Jack of Diamonds, King of Hearts

As they taunted “call” at him, a Jack of Diamonds leaped from the sleeve of his beaten tan leather overcoat and into his hand. The men stared in anticipation as he threw his hand up in the air, landing perfectly in formation card after card in the centre of the table.

“Din’t y’all think I could win you?” He pushed the chair back from the comfort of his rear and stood, hands cupped to receive his winnings. “And with that, Sirs, I bid you a bonne nuit. The night is a lady, and she’s callin’ my name.“

Staff in hand he walked languidly down the hall through a throng of gambling people to his left and right. “Not so fast” a voice uttered from behind him. “Remy”, she looked at him; eyes lost in his purplesque irises for a moment. “Remy” she spoke again; he didn’t turn.

“Mademoiselle, I have no business with you no more.”

“Daddy.” She spoke again in hushed tones.

Gambit turned to look at her, his eyes glowed, and then he was gone.

Three months passed and the mysterious drifter they call Gambit was still on the move. Wary and a little paranoid, he cautiously changed location, eventually finding a lonely shack in one of the many forests of British Columbia. He’d only been there a week but his insecurity was affecting him; paranoid visions troubled him every time he closed his eyes. Usually a relaxed and easygoing man, Gambit was acting out of character; almost as if he was hiding from somebody…

It was a particularly dreary Tuesday afternoon; Gambit was pacing up and down in the kitchen. A glass of whiskey in hand, he shook as he poured the last few drops down his throat. A soft voice was audible from a nearby window.

“That’s your eighth glass already today, what are you doing to yourself Remy?”

“Is that you out there, Jean?” Gambit replied. “How d’ya find me?”

“You stayed here for too long, Professor Xavier and I found you through Cerebro.”

“O’course, I should‘a guessed. ‘Sides, y’got a good reason t’bother me?”

“There’s a young lady with me and she wants to speak with you.”

“I’ve heard dat one b’fore, what…”

A soft voice echoed in Remy’s head; interrupting his sentence. Not so fast... Remy... Remy… Daddy...

Remy remembered the girl from the bar three months ago; it seemed like yesterday to him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her but he wanted to forget that she even existed. The only thing that gave him peace of mind was the alcohol. Living in solitude made no difference.

“Go. Please. Just leave me be” said Remy, his palm held out in front of himself and his head facing the ground.

“You can’t hide forever Remy, she’s our responsibility” replied Jean.

Remy’s arm fell to his side as he looked at the young girl.

“Mon fille?”

“She’s our daughter.”

“No, she ain’t. Surely…”

“Please Remy; she wants to know her father as the man he really is, not as the cowardly drunk who stands before me.”

“Cowardly? Never.”

“Why did you run from me then?” said the girl, abruptly, emerging from behind a nearby tree. “I spent 15 years waiting to meet my father. I heard he was a sophisticated man who knew his way around a conversation. I also heard that he was a thief and a cheater. I approached him anyway, but he just couldn’t accept me as his own.” She clenched her fists and stared at Remy. “Why did you run from me?!”

“Relax mon fille, ain’t so easy bein’ me y’know. Havin’ a daughter’s a lot t’take in. You try bein’ a Dad.”

“Remy!” Said Jean. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Let’s settle this dispute like responsible adults, because arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

“You’d better come in then,” said Remy, reluctantly.

Two days passed. Remy had left the lonely forests of British Columbia and was on the move again, but this time he had a companion… a friend… a daughter.

Becoming more sociable?

I've been meeting loads of new people recently, whether that be in real life or via the internet.

I've also been on Facebook and Twitter and MSN and even justin.tv more than usual; socialising with people that I could consider as friends. You could say that spending time on Facebook and social networking sites can actually make you more sociable. Sounds obvious but a lot of people avoid Facebook, for whatever reason.

What else has been happening in my world? A bit of story-writing and drawing for College, along with messing about on Photoshop. I even edited a picture of myself and put a Mario Cap on my head; I don't know why to be honest. It didn't take me long so it's not that bad. :P

Oh, nearly forgot. I played Persona 4 on Orenji TV last night, it was really good fun. Most of the battles were between my team of three, and one or two enemies so the battles weren't too difficult. I say that, but I struggled a few times.

At one point I got ambushed by 5 "Magic Hands" or as Nathan called them, "Glovers". Here's a picture>>

I managed to narrowly defeat the "Glovers" but then encountered a sub-boss and my team got completely destroyed. :(

I had to start the game from the previous save point, which was about an hour or two prior to the sub-boss, so it wasn't that bad.

My failed attempt did spark a conversation between myself and my viewers though, about how I would be able to beat the sub-boss next time. We all decided that it would be best if I spent less time on the game developing social links (which improve some minor stats) and more time battling and earning EXP.

So what's the moral of the story? Socialise more? Socialise less? In this case, it depends if the socialising in question is in real life or in a game. Too much socialising in a game is hardly ever beneficial if you want to beat the game. Using good old COD as an example, if you spend most of your time sitting in the corner with a team-mate talking about leekspin or something ridiculous like that, you're just likely to get shot in the face. Then teabagged by some pervy 12 year old.

But in the real world, socialising is very important.

Project Trico Trailer

A new trailer popped up on the interweb a few days ago but I've only just noticed it. The trailer shows footage of the new game being created by Team ICO who are responsible for ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. The game is called "Project TRICO" and I think it looks impressive but unpolished at the moment. Here is the trailer:

Yesterday was a Day of Orange

Our old friend Vlad is no longer with us, but his younger cousin will be with us soon. Yes, Nathan is getting a new car; exactly the same model. It's orange too, just like Vlad was.

R.I.P Vlad.

Yesterday's Games Evening was a hit, I think. We started by playing Street Fighter and after about 30 minutes we switched to Halo 3, on which we decided to play "Team Slayer". People were split into two groups:

Team Blue
Bob
Cal(l)um
Chris
Nathan


Team Orange
Liam
Me
Ryan
Sarah
Sarge

We took it in turns and played two-on-two matches, up to 20 kills. I'm not sure of the final score by the end of the night, but even when Nathan swapped with Sarge to try and even up the teams, the Orange Team won 6-4 (I think). The Orange Team definitely won anyway.

:D

So I get home after a relatively long day, and the UEFA Cup final is on. Of course, Shakhtar Donetsk beat Werder Bremen 2-1 and I'm happy because Shakhtar play in an orange kit.

Jean Grey Walks into a Bar...

By the ocean there is a bar… They called it Hannah’s Roadhouse once… I don’t know what they call it anymore. I just knew that she’d come and bring that thing with her. That thing that to me, was so precious, so deeply moving that just looking at it would blind me. But I had to have it and I knew that I couldn’t have it if she didn’t show up today…

There she was red hair with a slight orange fleck in the Ocean’s sunrise. She wasn’t old, in fact, she was new, as if reborn, and she didn’t see me as she opened the door to the bar. I let her walk, I had no plans. She bought 2 drinks and sat at the bar…

Maybe she already knows I'm here, I thought to myself. I paused for a moment to gather my loose thoughts and braced myself for her mind games; approaching her would take more preparation than I first predicted.

It had already been ten minutes since her arrival, I was quietly confident that the extra drink was mine. I stood up, removed a dusty comb from my jacket and steadied myself. Seeing her again had an affect on me which I couldn't explain. I took the first step towards the bar. Then the second step. Every step forward felt like a leap as my nervousness began to overwhelm me. Take a deep breath, Scott, I thought to myself; she was only metres away, I had to pull myself together. What if she heard my every thought? The nervousness descended into blind panic; I couldn't stop my feet but I had already reached the bar...

"Relax Scott, I know how you feel."

I took a deep breath, and looked into her eyes,

"You know me too well, Jean." I picked up the drink that she had left on the bar and took a hearty swig. Jean looked surprised, but I thought nothing of it and continued the conversation.

We spoke for a solid twenty minutes about nothing in particular, most of the time reminiscing on past events. Being with her was so relaxing, I began to question my earlier emotions.

"Are you still modelling" I asked, noticing that she was still as slim as ever.

"I'm finished with that", she replied. "They fired me because I'm not as slim as I used to be." Her face lit up seemingly caught between two emotions; she appeared disappointed but amused by the situation. As she laughed, she showed me the thing most precious to me.

Her smile. I felt a surge of excitement shoot up my spine as I opened my mouth and joined in the laughter. What an amazing moment! Thoughts and feelings were flowing through my mind, I felt free of all tension.

Suddenly, the doors to the bar swung open and a brash voice echoed around the room.

"Hey, Four Eyes"

Huh? I instantly recognised the voice; I stood up and turned my body to face the door. "I should have known", I replied, as I looked him dead in the eye.

"That drink was mine, Scott. Move out of my way."

I heard the fast moving sound of metal scraping against metal as the claws were revealed.

"It's time, let's settle this Logan."

X-Men 2 / X2 Analysis

Three themes of X-Men 2 which advance the story.

ANGER
There was a lot of anger on display in the film, but it was an action film so the violence had to be stirred up from somewhere. :P

That aside, most of the anger in the film came from Magneto and his associates who generally wanted to erase all remaining non-mutants from the planet.

In contrast, the humans were also angry at the attempted assassination of their president by Nightcrawler, a mutant. It is safe to say that the majority of anger in the film stems from the constant disagreement between mutants and non-mutants.

LOVE
To differentiate from all the anger and violence in the film, there are relationships between the X-Men. Relationships are essential in developing the story and making the characters seem more realistic and more relatable. This is important because their abilities as mutants could distance them from the viewers.

The most obvious example of love was the long-established romance between Jean Grey and Scott Summers, which was potentially under-threat from beardy old Logan.

Other examples of love include Rogue and Iceman, and even possibly Storm and Nightcrawler; though this could be interpreted as motherly love rather than romance.

RIVALRY
The competition between Scott Summers and Logan seems like an obvious rivalry in the film as they spend almost every moment together arguing over Jean or staring each other down.

A less obvious, but equally as important rivalry, would be that of Professor X and Magneto; we see them going head-to-head due to a difference of opinion. They aim for the same goal, yet they want to achieve said goal in a completely different way.

Morality and Karma Systems in Video Games [External Source]

There's been news of a survey going around asking if a karma system in the next Grand Theft Auto would make the game more enjoyable. I've recently become a bit cynical towards karma systems. It seems that giving the player a moral choice is an ever increasing trend in gaming, but does it really make the game more interesting? It certainly did a few years ago, but since then I fear they've become so common that simply giving players a choice between good or evil has lost its emotional punch. Richard Clark on Christ and Pop Culture suggests the next logical step...

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