#and the thing about that map is that depending on which team you were on your clothes would get like a tint of your team color

[wandixx]

I'm not much for naming things but: Danny's associated with green and M'gann's a White Martian, so... Spearmint (like the green and white mint candies)? Just a thought.

Prompt: Magic removed Amity Park from the map. JL didn't notice, but in an Alderaan type moment (Star Wars ref. yay!) The martian on Watchtower monitoring duty heard the residents get silent unanimously.

Of course they need to be investigated! So M'gann gets her watch partner to take over and flies there, discovering an odd green rift of death energy doing a black hole effect and it sucks her in. Danny gets landed on/ flown into when she tumbles through the rift. She tried getting a message through to JL when she felt herself getting sucked in, but the message was not received due to ectoplasmic interference.

So Danny has to figure out how to get her AND Amity Park back home!

(Just a thought. I'm curious how you flesh it out if you do!)

This is such an interesting idea, and it definitely deserves much more story than I can write in single prompt, so this here is just a beginning and I will continue. I hope it's up to your expectations

Also, I really love the Spearmint idea

*****

M’gann understood the importance of monitor duty in Watchtower, she really did. She also understood why they were taught it while still in this gray area between fully dependent sidekicks and fully independent heroes, that was the main reason the Young Justice Team even existed.

It didn’t make it any less boring. Even when she had a decent duty partner. Don't get her wrong, Green Arrow was a much better option than Batman or Superman, it was just awkward. At least he seemed equally done with it and didn't scold her for jumping between satellite cameras just a bit too fast to actually ‘monitor’ anything.

And it was only twenty minutes into the two hour shift.

One of the sixty (or so) screens, the one directly in front of her, blinked to the view of the American Midwest. She was about to skip further, when a sudden movement caught her attention. She clicked a few keys to review the footage and asked, still unsure if her eyes weren't deceiving her.

“Did the entire city… just disappear?“

Green Arrow nodded, equally stunned.

“I'm going to check this out” she spluttered, already flying out of the room and doing her best to get Zeta to send her as close as possible. It was a bit tricky when she couldn't see the keyboard. She managed though, so before the adult hero even finished yelling that it was above her skill level, she was out.

From there, getting to the disappeared city was a piece of cake.

She stopped right in tracks when the thing came in view. M'gann had no idea how to describe it. It was a green and white and black storm but not, glass, see-through dome but not, deep space but also decidedly not. It made her want to run away but also come closer, almost like it was tugging at her. Like some pseudo, mental in nature, gravitation.

Oh, wait, no. It was an actual, physical force that after a quick test turned out to be inescapable for her.

Green Arrow, perhaps, maybe probably was kinda right. It was so high above her skill level that a balled napkin from this height would cause serious damage. Thank Batman for comms that she could use to call a backup!

The comms, that, of course, didn't work the one time she needed them.

She sent the message anyway, describing everything to the best of her ability, even though it was only a tip of the iceberg. Just in case, if the magical storm thing just made her comm one way communication only. It was highly unlikely, but who was she, if not an optimist.

She barely closed her mouth, when she was jerked sideways before the whole world became blurred.

She later would have a hard time telling anyone how it felt, to be inside the thing. She was basically powerless, thrown around randomly despite clearly keeping all of her abilities. She couldn't see, couldn't tell which way was up and down, couldn't change direction even a little bit. The rumble of the thing was so loud she couldn't hear her thoughts, throwing her brain so off the loop she forgot what her name was. She was crying probably, almost puking, her limbs hitting any and every part of her body.

At first, she didn't even realize she was out, so dazed from the ride. She didn't even see the flying boy until a while after she crashed into him, throwing them both off the sky. Neither of them caught them before they slammed into the ground. Somehow she ended up cushioning the boy's fall. M’gann couldn’t breathe for a moment. She kinda deserved it for ramming into him in the first place though.

By the time she could use her lungs and behave like a social creature again, the boy scrambled off her and just crouched, intensely staring, anxious and awestruck at the same time. She sat up and gave him once over herself.

He was around her physical age, but much skinnier than her or anybofnher teammates, build like a twig. He had fluffy, white, almost glowing hair, caucasian complexion, and wore a black and white jumpsuit with a tool belt. Big ‘P’ on his chest indicated he was someone from a hero/villain scene, and from general vibes she got, M’gann was leaning towards a hero. He was kinda cute. She coughed awkwardly when she realized how long they just sat in silence.

“Hi?”

Apparently it was enough to release an incoherent babbling from the boy.

“Hi, um… Miss Martian, ma'am? I'm Phantom. What are you doing here? Is the rest of your Team going to fall off the sky too? Justice League?”

“Not right now probably”

She was ignored. Phantom just kept panicking.

“Is this some of your villain's schemes? Are you alright? You crashed pretty hard, sorry I landed on top of you by the way, do you–?”

“I'm fine, don't worry I got worse”

“Sure…”

“Sorry I threw you off the sky”

“Not your fault, really, it's fi–”

“You asked what I'm doing here. I went on my own to investigate when I saw the city blink out of existence and got sucked in. I'm not sure if my report from site made it through, but they know where I went, so they'll soon come to help, don't worry”

Phantom did not stop worrying.

“Alright, cool, cool” he ran his hand through his hair, tugging at them “The Justice League knows you mysteriously disappeared along with an entire city. This is fine, totally fine, absolutely–”

“You're panicking”

“No shit Sherlock. Someone kidnapped my city again and I have no idea how to fix it because my usual tactic is ‘punch the cause of the problem into submission’ and this time I can't punch the storm. Now you're here so if something happens, I’ll have pissed of Justice League to worry about because, of course, it will be my fault. You could be overshadowed and I have no clue what's going on but I have to fix it as soon as–”

“Breathe Phantom“ she interrupted again, projecting what the Team called ‘calming vibes’. Since it didn't involve outright entering someone's brain and humans almost didn't react to it, it was an okay thing to do without asking even on non-villains. “Remember, I'm a hero, not a damsel in the distress you have to protect non stop”

“Of course, you're not. You're Miss Martian. You're amazing, but it doesn't give me any more of an idea on what's going on nor what to do with Justice League when they come, obviously furious because everyone in Amity and their mother will testify that it was somehow my fault, especially if–”

“Hey, hey, none of that. I know you're a good guy and they’ll too. I will vouch for you if for some reason they get misled”

Phantom looked her in the eyes as if he was trying to read her mind himself without even an ounce of psychic powers. She could tell if he used it.

“I could be a bad guy,” he said seriously after a moment of silence.

“I know you're not”

“You don't know me”

“You spent almost all of our interaction agonizing over how to save your city. It's not typical bad guy behavior”

“I could be acting”

M’gann didn't even dignify it with her response other than an incredulous stare.

“ Alright, if I've been acting, I would be a lot cooler but still… I could be acting!”

“I'm a literal psychic, remember? I didn't read your thoughts, don't worry, I know it's invasive for humans. But I got a general overview of who you are, and your vibes matched pretty well with the vibes of good guys”

“Sure, of course, why not,” he muttered, taking a moment to reboot “Why is this my life now?”

M’gann decided it wasn't to her and well… Phantom wasn't wrong, she didn't know him, so however she'd try to answer it was pretty much hit or miss. But from what she'd seen of him, she was curious to learn more.

“Nevermind, let's get you a Specter Deflector before anyone tries to use you as a meatsuit” he said, catching her wrist to drag her somewhere.

She let him lead her. He still didn’t have any nefarious reasoning, and hey! Maybe she'll finish this adventure with a new teammate!

[Sure M’gann. Just a teammate. Don't worry, Danny won't be a panicked mess all of the time here]

[ayeforscotland]

What is Dataflow?

This post is inspired by another post about the Crowd Strike IT disaster and a bunch of people being interested in what I mean by Dataflow. Dataflow is my absolute jam and I'm happy to answer as many questions as you like on it. I even put referential pictures in like I'm writing an article, what fun!

I'll probably split this into multiple parts because it'll be a huge post otherwise but here we go!

A Brief History

Our world is dependent on the flow of data. It exists in almost every aspect of our lives and has done so arguably for hundreds if not thousands of years.

At the end of the day, the flow of data is the flow of knowledge and information. Normally most of us refer to data in the context of computing technology (our phones, PCs, tablets etc) but, if we want to get historical about it, the invention of writing and the invention of the Printing Press were great leaps forward in how we increased the flow of information.

Modern Day IT exists for one reason - To support the flow of data.

Whether it's buying something at a shop, sitting staring at an excel sheet at work, or watching Netflix - All of the technology you interact with is to support the flow of data.

Understanding and managing the flow of data is as important to getting us to where we are right now as when we first learned to control and manage water to provide irrigation for early farming and settlement.

Engineering Rigor

When the majority of us turn on the tap to have a drink or take a shower, we expect water to come out. We trust that the water is clean, and we trust that our homes can receive a steady supply of water.

Most of us trust our central heating (insert boiler joke here) and the plugs/sockets in our homes to provide gas and electricity. The reason we trust all of these flows is because there's been rigorous engineering standards built up over decades and centuries.

For example, Scottish Water will understand every component part that makes up their water pipelines. Those pipes, valves, fitting etc will comply with a national, or in some cases international, standard. These companies have diagrams that clearly map all of this out, mostly because they have to legally but also because it also vital for disaster recovery and other compliance issues.

Modern IT

And this is where modern day IT has problems. I'm not saying that modern day tech is a pile of shit. We all have great phones, our PCs can play good games, but it's one thing to craft well-designed products and another thing entirely to think about they all work together.

Because that is what's happened over the past few decades of IT. Organisations have piled on the latest plug-and-play technology (Software or Hardware) and they've built up complex legacy systems that no one really knows how they all work together. They've lost track of how data flows across their organisation which makes the work of cybersecurity, disaster recovery, compliance and general business transformation teams a nightmare.

Some of these systems are entirely dependent on other systems to operate. But that dependency isn't documented. The vast majority of digital transformation projects fail because they get halfway through and realise they hadn't factored in a system that they thought was nothing but was vital to the organisation running.

And this isn't just for-profit organisations, this is the health services, this is national infrastructure, it's everyone.

There's not yet a single standard that says "This is how organisations should control, manage and govern their flows of data."

Why is that relevant to the companies that were affected by Crowd Strike? Would it have stopped it?

Maybe, maybe not. But considering the global impact, it doesn't look like many organisations were prepared for the possibility of a huge chunk of their IT infrastructure going down.

Understanding dataflows help with the preparation for events like this, so organisations can move to mitigate them, and also the recovery side when they do happen. Organisations need to understand which systems are a priority to get back operational and which can be left.

The problem I'm seeing from a lot of organisations at the moment is that they don't know which systems to recover first, and are losing money and reputation while they fight to get things back online. A lot of them are just winging it.

Conclusion of Part 1

Next time I can totally go into diagramming if any of you are interested in that.

How can any organisation actually map their dataflow and what things need to be considered to do so. It'll come across like common sense, but that's why an actual standard is so desperately needed!

[perfectsunlight]

summer bummer

𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝘅 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: 𝘀𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 𝟲,𝟴𝟰𝟵 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱: ✔

𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆: 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 - 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘆

being an intern at SM entertainment was a dream come true in itself. you never would have thought that you, as a foreigner, would even have the opportunity to be employed at such an organization. thankfully, you struck the jackpot, and landed a year-long internship position that would be eligible for renewal. 

SM operated like a colony of ants. different people had different roles, and even though some roles may be seen as more important, everyone was needed to help the company operate smoothly. without the idols, there was no SM entertainment. without the employees, there would be no SM entertainment. it was a mutual understanding that came with mutual respect as well.

you learned to respect the idols and their space. you made sure to bow every time, and sometimes even twice just because you couldn’t remember if you had the first time. your work mainly dealt with the production team, so naturally you came into contact with almost every idol signed under the company. 

however, with aespa having a comeback soon, you were told that you would have to work with them more often and more closely. you didn’t know much about the group other than their names and concept. you actually only met aeri once, and that was because she was the one who helped you find your way to the recording room on your first day. 

today you would be having your first meeting with the girls to discuss logistics and other things regarding the title track that you were tasked with producing. it was a big job, but the fact that SM trusted you enough to handle it just gave you the motivation to do your absolute best.

your fingers flipped through the pages of previously scrapped songs, doing your best to analyze the lyrics and what they were trying to portray that didn’t end up showing. you wanted the best for the girls, and you wanted to do your best because your job did depend on it. 

the door to the recording room suddenly opened, and you smiled at the sight of the 4 girls making their way inside. 

“hi y/n,” aeri flashed you a smile to which you mirrored. she stepped sideways before motioning towards her other members. “this is ningning,” she pointed at the brunette who waved. “and that’s karina and winter.” she finally pointed at the two girls whose hands were interlocked with each other.

you had heard about karina and winter being close, so it wasn’t a surprise once your co-worker spilled the beans and mentioned that they were dating. just from the first introduction, you could tell that the two had a very loving relationship.

minjeong and jimin’s relationship was the envy of many. even when they were just merely being shipped together, everyone wanted someone to look at them the way the two women looked at each other. their chemistry on and off the stage proved how much they loved each other. they were perfect for each other.

“it’s nice to meet you all, im excited to work with you and i hope we can create something amazing together.”

the meeting went on without any issues, and each of the girls had mentioned what they wanted in the upcoming title track. eventually, you managed to map out a set schedule for recording and writing. it was a highly productive meeting in your eyes. however, the entire time you could only focus on someone else’s pair. 

for some reason, karina couldn’t keep her eyes off of you. the idol felt drawn to you, even though she had just met you. periodically, winter would often graze her thumb over her hand. she didn’t notice it, really. her attention was entirely set on you. 

from the way your eyebrows furrowed, to the way your wrist twitched when you wrote, karina was analyzing every micro and macro detail about you. the meeting was about their group’s title track, but she would have much rather spent the time talking about you.

you had to be really good for SM to entrust the title track to you. she knew that you were new, but she didn’t think much of it until she walked into the room with you. she wanted to know everything about you.  jimin wanted to know just how special you were. 

by the time the next meeting had rolled around, the aespa members had all decided on their parts for a song you all decided to try experimenting with first. the order of recording went from youngest to oldest, with karina being the last to record. 

the other three had done just fine, not struggling much except for a few spots. surprisingly, the leader of the group seemed to really struggle with her parts. 

“you three can head back if you want, ill head home once im finished here.” jimin called out with her head poking out from the door. giselle and ning nodded and got their things to leave, but you could clearly see that winter was pouting and not wanting to leave without her girlfriend. 

jimin, being ever so attentive, made her way out of the booth and planted a soft kiss on the blonde’s head. “i’ll be home soon, i promise.” she whispered, watching the pout on minjeong’s lips disappear into a smile. 

once winter left with her other members, you were left alone with the aespa leader.

“i think you need to use more air in this part here,” you pointed to the lyric sheet in front of her while you gently tried to explain what she could do to improve. jimin’s eyes were trained on you the entire time, not on the paper. karina was an excellent vocalist, of course she knew what she needed to fix.

 as a matter of fact, she knew exactly how to read her lines. she just wanted–no, needed an excuse to be alone with you. 

“y/n,” 

your ears perked up at her voice, and you turned to face her fully with your head tilted slightly. the sight of your attentiveness to her made heat rush to her face. she prayed you wouldn’t be able to tell in the lighting of the booth. 

“yes?” you asked, a small smile on your face. “do you want me to show you how to do it?” you added, wanting to do anything to help the idol so she could do her best. 

before she could respond, you began singing the lines with ease. jimin swore she felt her entire nervous system stop working once her ears heard the sound of your voice.

if winter’s voice was like air, yours was like water. 

your voice alone could easily pass for one of an idol, and she didn’t notice it, but her jaw had dropped. you took note though, and simply flashed her your signature smile.

“you look like you’ve seen a ghost, karina.” 

a smile mirrored the idol’s lips as she felt the blush on her face heat up again. you were so adorable, and she couldn’t help but feel weak in the knees at the sound of her name rolling off your tongue. 

“jimin,” she said slowly, earning a look of confusion from you. she licked her lips before she continued speaking. “you can just call me jimin.” 

the two of you finished wrapping up her lines after what seemed like forever. it was dark outside, and jimin was starving. she could only imagine how hungry you had been, especially since you mentioned how you had been in the studio all day.

“hey y/n, lets go grab something to eat. it’s on me, consider it a thank you.” karina offered, earning a hesitant smile from you. you had heard that jimin was a kind woman, and practically the epitome of a disney princess, but to feel her kindness directed towards you made you feel shy all of a sudden.

“no need to thank me, jimin. i’m just doing my job.”

a scoff left the raven haired girl’s lips as she wrapped her arm around your shoulder. “come on, i’m not letting you leave just like that. you and i both need to eat, so let’s go.” she smiled down at you, and you couldn’t help but smile back and agree. 

besides, who couldn’t say no to her? after all, she was yu jimin. 

the two of you chatted away, getting to know each other better while you sat on the sidewalk in front of the dorms, eating takeout in the middle of the night. jimin was so caught up in her conversation with you that she didn’t realize how late it had been until you checked your phone and started apologizing. 

“thank you for tonight, jimin. i’m so sorry i didn’t see the time, i didn’t mean to keep you up.” you rambled, immediately scrambling to get your things to leave as soon as possible. 

the older girl stuck her hand out to hold your wrist, giving you the most genuine smile she had probably ever given. 

“i could talk to you for hours, y/n.”

your words got caught in your throat as you stared into her midnight eyes. jimin’s hair was down and undone, blowing softly in the night’s breeze. you would be lying if you said she still didn’t look gorgeous. she was a beautiful woman. you envied winter at that small moment for dating such a woman.

your recording sessions with aespa got more frequent, but your midnight dinners with karina seemed to be happening more often as well. you and jimin had gotten much, much closer. you considered her a good friend, but you two had yet to share any emotional moments. 

however, that all changed after one specific night.

it was technically not your day to record anything, but you found yourself in the studio playing around with a few new tracks. you wanted to potentially change something in the chorus of the title track, but you didn’t decide on anything yet. it was close to 1 in the morning, and you were just about to head home when the door to the room flung open.

you nearly fell out of your chair because it caught you so off guard, but what caught you even more off guard was the person who was standing in the doorway.

“jimin? are you okay?”

the idol closed the door behind her before she sat down on the couch with her head in her hands. she sniffled, and you didn’t bother pushing her to respond. instead, you simply moved over to sit on the couch with her and rub her back comfortingly.

“i didn’t know where else to go, im sorry.” she whispered softly, but from the hoarseness of her voice, you could tell she had definitely been crying. 

“you’re always welcome here, don't worry.” you hesitantly wrapped your arms around her shoulders, but you felt better once she visibly relaxed in your arms.

the two of you sat that way for a while, but the silence was comforting to jimin given the screaming match she just had mere hours ago.

“minjeong and i got into an argument,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. 

your head turned to face her, noticing her tear stained cheeks and the way her eyelashes were wet from crying. “do you want to talk about it?” 

jimin’s head hung and she shook her head, trying her best to keep herself composed somewhat. you nodded in understanding, respecting her decision and the underlying reasons for it.

 “is there anything else i can do for you?” you asked gently, removing your arms from her shoulders and letting them fall in your lap.

jimin turned to look at you, and for the first time that night, she managed to smile. “do you have any soju?”

around an hour had passed and you two were pretty tipsy to say the least. since the recording room was naturally soundproof, you two were able to laugh and talk freely as loud as you wanted. you were pretty sure you were on your second bottle at this point because you were starting to feel a bit more fuzzy than before.

you don’t remember how it happened or whose idea it was, but somehow you and jimin agreed to mess around on the vocal tracks. you just kept pressing the record button while she started singing “black mamba” but the “drunk version” as you two called it. 

karina insisted on you being apart of the song too, which was how you were hugging each other while screaming into the microphone. you couldn’t take her seriously though, and not even halfway through, you couldn’t stop laughing. 

“yah! y/n,” jimin laughed and rolled her eyes playfully. “you’re messing up the song! it has to be good.” she whined while shaking your shoulders. 

“sorry, but i can’t take you seriously when you’re yelling.” you reasoned, doing your best to not start laughing again. 

the aespa member groaned before leaning her head on your shoulder. “you’re lucky you’re cute.”

even in your drunken state, you knew you weren’t hearing things when her voice reached your ears. she had to mean it platonically, right? after all, she was with minjeong. she had a girlfriend. 

“you heard me, y/n.” karina whispered, leaning her head on your shoulder. it was as if she had read your own mind. “i think you’re cute.”

maybe it was the mix of the alcohol and emotions she was on, but jimin couldn’t help but say how she felt about you. relationship be damned, she couldn’t deny the way she felt about you. it was never her intention to fall for you, but she wasn’t going to stop. 

you don’t remember the rest of the conversation that followed, but what you do remember were bits and pieces of jimin kissing you against the wall, as well as some very vague images of her on top of you on the couch. 

still, you didn’t need the full recap to know what had happened between you two. it only made it worse once you had to see the girls again a few days after it had happened.

you couldn’t face minjeong properly, or even stare at her for longer than a few sentences. you felt immense regret, and even though it wasn’t just your fault, you couldn’t help but feel terrible for basically helping jimin cheat on her girlfriend.

thankfully, it seemed like karina and winter made up. however, you had a feeling that the younger girl didn’t know what happened between the two of you. and in all honesty, was it even your place to say anything either?

recording ended early, and you bid the members goodbye before turning to save everything you guys had worked on before hearing the door shut behind you. you nearly jumped out of your skin when you felt a pair of arms snake around your body. 

“hi,” jimin whispered, feeling her body relax against yours naturally. your head turned to face her, jaw agape and eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. was she still intoxicated somehow? 

the black haired girl couldn’t help but laugh at your visible confusion. “what’s wrong?” 

“what are you doing?” you hissed quietly, eyes quickly snapping towards the door as if minjeong or any other one of the members would walk in at any moment and witness the current situation.

“i missed you.” she whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to your temple. you would be lying to yourself if you said it didn’t give you tiny butterflies in your stomach. however, they were most definitely the bad kind of butterflies. 

“jimin,” you swallowed the lump in your throat. “we can’t do this, you have a girlfriend.”

karina’s dark eyes remained locked with yours, making you seem a bit uneasy at the way she started smiling after. “you’re so adorable, y/n/n.”

she cupped your face in between her hands, running her thumbs gently across your cheeks. she simply admired your confusion laced features, committing them to memory in case you would disappear right there on the spot. 

“do you know why minjeong and i got into an argument?”

you shook your head, recalling that jimin didn’t want to speak about what exactly went down between the two of them. 

jimin’s lip twitched into a wider smile before she leaned in closer to your face, your noses touching lightly.

 she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, “because i moaned your name and not hers.”

ice ran through your veins as you froze on the spot. jimin’s drunk actions were indeed sober thoughts. yu jimin, aespa’s karina, was infatuated with you, despite having her girlfriend. jimin wasn’t lying either. she and minjeong had been in the middle of a makeout session, but all the black haired girl could think about the entire time was how your lips would feel instead. as a result, she accidentally said your name, and the argument that followed was the reason for her running to your studio later that evening.

your silence caused the raven haired girl to grin even more. you didn’t know it yet, but you had been the object of her desires since the moment she met you. somehow, you had managed to make jimin fall so hard to the point where she could care less about her and minjeong. 

their years of history meant nothing to her anymore. sure, she cared about minjeong’s well being, but not in a romantic way anymore. she hadn’t cared about anything regarding her own relationship from the moment you introduced yourself to the group. the way you spoke, the way you sang, the way you wrote, the way you walked. every single detail that made you up, made her more impossibly infatuated. 

your sophistication was enough to make jimin want to leave winter, and as a matter of fact, she had already tried to. 

after the night she ran to the studio with you, she told her managers that she was going to break things off with minjeong. however, they refused to let her. she told them that she was in love with someone else, but despite her pleas and protests, they told her she had to stay with winter. it would be bad for publicity if they broke up, so she had to deal with loving you in secret for now.

your eyes met hers once more, and before you could process everything happening, she pressed her lips against yours. this time, a sober kiss, but she wanted to make sure you knew without a doubt that what she felt for you was real. 

her scent was intoxicating, and the way her chapstick tasted sent shivers down your spine. you knew you felt something towards the other girl as well, but unlike her, you had a guilty conscience about it. minjeong was someone you still admired too, and even though you weren’t too close, you still respected her as a person. 

you pulled away and jimin chased your lips, but stopped once she saw your flushed face. “what about minjeong?” you hesitantly asked, still trying to fully comprehend everything. 

“she’s not the one i want. don’t worry about her,” karina’s nails gently ran down your sides as she pressed her body against yours. “i want you, y/n. not her.”

she kissed your forehead, and you couldn’t help but feel conflicted. on one hand, you didn’t want to play any part of this messed up situation. jimin had feelings for you too, and you maybe had some for her as well, but she was in a relationship. you didn’t want to be that kind of person. 

however, on the other hand, you technically already had played a part in this mess. you and jimin crossed that line already, and you had crossed it together. there was no way you could go back now, so why stop now?

that latter was the logic you kept once things got more serious with karina. it had been over a month and a half since this all started, and truthfully, you still didn’t know how to feel.

you undid your shoelaces, taking your hightops off and setting them by the door before you made your way inside your apartment. the midday summer sun shone through your windows and illuminated the place with natural light.

you began rummaging through your mail, sorting what was important and what was not, until your phone began buzzing.

INCOMING CALL FROM: J <3 …

of course, you answered without hesitation.

“hi, princess.” 

your eyes rolled playfully at the nickname, but a smile formed on your lips. jimin always made you smile, even if she was being extra. “hi, stranger.”

a scoff escaped her lips, and you heard it clearly. “stranger? interesting.”

“when are you coming over?” you asked while you mindlessly threw out some of your junk mail. 

you heard her hum on the other end of the phone before she answered. “she thinks im going home tonight and spending the weekend with my parents, so i’ll see you later tonight once i take her out for dinner.”

at this point in your “relationship” there wasn’t much spoken about minjeong anymore. sure, you knew that she and jimin were still very much together, and that jimin had to make it seem like everything was fine.

except, sometimes it did hurt you a little. you were falling for the other girl in the process of all of this mess, so naturally it made you feel a little jealous whenever jimin would do things with minjeong. 

of course, you trusted the girl, but you also understood that minjeong was very much still her girlfriend regardless. 

a hum in approval was all you gave before speaking. “alright then, i'll see you later.” jimin heard your tone shift but before she could even mention anything about it, you heard the muffled voice of minjeong in the background.

“see you later.”

the call ended, but you knew how this went because it always happened like this. since it was summer, your sessions with the group were not as often since they were filming for their next season of synk road and fulfilling their ambassador duties.

this meant you didn’t see jimin as often as you wanted, but she still called and texted every day because she missed you. you knew she missed you, but for whatever reason, you seemed to feel more insecure about your alleged position in her heart. 

jimin was cheating on minjeong with you, but wasn’t jimin also technically cheating on you too? 

then again, it wasn’t like the two of you had established any formal relationship together. all that you two knew, and had mentioned, was that you shared mutual feelings for each other. nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

you decided to distract yourself by showering and turning on some tv. moonlight crept into your apartment, and as you sat on your couch in your (jimin’s) comfiest clothes, you couldn’t help but notice the sinking feeling in your stomach once each minute passed.

it was already half past nine, and still no sign of the other girl. your scowl only grew more, but there wasn’t much you could do except move in closer to your couch cushion and grumble to yourself. 

as if on cue, not even 10 minutes later, you heard jimin come through the door. she saw your curled up figure, and noticed your attention was on the TV. she was a little bummed that you weren’t seemingly excited to see her. usually, you would run to greet her, especially since she hadn't seen you for a few days. 

“jagiya?” 

karina set her bag down and made her way towards the couch. you were still feeling a bit upset, and she knew something was wrong with your lack of energy, but she didn’t know why. the older girl moved to sit next to you and wrapped her arms around your torso. 

“hi.” you mumbled, keeping your eyes trained on the screen in front of you. 

a small frown etched onto the idol’s face, and she couldn’t help but feel worried about your behavior even more. “what’s wrong, baby?” she leaned down to press a kiss to your lips.

“nothing.” you muttered, but jimin’s frown only deepened once you turned your head and she only managed to kiss your cheek. she whimpered, looking like a kicked puppy at your sudden cold shoulder. jimin didn’t like it, and she didn’t like how you also weren’t telling her why you were acting this way. 

“did i do something wrong?” 

your silence was deafening, and if it wasn’t for the ambience of the random TV show playing, it would have been much more quiet. you didn’t want to potentially argue with karina, but you also were dying to have some sort of reassurance from the idol.

“what are we, jimin?”

the dark haired girl’s head snapped up and her eyes widened a little. she wasn’t expecting to have this conversation with you. maybe with minjeong, but definitely not with you.

“i don’t know what this is, or if this is just some game for you.” you added, fiddling with your fingers while you tried your best to be honest with her.

you were the only person jimin cared about in the world. had she not done a good enough job of showing you that? obviously she hadn’t, considering you were feeling insecure about yourself in the moment. she used her hand to cup your face, turning it to face her entirely. she scanned your face, concern etched into every feature.

 “you’re the love of my life, y/n.”

your gaze softened at her honesty, and part of you felt guilty for even doubting her feelings for you. karina took your softened gaze as an opportunity to continue speaking.

“from the moment i laid my eyes on you, i knew you were special. i knew i needed to have you. everything i feel for you, its real.”

to be honest, this was the most you two had talked about your feelings since her confession. and it did reassure you somewhat, but you had one important thing to get off of your chest.

“what about minjeong?”

jimin’s gaze never faltered, she simply pulled you into her lap and wrapped her arms around your back and waist. she leaned down to press her lips to your temple, and you instantly relaxed under her soft touch. 

“i feel nothing for her. every single time she kisses me, its only you i see. whenever she tells me she loves me, i can only say it back if i pretend its you. as a matter of fact,” she ran her hands up your shirt and caressed your back with her fingertips. the action combined with her sweet words sent shivers down your spine. “i was late tonight because i was arguing with my managers again. i tried to break it off again, like i always do. i’m always fighting for you, for us.”

the power you held over her was beyond her, and you had no idea what it was doing to the young idol. she was entirely in the palm of your hand, and you could do as you wished with her.

“what do you want me to do, baby? tell me, and i’ll do it.” the idol’s lips met your neck as she left the softest and lightest pecks at its base. truth be told, karina would do anything for you. if you told her to jump, she would say how high. if you said to run, she would ask how far. 

“you don’t have to do anything, jimin.” you whispered, not noticing the pout that formed on her lips. 

she stared up at you with her darkened eyes, “no. my baby doesn’t understand how much i care about her, so i  need to do something.”

“there’s nothing that can be done about it.” you said softly, pulling your neck away from her lips. the action made her face fall, but she was able to connect the dots and figured out immediately what the issue at hand was.

jimin’s hands moved to gently, but firmly, hold your waist. “look at me, y/n.” she quietly demanded, and you complied, of course. you would always do whatever she wanted, that was no question.

her gaze never left yours as she spoke, sending a flush to your face in the process. “i love you.”

karina’s lips kissed your forehead, then your cheek, and then the tip of your nose. the realization of her statement made your stomach flutter. you two had never said the words to each other; this was the first time you had heard her say it.

“i only love you, y/n.” 

she repeated herself, emphasizing each syllable as she pulled you in closer to her. she scanned your face for any sign of a reaction. her revelation was something she had always known herself, but she figured that by finally saying it out loud to you it may give you reassurance.

you wrapped your arms around her neck and pressed your lips against hers. jimin reciprocated immediately, letting a sigh escape from her mouth as she melted against you. you were her only true weakness, but also her only true strength. it was a beautiful balance; one that she was hell bent on keeping.

once you pulled away, your foreheads rested against each other. the two of you remained like that for a moment, simply relishing in the intimate moment. karina loved you, and you now knew that without the shadow of a doubt. despite her history with minjeong, she was so certain of her feelings for you. she had told you countless times how winter was not the one she had feelings for, and that it was only ever you.

for her it was always, and only ever going to be, you. for you, it was always, and only ever going to be, her. 

“i love you too, jimin.”

from that moment on, your relationship was more established. you two both knew that you were only each others, despite what the media thought. your relationship had to be secret, especially since minjeong or her other members didn’t know. however, despite keeping everyone in the dark, you two felt no regrets whatsoever.

especially in situations like now, when you two were making out in the practice room that her members had been in just mere minutes before. 

jimin was on top of you again, a sight that you saw often, but you would never get tired of it either. your back pressed into the wooden floor beneath you, which was freezing earlier, but since jimin pounced on you the moment you came through the door, your body felt anything but cold.

the idol’s hands dug into your waist, making you moan into her mouth. your secret lover grinned into the kiss, relishing in the effect she had on you. jimin was in the palm of your hand, but you were equally in hers as well. 

the two of you halted your movements once you heard footsteps echoing down the hall. however, jimin didn’t care about getting caught. she just didn’t want someone interrupting you two right now.

“shh,” she whispered against your lips, pecking them once more before she pulled herself off of you. she still hovered over your frame, but her body wasn’t pressed against yours. her midnight hues scanned your face, something she always had a habit of doing. she loved memorizing your features and committing them to her memory. you were a masterpiece, a true work of art. how could she not admire you?

“beautiful.” 

jimin’s hands intertwined with yours, her lips meeting your knuckles in a sweet gesture. a shade of crimson flushed your face. even after all this time, her compliments seemed to always have the same effect on you. 

“says the idol on top of me.” you replied, chest still slightly heaving as you attempted to catch your breath. you never fully understood how someone like her feel completely in love with you. especially since her relationship with her band member was seen as the epitome of every relationship. however, you never thought too long about it, especially when your lover was always so quick to reassure you. 

the mentioned idol leaned down and kissed your lips once more, slowly but firmly. she was insatiable, naturally. but she couldn’t help herself. you were practically the definition of perfection in her eyes. she would never be able to get enough of you. she wasn’t complaining, though. 

“marry me, y/n.”

she whispered against your lips, but before you could even say anything in response, she pressed another quick kiss to your swollen lips. “marry me and we won’t have to hide. then they can’t force me to do anything anymore.”

“jimin,” you warned, thinking she was somehow joking, but one glance at her and you knew she wasn’t. she had the same attentive expression on her face as always. you could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “let’s not do anything stupid.”

karina kissed the crown of your head gently, treating your body as if it was the most delicate thing in existence. “i’m tired of hiding. aren’t you?”

“your contract would be in jeopardy, my love.” you tried to reason, hoping that you would remind her of her job’s responsibilities. she was bound by her contact to her idol duties, and she was also the leader of aespa. she couldn’t exactly abandon that just for you, and you wouldn’t ask her to do such a thing anyway. 

karina whined and you kissed her temple. “i’ll threaten to leave, then.” your brows furrowed as you looked at her in disbelief once more. “you will do no such thing, rina.” 

the idol groaned once more, but chose to ignore your logical reasoning by kissing you fervently again. you tried to push her away to continue chastising her, but she kept chasing your lips. the older girl was about to attack your neck, but the buzzing of your phone caught both of you off guard.

reluctantly pulling away from your lover, you reached for it and answered without looking. 

“hello?” 

“y/n, what’s with this audio file?”

your brow furrowed as you gently moved jimin off of you. “which one?”

“the one you sent me wasn’t the one for the title track.”

your face met your forehead as you groaned, mentally trying to figure out which one you accidentally sent. fortunately for you, your boss jogged your memory.

“y/n, i don’t know what you…you and karina do…but uh, you definitely sent the wrong one.”

the color drained from your face and your gaze met jimin’s. her brows furrowed, since her close proximity, she could hear the conversation going on. however, she was just as lost as you. the two of you kept everything you did private, including your intimate moments. so how on earth would someone else know?

“ill uh, ill look into it. sorry, again.” you replied, still just as confused. you moved your phone to your other ear before mouthing something to karina. “what is he talking about?”

she only shrugged, standing up and reaching over to grab her phone from her bag. your attention was brought back to your conversation.

“yeah, i don’t know what you’re going to tell the other girls though. just send me the track by tonight.”

he ended the call once you exchanged farewells, but once you turned to jimin, you finally realized what audio file you had accidentally sent.

it was from the night you two got drunk in the studio. you had accidentally left the record button on in the booth, which picked up every single sound and word that was exchanged.

your face flushed red, and as you turned to face jimin, she stared at her phone with a smile on her face.

“what?” she asked, tilting her head at you once she made eye contact. 

you swallowed the lump in your throat, trying your best to calm your racing heart. your boss had heard you and karina, basically reliving the moment you two shared with a front row seat. “jimin, he heard the recording of us from the night we got drunk in the studio.” 

the idol’s smile only grew wider, making you feel significantly more confused. why was she smiling at a time like this? 

jimin held her phone to your face, showing you her screen. it was her conversation with minjeong. 

it was text after text of minjeong cursing at jimin, numerous amounts of “fuck you” and “how could you” messages. the realization suddenly hit you once you read the final message: “we’re done.” and your manager’s words echoed in your mind once again.

“yeah, i don’t know what you’re going to tell the other girls though.”

shit. they heard it.

“we don’t have to hide anymore, baby.” jimin grinned and kissed your face over and over, practically bursting at the seams with energy. you looked at her like she was insane. the smile on jimin’s face was the brightest you had ever seen. she swayed you in her arms, holding you close and forgetting about her phone and her extremely upset ex. 

however, she didn’t care. and truthfully? neither did you. the only thing you cared about was getting the title track sent in by your deadline. 

you suddenly felt a smile growing on your face, mirroring hers. you didn’t have to hide anymore, and with minjeong knowing as well, things would definitely look different with their management. jimin wouldn’t have to threaten anyone, and she would get to have her relationship with you. 

“i’m going to show everyone that you’re my lover, the real love of my life.” jimin whispered in your ear.

your smile never faltered, and you could only feel butterflies in your stomach at the thought of being able to go out and do public dates with your girlfriend. “we can go on dates,” she continued, pressing a kiss to your cheek and then again on your lips. “i don’t care what people will say,” karina’s eyes glinted with happiness. “i’m yours, and you are mine.”

you wrapped your arms around her neck, looking up at her with the same lovesick look she shared with you. “let’s go on vacation somewhere, just you and me.” she proposed as she wrapped her arms around your waist. 

“i’d like that,” you answered with a giggle, feeling ticklish as she nuzzled her nose into your shoulder. with a deep breath, she inhaled your scent and pressed a kiss to your shoulder. “we can leave once the title track is released.” 

“how about hawaii?” karina asked, pressing her lips to your neck gently. “i’ve heard their black beaches are gorgeous.”

you hummed in thought, recalling the numerous times you two had mentioned traveling somewhere together just to get away. but with the comeback preparations and summer ambassador activities, your plans were often squashed. 

“hm, i don’t know jimin. we have a lot to clean up here.”

she groaned into your neck, “come on, don’t be a bummer, babe.”

however, now that your schedules were going to be much more free, you decided now would be the best time to go. 

“fine, lets do it.”

the photos of you two making out on the sandy black beaches in hawaii made headlines the next weekend, but neither of you cared anymore. you didn’t care about hiding, she didn’t care about what people said about her and minjeong. she didn’t care because now she got the girl she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. 

karina’s face was plastered all over media outlets, and aespa gained a lot of attention from your relationship. even though most people didn’t know who you were, once karina publicly mentioned your name in an interview the amount of attention you received was enormous. she had always defended your name though, making sure to come for anyone that dared taint your name. she was fine with people taking her name through the mud, but yours? 

she would rather burn her own hands than let someone else harm you.

minjeong and the others were still very upset with their leader, but it wasn’t like they could do anything about it. it wasn’t like the two of you were going to stop.

your once secret, undercover love was now in the light, and the only thing that mattered to you was the success of aespa and your girlfriend’s well being. 

but for karina, the only thing that mattered to her was you. that, and what style of ring she was going to buy you after the comeback was over.

after all, weddings were often better in the spring, but this summer was not a bummer at all. the only bummer was how she was going to get her members to forgive her and be her bridesmaids, but that was a problem for later.

-

a/n: to the anon who requested this...thank you so MUCH 😋

[felassan]

Some more info on the Mass Effect board game, from co-designer Calvin:

"Hi all, Calvin here, co-designer of the game. I've gathered all the frequently asked questions on social media and bgg and gathered them into some answers for you. Feel free to ask more questions if yours is not answered, and if I can answer it I will. I will be updating this as more information about the game becomes available. Release info - The release date is (hopefully) November depending on the gods of shipping - Price is confirmed, the game will be $50/£40 - The team is currently working on translation deals for 9 or so languages. More details soon. - For info on pre-orders go to https://www.modiphius.net/pages/mass-effect-signup - There are currently no plans for a collector’s edition vs standard edition - It is not crowdfunded, the game is direct to retail - "If you'd like to support the game right now, there's nothing better than going into your local FLGS and asking them if they'll stock the game when it comes out. With the vast amount of great games coming out every week, retailers rely on fans asking about the game. This helps them gauge how much to buy, the more people ask, the more buzz they know there is, the more confident they are to buy enough and the more likely there's one waiting for you on the shelf when you go in :-) That feeds up the chain; the more retailers ask their sales reps at Asmodee, the more Asmodee goes, "Oh wait, let's order more, so we have enough for all the shops". Plot - The game is set on the planet Hagalaz, early during the events of Mass Effect 3 - The players are tasked with investigating a crashed Cerberus research cruiser which could have info that contributes to War Readiness and could help stop the Reapers - The game is designed so people who have never played Mass Effect can still enjoy it. Eric hasn't played the games as much as I did so he got to do what he calls “the meathead test” on all the theming and story. - We worked with Bioware on all the plot and theming. - Yes you can do calibrations in this game Basic game info - Co-operative squad tactics - 1-4 players - Included are six 32mm minis, masc Shep, fem Shep, Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Wrex - Not many other components to keep price and complexity low - 45 minute missions - 3-5 missions per campaign - Branching paragon/renegade choices + sidequests - Enough missions to replay the campaign several times without repeats - Solo play is really fun, in fact I like all the player counts equally, which is something I’m very proud that we were able to achieve in this game - Solo play is basically multi-handing, you control more than one character. - There is no legacy aspect, the game is fully resettable - There will be new original art"

[character limit text break]

"Gameplay info - Low rules complexity, but with lots of tactical depth. We aimed for an audience of Mass Effect fans who might not know anything about board games. Board gamers should still find something to enjoy if they’re into co-op tactics. - A group that just wants to turn their brain off and blast through the game should have an easy time - But a group who wants to get the best endings, complete all the sidequests, get all the level ups will have to min-max pretty heavily - The game has relatively low randomness. Planning, prediction, and preparation are very important to avoid bad outcomes - but there’s still enough randomness to avoid AP as players try to plan out perfect turns. - Important gameplay elements include positioning and combo-ing abilities with other players. - There is a tactical map. - Players will level up their characters by performing in game actions and learn new abilities. - We got all 6 Shepard classes in there. It is one of the things I am very proud of doing. - Re: alpha gamers, Eric and I do not believe it is the designer’s job to solve for jerks at your gaming table. Obviously we have designed the game so that every player has something to contribute and there’s plenty of info so that it’s hard to track. But we also recommend having adult conversations with your table partners. Interviews/Behind The Scenes Beyond Solitaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nLGDt97i4 Topics: how we designed the game and implemented the narrative UKGE promo copy https://twitter.com/Modiphius/status/1796844231018811782/" Post last updated August 8th

[source]

New original art 👀

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 18/August/2023

My wrists were having a bit of a protest to all my typing lately (really need to get my ergonomic keyboard back out!), so I spent some time reading over what I’ve typed up so far.

It was actually a really good thing to do, as I noticed there was quite a large narrative element missing: the transition for the MC from detective to Agent!

I don’t want that to really just be a thing that is mentioned and happens off-screen. Some of it will because a few weeks will have passed between Book Three and Four, but I want there to be some story/game scenes to play through for it too. I’m hoping that will make it feel like a progression for the player, as well as the MC, to this new shift in role!

So, I was mind-mapping out some potential ideas. It needed to be something interesting as it’s a story beat that the player will need to go through again if they replay the game.

Didn’t want it to just be a sparring scene like the combat sections, and I didn’t want just paperwork like the research scenes (which actually isn't how the combat/research scenes will be playing out this time in Book Four either!). So, it was just a case of letting my mind think over what could be an active scene that isn’t one of those.

Then, as I was looking over the list of teams for Wayhaven’s facility, I thought of something that would be really interesting for this moment! Something that these agents would have gone through themselves!

And it will even have a variation to it for multiple replays, giving a slightly different take on the task depending on who you end up choosing to have the scene with…which won’t be Unit Bravo! :D

I’m now starting to get towards fleshing out the lead up to the endings, which for some reason I’m a bit nervous about. Each book in Wayhaven has a rhythm to it that I want to be the same for each book to give that ‘comforting’ feel when you play through the series. But I also don’t want it to get samey!

So yeah, really want the endings to have a difference to them this time, and I know one of them certainly is an eye-opener with the love interest, hehe! :D

As you might be able to tell, it was a lot of back and forth this week on thinking over things, but it was good to take that time to stand back and look at the big picture! Still, hoping my wrists will oblige me next week and let me get back to the excitement of actually writing out the plan of the story to come, lol!

Hope you all have a magical weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next week!

[perpetualexistence]

The Alley Cats: A fun little Team CIRRRRH AU

(I could have tried to go for consistency with either all vectors or no vectors, but I feel like the inconsistency is more appropriate for this AU.)

So, time to share the AU I alluded to in my last post with Team CIRRRRH being gremlins to José!

It's a high school AU where each member of Team CIRRRRH have been made into social outcasts in their own unique and special ways. Plus Eva. I just couldn't bring myself to separate Team E-scope.

No one else would have them, so they started hanging out in an alley one of them found behind the school to avoid the bullying and the glares.

From the outside it looks like utter garbage. But if you go through the garbage and past the corner, you get to their little cove with a beat up couch, a stolen vending machine, a punching bag, and other little personalized touches they've added to make their place more cozy.

Alejandro's the newest addition and their self-appointed leader. He does not like his new status on the bottom of the totem pole in school. So, he leads the others towards schemes that will get them (him) back into the good graces of everyone else. Or to get revenge on those who made them into outcasts. It really depends on how well Alejandro can manage to herd these cats on a particular day.

There's only one main rule in the alley (aside from the ones Alejandro tries to impose). If someone finds their way into this alley all on their own, they're automatically an Alley Cat.

After all, if you're that desperate to get away from everybody, you probably need a group of friends more than anything else right now.

(More details about the AU under the read more, I just wanted to separate it from the basic premise.)

I'm still coming up with ideas for this AU! It's definitely a more casual one filled with wacky shenanigans. I'm retconning two of my previous posts into this au as party of the wacky shenanigans. Because they, along with the idea itself, were all inspired by a very specific animatic that you'll see in the second post. I just want to add links to them both here so they're consolidated in the same place:

Alley Cats vs. José Pt 1

Alley Cats vs. José Pt 2

Most of what I have now is trying to nail down exactly how each of these little goobers became an Alley Cat. Some of them I have a more clear idea that'll get their own posts soon enough, others are just a thought. So far, I have this:

Alejandro - Used to be a popular kid that DID a good amount of the bullying towards the Alley Cats. Thought he was leaving the country and decided to let loose. Turns out his father changed his mind. Oops. Actions, meet consequences.

Noah - Has personal beef with Justin he refuses to explain. Tried to make Justin into an outcast. It backfired horribly.

Izzy - Pulled one too many wacky hijinks that resulted in other people getting injured. The final straw was when she exploded something that ruined a good thing for everyone.

Eva - She issued her anger towards one of the sweetest people in the school to the point where she hospitalized them. She might have avoided juvie, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

Owen - Outcasted by association. He started hanging out with at least one member of the Alley Cats (still trying to figure out if it's just Noah or a combination of Noah, Izzy, and Eva) because he really didn't think anyone deserved to be outcasted. Refused to turn his back on them to save his own reputation.

Tyler - Fumbled the winning point during the big game (still trying to figure out which sport he plays when I don't do sports). Made worse by the fact that this would have finally put the school on the map towards being taken seriously. Combined with bitterness towards favoritism that allows him to stay on the team despite him being a bad player, he got socially kicked out of the team even though he's still physically on it.

And a later addition:

Duncan - Pretty much did the whole cheating thing with Gwen as in canon. Doesn't get why he's here. Essentially becomes New Alejandro once Alejandro starts getting that sweet sweet character development.

If you have any questions about this AU, please feel free to ask away! It helps me come up with things.

[anacat195]

So earlier this week I got an invite to Palia's closed beta (which will be open to everyone on Thursday August 10), and I spent a few hours playing around in it. I have a few thoughts:

Overall I really love it! I don't play MMOs and I was worried that they were going to make it very dependent on playing with other people, but I have essentially played as a single player with no problems.

It doesn't feel crowded at all. I think there are maybe 25 people in each instance of an area and the areas are quite large so it doesn't feel like we're all on top of each other. Also it seems like when you're in special areas for the main story it's just you.

Palia please I am begging for a mini map. Mercy for the directionally challenged.

There's no stamina bar so feel free to keep doing activities as long as you want. Love that. You get experience bonuses for filling up your "focus" bar through eating, but like with a lot of mechanics in this game, you don't have to engage with it if you don't want to. You also don't need to sleep.

The cast of villagers is pretty well rounded, and I like the lore they're starting to build up for this world.

A very important part of any cozy game - I'm happy to report that the furniture is very cute. You also learn recipes of the same line as you craft items and it seems like some of the recipes you can only get this way. My one quibble is that the preview image is like an illustration and the actual item once you make it doesn't look exactly the same. Not drastically different but enough to notice. Like, why?

So one of the big things in this game is the romanceable characters. And I can tell that they're going for a younger age bracket than me because all of the options give early 20s vibes. But. BUT! Palia, you cannot stick these hot older people in my face and tell me they aren't romanceable. And you can't say you didn't know because you yourselves talked about Hodari being nicknamed "Hotdari" by the team, and there are flirty dialogue options with him! I am in my 30s; you give me huge tattooed inn keeper Ashura and tell me I can't romance him? Jail.

As far as monetization goes, they had one small quest to introduce the premium shop and otherwise I have not heard about it. You have to go out of your way and go to the clothing shop if you want to access it. And I do appreciate that.

[cinemaocd]

Thomas Cromwell's big book, The Valor Ecclesiasticus

Reading this morning in History Today about the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a massive survey of all religious holdings that was begun in 1535, and completed in less than 18 months (or at least it was completed enough to be acted upon as 1/4 of the religious houses in England were closed by the end of that period). It details not only the holdings down to every last bone of every last saint, but maps, and the detailed accounts of the tenants, as the Church was the largest landlord in England.

This document was probably Cromwell's greatest achievement, just in terms of sheer output, as it covered not only the 800 religious houses and their tenants' activities, which often required tracing people across county lines, etc. something that had never been done at that point. The data was collected rapidly, from a wide variety of sources. In many cases, church officials simply refused to meet with Cromwell's commissioners. In those cases the commissioners took matters into their own hands and made broad guesses about holdings based on what they could observe.

After the Valor was completed and the associated religious houses closed, it was set aside and forgotten until 1800, when Parliament funded a team of scholars led by John Caley to "translate" the document into some useful information, attempting essentially turn it into a modern ledger book. Caley took 38 years to do this, spent thousands of pounds more than he was meant to, held the documents hostage in his home and then promptly died as soon as the last volume was published. The government found the results "a mischief of confusion" and it was never used. Historians largely ignored the Valor and Caley's "translation" for the most part, except, fascinatingly, around the time of the Russian Revolution, some Marxists attempted to use it as a blueprint for modernizing Russian agriculture!

Now it is being digitized for the first time.

One thing that I gleaned from the article, was that special attention was paid to dams on rivers, which were used by many religious houses for private fisheries. This interfered with Cromwell's general scheme of improving the navigability of waterways (no son of Putney could love a dam that stops a barge moving on a river). This right of the government to take private property away from the church was critical to create a modern government that could conduct nationwide schemes like improving the navigability of the waterways.

The leap from not having fishing dams on every river, to the profitable canal system borrowed from the Low Countries in later centuries, was not dramatic after the legal impediments were removed. And you really can't have the industrial revolution in England without it.

I have for a long time characterized Cromwell as someone had multiple motivations for almost every decision he undertook. Usually there would be a personal profit motive as well, which is unseen. It really depends on the political leanings of the historian as to which of those motives people have tended to see, be they greed, Lutheranism, Machiavellian political maneuvering etc, but as far as I'm concerned, his motivations could simply be: I find fisheries on the Themes and its tributaries annoying because they interfere with my daily commute.

Another interesting thing in the article was the discussion of class mobility provided by unseen parts of the monastic system. There was a class of clerks, agents, etc. that were enriched by managing the church's land holdings. Cromwell's agents often came from this pool of men, and he himself, given his start assisting Wolsey, could be seen as also coming from this class. Putting the overall management of this class of people into the hands of Parliament and away from the Pope was a huge improvement for them and you can see it as the bedrock on which the British Civil Service was built.

[clairedaring]

Hi, I've seen your blog and it appears to me that you've watched a lot of gdh movies. So I was wondering this: what is your top 5 gdh movie? I, for my part, have only watched two so far: oh my girl ! and you, me and me which is one of my favorite movie this year so far.

it brings me to tears (happily) whenever someone talks to me about GDH films ಥ_ಥ so here are my favorite GDH films (in this order as of this moment, no. 2 to no. 5 interchange from time to time depending on my mood)

1. Bad Genius (2017) and Bad Genius: The Series (2020)

So whenever I'm asked about GDH, the first film I instantly recommend would be Bad Genius. Because not only is Bad Genius imho THE film that puts GDH on the map, I think it has a lot of influence on Thai cinematic works, and to some extent television works.

Essentially, Bad Genius is a story about Lin, a straight A student who team up with her friends to pull off a large scale cheating scheme on an SAT-like exam. It's a heist thriller drama that definitely leaves me feeling stressed out as hell as if I was there in the testing room with those students.

I know it's kind of a cheat to also add this, but whenever I recommend Bad Genius, I also must recommend Bad Genius: The Series which is a 12 episode series that serves as a more detailed+sequel version of the film. I love this series because the young actors of the series gave me a fresh take on the characters I already know and loved so I had a great time falling in love with all of them again. The series fixed a few plotholes/qualms I had with the cinematic version as well as an extensive background story on Bank (played by Nonkul Chanon in film, Jaonaay Jinjett in series), my favorite character from this franchise so Bad Genius: The Series is the one work I cannot recommend enough.

One of the things I love about the series as well is that it also maintained the exact same vibes and cinematography like color-grading, camerawork...

2. OMG! Oh My Girl (2022)

I am a sucker for 'seemingly unrequited love' and 'right person, wrong time' tropes so this film really hit ALL the spots for me at its release.

Stylisticaly speaking, I absolutely love the Wes Anderson-esque zoom-in-from-afar shots for comedic effect. many stellar comedic moments where i laughed out loud. I think the humor in this film is poignant, accompanied by great comedic timing from both leads.

One of the highlights of Oh My Girl aside from the many subversions to romcom clichés, I like how Guy (the ML played by the incredible Sky Wongravee) was a morally grey protagonist and that the film isn't afraid to call out his problematic "nice guy" facade. He's a self-aware jerk and I genuinely love his self-awareness.

3. One For The Road (2021)

So I didn't watch this at release and it took quite a while before I gathered the determination to sit down and watch this on Netflix on a late rainy evening. Little did I know, I would soon be crying screaming bawling my eyes.

One For The Road is about Aood (Ice Natara) who enlists his estranged friend, Boss (Tor Thanapob) on a road trip to return items to his exes before he dies.

If I had a nickel for every time GDH wanted to give me a selfish, jerky male protagonist, I would have like four or five nickels but it's crazy that it's happened so many times (formulaically one would say) and here I am still empathizing and crying over these kinda jerky male protagonists.

The soundtrack was just brilliant. To quote a review I once wrote, the director, the music score and composer were truly out for blood with the soundtrack for this movie and they did it. This film is a good example of how important soundtrack and film scores are to elevate the narrative being told.

There are so many things to praise about the production but if I had to choose one thing, it would be the excellent mise-en-scene of this film. Every shot is dazzling, intentional and fill with metaphors. It was truly beautiful.

4. Not Friends (2023) 

So I went into this thinking it would be Thai take on Dear Evan Hansen but I was so glad that it wasn't the case even though there are similarities.

Not Friends continues to deliver GDH's classic "selfish jerky male protagonist" with Pae (Anthony Buisseret) who just transferred to a new school in his last year of high school. Seeing no chances in getting into university through the entrance exam, Pae decides to enter a film contest by making a film about Joe (Jump Pisitpol), his seat mate who recently passed away.

The film had me bawling my eyes out in theatres by the end. I love that there were a lot philosophical questions like how much we value a friend's worth in the film. If you like Baipor/Anthony tandem in You & Me & Me, Not Friends is a must-watch for this acting duo reunion.

5. The Con-Heartist (2020) 

So for the last spot, I debated a lot between two romantic comedies (both starring Baifern Pimchanok), The Con-Heartist (2020) and Friend Zone (2019). I recently rewatched the former and was reminded by how much I love the zany humor in this film so she gets the last spot.

The Con-Heartist is about Noina (Baifern Pimchanok), who is in debt because of her ex-boyfriend so she hires a con artist, Tower (Nadech Kugimiya) to help her get revenge against her ex-boyfriend by swindling him.

Even though it's billed as a romantic comedy, I think it's more comedy-leaning compared to Friend Zone but I love the comedic moments the two leads, Baifern and Nadech. พี่ไม่หล่อลวง by BamBam is the OST song for the film and it has never left my Spotify Wrapped for the last 3 years 😭

+bonus: How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024)

This is the first GDH film from 2024 and although it comes out in like two weeks, I can feel it's going to dethrone one of the films in my top 5 list for sure. If you're thinking of going to watch something at the cinema soon, I hope you consider checking out Lahn Mah this April!

I hope you give one of these GDH films a chance. I love watching GDH films because although they can have different directors/team of scriptwriters, they always end up with certain similarities (be it cinematography or screenplay or characters). While not all GDH films are incredible masterpieces but out of the Thai production houses for films, I would say GDH 559 (and its predecessor GTH) has the most solid record of having strong and compelling cinematic works.

[johaerys-writes]

15 questions for 15 friends

I was tagged by my dear @elveny, thank you so much!! 💙

ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?: No! Well, yes, after a character in Greek mythology, but not after a parent or grandparent or anything like that.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: Yesterday. I was reading the Iliad again for an anon ask and was going through the part where Achilles kills Hector and oooh that scene got hands 🥲 I cry a lot though, I'm a crier, and a lot of the time it's about patrochilles so it's par for the course really lol

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?: Nope.

WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED?: I'm fairly active generally but I don't play sports at all because I don't like them. I tried several sports while in school before accepting that I simply don't like team sports and I'm not good at them, but I had much more fun with solo sports. I swam for several years somewhat competitively, and I also did track for a while. 

DO YOU USE SARCASM?: I think so? But usually only with people I'm very comfortable with, because I can never know what would go down well or not with a person I don’t know. 

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?: That’s hard to answer because I feel like it depends on the situation. Most of the time, it's body language and their general vibe. Meeting new people can be nerve wracking so I try to "read" them and act accordingly, if that makes sense? I don't want to step on any toes or say the wrong thing so figuring out what the other person's mood or interests might be usually helps. But that often means I miss out on other things on first encounter, like... their eyes or smile or something?? Lol idk man, socialising while on the spectrum is hard 🥲

WHAT'S YOUR EYE COLOUR?: Brown.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?: I think I'll pick scary movies because I do like horror and dark stuff and I don't care if the ending is happy or not as long the story is interesting. 

ANY TALENTS?: it took me so long to think of something for this and I honestly don't know? I'm assuming by 'talents' we mean something you're born with, not something you've worked hard at like some kind of craft, right? In that case, I think I have pretty good visual memory, especially when it comes to books and articles and such, or the written word in general. Oh and I'm weirdly good at orientation, I can usually find my way no matter where I am. Which isn't such a huge deal now in the era of google maps, but back when there was no gps it was a pretty useful skill to have haha. 

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?: Greece.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?: Writing, reading, gaming, crocheting, drawing, going to museums! I'm constantly on the look out for new exhibitions and stuff, it's my favourite thing in the world to do. 

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?: A darling and dastardly cat, aka my extension when I'm at home. 

HOW TALL ARE YOU?: 1,68m

FAVOURITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?: Oh god I freaking hated school, absolutely hated it LOL I can't think of one thing I liked in it. I guess I only enjoyed the very last year of high school when I was preparing for the Panhellenic exams because like... it felt like there was finally some kind of purpose or reason to be there at all, even though there was a lot of pressure. I loved Ancient Greek, Latin, History and Philosophy. 

DREAM JOB?: I don't have one, I don’t dream of labour 🙃 I don't think there's any sort of job anyone could do in this capitalist hellscape we're all currently living in that would be enjoyable enough to make up for, well... living in a capitalist hellscape lol. If I could, I'd just go back to uni, probably. That was my happy place and I miss it. And I'd also write a bunch and read a bunch and take up all sorts of creative hobbies, and probably travel more. 

Tagging forth to a bit more than 15 friends lol sorry (and I know I'm forgetting ppl): @baejax-the-great @thiefylilelf @vimlos @mogwaei @gloriesunsung @aymayzing @cordelia---rose @knicknocknick @aristi-achaion @peachandfig @heypax @darlingpoppet @tevivinter @mary-aries @tragediegh @pikapeppa @figsandphiltatos always with love and without any pressure 💕

[okthatsgreat]

hi lee!!!! ummm thinking of interesting things and questions i just woke up hmm.. ok i’m curious about any of your ocs in like. a opddmh situation… like either they ran away or they’re the one like sheltering a younger dr participant. could be with another one of your ocs could be with a canon character.. are there any combinations there that would be interesting for you? hopefully this makes sense i’m still sort of asleep so i think i worded it sort of clunkily lol :) hope you get less bored soon!!!

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD OH MY GOD!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boredom cured forever and ever always and ever . you are the best for this one. wrote WAY too much hfjkdsgk

(opddmh refers to this fic btw!! this will make zero sense without context LMAO)

ill try to assign them a person and give them a bit of an arc i think.......... in other words ill try to map out what i would do with them if they were in the actual story as another pov >:))

billie: in my mind she is definitely one of the more obvious candidates for a story like this just because soooo much of her character depends on other people and how they influence her personality... and because of this there are a LOT of options regarding who could take her in. i would most likely write her arc around getting better rather than getting worse LMFAO which means a few people would get crossed off of the list right off the bat--- immediately coming to mind is the hiyoko/mahiru/ibuki gang for some reason. i think theres a lot to explore there !!! billie could definitely take influence from ibuki's style, her impressionability/mirroring of other people's personality could definitely lead to trouble around hiyoko considering they are both stressed out, mahiru would be in so much strife about suddenly getting shucked into this caretaker role she's been so adamant on escaping since her killing game and there would be a LOT of parallels to hiyoko there. especially since yknow. billie is copying hiyoko a bit. i can see those three taking in this moody ass teenager with so many illnesses. so many awful influences its great

erin: OK so i am going to assume this is a situation where every season 50 participant is 16-17 again in this hypothetical scenario where they run from the hospital LOL. dear god i can see erin SPRINTING away. im gonna give her to sayaka on this one hands down. sayaka finds erin dead at night just walking absolutely nowhere with this very disorienting smile on her face LMAOO. i think erin's arc in this story would absolutely benefit from somebody who is able to relate to her as a performer and somebody who has this "persona" they need to maintain. erin is such a huge personality and her whole crisis is so huge that her guardian definitely needs to mirror her and learn from her or else they'll get a bit washed away i reckon ghdfksjghfdkjg. i can see the sayaka+erin pairing SO clearly too... like this is a sayaka who has been performing this character for years, probably to the extent where she hardly realises it anymore. throwing erin in with her, a teenage girl with identity issues that managed to actually go through with a plan that sayaka had during HER killing game .....Oughg. i can see them getting so stressed out by each other and i can see them getting just so sad at everything theyve lost

mika: hmmmmmmmm. mika is definitely one of the more practical characters and i dont think she would be hit as TERRIBLY hard as her classmates with the whole "we aren't real" thing. in fact there might even be a bit of relief from it at first. like...... youre telling me one of my biggest insecurities isnt even real because ultimate talents dont even really exist??? AND i dont have to get locked into one interest my entire life??? she's absolutelyyy traumatised and fucked up however i don't really think she'd leave that hospital in the first place LMFAO, i think she's smart enough to realise she doesnt stand much of a shot against team dr. if she made it out she would get paired up with another one of her classmates (like a ryoma+rantaro situation) anddddddddd hm. hm hm. imposter could be very very interesting. here is somebody that is constantly changing, never set in stone, and here is a teenage girl who is stubborn in her own reality and has come to realise her place in life a WHILE ago

naomi: this scenario is so so funny because it implies that somebody CAUGHT her hgfkdghfkdgkjfhgsdkl. there's not a doubt in my mind that she went sprinting out those doors the second she woke up from the simulator but naomi has always been a character with one foot out the door ready to leave. NEVER in one spot. especially in a postgame scenario, where she is extremely traumatised and honestly experiencing psychosis, it's hard to imagine her willingly going home with a stranger.... i think her scenario would DEFINITELY be a bit unconventional, with her constantly leaving and returning. akanes arc to the extreme HFGKGJ. i'll treat this as if naomi would be added to the existing narrative, meaning whoever her "guardian" is can't be EXTREMELY similar to akane so the whole "running away" theme would come second to themes of culpability and punishment i think. she would benefit from having somebody that also felt immeasurably guilty hmmmmmm. i can honestly see hajime. he's already busy as hell with everything he has to do for team dr, only to have to take time out of his day to help this tall ass teenager. their meet would have to be REAL unconventional in order for naomi to have stopped enough for him to help her lmao. as in "she ran out in the middle of the road in the middle of the night during some kind of panicked haze and he very nearly ran her over" type of unconventional. he patched her up, gave her some water and she was GONE. and then she comes back two days later like Heyyy 😍 So about that Guilt

rie: first things first i would throw her with ryobe hands down HGDFK. the amount of hijinks those two could get up to. fantastic. they would really benefit from having each other around and their friendship could be beautiful and real. with that being said these two are definitely a bit more difficult to pair with people just because immediately they have similar arcs to erin and naomi with both of them having difficulty accepting their identities and (ESPECIALLY RYOBE HERE) dealing with punishment/culpability. they would also need more than one guardian i think........ just for ryobe alone LMFAO. i reckon a few season one people could know about them tbh. for the most part they stay with aoi and her kid, which opens up a LOT of interesting avenues concerning whether rie and ryobe should leave for the sake of the kid's safety!! aoi and rie would pretty easily get along, especially if they both kinda keep each other at arms length with their people pleasing personalities they've accumulated over the years (aoi having developed it during her time as a team dr spokewoman). and then one day rie gets caught in complete distress and aoi realises "Oh Huh y'know what maybe this constant stress to perform under threat of violence against both me and my family isn't Healthy" and they both start trying to have more fun. go to the beach or smth. aoi swims for the first time in AGES and she has a total blast

ryobe: soooooooo fucked up postgame and would definitely stress aoi and rie out further without a doubt ghfdskg!! especially so close to the reveal that everything isnt real ryobe would definitely be in complete denial angie style. but more in a "hahahahahaha none of that actually happened!!! that was my brain playing tricks on me and actually i can hardly remember it anyways now that i think about it!!!!! this is definitely because it WASN'T real and NOT because my body is trying to protect me against everything that happened to me". he just reverts back to this goofy guy who always seems like he's on the verge of SOME kind of breakdown, and rie would be no help to him in those first few days, likely going as far as to AFFIRM nothing happened just to keep him from running off without her. i can see aoi bringing in some help for him--- it would probably be another survivor and i can REALLY imagine the dynamic between him and toko. komaru loves him but toko HATES his annoying ass ghfdkjghsdfkghgfjkdsg. they would definitely have a looooooong chat at some point that sends ryobe on the right track. also side note ryobe would be fantastic with aoi's kid however he would definitely teach that toddler a bunch of stupid pranks

sae: so sae is 34 which means she would definitely be the guardian in this scenario gdfjkg so it comes down to which v3 kid would make for an interesting parallel hmmmm hm hm.... immediately coming to mind is kaito. i can see himiko joining him potentially. sae is somebody who has trained herself to be extremely patient and believes anger to be a weakness of sorts. enter kaito who believes the only "strong" emotion he can convey right now is anger because he would be DAMNED if he started crying about that killing game gfhsdjgk. they'd have a lottt to learn from each other, and i think the entire scenario would definitely push sae to a lot of her limits. i mentioned himiko just because her arc of emotional repression could be a mirror to sae possibly, but because this is a postgame scenario i think himiko would be SO absolutely fixated on being seen as useful and helpful and energetic that she throws herself into whatever work sae can give her. and of course sae the workaholic has a lot of work to give her LMFAO. they pass out at the same time

yoshito: similar to mika it's hard to imagine him leaving the simulator just because he is the protagonist and they'd be keeping an eye on him however if he DID. he would need somebody who is constantly in his ear like Aren't you mad .....Don't you want to go apeshit ......mondo and leon are coming to mind. they're really teaching that kid how to let loose. shatter some glass, go fucking wild!!!! and while we're at it, let's all examine how our reckless behaviour might be a method of self harm we have developed for ourselves after our killing game but make sure not to tell the kid ok. make sure nobody tells yoshito, who has been trained on helping people his entire life and just needs to think about himself for ONCE

andi: hhehehehhehehehheh. computer thang. even though she is ageless there is no universe where she becomes a guardian and it's really really funny to think that somebody grabbed her computer chip and ran. i think it HAS to be chihiro. something fantastic and vaguely homosexual going on there

[blackjackkent]

OK, loading up the map in preparation to go hunt down Gortash, and I notice something veeeeeeeery interesting.

Wyrm's Rock waypoint no longer exists.

The quest journal also indicates that invading the Iron Throne and rescuing Ravengard et. al. was the point of no return on any possible alliance with Gortash, not that we were going to take that anyway.

So I'm going to take this to mean that probably everyone in Wyrm's Rock has been given orders to kill us on sight. We need to go there, however, because Gortash is hanging out in his office there waiting for us.

So this is a shame... for them. >:) Time to chug a hill giant potion and Get Down To Business.

Called it.

It looks like we basically have to fight every Flaming Fist between Basilisk Gate and the door of Enver's office - as well as their big metal buddies.

Combat highlights as we work through the fortress:

This is our first time trying to fight a Steel Watcher and goddamn do they have a lot of health. (206 HP on Balanced Difficulty) But they take a fist or a trident or an owlbear claw or a greatsword or a hamster to the face just as well as anybody.

We're trying out Jaheira's new build, which is super fun and allows us to summon a dryad until long rest to travel and fight with us, raise fungal zombies out of dead enemies, and turn into an owlbear and rampage with more or less the same rage mechanic that Karlach and Minsc have. Team Juggernaut now officially includes all four party members. :D

This is our first time trying to fight a Steel Watcher and goddamn do they have a lot of health. (206 HP on Balanced Difficulty) But they take a fist or a trident or an owlbear claw or a greatsword or a hamster to the face just as well as anybody.

They do however also do this when they start getting low health:

This definitely complicates the fight somewhat as it means they need to be finished off at range. They also start making the most incredibly anxiety-inducing noise once this condition is activated. O.O

The bright side is the damage from the explosion also hurts the Watcher's allies; one of the Fist got completely finished off this way.

Sent Jaheira running into the backline as an owlbear and she got this incredible low growl in her voice and went "I go hunting..." I love her.

Apparently her enrage mechanic, which can make nearby creatures Frightened, is also indiscriminate and could make our team afraid as well. I don't blame them but this does mean I need to be somewhat careful with her positioning. XD

Apparently killing a Steel Watcher triggers something called "Pursuit Protocol" which means for 20 turns every Steel Watcher in the city is hostile. This seems not particularly relevant to Hector's situation but I guess might be relevant if you were doing multiplayer and had split the party.

The somewhat nice thing about this team composition is that I've managed to reach a point where almost no one is using spell slots for anything significant. This is probably somewhere near the exact opposite of an optimal party setup, but it does mean short and long rest usage is basically entirely dependent on when the team gets too battered to continue. Which takes a while. XD

These are, however, definitely not easy fights. That self-destruction protocol really is quite devastating when it goes off, particularly combined with the fact that the Steel Watchers seem to be centered around CC skills. Their fundamental strategy seems to be "trap enemy in place and then explode on them".

I completely forgot I had given Karlach, many many moons ago, the Aspect of the Honey Badger, which auto-rages her as a reaction when she's Frightened, Charmed, or Poisoned. This is the first time I've actually seen it proc and it startled me. XD

(I did have to restart this fight once because I did some poor opening strategy before I understood how the Steel Watchers worked. o.o; RIP Tragically for Team Juggernaut, who excel in close quarters, range is very important here, so I don't really get to test out Jaheira's owlbear form. Better strategy: lots of zomber summons, Minsc throwing Nyrula, Hector opening with Stagger Flurry of Blows so he can back out after doing damage, and Karlach taking potshots with a crossbow. Boo keeps getting flattened immediately so we imagine him squeaking encouragement from the sidelines)

Look at me using Strategy and entangling the door where all the Fist are trying to come out of. \o/

This is actually a really hard fight jfc. Five watchers plus adds is no joke.

But we got through in the end, with everyone alive and only one reset! I think I'm getting better at this game. :D

[relicsongmel]

Now that I'm done with the main story I'd like to take some time to explain a small part about why Pokemon Scarlet (and Violet) mean so much to me—and why they were the first games in the series to make me cry in several years. (warning for discussions of parental death under the cut)

Generation 9 was the first time I was playing a brand new generation after my mom had passed from cancer a year and a half prior. I wasn't expecting to have this fact be relevant to my experience with the game, but one of first things that struck me not long after booting it up was the design of the player character's mom. She looked so much like my own mother that I genuinely had to take a step back from shock for a bit. But it was surely just a coincidence, right?

That initial double take moment aside, I continued through the game fairly normally, enjoying it quite a bit despite its fairly obvious graphical limitations and occasional glitching. I loved exploring the wide open world of Paldea; I'm very meticulous about being thorough in games and seeing what every area has to offer, and while I wasn't quite able to get to everything considering the sheer size of the map, I still did my damndest to clear out as much of it as I could. I loved the colorful cast of characters and the stories that accompanied them; Nemona was a bundle of joy (and I quickly claimed her as my lovely autistic daughter because that's what she is), Penny and the Team Star storyline were well thought-out and compelling, and Arven's quest, despite me being spoiled on a few details, was heart-rending and I was invested the whole way through.

Speaking of spoilers: I knew going into the game that Arven's mom/dad was canonically dead depending on which version you were playing. But that didn't stop the emotional impact of the final confrontation with the professor from hitting me the way it did.

As I said, my mother passed away due to complications from breast cancer; she spent an agonizingly long week in the hospital dealing with sepsis (among other things) before her condition took a turn for the worse and she was taken off life support on June 9th, 2021. During that time, I never got the opportunity to talk to her or even visit her—I asked over and over, but she was only allowed a limited number of visitors which were being taken up by other family members. My last in-person conversation with her was while helping her to bed one night, in which she told me she would have my dad take her to urgent care the next morning. At the time, I didn't even consider the possibility that she might not end up coming home. When that fact finally hit me a few days later, I wrote a letter making some promises to her (that I wasn't able to keep because the grief ended up hitting me like a truck) and telling her I loved her, but it was too little too late: my mom was on life support and only semi-conscious; my letter was read to her by my sister when she went to visit and I will never know if she actually heard my words. The day I was finally able to see her was the day she passed, where I held her hand for one final time and was met with.....silence. Obviously. But just because something is to be expected doesn't mean it won't hurt.

Long story short, I was not only dealing with the grief of losing her, but also the pain of not having proper closure; of being able to talk with her knowing for sure it would be the last time. So imagine my reaction when I realized that Arven was going through the exact same thing with his own mother—having been left behind without so much as an explanation, and then said mother dies before she ever has the chance to set things right with him. And his situation is compounded even further by having to contend with seeing the AI professor looking and speaking exactly like her, finally getting the acknowledgement from his mother he's wanted for so long relayed by the AI but finding himself struggling to accept it given how much it's too little too late, and then she leaves him behind too (albeit for more understandable reasons), meaning he essentially loses his mom twice over—all this while pushing through the trauma of revisiting a place that wounded the only companion he had so badly that he thought he might end up losing him, too. My relationship with my mother was not nearly as tumultuous as Arven's—but I could still relate to those feelings of loss and powerlessness and thus found myself shedding tears after the AI professor's final farewell. Because I saw myself in that grieving kid who just wanted closure.

Scarlet and Violet are by no means perfect games. But I would be lying if I said they didn't have a profound impact on me and helped me feel a bit less alone in my grief. And for that they'll always hold a special place in my heart.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)

An ignoble end to the Sonic Storybook series.

After Secret Rings, Sonic Team went ahead with a sequel sharing a similar premise: Sonic enters the world of a popular myth, in this case the King Arthur legend. As before plenty of liberties are taken, and the Wii Remote takes centre stage, but I think both story and controls are improved at least somewhat in this second and final "Storybook" entry. Maybe they'll revisit the concept one day, people love to speculate about what other kind of stories Sonic & co might fit into.

In this tale, Sonic is plonked down in front of the eponymous black knight, a twisted and cruel version of King Arthur with massive impractical armour. His army of beastly soldiers from "the underworld" are threatening Merlina, Merlin's moeblob granddaughter. She seems at first to be another milquetoast Elise/Shahra type but before long some unsubtle foreshadowing hints at a villainous twist. Sonic soon runs into Amy as Nimue, while Shadow, Knuckles, and Blaze play the parts of knights of the round table who must be convinced to rebel against their evil king. I guess it's a very small table in this version, although you can unlock Silver and Jet in similar roles for the multiplayer.

The team of three hostile knights challenge you in boss fights, and later become playable in certain levels, with their own moves and sword styles. They therefore have a large presence in the story which is nice, and Tails too is seen often as he hosts the Blacksmith equipment screen. Along with this the world feels more alive as many levels are populated by civilians, albeit strange gremlin creatures... come to think of it, there are no humans at all, as Merlina has pointy elf ears, Arthur turns out to just be a phantom of some sort, and there’s no Eggman to be seen! So it's a very Euro-fantasy tinged version of Britain… or at least, Japan’s idea of Euro-fantasy, which comes with a lot of blather about the nature of chivalry. The art design feels slightly more stylised than Secret Rings, although the locations themselves aren't half as interesting, consisting of ho-hum video game staples like enchanted forests, crystal caves, castles, and volcanoes.

Presumably lessons were learned from Secret Rings in the gameplay department, as the Nunchuck has now been implemented and with it a control stick for traditional 3D movement. The level structure is still similar as the action plays out in twisting lanes, only this time there's a lot of sword swinging, and this is where the Wii Remote's motion features kick in. The game throws tons of disposable shadow soldiers at you, and you mow them down by wildly flapping around. The thing is just not responsive enough to try anything more sophisticated than that. The attempt to merge the Sonic-style running and platforming with this combat system doesn't really work too well, and the level of precision the game tries to demand doesn't hold up to the controls either, so once again we have a situation where the core "playing the game" part falls down and brings the whole package crashing around it. Oh well.

Like Secret Rings, you choose levels from a menu but now there's a map screen at least. You still get the larger plot-advancing levels and then side challenges that open up, but they're more optional this time and there's fewer of them. The game as a whole is shorter but I don't mind that at all, as Secret Rings felt artificially lengthened. Finishing a level awards you random loot, which has to be identified from a pool of points awarded based on your performance. These can be simply collectibles for the gallery or gameplay-modifying equipment. Your rating also levels you up, unlocking passive perks depending on the sword style you've chosen. It's an attempt at streamlining Secret Rings' customisation system, but ends up feeling fiddly and shallow, and getting to high levels would require either grinding or somehow playing perfectly. I felt no motivation for either, and stopped after getting the true ending despite new side levels opening up.

Sadly the music represents a return to the unremarkable, despite featuring a collaboration of various artists. At least they don't force the main vocal theme on you in every menu like Secret Rings did, although the horn-blaring fanfare that ends each level is definitely worse. The boss fights are again a lowlight, whether they're the awkward knight duels or the handful of other quick time event-heavy battles. Overall it's refined in some ways but I can't help but feel that Secret Rings was a bigger swing and more admirable for it, even though it was a pain to play. Black Knight is a different kind of pain, a sort of dull headache pain, but it passes quickly and you can go on with your day. Cheerio.

[makima-s-most-smile]

Plantussy-Shirt Part 2 Aftermath

continuation of this. I love casual scenes, but I cannot stop to add hints at angst. Again, modern au, independent plants were recently integrated into society. Wolfwood is somewhat of a social worker with a past™, Vash has his share of trauma and tries to be independent, Nai is... a rich snob/smothering, overprotective brother, but at least he doesn't try to destroy humanity?

Of course, Wolfwood stays the night. Ever since his brother has dragged this washed-up excuse for a decent human man into the flat, he has made himself at home. Like a scrungly, scabies-infested streetcat, he has claimed this space by all but spoken word. Access to their food, their drinks, their entertainment. He has no shame. And worse, he has no idea how to enjoy them right. The first time Wolfwood has opened their cupboards in his incessant search for calories, he has asked Nai in all seriousness where they have stashed the cup noodles. And when Nai has told him that they do not own any trash food in his house, Wolfwood had the gall to react with pity. “All those fancy ass salts and nothing to really enjoy.” Wolfwood is insufferable. To make a point, Nai doesn't know which and he is sure Wolfwood has forgotten it, too, he has tried every last one of Nai’s salts and has dared to say they all taste the same. That has to be a Wolfwood thing… No way humanity would have that selection of that many table salts if they really thought all taste the same… They do taste different! Wolfwood makes him doubt his sanity over salts. Nai despises him.

Five am. The sun is slowly peeking over the horizon. The glass front lets its beams into the room without any hindrance. They light it up in soft reds and oranges. Nai has time to breathe. In the house are two other beating hearts, one outside and he can accept that as his new reality. As long as they sleep, they don’t get on his nerves. Here’s to another two hours of quiet until his brother rushes to his silly, little job, too late to prepare food, too late to do anything but run. But that’s why he has Nai. Organised, responsible and dependable. As it should be. Right now, he can enjoy is bottle of liquid food - vanilla, as it should be - and prepare for the day.

A door opens. Nai’s mood immediately sours. He grabs the packet of organic bagels and gets to work. Bare feet slap audibly on the floor as their owner doesn’t even try to be considerate of sleepers. “Mrn,” Wolfwood walks into the kitchen, topsless like the evening before, shirt over his arm, jacket on.

“Are you a caveman?,” Nai snaps back.

“Mrn t’me, tu?,” a half-vocalised question, part due to tiredness, part due to obnoxiousness.

“Greet me right or don’t greet me at all, Wolfwood.”

Wolfwood shrugs and opens the fridge. Ever since he has started to stay over, Vash has cleared a bit of space in his part of the fridge. Nai wants to burn the contents with fire. Wolfwood pulls out a store brand iced coffee and downs it in front of the open fridge. Then another. And another. He ends his excess with a relieved sigh. “God damn, I am alive again. Mornin’, Sharpie,” he greets Nai again, this time with enthusiasm.

“Why are you like this?”

“I was dropped as a kid…,” Wolfwood answers without a moment’s hesitation, still way to chipper.

This is why Nai hates Wolfwood. He never knows what that man will say or try next, he only knows that he will and be as insufferable as possible about it. It is uncharted territory, but Nai is in dire need of a map. “Ugh, and, let me guess, you fell on your head… Great way to excus…”

“From the fifth floor, after being held by the ankles. It was attempted homicide. They don’t know if it was my dad or my mom,” Wolfwood smiles, his eyes unmoving in their tired, blunt state. As if he hasn’t just dropped a bombshell, he leans forward, one arm for support on the counter, stretching the other to steal the bagel that Nai is making. “Maybe it was a team effort.”

“Okay…,” Nai watches as Wolfwood lifts the bagel from his plate. He has made it for the human anyway, but now he kinda wants him to choke on it. 

Between too big bites, Wolfwood continues, mouth still full: “After that I was put from foster home to foster home until I landed in an secret testing lab where they pumped me full off…” “I really tried to have a real conversation with you,” Nai interrupts Wolfwood sharply. “But I understand that you are unable to do so… Also… Never make that joke around Vash. You should at least have enough mental capacity to know why…”

Wolfwood shrugs, entirely too quiet and too eager to let the topic drop for Nai’s taste. Nai squints at Wolfwood, who has turned away to forage the fridge again. Not enough and not the right kind of scars to make his story believable, but too many for an easy life. Fingers and nose have been broken; knuckles bust open; hands worn down by hard work; two bullet wounds through and through; smaller, longer scars, knifework, but not medicinal. Vash trusts too easily and too readily. His affirmation that Wolfwood has the eyes of a good guy echoes hollow against the message the state of Wolfwood's body sends. Then his behaviour, crude and unrefined, by choice. Nai has seen him act towards other people, people in positions of power. That is a completely different man than the one squatting in front of his fridge. And even with his back turned to Nai, Nai knows Wolfwood is watching him, listening to any move he makes. Vash has no experience with humanity, but Nai has. And Wolfwood, he’s humanity’s worst in flesh. Wolfwood. Is. Dangerous.

“Can I have this?,” Wolfwood interrupts Nai’s thoughts and holds out a handmade, cloth-bound cheddar. 

“Where is your own stuff? Aren’t you basically living here?” “I didn’t plan to. I don’t even have yer door code. Vash asked me to stay the night. How was I to predict that it would be five days in a row?,” he turns to Nai. His bluntness changes suddenly to a voice full of fake tears and despair. “I want to go home again. I have forgotten the faces of my family, Nai! Help!”

Nai stares. 

“No, joking. Ya threw away my cup noodles,” his voice back to normal.

“That’s not food.”

“It wasn’t yours!,” Wolfwood disagrees.

“It wasn’t in its dedicated spot!”

“Who the fuck puts cup noodles in a fridge?”

“Fine, eat the stupid cheddar. I wasn’t going to eat it anyway,” Nai gives in. It’s true anyway. Both of them. Wolfwood nods, satisfied, and bites a whole chunk out of it. Nai does not comment on his manners.

“Say…,” Wolfwood starts, still chewing.

“What is it?”

“Is it a plant thing?,” Wolfwood points to the package of bagels.

“Please come again? It is made from plants, flora, yes, but I somehow get the notion that this is not what you are referring to, Wolfwood. Use your words.”

“The loving round things with holes thing.”

“Ah,” Nai blinks. Yes, there is a pattern there. “No… It is a Vash thing.”

Wolfwood seems to think about it and comes to the conclusion that yes, liking round wheat things with holes is a Vash thing. It checks out. He nods.

“Well, Imma head out,” Wolfwood takes another bite of the cheddar and throws away the rind. “Hope ya have a good day at work.”

“It’s five thirty.”

Wolfwood puts his shoes on. “Yep, and I need a run, a shower, a change of clothes and then I still need to get to work.”

“Just shower here and wear the clothes you wore yesterday, it is not like you’re picky.”

“Ya really think I’d wear that shirt in front of kids?” Nai’s eyes widen as he grasps for words. Wolfwood grins, grabs Vash’s prepared food and books it. “Thanks for the food! Bye!”

Legato is standing watch at the entrance. It will be another two hours till Vash will run past him, then another half an hour till he can join his boss on his way to work. His boss takes utmost care to separate his job from his private life. Legato has never set foot inside of the house. “Moocher,” Legato greets Wolfwood as the other rushes past him from the inside. “Boy toy,” Wolfwood greets him back, passing him without even a glance and rummaging inside a brown paper bag for something to eat.

[agender-witchery]

I'm having rambly thoughts about Pokemon Scarlet/Violet and it's too long for a tweet so I guess this is where I put it.

A lot of people criticized the game's open world structure as not being "really" open world because while you technically could go anywhere, you'd get your ass handed to you if you went too out of order too early.

This is not an issue in open world game design, in my opinion. It's... fine, I guess, if an open world game provides a world that scales with you, but my personal preference is a "You can go this way, and you can also die" approach. There are two glaring issues with the way Pokemon handles this before I even get into the 3 story routes.

The first issue is that, in order for this sort of design to work, you need to have leveled zones. Encounters in areas such as main roads should generally be easier to handle. The further you fuck off into the wilderness, the more difficult the encounters become.

Using Breath of the Wild as an example, because Zelda fucking knocked open world as a format out of the park on the first try, the area forming the perimeter of Hyrule Field is where you encounter the easiest enemies. Not much more than Bokoblins and Chuchus if you stick to that route. This is also the area you'll find yourself in immediately upon leaving the Great Plateau. Now, if you head too far toward the center of Hyrule Field, you get Guardians. Too far north, also Guardians. But in every other direction you can take, the variety and difficulty of enemies gently scales up, introducing enemies like Moblins and Lizalfos gradually, while at the same time introducing environments that try to murder you. If you head East toward Kakariko Village as the game gently pushes you to do, you will reach a region that does not try to murder you, have time to gear up to tackle the regions that do, and still get that gentle difficulty scaling. And, as long as you stick to the main roads, you're not facing anything more difficult than a Moblin until you delve deep into Lanayru on your way to Zora's Domain.

Pokemon, on the other hand, decides simply that the further north you go, the further fucked you are. This WOULD be fine... if it weren't for the story routes.

The second issue is that... the map's too small. This appears largely due to massive development mistakes where they just decide to render unseen portions of the map for whatever reason. Compare it to Breath of the Wild, a game initially designed and released on the PREVIOUS console, and it's painful how small the Pokemon map is. Whatever the reason, this forces areas that would have otherwise been perfect "This area will be a bit tougher than you're used to, but you gotta cross it" spots far closer to the school than they had to be. The rocky area right outside the east gate comes to mind.

And then there's the way the map interacts with the story routes. Sure you CAN tackle things in any order... but the gyms don't scale. This, I feel, is a mistake. Since the Pokemon League is an organization, and its been shown in other Pokemon media like the manga that gym leaders can pull out different teams depending on how many badges the challenger already has.

And because gyms don't scale, and because the further north you go the further fucked you are, and because the map is a donut with a forbidden zone in the center, you are forced into an awkward zigzag pattern when taking on the story that forces you to fast travel after every few major fights if you don't want to be completely outclassed too quickly.

So if Pokemon wanted to be open world, I don't think the world necessarily had to scale, but I do think that gym leaders should've scaled, each titan should've been roughly the same level as each other, and Team Star would be fine as is, which would additionally make each story path feel a bit more distinct. Victory Road would always be appropriate for where you were, each titan would be roughly on par with one another, and Team Star would do whatever they could to get in your way no matter what because they're Team Star.

BUT ALSO?

Pokemon never needed to be open world. Pokemon never should've been open world, open world is a fun thing when done correctly, but you also need the property to accommodate open world! For Pokemon, this would require restructuring what were previously the game's core mechanics from the ground up, like they did with Breath of the Wild being a HUGE departure from Zelda games before it, or like they did with... Pokemon Legends Arceus. Pokemon keeps wanting to reinvent their formula, but they need to give up the existing formula if they're gonna reinvent it. You could make a Pokemon game that is open world, but just like Breath of the Wild, you'd need to just throw everything out the window and keep only the essence of Pokemon.

And they'll never do that, because The Pokemon Company are cowards, and they do not let those games cook long enough.