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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

Text

HASO, “Telling Tales.”

This story came as a suggestion from someone on the discord server, so I hope you all enjoy a break from some of the heavier stuff I have been doing lately.

The room was large and filled with noise, mostly the clinking of glasses and the clattering of voices, but on occasion the comm systems echoed with a cool female voice broadcasting announcements across the entirety of the station.

There were at least forty tables inside the room packed in close together, with a long bar at one end where men and women alike stood standing and chatting to each other as they took their drinks. Below that was the low rumble of music, and up on all four walls, large projection screens broadcasted earth sports in delayed time.

At the far end of the room a large viewing window looked out on a wide view of space and the rest of the station. The station itself was huge, stretching out for what could have been miles and miles of tightly packed corridors and branching rooms. The station itself was a mesh of Tesraki and human technology and had been built right here in orbit….. In orbit of the thing staring at them from out in the darkness.

A supermassive black hole ringed by a disk of bright light and a halo that cut across the middle.

Honestly as McCaster stepped into the room, he found the view very disconcerting, and had the sudden worry that…. Inexplicably they would start slowly drifting towards the black hole until they succumbed to a horrendous and terrifying death. Looking around though, it seemed that no one else seemed to think so, and he ushered himself inside and over to the bar hoping that a drink might calm him down.

He sidled up to the bar leading against the metal countertop and motion for the bartender with a hand.

She slid over to where he was. She was dressed casually, though the bearing of her chin told him that she was one of the soldiers working on the station and not just a civilian. He ordered something to drink, and he came back a moment later with a metal tankard. He took it surprised to find that he missed the bright amber liquid inside cool glass covered in a layer of condensation, but he supposed having breakable drinking vessels wasn’t going to do for a ship like this.

Still, the liquid inside his mug looked a sort of muddy brown rather than a pleasant amber.

He took another sip.

Still tasted fine though.

He turned to look around the bar watching as groups of people chatted to each other , drank and ate.

Not all of them worked here, some of them, like the crew of the Omen, had stopped by for supplies and to give their men and women some time to relax and have a little fun before they had to ship out again. McCaster felt this was really his only chance for a while, to meet people off the ship.

He sidled forward eyes scanning over the room and falling on a woman. She was pretty, young about his age with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Couldn’t hurt right?

Unfortunately, just as he was sidling up, some other gus seemed to have the same Idea, and he sat down at her table just as two others did pausing to stare at each other across the table.

McCaster looked at the young woman, “This seat isn’t taken, is it?”

She tilted her head at him in near amusement, “I can’t control where you sit.”

“Then I suppose you don’t mind if we join you.” The other man added receiving a glower from McCaster across the table.

“You work here.” The other man asked her

“Yes.”

“Well me and the boys here are just off from The UNSC Pioneer, finest ship this side of the quadrant.”

McCaster snorted into his glass, not trying to be a dick this time, but he knew THAT was a lie.

The other man glared at him, “What, you disagree.”

“Frankly, yes. Our ship is Objectively the best and that’s not even me bragging.”

“Oh really, and what ship is this.”

McCaster smirked, “The UNSC Omen, but I bet you’ve heard of it.”

There was a chorus of disbelief up from the other men.

“Right, and I bet you are personal friends with Admiral Vir too, right.”

McCaster frowned, “Maybe not personal friends, but I did fly with him once.”

More disbelieving booing.

He crossed his arms, “Don’t believe me huh well what about this.” he reached into his pocket to snag his ID card and then pulled it out, holding it up for the entire table to see, “See Lt McCaster of the UNSC Omen. I fly a Thunderhawk, and sometimes the shuttles.” This time the men could hardly argue, his iD said as much, at least as much about which ship he worked on and what he did.

THere was a light murmuring around the table.

“That’s right, so like ninety precent of my friends are aliens.” He was exaggerating just a little bit, he didn’t really interact with the aliens on the ship all that much accept for the Celzex that fixed the weapons on his jet, and the Drev he liked to play" pool with.

But the blond was looking at him with interest, so its not like he could squander this opportunity

He nodded glancing sidelong at the girl.

“Yeah, like I said, its not like the Admiral and I take lunch together or anything, ‘but’ the ship is small enough that I do run into him on a daily basis, cool guy, a bit weird though. I actually flew with him during the burg war on the Gromm home planet.”

A chorus of disbelief.

Behind him someone chimed in, “Bullshit.”

He turned to see that another table behind them had overheard his claims. There was a pretty redhead sitting there, and so he wasn’t likely to let go of his momentum. He raised his ID badge for all to see, “Not lying.” He raised his mug to his lips and took a long satisfied sip, “Disbelieve me all you wan’t but it’s true.”

“Well don’t just sit there all smug, tell us about it then.” Someone urged, and he was more than happy to oblige.

“Well, we had just been informed of the eminent Burg attack on the Gromm capital city below. I had been being debriefed by the Commander, at the time, and went with him to the bridge as we were debriefed. The Nexus was down and Burg ships were descending in swarms. They were unprotected on the planet below, and it was clearly up to our crew to stop the attack.”

His little crowd was drawing even more eyes, and he found himself with a small crowd of skeptics sitting around him listening to his every word.

He found himself speaking faster with excitement and nerves.

“I was on the bridge and watched him survey the scene, when out of nowhere he hands the captain chair over to one of his lieutenants and orders me out with him. They had orbital defences, but he knew that they had no chance in atmosphere since they didn’ have any fighter jets to push back the invasion.” he puffed out his chest, “Admiral Vir handpicked me to accompany him as his copilot and gunner.”

Another chorus of disbelief.

He shook his head, “Disbelieve me all you want, but it’s true. He knew my talents, and he knew I could keep up with him. And I tell you I have never seen a man or woman that could fly like he does.”

He had them now leaning forward in their chairs.

The best part is all of this was true…. Mostly.

“Of course, I was ready, solid as a rock, I have been training for just such situations for the entirety of my career, and I had no hesitations about what I was going to do. The Admiral was relying on me to be his copilot and damn straight I wasn’t going to let him down.” He grinned in a self satisfactory way, “He gave me charge of all the important stuff while he was flying combat…. And he made it sure in no unclear terms that if he couldn’t handle the flying, I was going to take over for him.”

Ok that was sort of a lie, but only a little one.

“I knew as soon as we were coming in that Admiral vir had an idea brewing. We didn’t go for an angled entry but instead piloted our jet straight down. I thought that the re entry was going to rattle my teeth out of my head. But as I said before I had no doubts about the Admiral. I knew we were going in, and I had inklings of what the admiral was about to do. I never questioned him.”

Also kind of a lie, but it's not like it mattered.

“We were plunging from the sky, fire spitting off our wings, going so fast it makes your insides feel like they are on your outsides. Picture the sky fading to blue behind you, fire is benign thrown off your wings like water from a waterfall, the G force is so powerful that it compresses your chest and makes it hard to breathe,” he was standing now gesturing wildly, “We plummet from the sky, and fire our guns exploding a burg ship just before it takes out one of our other fighters. We pull up right before the ground, must have been nine ten maybe even fifteen Gs.” Okay he was exaggerating, “But I stayed conscious through the whole thing.” That was also kind of a lie.

“We broke into combat with the burg drones, and I shot down at least three of them as the Admiral piloted. He said afterwards that he had never seen someone take the shots I did and make it.” Okay yes he had been passed out for half of this, but again its not like any of them were going to know.

What harm was a little exaggeration.

“I caught one burg as we were coming out of a sharp dive, my hand felt nine times heavier than it should have, but I nailed it in the engine compartment and it exploded into a ball of fire. I was still shooting them down when the Admiral orders me to take control of the ship. Of course I wanted to ask what was going on, but there was no time, I grab the stick and manuver us into a tight barrel roll. A ship explodes behind us. I have control of the jet now complete control and I pull us up into tight pursuit of another. I avoid two missiles and in a moment of genius, I drop all of our flares, which collide with at least four burg ships exploding on impact. What I hadn’t known is that the Admiral’s hand had cramped from all that earlier flying, and if I hadn’t been there he would have died. But at that moment I had no idea and proceeded to clear enemy skies over the capital city. I dived so close to the ground that we might have crashed if I hadn’t pulled us into an inverted upwards pull for the last few seconds”

He continued to speak and as he did the fight grew even more excessive and heroic. He detailed in exquisite and colorful imagery as he single handedly flew them to safety pulling off near impossible maneuvers, crack shots and many more outlandish happenings as he and Admiral Vir valiantly switched back and forth on the controls, equals in every way.

He was just describing their great and climactic fight scene where, he had to take command of the ship once again, when he finally noticed no one was really paying attention to him. He saw their eyes, looking past him.

His voice slowed, as he looked around eyebrows furrowed.

He turned where he stood and cut off mid sentence as his eyes fell on a familiar face in the crowd.

Admiral Vir sat behind him in a chair balancing on two legs, head tilted to the side. His eyepatch covered one of his eyes, but the expression on his face was one of great and abiding amusement.

He leaned forward in his seat, “Don’t let me interrupt you lieutenant. I believe you were just getting the the part where you pull an inverted double helix back loop and I pass out drooling in the front, you just manage to pull us out of that dive, and the two burg ships are so confused by the manuver that they crash into each other and explode catching the attention of all the other stunned burg in the area and allowing the other pilots a final push in clearing the sky?”

McCaster’s mouth opened and then closed and then opened again .

Admiral Vir continued to smile as McCaster stammered and gurgled like an idiot.

“So…. what actually happened.” Someone asked

McCaster plopped shamefacedly down in his seat. Admiral Vir paused tilting his head in the other direction as if thinking. A good portion of the room had gone quiet as they shuffled closer to hear the stroy. He stood after a moment and walked over to where McCaster was sitting placing his hands on the back of the chair.

“Well The first part of the story wasn’t wrong. I had been debriefing McCaster and the other recruits on a few aspects of my ship when we got the call in that the Gromm homeworld was being attacked. I DID give up command to the ship of one of my lieutenants, and I DID as McCaster to fly with me as copilot.” he smiled and easy smile that seemed to light up the room around him.

Everyone within a twenty foot radius shifted forward in an effort to be closer to the man and the magnetic nature of his personality and charming smile.

“McCaster was top of his class in flight school, and I wanted an extra pair of eyes, that is true. We did take a vertical dive into the atmosphere instead of an angled entry. Yes there was fire spitting off the wings, and yes we did pull out of a vertical dive after saving one of the other fighter jets. All of that is pretty accurate.”

HE smiled and McCaster wilted.

“He did embellish a few things.” he rested a hand on McCaster’s shoulders, “But what is a good story without a little bit of embellishment? I’ve certainly never told a story that didn’t sound about ten times better than it actually was.” There was a small laugh from the crowd, “Point being that I would certainly fly with McCaster again, he is a brave, talented, and honorable member of my crew even if he is a colorful storyteller.”

McCaster looked up at the Admiral, still leaning on the back of his chair, and watched as the man made subtle eye contact with the blond girl just a few feet away.

McCaster blushed As Admiral Vir pushed his chair forward across the ground to sit next to her.

She was smiling in some measure of amusement, and Admiral Vir winked at him as he backed away. Either that or he just blinked, it was hard to tell with the eyepatch.

He turned back to look at the woman who was looking at him in some measure of amusement.

He rubbed the back of his head.

“He seems to be one hell of a wing man, in and out of a jet.” She commented

He stammered stupidly glancing over his shoulder to where Admiral Vir had retreated to the bar, ignoring the eyes on him, hungry expressions from both men and women as he ordered a drink and sat down.

Bless the Admiral, number one for being a good wingman for sure, and two…. For not totally calling him out on all his bullshit.

Granted everyone probably guessed, but at least he could keep some of his dignity with plausible deniability.

He was able to work himself back into a state of cool suave composure, enough to learn that the woman’s name was Emily, and that she worked as a data analyst for the big black hole thing. It had a lot to do with math and physics which he totally didn’t understand, but certainly tried to because he knew she liked it.

Across the room, Admiral vir attracted ebbing and flowing waves of people coming to listen to his own stories which were mostly modest and self deprecating depictions of what really happened. Being the first person to fall flat on his face on an alien planet, how he had scared the shit out of the bran the first time he met them, how he ended up in a Rundi prison because he was being a dumbass.

There were a few times where he too tended to embellish the stories, only to preface later by saying, but what actually happened was this.

As soon as the man stepped into the room he seemed to change the whole gravity of it like a wandering star collecting satellites.

He supposed that’s what happened when you were famous.

Thanks to him though, it turned out he got along really well with Emily, and despite knowing he was a complete moron, she seemed to like him too, and he scored her number and a surreptitious invitation to accompany her on a walk to somewhere quieter.

As he was leaving, he turned back to look at the Admiral, making surprise eye contact with him as he did.

He raised his glass minutely to McCaster before turning around and continuing his story.

He grinned as Emily took his hand,.

“So….. tell me really, how many times did you pass out when flying with him.”

He snorted, “Please, I spent more than half of it passed out, like I can’t remember shit. I don’t even remember where the sky or ground was relative to each other for most of the time. The man can fly…. Like all that stuff I was telling you, just replace my name with his and you might have yourself a believable story.”

She laughed at his expense and he laughed too

Thank you Admiral Vir.

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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March 14th-March 20th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 14th, 2020 to March 20th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How do you react to readers predicting your plot twists?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Depends when they do. A page or two before it happens? Both of us get to feel clever. Yay! Months ahead? Well, obviously the thing I thought a a big twist ain't it, so I get to decide what other thing to focus on. I usually don't change the plot on reader predictions, but I can always change how a twist is presented from "Big surprise! Bet you didn't expect that" to "Well, ain't it neat to FINALLY have confirmation about that thing?"

Funnily, the best plottwist I ever wrote was in my now defunct comic. I thought it was obvious, but my few readers went "WOAH, didn't see THAT coming." So these days I try to just write the story and let the twists fall where they may.

Pistashi

ASDFPHIaewpf a friend of mine was reading my comic and he was making a lot of theories, a bunch of them was way off but he managed to be 100% accurate about one of his theories and I just started laughing nervously when he talked to me about it before it happened in the comic. This was years ago and the thing already happened and it's not a big deal anymore, but at the time I felt proud to write something that was obscure enough to not be on the reader's face but at the same time having someone figure it out after connecting the dots

I have little twists that happen in a more funny way, and it's usually used for comedy, and my readers seem to like it

but that's probably because of the expectations in humor coming from my writing style

which is usually bad puns and character reactions to absurd situations

and I agree witch chalcara, sometimes we can feel like we failed a plot twist when people see it from miles away

which is true, but sometimes even when they figure it out it's best to leave it as it is

I've seen a lot of writers fucking up their stories by changing plot twists that were stablished just because "people found out too early", and retconing a lot of the story in result

like, making a plot twist consists in creating some kind of foreshadowing

to make the twist not seem too forced and taken from nowhere

also to make it rewarding for those who searched deep for those clues

idk I love these little foreshadowing/clues we can leave for our readers

to make the twists even more powerful and meaningful

RebelVampire

I want to second a lot of the above. A plot twist should not be completely unguessable. Because if nobody guesses it, it means to most readers it's gonna feel like it makes no sense and came out of nowhere. The goal of a true twist is to have as few people as possible guess it but then when it's revealed, the reader smacks their head going "how could I miss all these clues."

Pistashi

exactly

Deo101 [Millennium]

Readers predicting things usually makes me lead with "oh no, I'm predictable!!!" And then makes me thing "wait, no, it means they're picking up on the hints I've left behind." Though sometimes it's predictable, like if someone guesses the actions of the next few pages, that's less of the readers picking up on hints and more just guessing right. But guessing big plot things, j think, is a reflection that I'm making things as clear as I need to, and I'm rather fond of it

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

99% of the times I am delighted if they guess the plot twist. I like it when I feel like my readers are on the same page as me (pun ...maybe not intended?) and see where things are going. Since my stuff is character driven, it tells me they can read the characters and their personalities well enough. However there was this one time when I had intentionally depicted something that was not going to be the historical norm (namely the p-51 mustangs' coats of paint on a cruiser in the opening scene of my WWII webcomic Brave Resistance). A war history buff called me out on it IMMEDIATELY saying "wait, these aren't how they're supposed to be!" and nearly spoiled the entire plot on page 2! I had to DM him to tell him to tone it down, and explain to him why the planes where the way they were. He apologized and stopped, but I'd wanted to throttle him for a while there

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I agree with Rebel re: the purpose of a plot twist. In that sense, though, I don't think my story even has plot twists. There is no moment anywhere in the story where I want the readers to go "how could I have missed all the clues!!!" ... On the spectrum of brainy vs hearty, my story is very close to the extreme end of hearty. Like, think of stories like The Little Prince or My Sweet Orange Tree. Even when unexpected things happen, it's never about the brilliant reveal. The most shocking thing in My Sweet Orange Tree comes out of nowhere, and it works for that book. Heart of Keol is a lot like those two in this regard. Not exactly the same, but pretty dang similar!

So back to the question, honestly? I want people to be able to guess. The usual bane of my existence is the opposite problem: people not knowing wtf is going on. My story isn't supposed to draw its strength from its surprises, so guess away (edited)

eli [a winged tale]

I love it when the reader guesses the gist of the plot twist a few pages just before the reveal. I sort of follow the novel structure idea that the reader should see what’s coming next right before it hits them, hence rewarding their investment in the story. Wild speculations without the clues I’ve planted are interesting. It does make me wonder if I relied too much on tropes or left too big of the crumbs. That being said, I’m not too fussed by readers predicting the general directions of the plot because it’s all about the character reactions. Could they predict that too? Maybe, to a degree. But there are a lot of subtext I try to write in my characters that give some nuances that I feel may entertain even those who guess correctly how the story would go. TL;DR: guess away. Love reading theories. The story is set so I won’t be changing anything big but perhaps layer the reveal with subtleties.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I've actually never had readers guess what's coming next. I mean, unless you count obvious, broad stuff (such as "the MCs get together"). I mean, it IS a romance. But in regards to big plot events, no one has gotten remotely close with their predictions (which kind of surprises me, because I drop clues everywhere). To be fair, I'm only a chapter in, so I guess it makes sense. But I am excited for the day when people finally guess

eli [a winged tale]

Same Cronaj! The predictions I’m speaking of are from my betas reading the entire script I love it when then go—- “omg this [plot point] must mean [reveal!]” .... right before the reveal

Feather J. Fern

If anyone does pick out certian plot twists I will be like "Yesssss people do think like me, I am not crazy" XD because most of my twists are all shown from the start through hidden background things so if people found them I am excited they took time and effort to figure out twists

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I love it. I haven’t been disappointed about it yet, and I don’t think I will be. It doesn’t make me change the twists at all - in fact, I’ve even shifted some story elements around to give the readers even more confirmation that they’re right, earlier on in the plot. I want to reward them with a treat, and now they can revel in their cleverness a bit longer Hee hee.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I love it too, but I don't change things to make readers more right like LadyLazuli does. Sometimes I'm tempted to, though! My readers have good ideas!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I like plot twists so I like to set a hint of them off early tbh (edited)

but I try not to make it too obivous :3c

tho for those who like to guess, I welcome it. I like hearing folks and their interpretations even if it's not what I'm going for too lol

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Admittedly, a lot of it is due to the nature of the medium. I know that webcomics take ages to get to major reveals or spoilers - I can wait to totally-confirm things, but I can't wait to... almost-confirm things? I don't want people to get tired or frustrated. I know I've gotten angry at anime shows that take 20 episodes to confirm something we guessed at episode 1, so I like when these things are all but confirmed early on. It can be really fun to know a secret that, maybe, the heroes don't know. It gives an extra layer of STOP, NO, DON'T GO IN THERE! in times of danger

But given my propensity to practically s c r e a m my spoilers to people who I can trust with the plot... a lot of it is just me bursting at the seams wanting to say YES YOU'RE CORRECT.

Patience and restraint. Essential things in webcomics

eli [a winged tale]

Indeed! So much patience needed I do love some excellent plot twists executed just chefs kiss

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Yes! I just want to tell readers, "Oh God, you're right! Good job!" But instead I usually respond with a ":)" or "I like this analysis!" Which I think is basically just confirming it. But if it's a real life friend? I cannot resist from telling them everything. I've even spilled spoilers in this chat before, trusting that most people here haven't read my comic. Kind of backfired when I reached a major plot point and someone commented, "She's been waiting to bust out this plot point for so long." Oops, guess someone did read my forum posts. But even if I did spoil things in the comments, is it really that big of a deal? I'm the kind of person where spoilers don't detract from my experience of things and sometimes even adds to it. But some people care about spoilers, so.(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

Haha yeah it’s honestly so freeing to just tell someone about the spoilers

Here’s what I have planned that will wreak the readers muahaha

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Past me could super relate to that! But these days I don't really want to TELL people? I'm not sure if that's because I've changed as a person, or if it's because this story is different from my previous ones. That being said, my patience is not infinite. I am itching to SHOW people. Can't wait to get to those Big Scenes

"Big" is a weird adjective here because they're very small scenes in some ways. Very intimate/personal

But... you guys know what I mean. The scenes that every longform webcomicker is dying to get to

Mei

Oh gosh, I agree that plot twists shouldn't be entirely out of the blue, since it's nice to have the hints that give people the crumbs to follow a trail. But like, since I write a lot of these chapters way in advance, and if I had the chance I'd love for them to be readable in one go as opposed to a page per week, I fear that I'm boring people with a predictable punchline? That being said, I get so many comments that predict the end of the chapter or the punchline or the joke. And I'm always like "haha maybe????" but inside i'm like "oh my god, they got me, THEY GOT ME"

Ohh yeah keii I get what you mean

the scenes you're like, checking your watch, checking your current pagecount, and thinking "soon I'll get to draw it, and it will be marvellous"

eli [a winged tale]

Oh gosh those scenes for me are at the finale

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

TBH last time I got to one of those scenes (which was very recent), my anxiety skyrocketed because I was expecting someone to say something harsh. Because it happened in all of the previous ones. But this time it went well, so hopefully the future ones will, too?

eli [a winged tale]

Yay!

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think for me, I worry more than anything that it will ruin things for other readers, rather than me worrying so much about someone guessing right or me sharing spoilers.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Someone DID say something harsh, but it was right before the actual scene and not about the scene and a lot of people got fed up with their attitude so I felt like it wasn't my fault, lol

eli [a winged tale]

Ruin things for other readers? Oh like someone predicting correctly in the comments?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Also yay! I always get anxiety about those kinds of scenes

Yes, someone predicting Something

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Well thought-out predictions are a lot of fun to read though, as a reader going through the comment section

eli [a winged tale]

I guess I stopped minding it and now embrace it they could be wrong or right and who knows until we get there~

Oh totally!

Deo101 [Millennium]

Oh I don't mind so much, but that doesn't mean I don't worry a bit too!

J like reading them for me, but I still think "I wonder if this will ruin it for someone else"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Occasionally there are problems with Korean webcomics that were originally webnovels? Because people who've read the novel version sometimes spoil things in the comic comment section, and that's not cool. They're not even theorizing, they're straight up spoiling.

Deo101 [Millennium]

eli [a winged tale]

Oh no that’s bad

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But if people are theorizing, and the theories turn out to be right, that's all very fun IMO!

Mei

ugh when people spoil things it irritates me to no end. Let people enjooy it for what it is!

and yes!! that's one of my fave things too

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, every reader is different though. I have some people who explicitly have asked me not to share spoilers, and others who kinda beg for them! So I worry if some people don't like to see predictions (I know my dad doesn't like when I guess things in a movie)

Mei

theorising, discussing with other fans, just chatting about what you think may or may not happen

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Sometimes you even see comments like "Hurry up, Konans! I'm too tired to think, so post some good interpretations/theories!" lol (Konan as in the detective... in Korea, it's a term for hardcore theorizers in webcomic comment sections)

Oh, I think movies are different

I don't want any form of verbal remarks while I'm watching a movie

Or like, if I'm marathonning a show with my bro, we're entirely silent except between episodes.

But comment section is like, you have to actually go there.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Some people might be like that for comics, too. Idk. I'm not trying to say i don't like to see theories I'm just trying to think of everything that makes me worry about them is all.

And for me, the biggest worry would be that someone seeing a prediction would make them enjoy my comic less. It doesn't mean I necessarily think it's all that common, but I refuse to say it won't happen I think

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Personally, I think that's not an issue unless you confirm the commenter's theories

like I've seen theories for things online where my first reaction is "that's dumb, that would never happen" and then it happens

some people will latch onto another person's theory, others will reject it, but i don't think people will take it as a spoiler in advance

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah, theories are just theories

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean I know some people don't even want to hear other readers' theories, but if they are that extreme, they need to avoid the comment section on their own IMO?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like... cool, I respect your preferences, but you can't hold me responsible, pal!

Deo101 [Millennium]

Again I'm not trying to say I don't like theories or I don't want them I'm just trying to think of all potential issues with them

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Granted, I'm one of those people who will scroll through the comments and read theories because I like to see all the smart people reveal the clues to dumb people like me

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I can relate to that

@Deo101 [Millennium] Understandable! Just don't be too hard on yourself for things that you can't control

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Those geniuses that remember details from 30 chapters ago and somehow manage to connect the dots

Mei

Exactly! The comment section is there, but it's their choice to read it, and also like it's not your fault either? like they're not YOUR comments

haha in our RPG games sometimes people drop character plot hints way at the start of the campaign, and my friend will turn up, 7 months later, " remember when Character A said this? I remember"

and everyone's like "what the heck?!" some people are just detectives

they can see it, they see the matrix

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I love when my readers theorize! I don't believe any reader has guessed any of the major plot twists in the first two books, despite there being enough evidence beforehand to make a guess (closest was "whatever zebugu's doing, it's not evil this time" but not the specifics of what he was doing). Though, if they had, I wouldn't mind, since that's max two years they gotta wait before the reveal (and that's assuming they guess it on the cover page lol). Book 3 is a different beast - strictly speaking, there's enough evidence for someone to predict both twists at the end of the book, right now. And... that may be an issue, given that this book will take over three years to reach those twists. So... we'll see if anyone guesses them. What's weirdest is when people guess things almost correctly with absolutely NO hints. And it's some super specific and minor thing like "Mizuki is secretly the reincarnation of a thousand-year-old dragon". Like... there haven't even been dragons mentioned in the comic up to this point. Nor any events from a thousand years ago. And like, that's not exactly the truth, but how do you get THAT close???(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

They see E V E R Y T H I N G

eli [a winged tale]

Sometimes it’s a trope thing? But yeah wild speculations can be so wild but so spot on

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

but there aren't any fantasy creatures in the comic, at all!

except a squid with feet!

eli [a winged tale]

Lol whaaaat then yea not sure where the dragon part came from then

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Sherlock Holmes readers lol

eli [a winged tale]

Yeah detective Conan lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

Joke gone awry

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

basically

Feather J. Fern

Well I mean I have crack theories about random people being random things too so...

I can see where they come from XD

sagaholmgaard

tbh I think my comic is fairly easy to predict as it has a pretty straightforward narrative xD but I don't have that many readers yet so maybe in the future! I would have fun reading people's guesses and predictions :D

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

AAA my readers right now are so accurate. They're so smart. They make me want to post my entire buffer right now and prove them right.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wonder if anyone would be able to predict the next things happening in joe is dead

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I at least have no idea what's going to happen next but am looking forward to it anyways(edited)

🌈ERROR404 🌈

i know that it's only because TH is still quite new, and I haven't gotten to the meat of the story yet, but i like reading some of the really out there predictions and worries i get in some of the comments lol

AntiBunny

I will never tell someone if their guess is right or wrong, but if they do guess it, it probably means I'm foreshadowing well.

Then again I also find myself writing by the seat of my pants, so plans are subject to change.

kayotics

The original question mentions “plot twists” but I’m never trying to make a plot twist personally. I may intentionally obfuscate things, but I don’t ever try to do wild twists and turns. So when a reader predicts what will happen, I actually don’t mind, and I’m pretty happy that it’s following a logical chain of events. On the other hand, when readers are totally off base, I think that’s REALLY fun.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Most of my readers feel that my comics are twisty and surprising, but I often get at least one reader who correctly guesses what will happen, even if sometimes they’re joking or think their theory is wild and out there. Honestly it feels pretty awesome to have a reader shrewd enough to puzzle out the clues, because that means they’re really paying attention. I don’t have a very big audience and most of the time they’re silent, so anytime someone leaves a comment that is carefully thought out, it makes me really happy. As for the times readers joke or wildly speculate but inadvertently hit the nail right on the head, I find those very amusing. I really love stories with well done twists and turns, and so I try very hard to execute good plot twists that have enough foreshadowing to be ‘Aha!’ moments rather than ‘Where did that even come from?’ moments. So I love when readers are both properly misdirected AND when they pick up on the clues and deduce the twist.(edited)

DanitheCarutor

Does my comic have plot twists? I don't really think about it. People have correctly guessed things that will happen in a chapter, someone even guessed correctly on the climax when a character named Daniel was introduced... well, it was more like "I hope things don't turn out like -blank-!". I don't mind, just because they guessed something correctly doesn't mean they know how the story will go for sure, it just means that they're theorizing and that is something I always encourage. I don't think that means the story is boring or predictable either, some people are just really good at that stuff. Even though I don't think my comic is very mysterious/unpredictable it's still impressive when someone pays attention to all the little visual and dialogue details, then guessing correctly about a future event based on them. Nothing more flattering than someone enjoying your comic enough to analyze it.

Lmao! I can't tell you how many movies I've ruined for people because I guessed a plot twist correctly.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Haha, honestly same. I’m not allowed to make predictions during movies or TV shows anymore bc I almost always get it right. XD Webcomics I find a bit more unpredictable, though, because most of them aren’t nearly as formulaic as mainstream film.

DanitheCarutor

Yeah! Even if it's not obvious most of the time movies go by a pattern or set of traits, once you learn how they go a film or TV show becomes a lot more easy to figure out right away. The only time I'm stumped is when the movie is really surreal or absolutely awful. That's the nice thing about webcomics in a way. I assume a lot of creators haven't had professional training, and we want to tell a story more than be entertaining to the masses, so stories are less predictable. They don't always go by a formula, which can be refreshing.

Capitania do Azar

Aw man I would love to have some theories, but for the time unfortunately I don't I'm always super curious about how readers interpret things given they don't have an inside view of things

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

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wooolfies · 6 years

Text

Don’t want to hurt you.

Verse: Jurnex Superhero AU

Pairing: Jurnex

Prompt: “Just because you are a superhero, doesn’t mean that you are responsible for everyone who lives or dies.”

Warnings: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, severe injures, robbery

Characters/Parties: N. A. Jurow/Doctor Hope, John Kennex, Yekaterina Vashchenko

Word Count: 2376

Author’s Note: This story was based on the idea of @strangledbythestars

It was early in the morning. The rising sun tried to make its way through the thick layer of smog that was covering Los Angeles.

The shops were opening and the fist rush hour of the day was just starting. A teal coloured van slowly headed towards one of the skyscrapers downtown.

A young blonde employee opened the big glass doors to the the handful of customers inside who were already waiting. Slowly, the bank filled with people. An ongoing coming and leaving.

Suddenly a man yelled something, drawing an automatic gun. Most of the customers went to the ground instinctively.

***

Kennex sat in the cruiser, on his regular tour across the city when the chattet on the police radio went up again. There was a hostage situation going on and they were requesting all forces available.

He started to head towards the location. The coffee in the cupholder was getting cold, he didn’t care.

In front of the building a huge group of people had formed already, he supported his colleagues by holding the crowd back. The Swat team was still on its way, not to be expected in the next minutes.

They knew of four robbers who had taken at least two hostages. Suddenly a shot rang out inside the building along with the sound of shattering glass.

One of the robbers, a first timer had tripped and accidentally fired his weapon.

The police outside reacted and started swarming the building.

The robbers backed up, deeper inside the building, taking two of the hostages with them. Three of them and the two hostages ended up in bathroom.

The other robber had to hide in a closet in order to don’t get arrested.

Kennex carefully walks down the hall, caching every room to his left and right, offices. No one is there.

Suddenly there were steps behind him, he spun around.

She is standing right in front of him, her gun pointed towards him, her face stayed neutral as she pulled the trigger.

There was pain in his chest, it seemed like the bullet has made its way through the vest into his chest. He falls to the ground, darkness is surrounding him.

***

When he gained consciousness he needed a quick moment to orientate.

“Hey. I’m glad you are awake.”

He looked where the voice came from.

It was Jurow. She was sitting next to him on a chair and held his hand.

He was feeling funny, like wrapped up into cotton wool.

“Nata,” he murmured.

He was not dead. He was not dead!

“You took quite a blow. They fixed you up quite well. You coded. twice. Don’t scare me like that again,” she said quietly.

“I hate this place,” Kennex looked around in the room. Since the ambush and the long time spent in the hospital afterwards he got anxiety from hospitals.

“I know honey. I talked to the doctors, as soon as you are fully stabilised were gonna take you home,” she paused. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. And when I was, it was way too late.”

He squeezed her hand. She replied the gesture.

“How– How did it end?” he asked.

She nervously escaped his eye contact, and looked to the ground.

“So bad?”

“It was a massacre. The hostages were killed and the police shot the robbers. The only of of them surviving is the lady that shot you.”

Kennex let out a noise of discomfort. “What a fail…”

“No. Except you all cops are okay. And we all know that freeing hostages doesn’t work like on TV…”

He nodded in agreement, he was getting sleepy again.

***

Two days later. Kennex was at home with Jurow, still staying in bed but with way better food and more privacy. He felt much better psychologically being out of this place.

Jurow was happy about the pause in action Ava was doing at the moment, she could fully dedicate to caring for her love.

He could eat when he wanted and sleep when he was tired. Not like in the hospital where there was a strict schedule for everything.

On his first morning at home, Jurow had made Kennex a healthy breakfast.

When she entered the room, he was still asleep. She quietly placed the tray on the nightstand. She smiled and quietly approached his bed to read his oxygen values. She nodded, happy that they were normal. She quietly left again.

Vashchenko was working in her room over the fifth cup of coffee, the keyboard sounded like a machine gun, she seemed motivated. Jurow decided to get her a new, quieter keyboard.

Fifteen minutes had passed, Vashchenko could hear Jurow turn the key in the lock. Jurow went straight into the kitchen, then up to John. After she had talked to him and made sure he was alright alright up there, she started to prepare lunch. She still couldn’t get this on thought out of her head. She should have been there. What kind of superhero was she?The following night Jurow started having a nightmare, strange things evolving around the theme of losing Kennex. She woke up from it when the worst part was reached. Panting she sat up in her bed, looking the open door between her room and the room he was sleeping in. “Nata?” it was him, not able to get up, but he could tell that something was going on. Jurow silently cursed and stood up. Showing herself in the door frame, “What’s up?” she asked. “Are you alright?” he looked worried. Sitting in his bed, his face strangely lit by the tablet on his belly. One of her black earphones was in his ear. He had watched something because he had trouble sleeping.Jurow nodded silently. “Trouble sleeping?” she pulled her desk chair to his bed. “Yeah. Why don’t you come with me? Not like I’m sick and could infect you with something.“ “No, It’s just, I don’t want to hurt you,” she suddenly sounded very quiet, almost sad. “Oh, honey, I’m sure you won’t,” he smiled. He was missing her warmth, hugging on the couch and holding each other. “I can’t, I have something going on I need to attend to,” she said, making a reference to superhero stuff. When really she just wanted to curl up and cry without him knowing. She loved him with all her heart, and still she had put him at risk, too often. “I’ll be back. Need to go to the loo first.”She stood up and left the room. She had done it again, lied to him. Locked in the bathroom, not turning on the light, she let herself slide down against the door, hugging her knees. She couldn’t do this anymore. What if he actually died next time? Not like he already was deeply traumatized. The police had only kept him in because he could not be corrupted by any mob. She had a responsibility, there was always something going on in LA. The public was relying on her. Damn, why hadn’t she gone to this bank and helped. She was lucky that he survived it and didn’t go comatose again, like way back after The Attack when Kennex had lost his leg.

Jurow ended up curled up on the floor sobbing. She had fucked up. She was the worst hero ever, not being able to protect the ones she loved. After a while being there like this, she returned into the living room, where Kennex had fallen asleep. She sat down on the uncomfortable chair again, holding his hand while he was sleeping, crying silently.

When Kennex woke up, he saw her sitting next to him, fallen asleep sitting in the desk chair, her hand was still clinging onto his.

He smiled, looking at the clock on the wall. It was five in the morning. Was she actually sleeping in this chair? He felt sore and his chest was hurting so much he felt like he had throw up. Seeing her that way made him very concerned, what made him not feel better in anyway. When he tried to pull his hand back. She woke up as if her sleep was not really deep.

“Sorry…,” he murmured.

Jurow went back to the kitchen to make a toast with butter. She made herself tea instead of coffee. The kitchen still smelled phenomenal. She let herself sink into the chair while she waited for the water to boil. She stared at the toast, she had taken only one bite from it. She didn’t feel like eating, the toast seemed like plastic. Like something no-one would try to eat.

She stood up to pour the tea. She took the tea and her phone. Suddenly she hoped that Ava was doing some shit again, just to stop her downwards spiral of thoughts.

Jurow went upstairs, to sit with Kennex. Playing some stupid mobile game where one had snip animals upwards, dodge traps and collect money. From time to time she sipped her tea.

She was focused on keeping her mind here and don’t think about what had happened; the fact that she had let him down and now his killer was still running around out there, free like a bird. Sure, the authorities where looking for her but she sure knew how to get off the grid. Maybe she had made her way over the wall already.

Jurow cleared her throat and started scrolling through social media. Not a good idea either. The robbery was trending. Everyone was saying how sorry they were for the victims and how much the police had fucked up.

Kennex began to stir, slowly waking up. Jurow turned off her phone and watched him wake up. When he opened his eyes, she was smiling.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. He hadn’t got a pain-medicine shot in hours, the last time at 3am when he couldn’t sleep because of the pain.

“Still like shit, but better than yesterday,” he reached for her hand and squeezed it. ”I’m glad, I’m with you now.”

“Me and your lead surgeon had a long discussion. In the end I practically had to bail you out. We might get an unannounced visit from a doctor, controlling my work,” she scoffed. “I bet I have seen more GSWs than them. Anyways, do you have something specific you would like for lunch?”

“Noodles?”

“Sure. But I need to buy a few ingredients for this… “

His face lit up. “Would be great. But before you leave, can you check? My chest really hurts…”

Jurow put both her hands into her neck for some time, to make them less cold. Then she started to open a few buttons on Kennex’ shirt. His chest looked like a chest looks that had been shot recently and then opened up to stop the bleeding. For good measure she went across the room to get her stethoscope. Lung noises were normal: “You are OK. But I’m going to give some pain medicine.”

Kennex nodded. “Thank you.”

Jurow was debating whether it was smart to go to buy some things for lunch nor not. Too anxious that something could happen to Kennex while she was gone.

Vashchenko had made clear that she was in danger of punching someone in the face, but she was willing to make a plan how to do this as fast as possible. Jurow told Kennex that she would be back soon, and that he should tell Vashchenko if he needed anything.

Jurow was a bit disoriented at first.

“How long have you been sitting there?” he asked roughly and cleared his throat. He tried to sit up a bit, maybe that helped against the pain. At least it eased his breathing a bit.

“Since, shortly after we talked tonight.”

He frowned, tried to move over a bit to her, letting out a groan.

“Are you in pain?” she asked.

He just nodded.

Jurow got up. Almost tripping over her own feet, she walked to the desk where all the items she needed for his care were placed, and filled a syringe. She rose, after having done the injection. He looked up to her in the soft light that was filling the room.

“You don’t look well, honey. What is going on?” he asked. Not knowing another way to express his concern.

She sat down onto the edge of his bed. “Is just- ,” she broke off. She couldn’t tell him.

“Come on,” he said while padding the bed next to him. He moved over a bit, so she had space to lie down next to him.

She in fact now did it, very carefully, barely touching him. He lifted up his blanket to cover her. He carefully pulled her a bit closer to him, holding her.

Jurow was barely keeping it together. Her love to him was as strong as the fear to lose him. But even for her, it seemed to be great to be with him, being held close. Silently she began to cry. It took quite a while until he noticed that she her breathing was turning into a sobbing. “Would you like talk about it? You taught me that talking always helps,” he rubbed her back. “You can tell me everything, your secrets are safe with me.”

Jurow signed. “It’s not about that…” she paused. “I just failed.”

“What?”

“I should have been there. I almost lost you.”

“Oh Nata,” his kissed the top of her head. “Just because you’re a superhero doesn’t mean you are responsible for everyone who lives or dies. It is not possible that you are everywhere at the same time and in the end you are only human, after all. And look, even if I died, I still would have loved you. I still love you. You are doing a magnificent job nursing me back to health. There is nothing to be sorry for. Okay?”

She nodded silently, still crying. Kennex did his best to comfort her.

When Vashchenko came up a bit later to see why Jurow had still not called for her coffee she found the two, sleeping, clinging into each other. She let out an “awww”, smiled and silently closed the door again.

Tagging: @grumpymedbae @homo-homini-lupus-est @donsdawn

Taglist

#superhero au #story #jurnex #natasha jurow #john kennex #kate vashchenko #h/c #angst #my writing #my work

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fuse2dx · 4 years

Text

September ‘20

Paradise Killer

Putting it out there front and centre that I know some of the folks involved in creating this, and clearly I’m devoid of sufficient integrity to be impartial. You know, it’s best to get these things out there, with the internet being what it is.

It’s a whodunnit set in Paradise, with your character having been brought back from exile and tasked with solving who’s responsible for the mass-murder of the island’s core council. There’s a clear set up with one guy already due to take the fall, but it quickly becomes apparent that the island’s populous of weird deities - who perhaps have too much time on their hands - clearly have more of a stake in this than they’d like you to know. You’re left to investigate at your own pace, poking around crime scenes and places of interest, but also soaking up the island and its vibe as a whole. Getting reacquainted with its residents is a massive chunk of this, and if their out-there names, colourful outfits, and eccentric behaviours weren’t enough to draw you in, there’s more serious manners such as allegiances and motives to start peeling back the layers of. Titbits of info gleaned will often give you the opportunity to eke more out of someone else, and although the game does a great job of subtly nudging you to where loose ends might best be chased down, you’re given the freedom and ultimate responsibility on when to start wrapping things up at trial.

Given the potential for disorder in its narrative structure, the game’s job in cataloging all of your gathered information is crucially neat in its execution. The free rein that allows you to be as orderly and meticulous as you choose is welcome, as is the gentle push towards the truth of things. But there’s also just enough space to sink into convenient falsehoods - even to present them at trial and make them stick, if you can pass on that conviction - and it’s this freedom that really sets it apart from its contemporaries. Helping this is a fully realised island you can move about in and investigate, rather than doled out chunks of exposition by chains of talking head sequences. More salacious secrets are typically locked behind puzzles or specific items, but there’s also a particularly inviting nature to the architecture that suggests playful acrobatics - dashing, double-jumping and the like - be used to explore out-of-reach areas.

The look is tinged in pinks and blues, giving a suitably welcoming glow to Paradise. It’s warmth is helped massively by the soundtrack that runs throughout it, bringing pleasant, jazzy saxophones and subtle, warm electronics into its city-pop inspired stable. There’s a great voice running through its veins too - one that operates in its unspoken thoughts, the descriptions of its collectables, even the interface and the sub-headers as you enter new areas - just about damn everywhere. It’s smart, it’s cynical, and it’s snappy, and is a regular factor in keeping a smile on your face even in the moments that get closest to being downtime. Bias be damned! I can say, hand-on-heart, that it’s a game that not just nestles in comfortably among its peers, but stands tall among them.

Moon

Cult status can be a double edged sword. For anything cult - movies, albums, games, you name it - there’s that risk that if put under a modern lens, they can be painfully of their time. Cherished by those that were there, perhaps, but impenetrable - or even worse, alienating - for those without that context. Previously a Japan-only PS1 title, Moon has held such status for 20+ long years, but on its return, lets you know very quickly that a lot of what it had to say was timeless.

Its sending-up of RPG tropes is pretty spot on - the game-within-a-game that your character boots up got a big belly laugh out of me almost immediately, and then leads into a montage of a hero’s journey through a world that you’re then later transported into to pick up the pieces. See, the ‘hero’ in the game is kind of a jerk - barging into people’s homes, taking things out of their cupboards, killing all of the wildlife, and so on - and while this likely sounds very familiar, Moon prompts you to remove that filter of normal game behaviour, and instead asks that you try and be a bit more conscionable and pleasant. Acts of kindness to others are repaid in love, a tangible currency that grows your love level, allowing you to spend more time in its world before you need to rest and begin your day’s busy-bodying anew. Observing the routines of the world’s inhabitants is key to making good on its many grievances, and although these are straightforward enough at the start, some of the later challenges relied on some more tenuous thinking - to which, I’ll put my hands up and say that I turned to a walkthrough. These more patience-testing moments might have been a good way to pad things out in ‘97, however it’s a bit steeper an ask today, when I daresay most people will be visiting this as more of a curiosity. Accepting a helping hand doesn’t stand in the way of these scenarios delivering on the charm, surprise, or humour they originally aimed for, though. Labelling it a parody or a spoof might work as a descriptive shortcut, but it’s never mean spirited, and clearly loves the subjects it pokes fun at - there’s a wonderfully self-effacing humility throughout it.

Given Final Fantasy 7 - often cited as a common entry point for many modern western fans of JRPGs - didn’t even arrive in Europe until after this originally released, it’s not hard to understand why it wasn’t considered for localisation at the time. The audience certainly didn’t exist at scale, and simply wouldn’t have had the gaming experience or vocabulary to appreciate it. Not only can we now better appreciate it as the tongue-in-cheek love letter it is, but the message of compassion and thoughtfulness is something that’s more essential today than arguably ever before.

Spelunky 2

This was always on my radar as a likely ‘game of the generation’ contender. I’ve been playing the original game on and off now for around 8 years - it’s followed me as a regular part of my gaming diet across 4 different platforms, and crucially, all the way up until the night before this finally landed on my PS4. Without getting too philosophical about it, it’s a very important game to me. Despite all of the time playing it, thinking about it, talking about it, or even reading the gosh darned book about it, I never once thought to assume I had the answer for what would make a fitting sequel. Thankfully, the team behind it had more ideas, and the faith in their convictions.

All of the crucial components of the original are here in abundance, and added to with a restrained modesty. Its randomly generated levels are more complex, and offer more distinct ways of hiding secrets, all while a subtle but slick graphical overhaul does great work in making them look more organic than ever before. More complex fluid physics allows for more transformative ways of opening up levels, and mounts might add some quirky new dynamics to things, but crucially, things under the hood beside this remain largely the same.

Perhaps more importantly, Spelunky 2 understands the fervent player base centred around the original game, and uses their knowledge and familiarity to challenge them anew with clinical precision. Things are just similar enough: the title screen, the tutorial, many of the enemies, and the stages that you find them in - they’re tweaked, yes, but still familiar. On top though, there’s enough that’s new, or changed in a minute yet specific way that makes it very clear that things are going to be uniquely dangerous all over again, and that your muscle memory is more of a liability than a crutch. The curve of learning the game - understanding and tempering its dangers, and the slow, cautious, pulling back the curtain of its newer secrets - is still pitched in the same utterly compelling way as before, though. Rather than being harder outright, or just more lumped on top, it finds a way to make new players and familiar faces alike to learn to play Spelunky all over again, and it’s a total joy to have that opportunity. It’s everything I didn't realise I wanted in a sequel, and it’s breathed a new lease of life into a game that I wasn’t even bored with in the first place.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 Remastered

The original THPS was proper lightning in a bottle stuff; while its countless sequels eventually drained every good idea bone dry, and it left countless half-baked spin-offs in its wake, it’s hard to be mad, or surprised, when the original formula was so potent. Underpinned by a brilliant combo system that called back to arcade-style score chasing, in tandem it also nailed the kind of goal-based mission objectives that became so common after it. This is before you even get on to the way that skateboarding’s irreverence, fashion, and music were curated and presented in such a way that they left a mark on an entire generation. Sports titles are often glossed over from a critical perspective, but there is no escaping the quality and impact of this series.

This remaster tries to capture it at its zenith - and although they’re arguably off by a game or two, depending on who you talk to - it’s generally welcome that some of the ideas from later games are pared back. What it does with these first two games is for my money, the gold standard of what a remaster should do - it makes them look and feel like you imagined they did at the time; smooth, detailed, and responsive. Please, don’t make me go back and look at what the originals actually did look like, because I don’t think my poor brain could take it. The kitchen sink has been thrown at everything surrounding the game, with more relevant and diverse skaters brought into the fold, menus upon menus hiding a wealth of additional challenges, and a soundtrack that celebrates the older, punkier roots of the game, but also shines a light on some musical features that are perhaps more relevant to today’s youth. It’s all handled with a surprising elegance.

It’s a great new way to introduce the series to people, and also a nice outlet for old hands, with my only real criticism being that I had blasted through both of the original tours within a day of dropping the disc in my system. Yes, I could chase high scores endlessly, and yes, there’s a park builder and an abundance of multiplayer modes - but if you’ve finished these games before and just want to revisit them with a new lick of paint, don’t be surprised when it dries out fast.

#paradise killer #moon #spelunky 2 #tony hawks pro skater

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faint-waves-music · 5 years

Text

Discussing Far East Winter.

My new EP, Far East Winter has been a very interesting EP to make and because of that, I wanted to write something of an article in regards to it. So, here we are! I'm going to discuss the background of this EP, my influences, inspirations, some of the ideas I had with this record, a short run through of each track, and a few things I learned along the way. Hopefully this is an informative and interesting read and hopefully you enjoy the record, too.

I had contemplated doing an EP of this nature for some time, in fact, you can hear my earliest inclinations toward this idea on my "Cherry Blossom" single from 2017. I've always been a lover and admirer of sounds from all over the world, but music and sounds from the East and the far East have always really caught my ear. I think so many of the instruments and the scales/notation they tend to use are absolutely beautiful. The only reason I hadn't done this sooner, is because I didn't want to do this just to do it and because I'm not sure I was totally ready to. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do it some semblance of justice. If "Cherry Blossom" was me seeing if I could pull it off at all, "Far East Winter" is the more refined, realized vision of incorporating these elements into my music.

As far as who/what inspired and influenced this record, I'd say it was a good mixture of eastern and non-eastern artists. Many of my ideas were informed by Roxy Music, Prefab Sprout, Tears For Fears, Vangelis, Hiroshima, Kitaro, Hiromitsu Agatsuma, and Himekami, just to name a few. I was in a creative space where I also wanted to kind of continue the easy listening/downtempo/adult contemporary-inspired direction I've been taking Faint Waves since 2017, but I had to do something interesting to really change the pace a bit and since I wanted to do a winter release, I knew the sound couldn't just be sunshine and ocean waves. The result is a more winter-into-spring sounding EP, not necessarily dark or discordant sounding, but a bit more bittersweet and melancholy in places. That's not to say there aren't hopeful moments, as the first and final tracks on the EP are a bit more optimistic than the rest, indicating glimmers of hope amongst the moodier parts of the record.

Much of the record I think has a very soft rock and sophistipop vibe, but there are few moments that are a bit more downtempo, new age, or experimental. I also made some stylistic choices on this EP that kind of set it apart from other things I've done, namely with the drums and bass. I've often relied on a fretless bass emulation for many (the vast majority, actually) of my songs, it's been a tried and true element and staple in the music I've made. However, I felt this record warranted something different, so I've switched things up and used a finger style bass emulation. It has a much deeper sound and I think has given the record a bit more of a soft rock or vintage R&B vibe. As for the drums, I made a similar stylistic decision to go after more of an organic feel. So, rather than using solely Roland and Linn samples as I have in the past, I opted to use more live sounds. That doesn't mean I haven't used those Roland and Linn samples at all, as they're still in the mix. Many of the songs feature a live kick drum layered with a Linn kick and on "Lovers In The Cold", you can very clearly hear the use of a CR-78 hat sample alongside the rest of the drums. Small changes in the grand scheme of things but I think they've made a big difference in the overall feel of the EP.

The first song I had completed and the one that really solidified the fact that I was doing this, was "Lovers In The Cold", which ironically became the last track on the EP. "Lovers In The Cold" is a bit of a sophistipop track with both western and eastern instrumentation, including a Xylophone, Sax, an Erhu (a violin-like instrument of Chinese origin), and a brilliant emulation of the Ruan (a plucked instrument of Chinese origin). I'd say the sound and structure were most influenced by acts like Hiroshima and Roxy Music, while the blocky pad chords remind me more of Prefab Sprout. It's definitely a pretty layered track for me, lots of moving parts. The way I've always seen the song, structurally, is as an argument between two lovers. Xylophone is one party, while the Erhu is another. The Xylophone is very quick moving and aggressive but the Erhu is more relaxed and to the point. They have this back and forth, but every other time the Erhu comes in, there's one extra note that wasn't played the previous time. So, it's almost like someone is getting the last word in there. Then, you have this kind of breakdown in the song where everything slows down a bit and rather than them playing separately, you have the Xylophone and the Erhu playing simultaneously. Going along with the two lovers metaphor, that part of the song could be them reconciling, working together to make things work before everything falls apart again.

There were a lot of demos with this EP, more than maybe any other EP I've ever made. A lot of stuff didn't make the cut or just plain didn't get finished. The next track that saw completion after "Lovers In The Cold" was probably the fourth song I had made overall and it's a tracked called "Only Tonight", which was loosely inspired by "Advice For The Young At Heart" by Tears For Fears. This track was one that definitely went through a lot of changes before it became what it was. It started out very synthpop, with these big electronic strings, before I transitioned to a more organ-centric sound. It took quite a few demos for it to start to take shape as it is now, a piano ballad. I think after the organ became integral to the song, the drums were what really started to make it take shape. Those drums, at least where they start initially, have a very Burt Bacharach feel. That shaker-sidestick combo he's so fond of. It starts in that kind of Bacharach-like place but as the track goes on, the drums get a little more aggressive and eventually the sidestick is replaced with a snare. For the piano, I didn't want a big sound because the organ/bass combo was already doing that for me, so it's pretty much this continuous riff of single notes. Then the piano is accompanied by a Shamisen (a stringed instrument of Japanese origin) and later on, a sax. The track also features a Vibraphone and a Gong sample. The Vibraphone is this kind of arpeggiated-sounding series of a few notes, it really gives the track an underlying sense of movement and urgency. "Only Tonight" is an interesting one because I feel like it became what it is very naturally, but it did take some time to get there. Glad I didn't give up on it though, as it's a favorite of mine.

After that, I think came "Snow Summit", which also went through a lot of changes as it went on. It's kind of a weird one. It doesn't sound like it at all, but it was pretty Vangelis inspired. Vangelis, Yello, and Kitaro are the big inspirations for that one. It went through a lot of changes and I don't think I was ever really sure the track "worked", so to speak. Once I laid down the bass for it, I feel like it all clicked a bit better, but it's still by far one of the most oddball tracks I've ever produced. It was inspired by a Yello song called "Homer Hossa", which if you aren't familiar with, is basically just a lot of sound effects, percussion, and little actual melody. "Snow Summit" is kind of that way, except it basically has this big brass backing track accompanying all these weird sounds. I think my intention with it, is that I wanted it to be as foreboding and endless feeling as the summit of a mountain would be. You're cold, the wind is blowing, there's snow everywhere, and you can see for literally miles. That kind of thing is intimidating and I think I wanted to convey that with this noisy, aimless kind of a track. It's probably the most "experimental" thing I've done. Huge brass, eastern percussion, simulated wind, white noise stabs, and huge bass drops. That's "Snow Summit" in a nutshell.

After that, came "Hatsukoi". Hatsukoi translates to first love, if you're curious. I knew I wanted a beautiful opening song for the EP and after drawing a blank for a long time, this is what materialized. Inspired by Kitaro and to a lesser extent Himekami, "Hatsukoi" is a bit of a new age jaunt. It's basically comprised of strings, a few different kinds of percussion (both eastern and western), a Celeste, a Pipa (a four stringed instrument of Chinese origin), a Xylophone, wave sfx, and bird sfx. This track doesn't really develop beyond the first couple minutes, but I found it very lovely and relaxing and didn't feel the need to add to it. I had a few demos where a flute came in the second half but it was just overkill in my opinion. It's a bit more hopeful and warm than everything else on the EP. It's very much in line with some of the more atmospheric, new age inspired things I've done. It's very much Kitaro by way of Faint Waves, in my opinion. I'd love to explore that kind of sound more in the future, to the degree of acts like Kitaro or Himekami. That kind of Electronica-meets-New Age-and-Classical sound is always brilliant. Exploring that sort of thing could be an EP or album in it's own right, but for this release, I wanted a balance of downtempo/chilled vignettes with more deliberate/aggressive songs.

The next song that came to be was actually an older, unfinished demo that I had lying around. "Tao Of Knowing" originally started as "Charm", a new wave/sophistipop song inspired by Johnny Hates Jazz and Tango In The Night-era Fleetwood Mac. "Charm" was originally much more electronic and instead of a Koto (a stringed instrument of Japanese origin) carrying the song, it was a piano. I revisited this song during my time producing Far East Winter and I found, with a few changes, that it would fit the record. I changed quite a few things; the key changed, the chiffer lead at the beginning of the song became a Shakuhachi (a flute-like instrument of Japanese origin, derived from the Chinese bamboo flute), the main piano riff became a Koto, the poppy drum samples were replaced with the ones I was using for this EP, and I wound up writing a new pad for it as well. Once I had made those changes, the song still went through a few more permutations before it became the song you hear on Far East Winter. The song has a very mystical feel and I think that sets it apart on the EP, in a good way. The original demo had a very new wave feel to it and I think a little bit of that is still intact, particularly in the drums. This one may also be one of the more aggressive sounding songs in the Faint Waves canon, too. Very in your face at times.

The last song to be completed was "City Street". I knew from the beginning that "City Street" was going to be a short interlude kind of a song. My general vision for it from the get go was very similar to how it came to be, I knew I wanted to be very ambient and atmospheric, and to feature a Rhodes. That's exactly how it turned out but I just couldn't seem to get it to materialize. At first, I tried to make the song quicker and more urban sounding, to coincide with the name. It just wasn't working, so I scrapped almost everything except the percussion I had. The percussion I did have, I wound up changing quite a bit, leaving pretty much the bare minimum. Once I was happy with the percussion, I layered a few different sound effects. One was of nighttime ambience (crickets/frogs/etc.), another was just general city noise, and the final was of a little bit of traffic. After that came the Rhodes, which I pretty much treated almost as a pad as I wrote and produced it. I applied a lot of effects to it, reverb and delay mostly, so it would kind of linger well beyond the length of the notes would allow. On top of that, I used a Pipa again, I actually recycled a melody from another song of mine ("Congo") for that and adjusted the notes accordingly. The end result is a very soundscapey interlude that's heavy on ambiance, maybe slightly reminiscent of Kenji Kawai. Good for falling asleep to maybe, as much of my catalogue is.

In conclusion, I learned a lot going into this EP and coming out of it. I did a lot of reading and listening, trying to understand what they were doing as far as Eastern instrumentation and notation were concerned. Reading and learning about scales like the Japanese In Sen scale, as well as putting them to use, was incredibly challenging and fun. I made more songs for this one EP, than I have any release before, and it's because of what I was working with. There's a real beauty and true uniqueness to the music and culture on that side of the world that we don't often see. They do things in music that the West never has and likely, never will. I think my research and desire to understand, is what made this EP so special to me, as well as what has made the EP sound so unique in comparison to the rest of my material. I might have done some familiar things but I don't think I've ever made anything similar to what I've made here. In many ways, I feel like I needed to do a project like this, just to stretch my legs a bit and get out of my comfort zone. This record is a sign of things to come, not in the sense that I'll necessarily be making another record like this, but in the sense that my next record will be just as different. So, stay on your toes and enjoy.

- Faint Waves.

#Article #Behind The Music #Discussion #Making Of #exotica #uncategorized #world #music #adult contemporary #instrumental #balearic #downtempo #easy listening #soul #sophistipop #inspirations #review #faint waves

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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What’s old is new again. For proof, look no further than Playtonic Games’ Yooka-Laylee, a throwback 3D platformer in the vein of titles like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Playtonic is well-suited to the project -- many members of the team are ex-Rare devs who worked on those 1990s classics.

With Yooka-Laylee, the Platonic team is attempting to show what a classically styled 3D platformer can look like in today’s game market. Following a successful Kickstarter, Yooka-Laylee will release in April, after a delay pushed it from its original planned release date last year. [Disclosure: I was a backer of the game.]

Needless to say, a lot has changed in video games since the days of the Nintendo 64. We asked some of the Playtonic staff to tell us about how technological improvements have impacted different areas of game development, and what that means for the designers, artists, composers, and directors involved throughout the process.

Developers used to have to craft their own tools for each title. Now, however, the advent of pre-built engines has changed that need.

“One big difference is that in [the] N64 era, most of our in-game tools were custom made per project, whereas now not only do engines like Unity exist, but also they themselves are a platform allowing a community of tools to be built on top of the engine,” says Chris Sutherland, project lead on Yooka-Laylee (previously lead programmer, Banjo-Kazooie).

This ends up being good news for both fixing bugs, and all-around team productivity.

“With such toolsets being more sophisticated, stable and easier to use, it means that whereas on N64 most bugfixes might be left to engineering to complete, nowadays we’re seeing a large volume of bugs actually fixed by non-engineers," Sutherland says. "This also applies to final stages of polish too, where it’s not just restricted to one discipline. This leads to a more effective use of persons on a development team overall.”

Sometimes the sky being the limit can be its own problem. Mark Stevenson, technical art director on Yooka-Laylee (previously art director on Donkey Kong 64), shared his thoughts on how advances in technology mean that artists now need to consciously reel themselves in, instead of relying on the technical limitations imposed by hardware.

“Most of the differences revolve around having vastly more powerful hardware to work with and massively improved tools and technology," Stevenson says. "Whilst these are good things in terms of opening up your options and improving productivity and work flows, the flip side to this is you also need to make sure you’re exercising restraint and making smart decisions so that you can achieve the results and quality you want, without things spiraling out of control.”

“Back in the N64 days you were always looking for the edge and ways to push the boundaries of what you could achieve with very limited tech,” Stevenson says. “Now it’s incredibly easy to be like a kid in a candy store and go nuts, so, certainly with a team the size we have at Playtonic, you need to be very mindful of the limits. But the difference is that you have to set those limits yourself rather than having those limits set for you by the tech.”

Think back to the character design in Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo in particular. Do you remember the big bear with the blue backpack having fingers?

If so, you're wrong. It wasn’t actually like that on Nintendo 64. Character detail and animation is another area that has come a long way since Banjo first set out to stop a witch.

“We can now do so much more in terms of animation,” says Steve Mayles, character art director on Yooka-Laylee (previously character artist, Banjo-Kazooie) . “On N64, we had to work with minimal joints --every extra joint to animate was a performance hit--so poor old Banjo didn’t even have eyes that could look around, no way of moving his mouth, not even fingers to pick up his Jiggies!”

“Now we add as many joints as we like – very occasionally time constraints might mean certain joints don’t even get animated, but they are there if needed,” Mayles says. “Also the way the geometry is bound to the skeleton now allows for much more realistic animation rather than the rigid-bound vertices we worked with on the N64.”

But, this also means that technology gives artists an opportunity to keep working on things that perhaps players might not even consider, and that may only end up being a drain on time.

“For characters, there is stuff we can now do around layering animations (a basic example would be to give characters a lean as they run) but with all things, you have to keep perspective whether what you are adding is worth it. Will people notice, or is it more for your personal satisfaction? Sometimes you just need to draw a line and move on to the next task.”

Not all technological progress simplifies things. The 3D landscapes and terrain that players roam have only gotten bigger, and that means more hands are needed to digitally sculpt and bring said worlds to life.

“Environment art creation has become much harder,” says Steven Hurst, environment art director on Yooka-Laylee (previously environment artist, Banjo-Kazooie). “Although the creation tools are much more sophisticated and models are easier to produce, the detail and size of the worlds has increased dramatically. As a result, the production time is now much greater than it used to be and requires more people.”

Multi-platform development also has its own share of challenges. Unlike the Banjo games, which was designed solely for the N64, Yooka-Laylee is being shipped across multiple consoles.

“Assets have to be more scalable when developing for multiple platforms with more emphasis on things such as Level of Detail to ensure that the game runs smoothly on different hardware – it was far easier developing for a single platform when you knew it`s limits and capabilities,” Hurst says.

No matter how much game technology continues to advance, it doesn’t change how many hours are in a day or how much can be gotten done in a week. And some processes – like character development – actually take longer now to complete than they did decades ago.

“N64 characters could be concepted, modeled and animated in a week (if you worked as hard as me, anyway,)” says Steve Mayles, character art director on Yooka-Laylee (previously character artist, Banjo-Kazooie) says. “We were working with around 500 polygons, as opposed to the 10,000 we use now. Sure, tools have improved, but even with 1997 tools you can see how 500 polygons is going to be much quicker to produce than 10,000. Think a month for the same process today and you won’t be far off.”

Give the much longer timeframe, there’s less time for error, or going back and changing direction. “It’s of greater importance now to make sure a character is going down the right path from inception,” Mayles says. “Being a relatively small team, the last thing we need is to have to re-do work. ‘Going down the right path’ might involve several people if necessary – questions need to be asked such as ‘Does it fit the style of the game? Does it fulfill all design requirements?’ etc. Sometimes the look of a character will spark new ideas around design, so it works both ways.”

Bigger 3D worlds means more places to go and more paths to take, but it also means there’s more area in which a player can find themselves lost.

“Planning and designing worlds can happen in 3D a lot sooner to get a better feel for space, way-pointing, creating key points of interest etc,” says Gavin Price, creative lead (previously designer, Grabbed by the Ghoulies). “However, creating a design language to subliminally guide the player around and focus their attention without hand-holding has become more difficult.”

And now, designers can’t simply rely on technical limits to help players figure out what parts of a level are important.

“As the power of modern systems can now be used to fill and decorate a world with more details, so all of a sudden everywhere can look interesting and important which can blindly lead the player around an environment for no achievement creating a feeling of being ‘un-rewarded,’ Price says. “In many ways the limitations of old systems made life easier for a level designer as only important bits could afford to have eye-catching detail!”

While the composition process for his music hasn’t changed much, Grant Kirkhope, composer on Yooka-Laylee (previously composer, Banjo-Kazooie) says the jumps in available memory have allowed him to include higher quality music in Yooka-Laylee.

"My process for actually writing music hasn’t really changed at all," Kirkhope says. "I still sit down at the keyboard and try to come up with something like I always used to do, but it’s the quality of what I can do now that has changed dramatically,”

The amount of memory used to be a huge issue, with composers having to strip music down to get it to fit inside a N64 cartridge.

"Back in the N64 days I had to sample instruments to use, resample them lower and lower in quality until they were just bearable, then compress them and only then add them into my little MIDI soundset that was in the cartridge on the N64,” Kirkhope says. “I had a finite amount of memory that I could use and that was for everything including sound effects. I think on Banjo-Kazooie, it was 2 mega bit!”

And while there are still restrictions, game music has come a long way in terms of what it can offer listeners.

"These days, I can use super high quality sample libraries that can sound so authentic it’s sometimes difficult to tell if it’s real,” Kirkhope says. “The memory restrictions are way less than they used to be, they’re still there but there’s no comparison. Obviously it all has to still fit on the disc and it’s compressed so you’re still not getting full CD quality but it really is night and day compared to what it sounds like on Banjo-Kazooie or GoldenEye!"

#IFTTT #Blogger

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wooolfies · 6 years

Text

Don’t want to hurt you - Whumptober Day 18

Verse: Jurnex Superhero AU

Pairing: Jurnex

Prompt: Hostage[s]

Warnings: blood, gunshot wound, angst, psychological

Characters/Parties: Natasha Jurow, John Kennex, Yekaterina Vashchenko

Word Count: 2346

It was early in the morning. The rising sun tried to make its way through the thick layer of smog that was covering Los Angeles.

The shops were opening and the fist rush hour of the day was just starting. A teal coloured van slowly headed towards one of the skyscrapers downtown.

A young blonde employee opened the big glass doors to the the handful of customers inside who were already waiting. Slowly, the bank filled with people. An ongoing coming and leaving.

Suddenly a man yelled something, drawing an automatic gun. Most of the customers went to the ground instinctively.

He started to head towards the location. The coffee in the cupholder was getting cold, he didn't care.

In front of the building a huge group of people had formed already, he supported his colleagues by holding the crowd back. The Swat team was still on its way, not to be expected in the next minutes.

They knew of four robbers who had taken at least two hostages. Suddenly a shot rang out inside the building along with the sound of shattering glass.

One of the robbers, a first timer had tripped and accidentally fired his weapon.

The police outside reacted and started swarming the building.

The robbers backed up, deeper inside the building, taking two of the hostages with them. Three of them and the two hostages ended up in bathroom.

The other robber had to hide in a closet in order to don't get arrested.

Kennex carefully walks down the hall, caching every room to his left and right, offices. No one is there.

Suddenly there were steps behind him, he spun around.

She is standing right in front of him, her gun pointed towards him, her face stayed neutral as she pulled the trigger.

There was pain in his chest, it seemed like the bullet has made its way through the vest into his chest. He falls to the ground, darkness is surrounding him.

When he gained consciousness he needed a quick moment to orientate.

“Hey. I'm glad you are awake.”

He looked where the voice came from.

It was Jurow. She was sitting next to him on a chair and held his hand.

He was feeling funny, like wrapped up into cotton wool.

“...Nata,” he murmured.

He was not dead. He was not dead!

“You took quite a blow. They fixed you up quite well. You coded. twice. Don't scare me like that again,” she said quietly.

“I hate this place,” Kennex looked around in the room. Since the ambush and the long time spent in the hospital afterwards he got anxiety from hospitals.

“I know honey. I talked to the doctors, as soon as you are fully stabilised were gonna take you home,” she paused. “I'm so sorry I wasn't there. And when I was, it was way too late.”

He squeezed her hand. She replied the gesture.

“How--.How did it end?” he asked.

She nervously escaped his eye contact, and looked to the ground.

“So bad?”

“It was a massacre. The hostages were killed and the police shot the robbers. The only of of them surviving is the lady that shot you.”

Kennex let out a noise of discomfort. “What a fail…”

“No. Except you all cops are okay. And we all know that freeing hostages doesn't work like on TV…”

He nodded in agreement, he was getting sleepy again.

Two days later. Kennex was at home with Jurow, still staying in bed but with way better food and more privacy. He felt much better psychologically being out of this place.

Jurow was happy about the pause in action Ava was doing at the moment, she could fully dedicate to caring for her love.

He could eat when he wanted and sleep when he was tired. Not like in the hospital where there was a strict schedule for everything.

On his first morning at home, Jurow had made Kennex a healthy breakfast.

Vashchenko was working in her room over the fifth cup of coffee, the keyboard sounded like a machine gun, she seemed motivated. Jurow decided to get her a new, quieter keyboard.

Jurow went back to the kitchen to make a toast with butter. She made herself tea instead of coffee. The kitchen still smelled phenomenal. She let herself sink into the chair while she waited for the water to boil. She stared at the toast, she had taken only one bite from it. She didn't feel like eating, the toast seemed like plastic. Like something no-one would try to eat.

She stood up to pour the tea. She took the tea and her phone. Suddenly she hoped that Ava was doing some shit again, just to stop her downwards spiral of thoughts.

Jurow went upstairs, to sit with Kennex. Playing some stupid mobile game where one had snip animals upwards, dodge traps and collect money. From time to time she sipped her tea.

She was focused on keeping her mind here and don't think about what had happened; the fact that she had let him down and now his killer was still running around out there, free like a bird. Sure, the authorities where looking for her but she sure knew how to get off the grid. Maybe she had made her way over the wall already.

Kennex began to stir, slowly waking up.

Jurow turned off her phone and watched him wake up.

When he opened his eyes, she was smiling.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. He hadn't got a pain-medicine shot in hours, the last time at 3am when he couldn't sleep because of the pain.

“Still like shit, but better than yesterday,” he reached for her hand and squeezed it. ”I'm glad, I'm with you now.”

“Noodles?”

“Sure. But I need to buy a few ingredients for this… “

His face lit up. “Would be great. But before you leave, can you check? My chest really hurts...”

Jurow put both her hands into her neck for some time, to make them less cold. Then she started to open a few buttons on Kennex’ shirt.

His chest looked like a chest looks that had been shot recently and then opened up to stop the bleeding. For good measure she went across the room to get her stethoscope.

Lung noises were normal: “You are OK. But I'm going to give some pain medicine.”

Kennex nodded. “Thank you.”

Jurow was debating whether it was smart to go to buy some things for lunch nor not. Too anxious that something could happen to Kennex while she was gone.

Vashchenko had made clear that she was in danger of punching someone in the face, but she was willing to make a plan how-to this as fast as possible.

Jurow told Kennex that she would be back soon, and that he should tell Vashchenko if he needed anything.

Fifteen minutes had passed, Vashchenko could hear Jurow turn the key in the lock. Jurow went straight into the kitchen, then up to John.

After she had talked to him and made sure he was OK up there, she started to prepare lunch. She still couldn't get this on thought out of her head. She should have been there. What kind of superhero was she?

The following night Jurow started having a nightmare, strange things evolving around the theme of losing Kennex. She woke up from it when the worst part was reached. Panting she sat up in her bed, looking the open door between her room and the room he was sleeping in. “Nata?” it was him, not able to get up, but he could tell that something was going on.

Jurow silently cursed and stood up. Showing herself in the door frame, “What's up?” she asked.

“Are you alright?” he looked worried. Sitting in his bed, his face strangely lit by the tablet on his belly. One of Natasha's black earphones was in his ear. He had watched something because he had trouble sleeping.

Natasha nodded silently. “Trouble sleeping?” she pulled her desk chair to his bed.

“Yeah. Why don't you come with me? Not like I'm sick and could infect you with something.“

“No… It's just… I don't want to hurt you,” she suddenly sounded very quiet, almost sad.

“Oh, honey, I'm sure you won't,” he smiled. He was missing her warmth, hugging on the couch and holding each other.

“I can't, I have something going on I need to attend to,” she said, making a reference to superhero stuff. When really she just wanted to curl up and cry without him knowing. She loved him with all her heart, and still she had put him at risk, too often.

“I'll be back. Need to go to the loo first.”

She stood up and left the room. She had done it again, lied to him.

Locked in the bathroom, not turning on the light, she let herself slide down against the door, hugging her knees. She couldn't do this anymore. What if he actually died next time? Not like he already was deeply traumatized. The police had only kept him in because he could not be corrupted by any mob.

She had a responsibility, there was always something going on in LA. The public was relying on her. Damn, why hadn't she gone to this bank and helped. She was lucky that he survived it and didn't go comatose again, like way back after The Attack when Kennex had lost his leg.

Jurow ended up curled up on the floor sobbing. She had fucked up. She was the worst hero ever, not being able to protect the ones she loved.

After a while being there like this she returned into the living room, where Kennex had fallen asleep.

She sat down on the uncomfortable chair again, holding his hand while he was sleeping.

When Kennex woke up, he saw her sitting next to him, fallen asleep sitting in the desk chair. Her hand was still clinging onto his. He smiled, looking at the clock on the wall. It was five in the morning.

Was she actually sleeping this chair?

He felt sore and his chest was hurting so much he felt like he had throw up.

Seeing her that way made him very concerned, what made him not feel better in anyway. When he tried to pull his hand back, she woke up as if her sleep was not really deep.

“Sorry…” he murmured.

Jurow was a bit disoriented at first.

“How long have you been sitting there?” he asked roughly and cleared his throat. He tried to sit up a bit, maybe that helped against the pain.

“Since, shortly after we talked tonight.”

He frowned, tried to move over a bit to her, letting out a groan.

“Are you in pain?” she asked.

He nodded.

Jurow got up, almost tripping over her own feet. She walked to the desk where all the items she needed for his care were placed and filled a syringe.

She stranded back up tall after having done the injection. He looked up to her, in the soft light that was filling the room.

“You don't look well, honey. What is going on?” he asked. Not knowing another way to express his concern.

She sat down onto the edge of his bed. “Is just… ,” she broke off. She couldn't tell him.

“Come on,” he said while padding the bed next to him. He moved over a bit, so she had space to lie down next to him.

She in fact now did it, very carefully barely touching him. He lifted his blanket up to cover her. He carefully pulled her a bit closer to him. Holding her.

Jurow was barely keeping it together. Her love to him was as strong as the fear to lose him.

But even for her, it seemed to be great to be with him, being held close. Silently she began to cry. It took quite a while until he noticed. “Would you like talk about it? You taught me that talking always helps.” He rubbed her back. “You can tell me everything, your secrets are safe with me.”

Jurow signed. “It's not about that…” she paused. “I just failed.”

“What?”

“I should have been there. I almost lost you.”

“Oh Nata,” his kissed the top of her head. “Just because you're a superhero doesn't mean you are responsible for everyone who lives or dies. It is not possible that you are everywhere at the same time and in the end you are only human, after all. And look, even if I died, I still would have loved you. I still love you. You are doing a magnificent job nursing me back to health. There is nothing to be sorry for. Okay?”

She nodded silently, still crying. Kennex did his best to comfort her.

Tagging: @grumpymedbae @homo-homini-lupus-est @donsdawn

Taglist

#whumptober #superhero AU #Jurnex #John Kennex #Natasha Jurow