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Old homes for sale. Looking for a place to share and find old homes for sale…. This it the sub….
2014.11.12 09:55 PropertyPointerIndia Homes for Sale
Listings of new homes for sale.
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Brampton Real Estate for Sale Residential New, Resale, Investment, Lease, Sublease Commercial Sale, Lease, Sublease
2023.04.02 08:40 Nianx Dad's dogs aggressiveness and lack of social skills are making things unbearable.
So my dad has two dogs (siblings and one female, one male) that are unsocial and aggressive towards strangers and other dogs. They are about 5 years now.
Backstory is: My brother in law found them in a dumpster in a bag as very small pups...they were the only two alive. With lots of care and love they survived, I spent about a week tending to them (My parents were away on holidays) and we call them Eevee (f) and Dili (m). So at the time I was away studying in uni and would only be there for the weekends and at first they were just cute and sweet puppies. As they grew I noticed my parents were pampering them too much, maybe because me and my siblings were already living apart and they felt lonely, it was like they were their children. I started living with my boyfriend about 1 year after that.
So things were starting to get progressively worse. They didn't train them at all, they would let them destroy everything from blankets, to dog beds, to shoes and just started walking them in isolated places like the woods or the beach. They did this because they were starting to bark at other people and dogs. I told them to keep walking them in places near people but they ignored it...I also went abroad about 3 years ago so it became harder for me to try to help.
Fast forward to now, my mother passed away about one week ago. I am on my dad's house so we can be there for another. My mother had a hoarder problem and the house is a mess so we are gradually starting to clean and declutter. But there's a lot of problems because of the dog's behavior. To name a few:
They are way too excited and bark a lot. Any sound outside and they go crazy and go to the front yard to bark (we have a house with walls around, they can't see outside, only through the gate gap). The neighbors aren't really happy with all the barking.
When we get back home they jump on me and my dad and even though they are small medium sized they sometimes hurt my dad with they paws and my dad is 73 years old, he still has good mobility but I am concerned they might make him fall someday. Oh and he keeps saying he has to pick them up when they are like this (mostly with the female) which also isn't doing any good to his back pain.
They shred blankets, plants, the couch and even the car...(my dad keeps letting them go into the backseats, even though they could comfortably stay only in the trunk which is connected.) This also makes me sad because I was the one that helped him picking a new car some years ago, it was almost brand new and now it's awfull.)
He often goes on walks with them but he tries to avoid other people or dogs. He already had issues where our dogs saw others and tried to attack them so I am afraid one day this can be very problematic. They never bite people but they are aggressive, barking at them closely which can be scary.
Eevee, the female, sometimes pees on the couch just suddenly and I told him she might have a problem so we should get her to the vet...she also pees inside sometimes. I suggested we got dog beds and try to keep them off the couch but my dad said they would just rip them off.
He also can't never go on holidays because he says if the dogs were home alone, even if someone went there to take care of them, they would be howling and be missing him all the time.
I think Eevee's the most problematic one in terms of behavior, she is seems smarter than Dili and usually wants to domanite him so they sometimes get in fights. She is also very jealous and I think Dili learned a lot of bad behavior from her since he seemed more social and calmer than her before.
But yeah, I am sorry for the long post but I think I shouldn't let any details out. I would say they behave like this because they weren't trained at all, were not socialized properly and I know it was my parents fault and my dad keeps with the same routine... He is stubborn but he loves them very much and he thinks that this way he is being good to them. He also used to give them people food while eating meals but I think I made him understand that it's very harmful for them, and they are getting a bit overweight, especially Dili.
This had been a very hard time for my family because of our mother's loss so I just want to try to help my dad so when I leave at least he can have more piece of mind regarding all this issues.
I have started to watch some videos about how to socialize aggressive dogs and try to calm them down more but I just wanted to know if someone had any advice for this situation, TIA.
TL;DR: Dogs are not socialized properly and are aggressive towards other people and dogs.
submitted by Nianx to DogAdvice [link] [comments]
Backstory is: My brother in law found them in a dumpster in a bag as very small pups...they were the only two alive. With lots of care and love they survived, I spent about a week tending to them (My parents were away on holidays) and we call them Eevee (f) and Dili (m). So at the time I was away studying in uni and would only be there for the weekends and at first they were just cute and sweet puppies. As they grew I noticed my parents were pampering them too much, maybe because me and my siblings were already living apart and they felt lonely, it was like they were their children. I started living with my boyfriend about 1 year after that.
So things were starting to get progressively worse. They didn't train them at all, they would let them destroy everything from blankets, to dog beds, to shoes and just started walking them in isolated places like the woods or the beach. They did this because they were starting to bark at other people and dogs. I told them to keep walking them in places near people but they ignored it...I also went abroad about 3 years ago so it became harder for me to try to help.
Fast forward to now, my mother passed away about one week ago. I am on my dad's house so we can be there for another. My mother had a hoarder problem and the house is a mess so we are gradually starting to clean and declutter. But there's a lot of problems because of the dog's behavior. To name a few:
They are way too excited and bark a lot. Any sound outside and they go crazy and go to the front yard to bark (we have a house with walls around, they can't see outside, only through the gate gap). The neighbors aren't really happy with all the barking.
When we get back home they jump on me and my dad and even though they are small medium sized they sometimes hurt my dad with they paws and my dad is 73 years old, he still has good mobility but I am concerned they might make him fall someday. Oh and he keeps saying he has to pick them up when they are like this (mostly with the female) which also isn't doing any good to his back pain.
They shred blankets, plants, the couch and even the car...(my dad keeps letting them go into the backseats, even though they could comfortably stay only in the trunk which is connected.) This also makes me sad because I was the one that helped him picking a new car some years ago, it was almost brand new and now it's awfull.)
He often goes on walks with them but he tries to avoid other people or dogs. He already had issues where our dogs saw others and tried to attack them so I am afraid one day this can be very problematic. They never bite people but they are aggressive, barking at them closely which can be scary.
Eevee, the female, sometimes pees on the couch just suddenly and I told him she might have a problem so we should get her to the vet...she also pees inside sometimes. I suggested we got dog beds and try to keep them off the couch but my dad said they would just rip them off.
He also can't never go on holidays because he says if the dogs were home alone, even if someone went there to take care of them, they would be howling and be missing him all the time.
I think Eevee's the most problematic one in terms of behavior, she is seems smarter than Dili and usually wants to domanite him so they sometimes get in fights. She is also very jealous and I think Dili learned a lot of bad behavior from her since he seemed more social and calmer than her before.
But yeah, I am sorry for the long post but I think I shouldn't let any details out. I would say they behave like this because they weren't trained at all, were not socialized properly and I know it was my parents fault and my dad keeps with the same routine... He is stubborn but he loves them very much and he thinks that this way he is being good to them. He also used to give them people food while eating meals but I think I made him understand that it's very harmful for them, and they are getting a bit overweight, especially Dili.
This had been a very hard time for my family because of our mother's loss so I just want to try to help my dad so when I leave at least he can have more piece of mind regarding all this issues.
I have started to watch some videos about how to socialize aggressive dogs and try to calm them down more but I just wanted to know if someone had any advice for this situation, TIA.
TL;DR: Dogs are not socialized properly and are aggressive towards other people and dogs.
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Once Upon a Time, There Was a “StorySelling Masterclass” That RockedNext up, Storytelling on STEROIDS! (which I like to call “StorySelling”)In this module, you’ll discover:
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submitted by AutoModerator to ImanGadzhizLessons [link] [comments]
I have Iman Gadzhi - Agency Navigator.
Iman Gadzhi - Agency Navigator course is one of the best products on how to start a marketing agency.
Iman Gadzhi - Agency Navigator includes over 50 hours of step-by-step training covering EVERY aspect of building an agency from scratch. This is almost a plug & play system with enough success stories to back it up! Signing clients, running Facebook ads, building out your team, on-boarding clients, invoicing, sales... this course has everything covered for you.
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To get Iman Gadzhi - Agency Navigator contact me on:
Whatsapp/Telegram: +44 759 388 2116
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
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submitted by AutoModerator to ExclusiveGenkiCourses [link] [comments]
[Get] Cardone University Full Course by Grant Cardone
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ABOUT CARDONE UNIVERSITY
Cardone University is suited for anyone who wants to get more out of life and business. Artists, Automotive Salespeople, Doctors, Roofers, Phone Salespeople, and anyone else who has a dream that needs to be brought to market will benefit from the 800+ courses available. With 24/7 access, users can leverage the expertise of Grant Cardone for their business. Courses on prospecting, sales, negotiation, closing, money and finances, and motivation are just some of what’s offered inside this premier business training platform.
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2023.04.02 08:40 0962267576 Issues with used RX570 GPU - should I return it or try to fix it?
Hi everyone,
I recently purchased a used RX570 GPU from a local store for gaming purposes. At the time of purchase, I tested it in FurMark for 15 minutes and it worked fine. However, when I ran the same stress test for about 2 minutes after taking it home, the GPU lost signal, even though the temperature was only around 70deg and the average wattage was 90w. The PSU is an unknown brand named aigo ck 500 500w, and the CPU is i5 4590s. The GPU's fan was still spinning at full speed, but the display showed no signal. Two connectors were plugged in, one for the GPU and one for the iGPU. When I hit the reset button, it booted up, but the RX570 was not showing up on the device manager, although the GPU's fan was still spinning at max speed.
I tried starting up the PC again, and it worked fine, but the same issue occurred when I ran FurMark. Upon further investigation, I found out that the GPU was previously used for mining crypto, and the seller restored the original BIOS before selling it to me.
I'm not sure whether I should return the GPU for a replacement or try to fix it myself. Has anyone had a similar experience with a used GPU? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
submitted by 0962267576 to pcmasterrace [link] [comments]
I recently purchased a used RX570 GPU from a local store for gaming purposes. At the time of purchase, I tested it in FurMark for 15 minutes and it worked fine. However, when I ran the same stress test for about 2 minutes after taking it home, the GPU lost signal, even though the temperature was only around 70deg and the average wattage was 90w. The PSU is an unknown brand named aigo ck 500 500w, and the CPU is i5 4590s. The GPU's fan was still spinning at full speed, but the display showed no signal. Two connectors were plugged in, one for the GPU and one for the iGPU. When I hit the reset button, it booted up, but the RX570 was not showing up on the device manager, although the GPU's fan was still spinning at max speed.
I tried starting up the PC again, and it worked fine, but the same issue occurred when I ran FurMark. Upon further investigation, I found out that the GPU was previously used for mining crypto, and the seller restored the original BIOS before selling it to me.
I'm not sure whether I should return the GPU for a replacement or try to fix it myself. Has anyone had a similar experience with a used GPU? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
2023.04.02 08:39 ThrowRA-tounche My partner(27m) doesn’t want me (27f) to teach our daughter different languages
I’ve been with my boyfriend for 5 years and we have a 3 year old daughter. I speak 3 languages: English, ASL, and my native language. My grandma had experienced a lot of erasure of her culture by her husband which affected my mom in her childhood. My mom made it a very important thing to teach me and my siblings her language as children so we would never lose it. If we argued we had to do in our language, it was a great way to make us stay sharp. My aunt is deaf (dad’s brothers wife) and she can lip read and speak but prefers ASL. My parents also had us go to ASL classes when we were young and in high school so we could communicate with her. So majority of my immediate family (aunt,uncle,cousins,siblings) know how to sign and I was fluent by the time I was 13.
My culture has always been very important to me and I’ve always wanted to stay connected to my heritage. My boyfriend has no connection with his culture besides knowing he’s Italian. My daughter is 3 1/2 and can speak fairly well. I wanted to start teaching her both of my languages and I’ve also read that teaching kids asl when they’re babies is a great way for them to communicate. I was speaking to her the other day in my language and my boyfriend got upset. He said that she’s too young to learn and it’ll be too confusing for her. He says that children who grow up in bilingual homes have a harder time in school. While that may have a slice of truth that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t learn. I was pretty good at school, I didn’t graduate top of my class but I always had good grades. This really pissed me off and I asked when he would want her to learn and he said “maybe when she’s in high school”. It is so much harder to learn a language when you’re older rather than when you’re young. He should know that as he failed Spanish 1 in high school. I feel as if he doesn’t want her to learn at all. He’s never learned more than a few words in asl even though I’ve tried hard with him because my aunt deserves to participate in conversations. He’s gotten mad before when me and my cousin were signing to each other because he didn’t know what we were saying and we were being “rude”. We were talking about something personal so he didn’t need to know anyways. Ive gotten over him not caring to learn languages, but I believe my daughter needs to learn. There’s so many benefits being trilingual and personally I feel it’s amazing to be able to communicate with different people. Where we live also has a large deaf population so it’s not uncommon to see deaf people in public.
I want her to learn but I don’t know how to do this without my partner supporting it. Am I wrong? Should I wait until she’s older maybe 5-8? I know it’s not on purpose but it makes me feel like he doesn’t respect how important my culture is to me. Should I just teach her anyways without him knowing or is this a serious thing that I should address with him? Can anyone with similar experiences give advice?
TLDR: I am trilingual and want to teach my 3 year old languages now while she’s young. My boyfriend says she shouldn’t learn until high school, but he doesn’t speak anything but English. How can I do this without his support or am I wrong and should wait?
submitted by ThrowRA-tounche to relationships [link] [comments]
My culture has always been very important to me and I’ve always wanted to stay connected to my heritage. My boyfriend has no connection with his culture besides knowing he’s Italian. My daughter is 3 1/2 and can speak fairly well. I wanted to start teaching her both of my languages and I’ve also read that teaching kids asl when they’re babies is a great way for them to communicate. I was speaking to her the other day in my language and my boyfriend got upset. He said that she’s too young to learn and it’ll be too confusing for her. He says that children who grow up in bilingual homes have a harder time in school. While that may have a slice of truth that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t learn. I was pretty good at school, I didn’t graduate top of my class but I always had good grades. This really pissed me off and I asked when he would want her to learn and he said “maybe when she’s in high school”. It is so much harder to learn a language when you’re older rather than when you’re young. He should know that as he failed Spanish 1 in high school. I feel as if he doesn’t want her to learn at all. He’s never learned more than a few words in asl even though I’ve tried hard with him because my aunt deserves to participate in conversations. He’s gotten mad before when me and my cousin were signing to each other because he didn’t know what we were saying and we were being “rude”. We were talking about something personal so he didn’t need to know anyways. Ive gotten over him not caring to learn languages, but I believe my daughter needs to learn. There’s so many benefits being trilingual and personally I feel it’s amazing to be able to communicate with different people. Where we live also has a large deaf population so it’s not uncommon to see deaf people in public.
I want her to learn but I don’t know how to do this without my partner supporting it. Am I wrong? Should I wait until she’s older maybe 5-8? I know it’s not on purpose but it makes me feel like he doesn’t respect how important my culture is to me. Should I just teach her anyways without him knowing or is this a serious thing that I should address with him? Can anyone with similar experiences give advice?
TLDR: I am trilingual and want to teach my 3 year old languages now while she’s young. My boyfriend says she shouldn’t learn until high school, but he doesn’t speak anything but English. How can I do this without his support or am I wrong and should wait?
2023.04.02 08:39 LaciaB Shenhe is the first character i won a 50% on game and wow, she is amazing.
I play since 1.3, and this is the first time i won a 50%, yes i lose all before like the time i lose 50% to qiqi on pity 84 and got ayaka on pity 86 on garanted, pain just pain, i decided get mitspliter to my ayaka and said, if i get shenhe weapon too i will get her, when i got calamity queller i pulled for shenhe and she come home on just pity 21 on 50% i got so happy, it's like she choose me, and wow just wow, i am really in love with her now, she is total different from what i heard about her, she really makes life easier to my ayaka and even to another cryo like rosaria and she is very beautiful, i am very happy with her and will give 2 crowns soon, I don't even know why i am telling that, i just got so much happy i was getting sad with the game but shenhe makes me happy again.
submitted by LaciaB to ShenheMains [link] [comments]
2023.04.02 08:39 pikeypaigepoems Devil at My Door
Fuck…
When I was 14
Well let’s go back to when I was 10, I guess.
I was a big fan of John Lennon and David Bowie and Elvis Presley.
But I had a condition..
Dexterity/motor skill problem.
I still have it to this day.
my hands are always shaking, And I exhibit the penmanship of a toddler to this day
I found an old guitar in my grandma‘s closet while we stayed with her in Los Banos before we moved to Reno Nevada From San Jose California.
My grandma and grandpa did not know how the guitar even got there in the first place, but they were old and maybe one of them bought it at one time and forgot.
I asked Grandma If could take the guitar.
I think the guitar was called “Aslin Dane. Ariel Pro III…”
This unique strat-style guitar seemed older than the redwoods my family had recently said goodbye to.
That was when I was 10….
We lived a normal life in Reno after that and we all loved the high dessert and mountain air.
I was 14 and now and we were assimilated in northern Nevada.
I had spent four years trying to even play a chord or a note on this mysterious guitar and ground my fingers away on it daily, but my hands were too shaky.
I couldn’t write a song.
I couldn’t do anything.
I prayed to God, even though it was a joke.
I didn’t believe in angels or God or the Bible.
My parents are both atheist my father is a man of science.
I grew up as an atheist I had no religious disposition at the time.
Subsequently, I got into heavy metal, dark hair, dark music and occult Ouija board shit. Not because I believed in anything really, but because I thought it was cool.
I was like: “there’s no god anyways so I might as well just be dark as I can be”.
it was a phase.
It was a fad.
So, arrogantly, I came home one day.
I still could not even pretend to play the guitar and I was angry because I thought I deserved talent.
So…. midnight one night, I decided to take every family album; every picture of myself that I could find in the house, my yearbooks throughout the years. I took these pictures and I drew pentagrams on my forehead and crossed out my eyes.
I then lit some candles and I said: “I know there’s no god, because if there was a god I would be able to play this guitar”
….I swore allegiance to the devil if he would come right now and show himself and make me able to play.
Maybe five minutes after I said this out loud and had lit the candles and did the séance…
Well, i should say that it must’ve been 2004 and there were zero electric vehicles at the time.
Though there weren’t electric vehicles in those days, I would describe what I heard and five minutes later; slowly prowling up to the front of my house, as an electric car.
It sounded like a heavy piece of metal moving with no engine.
Almost like how the Jetsons ship sounds.
And then I immediately started to sweat cold sweat.
The candles were still lit and I swear…across the wall in front of me, I saw an anthropomorphic face… A devilish face, cast a shadow that spread across my closet doors in front of me.
I was like “well at least the car stopped and they went somewhere else” because another five minutes later it was silent.
Just when I thought the coast was clear, I heard the rickety glass screen door being pulled open from our front door. It was an incredibly heavy and loud outer-door… But I didn’t hear the actual wooden front door, or anything like the locking mechanisms, nothing like that. So I thought it was just the wind blew this the heavy glass door wide open, so abruptly.
After five minutes or so, I heard heavy footsteps in the house, spaced between at least 30 or 40 seconds.
They were coming up the stairs to the second floor where my bedroom was.
I used to sneak out and smoke pot with my neighborhood friends, so I knew the spots on the staircase to avoid and it seemed like whatever was coming up there, purposely stepped on the loudest parts of it…like they knew the house as I did.
Another five minutes in silence, I just think that I’m imagining it all, but then….I start hearing footsteps 30 seconds apart.
Heavy footsteps, taunting me, by stepping on the loudest parts of the sub-floor underneath the carpet of the second landing.
I tried to convince myself it was a dream, but I was too alert and conscious of what I was trying to summon.
I could not have slept that night if you paid me $1 million dollars.
I was wide awake and terrified.
So…these footsteps came down through the hallway, to my door and they stopped loudly
I’m thinking to myself “why won’t my dad get up? I want my mom get up.
Nor did my brothers awake nor my sister…aren’t they terrified too?’
10 minutes passed. I didn’t hear anything.
Then just as I was saying “phew” and wiping the sweat from my forehead; I heard three loud knocks; “boom, boom, boom.”
I was like ‘this is not happening right now!’
I tried to get up to turn the candles off and shred the Satanic photos I made of myself, but I’ve never been so afraid and I was unable to move.
“Boom boom boom!’
it was always three knocks… each set louder and louder, until at least 6 or 7 AM.
The next day, of course, I was still awake and only opened the door when I heard my family having breakfast.
I went downstairs and I literally shoved my older brother while he was sitting having eggs and hashbrowns at the table and I accosted him and I said “what the hell man? Why were you banging on my door all night?
He genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.
My dad‘s room was only 5 feet across the hall from where I was, and my sisters room was literally a foot away from my door to the left.
Nobody heard anything and they looked at me like I was crazy.
I felt I was crazy.
I had just stayed up all night listening to this thing pounding like a fireman or policeman at my door and that was when I first genuinely Said a prayer to God.
Two or three weeks later I casually picked up the old creepy guitar that was still in my closet….And I could play.
I mean, oh, boy could I play.
But there was nothing inside of me that was cheerful about this new gift that I was given.
And I always knew from then on out that it was a curse.
Since then, I have become a protégés guitar, bass player and singer.
But every time I write a new song, there is a shadow of my soul standing over me.
I try to think that, since I didn’t open the door for Satan; that God has rewarded me with the gift to play, but I know that my gift is a curse and I may either already be in hell or I am going that way soon.
submitted by pikeypaigepoems to nope [link] [comments]
When I was 14
Well let’s go back to when I was 10, I guess.
I was a big fan of John Lennon and David Bowie and Elvis Presley.
But I had a condition..
Dexterity/motor skill problem.
I still have it to this day.
my hands are always shaking, And I exhibit the penmanship of a toddler to this day
I found an old guitar in my grandma‘s closet while we stayed with her in Los Banos before we moved to Reno Nevada From San Jose California.
My grandma and grandpa did not know how the guitar even got there in the first place, but they were old and maybe one of them bought it at one time and forgot.
I asked Grandma If could take the guitar.
I think the guitar was called “Aslin Dane. Ariel Pro III…”
This unique strat-style guitar seemed older than the redwoods my family had recently said goodbye to.
That was when I was 10….
We lived a normal life in Reno after that and we all loved the high dessert and mountain air.
I was 14 and now and we were assimilated in northern Nevada.
I had spent four years trying to even play a chord or a note on this mysterious guitar and ground my fingers away on it daily, but my hands were too shaky.
I couldn’t write a song.
I couldn’t do anything.
I prayed to God, even though it was a joke.
I didn’t believe in angels or God or the Bible.
My parents are both atheist my father is a man of science.
I grew up as an atheist I had no religious disposition at the time.
Subsequently, I got into heavy metal, dark hair, dark music and occult Ouija board shit. Not because I believed in anything really, but because I thought it was cool.
I was like: “there’s no god anyways so I might as well just be dark as I can be”.
it was a phase.
It was a fad.
So, arrogantly, I came home one day.
I still could not even pretend to play the guitar and I was angry because I thought I deserved talent.
So…. midnight one night, I decided to take every family album; every picture of myself that I could find in the house, my yearbooks throughout the years. I took these pictures and I drew pentagrams on my forehead and crossed out my eyes.
I then lit some candles and I said: “I know there’s no god, because if there was a god I would be able to play this guitar”
….I swore allegiance to the devil if he would come right now and show himself and make me able to play.
Maybe five minutes after I said this out loud and had lit the candles and did the séance…
Well, i should say that it must’ve been 2004 and there were zero electric vehicles at the time.
Though there weren’t electric vehicles in those days, I would describe what I heard and five minutes later; slowly prowling up to the front of my house, as an electric car.
It sounded like a heavy piece of metal moving with no engine.
Almost like how the Jetsons ship sounds.
And then I immediately started to sweat cold sweat.
The candles were still lit and I swear…across the wall in front of me, I saw an anthropomorphic face… A devilish face, cast a shadow that spread across my closet doors in front of me.
I was like “well at least the car stopped and they went somewhere else” because another five minutes later it was silent.
Just when I thought the coast was clear, I heard the rickety glass screen door being pulled open from our front door. It was an incredibly heavy and loud outer-door… But I didn’t hear the actual wooden front door, or anything like the locking mechanisms, nothing like that. So I thought it was just the wind blew this the heavy glass door wide open, so abruptly.
After five minutes or so, I heard heavy footsteps in the house, spaced between at least 30 or 40 seconds.
They were coming up the stairs to the second floor where my bedroom was.
I used to sneak out and smoke pot with my neighborhood friends, so I knew the spots on the staircase to avoid and it seemed like whatever was coming up there, purposely stepped on the loudest parts of it…like they knew the house as I did.
Another five minutes in silence, I just think that I’m imagining it all, but then….I start hearing footsteps 30 seconds apart.
Heavy footsteps, taunting me, by stepping on the loudest parts of the sub-floor underneath the carpet of the second landing.
I tried to convince myself it was a dream, but I was too alert and conscious of what I was trying to summon.
I could not have slept that night if you paid me $1 million dollars.
I was wide awake and terrified.
So…these footsteps came down through the hallway, to my door and they stopped loudly
I’m thinking to myself “why won’t my dad get up? I want my mom get up.
Nor did my brothers awake nor my sister…aren’t they terrified too?’
10 minutes passed. I didn’t hear anything.
Then just as I was saying “phew” and wiping the sweat from my forehead; I heard three loud knocks; “boom, boom, boom.”
I was like ‘this is not happening right now!’
I tried to get up to turn the candles off and shred the Satanic photos I made of myself, but I’ve never been so afraid and I was unable to move.
“Boom boom boom!’
it was always three knocks… each set louder and louder, until at least 6 or 7 AM.
The next day, of course, I was still awake and only opened the door when I heard my family having breakfast.
I went downstairs and I literally shoved my older brother while he was sitting having eggs and hashbrowns at the table and I accosted him and I said “what the hell man? Why were you banging on my door all night?
He genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.
My dad‘s room was only 5 feet across the hall from where I was, and my sisters room was literally a foot away from my door to the left.
Nobody heard anything and they looked at me like I was crazy.
I felt I was crazy.
I had just stayed up all night listening to this thing pounding like a fireman or policeman at my door and that was when I first genuinely Said a prayer to God.
Two or three weeks later I casually picked up the old creepy guitar that was still in my closet….And I could play.
I mean, oh, boy could I play.
But there was nothing inside of me that was cheerful about this new gift that I was given.
And I always knew from then on out that it was a curse.
Since then, I have become a protégés guitar, bass player and singer.
But every time I write a new song, there is a shadow of my soul standing over me.
I try to think that, since I didn’t open the door for Satan; that God has rewarded me with the gift to play, but I know that my gift is a curse and I may either already be in hell or I am going that way soon.
2023.04.02 08:39 Nianx My dad's dogs aggressiveness and lack of social skills are making things unbearable.
So my dad has two dogs (siblings and one female, one male) that are unsocial and aggressive towards strangers and other dogs. They are about 5 years now.
Backstory is: My brother in law found them in a dumpster in a bag as very small pups...they were the only two alive. With lots of care and love they survived, I spent about a week tending to them (My parents were away on holidays) and we call them Eevee (f) and Dili (m). So at the time I was away studying in uni and would only be there for the weekends and at first they were just cute and sweet puppies. As they grew I noticed my parents were pampering them too much, maybe because me and my siblings were already living apart and they felt lonely, it was like they were their children. I started living with my boyfriend about 1 year after that.
So things were starting to get progressively worse. They didn't train them at all, they would let them destroy everything from blankets, to dog beds, to shoes and just started walking them in isolated places like the woods or the beach. They did this because they were starting to bark at other people and dogs. I told them to keep walking them in places near people but they ignored it...I also went abroad about 3 years ago so it became harder for me to try to help.
Fast forward to now, my mother passed away about one week ago. I am on my dad's house so we can be there for another. My mother had a hoarder problem and the house is a mess so we are gradually starting to clean and declutter. But there's a lot of problems because of the dog's behavior. To name a few:
They are way too excited and bark a lot. Any sound outside and they go crazy and go to the front yard to bark (we have a house with walls around, they can't see outside, only through the gate gap). The neighbors aren't really happy with all the barking.
When we get back home they jump on me and my dad and even though they are small medium sized they sometimes hurt my dad with they paws and my dad is 73 years old, he still has good mobility but I am concerned they might make him fall someday. Oh and he keeps saying he has to pick them up when they are like this (mostly with the female) which also isn't doing any good to his back pain.
They shred blankets, plants, the couch and even the car...(my dad keeps letting them go into the backseats, even though they could comfortably stay only in the trunk which is connected.) This also makes me sad because I was the one that helped him picking a new car some years ago, it was almost brand new and now it's awfull.)
He often goes on walks with them but he tries to avoid other people or dogs. He already had issues where our dogs saw others and tried to attack them so I am afraid one day this can be very problematic. They never bite people but they are aggressive, barking at them closely which can be scary.
Eevee, the female, sometimes pees on the couch just suddenly and I told him she might have a problem so we should get her to the vet...she also pees inside sometimes. I suggested we got dog beds and try to keep them off the couch but my dad said they would just rip them off.
He also can't never go on holidays because he says if the dogs were home alone, even if someone went there to take care of them, they would be howling and be missing him all the time.
I think Eevee's the most problematic one in terms of behavior, she is seems smarter than Dili and usually wants to domanite him so they sometimes get in fights. She is also very jealous and I think Dili learned a lot of bad behavior from her since he seemed more social and calmer than her before.
But yeah, I am sorry for the long post but I think I shouldn't let any details out. I would say they behave like this because they weren't trained at all, were not socialized properly and I know it was my parents fault and my dad keeps with the same routine... He is stubborn but he loves them very much and he thinks that this way he is being good to them. He also used to give them people food while eating meals but I think I made him understand that it's very harmful for them, and they are getting a bit overweight, especially Dili.
This had been a very hard time for my family because of our mother's loss so I just want to try to help my dad so when I leave at least he can have more piece of mind regarding all this issues.
I have started to watch some videos about how to socialize aggressive dogs and try to calm them down more but I just wanted to know if someone had any advice for this situation, TIA.
TL;DR: Dogs are not socialized properly and are aggressive towards other people and dogs.
submitted by Nianx to Dogtraining [link] [comments]
Backstory is: My brother in law found them in a dumpster in a bag as very small pups...they were the only two alive. With lots of care and love they survived, I spent about a week tending to them (My parents were away on holidays) and we call them Eevee (f) and Dili (m). So at the time I was away studying in uni and would only be there for the weekends and at first they were just cute and sweet puppies. As they grew I noticed my parents were pampering them too much, maybe because me and my siblings were already living apart and they felt lonely, it was like they were their children. I started living with my boyfriend about 1 year after that.
So things were starting to get progressively worse. They didn't train them at all, they would let them destroy everything from blankets, to dog beds, to shoes and just started walking them in isolated places like the woods or the beach. They did this because they were starting to bark at other people and dogs. I told them to keep walking them in places near people but they ignored it...I also went abroad about 3 years ago so it became harder for me to try to help.
Fast forward to now, my mother passed away about one week ago. I am on my dad's house so we can be there for another. My mother had a hoarder problem and the house is a mess so we are gradually starting to clean and declutter. But there's a lot of problems because of the dog's behavior. To name a few:
They are way too excited and bark a lot. Any sound outside and they go crazy and go to the front yard to bark (we have a house with walls around, they can't see outside, only through the gate gap). The neighbors aren't really happy with all the barking.
When we get back home they jump on me and my dad and even though they are small medium sized they sometimes hurt my dad with they paws and my dad is 73 years old, he still has good mobility but I am concerned they might make him fall someday. Oh and he keeps saying he has to pick them up when they are like this (mostly with the female) which also isn't doing any good to his back pain.
They shred blankets, plants, the couch and even the car...(my dad keeps letting them go into the backseats, even though they could comfortably stay only in the trunk which is connected.) This also makes me sad because I was the one that helped him picking a new car some years ago, it was almost brand new and now it's awfull.)
He often goes on walks with them but he tries to avoid other people or dogs. He already had issues where our dogs saw others and tried to attack them so I am afraid one day this can be very problematic. They never bite people but they are aggressive, barking at them closely which can be scary.
Eevee, the female, sometimes pees on the couch just suddenly and I told him she might have a problem so we should get her to the vet...she also pees inside sometimes. I suggested we got dog beds and try to keep them off the couch but my dad said they would just rip them off.
He also can't never go on holidays because he says if the dogs were home alone, even if someone went there to take care of them, they would be howling and be missing him all the time.
I think Eevee's the most problematic one in terms of behavior, she is seems smarter than Dili and usually wants to domanite him so they sometimes get in fights. She is also very jealous and I think Dili learned a lot of bad behavior from her since he seemed more social and calmer than her before.
But yeah, I am sorry for the long post but I think I shouldn't let any details out. I would say they behave like this because they weren't trained at all, were not socialized properly and I know it was my parents fault and my dad keeps with the same routine... He is stubborn but he loves them very much and he thinks that this way he is being good to them. He also used to give them people food while eating meals but I think I made him understand that it's very harmful for them, and they are getting a bit overweight, especially Dili.
This had been a very hard time for my family because of our mother's loss so I just want to try to help my dad so when I leave at least he can have more piece of mind regarding all this issues.
I have started to watch some videos about how to socialize aggressive dogs and try to calm them down more but I just wanted to know if someone had any advice for this situation, TIA.
TL;DR: Dogs are not socialized properly and are aggressive towards other people and dogs.
2023.04.02 08:39 pikeypaigepoems Circus circus part three
He kept tossing onions into his hat and missing the mark. He dropped his spatulas like five times while attempting to juggle and flustered, he served everyone the wrong dishes.
It was Carolinas birthday and the staff sang happy birthday to another Korean girl sitting at our table and called her my gfs name..:
Carolina made me give up the sauce earlier that month and I almost attributed my hallucinations to withdrawal symptoms.
I found out how wrong I was to think that or that I was even going mad at all, later that evening.
Thankfully Carolina was infinitely patient and we both shared a healthy amount of appreciation for irony and clowned on stupid things a lot, not at all unlike her lackluster birthday party.
We laughed it off.
As soon as the door to our room slammed shut, we stopped laughing but, not to worry. The night had a whole lot more of laughter coming our way.
Yes, it was freezing in there. It reminded me of a meat cooler in a butchers shop. It was just missing the cow carcasses hanging from hooks.
We sort of expected this and it was snowing like hell outside so it wasn’t that unfathomable.
We cranked up the heat but instead of heat the only difference we noticed as a possible result was the unmistakable smell of death and rot.
I pulled the mini fridge out, looking for a rat or mouse. My bartending experience taught me that even something as insignificant as a mouse can smell like trench in World War One.
Nothing.
Thankfully my girlfriend started to speak up about all of the things that weren’t adding up and what do you know? The shadow man silhouette was growing once again and the sound of passive but persistent scraping was once again audible.
We lay down together and I decide to come clean and tell her about the shower incident, only after she unsteadily whispered: “babe, I think this place is haunted.”
When I uttered the word “laughter” in me recounting of the shower episode, I was interrupted with the sound of sitcom style canned laughter followed by a round of applause that can typically be attributed to the ending of an episode.
She heard it, them, also.
I had to know.
“Did you hear it too?”
She choked back alligator tears and nodded bleakly.
The next thing that happened was the adjacent room to us in the hallway as well as the room at the end of the hallway to our right started opening and slamming and this continued all night. There were sounds of drills or table saws coupled with ballroom music and intemperate drunken ranting and heated arguments on the other side of our door until, you guessed, dawn.
We had three nights left that we paid for but at first light we threw all our belongings into our luggage and ran down to the front desk.
I gave the key back to the girl working the desk.
I told her that we were leaving early and that judging by the sound of the massive party and maintenance occurring on the 16th floor, I figured she would be happy to hear that she could rent the room to the drunks that saturated the floor.
“Sir, you two are the first guests we’ve had on the 16th floor in 5 weeks or so.”
On the trip home, it dawned on us that, though the nearby rooms doors were opening and closing but we never heard the beeping of the door key cards being used.
I scoured the internet for the old woman from my dream and I found a website that had an illustration of her and with her pet iguana and those dead white eyes.
submitted by pikeypaigepoems to nope [link] [comments]
It was Carolinas birthday and the staff sang happy birthday to another Korean girl sitting at our table and called her my gfs name..:
Carolina made me give up the sauce earlier that month and I almost attributed my hallucinations to withdrawal symptoms.
I found out how wrong I was to think that or that I was even going mad at all, later that evening.
Thankfully Carolina was infinitely patient and we both shared a healthy amount of appreciation for irony and clowned on stupid things a lot, not at all unlike her lackluster birthday party.
We laughed it off.
As soon as the door to our room slammed shut, we stopped laughing but, not to worry. The night had a whole lot more of laughter coming our way.
Yes, it was freezing in there. It reminded me of a meat cooler in a butchers shop. It was just missing the cow carcasses hanging from hooks.
We sort of expected this and it was snowing like hell outside so it wasn’t that unfathomable.
We cranked up the heat but instead of heat the only difference we noticed as a possible result was the unmistakable smell of death and rot.
I pulled the mini fridge out, looking for a rat or mouse. My bartending experience taught me that even something as insignificant as a mouse can smell like trench in World War One.
Nothing.
Thankfully my girlfriend started to speak up about all of the things that weren’t adding up and what do you know? The shadow man silhouette was growing once again and the sound of passive but persistent scraping was once again audible.
We lay down together and I decide to come clean and tell her about the shower incident, only after she unsteadily whispered: “babe, I think this place is haunted.”
When I uttered the word “laughter” in me recounting of the shower episode, I was interrupted with the sound of sitcom style canned laughter followed by a round of applause that can typically be attributed to the ending of an episode.
She heard it, them, also.
I had to know.
“Did you hear it too?”
She choked back alligator tears and nodded bleakly.
The next thing that happened was the adjacent room to us in the hallway as well as the room at the end of the hallway to our right started opening and slamming and this continued all night. There were sounds of drills or table saws coupled with ballroom music and intemperate drunken ranting and heated arguments on the other side of our door until, you guessed, dawn.
We had three nights left that we paid for but at first light we threw all our belongings into our luggage and ran down to the front desk.
I gave the key back to the girl working the desk.
I told her that we were leaving early and that judging by the sound of the massive party and maintenance occurring on the 16th floor, I figured she would be happy to hear that she could rent the room to the drunks that saturated the floor.
“Sir, you two are the first guests we’ve had on the 16th floor in 5 weeks or so.”
On the trip home, it dawned on us that, though the nearby rooms doors were opening and closing but we never heard the beeping of the door key cards being used.
I scoured the internet for the old woman from my dream and I found a website that had an illustration of her and with her pet iguana and those dead white eyes.
2023.04.02 08:39 average_lazy_mf OH MY GOD AGAIN?!?! LEAVE ME ALONE
 | submitted by average_lazy_mf to DBZDokkanBattle [link] [comments] |
2023.04.02 08:39 pikeypaigepoems Circus circus part two
We took all the clean towels and covered the macabre paintings and collapsed into bed.
That night I had the worst sleep paralysis episode I had ever had.
I just remember that I was sitting up in bed, looking at the door to our room because something was behind the door that made me bolt up and start sweating, despite the brumal chill that came over the room.
The sound of as like a cat scratching to be let inside.
Suddenly the door burst open violently and there was an apparition of an elderly woman in a pure white evening gown.
She was levitating about a couple feet off the ground. Her eyes were white like a severely blind old dog.
Below her there were snake like lizards that made figure eights, chasing each others tails in some ritualistic undulating circle.
The apparition floated to the foot of my bed. Her arms were outstretched in front of her, shoulder height like Frankenstein and the lizards followed her wherever she went.
The old woman began shrieking like a banshee and the room filled with blinding white light.
Next I’m laying in bed screaming and Carolina is shaking me out of my vivid and lucid sleep paralysis.
She was terrified.
I sprung out of bed and ran to the door to see if it was still locked.
We tried to shrug it off and return to bed but the room was so I cold I was expecting to see my own breath.
Carolina pointed out that something sounded like it was scratching the window lightly and a distended humanoid shadow was cast across the wall.
I opened the curtains to see if it may be hail making the noise as we were way too high up for it to be anything else.
The shadow figure would vanish each time I yanked the blinds open but it and the scratching would manifest again a few minutes later each time.
The thermostat said the room was 80 degrees and we had the cranked to no avail. It would get progressively colder and colder each night until exactly sunrise and then it seemed the heater would finally function properly.
So, I gave up on sleeping but my girlfriend slept well into the afternoon.
I called down for more towels but nobody came so after an hour I took the one down that we had hung over easily the must unnerving painting in the whole room.
Just above the toilet was the saddest sack of shit wino clown that appeared to have the wounds of Christ in its wrists and of course, just behind the clown was like a wendigo or skinwalker entity that I hadn’t noticed initially.
Regarding the painting, my girlfriend took pictures of all of them just because she knew that no one back home would believe that they were real. Also, they were so complicated that it’s truly hard to describe exactly what was going on in each one. The best comparison I could make was if Hieronymus Bosch used oil paints and charcoal on an average sized canvas and had a hard on for clowns.
After a year or so, she and I both felt that the photos of the paintings should be deleted as we both experienced frequent sleep paralysis the following year or so. Part of me regrets that decision.
Oh well.
It was 2016 so it didn’t help that it was that year where disturbing clowns were popping up all over to the point where McDonald’s nixed Ronald McDonald for good.
So, there I am in the shower with my back to Clowny McAntichrist and I’m feeling distinctly like I’m being watched.
I allow myself to revisit my nightmare from the night before but suddenly there was only one thing I could think about…
The disembodied, Krusty the Clown cartoonish laughter that suddenly manifested near my right ear.
I yanked the shower in the direction I thought was off and ended up scalding my neck and butt and almost completely ate it.
I pulled the shower curtain open from the other side and searched the entire room for whatever made that noise.
At this point, I was convinced that it was my turn to go crazy seeing as my older brother lost his mind around the same age. That’s another story but he is a homeless schizophrenic meth who talks to himself and went full on Syd Barret with out any prior indication of mental health problems.
Heartbreaking as my brothers descent into madness was, I was selfishly more afraid of waking up one day just as insane as he is.
I couldn’t tell Carolina what I was experiencing. If I was losing it, she is the last one I would want to find out about it.
We went to a dinner show thing at a Japanese restaurant called Ichiban.
Our cook was awful.
submitted by pikeypaigepoems to nope [link] [comments]
That night I had the worst sleep paralysis episode I had ever had.
I just remember that I was sitting up in bed, looking at the door to our room because something was behind the door that made me bolt up and start sweating, despite the brumal chill that came over the room.
The sound of as like a cat scratching to be let inside.
Suddenly the door burst open violently and there was an apparition of an elderly woman in a pure white evening gown.
She was levitating about a couple feet off the ground. Her eyes were white like a severely blind old dog.
Below her there were snake like lizards that made figure eights, chasing each others tails in some ritualistic undulating circle.
The apparition floated to the foot of my bed. Her arms were outstretched in front of her, shoulder height like Frankenstein and the lizards followed her wherever she went.
The old woman began shrieking like a banshee and the room filled with blinding white light.
Next I’m laying in bed screaming and Carolina is shaking me out of my vivid and lucid sleep paralysis.
She was terrified.
I sprung out of bed and ran to the door to see if it was still locked.
We tried to shrug it off and return to bed but the room was so I cold I was expecting to see my own breath.
Carolina pointed out that something sounded like it was scratching the window lightly and a distended humanoid shadow was cast across the wall.
I opened the curtains to see if it may be hail making the noise as we were way too high up for it to be anything else.
The shadow figure would vanish each time I yanked the blinds open but it and the scratching would manifest again a few minutes later each time.
The thermostat said the room was 80 degrees and we had the cranked to no avail. It would get progressively colder and colder each night until exactly sunrise and then it seemed the heater would finally function properly.
So, I gave up on sleeping but my girlfriend slept well into the afternoon.
I called down for more towels but nobody came so after an hour I took the one down that we had hung over easily the must unnerving painting in the whole room.
Just above the toilet was the saddest sack of shit wino clown that appeared to have the wounds of Christ in its wrists and of course, just behind the clown was like a wendigo or skinwalker entity that I hadn’t noticed initially.
Regarding the painting, my girlfriend took pictures of all of them just because she knew that no one back home would believe that they were real. Also, they were so complicated that it’s truly hard to describe exactly what was going on in each one. The best comparison I could make was if Hieronymus Bosch used oil paints and charcoal on an average sized canvas and had a hard on for clowns.
After a year or so, she and I both felt that the photos of the paintings should be deleted as we both experienced frequent sleep paralysis the following year or so. Part of me regrets that decision.
Oh well.
It was 2016 so it didn’t help that it was that year where disturbing clowns were popping up all over to the point where McDonald’s nixed Ronald McDonald for good.
So, there I am in the shower with my back to Clowny McAntichrist and I’m feeling distinctly like I’m being watched.
I allow myself to revisit my nightmare from the night before but suddenly there was only one thing I could think about…
The disembodied, Krusty the Clown cartoonish laughter that suddenly manifested near my right ear.
I yanked the shower in the direction I thought was off and ended up scalding my neck and butt and almost completely ate it.
I pulled the shower curtain open from the other side and searched the entire room for whatever made that noise.
At this point, I was convinced that it was my turn to go crazy seeing as my older brother lost his mind around the same age. That’s another story but he is a homeless schizophrenic meth who talks to himself and went full on Syd Barret with out any prior indication of mental health problems.
Heartbreaking as my brothers descent into madness was, I was selfishly more afraid of waking up one day just as insane as he is.
I couldn’t tell Carolina what I was experiencing. If I was losing it, she is the last one I would want to find out about it.
We went to a dinner show thing at a Japanese restaurant called Ichiban.
Our cook was awful.
2023.04.02 08:38 GlitteringForm3366 1st Night bartending at a cigar bar....
I throw parties at home where I make cocktails and "bartend" and I've done a couple private parties, but this is a different animal. Not that I didn't have respect before, but I have a completely different respect for the job. I did alright by everyone's accounts, so that's a plus. We'll try it again next Saturday...
submitted by GlitteringForm3366 to bartenders [link] [comments]
2023.04.02 08:38 RemarkableExplorer66 facts about Em for Stans #29384
 | According to "channel24.co.za", Eminem asked the concert organizers of his tour of South Africa to always have a few jars of pickled cucumbers in his wardrobe. Eminem is apparently a real connoisseur when it comes to pickles. A source told the website: "Eminem informed the organizers that he only wants pickles from premium German brand Gundelsheim." Eminem also asked for mild Swiss cheese, shrimp and fat-free yoghurt. submitted by RemarkableExplorer66 to Eminem [link] [comments] |
2023.04.02 08:38 0962267576 Issues with used RX570 GPU - should I return it or try to fix it?
Hi everyone,
I recently purchased a used RX570 GPU from a local store for gaming purposes. At the time of purchase, I tested it in FurMark for 15 minutes and it worked fine. However, when I ran the same stress test for about 2 minutes after taking it home, the GPU lost signal, even though the temperature was only around 70deg and the average wattage was 90w. The PSU is an unknown brand named aigo ck 500 500w, and the CPU is i5 4590s. The GPU's fan was still spinning at full speed, but the display showed no signal. Two connectors were plugged in, one for the GPU and one for the iGPU. When I hit the reset button, it booted up, but the RX570 was not showing up on the device manager, although the GPU's fan was still spinning at max speed.
I tried starting up the PC again, and it worked fine, but the same issue occurred when I ran FurMark. Upon further investigation, I found out that the GPU was previously used for mining crypto, and the seller restored the original BIOS before selling it to me.
I'm not sure whether I should return the GPU for a replacement or try to fix it myself. Has anyone had a similar experience with a used GPU? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
submitted by 0962267576 to computers [link] [comments]
I recently purchased a used RX570 GPU from a local store for gaming purposes. At the time of purchase, I tested it in FurMark for 15 minutes and it worked fine. However, when I ran the same stress test for about 2 minutes after taking it home, the GPU lost signal, even though the temperature was only around 70deg and the average wattage was 90w. The PSU is an unknown brand named aigo ck 500 500w, and the CPU is i5 4590s. The GPU's fan was still spinning at full speed, but the display showed no signal. Two connectors were plugged in, one for the GPU and one for the iGPU. When I hit the reset button, it booted up, but the RX570 was not showing up on the device manager, although the GPU's fan was still spinning at max speed.
I tried starting up the PC again, and it worked fine, but the same issue occurred when I ran FurMark. Upon further investigation, I found out that the GPU was previously used for mining crypto, and the seller restored the original BIOS before selling it to me.
I'm not sure whether I should return the GPU for a replacement or try to fix it myself. Has anyone had a similar experience with a used GPU? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
2023.04.02 08:37 MrngStar_666 Help
Hi,
Looking for reliable pet sitters for home visits while away travelling. Locations - La Linea.
Also looking for apps//groups//shops (apart of Facebook) to sell 2nd hand items.
TIA
submitted by MrngStar_666 to gibraltar [link] [comments]
Looking for reliable pet sitters for home visits while away travelling. Locations - La Linea.
Also looking for apps//groups//shops (apart of Facebook) to sell 2nd hand items.
TIA
2023.04.02 08:37 lyshmallow23 carnivorous plants ready for a new home 🌵🐸
 | submitted by lyshmallow23 to Pocketfrogs [link] [comments] |
2023.04.02 08:37 Snigaroo In Defense of Peragus: it's not just well-designed, it's a uniquely good level too
I'm going to take a provably unpopular stance and go into detail explaining why I think Peragus is not just a fun and thoughtful level, but also why I think it was designed and executed well. This is stupidly long, so be prepared.
Game levels are not always (or even often) just a calculus of "will this be fun?" Often, their design is imbricated with the game's themes, pacing and tone. This can range from the obvious--there is a reason Dead Space takes place on a run-down, damaged vessel with bad lighting, for instance--to the subtextual: is the reason Dragon Age: Origins concludes on the top of Fort Drakon, the very simbol of the King's power in Denerim, meant to represent the player overcoming the forces in Ferelden which stood against them and rising to the heights of power? Or is it meant to be a nod to Alistair, and the future which is intended for him?
However, between the obvious and the subtextual is, I would argue, a third category which often represents major design decisions which nevertheless are not directly tied to core gameplay components (such as movement, combat, or the plot of the game at large) and are focused instead on achieving a specific and narrow design objective, such as the creation of a unique tone or atmosphere. For simplicity's sake, I will refer to this as Structural Design, and this is the level at which I believe Peragus operates.
With this in mind, what is Peragus's design intent, and what is that design intent intended to accomplish? Let us first examine, in broad strokes, what Peragus actually does to the player, and from there we can work to extrapolate the broader intent of Peragus as a level. Peragus:
Yet a stunning amount of the remainder matches with shocking--and repeated--closeness to the game's themes:
Operating under the assumption that our thesis is correct, I would issue an emphatic yes. In my most recent playthrough of KOTOR 2 I did not skip any dialogue, even alien VO; fully unlocked all holo-records and terminal entries and read them in their entirety; and defeated every enemy in the area (including every stealth group aboard the Harbinger), as well as doing some crafting. I did all that, and I was still off of Peragus in 3 hours, 30 minutes. The level manages to condense almost every single major theme of the game into a runtime of 210 minutes. And that's an example from me being slow.
People often complain about Peragus being unbearably long, and I understand those complaints, but viewed from this perspective, doesn't it seem incredible Peragus is as short as it is given the sheer thematic density it presents? It does to me; I often wonder if it even could be shorter and still succeed in the all-important attempt to subvert the player by constantly forcing them to fail in their efforts, breaking down their hope into hopelessness. Again: you might not like that, but is it not masterfully accomplished?
To me, Peragus feels like a master-class in design, constructing a compelling, localized narrative which leaves the player thirsting for more information about the uncertain and seemingly dangerous immediate past--both of the Exile and of the galaxy more broadly--while also managing to tie in almost all of the game's critical themes and introduce the player to what they should expect to see going forward. I can't think of a single tutorial level which accomplishes an introduction to the tone and themes of its product better than Peragus does for KOTOR 2. The closest is probably Dark Souls, but I hope it won't be controversial for me to say that it doesn't exactly deal with the same kind of heady themes KOTOR 2 does.
Still, success in objectives, as we've already noted, does not automatically mean a fun design. There are plenty of games that accomplish their goals admirably, but their goals suck, or the moment-to-moment gameplay and plot through which these goals are conveyed is unfun or tedious. Before we get to why I think Peragus is not just a successful but a good level, let me take a moment to acknowledge the criticisms frequently leveled against it.
Confusing design is a common complaint here on the sub, in that you frequently switch areas and characters, running in circles and often with only half-answers about what's happening. This issue is, I feel, more an artifact of initial impressions than a real point of failing for Peragus. A lot of people here now played this game as children. Jumping between the Exile and T3 then back without seeing T3 again for hours could easily be disorienting to a 12-year-old thrown into an unknown setting, but less so to an adult. Peragus does have you going in circles at times, especially when you later retrace T3's exact steps down the fuel depot, but I would not say that it is at any point structurally confusing.
The absence of many RPG elements is also noted. Despite playing a roleplaying game, Peragus is not just a zone where the player has barely anyone to interact with, it is also an extremely linear experience with barely any alternate means of achieving objectives (most of what little exists in that vein is token--bashing terminals to open doors instead of using conventional unlocks, for instance). The latter issue I fully agree with and believe is one of the few major failings of Peragus, though I would suggest that it's possible that alternate options were cut to avoid additional confusion for new players by overloading them with alternate routes, or bloating an already-long tutorial level. The former issue, however, we can see is a core component of Peragus's design, not just to establish the isolating and disconcerting atmosphere of the station, but also to introduce that the player will frequently need to operate alone throughout the course of the game. Thus once again, while this criticism is valid, so too is Peragus's rationale for its design choice.
Bad combat design is also often discussed, however this is very subjective and perhaps even outside of the scope of this analysis. I think that the mix of droids and assassins is interesting enough and the stealth teams add tension and threat as a welcome break in the monotony of droid combat at the 2/3 point of the level, but I understand many might not agree. That said, bad fights can contribute to disliking a level without contributing to a failure of its design intent, so even in the event that players don't like the combat, there's still the possibility to appreciate what Peragus sets out to achieve.
Among the most frequently-mentioned criticisms of the zone is a lack of replayability. This is understandable: Peragus is, at its heart, a massive murder-mystery, and when you already know the answer much of the tension that drives the level is no longer present. I fully acknowledge this as another problem with the level, though I do also want to note the same problems exist for virtually every other game which is designed around a mystery.
There is also a final--and, in my opinion, critical--complaint one often hears, but because of how important it is to my conclusions, I will save mentioning it for last. First, I want to explain why, despite its problems, I think Peragus is not just a triumph of design, but also simply a fun level.
a buzzword subjective, so I can't just say "Peragus is fun, fuck you haters" and leave it at that. At this point I'm 18,000 characters and 8 hours in to this post and regretting my life choices, though, and holy fuck I really wish I could.
Ignoring my poor decision-making, we have touched on whether Peragus succeeds in its intent already, but not how it succeeds in its intent. When you wrap all of the themes contained within up in a Peragus-shaped box, what do you get?
The absence of NPCs or companions, while perhaps unconventional from the perspective of an RPG, leaves the player free to experience the mystery of the station without the risk of growing distracted or having their expectations muddled by other characters' perspectives. However, the main thing that the absence of NPCs achieves, and the reason I love Peragus even after 30+ playthroughs, is the punishing isolation which the player is made to feel virtually from the first moment. It is this isolation which leaves me coming back for more, and which more than lets me ignore the fact that I know where every enemy spawn is, know the mystery of the station, know just what every log says. I respect Peragus's design. I devour Peragus's atmosphere.
This atmosphere is, I think, actually part two of three in the Unholy Trinity of why people dislike the level. Aspect #1 is its length, but the atmosphere is, I think, an oft-overlooked bit of first impression that leaves a consistently sour taste in players' mouths. Because I would go so far as to say the atmosphere of Peragus is almost crafted too well.
Peragus is not a conventionally enjoyable level to play. You are alone. There are no people around you, but by all appearances there should be. Your "friends" are suspect, there are threats around every turn, and your attempts to escape are constantly, meticulously thwarted. And throughout all this, you are alone. We have spoken of all of this before in the context of design intent, but not in terms of the effect that actually has on gameplay.
I previously saw a user call Peragus a survival-horror experience, and another user said they were out of their mind. I don't think they were--I think that's exactly what Peragus is. Peragus is a horror game, complete with its own lumbering monstrocities hounding your every step in the shapes of HK-50 and Sion, and like all horror games, it is patently uncomfortable to experience. You are constantly looking over your shoulder (metaphorically and, perhaps, actually as well), constantly on alert for an ambush, constantly, desperately hoping that the next door you open will finally have someone behind it. But you are ALWAYS alone. Your attempts to escape are ALWAYS thwarted. The monsters are ALWAYS one step in front of you. You literally do not feel safe and confident that you've escaped until you finally see that hyperspace window open in front of you.
That is a triumph of design. And that is also, I am confident, the root of why so many people dislike Peragus. It isn't just the individual elements like the length, the constant defeats, or the ambush teams that make people hate Peragus. On their own, those are annoying but not damning, and even in aggregate without a total failure of all other aspects of design they could not, in my opinion, explain the hate which Peragus consistently earns. I am not dismissing the criticisms which I addressed above, nor their place as a component of the dislike for Peragus. For some people, I'm sure that really is all there is to it, and the atmosphere of the zone has minimal effect, if any whatsoever. But for more, I'm sure that it's left some deep-seated scars.
I say this because I was among that number. When I was younger, I hated Peragus. Even before TSLRCM I loved KOTOR 2 more than the original, but I always tried to speed through Peragus. I didn't like it. I couldn't talk to anyone, and it wasn't fun. I just wanted to rush through it to get to Telos, because there were people there, and that's where the story really began.
All that's true, of course. But though I didn't have the vocabulary for it at the time, the main reason was because I felt uncomfortable playing Peragus, even after I learned what the mystery was. I always felt like a rat in a cage made just for me, alone and hunted, even when I knew what to expect. Maybe for other users, once they finally suss out the story of the station that sensation goes away. It's certainly diminished for me by now. But it's still powerful, and the recognizance of just how masterfully the level had to be designed to construct that intentional feeling of helplessness consistently impresses me and leaves me wanting to experience it again. But for many of those who were kids when they first played KOTOR 2, I'm sure that just like me, a terribly unexpected impression was left, the remnants of which might manifest themselves still today in a deep-seated dislike for the level.
And that finally begins to touch on the final reason which I think helps explain why Peragus is hated.
KOTOR 2, in many ways, both benefits and suffers from being a sequel: while it gains an established universe, history, set of characters and guidelines for its plot, it also inherits expectations about its structure, themes and tone from its predecessor. People went in to KOTOR 2 expecting a continuation of KOTOR, and instead they got a horror level that makes them feel extremely uncomfortable while it systematically subverts every major theme of the original game. And then it kicks the tone of KOTOR in the 'nads for good measure.
In other words, people had expectations, expectations which were inherently impossible to meet within the confines of the themes of KOTOR 2 as a whole and the design intent of Peragus specifically as a level. I do not say this to put the blame on those who went in with those expectations; after all, a sequel is meant to share much of the DNA of its antecedent even when it innovates, and especially for those of us who first played as children there was no reason why anyone should have believed differently. Rather, this is merely to acknowledge the implicitly obvious fact that people almost always play KOTOR first, and that leads them to anticipate something wildly different than what they receive when they start KOTOR 2. And, when what they receive is not merely different but disconcerting, it is--I would argue--natural to react viscerally. The whiplash is normal, if not necessarily by design.
But here I will ask my final question: is it be by design?
I would argue that yes, it is. KOTOR 2 is a game which is so wildly different from the original in structure, themes, tone and even relevant historical events that an introduction to prepare players for that difference is not only beneficial, but nigh-mandatory. Peragus is the amalgamation of all of the common themes of KOTOR 2 not just as a matter of coincidence, but, I would argue, a very conscious acknowledgement that the game needed an introduction which would make it abundantly clear to players that the experience they were in for was not like the one that they should be expecting. Peragus is, for lack of a more elegant way to put it, your alarm in the morning. You might well hate the little son of a bitch, but it serves a critical purpose. Once it goes off, you know what to expect.
Put another way, Peragus walks so the rest of KOTOR 2 can run. With all of the shock and frustration at dashed expectations and unexpected design decisions out of the way within the player's first hours, by the time they are on the Ebon Hawk and speeding to Telos, they have been reshaped into a blank(er) slate that is primed to accept the much different story of KOTOR 2 without as visceral a negative reaction.
submitted by Snigaroo to kotor [link] [comments]
Peragus Viewed Through the Lens of Design Intent
Before beginning to talk about why I enjoy Peragus and why I think others often do not, I think it's helpful to establish what Peragus actually attempts to do in order to analyze whether it is successful in its goals, and also why its design intent strongly impacts how people perceive the level as a whole.Game levels are not always (or even often) just a calculus of "will this be fun?" Often, their design is imbricated with the game's themes, pacing and tone. This can range from the obvious--there is a reason Dead Space takes place on a run-down, damaged vessel with bad lighting, for instance--to the subtextual: is the reason Dragon Age: Origins concludes on the top of Fort Drakon, the very simbol of the King's power in Denerim, meant to represent the player overcoming the forces in Ferelden which stood against them and rising to the heights of power? Or is it meant to be a nod to Alistair, and the future which is intended for him?
However, between the obvious and the subtextual is, I would argue, a third category which often represents major design decisions which nevertheless are not directly tied to core gameplay components (such as movement, combat, or the plot of the game at large) and are focused instead on achieving a specific and narrow design objective, such as the creation of a unique tone or atmosphere. For simplicity's sake, I will refer to this as Structural Design, and this is the level at which I believe Peragus operates.
With this in mind, what is Peragus's design intent, and what is that design intent intended to accomplish? Let us first examine, in broad strokes, what Peragus actually does to the player, and from there we can work to extrapolate the broader intent of Peragus as a level. Peragus:
- Unceremoniously dumps the player into an unfamiliar situation with no known allies, where the only two living beings they encounter are of suspect natures and loyalties;
- Continually suggests the possibility of further human interaction to the player, only to continue pushing it further and further away, eventually revealing it was never possible at all. This also serves to make Peragus into a 'ghost station', where your only human interaction besides Kreia and Atton are the holo-logs of people you will never meet--because they died before you even awoke--speaking with great anxiety about the terrifying last days of their lives;
- Goes to great pains to ensure that every victory is immediately followed by a defeat: you open the holding cells, but the admin terminal is cut off; T3 unlocks the mining tunnels, but is immediately ambushed and eliminated; you get through the mining tunnels, but the airlock is shut against you; you breach the airlock and enter the dormitory level, but the miners are all already dead, and the turbolift is sealed against you; you unlock the turbolift and can use the Harbinger to get to the fuel depot, but now you are on another ghost ship, with Sith present and hunting you; you reach the fuel depot access, but Kreia is badly wounded en route. At no turn do you feel in control of anything, often feeling as if you're just barely staying ahead of disaster;
- Systematically removes pillars supporting the player, including the "death" of T3, the revelation that the HK-50 unit which was supposed to be your property was the architect of your capture, and Kreia's departure from the party and wounding by Sion;
- Sequentially ambushes the player with unexpected encounters at extremely high threat for their level, eventually moving all the way to stealth ambushes by Sith Assassins.
- Trauma and wartime PTSD, with an emphasis on redemption and/or coming to terms with one's past
- Isolation from an in-group (Jedi), society as a whole (you are treated like a Jedi, even though the Jedi refuse to claim you), and the self (the loss of the Force and the Exile's inability to grasp what happened to her)
- The failure of authority figures and systems to adapt to change or challenge without repression
- Betrayal, both of ideologies and individuals, by superiors and juniors/inferiors, and also the self (Atris is queen here)
- Self-Reliance and Actuation
- Despair and Hopelessness
- Disdain and/or disregard for common people's suffering
Yet a stunning amount of the remainder matches with shocking--and repeated--closeness to the game's themes:
- There is hardly a module in Peragus where we don't see a betrayal. Excluding the ubiquitous presence of mining droids--whom we are constantly reminded betrayed their handlers through the presence of corpses, blaster scarring and holo-logs--there is also HK-50, who betrays the crew of the Harbinger, as well as the station administration and Coorta through his play-acting as the maintenance officer, as well as his "master" the Exile; Coorta, who betrays the station administration and his own boss, Sien, whom he indirectly murders; and Sion, who betrays Kreia once more on the Harbinger (though of course, their exact relationship is not known to the player at the time). Although no direct betrayal occurs through them, Peragus also contributes to an overall atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust by cultivating a mysterious veil around the pasts of Atton and Kreia, forcing the player to question whether or not their own companions can be trusted.
- Virtually the entirety of Peragus is done entirely in single-player, placing the Exile (or T3) alone against the unknown, and often truly dangerous, threats of the station. Even during those sections where you play as another character or gain additional party-members, these companions are lost suddenly twice: once when T3 is ambushed by HK-50, and once when you are ambushed by Sion. It also focuses somewhat on actuation, with the Exile starting to recover her connection to the Force, beginning her journey to come to terms with her past almost from the moment she awakes.
- Despair and hopelessness is the big one. Peragus is deliberately devoid of human life, but the station was almost paralyzed by indecision and concern even before the fatal mining accident occurred, with different staff at each others' throats; mounting casualties from sabotage; and even more mundane (yet still consequential) concerns about the fate of the Republic and their fuel shipments to Telos. The hopelessness of the people on the station before they died well-complements the player's own hopelessness, as they are continually thrust into situation after situation where, despite their best efforts, matters always seem to be beyond their control. The almost endless sequence of "just one more try" attempts to resolve your situation hammers that hopelessness home fiercely, to the point that, when you encounter all the miners already dead, you might want to just sit down and give up yourself. It helps (or doesn't, depending upon your view) that Peragus is deliberately designed to encourage the player to think that absolution is just around the corner: everything is brightly-lit, well-maintained and clean, excepting those few areas where droids have damaged equipment. You keep thinking that you will find other people any minute, but they're never there. Instead, you just have an eerie, empty, doomed station filled with enemies and constant, mounting failures to escape it.
- While not necessarily obvious, I think disdain for common people is another major theme of Peragus. HK obviously cares nothing for the miners and kills them all to get to you, as does Sion for the Republic soldiers on the Harbinger, but I would argue these are only the most obvious readings of the situation. The sleeper angle here, I think, is the Peragus administration: they don't care about their own mining staff enough to stop drilling, even as they are dying left and right. They constantly try to memory wipe the droids even when it's clear it isn't working, and issues are only mounting. They start to pull double-shifts to keep quotas up as more people die, instead of going into lockdown to try to salvage the situation. It's the first time we don't see clearly "evil" forces casually throw people away, but simply misguided, fatally aloof people. It's an important strike against the black-and-white morality system of the original KOTOR, and it comes nigh-instantaneously.
Does it Work?
Here I want to make the somewhat obvious but nevertheless important point that you can really, really dislike something and that thing can still succeed at what it intended to do--it might not be what you'd like it to have done, might not be done in the way you would've preferred it to be, and might just be downright unpleasant to you, but it can still achieve what it set out to. With that in mind, does Peragus stick the landing?Operating under the assumption that our thesis is correct, I would issue an emphatic yes. In my most recent playthrough of KOTOR 2 I did not skip any dialogue, even alien VO; fully unlocked all holo-records and terminal entries and read them in their entirety; and defeated every enemy in the area (including every stealth group aboard the Harbinger), as well as doing some crafting. I did all that, and I was still off of Peragus in 3 hours, 30 minutes. The level manages to condense almost every single major theme of the game into a runtime of 210 minutes. And that's an example from me being slow.
People often complain about Peragus being unbearably long, and I understand those complaints, but viewed from this perspective, doesn't it seem incredible Peragus is as short as it is given the sheer thematic density it presents? It does to me; I often wonder if it even could be shorter and still succeed in the all-important attempt to subvert the player by constantly forcing them to fail in their efforts, breaking down their hope into hopelessness. Again: you might not like that, but is it not masterfully accomplished?
To me, Peragus feels like a master-class in design, constructing a compelling, localized narrative which leaves the player thirsting for more information about the uncertain and seemingly dangerous immediate past--both of the Exile and of the galaxy more broadly--while also managing to tie in almost all of the game's critical themes and introduce the player to what they should expect to see going forward. I can't think of a single tutorial level which accomplishes an introduction to the tone and themes of its product better than Peragus does for KOTOR 2. The closest is probably Dark Souls, but I hope it won't be controversial for me to say that it doesn't exactly deal with the same kind of heady themes KOTOR 2 does.
Still, success in objectives, as we've already noted, does not automatically mean a fun design. There are plenty of games that accomplish their goals admirably, but their goals suck, or the moment-to-moment gameplay and plot through which these goals are conveyed is unfun or tedious. Before we get to why I think Peragus is not just a successful but a good level, let me take a moment to acknowledge the criticisms frequently leveled against it.
Criticisms of Peragus and their Validity
I already touched above on the idea of length as a problem, and why I believe it is virtually impossible for Peragus to achieve its goals while being any shorter. This is not to entirely dismiss length as an issue; between Peragus and Telos, for those who aren't fond of the tone, structure or story of Peragus the intro to KOTOR 2 must feel like pulling teeth, even as compared to the terribly long Taris and much more bite-sized Dantooine, K1's cognates. Yet I do think that, with the objectives of Peragus in mind, the rationale behind the length is understandable. Peragus is not just long for the fun of it; its length gives it the ability to dangle sequential objectives in front of the player only to wrest their victory away each time, a critical component of its design intent.Confusing design is a common complaint here on the sub, in that you frequently switch areas and characters, running in circles and often with only half-answers about what's happening. This issue is, I feel, more an artifact of initial impressions than a real point of failing for Peragus. A lot of people here now played this game as children. Jumping between the Exile and T3 then back without seeing T3 again for hours could easily be disorienting to a 12-year-old thrown into an unknown setting, but less so to an adult. Peragus does have you going in circles at times, especially when you later retrace T3's exact steps down the fuel depot, but I would not say that it is at any point structurally confusing.
The absence of many RPG elements is also noted. Despite playing a roleplaying game, Peragus is not just a zone where the player has barely anyone to interact with, it is also an extremely linear experience with barely any alternate means of achieving objectives (most of what little exists in that vein is token--bashing terminals to open doors instead of using conventional unlocks, for instance). The latter issue I fully agree with and believe is one of the few major failings of Peragus, though I would suggest that it's possible that alternate options were cut to avoid additional confusion for new players by overloading them with alternate routes, or bloating an already-long tutorial level. The former issue, however, we can see is a core component of Peragus's design, not just to establish the isolating and disconcerting atmosphere of the station, but also to introduce that the player will frequently need to operate alone throughout the course of the game. Thus once again, while this criticism is valid, so too is Peragus's rationale for its design choice.
Bad combat design is also often discussed, however this is very subjective and perhaps even outside of the scope of this analysis. I think that the mix of droids and assassins is interesting enough and the stealth teams add tension and threat as a welcome break in the monotony of droid combat at the 2/3 point of the level, but I understand many might not agree. That said, bad fights can contribute to disliking a level without contributing to a failure of its design intent, so even in the event that players don't like the combat, there's still the possibility to appreciate what Peragus sets out to achieve.
Among the most frequently-mentioned criticisms of the zone is a lack of replayability. This is understandable: Peragus is, at its heart, a massive murder-mystery, and when you already know the answer much of the tension that drives the level is no longer present. I fully acknowledge this as another problem with the level, though I do also want to note the same problems exist for virtually every other game which is designed around a mystery.
There is also a final--and, in my opinion, critical--complaint one often hears, but because of how important it is to my conclusions, I will save mentioning it for last. First, I want to explain why, despite its problems, I think Peragus is not just a triumph of design, but also simply a fun level.
Fun?
Fun isIgnoring my poor decision-making, we have touched on whether Peragus succeeds in its intent already, but not how it succeeds in its intent. When you wrap all of the themes contained within up in a Peragus-shaped box, what do you get?
The absence of NPCs or companions, while perhaps unconventional from the perspective of an RPG, leaves the player free to experience the mystery of the station without the risk of growing distracted or having their expectations muddled by other characters' perspectives. However, the main thing that the absence of NPCs achieves, and the reason I love Peragus even after 30+ playthroughs, is the punishing isolation which the player is made to feel virtually from the first moment. It is this isolation which leaves me coming back for more, and which more than lets me ignore the fact that I know where every enemy spawn is, know the mystery of the station, know just what every log says. I respect Peragus's design. I devour Peragus's atmosphere.
This atmosphere is, I think, actually part two of three in the Unholy Trinity of why people dislike the level. Aspect #1 is its length, but the atmosphere is, I think, an oft-overlooked bit of first impression that leaves a consistently sour taste in players' mouths. Because I would go so far as to say the atmosphere of Peragus is almost crafted too well.
Peragus is not a conventionally enjoyable level to play. You are alone. There are no people around you, but by all appearances there should be. Your "friends" are suspect, there are threats around every turn, and your attempts to escape are constantly, meticulously thwarted. And throughout all this, you are alone. We have spoken of all of this before in the context of design intent, but not in terms of the effect that actually has on gameplay.
I previously saw a user call Peragus a survival-horror experience, and another user said they were out of their mind. I don't think they were--I think that's exactly what Peragus is. Peragus is a horror game, complete with its own lumbering monstrocities hounding your every step in the shapes of HK-50 and Sion, and like all horror games, it is patently uncomfortable to experience. You are constantly looking over your shoulder (metaphorically and, perhaps, actually as well), constantly on alert for an ambush, constantly, desperately hoping that the next door you open will finally have someone behind it. But you are ALWAYS alone. Your attempts to escape are ALWAYS thwarted. The monsters are ALWAYS one step in front of you. You literally do not feel safe and confident that you've escaped until you finally see that hyperspace window open in front of you.
That is a triumph of design. And that is also, I am confident, the root of why so many people dislike Peragus. It isn't just the individual elements like the length, the constant defeats, or the ambush teams that make people hate Peragus. On their own, those are annoying but not damning, and even in aggregate without a total failure of all other aspects of design they could not, in my opinion, explain the hate which Peragus consistently earns. I am not dismissing the criticisms which I addressed above, nor their place as a component of the dislike for Peragus. For some people, I'm sure that really is all there is to it, and the atmosphere of the zone has minimal effect, if any whatsoever. But for more, I'm sure that it's left some deep-seated scars.
I say this because I was among that number. When I was younger, I hated Peragus. Even before TSLRCM I loved KOTOR 2 more than the original, but I always tried to speed through Peragus. I didn't like it. I couldn't talk to anyone, and it wasn't fun. I just wanted to rush through it to get to Telos, because there were people there, and that's where the story really began.
All that's true, of course. But though I didn't have the vocabulary for it at the time, the main reason was because I felt uncomfortable playing Peragus, even after I learned what the mystery was. I always felt like a rat in a cage made just for me, alone and hunted, even when I knew what to expect. Maybe for other users, once they finally suss out the story of the station that sensation goes away. It's certainly diminished for me by now. But it's still powerful, and the recognizance of just how masterfully the level had to be designed to construct that intentional feeling of helplessness consistently impresses me and leaves me wanting to experience it again. But for many of those who were kids when they first played KOTOR 2, I'm sure that just like me, a terribly unexpected impression was left, the remnants of which might manifest themselves still today in a deep-seated dislike for the level.
And that finally begins to touch on the final reason which I think helps explain why Peragus is hated.
The Poison Pill: The Divide Between Expectations and Intent
The final piece of the Unholy Trilogy standing against Peragus is none other than KOTOR itself. That final complaint you hear so often (so often that it almost boggles my mind) is that Peragus feels nothing like KOTOR. In some ways that's true, certainly--what other KOTOR level is a horror experience? But users who make this complaint take it beyond that, often suggesting that Peragus is almost the root of all evil, because it's the "start" of KOTOR 2 becoming a radically different game than the one they wanted it to be.KOTOR 2, in many ways, both benefits and suffers from being a sequel: while it gains an established universe, history, set of characters and guidelines for its plot, it also inherits expectations about its structure, themes and tone from its predecessor. People went in to KOTOR 2 expecting a continuation of KOTOR, and instead they got a horror level that makes them feel extremely uncomfortable while it systematically subverts every major theme of the original game. And then it kicks the tone of KOTOR in the 'nads for good measure.
In other words, people had expectations, expectations which were inherently impossible to meet within the confines of the themes of KOTOR 2 as a whole and the design intent of Peragus specifically as a level. I do not say this to put the blame on those who went in with those expectations; after all, a sequel is meant to share much of the DNA of its antecedent even when it innovates, and especially for those of us who first played as children there was no reason why anyone should have believed differently. Rather, this is merely to acknowledge the implicitly obvious fact that people almost always play KOTOR first, and that leads them to anticipate something wildly different than what they receive when they start KOTOR 2. And, when what they receive is not merely different but disconcerting, it is--I would argue--natural to react viscerally. The whiplash is normal, if not necessarily by design.
But here I will ask my final question: is it be by design?
I would argue that yes, it is. KOTOR 2 is a game which is so wildly different from the original in structure, themes, tone and even relevant historical events that an introduction to prepare players for that difference is not only beneficial, but nigh-mandatory. Peragus is the amalgamation of all of the common themes of KOTOR 2 not just as a matter of coincidence, but, I would argue, a very conscious acknowledgement that the game needed an introduction which would make it abundantly clear to players that the experience they were in for was not like the one that they should be expecting. Peragus is, for lack of a more elegant way to put it, your alarm in the morning. You might well hate the little son of a bitch, but it serves a critical purpose. Once it goes off, you know what to expect.
Put another way, Peragus walks so the rest of KOTOR 2 can run. With all of the shock and frustration at dashed expectations and unexpected design decisions out of the way within the player's first hours, by the time they are on the Ebon Hawk and speeding to Telos, they have been reshaped into a blank(er) slate that is primed to accept the much different story of KOTOR 2 without as visceral a negative reaction.
Conclusion
Peragus is a level which is intentionally designed to present the player with the core themes of KOTOR 2, and often multiple examples thereof. Parts of the level suffer as a result of these design decisions, but most of the problems users take issue with can be traced back in some capacity either to bad memories of the level or design compromises that were made intentionally as a result of the level's intent as an introduction to the themes and tone of KOTOR 2. This decision was made, I argue, due to how different KOTOR 2 is from the original game, as a conscious effort by Obsidian to ensure that the player was prepared from the beginning to experience a radically different game than the original title and to ensure that subsequent levels would not suffer from consistently missed expectations from users continuing to assume the game would eventually become similar to the original title once again. In the process of achieving this goal, Peragus also achieves a unique atmosphere which I argue is akin to a horror game, which sets it apart from any comparable level in either game, and indeed in Star Wars more typically.2023.04.02 08:37 wannawatchred Any advice for coin masters
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