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moralesmilesanhour · 10 months

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mad props! 04

summary: in the week leading up to the show, your grades begin to slip. whatever will you do... word count: 1820 a/n: hiii i rlly enjoyed writing this chapter bc some of the stuff in here has definitely happened to me lmao. if you feel up to it, reblog and tell me what your favorite song from any musical is in the tags! songs mentioned: 'Chip On My Shoulder' - Legally Blonde the Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) prev next

“Max, you’re a little flat, hun.”

The choir director pulled her shawl tightly around her as Max–the chosen casting for Emmett Forrest–ran through some of his sung lines for ‘Chip On My Shoulder’.

The brown-skinned, dark-haired boy was an excellent actor; he breathed life into the words on the script and delivered them with all the earnestness and humor required to play Emmett. Hell, he even improvised his own jokes.

But he couldn’t hold a note to save his life.

For some lines, Max could get away with half-singing, half-talking, but he was practically tone-deaf once the song got more involved. The choir director–Ms. Johnson–had to be called in to help get him somewhere that was at least within the ballpark of the correct pitch. His high notes remained painful to all present in the room, no matter what she did.

You huffed from your spot on the fake park bench, resisting the urge to scratch your scalp beneath the itchy wig. Everyone had heard the exact melody on the piano by now. Hear it, sing it. Like Spanish vocabulary, you couldn’t comprehend how people got that sort of thing wrong.

Harmonizing with Max went about as expected; you lost your place several times because of the distracting dissonance between your voice and his, like hearing a parrot and an eagle squawk at the same time.

Regardless, it was too late to recast Max now. He had a leading role with too many songs and lines to memorize.

“Alright, take five!” the director yelled with a clap of her hands.

A collective sigh could be heard as students dispersed for their well-earned water and bathroom breaks, the tension in the air dissipating. You stepped carefully off of the stage, when you heard a snicker in your direction.

Miles was in the middle of painting a cardboard sorority building in an obnoxious shade of hot pink, shaded with strokes of fuchsia and cyan that managed to work together somehow. You frowned at the fact that you couldn’t say anything bad about it.

The boy struggled to hold back a laugh, looking up as you stood over him with crossed arms.

“Something funny?”

Miles stood to meet your eyes, carelessly wiping bits of paint onto his pants.

“That frumpy-ass 613 wig you got on, for one,” he replied with a teasing grin. “Are you gonna wear that for the actual show?”

You rolled your eyes.

“No, for your information, I’m not. This is a placeholder wig,” you ripped it off of your head for emphasis. “Why are you even here, anyway? Don’t you got posters to make?”

In actuality, you knew about the art club lending some of its members to paint sets for the show. But you wanted to make sure Miles knew he was unwelcome.

“Just doin’ what I do best,” he shrugged. “You should be grateful for my sacrifice.”

You snorted, “What ‘sacrifice’?”

Miles jabbed his thumb behind him towards the left side of the stage, where Max was going over his lines. “I gotta listen to that nigga sing for over an hour. I’m sacrificing my time and my ears.”

Despite yourself, you laughed brightly at the comment, causing a more genuine smile to spread across Miles’ face. You looked pretty when you laughed.

“Oh my god, he sucks, right? Spent the whole damn song looking for the note.”

“Too late to replace him now, though. Show’s in two weeks.”

You nodded.

There was a brief pause before Miles asked, “So what made you sign up for theater? I was kinda surprised to see you on a stage.”

You gave him a wary look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he raised both hands in defense, “You just seemed like more of the quiet type, that’s all.”

I signed up to avoid you, you thought, but didn’t say aloud; That would’ve given him the satisfaction of knowing that you thought about him that much.

Instead, you answered, “I used to do theater at my old school. Got the lead part most of the time, if you can believe it.”

There was an arrogance in your voice as you said that last bit that soured Miles’ expression.

“I believe you, no need to convince me,” he said flatly. “Legally Blonde’s an interesting choice, though.”

You shrugged, “The part really lets me show my voice off, so...”

“Showin’ off,” Miles muttered beneath his breath, “Sounds like you.”

“Excuse me?”

Before you could start to argue, his eyes went wide, like he’d just heard a noise that no one else could hear.

“It was really nice talking to you, Y/N, but I gotta go,” he said, spinning on his heel and bolting towards the auditorium door. “Watch my stuff for me!”

Your jaw dropped in offense. Was he allowed to just bail on a club activity like that? And with the gall to ask you to watch his things for him. You totally did, though.

Once you got home, your feet throbbed and your muscles ached from all of the choreography. You were just barely out of your school uniform when you decided to lie down for a quick nap. Or what you thought was a ‘quick nap’.

The blaring of your alarm made your heart jump as your eyes flew open, half of your face damp with drool. The early morning washed over your room in a pale blue shade, and the sight would’ve relaxed you if not for the sudden realization that you weren’t in your pajamas.

You shot up, wiping the side of your face with your sleeve. Your Spanish and AP Physics notebooks were still strewn across your bed, along with several worksheets that had remained blank. Unfinished.

…Oh no.

Your heart was practically in your throat when you explained to Mr. Sanchez why you didn’t have any homework for him to collect.

The man noticed your glassy eyes, and held up a reassuring hand in the middle of your frantic explanation.

“That’s fine, it happens,” he said gently, “Just bring in the missing work tomorrow, and it’ll only be ten points off. Don’t make it a habit.”

He adjusted his glasses, and returned to grading the pile of worksheets on his desk as you trudged back to your desk, a pit forming in your stomach over those precious ten points.

“You good?” Miles asked as you sat down, concern coloring his features. He ran a finger over a small band-aid on his right temple. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

You buried your face in your arms on the desk.

“Nunya.”

He sighed, “I dunno why I even asked.”

Unfortunately for both you and Mr. Sanchez, missing assignments did, in fact, become a habit.

You began to spend more time lingering in the auditorium after everyone had left, practicing your line delivery. Adding little details, like extra hair flips or twirls. The spirit of Elle Woods had practically taken over your body.

You got home later and later into the evening, sometimes flopping down onto your bed and falling asleep before your head could even hit the pillow. This new ‘habit’ had you scribbling down vocab words and formulas in a frenzy, balancing your notebook on your lap on the bumpy bus ride to school. The flashcards that you had made for Mr. Sanchez’s class were now sitting untouched at the bottom of your bag.

By Friday, it landed you in front of his desk for office hours after you received your very first ‘F’.

“As you’ve probably noticed, Y/N, your grades have fallen a significant amount in a very short period of time, and I’m a little concerned,” Sanchez slid your weekly grade report towards you and placed his finger on your Spanish grade. “What’s going on? This is very unusual for a student like you.”

Your sweaty fingers clutched the sides of your seat as you stared down at the report. How did you let it get this bad? Elle Woods would never.

“I-I just…”

You shook your head. “I’ve just been busy with extracurriculars and stuff, so assignments slip my mind sometimes.”

“You’re having trouble balancing them with your schoolwork?”

“Yeah, basically,” you leaned forward, looking desperate. “Can I still re-take that quiz? I didn’t really get to study, and–”

“Oh! That’s actually what I called you in for, one second.”

Sanchez rose from his seat, and made his way over to the door.

“You know about our Study Buddy system, yes?”

You nodded slowly, skeptically. “Am I getting a ‘Study Buddy’?”

“Pre-cisely. Come in!”

He opened the door, and you almost groaned audibly at the lanky figure that appeared at the entrance.

Miles entered with a friendly smile on his face that dropped the second his eyes landed on you.

“Oh. You.”

The Spanish teacher sat back down and gestured towards him.

“Miles here is both a native speaker and beyond proficient in this class. He was so kind as to sign up for the program, so I thought it might be nice to pair him up with someone in the same period.”

Shocked into silence, you were unable to say anything other than a quiet “Okay” as you stared blankly in front of you.

Study buddies. With the guy who didn’t even study. This had to be some kind of sick joke.

“He’ll be giving up a bit of his lunch time to tutor you in my classroom. I’d also highly recommend you two study with each other after school as well, if you can make the time. Sound good?”

“Yes,” you both said in miserable unison.

“Well, that’s all,” Sanchez waved his hand. “You’re both dismissed. Have a lovely weekend!”

“You too!” you smiled tightly as you got up and made a beeline for the door, nearly bumping into Miles as you did so.

Your weekend would be anything but ‘lovely’.

You fixed Miles with a glare as soon as you got out into the hallway.

“I’m not giving up my lunch period for you,” you yell-whispered. “I hope you know that.”

He took a step towards you and fired back, “Neither of us have a choice, your highness. If we’re not both up here during lunch, I get in trouble, and you gotta take the L and fail this class.”

“I’d rather fail, then. I don’t give a fuck.”

“Oh?” he laughed mirthlessly. “You were in tears over a damn ‘89’. Makes no difference to me, but I think you do give a fuck.”

You opened your mouth to shoot back a rebuttal, then closed it. Miles raised an eyebrow.

“I’m lying?”

“...No.”

Miles leaned forward until he was only inches away from your face. “Then cooperate. Or we both lose.”

You sighed in defeat, “Fine.”

He nodded curtly, then left to go grab his things from his locker.

In a forced attempt at courtesy, you called out towards his back, “See you next week–”

“Whatever!”

taglist (comment to be added!): @vhstown @alaoraangelix @shuna-boin

#miles morales x reader #miles morales x black!reader #miles morales x fem!reader #atsv x reader #miles morales fic #earth 42 miles x reader #earth 42 miles morales x reader #moralesanhour

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could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler · 3 months

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First off, to get us in the mood…

youtube

So, you think your faves have what it takes to make it in the WWE? Or TNA, NXT, AEW, ECW, ROH, GCW, NJPW, and all the other wrestling company acronyms out there?

Well…let’s see! Through the power of Tumblr democracy, we will determine if your fave has what it takes to be a professional wrestler.

How will this work?

The polls will have the following options:

1) Yes on the microphone skills / Yes on the wrestling skills: Pro-wrestling material! Not only can they wow an audience with their in-ring skills, they also got the acting chops needed to cut a promo.

2) Yes on the microphone skills / No on the wrestling skills: They got the acting chops, but they suck in the ring. Either they can’t pull off the moves, they’re not safe enough and end up legitimately hurting their opponent, they’re boring to watch fight, or some other reason you can think of.

3) No on the microphone skills / Yes on the wrestling skills: So your character can definitely pull off an entertaining match. But can they cut a promo? If you feel the character ends up embarrassing themselves if they have to sell a storyline (too boring, bad at public speaking, goes off-script too much, can’t act, etc), this is the option for them.

4) No on the microphone skills / No on the wrestling skills: Your character wouldn’t cut it at all as a pro-wrestler. Sorry, but it’s a tough job! Not everyone can do it.

MIC SKILL EXAMPLE

WRESTLING SKILL EXAMPLE

How to submit:

Initially, I’d have it through my ask box. But since that got a little annoying to manage, here’s a Google Doc for submissions!

Once again, the same rules I had in place when I was “can-they-do-a-RKO” apply. NO REAL PEOPLE (unless they’re playing a fictionalized version of themselves).

Acceptable: Jay Baruchel as himself in This is the End

Unacceptable: Jay Baruchel

Shout-out to the blogs that inspired the original concept of this blog:

@cantheysurvive2001aspaceodyssey

@can-they-lift-thors-hammer

And also to some other blogs that I found that I’ve grown extremely fond of:

@couldtheycatchkira

@wouldtheybecomeafearavatar

@cantheywinthehungergames

@can-they-assemble-ikea-furniture

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cb-writes-stuff · 2 months

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Yes I would like to see some in hats and time stuff,,, and also maybe an explanation of what a hat in time is I know barely anything about it

Firstly, A Hat in Time is a 3D collectathon platformer by indie studio Gears for Breakfast. It stars Hat Kid (and, if you’re playing two-player, Bow Kid) who has to collect magical hourglasses called Time Pieces, which are the fuel for her spaceship, so that she can go home. Her enemy is Mustache Girl, a precocious rebel with a strong sense of justice, who is collecting Time Pieces for her own nefarious purposes—to deal with anyone she deems a “bad guy”.

Basically, the idea behind IHAT that it’s a crossover AU between In Stars and Time and A Hat in Time, with AHIT characters in ISAT. The idea came from the similarity in names, hence the title In Hats and Time. Up until now, it’s just been a couple art wips, but now, I’m gonna write some stuff, so buckle up.

Picture this. Siffrin and Isabeau, lying down in the field, stargazing. It’s Act 4 (because that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far). Isabeau excitedly tells Siffrin to look—a shooting star! Oddly, he interrupted them, unlike every other time. As usual, Siffrin doesn’t wanna turn away. But the script calls for it, so they do—and they freeze. Burning across the sky is a massive ball of fire. Way too big to be a shooting star. And it’s getting bigger.

Meanwhile, on board the Spaceship (Mk. 14 Custom), Hat Kid is in a panic. There was some sort of distortion, the ship went haywire, and now she’s crashing through the atmosphere of an unknown planet. Bow Kid disappeared somewhere, which sucks because she would’ve been a big help right now. The computer is screaming something about “escape pod ejected” as she desperately pulls back on the controls. She manages to bring the ship up, but not enough to avoid crashing. She blacks out.

Siffrin is shook. Completely shook. Something new happened. New things aren’t supposed to happen. He doesn’t know what to do when new things happen. He blanks on all his lines when Bonnie, Mirabelle, and Odile show up. Nothing goes right.

That night, he can’t sleep. Can’t even pretend to sleep. So he sneaks out and goes to the banana peel. The meteor, or whatever it was, was weird. But it’s just a one-off. An outlier. If it keeps happening, then something’s gone wrong, but if it doesn’t happen again, then it’s okay. So he loops back to that morning. No harm, no foul.

So yeah! That’s basically how it starts. I’ll be posting more stuff as I write it, probably not in chronological order, but I’m also very worried that I’ll make a fool of myself by not knowing all the ISAT lore, so it’ll probably be slow until I beat the game.

(Edit: I put “as usual” twice, so I removed the second one. It was past midnight and I was tired. Don’t judge me.)

#ihat #in hats and time #isat spoilers #siffrin #isat siffrin #hat kid #ahit hat kid #cb answering stuff

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angyo · 10 months

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It's funny there seems to be people who think that Muu is a makima-esque master manipulator based on the information we have. Bro have you see her trying to manipulate? Her most effective move is just crying but half the time that one just feels unintentional. When it's up to her to actually use her charisma she blunders so hard. Sure she can read people very well, but her best attempt at getting her way when someone isn't laying down for her is to just say the information she has as if just saying it is how it goes.

Sure cliques are gonna be filled with blunt passive aggressive assholes, but she also doesn't seem to distinguish friend from foe and cliques don't generally like when people can't play the mind games. It may be me projecting a bit, but she seems to picture relationships as a little bit TOO transactional, her sheer inflexibility feels a bit autistic. She's got a script and she freaks out when people go off of it.

No fucking way she got those friends through sheer charisma, I'm betting they were all just sucking up to the rich kid for cash. Meaning that whatever dirt rei had on her, it managed to turn people who had already decided to put up with the rich girl. I'm leaning toward at least some of it being gay shit, like even if muu doesn't realize it she pedestalizes rei a lot for someone who thinks their revenge was justified.

But if it was just rei giving proof of muu liking girls I'd think the bullying would be more directly homophobic, so she probably had a few kinds of dirt on her.

She also seems dangerously out of touch with her emotions, while also being out of touch with other people's. People say her mvs are just straightforward but they seem to be affected by her inner turmoil she doesn't wanna think about. It's hard to verbalize but the words she says often contrast the video. In after pain she has a lot more doubt, while still not accepting any fault she thinks about it despite the info we get being the bullying she endured. Then in inmf, she sounds so sure of everything while also imagining herself as an insect and her victim as normal. She is not as confident as she tries to seem

Really she just seems like a teen who's been allowed or even encouraged to stay emotionally immature getting herself into something she can't escape. Yeah she did all that mean shit, but she also got sucked into the cycle. She shouldn't have killed rei but she was clearly losing it. Murder wasn't justified but things happen in the heat of the moment, especially if you're completely emotionally unstable and in denial of it. She wasn't lying about having a clique but she also wasn't lying about feeling suicidal.

She and haruka are perfectly matched to bring out the worst in each other. Unfortunately for her ratings, she's got an offensive mental illness. probably one of those where it's like "bad person disorder: you are a terrible shitty person and it will never change. Also you're banned from 30 countries now :)". Which is also unfortunate for haruka since he's got self loathing issues, and while audiences handle those a little better it's not enough to overpower hating a self aggrandizing girl.

Hope someone stops him. For character development i think it'd be cool for muu to panic and do it, but idk if she's aware enough of her emotions to realize she'd miss him. Tbh also worried if they're gonna use haruka as a red herring, he's acting off enough to attract attention but muu also has a history of suicidality.

Prisoners not in the know are already getting suspicious of haruka, which best case means they catch him in time. If the writers wanna be cruel it also means muu can just decide to kill herself split second if the decision hurts enough and no one will suspect her

#angyo

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monty-glasses-roxy · 6 months

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Been talking about Roxy being cute and nice a lot lately. I just wanna say she's petty as hell, causes trouble on purpose for funsies, will absolutely throw hands if a competition gets too heated or just cause she can, absolutely vicious with her words if pushed, destructive as all fuck, and does not need another excuse to punch Freddy so hard his head falls off.

She's literally banned for life from Fazerblast she and Freddy hate eachother that much and Freddy is notorious for never banning anyone for more than a day at most. Roxy has seen the inside of Fazerblast a whole two times ever. To be fair, she hates cheaters and unfair games so with her fancy eyes, she wouldn't feel comfortable playing when she has such an unfair advantage she can't switch off, but that's not the point. Their beef is so bad that Glitchtrap fucking bails on Freddy whenever Roxy catches them luring a kid because he doesn't want to get his shit kicked in while she has way too much fun doing it. It's on sight. No fucks given.

Roxy is the bane of the managers and the staffs existence. Unless the rules make sense to Roxy, she's not following them for shit. What gets them is that the higher ups really like Roxy for some fucking reason, and by that, I mean her misbehaving makes them money. She was pre-programmed to play acoustic guitar, violin, and the drums. She was primarily meant to be the band's drummer but this motherfucker found an old ass keytar in the dusty as basement and fell in love with it. Showed up to her debut, too late for anyone to have a chance to stop her, and played keytar instead. Literally kept deliberately stealing the spotlight to give herself a solo or to drag out the song a little bit longer, she had an absolute blast with it and because the audience loved it, she fucking got away with it.

If literally any of the others had done that, they're convinced they would have got in such big trouble they'd be at risk of getting scrapped. Yet they're currently watching the staff hastily swap Roxy's art and posters for new ones without the drums like it was totally fine what she just did. And she never stops doing it! The others start to join in with it, but god damn that's frustrating at first, even more so when she refuses to stick to the script for five fucking seconds.

She's sworn in front of kids a good few times too. Wise enough not to do it in front of parents though, but it has happened and she's barely got a slap on the wrist for it. The higher ups don't really like when she ignores the pass system and takes kids into attractions they don't have a pass for without charging them, but it's only one or two every so often it's fiiiinnneeee... Bonnie did that one time and they had a real go at him though and she couldn't help but laugh about it cause haha lmao sucks to be him sounds like he did it wrong smh what an amateur!!

She's the king of getting away with shit. She'll find a loophole to anything she doesn't agree with, make her own rules, or just straight up not get caught. She's also the king of never letting anything go ever. If you wrong her, she will not let it go until justice has been served you mark her fucking words.

She's also a pretty sneaky lil shit. She's the fastest in the Plex, can see through walls and has the perks being a guard dog to Mimic gives her too. If she doesn't want to be found, well shit, she's just gone and no one has any idea where to. Completely vanished. Is she even still in the Plex? Who fucking knows!

Prides herself on being able to find anything and anyone in the building just you fucking watch. So long as it's in the Plex, she can find it. Don't ever doubt her on this. She will not hesitate to prove it. She loves showing off too much to let it slide, she will bet her life on being able to find shit and while sometimes it does take her a while, she's yet to meet her match.

The manager was threatening to scrap her one time when she was feeling particularly ballsy after she'd done something actually serious, and she really did bet her life on being able to find something. This fucker didn't believe anyone could be that fucking stupid, and given how much trouble she causes, it would be nice to kick her down a peg... She found the prototype drummer Roxy figurine he asked for within the hour. And then a plushie of one of the much older Bonnie animatronics within a day. And then a discontinued arcade cabinet his daughter wanted to play within the week. Like god damn she was not joking whadda hell. She's so fucking smug about it too like god. Whadda hell.

There's so much more to say about her there's just so many elements to her personality I could do this all day lmao

#fnaf security breach #roxanne wolf #i talk so much about her being good and cute and as fiercely loyal as can be #but she's also a little bit dense. proud and petty as hell shdhis #these are the multitudes of roxy lmao #long post

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goldenpinof · 1 year

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why? bc i was thinking about what i watch and what i'd like to see from dan, basically what you said to the previous anon. in late 2018 (at the end of the dan and phil era coincidentally) my taste shifted a lot from mostly comedy and vloggers to video essays and comentary so personally i'd love to see something like that from dan, but i have no idea what dan wants to do. what do you think he wants to do? what's something he'll find fulfilling and sustainable?

i'm going insane reading all these asks about what's next for dan's career. i lobe him i want him to succeed, i want him to get attention and i want to be entertained by him <3

me 🤝 you

sustainable? this is UNSUSTAINABLE!! (sorry, the last promo got in the eyes).

i think he wants (or wanted before wad) to get into stand-up comedy. at some point he proclaimed himself a comedian and started acting like one. unsuccessfully, in my opinion. he is a bad actor, but he is good at exaggerating his feelings. and this is why wad show worked for those who were familiar with Dan, his content, his internet personality and the phandom. i think he loves attention from real life audience, and he loves connecting to the audience while being on stage, so audience participation is an important part of what he wants. (let's count how many times i say "audience"). a not-so-strict script that allows to ask questions, react to answers, comment on people's reactions, make faces, laugh randomly, adjust the show to what is happening on stage – that's a stand-up show that hundreds of people are doing. and i think Dan would be very fucking good at it. the problem is the theme of said stand-up. and i think Dan would love for it to not rely on youtube as heavily as it did during wad (which wasn't an actual stand-up comedy).

remember the last vidcon he attended and the panel that felt like a Ted Talk? it was a fail, i'd say. partly because the audience was too diverse in a sense that phannies weren't the majority. and i'm glad he didn't push this type of career path. wad was so much better, but it was also targeted at the people who already knew him. even if in the beginning i think he was trying to get a wider audience, the lack of funding or enthusiasm promo-wise made it impossible for the "outsiders" to make the experience strange for everyone, Dan including. wad happened to be for us. but was it successful or fulfilling, or sustainable? no. not in a money / audience growth / similar future tours ways. there should be done a lot of changes. and i guess completely changing his management was the 1st and very important step. it was fulfilling in a way that he met us, he saw what his coming out did and what an incredible impact he had on us (not to mention that ii was almost the same. a bunch of gays gathered together).

he clearly wants something bigger than we aka phandom can give him. and for that he must change the theme or/and concept of his shows. i do think that he will try to do a performance again. and i hope it's gonna be less acting and more improvisation.

i'm not sure about a filmed show. he sucks as an actor, and i don't want him to fail :( but if Joey Graceffa successfully put out Escape the Night and Liza Koshy had a series that didn't require more acting than her own skits, maybe something similar could be alright?! "danisnotokay" is an outdated title though. we need to change it, he is not 25 anymore, come on.

basically, he loves attention, complaining about his life, trauma dumping, edgy jokes, screaming, laughing, sex jokes, feeling liked, loved and wanted. he fucking beams when people applaud him. and for that he needs audience. he could get all of it minus an applause with a podcast or livestreams, but he is a stubborn asshole, so i do hope to see him on stage again. preferably a smaller one and with new topics to discuss.

#you didn't ask so it's here #i would love to see commentary from him on topics that he cares about and knows #even if i don't care are the topic #like swell entertainment does. she talks about things i don't know or care. but it's done so good. informative. fun and well.. entertaining #that i just click on the video anyway. even if it's about a brand that makes square food. i don't give a fuck about the brand but i watch.#and dan's liveshows makes me think that he would be very good at presenting what he is interested in in a commentary way #don't touch things you don't know (football for example 🔪) and talk about things you actually familiar with #dan #wad #phandom #answered #imagine phil makes him return to regular joint content when we already collectively buried it 💀#i would laugh for a week

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showtoonzfan · 2 years

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Every time I look back at Star Vs. The Forces of Evil I just get so depressed because it was a show I actually loved only for it all to go to shit in the very end and that’s kinda all people will remember it as when time moves on. It was such a banger show in the beginning, with likable characters, good animation, and interesting villains and obstacles ect, season 1 and 2 was where the show peaked, season 3 was very flawed and wonky but it still kept me at the edge of my seat, and then season 4 was just a fucking disaster, with things that were drawn out, lore stuff that was never explained, zero buildup over most of the events going on, and of course the infamous shipping drama. It really felt like the writers dropped EVERYONE and everything all to make Starco happen, like it didn’t care if it would fuck up the world or characters around them, so long as the ship becomes canon everything is okay…..and like…no. As a past starco shipper myself, the way they executed it was just…..beyond bad, and this is the only SURFACE of issues the show had, like things ACTUALLY being built up but the climax being underwhelming, VERY important lore points that legit SHOULD have been in the show but instead got stuffed in a Disney book, Star as a main character just fucking downgrading and turning into a shallow teenage brat as the show progressed, there was honestly a LOT of issues I had with the show, even if I was young and naive when watching it. I still think in general the show is good, or WAS good at least. It was a huge part of my childhood and had the show gotten another season or two, and Daron wasn’t writing the damn script as the show progressed, it would have been better. There’s like…..a LOT of video essays on Star so like…I wouldn’t be able to go into detail in one post.

It’s honestly just sad that certain shows I grew up with that I loved the hell out of eventually just got either bad or underwhelming, like…Gravity Falls is STILL the only show from that cartoon era that managed to have an actually satisfying ending, and ended at the perfect moment. Shows like Regular Show and Adventure time were also shows I loved in the beginning, but Adventure time just dragged for WAAAY too long and started turning ridiculous in my opinion so I stopped watching, and Regular show I just grew out of. I remember coming back for both finales to pay respect to the shows even if I wasn’t caught up with either of them, and while I can say Regular Show’s finale was decent, I didn’t like Adventure Time’s. Then there’s Steven Universe, and we all know how THAT went. Why did these four shows that were famous for being actually good had to turn bleak for me? In my opinion, one of the main reasons is that when you’re making a show similar to the whole “This is a story driven show that has some filler but at the same time follows a story leading to something big” (Amphibia and The Owl House are also examples of these) the main important thing you have to make sure you’re able to do is perfectly balance filler episodes AND story driven episodes, (something that Steven Universe and Star Vs. The forces of evil SUCKED at I’m sorry) and you have to make sure the show doesn’t drag on for too long, which is what happened with Adventure Time, Regular Show, and even SU. Of course you also need to be a good writer and storyteller, but that’s a requirement lol. Keep in mind these are just my personal opinions, but I’m certainly going to miss the shows, mainly Star. Even if I haven’t seen The Owl House and Amphibia, I’m glad they’re both new shows of this era that have entertained others and seem to be VERY good. Oh…and there’s Infinity Train and Over the Garden Wall. Those were REALLY good.

#rant #star vs. the forces of evil #regular show #gravity falls #cartoon network shows #Disney shows #world building #criticisms #writing #steven universe #unrelated

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yourneighborhoodneighbor · 1 year

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and you're always free to begin again ch4

(masterpost to my fics while ao3 is down) AO3

fic under the cut

previous chapter

Dany had thought, he really really thought, that nothing in the life he had lead now would ever even come close to being as horrible as losing killing his brother and his general upbringing by the League, but he wasn't really done unpacking all of that now that he had the luxury of time and distance so he was not gonna think about it had been.

Like what Sam and Tucker had named as “DFL” (for Dany Fenton Luck, which was his special and personalized brand of the better known Fenton Luck) dictated, no, demanded, he had been wrong. Because of course, that was just how things went for him.

At this point, Dany had been Phantom for three years. He had been the crown prince of the Infinite Realms for two years (and would become king and actually rule when he fully died), and he liked to think that he had actually been really good at dealing with ghosts and ghost hunters now. It had been difficult at first, not because he didn't know how to fight (that was actually what he knew how to do best and was therefore the easiest part of the whole situation), but because getting like a bajillion new powers and no instruction manual for any of them had been a whole mess. Was a whole mess, because for some reason he just kept on getting power, it was frankly almost ridiculous. He had learned though, and even eventually gotten on good terms with most of the people he had fought with, after learning that apparently he now needed to get used to an entirely new social structure and customs again, when he already had a hard time with that as it was.

Besides, ghost stuff was way easier than alive human stuff, since dying had at least granted Dany with some instinctual in innate things, like and understanding of any language, including ghost speak, as well as built in sensors for things like when he was nearing someone else's haunt and such, once he was actually taught how to interpret those internal signals correctly.

The point being, Dany had had things Under Control. He'd had Protocols, and Scripts, and Rules to deal with the way his life was now. And he had liked it, even if the GIW and Jackson and Madeline made things stressful and sometimes overwhelming to the point of meltdowns or shutdowns (He knew what those were called now! Thanks, Jazz!).

But he had been Fine! Kinda! Really! He promised!

That is, he had been fine, until…

Until a while ago, when things had decidedly become incredibly less fine, and way more unfine.

He wasn't sure how long, exactly, it had been since his DFL had struck again. And this time, in the worst possible way. In a way so bad it almost surpassed Dany's worst moments, including his own death and everything that came with it, something he had not thought possible.

It had all simultaneously become a blur and was seared in his mind in uncomfortable detail and focus.

He had been in his room, alone, holding a chocolate milkshake in one hand, and singing softly with the other, a song he had learned with his brother on one of their last missions together, when they were 6 years old. It had appeared in a princess movie, the first they had ever seen, which they had managed to catch through the window of the house right next to the one where their target for the mission had resided. It had been the only movie they ahd ever watched, before Dany had come into his new life, that is. He only ever rewatched that movie on his own, feeling it too special to share with anybody else, especially since his brother would never be able to watch another movie.

Regardless, he had been sitting alone and singing softly in between sips of the chocolate milkshake, too caught up to pay proper attention to his surroundings, foolishly thinking he was safe enough to let his guard down. It had not been.

Jackson and Madeline had come in with guns blazing and traps already firing, Fenton Thermos activated and sucking him in faster than he had been able to react, save for dropping the shake in his hand.

He had woken up strapped to a metal slab, the cold and crazed looks of the fenton parents leaning over him, scalpels and other equipment in hand. He had known what was going to happen immediately. He had fought as much as he could, but in the end, nothing, not his assassin training (that he still kept up with, as a connection to his brother, even if he hated the League), his ghost powers and prince training, his Scripts and Rules and protocols, nothing, had been able to save him. No one had been able to either.

He had had no other option than to watch and hope it was over quickly as he was cut open, his innards taken out and weighed, cut, observed macro- and microscopically, tested, as he was sewn shut and cut back open over and over to test his healing, how he had been bled dry and injected with a myriad of substances he did not even want to think about, as he had been experimented on over and over and over again.

At some point he had grown almost numb to it, only detachedly noticing all that was happening, as new things were taken out or put in, as people in white suits came in and started helping the two mad scientists, and as the time passed in uneven lapses, until that condemned moment when he had felt the most awful he had ever felt, the moment they had finally managed to find his hidden core, when they had touched it and held it and experimented on it as well and no, stop, it hurts, he hated that, please, Jazz, Dami, he couldn't, he couldn't he couldn't-

After that, Dany thought about his siblings a lot, in the spare moments he was left alone, numb and unfeeling in the face of that last violation he had been subjected to.

About Damian, who had always had his back, had always taken care of him and accommodated him the best he could when he did not even know what was wrong and why, when it had not been his job because he, too, had been a child. A child he had killed.

About Jazz, who had taken him in and taken his aggressive demeanour in stride and had done her best to help him and make him feel loved and wanted and safe. Who had taken even his status as an experienced assassin in with a calm face and open arms, and had simply asked him how he felt about that, what he wanted to do about that. She too had been a child, if an older one.

He thought about Sam and Tucker, who had taken one look at him and decided that even if he could break them in half without so much as blinking, he needed some Friends and care, as Tucker had said. Who had always tried their best to be by his side, and had stayed there even after he died, after he confessed about his true past.

Looking over his life, it had never been adults who had taken his side, who had looked and him and decided, made the choice, that he was someone they wanted to care about and for, that he was worth more than what he could give to them or do for them, who decided that him being Dany, however that was, was enough.

His thoughts were interrupted by the heavy lab door being opened again. Great.

He did not even bother with trying to turn his head, not that he had the energy to move much. It was just more pain coming. He closed his eyes, too tired to stay awake, much less try to fight uselessly again.

A soft clink and the feeling of his straps and cuffs loosening had him snapping his eyes open again. This had not happened before.

A few blinks helped to focus his gaze, falling on the familiar red head of one of the most important people in his life, one of the strongest and best people he had ever met, including anyone at the League: Jazz.

What was Jazz doing here? Was she not in college? She should go away, she could get hurt, they would hurt her, they would strap he to a table, Dany had to get her out of there, he had to-

Through his spiraling thoughts, fueled greatly by his starving obsession and bruised core, he heard a far-away sounding voice.

Oh. That was Jazz. Jazz had been talking since she had come in, he just hadn't realized.

“-e okay, it's gonna be okay no, I promise. Shit, Dany, I'm so sorry, I had no idea you had been taken until Sam called me telling me you had missed school twice and weren't at home, and then mo- no, Jack and Maddy were talking about Phantom and I thought you were in the lab but you weren't and I'm so sorry it took us two months to find the GIW facility you were, I'm so sorry, Dany, I'm sorry-” he could hear her rambling. He wasn't sure she knew he could actually hear her now. He was still pretty out of it.

He tried to say something to let her know he knew she was there, but all that came out was a broken whimper. It was enough.

Without stopping her movements of setting him free, she turned to look at him directly in the eyes, worry and fear and certainty and fire and rage in her gaze.

“Dany,” was all she said. Dany thought he understood, she had said his name enough times for him to know what she meant. Words she had never really said but had instead made, from the moment she had first seen him, hiding and angry and afraid, huddling in the corner of the visiting room at the orphanage.

I will care for you. I will care about you. As long as I'm here you will not be alone, will not be made to fight on your own. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.

Jazz meant that and so much more. Dany knew just how to respond.

“Jazz,” he croaked out, voice more air than any real sound. Dany knew that to Jazz, that was enough. She also understood.

The storm that was his sister finished with the last of the cuffs, before gently and slowly bringing her hands up to his face, holding it gently.

“Dany,” her voice turned harder, sharp and deadly like it had never needed to be before. “They are dead. Jack and Maddie are dead now Dany, and will never hurt you again. I made sure of it,” she said with finality.

Dany's head reeled. Jazz had killed her parents? For him? Jazz, who he had promised not to kill for, because she cared about people and that sort of stuff, had gone and done something she did not approve of much, for him? To make sure he not only was safe, but stayed safe?

The stars and the storms and the erupting volcanoes and powerful ocean waves had never come even close to describing how Dany saw Jazz. Supernovas and black holes and nascent and dying stars had never been as magnificent as Jazz. And then here she was now, going over the very borders of the universe with her growing greatness, standing over Dany with hands capable of such destruction, yet holding onto his face with more gentleness than would be needed to hold a spiderweb without it breaking.

Dany suddenly felt too full and too much, cries that grew into sobs breaking free of him at such love and care being exerted on himself, some of the cracks in his core starting to mend.

Jazz just helped him up, carrying him in her arms and letting him cry.

She walked past unconscious people in white suits, past an orange and a teal body, past ghosts flying around wreaking havoc, past all the destruction and the rage around her. She walked calmly past it all, like the moving eye in the middle of a storm, cradling Dany like she had never held something more precious in her life.

The last thing Dany remembered before he closed his eyes and was taken again by unconsciousness was his sister, his big sister, setting him gently in the back of her small car, laying a soft kiss to his forehead and telling his to rest, telling him he would be okay, she would take care of things now.

The sheer amount of love he felt is what pushed him the rest of the way down.

next chapter

#dpxdc #batpham #fanfiction #my fics #yourneighborhoodneighbor

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trekwiz · 1 year

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Interviewers are just some dude.

I've been doing my job well. I got promoted multiple times over the years. And I'm just suddenly the guy conducting an interview.

There's no training. "You've always exercised good judgment, we trust you."

So I took steps to learn. I spoke with HQ at two stakeholder companies. I talked to past interviewers. I reached out to the Tumblr void. And I went on LinkedIn Learning.

Did you know that all of the stupid advice you get as a job seeker, exists for interviewers, too?

Most of my time on LinkedIn Learning was spent saying, "yeah, that's dumb. Let's see if the next chapter has something usable. Nope, it doesn't."

It's a lot of the same platitudes meant to make you feel good, but have no substance. The people who couldn't get jobs and decided to sell speaking services as "networking gurus" also sell classes to interviewers. They don't know what they're talking about to either audience.

All of those really annoying questions you get asked? They're in one bad training video after another, because someone figured out they can charge money if there's an action item. Doesn't matter if it's a good one; if someone thinks they got a usable idea, the speaker gets paid.

But it's just some dude. Who's doing a job, and wants that job to suck just a bit less.

Don't overly script what you're doing. Just talk. They're a potential coworker as much as they're a potential manager. They may even be just as nervous as you are.

If you walk into the interview and expect a corporate monolith instead of just some dude who would rather be gaming, you're just going to intimidate yourself.

If you ran into that hiring manager at a community event--a networking event, even an industry conference or whatever--you'd probably have an easy time connecting. It's spontaneous; you know what your skills are and can speak like an expert in what you do; it just flows naturally, and you're not overly concerned with trying to impress.

Just...do that at the interview.

It'll be much easier for you. And the interview will go better for you. I promise.

#interviewing

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duhragonball · 2 years

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Dragon Ball GT 43

✨GT Stands for Garish Travesty✨

✨”Good” “Ideas”, Poorly Executed✨

So the “idea” here was to have Goku fight Frieza and Cell in Hell. We already saw this in DBZ 195, and it didn’t even go down, because Pikkon swooped in and took out both of these guys and King Cold before Goku could get to them.

But still, this could be a good time. The plot here is that all the classic villains have returned to invade Earth, and Goku’s trapped in Hell with Frieza and Cell, so this seems like a decent set up for some great action. You’ve got plenty of star power, and even if Goku has these two outmatched, it’s a two-on-one deal, so maybe it can still work out.

Except for one thing. This is Dragon Ball GT, and for some reason they decided that this episode should look like absolute dogshit.

Frieza kind of looks all right... I guess? He looks pretty crappy, but he seems more or less recognizable.

But Cell looks like some shitty new character wearing a Cell costume. His eyes are too big, and he just looks wrong in every shot.

This is just a really unpleasant episode to watch. I knew this was coming, and I thought I was prepared for it, but man, it’s just ugly. There are some off-model characters in episodes of DB and DBZ, but somehow this one just sinks to a completely different level.

It’s something about the eyes, I think. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but everyone looks really wrong. And unfortunately, there’s a lot of close up shots of the characters, all looking like misshapen bootleg action figures.

This is so bad. I’m not even kidding a little. If the episode had a better plot or script, I could forgive the bad animation, but no. It sucks in every possible way.

This was my introduction to Dragon Ball GT, by the way. In 2004, I bought a strategy guide for one of the games, Budokai 2, and it came with a DVD of this episode. The idea was to promote GT, which would be airing on Cartoon Network later that year. I assume they picked Episode 43 because of all the star power. In addition to the main cast, you also have Cell, Frieza, Nappa, 17, and Dr. Gero. It’s like a damn reunion. Except the episode sucks ass. Everyone looks terrible, and even thought there’s a lot of fighting going on, all of it is pathetic.

All right, let’s dive in to this turkey.

In brief: Goku’s fight with Cell and Frieza sucks because none of them take the fight seriously. All I wanted was for Goku to blow the bad guys mind with some Super Saiyan 4 action, but instead he refuses to transform at all. He still does an overblown power-up any way, but he doesn’t transform. Goku still styles all over these two, and they can’t even touch him. When Frieza tries a ki disc, Goku rides it like a surfboard. Then he grabs a needle spike from the scenery and weilds it like his nyo’ibo. So he’s just recreating his classic look from the old days. That’s how seriously Goku is taking this. Cell fires a Kamehameha at Goku, and he just knocks it back at him with his stick. Cell gets blown up by his own attack, and the ki disc slices Frieza in half.

But that doesn’t matter, because Cell and Frieza are already dead, so they just come back and keep fighting. We don’t see them regenerate or anything, because the animators are lazy, as well as bad. Cell manages to sucker Goku in and... catches him with his tail?

Yeah, so he tries to absorb Goku and assimilate his power, the way he absorbed 17 and 18 to achieve his perfect form. But... that’s not how Cell works. For a moment, it seems like Cell has actually increased his power this way, but then Goku just forces himself back out of his tail, and escapes. This is stupid.

So Frieza and Cell use a new technique to turn the tables on Goku, the Hell Buster. This traps Goku in a ki structure, which they then launch down into the lower depths of hell. So they’re not really defeating Goku so much as relocating him to some place else where the environment will finish him off.

Then this old lady subjects Goku to four different torments on the “Hell Pilgrimage”: She cooks Goku in a giant stew pot, then subjects him to tickle torture, then a sauna, then she freezes him with a big machine.

Frieza promises that they’ll come down there to finish him off. So if they could do that Hell Buster move from the start, why did they even bother attacking him with anything else?

Meanwhile, the Earth is being besieged by all the other villains, like... uh... the Saibamen! Remember them? Well they’re back! Yeah, who else have we got?

More Saibamen! Wow, look at them go. This is pretty bad news for the Earth. It’s too bad Goku isn’t here to put a stop to this. But it’s not just Saibamen plaguing the world. No, there’s also...

... Saibamen. I don’t remember there being this many of them before. Did they have an orgy or something to make more?

Goten and Trunks just sort of watch all this with a mixture of disgust and fear. Uub literally flies over and asks them to step in and help. I have no idea why this is happening. The Saibamen aren’t even that tough. Uub just flies through the streets, taking them out with one hit apiece, but Goten and Trunks seem reluctant to pitch in.

Meanwhile, Pan and Mr. Satan are being chased by... General Rildo. Can we go back to the Saibamen, please? Gohan shows up to save them, and now we’ve got Rildo vs. Gohan, a dream match if there ever (yawn!) was one.

Okay, so this appearance by Rildo is the only confirmation we have that he died in Episode 23. This episode makes zero effort to reintroduce the character. He doesn’t even get any lines! Shouldn’t Rildo be using his final form in this thing? Is he helping the bad guys because of his loyalty to Dr. Mu? Or is he actually loyal to Baby? Shouldn’t he be asking where Baby is during all of this? I mean, either he wants to keep working for Baby, or he should want to kick Baby’s ass because Baby killed Dr. Mu.

Or, you would think he’d want to stay in Hell to fight Goku, since he’s supposed to be stronger than anyone else on the bad guy team, remember? Goku said his ki was “even greater than Buu’s”.

Oh, and Nappa’s also here. He blows up an entire city, which is the most any of these guys seem to have done since they invaded, but then Vegeta confronts him. Strange that Vegeta waited until after the city got destroyed before stepping in, but whatever. At least this promises to be an interesting scene. Nappa’s no match for Vegeta, but they know each other well, and you could get some drama out of this encounter if....

Yeah, Vegeta one-shots him. Never mind.

Then Gero and Mu show up and introduce Vegeta to their latest creation, “Hell Fighter 17.” He bursts out of the rubble and there’s flames and everything, and Vegeta doesn’t seem too impressed. Then they fight, and Vegeta doesn’t bother turning Super Saiyan. He can’t hit Hell Fighter 17, but since he won’t transform, it makes it seem like he’s not even trying.

As they fight, Hell Fighter 17 telepathically contacts his counterpart, the original 17, and asks him what’s taking him so long. Remember, the plan was for both 17′s to link up and fuse into a single, invincible warrior. Apparently Hell Fighter 17 is having some trouble with Vegeta, so he’s anxious to get that boost in power. Well why did they go picking a fight with Vegeta, then? They could have waited for both 17′s to combine, and then gone after him.

Instead, Original 17 tracks down his sister, Android 18, and invites her to join them. We’ve yet to establish how Gero and Mu are controlling the original 17, but presumably they’re using Hell Fighter 17 to do it, and now Original 17 is using the same trick to influence 18. Except Gero’s team never told him to do this, so I have to assume this wasn’t part of the plan.

Let me add some context here. Nobody has seen 17 in years. It was assumed that he got resurrected at the end of the Cell Games, but they never actually showed 17-- dead or alive-- until the very end of the Kid Buu fight, when he makes a cameo appearance to send energy to Goku’s Spirit Bomb. This episode is set sixteen years after that battle, and no one ever says anything about keeping in touch with the guy.

In fact, in the previous episode, it’s strongly implied that Trunks had never met 17 before the ambush. He sensed 17′s ki, noticed it was similar to 18′s, and figured it out that way. Which is bullshit, by the way. 17 and 18 don’t have ki signatures for Trunks to sense.

So when 17 confronts 18 (and Krillin and Marron), it’s the first time they’ve been on screen together since 17 got absorbed by Cell. That was 23 years ago. It’s never established whether they’ve been in contact during that time, or if this is their first meeting since 17 was wished back to life. This is a stupid way to reintroduce a character.

I think the idea with this arc was to focus on 17, because he was the one villain who never got killed or rehabilitated. We never found out what happened to him, and this arc would finally address his final fate. But it turned out to be a colossal shitshow, in part because 17 is mind-controlled the entire time, so we never find out what he wants, or what he’s been up to all these years. Instead, we just get two versions of him, and one of them hypnotizes 18 for no obvious reason, and the other one fights Vegeta in a weak, watered-down brawl. If anyone liked 17 enough to be excited about this arc, Episode 43 has made sure to punish them for their enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, Goten, Trunks, and Uub are still zapping Saibamen, literally repeating shots of them zapping Saibamen earlier in the episode. And Gohan is still fighting General Rildo, and not much is happening there.

And Goku’s frozen. Good times.

✨Positivity Page✨

Perhaps the one decent shot in this episode is this one where Vegeta watches Hell Fighter 17 surrounded by flames. He doesn’t look much like Vegeta, but at least he looks very handsome and cool. It’s like he bribed the animation director to make him look good for one shot.

✨Is this episode worse than “The Roaming Lake”?✨

Hell damn yes it’s worse than “The Roaming Lake”. That episode was really pleasant to look at. Not like this garbage dump.

The only real question is whether Episode 43 is the worst episode of GT. That’s a tough call, because it has to compete with the Para Bros. and Doltaki. But Episode 43 definitely has a safe spot in the Bottom Five.

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Hells Pilgrimage stop

Number 5: Hell of watching

GT 43.

#dragon ball #dragon ball gt #really sucks #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #frieza #cell #perfect cell #vegeta #android 17 #android 18 #dr gero #dr mu #uub #goten #trunks #nappa #general rildo

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mishkakagehishka · 1 year

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What is A3! ???

It is a mobage!!! It has an anime adaptation and a lotta musicals, too, but it's mainly a game :) sadly, the english server shut down last year (rip, and the trans+localisation was SO good too).

The protag/player character is Izumi Tachibana (though you can change her first name), who acts as the director of a theatre company ^_^ the theatre company was nearing bankrupcy at the start of the game and only had the incompetent manager (who is such a dear) and one actor. Two, technically, but the other one was a bird. The bird was more skilled, also. Basically the play they put on stunk and it was their last chance to get some money to get their debts in order, our protag was the only person who saw it, though. But she was very inspired by it, and when the (stay with me) yakuza guys came round to bulldoze the theatre, she essentially said she'll improve the company and pay back the debt. (She has no experience as a director.)

Anyway. The story is separated into seasons, with each one following one troupe, but with a general overarching storyline that ties them together (getting the Fleur award, making the company survive the year, and so on). It's really fun, it's all about found family and striving towards your dreams and the characters growing as people and growing their relationships, it's really such a good story, I love it with all my heart.

Spring, summer, autumn and winter troupes in left-right, top-bottom order :] actually i wanna go into detail gimmie a second

So, as I said, there's the four troupes: spring focuses on traditional fairy-tales and fantasy plays, summer on slapstick comedy, autumn is all about action and winter about soft and subtle serious plays. For example, their debut plays were

Spring: a Romeo and Juliet where RomiJuli were actually besties, and also Juliet was Julius because none of them could play girls

Summer: a 1001 nights adaptation where Scheherezade was telling the story to Ali Baba, but when she had to leave to be wed to the king, he used the genie to wish it away. It was actually really funny, i should rewatch it sometimes

(Digression but the plays were like. You do rehearsals and then unlock the play which is a lil 5min video of their chibis walking on the stage with props and animations and speech bubbles, it's cute)

Autumn: mafiosi have to team up despite their horrid relationship to eachother and in the process learn to work together (which perfectly parallels the way the leads actually evolved their relationship off the stage)

Winter: a story about an angel falling in love with a dying human </3

In the spring troupe you have Sakuya, the leader who loves acting and the Original Actor who Izumi saw on stage. He was bad, but really loved it, and that's what made her want to help. Masumi is like a teen heartthrob in his school, but he's apathetic and doesn't really care about anything, except for Izumi who he has a massive crush on. With time, you figure out he's just projecting his lack of parental attention on her. Tsuzuru is their scriptwriter, who is the straight man to Citron's boke, he's a college student who begs to do scriptwriting for the company, but he hyperfocuses on them, writes until he literally drops and worries everyone. Speaking of Citron, he's a foreigner from a country called Citronia, he says he's an exchange student. I think the truth is revealed in winter year 2, but i didn't finish autumn year 2 before the server ended so </3 Itaru is the king of gap, he's a businessman by day, and hardcore gamer by night. Chikage is the year 2 newcomer, can't say much about him, but I'll say more when I get to "the story: the details". Again, I wanna make this detailed :) for Year 1 Spring, the theme was acting, none of them except Sakuya (and Citron?) wanted to act. Tsuzuru wanted to write scripts, Masumi was just following Izumi, Itaru wanted free board, and that made their acting suck because they were all out of sync. Their story follows the characters finding their passion and learning to work together.

Summer's leader is Tenma, who is a famous TV actor, but terrible on-stage because he gets stage-fright. Yuki is the company's costume designer and maker, foul-mouthed, but hiding a sensitive side. Muku is a sweetheart who's very shy and self-depreciative, but wants to be "a prince" (he loves shoujo manga) (when Tsuzuru gave them their script, he said he went to read 1001 nights and called it "just like shoujo"). Misumi fucking LOVES triangles. His name is written as 三角 which means triangle. I can't figure him out, though, he seems like a cheerful and naive young man, but there's a sadness in him, it gets explored in later stories. Kazunari, love of my life, is a college student who is very cheery and happy-go-lucky and super extroverted. And it's an act. He runs the company website. Kumon is also a Year 2 character, so I don't know much about him, but he seems a sweetheart. Idolises his brother (Juza from Autumn). Summer troupe could NOT work together at first. Yuki and Tenma were at eachother's throats all the time. They still are, but less maliciously now. Their story follows them learning to work together, and bounce off eachother, and overcoming their insecurities.

Autumn troupe are my faves. Their leader is Banri, and the "second" guy is Juza. (Now, I forgot to mention, but in Year 1 the main two leads were the leader and "second" guy, which is to say the two whose relationships were the most fucked and needed the most work - in spring this was Sakuya and Masumi, and in Summer it was Tenma and Yuki). I cannot explain one without the other. Juza looks like a delinquent, he's scary, he does get into fights,,,, but mostly in self-defence as beating his ass is seen as a status symbol and he doesn't wanna fight. He wants to act, but he's really bad at it. Banri wants to kick his ass so fucking bad he trails him to the auditions, auditions with him and then decides he'll kick his ass at acting if he can't fight him with fists. Banri is a prodigy, he's good at every fucking thing. I can't say anything on Taichi so as to not spoil. Autumn is a bit dramatic. There's a rival company that we find out about in this season. He needs a hug, though, poor thing could never get an acting gig despite wanting to act so bad. Now, remember when I mentioned the yakuza? Sakyo is the guy they owe money to. He is now working on their finances. Scary old man. Azami is a year 2 character, I haven't finished reading Autumn, so I know nothing, but he's Sakyo's boss' (yes) kid, i hear. And their make-up artist. Omi is the mother hen, but he had a dramatic past as a biker before changing his ways. Malewife central, I love him so much. Autumn's deal was coming to terms with their pasts, accepting themselves and for some it was also about personal growth.

Winter's got the SocietyTM themes. The main two are Tsumugi and Tasuku. Tasuku is an athlete!! A fitness nut!!!!! He used to act for the rival company. Tsumugi is the leader, who works as a tutor :] and loves flower language. They are childhood friends, also. Homare is a poet who is vvvvvvv autistic-coded, he has low (or no?) empathy and can't read people. He talks about feeling like an alien or robot often, but it's not treated as something that needs fixing, even though he's sad about it. Hisoka is the Sleepy CharacterTM who also has amnesia. I will have to tell you more about him in story: the details, tho it will have spoilers. Azuma is the elegant, mature adult TM TM TM TM and he is so.... i can't even describe him. Ethereal. He is looked down upon for his job. I can't remember if saying what it is was a spoiler or not, I think he hid it tho. And about Guy, the newcomer, i know NOTHING. He is also from Citronia (and why Citron's truth is revealed in year 2 winter), but I don't know anything about it. I don't know how to describe what Winter was about. Interpersonal relationships and having understanding for one another. There was a time loop.

And then a bit more on the details of the story!!! Listen.

Listen.

You start playing A3! and, sure, it's a bit out there with the yakuza and the debt and acting parrot. But it's not that unrealistic. It's just goofy. Spring has a normal story, it's two high schoolers with absent family, a college kid, a salaryman/gamer and a foreign guy who speaks with a thick accent unless he's acting. It's goofy, but it's down-to-earth. They fight and can't figure out how to act normally bc half of them don't care and they all have terrible chemistry. One of them sleeps on the stage. They have an impromptu sleepover. They bond. It's so cute and it works and their play was a success and now they have people wanting to join!!

Summer troupe is also very normal, very goofy. A TV star (high schooler) getting called a hammy hack-actor and a loser by a middle schooler, a guy who loves shoujo manga so bad, a college kid who's always hitting on every girl he sees and a guy who collects triangles and also has been living in the dorms without anybody knowing for years. Weird on the triangle guy, but sure. They fight, they go camping, they bare themselves to eachother, they figure out how to work together. The play is a success, more people want to join!!

Autumn!!! A buncha bad boys with bad pasts, some with bad presents. Banri and Juza get handcuffed together. They have to be roomies. Juza snores so fucking loudly.

- SPOILER -

They get betrayed by one of their own?!?!?! But he regrets it and he feels so bad because he realised this company cares more about him than the one that sent him. He doesn't wanna go back. And they accept him

- SPOILER END -

And they write essays about their pasts and learn to see eachother as people and they bond and their play is a success and more people want to join <3

And then Winter. I don't remember much of it. Tsumugi and Tasuku have a tense relationship because they were friends, but Tsumugi gave up on acting. In order to fix this, the universe sticks them in a time loop that only they are aware of, until they talk it the fuck out. Homare wishes he could read people's emotions better so he finds an emotions loupe. It lets him read people's minds and it helps solve a very huge dilemma in the troupe's interpersonal conflicts. He then promptly puts it away and ends hoping he'll one day be able to read people without it, too. I think there's also something about a secret locked room but~~~ i forgot that. Anyway. This is the one where they go against their ultra-powerful rival company. And the play is a success, and the company is saved from bankrupcy!!!!! By just a bit. They're on a zero. Sakyo is still cinching their belts.

And then it gets extra fucked up. Hisoka's amnesia. Is connected to Chikage in year 2. Now this is straight up SPOILERS for this and the paragraph below so feel free to skip this, but it's like. Wahooo funny actors lovely. And then there's the assassin subplot. Chikage and Hisoka were in the same assassin group. Hisoka was presumed dead. Chikage, I think, was there to finish the job. He kidnaps Izumi at some point and threatens her life.

DESPITE IT ALL. A3! the found family ICON. Accept him as one of their own and tell him he, too, has a place in their company, he, too, can find a better life. Just because the usual improvement was "My family is negligent" to "Now my friends are my family" or "i'm gonna kick your ass" to "oh this acting shit kinda goes hard", doesn't mean his can't be "i will literally kill everyone because i am an assassin" to "oh, okay, acting"

Anyway, I love A3!. Yaycupcake has translations for the main story to Act 12 (so, three years) as well as event, side, and conversation stories. The animation in the anime is eh, but it's worth watching. There's a cute manga. They have a strip where Izumi has to work at a girls' company for a bit and Muku's shoujo-inspired thoughts are "omg what if she gets swept off her feet by a masculine knight girl and they fall in love <3333" and absolutely ruins Masumi's life (who thought his ""relationship"" with her will be safe because there are no men there)

#hi i love this game #asks

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stormyoceans · 2 years

Note

[VICE VERSA episode 1 part 1]

Brown like a horse shit (:

I wonder what colour he’d give me

The female friend is the one that helps out at the end right? Looove her <3

Surprised there’s only a handful of fans waiting inside

Love the gate fake-out tho lmao

Can’t believe Jimmy went from playing an absolute turd (Wai) to an idol whose two settings are 1) charismatic and 2) dork

“you have a big head” WHAT KIND OF FLIRTING IS THAT

This whole scene is soooo cute though, holy shit

“the one who drew it is cute too” Puen turning on the flirting before they’ve even swapped, he’s so pathetic (affectionate)

WHOLESOME INTRO TIME

I haven’t seen the episode where the piggybacking in a body of water happens, I wonder what’s happening there

Omg I never noticed but how old is this car???

I guess when you’re a colorist you’re automatically available as a movie extra??

ALSO HOW DOES TALAY NOT KNOW WHO HIS CO-STAR IS

(I get it, it’s for the sake of a big reveal, but c’mon writers)

“MAFIA THE MOVIE”

Puen I don’t think “flirt with the corpse” is in the script

It’s nice to learn right off the bat that Puen’s not an arrogant twat despite his fame, he just smiles @ Talay’s phone call

“you’re this drunk and you can still work” WAIT THAT “OCEAN BLUE” STUFF IS ALCOHOL??? AND TALAY’S TRYING TO WORK WHILE DRUNK???

That seems like a terrible decision

“his attitude against pink” Boy you and I are about to throw hands

(pink is my favourite colour)

W-wait what’s that pyramid(?)-looking thing in the water, I’ve never seen that before

The reason Talay got sucked to a different universe is he wasn’t in the same frame as his friends

HOW DO YOU ASSHOLES NOT HEAR HIM

Oh my god I haaaaate Tess’s dad, like yeah I’d probably punch Tess in the face if I knew him irl but I don’t need to guess whose fault it is he turned out like that in the first place

I’m glad his mom’s got his back… in her own way

For a show that starts off with such a focus on colour, it changes drastically between shots during Talay and Tess’s mom’s little act

And not in a way I think was intentional

SFJKSGDKSGKDGSKDGSJ VERA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO WATCH VICE VERSA AND LEAVE ME COMMENTS AS YOU GO IM SO EXCITED TO HEAR ALL YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT IT

okay but when i tell you talay is just as unhinged as puen is like imagine doing an interview for your dream job and ending up associating the dudes responsible for your destiny with the worst colors you could possibly come up with..... and then you meet a hot famous actor in an airport bathroom and not only you forget to wash your hands before giving him a present but you also tell him he has a big head....... AND YET TALAY SOMEHOW MANAGES TO GET BOTH THE JOB AND THE BOY ALEXA PLAY WHATTA MAN BY SALT-N-PEPA

it's also a testament of how good the writing of the show is that i loved talay since the very beginning despite is deeply incorrect opinion on the color pink aka THE PRETTIEST OF COLORS!!!!!!! however im willing to forgive him for everything since his journey from dislike to love because he comes to associate pink with puen is literally POETIC CINEMA

and not to spoiler you but when you said "It’s nice to learn right off the bat that Puen’s not an arrogant twat despite his fame, he just smiles @ Talay’s phone call" it reminded me of how in episode 7 one of the characters tells puen that "talay's smile is your smile" AND TO KNOW THAT TALAY MADE PUEN SMILE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING WAY BEFORE THEY KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT EACH OTHER IS MAKING ME WANT TO GO DROWN MYSELF IN 5 CM OF WATER

i guess it's a good thing im not doing the bad buddy rewatch for the one year anniversary because i already know that this time around i would become the most disgusting wai apologist........... though kudos to jimmy for being able to portray both the biggest asshole in existence and the most endearing sweetheart CAN YOU BELIEVE SOME PEOPLE STILL HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SAY HE CAN'T ACT???????? also i think they should have brought back the suspenders in the last episode and let talay grab them to pull puen in for a kiss IM JUST SAYING

and i suppose this is the moment where i admit i have no positive feelings about tess but you're very right about his dad being awful

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS ONLY PART 1 OF EPISODE 1 IM SFJKSGDFJ AT THIS RATE IM GONNA GET INSTITUTIONALIZED BEFORE PUEN SHOWS UP AGAIN

#i still think we should have gotten a special episode called brown like a horse shit tbh #ALSO I APOLOGIZE TO EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING #vice versa #vice versa the series #vera9 #m: ask

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purkinje-effect · 2 years

Text

The Anatomy of Melancholy, 92: AEGIS

Table of Contents Third Instar, Chapter 23. Go to previous. Go to next. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Appreciate your patience and continued readership. Been having a lot of real life turmoil in the past few months.

This concludes the set of four achronological chapters, which I've termed the "Lockreed Tetralogy." I structured them in such a way that they're sorted into four chapters by theme and relevance, to emulate a sense of "disk repair scan," but if you would also like to read them in chronological order, I have made a Neocities page for it here. I think trying to format it as it appears in HTML, through Tumblr, has taken a year off my life.

It feels ironic that the fourth chapter doesn't have much in the way of content warnings. There's some vague eldritch fuckery afoot, and a bit of memory glitching. Hopefully not too bad.

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"Aegis-bearing Zeus has a design for each occasion, and mortals find this hard to comprehend." — Hesiod's Theogeny

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Data integrity recovery... 99%... Please do not power off your system.

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January 5, 2288

The terminal bonks at 'Choly, to inform him he's used up all his tries for the hour. He's locked out. Again. He slouches and massages his nose bridge behind his glasses.

This would be so much easier if I could get my Pip-Boy working again... and if I had a decryption holotape for it.

Breaking windows isn't an option now that they've solved the building brownout, but the odds of this current trick working are still far higher, he thinks, now that they've restored full power. They just have to remember not to touch the exposed wiring in any security glass Sticks has already shattered.

Despite resistance logging into the admin's terminal at the reception desk, he remains confident that it is crucial to programming his ribbon rack and Lt. Creeley's. He found the required peripheral equipment in a drawer the other day, and a personnel management software manual remains among the reference texts on the desk. He's been at it going on two weeks, without hacking script at his disposal, and nothing at the reception desk seems to point to any clues.

If only the admin were so negligent to have written down the password and tucked it unceremoniously in the desk, or in any of the folders or books.

He sucks a Mentat and skims the desktop again anyway. When he started coming down here to get into the terminal, he would bring his gauss homework with him, but bouncing between failure and rejection is wearing on him more than he can admit. He quickly loses motivation searching the desktop, and lets himself read one of the books to occupy himself for the next hour.

He finds that the orientation text has a unit on the history of this Lockreed site. Maybe it can shed light on the General's interest in this place. Sticks insists she just stole all the robots, but 'Choly knows there's more to it. There's so much more, he swears. There's not any evidence robots have ever been employed here, for starters--there's no storage bays or workbenches, no maintenance equipment, no fuel, no mentions of them in company procedure materials--and the only robot they know is in the building at this given moment is Angel. Understanding just how deep this rabbit trail goes might not solve the primary obstacle that traps them here, but it will still check off a high priority task for them.

So, he reads. His sole taps along the low-pile carpeting, to the faint jazzy tune which saunters the well-lit empty halls of the first floor. The more populated that he learns the world is, the more accustomed to solitude he grows. He's proven he's not as isolated as he thought. All that matters to him is that he's alone by choice.

Interfacing and telemetry prodigies founded the security systems company SysDef in 2052. RobCo negotiated partnership with SysDef, then RobCo bought them in order to procure the patents for their state-of-the-art interfacing protocols. The buyout shifted the company vision: as RobCo Entertainment, they came to script video games. RobCo Entertainment's lavish library could be enjoyed on any RobCo processing system. Thanks to SysDef, that would include the pride of RobCo's Lowell location: the 'Personal Information Processor,' endeared to the world as the Pip-Boy.[2288.01.05-1]

No wonder RobCo devices are compatible with those of so many different companies. The SysDef patent set them a league apart from the rest. Impressed but restless, 'Choly bites through the remaining wafer of Mentat left in his mouth.

His discoveries do substantiate his months of paranoia. It's no secret that RobCo had always partnered heavily with the military, and the military saw special promise in RobCo Entertainment. The federal defense complex orchestrated annexation of the company under their Lockreed Industries. As Lockreed of Nashua, the company resumed full focus on defense systems development. Beyond mention that they had been coding aerospace technologies, the text does not indicate exactly what the military had contracted them to produce for them in the years leading up to the Great War. His only clue is that any questions regarding S.C.Y.T.H.E. Program projects must be routed through the director.

'Choly recalls the crates of ballistics fiber at Boott Mills were labeled S.C.Y.T.H.E. property, too.[2288.01.05-2]

"I really wish I knew what that stood for, damn it."

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

February 4, 2288

A terminal with an unburnt screen.

'Choly sits down at a cubicle in an office on an upper floor. He's been wandering a wider path researching the military documentation in the building ever since Sticks began making trips outside. Despite the degree of preservation throughout the premises, because something seems to have prevented the screensaver script on many terminals from triggering, centuries of disuse have burned images deep into their screens. The glow bleed on inoperable terminals, he imagines, resembles what it must be like to stare into the sun.

He hopes he's not Icarus.

It doesn't take long for him to ascertain that whoever once occupied this desk used its terminal for a diary. It's encrypted by pay grade. He unfurls his Pip-Boy keyprong to attempt his password decryption algorithm. Before he can analyze the possible correct commands among the guesses on the screen, a synchronization between a biometric sensor in the room and his nameplate verifies his identity and O-6 pay grade.

It dismisses the encryption check. He's had no reason to wear his bekesha-tulup indoors, so he's tucked his ribbon rack and nameplate into the small pocket in his Vault Suit's lining. Still, he would have expected secure terminals to require more than his physical presence to access them, but he supposes it's not too unlike a unique fingerprint, if the building's biometrics are as advanced as he suspects. He leans into the keyboard and favors proximity to the screen such that he can remove his glasses.

Delight flushes over any possible terror, to recognize the last active user of this terminal was Olivia Francis, then designated Major General.

April 12 2096

I knew this moment would come, but here I am. I may have set up here as a contingency because it was the next nearest secure military property, but there's a very real possibility its SCYTHE products could be the key to reclaiming Deenwood. I'll stay here a few weeks to get a head start on my research before heading to the mall to regroup.

He cannot imagine what enemy hand could accomplish the feat of seizing Deenwood. He squirms, and smiles knowing from history that their occupation was temporary.

April 30 2096

I resent that the... tests disfigured me, but resembling what the locals call a 'ghoul' has afforded me some degree of anonymity. I couldn't clear my head and instead shifted gears during my stay at the settlement that's sprung up inside the local shopping mall. It's my understanding that all Lockreed employees who survived Great War Day relocated at this 'Ant Lane.' They've integrated well enough that they've given me trouble tracking them down to question, but some still haven't broken the habit of wearing their Pip-Boys in public. I've found a lower-rung developer already. This Ken Luther knows nothing about AEGIS, remembers nothing notable about his tenure, and doesn't grasp why a scavenger would have much interest in a video game facility. Locating Brock Taskerlands would probably solve all my problems. For how hot he was to procure the property, he has to have known what he was buying into, but I need to continue under the likelihood that only his legacy lingers here.

After my stay, I know now what I must do. What I need is locked inside the mall, and the key to freeing it IS here.

He sits for some time. He rereads the entry trying to jog his memory of those names. Surely, he reassures himself, she had not set in motion the events which transpired last October. This couldn't have anything to do with the granite, or the fungus, or the hypnagogic chroma shifts, or the widespread acute memory damage.

He curses under his breath in a healthy mix of English and Russian. The idea that the General believed Taskerlands was actually remarkable ruffles him a great deal. Eventually, he jots some notes... Luther, Taskerlands, AEGIS... underscores Taskerlands, overwrites the name time and again with a strained gurn... and continues.

May 18 2096

At least one AEGIS technician survived the War, but she's since passed away. This Marion Rigley seems to have kept her classified training confidential and has shared only the most rudimentary repair methods. It's unthinkable that she couldn't recognize that her proprietary knowledge would prove invaluable in maintaining one of the largest and most effective bomb shelters on the Eastern Coast. Maybe she didn't believe Ant Lane would need to exist as a community much longer, and held onto the misguided idealism that the United States she knew might one day return to its glory days. Maybe she thought similar threats to human life have ceased to exist in this post-nuclear tapestry. Or maybe she knew that with an intimate familiarity with the system comes the capacity to abuse it. The irony almost stings.

June 9 2096

After speaking with some of the locals who maintain Ant Lane's walls, I convinced the Hall to let me look around their maintenance closet, under the guise that I wanted to know what sort of components to scavenge for repairs. They believe I'm interested in learning how to maintain the building. Beyond a doubt they have no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of a mainframe hidden somewhere on the property. I need to be more cautious because this is feeling a little too easy.

June 26 2096

The Lane is one Protectron lighter. No one noticed it wandered outside, and no one noticed it rejoined me one block away. I've proven I don't need access to the STAR Control mainframe to hack AEGIS. The robot will accompany me in a few days. I'll tell them that I found it and felt obligated to return it. When it rejoins the anechoic grid, it will transmit a Trojan frequency to the other robotics on site. It's a shame that STAR parameters only function within architectural boundaries designed for it. Otherwise, I might be able to conscript more robots than just these thirty Protectrons. Finally getting somewhere.

July 1 2096

The Hall let me keep the Protectron, which I've named Helen. They consider her defective since she was able to get outside the mall. I brought their attention to the reality that the robots on site have not undergone maintenance in twenty years, and they asked me if I couldn't take a look. I didn't expect to be able to freely repair and upgrade them prior to commandeering them. They've got me on robotics duty now. My plan exceeds my expectations already.

She's very efficient. It's sublime to finally have a robot of my own, after being surrounded by colleagues for decades whom the government legally required to have them. Even if she doesn't survive this scheme in one piece, I wholly intend to rebuild her. She's the beginning of something I hold dear.

July 24 2096

It's done. I tested the Trojan sequence. When interrogated on whether I tampered with the Protectrons, I underscored that I have nothing but the vitality of the Lane at heart. They blamed my repair work for the casualties, though no one could explain how the Protectrons and turrets all went haywire at once. Only steel and copper can reclaim Deenwood now. My efforts will nevertheless prevent needless slaughter at the hands of army traitors. The Court ruled it manslaughter, and motioned to dismiss all robots from the premises. I never met any of the Aldermen, but I'm thrilled they unwittingly ruled in my favor. When I told the Hall I would ensure total robot removal without further casualty, they decided that my guarantee outweighed taking my life. Some of the guards figured the robots would do me in either way. Going forward, they'll emphasize reliance on their security guards. I wish them all the luck.

Now that I have my reserve troops stationed inside Lockreed, I can uninstall the fabricated programming dysfunction, and convert the Trojan to my customized STAR parameters. I've been able to control Helen remotely. I'll be able to rein the others.

Those Academy of Liberty bastards won't know what hit them.

As expected, these diary entries raise more questions than they answer. When he tries to copy the entries to the JBD in his holotape deck, a permissions error bonks at him. The read function is locked behind an O-6 pay grade, but the write function is locked behind a confidentiality of O-8 or higher. He slaps the side of the terminal case, then pretends he's kidding. He smiles into himself as he retracts his key-prong.

It's fine. If he can't take the terminal's data to his current workspace, he'll take his current workspace to this terminal. This office desk boasts much more desk space than the cubicle downstairs anyway. And if he needs to, next time he can transcribe the entries himself manually.

But what did it all mean?

On his way back downstairs, he can't help but chuckle in a secondhand nostalgia regarding the humble beginnings of Helen's AI signature.[2288.02.04-1]

What other models has the General loaded her into? At what point did she become an Assaultron? His smile fades, but his spirit persists. What will her next model be?

He shakes his head with a tut and smirk.

"Of course See's is her fault. Of course it is."[2288.02.04-2]

He giggles and chuffs intermittently for hours, that the Lane likely never saw what its appointed squad of robots could have done drowning in the electromagnetic distortions of a postwar nor'easter... and that the General very likely never knew that she spared the Lane that tragedy by having rigged a smaller scale fake malfunction of her own.

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

February 15, 2288

"I do hope you're finding what you're looking for here, Sir."

Angel tidies the space it has tidied three times already. It whistles as it whisks its feather-bare duster at the spotless shelves of the director's office.

"You know that I had to be certain we wouldn't set off the security systems by coming up here."

Seated at the desk, 'Choly paces the menus on its terminal. For some time, he chews at a pencil bridled between his teeth, and says nothing further.

"Here. Fucking fuck, I've got it." He removes his glasses and rubs at his eyes, then rereads the most recent of several entries. "The S.C.Y.T.H.E. Program outline for this site is all here. All this time I was expecting it entailed a product, but their project was... Fuck. Ant Lane was a military experiment. Listen to this. The director kept drafts of sales pitches, and mental notes of investors."

Pheasant Lane Mall, our most ambitious phase of the STAR Control program, showcases the versatility of our STAR Cores. The property's highly specialized proprietary AEGIS wiring, which provides the above ground vault with an interior secure of all electromagnetic radiation, incorporates twenty STAR Cores. AEGIS in this way blocks external radio frequencies, including EMPs and ionizing radiation, while still providing internal management of all RobCo robotics on site. Thirty Protectrons and fifty-three turrets guard Pheasant Lane. The mall's supervisor has total and simultaneous control of all robots within the boundaries of the mall, all with the convenience and ease of a RobCo mainframe.

Its position straddling the NH-MA state line was not just a strategy of finance but also one of function. Ideally, the convenient location will create opportunities for many to frequent the property. We hope its lavish amenities make it feel like a second home to locals and tourists alike.

"And another. This one's dated 2071."

Due to the high production costs of AEGIS infrastructure, it's been a decade since the completion of Pheasant Lane, and it's still the only standing testament to its virtues. Military interest in STAR Control got us bought into the Lockreed market, and it's kept us going in recent years thanks to S.C.Y.T.H.E. And now, we can applaud John-Caleb Bradberton's sizable investment in implementing yet another illustrious demonstration of STAR Control excellence, by contracting us in the development and erection of the Galactic Zone park in Nuka-World.[2288.02.15-1] Needless to say, as inheritors of the RobCo Entertainment headquarters, we have been quite delighted to see the space themed entertainment park outfitted with dozens of opportunities for visitors to engage with RobCo Games properties. However, the park development committee opted to bring in Vault-Tec in a multi-corporation collaborative decision, and while showcasing cohabitation of multiple big name brands at Nuka-World, it's also a glaring commentary on the failure of AEGIS as a vault technology, as AEGIS-based vaults make no appearance on its roster.

Securing steady funding wouldn't be such a struggle if the only thing that has kept House's interest in us was the SysDef interfacing protocols. He's been investing more and more in private sectors over his military holdings. It's why Lockreed got its hands on the company so easily. My Intel tells me his business habits have been seeming more and more like unhinged hobbies, but they can never seem to spit out what they mean.[2288.02.15-2]

Perhaps Bradberton's investment in STAR Control will inspire further investors going forward. After all, our telemetry doesn't require the costly AEGIS infrastructure.[2288.02.15-3] Drawing in investors like Bradberton will not only improve popular opinion of the military's advancements, but will fund them for decades. To say he's pleased with the Galactic Zone is an understatement. He's reached out to me regarding any other highly proprietary military technologies with which he could be permitted to outfit his park. I contacted Col. Nelson about it, and he's told me to direct him to some bigwig, Gen. Braxton. Mentioned something bigger than the S.C.Y.T.H.E. Program, too. Bradberton is among the world's wealthiest. I can only imagine what Nelson's offhand remark must mean the eccentric inventor's buying into next.[2288.02.15-4]

It's least of many evils, between House, Taskerlands[2288.02.15-5], and Bradberton. If only I could get inside the head of a billionaire. Do you go crazy with that much money, or does it take being crazy to earn it?

He falls quiet again as he engrosses himself in the documents, a majority of which bear timestamps dating between 2054 and 2062. He recalls that Sacristan Haidinger suggested Vault-Tec had nothing to do with Pheasant Lane Mall's value as a bomb shelter, and these archives confirm that the two companies never communicated or collaborated regarding the site. The government's Project Safehouse, most well known for spearheading Vault-Tec's construction of the majority of the nation's bomb shelters, had also commissioned independent contractors to try a varied civilian-oriented approach to national defense. (For example, Pulowski Shelters spring to mind.)

Several documents indicate that when the military lost interest in the financial viability of constructing subsequent structures like Pheasant Lane, interest still lingered in repurposing STAR Cores elsewhere. The biggest contract for them shows that Lockreed supplied Nuka-World with thirty-five STAR Cores, to control a large and diverse reserve of fully outfitted RobCo and General Atomics military grade robotics.

The thirty Protectrons and fifty-three turrets still bewilder 'Choly. If everything in the General's terminal entries is accurate, the Lane had to determine the source of the earliest true AEGIS malfunction, restore it, and continue fully and knowingly protected. When had the first electromagnetic nor'easter ravaged the East Coast, and put this AEGIS system to the test? Yet, even if these AEGIS bugs do get repaired, he can appreciate how the biological effects of such a storm precipitate such entrenched local superstitions.

Any science Sutter Grove commands is likely reverse engineered at best. He's neither a programmer nor an engineer, and can't do much more than augment their knowledge base going forward. Have the Lane's inhabitants ever truly known why or how the building protects them? He's not confident he can adequately explain to the Lane exactly what such things represent, but he knows with unwavering certainty that the survival of Ant Lane depends on its ability to withstand harsh magnetic weather conditions. Although at heart its inhabitants have largely reduced its architectural aegis to ghosts and shadows, Ant Lane owes its very existence to overwhelmingly advanced technological engineering.

Angel stops its cleaning routine to check on its owner.

"Chin up, Sir. It can't be all bad," the Mister Handy says. "I'm not sure I follow most of what you've just read aloud, but surely there's some kind of silver lining in it all. Some information that makes your trouble getting into this office worthwhile? Mmh?"

He glances up at Angel with an uptick of purpose.

"More of a lead lining. Or copper? Copper lining? Fuck, there's got to be hundreds of tons of copper in that place. I don't follow much of what's detailed here, either, but some of Sutter Grove's electricians might. We'll take them everything we can. Spare parts and all."

There's got to be surplus components here. STAR Cores, the redundant components of Systemized Telemetry for Automated Robot Control, routed through the architectural multi-layered cousin of the Faraday cage AEGIS, the AnEchoic Gridwork Integrated Shield.

He snaps his fingers, and swivels in his seat to push himself up with his cane. Like the one the General had used to pen her entries regarding the Academy of Liberty, this terminal is also write-protected. He'll return to it as needed, to transcribe it and transfer its data somewhere he can print out everything.

He stops and frowns. The orientation booklet. The onboarding manual. If any of the texts he's found here have indicated anything regarding the STAR Control trained specialists, STAR Cores, or AEGIS, he would know it by now. Surely he's simply overlooking something profound in plain sight.

Of course, he reminds himself, the onboarding book is just an entry level training manual. STAR Control and AEGIS must be among the most sophisticated projects this Lockreed ever worked on. Their finer workings eluded a polymath like the General for an entire summer to the point she was tracking down the masterminds behind it all.

"Maybe there's a manual here for AEGIS training," he tells himself, and commences browsing the shelves Angel has just finished dusting for the fifth time today. "Or at the very least, a layout of where they manufactured STAR Cores."

"That's the spirit! Shall I help you look?"

Getting a reply where he expected none shakes him from inside his own head just a bit. He glances up with a pleasant startled thoughtfulness.

"Yes. Thank you."

"But of course!" After a while, it comments, "It's been so delightfully quiet since we've been here in New Hampshire, you know. Just the three of us. None of those pesky voices. So much easier to focus on my housekeeping."

'Choly stops and stares off into the corner. His voice cracks.

"Angel, clarify."

"The voices? Oh, they've been bouncing around in my receiver wiring since sometime in Lowell, I'd estimate. I couldn't tell you exactly when they stopped, but I've felt haywire since long before the damage you've told me I suffered recently."

"The laser attachment." His eyes dull as his head turns to his companion. His gaze falls past it. "We removed all your attachments when we entered Ant Lane."

"So that's where it's all gone!" Angel exclaims, with the levity of mere inconvenience. "I just knew I had attachments! Oh, I pray my service is still satisfactory to you, lacking them, Mister Sir. Should I fetch them so we can reattach them, or shall we continue with the brass tacks?"

He sees red. If her tampering extends beyond having modified Angel's tendril laser, there's no other explanation in his mind than that she tried to power it on during the storm... and that she's thus responsible for Angel suffering gauss damage. He can't cry.

"Moy Angel, you're you no matter what equips you."

"And you're you, no matter your equipment." Angel's chuckle fades out in a glitched static. "Remind me again what we're here for, if you could, Sir."

A smile cracks his haunted veneer.

"Sometimes you're more human than you think."

"Not as much of a compliment as one might think."

He wipes the smile off his face, only to grin and resume searching the shelves.

"Ни фига себе..."[2288.02.15-6]

"Well! No need to curse about it."

"This whole thing. Every turn leaves me speechless. Even you." He grips a book spine. "Perhaps I misspoke. You're complex, in a way humans can be. Complex, tragic, laughable."

"I'm complex in a way machinery can be. Complicated and unpredictable."[2288.02.15-7]

"Never change."

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

January 5, 2288

'Choly looks up from the book to check the countdown timer on the terminal. Three minutes left. He hems and drums his pencil on the steno he's been using to track the possible ten letter passwords he's already tried.

The General must think she's General of the entire US Army, having survived all other known officers. Maybe it's as simple as some presumption that she owns the rights to anything the Army claimed. He hopes it's that simple. She doesn't strike him as the type to binge Grognak & the Ruby Ruins.

His mind drifts, and his eyes trace over the individual letters. Something clicks about the dots and crosses and natural spacing of his handwriting. It may have been nine months ago, but he still remembers just enough of the method he applied to hack Eleanor's terminal in Lexington. The markup of the encryption is one means of finding the password. He's thrown blind guesses at it all this time. It takes a bit for him to jog his memory how to coax the terminal to display that formatting, but once it spills across the screen, he needs only heed the punctuation to determine the answer. Subjectify.

[Server connection severed. Contact an Administrator if the problem persists.]

He hopes he doesn't need an uplink in order to gain access to the nametag application. At least if he does, this is an administrative terminal, so he shouldn't need to stray far from where he sits at the first floor lobby. He plucks around the terminal to get a feel for how this administrator kept his desk. The admin's daily life doesn't concern him, but his curiosity distracts him enough from his immediate task that he still takes a glance at the inbox. Even if snooping doesn't yield anything, reading the admin's various correspondences still seems interesting.

He opens messages that appear high profile, but they're vague at best. Eventually, he doubles back to a shrink of messages with a long chain of back and forth. Most of it is between the admin and the director. He skims to get the gist, and cuts to the height of the drama.

I've told you once, and I'll tell you a dozen times: don't accept his creepy gifts, and don't entertain him! It's not our problem anymore, and we're not beholden to disclose confidential documents to a civilian, no matter how much money he paid for an old SysDef property. If he breaks it by modifying it, that's his problem. He comes in again, you call security. Please take your job seriously.

---

Sir, I accept responsibility for the storm I ruffled. Know that I take my position very seriously. It's just that I figured, if he bought the property, maybe the developers would be keen on helping him? It seemed like a possible avenue to garner his continued investment in Lockreed. I won't make the same mistake again.

I hope you enjoy your vacation next week.

---

As the admin, you have access to accounting files. As the admin, you don't have the authority or credentials to make decisions based on that data.

If the board needed your input on investors, you'd be looped into board meetings.

Lockreed has concluded involvement with Taskerlands. We will no longer be doing business with him in the future, not even on prior purchases. Do not let him in the building again, or YOU will not be let in the building again. Do I make myself clear?

The thread ends here, but an asterisk indicates that a reply sits in the admin's drafts:

Sir, I know this week's misstep with Mr. Taskerlands reflects poorly on my skills, but I assure you that going forward, I will prove myself to the board. My desk may not be the brains of this company, but I am its uncanny eyes and ears, and I hear just about everything. I know better than most

'Choly wonders if the admin was cruising for a promotion or simply clawing to keep his job. He muses over the ancient office drama while he gets to work fiddling with Lt. Creeley's RFID nametag. He grabs the personnel software manual, and roots through the admin's desk for the peripheral equipment required to use it. His hand sets upon something cold and sobering.

Instead of producing the name tag cradle, he pulls from the back of the drawer a potato sized bronze paperweight. He wishes he didn't recognize the features of the metal mask. A gift tag still dangles from a thin twine around it, in a crude indelicate script: A gift from the Aldermen, to Lockreed's sharpest and brightest.

He forbids himself from reacting. He returns it to the drawer, and shuts it rigidly when he cannot shut it calmly. He has work to do.

He searches the next drawer down for the RFID cradle, and finds it. Once he plugs it in, he instructs the terminal to scan for it, then dives into the script. Maybe he's just spent an alarming amount of time in recent months immersed in programming literature, but the application is surprisingly straightforward, and reprogramming its identity data for its new owner is a breeze. He notes that the script suggests the lieutenant's name was Maria Greeley, and inspects the tag where it sits in the cradle with a skewed expression. He removes his glasses and picks at the engraved lettering with the tip of his pencil. A fleck of debris dislodges from the engraved letter, demonstrating it is in fact a G, not a C.

Because the server is inaccessible, and because he and Sticks are the only living humanoids present in the building, he can isolate the building's biometrics and indicate which of the two he wants the nametag to define as Maria Greeley.[2288.01.05-3] The RFID cradle has a deck for engraving, but he has no blanks to use to make one that says Sticks on it. He hopes the ghoul won't mind what the physical tag says, as long as its digital programming works.

If they stay much longer, he'll consider snooping around for their office supply closet to locate some. But if it works, they shouldn't have to bother.

It's going to work.

Next, he has his own name tag with him. His ease altering Greeley's tag suggests that Lockreed likely developed this personnel name tag system for all military applications, not just corporate military sites such as this. Greeley wasn't stationed at Deenwood, as far as he can tell, but the tag's similarity to his own suggests even these are about as military issue as it gets. When he loads the script contained in his tag, he must sit back and read it time and again. There's something wrong about it. He's no sophisticated programmer, but between the script he just edited on the other name tag and the script instructions in front of him in the software manual, he can clearly discern entire lines of script that set apart his name tag from the lieutenant's.

"Olivia altered it." He sits back in his chair and chews on his pencil. "When she promoted me to colonel, she didn't just edit my ribbon rack and devices: she... tampered with it."

He's nervous to alter any of the script, lest it bungle his ability to regain access to Deenwood. He sits up and rolls his eyes at himself before poising over the keyboard once again.

That's ridiculous. Why does it matter if I hypothetically ever step foot on base again, if I can't even step foot out of this building? The system won't accept an ID that looks hacked.

Before deleting any lines of script, or changing any parameters or variables, he flips to a new page in his steno and writes down the entire code. It's not that many lines, fortunately, but just like a misplaced comma or unclosed parenthesis, whatever the General added doesn't look like it belongs.

He edits the code to resemble Greeley's as closely as possible, retaining his own name, biometric signature, and credentials, and ejects his tag. Within minutes, he hears the sibilant click of pneumatic locks opening all down the halls.

He shivers.

"Why am I usually only right when that's a bad thing?"

She's been their warden all along, intentionally or otherwise. But she couldn't have known they would end up here. They're here by a fluke of getting lost in the ice Fog. She couldn't have intended that they get locked inside due to a technicality of her code meddling. And yet, with the subtlety and sleight of mind the woman commands, he can expect no better explanation.

At least she was so kind as to stock a season's worth of MREs.

Go to Next »»»

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[2288.01.05-1] Lockreed of Nashua. The history of this company is based off the historical Sanders Associates. Sanders Associates started as contractor of defense technologies. One of their engineers, Ralph H. Baer, developed the first video game as a side project, for which they partnered with Magnavox to produce. Their console was the Magnavox Odyssey. Eventually Lockheed Martin bought Sanders. Currently BAE Systems owns the property.

[2288.01.05-2] The S.C.Y.T.H.E. Program is mentioned in Fallout 4. In the years leading up to the Great War, the US military contracted existing civilian manufacturing facilities to produce army resources to reduce the time and funds building new factories. There are several such companies mentioned, but the acronym's definition is yet unknown, and it's unknown the full scope of contracts belonging to the project.

[2288.01.05-3] Greeley. Maria shares a surname with the protagonist and programming specialist of The Stone Tape, Jill Greeley. They both met their demise as a consequence of their indefatigable investigations.

[2288.02.04-1] The Assaultron Helen is named after Helen of Troy. One, a major factor to the Battle of Lowell does amount to Olivia and Laverne fighting over Helen, though they both have their notions as to why she's the perfect companion. Two, Olivia first stole her by exploiting Ant Lane's security systems via a Trojan virus.

[2288.02.04-2] See's assault rifles. Olivia may have removed the robots from Ant Lane, but the mall's security and maintenance crew were tasked with the turrets' removal. Turrets in Fallout typically take 5.56 bullets. The assault rifle is See's guards' most used weapon because the bullets would exist in surplus for decades after the 2096 incident. Some higher ranking guards have firearms with converted 5.56 receivers as well for this reason.

[2288.02.15-1] Nuka-World's Galactic Zone employs STAR Control telemetry to manage the operation of military grade robotics for entertainment display. These redundant components must exist in a certain quantity within the system in order to be capable of broadcasting a strong enough frequency to secure access.

[2288.02.15-2] Robert House, the owner of RobCo and all its subsidiaries, began investing in private sectors in the years leading up to the Great War. In Fallout New Vegas, it becomes known that two such high priority ventures for him were ensuring his effective immortality through development of a stasis chamber, and the development of the Platinum Chip with its capacity to control a fleet of Securitron robots. He sought to prevent the nuclear exchange altogether, but ironically a direct nuclear hit on Las Vegas on October 23rd prevented the delivery of that command chip.

[2288.02.15-3] In the Anatomy continuity, Ant Lane was the prototype for STAR Core telemetry modules. In practice, it was proven that a majority of what made the system so costly was AEGIS itself, and that STAR Cores are functionally independent of that infrastructure. Untethered from the problem child, Lockreed would go on to effortlessly produce STAR Cores for the military through the S.C.Y.T.H.E. Program. Bradberton would later furnish a contract to procure enough to furnish the Galactic Zone.

[2288.02.15-4] John-Caleb Bradberton colluded with high ranking military, bartering for confidential technologies both with his wealth and with his own inventions. Nuka-Cola produced several confidential military products, and the partnership promised a front-facing public image which would bolster popular opinion of both the soda and the army. He managed to convince Gen. Braxton to permit his inclusion in the incredibly top secret Project Cobalt, which, in kind with House's ideologies, turned out of be another effective immortality technology.

[2288.02.15-5] Brock Taskerlands is a portmanteau of both the property owner and project manager from The Stone Tape. Although his only holdings were in Vermont granite quarries and Pheasant Lane Mall, the billionaire was not so unlike the other eccentric investors who had their individual hands in Lockreed of Nashua's various interfacing and telemetry technologies.

[2288.02.15-6] Ни фига себе. Somewhat vulgar, definitely impolite. No kidding, no frigging way, not flipping yourself off.

[2288.02.15-7] 'Choly and Angel are exchanging various quotes from Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions regarding string theory, human nature, and self-determination.

#fallout #fallout fanfic #fallout 4 #sole survivor #fo4 fanfic #the anatomy of melancholy #melancholy #angel #let's have fun in new hampshire

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