#i remember the panic that came out about games like doom and how violent they were

[cainite-bite]

one of my most favorite pet peeves is when someone talks about an old edgy game and is like "its a shame because you couldn't just make that nowdays it would NEVER have been allowed its a shame how we've fallen" but like you get to look at them in comparison to things we have now that are actively even more grusome than ever. People say manhunt couldn't be released today because its too brutal but then the last of us has some extra brutal executions too, and don't even get me started on how the MK series is nowadays. "they would have to censor the story so heavily today so im glad [blank] came out years ago" they say, as some weren't already censored to tone it down- a perfect example of that is always going to be Twisted Metal Black where they changed up Raven's, Dollface's, Agent Stone's, Preacher's, John Doe's story to simmer them all down and lighten the blow, expunging certain levels ambient sounds because the implications of domestic violence, and the changing of No-face's surgical cutscene to make it not as explicitly nasty and meanwhile modern games have been actively stepping it up to be even worse.

"Games are just too prudish nowdays we couldnt even get another ghostly desires LOL" and meanwhile the front page to steam is literally littered with hentai games. that do not hide the lewd and raunchy screenshots. sometimes its a freshly creampied pussy in your face. yeah that. Im sorry but there's so much god damn porn games that are available to buy and some of it is mainstream even (Huniepop for instance).

Back in the day NightTrap was rated as an Adult game. Now? It's T for teen because how tame it kinda is. We're not as prudish or pearlclutchy on literally any of these points as we used to be and thank fucking god for that- but literally take off the nostolgia goggles cause its fuckin blinding you sweetie

[frauleinandry]

okay, so, as i mentioned before, i have a million plus arcana swap au ideas, and since i’m never going to actually write this one, why not post it into the void? (also, people will probably enjoy it since it’s shuake lmao)

so! this particular plot nugget is set in a new game plus arcana swap au... except the reset point isn’t yaldabaoth like most NG+ fics, but the maruki bad end (with some elements of the maruki failed deadline end tossed into it for maximum pain).

in the original timeline, akira cannot choose whether to stay in maruki’s reality or go. maruki’s choice makes him have a complete and utter mental breakdown, and, well, if you’ve seen the failed deadline ending for maruki’s palace, you know how this goes. maruki puts him into an enchanted sleep, erasing his presence from the world and dooming humanity in the process.

this sends akira’s spirit to the velvet room, and lavenza. is. pissed. if he’d chosen to stay in maruki’s reality, that’d be one thing, but by not choosing to act at all, he’s spit on his role as a wildcard (namely, that he should be taking responsibility for his actions and that the choices he makes should be his own). so, at great personal risk, she uses her powers to reset the timeline, in the hope that whoever’s chosen to be the new wildcard will find the strength that he lacked.

cut to the reset timeline. akira is walking home from school when he overhears shido assaulting that woman. he goes to investigate, but the second he does - blam. his memories from the original timeline return, slapping him in the face. once his shock has worn off, much to his horror, he realises shido and his victim have already driven away. no assault charge for you, akira.

by now, he’s absolutely freaking out, and after doing some frantic googling once he gets home, he realises things are very, very different. the detective prince doesn’t exist. people who were once dead are now alive, or vice versa.. also, for some fucking reason his name is now amamiya ren. 

in a full-blown panic, akira runs away from home and goes straight to tokyo. none of his friends or confidants recognises him, and to make things worse, some clearly aren’t the people he once knew anyone. to make matter worse, others are just... gone. when he goes to yogen-jaya and realises there’s no leblanc, akira has a full-blown panic attack. 

suddenly, his phone pings - it’s the metanav. perks of being a former wildcard, and all that.  when akira visits mementos though, his spirit of rebellion doesn’t manifest, and the velvet room is just... gone (he’s not the wildcard anymore, after all). it’s then that he realises that losing all his bonds isn’t the only thing that’s happened - yaldabaoth is now back. akira is extremely, extremely, cognizant of how close he came to losing that battle. now, there’s a very, very real chance that the world is going to end, all because he couldn’t make a decision.

(fun fact: akira’s new arcana in this role swap is the hermit. this boy is having a very, very bad time.)

let’s move to akechi. in this new world, he’s not the justice. his mother survived her suicide attempt or never had one in the first place. money is tight, and he still gets a lot of shit due to his family situation, but his home is loving. sure, he’s not a saint by any means - akechi is still somewhat prickly and has elaborate and violent fantasies about getting revenge on shido, but ultimately he’s a normal teen. he’s the top of his class, a member of the student council, and is already getting scouted by universities. he might even have a stepfather he begrudgingly tolerates and little siblings he loves. 

that all changes however when one night, he remembers the original timeline. normal teenager akechi -  who’s never genuinely considered murdering someone in his life - suddenly has the memories of his past life as a traumatised assassin forcibly injected into his brain. 

suffice to say, akechi absolutely freaks the fuck out. when he looks at his mother, he now sees her corpse. when he spends time with his family, he can’t help but think of the families he’s destroyed with his very own hands. whenever his underclassmen ask him for advice, he hesitates - given how monstrously he’s fucked up, what right does he have to guide anyone? 

(whenever he smells the ocean breeze, he feels sick.)

still, despite having an extremely unique type of mental breakdown, akechi is a person of action. like akira, he has the metanav on his phone, and akechi wants answers. unlike akira, he’s still got enough defiance to manifest a persona, even if robin hood has only a fraction of the power it did before. during a trip to mementos, he encounters akira. he finds out his former rival has run away from home (it’s not like his parents would miss him, after all), and is currently funding himself via a ludicrous amount of part-time jobs.

reunited, they start planning. still, while there are remnants of their old rivalry, their dynamic has fundamentally changed. akira still possesses his inherent kindness and big heart, but he’s far more jaded than the old joker ever was, and the fire that once animated him had been snuffed out. meanwhile, this timeline’s akechi is the opposite - his basic personality is still intact, but he lacks the sharp edges the original akechi did. this akechi knows what it’s like to be loved, after all (not that he feels like he deserves to, given all the blood that he’s never technically spilt that’s staining his hands). these boys are a very different shade of fucked up, and it shows. anger has been replaced with despondency and rivalry with understanding. in every world, they’re two different sides of the same coin, after all - doomed to be the ones who understand each other the best. 

back to the plot, while akira still has no persona, akechi can still fight, which means they can at least attempt to rig things in the phantom thieves’ favour. the second they try to go to the metaverse to interfere with shido/any PT target, however, the app glitches, stopping them from entering. their worst suspicions are confirmed when akechi first meets the new PTs and tries to warn them about yaldabaoth, but he finds that he suddenly can’t speak. they’re just pawns in this new game between gods, after all, and neither of them can break the rules. this is the inciting incident to the formation of akira’s palace, who believes he’s doomed to watch as his loved ones die.

akechi probably fills the high priestess role - he tries shoehorning his way into the phantom thieves and gets them all into trouble, or alternatively, gets caught up in some bad shit while attempting to investigate shido, and the PTs bail him out. who knows! this is sort of where the plot bunny ends - there’s a reason i’m never going to write it in full lmao. still, if you’ve gotten this far, i hope you enjoyed it!

[dr3amofagame]

originally i just wanted dream to recover, preferably in the syndicate. but after today's quackity lore? he deserves to fuck shit up for a bit. let him get his revenge. tommy got his revenge on dream, techno got his revenge on l'manberg, dream deserves to get revenge on quackity and sam! then he can recover after that lol

(context: ask was sent on march 16th and i am very. very late.)

but YEAH !! logic brain says revenge bad and cycle of violence will continue BUT emotion brain wants c!dream to go crazy go stupid !! go beat them up honey we’ll be here with juice boxes and fruit snacks when you’re done <3 

i wrote this while looping casino royale by derivakat for (checks time) something like 12 hours straight so uhh,,, yeah LMAO have some of c!dream going apeshit bc honestly he deserves it (/hj)

tw: implied torture, abuse, mentioned injuries, suicide, murder, explosions, death, violence, dark portrayals of c!dream, c!quackity, and c!sam, emotional distress, prison arc, pandora’s vault

Sam is uneasy long before he enters Las Nevadas - Quackity’s terse, serious-sounding string of texts he’d woken up to had sent his heart racing before the country even came into sight, and he’s pretty sure the pit in the middle of his gut since Dream escaped a week ago won’t disappear until the prisoner is either jailed or dead at his feet. Still, the city hardly does his anxiety any favors - each step within its limits feels a bit more like walking to his own death, the silent storefronts and looming, boarded up casino seeming to watch his every move, making him pick up his pace to move a little faster and avoid their judging gazes.

Stuck in his head as he is, it’s not until he’s halfway to the meeting place that he realizes how eerily quiet the place is - Las Nevadas has yet to be a particularly busy country with the casino yet to open and their recruits usually doing their own thing in the meantime, but still there’s usually at least one of them lingering on the city grounds, between Fundy’s work on his yacht and Foolish’s construction and whatever Slime does, usually involving an immense amount of following Quackity’s every move. The city as it right now feels much more like when it had been no more than a secret of his and Quackity, months spent with just the two of them working to make Big Q’s vision a reality. There’s something uniquely unnerving about it, like stepping into a ghost town, and Sam’s unease only grows.

“Sam!” Quackity calls from the base of the casino - Sam shades his eyes from the sun as he jogs over. Even from this far, it’s clear Q is displeased - his lips are flat in a small frown, skin taut from where the corner of his mouth is pulling at his scar. His tie is slightly askew and shirt rumpled - he looks disheveled, eyebrows narrowed irritatedly as he taps at something on his communicator. Sam smiles slightly, hollow.

“Hello Quackity,” he responds simply, drawing his trident and bringing it to his side. “You said we needed to meet?”

“Yeah,” Quackity’s voice is distracted, and he mumbles a curse as he jams his finger particularly hard against the communicator screen. “What is up with everyone today? They sent me these- weird fucking messages  and then we get here and nobody’s here-”

“Who?” Sam’s lips press together. “You mean like- Fundy? Or Foolish?” They seem to be the ones that Quackity got messages from most frequently, if he remembers right. He doesn’t know for sure - usually, Quackity handles the social side of managing Las Nevadas.

“Fundy, Purpled, Foolish, Slime-” Quackity makes a vague, affronted noise. “All of them! Where the hell are they?”

Sam pauses.

“Q, when did Slime learn to use a communicator?”

“That’s the green one, right?” Both of them freeze, whirling around to the voice behind them, seeing nothing but the empty, arched doorway of the still-locked casino. “Naïve. Easy to fool.” The voice pauses, barks a sharp, quiet laugh. “Made my job easy, at least.”

The voice is familiar- too familiar. Sam doesn’t think he’ll ever get that cadence out of his head, not after months after months spent in the prison, hearing it in every possible tone and form. Quackity’s shoulders are hunched up to his ears, teeth bared in a snarl.

“Dream- I fucking swear- where the hell are you?”

“Aw, not so brave when the other person can actually fight back, are we?” Dream’s voice is lilting, mocking, and Sam’s hands tighten on the trident. “Fine, I’ll show myself. I’m not like you- no need to extend this game any longer than necessary.”

Dream slinks out from the shadows, wearing all black and covered in netherite armor, seeming fiddling with a small, grey thing in one hand. HIs stance is wide, torso pulled close to the ground - instead of a mask, his outfit includes a hooded black cloak that pulls down over his face, barely offering a glimpse of his eye glaring from underneath it.

“I’m giving you three seconds to tell me why the hell you’re in my country,” Quackity growls, sword forming in his hand, blade still crusted over with old blood, “And I’ll make your death half as painful as it’ll be otherwise.”

Dream laughs, high-pitched and unstable. “Please- what are you gonna do with that thing?” Quackity stalks forward with a low, wordless yell and Sam only barely manages to snag him back by the wrist.

“Watch it, Q,” Sam mutters, looking closer. Sure enough, there’s a faint, reddish haze rising from Dream’s body, only barely visible, interspersed with some lighter blue wisps. Strength and Speed. “He’s got potions.”

“Outmatched, aren’t we?” Dream cocks his head to the side, a tight-lipped smile visible under the hood’s shadow. “What a shame. I was hoping for a good fight.”

Quackity curses at him, loudly, but mullishly stays in place instead of lashing out like earlier, and Sam hisses a small sigh of relief. He looks back over at Dream - under the sun, he looks worse than ever, armor doing little to hide the gaunt edge of his face, limbs skinny and shaking. His hands tremble, wrists kept close together, as he continues to move the thing within them from hand to hand, small and grey and smooth from what he can tell in flashes between scarred and calloused fingers. He’s still favoring his left side slightly, but his eyes are cold and clear as they follow his every movement, clearly lucid and intelligent. Unfortunately for them, Dream is the best of fighters at the worst of times, and he has no doubt that with potions on his side and themselves relatively unprepared for battle, any fight with him won’t go particularly well.

Negotiation it is, then. “Why are you here, Dream?” If they stall long enough, then the rest of the server can come to back them up, and then even Dream won’t be able to fight back for long. He and Quackity can figure out what to do with him once he’s safely back under their control - for now, they have to play things safe. He pulls out his communicator carefully with one hand, trying to avoid drawing attention to his movements. “I doubt you’re here for a housewarming visit.”

Dream waves his hand slightly. “Something like that-” he bares his teeth in a small smile. “How about a housewarming gift, instead?”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Quackity bites, aggressive in a way that speaks of how threatened he feels, and the pit in Sam’s stomach only grows. Dream’s eye seems to glow as he turns and presses his hands to the nearby wall; when he pulls them back, there’s a stone button fastened on the quartz.

“Say, Quackity,” Dream’s voice is too light to be anything but forced levity, rolling his shoulders back to try and hide the way his entire body has begun to shake even more violently than before. “How much TNT do you suppose it took for Wilbur to blow up L’manburg?”

Sam gasps, low and harsh through his teeth, a quiet, breathless no falling from his lips. Quackity’s head shakes, eyes widening in fury and denial.

“No- no what the fuck did you do- Dream what the absolute fuck did you do-”

“Eleven stacks of TNT, to blow up that country to kingdom come.” Dream laughs, directing his wild, manic expression to look them in the eye. “The amount of TNT hooked up to this thing is ten times that.”

“You’re a liar-” Quackity rushes forward, sword raised, “I’m going to fucking kill you-”

Sam grabs him, again, ignoring his yells to look at Dream, who’s still standing, seemingly unruffled, one hand hovering over the button that’ll spell doom for them all.

“That’ll kill all of us,” he tries to reason, panic clawing up his lungs, “You’re on your last life. You can’t-”

“And what, Warden, makes you think I give a single goddamn fuck about that?” Dream’s voice cracks, slightly, and for a moment Sam almost thinks he’ll break, that he can press the point until the other backs down - but Dream is nothing if not stubborn, and within seconds he’s composed himself again, looking at them with a determined set to his jaw that Sam recognizes well enough from Quackity’s visits to know that he won’t back down. “Everyone else is far away from here. I made sure of that. It’s just you, and Quackity, and me, and I’m pressing this button if it’s the last thing I do. Call it a parting shot, will you?”

Sam pulls at Quackity, wrist still locked in his grip. “Q, we have to leave.”

“I’m not letting him destroy this place Sam, are you out of your fucking mind? This- Las Nevadas- it’s everything- I’m not letting him take this place from me not again-”

“He’s going to kill us all, Quackity,” he throws a water bucket at his feet, charging up his trident. The sign taunts him at the edges of the city borders, far too far away for any of them to even hope to reach. “We have to go now-”

“Say your goodbyes,” Dream taunts, and there’s a quiet click. Sam smells the faint, smoky smell of redstone being activated, hears a hum growing in volume from the ground beneath him. He looks over to Dream, who has a hand pressing the button to the wall, fever-bright eyes wide and wet as he stares at his own hand before shutting them with a soft, almost serene smile. “And see you in hell.”

The world goes white.

[Dream was blown up by Dream.]

[Quackity was blown up by Dream.]

[awesamdude was blown up by Dream.]

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy - Kikuta really deserved better [part 3] 280-283

I’m still behind on my GK meta.  Here is my push to catch up before new chapters drop.  Just a note of clarification from my last meta.  When I discuss Yuusaku’s eyes being similar to Asirpa’s, I don’t mean that he has blue/green eyes like hers but just that his ‘innocence’ is represented by that but there may also be a difference.  If he were not Hanazawa’s biological son, it would make a sweet plot twist and explain why he didn’t inherit the ‘natural abilities’ of the men of that family in the military.  This sounds silly, but a major theme of GK is that children do inherit abilities from their parents.

Most of chapter 280 isn’t super useful, we learn that Usami discovered Kikuta’s role as a spy for central and that’s pretty much it.  Kikuta seems to think that Sugimoto will be enough to stop Tsurumi which, I dunno, I guess makes some sense considering he’s one of the main characters, but meh.

He does get a badass scene where he tries to look cool and take Tsurumi out with him here . . .

Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to be badass as Tsukishima shoots him in the head.  Recall that, he’s wanted a front row seat for the Tsurumi theatre and has rationalized in the past that he’s going to be Tsurumi’s right hand man -

[Sighs].  Oh Tsukishima, I’m more worried about your mental health and well being with these recent chapters. Honestly, the rest of the chapter seems like filler to me.  The skins are arranged to reveal a location for the gold, at the fort in Hakodate, Goryokaku.  The only other part I found interesting is here.  Tsurumi makes his orders known and Koito is off in the corner by himself.

Koito, what are you thinking?  How are you feeling? Are you upset by Tsurumi?  By Tsukishima declaring he’s Tsurumi’s right and man and not your big brother?  Tell me Koito?  Are you no longer on board with things but caught up in the momentum of events?

And both groups are now en route to the location and - Kikuta deserved better.

Chapter 281 starts out with group eating squid in Hakodate as they check out the remains of the fort.  It is mainly historical context information and how this is where Hijikata should have died.  I’m not a Shinsengumi ‘fan’ so this plot point continues to be meh for me.

What is more important is that Boutarou told Shiraishi that the gold came from the Russian Consulate to the fort.

Kimuspu lead them there as the group of men organized by Wilk are in search of the gold at the Russian Consulate.  They are able to break through a fake wall to find a cellar below where the gold is supposed to be.

Of course, since this is a manga this perfectly overlaps with other events in the manga - mainly the kidnapping of Koito by ‘Russians’ aka Tsukishima and Ogata.  Wilk goes over to investigate and sees Koito Sr. deciding that Koito’s fate is set based on the current actions of the kidnappers.

It is interesting that the previous chapter had a very lonely looking Koito to lead into this flashback that is also related to him.  Is this important or just luck in the plot/flashback story line? The men proceed to find the gold - but as Wilk examines it, it becomes clear that it isn’t the gold.

Instead, we are only left with Wilk asking him what is going on?  And we have no idea what Wilk is looking or referring to, but it isn’t gold!

The flashback ends and the group is roaming around the fort a night only to bump into the 27th!  Poor luck for the group indeed.

Chapter 282 starts off with a fight between the 27th and everyone else.  Of course they are doomed from the start since they are up against monsters of a sort.  After a few violent deaths, Sugimoto searches one of the men to find a telegram.

Welp, shit.  There best effort to beat Tsurumi isn’t going to happen as he figured things out at the same time that they did.  Shiraishi has a complete meltdown for several pages.  Which I’m personally not a fan of - I’m just tired of him being the lazy comic relief by this point.  But if you’ve been reading my meta since 2018, you’d already know how I feel about that.

Hijikata remains calm and tries to think of logical places to search for the gold.  Digging directly into the ground would have been too obvious so it is likely in a building.

Frantic, Shiraishi runs into the door of one of the buildings. The group seem to descend into a sort of chaotic panic about finding the gold before Tsurumi gets there and then how to get the gold off the site.  It all just seems odd.  Like, dude, you guys need to just chill and stop shouting out random suggestions.  Of course Sugimoto immediately concludes they will have to fight.  Which isn’t a very clever idea from Sugimoto, it is his freakkin’ default state.

Of course Hijikata was planning to fight from the start.  That has been his goal since the beginning of the manga!  But this time, he’s enlisted the help of Sofia and her fellow Russian partisans.  Who are on their way to Hakodate and we get an epic shot of her pouring vodka on her face.

It is a logical call, he needs other people who are experience fighters - someone who can go toe to toe with the 27th.

Chapter 283 then turns to give us a brief flashback into Hijikata’s planning for events.  He knows the fort inside and out and takes charge (as he should in this situation).  Before they left he met up with Sofia and tells her to bring her men to Hakodate that afternoon.

What is interesting is the conversation that unfolds as they discuss working with Sofia and her group.  As a war vet, Sugimoto is the most uncomfortable with this, even if he isn’t quite aware of it, he thinks it is too much of a stretch.  What surprises me is that Shiraishi, doesn’t trust her either and he even mentions Kiro, unless he personally thinks Kiro was more trustworthy than Wilk or Sofia?

Hijikata is confident that they will deal with things as they happen, but Asirpa clearly states that they can trust her.  This makes sense based on how Sofia was there with Asirpa when Tsurumi interrogated her - she knows Sofia is someone whom she can rely on.

Meanwhile, Sofia is supporting the dream that Wilk and Kiro both shared in their youth and tells her men as such.  Going way back to the flashback with the three of them and their interaction with Tsurumi as Hasegawa we know that she is the most caring and compassionate of the three leaders.

She is the type of person who could truly inspire others to work towards a common goal, and we’ve seen this through her actions, including taming that tiger.  The idea is still crazy, but hey why not.

On the same train is Ogata, clearly following Sofia.  He’s asleep and we get a flashback to him laying on the futon with his mom.

At the end of the chapter, it notes that she is saying some lines from a nursery rhyme associated with a children’s game.  I’d go with the interpretation that many things are easy to enter or become involved with but are difficult to escape.  How will this impact his role in the fight for the gold?  Is he still acting as a sort of solo agent?  Is he reflecting on this entire mess?  His life choices? Lack of choices?

The rest of the chapter is again a bit meh.  Of course Tsurumi has commandeered a train, looks like it is mainly carrying freight and Vasily as well.  Vasya, what are you doing again?  Why are you still after Ogata?  And you are just humming a tune while you lounge on a horse in the freight part of the train. Okay . . . as I’m behind on this meta, others have already pointed out that Vasily is likely a Cossack, all comfortable on his horse.  Which I feel like is a somewhat lazy ‘Russian stereotype’ since many different Slavic groups existed in the Russian empire at this point in history.

The end of the chapter does finally answer a question I asked in meta a very long time ago now here: https://chibivesicle.tumblr.com/post/178997911192/does-hijikata-have-a-useful-tattoo  I remember asking if Hijikata had a useful tattoo b/c we never saw it in the manga - until this chapter.  The answer?  Yes.  He fucking does have a useful tattoo.  And he is a buff man despite his age and imprisonment!

All in all what to I think of these chapters?  They are moving all of the groups together for some sort of confrontation.  How does this all pan out? We shall see.  Koito is def wavering in his support of Tsurumi.  Ogata is in the mix, likely with the Russians.  What is Vasily doing?  How many men does Tsurumi have?  What will Hijikata do based on his past battle at Hakodate?  Will Asirpa be safe?  Will Sugimoto finally get captured by Tsurumi and Ogata will have to rescue him?  I’ve been waiting for that to happen for years now by this point!

[sonoftatooine]

Whumpay 2021

DAY 14: SLAMMED INTO A WALL

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Sheev Palpatine

Warnings: Physical assault

Summary: When Palpatine reveals himself as a Sith, Anakin makes a different call. It doesn’t go well.

***

Anakin felt the back of his head connect sharply with the Chancellor's ornate carved wall as he was slammed backwards from the strike he had been about to deliver and pinned beneath the crushing force of Darth Sidious' will like a butterfly trapped on display in a collector's glass case. He saw stars, his still lit lightsaber slipping from his hand and drawing a burning score across the blood red carpet below him as it fell to the ground. Groaning in pain, he tried to fight against the agonising, unrelenting Force grip that held him in place, but Sidious' power was absolute, indomitable. It was as if he were throwing his own power against an impenetrable wall, like the spews of lava falling harmlessly against the shields of a facility on Mustafar, and no matter how he struggled, he could not escape.

Sidious. Palpatine. The kindly Chancellor Palpatine who had always had time to spare to listen to him ever since he was a young child, no matter how trivial his conversation must have seemed to a man who was in charge of the entire galaxy. Palpatine who kept his secrets. Palpatine who had goaded him into killing Dooku, who had revealed himself to be the Sith Lord at the heart of the war that he had lost so many good men in, that had both built him up and whittled him down to half of what he was. Palpatine who had lied to him, had used him for as long as he could remember, along with so many others who he had pretended friendship with. The Jedi. Padmé. He snarled like a cornered anooba as the man approached him, wishing that he did not have the same face, the same gentle smile that he had worn before he had revealed the truth. He wished that he would snarl and rage back, show his true colours. Not look upon him with such unaffected disappointment, even after Anakin had tried to attack him, even while he held him prisoner against a carved stone wall that had probably cost more than Anakin himself had when his value had still been counted in wuipipi.

“You poor, deluded fool.” Despite his words, Palpatine's tone held more pity than anger. “To think that you could strike me down. As if I would ever allow it.”

A twinge in the Force and Anakin's lightsaber was flying into the man's outstretched hand. The old Sith held it up, examining it from all angles before turning off the blade with a smirk. Anakin fought down the urge to shudder. He remembered Obi-Wan's constantly repeated maxim. This weapon is your life. His life in the hands of a Sith. Oh Force—

“I have to admit, this was not the eventuality I expected,” Palpatine said conversationally, as if he were merely remarking on how cloudy Coruscant was this time of year. “Accounted for, yes, but I did not actually expect to have to use any of my contingency plans. Well done, Anakin—you've surprised me.”

“Do I get a prize?” Anakin gritted out.

He let out a yelp, more from shock than pain, as Palpatine drew back and struck him sharply across the cheek with the hilt of his own lightsaber. He felt his skin split, a trickle of blood trailing down from the cut left on his cheekbone.

“I had expected you to run to the Jedi Council,” Palpatine continued, calm and calculated as ever, seemingly unaffected by the sudden violent act. “They would come to enact their little coup and you, wracked with fear for your dear little wife, would rush to stop them and, in the process, seal your fate. But perhaps you don't care as much about Padmé as I thought you did. No matter. There are other ways to get you to turn, and as for the Council, they shall come of their own volition anyway.”

Padmé. Oh, Padmé. He had forgotten about the knowledge Palpatine claimed to possess in his rage. All he had been able to think about underneath the haze of fury was all the pain and the suffering that this man had caused. Of Ahsoka, forced to grow too soon, and nearly condemned to death for a crime she did not commit, framed by a former friend, beaten down by the war that he had orchestrated. Obi-Wan who looked more worn and tired and sad with each day that passed. Rex who had been bred for and lost so many brothers to a sham war as if they were nothing but pieces in a galaxy-wide game of dejarik. And worst of all, Padmé. Padmé who had worked tirelessly towards a pointless goal, trying to bring peace to the galaxy when all the former mentor she had once relied on as Queen—who had used her as a girl to gain power for himself—wanted was violence. Padmé who had spent most of her pregnancy stressed and alone whilst he was trapped fighting in the Outer Rim. Padmé whom the Sith Lord Sidious had tried to have killed under the guise of Count Dooku and the Separatists. Would she die now, not because she had become the target of a Sith Lord, but because her husband had acted with his usual recklessness and tried to strike before he had thought through the consequences of his actions? Or worse, would his actions give Sidious a reason to target her yet again? Had he, in his impulsive rage, doomed his dreams to come true?

“Fear not, Anakin.” Palpatine's lips twisted into a cruel smile, as if he had known exactly what it was he was thinking. Through his haze of panic, Anakin thought he could see a hint of yellow seeping into his eyes. “I will ensure that your wife and child are...taken care of.”

Dread pooled ice-cold in Anakin's stomach at the glint in the man's eye. Oh, Force, he meant— No, no—

“I'll kill you!,” he snarled. He pushed against the man's Force grip with all his might, reaching out in the Force for anyone who would listen, trying to warn them, call for help. “I'll kriffing kill you before I let you touch them. I'll—”

He was cut violently off as the Force wrapped around his throat in an iron grip. He sputtered, gasping for air.

“We both know you cannot stop me,” Sidious said. His voice, instead of the soft-spoken, cultured tones he usually associated with the Chancellor, came out as a dry, vile croak. “Had you submitted to me, I might have considered sparing your little family, but as it is...perhaps the loss of your...attachments will better demonstrate to you the value of the Dark Side.”

“Kriff...you!,” Anakin managed to gasp out around the pressure on his throat. Black spots were appearing in his vision, but he fought past them. Padmé was in danger. Padmé and the baby. He couldn't— He wouldn't— “The Jedi... The...the Jedi will...stop you...”

Sidious laughed, an awful cackle that set Anakin's teeth on edge. His grip tightened.

“No, they shan't.” Anakin's vision filled with darkness. “Sleep, Anakin. You will find the galaxy much changed once you wake.”

[aion-rsa]

Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar

https://ift.tt/3jvPBwC

The latest take on Toho’s iconic, building-crushing lizard comes in the form of Godzilla Singular Point, an anime series now available in dubbed form on Netflix. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, this reimagining of the King of Monsters involves a group of human characters becoming aware – through rather bizarre ways – of a coming apocalyptic event. Now the only thing that can save them is a behemoth out to punch monsters and look out for the little guy.

No, not Godzilla. He’s actually the apocalyptic event. No, our hero is none other than Jet Jaguar.

Yes, it’s finally time for Jet Jaguar to get his due.

A concept nearly 50 years old at this point, Jet Jaguar is one of those characters who was initially doomed to fail, but lives on due to nostalgia and the golden notion of, “I realize most people hated that thing from my childhood, but I bet I could make it good!” At best, he was a rad addition to the Godzilla mythos. At worst, he was a dumb idea from a dumb movie. For the most part, he’s remembered as something goofy that gets laughed at, despite having some genuine earnestness.

Jet Jaguar was created from both a fan contest and a corporate game of telephone. Back in 1972, to jump on the bandwagon of tokusatsu giant superhero/robot shows, Toho asked fans to design their own superhero design. The winner was a half-man/half-bird robot with a lengthy neck resembling a stack of rings named Red Alone. The concept was turned into a full-on rubber costume, but they changed the color scheme, which upset the young winner. They later decided to just scrap the whole thing, keep the color scheme, and make their own new design. And so, Jet Jaguar was born.

The superhero made an entire one movie appearance in 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon. As the urban legend goes, this was initially intended to be a standalone Jet Jaguar movie that the studio just didn’t have faith in towards the end and they hastily threw in Godzilla and recurring Godzilla villain Gigan. While the claim is dubious and unproven, it certainly is easy to understand where the allegations come from.

Everything about the movie feels rushed. As the last-minute replacement for another Godzilla film that didn’t pan out, filming took several weeks and production was a mere six months. Even the Godzilla costume was whipped up in record time. As for the story, outside of the intro, the preexisting elements (Godzilla and Gigan) aren’t thrown in until about 2/3 into the movie. Up until that point, it feels like a Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon movie with the production team hitting the panic button.

The plot of Godzilla vs. Megalon is that a scientist Goro Ibuki is working on a robot called Jet Jaguar, along with his little brother Rokuro and his best friend Hiroshi. They get wrapped up in a plot involving a group of beings from Atlantis-But-Not-Really, who are annoyed at all the nuclear bomb tests going on in their neck of the woods. They steal Jet Jaguar and use him to guide their insect god Megalon to different cities for the sake of smashing them up and punishing humanity.

Goro and friends get their hands on Jet Jaguar’s controls and use him to lead Godzilla to where Megalon is. Then the Seatopians call some alien friends for a solid and have them send in Gigan. Jet Jaguar is able to break away from all control and becomes fully sentient, as well as revealing the ability to turn into a giant. It becomes a big tag team battle, mostly remembered for Godzilla doing the silliest dropkick you’ve ever seen, followed by a second one for good measure.

The villains escape, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla shake hands, they go their separate ways, and Jet Jaguar reunites with the humans heroes after shrinking back down. He gets his own snazzy theme song to close things out.

In Japan, the movie wasn’t all that successful. As the thirteenth title in the Godzilla series, it brought in the worst returns yet. Between public burnout and the movie’s lack of quality, it just wasn’t grabbing people. That said, it came out at just the right time in the United States. Released in 1976, it came out months before the anticipated King Kong remake. The American movie poster for the movie even bit on the King Kong poster by featuring Godzilla and Megalon duking it out while each standing on a different Twin Tower, even though the movie at no point took place in the States.

A year later, the movie would be cut down into 48 minutes so they could broadcast it on NBC in prime time, across an hour with commercials. The only reason I mention this at all is because it was hosted by John Belushi wearing a Godzilla costume, which is sadly somewhere in the abyss of golden lost media.

Getting back to Jet Jaguar – the topic of this article – I feel the need to bring up Germany’s handling of the movie’s translation. Rather than call him “Jet Jaguar,” they referred to him as “King Kong.” I mean…sure, why not. Even weirder, when the next two movies introduced fellow giant robot MechaGodzilla, Germany once again referred to the robot as “King Kong.” Guys, I know what you’re going for here, but it doesn’t work that way.

Anyway, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla and Terror of MechaGodzilla followed Godzilla vs. Megalon and closed off the classic Showa Era of Godzilla movies. Not only did Japan need to rest Godzilla as a concept for nearly a decade, but this also meant that whenever Godzilla would come back, it was going to be some kind of reboot or new “only the first movie counts” installment. Jet Jaguar was never high on the list to be brought back, especially since MechaGodzilla completely overshadowed him.

He would at least get a little more exposure in 1991 when Godzilla vs. Megalon was featured in the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. While much of the episode is spent making fun of one of the Seatopians for looking like Oscar Wilde, they toss plenty of jokes at Jet Jaguar. Most memorably, they “translate” Jet Jaguar’s ending theme, which notes that his mother never loved him and he looks a lot like Jack Nicholson.

Due to rights issues, Godzilla vs. Megalon is one of the few MST3K episodes that is no longer legally available for viewing. This does make the original MST3K Collection Volume 10 box set (which included Godzilla vs. Megalon as one of the four movies) a collector’s item, as it was later discontinued and rereleased with The Giant Gila Monster taking its spot.

A stranger use of Jet Jaguar comes in the form of Certain Distant Suns’ music video for “Bitter” in 1995. While there’s not much of a narrative outside of the band playing, footage of Godzilla vs. Megalon being shown, and a few shots of guys walking around in Megalon and Jet Jaguar costumes, I really insist you give the video a look due to the ending. It certainly goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.

In 1997, Jet Jaguar made his next official appearance in another frankly bizarre spectacle. In Japan, a series called Godzilla Island appeared on TV in three-minute increments. While it only lasted a year, there were a whopping 256 episodes, meaning almost 13 hours of footage. If you’ve never heard of Godzilla Island, you might be thinking, “Wow, almost 13 hours of Godzilla stuff? Why isn’t this more well known?”

Well, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that instead of using guys in rubber suits, the kaiju action was done with action figures. Yikes.

Not only did Jet Jaguar show up during these adventures, but they gave him the 90s superhero action figure treatment. Much like how they released as many figures of Batman as possible for different crime-fighting scenarios, Godzilla Island gave us Silver Jet Jaguar, Medical Jet Jaguar, and even Fireman Jet Jaguar. Collect them all!

Read more

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Writer Talks About Spending 8 Years in the MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Director and Writer Talk Future of The MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

In the early 2000s, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was released for the GameCube and Xbox under the Atari brand. It was a fighting game featuring various characters from Godzilla lore and though Atari wanted to include Jet Jaguar, Toho refused. Still, at least Megalon was included in the game. There would be two sequels in the form of Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. FINALLY, Jet Jaguar was playable, because if there’s anything you can count on, it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel when you’re working on multiple installments of a nostalgic who’s who project.

He’d also return in 2014’s Godzilla game for PlayStation 3 and 4. The producer of the game didn’t even plan on putting him in there, but he saw that the programmers already were working on him and just shrugged it off. There was a special trick to summoning Jet Jaguar as a boss character. By ending up in three different Godzilla vs. Jet Jaguar scenarios and winning all three times, you would then unlock a special cutscene of the two shaking hands while a confused military woman would wonder about their history.

Around the mid-2010s, IDW Publishing was all about releasing a bunch of comics with the Godzilla license. Their mainline series was Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth, which went on for 25 issues. Early on, Jet Jaguar appeared out of nowhere during a fight between Godzilla and the team of Gigan and Orga. In human size, Jet Jaguar flew into Orga’s mouth, then expanded into giant size, causing the beast to explode. Especially awesome was that it came with the cliffhanger text, “Next: PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH!” a reference to Jet Jaguar’s theme song from the movie.

Jet Jaguar showed up regularly in the series, coming off as Godzilla’s designated driver friend and handler. What I mean is that he seemed to be out to protect Godzilla, but that meant having to keep his violent ally on task (ie. pointing out that Gigan was nearby to stop Godzilla from attacking Jet Jaguar) and throwing punches when the situation absolutely called for it.

This continuity played up Jet Jaguar as more enigmatic than anything, as although he was mechanical, the only human character who knew his origins was killed off before it could be explained. Even one of the invading alien villains saw him on a screen and basically went, “Oh crap. It’s THIS guy!” Regardless, he still came off as a total badass, winning fights against Godzilla, Gigan (the chainsaw-hand version), and Destroyah.

Then again, at one point he needed to be saved by the 1998 American Godzilla, which at least proved as a reminder to the robot hero that there are Toho characters far more hated than him.

Toho started using Jet Jaguar again, albeit in sillier ways. In 2019, as an April Fool’s Day prank, they put up a teaser on YouTube for a Jet Jaguar movie. They also had him appear a few times on Godziban, a Godzilla web series for kids that, once again, used dolls and action figures to tell its stories.

Now Jet Jaguar is a major part of Godzilla Singular Point. To get into specifics on the plot would be like explaining advanced calculus, but to keep on-topic, Jet Jaguar is the creation of Goro Otaki as both a way to ward off monstrous threats and as a company mascot. Considering King Kong’s role in King Kong vs. Godzilla was “kidnapped to be a company mascot,” maybe the Germans were onto something with the rename.

Anyway, this version of Jet Jaguar is more mechanical in appearance instead of having to rely on making him look like a human in a costume. Jet Jaguar is there to protect the heroes from the endless supply of monsters, usually taking some extensive damage. Still, the robot gets rebuilt stronger and stronger and becomes advanced enough to become self-aware and speak in…well, the voice of a teenage girl.

I don’t know, I guess I just figured he’d sound like Astro Guy from King of the Monsters.

There’s a big hard-to-explain twist, but the main thing to know is that Jet Jaguar becomes a full-on badass by the end of the series, turns out to be a huge key to the plot, and has a completely kickass showdown with Godzilla. In a way, Jet Jaguar’s journey in Singular Point is a lot like in real life, going from a lame idea that appealed to kids and gradually being understood as a respected part of the Godzilla mythos. Something initially representative of the worst of the franchise, proven to be something genuinely cool in the right hands.

Now it’s time for America to return the favor. Once again, timing is on Jet Jaguar’s side. The Monsterverse was on its way to the graveyard after the box office intake of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but Godzilla vs. Kong came out at just the right time in the tail end of the pandemic to be a big success and keep the series going a little bit longer. There aren’t too many names in the toybox left to pull out, but at this point, Gigan and Jet Jaguar have to be high on the list.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Make it happen, Hollywood!

Godzilla Singular Point is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[fxkthatdairy]

PANIC ROOM CHAPTER ONE: THE DRAFT ~GRAYSON DOLAN

Overview- In the year 2020, to solve the problem of overpopulation. Selected few are thrown into the PANIC ROOM simulation. If the person finds their soulmate in the simulator and manages to survive, they are able to rejoin the rest of the population. If they fail they will become a victim of the PANIC ROOM. What happens when (Y/N) gets thrown in the PANIC ROOM? Will she survive? Or will she fall victim to the simulation?

Warnings: severe angst, mentions of violence (epilepsy warning for the photo ⚠️) Heavy language

The dreaded day had come, the world was overpopulating and today was the day the government was to intefer. Everyone all across the country waited at their TV’s, waiting for the president to deliver the message. My mother and I stood at the TV. The anxiety and dread filled my blood. The President approached his podium and the whole country went silent.

“As a result of the current Overpopulation situation, in each city, a selected group of citizens will be drafted into the PANIC ROOM simulater. Those who are able to find their soulmates will survive, those who are not lucky will sadly perish. Those who will not be drafted are individuals over the age of 30, those who are married, those who have children, those with disabilities, and those under the age of 18 years. The lists will be out by the end of the day on who have been drafted. The simulation will last 30 days and will put those in the simulation through extreme situations where their bravery and skills will be put to the test. Those who survive will be able to be reunited into society. Thank you for your time, Good luck to all and God Bless America.” The president spoke.

“God Bless America, my ass. Thousands are about to die and all that bastard can say is Good luck to all and God Bless America.” I spoke in anger. This was bullshit. Find your soulmate or die. Well then fucking kill me then because I’ve been on this earth for 20 years and haven’t found my damn soulmate.

“(Y/N), watch your launguage, you know how I feel about that type of language. Maybe you won’t get drafted. I pray to god you don’t get drafted.” My mother said and held me tightly in a bear hug. It’s always been just us, my father died when I was younger in a car crash.

“Momma, I promise if I get drafted, I’ll fight like hell. I’m not leaving you anytime soon.” I said calmly as I tried to comfort my mother whose tears had begun to soak my shirt. Truth be told, I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen in the next month. Nobody knows what the PANIC ROOM has in store. The challenges were unknown, something you couldn’t train for.

“I believe you my child, you’ve always been strong. Stronger than myself at your age. “ she said and pulled away.

“I’m going to head to town. See if they posted the list yet.” I said and kissed her gently on the cheek before grabbing my jacket and phone. I walked out of the house and began the mile and a half walk into town. I didn’t have a car, part of me never trusted them the other part could save a lot of money by using my feet to walk myself into town. In the small town of Long Valley, the population was at least a thousand people. As I walked closer to town you could already see the crowds of people surrounding the town community board. I pushed through the crowd of people and began to scan down the list. The list was organized in pairs, halfway down I saw it: My name. I took a deep breath to push all the anxiety down. I then looked to see who I was partnered with: Grayson Dolan. I think I’ve remember him, he’s the twin. My mother used to hang out over at their house all the time with their mother. We used to hang out when my mother would go over there. We were the best of friends. It’s been forever though. He probably doesn’t even remember me. Once my dad died, my mother shut down, shutting herself off from the outside world. The date that we would be sent into our possible impending doom was posted on the bottom: January 2nd, 2020. Two days was all they gave us: two days to possible spend the last remaining hours with family; two days to possibly walk freely; two fucking days left to possibly fucking live. I took a deep breath to calm my anger. I stormed off and headed to my favorite calm down spot: Bella’s Cafe. I walked in and ordered my usual which was just a vanilla latte. I sat there mentally trying to process everything that was happening. The whole situation was a fucking disaster. I was so deep in thought I didn’t notice the barista had brought my drink to me. It wasn’t till I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there stood a gorgeous man with dark brown hair, a slight stubble, a silver angel wing earring dangled from his ear. He looked so familiar to me but I couldn’t think of who it could possibly be.

“Are you (Y/N)? You look like her but it’s been so long I don’t remember exactly what she looks like but from what I remember she looks similar to you? I’m Grayson, Grayson Dolan by the way.” He said shaking my hand. So this was the man that I would be going through the simulation with, the man who possibly could be my soulmate, this gorgeous man was paired with me, a nobody. Well fuck my hopes just dropped about 50%, this man would never fucking fall in love with me, I was probably not even his type.

“Yes, yeah that’s me. I’m (Y/N). You looked familiar as well. It’s been so long since I last saw you and you definitely don’t look like you did when we were eight. You can sit down if you like, I don’t mind.” I said. I wondered if he had seen the list. His brother must’ve been lucky and missed the draft. I didn’t see his name or he was either married or had a kid.

“Thank you. So I’m guessing you’ve seen the list. I’m guessing you saw that we paired as potential soulmates. I’m guessing you came here to try and process everything due to the fact you were in such a deep train of thought when I walked in.” He said as he looked at the small menu to see what he wanted to drink. He ended up ordering a simple black coffee. Damn he was spot on.

“Exactly what I was doing. Damn you’re good, you might be psychic. So I’m assuming your brother is either married, got a kid, or just got lucky and was one of the ones that didn’t get drafted. I didn’t see him on the list.” I said with a slight chuckle.

“Yeah the lucky bastard didn’t get drafted. He just got the luck of the draw I guess. He’s torn up right now, as well as my mom. They are afraid I’m not going to make it. Since Ethan found out, he hasn’t been the same. He’s off, he’s depressed, he’s scared but shit I’m scared too. This whole fucking simulation is bullshit.” Grayson sighed and ran his finger through his hair. Fuck, I won’t lie, that was fucking hot, but on a real note I felt everything he fucking said. All of this bullshit was too rushed. One moment everything is fine and the next, if you don’t find your soulmate your dead.

“I haven’t even told my mom yet. She’s going to breakdown I already know it. I’m all she’s had since my dad died. This is really some bullshit, nobody even knows what this fucking PANIC ROOM simulation is.” I said now thinking about how the hell I was going to tell my mother that her only daughter could possibly die if she didn’t find a connection with her soulmate in this simulation. According to the fucking system, my soulmate was supposed to be the kid who I haven’t even seen since we were eight.

“I heard that it’s a series of challenges that challenge our deep and darkest fears and memories. I heard it’s also violent. How hard you can fight to stay alive kind of shit. I heard they provided fucking weapons to kill people with. It’s like fucking Hunger Games but in real life. I heard they give about 5 days worth of breaks and that you have to find your own food and shit. I heard that if you find that connection with your soulmate that the simulation will start to fade and you’ll be able to leave. I don’t know if it’s true or not but if it is this is so fucked up. They are going to make us fucking murder people to survive.” Grayson said and if what he was saying is true, then the public seriously didn’t know how fucked up of a system these people who were drafted are about to go through. All because we have an “overpopulation” issue. I haven’t seen any fucking proof of this bullshit. I feel like the government is hiding some shit they don’t want anyone to know.

“That’s so fucked up. Well I guess I’ll see you in two days Grayson. I’ll be praying to whatever God that will listen, that we will make it out alive.” I said and stood up. I waved goodbye and walked out the door and began my two mile journey back home. As soon as I opened the front door, my mother rushed by my side.

“So what was the results?” She said with the look of fear and hope on her face. I took a deep breath and I could already see her life leave her face.

“Momma, I was on the list. I was paired with Grayson Dolan. I’m so sorry momma.” I said and pulled her convulsing body into a hug. Her tears soaked my shirt. The sobs coming out of her mouth broke my heart and caused myself to tear up but I would never allow myself to cry in front of her. I always had to be the strong one, it’s been that way since my dad died. I was always the one who’s shoulder my mother would cry on.

The next two days flew by faster than I expected. I got up that morning and left my mother a goodbye note and kissed her gently on the forehead before leaving the house. I don’t want to wake her because honestly I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. It was easier this way. I walked to where the paper told us to go and I soon found Grayson. The room was filled with over 100 people. Everyone was conversing until the whole room went black with a strange hue of a mixture of blues and purples and reds filled the room. A deep, loud, and ominous voice boomed through the speakers.

Welcome to the PANIC ROOM SIMULATION. In a few minutes you will be stripped of your current clothes and given specially made clothes with a tracking monitor built in. You will be assigned a number. This simulation will put your through you deepest and darkest fears and memories. It will put you through a survival state a mind. Each pair will be given a bag of weapons, and scattered across this simulation is even more weapons and ammunition. You may use any necessary actions to use including murder. Those who are strong and those who are able to find their connection with their soulmates will survive. Those who are weak and never find their soulmate will surely perish in the simulation. Good luck to all and God bless America

——————————————————————-

Part one is done! I hope you guys enjoy this series as much as I enjoy writing it. As always let me know if you have any requests, concepts, or blurbs. Part two will probably be up in the next few days. Love you guys 🥺😊💛

Tag list: @dolanshellyes @graysavant @graydolan12 @flowery-dolan @dolan-bliss @justordinaryjen @fandomsfeministsandothershit @dolans4lyfe @lanelessdolan @pineappledols

[casualcatte]

RP Journal: 08/10/2020

Gods, it was good to finally get out and hunt again!  Granted, I was bringing Edgard Beaumont with me that might prove to be a mixed blessing, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He /was/ a Knight Dragoon, after all, surely he’s got some fighting skill and ability to track things.  How else does a dragonslayer slay dragons? Surely they don’t just laze around til one flies by them, that would be silly.

(( Courtesy cut for length.  Also, sorry about the lack of screenshots, this was all during maintenance. ))

I had Edgard meet me out in Yanxia at noon and he arrived precisely on time, he even carried some rope and a quarterstaff, instead of his usual spear. We weren’t out to kill these birds, only subdue them for an artist in Kugane. He wants to paint them, then will release them back into the wilds. Live-capture hunts are always a bit more of a challenge, it would make a fine test to see what Edgard was worth in the field. After all, I have no doubt he can fight, he’s fought dragons, for pity’s sake!  But taking a non-violent means to dealing with a problem? I think it would say volumes about who he is both as a person and a fighter.

I outlined my plan and he declared it sound, so we took ourselves out to the Glittering Basin where it was known for these bi-fangs to roam as their territory. Setting up a lookout point, it was just a matter of sighting the birds and seeing where they went to roost. 

I don’t think I’d been this relaxed in a long time. The day was warm, and Edgard -- while still very much Edgard -- was good company. He listened, followed directions, didn’t try to put me behind him for protection, or treat me like I didn’t know what I was doing. He trusted me and I trusted him.

Gods be good, we needed that trust today. No hunt is ever flawless, there are always unexpected things that happen that you have to adjust to or you either lose your quarry or you get hurt. That’s just the nature of the beast. I absolutely wasn’t expecting these bi-fangs to be a mated pair, much less a mated pair with a clutch of eggs. I think I’ll make it a point to mention that to Tetsuyo when I return to the Bounty Call. Most hunters I know have a great respect for nature, granted, we weren’t killing the pair but it was still taking them away from hatchlings that might otherwise die without them and their protection. 

Anyway, the hunt first. Edgard was probably the most serious I’ve seen him since I’ve known him; he was studious and attentive, asking questions about what to do or what to look for. He seemed genuinely interested in learning, so I did all I could to help him. It was here that he said he trusted me and for a moment I had to wonder why. What good will had I garnered with him to be someone he trusted with his life? I doubt it has anything to do with how skillful I am at evading his spurious advances. 

Knowing what I know now, I found it easier to be, well, at ease around him. To even play and flirt with him, give him a taste of his own medicine. It was fun and we laughed; I’m almost convinced I nearly made him blush a couple of times, but that’s neither here nor there.

The hunt!  Once we sighted the bi-fang pair, Edgard used his dragoon ability to jump us up to the cliff where the birds had made their roost. Naturally, I had to climb on Edgard’s back and he had to make a bunch of insinuations about it. Still he got us up to the roost in short order and that’s when we learned that we were facing two very angry parent bi-fang and their clutch of half a dozen chicks.

Thankfully, the chicks weren’t that grown, so they weren’t much of a threat. I used one of the Darkness arrows to blind the Papa Bird while Edgard kept Mama Bird busy until I could use one of my Net arrows. Edgard got scratched once, but didn’t seem any worse for wear for it. I’ll really have to thank that magitechnician for the arrows, they are the most clever thing I’ve seen in a long time. A pity I don’t remember his name, how will I ever have these made again once I run out?  As it stands, I’m out of the Net arrows after this.

I was just about to use my second Net arrow on Papa when he came flailing at me blindly. That’s also when one of the chicks in the nest decided I was a tasty snack and /bit/ me on the ankle. It was enough to startle me that I dropped the arrow and that split-second distraction won me a wing to the face as Papa Bird sent me flying off the cliff.

I won’t lie and say there wasn’t a moment of panic, because there was, but I’d prepared for this eventuality.  You fight aerial opponents, you’d best be prepared to take a long fall. Another of those magitek arrows deployed a light filament line that was stronger than any rope I’ve ever seen. I fired it into the cliffside and swung to safety, albeit the impact into the cliffside will leave me sore tomorrow. Even as I was dealing with my own plight, I saw Edgard get shoved off the cliffside as well by a headbutt from the Papa Bird. I know I didn’t have much time and that, for the moment, the dragoon seemed to have no way to save himself.

I gathered myself and ran back and forth along the cliff face to build momentum, then I swung out to catch him. Thank every God that he wasn’t wearing anything heavier than leather and chainmail. If he’d have been in drachenmail or full plate, we’d have been doomed. Or at least he would have.  I don’t think I could have held him. We only had moments to rest there, however, as Papa Bird began diving toward us, enraged enough to want to eviscerate us. 

This was the biggest moment of trust in this hunt. Edgard told me to let go of the rope and grab onto him. I knew he was about to /dragoon/ us out of there, but it was still a daunting proposition. Still, in for a penny in for a pound. It was either fall or die to the talons of the angry bi-fang. Falling seemed the least fatal of either option. I let go, still clutching to Edgard’s hand from where I’d caught him, I wrapped my other arm around his neck and squeezed my eyes shut. The way dragoon’s jump makes my stomach turn a flip, but it cleared us of the predatory swoop of the bi-fang and sent it sweeping past us. 

Edgard landed us on the ground and looked to me for a new plan as Papa Bird rounded on us to attack again. I was out of Net arrows by this point and none of the other arrows I had would do the trick. So, I opted to go with an alchemical solution. I pulled a sleeping draught from my pouches and waited. I couldn’t afford to miss. And I waited. 

Behind me, I could hear Edgard yelling my name. Was he worried? Frightened?  No, not Edgard. I stood there, letting the bi-fang get closer and closer, I could see the wicked curve of its talons, eager to rip me to shreds. Closer still.  I could feel the waves of … nerves?...emanating from Edgard. Still, I waited.

At the last possible moment, I threw the sleeping draught right in the beast’s face. It only took a matter of moments for it to clumsily land and fall over in a sleepy stupor. Edgard made his way over, unbidden with the rope to tie it up.

Hmph. He’d outshine me. Hunting has been my life for over twenty years, dragoon. You’re not going to outshine me at my own game.

Banter with him came easily now that I knew there was nothing to it. I teased him, I gave him as good as I got. There were moments I rendered him speechless or left him a stammering fool. I enjoyed every minute of it. Turning the tables on Edgard might become my new favorite pass-time. 

While he finished binding the bi-fang, I tended to the wound on his shoulder. It wasn’t much more than a scrape, but it was best not to leave it to fester. He’d done well, all-in-all, so I couldn’t really discredit his efforts as a hunter. With a bit more seasoning, he could probably hold his own. I told him as much, though he only very begrudgingly accepted the compliment. Under any other circumstance, Edgard would preen and claim it as my undying love for him, but on the matter of his skill as a hunter and his contributions, he wouldn’t.

He was in my world now, I couldn’t tell if the thrill of the hunt sat well with him or not. Gods only know I enjoyed every minute of it.  I even told Edgard he could soak in the hot spring with me, I’m sure he was convinced I’d hit my head somewhere along the line. 

This was a really good way to end his time in Kugane. He goes on to Ishgard the day after tomorrow and said he expects to see me there soon. I’ve some things of my own to wrap up before I leave Kugane, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t threaten to bypass Ishgard altogether and just go straight to Tailfeather because he /expected/ me in Ishgard. 

I tasked him with sending the Mama Bird back to the client via some magical aetheryte-like crystals we’d been given.  Activate them on the birds and they would appear in cages where the client waited with payment, better than trying to haul them back by hand. Once done with that, Edgard planned to go back to Kugane and I headed to Yanxia to hire some locals to tend to the chicks until Mama and Papa come back.

All-in-all, it was a good night and a fun time. Sure, I have a few bumps and bruises, but I can’t name a hunt I’ve gone on and come out completely unscathed.  I either get scratched up by brush and trees, injured by the beast, or /something/.  It’s just part and parcel of the Hunt. It reminds me I’m /alive./

My friendship with Edgard, at least for my own part of it, feels as if a great weight has been taken off me and I don’t feel the need to be so guarded. He has no further motives than just having a moment’s distraction. Like me, he has issues of his own to deal with before he seriously considers anything with anyone, which I’m honestly glad to hear him say. Primarily that he /plans/ to deal with them. I could care less who he sleeps with.

It was a good day, it really was. I needed it after a week of indolence. It felt /so/ good to get back out there and do what I love. And the best part of it is that it’ll have garnered me enough reputation with the Veteran Centurio to get the information I need. 

One step closer... Mentions @therpperson​ for Edgard Beaumont

[thekitchensnk]

and the spider lilies bloomed in the fall (chapter 3)

Rating: T Warnings: Violent imagery, trauma, allusions to potential sexual violence, sex work Pairing: Gin/Ran Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 “They say that lovers doomed never to see each other again still see the higanbana growing along their path, even to this day.”

A girl collapses on a dusty road one day. A boy takes her home.

The girl lives.

—

(The boy doesn’t.)

It was easy to forget how lucky they were.

He was making the long, tiresome journey from their house into town, though it barely deserved the name. The journey was twelve miles each way, and not a single mile of it made for a pleasant walk. The road was scarcely more than a beaten mud track, carved out through time immemorial by the souls of the down-trodden and the poor.

He was seldom alone on the road. It faded into the horizon, stretching on for miles and miles, and every time he took to it, he wondered what lay at the end of it, though the notion that there could ever be an end to its scarred and blasted drudgery seemed impossible to him.

One day, he thought, squinting into the distance, one day I might just walk to the very end of it and find out what’s out there.

But he knew even then that it was nothing more than a pipe dream, and so he plodded on.

His fellow travellers bore the tight, thin look and vacant expressions of those who had gone too long without water, and their limbs were emaciated. Frequently, they wore no shoes, and they were past the point of caring for their clothes, which more properly resembled rags. On more than one occasion, he had seen people, children especially, wandering the road without them, too impoverished to afford them, and mouths too dry to care.

He had long since learnt not to mind those with the vacant stares; they were too far gone to be of trouble, packaged away somewhere strange and distant in their own minds. It was the twitchy ones which gave him pause, and his hand never strayed too far from his knife when he came across them.

He knew too well the trouble they could bring. They thought that because he was small and skinny, he and his coin would make for easy pickings. They were wrong.

The last time anyone had tried anything, he had left them bleeding out in the dust of the road. Their skin had been starting to mottle, and a death rattle had been sounding in their chest. He had kicked in their skull until it had cracked in on itself like an egg. He had had to use some of his precious drinking water to wash away the scarlet blood and white bone fragments which littered his shins.

If it was going to be him or someone else dead, it was not going to be him. He would make certain of that.

He had returned home afterwards to Rangiku, going via the stream to finish cleaning up. She had been hunched over, writing things in the dirt. Something about that juxtaposition, about the man’s blood splattered across the soil and the clumsy strokes of Rangiku’s handwriting marking carved into the ground, that they somehow occupied the same space and existed in the same world, had made him dizzy.

He had put his grinning mouth against her delicate ear, and she had shrieked in panic, before realising that it was only him.

How odd that was, to have his presence soothe someone’s fear. That was not how it usually played out.

She had read out the words for him, because he could not do it for himself. She had written out his name, a series of mysterious, undecipherable lines which somehow meant him. He had never seen his name before, and he had stared at it in open fascination.

“And what does this mean?” he had demanded, pointing to another set of squiggles.

She had blushed an ungainly red and refused to tell him, had shaken her head and said, “No! You’re embarrassing me!"

It made him smile- a warm, genuine smile- even to remember it.

He had cajoled, and sweet-talked, and bribed until she had told him.

“It says ‘friend’. It says ‘friend’ three times,” she had huffed, her cheeks blowing out.

He had never had a friend before.

(He thought about her frequently on these walks.)

What had he felt of life before he met her? He genuinely could not say. He had not known her long, and yet, he knew with certainty, his life would have been a meagre, thin thing without her.

(It had been before; a mediocre, endless monotony of rising and sleeping, eating and cleaning, punctuated only with scarlet bursts of violence and the joy of inflicting pain on someone else.)

In truth, he still could not explain what it was that had prompted him to save her, but he found himself very glad that he had done so.

“Maybe I like you. Maybe I think you’re interesting. Maybe I even feel sorry for you,” he had said when she had asked him, but that had rang hollow even at the time. He had said it because those seemed like things that should motivate someone to rescue someone else, not because he actually felt them.

Pity had been a part of it, and curiosity too, but if he was honest with himself, his motivations came from a darker place, a deep, subterranean chamber of his heart.

Gin knew that it was not normal to feel so at ease with blood on your hands. He knew that the guilt of the act of murder was supposed to itch like an old wound, that taking human life was supposed feel harder than snuffing out a lantern.

But it wasn’t. It never had been. Not for him.

He didn’t know whether he had simply grown insensitive to cruelty, living for so long in this place ripe and rotten with violence. Sometimes, he wondered whether he had simply been born with his soul malformed. But part of him thrilled in it regardless, in seeing the hurt flash across someone’s face, in seeing the blood spill from their chest. It filled him with a fluttering, anxious kind of joy.

But when he had seen those men rip and rend her soul and take something from her, he had felt-

Hope.

He had hoped (hoped against hope) that with only half a soul between them, the girl- this powerful girl- would be the same thing as him.

(The same unnatural thing.)

He had hoped-

(He had hoped that it meant that he did not have to be alone anymore.)

But he had been wrong. She was nothing like him. She was a different beast altogether.

(And that... Wasn’t a bad thing.)

She was fierce and soft by turns, obviously still wracked with anxiety that he would throw her out, but ferocious nevertheless.

She looked at him with fearful eyes when she had eaten too much rice, certain that it would be the thing that caused him to revoke her invitation to stay. She bit her lip when he asked her a question and he knew that she always took so long to answer because she was seeking the answer she thought he wanted to hear.

He hated that.

But then he would splash at her from the river, and after a moment’s shock, she would laugh, and the sound would rush through him like electricity. And then she would leap in after him, her legs bare and her mouth smiling, and she would splash back, ferociously.

She was hesitant, but she could be bold too, and he craved that, craved that secret part of her.

It was, he thought to himself, interesting to no longer be alone- to have another pair of eyes with which to see and to see new things. Her presence in his life doubled his set of experiences in a way in which he could never have anticipated; to feel the joy she felt when he showed her his persimmon trees, to feel the gentleness of her smile set his own face to smiling as they lay watching the sun begin to set. He would experience the feeling first hand, and then feel it reflected again in her reaction, and again in her reaction to his reaction, like a strange and eerie cascade. Her smile would provoke his smile, her interest his interest, and so he found himself storing anecdotes and small, intriguing objects, things to share with her so that he could greedily watch her reaction, and lose himself in the spiral of her feelings.

To see her face, as she breathed in the steam curling into the air from freshly boiled rice, and to see the way her eyes lit up, past the ghosts of hunger; to watch the anger boil in her as he lazily beat her five times in a row at go in a situation engineered more to watch her than out of enjoyment of the game; to catch her looking warmly at him, when she thought he could not see her, and to  try to intuit what it was about him that she was thinking- he wanted it all, to prise open her secret inner world, to take it for himself.

She was like a prism.

Everything shone through her in new and revealing ways, and he wanted to see it all.

He-

(He did not dislike it.)

The town was starting to inch into view like a dark stain on the horizon. He didn't know its name, or whether it even had one for that matter. But that was not saying much; he did not even know the name of district of Rukongai in which he lived.

Children with the hungry eyes and the distended bellies of revenants watched him as he walked through the gates. He was careful to watch his step as he walked- a dull rainbow film of filth and the leavings of slop buckets filled the gutter and men and women both shambled blindly through the slum, drunk on the nastiest, cheapest fermented rice-spirit that could be purchased in Rukongai.

The air was thick and foul with a dozen sour, rancid human smells, and above him towered the ramshackle hovels which the people of the town called home, often housing ten or twelve to a room. The afterlife seethed and burst with human life.

His smile was easy as he passed the stall and set of threadbare stools which passed for a bar in this town, outside of which loitered the same old familiar thugs and louts, who played at dice rather than go and were prone to seemingly random fits of brutality. He knew one of the thugs at the bar by reputation, though not personally. He had soft, brown Labrador eyes, but was known for being soft in the head because he would not stop talking about his girl. He ignored the man and kept walking.

Clustered by the bar wearing yukata which must once have been garish and gaudy, but which had traded hands too many times since then and seen too many years of use to have remained so, were a handful of whores of varying ages. Their cheeks and lips were bright shades of red and pink; there was no money here for paints and unguents, and Gin knew that they had a particular trick of pinching and slapping each other until their faces rouged to achieve that glow. It was clever, he decided.

He reserved a particularly wide grin for a scarred, arthritic mantis of a man, who had often given him jobs in the past. He received a curt nod in return. This was Tadayoshi, the enforcer of the most brutal gang in town, and killings and intimidation were his purview. Gin had gotten in with him from an early age- he had a healthy respect for power, but an even greater appreciation for those who could use their heads, and the man had a sinister, twisted mind which Gin respected. The rice in his bowl had to come from somewhere.

He had no need of work for the moment though- he had money enough for the next two week's food, and for a little more besides. He was here not for work, but to shop, and so he moved onwards.

"Little boy, little boy," one of the whores cooed out to him. She wore her greasy, pitch black hair half up, and the rest fell about her shoulders, exaggerating her gaunt, once round features. "Come up closer and keep your sisters warm, little boy. The days are getting cold, and the nights colder still. I'm freezing to my bones. Let's keep each other warm." He was mildly impressed that she had managed to finish her sales pitch without laughing, such was its insincerity.

"Never knew I had so many sisters," he told her with an easy laugh. "Seems like our folks tumblin' into bed too many times got us into this mess in the first place. I'd not want to repeat their mistakes. Aah, look at ya'-“ his eyes flashed with playful cruelty. “I wonder how many nieces and nephews I have. Must be thousands, to judge from that belly,'." He kept on walking with a low whistle, and the whore swore vociferously after him. Another whore, with carved-out cheekbones and a vulpine face, berated her and watched him intently until he disappeared around the corner. More power to her if she wanted to stare, he figured.

The town's largest shop, like everything else there, did a poor trade. In wooden crates, a small variety of vegetables languished unpurchased. In this place where so many skirted the survival line, desperation gave few people the inclination to buy anything other than the essentials (alcohol, as life's natural tranquiliser for the ills of the world, counted as an essential here). Bulbs of garlic, packed amongst rough straw, were small and shrivelled, the scallions were aged and wilted and Gin was sure that the oil on the shelves must have turned rancid. He thought of the carrots and radishes which grew fresh in their garden, and he sighed.

The shop keeper was a bald man with a nose like a squashed tomato, whose eyes never left him as he walked around the shop.

"Mou, Mr Shop Keep, ya' makin' me nervous. If I knew ya'd be watchin' me so close-like, I'd have washed my face this mornin' and made more effort with my hair."

The shop keeper just grunted and muttered to himself and wiped his hands on his grease-spotted apron, but kept up his suspicious vigil nevertheless.

"I'd like the scallions, four eggs and the rice vinegar," Gin asked politely.

The man harrumphed, boxed up the eggs, scallions and vinegar and slammed them on the counter.

"Pay up."

"The sterlin' service is what keeps me comin' back," Gin informed the man cheerily, counting out his coins. It certainly wasn't the quality of the goods, he thought. His voice was light and conversational as he asked, "How's ya girl?"

The shop keeper's eyes narrowed. "Fine," he gritted out suspiciously.

"Why so prickly, Mr Shop Keep? I was concerned, see."

The man stiffened, and Gin hummed happily.

"Heard from Hatsumomo that she's been seen about with Nakamura-san, and you know that he’s in with a bad crowd. Strange though,” Gin tilted his head and mirth danced in his eyes, “that she'd be seein' him so late at night." Nakamura was the attractive thug with the warm brown eyes. The shop keeper blanched. Even his smashed-tomato nose went pale.

There was a pause. "Mind you," Gin said with a put-on air of thoughtfulness, "the whores do all say that Nakamura-san is a handsome man." He let that hang in the air, and gave the man a jaunty wave as he left.

There was a spring in his step as he walked, and he considered the contents of his bag, and the prospect of a glorious egg fried rice dinner with scallions. He and Rangiku had done well for themselves today, he reckoned, and the shop keeper's anguished reaction had almost made the wretched trip worthwhile.

He started to whistle a low, tuneless song under his breath (neither he nor Rangiku could carry a tune in a bucket, he had learnt, having coaxed her into singing along with him as he swept the shack clean. What they lacked in musical talent, they made up for in raw enthusiasm, which was potentially the worst combination of all).

He was looking forward to getting home and warming his fingers by the fire. Or by putting them on Rangiku's neck- he had not yet decided, though the thought of the indignant yelp his new houseguest would make was very quickly becoming a decisive factor. By his side, he started to swing the bag to and fro, distracted by the thought.

It was because of this distraction that he did not react immediately. One moment he had been standing, bag swaying by his side, and the next he had crashed to the ground, clutching the bag to his chest, heart pounding. Someone issued a ferocious kick right to his ribs, and pain blossomed across his side like red watercolour paint bleeding through water. His vision swam from where his head had smacked against the ground, and he let out a strangled hiss.

It was the kick which snapped him out of his panicked daze and back to his senses. There were three assailants, he estimated, his brain kicking into gear- maybe four. They must have seen him swinging his bag by his side like an idiot and thought him easy pickings. His eyes narrowed. Well, he thought furiously, they're goin’ to suffer for their mistake.

They were after the food, he guessed, and he clutched the bag to his chest. In order to get at his knife, he would have to relinquish his grip on the bag. He knew that the moment he did so, they would wrench it out of his grasp and run off- it was exactly what he would have done in the same situation. He gritted his teeth in frustration. The food was his and Rangiku's, and the only reason why he had wasted a day to make the fucking tedious journey in the first place. They wouldn't be getting any, he thought venomously.

That left only one choice.

It annoyed him to have to resort to it- he was right in the centre of town, and it would attract far too much attention- but it was that or lose the food, and he was not going to let that happen.

He could feel their fists rain down on him as they battered at his skinny body, and each blow set his nerves alight. He breathed through the pain, letting it wash over his body like the waters of the stream by his house, and he let himself sink down through it into the tenebrous reaches of his mind. The pain became distant as he sank, fading out of mind and the mind's eye like muffled music coming from another room, or lights on the shore slowly fading into pinpricks in the distance on a dark night at sea, until it felt almost like it was happening to someone else, someone floating high and distant above him. He found himself alone in the darkness.

Though he had come here frequently, he still did not know his way perfectly. The architecture of his mind was labyrinthine and infinite, an endless series of twists and turns, dark dead ends and pathways which stretched on forever. But he knew by instinct what he needed, and everything else was as immaterial as a shadow. He gave no resistance and let himself fall bodily through the blackened expanse.

Something gold and brilliant flitted across his vision, here one moment and gone the next, and a familiar peal of laughter sounded clear and musically, like a chime, ringing and echoing throughout the cavernous space. It put him on edge instantly, the thought of this intruder in his own mind.

And then he saw her, saw her as he had first seen her, collapsed on the ground, and a man's hand buried to the elbow in her chest, ripping something pure and beautiful from her. Rangiku's yukata was bunched up around her thighs, and her face was wan and marred with bruises like storm clouds. She was suspended in the void, flush against the velvet darkness, lying just as she had the very first time he had lain eyes on her.

He had almost forgotten the state she had been in when he had found her.

And now, with his own body suffering the same rough violence she had suffered, an odd kind of pity twisted in his chest. He found himself reaching out his hand to her desperately, as if to console her, or maybe to console himself.

As her assailant rose, he cupped her face almost tenderly, caressing her cheek. And then he slapped her, and the sound rang out across the silence.

The shadows around Gin seethed and writhed with a boiling anger, bubbling and vibrating with the purest rage he had ever felt. It boiled and spat and convulsed violently, and Gin’s eyes screamed murder.

He felt something in the darkness loosen and give way, and he swiped at it, too angry to pay attention.

That something whispered in his ear, a susurrus of a voice, something like the dry swish of paper and the hiss of a snake.

“My name-“

He bared his teeth. "Not now."

It was not what he needed right now.

He reached with clumsy desperation for the source of his power, grasping frantically at it, and when he reached it, he swung it outwards with all his might.

Eyes watched, and receded into the darkness.

---

When he opened his eyes, the earth was scorched for half a mile. Four charred corpses littered the ground, and a dozen houses had collapsed. His legs trembled as he rose, but he knew he could not linger at the scene. Weak and retching from the effort, he ran. He ran down that blasted and lonely road until the town was nothing more than a dark memory behind him.

[imx-doomer]

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (A review of sorts)

[Image Credits: @CallegosY on Twitter]

The latest entry in the Wolfenstein franchise has left quite an impact in many ways. It is been four months since the release of the game but, has it really been said everything about the game? I don't think so.

(I mean, I wouldn't be writing this if that were to be the case, I think).

A disclaimer: This post will be very, very long (I think it has the right to be), and it will contain major spoilers about Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and the previous games (The New Order and The Old Blood). Desist from reading this post if you have not played and finished the game(s) on its entirety, and go play them before reading this.  English is also not my first language so please excuse the grammatical mistakes I might have.

As of right now my experience with the game is based on me watching someone else play the game on launch, not because I prefer it that way (I heavily oppose that kind of practice, actually), but because I do not own Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus or the hardware to run the game on my PC. However, it is my intention to acquire the means to play the game as soon as possible, because I firmly believe that's how you're going to get the full experience.

It took 25 years for a Wolfenstein game to feature Adolf Hitler up front in its main story again. That same amount of time also happens to be the time Wolfenstein was absent from being in a position of controversy. But, contrary to what one would have thought a few years back, the inclusion of Hitler himself was not the cause of the controversy.

A lot has changed in those 25 years, but, as the saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same. And if there's something that I have learned from all my years spent playing videogames is that people will always complain about them no matter what. I don't have the exact percentage, but most of the time, those complains are dumb. Really dumb.

As a matter of fact, back in the day in 1992 when Wolfenstein 3-D was released it received complains about being "too violent" and "being heavy on the ketchup", and also even the Anti-Defamation League protested the inclusion of swastikas and nazis in the game (Source: Masters of DOOM, pages 114-115). This also ended up causing the game to be banned in Germany, because of the prohibition of nazi imagery in entertainment.

Keep in mind, this was way back in 1992. Of course, don't get me started when DOOM came out. That's a whole different story.

Another game that fell into controversy (as that franchise usually does, now that I think about it), was GTA: San Andreas. I remembered San Andreas while I was writing this post because I reminded myself of the days where I swore to not even touch the game, in part because of a portion of its fanbase (my experience with the game back then consisted of annoying kids playing nothing else but GTA:SA in arcades or cybercafes).

But then one day I decided to play the game myself for the first time, and after the first three hours I was sold. There's this one spot in the highway that connects Verdant Bluffs with Downtown Los Santos, near El Corona and the Los Santos Intl. Airport, where cars would go fast enough to crash with one another and cause huge explosions without any actual input of the player. Those who have played the game might remember that spot. You could just stand there and watch the show unfold, it was so hilarious to me.

That's how I learned to separate the game from the things that ultimately had zero impact on the game itself. A very valuable lesson.

But now, let's talk about the Wolfenstein II, shall we?

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a videogame released in November of 2017, developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks for PC, XBox One and PlayStation 4. In this year (2018) it is expected to be released on the Nintendo Switch with help of the same studio (Panic Button) that worked on the port of DOOM 2016.

Now. The game?

The game...is good.

Keep in mind, I said "good". Not very, or great, or excellent, or fantastic, or maybe even GOTY. "Good". There is definitely a feeling that the game could've been -at least- very good, or that it could've achieved GOTY status. In fact, even after some people claimed The New Colossus to be their own GOTY, it wasn't until very recently that Wolfenstein II received a nomination from an important institution for GOTY; a GOTY nomination that ended up losing in favor of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Now, some of you definitely have issues with a few parts of the game, and I don't really know if we have the same kind of issues, but I'll give you the very short description of mine:

-The story happens, B.J. liberates America from the nazis (big spoilers there I know), but it doesn't really feel like it actually did. There's a feel of balance between the gameplay and cutscenes, but some key moments in the story lacked the necessary impact that was needed in order to strengthen their importance in a game where the story is supposed to matter. -The game also has some balance issues with the difficulty, or rather, the AI of a few enemies. -The gameplay enhancements (you know the ones) arrive perhaps a little bit late, and are not properly introduced in a way that could've improved the experience of the game for many players. -The main villain of this game doesn't even hold a candle compared to the main villain of the previous game, or even other villains of the new game itself. And this is further reinforced by... -The absolute STATE of the last sequence of the game.

There was also another issue. When the game was released there were two groups of people, those who couldn't run the game, and those who bought the console versions. Jokes aside, there were (and maybe still are) some optimization issues with the PC version of the game that stopped a lot of people from playing it, but then again, you had people with PCs that could actually run the game with little to zero issues. Such is life in the mustard zone, I guess.

(Wasn't DOOM 2016 plagued with those issues too? Someone help me with this)

I will expand on each issue in a moment, but before that...

-Wolfenstein: The New(found) Audience-

...Remember what I said about GTA: San Andreas and actually giving videogames a chance? That's more or less what happened with the new Wolfenstein game, I believe. We all were witnesses of that, because the moment when the first trailer for Wolfenstein II was shown back in last year's E3, people that have never touched or mentioned a single FPS game in their lives became instant fans of the franchise.

But, well, to be completely honest, there was more to that than just the footage of the first trailer that made people glued to Wolfenstein. I believe I don't need to go in full details about what I'm talking about. That's not (and will not be) what this post is about and that's an entirely different subject anyway. These series of events have naturally left a lot of people angry and tired. And it should be no surprise that people would latch onto the new game as soon as it was officially announced and started being promoted.

Quite frankly, if you didn't see that coming after the events of August of 2017 in the US, you were either looking the other way, or you haven't realized the kind of impact videogames have these days.

I mean, there's no gentle way for me to put it, that was bound to happen one way or the other. It's not my intention to brag (it isn't something to brag about anyway), but I hinted this scenario way back in a post made in January of last year, so I guess you could say my expectations were met on that aspect.

Though I must say, I genuinely did not expect to see people loving this game when last year they were part of the crowd criticizing DOOM 2016 for being "too violent"...

I did not expect to be proven wrong, that is! I thought their morals were firm about that subject, one can only guess they had a change of heart when they saw the trailer, too!!

(Image by @gamepadink on Twitter)

You have to admit that Bethesda and MachineGames capitalized on this. It took a while, but they did.

They initially choose to distance themselves from any comparisons with real-life events....

And here’s the [SOURCE] of that, by the way.

They did, however, a release of a partial demo of the game to various gaming websites featuring two sections of the game, one of them featuring a very peculiar chitchat between two nazi soldiers that served as a double hook aimed at the new audience gained by the E3 trailer.

It also hinted the very premature death of a certain character, that's also why I told everyone who were avoiding being spoiled to look away from the videos featuring that demo.

They maintained their distance for a while, but then on October 5th they decided to bite the bullet and go all-out. I don't have the screenshot of the initial promotional message but at this point there's no need for a reminder, I think.

Naturally that move turned some people off, and not because they felt personally attacked by the decision, but because there were fears of the game being unnecessary meddled with references to modern-day political events, and making the game look and feel dated in the process.

At least that's how one group of people felt. You also have that other group of very fine tiki torch people that...well, you know the story by now.

Now, after the game was finally out in the shelves and people finally got to play it, personally, I think that was not the case. Keep in mind, there is a handful of nods to modern-day events here and there, but you have to really deviate from the gameplay and search for them in the game to find them; and there's nothing that genuinely gets in the way of gameplay and the main story, and barring three characters that may have been based on real-life characters of the time and a certain old nazi German, there's not a single character in the game that resembles someone in our current day or anything like that.

People will definitely have their opinions of the marketing moves made by Bethesda and MachineGames to promote the game, but you gotta admit that, marketing-wise, they played their cards very well. I mean, one of the golden rules of marketing is to make the consumer feel like they need your product, isn't it? It might be a poor move, but in general the basics of marketing have never been about morals. Whether they turned more people off compared to the ones being brought in or not, I feel it can't be guessed right now. The game was released four months ago and the Switch port is coming soon, I feel there’s something more to come to give a final verdict.

"But WHY were people complaining? Wolfenstein has always been about killing nazis!"

I mean, yes. Nice observation. That is absolutely correct, but let me ask you something:

Where were you back when Castle Wolfenstein was released? Where were you when Wolf3D or maybe Return to Castle Wolfenstein were released? Shit, where were you when Wolfenstein: The New Order was released?

Where were you these 24 years while Wolfenstein was a thing in the gaming industry? Where were you back when Wolfenstein was seen as 'yet another boring WWII FPS game'?

Feel free to not give an answer, I'm not expecting one anyway, but me and many others were suspecting, almost standing by for this to happen around the time of release.

But hey, who the fuck am I to be the unofficial Wolfenstein gatekeeper, anyway? As a matter of fact, fuckin’ welcome to videogames! Pick your favorite and feel free to disconnect a little bit from reality. That’s why they were made!

-The Right Game, The Wrong Time?-

In a way, Wolfenstein II can't really be compared with other games that don't rely heavily on its story like the ones from the new, current Wolfenstein timeline do; DOOM 2016 for example, it employs 20 seconds of the beginning of the game to show the player how much the story matters by making the main character push away a status screen during a cutscene while making a little bit of fun of the usual cinematic sequences that some modern FPS games have.

Wolfenstein II, on the other hand, uses the first 10 minutes to set up the tone for the game by going full narrative/interactive cutscene mode. Unlike the new DOOM, the current timeline for Wolfenstein sets the player in a game where the story takes a slightly bigger spotlight compared to the gameplay.

And from what some of the reactions I saw, most people who picked the game seemed to ignore this, expecting The New Colossus to play like DOOM 2016. Big mistake.

You're not an unstoppable inter-dimensional being of legend, prohibited by Hell itself from being disturbed from its involuntary and forced imprisonment (Doomguy/Doomslayer), you're a war hero that went back from being comatose for more than 20 years, barely survived a grenade blast, and is stuck with half health for half the portion of the game (Blazko).

(Some of) those who complained also seemed to completely forget the existence of The New Order, and treated The New Colossus as the very first time where a Wolfenstein game was more story-driven compared to previous installments. Now, I did not have the opportunity to time the cutscenes and the actual gameplay, but truth be told, and comparing it to other modern-day games, The New Colossus doesn't feel like you're "playing" a movie at all.

With that being said, the story portion could've definitely been expanded a little bit. Some side missions are somewhat important in terms of additional upgrades and missing holes in the main story, maybe they could've been included in a way where you can get to play them in a specific order before getting into the main missions of the game. It's definitely not the "interactive movie" that some people were painting The New Colossus to be. And while it may or may not have the amount of levels that The New Order had, it's still a good single-player ride. But...maybe it wouldn't have hurt if the ride lasted a little bit more?

I will touch the main story in a moment. And boy oh boy, there's a lot to talk about it.

-From 0 To 10, How Hard Do You Want The Nazi Dog To Kill You?-

The difficulty is also something that I've been hearing a lot about. I think this was something that an important portion of the people expected to happen with the buzz that Wolfenstein II got (me included). Now, like I said in the disclaimer, I don't own the game (YET), so I can't really speak much about the difficulty of the game as much as I would like to, but I'll say this:

A good game is not a good game without some kind of challenge. When trying a new game, let the game challenge you for a bit, see for yourself how much you can handle. If you're facing heavy opposition and you can't get past it, lower the difficulty, but JUST by one level.

And if you really can't help it, fine, go ahead and take the dive straight to "Can I Play, Daddy?", but please don't go around saying the only way to enjoy The New Colossus is on Easiest! That's just something you don't want to say in public, unless getting trashed on the internet is your kink.

(Not that I'm actively trying to kinkshame anyone, mind you. You do yourself!)

From the gameplay that I was witness of when I was watching a stream of the game, some enemies were just your normal, run-of-the-mill mobs, then you had the ones that had a little bit of a different dynamic that the player had to get accustomed to in order to advance, and then you had the bullshit nazi dogs that could just end your run in less than two seconds.

There's also another issue with some bosses of the game, because at the time, there were at least a couple of boss battles that the player could dismiss entirely without any punishment. One of them was definitely in Roswell. You could just, escape, run over a few nazis on the way and completely skip fighting that big ass robot. Was this intentional or not, I'm not that sure myself.

Apparently a patch was released recently in order to fix and balance the difficulty a little. Like I said, I really can't say much about it or confirm anything about it, my experience was obtained during the first days after the release of the game. But only those who are willing to give the game a second play might want to check if this ended up benefiting the game or not.

What could also benefit from a patch of sorts is the plot of the game, if you ask me...

-The Story-

Boy...

Except for a couple of people, the characters were fine to me. There was a continuity between some of the characters in terms of their background, but some others were kind of dismissed as the story went along.

Barring the obvious changes that he went thru before The New Colossus, Blazkowicz was the same good ol' Blazko from the previous game. His struggle is pretty damn present throughout the game, and we get a bit of background in regards of his childhood.

In regards to how the game starts, it goes more or less like this:

The game starts with B.J. Blazkowicz back in General Deathshead's compound on the brink of death. A grenade just exploded right between him and Deathshead, which obliterated the nazi leader's head to pieces and left Blazko with a nasty open wound, laying on the ground. Blazkowicz starts having flashbacks as he's being rescued by his comrades before an atom bomb hits the compound. One of the flashbacks involves his mother Zofia (with a very visible black eye) feeding him on his bed, another flashback is the "Make A Choice" scene where you pick between saving Wyatt or Fergus, which is the same choice you make in The New Order that determines which timeline you play in both games. It seems like they decided to make the player pick a timeline again.

After you make a choice, you see Anya (B.J.'s girlfriend) with the rest of the search group (and the person you saved) rescuing B.J. before an atom bomb hits Deathshead's compound, which is something I assumed was going to happen *after* the bomb hit.

B.J. Blazkowicz somehow surviving an atom bomb would've kicked major ass. Oh well. Letdown City - Population: Me.

Someone gives the order to Bombate to drop the bomb, and as soon as it hits the compound Blazkowicz blacks out again. Back to his childhood, his mother (with no black eye this time) hands him a heirloom, an engagement ring that was handed by her father. Then, Blazkowicz's father is back home, and she quickly tells him to hide it.

And speaking of which, yeah. B.J.'s father. Not the very best example of a model dad.

-Rip Blazkowicz, American Traitor-

MachineGames took some ballsy decisions with the direction of the sequel to The New Colossus. One of them being turning B.J.'s father into basically the complete opposite of his son.

On one hand, you have William Joseph Blazkowicz, undeniably a war hero, hardened by one tragedy after another, and caring of his close friends and loved ones, going as far as willing to give his own life to save theirs. On the other, you have Rip Blazkowicz, a good for nothing, selfish, avaricious and failed salesman, and a traitor to the country.

Oh, and he's also racist.

The game tells you right away that Rip is not a very good person. It actually gets you involved with B.J.'s childhood in such a way that the very first interactions you have in the game are throwing jars at him after he hit Zofia, and the other one involves taking yet another impactful decision over the family pet dog. And I really, really hope you were part of the group who intentionally missed that shot.

Rip is straight up a bona fide asshole. And while you may have the usual crowd that will complain about its inclusion because they feel projected on him, some others might be concerned with the prominence of the role he was given in the story

He actually plays a key part, not only in Blazkowicz's childhood but also on the events of the game. And again, more to that in a moment; but if you still can't get over his existence in the game and the role he takes in Blazkowicz's life, just remember that this current timeline is set in an alternate universe where the nazis won WWII; it does not rewrite the events of Wolfenstein 3-D, and in that timeline Blazkowicz still lends a hand in helping the Allies beat the nazis and win WWII, he's still a war hero with a proud family behind him.

I mean, the Blazkowicz from the Wolf3D timeline married a (seemingly) all-American woman, I guess that's all you need to differentiate him from this Blazko (who married an ass-kicking Polish nurse of Jewish descent).

Now back to The New Colossus and back in 1961, B.J. Blazkowicz wakes up after remembering those traumatic moments, and barely manages to sit in a wheelchair in order to defend Eva's Hammer (the submarine he captured in The New Order) from an assault of nazis leaded by Frau Irene Engel, seeking revenge after Blazko killed her lover, Bubi, and destroyed Deathshead's compound.

Blazko receives a gun from a guy that looks a lot like Dolph Ziggler back when he had brown hair, and then goes to town killing nazis while he's sitting on a wheelchair.

Surprisingly enough one of the most enjoyable points in the game. It was also a really big introduction of Blazkowicz's all-out approach against opposition to the newest players, because nothing beats the feeling of killing nazis while strapped on a wheelchair.

(Well, maybe being Doomguy can beat that).

After being (re)introduced to the Jewish scientist Set Roth and seemingly killing all the nazis that got inside the submarine, he gets rescued from a sneaking nazi soldier by a pregnant Anya (pregnant with twins!).

Holy shit, Anya. She became the low-key MVP of the Resistance, and she also plays a few roles in some of the most ridiculous moments of the game. It can be argued that she doesn't really have to do the stuff she does, but if some of the info. I gathered about The New Order is true, she might as well be one of the most heavy-tempered women in any WWII game.

A few moments later you are re-introduced to two returning characters (Frau Engel, the main villainess, and Caroline Becker, the leader of the Resistance) and a brand new one who is directly related to Frau Engel. Engel takes her sweet time to both call out Blazko while she holds an unconscious Caroline captive as well as reprehend her daughter, Sigrun Engel, for not being tough enough to be part of the Regime and their antics. The player can't help but reflect back at the flashback moments that transpired between Blazkowicz and his father, which is definitely something that was put there intentionally by MachineGames to get you involved even further with the story.

Blazkowicz lets himself get captured with the intentions of saving Caroline with help of the friend who was saved during the first cutscene of the game. Inside their ship, Frau Engel taunts Blazko as well as Caroline, orders the nazi guard to knock her down and hands over an axe to Sigrun. Engel wants her daughter to kill Caroline herself by chopping her head off, but Sigrun refuses. Engel insults and berates her own daughter, makes her cry, slaps her, takes the axe, and does the job herself. Frau Engel proceeds to take Caroline's lifeless head and taunts Blazko with it.

Yet another traumatic moment for poor B.J., and boy oh boy, unfortunately the trauma won't be stopping there.

I think the game failed to set up the importance of Caroline for the Resistance, as she was the former leader of the Resistance before her unfortunate demise. She also played an important part in the previous game, which is yet another reason why you should play it just so you can get the idea! Caroline inadvertently becomes a martyr, and one of the main reasons why Blazko pulls himself thru all the bullshit from the first half of the game, to the point of murmuring to himself, asking her to "borrow her wings" for a moment (he actually wears the Da'at Yichud Power Suit that Caroline wore during the first game).

Once she's done, Frau Engel attempts to harm your comrade with the same axe, but Sigrun prevents her own mother from killing him, and then you either get Fergus with only one arm or Wyatt with severe ear damage, depending on which one you rescued. Blazko kills the guards, gets inside the Power Suit and proceeds to fuck up the nazis on their own ship. Having played the first proper level of the game, you end up freeing Eva's Hammer from the nazi captivity, and proceed to carry over Caroline's headless body alongside your friend and a poor Sigrun who wants to redeem herself and distance from her vile mother.

And who wouldn't want to distance itself from your parent who is a fucking nazi general, anyway?

-Sigrun Engel, Too Pure For This World-

Okay everyone, raise your hand those of you who did not like Sigrun at all. Okay, lower them down. Now close this tab and be gone from this post. Leave her alone, you of little faith.

In the midst of the most gruesome global conflict planet Earth has seen yet, Sigrun Engel takes a role that she wouldn't have wanted to play if given the chance. It's one thing to be born a German during WWII, but being the daughter of a nazi general with thirst of world dominance and revenge? Shit, man.

It's pretty clear that before meeting the Resistance (and even after doing so), Sigrun had nobody to talk to and help her cope with her grief. She suffered abuse from her own mother because of her condition, and she goes as far as describing in her diary an encounter with fucking Hitler himself where he orders Frau Engel to put her daughter in a body conditioning camp of sorts.

If you don't side with someone who got fat-shamed by fucking Hitler, I'm letting you know right now, I don't fuck with you.

Now, naturally a few interactions were to be expected between a descendant of a nazi and a descendant of a Jewish family, and this ends up being the case with a heated discussion between Sigrun and Anya that takes place in the dining area of the submarine of the Resistance. Blazkowicz can't help but feel bad for her, and Sigrun seems to understand that virtually nobody wants her to take part in the group.

And things just get uglier when Grace joins the Resistance as their new leader.

After you're done with the first proper level of the game and finish paying respects to Caroline, you are now free to wander around the submarine. You can do a few side missions, interact with some of the members of the Resistance, and you can also end up killing a few nazis that were pretty damn hidden inside the submarine! Apparently they were the reason why they were captured by Engel at the beginning of the game, so your second mission ends up being cleaning that hidden area of the submarine.

After doing that, your next stop is New York, which ended up being victim of an atomic bomb from the nazi regime that ended up causing the defeat and surrender of the US. Caroline's will was to liberate the US from the nazis and make it the central base of operations with the purpose of liberating the rest of the world. With that objective in mind, it seemed that Caroline had made contact with another resistance group hiding in the Empire State Building. And Grace Walker is their leader.

Now, Grace is uh...well, she's tough, and she's got a deep sense of assertiveness that makes her naturally a leader. But she's far from being a great, let alone a perfect leader.

She naturally hates nazis and the white supremacists that oppressed her and her people before, during and after the war, and that's completely understandable and justifiable. But what I find hard to justify is the severe trust issues and prejudice she has.

First of all she points a gun at B.J.'s head the moment he arrives at their base despite the fact that she may have been told by Caroline beforehand that there might be a chance of a white, tall dude with blue eyes named William Joseph Blazkowicz to show up in their base and contact them. Maybe she completely forgot about that, maybe she didn't. Then Grace pulls that idiot prank on him with the grenade that wasn't a grenade but actually it was a dud. Like, come on.

Then you have the inevitable clash with Sigrun Engel. Grace doesn't hold back and just kept calling her names and calling her a 'nazi spy' until the poor European girl had enough. Grace genuinely spend her moments as leader in the game bullying Sigrun whenever she dared to speak, and this isn't up to debate, it is a fact. 

And if you ask me, Grace is a downgrade from Caroline when it comes to leaders of the Resistance. Anya actually ended up being the interim leader while the New York mission played out (a pretty damn fun mission, I might add), and she seemed to be pretty good at it, so why Grace ended up being the new leader, anyway? Yes, she has a good amount of experience, but so does Anya. Oh well, apparently it was part of Caroline's plan for Grace to become the new leader (according to some dialog found in the game).

Grace is also married and has a child. Her husband is Super Spesh, which is a lawyer that successfully defended her on a trial for a murder that Grace didn't commit (and ended up being a trap from the FBI). This trial happened before the events of WWII. Super Spesh (real name Norman Caldwell) is also a little bit paranoid and an avid conspiracy theorist with a certainly unhealthy obsession with UFOs and space alien technology. This takes further meaning when the next mission after the contact in New York is Roswell, New Mexico itself, with Super Spesh's front of operations taking a role during this mission.

Blazko meets with Grace and Super Spesh, they're found by the nazis but they manage to escape with their fellow members of their resistance group while Blazkowicz mows down all the nazis invading the building. Blazkowicz successfully recruits Grace and co., and they part to the submarine again.

With Grace as their new leader, their objective now is Roswell. Grace's plan is to drop a fucking atom bomb in the nazi-filled, underground Oberkommando base in Roswell, which was originally a site of an unearthed Da'at Yichud cache. For those who are not aware, the Da'at Yichud was (is?) an ancient Jewish mystical secret society that designed and created many inventions and artifacts, centuries ahead of the time. This secret society has played a huge role in the development of this timeline and it might be further explored in the next game of the franchise. In fact, the suit that Blazkowicz was wearing during the first half of the game is of Da'at Yichud manufacture and is originally from the first game.

Back to TNC, Blazkowicz is sent to Roswell with the disguise of a firefighter, while carrying the atom bomb inside a portable container. There are ads everywhere with Blazkowicz's face on them, with the intention of selling him as a “dangerous terrorist”, going as far as to label him "Terror-Billy".

Now, there's no gentle way for me to say this, but Roswell has been culled. I don't recall seeing a single non-white person in the town (which had a fucking nazi parade going on during the mission), and this is further reassured when you listen to some of the dialog the NPCs have during the first part of the mission in Roswell. One person talks about slave auctions as if it were the simplest thing in the world, and then you have another person trying to play nice with a nazi officer by speaking German in a poor manner. And then you have some of those white wizards (you know the ones) walking around fully clothed and shit.

All of that was just fucked up.

Your first objective is to locate the base of operations of Super Spesh, which ends up being a diner that he inherited from his father. A nazi officer walks in and you get to see that one scene from the first trailer where he questions Blazko about his whereabouts. The one that ends up killing the nazi officer is Super Spesh, and after doing so, proceeds to lock down the deli and hide Blazkowicz inside.

Once inside his bunker, Super Spesh tells him about a secret tunnel that connects his base to the Oberkommando, not before going into yet another space aliens conspiracy rant while Blazko was there. After he's done, you're set to go through the underground tunnel and reach the nazi base where you naturally dispatch as many nazis as you can, while also finish the job of putting the atom bomb inside a reactor within the base for maximum damage. Once Blazkowicz escapes the base, he detonates the bomb while strapped on a pretty damn cool unicycle, obliterating the Oberkommando in the process.

With that mission done, Blazkowicz is set to return back to the submarine, but then for some godforsaken reason, he decides to take a quick detour to Mesquite, Texas, which was where he used to live.

Now, you have to admit that this ended up being a damn stupid decision. Why would he even return there in the first place? I mean, sure, the heirloom that was mentioned at the beginning of the game was there all this time and Blazko wanted to give it to Anya, but that was actually a setup. Blazkowicz had no business being there. Oh well.

Anyway, Blazkowicz ends up having even more flashbacks to his childhood, one of them being the actual encounter with the African-American girl that his father wasn't happy to learn about (her name being Billie).

Apparently Billie is somehow an easter-egg/reference of a real-life African American jazz singer and musician called Billie Holiday. Now, I'm not entirely sure if this is real or not, but this is what I remember reading on a post in Reddit (which has been deleted by now, but I'm leaving a reply made to it), so take this with a grain of salt.

Blazkowicz enters his former home, and starts wandering around, having even more flashbacks to his childhood and the handful of amicable interactions he had with his father.

I would also like to take the time to point out and remark that, at one point during this section of the game, you may end up interacting with a piece of newspaper located inside the house.

This piece of newspaper in the game was titled "Fragment of Old News Article", and quotes an excerpt of a piece written by Henry Louis Mencken, a newspaperman and political American commentator of the first half of the 20th century. Here's a screenshot of said piece:

This is an exact quote of what Mencken said all the way back in July of 1920, in an article titled "Bayard vs. Lionheart". This quote has been passed around for almost a century, and it had a resurgence because of certain real-life events that have no business being mentioned here.

Now, I won't question what was written by Mr. Mencken, but what I'd really like to question here instead is this: How this piece of paper ended up being there, when we later learned that Rip Blazkowicz had been hiding there all along ever since he learned about the attack to the Oberkommando, and he doctored and moved around a few things inside the house?

Why this particular piece of newspaper didn't include a date that matched the setting of the game, while the rest of the (fake) newspapers bits in the game had a date each, and matched the particular time? (From the early 30s to early 60s)

Especially when this quote was written all the way back to the days before The Great Depression (started in 1929) and the date could match the settings of the game with zero issues? (July 1920)

Why would Rip Blazkowicz keep a piece of paper that could ultimately contradict the way he thinks about the new regime that governs his country?

This particular interaction made me think a lot about whether or not there was an intention to send a message thru the game with the inclusion of this particular piece, even if it ultimately can be ignored completely and has no impact in the gameplay. What I'm trying to say is that this piece could've fit better inside Grace's personal space in the submarine rather than being in Rip Blazkowicz's setup in the house. That detail felt kinda out of place.

Moving on, Blazkowicz finally arrives to the room where he used to sleep, and finds the heirloom. And his father, somehow still alive. Fucker. Rip and William start having a heated discussion, where is revealed that Rip ratted out his friends and his own wife to the nazis and sent them to extermination camps in New Mexico. William has heard enough, and despite being held at gunpoint by his own father (branding the same shotgun he used to kill the pet dog), he takes the gun off from him and kills him with an axe.

His father musters his last words, revealing that the Nazis heard everything thru a telephone. After what could arguably be considered the best non-interactive confrontation in the game, the player now has to deal with nazis falling down the sky while Blazkowicz tries to find a way to escape the house which has been ripped from the ground by Engel's nazi spaceship

Unfortunately for B.J., he ends up falling from the house to the ground, severely hurting himself in the process. He wakes up only to find Engel putting the heirloom in her own dirty hands while he is stripped apart from the Da'at Yichud supersuit.

And this, my friends, is where things...they don't fall apart, but...keep reading and you'll find out.

Blazkowicz is captured, and he somehow wakes up inside a small room in an undisclosed area, only to be greeted by Super Spesh himself, who apparently is now your lawyer (?) for a trial for murder and treason (!!) with heavy implications that you could end up being publicly executed. Spesh claims that the Resistance have a plan, and that they're going to get you out of there (wherever you ended up being sent to). In order to do so, he hits himself on the table in order to bleed, and he's going to pretend that you attacked him so he can stab the officer from behind. Okay?

This obviously doesn't work the way Spesh intended, and he ends up being killed by Engel herself after pretending the nazis didn't knew he was there to rescue you. Now apparently the Resistance is being attacked in the parking lot by the nazis guarding the building, while you're being subject to the weirdest, most awkward attempt of torture ever conceived in videogames by Frau Engel, who puts the same gun she used to kill Spesh in your mouth. Finally, you're punched in the back of the head and they put the black veil on his head again.

And now we arrive at everyone's favorite part of the game: The courtroom level! Yayyy!

Boy, what a shitshow.

The game took a huge jump in difficulty, because at some point the player didn't knew if the enemies were endlessly spawning or not, and it was definitely the hardest level in the game so far and arguably the hardest in the entire game, pre-difficulty patch.

And not only you're out of your supersuit, making you extremely vulnerable to damage, you also have very limited armor and you're also fairly limited in terms of cover in some points of the level. If you were begging for more action after the first levels of the game, the courtroom level was definitely the answer to your prayers.

And what was the reward for your efforts, you might ask? A cutscene where Blazkowicz somehow finds his mother in one room, falls to her knees only to be comforted by her and told that "You just have one more hardship to go through". The screen fades to black, and you're back at the beginning of the courtroom level, only to realize that you're actually being sentenced to death.

All of that was for nothing.

You never punched that nazi in the face. It was all a dream.

Damn.

That was genuinely a criminal move by MachineGames. Think about it, they made you kill all those nazis, reload the level I don't know how many times, and just for "heh, Blazko was hallucinating all along. time to die lol". If I were to be playing that game blindly (as in, first playthrough ever with no spoilers), I would've been so upset. Why didn't you make it into an entire cutscene in first person? You're making the player think that his actions are actually going to influence the outcome with no confirmation or hint that it won't be the case. It wasn't until the last moment where they pull the "it was all a dream" card. Damn.

And then you have the public execution scene. That one moment that cemented two things:

- Frau Engel is genuinely a main villain with no major impact in the story of the game. She might as well be replaced by someone else entirely and there'll be zero impact in the game whatsoever. - In terms of how unrealistic a Wolfenstein game can be, they might've jumped the shark with what they did in The New Colossus.

Blazkowicz is sentenced to death for treason, and beheaded personally by Engel at a heavily vandalized Lincoln Memorial in front of millions in a televised event (or so the game thinks it's making you feel; more to than in a moment).

“The old and the weak are doomed” - Blazkowicz’s “last thoughts”. You get your head chopped off your body, and then you “die”.

"Look, guys, Blazkowicz is dead. For realsies!"

Now, a parenthesis. There were some rumors going on before the game was released that Blazkowicz was apparently going to have his head reattached to a new body because of the heavy damage he suffered from the previous fights with the nazis in the timeline. At the time, I decided to dismiss them, thinking that they were too far out there to actually become reality. Boy I was wrong.

Not only the game hints, almost spoils the fact that Set Roth might've found a way to reattach someone's head on a different body, there's also the omniscient reminder that B.J.'s body is failing him. Anya actually confronts Blazko because of this; she knows something's wrong but Blazkowicz doesn't want to admit it. He knows he must be strong, for Anya, for his future children, for the Resistance, for America.

But as the game went on, I kinda settled on the idea that this was going to happen. And it didn't dawn on me at the time, but it does now, they pulled it off in a mediocre way.

Okay so, you have the cutscene where Engel throws the head of Blazko down the furnace, and it apparently it goes all the way down...

Except not. Because apparently we've been watching a screen all this time, as a tape apparently starts rolling back, and we see Blazkowicz's head fall down the pit, but then some kind of 60's styled drone picks Blazko's head, and replaces it with someone else's head (presumably just another nazi), and flies away from the scene.

Then you're told that Set Roth, Max Hass, your companion and Anya are trying their damnedest to rescue the head in order to make the quick transplant to a new body. The drone arrives where they're hiding, they proceed with the operation, and it is a success! Hooray!

Why did this felt way unrealistic to me? More to that in a moment!

Blazkowicz wakes up in the submarine, and he's told by Anya that they reattached his head to a super-soldier body stolen from the nazis. Somehow they survived the assault at the parking lot from earlier (how they did it is never addressed in the game), and now you're told to make a choice between what kind of upgrade do you wish to have.

You can choose between Battle Walker (some huge ass sticks), Ram Shackles (shoulder pads that can fucking gib nazi scum) and Constrictor Harness (they literally make you a snek).

You go from being literally a dead man walking to a nazi-killing Megaman X

After choosing one of the upgrades, B.J. proceeds to murmur to himself: "Caroline, thank you. Take back your wings. I don't need them anymore". And proceeds to go back to New York in order to retrieve a location of another resistance group located in New Orleans.

Not before catching Sigrun and Bombate having sex in a boat.

If this ends up in the Nintendo Switch port I'll be pretty damn impressed.

After the sequence where you get accustomed with the new contraption, the side missions will be unlocked. These side missions can be unlocked using Enigma Codes, cards that some mobs in the game often dropped during gameplay after being killed. These side missions are pretty entertaining, and like I said previously, they could've enhanced the experience for a lot of people if they were to become part of the main story, because not only they unlock all the contraptions and help you reach their maximum potential, you can also discover new things about some characters.

Like for example, the one side mission where you return to Roswell (the one where you can get to kill the white wizards? Yeah, that one), it is explained that Spesh was actually aware he was going to die one way or another during the fight of the resistance, and had left a goodbye letter to Grace. There's another couple of notes in a side mission in New York where the real name of Super Spesh is revealed (Norman Caldwell).

And of course, like I said, there's also the fact that once you finish all the side missions you'll end up with all the three contraptions fully upgraded. Wouldn't have ruled to have all three of them before the final mission, or the ones before it? You don't really need all of them, but they could've been of great help and could've improved the experience for many.

Now, let's address what bugged me in the second half of the game.

-Where. Is. Everyone?!-

“Hewwo...? Echo, echo, echo...”

Remember what I said about certain moments of the game that felt like they were "not actually happening at all" and needed more impact? Well, let's go back to the execution scene.

Do you recall seeing any American person watching the execution live, regardless if they were pro-nazi or not? Do you recall anyone of the Resistance watching the nazi shitshow before the execution? That's right, we didn't see anyone. The same thing happens a bunch of times later on. For a "highest rated TV hour in history" (according to an article found in the game), it seemed like nobody was actually watching his execution at all (I even recall hearing some 'boos' while Engel was holding Blazkowicz' head).

Why you didn't show any Americans watching the execution live? Where are they?

Barring the members of the Resistance that end up joining you in Eva's Hammer and the people at Roswell on the first half of the game, you never get to interact with a single regular citizen of the US during the game.

They're all either members of the small resistance groups that you recruit during the game, or they're part of the group of NPC white Americans that were inadvertently being oppressed by the nazi regime.

For a game where rising against your oppressors is the main message that is trying to be conveyed, I'm sure as hell that I didn't see any regular citizens that could've felt identified with the liberating actions of Blazkowicz. If your game is meant to be narrative and story-driven, make sure the player is genuinely feeling it, make goddamn sure like it's actually real.

Fuck, I mean, the only regular person that the player could witness in the game got instantly killed by some nazis in the very next level (New Orleans). Barring that single moment, it seemed like all the levels in the game were exempt from any humans other than Blazko and the nazis. And again, yes, the members of the Resistance that join the group and become NPCs inside the submarine exist, but they were all active members already.

Postcards and letters won't just cut it this time. Make sure the next game has some regular citizens, otherwise it'll feel like there is no actual connection between the Resistance and the regular people.

Moving on with the game, Blazkowicz arrives to New Orleans, who has been affected by the nazi regime in a hard way. Basically they have separated the people deemed as "undesirable" in one part of the city and the other "fine people" in the other. The problem is, they basically wiped both these sides at the time of your arrival.

Your objective is to meet Horton Boone, a leader of a small resistance group hidden deep within New Orleans. Horton is a man with strong communist beliefs, an avid alcohol consumer, anti-capitalist as well as a "preacher" (even though he really isn't). Horton didn't seem to have that much of an impact in the game, and was relegated pretty damn quickly. Which is unfortunate because he was a such a refreshing character in the sense that he actually put some resistance (hah!) before joining the group.

When Blazkowicz finally meets him, Horton seems surprised that he's still alive. Blazko initially tries to recruit them, but Horton doesn't seem to be that motivated, as he hands him his "Horton Special" (a liquor of his own craftsmanship). They start having a heated discussion about political beliefs and the way they thought of each other's side during WWII, which ends in Blazkowicz kicking his chair away, claiming that he won't be raising his future kids in a world dominated by nazis. Horton is surprised by Blazkowicz resilience, and as Blazko starts blacking out because of the strong liquor, Horton accepts his proposal to join them.

Grace advises Blazkowicz that they're about to be assaulted by nazis soon, so they escape New Orleans by using a goddamn atom bomb to impulse themselves. The New Orleans stage was pretty damn fun from what I saw. Unfortunately you don't get to mount a Panzerhund in the game after that, which is a shame because the Panzerhund fucking rules.

When you get back inside Eva's Hammer, you're told that the nazis employ the Ausmerzer (the ship they used to trap your friends at the beginning of the game) to shut down any attempts of revolt. Naturally, the Ausmerzer is heavily guarded, and after the events of Roswell, the security codes to deactivate the heavy weaponry were secured in a place far away from our planet. Venus.

Jesus Christ they also conquered Venus.

-It Was Space Nazis, Maaaan!-

Your next stop is naturally Venus, and in order to get inside the new Oberkommando headquarters, you must disguise as an actor named Jules Redfield trying to participate in an audition for a propaganda film based on the capture and execution of "Terror-Billy". Once you get inside their facility, you're greeted by the director of the film, Helene Winter, and the rest of the people trying to get the same role as you, and then...he arrives.

One of the game's highest points, arguably the best moment in the entire game, is when Hitler shows up to the audition. Goddamn. Godfuckingdamn. These twenty-five years of wait were so fucking worth it.

Holy shit, Hitler's portrayal is fantastic. KEEP IN MIND, it is fantastic in an historical and logical sense, don't get confused and start calling me a Hitler-lover. He is (clearly) old, senile, has severe mental issues, aggravating paranoia, he pukes in the floor, he attempts to pee but fails miserable (indicating some severe issues related to pissing blood), mistakes Helene for his own mother...yeah, basically the Fuhrer is not with us anymore.

And it makes sense, because it has been thoroughly documented that he used to be a heavy cocaine and drug addict, and he was malfunctioning already before his death; it only made sense for him to go on a downward spiral at his 70s.

I've been clamoring for Hitler to come back in this current timeline, because who the hell doesn't want to kill that fucker again? Good on MachineGames for having the balls to do that after all this time.

Going back to the main story, Hitler demands immediate respect from the auditionees to his persona, and because of his paranoia against Jewish people, he ends up killing one of them after an hilarious exchange.

RIP Arizona Man

Something to point out here, some people started throwing around the idea that this person was actually Ronald Reagan. Initially I didn't see the resemblance at all, specially when you attempt to align his timeline and age with WWII, but then the developers started uploading the concept art and model designs to ArtStation (preeety beautiful and thanks to every single game developer that does this, by the way), and as it turns out, this character is indeed a reference to Ronald Reagan!

I still don't get it. Maybe because I'm not American?

Blazkowicz in the disguise of "Jules Redfield" is told by Hitler to recite the lines of his role of Terror-Billy. Blazko barely manages to do so, and then Hitler proceeds to ask another participant to do the same. This other guy does a pretty damn good job at it, and both Hitler and Helene get ecstatic about it.

Later on they move to the second part of the casting, which consists of taking down a nazi soldier and recite a monologue inside a glass panel. A participant enters the panel, does a poor job, and gets out not before getting shot in the head by Hitler. Now there's only two of you, and Blazkowicz is asked to participate next. William then proceeds to kill the nazi soldier for real, slams the panel and asks the directors if that's "good enough". Hitler seems perfectly pleased with his "realistic" performance, and ends up killing the other participant left sitting in the room with another bullet to the head. The audition is over, you got the role.

Hitler leaves the audition and is not seen again for the remainder of the game. Until Wolfenstein III, old fuck.

The Venus level is goddamn fantastic, and if you played DOOM 2016, you'll definitely be reminded of the extraterrestrial/futuristic scenery of the game. The mechanics involving the space suit may seem bothersome to a few players, but it only makes sense once you learn about the temperature of the planet (over 400 Celsius/752 Fahrenheit!!).

The nazi Venus facility is far, far bigger compared to the Moon facility of the previous game, and it also features a brand new gun called the Ubergewehr (roughly translated as the "Supreme Gun"), which is basically the BFG9000 equivalent of the game, and perhaps the franchise. According to the game, this weapon is partially powered by energy from micro-portals of extra-dimensional origin. And I don't know about you, but the energy that emanates from this weapon is red, and it bears a striking resemblance to the Argent Energy of DOOM 2016...Unfortunately this weapon appears in a later stage in the game, and you really can't enjoy it as you could've wished for.

B.J. obtains the documents pertaining the secret code to shut down the system, and leaves Venus for good. Back on Earth and back on the submarine, Blazkowicz hands over the code to Sigrun so that she could analyze it, and she finds that the code to shut down the Ausmerzer is VALHALLA. Happy with this discovery, Sigrun proceeds to tell Grace and everyone else about it, but is completely dismissed by Grace and is once again berated.

Sigrun has had enough. She yells at Grace, and proceeds to slap her. Following that, Grace seems to attempt to return the favor, but is stopped and overpowered by Sigrun who shuts her shit down and asks her to start respecting her by stop calling her something that she is sick of hearing (being called “a nazi”). Grace admits defeat and swears to not call her nazi again.

That was an amazing moment. To top this off, NOBODY intervened. Grace had it coming, for all the time she spent literally bullying and bothering Sigrun with that nonsense. If you were to ask me, she should be glad she didn't die at Sigrun’s hands in an hypothetical betrayal plot. I was actually surprised myself because I thought Sigrun was going to betray the team at one point of the game, but fortunately that wasn't the case. Please forgive me for not trusting you, Sigrun.

Now, moving on to the final level...the Ausmerzer. Blazkowicz and Anya (!!!) end up being the ones spearheading the assault to the airborne platform. The level is similarly great to the Venus level, except that it is relatively shorter in comparison. Lots of nazis to kill, including two super soldiers that end up becoming the final bosses of the game (I know, I'll discuss this in a moment). The final encounter with the Zerstörer isn't that much of a hassle if you finish the regular mobs first and then dispatch them later. Add this that you get to maneuver the Ubergewehr again, and the fight shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Before reaching the final room, a door opens revealing a good bunch of enemies, and Blazkowicz is about to be obliterated, but suddenly Anya appears out of literally nowhere, throws a grenade, catches flames from a Panzerhund, takes off her jacket (the only thing covering her naked upper body) and proceeds to shoot everyone and everything on her path.

...Oooookay?

I mean, after the execution scene, the over-the-top silliness of this scene was kinda pointless for me. I personally found unnecessary that Anya ended up playing an active part in the actual fights against the nazi forces, I mean, for God's sake, she's pregnant with twins. I had fears that she was going to die during the entire game, and that scene didn't help at all.

I'm glad that she's still alive, but please, keep her at home in the next game. Blazkowicz has suffered enough, losing her would be devastating for all of us.

Blazkowicz and Anya proceed to enter the VALHALLA code, and the defense system is finally shut down.

And now...the final encounter with Frau Engel...boy oh boy.

-Frau Engel: Die Neue Enttäuschung-

So...Engel is in Los Angeles a guest on The Jimmy Carver Show, but Blazkowicz and co. have taken control of the Ausmerzer, traveled to L.A. and infiltrated the studio. The last thing you ever do in the game is to sneak past the public and get in front of her, she tries to shoot him but Blazkowicz chops her arm off, and proceeds to split her face open with the hatchet. Engel dies immediately afterwards, and that's it.

No fanfare, no spectacular last boss fight, no nothing. That's it. She's dead, Jim.

Here Lies Engel, She Never Scored.

Before I give you my overall thoughts about her, let's recapitulate what Engel did in this game. Let's ignore whatever happened in the previous game and let's focus on what happened in The New Colossus:

-She kills the leader of the Resistance (at the time), Caroline.

-She berates her own daughter for not being nazi enough.

-Kisses Blazkowicz, steals the heirloom from him, and puts a smoking gun in his mouth in what apparently was meant to be a torture scene.

-"Kills" him on a public showing that who knows if it was actually watched by anyone on the planet and felt completely ridiculous.

Now, let's compare what happened in the previous game with Wilhelm Strasse, Deathshead, the previous main villain of The New Order:

-Assumes control of ancient Da'at Yichud technology that helps the Reich take over and gain advantage in WWII

-Captures Blazkowicz's squad in his compound, incinerates some of them, and proceeds to toy around with the rest, forcing Blazkowicz to decide between one of his teammates (Wyatt or Fergus) to sacrifice.

-Then he proceeds to vivisect that teammate on the spot, in one of the most gruesome sequences ever recorded in the Wolfenstein franchise, and saves that person's brain for later.

-HE FUCKING TOOK YOUR FRIEND'S BRAIN

-Successfully invades the original hideout of the Resistance, and his squad captures/executes some of their members, one of them being totally-not Jimmy Hendrix himself in one of the timelines. -Remember the brain of your friend? Well, now he put it inside a goddamn war machine, and now that machine is trying to kill you.

-He basically forces you to kill your friend again to end his suffering.

-And after you're done fighting with that nazi fucker during an actual final boss fight, he somehow pulls a grenade (probably out of his ass) and attempts a suicide attack.

-He dies but he definitely left you for death at mercy of your own friends who are about to drop a goddamn atom bomb.

Well, I don't know about you, but I guess it's unanimous.

Not only Engel’s death resulted in perhaps the most disappointing moment of the game, but overall she was perhaps one of the most pointless, inconsequential main villains of the franchise. She doesn't even come close to what Deathshead did in the previous game, and not just because Deathshead may have put the bar way too high for her, but because she really didn't to much at all during the game to warrant her becoming the final person to be killed at the hands of Blazko in the main story of game.

You know what would've ruled? An actual boss fight against Engel.

Now that her lifeless body is laying on the desk, Horton, Grace and Blazkowicz walk up to the screen and tell the American people watching the show to rise up against the nazis, and start revolting. Game logo on the screen. The End.

(Cue some really, really horrible version of 'We're Not Gonna Take It' playing in the background as the credits roll)

In a post-credits scene, Blazkowicz takes back the heirloom ring from Engel's lifeless body, and proposes to Anya with it. And if you picked either Wyatt or Fergus, you get one of them ranting around in front of the screen.

Well. What can I say?

The main story was okay, it could've definitely been polished a bit in order to turn it great. The liberation of America from the nazis was kind of a given, and when you look back at The New Order and compare it to The New Colossus, the ending of the latter ended up becoming the lowest point of the story. In the New Order the game ends on a cliffhanger, while The New Colossus doesn't offer much in terms of what could possibly happen next.

There's not that big of a difference if you pick Wyatt or Fergus, I think. The interactions with Fergus are more leaned towards your typical "heh, remember the time when you threw away your bionic arm while you were drunk?" war stories, and Wyatt's timeline is more focused with the problems he has to overcome because of war trauma.

Max Hass was fantastic. Max Hass!

The side missions on the submarine are fine. You actually get to explore the same areas but in a different way each. The side missions for the additional upgrades on the other hand, not so much. The majority of these missions are just revisiting old areas, discovering hidden areas, and that's it. The DLC doesn't seem to offer much in terms of new areas to explore except for maybe one or two stories.

Overall, Blazkowicz's father ended up becoming a better and more meaningful antagonist than Engel, and maybe he could've become the actual final boss of the game. Imagine if the Rip Blazkowicz that you killed in your old home was actually a clone, and you end up fighting him at the top of the Ausmerzer while he's controlling a clone of the London Monitor (remember the giant nazi robot machine from the first game?).

The way they handled the story, and adding the fact that some encounters were lackluster, and how they completely missed the opportunity to build some characters that needed more spotlight, leaves the feeling that The New Colossus ended up being a rushed project. I definitely hope this isn't the case and we can get a few explanations about some of the issues I wrote in this post (thanks for reading it, by the way).

With that in mind, I would like to take the opportunity to advise you all to give the game a try. If the contents of the story bother you in some way, try to dismiss them as much as you can, and focus on the gameplay itself. I don't know, you might end up liking it despite of your initial opinions about this game!

Would I recommend The New Colossus?

Well, here's the deal. As of right now, the game is sitting at $60 USD on Steam, and with the DLC added is $80 USD. And look, I'm not the kind of person that prefers to engage in the "is it worth X amount of price" debate for any videogame. Ultimately, a videogame costs what you want it to be. You can buy it right now, you can buy it later at a certain discount, you can visit some third party site to obtain a cheaper copy, I don't know. That's not my problem, it's yours. You should know by now how much money you can (and you're willing to) spend for something, and you should also know by now what you value the most about what you want to obtain in life.

Yes, yes I would recommend The New Colossus on the virtue that, if you want to play the third game, you might want to get some background first about the first two games (The New Order and TNO) before diving in to the third.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I'm not the kind of person that prefers to watch someone else play a game rather than experience the game myself, so at the end of the day if you want to watch a LP the decision is yours. I definitely won't agree, but I'm willing to respect it if you give a good reason about why you don't want to play a videogame.

With that being said, and this is something that is definitely worth pointing out, as of right now you can buy the first two games (The New Order, and the prequel The Old Blood) for $30 USD on Steam. These games were released four years ago, and they're in sale on a regular basis on many sites. If you want to keep your money for whatever reason and wait until a “tri-pack” bundle is released, go ahead. Unlike a handful of games that unfortunately ceased to exist because of pettiness from the developers (looking at you, Konami), The New Colossus is going nowhere. It's going to be there for the moment you want to give it a shot.

Now, if you were part of the group of people who got pissed after what happened with the promotional campaigns for the game, I'd say that you should still give the game a shot, at least one play. If it changes your mind, good, if it doesn't, it's okay. But just be careful not to say dumb shit that could reveal that you're talking out of your ass about things that don't exist.

I will be expecting news about the third installment of Wolfenstein, and there's no other choice but to have Hitler be the main antagonist of the game. I mean, who the hell could it even be other than fucking old Hitler himself?

Any question/comments/suggestions? Let me know! My inbox is open! Thank you for spending your valuable time reading my post!

[valleanenowe-dreams]

dreams last night

someone I know in my living room. it’s overcast. I go outside

neighborhood looked more visually purple & hilly & very very pretty & the manor looked different almost castle like. a massive vehicle had driven through the brush behind our apartment building & made a big wide mud path, destroying roxy’s grave. then as I walked through the neighborhood the manor was gone & moved to a smaller taller more colorful pointy building. where it had been was a playground with a small building of unknown purpose. the tornado sirens go off out of nowhere. I panickedly run into the small building & ask if there’s a shelter. a man says something like no you & me would be in for an adventure in here. I sprint to the manor & take an elevator up to a floor where there’s a rly weird fancy bathroom & the manor owner man is there looking over like 30 people who are there but mostly they are teenage boys instead of old ppl

I drive to the top of a hill with someone in a car. this part is barely describable. I keep showing them the sky & the view & how theyre both the same thing because I’m pulling the third person vision back at the edge of the hill to display it’s a skybox. I remember repeatedly jumping down into the middle part of the hill & impaling the whole side of my torso on all the shallow spikes. I fall down into the area below & lie there limply intentionally in a white-walled square hallway with hard grey carpeting while 2 people keep moving my limbs to try to fake my death or something idk

watching something with some people on big monitors connected to a big thing in an otherwise empty room. weird comfy overengineered chairs. I go upstairs from the big room in her house to the kitchen & look for a tall glass to drink some water from. she comes upstairs & says oh it’s a female & micromanages my attempts to find a glass or something

some crazy DOOM-like game I’m in where I’m running around a gigantic dimly lit red space just chainsawing hundreds of monsters

i'm grant sanderson of 3blue1brown & i live in a big ornate house. it is night. it is dark. i hear a chime of the door opening & go to investigate. i backpedal hard as a woman comes out of the entrance area & goes toward the kitchen. i shine a laser pointer at her & she runs away. she comes back. i shine a flashlight & laser pointer at her but this time she rushes at me & comes up all close to me & says things casually about lights or laser pointers or something idk. she runs away & i pursue her & see her running up the staircase then deeper into the house. what if she actually lives in the attic or something

I finally intercept the 2 people I want to meet at their destination at a northern point in the country we’re in. I decide to go with them on their big wooden ship back to where they came from. I have to stand at the top of the back crow’s nest. we are in the middle of the ocean & it’s always violent & terrifying. I yell back & forth at the person in the front crow’s nest. I mentally view a map & realize we’ll be out here for maybe like a month. I panic. I don’t want this. 2 weird tiny dragon things the size of cats that are associated w/ us are swimming ahead of the boat

standing outside of a big hospital at night & I suddenly meet, for the first time, a woman who in the dream is my biological mother. she is a woman with a difficult life who struggles with drug addictions. we talk about stuff

[angelaiswriting]

Not His Queen (part 3 of 6) | Roan x Reader

[GIF not mine]

✎ Requested by @selldraug : “Roan has a lover even if he’s going to get married to Y/N. His future wife doesn’t like this and shit happens”

✎ A/N: the chapters keep getting longer and the angst keeps getting stronger. I’ll consider myselft lucky to just survive this story haha

✎ Fandom: The 1OO. Pairing: Roan x Reader

✎ Warnings: angst. Mentions of cheating. Pain. Feelings. Too many feelings. The usual. If you find something just lemme know.

Word-count: 3821

  Part one | Part two | Part four | Part five | Part six

Roan had left their bedroom in the dead of night and Lethe had laid awake ever since. She kept listening to the feeble sound of her breathing, but she was having a hard time trying to catch the beating sound of her heart.

She had feared she had died a few times in the last few hours and she was fighting against the panic and the anxiety rising inside her chest and mind.

What had she done wrong?

Had she not pleased him?

Had she disrespected him somehow?

She turned in the bed, caressed the side Roan had always slept him. It had been the right decision, making him sleep on the floor, but a voice inside her head kept tormenting her with an endless series of ‘but’.

Maybe she should have just shut up. After all, he was right: he was a prince, he could do anything he wanted. And what was she? Just an unlucky girl that had been promised to him? She had no power over him, at least not before their wedding would be celebrated. She barely had power over her own body, she found herself realizing.

What was going to be of her? Just one of the many? Just an endless series of a one-night stand, before he ran back to that Anka?

Because she was sure he was with her now. He had been all night long and Lethe could almost hear their moans mixing with her dying breath.

When she brought her hands to her face to move some locks of hair behind her ears she noticed wet tears on her cheeks.

What was he doing to her?

She couldn’t remember a moment in her life in which she had cried so much, in which she had felt so dead inside.

Lethe had just stood up to sit and ponder what options she had to save her already damaged heart when the doors to her chambers opened violently and a blonde girl stepped inside, her breath short. She recognized her as one of the Sky People, probably Clarissa if she had understood her name correctly, and her rage came back.

“What now?” she spat, her hands grabbing the furs and turning into fists. “Is Klarissa kom Skaikru one of his whores too?” Lethe had started to see red and if the nails of her thumbs hadn’t been stuck in the flesh of her index fingers, she would’ve jumped out of the bed to open a hole in her throat.

The girl furrowed her brows. “I’m Clarke,” she corrected her, standing still in the same spot in which she had stopped. “And I’m no whore.”

“What do you want then?” Aletheia asked.

She was pissed. Where the fuck were the guards? Why did they let this thing in?

She hated how that Clarke didn’t look half as broken as she did. She came from space and yet she looked more of a grounder than Lethe herself did.

“I came to talk to Roan,” the girl shyly answered while Lethe got out of bed.

All her muscles hurt like she had run a marathon.

“Well, do you see him around?” Theia laughed while taking her nightgown off. “‘Cause I don’t,” and she put her trousers on before looking for the cloth she used as a bra. “But when you do, tell him I said he can get his dick cut off for what I care.”

“Still in a bad mood?” Roan’s voice asked and Aletheia paralyzed. Her heart suddenly felt like it was beating again while she struggled to cover herself. She felt like she didn’t want him to see her naked anymore - but she knew too well she would give in if it was what he wanted. She was not strong enough, not brave enough.

She didn’t answer him. Hers wasn’t a bad mood. Or it was, but he knew he was the reason and he still didn’t care. And so, neither did she.

“We need to kill your mother,” Clarke suddenly spoke up and both Aletheia and Roan’s eyes were on her.

Lethe took the nearest weapon she could find and was almost disgusted to notice it was one of Roan’s daggers. She let it fall to the ground as though it had burned the palm of her hand.

“What?” she exclaimed.

She hadn’t understood correctly. It had to be like that.

Clarke shrugged her shoulders as if she were talking about the weather and turned to look at Roan. “We need to kill her.”

“Well, excuse you, little space thing!” Lethe’s eyes were open wide. Her heart was beating so furiously it was hurting her, almost breaking her ribs, she was sure of it. She shook her head. Whether she was going crazy or this was some sort of nightmare.

Of course, it had to be a nightmare: Roan was approaching her and trying to grab her hands while in real life he should know she would bite them off with her own teeth.

“Let her talk, Lethe, I’m curious,” Roan sighed, giving up on being gentle and grabbing her by her shoulders to keep her in place and stop her from attacking the other girl. He knew she was going to do something horrible, he could read it in her eyes.

Aletheia would’ve wanted to hiss something along the lines of ‘don’t you dare call me that again’ and ‘you don’t have the right to call me ‘Lethe’ anymore, you son of a bitch’, but her teeth were clenched together so hard that she feared they had fused together.

“If she lives, Lexa is in danger,” Clarke explained. “And if Lexa is in danger, my people is in danger too. We need this coalition.”

Lethe shrugged her shoulders and tried to free herself from the man’s grip, but she wasn’t strong enough. “No one will kill Nia,” she groaned, trying to punch Roan.”

“I thought you hated my mother,” the man muttered, his eyes closing a little, his grip on her shoulders getting weaker.

Clarke took a step in their direction and Lethe’s eyes burned up with rage. “Listen, I’m not saying we should cut her throat or anything, Roan. A little poison in her food will be good enough to get her out of the games for good.”

“I said you two are not killing anyone,” and with those words, Aletheia was finally free from Roan’s hands burning her skin through her shirt. “If this bloody plan gets any further, I won’t stay behind and watch as my Queen gets murdered by two idiots. And if I come to know that Lexa is involved, I’ll make sure she dies in the slowest and most painful way possible.”

“If my mother dies, I become King,” Roan pointed out, trying to get her to reason.

Aletheia turned to look at him in the eye. She pretended to be lost in thought for a few seconds, her head tilted to the side and then smiled. “I know. And if I can delay your coronation even for one day, I will.”

The man furrowed his brows. What was she talking about? Why would she want that? “Why?” he simply demanded.

“She’s the only one that can stop whatever madness is going to happen between the two of us when you’re King, I thought it was obvious. If she dies, I’m doomed and I have to marry you. But if she lives, I get a chance to be banned and never see you ever again.” Aletheia’s head hurt: it was as though someone was hammering its inside.

Was Roan really so stupid to not see why she wanted that monster to live?

Or maybe he just didn’t care, seen that he was going to take her anyway, whether she wanted it or not. Maybe that was his plan, she thought. Force her into that marriage just so he could have more power to keep her whore. But if she wasn’t good enough, why didn’t he take Anka instead? He looked like he liked her better anyway.

“Clarke,” Roan gritted his teeth and turned in the direction of the blonde girl. Lethe’s eyes never left his face while they tried to set it on fire. “You may leave now.”

“But I thought-”

Roan cut her mid-sentence. “Wait downstairs. I’ll come to discuss this matter when I’m done here.”

Theia waited for the space girl to leave and close the doors behind her before speaking up again. “‘When I’m done here’?” she spat. Her hands were hitching because of her burning desire to kneel down, grab the dagger she had let fall and stab his dick with it. “What am I? Just some business you have to get done with?”

He slapped her hard and this time she hadn’t seen it coming. “I’m tired of your tantrums, Aletheia. What have I done to you to receive this payment?”

“Well, I hope you’re kidding me right now, Roan!” Saying that Lethe was furious was an understatement. She was more than furious, she was murderous. And she would have gladly thrown him out of the window if she could.

“This hatred you have for Anka must die now, or I swear I’ll tie you up in here until the day we’re married.”

“So now you’re on name terms with a whore? I have all the right in the world to feel indignant, to feel mad and to want to kill her and castrate you. What have I done to you to make you treat me like I’m nothing? It disgusts me that my own sister is one of your best body guards. If it were for me, I’d have her to leave your side for good.”

Roan took a step forward and his hand closed around Lethe’s throat. It looked like he didn’t care that that grip was hurting her and making her see stars. “Echo stays where she is. Even when you’re my wife, she will remain where she is.”

“Well, then I hope she kills you while you try to kill your mother!” she managed to say with the few breaths she had left.

He slapped her again and his hand left her throat just to reach his belt. “I don’t like you trying to protect the woman who sent me away for nothing,” he stated while unbuckling his belt.

Aletheia tried not to gulp, her eyes focused on the movements of his hands. Was he going to take her?

He grabbed her by her wrists and forced her to walk backward until she reached the bed. He pushed her onto the mattress and as he had expected she crawled backward out of fear just to have him tie her wrists to the wooden headboard of the bed. “I don’t like you saying you want to delay my coronation,” he continued, positioning himself between her legs and grabbing her thighs so tight Lethe squinted her eyes in pain. “I don’t like you behaving like this towards me.”

They stared at each other for many minutes, the only audible sound being her fearful breaths.

Roan’s hand reached out to grab a strand of her hair, so fair it almost looked white and tucked it behind her ear without uttering a word.

Lethe kept thinking he liked - no, better, loved - to scare her, to hurt her, and in that moment she regretted anything she had done in the last few days. She had always loved to imagine the day she had met Roan again. He would’ve waited with a smile on his face while she reached him, he would’ve hugged the living hell out of her and, as soon as they would have been alone, he would’ve kissed her like there was no tomorrow.

He hadn’t done any of those things.

“Why do you really want her to live? Why don’t you want me to become King right now?” he wondered, his hands still squeezing her thighs.

Aletheia thought of not answering, of staying silent because he was terrifying her, with that mad look plastered all over his face. She had really pissed him off. But what else was she to do? Accept his affair? Acting like nothing was? She wasn’t that kind of person.

“She can break our promises,” she revealed at the end, preparing herself to receive yet another slap. “She can save me from this marriage if I do something so horrible that she decides to punish me - even kill me, I don’t care.”

“Why would you want that?”

“You’re not giving me any more options, Roan. You just…” she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. “You just don’t care anymore. You will be King one day and you shouldn’t pretend you love a girl when she actually disgusts you so much you have to fuck a whore to feel better.”

Roan sighed, tiredness spreading on his features until the madness wasn’t visible anymore. “Who said I don’t love you? Who said I’m pretending?”

“I don’t know, you just don’t talk to me! All you do is fuck me and then go fuck that other woman and minding your business without caring if I’m good or if I need something. You just keep silent and I don’t know what to think of this…” she struggled for words and when she couldn’t come up with the right ones she just gave up. “Of this thing between the two of us. I used to love a man I don’t recognize in you anymore.”

“And is this my fault?” His angry hold on her tightened and his eyes bore into hers with such anger she feared for her life.

“Is it mine, then? Because sometimes when I look at the way you look at me, I feel like you are blaming me for your ban,” she bit back and moved her wrists a little, the leather of the belt biting into it. “I’m not sure you do realize it’s not and that I fought for you. So whatever is going on now… well, that’s your fault, sweetheart, and your duty to fix it since I’m already tired of your shit. And if your mother can fix this before you do, since you apparently think that I can wait, well, I sure as hell won’t stop or kill her. Or let you or your sky whore kill her.”

Roan clenched his teeth and pushed himself harder against her. “You will be my wife one day, whether you like it or not. Have I made myself clear?”

“Go fuck your damn whore,” and she spat in his face.

“You’ll beg me to stop when I’m back. You’ll learn to respect me more since you apparently forgot how to.”

Sitting outside the doors of the city, Aletheia was enjoying the warm sun on her skin. It was something she had always loved, something that in Azgeda she couldn’t exactly do whenever she wanted.

She had managed to free herself and her bloodied wrists were a proof of the struggle she had gone through. Sneaking out of her chambers, somehow avoiding the guards Roan had assigned to her protection, she had managed to brush off her mind the pain coming from those bruises.

And now the sun felt like it was healing her. It felt good, in a way almost empowering. She could feel her heart start to beat again, the skin of her thighs getting warmer by the minute and erasing the sensation of Roan’s fingers on them.

She had even managed to forget about Nia’s assassination and now nothing troubled her thoughts.

“I see you sneaked out,” her sister giggled while sitting down next to her. Lethe watched as Echo laid her sword in front of her feet and smiled.

“Did anyone else find out?” she asked, curiosity filling her voice.

Echo grinned before leaning her head on her sister’s shoulder. “Everybody found out. Roan went mad,” and she turned to look at her. “You shouldn’t provoke him so much, Theia.”

Lethe snorted. “He’s cheating on me, did you know?”

Listlessly, her sister nodded.

“Why is he cheating? I don’t get it. I did all the right things, I softened up for him, I tolerated all his moods - and trust me, he has many.”

“He’s been through a lot,” Echo pointed out.

But Aletheia wasn’t there to listen to her sister defending him. “I’ve been through much more and you know it.”

“Just give him a chance. He’s trying to make things right.”

“He’s not exactly doing it in the right way.”

A rustling sound caught their attention and their gaze followed its direction, just to find a fox running away from an invisible enemy. The women watched as its copper-colored fur disappeared in the foliage and they remained silent until the sound of its paws on the ground disappeared.

“Does he know?” Echo’s voice sounded closer to her ear than Lethe had expected. “About the baby, does he know?”

Lethe nodded and tore a daisy from the ground. As a kid, she had played many times with the petals of that flower, wondering whether an unspecified man loved her or not. She had done that with Roan too, and the flower had lied, it had told her he did love her.

“And what did he do?”

“Kinda disappeared during the night, probably went to that Anka whore. I expected… I don’t know. I knew he wouldn’t cry because, you know, it’s Roan we’re talking about. But… I just keep deluding myself into believing he loves me when he doesn’t.”

“Just because he has a whore it does not mean he doesn’t love you,” Echo mentioned and took her sister’s hand. She stared at her wrist for a second or two before speaking again. “It just means he needs time alone.”

“Fucking a woman doesn’t equal being alone, I hope you know that.”

“I know, but you know how he is…”

“I actually don’t anymore,” Lethe retorted. “I’m surprised you figured him out so quickly. I’m supposed to be the one able to figure out anything about him.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You’ve been through a lot, just like him. And maybe you both approached each other in the wrong way.”

“Of course we did! The first thing he did when he came back was fuck me all night long! I just want him to want me, but not that way. I want to be able to talk to him and train with him and take walks with him like we used to before he got himself banned. And now…” but she stopped mid-sentence. Maybe she shouldn’t talk about this even if she didn’t like it. After all, it was about Roan’s mother and the decision wasn’t on her shoulders, and that woman had hurt her in so many different ways… yet, she couldn’t bring herself to want her dead, to want her only way out of that marriage to suddenly disappear.

“Now what? You’re pregnant?”

Aletheia stared at her sister before snorting and shaking her head no. “I guess I’m not supposed to talk about this.”

“What is it, Aletheia?”

“Probably just some dark fantasy, don’t worry.” She stood on her feet and brushed the dust off her trousers, her gaze wandering on the deserted road that led to Polis.

“Where are you going?” Echo suddenly looked worried and she jumped to her feet.

“Back inside. Roan is probably murderous by now and will burn this whole city until he finds me.” Aletheia had managed to take some steps in the direction of the city when her sister’s hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “What are you doing?” Her brows furrowed on their own accord.

“Don’t.”

Lethe took a step closer to Echo and looked her up and down. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You can’t go back yet.” Echo looked scared and her grip on Lethe hurt like hell.

“‘Yet’? What does it mean?” There was something in the pit of Lethe’s stomach that had just started to burn. She knew something was wrong and that trouble awaited for her somewhere in Polis. Then she realized it. “He is with her, isn’t he?” and with a jerk, Echo’s hand wasn’t on her anymore. “You came here to let him fuck the hell out of her, didn’t you? To keep me here while he did his filthy business.”

Her sister vigorously shook her head. “Shit happened, but it’s not this kind of shit.”

“What happened then?”

Echo chose to say the truth, for she knew what her sister looked like when her murderous side got the best of her. “The Queen defied Lexa because she thinks she’s inadequate for her role. She wants Ontari as Heda so that we have a more powerful position in this sham of a coalition. And she doesn’t agree with the protection offering Lexa did to Skaikru.”

“What does Roan have to do with all of this shit, strisis*?” Lethe was starting to feel even worse. Something was eating at her brain and she felt like fainting.

Echo gulped. “He’s fighting as our hero against Lexa.”

“And is it supposed to be bad?”

“It’s to the death.”

“And? He’s gonna beat her sorry ass and we will have what we want,” she replied. “There’s no way she will have a chance against him, and you know that.”

“It’s not that.” Echo looked uncomfortable. For a moment Aletheia saw her little sister again, around eight years of age when she moved to train to enter Roan’s guard corps. “He…” She nervously cleared her throat. “Roan accorded to die.”

“Are you kidding me? ‘Cause if I find out this is a lie I’m going to skin you alive, strisis.”

“You’d better run if you want to see one last glimpse of him.”

And that’s what Lethe did: she ran so fast she fell a few times, but always managed to immediately get back on her feet.

Her first reaction was of terror. If he died, what was going to be of her? What would she do? What was she without him?

But then Anka came back into view just as the battle field appeared in the distance. She imagined Roan and her kissing, his hands touching her, bringing her over the edge. She’d have been ready to swear she heard their moans, Roan’s soft grunts, the sound of skin slapping against skin, Anka’s shameful screams of pleasure. And she stopped, her teeth clenching, her strength getting back in her veins.

Roan had spotted her and was now only a few feet away, getting closer and closer.

Everybody was staring, even Lexa, even the people Lethe recognized as Skaikru. She could feel their eyes drilling holes everywhere in her body and she wondered if Anka was there.

“Niron*.” Roan sounded relieved by her presence. “I’m glad you came.”

“Don’t get your hopes too high, niron,” she smiled evilly. “I just came to watch you die.”

Strisis: little sister

Niron: love, loved one

READ PART FOUR HERE

Part four sneak peek by the angster behind this request (aka Claudia): “NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I DONT WANNA MARRY HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM”

TAGLIST (if you want to be added/removed just let me know):  @selldraug @saibh29@fuckthatfeeling @sylveonfx98 @crazynychick @jaib2-blog

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

The Honeymoon–chapter 5

Rating: T

Summary:  With the Black Fairy defeated and the Final Battle won, Emma and Killian are able to focus on the important things—like their honeymoon.  Thanks to a souvenir from the latest curse, Killian comes up with a way to give Emma the wedding trip of their dreams.

Missed the Beginning? (Chapter 1) (Chapter 2) (Chapter 3) (Chapter 4)

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The first thing Emma noticed when the portal closed behind them was the feel of the sun on her face. It was an odd feeling; the last time they were in Neverland it was night—for a solid week.  The sky never got brighter than what you’d get as the sun disappeared behind the horizon.  This time around—well, it looked like a tropical island paradise.  Bright sun, lush vegetation, the sound of the warm ocean waves gently cresting against the hull of the ship.

Even more than the bright sunshine was the atmosphere of the land.  When they’d been here before, the island had had a stifling feel, an air of gloom and doom that made Emma’s mind immediately go to the worst moments of her life.  Not anymore. The oppressive atmosphere was completely and utterly gone.

“What happened here, Killian,” Emma asked as she looked around, wide eyed.  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say we made a wrong turn and ended up in a totally different place.  This is nothing like the Neverland I remember.”

Killian grinned.  “Pan’s left, and with him the shadow—all the shadows,” he said simply.  “With the little demon gone for good, the magic was able to return the island to its former glory.  This is Neverland as it should have been.”

“Except for, you know, the Lost Ones who almost burnt you at the stake the last time around,” Emma said dryly.

“Aye,” he said, “it was a bit of an inconvenience.”

Emma laughed and then stood on tiptoes to kiss him softly just because she was happy, just because she could.  Whoever came up with the idea of honeymoons was a genius.

“Killian, only you could refer to almost being murdered violently as ‘a bit of an inconvenience’.”

He shrugged playfully. “Aye, well, when you’ve already been killed three times, it starts to become old hat.”

She playfully smacked his shoulder.  “Yeah, well I’m putting my foot down.  No more getting murdered violently, buddy.  I mean it.  I’ll hunt you down in the Underworld and make you regret all your life choices.”

Killian gave her a slow wink.  “As I’d much prefer to keep peace within my marriage—not to mention within Arthur’s current Underworld realm, I shall keep your demand in mind, provided of course, you allow me the same courtesy.”

“Deal,” Emma said as Killian helped her into the longboat and they rowed to shore.

The beach was so utterly familiar.  There was the spot she’d taken control of their group of Nevengers.  She remembered Killian standing their all cocky and handsome, insisting that he fancied her when she wasn’t yelling at him.

She remembered the Lost Ones and Pan, the attack of the mermaids, how she’d nearly drowned trying to keep her crazy family from killing each other.  Turning back toward the sea, Emma raised her hands, and a bolt of bright, white light flew from each of them.  The magic surrounded the Jolly, made it glow for a moment, and then all returned to normal.

“What was that for, love?” Killian asked.

“Protection spell,” Emma said.  “Last thing we need is one of the psychos who live here to steal our ride.”

“Have I told you lately how bloody brilliant you are, Swan?” Killian asked

“Well, not in the last hour,” Emma said.

He grinned and laced his fingers with hers.

“So where are we headed?” Emma asked.

“Dark Hollow,” Killian answered.

Emma shot him an incredulous look.  “You have got to be kidding me!  You want to go back to Dark Hollow?  You know, the darkest heart of the island?  The place you almost had your shadow ripped off right in front of me?”

Killian stopped, leaned down and kissed her slowly.  “You mean the place where you called my name in panic as I was nearly ripped apart? The place you called on your need to protect me to find the emotion needed to light the candle?  I’d say, if we’re visiting important locations from our courtship, that one is a must.”

Emma gave him a long look, one eyebrow raised.  “Yeah, I might have cared for you then more than I was ready to admit, but you’ve got to admit, that god forsaken forest doesn’t exactly scream ‘honeymoon paradise’.”

“It might surprise you,” Killian said.  “Like the rest of the island, when the shadows departed, Dark Hollow was reborn. More to the point, it’s where Tiger Lily lives.  I’d hoped to ascertain she survived my last adventure here.  It’s only due to her help that I avoided being impaled on a dozen Lost One swords.”

“Well then it looks like I owe her my thanks,” Emma said, taking his hand once again.  “Lead on, captain.”

They walked for a mile and a half, picking their way carefully through the jungle, making a wide berth around the dreamshade vines that could be found here and there.  They talked, pointing out familiar locations. Reminiscing about their last adventure on this island.

It had been agonizing, of course.  The fear and anxiety about Henry had nearly eaten Emma alive during every waking moment (and the cries of the Lost Ones had made it difficult to find blessed relief even in sleep).  

But at the same time, there had been a kind of…magic about their time in Neverland.  In a lot of ways, Neverland was the start of it all when it came to their relationship.  She’d been so afraid to let go, to be vulnerable, to give in to the feelings bubbling up within her when it came to this man.  So afraid he’d be like all the rest and let her down. And yet, he never had.  Never. He’d been her rock, her comfort, her cheerleader, her distraction when things all became too much.  Too bad it had taken her so long to see it.

“Killian,” Emma said, as he lifted a branch so she could walk past, “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you, you know, for all you did for us the last time we were here.”

He grinned wickedly.  “Oh, I don’t know.  I seem to recall a certain ‘thank you’ you gave me that you most certainly couldn’t handle?”

“I couldn’t handle it?” Emma asked.  “Why do you think I made you wait five minutes to regain our group? You, Killian, most definitely couldn’t handle it.”

“Aye,” he conceded, “perhaps you’re right, but repetition breeds familiarity.  The solution to our mutual problem is simple.  We must, how did the lad phrase it?, ‘make out’ on the regular in the hopes that one day, far, far in the future, we will both be able to handle it.”

Emma laughed and then raised an eyebrow playfully.  “Well, they do say, practice makes perfect.”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Killian growled deep in his throat and then pounced, kissing her with every ounce of pent up desire, recalling their first kiss—the wonder, the feel of her lips against his, her hands in his hair, her tongue dueling with his.  The kiss may have been more the result of his challenge than anything else, but it had turned his whole world upside down.

“Well, well, look who’s decided to return,” came an insolent voice from behind them.  “Ready to let us finish what we started?”

Killian groaned, pulling his mouth free and whirling to face the Lost Ones once again.  “I’m afraid not,” he drawled.  “As it happens I’m a little busy kissing my wife at the moment. You’ll need to find someone else to vent your teenage angst upon.”

The apparent leader of the boys stepped forward, sword in hand, scowl firmly in place.  “You won’t be quite so cocky when we cut out your tongue and stuff it down your throat.”

“Oooo,” Killian said, taking a step back in mock fear, “quite hostile aren’t we.”

A second boy joined the first, and the rest advanced another menacing step.  “You killed Pan, and for that you die!” the second boy said.  “The more you resist, the more painful we make it.”

Killian heard an exasperated sigh from behind, and before he could stop her, Swan stepped in front of him. “Look guys, this whole ‘I’m an angry misunderstood teen’ routine isn’t going to scare us.  We’ve got one of those at home.  We’re used to it.”

“We’ll kill you too!” a voice from the back piped up, “don’t think we won’t!  If you’re protecting Pan’s killer, you’re our enemy as well.”

Emma rolled her eyes, and with a flick of her wrist, each and every Lost One was disarmed.  “Guys, this is our honeymoon.  I want to have some downtime with my new husband, but if I have to ground a whole jungle full of surly teens, I’ll do it, but how about you save me the trouble and cut the crap?  I have magic; you can’t hurt us.  And for the record, Killian did not kill Pan.  That honor belonged to Pan’s own son, Rumplestiltskin.”

“You’re lying!” the first teen insisted.  “We know Captain Hook!  We know if Pan’s gone, it’s because he killed him.”

“Afraid not, lads,” Killian said.  “Not that I wouldn’t have derived great enjoyment from impaling the bloody demon on my hook, but I didn’t have that honor.”

A touch of confusion seemed to enter the leader’s eyes.  Clearly, he wasn’t ready to concede defeat, but they’d succeeded in planting the seeds of doubt.

“Look,” Emma said, dropping her hands and giving the lads a sympathetic look, “I get it, okay?  You were loyal to Pan.  Loyalty’s a good thing, but sometimes it’s misplaced.  Pan left the island with us.  He left you behind.  I know the pain of being left behind, believe me, but look around you!  Can you honestly say you’re worse off now than you were when he was with you? You live on an island paradise, an island paradise that has wish-fulfillment magic.  You can have anything you want just by thinking of it. All the perks without the darkness, stifling atmosphere, and cruel games you had with Pan.  Aren’t you better off now than you were before?”

The boys exchanged looks, the conflict in their eyes stronger than ever.

“So it seems to me,” Emma continued, “that you have a choice to make.  You can give in to hate and a thirst for revenge—which will never make you happy—or you can move forward, realize all the good things you have now, and enjoy the ride.  Your choice.”

The conflict seemed even stronger on their faces.

“And,” Killian continued, “I’m prepared to sweeten the deal, should you choose the later.”  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sparkly, magic bean.  “Do you know what this is?”

“A bean!” the smallest boy said in wonder.  “A magic bean!”

“Aye, just so,” Killian nodded.  “You may do with it what you like.  Use it, plant it and grow more, eat it for all I care.  All I ask is that you cease hostilities between myself, my family and all on this island.  Have we a deal?”

The Lost Ones shared a long look among themselves, and finally the leader nodded and extended his hand.  “Deal!”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Emma smiled as she and Killian stepped from Dark Hollow two hours later.  She’d never have believed it, but their day in Neverland had actually been pretty great.

“So it looks Tiger Lily can take care of herself,” Emma said, as they began walking once again.  “She seems like kind of a badass.  I think the Lost Boys were in more danger from her than she was from them.”

“True enough, love,” Killian said, “but all the same I’m pleased to find her so well after all the help she gave us in defeating the Dark Fairy.”

After leaving the Lost Ones, Emma and Killian had made it to Tiger Lily’s cave within Dark Hollow with no more difficulty, although things had gotten a bit dicey once they’d gotten there.  Killian had just stooped down to peer into the cave and announce their presence when an arrow shot from the interior.  Emma pulled Killian aside just in time.

“Who’s there?” came a woman’s voice from the interior.  “Declare yourself, or I swear the next arrow will hit its mark and I guarantee your end will be slow and painful.”

“Bloody hell, Tiger,” Killian said irritably.  “After all the years we knew each other, you still don’t recognize me?”

Emma raised her hands, ready to defend them should it be necessary, but a moment later a Native American woman with long, black braided pig tails and a simple brown dress stepped from the dim interior of the cave.  “Captain?” she asked, looking up at him in wonder.  “After your last experience here in Neverland, I didn’t expect you to return so soon.”

Killian grinned and stepped forward, his characteristic swagger in place.  “A few Lost Ones trying to burn me at the stake?  Hardly something I can’t handle, darling.”

“And what of the wand?” Tiger Lily continued.  “Was it successfully reunited.”

“Indeed it was,” Killian said.  “The wand was restored, and the Black Fairy was defeated.  Thanks to your help evil was defeated once more.”

Tiger Lily let out a long breath.  “You’ve no idea how glad I am to hear it.  And what of the woman you loved, the one you couldn’t wait to return to?”

Killian stepped back and reached for Emma’s hand, pulling her to his side, and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  “It seems I’ve an important introduction to make.  Tiger Lily, I’d like you to meet Mrs. Emma Swan-Jones, my wife.  Emma, Tiger Lily.”

“Your wife?” Tiger Lily said, looking up at him with wide eyes.  “Captain Hook with all his flirting and innuendo has finally committed to a wife?”

“Hi,” Emma said, stepping forward and offering her hand.  “It’s nice to meet you, and yes.  Captain Hook finally tied the knot.  We’ve been married for a grand total of 1 month, three days, seventeen hours and forty-two minutes.”

Killian turned toward her, eyes tender.  “And it has been the best month, three days, seventeen hours and forty-two minutes of my life.”

Tiger Lily laughed.  “I’d never have believed it, but it’s true. You really have changed.”

Tiger had quickly invited them to join her for a cup of tea—which soon turned into dinner.  Emma had liked the woman from the start.  She was tough but kind, reserved, but full of good humor. Over the next couple of hours, Tiger Lily told tale after tale of her time in Neverland—tales of adventure and betrayal.  Some poignant, some so funny Emma was nearly rolling on the floor with laughter.  

Emma felt like she walked away from Tiger Lily’s cave with a whole new appreciation for her husband and the lifetimes he’d lived.

“So Pan made you steal a clock from him?” Emma asked as they walked.

“The constant tick-tock nearly drove me mad,” Killian said with a sigh. “Did you ever wonder why I refused to have one of those demon devices in our bedroom, love?”

Emma laughed.  “And I thought you just never wanted us to leave our bed.”

“Oh that too,” he said wiggling his eyebrows.

She laughed again and then reached up to bring down his head for a quick kiss.  “Well if I’m being honest, neither do I.”

Killian grinned and then wrapped his arms around her, kissing her with relish.  

“So what next,” Emma asked when they finally came up for air.  “We return to the Jolly and continue on with the honeymoon?”

He shook his head.  “Not just yet, I think,” he said  “I’ve a lovely little secluded lagoon I’d rather like to show you.  Perhaps you’d care to join me for a little swim?”

Emma felt the heat pool deep in her belly at the look in his eyes.  Suddenly a dip in the lagoon with her husband—and preferably without their clothes—sounded like a tremendously good idea.

“Oh hell yes,” she said.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Emma waited until Killian was a foot away and then she made her move.  With a quick move of her hand, she splashed his face.  

Killian spluttered, before wiping his eyes.  “Bad form, my love!” he grinned.  “I’m afraid I must punish you for your insolence.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked playfully, “and just what do you have in mind for my punishment?”

Killian waded forward with intent, not stopping until he’d invaded her space, until she felt his chest hair against her tender skin.  She brought her hands up around his neck.  “I think to start, I’d like a kiss,” he said.

She grinned, surged forward and locked her lips with his, his mouth opening immediately under her tender assault, his tongue meeting hers, turning their heads this way and that trying to get closer, always closer.  They would never get close enough.  Emma felt her pulse tick up as Killian’s hand began to wander.  It moved from her hair slowly, sensuously down her bare back before wandering toward other areas, areas desperate for his touch.

Everything was augmented here, every touch, every feeling, every fevered emotion.  Emma was achingly aware not only of her husband, methodically driving her mad with need of him, but of the water churning around them, warm as bathwater, of the sounds of nature, of the tropical birds calling to each other, of the insects buzzing, of the palm trees with their fronds swaying with the gentle breeze.

As Killian pulled his mouth free of hers and began kissing a path down her chest, Emma knew with absolute certainty that should she live three lifetimes, she’d never forget this moment.  She and Killian had found their way to paradise.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The sunset, with its brilliant pinks and oranges and purples was beginning to paint the sky as Emma and Killian stepped from the water, dried off and slowly got dressed once more. Killian felt the sappy smile covering his face.  He doubted he’d ever stop smiling.

A tropical paradise with Swan, his body still sated and humming from their loving, an entire lifetime together before them.  Killian’s eyes were opened to what absolute and total happiness felt like.

Fate had a strange sense of humor.  Who would have thought he’d find heaven on bloody Neverland?

“Shall we return to the ship, love?” he asked, watching as she tossed her white tank top over her head and then zipped up her boots.

“I guess so,” Emma said slowly.  “I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’m really going to miss Neverland.”

“As am I, Swan, as am I.”

They walked slowly through the jungle and toward the beach as the sun slipped closer to the horizon.

“Well, well,” an all too familiar voice said from behind them.  “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but there he is.  Captain Hook, finally here to deliver my ship to me.”

“Oh bloody hell,” Killian said closing his eyes and shaking his head.  “Of course he’s still here!”

Blackbeard.

 Notes:

--And there you have CS’s adventures in Neverland.  It all ended up working out rather well for them…at least until the last few sentences.  We’ve now met Blackbeard—the “villain” of this little story.  He’s just way too much fun to leave out.  Of course…Emma and Killian may argue with me about the word “fun”.

--Up next:  Emma and Killian deal with their little pirate problem…at least for the moment, and then they continue on to the next stop on their honeymoon—a place just a little more…ahem…frozen than where they’ve been thus far…

[dciji-blog]

( * shin deiji . )

scanning shin deiji, he is twenty-two years old and read as audacious but hazardous, which explains why he is referred to as the scelestic. before virtual reality he was battling multiple personality disorder and living in japan. he’s been said to look incredibly similar to park jimin, but he’s never seen it. in this new virtual world, he plans on finally taming his temper and hopes to never go back to reality.

trigger warning: multiple personality disorder, abuse ( physical, emotional, sexual ), death, murder, violence, blood, adoption.

heeeeeeey-ho, your favourite friendly neighbourhood loser sky is finally here to talk about her beloved Angel™. she/her, twennnnney & from cest aka gmt+2, a nerd. but !! i’m not important here, my baby is sooo i’m really fckn hoping you guys are down for reading some perhaps confusing shit bc i plan on rambling a lot eeek ok here we go.

ps. i hope no one is triggered by this. if you have a problem with any part of my bio, feel free to contact me but only if you genuinely have a problem with it & not because you wanna be an asshole. ok ty~!!

pss. i know that it might seem Extra, introducing so many dark topics here, but abuse, separation & depression are believed to be among the main causes of mpd, so they needed to be included.

psss. i won’t actually be portraying the mental illness itself. it’s only present in my love’s past.

GANG JINYONG:

of course shin deiji isn’t a real name. shin deiji doesn’t exist in reality. at least not with this face. the name they’d attach to his solemn features back home was gang jinyong. jinnie.

born twenty-two years ago on november 11th in ilsan, south korea, this scorpio was raised by a single mother with occasional, undesired appearances of his sperm donor ( his father, but he doesn’t deserve to be called that ).

he was a result of a loveless act, a drunken hookup that failed to turn into anything more. a product of reckless infidelity. his mom, min seo, was a college senior & the guy, jiho, was the owner of a local pub, a married man with two children. when she discovered that she was pregnant & that he was married & uninterested to help her with the baby, she threatened to ruin his marriage if he did not support her financially.

he did so during her pregnancy. she kept asking him for help even after giving birth ( naturally, bc her parents didn’t want to support her & she had to drop out of college so she had no income whatsoever. couldn’t work bc who’d take care of tiny jinnie then ? ). he found them a decent apartment & gave her a job at the bar. jinnie grew up in that bar and watched men catcall, emotionally & sexually abuse his v young mother night after night. he even witnessed jiho slap her a couple of times when she asked for a raise or complained about the regular customers being nasty towards her.

min seo, bless her soul, was a wonderful mother. she put her child first and would rather starve than let her kid walk around hungry. but during the years of torture she became very mentally ill & she would snap at jinnie during her breakdowns. afterwards, though, she’d fall on her knees in front of the tiny kiddo & apologise, kiss his little cheeks & forehead.

when he grew up, he became a victim of the drunks as well. i don’t feel like writing about that now, it was too nasty.

experiencing all of this first hand, more often than not, jin would lock himself away & daydream about a better life. either a life where he was capable of protecting himself or a life in which he was appreciated. those two were among many scenarios he’d get lost in. 

while he was still young he dealed with some blackouts & memory loss. he couldn’t figure out how he ended up standing in a particular room. he couldn’t remember certain conversations or things he had done. it was a rare occurrence at first, but as he got older & more plagued by tragedies, it became more frequent.

min seo, believing she was doing the right thing, gave jinyong away when he was eleven. he would’ve been taken away from her anyway, since she was deemed an unfit parent & jin was growing up in an unhealthy environment.

the separation made his illness even worse, it really did. that’s when he had the most alts who distracted him. however, all of them merged and then split into two, leaving jin only with jiu & jeaki.

he was adopted by won mina & jongin, who moved to tokyo, japan with him a year later.

he went to school there & was a remarkable student who was especially interested in nanotechnology.

personality-wise, he was more of a quiet type. not shy but he didn’t like to speak when he had nothing smart to say. blunt af, honest. though, still considerate & kind.

JIU:

the only major alt that survived besides his most prominent one, jeaki.

jiu loves fashion more than life itself. sometimes jin would wake up in piles of new clothes & then look in the mirror and see that his hair’s grey or pink   ------   that’s mostly how he discovered when this alt was in charge of his body. jiu always styled his host. other alts didn’t really care about that, but would sometimes sigh at jiu’s extravagant fashion choices, cashmere suits & silky scarves, while going through the closet.

jiu wasn’t delusional, he knew he was not actually a fae prince, but he liked to view himself as one. no one ever praised him, so he took it upon himself to praise himself.

he was created to battle sexual abuse & the depressing lack of love jin was dealing with.

sweet af. pure. heart of gold. god of love. lecherous. classy.

heart-shaped sunglasses. dimmed lights with a rosy glow. tasty, edible lip scrubs. summer.

JEAKI:

main alt. he came when jin was feeling helpless. when anger was bubbling inside of him & ached to be released. he was initially envisioned as a protector of both jinyong & his mother, but soon jin could no longer control him & jeaki became a separate personality with a mind of his own. he started appearing more when jin moved to tokyo to live with his adoptive parents. with a tongue as sharp as a razor & steel knuckles that aren’t afraid to fight back, he failed to manage his wrath whenever he was present.

he was aware of his host & other alts and he wanted to do everything he could to be the most superior alt, often engaging in conflicts with them in jin’s mind even when he was not controlling his body. he managed to consume a couple of minor alts.

he’s not your typical murderous alt you know in media. no, he was never violent just because and he was never aggressive when unprovoked. as i said, he was there to fight back for jin, who was too afraid to do it himself.

thunderstorms. static noise. heavy eyeliner. danger. sore knuckles. bruised skin. jumping out of a plane. taking risks. cats. glares. autumn.

the night of doom: jeaki didn’t have the time to change from jiu’s ridiculous clothes. he needed to go out & get some fresh air. he was angry. mina yelled at jin because of a bad grade, not knowing that he, jeaki, took that test insted of jinnie. jeaki was the one feeling worthless so he needed to go out & cool down. but when his anger management issues combined with a street thug calling him out on his ( jiu’s ) fashion choices & using slurs ( reminding him of his days back at the bar in ilsen ), he could only see red. he started a fight without the intention to end a life, but that’s what happened.

TRANSITION: 

jinyong came back to his senses in the middle of the street with dirt & blood on his knuckles & face, beaten, but without a sign of the other’s body anywhere around him. he had no memory of what had happened, but he was having a panic attack & didn’t trust his adoptive parents enough to ask for help.

not long after that jinyong was tracked down & supposed to be charged for murder but a psychiatrist managed to prove that jin had dissociative identity disorder, so they placed him in a mental hospital.

alone, terrified & clueless of jeaki’s deed, jin cried his eyes out in his room in the hospital, until everything around him started pixelating.

SHIN DEIJI:

present day. no, there was not an epic war between alts & their host in order to determine who’d be the cured version of him in this world. it was peaceful. fragments of jin, jiu & jeaki merged in order to form a boy who thoroughly knows himself, but doesn’t know how he’ll react to anything. the voices from his head are gone   ------   they all speak at the same time when he opens his mouth.

seeing how he’s the perfect harmony of the three boys that used to live in his body, he couldn’t choose one of their names. he also didn’t want to be associated with anything from his past. that’s when he adopted the name shin deiji, deiji meaning daisy, his mother’s favourite flower. he might introduce himself to you as daisy rather than deiji if you don’t speak korean.

depending on what kind of person you are, you will be shown an appropriate side of deiji’s personality. so, when a couple of different people sit down and start talking about deiji, they might realise that it sounds as if they’re talking about different individuals.

he doesn’t trust people easily. he’d rather die than let anyone lay a poisonous hand on him again. he sticks up for himself. he’s his own protector and best friend. he’ll play you before you even think about playing him.

him not trusting people doesn’t mean he doesn’t engage in various interactions with them. he loves to charm his way into people’s lives because he’s no longer scared that he’ll blackout & do something that he won’t remember afterwards. something that he won’t be fully aware of & unable to control.

hooo, boy. he’s so angry. if you’re rude to him, he’ll be twice as rude to you. always wants to one up others. always. if you’re playing a game ?? he will lie & cheat & do everything to win. then lie about lying & cheating. if he still loses, expect a hissy fit.

god. affection. give this boy affection. would 11/10 die if someone cuddled him. especially when he’s being Extra with his raging, burning anger. he’d just ... melt tf away.

loves to party ?? he doesn’t have to take his medication anymore, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to drink and get high every chance he gets. get those nasty substances away from him. they took his mother away.

he’s forgiven his mother for every single bad word she directed towards him bc he knows what it’s like battling a mental illness. he’d give anything for a chance to see her again & tell her that he loves her.

nanotechnology is still the love of his life & he’s still such a nerd and wants to know what tf is up with this virtual world & figure out how it works but like ... he’s a scared bambi that fears that he’ll get sent back to his own personal hell if he tries to figure out what’s going on.

so rly what he’s focusing on rn is becoming an actor because he has all these FEELINGS that need to be expressed without having a poor individual who’d be hit by that tidal wave. he rly wants to act, he thinks that will help him a lot. the idea of finding roles that would fit each of the personalities he previously consumed makes him all giddy.

pansexual & rly just a sexual person afaf.

so ... basically what i’m giving you here is a screaming nerd who loves to flirt. ok. should’ve only written that. rip.

if you’re still confused: he no longer has mpd. call him deiji/daisy. don’t yell at him. unless you want bad shit to happen ??

if you’ve read all of this, you’re my new best friend & i love you more than anything glrwbgowgo. come plot with me !!

[sommer-rain]

last night i dreamt that i was visiting my dad and Marja, and as i was there Roadhog and Junkrat, characters from the game Overwatch, apparently had their way via the road my dad lives at and came to us. I almost don’t remember anything about that, but what i know it was near that we could all have been killed by them in one or another way. But in some way i just don’t remember, we were lucky to live and they continued their crime and killing spree. I remember i was much afraid by their approach because i knew how dangerous there were and could be.

Later there were for some reason a little disposal plant maybe around a kilometer are a bit further along the same road, still in the woods part of the road, on the same side as my dad’s property is. It only existed in the dream and i thought it was quite odd in the dream as well.   -There were a jippo or occasion of some sorts that was full of people, well as much as probably fit there as it wasn’t any bigger than a smaller lawn with a little house-looking building. There were lot of people both inside and outside there and everybody seemed to be in-tune with the occasion whatever it was really about. It had to do something with sorting out all the garbage there and they enjoyed being there with lots of talking. Me and my family was there too. The rest, it must have probably been about the whole neighbourhood i could imagine. It’s not so many people living in my dad’s area of the village, so.

Anyway, i wasn’t really bother this occasion personally but was more there because everyone else was there in the way that it seemed to be something you were suppose to come to as you were one of the inhabitans there, well i guess in one way..i grew up there but i now live in another village and i was visiting my dad as that occasion happened in the dream.   - And then, suddenly the two Junkers came -of course- there too! This time i was even more freaking scared off them since last time in the dream. I OF COURSE IT WAS GIVEN THAT THEY HAD THEIR WAY HERE AROUND WHEN THIS OCCASION EXISTED! I think i was inside the building not really interacting or doing anything certain by myself having quite boring when they came. As i realize they had come and no one doesn’t really take notice of them.. i think if made it seem worse as i knew we must be doomed all of us. They didn’t really seem to make up a chaos and all that violent stuff that peobably the reason why people didn’t bother them, but i was trying to stay calm struggling not to panic and cold sweat and hope for the best as i tried to keep myself in control. But i felt just more and more paranoid. It could have been an half hour, less than or maybe a bit more, can’t tell, but i was so paranoid to think that they for sure was and had set up some very explosive bombs and stuff around hidden so no one suspected  anything. At last i couldn’t take it anymore, i really really didn’t want to die by them and by any big explosives, so what do i do? Something i would never do unless in a dream. Being brave? Sorry not this time.  -I didn’t say a word to anyone, i just hurried out of the building and the property as i hoped i wasn’t going to be killed by the Junkers bare hands on my way out. I ran outside, and out in the woods some good meters away hiding and just fucking hoping i wasn’t going to die by any explosives having so big explosion i would die by flying depris. IF there ever were any bombs set up. I_ had no idea, i was just so scared for like okay.   -That’s all i remember but fuck i was sooooo afraid of them in that dream. Especially actually Roadhog!

Then i have no idea what that dream actually means, i’m really bad at figuring out such things. :/