A Sibling Sacrifice
The JL were having a normal, for them at least, meeting when suddenly a portal rips opens and spits out a young teen with snow white hair and glowing green eyes and he's carrying a bundle as he's stumbles out and lands on his knees in the meeting room.
The two main odd things about this kid was floating above the kid's head was a crown made of stars, ice, and the colors shifting like a aurora borealis and the bundle in his arms was strangely made of stars somehow, almost like a blanket of galaxies plucked out of the cosmos.
Before anyone of them could say or do anything, the kid turns around and screams towards the portal as he scrambles for it.
"JAZZ NO DON'T DO THIS! I CAN STILL FIGHT THEM! NONONONO!" but before he could reach the portal it snaps close.
The kid lands again onto the floor when he doesn't reach it in time, pleading for the damn thing to open again, and the bundle in his arms begins to cry from the jolting and noise.
The baby crying was the only thing that stopped the kid from pleading and instead focused his attention on the bundle in his arms.
"I'm sorry, I'm so damn sorry Ellie. I should had gotten us out of there sooner, I should had saved you bef- I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything..."
Those were the rushed, raw words the kid said down to the bundle. The kid curled inwards a bit, to both shield the baby, who was calming down somewhat into tiny cry hiccups, and for himself.
Those with advanced hearing could tell the kid was still whispering apologizes under his breath as he held the baby close.
"I'm sorry everyone, I'm so sorry. I tried, I tried so hard to save everyone but in the end... I'm sorry- everyone's gone... I'm sorry."
-x-x-
[Pssst, read the tags, they clear everything up]
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New article with more details (from Jason Schreier who first broke the story). If you can't see it, I'll copy the whole text under read more.
About 100 employees were laid off in total (8%) and one of the main reasons listed is "underperformance," "sharp drop in popularity" and "poor reception of Lightfall."
So you know when for the last year and a half content creators have been shitting and pissing on the game as a full-time job and the amount of negativity and ragebait content became the only thing to make content about for them? Well they certainly won't take the blame, but I will let it be known. These people either don't understand the influence they have or they do and they're doing it on purpose, and I don't know which of these two options is worse, but I am 100% confident that their campaign of rage and hate contributed to this.
You don't base your entire community around constantly hating everything about the only game you play (despite clearly not enjoying it anymore) and somehow avoid galvanising thousands and thousands of people into perceiving the game negatively. Imagine being employees who have barely worked there for 2 years and the only community reception they've seen is 24/7 hate train for their work and then they get fired because of "poor reception" and "drop in popularity." How can they not take that personally? I am absolutely devastated for these people who delievered a banger product and who were met with an unrelenting barrage of toxic gamer children which ended up having more sway over their boss than them.
Which brings me to the next bit and that's FUCK THE CEO. He is now my mortal enemy #1. I am projecting psychic blasts directly into his brain. What an absolute spineless coward who is more willing to bow down to fucking gamers than to protect his own employees. This is absolutely rage inducing because this has happened before. From the article from 2021 about the toxic culture at Bungie:
Reading this shit from the new article absolutely fucking sent me into blind rage because I immediately remembered this. Another instance of employees suffering because of comments on reddit. And because of toxic players. And proof that leadership is not protecting employees and is instead siding with players.
Match made in heaven. Asshole gamer content creators and asshole CEOs, all of whom sit at home on piles of money made from someone else's labour. I hope they all explode. None of the people that worked on this game deserve this.
Another article with an infuriating comment from the CEO:
In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.
"Kept the right people." Really. Veteran composers weren't the right people? Die!
Bloomberg article in full:
Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2.
Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting.
Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall.
The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product.
In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up.
But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts.
Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month.
The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office.
TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.”
PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign.
Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.
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kiryuu sibling stasis post-32 is so interesting to me. nanami tries to leave and is (temporarily but also, crucially, violently) prevented from doing so by touga and akio. after this experience she puts distance between herself and them: she leaves touga’s phone in the car, she resigns from the student council (though she dons her old uniform still), she repeatedly dismisses and undermines the authority of the rose code, of end of the world, of akio, of touga. but she’s still in ohtori, isn’t she? uncomfortable with the idea of leaving, uncertain if it’s really possible. she tried before, and it hurt her. deeply. it’s so interesting to me, nanami’s agency and how she limits her exertion of it after 32, when she realises it for what it is. contrast that with touga, who accepts this weird stalemate between them, who is, really, uninterested in having any relationship of any kind with nanami if he can’t gain something from her. he’s very passive with her after 32, compared to the passivity he’d always feigned towards her before in order to stoke reactions from her and then exploit them. i was thinking about how touga has always been able to sever his relationship with nanami, but chosen not to; first out of a sense of obligation (‘we should live to help each other’) then a realisation of how that could be exploited. i was thinking about how nanami has never realised her ability to leave, in part because it is limited by touga and the harm he does her. i was thinking about the desperation and confusion akio calls out to anthy with as she leaves. i was thinking about how different that is to the kiryuus’ strange semi-breakdown; touga doesn’t want or need nanami, and nanami might love her brother but she cannot trust him or feel safe around him, doesn’t want to see him anymore; she’s itching to leave, and just a little scared (you know, because last time she tried that her brother assaulted her), and he’s not doing anything because ignoring her means he doesn’t have to deal with the emotions of her leaving or staying. something something gendered power dynamics something something tragic siblings
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These Nimona headcanons have been sitting in my notes for like two weeks
I just know Bal and Ambrosius were those kids who had to be put on opposite sides of the room in class
And a lot of teachers assumed that they would just give up and pay attention but no
They’re some stubborn little shits who can't leave each other alone for more than five minutes
And while they were on their breaks they went through the options of “long-distance” communication (because yes these dramatic dorks consider ten feet long distance)
Notes? No that could be tracked back to them
Sign language? No that's too noticeable
They finally landed on morse code (because these losers would rather learn a dead language than wait to talk to each other)
Now you might be thinking “Roo wouldn't Bal be too focused on the lesson to talk to Ambrosius?”
No this little nerd records all of their lessons so he won’t miss a single piece of information
After they became fluent the only thing you could hear in class was the teacher talking some tapping here and there and Ambrosius and Bal holding back laughter with every fiber in their being
I also know these dorks would choose each other for every single activity
It got to a point where teachers would beg them to choose other people
They would listen for like one day and then go back to working with each other
These losers have known each other for so long that they can read each other's minds
All they have to do is look at each other and they’re angry or laughing or blushing
When people point it out Ambrosius will say he doesn’t even notice it anymore
Bal will say it’s as natural as breathing
And Nimona calls it creepy as fuck
They could also fill a book with the most random inside jokes most of which they don’t even really remember the context of
The main trio are fiercely protective of each other
Bal only got into a handful of fights back in the institute and it was all because someone got a little too comfortable and started talking shit about Ambrosius
People lost count of how many fights that Ambrosius got into
After a while Bal stopped wasting his breath by begging Ambrosius just to ignore them and bought a cool quality medkit
The number of fights Bal got into skyrocketed after the wall fell
While the majority of society saw the trio as heroes there were still some who called Nimona a monster and Ambrosius a disgrace
And most of those people couldn’t say anything afterward because their jaws were broken
There was an incident in the market which was could be summed up as Ambrosius holding a man at knife point while threatening to cut his tongue out if he ever heard him call Bal a murderer again
After Nimona came back the fights increased tenfold
The first time Nimona and Ambrosius went to the market alone they came back bloody and bruised
It wasn’t until Bal checked the news that he found out those dorks started a fucking riot
There were also rumors that a man was missing a tongue but Bal hoped those were just rumors
One time the three of them went out to dinner and some dumbass tried to jump them
They claimed that it’s what Gloreth would have wanted
Bal had to drag Ambrosius off of him while Nimona was egging him on
The first time that Nimona and Bal kidnapped Ambrosius from his office was undeniably the worst
He hadn’t eaten or slept in days and he looked like he was ready to keel over
And a couple of people dared to try and stop them
Claiming Ambrosius “still had work to do”
Nimona looked them dead in the eyes and said “If you don’t let us walk out of here I’ll make sure you never walk again”
No one argued with them after that
Bal told Nimona he was proud of them for keeping their cool
And Nimona replied “Thanks but I definitely broke someone’s foot on the way out”
He couldn’t even get mad at her because he broke someone’s hand
Bal says they’re the reason he’s getting grays in his early 20s
To which Ambrosius responds “Moonbeam you came home yesterday with a broken nose and busted knuckles don’t talk to me about gray hair”
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rewatching the bolas day one purgatory vod this morning and it’s soul-crushing bc it really didn’t go downhill immediately. genuinely they had some weird kind of hope even after being killed repeatedly until both green and blue decimated half the team at the same time. the entire team made jokes and comments about how the other teams should remember day one, that they set bolas on whatever path they followed from this point forward. charlie messaging bbh “you changed my life”, foolish saying the other teams will never forget what happened today— there’s a bit of general fandom commentary about how bolas supporters (or bolas themselves) can’t let go of what happened on the first day of purgatory and it’s because day one is so narratively intertwined with what bolas becomes and how their team moved forward from that point, the base foundation of their synergy is the events of that first day. it’s an all roads lead to rome thing where it’s difficult to analyze bolas’ motives and actions without mentioning the very thing that they’re founded on, which happens to be the events of day one
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