A Reader Is Me!

A challenge by Dreamersdare.

Challenge 4:

Make a Top Ten list for your favourite relationships in media and tell everyone what you love about them. This covers all kinds of relationships - romantic, sexual, platonic, professional, rivals, acrimonious, family, found family, something else not mentioned here. So, bring out your friends, lovers or enemies, whether canon or fanon. If it involves two or more people interacting in some way, it counts, so go wild!

Here is a link with more details, and to post the link to your answers.

I went with relationships between video game characters. Not romantic, but friends, coworkers, family, reluctant allies, chaotic duos. Not necessarily the best of the best (who has time for analysing and sorting all the games you ever played?), but each of these dynamics stuck in my head and it warms my heart in some way. The games are loosely sorted by most recently played.

1. Pokémon GO: Arlo and Candela
Okay, I lied. I totally perceive this as romantic, even though canon only mentions they went from friends and colleagues to enemies, and it's probably one-sided. But Arlo definitely cannot get Candela out of his head. There is tension, the unresolved rivalry, the bittersweet memories. I even wrote a poem about it for my Pokémon GO bingo challenge, based on Arlo's message to Candela.

2. Nine Noir Lives: PI Cuddles and his assistant Tabby
They routinely insult, mock, and prank each other. But when things get dangerous, they don't hesitate for a moment, but jump straight into trouble to save one another. Beneath all the snark, there's unwavering loyalty. I'm always into "we bicker constantly but I would die for you" dynamic.

3. OneShot: Niko and the Player
This one goes beyond characters. It's between the protagonist and YOU, the player. The game is heavily meta and breaks the fourth wall in a way that makes the connection feel intimate and personal. You're not just guiding Niko, but are responsible for her, and she's aware of you, relies on you and believes in you.

4. Randal’s Monday: Randal and Matt
Randal is rude, obnoxious, and openly kleptomaniac (like most adventure game protagonists, except he doesn’t even hide it ;) But behind the sarcasm and selfishness, he genuinely cares about his only friend. Watching him struggle through increasingly absurd and difficult challenges just to fix his mess and save Matt reveals the feelings of true friendship.

5. Rusty Lake: The Past Within: Albert and Rose
Albert is not a good person by any stretch. That's what makes this relationship so striking. His daughter Rose dedicates herself to bringing him back to life through elaborate and deeply unsettling rituals. And he trusts her with this impossibly sensitive task. It's disturbing and emotionally complicated.

6. Chicken Police: PIs Sonny and Marty
Two cynical former friends and partners with unresolved history. There's tension, sarcasm, and old resentment simmering under the surface. But when the case gets dangerous, they reconnect, and once again they're working in sync. The bickering never stops, yet the trust is still there.

7. Lair of the Clockwork God: Ben and Dan
A friendship built into the game mechanics. Ben is a point&click adventure character, while Dan is an action platformer character. They literally operate under different genres, yet they have to cooperate constantly to progress. I'd never believe it could work, but it works brilliantly. Watching them cooperate and compensate for each other's weaknesses feels both clever and wholesome.

8. LIMBO: The unnamed Boy and his sister
We don't actually see their relationship, but it's implied through purpose. The boy silently endures a terrifying, hostile world and countless gruesome deaths to reach his sister. He is incredibly determined, and his almost mystical journey is a message of love and devotion.

9. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons: the two brothers
They are inseparable. The player controls both of them, and they physically cannot stray far apart. Their bond is embedded in the game controls. Without spoilers, the ending is one of the most emotionally powerful and brilliant uses of game design I've ever experienced.

10. Portal: Chell and GLaDOS
They begin as enemies. GLaDOS taunts, manipulates, and repeatedly tries to kill Chell. (Not for personal reasons, but following her programming.) But over time, their dynamic evolves. There’s sarcasm, grudging respect, shared survival, and eventually, not exactly friendship but partnership and trust.

A challenge by Dreamersdare. 

Challenge 3:
Make a Top Ten list for your favourite music picks and share what you love about them. This can be in any format - songs, artists, albums, music videos, soundtracks, scores, something else not mentioned here. If it's vaguely related to music, it ticks the box, so go with whatever you like!

Here is a link with more details, and to post the link to your answers. 

For this challenge, I picked video game soundtracks. I usually include old Sierra and Lucasarts classics in such lists, but it's time to give the ancient ones a break.

It's hard to figure out what makes a soundtrack appealing. For the Portal song, it's definitely the lyrics, the irony, and the robotic presentation. But for the others? Haunting melody, rich harmony, not too monotonous... Some of them are also with lyrics, but I don't include them here for lyrics. Funny that when listening to regular songs, I prefer a very different kind of music - fast, loud and high energy (rock / heavy metal). My main use of soundtracks is background music while working, so they should be unobtrusive (but still not background noise!)

(One more factor is nostalgic memories of the games where the soundtracks came from :)

I'm sure there are many more wonderful soundtracks around, but I mostly play point&click adventures and puzzle platformers. I know I miss a lot. Open for recs!

( YouTube spam )

Today I learned that I've been using my electric guitar incorrectly this whole time! Well, not the WHOLE time, but since mustering the courage to connect Tom's Focusrite Scarlett audio interface to the computer. I needed it for the mic, but there's also input for the instrument cable. But I thought why would I need it if I already have the amplifier?

So, just discovered that with Ableton, I can bypass the amp entirely. When I connect the guitar directly to Focusrite, and run Ableton with the input monitoring, I can use all these FANTASTIC audio effects, like my beloved Hybrid Reverb, which do not exist on my simple amp, and Ableton is so much more user-friendly anyway.

I don't even have to sit in front of the screen, because the cables are long enough to reach the bed ;) But sitting in front of the screen is good for practicing with backing tracks and all kinds of digital tools which I can now use through the same headphones, and without delay. 

I hope it will boost up my guitar practice, which has been regrettably neglected lately...

[EDIT] I just realised that I used "Ableton" and "user-friendly" in the same sentence. ;)