Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-12-05 11:59 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-12-05 11:59 am
Entry tags:
I Know Those Men; I Shat On Their Bar.
I've never seen Dreamwidth so active! Hello to all of you: people who've newly arrived, people who've returned and people who've been doggedly posting here the entire time.
Here are some further thoughts on Red Dead Redemption II, with spoilers up to chapter six.
I still can't believe Red Dead Redemption II is a Wild West simulator so intricate and faithful that I'm dying of tuberculosis. (With Rockstar's dedication to realism, I can only assume they originally wanted to infect the player with tuberculosis and eventually had to settle for infecting the protagonist.)
Arthur met a struggling widow and taught her to hunt, and I'm kind of shipping it, and she definitely seems interested in him, but I feel that romantic involvement between them might be tricky if Arthur's worried about infecting her. Still, it might not be bad for Arthur to fall in love with someone who isn't Abigail.
(At Shady Belle there's a hole in the wall of the room Abigail shares with John, right through into the corridor. Line from the pining fic I probably won't write: Arthur's not brazen enough to look through, but it's hard not to catch an earful sometimes.)
From Arthur's diary entry after he's diagnosed: My mind is racing, of course. That monk and that man, Downes's widow, Abigail, Mary, Dutch when I first knew him, Hosea, my dead Pa, the no good bastard, the whole crowd of people. It seems telling that he mentions Abigail before Dutch or his old flame Mary.
Downes's widow isn't the widow I'm shipping Arthur with, by the way; she's the widow of the man Arthur probably caught tuberculosis from. Arthur went to threaten a debt out of the very ill Downes close to the beginning of the game.
One issue with that debt recovery mission: you don't have to beat Downes, but the game assumes you did! I got through that mission just by threatening him. I'm not questioning that Arthur got his tuberculosis, but I definitely didn't punch him and afterwards Arthur writes in his journal that he beat him up and NO YOU DIDN'T. Everyone assumes that Arthur beating Downes contributed to his death, including Arthur himself! But it didn't happen!
There was also a weird conversation with Karen at camp once, where Arthur confessed he'd been killing innocent people for no reason. BUT HE HADN'T. Look at your honour level, Arthur! You're an outlaw who's devoted himself entirely to freeing hunters from bear traps and donating to the needy and bringing ill people to the doctor. And, I mean, yes, occasionally threatening debtors and robbing banks.
Red Dead Redemption II has a ridiculous feature where apparently every hotel has a sexy lady who's employed to sit by the tub and help you bathe; I assume that was actually a thing at the time? When she comes in and says hello you have the option to go NO SMALL TALK, I'M A MANLY MAN WHO DOESN'T CHAT, WASH MY ARMS, but if you wait for a moment that option disappears and you get the option to make small talk with her. I usually turn down the sexy bath lady's offer of help, but the first time I bathed after Arthur's diagnosis I accepted it, in case he'd find it comforting. He said, 'Sometimes you've gotta treat yourself. It's been a tough few days,' to her, so perhaps he did.
(I wondered at first whether 'It's been a tough few days' was something he'd say at any time and it coincidentally worked perfectly with where I was in the game, but he said 'been a tough few weeks' during a bath some days later, so I suppose the game was indeed thinking about his diagnosis.)
On a different note entirely, I am pleased to report that High School Musical 3 is still a masterpiece. Troy and Gabriella are cute as hell. Every song is great. If you haven't seen Troy singing about his teenage agony in a spinning corridor of pain, you're in for a treat. (Warning: flashing lights.)
It'll never happen, but I'd love to see a High School Musical world in Kingdom Hearts III. And I want Donald Duck to join in on the songs.
(GOOD TO MEET YOU, NEW PEOPLE, THE TERRIBLE TRUTH IS THAT I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. It's too late; you're already reading my journal!)
Here are some further thoughts on Red Dead Redemption II, with spoilers up to chapter six.
I still can't believe Red Dead Redemption II is a Wild West simulator so intricate and faithful that I'm dying of tuberculosis. (With Rockstar's dedication to realism, I can only assume they originally wanted to infect the player with tuberculosis and eventually had to settle for infecting the protagonist.)
Arthur met a struggling widow and taught her to hunt, and I'm kind of shipping it, and she definitely seems interested in him, but I feel that romantic involvement between them might be tricky if Arthur's worried about infecting her. Still, it might not be bad for Arthur to fall in love with someone who isn't Abigail.
(At Shady Belle there's a hole in the wall of the room Abigail shares with John, right through into the corridor. Line from the pining fic I probably won't write: Arthur's not brazen enough to look through, but it's hard not to catch an earful sometimes.)
From Arthur's diary entry after he's diagnosed: My mind is racing, of course. That monk and that man, Downes's widow, Abigail, Mary, Dutch when I first knew him, Hosea, my dead Pa, the no good bastard, the whole crowd of people. It seems telling that he mentions Abigail before Dutch or his old flame Mary.
Downes's widow isn't the widow I'm shipping Arthur with, by the way; she's the widow of the man Arthur probably caught tuberculosis from. Arthur went to threaten a debt out of the very ill Downes close to the beginning of the game.
One issue with that debt recovery mission: you don't have to beat Downes, but the game assumes you did! I got through that mission just by threatening him. I'm not questioning that Arthur got his tuberculosis, but I definitely didn't punch him and afterwards Arthur writes in his journal that he beat him up and NO YOU DIDN'T. Everyone assumes that Arthur beating Downes contributed to his death, including Arthur himself! But it didn't happen!
There was also a weird conversation with Karen at camp once, where Arthur confessed he'd been killing innocent people for no reason. BUT HE HADN'T. Look at your honour level, Arthur! You're an outlaw who's devoted himself entirely to freeing hunters from bear traps and donating to the needy and bringing ill people to the doctor. And, I mean, yes, occasionally threatening debtors and robbing banks.
Red Dead Redemption II has a ridiculous feature where apparently every hotel has a sexy lady who's employed to sit by the tub and help you bathe; I assume that was actually a thing at the time? When she comes in and says hello you have the option to go NO SMALL TALK, I'M A MANLY MAN WHO DOESN'T CHAT, WASH MY ARMS, but if you wait for a moment that option disappears and you get the option to make small talk with her. I usually turn down the sexy bath lady's offer of help, but the first time I bathed after Arthur's diagnosis I accepted it, in case he'd find it comforting. He said, 'Sometimes you've gotta treat yourself. It's been a tough few days,' to her, so perhaps he did.
(I wondered at first whether 'It's been a tough few days' was something he'd say at any time and it coincidentally worked perfectly with where I was in the game, but he said 'been a tough few weeks' during a bath some days later, so I suppose the game was indeed thinking about his diagnosis.)
On a different note entirely, I am pleased to report that High School Musical 3 is still a masterpiece. Troy and Gabriella are cute as hell. Every song is great. If you haven't seen Troy singing about his teenage agony in a spinning corridor of pain, you're in for a treat. (Warning: flashing lights.)
It'll never happen, but I'd love to see a High School Musical world in Kingdom Hearts III. And I want Donald Duck to join in on the songs.
(GOOD TO MEET YOU, NEW PEOPLE, THE TERRIBLE TRUTH IS THAT I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. It's too late; you're already reading my journal!)
no subject
...I had forgotten about it. My kid had me listening to it (avoided watching it, lol) a bizilion times XD
I, er, I mean... That crossover, er, has anyone tried to write it?
no subject
I, er, I mean... That crossover, er, has anyone tried to write it?
Nothing on AO3, but I just checked fanfiction.net and found a fic with the summary 'Sora, Donald and Goofy enter High School Musical to prevent Organization XIII from stealing the East High School's heart while at the same time, trying to get Troy and Gabriella together for the winter musicale.' This is simultaneously the most Kingdom Hearts and the most High School Musical thing and I'm delighted.
The only High School Musical fic I've ever written was a Supernatural/High School Musical crossover, years ago. There was bodyswapping.
no subject
If I wasn't seriously weighed down by editing and a handful other writing projects, I'd prob be trying to figure out how to make this happen. Because yes.
o.o
Bodyswapping ahahahahhaah. Oh gods, was it any good?
no subject
(Oh, fine, work on your other projects. But I'd still love to see that fic.)
It's hard for me to judge whether it's good when I wrote it! But it was definitely fun to write. It's over here, if you're compelled to judge for yourself, although of course you're under absolutely no obligation to read it! (I should mention that that's not my main AO3 account - it's just for posting backdated works, so everything on there is more than six years old.)
no subject
Also, once I'm done, I'll just, you know, have to watch those movies, and revisit KH, and probably write something quite fun, because yes >.>;;
no subject
"Okay, so when the players blow on the cartridge to make it work, the germs will fly up and be inhaled by them, thereby infecting them with TB!"
"Bad news guys, legal says no! Something about product liability, and also this being an actual crime, and possibly technically bioterrorism?"
"But what about the realism?"
I got through that mission just by threatening him. I'm not questioning that Arthur got his tuberculosis, but I definitely didn't punch him and afterwards Arthur writes in his journal that he beat him up and NO YOU DIDN'T. Everyone assumes that Arthur beating Downes contributed to his death, including Arthur himself! But it didn't happen!
Poor Arthur, the fever in his brain is causing him to confuse events his his past, and he's having trouble remembering his recent turn towards the honorable and how he's working with become a batter person.
Red Dead Redemption II has a ridiculous feature where apparently every hotel has a sexy lady who's employed to sit by the tub and help you bathe; I assume that was actually a thing at the time?
I've never heard of that. Like...possibly as a cover for prostitution, but like as its own thing?
no subject
"Bad news guys, legal says no! Something about product liability, and also this being an actual crime, and possibly technically bioterrorism?"
"But what about the realism?"
I love this both because this is incredible and because you've travelled here from an alternate universe where Red Dead Redemption II could possibly fit on a cartridge. I would love to see Red Dead Redemption II for the SNES.
I feel that the bathing assistants are possibly also prostitutes, but apparently they have a sideline in 'luxury bathing'.
no subject
no subject
(I love showing Finny Fun to people who haven't played Kingdom Hearts and watching their distress.)
no subject
(That really is a cruel torture. I approve!)
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Why do I remember these things.no subject
YES. I want this desperately. And a Sharpay-Ryan boss fight would be absolutely incredible.
Sora would get on extremely well with Chad and end up deeply invested in the Troy/Gabriella relationship.