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kamari333 · 4 years

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I had to actually look back to see if I made any tumblr posts about these guys. I couldn’t find any??? So I guess this is my oppertunity to scream about these absolute fucking bastards.

Now. Um. Forewarning: I don’t actually know a lot about the original dreamtale. Or, I don’t keep up with it, at least. I read the first origin comic (and a bit of the cream ship comic) one time a while ago and... i dunno. found it lacking? I liked the premise but there was something distinctly missing in it for me. So these headcanons are more like an AU (an AU of an AU, surprise surprise, I’m on my shit again XD) that I thought up to help me enjoy the concept more when writing it. I’ve been calling it ‘Dr33mtal3’ in my head, but a friend named it ‘Dryad Dreamtale’ so either of those names work.

So. Dream and Night are tree spirits shaped like skeletons, born of the tree of duality to be its guardians. They were made to be more like monsters to better protect the tree and put its power to use.

Now, plants and gods (and especially god-plants) have very different ideals, morals, and expectations than mortals and humans and monsters. Dream and Night are half plant/god, but they are also half monster/mortal, so they cannot relate entirely to their tree mom or completely understand her. Likewise, she could not completely understand them. Thus, the twins understandably had a stressful, dysfunctional childhood and have long lasting mommy/daddy issues.

They also suffer from significant other kinds of trauma inflicted on them by their villager guardians.

So they are both psychologically fucked up.

They both have “wings” and “tentacles” but Night hides his wings and Dream hides his tentacles. Night’s wings are smaller than Dreams.

they aren’t actually tentacles though. they are roots and vines. because they are tree spirits. using those roots/vines, they can directly soak up energy and water. likewise, the “feathers” on their wings are actually leaves (except near the base and ridges, which are more like flower petals). they use these leaves to breathe in ambient emotions.

when injured, they bleed resin. that goop on nightmare? excess sap/resin he’s overgenerating thanks to consuming so many apples.

usually only strong internal emotions would make them do that. its only because of such strong internal emotions that nightmare continues to do that even after a thousand years.

i think that, being plants (which are terribly spiteful and innovative creatures) night and dream can control the consistency and nature of their sap and resin. dream keeps his sweet and sugary at all times, but nightmare switxhes between spicy-like-ghost-pepper-in-the-face caustic and rubber, and mild maple syrup, depending on his mood and how much he wants the person he is touching to hurt.

i think that dream is both terribly selfish and painfully selfless all at once, both kind and cruel. i think he is a very seelie fae who will never break a promise, but will not let you go unpunished for breaking yours. i think he has no problem breaking your legs if it means saving you from something else. dream will happily beat someone within an inch of their life, then nurse them back to health, if he thinks for a moment it is for the greater good.

nightmare goes to great lengths to make people hate him. at the end of the day he is as disgusted with himself as anyone else, but he does it and will keep doing it because if no one fears him, they will destroy him. nightmare is a terrible unseelie fae, but he will never speak an untrue word or break an oath once struck. it is not in his nature. he will rule with an iron fist, but he is just as capable of selflessness as he is of cruelty.

i think dream is so concerned with the big picture he sometimes forgets little details. i think he is the type to take in strays before he has a home to keep them in. he befriends ink and ink makes him a multiverse home to keep his people safe in. dream then takes it upon himself to make sure it stays operational, despite eventually accumulating a city’s worth of people in what was originally a 4 bedroom townhouse. lucky him that ink has his back, continually expanding as needed.

i think nightmare is far more artistic and clever than folks give him credit for. i think he enjoys making things. i think he is the type of man to take great pride in building everything he has himself. his castle is made out of his own power: stone made of his own resin, hardened into amber; wood grown from his own bones; tapestries woven of textiles made from his own leaves, pets, and processed wood. his castle of black amber is constructed of his own blood, sweat, and tears, lovingly handcrafted art for him to live in. all natural. all his. (such a shame he never got around to furnishing all of it, having only enough time and drive to do the first floor with how long handweaving the carpets took; such a shame no one noticed or cared because the fear for their lives overshadowed any awe they could have had upon seeing the delicate craftsmanship of the arching ceilings and looming statues).

i think dream and night both love fresh water and sunlight. they get incredibly sleepy if its too hot or too cold. they are terrified of fire, squirrels, fungi, and insects. they dont like birds much either. they easily get jealous of other plants (comically so, to the point of sassing or threatening or passive-aggressively insulting non-sapient rose bushes or fica or succulents they come into contact with). they are scared of mistletoe (being a plant that eats other plants, kinda).

i hc that dream with faint dead on his feet if he gets too scared, and nightmare screams like a white girl in a horror movie.

i like to think that because they are trees, they have a “season” (like heat, but for trees) where they are very pro-affection. their leaves turn pink and they involuntarily cover themselves in pink pollen that drives nearby creatures’ libido into overdrive. neither brother likes this, so when their season hits they hide away so nobody notices (night because he does not want to seem weak, dream because he does not want to inconvenience anyone else).

i like to headcanon that a holdover from their human attributes means each brother can only formulate one set of sex organs. i’ll give you a hint: nightmare is trans in my hc (be gay do crime). he takes great pains to make sure nobody knows this.

i like to think that both brothers hide all of this, hide all of their tree-ness as best they can, and instead hide behind the aspects of being an angel and a tentacle abomination in order to throw off anyone who might look for weaknesses. so nobody knows what they really are.

These are all superficial HCs of course. The big thing is that i wanted their natures to be... more complicated than simply good and evil. They believe and say that they are guardians of positivity and negativity (and in a way thats true), but only in its most simplistic of forms.

Dream is the aspect of Giving: he radiates pollen and magical influence to embue those around him with his power. He can give them emotions. He eats positivity, thats what sustains him, but his power is to give. He could just as easily give his people bad feelings as good ones (not that he knows this). However, Dream only knows and cares about giving positivity. So he does. He leaves his magic and influence on the souls of anyone who will give him the oppertunity, and once the door is open, he will continually feed them his power to make them happy. He will eat/breathe that happiness, converting it to energy, perpetuating the cycle.

But unmitigated mania has its drawbacks. There is a price to be paid in the end.

Nightmare is the aspect of Taking. He takes and takes, taking the emotions and energy of others for himself. He can even take the entropy out of an injury to heal a wound. Nightmare can take positivd feelings out of others, but for some reason his body doesn’t like him doing that and makes him sick/hurt. He has a much easier time taking negativity, draining away the hurt and fear and exhaustion, leaving a calming emptiness behind. Nightmare cannot process or use everything he takes for himself, needing to expell it as a waste product. He converts negative feelings (and the wasted energy disipated through entropy) into energy, which lets him continue his taking.

You cannot fill a hole that is already filled, after all. You must empty it first.

These two aspects are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. There are good and bad things about them. But these aspects have been oversimplified and misinterpreted by those around the twins that even they themselves do not fully understand what it is that they are.

and i think a story about them coming to understand themselves would be so much more interesting than a simple story of good vs evil.

#kamari333answers #kamari333headcanon #dr33mtal3

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croik · 5 years

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Upgrade vs Venom

My sister and I celebrated New Year’s Day by doing laundry and watching Upgrade and Venom back to back, because 2019 is the year of scruffy dudes who lose control of their bodies. There were a lot of expected and unexpected parallels and afterward all I can say is

GO WATCH UPGRADE

Hollly shit this movie was great. I can’t stop geeking out about it. Really interesting premise, fantastic work by the lead actors, excellent choreography and camera work, with the violence and quirky sense of humor you can expect from Leigh Whannell. As a fan of his from Saw I was super excited to see this original sci-fi thriller from him, it’s so much fresher and more compelling than the stuff he’s been doing with Wan lately (sorry Wan (not sorry)). I can’t recommend it enough.

For the unfamiliar, the story is about a man who becomes paralyzed, and has a microchip embedded in his spine so that he can regain control of his limbs. Considering it’s a Rated R sci-fi thriller assume that lots goes wrong. I don’t want to spoil any more than that because this is one of those movies where the less you know going in, the better. Definitely slots up with Annihilation and Hereditary among my favorites films of the year. At the beginning we were joking that lead actor Logan Marshall-Green was a poor man’s Tom Hardy, but after watching these two movies back to back, I gotta say, I enjoyed his performance way more.

Because man does Venom suffer by comparison. I gotta say, the critics were more right than fandom this time, at least for me - I did not like Venom. Tom Hardy’s performance was all over the place by design, but beyond “disaster human” I couldn’t get a good read of him at all. I know they weren’t trying to connect to an existing universe but even so the world-building was nonsensical. Barely any organic growth between Eddie and Venom, just a lot of Venom either not understanding or perfectly understanding aspects of human culture depending on what would be funnier in the moment. Nothing about it felt honest or earned, not one story beat unexpected or exciting. And the CGI was, frankly, terrible?? I don’t understand how a superhero movie in 2018 can have such shoddy CGI.

Venom does have a lot more opportunities for shipping, I’ll give it that! Upgrade suffers from a serious lack of tentacle porn options. I’m very sad I didn’t see Upgrade until now and couldn’t request it for Yuletide this year though, because damn do I have some ideas. I gotta try to remember for next year.

Anyway, long story short I LOVED Upgrade and Venom was meh. These two movies aren’t really meant to be compared, but there are enough thematic similarities that really illuminate how big hollywood can take a fascinating premise and turn it into something flashy and shallow...while there are indie’s with the same skeleton of a movie making it into something special and exhilarating. I’m so thrilled for Whannell, I hope he keeps on making great things!

#Upgrade #upgrade movie #movie review #i didn't like venom #it didn't stand a chance against the shaky awkward crying blonde boy let's be honest #ugh i'm going to own that movie

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darkspellmaster · 6 years

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She-Ra Trailer Theory: Cons

Okay I’m going to pretty much put these down as they come. The longer they are the more likely I have a major issue with them, the shorter the comments, consider those more along the lines of nitpicks to meh sort of things. Those would be aspects that I personally may not get but others may like, so meh on it.

So to start with, we have the weird portal opening up.

My main issue is, what is the point in showing this? That’s not the fright zone. Certainly isn’t Skydancer mountain, and isn’t part of Mystracor. Is this supposed to be Shadow Weaver casting a spell? It looks a lot like the portal in the 2002 He-man series. If they are avoiding that show, why connect to the portal idea there? Yes Hordak was cast into Etheria but why do the same sort of thing you were doing in the 2002-03 Masters of the Universe show if you’re trying to avoid it. Seems kind of dumb to me in that sense.

Also, if this is a portal to the Horde Planet, then is this Hordak doing this, or Shadow Weaver again? And is Hordak there or in another location at this time and being called down? Or is this pulling in Horde Prime? So are they aliens or magic users here? Seems more like Aliens which ties into the mini comics, but the designs seem to imply the 2002 He-man. So what is going on here. I don’t like this shot being used as it probably will come off as confusing later on to the viewers who have no idea of the Lore of MotU.

Hordak. Okay, I will admit when I was little I liked Skeletor a lot more because I always felt that Skeletor was funnier due to his voice, and Hodak was creepy. Now, I will say this though, that creepy factor played a big point in what made him a threat. This...what the heck is this?

This is not Hordak. Sure he has on the Horde logo, but his design is not good. Let me explain, Hordak is supposed to look like a monster. He’s supposed to be creepy as he’s not of this world. He’s the brother of Horde Prime, the ruler of this group. This is not creepy. This is Man-bat from Batman the Animated series.

Let’s start with his new design shall we. What color is that face? Gray, blue? It’s certainly not bone white, which is what his face is supposed to be. At least the eyes are red, but what is with the hair on the head? His race/species/whatever the Horde are, are not supposed to have hair, save for special cases like Prince Zed. Why is he blue? Then there’s the fact that his collar blends into his ears. That collar is supposed to accentuate the face, not vanish into the head. And what is that collar supposed to be? Metal? Why not go back to his old bones design. Show that he’s a danger. Right now he looks like he would be at home on a ship with the Galra from the new Voltron, or hanging out with the leads from Skeleton Warriors.

Also, and this is more a nitpick, but what is up with making him metal with the arms. He’s not a robot, you don’t need to put him with Robotic things. This isn’t Silver Hawks. And not showing his snort, come on. Really, that’s a staple of this character. He snorts, it’s part of his thing. Then there’s the added issue of why bother having him in the dark rather than just show him. You’re not hiding anything, we see him a few scene’s later, so what’s the point?

Then there’s the fact that he’s just on screen. Why? Again, is he not on planet? If not, why? He’s the leader of the Horde. Is he stuck somewhere? Is he still on Horde world? If that’s the case, why? He’s supposed to be a major threat and instead we get onscreen moments. Okay, so...are we trying to be the Light from Young Justice, because if so then we have to talk.

There’s just something way to weak feeling about this Hordak, and that really really bugs me. He’s dangerous, a creature that can wreck Skeletor as seen in the 2002 MotU series where he manged to cause him so much pain he fell off his throne and down stairs because his head hurt so much. This guy looks more like someone that can be easily removed from play by another character, and I hope that’s not the case.

I’m gonna be blunt and probably one of the few that hold this opinion. I’m not a fan of the Catra design here. I’m not against it, I just feel like she looks a lot like a character from Thundercats with this new look. Like I can see her hanging out with Wiley Kit and Kat from the new Thundercats series. She looks like she could be Tigra from Marvel Rising. Clothing wise, I don’t like the pants, shirt is fine, headress is fine, I hate the ears though, and again that’s just my issue there.

Also she’s reminding me of an angry Merle from Escaflowne, and I really don’t want her to become that sort of character. The overly annoying one. I get that they wanted to show more than just humans working for the horde, but Catra and the one guy in the other shot with her talking to the Horde cadets(?), but right now it’s making it appear that only the monsters are on the side of the Horde, and thus Humans vs Monsters, which kind of sucks because there was a number of non human beings that fought alongside She-ra and the rebellion, and instead the creatures are just given a minor moment in the trailer.

Shadow Weaver. Screw. This. Design.

No seriously, I hate this look on her. The dress looks really dumb. Are they supposed to be tentacles that are walking her? Is she just floating, and if so, why? We can see she has human hands, but no feet?

The top is bad, really bad. It makes no sense to be cut the way it is. It would be a pain in the neck getting it on. There is nothing in this design that works. What is up with the turtle neck? She doesn’t need it if she’s wearing a mask and what looks like a high collar dress. It’s annoying and fabric doesn’t work like that!

Also the mask, that mask is...ugh. What are we going for here? Phantom of the Opera, Cobra Commander, Destro? M.A.S.K.? Rom Space Knight? One of the X-men? A 90s retro villain from Image comics? Like seriously? What is with this horrible design for her.

Then the hair. If she’s not a shadow creature like, Kurogiri from My Hero Academia, then why is her hair floating like that? Then it, like Hordak’s, blends into the background. Why are we having her hair float? She’s not a living shadow, she’s a former Princess from Mystacor who betrayed the others for power.

I’m damn sure that they are sticking with that backstory since it’s the most likely reason that the first princess group fell. Unless they make it where her working with the Dark arts turned her into this, because then we’re just redoing what happened to Haggar, and she’s a bit of a redo on several other various characters who go evil when they seek too much power.

Also, if they are making her the one that stole Adora, or the one to raise her, I will be really mad because that changes a huge important aspect of Adora’s life with the Horde. Yes Shadow Weaver did “raise” her, but the thing is that there was another woman involved there who actually gave Adora her moral code. Now if Shadow Weaver wants her back because she probably is the key to getting them into Eternia, then yes that is right, but if it’s “She’s my daughter and I love her” then the team really do not understand Shadwo weaver at all. Shadow Weaver is a selfish woman who only cares about herself and her desire for power. So I’m not digging this version of Shadow Weaver very much.

Where the sword is located. This sword is supposed to be with it’s twin in Castle Grayskull. Unless this show tells us point blank that the Sorceress threw that sword into Etheria and it had the vines grow over it I’m calling BS on where she finds it.

The sword of protection is the twin sword to the sword of power. They are the connecting pieces to that of Grayskull and the power that is given to both She-ra and He-man. We know the sword is connected to Grayskull as she even says it when she does the “For the Honor of Grayskull” which is in Eternia. So why would the Sorcress abandon the weapon that would be the one thing that can defeat Hordak? Again, I hope they correct this in some way and address it sooner rather than later, because they made that same damn mistake with the Snake-men in the 2002 series.

Netossa...ah Netossa...what have you done to Netossa.

Now I’m not going to complain about her looks, I’m more annoyed with the fact that she has magic. One of the many cool aspects about Netossa that made her stand out was the fact that she didn’t need magic to be a bad-ass. Hailing from the far north of Etheria, she became an expert with her ability to use nets to capture and hold enemies. She never had magic at all and became one of the best allies in the Rebellion all from hard work and practice.

When the others had issues where their magic couldn’t be used, she could easily handle things because, again, she didn’t need to worry about it because no magic.

Now we have this version giving her magic, making it where only the boys are special enough to not need magic to do things. It just sort of annoys me that they took that away from her. She was skilled enough not to need to use magic to make her special and now Bow and maybe SeaHawk will be the only ones that don’t use magic. I get the idea of making her a magic girl too, but I always loved her because she wasn’t like the other characters. She became a bad-ass on her own, and worked hard to be one.

So, I”m guessing here that the chick with the horns is probably the OC Noelle mentioned. *sighs* So here’s my question, is she just a background character that stands there and does nothing. Okay fine...I can deal. But if this character starts to play a part and replaces someone like say Flutterina, or Peekablue, it will become a sticking point for me. D&D characters should not be in She-ra. It’s a completely different franchise and personally I do not want that cross over. I don’t want her to become a mary-sue and over shadow the rest of the cast. That’s what worries me.

Okay this one is a huge sticking point for me. Spirit here better have been transformed by the damn sword before this scene, because if he’s already a unicorn/pegasus, we have a serious issue here and someone didn’t pay any attention to how that sword works.

The Sword of Protection is a transformation item. Unlike the Sword of Power, Protection can become many things as well as change many things to be used by She-ra. Spirit, her horse, who becomes Swift Wind when he changes, is a normal horse. He’s a ordinary horse, and Adora changes him with her sword to make him become more advantage to her fighting and to connect to the idea of her becoming someone different. (And I’m about to get to that in a second.)

By having Spirit already a magical flying horse you take a way a big part of the secret identity situation, as well as showing that they change into something more powerful than they are with the sword. By leaving him as a magic horse early on, you kind of screw that up. Also he better talk.

Speaking of issues about secrets...

Why the hell are we having everyone know who She-ra is! That’s sort of the deal with this. It’s a secret! Not only for the safety of Adora, but for the Rebellion as well!

Having everyone know means that word will get back to Hordak and pretty much then everyone will know her weak points! That’s damn dumb! Oh sure drama with Catra, for about an episode or two, but other than that, it makes them seem dumb that they can’t beat her. Not only that, but if they know, then if Glimmer get’s taken and Angella has to chose between telling the Horde who She-ra is or see her daughter hurt, (because they will), she’ll probably tell it’s Adora. And if Catra knows, I mean what’s to keep her from telling Hordak? Like is Shadow Weaver that dumb to Hide it from Hordak? Are they really making these guys that dumb? This is the point of the secret identity thing. It’s to keep her safe and her friends safe, and why Madam Razz, Kowl and Lookee were important to the story.

Speaking of...why are so many characters missing?

Okay I can get half of the Princesses missing because they were part timers. But Madame Regina Fancy Razz, Broom, Kowl and Lookee were all part of the show from the start. They were the ones to discover the truth and were the ones to make sure that the Horde doesn’t find out that she’s She-ra. Now everyone in the freaking Rebellion knows, and that doesn’t bode well for story telling.

Razz could contact the Sorcress, and was also someone that was up their with Shadow Weaver in the magic department. Broom was the one that helped her out with spells and also was someone who gave good advice to Adora about real situations, Kowl was the guy that was friends with Bow and knew his back story and helped him out a lot, and Look-ee, was....well he existed. Missing them though seems like a bad choice in this. Maybe as others have said they will show up in the next season or this one, but still I would think that having the person that was Queen Angella’s second best friend not around is, weird.

If that is Imp, well that sucks. One, why make him a baby? Unless he’s like freaking Koenma, from Yu Yu Hakusho, where he can get older and has an older brain in him then what’s the point of making him a baby? To give Hordak a more annoying character to hang around with? To make him be a daddy? Come on! Lame.

Imp is the most reliable of the Horde, even above Shadow Weaver when it comes to doing things. He’s a bit of a jerk, sure, but over all he’s an interesting villain with some comedic elements. Making him a baby just is weird. What’s he going to do? Cry them into a bad situation? I’m sorry, it’s just way to weird. It didn’t work in the 90s when this was a thing, and it sure as hell won’t work now.

Unless he’s Death 13′s Baby, I’m already dreading this character.

Also why is Entrapa with the good guys?

Is this Entrapa? If it is, she better become a baddie because she’s a Horde worker, and honestly having her with the good guys is way to weird.

Lastly....

Where the hell is the Horde?

Is this it?

Is the girl with the dreads supposed to be Octavia? She’s the only other female character. Unless that’s a new version of Mantenna? Like the only one that could be Leach is the green guy and he looks more like a lizard or reptile creature than one of the Horde members.

We’re missing quiet a few: Mantenna ( a Rebrunk Nuru who has several ray abilities with his eyes and is the scout for Hordak) , Grizzlor (who’s like a were-wolf character), Multi-bot (a robot that can transform with others to create a new sort of monster and armor), Dylamug (who can shift faces and is part Robot), Admiral Scurvy (Cyborg head of the Horde Navy), Vultek (who is a flying bird man creature that is in charge of Hordak’s zoo where he keeps creatures that he finds interesting -including those that are beings from Etheria), False-Face (A shape shifter that can take on any appearance).

Then there’s Scorpina. I know there were complaints about She-ra’s look, but if this is about good looking costumes, why does Scorpina have Power Girl’s window in her outfit? Her old one covered more than her new one does.

Also, straight up, are they going to at all cover the fact that Scorpina owns slaves from Etheria? She’s from the Crimson Waste and was right up there with power in regard to control over Etheria. I just hope she’s actually a force to deal with and not someone who is put under Catra’s thumb because those two would go at it in regard to power struggles all the time.

Lastly, I’m hoping that Hordak is actually the main villain and not Shadow Weaver. I’m not a huge fan of “Girl’s show must have girl villain to fight against” because if it’s Shadow Weaver as the big bad and Hordak’s just a Doctor Claw like person then I’m going to step away from this show. Hordak and She-ra’s relationship is key to this series as a whole. He stole her from her family, brainwashed her and forced her to serve him. The fact that so much of her history is being stripped here, is not a good thing. She stood up to the person that basically abused and used her, the guy that screwed over her life and fought against him. And I think it would be a sad thing to take away that powerful statement. But that’s just me.

#she-ra #she-ra trailer #she-ra theory #she-ra theories #spop #she-ra and the princess of power #she-ra and the princesses of power theory #she-ra and the princess of power theories #shera #spop theories

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springdayismyaesthetic · 6 years

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Not Today: The Beginning

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Mature??

Pairings: TBA

Warnings: this is going to be rough guys, it’s aliens vs Earth soooo

Word count: 1898

Author’s note: I had a dream about this so it became a thing lolol. Also at the end when I write the other parts I will link them at the bottom of this. I will also put separate links in the master list. If that was confusing, I’m sorry, but you’ll understand later. Enjoy!

The Year 3090 A.D.

Four months ago the war started. A giant metal aircraft parked itself in front of our sun and demanded to speak to our highest official. People freaked, ran for the hills when they showed up. They called themselves Tretords and wanted to know about our history, our world. Four months ago the Hellhounds, a special operations team, were sent on a mission into the atmosphere and the mysterious spacecraft just sitting there. It was like all the movies and books out there, everything that Earth had ever feared was coming true. Their ships were bigger, their guns were bigger, and by God, their monsters were bigger. The so-called peaceful beings were cruel and relentless. The small team was victorious in their trip, learning all they could before coming back to Earth from the peaceful confrontation. The four returned unscathed but worried. The Tretords feared humans. They had seen what war we were capable of, what horrors we had committed. They had seen everything from atomic bombs to guillotines and deemed us unworthy of inhabiting a planet. That’s when the Tretords released the Beasties onto the packed safety cities. Gigantic, wild furry monsters that tore buildings apart with ease. They smashed humans under their massive paws and shook their acid drool over the streets. Three million people died in a week. Who are the evil ones now?

Like most movies, Earth fought back, and like the movies, Earth was losing big time. That’s where the Hellhounds come into play. They have seen the Tretords up close under peaceful terms; they know the weaknesses that other people don’t that’s why they’re here today. To save what can’t be saved.

This is the story of how the human race died, and how Y/N tried her best to save it.

“Jungkook seriously, stop, I want my muffin.” Viviana frowned and held her hand out towards the tall, grinning man. His eyes disappeared into crescents as he laughed, bunny teeth showing as he took a bite of the chocolate treat. The dyed blonde Jimin beside him was doing his best not to laugh at the two as the truck lurches back and forth on the highway. Your stern gaze meets Jungkook’s eyes, and he reluctantly hands the muffin back to Viviana, who excitedly devours it in a few bites. Her dark hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and her sun-kissed skin is shining today. Your team, the Hellhounds, are on the way to America's army base. Jeon Jungkook and Park Jimin are the best of the best when it comes to the South Korean army, which is why when the war started the elite team was put together. Viviana Encarnacion was one of the few Mexican spies left, and you were trained through a small and hidden Russian organization in the States. Your bulletproof vest scratches against your neck uncomfortably; you let your hand reach up and rest on the strap of the vest, holding it away from your neck. “The city is in bad shape.” You start, the Beasties had been unleashed on New York City a week ago, leaving it in ruins. “We don’t have time to stop to help anyone, we have to get below the city and to the base.” The words drone out of you, practiced, precise, and most importantly without emotion. You’re met with a well known, but comfortable silence. You all know what’s at stake in today’s world.

Once the truck comes to a stop, Viviana pushes the door open, and the sight you’re met with have you cursing under your breath. Smoke billows from buildings and there are still screaming echoing off of the skyscrapers walls. “Ay, mi Dios.” Viviana murmurs, her accent thick and voice cracking with emotion. Your boots hit the ground with a soft thump, and your breath is taken away with the sight of the city. The once majestic skyscraper-filled city is destroyed, rubble and dead bodies litter the streets. “Remember why we’re here,” Jungkook mutters as he climbs out of the truck, shaking you from the moment and helping you remember the reason why you’re standing here. The military needs to understand what they’re up against. The army captain that was driving the truck has made his way to stand beside Jimin, “A nasty sight, but we’re going to win this.” The man smiles. Hopefully, his dyed grey hair swoops over his forehead as he pushes a hand through it. His name tag reads Kim Taehyung, and you make a mental note to thank him for driving later, but now, your focus is getting to the army base. “Viv, with me,” you say to your left and swing the assault rifle off of your shoulders and into your hands, there’s no promise that there are no Tretords left in the city. Viviana is silent as she follows your footsteps while Jimin and Jungkook skirt around the buildings and Taehyung bring up the rear. Your breaths come out in quick gasps as you head towards the empire state building, only to be met with a broken skeleton of a building. That’s what the army wants the Tretords to think, that they’ve broken the humans. They haven’t even made a dent in human pride.

Fluorescent lights flicker above you as you head towards the stairs and into the basement. A large steel door stands ahead, and Viviana rings the buzzer. The camera swivels in its spot above the door, and the little red light flashes green as the door unlocks. Jungkook pulls the door open as Viviana heads into the next hallway. The end of the dark hall opens into a vast space, a giant bunker right under the city that had been here since after World War II when the threat of nuclear war had gotten more prominent. Now here you were, using it to hide from aliens.

Men march in lines across the room and some families laugh in the corners. They are building a lifestyle here. “Ah, if it isn’t the Hellhounds.” A deep voice calls from the security camera office. The General of the Army steps into the brightly lit metallic hall with a dimpled smile. “General Kim, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” You smile and shake his outstretched hand. His full name is Kim Namjoon, and when the world armies merged, the US President named him General of the army. The camo outfit fits him well, belt tight at the waist and boots laced high. “I’m just glad you could make it, it was a war zone up there.” He says, pushing a hand through his hair, “I saw.” You murmur, and he motions for you to follow him. The lieutenant general rushes up to General Kim, panting and out of breath. “They’re ready for the presentation.” He pants. “This is lieutenant Kim.” he says, gesturing towards the dark haired man, “there’s quite a lot of Kims around here.” Viviana snorts beside me, “You can call me, worldwide handsome.” The man smiles, pointing his finger and thumb out, resting his chin in the crook between the two fingers and winks. Viv snorts, covering her mouth with her hand and she rolls her eyes ridiculously. “His full name is Seokjin.” General Kim laughs and Seokjin groans, “You were supposed to play along!” You smile, what’s a little fun at the end of the world?

The conference room is packed with superiors from different sections of the condensed army. The fleet admiral, Min Yoongi, sits with his vice-admiral, Jung Hoseok, at the end of the table with some other navy men. Army men file in, Taehyung and Seokjin take a seat with them, and a couple of air force men twiddle their thumbs impatiently. “Sorry, we’re late.” You say as Jimin sets up the hologram box on the table. The hologram of a Tretord springs up into the air, causing a few people to wince. These things were scary and almost like an octopus. It reminded you of the old War of The Worlds illustrations, all noodly and octopus-like. With a deep breath you begin, “Tretords are small but don’t underestimate them. They may only come up to your waist, but those tentacles are nasty. They are filled with small hooks to help them grasp onto the walls or floor, that’s how they move around.” You take a breath and glance at Viviana before continuing. “Those small hooks on their arms easily cut through skin, making you bleed out in a matter of minutes. Armor helps, so please, wear your armor.” Viviana takes this as her cue to begin. “The Tretords have a small weakness, a chink in their armor so to speak, right in their beak. Like an octopus, their beak is the hardest part of their body, but inside the jaw is the softest. If you can hit the back of their throat, it kills them instantly.” She smiles triumphantly as the hologram opens its mouth, proving her point as a holographic bullet sinks into its throat. You cross your arms and look across the room, all the men and women pay close attention to the presentation, causing pride to swell in your chest. This information will save lives.

Jimin talks next of the Beasties, they have no official name, just the name we gave them. Beasties range in height, but most of them are about two stories tall, covered in fur, and acid drips from their mouth. These things are hard to kill. “Unless you have a well-aimed grenade,” Jimin says, voice shaky with nerves, he’s better at being a silent killer than a spokesperson. “Again, the mouth is your best option, but the legs work just as well.” Jimin takes a sip of water out of the glass before continuing. “If you are stuck with just a gun, aim for the eyes, it goes straight to the brain, and like most beings, once the brain is dead the body dies.” The hologram shuts off, and General Kim flicks the lights back on. Jungkook stands beside you, tall and fearless as the room bursts into sound. Questions fly through the air and Viviana flinches at the loudness of it all. “Quiet!” Jungkook shouts, and the room falls silent, his voice shaking them into quiet. “I will answer your questions one at a time.” That’s when a boy, barely eighteen, pushes his way into the room panicked and eyes wide with fear.

“The Tretords are breaking into our communications.” He pants, and that’s when the room explodes yet again, and the boy looks like he’s either going to wet himself or start crying. “Hey!” you shout, and slowly the room quiets back down. “I will speak to them, just put me through.” The boy nods, and as he turns to leave the room you point at someone, you know who and look him in the eyes. “You. With me.” And just like that, he follows you and the boy. From here on out you’re at war and there’s no way you’re losing. No, not today.

Who did y/n pick to go with her? The choice is up to you.

Namjoon

Seokjin

Yoongi

Hoseok

Jimin

Taehyung

Jungkook

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Game 321: Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters (1992)

Let’s not judge this one by its title screen . . .

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters

United States

Toys for Bob (developer); Accolade (publisher)

Released in 1992 for DOS, 1994 for the 3DO console; later fan ports to other platforms

Date Started: 23 Mach 2019

When I started this blog in 2010, I had already played, at least in adolescence–most of the RPGs that everyone else knows. I may not have remembered all of the details, but I at least could remember the basic outlines of The Bard’s Tale, Might and Magic, Wizardry, Questron, Pool of Radiance, and all of the Ultimas. There were lots of games I had never played–never even heard of–of course, but those were games that most other people my age had never encountered either. It wasn’t until about a year into my blog, with Dungeon Master, that I truly felt I was blogging about a game that I should be ashamed for never having played previously.

For the first time since then, I am in that position again with Star Control II, a game that frequently makes “top X” lists of the best games of all time. My commenters have mentioned it so many times that my usual pre-game search of previous comments turned up too many results to analyze. This one, in other words, is really going to fill a gap.

. . . even though the first game had an awesome title screen.

There has been some debate about whether Star Control II is an RPG, but at least almost everyone agrees that its predecessor was not. That predecessor went by the grandiose name Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict, Volume IV (1990), in an obvious homage to Star Wars. It’s an ambitious undertaking–part simulator, part strategy game, part action game. The player has to manage ships and other resources and plan conquests of battle maps, but in the end the conflict always comes down to a shooting match between two ships using Newtonian physics and relying almost entirely on the player’s own dexterity. This combat system goes back to Spacewar! (1962) and would be familiar to anyone who’s played Asteroids (1979).

The setup has an Earth united under one government by 2025. In 2612, Earth is contacted by a crystalline race called the Chenjesu and warned that the Ur-Quan Hierarchy, a race of slavers, is taking over the galaxy. (Star Control II retcons this date to 2112.) Earth is soon enlisted into the Alliance of Free Stars and agrees to pool resources in a mutual defense pact. The Alliance includes Earth, the philosophic Chenjesu, the arboreal Yehat, the robotic Mmrnmhrm, the elfin Ariloulaleelay, and a race of all-female nymphomaniacs called the Syreen who fly phallic ships with ribbed shafts.

On the other side are the Ur-Quan, an ancient tentacled species with a strict caste system. They make slaves out of “lesser races” and only communicate with them via frog-like “talking pets.” Their allies include Mycons, a fungus species; Ilwraths, a spider-like race that never takes prisoners; and Androsynths, disgruntled clones who fled captivity and experimentation on Earth. Each race (on both sides) has unique ship designs with various strengths and weaknesses, some of which nullify other ships. There’s a kind-of rock-paper-scissors element to strategically choosing what ships you want to employ against what enemies.

No “bumpy forehead” aliens in this setting.

The occasionally-goofy backstory and description of races seems to owe a lot (in tone, if not specifics) to Starflight (1986), on which Star Control author Paul Reiche III had a minor credit. There are probably more references than I’m picking up (being not much of a sci-fi fan) in the ships themselves. “Earthling Cruisers” (at least the front halves) look like they would raise no eyebrows on Star Trek, and both Ilwrath Avengers (in the back) and Vux Intruders (in the front) look like Klingon warbirds. The Ur-Quan dreadnought looks passably like the Battlestar Galactica.

The original Star Control offers the ability to fight player vs. player or set one of the two sides to computer control (at three difficulty levels). In playing, you can simply practice ship vs. ship combat with any two ships, play a “melee” game between fleets of ships, or play a full campaign, which proceeds through a variety of strategic and tactical scenarios involving ships from different species in different predicaments. The full game gives player the ability to build colonies and fortifications, mine planets, and destroy enemy installations in between ship-to-ship combats.

The various campaign scenarios in the original game.

The “campaign map” in the original game is an innovative “rotating starfield” that attempts to offer a 3-D environment on a 2-D screen. It takes some getting used to. Until they reach each other for close-quarters combat, ships can only move by progressing through a series of jump points between stars, and it was a long time before I could interpret the starfield properly and understand how to plot a route to the enemy.

Strategic gameplay takes place on a rotating starmap meant to simulate a 3-D universe.

I have not, in contrast, managed to get any good at ship combat despite several hours of practice. I’m simply not any good at action games. At the same time, I admire the physics and logistics of it. You maintain speed in the last direction you thrust even if you turn. You have limited fuel, so you can’t go crazy with thrusting in different directions. You can get hit by asteroids, or fouled in the gravity wells of planets. And you have to be conservative in the deployment of your ships’ special abilities, because they use a lot of fuel. Still, no game in which action is the primary determiner of success is going to last long on my play list. For such players, the game and its sequel offer “cyborg” mode, where technically you’re the player but the computer fights your battles, but I’d rather lose than stoop to that.

One of my lame attempts at space combat.

Star Control II opens with a more personal backstory. In the midst of the original Ur-Quan conflicts, the Earth cruiser Tobermoon, skippered by Captain Burton, was damaged in an ambush and managed to make it to a planet orbiting the dwarf star Vela. As they tried to repair the ship, crewmembers found a vast, abandoned underground city, populated with advanced technology, built by an extinct race known as the Precursors.

The backstory is reasonably well-told with title cards.

Burton reported the find when she returned to Earth, and she was ordered to return with a scientific team led by Jules Farnsworth. Shortly after they arrived, they received word from Earth that the Ur-Quan had learned about the Precursor city and were on their way. Burton balked at Earth’s orders to abandon and destroy the base with nuclear weapons. Instead, she sent her ship back to Earth under the command of her first officer and remained behind with the scientific team, planning to detonate nuclear weapons should the Ur-Quan ever arrive.

The team ended up spending 20 years on the planet, which they named Unzervalt, with no contact from Earth. During that time, the scientists discovered that the city had been created to build ships, and eventually they were able to activate the machines, which put together a starship. The machines shut down just as the ship was completed, reporting that there were insufficient raw materials to continue. About this time, Farnsworth admitted that he was a fraud, and all the success he’d experienced getting the machines up and running was due to a young prodigy born on Unzervalt–the player character.

They’re not kidding about the “skeleton” part.

Burton assembled a skeleton crew for the new starship, with the PC manning the computer station, and blasted off. Three days out, they discovered the derelict Tobermoon, damaged and bereft of any (living or dead) crewmembers. Burton took command of the Tobermoon while the PC was promoted to captain of the new ship. Tobermoon was soon attacked and destroyed by an unknown alien craft, leaving the new ship to escape to Earth. Here the game begins.

What “plight”? You live on a technologically-advanced Eden where your enemies seem to have forgotten about you.

The player can name himself and his ship, and that’s it for “character creation.” He begins in the middle of the solar system, in a relatively empty ship with 50 crew and 10 fuel. I intuited that I needed to fly to towards Earth, so I headed for the inner cluster of planets.

“Character creation.”

As the screen changed to show Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, a probe zoomed out and attached itself to our ship. It played a recording from an Ur-Quan (with the “talking pet” doing the talking), informing me that approaching Earth was forbidden, as was my status as an “independent” vessel. The probe then zoomed off to inform the Ur-Quan of my “transgressions,” leaving me to explore the planetary area at will. I guess the war didn’t go so well for the Alliance.

Well, we now know how the first game ended, canonically.

As I approached Earth, the screen changed to show Earth, the moon, and a space station orbiting Earth. Earth itself seemed to have some kind of red force field around it, so I approached the space station.

As I neared, I was contacted by a “Starbase Commander Hayes of the slave planet Earth.” He indicated that his energy cores were almost depleted and asked if we were the “Hierarchy resupply ship.” At this point, I had a few dialogue options. One allowed me to lie and say I was the resupply ship. Another had me introduce myself. A third–more reflective of what I was actually thinking–said “‘Slave planet?!’ ‘Hierarchy resupply vessel?!’ What is going on here?'” The commander said he’d answer my questions if we’d bring back some radioactive elements to re-power the station. He suggested that we look on Mercury.

I like dialogue options, but so far they’ve broken down into: 1) the straight, obvious option; 2) the kind-of dumb lie; and 3) the emotional option that still basically recapitulates #1.

I flew off the Earth screen and back to the main solar system screen. At some point during this process, I had to delete the version of the game that I’d downloaded and get a new one. None of the controls worked right on the first one I tried. I particularly couldn’t seem to escape out of sub-menus, which was supposed to happen with the SPACE bar. The second version I downloaded had controls that worked right plus someone had removed the copy protection (which has you identifying planets by coordinates). The controls overall are okay. They’re much like Starflight, where you arrow through commands and then hit ENTER to select one. I’d rather be able to just hit a keyboard option for each menu command, but there aren’t so many commands that it bothers me. Flying the ship is easy enough with the numberpad: 4 and 6 to turn, 8 to thrust, 5 to fire, ENTER to use a special weapon. There’s a utility you can use to remap the combat commands, but using it seems to run the risk of breaking the main interface, which I guess is what happened with the first version I downloaded.

Running around Mercury and picking up minerals. The large-scale rover window (lower right) is quite small.

When orbiting a planet, you get a set of options much like Starflight. You can scan it for minerals, energy, or lifeforms, and then send down a rover (with its own weapons and fuel supply) to pick things up. Minerals are color-coded by type, and at first I was a little annoyed because I can’t distinguish a lot of the colors. But it turns out that the explorable area of planets is quite small, and you can easily zoom around and pick up all minerals in just a few minutes. In that, it’s quite a bit less satisfying than Starflight, where the planets were enormous and you’d never explore or strip them all, and you got excited with every little collection of mineral symbols.

The rover doesn’t hold much, but returning to the ship and then landing again is an easy process, so before long my hold was full of not just uranium and other “radioactives,” but iron, nickel, and other metals. In mining them, the rover was periodically damaged by gouts of flame from the volatile planet, but it gets repaired when you return to the main ship.

Returning to base with a near-full cargo manifest.

We returned to the starbase and transferred the needed elements. With the station’s life support, communications, and sensors working again, the captain was able to scan my vessel, and he expressed shock at its configuration. Rather than give him the story right away, I chose dialogue options that interrogated him first.

This seems to be everybody’s reaction.

Commander Hayes explained that the Ur-Quan had defeated the Alliance 20 years ago. They offered humanity a choice between active serve as “battle thralls” or imprisonment on their own planet. Humanity chose the second option, so the Hierarchy put a force field around the planet, trapping the human race on a single world and preventing assistance from reaching them. But they also put a station in orbit so their own ships could find rest and resupply if they happened to pass through the system. The station is maintained by humans conscripted from the planet for several years at a time.

Humanity’s fate didn’t seem so bad until he got to this part.

When he was done, I (having no other choice, really) gave him our background and history and asked for his help. Pointing out that starting and rebellion and failing would result in “gruesome retribution,” he asked me to prove my efficacy by at least destroying the Ur-Quan installation on the moon, warning me that I would have to defeat numerous warships.

We left the station and sailed over to the moon. An energy scan showed one blaze of power, so I sent the rover down to it. The report from the rover crew said that the alien base was abandoned and broadcasting some kind of mayday signal, “but great care has been taken to make it appear active.” My crew shut the place down and looted it for parts.

My crew files a “report from the surface.”

Lifeform scans showed all kinds of dots roaming around the moon, most looking like little tanks. I don’t know if I was supposed to do this or not, but I ran around in the rover blasting them away in case they were enemies. I also gathered up all the minerals that I could.

I returned to the starbase, and the commander accepted my report. Just then, an Ilwrath Avenger, having found the probe, entered the system. The arachnid commander threatened us. There were some dialogue options with him, all of which I’m sure resulted in the same outcome: ship-to-ship combat.

They’re not just “spider-like”; they actually spin webs on their bridges.

This part was much like the original game, although with the ship icons larger and against a smaller backdrop. I (predictably) lost the battle the first two times that I tried, but won the third time. In my defense, the game’s backstory specifically said that I had minimal weapons. It was also a bit lumbering–slow to turn, slow to thrust.

The alien ship destroys me in our first encounter.

When I returned to starbase after the battle, Commander Hayes said he would join my rebellion, and the starbase would be my home base. He asked what we would call our movement, and there were some amusing options.

The last option tempted me, but I was boring and went with the first one.

Through a long serious of dialogues, I learned that as I brought back minerals and salvage, the base could convert them into “resource units “(RU) which I could then use to build my crew, purchase upgrades for the Prydwen (improved thrusters, more crew pods, more storage bays, more fuel), get refueled, and build a fleet of starships. I can even build alien ships if I can find alien allies to pilot them.

My own starbase. Why can’t I name it?

Hayes had a lot more dialogue options related to history and alien species, but I’ll save those for later. It appears that the introduction is over and I now have a large, open universe to explore, where I’m sure I’ll do a lot of mining, fighting, and diplomacy. In this sense, Star Control II feels like more of a sequel to Starflight than the original Star Control.

One part of a nine-page starmap that came with the game. I’m tempted to print it out and assemble it on the wall in front of my desk. I suppose it depends on how long the game lasts.

I appreciate how the game eased me into its various mechanics. I’m enjoying it so far, and I really look forward to plotting my next moves. I suspect I’ll be conservative and mine the rest of the resources in the solar system and buy some modest ship upgrades before heading out into the greater universe.

Time so far: 2 hours

****

While playing Star Control II, I thought it would be fun to have a look at co-author Paul Reiche III’s first CRPG effort, the Keys of Acheron expansion (1981) to Epyx’s Dunjonquest title, Hellfire Warrior. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get it working. (I’m attempting the Apple II version, but they all seem to have the same problem.) Acheron requires the original Hellfire Warrior to start, and the manual warns you that if you don’t do everything right according to the “Special Loading Instructions,” you won’t be able to play the game. While I can find the manual in plenty of places, I can’t seem to find the loading instructions anywhere, and trying the obvious stuff (e.g., switching disks before entering the dungeon) doesn’t seem to work. A couple of screenshots on MobyGames show that at least someone got it to work. I’d appreciate if anyone has any ideas on these special loading instructions; otherwise, we’ll have to continue to list the game as “NP” and put it on the “Missing & Mysteries” list.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-321-star-control-ii-the-ur-quan-masters-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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