Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy (Part 3)

Perla decided that simply loafing around wouldn't work, so he decided to strike out in a random direction, and hope that something good would happen. He wished that he could follow something obvious, like the lemon scented soap, but the trail had simply stopped at the foot of the slide. His meandering brought him to a happily painted tunnel: the right side of the tunnel was bright red, the left side a vibrant indigo, the floor a brilliant shade of jade, and the ceiling was purple. Not royal purple mind you, but the fluffy purple that looks like the colour a cloud would be in your dreams. And much to the relief of Perla, there was electric lights.

Every now and then, Perla would notice a clear glass cube fused into the wall so that the wall was still smooth. Looking through the clear cube, each time he would notice a bookshelf full of books. This was quite confusing to poor Perla, because he could see no way to go and read the books, even if one was on the other side of the wall.

After several long hours of walking, Perla finally reached the end of the hallway. There were three different doors. The one in the center had a symbol like a chicken's foot with a circle centered at the middle prong. The door on the left had the words “Cesium Gurnard “, and it did not have a symbol. The door on the right had no symbol or words, but it had an ominous feeling to it. Perla chose the door in the middle for absolutely no reason, except maybe that he seemed to be drawn to it by an unseen force...

Inside there room, there was nothing but a giant lever. Perla wasn't the most sensible toy in the world, but even he knew that the lever was bad news. Still, he couldn't help but pull it once, just to see what it did. The metal lever screeched in distress at it went down, followed by an awful rumbling. The stone in the room shook and shook, but eventually all was still. In the center of the room, right behind the lever, water that seemed to be suspended in the air seemed to go through a hole in the ceiling. The water, oddly enough, happened to be block shape, and there would be plenty of room for Perla to be completely surrounded by the liquid,

Perla had seen enough strange things in the last day to last him a lifetime, so he ran back to the door he had entered from. Locked. Gulping nervously (if that is even possible due to the fact that he doesn't have a throat), he stepped into the suspended water. For some reason or other, Perla began to rise. And rise he did, faster and faster, until he was almost as sick as he had been when he was on the slide, near the start of his adventure.

Then, pop! He was on the top of dry brown soil. He was back on the surface! But the surface that he had left was a different one than the one he saw right now. Red, hot flames seemed to engulf everything around him. Trees, houses, towns, cities, nations, continents, they were all doomed. He was safe where he was, but anyone seeing the horrific sight would think that it was the end of the world (which it so happened to be). Ragnarök was here. Despite his earlier fear of fire, a malevolent smile crept onto Perla's face. "Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all, he though...".

The End

I'm actually pretty proud of this story, I think it is one of my better works. Just a little bit about the picture: I made it through Minecraft, but it was deceptively long to make, it took me well over a hour to get everything ready. Also, the colours aren't perfectly the same as what I described in the story, but that's okay :)

Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy (Part 2)

The old house, an old mansion really, seemed to never be quite the same when Perla went exploring (which wasn't a uncommon thing for him to do, the daily routine of living with other toys could often get boring). Where he once could of sworn was a bedroom, was suddenly, the next time he came through, a hallway. Still, he always managed to find his way back to the nursery, where all the toys lived. One day, Perla was exploring. This probably had something to do with the fact that the other toys were quite annoyed at him at the time (the kewpie doll said that his eye would never be the same after the nitric acid incident).

As he weaved his way through the twisted hallways, he came across a trail of liquid soap. He bent down to smell it; lemon scented. The trail lead to giant door that he was sure he had never seen before. He hopped up, and tried to catch the metal ring that served as the door handle in his teeth. Finally, after much difficulty (it was a heavy door), he managed to open the entrance. He looked into the half-darkness, and from the light that filtered in behind him, he saw what looked to be a giant spiraling slide that seemed to go down for miles and miles. The trail of lemon soap covered the entire slide, all the way to the bottom.

As he was pondering what to do, Perla inched forwards to see all that he could. Suddenly, his yellow foot slipped on some of the soap. He landed on his bottom, and the next thing he knew, the air was whooshing past him as he went down the side. The high velocity of his body surprised him; he had no idea that anyone could go so fast! When he finally got to the bottom of the slide, he was a little discombobulated, and he was also wondering if the soap stains would ever get out of his fabric body.

The giant cavern had very little light: besides the spot of light at the the top of the slide where he had come from, there were some torches mounted about four metres up the wall. The fiery light gave the giant cave quite a atmosphere, although the flames themselves disturbed Perla a good bit (flammable toys are very cautious among fire, for obvious reasons).

Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy

I don't know what to write about, so I'll just do a short story. I have no idea, plot, or anything really. I'll just let it flow and hope that an alright result comes forth.

Long, long ago, there was a little pile of fluff named Perla Vardo. He lived in a great old house, that creaked in the night, like old houses often do. He was a yellow plush toy, shaped somewhat like a cat or dog, hand sewn by some caring mother's hand. Several bits of fabric were patched in some places, often with fabric an entirely different color than his natural yellow. He had green eyes, and the insides of his ears were pink. Certain individuals would call him "malevolent", even though he was anything but. In his opinion, of course.

Sure, he was often a mischievous toy, but nothing more than the tan horse, dusty on the shelf, who often would mention that he was too breakable to touch. And he wasn't nearly as arrogant as the tin solder, in his crisp red uniform, and his gold buttons. Even though the other toys had plenty of adventures themselves, enough to fill volumes of books, this story will focus on old, forgotten, Perla.

Every now and then, Perla and the other toys would wonder why there was no humans in the house. Did they at one point have owners, but then the owners moved away? They didn't have any memory of it, all the toys had had always just remembered living the house. Once or twice, they had asked the oldest toy there, an aging teddy bear named Tu, if he knew anything about it. Even at the best of times, Tu could only manage a word or two through the frayed piece of fabric, half as long as it used to be, that served as his mouth. On one occasion, when they asked him about it, he limply rose his left arm halfway in the air, and mumbled something about "ruranog cumign". The other animals supposed that he was simply deranged, and took no heed to his words (which sounded like gibberish to them, anyway).

To be continued, cause I'm too lazy to write it all today...

Psychology

I don't like psychology, particularly child psychology. Just the thought that us children grow, and think in a particular way is kind of odd. Doesn't our culture stress individuality? So why would we think in the same pattern as someone else in our age group?

Really anything that delves into why we think what we think. You know, tv shows that say "They would learn better like this" or "That child is disrespectful because of this". I for one think that our minds are too complex to completely understand with mere speculation. Especially things that are directed towards the parents of teenagers. The full proof guide for tricking your teen to be super obedient? Yeah, I read that too. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be obedient, and luckily my parents have for the most part refrained form using junk like that, but still.

Now, I am just saying this from a layman's point of view. I don't know much about psychology, and for all I know it is a valuable tool. Or not. But, to be fair, a word often used is "tendencies", which means you won't do something for sure, it's just probable. But, it isn't ALWAYS used.

Maybe the reason that I'm having this tirade is not because psychology is bad, but because I, myself, don't want others to predict what I think. Now that I think about it, the psychologists aren't bad. I just get a little annoyed when they write books about it.

Making a Post = Meh

I should be writing a post right now. Something that will make you laugh, cry, or at least enlighten you to the full scope of nuclear physics. Or, at the very least, tell you about my cat. Oh wait, I don't have a cat. No matter. Anyway, instead, I'm just blah. I usually have either the post written, partly written, or a nugget of an idea the day before. I tried that yesterday, but at a bad time. While I was driving. I've had my learners permit for almost two years, so I've got highway driving down. It doesn't take much effort to do it. Sadly, I wasn't too familiar with where I was driving, and the conversation went a little something like this:

My Dad: "You know that the speed limit is 55, right?
Me (going 65): "Uh, YEAH! Just kinda missed the last sign..."

Repeat two or three times. So, it was obvious that I couldn't think up an idea yesterday night, but I had all of the morning and afternoon of today! School? Pshaw. This is more important.

It's odd. I feel like taking part in a philosophical debate, but not something as simple as writing a blog post. I'm weird...

So many things that I should be doing right now, but my mind is kind of hibernating. So, what do I do when I can't think up of a post? I write a post about not being able to write a post. And guess what? IT COUNTS, ABBY! If you have doubts, I can always sing a song. Maybe one about cake...

Ice Cream

I don't really like ice cream. It's an odd thing to say, due to the fact that it seems like at least half of our nation's youth are addicted to the stuff, I'm simply meh about it. Just what is the thing about ice cream that is actually delicious? What logical argument can someone give?

I don't hate ice cream, I just don't adore it. With one exception, if it is soft ice cream (like from Dairy Queen), that's okay, but still, not fantastic. But hard ice cream, I just don't have any joy in eating it. It's cold, sure, but a glass of water could help keep you cool. And although some types have nice flavors, most of them you can't even taste.

That being said, I like the toppings that can be put on ice cream. Chocolate sauce, sprinkles, oreo bits, chocolate chips, it's all good stuff. I actually prefer just eating the toppings without the ice cream (although whenever this is done in public, I usually get a strange look or two).

Maybe part of it is that terrible feeling when the cold ice cream accidentally hits your teeth, instead of your tongue. Just thinking about it makes me shudder in pain.

Walkthrough, Or No Walkthrough

Fact: Braid is an amazing platform puzzle game.
Fact: In the first five levels of Braid, there are 60 puzzle pieces to collect.
Fact: You can not move on to the final level until you have them all.
Fact: I have found 59 of 60 pieces.
Question: Do I use a guide for the last (basically impossible) piece?

Walkthroughs, occasionally the bane of a gamer's existence. Are you really bad at the game that you need someone to hold you by the hand every step of the way? What was the point of buying the game if someone else was going to solve the puzzles?

That being said, I'm no stranger to looking up a guide. For example, if you play a game like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you are going to miss a ton of extra things (such as magic caves) if you don't use a guide. Of course, many people get by without one, but...

I actually have been pretty happy with myself lately. Most of the games that I have been playing recently, I finished without a guide. But Braid DOES have some pretty difficult puzzles.

Would it be worth it using a guide? I've spent hours trying to figure out the puzzle, but I have had no luck so far. Usually, I use a guide only for the following reasons:
1. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for the answer and I just can't find it.
2. Bonus content I would otherwise skip by.
3. It would save me time by not going to every location in a gigantic world to test every far-flung theory I might have.

Braid IS very difficult, but that might be reason NOT to use a guide. The satisfaction of managing to beat it entirely on my own would be really nice.

I've thought about it, and I think I'll do it just by myself this time. I guess this blog post was more for me than for you; it was to orchestrate my thoughts. I think I now have a nugget of idea of how to beat it. Let's see how that works out...

I should probably mention a little something about Braid itself. It was made by independent developer Jonathon Blow. Even though I'm playing it on the PC, it is also available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Although when you first play it you might be tempted to think that it is simply a Mario clone, trust me, it is anything but. You have almost absolute control of time.

And unlike other games that have time control mechanism, such as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, there is no limit to how long you can use your powers, and how far back you can go. For example, if you fall into a pit and die,  you just press your handy "Shift" key and go back in time before you jumped. Then you leap over the pit with a more precisely timed jump. If that was all there was to it, Braid would be fantastically easy. The purpose of the game is to fond all the puzzle pieces, which forces you to stretch your ingenuity in different directions.

However, there really is more to it. How can you not mention the "sorry, but the princess is in another castle" line (which is a reference to Mario) and the water-colour background. And then there is the story. It doesn't make too much sense to me, but it is a story of regret. I think. Maybe.

This post seems to be a two-in-one. I discussed if  should use a walkthrough, and I put in a plea for you to play Braid.

Edit: HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!! I BEAT THE GAME :):):) It was definitely worth it :D I still don't understand the story much more, though.