#but also its an investment nontheless!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

orkbutch · 7 months

Text

Okay! time to add my accompanying essays with each image from this set of work about why I assigned which types of play to each set of characters, and how Baldur's Gate III supports these in the text of the game. Because I thought about all of this way too much im not joking

First, Context: All of these are drawings of consentual play happening between these characters after they have put aside any active conflicts between each other. Nontheless, they utilise the dynamics and emotional conflicts of these characters. Each of these characters are in some way violent people, deeply stressed out by their circumstances, and craving pleasure and connection. Sometimes you need a little pinch and squeal before the end of the world just to get through the night, you know?

Wrestling & choking; Lae'zel (D) / Karlach (S)

I'll be honest, figuring out how Karlach and Lae'zel's dynamic would manifest was difficult for me at first. This piece came into existence primarily to balance the other pieces; it had to be the two of them with Lae'zel domming and Karlach subbing. But those restraints ended up guiding me to something I possibly may not have considered and have ended up really, really liking! Lae'zel immediately likes and respects Karlach because she is powerful, hardy, direct and honest. She tells Tav to show Karlach due respect the night she joins you. I think everyone loves Karlach because shes Karlach, but that is an unprecedented level of immediate respect from Lae'zel. I reckon one of the first things Lae'zel thought when getting to know Karlach was how fun it'd be to spar her, to test her strength. Not even sexually - just as bonding or morning exercise before taking on the day. And I know she'd want ideally to win, because she always wants to win, even if she'd be horny about losing.

Karlach seems to respect Lae'zel just as much for similar reasons; direct, honest, committed to her principles, and a beast on the battlefield. I think she'd feel a lot of empathy for Lae'zel's alienation from the world around her. She spent 10 years in Hell and is only now finally coming home, and she'd see in Lae'zel the opposite; someone flung out into space, braving a terrifying fate with nothing grounding or reassuring her. I think she'd be invested in welcoming Lae'zel into fun, casual friendship without being patronizing.

If these two powerhouses spent enough time wrestling each other or watching each other drill or whatever... INEVITABLY... it'd turn horny. Lae'zel's no. 1 turn on seems to be respectable beefcakes, and Karlach would fucking love wrestling in a horny way. Lots of body contact, its playful, its a little competitive, you got some power struggle shit going on which I think Karlach would enjoy, and she gets to use her big muscles for fun!

Wrestling also has a layer that I think Karlach and Lae'zel would absolutely connect on, which I kinda wanna flesh out in some more work: a love for Primal dynamics.

Now, a little detour, because Primal can be embodied and understood differently by different people. For some people, Primal is all about the specific power dynamic Primal usually plays on: Hunter/Prey. This is a dynamic of power struggle, pursuit, conquering and claiming, all things I think Lae'zel would definitely love, and Karlach would also enjoy. Where I think Primal clicks more for Karlach is another element of how many people do Primal: As play that emphasizes liberated expression of emotion, and roleplays loss of control. Its The Berzerker's Kink, and The Werewolf's Kink, the restless adhd jock's kink. Just getting lost in struggling and contact and fucking and roughness, and expressing whatever emotion comes during that. Karlach and Lae'zel find really, really good partners in each other for this kind of play.

Lae'zel is tough as fuck, competitive as hell and kinda scary, so Karlach wouldn't need to worry that much about getting too rough with her. She'd get to truly go hard in the struggle for power. But, ultimately, I think Karlach would let Lae'zel win pretty frequently (and tbh I think Karlach would usually win wrestling Lae'zel just because of her size and reach) because Karlach would LOVE being pinned and held by a body. Its the most high contact, our bodies are all over each other fun, and I think she'd relish that after 10 years of denial. She gets to just enjoy the feeling of being held, spent and physically overwhelmed after some good fun rolling around in the dirt. It's a great time. Karlach is deeply admirable to Lae'zel from the moment she met her. I think Lae'zel kind of sees Karlach as this singular force of nature warrior peer. Lae'zel doesn't have preconceived notions of what a tiefling is, or what most Plane beings are. She doesn't see Karlach as someone whose been Changed from an original form by time in the Hells. She sees Karlach, and she sees a war-torn tower of long surviving muscle that pours out fire and kills baddies with terrifying power and efficacy, who is also bright red and a team player. And seriously, I think for Lae'zel this would have been a moment of like. "Holy shit, they make people like this here? Maybe this Plane isn't so bad. She is a dragon and I want a ride." And getting to wrestle away control and power and subdue that beast, to conquer this amazing peer you admire so much, would be ... SUCH a rush for Lae'zel. The ultimate power trip. To bring Karlach the unique pleasure of being physically immobalized and held and conquered in a way thats hot, satisfying and safe. Yes. They'd love it. In Conclusion: They'd fuck a bunch and get extremely exhausted and roughed up. Then they'd go sit in a pond that Karlach would set at a comfy spa heat with her body and give each other shoulder rubs and drink beer. And they'd be like, "Hey seriously, x move was really good. I did not see that coming. Your leg lock is stronger than it was last month. I totally overpowered you with that pin though, right? Oh it was a fluke huh? We'll see next time." Jocks having some good rough fun.

#bg3 #Karlach #Lae'zel #Laelach #??#idk what their ship name is #Nasties #art #kinkposting

153 notes · View notes

oleanderblume · 3 months

Text

Ima say that Charlie's mom has Alastor's soul and he became the radio demon and gained his power in exchange for doing her bidding, based on what's been shown, souls are immortal unless sold to another sinner/demon. So my assumption is Alastor gained the souls of other overlords in order to be able to kill them, OR, he didn't kill them and is/was emmassing an army for Lilith. She seems to be left out of the story, but heaven's talk about "another uprising" makes me think that there was one previously, began by Lilith, not Lucifer.

Lucifer is an angel afterall, a fallen one, but an angel nontheless, and if his banishment to hell was punishment for his perceived transgression, and Lilith convinced him in the past to stage an uprising against heaven, it stands to reason why he wouldn't do it again with Charlie's life on the line.

My guess is Lilith started the first uprising, and that failed, prompting the exterminations to start happening, and after Charlie was born and the exterminations still persisted, Lilith probably wanted to do another uprising. But Lucifer would have been much more reluctant to do that when he has a daughter to protect.

So lilith leaves, taking Alastor to do her own planning over that 7 year gap. Then she hears about Charlie's plan, sends Alastor to protect her and the hotel, while she's still working on the next war effort.

At least...that's my guess at what's been going on.

It also makes sense why Alastor is so uniquely invested in the hotel and why he haaates Lucifer. He's the step dad of the situation lol.

Also, I just love Lucifer and his whole personality, Charlie takes after him in almost every way and its adorable lol.

The shows pacing is kind of suffering in the time scale department, i think it would have served the plot better if it were released spaced out similarly to Helluvaboss, because the binge format isn't conducive to the massive assumed time jump between episode 4 and episode 5. But that's more to do with the platform and way the episodes are being released, than the actual writing of the show.

The first 4 episodes take place over the course of 3 or 4 months, not in direct succession. And the last 2 episodes will probably take place during the last month before extermination, and then the season finale on the day of extermination. That pacing makes sense, but because of the way the episodes are released, it doesn't *feel* that way initially. Not the fault of the writers, more so the fault of Amazon's bizarre releasing schedule.

The philosophy of the show is really neat, reminescent of The Good Place. Where heaven is ridiculously underpopulated because of the archaic rules that gatekeep almost everyone out of heaven, and hell is overpopulated because the system of judgment is so off balance that it doesn't account for modern morality and extenuating circumstances. <- this is basically the same as The Good Place, but with more furries and more direct reference to Christian theology.

So far, i like it a lot, and im interested to see where it diverges from The Good Place.

I doubt Charlie is going to stay mad at Vaggie for long, for one she didn't seem particularly shaken in the first place, and Vaggie has shown her devotion to Charlie's cause from the start, her being an angel and her past of being and exterminator being a major hang up for Charlie would contradict Charlie's entire philosophy of "people are capable of change"

Also, i don't think Angel will get to heaven, in fact, i think he would get there and choose to stay in hell because hell is actually better than heaven in a lot of ways— especially if you're looking at it from the specifically Christian lense. Heaven wouldn't tolerate the things most souls would *want* as a part of their paradise, especially not by modern standards.

I honestly think that heaven will be described, as it has been thus far, as only accepting to the hyper religious zealot sorts that are deeply hypocritical— why else would Adam be there? Dude is the epitome of a red-pilled mysogynist dickwad. He likely got into heaven based solely on his kissup nature to the presiding God.

on what is considered appropriate behavior.

I think this is the general criticism the show is going for, a solid combination of critiquing the functionality of a system like heaven and hell, and a critique of the "virtues" one would be required to follow in order to get there.

Fuck, even Lucifer was taken aback by Charlie being in a queer relationship. To me that speaks a lot to the values *he* as an angel, was taught.

#hazbin hotel #silly theories #possible spoilers #thoughts #media analysis

9 notes · View notes

foolgobi65 · 3 years

Text

lol i didnt want to hijack @oldshrewsburyian 's excellent posts about jodhaa/akbar in a campus AU so im just making a post of my own

basically i straight up despise business dept snakes so while i do think she's correct that jalal would be a good match for that dept i think i'd either put him in the econ or pol sci departments, maybe even international relations? pol sci and IR especially appeal to me as extremely problematic academic spaces where its possible for professors to flit between the academy and the private/public sphere with relative ease. i think of jalal as some rising star in these departments, maybe even developmental economics where he can feel like he's doing good work but when you look deeper these solutions he's advocating are bandaids at best or predatory schemes to force privatization in exchange for debt-relief. (i also think that the pol sci dept at my school is the rotting abscess of our humanities/social science community to theres that too.) the other thing he could be involved in is security either national or global which is also a dicey field lol. i pull more from the movie where he's less ruthless and more naive i think, so i see him as just born into a "political" family, maybe even something where his parents were very important but had to leave so he's still brought up in exile. he doesnt really go "back" but instead devotes himself to being an academic focused on the region trying to figure out how to "pull people out of poverty" via global investment or w/e. he's charming, good looking, charismatic, so he's on a lot of boards and does global talks despite being relatively early career in comparison to peers -- not to mention his family privilege that could give him some name recognition!

maybe they're both new hires, though jalal has a guaranteed tenure path while jodhaa is on a precarious 3 year contract after which she can apply for a permanent job that she may or may not get (the ridiculous and exploitative structure at my university rip.) jodhaa can be either a specialist in premodern devotional literature (a professor i love works on braj basha and punjabi so im kind of pulling from her lol) or she can be one of those super cool interdisciplinary scholars whose home is in the rlg dept. either way she'd obviously be teaching broader survey courses as well as her upper level seminars. they meet at one of those ridiculous mixers for new hires and jodhaa who has a much more radical analytic than jalal expects to hate him on sight but realizes that he's charming. stupid and probably dangerous bc of it, but charming nontheless. jalal is just smitten on sight which is hilarious bc everyone is expecting him to marry a similarly powerful, intelligent, worldly woman and instead he's head over heels with this grumpy academic who works with texts and rails against the neoliberal academy on twitter where her profile pic is her brother's cat. (my professor is way too nice to be grumpy but she's a textualist who is radical on twitter its great and i love her sm lol)

jodhaa and jalal can be kind of cross appointed to south asian studies as well and maybe in their second year on staff they have to jointly teach the intro course for that? idk how plausible that is, but i could see jalal thinking it's a great opportunity to meet and inspire new students so he asks for it, and jodhaa as a prof that's gotten rave reviews from her year of teaching is volunteered to do it with him. there's friction ofc but slowly they learn more about each other, their backgrounds and where they're coming from. there's a blowout at the very end of the summer (which they mostly pass together, each working on their manuscripts and convincing the other to take breaks from working at the local cafe in order to walk to the local park) and jodhaa begins her application process for a tenure track position bc her 3 years are up. they basically don't talk for a hot minute and throughout this time jalal does A LOT of reading until, over time, he comes to his revelations about how ridiculous and bootlicking his discipline is and finally sheds the shackles of the Man and starts cyberbullying people on twitter. its great!

i agree that jalal has a cat which for a while is probably his greatest appeal to jodhaa who for a hot minute thinks that he's everything wrong with academia lmao. maham anga could be the crotchety head of the south asian studies dept (powerful but not necessarily either of their direct boss bc their primary appointments are with other depts.) jalal's dad is a politician who died in exile, his mom an international philanthropist/socialite? jodhaa comes from a middle class bookish family in india, her cousin-brother sujamal is either a lawyer or a trade union activist (or both) which is how she comes by her politics. sujamal is an honorable passionate person and i didnt want them to be royalty and i didnt want him to be part of the army so this is my next best solution lol. i really dont know how the plot really comes into play, but i do love academia aus lmao!

#jodhaa akbar

20 notes · View notes

canyousevmyheavydirtysoul · 3 years

Text

Bodyguard IV: Vegas Lights (Chapter Seven) (B. Urie x Reader)

"WE NEED TO RECONVENE UPSTAIRS. COME ON."

Brendon's words echoed in your head, yet failed to properly sink in. Your feet moved on their own accord, instinctively following in the steps of the agent ahead of you. The hotel's various entertainment areas and their accents faded into a swirl of blurred colours and patterns; you shut your eyes and pinched the bridge of your nose in hopes that it would recalibrate your vision.

It might have been all those tequila shots you'd taken with Ambrose, or the exceptional kiss you'd received a few moments earlier, but you were fairly certain that it was Brendon and his mesmerising, unnecessarily flirtatious performance that was responsible for your current state of disorientation.

A frown crept its way onto your face as you played back the last fifteen minutes in your mind – specifically, the parts where your bodyguard had gotten a bit too up close and personal with the hotel's female guests.

You were still following Brendon's lead, however your stride had slowed down enough so as to allow a couple feet of distance between the two of you. Sensing the change in proximity, the agent halted his movements and spun around to address you.

"Why the frown?"

Shaking your head, you avoided eye contact. "Just... thinking about your little... show."

His left eyebrow arched and there was a smirk playing on his lips. "You didn't like it?" he queried, feigning hurt, "It was for you."

Snapping your head back to look at him, you furrowed your brows and scoffed, stretching your arm out to gesture at the music lounge. "You sang to every girlin there."

"Yeah." He walked forward to minimize the distance between you and whispered lowly. "But where'd I end, though?"

With the intention of delivering a clever retort, you immediately opened your mouth to respond. Sadly for you, you couldn't think of a single thing to say in return, and instead resigned yourself to clicking your tongue at him irritatedly.

Satisfied with his little win, the brooding agent straightened himself up and smoothed his jacket. "Exactly. Besides..."

He started making his way to the elevator and you followed suit, leaning in slightly to ensure that you heard everything he was about to say.

"...not liked I danced with them. Unlike some people."

His voiced dropped to a low hum for that last sentence, but you caught it nontheless. You caught it, and you once again stopped dead in your tracks.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me."

It was abundantly clear that his quip was in reference to the whole "went-out-to-a-karaoke-bar-and-let-Aaron-Ross-serenade-you" thing, and honestly, you were insanely annoyed that he had brought it up.

After all, pretending to be dead and disappearing for eleven months was far worse.

"Oh, I'm sorry," you scoffed, clutching at your chest and widening your eyes, "I wasn't aware that dancing is a crime."

"It isn't," he shook his head, then tilted it to the side and stuffed his hands into his pockets, "Unless you do it without me."

"Oh, is that so?" you mumbled, skewing your face mockingly as you proceeded to overtake the agent in heading for the elevator. "Well maybe, if you had beenthere..."

Holding up his hands in a silent plea for you to stop talking, Brendon resumed his stride and sidled up next to you. Now that he was close enough to do so, he spoke into your ear.

"I don't intend on ever making that mistake again, believe me."

The two of you stepped into the elevator, standing shoulder-to-shoulder after pressing the button for your floor.

"I knew you sang," you scoffed, "You tried to deny it all those times, but I knew."

"Obviously. I literally sang you back to sleep once. What did you think that was, sweetheart? A dream?"

The elevator doors opened with a ding and seconds later, Brendon slipped out and down the hallway, leaving you to gawk after him.

"You literally said- UGH!"

✧✧✧

Minutes later. Your and Brendon's hotel suite.

"...so to summarise," Rollins made a circle with his hands, signifying that his recount of the last hour was coming to a pinnacle, "the lead was a bust and we just wasted a perfectly good distraction technique on nothing."

From the other side of the suite, over by the bar cart, Ambrose piped up. "On the bright side, we did bust a drug operation." Drink in hand, the Hound nudged Brendon with his elbow and leaned in to mutter some words. "I swiped a couple grams, if you wanna have a party later."

Already annoyed due to the fact that no one had managed to get anywhere with this case, Brendon clenched his jaw and exhaled fumingly at the Lunatic's immaturity. Turning his head sharply, he delivered a glare so deadly that it could be felt all throughout the suite.

Stepping back, Ambrose held up his free hand in a show of surrender, raising his brows. "Kidding. Jesus, lighten up a bit."

"I'll lighten up when we finally find a lead that's an actual fucking lead," the agent growled, grabbing Ambrose's drink out of his hand and downing it before rubbing his hands over his face.

"That was the closest thing we've had," Reigns reminded everyone, shaking his head in disdain, "I can't believe weof all people are in a rut."

Sick of the heavy, pessimistic aura in the room, you stood up and clapped your hands together once. Making sure that you looked each man in the eye, you called them down.

"We are not in a rut. We've been in Vegas for all of what, three days? Not all missions are walks in the park – you guys of all people should know that."

You were met with silence and four downcast gazes, and so you continued.

"Today was a particularly draining one; we're all tired, not thinking clearly, and some of us are still slightly inebriated so," you made your way over to the bathroom and placed on hand on the doorframe as you finished addressing your teammates, "let's all just call it a night, get some rest and then discuss our next move in the morning, okay? Okay. Wonderful. Now get out of my room, I need to take a shower."

A resounding slam echoed around the room as you emphasised your point by shutting the bathroom door. The lock clicked and taking that as their final cue, the four agents shifted from their respective spots around the suite and headed for the exit.

Given that there was twenty feet and a thick plastered wall seperating you and your teammates, it wasn't at all possible for you to overhear any conversation that arose between them. Nevertheless, Brendon waited to hear the water spouting from the shower head before he started speaking.

"Since this case is clearly going nowhere slowly..." Brendon stopped in front of the door, running a hand through his hair before placing both hands on his hips. The Hounds ceased their steps and listened intently. "I'm gonna call Weekes. In the meantime, I want you guys to keep looking for Mason."

Ambrose made no effort to hide his disdain over the request, letting his body go limp as he expelled a throaty groan.

"Big brother duty again? Dude, we told you that he's dead."

Brendon responded with an icy glare. "You also told me that the kidnappers were operating from an underground lair here in the casino. So forgive me if I'm a bit untrusting of your sources and their intel."

"Fair enough."

Always the rational one, Rollins nodded his head and gave Brendon a firm pat on the back as reassurance.

"We'll handle it. Let us know what Weekes says."

Nodding, the brooding agent opened the door to allow his colleagues to leave, each of them mumbling goodnights as they did so. He locked the door, making sure that it was properly secure before moving off to grab another drink from the bar cart.

The pattering of water against shower tiles continued to filter through from the bathroom and concluding that you'd most likely still be in there for a while, Brendon decided it'd be best if he called HQ then.

He picked up the suit jacket strewn across a chair in the corner of the room and ruffled through the inside pockets in search of his phone. Once he found it, he walked over to the compact dining area, i.e. the most secluded part of the suite and tapped the screen a couple times to ring Dallon.

Setting it down on the small table, Brendon tooks sips of his whiskey as he waited for the techie to answer. There was complete silence in the suite, save for the distant pattering of the water from the shower and the trill of the phone; the sounds fell in and out of sync with one another, giving the agent something to listen to until the cheery voice of his comrade – accompanied by his hologram – pierced through the air.

"Hey, handsome! I was wondering when you'd call!"

Just barely managing to fight back a chuckle and a smile, Brendon cocked his head up in greeting.

"Hey, Weekes. Listen, everything has pretty much gone to shit over here. We've got no leads, no intel, nothing. So..."

It took a second for the penny to drop but once the techie fully caught on to what his brooding counterpart was insinuating, he dropped the Scooby-Doo mug he'd had in his hand. The broken pieces of ceramic and milky coffee painted the linoleum floor of the tech room in an unappealing mixture of browns and blues.

Scooting as close to his desk as the roller chair would allow, Dallon leaned in closer still as he readjusted the glasses in front of his wide eyes. Eyes that were sparkling with excitement and a hint of mischief.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" He was practically squealing, forcing Brendon to recoil and shut his eyes. "We're gonna do the-"

"Yes." The agent cut his colleague off, partly out of fear that he'd overspeak and say something he shouldn't and partly because he was still squealing. "I hate to say it but... we're in a rut, and this might be our only option."

Dallon's hologram cheered triumphantly. Brendon winced. The techie was far too invested in this, and that unsettled him a great deal. Especially since it was purely for the sake of the mission, and not for the reason Dallon was not-so-secretly vouching for.

"So," Brendon cleared his throat, tossing a quick glance over in the direction of the bedroom to make sure that you weren't out yet; you weren't, and he looked back to the hologram, "Can you get that suitcase here by morning?"

"How do you know me, bro?" Dallon scoffed, then leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles, "Already on its way."

✧✧✧

The next morning.

The tiny crack in the hotel's curtains allowed for rays of morning light to filter into the bedroom, illuminating the space in a soft glow. Your eyelids rose with ease, grateful to finally reopen after a good night's sleep. Stretching out your limbs, you shook off the remnants of your slumber.

You had gone to bed right after your shower the previous night, calling out a goodnight to Brendon as you crawled beneath the covers. A low mumble was all you'd received in response. He was hunched over his phone, busy with what was undoubtedly mission-related things; you assumed he'd come to bed as soon as he finished whatever it was he needed to do.

Looking over at the space next to you, a frown found its way onto your face. The bed looked completely untouched, not a crinkle in the bedding nor a dent in the pillow. Your fingers trailed along the crisp duvet, hoping that you would somehow feelhim – feel that he had been there – and that it would prove that your thoughts of him chosing to sleep on the sofa rather than next to you were nothing but pesky anxieties.

Sadly, you found no such reassurance.

Heaving a sad sigh, you rolled over to face the other side. Your eyes fixed on the compact bedside table – or more specifically, what was on top of it. The frown you were wearing slowly morphed into a soft smile as you took in the sight of the still-steaming cup of coffee.

There was your reassurance.

While it was evident that he hadn't slept next to you, the familiar gesture of bringing you your morning coffee was proof enough that he cared.

Pushing yourself up into a sitting position, you called out to him. "Bren?"

Your voice was hoarse from sleep, and you cleared your throat while reaching over to pick up the mug. After taking a sip, you tried again.

"Brendon?"

No response. Knitting your brows together, you peeled back the covers and tentatively slid out of bed, trying not to spill any coffee. The complimentary hotel slippers laid by your feet; you slid them on and started for the living area of the suite.

There was no sign of your bodyguard, however there was a note on the coffee table. Picking it up, you read over the slanted handwriting.

'Needed to run a couple errands. Be back soon.

-B'

"Errands?" you muttered, taking another sip of coffee as you reread the note.

It was odd that the usually mission-orientated agent would take time off to do personal things, which led you to conclude that whatever he was doing was somehow tied to the case. It was even more odd, then, that he hadn't informed you of what exactly the errands entailed.

Chalking it up to his lone-wolf, arrogant nature, you dropped the note back onto the coffee table and walked back to the bedroom. You picked up your cellphone from the side table and sat yourself on the edge of the bed, scrolling through your notifications while you slugged down the remainder of your coffee.

Not long after, you were headed for the bathroom to freshen up and get ready for the day. You shut and locked the door out of habit, ensuring your privacy despite the fact that you were alone in the suite. When you emerged from the bathroom a half hour later, though, you realised that that was no longer the case.

You stopped in your tracks when you saw the dress splayed across the made-up bed. Knitting your brows together, you approached the bed with cautious steps and an inquisitive gaze.

Now that you were close enough to properly examine the dress – which was covered in a transparent dress protector to preserve its delicateness – you were quite easily the most confused you had ever been.

"Uh... Brendon?"

"Heads up."

You spun around just in time to catch the airborne object he had tossed across the room. Clutching the bunch of tulle in both hands, you lowered it down to inspect it.

"What's this?" you asked, fondling the material as you tried to make sense of it.

"A veil." His words caused you to freeze, your eyes the only part of you that moved as you looked up at him. He nodded to the item of clothing on the bed. "And that's a dress. Get changed. We have an appointment."

Tilting your head, you gave the agent a skeptical look. "Where?"

"The altar."

"...why?"

"We're getting married."

_______________________________

Thank you for reading x

Taglist:

@arosebyname @avengertrash21 @tiffisnotnormal @darknessdancing @raversam @theieroenthusiast @the-ghost-of-hemingway @laerkers @peters-vlogs @hockeyswag-boll @username-number-01834 @untilyouburnallofthewitches @underscoredarcy @aminasmells @becausebands @converseskyline @vinyloider @attractiveugly @twentzyonepirates @tegan-eva @i-only-date-flower-boys @jishwatylrandtop @blueskiesbleakeyes @robinruns @hi-ho-and-hello @svintsandghosts @iamafishandigosplish @sunshineandapplepie @kealohilani-tepise @bookworm104 @sheridans-dynamos @justawriterinprogress @anotherwriterinprogress @sillylandcalzonespy

24 notes · View notes

neinthedeer-blog · 5 years

Text

A ten-year-later story

Some weird idea about the future of the Rappapa with a light twist. I just wrote it for fun while celebrating the 10th anniversary of 10nen zakura. Please forgive my messy and lengthy writing style.

———————————

In a certain sunny day in February, at the usual busy airport, a girl with long black hair, which only had the left half tied up neatly, wearing black boots, black slim-fit military trousers and a camo sleeveless t-shirt, along with a deep green sukajan with white dragon embroidery on top, pushed her cart with at least a dozen of boxes on it around. She also carried on her back a military backpack. It seemed like she was waiting or looking for someone.

“Hey Gekikara! Over here!” A girl, also with long black hair and white shirt, black jeans and a black sukajan with white dragon embroidery but in a different design, who was standing beside a gray pickup truck, waved her hand. Gekikara walked right over with a newfound excitement; it had been 2-3 months since the last time they met.

“Thanks for picking me up, Black”, Gekikara giggled and started unloading the boxes on her cart into the rear trunk of the old truck after hugging the other girl, “By the way, you still haven’t bought a new truck yet?” Black helped with the unloading while answering, “I just don’t want to. And don't mention it, your goods need to be brought to the supermarket anyway. Are you gonna stay in a hotel this time? Wanna stay at my place?” Gekikara replied, “Well, I won’t refuse your kindness if you want to”.

After unloading everything, Gekikara put her backpack on top of the boxes and closed the trunk with a bang. “Take it easy, Gekikara, you will break my precious truck” Black said after seating herself on the driver’s seat. “Hey, it’s not my fault your precious truck is so old”, Gekikara replied while opening the door and comforting herself on the front seat of the so-called old truck. Black stoop on the accelerator and they were out of the airport’s noisy parking area in no time.

“How was your last mission in Syria?”, Black asked. “Decent. I saved a lot. There were so many abandoned children, you can't even imagine.” Gekikara answered in a soft voice. She was a soldier of a Voluntary Force, which main job was to come to terrored or devastated places to rescue the locals. Although the force was voluntary, they still got pay a lot due to the danger of the missions and also because the force was organized by private. Although the job paid good, it was not the reason for Gekikara's participation. It all started when she met a girl named Furukawa Airi a year after her graduation, after she sold her mother’s house and started roaming the world. The small girl was there when Gekikara passed by a terrored town and saved a child out of the fire. Airi asked Gekikara to join the force right away. “There are even more children that need help, will you join us?”, with a warm voice, Airi managed to convince Gekikara to join in the team. Gekikara was the one that understanding the feeling of an abandoned child the most hence she didn’t want to see any children suffering in her sight. Despite of being a private organized force, Gekikara was trained full-fledged military style and it helped her control her brute strength better, while also taught her the importance of defense and accuracy in fighting. She still laughed when fighting though, Gekikara-style as always. She was in the hand-to-hand combat team which was to handle hostage-involved cases, where they couldn’tshoot recklessly, and rescue people from collapsed buildings. Airi was in the tactical team and they were a great duo. However, Airi was shot 3 years after Gekikara joined the force and Gekikara went full monster to revenge for her dear friend. Nowaday, apart from her dog tag, she also wore Airi’s in commemoration of her friend and donated most of her salary to various orphanages. Money never delighted Gekikara so she only kept enough for herself and for her share in paying Yuko’s hospital bill. Yes, you heard it correct, Yuko was alive. The doctor said it was a miracle, but she needed to stay full time in the hospital. The Rappapa decided to split the bill among themselves since Yuko had no family or relative. Rappapa was her only family and they decided to do what family supposed to do. Even though Yuko protested a few times at first, she understood that she had no way to pay the bill with how she had to stay in the hospital all the time now. It was hard on the girls at first considering the only ones with real job is Sado, who was a nurse-in-training, Black, who was a clerk and Torigoya, who was a masseur. Maeda was finishing her study in medical university, Shibuya and Gekikara was jobless, or rather had not found the job they wanted.

Then things started getting better.

Firstly, Sado got promoted into the head nurse. Then Gekikara met Airi and joined the Voluntary Force. After that, Shibuya had been irritated by her underlings being beaten by boy yankees for a while now and started teaching them her boxing skill, then some other yankees came and asked to join her lesson. Ultimately, Shibuya turned her hideout into a boxing class for girl yankees and had made quiet a name for herself. The class, of course, had fees and even though it was not too high, the amount of trainees were enough to make up for that. Dance, still as loyal and faithful as ever, also joined the class, sometimes as experiment object for Shibuya, but also for serious lesson sometimes. Dance also helped with the equipment and gate-guarding for the class. When Maeda graduated from university and became a real doctor, the hospital fee for Yuko turned into a really small matter and to top that off, Torigoya saved enough to open her own massage parlor while Black inherited the supermarket from its previous owner. He was a lonely old man with no heir or any relative, so he decided to give it to Black, his loyal and hardworking employee after hearing Yuko’s story and how the Rappapa girls had decided to split the bill. The supermarket was in between Majijo and Yabakune’s territory, where no one dared to open up any form of business which boosted Black’s supermarket sell greatly. The students from both school also agreed to be on neutral term when encounter each other in her supermarket (or Black, and sometimes the other girls, would beat them into pulps). But what made Black’s supermarket become a hit was Gekikara’s goods. Gekikara usually got 4 breaks a year and due to another agreement between the girls, which was to come and take Yuko outside once a month for fun (didn’t mean she had not tried to sneak out but with Sado as the nurse and Maeda as the doctor, she stood no chance), she came back periodically with souvenirs for them everytime and one time, Gekikara brought spare military supplies back, and Black felt that the yankees would love these for sure, so Gekikara brought back more for Black on her next break, which sold out almost immediately. All type of fighting supplies like gauntlets, knee caps, camo suits, cargo pants,... were sold out in a flash. So Gekikara became Black's supermarket's fixed supplier and she sometimes brought back some of her job’s destination’s food or goods. Although they were not as good sell as the military stuffs, they were good seasonal products nontheless.

Black’s truck pulled up beside a small, neat-looking supermarket and the two started unloading the boxes again, now from the trunk into the store’s storage. After all was done, they sat together on the staff’s room and chatted for a bit. “Thanks for the goods, Geki. Just list the stuffs and prices out for me like last time. I will pay you later”, Black said while fidgeting with the water bottle’s cap after taking a huge gulp of water. “Don’t mention it, this supermarket was technically ⅓ mine anyway”, Gekikara said while smirking then went on and took another gulp of water from her military water bottle. Black facepalmed at what her friend just said, “I have told you that’s a bad idea so many times”. “Well, we did it anyway”, Gekikara laughed. It was years ago, after the Gekikara’s goods had been going on for a while, Gekikara suddenly suggested Black to sell her ⅓ of the supermarket’s stocks since she was technically a shareholder now with how much effort she was invested in the supermarket’s well-being. Black hesitated at first but finally did it and from then on, Gekikara had used it to reject her payment for the goods whenever she could. Black always had to force her to take it and Gekikara seemed like she enjoyed making Black angry.

“Where should we go next?” Gekikara asked while tugging her water bottle back into her already over packed bag. “Shibuya asked me to pick her and Torigoya up from the ring and then we can go to the hospital together” Black answered. “Oh yes, I almost forget, Yuko-san…”, the atmosphere suddenly turned quiet and heavy, Black, not willing to look at Gekikara’s sad face and also to hide her sad face, stood up first and walked out to the truck, “Let’s go, the others are waiting”.

Gekikara had a month break every year and to fulfill the girls’ agreement to come and bring Yuko out for fun as frequently as they can (usually once a month), she came back every 3 months and spent a week with her family - the Rappapa, and mostly Yuko. Therefore, she usually scheduled to come back at the end of March, which was to bring Yuko out to see cherry blossom, end of June, end of September and end of December, which was to celebrate new year together with her family. But this time, Gekikara had to take her break in mid-February because of a dreadful news from Yuko: she had fallen into a coma and her time was coming to an end, in which the doctors agree on letting her to go home for there was nothing they could do anymore.

The ride was filled with small conversation for Black and Gekikara to update each other with the 2 months gap. When the car stopped in front the boxing class, Dance immediately came and opened the door for them, “Black-san, Gekikara-san, Shibuya and Torigoya-san are waiting for you two”. “Thanks a bunch, Dance. Has the class ended?” Gekikara asked with a smile toward Dance. Even though not recognized as a Rappapa’s member, the girls all adored Dance’s devotion and loyalty toward her Shibuya-san and also to their small group. They all saw her as part of their little family. Whenever Shibuya couldn’t come to take Yuko out, Dance would go in her place and although being teased by Yuko a lot, the girl did her job perfectly. “They are coming to an end soon. Please come inside.” Dance said while holding the door open for them. “Okay, see you later, Dance”, Black said while the duo stepped inside the place. Shibuya was observing the sparring between her trainees and making criticism on their fighting stand while Torigoya was just dazing off, as always.

It was truly an amusing thing how much a person can change, for better. Teaching other yankees helped Shibuya to be better at controlling her emotion and temper. She was still a hot-headed though and nothing gonna change that, but she got really better at listening and instructing others. Back then, she could only boss her underlings around but now she was a great teacher herself.

Also, similar to Black’s supermarket, Shibuya’s ring was a neutral ground and all the yankees from different school agreed to stay neutral here (or, again, Shibuya and the others gonna beat them into pulps).

The class finally drew to an end and while trainees were pouring out of the class, some recognized Gekikara and Black and bowed to them slightly. Dance ran in and started cleaning up the place, also putting equipments away for tomorrow lesson. Shibuya and Torigoya approached the duo right after and while Torigoya gave Gekikara a tight hug, Shibuya only shook hands with her. Then, they exchanged some words of merriment while Shibuya cooled off and drank some water off her high-fashioned water bottle. Shibuya was wearing a black legging with a pink tank top and a pair of training shoes and Torigoya was wearing casual t-shirt and jeans with her red sukajan on top. She left to take a shower and then put on her pink sukajan to join them for the ride to the hospital. The four queens were coming for their boss.

When they arrieved at the hospital, heir vice boss and vice vice boss were already waiting beside Yuko, in their fur coat and jean jacket, silently.

The ride was silent, a peaceful silence shared among them since forever. The traumatized child, the introverted, the hot-headed, the air-headed, the sadist and the serious (plus the scaredy catl), they all came together around Yuko and Yuko had made sure that even when she was no longer around, they could still stand beside each other, silently, as always. They were no longer comrades, they were family. Family was different from friends or comrades. They didn’t have to always stuck beside each other, they didn’t have to have the same goal, the same dream, the same life values, but they would still come back to each other side at the end of the day. The girls were a family. And their home was the good old wind instrument club. They would occasionally take Yuko back to the room on their take-Yuko-out-of-the-hospital days for some nostalgia and with Black and Shibuya’s connection with new generations of Majijo’s students, the room was left untouched, silently waiting for its rightful owners to comeback.

Yuko was coming home.

It was weekend, so no one was at school right now. The school stood quietly embracing the early-spring breeze while the old cherry blossom tree shaking its dried branches as if welcoming Yuko and the Rappapa’s appearance. Cherry blossom season was nearby but Yuko wouldn't be there to see it.

Rumours said that Center was the president right now and she also helped maintaining the wind instrument room as it was for them.

Sado princess carried Yuko into their good old clubroom, which Yuko would loudly protest if she was conscious but today, she stayed quiet. They put her onto her golden chair, the chair for the top of Majijo, their top. Yuko was quiet, so unlike her, with her head slightly leaned to a side. If not for her pale skin, the Rappapa sweared they could see the old days playing in their head, where their precious Yuko-san, after causing lots of mischieves, soundly taking a nap on the same chair, her small figure embraced by the golden silk. At those time, the girls would usually sitting silently around her and let Yuko have her peaceful snap. So they did the same. Black sat down on the long chair and started reading her bible, Gekikara stood beside her while biting her nails silently, Shibuya sat down and stared at her newly done nails, Torigoya fidgeted with a feather, Sado rolled the kendama’s ball on her hand and Maeda read her book, Dance stood silently with bowed head beside Shibuya.

It almost resembled the scene from their good old days, except for all of them were praying this time. To gods, to demons, to heaven, to hell.

“Please don’t take Yuko-san away.”

——————————

Well, how will this end, you may ask? That's up to you.

This piece was written as a prologue for a fanfic of mine, but the fanfic itself will need more time to be polished, so I just post this as a one shot for memory. Maybe I will finish that fanfic one day.

#majisukagakuen #blackgeki #youwillseeitifyousquintreallyhard #gekikara #idek anymore #akb48 #ske48

4 notes · View notes

kindlecomparedinfo · 5 years

Text

Global smartphone growth stalled in Q4, up just 1.2% for the full year: Gartner

Gartner’s smartphone marketshare data for the just gone holiday quarter highlights the challenge for device makers going into the world’s biggest mobile trade show which kicks off in Barcelona next week: The analyst’s data shows global smartphone sales stalled in Q4 2018, with growth of just 0.1 per cent over 2017’s holiday quarter, and 408.4 million units shipped.

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner says Apple recorded its worst quarterly decline (11.8 per cent) since Q1 2016, though the iPhone maker retained its second place position with 15.8 per cent marketshare behind market leader Samsung (17.3 per cent). Last month the company warned investors to expect reduced revenue for its fiscal Q1 — and went on to report iPhone sales down 15 per cent year over year.

The South Korean mobile maker also lost share year over year (declining around 5 per cent), with Gartner noting that high end devices such as the Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note9 struggled to drive growth, even as Chinese rivals ate into its mid-tier share.

Huawei was one of the Android rivals causing a headache for Samsung. It bucked the declining share trend of major vendors to close the gap on Apple from its third placed slot — selling more than 60 million smartphones in the holiday quarter and expanding its share from 10.8 per cent in Q4 2017 to 14.8 per cent.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

This growth was not just in Huawei “strongholds” of China and Europe but also in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East, via continued investment in those regions, the analyst noted. While its expanded mid-tier Honor series helped the company exploit growth opportunities in the second half of the year “especially in emerging markets”.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

By contrast Apple’s double-digit decline made it the worst performer of the holiday quarter among the top five global smartphone vendors, with Gartner saying iPhone demand weakened in most regions, except North America and mature Asia/Pacific.

It said iPhone sales declined most in Greater China, where it found Apple’s market share dropped to 8.8 percent in Q4 (down from 14.6 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2017). For 2018 as a whole iPhone sales were down 2.7 percent, to just over 209 million units, it added.

“Apple has to deal not only with buyers delaying upgrades as they wait for more innovative smartphones. It also continues to face compelling high-price and midprice smartphone alternatives from Chinese vendors. Both these challenges limit Apple’s unit sales growth prospects,” said Gartner’s Anshul Gupta, senior research director, in a statement.

“Demand for entry-level and midprice smartphones remained strong across markets, but demand for high-end smartphones continued to slow in the fourth quarter of 2018. Slowing incremental innovation at the high end, coupled with price increases, deterred replacement decisions for high-end smartphones,” he added.

Further down the smartphone leaderboard, Chinese OEM, Oppo, grew its global smartphone market share in Q4 to bump Chinese upstart, Xiaomi, and bag fourth place — taking 7.7 per cent vs Xiaomi’s 6.8 per cent for the holiday quarter.

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Because, well, with eye-catching innovation stalled among the usual suspects (who’re nontheless raising high end handset prices), there’s at least an opportunity for buccaneering underdogs to smash through, grab attention and poach bored consumers.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

“In mature markets, demand for smartphones largely relies on the appeal of flagship smartphones from the top three brands — Samsung, Apple and Huawei — and two of them recorded declines in 2018,” noted Gupta.

Overall, smartphone market leader Samsung took 19.0 percent marketshare in 2018, down from 20.9 per cent in 2017; second placed Apple took 13.4 per cent (down from 14.0 per cent in 2017); third placed Huawei took 13.0 per cent (up from 9.8 per cent the year before); while Xiaomi, in fourth, took a 7.9 per cent share (up from 5.8 per cent); and Oppo came in fifth with 7.6 per cent (up from 7.3 per cent).

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/global-smartphone-growth-stalled-in-q4-up-just-1-2-for-the-full-year-gartner/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/

#RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395

0 notes

un-enfant-immature · 5 years

Text

Global smartphone growth stalled in Q4, up just 1.2% for the full year: Gartner

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

#TechCrunch

0 notes

ramblyravingnnjashark · 5 years

Text

Nier Automata - Genius and Madness

the works of Yoko Taro are something that have eluded me for most of my life, and that I have given very little attention to. Probably for good reasons because from the outside, the gameplay of his games range from Mediocre to Average at best and I consider myself a very "gameplay First" person. Some of my Freinds would rave about Drakengard and how weird it is but that didnt quite convince me to look into them much further. However, one Fateful Day a little game called "Nier Automata" was announced, a sequel to Yoko Taros Xbox 360/PS3 game Nier with a little line of Text that would change things in an instant

"Developed by PlatinumGames"

now friends of mine will know that, PlatinumGames is one of my alltime favourite Game Devs for their Crazy High skill Character Action Beat em up titles, containing Larger than Life characters and great and tight Gameplay that owes their roots in the Arcade games of old, which is something I have a appreciation for.

So, with a combination like this I finally decided to take on this series, by means of watching Youtube essays about it because goddamn, the gameplay in these games can get rather mind numbing sadly but honestly? Yoko Taro mighta earned himself now a nice cushy place as one of my favourite Directors, right next to Hideki Kamiya and Hideo Kojima themselves.

But there is one thing I realised from watching these Essays and actually playing one of them it is one thing to watch a guy sum this series up for you, its a whole different thing to watch the Insanity for yourself

because the works of Yoko Taro arent stories about Heroic Knights slaying Demons and Evil Dragons, or Loving Fathers/older Brothers trying to survive the Fall of Humanity with their Daughters/Little Sisters

they are stories about Love, Hate, War, the meaninglessness of the Universe and the Hope growing from it, what it means to be Human, and what it means to lose all reason and go complete and genuinely Mad

(there will be spoilers, so be warned if you wish to expirience these games yourself!)

so originally, this was gonna be a brief recap of Drakengard and Nier, but then I realised I couldnt do these games justice so I just link this and this recap of these games that should give you a good idea what these games are about but to keep it brief

Drakengard is essentially to RPGs what Evangelion was to Mecha Anime, and thats a fairly approviate comparsion when you just look at, this

its also notable for how it handles its different endings, usually referred to as Ending A, Ending B etc, Ending E of the first Drakengard game was a Joke ending that nontheless became the basis for the setting of Nier, a ruined Planet Earth set hundreds of years after the Fall of Humanity about a Father (in the Western Releases) or a Older Brother (Japanese release) having to fend for himself and his Daughter/Younger Sister in a world under constant threat of creatures known as Heartless Shades

both these games are interesting, because their gameplay is nothing special, in the case of Drakengard its outright terrible,they got mediocre reviews and poor sales and yet these games have a dedicated Cult following and tons of Novels, Audio Dramas, Manga and even Stage Plays that expand the Universes of these games and its lore

and thats for a simple reason: these games may have mediocre gameplay but, their Stories, their Characters, their Art Direction is actually of fairly high quality featuring intriguing Characters and worldbuilding that makes you invested in them regardless I mean, theres a entire exchange in Nier thats entireley between two Magical Talking Books for cryin out loud, and its one of the best parts of the game!

however, these games have thus far had a life as just that, Cult Classics, that didnt manage to garner a mainstream audience due to its aforementioned quirks, the Gameplay just could never stand up to the well written stories of these games

this is where PlatinumGames comes into play

now, the gameplay of Automata I honestly felt like was more on par with what Revengeance offered: there is stuff you can do with it but all in all its below the likes of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry 3 but thats not to say its poor, of course not, it doesnt encourage you to try anything other than just Mash about, but thats Fine, theres also Chips that your characters can even equip Chips that enhance their abilities and giv e them new ones such as a Bayonetta style Parry and Witch time or give them Heals upon Killing the enemy and while the actual enviroments can be a bit of a chore to go through (until you get Fast Travel), it still felt good to Parkour your way through them, nice snappy and smooth which gives me hopes they take a cue or two from this game for Bayonetta 3 in that regard at least

another thing I loved is the Soundtrack itself. Now I dont consider myself a musical person, however I can tell when a Song is used perfectly, and in Automata? Every Song is used to actual perfection. Music to me can be the deciding factor wether a Area or Scene in a Game or Movie is Garbage, Forgettable or Legendary, and for Automata, every song makes each area fall niceley into the latter fortunatly. One Standout track for me is Birth of a Wish (Become as Gods) a retake of an earlier song that adds in additional Chorus, and the Theme for Pascals village which is a cute Melody involving Children singing.

now onto the game itself, Route A puts you in the sexy and Lucious Thigh High boots of YoRHa Unit 2B, whereas Route B puts you in the cute Boy shorts of her Partner and mostly Good Boy YoRHa Unit 9S both tasked with ridding the world of Machine Lifeforms and making Earth inhabitable for the Humans stuck on the Moon again Both Routes play out roughly the same, 2B plays like a Standard Character Action Heroine with Lights and Heavies and such, whereas 9S is mainly focused around his ability to hack enemies and engage into brief SHMUP segments.

of the two I felt like 2B was a little more fun to play all in all, the Hacking was fine but also felt a teeny bit like a pace breaker but not too much, at least until late in Route B the game throws curvebals and unique hacking segments into the mix

a thing Yoko Taro games have been very good at showing, is showing the process of a Person losing their mental stability and throwing it all away to become a one track minded Mad Man and I find that interesting.

Drakengard had a good example when the Character Inuart completley loses it and becomes obsessed with bringing back his Dead Love interest, causing here to turn into the monster posted above. Automata meanwhile, shows this also but with Machines, being that shouldnt even go mad in the first place but become Insane with concepts like Revenge, Fear or other. Now I am not a Psychology Major or anything but I cant help but feel "this is Intriguing", not sure if thats a bad thing or anything but thats how it is.

now, Route C is where officialy the PlatinumGame ends and the Yoko Taro game begins, in that things become utterly, utterly Bleak. Not to say it was happy funtime before, many of the sidequests end on a very sour or outright terrible note, but here? Shits gon Bad!

YoRHa falls, everyone on the Protagonists homebase dies or becomes infected with a Virus that makes them go insane, 2B dies and 9S is severeley wounded and has his mental state utterly ruined by seeing 2B, his Love interest, die. from this Point onward, you play as Either A2, a former YoRHa gone Rogue and 9S as he tries to kill every last Machine Lifeform, and as hes utterly loses his mind. Focusing entireley on his one Goal so that maybe, he can find Death and be with 2B in the Afterlife.

this is where the game really became interesting to me. Gradually 9S goes from this sweet pure boy to a Violent Mess that only wants to Kill and Kill and Kill, Over and Over, its a Interesting Development for such a Character I feel. A2 meanwhile, while still a Great Character and a Blast to play, I felt like was severeley underutilized, getting very little playtime compared to 2B and 9S, with most of her greatest character Development limited to a Japan only Stage play that got a short text recap on a terminal. and it just goes from there and it keeps going, plot twists happen, reveals happen, callbacks to the first Nier and Drakengard 1 happen, its just this huge Mountain of themes and stuff to uncover and analyse. references to old Philosophers and the Concept of Nihilism itself ebing explored, little details that popped up in the early game and now have much greater meaning, its....actually incredible?

I dont think I ever played a game that had so much going on, the last time I think I did was, Metal Gear Solid 3, maybe?! I think....this might actually be one of the best written games I ever played?

and there is still so much content I could go through, the Stage Plays, the Novels, theres probably a buncha Audio Dramas for it too already its like, Jesus christ. and then theres Ending E, which while rather difficult (and probably causes at least 4 people to fucking hate my Guts) was probably one of the best ending sequences I seen in recent years, I'm not gonna go into detail what it is because, it needs to be seen to be belived, but I find it genuiley incredible.

I dont think theres a single game in the Drakengard and Nier series I would actually consider my "Favourite Game", maybe Nier Automata but thats up for consideration still, but I think I can safeley say that both games story as a whole is easily up there with Metal Gear as one of my favourite Game stories out there, and friends and followers of mine would know by now how much I love that Franchise and its wacky insane story, Drakengard and Nier are special little series that you dont see enough of these days, but maybe thats for the better

I'm not gonna say "Nier Automata rekindled my love for video games" or anything, but I am glad I got to expirience these two series.

#Recent Ramblings #Ramblings #Ninja Original

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

Global smartphone growth stalled in Q4, up just 1.2% for the full year: Gartner

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2GARVzt via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2GARVzt ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

toomanysinks · 5 years

Text

Global smartphone growth stalled in Q4, up just 1.2% for the full year: Gartner

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/21/global-smartphone-growth-stalled-in-q4-up-just-1-2-for-the-full-year-gartner/

0 notes

fmservers · 5 years

Text

Global smartphone growth stalled in Q4, up just 1.2% for the full year: Gartner

tl;dr: high end handset buyers decided not to bother upgrading their shiny slabs of touch-sensitive glass.

Gartner has dubbed 2018 “the year of Huawei”, saying it achieved the top growth of the top five global smartphone vendors and grew throughout the year.

Huawei Honor’s smartphone with a hole-punch display is real

The latter had a generally flat Q4, with just a slight decline in units shipped, according to Gartner’s data — underlining Xiaomi’s motivations for teasing a dual folding smartphone.

Or that’s the theory. Consumer interest in ‘foldables’ very much remains to be tested.

In 2018 as a whole, the analyst says global sales of smartphones to end users grew by 1.2 percent year over year, with 1.6 billion units shipped.

The worst declines of the year were in North America, mature Asia/Pacific and Greater China (6.8 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively), it added.

Via Natasha Lomas https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

djgblogger-blog · 6 years

Text

The law that made Facebook what it is today

http://bit.ly/2qqqDkP

Cutouts depicting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing 'Fix Fakebook' displayed on Capitol Hill on April 10, 2018. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Facebook is facing a reckoning in the court of public opinion for how the social media giant and its partners handle customer data.

In the court of law, holding Facebook responsible for its actions has been quite a bit harder.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hauled in front of Congress to apologize for a data scraping scandal – a scandal that quickly followed an outcry that the site had been exploited by Russia during the 2020 election.

It’s rare to see a social media company pay consequences for its actions – or inactions – because of a broad immunity shield that some in Congress are rethinking.

The story starts 22 years ago. That’s when a defamation suit was brought by the now-shuttered investment firm Stratton Oakmont against the operator of an online discussion board. The name Stratton Oakmont may sound familiar. That’s because the brokerage was made infamous by Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The suit prompted Congress to protect the hosts of discussion boards – and, as it now turns out, social networking sites as well.

For the past four years, I’ve taught a college course that considers the importance of that law, the Communications Decency Act, in making today’s social media industry economically feasible. Arguably, that law created a climate in which the Facebooks of the world came to believe that anything bad happening to their users was someone else’s fault.

Let’s take a quick spin through the history.

‘Family-friendly’ internet

Prodigy screenshot circa 1988. Benj Edwards, CC BY-ND

In 1984, Prodigy Communications Corp. launched as a pioneering entrant into the first rudimentary wave of internet service providers. To compete with much-larger CompuServe, Prodigy promoted its services as “family oriented,” promising to moderate pornographic material.

In October 1994, a commenter on a Prodigy discussion board posted a string of accusations about fraudulent stock offerings promoted by Stratton Oakmont. The commenter called the company “a cult of brokers who either lie for a living or get fired.” To anyone who has seen Scorsese’s film, this seems prescient and understated. Regulators shut down Stratton in 1996, and its founder went to prison for securities fraud.

Nontheless, Stratton sued Prodigy for libel. In a 1995 ruling that shook the nascent industry, a New York judge ruled that ISPs could be held liable as “publishers” of their customers’ content. The judge wrote that Prodigy “held itself out as an online service that exercised editorial control over the content of messages posted on its computer bulletin boards, thereby expressly differentiating itself from its competition and expressly likening itself to a newspaper.” And like a newspaper, Prodigy could be sued over injurious material in reader submissions just as if the submissions were the company’s own words.

The ruling sent a worrisome message to the industry: Stop taking down harmful or offensive material, or you’ll be liable as the “publisher” of whatever remains.

Congress was alarmed.

Congress raises the deflector shields

Nebraska Sen. J. James Exon, an outspoken opponent of “cyberporn,” leveraged outcry over the Stratton case to help pass what became the Communications Decency Act. The CDA made it illegal to knowingly use internet services to transmit obscene material to minors. But Section 230 of the statute made two crucial concessions that – unforeseeably to Congress in 1996, seven years before the debut of MySpace – paved the way for the explosive growth of the social web.

First, the act holds only the actual creators of harmful content liable for its consequences.

Second, the act prevents liability for good-faith attempts to moderate “objectionable” material. This means immunity is not forfeited by removing offensive reader submissions. Today, this enables The New York Times to screen comments on its website without accepting liability for them.

In other words, Congress elected to treat the Prodigies of the world – eventually including Facebook – as no more responsible for the acts of their users than the telephone company. Just as AT&T is not liable for obscene phone calls placed by customers, neither an ISP nor any website with reader interactivity is the “publisher” of its users’ submissions.

Traditional publishers are liable for the consequences of the speech they print, even if that speech comes from outsiders who were neither paid nor solicited to submit. If The New Yorker carries a letter to the editor falsely calling someone a criminal, the magazine can be held liable alongside the letter writer. The theory is that the editors chose the letter and had the opportunity to fact-check it.

In this way, Section 230 represents a breathtaking recalibration of liability law. In effect, the online publishing industry has convinced Congress that its capacity to distribute harmful material is so vast that it cannot be held responsible for the consequences of its own business model.

To be clear, social media sites can still be liable for how their own employees mishandle user data, or for breaching promises made to customers in their terms of service, neither of which requires treating the sites as “publishers.”

The CDA is widely credited for the flourishing of YouTube, Yelp and other sites that rely on user submissions. It is also faulted for some of the social web’s worst excesses. Law professor Danielle Citron, author of the influential 2014 book “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace,” highlights how CDA immunity makes “revenge porn” possible by enabling websites to refuse demands to unpublish even the most intrusive content.

Those injured by reader-submitted content may still pursue legal action directly against the authors – if they can be found. A robust body of case law governs when a website host can be forced to “unmask” the credentials of its users. But – as with the Macedonians purveying “fake news” on Facebook – those authors may be beyond the reach of American courts, or lack the capacity to pay meaningful damages. That may leave those wronged with nothing but an earnest apology from a billionaire tech entrepreneur.

Frank LoMonte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

0 notes