Three Pages Attempt 10

There are several topics I want to cover today so let's get those pages in.

First, I want to talk about my unhealth obsession with Stardew Valley. It's a game I originally bought on my Xbox. Since then I've also got it on steam and I've spent a combined time of about five hundred hourse on it. I wish I spent more time reading and writing, but what can I do? I love this game. The premise is that you play your own made up character who inherits a farm at Stardew Valley. You meet the locals, grow a couple of crops, tend to animals, and dive into the mines for materials. This game has captivated me for a reason. The music is astonishing and the story that slowly drips into the game is amazing. Recenlty, a friend of mine tried playing it and he hates the "neighborvania" aspect of the game. "Neighborvania" refers to a game where the player has to interact with NPCs to make progress. It's similar to a game called Animal Crossing where you have to interact with people after moving to a new town. But where Stardew Valley really hits it is in the music. All done by one guy, who also did the graphics, story, and programing, it really has this feel of a labor of love. Developer Eric Barone intended the game to be a demonstration of his abilities as he tried to get into the game industry. Instead, the game has become the most beloved product on Steam with a rating of nearly perfect "Overwhelmingly Possitive" review score. It's certainly one of my favorite games with all the time I've put into it. It's designed to be played in a slow manner but there are people who try to speedrun it within a day or so. One of the designs I noticed that really struck me was how you have to manage your time. In similar games, the player can change how time passes in game. Each day only lasts less than fifteen minutes in real time. That's not a lot of time to get things done. You have to plan your day out. Are you going to harvest crops or tend to your animals? Dive into the dungeon, or hang out with the locals? The game demands that you plan out your day or face wasting it. I think this is what Barone went through as he was developing it. Being by himself, he had to plan out what he was going to do to get his game done. Whether that was working on the music or the programing or whatever he could do that day. He had to plan it out. This game brings me so much comfort it's nice to see that an update is coming out along with Barone's new game which will probably be a while from now. For a final thought, I think that because the game is so wholesome and easy-going that it's easy to slip in darker tones. There's a character who's a drunk who hates his job, there's a jobless mom who stays at home in a trailer, and the local wizard had a breakup with a witch. That last one doesn't sound too bad but given how dedicated he is to his magic craft I have to think that he's doing it to avoid heartbreak. Maybe they parted on better terms, maybe I'm reading too deep into this.

The next thing I wanted to talk about is my internal healing balm I have to use after self-flaggelating myself. I get into these modes where I just wail on myself until I'm a broken mess. This spiral of self-hating doesn't end for a while. It's like having a seizure, you have to wait for it to pass. You can't do anything about it. It's hard for me to just stop the hate and move on, especially when my glucose is low. I need to eat better or I am going to be a diabetic. I can't afford for that to happen, autism is already a burden I don't need to add more to my list or problems. God help me, I need to lose weight.

Anyway, I figured I'd write about the next chapter and try to get two in today.

Gleipnir Chapter 8: Difference in Power.

The opening page is of Claire's sister in a nice gown. There's flowers behind her and she's covering her head as if she's trying to hide her face.

The Claire the pair shot fades away. Behind them they can feel Claire's sister holding them in place as a ghost. "I can feel the incredible difference in power between the two of us." This annoys me a bit because the large ghost figure and the imagery already show how powerful Claire's sister is compared to them. "Why did you shoot a gun at me?" Claire's sister asks in a sinister tone. "Er...Um...Sorry, I'm not really that good at this. So...um...Sorry...can I just have a moment to think?" It seems that Claire's sister is really shy and almost innocent. She's not the monster that we thought she was. Or at least it seems that way. Claire's sister's head appears in place of the ghost's head as she transforms back to her human form. It seems that the ghost was a knee-jerk reaction. Did I mention that Claire's sister's name is Elena? It's a pain in the butt to call her "Claire's sister." I'll call her "Elena" from now on. Did the manga even mention this? "Oh noQ I jsut admitted I'm terrible at talking to people!!" Elena seems distraught. Shuich is confused. Elena holds out her hands "Alright, I get it. You're here to kill me aren't you?" Elena asks if they can kill her in a more secluded place. Shuichi monologues that Elena isn't anything like he thought she would be. "Is she really...a murderer?" Elena turns to Shuichi once they are in a field. "How did you find me? You...asked didn't you? Him, I mean...that alien?" Shuichi and Claire are surprised. They don't know anything about an alien. Elena explains that if people give the alien coins, they get powers. Shuichi realizes that his ability to transform is due to an alien ability. Elena says that she understands why Shuich would want to kill her after what she did to him. Claire wonders if Elena realizes that she's inside Shuichi. "It's all my fault," Elena says. I dragged you into this...all because I was weak..." She wants Shuichi to know that she's sorry. She tells him that she was the one who turned him into that mascot thing. I like this idea of the murderer not being what they thought she would be. If Elena was evil, she would be easy to kill. This makes them hesitate pulling the trigger. I have thought of someone affect my protagonist and cause him to leave his old school. Claire responds with tears in her eyes. "What are you..." Suddenly, Elena changes. "Heeeey...I just heard a...Giiiirl talking...Is there...somone...inside you..." Elena chagnes into the ghost. Her voice is darker and evil now. She's goes crazy. "I won't let you do that...Because that's...my SPOT!!" Claire tries to raise the gun again. Elena reappears behind them and rips off Shuichi's head. So now we have a death, kind of. The main character has been torn assunder. Elena loses her mind when she realizes what she has done. She holds Shuichi's head and screams. Claire, in shock, yells and fires several rounds into Elena's body. Elena tosses the gun and Claire tries to punch Elena. Elena tosses Claire into the air. Claire falls and is unable to get up. "Why did it have to be you, Claire? Hey...why are you inside Shuichi?" "To...kill you..." Clarie responds. "That's so mean...I'm the only sidter you've got, aren't I?" Why...did you kill mom and dad?" "Didn't you see the news? That was a gas explosion. The police said so." I like this ability of them to hide the supernatural. Elena was able to hide her abilities. Claire asks why she did it. "I really...didn't want to see you...Because it's better if we just don't talk about it." She pauses and then says. "Because they wer bad people. They were always so strict with us. Telling us our family was important or whatever. So we had to be good. But the thing is, dad was on the diet (she means the government) but he was doing all sorts of bad things in secret. And mom was cheating on him with all the younger men at her company. It's just taht no one ever told you. They were always going to be killed some day, so I did it." I think there's something deeper going on her but it's also possible that the writer didn't have a deeper motive. "For you Claire, I'm not...the crybaby big sister you always had to protect. I'll protect you Claire." She puts her hand on Claire's head. "You still have the coin I gave you?" "I threw it away." "Okay." Elena places another coin on Claire's forehead. "Then I'll give you another. Use it well. Go to the old love hotel by the highway, the alien's there." Elena picks up her ringing cell phone. After talking she leaves telling Claire that something came up. Elena reminds Claire to use the coin well and leaves. Still in Shuichi's body, Claire walks over to his head and picks it up. She finds the gun and says she'll keep her promise. As she's about to pull the trigger to her head, the head speaks. "Don't do it!!" "How are you alive?" In tears, Claire takes Shuichi's head back to the vending machine. "You idiot...you shouldn't be worrying about other people right now." She embraces him, "Hey, Claire, that hurts." We cut to a guy sitting on an old matress reading a book. He's next to a vending machine near an abandoned hotel. "Are you the alien?" Claire asks holding out Shuichi's head. "Fix him!" "Uh, please?" I like how we see this other side of Claire where she's carrying about what happens to Shuichi. It's neat how she's not just the aloof girl we see earlier but has a human side, unlike her sister.