Gamble describes Veilguard’s Thedas as a hub-and-spoke design where “the needs of the story are served by the level design.” [SPOILER] Some of these areas are larger and full of secrets and treasures. Others are smaller and more focused on linear storytelling. [Location] is an example of this, but there are still optional paths and offshoots to explore for loot, healing potion refreshes, and other things. There’s a minimap in each location, though linear levels like [SPOILER] won’t have the fog of war that disappears as you explore like some of Veilguard’s bigger locations. Regardless, BioWare says Veilguard has the largest number of diverse biomes in series history.

Dragon’s Delight

With a 10-hour day at BioWare behind me after hours of demo gameplay and interviews with the leads, I’m acutely aware of my favorite part of video games: the surprises. I dabbled with Origins and II and put nearly 50 hours into Inquisition, but any familiarity with the series the latter gave me had long since subsided over the past decade. I wanted to be excited about the next Dragon Age as I viewed each teaser and trailer, but other than seeing the words “Dragon Age,” I felt little. Without gameplay, without a proper look at the actual game we’ll all be playing this fall, I struggled to remember why Inquisition sucked me in 10 years ago.

This trip reminded me.

Dragon Age, much like the Thedas of Veilguard, lives in the uncertainty: The turbulence of BioWare’s recent release history and the lessons learned from it, the drastic changes to each Dragon Age’s combat, the mystery of its narrative, and the implications of its lore. It’s all a part of the wider Dragon Age story and why this studio keeps returning to this world. It’s been a fertile franchise for experimentation. While Veilguard is attempting to branch out in unique ways, it feels less like new soil and more like the harvest BioWare has been trying to cultivate since 2009, and I’m surprised by that.

I’m additionally surprised, in retrospect, how numb I’ve been to the game before this. I’m surprised by BioWare’s command over EA’s notoriously difficult Frostbite engine to create its prettiest game yet. I’m surprised by this series’ 15-year transition from tactical strategy to action-forward combat. I’m surprised by how much narrative thought the team has poured into these characters, even for BioWare. Perhaps having no expectations will do that to you. But most of all, with proper acknowledgement that I reserve additional judgment until I actually play the game, I’m surprised that Veilguard might just be the RPG I’m looking forward to most this year.

[devondespresso]

writing my silly little fic and again im struck with how much opportunities they missed by pretending the s2 stancy breakup wasn't messy, specifically for Nancy's guilt about barb and forcing herself to grow up too fast

like s1 Nancy spends one night being a stupid teenager goofing off at her boyfriend's party and staying over to get spicy while Barb goes home. then she later realizes Barb disappeared and died that one night she was letting go and having fun. this is widely recognized trauma for her and informs a lot if not most of her actions through the rest of the show

in season 2 she's feeling the weight of it more around the first year anniversary. steve trys to help by taking her to a party to forget for a little while and 'be stupid teenagers' for a night. a perfectly set up parallel already

the way the show wants it to go, we get the bullshit argument, they fight, allegedly break up at some point, and nancy sleeps with Jonathan. later steve tells her to go with him and we're supposed to read it as Steve stepping back so jancy can happen. we're supposed to be seeing this as a happy ending.

but with the material we're given this would have been the perfect place for an emotional repeat of season 1 for nancy. she and steve go to the party and pretend to be stupid teenagers for the night. but oh no! nancy lets lose too much, lets herself relax and drink and dance, and the next day her boyfriend's pissed. hes saying she said things she never remembered saying and its hurt him and she doesn't know what to do. and kids around school are talking about them breaking up at the party, and that fits with Steve's anger she saw, so they must've broken up right? it sucks, even if she wasn't in love with him, that'd be the worst way to break up with someone (especially if she's confusing platonic and romantic feelings or convincing herself it has to be romantic when she really just values him as a friend)

and then she doesn't have time to work it out, she needs to go with Jonathan to avenge barbs 'disappearance' to give her family closure. She's got a lot of conspiracy shit to do and its stressful. so when murray starts going off about how she's not really in love with steve, how she actually likes Jonathan and he seems to like her back. they finished a lot of the hard work with the conspiracy stuff, she can let her guard down and have a quick good night.

then the next day is chaos. demodogs and labs and will being possessed. It a rough fucking day. Steve tells her to go with Jonathan while they get the mindflayer out of Will, civil like they're on good terms so she does (and thank god she did because that was rough and they needed all the help they could get)

and then everything's fine again, with the upside down. and it looks like she handled things better this time, was about to relax occasionally and still made it through.

except apparently she and steve didn't break up. he thought it was just a few fights, that they put their shit aside for the apocalypse and now they can work things out.

and it could ruin nancy. a year later and she's still hasn't learned her lesson, that letting her guard down hurts the people she cares about, that relaxing and having fun makes her lose people. its her fault for the messy breakup with Steve and its her fault that barb is gone. she's the reason she's lost friends close to her, 2 for 2, and now she only has Jonathan left (and what do you know, season 3 has her conflict with Jonathan and in season 4 she's not let anyone else get truly close to her and fred still dies)

you see what i mean?? by having conflict magical resolve itself in the background we loose so much powerful, painful character drama for her. our girl who thinks she has to keep the world around her up solely on her shoulders because she can't handle the loss of her best friend in season 1. Nancy who desperately wants to be normal and have people she loves but keeps losing them, through factors both in and out of her control, but feels like everything has to be her fault just because some things were.

and to be fair, that story is still present in the show. its there and definitely compelling, but it could've been even more so. i feel like if maybe there was less 'nancy has to be a strong independent girlboss' in there (abd it's definitely there, they want to make a point of making her a Strong Woman Character so bad) and she was allowed to have mistakes acknowledged by the narrative, this is the direction it would've gone. She could've been an excellent example of well written women who are strong and awesome through their own right instead of the narrative trying to make us like her

[quietbluejay]

Spotlight: Soundwave

wait, what's that Taylor Swift music playing in the background...? why is it getting louder....?

the taylor swift joke works on multiple levels lol

wow, soundy

ugh, this guy

Megatron is speaking from on high

Megatron: ...into all Shockwave's current and archived projects

Megatron: I want to know exactly what he was working on. Do you understand?

Bludgeon: oh…completely

He bows to Megatron and the doors hiss open

Megatron: Soundwave...

Soundwave appears from the shadows, his eyes glowing

Megatron:...keep an optic on him

Soundwave: yes, Lord Megatron

wise

Soundwave: by the same token, neither did I

the next shot is the gang doing various repairs

Soundwave: watched...as Bludgeon and his own little inner circle expanded Shockwave's sub-surface research facility, in preparation for who-knows-what

back to the present

a pair of hands grab boombox!Soundwave

"And...we're done."

Soundwave: as the facsimiles head for their assignation, i…

"...hand matters over to ravage!"

"..at which point…"

bald guy: we understand

Laserbeak is recording this and sending it to Soundwave

who is currently cozily next to the bed of the construction dude

the plan is to move in and take as much as possible of the regenesis ore

Soundwave: I recall Laserbeak

"...and move Ravage into position"

he figures this regenesis ore stuff is clearly worth a lot in these energon-starved times

so it's time to ponder how to turn this to his advantage...

his "erstwhile owner" likes to get up really early because he likes longggg showers

with his boom box

no I'm not joking

it wouldn't do to announce my presence, he says as he does this okay fair

some people are caught in the explosion

"I let events run their course!"

It's a biiig conflagration

INCREDIBLE

Bludgeon points a weapon at him, but Soundwave says he's here to help

"All hail Thunderwing!" chants one of the minions

"All hail Thunderwing!" chants the purple guy

Soundwave says, essentially, that they're all nuts

someone has to stop them

Soundwave: I…have to stop them!

he orders Laserbeak and Ravage to attack

Narration: against my better judgement...

Narration: ...I find myself oddly determined to do the right thing

the fight is going on now

"for once it's about the greater good..."

"...not just what's good for me!"

a very different Soundwave from his portrayals later in the continuity Barber's portrayal was basically high on self-righteousness

"in my experience though, the road to the scrapheap..."

"...is paved with good intentions!"

Bludgeon takes a swing and wounds Laserbeak (with his glowing purple sword)

Bludgeon then ganks Ravage as well

Soundwave falters for a second, then he remembers the mess Thunderwing made again

but that one second of hesitation...

"even if i beat Iguanus to the punch, i can't take them all"

he gets shot by the gun, and he's surrounded by glowing green energy

so it overrides your t-cog and traps you in that form

against his will, Soundwave shifts back into a boombox

understatement of the year

Bludgeon: we're done here. let's go

him and his gang teleport out

they set off mount saint helens

friend: also i know we like our classic volcanoes but the mount saint helens erruption is well documented as an ashy explosion that blotted out the sun for days and had very little magma so while i appreciate the Aesthetic i am docking points because using what actually happened would have been better look, i did not learn about this in school for the comics author to disregard reality me: you were cool with the sharks in lake michigan friend: my general rule is that if its cooler, funnier, or better for the story it gets a pass but if its not any of those things then i will complain lake michigan sharks are hilarious me: what's the matter with muskies? are they not cool enough?

there's a caption on one of them, Joshua Red (oh hi, Agent Red)

we get a close up of his face

Red: There, now if that doesn't get us our funding...

Red:...nothing will

friend: the eternal struggle for grant money

Epilogue 2: Portland, Oregon, 2007

two teenagers are looking into a store window

Teenager One: There, see. It's a classic

Teenager Two: Classic? It's junk, pure and simple

the next panel shows boombox!Soundwave

Teenager Two: but hey, go waste your money if you want to...

Teenager Two: ...I'm sticking with my iPod

The end?

so that's soundwave's story still want to see if grimlocks spotlight will reveal what hunter was talking about re robot dinos but following up on this one will be the kup spotlight nick roche's first writing for the continuity which hey, I already did this one! so I'll probably just reblog it

after that is Spotlight Galvatron a character who despite all the page time he got, still feels to me like he had wasted potential

[thecircularsystem]

Are there any parts/alters that you want to give a shoutout to or just general appreciation for? That might be nice to boost your word count <3

[Send me asks so that I can chip away at the 200k words I was supposed to write this month!]

This is a great idea -- so great (and to increase wordcount) that I'll do it for all my parts. I think we all deserve some recognition, especially with how fucking hard this year has been.

Long ass praise under the cut for my system (so I don't flood the tags with personal stuff). It also gets very mildly NSFW for Curtis, lol.

Rice -- Rice deserves a shoutout for the dedication she's shown to our system by way of relaxing. When she's out, she does her absolute best to take care of herself, which is such an improvement on our past. Thank you for caring so much about our system and about helping us grow, but most of all, for learning to respect yourself like you deserve.

Sierra -- What a boss ass bitch. I know she doesn't feel like it much lately, what with her perfectionism and all, but... I think she deserves the credit fr our past more than our future, yknow? Without her, we never would've gotten through college. We never would have survived high school. I think Sierra blames herself too much for the trauma we experienced, for not taking care of us "enough." Thank you for keeping us alive, Sierra. You're the reason I can even make this post today.

Me -- Yeah, process of elimination, if you know our names you know which part I am. I guess... I want to thank myself for my pride in who we are. Things have been so damn hard this year, and I feel like I've really... changed. A lot. I don't do super well with change as a person, but I think I'm the part in our system who's representing those changes very firmly. I help us to be comfortable with who we are and take pride in our current self. Never thought I'd get there.

Numb -- I know we've butted heads in the past, but genuinely, I love Numb a lot. I'm so grateful to have had someone who could handle all of the planning, all of the logistics, all of the anticipation of the bad... I'm grateful to have someone who could handle making those decisions. I'm even more grateful that he's now the one working on reminding us (and moreso himself) that we don't need to anticipate everything anymore. Thanks, Numb. (Writing that out just pulled me out of the panic attack I've been having in the background all day, so thanks anon).

Curtis -- Fucking slut! Lmao. But yeah, I'm grateful he is so damn comfortable with sex shit. The harassment on our 18+ blog really go to us, and... I think he just took it in stride. It's so relieving to have a part who's comfortable with all that. It's made me a lot more at ease and able to accept those parts of myself as well.

Debra -- MY GIRLFRIEND! THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND AND I LOVE HER. Anyways. THANK YOU FOR LITERALLY EVERYTHING. I know you hold over your head the guilt of your past, don't even try to deny it, but I think you are such a wonderful person, and you will never know how grateful I am that you came into existence. I know it's been painful, but you are the shining star of the night that reminds me that morning can come back one day. Thank you.

LED -- You have so much on your shoulders. I am so, so grateful that we ca learn to grow up with you. That we can learn how to be adults who can handle things, rather than the scared child we all felt like for so long. I'm sorry that you have to carry us all on your back the way you do, but I also know you carry it well, and you do so with a smile. I'm glad we can carry some of it with you.

Sie -- Thank you for your enthusiasm. You're the one who reminds us that being a child isn't a bad thing. We're allowed to have whimsy and wonder. We're allowed to cry. We're allowed to have big emotions and thoughts that we don't understand, and that isn't unsafe -- that's just life. Thank you for being the most mature one in the system.

Roy -- Thank you for helping us manage our anger, genuinely. Thank you for your bravery in asking the important questions the rest of us are too scared to ask, and thank you for being angry that we're in a situation that we're too scared to ask these things. But thank you most of all for not directing that anger at us. You get that we deserve better. Thank you.

Octavian -- It's been awhlie! Thank you for taking over when we need you, especially since you handle a lot of physical mess. We appreciate how you don't really blink at mold, and that you handle the nausea associated with it. Thank you for introducing us to a whole new world -- literally.

Ve -- We're grateful for your mistakes. I know, that's not really what you wanted to hear, but gosh, it's incredible that you're a person now. You have a personality. You fuck up!!! And that's beautiful. You might be an angel, but you also genuinely struggle, and that struggle makes us feel better about the fact that you take over for us when we can't anymore. You aren't better than us, and you show that through being human. Even though you aren't. :)

Avery -- WHERE DO YOU FIND THE ENERGY? I'm so grateful for all the wacky things you've set up and done for us, I cannot comprehend how you find the motivation. That spreadsheet has been an absolute lifesaver.

Gazi -- Thank you for helping us to understand that [REDACTED] is okay. Thank you for helping us to understand that we're safe, no matter what our thoughts are. I get the feeling you'll be kicking around more as we confront the OCD we discussed with our therapist finally, so know that we're okay now, and we love you.

Wisteria -- Thank you for the callout document. I know you don't like to think about it, and I can feel Tavi with you the instant I brought it up. But you split to be normal and then immediately did the least normal thing I think we've done in decades. You poured yourself into trying to hold everything together... and then you were the one who realized how detrimental it was. You're the one who got us away. Thank you for being the new solar system, Wisteria /ref.

Emory -- What aren't we grateful for? Thank you for your pride. Thank you for feeling so loved. Thank you for D&D. Thank you for doing work, I know how much you hate it. Thank you for adoration. You're doing the lords work ;)

[ask-the-revived-choir-awegb]

14 January 2010

The video opened up to Ocean adjusting it, the tip of her tongue sticking out. She hummed once the camera was steady and stepped back. “I think we're rolling.”

Misha, who had one arm in the sling, stepped into view and sat on the couch. The simple grey color scheme of the living room was a nice background compared to the colors of each member's clothing. Ricky wheeled into frame on the side of the couch next to Misha. Noel leaned over the back just as Constance hopped onto the cushion on Misha's other side. Ocean walked around to stand beside Noel, behind Constance. Penny appeared as well, sitting with her legs crossed in front of Misha.

There was a beat of everyone just staring at the camera. Constance turned around. “Ocean, are you going to start?”

“I– I've never had a blog before. I don't know what to say!”

“Say something,” Noel instructed through his teeth.

“Alright. Hello, I'm Ocean O'Co– I'm Ocean. These are my–” She looked around at the others. They all glanced at her when she paused. “–friends. These people are Noel, Misha, Ricky, Penny, and Constance.”

“What are you doing?” Misha asked.

“Introducing us.”

"It is very awkward.”

“I haven't spoken to a group in a while, alright?”

“Clearly.”

"This was your idea.”

“Then I will take over.” Misha smiled at the camera. “She's new.”

“Hey!”

He chuckled and motioned to everyone. “We're the former choir of St. Cassian's. You've probably heard of us if you live in Canada. We were on national television!”

“For being k– nearly killed by a rollercoaster,” Noel said with a smile.

"You say that like it was cool,” Ocean muttered.

"It was the most tragic thing that has happened to me, and it made us sorta famous. It was cool,” Noel said, nudging the ginger.

Misha grinned at them and then looked over at the camera again. “We have a lot of free time on our hands, because the school does not want us back for a semester. So, I proposed we make a blog. We will talk about our experiences and complain about this town.”

“We, of course, aren't going to give away our addresses or anything,” Constance budded in.

“We don't want to be stalked by strangers as a tiger stalks a peafowl,” Penny added. The others paused for a moment, glancing at her in confusion. Ricky smiled as though he was the only one who understood.

Mischa laughed it off. “Yeah, like that.”

“We aren't going to go into detail about the lawsuits, but rest assured, those are happening,” Ocean told the camera. She tried to stand up tall, but winced and leaned on the couch more. “But, other than that, we're open to sharing our experiences.”

“We want to leave behind a little bit of ourselves for others to learn from,” Condtance said. “Maybe we can be someone to relate to for some people out there. Inspiration for people who have also suffered a near-death experience.”

“This way, we don't fade away,” Noel chimed in. The others snickered.

“We're sort of like immortal jellyfish. Instead of dying, we've regenerated with a new life to live,” Penny said. She looked over at the others. “Immortal until proven mortal.”

Ricky hummed quietly, cocking his head in a sort of “the more you know” manner.

Noel laughed softly, looking down at her. “That was oddly wholesome.”

“Thank you.”

Ocean raised an eyebrow. “Why do you know so much of this kind of stuff?”

“So if you have any questions about us, our lives in Uranium, or the accident, ask us,” Misha said, moving past that jellyfish comment easily.

Ricky raised their hands, hesitating for a moment before signing a messy, ‘We look forward to your questions.’

Misha translated quickly, grinning at his friend.

Ricky added, ‘We can not wait to talk about death.’

Mischa translated again, and the others tensed up. He cleared his throat and looked at the camera. He stood up. “Yes, death too. You can ask about that. I think that is all we had to say right now.” Everyone nodded when he looked back to confirm. “Cool. We will start answers soon. Uhhh should we have outro?”

Constance shook her head. “We can figure one out later.”

“Cool.”

With that, Misha reached out, his good arm covering the camera before it shut off.

[icbiwf]

Countdown to Sunrise on the Reaping (SotR) book release.

What's the burning questions about Haymitch you hope is answered in this book?

What are your predictions about Katniss' family or ancestry in SotR?

Were you shocked about Haymitch's life story in the chapter preview that's been released?

Any other thought about SotR?

Thank you.

@curiousnonny

Oh boy @curiousnonny your questions always seem to elicit my unpopular buzzkill opinions.

As a general rule, I have very little interest in prequels. They always seem to make their universe smaller and less interesting (You thought that was a broad cultural inheritance of folk music? Nope! Those songs were all written by the same small group of people during the same short period of time!) and often include details that are too cute by half and throw me right out of the story (Reaping Day is July 4).

I have no burning questions about Haymitch. To me, anything new we learn about him will range from mildly interesting (details about his family/his girl) to annoying because they contradict what we already knew from the original books (I fear a large part of the Games will turn out like this). And some of what we learn will undoubtedly be too-cute-by-half winking-at-the-audience stuff that throws me right out of the story (Reaping Day is his birthday!).

As for Katniss's family, I genuinely hope they don't appear as anything more than background characters. Are her parents even dating yet? Contrary to a lot of YA fiction, not everyone meets their life partner by the age of 16. There's no reason to include her mother as anything more than the friend of Haymitch's district partner. How much attention did Peeta's friends get in the original books? As for her father...

Was there anything in the preview that was supposed to be shocking? Other than giving names to a couple of people, I don't think we learned anything new there. We knew he had a little brother. His mother does laundry - we've already seen Seam widows who support their family that way. Haymitch gathers stuff from the woods - Katniss said it wasn't uncommon for people to do this, but that most of them stayed within sight of the fence. What was uncommon was her and Gale trekking deeper into the wilds. What was unusual was that they had weapons to use out there, both to feed themselves and to defend themselves.

I hope they don't have Haymitch out there hunting like Katniss. I hope him going out to the woods isn't a vehicle to introduce him being friends with Katniss's father (or Gale's father, for that matter). That would basically hit the trifecta of things I dislike about prequels: It makes the world smaller (all our important characters just happen to be friends! What a co-inky-dink!). It is very likely to be done in a too-cute-by-half kind of way ("You should teach your children all your hunting skills in case they're reaped."). And it would contradict stuff we already know from the original books (if Haymitch had been friends with Katniss's father, I feel like that would have come up at some point over three books. Especially when Haymitch started visiting Katniss's house in the victors village and being around her mother).

It's weird to me that I feel like I'm being Debbie Downer here, when the source materiel we're talking about is already about child murder.

Incidentally, given how much I used the clunky phrase "in the original books" in this answer, are we okay with referring to THG, CF, and MJ as the OT yet? I know that phrase has some baggage attached to it thanks to a different franchise, but we need some agreed-upon way to refer to the original three books.

[whatinthehale17]

Okay so, this is a bit of long shot but I'm planning on starting a fanmade project for TE. It's my favorite choices story and there's still so much you can do with it.

I'm currently figuring out how to use Ren'py right now and watching videos and what not to figure out how to do this. I'm pretty new to all this but I think it'd be a fun project.

I'm probably gonna do some of the writing like the plot and Shreya's route (best girl) and also as I said I'm figuring out the coding as well.

But I'm definitely gonna need some help on this. I know others have expressed interest in a 3rd book and now is your chance if you're willing to help. Again it's fanmade and we're not making money off of this, this is just for fun and you can bail at any time.

I'll be making a discord once I start to get some interest in this so the link will be up at some point but if you're interested, just comment saying you'd like to help and what you'll be able to provide for this project.

Co-runner- I'm gonna need someone to help me run this project, help me keep the thing running and I'm a bit of an idiot so I'll be coming to you if I need help with anything. You'll be the Atlas to my MC lmao.

Artist- If you're a good drawer or you just love to draw and wanna help out on this project, we'd love to have you. I'm thinking we'll need some new characters for the plot and if you want, maybe some new backgrounds too (or we could just pick ones from the multiple backgrounds choices already has)

Writer- I'm a lesbian and obsessed with Shreya so I don't really have any idea about the other routes. But I know a lot of people are obsessed with like Beckett and the other love interests so anyone willing to help work on the different routes would be great. Not to mention the plot of the book, the adventures the pend pals could be getting into and side stuff like your relationship with your mom and the villains and such.

Coders- Like any great game, we'd need people who can code or wanna try it out like I'm currently doing. I've always heard Ren'py is good for that stuff and that's what the ILW crew used and that's what I'm currently learning right now so if you wanna try it out or already know how, we'd appreciate the help.

And of course, if you just wanna help out, you can join and I'll figure something out for you to do. My work schedule is kind of whack right now so this week we probably won't be getting anything done unfortunately (maybe Thursday or Friday if I have people and what not) but hopefully the week after, i'll have things figured out.

Last but not least, my idea for how I think the plot should go-

The gang is back for their next year of school

MC, Shreya, Zeph, Beckett- Juniors

Griffin- Senior

Aster, Atlas- Sophomores

But just like always, the school year is never simple for them.

The High Attuned has been watching over the school and visiting more frequently, keeping an eye on you and Atlas.

Zeph is having trouble with Thief captain as much as he hates to admit it.

Griffin is having parent troubles after they found out about his interest in Natural disaster field work instead of being a professional Thief player.

Shreya has hired an assistant to help with Serene and Sublime, though the assistant keeps messing things up and causing Shreya to lose customers, important ones at that.

With Beckett's urge to please his professors, he works himself too much to the point he begins to experience burnout and freaks out over the smallest things resulting in him pushing his friends away.

Aster is having trouble running the shop and keeping up with her studies and she's worried she might have to close it down.

Atlas is happy to catch up on lost time with their mom but when their mom becomes a professor for the school, Atlas isn't exactly sure how to feel about it and starts to lash out on Theia, resulting in the MC to have to try and fix the relationship.

MC does their best to help everyone with their problems but begins to have problems of their own when the school recruits another sun-att who does everything in their power to one up MC in every way.

Of course, it's just a rough draft of how I think the year should go, but we could always change stuff around if people have better ideas. Also, of course, there will be new spells to learn like in the other books and I was also thinking like...was I the only one that shipped Dean Swan and Theia together? Like Dean Swan already acts like a mother figure to the twins. And some of the sources will be back like Gemma and I really wanted to incorporate the High Attuned because we got like two minutes of information about them and then nothing ever again.

So yeah, this is super long and we can talk more on the discord but if you're interested just tell me what you wanna do.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-06-03

Finicky little situations

Listening: I had a hankering for some Clark Powell and went looking through her Bandcamp, and listened to Labyrinth's Heart

This album is really interesting, in that a lot of it ends up in the Psycholonials soundtrack, almost all of it really. Forgotten is the basis for the interstitial chapter music and finale track, Misbegotten has the foundations for one of my favourites, Outlaw.

Clark's more recent stuff is this extremely chill pop-y sounding music, and through association with Psycholonials it is perfect hot summer day background music.

Oh also. Finished S4 of The Magnus Archives. Bold way to end the season, just blam hey hello we're ending the world. See you on the flipside!

I will say that I do not really get where John/Martin is really meant to go, and I know people did not like the last season that much, but I have found it pretty good. It is getting a little too close to exiting the Monster Of The Week mode that I prize so much, but it's still there.

Watching: DeviantOllam's extremely good long talk on fire safety code, ostensibly in the context of using it as a cover for breaking in to buildings but it is honestly mostly just a chance for a bunch of nerds to learn about extremely specialized tools and get more niche facts about the built environment. This is that four hour disney star wars talk for people who have NFC card reprogrammers.

DeviantOllam does some really great talks on a lot on physical security but is also just, very good at talking, he delivers things in a way that gets you invested in it even if you had no idea you would care.

Reading: A little shy of halfway through The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman, the second book in the new trilogy The Secret Commonwealth, which started with La Belle Sauvage. I read La Belle Sauvage a few years ago and had to go refresh on a synopsis.

Philip Pullman is a truly great writer, and now that he has killed god in this universe he can focus on more interesting things, like philosophy of the soul when some (or potentially all) of your soul is also a kitty cat.

Jumping us forward to 20-year old Lyra is a bit of an adjustment. You get so used to thinking over her as the very specific like 12 year old that she is throughout His Dark Materials. She says fuck now! It's also exceedingly funny that she appears to have fallen in with The Rationalists in a world with witches and magic. I guess spoilers?

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Every now and again I remember how impossibly heartbreaking the end of Amber Spyglass is and I'm like holy shit he really did that to his readers. I think it took me about a week to pick up a different book after I finished that.

Playing: Beat dark souls! More extensive talk about that in the #dark souls tag.

The story is of course homeopathic. Like Pyre, the game takes place after all the interesting stuff, but unlike Pyre, there isn't really a strong core of characters to watch through the aftermath. I'm not entirely clear why we were trying to link the flame, other than that the guy in the Asylum told us it was a legend.

Ultimately, unimportant, the gameplay is mostly great! The final bosses are a little weird, they feel weak and their areas all feel like they're missing something, but I quite liked Nito and the Four Kings, and Seath was mostly fine. Hey wait, the furtive pygmy! I forgot about the furtive pygmy, just like they said! Nevermind fuck everything I just said, best game in history.

I will go back and try to NG+, also some people mentioned the DLC which I have no idea how to access, but I will look that up probably. It sounds like there's some good bosses in there.

The combat really is fun, although I maintain that there are lot of combat issues that are really more like UI issues than actual game design issues, things like the parry mechanic being so fiddly and the upgrade system being inscrutable.

Making: LuaLED has me in a hole because I have to do Web Shit and I do not know how to do Web Shit. This is a me issue not a Web issue, I just never really put the time into learning more than the basics of HTML and HTTP.

Tools and Equipment: aerc is a simple email client for the terminal.

I have used various Mail clients over the years and I always find myself gravitating back towards just using whatever web client my provider has because I don't give a shit and I don't get that many emails, but I have recently wanted to handle my work emails from the terminal for reasons, and I tried out aerc. I've previously used Mutt but setting up Mutt is a huge pain in the ass and it has one billion controls that mean nothing if you're not doing mailbox stuff, because it's from ten thousand years ago.

aerc is stripped down and optimized for a few specific use cases, one of the big ones being "handling emailed git patches" which I don't do much but do do sometimes. It's also a pretty nice general text mail client, it's easy to set up and it lets you get into using it very easily.

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

hi miss L, i have a spiritual/religious question and i don't know anyone else who could answer it.... since i was a kid i've been attracted to tarot, spirituality, mystical explanations of the worlds workings, astrology, all that good stuff. i never used to connect my spirituality to a single higher power, and i never had any issues with this. for a few years i've been wanting more than just a disturbingly accurate tarot spread and i feel compelled towards god. i'm not sure how to word it honestly! i keep getting messages all around me telling me the saint that watches over me, and that god is there too. so here's my issue.

whenever i reach out and pray or do any kind of ritual or reach out specifically to god or a saint, my life immediately starts going haywire. yesterday i set up a small shrine in my room for my dead kitty since i've been feeling better about her passing and i prayed a little. i asked for sign that i was going in the right direction, and hours after i prayed, our sink plumbing got clogged, my cat (living) ran out and had to be caught, my mom dropped a whole bowl of food, and i wasn't able to pick up groceries bc the bank cards wouldnt work. this never happens in my household, we've been joking that we're cursed. this happens everytime i try to reach out to god. the worst time was when my mom lost her job, dad crashed his car, and i kept having panic attacks out of the blue for a week. i freaked out and took everything i said back and bathed in salt water for hours hoping i could cleanse whatever happened to me. it worked and my life was back to normal the next day.

do you have any advice? i would love to put my trust in a higher power as i've never been religious before, but smthn is going wrong somehow.

thank you for reading, i love seeing you on the dash and your music is so soothing and nostalgic. much love!! <3 <3 <3 <3

so sweet, and caring, thankyou u//u...im sorry things have been difficult :< The following message does not in any way endorse the claim that i understand God, that God could ever be understood, or that any one of us should every try to understand the -inner workings- of God ! purely my feelings v v v

i relate to ur background cus i grew up w no religion, my parents didnt talk about any kind of woo-woo stuff, my dads dad was woo-woo AF and my dad haaaaated it so he rejected all of it so i was pree much just a blank slate. but for some reason i was just REALLY obsessed w magical thinking and the like. believed in god spirits nature deities angels demons magic aliens and i was totaly engrossed in ~my secret world~. i was kinda scared of religion tho i viewed it in a bad light since i was learning about it during the george bush post-9/11 era & for some reason my child self was rly interested in consuming critique of america , iraq war / westboro baptist church type stuff , from an outsider's perspective i saw religion as something american people used as justification for committing atrocities & crazy power trips , which, i mean.. anyways

it didnt help me trust God xD but many of my beliefs remained into my teens i just didnt have any outlet for them. so i got into astrology around 15/16, started learning more about tarot & occultish type things, crytstals, all those subjects intrigued me very much. but i felt the same way as you, like, something was still lacking from it, even when i got these super profound tarot readings, or read my birth chart a million times over looking for clues about ~wtf is this stupid life for~ , i never felt safe. never felt assured, never felt i could trust myself or my future. it was an odd period, early 20s. but then kinda same as u, as my knowledge on these topics expanded i started to notice the quality of Holiness a lot more. the more i learned about different religions the more i realized how connected it all was, and how religion connects to "the occult", and magic, light and dark, i find it very hard to put into words. i just started to find myself actually really earnestly believing in God in a way i never thought i could? Like reading the bible & being completely enthralled, i NEVER woulda thought. i started to feel way safer in the world even tho im still not "christian" technicaly. but i believe in jesus now and it makes me feel safe on a cellular level.

i believe the real jesus was wholly non judgemental and loved everyone no matter what, the thing that susses me out about Religious Institutions was always the judgement that can spawn from it. misses the point of everrything in my opinion.

its kinda wild actually cus when i used to be into like, trash reality tv ghost hunting shows, i remember there was one ep where this psychic was talking about how she always prays to jesus for protection before doing a reading or entering a haunted place. that really intrigued me cus i thought jesus and psychic automatically cancelled each other out. i think that moment rly opened up the rabbitehole and it was so mundane like wtf. still rememebr it tho!

sorry im really in a typing mood tonight.. So my next point was gonna be that, just because i started to really believe in god and jesus and really PRAY for protection & guidance, my life did not get easier xD like i would say the past 6 years have been nothing short of a shit show. my life was fucked before that too tho so its hard to compare, but still, its safe to say my shift in perspective actually brought a lot of chaos into mylife. the point of it, i feel, is that i had to dismantle it in order to truly Live in the frequency of trusting God. because this was new to me! i wanted to trust God, i put out the energy of seeking God, and God was like ok hold on tight..

So now i'm here all these years later like, oh yeah God is real and i love him and it's all real. it's CEMENTED into me lol. When i used to say i trust God it still felt like i was asking permission to be able to feel that way. but now i really really do. And messed up stuff will keep happening forever because there needs to be light & dark, there can't b one without the other. But now i have faith in a really personal way that i wld never attempt to transfer onto another like even by talking about these experiences & concepts i still feel like i don't want to prove anything. except that it's worth it to keep trying, i guess :]

and OK this is really just how i feel like take it with a grain of salt , but from what i've gathered, if you believe in energy entities & astral happenings & whatnot, well. it's my opinion that the invisible low frequency parasites that feed on many ppl's dread & fear, when they're attached to u and u begin to raise your vibration, they get very upset and throw a fit. like think of a demon being exorcised, u know, u imagine it having a total fit in a desperate fight for it's life. if ur appeasing the demon and letting it use you then of course it's going to keep things on an even keel, u kno?

taking a salt bath was a good thing to do tho like one of the best things <3 its also good to have crosses or your holy item of choice around the house, light white candles, organize clutter. pray a lot like every time u feel happy and safe or notice something beautiful say thanku to God.. talk to your angels and encourage them i pray a lot specifically to strengthen them, upgrade their armor n shih...i ask them to work for my loved ones, i try to be concentrated on them, visualize them around me all the time, visualize them standing guard outside every door. i feel this kinda stuff increases ur Holy EXP and over time your spiritual armor gets stronger, bad entities move on and things in life start really flow. the trust just has to b there first, and it will be, so long as u allow it <3

it just takes time, and like i said i dont want to prove anything or be The Convincer, but if u were already having feelings to go down this path i recommend not giving up and let God carry u through those tough situations instead of seeing them as an absence of God or God's Wrath. just keep praying cus it can't hurt right, even if it's just a way to occupy your mind with kind thoughts about your friends and family, there's no downside to prayer. its your own journey so u just gotta live it and feel it out ^^ but pls dont feel u are being punished by God or demons or anything else! So many "bad" things that happen end up being neutral or even "good" in the long run. We can never foresee the reasoning behind God's plan ~~~

yeah, this was a long one, wow...i drank a energy drink 12 hours ago i think it made me hyper.. well have a swell evening if ur reading this anon!! o also i liek to listen to psalms before bed to help me feel calm i feel like it helps bring in angels. i think i will do so now, thanks for the Q i hope things improve for u very soon. Good night anon < 3 3 3 PMD 9

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Kidnap The Sandy Claws

This video (a Halloween release in 2020) is not one I watch a whole lot. Don't get me wrong, the arrangement is of course amazing, and both the song and video are very fun, but, well, lemme just say that I can promise that there will be no simping/fawning over Geoff in this one! 😅

*Long, deep sigh* Alright let's get into this!

The bathtub made a lot more sense after I actually watched The Nightmare Before Christmas last year ngl (and apparently the reason they did this video sitting down like so was because Rachel was in fact Quite Pregnant during this)

Apparently this was filmed at some location (studios?) called 1010 West, where they also filmed their Superstition video earlier in the month.

(Okay but seriously I can definitely appreciate the thought and effort that went into set design here, like the big black face in the background representing the tunnel in and out of Oogie Boogie's lair!)

We're getting introductory title card things again, like in the Moana Medley, Get Back Up Again, and the Queen Medley! (Though the latter just said their character name)

Great masks, I'm assuming they bought from somewhere?

Layne Stein as Dr Finkelstein 😉 (the "mad scientist" kind of character type kinda suits him ngl)

And Geoff as Mr Hyde...

I can't fault him exactly for his get-up (see the first pic for a better visual), because that's literally what the Mr Hyde character in the movie looks like, see below

The red lips, the green skin, the top hat, everything, but like... why him? Did Layne decide on the characters for everyone?

But anyway, that's out of my system now. I'm not actually criticising, it's just...unusual? 😅 (Also this is the third time in just over a roughly 12-month period that Geoff has had a full face of makeup/paint for a Voiceplay video!)

But with that being said, I love the makeup for Eli, Rachel, and J in this video (shoutout to Rick Underwood and Steven Puerta!). They got the designs on point, but even more vibrant! See comparison image below:

(Yeah Voiceplay went heavy on the saturation for this video, not that I'm actually criticising)

Rachel's acting is as brilliant as ever, and I love her whole look. Style icon!

That (fake) praying-mantis-looking thing is in fact a genuine reference to/moment from the movie, so I learned.

Firstly, I love that Eli, Rachel, and J are wearing shoes that match their outfits, and secondly, I can tell that I haven't watched this video a ton (and haven't paid a lot of attention to Geoff when I have) because for some reason I remembered his outfit being a lot more black (and in all due fairness, he does wear black a lot in videos), but actually he's wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt I believe, plus some weird baggy vest thing that looks like it might have been made or altered for the purpose of this video. Also that's probably his actual hair? Hard to say, it looks a little lighter and shinier than usual, but that could be due to the lighting and/or having some sort of colouration product in it.

(Also Geoff and Layne look just a little extra big compared to the other three in this shot. It may be at just partially just some perspective/camera trickery (though they are of course the two tallest of the group))

First of all, love the facial expressions, and second of all, Oogie Boogie here is played by Tony Wakim, aka Voiceplay's previous baritone before J joined the group! He now co-owns PattyCake Productions with Layne, and helps out behind-the-scenes with some of the videos, especially in regards to stuff like providing filming spaces, setpieces, and costuming!

Eli: "because Mr Oogie Boogie is the meanest guy around!"

(followed by a sudden cut to Geoff 😉)

Not going to post a screencap of the Mr Hyde's Hat thing, but basically when I saw that moment in the original movie I was like "OHHHHHH I get it now!"

Eli/Lock is looking suspicious, Rachel/Shock is trying to look like a perfectly adorable angel, and J/Barrel is looking like he is Planning Mischief 😁

"We do our best to please him, and stay on his good side!"

(Ngl I do the same thing as Eli when singing this part of the song 😝)

"SHUT UP!

Love Eli's grumpy face here (even funnier when he's still vocalising while looking grumpy!)

Are those fake teeth or did Layne literally colour some of his teeth black for this?

Also I know this video came first but Layne with the wooden spoon is definitely reminding me of the video for Drunken Sailor for last year (see my profile picture!)

Rachel and J doing chopping motions during the "chop him into bits" part

Also it's very blink-and-you-miss-it (especially when again, you're not actually looking in his direction for a lot of the video), but a comment on a reaction video pointed out that when Geoff sings "Mr Oogie Boogie is...", he freaking winks! Which is of course a cheeky reference to the fact that a little over a year earlier, Geoff was Mr Oogie Boogie (and he kinda sorta reprised the role in December 2023 for the Jingle Bell Rock video, though full-body costume for that one).

The shoulder movement that Geoff does when he hits a subharmonic on "kicks", like even his self-conducting movements are a extra creepy/character-y for this video! 😅

Genuinely not sure whether Layne nearly falling over on his seat/stool thing was deliberate or a "nobody broke character so might as well leave it in there" moment 😂

Well, Voiceplay aren't called The Theatre Kids Of Acapella for nothing! And also their arrangements and vocal performances are so good that you can honestly forget sometimes that their songs don't use instruments! They basically don't need them!

But anyway, this is the last Nightmare Before Christmas song I will be talking about until I eventually get around to talking about Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament (which might take a while, but boy am I looking forward to it!).

[ask-the-splitmind-au]

Random Q&A with the Artist!

I really wanted to answer some questions I figure are probably floating around but go unasked due to them being not super related to the silly sluggies. So, here's some Q&A about my designs and the lore!

Alternative title, 'Angel wants to talk about stuff nobody is going to ask her because it only matters to her'

Q: Why does all your art have the tan background?

A: It's a soft background to help prevent eyestrain when I'm working on answering asks. Since I screenshot answers instead of saving them as an image, it's just easier to let the background be a soft color than change it back and forth every time.

Asks with Moon don't get the background itself changed, but I just put a box of dark gray behind the doodle.

Q: Why do you screenshot instead of saving the image?

A: While saving the image could get me transparent versions, since all asks are given small doodles, having one big canvas where I draw them small and then screenshot just them makes it easier. I also keep previous asks stored on different layers in case I need to drag them out for whatever reason!

Q: Why does Saint have a tamed lizard, and why is a Strawberry?

A: Originally, Saint didn't have any lizards! But, as I was readying his post, I got the idea suggested by my brother when we were playing Rain World and thought it would be really cute to have. Pacifist is a Strawberry because 1) it makes sense and 2) batflies were the only thing Splitmind Saint could reliably catch to tame anything with.

Also, a fun fact! Paci was tamed before Saint ever met Sliver, and she chose to risk their life by staying with her fluffy slugcat friend. Paci also had a brother named Geegee/GG, short for Gentle Giant, who was tamed before Sliver and her grubby ascension mitts got him.

Q: Do any other slugcats have non-sluggie friends? (Lizard, Vulture, Scavenger, etc)

A: Yes! Obviously Saint has Pacifist, but a few others have some. Ranger has a scavenger friend he sometimes visits named Acrid, and has a tamed pink lizard named Gumdrop. Arti helps carry Gumdrop places she can't normally reach. Gourmand has several scavengers he's on good terms with, but more concernedly, the slugcat colony as a whole (but mostly Gourmand) has a communally tamed Red Lizard named Crimson. Sadly, Crimson's back at the colony, and will not be appearing in the near future.

Q: Will the other slugcats (Monk, Survivor, etc) ever be available for asks?

A: Probably not. This is already a lot for me to answer, and Inv being added on as kind of an extra was a fun accident. I don't plan on letting it happen again, but with where I plan to take this blog as a story, they might show up again!

Everyone asks are the bane of my existence.

Q: Where are all the slugcats at when we ask them?

A: So! The scugerators are all gathered about half a dozen cycles' walk from the slugcat colony Gourmand leads. Gourmand is actually planning something very special about this.

I may have prepared a comic/story thing that we're getting to, very soon! It will probably be written out.

Q: How tired are you?

A: Very.

Q: How many asks are in your inbox right now?

A: 43 Splitmind asks. Yeowch.

Q: Why have asks been so slow lately?

A: The short answer is life. The long answer is that my phone is broken and I can't reliably draw on it anymore, so I'm learning my drawing tablet for Splitmind asks still. Additionally, I don't want to answer any asks until i can get the Sliver arc finished. Also, with school in session, it's harder for me to find time, and for the past week or so my cat has been fighting a losing battle against cancer. I spend most of my free time with him.

I'm almost there! Brace yourselves for some fluffy angst with Sliver and Suns!

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: You Make My Heart Explode (21x05)

Teddy and Owen are so annoyyyyyingggg...

Cons:

I'm sad for no Yasuda this week because I know we're losing her soon. I wonder if we're just phasing her out right now with not much more content to follow. It's a bummer.

Lucas and Simone have a romantic moment in this episode and while nothing was super annoying about their scene, I do just want to lodge my familiar statement that they bore me. Just so that's on the record.

Owen and Teddy are not fun to watch. In one sense they are realistically like an old married couple, but only in all the worst ways. Owen is such a whiner, and Teddy is so rude to him, and they both rather unprofessionally let it carry over into their working relationship, and then Richard has to do a Wise Old Man routine and talk to Teddy about it, and Owen has to remember how to be romantic and connect with her so they don't have to schedule sex... it's just so tedious. Better, I suppose, than the kind of melodrama that makes me hate the characters with a fiery passion, but worse than if they'd just fade quietly into the background and walk off of the show while nobody's watching. I can't believe these are the characters that are sticking around, and not Schmitt and Yasuda.

Pros:

I really liked Schmitt and Adams's dramatic helicopter adventure with their young patient! I felt some real tension for them and then felt the corresponding relief when they made it back safe. Amelia making eye contact with Lucas was a nice little touch, checking in subtly on her family... I also loved that Monica gave Levi the validation that he does belong in pediatrics and that she does believe he can be good at it. Schmitt is a lesson in how making a bad first impression doesn't mean you can't ultimately be really successful and find your place in the world. He takes a little longer to figure things out, but he always gets there in the end!

I was right about his love interest dude, too. Turns out, not a cheating thing. A dead husband thing. The comedy of Jo and Levi hiding in Jo's car from their problems as their men accost them from the outside was really funny, but I'm glad they didn't drag things out any more than that. Levi knows the truth now and they can proceed from there. I loved the line about how this is all really new for him, dating after being widowed... it puts Levi in a position to be the one trying to make someone else feel comfortable and safe, which I thing will be good for him!

Jo and Link are never going to be my favorite thing in the world, but I did at least like that they addressed the tension and fear they felt about the pregnancy in the way that they did. Link's fix-it attitude is his own way of coping with his fear, and it clashes with the way Jo needs to emotionally process. That seems like a very realistic conflict for them to be facing!

Blue ends up being an advocate for a member of the janitorial staff who has a serious health condition and can't afford treatment. I like stories about Kwan giving a shit, even though it's not like it's some big secret that he has a soft heart underneath all the attitude. I have a feeling that this will be a story-line that carries through the season, which is something Grey's has gotten better and better about doing in recent seasons - we learn that the hospital administrators want to help this guy get the treatment he needs, but the timetable might prove an issue, as the man has a son with special needs who can't be left on his own. I'd love to see Blue continue to problem solve on this and learn to be a better doctor and person through the experience.

I'm sure I've missed stuff here and there - Ben seems to be settling in just fine, Bailey is still a little anxious about it, the interns are all exhausted picking up Yasuda's shifts, but they're hanging in there. We finally saw potential movement on the Amelia/Monica front, but not a lot of development. Maybe we'll get a Meredith check-in soon? We'll find out soon enough!

7/10