#i Cannot be trusted to create abilities for a video game character!!!

[claitea]

haven't been able to choose between the names Tamato Berry Cookie and Choco Feather Cookie as a friend suggested, but uhhh anyway. cookie alto :)

[crystalelemental]

In an effort to engage with my wife's interests, I recently offered to pick up some of the webcomics she likes to talk about.  This is not hyperbolic: she put down her video game, grabbed my hands, and excitedly asked which one I was starting with.  So like.  Good start.  Full disclosure, she has a lot, but the one whose name I remember because she talks about it a lot was Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story.  She has a genre, and that genre is isekai reincarnation as villainess.  Thoughts below.

Of note: At present, the story is ongoing. She tells me it's very close to the end, because these are based on light novels I have not read but she has and can tell it's close. I am only speaking to the current webcomic iteration, which is important only because the light novels apparently have some pretty significant differences.

Villainess isekai, at least in my limited experience, tends to follow a fairly common thread.  Specific traits that the villainess exudes are reframed as points of strength that earn them the favor of the characters around them.  In the case of Edith, that trait is pride.

Suna Choi, reincarnated as Edith, shares a similar background to the villainess character. Both are from an abusive home, with Suna's death in her previous life happening at the hands of her brother, while Edith has suffered abuses from her entire family and is exploited constantly for the family's benefit. Outside of the family, both are looked down on, carrying a poor reputation in the eyes of others that they struggle to overcome. Preconceived notions are a huge part of this story, as their primary struggle is getting people to see past their history, to the heart of who they are.

What facilitates this is the pride that Suna carries, the knowledge of both her personal worth and the worth of the work she conducts. She's efficient as a worker and dedicated to completion of her tasks, which earns favor among the more industrious staff. She calls out Killian's mistreatment of her at the outset of their arranged marriage, and sticks to her guns until he acknowledges that he's been acting on preconceived notions and wants to know her better. No matter what they've been through, pride in themselves carries them forward.

That said, pride is something reified by ability and industry, and when you lack for that, you get Rhyse. Rhyse is the protagonist character, and acts often without any clear pride in her efforts. She works, but ultimately downplays herself and her abilities to a point of self-depreciation. However, critically, she is someone who operates on the opposite preconceived notion as Edith. Rhyse is treated reverently by default. Everyone instantly loves and trusts her, suspects she can do no wrong, and bends over backwards to give her whatever she may want. She is foremost in everyone's mind, and it's become an expectation that everyone behaves as she wants.

This extends to the person behind Rhyse as well. K, the original author, was someone who accidentally struck gold on the first attempt, creating the bestselling novel series this world is based on. However, subsequent attempts to replicate that fame flopped, and she became deeply bitter and escaped to the world of her first novel through Rhyse. She now exists in a time loop, repeating the events of the story over and over, but has rapidly grown bored of the repetition, and is now stressed about how to break free of any of the narrative's trappings. In part, this is because she cannot let go of anything. She had a very early chance of success, and shot it down because Edith dared ask something of her at all.

Both K and Rhyse operate on a sense of pride that is more arrogant than self-assured. They put in very little true effort, but expect the world to operate purely as they want it to, believing that it should work this way regardless of their actions. They are, in essence, spoiled. Despite her history as not being particularly loved, Rhyse is adopted into a loving family that dotes on her almost exclusively. Anna puts it best: Rhyse is not unfortunate. She has everything, but believes that not getting exactly what she wants is a misfortune in itself. She's never had to deal with worse.

This contrast in pride as self-confidence and pride as arrogance is also the basis for the rest of their personality. Edith has her pride, but she's also from an abusive home, and acts as such. She believes that regardless of her efforts, regardless of her talents, she will never be acknowledged or loved by the others. She tries desperately to win their favor, but believes deep down that she'll never have it. Rhyse is the inverse, doing very little but expecting full admiration from everyone. It's a fallout of the source of their pride.

This is what makes the conditions of the narrative so fun. Throughout the story, K has to set conditions that Suna can potentially fulfill in her role as Edith. Each time Suna succeeds, the narrative escapes K's control a little more, and characters act organically as opposed to acting in line with her wishes. The stated win condition is that Suna unlocks all three, at which point she can reveal her history and effectively assumes the role of protagonist.

Each condition that's set is mired in a belief that no one would ever be able to do this, because each one touches on a particular arrogance Rhyse exudes. She cannot imagine someone refusing the person they love, because love means they do whatever you want, right? She cannot imagine trying so hard for something and being willing to let go, because why would you ever be willing to let anything go at all? But each condition also flows naturally from Edith's lived experiences, and continues the novel effectively with her in the protagonist role. It is completely believable, almost expected, that someone from an abusive background would be willing to reject affection to stay hidden and safe, or to accept something as a foregone conclusion because they can't imagine a reality where people truly cared.

This dynamic is also what makes their respective romances so interesting. Killian has a deep inferiority complex. Being the second-born, less prodigious sibling of the family, Edith's compliments are about the only time he begins to understand his own merits as a person and begins to grow. But his own interests are often interpreted as potentially superficial, as Edith cannot truly believe anyone loves her that way, and it's a constant uphill battle to work past her inherent beliefs about herself too. Their efforts to properly build a love is what allows both to operate on a mutual respect and devotion.

By contrast, Cliff is extremely arrogant. Not without skill to back it up, but he blunders repeatedly and as he begins to experience consequences, all he can think is that things aren't supposed to play out like this. He and Rhyse both believe that they are meant to be untouchable. They're blessed not by their talents, but by pure fortune; the protagonists of reality in a very real sense. But with each other, it perverts into weird expectations. K made Cliff out of her personal interests to be that sort of "sadistic prince" archetype, controlling and domineering, but Rhyse seems to have lost interest over time, and only considers him her true love now because it's what's expected. Cliff is no better, wanting to own Rhyse more than to love her. His defining scene has him reflect on how he knows something is deeply damaged in Rhyse, but when she turns to him as the only one to help, that's the only time that she truly belongs to him and he loves it, no matter what she asks him to do. He thinks all this while stabbing a guy for getting handsy with her as part of her current plot, by the way. It's delightful.

There are still a couple chapters left, but I am really enjoying this one. I'm eager to see how everything resolves, especially with Rhyse. My wife told me about the books and given how wildly different they are, I'm kind of hoping for a very different end for her. But we'll see. Either way, big fan.

[faroreskiss]

Unnatural Coincidences / Part 1

Parts 1 2 3 4 Epilogue

You have been in Hyrule for a while now, and some things just cannot stay hidden anymore.

General Info & Warnings: -This will be a four part story for now, with the last part (3&4) being the most explicit. There is a potential to expand the non-explicit parts, if there is interest. -If you are under 18, please do not read this. You have been warned. -Italic words like this mean the words in "your language", as they are speaking Hylian with each other. -Feel free to comment, if you think instead of (Y/N) this story should be written from first or second person POV (or it should be an OC) Pairing: Zelda x Fem!Reader x Link

It was another one of those early mornings, (y/n) has been hiking the mountains with Link before work, taking the scenery in. They stopped by the lake, and looked at how the sun sparkled on top of the water. This was simply unreal.

That’s because it wasn’t. At least, not from her point of view.

Around 3 years ago, she has somehow ended up in post-calamity BotW world, with most of her knowledge from our own world intact. It wasn’t that long that she came across Link and Zelda, who are living together but are not together (though one could absolutely feel the vibes there). Everybody has their own room in that house.

It is another story for another time, but those three are quite close now. She is now working together with Zelda & Purah, researching the history of Hyrule all the way back to Creation, publishing papers together and recording the knowledge. Link is technically still a knight, though the castle’s renovations are not quite there yet after the fight with Ganon.

“Heh, never seen a lake before? You seem quite amazed.”

Link didn’t speak that much unprompted, but when he did it always had a flavor. She chuckled, she absolutely had a crush on him but thought it was unfair. She had a crush on a fictional character, who absolutely had feelings for Zelda. It probably didn’t count, no? Not like she can’t enjoy a bit of harmless flirting every now and then either way.

“It just looks so beautiful, I’m also kind of tired after a 10 km hike up here. Not everybody has your stamina wheels and strong… bottom muscles, Mr. Hero.” she made a gesture, but did not stare, at his ass.

He did not register it at first.

“My bottom wha-… You creep!” he laughed.

Link and Zelda got used to the way she was talking. When they first met, they didn’t even understand a word she said, literally. She didn’t speak any Hylian, them being who they are (and Zelda also having scientific curiosity), they taught her Hylian, and with a little bit of help from the Great Fairies, enhanced her learning abilities to speed up the process. It was quite obvious for them that she had an idea about the world they live in, and more.

They know that (y/n) is from another ‘dimension’ (not that hard to believe for them I suppose, with all the magic and science simply existing together in this realm). They were the ones who found her in the Temple of Time, but the part that she knows them from a video game series, has not been discussed… yet. She wasn’t actively trying to hide it either though. So there was still trust between them.

She is thinking of breaking it to them at some point. There hasn’t been a big quest of “sending her back”, though she is sure Zelda has her own agenda, and Link is probably in on it. Good thing about them, they don’t pry if they feel like they are making you uncomfortable. They probably also do feel that you are hiding something from them, though.

“Aaaah, I’m just SO looking forward to this evening though!” she said while getting up and stretching.

“Wine and Lon Lon cheese at the cottage? Of course.” Link also got up and started filling his water pouch. “And having Purah create a game on the Slate. Can’t wait to try it!*”

Oh how cute he was trying to pronounce unfamiliar words.

“That, and how you and Zelda are going to act with each other after some booze gets into your system.”

(Y/N) giggled and Link was kind of red on top of his pointy ears. There must have been something off however, as what she said made Link stop for a second and looked seriously at her face, as if she… looked hurt.

“Something on my face?”

“(y/n)…”

“It’s OK, Link. I’m not blind. I can see how you look at her.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Nothing is that complicated, silly. If I were on the top of the Central Hyrule Tower, I could still see it from there without the scope. Still don’t get why you don’t tell her. So I’m hoping some wine would help. Or should I tell her?”

Meanwhile she started walking back down the path. The path was extremely steep.

“No!” he snapped and held her arm firmly to stop her. She has NEVER seen him snap before. Nobody did. He was the embodiment of self control. 

She was quite startled, so while yanking her arm off from Link’s grasp, she ended up tripping backwards on the slope. Link ended up catching her right on time to protect her head, but they rolled up a little bit down on the path, till they hit a tree to stop them. Thank Farore.

Now Link was on top of her, staring right into her eyes, intensely. It was… uncomfortably close. His knee was actually kind of between her thighs. If only it moved a bit more up... Oh Hylia, she was supposed to think of survival, but all she could think of was how the current situation could be something completely different right now.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-no I don’t think so. Are you…”

“I’m fine.”

They were both already breathing heavily from the fall. (Y/n) more so, she didn’t have the personal fitness level he had. Why did it feel as if they were getting even closer? Was this breathing certainly from all the rolling?

“Hey…” she spoke softly.

“Sorry, I kind of snapped.” He was still not moving from where he was, and the stare was still not broken. She knew she was supposed to say something, move or wiggle around. She felt so selfish. Link and Zelda belonged together. She shouldn’t get in between them. What if it affects the future of Hyrule or something? But again, not like there is a rule that they end up together anyway…

“It’s OK, Link. But what’s going on?”

“You mean that I am dense, but so are you.” he seemed serious. Oh Goddesses, why was he still on top of her?

“What?”

“You are right. I do have feelings for Zelda.”

It felt like a bucket of cold water trickling down from her head to her heart. She knew this, but it was never said out loud. Maybe a part of her did want to have something with him. But this, this felt like even that bridge was burned. Pandora’s box was opened. Her eyes started to water.

“News flash.”

“What?”

“Nothing, some dirt got into my eyes..” she broke the stare and looked at the side.

“(y/n), look at me.” he moved her head gently back to the center. She wasn’t able to speak. She didn’t know what to say. How can she ever explain it to him?

“Don’t.” (y/n) somehow managed to weakly get it out from her mouth. He stopped. The stare didn’t. He was staring into her soul. Trying to get some words out. Could it be that he…?

“But (y/n), I also…” he started. This, this was getting unbearable. For both of them it seemed. Still, she didn’t let him finish the sentence. So what, not like ZeLink was ever totally canon anyway? This is Legend of Zelda, everybody has their interpretation, right? But.. He was so close, his eyes were piercing through her (e/c) ones. Her hair was touching the grass, his leg between hers felt even closer to her center. She could swear, maybe it touched a little bit. She noticed his face was also red. No, it must be wind and cold. She was getting lost in her thoughts. She was going to take the gamble that Link was trying to say something good. At least, she could at least experience this in her life here. This selfish moment, she wanted for herself.

“Ah, fuck it!”

She pulled him into a kiss. Link did not even flinch at first.

...and then he started kissing her back.

She put her hands in his head, gently moving her fingers through his hair. His leg finally, albeit involuntarily, moved up, his knee brushing right between her legs. A silent yet soft moan escaped her. She could feel his smirk through the kiss. She took advantage and rolled him on his back, ending on top of him, using one of her hands on the tree behind them for balance at first. He pulled her in close once again and started kissing her neck and coming back to her lips. His hands were slowly circling her back. Still keeping it safe, what a gentleman. A gentleman with a bulge directly growing under her very lady-like parts. For her to feel.

This was also the wake-up call for her. She broke the kiss and looked at him. They were both panting. She finally crossed her legs to get off of him and quickly got up. They couldn’t look at each other in the eye. Link also got up.

“We… we should go.” she said, looking over the path down, pretending to fix her cloak.

“Y-yeah. You need to go to the lab, right?”

“Yes.”

They started walking down the path.

She was feeling quite conflicted, but damn, it felt so good. She wanted more. HE wanted more. Alas, there was sincerely no time. They had to talk about this later.

[owlnkat]

Wowser! Choices, Consequences, and Chronomancy! Life Is Strange: A Weaving Narrative Through Awesome Gameplay.

Life Is Strange is an episodic graphic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, an independent developer of video games based in Paris and Montreal, and published and released in 2015 by Square Enix, a multinational holding company and video game publisher. The game's development began with a small, independent team in Dontnod. As collaboration with Square Enix progressed, additional people joined the project. As a result, the game occupies a unique space, blending the spirit of an indie title and the backing of a Triple-A company, even with Square Enix's little impact on the game's development besides publishing and funding the game. 

According to a developer of the game, the partnership with Square Enix was also a product of how, during that time, most prospective publishers were skeptical of female protagonists, with Square Enix being the only publisher who didn't mind or change anything about the game. The budget was also confirmed to be limited, and the team dedicates most of it to story writing and voice acting rather than graphics and animation. Ultimately, the developers passionately made the game, and it paid off.

Set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest, the game follows Max Caulfield, a geeky, introverted, and self-conscious high school student who discovers her ability to rewind time at a moment's notice during the beginning of the story. Throughout the five episodes, the players navigate Max's relationships with different characters while uncovering secrets about the town and making choices that affect the course of the story.

"Then, I realized I had a choice and the power to change everything." -Max🦋.

Max's power to rewind time is one of the most significant gameplay mechanics in Life Is Strange, allowing the players to explore alternative outcomes for their decisions and solve puzzles that needs an "Out of the box" thinking with Max's powers.

This mechanic emphasizes the game's central themes of consequence and personal responsibility. The ability to undo the player's choices, ranging from simple dialogues and new dialogue choices to outright decisions that will change the outcome of the game's storyline, adds another exciting experience for the players. These choices create a unique emotional dynamic, where players will face the weight of their decisions even after altering them. It is a challenge for players to consider the impact of their actions, particularly as some choices players make, cannot simply be reversed, which can lead to irreversible consequences or a problematic situation that you may need to save people from impending fates.

The true heart of Life Is Strange lies in the evolving relationship between Max Caulfield and her best friend, Chloe Price. The game's narrative unfolds through the lens of their friendship, which both Max and Chloe see as deeply complicated due to the years of Max's absence and Chloe's life turning downhill after she left. Chloe's story after Max left is the focal point with another title from the Life Is Strange series, Before the Storm. 

Throughout the game, the player's choices will influence how Max and Chloe interact as the story delves into the themes of loyalty, trust, and identity. There are other characters that Max can also befriend and develop with, from the likes of Warren and Kate, that add to the emotional depth of the story. The player will discover moral dilemmas to decide upon, situations to be changed, and, most of all, uncover the mystery of Chloe's friend and savior, Rachel Amber, an integral part of the story that will delve deep into a darker side of life in Arcadia Bay.

"...and Max Caulfield. Don't you forget about me…" -🐦‍⬛

Beyond the gameplay mechanics of time-rewinding, Life Is Strange poignantly explores the themes of time and loss. Even though the player controls Max's ability to alter past events, their choices can also pave ways for better outcomes. Although sometimes it often contrasts with the permanence of specific outcomes in some situations that prevents the player from rewinding. Once the player makes their choice, no amount of rewinding can undo the choices' emotional or physical consequences.

The game's progress throughout the player's experience will delve deep into the concept of choices, focusing on the emotional and psychological challenges. Whether it's the disappearance of a loved one, the loss of innocence, death, or even the rusting of relationships. As the player steers Max through these concurrent themes, the player will experience how Max will understand the complexities of her situations, from Chloe to her powers and others. All of them are rooted with her past and future, as she yearns to discover herself and the purpose of her powers, especially how it can be helpful to save others. Symbolism also plays an integral role, with numerous foreshadowing and hints that can be easily misunderstood or missed. Prominently, the game itself addresses issues related to mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and trauma, as the game portrays them through the experiences of Chloe Price and other characters throughout the game. The sensitivity and accurate portrayal of these struggles make Life Is Strange a critically acclaimed game.

🎶 "...And we could run away, before the light of day.  You know we always could, the mountains say, the mountains say…" 🎶 –Message to the Bears, Mountains.

A feature within Life Is Strange that is prominent and popular with its players is the presence of indie soundtracks that perfectly complement the emotional weight of the story. Tracks by artists like Syd Matters and José Gonzáles create an atmosphere with a spice of intimacy and a reflective feeling that enhances the game's themes of nostalgia, loss, and personal growth. The game's visual style is also unique, as the developers prioritized the budgets for the writing and voicing. The art style, nevertheless, even with its quality, became an integral part of the Life Is Strange franchise. Soft, watercolor-like textures and character designs evoke a sense of warmth and melancholy, which perfectly match the characters' emotional journey in the game. Particular scenes such as the school intro and ending scenes of Episodes 1 and 2 are notable examples portraying the mixture of music and visuals.

Life Is Strange is an experience of a lifetime should one invest their time in the game and its remarkable story. It is described as a profound exploration of time, choice, and the human connection the story offers. Its branching narrative and time-rewinding mechanic continue to help the players reflect on the consequences of their actions or to find ways to do new actions that could not be possible from the first time of interaction. While its richly developed characters and emotional storytelling create a profound personal experience, the continuous themes it explores, from loss, identity, mental health issues, complexities of relationships, etc., make it one of the generation's most memorable and thought-provoking narrative-driven games. The success of Life Is Strange paved the way for numerous spin-offs and sequels that continue the story, explore its themes, and tackle sensitive topics. These narratives emotionally, physically, and spiritually engage with the players, helping them understand branching storylines, diverse characters, and varying perspectives. Through these experiences, the players can gain valuable lessons for personal growth and reflection while acknowledging that even with the power of time, our choices still matter, the consequences of those choices are always there, and acceptance of the unpredictability of life.

[daekie-gw2]

Your IBS/SoTO post is really good and I would love to hear your opinions about asura writing that got cut for time

OH, UH, OKAY. SURE. Disclaimer that a lot of the thoughts here I picked up from my friend @ratasum. (I honestly didn't expect that IBS/SotO post to get read by anyone so waking up & seeing it appears to have gotten onto the main 'circulating' version of the post and having people agree with me is a little wild, haha.)

As always, cut for length, I've never said in five words what I could say in twenty and trust me I've tried.

"Surely it can't be that long--"

I know. I'm a parody of myself. I'm sorry. Just like you cannot blame the scorpion for what is in its nature you cannot blame me for writing five and a half thousand words on funny goblin rat video game narrative.

ANYWAY. [CRACKING KNUCKLES] THE ASURA

OKAY. THIS IS GOING TO BE A MULTI-POINT -- I'm not going to call it an essay. It's not an essay. That implies a level of organization going in that there isn't, I'm slapping points in as I recall them (I am going to cite my sources, though). But there's a lot of miscellaneous things I'm going into here. Also this is shorter than it could be because I wrote a big chunk of it right after getting home from work, got distracted by making Limbus Company OC IDs for hours, and by the point I rotated back I was getting worried something would happen and I'd lose this post.

You may be able to tell which points I wrote later because I get progressively less informative and more AGGRESSIVELY WAVING MY HANDS.

EDIT THE NEXT MORNING: Added more stuff into Point B that I didn't realize I skipped over, my kingdom for a table of contents

Point A: "The current writers don't like the asura."

When was the last time you heard any character talk about asura tech or society in a way that wasn't derogatory? Just in SotO alone, from my memory and some very shallow wiki checks, we have:

Uenno: But we're... stubborn, our kind. Bureaucratic. It's all so stifling. Uenno: Zojja and I had the same realization. Expecting satisfaction from that city is like expecting a skritt to win the Snaff Prize.

...and, from Zojja's Journal:

Before I left Rata Sum, they considered me a battery without any juice. Well, I feel the same about them. ... The technological advancement of this place is far beyond Rata Sum. Seeing this would give the Arcane Council a run for their money... I bet they lost it after Cantha opened its borders. What I'd do to be a fly on that wall... ... If the council learned about any of this, ESPECIALLY the wizards' ability to create fractals, they'd try to quarantine the entire region. Rip it apart, piece by piece.

...and, from Zojja's journal from Tower of Secrets:

The council is too scared to put me back on fieldwork, and the colleges seem less than interested in having me teach. No talks. Nothing. Past my prime, apparently. Send me straight to the retirement facility. ... She used to be a professor in the colleges, but she left after years and years of frustration with the system. Students set up for failure, refusal to grow or expand (sound familiar...?).

Now take a quick jaunt to the wiki's summary of asura culture:

The asura value intelligence and intellectual superiority over all other attributes. Individual asura will dedicate an entire lifespan to building a portfolio of successful projects or becoming the foremost expert of some tiny aspect of the arcane. They constantly seek to prove their own intellectual superiority, and by extension the superiority of the asura race.

The writers are really trying to tell me that Zojja was damaged goods post-Heart of Thorns, but, like. She was one of the foremost geniuses in Asuran society and one of the two surviving students of the genius Snaff (or one, if you count us killing Kudu in Crucible of Eternity). She is the absolute foremost expert on Elder Dragons (Taimi wasn't this until LWS4ish, imo), was directly involved with the Pact offensive on the Heart of Maguuma, and has a "connection" (I'm not going to say friendship but yknow.) with the Sylvari who stole Glint's egg. And you want to tell me nobody would want to hear from her because she was disabled? They'd be breaking down her door to get her to teach.

I feel like a lot of this perception comes from Phlunt's overbearing smothering of Taimi getting spotlit during LWS3, but Phlunt is an obstructive, small-minded bureaucrat, even by Arcane Council standards; he doesn't want to be there, he sure as hell doesn't want to be busy chaperoning a twelve-year-old with polio in his "free time", and if he dissuades her from doing anything then he can kick back and relax. His chaperoning is not a microcosm of All Asuran Society's Relationship To Solo Geniuses Who Are On The Younger Side (afaik he was also supposed to be Inquest anyway, so that probably bleeds into some of it). Take a quick walk around Metrica Province or listen to ambient dialogue in Rata Sum! Even taking into account comments about bureaucrats in ambient lore in Rata Novus, which makes it a cultural thing, I honestly still don't really see what that would have to do with 'Zojja would be a pariah'. The fuck she would. I would excuse the Zojja diaries if it was Zojja is completely shutting herself away from Rata Sum society and convincing herself they don't want her, but it's... it's not! It's 'Rata Sum threw Zojja out with the bathwater'! In what world!!!!

EoD (I go into this a couple of points down the post) is also just like a conga line of asura going WOW CANTHA IS SO ADVANCED WE'RE SO BACKWARDS and it just feels baaaaaaad.

Point B: "Since LWS4, it seems like nobody on the writing team has really actually understood the asura, and they're either written as 'basically children' or 'crazy comedy gremlins'."

When was the last time we got an asura NPC who was, you know, actually involved in asura society or had asuran attitudes? Professor Smoll from April Fools doesn't count, don't give me that. Uenno in SotO only really talks about asura society to comment about how backwards it is/was compared to the Astral Ward's tech/setup, and although the Inquest are a genuine threat... since LWS4, when was the last time the game actually remembered that? They're cartoon goons.

(The Arcane Council is actually really interesting, too! Their job is to deal with all the mundane shit and bureaucratic matters and City Things, and nobody wants to do it, to the point it's common to trick others into accidentally taking the job or replacing you so you can quit. They sometimes try to kill each other. The Inquest is considered a bunch of criminal assholes by the average asura, but they're pretty distinctly a tool of the Arcane Council who uses them to work on projects that might be 'unsavory'.)

I'm not saying the asura aren't funny. They are. Even at GW2's launch, they were smack-talking little gremlins -- but they weren't comic relief. And I'm not saying everything Angel McCoy ever said was right (I am refusing to read the interview where she says cells don't exist on Tyria and everything is made of magic <3) but they're snarky little shits. Back in GW1 they were partially Invader Zim references. Asura are researchers and, I'm gonna say it, sapiosexuals first and foremost -- they're monogamists in the sense that romantic relationships are often between two asura fixated on the same idea.

ANYWAY. Asura are weird freaks and they're kind of memey little bastards about it but they're also insanely intense SCIENCE bastards, who prize being an asshole. During LWS4 the Inquest had live samples of the fucking scarab plague, were experimenting on the Olmakhan with it -- they're a genuine danger. The Inquest can be both funny Team Rocket villains and genuine threats due to their lack of morals!! They can be both!!

But what they're reduced to these days is... they're either childlike and need care (Dagda calling Zojja little one would be fine on its own, but combined with everything else...) or they're just Haha Funny Quip Guys. They're not dicks anymore. When was the last time an asura was an asshole to you in a way that wasn't immediately condemned by the story/narrative as them being an unreasonable small-minded jerk? I don't even necessarily think Arenanet has ever had a real consensus on how to write them, but there's enough content from basegame to LWS4 where you can absolutely write them with just as much... genuineness? not seriousness, but, yknow? as the sylvari or the norn. Like -- imagine if every sylvari we met was either a wide-eyed innocent or a Nightmare Court irredeemable asshole who was torturing babies and cackling about it. If every norn we met was a one-note jovial party drunk or a Son of Svanir who just went JORMAG JORMAG JORMAG.

That's what it feels like has happened to the asura.

Everything in this section from here on until Point C starts is a lot of really misc. disjointed thoughts but I couldn't make them work anywhere else and they seemed relevant still, so. Sorry. You get what you pay for.

...circa End of Dragons --

Taimi: Yes! Xunlai has an entire MedTech division. They make braces for conditions like mine. Taimi: They're incredible. I feel almost no pain when I'm wearing them.

I can buy that asura don't really have a lot of development into assistive devices as a whole because they're generally all pretty self-focused, but there's gotta be a krewe somewhere that's got physically disabled asura, right?

In Icebrood Saga, Phlunt and Taimi's focus during Champions on fighting Primordus -- even if they have to ally with Jormag to do it -- is kind of portrayed as... petulant? Ignorant? But, like, it is very reasonable to say that asura are culturally traumatized, I'd say. Their entire culture and people, over the course of fifty years, were pushed into involuntary migration from their home and into a completely new environment. If the Kodan are traumatized by doing the exact same thing but due to Jormag and that's taken fairly seriously, especially in Bjora Marches. The writing is bad here! Champions struggles a lot on a lot of fronts, and I know it's because that was because a huge chunk of the devs abruptly got dragged off to go make EoD, but they could've at least left someone senior to handle narrative and I don't think they did.

(That honestly ties into a bigger frustration, which is that for a season/expansion where we take care of the Asura-associated dragon and the Norn-associated dragon once and for all, it sure is about Charr. I don't think this is what they meant to do going in! I think the writers meant to have you deal with Jormag in the next season/expansion, and have them be an everpresent force puppeting people around who you never actually fought in Icebrood Saga. Fuck, I don't think you were even supposed to encounter Primordus here, it's not called the Fire and Ice Saga. But the mandate? orders? came down, and suddenly they had to figure out how to get rid of both twin dragons by the end of the season, and they didn't have enough space left to change direction from the charr (who did actually get some great narrative here, I think that was at least preserved).

Point C: "Existing content from LWS4 and earlier establishes that asura tech is extremely advanced."

Anyway I think EoD was generally pretty cool, but I also think they got very worried about potentially making Cantha come off as 'less advanced' than the asura and unintentionally seeming racist in that way, and they swung real fucking hard in the opposite direction. (If anything they probably would be further advanced than Cantha, though -- they were using dragon-magic to power their waypoints & cities back during GW1, and swapped to independent? ambient? magic when the Great Destroyer awakened & pushed a lot of them to the surface. I personally would've gone for the idea that it's deeply impressive that humans, alone, have created something on par with but not better than asuran tech, especially when using a powersource that the asura historically never got as far as the Canthans with.) Asuratech created fractals and a device that could completely destabilize fractals in order to fish up real entities stuck in them (I expand on this further down on my last point).

Moto built an entire fucking immersive videogame with a hammerspace teleporter.

Rata Primus in Sandswept Isles in LWS4 has a satellite dish, implying they've gotten asuratech into orbit.

Asura have had holograms and solid light for ages -- they were developing immersive VR all the way back in Rata Novus. Oola has a hologram. There's multiple hero points where you fight hardlight projections. What Do You Think The SAB Weapon Skins Are.

They're experimenting with radiation.

They have elevators.

They have televisions.

They have sous vide!

They've got holo-clipboards!!

Okay yeah sure it's one random throwaway line from a miscellaneous Rata Sum NPC but THEY HAVE NEWSCASTS, this guy's probably been here since the game RELEASED

HOLOGRAMS

Blish uploaded himself into a golem and he's just Like that now!!!

What the Canthans and especially Joon are doing with jadetech is incredible! But asura tech is not inferior to it. You could say 'dragonjade carries incredible magical power because Soo-Won is awake and actively filtering her power to create it, as opposed to the GW1 asura skimming some off the top of Primordus' and I'd go yeah, okay, that sounds completely fair. Joon having tech that can evaluate the drained Aurene? This makes sense! She's been directly interfacing with Soo-Won's magic for years and probably has a better understanding of the biology and process of Elder Dragons + how their magic works within their body than anyone else alive, including Aurene! If anything, her dragonjade could well be tapping directly into Soo-Won's domains of Water and Life, making dragonjade tech especially good for healing or creating assistive devices. You could potentially insinuate this, but I really don't think the game actually ever says this, so I don't know if I want to give it credit for that. (In fact, the game specifically says that the magic in dragonjade is stripped of all signatures, it's pure dragon magic, so really it says the exact opposite of 'Soo-Won's connection to her domains is so powerful that she infuses the jade she empowers with their essence').

Ankka's stolen Extractor even has a note on its wiki page that it acts similarly to existing asuratech from basegame personal story -- just scaled far, far up. It's not new tech! They've had this, just weaker!

ALSO SNARGLE'S AGENT SAYS ASURA DON'T HAVE, LIKE. VIDEO GAMES? MOVIES? MOVING PICTURES OF ANY KIND? YOUUUUUU HAVE HAD HOLOGRAMS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEAAAAARRRRS. HE'S LITERALLY PUBLISHING SUPER ADVENTURE BOX THE NOVEL. WHAT DO YOU THINK SUPER ADVENTURE BOX IS, LITTLE MAN

Kippo: You bet. But that's not all! D'you know Cantha's living in the future while the rest of us mopes are still eating dirt? Kippo: That's coming from an asura. They watch theater projected from their jade technology. Moving pictures! Kippo: I want K&M at the forefront of new media. Cause pretty soon, ain't nobody gonna be readin' books. Kippo: Maybe one day, the audience could even control these move-ies. An interactive experience. Feel like you're really there!

I hate this guy

Point D: "Gorrik and Taimi have both basically undergone character assassination over the years and had all their edges smoothed off, and SotO Zojja is Zojja in name (and voice actor) only."

LWS1 Taimi was such a fucking brat. Precocious, sure! But she was an asshole of a child who was constantly chafing against any adult in the vicinity and idolized Scarlet Briar. She was a deeply lonely girl who only had Zojja and she was kind of shitty! She was awful to Braham! And, like, I will repeat this again, she idolized Scarlet, the insane mass-murdering terrorist who poisoned and destroyed the entirety of Lion's Arch.

She was a kid. She was a brilliant, lonely kid, and she sucked as a person. After HoT, Zojja is basically comatose, and Taimi decides she has to step up as the Commander's asura tech expert, to prove that she's not just a child who has to be corralled, she's just as much a part of this as you are. And the way she tried to prove herself was by taking on as much responsibility as people would let her, and even some they wouldn't, and she kept being brilliant and she had to keep improving and improving and why didn't Rata Sum see she wasn't a child, and you never realized that maybe she was taking on too much because you didn't have anyone else who could do this research, and she was keeping all her vulnerability to herself -- because if she told you you'd tell her to stop and rest. Everyone would. And she needed to keep proving herself and being the best, the smartest, indispensable to Dragon's Watch,

and eventually it got her caught by Joko. He doesn't torture her, exactly. He traps her in her own assistive device, with limited air and no control, and then he sets Scruffy on you, and this teenage girl has to watch her only safe haven try to kill the only person who can save her as she slowly suffocates to death.

And she's fucking traumatized. And she's trying to put on a brave face but it really, really fucks her up. No time to cry. She has to be helpful, and useful, and if you make her go lie down and rest she's going to fucking scream. The key of Taimi, to me, is that in a lot of ways Zojja probably saw herself in her? An incredibly brilliant and desperately lonely child with nobody to advocate for her, turning all that frustration at her life and herself right back out at the world. If she never shows weakness and if she can be just as rough and tumble as the adults, they'll see she's not a baby. She's not a poor sick victim who needs to be protected.

She's Zojja's protege and Zojja was Snaff's protege and, like -- Zojja is not that old. She's maybe ten, fifteen years older than Taimi? No more than fifteen, I'd say. She's barely an adult when Snaff dies, and she has to be everything Snaff was and more. Zojja remembers what Snaff was for her, and she sees this impossibly smart progeny girl, and she thinks to herself Snaff was my lifeline out of that. and she's that for her.

And then she kind of sucks at it because she's Zojja and she's really not very good at communication that isn't her being a bitch, but, like, she was trying, probably. And Taimi was-is just as attached to her as Zojja was to Snaff.

But Taimi, unlike Zojja at that age, isn't alone. She has Zojja. She has everyone in Dragon's Watch. She has people who take her seriously and believe in her, and her greatest enemy is herself. The older she gets the more she levels out -- partially from the trauma but partially because she's just... growing up! She's still kind of a jerk, she's an asura and she knows she's the smartest person in the room most of the time, but especially when compared to Gorrik (who is admittedly amoral even for an asura), she's got a conscience. She's a firebrand of a girl who pushes herself too hard and she ribs you when you take yourself too seriously, because you've seen her at her most vulnerable, and she knows how hard you take it when you fuck up.

And she's your friend. She's a bitch but like the rest of Dragon's Watch she's your friend.

And by the point of EoD, all that assholery she was capable of has been shifted over to Ankka (who exists to die, unfortunately), and she has now been fully transformed into The Commander's Tech Support Who Says Funny Things And Listens In On Your Conversations. There's no bite to her. There is nothing uniquely Taimi about her anymore.

I wasn't a big fan of her losing Scruffy 2.0 either -- it feels like they were trying to go she's all grown up now, she doesn't need her security blanket anymore! but, like. She has an incurable degenerative disease. That was her assistive device who just also had a personality? Give her a hoverchair or a cane or something. They eventually gave her leg braces in EoD, which I think is fine and honestly works really well (& I wish we'd gotten to see her talking more with Joon and Yao about tech than we did), but. Mmm. It felt weird, you know?

-- ANYWAY BEFORE I MOVE ONTO GORRIK. I do want to touch base with Champions, because Champions was really where they started flanderizing her the most notably. It is completely reasonable that she suggests siding with Jormag, honestly, reasonable in a way the game doesn't treat it as and neither does the Commander, because she's kind of selfish! Jormag? Who cares? She hasn't been really dealing with the rest of the Icebrood Saga so far the way you and Braham have, she just sees 'Jormag's willing to work with us to kill Primordus and hasn't caused mass horrific destruction, they're a completely sentient person'. She sees a solution to a problem and she wants it now, you can talk about Jormag later, her entire race had to diaspora because of this thing and she was there the last time it almost woke up and things got really, really bad after that, what with Balthazar. Jormag is a problem, yeah! But they're not a problem that's hurt her. They're a problem she can look at and understand and speak to. Primordus? Primordus is a monster. It's a natural disaster. You can't convince Primordus to hold off on killing people, it's just what he does. But she can make a deal with Jormag to stay away from these people, maybe, and Taimi even now thinks she's the fucking shit and she's smarter than she is, and she thinks she can outwit Jormag.

Champions could've been a really interesting look at Braham and Taimi basically trying to kill each other because they both have incredible cultural trauma layered on top of personal experiences that means they can't even consider not killing that specific dragon so super dead as a first course of action, and neither of them would be wrong about feeling that way, because if you haven't forgotten -- Taimi is barely an adult at this point, if she is at all, and Braham was a teenager during LWS1 and HoT. He's barely an adult either in the grand scheme of things! A scenario where both dragons are represented by one of your friends would've been really, really cool, and the challenge is 'how do we fix this without the dragons going out of balance'. And It Was Not That At All In Any Way.

I actually had this idea as I was writing this post but, like. Man. I understand the point of Ryland, Champion of Jormag, but I would've loved to see Jormag really gaslighting the hell out of Taimi and convincing her she's just as special as he is. She deserves special power and she understands Jormag, she's so clever -- just that slow horrible corruption through persuasion, through appealing to her pride. That's the asura cultural flaw! They know they're smarter than everyone else! Play to that.

This is partially because IN THE MEANTIME, FIRE ALARM makes me want to punch a table. I hate that voiceline. I hear it so much. Dragonstorm, why.

ANYWAY -- LWS4 Gorrik was barely ex-Inquest. Bioterrorist weirdo. The most autistic man in the world (love him for this). His argument against 'YOU WERE EXPERIMENTING ON THE OLMAKHAN WITH THE SCARAB PLAGUE?' is just 'I didn't vote for it but the results are FASCINATING also btw it's actually a pestilence, not a plague--'. His morals are entirely about what will let him do the most Bug Science. Sure, the Scarab Plague is one of the most horrifying contagions in history, but he is a scarab expert and he could infodump on this shit for HOURS. Do you remember that time he got arrested for bioterrorism after exposing himself to said plague, and his main concerns are 'people calling it a plague, not a pestilence' when they want his fucking head? Even when you get him out he just goes 'am I supposed to anticipate the neuroses of everyone around me?? Them freaking out was totally unreasonable'. Yeah, man, the fucking Elonians losing it about the potential of the Scarab Plague coming back is an unreasonable hysterical reaction. He doesn't care about people! He only cares about bugs! (This is an exaggeration but you get what I mean.)

The Commander: Joko intercepted the ship. Exposed all the crew and passengers to the Scarab Plague. Gorrik: Oh my, my, my—a full-spectrum outbreak! This is incredible! Taimi: Gorrik... Gorrik: Oh, right. Sorry. Tragedy. Terrible.

He's a freak! He's a freak of a man! I love him! COMMANDER HOLY FUCK DID YOU SAY CHAK from Jahai Bluffs lives in my heart. Weirdo guy. Incubated the roller beetle in his own body under his skin just because he thought it'd be cool. He never really grows a conscience even after Blish's death, because that's not who he is, that's not how he perceives and interacts with the world. He has a completely different perspective from you, and his priorities and predilections make him an impossibly brilliant scientist... who should probably not be allowed to talk to anyone he doesn't already know ever again.

Now circa EoD he's... what? What is he? Haha he's funny detective guy who can't read social cues and is dragging Rama into things. Oh, I guess he's an asura, so sometimes he says tech things. They have removed this man's deep freak nature from him :( The man I knew would've been out there doing fieldwork and dissecting void creatures yesterday. He would've been fascinated by the Dragonvoid glitching reality! Sorry, no, he doesn't do that anymore, he's just Funny Detective Guy, sometimes he does science things with jade tech because Rama is around and that means Gorrik is also there because he's Those Two Guys with Rama now. Sure. I like their dynamic but man did things happen to Gorrik to get there. I wish it could've been Very Normal Man Rama and a little goblin man who has decided Rama is his bestie.

(Also I'm deeply weirded out by the narrative pushing TAIMI IS AN ADULT NOW SO SHE'S GOING TO DATE GORRIK BECAUSE ADULTS GET IN RELATIONSHIPS unironically. I really do think the writers have forgotten there's like... a 15 year age gap between them and just remembered 'Gorrik's brother was Taimi's classmate, and he was close? in age to his brother, probably?, so it's fine' he's like 30, man. And if Taimi/Gorrik didn't feel so slapped together and like a way to pair them up so they're busy with each other and no longer narratively relevant outside of Tech Support, maybe I would be less bitchy! But I really don't like them symbolizing 'Taimi's not a little girl anymore, she's all grown up now!' by having her immediately display romantic interest in a guy who, like. You cannot tell me Gorrik fucks. I love him but I don't think he has ever contemplated fucking as a thing he would do.

They're research partners! They're good friends! But they are absolutely not in a romantic or sexual relationship. I don't believe it.)

Zojja... god, they did that woman dirty in SotO. They did her so dirty. I talked in my original post about how her narrative role here is actively sabotaged by it being Zojja and Caithe (or even Logan!) would've done it better, and I'm sticking to that. Anyway, the Tower of Secrets story summary includes:

I've never seen her out of her element or so unsure of herself; I'm used to the hypercompetent and defiantly confident golemancer of legend. This is an entirely new side.

Even taking into account the idea SotO wants us to accept that she's gone through character development offscreen and a full arc, Zojja would never. Zojja gets fucking mean when she's stressed or unsure, and even if it's been years and she's grown past that... she's still not going to wibble about it. This is part of the big problem with her writing, even in the base content for SotO: Zojja is very, very passive. She's nice, even! She mediates between you! She's your good friend Zojja (even though she was maybe friends with an asuran Commander, and she sure as hell was not making friendship bracelets with any other Commanders and wouldn't go YOU'LL FIX EVERYTHING :D after not having seen you for ten years). ...But asura in general, and especially Zojja, have a chip on their shoulder and they will prove themselves. There are ways they could've shown Zojja growing past that asuran cultural selfishness by really listening to and cooperating with other people -- the way they did it isn't that. I'm gonna call back to that Angel McCoy interview I linked earlier:

Sit back and watch the sass fly! A side effect of asuran intelligence and self-confidence is that they’re masters of the zinger. They don’t suffer fools lightly and don’t believe in sparing feelings. Workers expect to get snide comments from their krewe bosses, and progeny expect it from their parents. Teen asura, of course, give it back as good as they get it—it’s part of growing up. This verbal abuse may seem mean-spirited, but the asura don’t see it that way. They don’t take it personally. Their competitive natures drive them to greater heights of achievement. Remember, asura have survived against terrible odds, including their tiny statures. They’ve earned their attitudes, and a certain amount of bravado keeps them from being victims. With their jibes, they’re telling it like they see it, and if you can’t take the heat, get out of the laboratory.

Yes, this is asura overall, their cultural standards, but everyone in Destiny's Edge is/was -- to some degree -- a prototypical example of their race. And beloved Zojja was a prickly son of a bitch if you weren't the asura commander. She would never wibble. I really, really do think they gave her amnesia via wizardification so they can justify both 1. her never referencing your past adventures and 2. doing a bit of moeblobification. It's not gap moe if she doesn't have moments of being a bitch, Arenanet, it's just sparkling woobification.

They can have her talk about 'I used to be so mad at everyone' but there's a point where it's not 'reasonable offscreen character development', it's 'the writers telling us ACTUALLY it's lore-justified why she's written this way now, and she's telling you it, so she's a reliable narrator'. Zojja would be a completely unreliable narrator!! She's a bitch!! Like I said in the Taimi section, there are ways to write a character growing past being a total horrific bitch in ways that make sense! This isn't it.

This dialogue actually really frustrates me more than anything because it wants you to just... accept that nobody went looking for her, and that she didn't ever reach out because she didn't feel worthy of us. Nobody went looking? Not us, not anyone in Destiny's Edge, not anyone noteworthy in Rata Sum who would've cared about Snaff's brilliant progeny-cum-legacy and perhaps the best Dragon specialist in the world going completely off the grid and disappearing? And not even Taimi, an orphan whose mentor figure Zojja was so horrifically harmed in Maguuma that she was basically comatose. That Taimi? That Taimi would've only checked in on Zojja when she was in hospital, would've let Zojja turn her away when she wasn't ready for visitors, and wouldn't have looked for her or told anyone she was missing, not even the Commander? (okay she told us once but it was kind of a casual throwaway line. i don't count it.) Not only is it shoddy writing, it makes the Commander, Taimi, and all of Zojja's guildmates look like horrible people. We didn't check on you because the writers wrote you out of the narrative, girl.

Also Zojja doesn't say a single fucking thing about Snaff relating to Mabon at any point. A mentor who saw her for her and took her in and gave her a home? A father figure? This part does drive me insane actually because given SotO's writing I don't think they even thought about it. I don't think they meant to imply that she's basically having flashbacks to Snaff's death and that's why she flips out so badly at Mabon getting possessed and dying. I really don't think they did.

"But c'mon! Make a life-changing decision just after Mabon died? If it came from anyone but Dagda, it'd be emotional warfare." IT LITERALLY IS. IT'S LITERALLY EMOTIONAL WARFARE. THE GAME IS SO CLOSE TO POINTING OUT HOW CREEPY IT IS FOR DAGDA TO DO THIS, because with the base content drop for SotO they were at least partially interested in exploring the idea that the Astral Ward had a benevolent front but was ultimately culty and doing some horrible shit in the name of the ends justifying the means.

AND NOW SHE HAS AMNESIA AND WE SAW HER, LIKE, ONCE BEFORE WE WENT TO NAYOS. LITERALLY WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HAVING HER IN THE STORY AT ALL. THIS COULD'VE BEEN A FRIENDLY LAMP. Coulda been DUCHESS CHRYSANTHEA or someshit. Faren!! I don't know!! It's 2:30 in the morning I'm very tired, this post isn't getting any proofreading it is going out as is.

Point E: "This is actually just about Fractals, sorry."

I know they were thinking about continuing the Arkk storyline at one point, apparently that was the original draft for Sunqua Peak. Dessa's implied to have some deep connection to Uncategorized, which is explicitly not Rata Sum. When some prerelease images mentioned 'fractal' in the URL for SotO and it was apparently going to be about the Mists I was like 'oh, shit, are we getting closure on Arkk'? He's out there!! In the Mists!! Where is our fucking boy!!! (He's nowhere, the current writers' room don't know he exists. :') )

The major interactions with the Mists are generally Asura-developed -- Dessa and her krewe developed fractals as we know them, 'capturing' these Mists-echoes and preventing them from dissolving (and she also 'studied' at Rata Sum (though it 'didn't work out'), implying to me she grew up somewhere else and moved to Rata Sum for college before dropping out). And then Arkk managed to somehow break into the Mists physically, disrupt your transportation back from one, mash several Fractals together, let Mist Beings into the Observatory,

It's implied (to me, anyway) that there is or was a real Dessa who created the Fractal Observatory and then... got out. She had a kid before making the Observatory -- Arkk mentions she looks very young during Shattered Observatory, she recognizes him, and she has some unspecified connection to the Raving Asura -- who has an unsent letter to her which makes her deeply sad to read, and, also, yknow. The kittycat golems. He could be Arkk's dad, is what I'm saying.). And never knew her fractal echo was trapped inside the Mists, repeating forever and forever and forever. And then she died, or she disappeared (maybe something happened when fractals-Dessa tried to leave during LWS1 and reset?), and Arkk found out that she was still in the Fractals, and he managed to destabilize the fucking Fractals in his attempt to rip in there and get her out.

And the version we meet of him in Shattered Observatory is just an echo, too, trapped in the loop forever and ever and ever. Maybe there is a real one out there -- or maybe the Mists destroyed that one as he tried to escape the Shattered Observatory, and the only versions of these two that exist are their shadows endlessly looping (which is honestly what We only exist in the Mists…echoes of ourselves. is meant to mean, but hey, it's not specific enough, I read it as 'the versions of ourselves that we are now aren't real. we're just shadows of our real selves, who aren't here any longer'). Fucked up, man. Anyway they should've made one of the archwizards in SotO an asura

Asura. They're little bastards. Love 'em. In my universe my asura druid Svess is holding Taimi's hand and talking her fucking head off about how to make nitroglycerin and they're having a GREAT time

[luduschola]

Wowser! Choices, Consequences, and Chronomancy! Life Is Strange: A Weaving Narrative Through Awesome Gameplay.

WRITTEN BY: DARYLL || Posted on November 15, 8:00 PM

Life Is Strange is an episodic graphic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, an independent developer of video games based in Paris and Montreal, and published and released in 2015 by Square Enix, a multinational holding company and video game publisher. The game's development began with a small, independent team in Dontnod. As collaboration with Square Enix progressed, additional people joined the project. As a result, the game occupies a unique space, blending the spirit of an indie title and the backing of a Triple-A company, even with Square Enix's little impact on the game's development besides publishing and funding the game. 

According to a developer of the game, the partnership with Square Enix was also a product of how, during that time, most prospective publishers were skeptical of female protagonists, with Square Enix being the only publisher who didn't mind or change anything about the game. The budget was also confirmed to be limited, and the team dedicates most of it to story writing and voice acting rather than graphics and animation. Ultimately, the developers passionately made the game, and it paid off.

Set in the fictional town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest, the game follows Max Caulfield, a geeky, introverted, and self-conscious high school student who discovers her ability to rewind time at a moment's notice during the beginning of the story. Throughout the five episodes, the players navigate Max's relationships with different characters while uncovering secrets about the town and making choices that affect the course of the story.

"Then, I realized I had a choice and the power to change everything." -Max🦋.

Max's power to rewind time is one of the most significant gameplay mechanics in Life Is Strange, allowing the players to explore alternative outcomes for their decisions and solve puzzles that needs an "Out of the box" thinking with Max's powers.

This mechanic emphasizes the game's central themes of consequence and personal responsibility. The ability to undo the player's choices, ranging from simple dialogues and new dialogue choices to outright decisions that will change the outcome of the game's storyline, adds another exciting experience for the players. These choices create a unique emotional dynamic, where players will face the weight of their decisions even after altering them. It is a challenge for players to consider the impact of their actions, particularly as some choices players make, cannot simply be reversed, which can lead to irreversible consequences or a problematic situation that you may need to save people from impending fates.

The true heart of Life Is Strange lies in the evolving relationship between Max Caulfield and her best friend, Chloe Price. The game's narrative unfolds through the lens of their friendship, which both Max and Chloe see as deeply complicated due to the years of Max's absence and Chloe's life turning downhill after she left. Chloe's story after Max left is the focal point with another title from the Life Is Strange series, Before the Storm. 

Throughout the game, the player's choices will influence how Max and Chloe interact as the story delves into the themes of loyalty, trust, and identity. There are other characters that Max can also befriend and develop with, from the likes of Warren and Kate, that add to the emotional depth of the story. The player will discover moral dilemmas to decide upon, situations to be changed, and, most of all, uncover the mystery of Chloe's friend and savior, Rachel Amber, an integral part of the story that will delve deep into a darker side of life in Arcadia Bay.

"...and Max Caulfield. Don't you forget about me…" -🐦‍⬛

Beyond the gameplay mechanics of time-rewinding, Life Is Strange poignantly explores the themes of time and loss. Even though the player controls Max's ability to alter past events, their choices can also pave ways for better outcomes. Although sometimes it often contrasts with the permanence of specific outcomes in some situations that prevents the player from rewinding. Once the player makes their choice, no amount of rewinding can undo the choices' emotional or physical consequences.

The game's progress throughout the player's experience will delve deep into the concept of choices, focusing on the emotional and psychological challenges. Whether it's the disappearance of a loved one, the loss of innocence, death, or even the rusting of relationships. As the player steers Max through these concurrent themes, the player will experience how Max will understand the complexities of her situations, from Chloe to her powers and others. All of them are rooted with her past and future, as she yearns to discover herself and the purpose of her powers, especially how it can be helpful to save others. Symbolism also plays an integral role, with numerous foreshadowing and hints that can be easily misunderstood or missed. Prominently, the game itself addresses issues related to mental health, such as anxiety, depression, and trauma, as the game portrays them through the experiences of Chloe Price and other characters throughout the game. The sensitivity and accurate portrayal of these struggles make Life Is Strange a critically acclaimed game.

🎶 "...And we could run away, before the light of day.  You know we always could, the mountains say, the mountains say…" 🎶 –Message to the Bears, Mountains.

A feature within Life Is Strange that is prominent and popular with its players is the presence of indie soundtracks that perfectly complement the emotional weight of the story. Tracks by artists like Syd Matters and José Gonzáles create an atmosphere with a spice of intimacy and a reflective feeling that enhances the game's themes of nostalgia, loss, and personal growth. The game's visual style is also unique, as the developers prioritized the budgets for the writing and voicing. The art style, nevertheless, even with its quality, became an integral part of the Life Is Strange franchise. Soft, watercolor-like textures and character designs evoke a sense of warmth and melancholy, which perfectly match the characters' emotional journey in the game. Particular scenes such as the school intro and ending scenes of Episodes 1 and 2 are notable examples portraying the mixture of music and visuals.

Life Is Strange is an experience of a lifetime should one invest their time in the game and its remarkable story. It is described as a profound exploration of time, choice, and the human connection the story offers. Its branching narrative and time-rewinding mechanic continue to help the players reflect on the consequences of their actions or to find ways to do new actions that could not be possible from the first time of interaction. While its richly developed characters and emotional storytelling create a profound personal experience, the continuous themes it explores, from loss, identity, mental health issues, complexities of relationships, etc., make it one of the generation's most memorable and thought-provoking narrative-driven games. The success of Life Is Strange paved the way for numerous spin-offs and sequels that continue the story, explore its themes, and tackle sensitive topics. These narratives emotionally, physically, and spiritually engage with the players, helping them understand branching storylines, diverse characters, and varying perspectives. Through these experiences, the players can gain valuable lessons for personal growth and reflection while acknowledging that even with the power of time, our choices still matter, the consequences of those choices are always there, and acceptance of the unpredictability of life.

[tanoraqui]

I have no idea what critical role is but you reblog it a lot. Is it just a bunch of people playing video games or something?

Critical Role is an ongoing RPG game (D&D 5e) played by a bunch of notable voice actors from video games, including Ashely Johnson (The Last of Us), Liam O’Brien (idk, he voiced some guy named Illidan somewhere? I know very little about video games), and Laura Bailey (she’s Laura goddamn Bailey). The Dungeon Master is Matthew Mercer (blanking - Overwatch cowboy) who’s REALLY GODDAMN GOOD at being a DM, and indeed does it as part of his full-time job now, because at some point they all went “fuck it” and incorporated as their own company. Because fuck yeah. Last spring (my god it was only last spring) they did a kickstarter to fund an animated series of some previous RPG adventures, and it broke several records and now - slowed by the global pandemic - there’s gonna be 2 seasons of an animated show, hosted by Amazon I think? (Every time I think about that I scream softly in excitement in my mind.)

It’s currently on its second big, multi-year campaign, with the adventuring party The Mighty Nein. Their previous campaign starred Vox Machina. Some highlights, arbitrarily mixed together, include:

that time Vox Machina had a cannonball contest, displaying their distinct personalities and powersets really well, actually

that time the Mighty Nein accidentally got into a fight with some smugglers and then the city guard, accidentally stole a ship, and thus, and I cannot emphasize this enough, accidentally became pirates

“Take me instead, you raven bitch.”  - Vax’ildan of Vox Machina, half-elven rogue, offering his own life to the goddess of death in exchange for his sister’s and (unbeknownst to him at the time) beginning of long character arc of multiclassing as a paladin

Vox Machina’s archnemeses: doors, and also the elderly

the Mighty Nein’s archnemeses: chairs

Veth Brenatto, sometimes Nott the Brave, of the Mighty Nein regaining - with the help of her friends - her halfling form after years as a goblin, and immediately dip-kissing her husband and kicking all aforementioned friends (and her son) out so they can have sex

Taliesin Jaffe had eerie luck with nat20s in the Vox Machina campaign, but I maintain that Laura Bailey [harp music] actually has the best record for narratively on-point nat20s, including but not limited to:

two consecutive nat20s as Vex’ahlia of Vox Machina, half-elven ranger, to shoot the Briarwoods (sexy wizard/vampire couple) when they were about to kill her brother

True Love’s Nat20, rolling as part of the resurrection ritual to bring back Percy (Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, human gunslinger of VM)

in the culminating moment of an episode in which the M9 one by one spoke with ancient, evil hag about what they might trade her in order to lift the curse on Nott, tiefling Jester Lavorre rolling at nat20 deception check to trick the into hag eating a cupcake laced with magic dust that lowered her ability to resist the Modify Memory curse Jester immediately cast, convincing the hag that she’d already agreed to the deal without demanding anything in return

not a Vex roll but Vex-enabled: dropping Grog (goliath barbarian) out of basically a magical pokeball with perfect dramatic timing for him to roll a nat20 final blow on his evil abusive uncle, cleaving him in twain

“Call me child one more goddamn time--”  - Keyleth of the Air Ashari, half-elven druid of VM, snarling at the ancient green dragon who’d orchestrated the destruction of 1/4 of Keyleth’s people

“You were not born with poison in your veins....Welcome to the Mighty Nein.”  - Caleb Widogast, human wizard, consoling/forgiving/welcoming aa lawful evil NPC who they’d caught playing a major part in creating a war between two empires for The Greater Ultimate Good (and kinda his own personal gain)...but he was their friend already at that point and Caleb had his own history with doing terrible things that he thought were right at the time, and actually someone else might’ve said the “Welcome to the Mighty Nein” part but that’s intrinsically part of it, and it’s...something they say to a lot of people; to a range of NPCs and guest characters. Which is interesting because Vox Machina DIDN’T; they were a tighter family unit but...well, they were a tighter family unit. And kinda...better people, more Heroes(TM)? Disastrous and often very fucked up inside and sometimes out, but Heroes(TM), on the whole. 

whereas the M9 are more trying to sort out their own personal problems, and stumble into international politics almost by mistake. Even their relationships with NPCs are different - they don’t trust, none of the M9 trust in a way VM did, the party took much longer to gel just with each other. Partly, admittedly, because by the time Vox Machina came to the YouTube screen, the cast had been playing at home for about a year, whereas we’ve been watching the M9 from level 1...but even accounting for that, they’re all much less trusting people. Most of them had big secrets in their backstory

which is why it’s all the more wonderful every time they invite someone new it, either outside the group or just with each other. And it pays off - I don’t have a whole meta, but I’ve been thinking idly for a while about how kinda...the big (DM-created) plot twists in the VM campaign were generally...disruptions, dissolutions, or betrayals? The deception of Raishan (aforementioned ancient green dragon.) Hotis’s assassination attempt on Vax, while disguised as a trusted NPC. When Emperor Uriel stepped down and before he’d even finished his speech, there was a sudden invasion of 4 goddamn ancient dragons. Whereas the M9...not only have no NPCs unexpectedly turned on them (the grievous actions of aforementioned lawful evil NPC were mostly pre-story), but it feels almost like a plot twist every time an NPC in authority is benevolent? Like, they arranged peace negotiations between the warring empires and I think every single fan and player was waiting with bated breath for it to all go wrong...and it didn’t. There’s a truce, now. Will it last? Who knows. Jester’s god turned out to not be a god at all, just an archfey in over his head, but he’s not trying to hurt anyone - he came clean and asked for help.

Idk, man. Critical Role streams on Twitch every Thursday at 7pm, or at least, it’ll keep doing so if public health concerns don’t make it take a break again, and it makes me unironically happy to watch, pretty much every time. The cast has great friend chemistry and, now that they’ve all warmed up to each other, so do the characters.

Episodes DO tend to be 3-4 hours long, shaving off maybe half an hour in the podcast versions, so be aware of that. But I just kind of set Thursday evenings aside and I love it. 

it’s funny bc I told my roommate I probably wasn’t going to go on a long emphatic ramble in response to this but Here We Are

[missksj]

choose your hero!nct127

ﾐ☆ genre: punch inspired!au, video game au!, superhero au!

ﾐ☆ word count: 7k

ﾐ☆ warnings: mentions of greatest fears and nightmares, fighting, death, light smut but nothing too vivid, and sm ceo and dispatch make an appearance ew i know

ﾐ☆ author’s note: ah my first nct 127 headcanon and second creation on this site! yes i know it’s been a long time coming since punch dropped but ever since i saw the music video, this idea popped into my head. i heard of other nctzens talking about this aesthetic when mentioning the mv, but hopefully you like my take on it! please enjoy and look forward to more writing from me in the future! thank you so much! ps this is not proof read yikes sorry

Velvet clouds of psychedelic purple with the scattered rays of sunset hues made an unnatural background for the logo’s electric lettering with lightning strokes cracking the static screen in your stuffy apartment. Outside was a different matter. A thunderstorm jolted the placid crimson sky to a violet that only nature could create, although the graphic designers of PUNCH: NCT 127 came close. It was rather befitting for the stark opposition of the hurricane raging outside to the retro sparking aesthetic that you’ve witnessed for the ninth time, and it was the most pivotal. It was as if the thunder was the applause, the lightning rallying behind you, the pelting of the raindrops reverberating the hammering of your heart. Almost victorious in a way, the non-player hero that lurked in the background of the other eight paths taken would finally be the alternate hero to your player. He was a prize in the reverie that you constructed solely from his brief bio to the artificial mannerisms and quotes that he generated in the story lines which enabled you to project your fantasy on mundane men. The comparison was cruel, fictional characters were even crueler. Nimble fingers and darting eyes fell into a comfortable routine, familiar with the introduction story, it was a race between the controller’s buttons and the spiteful lightning that would sever the power.

[FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY]

[PROPERTY OF THE NCT 127 DIVISION UNDER THE SM AGENCY]

PRIORITY IDENTIFICATION 

[NAME]...F/N L/N

[ID #]...07201607

[STATUS]...Active

[CLASS]...Agent

[ALIAS]...Punch

[TEAM AFFILIATION]...N/A

Welcome to the NCT 127 Division, Agent L/N. I am Lee Soo-Man, the Director of the SM Agency and your guide for your latest mission: THE FINAL ROUND. On behalf of the whole SM community, we apologize for the abrupt summoning, but your presence and skills are crucial if we are going to defeat the DISPATCH terrorist. For too long, the person that cowers behind the mask that claims itself DISPATCH has tormented South Korea for too long, and only you can stop them. It cannot be done alone though, if you so choose to take on this responsibility, I will assign one of the nine superheroes of your picking to share this task. Do you accept it?

CLICK [YES] TO CONTINUE

CLICK [NO] TO RESTART

I am pleased that you have accepted the assignment. For the duration of the mission, the NEO ZONE will be the location of the base for you and your partner. Intel, equipment, and training will be at both of your disposals. Now that you have been briefed on all inner workings of the mission and the NEO ZONE, there is one last obstacle until you defeat the enemy. The selection of your partner is based on compatibility and trust, I implore you to consider wisely until you make a final decision. The designated superhero of your liking will be under one of two teams, FUTURE OR DREAMER. Both equally beneficial, but the bonds of loyalty run deep between the members, you have to determine which one of their morals you value more. Heed my warning though, with the right set of skills and talent,  you and your partner will be unstoppable but tread lightly your connection with him. After all, you are his only weakness. Which team and hero will you choose?

CLICK [TEAM FUTURE]

CLICK [TEAM DREAMER] 

You now have the option to choose your hero.

Before your perplexed mind could comprehend the change of dialogue, a streak of lightning had pierced the stillness of the undisturbed bedroom and released the tempest that was once contained to reality. With the abundance of consuming darkness, shards of glass pricking your paling skin, and tree branches pounding for entry--your white knuckles and twitching eyes fathomed the only connection you had with actuality; a plastic controller and the flickering avatar of your destined hero you chose only seconds before. Your heart had been thumping, not from the anticipation of a new adventure, no, it was pure fear that jolted your numbed muscles to sprint to sanctuary. The thunderstorm mocked your failed attempt at fleeing as another surge of electricity enveloped the room in white and sparks rippled at your ankles as you ran away but the tethering currents from the screen wrenched you back.

SOUL TRANSFUSION NOW COMPLETE_

Team Future

Taeil

Power: Pyrokinesis

A very vocal opponent when he’s on the battlefield, you might be on the other side of the area but you can always figure out where he is located by listening to his strange grunt/growl combos, enemies usually have to process the inhuman sound that came out of a small man but you just roll your eyes and toothy grin grows as you run to him for back up

Says “let’s get it!” any chance he gets, always attempts to make it your team chant before going on a mission but everyone votes no, even you

Loves to wear long sleeves as a staple piece of clothing despite his already burning temperature, he claims it eases him as if it were security blanket, and he enjoys when you tell him he looks adorable with his sleeved paws

During winter though, he always has to stock up on sweaters because you are always stealing them, whether it’s the feeling of his residual heat ghosting over your skin or look of complete adoration glazing over his eyes as he devours that look of yours, it’s a great excuse to wear one

If you had to assign ‘roles’ in the relationship, you would so be a top, he’s the most chill boy out there as you throw tantrums or squeal out of pure joy when you are finally promoted, it’s either purring hums out of his mouth or a silly smile as he gazes at you 

Physical affection is minimal between you two unless you initiate it, but it’s mostly wrapping his arm around you, it’s in no way conveying that he doesn’t love you, but rather love to him is experiencing moments with you, making memories while watching a funny movie or dancing horribly to a playlist he created

An exception is when you end up falling asleep on the couch as you two watch a movie, he secretly loves to carry you back to bed as he tucks you in and truly soaks in what you mean to him

His hair gradually transitioned to its current red as his powers grew throughout the years and he would always dye it but his genes overpowered any artificial color, not until you said you liked his hair like that, he decided to keep it

King of making you smile especially when you are down, he can’t stand seeing you sad so he insists on becoming a goofball until your sides hurt from laughing so hard

Takes training way too seriously, you always start off competing but by like the 100th crunch you are wiped but he’s still going 

Becomes sulky when his Disney Hades costume doesn’t come out as planned because his fire is red and not blue, but it was the best decision ever when you suggested Ghost Rider for the Halloween party, Taeil never looked better with just a leather jacket covering his bare skin

You finally convinced the clothing department to give you a fireproof uniform because Taeil has really bad aim, and your clothes are rags after a mission

Figured out you had a crush on Zuko when you were younger, so he would rewatch it with you and definitely cosplay Zuko, perhaps even role play with it if it’s something you were into

Having sex with Taeil was searing pain shooting through your thighs, tender love handles, heaving chests and lactic acid seeping through your muscles as he cheered you onto the last lap--it was a workout in itself with a sweltering room that reflected his aroused emotions

Both of you are constantly battling, whether it’s a rap battle or a cooking battle, Taeil is in love with the passionate side of you

Breakfast in bed is a tradition held during the weekends, he says he loves to spoil you but he just loves tasting his own food while you give him compliments on how delicious it is

Taeil is usually saved as a last resort for dangerous group missions, you’ve heard stories of his past battles as if he were legend already, but you’ve only witnessed his true power once by scorching down the enemy in one go, flames clawing his body as the inner glow within him exploded like he was a supernova--someone had to drag you out before the building collapsed on itself from the stifling heat and the roaring fire

You pinch his bouncy cheeks as often as possible just to see him roll his eyes while he fights off the widening smirk that makes his doe eyes curve into crescents, but it’s the blooming crimson of his cheeks that you indulge in, lightly sizzling your fingertips until you can’t take the pain any longer and yelp slips out, but Taeil swiftly swoops in and kisses your fingertips in an apology, it was a good pain though

It’s a normal night for both of you, 2 AM and your blabbering about everything and nothing, and Taeil always ends up the saying the same line to you as he coaxes you to sleep because he knows how grumpy you become in the morning, “I’m grateful we’re together, who would make you a fire if you were stranded on a deserted island? You definitely can’t, so, hmm, I guess it has to be me”

Johnny

Power: Lycanthropy

You’d suspect him to be bear when he morphed with his build and height, but he’s a hulking chestnut brown wolf with gentle eyes

Basically a puppy on steroids always expects a treat and good belly rub after eviscerating all his targets

Has the ability to shift at will, so during winter nights you can find him nestled around you for added warmth

During the colder months, he usually wears knitted sweaters and oversized coats in his human form because it reminds him of his fur, and he claims he likes to keep you warm while he holds you in any form

Creates video tutorials of both of you sparring with each other, lots of constructive criticism and compliments on your ‘form’

Begs you to ride him into a mission just for the sake of it, he can so see you as a badass warrior on their monstrous steed

Johnny’s favorite time of day is during the end when you wind down with him and you tell him every detail of your day despite you two being joined at the hip as partners

Always asks questions out of plain curiosity and simply in love with the sound of your voice, it’s the equivalent of you petting his sweet spot on the back of his ear

Without a doubt, he howls in bed while having sex, he’s always teetering the edge of shifting and even though you repeatedly tell him it’s fine to let go, the splintered wood of the headboard and floating feathers of a slashed pillow is evidence of how much concentration he puts in to keep you safe

Manicures and pedicures on a regular basis in the Suh household got to keep those claws clean

Adamant about not getting a pet dog with you, his excuse is he would get too jealous of another canine but his stance is weakening with your improved puppy dog eyes

Multiple jokes about ‘starting a pack’ with you

While in his wolf form, he can understand human language but he doesn’t have the ability to communicate, so both of you rely on subtle gestures

Naturally has a small smile, always nudges you with his snout, and whenever you make a joke to him, he bears his canines that are frightening to most but to you it’s comforting

Johnny’s greatest fear is if you two are ever in an argument and his anger blinds him to the point of him unconsciously shifting and accidentally harming you

Even clumsier in his wolf form, he doesn’t realize actually how massive he is which makes him a hazard to normal-sized beings

Gets most of his stances and moves from the wolves from the twilight series, he won’t admit but he’s certainly inspired by them

Sexual appetite is at a peak when the full moon comes out, growl central!!

The most treasured item you two have is a portrait of wolf-Johnny on his hind legs, attacking your face with slobbering kisses and you grinning brightly because nothing can compare to the bliss of that snapshot

Taeyong

Power: Superhuman Speed

After every assignment, Taeyong’s personal mission is to dote on you, this usually happens by using a covering or his own jacket and slinging it over your shoulders, if there is grime or blood on it, he lets out soft ‘sorry’ even though you always tell him not to

He knows it’s his job, he understands the need, but that doesn’t mean he is comfortable with the bloody side of it, and so he loves talking to you after incidents, your voice is soothing and it helps him process all the trauma, he says it’s for your sake but you know in these moments you are his crutch and you gladly accept the job

Naturally, a faster walker than you so he always manages to be a few feet ahead of you, but when he sees you fall behind, he holds your hand and  tugs lightly while matching your pace

After enhancing his speed,  he always has flushed cheeks and a glossy sheen across his forehead, so you make it a habit to kiss his forehead, cheeks, and lips to cool him down

It doesn’t work, his heart his pulsating harder than ever and does that exasperated airy laugh as an attempt to stabilize his heightened emotions while walking away so you don’t witness his even redder face

You give him piggyback rides after missions, his energy is basically depleted by then, so a jacket for a piggyback ride seems like a fair deal even though he fights you the whole way but you know he adores being cared for

You were the one to convince him to dye his hair pink in an effort to have an easier time spotting him during assignments and now he’s pink blur racing off to defeat villains

When he lightly peppers kisses on your face, the smacks get louder until he finally lands on your lips and it’s the most exaggerated sloppy sound he can make while he squeezes your cheeks

Weekdays for him are for cooking dinner, and you occasionally join to help him but mostly it’s him feeding you bits asking if everything is seasoned well and by the end, he is cursing because half the dinner is already gone

Type of boyfriend to remember you mentioning something you like and a few days later, he buys it for you or he randomly buys you things that remind him of you and leaves it for you as a surprise

Always doodling on you or leaving you notes with drawings so he can remind you that he loves you or to hydrate

After stressful missions, he just plops on top of you, his nose inhaling your scent as he forces his heart to match your rhythm, it lasts for about twenty minutes or until he can finally recharge

Taeyong’s gym locker in the NeoZone is plastered with couple photos of you two and photos of you modeling or candid while he directed you with his camera

The only way you can convince him to give you ten more pushups or five more pullups is if you bribe him with kisses and it always works

Very sacrificial, it’s one of his main flaws, he’ll get super flustered and annoyed when he sees you in the line of fire, so he’ll ultimately take all the heat and scold you after to put yourself first

His face usually has a cold blank stare to it as he observes his surroundings but once you collide into him and coil your arm around his, he grows this massive grin that only you can create

Never takes advantage of his speed with you, his surroundings are always in a constant race and he’s always anticipating the next move, but with you, your a serene presence washing over him; calming him, grounding him to capture every moment of you so it isn’t a blur but a vivid mural

Definitely tender and sensual in bed, once tried to spice things up by using his speed but he almost broke you, so now he only changes his pace if you request it

With your head on his chest every night, the last thing you hear before you fall asleep is the rapid thumping of his heart; it’s the only lullaby you’ll ever need

Yuta

Power: Supernatural Swordsmanship

Cut his hair with his kodachi and you most definitely needed to clean up the edges

Villains dread combating with Yuta, not just because he’s insane with a sword but he only talks about you and your relationship while fighting as if the opponent will answer his question of whether he should give you a cookie or ice cream cake for your birthday or even both 

Rather than making you feel better when you feel down, he would be your soundboard, a shoulder to cry one, a great pair of ears; patience and multiple ‘mhms’ as you unravel your worries while his fingers swirl on your thigh and he kisses your temple

You two could be on opposite sides of the room but his eyes would always gravitate to you and he would wait until you notice so he could meet your gaze and he would do the dorkiest faces, especially his famous lion rawr aegyo, it makes you realize how good of a father he would be

Goes wild when he sees your body tremble beneath him as the cold metal of the kodachi glides along your skin

The only thing rivaling his love for you is his love for his katana, it’s bond that can never be severed and  it’s a trust that only develops between soulmates, you could never understand but you accept and allow it to be the third partner in the relationship

It shouldn’t be possible for Yuta to look like a prince walking out of an otome game right after a battle, but there he is, glistening skin with swept hair and twinkling eyes as he sheathes his katana across his back as if he’s going to ride his horse in the Sengoku period

It’s usual occurrence to catch him absentmindedly talking to his katana, you wouldn’t be surprised if it could talk back, he can summon it by hand already, that sword and he shares one brain cell but he usually uses it as a mirror

You’re a killer couple, not only with looks and fashion but it’s quite a sight to experience as you shoot a bullet to his katana so it can ricochet at a target eighty feet away

Manages a rigorous training session before you wake up and when he’s done, he ends up collapsing on top with his sticky body as you screech at him to get off

The training facility in the NeoZone is rarely used because Yuta is a big believer in fresh air and beautiful scenery will motivate you more, so your sparring on the edge of cliffs and sprinting along the seaside

Alternates between reading books with you outside in your backyard with a makeshift picnic or both of you cuddled in bed with the open windows and the only source of light is the sun

If you have missions abroad, he convinces the agency to always give both of you one day free so you can act like tourists, nobody can say no to his dashing good looks and he knows it

One year for Christmas, you got him custom made tiny katana earrings and it’s literally the one pair he uses now, at least on his lobe

Yuta isn’t the overbearing type when it comes to jealousy, he shouldn’t have a say in what gender your friends are but when he sees a certain person obviously flirting with you it just takes slight glint of his katana to blind the intruder and they are already scurrying off 

Gets a kick out of playing real-life fruit ninja

Decided to shave a slit in his eyebrow with his katana one spontaneous night, he got out of the bathroom with a huge grin and asked, “does this make me look more badass?”

Your hands always end up somewhere around his stomach, gliding across the lean muscles, squeezing around his hips, twiddling his piercing, you name it, you can’t keep your hands off him

Nakamoto Yuta is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, the pang of fear thrills you as you witness his lack of mercy and fiery anger at injustice as he slaughters anyone that stands before him, but that wicked glint in his eye softens just for you and then you see the scrawling of your name engraved on the hilt of the katana, and you know you are the only one that knows the true Yuta and you feel so blessed

Doyoung

Power: Precognition 

You beg him every possible waking minute for him to allow you to do his makeup if only to contour his insanely sharp cheekbones, he finally relents but he has a scowl on his face the whole time

You’ve become quite a baker with Doyoung but he always has to guide you so his arms snake around your waist as an excuse yet he acts completely innocent when he knows it makes you distracted

Playlist for every occasion, especially when he’s having sex with you, the house ends up feeling hollow whenever he’s away without his angelic voice but to your surprise, Doyoung leaves you secret audio files lulling you in a trance

His mouth becomes a cherished part for you, especially the way the corners of his lips curl up naturally, the small smirk instantly widening when in front of food, or the blinding white teeth as he’s gritting them when approaching an orgasm or laughing at you, not with you

It takes about five minutes for Doyoung to arrange his plushies in the right position so you both don’t ruin them as you cuddle

One arm draped over a plush and the other wrapped around your back, or him in a fetal position with his plush embraced into his chest as you act as the big spoon

Hand holding is strictly for the bedroom with him, but he knows you admire his hands often, so he’ll have him some type of connection with you when out in public; whether it’s his pinkies wrapped around yours, curved into the loop of your pants, or his delicate veiny hand wrapping around your sleeve

End up catching him more than once, gushing over the phone with his brother about how in love he is with you and you may not lurk in the background for a few minutes until you interrupt the conversation by saying hi to Donghyun

Downtime for you two is building a puzzle, coloring some pages, playing board games and him smug with his victory, watching some documentaries or kdramas, and if you two bought some new furniture for your renovating house, he would most definitely want to do it by himself as you laugh while handing him pieces

Manages to still be shy when you both kiss, it’s you who initiates the subtle peck on his pouting lips, but soon the soft curve of his lips invites you more while your hands cup his warming cheeks--he’s a contradiction of being timid but with all the confidence as he nibbles your lips as if you were a delicacy

Training for you two equals nap time, his power allows him to rely on his mind rather than his body, so when you ultimately force yourself to exercise, Doyoung is laying on the couch, lazily cheering you on

Always giving you little compliments in your earpiece as he guides you around for a recon mission, and still holds his breath when he tells you about the unforeseen event that you need to be prepared for even though he knows you can handle it with ease

Studies multitudes of intel before a mission because he can never be too prepared, and it eases his nerves knowing that he can take every precaution in ensuring your safety

Would dedicate a photo album of himself on your phone, and even send you his recent selfies, telling you to choose one of them as an updated contact photo

You clown him 24/7 but he clowns you right back, it’s always a constant playful banter between you two, his eyebrows would furrow when you called him cute, the trembling of lips broke his facade, and when he does it to you, you essentially become his baby as he bites your cheeks but tell no one or he would deny it

From the moment you two wake up until you both arrive at headquarters, he has sullen look across his features, he would brush his lips across your temple and a hoarse good morning would escape his mouth in a notion to acknowledge you, but until he gets coffee in his system his energy hasn’t been restored yet, but your use to it as you tug him to the break room with his lidded eyes

Alone time is a must for you two, it could be both of you in the same room doing your own thing without communication or different parts of the house or mostly you would leave to run errands and Doyoung stuck in his room, but at the end of the day he crawls to you and says a small ‘hey’ as if his day just started from the moment he set eyes on you

Doyoung was always on alert, aware of incoming predictions that he had no say in but easily accepted, it’s a strain on his mental being, a reason why he needs to center himself by being alone, but then you come

Your blank, just like him, you’re unpredictable and foreign to him, but it’s not until you two kiss for the first time, that a hazy premonition reveals itself in a form of two children that share your hair but his feline eyes, it’s fragile though and uncharted, he knows that he needs to do right by you to get to the last level that seemed like paradise to him

Team Dreamer

Jaehyun

Power/Being: Android

During his exoskeleton stage, Jaehyun requested that the scientists create dimples during his living tissue transplant because he heard “they’re to die for”

Definitely thought it was a weapon utilized to kill his enemies

You make a habit to poke at his dimples until you feel the exoskeleton underneath, an oddly comforting sensation that makes you realize that Jaehyun doesn’t have a heart but his actions say otherwise 

Literally the personification of steam coming out of ears in cartoons with scalding red tips, this only happens when you’re in danger or when he sees you in what he perceives as provocative

It took five hours to draw an array of tattoos on him for a disguise on a reconnaissance mission, and a certain neck tattoo was going to make you abandon the mission and your sanity

Sadly, he had to erase them because the “the bad boy” persona was an official disguise in his hardware and couldn’t be revealed to the public

Jaehyun kept one design, however, a soft beauty mark on the apple of his left cheek, he claims it’s your signature as his owner but you like the word partner better

Programs all your training sessions and signature moves to his hard drive because he believes there is no better instructor than you  (except Bruce Lee)

The first time you helped him clean his internal munition unit, you couldn’t decipher any of the weapons so you gave them your own personal nicknames, he kept correcting you but he got tired so he now calls them “wholly fist” and “boom boom pow by the BEP”

You joke around with him that because he was created on valentine’s day, he should be credited as a sexbot but he always frowned at that comment until he figured out he could turn the tables on you by saying “I could be your sexbot”

Whenever he sees another person eyeing you in what he perceives is attraction, he activates his instant kill function with laser red eyes and declaring “target locked”

Suave and intimidating when you two first meet but truly transformed into a ‘soft boy’ after downloading your Pinterest board 

Whenever both of you are out in public, eyes ogle him and mouths gawk, but Jaehyun is oblivious to it all until he turns to someone and starts up the most wholesome conversation about something mundane and you know that person melts with ease because Jaehyun was built to reflect human nature, but he was doing better than most in your opinion

Lots of arcade dates with him, he quickly figured out the algorithm of each game just so he can overflow you with gifts and so he can show off his basketballs skills because he knows you love eyeing his arms in action

When he’s with you though, he’d rather listen and absorb every action and word that you produce, he wants to immerse himself in you because he truly believes that you are all that is good about humankind

Archives every single detail that you speak, and replays it for you when you forget something or to prove you wrong, there is no in-between

Robot sex!!!! That drilling option though...oof

The moment he realizes the blaring internal alarm warning him of his elevated temperature and the shorted circuits whenever you are near, he correlates it to what humans label  “love” so he downloads files on expressing these so-called feelings

Instead of saying “I love you”, he says “I dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin you” when he first confesses, and you assume there is a chemical imbalance within him so you rush him to the infirmary but for the first time, Jaehyun stalls and his eyes are clouded with retrieved information glowing neon green until he settles on “I love...I love...I love you” (yes, he stole it from Mr. Darcy, so sue him, he’s a fracking android)

Jaehyun sometimes doubts his ability to love you and even you sometimes question if you can love a piece of metal, but then you observe him before he joins you in bed that he triples check his instant kill function is disabled and he gushes about the new song he discovered and you are so sure that he was made for you

Jungwoo

Power: Lightning Bolt Projection

Gets easily flustered with the most pouty lip ever when you call him ‘Zeus’, it was his failed superhero name when he was trainee, but to you, he is much better than that jerk of a Greek god

Dressed up as the actual Zeus once for the office Halloween party and the year after that as a lightning bolt and you a storm cloud

Whenever Jungwoo craves attention but you’re occupied with another task, he repeatedly zaps you, not enough to harm, but until you cave in yet when you want to be annoyed with him, his owlish eyes and trembling lips easily subdue you

Your shoulder is a sacred space for him, it's the perfect fit for his head to settle in with a toothy grin and the warmest ‘mhms’ as he listens to you speak

Jungwoo was never much of a fighter, his powers were swift enough to eradicate enemies with not much mobility, but training sessions with you were more than enough of an excuse to spend time with you

Lately, your skin has been electrifying, not only the amorous glow you were emitting, but everyone you came in contact with felt a slight spark

Hair treatments are a must, the frizz is wild with Jungwoo, you really need to ask about his hair products because his hair so fluffy despite the amplitude of currents running through him

While brushing your teeth with him, he always shoots out finger hearts to you and winks through the mirror, it’s a great way to start the day

Never felt more grateful for his power until you were attacked on an assignment and your heart failed, it took four shocks to revive you with streams of tears and muttering to any God to hear his prayer

He’s most himself in the rain, umbrellas have never been on your shopping list

Definitely shoots bolts out of his finger guns and then blows on them afterward, if he’s feeling flirty, an added wink explodes your heart

Your biggest cheerleader when you are kicking ass during a mission

It’s a tradition for him to rake his fingers over your back with slight ripples of electricity while you cuddle in bed, it does wonders to relax your muscles

It’s been months of practice to improve his bolt voltage and range, but he finally managed to write ‘I love you y/n” in the sky, he couldn’t help it, he’s bursting at the seams with adoration for you

Both of you in the kitchen is a sight to see, you season but he cooks the food, his specialty is slightly charred chicken

Packs both of your lunches so you can eat together on break

Gets scared easily and as a result will discharge a lightning bolt as a defense, so pranks are off-limits between the team members

Literal sparks when you kiss, numbing and exhilarating as currents pass through your molding bodies to create goosebumps and raising hairs

When he thinks of home, his first instinct is to be cradled in your arms, watching trashy movies as a thunderstorm quakes the earth

Mark

Power: Compulsion

Mark might excel in whispering but when you turn the tables on him, with your sultry murmurs, he can’t help becoming a puddle of blushing mush

Never once used actual compulsion on you, the only exception is when you figured out the surprise birthday party he was planning for you, he redirected your attention to grocery shopping

His favorite part of you is your right ear because it’s where you naturally tuck your hair at and he just loves to twirl a strand of it in his finger while he mutters sweet nothings to you

You’re his bodyguard during missions, he can’t possibly get that close to targets while they attack if you aren’t watching his back

Even when he is supposed to be acting intimidating during an assignment, he can’t help but stutter and repeat ‘uh’ a thousand times, but he gets the job done eventually

Your literally breaking sweat, contorting your body so four targets don’t reach Mark, and he’s over there oversharing with another target

“The love of my life is about to kick your ass and you aren’t going to do a single thing about it, booby head” or “make the password ‘mark and y/n forever’ or else”

Naturally whispers in his sleep with his stinky breath in your ear, and you try to push him off but he just clings onto you like a koala 

In the morning though, the slight breakage in his voice from pitched to croaky as he says good morning to you is on repeat in your head for the whole day

Mark’s give away when he is about to use compulsion is him licking his thin lips, and almost makes you get knocked out by the enemy because your already under his spell

Does a tiny dance for any occasion, from doing the laundry, stripping naked, or when you two had your first kiss

It’s the strained grunts, the heavy breathing, and the showering of hushed compliments in your ears that makes you reach your peak in bed, Mark always sounded better when he was being pleasured

To him, your voice is the loveliest sound across the universe and your adorably awkward cackle that you so desperately try to hide as he reenacts vines to you is what happiness is to him

Ice cream dates consist of him bringing a tub of ice cream to a yogurt shop because he knows you prefer it

Coughed over his first fart with you but now he loves to fart on you as you pretend you are suffocating and gagging

Has a folder in his photos dedicated to you where it ranges from blurry to candids and in during most of them he was either hyping you up or teasing you

Greets you with a ‘yo!’ whenever he enters the room

Will always buy you any lip product associated with watermelon and you’ll always buy him baseball caps for him to wear

Despite being loud for 90% of your relationship, he is most vulnerable with when he whispers his greatest fears, future goals, and nightmares to you because your the only one he can trust

With the many decibels that Mark Lee varies in, your favorite by far has to be the ascending chortle from the low HAs to the high HEEs with clapping hands and a scrunched nose that puffs out his cheeks-- it’s pure bliss to you

Haechan

Power: Light Manipulation 

Haechan is utterly in love with your cheeks, instead of biting them or pinching them, he opts to kiss them whenever he has a chance, it’s rushing heat of your blush and the swelling of your smile that he lives for

The little spoon in bed, just so he can wrap his leg around you and nestle his head in the crook of your neck just like a koala

Literally always a brat to you, it’s the many ways he shows you affections

You asked him once to paint your nails, and now he does it every Friday ever since he discovered the ‘my hands look like this so hers can look like this’ meme even though his hands just have bitten nails

A man of action, Haechan shows you love through his movements with a heart framed by his fingers or blowing a kiss

Needs to always be physically attached to you, whether it’s hugging you from behind, leaning his head on your shoulder, or falling into you when he’s in a fit of giggles, he needs you to know that he will never let you go

Snarky remarks and cheesy jokes define your relationship with Haechan

Manages to always wake up before you on those lazy mornings with you burrowed deep into his side, and he can’t help but be memorized by your presence but soon feels selfish when he moves a ray of sunlight to your eyes so he can just peek at the explosion of colors in your eyes when you flutter them open--ah yes, this is his favorite part of the day

Loves to play video games with you into the late hours of the night, especially overwatch, but your always the first one to pass out, so he makes sure to tuck you in and dim the light of the screen so it doesn’t bother you

Most nights the both of you are wide awake so you end up playing ‘what the light?’, a game where Haechan creates 3D objects out of light and you have to guess what they are before he finishes them

Oh, and shadow puppets! He’s become quite the expert with them, he creates the most ridiculous stories with them but you join him by voicing the characters

In addition to ‘I love you’ as a goodbye, you have a secret intricate handshake with him, his excuse was that if you two ever question’s one identity if ever an enemy swapped bodies, you two would know the truth with the handshake but in reality, he just loves that extra time with you before you two part 

It’s either Haechan teasing and making fun of you or he’s doting on you, there is no in-between because after all, you are his idiot

If he’s in the mood, he’ll solidify light photons into the shape of a sword and call it ‘sunflower’, he just loves to tell the tale that he took out fifteen assassins with a sunflower, but usually, he blinds them or burns them

Goes the extra mile for you to create a spotlight on you when you are giving a mission brief at headquarters, that’s the love of his life right there and he’ll make damn sure everyone notices them

Recreates Edward’s sparkling in the sun scene just so he can see you beam with laughter 

Master of mood lighting during sex, and don’t even mention when he hits his climax, bulbs flickers and lamps explode

It might be a trick of the light, but Haechan’s eyes are vividly bright and he’s drowned in golden hues of sunlight, it makes you wonder if he was plucked from the star itself

Yet, as your lips quiver and your glassy eyes blink the last remnants of tears in Haechan’s cupped hands, there is an inner glow from them as you bask in their warmth, he can’t help but proclaim that you are the sun of his world, you are the light of his life even when it feels like his is diminishing

[afoxysunny]

I've been thinking of so much more for my Lazybug AU but stress at work and my contused hand made it impossible to write anything down or try to draw any more

So, to give you at least a little content you didn't ask for while my hand only hurts a little:

I present to you

The different fighting styles of each Miraculous Holder

Lil explanation: though it's never directly stated in Miraculous Ladybug canon i see it ad heavily implied that, when a Kwami powers up a human, they somewhat fuse. Not like the fusion Ha dance. But a human will display not only physical but character traits from the Kwami of their Miraculous. They're still clearly the same person! Just with a few tweaks to their priorities most of the time. So yes, pointing this out so clearly brings this close to theory or headcanon territory but shhh it's my au, i make the rules

Trixie as Lucky Bug

Lucky Bug has a strong instinct to fight, there are only very few things that could stop her from heading into battle.

Trixie is always set for confrontation and Tikki has the unwavering urge to always do whatever is possible to help. The combination of these two working together as one gives Lucky Bug her strength to take on everything that stands in her way.

When in battle She will make sure to keep her opponents attention fully on herself. She holds the strong belief that while she bears the brunt of attacks she can make sure nobody else gets hurt and that's how she fights. Thanks to the weapon her Miraculous grants her she can exceed in close combat as well as having quite ranged attacks. The lather she will mostly use to pull someone's attention away from others if necessary. Closer ranged combat is definitely her preference though. Here she can use her magical yo-yo like a morningstar and really hammer down in fight. A yo-yo with endlessly extendable cord is incredibly versatile and Lucky Bug is smart enough to always find new ways to mobilize this weapon but good old brute force shouldn't be underrated.

Stephanie as Pitch Serval

Pitch Serval always has an urge to move and that definitely includes battle. Once she gets going there is nothing that'll get her standing still again.

Stephanie will literally jump at any opportunity to start moving and help others, Plagg has deep confidence in his abilities and will let everyone know. In combination that makes Pitch Serval a little bit of a show off. While well able to quietly observe a situation, once she gets into action she will not stop until the job is done.

Watching Pitch Serval fight looks more like watching a professional dancer who just so happens to beat people up while performing. The extendable pole she got as a weapon seems almost to become part of her body. In fluid motions she is capable of a variety of attacks that are both unpredictable without the music only she must hear and so natural that it becomes mesmerizing to watch. Whether she actually fights with the pole for proper hits or uses it to propel herself around, it will be effective and beautiful.

Sportacus as Álfurildi

Álfurildi is not a fan of fighting in a confrontational sense, however, practiced as a sport he finds great enjoyment in it. To him the only reason to actually fight is to protect others.

Sportacus was already a locally famous hero before receiving a Miraculous and brings all the best qualities this encompasses to the table. Nooroo however is a hurt soul, as a surviver of horrible abuse by a past master it took him a long time to extend enough trust to willingly give his powers to someone else again. The combination of these two makes Álfurildi appear a lot more calm or even reserved compared to the Sportacus we all know and love. It makes him worry more and more careful but he's still very energetic, confident and capable in basically anything he tries.

This of cause reflects in his style of battle. Until he's made sure his opponent cannot be swayed without it he won't go in for an attack so most of his battles he spends dodging his opponents attacks while making sure to stay close enough to keep tge encounter from breaking off. He encompasses the phrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" as watching him avoid the incoming attacks looks almost supernatural at times, like gravity just doesn't apply to him the same way it does to others. His in depth mastery of most sports in existence surely help with that. Once he switches lanes to actually attacking himself he will use the cane that is his assigned weapon almost exclusively like a bat or racket or other similar sport equipment. You surely can image the punch that packs.

Robbie as Bullock

Bullock is not one to start a fight but he sure is great at ending them, by winning obviously.

Robbie has efficiency, wit and persistence on his side. Stompp, caring and deterninted, speaks his mind without hesitation. These two together give Bullock a reserved and stubborn appearance but when fending for what is right those are strong attributes to have.

Bullock operates best when following a plan so he will mostly be seen as a detached observer which can be accurately described as the calm before the storm. The phrase "mess with the bull, you get the horns" might as well have been coined just to describe him. Once he starts fighting he is quite literally going to bulldoze his opponent. With the ease from a Kwami's powers elaborate movements require no effort anymore do the usually so lazy man can now go all out, but old habits die hard so he aims to be done fighting as quickly as possible. This results in his attacks coming in rapid fire blasts of assaults. Using his armored fists and legs for precise hits, the chain of his tail like a whip and even his horns make him an overwhelming opponent in close combat. At distance, any distance, his miraculous granted weapon, his darts, never miss a target he locked on to and can only be removed by him so no fight will stay at distance for long.

Pixel as Spectra

Spectra needs a good overview of the ongoing battle to unleash the modt effective Amok but that surely doesn't stop him from getting physically involved once the chance arises.

Pixel follows his strong intuition and always has a quick and effective solution to help others out, Duusu is straight forward about everything and easily get enthusiastic. With this passionate combination Spectra often jumps into battle with his friends despite that not being the most logical step. His powers and costume lend themselves a lot easier to defensive fighting, more blocking, enduring, studying and only then striking. Thanks to his extensive theoretical knowledge from video games he knows an expansive array of moves only someone fighting with a fan as their weapon can use so once he gets his chance to actually fight he is far more effective than he would expect from himself.

Jives as Grinder Turtle

Grinder Turtle is really not much of a fighter. But there will never be anything in his way when he has someone to protect.

Jives is a very calm guy, the human embodiment of the gentle giant trope. Wayzz has persistence, patience and a deep respect for everybody. This combination makes Grinder Turtle incredibly passive in battle. He will use his shield only to push people away, which works great because as someone who is much taller than almost everyone he always has the high ground; but for the most part he finds his spot in the back of the team to set up his Shell-ter for them and be content holding up a safe space for everyone.

This style of fighting unfortunately takes a lot of energy out of him, leading to him quickly losing the turtle miraculous to Stingy.

Jives as High Duke

High Duke finds his flow in fighting. Here he can let lose and push himself to his limits.

Again, Jives is calm and unshakable, always too passive to not get along eith everybody. Now, Xuppu playful and mischievous, holding enjoyment to high value. Their combination makes High Duke a force to be reckoned with. They fuse in perfect addition to each other, making him a well confident, experimental fighter who does exactly what feels right in the moment. His wish to protect everyone around him, now fueled with confidence from a new perspective, allows him to move swiftly during battles like he never did anything else.

Thanks to the flexibility this transformation gifts him with he doesn't just stand back and wait anymore, he jumps head first into the fight. His favorite ways of attack is to duck down all the way to the ground and use his weapon, his staff, or the rope he has as a tail to trip his opponents, and to use the dtaff as leverage to jumo high in the air and strike from up above with great force.

Stingy as Vault

Vault is a presence that demands attention, with powerful attacks to back it up he is a heavy hitter even though he isn't so prone to charge to front line.

Stingy's determination and confidence elevate his sharp focus even more while Wayzz is anchored, calm and has a great sense of duty. The combination they create gives Vault a presence of security everyone can feel. He is strong and unwavering in what he does and knows it full well.

There is a weight in his stance like nothing can make him falter, even when not creating a Shell-ter around himself he is undeniable at the center of something powerful. With this mass of confidence he doesn't just hold on to his shield to push intruders back but it also becomes a projectile weapon to knock opponents out from afar. Though he isn't as animated as others on the team each move he makes carries weight and purpose everyone can see.

Ziggy as Mouse the Mighty

Mouse the Mighty looks harmless compared to what he is capable of. He will fight with all he has for what he believes in.

Ziggy is a simple guy, excited by the best qualities of a hero and deterninted to work as hard as possible to achieve whatever goal he has. Mullo has an optimistic approach to everything and shies away from no challenge. Together they make Mouse the Mighty eager to show everyone the qualities of a true superhero

Fueled with so much excitement he could overflow he sonetines bites off more than he can chew. When he rushes into battle, blinded by the chance to prove himself his flight response is a little too strong and he uses his Miraculous power to split into many tiny versions of himself to run away, halfway through running he remembers who he id though, how powerful he now is and that his friends need him and he comes back with even more confidence and determination than he started with.

He has all it takes to be an outstanding hero and once he gets going he shows all he got. Armed with the knowledge of pop culture and the brain of a suorrhero obsessed boy he can quickly switch styles drastically mid movement. This unpredictability together with his size varying from one bear to many mice makes him practically unstoppable. Not only does he have brute force at his disposal but also he uses his weapon, a jumprope, like nunchucks or to trip people or any other way he once saw and thought looked cool.

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I hope you enjoyed this. I was just hoping i could breath a little more life into the characters I've been playing around with for a while now but you so far only got one still image of each (also hoping to change that soon, I'm really working on that story)

For some of the Kwami's there's just barely any info about them, i hope it doesn't show too much where i was just winging it

[animeman08]

Hulk

The Hulk is a fictional superhero appearing in publications by the American publisher Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character is both the Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a vast degree of physical strength, and his alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist. The two exist as independent dissociative personalities, and resent each other.

Following his accidental exposure to gamma rays saving the life of Rick Jones during the detonation of an experimental bomb, Banner is physically transformed into the Hulk when subjected to emotional stress, at or against his will, often leading to destructive rampages and conflicts that complicate Banner's civilian life. The Hulk's level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger. Commonly portrayed as a raging savage, the Hulk has been represented with other personalities based on Banner's fractured psyche, from a mindless, destructive force, to a brilliant warrior, or genius scientist in his own right. Despite both Hulk and Banner's desire for solitude, the character has a large supporting cast. This includes Banner's lover Betty Ross, his best friend Rick Jones, his cousin She-Hulk, and therapist and ally Doc Samson. In addition, the Hulk alter ego has many key supporting characters like his co-founders of the superhero team the Avengers, his queen Caiera, fellow warriors Korg and Miek, and sons Skaar and Hiro-Kala. However, his uncontrollable power has brought him into conflict with his fellow heroes and others. Despite this he tries his best to do what's right while battling villains such as Leader, Abomination, Absorbing Man and more.

Lee stated that the Hulk's creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Although the Hulk's coloration has varied throughout the character's publication history, the most usual color is green.

One of the most iconic characters in popular culture, the character has appeared on a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectable items, inspired real-world structures (such as theme park attractions), and been referenced in a number of media. Banner and the Hulk have been adapted in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations. The character was first played in a live-action feature film by Eric Bana. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Edward Norton in the film The Incredible Hulk (2008) and by Mark Ruffalo in the films The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013) in a cameo, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019) in a cameo, and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Ruffalo will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney+ series What If...? (2021) and She-Hulk (2022).

> Personality

Bruce Banner During his decades of publication, Banner has been portrayed differently, but common themes persist. Banner, a physicist, is sarcastic and seemingly very self-assured when he first appears in Incredible Hulk #1, but is also emotionally withdrawn. Banner designed the gamma bomb which caused his affliction, and the ironic twist of his self-inflicted fate has been one of the most persistent common themes. Arie Kaplan describes the character thus: "Robert Bruce Banner lives in a constant state of panic, always wary that the monster inside him will erupt, and therefore he can't form meaningful bonds with anyone." As a child, Banner's father Brian often got mad and physically abused both Banner and his mother, creating the psychological complex of fear, anger, and the fear of anger and the destruction it can cause that underlies the character. Banner has been shown to be emotionally repressed, but capable of deep love for Betty Ross, and for solving problems posed to him. Under the writing of Paul Jenkins, Banner was shown to be a capable fugitive, applying deductive reasoning and observation to figure out the events transpiring around him. On the occasions that Banner has controlled the Hulk's body, he has applied principles of physics to problems and challenges and used deductive reasoning. It was shown after his ability to turn into the Hulk was taken away by the Red Hulk that Banner has been extremely versatile as well as cunning when dealing with the many situations that followed. When he was briefly separated from the Hulk by Doom, Banner became criminally insane, driven by his desire to regain the power of the Hulk, but once the two recombined he came to accept that he was a better person with the Hulk to provide something for him to focus on controlling rather than allowing his intellect to run without restraint against the world.

Hulk The original Hulk was shown as grey and average in intelligence who roamed aimlessly and became annoyed at "puny" humans who took him for a dangerous monster. Shortly after becoming the Hulk, his transformation continued turning him green, coinciding with him beginning to display primitive speech, and by Incredible Hulk #4 radiation treatments gave Banner's mind complete control of the Hulk's body. While Banner relished his indestructibility and power, he was quick to anger and more aggressive in his Hulk form, and, while he became known as a hero alongside the Avengers, his increasing paranoia caused him to leave the group, believing he would never be trusted.

Originally, the Hulk was shown as simple minded and quick to anger. The Hulk generally divorces his identity from Banner's, decrying Banner as "puny Banner." From his earliest stories, the Hulk has been concerned with finding sanctuary and quiet and often is shown reacting emotionally to situations quickly. Grest and Weinberg call Hulk the "dark, primordial side of Banner's psyche." Even in the earliest appearances, Hulk spoke in the third person. Hulk retains a modest intelligence, thinking and talking in full sentences, and Lee even gives the Hulk expository dialogue in issue six, allowing readers to learn just what capabilities Hulk has, when the Hulk says, "But these muscles ain't just for show! All I gotta do is spring up and just keep goin'!" In the 1970s, Hulk was shown as more prone to anger and rage, and less talkative. Writers played with the nature of his transformations, briefly giving Banner control over the change, and the ability to maintain control of his Hulk form. Artistically and conceptually, the character has become progressively more muscular and powerful in the years since his debut.

Originally, Stan Lee wanted the Hulk to be grey, but, due to ink problems, Hulk's color was changed to green. This was later changed in the story to indicate that the Grey Hulk and the Savage Hulk are separate personalities or entities fighting for control in Bruce's subconscious. The Grey Hulk incarnation can do the more unscrupulous things that Banner could not bring himself to do, with many sources comparing the Grey Hulk to the moody teenager that Banner never allowed himself to be. While the Grey Hulk still had the "madder he gets, the stronger he gets" part that is similar to the Savage Hulk, it is on a much slower rate. It is said by Leader that the Grey Hulk is stronger on nights of the new moon and weaker on nights of the full moon. Originally, the night is when Bruce Banner becomes the Grey Hulk and changes back by dawn. In later comics, willpower or stress would have Banner turn into the Grey Hulk. During one storyline where he was placed under a spell to prevent him turning back into Bruce Banner and publicly presumed dead when he was teleported away from a gamma bomb explosion that destroyed an entire town, the Grey Hulk adopted a specific name as Joe Fixit, a security guard for a Las Vegas casino owner, with the Grey Hulk often being referred to as Joe after these events.

The Gravage Hulk is the result of Banner using the Gamma Projector on himself which merged his Savage Hulk and Grey Hulk personas. This form possesses the raw power of the Savage Hulk and the cunning intellect of the Grey Hulk. While he doesn't draw on anger to empower him, the Gravage Hulk persona draws on dimensional nexus energies to increase his strength.

The Dark Hulk persona is the result of Hulk being possessed by Shanzar. This form has black skin and is viciously strong.

The Guilt Hulk is a malevolent representation of Banner's abusive father, Brian Banner, that manifests itself in Banner's childhood memories.

The Devil Hulk or Immortal Hulk is the result of Hulk needing a father figure. While the character's physical appearance varies, he is always depicted as having glowing red eyes, and reptilian traits. The new form of Devil Hulk is the result of Banner and Hulk having been through different deaths and rebirths. This incarnation is articulate, smart, and cunning, and does merciless attacks on those who do harm. Unlike the other Hulk incarnations, Devil Hulk is content with waiting inside Bruce. If Bruce is injured by sunset, the Devil Hulk will emerge with his transformation being limited to night-time. Thanks to the Devil Hulk side and Banner working together, Devil Hulk can maintain his form in sunlight.

The Green Scar persona is unleashed on Sakaar and is an enraged version of Gravage Hulk. In addition, he is an expert in armed combat like the use of swords and shields. Green Scar is also a capable leader and an expert strategist.

Doc Green is a variation of the Merged Hulk persona that is the result of Extremis fixing Hulk's brain. This persona is powerful enough to destroy Tony Stark's mansion with one thunderclap.

> Powers and Abilities

Banner is considered one of the greatest scientific minds on Earth, possessing "a mind so brilliant it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test." Norman Osborn estimates that he is the fourth most-intelligent person on Earth. Banner holds expertise in biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, physiology, and nuclear physics. Using this knowledge, he creates advanced technology dubbed "Bannertech", which is on par with technological development from Tony Stark or Doctor Doom. Some of these technologies include a force field that can protect him from the attacks of Hulk-level entities, and a teleporter.

The Hulk possesses the potential for seemingly limitless physical strength which is influenced by his emotional state, particularly his anger. This has been reflected in the repeated comment, "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets." The cosmically-powerful entity known as the Beyonder once analyzed the Hulk's physiology, and claimed that the Hulk's potential strength had "no finite element inside." Hulk's strength has been depicted as sometimes limited by Banner's subconscious influence; when Jean Grey psionically "shut Banner off", Hulk became strong enough to overpower and destroy the physical form of the villain Onslaught. Writer Greg Pak described the Worldbreaker Hulk shown during World War Hulk as having a level of physical power where "Hulk was stronger than any mortal—and most immortals—who ever walked the Earth", and depicted the character as powerful enough to completely destroy entire planets. His strength allows him to leap into lower Earth orbit or across continents, and he has displayed superhuman speed. Exposure to radiation has also been shown to make the Hulk stronger. It is unknown how he gains biomass during transformation but it may be linked to One-Below-All.

His durability, regeneration, and endurance also increase in proportion to his temper. Hulk is resistant to injury or damage, though the degree to which varies between interpretations, but he has withstood the equivalent of solar temperatures, nuclear explosions, and planet-shattering impacts. Despite his remarkable resiliency, continuous barrages of high-caliber gunfire can hinder his movement to some degree while he can be temporarily subdued by intense attacks with chemical weapons such as anesthetic gases, although any interruption of such dosages will allow him to quickly recover. He has been shown to have both regenerative and adaptive healing abilities, including growing tissues to allow him to breathe underwater, surviving unprotected in space for extended periods, and when injured, healing from most wounds within seconds, including, on one occasion, the complete destruction of most of his body mass. His future self, "Maestro", was even eventually able to recover from being blown to pieces. As an effect, he has an extremely prolonged lifespan.

He also possesses less commonly described powers, including abilities allowing him to "home in" to his place of origin in New Mexico; resist psychic control, or unwilling transformation; grow stronger from radiation or dark magic; punch his way between separate temporal or spatial dimensions; and to see and interact with astral forms. Some of these abilities were in later years explained as being related; his ability to home in on the New Mexico bomb site was due to his latent ability to sense astral forms and spirits, since the bomb site was also the place where the Maestro's skeleton was and Maestro's spirit was calling out to him in order to absorb his radiation.

In the first Hulk comic series, "massive" doses of gamma rays would cause the Hulk to transform back to Banner, although this ability was written out of the character by the 1970s.

[uk-news-talking-politics]

Marcus Rashford and the rise of the political influencers

By Tom Westgarth and Walter Pasquarelli

Politicians are not known for their humility. However, as the second wave of the coronavirus swept through Britain, Conservative MP Steve Baker wasn’t afraid to show some on social media.

Baker had been asked by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to allow him to reply to the MP’s Tweet about extending the school meals vouchers given to children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to a later date (Baker had turned off the ‘reply’ function). Baker replied, arguing that these measures would cause severe economic harm.

But the most interesting part of Baker’s response wasn’t the economic claim. His response stated: “You have 3.4 million followers Marcus, to my 96k. The power is yours here”. The white flag of surrender had been raised; Baker’s relatively smaller following meant that he had lost the online argument. The government later pledged £400 million to tackle living costs over the next 12 months for the most disadvantaged families.

Despite being one of the most influential backbenchers in the country, somebody who has one-to-one’s with prime minister Boris Johnson; how did Steve Baker succumb to feelings of powerlessness in the face of a footballer? At what point did a combination of an inspirational backstory and enormous online presence become more pivotal to shaping public policy than being an elected official?

The answer to this question cannot be realised without understanding ‘influencers’. Defining an ‘influencer’ is actually surprisingly hard to do, but they can essentially be described as individuals or small groups that exert a topical influence over a certain group of people through their online presence.

This could take the form of vloggers via their YouTube channel, or celebrities who are highly active on social media. Whilst Rashford’s initial celebrity came from a more traditional background (as a sports star), his consistent online activities mean he likely falls into such a bucket. Vlogging to a camera and casual tweeting evoke a sense of ‘relatability’ that distinguishes influencers from regular celebrities.

Internet sensations of this kind are highly sought after by brands, who pay them handsomely to promote various kinds of products. What gives these brands the bang for their buck is not the influencer’s industry knowledge, but the charismatic authority they exercise.

Despite this, many may dismiss influencers as irrelevant to social affairs. Critics lambast them as superficial figures that care more about views than values. They are often seen as symbolic of a generation glued to their screens on platforms that are eviscerating adolescent mental health.

But what these attacks on influencers appear to miss isn’t to do with their values. It is that their power is significantly underestimated. Part of the reason why the British government made such a hash of the Rashford-school meals saga was that they failed to predict the cut-through that a young, black footballer would have with the wider public.

Not every influencer has the sort of power Marcus Rashford has. But the political domain has evolved to a point where there are more than a handful of Rashford-like individuals out there. Governments and political parties need to recognise this, as influencers will increasingly start to engage in political activity.

***

At the heart of this trend is an ongoing seismic shift as to whom we trust and ascribe authority of knowledge production.  Now, this did not happen overnight of course, but it is part of an ever changing historical process.

In the beginning there was God. For centuries the church and its representatives were seen as the sole and only fountain of truth.

Then came science. In a large part of the West, science replaced religious belief as the main source of truth. The scientific method offered an alternative to the dogmatic teachings of the church, allowing flexibility to approve and reject previously-held beliefs as our methods and accuracy of inquiry evolved.

Such progress produced the internet. This provided everyone with a voice and ability to both obtain as well as disseminate information. But online, often authority can be associated with whoever shouts the loudest.

Academic and intellectual institutions, seen as the bastion of scientific progress, now come under fire. Facing charges of group think and reductive analysis, they no longer possess the same authority as they did in previous decades.

Simple analysis, and social media platforms that prefer disseminating information through retweets, shares and followers, are what makes the age of influencers so prevalent. It is under these environments that influencers are emerging as a new voice of trustworthiness, providing an alternative source of truth and knowledge. The follower count, amount of engagement and interaction have become a direct source validating their credibility akin to academic citations.

The internet and digital technologies created a vacuum as to who should be wearing the crown of trust. With traditional sources of authority becoming ever-less relevant, influencers have become credible actors for filling this gap.

*** It would be a mistake to ascribe influencers' success merely to some shallow numbers though. There is a much deeper connection, a unique relationship that they build with their followers, which makes them crave for new content like the new season of a real-life character from their favorite Netflix series.  The intimate nature of this informational distribution, where a creator is speaking down the lens of their camera, makes viewers feel as if they have a special relationship with the influencer - which is a trait that fundamentally distinguishes them from celebrities who are perceived as being polished, even from another planet.

Kenneth Burke described this phenomenon in his 1969 piece “A Rhetoric of Motives”. Burke explained that humans have an urge to identify with other groups and people. As biologically separate beings, humans seek to overcome this state of separateness through communication, music, red MAGA caps, you name it.

In times of identity politics, when voters formulate their political priorities based on the identity they espouse, influencers are set to accumulate increasing power over setting the tone. Influencers speak like you and I, fire updates in a continuous loop, broadcasting a shared sense of identity unifying a critical mass of people under a common purpose.

It is this cocktail of omnipresence and relatability that creates a weird attachment and ultimately loyalty - the most valuable currency in the political casino.

***

The UK government thought they had seen the last of Rashford over summer, once they had awarded him an MBE. Many viewed this honour as a cynical but deserved ploy to keep the Manchester striker on side. Of course, somebody as driven by the issue as Rashford ploughed on, forcing the prime minister to call the 23 year-old in order to assure him that the government was on the right track. This should serve as a case study for governments worldwide trying to work out how to engage with powerful influencers on matters of public policy.

Should they bring them on side, early doors, in order to keep them within touching distance? People are less likely to decry governments if they have a seat at the table.

The answer to this depends on several factors. One is, of course, the issue at hand. A less controversial issue may warrant greater collaboration. For example, the Sidemen, a group of British YouTubers with over 10 million subscribers, made a widely shared ‘Stay at Home’ video during the first wave of COVID-19. However, anti-establishment parties, in turn, could use influencers to destabilise the status quo from the outside.

Eventually, there may well be a point where such influencers decide to become politicians themselves. In the game of politics, the ability to carry millions with you on issues that one cares about is a highly valuable currency. If it is possible to have the adoration that many have for the likes of Trump, Farage and Johnson, without the detractors, then this makes for unbelievably powerful leadership qualities.

Objections to this belief are reasonable. Currently, influencers curry favour with a young audience that is widely geographically dispersed. In many voting systems, this will mean that building a significant coalition of support would be tough.

However, many influencers are moving away from youth-facing platforms into the ‘mainstream media’. KSI, a British YouTuber who came to fame playing FIFA in his bedroom, is now a chart-topping rapper. He twice sold out huge arenas to have a boxing bout against American vlogger Logan Paul (whose own charisma helped him recover from major controversies). These stars are by no-means ‘staying in their lane’, meaning they will capture both traditional and new forms of public life. When will we have our first YouTuber politician?

Finally, there seems to be little sign that Marcus Rashford is stopping. Not only has he released a BBC documentary on food poverty, he has partnered with publisher Macmillan to promote reading for economically disadvantaged children. Maybe he will stand for parliament one day, maybe he won’t. What is clear, though, is that influencers have the potential to become serious political players in the issues of tomorrow. But perhaps this time the politicians in question won’t come of age playing at Eton, but playing Esports.

Tom Westgarth and Walter Pasquarelli are policy consultants at Oxford Insights. They specialise in understanding trends in emerging technologies and AI.

[morsking]

took the time to finish new vegas’s dead money dlc. it was extremely unnerving and stressful but also a beautifully haunting experience. i really loved the cast in it even if half of it was plotting on blowing my head off at any given opportunity.

eljiah embodies the worst of the brotherhood of steel. he’s a more extreme and violent version of the brotherhood’s self-righteous mission to collect weapons of mass destruction and keep them to themselves, convinced that they know how to best use it. the brotherhood isn’t perfect, far from it. but they’d never nuke the surface because they understand that’s what got them where they are in the first place. elijah is diabolical, but the worst part is you can understand his logic. the idea of starting again, wiping disaster away and rebuilding is incredibly tempting. the problem is that elijah was so scarred by conflict and loss and purposelessness that it caused him to break and fall into a pit of desperation. he would be sympathetic if he weren’t such a manipulative, vindictive, and arrogant bastard obsessed with the past to the point where he emulates exactly what he hated about the brotherhood: that he resorts to ideas and resources from the old world to solve problems that the old world created. he betrayed, disfigured, and used christine, his own apprentice, for his own near-sighted goals, and that alone was evidence that neither he nor his intentions were in any way good, despite his own beliefs. killing the population of the mojave using the cloud and enslaving the survivors to create a new nation kept orderly by an iron fist was cruel and barbaric, so i locked him in the sierra madre vault. if he wanted the remains of the old world so badly, then he can stay in them for the sad and brief remainder of his life.

but what’s also really good is how the story revolving around vera, sinclair, and dean domino ties to the major themes of fallout. domino’s greed and jealousy blinded him into blackmailing vera, a struggling terminally ill drug addict. all vera wanted was a life that was better, and instead she was stuck between an envious asshole who cared nothing for her, an obsessive lover who idolized her without actually appreciating her in a healthy manner, and a rapidly decaying physical health. domino’s material greed and sinclair’s emotional greed destroyed vera and the sierra madre, just like the greed of nations for oil and weapons destroyed the old world. to say nothing of the think tank’s scientific greed in being perfectly willing to destroy innocent lives for their own research. 

dog and god were a very amusing duo. they’re the schizophrenic dissociative personalities of a mutant traumatized from being dipped in fev and losing the sense of comfort, safety, and purpose given to him by the master in fallout 1. dog is the aggressive, hungry, and infantile personality while god is the calculating, clever, deductive, and self-restrained mature personality. they are both in conflict at all times because one wishes to obey elijah (like a dog), and one wishes to be in control of himself and above all things that could restrain him (god). it’s clear god cares for dog because god tells you he considers dog a brother, but dog cannot let go of his desire to obey and be cared for. the best outcome for either of them is to merge into a brand new personality: they must let go of themselves. 

christine is probably the saddest of the three companions of dead money. she trusted elijah enough to want to follow him out of the brotherhood in search of freedom and reform, and instead she a prime witness to his crimes across the wastelands. she had to leave veronica and then find out the only other person she could’ve trusted in the brotherhood of steel was an absolute bastard of a person. he used her as scapegoat and she was then viciously experimented upon. she lost her ability to read and right, and even speaking what’s on her mind is difficult. then she’s caught in one of elijah’s traps AGAIN and dean domino throws her in a broken auto doc that destroys her vocal cords. she wanted elijah to give her purpose and ironically, he took and took and took from her until the only purpose she had was vengeance against him. bonding with her when she can’t even speak until near the end of the dlc was so heartwarming. she, a lesbian, will hold your hand if your character has perks that lets them interact romantically/sexually with npcs of the same gender or if you have power armor training from the brotherhood. it is a very rare moment of gay solidarity and comfort in video games. it’s such a shame you can’t tell her you’ve met veronica or that you can’t tell veronica you know what’s happened to christine. you should be able to reunite them because they deserve to give closure to each other and reconnect. sadly, christine has let go of the brotherhood as well.

all of these characters are people who have been scarred in different ways but will hurt each other and by extension hurt you. whether out of greed, desperation, or an inability to let go they are too stuck in their own traumas and inner conflicts that they forget they can help each other move on from those things. the best ending possible involves you helping dog and god, christine, and dean domino in moving on from what’s happened to them. elijah cannot change, and that’s why you either kill him or lock him in the sierra madre vault. but they can, and you can as well. that being said killing dean domino but sparing dog and god and christine also works just fine because dean domino is an asshole who blackmailed a dying drug addict but hey. 

like i said, dead money is just a great story all-around. i can’t wait to see what we get up to when i start with honest hearts.

[kyndaris]

Time is an Egg

Following on from Alan Wake, I was ecstatic to see Quantum Break available on Steam. I’m not sure when they first became available but I was definitely going to buy it on sale. It didn’t matter that I had never owned an Xbox, I was now able to finally play a console exclusive that had interested me for years. With its time travel concept and two actors from the Animorphs franchise, I was eager to see where the journey would take me. Plus, Remedy was also trying to push the fold when it came to video by inserting a television show between major plot points. To many, it might have seemed like an overly long cutscene except with real actors. Akin, perhaps, to old full motion video. I, for one, was just excited to see if Remedy could manage to pull it off the perfect blend between video games and other forms of media.

In Quantum Break, players are put into the shoes of one Jack Joyce. After six years, he has returned to his hometown of Riverport after receiving a message from an old friend: Paul Serene. I loved the environmental storytelling as I navigated the university to meet my friend. The conversation with Amy Ferrero as well as the the posters decrying the aggressive purchasing of land from the shady Monarch company, all served to highlight an ongoing struggle between corporations and the history and culture of hardworking individuals.

It was not long before Jack arrived at the Physics Research Centre, where Paul Serene had set up his Project Promenade and the time machine hidden beneath. Unlike its depiction in other forms of media, time travel in Quantum Break is regarded as a loop. There are no branching timelines or alternate worlds being created. A person cannot go back in time to change the past. In addition, a person can only go as far back as when the time machine was first activated. So, there would be no visiting of dinosaurs or killing Hitler.

Quantum Break sticks to its guns that the past is immutable as it has already happened. But it also implies that when Paul travels to the future and witnesses the End of Time that this fact cannot be changed. Why? Because the event now lies in Paul’s past and defines his entire character arc.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After Jack helps Paul in his less than legal demonstration, something goes wrong and time begins to fracture. He is joined by his brother and men from Monarch. They attempt to escape and in so doing, Jack discovers that he is imbued with time powers. He takes advantage of this, but cannot stop his brother from being crushed (or at least, that is what he thinks happens). From there, Jack is set on the path of stopping his old friend and restoring time.

On the way, he is joined by Beth Wilder and either Amy Ferrero or Nick Masters (depending on your choice when playing as Paul Serene during the first junction point). Speaking of these Junction Points, while they provide choice to the player, the end result is the same. The final confrontation between Jack and Paul is predetermined. None of the changes made to the game changed this fact. Whether the player chose a Hardline or PR approach, whether they trusted Hatch or Amaral - it did not matter. 

I suppose that made sense from the rules of the world and how the narrative set up the concept of time travel. Instead of spiralling into infinite worlds and alternate timelines, Quantum Break continued its spiel that time was a loop and that a character’s desire to change it would have only perpetuated the event that they were trying to stop. This was particularly evident when Beth was sent into the future and tried to kill Paul Serene during the End of Time. Or how despite warning the proper authorities, 9/11 still occurred.

It also meant that the ending for Quantum Break remained open-ended. The majority of the game is set in the year 2016. Paul, having seen the End of Time, knew that the catastrophic event would occur in 2021. However, as the events of Quantum Break unfold, it is clear that Paul’s estimate of the breaking of space-time as most people understood it, was happening much more quickly than predicted. So, when Jack was able to use the Countermeasure and stop the stutters, I waited for the other shoe to drop.

Sure enough, Quantum Break teased that there was more to the ending that met the eye. First of all, the interview styled questions that peppered the game were revealed to be at the end. Martin Hatch, who was shot in the eye, was back. Jack looked like he was seemingly joining up with Monarch. The ambiguous ending, thus, clearly hinted at a sequel and that Jack might have been the actual cause for the End of Time.

I also have a theory that Beth Wilder might actually still be alive despite being killed by Paul. How could she not have become chronon-active after being exposed to the Countermeasure in Ground Zero? 

Gameplay-wise, I very much enjoyed the aspect of controlling time. I was quite young when Blinx came out. But seeing that I owned a PlayStation, I never got to enjoy a romp with the cat that could control time. This time, I could stop enemies for a select few seconds as I peppered the air around them with bullets and then duck to cover by running as quick as the Flash. I loved these new ways to tackle combat as they presented something different than the usual third-person over-the-shoulder action that I was used to.

What disappointed me, though, about the game was streaming the live-action episodes. Always, I encountered buffering issues with the show stopping and starting. It didn’t matter how good my internet speed was, the connection with Remedy’s servers refused to work as I had hoped. 

The Quantum Ripples also proved disappointing because they only added a line or two of dialogue between characters. It never seemed to serve a greater purpose other than to appear as a fun Easter Egg.

I also dearly wanted Brooke Nevin and Shawn Ashmore to share a scene together. Alas, that never happened. At least in my playthrough of the game. The actors that played cousins in the Animorphs series never got to share a scene together. 

Gripes aside, I very much enjoyed the time I spent playing Quantum Break. The concept behind the narrative proved to just as intriguing when I was playing it as it had been in the trailer. While many mediums have explored time travel, this one was a much more interesting take on the premise. 

I also liked the ability to control time.There was no reversal and making different choices like in Life is Strange, but as a game mechanic, it definitely opened up new ways to navigate the environment and approach combat situations. Unfortunately, the choice of weapons at Jack’s disposal was less than imaginative.

[satoshi-mochida]

WayForward announced that they will partner up with Arc Systems Works and Rooster Teeth to develop a video game adaptation of RWBY for multiple platforms in 2021.

The game is tentatively titled, RWBY the video game and will follow an original story within the RWBY universe, which has been created by the show’s writers Kerry Shawcross, Miles Luna, and Eddy Rivas. WayForward will handle the development side of things while Arc Systems Works helps with publishing.

“It’s a massive honor to be trusted with a beloved brand like RWBY,” said WayForward Tyrannical Overlord Voldi Way. “Collaborating with the innovators at Rooster Teeth has been a blast, and we think the characters, personality, and style of RWBY are a great match for WayForward’s design sensibilities. We hope that fans are looking forward to seeing their favorite Huntresses in action as much as we’re looking forward to bringing the game to them.”

“To this day and date, I still cannot forget the awe when I first saw Monty’s RWBY,” said Mori Toshimichi, Chief Producer at Arc System Works. “At the same time, I cannot thank enough to all of Rooster Teeth for giving us the chance to have RWBY participate in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. We are also in deep gratitude to WayForward for bringing us River City Girls. And now that we’re all in this new RWBY project, I am tremendously thrilled to the coming of this new masterpiece.”

During gameplay, players will tack control of Team RWBY including, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Each character will use their weapons and abilities for this unique action game. More information about gameplay will be delivered soon.

[thecartoonuniverse]

Currently Airing Cartoons to Watch: 2019 Edition Part 1

You may remember my list of upcoming cartoons to look out for last year, but this time around I would like to do something different! I am personally recommending cartoons that are currently airing (or are confirmed to get more seasons) and give my opinions on each of them. There may be other good cartoons out there, but if they are not on the list, it means I was not a huge fan of it, it’s a super popular show like Steven Universe or Star vs. the Forces of Evil, or I have yet to watch it. If you are looking for something to watch, this is the list!

Currently Airing:

The Dragon Prince

Summary: The Dragon Prince is an epic fantasy series by the head writer and director of Avatar: the Last Airbender. In the magical land of Xadia, magic comes from six primal sources. But when human mages create a seventh kind of magic, Dark Magic — they begin capturing and harvesting the unique magical creatures they need as ingredients. This sparks a catastrophic war between Xadia and the Human Kingdoms. Three kids from opposite sides of the conflict — two human princes, and the elven assassin who was sent to kill them — discover a secret that could change everything. They decide to join forces and go on an epic journey that may be their only hope of ending the war, and restoring peace to both their worlds.

Opinion: This is probably my favorite currently airing show right now, mostly since I am a huge fan of fantasy shows. Dragons, extremely hot elves, and magic- what more could you ask for? Every one of the characters is complex and likable (well most, depending on who you ask). But even the antagonists are compelling at there are always shades of gray present. Season 2 truly blew me away with how much the stakes were raised and the number of surprises that occurred. There is even going to be a AAA cross-platform video game coming soon set in the same world! The company that creates The Dragon Prince, is doing a fantastic job on their social media (it’s hilarious, trust me), and I cannot wait to see what else they create. A quick warning, the animation from season 1 will take a little while to get used to, but for the most part, it has been improved for Season 2.

Also, there a lot of memes, so get ready for that.

gen:LOCK

Summary: In gen:LOCK, Earth’s last free society is on the losing side of a global war, and recruits a diverse team of young pilots to control the next generation of mecha—giant, weaponized robot bodies. These daring recruits will find, however, that their newfound abilities come at no small cost. As Julian Chase leaves behind his life as a fighter pilot to become the first candidate for the program, he finds his endurance, as well as his very identity, will be tested beyond anything he ever imagined.

Opinion: For any current/past fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender- WATCH THIS SHOW! If you are a fan of mechas, you will surely enjoy this. But if you were more a fan of the character interactions from VLD, this show also has you covered. It has an amazingly diverse cast and even has a canon genderfluid character. It is a show made for adults, so the stakes are real and dark subjects are treated seriously. Even the romance is done very well with the characters acting like adults instead of arguing over each other like teenagers. Even from the first episode, you can tell that the show is willing to take risks and is sure to become one of the greatest shows of the decade. The animation is also beautiful, and is definitely the best looking show Rooster Teeth has created. The fan base is super small right now since the first season just aired and is RT First exclusive. But trust me, it is worth a watch.

Carmen Sandiego

Summary: Carmen is a modern day Robin Hood traveling the globe and stealing from V.I.L.E. and giving back to its victims. Carmen is publicly perceived as a criminal by most law enforcement agencies – correction, make that a master criminal due to the sheer scale and theatricality of her heists. We will follow her escapades and get to determine not only where but WHO in the world is Carmen Sandiego?  

Opinion: This show really caught me by surprise- I was fully expecting a kiddy edutainment show, but what I got was something much more complex and intriguing. Carmen this time around, as the summary suggests, is an anti-hero, and not an antagonist or villain like she was in the past. While some may not want to watch it due to this, I think this take on her is done very well, and once you get past the two-episode backstory, you will find the show is fun with a diverse cast of characters from all over the world. This GIF doesn’t quite do it justice but trust me when I say this show has some one of the best looking art styles I have ever seen. Surprisingly the weakest aspect of the show is the educational factor, which is puzzling as it was very much promoted as a show to teach children geography. In some cases, I have seen posts/tweets pointing out factual errors the show made! Normally it wouldn’t be the biggest deal, but this is a show that prides itself for its educational value. Also, some of the characters have pretty flat personalities or are just straight up incompetent, but hopefully that will change as the show progresses further. The finale was amazing, and I am patiently waiting for the next season!

Tangled: The Series/ Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

Summary: Set between the events of the feature film and the start of the 2012 CGI short film, Tangled Ever After, the animated series unfolds as Rapunzel acquaints herself with her parents, her kingdom and the people of Corona. Her irrepressible spirit and natural curiosity about the world drives her to the realization that there is so much more she needs to learn before she can truly accept her royal destiny. She boldly puts her crown and impending marriage on hold to seek out epic adventures, much to the dismay of the King who, after missing out on Rapunzel's childhood, must accept that his daughter is now an independent young woman. Accompanying Rapunzel on her journey will be Eugene Fitzherbert; the plucky chameleon sidekick, Pascal; the no-nonsense horse, Maximus; most of The Snuggly Duckling's pub thugs; and newcomer Cassandra, a tough-as-nails handmaiden, who becomes Rapunzel's confidant.

Opinion: This series is truly a delight, and definitely exceeded my expectations for a television series based off a Disney show (I did not expect much as most of those types of shows from my childhood weren’t the best). But I was truly wowed, and this is a must see for any Disney fan.The series does not ignore anything that happened in the movie, far from it. Events that occurred in the movie still impact Rapunzel and are treated seriously. The cartoon mixes comedy, adventure, lore, and mystery quite well. It is also very beautiful, much like Carmen Sandiego (both have similar styles but I like CS’s lighting a bit more). The show can even get quite dark, as is evident with the season 1 finale. This show deserves a much biggest fanbase, so give it a watch!

Hilda

Summary: Hilda follows the journey of a fearless blue-haired girl as she travels from her home in a vast magical wilderness full of elves and giants to the bustling city of Trolberg, where she makes new friends and discovers mysterious creatures who are stranger –and sometimes more dangerous– than she ever expected. Based on graphic novels by Luke Pearson, who storyboarded for Adventure Time.

Opinion: Hilda is definitely a comfort show, and if you liked Gravity Falls there is a good chance you will also like this show! The art style is simply adorable, and Hilda is a delight to get to know. I love the way that the show not only has magical creatures, but it goes in depth into how these creatures live and survive in a modern world. Having read all the comics, I personally enjoyed the addition of Hilda getting some human friends. I know some people did not like this, but she seemed quite lonely once she moved to the city, and I liked seeing her interact with children her age. Season 2 is coming out next year, so there is plenty of time to watch the first season! If you love a feel-good show with mystery and magic, this is the show for you!

Star Wars Resistance

Summary: The series is set between the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, in a time when the Resistance is still learning about the growing threat of the First Order. It centers on the character of Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot in General Leia Organa's Resistance who is tasked with spying on the growing threat of the First Order.

Opinion: This show was one I was not expecting anything from at all, but as the show has progressed throughout the first season I have begun to enjoy it more and more. This show, like many on this list, features a very diverse cast (including some aliens, of course). Probably the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the main character, Kaz, is 20 years old! I feel like that is not something you see with action shows these days, as they usually make the protagonist 16 or 17 years old. I really like the animation style, as I always felt that without the big budget, the Clone Wars style just didn’t look that good in Rebels. Resistance is so... shiny! As for the plot itself, it is sad that most of my favorite aspects of Star Wars are missing, namely the Force, Jedi, and Light Sabers. But since it may eventually tie in more with the sequels, there is hope to see more of that eventually! It’s definitely not at Clone Wars level of good, but I am finding it more enjoyable than Rebels (excluding a few episodes and the season finales). It may never end up being as serious as Rebels, but I am sure it will get darker as time goes on and the stakes get higher.

Young Justice: Outsiders

Summary: Young Justice: Outsiders is the third season of Young Justice. The backdrop for the season is one that will touch on “all corners of the DC universe,” and this time the team is tasked with stopping a metahuman trafficking ring, as well as dealing with the “intergalactic arms race for control of these super-powered youths.” You can also count on new heroes Arrowette, Spoiler, Thirteen, Halo, and many more joining in the fight.

(^I can’t recall if this is the exact line from the show but this whole episode is the best)

Opinion: If you loved the first two seasons of Young Justice, it is easy to say that you should give this one a watch. But now that it is on DC’s streaming platform, DC Universe, IT IS DARK. Seriously, this is no longer a show for children. And that’s pretty great. I truly love that the show can now explore darker themes and have some adult jokes from time to time. However, unlike the first two seasons, I feel constantly confused about new characters or things that have happened to returning characters offscreen. Unless you are very knowledgable about DC characters, there is a good chance you will feel this way. So, it is sadly a bit more unwelcoming to those unfamiliar with the comics. I still love the show’s characters and superhero stuff, in general, is always a lot of fun. There’s also LGBT characters apparently already in the show (and some that were LGBT in the comics have appeared, but nothing in-show is confirmed), so hopefully, there is also that to look forward to in the second half of the season when it airs in June.

Big Hero 6 The Series

Summary: The series continues the adventures of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro and his robot pal Baymax. Joining the pair on their journey is control freak Wasabi, scientist Honey Lemon, fanboy Fred, and no-nonsense Go Go Tomago, whom together form the Big Hero 6 superhero team. As the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro faces daunting academic challenges, not to mention the social trials of being the little man on campus. The stakes are also raised for the high-tech heroes when they must protect their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains.

Opinion: Another very well made series based off a Disney movie. Once again, this show stays faithful to the source material. The art style is very interesting, and while not my favorite gives the show a very cool feel. Once the main villain is introduced, I was glad to report that he became a major threat very fast. And the season 1 finale was pretty great as well. My biggest issue concerning this series so far is that is still really hasn’t developed the side characters at all, despite them being in almost every episode. These are college students, so their families should still be quite important to them. But besides Fred, we have yet to really learn about them, and with that, a potentially important part of who they are as a person is missing. After a movie and a whole season, these characters should not seem as flat as they are, so I hope we learn more about them too. But we also get flashbacks of Tadashi, so for that alone the show may be worth a watch.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Summary: Deep in the sewers of New York City, four mutant turtle brothers lurk. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo are in their early teen years, and the brothers go on new and exciting adventures. They tap into their mystic ninja powers to learn to work together as a cohesive unit and become a team of heroes as they navigate the modern world and other hidden realms. The brothers get a whole new look, new weapons, and new powers as they discover the hidden city beneath New York and find time for a slice of their favorite pizza.

Opinion: Okay I will admit this is one I haven’t actually seen all of yet. But the art style is just so cool I had to include it and will likely update this entry when I catch up. This show may be a worthy successor to the 2012 series, which I know a lot of people loved.

So that’s the end of my list. If I remember any other good shows airing, I may update it. But, if I got you to watch any, let me know and tell me your thoughts!

Shows to Look Foward to: Glitch Techs, Amphibia, Owl House, Twelve Forever, Hazbin Hotel, Villainous, Infinity Train, 101 Dalmatian Street

Shows Omitted due to being super popular already: Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, RWBY, Bojack Horseman, OK KO, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Duck Tales

Join my Cartoon Themed Discord: https://discord.gg/cartoonuv

And give us a follow if you enjoyed the post! We talk about cartoon related stuff a lot! I will probably do a part 2 later in the year when more of the cartoons to look forward to have aired. And I might even add some shows omitted or other shows I may have forgotten!

[agentargus]

More ghost-mutant NPCs because I cannot stop.

Name: Erik Winchester Gibson

Nicknames: Slendy, Techie Scum, Lurch

Designation: Cyber Operations Agent, Archivist Apprentice—Roanoke Society

Mentor: Agent Archivist, Former Agent Alvinne

Security clearance: Case-by-case basis.

Education: MA/MS in computer science from Seattle University, BS in Information Systems from Cogswell Polytechnical College

Height:~6ft 9in

Weight:~200 lbs

Age: ~42, appears and behaves slightly younger due to healing factor.

Likes:

Video games

Trains

Crunchy snacks

Classical music

Cheesy paperbacks

Dislikes:

Talking

Clothes-shopping

Loud noises

Yoghurt

Not being able to fit through doorways (tall people problems. Mun can’t relate.)

I was going to do this in a more creative way but I realized it would require a lot of alternating perspectives to get the whole story written and that’s a lot of work for NPCs who still have a lot of developing to do so I decided to write up something relatively brief. (The irony is that it still ended up being long as f haha. It would have been even longer if I had made it more creative though.)

In addition to going back to some classic creepypastas for inspiration, I finally got into looking into some more locally-minded paranormal legends and it’s quite a wealth of source material so you may see more characters of a similar nature in the future.

Extra special thanks to @theagentofarchives and @roanoke-etc / @spookylilmoonpie for letting me include their characters in the story the way I did. Very long lore under the cut.

Born with standard-fare psychic ability and desperate to grow his power and influence, Andrew Lawrence Rees ran the gamut of involvement with secret societies and cults. After failing the Roanoke agent tests as a young trainee, he attempted to start his own paranormal organization. When that failed, he spent the next few years in and out of various occult and spiritual organizations (including the Church of Scientology) leaving each upon deciding they were scams.

In the late 1950s, Rees took up residence in Italy to research Thelema and study alchemy. While performing a particularly provocative Thelemic ritual taken from the work of Aleister Crowley himself, Rees was apprehended by the

Carabinieri, deemed mentally unstable, and was committed to Poveglia before being deported to the United States. During his brief stint at the asylum, Rees came under the tutelage of Il Dottore. After the asylum closed, he would make more trips back to the island to keep up communication.

In 1960, Rees was declared mentally competent, took up residence in San Jose, California, and began his first experiments. He did not use human hosts at first, preferring less distinctively scientific and more alchemical methods. Passing himself off as an exorcist, he gained the trust of Sarah Winchester’s ghost and began trapping spirits from the Winchester Mystery House. Under the pretext of setting spirits free, he instead contained them and transported them from the house to his lab on Hicks Road using transmutation. The spirits were often damaged by the process and most of the early experiments did not survive into adulthood.

While working with what would become the Berkeley Psychic Institute by day, by night he continued to perform his own rituals. In order to preserve the spirits, he instead began using an interdimensional teleportation unit to transport the spirits.

What Rees didn’t realize was that when each spirit was filtered through the interdimensional rift, they returned with vestiges of what existed between dimensions, things that weren’t meant to be summoned. The experiments created with these spirits had unusual physical features—taller than average, greyish skin and dark scleras without irises or pupils. Little by little, as the survival rate of the experiments increased, they became a family of their own and the lab became a compound of sorts. Soon, the experiments expressed a desire to bring forth other interdimensional energies, if not shatter the boundaries between dimensions entirely.

Around 1976, a young experiment fled the compound. A young drifter named Taylor Gibson found her hitchhiking on Hicks Road and they became traveling companions, marrying at a roadside church. She attributed her strange appearance to a genetic abnormality—technically true—and Taylor didn’t question it. The night their child was born, Taylor fell asleep with the baby in his arms. He awoke to find his wife missing, a strange ink-like substance coating their bed and trailing across the floor. He attempted to file a missing person’s report, but there was no evidence that she’d ever existed. He later moved to Portland, Oregon, where he remarried and had a second child.

Rees communicated to Il Dottore that one of his experiments had returned to the compound, showing signs of having given birth, making Il Dottore realize that his own experiments were capable of bearing children. Rees was finally stopped by Parker Jensen and Dante Argenti during a mission in 2017.

If you were to ask him, Erik Gibson would tell you that he was a completely ordinary, if quiet child. He spent hours at the arcade, the library, or building and racing remote-controlled model cars with his stepbrother, Frank. What unusual situations Erik might have experienced, he always managed to rationalize with a logical explanation. It helped that he only manifested strange physical features late at night, while he and the rest of the household slept.

Nevertheless, others soon began to take notice: One night as a teenager, Erik had left the library later than he’d intended, asking a nearby resident if he could use their phone. Even after being expelled from the house by the fearful owner, it never occurred to him that it the motivating factor might have been fear. (To this day, he is unaware that he was the subject of several of the Portland accounts of Black-Eyed children. He’d only wanted to use the phone.) As he grew older and began staying out later, reports of strange sightings followed in his wake. Any picture of him taken after sundown would blur his facial features completely. Somehow, Erik always managed to rationalize these eccentricities to himself, nearly to the point of delusion.

Though Erik spent most of his life as a skeptic, Frank became more and more convinced of the existence of the paranormal. While Erik studied computer science at Seattle University, Frank became a paranormal investigator. When the first tech bubble burst, Erik lost his job in Seattle and moved to Silicon Valley, one of the few places where tech jobs were still relatively easy to come by. He went back to school, getting a second degree, and by the beginning of the second tech bubble, he was back on his feet. Shortly thereafter, Frank began working at the Winchester Mystery House and moved in with him. That was when things started getting strange.

There was the time the library near Erik’s hotel caught fire, while he attended a conference in the Sterling City area around 2009, then came the letters with no return address that contained indecipherable glyphs. Erik paid these things little attention until around 2017, when Frank did not come home from work one night. The next morning, Erik went to the Winchester House to look for his brother. Instead, he found Parker, Dante, and Hampton apprehending Rees.

Luck was on their side, for Rees revealed that Frank had been taken by the colony while investigating it (partially to prove to his stepbrother that not only was supernatural phenomena real, but an important part of their family.) After Hampton teleported Rees into A Roanoke holding cell, the three went to the colony to rescue Frank.

The three found the colony empty, though Parker and Dante could both sense the presence of something paranormal in nature. They were able to find the underground dwellings of the experiments through trapdoors in the abandoned buildings. Upon finding out that Rees had been arrested, the experiments explained that they had intended to summon interdimensional forces to rescue them from Rees’s abusive testing, but required life energy that could be used as a gateway between dimensions. Erik’s mother claimed to have been visited in a Dream by an entity claiming that having a child with a human would generate the proper energies. Nevertheless after the child was born, she couldn’t bear the thought of sacrificing it. When Rees discovered their plan and that the child had returned to San Jose, he attempted to cast a myriad of spells on Erik, all of which had backfired. Neither Rees nor the experiments gave straight answers when asked what would have happened to Frank if they had gotten their hands on Erik before Roanoke intervened, but it likely wouldn’t have been pretty. After all, supernatural energy manifestation is often the result of trauma. With Rees gone, the experiments were free to do as they wished, but most decided to remain with their family at the compound. Today, the Hicks Road colony remains a popular local legend.

In Roanoke custody, Rees revealed more details about Il Dottore’s experiments in exchange for a lighter sentence. He explained about the Alvinnes: an order of French alchemist witches who were able to keep their life energies in suspended animation after death or to induce reincarnation with their memories intact. Il Dottore had originally intended to recreate their work with modern science, but decided instead to use the technology to develop super-soldiers reincarnated from multiple souls bound together.

Unable to live in denial anymore, Erik began working in Roanoke’s IT department. Agent Archivist took a special liking to him, theorizing that the residual interdimensional energy attached to Rees’s experiments was that of Byagoona, the Great Old One associated with death and reanimation. Deciding that he was probably family, Marie gave him a special job transcribing the archives into digital files, all the while educating him on the history and power of the Great Old Ones.

It was Marie’s training and Erik’s belief in his own abilities that allowed them to grow, his original denial a protective impulse more than anything else. Though his transformations remained mostly cosmetic in nature, they had their uses. He passed the interrogation test by gripping the edge of the building with tendrils as he fell (already avoiding speech in favor of typed dialogue, keeping his mouth shut was probably the easiest part.) Nevertheless, he kept his focus centered on computers, specializing in cyber paranormal activity.

It was all but love at first sight when Erik and Ginny were introduced. Though he worried about the difference in their ages, her pursuit of him continued. (After all, given how ancient some of the society’s members were, a fifteen-year difference simply wasn’t all that much.) After months of unresolved tension, Ginny finally took initiative and asked Erik to buy her a drink, despite the fact that she was allergic to alcohol. As she threw up in the toilet, he wrapped his arms around her, absentmindedly pushing her hair from her face with an inky ectoplasmic tendril. Embarrassed, he nearly bolted from her apartment, but she convinced him to stay. They’ve been together ever since.

There’s a lot more, but this is already much longer than I’d intended so if I explain more, it’ll be in another post.