brightly_lit

I really love to play video games. Some people consider them a waste of time; I consider them an interactive art form. Plus, I'm really into technology.

There's this super-fun tower defense game I've been playing lately called Defense Grid, in which you're fighting evil aliens with the help of your Jarvis-esque computer buddy, who used to be human and had his consciousness downloaded into a computer. You learn more of his tragic story as the game goes on (the voice acting is wonderful), and it really draws you in emotionally. But the game is also fucking hard, especially this last level I'm stuck on now. I'm caught between my tenacious refusal to stop trying and the feeling that it would be nice to succeed at something for once. (Here is the diagram I had to make to try to beat this f^&*ing level:)



But the expansion packs are even harder, and there's no more Jarvis story in them, which seriously kills it by about 50% for me. :-( I mean, I like a good tower defense game, a lot, but a story makes a big difference. And this also counts for my 100 Days of Happy Day #6!

Another good tower defense game is Toy Defense. Toy Defense is a war game based on technology of the early 20th century, in which you ... basically kill scores of enemy soldiers in WWI/WWII scenarios. Hence the prominence of "Toy" in the title, the careful placement of obviously plastic toy war-game items on a "game board," and spinning wind-up knobs on the enemies' backs, because otherwise, it would be an intensely disturbing game. It's challenging and fun and frustrating and kind of creepy, but empty-feeling in the end, because it has no story. Plants Vs. Zombies, Garden Defense, and Defense Grid are all tower defense games that have good stories to go along with them, which makes them immensely more fun. I recommend any of those games to any of you who like playing that kind of game.

In other news, my SPN-cover EW still hasn't arrived yet. :-(

Title: Chimera
Author: brightly_lit
World: Tricycle Man
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,200
Genre: gen, slice of life
Summary: Orphaned at 12, Lisa nonetheless has every reason to believe the apocalypse was only an improvement in her life.

Chimera:

1 an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts
2 an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially: an unrealizable dream




Lisa dragged her wagon toward market beside the Chanel Channel, so called because somebody had somehow programmed it to give off perpetual scent. Fortunately, it smelled a lot better than Chanel, more like flowers ... which was nice, because you hardly smelled flowers anymore, since the apocalypse.

Her wagon held only a few hand-knit sweaters and some sheep’s milk, but she knew the sweaters would fetch a high enough price that the wagon would be full on her way home. Clothes, like food, were one of the things that you couldn’t create out of rubble or dirt. Well, you could, but your body couldn’t process the food, and the clothes didn’t breathe or bend right, like a sheet of plastic with armholes. So her sweaters were always one of the hottest-selling commodities at the market.

It sucked, being orphaned at twelve, not knowing how you would make your way in this strange, decimated world, but it could have sucked a lot worse, and at least she wasn’t the only one. Everyone was orphaned, in a way--bereft of family, friends, the homes they knew. All they could do was help each other through it and try to figure out what the hell happened.
( Read more... )