#when you become filled with rage mid customer service shift

[fresnosnightcrawlers]

coworker keeps touching me to get my attention. kill mode activated.

[webcricket]

Thursday’s Child

Pairing: CastielXReader Word Count: 2759 (Pt. 1) Summary: Part 1 of 5 - You met Castiel during his stint at being human and knew him as Steve, a sweet, albeit mysterious, man working at the local Gas-N-Sip with sad blue eyes that seemed to light up in your presence. That was eight years ago; now the daughter he fathered during your brief time together - the girl he doesn’t know about because he stole from your bed without a word and slipped out of your life before you knew you were pregnant - is asking for him. You realize, for her sake, it’s time to face the painful truth in order to find him. A/N - Part 1 is an angsty intro to the reader, the next part brings us up to speed on where Cas is at ...

Pt. 1

You walked into the Gas-N-Sip onto a scene a match stick strike short of complete chaos. Beyond the sea of customers waiting at the counter, the grumbled volume of their impatience rising like a storm’s tide breaking on a rocky shore, you saw not the blue-eyed sales associate you sought for, but the ragged figure of the manager, Nora, as she slammed her fist against the side of the cash register to compel its cooperation.

The machine spat its contents out in a metallic ding barely audible above the thunder of discontent. Nora flung a handful of crumpled bills at the gaping man stood before her and waved him toward the door with his uncapped cup of cold coffee without a word regarding well wishes for the goodness of the day.

The frazzled blonde jabbed a finger at her temple, peered blankly over the counter, and muttered, “Can I help whose next?” in a manner that made whomsoever was next dither in presenting themselves for customer service slaughter, and two people leave without getting the gasoline they came for - one of whom had trudged there on foot through the snow uphill in a pair of threadbare tangerine Converse after their car ran out of juice three miles down the road.

As the sea swelled in murmured confusion over who was next, you dove into the crush of shoulders and shoved a path through to the front.

Pressed into the counter, you jostled a carousel display of novelty keychains, the inconvenient disturbance of which, more than your voice, caught Nora’s strained attention. “Nora!” you panted. Caging the scattering of metal rings within your elbows to prevent their clattering to the floor, you ignored the nicotine-husked scolding of a wrinkled weather-worn woman sounding in your ear about cutting the line.

“Y/N?” A flicker of hope lightened Nora’s craggy sleep-deprived aspect at the sight of you. “Have you seen Steve?” Clutching at your wrist, she asked the desperate-toned question before you could, unknowingly answering yours in its sameness. “He hasn’t been in for two days. No call out. Nothing. That’s not like him.”

Cheeks paling, you agreed – conscientious to a fault, it wasn’t like him at all to just disappear.

The sickly sense of suspicion festering in your stomach during the last forty-eight hours that began upon waking to empty sheets and fattened itself not on food, because you’d barely eaten under the barrage of worried emotions, but rather fed on a gluttony of unreturned calls and texts, shuddered and flipped with enough weight to unsteady your feet; wrist yanked from her grip, you flattened your palm to the front of your jeans as an awareness of imminent ill shot sour bile up your gullet.

You shook your head; taking a second, you choked back the throat-searing fluid and fortified your dizzied balance against the confirmation he had indeed gone without a trace. “N-no, I haven’t-” you sputtered- “I-I was hoping-”

Cutting you off, unable to hear anything beyond the unhelpful news of your weakly uttered ‘No,’ frustration rutted her sweat-beaded forehead. “Well when you do see him, tell him he’s fired. He left me in the middle of a mess of inventory and I haven’t had anyone to open. For fuck’s sake, it’s the holidays! I’m in a real lurch here.” Wheezing to reach for the final bit of breath required to bellow out her contained fury, she gestured at the crowd and flashed the one or two nearest folks shocked by her expletive outburst a conciliatory service industry contrived smile.

“If-if you see him-” you attempted to request the returned favor through the burst levy of her rage as the woman spewing insults about your impudence wedged between you and the counter to demand immediate attention. Funneled in defeat to the center of the store, you broke for the bathroom before the wet brim of heartache flooded your lashes and a renewed heave of nausea hollowed your belly of its fill of woe.

<<<>>> 

“Mama?” The girl outfitted in pastel blue and magenta feather-bedecked fleece footie pajamas curled on the bed beside you stirred sleepily in the crook of your arm; the friction of her minute movements and dry forced heat air of winter combined sparked a static shock where the soft warmth of her bare fingers brushed your own calloused cooler ones.

“Yeah, honeybee?” Swiveling your concentration from the pages of the storybook held above the both of you, you closed the pages and sniffed your reply ticklishly into the freshly washed soap-smell of your daughter’s scalp – the scent of her a welcome haven from the heady aromas clinging to you of yeasted bread, warmed spice, and browned sugar that otherwise denoted a hectic day spent toiling in the bakery and sweet shop you operated below the small apartment.

She squirmed and giggled beneath your unrelenting Eskimo kisses until, fidgeting sideways to evade and escape, she squealed mid-laugh a query so completely unrelated to the book you’d been reading aloud minutes before it took you aback. “Where’s daddy?”

Her innocent and wholly natural curiosity stilled your showering of affection, seized at the center of your chest to steal your breath, and skipped your heart a few agonizing beats, but only a few; you’d grown emotionally numb over many years to the hurt of not knowing what happened with her father, of trying to reconcile your questions with a lack of answers in order to figure out what you did wrong, if anything, to warrant Steve’s disappearance from your life – and his own - without a goodbye, a warning, or so much as an inkling of a reason.

Although you tried and mostly succeeded in tidily boxing up the train wreck aftermath of emotion in your brain, he remained nonetheless an enigma forever in front of you because she was his; she wore his smile, albeit a bit easier and more often than he did; she saw the world through that same shade of inwardly illuminated blue, giving everyone she gazed upon the benefit of the doubt; she treated everything she touched, too, with a kindness, carefulness, and consideration so like him.

He endured even in his absence as an end without an end - the only proofs of the brief love-swept spell of him having been in your life a blunted memory stonewashed by time to dull the jagged edge of loss in believing he was the best thing to ever happen to you, and the life he sparked in your womb, a little girl who turned out to be what he wasn’t – the love of your life.

Yet despite the distance of years and the layers of a life well-lived laid on top of past pain, and like the first time you met him, every once in a while, when you least expected it, in moments when you were most relaxed, his recollection had a way of taking you by surprise such that you forgot how to breathe.

Her inquisitiveness, however, did not; she asked after him on occasion, especially now that she was in school and of an age to notice and wonder at the differences between her family and those of her classmates.

“Max has two daddies.”

Her observation, spoken in an airy awe punctuated by a yawn, penetrated your reverie into the past.

“That so?” Shifting up onto an elbow to better study the seriousness scrunching up her nose, you smoothed her disheveled hair into a chestnut halo of bouncy ringlets encircling her head on the polka dot patterned pillowcase; your fingertips fondly followed a wild whorl rebelling above her ear.

“Mm-hmm,” she drowsily drew out the noise, blinking heavily-lashed eyes that danced over the neon glow of star stickers arranged in constellations on the ceiling. With a mumbled, “and a dog, too” -she tossed the blanket, burrowed face-first into the pillow, and fell soundly asleep.

Staying absolutely motionless, you praised in grateful silence the sudden seizure of slumber children are wont to succumb to for temporarily relieving you from an explanation; whatever she dreamed of would be better than the reality of not knowing you had to offer.

You slipped from the bed and into the hallway, flicking lights off as you walked the worn oriental carpet runner to your bedroom, and found yourself standing in front of the closet digging for a shoebox stuffed in the topmost corner behind a stack of spare sheets.

Extricating the box with a grunt, you sunk to the floor, pushed off the lid, and dumped the contents, those few physical scraps you possessed of Steve - notes, snapshots, and the crumbling petals of a pressed red rose he left behind besides the scars on your heart and her - into your lap.

Last season, perched on Santa’s lap at the mall, your daughter told the falsely bearded jolly supplier of holiday spirit and maker of childhood magic she wanted him to bring her daddy home for Christmas. The pitying frowns donned by Saint Nick and his helper elf upon hearing her request haunted you for weeks afterward. The bright pink bike you bought to place under the tree as her big gift that year seemed a paltry substitute for what she really longed for.

It also prompted you to hire a private investigator to track Steve down. You hadn’t looked for him before then – you’d gotten on just fine without him; but it was becoming clear she needed to know him, if not as the father figure she idealized, at least as a means for both of you to get some kind of closure.

Part of you supposed regardless of why he left he should know he had a daughter and it was unfair - however unfairly he’d treated you - to keep her to yourself when you’d created her together. Whether he wanted to be a part of her life once he knew he’d not only deserted you, but left you knocked up, heartbroken, jobless, and in deep debt holding a newly minted mortgage for a building in need of major renovations before you could bake up that first batch of blueberry scones and realize a long-imagined dream – a dream he inspired you to pursue - would be entirely up to him.

Maybe you’d hesitated to look for so long because you felt he would want to be in your lives out of a sense of obligation rather than any emotive attachment of fatherly feeling; whatever had happened, the Steve you loved was a good man – dutiful of responsibilities to a fault. But Steve chose to leave and you wondered if he’d feel more trapped than anything if he knew there was a child; that he would be there like a hare snagged in a hunter’s snare awaiting fate, but that he wouldn’t want to be there.

In terms of fairness, that consequence wouldn’t be fair to any of you.

You eyed the sealed legal-sized manila envelope folded in half and jammed in the bottom of the emptied box. The part of you that preferred not knowing and defaulted to pigeonholing pain instead of dealing with it stuck it in there a month ago when the backlogged and grandfatherly private investigator working for literal beans of the brewed coffee variety and a weekly doughnut delivery as a personal favor to you got around to handing his findings over along with the kindly-intended counsel that he’d uncovered enough of the big picture to deem the case concluded, and it was up to you to decide whether it was worth hunting the guy down for a face-to-face to fill in the remainder of the damnable details.

Tucking the document into your outstretched hand – the fingers suffering from a nervy tremble no amount of suppressive will would quiet - he strongly cautioned against the latter pursuit of an in person meet up on the basis of having had decades of not so positive experience with quote unquote, “This same sort of dead beat dodging child support.”

Bolstering your resolve to learn the truth with a lungful of air, you slid a finger into the glue affixed gap of the envelope; the flap sliced your flesh as you tore into the paper. Soothing the slash against the warmth of your tongue, you slipped free the sheets within and rotated the cover page to scan the paragraph typed thereon – it comprised a summary of the steps the investigator took, contained a list of contacts in South Dakota and Kansas – potential current states of residence based on credit card activity - should you want to trail him further, and provided a social security number along with a name in bold uppercase print: JIMMY NOVAK.

A noose of nerves cinched tightly at your throat. The last thing you expected was an outright lie.

Steve … no, Jimmy, he carried a sadness in the slouch of his shoulders, a something secretive that distanced his gaze sometimes; he told you he lost everything - his family, his home - that he started over with nothing save the two feet he landed on to build a foundation. You believed him, respected his fortitude to move forward, and loved him enough not to push him to talk about a past obviously painful to him until he was ready.

You never dreamed what he meant to say was everything you knew of him, everything he shared, was a fabrication built not to move on from the truth, but to hide it from you.

The whoosh of your pulse pounded in your ears; vision tunneled, the panicked pump of racing blood blackened the periphery of the white sheet when you turned to the next page.

Written there was the fact Jimmy had another family; had a daughter – Claire. He left them, too. He hadn’t lost his family and home, he ran out on them just like he ran out on you.

“Mama?” Dainty fingers tapped at the damp shine of your cheek; she crept in so quietly you hadn’t heard the tip-toe tread of her bare feet on the carpet. “Mama?” she said it again, a broken whisper verging on a sob, and tangled her limbs around your neck.

You shoved the papers off your crossed legs and pulled the ball of her body into your embrace. “What’s wrong, baby bee?” Blinking to staunch the sting of your tears, your piqued emotion surrendered to a roused motherly alarm as you folded the mess of her sweat-matted hair to your bosom where she could hear the reassuring thump-thump housed within.

“I had a bad dream,” she murmured and fisted the fabric of your robe.

Me, too, you thought, and snuggled her in tighter.

Glancing at the discarded report amid the box’s other trinkets, your bleary gaze landed on a glossy polaroid photo of you and Steve snapped at a holiday party you goaded him into attending with you when your original plus one ditched you at the last minute so you wouldn’t have to face alone a roomful of tipsy marketing execs you loathed.

That night, that moment, his fingers flirting hesitatingly at your waist, touches giving in to the pull of gravity as the night wore on to graze then hug your hips as if they belonged there - had always been there - a confidant and comfort tenderly testing the territory of more - you naïvely yielding like pliant putty to his touch - that was the point of no return; through the retrospective filter of the truth it became clear he seemed too good to be true, because nothing about him was true.

Part of you wished you could reseal the envelope and the truth with it and return to the comparative bliss of not knowing. Mostly you seethed, an unprocessed anger relegated to the back-burner ignited, inflaming mind and muscle until your entire frame radiated a heat of rage.

The girl quaking in your grasp, bend of her spine shivering as you skimmed it in soothing caresses, reminded you some nightmares do evolve to have happy endings; no matter what happened, or what would happen, you had her and he couldn’t take that away from you.

Wiping her fear and tear flushed features into your pajamas, she gasped a desire that plunged daggers through your heart. “I want my daddy.”

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” you spoke in a whisper to shush her whimpers and calm the heated tempest of your nerves.

She went limp wrapped in the safety of your words and arms; you’d do anything for her, including suffer pain and swallow your pride to dredge up a monster from the past. You only prayed he wouldn’t hurt her, too.

Castiel tag list:  (Closed, if you’d like to be removed please let me know!)    @jeepangel​  @sammiesamness​  @willowing-love​  @blueicevalkyrie​   @im-the-nerdiest-of-them-a11​  @thesugargalaxy​   @bluetina-blog  @dont-trust-humanity @honeybeetrash​  @bucky-thorin-winchester​  @superwholockz​   @tistai  @wordstothewisereaders​  @gill-ons​  @mrswhozeewhatsis​  @marisayouass​  @stone-met​   @castiel-savvy18​  @samualmortgrim  @trexrambling  @magnificent-mantle  @xdifsx  @mandilion76  @rockfairy  @peaceloveancolor​  @unicorntrooper  @anisolatedship  @itsilvermorny  @aditimukul  @kudosia  @goofynerd-67babylove​  @uninspirationalsonglyrics​  @gray-avidan​  @mishascupcake​   @mishapanicmeow​   @praisecastielamen​  @roseyhxnt  @jessikared97  @let-the-imaginationflow  @warriorqueen1991   @sebastianstanslefteyebrow   @hisnameisboobear  @kristendanwayne  @fuschiarulerinthebluebox  @coolpencilpie  @jenabean75​ @luciathewinchestergirl​  @morganas-pendragons​  @heyitscam99  @fangirl-and-stuff  @selahbela  @realgreglestrade  @splendidcas  @pointlesscasey  @i-larb-spooderman​  @thewhiterabbit42​  @thelostverse​  @castieliswatchingoverme​  @beccollie18  @dragonett8  @dixie-chick  @jtownraindancer​   @carowinsthings​  @passionghost  @ladyofletters67​ @futureparent​  @gabbie7-11​  @myfandomlife-blog  @dreamerkim  @samael-has-arrived  @shamelesslydean  @earthtokace​  @neaeri  @justanormalangel​  @lone-loba​  @supernaturalymarvel​  @lilrubixx​  @wings-and-halo​  @lilulo-12​  @x-cassiopeia​ @thehoneybeecastielfollows​  @musiclovinchic93​  @81mysteriouslyme​  @the-bottom-of-the-abyss​  @jaylarkson​  @missjenniferb​  @ayamenimthiriel  @supervengerslock  @jessiekay2010​

[odanurr87]

2018: My year in games

2018 was another good year for gaming as far as I’m concerned, provided you haven’t played Fallout 76 that is. Sony’s still releasing great exclusives, to the point I’m left wondering whether they can keep it up, and we’ve had some interesting releases on PC as well. I don’t have a clue as to how Microsoft is doing, but their one exclusive title I might’ve been interested in, Sea of Thieves, had a messy release and is only available on the Windows 10 store (no, thanks). Notably absent in the release schedule this year was EA’s BioWare, who have been working to release Anthem come February 2019, a title I have little hopes for considering how much it departs from the games the developer is known for as EA tries to embrace the Destiny “live services” crowd everyone is so keen on getting these days (*cough*Bethesda*cough*). CD Projekt RED is also on standby as they continue to work towards Cyberpunk 2077′s release... sometime. Well, at least we know we’re probably getting it sooner than Star Citizen or Half-Life 3. Thankfully, it was a year absent of controversies, like, say, a studio using a franchise to cash in on the battle-royale rage with minimal effort, or a company mocking consumers and telling them not to buy their game... Oh... Well, shit, guess no year is absent of controversy then, but it’s nice to see EA’s spreading the love.

But enough remembrance. You’re here for the list of my top games of 2018, or whatever category I come up with to sort them into, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get. 100% guaranteed, no microtransactions included. This year I’m going to try something different, listing the best games I played this year without ranking them, then selecting my favourite among these, my GOTY if you will. It may be rather unusual, and we all enjoy debating whether this game is the best or that other, but, on the plus side, it builds suspense for my GOTY, doesn’t it? After all, once you see a number other than 1 next to a title, you already know it won’t be my #1 choice. That and I’ve had a tough time trying to rank these games, especially the ones I’ve only just played. Perhaps I’ll change my mind later, but, for now, let’s what games were deserving of some praise this year, shall we?

PSA: This list won’t feature Red Dead Redemption 2 in any way, shape, or form, largely for two reasons: 1) I haven’t played it; and 2) it doesn’t particularly appeal to me, and its large runtime is one of the reasons why.

Let the epicness begin to this theme!

Best Aesthetic

Let’s start with a classic. Last year, the award went to Abzû for its excellent blend of pastel colours, pleasant gameplay, and wonderful soundtrack. It’s only fitting then that this year the award go to the game I recently called “2018′s Abzû”...

Released only a few weeks ago, Gris is another great example on how a game can exquisitely combine gorgeous artwork with an infinitely beautiful soundtrack, and provide an engaging, and rather creative, gameplay experience. Indeed, I'd go so far as say that is one aspect where Gris actually stands out over Abzû, with puzzles that are quite simple, but may require some lateral thinking from the player at times. The level design is fairly intuitive and I was hardly ever stumped as to what to do or where to go to next. Or maybe I was too busy enjoying the watercolour landscapes to pay much attention to where I was going. While Gris won't take more than 4 to 6 hours of your life, depending on whether you've found all collectibles, it is a visual and auditory spectacle well worth your time.

Runners-up:

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Forgotton Anne

The PlayStation Exclusives

A Telltale-like game on steroids with spectacular visuals, thanks to an insane amount of mocap, and a great soundtrack, Detroit: Become Human really pushed the envelope in regards to choices and consequences within a narrative, so much so that every chapter has a story tree that shows the choices you made as well as the different branching-off points. Our story takes place sometime in the future of Detroit and explores the onset of an android revolution through three different characters, all of them androids: Kara, a housemaid android who runs away with a little girl called Alice; Markus, a domestic android turned rebel leader; and Connor, an advanced prototype specifically designed to help the police track down deviant androids.

Gameplay-wise, Connor’s story is definitely the best of the three, as it allows for more input from the player as Connor has to solve cases with his partner, Lt. Hank Anderson, played by Clancy Brown. These sections of the game are similar to the ones in the Arkham games, requiring you to analyze the scene and put together the clues to recreate past events. At times though, you’ll be placed in adrenaline-filled chases of suspects that make an impressive use of QTEs. As much as I loved this human-android crime-solving duo, the award for most dramatic and emotional story has to go to Kara and Alice’s odyssey to find a new home in the midst of all the chaos. I couldn’t help but feel immediately protective of Alice so I naturally roleplayed Kara as a mom, trying to set a good example for her through my actions. My one regret about this story concerns a decision the developers made, that takes place towards the game’s end and chips away a little at the significance of their relationship for no real value. As for Markus, he felt the more underdeveloped of the three, perhaps because he’s written more as a symbol than a person, becoming the Messiah for all androids (the game’s anything but subtle about this). He’s given a romance arc with the gorgeous Minka Kelly that, sadly, feels unearned, as her character, North, doesn’t have that many intimate moments with him.

Damn you for so obviously pulling at my heartstrings you two!

No story is without flaws and Detroit: Become Human is no exception. While it does feature humans interacting with androids here and there, I was surprised that the android revolution was 100% human-free, what seems rather disingenuous. The game also does little to explain android deviancy and actually muddles the issue by giving its Messiah a unique ability that ends up being not so unique after all. Furthermore, the story doesn’t explore at all the possibility that, even after going deviant, some androids would prefer to stay with their families rather than join Markus’ uncertain revolution. The game’s not particularly subtle in its depiction of android segregation in human society, to the point some of it struck me as more than a bit ridiculous (exclusive stairs for androids?), but I rolled with it thanks to the strength of some of its characters.

Clocking in at around 12 hours, give or take, this is one game that encourages multiple playthroughs as you read the decision trees to figure out where exactly you want to take the characters next and how to do that. A blind first playthrough is encouraged, especially if you want to end up an emotional wreck. For my part, Detroit: Become Human scratched my sci-fi and Telltale itch this year, and that’s why it makes it on my list.

A solid action-adventure title, and one that further disproves EA’s bold, but dumb, claim that single player games are dead. While perhaps not as visually striking as titles like Horizon Zero Dawn or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey -probably due to do the muted colour palette used to depict this world-, God of War remains engaging gameplay-wise, throwing in a healthy mix of satisfying combat and puzzles that will put Kratos’ skills to the test, as well as interesting side quests that never feel like a chore to play, thanks to how well integrated they are to the game’s theme and main story. The customization system is simple enough to understand and use, what is always welcome, and plays a key role in ensuring you will survive your journey, allowing you to upgrade your weapons, craft unique armours, and further tune the both with enchantments, through the tireless efforts of the best side characters in the game, the dwarves Brok and Sindri. The only fault I can find here is related to progression, and how the better armours in the game are available a little too close to the end. By that time, I had three great sets of armour to choose from when I could’ve used at least one of these earlier.

For those new to the franchise, as yours truly, you play Kratos, voiced by none other than Christopher Judge (Teal’c!), a Greek God (with a capital G) who has decided to exile himself to somewhere around Scandinavia after the events of the previous games. The game’s premise centers around trying to fulfill your deceased wife’s last wish to spread her ashes from the highest peak of the mountain. Along for the journey comes your BOY, Atreus, who does his best to connect with a father he rarely knew growing up, what strikes me as odd. Being a Spartan, and given his background, Kratos is more tight-lipped than I would’ve preferred, what makes communicating with his son rather difficult, at least in the beginning. While I understand and welcome what they tried to do with the characters here, I feel the father-son relationship could’ve used further development, especially in regards to a radical personality shift Atreus experiences out of the blue mid-way through the game and is gone just as quickly.

Infused as it is in Norse mythology, comparisons with 2017′s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice seem inevitable, but whereas that game retells the myths via a great narrator, in God of War you actually get to partake in this mythical world and explore some of them. Perhaps precisely because I had previously played Hellblade, most of the twists didn’t come as a surprise, but that doesn’t make them or the story any worse for it. I also have to give the game credit for its ending, which avoided some of the more cliché options available to it. Given the running theme, it would’ve been easy to turn it into something else entirely, and a few minutes leading up to it, I feared that’s exactly what the game would do, but was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise. It even went the extra mile of hiding away the post-credits scene where one could expect to find it.

In the end, despite a few flaws in its storytelling, God of War is a solid entry in the single player action-adventure genre that I can easily recommend to anyone. If Hellblade didn’t scratch your Norse mythology itch, then God of War most assuredly will.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say this game has done for Spider-Man what the Arkham series did for Batman. Marvel’s Spider-Man is a great Spider-Man story and a very entertaining superhero game, that truly makes you feel like the highly acrobatic, web-slinging, joke-cracking, crime fighter. Swinging your way through NYC was a great rush, reminding me of Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst’s best parkour moments. But Spider-Man is only half of what makes the character great, and the other half, Peter Parker, is perhaps the best adaptation of the character I’ve seen to date, foregoing the tale of his early days as a superhero and reporter for The Daily Bugle, instead focusing on his career as a research assistant under Doctor Otto Octavius. He’s still broke as fuck though.

The story throws you right into the action at the onset, as you ensure Wilson Fisk finally goes to jail for the many crimes he has committed. It doesn’t take long before a new criminal group moves into town however, one that is far less concerned about civilian casualties and is determined to bring down the mayor of NYC, Norman Osborn. So begins a rather complicated web of lies and secrets that both Peter and Spider-Man will have to untangle as the city is slowly engulfed in chaos. Joining you in this fight are NYPD captain Yuriko Watanabe, Mary Jane Watson, now a reporter at The Daily Bugle, and even Miles Morales. Of the three, I liked Yuri the best and felt we could’ve used more time bonding with her. I know very little of Miles’ run as Spider-Man and, while I welcomed his addition to the game, it felt a little lazy to make him such a carbon-copy of Peter. As for MJ, she thoroughly annoyed me with her shtick of getting mad at Spider-Man for constantly saving her, moreso considering how she recklessly puts herself in extremely dangerous situations to begin with.

Less MJ and more Yuri please.

The game features an open world that gets layered with side activities the more you progress through the main campaign. It’s a good idea so as not to overwhelm players with a ton of busy work right at the beginning, and I’ll admit some of them give the player more insight into Peter’s past and Harry Osborn’s character. However, busy work they remain, and you’re obliged to tackle at least some of them if you want to buy suits or upgrade your equipment. While often creative, especially Harry’s research stations, their abundance highlight the lack of more (and more interesting) side quests (the amount of loading screens doesn’t help either). Furthermore, teases like Felicia’s Black Cat returning to NYC or even Silver Sable’s introduction were begging for side quests of their own. Even so, the game’s worst sin by far is how it forces you to play scripted “stealth” sections with Miles and MJ that I kept wishing I could skip. I’m a huge fan of stealth games, but these sections felt extremely forced, perhaps done out of a need to give these characters some agency.

In the end though, Marvel’s Spider-Man is one of the best superhero games to date, and perhaps the best story we never got to see on the big screen, but it naturally benefits from a running time longer than 2 hours. Ironically, it’s similar to the recently released Aquaman, in the sense that it throws a lot of familiar faces and action-packed set pieces at you, particularly towards its emotional third act, unfortunately sacrificing some villains (in terms of storytelling) in the process. Furthermore, this final act feels a little rushed, as if it were missing a cutscene or two in the beginning, and likewise in the end to explain the state of the world. Yet for me, Marvel’s Spider-Man’s crowning achievement remains making me feel like one of my favourite Marvel superheroes as I parkour, fight, and web-sling my way through New York City.

Best Soundtrack

This was not an easy choice to make as there were several titles with solid scores this year, such as Detroit: Become Human, created by three different composers for each of the characters, Peter Due’s Forgotton Anne, or even Joe Haisashi’s Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom. Even John Paesano makes a comeback from his average work on Mass Effect: Andromeda with an excellent main theme for Spider-Man as well as a few other great tracks like “City of Hope” (which plays every time you traverse the city), “Responsibility” and “Behind the Mask.” But the difficulty in choosing one of these increased exponentially when Gris released to an absolutely mesmerizing score by Berlinist, putting me in a similar predicament as last year. In the end though, only one gets to take home this prestigious award, and that game is...

This one was almost a toss between Gris and Detroit, but, in the end, I have to give it to the latter for the sheer amount of work put by Philip Sheppard (Kara), Nima Fakhrara (Connor), and John Paesano (Markus) into crafting three separate and distinct scores that not only feel authentic to each of the characters but are also wonderful to listen to on their own, effectively elevating the source material, something not many titles can boast. If you were to force my hand right now to pick between one of the three, I’d naturally have to go with Philip Sheppard’s score, as his Kara leitmotif was the one that stuck with me the most throughout the game. It’s a simple string composition but the things he does with it, the way he builds upon it, it’s something truly wonderful. It doesn’t hurt that I loved Kara and Alice’s story the most, from an emotional standpoint, and Philip Sheppard’s score plays no small part in this. Having said that, I also have to congratulate Fakhrara’s Connor score, far and wide the one that feels more at home in this sci-fi world, and Paesano’s work in elevating Markus’ character through his music, with great tracks such as “Something You’ve Never Seen Before” or “Markus’ Speech,” to mention a couple. Like last year’s NieR:Automata, Detroit: Become Human’s score is definitely worth a purchase.

Runners-up:

Gris

Forgotton Anne

The Animated Adventures

Of all the games in this list, none fit the category of “family game” better than Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. Everything from its bright and colourful art design that could be lifted straight from a Studio Ghibli production at times, imaginative world and characters, and cheerful soundtrack, made this game a delight to play from beginning to end. It was truly refreshing to play such a straightforward and sincere story about a young prince who wishes to unite the world in peace, working together with his mentor and a motley cast of allies from all corners of the world. The story is framed as a series of chapters, with opening slides and even a narrator to close each one, and it follows Prince Evan as he's exiled from his kingdom after a coup, yet finds the strength in his newfound commitment to bring peace unto the entire world. As such, he founds a new kingdom that you get to micromanage throughout the game, building and creating different facilities, undertaking research or crafting new weapons and armour, finding new recipes for your cook, or scouring the world for people keen on becoming the first citizens of your new kingdom. Unless you’re planning on rushing through the main story, kingdom building will take a good deal of your time, as you’re sent on quest after quest to gather ingredients, find missing people, or engage in battle from time to time. To give an example, it took me 37 hours to beat this game and I still had a ton of things to do on my quest log!

As perhaps one would expect from such a kid-friendly game, Ni no Kuni II is surprisingly easy to play, so much so that people actually complained it lacked difficulty levels, which were eventually added in a patch. If I had to criticize it for something, it would have to be for its world map exploration, which looks similar to Worlds of Final Fantasy, a design decision that clashes with the vibrant Ghibli-like art that is prominent throughout. Perhaps it was outsourced to a different studio than Level-5? Also, the amount of side content in this game can get a bit overwhelming and more than a little repetitive, but if my runtime proves anything, it’s that you can engage it at your own leisure (indeed, it takes 90 hours for a completionist run), or not. The game also features a sort of in-world Facebook/Twitter where you can check posts with pictures of events that have transpired, people looking for new jobs or challenges (a nice way to search for citizens), or even examples of the world’s flora and fauna. It’s a nice little feature that makes the world feel a little more alive and reactive than it really is. As for its score, composed by Joe Hisaishi, while it does have great tracks such as “The Curious Boy” (my personal favourite), “Kingmaker’s Theme,” or “Happily Ever After,” not to mention its main theme, and is solid overall (more so than other titles in this list), it’s probably not one I’ll often find myself listening to, which is why I didn’t award it with my Best Soundtrack award.

All in all, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a title I’d heartily recommend to anyone who wants to experience a charming and colourful bedtime story in a little country a long, long way from here...

Developed by ThroughLine Studios and released by Square Enix earlier in May, this game wasn’t even on my radar, but, like Ni no Kuni II, Forgotton Anne is a game brimming with imagination, that pleasantly surprised me with its great voice acting and soundtrack. Unlike Ni no Kuni II however, the game maintains its beautiful, hand-crafted, aesthetic throughout, making you the protagonist of an animated adventure with high production values, as you take on the role of Anne, a human tasked with enforcing the law in a world of forgotten objects turned sentient, called Forgotlings. When a group of rebel Forgotlings strike a power plant, Anne will have to track down the mysterious rebel leader and uncover the truth about herself and this world. Forgotton Anne is a game that allows you to roleplay a ruthless Enforcer as well as one that prefers more peaceful means of resolving conflict and these decisions are acknowledged throughout the game. Equipped with the Arca, a glove that allows you to manipulate anima (or soul energy), Anne will often be presented the choice of 'distilling' Forgotlings or sparing them, opening or closing certain doors for you.

The game plays as a platformer with puzzles that revolve around your use of the Arca to open doors, power up consoles, etc. These are not terribly difficult but you may find one or two that leave you scratching your head for a bit. Exploration is encouraged by way of collectibles and, in fact, a feature is introduced at the end of the game that allows you to travel back in time and replay certain levels in order to track down memorabilia and unlock achievements. It's a neat way of allowing replayability while in the context of the story and it gets extra marks from me for the additional effort.

While the story is largely predictable, it's by no means any less good for it and was, to my mind, perfectly executed. One lingering issue I have, nonetheless, is how the game makes a reveal halfway through, believing it'll have more impact than it actually did as I'd already been playing under the basis this was true. Perhaps they should've made more of an effort to hide it in the beginning. Then again, maybe that would've drawn more attention to it. Another issue I had storywise has to do with how underdeveloped, and slightly contradictory, I felt one of the endings was. It's a feeling I also had when playing the original Life is Strange and realizing how much more effort was put into of the endings as opposed to the other.

When all is said and done, Forgotton Anne is a charming animated adventure that will undoubtedly pull at your heart strings, but also make you smile merely for being allowed to partake in this world of ill-tempered teddy bears, trigger-happy guns, and Shakespearean mannequins, and it’s a definite recommendation.

Lara’s Final Chapter

Shadow of the Tomb Raider delivered almost everything I wanted from a new entry in the Tomb Raider series, but not all I would’ve expected from Lara’s final chapter. Together with her friend Jonah, Lara must stop Trinity from finding an ancient artifact in South America that has the power to reshape the world. However, in her rush to beat Trinity to the finish line, Lara may have inadvertedly set in motion a series of events that threaten to trigger an apocalypse. As a result, Shadow of the Tomb Raider turns out to be a darker game than its predecessors, a fact highlighted at several points throughout the game, but never sufficiently explored, though I give it credit for acknowledging it. Sadly, while Shadow tries to tie together the Trinity storyline from Rise, we learn very little in terms of the composition and overall goals of this shadowy organization, that is now practically reduced to providing cannon fodder for our favourite Croft. The main villain is a little more nuanced and sympathetic than previous ones, and for once the series doesn’t tie your hands behind your back during the final boss fight. Unfortunately for the game, I was more invested in fighting his lieutenant, who gets killed in a cutscene.

In terms of gameplay, Shadow doubles down on tomb raiding, adding underground and underwater exploration, but one can’t help but feel its maps are more constrained than in Rise, favouring the Uncharted series’ more linear approach, particularly when it comes to the game’s combat sections, which feel more scripted than ever before. Perhaps by way of compensation, the game introduces a new stealth mechanic that allows Lara to camouflage herself, thus getting insanely close to her enemies, and the ability to hang enemies from tree tops a la Arkham series. The crafting system now allows you to harvest insects to craft poison grenades or special arrows that turn your enemies against each other, though, regrettably, these are introduced rather late in the game. Weapon customization also makes a comeback as does Lara's ever-increasing wardrobe. Shadow also tries something new by introducing side quests, but thankfully never so many as to feel burdensome.

This game looks pretty to boot too.

The music is mostly unremarkable, working to great effect immersing you in the setting and building on the game’s atmosphere, as I’m sure was Brian D’Oliveira’s intention, but there's nothing that'll stick with you after you're done tomb raiding your way to the end. The pieces that stood out to me the most are “Lara's Dream” and the end credits song, “Goodbye Paititi,” but that’s about it. This might partially explain why Lara’s final chapter lacks emotional resonance; a lot of the emphasis is placed on the action, few, if any, leitmotifs or themes are introduced, with (maybe) only the main theme carried over from previous games. It would be wrong to lay the blame entirely at Shadow’s feet when the first game didn’t establish a musical narrative beyond Lara’s theme though. I don't recall a Jonah theme or a Trinity theme, for instance. Perhaps if the series had maintained a coherent musical narrative with its score the story beats would've been more impactful.

Our story ends in an uneventful note that I feel doesn’t do the series justice. It’s not a bad ending, but it doesn’t pack the same punch as, say, Uncharted 4 did. In a way, this is a curse of its own making, as the Tomb Raider series is tonally different from Uncharted; and whereas the strength of the latter rests in Nate’s interactions with his friends and family, Lara has always been terribly isolated in these games, Jonah notwithstanding. Thus, while not exactly the swan song our tomb raider deserves, if you played the previous two games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is definitely not one to miss.

Best Side Content

I don’t think any other game I’ve played this year has come close to making its world come alive nearly as much as this game did. With plenty of side quests and side activities, it would be easy to make them seem like busy work, but this game somehow manages to turn them into events the player can look forward to, building the world these characters live in, making it feel real. Some are so entertaining that I found myself delaying the main campaign so I could play more of them. No game released this year did this better than...

While the game shows some signs of its age (it was originally released in 2015 in Japan), what it lacks in visuals it more than makes up packing its world full of fun things to do. Do you want to go out for drinks and do some karaoke? You can do that. How about some batting practice? You can do that too. Dinner? Sure. Car racing? You bet. Can I rock the dance floor? Like freaking Travolta. You can even play games at your nearest SEGA arcade, bet big on an underground fight ring (there are two), get into real estate or manage your cabaret club, by far the mini-game I had most fun with. The amount of detail put into some of these mini-games is beyond ridiculous and would definitely justify having a game of their own. Beyond these activities, you also get to meet a lot of interesting NPCs that have their own unique stories to tell and that you always feel glad to have helped at the end of the day. You can help a mother rescue her daughter from a cult, have the Chinese mafia fake a ring for a guy’s girlfriend, teach a dominatrix how to be better at her job, or even share your stories with a radio programme to win a prize, to mention a bare few. You can also have a few laughs at how bad Majima is tailing people and trying to hide from them.

Yakuza 0 is an example of side content done right, that foregoes the modern-day open-world formula, opting for a more constrained setting a la Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but that feels big and rich thanks to its content and characters. And on that note, let’s give it up for Judgement Kazzy!

Runners-up:

God of War

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Assassins No More

Last year, Origins made it into my list through sheer spectacle, the lure of exploring Ancient Egypt, and the promise of a return to the modern storyline of the Isu with the introduction of a new set protagonist, Layla Hassan. This year, Odyssey ups the ante by delivering a story that, while still revolving around a family drama, no longer makes revenge the driving force of the narrative. Indeed, for a good chunk of the game, our character’s motivation (Kassandra, in my case) is a blend of making a living as a mercenary and exploring the world beyond her small island of Kephallonia. Given how beautiful and colourful the world in Odyssey is, I’d say it was a smart choice. The game also introduces more interesting side quests than its predecessor did, and better tied to the main campaign, with one of my favourites being the Silver Islands arc; perhaps in no small part thanks to how cute the rebel leader, Kyra, is. In fact, Kassandra can romance a TON of people as she explores the world and runs errands, but, sadly, no relationship is as well crafted as, say, your relationship with Triss or Yennefer in The Witcher 3. Some might come close to being as impactful, such as your relationship with Daphnae, one of the Daughters of Artemis, but they’re all mostly just one-night stands, with one particular relationship coming out of the blue as the game ends that I wished the game had set up and built further.

I know I said cute, but hot works too.

Gameplay-wise, Odyssey plays very much like Origins, with a more streamlined crafing system, that requires less variety (but still tons) of resources to upgrade your gear, but with blocking gone after the shield was removed, an odd design choice. You still get to level up your character, though the leveling-up curve is rather steep at the beginning, forcing you to play much of the side content that would qualify under busy work. It doesn’t help that the in-game store sells a Permanent XP booster that gives you an additional 50% XP for $10, as well as materiales to upgrade your gear, and has the balls to outright call them “Time Savers.” Ubisoft further pushes the in-game store and Helix credits by introducing a new currency in-game, necessary to buy crates with random legendary gear drops from a special vendor, that you get at a much slower rate than your usual credits. I’m not too mad about this, given that the game does reward you with some great-looking armours through normal playthrough, but it’s something we should be on the lookout for future titles.

Naval battles make a return and, simple as they are, I welcomed the distraction and opportunity to sail the Aegean Sea and discover new locations and secrets. At times, Odyssey manages to replicate the sense of wonder and mystery I experienced when playing Skyrim. On the other hand, Conquest battles, its newest addition to the franchise, fail to live up to the expectation. Beyond their limited scope, the worst sin they commit is how inconsequential they are, having no impact in the world around you beyond what banner the closest fort will fly. Curiously, these battles are missing from the main story's end content, what seems odd considering they would've been a perfect fit for the story. In fact, there's a stark contrast between Chapters 1-7 and 8-10, with the latter chapters moving at a brisk pace that is not necessarily justified. On the plus side, Ubisoft has seemingly embraced the Isu civilization, what has allowed them to include mythical creatures like the Minotaur or Medusa, and even throw in Atlantis for good measure. I only hope they’ll go the extra mile and throw in some Greek Gods as well.

The game has some well-placed humour as well.

For all the things it does better than Origins however, I feel Odyssey takes a few steps back, especially insofar the modern-day storyline is concerned. While Layla Hassan makes a comeback, her story is so short and uneventful that it comes across as an afterthought, jumping ahead in time and introducing a whole host of new characters we have never met and referencing events we know nothing about. Layla herself experiences a radical transformation from being skeptical of the assassins’ intentions to becoming one of their strongest supporters. Nothing about the modern-day storyline makes a lot of sense, with many gaps that are probably filled in with other material such as comics and novels, but I’ve always believed that to be the hallmark of lazy and poor storytelling. Either commit to the modern-day storyline or don’t, Ubisoft, you can’t have it both ways.

Overall, I feel like Odyssey is an improvement over Origins, and that’s why it makes it on the list. I am however, skeptical that Ubisoft will pull it off a third time before the charm and novelty of an open-world Assassin’s Creed game wears off -it already is thanks in no small part to its side content-, or before they push the Helix Store so hard down our throats that they have their own Battlefront 2 controversy. Perhaps they still have a shot with a game set in Japan or China. Only time will tell.

My favourite game of 2018

This wasn’t a particularly easy choice to make considering the different strengths and weaknesses of the games in this list, not to mention their different approaches to storytelling. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is a strong contender, but its world is so filled with busy work, its modern-day story so underdeveloped, and the push of the Helix Store so blatant, that I cannot in good conscience say this was my favourite game of 2018, let alone GOTY. Likewise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was initially well-positioned in my mind to take it home, but it just didn’t stick the landing for what it’s supposed to be (but hopefully isn’t) Lara’s final chapter. Another single-player action-adventure title, God of War, gets almost everything right, but I couldn’t connect with the story of Kratos and Atreus in the same way I did, say, Kara and Alice in Detroit: Become Human. I could go on knocking out competitors, but I’d rather talk about my favourite game released in 2018...

Yakuza 0 is not a perfect game, but it gets pretty close at times. Set in the 80s, Yakuza 0 follows the characters of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, two rookie Yakuza who, for different reasons, have fallen in disfavour with their respective families, and need to figure out whether they have what it takes to return to the fold. That’s about as much as I can reveal without talking spoilers. No story in any of the games I played this year gripped me nearly as much as this one did (some moments in Detroit: Become Human come close), not only because of how well-written the characters are across the board (including the villains who come across as fearsome opponents), but also because of its many twists and turns that will keep you guessing what the real goal of the different players you find yourself involved with is. Your character, be it Kiryu or Majima, and his understanding of events by the game’s end, is radically different from his starting point, as you unveil plots within plots within plots, a result of the many and varied agendas at play here. To say this game has as many layers as an onion would be high praise... for the onion. Both Kiryu and Majima are powerful characters in their own right when fighting thugs, as demonstrable by the gameplay, but Yakuza 0 is quite ruthless in showing you exactly how out of their depth they are when they decide to take on... bigger opponents. You would think this is because Kiryu and Majima get beat up, and they do, a lot, but I actually found it’s the conversations they have with other characters, the villains in particular, that’s the highlight of the game. Yes, characters in Yakuza 0 talk, a lot, so you’d better get used to it, but these conversations, excellently voice-acted, fill the atmosphere with so much tension, dread, or sometimes anticipation, that you can’t help but be absorbed by them, as you can never guess what the other party might say that will surprise you. And this game surprised me a lot.

Man, the conversations in this game...

Having said that, it is true many of the twists and turns that were a surprise in the beginning started to feel a bit trite when they’re re-used in the final chapters. One that annoyed me in particular was the game’s use of the “Your Princess is in Another Castle” trope (incidentally, God of War also does this to some extent), sometimes forcing events a little much to pull it off. I suppose this has to do with the fact that this “Princess” becomes the sole motivation for your two characters towards the end, getting shuffled around so both Kiryu and Majima can get a crack at the villains. It works thanks to the strength of the characters and their dialogue, but I would certainly take issue with a lesser game that kept me running around the place for 4 or 5 chapters straight. I also felt that, of the two leads, Kiryu’s ending is the one that feels more natural to his character, as opposed to Majima’s, who experiences an odd personality shift that doesn’t seem to jibe with what we know of him. It’s possible this has to do with the fact that, while Yakuza 0 is the starting point in the series for our two protagonists, it’s not the first game in the series. As a matter of fact, there were 5 Yakuza games, released over the space of 10 years, prior to Yakuza 0.

Having previously awarded it with my “Best Side Content” award and praising it for its world-building, despite not being an open-world game (yes, you can have invisible walls and still make a great game!), Yakuza 0 only needed to deliver on its story and characters, and it did that in spades.

And that’s it for my list of the best games I played in 2018! It’s a bit of a long read, for sure, but I could hardly have done these games justice had I written less, and in some cases I probably didn’t write enough. What about you? What are some of the best games you played in 2018?

[resurrectionofdawn]

She Made Him Mine

March 23, 1993 6:53AM

  Chestertown, Maryland

  Target elimination in small-town suburbia. The Winter Soldier disliked missions such as these. Or at least as much as it could dislike anything. Sighting through its scope, it spotted the target emerging from his modest-looking grey house. The target stood on the stoop a moment to check his watch.

 Inside the empty bedroom of an abandoned, rat-infested fourth-floor apartment building, metal fingers tightened along the stock of a long-range sniper rifle. Almost in range. The fool thought he could hide from them. The assassin did not know or care of the target’s importance, only that it had been told to eliminate the problem. The gunman sighted again before pulling the trigger.

    The sound of a single gunshot echoed across the town. Nearly a mile away, a portly 40-ish brown-haired white male in a blue suit carrying a briefcase dropped to the ground, a hole through his temple. He had been about to enter his car to head to work. He lived alone, and his nearest neighbors weren’t due to wake for another 20 minutes. Time to move out.

The assassin broke the weapon down with practiced ease, eyes scanning the streets below his perch. The only signs of life were a few pigeons and the frenzied barking of a nearby dog. It was almost dawn. There were nearly seventy minutes before rendezvous with its team. After the pickup was debrief, perhaps the Chair and always the Cold. The words from its handler were poor comfort: You’ve shaped this century, but it was all there was.

  A tiny, traitorous thought wondered when its usefulness would be outlived. Would they send a new Winter Soldier to decommission it?  Would it be put into storage and forgotten? Growling to itself, the Soldier viciously silenced those thoughts. Such things were not for it to know.

Sealing the weapon in its’ case, the Soldier turned to jump down the four stories to the ground when it heard… something.

  ...ay…l...p...e…

The Soldier reared back from the ledge, shaking its head. What had that been? A new malfunction?

...is way.  P...se...help.

  The Asset did not feel fear but it supposed this qualified. Perhaps it was in the building; leaving would be an excellent idea.  Pulling the case onto its back, the Fist of Hydra leapfrogged down the building’s fire escape to the ground. It paused a moment giving it’s most recent perch an uncertain look. Should it report the…haunting? Another head shake; what would happen would happen and there was nothing to be done about it.

 7:03AM

Twelve blocks and a nearby park later, it happened again.  HELP ME, PLEASE!

    The Soldier yelled in shock, grabbing at it’s head. Staggering into a service alley between a hardware store and a cafe, it leaned against a wall and tried to regain control of itself.

“What was that?”

This way...please...I need help.

    The Asset can smell blood but see nothing.

The world ripples a moment and a form appears in front of him, barely two meters away sprawled against a tree. It is female and heavily pregnant. Young, mid-twenties. Medium build, blonde with Asiatic features. Dressed in jeans and what had been a white sweater. She is also grievously wounded with several bullet holes and a head injury. Two high in the chest, a third above the swell of her stomach. Seeing the large blossoms of dried blood, the Asset determines that these are exit wounds. She had been shot in the back, most likely running from something.  

 Dark rivulets of drying blood smeared across the tree's bark are just visible behind her.  Looks like she’d been there a while.

An army green pack sits beside her, heavily bloodstained and fully loaded. To have torn through the pack's contents and into her body spoke of high-powered weaponry.

The Soldier's eyes widened beneath his goggles. While he had been setting up his nest yesterday, there had been a fragment of a radio report that had caught his attention. Several people from small township over twenty miles away were under arrest for a hate crime. Against a pregnant mutant.

A quick survey of the clearing told him the direction she had come from; blood would tell after all. This was most likely the one from the radio.  For her to have come all this way on foot and still be alive after such grievous wounds was impressive for a civilian.

She certainly had to be some sort of mutant, what with the long pointed ears. Not that he cared if she was. Only the mission mattered, and yet, some long-forgotten flicker of something pleaded with him to stay.  He wondered what sort of power she had that had drawn the Winter Soldier to her like a moth to flame.

Points handgun at her

“You called me, why?”

You are the one I need. Her lips do not move but he can hear every word as if she had actually spoke.

A telepath.

Leader would be pleased if she could be brought in, but her extensive wounds have rendered her nonviable. He could kill her simply attempting to move her.

Confusion, a little anger

“Why?”

I'm dying, my son still has a chance. If you were not the right person to be able to help me, you would never have heard me. A shudder runs through her a soft sob catching in her throat. I was careless, my disguise broke and the humans called me mutant and attacked me. I escaped but they killed me regardless. Eyes of unnaturally bright green stared at him dimly. A quick assessment told Soldier that her death was probably within minutes. He holstered his gun.

I have no more options and I will not let him die.

The Asset glanced back the way he had come. He was due to return to his handlers within the hour, he could not be late. “Even if I take him from you, he may still die if left at a hospital.”

I know. Her mental voice is tired, strained. That is why you have to take him with you. The Soldier withdraws a knife, crouches next to her. “They will not permit it. You condemn him to an experiment if they let him live at all.” He would be punished if they heard such words from him but the Asset was honest.  A choked cough shook the woman. The Asset recognized that sound. Her lungs were filling with blood.

 You are my only chance.

 “You are certain of this?” He gestures with the knife. “I can still leave him where he will be found.”

Where if they don’t kill him, he’ll spend his life in a lab.  And that’s if just the government learns of him.

“If I take him, he will become an asset of Hydra. They are not kind. They will never let him go.”

    Once the Pathway opens again, my people WILL come for him. If not to retrieve, then to avenge. We are terrible in our anger, implacable in our rage. And we will rage.

Images race behind his eyes of silent shadows that attack the unwary and vanish as quickly as they came. Lightning and fire that sink large ships in a single strike.  A hail of energy weapons fire deflected back onto the shooters, while medieval-looking armored warriors attacked with swords and abilities that might only be believed if seen.  “He will be able to do these things?”

    A tiny head shake. No, for all my age I am not strong. I could have fought those attacking me but there were too many. Too much attention. They shot at me as I fled. I was a scout, looking for things we needed.Wet laugh, some blood Coffee doesn’t grow on our worlds, can you believe that?   

“It will hurt.”

Just means I die a little faster. It’s been two days since I was attacked. I can’t feel anything below my ribs since I fell down. Others passed by but you were the ONLY one to hear me and I’ve been calling a long time. Slim fingers brush his human arm, as if to reassure him.  I don’t have much life left. I am no Mage, but this, the woman’s bloodied face turns determined and somehow ruthless. This I can do.

 The Soldier has no time to react as the dying alien traps his wrist like a vise. Her hand burns hot against his skin but there is no pain.  We’re all taught this, even if we’re not true Mages. To use our souls, to Sacrifice all that we are in a single act. Since he still lives within me I can use what he would have become and affect you both. He will be Human but also Other. The Asset tries to pull away but her burning green eyes hold him fast. He can’t look away, can’t raise his knife to strike.

And you are the Key.

Energy glowing bright blue and purple crackled, several bolts striking the Soldier but seeming to do no damage. Knowledge poured into him, language, customs, instincts. Things any Danean knew as naturally as breathing. Four combat forms unknown on Earth. Weapons-craft and technology, biology, woodcraft and herb-lore.    

A treasure-trove of information.

 The last hours of Selaistrae Moon-swallow unfold in his brain like a mission brief. Two days ago she was supposed to have gone back through the Gate and report her findings on setting up an outpost in this area. It seemed to be an ideal location to gain things that could only be found in this region on Earth.  

The scouting had been easy; her pregnancy made her less suspect in the eyes of the locals till her shifting charm broke in the middle of the damn supermarket and caused the townsfolk to turn on her.

    Some kind of cosmic interference had disrupted the only Gate to Earth and now there was no way home.  It could be decades before it reopened.

 Winter Soldier felt something burn in his chest, a small grunt of pain escaping him. The forest floor rose up to meet him and abruptly stopped.

It was over.

He found himself on hands and knees shaking in reaction. He felt worse than whenever he came out of cryostasis.  What had she done to him?

Selaistrae's hand fell from his wrist. I have done what I can, the rest is up to you. I have stabilized and improved your enhancements. You are more akin to your kironar now. My son, my little Cheshire Grinning is yours now. In all ways. He will need you to guide him. He is Born Knowing. The backpack will have what you need for him. The enchantments are strong. It is nearly indestructible. It is keyed to you and your son. No one else can use it. It will almost always have what you need. Her mental voice begins to fade, eyes glazed.

Please, save your son.

 It is the work of moments to cut the child from his mother.

The newborn's voice was weak but growing stronger by the moment. He laid the squalling infant on a small blanket he unthinkingly pulled from the pack and quickly wiped him dry.

The Soldier cushions the child against his metal arm to get a good look at him. He didn’t know what he was expecting but the child looks human enough.  Pale gold skin, a wisp of blond hair, the tiny chin resembling his own. Not too small, a little over three kilograms.

 Selaistrae's voice intrudes upon him again, just barely clinging to life. They may take him from you but he will not be killed. Not after inheriting a perfect version of the serum. Any test will say he was sired by you. Will you tell him he was loved?

“If I am permitted to keep the memory of him, yes.”

Moon-swallow's mouth twitched upwards. They won't burn out your memory of him, they can't. Nothing of what I have given you can be erased, not fully. I...know that...they will try...I'm...truly sorry for that. You will...remember...her voice faded into silence. Winter stared at the now-dead woman like he knew something was supposed to happen. The baby whined and flailed as the Soldier’s hands absently and expertly swaddled the newborn in front of him.

 The sound of breaking glass was heard. The Soldier quickly scooped up the newborn in his flesh hand, his other pulling the gun, alert for any movement. His eyes widened in shock as he witnessed the dead woman's body, clothes and all turn translucent like glass and fall to sand. A strong wind blew for several moments, scattering the remains. There was little doubt that this was the final action of the child's mother.

 The Asset rose, tucking the child a little more closely to his body and rapidly made his way to the extraction point.

This still needs a bit of work as the bold parts I am unsure of how to articulate. My biggest hangup is what happens AFTER this part.  I need ideas on how his handler and his goons would react to the Soldier with a newborn in his arms like nothing is wrong. I need to know how Pierce would react when he finds out. Any help is appreciated.

[cstesttaken]

How Video Marketing Can Transform Your Funnel

The way your customers consume content continues to evolve. Video marketing is all the rage and continues to be a hot topic for brands large and small.

With the rise of live video and video content, we’re viewing more content than we ever have before. We’re learning through each view. We’re finding new audiences that engage with our material. We’re including innovative storytelling and unique ways to grab attention and build relationships.

How are you leveraging video marketing for your audience?

This may seem like a loaded question. It’s about your video platform. It’s also about the story you’re trying to tell. According to findings by , 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.

Whether that story is to advertise a product or service, deliver information, provide entertainment, or build trust, that’s up to you.

Video marketing takes on many forms. From the big brands that are able to display ads on Snapchat to the small business owners looking to make a splash with video, remember your target audience and create a unique experience to get ahead of the game.

Go Live on Social Platforms

Your social media feeds are filling up with live video. If you have something to announce or promote, go live on your company’s Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter feed. Understand that each platform has a different audience, so put snippets of information on each platform to keep them interested and engaged.

Of the companies that have experimented with Facebook Live, 78% said that the platform was an effective marketing tool.

Why Use Live Video?

Show your human side. Provide a sneak peek into company events or new products. Live video has the chance to become the face of your business. As a marketer, you want to reach the highest number of people.

Communicate Corporate or Organizational Values

Create Relationships & Communicate With Your Audience

Showcase Your Brand

Conduct a Q&A Session to Learn About Your Followers

Pick your channel appropriately. Attract your audience and increase your following. Whether your audience is on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, develop a strategy to reach them. Don’t be in all places at once.

Snapchat and Instagram users like quick, consumable content. You can also try Stories, which are videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours (and coming to Facebook soon). Facebook users may watch a short video or a longer form video. Know your audience and deliver content that appeals to your users.

Gary Vaynerchuk has built a personal brand with video marketing, using Instagram Live, Snapchat, and YouTube daily mashups to build awareness and market himself. Jay Shetty is an international motivational speaker that speaks on Facebook Live and holds Q&A’s on Huffington Post and other platforms. Both go viral, and both have adapted to the changing video landscape. Take a lesson from these two entrepreneurs to master your video marketing strategy.

For brand audiences, according to Livestream, 80% of users would rather watch a live video than read a blog post and 82% prefer live video to regular social media posts.

As a brand, there’s no better opportunity to humanize yourself and engage in a one-on-one conversation with your audience than through live video on social media. Leverage that for your brand.

My company, 1SEO.com Digital Agency, often uses video to reach a wider audience.

Boosting and displaying video advertisements allows you to hone in on your target audience. To users across mobile, social, and desktop computers, you can capture attention with brief, appealing advertisements.

Develop a cross-channel campaign—websites, social platforms, mobile devices, connected televisions—to reach users at all stages of brand discovery or the purchasing process across all devices.

In-stream video advertisements are your ads that play within other video content. It’s a great way for your brand to include a short segment in front of viewers already looking for video content. From pre-roll ads before a video plays, mid-roll ads during a piece of content, or an ad after a video plays, you have a unique opportunity to get your message heard quickly.

Keep video ads short and tight, delivering value with minimal distraction to viewers. For ads, it’s important to display strong calls to action both at the beginning and end of the video. When you invest in a quality production, your viewers will be interested and engaged.

On social media, your ads are present as your target audience is scrolling through their news feeds. Social ads are increasingly shared, resulting in a further organic reach and more chance for conversions. Your video plays on mobile and social without sound, so make sure your message is clear and you start your video with compelling images that increase conversion rates.

Pay attention to mobile video ads. Your audience is consuming video content at a rapid rate on mobile devices, and they’re paying more attention to ads they’re presented. Leverage your brand by staying ahead and taking advantage of this growing market.

Through banner ads, display video content for your brand on sites that your target audience already use regularly. This can help build trust for your brand and assist in the discovery process at key points in your audience decision making.

Videos in Your Email Campaigns

In my personal experience, emails sent out that have the word [VIDEO] in the subject line, tend to get more opens and more clicks than a subject line that doesn’t include the word video. found that videos in an email lead to a 200-300% increase in click-through rate.

That’s not very surprising. Our inboxes are flooded with email after email. As we’re shifting to a visual world, it’s no surprise that emails with video get more interaction. It leads to success and interaction with your audience.

Your email marketing campaigns are developed for various reasons, and different types of video see different types of engagement and playback. For emails, videos with the best performance include:

Product Descriptions & Demonstrations

Customer Testimonials

Educational & Training Videos

Event Promotions

Whether you embed the video in your email or create a static image with a play button to indicate a video, you’ll see more interaction and an increased click-through rate from your email campaigns.

Prominently Feature Videos on Important Landing Pages

For your PPC and SEO campaigns, you rely on the power and influence of the content on your landing page to drive leads. Gain an advantage by embedding an interactive, educational video on your landing page.

According to , including a video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%. Ads are increasingly linking directly to video landing pages.

Having a short video as a teaser to answer a question or garner interest, together with a call to action and phone number or contact box, will lead to more conversions. Videos make content easier to digest. A higher percentage of viewers will retain your message when they watch a video as compared to reading text on a landing page.

Capture the attention with a headline that stands out. Use text on the page that is easy to skim and is consumable, then feature a video above the fold that shows visitors to the page exactly what they’d be looking for from your company.

Keep your videos in line with your brand strategy. Learn what your audience is looking for from your company. Whether you’re showing how to use your software, what makes your products stand out, how to trust your services, or the value your company provides, you’ll improve your click-through rates and increase conversions.

Video Analytics to Guide Your Strategy

More and more businesses are investing in video content creation, using advanced analytics to determine much more than the basic metric of views. See how your viewers are engaging with your videos, determine a level of interest, and track more insightful measures.

Video analytics help you get more video engagement and increase your play rate. Track insights related to:

Impressions

Device Types

Play Rates

Referral Sources

Total Views per Viewer

When you embed a video on your site or social media, there are different tools that will help you understand how many conversions or sales are coming from your video campaigns. The most evident and most-used video metric is YouTube Insights, which gives you traffic sources, audience retention, demographics, playback locations, and more.

One of the best tools you can invest in include Wistia. This tool directly tracks engagement with your videos. You can determine which viewers finished your video and actions they take afterward. The value of Wistia is its integration into your sales funnel so you can make informed decisions.

If you’re creating videos for brand awareness purposes, you’ll find value in Brandwatch, which helps deliver key insights into the opinions of your audience. Identify more opportunities and build brand awareness.

Use video analytics to guide your strategy. With analytics, you’ll learn how effective your video marketing campaigns are, and how they complement your other marketing efforts.

Produce & Create Interactive Videos for Your Audience

You may think of videos as a passive form of marketing. Audiences tend not to watch commercials and we’re often not giving our full attention to YouTube videos. According to MarketingProfs, your audience is in a shift from a passive to interactive experience, and you should be taking advantage of it.

There are various ways you can keep viewers engaged throughout an educational video with surveys, clickable URLs, and additional content that can retain user focus and drive action.

With consumer choice on a particular video, they’re selecting their own path to conversion. Gather insights on the intent of your audience, and generate qualified customers that help grow your business.

MarketingProfs found that 35% of marketers used a more sophisticated approach to video marketing from 2015 to 2016. Expect that trend to continue in the years ahead. Make informed decisions through video analytics, and leverage your business over your competition with a unique video approach.

Conclusion

Marketers that are ahead of the curve are using video throughout the marketing funnel and for more than just brand awareness. They’re there to educate. They’re there to entertain.

Whether organic or paid video marketing, the opportunities are endless if you take the right approach. You want to get your brand and your message in front of the right audience. Video is a powerful platform giving you tremendous opportunity.

Featured Image: Image by BJ Bergey. Used with permission. In-post Photo: Image by BJ Bergey. Used with permission.

Source

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/leverage-video-marketing/185396/

[theseoxpert]

How Video Marketing Can Transform Your Funnel

Video marketing is becoming ever more important.  Consumers are more likely to buy a product or take an action after watching a video.  Are your marketing efforts up to date?

The way your customers consume content continues to evolve. Video marketing is all the rage and continues to be a hot topic for brands large and small.

With the rise of live video and video content, we’re viewing more content than we ever have before. We’re learning through each view. We’re finding new audiences that engage with our material. We’re including innovative storytelling and unique ways to grab attention and build relationships.

How are you leveraging video marketing for your audience?

This may seem like a loaded question. It’s about your video platform. It’s also about the story you’re trying to tell. According to findings by HubSpot, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.

Whether that story is to advertise a product or service, deliver information, provide entertainment, or build trust, that’s up to you.

Video marketing takes on many forms. From the big brands that are able to display ads on Snapchat to the small business owners looking to make a splash with video, remember your target audience and create a unique experience to get ahead of the game.

Go Live on Social Platforms

Your social media feeds are filling up with live video. If you have something to announce or promote, go live on your company’s Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter feed. Understand that each platform has a different audience, so put snippets of information on each platform to keep them interested and engaged.

Why Use Live Video?

Show your human side. Provide a sneak peek into company events or new products. Live video has the chance to become the face of your business. As a marketer, you want to reach the highest number of people.

Communicate Corporate or Organizational Values

Create Relationships & Communicate With Your Audience

Showcase Your Brand

Conduct a Q&A Session to Learn About Your Followers

For brand audiences, according to Livestream, 80% of users would rather watch a live video than read a blog post and 82% prefer live video to regular social media posts.

Utilize Video Advertisements

Boosting and displaying video advertisements allows you to hone in on your target audience. To users across mobile, social, and desktop computers, you can capture attention with brief, appealing advertisements.

Develop a cross-channel campaign—websites, social platforms, mobile devices, connected televisions—to reach users at all stages of brand discovery or the purchasing process across all devices.

In-stream video advertisements are your ads that play within other video content. It’s a great way for your brand to include a short segment in front of viewers already looking for video content. From pre-roll ads before a video plays, mid-roll ads during a piece of content, or an ad after a video plays, you have a unique opportunity to get your message heard quickly.

Keep video ads short and tight, delivering value with minimal distraction to viewers. For ads, it’s important to display strong calls to action both at the beginning and end of the video. When you invest in a quality production, your viewers will be interested and engaged.

On social media, your ads are present as your target audience is scrolling through their news feeds. Social ads are increasingly shared, resulting in a further organic reach and more chance for conversions. Your video plays on mobile and social without sound, so make sure your message is clear and you start your video with compelling images that increase conversion rates.

Pay attention to mobile video ads. Your audience is consuming video content at a rapid rate on mobile devices, and they’re paying more attention to ads they’re presented. Leverage your brand by staying ahead and taking advantage of this growing market.

Videos in Your Email Campaigns

In my personal experience, emails sent out that have the word [VIDEO] in the subject line, tend to get more opens and more clicks than a subject line that doesn’t include the word video. HubSpot found that videos in an email lead to a 200-300% increase in click-through rate.

Your email marketing campaigns are developed for various reasons, and different types of video see different types of engagement and playback. For emails, videos with the best performance include:

Product Descriptions & Demonstrations

Customer Testimonials

Educational & Training Videos

Event Promotions

Whether you embed the video in your email or create a static image with a play button to indicate a video, you’ll see more interaction and an increased click-through rate from your email campaigns.

Prominently Feature Videos on Important Landing Pages

For your PPC and SEO campaigns, you rely on the power and influence of the content on your landing page to drive leads. Gain an advantage by embedding an interactive, educational video on your landing page.

According to findings by HubSpot, including a video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%. Ads are increasingly linking directly to video landing pages.

Having a short video as a teaser to answer a question or garner interest, together with a call to action and phone number or contact box, will lead to more conversions. Videos make content easier to digest. A higher percentage of viewers will retain your message when they watch a video as compared to reading text on a landing page.

Video Analytics to Guide Your Strategy

More and more businesses are investing in video content creation, using advanced analytics to determine much more than the basic metric of views. See how your viewers are engaging with your videos, determine a level of interest, and track more insightful measures.

Video analytics help you get more video engagement and increase your play rate. Track insights related to:

Impressions

Device Types

Play Rates

Referral Sources

Total Views per Viewer

When you embed a video on your site or social media, there are different tools that will help you understand how many conversions or sales are coming from your video campaigns. The most evident and most-used video metric is YouTube Insights, which gives you traffic sources, audience retention, demographics, playback locations, and more.

Use video analytics to guide your strategy. With analytics, you’ll learn how effective your video marketing campaigns are, and how they complement your other marketing efforts.

Produce & Create Interactive Videos for Your Audience

You may think of videos as a passive form of marketing. Audiences tend not to watch commercials and we’re often not giving our full attention to YouTube videos. According to MarketingProfs, your audience is in a shift from a passive to interactive experience, and you should be taking advantage of it.

There are various ways you can keep viewers engaged throughout an educational video with surveys, clickable URLs, and additional content that can retain user focus and drive action.

Interactive videos draw a higher engagement rate, which leads to more conversions and sales. Interactive media brings a personalized experience to your audience. They’ll view your videos longer, share more on social platforms, and interact more frequently with your content.

Click here to view original web page at www.searchenginejournal.com

Video marketing is now a must for all businesses.  More and more people are looking to video and not articles to find the info they need.  If your business is not utilizing video marketing, you are putting your business behind the curve.

The post How Video Marketing Can Transform Your Funnel appeared on The SEO Xpert.

from The SEO Xpert http://www.theseoxpert.com/how-video-marketing-can-transform-your-funnel/