#and from the outside seeming like an utter fucking tool in spite of the times they do good. cant stand him
Text
Season + Weather | 20 | Kita Shinsuke
|20| End of Heat 処暑 Shosho
08/23-09/06
After the winter chill comes the bearing of spring. Then comes the summer of cicadas, and finally the fields of neverending gold.
Kita Shinsuke x f!reader
Genre: Slice-of-life
Word Count: 860
Autumn 秋 Aki | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 (final) | Masterlist
Humans have invented all sorts of tools to battle it out against nature, and developed various systems to combat uncertainty. However, each time, whether by disease or by fire, nature has cards up its sleeve.
“Shit! Don’t you fucking dare go outside,” you screamed, making a blind attempt to grab Kita’s arm in the dark.
Shadowy wisps flickered through the windows from the violently shaking trees and howling wind. The house was pitch black already, but still, ghastly shapes manifested across the walls. The whole house seemed to quiver. Loud clamours from falling objects outside were sudden and unannounced. The wind, no longer wind, now a vengeful spirit whipped through every crevice. It tore through telephone lines and snapped trees, and the heavens dumped all their spite down in heavy rain. Typhoons in the countryside were different from the city-truly a testament to how destructive nature could retaliate.
“But the-”
“To hell with that, Shinsuke. It’s fucking dangerous outside, so help me, damn it, stay put!” you shrieked back, tightening your grip on his forearm. You didn’t care that your nails were digging into his flesh, you weren’t about to let go. The roars seemed to burst into the house and gnawed away at your grasp of the situation. “We knew this was a possibility remember?”
You and Kita knew the typhoons were coming. Both of you already stocked the pantry, checked the batteries, and mentally prepared. But nothing, no weather reports, no prior experiences could have prepared either of you for the calamity this year. The meteorological reports said that this year was "an anomaly", but wasn't that last year? And two years before? At what point did the phrase"another anomaly" become normal? And more importantly, why did it have to be right here, right now?
“Shinsuke?” Granny called from her room. “Don’t go outside, you hear? Are you two okay?”
In ancient times, people thought that such catastrophes ought to be heaven's anger at sin. Whether or not this was true, who bore the burdens of anger? Who’s crops and means of living were the first to go?
“G-granny,” you called back. “I got him, don’t worry. Just stay there for a bit, I’ll get the lights.”
You harshly tugged the dazed Kita with you and traveled alongside the walls of the house. Your heart was beating wildly and all you wanted was for the noise to stop and a blanket to muffle yourself under. But you had to stay strong, for yourself and two others under this roof.
“Shit,” you cursed under your breath, tripping over something hard in the dark. Kita steadied you.
You tapped his hand and reassured you were okay, “Almost there.” After what seemed like an endless excavation in the dark, you finally reached the cabinet keeping the emergency box. This one had candles, flashlights, batteries, and a radio.
Where did the paper boat float?
No voice to be uttered—all gone,
Swallowed by hungry ghosts.
Occasionally, the radio would pop in with a message or two telling its listeners to remain calm and stay away from windows, refrain from going outside...the buzzes from the signal were the only white noise to soothe a calm. You and Kita sat around the floor table, with half-formed thoughts trying to form some semblance of reason.
"Do you think..." Kita asked quietly, unable to finish the question.
It wasn't something you could answer. "I don't know, but we're safe and together here."
Kita lived most of his life with the certainty of perfection. As long as the proper parameters were put into place, the results were only to be expected. Kita was made up of the things he did every day, consistently, constantly. Over the years, he's been proven time and time again that despite the best preparations, the worst outcomes might still follow. And even if he had prepared for the worst, colloquially speaking, the realities were no less disappointing or frightening.
The loss against Karasuno in his last year of high school. The unexpected conditions of his grandmother. The uprooting of his new career in the city. And now the possibility of a whole year's labor dismantled in wind and rain.
There were many uncertainties, dissatisfaction, and anxieties clouding his thoughts in a frenzy. This was something the insurance prepared for, a possibility that anyone venturing out to the fields would acknowledge in the back of their mind. Financially, perhaps. But it doesn't mitigate the difficult acceptance that despite everything done right, things were still beyond control.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Kita concluded, closing his eyes.
The crops had pulled through extreme heat. He only hoped that the grains clung tightly and the roots remained grounded. He hoped that the careful attention he spent tending to the crops making sure they were in the best possible conditions, would be just enough.
In a wind that snapped trees with many more years of seniority, these rice stalks of less than a year old had to fight. There wasn't anything either of you could do, but wait and then wait some more. All the while, the taunting chants plagued the space around both of you.
Endnotes:
• Recent examples of very bad typhoons include 2018 Typhoon Haiyan and 2019 Typhoon Hagabis and Faxai. Typhoon season hits right before the fall harvest, so there really isn’t much recourse for replanting. Crop yield losses can be up to 30%.
Autumn 秋 Aki | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 (final) | Masterlist
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
Dawn of War II
At one point I watched a Let’s Play covering Dawn of War II, starting from the base game, going through Chaos Rising, and then doing the Marine campaign in Retribution. The excruciating stupidity on display lead me to A: decide I didn’t want to buy the game, even though I love the original Dawn of War, and B: write the following semi-coherent ravings of a madman.
They are slightly edited for comprehension and I made a little to clarify what any given thing is alluding to, but not much. I had vague notions of posting this to Vigaroe once upon a time, but it really doesn’t fit the tone I’m trying to maintain on that site. Tumblr, meanwhile, I’m perfectly happy to dump things that may or may not be insightful or entertaining and move on with my life.
Here we go.
-----
Broadly: Let's take steps to scale down the player's troop count, and still end up with hundreds of Space Marines dead before the end of the campaign.
Also broadly, let's have our special snowflake characters have squads (66% of them, anyway) but have the special snowflake character be the only one that counts: not only do your battlebrothers sensibly wearing helmets not count against your score at the end of the mission for dying, but if the special snowflake moron dies his goons instantly die too. I thought we were fighting against the Tyranids, not as the Tyranids?
The score mechanic in general, as well as secondary objectives in general. They don't commit to the score mechanic as mattering, and secondary objectives seem absolutely worthless. In Dawn of War 1, secondary objectives were more like advisories: here's something you might want to deal with, but it isn't mission failure if you ignore it, hope you appreciate the heads-up. In II, they seem to be plotty things with no functionality and not much plot either, present because?...
Also: WHY BRING BACK ANGELOS WITH THE WRONG VOICE? (fixed for Chaos Rising, to be fair)
I'm a character narrating at another character completely unironically.
The Tyranids are MYSTERIOUS AND DANGEROUS OOOOOHHHHH. I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!
(It’s a constant thing with the game to treat the Tyranids as mysterious and much more scary than anything else in the 40k setting. It falls flat, in spite of the heroic efforts on the voice actors’ parts)
HEY BOSSMEN SPACE MARINES FUCK YOU YOU AREN'T THE BOSS OF US EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE AND WE AREN'T FILTHY HERETICS GO RUN SOME ERRANDS FOR US AND WE MIGHT MAYBE IF YOU SAY PLEASE DO AS YOU ASK.
(Derosa’s initial interaction is idiotic)
SCALE? WHAT'S THAT? TINY RAIDS BY A FEW HUNDRED GUYS CAN TOTALLY COMPROMISE AN ENTIRE PLANET'S SECURITY. AND NOT BY SECURING A LANDING ZONE OR WHATEVER.
(What, exactly, are the Eldar supposed to be doing here?)
Psionically gifted individuals. Because we aren't Blizzard fanboyz or NUFFIN. PSYCHIC GODDAMMIT. PSYCHICALLY GIFTED INDIVIDUALS. Furthermore, 40k is a setting in which psychic powers make you a reviled pariah who counts themself LUCKY to be treated as a subhuman tool. IT'S NOT A GIFT.
(Maybe ‘psionic’ has become the 40k default term since I wrote this back in like 2013. I stand by it anyway)
Naturally, It's A Girl Who Doesn't Do As Told was ENTIRELY to then bitchslap her for being bitchy. Admitting her error just leads to her begging you help them anyway, rather than assuring you that Angel Forge will be accessable to you since your need clearly is urgent. In other words, the entire sequence is mental masturbation with a very tiny helping of plot. Yaaaay.
(Still Derosa, only now I’ve shifted from hating her to hating the writer)
Angel Gate fails in open mode! Because everyone knows all devices automatically stop doing what they're designed for if denied a continuous supply of electricity! Rather than ceasing moving. Like in real life.
Incidentally, how does a GATE protect a PLANET?
(Angel’s Gate is retarded. And not the 40k funny/grimdark retarded, but “does anyone on this team understand anything?”)
The Eldar are trying to blow up the subsector's planets to SOMEHOW stop the Hivefleet from... going towards the Craftworld. Not, like, weaken them, or something. Somehow the writer thinks this should redirect them from Ulthwe, instead of HURRYING THEM ALONG.
(This is dumb)
WHERE ARE THE BLOOD RAVENS GETTING THEIR INFORMATION. SERIOUSLY.
(Once you’re more than halfway through the game, people just... know things, without any greater explanation than ‘scouts report things they can’t possibly know’)
Hey, Force Commander, let's monologue at you why you're here AT THE END OF THE GAME AS PART OF AN OPTIONAL SCENE.
(Yes, you only learn at the end of the game why your avatar is in Sector Aurelia. What?)
Derp final mission derp stupidly designed uberbosses in general. Also, thinking the Avatar of Khaine can burn down an entire world, and also EFFORT: THE GAME in terms of... rampaging godmonster patiently waiting in an arena to be killed. Yay.
(I boggle every time I remember this)
Chaos Rising
PLANET AURELIA IN SUBSECTOR AURELIA. What, is it capital Aurelia on continent Aurelia in hemisphere Aurelia?
(Real life can be like this. There’s still a reason for the One Steve Limit)
Personal drop pods because reasons except Cyrus with Commander Hairgel because reasons on the first mission.
(No explanation is provided for this)
Traitor Guard calling the position, rather than the time or just saying "THEY'RE IN POSITION OPEN FIRE!"
(They’re scripted to only fire on a handful of locations on the map. Come on, writer, help me suspend my disbelief)
EVERYTHING IS BUILT INSTANTLY. EVERYTHING. FORGET THAT THIS GAME HAS NO BASEBUILDING MECHANICS TO JUSTIFY THIS NONSENSE, BAD GUYS HAVE INSTANT CONSTRUCTION SPEED. In general, everything happens in implausibly short time periods: when did the traitor get to Aurelia before everyone else? How?
(Chaos Rising’s plot is slipshod nonsense from step one, and it never improves. If anything it gets worse)
What is the point of bringing back Eliphas WITHOUT HIS VOICE ACTOR?
(I don’t get this. Bring back arguably the single most popular character from the original game, who was so amazing due to his voice, and then... don’t bring back the voice actor? I really hope they tried and failed to get the man, rather than just failing to realize the voice mattered)
"Most notably, the Blood Ravens have-" OUR BATTLEBROTHERS YOU FUCKER. "I must tend to one of the generators, Spess Mahreens-" BROTHERS. To be entirely fair, he's the pure run traitor, BUT COME ON MARTELLUS.
(Why does Martellus talk like he’s some outsider? Who thought this made sense?)
Of COURSE bitchslapped Derosa is a pseudo-love interest. OF COURSE.
(I’m sorry, creepy writer, but this is fucked up in addition to being stupid nonsense. Why are you even writing a Space Marine having a romantic interest? And why does treating a woman like shit act as a vital part of your courtship ritual?)
Some Corruption-if-failed-to-deploy missions are vaguely plausible. Sure, Thaddeus hates your guts forever and goes EEEEVVVILLL if you don't let him protect the home he so dearly loves. But Tarkus corrupting for not punching Eldar is dumb and Jonah corrupting for not going on the Space Hulk is DUMBER. HE SHOULD CORRUPT FOR GOING ONTO THE SPACE HULK.
(Corruption is a cool idea. Missions Corrupting someone because they get super-pissed makes sense. Your Psyker Corrupting for failing to go into a Warp-infested horror show is such a basic fail I have no words and cannot imagine how this got conceived of, let alone made it into the final product)
Really? Araghast and Eliphas are Bale and Sindri again? REALLY?
(I don’t mind re-doing a cool character dynamic, and Sindri and Bale were great. But Eliphas was more interesting than that. You don’t bring back a cool character so they can do that less-cool thing some other characters did!)
Ulkair is pretty much a Slaaneshi demon with a good laugh and the wrong body. Fuck.
(I liked that Dawn of War II tried to give Nurgle representation and Slaanesh representation, since the original game was basically all Tzeentch and Khorne. It was undercut by making our Greater Demon of Nurgle a straightforward sadist having nothing to do with Nurgle values. Either do the new thing and get it right, or go back to the old thing you were fine at doing. Don’t write the new thing the exact way you wrote the old thing and pretend it’s different)
RETRIBUTION
Tutorial still sucks, albeit with less narrating at each other.
Khornate Noise Marines!
Khornate Noise Marines in Alpha Legion colors. Relic, what?
(It’s baffling how Relic has a clear grasp on most of the lore, up to and including some fairly esoteric stuff, and then they cram in nonsense anyone who’s only peripherally familiar with 40k could probably tell you is wrong)
"This is the Ascendant, Azariah Kyras." This is the shitty dialogue, unnatural speech.
(That’s Kyras talking, if you hadn’t guessed)
I realize Kyras is supposed to be crazy, but... really? Nihilism? Khornate let's-Tzeentchian-plot nihilism, at that?
(I’ve seen other people point out how it’s questionable to have a Khornate psyker eg in Winter Assault’s campaign, but I’m personally willing to let that pass because that’s one piece of canon that’s always seemed flawed to me. That doesn’t mean Kyras actually makes sense. He doesn’t. At any point)
why does kyras tell you his weakness
(It’s like the writers have utter and total contempt for their player base. You couldn’t have one of our dudes take a guess that the demonic artifact of empowerment might, maybe, when destroyed, stop empowering him? Or even have Kyras do 5-year-old levels of cunning and try to pretend very hard that it’s not important? I mean the game wants us to think Kyras is Very Smart and then he tells you his weak point for no actual reason. The writing in Dawn of War II: bonkers to the very end)
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
boradefinirfit-blog
#boradefinir?
nolifu-blog
What Am I Doing With My Life!
jenny-garner
jenny from the block.
pandajangmi
Rosey Q
sootslides
what