#hes probably there through time travel shenanigans since shadow's part of the story still takes place during generations

[sonknuxadow]

anybody else ever think about how knuckles and shadow are both the last of their kind but how they ended up in that situation and their feelings surrounding it are completely different. idk i just think its interesting

[yannasunflower]

flux

on today’s episode of “yanna needs to stop writing new things and work on her wips”. i love this show and i wanted to write a lil something that’s been at the back of my mind for a while. always wanted to know what happened while Katara and Zuko waited to hear if they were able to win the war, or if their friends would survive or not. may keep this as a one-shot, may turn it into an actual fic with an Azula redemption arc and actual Zutara shenanigans and politics GALORE. who knows? enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~

Katara is sure he’s dead. She’s never been more sure of anything in her life, to be precise. Azula’s aim is impeccable, Zuko has always been at least a little suicidal, and Katara is a waterbender who is absolutely useless against lightning. Tears are streaming down her face and she’s trying to convince her sputtering heart to keep beating even as she runs toward his prone body, so lifeless, so helpless on the cold, stone ground.

It is no place for a son of Agni.

She falls to her knees and doesn’t stop to listen for a heartbeat, just puts her hands to his chest and prays. The wound is gaping and raw and scorching. She tries to keep her memory from racing to another night on Appa’s back when she held the world’s future in her hands for the first time. Katara hiccups, not sure if she has felt fear like this since Aang took the same lightning bolt in Ba Sing Se. Lightning that put him in a coma for weeks, a wound that didn’t let her sleep for days at a time. 

Aang had been necessary to world peace but right now, looking down at Zuko’s pale, fine face, Katara knows in her gut that Zuko is just as instrumental to the future Aang saw, was willing to die, that they were all willing to die for. The comet is still streaking a path of fire through the sky and behind her, Azula is screaming like a wounded animal. 

Katara flutters her fingers, inhales, holds her breath, squeezes her eyes shut and tries to imagine the heart in Zuko’s chest, one that is red and bleeds just like hers would be if Zuko hadn’t been so damn noble, so honorable. The thought makes her flinch even while her hands stay steady.

And then she feels more than hears the first tremblings of a heart that’s alive. The heart beneath her stirs, beats, skips, and beats again, stronger and steadier with every passing second. She’s sobbing and thanking every spirit out loud she can think of: Agni, La, Tui, Yue, Agni again for saving his son.

Zuko’s body twitches, his fingers curling inward. Katara could jump for joy when his eyes open, still gold and bright. His voice is quiet and low but strong. 

“Thank you, Katara,” he rasps. 

Katara can’t stop herself from throwing her arms around his shoulders, sobbing freely now, unable to imagine a future where his heart had remained still forever. Was it only weeks ago she had wanted to throw him from a cliff?

“I think I’m the one who should be thanking you,” she sniffles when she can finally let go of him, trying her best to give him a big, if somewhat watery, smile. Zuko smiles back, awkwardly like he does everything, and Katara resists the urge to hug him again. 

“Where’s - what happened to...Azula?” his words are halting. Katara helps him sit up, healer eyes careful to catch any wince. 

She jerks her head in Azula’s direction and watches as at first, understanding, then, an indescribable sadness passes over Zuko’s face. She helps him stand at his insistence and when he finally sees his little sister, chained and broken, tears streaming down her face even as she sends fire roaring into the red sky, Katara’s heart breaks. A single word is threaded in Azula’s cries, mama, and Katara’s breath hitches. She looks away, unable in that moment to see anything but a frightened girl she knows she cannot help. A war criminal, a killer, a teenager who was never meant to fight the way she did. 

Attendants are flooding the courtyard. Katara can see the understanding dawning on their faces, many of them scurrying in the direction of what she presumes are the Fire Sages who fled at the first sign of Zuko. She glances at him, sees the grim knowing in the set of his jaw.

“Find the Fire Sages. And someone sedate my sister.” Katara flinches. She does not envy the poor soul tasked with shutting a wild Azula up.

His voice rings through the courtyard, commanding, more powerful than he probably feels, sagging against Katara. She frowns up at him, guiding him to the stone steps and setting him down carefully, gently.

“I need to clean that wound and bandage it Zuko, now is not the time for state matters,” she admonishes, preparing herself to pull more water from the soaked ground. Zuko grits his teeth and she recognizes the way his eyes flash molten gold at her. Zuko is truly the most stubborn person she’s ever met, and she’s met Toph Bei Fong. 

“Scowl at me all you want, I’m cleaning that wound right this second, even if I have to tie you up to do it. Wouldn’t want your Fire Sages walking in on that I bet,” she growls. He shuts his mouth with a click and she gets to work, trying to be gentle, clenching her jaw at every hiss of pained breath Zuko lets out. With Zuko out of immediate danger, her mind wanders to Aang and Sokka and Toph and Suki. Spirits, her father and her tribe’s men. She wonders if Iroh and the White Lotus have recaptured Ba Sing Se, if they ever even had a chance in hell of it. 

Mostly, she tries not to imagine her father’s face if Sokka never comes back. 

“Do...do you think Aang is out there, fighting my father?”

The question is quiet, almost a whisper. Katara pauses to consider it. She manages to flash a smile she doesn’t fully feel at him. 

“Aang always comes through,” she answers. It is as honest one she can give. It seems to satisfy Zuko, who leans back on his palms as Katara rips the hem of her tunic and wraps it around his torso. 

“If,” Katara can’t finish the question. She looks away, at the damaged rooftops still burning, gnawing on her lip. Azula is still shooting blue fire and sobbing and really she knows there’s a comet but how much fire does Azula have? Zuko waits. “If Aang doesn’t defeat Ozai...what will happen to us?”

There is silence for a moment. Katara is afraid to look him in the eye, to even look at his face, so she keeps her gaze focused on wounding the bandage around his chest, tightly but not too much. She ties it off much more carefully than usual, trying to avoid the moment when she will have to look up.

“He’ll try to kill me,” Zuko finally says after a long pause. He can’t run from his homeland again. Her horrified eyes dart to his, mouth open with shock at the mere idea of a father murdering his son. A grin almost curls at the corner of his mouth. Zuko knows that Katara, for all her strengths and intelligence, for all the awful, inhuman things she had seen during the war, he knows that perhaps the one thing she and her brother cannot imagine is that. He realizes, a little abruptly, he has never told any of them how he got his scar.

It’s a story for another day, one bathed in sunlight, where his father’s shadow cannot reach him. He likes to think that day will come, that it exists in his murky future.

The Fire Sages arrive, immediately falling to their knees and pressing their foreheads to the ground, still wet from Katara’s water. She glares at them balefully, disgusted by their spineless cowering and simpering. 

“Prince Zuko,” one whimpers, voice somewhat muffled by the floor. “The Fire Sages welcome your return as the rightful heir to the throne.”

Zuko says nothing. She can’t read his eyes or his face, smooth and imperturbable. With a pang, Katara sees the Fire Lord he could become. She is sorely tempted to tell the cowards to scramble in language she has picked up from travelling some of the coarser parts of the world. But this is not her nation, not her palace, and it is not her crown at risk.

“Sit up,” Zuko orders. He speaks with a new authority, one he never uses when talking to her. She blinks a little. It is hard to keep up with Zuko’s faces and sides at times. “Preparations for my coronation will begin immediately. You will declare me Fire Lord in the next hour. We can have a more formal ceremony at a later date.”

Whatever objections the Sage had been about to sputter died on his lips with one hiss from Katara and a little help from the water rapidly freezing around his wrists. Swallowing, hard, he rises to his feet, as well as his companion, who pulls a familiar object from his robes. 

“An honor, my lord,” this one rumbles and he meets Zuko’s eyes with a little more defiance than the first. Zuko holds his gaze. The air warms by at least a few degrees. While not versed in Fire Nation politics, Katara is somewhat sure the proper address should have been your highness. By the narrow slit of Zuko’s molten eyes, the slight had not passed unnoticed. She shivers. Katara resists the urge to throw the Sage into the ocean, to make him and his hard, dark eyes disappear. He is a viper in a snake’s nest, at home in a court that Zuko has not truly belonged to for years. The hairs at the back of her neck prickle. 

The ceremony is brief and to the point. Katara is beginning to scan the sky for a messenger hawk or some other sign that her brother and their friends are alive. The comet is fading away into the darkening sky. Every moment that passes is painful, agony really. Zuko stands up, shoulders squared and straight, crown gleaming in his black hair. Katara forces a smile, swallowing bile, taking his arm and walking with him to a chamber just a little ways down the hall. When the door closes after a bowing servant, she presses a careful finger to the wound, relieved to find it still closed and not-bleeding. 

Her body sags without permission. She is tired, deep in her bones and blood, with a world to rebuild in front of her. Zuko doesn’t look any better off, the dark circles under his eyes difficult to miss. He plucks the crown from his hair, letting it fall loose around his face once more. Katara brushes an errant strand from his cheek, gently, and she marvels at how Zuko no longer flinches from her touch. When had he begun to look at her with trust in those eyes? When did he stop wincing at every movement she made?

He leans into her touch, just a little, and she allows her fingertips to graze his cheek, enjoying the way his eyes fall shut seemingly without permission. There was a time when Zuko had found it difficult to sleep around her, and there was a time when Katara had stood guard outside his door, stiffening at every noise while he slept. Now, his eyes remain shut and it doesn’t take Toph’s hearing to know his breathing has slowed. 

They don’t move for what feels like days. When he stirs, Katara startles just a little, averting her gaze quickly, praying Zuko hadn’t caught her tracing the thick black (how unfair) eyelashes that fluttered against his cheekbones (too fine, too angled, the bastard even had good bone structure) with her eyes. She stands, wringing her hands, feeling the last of the water in her skin swirling restlessly. 

Katara orders tea and watches with no small amount of amazement as Zuko pours it gracefully. She had nearly forgotten his time working a menial tea shop job in Ba Sing Se. Somehow, the sight of an injured Fire Lord Zuko skillfully pouring her steaming tea is both humorous and disconcerting. 

“We should have heard by now,” she frets as the sky still darkens and time still passes with no word from any of their allies. Outside, she knows the palace is in disarray and the nobles are probably wondering if it is safe to come out yet, but Zuko is in no condition to appear before them as their new Fire Lord, he looks exhausted, La she wishes she could let him sleep. But the world is on fire and Katara is drinking tea mostly to preserve her sanity at this point, so damn the nobles and damn the politics. 

The waiting is almost worse than the fighting. After a few comfortable minutes spent in silence, Katara’s worrying breaks it again.

Zuko flashes her a familiar, exasperated scowl. 

“Stop fidgeting, for Agni’s sake,” he sighs. His tired, overly-patient tone is familiar. Afternoons watching him and Aang work through firebending forms flood her mind. She grins sheepishly. “If Ozai had defeated Aang, we would know by now. That’s not something he would keep to himself for longer than necessary.”

The words soothe her, but only slightly. Because by defeated he meant killed and the thought of Aang’s small, broken body is too much for her to bear. 

“Katara.” Zuko hesitates, and she waits, because they always know when more is coming, they always know when to wait for the other. 

“Thank you, for healing me,” he says and she can’t help but laugh at the genuine, earnest way he looks at her from under those unfair lashes. It’s a boyish expression in a face that long ago lost its roundness.  

“You already said that,” she dismisses him. “And I told you, I’m the one who should thank you. I would be dead if it wasn’t for you. You almost threatened the future of the world to save me.”

Zuko looks slightly confused. 

“You are the future,” he says and damn him he’s done it again. Her heart is sputtering, blood rushing to her cheeks and she briefly considers trying to bloodbend the blush away. Because Zuko’s face, no longer boy-round, permanently scarred by the cruelty of his father, is so damned honest and grateful and la, she is trying hard not to wonder what would happen if she leans forward, just a little.

Zuko’s eyes are more than gold, she finds, especially in firelight, and is this what Agni’s eyes would look like she tries not to wonder, tries not to see that she has leaned closer, unwittingly, or maybe not, her thoughts a jumbled tangle of heat and fear and spirits there’s still a war going on. But she can’t help but notice that Zuko isn’t moving away, is just watching her face in a way that sets her bones on fire and spirits, she wants to touch his cheek again - 

A rapid, soft knock on the door makes her gasp. She throws her body away from him in a ridiculously dramatic motion. It’s only a servant, asking if her new Fire Lord would like food, bowing all the while. Katara takes that moment to straighten herself, gulping in steadying breaths and pushing the stolen moment far, far from the front of her mind.

“Have any messages come for me?” Zuko asks and the servant girl shakes her head. Katara’s heart sinks and from Zuko’s thin mouth, fear is beginning to settle into his bones, too. 

It only takes a few moments of awkward silence after the servant leaves for Katara to start fidgeting again. She has just about made up her mind to take Appa to where the Fire Nation’s fleet had planned to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground when a servant enters, bowing low at the waist, a sealed message in her hand. 

“Pardon me, Your Majesty, but a messenger hawk has just arrived from Ba Sing Se.”

Zuko grabs the message hungrily, breaking it open and scanning the words before the girl has straightened from her bow. He sighs, deeply, and Katara reads it over his shoulder, nearly bursting into tears again with relief. 

“They recaptured Ba Sing Se,” she whispers. Her hand grasps Zuko’s shoulder and he reaches a hand up to clasp it silently. For a moment, the world straightens. 

“Please bring any other messages directly to me,” Zuko says. The girl can’t quite stop herself from blinking rapidly before bowing low again and retreating, red definitely crawling up her neck. Zuko looks confused and Katara nearly laughs. She doesn’t have the heart to tell him that she doesn’t think Fire Lords often say please when addressing servants. 

A distant scream sends Katara scrambling for her waterskin and Zuko trying to jump to his feet, failing miserably and crying out as he slumps back. 

“Stay put,” Katara orders him, forgetting for a moment the crown on Zuko’s head. She runs out before she can think too hard about it, her legs taking her to the courtyard, water already rising from the stones, fire burning in her veins because Zuko bled for this palace, these people, before a familiar wolf tail registers in her heart. 

“Sokka!” She definitely screams it a little, nearly falls at least twice as she rushes forward and throws herself into his arms, his healthy, alive arms. He’s on crutches and his leg is bent strangely but she doesn’t care because he’s alive and holding her tight and trembling against her. Suki grunts a little, bearing the brunt of his weight, but makes no complaints, smiling too broadly to feign irritation. 

Aang is standing next to him when she finally pulls back, a tired smile on his young face. 

“Hey Katara,” he says and he sounds his age for once but she doesn’t care because La, he’s alive and so is Toph and Suki and she’s going to cry again. She’s not sure who is hugging who but it doesn’t matter because all of her friends are breathing and here. 

“Where’s Sparky?” Toph asks when they all manage to disentangle themselves. Katara’s eyes widen and she gasps. 

She turns on her heel to find a very injured Zuko hobbling down the steps. 

She runs to him, throwing his arm over her shoulder and shooting him an apologetic grin. 

“Agni, did you think you could face Ozai alone?” he wheezes and she laughs because he is alive, too, and he took lightning for her, and everyone she loves may have just made it out of this war. 

The group rushes forward, murmuring sympathies, arms reaching out to embrace Zuko, and they fall into another tangled hug, tears streaming down faces, Sokka complaining about his leg, Toph grumbling about sappiness even as she slings to Katara like she’ll never let go. Katara looks at Aang and his grey eyes are still alight with something that is all him, all Aang the airbender, and he smiles at her the way a child who has not been ravaged by war would. 

Questions and answers will come later, as will healing and scars and hard work and negotiations. In the light of the lanterns and the moon and the small spots of fire the servants have not yet put out though, Katara clings to her family and begins to realize that the war that killed her mother is over. The war that took her father, took Aang’s people and Zuko’s innocence, took Azula’s soul. It is over. 

She is alive, they all are, and they are breathing in a new life, a future. Together.

[coffeebased]

I won’t be the first or last person to marvel at how quickly February whizzed past, especially in comparison to January’s gauntlet. To be completely fair to February, it had the ongoing COVID-19 international epidemic, as well as the ABS-CBN shutdown crisis, the anti-terrorism bill, the reminder that historical revisionism re: the Marcos dictatorship is alive and well… and those were just the actual headlines.

I must digress before I spiral.

I read 12 books in February, half of which were newly released in this month. I’ve split my post up into three parts like I did last month: one-shots, parts of series, and re-reads. It seems to be working well for me.

  Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker

The unnamed and morally questionable narrator is an exorcist with great follow-through and few doubts. His methods aren’t delicate but they’re undeniably effective: he’ll get the demon out—he just doesn’t particularly care what happens to the person.

Prosper of Schanz is a man of science, determined to raise the world’s first philosopher-king, reared according to the purest principles. Too bad he’s demonically possessed.

After I read Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City last year, I knew that I wanted more by Parker. I considered delving into his back catalog, which I still will probably do, but I saw that he was releasing a new book in Feb 2020, so I jumped on that first. Prosper’s is exactly up my alley, what with the discussions of morality and the greater good with demons, and quite a bit of engineering. I’d admired the voice of the main character in Sixteen because he was dry and very caught up in doing what needed to be done, and the main character has the same appealing values. It’s a short read, but it sticks in the teeth and fills the belly.

  Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher

Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

Kingfisher, also known as Ursula Vernon, tends to write capable and damaged characters falling in with each other and foiling plots. She also tends to write paladins very well, which is a personal delight. I always enjoy a Kingfisher story, because the characters do the sensible thing more often than not, and she deals with trauma very compassionately, from what I suspect is a personal viewpoint. Her books are also usually very funny, very disturbing, and no-nonsense, scratching that Terry Pratchett Witch itch when I miss him very much. Grace is along the same lines, with a good solid HEA that leaves everyone, including the reader, satisfied.

  Kindred, a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings

I lost an arm on my last trip home.

Home is a new house with a loving husband in 1970s California that suddenly transformed in to the frightening world of the antebellum South.

Dana, a young black writer, can’t explain how she is transported across time and space to a plantation in Maryland. But she does quickly understand why: to deal with the troubles of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder–and her progenitor.

Her survival, her very existence, depends on it.

This searing graphic-novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction classic is a powerfully moving, unflinching look at the violent disturbing effects of slavery on the people it chained together, both black and white–and made kindred in the deepest sense of the word.

Kindred, the novel, is on my Next 20s list. I had meant to read it before I read the GN, but picked up the graphic novel based on a friend’s recommendation. The graphic novel is searingly painful, and I enjoyed reading it, but there are parts of it that feel slightly disjointed. I’m not sure if it’s because of the time travel, or if it’s an adaptation problem. It made me want to read the novel immediately, which is what I am reading right now. I don’t think that I’ll be able to properly synthesise my thoughts about this book until I’ve read the original.

    Mirror: The Mountain and The Nest by Emma Rios and Hwei Lim

A mysterious asteroid hosts a collection of strange creatures – man-animal hybrids, mythological creatures made flesh, guardian spirits, cursed shadows – and the humans who brought them to life. But this strange society exists in an uneasy truce, in the aftermath of uprisings seeking freedom and acceptance, that have only ended in tragedy. As the ambitious, the desperate and the hopeful inhabitants of the asteroid struggle to decide their shared fate, a force greater than either animal or human seems to be silently watching the conflict, waiting for either side to finally answer the question: what is worthy of being human?

Recommended to me by a new friend who’d heard I was into sci-fi and graphic novels, who absolutely hit the nail on the head with this rec. The art is beautiful, dreamy, and layered, and it keeps you tied to the story as the authors build what is a magnificent construction in your head. The authors do some really lovely things with timeskips that I have no idea how to talk about without spoiling anything, and I only regret that we weren’t able to linger through the second volume. I’m don’t know why there isn’t more of Mirror, but I do appreciate how they tied everything up as well as they could in two volumes. Looking forward to more like this in the future.

  Heartstopper: Volume Three by Alice Oseman

In this volume we’ll see the Heartstopper gang go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship AND learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private…

Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?

You can read all of Heartstopper and its future updates here. Heartstopper is a lovely slice of life comic, PG13 at best, that really takes me back to my own mid-teens. The story is centered around the developing relationship of two young boys, Charlie and Nick, and it really deals with it respectfully. It tackles a lot of teen issues without being too preachy about it, which is probably the least inspiring thing I could have written about it, and integrates it deftly into the story. The art style is adorable and really complements the sweet story. This volume, just released this month, revolves around a class trip to Paris, and there are some shenanigans that you’ll have to read for yourself.

  Sixty Six Book 2 by Russell Molina and Mikey Marchan

Kuwento ni Celestino Cabal. Kabebertdey niya lang. Mayroon siyang natanggap na regalo na ngayo’y unti-unti niyang binubuksan. Ika nga ng matatanda, “Huli man daw at magaling, maihahabol din.”

The story of Celestino Cabal. His birthday has just passed. He received a gift that he now gets to open, bit by bit. As the old saying goes, “Better late than never.”

This is the synopsis of the first book. There isn’t an official synopsis for the second book online, and I hesitate to write my own. Sixty Six Book 2 was released during February Komiket, and since I had been waiting for it for a few years, I had to go to the event even though everyone’s been iffy about going into crowded spaces due to COVID-19. I was excited to read this but unfortunately, I don’t think it capitalised on the foundation set in Book 1. The artist was different, and I admired their work on a technical level, as well as their humorous use of WASAK as a sound effect. I don’t know if there’ll be a third book, but the author has made themselves a little leeway for that possibility at the end of this volume.

  Thank You, Jeeves, Jeeves #5 by P.G. Wodehouse

The odds are stacked against Chuffy when he falls head over heels for American heiress Pauline Stoker. Who better to help him win her over but Jeeves, the perfect gentleman’s gentleman. But when Bertie, Pauline’s ex-fiance finds himself caught up in the fray, much to his consternation, even Jeeves struggles to get Chuffy his fairy-tale ending.

This book was in my next 20s! So I’m accomplishing one of my 2020 reading goals, yay! But hot damn there is some racist language in this book. Every time I was finally sinking into the story boom! Racist language! And I know that it was because of the time it was published, like I know that academically, but oof. That aside, the story is solid. It’s a comedy of manners AND errors with Jeeves ex machina, as per usual, but this is the first full Jeeves novel I’ve read, the rest were short story collections, and it was good to see the characters take more space. It certainly made the comedic payoff a lot stronger.

But oof.

  Die Vol. 2: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Clayton Cowles

No one can escape DIE until everyone agrees to go home. Or rather, no one can escape DIE until everyone who is alive agrees to go home. The second arc of the commercial and critical hit of bleakly romantic fantasy fiction starts to reveal the secrets of the world, and our heroes’ pasts. Yes, they can’t escape DIE. They also can’t escape themselves. Collects issues #6-10 of DIE

CHARACTERISATION. There’s a lot more breathing space in this newly-released volume of Die and I live for that! The first volume was a lot of the characters running from one place to the next and we, as readers, were being given the sense of setting. But volume two, you can feel Gillen just finally branching out and hitting us with their joined histories. I want to see more of how these older players will be dealing with the actions of their teenage selves, and I think the third volume will really show what the comic’s capable of. I’m really looking forward to that.

  False Value, Rivers of London #8 by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner’s brand new London start up – the Serious Cybernetics Company.

Drawn into the orbit of Old Street’s famous ‘silicon roundabout’, Peter must learn how to blend in with people who are both civilians and geekier than he is. Compared to his last job, Peter thinks it should be a doddle. But magic is not finished with Mama Grant’s favourite son.

Because Terrence Skinner has a secret hidden in the bowels of the SCC. A technology that stretches back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, and forward to the future of artificial intelligence. A secret that is just as magical as it technological – and just as dangerous.

The last Rivers of London book finished the first major arc of the series. It was a succession of explosions contained in a novel. So I was wondering what kind of tone Aaronovitch would be setting with False Value. Would it be all action, immediately? A filler story? I just wanted more Peter Grant. It could literally be an entire novel of Peter going to America to visit the Smithsonian museums and I would be on that.

False Value is a slow story but does a lot of table setting for the next arc. While the case of the book feels very small and contained, you can see that they’re being pulled into the larger world of magic. I did have a hard time with the first few chapters, but I’m not sure if this is a problem of the book, or because I sailed straight into it after the Jeeves book I had been reading.

I finished the book too quickly and now I have to wait for the next one. Bother.

    The Thief, The Queen’s Thief #1 by Megan Whalen Turner

The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities.

What Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

It’s March now, so my friends and I are starting on the second book in our read-along of The Queen’s Thief. I wrote last month that I was worried about how my friends would take the series, but really I needn’t have thought about it at all. The book stands well on its own, and my friends all got into the story. I hesitate to say that they loved it because there are four more books in the series, but they were definitely into it. Some of them had a hard time sticking to the two chapters a day schedule because Turner’s prose really just pulls you in.

I still love Gen, and I’m excited to relive his character growth.

  The Farthest Shore, The Earthsea Cycle #3

Darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea. As the world and its wizards are losing their magic, Ged — powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord — embarks on a sailing journey with highborn young prince, Arren. They travel far beyond the realm of death to discover the cause of these evil disturbances and to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.

I’m reading Tehanu, the last book of the Cycle, now, and I’m scared of ending the series. It’s given me so much joy and peace these past few months. I slipped right into it after finishing The Farthest Shore, remembering that they overlap slightly, and that’s done a lot to soften the blow of the third book. Re-reading Farthest at this age, when things have been losing their colour and flavour, where I have to fight harder to keep myself honest and keep myself ‘good’, hits differently. I’ve been recovering, and the bitterness that Ged has over the loss of his mastery is too real to me. Of course, it’s a good book, but it hurts.

—

All right, that’s it for now. I’ll probably be popping in to post a little about Komiket and some other things I’ve been reading next week or so, so please keep a weather eye out for that next post!

February Reading Round-Up I won't be the first or last person to marvel at how quickly February whizzed past, especially in comparison to January's gauntlet.

[storylocke]

CR Crossover Follow-up

C.C.:

I don’t quite remember how it happened. My mind was gone. I felt myself falling- free floating- I don’t know how to describe it, but what I do know was that I had a power beyond my comprehension flowing through me! I envisioned, which within that dark space of my mind, I could see the worlds within in my hands and I drew them together. I could SEE Xena, my Xena, there within reach as I held out my hand to pull her across the Void. And I believe… [he shakes his head a moment as it was really the only thing left to make sense] I believe in my attempts to pull her out of that hellscape, I instead brought everything else in too. [he starts laughing, a slightly broke and hollow laugh as he looks up at the ceiling before turning to the other two] They tried to tell me you were gone. Not that you were dead, but that those fully taken by the Glitches cannot leave that other world. It would take a miracle. … A miracle…

Xena:

…. That’s not true. [shifts uncomfortably] What about Abe? We… We tried to follow the same path as he did because that’s what was needed to beat The Game. So I could come home.

C.C.:

Except there is no game. And I found out through some of my research that he never did get to escape, even after doing all that They told him to do. It wasn’t until the barrier between the two worlds had corroded through fighting between gods and the spreading of Glitches, and the utter chaos that he and several others were able to cross through. He was freed at the expense that, to my understanding, another boy took his place in that world. [takes deep breath] What we were trying to do might have worked before you were so corrupted by those fiends, but people like you and Fifer, cannot exist properly on this side without becoming a demon yourself. So… so I brought the world to you, I guess.

Xena:

That doesn’t mean you should be ashamed about it. You didn’t know what would happen-

C.C.:

It doesn’t matter, I knew what I was doing.

Xena:

But you were manipulated-

C.C.:

So what?

Xena:

They brainwashed you-

C.C.:

So what?

Xena:

You just said so yourself you had no control as you were doing it.

C.C.:

So what? [shifts in his seat so he can stare her down directly] My reasons and my actions at the time doesn’t matter, just the fact that I did it. Johto and Kanto are now under an eternal winter, Kalos is wrecked beyond recognition. Hoenn now exists in two places at once with the barren wasteland version of our World having been taken over by theives and Glitches and becoming a literal shadow of itself. Time itself may even be in ruins as we’ve had reports of villains not seen since antiquity have sudden appeared in our present! And nothing you can say, nothing we can do, can change the fact that this is all. my. fault.

Hannah:

[arms crossed as she sits back in the chair, taking all this in] Sounds like there may have still been another way. You do realize that we need to share all this with the others since so far we’ve been trying to find out if there’s some Great Evil that caused this mess, and why, and if we can beat, and so forth. If it turns out it’s just you then-

C.C.:

[coldly cuts her off] There IS a Great Evil behind this, and it is THEM.

Hannah:

[Ugh, here we go again] The Voices are not evil, Cesar. They just do things for the sake of doing things, I don’t think they have any real good or bad intensions, they just exist. What happened to you really sucks, and the aftermath of it all sucks especially, but I don’t think they meant for any of this to happen any more than you did.

C.C.:

It’s easy enough for you to say, a fraction of your own power comes from Them but you were able to use it for good. Perhaps They liked you, or perhaps Their actions in Flora was merely setting the stage for later things to come. But you ask Xena, ask Fifer, ask Venus, just how badly their lives have been changed because of these so-called whims of fate you speak of.

Hannah:

…. [trying to come up with a counter, but doesn’t have one. Goes for the snark] What about Y?

Xena:

Never ask Y, he’s a good kid, but I think he enjoys all this just a little too much.

C.C.:

We don’t really know enough about him to know what he was like before we met. And that’s what bothers me. There are plenty of other forces out there right now ready to take advantage of the situation, but I am telling you, it’s only going to get worse. I still need to do more research, to find out what could happened for the seemingly benevolent Voices we heard of in our youth to suddenly appear again and bring pain and corruption to all those touched by Them. Someone is going to get hurt, if it hasn’t happened already. Perhaps I’m not even the only one to face the fate of being given a great power only to have it turn into such devastation. [Thoughtful as he slides off the bed to go up to Hannah] Didn’t you say that Flora has some ancient hidden library with information on the past?

Hannah:

That’s typically what libraries do. Stories and history and other boring stuff. Why?

C.C.:

I need you to take me there. I know you don’t like it, but there could be some valuable information there that could help us. I need to learn more about the Voices so next time I can be sure to be in full control.

Xena:

[Slightly alarmed] Next time?

C.C.:

Now that I have told you both, I am more than certain that my ability to channel that power was no mere fluke. I need to reclaim Their power so I can set the worlds right, but in order to do that I need to learn to bend reality to my will.

Hannah:

No. [crosses arms again as she glares him down] No, Cesar, you don’t. Trust me, you don’t want the power or the responsibility, especially seeing how badly broken you are from causing all this in the first place. [Now he’s glaring at her, but she keeps her stance to show she’s not intimidated by him] Yeah, I said it. You said so yourself you broke when it happened, and frankly I’d say you’re pretty broken still. Once that power left you, you’ve been released, okay? There’s plenty of others out there who’ve already tried the world manipulation route and it ended badly for them, don’t think you’ll be any different just because it happened before. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t look into this. You’re right that we need you to look into this, because hell knows I can’t keep up that kind of focus and memorization; but I do know that the world has a way of fixing itself when it gets fucked up like this. We’ll do what we can. As a team. And right now the best thing you can do for the world is using your personal power to make sure this kind of shit never happens to anyone else.

C.C.:

[He’s listening to her, rather intently, but it’s also clear that the gears in his mind have already started racing] So you’ll take me there?

Hannah:

[Throws hands up in the air, but drops them as she can only shrug] Yeah, I can get you in there.

Xena:

We should probably tell the others what’s going on before you two leave though…

Hannah:

Well duh. We’re not just gonna leave in the middle of the night for another region without telling anyone.

C.C.:

Alright, but I need you both to listen. What I shared with you is very serious and a deep secret I’ve been keeping. What we’ve said here does not leave the room. You cannot tell any of the others.

Hannah:

What?

Xena:

Why?

C.C.:

I know finding out the cause behind the world collision is very important, but I don’t want my past and my actions to become a point of tension within our group. If they knew that I was the one behind all this, I’m not so sure they’d be so willing to help me get stronger if I’m now considered a threat. You two know my intention. Will you help me?

Both:

[Soft, somewhat reluctantly] Yes…

C.C.:

Thank you. [deep breath, that was a lot to get out, but it’s such a relief to know they took it better than he thought.] Alright, Hannah? Would you mind going to tell the others about our plans for Flora? I’d like a moment alone with Xena.

Hannah:

Really? Just gonna drop something this heavy on me and ask me to leave?

Xena:

Hannah…

Hannah:

Nah, nah, I get it. You two are family, got a lot of personal stuff to go over, it’s cool. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow. [turns back as she nears the door, flashing a weak grin as she tries to lighten the mood] Though if you waaant, we’ve got a party in the girls’ room, Xena.

Xena:

[Grin] I’ll be over in a minute then.

~~~~~

Continuation from my comic for the Crossover Contest

It's not part of the entry, but I did say I had an entire AU forming even before the contest came up and this just hit me this morning.

Taking place after all of the Season 5 runs, the idea of all of the Hosts getting together to figure out what is going on with these crazy place given we've been doing a lot of mods this season and into S6. Which is what this is hinting at is R. Colosseum, XG, and worst of all THE haven't happened yet, but the potential for extreme Voice shenanigans is at large. Burning Red in my timeline happened BEFORE Dual Red and Blue so while Kay isn't part of the group, I'm not sure if or when or how he'd show up either since he's potentially a time traveler and maaay have disappeared after BR events. But who knows. I'm not sure how many parts I'll actually write out for this thing if I decide to keep going, but there is at least one other scene I'd like to do.

[rankstuck]

Recent anon's Rankstuck world-building headcanon shenanigans

Title of this is pretty self explanatory; I’m the anon who started to adore this AU more than I probably should and just came up with a bunch of headcanons for it because I love worldbuilding…… and saw the panels from the Rankstuck origin with the random troll and human designs and figured to drag my fankid and fantroll trash into the mix.  This large headcanon of mine is of an entire separate society and culture that resides within the Infinite Forest of the Horrorterrors.  But why would anyone want to live their considering how never-ending and dangerous they are to all who enter?  Because a powerful Aspecter took what the Condesce's “You are welcome to live in the Horrorterror forest if you disagree,"  seriously.  The person who is to be accredited with these people was a man by the name of Liam Haze. A Mage of Void who was one of the Aspecters discovered by the Handmaid, Condesce, and Hass Harley; and newfound abilities allowed him to detect the hidden powers of wayward Aspecters, and guide the original trio to them prior to the creation of the Rankstuck world. Upon arriving with the rest of the Rankstuck world "colonists”, he felt betrayed by his former teachers and decided to take his newfound friends’ fate into his own hands and free them of a life of just being “breeding fodder” and have truly meaningful lives. And many years later more found their way to him by running into the forest to avoid punishment for telling the banned stories of their old universe homes. As the years went on these new nomads of both Aspecters and aspectless people began to form their own traveling society within the vast expanses of the forest. The first many years were INCREDIBLY hazardous and trying to Liam and his followers; but he used his powers of learning, the unknown, and mystery to grasp what the founding three and the other loyal citizens of the kingdoms would find impossible to comprehend.  They created gates; pathways only identifiable by Liam and those he taught could navigate and detect. The Aspecters who were skilled in Heart, Hope, Life, Light, and Mind worked tirelessly with classes known for creation to create ghostly guides called sprites that could assist when one was separated from their migrant bands or advice from a third party. To tap into the potential of the dream bubbles that the horrorterrors would glub into shelters or communicate with others over a long distance.  Liam and his followers had become what would be known to this world as the Skaia people.  Despite Liam Haze's long Aspecter lifespan though; after many, many generations he eventually died. On his deathbed though, he was happy it turned out this way. As it ensured that the people he taught to survive in this harsh forest would not only stay out of the clutches of who he deemed to be ‘traitors’… but also pass down their knowledge and wisdom to the future generations of Skaians, and allow the new generations to explore their powers without preconceptions and bias as to how strong/weak they are. Since their numbers grew quite large for many a generation; they were no longer able to travel as one incredibly large band and sustain and share all the resources they had at the same time. This contributed to the creation of Sessions. Much smaller groups that could range from 2 to 48 people that were all trolls or humans; so they could share their findings with each other and not have most of the group go hungry; as well as to continue to reproduce humanity and troll lineages. However all still to this day will travel to the final resting place of Liam known to all Skians as the Medium to celebrate the Ultimate Reward Festival. A big event that’s kind of like the Fourth of July, a county fair, and religious holiday all rolled into one that celebrates what they deem to be their ultimate reward: Freedom from the Handmaid, Condesce, and Hass Harley. Other parts of the Skaian culture developed without Liam as well. When young Skaians reach the age of 13 years or 6 sweeps of age; they go on Quests.Travels that are mandatory for young Aspecters to reach the full potential of their powers and for those who are aspectless to prove they can help their Sessions and survive on their own. During this time the Aspecters become Servers; protecting and directing the powerless on their Quest that could mortally harm them. While the aspectless become Clients, who must be like the aspectless tools against the aspect-immune Horrorterrors and gather important resources for their Sessions.  Neither Aspector or aspectless can be considered adults and official members of their Session until they complete their respective group’s Quest. These tests are also very important for those who have already past though; as it allows them to map out more of their incomprehensibly infinite world; find the locations and nests of Underlings or Horrorterrors or even Dream Bubbles, and create new paths for Sessions to stick to on their never-ending journeys.  But for the many generations before the Kingdom rebellions began, Hass Harley and the Condesce had no idea the Skaia people even existed. As they lived incredibly deep into the Horrorterror Forest and rarely went to the edge of it by choice. However they would sometimes mock their old student and friend, by claiming Liam’s abandonment of them to be outright disrespectful and that he was like an oil slick that caused many people to slip into death prematurely. They even coined their old friend’s modern day nickname: Bilious Slick: “The Speaker of the Vast Croak.” But during the revolution; they noticed that some of the rebels were getting supplies from unknown sources. After many, MANY generations had gone by the Empire and Dominion discovered their existence.  The Skaians originally had only slight contempt for those who lived in the two kingdoms. They were scared of the new world as much as they were, and felt they needed good leaders. They were lead astray from actual freedom and were what they would deem to be very confused. But when a Session discovered wounded rebels that ran deep into the woods to hide from those who wished to stop them; they decided to come to their aid, in hopes that those in the Kingdoms could attain the freedom they now achieved.  But after the rebellion died down due to Redglare’s “influence”, the two immortal rulers thought that these newly discovered “uncivilized people” needed to be dealt with. One of the many things that weakened Redglare was her control of Aspecters to “slay” the horrorterrors that could harm their lands. But seeing as they were being control and had no say in their actions, these people failed to realize that they were killing Skaians as well. This became known as to the Skaians as The Reckoning and since then it has caused more contempt and hatred to the “insiders” of the two kingdoms than Liam ever had. To this day this part of the deep forest is a sacred memorial burial ground for Skaians known as the Battlefield. And it is not uncommon to see a Session traveling through this area to pay respects to those who lost their lives on that day. With the ranking system now in play during the current time of this AU; Skaians are now regarded as dangerous illusions conjured by the Horrorterrors and their Underlings. Rare, powerful, and realistic Human and Troll like mirages conjured by the beats to let fighters guards down. Bilious Slickis finally known to the citizens of both Human and Troll kingdoms in their taught history; but his actual origin of being a human Void Aspecter had been revised. Both Hass and the Condesce made Liam out to be the first traitorous and insidious outcast. Who lured hundreds of innocent weak doom, heart, void Aspecters and lower ranked classes to their deaths; by promising their already “weak” abilities could reach the level of power that Life or Hope Aspecters had. This propaganda about Bilious being an outright villain has made the word “slick” the worst insult one could call another Aspecter. And sometimes the more foul-mouthed citizens of the Empire and Domain use this as a swear word to insult and demean banished outcasts.  On the topic of who the Skians would be in this AU; I think that troll and human version of the Carapaces would be appropriate aspectless Skians. But I also personally imagine some of my aforementioned fankids and trolls would be as well. But for another quick note on Skian Aspecter culture: Skians ideas on how aspects and classes work is highly reminiscent of what we are familiar with in Homestuck canon. All aspects and classes are equally powerful, but how they manifest themselves powerwise is up to the development, training and ingenuity of the Aspecter wielding them. Skians also have the belief that aspects have inversions and what not, like how with Light and Void are opposites, etc. They don’t have bias caused by the ranking system as they were never exposed to it. In regards to the potential plot of the Rankstuck AU, I really like the idea that one day Dirk or Roxy wander off during their first month of being in the Magenta Shadows team and encounter a Session of Skians for the first time; with the Session containing human or troll versions of the Aimless Renegade, The Mayor, PM, and maaaybe the White Queen?? I have no idea what their human or troll names would be though; as well if they themselves would all be Aspecters or aspectless. Or maybe they’d be a mix of both??  Also imagine the Midnight Crew as a Skian Session that are known criminals. And they hate the Kingdoms so much that they plan heists against them and give the supplies to other Sessions like Ronin Hood and his Merry Men. Only they’re more stabby and violent. Also if you’re curious as to why I chose Bilious Slick, the name of the genesis frog to be a human Aspecter who started all the shenanigans; it’s because I wanted to make a reference to Homestuck canon and how the “evil royalty” hates the Genesis Frog. I also chose him as to create some transformation symbolism; the Aspecters figuratively changed from tadpoles in schools following the Handmaid and pals only to become frogs that were free from the constraints of the pond. There’s also some frog cannibalism symbolism in there if you squint hard enough too. Frogs in nature will kill their own; which is shown here by the Humane Domain and the Alternian Empire killing off Aspecters from a different society. As for the reason for making Slick’s original name to be Liam Haze though. Liam is a diminutive of William. Bill is a nickname for William; and you can hear “Bill” as the first syllable in “Bilious”. Bilious can also mean irritable or distasteful. Which ties back to his disgust and anger in regards to his fellow Aspecters being brought to the Rankstuck world as breeding fodder. But also reflects the modern day Rankstuck kingdom’s hatred of him, too. The Vast Croak is also a pun. Because croak can also be slang for being dead or dying?? Get it?? Ha ha?? my puns are hilarious what are you talking about Haze can refer to an actual haze or fog, which obscures things like his Void aspect. But it can also be a nickname for Hazel. Hazel refers to the hazel tree; and Liam lead his people into a forest. But in Celtic mythology; hazel trees are known to have very magical properties. And hazel tree wood was often made to make helpful magical objects like walking sticks or staffs to help others.  This post is a very and incredibly long infodump for just one little headcanon; but I hope you like what I came up with and read everything I thank you from the bottom of my nerdy Homestuck-loving trash heart. I really enjoyed messing around and building upon your AU’s fantastic history and lore!! I hope that you can do more things with it soon!!   : D And who knows maybe I’ll pop in again with more ideas or exposition on my HS fanchars in this AU, ha ha.

------------------------------------

i promise to write a more coherent response later when i’m not busy - but right now i just want to say that it’s really really cool, your ideas fit with the world very well, and i just LOVE everything about it

thank you so much for writing this headcanon! or should i say fanfic ;)

[ciathyzareposts]

Journeyman Project – Final Rating

Written by Reiko

All the way back on gameplay post 1, one of our intrepid commenters managed to neatly summarize my final sense of the game. Ross said, “This is one of my favorite series of games, but man is this first one clunky.” That’s exactly it. It was a cool ride, but…clunky. Like a budget rollercoaster that clanks and bumps around every turn, and its top speed never quite manages to feel fast. And then there’s the place where you’ll hit your head if you don’t remember to duck.

I am actually thinking of a particular kiddie rollercoaster I’ve ridden with my young son. Yes, it was clanky and bumpy, fast enough to be fun but not fast enough to feel fast for long. No, I never actually bumped my head, but there’s one point where the track dives below an overhead loop that you reach later in the ride. I’m very short, but as an adult on a kids’ ride, it felt like a near miss every time I went through that part, to the point where I would usually duck a bit even though I didn’t have to.

Puzzles and Solvability

Most of the puzzles were very solvable, but rather on the obvious side. Use the oxygen mask to breathe while in the depressurized tunnels. Disarm the bomb before taking it. Use the right biochip in the right situation. It’s really not a hard game. There were only two tricky timing puzzles, and one was only tricky because of the interface (the silo deactivation minigame with the awkward cursor), and the other was the ore crusher. Some of the puzzles were very derivative, like the stunted Mastermind variation. And there was a real maze, which fortunately was rendered rather trivial with the Mapping biochip. There are also no alternate solutions except for the final choice of how to deal with each robot, whether “peacefully” or not.

How many chips can I grab from the robot before it self-destructs?

Then there’s the walking dead situation. The problem is, the game doesn’t allow any possibility of returning to time periods that have been won. Oddly enough, it’s possible to fail the Mars level without dying and start over again, as if the robot didn’t succeed. But once you’ve defeated a robot, then the level is won and becomes inaccessible. If you fail to take all of the biochips from the robots, then they are lost. Some are duplicates, but I managed to lock myself out of completing the game my first time through solely because I failed to get the Retinal biochip, which is unique. It’s also possible to miss the wire cutters, but this would only lock the player out of the best score, not prevent winning the game entirely.

Score: 4

Interface and Inventory

In my opinion, the entire interface could have used a redesign. It’s typical of the time that the viewing window was very small, with an interface frame around it. I don’t mind that so much, but the inventory in particular was not designed well.

I have to go from the Access Card Bomb at the top of the list to the Stun Gun, nearly at the bottom of the list.

First, there was no good reason to mix biochips and regular inventory items in the same list, particularly when the chips can also be accessed from the pull-out list at the bottom. All that does is make it harder to get to a particular inventory item when you need it, and given a few times where you need to get to an item fairly quickly, it’s really awkward. Plus the list itself is really small, with only five items visible at a time, and the scroll buttons are very slow. It’s a good thing the time limits on those moments that require a response are very generous.

Plenty of room for the pull-out list to stay open at the bottom.

Second, that pull-out list should have just been a permanent frame at the bottom with all of the spaces (full or empty) always visible. That way every biochip would have been a single click away. The interface chip in particular needed to be more accessible because of the scoring being tied to the time limit: every time you have to fumble through the inventory to get to the interface chip, energy and points are slipping away. So most of the time I left the interface chip activated so I could get to it without delay. Note that even with the pull-out list open, there’s still enough room that the inventory list could have displayed more than five items.

To be honest, I think it’s a bad sign when you have an inventory item called “interface”. The interface should never get in the way of inventory or be represented as inventory. In this sort of high-tech future, it might sometimes make sense to have a sort of digital interface item that the player uses, but the interface biochip isn’t even the same thing as the eyescreen object that Agent 5 clearly picks up and wears in the opening video, which then becomes the entire visible viewing screen plus surrounding interface. The biochip only performs the meta functions of saving, loading, and displaying score, which should generally not have anything to do with physical objects in the protagonist’s world. (Probably games exist that successfully and cleverly break the fourth wall in this way, but this isn’t one of them.) In other words, this is clearly the design of an inexperienced studio that hasn’t yet figured out that meta functions should never interfere with gameplay. By contrast, Sierra games early on already were designed to pause gameplay by default when you access the menu screen.

Pressure plate triggers T-rex shadow?

I also didn’t like that certain places had unskippable animations that would play every time you moved there. Sometimes the repetition was merely implausible. In the distant past, the same dinosaur would appear every time you stood in the right spot, but at least that was a short animation. Other times the repetition was really annoying, like the rather lengthy sequence that would play when entering the transporter at the beginning. The Pegasus device also had an animation for displaying the timeline every single time you entered it, warped back from a time period, or loaded a saved game there. Overall, the game just wasn’t very responsive, and that made replaying sections less fun than it could have been.

This was almost entirely a mouse-driven game, except that moving around could also be done with the keyboard, which I very much appreciate. That minigame with the cursor really should have had some sort of keyboard controls as well, though. The mouse control was very imprecise, which added artificial difficulty to the task.

Score: 3

Story and Setting

The plot involved fairly typical time-travel shenanigans, which boiled down to “villain who invented time travel hates aliens, so he sends robots back in time to mess up history and make everyone else hate aliens too.” Cue the time agents to set things right. The interesting part is seeing what the future is like and observing the effects that just a few changes have on history. It’s not terribly realistic, but then time travel generally isn’t. On the other hand, the change in the political climate when suddenly everyone has a reason to believe that aliens have attacked Mars is rather understandable.

I asked early on why attacking Castillo at the rally in 2310 was one of the choices to change when the initial contact with the Cyrollans, where they offered Earth Symbiotry membership in ten years, was two years before that, in 2308. After playing the whole game, I suppose that the first two events (destroying the alien ship and the Mars colony, and attacking the small country with nukes) were meant to turn the world’s governments against aliens and each other, while the rally event was meant to prevent Earth from wanting to accept the Cyrollan offer once it was made. You’d think the third event wouldn’t be necessary if the first two succeeded, but I guess Sinclair was hedging his bets, especially since he was prepared to assassinate the Cyrollan delegate at the crucial moment if none of the changes succeeded.

Neat sequence of flying the shuttle over Mars

I liked the setting, but I generally like science fiction. The Mars base was done particularly well: I enjoyed walking around the base with Japanese signs and watching the shuttle fly over the Martian surface. The distant past was very brief, although the vista with the volcano was pretty neat, and the other two past levels were mostly just internal corridors. The biomechanical doors in the rally level were intriguing, though.

Score: 5

Sound and Graphics

Sound effects were evocative and appropriate: doors swished, footsteps clanged on metal floors, the robot voices sounded suitably menacing, and so forth. The music was really fun too. You can find the soundtrack on Youtube here if you want to check it out. “Mars Maze” is the neat song that plays while you’re wandering around the maze of ore tunnels on Mars. That one is my favorite track. I also like the ending theme, which is a smoother and longer version of the music that plays on the main menu.

I also noticed that there’s a slower version of the Mars Maze song that’s labeled “Airless” with breathing and a heartbeat overlaid on it. I originally assumed (and was correct) that it isn’t possible to enter the tunnels without the oxygen mask, just like it isn’t possible to enter them from the other direction, but this track implies that it is possible to run out of air while in the tunnels. The description of the oxygen mask does say it’s only supposed to work for eight minutes. So I went back and entered the tunnels and tried waiting around. Sure enough, after about five or six minutes, the theme switched to the slower version and I started hearing the breathing, which sped up along with the heartbeat, and eventually the air did run out. So that’s another way to get the Suffocation ending. I had just always used the Mapping chip and sped through that section so fast that I never noticed that the air could run out. That’s also interesting because I can wear the oxygen mask for the entire NORAD level with no issues, but I think there it’s only filtering out the sleeping gas, so it doesn’t use up its oxygen.

Full tunnel map. I could be starting to run out of air here, but you’d never know it just by the screenshot.

At any rate, the alternate maze theme is a fantastic audio cue. I often play games without sound, but I think this game would be very hard to play without sound because so many of the puzzle cues are audio only. Nothing appears on screen to tell you that you’re running out of air. Another example: the security radio alerts tell you where the robot in the Mars colony has gone when it takes off in the shuttle, so you can take the other one and follow it. I would have really liked a subtitle option, as I just really prefer to read text rather than listen to voices (or ideally, do both, but have the option to skip ahead).

In the NORAD level, most of the corridors had an annoying alert repeating in the background about the sleeping gas. Sure, it helps the immersion a bit, but it’s very distracting. Probably it would have been just as effective and a fraction as annoying if the alert only played in the first main corridor. It’s not like you can get very far without having the oxygen mask anyway.

I really wanted text summaries of these videos…

One of the places where the FMV was less than helpful was with the videos of the timeline differences. I don’t mind a voice-over, but it would have been so much more efficient to show a still image of the speaker (because she looked different in the different timelines) with the text of the description, rather than playing those unskippable videos. The objective videos needed to be videos, though, because Sinclair’s menace and instability wouldn’t have come through with just text or even text with voice. But all of those videos that are triggered by the player should have been pausable and skippable.

The erupting volcano scene looks almost photorealistic, although low resolution.

The graphics were clear and even quite lovely in places, such as the volcano vista I mentioned, the views out the apartment windows over the city of Caldoria, and the views out the colony windows over the surface of Mars. Much of the game took place in relatively repetitive corridors, though. Plus, most of the animations were videos that took up very little of the game’s screen area: the visible area was already only part of the screen, and the parts that moved were often only a fraction of that.

Score: 6

Environment and Atmosphere

The atmosphere is quite good. I felt like the robots were really menacing, for instance. Every time I encountered the robot in the Mars level, I wondered if I was going to get blown up. The Mars level was the longest and best of the three major time periods (and because it’s supposed to be played first, I have to wonder if the other levels were intended to be longer but development was cut short).

The surface of Mars and more of the colony structure.

While the areas that are playable are sharply constrained, external views help make the worlds seem much larger. Outside the colony corridors is the surface of Mars. Outside the apartment is the rest of Caldoria. Outside the lab corridors is…well, we don’t really see it, but we do periodically hear stage announcements and people talking, which helps the illusion that we’re near a stage with a large audience. Again, the sound effects are fantastic. Much of the atmosphere comes from the sound.

Outside NORAD, though…? Who knows? All we see are corridors and all we hear is that horrid announcement about the sleeping gas. There are a lot of locked doors, though, which I guess is supposed to imply a larger base.

Score: 5

Dialog and Acting

I’m going to have to rate this category down for three reasons: there just isn’t all that much dialogue in the game to start with; most of the interesting bits are completely optional and even have to be skipped in a high-scoring run; and the written content has numerous typos/spelling errors. I’ll say more about each of these in reverse order.

Nobody ever checked this screen during development or testing?

Spelling errors bug me, especially in a game like this that hangs together quite well. I encountered no bugs aside from the one oddity of having the tranquilizer dart show up again when I restored inside the lab. Clearly the gameplay was tested, but nobody bothered to read through the text and check it? It really makes it seem like the video and audio content was considered more important, as if nobody reads in the future, but just watches videos instead. It’s a huge contrast to something like Myst with its copious journals and letters.

As I’ve mentioned, the game actively discourages exploration beyond what’s needed to solve the puzzles and advance. Sinclair’s lab at the rally has some extra research archives that explore what the man had been working on, which is great background material, but it’s totally irrelevant to stopping the robot. Naturally, the optimal playthrough entirely skips it. Any video is simply wasted time when the energy is ticking down, but it’s a shame that there wasn’t more of this sort of thing to be found in the other time periods for a playthrough that isn’t focused on optimization (especially the NORAD level, which felt particularly empty).

The voice reads all this as well as having it displayed on-screen.

Aside from brief encounters with the robots (and Sinclair at the end), there just isn’t much dialogue. The acting is well done, but there are no conversations, only one-sided remarks, and they are all very brief. The minigames did have significant written descriptions. But most of that merely duplicated the spoken content, which was unskippable. I mentioned earlier that I wanted subtitles for the videos. Here it seemed redundant to have both, since the purpose was only to explain how to play the minigames, not convey complex character information. The videos should have had subtitles, and the minigame explanations should have been text only.

Score: 4

That adds up to a final score of 4+3+5+6+5+4 = 27/60*100 = 45. Sixteen people made guesses ranging from 41 to 65, but this time, ShaddamIVth has nailed it.

CAP Distribution

100 points to Reiko

Blogger award – 100 CAPs – For blogging through this game for our enjoyment

50 point to Joe Pranevich

Classic Blogger Award – 50 CAPs – For blogging through Trinity for our enjoyment

38 points to MorpheusKitami

True Companion Award – 25 CAPs – For playing along with most of the game and providing amusing commentary

Spellchecker Award – 10 CAPs – For finding the repeated “dicovery” typo and the “nuclear missle” typo in the screenshots

Sudden Death Award – 3 CAPs – For alerting me to a death I’d missed: entering the mining tunnels without disabling the bomb

14 points to ShaddamIVth

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For guessing the final rating for Journeyman Project

Walking Dead Award – 2 CAPs – For sensing there would be a walking dead situation (but not how it would happen)

Cognitive Dissonance Award – 2 CAPs – For recognizing that the Mars robot should have been more violent

10 points to Adam Thornton

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For guessing the final rating of Trinity

7 points to Biscuit

Music Research Award – 5 CAPs – For determining that the post titles are all songs by Two-Mix

Pegasus Variation Award – 2 CAPs – For describing differences in the NORAD level in the Pegasus Prime remake

7 points to Ross

Psychic Summary Award – 5 CAPs – For echoing my conclusion of Journeyman Project back on the first post

Genre Evolution Award – 2 CAPs – For reflecting on how the JP games shifted their approach to exploration as the series progressed

3 points to Niklas

(Not-so) Sudden Death Award – 3 CAPs – For alerting me to a death I’d missed: letting energy run out in the prehistoric era

2 points to ATMachine

Historical Geography Award – 2 CAPs – For reminding us that Bonn was a capital while Germany was divided

With that, I am done with the first Journeyman Project game. We might eventually get to the Pegasus Prime remake (although with an original release date no earlier than 1997, it will be a while), and the second Journeyman Project game, Buried in Time, should be in the 1995 set. But before that, I’ll be back later in 1993 to see if Ecoquest II is just as cheerful and wholesome as the original.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/journeyman-project-final-rating/