Maxisawell Rambles - Tumblr Posts

Really hoping for one of the racing ones, or the supernatural ones because that's my jam but I can't decide so y'all decide for me.

vent incoming: working for a megacorp that has no idea wtf its doing is fucking awful.

i got denied for a promotion because i lacked initaitive. my only competition in the store who was also going for a promotion? they were told they weren't a good enough storyteller.

....why do you need to be a storyteller for a shift manager position?

then, i've been trying to fix this communication between workers and management for like, four weeks now. (we've had rlly bad managers both SM and SSV that like, tore apart our trust in management). every fucking idea i've had? "we dont have it in the budget to fit in another meeting between trainers and management. anything that is crucial for management to know workers will have to tell {management} about."

okay yeah, doesn't fix the fucking fact that NONE OF US TRUST MANAGEMENT?????

im not allowed to talk about our communication issues on the floor in front of customers, but somehow its a labor violation to talk between each other on our PAID ten minute break about work?

it sounds like you dont want us to fix this issue.

If you guys haven't looked up Amazon Lockers near you, do it. They name the locker sites. My friend and I found ones in North Carolina named Apostrophe, Circumference, Capitalism, Bubbler, Snakebite and Percentage. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Review & Rant Concerning MW3 Reboot

**This has Spoilers for MW3. If you have not played the full game and care about spoilers, please do not read.**

To preface this, hi!! I'm Max is a Well, and I am a writer. I have not published any novels, but I do have one in the works. I have written for plenty of people, including some pretty big fanfiction authors [past tense] (not as impressive as most, but I quite enjoyed it), and I have written my fair share of fan artworks, and then a few half published WIPs are floating around the internet somewhere. I've been writing since I was like, 12 years old. I've done it for the better part of my life now, and I've turned some heads with my writing. If circumstances were better where I could pursue this passion for full-time, I'd probably be really well off by now. All this to say, I'm very much someone who knows a lot about writing, story pacing, emotions dramatics and the whole 9 yards.

I love playing games and immersing myself within what's happening in game, and I got that feeling from MW1 & 2, but 3 was just, a little rough feeling. I can't quite explain it, but it just didn't have the same vibe as the first or second. I enjoyed the narrative although, again really rough story telling. (You're gonna get that in games like this that are essentially propaganda for a certain cause or organization, so I disregard most of it. It's the "look this is cool guys! You wanna do this," kind of thing.)

Then, Price didn't let Soap kill Makarov. Standing from a narrative point of view, we were told this guy 1, is extremely dangerous extremist, and threatening to bring WW3 onto humanity. 2, Brass is worried about this, and if they're worried about it, than we need to be too. (This solidifies that the man is a genuine threat, and that he needs to be treated as such. Often this means, a straight up get rid of this guy.) 3, Price and the 141 have some history with Makarov. Then, to build off this, in the previous game, MW2, we literally were on a to-kill mission for Hassan. So if Makarov is an even bigger threat than Hassan, (and Hassan had MISSILES), then, shouldn't we have killed Makarov when given the chance?

Also to build off this, they are all within the SAS, or have passed SAS selection. They are, narratively speaking, the best of the best within their specific branch. They are more than well trained and specialists when it comes to Counter-Terrorism, which with that would come with knowing things like how to properly debilitate your enemy, knock them out, etc. They would have had done interrogations to get specific information and you can't just bring someone awake to a location to be interrogated. You would have to knock them out or debilitate them prior before moving. Yet, they didn't do any of that. Just, knocked his ass to the ground after a stab to the shoulder.

None of it past a certain point makes any sense narratively, and me as a writer is so fucking pissed. They made Makarov a fucking badass and BBEG for the century, yet they kill off arguably one of the best liked characters? Especially after Neil did so much advertising for the fans and even doing the corny Christmas thing that was all over COD TikTok for a few good weeks afterwards. People were going WILD over the Scot, and Ghost.

One thing you learn pretty quickly when creating content, whether it be games, art, comics, novels, etc... is that you got to feed your fanbase from time to time. You give them an inch, and you'll get a mile. No one needed to die within the third game, especially when it felt so rushed. If they really needed the suspense, then they could have easily injured Soap, and kept us wondering if he was alive, and then revealed him okay within the fourth installment. That would have made people buy the game just to see if their favorite was still around, and who knows, maybe they'd actually enjoy the story and decide to play the rest of the game.

What really pissed me off other than the weird pacing of the stretch of the game is the way they reacted to Soap's death. Now, they didn't have to be horribly torn up at it like Price in the original series, in fact, that would be horribly unrealistic. My mother is a hospice nurse, so she's gotten close to a lot of patients that have passed. Some being really traumatic and saddening ways. She can't cry anymore, but she does grieve, and she grieves hard when it's a patient she's had for a while and gotten close to. You can't look me in the eyes, and tell me these three men who have just spent a year and some change chasing down Hassan, and now Makarov, wouldn't show no emotion when it came to one of their own dying?

Soldiers are friends but more. There's a whole reason there's the saying "brothers in arms" exists. They go through hell and back together, they definitely did in Las Almas, and during Chicago in the second game. So to have barely 2 minutes worth of a cutscene to pay homage to a character that they all bonded so deeply with? I genuinely thought people were seriously joking about it, and then I saw it with my own two eyes and I'm appalled on how they thought that was a good send off both emotionally and narratively. It did nothing. It didn't comfort you, it didn't sound like they were grieving too terribly, it was just, flat. Monotonous. There was hardly any emotion in the lines, and the guys didn't have to be crying, but at least put some emotion in it.

Ghost and Gaz arguably in the reboot are the closest to Soap, so some sort of emotion, like Ghost being just a little choked up on his "Rest in Peace, Johnny" would have been just top tier. You would have been able to gauge so much off of that, and it would have fed the Ghost and Soap fangirls so much. (I know some COD players don't like to hear that, but the fandom shifting is a normal thing to happen, and the new people within the fandom are buying the games to play them just to understand the story and that is absolutely helping the studio and the games preform better. To put it simply, they are now also apart of the integral part of keeping COD alive and well.) Or, Gaz instead of just saying the most generic army farewell thing in the world, instead make a personal promise to bring Makarov to his knees himself. Again, it would gauge so much with his character, how he's feeling, what this death is doing to him, and what his personal goals are moving forwards.

They absolutely, from a narrative position could have done so much better. There are always going to be bugs and glitches in games, especially shooters, but the thing that draws people in and keeps them coming back, is the story and the characters. At the end of the day, this was not only a horrible story decision, but also is probably going to hurt them a lot when concerning the next game release. The newer crowd hardly has a reason to come back to see the new game. If Soap, a beloved character was treated this way, how are they going to treat Price, Gaz or Ghost if they die? I'm incredibly disappointed, they had an amazing story, amazing VA's, amazing graphics and design. The COD fandom was seriously getting a much needed breath of fresh air, new life was coming in, and they just tossed everything out the window.

TL;DR:: As a writer, the decision to kill off Soap was extremely horrible from both a monetary and narrative standpoint. It didn't move the story forwards, create any friction, and he didn't even have a decent send off. This is probably going to kill the new growth the COD fandom was experiencing, which in turn is definitely going to hit the studio's pockets. How much is yet to be seen, but I've seen a lot of new-blood say they weren't satisfied and aren't looking at purchasing the next game. Me included.

Changed my blog name from maxisawell to maxisanangrywell and content is going to shift just a tiny bit. Gonna post about things going on in the states, and still posting COD headcanons.

in case anyone is wondering what its like to be chronically ill, i stressed myself out so bad this week my body has defaulted to "stress = vomit" mode. which is making my stomach and various joints hurt and i just pulled a muscle for vomiting too hard.

love life, life dont love me

Lowkey thinking about adding an audio portion for my original novel im writing and releasing on A03 (Cross Posting some chapter teasers here.) and posting audio bits at the end of the chronically ill COD series I'm doing.

They'd just be the entire chapter in my voice, a podfic if you will, bc I know my siblings, grandparents, and friends all say me reading is very soothing. Also the fact I would love visually impaired readers (or would they be listeners?) to read (listen?) to my books. Also the fact you can just like, hit tap and do whatever you usually go about doing bc I know a lot of people in my life that are too busy to read novels and really enjoy them. (Also my ADHD folks that love listening but have Auditory Processing Disorders I see you and I will lyk I enunciate very well bc I took three different speech classes in Highschool and nearly joined the debate team.)

Be on the lookout for the Chronic Trials series/Brave The Storm fic. I have a draft I am writing and it's gonna be a good one people >:)

Saying this right here, right now.

If you are celebrating that Helene caused catastrophic damage in the Appalachian mountains, based on the mountains being filled with "sundown towns" unfollow me. Right fucking now.

You sound ignorant, dumb and are proving you are just as bad as the fucking MAGA right wing bigots you claim to despise.

The Appalachian mountains are filled with incredibly far left people. There is the occasional town where there are more right leaning folk. I will not deny that. However there are many cities there that are incredibly diverse. Not only that, but diversity is not the only thing that dictates how left an area is.

The people of Appalachia have been routinely fucked over multiple times, until all that is left there is the rich people within their mansions, and the poor, struggling to survive. They did not have the infrastructure to withstand this storm, they didn't have the money to leave.

THEIR BOSSES WERE TELLING THEM TO STAY AT WORK UNTIL THE FLOODING GOT SO BAD THEY LOST THEIR LIVES WHILE THEIR BOSSES FLED.

This is my home, my family lives here, on the North Carolinian border. My family was from Banner Elk, I go there every year. I go to Linville to hike the falls, I go to Asheville and Boone for the witchy shops and the coffee shops. I was going to go this October for the breweries doing a mock Octoberfest.

This place was where people looked after others no matter their religion, skin color, gender or sexual identity. To sit here and post on Tiktok, Tumblr, Instagram or WHEREVER, that these people fucking DESERVED THIS, that it was KARMIC JUSTICE, and that they deserve the lack of aid they're receiving proves that you're a fucking wannabe leftist, but actually an authoritarian shitstain that doesn't deserve to lick the fucking gum on the bottom of my shoe.

Leftism is about COMMUNITY. About the whole of humanity helping the Earth and the Earth helping us. It's about helping your neighbor down the street, or that homeless man that says some weird shit. It's about giving a sandwich to Crackhead Jimmy at the gas station because he looked a bit more thin today. It's volunteer work, and community outreach. It's building a better tomorrow through helping people today.

If you are saying these people deserved this? That they deserved their homes, their livelihoods, their grandparents, aunts/uncles, parents, children, nieces/nephews, cousins, dogs, cats, horses and pets to be fucking swept away, to not know if they are ALIVE OR DEAD, if they will ever be found, To be HOMELESS.... Then you are not a leftist, you are a nazi in disguise.

If that bothers you? Good. You need it then. Be bothered, because your lack of empathy towards people who are suffering from poverty and a lack of infrastructure tells me that you're a shitty leftist and a shitty human being.

If you're wanting to do any sort of outreach, American Red Cross and other organizations will be able to help.

Donate, volunteer, do whatever you can in any amount you can. The damage is horrific, and the fact of the matter is over 1,000 people are missing and 100 are dead. I'm a weather nerd, and I know this is taboo to say, but this is genuine.... This is the Appalachian Katrina. Most of these places will never recover, as tourism is their main or only source of income.

The trauma from this event alone, regarding the lack of infrastructure, the casualties, and the missing persons will be catastrophic, and wreak havoc on the families there for generations to come.

replaying Dragon Age to prepare for Veilguard (which I won't be able to play right away since I am saving up for a PC.)

On inquisition, I accidentally made a fucking BEAST of a Mage Inquisitior. I'm already at Wicked Eyes & Wicked Hearts, and only started Inquisition three days ago.

I guess it's a combination of really good drops, better tactics and maxing out Spirit, Inquisitor, Lightning and getting Knight-Enchantor 😭 I do about 300 - 400+ damage in one hit depending on the enemy. I take out Pride demons with little help from the rest of my party. Life is good. 🙏🏻

Building off this, I find the way they worked with Elven Inquisitors so interesting. Especially in the view of a queer white person like myself. It gave me the opportunity to truly have a first hand sort of "experience" with oppression of other races IRL deal with simply on the fact of them being people of color, or in this case, Elves. I also want to believe it's intentional to show the horrors of colonization as a whole.

You learn that everyone lived in peace, Elves lived for centuries, but then Humans came and fucked everyone over. Tevinter starts the blight because they're humans looking for MORE power. They're wanting to take over Thedas, they believe it's their right.

Then the Chantry, how it turns its back on you, shuns and tries to quell rebellion, only for the Mother to look at you, as an elf and go; It doesn't matter to me if you're an Andrastian, you are a Dalish Elf, or sent by the Maker or not. You are here, and you are wanting to help and that's enough for me.

You learn about Krem, and his awful backstory and how he was almost tortured and killed for being transgender. You learn about Iron Bull, who turned himself back into the Qun to be basically brainwashed. Then, they betray him. His own people, the one thing he feared most, being a Tal-Vasoth, and he turns out that way because he wants to save his company over his people... Because what has his people done for him? But it's a brutal experience for him, he defers to you. A Dalish Elf, because who else would be fitting to make the choice? Freedom, or Suffering?

When you romance Solas, you see a person who doesn't want to be a God. He just wants things to go back to his normal. The normal he knew, but better. He doesn't want his own kind to fight and put each other down, he just wants to have a land where everyone is free to exist, where spirits may come and go as they please.

I mean, the list goes on. It's such a depressing narrative, but it's also very much giving warnings and small sectors of hope. Here you are, a person who has been oppressed for so long, having to do the most anyone has ever done. You are here, righting wrongs from every side and angle. You are the indigenous person who is learning their own culture after being separated from it and only hearing bastardization from other people's mouths. Your people lost, now found because YOU can lead them. You can change the world, even if it was a mistake of coming into the power of rifts.

You changed the world, not because of a mark on your hand, but because at the core, you want to help others. You, a person who has seen suffering, genocide, and have generational trauma got the chance to change the world and took it. Because at it's core, it's not about your beliefs. It's not about the journey or defeating Corypheus. It's about making sure you learn from everyone else, and make the world better because the change starts with you.

Is the narrative perfect? God no, but that's what I took from it. That I need to be a better listener, that sometimes the hard decisions have to be made, and there will be impacts, but everyone must be free by any means necessary. If that even means loving Fen'Harel, and going against, helping or saving him? Then who am I to say anything different.

I’ve heard that DA:I was originally planned for the MC to only be able to be human, so idk if this is intentional or not by the devs.. .

Playing Lavellan, regardless of gender or sexuality, is just so insanely isolating and depressing, especially if you’re someone like me who latched on SUPER hard to the Dalish.

The Dalish elf gets sent to see if the humans can actually work out their problems. If they can give the mages rights, more freedom than they’ve ever known, maybe that means hope for how the Dalish are treated. But then, surprise, the Dalish tries to help a human woman being sacrificed by people who have sworn to protect the good of all, and everything goes to shit.

They’re suddenly at the head of a religion that has spent hundreds (thousands????) of years hunting them, hating them horribly, so much so that one of your first conversations with Josephine she mentions some of the rumors being Dalish making blood sacrifices. You’re “claimed” by this religion, and have no choice but to work with them. No matter what you believe, you cannot escape this. From this moment on, your entire heritage, family, and beliefs will be forgotten. You are carved in history as the history that even the “savage” Dalish can be claimed and saved by Andraste.

This could be endured. It’s horrible and icky, but on its own could be endured. No one has control over how the world perceives.

But nearly every companion either refuses to acknowledge you are Dalish and that matters to you, or they (Looking at you Sera) outright are disgusted by you, and vocalize how much they hate that part of you at every chance they can. Cassandra, though I don’t think she means to, is horrible insulting by asking if there’s not some space for one more god for you, as though they haven’t used “the Maker” to hunt and punish Dalish.

Josephine is the only one who shows softness or understanding.

But you endure. There has to be a reason, and even if there isn’t, you have to protect the world, because if not you then who will? All the while, this budding, horrible fear of what happens after. No Lavellan can be foolish enough to NOT have that fear. When the threat is dealt with, the dust settles, and the humans grow more comfortable and forget how grateful they are to you, what will happen? A Dalish will not be allowed to keep such power, wielding it over humans. Especially not if you has the misfortune of being born a mage.

And then Trespasser. Your gods aren’t gods, and even if they were, they never cared about you. You’ve spent all your life clinging to the pride that even though life as a Dalish is hard, it is worth it because you are FREE. You are not servants or slaves, you are free, and that makes the suffering worth it. But you were never free. You willingly welcomed slave markings, and the world was too shattered for any of your people to ever know the truth of their history.

And though you and your people have prayed to the gods all their lives, it’s no a single one of them that gives you the mercy of this truth. No. It’s the most feared of the gods, the unspoken, the whispered, the cursed. The Dread Wolf. The rebellion of those slave markings, in your midsts, and in my case, in your bed, in your heart.

Your world is shattered. You are dying. Everything is in tatters because you were foolish enough to try and help a human woman, when no human has ever reached a helping hand to you. Yet, the only remaining constant is that you are alone.

You are alone and you are a fool.

yes. i have solas x lavellan brainrot.

heres some planned projects.

- Letters. (Based off Hamilton's Burn).

Do we know what happened? No. No one in Thedas or Orlaise needs to know what Lavellan said to Solas. But they do know they didn't end on happy terms.

- Silver Springs. (Eyeing Stevie Nicks rn bc this song is literal crack.)

Lavellan never got the chance to properly romance Solas because of what he did. Now? Now she's seeing him years later in Tevinter, proudly showing off her own vallaslin that she made completely on her own. She is her own God, and proudly wears lyrium on her face that Solas had erased.

- Blood Runs Thicker than Water.

Lavellan finds her strength when Solas amputates her arm. She leads the inquisition, and doesn't disband it. She's a commander, a guide, but... Just how far is she willing to go to save everyone?

- Possible Character Study of Solas, or (my) Lavellan.