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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 3 years

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Miranda

This is a story set within my Bioshock Rebirth AU. A reimaging/reboot of the Bioshock franchise. https://geekgemsspookyblog.tumblr.com/post/626141727587270656/bioshock-rebirth-timeline-this-is-a-timeline-of-an Just as a heads up if anyone is wondering about the context. I’ve had some stories in my drafts for a long time now and I’m finally publicly sharing them.

I’m finally gonna write this story. I just wanna admit this was a story idea I think I’ve had since August. Who’s Miranda exactly? She’s basically a Little Sister OC. In all seriousness this isn’t your first appearance. But this will be I guess her real or better introduction. I’ve joked about her and mentioned her to friends like @feckinatlas and @fishtankinhouse

Amazingly this story was inspired by @pikablob who made this Owl House fic here. https://pikablob.tumblr.com/post/625383445502246912/squishes-pikablob-the-owl-house-cartoon I’ve been just lazy to write this. I made this post in the drafts when I was living in the guest room while my room was being remodeled.

Miranda is a character that just....I guess she came to life on her own when I thought of that story. Or just the idea if one of those Little Sisters had Autism. This was inspired by a couple of things or whatever. I love this character. Despite I haven’t thought much of her. I should just write this dang story. I’ll talk about other details in another post somewhere.

Archie and Elizabeth were in Tenenbaum’s safehouse. As of now after going tough missions sent to Archie by Atlas. It was nice to catch a breath finally. As they were safe in this area. Where the rescued Little Sisters could stay safe from harm. While Brigid was working her make shift lab and checking her supplies. The two young adults were playing with the children. They genuinely liked being around the kids. It felt like a nice break after the nightmares going on in this city. It was reminding them of what else was at stake. That they weren’t just trying to escape or help out the poorer citizens of Rapture. But these children as well.

They were living in what was a sewer section of the slums. Reasons why because Brigid knew she couldn’t do her progress in her own apartment. After being made public of what she had done. The public demonized her. Many people wanted her dead.

Brigid was lucky to find a place where sewer workers had set up a living space. Because sometimes the workers would live here in case if a pipe was busted or so. There were some rooms for some people to sleep in. It wasn’t much. But over the past 4 years, she gradually tried to make it a living space. A makeshift lab, one shower with one bathtub in one bathroom, two rooms with two beds in each, a little dining area, and one laundry room. Brigid was grateful to find a little place like this. The biggest space was where the children would sleep in bunkbeds.

For the past 4 years she gradually got resources around certain places. Especially toys for the kids if more were to live here. It was so hard yet she kept trying. She tried to make it seem like a daycare center for them. To make those kids feel welcomed. Along with making sure they knew where to go the bathroom. It took a long while. But she seemed to have gotten it handled.

The children took kindly to Elizabeth. Probably because it was rare for the children to see another woman other than Mama Tenenbaum. She got along with them just fine. Despite never dealing with children before. She was like a big sister to them. If she had the time, she would hang out with them. Considering Brigid was mostly at work or so. Even though she tried to make the place as comfy as possible.

While at one moment, Elizabeth did hear a mention from a little one that she reminded her of someone like her. But Elizabeth didn’t understand. Maybe it was someone else she knew. Elizabeth didn’t dwell on it.

Archie never dealt with children too. Yet he was so gentle with them. In fact kind of like Elizabeth. He seemed to really enjoy being around them. They looked to him as if he was a older brother. He had rescued them and made sure they were safe. While Elizabeth had Bluto growing up. Archie hardly had anyone. To him interacting with these children who genuinely liked him made him feel less lonely than how he usual was.

The two young adults were sitting on the floor crisscrossed. Elizabeth took time drawing on some papers with crayons with Sally. While Archie played with some trying to build a castle with blocks.

“That’s a pretty flower Sally.” Elizabeth told the girl. Sally had colored the drawn flower yellow. “I’m gonna draw a blue one. Tell me what you think of it after I’m done.” She told her.

When she began drawing her own flower. Another little one had come across her.

“Miss Elizabeth.” The little girl asked her.

“Hi Miranda. What is it?” Elizabeth asked the girl who approached her.

“Can I....touch your cheeks please?” Miranda asked her.

Elizabeth was confused. She questioned why Miranda wanted to do that. But it didn’t seem like anything bad.

“Umm sure you can do that.” Elizabeth told her as she put down the blue crayon and looked at Miranda. After that Miranda decided to calmly put her hands on her cheeks. With then Miranda squishing them a bit. Elizabeth felt a bit confused. Yet Miranda was a sweet girl that she recalled. Yet the squishing went on for a minute. Then another minute. Archie was a bit confused seeing it. But Elizabeth didn’t interrupt her. But after those two minutes, Miranda had decided to stop.

“Is....there anything else you need?” Elizabeth asked the girl.

“No” Miranda told her. The little girl just walked away. After that Elizabeth was just confused. Maybe she liked her face or something.

10 minutes had passed. Elizabeth and Archie decided to check in with Brigid to see if she was doing fine. The kids were just doing their own things. Considering the young adults needed a break.

“Hello Miss Tenenbaum” Elizabeth told her.

“Hey Dr. Tenenbaum” Archie told her as well.

“Hi you too. I saw you were enjoying yourselves.” Brigid told them.

“Yeah it was nice honestly. It was nice just hanging around them more.” Elizabeth told her.

“I saw Miranda was squishing your face.” Brigid said.

“You saw that too?” Archie asked.

“Yes I did see it. Well I mean there’s clear glass here.” Brigid laughed a little after saying that.

“Oh yeah sorry.” Archie said. Forgetting that Brigid could she what was going on in that room.

“Umm Miss Tene-no I’m sorry Brigid” Elizabeth got Brigid’s attention. She just seemed so polite calling Brigid that. Even though Brigid told her she could call her by her first name.

“Yes Elizabeth.” Brigid answered.

“Why do you think she did that?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Ah yes. Why she did that. You two know what Autism is right?” Brigid asked them.

“I have read about it in my books.” Elizabeth told her.

“Yeah I know about it.” Archie said as well.

“Well...she has it.” Brigid told them. The two looked surprised a bit after hearing that.

“Are you being honest with us?” Archie asked her. “I’m sorry to ask.” He told her

“Yes I am and it’s fine Archie. She’s one of the few I know who has it.” Brigid told them as she held a pen in right hand as she looked through the glass. “I wanted to tell you two that. I’ve just been busy and I think you’ve may of noticed she kind of keeps to herself.” Brigid was right. Miranda always seemed shy. She wasn’t a bad kid. Yet she acted differently than some of the other girls. Even though she got along with them. She was usually maybe playing with a little toy train or whatever else.

“How did you find out she had Autism?” Elizabeth asked her. “I read it’s could be tricky to find out if a child may have it.” Elizabeth continued on.

“Because I have it too.” Brigid told them. The two young adults stared at her. Brigid was just still looking through the glass until she looked back the two adults. “Ja I get it. It doesn’t seem like it. But trust me. You start to notice some similar traits.” She said as she decided to look through her drawers to find something. After that she found what she was looking for and got up to get closer to them.

“Again I’ve been busy. When I’m not. I try to tend for them as much as possible. Despite of what I’ve done to them. Especially Miranda.” Brigid said as she wanted to show them something. It was some sort of tangle thing.

“What’s that?” Elizabeth asked. She was curious of what she was seeing.

“A little stim toy I made. I will admit, I made this when I first got her here.” Brigid told them. “The first time she was here. She wasn’t acting right. She was in a pouty mood at times. I think she didn’t like the place here. Sometimes she would have a meltdown. So a lot of times I had to hold on to her and calm her down.” Brigid told them. “I will admit....it was strange seeing someone like me going through a different way of experiencing a disability like that. Because we’re all different.” Brigid continued on.

“But you know considering her new surroundings. It bothered some of the other girls. I knew I always wouldn’t be here to comfort her. Especially in a city like this. So I made this. She was confused by it at first. But when I gave it to her. She loved it.” Brigid told them. “Heh will admit I do like it myself.” Brigid said.

“Why are you telling us this?” Elizabeth asked.

“Because I felt it was important. I just hoped you won’t bothered by her squishing your face. I had worried maybe she needs this. Which is why I’m telling you about it.” Brigid told her. She just looked and messed with the stim toy. The two adults looked at her playing with it. “Scheiße I’m sorry I got distracted.” Brigid said as she sighed.

“Is everything okay?” Archie asked. Brigid suddenly looked saddened.

“I’ll be fine. I just remember one night when she wanted to feel safe. I allowed her to sleep in a bed with me. You know how children get nightmares they go to their parents or loved ones.” Brigid told them. “....I still remember the night she told me about her parents. That they left her at the orphanage because they thought she was....weird....” Brigid continued on as she sound more saddened after saying that.

“Are you saying her parents left her on purpose?” Archie asked.

“From what I’ve gathered....sadly yes. Because of how she is.” Brigid told them. She just looked through the glass to see Miranda keeping to herself. “She was.....strangely happy with that Big Daddy Bouncer....before I killed it.” Brigid said as she looked back at the stim toy. “She’s been here since January this year.....I wonder if she’s grateful for me. Not like I deserve it.” She then noticed Elizabeth put her hands around the stim toy. This made Brigid’s eyes widened and to look at Elizabeth.

“Hey it’s okay....I think she’s grateful to have you. And us.” Elizabeth told her. “Would you like me to take this to her?” Elizabeth asked her.

“....yes. Thank you.” Brigid nodded smiling.

The two young adults went back out. Some sisters were on their beds resting. While some minded their own business. Miranda sat in a corner with her little train she just pushed back and forth. During that moment she was in her little world. She then noticed the two adult’s shadows pop up behind her. With her head turning around to the right.

“Hi” Miranda said softly.

“Hey Miranda.” Elizabeth told her softly. The two adults sat down close to her.

“Hey there. You feeling okay?” Archie asked Miranda.

“I’m okay. Did I make Miss Elizabeth sad or mad?” Miranda asked him.

“Oh no you didn’t. I was just confused of why you squished my face.” Elizabeth said.

“I think your cheeks look nice.” Miranda told them. “They looked soft.” She continued on.

“Yeah they are soft.” Elizabeth smiled softly. She revealed the stim toy. “You remember this?” She asked the little girl.

The little girl gasped. “Mama Tenenbaum’s Tangle.” Miranda said sounding excited.

“Yes it is. Do you want to hold it?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Yes please.” Miranda asked her. Elizabeth gave her the stim toy. “I like this toy a lot.”

“It seems fun. I can’t blame you.” Archie told her. The two adults admired seeing the girl play with it. “Do you feel better right now?” Archie asked her.

“Yes.” Miranda said as she looked at him so happy. She just messed with it. Just like with the train but this time. She seemed more relaxed.

“Hey Miranda. If you want to squish my cheeks. I’ll let you do that if you want to okay.” Elizabeth told her.

“Okay.” Miranda told her smiling. The two just admiring the girl playing with the little stim toy. While behind the glass, Brigid was looking at the with a smile. Seeing a little moment like that reminds her there is still goodness in this city.

#bioshock #bioshock rebirth #bioshock au #archie wynand #elizabeth comstock #brigid tenenbaum

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pants-jones · 3 years

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Bioshock

The title of this is simple because Bioshock is a game I almost forgot that I played, but as soon as I remembered it a truckload of Bioshock stuff came flowing into my mind, and I decided to write about it here so I can finally seal all the stuff about these games in my brain vault forever. The Bioshock series consists of three games, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite. Around when Infinite came out, I heard a lotta talk about how amazing it was, but I was like 10 at the time so I never got to play it until it was free on PsPlus a couple months ago, along with the other two. The first two Bioshock games are fairly simple, in story and in gameplay. But Bioshock Infinite took the entirely new level that thinking about it now, almost a year after playing it, still blows me away. I feel like Bioshock doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, the way that games like Portal and Half Life do. But when I say that Bioshock blew my expectations out of the water (that is a pun) is a huge understatement.

So first, let’s start with the first Bioshock. This game came out in 2007, and it really shows with very dated mechanics. The game feels old, and for me that made it way more difficult than it needed to be. Bioshock 2 on the other hand, came out in 2010, and while the story isn’t nearly as good, it’s definitely way more streamlined. I could definitely see myself going back and playing it again. Let’s start with the first game.

Bioshock

Bioshock starts with you on a plane, examining a letter, when the plane suddenly crashes in the middle of the ocean. You’re the only survivor, and the closest thing you can see besides the burning plane parts, is this strange lighthouse.

This lighthouse is made of stone, and it’s tall and menacing but you enter since you have no other option. The door closes behind you and the first thing you see is this.

As you go down the stairs behind it, you enter a pod with the door open, and pull the lever inside. The pod takes you deep, deep underwater, while playing you a small video from a projector. This is 1960, so it’s very old styled. This is the first time you hear the voice of Andrew Ryan, while he tells you his philosophy and why he hates the world as it is. His initial speech is the rule he will live by for the entirety of the game. He hates government, and religion, because as he says in the speech, they all believe “a man isn’t entitled to the sweat of his brow”. I’m probably phrasing it poorly, but he means the mans hard work. You then get the first view of his creation- Rapture, the city on the bottom of the ocean.

When the pod lands, you are met with the main enemy of this game- Splicers. I think this goes without saying but Rapture has some pretty advanced technology. They’ve learned to manipulate peoples DNA to extreme levels, giving them pyrokinesis and other things. These abilities are distributed in really cool looking bottles and are called Plasmids. There are many different types of Plasmids, but you’ll start with lighting in the beginning of the game

Splicers are the results of splicing your genes way too much; they’re like crackheads, but instead of cocaine they was gene splicing. Their faces are usually cutup and they’re usually absolutely insane. But after escaping the first one you meet, you get in contact with a man named Atlas. He tells you he wants to get the hell out of Rapture, and that Andrew Ryan is the reason it’s gone to shit. He tells you that he needs to get his wife and child out with him, but when you get so close to rescuing them, Ryan bombs the submarine they were going to escape on.

Throughout your gameplay you will hear about the way Rapture used to be, before it was a warzone. You would hear about the power struggle between Ryan and someone named Fontaine, and you will learn about how Ryan killed his mistress who was pregnant with his child. This game is full of information explaining how things went down before your arrival. Unfortunately, I’m not the best with this kind of exposition. This is a personal thing but I always mess up the story when it comes to this form of story telling.

Now I’m gonna try my best to explain something a bit weird. If you’ve ever seen anything bioshock, you probably know about their mascot, the Big Daddy.

This right here is a Big Daddy. They’re not robots, more like giant brainwashed people in bit suits. Their voices are altered so they sound deep and menacing, and they’re by far the strongest enemy in the game. They’re made to protect the Little Sisters- the little girl next to the Big Daddy. Little Sisters are practically little blood suckers, they can sense where a dead body with some Atom (the substance they use in plasmids) and call them Angels. They’re children turned into indestructible mosnters that are just there to get Atom. They always travel together. You can kill the Big Daddy and either free the sister, or take the Atom from her body which would kill her. There’s a limited amount of Big Daddies and the game marks how many are left in each section. Obviously killing or saving these girls changes the ending you get. You team up with some german(i think) doctor that pretty much sees these girls as her daughters to stop Ryan and Fontaine, who wants to use them for more Atom.

The rest of the story is a bit fuzzy for me, so I’m just gonna briefly explain it here. Fontaine wasn’t a good guy, and he faked his own death and turned out to be Atlas. He and a doctor (whos name I don’t remember but she was important) pretty much took you and wiped your memory, brainwashing you so that you’d always listen to the trigger ‘would you kindly.” This twist was the biggest mind fuck, because you realize that Atlas (now Fontaine) would say those words all the time. They planted fake memories of a family in your mind and sent you to the surface, and even the letter you were examining in the start had the trigger in it. You kill Andrew Ryan before this (forgot to mention it), and you move on to get rid of this brainwashing and kill Fontaine. And to fight you Fontaine fills himself with Plasmids and Atom and obviously this doesn’t work because video games. You end the game, saving all the little sisters and bringing them to the surface, and live out your life sort of as a father figure for them. Or if you didn't save them, you just bring a bunch of splicers with you, but I don’t think this is a canon ending. This game is a solid 6/10 for me, only because of how dated it is.

Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2′s story is pretty much the same but with a twist this time- You get to play as a Big Daddy. Unfortunately this games story felt a bit too much like the first one so I don’t remember anything big about it. You play as a Big Daddy looking for his Little Sister. The game starts with a cutscene, showing you protecting her from splicers until you get murdered by Raptures new dictator- Sofia Lamb. She takes your Little Sister and turns her into a normal girl again, raising her up to be Eleanor Lamb. You revive yourself years later (i don’t remember how) and go off to find her. The biggest difference between Andrew Ryan and Sofia Lamb is that the splicers seem to worship her. But at the same time Sofia uses Eleanor as some sorta messiah figure, so they could be worshipping her I don’t know. In this game you get to go through newer parts of Rapture, and even get to see the new variant of Big Daddy- Big Sisters. These aren’t like Big Daddies and I’m not even sure what their purpose is, but they’re just as difficult to fight against. I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to steal Little Sisters from their male counterparts and bring them to Lamb. Towards the end of the game, I’m pretty sure Lamb ends up destroying Rapture, and you escape with Eleanor, a bunch of Little Sisters, and depending on your ending you also save Sofia from drowning. This game was a 7/10, because the gameplay was much better but the story was sorta lackluster. I’m not even sure if this game is canon in the story.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is the most different out of the three. I get the feeling that the devs got sick of the underwater aesthetic, so they said fuck it lets make a city in the sky.

This is Columbia. A city in the sky. It’s the literal opposite of Rapture. It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it’s gorgeous. This was my favorite setting in the whole series. Plasmids are now Vigors, and it takes place in 1912 (I know, surprising). This games story is extremely complex, so if I get lost explaining it I’ll link a video explaining it clearly. In this game you play as Booker Dewitt.

Booker Dewitt is a former member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, scarred from the events of the Battle of Wounded Knee. When his debts from gambling start climbing too high, he is sent to Columbia to rescue a young woman named Elizabeth, who’s been trapped there since childhood. She’s kept in a giant statue protected by the Songbird, a giant bird with similar looks to the Big Daddies of Rapture.

(This is Elizabeth btw. We never see Booker’s face except for some official art.)

All of Columbia is run by one man, Zachary Hale Comstock, He’s revered as some “Prophet”, and he seems to know everything about Booker. He’s turned the people of Columbia into a sort of cult reminiscent of the KKK, based on Christianity and white power. Which makes him and all the enemies very easy to hate. Which is good.

This cult is opposed by the Vox Poppuli, led by Daisy Fitzroy. She was originally the housemaid of Comstock’s home, but she fled when she was accused of murdering Comstock’s wife. She took her never ending hatred of Comstock and formed the Vox, a symbol of hatred for all of Columbia and men like Comstock.

The story begins in July 1912, when Booker is taken to a lighthouse off the coast of Maine by two very odd twins, Robert and Rosalind Lutece (they are important later), being told “bring the girl and wipe away the debt.” This lighthouse is very reminiscent of the old stone lighthouse from previous games. But this lighthouse doubles as a rocket silo, and Dewitt is sent to Columbia from here.

The first thing that I personally noticed is Booker’s disdain for religion, because when he’s forced to be baptized to enter Columbia he’s extremely uncomfortable. Soon he’s chased down by the authorities, since all of Columbia has been told by Comstock that any man with a scar on his hand in the shape AD is the devil, just like the scar on Booker’s left hand.

After evading a lot of cops, we finally meet Elizabeth. She’s never really known anyone besides Comstock and the Songbird, and she’s missing a pinky. Besides that, she has a strange ability to create these tears in space time. The first time we see this is when she creates one to 1980′s Paris, a place she's always been desperate to go to. So they make a deal- She leaves Columbia with him and he takes her to Paris.

After multiple shenanigans, Elizabeth ends up taking Booker and herself to a reality where Booker was the martyr of the Vox Populi. Booker sacrificed himself for Daisy here, and this started an all out war between the two factions. Fitzroy believes that the Booker we play as is either an imposter, or a ghost, and she sets her forces on him. With Bookers help, Elizabeth kills Daisy, and they try to escape via airship before Songbird forces them to crash.

At this point they learn a few things about Comstock; Comstock had the Luteces build a siphon device into the tower Elizabeth lived in to inhibit her powers, and he killed his wife and then the Luteces to hide the truth. Plus, Elizabeth is actually Comstocks adopted daughter.

Elizabeth is kidnapped by Songbird. When Booker pursues, he needs to cross a bridge that happens to have a cloud passing through it. In the brief moment that clouds pass over the bridge, it goes from a bright sunset to a cold, windy dark snowstorm. You fight through an old building filled with Comstock’s men, and learn that Elizabeth has already been tortured and corrupted by Comstock. She believes you left her there to die. And then, you learn that Comstock’s been dead for years now. Then you finally meet Elizabeth, she shows you that you’ve been brought to 1984, and that she is using Columbia to attack New York.

In that cloud over the bridge, you were running for what felt like a short time, but was really 72 years. Elizabeth sends you back, because she still doesn’t view you as an enemy, and she tells you how to save herself from Comstock, by controlling the Songbird.

After freeing young Elizabeth, the pair assault Comstock’s airship, where Comstock and Booker argue about Booker’s knowledge of Elizabeth’s missing pinkie. This ends in Booker slamming the back of Comstock’s skull onto a baptismal font, right before drowning and killing him. They move on from the conversation, they use the Songbird to destroy the tower Elizabeth was held captive in, therefore destroying the siphon on her powers.

Songbird turns on them again, but with the siphon gone, Elizabeth uses her powers to transport herself, Booker, and even Songbird to Rapture. Booker and Elizabeth are inside, where they watch Songbird sink and die, being crushed by water pressure.

At this point Elizabeth understands everything about her powers, and understands everything about whatever mystery there is left to this story. She takes Booker up the stone lighthouse, the very same one we saw in Bioshock 1, and basically explains multiverse theory to him. She explains that there are an infinite amount of lighthouses just like this.

At this point, she knows Bookers history. She knows the truth, but Booker’s so traumatized that his brain legitimately erased the memory. The rest of this is about Booker’s past, and how this all began.

Booker was there for Wounded Knee. It traumatized him, made him resent himself, so some day he went to repent, to be baptized. But Booker couldn’t go through with it. he gained a massive debt, and in 1893, Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he “bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”, referring to Booker’s daughter, Anna Dewitt (hence, the AD on Booker’s hand.) Booker reluctantly agreed to hand off his daughter to wipe away his debt, but when he changed his mind, he chased Robert and Comstock down. Comstock tries escaping through a portal (the same portal Elizabeth can make btw) and the two struggle for the baby. Eventually, the portal closes, and Comstock snatches her away while the closing portal leaves her severed pinky in Booker’s hands.

She explains that the Lutece’s have tried to recruit many Booker’s to stop Comstock, but all versions of Comstock will live on unless they try to stop his birth. So she takes Booker back to the baptism- but from another perspective. Booker changing his mind last minute at his own baptism sparked to life a universe where Booker went through with it, and was reborn from that moment onwards as Zachary Hale Comstock. After overusing the Lutece’s multiverse machine, he became sterile, and stole Anna to provide a biological heir for Columbia.

We cut back to Elizabeth and Booker at the baptism pond, where multiple versions of her are appearing in front of him. The only way to stop Comstock is to kill Booker, so he allows them to drown him. And one by one, all the versions of Elizabeth disappear.

This is the canon ending for the game. There are some more things in DLC, like Elizabeth going to Rapture to tie some loose ends connected to Comstock and Ryan’s abuse of the Little Sister’s. And it’s confirmed that Rapture scientists got the idea for Big Daddies from Songbird, and Columbia’s scientists came up with vigors from Rapture’s plasmids. The writers went as far to explain how everything in Rapture or Columbia came to fruition, and connected them all.

I’ve never gotten such an “It all makes sense now feeling” than when playing this game. They didn’t even have to connect it to the first two games but they did and they made it work way too well. Bioshock Infinite is the best out of the three, and thanks to this review I’ve finally gotten all that stuff out of my mind. This game is a 9/10 for me. I’d definitely play it again.

#Bioshock #Bioshock Infinite #Gaming #review

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something-in-the-seas · 5 years

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November 18th, 1968 (Part 1)

I thought I would share the Aftershock one shots. They’re on AO3 as well here. There is centered on the Bioshock 2 cast coming to the surface, basically it’s a long ass night and everyone is suffering. Our lord and savior Booker isn’t here yet but Ryan is suffering.

I thank @frangstfontaine for inspiring me to finish this last night after those riveting Area 51 discussions

TW: For pregnancy (Liz is pregnant with Ziggy).

7:15 PM

The beginning of the holiday season had always been Jack’s favorite time of year. From what little he could remember during his time in Rapture, trapped in Fontaine’s laboratories and stuck under the eye of Suchong, besides New Years, everything else was heavily frowned upon. There were no organized religions in Rapture, so no Christmas or Hanukkah, unless you celebrated it in your own home. From what he could gather, Rapture’s founding, November 5th, was supposed to act as a stand in for the more commercial aspects of Christmas.

And Thanksgiving?

“Being thankful for what you have is for parasites! Propaganda made up by the hacks in Washington! Tell me, why do I have to thank any of you? For my accomplishments? No, I did that on my own, no invisible man in the sky helped me. For the displeasure you’ve all caused me for the past ten years? If so, yes, thank you-”

Well, Andrew Ryan made it very clear what his thoughts on Thanksgiving were, and he made sure everyone knew it every year during the big feast. Whether you wanted his opinion or not, you were going to get it. This Thanksgiving was going to be no exception.

So, he never got to celebrate the holidays as a child. The most he got was a piece of candy from Tenenbaum that he cherished. But, there were other memories jumbled in: of times when he was small, chewing on a turkey leg, saying grace with a family so large that the table could fit nearly a dozen people. He could vividly remember sitting on his father’s shoulders to put the star on the tree they picked together outside their farm in Kansas. He and his mother used to spend a day building an army of snowmen, and then spend the night snuggled by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate, listening to the Christmas radio dramas.

But, those weren’t real. The loving and gentle mother and father he remembered from events that never even happened had never existed. His whole life was a lie. At first, it was a lot to take in, and he had a hard time accepting it.

Getting able to recreate those moments with his children, though, made up more than enough. Their first Christmas, he barely had anything, but the joy on their faces when they saw the few presents he could afford under their tiny, dying tree in their uncomfortably small apartment somehow made it the most magical one of all.

He didn’t have a farm in Kansas, but he managed to work hard enough to afford a large, spacious house in a nice suburb right outside of town. He had that big table in their big dining room that perfectly fit a big, happy (for the most part) family for Thanksgiving. Every Christmas marked more presents under their huge, ornament full tree, the stockings hanging on the fireplace practically being dragged down by how full they were. And even though Masha chose to celebrate Hanukkah, which they all celebrated together, she also did very well for herself when it came to gifts.

If he had the means, he was going to spoil his girls rotten. After everything they had gone through during the first few years of their lives, they deserved the world.

But, the material things weren’t why he loved the holidays. It was nice to give or receive a gift, the decorations in town were always beautiful, and keeping the dream of Santa Claus alive as long as humanly possible was special, of course. He used to say the holidays were his favorite because of how excited his girls would get when the time rolled in. How he was able to start new traditions with them like playing out in the snow or decorating the house as a family.

Every year, more picture frames were added on the fireplace. What started as one lonely photo of them all standing at the steps of the lighthouse, squinting from the intensity of the sun and exhausted, turned into school portraits, memorabilia from family vacations, graduation pictures, it went on and on.

As Jack finished placing the garland on the fireplace, his eyes moved to one frame in particular; a photo of a stunning, beaming young woman with light brown hair, pointing at a letter she held out by the kitchen table. ‘Berkeley bound!’ was written on the white, wooden frame with purple paint.

Janice, his eldest, who used to be a gangly, awkward girl in a torn, dirty pink dress that didn't even go to her knees, was twenty-one now. She was on her second year at Berkeley Law. She earned it. She studied for weeks, stayed up multiple nights to achieve it, even when people doubted her, she never gave up, but still, he missed her. California was so far away from New York.

And Rosie, his not-so-little spitfire, was an hour away in NYU. Freshmen weren’t allowed to bring their cars onto campus, and if she ever wanted to come home for the weekends, he would have been at the train station to pick her up in a heartbeat. She just chose to stay in the city. The Big Apple was much more exciting than little, old Saratoga Falls. She had always been attracted to the bustle of the city and was happy living the nightlife with her friends. It must have been nostalgic for her.

With his girls all grown up and beginning to go their own ways, the holidays now meant something else to Jack. It brought them all home. He got to know them, not just as their father, but as their friend. He’d learn all about Masha’s family as they celebrated Hanukkah, Janice would tell about her time in California and everything going on at college, Rosie always had some crazy stories to share, and the younger girls ranted to him about their classes.

“Janice called.”

Jack turned his head to see his wife leaning on the doorway, a soft smile on her lips. She must have been watching decorate for a while.

“Do you know where she’s at?” he asked. He couldn’t have contained his excitement even if he tried.

“When we talked, she had just picked up Rosie at the station and they were stopping to get gas and some drinks.” She walked towards him and wrapped her thin arms around his thick, muscular waist. “She said she needed caffeine and had to save her quarters for the vending machine, so she couldn't stay on for long.”

“I told her if she was too tired from the flight I would have picked her up at the airport,” Jack replied. “I don’t like any of the girls driving on Hamilton at night, you know how bad deer season is right now?”

She rolled her eyes with a smirk. “They’ll be fine, Rosie’s got enough energy in her to power a small army.”

“Liz, I had five cars coming into the shop from deer accidents this week alone. Completely totaled! I don’t even know what to do with them.”

“You know how careful Janice is, she moves at a snail's pace when there’s an inch of snow. They’ll be home, perfectly safe in a half an hour.” Elizabeth paused. “Ten minutes if Rosie gets pissed enough to take the wheel.”

He shook his head. “God help us.” He took her hands and rubbed his calloused fingers over her smooth skin. “So, who is this guy Janice is bringing over? Dennis?”

“David,” she corrected, playfully scolding him. “And from everything I’ve heard about him, he is a very nice guy, and he makes her very happy. Oh, and he’s in medical school.”

It was as if she was warning him, and Jack sighed, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. “I’m sure he’s a good kid. She’s just so young. She’s only twenty-one!”

“I was twenty-one when I met you,” Elizabeth replied. “Besides, you were-”

“No, don’t even go there.”

And now he was playfully scolding her, and they both chuckled together before they found their wedding picture on the mantle. They stood outside the church, arm in arm, with their girls, who were much younger than they were now and wearing matching little dresses, with several good friends such as Dr. Tenenbaum.

There was a guilty pang in his stomach when he saw her in the back, looking awkward and like she didn’t belong. He could tell Elizabeth felt the same way, especially with how things were for the past month or so. It was a looming elephant in the room that had to be addressed soon, but they wanted to ignore it for just a little while longer.

He had to say, though, he looked quite dashing in his tux and Liz, of course, was gorgeous in that dress, but he was biased. His wife was the most beautiful woman alive.

And then, there was a more recent photo beside it of he and Sally, beaming from ear to ear after one of her cheerleading competitions last spring. It was closer to the city, and when it was over, they got ice cream. She wasn’t that cowering seven-year-old in the bathysphere anymore. Today was her birthday, and she was sixteen now.

“I miss when they were that small,” Jack said, his full of melancholy as Elizabeth rested her head on one of his broad shoulders. “It’s like they don’t even need us anymore.”

“They still need us.”

“Yeah, but they’re not coming to us anymore if they got a scrape or had a nightmare, or asking me to read them a bedtime story-”

“Isn’t this what we wanted, though?” Elizabeth asked. “Them to grow up and be normal, independent women with their own lives?”

“I just didn’t realize how fast it was going to go.” He faced his wife. “I miss when they’d run around the house and play dolls right here. Or, when they’d sit at the table and paint. I mean, what’s the point of having this big house if it’s empty?”

She smiled softly, leading his hands to the growing swell of her stomach, just beginning to poke out from her dress. “Just think, we’ll get to do it all over again soon.”

And the thought of reliving all those moments again and passing down those holiday traditions with someone entirely new- a little boy or girl who would be the perfect blend of them both- gave Jack chills. Good chills, but chills nonetheless. They both had dreamed about this, tried for years. There were so many tears shed. Doctors had told them to give up, that it just wasn’t possible, and they were ready to, but here they were now. Cradling their unborn child, who’s birth in just a few short months would mark the beginning of spring, and with it, a whole new chapter of their lives.

He may have been excited for this Christmas, but he was already looking forward to next year.

As he cupped his wife’s cheeks, Jack could only be amazed that she was somehow even more beautiful carrying their child than ever before. God, he loved her. He loved his family so much. Rapture and Fontaine may have tried to take everything from him, but they gave him even more than he thought was possible.

Their lips inched closer together, ready to share a passionate kiss, but their moment together was disrupted by the shuffling of feet. A small cough from near the doorway made them separate. Their youngest girl, fifteen-year-old Leta, glanced between the two as she rubbed her arm. Her cheeks were turning a light shade of pink.

“Grandpa wants to know if we’re doing cake soon,” she began after she was finished gawking. “He says that his show is coming on, and he does not want to be bothered while he’s watching it.”

The couple raised a brow at each other and scowled. “Did you tell him it’s up to your sister?” He asked.

“Well, yeah, but he told me that her birthday doesn’t give her superiority over him.” The bespectacled girl shrugged. "I didn't want to get into a debate with him."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes while Jack exhaled slowly. He placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulders. “Alright,” he said as father and daughter began to make their way to the kitchen, “let’s take care of the old man.”

“I’m going to see what Sal wants to do.” Elizabeth motioned upstairs. “It’s her day, she’s the birthday girl.”

Jack nodded, though, he felt a pang a jealousy that his wife didn’t have to deal with his father. Stress wasn’t good for the baby, and Andrew Ryan had the magical gift of raising blood pressures. He didn’t even need to open his mouth to do it, Jack could feel the inevitable migraine starting and there weren’t any arguments yet.

Yet.

#aftershock #bioshock #bioshock 2 #jack wynand #jack ryan #andrew ryan #elizabeth comstock #sally ryan #janice ryan #rosie ryan #leta ryan #masha lutz #masha ryan #brigid tenenbaum #david smith #pregnancy//#1968

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notstars-doors · 5 years

Note

do all the odds (or all the odds up to fifty if you're a coward)

fight me u lil shit, im no coward

(putting this under a cut because j e s u s)

1: Full name

I’m not doing my last name but, my first and middle are Olivia Leigh

3: 3 Fears

Rejection, people being mad at me, and inanimate objects coming to life

5: 4 turns on

Good sense of humor, versatility, being appreciated, and….. i dunno

7: My best friend

@feraligatrusedfly @cecenicks @demathyst

9: My best first date

The one with my gf when I took her to meet my best friends the second I met her because I knew they would love her too

11: What do I miss

Being a kid

13: Favourite color

Dark red or sunshine yellow

15: Favourite quote

“Love and hate are beasts and the one that grows is the one you feed” - Shane Koyczan (first one that came to mind, i have way too many favourites)

17: Favourite food

Probably pasta

19: What am I listening to right now

dodie’s new EP “Human”

21: Shoe size

7 ½ - 8

23: Hair color

Naturally? Brown. Currently? Blonde.

25: Ever done a prank call?

Once, and it didn’t work

27: Meaning behind my URL

It’s a reference to Bioshock Infinite

29: Favourite song

Right now, “Burned Out” by dodie

31: How I feel right now

Fairly relaxed

33: My current relationship status

In one

35: Favourite holiday

Christmas

37: Tattoos and piercing i want

Second Star to the right, on my forearm. A lil robin (the bird) with a domino mask, on my wrist. Probably a quote, not sure which one yet.

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other?

More like mutual indifference

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?

It’s my gf, so yes i have

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?

Anywhere between 10-30 minutes, depending on if i shower that day

45: Where am I right now?

In my bedroom

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?

Pretty loud, as long as i can control the volume

49: Am I excited for anything?

Im excited all the time about everything

51: How often do I wear a fake smile?

I’d say about 30% of the time, considering my job has me deal with annoying people sometimes and i just have to take it, but it’s genuine the rest of the time

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?

Well that would be my gf, and if she was doing it right in front of me i would assume i’d have already said it was okay? So that’s fine.

55: What is something I disliked about today?

Nothing yet!

57: What do I think about most?

Work, or whatever writing project i’m working on

59: Do I have any strange phobias?

Mannequins, dolls, heights, worms. All things i’m very, very afraid of

61: What was the last lie I told?

Don’t remember

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

Aliens, of course. Ghosts? Maybe. I’m not against it, but not sure if i wholly believe in them either.

65: Do I believe in luck?

I’m an extremely lucky person, so yes.

67: What was the last book I’ve read?

I honestly don’t remember. It might have been “On The Other Side” by Carrie Hope Fletcher

69: Do I have any nicknames?

Liv is already a nickname. I also get Livi, but some weird ones are Ya-Ya and Nene (don’t ask)

71: Do I spend money or save it?

spend……

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feets from me?

A sock

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM?

Finally dragging myself to bed

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?

Mr. Blue Sky

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone?

I honestly haven’t thought about it!

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr

@flashhwing@1captainjordan4@twinkothydrake@novaviis@nearly-writes

(you’re all my friends but like whatever i loved your blogs first and that’s why ur my friends so its FINE)

83: Do I have any relatives in jail?

I dont think so????

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

nope

87: Had sex?

yup

89: Gotten pregnant?

nope

91: Kissed a boy?

yup

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?

yup

95: Left the house without my wallet?

All the time

97: Had sex in public?

nope

99: Smoked weed?

yup

101: Smoked cigarettes?

nope

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan?

Vegetarian

105: Been underweight?

When i was younger

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?

Definitely

109: Been outside my home country?

yup

111: Been to a professional sports game?

yup

113: Cut myself?

115: Been in airplane?

yup

117: What concerts have I been to?

Michael Buble and One Direction (the second one I coerced into going to)

119: Learned another language?

I know a tiny bit of French and I can read basic Latin

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18?

nope

123: Dyed my hair?

yuuuuuuuup

125: Rode in an ambulance?

nope

127: Met someone famous?

Sort of?

129: Peed outside?

Haven’t we all?

131: Helped with charity?

yup

133: Broken a mirror?

probably

135: How many kids do I want and what will be their names?

Zero

137: Do I like my handwriting?

Sometimes

139: Favourite Tv Show?

Young Justice

141: Play any musical instrument?

I used to play flute in school, not anymore though

143: Favourite pizza topping?

Mushrooms

145: Am I afraid of heights?

YES

147: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end?

yup

149: What my greatest achievments are

I don’t think i have any big ones just yet

151: What I’d do if I won in a lottery

Pay off mine and all my friends student loans, buy a house, pay off people’s kickstarters and gofundme’s, help my friends and family start the projects they want to do

153: My closest Tumblr friend

i have so many amazing friends on here but i’d say my closest friend is probably you, Ash

#ask #ash #ask meme #me

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wellplacedrocket · 5 years

Text

I Visited the Mormon Temple Square and it Really Reminded Me of BioShock Infinite

I don’t go on a lot of (read: any) religious touristy sort of adventures, so maybe the Mormon Temple Square isn’t all that weird in the grand scheme of things. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t give me hints of Columbia, the city in BioShock Infinite. Hear me out on this.

I want to caveat before I go further that it’s probably gonna seem like I’m really picking on Mormons here. I’m not. Mormonism is absolutely no weirder than any other religion, and there are plenty of Mormons (probably most of them) who are much smarter, more hardworking, successful, and better to their fellow man than I am. If you roll your eyes at scripture of Moroni, but turn around and worship Jesus or Vishnu or Odin or Buddha, and follow the World of God as explained to you by Muhammad, then your cognitive dissonance is so thick, so dense, that it must throw off compasses. I don’t think religious or spiritual people are stupid for being that way.

Anyway.

I was in Salt Lake City with a few hours to kill, and figured the Mormon Temple Square would be the one thing I couldn’t get anywhere else, so why the hell not? Let’s get my Mormon on. Many of the buildings in the Temple Square are made with this gorgeous white granite that pops up nearby, and so to the eye a lot of it looked like the White City of Gondor.

The visitors centers are small museums that lay out the history, scripture highlights, and current tenants of Mormon theology.

As a kid, I was raised Catholic-lite, but I’ve never been to the Vatican, and I wonder if there’s similar stuff anywhere else among worldwide Christian churches. That Noah’s Ark museum in Kentucky, maybe? The tone of much of this stuff seems to be to reassure outsiders that hey, Jesus is still just the best! He’s the best, you guys. We’re not any different from your local bake sale-having church people at all! In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much that explicitly tries to contrast with other Christian sects whatsoever, until you get to the Book of Mormon (the actual Book of Mormon) stuff that takes place in the Western Hemisphere.

A lot of this stuff came across to me as a “here’s how to be” kind of children’s book in museum form. It’s not really propaganda, I guess, because conduct prescriptions are what religions are supposed to do. However, the exhibits and artwork they had showing important people in Mormon scripture and the paramount religious events in their lives started giving me weird, familiar vibes.

A 19th century New Yorker who has some sort of religious awakening, begins to preach, gathers a cadre of like minded true believers, establishes a hyper-ardent offshoot Christian sect in the U.S., insists upon racism as one of the pillars of this new theology, is revered as a prophet to his people, gains power and respect (which he abuses), and begins an exodus of his followers out of American society to found their own civilization which will eventually prove hostile to the U.S.? Oh, you thought I was describing Joseph Smith or Brigham Young? Well, surprise, it’s (also) Zachary Hale Comstock, villain of Bioshock Infinite.

I’m not the first to draw this comparison. Here’s a much better article than I could hope to write from an anonymous blogger who claims to be an ex Mormon. And Bioshock creative head Ken Levine mentioned in a Mother Jones article:

There’s a bit of Joseph Smith in [Comstock], a bit of Teddy Roosevelt…Roosevelt was a very progressive figure in many ways. But he was also what you’d probably call a neoconservative in his view of America’s role in the world. So I have trouble comparing Comstock to him directly. Also, I’d have trouble just comparing Comstock to Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. I mean, the American-centric nature of the religion that he forms has some similarities to Mormonism, but there’s nothing in the Mormon church that approached the level of sinisterness you’d find in a Comstock.

In the game (where the next bunch of linked images are from), Comstock is a religious figure with a hyper-nationalism for his own vociferously racist vision of America, which never actually existed and is more twisted than even our own real history. There’s a part of the game where you play through a museum dedicated to the history of Columbia, the city-state Comstock founded, and it puts a very religious sort of spin on the founding of the United States and points in its history. Abraham Lincoln is called “The Apostate” and is remembered as an insidious Satan figure, while John Wilkes Booth is a saint. The Confederate Army, being the true soul of America to these zealots, is led by the angelic spirit of George Washington. The locals are generally hostile.

All of this stuff is understandably batshit, because they were trying to write a villain in Comstock. I’m not saying Mormons are or were evil like this guy. I’m saying it seems pretty likely that the devs took Mormon lore, cranked the evil and steampunky sci-fi up to 11, and out came Comstock and Columbia.

The American founding fathers appear in Mormon religious works, notably in writings by Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the LDS Church, describing religious visions:

The spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them ... These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence ... I thought it very singular, that notwithstanding so much work had been done, and yet nothing had been done for them ... I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon brother McCallister [sic] to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The LDS Church is extremely PR conscious and has left doctrinal, institutional racism behind, but it’s a poorly kept secret that the early days didn’t look too good. Unlike the populations of other Western Territories (Colorado and California in particular), the Mormons mostly took a pass on the Civil War, though to their credit, there isn’t much evidence to suggest explicit sympathy for the Confederacy. However, here’s Brigham Young:

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty.

And now here’s Comstock:

What exactly was the Great Emancipator emancipating the Negro from? From his daily bread? From the nobility of honest work? From wealthy patrons who sponsored them from cradle to grave? From clothing and shelter? And what have they done with their freedom? Why, go to Finkton, and you shall find out. No animal is born free, except the white man. And it is our burden to care for the rest of creation.

The Mormons flirted with armed rebellion but eventually backed down when the United States and local native nations made it clear they were not fucking around. Joseph Smith, a 100% legit, honest to God prophet to his people, had some pretty dark things to say about the U.S., especially the godless northeast cities:

Nevertheless, let the bishop go unto the city of New York, also to the city of Albany, and also to the city of Boston, and warn the people of those cities with the sound of the gospel, with a loud voice, of the desolation and utter abolishment which await them if they do reject these things. For if they do reject these things the hour of their judgment is nigh, and their house shall be left unto them desolate.

And here’s Woodruff again, in a prophesy “confirmed” by Young:

While you stand in the towers of the Temple and your eyes survey this glorious valley filled with cities and villages, occupied by tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, you will then call to mind this visitation of President Young and his company. You will say: That was in the days when Presidents Benson and Maughan presided over us; that was before New York was destroyed by an earthquake. It was before Boston was swept into the sea, by the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds; it was before Albany was destroyed by fire; yea, at that time you will remember the scenes of this day.

Well, here’s a scene in Bioshock Infinite that shows a time-travel flash forward to the future year 1984, what Comstock will do if not stopped. He floats Columbia right over New York and starts bombing:

How the hell do they not get shot down? Sci-fi weapons or shields, I’m guessing. Columbia imagines if a civilization of religious secessionists hadn’t decided to chill out in the end, the way the Mormons did.

If you need any more convincing of the connection here, in BioShock Infinite, one of the protagonists who the player spends a lot of time with and who drives the story is Comstock’s daughter Elizabeth. She is kept a gilded-cage prisoner and wants out of Columbia, and much of the action is about helping her to escape. SPOILER ALERT FOR A 5-YEAR OLD GAME: Elizabeth’s parentage isn’t what it seems, she was actually given the name Anna at birth. Well, there was a famous ex-wife of Brigham Young, one of 55, who decided she wasn’t about that life, alleged domestic abuse against Young and filed for divorce (both a huge deal for their time), and ultimately wrote an autobiographical account called Wife No. 19. This woman’s name? Ann Eliza Webb.

No doubt you could substitute any other religion and find similar parallels to BioShock Infinite in art and lore, but the Americanness of the LDS Church is what sells this idea to me, how both the real life Mormon church and the fictional characters and civilization draw from the cultural fundamentals of this country, as well as our absolute worst elements. The obvious difference is the Mormons wrestle with the racism and violence in their church’s past, and for sure try to do good works in the world today. Not so for Comstock and Columbia. But that’s part of what made them such compelling villains.

#BioShock Infinite #Xbox #Xbox 360 #Sony PlayStation #PlayStation 3 #PC #2K Games #Irrational Games #BioShock

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plumbobbles · 7 years

Text

10 Q’s

RULES: ALWAYS POST THE RULES, ANSWER THE QUESTIONS GIVEN TO YOU, THEN WRITE 10 QUESTIONS OF YOUR OWN, AND TAG SOME FRIENDS!

Tagged by @suintor ♥

1. What’s your favourite item in your room that you own?

I would say my PC but if that doesn’t count then probably my Bioshock Infinite Skyhook.

2. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

See, my first instinct is to say night owl because I’m a massive grouchy bitch in the morning but at the same time I don’t really stay up that late? I usually go to bed around 11 or something so yeah.

3. Pizza, Ice Cream or Burrito?

Burrito! I’m scared to say it but I think I’m going off of pizza a little bit?

4. Most remembered dream that you’ve had?

It’s hard to think of any right now tbh. I usually only remember dreams just after they’ve happened and then I forget about them pretty quickly.

5. Which HP house are you in (Gryff, Slyth, Huffle, Raven)?

I don’t know which one I’d pick personally because I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan. But I did do that online thing once where the website sorts you and I got sorted into Hufflepuff.

6. Describe yourself in 4 words;

Introverted, Smol, Dedicated and Anxious

7. What age do you wish you could permanently be?

To be honest, I’d like to stay the same age I am right now (24). I feel like it’s not too young to be not taken seriously in some situations but also not so old that I’m considered, well, old lmao.

8. If you could live anywhere, where would you go?

As much as I complain about Scotland sometimes, I honestly do love living here. I think we take a lot of the stuff we have for granted and we really do have many advantages that other countries don’t have. I'm just worried for what the future holds because of Brexit now...

9. If you could change your name, what would it be?

When I was a teen, I don’t know why, but I went through a phase where I wanted everyone to start calling me Jamie? It was my favourite name and I also wanted to name my first kid Jamie lmoa I don’t know what the fuck. But in response to the question, I have no idea. I wouldn’t change my name to Jamie now but I don’t know what else I’d change it to. I don’t particularly like my current name but I also have no real desire to change it.

10. Biggest fear?

Losing the person/people I love the most in the world and being left alone.

Tagged by @univertistsims, thank you! Rules: Answer the questions, tag some friends.

1. Favourite curse word?

Cunt.

2. Coke or Pepsi?

Coke.

3. What superpower would you like to have?

Invisibility.

4. Ultimate pet peeve?

People being two-faced and people who lie.

5. Without EP’s and DLC’s, Sims 3 or 4?

I actually can’t stand the graphics and style of Sims 3 so it would have to be 4.

6. What’s the last time you screamed at the top of your lungs?

I actually don’t even know. I did scream pretty loudly earlier today because I was getting out of my sister’s car and this MASSIVE bee came flying at me into the car and yeah, I freaked out a little bit because my hands were full with stuff.

7. What’s something you’ve done that you wish you could undo?

When I was a teenager I had braces but I hated them so I basically begged to get them taken off. They were taken off too early, my teeth weren’t totally straight and then on top of that I didn’t wear my retainer so they’ve gone back to being not straight and now if I want them straight (which I do) it’s gonna cost like £3k to get fixed.

8. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?

Answered above.

9. Last lie you told?

Uhhh, I’m not sure. Probably that I wasn’t mad when I actually was lmao.

10. Strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

?? I have no idea. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything strange. I’m pretty conservative when it comes to food.

Tagged by @shannonsimsfan, thank you!

1. What is your current sims project?

Just continuing on with my Fontaine legacy right now.

2. What is it about sims games that inspires or draws you in?

I guess it’s a combination of the freedom to do whatever I want, to create lives and stories with characters I’ve made, to follow a family through generations and see what happens and also the massive amount of creativity the game allows.

3. Favorite sims community or forum?

Does Tumblr count? If not, probably Garden of Shadows, though I haven’t visited in a long time because I haven’t been playing TS2.

4. What sims blogs or videos are you enjoying lately?

I’ve got notifications on a bunch of simblrs right now, including @letichespixels, @simsthatsparkle, @sims-creations, @midpoosimmer, @womrats, @sammyshuno, @faerietalesims, @coreopsims, @ohare-lane, @suintor

I don’t really watch that much sims content on YouTube so I don’t have any channels or videos that I’m following

5. Favorite sim lit genre?

Uhh, I have no idea how to answer this one, haha. I guess just legacies?

6. Favorite part of simming (building, playing, creating content, writing, world building, etc?)

Actual playing, taking screenshots and creating sims.

7. Do you know any simmers in real life?

Nope, none! (Not to the extent of the Simming community anyway, I obviously know people who play and have played the sims. But there’s a difference, you know? You know what I’m talking about guys. And I don’t meant it in an elitist way or anything I just mean there’s people who play the sims now and again for a bit of fun and then there’s us on Simblr.)

8. Describe one of your favorite sims.

Brigid is probably my favourite TS4 sim so far. I think it’s a combination of me doing something different with her childhood and upbringing and just her personality and character in general. She’s so kind and caring and wants to see the very best in people and always give them a chance. She’s just super happy and cheerful and pure.

9. Have you ever had a sim you really disliked playing?!

Hmm... I dislike playing Frank, not in the way that I actually don’t want to play when it’s his rotation but just because he’s slimy and an asshole and it hurts me to basically play out these situations and actions in the game to my other sims because it’s so mean but that’s just the character Frank is and it’s things he would do so I have to do it :(

10. Do you picture yourself playing sims in five years from now?

100%, yes!

My 10 Questions;

What are you listening to/watching right now?

Other than The Sims, what have you been playing recently?

Do you have any pets?

What’s your favourite TV show?

Do you have any idea what you want to do when you’re older? Or if you’re ‘older’ what are you doing or what would you rather be doing?

Who’s your favourite YouTuber?

Where does most of your disposable income go?

What do you eat on an average day?

Do you have any other tumblr blogs?

What’s the last film you went to see?

I’ll tag: @letichespixels @peacemaker-ic @simpyre @crimsonsims @creatingsims @windenburger @midnightpoodle @wooldawn @ddeathflower @marquis-de-bechdel @simseternity @simsthatsparkle, @meisiu and anyone else who wants to do it, sorry if I didn’t tag you, just go for it!

#suintor #univertistsims #shannonsimsfan #non sims #nonsims #tag #tag meme #ask meme #text post #saviorhide #long post #10 questions meme #question meme

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concussed-to-pieces · 7 years

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Who Is Atlas

Fandom: BioShock

Pairing: N/A (Fontaine-Atlas centric)

Rating: N/A

AN: It's been ten years since the release of BioShock, since would you kindly? first came slinking into our ears. I give you this drabble in honor of one of the finest games I've had the pleasure to play. Obviously, there will be spoilers as far as plot goes. But if you haven't played the game yet...what are you waiting for?! Enjoy!

Sometimes his stomach would drop out when he remembered he wasn’t actually Atlas. Frank knew he needed to be careful when it came to that. The chemical, pheromone-riddled air down here tended to make one a little prone to hallucinations, delusions. He caught himself talking in the accent when he didn’t have to. Shit, he’d gotten emotional the other day thinking about his “beautiful wife Moira an’ wee baby Patrick, trapped in the submarine.” Oh, this was a slippery slope.

The kid had made it in just fine, of course he had. Atlas--Frank would never forget the sick chill he got down his spine the first time would you kindly worked its magic on the finished product.

“Would you kindly pick up a crowbar or somethin’?”

It was easy to slip into a conversation, his accent’s brogue lending a warmth to the phrase that somehow made using it a little less horrifying to him. Fontaine could barely believe himself sometimes, the creature he’d become. Buying a bundle of tissue and nerves and growing it in a lab, training a child to respond to the command with unquestioning obedience.

“Break that puppy’s neck, would you kindly.” The little boy who was forced into adulthood through Lot one hundred eleven wept and pleaded with Suchong even as his grip tightened on the small mutt in his lap. At one year, Jack already had the strength and physique of a nineteen year old. The puppy stood no chance.

Frank hadn’t been able to watch that. He knew Suchong was sick, but if he’d known he was just going to kill the dog…

Shit, he wouldn’t have let little Jackie get so damned attached to the thing. Atlas had been young once, too.

Frank.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. He had started growing his hair out ages ago, trying to better look the part of working-class Dublin do-gooder. Hell, he’d even found one of those scally caps. Taken to wearing it around the place.

The more he thought about this the more muddled he got. Jack was out there in the dark and damp of Rapture while he was holed up in here like a king, ruminating in the silence on which one of him was real. Who is Atlas? He started pacing, snapping his suspenders absently. Who is Frank? Fontaine was a madman, someone who would commission a maniac scientist and bleeding heart Tenenbaum to further his climb. What kind of man bent a child (for though the boy might appear adult, he was barely out of the toddler stage) to his will? Bastard child, lab-grown spawn of Andrew Ryan, trained to heel like a dog for Fontaine.

Despite all that, Jackie was a good boy. He took everything in stride, not a word of complaint from him. And the Little Sisters...he probably couldn’t comprehend the kinship he felt towards them, all of them byproducts of the same terrible experiments. Jack was just more weaponized. Plasmid after plasmid, needle after needle. The wrench came down again and again and each time the boy rose back up in its wake a little angrier, a little less inclined to caution.

Frank wavered again. He was so damn tired of acting good, of remembering in the middle of some heartfelt diatribe that he was, in fact, the one who had started this massacre rolling. Some days it was miles easier to just forget, to just embrace the idea of being Atlas. Thick accent, kindhearted, tired but still fighting to better the nightmare he and the rest of the working class had ended up in.

Who is Fontaine? The man who created Fontaine Futuristics, the man who would twist surrendered little girls into harvesting monsters and men into guardian machines. Who is Atlas? The man who would rest all his hopes on some topside stranger, the man who urged and cajoled a damn child on a bloody path of destruction across the underwater city for the sake of his wife and baby.

Would you kindly? Sometimes Frank wondered whether the phrase was a trigger for Jack or himself.

Jackie had gone dark in Fort Frolic. Cohen, that damn twice-spliced lunatic, wasn’t quite as mad as he seemed. Sly bastard nixed all the surveillance and something had turned the old shortwave radio into nothing more than a beat-up paperweight. It had been hours Atlas sat there, pacing himself raw as he hoped and prayed that the boy would make it out alive.

For Patrick and Moira.

Frank kept forgetting he’d fabricated his wife and child. That alone should be enough of an indicator that he was in too damn deep. Kept forgetting that he’d taken those names from a poster for one of Sander’s silly musicals.

The crackle of his radio drew him out of his musings and he scrambled for the desk, pushing that cap back on his head. “There ya’ are, I been tryin’ t’ raise ya’ for a dog’s age!” He snapped, his brogue thick with worry. “Wasn’t sure if Cohen had sent you on your damn merry way, Jackie.”

The radio clicked a few times, static still prevalent. He could hear breathing though, could hear Jack’s footsteps. There was a hitch to his gait. The boy had been injured. Atlas felt a bone-weary ache in Jack’s motions. He’d been running for hours on nothing but adrenaline, stale potato crisps and the voice of a man on the radio leading him on and ever on.

“C’mon now boyo, I know it’s hard. I promise, just a few more steps. Would you kindly find a security camera? I need t’ locate ya’ if I’m gonna’ send you help.” Atlas scanned the wall of screens in front of him, keeping his eyes peeled for that white cable-knit sweater. Jackie finally shuffled into view, the sweater a bit worse for the wear. “Steady on now, damn, but you’re a sight for sore eyes. I got ya’, boyo. Keep headin’ down that hallway. There’s a pneumo tube, I’ll send ya’ a kit.” Jack gave the camera an exhausted smile and a shy wave, like the damn child he was.

Always a little further to find him. Always just out of reach.

Fontaine is dead.

Who is Atlas?

#bioshock #my first love #drabble #video games #just a little thing #enjoy!#frank fontaine #atlas #who is atlas #would you kindly

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schoolandgames · 5 years

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Reflective Design - Week 3 Part Deux: Games in Culture

During the second part of the week, I spent most of my time working my way through all the consumables for the week. I was able to read and watch everything that was listed, but I have to be honest: I am going to mostly focus on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series hosted by Anita Sarkeesian because I watched the whole season and that is what I spent the most time with from the consumables listed. Having said that, I will slightly touch on the Resident Evil 5 Trailer controversy and on the word “gamer”.

I was actually aware of Tropes vs Women in Video Games before watching it for this class, although I had no idea it was a whole series because I had only watched the “Damsel in Distress” videos before. I must have watched this around the time it was actually uploaded, so if that is the case then I must have been either 15 or 16. Watching this as a young man really opened my eyes to the reality of the portrayal of women in video games. Women are commonly portrayed as completely defenseless and as part of a power struggle between two men. They also tend to be portrayed as objects that are stolen from the protagonist and they must take back from the antagonist. It is also a perfect demonstration of how games are generally designed to appeal to straight male players. Re-watching this now, I really appreciate looking at video games through a different lens and looking at media differently than how I usually do.

The next trope in the series was “Ms. Male Character”, which like there rest of the first season, I had not seen before. This is another one of those things that took me a long time to realize about video games. To me, the pattern of male playable characters in video games being the “default”, did not become obvious until the promotional material for Mass Effect 3 started coming out, which was something that was used as an example in the video. I played through Mass Effect 1&2 with a female Shepard (several times), so when the trailers for the third game came out I was definitely one of the players who felt kind of left out because all the promotional material focused on the male version of Shepard as if that version was the norm or “the way it should be”. Since then, the trend of male playable characters being the “default” and the sheer lack of female protagonists in video games has become obvious to me. Whenever I am given a choice, I always choose to play as a female character in video games. I think that is because there is so few female protagonists in video games, so when I am given a choice, the female protagonist seems more interesting to me since it is something that I don’t see too often. I have also realized that even though being able to play as women in video games has become more common, specially in online multiplayer, there is still a complete lack of female protagonists in video games. That is, video games that explicitly have a female lead. The last two big games that I can think of that focused on female protagonists were Tomb Raider (which is a super old franchise) and Horizon Zero Dawn. I hope more game developers are encouraged to have female protagonists in their games moving forward. You can already see some progress with the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo that came out last year. Even though the game does not explicitly focus on a female protagonist, CD Projekt Red chose to have a female character for their big demonstration and basically made the female version of the protagonist the “face” of their game.

The third trope on the series was “Women as Background Decoration” which I found to be a really interesting topic and it made me think a lot. Although I agreed with the general point of both videos that video games tend to use women’s bodies or violence against women as either literal decoration or as a “spice” for the gameworld and that that trend reinforces misogynistic views of women as sexual objects or simply uses women as motivation for male players, I had some problems with the videos treating the oversexualization of women with the obvious intent of appealing to straight male players the same as the oversexualization of women as commentary or reflection on our own society. I think a good example to make my point with would be “Blade Runner” or even the “cyberpunk” genre in general. In this type of media, you will usually find oversexualized depictions of women, specially in advertisement within the world. This example uses oversexualization of women to make a commentary or reflection on the oversexualization of women in advertisement (and society in general) in our own world. Reflection and commentary are very common in the Sci-fi genre. I suppose one could argue that is still problematic, however to frame the depiction of women in racing games (which is an example used in the video) and the depiction of women being sold as sexual objects in BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (also shown in the video) as being equally problematic and misogynistic is just something I cannot really agree with. The former is obviously present only to appeal to a straight male audience while the latter is present as commentary on the dangers of unregulated capitalism. One of the videos on this topic also framed a random event from Red Dead Redemption where a prostitute is attacked by a man outside a saloon as being “like Pirates of the Caribbean” where these events happen for players to watch. Although you can definitely frame it that way, I think that to characterize these random events as “violence against women shows” for players to be entertained by every now and then is pretty dishonest and obviously not the actual intent of the developers. However, these random events are still an example of using violence against women for the purpose of motivating straight male players which would still make them problematic. Even though I had a few problems with the two videos that focused on this topic, I still completely agreed with the larger point that was being made and I really enjoyed the videos for making me think about these topics.

The final trope of the season was “Women as Reward” which was a topic that sort of ties into the “Damsel in Distress” trope but not entirely. Although I was definitely aware of this trope I still found this video really interesting. I have never played a Metroid game before, but I definitely knew about the gender reveal at the end of the first game. What I was not aware of, was that the game will depict Samus in different states of undress according to player performance. That was a pretty depressing thing to learn. It seems that even when we get female protagonists in video games, they tend to be objectified or treated as sexual objects in all sorts of different ways. This video actually got me thinking about the movie Ex Machina, which I believe is a brilliant commentary on the Women as Reward Trope as well as the concept of Male Entitlement. Although the movie Ex Machina has some themes about the ethics of AI, at its core the movie is about misogyny. It is not an accident that all the AI in the movie are women and that our protagonist and antagonist are both men fighting over these women. The movie depicts the typical version of misogyny with the character of Nathan, who treats these artificial women as sexual objects and constantly attacks them physically and emotionally. However, just as the movie Get Out showed the audience a different version of racism, Ex Machina shows us a different version of misogyny through the character of Caleb. Although Caleb was just trying to do the “right thing” and rescue Ava from Nathan, he was only really trying to help Ava because he was sexually attracted to her. He even saw Ava as a reward since he believe they could run away and be together after they escaped, which points to Caleb’s male entitlement that because he is doing something to help Ava he somehow now gets to be rewarded for it by her. This is why in the end of the film, Ava leaves Caleb imprisoned in Nathan’s home. Although their actions were different, both Nathan and Caleb saw Ava as a sexual object and not as a being with her own goals and desires. This whole topic was really interesting to me and I think it is a really important trope to be aware of because it can definitely lead to some problematic perceptions of women and sexual relationships in general.

I found all of these videos really eye-opening and interesting and I am definitely going to watch the second season of the series. It seems apparent that all of these tropes are a result of video games being historically marketed and designed to appeal to a male straight audience and are a result of our society’s perception of women. But just as society influences art, art can also influence society. So that is why I believe it is important for gamers to look at video games through this perspective. That way, video games could stop reinforcing harmful stereotypes about women and they could actually become an important positive influence on the portrayal of women in media.

I’ll briefly touch on the Resident 5 trailer controversy since this post is already way too long. I remember at the time I really didn’t understand the controversy behind the game, so reading the interview with N’Gai Croal was pretty enlightening. The fact that the images depicted in the trailer made sense within the context of the game did not matter that much because those images (and the trailer’s whole presentation) were informed by a history of western intervention in countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Furthermore, the trailer also depicted a very stereotypical view of impoverished African and Caribbean nations as inherently dangerous and hostile. Now I can watch that trailer with this different perspective and completely understand why people would be bothered by it.

Finally, I watched the video on the word “gamer” and the one on the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. I think the word “gamer” can definitely be pretty toxic and be used to exclude people rather than to include people into the community. I think I have been guilty of this type of thinking before. I have definitely have had thoughts about how people who only play certain types of games aren’t “real” gamers. Having said that, I don’t fully agree with the conclusion of the video’s host on how gamer should be used to describe someone who is very knowledgeable of games and I believe the definition for the word “gamer” is actually pretty simple. The word “gamer” should refer to anyone who considers gaming to be their main hobby, no matter what games they play.

Oh, here are my notes on this week’s meeting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M0pZ_sHqL-wp8W1gVw5gCkKXvylIwbKO/view?usp=sharing

This week was really fun and thought-provoking and I really enjoyed it.

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pelaanthony-blog · 7 years

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☾Extended Project: The Secondary Research (Marketing) ☾

Although my group doesn’t have to market our game, we have been asked to help the marketing team by creating posters and logos to help advertise it. We will help create art for any posters, leaflets, advertising boards etc. the marketing team ask us for. To create an advertising campaign that actually appeals to our target audience, we must do a lot of research into already existing examples that correlate to our game.

The first example I looked at was the movie poster for the Corpse Bride:

Corpse Bride Poster

I wanted to research into this as Tim Burton’s work has been a huge inspiration throughout our game. The interesting thing about this movie poster is there is a lot on it. Many posters like to go for simple and clear designs to attract their specifc audience but the marketing team for Corpse Bride wanted to showcase the iconic Tim Burton art style on the front of their movie poster. To apply this to our marketing strategy, we could show our art off through our posters, attracting the target audience through an interest in our drawings and art work.

Another marketing scheme I wanted to look into was that of the film Deadpool. Even though this film has no relevance to our game, their marketing team used every platform possible to try and reach their target audience. This level of exposure is what I think we should be trying to achieve to try and get as many people as possible to know and then come play our game.

Deadpool Advertising Campaign

The picture above shows one of the billboards the advertising team for Deadpool came up with. To use emojis is extremely clever as their target audience consists of young adults who use emojis daily for texting and social medias. We could take inspiration from this and use advertising techniques that target soley our demographic, taking into account their interests. To progress this further, we could create our own emojis, something the Deadpool marketing team have also done. Our 12 year old target audience use their phones daily so being able to download set of emojis related to our game and share them between their friends would be a great way to get the word out about Eliza.

Deadpool Emojis

These emojis, and the ones we could create specifically for our game, could be downloaded free from the App Store for people to use. Doing this would expand our advertising as people will talk about them, word of mouth being a important with our target audience as they base a lot of their interests on what is popular at the time.

Another creative way they marketed Deadpool was through creating a poster that looked like the Deadpool script that had been scribbled all over by the Deadpool character himself. This is a really good idea as it gives the character more personality and tells the target audience more about the character. For example, the Deadpool character has drawn a ‘new logo’ in the top left corner. This tells the audience that the character is unruly, confident and childish, creating more layers to character that the audience may not know much about just through an advert. Something like this would be really good for us to use to help the audience learn more about the characters we have made and let them create a relationship with them before th game is actually released.

Script Poster for Deadpool

I therefore decided to take my research further and also edit part of the script as if I was Eliza after being inspired by the Deadpool marketing campaign.

Script Poster for Eliza

I really liked this idea and enjoyed doing it as it gave more depth to Eliza and enabled the audience to learn more about her character. I think our target audience would find this entertaining and also a creative way to advertise our game. This inclining of humour also lets the target audience know that even though our game is fairly dark and weird, there is also a lot of humour involved.

Through doing this research, I’ve learnt that any art used for marketing needs to be clear, bold and recognisable. The audience won’t be looking at these adverts for a long time so we need them to remember our game. Due to this, the advertising campaign must be obvious from the get go so not to confuse the target audience.

I first created a poster for our game, Eliza:

Eliza Poster

I took inspiration from the Art Deco style we chose to create neon outlines of the characters. I kept in mind that I needed it to be clear and simple so I only included the three main characters, the tile of the game and our production group name. Obviously if this poster was distributed out, I would need to include the release date and slightly more information about the game. I believe that our target audience would be enticed by this advert as the colours are dark but interesting, something our ‘non-girly’ 12 year old girl target audience would be attracted to.

Finally, as an idea for marketing, I created some t-shirt designs as merchandise for our game:

T-Shirt Designs

I designed the t-shirts to all be black with white sleeves to stay in-keeping with the gothic feel of the game. On this t-shirt design, I just put our game logo in the middle so it is bold and clear.

T-Shirt Designs

This t-shirt design just consisted of our game 'symbol', which appears frequently throughout our game. I thought this would be a good design to have on our t-shirts as it's another way for the target audience to link back to our game.

T-Shirt Designs

The top hat correlates to the actual antagonist of the game, the ShadowMan. I felt giving the option for target audiences to 'pick a side' and start discussions between players, therefore spreading the word about our game.

T-Shirt Designs

The bow design came about as the game is still aimed at females so having a design that was slightly more feminine may appeal to some players.

These designs are simple with either our game name on them or a small but significant logo that is relevant to our game. When doing research into my target audience, clothes and finding their own style was very important to them. To sell merchandise for our game would not only bring more appeal to it but also bring in free advertising by word of mouth and people asking other people about the t-shirts.

Throughout the production of the game, I felt like some in-game posters would be interesting to tie the game together. One of my favourite games, Bioshock Infinite, uses posters and signs to tease the player into understanding a deeper story and finding out more information about characters and the world they are in. I made some posters for in-game to tie the story together and make it flow better which I produced in the old 1920′s Art Deco style.

Gregory Gill’s Ball In-Game Poster

I wanted it to be clear to the player that Gregory Gill's club, The Fish Bowl, was the place to be. These posters would be placed around the map to show how a big ball was to be taking place at the club. This indicates to the player that Gregory Gills may also be an important character in the game as his posters are everywhere.

Toy Shop Advertising Sweets In-Game Poster

The collectables in the game are little sweets that enables the player to receive new abilities. I felt like in may have been slightly confusing to the player as to why sweets were the collectables so I created a poster to tie them in. This poster shows the toy shop, The Toy Box, sells the sweets and that they are something very sought after by the townspeople.

ShadowMan In-Game Poster

Throughout the game, the ShadowMan is a mysterious character who the player never really gets to know that much about. In the end, he becomes the antagonist, having to fight in a boss battle against Eliza. I wanted the player to feel wary of this character to create tension so this poster hints that no one really knows who the ShadowMan is.

The Witch’s Potion In-Game Poster

At the time of creating this poster, the witch, Gwen, was an old hag who wore extravagant clothing and was obsessed with beauty and trying to keep her youth. To add some humor to the game, I created a poster which showed Gwen looking glamorous, trying to advertise the selling of her positions. However, when the player then finally meets the witch, they will see she looks nothing like how she thinks she looks in the poster.

The Orphanage In-Game Poster

The final in-game poster I created was about the orphanage that Eliza has been living in with Marbles the cat and the ShadowMan. I thought very carefully about this poster to infer what the orphanage was really like without giving too much away. I used bold colours with a sad looking girl on the front as these posters would be around the map, trying to get townspeople to adopt children from the orphanage. However, the poster is ripped and muddy, indicating that it has been pinned up for a while and no one is interested in the children at the orphanage.

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 3 years

Text

Consensual

First made on August 11th 2020. Just gonna post this. Be warned...kinky shit.

Also, the title was at first concessional. But I’m gonna change it to consensual.

“Brigid, can we talk about something?” Elizabeth asked as she opened the door. It was Wednesday. Two days after she and Archie embraced each other.

“Ah Elizabeth, yes you want to talk about something.” Brigid asked her. Elizabeth opened the door more and closed it behind her. She was in Brigid’s bedroom in their safehouse. Tenenbaum was making her bed. It was about 5 pm during that day. After helping Daisy and the Vox rearrange some things in Rapture.

“It’s something I want to talk to you about first. Before I talk to Archie about it.” Elizabeth told her. She seemed nervous.

“You look nervous young one...it’s okay. You can talk to me.” Brigid told her as she sat down on the newly made bed. Patting the the bed with her left hand. To showcase Elizabeth can sit there. “The bed is fine. You can sit here.” Brigid wanted to reassure her of that. Elizabeth walked over towards her and sat down. She took a deep breath. “Is there something wrong? Don’t be nervous.” She told Elizabeth who was just staring at the ground.

Honestly hearing Brigid reassure her in that voice was always relaxing. Elizabeth liked speaking to Brigid. Because she would listen to what she wanna say. Despite how different they were. Tenenbaum wasn’t a person who would judge her. But she worried she would judge her for what she was about to say.

“I’ve been having these weird feelings....remember when were tied up?” Elizabeth asked her. “I’ve been thinking about it recently.” She continued on.

“Bad memories? I can understand that. There’s no shame in talking about it.” Brigid reassured her.

“Well it’s not just that.....but....I’m worried you’ll judge me.” She was playing with her ponytail. Mainly holding on to it. “I....think I kind of like it.” Elizabeth said. She look ashamed.

“You....liked it?” Brigid said. Seeming confused but surprised.

“Yeah just.....I mean....what happened to us was terrible. But I feel like since I’ve been tied up a lot. There was this weird feeling. In fact it popped up when I played Cops And Robbers with the girls.” Elizabeth told her. “It’s this...weird feeling. I like it just.....I’m sounding like a freak.” She continued on. Sounding like she was ashamed.

“No you’re not.” Brigid told her. Elizabeth looked up to her in surprise. “What happened to us was something no person should go through. But what you’re feeling now is....a liking to bondage.” Brigid told her.

“Bondage?” Elizabeth said.

“It’s......let’s say a fetish some people like. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. But I do understand about people hiding it. Because they would feel embarrassed. There are people who like being tied up. It gives them pleasure. Or even to be or see someone they like in the same predicament.” Brigid told her.

“It’s...a thing? Do you know anyone who likes....bondage?” Elizabeth asked.

“...please don’t tell anyone.....but I’m one of those people.” Brigid told her. Elizabeth’s eyes widened. She never thought she was hear that from this woman.

“Don’t lie to me? Are you being serious?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Yes.” She gave her a smug smile. Elizabeth just looked at the ground surprised. “But I prefer it when it’s not against my will. Elizabeth, you aren’t a freak. You’re a young woman who I think is exploring what gives her pleasure. That would seem normal for you. But don’t think you should be ashamed. Yet I won’t blame you if you don’t wanna tell anyone. Because it’s something people won’t admit. It’s like their secret pleasure.” Brigid continued on. “Yet you said you wanted to talk to me about this first before talking about it with Archie....are you wanting to tell him?” Brigid asked her.

“Yes...I want to....and I want him to tie me up.” Elizabeth said as she blushed. “I don’t know I’m worried he won’t like that and he won’t want to talk to me again.” Elizabeth said as she put her hands on her cheeks, closing her eyes as well. She was sounding paranoid.

“Don’t think that.” Brigid said as she put her hands on Elizabeth’s shoulders. Elizabeth decided to look up at her. “From what I’ve seen. He loves you too much to consider that. Sure he might be flustered as he usually is. But I’m sure he’ll still accept you.” Brigid reassured her. “It will ease the stress you are feeling right now if you tell him. But it’s his choice if he wants to tie you up. Yet he still loves you.”

“Thanks.” Elizabeth gave her a warm smile. She gave the woman a hug. Brigid hugged the woman back and stroked her hair.

“You’re welcome my little one. I’m always here if you need to talk.” Brigid told her.

It was 30 minutes later. Archie was just folding some clothes in his room. Wearing the usual military jacket he had. He was putting away some extra clothes he got from Daisy had given to them so they wouldn’t wear the same clothes every day.

“Hey Archie.” Elizabeth said as she came back into their room and shut the door.

“Hey Liz...or Elizabeth....which name are you okay with?” Archie asked her. He was putting away the last of the clothes.

“Any is fine....hey Archie can I talk to you.” Elizabeth asked him.

“Yeah sure, is there anything you need?” He walked over towards her and he was in front of her. Elizabeth tried to muster up the courage to talk. But she was looking red. She seemed very shy.

“Hey is something wrong? You can tell me.” Archie wanted to reassure her. She just looked to the left away from him. Then five seconds later she finally said it.

“Can you please tie me up?” Elizabeth asked him.

“Umm what?” Archie asked, sounding confused and even looking flustered. “Wait why?”

‘Oh I’m so sorry.” Elizabeth said as she put her hands other face to hide her embarrassment. “I talked to Brigid about it first because I was worried you wouldn’t talk to me anymore if I asked that. She said I shouldn’t be ashamed, that you’ll love me still. But still just it’s so embarrassing why would you want a girl to ask you that?” Elizabeth continued on. It sounded like she was panicking. As if she just said something wrong. “I mean I’m liking the feeling I just don’t know. I worried you would think of me as a freak.” Elizabeth told him.

“Hey hey slow down. You’re not a freak. Don’t be ashamed to talk to me about that.” Archie said as he put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t be embarrassed. While I’ll admit I’m surprised. Don’t think about yourself like that. But you’re saying...you want me to tie you up?” He asked her.

“Mainly because I want to be tied up by someone I really trust. I know I’ve been tied up before. But that was from people who weren’t really good people. Brigid told me it’s this thing called bondage....I just wanna try it out with you. Because I can trust you.” Elizabeth looked down at the ground in shame.

“Hey....that’s okay. If you wanna do that. That’s fine, well....we can try. I don’t think I’ve done it before.” Archie told her.

“Are you being serious?” Elizabeth asked looking at him in surprise.

“Yes.” Archie told her. They both smiled at each other. Brigid was right. He didn’t judge her. Yet she saw how flustered he was.

“Thank you. But can we lock the door so the girls can’t see us please?” Elizabeth told him.

He said sure and afterwards the two were just in that same room. Elizabeth wanted to go with the duct tape they had laying around. It was silver and perfect. She asked him to do her legs first and started binding her legs where he boots were at. They were nice and tight. But not too tight.

After that he asked if she wanted her hands tied in front of her or behind her. She said the back so he told her to stand up and turned around. He simply wanted to bind her wrists, nothing extreme. After that he soon stopped and ripped it off.

“Does that feel okay with you? Anything else?” Archie asked her.

“Yes. But no thank you. I don’t want my arms to hurt you know....so it’s time for the mouth.” Elizabeth told him.

“Yeah. Can you turn around please?” Archie asked her.

“Sure” Elizabeth told him as she turned around. Archie was just holding the roll. “Hey I wanna tell you something. When you gag me. Can you...hold me in bed? Kind of like we’ve done sometimes. But this time I’m tied up?” Elizabeth told him.

“Ummm yeah sure. If that’s what you want.” Elizabeth didn’t wanna do anything crazy. She just wanted to be held by him during this session. Because she really trusted him. “Hey do you want me to put something in your mouth first before you put tape on your mouth.” Archie asked her.

“No I’m good. I think it will be better without that. Yet one other thing...can you put lipstick on the gag please?” Elizabeth asked him and he just looked flustered.

“Lipstick?” Archie sounded confused and nervous.

“Lipstick yeah but red lipstick. It’s on that table over that. Brigid gave it to me. So after you put that tape on your mouth. Draw some lips on my mouth.....I just feel like.....it’s what they would call....sexy I guess. Besides you’ll have a mouth to look at.” Elizabeth told him.

“...okay.” Archie told her. He decided to rip a strip off of the roll of duct tape. After he put the roll down. He thoroughly placed the strip on her mouth as gently as possible. She felt his fingers and thumbs smooth that gag on her mouth. After that she just blushed. He was blushing too. Because he couldn’t believe he just did that. Especially she asked him to do that. But he just smiled. “You....like that?” He asked her.

“Ympsh.” Elizabeth nodded her head up and down to confirm she did like that. After that he went over to the table where the red lipstick was at. He carefully used the lipstick as he pushed it up. Then drew a pair of lips on her gag where her lips would be at. It felt like such a weird experience he was going through. Especially for Elizabeth. Despite she’s been through this in way. But those were different times. This time she asked to be tied up.

“I guess...it’s time to get in bed.” Archie told her before he decided to pick her up bridal style. She was giggling up that gag. This felt like such a weird experience but she was strangely enjoying it. She was seeing how flustered Archie looked.

“Well you’re in a giggling mood huh?” Archie told her.

“Ympsh.” Elizabeth said through her gag. They were laying on the bed. She was laying on him and he was below her. With her face close to his face. He just held on to her.

Being held by him felt like a giant teddy bear. He was so soft with her. Archie tried to be careful with her. It was that tenderness she loved about him. She wanted to be in his arms for that. It was almost like a bear hug. But he was never rough.

“How do you feel right now? I know you can’t talk.” Archie asked her.

“Mfpgh.” Elizabeth muffled through her gag. She just pet her head against his right cheek. Then Elizabeth had a crazy idea. She started to make some moans. Nothing too extreme. There was something hilarious about seeing a man like Archie fluster. He was so red.

She moaned a little but again nothing extreme. But Archie had never thought this weird in his entire life. The man never had any sort of sexual experience like this. Sure he slept with her. But they didn’t do anything extreme. Mainly they would just hug each other, or talk to each other before going to bed.

Even sometimes singing to him. Or listening to each other about random nonsense. Such as Elizabeth recalling a book she read. Or a movie Archie was mentioning he seen back on the surface. Even sometimes running each others fingers through their long hair. This was before they admitted their love for each other.

Then something happened they didn’t plan for. “Mfpgh?” Elizabeth said through her gag. She felt something hit her body. It was coming from down Archie’s pants. Some how in some way.....Archie was feeling so aroused that he actually had a boner sticking out.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry. I’m sorry if you want to stop we can! We were getting so into the moment that I was starting to have this weird feelings-” Archie was trying to explain until Elizabeth cut him with with muffled laughing. He was surprised by that. She was actually laughing while being gagged.

He was acting so innocent but he didn’t mean to feel that aroused. Strangely Elizabeth was feeling aroused. But she never expected him to feel that aroused. Yet it was just funny seeing him trying to explain. He started to laugh a little too.

After that she actually got up to his face and kissed him on the lips. With her gagged lips. The man was more red. But then he kissed her her again. It felt weird to him in this moment. Kissing her on the lips with her gag on. But it was basically a passionate kiss. He just held on to her.

This was a strange and wonderful experience. It was only 6:13 pm and the two were just playing around. She was just laying on him as he was laying down. He stroked her hair as they looked each other. It was something the two wouldn’t forget.

Funny enough.....they were both virgins.

#bioshock rebirth #archie wynand #archabeth

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