#i need to convince my friends to play lethal company with me this game is so slapstick

[rozecrest]

(gunshots warning) was laughing so hard at this i almost burned my chicken

#PLEASE watch this #the chicken is okay the pan was too big i think some of the sauce is a goner but i was able to toss the rest alright #i need to convince my friends to play lethal company with me this game is so slapstick #friends at the table #chats

[aces-to-apples]

Anonymous said:

Tell me about ur mag7 leverage au 😶😶😶

Anonymous said:

A Magnificent 7 Leverage AU, I’ve never thought of that before but now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t UNsee it. The shenanigans and everything would be so good…Lay it on me plz *heart eyes and clasped hands* Plus the muse wants what it wants.

*Ahem* Thank you for this opportunity.

Friends, enemies, cowards of all classes, please! Lend me your ears!

Sam Chisolm is an honest man.

An odd description for an insurance investigator of one of the largest insurance companies in the game, to be sure. Even after I.Y.S. Insurance is taken over by the notorious Bart Bogue, who changes the company’s policy to automatically deny every claim until a thorough investigation can be completed, Sam Chisolm remains an honest man.

Fair, trustworthy, justice-seeking—that’s Sam Chisolm.

None of that changes when Sam’s mother becomes sick. It doesn’t change when he and his sister, Rosaline, sell their cars and mortgage their houses attempting to pay for their mother’s treatments. It doesn’t change when Bartholomew Bogue denies Sam’s claim to pay for an experimental treatment for his mother’s sickness.

It doesn’t change when she dies.

But ‘vengeful’ becomes another word on the list of ways to describe Sam Chisolm.

(

Cameron McCann finds him drinking at an airport bar, waiting for a shuttle that’s fifteen minutes out. It takes him all of eight to convince Sam to help him steal back his airplane designs.

“Thieves, I got,” he says, gesturing at the file in Sam’s hands. “What I need is one honest man… to watch… them.”

And, well, $600,000 is quite the payday.

)

-

Goodnight Robicheaux goes by a number of names, and Goodnight might even be the one he was born with. Doubtful, though. (He’s been through so many names and identities over the years, that it’s doubtful even he remembers the name he was born with. That may be deliberate.)

Sam Chisolm meets him six years before the death of his mother, in Damascus. (According to Goodnight, this is false. He considers their first meeting to be two years earlier, in Prague, the first time they see each other, thought do not speak; he will not be swayed.)

Many of the best cons in recent histories can be attributed to Goodnight Robicheaux. (He may even be responsible for a great deal of them.) A sure thing about Goodnight, though, is that he will always be there for Sam.

He is, after all, the finest actor you’ve ever seen… when he’s breaking the law.

(

Sam’s slow applause fills the alleyway behind the small-time theatre. “I thought you were great,” he says with a small, genuine smile.

“My only fan,” Goodnight remarks ruefully in the thick, Cajun accent he’s always used with Sam. It might even be his real one. Doubtful, though. “I am a citizen now, though. Honest.”

The smile grows and Sam replies, “I’m not,” with all the finality that statement entails.

)

-

Billy Rocks’ preferred title is ‘retrieval specialist,’ but to the rest of the world, he’s the most reliable—not to mention, lethal—hitter whose services money can buy.

He’s done many things he’s not proud of, and many more that he is, but nearly all of it was done without a team. Billy, like many of those in their line of work, works alone.

Less messy, that way.

(

“You look better,” Billy says as Sam lines up his shot. When Sam doesn’t reply, he clarifies, “Than when we started.”

“Yeah,” Sam dismisses, not looking up. The solid five sinks into the corner pocket.

Settling against the table, Billy watches him with a certain amount of interest. “Yeah,” he echoes. “And that bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“Ah, well, this isn’t supposed to feel—”

“Good? It’s not hard to figure out, Samuel. McCann screwed us, cheated by stealing from another company, and so you see him as the ‘bad guy.’ You spent twenty years chasing ‘bad guys,’ so you’re comfortable with what we’re doing now. Your conscience is clear.”

Sam watches him with the same bland, pleasant expression he watches them all. “You wanna take your shot?”

Billy blinks slowly in response. “I’m sorry about your mother,” he ventures. At Sam’s stern look, he continues, “Everybody knows. A man like you leaves the game, a lot of people notice. And it was a bad story, too.”

)

-

Faraday is crazy.

He works alone, pulls off heists that no one would even consider, and he takes not being paid more personally than an attempt on his life.

(

“My money’s not in my account.”

The rest of them turn to face him at the sound of a gun being cocked.

His voice is deeper, more serious, than they’ve heard it before now. Before, it was little more than a game—a gamble that he plays, knowing the cards are rigged. Now, it’s personal.

“That makes me cry inside. In my special, angry, place.”

)

-

Diego Vasquez needs little more than a cellphone and a wi-fi signal to commit his crimes. Reading the White House’s emails, pulling up a museum’s private directory, falsifying entire identities from the birth certificate to this past year’s tax records, nothing is beyond his reach, as long as its connected to a computer.

His interests include painting, playing the violin, hacking banks to pay for his foster abuelita’s medical bills, and attending the Oscars ceremony every year since he was fifteen.

(

“It’s a bone-conduction earpiece microphone,” he explains, handing the inconspicuous piece of hardware to Rocks. “Works off the vibrations in your jaw.”

Placing it inside his ear, Rocks admits, “You’re not as useless as you look.”

Vasquez scoffs at the implication that his role is anything less than pivotal. “Ni siquiero sé lo que haces, cabrón,” he replies, lip curling at the hitter.

“Can I have one?” Faraday asks, swinging down from his place among the scaffolding above them, not bothering to ask while right-side up.

“You, güero, can have the whole box.”

)

-

As Cameron McCann is led away by the FBI in handcuffs, he acknowledges Sam Chisolm’s last words to him: he should have just paid them.

#by apples #the magnificent seven #mag7 fic #the mag7 leverage au #but what about everyone else you ask? horne and red harvest? teddy q and the cullens? oh don't you worry #they're around #anon asks #answered asks #thank you kind nonnies for indulging my request to ask about this

[innuendostudios]

Thoughts on... some more games

[discussing The Silent Age, Unforeseen Incidents, and Unavowed; all spoilers studiously avoided]

Thoughts on The Silent Age

I think I first heard about The Silent Age on an episode of Idle Thumbs at least a year ago? They implied it was a neat bit of time travel malarkey, and that’s exactly what it turns out to be. You’re a janitor in the 1970s who has a run-in with a dying time traveler who tells you basically everyone in the future he’s just arrived from has died of a horrible plague, he’s come back to prevent the outbreak, but now that he’s dying it’s your job to finish his task. You inherit his portable time travel doohickey and... well, solve a bunch of adventure game puzzles.

What we have here is a smattering of puzzles with the twist that every location exists both in the “present” and the post-apocalyptic future. It’s a clever hook, and it makes a fairly standard set of adventure game puzzles more interesting, though you’ll jump back and forth in time so much that becomes mundane. Outside of a few sequences where your time travel doohickey is out of power - which have some of the better solutions - every puzzle requires a jaunt forwards or backwards through time. Every single one. It loses some novelty after a bit. It doesn’t help that every single puzzle is also an inventory puzzle. The time travel mechanic seems like it would lend itself to some real clever braintinglers, but time travel mostly exists as a way of getting around locked doors, sneaking past guards, and giving you two versions of every room to look for inventory in. Any object that looks like it’s important, you need to slap another object on. The formula never changes.

I’m ambivalent about inventory puzzles, because an adventure game engine is generally designed such that you can fit rather a lot of different kinds of puzzles into it. I made a point in my Monkey Island video that the opening three trials each involves a completely different part of the engine: learning patterns in the dialogue system, interpreting information in the picture window, and possessing without necessarily using inventory while the game makes jokes with the sentence line. But inventory puzzles have always been the path of least resistance - they’re the simplest to design and the easiest to program. So far as inventory puzzles go, The Silent Age’s inventory puzzles are not at all bad, but, given there’s a much more interesting time travel mechanic right there, it's a missed opportunity.

As for the story, for much of the game, it seems purely functional. It’s not particularly original - as you can guess from the premise, it’s borrowing a lot from Back to the Future and Twelve Monkeys. And time travel stories can often feel like puzzle boxes more that interesting narratives; a bunch of curious loose threads in the first half are all explained in the second half when you see how the time-travel shenanigans played out. The characters aren’t deep, the horrors of the apocalypse aren’t deeply felt, the ethics and mechanics of time travel are hinted at but not really engaged with. For much of its runtime, it’s just a well-oiled machine, and you play to watch the cogs turn and the tumblers fall into place. This can be satisfying but also kind of hollow.

But, unlike a lot of time travel stories - and a lot of adventure games I’ve been playing recently - it gets richer in the final act. Right when you feel the puzzle box clicking inexorably and obviously into shape, the game makes room to get just a little bit heady. Not intensely so, but enough that the game proves smarter than you thought. And it manages to find an ending that is unexpected and oddly compelling. It still grazes against some topics its not prepared to delve into - okay, game, you’ve dutifully avoided the bootstrap paradox in some clever ways, but don’t these laws of causality kind of prove that fate exists? - but it does give the ending a bit more heft than I was expecting.

It’s a quick, play-it-in-an-afternoon game, and it didn’t exactly knock my socks off. But after so many capsule reviews where I say “good game, but I wish the ending was better,” it feels really good to say, just this once, “the ending made the whole experience better.” It’s short and it’s cheap and it’s worth checking out.

Thoughts on Unforeseen Incidents

I’ve never really gone into my problems with Broken Sword - and today is still not the day I rant about how Broken Sword is everything wrong with adventure games - but, as I’ve said elsewhere, Unforeseen Incidents is Broken Sword if Broken Sword were good.

It’s got a similar flavor of hapless dork protagonist who stumbles into a conspiracy by pure chance, a similar female journalist sidekick whom he clearly has a crush on, and even the last line of dialogue in the game seems like an intentional inversion of the ending of Broken Sword. The difference is that the conspiracy actually makes sense, the sidekick is capable and interesting instead of just cute and French, the jaunting between locations doesn’t have overtones of imperialist globetrotting ripped off from Indiana Jones, none of the puzzles are infuriating, it maintains a consistent tone, the jokes are actually funny, and there are no cutscenes with Don Bluth’s rubbery faces and bad pacing. (I said I’m not getting into it today!!!!)

So, yes, Unforeseen Incidents does Broken Sword one better, and, seeing as Broken Sword is (bafflingly) considered a classic, that should put the game on your radar. But, also, even if it’s markedly better in every way, the game is clearly derivative of Broken Sword, which robs it of some novelty. (It also borrows a major plot twist from a certain not-very-good action movie, but it would be a spoiler to say which one.) It’s generally good advice that, if you’re going to steal, steal from someone you can improve upon, but it would have benefited from feeling a little more original.

Anyway, the basic plot hook is - in keeping with The Silent Age - trying to stop the outbreak of a plague. The main character, Harper, is a broke handyman in a small town that appears to be ground zero for an incredibly virulent and lethal disease, and he gets involved, at first, to help out his professor friend in finding a cure. (So I guess that’s another game that borrows from Back to the Future, but Harper’s friendship with Professor McBride is at least a little more plausible than Marty’s with a disgraced nuclear physicist.) Things get weirder and more complicated from there.

Here’s a thing that happened while I was playing: Most of the puzzles are fine. Just fine. Nothing to write home about, but they get the job done. A few were a bit annoying, but nothing insulted my intelligence. But there were about three that actually stumped me, where I couldn’t think of what to do next, and I looked up solutions online. Now, most of the time, when I look up a solution, the answer is something dippy and I think, “Well, that wouldn’t have been interesting to solve,” or, “How was I supposed to think of that?” It’s rare that I regret looking up solutions to adventure game puzzles, because, generally, if I’m looking up a solution, it’s because the game has not convinced me solving it myself will be interesting.

But, in this game, every single puzzle I looked up the solution to I kicked myself for not thinking of the answer on my own. This is not my usual experience! The solutions were actually clever, and I would have felt genuinely smart for figuring them out. I kept thinking, “Shit, I should’ve thought of that!” I dunno why this happened multiple times in this game when it’s so uncommon in others. Maybe the bulk of the puzzles were normal enough that I kept assuming the ones I was stuck on didn’t have interesting solutions. Maybe they didn’t prime me for the kind of lateral thinking I’d have to employ a handful of times. Or maybe I’m just not as smart as I think. (No, no, it can’t be that.)

It might be a pacing thing? Since most of the puzzles didn’t give me trouble, the game moved at a pretty steady clip, so the few times I was legitimately stumped just ground everything to a halt. A game that had more stumpers might’ve had a more methodical pace, where being stumped wouldn’t have felt frustrating. But, whenever I didn’t know what to do, it was annoying, because the game felt like a page turner whose pages suddenly refused to turn.

Or perhaps I’m making excuses! The short version is, when you get stumped in this game, take a break and come back to it later, see if you can’t figure the stumpers out on your own. I think you’ll be happier if you do.

The writing is generally good across the board, owing, I suspect, to some journeyman script work from Alasdair Beckett-King of the Nelly Cootalot games. The story really lends itself to stock characters and functional dialogue, so having everyone be just a little more believable and interesting than is strictly necessary is quite lovely.

Overall, the way the conspiracy shakes out is, well, believable and it works fine enough, but it’s not... interesting. There’s some solid character work thrown in at the climax that’s seemingly there to make up for an underwhelming payoff in the plot proper, but it doesn’t carry enough weight. I don’t get to say “the ending made the whole experience richer” this time; it’s another good game with a weak ending. (Not bad, just weak.)

Still, I had a really good time with Unforeseen Incidents, and would highly recommend it, if recommendations are, for whatever reason, what you came here for. It’s got good characters and great voice acting and some nice twists and turns, and the design ain’t have bad, either. Check it out.

Thoughts on Unavowed

It finally happened! I’m writing up a Wadjet Eye game! (Well, it is in a batch of mini-reviews, not getting a whole post of its own, but shut up.) My previous assessment of Wadjet Eye as a company was that their games - both those made in-house and those published but made by other studios - are consistently interesting and often good but never great.

I might be taking that back now.

The buzz around Unavowed was that its opening was one of its best sequences, so I grew skeptical of the whole game when the opening didn’t do much for me. Having finished the game, I’d say the first half hour is actually beneath the quality of the complete product - the writing is fine but not amazing and the first proper puzzle is actively bad. Rather than opening strong, I feel the game’s real talent is for deepening as you play it.

The basic premise is that you are a person - in my game, a woman - who has spent the last year possessed by a demon. The game opens with the demon being exorcised from your body by what is basically the supernatural version of the Men in Black or the RIPD - a jinn and a fire mage who police the secret world of spirits and elementals who hide in plain sight in New York. Having been touched by a demon and having no place to go after a year of murdering people while possessed, you join the Unavowed and work to uncover the mystery of what your demon was up to during the year you can’t remember. Spirit activity has been on the rise lately, so your adventure also involves recruiting new people to the Unavowed who have been, in various ways, touched by the “other side.”

Where the game started to click for me is when I recruited Logan - a bit character from my opening flashback - into the team proper, and I, er... fell in love with him? I don’t usually crush on fictional characters, or on men (real or imagined), but in the rare event it happens, I apparently have a type? Logan is a strapping, bald, man of color with a soft voice and a tortured past and he’s filled with regret but also working every day to be a better person and he’s even good with kids and oh god I adore him. He’s also a spirit medium, which means, if I died - and I would die for him - he would ease my passing, but how can I move on to the next world if the thing keeping me here is you, Logan? How?

The richness of the characters is what starts to bring the whole thing together, and they are some of the best characters I’ve hung out with in a game. The game is rife with little touches that keep the spotlight on their personalities - you bring two companions with you on every mission, and there’s a smalltalk feature where whichever two you picked will just chat about whatever, and you’ll find yourself lingering in a scene with nothing to do just because you want to hear the rest of the conversation. You can also chat with your companions at any time, which serves as a hint system but also lets you make smalltalk of your own.

The buzz has mostly praised this focus on character, but I think maybe folks are giving the plot short shrift? Things are pretty episodic for the first chunk of the game - you have a mission, you bring two teammates with you on it, and you go home when the mission is done - but around the midpoint there are... developments... which are, frankly, kind of brilliant? I don’t want to say more than that, but its the kind of stuff that reframes what came before, and it starts building towards a complex, satisfying, and unpredictable conclusion. Dave Gilbert is good with characters, but he’s no slouch at plot developments, either.

There are still some weirdnesses that I wish weren’t there. This is one of those games where one needs to clarify that having good writing is not the same as having good dialogue; Unavowed has frequently excellent writing but its dialogue is only OK. One of those games where I keep rewriting it in my head, which is generally a sign that the emotional beats are solid, I just wish they’d been written slightly differently. Being given the choice of who joins you on missions means that puzzles that can only be solved with the abilities of people you didn’t bring with you are still present, and they, at times, threw me off of what I was actually supposed to do. I also couldn’t understand why I couldn’t just go get the person who can do the thing I need done; the game rather arbitrarily refuses to let you swap out teammates once you’ve started a mission, even though the plot sometimes demands one get swapped without your consent. (In my game, Vicki got shortchanged, because, every mission I brought her on, for plot reasons she would get replaced with Logan partway through, not that I’m complaining.)

The game also borrows the “moral choice with lasting consequences” that everyone’s been borrowing since The Walking Dead, and even does the thing when it confronts you with the consequences of all your decisions in the late game, and, while it executes it okay, it was contrived when The Walking Dead did it, it was contrived when Life is Strange did it, and it’s still contrived today. There have to be better ways to make your decisions feel meaningful than having an antagonist monologue all your choices back at you in the endgame!

Also, for a game so focused on character, I wish there were more complex character arcs. This is a thing video games are kind of notorious about: The cast of Unavowed often have character-building moments, but, because they can happen in any order and some are optional, they can’t really change the character in any meaningful way (at least, not without writing a whole lot of additional content). In my game, my darling dear Logan had a fairly significant epiphany that, due to the nature of the game, was never mentioned again and didn’t alter his trajectory. In screenwriting terms, it was a Transforming Change that never led to an Ultimate Boon. If I’m being honest, the beat was also a little pat, but there were several similar beats with other characters that landed with more impact, but also never came to anything.

All that aside, I really fell for this game. The plot seems designed to justify vignettes that explore the game’s magical world, but each vignette also furthers a satisfying narrative. In my experience, you often get one or the other. It’s one of the best narrative games I’ve played in recent memory, and, of all the ones I’m discussing today, the one I’m most likely to play again. It’s definitely the most cohesive and complete game I’ve played from Wadjet Eye; I’m not sure how I’d rank it against Resonance, which has higher highs but is a deeply, deeply flawed game. Fortunately, we live in a universe where we don’t have to choose!

Unavowed is great. You should play it.

Odds & Sods

I also played Virginia recently, but have nothing to say about it except that it’s beautiful and you should play it right away, and I played Alum which... hoo, I am not ready to talk about Alum yet.

#capsule review #unavowed #unforeseen incidents #the silent age #adventure games #writings

[domestic-harry]

Hi! Can you share which fics you've recently read that you liked? Or currently reading.. I'm so desperate to find something new to read.. Lol thanks :)

Recently Read Fics

This Wicked Game : An AU in which The Bachelor is gay, Louis is a contestant, Harry is the bachelor, everyone drinks a lot of champagne, the entire world gets to watch them fall in love, and no one plays by the rules.

Hush. : An au where small towns suck, Louis is losing it, and Harry’s just too perfect.

Shake Me Down : Harry’s new to college, fresh out of Catholic school and conversion therapy camp, and Louis runs the campus LGBTQIA organization.

My heart is breathing for this moment in time : When Louis first saw Harry at the 2010 X Factor Auditions, he thought he was watching a peculiarly special stranger. But Harry has known Louis ever since he was five years old.Because Louis has a rare genetic disorder that causes him to Time Travel to important moments in his past and in his future - and to Harry, always to Harry. When they’re put into a band together, it seems like everything Harry has been waiting and wishing for has finally come true. Except for the small fact that Louis doesn’t know that Harry is in love with him- that Harry’s always been in love with him. Fate, it would seem, is just getting started.A story about growing up and growing together, and the impossible love that makes it all worthwhile.

Down : Sometimes all Harry really wants is to play with Louis’ arse.

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast : A Survivor All-Stars AU in which Harry and Louis are just in this game to win the million dollars, but they end up with something better.Featuring Harry’s yellow swim shorts, Louis in snapbacks, and OT5 

Give Me Truths : Louis is a psychology student with a tattoo count as high as his genius IQ. Harry is in a (sort-of) relationship with a homophobic man and hates himself a little more every day. Things fall apart and Louis puts him back together.Or, the one in which Louis falls in love with a fragile boy and tells him every beautiful truth in the world, as long as it makes him happy.shenanigans.

Through Eerie Chaos :  For as long as anyone can remember, Old Hillsbridge Manor has always been believed to be haunted. Everyone in the village agrees and keeps a respectful, fearful, distance. New in town after a bad breakup and an internship that led to disappointment rather than a permanent job, Harry Styles figures taking pictures of the decrepit building could be a great new creative project. Or at least a much-needed distraction while he searches for a job and crashes at his parents’ new house. No one warned him about the apparitions though; about the music, the laughter, the people who flicker and vanish when you call after them, the echoes of a past that should be long gone… Harry has never believed in spirits but even he can admit that there’s something weird going on. What starts as mere curiosity evolves into a full-blown investigation and soon enough, Harry finds himself making friends with an aristocrat from the 1920s and struggling with finding the best way to tell him that he’s dead.

To Read Fics

Like an Endless Summer : Louis is a riding instructor at a summer camp, and Harry is a fellow counselor who he’s been successfully managing his crush on for the last two summers. That is, until Harry shows up this year leveled up and lethal, and all Louis’s formerly perfected veneer of nonchalance melts like a popsicle in the sun.

Carry This Feeling :  Harry knows, objectively, that he shouldn’t try to get his ghostwriter into bed. He knows. But…he finds it hard to resist temptation when Louis waltzes into his home and his life and turns everything upside down. And, as it turns out, Louis might just need a little turning upside down too.

Ace : The sexuality crisis you probably haven’t read.

I want a little sweetness down in my soul : Harry wants Louis to ride his face and it takes a bit of convincing but eventually he comes around. It’s glorious, control is lost, steaminess ensues. Quite hot.

Allies in Heaven, Comrades in Hell : A Catholic school!AU where Louis is finishing sixth form and will definitely be famous someday if Harry has something to say about it, Liam is the racist homophobe that Zayn is dreadfully in love with, and Niall teaches guitar.

Say Your Prayers : The one where Harry, head counsellor at a Catholic summer camp, dedicates his time to what he loves most, year after year. It’s mostly the same every summer; the place, the topics, the games. This year, however, there’s a new assistant counsellor stumbling into his camp, and possibly his heart.

Cold : Harry Styles hated the minister’s son.Louis Tomlinson was brash, obnoxious and possessed all the attributes that Harry deemed unlikable in another person. Unfortunately, they attended the same Bible studies class at church and their mothers were best friends, so avoiding the other boy was impossible

Let Me Put On A Show For You Daddy : Harry is an art (per)form(ance).

Why Can’t It Be Like That : A fashion AU with a royal twist, where Louis doesn’t need a stylist, Harry’s thrilled to have a real life Barbie doll, and they’re both very wrong about each other.

When We Were Younger : Sixteen year old Harry Styles’ world turns upside down when he logs on to gay teen chat to discover somebody has stolen his photos and used them as their own.

Touch : Harry’s shy and virginal with a past, new on the football team; Louis’ the (experienced) popular star of the team and Harry’s new mentor.

Flightless Bird : AU where Louis Tomlinson is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. When his rival from ballet school, moody dance prodigy Harry Styles joins the company, old wounds are reopened and old passions reignited. During the company’s production of Swan Lake the secret that doomed their love is finally revealed, but will it be too late?

Now you know me (for your eyes only) : au where harry and louis are solo artists and they’re not exactly friends per se but they’re friendly, know each other from industry parties and things like that and there’s always been this weird unspoken sexual tension between them and louis’ always kinda confused bc isn’t harry the biggest ladies’ man in the industry?? and one day harry asks louis to collab with him and of course louis says yes even tho he’s kinda surprised and harry plays the song for him and louis is completely blown away by how beautiful it is and it’s a love song and he’s like damn whoever this is about is lucky as fuck bc it’s clearly written from personal experience so they spend all this time together recording and it’s super bittersweet bc they click right away and it takes louis about three seconds to realize he has a huge fucking crush on harry but on the other hand harry clearly had someone in mind when he wrote the song so the last day of recording comes and louis’ like “thanks for having me on the song” and harry just shrugs and is like “well it just seemed fitting bc the song is about you”

All You Can Eat : The one where human Harry seduces his hot teacher professor Tomlinson, who happens to be a vampire

#so much to read so little time #asks #fic rec

[the-real-d-sandman]

Ayy I finished the first thing I’ve written in awhile!  Well finished the prologue, but that’s an achievement for me!

It’s a BNHA fanfic technically, but it doesn’t really matter much yet.

That being said, I’m gonna post it, because I want feedback! It’s pretty short (1700 words).

- how do you like my writing style?

- how do you like the idea of the story (because if people like it, I’ll be more likely to finish it)

It’s below the cut obviously

Prologue:

Friday, December 5th. 1820 hours, Outskirts of Vladivostok, Russian Federation

           A thick coating of freshly fallen snow covered the ground outside the mayoral residence, and the sun hung low in the sky, casting an orange hue to the wintry scene. Cars carrying the last workers home for the weekend could be heard off in the distance. Closer to the home, birds called from the trees and fluttered about, disturbing leaves and branches. And in the front yard, 2 boys, about 6 years old, played in the snow.

           One of the boys, wearing a quilted winter jacket and tuque with 2 tassels covering the ears, hovered about a foot off the ground with black feathered wings. The other, stood a couple feet away from him and looked to be concentrating.  Suddenly, a cartoonish dragon appeared out of thin air, and breathed a puff of smoke.  Laughing, the floating boy started to awkwardly move through the air away from the beast.  The dragon chased after him, doing somersaults through the air and occasionally letting out a spout of fire.

           The impromptu air show continued, both children laughing, and even the boy on the ground was chasing the pair around, despite being earthbound.  Through their laughter, the distant rumble of a car coming up the drive grew louder, and up the hill rolled an old maroon GAZ sedan with military plates.  The children stopped their game to look quizzically at the vehicle, and the man stepping out of the driver’s door.  Even the dragon looked over, before dissipating silently.

           Out stepped a tall gentleman, wearing a woolen overcoat and a flat cap.  His boots sank into the snow and he stretched before closing the door behind him, not bothering to lock it.  He glanced over at the children, having not noticed them before, and tipped the brim of his hat, passing them a friendly smile.  The boys waved back and followed the man with their eyes as he quickly strode up to the front door of the house and knocked briskly.

           A stocky man with a thick mustache opened the door, turning his head up to meet eyes with the taller man.

“Ivan! It’s been a while since I last saw you.” He chuckled nervously, “Longer still since we’ve met off an army base.  Did you need something? I would’ve expected you to call ahead.”

The taller man looked side-to-side, “I know, I’m sorry Mikhail, it’s just not something I’d want to speak about on the phone.”

This only seemed to confuse Mikhail more. Ivan clarified quietly, leaning in to make sure only he and the man in the doorway could hear. “It’s about your son.”

Mikhail’s eyes opened wide and he spoke, quieter than before “Alright, come inside than.”

He stepped aside and let Ivan in, before closing the door; he glanced outside at his son and gave him a smile and curt wave.  The boys, who had been watching the men talk, took that as a sign that the conversation didn’t concern them and returned to their games.

 The two men walked together into the kitchen and sat down at a small table situated in the middle of the room. They sat quietly looking at each other for a moment before Mikhail, spoke up.

“Well, if this is something urgent about my son, I suppose we don’t have much use for pleasantries.”  He leaned forward in his chair, “Tell me exactly what this is about, and why you felt it necessary to have such an abrupt meeting.”

Ivan hesitated, looking to down and to the left. Perhaps, thinking of exactly what to say, or whether or not he should say it. Perhaps he was wondering if this was a waste of time. Mikhail didn’t think so, and cleared his throat loudly, staring intently at Ivan. Ivan sighed, and began.

“Your son’s quirk, it is...” he took off his hat and held it in his hands. “It is something, very interesting.  Very versatile.” He met Mikhail’s worried gaze, “To some people, very powerful.”

He paused again and looked as if he was searching for more words to say. Mikhail cut in, hoping perhaps to spur further comment.

“Some people? What are- who are you talking about?” He grabbed Ivan’s shoulder and pulled him up so their eyes met again. “Is he in danger?”

He let go of Ivan and stood up, pacing around. “I don’t understand what you are getting at, Ivan! Surely my son couldn’t be in any danger! I’m the mayor of the most important city in Eastern Russia! No one would dare come after my son or my family!”

Mikhail grabbed the edge of the table and leaned in towards Ivan, “Tell me who it is! I’ll have police detective breaking in their door by tomorrow! I’ll- I’ll get the military in on it if need be! I’ve still got enough influence with command; I could have a company down here within a month with just a phone call.” He began to reach for his cellular, but Ivan grabbed his wrist forcefully.

“No, Mikhail! You don’t understand! It IS the military!  The military want your son!”

There was a tangible silence.  It seemed to last for several seconds. Even the birds had quieted down, leaving only the sound of distant cars and trucks. Shaking a bit now, Mikhail broke the quiet and moved back into the seat across from Ivan.

“W-what? The… The military wants my son?” He clasped his hand to his mouth. “But why? He’s only 6!”

Ivan sighed again. “I’ve been working with command on a secret new project.  Right now, maybe 6 or 7 people know about it.” He folded his hands and placed them on the table. “At first it seemed innocent enough; researching the applications of quirks in the military.  How individuals with different quirks could supplement soldiers and combat.  The sheer number of possible quirks makes it difficult to create strategies to utilize the quirks of different soldiers, especially when many soldiers might only serve for 2 or 3 years.  We started categorizing quirks and threw around the ideas of targeting specific types of quirks with recruitment material.”

He looked down at the table and shook his head.

“It was looking promising, but clearly not to the higher ups. They weren’t convinced that we could truly use quirks to their greatest potential with this method, that we’d be taking too many shortcuts for sake of ease.” He met Mikhail’s gaze again.

“This morning, they presented me with a plan, not an idea, an operation that was going to happen, regardless of what I thought.” Ivan balled his fists and slammed the table. “They went right over my head!”

He seethed for a moment, but regained his composure. “They’re going to abduct children with specific quirks. Train them from a young age, to use their quirks and turn them into efficient and lethal soldiers.”

Mikhail stared, agape with disbelief, “That’s… That’s ridiculous! They couldn’t! They wouldn’t!” He looked at Ivan, hoping that maybe this was just a joke for old time’s sake, but his old friend’s grim expression betrayed no jest. “Not my son.  I’m too important! Everyone would find out! It would be an international scandal!”

“They don’t care about who YOU are, Mikhail!” Ivan responded, “They only care about your son and his abilities.”

Mikhail’s voice rose, “And what of his abilities? He can conjure images and change others, but that’s hardly the makings of a…a ‘supersoldier’!  He’d make a better magician than an assassin!”

Ivan answered, frustrated, pointing a finger at Mikhail, “You know that’s only the beginning.  Who knows the limits of his quirk? The ability to manipulate photons, one of the key elements of space, of existence, of matter!  Photons create everything we see! Photons are what allow us to communicate over long distances! Photons are the energy the sun shines down upon us, the energy that plants need to live, the energy that powers our cities with solar cells!”

Another moment of silence passed before Ivan calmed down again. “They had a list.  50 or 60 names, from all over Russia, even some former SSRs.  Your son’s was the only one I recognized.  They are going to take him, Mikhail.  There’s nothing I can do to change their minds.”

Mikhail slumped back in his chair in resignation and covered his face. “What am I supposed to do then?? How long do I have??”

Ivan stood up from the chair and put his hat back on. “I do not know.  Perhaps you can get your son out of the country. They can track you easily, but they do not know what your son looks like, since census requires no photo for children. I can’t tell you to abandon your own son.” Ivan reached for the door, but stopped and looked back.

“If you have any foreign national relatives, you could call them. If your son is outside Russian jurisdiction, he should be safe.” He stood for a moment longer, but then hurriedly walked out the door.

Mikhail sat quietly in the kitchen. He heard Ivan’s GAZ back down the driveway and disappear into the rumble of the distant traffic. Mikhail sat and thought.  He thought about his military career.  How little those 20 years of his life meant to his country.  He thought of his son, how he would grow up indoctrinated into the Russian military, a government machine, serving unquestionably.

There was nothing he could do.  He had no relatives outside Russia.  His family had lived here for countless generations. They always married Russians and never left the country, even during the days of the USSR.  He remembered his grandfather always saying that non-Russians couldn’t be trusted, that they were taught to hate us.  Mikhail never believed that.  During his military service, he worked many times with foreign units, even volunteering to help organize joint exercises.  He made one of his best friends during one of those exercises and he would trust him with his life.

Mikhail sat straight up.  “Or my son’s life.”

On cue, his son, Iosif, slowly peaked around the door to the kitchen.

“Who was that?” he asked quizzically, pointing out the door.

Mikhail pulled his son close into a hug. “Just an old friend dropping by to say hello. Nothing to worry about.  Now son…” He moved his son back to arm’s length and looked into his eyes. “…how would you like to take a vacation to Japan?”

#pls #indulge me #i beg of you #fanfiction #bnha

[snortingcode]

Competition, Insecurity and Scientific Method

I’ve noticed a pattern lately. At the risk of over-fitting, let me share what I think, so I can learn from your experiences as well.

Competition has been showcased as the cornerstone of human progress. “We are getting better every day because we compete with each other”, has become the golden mantra that guides policy making, relationships at work, even family ties at times! I don’t want to go into how this idea has been used to justify unfair business practices, justify neoliberal economic policies (with a completely circular argument!), ignore the privileges that govern so much of our lives and ultimately gives rise to a false notion of “free will”!

I wish to talk about something more insidious. Possibly, even try and make sense of why the world seems broken, why relationships seem fake and why it is so difficult to find true love! _ _

I believe that competition is a facade. The real evil is a deep sense of insecurity that goes unnoticed. Hiding behind this facade are all sorts of unsorted issues that, over the years, shape into a complex entangled mess of falsehoods which can be impossible to get rid of without a focused effort.

Let’s start with some personality traits. A typical insecure person described by your psychology textbook would be someone with a “lack of confidence”, “lack of protection” which is what it most certainly is. However, people have deception as a survival skill. We won that fight with the gang of wolves because we could convince them that we were stronger! We practice deception from an early age. The way animals engage in a “fight-play” routine, we hone our deception skills. Over the years, we get really good at it. We acquire such excellent deception skills that we are able to deceive ourselves! Insecurity is often not dealt with inspection/introspection, it is given a lethal dose of deception. Such insecure people exhibit high confidence, a fake sense of superiority and an attitude that gives them “that edge” that’s so palpable in company boardrooms. They are the ones that “get things done” (but, they never do these things! They don’t know how to!)

Such insecure people who have learned to deceive themselves come with a myriads of unhealthy traits. This fake sense of superiority’s first victim is the willingness to try out new things. Kids don’t care what they look like, how rich or poor they are, how tall they are, the color of their skin - and they know how to participate even when they are sure to fail. That’s how all of us took our first steps! We failed again and again (with a lot of people watching!) We are talking about people who don’t try new things because they might fail. They would demean, insult and try self-deception to get out of knowing about something new because that’s easier than facing failure.

There’s a thing about science - it doesn’t care about our societal status! Science can tell even the most influential person that they are wrong. The people we are talking about then, do not have a scientific method. They might be scientists, scholars, doctors and engineers but, they are scared of science! These are people who are most gullible when it comes to “ancient wisdom”. These are people who would tell you that “science does not have all the answers” to justify a scientifically incorrect view that they hold close to heart. Since these are people who are all about authority, they find it difficult to defy authority. Deliver an authoritative judgement about an issue and they would take it to their graves. These are personality worshipers, they follow ideologies over methods. For them science comes in 2 flavors - “my science” and “their science”. One is wrong and the other is right. These are people who have a “right way to drink alcohol”, “authentic recipes”, “correct grammar”, “the best workout”, “traditional is better” approach to life!

Another classic identification is the victim game. Such people find victims for their wits, sarcasm, wisdom and knowledge (Think about it! Victim of knowledge!). They thrive in groups that they can control and they always have a victim who is miserable. When the tables turn, things become ugly! The are always on the lookout for issues with others around them and they try their best to expose them. While they try their best to hide their own insecurities, they use all their social intellect to identify others’ insecurities and use them against their victims. They are usually very good at the insecurities game because they swim in it more often than others. A good way to know this is to compare their behavior in a group versus when they are alone with you (alone is generally a lot nicer and very likeable).

Such people often have very magnetic personalities. Abusive relationships have this character as well. It often becomes impossible to leave the tormentor because they are so good to you at times! So good that you love them! When these people are not around, we terribly miss them. Remember, they are very good at reading insecurities!

These people are easy to spot online as well - #onlyWayToLive #beLikeMe #alwaysTheBest and sometimes, #worstPlaceOnEarth #cantHearThisCrappyMusic #whyAreAllPeopleSoStupid (notice the “all or nothing” feeling there? You should read more about it!)

Well, that said, what’s the solution? Should there be a large scale LSD-in-water-supply project to repair the world? I can offer my insights about my own battle with insecurities, anxiety and depression. The solution depends on which side of the facade you are (I’ve been on both and its not fun at all!).

Let’s start with when you are a victim.

Victim cheat code:

Be aware of yourself

Look for signs like limited social interaction, limited participation in social activities

Follow the scientific method religiously (see, what I did there :D )

Don’t take yourself too seriously (check out Dudeism!)

If you feel things are going out of hand, avoid or confront the people in your life who you think might need help in dealing with their insecurities and anxiety (let experts handle it though).

A good question to ask is - “Can I be completely honest around this person?” If the answer is “No”, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

Things are a lot more complicated when the facade has caged you inside a growing mass of insecurities.

Be honest! Avoid even white lies (no they are not required to live in the world!)

Be sincere in your judgement of yourself. Be open about failure, about being wrong.

Turn that competition inward. Compete with your own self and start by attempting to fail without feeling miserable about it.

Talk about mental health with your friends and family. Depression and anxiety affects us all on some level.

Putting yourself in others’ shoes is a great technique to still “get things done” while being nice to others. Try it as often as you can.

Talk about your insecurities (even the most private ones!) Talking about things engages your prefrontal cortex (the region of your brain that makes you human) and eases the fears and anxiety that your amygdala (the reptilian brain) is constructing.

Try to be more mindful. Meditation is great (try to learn it the right way and avoid mixing it with religion/spirituality - see the next point)

Try to be more flexible and open to new ideas and changes in life. “Ancient wisdom” belongs in the ancient times.

#competition #insecurity #anxiety #mental health #relationships