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noperopesaredope · 2 years

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SvtFoE Rhombulus Rewrite (Pt. 4)

You know the drill. Go to here if you don’t. So, this post is gonna be a bit different. I was working really hard on the Season 4 rewrite, but it was ridiculously long. At one point, it was twice as long as my previous posts, if not longer, and I was only about halfway through! This was because Season 4 will have the most changes from canon, as well as some new scenes and maybe even new episodes. Some episodes will go through major changes too. In order to get this part out sooner and also not rush myself among other things, I decided to split this post in half. So this post, Part 4 of the rewrite, will be the first half of my rewrite for Season 4 (not including the final few episodes since I have a special plan for those). I will post Part 5 of the rewrite when it’s finished, which might take a few days (though I’ve made a lot of progress on it). So I hope you like this and sorry for the wait. Warning: Super extra long since I am going to add in some new episodes and rewrite other ones completely.

Season 4 (Part 1):

- We start off not during “Swim Suit”, but earlier in the season, because Rhombulus is getting his arc this season and I am promoting him to major character. He isn’t quite gonna be a part of Star’s main friendgroup, but he is going to play a more important role in the story and, as I said, he is having an arc (unlike most people here).

- I will ignore episode constraints and maybe even pretend to take out stuff involving shipping drama in order to throw in the actually important/interesting stuff. Rhombulus needs more screen time and this is his season to really grow, and I will make that happen, no matter how many shippers I have to kill to do it.

- Also, one final thing is that Hekapoo probably won’t be getting her whole poorly done “redemption” in this rewrite. One reason can be summed up in this video, while the other can be briefly explained as: the writers probably only redeemed her because she is a fan favorite and not because it is in character for her. Also, they definitely switched out Rhombulus and Hekapoo’s roles in the story. I am simply switching them back.

- It doesn’t mean that I don’t like Hekapoo or that I’m gonna be completely villainizing her and think that you should hate her. I just think that her role in the story is not the same as the role Rhombulus deserved. One of my endings does give the whole MHC a redemption arc though, so there’s that.

- Anyways, here we go.

- Rhombulus will make a short appearance in “Butterfly Follies” when he and Star accidently run into each other in the palace. Rhombulus is very awkward around Star, mainly due to the fact that they haven’t really had a proper talk since the trial, or even gotten to talk about the trial. Rhombulus is about to ask if he and Star can talk, but Star picks up on this pretty quickly and asks if they can talk sometime later.

- Rhombulus agrees, but first asks her if she can talk with Eclipsa about the whole “no imprisoning monsters” law. He’s not sure how to approach Eclipsa about it, but a lot of the people in his crystals are monsters, and he “can’t free all of them! There would be anarchy!” Star says she’ll try, and they part ways.

- The next episode he’s in is “Swim Suit”, which will be the same as before and yet very different, but mainly, very important. I might rename this one “Crystal Prism Prisoner” as well. The episode will not start out with Star prepping for beach day, as that can happen in another episode.

- Instead, it will start out with her getting ready to take a nap, when she is suddenly woken up by a panicked Eclipsa, who leads her to the room where Globgor is imprisoned. Inside is Rhombulus in hypnoslumber.

- Star also panics at this, and asks what happened. Eclipsa quickly explains that she tried asking him about maybe having him free Globgor, and he denied doing so, and they got into a small arguement. Then he started to leave out of frustration, and she panicked and cast hypnoslumber on him.

- Star, exasparated, tells Eclipsa to undo the spell so she can help them work things out. Eclipsa undoes the spell, and Rhombulus wakes up completely p*ssed off.

- He starts yelling at Eclipsa, saying that that was really messed up and that he thought things were okay between them, but Star cuts him off and says that he’s allowed to be mad, but they would be all better off if they worked things out.

- Rhombulus reluctantly agrees, and Star sits the two supposed adults down to work things out. It’s kinda like preschool. She makes sure Eclipsa says her side, then Rhombulus says his side. Star then asks what they might be able to do to fix this problem. Rhombulus childishly says that Eclipsa can find something better to do then harrass him about freeing Globgor, and they start arguing again.

- Rhombulus ends up saying a few legitimately hurtful things in a moment of frustration, and Eclipsa responds in turn with another spell. This starts a physical fight.

- Star has had a long week, and this isn’t helping. Completely fed up, she drags the two of them into a room in the castle, takes away the wand, locks both Eclipsa and Rhombulus in the room together, and tells them that they can work it out themselves and that they’re not gonna come out of that room until they sort things out. To reenforce this, she puts a spell on the whole room that makes sure they won’t get out any time soon.

- After a few minutes of silence, Eclipsa gets back into the Globgor thing, and this immediately frusturates Rhombulus. They start arguing again, and it eventually turns to whether or not Globgor is actually evil.

- Eclipsa finally shouts “YOU BARELY KNOW HIM! WHY DO YOU THINK HE’S SO EVIL?!”

- Rhombulus snaps back “Because I’ve seen what kind of person he is! The damage he’s done! I was there during his rampage right before I crystalized him! I’ve the ruins of the villages he’s destroyed!” He gets less angry and more sad and upset (and a little bit scared?). His voice gets softer and quieter as his eye starts to stare off, remembering things from hundreds of years ago.

- “I’ve met the soldiers who went to battles against him and didn’t come back. I’ve heard all the horror stories and eye witness accounts. I know that he took no prisoners. I’ve had to defend villages against his wrath. I’ve seen him fight. I’ve fought against him.” He wraps his arms and tails around himself. “It’s terrifying.”

- Eclipsa is slightly shocked that he would open up to her like this, and she isn’t sure how to react. She says that she’s sorry that he had to go through all that when he was still pretty young, and that she understands why Rhombulus wouldn’t want to free Globgor.

- But Eclipsa also finally decides to open up to Rhombulus about why she’s so desparate to free Globgor. She explains that she never felt like anyone ever really understood her as a person, but Globgor was someone who was always willing to listen. He changed and evolved as a person, going from violent and cruel to kind, loving, and well meaning.

- They grew together as people, and he was very important to her. So when she lost him, she didn’t know what to do with herself or how to move on. And now she’s in a whole new time period trying to be a good queen and raise a baby all at once. She begins to tear up, ending with “I don’t think I can do all this without him. I need him.”

- This strikes a cord in Rhombulus, as he remembers losing Lekmet, the grief he felt, and the grief he still feels.

- Eclipsa says that this is the last time she’ll ask, and if he says no, she won’t bring it up again, but she just wants to ask one last time if he will free Globgor.

- Rhombulus becomes very indecisive. After a few moments of thinking very hard, he finally says “I’ll...think about it.” Eclipsa says that that’s all she needs, and Rhombulus, head full of thoughts, leaves.

- He runs into Star, who was waiting outside, and she smiles at him knowingly. She says “sooooo, I’m assuming you guys worked things out?” Rhombulus says yes, and thanks her for her help. He then takes this chance to properly talk with her about the trial.

- He apologizes for lying and says he wants to make up for his past mistakes. Star says that while he and the MHC really messed up in the past, she’s glad that he revealed the truth and he’s clearly trying to make up for it. They agree to become friends again. End of the episode.

- I’ve decided to replace “Yada Yada Berries” with my own episode because it was very easy to add in the important bits and it was also very expendable. Sorry if you liked that episode. I don’t really care about it though. This new episode is called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” because it fits and I’m basic.

- The first minute will be dedicated to introducing the idea of that episode, complete with the Eclipsa assasination attempt, but we won’t get to see the big mystery solving stuff. This episode is actually about Rhombulus and the MHC.

- Basically, the premise is that Rhombulus is still thinking about the thing with Globgor, and he decides to reach out to the rest of the MHC for advice. This will be used to help explore the different dynamics/relationships Rhombulus has with each member of his whole family.

- First is Hekapoo, who is the one he feels closest to (besides Lekmet but you know...), and she feels pretty close to him, despite their disagreements. Unfortunately, closeness does not prevent a lack of communication.

- In this scene, Rhombulus is clearly trying to talk with his older sister about the Globgor thing, but she keeps on accidentally brushing him off and ignoring what he’s trying to say. Hekapoo clearly cares a lot about him, but has a tendency to be dismissive of his feelings. She also sees him as a little kid (he kinda is, but his concerns should still be taken seriously), and ends up patronizing him.

- Eventually he slightly lashes out at her, saying that she always treats him like a little kid, and Hekapoo immediately gets annoyed, snapping back that outbursts like that are the exact reason she treats him the way she does. They start arguing, and eventually, Rhombulus shouts that he was going to ask her for some advice, but she’s clearly not going to be helpful to him, before he storms off.

- This conversation shows the tensions in their relationship, and a bit of how Rhombulus is ignored even by those closest to him.

- The next person Rhombulus goes to see is Omnitraxus. Rhombulus and Omni aren’t particularly close, but Rhombulus still kinda looks up to him, seeing his older brother as really cool and powerful, but also intimidating.

- There conversation is the shortest, as Omni is pretty dismissive of Rhombulus as well, but less in the way some might dismiss a little kid, and more him trying to redirect the conversation to more bureaucratic stuff.

- They basically have a very distant relationship. But this conversation does tell us a few small things about Omni. First off, he is the most formal, and prefers to focus in on things related to their jobs. He follows protocol and orders to a T, having full confidence that what he and the rest of the MHC are doing is right. This can clash with the others, as some are more focused on emotions and the like.

- Omni also isn’t really a huge bigot, as he doesn’t despise monsters the way some Mewmans do. After all, in the Magic Book Of Spells, he does sometimes advocate for peace. He’s simply more…apathetic and neautral. Still racist, but not super extremist. Honestly, he does express that his main problem with Eclipsa is her use of Dark Magic and how she abandoned he duties.

- He will even say this to Rhombulus, stating that he doesn’t have a problem with monsters, he just wants to follow the system and keep the balance.

- Omni isn’t very helpful to Rhombulus, but the crystalhead doesn’t really say this, he just reluctantly leaves.

- Getting slightly frustrated, Rhombulus decides to visit someone he hasn’t seen in a long time: Reynaldo. This scene is...sad.

- There’s also a lot of pauses and silence in it. I might not even add much background noise. While the other scenes have more movement and white noise in them, this one won’t have much of that.

- Reynaldo and Rhombulus’ greetings to each other are slightly awkward, and as I said, there will be quite a few awkward pauses in the conversation. I’m not going to do rhymes for Reynaldo’s dialouge right now because I don’t feel like writing out that stuff right now.

- Reynaldo asks Rhombulus why he’s here, and Rhombulus says he needs some advice. Reynaldo asks him why he doesn’t just go to Lekmet about it. Rhombulus is quietly forced to admit that Lekmet passed away a few months ago.

- Reynaldo’s reaction is not said, and changes very quickly over the course of a couple of seconds, all done in one still shot, but it tells a bit of a story. He first looks shocked, freezing up with an almost blank expression on his face. Next comes an extreme wave of grief and sadness. He then looks almost angry. Nobody told him. He wasn’t even invited to the funeral.

- He looks almost as though he is ready to lash out, before he glances at Rhombulus for a second and looks sad again. Despite being the youngest, Rhombulus was arguably the closest to Lekmet, and it’s likely he was absolutely heartbroken about his death.

- Lekmet changes the subject by asking what Rhombulus wanted to talk to him about. Rhombulus chooses to be slightly vague, saying that he feels like he might have misjudged someone and really messed up someone else’s life and family by crystalizing certain people.

- He’s considering setting a person free, but he also is wondering if that will make things even worse, whether they deserve it or not. It’s almost like no matter what choice he makes, it will always be the wrong one, and he’ll always end up disappointing someone. Just like all the time. Maybe this is why he’s Glossaryck’s least favorite child.

- He starts getting a little self depricating, when he is suddenly wacked on the head by a paddle. Reynaldo tells him that that’s not true. Rhombulus argues “but Glossaryck-” but Reynaldo tells him that he shouldn’t let Glossaryck’s opinion shouldn’t determine his self worth. Rhombulus grumbles that Reynaldo cares about Glossaryck’s opinion of him, and before immediately regretting this and apologising.

- Reynaldo doesn’t have a response to this, and it’s quiet again for a few seconds as Reynaldo continues rowing down the river. Then he speaks up again and says that giving someone a chance couldn’t hurt, and if it turns out to be a mistake, he can always recrystalize the person later.

- Rhombulus thanks him, and Reynaldo drops him back off. Before Rhombulus leaves, Reynaldo asks him if he could visit again sometime, to at least tell him how it went. Rhombulus says yes to this.

- At the end of the day, Rhombulus really wants the rest of his family to take him seriously, and there’s a sense of loneliness to his character. I was going to add some other scenes to this episode besides the next one coming up, but the scene with Reynaldo honestly spoke more than the others could, and It’s my favorite in this episode.

- Rhombulus then decides to talk to Hekapoo and Omni again, and chooses to call a small meeting between the three of them. He’s about to pitch his idea, when one of the other two interrupts him and tells him they have something they need him to do.

- Hekapoo and Omni have a lot of duties they need to fulfill outside Mewni, and they might not be able to check in quite as often. This will leave Rhombulus as the only member of the MHC still in Mewni. That’s why they would like him to low key spy on Eclipsa for them. End of episode, probably. Unless I feel like extending this final scene. But I don’t right now. So yeah, end of episode.

- In this video by Sarcastic Chorus (at timestamp 8:12), he points out that part of the problem in the later season of Star Vs. is that basically almost all the Mewmans are unlikeable, one particular example being the family in “Down by the River”.

- I decided to remedy this by having the family in that episode not be annoying jerks and instead focus the episode less on some people annoying Moon and River, and more on the flaws in Eclipsa’s new policies. The Mewman family is actually pretty nice, and they start the village with Moon later on.

- But, though they weren’t originally particularly racist (at most, they were ignorant), the family’s experience being kicked out of their home did have an affect on them, and it’s implied that it’s caused them to slightly resent monsters. This makes them easy to radicalize.

- But enough about that.

- I’ve decided to add an episode between “Surviving the Spiderbites” and “Out of Business”. This full length episode will be important not only to the Rhombulus rewrite, but it will add more to Eclipsa and Globgor as well. This is because it is a bit of a flashback episode for both of them.

- The episode is called “What Remains of My Family” and is a flashback to a series of events; Meteora being switched out, Shastican being eaten, and Globgor/Eclipsa being crystalized. These events will be told from 3 POVs: Rhombulus, Eclipsa, and Globgor.

- But they will all be in the form of dream sequences. Or maybe not. I’d need to decide. But I think the dream sequence idea could capture some of the feelings of each event and the hazy POVs. It might be slightly like Beatrice’s dementia sequences from Bojack, in the fact that most of them are technically correct retellings, but also a bit twisted and exaggerated. It will also help us see how each of the characters view things the way they do.

- First, we start out with Rhombulus’ POV, and get to see LITTLE RHOMBULUS. He’s not super little, but clearly a bit more of a child, as he is only about 100 years old in this flashback. He physically and mentally about 7 years old in this. In Rhombulus’ version, he’ll seem a bit more mature, but still pretty young, and act a lot younger than usual. Because it was his POV, he views himself as more mature, but his actual actions say otherwise.

- Rhombulus is outside playing a game with a couple of figurines he made out of crystals. In his power set, he will have some mild control over the shape of the crystals, but he practices size rather than shape, so he doesn’t often make things out of his crystals anymore. Besides, he’s out of practice in the timeline of the show.

- In this episode though, he’s using his figurines to reenact his most recent battle, and it is very cute. At this point in time, Rhombulus has been fighting on the battlefield more than anyone else in the MHC, and never really had a proper childhood. He’s been exposed to the horrors of war, and isn’t completely innocent. But he still has some of that child-like wonder and playfulness.

- Despite the war, Little Rhombulus doesn’t completely understand the nuances of the Monster-Mewman conflict, and will have a very black-and-white view of the world. He also full trusts the adults around him, and only doubts them when it’s extremely obvious that something is wrong. But that doesn’t happen often, and his lack of understanding causes him to half the more impulsive opinions, such as “lets go to war.”

- Lekmet comes over to him and tells him that the MHC is having an important meeting about something. For the first time, we actually get a chance to understand what he is saying, which is through subtitles. Rhombulus quickly melts his crystal toys away and holds Lekmet’s hand. As the two walk towards the meeting room, Rhombulus tells Lekmet all about his day, and how he’s been practicing his crystallizing a lot lately. Lekmet congrats him on this and pats him on the head.

- They arrive at the meeting room, and sit with the others. Rhombulus is seated next to Hekapoo, who he whispers hi to, before asking if she knows what their meeting is about. She whispers back that she has no idea, but that she’s already bored, causing Rhombulus to giggle.

- Yet another sidenote: Because this is a dream and from Little Rhombulus’ perspective, everyone’s features are slightly exaggerated. Hekapoo’s hair is really long and fluffy, Lekmet’s wings are really big, Omni is even bigger than usual to the point that you can’t see his face, and Reynaldo’s neck is just, like, super long.

- Moving on, Shastican comes into the room and says that he has some news. Spies have managed to capture Eclipsa and Globgor’s newborn baby. The MHC are to do three things: 1) get rid of the baby (he doesn’t care how, just get it done), 2) find a replacement heir, and 3) erase any and all traces of the Monster-Mewman baby’s existence from the records.

- The MHC have a variety of reactions to this, but they all say “yes, your highness,” anyways. Immediately after Shastican leaves, Lekmet protests against doing something like this, but only Rhombulus understands him, and in those days, he sometimes forgot to translate. Rhombulus, who is completely confident in the king, tries his best to reassure the goat man that this is the right thing to do, but it doesn’t fully work.

- We cut to an extremely low angle shot (basically looking straight upwards) of the MHC looking down at something. Omni looks neutral, Reynaldo looks unsure, Hekapoo looks very conflicted, Lekmet looks sad, and Rhombulus just looks confused. We cut back up to see that they are standing over Meteora’s crib.

- Reynaldo asks everyone “are you sure we should do this?” and Omni answers with “well, the king ordered us to, so it seems we must.” They all then start discussing who should do what task, except for Rhombulus, who starts entertaining the baby. The adult discussion is slightly muffled in the background as Rhombulus is completely focused on the cute baby.

- Lekmet tells Rhombulus that they are about to leave, and Rhombulus follows him out the door, but not before looking back one last time.

- He slightly wonders what Meteora’s mama must be doing now that her baby’s missing, but pushes it out of his mind and goes into a training room to practice his magic.

- We then cut to Eclipsa’s POV (the changes in POV are indicated via zooming out of the eye of the new POV character). She are walking through the forest, and then we, the audience, get to meet Globgor here rather than in “The Monster and the Queen”, though this is admittedly a slightly romantisiced version of him since it’s from Eclipsa’s POV.

- Eclipsa expresses her concern for Meteora, but Globgor tries his best to reassure her, and it makes her feel slightly better. This smallish conversation is meant to show the audience Globgor’s more soft, caring side, and his more positive traits.

- It also shows a bit of why Eclipsa and Globgor work together so well as a couple. She encourages him to improve as a person and stands by him when he needs it, and clearly cares about him, and he in turn protects her and supports/encourages her, boosting her confidence when she starts to doubt her capabilities.

- The next scene is the two of them spying on the palace and forming a plan to rescue Meteora. This scene also shows them working together, as well as their respective skillsets in terms of planning and strategy.

- In both these scenes, they are clearly very much in love and a power couple and I love them so much together.

- They decide that basically, Globgor will be a distraction while Eclipsa will look around the castle for Meteora. They separate and put the plan into action.

- We then cut to Globgor’s POV, who sneaks into the palace to inact the plan. Globgor’s POV is the most accurate and least dreamlike, and he essentially reliving a memory. Of course, there will be a couple dreamlike, metophorical moments that show how he remembers it and the emotions he was feeling at the time. This is also the part where we see a bit how he sees himself and his internal thought process rather than what others see.

- He starts causing havoc and running around through the halls, and eventually arrives at the throne room, which he barges into. On the throne is Shastican.

- Globgor leaps over the guards and lands in front of Shastican, and with a fierce look on his face, demands to know where his daughter is. Shastican, quite cruelly and with venom in his voice, tells Globgor “I got rid of your little half-breed brat. She’s gone, and you’ll never see her again.”

- Globgor freezes in horror at this, and we see his world shatter around him as Shastican’s words echo around him. The artstyle slowly shifts into one made up of more abstract sketches, very mess and almost frantic. We can vaguely hear Shastican still talking in the background, but his voice is muffled and begins to get completely drowned out by a high pitched noise like a flatlined pulse.

- All color slowly becomes one violent shade of red, and Globgor’s twists into an angry snarl. We see him roar with fury as he pounces at Shastican and menacingly shouts “YOU’LL REGRET THAT!”

- Everything cuts to black, with only the sounds of Globgor’s carnage to be heard in the background.

- We cut back to Rhombulus’ POV, where he is running around the palace, earthquakes caused by Globgor’s stomps shaking everything every few seconds. The halls are dark and everything looks both too big and too small at the same time. As he runs, we flicker back and forth between the hallway and a battle before resettling on the hallway.

- Rhombulus runs into Hekapoo, and he asks her what’s going on. She tells him that Globgor is attacking the palace, before pausing in the middle of her explanation and staring at him with a contemplative look on her face. She tells him to come with her and that they have no time to waste.

- She leads the very confused Rhombulus to the Monster Temple, and they arrive to what is basically a hellscape. Rhombulus looks around in confusion and fear, before he sees it: a giant beast straight from a nightmare. This is how Rhombulus remembers seeing Globgor during his rampage.

- Other members of the MHC are fighting him, but he is getting close to winning. Lekmet flies over to where Rhombulus and Hekapoo are, and Hekapoo goes back out to fight Globgor. Lekmet turns to Rhombulus and tells him that he needs to crystallize Globgor. Rhombulus is unsure, but Lekmet encourages him, saying that they all believe in him, and he is the only one who can do it.

- This empowers Rhombulus, who walks in front of the still rampaging Globgor.

- We cut to Globgor’s POV, which is very hazy and confusing looking, but one figure becomes clear: a little crystalheaded monster type thing. Rhombulus looks much younger in Globgor’s POV, a lot like an innocent little kid with a determined look on his face. He starts flickering back and forth between himself and Meteora, but when he raises both arms and gets ready to fire, he suddenly looks like a shadowy, slightly evil looking figure. Rhombulus fires, crystals appear at the edge of Globgor’s vision, and we cut to black.

- We switch to Eclipsa’s POV, where she is searching through the deepest pits of the castle. A lot like in Rhombulus’ POV, the castle walls are eerie and nervewracking. She opens a door and steps inside another room, which has her wand inside. She grabs it and sighs with relief, when she suddenly feels a presense behind her. She turns around to see Hekapoo standing behind her, dual wielding scissors.

- Eclipsa points her wand at Hekapoo threateningly, and Hekapoo gets into a defensive stance in response. Hekapoo tells Eclipsa she should probably just give up, and reveals that Globgor ate Shastican and has been crystalized by Rhombulus. Eclipsa isn’t quite sure how to process this information, but she decides to suddenly blast one of the scissors out of Hekapoo’s hand and summons it towards herself. Eclipsa takes the scissors and quickly opens up a portal before Hekapoo can even react, and it closes behind her.

- Eclipsa arrives in Rhombulus’ dimension, and starts looking around for Globgor. She stumbles upon two paths, one which leads to crystalized POWs (it’s pretty practical: you don’t need to feed them, they can’t escape easily, they don’t age or really experience their imprisonment, so there’s no trauma or anything, etc.) and one which leads to “Really Bad Guys”. She sighs and goes down the bad guy route, and continues looking around.

- Then, she turns around to see Rhombulus standing behind her. He looks at lot younger in her POV in comparison to his own. “Rhombulus,” Eclipsa says as a greeting, though it isn’t friendly. She then says that he better tell her where Globgor is, or he will regret it.

- He says that Globgor was crystalized at the Monster Temple, but Eclipsa won’t be going back to him, because she has been declared guilty of crimes against Mewni and is sentenced to crystalization.

- Eclipsa says that she’d like to challenge that, and attacks. What ensues is an epic fight scene that shows off more of Eclipsa’s really cool fighting style and the variety of techniques Rhombulus uses to fight.

- Eclipsa’s moves are refined, elegant, almost as though she is gliding or even dancing. Her spells, on the other hand are much more dangerous and sharp. Everything is very strategic and focused more on precise but powerful blows.

- Rhombulus’ fighting style is surprisingly well tuned. Then again, he does have the most fighting experience out of the rest of the MHC, and part of his purpose is being strong and a fighter. His attacks are more blunt and broad, designed to land across a wide area. He also relies on the terrain, which makes sense since he can change the terrain. And in this AU, since he has two pretty long snake tails, he also partially crystalizes the ends of those, then using each a bit like a scorpion tail. The final major aspect of his fighting style is a mixture of defense and capture, using his bigger crystals to both defend himself and trap his enemy.

- The fight ends when Rhombulus manages to get a lucky hit on Eclipsa’s hand and knock it away from her before he quickly crystalizes it in mid air.

- Eclipsa stares defiantly at Rhombulus, and tells him that he and the rest of the MHC won’t get away with all this. Rhombulus doesn’t respond, and in one big, beautifully animated moment (that Tom Barkel will animate hopefully), he crystalizes her.

- There is a short, somewhat concluding scene for the flashbacks. It’s from Rhombulus’ POV in which he is looking at the ruins of Spiderbite Village and watching as some other members of the MHC help out the villagers. Lekmet walks up to Rhombulus and congratulates him on saving everyone. Rhombulus says he feels like he didn’t save anyone. Lekmet is quiet at this, before remembering something.

- Lekmet reminds Rhombulus that, as much as he hates it, they will have to keep the Meteora conspiracy a secret. Rhombulus looks reluctant to do this, but he says okay.

- The episode end with Rhombulus and Eclipsa waking up in the present time, revealing that the whole episode was a dream, though their reactions to said dream, reveal that it was also a memory, just a weird interpretation of the past. They both also tell themselves that all that is over, and they want to forget about it as soon as possible. But then we cut to the still imprisoned Globgor, whose eyes flash omniously. He will not forget, and he is still remembering. Cut to black.

~~~~

Aaaaaannnnd, that’s the end of Part 1 for Season 4! As said above, I had to cut these into parts, since the OG post was getting so long and I wanted to pace myself. Stay tuned for Part 2! Hoped you liked this one!

28 notes · View notes

elfwreck · 2 years

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Any advice on starting to write? I just want to do some hobby writing mostly fanfic. I have ideas pouring out of my head and I’m constantly thinking up of whole ass scenes in my head with dialogue and everything. But when I go to write I can only do it for what feels like 10 minutes and i crap out and I find it hard to get back into the story I was thinking up and not doing a different one

There are a million "How To Write" books and websites and YouTube tutorials and every author and wannabe author has their own set of suggestions.

The key part (here I am, another aspiring writer full of advice) is:

Figure out what your stall points are, and work on them.

Find out what circumstances work for you, and re-create those. Expand where possible.

Can you write dialogue for hours but as soon as you have to write a scene change, you get stuck and give up? Fine. Just write banter. Throw in notes like "SCENE CHANGE HERE - LATER, IN THE KITCHEN..."

Or can you write internal character-focus thoughts but not dialogue? Again... write what works. Add the other parts later.

Can you get stuff written if you have three tabs open with different stories and you switch between working on them? Fine; do that.

Do you write better with a playlist in the background - or do you keep stopping it to switch songs or add new ones? Does the Pomodoro method (just google it) work for you, or do you need long uninterrupted time blocks? Do you get more writing done on a paper notebook (which you'll then have to scan or type), in a Google Doc, in a program like Word, in a raw text editor, with something like Written?Kitten!, or a story-organizer like Scrivener?

Do you work better with a deadline? (I work much better with a deadline. I get a lot of stories done by deciding long in advance what I'm going to write, doing a mad rush of research and note-writing, and then... ignoring the whole thing until the deadline's getting close, and then slamming out the story in a couple of days, because apparently it had formed the rest of itself in the back of my mind.)

Try a few different methods, including a couple that seem counter-intuitive. Note which one lets you get more writing done. Start with that.

Not because "you should start with what's easy," but you should start with whatever makes you able to write, and work on expanding that to other areas.

This year's NaNoWriMo is going well for me, because I grabbed one of those fanfics that have been noodling around in my head for years - heavy on dialogue and epic emotional impact scenes - and realized "oh hey I have a LOT of scenes planned for this, in something like an order... I will try writing them up and calling that a novel."

(9 scenes done, 21 to go, with 10-ish more that have to happen but don't have to be onscreen" - 42k words. No way I'm getting done with this story by the end of NaNo.)

What works for me: Detailed plotlines in an outline. I have to know where the story is going or I stall out quickly. I sometimes wind up throwing away or changing those details, but I need a direction to get started.

I also need all the worldbuilding details in advance or while I'm writing. I write with the fandom wiki open in a dozen tabs so I can check character birthdays, heights, who showed up in what canon episode, and so on. If I can't look them up, I get stalled out trying to decide how to phrase things in case the details have to change later.

For some writers, that'd be a horrible distraction - if they stop to look up a detail, they won't get back to the writing. For them, it's better if they just highlight or otherwise mark the details they're not sure of, and fix them later in editing.

Recently, I've gotten a lot of value out of this:

youtube

Turns out, I'm a "methodological plotter." I need as much structure as possible figured out in advance so I can fill in the scenes.

The descriptions of the types were a little hard for me to follow. The advice of "you may find yourself with this problem... so try doing this..." is what clinched it for me. Methodological Plotter is the one where all the advice made sense, the one where I said "oh, THAT's how you fix that thing? Oh good. I'll try that."

Try anything that sounds like it might work for you. The initial goal is GET WORDS ON PAGE. Not write an excellent story. Not write a complete beginning-middle-end story. Not convey the emotions that are running through your head. Words on page. That's where you start.

Some people manage this by titling the top of the page "Crappy First Draft." Give yourself permission to write badly. To break the rules of language, to write boring dry descriptions, to write repetitive dialogue that goes "he said, she said" after every phrase, to use clichés, to bring modern idioms into a historical setting, to change verb tenses and POVs every few paragraphs, to include stupid author's notes...

Whatever it takes to get words on the page.

Later, once you've found what works for you, what makes it possible for you to finish a story - you can work on whatever bad habits you think you have.

Give yourself permission to fail to do justice to the amazing story in your head. Because that's the only way it's going to get on the page so that you can polish it into the gem it's supposed to be.

#writing #long post

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cq-studios · 11 months

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All of your WIP titles are very interesting, haha, but if I can only pick a few, what are Ghosts of the Past AU and Brain's Dead Daughter monologue about?

(You can choose however many you’d like. I love to ramble about my things, and sharing stuff actually motivates me to work on them. So if there’s others you’re interested in shoot me another ask ^^)

(For This)

I’ll start with Brain’s Dead Daughter Monologue ‘cause I think it’ll be shorter to explain.

So this one is a part of Nameless AU, which is an AU where Eraqus’ parents die and Brain has to take care of him (which is most definitely an oversimplification of it but that’s the gist). This was originally a part of The End of Normal but I decided to make that all from Eraqus’ perspective instead of having it switch between the two of them. I think this might end up as an interlude chapter, but I’m not sure.

Here’s what I have so far. I want to add more but I might just leave it as is. Who knows?

How could he be grieving for someone he barely knew? He had sent her away. They’d rarely spoken. And yet Brain felt that familiar emptiness of loss anyways. Maybe what he was feeling was failure? A failure to do his job as a parent. A failure to form a bond with his child even after promising he’d try. What had he really lost from this, other than a relationship he never had? Maybe that’s what he was truly grieving. Not his daughter but what he hadn’t been able to do with her.

This was the feeling he was trying to avoid. That pain. He never wanted to feel it again and yet there it was inside him, ringing like a bell. Once again someone he should’ve been responsible for was gone. It was an almost unbearable sting that reminded him vaguely of how he felt when he first realized the Dandelions had been lost.

Annoyance rose up inside him. That thought bothered him most of all. This was a completely different situation and yet his mind still found a way to connect the hurt he felt to the Dandelions. It was so long ago he should be over it. But still that failure haunted him. And even now, when he should be grieving something completely different, he found himself stuck on them instead. Why couldn’t he move past it?

His daughter just died and here he was sitting in a room alone thinking about people he knew even less from hundreds of years ago. How pathetic was that?

As for the Ghost’s of the Past AU

This is still in the planning phase, so things here might get completely changed in future, but it’s currently two Subject X is Skuld themed fics (and a Sea Salt Trio + Isa one later on) where she starts seeing Ephemer’s ghost (but is it really him or her subconscious???). He can’t tell her any information she doesn’t already know but he can guide her towards the answers she’s looking for.

The first fic follows her just before and then after she escapes. She ends up in Zootopia and has to try and learn how to navigate that environment while still trying to find leads on her past (with the help of her ghost companion). Which is certainly helped by the fact that, as soon as she shows up, so do the heartless. She is blamed for them originally but then they find out she can defeat them (she uses magic, not her keyblade as she doesn’t remember she has it) and they make it her job to get rid of them. And the plot of Zootopia happens but with darkness instead of nighthowlers, you know KH Disney world stuff, and she finds some memories along the way.

The second one is from the Sea Salt Gang’s perspective (Skuld's too sometimes but not often), where they go through worlds looking for X and find her in Zootopia (since she’s literally the only human there she’s not hard to find). It would focus more so around Xion and Roxas forgiving Isa and Isa reconciling for his past actions and abuse towards them. And have a reunion at the end.

Like I said earlier I don’t have much solid writing for these fics yet but I did write this one small scene that takes place between X disappearing and Lea and Isa becoming nobodies. It is technically canon complaint but I wrote it for this AU so I’ll put it here.

“Hey!” Lea called. The boy, Ienzo, stopped and turned his head to face him almost robotically. Yeesh, what do they do to the kids here? No, not important, stay on task. Lea shook his head to clear it, “Do you know where the notes, or files, or whatever, on…” Oh, what was it they were using his friend to research again? Damn. He really should’ve planned this better. He could practically hear Isa making fun of him in his head. Lea, only a moron like you could forget something like that. It’s ironic really. Ironic? Right! “on memories. Do you know where I can find the papers about that?”

Ienzo blinked at him twice, otherwise unmoving. Lea did the opposite, definitely moving as he shifted uncomfortably. Seriously, what is up with this kid?

Without a word, the tiny scientist began walking away.

Should’ve known better than to ask the mute kid for directions. Lea realized, way too late.

“Is that a yes? ‘Cause even if it wasn’t I’m following you anyways”.

#Ghosts of the Past is actually super underdeveloped considering how old it is but I keep changing it around and putting other random ideas #*I have into it #oh and it takes place in the year between 3 and Re:mind #Brain’s Dead Daughter Monologue was a fun exercise to get into Namless AU Brain’s head #poor guy kinda messed up his life in that one lol #Namless AU #khux #sometimes i think about my khux fics

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pinkfadespirit · 1 year

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End of year fic writer round-up

Thank you for the tag @barbex! And Happy New Year everyone!

I’ll tag: @fandomn00blr, @goth-surana, @aria-i-adagio, @johaerys-writes, @sulky-valkyrie, @glowing-blue-feathermage, @potatowitch, @noire-pandora, @factorykat and the others I’ve tagged below and anyone else who might want to do this.

This year I published 4 new stories on AO3, completed one old one and completed the first draft of a new fic that I’m hoping to start posting in January.

Words written (published or not, WIPs included!): roughly around 150k if I include DADWC stuff. This year started out a bit slow writing wise but it really picked up for me towards the end of the year when I did the DA Create-a-thon and Nanowrimo back to back. I somehow managed to write over 80k in those two months. I’ve slowed down a lot since but I’m still feeling quite positive about my writing after it, which is great!

Smut scenes: I think 3 published ones. One or two unpublished. And there are a few in the fic I’m still editing but they’re mostly glossed over. I may go back and add more to them but I’m undecided on that for now.

New things I tried: I wrote Nanders for the first time – which was also my first time writing Nathaniel’s POV and my first Awakening fic in general.

Fic I spent the most time on: the fic that took me the longest to finish was the life that, here, awaits, which I worked on on and off throughout the year. But that was several short chapters with long breaks in between them. So the fic I spent the most time actively working on must have been the Justnanders fic I wrote in part for Nanowrimo. It’s the longest fic I wrote this year at 40k and I’m still working on editing it.

Fic I spent the least time on: My Secret Sanders gift is the shortest one I have on AO3, if that counts (I know author reveals haven’t happened yet but I’m pretty sure it’s no mystery which one is mine for anyone who is at all familiar with my work - and my giftee has definitely figured it out lol). If that doesn’t count then Trouble Sleeping would probably be it. I can’t actually remember how long I spent on it, just that it’s my shortest work from this year outside of DADWC stuff.

Favourite thing I wrote: Probably the Justnanders fic. Not officially titled yet but I’m thinking of calling it Not To Disappear (shamelessly stolen from the Daughter song/album). I don’t know if it’s the best thing I’ve written, but I enjoyed writing it and I’m even enjoying editing it so far, which is surprising for me. I think the fact that I’m not rushing myself to publish it is helping a lot with that.

Favourite thing I read: I read Holy, Holy, Holy by @little--abyss not that long ago and I loved it. Really loved it - like in a ‘it’s been weeks and I’m still thinking about it’ way. Also, The Place Where I Belong by @dismalzelenka is amazing and I think everyone should read it.

Writing goals for next year: First, I’d like to finish editing and post the Justnanders fic. I’ve filled in most of the placeholders up to chapter six out of eight for that so hopefully that won’t take too much longer. After that, I’d love to get back to All Falls Away. I never meant to take as long a break from that as I did, but I think it was a good thing in the end. I feel excited by the idea of picking it up again so that’s a definite improvement on how I felt about it when I put it on hold back in February. I also have a Handers modern AU in the works. It was my first nano idea for this year but I ran out of steam after the first week and switched projects. Now I’m having lots of thoughts about it again, mostly just working on a playlist and letting scenes play out in my head but I’d like it to turn into a full fic one day. My main goal is not to get so distracted by exchanges this year and make some progress on some of the ideas I’ve had on hold over the last couple of years.

#end of year roundup

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foreveralwaysanauthor · 2 years

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Upcoming Writing Plans

Before anything else, I would like to say that I now have 2 new novels in the works which have taken up a lot of my time and I’m sure you’ve probably seen a few Pinterest boards for lmao. One of them (The Golden Facade) is based in New York and is about a girl (Mia Ellison) finding out that she's not who her parents raised her to be. The other novel (Zinnia Beach) is me taking all of my fanfiction and its fleshed-out characters and making it into a proper novel, changing the base plot ever so slightly so that it works out without running into copyright issues. I'm super excited about them both and will be posting more about them as time goes on.

Sadly, I will be taking a little bit of a break from the AUs so that I can wrap my head around both of my novels and my stories on here, but I do have some ideas for what's to come when I get around to them. Some of my Golden Facade characters have Pinterest boards already, but I do have some that I’ll be sharing soon that will be for Zinnia Beach. Zinnia Beach will include my OCs like Mick, Vivien, and the Murphy brothers as well as maybe Xander’s crew, and will be a bit different in a few ways because I’m taking a fanfiction and altering it, but I’m keeping it as similar as possible. Honestly, I can’t wait to publish that novel since I’ve wanted to make this story into an actual book for ages now and, the more I work on it, the happier I am with how far it’s come since 2015.

Now, aside from my novels, here are some of the story ideas I’ll be working on/posting here soon:

This first one probably isn’t much of a surprise, but I’m including it anyway. Most of these deleted scenes will probably be on the short side and won’t take long to get through, but there are a few that I’ll compile into one post since they all revolve around the same concepts or timing. Through the Valley was one AU that had a lot of things taken out for whatever reason and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Summer Lovin’ probably won't happen for a while since I have to do a lot of research and stuff for it, but the ideas and some of the storyboarding are there and I have been working on scenes here and there. Some things you'll see include Royce, Vivien, and Bentley being little shits, everyone being in love and refusing to admit it, and high-school drama that I'm so glad I was never a part of in school lmao.

Based on the song Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes, this one-shot has been boiling in my brain for literal months now and is basically a compilation of a couple of my OCs (not spoiling as to who) telling their parents about the person they've fallen in love with, despite their parents not being alive to hear it - hence the title.

Same Trailer, Different Park is basically a mini-series of one-shots that I've wanted to do to flesh out the relationships between certain characters. Most of these circle around the idea of Vivien visiting 1962 for the summer, but there will probably be some that will add more of a backstory to other characters. Anyway, I have quite a few ideas for this already that I haven't started on, but this is more likely to appear sooner than anything else.

As you could probably guess from my Spotify playlist, my brain has compiled a list of story ideas just because of songs, lyrics, or even songs that I heard on TikTok that I just had to use for some reason. There are some theatre-related ideas, some that I can see if I switch the gender of the singer, and a few that I heard while playing a game and came up with a complete idea for. There are a handful of songs that aren't on the playlist either because I just haven't gotten around to adding them or the version I want to add just isn't on Spotify.

Finally, we have Scattered Screams. With a title like that, be very concerned. This is an AU in the same strand as Glory and Gore, but where Miles is too old to volunteer and the same goes for Mick. It will be a completely different arena and the other tributes will be different I will not be holding back in this story and, chances are, we'll see some beloved characters die off in some awful ways. Consider this a warning 🙃

For now, that’s all that I have, but I do have my mini-series of snippets I took out of Through the Valley that I’ll be trying to work on before some of these come out. Let me know what you think of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them 😊

#writing #writing roadmap

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awkwardpasta004 · 1 month

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Ok I’m gonna write this real quick cause I’ve been getting so distracted today!

I compiled all the country info for my world and wrote out a list of things that I need to work on before I finally force myself to stop working on it!

So for T I drew out a whole info sheet for it but for the rest of the countries I’m gonna kind of loosely write and draw out info sheets in my notability app on my iPad so it’s just easier. I’m gonna get the last few details for T ironed out then move on to D.

Should I tell y’all the country names? I mean one name is already out there and by extension the others cause the relations they have with the others is on the info sheet I posted on my Instagram…. hmmmmm I’ll have to think about it.

Anyway I came up with that list then switched to working on the world history. I ended up not doing hardly anything for that cause I got stuck. The history is really interwoven into the plot so I’m hesitant to start on that right now. So the plan is to finish country stuff! Get that done and stop myself on stalling with that any more! Then I’ll get characters finalized. I’ll get them drawn and make character sheets for all of them, both main and secondary characters. Then I’ll work on writing descriptions of minor characters, the families of the MC and SC, etc. then I’ll work on history which should flow nicely into working on the plot and sub plots. I just need to resist jumping around cause I won’t get anything done!

Bringing magic and fantasy creatures and people into my series has made things so much better. Things in the plot that I was having a hard time with now make so much sense OMG! I just remembered that last night before I went on a ghost tour I came up with a fun little twist that got me so excited and made so much sense!

There’s a scene I keep playing in my head repeatedly and I always return to that scene to see if my changes make sense and work cause it’s a very big, important scene and it looks so cool in my head!

I forgot to add this in the last post but I’m working on a queer YA fantasy series that has some occasional horror elements (cause I can’t help myself). Almost every character is queer. I’m queer myself and I want to write stories where queer fold are at the core of the worlds.

One thing that distracted me today was remembering the YA futuristic fantasy idea I had a while back. I’m hesitant to call it scifi cause I mean it’s in the future with high tech stuff but idk if I’m gonna go in deep with the details….ok let’s be honest. I am gonna go pretty deep into the details cause my ass can’t help it! So we’ll see but I need to get this series going first!

#book writing #books #aspiring author #aspiring writer #fantasy #fantasy series #ya fantasy #writing #I’m so distracted #planning

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passingideasofaredballoon · 2 years

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Hey. It’s super late, but I need to write this down to get it out of my brain.

I’ve been really conflicted on which residence to choose. I know, I know. You’re like, “it isn’t that hard”. But I’m still up thinking about it. And I looked inward and had a really soul searching think. My indecisiveness goes deeper than you know, and I need to ask for some help. That’s my way of promising I’m not being dramatic about choosing a residence for the sake of being dramatic!

So, there are two residences im still choosing between. Currently I’m set to be in Douglas. Yesterday I frantically emailed to be switched into La Citadelle. Here’s the profiles, from the internet.

Douglas hall - shared bathrooms, tiny room. Far from campus, up a big icy hill in the winter. No air conditioning. Scholarship student first choice. Hogwarts. Dark and cramped. Everyone there loves it. Finds a family. Common rooms occupied with people and fun at all times. Weekly more chill parties. Good memories for life. Basically an adventure in a building that looks like Hogwarts for half but an army bunker for the other.

La citadelle - hotel style, single room with a washroom to myself. Big airy spaces. Light with huge windows. Right in downtown, getting to campus is a quick walk. Antisocial. For kids who can afford it, who have been said to be douchey and mean (but not always). At least, the least friendly of every residence. Few parties, if ever. Few organized residence activities. People left there comfortable, but with fewer friends.

Here’s the thing. Douglas Hall is exactly who I wish I was, and feel like I could be if I was allowed to be myself. Sure, there are some problems, but that girl I could be doesn’t break a sweat. She’s a problem solver, that one. No air conditioning? She buys a big fan until it stops being hot, and that happens soon since school does start in the fall. Big scary hill? She doesn’t care. She walks it energetically every day. Hell, she’s even that cool gal that buys a cheap bike and whips around the city with her full backpack. As the author, I know this about her because I can imagine her doing it in a second. NOT because I’m romanticizing her life in any way, or thinking of who she’s “supposed” to be. Her tiny room is decorated with bright warm lights and the coolest posters. It’s dirty? Well, her space is clean and that’s all that matters to her. Cause she’s not scared of sharing a bathroom with random guys. She can shower the fastest you’ve ever seen, cause she doesn’t really do anything with her hair anyway. She’s never stressed barfed at 2am in her life, so she doesn’t care how close the bathroom is anyway. She made friends with all the cool smart scholarship students she’s not intimidated by in the slightest. In the winter, they walk up and down the icy hill together and complain about it, lovingly. They hang out working on school, hitting the social scene on Friday nights, because they’re in the residence that has no one left alone on a Friday night. Because comfort is a second thought to her, when there’s life to be experienced. Everything that’s sub-par only adds to the wicked funny stories she’ll tell later on. Because she has many of those.

So I chose that residence. I chose that one, okay! That’s why. I want to live there and be that person.

But there’s where my indecisiveness starts.

Here is a secret that isn’t a secret. I was very sad this winter, and last winter too. And very very sad, last summer. I didn’t have the support to deal with it, but I’ll tell you what I had. I had a lot of damn quiet and a lot of damn space, so I used it. I know I took care of myself well, and I learned what worked best to get myself through. And a lot of the stuff was stupid, I’ll admit.

I know that whenever I’m overwhelmed - warm shower. A long one. Right away. I go make myself a warm drink or a coffee. I make sure I’m the right temperature so I can get 9 hours of sleep, or it gets scarier and so much worse without the sleep. I make sure I have a window big enough to let light in by opening the curtains. Exercise is weird. Sometimes it helps to walk but sometimes I’m so strange that moving gives me pins and needles in my brain. When I’m defeated or brain dead from doing so much work I can’t see, I lay on the floor. I take comfort in knowing my bathroom is right next to me. I stress barf. I’m used to over controlling the comforting conditions of my life so I can function and meet what is demanded from me.

So when I walked into Douglas Hall and stepped into my tiny room, the thing that made me panic most was realizing I didn’t have room to lie on the floor. I felt the “uh oh, what have I done” close in on me immediately. And the dark hallway and tiny windows? The fear of what would happen if I ended up feeling the way I have before, every year, and had none of my usual comforts to fall back on. Cause it really is scary and dark in there. And I mean, cold sweat, stress barf panic that for some reason I’m still feeling.

I was logical. I read reviews and Reddit pages and people ADORE Douglas hall when it’s lived in. It’s the experience of a lifetime for most that lived there. But even in the best case scenario, when the Douglas halls are cleaned up and lively with 170 students who put up banners, decorate their common rooms, hang string and Christmas lights and make it feel like a bright and warm home, the comforting things I may need won’t be there.

I panicked and sent the email to change residences because I pictured myself worst case scenario. I can’t throw myself into the fire when there’s a place I’m guaranteed to have the comforts I’ve always used. I promise, it’s not some spoiled luxury obsessed reason where I’m scared of not having my own tv. I just panic at the thought of being worse and feeling worse than I have in the past without a space to feel comfortable, at home, and fully able to take care of myself.

So here’s the question. Where do I go?

Am I being horrible to myself by forcing myself into a new situation that scares me to barf panic, when a safer and guaranteed comfortable option exists?

Or is it worst to deny the opportunity to have a better time (arguably the life I’ve felt I’ve missed for years) just because I’m too scared to try?

Would pushing myself into a situation where I had to be the person I wanted to be, actually be helping me become that person?

Would I give up my dream of living in literal hogwarts? For a warm shower when I need one?Will I regret that, a stupid but massive thing, for the rest of my time here? Will I be sad that I yet again missed out on cool friends and times I could have had?

I know I’m overthinking it. But this is my life and I actually get to make this decision for myself, and I don’t want to screw it up. I don’t want to put myself in any position where I feel bad, whether it’s from being uncomfortable or feeling guilty.

I genuinely don’t know what to do.

Please, could you give some advice? Let me know what you think?

Thanks,

Secret worried author

P.S the creepy guy worries me little, as I will stand out much less against 170 other kids. I’d avoid him. I’d carry pepper spray and a spiked baseball bat. It would be okay, I promise

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ughmerlin · 2 years

Note

how do you make your colored gifs look so soft?

hi! i believe there are many steps to making a colorful gif look soft as you said. for me it all stars with sharpening—a soft, smooth sharpening will ensure your gif will end up looking just as soft and smooth. i went through my sharpening process here—it's what i do for most of my gifs and it's an important base for coloring, as good sharpening makes for less pixalted coloring.

next on is the basic coloring. i talked a little bit about it here and it's just as vital of a step. color correcting and enhancing the colors you really want to pop in your gif through curves/levels/selective color helps make a smooth tranistion between the parts of the gif where you're gonna add color and the rest of it.

now onto the fun stuff—color layers. i'm gonna go through my colorful-coloring process step by step under the cut.

this tutorial assumes you already have a working knowledge of photoshop (for reference i use photoshop CS5) and know how to make a basic gif. we're gonna start with our gif already resized, cropped, sharpened and with a with a few adjustment layers on top (in my case it's curves, levels, selective color and brightnes layers). it looks like this:

step one: add a new layer on top of the other adjustment layers. then, using a soft paint brush, paint the whole layer in your desired color (in my case it's gonna be yellow) and set it to multiply. like so:

then set that layer to around 10-15% opacity. thanks to this step the transition between the colored parts of the gif and the "un-colored" ones (that's usually the characters' faces and bodies) is gonna look way smoother and more natural.

tip: i'm usually working with more muted shades. so instead of picking the strongest shade from the top right corner of the color map, i go for something lighter and less vibrant. it may not look impressive at first, but it allows to build the color up as we add more color layers. i also tend to work with two shade variations—a lighter and a darker one (as you'll probably note later on).

step two: add a new layer, fill it all in with yellow and set it to color. with this layer i want the color to be everywhere but yennefer's face. so i'm gonna add a layer mask and use the eraser tool to get rid off the color from the face/neck area. i'm always using a brush with soft edges, not the solid ones. i also tend to go for a larger size (around 300-400 px), so the edges are as smooth as possible.

in this gif the character's not moving too much, so i can easily get the color only in the areas i want it to be. still, i want it to look nice and smooth and not have the coloring cover her face when she moves, so i set the brush's opacity to around 50% and use it in the area close to her cheek on the left side of the gif to ensure the smooth transition.

step three: duplicate your color layer to build up the color until you get exactly the shade you want. at this point we're gonna switch between different blending modes for every duplicated layer. first i change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to soft light. then i duplicate it again and change the blending mode to multiply. this is where we're at now:

as you can see, i'm alternating between the lighter and darker shade of yellow. it's because the lighter shade makes the gif look a little too bright and pixaleted when set to soft light. so this is why i went for a darker one for this layer. similary the multiply layer had to have the lighter color, as this setting is making the gif way darker.

step four: at this point i'm happy with the shade of yellow we got, so all that's left is final touches. i'm gonna add another layer and set it to hard light (in this case it's hard light, but with some scenes screen works better). now i look at my gif to find an area that could be sort of a "source of light". that usually ends up being one of the top corner(s) of the gif. in this case i went for both of the corners and added a splash of color there, just to brighten up the area marked below.

i could very well stop here, but i decided to duplicate my hard light layer to make the color pop even more in that area. and then, to add more contrast, i added a layer set to multiply and painted the are at the bottom. like so:

and that's it! here's our finished gif:

i hope it was helpful! if you have any more questions feel free to ask. and remember coloring often takes a lot of patience and experimenting (especially when the gif has more movement), so just try to work out whatever works best for you.

#ask #ps help #tutorials*

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oviids · 4 years

Note

pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.* - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul. slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes* - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

#if you told me i'd be doing this in 2020 three weeks ago i'd have laughed in your face :/#deancas #supernatural #fic recs #spn femslash #destiel #fic #the alie tag #spn posting

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shadowcutie · 3 years

Text

Here’s some resources to help you make text-based interactive fiction games!

Totally unprompted! There’s certainly nothing going on in a certain forum right now (or rather an on-going issue). Nope, I just thought it would be nice to share some resources. ;)

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Twine

Twine is such an easy tool to use. It uses its own scripting language Sugarcube (there’s also Harlowe and Snowman, but they don’t have the same functionality and creator support as Sugarcube does to my knowledge), Javascript, and CSS.

Twine is FREE!!!

Sugarcube literally gives you a save function (which does browser and save to desktop)!!! Be the save-hoarding goblin you were born to be!

It’s criminally easy to make games with Twine. They make it easy to make stats, relationships, and other info pages. When setting up the paths you can literally see arrows pointing where they lead, you can move passages around visually so you can group them up by chapter/scene/etc......to be fair once your game gets BIG it can get messy and confusing.

I have coding experience prior to finding Twine, but I’m absolutely certain anyone can make great games with Twine. If all your doing is making text-based ‘more story than game’ games, then you’ll be doing minimal coding (setting variables, if/else statements, using text boxes, etc) so you shouldn’t have any issues.

If you do have issues I’m 99% certain someone has had your issue before, and the answer is one google search away.

You can use Twine in your browser, just be careful to not mess with the data/cookies or you can lose your games (totally not speaking from experience)....archive your games often if you use Twine in browser. You can also download Twine, so you can use it offline!

Links:

Twine

SugarCube v2 Documentation - Your new best friend.

With the Settings API you can add a mature filter, different style themes (great for light/dark themes and color blind themes...or just different themes to look cool), difficulty settings, volume control, etc.

HiEv’s SugarCube 2 Sample Code - An ever-expanding collection of code, tips, macros, widgets. A good mix of fun and useful stuff.

^ Includes a great pronoun widget!!! To be fair it’s not the most user-friendly widget at first, especially if you aren’t a coder, but in the long run a widget like this is a great tool for customizing pronouns. It allows you to write a character in the code with one set of pronouns throughout the game ($They $are a great $person), the widget selects the correct word through an switch (aka a fancy if/else) statement when the character is assigned a pronoun......so when playing a female it would display as “She is a great girl”, a male would be “He is a great guy”, and nonbinary would be “They are a great person”. You can add neopronouns this way too!

Chapel’s custom macros - Chapel has a lot of cool macros, but a lot of them are more advanced. Very few have been useful for the kinds of games I want to make, but they may be useful for you.

r/twinegames - Twine has some older forums, which are still up (though not active) and have helpful answers on them, but the current forum is found on reddit.

w3schools - When it’s time to style your game, this will be your lifeline. Even today, like...seven years after first learning CSS I still come back to w3schools all the time. !!!Twine has funky class/id selectors for it’s built in stuff so refer back to the SugarCube Documentation!!!

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Itch.io

Itch doesn’t take ownership of your content!

It doesn’t have DRM!

You can host your games for free, paid, or free with donation.

It does take a cut of your sales “The Company shall be entitled to a share of the revenue Publishers receive from Transactions which shall be calculated on the gross revenue from the Transactions“ (I’ve seen 30% but I’ve also seen “Lets you choose what to give them” so I’m not exactly sure how much their cut is).

THERE IS NO RESTRICTION ON CONTENT ASSUMING IT’S LEGAL (though if collecting payment you may be under different restrictions per the payment provider’s policy), so please make all the twisted, dark, disturbing, and/or sexual games you want!!!

Links:

Itch.io

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r/interactivefictions

r/interactivefictions is a good place for game recs, coding/writing resources, etc.

Links:

r/interactivefictions

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Tumblr

Tumblr is...well we’re all on here so we know how tumblr is like.

Great tags to look at: #interactive fiction, #interactive novel, #interactive game, #twine game, #dev log, #IF, #if game, #upcoming game, #promo post

Tumblr is a great platform, but as every creator knows...Reblog!!! Reblog!!! Reblog!!! The lifeblood of tumblr is reblogging.

I’ve found SOOOO many games I would never have known existed through if-creator’s blogs just because they reblogged a post from another if-creator.

@interact-if and @iorifd are doing great work! They collect games, share helpful coding/writing tips, etc. Go show them some love! Interact-if runs the subreddit mentioned above, and iorifd is working on a database for visual novels and text-based games.

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IFDB (Interactive Fiction Database)

IFDB is a database for interactive fiction games. You can add new game listings, write reviews, make game polls, make game recommendation lists, etc.

IFDB seems to like their parser games (parsers being where you type in commands like “go west”, “open door”, etc).

It actually has a pretty good filter and ignore system.

Links:

IFDB

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Obviously this isn’t the end all be all of dev tools or hosting platforms for interactive fiction. Ink is a scripting tool similar to Twine I’ve only heard of recently that might be interesting to you. Ren’Py, although primarily a visual novel engine, can be used to make text-based games. The only other hosting alternative I know is DashingDon, I THINK they only host ChoiceScript games and I don’t think you can sell through them, but it’s a good place regardless.

Cheers! :D

#Game development #Interactive Fiction #IF #IF game #Twine #I want to start making games...I know the coding part...it's just the story and writing part :////#lmaoooo maybe some day #for now I will continue to enjoy IFs from the sidelines

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perpetual-stories · 3 years

Text

How To Fight Writers Block

hello, hello. hope everyone is doing well. as you can all tell, this post will be about how to fight writers block.

it’s really annoying to me when I hear people say “oh you don’t have writers block, you’re just lazy.”

first of all, yes, I am naturally lazy. second of all, how dare you. writing isn’t as easy as many think. granted, all you have to do is write down words on paper, but it’s not always easy to find the right words to express what you are feeling, or what you wish to say.

I have had terrible writer’s block for the last few days and it’s horrible! as a business owner or a small writing store, I have to be ready to write and fulfill my clients’ ideas and orders.

it’s not easy. It takes a heavy toll on my imagination, and digs me a deep pit of blockage, drowning in the lack of originality because of the constant writing and repetition or certain phrases and sentences in different projects.

i am making this post in the hopes to remind myself about over coming the dreaded and sometimes skeptically believed writer’s block.

What is writer’s block?

Yeah, I know. We all know what that is, but let me define it.

is the state of being unable to proceed with writing, and/or the inability to start writing something new

some people believe it to be a real problem, others believe it's “all in your head”

What Causes Writer’s Block?

in the 1970s, clinical psychologists Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios decided to find out

they concluded that there are four broad causes of writer's block:

Excessively harsh self-criticism

Fear of comparison to other writers

Lack of external motivation, like attention and praise

Lack of internal motivation, like the desire to tell one's story

How to overcome writer's block: 20 tips

1. Develop a writing routine:

Author and artist Twyla Tharp once wrote: “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.”

it might seem counterintuitive

if you only write when you “feel creative,” you're bound to get stuck in a tar pit of writer's block

The only way to push through is by disciplining yourself to write on a regular schedule. It might be every day, every other day, or just on weekends — but whatever it is, stick to it!

2. Use "imperfect" words:

A writer can spend hours looking for the perfect word or phrase to illustrate a concept

You can avoid this fruitless endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not

You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”

3. Do non-writing activities:

one of the best ways to climb out of a writing funk is to take yourself out of your own work and into someone else’s

Go to an exhibition, to the cinema, to a play, a gig, eat a delicious meal

immerse yourself in great STUFF and get your synapses crackling in a different way

Snippets of conversations, sounds, colors, sensations will creep into the space that once felt empty

4. Freewrite through it:

free-writing involves writing for a pre-set amount of time without pause — and without regard for grammar, spelling, or topic. You just write.

The goal of freewriting is to write without second-guessing yourself — free from doubt, apathy, or self-consciousness, all of which contribute to writer's block. Here’s how:

Find the right surroundings. Go somewhere you won't be disturbed.

Pick your writing utensils. Will you type at your computer, or write with pen and paper? (Tip: if you're prone to hitting the backspace button, you should freewrite the old-fashioned way!)

Settle on a time-limit. Your first time around, set your timer for just 10 minutes to get the feel for it. You can gradually increase this interval as you grow more comfortable with freewriting.

5. Relax on your first draft:

Many writers suffer form perfectionism, which is especially debilitating during a first draft

“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.” — editor Lauren Hughes

perfect is the enemy of good,” so don't agonize about getting it exactly right! You can always go back and edit, maybe even get a second pair of eyes on the manuscript

6. Don’t start at the beginning:

the most intimidating part of writing is the start, when you have a whole empty book to fill with coherent words

instead of starting with the chronological beginning of whatever it is you’re trying to write, dive into middle, or wherever you feel confident

7. Take a shower:

Have you ever noticed that the best ideas tend to arrive while in the shower, or while doing other “mindless” tasks?

research shows that when you’re doing something monotonous (such as showering, walking, or cleaning), your brain goes on autopilot, leaving your unconscious free to wander without logic-driven restrictions

showering is my favourite thing to do if I may add

8. Balance your inner critic:

successful writers have in common is the ability to hear their inner critic, respectfully acknowledge its points, and move forward

You don't need to completely ignore that critical voice, nor should you cower before it

you must establish a respectful, balanced relationship, so you can address what's necessary and skip over what's insecure and irrelevant

9. Switch up your tool:

a change of scenery can really help with writer's block. However, that scenery doesn't have to be your physical location — changing up your writing tool can be just as big a help!

if you’ve been typing on your word processor of choice, try switching to pen and paper. Or if you're just sick of Google Docs, consider using specialized novel writing software.

10. Change your POV:

great advice from editor Lauren Hughes: “When blocked, try to see your story from another perspective ‘in the room’ to help yourself move beyond the block. How might a minor character narrate the scene if they were witnessing it? A ‘fly on the wall’ or another inanimate object?

11. Exercise your creative muscles:

Any skill requires practice if you want to improve, and writing is no different! So if you’re feeling stuck, perhaps it’s time for a strengthening scribble-session to bolster your abilities

12. Map out your story:

If your story has stopped chugging along, help it pick up steam by taking a more structured approach — specifically, by writing an outline

13. Write something else:

Though it's important to try and push through writer's block with what you're actually working on, sometimes it's simply impossible

feel free to push your current piece to the side for now and write something new

14. Work on your characters:

It follows that if your characters are not clearly defined, you’re more likely to run into writer’s block

15. Stop writing for readers:

write for yourself, not your potential readers

this will help you reclaim the joy of being creative and get you back in touch with what matters: the story.

this is something I really need to do. because of my etsy business i don't write for fun anymore, but instead as a business and a deadline. i'm going to have to pull out my old crappy wattled fanfics or write some new ones.

16. Try a more visual process:

when words fail you, forget them and get visual. Create mind maps, drawings, Lego structures — ideally related to your story, but whatever unblocks your mind!

17. Look for the root of it:

writer’s block often comes from a problem deeper than simple “lack of inspiration.” So let's dig deep: why are you really blocked? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I feel pressure to succeed and/or competition with other writers?

Have I lost sight of what my story is about, or interest in where it's going?

Do I lack confidence in my own abilities, even if I've written plenty before?

Have I not written for so long that I feel intimidated by the mere act?

Am I simply feeling tired and run-down?

once you identify what's wrong, it'll be so much easier to fix.

18. Quit the Internet:

If willpower isn’t your strong suit and your biggest challenge is staying focused, try a site blocker like Freedom or an app like Cold Turkey

19. Let the words find you:

meditate, go for a walk, take that shower

Word Palette is a great app that features a keyboard of random words, allowing you to simply click your way to your next masterpiece.

You can also try AI auto-completers like Talk to Transformer, where you can enter a phrase and let the app “guess what comes next.”

even though they often produce nonsense, it's a great way to help that writer's block.

20. Write like Hemingway:

And if your biggest block is your own self-doubt about your prose, Hemingway offers suggestions to improve your writing as you go

it's a pretty cool app if you ask me.

it highlights your sentences (if need be) and makes suggestions on how to improve them!

well, there you have it! a lengthy post on how to fight writer's block. now i just hope i can combat my own soon.

like, comment and reblog if you find this useful! feel free to reblog in instagram and tag me perpetualstories

Follow me on instagram and tumblr for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

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celepeace · 3 years

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A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

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simplee-dreaming · 3 years

Text

I Was Acting!

A/N: Okay so this was kinda rushed because stuff kept happening but I still hope it's good!

Word count: 1846

Summary: Tom Hiddleston discovers the reader is ticklish.

--------------------------------------------------

“Great acting today guys. Let’s all get home and rest before another fantastic day tomorrow!” said the director.

You, amongst everyone else, packed up your stuff and headed back to the hotel you were staying at during filming.

You were working on a new movie, about a single father and his teenage daughter conquering real life problems as a team of two. It was a really sweet film and so far you’d had a great couple of weeks on set with the cast and crew. Tom Hiddleston was playing your father and you still couldn’t get over the excitement whenever you saw him walking around the set. You almost fainted when you met him for the first time at the read through.

You decided to get an early night and rest well before another long, but exciting, day of filming tomorrow.

The morning finally arrived and you completed your morning routine before heading off to the set. Tom was already there when you arrived, unsurprisingly.

“Good morning darling, sleep well?” He asked.

“I did indeed. You?”

“Very much so. Would you like a tea?”

“Yeah sure! Only if you’re making it though,” you winked at him. He walked into the kitchen and appeared a few minutes later with a lovely hot cup of tea to give to you.

“There’s my favourite stars! How are we feeling today?” said the director, approaching you both.

“Ready to roll!” replied Tom, you nodded.

“Awesome! Now, one of the scenes we’re filming today, as you know, is the one of just you two at home where Martin - uh, yourself, Tom - is comforting Harriet - of course, you, Y/N - after she breaks down about being bullied at school. You’re both aware of this scene happening today I assume?”

You both nodded and murmured agreement.

“Okay good. Well, it’s the first scene we’re going to film today but I’ve been speaking with the producer and we both agreed that we could add something to the scene to really show the special connection between their father/daughter relationship,” he said.

“Go on..” Tom replied.

“Would you two be comfortable with filming a little tickle scene?”

You blushed.

“See, our thought process was that after Harriet confides in Martin about her bullying, he could cheer her up by tickling her a bit - really showing the bond between them. We’ve added a couple of lines to the script which are here. Don’t worry if you forget or improvise, we have plenty of shooting time today. Would you be okay with that?”

“Absolutely fine with me! Y/N?” Tom replied.

“Hm? Oh yeah, um, yeah that’s fine,” you said, trying to act cool.

“Perfect!” The director said, handing you both a piece of paper with the new lines on. He gave you both a smile and walked off.

“Well then, better get practising,” Tom said.

“It’s only one new line each, hardly needs to be practised,” you laughed.

“I wasn’t talking about the script,” Tom said. He turned to you and winked before walking off. Your heart jumped.

The time had come for you and Tom to film that scene. You both got into position as the lights and cameras were adjusted appropriately.

“And, action!” The director called.

“I was thinking of just making an omelette for dinner. Nothing special but might be nice,” said Tom.

“Mhm,” you murmured.

“Did you just want ham and cheese? Or something more adventurous?” he asked.

“Mhm,” you repeated.

“And what was that an answer to?” he asked.

“What?” you said, looking up from your prop phone.

“I asked if you just wanted a ham and cheese omelette or something more,” Tom said.

“Oh, yeah, that’ll be fine,” you replied, looking back at your prop phone.

“What’s wrong? You don’t seem yourself tonight,” Tom said.

“I’m fine,” you replied, not looking up.

“No you’re not. What’s wrong?” He asked, taking a seat next to you.

“It’s just...just some girls at school. They’re not exactly the nicest,” you sighed, hanging your head.

“Is it the same girls as last term?” he asked. You nodded.

“Oh Harriet, why didn’t you say something?”

“Because I thought I could handle it,” you replied. He sighed and put an arm around you.

“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna contact the rest of the PTA tonight and see the headteacher tomorrow. These girls are on file from the last time they bullied you so it won’t take much to make sure they’re punished. I’m sure the other parents on the PTA will have something against them too. Does that sound good?” he said. You nodded again.

“Good. But right now I gotta make sure my little girl is happy,”

“I’m not little anymore, Dad,” you replied.

“You are to me. Now come on, where’s that smile?” he asked. You continued to hang your head. He moved his hand down and gave your side a squeeze. You yelped, not expecting him to tickle you at that moment. He looked at you, a mischievous look in his eye. He squeezed your side again, making you yelp louder and twist away from him.

“Nohoho!” You giggled.

“My little girl is still just as ticklish,” he teased. You fell backwards into the sofa when he started clawing at your tummy.

“AHAHAHA NO!” You cried. He laughed with you, clearly surprised at your reaction.

“I’m just cheering you up!” He said, squeezing your sides again. You latched your hands onto his wrists to try and pull him off you.

“NO PLEHEHEASE!” You yelled, trying so hard not to scream “Tom” and ruin the scene.

“And cut!” the director shouted. Tom instantly stopped and helped you sit up on the sofa.

“That was the perfect take guys! Alright, break for 30 then back for the next scene. Nice job Y/N and Tom,” the director said, applauding you both. The rest of the crew disbanded to go on break. You and Tom were still sat on the set sofa. He looked at you.

“So…” he said, smiling.

“So?” you asked.

“So, how long were you gonna hide this from me?” He asked.

“Hide what?...” you replied.

“You know what,” he said, grinning at you. He poked your side and you yelped.

“Tom...no…” you said, panicked.

“You’re really ticklish Y/N, I can’t just ignore that,” he said. The smirk on his face gave you butterflies.

“No I’m not, I was just acting,” you said, faking confidence. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t believe you. He slid across the sofa towards you and the sudden movement made you panic. You leapt up from the sofa and fled.

“Oh no you don’t!” He yelled, running after you. You looked back and screamed when you saw him chasing you.

You ran round the corner and headed towards the back of the set. You turned another corner and found yourself at a dead end. You slowly turned around and found Tom standing behind you, an evil grin on his face.

“No...Tom...please…” you begged, holding your hands up in front of you.

“Well, well, well. Look what you got yourself into. A very ticklish girl, trapped. No escape,” he teased, wiggling his fingers by his sides. You took a deep breath and let the adrenaline take over. You ran towards him and tried to dodge him, thinking you could get past and escape. He was too quick for you and grabbed you by the waist, spinning you round in the air before lying you on the floor. He knelt down and straddled your waist.

“TOM WAIT!” You screamed. He let out an evil laugh before squeezing your sides again.

“Acting eh?” He teased, smiling at you as you shrieked beneath him.

“I AHAHAM AHAHACTING!” You shrieked. He moved his hands up and scratched at your ribs.

“Who-oh-oa!” He said, giggling at your reaction when he started tickling your ribs. “Bad spot?” He asked.

“NOHOHOHO!” You screamed. You grabbed his biceps as he continued to scratch and squeeze your ribs. He finally stopped and grabbed your arms, pinning them above your head.

“Ah ah ah,” he mocked telling you off. “Now then, where else are you ticklish?” He asked.

“N-nowhere…” you blatantly lied. He looked at you, eyebrow raised.

“Tell me or I’ll have to find out for myself,” he said, a teasing tone in his voice.

You stayed silent.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he gave you a sly wink and let go of your arms to shove his hands in your armpits. You slammed your arms down to your sides and shrieked louder than ever.

“My, my. Is this a bad spot?” He asked.

“AHAHAHAHAHA NOHOHOHOHO!”

“No? Are you sure? It seems pretty ticklish to me,” he said with a puzzled look on his face. He picked up the pace of his wiggling fingers and you threw your head back in ticklish agony.

“Does this tickle?” He asked.

“NOHOHO!”

“Hm,” Tom bent down and nuzzled his beard into your neck. You twisted your head to the side but he had already buried his face into the crook of your neck. Without warning, he blew a big raspberry whilst still tickling under your arms. You screamed.

“FUHUHU-AHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Did that tickle?”

“NOHOHOHOHO!”

“Damn. Okay,” he said. He shuffled himself down a little bit, his hands leaving your armpits to scribble over your ribs again. He thought for a moment before lifting up your top with his nose.

“TOHOHOHOHOM DOHOHON’T YOHOHOU DAHAHARE!” You shrieked, knowing full well what he was planning.

He grinned at you and winked before lowering his head. Your screams turned desperate after he blew raspberry after raspberry up and down your tummy. The worst one was when he blew a raspberry just under your belly button and nuzzled his beard into your tummy. It was torture.

He kept blowing raspberries on your sensitive tummy, his beard tickling you as he did so. His hands switched between tickling your ribs and your sides. You finally gave in and fell into a silent laughter, weak from the tickles. He lifted his head after one more nuzzled raspberry and ceased his attack.

“Still acting?” He asked, chuckling.

“Shut….up... “ you panted.

“Answer the question,” he said, dragging one set of nails down your tummy.

“Ohohokay, I was acting!” You giggled, swiping at his hands.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were this ticklish?” He asked.

“Because I knew you’d do that,” you replied.

“You say that, yet not once did you actually ask me to stop,” he said. You went silent.

“Did you want me to stop?” He asked. You blushed. You brought your hands up to hide your face and he awed at you.

“Hm, 15 minutes till we’re due back. I think round two,” he declared. He quickly grabbed your arms, before you could protest, and pinned them to your chest before bending down and blowing more raspberries on your sensitive tummy.

You were both laughing so much that you lost track of time and were 10 minutes late back to set. But you made sure to get Tom back after filming...

#tickle fic #ler!tom hiddleston #lee!reader

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